Clipmarks | Johanna_G's 'religious right' clips

Theocracy Rejected: Former Christian Right Leaders 'Fess up

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:32:02 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks:

About 30 years ago, a young lawyer named John W. Whitehead worked alongside people like Jerry Falwell to help birth the Religious Right. Hoping to give the movement an intellectual grounding, Whitehead penned a series of books attacking the separation of church and state and demanding a government based on Christian fundamentalism.
Whitehead's books -- The Separation Illusion, The Second American Revolution and The Stealing of America -- made him a popular figure in Religious Right circles.
Whitehead repudiated theocracy years ago. It's unlikely he'd be welcome at a CNP meeting now.
"Politics," he said in a recent interview, "would never even figure into Jesus' mind. He was a homeless person. He was like Gandhi. It wasn't in the picture. Christianity was not founded on politics. It was founded on helping the less fortunate .... That's how you impact culture."

Schaeffer and Whitehead are two high-profile Religious Right apostates, but they aren't the only ones.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Frank Schaeffer spent several years making a good living writing books promoting the Religious Right's worldview and speaking before rapturous crowds of fundamentalist Christians.

Schaeffer, the son of evangelical guru Francis Schaeffer, was the closest thing to a rock star that politically conservative fundamentalism can offer. As the Religious Right soared in the 1980s, Schaeffer was there to ride the wave. Young, bright and charismatic, he could have founded his own Religious Right group or perhaps even launched a political career.

Twenty years have passed. What does Schaeffer think of the Religious Right today? He wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 10-foot pole -- and the feeling is mutual. A spiritual and professional crisis brought Schaeffer to the understanding that the Religious Right has it all wrong.

"My doubts really began when I realized that the people we were working with on the Religious Right were profoundly anti-American," Schaeffer said in a recent interview.

Tags: christian right, usa, theocracy, theopolitics

Right Wing Televangelist Blames Hurricane Katrina on Gay Pride and More [VIDEO]

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:33:47 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

There's been a lot of chatter over the last few days about John McCain's embrace of Pastor John Hagee, who's well-known for a history of anti-Catholicism and claims that God will send terrorists to create a "bloodbath" in America for its support of a two state solution in Israel/Palestine. So what is it exactly that Hagee's said and just how much has McCain cozied up to him? We thought we'd put all the choicest moments into one quick video so you could take a look and make up your own mind.

Tags: anti-catholicism, religious intolerance, religious right, hurricane katrina, mccain, hagee

"Million Fag March" Turns the Tables on Homophobic Pastor Fred Phelps

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:30:37 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Finally, someone is protesting the world's most odious protester. The Million Fag March is set for Sunday morning, March 30 in Topeka, Kan., home of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church.

Clip Source: farm1.static.flickr.com

Clip Source: www.officiallyretarded.net

Clip Source: farm1.static.flickr.com

Clip Source: media.49abcnews.com

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Fred and his family (13 children and 54 grandchildren) show up at military funerals with signs reading, "God Hates Fags," "God Hates America," "Fags Die, God Laughs," etc. Fred apparently arrives at these insights after personal discussions with The Creator wherein He tells Fred that everything bad that happens in the world is His revenge for America "tolerating" gays.

Organizers say it's time to "show Phelps and his church that freedom of speech works both ways."

the march might have to take place in Topeka but not too close to Westboro Baptist.

Organizers are determined to keep the protest peaceful, but since Fred's whole goal is to whip up feelings of intolerance and hate, not responding in kind will be a toughie.

You can sign up here.

Tags: homophobia, phelps, religious right, westboro baptist church, topeka

Hijab is a personal choice not state law in Turkey

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:04:28 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks:

In the early eighties, Iran imposed the hijab on its female citizens, while Syria banned it from schools during the same period. Syria gradually came to terms with the hijab, as the number of Syrian women who chose to wear it increased drastically during the nineties.

The hijab is enforced today in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and banned in Tunisia [...]. France banned the hijab in 2004, and far right politicians and pundits are calling for similar bans in other European countries [...].

The Turkish parliament passed [...] a constitutional amendment that practically repealed early constitutional provisions that allowed the Turkish government to ban [...] the hijab from government buildings, universities, and schools. Although the lifting of the ban is not in force yet, the confrontation over this issue with secularists who control the military and the courts has already started. Secularist Turks are up in arms, protesting the new amendment [...].

Clip Source: onlinejournal.com

In most societies, the decision to wear a headscarf, or to take it off, is a personal choice.

Yet, the real problem is not in the decision a woman makes, but in the politicization of that decision. The problem lies in the moral inconsistency and the use of double standards in addressing an issue concerning individual choice and freedom of expression. The only morally defensible position is denying the state the right to either force or prohibit people to follow practices they genuinely believe to be required by their religious traditions, particularly when these practices do not violate the rights of others.

The argument to ban the hijab often rests on a paternalistic attitude derived from the dominant position enjoyed by the group to which the person who advocate the hijab ban belongs. For decades now, anti-hijab writers refused to consider it as a personal choice and an individual right, protected under international humanitarian law.

Tags: hijab, headscarf, muslim world, turkey, syria, iran, tunesia, paternalism

Saudi woman to be beheaded for being a "witch"

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:28:49 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Being beheaded by sword in a public place... For being a "witch" or practising "witchcraft"...

Welcome back to the Middle Ages: "Burn the witch!" or "Behead the witch!", by the name of God.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the US, who enthusiastically invaded Iraq to bring "human rights and democracy" to Arabs, right?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Many Saudi executions are beheadings by the sword in public places

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

Human Rights Watch says the trial failed to meet the safeguards in the Saudi justice system.

The confession which the defendant was forced to fingerprint was not even read out to her, the group says.

Also Ms Falih and her representatives were not allowed to attend most of the hearings.

Tags: religion, bigotry, theocracy, idiocy, saudi arabia, justice, law, witchcraft

The true miracle of Israel

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:26:52 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks:

Israel's existence is portrayed as a resurrection of sorts: from near-annihilation to a "miraculous" rebirth. [...] In the United States, Christian Zionists [...] see their allegiance to Israel as a religious duty.
[...]
When an American politician, for example, is accused of not standing "fully behind Israel," the accusation [...] stands on its own, like a biblical command that has survived the test of time and reason: Thou shalt stand fully behind Israel.
[...]
As the 60th anniversary of the so-called birth of Israel draws near, a most impressive -- albeit grotesque -- misrepresentation of that history will be offered in abundance[...], omitting how Israel was delivered on top of the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages. The killing and ethnic cleansing that became known as the Palestinian Catastrophe -- or Nakba -- was not the work of invisible and miraculous seraphs, but rather well trained and well-armed Zionist gangs and their supporters.

Clip Source: onlinejournal.com

Israelis and their supporters tend to depict Israel as a country of miracles

making the "desert bloom"

Palestinians continue to be depicted as "their own worst enemies," a people who "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" and who stand outside the parameters of rational human behaviour.

Such depictions -- of luminous, civilised Israelis facing wicked, backward Arabs -- are the building blocks of a polemic sold tirelessly by Israeli, American and Western media. Most often, it goes unchallenged, thus defining the West's understanding of Israel and its moral "right to exist." The argument is rooted in the horrors of the Jewish holocaust; however, Israel's handlers have managed to turn deserved sympathy for that tragedy into an unwarranted assertion, somehow equating Palestinians with Nazi Germany in order to justify a constant state of war in the name of self-defence.

Never in history has a story been so slanted as that of Palestine and Israel.

Tags: israel, palestine, zionism

Non Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:34:56 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: ''Toeing the party line for the church is not my job; telling the truth is my job. I don't fear saying that certain Republican policies are painful for God to endure.''

Clip Source: www.happynews.com

Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Donald Miller still loves God and Jesus. Don't misunderstand him.

His problem is with Christianity, at least how it's often practiced.

For him, the word conjured up conservative politics, suburban consumerism and an ''insensitivity to people who aren't like us.''

Supporters say Donald Miller's authentic, graceful approach to God has finally given a voice to their brand of Christianity.

Christians longing to connect to God without ties to the religious right

Christians tired of the ''life is perfect'' mantra

the conservative religious network was many people's baseline for Christianity.

''These people are absurd. I've been a Christian all my life and I don't even know Christians this weird,''

''Unchristian.''

was this underlying hostility for homosexuals and Democrats and, well, hippie types.

your Christian faith doesn't have to look exactly like everybody's else's

God isn't a Republican.

Tags: taking, back, christianity, from, the, weirdos

What Religion's Blind Stranglehold on America Is Doing to Our Democracy

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:00:51 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks:

[It is easy] to go from "there is a fixed truth" to "I have that fixed truth."
[...]
Words alone are rarely enough to reassure the uncertain. In fact, the more people rely on faith talk to pursue certainty, the more they may actually reinforce both anxiety and uncertainty. It's a small step indeed to move beyond the issue of individual self-control to controlling others through the passage of laws.
[...]
All too often, [...] the faith-talk view of freedom ends up taking away freedom.
[...]
In itself, faith in politics poses no great danger to democracy as long as the debates are really about policies -- and religious values are translated into political values, articulated in ways that can be rationally debated by people who don't share them. The challenge is not to get religion out of politics. It's to get the quest for certitude out of politics.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

In a time when the world seems like a shaky place -- whether you have a child in Iraq, a mortgage you may not be able to meet, a pension threatening to head south, a job evaporating under you, a loved one battling drug or alcohol addiction, an ex who just came out as gay or born-again, or a president you just can't trust -- you may begin to wonder whether there is any moral order in the universe. Are the very foundations of society so shaky that they might not hold up for long? Words about faith -- nearly any words -- speak reassuringly to such fears, which haunt millions of Americans.

These fears and the religious responses to them have been a key to the political success of the religious right in recent decades.

When religious language enters the political arena in this way, as an end in itself, it always sends the same symbolic message:

You are not adrift in a sea of moral chaos. Elect me

Should we turn the political arena into a stage to dramatize our quest for moral certainty?

no --

Tags: usa, democracy, faith, religion, campaign 2008, election 2008

Governor Romney's "Faith In America" Address (20 min video)

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:46:38 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

Steve Benen: Right-wing Iowa caucus voters, who are already pre-disposed not to like Mormons, don't much care for "religious tolerance."

Why Romney's "Religion Speech" Won't Work

After listening to right wing pundits like Pat Buchanan repeatedly praise Romney's over-hyped "faith speech", guest commentator Lawrence O'Donnell got mad as hell because he just couldn't take it anymore.

The McLaughlin Group Mormonism Meltdown (VIDEO)

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

December 06, 2007

Tags: romney, faith, usa, religion, mormon, texas, bush

Texas, Science Curriculum, and the Legitimacy of Intelligent Design

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:06:46 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Texas has been home to a fierce debate recently over teaching creationism vs. evolutionary theories in school.

Clip Source: pandagon.blogsome.com

It appears that the director of the statewide science curriculum Chris Corner was fired for having the nerve to forward an email that indicated that she might just believe that the science classroom is for science and not for religious indoctrination.

Clip Source: pandagon.blogsome.com

The education agency, of course, portrays the problem as one of insubordination and misconduct. But from all appearances, Comer was pushed out because the agency is enforcing a political doctrine of strict conservatism that allows no criticism of creationism……

Texas really might be the ground zero for the spreading and insidious philosophy that the public schools should not be in the business of education, but in the business of proselytizing about the justness of the cultural dominance of white, well-off fundamentalist Christians and their worldview.

Tags: usa, texas, intelligent design, evolution, religious right, comer, education

Bridging The God Gap Between Left and Right

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:45:24 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: "He is quite adept at splicing together his personal religious experiences with talk about faith and politics."

Clip Source: www.cwfa.org

Democrat Barack Obama,

has made headlines recently by talking about religion and politics. In the process, he has alienated Democrats and Republicans alike: Democrats were offended when he said “not every mention of God in the public square is a breach to the wall of separation,” and conservative Republicans were outraged when he kept referring to religious conservatives as “those people” and described them as “heavy-handed.”

Democrats were just as uneasy as Republicans when he argued that his political party ought to make a place in public discourse for religious rhetoric and a place in public policy for faith-based issues.

When Obama challenges members of the left to express their “hopes and values” to make them more relevant to evangelicals

he claims that leftist evangelical Jim Wallis “gets it” in terms of the political left’s “religious” values.

He proclaimed a desire for a “deeper, fuller conversation about religion in this country.”

efforts to “close the faith gap with the GOP.”

Tags: truth, politics, candidates, empty

Why Isn't America More Christ-Like?

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:56:01 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

If Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers then why do more than 70% of the religious right support the war in Iraq and a potential war in Iran?

If Jesus warned that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword then why has Blackwater gotten rich serving a Christian president?

If the Bible prophesied swords shall be beat into plowshares then why does the religious right support huge military spending?

If Jesus taught to pray for your enemies and wish them well then why are we waging war to wipe them out?

If Jesus admitted that not even he knew the day and hour of the end of days then why do so many religious righters make a career off predicting Armageddon?

If Jesus instructed that the mercy you show will be the mercy you are shown then why are conservative Christians so much in favor of the death penalty?

If Jesus gave notice that whoever does unto one of these little ones is doing in my name then why don’t all American children have health coverage?

Tags: some, good, questions

A Look into the Muslim Headscarf Hysteria in France

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:08:17 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

The Conseil d'État eventually ruled that students could not be refused admission simply for wearing headscarves, but it also gave teachers and principals the power to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether such signs of religious affiliation were permissible.
[...]
In 2003, [...] two teenage sisters [...] were expelled from their high school [...] for refusing to take off their headscarves. The Lévy sisters are the daughters of a lawyer who considers himself "a Jew without God" and a Kabyle teacher who had been baptized a Catholic during the Algerian war. The girls had converted to Islam after their parents' separation and had donned the scarves as part of that process. In an interview with Le Monde, the girls' father declared, "I am not in favor of the headscarf, but I defend the right of my children to go to school. In the course of this business I've discovered the hysterical madness of certain ayatollahs of secularism who have lost all their common sense."

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

"A kind of aggression." "A successor to the Berlin Wall." "A lever in the long power struggle between democratic values and fundamentalism." "An insult to education." "A terrorist operation." These descriptions -- by former French President Jacques Chirac; economist Jacques Attali; and philosophers Bernard-Henri Lévy, Alain Finkielkraut and André Glucksmann -- do not refer to the next great menace to human civilization but rather to the Muslim woman's headscarf, which covers the hair and neck, or, as it is known in France, the foulard islamique.

In her keenly observed book The Politics of the Veil, historian Joan Wallach Scott examines the particular French obsession with the foulard, which culminated in March 2004 with the adoption of a law that made it illegal for students to display any "conspicuous signs" of religious affiliation.

enforce laïcité, the French notion of secularism, in the school

Tags: muslim, veil, france, muslima

Southern Baptists Seek Laws Making 'Will Of Christ' Supreme

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:42:34 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Religious right leader Richard Land is working to turn America's 16 million Southern Baptists into a disciplined political machine.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the nation's largest Protestant denomination whose leadership is a bulwark of far-right fundamentalism, is ratcheting up its political operations.

Apparently the "will of Christ" just happens to dovetail with the policy goals of the far right. According to the ERLC Web site, the unit takes stands on legislation and pushes for the confirmation of Bush court appointees. The issues tackled run the usual Religious Right gamut -- opposing legal abortion, gay rights, hate-crimes laws and stem-cell research and supporting "court-stripping" legislation and other efforts to make it harder to pursue church-state separation claims in federal court.

Southern Baptists, historically, were ardent supporters of church-state separation.

Tags: usa, church and state, southern baptist convention, ethics and religious liberty commission

The Pentagon Sends Messengers of Apocalypse to Convert Soldiers in Iraq

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:03:48 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks: Oh, when the worms are marching on...

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore's sidekick in comedy masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling these days.

Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq" in the near future.

"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."

Tags: armageddon, army, end time, evangelicals, fundamentalism, religious right, theopolitics, usa