August 2007

Yesterday, we wrote about the upcoming “Values Voter Presidential Debate” being held in Florida next month where a “majority of the Republican candidates” have agreed to be publicly grilled by the likes of Phyllis Schlafly, Don Wildmon, Roy Moore, Janet Folger, and Rick Scarborough.  

Of course, the question was just which candidates this “majority” included – and now, thanks to the American Family Association and the most recent “Rick Scarborough Report,” we know that it doesn’t include any of the top tier candidates:

On September 17, Vision America will join forces with some of the largest pro-family organizations in America to host the first ever, Values Voter Debate. Eight republican candidates to date have agreed to be there, and we are in hopes of seeing every candidate participate. Every sponsoring group will be allowed to ask one question. I am seeking your input as to the question I should ask. Please click here to vote on your favorite question. We will announce the results of this poll next week.

We also need your phone calls to the not yet confirmed candidates. Their phones need to be ringing off the hook in a demonstration of the amount of people they are snubbing if they refuse to come and our determination to be heard and have our concerns addressed! Please take the time to call.

Rudy Giuliani - 212-835-9449

Mitt Romney - 857-288-6400 (850-254-7959 Florida office)

John McCain - 703-418-2008

Fred Thompson - 615-390-9944

As the organizers of the event recently said: “All of the candidates who place our values (and our votes) as a priority will be there.” 

So do Giuliani, McCain, Romney, and Thompson value these self-described “values voters” enough to cave to the pressure now being put on them to attend this debate?  That remains to be seen.    

Vision America's Rick Scarborough thanks "CNN for being fair and balanced in presenting our efforts" on their series and says "had I personally edited the footage to tell our message to the church, I couldn’t have done a better job."

That is the advice of WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah: "At least part of the city has been destroyed. And it should never be rebuilt, again. You know who is calling for it to be rebuilt at any cost? The same idiots who didn't lift a finger to evacuate the city."

Last week, The Barna Group, an evangelical Christian research and publishing outfit, released a poll saying that the priorities of evangelicals are far different than those of other Americans.

Other polls suggest that many evangelical Christians in fact have priorities that are closer to the public at large than to those of the Religious Right’s self-proclaimed leaders.  So why would an organization whose purpose is “to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States” proclaim that evangelicals are out of the political mainstream?

It could be about the struggle within the Religious Right over who speaks for evangelical Christians.  Movement leaders like James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council insist that criminalizing abortion and opposing legal equality for gay people must remain the overriding priorities for Christian involvement in the public square.  The emergence of an active pro-environment movement among evangelicals has provoked foot-stomping outrage from the likes of Dobson and Perkins.

Barna weighs in with the supposed finding that evangelicals consider the environment a low priority:

… evangelicals stood out regarding their views on the environment. Only 35% said that protecting the environment should be a top priority - the lowest score recorded among any of the 80 subgroups studied. The national average was 60%.

But the environment is not the only issue in which Barna finds evangelicals out of the mainstream:

D. James Kennedy, who built up Fort Lauderdale, Florida megachurch and television empire over the last half-century, has officially retired, eight months after he was first hospitalized following a heart attack. Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has nearly 10,000 members, and his broadcast ministry claims 3.5 million listeners and viewers, but he is best known as one of the founding figures of the Religious Right in the early 1980s, known as the “Ivy League Jerry Falwell.”

Kennedy, who once said that “the diabolical mission” of People For the American Way was “to crush the influence of the Christian religion in American society,” became active in political issues from battling pornography, “secularized” education, abortion, and civil rights for gays to supporting Reagan administration policies like SDI, Iran-Contra, and the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. His involvement grew in the 1990s and 2000s, as he organized national conferences for religious-right activism and expanded his influence in Washington.

The 76-year-old Kennedy’s retirement comes just a few months after the death of Jerry Falwell, and again heralds the inevitable passing of the older generation of religious-right leaders -- Falwell, Kennedy, 71-year-old James Dobson, 69-year-old Don Wildmon, and others who built the infrastructure and set the pattern for fundamentalism-charged politics.

Much more on D. James Kennedy’s political career below.

Earlier this month, Vision America President Rick Scarborough derided Democratic candidates who attended a forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and Logo TV by writing, “What’s next? The Cross Dresser Debates? Or perhaps the NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Lovers Association) Debates? Or here’s one for the ages -- The Bestiality Debates.”

Now, Scarborough has revealed that he will take time away from his 70-week electoral “crusade” to join Phyllis Schlafly, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Janet Folger in interrogating at least 7 Republican candidates at the so-called “Values Voter Debate” next month in Florida, leading those of us following the parade of GOP contenders wooing the Religious Right to ask: What’s next?

Writes Scarborough:

It's time for the candidates to be asked whether homosexuality is a sin. It's time for them to declare whether the killing of the unborn is ever right. It's time for them to answer whether their Justice Department would prosecute preaching biblical truths as hate crimes.

For candidates nervous about appearing before these far-right luminaries, Scarborough has posted a crib sheet of potential questions he may ask:

The 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference is coming up in October in Nevada. Speakers include: Grover Norquist, Dick Armey, Richard Viguerie, and Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Project, among others.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed Vision Americas’ Rick Scarborough for her series "God's Warrirors" amidst his seventy-week “crusade” to save America and rally right-wing voters ahead of next year’s election. In this clip, Scarborough rails against sex education, hate crimes legislation, and gay marriage while calling for the impeachment of federal judges.

Transcript after the jump

Now that Alberto Gonzales has resigned from his position as Attorney General, the Right is desperately trying to put together some complimentary parting remarks about his pathetic performance in office  - and so far this is the best they have been able to come up with:

"Alberto Gonzales' work as White House counsel filling judicial vacancies with qualified nominees who respect the Constitution will have a lasting effect in bringing integrity back to our courts," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative lobbying group. "His example, coming from humble beginnings as one of eight children and as the son of migrant workers to becoming U.S. attorney general, should inspire others to achieve the American dream."

This, of course, provides us with an opportunity to take a look back at 2005 when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement.  At the time, rumors swirled that President Bush was considering nominating Gonzales to fill her seat and the Right was apoplectic:

Newsweek correctly states that “Gonzales is the only A-list contender who religious conservatives pledge, upfront, to fight.” The article quotes Tom Minnery of Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family saying outright about a potential Gonzales nomination: “We'd oppose him.”

In the same article, Manuel Miranda, head of the recently formed coalition of extreme conservative groups called the “Third Branch Conference” and a former Frist staffer fired for unethically reading internal Democratic judiciary staff communications, warned that a Gonzales nomination could doom the Republican Party in upcoming elections: “If the president is foolish enough to nominate Al Gonzales, what he will find is a divided base that will take it out on candidates in 2006.” Miranda went on to threaten retribution against Florida Governor Jeb Bush, if he decides to run for president. “We're not Republican patsies,” he said. “Jeb Bush can go sell insurance.”

…

In the same article, Phyllis Schlafly, a longtime radical and extreme right leader, said “Bush was very clear, and certainly his constituents believed him, when he said he would appoint justices like Scalia and Thomas. We are not in favor of Gonzales.” One of the reasons for the intensity of the opposition to Gonzales is that the Right feels that they were betrayed by President Reagan with his nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor who was, according to Schlafly, “a terrible disappointment.”

The National Review made its opposition to a Gonzales nomination clear in an editorial entitled “No to Justice Gonzales”: “[The] president has to know that conservatives, his supporters in good times and bad, would be appalled and demoralized by a Gonzales appointment. It would place his would-be successors in the Senate in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between angering conservatives by voting for Gonzales and saying no to him. If Democrats attack Gonzales . . . conservatives will not rally to his defense.”

At the time, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins warned that if President Bush nominated Gonzales “what you would hear would be [what] sounds like slashing the tires of the conservative movement” and stated that “our position on Attorney General Gonzales is, he holds great promise as an attorney general.” 

Well, Perkins’s first prediction was probably accurate, but his second couldn’t have been more wrong.

From the Sun-Sentinel: "Months of rumors ended with a Sunday morning revelation at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church: The ailing Rev. D. James Kennedy is not returning to the helm of the congregation he founded 48 years ago. The pastor, religious broadcaster, conservative activist and evangelical leader has been in and out of hospitals since Dec. 28, when he suffered a brief cardiac arrest. On Sunday, his family and church leaders made it official."

Earlier this month, an organization known as the Sexual Minorities Groups in Uganda held a press conference pleading for tolerance and an end to government harassment which was quickly met by right-wing protests: 

The issue came to the fore in Uganda this month when an advocacy group, the Sexual Minorities Groups in Uganda, took the unprecedented step of holding a news conference to demand recognition. Even so, most hid their faces behind masks.

That prompted demonstrators from the Inter-faith Coalition of church groups to rally in Kampala demanding a crackdown. They waved placards like "Arrest all homos" and railed against a U.S. newspaper intern who had written on homosexuals in Uganda.

As Human Rights Watch explained:

Homosexual acts are criminalized in Uganda under a sodomy law inherited from British colonial times, although punishments were substantially strengthened in 1990. Section 140 of the criminal code punishes “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” – interpreted to include consensual same sex relationships- with a maximum of life imprisonment. 

“For years President Museveni’s government has drummed up homophobia and denied the basic rights of LGBT people for his own political advantage,” said Juliana Cano Nieto, researcher in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch. “If lesbians and gays can be punished simply for speaking up for their rights, the freedoms of all Ugandans are endangered.” 

Of course, the Right here at home loves it, with Janice Crouse of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, hailing the Ugandan protestors for standing up when “the Devil is attacking them”:

I thank the Lord that we have people in Uganda who are devoted Christians who are willing to go out there at the beginning, at the outset, to say “you’re not going to change our culture, you’re not going to have influence here.  We stand up for what is right, what is legal, and what is part of the culture of Uganda.” 

REUTERS/James Akena

Fidelis calls on Sen. Mary Landrieu to denounce the "anti-Catholic smear ad produced by the Democratic Party of Louisiana" against Bobby Jindal saying it "insinuates that Bobby Jindal, a Catholic Republican candidate for Governor, is somehow prejudiced against Protestants" and employs "baseless attacks pitting Catholics against Protestants recalls a dark chapter in our nation’s history when such bigotry was considered acceptable.” See the ad here.

According to a (subscriber’s-only) article in Insight, the sensationalist newsweekly put out by the right-wing Washington Times, “both Democratic and Republican” members of Congress, unnamed in the story, “have been worried” that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) “would become the strongest advocate of extreme Islam in Congress.”

"He is a pleasant man, but his advocacy of the Saudi agenda is very worrisome," a senior House aide said. "This feeling represents numerous Democrats."

Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, has been a target of the far Right since his election last November. Talk show host Dennis Prager said he “should not be allowed” to pose with Koran after his swearing in, a sentiment echoed by self-described “defender of religious freedom” Jay Sekulow, and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore—who was removed from the bench for refusing an order to move a two-ton Ten Commandments monument from his courthouse—wrote that Muslims like Ellison are not fit for office. Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) warned his constituents that “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” Meanwhile, other right-wing commentators have attempted to link Ellison to American Muslim groups they purport to be somehow associated with terrorism.

Insight, citing anonymous “congressional sources,” claims that “no Democrat has gone public in fear of a Saudi-financed Muslim backlash, particularly by Ellison's biggest supporter, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”

As an example of Ellison’s supposed “close ties to Islamic fundamentalists,” the Insight article refers to a visit by Ellison and other members of Congress to Iraq, during which he met with U.S. military leaders and Iraqi leaders seeking his help in “countering al-Qaeda's vision of Islam.”  USA Today noted that Ellison was “already helping a State Department outreach effort aimed at improving the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world.” In Insight’s telling, those details get lost and the trip takes a menacing aspect:

Ellison's close ties to Islamic fundamentalists have sparked greater concern. In late July, Ellison toured Iraq and met Sunni clerics in Ramadi who sought his help in improving Islam's image in the United States. Ramadi has been regarded as being heavily influenced by al Qaeda.

"They were very upset and concerned that al Qaeda is misrepresenting Islam," Ellison said on July 30. "And they were talking to me about what I can possibly do to work with them to give a clearer, more accurate picture of what Islam is all about."

The Holiday Inn decided the Illinois Minuteman Project was no longer welcome, leading the organization's director to complain: "I'm disturbed by the whole thing. We're not bringing in a lunatic. We're bringing in a sheriff."

While most coverage of the 2008 presidential race is focused on political sparring between candidates within each party, there are already some hints of what shape the general election will take. The Committee for Justice, a group formed to support Bush’s right-wing judicial nominees, takes as a given that Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, and warns that the Supreme Court may be the “most important reason” to oppose her:

This might be a good time to remind people of one of the main reasons why conservatives and libertarians need to come together and defeat Senator Clinton next fall: The future of the Supreme Court. Clinton, who voted against Roberts and voted to filibuster Alito, will, at best (from a constitutionalist’s point of view), have the opportunity to replace one or more of the activists on the Court with a younger activist, and at worst will have a chance to replace someone who adheres to the Constitution with someone who would impose left-wing policies via judicial fiat.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is already raising money around the courts:

President Bush has appointed jurists who faithfully and impartially interpret the law and do not legislate from the bench.  If a liberal Democrat like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is elected President, our entire judicial system could swing dangerously to the left, causing a flood of bad decisions by liberal activist judges.

In an email, the Virigina Family Foundation and Pastors for Family Values say they are "pleased to announce that Pastor Jonathan Falwell, son of Reverend Jerry Falwell and newly installed senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, will be the keynote luncheon speaker at our first Pastors Family Issues Summit, to be held Tuesday, September 11, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. in Richmond." Flyer here. [PDF]

Following the rejection of the Right’s political agenda in the last election, there have been a number of news articles written in recent months about a potential split emerging within the evangelical political community, with newer leaders pushing to incorporate issues such as the environment and poverty into the agenda, while old-school leaders seek to quash any efforts to dilute their traditional anti-choice, anti-gay message.  

From this split, some new right-wing leaders appear to be emerging, such as Richard Land who seems to be attempting to position himself as the Right’s new powerbroker, seemingly at the expense of James Dobson.  For his part, Dobson has been keeping something of a low profile, perhaps chastened a bit by the controversy he generated when he suggested that presidential hopeful Fred Thompson was not a Christian.   

Other than appearing from time to time to declare that he won’t support or vote for Rudy Giuliani or John McCain, Dobson has been relatively quiet as of late – but that doesn’t mean that his organization, Focus on the Family, has become any less influential or involved in politics, especially at the state level. Just in the last two days, it has been reported that FOF has hooked up with a new “state policy council” in Washington and is affiliated with a similar organization in West Virginia, both of which have a similar goal:  pushing the right-wing agenda at the state level and energizing right-wing voters ahead of the upcoming elections. 

Accuses those who've been warning of conpriacy of using "political scare tactics": "It's quite comical, actually, when you realize the difference between reality and what some people are talking on TV about. You lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn't exist. There are some people who would like to frighten our fellow citizens into believing that relations between us are harmful for our respective peoples."

The Naples Daily News has been running a series of articles about the opening of the new campus for Ave Maria University, the centerpiece of the Florida development dreamed up by the ultra-right wing founder of Domino’s Pizza, Thomas Monaghan: 

“Ave Maria is not a Catholic town.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, the well-rehearsed line, articulated by town developers Barron Collier Cos., has become ingrained in pitches to prospective home and business owners, and members of the local and national media.

To believe it, visitors to the newly opened 5,000-acre town must ignore the town’s name, Latin for “Hail, Mary.”

Drivers and pedestrians should regard street names, such as Pope John Paul II Boulevard and Annunciation Circle, as clever brand names, adding theme, not tone, to the town.

…

To see past the religious overtones of the town, one must overlook the town’s focal feature. A 100-foot-tall steel-beamed oratory, topped with a 10-foot Celtic cross that is visible for miles, is positioned squarely in the town center, aptly named “La Piazza.”

Students attending the university will have to abide by a strict set of rules and regulations:

Student-led organizations, such as the Chastity Team and Pro-Life Club, will be based in the activity center.

“At Ave Maria, we’re trying to create a culture that faith informs life,” said Dan Dentino, vice president for student affairs. “Our students form friendships for life, because they are grounded in a certain truth and are able to express themselves.

“These are groups that can be controversial, and may be considered strange at home, but here, they can be the people they are meant to be.”

…

Students will be expected to adhere to Ave Maria’s strict housing rules, including limited access to rooms occupied by the opposite sex, no televisions and regulated music selections.

As for those living in the town, while they might not have a supermarket, gas station or bank, they will apparently have a lot of likeminded neighbors:

Jim and Ann Longon, a Philadelphia-area couple who are so enthralled with the Ave Maria concept they’ve bought two homes. Jim Longon, 63, who owned a company that provided outsourced office spaces, learned about Ave Maria through Legatus, a Monaghan-founded organization for Catholic business leaders.

The idea of living in a community where he could take certain shared political, moral and religious values for granted was exciting for him.

“On the golf course all we talk about is whether abortion is OK or not,” Longon said.

... and "Slime-Snake-Monkey-People" according to Robert Bowie Johnson Jr.'s new book: "To shock the Darwinists out of their denial of the overwhelming evidence in Greek art for the reality of Genesis events, the author urges Creationists to refer to evolutionists as what they imagine they are—'Slime-Snake-Monkey-People.' Mr. Johnson, who holds a general science degree from West Point, also suggests that since Slime-Snake-Monkey-People insist they evolved over millions of years through a countless series of random mutations, Christians should also refer to them as 'mutants.'"

Wayne Slater, writing in The Dallas Morning News, says that while Rudy Giuliani might not be much liked by the Republican Party’s social conservative, right-wing base, he might not be totally unacceptable either, especially if they are faced with the prospect of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee:

As the most powerful movement in American politics for several decades, conservative Christians insisted that above all else, their candidates adhere to their positions on social issues, particularly abortion and gay marriage. But as their movement changes, many are placing the fight against Islamic extremism at the top of the list as well.

For the last several years, the “fight against Islamic extremism” has never been a key issue for the Right.  While it has been an issue they’ve mentioned occasionally, its importance has always paled in comparison to their primary goals of fighting for restrictions on abortion, passing a federal marriage amendment, and controlling the federal judiciary.  As a matter of fact, the issue of terrorism was nowhere to be seen on last year’s Congressional scorecard [PDF] put together by the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, which claimed to be a “compilation of significant votes representing a cross section of issues affecting the family.”

So what could explain this relatively sudden rise in the importance of national security issues and terrorism for the Right?

Part III of the series, airing Thursday night, "traces how the Christian conservative movement, through grass-roots politics, became a force in U.S. society. The speakers include Ron Luce, founder of the Teen Mania Ministries; Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition; and the Rev. Jerry Falwell, co-founder of the Moral Majority. It would be Falwell's last interview before he died a week later."

Just ask Richard Land, who claims that Thompson's never-ending delay in officially entering the race is helping him: "The expectations, say a month ago, were so high, so unreal, that no one could have met them. I think, if anything, the delay has had the effect of injecting some realism into the expectations."

Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, writes that the recent Democratic presidential forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and Logo TV was “the latest reminder of how far we have fallen from the exalted purposes upon which this nation was founded”: a “homosexual sponsored debate carried live on a homosexual television network.”

So far this political season we have had Frosty the Snowman asking questions over YouTube and now the "Gay Debates" to see just which candidate is willing to grant the most favor to a lifestyle which historical Christianity calls sinful. What’s next? The Cross Dresser Debates? Or perhaps the NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Lovers Association) Debates? Or here’s one for the ages -- The Bestiality Debates. Not possible? That’s what I thought about our leaders attending a debate sponsored by homosexuals twenty years ago.

Scarborough, a former Texas pastor, was a pioneer in developing the “Patriot Pastor” model of church-based electoral organizing, and he’s currently touring churches with Alan Keyes and ex-Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt to build up a “base” for November 2008. As he explained, quoting his “Rick Scarborough Version” of the Bible at his first “One Day Crusade” last month (of a planned 70): “He who hath the most votes wins."

So far, turnout – and press coverage – has been slim for Scarborough’s events, and although reports aren’t in yet for yesterday’s scheduled rally in Sulphur Springs, Texas, organizers claim the project is “gaining momentum.” Unfortunately for them, the effort is running low on financial support.

The AP reports that "Louisiana College hopes to open a law school with a 'biblical worldview' to train defenders of conservative Christian values in the courtroom and politics."

The White House, in an apparent attempt to mollify right-wing critics of comprehensive immigration reform, announced last week that it would sharply step immigration enforcement—and at least one group that attacked reform is taking credit for this latest move. Matthew Spaulding of the Heritage Foundation writes:

The Border Security and Immigration Administrative Reform initiative is smart and sensible and deserves to be commended. Virtually all of the policies within it have been proposed by The Heritage Foundation's policy research and analysis.

Back in the 2005 and early 2006, the Family Research Council hosted a series of “Justice Sunday” events timed to coincide with important developments in the political battle over judicial nominations.  

The first event, titled “Stop Filibustering People of Faith,” claimed that some of President Bush’s appellate court nominees were being filibustered because of their religion and was designed to pressure Senate Republicans to deploy the so-called “nuclear option.”

“Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and This Honorable Court” was held some months later and timed to coincide with the beginning of John Roberts’ confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court while “Justice Sunday III: Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land” was timed to coincide with the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito.

The events featured a wide array of right-wing leaders and members of Congress such as Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Richard Land, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and Zell Miller.  Among the lesser known speakers was Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church which hosted the “Justice Sunday II” event, who boldly declared:

“Number one, it's a new day.

Number two, liberalism is dead.

Number three, the majority of Americans are conservative.

Number four, you can count on us showing up and speaking out.

And number five, let the church rise.”

Presumably, this isn’t what he meant by the church being on the rise:

The Rev. Jerry Sutton, a prominent Southern Baptist pastor who lost a bid to become president of the denomination, is now facing an upheaval in the megachurch he leads, including complaints that he spent church money on his daughter's wedding.

…

[S]ome Two Rivers members are accusing Sutton of failing to abide by church rules and punishing those who question his authority.

"We have a fractured fellowship. Somehow, with the Lord's help, we need to put this church back together," Harry Jester, who's been in the congregation for 32 years, said at a church meeting July 28.

One of Sutton's former administrative assistants has also said Sutton looked at pornography on his church computer and had an affair with a church staff member — charges that the church denies. The church's executive pastor, Scott Hutchings, said human resource officials at the church investigated those charges and found no evidence that Sutton had looked at porn or had an affair.

…

About 600 members attended the July 28 meeting, which was organized by the church so that rumors and allegations could be addressed publicly. Sutton also attended, but did not respond to the allegations.

At the meeting, Hutchings relayed the accusations brought against Sutton, including charges that Sutton used church money to pay for his daughter's wedding reception and has kept members in the dark on church spending.

Hutchings defended the church budget and acknowledged that the church paid about $4,300 for a reception for Sutton's daughter that was open to all church members. He said Sutton personally paid for another separate reception outside the church.

The Washington Times reports that the Right and the GOP might have finally figured out that blogs and bloggers are valuable, noting that the Heritage Foundation's Robert Bluey has been hosting weekly "Conservative Bloggers Briefings" that have included people such as Robert Novak, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.

As we have chronicled several times in recent months, various conspiracy-minded folks on the right have managed to convince themselves that US sovereignty is under threat from something known as the “North American Union,” a secret merger between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, despite the fact that, as Christopher Hayes recently explained in The Nation, there is no such thing.    

To some people on the right, no amount of refutation or logic can shake their conviction that the US sovereignty is under attack from outside forces, which explains why we are now seeing things such as this:

A handful of locals recruited by Alamogordo resident Bill Biggerstaff spent time Saturday morning near the Tropical Sno concession in the Lowe's Pay and Save parking lot discussing their opposition to the White Sands Monument being proposed for designation as a United Nations World Heritage Site.

They also asked shoppers and passersby to sign a petition to that effect.

…

A sandwich board bearing a large United Nations logo with a red cross through the center caught the attention of motorists who either honked or stopped.

…

Maude Rathgeber, who spearheaded the petition campaign through Eagle Forum, plans to present to signed petitions at the Otero County Commission meeting Aug. 16.

It comes as no surprise that the Eagle Forum is involved in this, as the organization has been at the forefront of raising the alarm about the North American Union and has a long history of opposing things like World Heritage designations, as well as everything from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to the Law of the Sea Treaty – all under the guise that they will destroy American sovereignty.  

In fact, Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly is so intent on protecting US sovereignty against all enemies, real or imagined, that she even opposed US ratification of the Genocide Convention, calling it a “piece of propaganda and a constitutional embarrassment” as well as a “trap to ensnare American citizens and our allies.”

As for why it is so important to prevent the White Sands Monument from becoming a UN World Heritage Site, Biggerstaff explained it in a letter to the editor:

This may sound benign, and even a good or "prestigious" designation. However, the affects of being listed as a World Heritage Site could alter our lives here in Otero County [sic] the water component, for one thing and restrict or eliminate the military's ability to test missiles or fly aircraft. Alamogordo is dependent on Holloman Air Force Base for survival. We need more answers.

Also, is this an admission by the National Park Service that it is unable to protect the resource of White Sands National Monument and needs the assistance of the United Nations to do so?

According to the UN, the purpose of the World Heritage designation is to “encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity,” but obviously Biggerstaff doesn’t see it that way:

"This is ultimately about protecting our sovereign nation that so many of our soldiers have fought and died for throughout our history," Biggerstaff said. "We have a big problem with something that is American having a United Nations label on it. We don't ever want to see that happen."

If Biggerstaff really doesn’t ever want to see “something that is American having a United Nations label on it,” he is advised to avoid looking at the list of things that currently carry World Heritage designations, because it includes the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and the Statue of Liberty.  

The Financial Times reports "The National Football League has enlisted the support of the Christian right to help drum up opposition to a proposal in Congress that would legalise sports betting and reverse sweeping prohibitions on online gambling that were passed last year. The primary target of the lobbying campaign by the sports league and Focus on the Family, the evangelical group headed by James Dobson ... Bill Wichterman – a Washington lobbyist for the NFL who served as a top adviser to former Republican majority leader Bill Frist – encouraged conservative groups to co-sign a letter to Congress that ostensibly was written by Focus on the Family ... The letter was co-signed by the Christian Coalition and American Values, among others."

A word of warning to those who live in Florida:  your state is going to be over-run by right-wingers this September. 

On September 20-22, a who’s who of the Right will be in Tampa for the Family Impact Summit.  Featuring the likes of Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Don Wildmon, Richard Land, Katherine Harris, and Bob Knight, the conference will offer a wide array of panels on everything from the “Homosexual Agenda,” “Homosexuality & Youth,” and “Homosexuality & Ministry” to workshops on “New and relevant research on homosexuality.” 

In between the gay-bashing, there will also be panels on “Christian Citizenship” and “Community Decency,” as well as keynote addresses from Bauer, Perkins, Ken Blackwell, and Harry Jackson.  

What you won’t find at this summit, as of yet, is GOP presidential candidates – even though most of them are reportedly scheduled to be attending the “Values Voter Debate” in Fort Lauderdale on September 17, which is being hosted by a separate, but not mutually exclusive, group of influential right-wing leaders.  

The debate is being sponsored by the people who brought us the “Values Voters’ Contract With Congress,” which was itself launched at Vision America’s “War on Christian and Values Voters Conference” in 2006 and supported by right-wing stalwarts such as Phyllis Schlafly, Alan Keyes, Lou Sheldon, Janet Folger, D. James Kennedy, Rod Parsley, and others.

The contract called on Congress to pass an array of specific legislation - such as the Constitution Restoration Act and the Pledge Protection Act - as well as general legislation that would “ensure that speech and lawful religious expression are never punished as a ‘hate crime’” and protect Americans against “judges who legislate from the bench subvert [and] our republican form of government” in order to, among other things:  

AFFIRM the national relationship with God in our places of worship, schools, mottos, and public spaces

SECURE our national interest in the institutions of marriage and family

SECURE our fundamental right as parents to the care, custody, and control of our children

SECURE our God-bestowed right to life

SECURE an environment of decency that is free from pornography and obscenity

Seven of nine Republican hopefuls have reportedly accepted an invitation to “Values Voter Debate,” though it the organizers have not disclosed who is and is not attending.  They certainly have high hopes for their event, noting that low voter turnout in the primary election means that “if just a fraction of the values voters come out to vote in the primaries…WE will pick the candidate who will win the nomination.”

And picking the GOP candidate is especially important because what they really have their eye on the Supreme Court and "it is now ‘fourth and goal.’ One more judge. One more president. One more chance. The question is, will you take it?” 

From the Colorado Springs Gazette: "Studies have shown at least 50 percent — and possibly as much as 85 percent — of kids involved in church groups will abandon their faith during their first year in college. In an attempt to reverse those numbers, Focus on the Family on Saturday hosted 'The Big Dig,' a conference aimed at teens and youth leaders. The goal was not just to celebrate participants’ Christian faith but also to give them the tools to defend their beliefs against questions they will face."

Moving beyond its boycott strategy, AFA urges supporters to "purge" portfolios of "gay agenda" or "anti-family" corporations. "Red state Christians" taking "culture wars" to "corporate sector," claims one firm.

A few weeks ago, after it was announced that both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani were not going to be participating in the Iowa Straw Poll, Mitt Romney’s campaign decided to scale back its own operations in the state:

"I think initially we planned to bring in a very large number of folks from across the state for the straw poll," Romney told reporters. "We've cut back on our target from that standpoint to a level where we think we can win, but we're not trying to overwhelm anybody."

…

Romney said it is important to keep showing his commitment to the straw poll and "engage our base of supporters so that by the time the caucus comes along we'll have our structure in place and our team members that are tried and tested.

"But we have pulled back the level of investment financially that we're making, in part, to recognize that Mayor Giuliani and Sen. McCain have decided not to participate, and apparently Sen. Thompson as well."

…

Romney said the straw poll is "not going to be as intense of an event as it would have been had the other front-runners decided to participate."

If that is indeed that case, Romney sure had a strange concept of “pulling back the level of investment” his campaign planned to make in the winning the poll, reportedly outbidding his rivals for on a prime location for his tent, sending out expensive mailings, and spending millions on television ads and other material.  As the Wall Street Journal reports:

Draft Keyes leader says the comments of a few hundred supporters are "worth hundreds, if not thousands, of just nominal supporters" as organization gears up for Iowa straw poll: "The draft-Keyes movement says it does not yet have the budget to pay $15,000 for the right to have a tent at the straw poll, but is paying $1,000 for a table with no decorations inside the Iowa State Center and another outside the building. It also intends to distribute 11,000 flyers."

Alleging stealth "pro-abortion" stance, Donohue says "Practicing Catholics should withdraw their support of this phony organization."

The Family Research Council is launching a project aimed at convincing its supporters before the 2008 election that liberal politicians “are spouting God-talk” in order to “confuse people of faith” and hide their “true agenda.” Invoking the Religious Right’s recent favored phrase for its imagined constituency – as well as the “Swift Boat” campaign of 2004 – the so-called “Values Voters for Truth” campaign is an attempt to vilify liberals – and, obviously, Democratic candidates – as enemies of Christianity who are undertaking a conspiracy to “deceive and split values voters.” From a recent fundraising letter from FRC Action:

Our relentless effort to reveal the facts about the Left’s true agenda is already under way. It will not stop until the last vote of the 2008 election has been cast. The Values Voters for Truth campaign will partner with organizations in all 50 states—and at the national level. We will mobilize values voters, engage them in the war of ideas, and keep them informed and involved.

We will rally churches to the cause. And by God’s grace, we will neutralize our opponents’ deceptive tactics.

As an example of this supposed “fraud,” the letter cites a Democratic presidential candidate who spoke of his “belief in Christ” and also supports civil unions for gay couples. Similarly, the letter warns that a candidate noting a “biblical call to feed the hungry” also voted against an anti-abortion bill. A third candidate is denounced for the “hypocrisy” of wanting to let gay couples adopt children. According to FRC, these supposed contradictions indicate that Democrats discussing their faith and values is merely “lip service,” part of a “campaign of deception” that led directly to the Democrats winning control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

Group had "serious concerns" about his "principles," reports Brody.

Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Paul, Romney, Tancredo have signed "pledge."

Echoing the sentiments of religious-right activists who last month decried a Hindu guest chaplain giving the opening prayer in the Senate, Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) warned that “the protective hand of God” could be lifted. Sali also cited the threat of his Muslim colleague, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), but unlike comments last December by Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) linking Ellison to immigration and 9/11, Sali warned that Ellison’s presence, like the Hindu prayer, would displease both America’s founders and God.

"We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes -- and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers," asserts Sali.

Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to exist in a world that is so hostile to Christian principles is through "the protective hand of God."

"You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike," says the Idaho Republican.

According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective hand of God. He states when a Hindu prayer is offered, "that's a different god" and that it "creates problems for the longevity of this country."

Sali, with the backing of the Club for Growth and a following of social conservatives, won a divisive Republican primary in his GOP district last year, despite warnings from fellow Republicans that Sali was “an absolute idiot.”

Reports Max Blumenthal. More on origin of "Left Behind" here.

Last month, Right Wing Watch detailed Focus on the Family’s attempt to blindly attribute the correlation between declining teen sex rates to the promotion of abstinence-only education. As we pointed out, correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

A news release from the abstinence-only education organization Project Reality continues the shoddy statistical analysis, detailing the overlapping decline in the teen pregnancy rate among 10-14 year olds with the increase in abstinence-only education. Project Reality’s director comments:

Suppose several prominent Catholic leaders endorsed a candidate for a local office, and that candidate advertised the endorsements as a way to get the support of Catholic voters. His opponent, however, objected, calling the tactic “insulting.”

Now normally, the Catholic League would pounce on purported attempts to “silence” Catholics in politics, so one would expect Bill Donohue’s right-wing group to side with the first candidate.

But in this case, Grand Rapids, Michigan Mayor George Heartwell is pro-choice. “Even if Heartwell were Catholic and pro-life, it would smack of demagoguery for him to sell himself to Catholics in such a crass manner,” said Donohue. “But the fact that he is the darling of the pro-abortion community makes his ploy all the more despicable.”

Religious-right leaders are flocking to defend a mayor whose anti-gay comments have drawn public criticism.

Last month, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Mayor Jim Naugle proposed replacing the bathrooms at the city’s beaches with $250,000 self-cleaning robo-toilets to combat the purportedly rampant problem of gay men using public restrooms for sexual encounters. In discussing his plan, he commented:

"I don’t use the word ‘gay,’ I use the word ‘homosexual.’ Most of them aren’t gay. They’re unhappy."

After a public uproar, Naugle then scheduled a press conference to offer an“apology” for his comments. But the "apology" he offered was for not being aware sooner that sex in public bathrooms was such a problem. The major flaw with this apology, in addition to the obvious bait-and-switch which infuriated local gay-rights activists, is that a Fort Lauderdale police spokesman has characterized the supposed problem as “non-existent.”

Nevertheless, adulation from the religious right has been forthcoming, with Rick Scarborough calling Mayor Naugle “bold,” and Concerned Women for America labeling him “gutsy.” Faith2Action’s Janet Folger even presented Naugle with her weekly “Protector of the Family” award for his efforts. A collection of extremely anti-gay religious-right groups including Americans for Truth, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, and Faith2Action have even formed their own website, www.healthypublicplaces.com.  Although to date it's nothing more than a link to a press release, the site is further evidence that religious-right leaders are willing to circle the wagons around any politician who spouts anti-gay rhetoric.  

(Photo: Janet Folger presents Naugle with the "Protector of the Family" award.)

With the upcoming straw poll in Ames, Iowa a make-or-break moment for second-tier GOP presidential candidates – and for Mitt Romney, the only major candidate not to skip the event – tensions at the bottom are flaring up. The Club for Growth -- a group known for translating its strict economic conservatism into large cash expenditures in Republican primaries to weed out so-called “Republicans in Name Only” – has made its first TV ad of the 2008 campaign, spending $85,000 in the Des Moines/Ames market to accuse former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee of “a willingness to slap a tax increase on everything from groceries to nursing home beds.”

The Family Foundation of Virginia, a group that organized support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in 2006, is putting together a “Pastors Issues Summit” that appears to be modeled on the recent “Patriot Pastor” organizing in Ohio, Texas, and other states.

According to the group’s brochure, Attorney General Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Republicans, will join a representative of the right-wing legal group Alliance Defense Fund to speak on topics such as “Your role as a pastor in Civic Government” and “The political environment in Virginia.” Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, is apparently invited – but if this event resembles the “Patriot Pastor” events in other states, it will be a partisan crowd.

As if it wasn’t hard enough for Republican presidential candidates – and potential candidates – seeking the right-wing mantle, two undeclared contenders may spar over who gets to be the dark horse.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose background makes him unlikely to gain widespread support, has spent months hinting that he may enter the race if no suitable candidates emerge, all the while attempting to build a kind of grassroots structure. He recently called the GOP’s crop of candidates a “pathetic” bunch of “pygmies.”

But the likelihood of a run by “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson, who also plans a late entry, has stolen much of Gingrich’s thunder. Thompson’s rising star "would appear to shade some of the sunlight" from Gingrich, as Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform put it.

Gingrich let it be known that he’s not impressed by Thompson. "I'm excited to see whether Fred turns out to be as decisive a front-runner as John McCain, or better," he said, referring to the apparent collapse of McCain’s campaign recently.

In fact, Gingrich is still making preparations, according to an article in the Washington Times’ Insight Magazine (available to subscribers):

Those close to Gingrich said that he has concluded that all of the GOP candidates, including Fred Thompson who has not yet announced his bid, would fail to ignite Republican voters and drop way behind in any race against Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Gingrich plans to let Thompson announce his candidacy over the next six weeks and gauge reaction, particularly in the Southern states.

Indeed, with Thompson expected to announce his candidacy after Labor Day, Gingrich has apparently pushed back the possible date when he would launch his campaign from September to “mid-October.”

Becket Fund "never before in our history opposed anyone else's claim of religious freedom," now intervenes on behalf of would-be terrorism tipsters.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that New Life Church has narrowed down it candidates to replace its disgraced former pastor, one who will be less concerned with political activity: "Brady Boyd, 40, is an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in suburban Dallas, another well-known evangelical megachurch. He is scheduled to preach at New Life three times — Aug. 12, 19 and 26 — before the congregation votes Aug. 27 on whether to hire him as senior pastor ... Boyd’s résumé indicates a man who is much more concerned with a church faced inward for healing than a church faced outward toward politics. He is not well-known nationally, and his selection may show that the leadership of New Life wants to strengthen its core evangelical role rather than regain prominence in the national political arena."