AlterNet: Evangelical Conversion-for-Parole Program Thwarted [... close the preferred exit for Christians]

AlterNet: Evangelical Conversion-for-Parole Program Thwarted: "By Rob Boston, Church and State. Posted August 28, 2006.

The day after a federal court struck down a taxpayer-supported evangelical Christian program in an Iowa prison, Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, issued a press statement. He was not pleased.

"The courts took God out of America's schools, now they are on the path to take God out of America's prisons," Earley groused.

Earley's analysis of judicial decisions dealing with religion and public schools was widely off the mark, but he had good reason to be upset about the recent ruling on public funds for inmate indoctrination. His organization, Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by ex-Watergate felon Charles Colson, has been sponsoring the Iowa program for three years. If the ruling stands up on appeal, not only will Earley's group have to shut down the program, it will be required to repay the state of Iowa more than $1.5 million in public support it has received during that time.

The June 2 decision in Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries was a staggering loss not just for Earley's group but perhaps for key elements of President George W. Bush's "faith-based" initiative as well.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt didn't mince words. Officials at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility had become, he wrote, far too entangled with religion by establishing a special wing for Prison Fellowship's InnerChange program. InnerChange, Pratt declared, is suffused with religion.

"The religion classes are not objective inquiries into the religious life, comparable to an adult study or college course, offered for the sake of discussing and learning universal secular, civic values or truths," Pratt wrote. "They are, instead, overwhelmingly devotional in nature and intended to indoctrinate InnerChange inmates into the Evangelical Christian belief system." ...

A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact

Why doesn't America believe in evolution? - being-human - 19 August 2006 - New Scientist: "

Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals: true or false? This simple question is splitting America apart, with a growing proportion thinking that we did not descend from an ancestral ape. A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact.

Religious fundamentalism, bitter partisan politics and poor science education have all contributed to this denial of evolution in the US, says Jon Miller of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. "The US is the only country in which [the teaching of evolution] has been politicised," he says. "Republicans have clearly adopted this as one of their wedge issues. In most of the world, this is a non-issue."

Miller's report makes for grim reading for adherents of evolutionary theory. Even though the average American has more years of education than when Miller began his surveys 20 years ago, the percentage of people in the country who accept the idea of evolution has declined from 45 in 1985 to 40 in 2005 (Science, vol 313, p 765). That's despite a series of widely publicised advances in genetics, including genetic sequencing, which shows strong overlap of the human genome with those of chimpanzees and mice. "We don't seem to be going in the right direction," Miller says. ...

Religion-related fraud getting worse - from 1998 to 2001 — the toll had risen to $2 billion

Religion-related fraud getting worse - Yahoo! News: "By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Sun Aug 13, 3:53 PM ET
...
By the time Harding was unmasked as a fraud, he and his partners had stolen more than $50 million from their clients, and Crossroads became yet another cautionary tale in what investigators say is a worsening problem plaguing the nation's churches.

Billions of dollars has been stolen in religion-related fraud in recent years, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, a group of state officials who work to protect investors.

Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count — from 1998 to 2001 — the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since.

"The size and the scope of the fraud is getting larger," said Patricia Struck, president of the securities association and administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. "The scammers are getting smarter and the investors don't ask enough questions because of the feeling that they can be safe in church." ...

U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution - Yahoo! News ... politicization of science and the literal interpretation of bible

U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution - Yahoo! News: " Ker Than | LiveScience Staff Writer | LiveScience.com Thu Aug 10, 5:45 PM ET

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

“American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

The researchers combined data from public surveys on evolution collected from 32 European countries, the United States and Japan between 1985 and 2005. Adults in each country were asked whether they thought the statement “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,” was true, false, or if they were unsure. ...

Perhaps the Christian Coalition has taken those T-shirts that ask "Who would Jesus bomb?"

A bad case of testosterone poisoning: "Wednesday, July 19, 2006
..

Anyway, those are considerations for a terrible day in the future, not an absurd day in the present, which yesterday brought me a message from the Christian Coalition of America.

Surely this would be a message consistent with the Prince of Peace, He who said: "Blessed are the peacemakers" and warned that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Well, this message wasn't that exactly.

It read: "Christian Coalition of America commends President George W. Bush for his unfailing and courageous support for the State of Israel in its latest war against the Israel-hating terrorist movement, specifically this time against Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. .... If American fighter power is necessary to help Israel eliminate the Hezbollah threat in southern Lebanon, so be it."

So be it? Now, I happen to be sympathetic to the state of Israel, a plucky little democracy in a sea of extremists. I have a natural sympathy for the underdog, although I realize that underdogs and overdogs both have their fleas that make life difficult and troublesome.

But none of that compels me to think that the United States should intervene in the war that Israel is fighting with its enemies in Gaza and Lebanon. Not only is such a suggestion from a self-styled "Christian Coalition" startlingly at odds with the preaching of the Christ in the name Christian -- remember Him? -- it's also nuts, mad and crazy on its own terms. But enough of the carefully calibrated diplomatic language. This suggestion is lunatic.

What? Things are going so well for us in Iraq and Afghanistan that we can afford another war (with perhaps a conflict with Iran thrown in for good measure)? What? We can be the fair and honest brokers of the road map to peace when we have bombed the hell out of the people whom we want to use that map to secure a lasting peace?

Perhaps the Christian Coalition has taken those T-shirts that ask "Who would Jesus bomb?" a tad too literally....

Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate ... Bible Belt is the breeding ground for broken marriage

The Ostroy Report: "Tuesday, June 06, 2006 | More Repuglican Hypocrisy: Bible Belt States Have the Highest Divorce Rates. And they Worry About Gay Marriage?"

Christian conservatives are hellbent on keeping gays from marrying, saying such same-sex unions are an affront to the great institution of marriage, threatening the very social, emotional and legal fabric which binds a man and woman in holy matrimony. Ironically however, it's these very same bible-thumpers who have the highest divorce rates in the country. The Bible Belt is the breeding ground for broken marriage.

Despite this fact, the right wing evangelical fanatics like to point to states like "liberal" Massachusetts, holding it up as some sort of Sodom and Gomorrah. To the contrary, Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country at 2.4 per 1,000 population.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the states with the highest divorce rates are to be found in the Bible Belt, where they exceed by 50% the national average of 4.2 per thousand people. The 10 Southern states with some of the highest divorce rates were Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North and South Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Texas. By comparison nine states in the Northeast-- where allegedly amoral, faithless, Volvo-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, NY Times-reading lefties are found--were among those with the lowest divorce rates: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Rhode Island. ...

Ala. candidates argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents

Ala. candidates revive judicial debate - Yahoo! News: "By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2:00 PM ET BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

In a debate with powerful echoes of the turbulent civil rights era, four Republicans running for Alabama's Supreme Court are making an argument legal scholars thought was settled in the 1800s: that state courts are not bound U.S. Supreme Court precedents.
...
Yet Justice Tom Parker, who is running for chief justice, argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents they believe to be erroneous. Three other GOP candidates in Tuesday's primary have made nearly identical arguments.

"State supreme court judges should not follow obviously wrong decisions simply because they are `precedents,'" Parker wrote in a newspaper opinion piece in January that was prompted by a murder case that came before the Alabama high court.
...
Another candidate, Henry P. "Hank" Fowler, a member of Parker's staff, said conservative judges must stop surrendering to liberal Supreme Court opinions "without a word of protest." And lawyer Ben Hand said judges "can't just break the law and then point to the guy down the street in the black robe and say, `He told me to.'"...

Parker is a former aide to Roy Moore, who became a hero to the religious right when he was ousted as Alabama's chief justice in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse.

Ala. candidates argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents

Ala. candidates revive judicial debate - Yahoo! News: " By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2:00 PM ET BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -

In a debate with powerful echoes of the turbulent civil rights era, four Republicans running for Alabama's Supreme Court are making an argument legal scholars thought was settled in the 1800s: that state courts are not bound U.S. Supreme Court precedents.
...
Yet Justice Tom Parker, who is running for chief justice, argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents they believe to be erroneous. Three other GOP candidates in Tuesday's primary have made nearly identical arguments.

"State supreme court judges should not follow obviously wrong decisions simply because they are `precedents,'" Parker wrote in a newspaper opinion piece in January that was prompted by a murder case that came before the Alabama high court.
...
Another candidate, Henry P. "Hank" Fowler, a member of Parker's staff, said conservative judges must stop surrendering to liberal Supreme Court opinions "without a word of protest." And lawyer Ben Hand said judges "can't just break the law and then point to the guy down the street in the black robe and say, `He told me to.'"...

Parker is a former aide to Roy Moore, who became a hero to the religious right when he was ousted as Alabama's chief justice in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse.

Ala. candidates argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents

Ala. candidates revive judicial debate - Yahoo! News: " By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2:00 PM ET

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In a debate with powerful echoes of the turbulent civil rights era, four Republicans running for Alabama's Supreme Court are making an argument legal scholars thought was settled in the 1800s: that state courts are not bound U.S. Supreme Court precedents.
...
Yet Justice Tom Parker, who is running for chief justice, argues that state judges should refuse to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents they believe to be erroneous. Three other GOP candidates in Tuesday's primary have made nearly identical arguments.

"State supreme court judges should not follow obviously wrong decisions simply because they are `precedents,'" Parker wrote in a newspaper opinion piece in January that was prompted by a murder case that came before the Alabama high court.
...
Another candidate, Henry P. "Hank" Fowler, a member of Parker's staff, said conservative judges must stop surrendering to liberal Supreme Court opinions "without a word of protest." And lawyer Ben Hand said judges "can't just break the law and then point to the guy down the street in the black robe and say, `He told me to.'"...

Parker is a former aide to Roy Moore, who became a hero to the religious right when he was ousted as Alabama's chief justice in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse.

Bush ... ' Explains How God Shapes His Foreign Policy

Bush Says He Tried to Avoid War 'To The Max,' Explains How God Shapes His Foreign Policy: "By E&P Staff | Published: April 24, 2006 4:45 PM ET
...
Bush also explained, in unusually stark terms, how his belief in God influences his foreign policy. "I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true," he said. "One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free.

"I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that democracies do not war with each other."

A new CNN poll released today shows Bush with his lowest approval rating in any poll so far, at 32%. ...

FDA grilled about Plan B contraceptive -- Newsday.com

FDA grilled about Plan B contraceptive -- Newsday.com: "BY KATHLEEN KERR | Newsday Staff Writer | April 24, 2006

Attorneys for a New York women's group plan to grill Food and Drug Administration officials this week about their failure to decide whether an emergency contraceptive pill called Plan B may be sold without a prescription.
...
Simon Heller, one of the attorneys, plans to quiz Woodcock about a March 23, 2004, staff memo suggesting she was concerned Plan B might lead to teenage promiscuity.

The FDA is only supposed to consider the safety and efficacy of drugs.

In the memo released by the FDA during the discovery process, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an agency medical officer, wrote: "As an example, she stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B."

Rosebraugh indicated he found no reason to bar nonprescription sales of Plan B.

"This was the level of scientific discourse, so to speak," Heller said in a phone interview, referring to concerns attributed to Woodcock. "I find it very odd that these people who are supposed to be responsible scientists and doctors are making up wacky reasons." ...

“That is why federal agencies reject scientific reports ... sponsor not only faith-based social relief, but faith-based war,..science,...medicine"

AxisofLogic/ Featured: "George Bush’s Faith Based Thinking Has Proven Delusional and Divisive | By Lee Salisbury - Axis of Logic | Apr 12, 2006, 13:41

Bill Moyers, well-known producer of PBS’s NOW series, observed,

'One of the biggest changes in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of the power in Washington.”

Is Moyers equating ideology and theology with the delusional? How ironic that a long time Baptist who believes in orthodox Christian doctrine would consider “ideology and theology” delusional as it relates to governmental influence.

Moyers mirrors the concern of many religious and non-religious people. To embrace religion on a personal level is one thing. It is an entirely different matter to demand that particular religious beliefs dictate policy, legislation, and judicial appointments. Today, one cannot discuss politics apart from religious belief and faith. Moyers’ concern is about religious right clergy getting to impose their doctrinal beliefs on pliant politicians.

Northwestern University History Professor Gary Willis speaks of a, “fringe constellation of Republican interest groups.” He explains, “That is why federal agencies reject scientific reports on ecology, stem cell, contraceptive, and abortion issues. They sponsor not only faith-based social relief, but faith-based war, faith-based science, faith-based education, and faith-based medicine.”

Americans must take a hard look at what the religious right’s faith-based input produces.

1. The religious right’s middle east pro-war stance accommodates Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind vision--Armageddon- Jesus’ second coming, rapture scenario-- regardless of the cost or how many Americans and Iraqis are killed or maimed in the process.
   
   
2. Reproductive choice is opposed because of an arbitrary, non-scientific religious definition of when life begins. Regardless of the fact that:
   
   • the bible says Adam did not become a living soul until after he took his first breath,
   • St. Augustine taught that a soul could not inhabit a formless body (zygote), and
   • the Roman Catholic church endorsed St.Augustine’s pro-choice position for over 14 centuries, the religious right now seeks legislation criminalizing all who participate in abortion.
     
     
3. The anti-gay marriage amendment, based solely on a few bible verses and religious bigotry, discriminates against the homosexual minority.
   
   
4. End of life decisions, as in the Terry Schiavo case, would be regulated by law instead of by the individuals concerned and/or family because the religious right deems it a sin to accelerate death for the terminally ill.
   
   
5. Pharmacist’s religious conscience determines whether a woman can purchase a doctor-prescribed morning after pill. Following this logic, what would happen if a pharmacist were a Christian Scientist?
   
   
6. President Bush’s promise of $15 million for AIDES prevention to African nations remains denied to those nations which, contradictory to pro-life doctrine offer family planning and/or contraceptives.
   
   
7. American youth receive the failed “abstinence only” program instead of comprehensive sex education because the religious right fear young people cannot make intelligent choices about sex.
   
   
8. Science is demeaned because its evolutionary theory contradicts the bible.
   
   
9. In spite of the Constitution’s Article VI that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust,” today’s candidates for office must prove their religious credentials as if religion were a test.
   
   
10. President Bush’s funding of faith-based initiatives contradicts the Constitution’s 1st Amendment prohibition against the establishment of religion and America’s longstanding separation of church and state

... “History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy.” - Benjamin Franklin

The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians,

Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies - Los Angeles Times: "By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer | April 10, 2006

Many codes intended to protect gays from harassment are illegal, conservatives argue.

ATLANTA — Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she's a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she's demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.

With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. "Christians," he said, "are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian." ...

Republican Party has become first religious party in U.S. history.: Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents rogue coalition

How the GOP Became God's Own Party: "By Kevin Phillips | Sunday, April 2, 2006; Page B03

Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.

We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before -- in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews.
...
Over a quarter-century of Bush presidencies and vice presidencies, the Republican Party has slowly become the vehicle of all three interests -- a fusion of petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex. The three are increasingly allied in commitment to Republican politics. On the most important front, I am beginning to think that the Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents a rogue coalition, like the Southern, proslavery politics that controlled Washington until Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. ...

Republican Party has become first religious party in U.S. history.: Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents rogue coalition

How the GOP Became God's Own Party: "By Kevin Phillips | Sunday, April 2, 2006; Page B03

Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.

We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before -- in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews.
...
Over a quarter-century of Bush presidencies and vice presidencies, the Republican Party has slowly become the vehicle of all three interests -- a fusion of petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex. The three are increasingly allied in commitment to Republican politics. On the most important front, I am beginning to think that the Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents a rogue coalition, like the Southern, proslavery politics that controlled Washington until Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. ...

Santorum: Europe is Dying - [xenophobia? religious arrogance?]

Santorum: Europe is Dying - Santorum Exposed: The Blog: "Saturday, April 1. 2006

Rick Santorum spoke to the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference last night. During his address he spoke about faith in the United States and compared it to the role of faith in western Europe. Here's what Rick claims is happening to western Europe because of secularism, 'Those cultures are dying. People are dying. They're being overrun from overseas... and they have no response. They have nothing to fight for. They have nothing to live for.'

On the other hand according to Rick, 'More people go to church on Sunday in America than go to all of the sporting events in America held in a year combined.' We're not sure where that statistic comes from or what it means, but Rick seems to find it reassuring. "

UK: do not believe in a god to be 40% ... 5% of the US population feel that a god does not exist

Atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "

Atheism in the United Kingdom

A poll in 2004 by the BBC put the number of people who do not believe in a god to be 40%[10], while a YouGov poll in the same year put the percentage of non-believers at 35% with 21% uncertain.[11] In the YouGov poll men were less likely to believe in god than women and younger people were less likely to believe in god than older people.

In early 2004, it was announced that atheism would be taught during religious education classes in the United Kingdom.[12] A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority stated: 'There are many children in England who have no religious affiliation and their beliefs and ideas, whatever they are, should be taken very seriously.' There is also considerable debate in the U.K. on the status of faith-based schools, which use religious as well as academic selection criteria.

Many prominent Britons are atheists, including scientists and philosophers such as Richard Dawkins.
[edit]

Atheism in the United States

A Gallup poll in 2005 showed 5% of the US population feel that a god does not exist.[13] A poll in 2004 by the BBC showed the number of people in the US who don't believe in God to be larger, at 10%.[10]

Atheists are ostensibly legally protected from discrimination in the United States. They have been among the strongest advocates of the legal separation of church and state. American courts have regularly, if controversially, interpreted the constitutional requirement for separation of church and state as protecting the freedoms of non-believers, as well as prohibiting the establishment of any state religion. Atheists often sum up the legal situation with the phrase: 'Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.'[14]"

Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups

Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study : News Releases: UMNnews: U of M.: "Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology | Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, (612) 599-1148 | Mark Cassutt University News Service, (612) 624-8038

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/28/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.

From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.

Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism."
...
The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation—with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.

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.
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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. ...
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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." ...