First Things on "God’s Different Warriors"

Nathaniel Peters writes at the First Things blog On the Square:

Angry protestors line the sidewalk of a San Francisco street. Behind barricades and a line of policemen, they vent their rage at a group of young Christians in town for a rally. Cries of “Christian fascist” fly across the road, and on the other side, a teenager leads her group in a prayer: “God, I ask that as we do this BattleCry, Lord, that you would reveal yourself to the teenagers, God, here, God.” “They don’t belong here,” one of the San Franciscan protestors, quivering with anger, tells Christiane Amanpour, the host of CNN’s recent three-part series God’s Warriors.

“This is the intersection of the secular and the religious world,” Amanpour solemnly intones. And so it is—or, at least, an intersection between the extremes of those worlds. The San Francisco scene appeared toward the end of the third installment of God’s Warriors, which aired on August 23. Amanpour, who spent eight months gathering interviews around the United States and the Middle East, made three reports on how groups on the fringes of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity work their religious beliefs into modern society. God’s Warriors did not offer much that was new, at least for those who have been keeping tabs on religion in public life. It did, however, serve as a reminder of how the three faiths differ in the ways they enter the public square.

When speaking in her own voice, Amanpour generally echoes the claims heard often in the media. In the first installment, for instance, she begins by defining the common trait of all three types: “They have in common . . . the belief that modern society has lost its way. They say that God is the answer. They want God part of their daily lives, back in the seat of power.”

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And yet, despite her occasional bias, Christiane Amanpour’s interviews with the warriors themselves are interesting and informative—especially since, in those interviews, we see more differences than similarities among the three faiths...

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Toward the end of the final segment of God’s Warriors, Christiane Amanpour speaks to Mindy Peterson, a teenage organizer for Teen Mania, the evangelical organization that hosted the BattleCry rally against which the San Francisco protestors railed. Peterson is, she says, the product of an affair between her mother and an abortionist who wanted to have her aborted. Arguments over abortion, therefore, are more than political theory for Mindy Peterson. After the San Francisco protest, Peterson told Amanpour, “These people think that our war is against other people. They think that our war is against man. And our war isn’t. Our war’s against . . . the pain in teenagers’ hearts, like depression, alcoholism. Those things that—that are, like, tearing our teenagers apart.”

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Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Amanpour's "God's Warriors" Airs on CNN

San Francisco: Intolerant City

California Assemblyman Calls Evangelical Youth "Loud ... Obnoxious ... Disgusting"