Members of the Livingston Parish School Board in Louisiana may be on the verge of making a huge mistake - one that could cost their community a lot of money.

During a recent meeting, several board members went off on a tangent about teaching creationism. During this public session, they openly discussed their desire to bring religion into the classroom. It was not a wise move.

The claims that the Religious Right is dead and that the Culture Wars are over are as ubiquitous as they are poorly unsupported.  We have debunked such claims many times at Talk to Action. (Most recently, Frank Cocozzelli took on one such prominent claim.

Over at Religion Dispatches, I have an essay about all this. You'll find a sample after the jump -- followed by a quiz featuring ten prominent examples of statements claiming End of the Culture Wars and/or the Religious Right is Near.

Fox News's favorite commentator and Religious Right darling Newt Gingrich has come up with a new popular book.  The Late Jerry Falwell welcomed Newt back on the political circuit after unseemly revelations about his marriage.  A frequent guest of the Christian Coalition, the historian is hinting he might be in the mix to run for President.

Will the recently released video showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that he conspired, against US President Bill Clinton, to undermine the Oslo Accords have the sort of political blowback it truly ought to have ? Shot nine years ago, the video shows Netanyahu boasting that he destroyed the peace process and stating, "America is something that can be easily moved. Moved to the right direction... They won't get in our way ... Eighty per cent of the Americans support us. It's absurd."

The video has the potential to undermine Netanyahu's credibility in the US but there's another aspect to the story that could undermine Bibi Netanyahu's credibility with Jews in Israel and internationally - Netanyahu's key, close ally in undermining peace negotiations, Christians United For Israel founder and head John Hagee, has a ugly history of distributing, on a global scale, vile anti-Jewish propaganda including Adolf Hitler's favorite conspiracy theory, the canard that Jewish bankers rule the world.

In his most recent  New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich declared über-traditionalist Catholic movie star Mel Gibson's fall from grace to be "good news" -- suggesting that  as goes one downwardly spiraling Hollywood star, so goes the Religious Right.Too bad the facts don't support the pundit's pronouncement.

A compilation of past articles, video, and documentation on sectarian Christian supremacism and anti-government conspiracy theorists in the U.S. Military Chaplain Corp.

Given the current revival of anti-government rhetoric, the following list of articles might mean more to readers now than when they were originally published. MRFF has repeatedly warned about the aggressive proselytizing conducted by the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), headed by Ret. Col. Jim Ammerman.  In addition,  Ammerman and some of his chaplains, while flaunting their military credentials, have promoted "New World Order" conspiracy ideology, in which they claim that the U.S. will imminently lose sovereignty, betrayed by government leaders who are part of a demonic cabal of "Illuminati," described as international banking families. (The list is Jewish except for the Rockefellers - explanation to follow below).

This summit took place on June 25 -27 and is old news, but since it failed to make it into U.S. media, I think it is worth noting. Also, the blurring of the lines between end times prophecy and foreign policy will continue with the CUFI Summit in Washington D.C.  on July 20 -22.  This follows Hagee's release of his new book Can America Survive:  Ten Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation," which includes the graphic description of the end of Judaism and the forced conversion of the state of Israel. Nevertheless, Jewish politicians (Democratic and Republican), Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, and other Jewish leaders will speak at the event.

The New York Times recently reported that the Vatican, while revising its laws on disciplining pedophile priests, simultaneously pronounced "...that ordaining women as priests was as grave an offense as pedophilia."

This move also appears to be designed to obfuscate just how little has been done to punish predator priests.

[editor: This story is about a radical right wing movement in charismatic Christianity that claims to fight demons but, leaving demonology aside, is demonstrably close to seizing the reigns of power in entire US states.]

They claim to be able to raise the dead and cause miracles, such as the multiplication of Thanksgiving turkey dinners. They burn "witchcraft items" and "idols." They hold mass exorcisms to cast out alleged evil spirits they say cause lust, pornography, addiction, homosexuality, bisexuality, and perversion. They claim to be able to heal HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, Glaucoma, and cancer, and to break "generational curses" and "witchcraft curses." Who are they? Here are a few overviews (1, 2, 3.)

They compare opponents of their movement to rats that will be exterminated and one of their leaders has predicted that the regime they're working to create will initially "seem like totalitarianism". They're closely tied to the notorious, so-called "kill the gays bill" before Uganda's Parliament. They're behind Sarah Palin and one of their "prophets" has become the de-facto prayer leader for the Republican Party.  

On Tuesday of this week during the Glenn Beck Show, Beck stated the following:

"Jesus conquered death. He wasn't victimized. He chose to give his life. He did have a choice. If he was a victim, and this theology was true, then Jesus would have come back from the dead and made the the Jews pay for what they did."

While the Anti-Defamation League has not been especially vigorous recently in opposing virulently anti-Semitic claims from Christian Zionists such as John Hagee, the ADL nonetheless can be considered an authoritative source concerning what anti-Semitism is. The ADL identifies Glenn Beck's claim that "the Jews" killed Jesus as one of the top four most destructive of anti-Semitic lies.

"Why is it that the people who came to the Capitol building in support of the gay community and HB444 were required to obtain a Special Use Permit and proof of liability insurance in order to participate in a rally, but the pastors, church members, and those rallying against the civil rights legislation were not similarly required to obtain the necessary permits? And, why is it that certain people were invited to a special prayer meeting inside the Governor’s office, but others were excluded?" - Hawaii activist Carroll Cox

As she announced her veto of Hawaii's Civil Unions Bill HB444 on July 6th, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle echoed a standard argument traditionally advanced by leaders of the Christian right, that the issue of the civil rights of minority groups was so important that it should not be decided by an executive decision but, rather, by popular vote. It was a strange argument for a Jewish politician given the use of the democratic legislative process in pre-World War Two Germany to strip German-Jewish citizens of basic rights. But it also was the height of hypocrisy because that day, prior to announcing her veto, Lingle had sent a clear message of her executive decision: supporters of the civil union bill gathered at the Hawaii State House that day were second class citizens and Lingle was more than happy to use the power of the state to enforce the point.

The San Marcos, California-based organization, a project of the controversial National Organization for Marriage, has a new `strategic plan' which it hopes will make it a national force in the pro-marriage movement

The passage of California's Proposition 8, the November 2008 initiative banning same-sex marriage, was an indicator to the folks at the Ruth Institute that a bright future may be looming. These days, armed with a new four-year strategic plan; a leader, who, in addition to having a sparkling resume, is hoping to forge a national reputation and is sporting the nickname "Dr. J"; and a full-bore affiliation with the National Organization for Marriage, the Ruth Institute is putting the finishing touches on its "It Takes A Family to Raise a Village '10 - training the next generation to be marriage champions" event, and has every intention of becoming a major player in the national pro-marriage movement.

In order to keep pace with Glenn Beck's new online university "Beck U," which has provided a "Recommended Reading" list and "Class Notes" for its first class, I've decided to break into my video series debunking Beck's "Founders' Fridays" and other history episodes to post some supplementary study material for "Debunk U."

For those of you who missed Countdown last Thursday night, Keith Olbermann introduced "Debunk U" with a debunking of the inaugural class at "Beck U" -- Faith 101 with "Professor" David Barton -- and I was the guest "debunker."

July 13th is the anniversary of our friend Jerry Sloan's confrontation on live television with Moral Majority founder, the Reverend Jerry Falwell. This confrontation set into motion a lawsuit and the eventual establishment of the Lambda Community Center (renamed the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Community Center) in Sacramento and from the opening of the center, many other Sacramento GLBT organizations.

As we have every year, we are posting Jerry's remarkable and heartening story. It is important to celebrate and remember our victories. -- FC

Although it happened over 20 years ago almost everywhere I go people still ask me to tell them about my confrontation and lawsuit with my former Baptist Bible College schoolmate, Jerry Falwell.

Falwell, in the height of his Moral Majority days, was in San Francisco the week prior to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, to harass the Democrats and the fairies of San Francisco.

On Friday, July 13, he flew up to Sacramento to appear on a local live morning show, "Look Who's Talking." The producer, knew I had gone to Baptist Bible College with Falwell invited me to be in the audience and gave me a bunch of tickets for my friends.

Today's Christian nationalists are working to recruit minorities with a revisionist history that demonizes liberals as the source of American racism.  Simultaneously these same Christian nationalists justify slavery and glorify the Confederacy in the context of promoting biblical law.

Following the fold is a list of quotes from Rushdoony's books and other Christian nationalist texts, provided as documentation to accompany Bruce Wilson's recent article on Glenn Beck's promotion of the worldview which teaches this treatment of the issue of slavery.  When Rousas J. Rushdoony died in 2001, Gary North wrote on LewRockwell.com, "Rushdoony's writings are the source of many of the core ideas of the New Christian Right, a voting bloc whose unforeseen arrival in American politics in 1980 caught the media by surprise."  Rushdoony provided the intellectual foundations for much of the current war on separation of church and state, as well as the framework for understanding today's theocratic libertarians' paradoxical view of slavery and their fixation with the holiness of the Confederate States of America.