The Religious Right has long made abuse of the priviledge of federal tax-exemption for churches and other non-profit organizations a political tool. While most of this goes on sub rosa, sometimes the movement organizes efforts to generate widespread civil disobedience, in hopes of making the law unenforceable.

This year is one of those times.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Alliance Defense Fund, the premeir religious right legal network wants to goad churches into a high profile test. But there may be more going on here than meets the eye.

The notorious Institute on Religion and Democracy recently launched a new web site. Some changes naturally, do not necessarily acknowledge aspects of the organization's past. But it is also fair to say that the site changes, have the effect (intended or unintended) of scrubbing and sanitizing some aspects of its past it would probably prefer we not remember.

For example, the organization once featured prominent conservative Catholics and Jews on its board and advisor board -- until many of them quietly disappeared after Andrew Weaver  exposed their involvement. (There are still a number of Catholics, but not as many as before.) Also missing is the Association for Church Renewal, which was organized under IRD's auspices in 1995 and whose membership included leading Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist and UCC "renewal" groups. Fortunately there is a terrific searchable internet archive called the Way Back Machine. It is not comprehensive, but it is a helpful research tool.

For our purposes, it unscrubs some important dimensions of the not-so-way-back past of IRD and its affiliates.

When Scott Bloch became head of the Office of Special Counsel he declared war on equal protection for gays in federal workplaces

In early October 2004, five Democratic members of Congress called on President Bush to "take the necessary action" in regards to Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

Bloch had refused "to enforce anti-discrimination protections for federal workers contradict[ing] Bush Administration policy to uphold former President Clinton's executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation," the Washington Blade had reported.

The letter to the president was signed by gay House members Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), along with Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and George Miller (D-Calif.).

On Tuesday, May 6, McClathchy Newspapers reported that "FBI agents ... searched the office and [Virginia] home of ... Bloch ... as part of an investigation into whether he obstructed an inquiry into allegations of his own misconduct."

Since his appointment the relatively unknown Bloch has been wielding a heavy hand and been the source of a series of controversies.

Who is Scott Bloch and how did he wind up as head of the Office of Special Counsel?

A group of evangelical scholars has issued "An Evangelical Manifesto" in an attempt to redefine and restore a good name to the evangelical movement within Christianity.

There is much to commend in their statement.  Most of it would have been of much more value had it been said years ago -- no, decades ago.  It is much too little and way too late.

The year was 2004. It was summer, July. The 12th. Occasion ? Pappy Bush's 80th, and after pappy floated down from the sky, parachuted down to Houston's Minute Maid Park that is, after the day's celebratory birthday festivities, the gang, George W. Bush, George Bush Sr. ("41"), Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Larry King, Randy Travis and John McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee went off to a tacky Asian restaurant where, amidst the Mai-Tai and Poo-poo platterness, the gold paint and umbrellas, they schmoozed, probably discussing Hagee's upcoming role in the evangelical GOTV effort that helped give us another four years of George W. Bush. It's very likely GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain will have his own summer '08 GOTV meeting with Hagee, whose reach has greatly expanded since 2004, but McCain will probably make sure that no pictures wander out into the public domain. [full-size pictures inside]

Jill Lepore has a wise and erudite article in The New Yorker about four recent books about the Founding Fathers and their approach to religion and government.  All four books debunk Christian nationalism, and Lepore takes a whack at a little historical revisionism from Tim LaHaye along the way herself.  But most importantly, Lepore has a useful and illuminating take on the tricks history plays on us, as various of us attempt to press characters from history to score contemporary points.

How do you react when people tell you they're evangelicals?

Do you think that they simply want to share their faith - or do you start making assumptions about their political views?

Jeremiah Wright? Come on.

The Moonies have just trumpeted the latest delegation of their dreaded leader, Sun Myung Moon, to the Bush presidential library in College Station, TX. The occasion: a statesmanlike party, from April 28 to May 2, 2008, celebrating Moon's dreams of influencing world events and burying Jesus Christ.

The host: George H.W. Bush.

I first ran across Texe Marrs through a book circulating in my Senior Adult department in church. Texe had published a book he claims to have sold nearly a half million copies of over a decade ago.  The book was called BIG SISTER IS WATCHING YOU. The jest of the manuscript was that Hillary Clinton was working secretly with Janet Reno to destroy Christianity and overthrow the nation through a lesbian network.
see www.powerofprophecy.com

It was as if Barry Lynn or some ACLU imp had temporarily seized control of Hillary Clinton's brain and vocal cords, causing her to say things that radically contradicted her enthusiasm for a watered-down version of Christian supremacy, evidenced in Clinton's longstanding support for legislative measures that have attacked church-state separation.

Clinton's point on the constitutional problems inherent to government funding of school vouchers had Socratic force and the simplicity of one of Einstein's thought-experiments but it may have been less than political genius for Clinton to compare Catholics, Jews, white supremacists and Jihadis. [hat tip to Americablog. The video clip is dated Feb. 21 and it seems most likely to have been recorded February '07 or '08 ]

WND touts the upcoming "Southern California Strategic Perspectives Conference":

WND founder Joseph Farah joins "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye, former terrorist Walid Shoebat, evangelist Ray Comfort, best-selling author Joel Rosenberg, Koinonia Institute founder Chuck Missler and more...

Other presenters will include Gen. Shimon Erem of the Israel Defense Forces, radio commentator and author Paul McGuire and archeologist Bob Cornuke.

The conference takes place at Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills and is jointly sponsored by the Koinonia Institute and radio station KBRT.

Most of these characters, of course, need no introduction, although it's fun to see them lined up together.

The Catholic Right, Part Fifty-six
On Tuesday I read the news that Cardinal Edward Egan (Archdiocese of New York) criticized former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for taking Communion during a Mass attended by Pope Benedict XVI.  This comes as no surprise, as the archbishop was repeating an  an increasingly common Catholic Right refrain - that those who support a woman's right to choose should be denied Communion.

How far will the Catholic hierarchy go in silencing dissidents in the U.S.? We are familiar (as Frank Cocozzelli has reported) with the very public denial of communion to politicians who disagree with the Church on abortion. We know how Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit was forbidden from speaking out about the priest sex abuse scandals rocking the Church. And we know about the many times Catholic colleges and universities have barred from campus speakers who happen to disagree with the Church on abortion and other matters.

But this authoritarian trend may be broadening and deepening in ways that cannot be good for the health of democracy in America, let alone the church.

Most recently, the hierarchy in Minnesota ordered a local parish not to allow a professor from the University of Minnesota medical school speak to an adult education class about torture. According to Steven Miles, M.D., the hierarchy made their decision based on lobbying from the Minnesota affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee (an integral part of the Religious Right in the U.S.)

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is a former President of Sierra Leone, and a long-serving UN official. A few days ago he gave the keynote address to a Universal Peace Federation leadership conference, in which he explicitly endorsed Rev Moon, not just as a humanitarian, but as a spiritual leader "come on behalf of God" who has already achieved victory in "the spiritual world". In fact, Kabbah's speech was a summary of Unification Church theology:

Through this process Rev Moon came to know that the original fall of humanity occurred through the breakdown of God's ideal of marriage and family. That is, the love of men and women in marriage was corrupted. This is the true meaning of the biblical story of the Fall of Adam and Eve.

...The rise of the UPF is directly linked to a moral and spiritual awakening on a global level. Rev. Moon described this as the "age after the coming of heaven". It is also the age of cheonilguk, the age in which a new "nation" is being established that has no national, racial, religious or cultural boundaries.

Kabbah's announcement comes just weeks after African Union representative Alice Mungwa told a UPF meeting in Seoul that the African Union would become a "Giant Ambassador for Peace", the phrase evoking the UPF "Ambassador for Peace" awards that have been given to many prominent individuals around the world.

We are very pleased to welcome guest front pager Jim Naughton, who is the editor of Episcopal Cafe, where this post first appeared. -- FC

In today's Washington Post, columnist Michael Gerson once again takes Sen. Barack Obama to task for his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In breaking with Wright, Gerson writes, Obama has woken from a theological slumber. But contrast Wright's words and actions with those of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, the leader of Gerson's church, and ask yourself who has been sleeping.  

Gerson is a member of the Falls Church in Falls Church, Va. His congregation and the nearby Truro Church, played the key role in leading 11 Virginia parishes out of the Episcopal Church after the Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man as bishop in 2003. Most of these parishes joined the Church of Nigeria, which Akinola leads.  

Over the past four years, I've researched the darkest regions of the Christian right for the non-fiction film Silhouette City. The film tracks the movement of apocalyptic Christian nationalism from the margins of American society to its current presence in the mainstream of public discourse and policy. I began making Silhouette City because, in late 2001, I began to hear echoes of the Christian extremism from my childhood in Arkansas. In order to quiet the ringing in my ears, I immersed myself in the contemporary Christian right - the media, music, ministries, books, personalities and organizational apparatuses. Those familiar with the excesses of the movement (and their opponents) can be excused for collectively yawning in the face of yet another seemingly alarmist diatribe on the subject of crusading religionists, but apocalyptic Christian nationalism doesn't simply lose its adherents because the media narrative has shifted. As the economy continues to slide, the energy crisis becomes palpable and the occupation of Iraq appears indefinite, the potential grows for a major disruption of daily life. A significant percentage of the population (1) sees these looming crises through a specific lens: a belief that humanity is waging the opening skirmishes of a cosmic war between Good and Evil that will usher in the Kingdom of God. Such belief enables an ever-escalating sense of urgency - very real threats to the middle and lower classes (outsourcing, rising fuel and food costs, etc) combine with perceived threats (secularism, homosexuality, ethnic/religious others) to become overwhelming evidence of the tribulations that signal apocalypse.

The initial controversy over Pastor John Hagee's highly public endorsement of Senator John McCain's presidential bid, at a nationally televised press conference viewed potentially by millions of Americans, arose when the Catholic League, a far-right Catholic defense organization headed by William Donahue, attacked the endorsement on the basis that Hagee was virulently anti-Catholic. Beyond Hagee's demonizing of Catholics and Catholicism, pastor Hagee appears radically anti-American to the extent that he hopes and expects, as evidenced by a 2006 Hagee appearance on WHYY's "Fresh Air" radio show and also in Hagee's 2006 best-seller "Jerusalem Countdown", that God will incinerate most Americans now living - with a nuclear strike on America's coastal regions. In 2006 Presidential hopeful John McCain appeared to hold a similar view on possible outcomes of a US war with Iran. In an April 2nd, 2006 appearance on Meet The Press, Senator John McCain, describing to Tim Russert McCain's view of the possible result of a US war with Iran, declared war with Iran "could be Armageddon".

It must be so much easier to write for the rightwing press, where ideology trumps facts and wishful thinking casts a dark haze as broad and deep as summer in LA.

For an excellent example -- look no further than the fresh screed served up by the National Review Online, which falsley attributes Steve Martin's independently financed and produced film Renewal or Ruin? The Institute on Religion and Democracy's Attack on the United Methodist Church to... Talk to Action. True, Steve recently posted the film and transcript in its entiretry here, but that does not mean that this site had anything to do with the production of the film. The NRO article also claims that the film just came out, when in fact the film was released more than a year ago. (But never let the facts get in the way of a good smear!) More importantly, in his effort to undermine the credibility of the film and interviewees,  NRO staff writer Mark Hemingway manages not to mention the title of the film; that it is about IRD; or even address the substance of concerns expressed in the film or the underlying facts. But he does manage to quote IRD staffer Mark Tooley as an authoritative source about the UMC.

Like other of the various slimings produced by IRD staff and their friends over the past year or so (even recently), Hemingway is engaging in dishonest diversionary tactics.

In a sermon given at his San Antonio, Texas Cornerstone megachurch that was telecast and available in up to ninety million homes worldwide, controversial pastor John Hagee, who has endorsed the presidential bid of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, Jr., claimed that American public schools provide abortion services. Hagee stated, "Your daughter can get an abortion in public school without telling you but she can't get an aspirin without your approval." The pastor also claimed that public school teachers can force their students to study a "precursor to witchcraft" and suggests that America has invited "satan" and demonic spirits into its public school systems by failing to display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. Presidential hopeful John McCain, Jr. has said he is "glad to have" Hagee's support and "admires" the leadership of the Texas pastor - who has declared God has cursed and doomed America. [below: in sermon segment, pastor John Hagee claims public schools provide abortion for students.]

May First is the National Day of Prayer - aka the Official National Day of Religious Supremacism.

The congressionally authorized event is held annually, and the franchise to host official, and often controversial Day- related events is held by Shirley Dobson, wife of James. The official National Day of Prayer Taskforce operates out of the HQ of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. The legislation authorizing also reveals the role of the secretive network known as The Family, in shaping our national culture and political conversation, as detailed in the forthcoming book by Jeff Sharlet, who gave me permission to reveal some important facts from the manuscript of The Family:  The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.  

[NEW!, May 2nd 2008: McCain Endorser Pastor Hagee's 'Thrilling' Scenario Includes Nuclear Strike on US Coasts]

"As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now." That ominous slam at America came from Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought, secured, and recently affirmed to ABC News that he is "glad to have." Hagee claims God's "curse" and "doom" is upon America because of two key issues: reproductive freedom and broad support for the teaching of the theory of evolution.

Although Senator McCain recently told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that his seeking of Hagee's endorsement was "probably" a mistake, he then doubled back to affirm his approval of Hagee's endorsement, stating, "I'm glad to have it."

If McCain did not know of Hagee's belief that God is against America, he should have: Hagee's pronouncement of God's "curse" and "doom" on our nation was not a passing comment. It was a major theme of Hagee's book, Day of Deception (1997). In fact, Hagee devotes a whole chapter to it. Here's the curse and doom quote in context:

In "America Under a Curse," a seventeen page chapter in Day of Deception, John Hagee wrote, "As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now. Look at the scriptures and see for yourself. The stand we have taken on abortion, the stand we have taken against God in our classrooms, just may have sealed or doom."

The Family Research Council (FRC) has big plans for this election year - perhaps even legally questionable ones.

Kenyn Cureton, FRC's vice president for church ministries, appeared April 22 on Religious Right activist Janet Folger's "Faith2Action" radio program, discussing his organization's plans for mobilizing pastors this year. He may have been a little too frank.