Religious Right Watch

JFK vs. Romney & Santorum on Separation of Church & State

 

Frederick Clarkson's "A Tale of Three Speeches About Separation of Church and State" -

Both candidates have staged high-profile speeches to define themselves in relation to John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 campaign speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association - a speech that has served as the model for how politicians balance religion and public life for a generation. But when they stepped up to the podium to define themselves in the bright light of history, each pandered to the religious right.

via www.truth-out.org

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

| Occupying Hate in Springfield, Massachusetts

Occupy Springfield (MA) morphed into "Occupy Hate" on Friday in a protest outside of the evangelical coffee house ministry of anti-gay activist Scott Lively.  

Lively, who has had a long career as an anti-gay activist, notably in Oregon, California, and recently in Uganda, where he rallied support for the national legislation that would make homosexuality a capital offense, claims that his Springfield ministry has nothing to do with his ongoing anti-gay activism around the world.

As if they can be separated.

 

more at www.talk2action.org

An Open Letter to Jim Wallis from Writers about American Religion and Politics

Fourteen authors, journalists and bloggers who have written about the Religious Right and such related topics as Dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation, including several contributors to Talk2action.org, have asked the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, to stop making false characterizations of writers in the field. We also ask that he "rethink" and "withdraw" his related endorsement of an essay in USA Today by Mark Pinsky, which named and equated the work of four Jewish writers in this field, including myself, with some of the worst anti-Semitic smears in history.  Following is the open letter.

via www.talk2action.org

Walter C. Righter dies; Episcopal bishop played role in gay rights in church

Walter C. Righter, an Episcopal bishop whose victory in a 1996 heresy trial played a key role in the push for gay rights in the church, died Sept. 11 at his home in Export, Pa. He was 87.

He died of heart and lung ailments, said his wife, the former Nancy Tolbert.
.....
Bishop Righter was bishop of Iowa from 1972 to 1988, during which time he ordained the first female deacon in Iowa. From 1989 to 1991, he served as assistant bishop in the Diocese of Newark, N.J.

In 1990, Bishop Righter ordained Barry Lee Stopfel, a non-celibate gay man, as a deacon. Ten bishops brought charges against Bishop Righter, alleging that he violated the doctrine of the church and his ordination vows by ordaining Stopfel.

In a verdict issued on May 15, 1996, a church court stated that the Episcopal Church “has no doctrine prohibiting the ordination of homosexuals,” and that Bishop Righter did not contradict any “core doctrine” of the church.

via www.washingtonpost.com

ACLU, AU to host alternative rally to Perry's prayer event

Billed as an “alternative” to Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer and fast event “The Response,” the ACLU of Texas and Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced today they will be hosting a gathering of their own the evening before Perry’s, to promote the diversity they say is missing from the Christian-based prayer event.

“Gov. Perry’s decision to sponsor a ‘Christians-only’ prayer rally is bad enough. That he turned to an array of intolerant religious extremists to put it on for him is even worse,” Americans United for Separation of Church and State director Barry Lynn said in a statement. “This event unites us in our conviction that government should have no favorite theology and that it must always strive to ensure that all citizens — Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and others — are full and equal partners in the public square.”

Called “Faith, Family and Freedom,” the Aug. 5 event is scheduled to feature religious and non-religious leaders from the Houston community

via www.americanindependent.com

What Opponents of Theocracy Can Learn from the Nuba

Frederick Clarkson of Talk To Action (Talk2Action.org) says of his Religious Dispatches interview with Anglican Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail: "Sudanese Anglican Bishop Andudu's articulation of the values of inter-faith respect and understanding is a model for how we can better contend with some of our own theocratic demagogues."

Anglican Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, who is a leader in interfaith relations for his church in Sudan was in the U.S. when he and his fellow Anglican pastors were hunted and their cathedral burned on the northern province of South Kordofan.  He believes if he had not been here, he might now be in a mass grave in Kadugli.  As I learned in the course of our interview, he is an articulate exponent of the values of religious pluralism -- even in the face of a genocidal regime.  He thinks that this may be part of why he was targeted. It seems that Arab Islamic theocrats from Khartoum find religious pluralism of the Nuban people of South Kordofan, threatening.

Biblical Expert: Faith-Based Anti-Marriage Arguments Empty | EDGE

Dudley told the newspaper, religious denunciations of marriage equality are based less on the Word of God than on the self-interest of those who promote faith-based legal and social inequality.

"The community of evangelical biblical scholars, almost exclusively white heterosexual men, has a history of producing interpretations of the Bible that reflects its own interests and disadvantages those without power," the scholar noted.

"The same leaders that insist on the most rigorous, stringent reading possible on homosexuality come up with all sorts of nuances and complicating considerations to justify leniency for themselves when it comes to more obvious biblical condemnations of divorce. So, why is it that same-sex relationships don’t get the same treatment?"

via www.edgeonthenet.com

If what the Bible says affects your justification for or against marriage equality, you might find Mr. Dudley's questions relevant for you. However, to even more people, they are going to be at least interesting. Dudley's book, Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics, is available online.

Christianists Celebrate HS Graduation by Persecuting Senior Who Believes in Separation of Church and State | Death and Taxes

Earlier this week Fowler wrote to his high school principal to object to a Christian prayer that was listed on the program at his graduation ceremony, scheduled for this evening. Unless it was removed, Fowler said, he would contact the American Civil Liberties Union and take legal action against the school for violating the separation of Church and State.

“My graduation from high school is this Friday,” Damon wrote yesterday on Reddit.

“I live in the Bible Belt of the United States. The school was going to perform a prayer at graduation, but due to me sending the superintendent an email stating it was against Louisiana state law and that I would be forced to contact the ACLU if they ignored me, they ceased it. The school backed down, but that’s when the shitstorm rolled in. Everyone is trying to get it back in the ceremony now. I’m not worried about it, but everyone hates me… kind of worried about attending graduation now. It’s attracted more hostility than I thought.”

Bastrop is apparently like the town in “Footloose” – except they’re cool with dancing, just not democracy. They responded to Fowler’s actions by mocking him. Fowler told supporters on Reddit that he had to suspend his Facebook page temporarily because of the hate mail he was getting (it’s back up and you can friend him if you’re a supporter).

Last night was “Senior Class Night” for BHS and instead of focusing on celebrating the students’ academic achievements, the evening turned into a religious revival and an occasion to ridicule Fowler for his secular beliefs

via www.deathandtaxesmag.com

Mr. Fowler didn't expect to be sacrificed on the altar of cheap and easy opinion. The self-pitying mob had other plans. The demand the right to force someone else's compliance to a religious practice during a public, taxpayer-funded activity. Too bad for them, there's still a Constitution.

‘Coming Out’ - Gay Teenagers, in Their Own Words - NYTimes.com

The New York Times embarked on the project “Coming Out” as an effort to better understand this generation’s realities and expectations, and to give teenagers their own voice in the conversation.

The Times spoke with or e-mailed nearly 100 gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender teenagers from all of parts of the country — from rural areas to urban centers, from supportive environments to hostile ones.....
.....
In the face of competing messages, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths just want to be teenagers. While they envision a world where they can get married and have doors open to them, they do not want to be defined by their sexuality, regardless of how they are received by their community. It is just one part of their identity.

As Kailey Jeanne Cox, 15, said in her story: “I don’t want to have myself being seen by people as ‘Oh, she’s — she’s gay.’ I want them to see me as ‘Wow, she loves God, who cares what kind of people she likes? She is a Christian, she leads by example and she’s a wonderful person.’ That’s what I want people to think when they see me.”

via www.nytimes.com

Episcopal Church No Longer Christian Because It Supports Gay Rights

Michael Youssef, the head of Leading the Way Ministries and a vocal critic of Islam, today argued that the Episcopal Churchis no longer Christian and “not Jesus’ church” as a result of the church's policies regarding gay-rights. Youssef is a signatory of the Manhattan Declaration, a largely anti-gay and anti-choice screed, which also laments the “decline in respect for religious values” in American society. However, Youssef’s diatribe against the Episcopal Church shows the Manhattan Declaration’s call for “religious liberty” and greater respect for religious values remains secondary to its unbridled anti-gay attacks. Youssef’s attack on the Episcopal Church keeps him in the company of other Religious Right leaders and groups who continuously smear mainline Protestant churches that back civil rights.

via www.rightwingwatch.org

When some Christians reasonably recognize the essential insignificance of other Christians' same-sex attractions or the value of lifelong commitments two of them may be willing to make to each other, yet a third group of Christians seem to become unhinged.

For Youssef, were Southern Baptist Churches "not Jesus'" when they supported slavery, then Jim Crow, then segregation?