Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

WaPo 'On Faith' Contributor: Jesus Would Want Government to 'Forgive' Student Debts
By Ken Shepherd | November 30, 2011 | 4:22 PM EST

Liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite has often used her perch on Washington Post's "On Faith" section to pound the pulpit for liberal economic ideas twisting Christian Scripture to support her views and, by extension, implicitly condemn as heresy dissenting ones.

Monday's blog post "Forgive us our student loan debt" was no exception as the Center for American Progress senior fellow insisted that a passage in the Lord's Prayer levels a moral imperative for widespread student loan "forgiveness" in America (emphases mine):

WashPost's 'On Faith' Pounds Pulpit for Tax Hikes on 'The Wealthy'
By Ken Shepherd | September 20, 2011 | 11:06 AM EDT

The Washington Post religion page is thundering from the pulpit again, preaching to the liberal choir on the godliness of higher taxes.

In "It's not 'class warfare,' it's Christianity,"  "On Faith" contributor and liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite defends President Obama's call for tax hikes on top income earners, arguing in essence that President Obama is helping us all be better Christians through tax hikes (emphasis mine):

WaPo 'On Faith' Contributor Waxes Poetic About 'God the Mother'
By Ken Shepherd | May 9, 2011 | 3:39 PM EDT

Okay, so it's not as immediately offensive as say calling for support of Planned Parenthood on Mother's Day, but Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite's "God the Mother" post at "On Faith" on May 7 is another example of how the site thumbs its nose at traditional Christian orthodoxy:

I always miss my mother a lot on Mother’s Day. My mother died when I was in my early twenties. Yet, through being “mothered” by others, especially my mother-in-law, I continue to know the deep and abiding mystery of this kind of love in an immediate and powerful way. This helps me understand the divine mystery, in the Christian tradition, that God’s infinite love for us is not only imaged as father, but also as mother.

To be fair, Brooks Thistlethwaite is correct when she notes that language about God in the Bible is "so often misunderstood as literal description" when in context the descriptions are metaphorical. And I can't begrudge her love for her mother and for the God-given gift of motherhood.

But Brooks Thistlethwaite strays off the orthodox reservation when she adds:

 

'On Faith' Contributor Calls Paul Ryan Budget Supporters to Repentance This Holy Week
By Ken Shepherd | April 21, 2011 | 11:13 AM EDT

Are you a Christian who also is supportive of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan? Then you'd best repent of your sin and be renew your mind with the social gospel.

That's the pronouncement of liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite in an April 18 post at the Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith" website.

Brooks Thistlethwaite -- who previously hit Tea Party conservatives as tribalistic -- apparently believes that politically conservative Christians are trying to serve two masters, Jesus and Ayn Rand (emphasis mine):

'On Faith' Panelist Hits Tea Partiers, Conservatives As 'Tribal', Not Christian
By Ken Shepherd | April 11, 2011 | 2:31 PM EDT

If Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite actually believed in Hell, she'd probably preach that Tea Partiers were headed there unless they repented and backed higher taxes and more government spending.

The liberal seminary professor and Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith" contributor last Wednesday lashed out at the "fundamentalism" of Tea Party calls for fiscal restraint, insisting that conservative takes on the federal budget were un-Christian, "tribal" and racist in nature:

WaPo/Newsweek 'On Faith' Website Practically Damns Christian Doctrine of Hell
By Ken Shepherd | March 21, 2011 | 6:38 PM EDT

As we've noted time and again, "On Faith" -- a Washington Post/Newsweek-run religion news and discussion website -- is biased against, if not outright hostile to traditional religious belief, particularly traditional Christian theology.

This weekend's "Discussion" section topic provided more evidence of that.

Examining the controversy over Michigan pastor Rob Bell's book "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived," editor Sally Quinn asked her panelists, "In this life (and, perhaps, the next) why does what we think about the afterlife matter?"

In their answers, all but one panelist attacked the traditional Christian doctrine of eternal punishment of the wicked, with at least two arguing that a belief in Hell engenders violence and abuse.

WaPo Religion Blogger Attacks Sarah Palin's Religion
By P.J. Gladnick | September 11, 2008 | 12:06 PM EDT

A Washington Post "On Faith" religion blogger, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is so affected by PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) that she has launched a hate-filled screed against Palin's religion. This might seem an uncharacteristic thing for an ordained minister to do but not when you find out a bit more about Our Miss Brooks. Her bio on the Washington Post site describes Thistlethwaite's area of expertise as "contextual theologies of liberation." Liberation theology which is another way of saying Marxism wrapped in a phony religious wrapper to make it seem more palatable. Thistlethwaite launches a distinctly un-Christian snarky attack upon Palin right from the start of her blog (emphasis mine):

"Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord." So says the Christian scriptures in Ephesians, 5:22. What I would like to know, first of all, is who is going to have the final authority as Vice-President if Sarah Palin is elected, Palin or her husband? In fact, I think the first order of business with Palin is to ask her to give the same kind of speech that was demanded of John F. Kennedy re his Catholicism. Kennedy said he would obey the Constitution over the Pope. Will Palin obey the Constitution over her husband?