Saddam Had WMD and Rod Parsley Can Prove It. So There.

From the Revealer (h/t Faith in Public Life):

Rod Parsley, a rising star of charismatic fundamentalism who's had a heavy impact on national politics, features on his "Breakthrough" program tonight Dr. Perry Stone, an apocalypse scholar who claims top national security sources and Israelis assure him that inspectors discovered enough WMDs in Saddam's bunkers before the war to destroy the world three times over. Why didn't he? Because he wanted to give them to his mortal enemy of Iran, using special airplanes -- with the seats torn out to make room for more nukes!

As the Revealer post points out, this gets scary because Parsley has a sizeable flock of real people who believe him when he flogs this garbage.

And by the way, I'm sure it's entirely a coincidence that he runs out something this splashworthy at the same time he has a new book to plug. His promo campaign for the book gives some insight into how he lures people in. Here's the blurb from Amazon:

Parsley exposes the failure of the current generation of believers to engage the culture, present a relevant gospel, and lead/influence through service - and paints a vivid picture of the cost and implications of that failure.
Parsley explains how the culture wars have entered a new, critical phase for the U.S., and discusses the areas in which this war is being fought (Cultural, Scientific, Geopolitical, Media and Academia). He presents an understanding of the paradigms, assumptions, and values that animate the humanist, secularist and neo-pagan enemies of Christianity in America and offers a strategy for winning this "war" - what he calls a New Great Awakening - and how evangelism, social action the engagement of culture fit into that plan.

Well. Sounds either confrontational or hopelessly dry depending on whether you focus on the "winning the war" part or the "paradigms, assumptions and values" part. But look how he plugs it on his site:

What bothers you about America? Is this the country it should be ... or are you troubled by what it has become? A land of Red vs. Blue. Left vs. Right. Political actors. Acting politicians. Exhausted soccer moms, overworked dads and scared kids. A country where addicted athletes and violent hip-hop artists swagger through million dollar mansions dripping with “bling,” while teachers who sacrifice their lives to educate the next generation call a first-floor apartment home and sell their jewelry for textbooks.

“The minds and hearts of this generation have become the theater of conflict. It is a war of competing, mutually exclusive ways of viewing the universe and man’s place in it. It is a clash of paradigms, of value systems, and of visions of the future.”
From the East Coast to the West, and all the “flyover” states in between, America divides itself. The dichotomy is so great, in fact, that many can describe themselves using one of two words: Liberal or Conservative. And they all have an opinion. Ask anyone you meet on the street, however, and most will agree on one thing: We’re witnessing our nation’s demise.

That first paragraph would fit comfortably in campaign lit for either Edwards or Obama. And if not them, maybe Jim Webb or Jon Tester -- some Democratic economic populist in other words. Parsley was deeply free market through the last election. Now suddenly he's Jim Hightower. Some might argue he knows which way the wind blows, but I suspect a bait and switch.