This week, the Greater Blogosphere is discussing the significance of the politics of the religious right as it relates to the National Association of Evangelicals, global warming -- and how Democrats should relate to all that; the double standard of the DOJ regarding treatment of people of faith in the workplace; what to make of the Democratic member of Congress who came out as a "non-theist" - and much more --- including: what a major Christian seminary president makes of the documentary film "Jesus Camp;" news of Christian nationalist "minutemen" marching on Lexington; and bloggers making movies and writing books!
Street Prophets
Pastordan has two posts discussing the shifting politics of mainstream evangelicalism in light of the failed effort by top religious right leaders to get the National Association of Evangelicals to stop worrying about global warming:
Dobson and his gang don't want to expand the evangelical political focus beyond abortion and homosexuality.
They "own" those issues, and if things spread out, they lose influence... creation care is a threat to their political position:
AND
Rather than attempting to bring conservative evangelicals into the Democratic party as a part of the base - a risky, low-return strategy - the smarter strategy for progressives may be to work with them on an issue-by-issue basis. Climate change? Great, especially in that it might help to reconcile the rift between conservative churches and science. Help for Darfur? Sure. Abortion or homosexuality? Eh, not so much.
People talk a lot about how divided the country is along partisan lines. If we really want to get away from that, having churches find common ground on individual issues wouldn't be a bad way to go. (Where the non-partisan idea breaks down is that on individual issues, voters don't want their leaders to compromise. It's worth considering whether that's a permanent feature or not, I think.)
Jews on First!
Jane Hunter corresponds with a Justice Department spokesperson regarding the DOJ's stance on religious discrimination in employment. Specifically in question was a court case in which a longtime Jewish employee of the Salvation Army was fired for refusing to sign a statement professing faith in Jesus. Hunter concludes:
Your responses, albeit generous, leave me with conclusion that if my private sector employer interferes with my religious observance, the DOJ would go to bat for me. But if I, a Jew, am asked by my long-time social service agency employer to sign onto a belief in Jesus Christ as a condition of keeping my job, the Justice Department would help that employer, not me.
That raises another question: All the cases in the First Freedom Report in which the Division went to bat for a party wishing to impose its religious beliefs on fellow citizens in the public (or publicly funded) square involve right-wing Christian groups wishing to impose their doctrines (inappropriately, many would say). Would the Civil Rights Division go to court for a Jewish or a Muslim social service agency that required its long-time Christian employees to sign a Jewish or Muslim credo, in effect disavowing their faith in Jesus?
Melissa Rogers
Melissa Rogers finds an important nugget of the history of the religious right:
"[T]he greatest track of virgin timber on the political landscape."
That's how Morton Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia, described evangelicals in the late 1970s. Here's the context for the quote from E.J. Dionne's column today:
In 1979, a group of conservative activists led by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Morton Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia, went to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, urging him to organize what became the Moral Majority.
Their primary goal was not religious but political: to enlist evangelicals behind conservative Republican candidates. Blackwell candidly called evangelicals "the greatest track of virgin timber on the political landscape." The activists reaped a mighty load.
The Revealer
Peter Manseau tells the bizarre and disturbing story of the manipulation of Emmanuel Milingo, 76, the former Catholic Bishop of Lusaka, Zambia by the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- whose political tentacles have also shaped American politics since the 60s.
Yet somehow, this theologically conservative priest wound up taking part in a classic Unification wedding: 62 couples dressed in identical tuxedos and bridal gowns, all standing before Moon as he gave his blessing and invoked three cheers of " Ok Mansei!" a Korean valediction by which all participants wished "ten thousand years of victory" to Moon as the "True Father" of humanity.... In binding the Catholic priesthood to the sacrament of marriage, "we will strengthen and renew the two parts, while at the same time building a greater and stronger whole," Milingo wrote in a July 2001 response to the Catholic Church's admonitions. "This is what God is asking." Milingo spoke of his marriage as divinely inspired and, asked at a news conference about Moon's theology, went so far as to propose that Jesus had been "killed before He was able to carry out His plans" -- a suggestion that contravenes the central Christian tenet of Christ's "perfect sacrifice," while neatly fitting Moon's assertion that he is on Earth to finish Jesus's work.
But Milingo's disobedience apparently could not withstand a direct plea from the pope. When John Paul II asked him, "in the name of Jesus," to come back to the church, that's what he did, leaving his wife 10 weeks after their wedding. Even Maria Sung's 16-day hunger strike couldn't get Milingo back. Until, that is, last June, about five years later, when Milingo disappeared from Italy. His whereabouts remained unknown long enough that the Zambian government asked the Vatican to find him. In July, he reemerged, in typical attention-grabbing fashion, at the National Press Club in Washington. Not only had he returned to his wife, he announced, but he would now begin a mission to remove the requirement of celibacy from the Roman Catholic priesthood.
DefCon
Clark reports that
Ken Blackwell, "... the former Ohio Secretary of State and 2006 gubernatorial candidate will soon be employed by the Family Research Council as a "senior fellow for family empowerment."
From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Blackwell, a Cincinnati Republican who was Ohio secretary of state, will lead FRC’s efforts in addressing family economics.
"Over the years, we have known and worked with Ken Blackwell on the toughest issues facing families and our country," Perkins said. "We have witnessed Ken’s willingness to stand and fight for preserving marriage and defending the unborn. His unwavering commitment to tax relief and conservative fiscal policies has supported family enterprise."
Right Wing Watch
Kyle reports the the religious right is in an uproar about a small thing:
Concerned Women for America was the first right-wing group to publicly condemn Rep. Pete Stark for admitting that he "does not believe in a Supreme Being."
Well, they have now been joined by the Traditional Values Coalition, who does CWA one better by not only blasting Stark, but lying about him as well.
In a display of open hostility to God, California Representative Peter Stark stood up on the Floor of the House on March 13 and declared his unbelief in God. "This is the first time in history that a sitting member of Congress has openly expressed his lack of faith in God," said TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon. According to Stark, "When the Secular Coalition asked me to complete a survey on my religious beliefs, I indicated I am a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being."
Christian Seniors Association Executive Director James Lafferty notes: "It is sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first - one of its members has denied God. The liberals in Congress want to throttle any school child who bows his or her head in prayer but they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock."
Lafferty continued, "Congressman Stark’s statement is a very sad benchmark for America. It could be the moment which defines the decline of our country or it could be the spark which marks an important day. That would be the day that religious Americans stood-up to the liberal bullies who are so determined to use the power of government to silence prayer and every other religious expression of free speech."
Of course, only in TVC’s fevered imaginations did Stark ever "[stand] up on the Floor of the House on March 13 and declared his unbelief in God."
In actuality, Stark merely did exactly what TVC quotes him saying above: he responded to an inquiry from the Secular Coalition for America.... That statement TVC quotes above was sent out by email by Stark’s office, not delivered on the House floor.
Talk to Action
Don Byrd (who is also the official blogger of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty) discusses the signficance of Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) coming out as a "non-theist:" The Freedom Not to Believe.
If religious freedom is truly free -- if the freedom to believe is honestly one of conscience--then the freedom not to believe must be protected alongside it, not just in the law but in practice; not just in theory but in reality. As a Baptist who embraces the priesthood-of-the-believer principle, soul freedom, and the notion that we come to our religious views through free will and earnest personal decision, I honor the freedom that allows others a true choice to make different decisions - to hold different religious beliefs, or to choose no faith. In short, it's only the freedom not to believe in God that gives religious liberty any real significant meaning.
Moiv reports on how $5 million diverted from effective Texas family planning programs is being spent in bogus, antiabortion, "Crisis Pregancy Centers, or CPCs.
Their battle plan includes "educational materials" from Heritage House '76, a CPC supply house whose inflammatory publications have been used and promoted by the American Life League, the Quran-burning Operation Save America, and the late Paul deParrie, a Hero of the Faith in the domestic terror organization known as the Army of God.
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, president of Chicago Theological Seminary, reviews the Academy Award nominated film documentary, Jesus Camp:
Make no mistake--the leaders of this camp and its supporters are quite comfortable with the idea that they are training "God's Army" to be warriors in a life-and-death struggle to shape future politics in the United States. The camp makes no pretense at being anything but a way to create a generation of voters who will determine the outcome of elections.... Unfortunately for all of us--and for the future of our nation--the indoctrination that goes on in Jesus Camp resembles more the training that's needed to live in a Christian theocracy than in a pluralistic democracy.
Chip Berlet
reports:
Some of the same Christian Nationalists who helped fan the media hysteria over the staged events tied to "Judge Moore in Alabama, Terri Schiavo in Florida, and the 10 commandments in Washington DC" have called for a convocation April 19th-21st, 2007, of contemporary Christian patriot "Minutemen" at the historic Battle Green in Lexington, MA to save America from the new tryanny of the courts and the spreading sinful stain of homosexual marriage.
The convention is titled: "Someone Has Stolen My Country And I Want Her Back" and it is announced that at this meeting, just as the Minutlemen of 1776 rejected oppressive rule, the attendees will gather to reject the court decision at an event "Where we will have no other king but KING JESUS!" What prompted this new crusade is a federal court decision that the solution for parents who object to every aspect of a gay-tolerant curriculum is to send their children to private schools rather than having the courts favor their minority viewpoint by rewriting the curriculum. This, in the framing of the Christian Nationalists, is "judicial tyranny."
John Dorhauer, who has a book coming out based on his Talk to Action posts over the past year, has been on the front line of exposing the efforts of IRD directed or inspired rightwing "renewal" groups to disrupt and divide congregations in his denomination, the United Church of Christ. Naturally, this sometimes upsets their activists and apologists.
I often leave a presentation having made the case to many; having come up short with others who want more information; and having offended some who find what I do unacceptable and detrimental to the life of the church. For this reason, I continue to do thorough and effective research testing my theory of the facts in evidence. But it cannot be said of me that I am unwilling to be asked for facts and questioned.
To illustrate this point, one of the men who had come representing one of the renewal groups in the UCC - and who therefore had an agenda that did not allow him to hear my presentation with anything but disdain - took issue with the case I had made about abusers and bullies in the church who shut down dialogue by their tactics of intimidation. He said he had never met anyone like that and challenged me on the point. I told a horrific story of being screamed at, cursed, and threatened with bodily harm while in the sanctuary of a church to which I had been invited by the leaders to answer questions about the UCC's position on marriage equality.
Steven D. Martin announced his new film that seeks to expose the campaign, (bankrolled by the big financial backers of the neoconservative think tanks and the religious right like Richard Mellon Scaife) to divide and conquer the mainline protestant denominations that stood in the way of their domestic and foriegn policy goals.
For a long time I've noticed the destructive work of the IRD, and have long been aware that they were much despised and even feared by UM church leadership. But it seemed far off; I believed it was someone else's problem. I first recognized the divisive work of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) taking root in the United Methodist churches in my part of the country, a mostly rural area couched between the Appalachian and Cumberland mountain ranges of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, at my Annual Conference session last June at Lake Junaluska, NC. When I wrote about my experience here at Talk to Action, ("A Sinister New Wind") IRD staff attempted to intimidate me. That was when I decided it was my problem, and it was time to take action.
The result is Renewal or Ruin? The Institute on Religion and Democracy's Attack on the United Methodist Churcha twenty-five minute video. A trailer for this program can be seen here.