So, have you heard the one about how the military is preparing to court-martial anyone who dares to say "God bless you" if someone sneezes?

OK, I'm being facetious. The stories being told about the Armed Forces by the Religious Right aren't that strange - yet. But they are getting there.

The emerging influence of Thomas J. Woods and other neo-Confederate ideologues within the Catholic Right was the focus of the first post in this series. They are advocating the failed concepts of secession and the nullification of federal statutes and court rulings.   The second post in the series explored why nullification matters and how it can lead to localized tyranny and theocracy.  To complete the quartet, we will discuss first how proponent's claims for historical justification are simply wrong, and then detail the Constitutional argument against nullification.

The acclaimed documentary God Loves Uganda, which depicts the role of American conservative evangelicals in generating vicious antigay campaigns in Uganda will be screened at Netroots Nation.  (Among other venues in the next few months.)

My colleague at Political Research Associates (PRA), Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, an Episcopal priest from Zambia now living in the U.S. is featured throughout the film discussing the role of U.S. Christian Right leaders in whipping up antigay fervor and pushing for passage of the "kill the gays" bill in the Ugandan parliament.  He will also appear on a panel at Netroots Nation Intolerance Abroad: Overcoming Violence and Repression and Moving Toward Global LGBT Solidarity along with other experts including Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin and Pam Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The film draws on Kaoma's original research and reporting including his PRA reports, the 2012 Colonizing African Values and 2009 Globalizing the Culture Wars. PRA exposed U.S. Christian Right figures Scott Lively and Rick Warren's role in the creation of the infamous Uganda bill--garnering major media.

A month after the Boston Marathon Bombing, the unified response here in the Boston area is the slogan "Boston Strong," which I see on handmade signs and professional banners hanging on walls and highway overpasses.

In the hours following the bombing, the corporate media engaged in outlandish rumor-mongering, some claiming the perpetrators were domestic right-wing militants.

Talking heads free-associated jingoistic gibberish with their "experts."

The ongoing scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of Tea Party groups took another twist yesterday when evangelist Franklin Graham complained that the ministry founded by this father, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), was also investigated by the tax agency.

Graham wrote a letter to President Barack Obama griping because, he claimed, the IRS sent agents to the North Carolina offices of the BGEA and Samaritan's Purse, a charity Graham runs, to investigate claims that the ministries had waded into partisan politics.

Texas legislators appear to have too much time on their hands. Members of the House of Representatives just passed legislation protecting everyone's right to say "Merry Christmas."

In the first post in this series, I discussed the push for secession and nullification now being made by Catholic Right Neo-Confederates, notably Thomas J. Woods, Jr.   Now, almost a century and a half after that approach was soundly defeated, some Catholic social conservatives are resorting to these pernicious ideas, apparently in order to prevail on such issues such as reproductive rights and gun control.

Former Guatemalan dictator and darling of the American Christian Right, Rios Montt, was found guilty of genocide, making world news. ABC News has a timeline of the trial. The New York Times has the story of the verdict. Below is the story of the original indictment as reported by our own Bill Berkowitz on March 12, 20112: Guatemala's Former Leader Charged with Genocide. Pat Robertson Enabled It. -- FC

These are the exact words of Maj. Douglas W. Duerksen, a military chaplain, which you can hear for yourself in the embedded video below.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, has written an op-ed describing why he joined the advisory board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and why MRFF's mission is important to the future of the military. MRFF is in the "forefront in calling public attention to what they believe is the military's violation of the separation of church and state mandated by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, otherwise known as the Establishment Clause," as stated on MRFF's webpage. Wilkerson joins Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Interfaith Alliance in coming to MRFF's defense.  Over the last couple of weeks MRFF and its founder, Mikey Weinstein, have been under fire from several right wing blogs, publications, and organizations like the Family Research Council, falsely claiming that Weinstein is working as an advisor with the military on a plan to court martial Christians who share their faith.

Mark Sanford, recently elected Congressman from South Carolina, has hit the airwaves with a startling comeback. The former governor of the state, hid in shame after it was discovered the Republican left the nation with government "entertainment" money to have an affair.  He promptly bowed out of the public eye only to resurface this past year to run for office again. The question the nation was asking was whether the "family values" folks in the party would forgive such an openly public scandal.  The answer was a resounding, "yes".

This past week we saw a remarkable example of the whipping-up of outrage over the alleged persecution of Christians.

The story turned out to be bogus.

Christian Right leaders are scrambling to recover.

And its getting ugly.

The Indiana Society of Professional Journalists gave Andy Kopsa its 2012 award for Best Investigative Reporting for a newspaper under 40,000 in circulation.  And it is well deserved.

The judges wrote:

"The writer does a good job of connecting the dots to show the cozy intersection between religion and politics in Indiana. [S]He highlights the lack of accountability and transparency on the state's part, raising legitimate questions about whether public money is being spent properly. This is the kind of watchdog journalism that can make a difference, giving readers useful information to become more engaged in how their tax dollars are being spent."

Her story  Separation Anxiety:  Limited religious mindset takes broad root in Indiana politics appeared in the altnerative weekly, NUVO.

Thomas Woods is an increasingly influential  player on the Catholic Right. In this and a subsequent post, we will consider how his world view is   incompatible with both Catholic Social Justice principles and American history.

Thursday is the National Day of Prayer, and if you want to pray, by all means have at it.

I'll let you in on a little secret: You can pray (or not) as dictated by your very own conscience. You don't need any branch of the government to tell you what to do when it comes to religion.

A book published in 2012 predicted the motive for the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. Terrorist's Creed, by professor Roger Griffin, explains how revolutionary religious movements construct a motive for terrorism against the United States and the West.

Griffin, a world-renowned expert on totalitarian thought and the connections among political fanaticism, violence, and religion, highlighted Chechnya in his study that explains how young men are radicalized into a zealous form of Islam. Carefully avoiding stereotyping Islam or Muslims around the world, Griffin zeros in on the powerful allure of revolutionary "Islamism" in mapping a course toward terrorism.