October (Web-only) 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist at The New York Times, has made theology an occasional specialty of late. Last July, in Jesus And Jihad, Kristof used the recently released 12th book of the Left Behind series to explain how evangelicals and Muslim terrorists are essentially the same.

"If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of "Glorious Appearing" and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit."

Kristof said,

I often write about religion precisely because faith has a vast impact on society. Since I've praised the work that evangelicals do in the third world (Christian aid groups are being particularly helpful in Sudan, at a time when most of the world has done nothing about the genocide there), I also feel a responsibility to protest intolerance at home.

Earlier, Weblog has praised, critiqued, applauded, and criticized Kristof for his columns on evangelicals and evangelical thought. Why do we care? Because it's The New York Times. But also because Kristof seems like a nice guy trying to reach out to evangelicals, who have a lot of influence in American society and ought to be understood.

However, in his recent columns Kristof seems less to be trying to understand evangelicals as they are than about trying to set them straight. Last year, Kristof complained that more people believe in the Virgin Birth than in evolution, and said he was troubled by "the way the great intellectual traditions of Catholic and Protestant churches alike are withering, leaving the scholarly and religious worlds increasingly antagonistic."

On Saturday, Kristof wrote, "So when God made homosexuals who fall deeply, achingly in love with each other, did he goof?" He says he's been ...