The White House's Super Christian Christmas Card | Huffington Post | Danny Shea | December 13, 2007 11:07 AM
This morning on "The View," Barbara Walters displayed the Christmas card she recently received from the White House. She said it was the most religious White House Christmas card in her memory. The card included explicit religious references beyond just a bible verse.
The super-Christian card features a verse from Nehemiah (Old Testament, it should be noted):
You alone are the LORD.
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens,
and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it,
the seas and all that is in them.
You give life to everything,
and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
NEHEMIAH 9:6 (NIV)
But whereas in previous years the President and the First Lady opted for messages of happiness, goodwill, and peace, this year featured the following closer:
May the joy of all creation fill your heart this blessed season 2007.
It is then signed by both George and Laura Bush.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Texas ousts State director of science ... for forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks “intelligent design”
Evolution and Texas | Published: December 4, 2007
Is Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of Christine Comer, the state’s top expert on science education. Her transgression: forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks “intelligent design” and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.
...
In most states, we hope, the state department of education would take the lead in ensuring that students receive a sound scientific education. But it was the Texas Education Agency that pushed out Ms. Comer after 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the agency’s director of science.
As Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Times yesterday, Ms. Comer forwarded to a local online community an e-mail message from a pro-evolution group announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. Professor Forrest testified as an expert witness in a 2005 Dover, Pa., case that found intelligent design supernatural and theological and definitely not part of a scientific education.
An hour later, Ms. Comer was called in by superiors, pressured to send out a retraction and ultimately forced to resign. ...
Is Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of Christine Comer, the state’s top expert on science education. Her transgression: forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks “intelligent design” and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.
...
In most states, we hope, the state department of education would take the lead in ensuring that students receive a sound scientific education. But it was the Texas Education Agency that pushed out Ms. Comer after 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the agency’s director of science.
As Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Times yesterday, Ms. Comer forwarded to a local online community an e-mail message from a pro-evolution group announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. Professor Forrest testified as an expert witness in a 2005 Dover, Pa., case that found intelligent design supernatural and theological and definitely not part of a scientific education.
An hour later, Ms. Comer was called in by superiors, pressured to send out a retraction and ultimately forced to resign. ...
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Judge: tax funding of an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state and must end
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Public Funding Of Evangelical Prison Program In Iowa | Monday, December 3, 2007
Americans United Praises Court Ruling That Upholds Separation Of Church And State
A federal appeals court today ruled that tax funding of an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state and must end.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that government support for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at Newton Correctional Facility -- a program operated by Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries -- advances religious indoctrination at state expense. Americans United brought the litigation against InnerChange on behalf of inmates, their families and taxpayers.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, hailed the ruling.
"This is an extremely important decision," said Lynn. "Government officials have no business paying for religious indoctrination and awarding special treatment and benefits to those willing to embrace one religious perspective.
"Government should not single out a particular religion for special treatment," Lynn continued. "You simply cannot give government funds to a religious group for its evangelism program." ...
Americans United Praises Court Ruling That Upholds Separation Of Church And State
A federal appeals court today ruled that tax funding of an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state and must end.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that government support for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at Newton Correctional Facility -- a program operated by Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries -- advances religious indoctrination at state expense. Americans United brought the litigation against InnerChange on behalf of inmates, their families and taxpayers.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, hailed the ruling.
"This is an extremely important decision," said Lynn. "Government officials have no business paying for religious indoctrination and awarding special treatment and benefits to those willing to embrace one religious perspective.
"Government should not single out a particular religion for special treatment," Lynn continued. "You simply cannot give government funds to a religious group for its evangelism program." ...
Friday, November 23, 2007
[Audits] checking into whether the religious groups are illegally using this federal funding to promote their faiths, are weak or nonexistent.
Faith-Based Spending Goes Relatively Unchecked | By Thomas D. Williams | t r u t h o u t | Report | Friday 23 November 2007
For the past six years, President George W. Bush's administration has spent billions of dollars to largely aid Christian faith-based groups, in assisting prison inmates as well as the poor and less-fortunate persons here and worldwide. Yet many experts and investigators nationwide agree government controls auditing this spending, or checking into whether the religious groups are illegally using this federal funding to promote their faiths, are weak or nonexistent.
For the past six years, President George W. Bush's administration has spent billions of dollars to largely aid Christian faith-based groups, in assisting prison inmates as well as the poor and less-fortunate persons here and worldwide. Yet many experts and investigators nationwide agree government controls auditing this spending, or checking into whether the religious groups are illegally using this federal funding to promote their faiths, are weak or nonexistent.
Federal funding of a host of non-faith-based social programs can be critical in child or adult health, housing and other subsistence aid to the poor or disadvantaged. However, with tight or even regular federal budgets, waste in one program can adversely impact others.
Several inquiries and complaints dug up a host of systemic dangers and violations of the rules and law resulting in questionable or wasted spending.
In just one instance, a 2006 US Government Accountability Office inquiry discovered: "Four of the 13 faith-based organizations that offered voluntary religious activities - such as prayer or worship - did not appear to understand the requirement to separate these activities in time or location from their program services funded with federal (dollars)." And, the GAO concluded: independent audits apply only to religious organizations spending $500,000 or more. As well, federal administration is costly. "Since fiscal year 2002, the five federal agency centers handling the funds estimated that they had cumulatively expended more than $24 million on administrative activities," the GAO concluded.. ...
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Huge fine for anti-gay US church ... extended pickets to funerals of soldiers, ... being punished by God because of America's tolerance of homosexuals
Huge fine for anti-gay US church | Thursday, 1 November 2007,
A church whose members cheered a soldier's death as "punishment" for US tolerance of homosexuality has been told to pay $10.9m (£5.2m) in damages.
The Westboro Baptist Church was taken to court by the father of Lance Cpl Matthew Snyder, a marine who died serving in Iraq in March 2006.
The church cited its constitutional right to free speech in its defence.
But Albert Snyder's lawyer urged the jury to ensure the damages were high enough to stop the church campaigning.
Members of the church - based in Topeka, Kansas - have denounced homosexuality for years, initially targeting the funerals of Aids victims.
But they later extended their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God because of America's tolerance of homosexuality. ...
A church whose members cheered a soldier's death as "punishment" for US tolerance of homosexuality has been told to pay $10.9m (£5.2m) in damages.
The Westboro Baptist Church was taken to court by the father of Lance Cpl Matthew Snyder, a marine who died serving in Iraq in March 2006.
The church cited its constitutional right to free speech in its defence.
But Albert Snyder's lawyer urged the jury to ensure the damages were high enough to stop the church campaigning.
Members of the church - based in Topeka, Kansas - have denounced homosexuality for years, initially targeting the funerals of Aids victims.
But they later extended their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God because of America's tolerance of homosexuality. ...
Lavish televangelist lifestyles raise eyebrows ... all "prosperity theology adherents who preach that wealth is a sign of God's favor."
Lavish televangelist lifestyles raise eyebrows at Senate Finance Committee | Jason Rhyne | Published: Tuesday November 6, 2007
The reportedly extravagant lifestyles of six television evangelists are raising some eyebrows at the Senate Finance Committee, which wants to know if the popular preachers are paying their fair share in taxes.
Sen. Charles Grassley, the committee's ranking Republican, has written letters to the evangelists, asking that they "disclose their assets, spending practices, compensation plans and business arrangements," according the Wall Street Journal's Suzanne Sataline. "The letters aren't formal subpoenas, and the six aren't required to reply."
...
Evangelists receiving letters from Grassley were Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Paula White. Spokespersons for Dollar, Hinn and Meyer all denied any wrongdoing in statements to CBS News.
...
According to the Wall Street Journal, the ministers under scrutiny are all "prosperity theology adherents who preach that wealth is a sign of God's favor."
"Ministers who espouse prosperity theology promote themselves as conduits for God's blessings, saying that believers will reap benefits as long as they give generously to the ministries," continued the Journal."Most evangelical ministers urge believers to donate, but don't link donations to earthly wealth."
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Oral Roberts University: asked a professor in 2005 to use his students to aid in political race ...
Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts U. | Oct 5, 4:35 PM (ET) | By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
...
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."
...
Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign.
The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.
An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
- A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
- Mrs. Roberts - who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site - frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."
- The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."
- Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
- Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors. ....
...
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."
...
Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign.
The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.
An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
- A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
- Mrs. Roberts - who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site - frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."
- The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."
- Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
- Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors. ....
Sunday, September 30, 2007
[Prostitute hypocit] Sen. David Vitter [R] has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group
Vitter secures $100K for Louisiana anti-evolution group | Nick Juliano | Published: Monday September 24, 2007
Religous conservatives receiving funds have political ties to embattled senator
In a move ostensibly aimed at providing "better science education" in Louisiana schools, Sen. David Vitter has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group politically connected to the alleged prostitute-soliciting Republican.
...
The group was founded by Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state lawmaker who now leads the conservative Family Research Council. The Louisiana Family Forum works to "present biblical principals" on public policy issues, and until a reporter questioned them about it, the group's Web site included a "battle plan to combat evolution," which argued the theory "has no place in the classroom."
...
The political ties between Vitter and the group go beyond some much-needed recent PR help and stretch to the senator's first campaign in 2004, although the Family Forum's tax exempt status prohibits it from engaging in political activity, the Times Picayune reports.
"Dan Richey, the group's grass-roots coordinator, was paid $17,250 as a consultant in Vitter's 2004 Senate race," according to the newspaper. "Records also show that Vitter's campaign employed Beryl Amedée, the education resource council chairwoman for the Louisiana Family Forum." ...
...
"This is a misappropriation of public funds," Charles Kincade, a civil rights lawyer in Monroe, La., who has been involved in church-state cases told the Times Picayune. "It's a backdoor attempt to push a religious agenda in the public school system."
Religous conservatives receiving funds have political ties to embattled senator
In a move ostensibly aimed at providing "better science education" in Louisiana schools, Sen. David Vitter has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group politically connected to the alleged prostitute-soliciting Republican.
...
The group was founded by Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state lawmaker who now leads the conservative Family Research Council. The Louisiana Family Forum works to "present biblical principals" on public policy issues, and until a reporter questioned them about it, the group's Web site included a "battle plan to combat evolution," which argued the theory "has no place in the classroom."
...
The political ties between Vitter and the group go beyond some much-needed recent PR help and stretch to the senator's first campaign in 2004, although the Family Forum's tax exempt status prohibits it from engaging in political activity, the Times Picayune reports.
"Dan Richey, the group's grass-roots coordinator, was paid $17,250 as a consultant in Vitter's 2004 Senate race," according to the newspaper. "Records also show that Vitter's campaign employed Beryl Amedée, the education resource council chairwoman for the Louisiana Family Forum." ...
...
"This is a misappropriation of public funds," Charles Kincade, a civil rights lawyer in Monroe, La., who has been involved in church-state cases told the Times Picayune. "It's a backdoor attempt to push a religious agenda in the public school system."
Saturday, September 15, 2007
"There is a feeling that religion is being forced on an unwilling public," ... religion represented condemning gays, stem cell research, contraception
In Europe and U.S., Nonbelievers Are Increasingly Vocal | By Mary Jordan | Washington Post Foreign Service | Saturday, September 15, 2007; Page A01
...
Wright, 59, said he was overwhelmed by a feeling that religion had become a negative influence in his life and the world. Although he once considered becoming an Anglican vicar, he suddenly found that religion represented nothing he believed in, from Muslim extremists blowing themselves up in God's name to Christians condemning gays, contraception and stem cell research.
...
"There is a feeling that religion is being forced on an unwilling public, and now people are beginning to speak out against what they see as rising Islamic and Christian militancy," Sanderson said.
...
Though the number of nonbelievers speaking their minds is rising, academics say it's impossible to calculate how many people silently share that view. Many people who do not consider themselves religious or belong to any faith group often believe, even if vaguely, in a supreme being or an afterlife. Others are not sure what they believe.
...
But the church has disproportionate power and influence in Parliament, she said. For example, she said, polls show that 80 percent of Britons want the terminally ill who are in pain to have the right to a medically assisted death, yet such proposals have been effectively killed by a handful of powerful bishops.
"We can't accept that religious faiths have a monopoly on ethics, morality and spirituality," Massey said. Now, she added, humanist and secularist groups are becoming "more confident and more powerful" and recognize that they represent the wishes of huge numbers of people.
...
He and others said secular groups are also gaining strength in countries where religious influence over society looms large, including India, Israel and Turkey. "Any time we see an outspoken movement against religion, it tells us that religion has power there," Zuckerman said. ...
...
Wright, 59, said he was overwhelmed by a feeling that religion had become a negative influence in his life and the world. Although he once considered becoming an Anglican vicar, he suddenly found that religion represented nothing he believed in, from Muslim extremists blowing themselves up in God's name to Christians condemning gays, contraception and stem cell research.
...
"There is a feeling that religion is being forced on an unwilling public, and now people are beginning to speak out against what they see as rising Islamic and Christian militancy," Sanderson said.
...
Though the number of nonbelievers speaking their minds is rising, academics say it's impossible to calculate how many people silently share that view. Many people who do not consider themselves religious or belong to any faith group often believe, even if vaguely, in a supreme being or an afterlife. Others are not sure what they believe.
...
But the church has disproportionate power and influence in Parliament, she said. For example, she said, polls show that 80 percent of Britons want the terminally ill who are in pain to have the right to a medically assisted death, yet such proposals have been effectively killed by a handful of powerful bishops.
"We can't accept that religious faiths have a monopoly on ethics, morality and spirituality," Massey said. Now, she added, humanist and secularist groups are becoming "more confident and more powerful" and recognize that they represent the wishes of huge numbers of people.
...
He and others said secular groups are also gaining strength in countries where religious influence over society looms large, including India, Israel and Turkey. "Any time we see an outspoken movement against religion, it tells us that religion has power there," Zuckerman said. ...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Only army religious radio: Dominionist and Apocalyptic: This tells Muslims they face a new Christian Crusade.
Armed Forces Radio Broadcasts Only One Religious Program; No Surprise that It Is Dominionist and Apocalyptic | www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/8/32210/85815
sent by emf since 1 day 3 hours 7 minutes, published about 23 hours 5 minutes
The ONLY religious service broadcast to American service men and women by the Pentagon-run Armed Forces Network Radio is the Coral Ridge Hour. This is wrong on so many levels; it is unconstitutional, unfair, unrepresentative and unsafe. The Coral Ridge Hour website is full of radio and TV clips that can be understood only as justifying the Iraq invasion and the GWOT from a fundamentalist Christian point of view. This tells Muslims they face a new Christian Crusade.
sent by emf since 1 day 3 hours 7 minutes, published about 23 hours 5 minutes
The ONLY religious service broadcast to American service men and women by the Pentagon-run Armed Forces Network Radio is the Coral Ridge Hour. This is wrong on so many levels; it is unconstitutional, unfair, unrepresentative and unsafe. The Coral Ridge Hour website is full of radio and TV clips that can be understood only as justifying the Iraq invasion and the GWOT from a fundamentalist Christian point of view. This tells Muslims they face a new Christian Crusade.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches | John Hooper in Rome and Stephen Bates | Wednesday July 11, 2007 | The Guardian
· Text quotes 'absence of sacramental priesthood'
· Declaration criticised as huge step backwards
Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion. ...
· Text quotes 'absence of sacramental priesthood'
· Declaration criticised as huge step backwards
Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion. ...
Operation Straight Up views its entertainment tours as a "holy crusade" to convert soldiers and Iraqis to fundamentalist Christianity
Holy war! Game tests troops' rapture readinessAugust 12, 2007 | BY ZAY N. SMITH | Sun-Times Columnist | As If We Weren't Putting Our Brave Soldiers Through Enough (cont'd):
The Defense Department at www .americasupportsyou.mil is endorsing an Iraq tour by Operation Straight Up to offer "faith-based entertainment" there.
It does not mention that Operation Straight Up views its entertainment tours as a "holy crusade" to convert soldiers and Iraqis to fundamentalist Christianity.
The entertainment includes the distribution of packets with religious tracts printed in both English and Arabic, along with a rapture video game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," in which the player is assigned to convert or kill the unbelievers left behind after the rapture.
The game's virtual character shouts "Praise the Lord!" every time a nonbeliever is killed.
The Bush administration knows what our soldiers in Iraq need -- additional holy wars.
The Defense Department at www .americasupportsyou.mil is endorsing an Iraq tour by Operation Straight Up to offer "faith-based entertainment" there.
It does not mention that Operation Straight Up views its entertainment tours as a "holy crusade" to convert soldiers and Iraqis to fundamentalist Christianity.
The entertainment includes the distribution of packets with religious tracts printed in both English and Arabic, along with a rapture video game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," in which the player is assigned to convert or kill the unbelievers left behind after the rapture.
The game's virtual character shouts "Praise the Lord!" every time a nonbeliever is killed.
The Bush administration knows what our soldiers in Iraq need -- additional holy wars.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Texas: School Board Chairman Seeks Religion In Science Class: united under a “big tent” against evolution
Trouble In Texas: School Board Chairman Seeks Religion In Science Class | August 9th 2007
The Texas Freedom Network (TFN) on Tuesday revealed a side of “intelligent design” proponents rarely seen by the public at large. The group released a transcript and recording of an extraordinarily candid speech given in 2005 by recently named State Board of Education Chairman Ron McLeroy.
McLeroy told a gathering at Grace Bible Church in Bryan, Texas, of his efforts to expunge evolution from the state’s high school biology textbooks. “Back in November 2003, we finished [the]…adoption process for the biology textbooks in Texas…. I want to tell you all the arguments made by all the intelligent-design group, all the creationist intelligent design people, I can guarantee the other side heard exactly nothing,” he said.
He went on, condemning other Christian board members for not following his lead.
“[T]he four really conservative, orthodox Christians on the board were the only ones who were willing to stand up to the textbooks and say they don’t present the weaknesses of evolution,” he said. “Amazing.”
He admonished the audience not to bicker over the finer points of creationism because they were united under a “big tent” against evolution.
“Whether you’re a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young-Earth, old-Earth, it’s all in the tent of intelligent design,” McLeroy said. “And intelligent design here at Grace Bible Church is actually a smaller tent than you would have in the intelligent design movement as a whole, because we are all Biblical literalists…. So because it’s a bigger tent, just don’t waste our time arguing with each other about…all of the side issues.”
“Modern science today,” McLeroy complained, “is totally based on naturalism,” thus “it is the naturalistic base that is [our] target.” ...
The Texas Freedom Network (TFN) on Tuesday revealed a side of “intelligent design” proponents rarely seen by the public at large. The group released a transcript and recording of an extraordinarily candid speech given in 2005 by recently named State Board of Education Chairman Ron McLeroy.
McLeroy told a gathering at Grace Bible Church in Bryan, Texas, of his efforts to expunge evolution from the state’s high school biology textbooks. “Back in November 2003, we finished [the]…adoption process for the biology textbooks in Texas…. I want to tell you all the arguments made by all the intelligent-design group, all the creationist intelligent design people, I can guarantee the other side heard exactly nothing,” he said.
He went on, condemning other Christian board members for not following his lead.
“[T]he four really conservative, orthodox Christians on the board were the only ones who were willing to stand up to the textbooks and say they don’t present the weaknesses of evolution,” he said. “Amazing.”
He admonished the audience not to bicker over the finer points of creationism because they were united under a “big tent” against evolution.
“Whether you’re a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young-Earth, old-Earth, it’s all in the tent of intelligent design,” McLeroy said. “And intelligent design here at Grace Bible Church is actually a smaller tent than you would have in the intelligent design movement as a whole, because we are all Biblical literalists…. So because it’s a bigger tent, just don’t waste our time arguing with each other about…all of the side issues.”
“Modern science today,” McLeroy complained, “is totally based on naturalism,” thus “it is the naturalistic base that is [our] target.” ...
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Texas: 400 executions: testament to the influence of the state’s conservative evangelical Christians [and culture]
Religion, culture behind Texas execution tally | Lone Star State’s death penalty toll due in part to evangelical influences | Updated: 1:31 p.m. CT Aug 15, 2007
DALLAS - Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state’s conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West.
“In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
“If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down,” said Dieter. “With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot of executions.” ...
DALLAS - Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state’s conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West.
“In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
“If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down,” said Dieter. “With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot of executions.” ...
Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program
Aug 10,2007 | Faith the Nation: Part 5-4 | by Bill Berkowitz
Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program
On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."
...
The decision will no doubt encourage the administration to keep pouring money into its faith-based initiative. And while it dealt a blow to the initiative's critics, it will not prevent advocacy organizations from continuing to challenge the faith-based initiative in the courts; a news release by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United), pointed out that the decision would not "affect most legal challenges to the 'faith-based' initiative."
"The decision is a slap in the face to those of us who are trying to safeguard freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state," Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told Media Transparency in an e-mail exchange. "Its one thing to disagree with FFRF on the merits of our lawsuit, but it's quite another to bar the courtroom door. What is the Supreme Court majority afraid of in letting us argue our case?" ...
Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program
On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."
...
The decision will no doubt encourage the administration to keep pouring money into its faith-based initiative. And while it dealt a blow to the initiative's critics, it will not prevent advocacy organizations from continuing to challenge the faith-based initiative in the courts; a news release by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United), pointed out that the decision would not "affect most legal challenges to the 'faith-based' initiative."
"The decision is a slap in the face to those of us who are trying to safeguard freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state," Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told Media Transparency in an e-mail exchange. "Its one thing to disagree with FFRF on the merits of our lawsuit, but it's quite another to bar the courtroom door. What is the Supreme Court majority afraid of in letting us argue our case?" ...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Southern Christian Leadership Conference to honor Michael Vick ... under federal indictment on dogfighting charges
August 03, 2007 | SCLC making plans to honor Vick | By ERNIE SUGGS | The Atlanta-Journal Constitution | Published on: 08/03/07
...
During a press conference announcing the opening of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's 49th annual convention to celebrate the organization's 50th year, president Charles Steele noted that the organization would find some way to honor and recognize the embattled Falcon's quarterback who is under federal indictment on dogfighting charges.
...
The SCLC's support of Vick is the most significant and prominent since he was indicted on July 18 on charges of running a dogfighting ring out of a home he owned in rural Virginia. ...
...
During a press conference announcing the opening of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's 49th annual convention to celebrate the organization's 50th year, president Charles Steele noted that the organization would find some way to honor and recognize the embattled Falcon's quarterback who is under federal indictment on dogfighting charges.
...
The SCLC's support of Vick is the most significant and prominent since he was indicted on July 18 on charges of running a dogfighting ring out of a home he owned in rural Virginia. ...
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Sex abstinence programmes do not stop risky sexual behaviour or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy ...
Thursday, 2 August 2007, | No-sex programmes 'not working'
Sex abstinence programmes do not stop risky sexual behaviour or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy, a research team has concluded.
The Oxford University team reviewed 13 US trials involving over 15,000 people aged 10 to 21.
They found abstinence programmes had no negative or positive impact on the rates of sex infections or unprotected sex, the British Medical Journal said.
...
Researchers found none of the abstinence-only programmes had an impact on the age at which individuals lost their virginity, whether they had unprotected sex, the number of sexual partners, the rates of sexually transmitted diseases or the number of pregnancies.
...
Lead author Kristen Underhill said: "Our analysis suggests that abstinence-only programmes that aim to prevent HIV are not effective.
..
But abstinence-only programmes don't work because they provide no safety net for those young people who do have a sexual relationship - and research shows that many do." ...
Sex abstinence programmes do not stop risky sexual behaviour or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy, a research team has concluded.
The Oxford University team reviewed 13 US trials involving over 15,000 people aged 10 to 21.
They found abstinence programmes had no negative or positive impact on the rates of sex infections or unprotected sex, the British Medical Journal said.
...
Researchers found none of the abstinence-only programmes had an impact on the age at which individuals lost their virginity, whether they had unprotected sex, the number of sexual partners, the rates of sexually transmitted diseases or the number of pregnancies.
...
Lead author Kristen Underhill said: "Our analysis suggests that abstinence-only programmes that aim to prevent HIV are not effective.
..
But abstinence-only programmes don't work because they provide no safety net for those young people who do have a sexual relationship - and research shows that many do." ...
“Neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. The Gospel commands no s
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 by CommonDreams.org | A Christian Nation? | by Carol Hamilton
On August 6, 2007, the New York Times reported on an interesting dispute between the campaign of Sam Brownback and that of Mike Huckabee. According to Times reporter Sarah Wheaton, the following remark set off the dispute:
“‘I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002,” Mr. Rude wrote. “Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s.” The message struck some as an attempt to highlight Mr. Brownback’s Catholicism in a state with a large Protestant electorate.
...
What about the influence of John Locke? I asked them. Locke, himself a devout Christian from a Puritan family, inspired Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom written in 1777 and passed, thanks to James Madison, in 1786. Jefferson’s statute is particularly indebted to Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), which you can read in its entirety here. In it Locke declared, “Neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. The Gospel commands no such thing.”
As Locke knew, religious strife-not only between Catholics and Protestants, but among Protestants-had resulted in “factions, tumults, and civil wars,” causing the death or exile of thousands of Europeans. “It is not the diversity of opinions (which cannot be avoided),” Locke wrote, “but “the refusal of toleration to those that are of different opinions (which might have been granted) … that has produced all the bustles and wars that have been in the Christian world upon account of religion.” The only way to avoid such conflicts was to separate Church and State, he concluded, because
“If each of them [Church and State] would contain itself within its own bounds - the one attending to the worldly welfare of the commonwealth, the other to the salvation of souls - it is impossible that any discord should ever have happened between them.” ...
On August 6, 2007, the New York Times reported on an interesting dispute between the campaign of Sam Brownback and that of Mike Huckabee. According to Times reporter Sarah Wheaton, the following remark set off the dispute:
“‘I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002,” Mr. Rude wrote. “Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s.” The message struck some as an attempt to highlight Mr. Brownback’s Catholicism in a state with a large Protestant electorate.
...
What about the influence of John Locke? I asked them. Locke, himself a devout Christian from a Puritan family, inspired Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom written in 1777 and passed, thanks to James Madison, in 1786. Jefferson’s statute is particularly indebted to Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), which you can read in its entirety here. In it Locke declared, “Neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. The Gospel commands no such thing.”
As Locke knew, religious strife-not only between Catholics and Protestants, but among Protestants-had resulted in “factions, tumults, and civil wars,” causing the death or exile of thousands of Europeans. “It is not the diversity of opinions (which cannot be avoided),” Locke wrote, “but “the refusal of toleration to those that are of different opinions (which might have been granted) … that has produced all the bustles and wars that have been in the Christian world upon account of religion.” The only way to avoid such conflicts was to separate Church and State, he concluded, because
“If each of them [Church and State] would contain itself within its own bounds - the one attending to the worldly welfare of the commonwealth, the other to the salvation of souls - it is impossible that any discord should ever have happened between them.” ...
Friday, August 03, 2007
nor the danger of the Left Behind theology which is in bed with the political ideology of the neo-conservatives
UK's Rev. Sizer's U.S.A. Tour: The Right Christians Versus the Christian Right July 09, 2007 09:19 AM
...
In the last three years, this concerned, committed, thoughtful Christian has searched to learn-and do something- about the heretical and inherently anti-Semitic theology of Christian Zionism, for in my hometown in Florida, I have not found one church, priest or pastor who even seems aware of the facts on the ground in the Holy Land, nor the danger of the Left Behind theology which is in bed with the political ideology of the neo-conservatives.
I didn't even have a clue as to how little I knew about what was going down in the Holy Land until my first journey in June 2005, when I passed through my first checkpoint and entered into the Little Town of Bethlehem, which is Occupied Territory.
What I witnessed and viscerally felt in my gut was the injustices of oppression caused by a military occupation that denies human rights to innocent ones simply because they were born on the wrong side of the tracks ; in the West Bank and Gaza.
...
"The origins of 'Christian Zionism' lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the 'Six Day War' in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic." [2]
...
"The "father of modern dispensationalism" John Nelson Darby was born in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law, and worked as a lawyer until he became a curate in the Church of England until 1827, when he joined the Brethren movement. Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many "rediscovered truths." These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, and then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These "rediscovered truths" were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Even some of Darby's best friends hesitated at some of his doctrines. He was accused of heresy a number of times." [3]
...
In the last three years, this concerned, committed, thoughtful Christian has searched to learn-and do something- about the heretical and inherently anti-Semitic theology of Christian Zionism, for in my hometown in Florida, I have not found one church, priest or pastor who even seems aware of the facts on the ground in the Holy Land, nor the danger of the Left Behind theology which is in bed with the political ideology of the neo-conservatives.
I didn't even have a clue as to how little I knew about what was going down in the Holy Land until my first journey in June 2005, when I passed through my first checkpoint and entered into the Little Town of Bethlehem, which is Occupied Territory.
What I witnessed and viscerally felt in my gut was the injustices of oppression caused by a military occupation that denies human rights to innocent ones simply because they were born on the wrong side of the tracks ; in the West Bank and Gaza.
...
"The origins of 'Christian Zionism' lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the 'Six Day War' in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic." [2]
...
"The "father of modern dispensationalism" John Nelson Darby was born in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law, and worked as a lawyer until he became a curate in the Church of England until 1827, when he joined the Brethren movement. Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many "rediscovered truths." These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, and then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These "rediscovered truths" were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Even some of Darby's best friends hesitated at some of his doctrines. He was accused of heresy a number of times." [3]
Missouri Governor Signs Anti-Choice Bill From Sanctuary Of Baptist Church
Missouri Governor Signs Anti-Choice Bill From Sanctuary Of Baptist Church By: Logan Murphy on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 5:01 PM - PDT
Missouri abortion clinics will face new regulations and new restrictions on teaching sex education classes.
Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation Friday placing more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. Planned Parenthood claimed the law, HB 1055, could force it to spend up to $2 million to remodel one of its clinics and halt medical abortions at another site.
The new law, which will take effect Aug. 28, also bars people affiliated with abortion providers from teaching or supplying materials for sex education courses in public schools, and it allows schools to offer abstinence-only programs.
It cements into state statute an existing grant program for centers that encourage women to deliver babies instead of having abortions.
Blunt proclaimed the law “one of the strongest pieces of pro-life legislation in Missouri history” as he spoke from a cross-shaped lectern during a signing ceremony in the sanctuary of Concord Baptist Church. The governor also was scheduled to promote the legislation in Joplin, Hannibal and suburban St. Louis. Read more…
Missouri abortion clinics will face new regulations and new restrictions on teaching sex education classes.
Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation Friday placing more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. Planned Parenthood claimed the law, HB 1055, could force it to spend up to $2 million to remodel one of its clinics and halt medical abortions at another site.
The new law, which will take effect Aug. 28, also bars people affiliated with abortion providers from teaching or supplying materials for sex education courses in public schools, and it allows schools to offer abstinence-only programs.
It cements into state statute an existing grant program for centers that encourage women to deliver babies instead of having abortions.
Blunt proclaimed the law “one of the strongest pieces of pro-life legislation in Missouri history” as he spoke from a cross-shaped lectern during a signing ceremony in the sanctuary of Concord Baptist Church. The governor also was scheduled to promote the legislation in Joplin, Hannibal and suburban St. Louis. Read more…
Saturday, July 28, 2007
The New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta next year have decided to exclude two Baptist groups that are inclusive towards gays ...
The Same Old Exclusion | By Carlos | Jul 25, 2007 at 01:58:44 PM EST
The facilitators of the The New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta next year have decided to exclude two Baptist groups that are inclusive towards gays. This highlights the delicate or insecure position of moderate or "common ground" Baptists as they try to find their own voice in response to the more vocal and public Christian Right Baptists. ...
...
But Pennings said such an attitude betrays the purpose and name of the celebration itself. "This really is more like the Old Covenant than the New Covenant," he said July 23. "Why would we want to participate in this? There's nothing new about this; it's the same old exclusion."
The facilitators of the The New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta next year have decided to exclude two Baptist groups that are inclusive towards gays. This highlights the delicate or insecure position of moderate or "common ground" Baptists as they try to find their own voice in response to the more vocal and public Christian Right Baptists. ...
...
But Pennings said such an attitude betrays the purpose and name of the celebration itself. "This really is more like the Old Covenant than the New Covenant," he said July 23. "Why would we want to participate in this? There's nothing new about this; it's the same old exclusion."
Law on religion in school spurs fear ... specifically allowing spontaneous religious expression by students [e.g. Football team captains?]
Law on religion in school spurs fear | Web Posted: 07/25/2007 01:51 AM CDT | Jenny Lacoste-Caputo | Express-News Staff Writer
...
This year, the Texas Legislature added more fuel to the decades-old debate by passing a law that could leave the spiritual conscience of a school up to the captain of the football team.
Lawmakers approved that law and two others that could ease the way for more religion in public schools. The changes will take effect when students return to classrooms in August.
..
One of the measures adds the phrase "under God" to the Texas pledge, which schoolchildren say each day right after the pledge to the U.S. flag. Another directs the State Board of Education to come up with a curriculum for elective Bible classes to ensure that such classes across the state are being taught in uniform manner. Neither measure sparked much controversy.
The third new law, dubbed the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act, has superintendents nervous as they figure out how to implement it in the coming weeks.
It requires public school districts to adopt policies specifically allowing spontaneous religious expression by students. A so-called model policy included in the law states that upperclassmen who are student leaders — such as student council officers, class officers or the captain of the football team — should be designated as speakers.
...
"If a kid on the football team expresses a religious message that is not in keeping with everyone in the room, will there be protests? That school principal will have to deal with that," Woods said. "What if someone wants their time to respond then and there? If we allowed a Christian to express a religious viewpoint, and then a Wiccan wants equal time, how could we prevent them from doing the same?"
...
This year, the Texas Legislature added more fuel to the decades-old debate by passing a law that could leave the spiritual conscience of a school up to the captain of the football team.
Lawmakers approved that law and two others that could ease the way for more religion in public schools. The changes will take effect when students return to classrooms in August.
..
One of the measures adds the phrase "under God" to the Texas pledge, which schoolchildren say each day right after the pledge to the U.S. flag. Another directs the State Board of Education to come up with a curriculum for elective Bible classes to ensure that such classes across the state are being taught in uniform manner. Neither measure sparked much controversy.
The third new law, dubbed the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act, has superintendents nervous as they figure out how to implement it in the coming weeks.
It requires public school districts to adopt policies specifically allowing spontaneous religious expression by students. A so-called model policy included in the law states that upperclassmen who are student leaders — such as student council officers, class officers or the captain of the football team — should be designated as speakers.
...
"If a kid on the football team expresses a religious message that is not in keeping with everyone in the room, will there be protests? That school principal will have to deal with that," Woods said. "What if someone wants their time to respond then and there? If we allowed a Christian to express a religious viewpoint, and then a Wiccan wants equal time, how could we prevent them from doing the same?"
Friday, July 27, 2007
[Foreign Policy?] evangelical support for Israel is largely based on "End Times" theology ... Muslims are satanic
Delay: US and Israel must enjoy second coming | Will Menaker | Published: Thursday July 26, 2007
After attending the College Republican convention, Nation journalist Max Blumenthal took his camera to the Christians United for Israel's annual Washington-Israel Summit in D.C. Founded by right-wing mega-church pastor John Hagee, the group has "added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby," "forging close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress."
That evangelical support for Israel is largely based on "End Times" theology is largely irrelevant to the Israeli politicians who share the goal of expanding settlements into the West Banks and a military strike on Iran, but it is anything but irrelevant to the rank-and-file members and even one former House Majority Leader.
Blumenthal opens the video by interviewing Tom Delay, who when asked how much the "Second Coming" plays into his support for Israel, says, "obviously, it's what I live for, I hope it comes tomorrow."
Delay closed by saying, "we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming." ...
...
Blumenthal then interviews a string of conference-goers who explain how when Jesus returns all of the Jews will be "saved" after realizing the divinity of Christ. He also speaks to several people who say they are looking forward to Armageddon, because it will bring about the "cleansing of the earth." ...
...
Other conference attendees were quick to note that Muslims are satanic, and that the anti-Christ would most likely be a "man of peace." Much like the College Republican convention, Blumenthal is eventually kicked out after confronting Hagee with a passage from his book that blames the Jews for their own persecution.
After attending the College Republican convention, Nation journalist Max Blumenthal took his camera to the Christians United for Israel's annual Washington-Israel Summit in D.C. Founded by right-wing mega-church pastor John Hagee, the group has "added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby," "forging close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress."
That evangelical support for Israel is largely based on "End Times" theology is largely irrelevant to the Israeli politicians who share the goal of expanding settlements into the West Banks and a military strike on Iran, but it is anything but irrelevant to the rank-and-file members and even one former House Majority Leader.
Blumenthal opens the video by interviewing Tom Delay, who when asked how much the "Second Coming" plays into his support for Israel, says, "obviously, it's what I live for, I hope it comes tomorrow."
Delay closed by saying, "we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming." ...
...
Blumenthal then interviews a string of conference-goers who explain how when Jesus returns all of the Jews will be "saved" after realizing the divinity of Christ. He also speaks to several people who say they are looking forward to Armageddon, because it will bring about the "cleansing of the earth." ...
...
Other conference attendees were quick to note that Muslims are satanic, and that the anti-Christ would most likely be a "man of peace." Much like the College Republican convention, Blumenthal is eventually kicked out after confronting Hagee with a passage from his book that blames the Jews for their own persecution.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program
Bill Berkowitz | June 29, 2007 | Faith the Nation: Part 5-4 | Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program
On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."
In this case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF - website) "objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money," the Associated Press pointed out. According to the website of the White House Office, in 2006, its Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "hosted 110 workshops, providing grant writing training to over 9,500 new and potential federal grantees. Since 2002, our Centers have hosted over 350 workshops across the country, training over 30,000 people."
Defenders of the first amendment and advocates of church/state separation condemned the decision, while President Bush and a host of conservative evangelical Christian leaders were clearly pleased. ...
On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."
In this case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF - website) "objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money," the Associated Press pointed out. According to the website of the White House Office, in 2006, its Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "hosted 110 workshops, providing grant writing training to over 9,500 new and potential federal grantees. Since 2002, our Centers have hosted over 350 workshops across the country, training over 30,000 people."
Defenders of the first amendment and advocates of church/state separation condemned the decision, while President Bush and a host of conservative evangelical Christian leaders were clearly pleased. ...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Three former leaders of a ministry that counsels gays to change their sexual orientation apologized ...
Former Exodus Ministers Apologize To Gays Ministers: We Caused Fear, Shame POSTED: 2:14 pm MDT June 28, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Three former leaders of a ministry that counsels gays to change their sexual orientation apologized, saying although they acted sincerely, their message had caused isolation, shame and fear.
The former leaders of the interdenominational Christian organization Exodus International said Wednesday they had become disillusioned with promoting gay conversion.
"Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," the three said in a statement released outside the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. ...
...
Founded in 1976, the Orlando, Fla.-based Exodus has grown to include more than 120 ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries overseas. It promotes "freedom from homosexuality" through prayer, counseling and group therapy.
LOS ANGELES -- Three former leaders of a ministry that counsels gays to change their sexual orientation apologized, saying although they acted sincerely, their message had caused isolation, shame and fear.
The former leaders of the interdenominational Christian organization Exodus International said Wednesday they had become disillusioned with promoting gay conversion.
"Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," the three said in a statement released outside the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. ...
...
Founded in 1976, the Orlando, Fla.-based Exodus has grown to include more than 120 ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries overseas. It promotes "freedom from homosexuality" through prayer, counseling and group therapy.
Monday, June 25, 2007
"even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich,"
Obama Says Some Have 'Hijacked' Faith | Jun 23, 5:11 PM (ET) | By STEPHEN SINGER
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama told a church convention Saturday that some right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division.
"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ.
"Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us," the Illinois senator said.
"At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design," according to an advance copy of his speech.
"There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich," Obama said. "I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version." ...
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama told a church convention Saturday that some right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division.
"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ.
"Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us," the Illinois senator said.
"At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design," according to an advance copy of his speech.
"There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich," Obama said. "I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version." ...
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Two cutters to faith-based groups for medical serivces in South Pacific ... SOLD immediately for profit ... [Gov. gift to faith-based!]
Federal Grant for a Medical Mission Goes Awry | By DIANA B. HENRIQUES and ANDREW W. LEHREN
Published: June 13, 2007
In theory, it was simple: Congress gave two decommissioned Coast Guard cutters to a faith-based group in California, directing that the ships be used only to provide medical services to islands in the South Pacific.
Coast Guard records show that the ships have been providing those services in the South Pacific since the medical mission took possession of them in 1999.
In reality, the ships never got any closer to the South Pacific islands than the San Francisco Bay. The mission group quickly sold one to a maritime equipment company, which sold it for substantially more to a pig farmer who uses it as a commercial ferry off Nicaragua. The group sold the other ship to a Bay Area couple who rent it for eco-tours and marine research. ...
Published: June 13, 2007
In theory, it was simple: Congress gave two decommissioned Coast Guard cutters to a faith-based group in California, directing that the ships be used only to provide medical services to islands in the South Pacific.
Coast Guard records show that the ships have been providing those services in the South Pacific since the medical mission took possession of them in 1999.
In reality, the ships never got any closer to the South Pacific islands than the San Francisco Bay. The mission group quickly sold one to a maritime equipment company, which sold it for substantially more to a pig farmer who uses it as a commercial ferry off Nicaragua. The group sold the other ship to a Bay Area couple who rent it for eco-tours and marine research. ...
Bush administration has recast the federal government’s role in civil rights by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases ... diminishing race...
Justice Dept. Reshapes Its Civil Rights Mission | By NEIL A. LEWIS | Published: June 14, 2007
WASHINGTON, June 13 — In recent years, the Bush administration has recast the federal government’s role in civil rights by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional area of race.
The shift at the Justice Department has significantly altered the government’s civil rights mission, said Brian K. Landsberg, a law professor at the University of the Pacific and a former Justice Department lawyer under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“Not until recently has anyone in the department considered religious discrimination such a high priority,” Professor Landsberg said. “No one had ever considered it to be of the same magnitude as race or national origin.”
Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said in a statement that the agency had “worked diligently to enforce the federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on religion.”
The changes are evident in a variety of actions:
¶Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.
¶Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government helped win the right of a group in Massachusetts to distribute candy canes as part of a religious message that the red stripes represented the blood of Christ.
¶Vigorously enforcing a law enacted by Congress in 2000 that allows churches and other places of worship to be free of some local zoning restrictions. The division has brought more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of churches, synagogues and mosques.
¶Taking on far fewer hate crimes and cases in which local law enforcement officers may have violated someone’s civil rights. The resources for these traditional cases have instead been used to investigate trafficking cases, typically involving foreign women used in the sex trade, a favored issue of the religious right.
¶Sharply reducing the complex lawsuits that challenge voting plans that might dilute the strength of black voters. The department initiated only one such case through the early part of this year, compared with eight in a comparable period in the Clinton administration.
...
A New Mission
Some critics say that many of the Justice Department’s religious-oriented initiatives are outside its mandate from Congress. While statutes prohibit religious discrimination in areas like employment and housing, no laws address some of the issues in which the department has become involved.
“They are engaging in freewheeling social engineering,” said Ayesha Khan, counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and “using the power of the federal government to put in place an ideological, not constitutional agenda.” ...
WASHINGTON, June 13 — In recent years, the Bush administration has recast the federal government’s role in civil rights by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional area of race.
The shift at the Justice Department has significantly altered the government’s civil rights mission, said Brian K. Landsberg, a law professor at the University of the Pacific and a former Justice Department lawyer under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“Not until recently has anyone in the department considered religious discrimination such a high priority,” Professor Landsberg said. “No one had ever considered it to be of the same magnitude as race or national origin.”
Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said in a statement that the agency had “worked diligently to enforce the federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on religion.”
The changes are evident in a variety of actions:
¶Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.
¶Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government helped win the right of a group in Massachusetts to distribute candy canes as part of a religious message that the red stripes represented the blood of Christ.
¶Vigorously enforcing a law enacted by Congress in 2000 that allows churches and other places of worship to be free of some local zoning restrictions. The division has brought more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of churches, synagogues and mosques.
¶Taking on far fewer hate crimes and cases in which local law enforcement officers may have violated someone’s civil rights. The resources for these traditional cases have instead been used to investigate trafficking cases, typically involving foreign women used in the sex trade, a favored issue of the religious right.
¶Sharply reducing the complex lawsuits that challenge voting plans that might dilute the strength of black voters. The department initiated only one such case through the early part of this year, compared with eight in a comparable period in the Clinton administration.
...
A New Mission
Some critics say that many of the Justice Department’s religious-oriented initiatives are outside its mandate from Congress. While statutes prohibit religious discrimination in areas like employment and housing, no laws address some of the issues in which the department has become involved.
“They are engaging in freewheeling social engineering,” said Ayesha Khan, counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and “using the power of the federal government to put in place an ideological, not constitutional agenda.” ...
Monday, June 11, 2007
Gallup: Majority of Republicans doubt evolution; More Americans believe in creationism
Gallup: Majority of Republicans doubt evolution; More Americans believe in creationism | RAW STORY | Published: Monday June 11, 2007
A majority of Republicans have doubts about evolution, and more Americans believe in the creationism theory, according to a new Gallup poll.
This "suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain," Frank Newport writes for Gallup News Service.
"Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution," Newport adds. "But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from." ...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here's another: The Earth is round.
Yabba-dabba science | Note to would-be Creation Museum visitors: the Earth is round. | May 24, 2007
THE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's animatronic balderdash — dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! — we'd like to clear up a few things: "The Flintstones" is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners? All make-believe.
Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here's another: The Earth is round.
...
Religion and science can coexist. That the Earth is billions of years old is a fact. How the universe came into being and whether it operates by design are matters of faith. The problem is that people who deny science in one realm are unlikely to embrace it in another. Those who cannot accept that climate change may have caused the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago probably don't put much stock in the fact that today it poses grave peril to the Earth as we know it.
Last year, the White House attempted to muzzle NASA's top climatologist after he called for urgent action on global warming, and a presidential appointee in the agency's press office chastised a contractor for mentioning the Big Bang without including the word "theory." The press liaison reportedly wrote in an e-mail: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA." ...
THE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's animatronic balderdash — dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! — we'd like to clear up a few things: "The Flintstones" is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners? All make-believe.
Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here's another: The Earth is round.
...
Religion and science can coexist. That the Earth is billions of years old is a fact. How the universe came into being and whether it operates by design are matters of faith. The problem is that people who deny science in one realm are unlikely to embrace it in another. Those who cannot accept that climate change may have caused the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago probably don't put much stock in the fact that today it poses grave peril to the Earth as we know it.
Last year, the White House attempted to muzzle NASA's top climatologist after he called for urgent action on global warming, and a presidential appointee in the agency's press office chastised a contractor for mentioning the Big Bang without including the word "theory." The press liaison reportedly wrote in an e-mail: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA." ...
this has been twisted around in recent times ... to convey ...God has a particular [right wing] political ideology
"Is Mormonism a fair issue or not a fair issue?" His answer - which I thought elicited one of his most impassioned statements of the hour is below (my emph.).
GORE: I do not -- I don't think it's a fair issue. I really don't. I would like to think we are past that. People say, well, this is a special case. I don't think it's a special case. I think that he's entitled to his own beliefs. And incidentally, Larry, in "The Assault on Reason" there is a very long hard-hitting section on this that goes back to our founding fathers, goes back to the debates that we had more than 200 years ago about why religion should be kept out of the way in which our decisions are made.Except to the extent that individuals, of course, who are motivated by their religious faith, as I am, as so many people are, are going to make that a part of their decisions. But here's the critical distinction. When America was founded, they -- our founders said, OK look, we are not going to pretend that whoever is elected to office has been ordained by the almighty to be the decision maker. The person who is elected is elected by us, the people of this country. And the divine right of kings was rejected by the founders of the United States.
And what replaced that, the divine right of individuals in this sense, we believe that we are all created equal. And that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. So the relationship that our founders believed was appropriate for -- between America and God was their belief that every individual has certain rights and has dignity because that person is a child of God.
Now, for those who don't believe in God, I'm not proselytizing. I'm just telling you what I believe and what our founders believed. But what -- but this has been twisted around in recent times by some people who want to convey the impression that God belongs, if not to a particular political party, that God has a particular political ideology and that those who disagree with a right-wing approach to this or that are against God.
That is an anti-American view. That is completely contrary to the spirit of America. It is an American heresy and people in both parties ought to reject that and fight against it.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
President-elect, there is only one candidate: a member of the Kansas school board who supported its efforts against the teaching of evolution
Evolution Opponent Is in Line for Schools Post | By CORNELIA DEAN | Published: May 19, 2007
The National Association of State Boards of Education will elect officers in July, and for one office, president-elect, there is only one candidate: a member of the Kansas school board who supported its efforts against the teaching of evolution.
Scientists who have been active in the nation’s evolution debate say they want to thwart his candidacy, but it is not clear that they can.
The candidate is Kenneth R. Willard, a Kansas Republican who voted with the conservative majority in 2005 when the school board changed the state’s science standards to allow inclusion of intelligent design, an ideological cousin of creationism. Voters later replaced that majority, but Mr. Willard, an insurance executive from Hutchinson, retained his seat. If he becomes president-elect of the national group, he will take office in January 2009.
The group, based in Washington, is a nonprofit organization of state school boards whose Web site (www.nasbe.org) says it “works to strengthen state leadership in educational policymaking.” ...
The National Association of State Boards of Education will elect officers in July, and for one office, president-elect, there is only one candidate: a member of the Kansas school board who supported its efforts against the teaching of evolution.
Scientists who have been active in the nation’s evolution debate say they want to thwart his candidacy, but it is not clear that they can.
The candidate is Kenneth R. Willard, a Kansas Republican who voted with the conservative majority in 2005 when the school board changed the state’s science standards to allow inclusion of intelligent design, an ideological cousin of creationism. Voters later replaced that majority, but Mr. Willard, an insurance executive from Hutchinson, retained his seat. If he becomes president-elect of the national group, he will take office in January 2009.
The group, based in Washington, is a nonprofit organization of state school boards whose Web site (www.nasbe.org) says it “works to strengthen state leadership in educational policymaking.” ...
Falwell: Advisor to Govermnment: It's bad form to speak ill of the dead. Good thing this man's own vile words speak for themselves
The Sad, Quotable Jerry Falwell | It's bad form to speak ill of the dead. Good thing this man's own vile words speak for themselves | By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist | Friday, May 18, 2007
...
"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."
"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for [the attacks of Sept. 11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"
"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
"Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions."
"I listen to feminists and all these radical gals -- most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men -- that's their problem."
"When you have a godly husband, a godly wife, children who respect their parents and who are loved by their parents, who provide for those children their physical and spiritual and material needs, lovingly, you have the ideal unit."
"The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews."
"I am saying pornography hurts anyone who reads it -- garbage in, garbage out."
"I am such a strong admirer and supporter of George W. Bush that if he suggested eliminating the income tax or doubling it, I would vote yes on first blush."
"I believe that global warming is a myth. And so, therefore, I have no conscience problems at all and I'm going to buy a Suburban next time."
"It is God's planet -- and he's taking care of it. And I don't believe that anything we do will raise or lower the temperature one point."
"I truly cannot imagine men with men, women with women, doing what they were not physically created to do, without abnormal stress and misbehavior."
"It appears that America's anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening."
"There's been a concerted effort to steal Christmas."
"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
"The First Amendment is not without limits."
"Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America! If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way ... and our nation will pay a terrible price!"
"If he's going to be the counterfeit of Christ, [the Antichrist] has to be Jewish. The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish."
"The argument that making contraceptives available to young people would prevent teen pregnancies is ridiculous. That's like offering a cookbook as a cure to people who are trying to lose weight."
"The whole global warming thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability."
"You'll be riding along in an automobile. You'll be the driver perhaps. You're a Christian. There'll be several people in the automobile with you, maybe someone who is not a Christian. When the trumpet sounds you and the other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away -- you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal life. That unsaved person or persons in the automobile will suddenly be startled to find the car suddenly somewhere crashes. ... Other cars on the highway driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark pandemonium will occur on ... every highway in the world where Christians are caught away from the drivers wheel." (from Falwell's pamphlet "Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Christ")
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."
"You know when I see somebody burning the flag, I'm a Baptist preacher I'm not a Mennonite, I feel it's my obligation to whip him. In the name of the Lord, of course. I feel it's my obligation to whip him, and if I can't do it then I look up some of my athletes to help me. But, as long as at 72 I can handle most of the jobs I do it myself, and I don't think it's un-spiritual. When I, when I, when I hear somebody talking about our military and ridiculing and saying terrible things about our President, I'm thinking you know just a little bit of that and I believe the Lord would forgive me if I popped him."
"The Bible is the inerrant ... word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible, without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etcetera."
"The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the National Order of Witches."
"God doesn't listen to Jews."
"Tinky Winky is gay."
...
"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."
"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for [the attacks of Sept. 11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"
"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
"Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions."
"I listen to feminists and all these radical gals -- most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men -- that's their problem."
"When you have a godly husband, a godly wife, children who respect their parents and who are loved by their parents, who provide for those children their physical and spiritual and material needs, lovingly, you have the ideal unit."
"The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews."
"I am saying pornography hurts anyone who reads it -- garbage in, garbage out."
"I am such a strong admirer and supporter of George W. Bush that if he suggested eliminating the income tax or doubling it, I would vote yes on first blush."
"I believe that global warming is a myth. And so, therefore, I have no conscience problems at all and I'm going to buy a Suburban next time."
"It is God's planet -- and he's taking care of it. And I don't believe that anything we do will raise or lower the temperature one point."
"I truly cannot imagine men with men, women with women, doing what they were not physically created to do, without abnormal stress and misbehavior."
"It appears that America's anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening."
"There's been a concerted effort to steal Christmas."
"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
"The First Amendment is not without limits."
"Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America! If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way ... and our nation will pay a terrible price!"
"If he's going to be the counterfeit of Christ, [the Antichrist] has to be Jewish. The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish."
"The argument that making contraceptives available to young people would prevent teen pregnancies is ridiculous. That's like offering a cookbook as a cure to people who are trying to lose weight."
"The whole global warming thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability."
"You'll be riding along in an automobile. You'll be the driver perhaps. You're a Christian. There'll be several people in the automobile with you, maybe someone who is not a Christian. When the trumpet sounds you and the other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away -- you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal life. That unsaved person or persons in the automobile will suddenly be startled to find the car suddenly somewhere crashes. ... Other cars on the highway driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark pandemonium will occur on ... every highway in the world where Christians are caught away from the drivers wheel." (from Falwell's pamphlet "Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Christ")
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."
"You know when I see somebody burning the flag, I'm a Baptist preacher I'm not a Mennonite, I feel it's my obligation to whip him. In the name of the Lord, of course. I feel it's my obligation to whip him, and if I can't do it then I look up some of my athletes to help me. But, as long as at 72 I can handle most of the jobs I do it myself, and I don't think it's un-spiritual. When I, when I, when I hear somebody talking about our military and ridiculing and saying terrible things about our President, I'm thinking you know just a little bit of that and I believe the Lord would forgive me if I popped him."
"The Bible is the inerrant ... word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible, without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etcetera."
"The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the National Order of Witches."
"God doesn't listen to Jews."
"Tinky Winky is gay."
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The 10 Craziest Things Rev. Jerry Falwell Ever Said
The 10 Craziest Things Rev. Jerry Falwell Ever Said
10. "The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."
9. "The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews."
8. "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
7. "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers ... AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."
6. "Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton - not even a run by the devil himself ... I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate. She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't." --at a "Values Voter Summit"
5. "Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them."
4. "Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan in America."
3. "He is purple — the gay-pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay pride symbol." –from a "Parents Alert" issued in Jerry Falwell's National Liberty Journal, warning that "Tinky Winky," a character on the popular PBS children's show, "Teletubbies," may be gay
2. "You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."
1. "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" --on the 9/11 attacks
10. "The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."
9. "The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews."
8. "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
7. "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers ... AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."
6. "Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton - not even a run by the devil himself ... I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate. She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't." --at a "Values Voter Summit"
5. "Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them."
4. "Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan in America."
3. "He is purple — the gay-pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay pride symbol." –from a "Parents Alert" issued in Jerry Falwell's National Liberty Journal, warning that "Tinky Winky," a character on the popular PBS children's show, "Teletubbies," may be gay
2. "You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."
1. "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" --on the 9/11 attacks
Monday, May 14, 2007
US conservatives block cancer vaccine for girls
US conservatives block cancer vaccine for girls | * 12:22 14 May 2007 | * NewScientist.com news service | * Jim Giles
Plans to vaccinate young girls against the sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer have been blocked in several US states by conservative groups, who say that doing so would encourage promiscuity.
Advocates of the vaccine point out that the jabs work against human papillomavirus (HPV) - which causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer - and are safe.
The latest data from a large clinical trial of Merck's cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, found it offered 100% protection against cervical, vulval and vaginal diseases, caused by HPV (types 6, 11, 16 and 18) and 98% protection against advanced pre-cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18 (New England Journal of Medicine: vol 356, p1915).
After around three years of the four-year trial, almost all girls who received the vaccine before being exposed to HPV 16 or 18 appear to be protected. Those who had already been exposed to the viruses received little benefit, but by vaccinating early on, perhaps at 11 years of age, most girls could be protected. ...
...
However, attempts to introduce compulsory vaccination programmes at the state level have run up against opposition. Four states – West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Mexico – have rejected vaccine programmes. In Texas, governer Rick Perry suffered embarassment last month when his order requiring schoolgirls to be vaccinated was blocked by the state Senate. Only one state – Virginia – has so far passed a law requiring vaccination. ...
Plans to vaccinate young girls against the sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer have been blocked in several US states by conservative groups, who say that doing so would encourage promiscuity.
Advocates of the vaccine point out that the jabs work against human papillomavirus (HPV) - which causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer - and are safe.
The latest data from a large clinical trial of Merck's cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, found it offered 100% protection against cervical, vulval and vaginal diseases, caused by HPV (types 6, 11, 16 and 18) and 98% protection against advanced pre-cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18 (New England Journal of Medicine: vol 356, p1915).
After around three years of the four-year trial, almost all girls who received the vaccine before being exposed to HPV 16 or 18 appear to be protected. Those who had already been exposed to the viruses received little benefit, but by vaccinating early on, perhaps at 11 years of age, most girls could be protected. ...
...
However, attempts to introduce compulsory vaccination programmes at the state level have run up against opposition. Four states – West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Mexico – have rejected vaccine programmes. In Texas, governer Rick Perry suffered embarassment last month when his order requiring schoolgirls to be vaccinated was blocked by the state Senate. Only one state – Virginia – has so far passed a law requiring vaccination. ...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex
Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex | By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 13, 7:02 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.
Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. ...
WASHINGTON - Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.
Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. ...
U.S. Air Force Academy ... turning into a taxpayer-supported Evangelical institution ..
The Crusaders | “The Christian Taliban is running the Department of Defense” | By ROBERT C. KOEHLER | Tribune Media Services | May 3, 2007
Sixteen words may be all that stand right now between the apparatus of government and the Founding Fathers’ worst nightmare. And those words are starting to give.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”
...
When George Bush, in the wake of 9/11, puffed himself into Richard the Lionheart and declared he would lead the country in a “crusade” against terrorism — you know, crusade, as in slaughter of Muslim infidels — turns out . . . oh, how awkward (if you’re on White House spin duty) . . . he may have been speaking literally.
What’s certain, in any case, is that a lot of people in high and low places within the Bush administration — and in particular, the military — heard him literally, and regard the war on terror as a religious war:
“The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him,” a lieutenant colonel, according to a BBC reporter, said to his troops on the eve of the destruction of that undefended city in post-election 2004.
“I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jerry Boykin notoriously boasted a few years back, speaking of a Muslim warlord in Somalia. And by the way, George Bush is “in the White House because God put him there.”
And, of course, just the other day, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, who conducted the first official investigation into Pat Tillman’s death, opined that Tillman’s family is only pestering the Army for the, ahem, truth about how he died because their loved one, a non-believer with no heavenly reward to reap, is now “worm dirt.”
Until I read the newly published “With God on Their Side” (St. Martin’s Press), Michael Weinstein’s disturbing account of anti-Semitism at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I shrugged off each of these remarks, and so much more, as isolated, almost comically intolerant noises out of True Believer Land. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do . . .
Now my blood runs cold. Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Academy and former assistant general counsel in the Reagan administration, and a lifelong Republican, has devoted the last several years of his life to battling what he has come to regard as a fundamentalist takeover of the Academy, turning it, in effect, into a taxpayer-supported Evangelical institution. He charges that the separation of church and state is rapidly vanishing at the school, which routinely promotes sectarian religious events, tolerates the proselytizing of uniquely vulnerable new recruits and, basically, conflates evangelical interests and the national interest. ...
Sixteen words may be all that stand right now between the apparatus of government and the Founding Fathers’ worst nightmare. And those words are starting to give.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”
...
When George Bush, in the wake of 9/11, puffed himself into Richard the Lionheart and declared he would lead the country in a “crusade” against terrorism — you know, crusade, as in slaughter of Muslim infidels — turns out . . . oh, how awkward (if you’re on White House spin duty) . . . he may have been speaking literally.
What’s certain, in any case, is that a lot of people in high and low places within the Bush administration — and in particular, the military — heard him literally, and regard the war on terror as a religious war:
“The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him,” a lieutenant colonel, according to a BBC reporter, said to his troops on the eve of the destruction of that undefended city in post-election 2004.
“I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jerry Boykin notoriously boasted a few years back, speaking of a Muslim warlord in Somalia. And by the way, George Bush is “in the White House because God put him there.”
And, of course, just the other day, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, who conducted the first official investigation into Pat Tillman’s death, opined that Tillman’s family is only pestering the Army for the, ahem, truth about how he died because their loved one, a non-believer with no heavenly reward to reap, is now “worm dirt.”
Until I read the newly published “With God on Their Side” (St. Martin’s Press), Michael Weinstein’s disturbing account of anti-Semitism at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I shrugged off each of these remarks, and so much more, as isolated, almost comically intolerant noises out of True Believer Land. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do . . .
Now my blood runs cold. Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Academy and former assistant general counsel in the Reagan administration, and a lifelong Republican, has devoted the last several years of his life to battling what he has come to regard as a fundamentalist takeover of the Academy, turning it, in effect, into a taxpayer-supported Evangelical institution. He charges that the separation of church and state is rapidly vanishing at the school, which routinely promotes sectarian religious events, tolerates the proselytizing of uniquely vulnerable new recruits and, basically, conflates evangelical interests and the national interest. ...
U.S. Army Colonel: Pat Tillman is Atheist Worm Dirt
U.S. Army: Pat Tillman is Atheist Worm Dirt | By ELAINE FRIEDMAN | HumanistNetworkNews.org | April 25, 2007
...
Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, testified that she was "appalled" by comments from Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, an officer in Tillman's unit, that implied the family was not at peace with Pat's death because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm dirt."
"When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt" Kauzlarich stated in an interview with ESPN. ...
...
Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, testified that she was "appalled" by comments from Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, an officer in Tillman's unit, that implied the family was not at peace with Pat's death because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm dirt."
"When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt" Kauzlarich stated in an interview with ESPN. ...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Overturning precedent: "painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic"
Did Justices' Catholicism Play Part in Abortion Ruling? | By Robert Barnes | Washington Post Staff Writer | Monday, April 30, 2007; Page A13
Is it significant that the five Supreme Court justices who voted to uphold the federal ban on a controversial abortion procedure also happen to be the court's Roman Catholics?
It is to Tony Auth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He drew Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. wearing bishop's miters, and labeled his cartoon "Church and State."
Rosie O'Donnell and Barbara Walters hashed out the issue on "The View," with O'Donnell noting that a majority of the court is Catholic and wondering about "separation of church and state." Walters counseled that "we cannot assume that they did it because they're Catholic."
And the chatter continues, on talk radio and in the blogosphere. In the latter category, no one has stirred it up quite like Geoffrey R. Stone, former dean and now provost of the University of Chicago's law school.
He posted an item titled "Faith-Based Justices" on his school's blog and on Huffington Post. The post was mostly praised by liberal readers at Huffington Post, but set off a free-for-all back home in Chicago on the faculty blog.
Stone's argument was that the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart repudiated the court's previous abortion jurisprudence and offered flimsy reasoning for upholding the federal ban on the procedure opponents call "partial birth," when seven years ago it had rejected a Nebraska law that was "virtually identical."
"What then explains this decision?" he wrote. "Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who are either Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out." ...
Is it significant that the five Supreme Court justices who voted to uphold the federal ban on a controversial abortion procedure also happen to be the court's Roman Catholics?
It is to Tony Auth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He drew Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. wearing bishop's miters, and labeled his cartoon "Church and State."
Rosie O'Donnell and Barbara Walters hashed out the issue on "The View," with O'Donnell noting that a majority of the court is Catholic and wondering about "separation of church and state." Walters counseled that "we cannot assume that they did it because they're Catholic."
And the chatter continues, on talk radio and in the blogosphere. In the latter category, no one has stirred it up quite like Geoffrey R. Stone, former dean and now provost of the University of Chicago's law school.
He posted an item titled "Faith-Based Justices" on his school's blog and on Huffington Post. The post was mostly praised by liberal readers at Huffington Post, but set off a free-for-all back home in Chicago on the faculty blog.
Stone's argument was that the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart repudiated the court's previous abortion jurisprudence and offered flimsy reasoning for upholding the federal ban on the procedure opponents call "partial birth," when seven years ago it had rejected a Nebraska law that was "virtually identical."
"What then explains this decision?" he wrote. "Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who are either Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out." ...
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Government funded: "The presenter and supervisor (must) possess an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ."
Putting Stop into 'Stop and Think' | By cyncooper | Sat May 05, 2007 at 01:38:27 PM EST
Let me ask a simple question. Does the following condition from a contract have religious overtones to you? "The presenter and supervisor (must) possess an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ."
Did you even have to stop and think about it?
It's only one of several clauses from the contract of Stop and Think, an abstinence-education-only program, but that didn't stop the federal government from awarding it taxpayer dollars. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is stepping in.
On May 2, 2007, the ACLU wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services to demand an immediate investigation into the awarding of funds to "Stop and Think" and entities associated with it.
Evidence strongly suggests that this funding violates the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. Anticipating that your investigation will confirm our own, we request that you take the steps necessary to remedy this misuse of public funds. If HHS does not satisfactily respond to these requests by the end of this month, the ACLU will consider all necessary and appropriate measures to remedy the situation, including legal action. ...
...
First, the government is doing virtually nothing to seek accountability and to assure that our dollars are not going to evangelical efforts; this is an outrage in itself, letting wolves roam through the henhouse freely until someone blasts a whistle on the top of a tower. ..
Second, the groups getting these funds are overtly Christian evangelical organizations, in this case, crisis pregnancy centers founded as Christian ministries. Since the funds are going to groups that are in a position to violate the separation of church and state, that alone demands a higher level of scrutiny. Grants to these organizations trip buzzers automatically and the government should have systems in place to demand not merely separation, but firewalls, high ones, with strong rules. ...
The third frustration is that, under the current state of the law, challenges generally can be brought only on a case-by-case basis when Establishment questions arise, limiting the ability of outside groups to take action. ...
Let me ask a simple question. Does the following condition from a contract have religious overtones to you? "The presenter and supervisor (must) possess an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ."
Did you even have to stop and think about it?
It's only one of several clauses from the contract of Stop and Think, an abstinence-education-only program, but that didn't stop the federal government from awarding it taxpayer dollars. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is stepping in.
On May 2, 2007, the ACLU wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services to demand an immediate investigation into the awarding of funds to "Stop and Think" and entities associated with it.
Evidence strongly suggests that this funding violates the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. Anticipating that your investigation will confirm our own, we request that you take the steps necessary to remedy this misuse of public funds. If HHS does not satisfactily respond to these requests by the end of this month, the ACLU will consider all necessary and appropriate measures to remedy the situation, including legal action. ...
...
First, the government is doing virtually nothing to seek accountability and to assure that our dollars are not going to evangelical efforts; this is an outrage in itself, letting wolves roam through the henhouse freely until someone blasts a whistle on the top of a tower. ..
Second, the groups getting these funds are overtly Christian evangelical organizations, in this case, crisis pregnancy centers founded as Christian ministries. Since the funds are going to groups that are in a position to violate the separation of church and state, that alone demands a higher level of scrutiny. Grants to these organizations trip buzzers automatically and the government should have systems in place to demand not merely separation, but firewalls, high ones, with strong rules. ...
The third frustration is that, under the current state of the law, challenges generally can be brought only on a case-by-case basis when Establishment questions arise, limiting the ability of outside groups to take action. ...
Saturday, May 05, 2007
[Republican] Catholic [convert] Candidate Denies Evolution
Friday, May 04, 2007 | Catholic Candidate Denies Evolution
Absolutely surreal. When asked who did not believe in evolution, three of the ten Republican candidates for president raised their hands: Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, and Sam Brownback. Now, Brownback is a Catholic convert from evangelicalism, and a darling of the right. Clearly, some of his evangelical mode of thinking has not left him.
As I discussed recently, there is no inherent conflict between faith and evolution, as long as boundaries are respected. Therefore a person of faith should not castigate scientific findings about evolution that are accepted by all but a handful of quacks, and a scientist should likewise refrain from arguing that evolution proves the absence of a Creator (it proves no such thing). Way back in 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that there was no opposition between evolution and the Christian faith. While Pius was tentative, Pope John Paul II stated very clearly in 1996 that "new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis." Cardinal Schonborn, who has reflected a lot on the topic, sums it up: "I see no difficulty in joining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, but under the prerequisite that the borders of scientific theory are maintained." And Pope Benedict recently voiced similar thoughts: "The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science."
The title of John Paul's 1996 address was "Truth Cannot Contradict Truth", which is quite apt. ...
Absolutely surreal. When asked who did not believe in evolution, three of the ten Republican candidates for president raised their hands: Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, and Sam Brownback. Now, Brownback is a Catholic convert from evangelicalism, and a darling of the right. Clearly, some of his evangelical mode of thinking has not left him.
As I discussed recently, there is no inherent conflict between faith and evolution, as long as boundaries are respected. Therefore a person of faith should not castigate scientific findings about evolution that are accepted by all but a handful of quacks, and a scientist should likewise refrain from arguing that evolution proves the absence of a Creator (it proves no such thing). Way back in 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that there was no opposition between evolution and the Christian faith. While Pius was tentative, Pope John Paul II stated very clearly in 1996 that "new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis." Cardinal Schonborn, who has reflected a lot on the topic, sums it up: "I see no difficulty in joining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, but under the prerequisite that the borders of scientific theory are maintained." And Pope Benedict recently voiced similar thoughts: "The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science."
The title of John Paul's 1996 address was "Truth Cannot Contradict Truth", which is quite apt. ...
Friday, May 04, 2007
real motivation for opposition to the just-passed hate crimes bill ... [Christianist right's] objection is entirely to the inclusion of homosexuals ..
Friday, May 4, 2007 | Hate Crimes and Double Standards, Ctd. | 04 May 2007 07:16 am
My suspicion about the real motivation for opposition to the just-passed hate crimes bill is borne out by the responses and statements from the Christianist right. It is clear from this article, for example, that their objection is entirely to the inclusion of homosexuals. It is also clear from the White House's statement that it concurs. Money quote:
"The administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime, including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion or national origin."
Why no reference here to the characteristic at issue - sexual orientation? If the White House claims that such protections are already in place, and it supports them, and its only objection is a matter of federal and constitutional propriety, why not say so explicitly? We all know the reason why. The naked anti-gay animus fueling this is also apparent when you read Dobson's quote:
"We applaud the president's courage in standing up for the constitution and the principle of equal protection under the law. The American justice system should never create second-class victims and it is a first-class act of wisdom and fairness for the president to pledge to veto this unnecessary bill."
But that is an argument for the repeal of all hate crimes legislation, not just this one. And yet Dobson raises no such objections when it comes to race or religion. Maybe now his position is clear on the principle, he'll elaborate some more. I'd dearly love to see Focus on the Family come out strongly against hate crime laws designed to protect, say, Jews, Mormons and Christians. But somehow I doubt it, don't you?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. ...
Our Faith-Based Justices (35 comments ) | READ MORE: Congress | 4/20/2007
In Gonzales v. Carhart, the Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, upheld the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting so-called "partial birth abortions" (properly described as "intact dilation and evacuation" or "intact D & E") despite the absence of an exception to protect the health of the woman. Gonzales reversed an earlier decision, Stenberg v. Carhart, in which the Court had held a virtually identical state law unconstitutional, primarily because it failed to include an exception to protect the health of the woman.
...
What, then, explains this decision? Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who are either Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out. But it is too obvious, and too telling, to ignore. Ultimately, the five justices in the majority all fell back on a common argument to justify their position. There is, they say, a compelling moral reason for the result in Gonzales. Because the intact D & E seems to resemble infanticide it is "immoral" and may be prohibited even without a clear statutory exception to protect the health of the woman.
In Gonzales v. Carhart, the Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, upheld the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting so-called "partial birth abortions" (properly described as "intact dilation and evacuation" or "intact D & E") despite the absence of an exception to protect the health of the woman. Gonzales reversed an earlier decision, Stenberg v. Carhart, in which the Court had held a virtually identical state law unconstitutional, primarily because it failed to include an exception to protect the health of the woman.
...
What, then, explains this decision? Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who are either Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out. But it is too obvious, and too telling, to ignore. Ultimately, the five justices in the majority all fell back on a common argument to justify their position. There is, they say, a compelling moral reason for the result in Gonzales. Because the intact D & E seems to resemble infanticide it is "immoral" and may be prohibited even without a clear statutory exception to protect the health of the woman.
By making this judgment, these justices have failed to respect the fundamental difference between religious belief and morality. To be sure, this can be an elusive distinction, but in a society that values the separation of church and state, it is fundamental. The moral status of a fetus is a profoundly difficult and rationally unresolvable question. As the Supreme Court has recognized for more than thirty years, when the fundamental right of a woman "to determine her life's course" is at stake, it is not for the state -- or for the justices of the Supreme Court -- to resolve that question, and it is certainly not appropriate for the state or the justices to resolve it on the basis of one's personal religious faith.
In 1972-73, I had the privilege of serving as a law clerk to Justice William Brennan, then the Court's only Catholic justice. It was in that year the Court decided Roe v. Wade. Justice Brennan struggled in that case, as he struggled in earlier cases involving such issues as school prayers, to separate his personal religious views from his views as a justice. He joined the decision in Roe because he believed in the separation of church and state and because he was convinced that his religious views must be irrelevant to his responsibilities as a justice.
As the Court observed fifteen years ago, "Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but than cannot control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code." It is sad that Justices Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito have chosen not to follow this example.Thursday, April 19, 2007
Supreme Court Upholds Late Abortion Ban: Judicial Activism Run Amok: first in American history made up of a majority of conservative Catholics
Supreme Court Upholds Late Abortion Ban: Right-wing Judicial Activism Run Amok | By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted April 18, 2007.
Last year, in defending his decision to vote for the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, Senator Bill Nelson (D-NE) said that it was based, in part, on Alito's "pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the court."
Today, Nelson and the 18 other Democratic Senators who voted against the attempted filibuster of Alito reaped what they sowed. The new court -- the first in American history made up of a majority of conservative Catholics -- upheld the 2003 ban on so-called "partial birth" abortions, a made-up term that's become a hot-button issue for social conservatives, but is largely based on junk science and flies in the face of medical "best practices." It will go down as a text-book case of right-wing judicial activism, with the justices essentially overruling the medical community.
In upholding the ban, the Supreme Court overturned a critical legal principle that's guided courts for almost two decades: that any restriction on abortion must have an exception for the life and health of the pregnant woman.
That principle was the key to the landmark decision, Stenberg v. Carhart, which overturned a similar ban in Nebraska. Stenberg, while split five to four, was not a wishy-washy decision. The majority found that Nebraska's law violated the constitution as interpreted in both Roe v. Wade and the 1992 case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The Supremes made two important findings in that case. First, the Nebraska ban didn't have an exception for cases when the health of the mother might be threatened. Second, the court found that the ban on "partial-birth abortions" (a term coined by abortion foes that appears nowhere in the medical literature) was too vague and, as such, placed too great a burden on a woman's right to determine her own care.
It's worth noting that Alito cited Carhart in 2000, when, as a member of the Third District Court of Appeals, he voted to strike down New Jersey's ban on late-term abortions. "The New Jersey statute," he wrote, "like its Nebraska counterpart, lacks an exception for the preservation of the health of the mother. Without such an exception, the New Jersey statute is irreconcilable with [Stenberg]. What's more, Alito supported the court's finding that "the Nebraska [ban] applied, not only to the "dilation and extraction" or D & X procedure, but also to the more commonly used D & E procedure." In other words, Alito agreed that the ban could apply to all sorts of otherwise legal abortion procedures. ...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Supreme Court upholds partial birth abortion ban ... 5-4, with all 5 Catholics voting as a block
Supreme Court upholds partial birth abortion ban | Michael Roston | Published: Wednesday April 18, 2007
In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court upheld a 2003 federal ban on so-called "Partial Birth Abortions," in what has been described at the SCOTUSBlog as "the first-ever decision by the Court to uphold a total ban on a specific abortion procedure."
Justice Anthony Kennedy led the majority with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
...
Kennedy believed that the law offered enough opportunities for women to have "safe medical options," other than so-called "partial-birth abortions."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a lengthy dissent, slammed the majority's decision for what she said applauded "federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists."
She added, "For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman's health."
...
Religious Affiliation of the U.S. Supreme Court
In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court upheld a 2003 federal ban on so-called "Partial Birth Abortions," in what has been described at the SCOTUSBlog as "the first-ever decision by the Court to uphold a total ban on a specific abortion procedure."
Justice Anthony Kennedy led the majority with Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
...
Kennedy believed that the law offered enough opportunities for women to have "safe medical options," other than so-called "partial-birth abortions."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a lengthy dissent, slammed the majority's decision for what she said applauded "federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists."
She added, "For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman's health."
...
Religious Affiliation of the U.S. Supreme Court
| Religious Affiliation | Justices | % of Justices in this religion | % of U.S. Pop. in this religion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christian | Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, Souter, Stevens, Roberts, Alito | 78% | 76.5% |
| Protestant | Stevens | 11% | 53.0% |
| Catholic | Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito | 56% | 24.5% |
| Episcopalian * | Souter | 11% | 1.7% |
| Jewish | Breyer, Ginsburg | 22% | 1.5% |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Rudy Speaking At Pat Robertson's Regent U. Tomorrow
Rudy Speaking At Pat Robertson's Regent U. Tomorrow | By Eric Kleefeld | bio
Just to remind you about a must-see campaign event, Rudy Giuliani is set to give a speech tomorrow at Pat Robertson's Regent University. It'll be yet another test of his ability to glide past the social conservatives who dominate GOP primaries — or at least to get them to overlook his support for abortion, gun control, gay rights and cross-dressing.
...
Also interesting: How will the press cover it? Not well, if this coverage in The New York Sun is any indication:
Mr. Robertson, of course, has a record of intolerant, racist, and just-plain-nuts statements rivaled only by Mr. Falwell. Surprisingly, however, he's spoken in favor of Mr. Giuliani's candidacy, saying he'd make "a good president."
Just to remind you about a must-see campaign event, Rudy Giuliani is set to give a speech tomorrow at Pat Robertson's Regent University. It'll be yet another test of his ability to glide past the social conservatives who dominate GOP primaries — or at least to get them to overlook his support for abortion, gun control, gay rights and cross-dressing.
...
Also interesting: How will the press cover it? Not well, if this coverage in The New York Sun is any indication:
Mr. Robertson, of course, has a record of intolerant, racist, and just-plain-nuts statements rivaled only by Mr. Falwell. Surprisingly, however, he's spoken in favor of Mr. Giuliani's candidacy, saying he'd make "a good president."
no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States ...
Theocrat of the Week | By Frederick Clarkson Sun Apr 15, 2007
...
Disgraced former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore.!
Mr. Moore, Our Distinguished Panel of Judges note, is so vain, he still calls himself Judge, as do his cult followers, although he was thrown out of office years ago. ...
...
... Moore believes that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is ineligible for the seat to which he was elected for the sole reason that he is a Muslim. Moore called on Congress to prevent him from being seated.
Mr. Moore bases his claim on two main ideas: One is that because some radical Islamic clerics think being a Muslim is incompatible with being an American Member of Congress, therefore it is. Quoting one of them, Moore declares: "While we certainly disagree with Idris' radical extremism, he at least knows what Islam is all about!"
...
... all matters related to the oath of office, is covered in Article 6 of the Constitution:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
...
Disgraced former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore.!
Mr. Moore, Our Distinguished Panel of Judges note, is so vain, he still calls himself Judge, as do his cult followers, although he was thrown out of office years ago. ...
...
... Moore believes that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is ineligible for the seat to which he was elected for the sole reason that he is a Muslim. Moore called on Congress to prevent him from being seated.
Mr. Moore bases his claim on two main ideas: One is that because some radical Islamic clerics think being a Muslim is incompatible with being an American Member of Congress, therefore it is. Quoting one of them, Moore declares: "While we certainly disagree with Idris' radical extremism, he at least knows what Islam is all about!"
...
... all matters related to the oath of office, is covered in Article 6 of the Constitution:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Texas may require schools to carry elective on Bible
Texas may require schools to carry elective on BibleLegislation calls for an 'objective and nondevotional' course. | By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer | April 15, 2007
HOUSTON — The Lone Star State could become the first in the nation to require all public high schools to offer an elective course on the Bible.
Hearings continued in the Legislature last week on a bill that calls for school districts in Texas to offer a class on "the history and literature of the Old and New Testaments eras" if at least 15 students sign up.
The bill was written by state Rep. Warren Chisum, a West Texas Republican who teaches Sunday school at a Baptist church. He said the course would not treat the Bible as a "worship document" but would promote religious and cultural literacy by "educating our students academically and not devotionally."
The bill, which says the class is to be taught in "an objective and nondevotional manner," does not provide funding or training for school districts and teachers. ... [Sunday school is good enough ... ed]
HOUSTON — The Lone Star State could become the first in the nation to require all public high schools to offer an elective course on the Bible.
Hearings continued in the Legislature last week on a bill that calls for school districts in Texas to offer a class on "the history and literature of the Old and New Testaments eras" if at least 15 students sign up.
The bill was written by state Rep. Warren Chisum, a West Texas Republican who teaches Sunday school at a Baptist church. He said the course would not treat the Bible as a "worship document" but would promote religious and cultural literacy by "educating our students academically and not devotionally."
The bill, which says the class is to be taught in "an objective and nondevotional manner," does not provide funding or training for school districts and teachers. ... [Sunday school is good enough ... ed]
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Abstinence education grew 17-fold — from $10 million in 1997 to $176 million this year — when the Republicans controlled Congress
Abstinence groups try to keep education fundsSome Democrats want more spending to go toward comprehensive sex ed | April 10, 2007
WASHINGTON - Abstinence-only educators say there's more to their programs than the "just say no" mantra of the anti-drug movement.
But that's just what they're saying to Democrats looking to curtail a program that grew 17-fold — from $10 million in 1997 to $176 million this year — when the Republicans controlled Congress.
Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation promoting comprehensive sex education instead of abstinence-only curriculum. They want to send money to schools that stress abstinence while also instructing students about the health benefits and side effects of contraceptives. ...
WASHINGTON - Abstinence-only educators say there's more to their programs than the "just say no" mantra of the anti-drug movement.
But that's just what they're saying to Democrats looking to curtail a program that grew 17-fold — from $10 million in 1997 to $176 million this year — when the Republicans controlled Congress.
Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation promoting comprehensive sex education instead of abstinence-only curriculum. They want to send money to schools that stress abstinence while also instructing students about the health benefits and side effects of contraceptives. ...
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
thousands of capable Christian right cadres remain, waging the culture war from inside the White House, federal agencies and Republican congressional
The Press Discovers Pat Robertson's Real Influence (Thanks to the Other Monica) | By Max Blumenthal Mon Apr 09, 2007
When Monica Goodling's name erupted into the news last week, the mainstream press discovered suddenly that Pat Robertson's Regent University exists. Not only that, the press learned that it has made a deep footprint in George W. Bush's Washington.
...
The Christian right is far more than a pantheon of charismatic backlashers with automatonic followers of "old men and women." It is also a sophicated political operation with a coherent long-term strategy. Goodling may be out of a job, but thousands of capable Christian right cadres remain, waging the culture war from inside the White House, federal agencies and Republican congressional offices. Together they will continue to inflame conflicts that were previously unimaginable.
Anyone insisting in spite of continuously mounting evidence that the Christian right is going to simply shrink into oblivion because the Democrats control Congress, or because evangelical leaders are prone to scandal, should learn from Goodling's example and take the fifth.
When Monica Goodling's name erupted into the news last week, the mainstream press discovered suddenly that Pat Robertson's Regent University exists. Not only that, the press learned that it has made a deep footprint in George W. Bush's Washington.
...
The Christian right is far more than a pantheon of charismatic backlashers with automatonic followers of "old men and women." It is also a sophicated political operation with a coherent long-term strategy. Goodling may be out of a job, but thousands of capable Christian right cadres remain, waging the culture war from inside the White House, federal agencies and Republican congressional offices. Together they will continue to inflame conflicts that were previously unimaginable.
Anyone insisting in spite of continuously mounting evidence that the Christian right is going to simply shrink into oblivion because the Democrats control Congress, or because evangelical leaders are prone to scandal, should learn from Goodling's example and take the fifth.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Four top staff voluntarily demoted themselves, fed up with [33 year-old] Paulose... earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses ...
Exclusive: Shake Up at the U.S. Attorney's Office | Last Edited: Thursday, 05 Apr 2007, 9:35 PM CDT
MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s a major shakeup at the offices of new U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.
Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.
Deputy U.S. Attorney John Marty is just one of the people dropping themselves in rank to simply a U.S. Attorney position. Also making the move are the heads of Paulose’s criminal and civil divisions and the top administrative officer.
The move is intended to send a message to Washington – that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.
Paulose was appointed before the 8 U.S. Attorneys were given their pink slips, but she has deep connections to the scandal.
She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling – the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress. ...
..
The move is intended to send a message to Washington – that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head. ...
MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s a major shakeup at the offices of new U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.
Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.
Deputy U.S. Attorney John Marty is just one of the people dropping themselves in rank to simply a U.S. Attorney position. Also making the move are the heads of Paulose’s criminal and civil divisions and the top administrative officer.
The move is intended to send a message to Washington – that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.
Paulose was appointed before the 8 U.S. Attorneys were given their pink slips, but she has deep connections to the scandal.
She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling – the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress. ...
..
The move is intended to send a message to Washington – that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head. ...
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
33 out of 34 : Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution: only Turkey ranks lower
Evolution fares poorly in Newsweek poll | By: Steve on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 12:22 PM - PDT
The latest Newsweek poll included a variety of interesting questions about Americans and religious matters, including the not-surprising fact that 91% of the public say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. But perhaps more importantly, Newsweek also asked poll respondents about modern biology.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.
These poll results come just a few months after an international study was conducted to measure which countries were the most accepting on evolutionary biology. Of the 34 countries involved, the United States ranked 33rd. Only Turkey ranked lower.
This is not at all encouraging. ...
The latest Newsweek poll included a variety of interesting questions about Americans and religious matters, including the not-surprising fact that 91% of the public say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. But perhaps more importantly, Newsweek also asked poll respondents about modern biology.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.
These poll results come just a few months after an international study was conducted to measure which countries were the most accepting on evolutionary biology. Of the 34 countries involved, the United States ranked 33rd. Only Turkey ranked lower.
This is not at all encouraging. ...
“Everyone knows [Thompson’s] conservative ... “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression.”
Focus On The Hysterics: Dobson Throws A Fit Over U.S. News Report | March 30th 2007
Yesterday’s “Wall of Separation” noted that James Dobson of Focus on the Family had questioned the religious commitment of former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson. Dobson charged that Thompson, a Tennessee Republican who is thinking of running for president, isn’t really a Christian – even though Thompson belongs to the ultra-conservative Church of Christ.
“Everyone knows [Thompson’s] conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson told U.S. News & World Report. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression.”
Dobson went on to praise former House Speaker New Gingrich (a thrice-married serial adulterer), leading to speculation that Gingrich is Dobson’s favored candidate for the Republican nomination in 2008.
Dobson must now realize how intolerant and rude his comments sounded because he’s trying to deny he ever said them.
A “clarification” issued yesterday by Focus on the Family asserts that U.S. News reporter Dan Gilgoff failed to accurately quote Dobson.
“In his conversation with Mr. Gilgoff, Dr. Dobson was attempting to highlight that to the best of his knowledge, Sen. Thompson hadn’t clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him,” read the statement. “Dr. Dobson told Mr. Gilgoff he had never met Sen. Thompson and wasn’t certain that his understanding of the former senator’s religious convictions was accurate. Unfortunately, these qualifiers weren’t reported by Mr. Gilgoff.” ...
Yesterday’s “Wall of Separation” noted that James Dobson of Focus on the Family had questioned the religious commitment of former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson. Dobson charged that Thompson, a Tennessee Republican who is thinking of running for president, isn’t really a Christian – even though Thompson belongs to the ultra-conservative Church of Christ.
“Everyone knows [Thompson’s] conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson told U.S. News & World Report. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression.”
Dobson went on to praise former House Speaker New Gingrich (a thrice-married serial adulterer), leading to speculation that Gingrich is Dobson’s favored candidate for the Republican nomination in 2008.
Dobson must now realize how intolerant and rude his comments sounded because he’s trying to deny he ever said them.
A “clarification” issued yesterday by Focus on the Family asserts that U.S. News reporter Dan Gilgoff failed to accurately quote Dobson.
“In his conversation with Mr. Gilgoff, Dr. Dobson was attempting to highlight that to the best of his knowledge, Sen. Thompson hadn’t clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him,” read the statement. “Dr. Dobson told Mr. Gilgoff he had never met Sen. Thompson and wasn’t certain that his understanding of the former senator’s religious convictions was accurate. Unfortunately, these qualifiers weren’t reported by Mr. Gilgoff.” ...
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Why do Republicans Christianists continue to ignore Jesus?
Thursday, March 29, 2007 | Why do Republicans Christianists continue to ignore Jesus?
In today's news: (T)he West Front of the Capitol took on the atmosphere of a down-home revival Wednesday, as roughly 40 members participated in a “call to prayer for America.”That's right. Republicans have gone out on the steps of the Capitol to pray and set up a web site for you to publicly declare your promise to pray. All this, despite Christ's specific admonition against such things:
But before they could recognize the power of prayer and ask Americans to pray for their country five minutes per week, members and spectators alike had to clear off the steps as Capitol Police inspected an unattended suspicious package.
Undeterred, they relocated to the West Lawn, where the regularly scheduled revival continued, sans amplification. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., assumed the duty of flag bearer.
Shouting to be heard, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., the founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, referred to the “enormous power in prayer.”
He asked “those will join with us to agree to pray for five minutes per week for our country. As these few become thousands, we will build a spiritual prayer wall around America 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Mike McIntyre,RD-N.C., then encouraged the crowd to visit PrayerCaucus.org and sign up for a five-minute block of time to pray for the country.
(W)hen thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. -Matthew 6:5-6Of course we all know it's really an e-mail net for fundraising, which makes it all even worse.
Friday, March 30, 2007
150 Graduates from Pat Robertson's Regent University in Bush Administration
About Regent University
The nation's academic center for Christian thought and action
It's more than a description of Regent University, it's a way of life. As America's premier graduate school dedicated to combining quality education with biblical teachings, Regent continues to produce Christian leaders who will make a difference, who will change the world.
...
* Nation’s first Assistant Secretary of Labor, by Presidential nomination and U.S. Senatorial confirmation, Lisa Kruska (Gov '88)
* Virginia’s 40th Attorney General, Bob McDonnell (Law '89)
* Louisiana State Senator, Sharon Weston Broome (Com '84)
* National Middle School Principal of the Year, Sharon Byrdsong (Ed.D. candidate). National School Board Association Black Caucus’s Educational Leadership Award and National Milken Award Winner, Doreatha White (GLE '01). Virginia’s Preserve America History Teacher of the Year, Molly Gunsalus (Edu '01)
* Four School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship Alums serving as university
presidents
* Screenplay writer for The Ultimate Gift released nationally, Cheryl McKay (Com '95)
* 150 graduates serving in the Bush Administration
...
Dr. M.G. "Pat" Robertson, founder and president of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), had an inspired vision to establish a graduate-level institution that would train men and women for the challenge of representing Christ in their professions. In 1978, Robertson's vision materialized, as 77 students began classes.
The nation's academic center for Christian thought and action
It's more than a description of Regent University, it's a way of life. As America's premier graduate school dedicated to combining quality education with biblical teachings, Regent continues to produce Christian leaders who will make a difference, who will change the world.
...
* Nation’s first Assistant Secretary of Labor, by Presidential nomination and U.S. Senatorial confirmation, Lisa Kruska (Gov '88)
* Virginia’s 40th Attorney General, Bob McDonnell (Law '89)
* Louisiana State Senator, Sharon Weston Broome (Com '84)
* National Middle School Principal of the Year, Sharon Byrdsong (Ed.D. candidate). National School Board Association Black Caucus’s Educational Leadership Award and National Milken Award Winner, Doreatha White (GLE '01). Virginia’s Preserve America History Teacher of the Year, Molly Gunsalus (Edu '01)
* Four School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship Alums serving as university
presidents
* Screenplay writer for The Ultimate Gift released nationally, Cheryl McKay (Com '95)
* 150 graduates serving in the Bush Administration
...
Dr. M.G. "Pat" Robertson, founder and president of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), had an inspired vision to establish a graduate-level institution that would train men and women for the challenge of representing Christ in their professions. In 1978, Robertson's vision materialized, as 77 students began classes.
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