by a desire to placate religious and social conservatives who consider the pill an invitation to promiscuity and an abortifacient

Time to Stall a Bush Nominee - New York Times: "Published: March 25, 2006

We don't generally approve of holding nominations hostage to other political objectives. But Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray surely have good cause to block a vote on the nomination of Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach to become commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration until the agency makes a final decision on the morning-after pill. There is no excuse for the administration's endless obfuscation and delays on making the pill available without a prescription when the overwhelming bulk of expert opinion says it is safe to do so. The pill must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, preferably within 24 hours, leaving little time to visit a doctor to get a prescription.

The two senators, both Democrats, have good reason to feel betrayed. When they threatened last year to hold up the confirmation of a previous commissioner until a decision on the pill was made, they ultimately relented because of a written assurance from Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, who said the F.D.A. would act on the issue by Sept. 1. Sadly, Mr. Leavitt was misinformed by the agency, overruled by the White House or deliberately deceptive with the senators. The only action the agency took in September was to defer a decision indefinitely.

The case for approving the use of the pill without a prescription has become even stronger in recent months. Evidence has emerged that high officials at the agency overruled their professional staff and ignored expert advisory committees when they rejected the application. Moreover, the agency's claim that it needed more time to consider "novel" issues raised by a proposal to require prescriptions for young teenagers was belied by internal documents revealing that the issues had been discussed for some time but not analyzed aggressively. The logical inference is that the result was dictated by politics — by a desire to placate religious and social conservatives who consider the pill an invitation to promiscuity and an abortifacient. ...

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars: "Pat Robertson on College Professors: 'you know some of them are killers!'

ROBERTSON: Ladies and gentleman this is a fascinating book. If you want to, you'd better take your blood pressure medicine before you read it, but it's "The Professors: The 101 most dangerous academics in America" and that's just a short list of the 30-40,000 of them, they're like termites that have worked into the woodwork of our academic society and it's appalling. This is available at CBN.com and book stores everywhere, and you really ought to read it and be informed.

TERRI: It’s interesting that so many conservatives haven't seen this because decades ago we were told that infiltrating education was the way to take over the country, we should have been on alert.

ROBERTSON: They gamed it, these guys are out and out communists, they are radicals, you know some of them killers, and they are propagandists of the first order and they don't want anybody else except them. That's why Regent University for example is so terrifically important and why we're setting up an undergraduate program that hopefully will see shortly 10,000 students, and then from there 250,000 because you don't want your child to be brainwashed by these radicals, you just don't want it to happen. Not only brainwashed but beat up, they beat these people up, cower them into submission. Ahhh! "The Professors", read it. ...

Pennsylvania religious groups helping Santorum are breaking the tax laws, says CREW

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Wednesday, March 22, 2006 | by Joe in DC - 3/22/2006 10:05:00 PM

Pennsylvania religious groups helping Santorum are breaking the tax laws, says CREW

The New York Times reported yesterday on four Pennsylvania groups that have combined into a political operation called the Pennsylvania Pastors Network. No surprise, based on their first meeting, their goal is to re-elect Santorum:"
...
The problem is that, as The Times piece notes, this effort could well run afoul of federal tax laws governing charities and politics which is a new-found priority for Bush's IRS Commissioner:

The training session was two weeks after the internal revenue commissioner, Mark W. Everson, spoke at the City Club of Cleveland saying, "We can't afford to have our charitable and religious institutions undermined by politics."

Now whether the IRS under Bush would ever go after a right wing group is a real question. Enter CREW.

Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics in Washington (CREW) is holding Everson to his word by filing an IRS complaint against two of the groups:

CREW’s executive director, Melanie Sloan said “it appears that rather than engaging in legal, non-partisan get-out-the-vote efforts, the real mission of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network is to assist Senator Santorum in his re-election campaign. This is exactly the sort of political activity prohibited by IRS law.” Sloan continued, “the IRS has already taken action against a liberal church in Pasadena, California for much less egregious activities. If the IRS is serious about enforcing the law equally, it will take action against those involved in creating the Pennsylvania Pastors Network as well.”

These conservative groups expect to operate unfettered even if it violates the law because they have friends in government. CREW doesn't care who their friends are.

Appeals court refused to temporarily lift a ban on prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives that mention Jesus Christ

Chicago Tribune | Appeals court denies stay of legislative prayer ruling: "By Mike Smith | AP Political Writer | Published March 1, 2006, 3:11 PM CST

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to temporarily lift a ban on prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives that mention Jesus Christ or endorse any particular religion.

A three-member panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by House Speaker Brian Bosma to set aside a judge's order until an appeal could be further litigated." ...

FDA raised scientific and regulatory objections, but critics have pointed to the strong opposition from some social conservatives and antiabortionist

Plan B Battles Embroil States: "By Marc Kaufman | Washington Post Staff Writer | Monday, February 27, 2006; Page A01

Proposals Mirror Red-Blue Divide

Filling a void left by the Food and Drug Administration's inability to decide whether to make the 'morning-after' pill available without a prescription, nearly every state is or soon will be wrestling with legislation that would expand or restrict access to the drug.
...
But some bills would make it more difficult for many women to get emergency contraception, which is effective for only 72 hours after a woman experiences a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex. ...
...
But the FDA leadership first rejected and then deferred decision on the proposal. The agency has raised scientific and regulatory objections, but critics have pointed to the strong opposition from some social conservatives and antiabortion groups, who have lobbied the White House and Congress to make their position known. Plan B is officially listed as a contraceptive, and the medical community generally agrees that it stops a pregnancy from occurring rather than ending one. But many in the antiabortion movement disagree with that view and say that it amounts to a very early abortion.

The FDA's inaction on Plan B has been sharply criticized by most major medical societies and many in Congress, and led to a lawsuit by the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York. The federal magistrate judge hearing the case on Friday concluded that the center had established a "strong preliminary showing of 'bad faith or misbehavior' " on the part of FDA officials, and so ordered the case to go forward and ruled that top current and past FDA leaders should be interviewed under oath. ...

[Tax] Illegal Political Activity: Churches played a pivotal role in the 2004 elections, and the Republican Party,

I.R.S. Finds Sharp Increase in Illegal Political Activity | By STEPHANIE STROM| Published: February 25, 2006

The I.R.S. said yesterday that it saw a sharp increase in prohibited political activity by charities and churches in the last election cycle, a trend that it aims to reverse as the country heads into the midterm elections.

The tax agency found problems at three-quarters of the 82 organizations it examined after having received complaints about their political activities, according to a report the Internal Revenue Service released. The infractions included distributing materials that encouraged people to vote for particular candidates and giving cash to campaigns.
...
Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has filed dozens of complaints about churches' political activities, said, "It's no longer possible for critics to say the I.R.S. is blind or toothless, because this announcement is a pretty major indication that they are serious about educating charities and about imposing appropriate penalties."

The complaints by the group include one on July 15, 2004, against Jerry Falwell Ministries, saying falwell.com had endorsed President Bush and urged readers to donate $5,000 to the Campaign for Working Families. Such activities are illegal, Mr. Lynn said, and the Web site was quickly changed.

Almost half the tax-exempt groups under examination are churches. Churches played a pivotal role in the 2004 elections, and the Republican Party, in particular, harnessed their influence to register, educate and deliver voters. Both parties are cultivating churches for future elections.
...
Last month, a group of religious leaders representing Christian and Jewish denominations filed a complaint against two large politically active churches in Ohio, Fairfield Christian Church and World Harvest Church, and their leaders, the Revs. Russell Johnson and Rod Parsley.

In N.C., GOP Requests Church Directories: "The pew and the ballot box" ... roundly condemned by religious leaders

In N.C., GOP Requests Church Directories: By Alan Cooperman | Washington Post Staff Writer | Saturday, February 18, 2006; Page A19

The North Carolina Republican Party asked its members this week to send their church directories to the party, drawing furious protests from local and national religious leaders.

'Such a request is completely beyond the pale of what is acceptable,' said the Rev. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention."
...

The tactic was roundly condemned by religious leaders across the political spectrum, including conservative evangelical Christians. Ten professors of ethics at major seminaries and universities wrote a letter to President Bush in August 2004 asking him to "repudiate the actions of your re-election campaign," and calling on both parties to "respect the integrity of all houses of worship."

Officials of the Republican National Committee maintained that the tactic did not violate federal tax laws that prohibit churches from endorsing or opposing candidates for office, and they never formally renounced it. But Land said he thought the GOP had backed down.

"I heard nothing further about it, so my assumption was that it stopped, at least at the national level," he said.

Yesterday, the Greensboro News & Record reported that the North Carolina Republican Party was collecting church directories, and it quoted two local pastors as objecting to the practice. The Rev. Richard Byrd Jr. of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greensboro said anyone who sent in a directory "would be betraying the trust of the membership," and the Rev. Ken Massey of the city's First Baptist Church said the request was "encroaching on sacred territory."

Chris Mears, the state party's political director, made the request in a Feb. 15 memo titled "The pew and the ballot box" that was sent by e-mail to "Registered Republicans in North Carolina." ...

U.S. Church Alliance (part of World Council of Churches) Denounces Iraq War - "lament .. with shame abuses carried out in our name"

U.S. Church Alliance Denounces Iraq War - Yahoo! News: "By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion Writer Sat Feb 18, 1:05 PM ET

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - A coalition of American churches sharply denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."

The statement, issued at the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade, also warned the United States was pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a "culture of consumption" and its refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.

"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," said the statement from representatives of the 34 U.S. members of World Council of Churches. "We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name."

The World Council of Churches includes more than 350 mainstream Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches; the Roman Catholic Church is not a member. The U.S. groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox churches and Baptist denominations, among others. ...

America's Moral Decline and the Rise of False Christianity

America's Moral Decline and the Rise of False Christianity: "Thursday, February 16, 2006, by CommonDreams.org | by Karen Horst Cobb

“This is the year God wants to make you a millionaire.” The visiting evangelist stomped back and forth on the stage of the rented school building. His “hallelujahs” and “praise God” crescendos were followed by jumping up and down. Sweat ran down his face as he proclaimed that the church members would not need to be afraid if the economy collapses and their neighbors houses are foreclosed upon because they are blessed and will have all of their needs met. The service ended with the explanation that the first step to becoming a millionaire is to pledge $200 of “seed faith money” to the church .

Just prior to the introduction of the evangelist the young single minister with spiky hair introduced the beginning of fellowship “life groups,' explaining that the “free market” will decide which ones succeed. Recently, Ted Taggard of mega church New Life Fellowship in Colorado Springs explained that Spirituality is a “commodity “ to be bought and sold. The writings of Milton Friedman are recommended for all new converts. This young minister must also be a free market convert . His small group is a satellite of World Harvest Church. The sermon themes of the mega churches are all very similar and reflect the cause of America‘s moral decline. Christianity is getting a makeover using the classic trappings of Money, domination and military aggression.

It looks like the 50 million dollar Bible theme park which was to be built in Israel by evangelicals will not happen now that Pat Robertson insulted Arial Sharon. Imagine a 50 million dollar Bible theme park protected by nuclear weapons in the holy land and off limits to Arabs. The harvest of the mega church is ready; welcome the gleaners, the seed faith money has matured.

According to a 2003 article in Forbes Magazine big churches are big business. Researchers found that in 2003 there were 740 mega churches each averaging 6,876 participants. The average net income of each was $4.8 million at the time of the study. The Forbes article states, “[the] entrepreneurial approach has contributed to the explosive growth of mega churches“."
...
It seems today there is a need for a tougher, meaner Jesus, a government issue Jesus (GI-Joe) who comes complete with state of the art Kevlar tunic, two edged sword, and secret code book (the book of Revelation). Evangelical Christians are organizing and conspiring to manipulate governments to use weapons if necessary to kill some of God’s children so that prime real estate goes to people whom they believe God likes best.
...
The lust for money, dominance, and military power is at the core of America‘s moral decline. It is imperative that church leaders and laity boldly proclaim that violence, torture, hostage taking, conquests of land and resources are actions Christians can never condone. Killing for Christ is an abomination leaving us with blood-stained hands and darkness in our hearts! Every church must be a peace or it will become a state church and then it will be… no church at all. ...

Vatican article on intelligent design unscientific. "creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious."

In 'Design' vs. Darwinism, Darwin Wins Point in Rome - New York Times: "By IAN FISHER and CORNELIA DEAN | Published: January 19, 2006

ROME, Jan. 18 - The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution.

"If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for another," Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, wrote in the Jan. 16-17 edition of the paper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science," he wrote, calling intelligent design unscientific. "It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious."

The article was not presented as an official church position. But in the subtle and purposely ambiguous world of the Vatican, the comments seemed notable, given their strength on a delicate question much debated under the new pope, Benedict XVI. ...

Pastors Parsley, Johnson exploited pulpits to .. .supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidacy of Bllackwell

The Columbus Dispatch - Local/State: "Churches could face IRS probe | Monday, January 16, 2006 | Mike Harden and Joe Hallett | THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH"

Pastors Parsley, Johnson exploited pulpits to play politics, ministers’ complaint alleges

More than 30 local pastors last night officially accused two evangelical megachurches of illegal political activities.

In a rare and potentially explosive action, the moderate ministers signed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate World Harvest Church of Columbus and Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster and determine if their tax-exempt status should be revoked.

The grievance claims that the Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church improperly used their churches and affiliated entities — the Center for Moral Clarity, Ohio Restoration Project and Reformation Ohio — for partisan politics, including supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidacy of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

The complaint asks the IRS to seek a court injunction "if these churches’ flagrant political campaign activities do not cease immediately." It was signed by 31 pastors from nine denominations during a meeting last night at the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus and was to be faxed late last night to IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson.

"For me, it’s church and state, not church in state and I really feel there are some churches in central Ohio crossing that line," said Eric Williams, senior pastor of the host church. ...

Rarely has the contrast between the rhetoric of the religious right and the behavior of its leaders been so starkly exposed

Sound off: Where the views and opinions of our staff and others are expressed on various topics that relate to Bush: "Let us prey | by Joe Conason | salon.com | January 6, 2006

Jack Abramoff and his deeply religious right-wing cronies express their 'biblical worldview' by swindling Indian tribes and bribing legislators. Verily, mysterious are the ways of the Lord.
...
Rarely has the contrast between the rhetoric of the religious right and the behavior of its leaders been so starkly exposed as in the Abramoff scandal. The most obvious example was the manipulation of Christian activists in Louisiana and Texas by Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, who said he was helping them fight gambling when he was actually using them to promote Indian casinos (and to make a few million bucks for himself).

That episode alone should have alerted honest Christians to the moral rot within the Republican leadership that professed to represent their interests. But there is of course much more evidence of the religious cynicism of Abramoff and his cronies.
...
Not many politicians have been as bold as DeLay in publicly claiming the mandate of heaven. Who can forget his justification for pushing the impeachment of Bill Clinton, whom he accused of having the "wrong worldview"? While the Hammer cavorted on Scottish golf courses and gorged himself on Malaysian banquets, he was assuring the faithful on Capitol Hill that the Almighty had chosen him for leadership and was teaching him how to do his job.

Several years ago, at one of many fundamentalist meetings he has addressed, DeLay explained: "He [God] has been walking me through an incredible journey, and it all comes down to worldview. He is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me, He is working with me."

Well, perhaps not everywhere and perhaps not everything. What did God tell DeLay about those lavish trips and dinners and donations, and about the money funneled to his wife? The actual Bible, which he professes to believe is the word of the Lord, is quite clear on the question. Bribery is strictly prohibited in Exodus 23:8 and Job 36:18, which specifically warns: "Be careful that no one entices you by riches; do not let a large bribe turn you aside." ...

Tulsa Pastor Arrested In OKC On Lewdness Charge ...propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel ...

ChannelOklahoma.com - Local News - Tulsa Pastor Arrested In OKC On Lewdness Charge: "POSTED: 4:03 pm CST January 4, 2006 | UPDATED: 4:29 pm CST January 4, 2006

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said.

Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.

Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said....

Alabama's Taliban: Being seen as standing up for the Ten Commandments is as politically potent in Alabama as hollering "nigger, nigger, nigger"!

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.: Alabama's Taliban: "December 2, 2005
Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
...
Moores antics are hardly new in Alabama. Some years ago, poor white residents in a trailer camp (at Priceville) and a few homeowners all in a rural section of Madison County tried to carve a new town out of the trailer camp and rename it Brooksville. The only law would be the Ten Commandments. There would be a volunteer mayor but no other town official. Every adult citizen would have a gun or a pistol and they would protect each other. Of course that unconstitutional theocratic and religious idea never got off the ground. How could it?

There is really no distinction between a failed attempt to transform a trailer camp into a theocracy and Moore's theocratic designs for the whole state of Alabama. Religious dogmatists have been trying for years to take over mainstream institutions and government. If you get a big belly laugh out of religious fundamentalists trying to transform an Alabama trailer camp into a theocratic religious township, please consider that such people control school boards, regularly defeat and elect politicians of all kinds, including George W. Bush who placates them with words about "being born again." Being seen as standing up for the Ten Commandments is as politically potent in Alabama as hollering "nigger, nigger, nigger"!
...
J.L. Chestnut, Jr. is a civil rights attorney in Selma, Alabama. He is the founder of Chestnut, Sanders and Sanders which is the largest black law firm in Alabama. Born in Selma and, after graduating from Howard University Law School, he began practicing law in Selma in 1958. ...

America is caught in a conflict between science and God ... Three-quarters of Americans still do not accept what Darwin established ...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | America is caught in a conflict between science and God: "A new exhibition on Darwin's life and work is a defiant gesture against US biblical literalism | Martin Kettle | Saturday November 26, 2005 | The Guardian

But organisers of the museum's terrific new exhibition on the life and work of Charles Darwin acknowledge that theirs is an explicit gesture of defiance towards an anti-scientific Christian fundamentalism that is again running fast and deep in contemporary America.

Article continues
New York's Darwin exhibition - which will reach London for the Darwin bicentenary in 2009 - is a model of its kind. It takes you comprehensively and fascinatingly through the great scientist's life story. But it is the exhibition's deeper message that matters most in modern America. It asserts without shame, fear or compromise that Darwin's theory of evolution is, quite simply, true. In other modern democracies this is an uncontroversial statement. In modern America it is an act not without bravery. That is why, for instance, corporate sponsors have run a mile from a £1.7m event that elsewhere would have them queueing up for the privilege. It is why this exhibition - unlike, say, the Fra Angelico show on the other side of the park at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - is reported on the news pages of US papers as well as the arts and leisure pages. It is why Newsweek magazine's US edition this week has Darwin's picture on the front cover, while Newsweek's international edition, addressing a more relaxed readership perhaps, opts for a cover on John Lennon.

Reflect on this. Only one out of four Americans believes life on earth today has evolved through natural selection. Three-quarters of Americans, in other words, still do not accept what Darwin established 150 years ago. Just under half of all Americans believe the natural world was created in its present form by God in six days as described in Genesis. They believe, incredibly, that the earth is only a few thousand years old.

But these people are not content to disagree with Darwin and the scientists. They are up for a fresh fight with them. The notion that the scientists had won the argument in America after the reaction to the Scopes trial 80 years ago, when a Tennessee teacher was convicted of breaching a state ban on the teaching of evolution, has faced many reality checks in recent years. School boards and education authorities in several parts of America have mounted a series of anti-evolution challenges. These have often come under the guise of putting "intelligent design" - the conceit that the complexity of the natural world can only be explained by the intercession of a supreme being - on a par with evolutionary theory. This claim, advanced on spurious grounds of fairness to different theories, is utterly without any scientific validity, yet a Pennsylvania court will rule on the matter early in the new year. ...

Bush was told that U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 ... 10 days after 9/11

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel (11/22/05): "By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
� National Journal Group Inc. | Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders. ...

Corporations Scared To Sponsor Natural History Museum's Evolution, Darwin Exhibition...

Corporations Scared To Sponsor Natural History Museum's Evolution, Darwin Exhibition... | The Huffington Post: "The Telegraph | Nicholas Wapshott | Posted November 23, 2005 02:30 PM

An exhibition celebrating the life of Charles Darwin has failed to find a corporate sponsor because American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution.

The entire $3 million (�1.7 million) cost of Darwin, which opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York yesterday, is instead being borne by wealthy individuals and private charitable donations. ...

it is injurious, and unneighborly, when zealots try to compel public education to infuse theism into scientific education....

Grand Old Spenders: "By George F. Will | Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page A31

The storm-tossed and rudderless Republican Party should particularly ponder the vote last week in Dover, Pa., where all eight members of the school board seeking reelection were defeated. This expressed the community's wholesome exasperation with the board's campaign to insinuate religion, in the guise of 'intelligent design' theory, into high school biology classes, beginning with a required proclamation that evolution 'is not a fact.'

But it is. ...
...
"It does me no injury," said Thomas Jefferson, "for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." But it is injurious, and unneighborly, when zealots try to compel public education to infuse theism into scientific education. The conservative coalition, which is coming unglued for many reasons, will rapidly disintegrate if limited-government conservatives become convinced that social conservatives are unwilling to concentrate their character-building and soul-saving energies on the private institutions that mediate between individuals and government, and instead try to conscript government into sectarian crusades. ...

Food and Drug Administration who expressed more concern about the moral views of religious conservatives than the questions of health and science

Morning-after, months later - Los Angeles Times: "November 15, 2005 | EDITORIAL

EVERYBODY KNEW IT ANYWAY, but it's worthwhile to have a respected government office make it official: Anomalies surrounded the decision to refuse over-the-counter status to the morning-after pill. All of them point to top managers at the Food and Drug Administration who expressed more concern about the moral views of religious conservatives than the questions of health and science that are supposed to guide their decisions.

In a report released Monday, the Government Accountability Office probed the FDA's May 2004 decision on the pill, marketed as Plan B. It found that the ruling deviated from agency practice and was highly unusual in many respects.

Forty studies and 15,000 pages of documents, reviewed and approved by FDA staff, made Plan B's safety and effectiveness clear. Yet Dr. Steven Galson, then the acting director of the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, focused instead on whether easy availability of Plan B would make younger teens more promiscuous or more likely to have unprotected sex. In rejecting over-the-counter status, Galson overruled advisory panels and sub-directors of FDA offices. ...
...
Religious conservatives consider Plan B a form of abortion, and abstinence to be the only acceptable form of contraception for teenagers. The first belief conflicts with studies that find no evidence the pill interferes with a fertilized egg. Its effectiveness lies in preventing fertilization. Further, restricting Plan B probably just leads to more abortions — women who might have used the drug to avoid a pregnancy are forced to terminate it later. And the notion that abstinence trumps birth control conflicts with the reality of how many teens behave. ...

Robertson tells Dover, PA citizens, after the election: “Don’t turn to God if you need help”

People For the American Way - Right-Wing Outrage: "A Regular Look at the Worst from the Right brought to you by PFAW Foundation | Robertson tells Dover, PA citizens, after the election: “Don’t turn to God if you need help”

On today’s 700 Club, Rev. Pat Robertson took the opportunity to strongly rebuke voters in Dover, PA who removed from office school board members who supported teaching faith-based “intelligent design” and instead elected Democrats who opposed bringing up the possibility of a Creator in the school system’s science curriculum.

Rev. Robertson warned the people of Dover that God might forsake the town because of the vote.

Pat Robertson“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there.” ...

"groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview"

Haaretz - Israel News: "ADL's Foxman warns of efforts to `Christianize America'
By Shlomo Shamir

NEW YORK - Institutionalized Christianity in the U.S. has grown so extremist that it poses a tangible danger to the principle of separation of church and state and threatens to undermine the religious tolerance that characterizes the country, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, warned in his address to the League's national commission, meeting in New York City over the weekend.

'Today we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us!' he said."

Former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay; "The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees,

Salon.com News | Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze: "By Michael Scherer

Wednesday's Senate hearings yielded more scandalous revelations about how the dynamic lobbying duo bilked American Indian tribes out of millions and used the money to win elections for their Republican clients.
..
Up-and-coming Republican hacks would do well to watch closely the ongoing Senate investigations of superstar lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. The power duo stand accused of exploiting Native American tribes to the tune of roughly $66 million, laundering that money into bank accounts they controlled and then using it to buy favors for powerful members of Congress and the executive branch.
...
Consider one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

Vatican: religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason ... John Paul: evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."

Vatican: Faithful should listen to science - Boston.com: "By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer | November 3, 2005

VATICAN CITY --A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
..
The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.

But he said science, too, should listen to religion.
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"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."

Poupard and others at the news conference were asked about the religion-science debate raging in the United States over evolution and "intelligent design."

Intelligent design's supporters argue that natural selection, an element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.

Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."

"A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."

Debate rages on use of cervical cancer vaccine / While almost 100% effective, some contend use condones teen sex

Debate rages on use of cervical cancer vaccine / While almost 100% effective, some contend use condones teen sex: "Rob Stein, Washington Post | Monday, October 31, 2005
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Because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted virus, many conservatives oppose making it mandatory, citing fears that it could send a subtle message condoning sexual activity before marriage. Several leading groups that promote abstinence are meeting this week to formulate official policies on the vaccine. ...