Ignoring radical Islam (wait, what??)
Talking adventure, football and writing with Jason Elam
Forget what you’ve heard about NFL kickers. The Broncos’ Jason Elam is debunking the myth — you know, that kickers are sissies — one badass exploit at a time. On Jan. 1, the hunter, pilot, world traveler and sometime bullet-dodger will embark on his gutsiest venture yet, as his provocative novel “Monday Night Jihad” hits bookstores. From Tyndale, the publisher behind Tony Dungy’s New York Times No. 1 best-seller, “Quiet Strength,” and Deanna Favre’s “Don’t Bet Against Me,” which debuted at No. 13 on the Times list in August, the action-adventure yarn is the tale of Riley Covington, a professional linebacker who returns to his former Air Force Special Ops life to thwart a terrorist attack on the homeland. Drawing from recently declassified battle accounts, consultations with various experts and his extensive travels, including a harrowing visit to the Gaza Strip last offseason, the rookie author and devout Christian, together with his pastor and co-author Steve Yohn, presents a disturbingly plausible threat that he hopes will read less like a jingoistic indictment of radical Islam than a balanced examination of the root causes of the defining conflict of our time.
Ah, yes, nothing wins hearts to Jesus quite combining the national passion for football with the fear of terrorism. Put those two things together, and if you can string together a few complete sentences, you’ve probably got some high-grade Right-wing religious propaganda on your hands.
Granted, I don’t begrudge Elam and Yohn their beliefes, but everything I’ve read about the book quickly debunks it as yet more Christian propaganda. That sort of thing is fine if that’s what gets you through the night, but the threat presented by radical Islam simply cannot be reduced to simplistic visions of black and white or Good and Evil. It also cannot be propagandized to fit the apparent need for Elam and Yohn to engage in some serious proselytizing.
Unquestioning and breathless reviews notwithstanding, the literary merit of this books should not be considered separately from it’s propaganda value. I may be way off base here, but when you put “Right-wing Evangelical Christian” together with “radical Islam”, it far too often is a recipe for some serious apocalyptic propaganda.
Man, sometimes I have to wonder if these folks think 9.11 is the best thing to ever happen to radical Christianity. Now these folks can point to something that fits their apocalyptic mindset and feel justified.
Is there anyone out there NOT using 9.11 for their own political/ideological advantage?
