Laurence M. Vance, author of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State, discusses the discouraging poll that correlates support for torture with practicing Christianity, the devotion to the military and the Republican Party that trumps religious faith, the bigotry that enables killing on a massive scale and why God doesn’t need U.S. help to protect Israel.

MP3 here. (22:37)

Laurence M. Vance writes from Pensacola, FL. He is the author of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State. His newest book is The Revolution that Wasn’t.

Clive Hamilton, author of the article “Bush, God, Iraq and Gog” at Counterpunch.org, discusses G.W. Bush’s seemingly sincere desire to fight Iraqi and al-Qaeda incarnations of the biblical bogeymen Gog and Magog, the possibility that the U.S. does indeed fight religious wars and the increasingly diverse but still exclusive Skull and Bones society at Yale.

MP3 here. (22:33)

Clive Hamilton is the former Executive Director of The Australia Institute and a visiting professor at Yale University.

Jeff Sharlet, author of the article “Jesus killed Mohammed: The crusade for a Christian military,” discusses the widespread Christian fundamentalist evangelism among U.S. military officers, how a soldier’s perception of a war on Islam in Iraq trumps politically correct Bush and Obama administration rhetoric, the process behind the influx of intolerant evangelical military chaplains and Christianity’s usurpation of the Constitution at premier military academies.

MP3 here. (25:38)

Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Charles H. Featherstone, seminarian and freelance editor, discusses the use of religion to justify Israel’s Gaza invasion, the irony of browbeating Muslims for being anti-modern while citing an ancient biblical text, the eventual election of a Palestinian Arab as Prime Minister of Israel and the limited but significant opportunities for free expression in Saudi Arabia.

MP3 here. (38:38)

Charles H. Featherstone’s articles are archived at Lewrockwell.com. He is a Lutheran seminarian and blogger.

Chris Hedges, author of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, discusses the anti-occupation motives of terrorists, the similarities of extremists that transcend religion and culture, how a U.S. economic collapse could usher in a popular uprising of the Christian Right, the desperate and mostly ignored situation in the Gaza Strip and the terrible consequences of a war with Iran.

MP3 here. (36:03)

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, senior fellow at The Nation Institute, lecturer at Princeton University and the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America.