Values Voter Summit

From Beck to Romney, Religious Right Comes to Terms with Mormon Leaders

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 4/9/2012 1:30 pm

Last year evangelical writer and WORLD Magazine associate publisher Warren Cole Smith created quite a stir with his column pledging not to vote for Mitt Romney if he wins the Republican nomination because of the boost his presidency would provide to Mormonism. “You can't say that his religious beliefs don't matter, but his ‘values’ do,” Smith explained, “If the beliefs are false, then the behavior will eventually—but inevitably—be warped.” He pointed to the Mormon doctrine of “continuing revelation” to explain Romney’s history of flip-flops and warned that a Romney presidency “would serve to normalize the false teachings of Mormonism the world over,” drawing more people into the LDS church and away from orthodox Christianity.

But it seems that few other prominent faces of the Religious Right are agreeing with Smith’s stance.

Televangelist James Robison on Daystar told a listener that she should favor a non-Christian over a Christian just as people favored Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, over Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher, because Reagan better understood biblical principles:

Even Robert Jeffress, the preacher who attacked Mormonism as a “cult” at the Values Voters Summit and said Christians should prefer evangelical Rick Perry over Romney, made a similar case on Janet Parshall’s radio show in January when he said a “non-Christian who embraces biblical principles” is preferable to “a professing Christian who espouses unbiblical principles”:

American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer said he will vote for Romney even though he believes a Mormon president would undermine the “spiritual health” of the U.S., and Rick Scarborough of Vision America, repeated his antipathy towards Mormonism in an interview but made clear that “if the choice comes down for me between a Mormon and Barack Obama, I’d vote for the Mormon every time.”

But the acceptance of Romney as the leader of the GOP by the Religious Right’s leadership may not come as a great surprise, as the same people have largely embraced another high profile Mormon, Glenn Beck.

Beck has become a favorite of Religious Right figures, leading his religiously-infused Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial and introducing his clerical Black Robe Regiment, promulgating ‘Christian nation’ history with David Barton and keynoting last year’s Values Voters Summit.

The turnaround when it comes to working with Mormons, who many evangelicals see as “cobelligerents” in the culture wars along with conservative Roman Catholics and Jews, can be seen in Kirk Cameron’s own about-face.

Cameron featured Beck at the kickoff event for his movie Monumental, about how America needs to return to its theocratic Pilgrim roots, where Beck told Cameron that God confirmed to him in prayer that what they are doing is right and wants them to warn the country about America’s impending collapse.

Beck’s appearance and discussion of his talks with God in Cameron’s Religious Right “documentary” may raise eyebrows since Cameron in 2006 co-hosted an anti-Mormon film with evangelist Ray Comfort. In the show, Cameron said that it was likely Satan who appeared to Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, as the Angel Moroni and led him to golden plates that became the Book of Mormon, and even said that Mormons are “following a false Jesus” and “will end up in Hell forever.” “If you’ve ever spoken to a Mormon, sometimes you know how frustrating it could when they use the same words you do but they mean something different and you’re not sure how to finish the conversation,” Cameron said.

Watch highlights of Cameron’s anti-Mormon film here:

Despite Cameron’s dogmatic warnings against Mormonism, he is now actively working with one of America’s leading Mormons. Similarly, just as many on the Religious Right once denounced the Mormon faith, they are now prepared to vote for Romney over President Obama.

Bilge from the In-box

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Friday, 4/6/2012 12:13 pm

Here’s a Friday treat: highlights from recent right-wing direct mail. In the past week or so, in addition to an invitation to this September’s Values Voter Summit:

Jerome Corsi, a rabidly Obama-hating birther and crazy-theory-promoter extraordinaire sent a VERY CONFIDENTIAL emergency request for money for his Freedom’s Defense Fund. Although Corsi told me that it’s “imperative that the media not know what Freedom’s Defense Fund has planned,” I’m going to let you in on the secret. Corsi says he’s going to “saturate the television with attacks aimed directly at Obama.” Corsi’s letter accuses Obama of “race-baiting” and “class warfare,” which isn’t surprising given that the president is, in Corsi’s words, “nothing more than a Socialist agitator in the mold of Sol Alinsky.” According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website, Freedom’s Defense Fund raised and spent nearly $3 million in the 2010 election cycle. 

From the prolific folks at the American Family Association, a “declaration of spiritual emergency.” According to the AFA’s Tim Wildmon, the nation’s problems, including “the Obama administration’s blatant attempt to destroy religious freedom in this country” are evidence of what’s wrong with our nation: “As a people, we have divorced ourselves from God.”  Wildmon warns that “the ‘internal invader’ that threatens to destroy our nation is, in a word, secularism!” Wildmon’s letter is evidence of the increasingly close political alliance between the Religious Right and the Catholic Right in their joint effort to portray Obama as an enemy of religious liberty: it includes a quote from the pope himself complaining about new “cultural currents” in America “which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council contributes yet another screed warning that President Obama’s “war on religion” could “irreversibly transform America.” Perkins says of Obama: “His vision is to plant a dense forest of secularism (a non-Christian America) and socialism (a government-run America) that can never, ever be cut down or uprooted.”

Liberty Counsel blames Alfred Kinsey for Child Abuse Scandal in the Catholic Church

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 3/12/2012 12:40 pm

Today on Faith & Freedom Mat Staver was joined by Judith Reisman, a visiting professor at Staver’s Liberty University School of Law, to discuss how sexologist Alfred Kinsey is to blame for the child abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. Reisman, who holds degrees in communications, has tried to fashion herself as an expert on human sexuality and is a stringent critic of the gay community. She has argued that gays are part of the “pedophile movement” as she says it is “the aim of homosexual males and now increasingly females is not to have sex with other old guys and get married but to obtain sex with as many boys as possible” and that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is a “modern version of the Hitler Youth.” Actual experts in the field of sexuality have dubbed Reisman’s work “pseudoscientific” and even the US Senate’s Juvenile Justice Subcommittee criticized Reisman’s work.

Reisman told Staver, who attacked Kinsey during his speech at the Values Voter Summit for “destroying the family, destroying the idea of God” and bringing “sexual anarchy” to America, said it was no coincidence that the abuse “problem in the Church” began just when Kinsey published his work. She also repeated the myth that gay people are more likely to molest children than straight people. “If you have a revolution it has huge fallout,” Reisman said, and one of the key fallouts was that post-Kinsey the Catholic Church actually found itself being trained by sexologists who were from the Kinseyan movement.” Reisman alleged that the sexologists showed pornography to Catholic bishops “who were so inclined” and “were throwing out the priests, I would say the good priests, because they were people who were not designed to molest children.”

Watch:

Reisman: There’s been a tremendous amount of research in the Catholic Church on the pedophile priest issue and the John Jay report came out which attempted to identify how come so many priests were involved in the sexual abuse of children, mostly boys by the way so these were homosexual acts because they were men molesting boys. As a result they began to look back to try to figure out when this began and although there’s always been a problem as there always is everywhere that problem in the Church began post 1950s, essentially in the 1960s, when everything began to spin off the charts in terms of abuse.

Staver: And they looked at it historically and found that it was in the ’50s to early ’60s when all this began. Amazingly, Dr. Alfred Kinsey wrote his first book, Sexuality and the Human Male in 1948 and Sexuality and the Human Female in 1953, and that is now commonly known as the K-bomb that he actually dropped the K-bomb on the greatest generation coming back from the war here in America and that rippled around the world. In context, you’re trying to give them some answers as to the ultimate origin of why they began to see these results happening within the Roman Catholic Church.

…

Reisman: It wasn’t going on forever; it did spin out of a major cultural change and that cultural change has been well identified as the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution had a father, that they always dubbed the father of the sexual revolution, that was Kinsey. If you have a revolution it has huge fallout and one of the key fallouts was that post-Kinsey the Catholic Church actually found itself being trained by sexologists who were from the Kinseyan movement, from the Kinsey model.

They were shown pornography in the seminaries in certain groups of seminaries where the bishops were so inclined. The orthodox priests, the people who wanted to be priest’s, rather, who were going into the seminaries who were orthodox and did not believe in promiscuity whether heterosexual or homosexual, were simply removed, they were not permitted to become priests because they were too “orthodox.” There were psychologists there who had been trained in the Kinsey model and who were throwing out the priests, I would say the good priests, because they were people who were not designed to molest children. So the impact of Kinsey was enormous.

Santorum Appears on Extremist Talk Show – Love Fest Ensues

Submitted by Josh Glasstetter on Thursday, 3/8/2012 6:06 pm

Rick Santorum has demonstrated, yet again, his willingness to associate with people whose views are repugnant to most Americans. This afternoon he appeared on one of the most extreme Religious Right programs in the country – American Family Radio’s Focal Point with Bryan Fischer.

Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, has been accused of crossing the line against “decency and civility” and of using “poisonous language” – by none other than Mitt Romney at the Values Voters Summit, who was trying to cautiously distance himself from Fischer’s repeated attacks on his Mormon faith while still courting the Religious Right. Later in January, Fischer claimed that a electing a Mormon president would threaten the “spiritual health” of the country.
 
But Fischer isn’t only out to get Mormons. He has an extensive history of bigotry against groups like Muslims (who are stupid because of inbreeding), gays and lesbians (who are responsible for Holocaust), Native Americans (who are “morally disqualified” from controlling land) , low-income African Americans (who “rut like rabbits”), and basically anyone who isn’t a “real” Christian. Fischer has also likened President Obama to Adolf Hitler and called him a tyrant who has a “hatred for the United States” and a “hatred for the white man.”
 
That brings us to Rick Santorum, who is hoping today’s appearance on American Family Radio will help him reach right-wing voters in Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas – the next states to vote in the GOP primary. He even gave a shout-out to the Deep South at the top of the interview: “We spent yesterday in Mississippi and Kansas and today we’re in Alabama. I’ll tell ya, there’s just nothing friendlier than the Deep South. We’re just enjoying the heck out of it here.”
 
Santorum knew he would be warmly received, and the interview was nothing short of a lovefest. Fischer gushed that his wife was a Santorum supporter from back when “being a Rick Santorum fan wasn’t cool,” and Santorum responded in kind: “We appreciate all the help and support. We were in your home town there, Tupelo, yesterday, and had a great reception from folks.”
 
Listening to Fischer and Santorum talk, it was clear that both men have very similar world views. For instance, Santorum told Fischer that President Obama ignores the Constitution and “believes he is more of an emperor than a president.”
 
Their conversation reminded me of a compliment Fischer gave Santorum just two weeks ago on his show:
 
This ought to be a tremendous encouragement to all of us that the leading candidate for the GOP nomination sounds like he’s hosting a conservative talk radio program.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, where do you hear anybody on the campaign trail talk like Rick Santorum talks? He sounds much more like he’s hosting a program on AFR Talk.
 
On that point, I’m in full agreement with Fischer. Santorum does sound like a Religious Right talk show host, and while that may help him in the GOP Primary, it’s also why he’ll never be president of the United States.
 
You can watch the full Santorum interview on Focal Point here:
 

Fischer: A Mormon President Threatens the "Spiritual Health" of the Nation

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/19/2012 11:29 am

Ever since Mitt Romney called out Bryan Fischer for his relentless bigotry at the Values Voter Summit, Fischer has been on a mission to ensure that Romney does not win the Republican nomination and has been increasingly willing to attack Romney's Mormon faith as part of this effort.

Yesterday, Fischer ramped it up a notch, declaring on his radio program that having a believer in a false religion in Mormonism inhabiting the White House would be a threat to the spiritual health of this nation:

[Mormonism] is not a Christian faith. It is, as Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says, a false religion. So it's kind of a striking things and I know it concerns a number of spiritual leaders, and I count myself among them, is what this would mean for the spiritual health of the United States of America is a worshiper of a false god occupied the White House. You know, what that would mean for the spiritual future of America and what it might reveal about the spiritual weakness of America if the American people, particularly the so-called conservatives, the people of faith in America, would promote someone to the highest office in the land who is a follower of a counterfeit faith, a false religion.

Dominionists in Search of Warriors: More from FRC - Cindy Jacobs 2012 Kickoff Rally

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thursday, 1/12/2012 3:39 pm

We have been reporting on last week’s Gathering of Eagles in Washington, D.C. where the Family Research Council teamed up with “Apostle” Cindy Jacobs to launch a prayer campaign designed to influence the 2012 elections. 

The event was vivid evidence of the Religious Right’s willingness to embrace the radical dominionists of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).  The Family Research Council is probably the most prominent political group on the Religious Right; its Values Voter Summit attracts Republican presidential candidates, congressional leaders, and other officials.  FRC is teaming up with proponents of politics as spiritual warfare against demons who control Washington, D.C. and other cities.  FRC and NAR leaders have common political goals (defeating President Obama, opposing LGBT equality, etc.) and a shared disdain for the separation of church and state.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins didn’t show, but the group’s chaplain and national prayer director Pierre Bynum represented FRC, asking for “miracles” during the election year prayer project and “joy” in November.  Bynum recounted God’s instructions to Moses, through his father-in-law, regarding the kind of men he should select as leaders (men who are capable, who fear God, who love truth, and who hate dishonest gain).  Then Bynum spoke wistfully about a time when he says there was a clear religious test for public office -- something explicitly forbidden in the Constitution.

…used to be you couldn’t hold public office in America unless you believed in Jesus Christ, and also believed not only in Jesus Christ but in a future destiny of rewards and punishment for people – you had to believe in a heaven and a hell to be elected for public office in the United States.

But Bynum, and Cindy Jacobs herself, were just the warm-up crew for “teaching apostle” Dutch Sheets, a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation.  Sheets’s keynote was part lecture and part battle cry, structured around what he portrayed as two aspects of the church – the oikos – which represents the church as family – and the ekklesia, which he says is the church as legislative body, as God’s government on earth.  His thesis is that the American church is too caught up in pastoral care and taking care of individuals and congregations – the oikos – and not nearly concerned enough with their responsibility to legislate, govern, and manage the earth in partnership with god. 

Sheets blames that on Satan, who stole from people the concept of being an ekklesia , a “nation-discipling, ambassadorial, earth-stewarding extension of his kingdom.”   Satan, it turns out, also had some help from King James, sponsor of the beloved 1611 English translation of the Bible.  Sheets says King James was uncomfortable with people thinking of themselves as a government (“kind of like our government that is trying to sell us separation of church and state”) and so he instructed his translators to use the word “church” when translating ekklesia.

Sheets is out to change the emphasis on the "family" side of church. He says he’s looking for soldiers and warriors who understand the commission in Matthew 28 to disciple the nations as a grant of authority to be partners with God.  “Disciple, rule, manage the earth. Make it look like heaven.” This is not a new concept, he says, but “a renewing of the Genesis mandate to manage our home -- and make this part of the kingdom look and think like the kingdom of heaven.”  In fact, Sheets said, the earth itself is “groaning” for the sons of God to exercise their proper dominion and authority, saying that if they don’t, it doesn’t rain when it’s supposed to rain and crops don’t produce.

He was not implying “that we’re going to take over everything and rule the earth completely for the Lord,” he said. “But we’re supposed to try.  It is our commission….There’s no insinuation here that we’re going to take over everything, but our assignment until he comes, is to bring his kingdom rule into the earth so that our region looks like heaven again.” According to Sheets, the church as ekklesia was meant to “divide and conquer” and, pointing to Harry Jackson in the front row, said, “it gets a little divisive when you try to rise up and save marriage, doesn’t it?”

Sheets repeatedly mocked “little sheepies” – people focused on the caring and pastoral work of the church (while insisting he wasn’t demeaning that work) – and called for warriors, saying “I’m trying to raise up an army!”   In his final prayer, he denounced as lazy, self-centered, narcissistic sheep those Christians who don’t register to vote because they don’t want to serve on jury duty, and asked God to “raise up kingdom warriors that are ready to do whatever it takes to bring forth your kingdom rule in the earth.”

Jeffress: Kentucky School Shooting God’s Retribution for Supreme Court Decision

Submitted by Miranda Blue on Friday, 1/6/2012 12:17 pm

Robert Jeffress, the prominent Dallas pastor who endorsed Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit last year and immediately got the candidate in hot water when his less than friendly views on Mormonism, Catholicism, Judaism and Islam came to light, is out with some new sermons in his ongoing series about America’s imminent collapse.

In a sermon posted yesterday, Jeffress argued that three key Supreme Court decisions on the separation of church and state have “so weakened our nation’s spiritual and social structure that collapse is inevitable.” He singles out the Court’s 1980 decision in Stone v. Graham, which struck down Kentucky’s law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in all public school classrooms. This decision, Jeffress argues, led directly to a tragic 1997 shooting spree in a Kentucky high school by a 14-year-old student who was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“Is that just a coincidence?” Jeffress asks. “I don’t think so. God warned Israel repeatedly of the devastating consequences she would experience if she forsook God and forgot his commandments.”
 

The prohibition against prayer, the prohibition against voluntary reading of the Bible, were only preambles to the most outlandish Supreme Court decision to date. For years, the public schools in Kentucky had posted copies of the Ten Commandments in the hallway. Understand, there was no obligation for the students to read the Ten Commandments, there was no explanation, no teaching of it in the schools. The Ten Commandments were simply displayed in the hallways, commandments like, “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not covet,” “Thou shalt not steal.” That was what was posted. However, in 1980, in the case of Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court ruled that the posting of the Ten Commandments was unconstitutional.

In a tragic twist of irony, 17 years after the Stone decision in 1980, a group of students had assembled together at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, as they did every morning for a time of prayer and Bible reading. As these students stood around a set of lockers and they were engaging in prayer, a 14-year-old student approached them, pulled out a handgun and opened fire, killing three of the students and seriously wounding five. All of that occurred in the hallway of a Kentucky school where the Supreme Court said, “You cannot post the words, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’” Is that just a coincidence? I don’t think so. God warned Israel repeatedly of the devastating consequences she would experience if she forsook God and forgot his commandments.
 

Klingenschmitt: 'Ron Paul Does Not Have Any Republican Support'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 12/29/2011 3:03 pm

For the last several years, Ron Paul has regularly won the straw polls at conservative events like CPAC and the Values Voter Summit but Religious Right organizers and activists have always been quick to dismiss these wins as flukes and assert that Paul does not actually represent the views of the movement.

Now that Paul's presidential campaign appears to be picking up steam, Religious Right activists are no longer simply dismissing Paul but are actively attacking him, with people like Bryan Fischer saying Paul is a renegade who should not be allowed to participate in GOP debates and Matt Barber writing columns about how "Ron Paul is dangerous."

But it is a sign that the Religious Right is really getting worried about Paul and his campaign when they start spinning elaborate conspiracy theories about how Paul and his supporters are really Democrats who are out to take over the Republican Party, as Gordon Klingenschmitt did while appearing on City On A Hill Radio yesterday:

Ron Paul is to the left of President Obama on social issues: he wants to legalize marijuana, he wants to support homosexualizing the military and repeal DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, he is all about homosexual marriage. This is a man who claims to be a Republican but he’s a RINO, he’s a Republican In Name Only, because Ron Paul is openly a libertarian. He’s not part of the Republican Party, he’s wrong on all the issues that we care about as the church. So, because he’s so far left of even President Obama, he’s gathering support from Democrats.

In Iowa, the only reason Ron Paul is polling so high is because he’s getting crossover votes from the left-wing.  And there are people who are trying to sabotage the Republican primary, they want to elect a Democrat, at least in his social conservative policies, Ron Paul is a Democrat, or is a libertarian.  He’s anti-church, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, pro-homosexual, pro-marijuana, everything that we don’t believe in, the Democrats do believe in; everything that Ron Paul believes in, the Democrats do believe in.

I think that’s why they’re lining up and they’re trying to make it appear as if in the Republican caucuses in Iowa and in the different places around the country, that Ron Paul actually has some Republican support.  I think he doesn’t. Ron Paul does not have any Republican support. Everyone who is a Ron Paul supporter is not a Republican, they are either a Democrat or a libertarian trying to take over the Republican Party.

What Once Was Lost, But Now Is Found

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 12/19/2011 3:42 pm

A little over a year ago, our first YouTube channel was shut down and we resigned ourselves to living without several great videos we had gathered over the years and used for previous posts. 

But today we received news that our account had been reinstated and reactivated and so, to celebrate, we are going to post a few of our favorite videos that we thought we'd never see again:

  • This 2007 "700 Club" segment on how the I-35 corridor was shutting down porn shops and strip clubs and freeing gays from homosexuality was the first recorded appearance of Cindy Jacobs here on RWW.

  • The opening number from the 2007 "Values Voter Debate" in which a choir re-worked the words to "God Bless America" to reflect the Religious Right's agenda, renaming it "Why Should God Bless America?"

  • Miss USA Runner-Up Carrie Prejean speaking at the Values Voter Summit in 2009, explaining that though "even though I didn't win the crown that night, I know that the Lord has so much of a bigger crown in Heaven for me."

  • Randall Terry hosting a press conference following the murder of Dr. George Tiller in which he says that Tiller "reaped what he sowed" ... and then asked if anyone in the press wanted to buy him lunch.

  • Janet Porter speaking at the Generals International's "Convergence 2010: A Cry to Awaken A Nation" in which she prayed for God to give Christians control over the media.

We are going to continue to post new videos on our RWWBlog account on YouTube, but are thrilled to have recovered the hundreds of older videos from our original account that we thought he had lost and just wanted to celebrate.

Attacks On Mormon Faith Nothing New From The Right

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 11/23/2011 3:05 pm

The conspicuous absence of the two Mormon presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, from Saturday’s Thanksgiving Family Forum was not lost on the Religious Right. Tom Minnery, head of Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink, one of the sponsors of the debate, speculated earlier this month that flare-up of the “Mormon issue” at the Values Voter Summit made Romney “hesitant to come back into an evangelical atmosphere like this.”

After the debate, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer penned a pitiful column claiming that the “liberal media” is set to level any number of anti-Mormon attacks against Romney….and then helpfully spelled out exactly what those future attacks would be.

While Fischer is claiming that liberals will be the ones to attack Romney’s faith, in fact it was right-wing pastor Robert Jeffress who leveled the first prominent attack on Romney’s religion this year. Jeffress not only attacked Romney’s faith implicitly in his speech at the Values Voter Summit, but also on Fischer’s own show, where Fischer agreed with Jeffress that Romney is not a Christian.

Minnery himself, who lamented Romney’s non-appearance at the Thanksgiving forum, said in a 2009 interview with Iowa talk show host Steve Deace that Romney’s “faith is not a Christian faith”:

While Fischer enjoys thinly veiling his attacks on Romney’s faith by laying out the arguments the “liberal media” might make in the future, his American Family Radio colleague Alex McFarland is tackling the subject head-on. On his show Exploring the Word last month, McFarland devoted an entire segment to explaining how Mormons are not Christian, and that Mormonism is actually more like Islam:

Fischer Is Not Fooling Anyone With His Latest Attack On Romney's Faith

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/22/2011 1:29 pm

One of the strangest recent developments in the GOP presidential race is the insistence from Religious Right leaders who have been hostile to both Mitt Romney and his Mormonism that, should Romney become the Republican nominee, it will be the Left and the Media that will launch bigoted attacks against his faith.

Bryan Fischer has had it out for Romney because he meekly denounced Fischer's unmitigated bigotry at the Values Voter Summit, and Fischer has been warning that a Romney nomination will mean "the end of the Republican party as a political force" ever since.

At the same time, Fischer has also been trying to use Romney's faith against him but struggling to do so without resorting to the open bigotry that is his standard operating procedure because even he knows that blatant anti-Mormon bigotry is not popular among the Religious Right. 

Which explains his latest column, in which he says that Romney refused to attend the Thanksgiving Family Forum because "he did not want to do anything that would highlight the theological gulf between his religious convictions and those of the orthodox Christians on the platform."

But this is really just cover for Fischer to go after Romney's faith by imagining a scenario in which it is the "winger-left media" that will attack "the more unusual aspects of Mormon theology":

One thing conservatives should be mindful of is that even if they hesitate at this stage of the game to talk publicly about the more unusual aspects of Mormon theology, the winger-left media will share no such delicacy should Romney get the nomination.

Should he become the conservative standard-bearer, we will be barraged with stories about the unorthodox theological views of Mitt Romney and the LDS church. The left will make sure America knows that Mormons believe that there is not only a Heavenly Father but a Heavenly Mother, with whom the Heavenly Father sires spirit children.

The left will make sure America knows that Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan, as offspring of the Heavenly Father and Mother, are brothers. The left will make sure Americans know that Mormons believe that both Satan and his brother Jesus presented plans of salvation to the Heavenly Father, and that Satan rebelled when the Heavenly Father chose the plan of Jesus.

They won’t hesitate to probe Romney on whether he believes that American Indians are the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel and whether he believes Jesus visited this continent to appear to them at one point. (Advances in DNA testing have proven that there is no Hebrew lineage among the native American tribes.) He will be probed on whether he believes that Jesus will return to Independence, Missouri, as the LDS church believes, rather than Jerusalem, as the Bible teaches.

So, if Romney secures the nomination, conservatives need to prepare themselves for what will be an all-out theological onslaught from the left on Mitt Romney’s theology. Remember that they were relentless in hounding Michele Bachmann about her theological views on submission in marriage. They were relentless in hounding Attorney General John Ashcroft about his Pentecostal beliefs. They won’t hesitate to bash Romney about the head and shoulders regarding his religious convictions, all in their effort as Ministers of Propaganda for the regime to re-elect Barack Obama.

If Fischer thinks he is fooling anyone with this pathetic charade, he is less self-aware than we ever could have imagined.

Part I: The Right Wing Playbook On Occupy Wall Street

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 11/21/2011 5:30 pm

This is the first part of our five-part series on right-wing attacks against Occupy Wall Street.

In July, the magazine Adbusters called on readers to set up camp on Wall Street and push for “one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics,” and the Radical Right has been attacking Occupy Wall Street ever since. The economic justice movement has brought attention to not only the issue of the massive influx of corporate money in politics but also the country’s exacerbating income inequality and the continued lack of accountability and oversight on Wall Street.

The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the enormous corporate influence over our political system, have lost confidence in the banking industry, support Wall Street regulations and believe that income inequality is a major problem.

Naturally, the Right sees Occupy Wall Street as a threat not just to their political standing but also their financial interests, and right-wing politicians and media outlets are doing all they can to dismiss and demonize Occupy Wall Street. The right has charged the movement with attempting to spark a violent revolution, dismissed the protesters as non-ideological, lazy whiners…who happen to be anti-Semitic Communists, and even claimed that the movement is anti-Christian.

Strategy One: Paint Occupy Wall Street As A Violent Revolution

After trumpeting and funding tea party protests for over a year, the Radical Right has suddenly lost its appetite for public demonstrations. Many of the advocates who vocally supported the tea party movement now claim that rallies are breeding grounds for violence.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, used his platform at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit to blast Occupy Wall Street as “growing mobs” that are based around “the pitting of Americans against Americans.” Glenn Beck told the Summit that “the violent left is coming to our streets, all of our streets, to smash, to tear down, to kill, to bankrupt, to destroy; it will be global in its nature and global in its scope.” Later that week, the Family Research Council asked members to pray, “May God prevent these radical organizers from stirring revolution.”

Gary Bauer, the prominent Religious Right leader who helps lead the groups American Values and the Emergency Committee for Israel, said that Jared Loughner, who killed six people in his attempted assassination of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, “would fit in well with the Occupy Wall Street movement.” Another Religious Right leader, televangelist Pat Robertson, claimed that President Obama’s positive comments about Occupy Wall Street amounted to putting “the match to the kindling,” and accused the President of “inciting people to revolt.”

Cliff Kincaid of the conservative group Accuracy In Media denounced Occupy Wall Street for promoting “lawlessness and anarchy” and Andrew Breitbart warned that “their desire is once it becomes a large enough group of people, then they will start fomenting the radicalism and the revolution” and said their tactics are “very evocative of the communist era.”

Fox News, unsurprisingly, is also warning that the economic justice movement is involved in violence. Fox’s Greg Gutfeld flatly called the movement “violent,” Charlie Gasparino said the protesters are “anti-American” and “increasingly violent” and Fox News contributor Liz Trotta said that Occupy Wall Street includes “the ravings of what sounds like the Unabomber.” Far-right activist and columnist Star Parker claimed in a Fox News that the movement could “end up in riots.” Fox News most notoriously labeled the deranged White House attacker the “Occupy Shooter.”

Conservative columnist Alan Caruba warned, in a blog post promoted by Tea Party Nation, “Appeals to freedom of speech have their limits when it comes to efforts to undermine and destroy the nation.” Caruba charged:

You don't solve unemployment by embracing tyranny.

Further back in history, one recalls the mobs that brought down the Weimar Republic in Germany and opened the doors to the Nazi movement. Earlier, mobs led by Bolsheviks deposed the Russian czar and imposed some seventy years of Communist control there. It is not surprising, therefore, that so many communist organizations and nations support the Occupy movement or that Wall Street is its target.

In time we shall learn who the organizers of this “spontaneous” movement truly have been, but for now public safety must be asserted to rid Zuccotti Park of this gang of “useful idiots” and wherever else they show up.

“Mormon Issue” Keeps Romney out of Weekend GOP Debate, Highlights Religious Right Schism

Submitted by Josh Glasstetter on Friday, 11/18/2011 1:59 pm

The next Republican presidential debate – the Thanksgiving Family Forum – is tomorrow in the crucial early caucus state of Iowa. The elephant in the room will be the elephant not in the room – frontrunner Mitt Romney who is avoiding the event, presumably to prevent the “Mormon issue” from heating up again.

The Thanksgiving Family Forum is being sponsored by three right-wing organizations: Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Family Leader, an Iowa-based Christian conservative organization. On the face of it, Romney fits in rather well with this crowd. He has called homosexuality “perverse” and “reprehensible” and has signed on to NOM’s pledge against equal rights for committed gay and lesbian couples. So far so good for Mitt, but there’s a theological snag.
 
Many Religious Right activists and organizers care first and foremost about supporting a “real” Christian. However, according to a recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, “nearly half (49 percent) of white evangelical Protestant voters do not believe that the Mormon faith is a Christian religion.”
 
Romney desperately wants to avoid a repeat of the Values Voters Summit, where high profile Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress introduced Rick Perry and then claimed that Romney is not a "true, born again follower of Christ." The attack captured national headlines and greatly hindered Romney’s efforts to woo the Religious Right.
 
After Romney bowed out of tomorrow’s debate, which will feature all the other top GOP candidates, Family Leader founder Bob Vander Plaats went on Fox News to denounce the decision:  “Mitt Romney has dissed this base in Iowa and this diss will not stay in Iowa[.]This might prove that he is not smart enough to be president.” Earlier Vander Plaats said that “should Romney decide to show up, there is no doubt that the hidden question on Mitt Romney has been his Mormon faith.”
 
Despite Romney’s deeply  conservative social views, the “Mormon issue” will continue to haunt him, and no amount of pandering can overcome what appears to be a deep-seated theological objection. Look no further than Religious Right radio giant Focus on the Family.
 
Focus’ CitizenLink made headlines in late 2008 when it pulled an interview with Glenn Beck over his Mormon faith, as the Deseret News reported:
 
James Dobson's Focus on the Family ministry has pulled from its CitizenLink Web site an article about talk show host Glenn Beck's book "The Christmas Sweater" after some complained that Beck's LDS faith is a "cult" and "false religion" and shouldn't be promoted by a Christian ministry.
 
The controversy reportedly began when the group Underground Apologetics issued a press release on Christian Newswire attacking the Mormon faith:
 
While Glenn's social views are compatible with many Christian views, his beliefs in Mormonism are not. Clearly, Mormonism is a cult. The CitizenLink story does not mention Beck's Mormon faith, however, the story makes it look as if Beck is a Christian who believes in the essential doctrines of the faith.
 
Shortly after, Focus on the Family caved:
 
We do recognize the deep theological difference between evangelical theology and Mormon theology, and it would have been prudent for us at least to have pointed out these differences. Because of the confusion, we have removed the interview from CitizenLink.
 
Earlier in 2008, Tom Minnery – CitizenLink’s executive director and an organizer of tomorrow’s debate – was quoted in Time saying that “Mitt Romney has acknowledged that Mormonism is not a Christian faith.” However, he acknowledged that “on the social issues we are so similar.”
 
Minnery appeared somewhat conciliatory on Wednesday, saying that “There is room for people who do not hold an orthodox Christianity, we prize Thomas Jefferson, but I don’t think anybody would say he was an orthodox Christian in his beliefs.” However, that begs the question of whether the Religious Right views Romney as a non-orthodox Christian or a non-Christian. Minnery himself seemed to answer that question four years ago.
 
As for Romney, he will continue to tout his social conservative credentials while doing his best to keep his religious views out of the limelight.

 

Nerves Fraying On The Right Over Potential Romney Nomination

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 11/1/2011 4:40 pm

Will tea party and Religious Right activists unite in their shared loathing of Mitt Romney? Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation sent an alert to members today pleading with them to support his chosen candidate, Newt Gingrich, over Romney. “If Mitt Romney wins the primaries, the Tea Party has lost,” Phillips writes, “and it does not matter whether it is Obama or Romney who wins the election, as there is very little difference between the two.”

The philosophy of the Tea Party in the primary season can be described in three words. Anybody but Romney. Unfortunately, this is a very bad strategy.

Is Romney now an acceptable candidate?

No! Absolutely not.

…

Seventy to seventy five percent of Republicans want someone other than Romney. That number is higher among Tea Party supporters. Obama’s numbers are tanking so badly that almost any Republican who can fog a mirror is going to be in good shape next year.

But before we get to the general election, we go through the primaries. If Mitt Romney wins the primaries, the Tea Party has lost and it does not matter whether it is Obama or Romney who wins the election, as there is very little difference between the two.

Granted Obama hates America and Romney at least likes America, but beyond that, from a policy standpoint, there is little difference between the two. The number of advisors that worked for both Romney and Obama is stunning, or appalling, depending on your point of view.

Romney gave Massachusetts Romneycare, which has almost bankrupted the state. His spending on welfare programs would make Obama proud and of course, he supported cap and trade and imposed draconian, job-killing environmental regulations on Massachusetts businesses.

We need a President who is committed to ripping socialism out of government, which excludes Romney who wants to grow and manage big government.

…

I encourage everyone in the Tea Party movement to come on board now and join me in supporting Newt for President.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, who was reproached by Romney at the Values Voter Summit, dedicated yesterday’s Focal Point to warning about a potential Romney nomination. AFA’s Michigan leader Gary Glenn already signed his name, along with other Religious Right leaders, on to a letter pleading with GOP voters not to nominate Romney. Fischer argued that Romney’s nomination will mean “the end of the Republican party as a political force” and that he has no chance of defeating Obama as a result of his well-documented flip-flopping and public perception of his Mormon faith:

Catholic Bishops' 'Marriage Guy' Says Satan Makes People Gay

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Monday, 10/31/2011 1:35 pm

Daniel Avila is the self-described "marriage guy" for the Catholic bishops.  More formally, he is the policy advisor for marriage and family to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. He thinks people are gay because Satan was messing around with them while they were in their mothers' wombs. God, he says, has nothing to do with it.

Therefore, whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally unchosen beginnings of same-sex attraction, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.

Writing in The Pilot, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, Avila cites one scientist’s theory that homosexual orientation is the result of fluctuations in maternal hormones. To that thesis, he adds a gigantic leap: the devil must be doing it. 
In other words, the scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil. Any time natural disasters occur, we as people of faith look back to Scripture's account of those angels who rebelled and fell from grace. In their anger against God, these malcontents prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. They continue to do all they can to mar, distort and destroy God's handiwork. 
Avila gave no hint of his satanic origin theory of homosexuality when he spoke at the Values Voter Summit in October, though it (and the reference to natural disasters) does sound like the kind of thing one would hear from anti-gay conservative evangelicals.  At the Values Voter Summit, Avila urged people not to accept that marriage equality is inevitable. He claimed that anti-equality forces in Massachusetts are building political strength toward repeal of marriage equality, a notion rejected out of hand by equality advocates familiar with the state.

King: Marriage Equality Is "An Active Effort To Desecrate A Sacrament Of The Church"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 10/26/2011 4:20 pm

Less than a month after his speech to the Values Voter Summit, in which he claimed that marriage equality was an “assault” by the left to destroy America’s foundations, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) equated legalizing marriage for same-sex couples to desecrating the Eucharist. Speaking with Bishop William Lori at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States,” King said that marriage equality, like the desecration of the Eucharist, was a “direct affront to the Church” and “an active effort to desecrate a sacrament of the church.”

Watch:

Perkins Agrees With Jeffress That Voters Should Prefer Christian Leaders

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 10/24/2011 4:55 pm

Coverage of the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit this year was dominated by stories of Robert Jeffress’ criticism of the Mormon faith; Bryan Fischer’s unabashed bigotry; and the infighting that rose to the surface when Bill Bennett rebuked Jeffress and Mitt Romney, tepidly and not by name, denounced Fischer. The press coverage of the Religious Right conference was so completely focused on Jeffress and Fischer that the FRC even asked members to pray that the media will stop reporting on the story.

Today FRC president Tony Perkins used his radio alert today to defend Jeffress, who made it clear that Romney’s Mormon faith was a reason he endorsed his chief rival, Rick Perry. “His rational; all else being equal a Christian leader is to be preferred over a non-Christian,” Perkins said, “I whole heartedly agree.”

Listen:

Do you have the freedom to choose between Christian and a non-Christian candidate? Hello, this is Tony Perkins with the Family Research Council in Washington. Texas pastor Robert Jeffress created a firestorm when he declared at the Values Voter Summit he was voting for Rick Perry because he was a Christian. His rational; all else being equal a Christian leader is to be preferred over a non-Christian. I whole heartedly agree. So did the first justice of the Supreme Court John Jay who said it was in the "interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." Many so-called journalists have gone apoplectic claiming such a bigoted position violates article 6 of the Constitution, how absurd. The article reads, “Congress may not require religious tests for an office." The Constitution restricts what the government can require, not what individuals can consider. If voters can consider a candidate's party and that party's platform, they can consider a candidate’s religion and the tenets of that faith. We should prefer mature, qualified Christians for public office over those who reject the orthodox teachings of scripture.

This prompts the question: how would Tony Perkins feel about the competence of a Jewish leader over a Christian one? Perkins and the Religious Right always talk about their Judeo-Christian coalition and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is Jewish, addressed the Values Voter Summit and is seen as a rising star in GOP circles. So much for that.

And would it impact Perkins’ decision in the Republican primary? During the Jeffress spat, Perkins told CNN’s John King that he does not consider Mormons to be Christians: “Well, let me say this, John. I do not see Mormonism as the same as Christianity. Now, whether it’s defined as a cult, I don’t know. I would say it’s not Christianity the way evangelicals view Christianity. There’s a distinction. There’s no question there’s a theological distinction between Mormonism and Christianity.”

If Perkins thinks that Christians should be given preference over non-Christians, and that Mormons are not Christians, is there any difference between his view and Jeffress’ view on Romney’s candidacy?

Fischer: "If Anybody Is Out There Saying Something Is A Cult, It's The LDS Church!"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 10/13/2011 3:55 pm

It is becoming abundantly clear that we could never parody Bryan Fischer if we tried because he is constantly dreaming up absurd claims that we couldn't even begin to match in our wildest imagination.

On his radio program yesterday, Fischer was discussing his view that every voter must have a religious test for candidates running for office, which was prompted by the dust-up over Mitt Romney's Mormon faith at last week's Values Voter Summit.

During the discussion, Fischer defended Robert Jeffress' right to his "sincerely held religious belief" that Mormonism is a cult ... which then somehow morphed into an assertion by Fischer that Christians are really the victim here because it is the Mormon church which believes that Christians are a cult: 

If somebody is true to their Mormon faith - I mean, if they're devout - Mormonism, they believe, restored the church of Jesus Christ. It was gone, it disappeared, all the church was corrupt, there was no representation of the Gospel of Christ. This was Joseph Smith, he said "I talked to God about it. He said 'don't join any churches; they're all corrupt, they're all gone; my church is not here on planet Earth; you and you alone can restore my original church.'"

So, as far as devout Mormons are concerned, the entire history of Christianity, the entire church is one big ginormous cult, if they're going to be honest about their own faith and about their own religion. So if anybody's out there saying something is a cult, it's the LDS Church!

FRC Prays For Better Summit Coverage, Against Occupy Wall Street

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 10/13/2011 11:56 am

If you need more proof that the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit was a public relations disaster, look no further than the FRC’s own prayer team, which is calling on members to pray for improved coverage after journalists focused on the unabashed bigotry of summit speakers Robert Jeffress and Bryan Fischer. Republican infighting was present on and off the stage over the remarks of speakers like Jeffress and Fischer, and now the FRC wants members to pray away all of that negative attention:

The premiere Washington gathering of "social conservatives," sponsored by FRCAction, FRC and several allied conservative groups, was a spectacular success, but not without controversy. Reporters and pundits from over 400 media outlets were present, many watching critically for controversy to capture ratings. The Texas pastor who introduced Gov. Perry was asked later by reporters if Mormonism is a cult. When he said yes -- even though it was in a sidebar conversation with the media -- his answer became a dominant story from VVS.

FRC President Tony Perkins offered this perspective: We clearly recognize the fact that Mormon theology includes doctrines that are distinct from Evangelical theology and Catholic theology. At the same time, the goal of the values voter movement is not to build a "National Church." Our goal is to build a national coalition based on the shared values of respecting human life, strengthening natural marriage, defending religious liberty, promoting personal and fiscal responsibility, and maintaining our national security. When we successfully work together with those who share our values, we are preserving and strengthening our religious liberty, so that we can freely share the truth of the gospel with everyone.

Pray God's people will be guided by Scripture, common sense and good conscience in exercising their vote. May all Christian leaders take special care to discern their audiences and be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Mt 10:16; 1 Th 3:1-2; 1 Tim 3:16 ff).

The FRC not only called for prayers against the terrible media coverage over unapologetic anti-Mormon figures like Jeffress and Fischer, but also called for prayers against the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their enablers in “the sycophant liberal media”:

Days of Rage/Occupy Wall Street -- The sixties-style tent city protest, which seemed to fizzle after its September 17 launch, now has momentum and is expanding to cities across the nation, including Washington, D.C. Organizers of the movement (e.g. ACORN, labor unions, and other far-left leaders and groups) have been given new life by the sycophant liberal media, Hollywood celebrities and leading Democrats in Washington, including President Obama. Six arrests were made when one hundred demonstrators conducted an illegal demonstration inside a Senate office building.

May God prevent these radical organizers from stirring revolution and distracting voters from the elections and keeping watch on our elected leaders (Num 16:1-14; Is 1:4-6; Pr 12:11-12; Mt 26:41; Eph 4:28; 1 Tim 6:3-10; Heb 13:5-6).

New Religious Right Video: Secularism Means Doom For America

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thursday, 10/13/2011 10:53 am

One of the sessions at the recent Values Voter Summit featured a showing of a new half-hour video produced by the American Family Association called “Divorcing God: Secularism and the Republic.” (Back in the summer it was being promoted as "Divorcing God: Secularism, Sexual Anarchy, and the Future of the Republic.") The video features an array of Religious Right leaders and academics, whose argument can be summarized this way:  America, whose greatness is decaying because the country has turned its back on the God who inspired the founding fathers, is doomed if it continues to allow secularists to push religion into the closet.  It's time for Christians to fight back.

And just to be clear, the God in “one nation under God” isn’t any old generic God, but the same Christian God who made western civilization possible.  It’s familiar to anyone who has followed the Religious Right’s “Christian nation” rhetoric, filled with founders’ quotes about religion and  attacks on the Supreme Court’s rulings on church-state separation.

Among the stars of the video is Princeton University’s Robert George, the Religious Right’s favorite intellectual. George, a leader of the National Organization for Marriage, is one of the authors of the Manhattan Declaration, whose signers fancy themselves potential martyrs for opposing abortion and LGBT equality in America. Others include Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute; Michael Farris, homeschooling advocate and chancellor of Patrick Henry College; and Matthew Spalding, of the Heritage Foundation. The founders clearly believed that God punishes nations, says Dacus, and when countries allow their societies to become amoral, there’s a price to be paid, not just by those individuals but society as a whole.  The video suggests that the current fight between secularists and those who want to preserve the country’s divine foundation is the last stand for the future of freedom on planet earth.

Another DVD being handed out at the Values Voter Summit hit similar themes about the importance of the nation’s foundation on biblical principles.  It features a 2010 “State of the Nation” speech delivered by Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis at the Creation Museum in Kentucky.  Ham argues that the nation is threatened by the teaching of evolution and by the Supreme Court. “There really is no such thing as separation of church and state,” says Ham, who warns that “Christianity in this nation is becoming outlawed more and more in various quarters.”  Ham blames the decline more on church leaders than on secularists.  The Bible is the “absolute authority,” he says, but too many Christians have undermined the authority of scripture by compromising on the truth of the 6,000 year-old earth and great flood described in Genesis.  And that means quoting the Bible in policy debates on abortion and gay marriage has lost its effectiveness.

Meanwhile, French scholar Denis Lacorne has just published Religion in America: A Political History (Columbia University Press, 2011), in which he examines two competing narratives about American identity.  One derives from the secular values of the Enlightenment and reflects a desire to preserve liberty by freeing it from the power of an established church.  The second ties American identity to the Puritans and Protestantism.  These two narratives are reflected in competing notions of church-state separation evident today in our politics and on our Supreme Court.  At a presentation at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. this week, Lacorne suggested that what he calls the neopuritan narrative was developed in the first half of the 19th century by historians who wanted to resurrect the influence of the Puritans, who he says were generally ignored by the founding fathers in their debates over religious liberty and whether or not to make the Constitution an explicitly Christian document.  (They chose not to.)

 

Syndicate content

Values Voter Summit Top Posts

American Family Association
The American Family Association (AFA) has been a long-time promoter of "traditional moral values" in the media, particularly television. AFA built its reputation on organizing boycotts against sponsors of TV shows with "anti-Christian" messages and ideas, or against companies it claims support the so-called "homosexual agenda" or marriage equality. MORE >

Values Voter Summit Posts Archive

Who's Ted Cruz? Getting to Know the Next Senator from the Tea Party
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Friday 08/31/2012, 1:30pm
Cross-posted at AlterNet The power center that Dick Armey and FreedomWorks have been aggressively building in the U.S. Senate around reigning extremist Jim DeMint will almost certainly welcome Ted Cruz in January. The Republican convention gave most Americans their first look at Cruz, who has become a Tea Party folk hero after crushing the establishment candidate, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in a bitterly contested primary. Ted Cruz loves to portray his victory as an upwelling from the grassroots, as he did during his Tuesday night speech from the platform. “I have the honor of... MORE >
6 Right-Wing Zealots and the Crazy Ideas Behind the Most Outrageous Republican Platform Ever
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Tuesday 08/28/2012, 9:30am
Note: this story is cross-posted at AlterNet. The official 2012 Republican Party platform is a far-right fever dream, a compilation of pouting, posturing, and policies to meet just about every demand from the overlapping Religious Right, Tea Party, corporate, and neo-conservative wings of the GOP.  If moderates have any influence in today’s Republican Party, you wouldn’t know it by reading the platform.  Efforts by a few delegates to insert language favoring civil unions, comprehensive sex education, and voting rights for the District of Columbia, for example, were all... MORE >
FRC Calls Islam a 'Fanatical Religion,' Attacks White House Event with Muslims
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Friday 08/24/2012, 3:26pm
When the Family Research Council wasn’t rallying support this week for Todd Akin or pushing to keep the ban on abortions in the case of rape or incest in the GOP platform, it found time to denigrate an entire religion. FRC sends out weekly Prayer Team alerts, asking “for your prayers relating to various public policy issues.” This week’s alert called Islam – the religion of 2.6 million Americans and 1.6 billion people around the world – a “fanatical religion.” The alert also attacked a recent White House event with the American Muslim community... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers - 8/21/12
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 08/21/2012, 6:00pm
Despite pleas from Mitt Romney along with national and state Republican figures, Todd Akin will stay in the race. Rick Scarborough wants Akin to remain in since his “legitimate rape” comment “was made in the course of an otherwise admirable defense of the right to life.” What a surprise! Harry Jackson is out with a column attacking marriage equality. The American Prayer Initiative today asks people to pray for God to “intervene to transform and heal the hearts of those who would attempt to re-define marriage.” After last year... MORE >
Paul Ryan to Headline Todd Akin Love Fest Next Month
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Monday 08/20/2012, 5:55pm
Earlier today, Mitt Romney described Rep. Todd Akin’s comments on “legitimate rape” as “insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong.” In a separate interview, Romney said, “I can't defend what he said, I can't defend him.” Romney may not be able to defend Akin, but his running mate Paul Ryan knows some people who can. He’s set to headline next month’s Values Voter Summit alongside a who’s who of Akin defenders and endorsers.   The event’s chief sponsor, the Family Research Council, leapt to Akin’s defense. The group... MORE >
Paul Ryan Featured Alongside 'Former Terrorist’
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Monday 08/13/2012, 1:40pm
This, in a nutshell, is your modern Religious Right: The website for the upcoming Values Voter Summit in DC, hosted by the Family Research Council, features Mitt Romney’s running mate side-by-side with “former terrorist” Kamal Saleem, seen here:     I can’t imagine Ryan would appreciate being given equal billing with a “former terrorist,” but Saleem is a big deal to the Religious Right.   Saleem, whose real name is Khodor Shami, claims that he was Muslim Brotherhood operative who “came to the United States of America…to destroy... MORE >
Religious Right Groups Laud Paul Ryan, Highlight Anti-Choice and Anti-Gay Voting Record
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 08/13/2012, 11:25am
Conservative leaders hailed Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan, the far-right congressman, to be his running mate, emphasizing his opposition to LGBT and reproductive rights. Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance said that besides his one-time vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, she is excited “to pull back out my t-shirt from 2008 that says ‘Our VP is hotter than your VP!’” Paul Ryan is a great choice. He has one little blip in that he voted for ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) a long time ago but voted right on the marriage... MORE >
Far-Right Ted Cruz Forces Texas Lt. Gov. into Senate Primary Runoff
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Wednesday 05/30/2012, 11:42am
Yesterday’s Texas primary gave Mitt Romney enough delegates to clinch the GOP presidential nomination, according to most counts.  But the potentially more consequential result is that right-wing candidate Ted Cruz forced Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst into a July 31 runoff election, which the Washington Post says analysts consider a toss-up.   The Post today describes Cruz as a Tea Party favorite, with good reason.  Cruz calls Obama the “most radical” president the nation has ever seen, calls for cuts in corporate taxes, rants against financial and environmental... MORE >