Religious Left

A video that was part of an art exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., should not have been pulled at the behest of government officials and aggressive religious groups, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Americans United criticized U.S. Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.) – who will likely be speaker of the House and majority leader next year – for demanding that the Smithsonian Institution remove the video. “Boehner and Cantor aren’t even in control of the House yet, and already they’re kowtowing to the Religious Right,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “This is religiously based censorship, pure and simple – and it’s reprehensible.” Among the organizations leading the campaign against the video is the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a New York City-based group that promotes an ultra-conservative version of Catholicism rejected by most American Catholics. The vid...

It’s kind of like punishing a child. When sent to their room, the child’s screams are loudest just before entering their room. We all know Christianity and the bible was used to kill millions of people worldwide that would not convert to Christianity. We all know Christianity and the bible was used to justify slavery. The bible even tells you what countries you may obtain slaves from and describes a slave owners’ relationship with *his slave plus more (*there weren’t any female slave owners since females were subservient to man). We’ve all seen Christianity and the bible used to justify a woman’s second-class status. We’ve all seen Christianity and the bible used to justify racial discrimination. Now we are seeing Christianity and the bible used to justify LGBTQI second-class status. Most activity of this type stems from what many of us would call the religious right (who, by the way, are always wrong). It was the religious right that supported slavery (while the religiou...

Any state which legalizes a preacher performing civil marriages should be brought up on charges for disregarding the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state! By allowing a religious official to perform a state rights ceremony (marriage) the state is allowing the religious official to act as an official agent of the state. This is in direct conflict with the United States Constitution. Folks there has always been "the spirit of the law" and "the letter of the law". Often, the letter of the law does not reflect the spirit of the law. But if religious folks wish to be so specific about laws and rights, I hope they won't be to suprirsed when the same rules, laws and rights end up going against them!

Analyzing the 'Twelve Tribes of Politics' Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - 3 hours ago Among members of the Religious Right, the percentage emphasizing social issues plummeted to 37.2% from 50.7%, while the portion emphasizing the economy rose ... Jesus shuffles to the left Toronto Star Obama Talks Faith, McCain Claims 'Values' Huffington Post More San Bernardino Sun Allentown Morning Call - On Faith all 19 news articles Financial crisis shows need for religion in politics: Vatican - Economic Times 9/30/2008 10:29:58 AM CathNews Financial crisis shows need for religion in politics : Vatican Economic Times, India - 11 hours ago VATICAN CITY: The financial crisis sweeping the world economy proves the need for religion in politics , Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said on ... Cardinal Bertone Defends Religion in Public Square Zenit News Agency Vatican No. 2 blasts search for quick profits The Associated Press Vatican No 2 urges return to religion amid g...

There is a wonderful guest commentary, on the Greely Tribune , written by Jonathan Bellman (a professor of music at the University of Northern Colorado). Here's a couple excerpts: We listen, yet we don’t object; when we don’t object, we tacitly endorse The real demonization of the word “liberal” dates from Reagan’s first presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter. The term was misapplied, but Republican strategists knew a winning strategy when they saw one, and liberal as an evil epithet — entirely decoupled from any real meaning it previously had — has for decades been routinely applied to anyone who frightens the social absolutists among us. Here in Greeley, bumper stickers say, “A vote for the Democratic Party is a vote for radical Islam,” and I saw a well-crafted, homemade sign on a pickup truck that read “Democrats=Defilement.” Editorialists and letter-writers to The Tribune vilify not only political liberals but also religious liberals: those who refuse to subscribe to the da...

by Patrick O'Neill Independent Weekly The Barack Obama campaign opened its downtown Raleigh headquarters July 22 to much fanfare, but just around the corner the same night, the Obama celebration was outdrawn almost 3-to-1 by Jesus. A "campaign stop" of the Jesus for President book tour was led by evangelical progressives Shane Claiborne, 33, and Chris Haw, 26, whose book, Jesus For President, was published this spring by Zondervan. The new movement represents one of the most exciting shifts among Christian evangelicals. The Raleigh gathering at First Baptist Church on Wilmington Street, the 19th stop on a 21-city, 10,000-mile veggie-fueled bus tour, drew a crowd of mostly 20-somethings. Mixed in were old-guard progressive Christians, many affiliated with the N.C. Council of Churches. Claiborne said he offers "a refreshing message for post-Religious Right America," adding some young evangelicals are turning away from the often harsh and unloving messages—such as ...

Over at aboms.com an editor wrote a article titled: Homosexual Paedophile Gets 8 Life Terms in Sex Case In the first sentence of the article it states: A judge sentenced a Robertsdale man to eight life sentences plus 40 years for sex crimes that involved an 8-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl over a period of three years. I've got a question. Homosexual pedophiles like girls?

Christine Wicker was the religion reporter for the Dallas Morning News. Air America's Sam Seder radio show interviewed her about her new book "The Fall of the Evangelical Nation". One of her claims, contrary to pronouncments of the Religious Right; only 7% of americans are evangelical. Christine's Website You can hear the radio interview below.

The town of Eureka Springs is turning into the "San Francisco of Arkansas," warns the American Family Association, and it can happen in your town too. "They're Coming to Your Town," tells the tale of an uncharacteristically diverse resort town's government infiltrated by "a handful of homosexual activists" and bent to their will through the enactment of the town's domestic partner registry on June 22, 2007. Eureka Springs, most recently, has gotten an honorable mention from unlikely celebrity and Oklahoma House Rep. Sally Kern, who propped it up as an example of the "gay agenda" that she has called a "death knell" and a larger threat than international terrorism, in addition to comparing such an "agenda" to cancer. The domestic partner registry isn't legally recognized outside Eureka Springs due to Arkansas' Amendment 83, passed in 2004, which simply reads: "Marriage consists only of the union of one...

Rev. Mel White penned the life stories and speeches of conservative Christian superstars like Pat Robertson. His religious leaders publicly and vehemently condemned gays and lesbians, and White tried to overcome his homosexuality with exorcisms and electric shock therapy. In 1993, White came out as a gay man and denounced the politics of hate in the evangelical church. Now, 15 years and two books later, White spearheads Soulforce , an organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance in religious communities. White discusses the latent power of the Religious Right in the forthcoming presidential election, his antipathy toward civil marriage, and the rationale behind the Religious Right’s homophobia. full article

It would appear some of the religious right are rather upset that Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin was allowed to have her partner, Lauren Azar, accompany her on a congressional fact-finding trip to Europe. Military officials were apparently unwilling to consider Azar a “spouse”. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “ forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates”. This seems to have ruffled some feathers on the right.

TV preacher Pat Robertson’s top lawyer, Jay Sekulow, is all atwitter because a minority religious group wants equal treatment from a local government in Utah. The group, called Summum, wants to erect a monument bearing its “Seven Aphorisms” near a Ten Commandments display in a local park. You’d think Sekulow would be all for it, since he usually casts himself as a strong supporter of free speech. In 2007, his American Center for Law and Justice filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending a public school student’s right to unfurl a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” poster at a school event. He didn’t want school districts “empower[ed] to ban future student speech they considered offensive – including [surprise, surprise] advocating Christian beliefs.” But not this time. No, this time Sekulow is arguing the government doesn’t have to be neutral when it decides which viewpoints can be expressed in the public square. It’s perfectly okay, says Sekulow, for the government to display the Ten Commandments ...

Pat Robertson Founder, CEO and Director of the Christian Broadcasting Network 2004 Revenue: $186,482,060 Location: Virginia Beach, Va. Web site: http://www.cbn.com/ “We often hear of the constitutionally mandated ‘separation of church and state.’ Of course, as you know, that phrase appears no where in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights....We do find this phrase in the constitution of another nation, however...that of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—an atheistic nation sworn to the destruction of the United States of America.” “When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. ‘What do you mean?’ the media challenged me. ‘You’re not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?’ My simple answer is, ‘Yes, they are.’” “We have a court that has essentially stu...

The headlines this week about a new "gay" infection were dramatic. FLESH-EATING BUG SPREADS AMONG GAYS, said one Australian newspaper, referring to a study about an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection affecting homosexual men in San Francisco and other American cities. EPIDEMIC FEARED--GAYS MAY SPREAD DEADLY STAPH INFECTION TO GENERAL POPULATION, shouted a press release from the Concerned Women for America, a conservative public-policy group. another religious right site, wordpress, had headlines like THE NEW GAY DISEASE - MDR Staph Infections yet another, catholic.com, said AFTER LINKING NEW STRAIN OF STAPH TO GAY MEN, UNIVERSITY SCRAMBLES ... There were MANY more religious right sites that jumped on with hateful headlines. Can you feel the love? But is there a new HIV-like public health epidemic on the horizon? Not likely, says Dr. Henry (Chip) Chambers, coauthor of the study, which was published this week in the online edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine . ...

www. TruthWinsOut .org today called on Mike Huckabee to explain his close association to prominent members of the Christian Reconstructionist movement – which believes Old Testament law should replace the Constitution and that the Bible also justifies corporal or capital punishment for adulterers and homosexuals, among others. “While Huckabee makes jokes on the campaign trail, his ties to the fundamentalist fringe is no laughing matter. We hope the media will continue to explore the radical associates of Mike Huckabee.” In 1998, Mike Huckabee co-wrote the book, “Kids Who Kill” with Reconstructionist author George Grant. Grant is an ideologue with extreme, even dangerous religious views. The question is, does the former Arkansas governor share Grant’s view of the role of Christianity in government? This passage is from Grant’s 1987 book The Changing of the Guard (Ft. Worth, TX: Dominion Press, 1987), pp. 50-51: “Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibil...

If you listen to the religious right, morality and religion go hand in hand. If you aren't religious you can't possibly have morals. I suppose that's why I see many cars with the "fish symbol" speeding through traffic. They must be on a religious mission of importance. Because we know they are moral and wouldn't want to put others at risk or imposition due to thier selfishness. I don't consider myself a religious person but I do have morals. I was taught that you don't speak ill of the dead. Now I know it shouldn't surprise me but when I see "religious folks" speaking ill of the dead that irks me. Today when I viewed a right wing religious website speaking ill of Sylvester , I decided to write about it. In case you don't believe me you can view it here . If you ask me, religion is it's own worst enemy. Gone are the days where people have blind faith. For ages many people have been murdered, enslaved, oppressed and demeaned by reli...

What this Christian leader and her ilk want is her religious freedom, guaranteed by the US Constitution (in their eyes) to practice their religious beliefs in castigating queers in the workplace, refusing to hire queers, and in firing queers if one slips in. Just practicing their religion. The fact that this is the same religious freedom that the South wanted in maintaining human slavery dosn't phase them one bit. When you spend any time on the Christian Right's web sites, you will soon see what their real beef is with non-discrimination bills, ENDA, Hate crimes, etc. In their own words, they fear "the normalization of the sin of homosexuality." (and the other letters in lgbt) It is the "normalization" that is driving them crazy ... the "Will and Grace" the Internet, the GSA's, the Gay History Month in schools, gays in movies, the laws, all of it is driving them to the brink. What the Religious Right does NOT want is to be questioned...

According to Pat Robertson, God is using superhighway I-35 that runs from Canada to Mexico to purify America from sin. He says "I-35 is the highway spoken of in Isaiah 35:8 - "And a highway will be there; it will be called the way of holiness." So, evangelical Christians have set aside 35 days to use the cities around I-35 to rid America of sin, meaning "abortion clinics, gay bars, strip joints, and porn shops." God is using "purity sieges" to set America free. One of the main people featured in the clip posted below is James Stabile, who was apparently "cured" of his homosexuality by a minister at one of these purity sieges. Joseph Stabile said he’s fully accepting of his son’s sexual orientation and believes being gay is neither a choice nor a sin. Joseph Stabile said James left home to go out that Friday night and never returned. Joseph said James, or 'B.J.' as his parents affectionately refer to him, is bipolar and had stopped ta...

“I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.” Thomas Jefferson As tax-exempt entities, houses of worship may not intervene in partisan politics by endorsing or opposing candidates. Pulpit-based electioneering not only violates federal law, many believe it corrupts the true mission of our faith communities. Federal courts are often our last line of defense to protect our constitutional rights. Federal judges should respect our Constitution and appreciate the important role that church-state separation has played in safeguarding religious liberty. The so-called “faith-based” initiative is a euphemism for taxpayer-supported religion. The initiative funnels taxpayer dollars to religious social service providers without adequate safeguards to prevent proselytism. In addition, these groups seek to discriminate in hiring based on religion even though their programs are publicly funded. The right to practice your chosen fa...