somehow i missed this when it came out, but read it. it's good. barbara ehrenreich on church-based welfare and its strange-bedfellows relationship to the "coldly calvinist" doctrines espoused by american religious conservatives.

"The closest analogy to America's bureaucratized evangelical movement is Hamas, which draws in poverty-stricken Palestinians through its own miniature welfare state."

...and like hamas, american fundamentalists create their mini-welfare states partially in order to undo support for public, secular programming that might be enjoyable by all.