Religious Right Watch

Review of "Dark Horse"

Bruce Reed offers an entertaining review of Ralph Reed's new novel, Dark Horse.

Gen. Petraeus endorses Christianist book. Chris Rodda's take-down.

The Gen. Petraeus' betrayal of 1 out of every 5 American soldiers has made it as a segment on Keith Olberman's MSNBC program, Countdown, only days after Chris Rodda on the Huffington Post wrote a great piece on the emerging scandal that is yet another piece of the swelling stink of evidence that the US military endorses discrimination against any soldier who is not a conservative evangelical Christian.

Rodda:

Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel [is] a pro-Christian, anti-atheist book heartily endorsed by none other than Gen. David Petraeus, a slap in the face from the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq to the 21% of the men and women fighting there who define themselves as atheists or having no religious preference. Contrary to the old "no atheists in foxholes" movie line, the percentage of non-theists in the military, according to a report from the Population Reference Bureau, is actually somewhat higher than it is among the civilian population. For Petraeus to endorse a book disparaging this segment of our military population is a reprehensible betrayal of all of the non-theists who are putting their lives on the line for our country with every bit as much bravery and dedication as their religious comrades.

Rodda rightly highlights the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in her article as well.

Petraeus' action is a disgusting violation of the spirit of the U.S. Constitution as created by our nation's Founders who--it cannot be repeated often enough--included a large number of men who valued science and were not orthodox Christians (let alone evangelical!), but deists. Apparently, Gen. Petraeus would find unfit for service the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, John Adams, Ethan Allen, Thomas Paine, and, arguably, the ardent Mason and Communion-avoiding Gen. George Washington.

Reblogging the fight against the religious right. Mike Gallagher in James Dobson's footsteps

First there was the term "blog." Now there is a term for a blog that is heavy on excerpting and linking, and relatively light on the original content. Like this blog. :)

Or should we say, "this reblog?" Yeah, probably.

Now . . . On to some reblogging!!!!!! [Trumpet fanfare]

Jack Hafferkamp of Boston-based Edge writes that:

After a slow start, the campaign against demagogic homophobe James Dobson’s induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame appears to be gaining steam as word spreads and time counts down to the induction awards dinner in Chicago planned for Saturday, November 8, 2008.

And rightwing Mike Gallagher uses his audio Der Angriff to keep peddling irrational bigotry, as noted on PageOneQ: "Doctors in California can't use their religion to deny medical treatment to their gay patients. What next, pondered Mike Gallagher on Monday -- state-sanctioned pedophilia?"

(Image: clipping from an issue of Der Angriff attacking the "sick elements" in society, including Magnus Hirschfeld, sociologist. Hirschfeld died in exile in 1935 before the Nazis stripped all Jewish doctors of their medical licenses in 1938.)

WSJ profile of Joshua DuBois

The Wall Street Journal has published a profile of Joshua DuBois, who is in charge of outreach to "faith voters" for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign.

(Might presidential campaigns ever include outreach efforts to "reason votes?")

From the article:

While studying at Boston University, Mr. DuBois became an evangelical Christian and joined Calvary Praise and Worship Center, a small African-American Pentecostal congregation in Cambridge. He became an associate pastor at age 18.

Sen. Obama hired Mr. DuBois in 2005 to spearhead a religious outreach program in his senate office. He now consults Mr. DuBois on all faith-related issues....

Also mentioned in the article:

Friday, Christian political action committee Matthew 25 Network launched a television ad supporting Sen. Obama and touting his family values. The ad is scheduled to coincide with Rev. Warren's faith-based forum Saturday in Lake Forest, Calif.

You can view the ad here on the Matthew 25 Network's website.

Former UK Pentecostal pastor: Christian right a threat to world peace

The East Anglian Daily Times reports on Dr. Lee Marsden, Lecturer in Politics at the University of East Anglia, whose new book, For God's Sake, "argues that the religious core values of Middle America have potentially disastrous consequences for both the United States and the planet."

Says Dr. Marsden:

“The irony is [that the Christian right will] work with whoever will agree with their position; will criticise some Islamic regimes for their human rights records or the way they apply Sharia law, but will vote with them and enlist their support when it comes to anti-gay measures, issues of abortion and stem-cell research.”

Dr. Marsden became a born-again Christian in 1981 and spent 16 years as a conservative evangelical with Pentecostal and renewalist churches in Suffolk. He was ordained in a Word of Faith church in Lowestoft - part of an American fellowship of churches - and served as pastor.

[He stated that,] “During this time I taught, preached and believed in the Bible literally, including creationism.”
.....
Dr Marsden concludes that, in less than three decades, right-wing Christians have become such influential players in American politics that no politician, Republican or Democrat, can fail to take heed. Conservative evangelicals now form part of the base of the Republican Party and occupy senior positions from local level to the presidency itself.

Chalk one up for reason

Score one for commonsensical science literacy and education. Hat-tip to Pharyngula guest-blogger, Danio,* for catching this poke in the eye of religious rightwing faith-based indoctrination regimes (a.k.a. private conservative evangelical and fundamentalist secondary schools). From the San Fransisco Chronicle article:

A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.
.....
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."

The Univ. of California has the right and obligation to promote science education. It is right and proper for the university to reject as scientific education faith-based non-science, just as it would be for them to reject as scientific education a student's past coursework in, say, medieval medicine (Not that any student is likely to disagree with that one!)--or for that matter a student's would-be science credits from an Islamic school teaching its own brand of creationism.

*Regular Pharyngula blogger Associate Prof. P. Z. Myers is in the Galapagos, possibly catching glimpses of the pretty thing pictured above . . . .

Image: A Galapagos tortoise, a species so-named--in some language or another apparently spontaneously learned--by one, Adam, about 6,000 years ago (give or take), when the first-created ancestor of the fellow above was instantly created by YHWH/God, according to Genesis 2:19-20, and transported to the big naming event in Eden, somewhere in the Middle East. Genesis fails to note how that representative animal and all the others Adam named then settled where they did afterwards. Given that Adam and his wife, Eve, had a whole planet to populate with human beings, Adam was probably enjoying himself (relatively, as it were) while that first ancestor of the poor sod pictured above perha[s lumbered down the banks of the Euphrates, onto the back of a whale, and finally to the Galapagos Islands in the middle of the Pacific, somehow snacking enough along the way to stay fit. Yes, to some, this apparently would qualify as "science." Break giveth me, verily.

Religious Right's old guard at the GOP convention

Blogger Andy Birkey of RH Reality Check takes a look at four of the old guard leaders of the religious right who will be at the Republican National Convention.

Also, Birkey, writing in the Twin City Daily News, recently highlighted ways that the religious right is attacking Sen. Barack Obama's faith.

2001 Anthrax mailer supported rightwing American Family Association

Hat-tip to Right Wing Watch. Come to find out, presumed Anthrax-mailing sociopath Bruce E. Ivins was a longtime supporter of the radical homophobic American Family Association (AFA). Right Wing Watch speculates that:

Knowing more about Ivins’ background may help explain a great deal about the attacks, especially the targets. The anthrax letters were sent almost exclusively to prominent Democrats – Senator Pat Leahy and then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle – and large, New York media outlets.

McCain's anti-Obama ad evokes spectre of the Antichrist

Grant of the Matthew 25 Network has been drawing attention to a John McCain attack ad that many observers of the religious right believe insinuates that Sen. Obama could be the Antichrist, a prophesied worldwide government leader in power during the "End Times," according to modern literalistic interpretations of the Book of Revelation favored by most conservative evangelical Christians and fundamentalists.

Now even the rather right-leaning Time magazine is calling out McCain on his Obama-might-be-the-Antichrist ad.

The Matthew 25 Network is encouraging people to sign their online petition to call upon McCain to pull down this ad and renounce the sort of tactics the Antichrist ad utilizes.

(Image: animation from the 1973 conservative Christian proselytizing comic book, There's a New World Coming.)

The Family and 3 Supreme Court Justices

A must-read from Troutfishing:

William Rehnquist. Sandra Day O'Connor. Clarence Thomas...

They were not alone - indeed, a welter of connections tied principals of both 2000 election campaigns to Doug Coe’s secretive, elite fundamentalist organization, founded in the 1930’s as a union busting initiative, that stresses benevolent rule by a divine appointed caste of wealthy and powerful Christian "elect", bound together through personal covenants into deeply loyal prayer groups and prayer "cells" and worshiping a denatured and business friendly Jesus:

The Family.

And a solid bibliography of articles:

Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover among America's secret theocrats (Harpers, 2003)

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics (Mother Jones, 2007)

Showing Faith in Discretion: The Fellowship, which sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast, quietly effects political change. It acts with the blessing of many in power. (LA Times, 2002)

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (2008, excerpt from Jeff Sharlet's book)

Review of "The Family" by Frederick Clarkson

2008 Interview with Jeff Sharlet