February, 2007

With apparently upcoming feature in CNN documentary.

“There is no constitutional conflict in using tax dollars to fund faith-based initiatives,” reasons Sekulow.

Moore calls for Congress to attempt stripping court jurisdiction over establishment of religion.

Oklahoma oil execs and new Sonics owners bankrolled Gary Bauer’s Americans United to Preserve Marriage.

Attacking Justice Ginsburg for “pandering” to “Humanist[s]” and others.

Commenting on Utah court’s denial of visitation rights for ex-partner.

Weyrich unconvinced: He “made it clear that he hates the Religious Right.”

Claims his Time article denouncing gay parents was “entirely respectful.”

In state with gay marriage, Religious Right-backed parents sued over optional mention of gays. More here.

“Citizens for Legal Communities” target landlords, employers in Springboro.

The Alliance for Marriage, a group founded to agitate for a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, is starting a “Marriage Protection Caucus” of state legislators as part of a “fifty-state strategy.” Citing November’s “shift in the balance of power in Washington,” AFM President Matt Daniels says he is building support for future ratification of such an amendment in state legislators – but at the same time, the group is pushing for more states to amend their own constitutions to prevent gay marriage.

Other groups fighting against gay unions, such as Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, are welcoming the move, but they are looking beyond marriage to other legal protections they could ban:

"The first phase of the fight has been passing state marriage amendments declaring marriage as one man and one woman," [Focus on the Family Action’s Carrie Gordon] Earll said. "However, the next phase will be fighting against what has been called 'marriage lite' -- passage of counterfeit marriage efforts through domestic partnership and civil union legislation. That's where the battle lies, and we welcome everyone who will help with it."

AFM gave its supporters a preview of their new strategy in an e-mail last November, and in addition to “expanding our massive power base in the states,” apparently manifested in its new “Marriage Protection Caucus,” it plans on “deploying” minorities and making the case that same-sex unions portend “the loss of civil rights for those who believe in the timeless definition of marriage.”

Discussing Alexandra Pelosi’s recent documentary “Friends of God,” veteran religious-right activist and Republican campaigner Gary Bauer identifies the crux of his disagreement in Pelosi’s suggestion that, beyond the wedge issues of abortion and gay rights, liberals and conservative Christians may find they have common ground. According to Bauer, “evangelicals will never be able to ‘move past’ abortion”:

Pelosi's answer exemplifies a belief gaining popularity in the mainstream media: that if evangelicals would only look beyond "wedge issues" like abortion and same-sex marriage, some common ground might be found.

This view suggests that these are merely a few among a laundry list of important public policy questions. But, for the vast majority of evangelicals, the right to life and the definition of marriage are fundamentally and inescapably moral theological issues. Take the right to life, whose importance is rooted in the Christian belief that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. The centrality of the human person to the Christian worldview helps evangelicals think about and prioritize every political issue that arises, with those policies and laws that pose the gravest threat to human life placed at the top of the agenda. It also helps explain why evangelicals will never be able to "move past" abortion, as Pelosi and many others on the Left hope. The same can be said for issues relating to marriage, family and, of course, the role of religion in public life.

But while these issues keep activists like Bauer in business, they are not the issues that Evangelicals use to determine how they vote. According to the Center for American Values in Public Life’s American Values Survey, just 19 percent of Evangelicals chose abortion and same-sex marriage as the kinds of issues “most important in the United States today.” In contrast, 77 percent cited poverty and affordable health care.

It appears as if at least one legislator in Arizona doesn’t think David Horowitz’s “Academic Bill of Rights” deserves only to be mocked and dismissed – rather, he thinks it is such a good idea that it ought to be turned into law:

To muzzle instructors who champion political views in classrooms, a Republican state legislator has proposed a law that would punish public school teachers and professors for not being impartial in the classroom.

If the idea were to become law, teachers said they might shy away from teaching controversial issues out of fear of being misunderstood and punished.

Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, wrote the bill that has drawn a stream of criticism and support since it received preliminary approval in a Senate committee this month.

…

Verschoor said his bill would protect students who are afraid to clash with instructors.

"This is absolutely about academic freedom. It allows students to practice their First Amendment right without fear of a poor grade because of it or any retaliation because they disagree with the instructor," Verschoor said during a recent Senate committee hearing.

The Los Angeles Times reports that failed congressional candidate and Minutemen co-founder Jim Gilchrist is fighting a pitched battle against the organization’s board after being ousted for mismanagement:

Gilchrist, 58, a national figure in the fight against illegal immigration, was removed as president of the Minuteman Project this month by its board of directors, which accused him of abusing his power and leaving more than $400,000 of the organization's money unaccounted for.

…

Deborah Courtney, the group's recently appointed treasurer, said in an interview that a direct mail company helped raise $750,000 for the group in 2006, but that she believes the Minuteman campaign received only $311,000. Courtney said she and others had been unable to trace the rest of the money.

…

They also said he should not have used $13,000 in Minuteman funds to defend himself in court against their allegations. He said the group must pay to defend itself against "rogues."

…

Some of Gilchrist's opponents recently filed a complaint against their former leader with the Internal Revenue Service, alleging that he did not obtain nonprofit status for the group. They say he improperly received a 40% discount nonprofit postal rate by using another organization's nonprofit status.

Sekulow claims faith-based programs beyond question from taxpayers. More on the case here.

With no clear pick, group “risks relegation to the margins.” Meanwhile: Brownback on the trail to prove his viability.

That includes “respect” for gays.

DOJ program, launched at SBC, “further confirms” freedom in “serious danger” from “sustained attacks by the ACLU and its allies.”

They “may have seen the light” on wedge issues.

Dobson refuses to meet with Soulforce. Also: Group partners with Truth Wins Out to unmask distortion of research.

Rohrabacher calls Bush “mean-spirited and vindictive.”