Religious Right Watch

Defining right-wing religious deviancy down

Over at Salon.com, Gary Kamiya looks at why "the press gives [Sen. John] McCain a pass for consorting with batshit holy men, but condemns [Sen. Barack] Obama to talk-show hell for the same sin." From the article:

The dirty little secret of mainstream American journalism is that it operates within invisible constraints that conform to some imagined Middle American consensus. The issue isn't that journalists share Hagee and Parsley's views so much as that they know that they are widely held, which makes them reluctant to acknowledge how truly outrageous they are. After years of nodding at the whacked-out likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the media has, to borrow Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, defined right-wing religious deviancy down. More or less "orthodox" Christian-right insanity, of the sort espoused by [Rev. John] Hagee and [Rev. Rod] Parsley, is familiar and normal, whereas black-church radicalism, with its ties to left-wing liberation theology, is not. In 2000, 45 percent of the population told Gallup they were either born-again or evangelical Christians.
.....
By incessantly attacking Obama as strange and scary, which is certain to be his strategy, McCain will be tapping into [the] already existing media bias toward sensationalism. His and Bush's outrageous charges that Obama is an "appeaser" are intended to play into this, and much worse is sure to be coming....

Subway sermon

Cross-posted from Isebrand.com:

Stylus in one hand and my Dell PDA in the other, I charged into the waiting subway car and strode three paces to the rare treat of an empty seat, passing a dark black man in a black jacket nestled knee-to-knee beside what was likely his boyfriend--very fair-skinned, blond, goateed, brown leather jacket, silken white shirt, ready with a whisper into the other’s ear. Who knows what was said. I took the seat beside them and continued my digital scribbling. A moment after the train lurched and began accelerating out of the 18th Street station, I looked up to gather my thoughts. If I hadn’t, I’d have missed it.

Facing the couple, sitting diagonally across from me, and alarmed at the prospect of his spill was a tall, big-boned, lean black man front-loaded with a fussy café con leche baby boy. He'd been trying to pour Odwalla juice into the baby’s bottle while clasping the caps of both containers and dangling two shopping bags from his fingers. A delicate act anywhere public in New York, especially the group rocking chair that is a moving subway car.

Without prompting, Boyfriend Black across from the dad stretched out a palm and silently offered to hold the caps. A nod and smile of thanks followed from the father as he happily surrendered the caps, put the bags between his feet, and finally made the bright orange liquid transfer. Next Boyfriend Blond offered a palm to accept the empty Odwalla bottle, and Boyfriend Black returned the nippled cap, which went onto the bottle and the bottle into Baby's mouth in a second flat. Dad's other hand, now free, brandished a paper towel from somewhere, laid it atop the spill, and patted it as gently as possible with his enormous foot. He accepted the Odwalla cap and bottle back, looked up, and said with a smile, “You guys are my village.”

Moments later, after I'd scribbled a few more notes, after the couple had left the train unbeknownst to me, I decided as we pulled out of Times Square station that I'd snap a phone pic of the father as a visual reminder of the moment.

Hagee's arrogant heterodoxy: you're not a Christian if you disagree with me.

From PFAW's Rightwing Watch:

Televangelist John Hagee, in a recently aired sermon, outlined what he meant by the term “counterfeit Christians”: those who take public policy positions he disagrees with, on issues from abortion and gay marriage to welfare.

Watch the video here.

John McCain, who courted Hagee’s endorsement, now can’t seem to decide what to do with the pastor. Perhaps McCain will continue to denounce him on TV while bragging about their close relations in front of the ffolks Hagee describes—those who are “truly saved” by the GOP platform.

PA marriage ban likely dead

Good news from PA recently:

A bill that would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage is in a deep coma and is probably dead, at least for the rest of this session.

Faced with staunch opposition to the measure in the Democrat-controlled House, the main sponsor, Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, asked the Senate last evening to table the bill indefinitely, and it agreed.

That almost certainly means it won't be acted on in the 2007-08 session, which ends Nov. 30. Mr. Brubaker said he's not giving up on the bill, though he didn't say when he might push for it again.

Chip Berlet on "the New Witch Hunt"

The article "Lieberman Gift To McCain: Senate Islamist Terrorism Report," by Chip Berlet of Talk To Action was recently featured on The Huffington Post. From the article:

Scholar William W. Keller argues that in times of wide-spread social unrest and tensions, some liberals retreat from their oversight function as protectors of civil liberties and allow authoritarian methods to be implemented in order to restore order and defend the state. Right now in Washington, DC, civil liberties activists have built a coalition that spans the political spectrum from left to right. This coalition recently managed to block legislation titled the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act." It was, as detailed here, lousy legislation and deserved to be squashed.

Richard Dawkins with Lawrence Krauss

Richard Dawkins, FRS had a public discussion with Lawrence Krauss at Stanford University on Sunday, March 9, 2008. Topics covered included primarily science education, but also religion, physics, evolution, and more. (Dr. Dawkins will retire this year from his post as the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.)

Please read "The Plank in Michael Gerson's Eye"

Jim Naughton is the communications director of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. In "The Plank in Michael Gerson's Eye," Naughton reveals that Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, the man who coined the term "axis of evil," is a member of a schismatic Episcopal churches in Virginia that has placed itself under the authority of Anglican prelate Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.

No wonder Gerson disingenuously assaults Barack Obama over Rev. Wright's comments but writes nothing about Akinola's persecution of gay people in Nigeria and support for a  massacre of Nigerian Muslims by members of Akinola's Christian Association of Nigeria.

Fort Riley atheist soldier speaks out on lawsuit

From the article:

Known as "the atheist guy," [U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy] Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and — just as severe to some soldiers — gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals.

"I see a name and rank and United States flag on their shoulder. That's what I believe everyone else should see," he said.
.....
Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

"I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,'" Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food."

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall's allegations.