Center for Moral Clarity

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/8/2010 5:33 pm
  • A father and son have been arrested with threatening to kill Rep. Bart Stupack for voting for health care reform, saying they would "paint the Mackinaw [sic] Bridge with the blood of you and your family members."

  • The Duggars will receive the first ever "Pro-Family Entertainment Award" at the Family Research Council's fifth annual Values Voter Summit.

  • Speaking of FRC, they are launching a new website that "tracks state legislation related to issues of importance to families, including religious liberty, abortion, homosexuality, domestic violence, the sanctity of marriage, embryonic research, pornography and education."

  • Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition seems to think that he ought to have the right to protest on private property ... and is threatening to sue.

  • Behold what sort of nonsense passes for political analysis from Gary Bauer.

  • Do you know what the AFA's Tim Wildmon doesn't like?  Political Correctness.

  • Finally, I would just like to tell Rod Parsley and his Center for Moral Clarity that "Bill Gates" is not our Secretary of Defense.  That job belongs to Robert Gates.

Parsley Defeats The Devil and Saves His Ministry

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 1/8/2010 1:00 pm

Last month we posted on Rod Parsley's urgent plea to supporters for to help clear a $3 million deficit his ministry was facing due, in part, to a large settlement it had to pay out this year to the family of a child who was beaten by a teacher at his World Harvest Church.

Well, ask and you shall receive:

The Rev. Rod Parsley has reached his fundraising goal and apparently will be able to continue the ministries of World Harvest Church, according to a statement ... In an e-mail yesterday, spokesman Mark Youngkin said, "We look forward to a successful year of continued ministry in 2010 in all 13 major ministries."

The statement began: "We're thankful that by God's grace and the support of his wonderful people, our obligations have been met and our goal reached."

Here is the message from Parsley posted on his website:

I think you know me well enough to know I am never speechless.

But I am right now.

I am so overwhelmed, so grateful, so warmed by the outpouring of love and affection that I have experienced in the last few days.

The Lord gave us the miracle we needed so desperately. We reached our goal!Thank you, dear friend, for helping us raise the money we needed to continue this ministry. You personally played an important role in helping to save Breakthrough, Bridge of Hope, and the Center for Moral Clarity through this extremely difficult time!

Joni and I didn't want another day to go by without thanking you and telling you how much we love you and value your friendship. It means so much to know you care. At a time of desperate need in my life and my ministry, you joined hands with me, you held me up with your prayers, and your generous support has given me the encouragement I need to go boldly into this new decade, filled with excitement of what God is going to do next!

I am excited, too, for what God is going to do in your life in 2010! You stepped out in faith. You trusted God and gave. With that action, you said to the Lord, "I am ready for my miracle!" I can't wait to hear what God does in YOUR lift as a result of your faithfulness!

Proverbs 17:17 (NIV) says, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Thank you for being a part of this miracle. I needed your help to get through this crisis, and I am counting on you to stand with me as we go forward into this new year anticipating the great things God will do through our continuing partnership.

Thank you again. I love and appreciate you more than you know! Write me, keep me updated, as God moves on your behalf. I look forward to rejoicing with you!

Pastor Rod Parsley

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 3/25/2009 6:19 pm
  • We can now add Concerned Women for America to the list of right-wing groups opposing David Hamilton, President Obama's first judicial nominee, while Rod Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity says "the Senate’s response to this nomination will tell us more about them than it will about the nominee."

  • Congressman Steve King and others have called on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Dawn Johnsen. You can see the letter here [PDF].

  • Remember when it was the Republicans who were labeling the Democrats as "the party of no" for opposing President Bush's agenda?

  • It looks like Sarah Palin's grandstanding on the stimulus legislation is going to get sidestepped by the state legislature.

  • Richard Viguerie sees the decision by the University of Notre Dame to invite President Obama as a sign of "the general collapse in American institutions and the failure of America's leadership class."

  • Focus on the Family is asking people to "pick up the phone or send an e-mail to Barney Frank and tell him they’re disgusted by the fact (he) would use such disgraceful language toward a sitting member of the United States Supreme Court."

  • Coral Ridge Ministries responds to Truth Wins Out's recent piece noting that Robert Knight has joined Coral Ridge Ministries.

  • Finally, in an interview with the Action Institute, SC Gov. Mark Sanford was asked if it is a good thing that "faith traditions played a big role in the 2008 presidential race":
    • It is. But I don’t know if it was more window dressing than not. Obama had Rick Warren speak at the inauguration, and then got some guy of another persuasion to give the benediction. I don’t think you want it as an accoutrement. I think that you want it to show up in policy. In other words, conversation is certainly an important starting point. It can’t be the ending point.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 3/4/2009 7:19 pm

Today's best reporting on the Right from around the web:

  • Adele Stan has posted a robo-call from AFA's Tim Wildmon saying that their "Speechless: Silencing the Christians" program will soon be airing "on cable as well as network affiliates nationwide."

  • Bill Berkowitz reports that Scott Lively, author of "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party" is now targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling his Abiding Truth Ministries as a hate group.

  • Speaking of SPLC -certified hate groups, Good as You notes that several of them and their allies have teamed up to call on parents to keep their kids out of school on the "Day of Silence."

  • Box Turtle Bulletin reports that the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has engaged its private communications network to bombard state legislators with phone calls in opposition" to a civil unions bill in Illinois.

  • Rod Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity is going after Pastor Dan again.

  • Media Matters points out that the people running Sean Hannity's show can't seem to spell.

  • Sarah Posner responds to the James Dobson announcement with a mighty "meh?"

  • Steve Benen marvels that Sen. David Vitter of all people is targeting family planning funding.

Texas Bible Class Push Returns; 'Anti-Faith Fringe' Remains Skeptical

Submitted by Anonymous on Friday, 7/25/2008 5:43 pm

It was only last year that People For the American Way Foundation helped represent parents in Odessa, Texas against a school board determined to use public schools to promote a particular religious doctrine. “HA! Take that you dang heathens!” the school district’s curriculum director wrote triumphantly after the board voted to use the Religious Right-backed National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools program. The board settled the lawsuit by dropping NCBCPS.

So it’s natural that advocates of church-state separation would be skeptical of the Texas State Board of Education’s decision last week to approve Bible courses statewide, without providing specific educational or constitutional guidelines.

Mark Chancey, associate professor in religious studies at Southern Methodist University, has studied Bible classes already offered in about 25 districts for the Texas Freedom Network.

The study found most of the courses were explicitly devotional with almost exclusively Christian, usually Protestant, perspectives.

It also found that most were taught by teachers with no academic training in biblical, religious or theological studies and who were not familiar with the issues of separation of church and state.

"Some classes promote creation science. Some classes denigrate Judaism. Some classes explicitly encourage students to convert to Christianity or to adopt Christian devotional practices," Chancey said. "This is all well documented, and the board knows it."

On the other hand, the Religious Right is gung-ho about the move. Decrying “[e]nemies of the First Amendment,” Rod Parsley’s Center for Moral Clarity (a supporter of the unconstitutional NCBCPS curriculum) wrote, “We’re glad legislative and educational leaders in Texas have ignored the shrill arguments of the anti-faith fringe, and we hope other states follow suit.”

Jonathan Saenz of the Liberty Legal Institute and the Free Market Foundation similar predicted that “Texas is going to be seen as a leader on this issue,” and also characterized skeptics as fanatical opponents of religious freedom:

"There are enemies of religious freedom all across our state of Texas and across the country, and they'll do anything and stop at nothing to restrict academic freedom and restrict the religious rights of students," Saenz contends. "They simply do not want kids, even on their own choice, to be able to look at the Bible." The State Board of Education is discussing this week how to develop the proposed new courses.

And Gordon Robertson, Pat Robertson’s normally soft-spoken son, compared efforts to prevent the government from proselytizing in the classroom to outlawing Christmas and Thanksgiving:

Given the Religious Right’s steady efforts over the years to push campaigns like NCBCPS, Robertson shouldn’t be surprised that advocates of church-state separation insist on a distinction between teaching about the Bible objectively and promoting a particular brand of faith.

Rod Parsley Plays The Victim

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 6/6/2008 12:34 pm

Shortly after Sen. John McCain publicly rejected the endorsements of John Hagee and Rod Parsley, Parsley released his own statement rescinding his endorsement and then sort of disappeared from sight.  Sometime since then, Parsley apparently decided that he had a bit more to get off his chest and so he released a video on his Center for Moral Clarity website in which he reiterated many of the points he made in his initial statement but added some attacks on what he claimed were the "politically vicious and misguided" hit-squads who exposed his radical views, claiming that his views on Islam are “very much in the mainstream” and insisting that he made a “clear distinction between Muslim terrorists and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims.” 

Of course, Parsley is on record having told his congregation and massive TV audience that "America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed" and "Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world," as well as writing that so-called "Muslim extremists" are really "mainstream believers who are drawing from the well at the very heart of Islam."

Video and transcript:

I’d like to take a few moments and respond to the recent media reports regarding my statements in the book “Silent No More” about Islam.  It doesn’t surprise me that, as I continue to engage the culture with a thoroughly Biblical worldview that political hit-squads have begun to describe some of my views in the most ominous and extreme terms. I expected that opponents of that worldview would try to make a connection between myself and the extreme views of other ministers such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. This is what we’ve seen play out over the past few days. Certainly, I’m disappointed with those in the media who have misrepresented my views for political gain and who have lied in pursuit of political power.  It’s a sad moment in American politics; one of the many in the recent election cycle.   

My views on Islam, which have come under such scrutiny and misrepresentation, are very much in the mainstream.  Anyone who has read the entire chapter on Islam in my book “Silent No More” understands that what I have said is echoed from the White House to the State Department, from leading universities to the pulpits of our nation. I believe that radical Islam is one of the greatest threats to Western civilization and that conflict has roots in our American history.  I have always, and I will continue, to make a clear distinction between Muslim terrorists and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims who are appalled at the bloody results of suicide bombers and mass murders. Once again, I unapologetically denounce those who spread death in the name of Allah while I continue to believe peace-loving Muslims need the full of all Christians, and Christians must provide understanding, cooperation, and friendship to peace-loving Muslims throughout the world who share our desire for democracy and peace.

I understand that the raw truth of the pulpit cannot survive untempered in the political sphere. Still, I believe that clergy of all faiths should be able to speak into the lives of our political leaders without every doctrine and statement of those religious leaders being transformed into political weapons by the politically vicious and misguided.

Insurance Plans for 'Unborn Children'

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 3/27/2008 5:59 pm

Last year we noted the creative reasons the Religious Right came up with to join their economic-right brethren in opposing expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The National Right to Life Committee raised the specter of Medicare “rationing” and “involuntary euthanasia,” while Focus on the Family complained that there was no money in the proposal earmarked for abstinence-only sex ed. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said the problem with the SCHIP expansion was that it provided health coverage to “pregnant mothers” rather than to “unborn children”—a “calculated move,” according to Perkins, “to open the door to federal taxpayer-funded abortions.”

This month, retiring Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) revived his attempt to “classify the unborn child as a patient” under existing SCHIP coverage. The attempt failed, much to the dismay of Rod Parsley’s Center for Moral Clarity.

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Senate has rejected an amendment that would allow states to financially help poor pregnant teens and their unborn children. In effect, the vote will help encourage abortion.

The Center for Moral Clarity echoes Perkins in making a nebulous connection between not assigning insurance policies to fetuses and increasing abortion, but while the Family Research Council argued that more federal dollars for children’s health care would “free[] up states” to pay for abortions “with their own state money,” CMC’s point remains mysterious.

By assuaging the “financial concerns” of young women, CMC claims, “[t]hese girls are far more likely to be persuaded or coerced into an abortion.” But given that the Senate did pass expanded coverage for pregnant women and their children, it’s unclear what more “recogniz[ing] unborn children as patients” would do—except advance the legal agenda of abortion opponents.

Parsley Group, Fearing Protections for Gays, Dreams of President-for-Life

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 8/15/2007 4:50 pm

Anti-gay groups cheered when President Bush (apparently) promised to veto hate-crimes protections for gays and lesbians, but the Center for Moral Clarity – the political arm of “Patriot Pastor” Rod Parsley – warns activists not to rest, because “[u]nfortunately,” Bush won’t hold the office “forever.”

Restating the false claim that the hate-crimes bill – which targets violent crimes – would somehow impede religious expression, the Center urges its supporters to continue pressuring Congress, and to oppose presidential candidates who lack a “biblical worldview.”

Unfortunately, George W. won't be president forever. The next person occupying the Oval Office might be willing - maybe even eager - to criminalize our thoughts.

Christians who want to continue speaking the Gospel's truth without fear of arrest and prosecution should not be content to let the probability of a presidential veto become the resolution. Christians need to understand that a person's worldview influences his or her views on public policy and law making; they can't be divorced. A president without a biblical worldview will feel no compulsion to protect evangelism.

Unable to Find Votes, Right Looks to Court Stripping

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 7/13/2006 1:48 pm

As the House is set to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—even after the amendment failed to get a simple majority in the Senate, much less the required two-thirds majority—Rod Parsley’s Center for Moral Clarity reminds us that the point is politics and the upcoming elections.

“This important House vote will put every member of Congress on record as either supporting biblical marriage or siding with activist judges and others who would expand the definition of marriage," said Pastor Rod Parsley, founder and president of the Center for Moral Clarity. "Undoubtedly, many members of Congress would prefer not to cast this vote so close to an election – but it’s important that voters know where they stand on this critical issue."

But others are looking to unconstitutional tricks to get around the amendment process. The goal of “court-stripping” legislation is to simply declare that federal courts are no longer allowed to hear the claims of citizens that their rights are violated. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins--decrying the “judicial activism” behind the Supreme Court decision finding unconstitutional Bush's military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees--encourages court-stripping, along with right-wing judicial nominees, as a long-term strategy, citing two court-stripping bills in the works:

Congress needs to resist this judicial activism. One way to constitutionally check the courts is with measures like the Pledge Protection Act sponsored by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) and another way is Cong. John Hostettler's (R-IN) Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA). Finally, we can give a fair up or down vote to judicial nominees like William J. Haynes.

Now, even as the House vote on the anti-gay marriage amendment looks to fail, Human Events endorses a court-stripping bill to circumvent the Constitution on the issue of marriage:

Unfortunately, the [marriage] amendment failed in the Senate last month, receiving only 49 votes. It is also destined to fail in the House: In the last Congress, it received only 227 votes, more than 60 shy of the super-majority needed. But there is a way Congress can act this year to protect state marriage laws from activist liberal judges. Rep. John Hostettler (R.-Ind.) has proposed a bill that would strip all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of jurisdiction to hear any challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). …

Hostettler’s Marriage Protection Act has practical and political advantages. For starters, unlike the constitutional amendment, if pushed by the Republican leadership, it has a real chance of becoming law. … Secondly, it is a tougher political test for Democratic congressmen trying to convince voters they are not out of touch with traditional American values. … Precisely because the Marriage Protection Act can become law, Democratic leaders are fretful of letting even Red State Members vote for it--if they can help it.

Perhaps soon the Right will come up with a bill to ban blogs, and declare that we can no longer defend our rights in court. It’s certainly a convenient strategy to avoid that pesky Constitution.

Syndicate content

Center for Moral Clarity Posts Archive

Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 06/08/2010, 5:33pm
A father and son have been arrested with threatening to kill Rep. Bart Stupack for voting for health care reform, saying they would "paint the Mackinaw [sic] Bridge with the blood of you and your family members." The Duggars will receive the first ever "Pro-Family Entertainment Award" at the Family Research Council's fifth annual Values Voter Summit. Speaking of FRC, they are launching a new website that "tracks state legislation related to issues of importance to families, including religious liberty, abortion, homosexuality, domestic violence, the... MORE >
Parsley Defeats The Devil and Saves His Ministry
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 01/08/2010, 1:00pm
Last month we posted on Rod Parsley's urgent plea to supporters for to help clear a $3 million deficit his ministry was facing due, in part, to a large settlement it had to pay out this year to the family of a child who was beaten by a teacher at his World Harvest Church. Well, ask and you shall receive: The Rev. Rod Parsley has reached his fundraising goal and apparently will be able to continue the ministries of World Harvest Church, according to a statement ... In an e-mail yesterday, spokesman Mark Youngkin said, "We look forward to a successful year of continued ministry in 2010 in... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 03/25/2009, 6:19pm
We can now add Concerned Women for America to the list of right-wing groups opposing David Hamilton, President Obama's first judicial nominee, while Rod Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity says "the Senate’s response to this nomination will tell us more about them than it will about the nominee."Congressman Steve King and others have called on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Dawn Johnsen. You can see the letter here [PDF].Remember when it was the Republicans who were labeling the Democrats as "the party of no" for opposing President Bush's agenda?It... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 03/04/2009, 7:19pm
Today's best reporting on the Right from around the web:Adele Stan has posted a robo-call from AFA's Tim Wildmon saying that their "Speechless: Silencing the Christians" program will soon be airing "on cable as well as network affiliates nationwide."Bill Berkowitz reports that Scott Lively, author of "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party" is now targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling his Abiding Truth Ministries as a hate group.Speaking of SPLC -certified hate groups, Good as You notes that several of them and their allies have... MORE >
Texas Bible Class Push Returns; 'Anti-Faith Fringe' Remains Skeptical
, Friday 07/25/2008, 5:43pm
It was only last year that People For the American Way Foundation helped represent parents in Odessa, Texas against a school board determined to use public schools to promote a particular religious doctrine. “HA! Take that you dang heathens!” the school district’s curriculum director wrote triumphantly after the board voted to use the Religious Right-backed National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools program. The board settled the lawsuit by dropping NCBCPS. So it’s natural that advocates of church-state separation would be skeptical of the... MORE >
Rod Parsley Plays The Victim
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 06/06/2008, 12:34pm
Shortly after Sen. John McCain publicly rejected the endorsements of John Hagee and Rod Parsley, Parsley released his own statement rescinding his endorsement and then sort of disappeared from sight.  Sometime since then, Parsley apparently decided that he had a bit more to get off his chest and so he released a video on his Center for Moral Clarity website in which he reiterated many of the points he made in his initial statement but added some attacks on what he claimed were the "politically vicious and misguided" hit-squads who exposed his radical views, claiming that his... MORE >
Insurance Plans for 'Unborn Children'
, Thursday 03/27/2008, 5:59pm
Last year we noted the creative reasons the Religious Right came up with to join their economic-right brethren in opposing expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The National Right to Life Committee raised the specter of Medicare “rationing” and “involuntary euthanasia,” while Focus on the Family complained that there was no money in the proposal earmarked for abstinence-only sex ed. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said the problem with the SCHIP expansion was that it provided health coverage to “... MORE >
Parsley Group, Fearing Protections for Gays, Dreams of President-for-Life
, Wednesday 08/15/2007, 4:50pm
Anti-gay groups cheered when President Bush (apparently) promised to veto hate-crimes protections for gays and lesbians, but the Center for Moral Clarity – the political arm of “Patriot Pastor” Rod Parsley – warns activists not to rest, because “[u]nfortunately,” Bush won’t hold the office “forever.” Restating the false claim that the hate-crimes bill – which targets violent crimes – would somehow impede religious expression, the Center urges its supporters to continue pressuring Congress, and to oppose... MORE >