Religious Right Watch

Letter to Archbishop Wuerl, et al

Dear Archbishop Wuerl, The Most Reverend Michael P. Driscoll, MSW, DD and Sr. Donna Markham, OP:

I am concerned about your stated plan to cut back Roman Catholic social services in Washington DC in the event of the District extends the right of civil [i.e., non-religious] marriage to same-sex couples.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Summary of the Law--to love the LORD completely and your neighbor as yourself--is a commandment contingent upon political fortunes or cultural winds of change. In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25, Christ does not say that he will ask of those he will judge, Did you defend marriage? but rather: Did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, and more? He continued: for as much as you have or have not done these things, you have or have not done them to me.

The idea of using charitable work as a negotiable commodity seems at odds with the commands of Jesus.

"Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia"

U.S. conservative evangelicals and those opposing gay pastors and bishops within mainline Protestant denominations woo Africans in their American fight.

via www.publiceye.org

From the press release about the report:

Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia, a new report by the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, PRA Project Director, exposes the U.S. Right’s promotion of an agenda in Africa that aims to criminalize homosexuality and otherwise infringe upon the human rights of LGBT people while also mobilizing African clerics in U.S. culture war battles.

Sign the petition to call on Rick Warren, a key American right-wing evangelical leader, to denounce Uganda's vicious anti-gays legislation.

(Check out PublicEye's new site design, too!)

Uganda’s Radical Anti-Gay Measure and the American Religious Right | Religious Right | ReligionDispatches

anti-gay rhetoric prevalent in Africa often resembles modern European anti-Semitism: gay people, like Jews, are seen as subversive, foreign, and enervating, threatening the nation’s unity and virility.

via www.religiondispatches.org

Michelle Goldberg takes a look at the increasingly extreme, sanctioned homophobia in Africa and how America's Religious Right helped create it.

Huckabee Supporter Behind Anti-Gay Attacks In Texas | Right Wing Watch

Last month, openly gay Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker was targeted by an anti-gay activist who 35,000 copies distributed a mailing picturing Parker and her partner under the headline "Is This The Image Houston Wants To Portray?"

Now, according to the Houston Chronicle, Parker's opponent's campaign has been bankrolling efforts to attack her over her sexuality:

via www.rightwingwatch.org

Conservative activist Steven Hotze has his own PAC now. Lovely. All the better to warp secular democratic republicanism in the U.S.

Hotze signed the Coalition on Revival's Manifesto for the Christian Church in 1986, which declared, amoung other things, that "Increased longevity generally results from obedience to specific Biblical commands," and "A wife may work outside the home only with her husband's consent."

Rick Warren's Dissertation Advisor Leads Network Promoting Uganda Anti-Gay Bill

In 2008 Rick Warren declared that, following Rwanda, Uganda was the world's second official "Purpose Driven" nation. Uganda is currently in the news because of a bill before the Ugandan legislature that would establish the death penalty for homosexual acts and, critics charge, might even require the execution of HIV-positive Ugandan citizens.

Some observers have wondered if Purpose Driven Life author and mega-evangelist Rick Warren has had a role in the globally controversial bill, especially because of Warren's close association with Ugandan anti-gay activist Martin Ssempa and, more broadly, because Warren has refused to denounce the anti-gay bill.

via www.talk2action.org

Talk To Action co-founder Frederick Clarkson also has noted that "The Family," a fundamentalist organization, is involved with the anti-gay act.