Maggie Gallagher

NOM’s Gallagher Outnumbered at Catholic Conversation on LGBT Issues

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thursday, 12/9/2010 1:04 pm

Georgetown University’s College Republicans and College Democrats hosted “A Catholic Family Conversation” on LGBT issues last night. The event at the Jesuit school was moderated by columnist E.J. Dionne and featured a debate between author/blogger Andrew Sullivan and Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage.

At the outset, Gallagher asked for a show of hands on where members of the audience stood on gay marriage. There appeared to be more supporters than opponents (not surprising given the mostly young audience and data on widespread Catholic support for LGBT equality). That may be why Gallagher condescendingly told young Catholics who support gay marriage not to pat themselves on the back for bravery, because, she said, what takes courage these days is to defend the church’s teaching. Gallagher and others were wearing a NOM button that tries, clumsily and not very successfully IMHO, to co-opt the term “marriage equality”:

Dionne spoke about his own journey from opposition to support for marriage equality. “Be not afraid,” he said, quoting from the day’s Gospel reading to suggest that Catholics should not fear conversation or engagement with modernity. He said that the Catholic Church has sometimes challenged modernity and sometimes been enriched by it, and sometimes both.

Many of Gallagher’s arguments were familiar to those who follow the marriage issue: Gallagher insisted that marriage is primarily about procreation and that “traditional” marriage serves a societal benefit of ensuring that children are raised by their mothers and fathers. She asked how society would be able to channel young men’s sexual energies into marriage if the traditional ideal of marriage is redefined as bigotry.

Gallagher said she was “shocked” at how opponents of gay marriage are being stigmatized as akin to racists and claimed that the gay rights movement is going to create intensifying conflict between the government and faith communities. (Perhaps she was thinking about NOM board member Orson Scott Card’s call for the overthrow of the government and Constitution if that Constitution is interpreted to permit gay couples to marry.)

In response to one audience question about what she would say to a teen in despair, she said she would counsel that God loves him, and claimed that she would confront his bullies because she has no respect or tolerance for bullying. When a later questioner asked how that statement could be reconciled with some of the groups NOM works with, she essentially dismissed the question by saying she couldn’t respond without specific examples. (We’d be happy to provide a few, or a ton.)

Gallagher slammed Catholics for Equality, which helped organize the event, calling on the group to repent for language she thought too critical of the church. (She seems sensitive in that regard, saying during the debate that Sullivan’s blunt criticism of the pope’s denigrating language about gay people made her want to cry.) And although she criticized her opponents for being uncivil, NOM distributed a flyer to attendees attacking Catholics for Equality. (The flyer slammed People For the American Way as an “anti-religious group funded by George Soros.”)

Sullivan was particularly effective as a speaker because he combined hard-hitting debate about the logic of NOM’s positions and the consequences of the church’s anti-gay teachings with a very personal, moving and disarming honesty about his own life and the way it has been strengthened by his marriage and his husband’s love.

Sullivan said he agreed with much of what Gallagher said about heterosexual marriage as an amazing, beautiful, mysterious event, but that he does not accept that marriage is an “either/or” proposition, adding that neither his parents’ marriage nor his sister’s is invalidated by his own. Sullivan told Gallagher that of course it hurt that she was trying to forcibly divorce him from his husband. It was, he said, a dehumanizing effort to deny gay people human happiness.

For more on the event, see journalist Sarah Posner’s report here.

Religious Right Tries to Marginalize SPLC

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 12/8/2010 11:16 am

The Religious Right continues to react to the Southern Poverty Law Center's updated list of anti-gay hate groups and it is becoming clear that we've gotten to the point where people are speaking out against it without even having read it, which is why we have Ed Meese calling the list "despicable" and insisting that he knows the groups well, so they could not possibly be considered hate groups:

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese says it is “despicable” for the Southern Poverty Law Center to classify the Family Research Council and a dozen other top conservative organizations as “hate groups” similar to the Ku Klux Klan.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Meese told CNSNews.com about the list published by the SPLC. “I know about seven or eight of those groups. I know the people very well. I know the groups very well, I’ve worked with them over the years, and I think it actually undermines the credibility of the Southern Poverty Law Center to make such a statement.”

Last week, the Southern Policy Law Center announced that it was going to classify the Family Research Council and 12 other organizations as “hate groups” because of their positions on homosexuality.

Among the groups being designated by the SPLC are the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Coral Ridge Ministries, Family Research Institute, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Illinois Family Institute, Liberty Counsel, MassResistance, National Organization for Marriage and the Traditional Values Coalition.

The SPLC said these organizations will be named to its "hate group" watch list.

But Meese said the Southern Poverty Law Center had cited no evidence whatsoever to show that the FRC or the other major pro-family conservative organizations were hate groups.

First of all, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, Liberty Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage were not designated hate groups - they were simply listed among active anti-gay groups.

Secondly, the SPLC laid out the statements and agenda of all the groups included on the list in its report, so the only way Meese could claim they "cited no evidence whatsoever" is if he hadn't bothered to read it.

And then, in one final bit of irony, Maggie Gallagher complained that the goal of the SPLC was to marginalize conservative groups so that no elected or government officials would associate with them ... while Messe demanded that the government have nothing to do with the SPLC:

The liberal law firm informs the media and law enforcement of its “surveillance,” and has close ties to both the media and the Justice Department.

“The question is, can they get away with it? Is it going to become the case that a politician can’t have anything to do with the Family Research Council or they’ll be associating with a ‘hate’ group. Will the media now say ‘We can’t talk to the Family Research Council because they are an extremist hate group?’” Gallagher asked.

...

Meese, meanwhile, called on the Southern Poverty Law Center to apologize and remove the FRC and the other groups from the list. He also said no one in law enforcement should take these latest deisgnations seriously.

“What should happen is, they should rescind their statement and apologize,” Meese said. “If in fact, in any way, they are in collusion with the Justice Department or any other department of the federal government on this, I think it is a serious problem for the government."

NOM Compares SPLC To Joseph McCarthy

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 12/2/2010 11:27 am

If you think the Religious Right is over the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center has added several new organizations to its list of anti-gay hate groups, think again.

Even though pretty much every group mentioned in the report has already weighed in to voice their outrage, activists continue to blast the SPLC, with the AFA of Pennsylvania accusing them of "attempting to silence" Christians and WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah calling them a "marginal, fringe, extremist organization."

But the latest response from National Organization for Marriage really takes the cake, as Robert George compares the SPLC to Joe McCarthy while Maggie Gallagher complains that they are being treated like racists:

In a Nov. 29 e-mail to CNA, Princeton University law professor and National Organization for Marriage chairman emeritus Robert P. George compared the action to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s smearing of opponents by accusing them of being communist sympathizers.

While the Law Center continues to do some good work in the area of civil rights, its “tarring” of those it opposes “reveals itself to have become an ideologically partisan organization bent on shutting down dissent by intimidating into silence those with whom it should be engaged in honest debate.”

...

Gallagher saw the Law Center’s action as a vindication of her past statements.

“I wish they would stop proving that we’re right so consistently. I’m not surprised. This is what I predicted would happen. I’m a little surprised it’s happening so fast.

“They believe you should be treated like a racist if you think marriage is a union of a man and a wife,” she said.

Asked to explain the difference between having racist views and having views opposed to homosexual acts, Prof. George said that debates about sexual ethics are about whether certain acts are “consistent with the dignity of human beings.”

However, this debate assumes “the equal and inestimable worth and dignity of all human beings” because it asks whether certain acts are worthy of them. Racist ideology rejects this, basing itself on “skin pigmentation” or other “morally irrelevant factors.”

“We need to face squarely the goals of this movement, the rhetoric of this movement, and the fact that this is an issue,” Gallagher remarked.

She added that Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic bishops have made clear that “it doesn’t get better” if opponents of same-sex “marriage” stand down.

“The next fight is going to be whether or not our religious institutions and parents and schools are going to be stigmatized in the public square as racists, and face legal disabilities that racists face.”

More Good News For Huckabee: James Robison Is Back In Business

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/16/2010 3:00 pm

For the last several months we've been noting the gradual re-emergence of James Robison, who was an influential leader back at the founding of the Religious Right but who eventually sort of fell off the radar. 

But in the last year or so, he has suddenly become more and more involved in Religious Right activism and I guess nothing better demonstrates that fact like this article, via AU, reporting that a few months back Robison convened a large gathering of leaders to plot how to defeat President Obama in 2012:

Conservative Christian leaders from across the nation met two months ago near the Dallas airport to strategize about replacing President Barack Obama with someone who matches their agenda – a move that paralleled an effort by Christian leaders in 1979 to defeat then President Jimmy Carter.

About 40 conservative Christian leaders gathered in Dallas on Sept. 8-9 to begin laying the groundwork for a religious-political movement similar to the one that helped Ronald Reagan oust the Baptist Sunday school teacher from the Oval Office. Convened by evangelist James Robison – a key figure in the religious effort 30 years ago to promote Reagan's candidacy – the list of attendees included many of the most prominent Christian evangelists and ministers, including several Southern Baptist leaders.

Southern Baptist leaders attending the meeting included: Richard Land (president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission); Richard Lee (pastor and the editor of The American Patriot's Bible); John Meador (pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless, Texas); and Paige Patterson (president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).

Others at the meeting included: Tony Evans (a megachurch pastor in Texas); Father Joseph Fessio (founder and editor of Ignatius Press); Craig Groeschel (pastor of LifeChurch.tv); Miles McPherson (a megachurch pastor in California who spoke at the 2008 Republican National Convention); Johnnie Moore (a vice president at Liberty University who defended the school's decisions to have Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich as recent speakers); Tom Mullins (a megachurch pastor in Florida); Doug Napier (legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund); Dino Rizzo (a megachurch pastor in Louisiana); Dave Roever (an evangelist who prayed at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally); Mark Rutland (president of Oral Roberts University); David Stone (a megachurch pastor in Kentucky); and Stu Weber (a megachurch pastor in Oregon).

Several conservative Christian leaders highly active in politics attended the meeting, including: Stephen Broden (a pastor and Republican politician in Texas); Keith Butler (a pastor and Republican politician in Michigan); Maggie Gallagher (a conservative columnist who received tens of thousands of dollars for her work from the George W. Bush administration); Jim Garlow (chairman of Newt Gingrich's organization, Renewing American Leadership); Harry Jackson (pastor of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C.); Gene Mills (executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum); and Tony Perkins (president of the Family Research Council).

Some attendees have been guests on Glenn Beck's program on Fox News (including Broden, Garlow, Lee, McPherson, Mullins, Robison, Roever and Stone), and several were involved with his "Restoring Honor" rally (including Jackson, Land, Lee, Gallagher, Garlow and Roever).

Three of the attendees at the meeting have been under investigation since 2007 by Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Baptist from Iowa, for perhaps violating IRS tax-exempt rules. Those at the meeting included televangelists Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Joyce Meyer.

Other individuals helped plan the September meeting but were unable to attend. They included: Jerry Falwell Jr. (president of Liberty University); Jack Graham (a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention); O.S. Hawkins (head of the SBC's Guidestone Financial Resources); Jack Hayford (president of Foursquare International); and author Ravi Zacharias.

I should point out, also, that Robison's return can only be good news for Mike Huckabee, as Robison was his mentor back in the 1970s, leading Huckabee to drop out of seminary so he could go to work for Robison as his director of communications.

If Robison and crew are looking to replace Obama "with someone who matches their agenda," Huckabee seems like a perfect fit.

Pray and Act Ends With a Whimper

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 11/1/2010 10:34 am

When we first learned of the "Pray and ACT" effort which sought to link 7 Mountains Dominionism with election-oriented prayer and fasting, we were pretty surprised by the number of high profile Religious Right leaders who had signed on to the effort, like Chuck Colson, Mike Huckabee, Harry Jackson, Richard Land, Maggie Gallagher and various others.

In addition to orchestrating forty days of prayer and fasting in an effort to save this nation by electing "candidates who affirm the sanctity of life in all stages and conditions, the integrity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and religious liberty and respect for conscience," Pray and ACT organizers also hosted a series of events that became less and less ambitious with every successive outing. 

The first of these events was a two-hour live webcast that featured Jim Garlow, James Robison, Samuel Rodriquez, Jordan Lorence., Lance Wallnau, Tony Perkins, and Richard Land speaking before a tiny crowd at a church in Washington, DC.  

The second event was another webcast, but this one featured little more than pre-recorded interviews with various activists who were attending the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit.

And the forty days of prayer and fasting was supposed to culminate with an event held at "the steps of the Lincoln Memorial" on October 30 ...  but instead if turned out to be nothing more than a forty-five minute webchat between Jim Garlow and Chuck Colson:

I don't know about you, but when Pray and ACT organizers rolled out their agenda earlier this year, I was expecting a bit more. 

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/19/2010 5:35 pm
  • Peter LaBarbera wants Ann Coulter to donate her GOProud fee to some "worthy pro-family organizations." Good luck with that.

  • Good news: Rick Joyner has successfully restored Todd Bentley.

  • Jennifer Roback Morse explains that "David Blankenhorn didn’t mess up in the Prop 8 Trial."

  • Maggie Gallagher says the anti-Prop 8. side wants the appeal thrown out on the issue of standing because "they understand how extreme and weak Walker's ruling actually is, how unable it is to withstand substantive review by higher courts."

  • Eugene Delgaudio and Public Advocate are now targeting Augusta State University, which they say is "brainwashing" it students "just as the North Koreans do to their people."

Of Love and Revolution

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thursday, 8/12/2010 1:40 pm

For all the flag-waving Tea Party placards accusing the Obama administration of unconstitutional acts and treason, it seems that threats of revolution against the constitutional republic of the United States are coming mostly from the right wing – and not just from fringe militia groups.

We recently noted that Religious Right activist Chuck Colson has launched an effort to bully the Supreme Court into opposing marriage equality by threatening that a pro-equality ruling would result in “cultural Armageddon.” And we have noted the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer’s repeated warnings that the federal government’s “tyranny” will lead to “civil unrest.” Speakers at last year’s How To Take Back America conference suggested “Second Amendment” responses to health care reform and urged participants to buy more guns and ammunition. 

Now we see that the National Organization for Marriage, whose director Brian Brown has been claiming on his anti-equality road trip that it is an organization grounded in love, is picking up on the theme as NOM’s Maggie Gallagher writes in an op ed that "American politics are in a quasi-revolutionary phase": 

The people, symbolized first in the eruptions of Tea Parties, are rebelling against elites who believe they can ignore our voices and our values….

Rush Limbaugh had his finger on the truth. In the nearly half-hour speech he gave after the Proposition 8 ruling ("the American people are boiling over!"), Rush said that Walker "did not just slap down the will of 7 million voters. Those 7 million voters were put on trial -- a kangaroo court where everything was stacked against them. ... Those of you who voted for Prop 8 in California are guilty of hate crimes. You were thinking discrimination. That's what this judge has said! Truly unprecedented."

Yes, it is. We are entering into a new phase in the battle not only for marriage, but for self-government, for the legitimacy of the views and values of the Ameircan people.

This is a fight we cannot dodge, and must and will win.

Buckle down, it's going to be a ride!

Of course, this isn’t the first time a NOM leader has suggested possibly deploying a revolutionary response to judicial rulings recognizing marriage equality. When Mormon author Orson Scott Card joined NOM’s board last year, we and others drew attention to his own threats, which he made in writing in a Mormon newspaper:

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn….

American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.

We have our own question: why is it that the standard right-wing response to votes in Congress or court decisions that they don't like is to threaten revolution against the U.S.?

Robertson and Gallagher React to Prop 8: "Pray For This Country"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/5/2010 4:52 pm

The Prop 8 decision was, not surprisingly, the top story on today's edition of "The 700 Club" and the segment featured this rather ominous quote from the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher:

I'm quite confident that, as serious as the threat from gay marriage is, it is not going to triumph in the end because political regimes that base themselves on lies about human nature cannot last in the end.

And when it came time for Pat Robertson to weigh in on the decision, he reacted with utter disbelief:

Ladies and gentleman, what are we facing? The homosexuals want to destroy the church and they want to destroy marriage. That's what it amounts to. It doesn't matter how sacred an institution is and how important it is to society as long as there can be confirmation that this lifestyle is acceptable. That's what they want.

Man, pray for this country.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 7/26/2010 6:04 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 7/8/2010 5:25 pm
  • Maggie Gallagher doesn't want gays to be able to get married and she doesn't want straight couples to be able to get divorced.

  • MassResistance is going on vacation ... until the Fall?

  • Randall Terry is launching a "filibuster Elena Kagan/somebody please pay attention to me" tour.

  • Beware of yoga.

  • Concerned Women for America takes a bold anti-stoning women stance .. or at least an anti-Muslims stoning women stance.

  • Finally, if you watch the latest Generals International webcast, you'll see that Cindy Jacobs is also a proponent of the prosperity gospel, promising those who donate to her organization that God will reward them financially for their gift.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/29/2010 5:46 pm
  • Hey, Carrie Prejean is getting married this weekend!

  • Aw, Miley Cyrus ruined herself, says that AFA.

  • This is what you get when Maggie Gallagher meets Focus on the Family.

  • Andrew Breitbart apparently has $100K to waste and wants to spend it acquiring an archive of the JournoList. Pathetic.

  • For a change of pace, Wiley Drake isn't rejoicing about how his prayers helped to kill a Democrat.

  • If you insist that your member of Congress really, really likes shooting guns, then Pamela Gorman is your candidate.

  • Finally, the quote of the day from Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: "There's really nothing conservative -- and certainly nothing evangelical -- about a laissez-faire view of a lack of government regulation, because we, as Christians, believe in sin. That means if people are sinful, if all of us are sinful, then all of us have to have accountability -- and that includes corporations. Simply trusting corporations to go about their business without polluting the water streams and without destroying ecosystems is really a naive and utopian view of human nature. It's not a Christian view of human nature."

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 6/16/2010 5:32 pm
  • The Illinois Family Institute "needs to raise $80,000 to survive the summer."

  • Rep. Michele Bachmann received the 2010 Conservative Leadership Award from the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute.

  • An interesting look at the ties between Jay Sekulow, Deacon Keith Fournier, Rob and Paul Schenck, and the American Center for Law and Justice.

  • Maggie Gallagher is not happy with the way the Prop 8 trial appears to be going.

  • Janne Myrdal, State Director for CWA of North Dakota, is honored to be "one of those prayer warriors who provide [Sarah Palin's] prayer shield."

  • Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition is busy training "Tea Partiers, home schoolers and other conservatives to give them the tools they need to turn out the identify, educate and turn out conservative voters in their area."

  • Sadly, Pat Robertson is refusing to make a comment on the large statue of Jesus that was struck by lightening and destroyed. 

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 4/20/2010 6:05 pm
  • Warren Throckmorton: The Call Uganda and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

  • Towleroad: Uganda 'Kill the Gays' Bill Author to Be Banned from UK if It Passes.

  • Think Progress: Bachmann: Bill Clinton Is Trying To ‘Celebrate’ The Oklahoma City Bombing And ‘Take [Me] Out’.

  • David Neiwert: Sarah Palin's speech to Women of Joy reveals church-state separation denier, adherent of radical 'Prayer Warriors'.

  • Daily Kos: Muslims Can't Be Foster Parents.

  • Good As You is not moved by the news that Maggie Gallagher is stepping down as president of the National Organization for Marriage.

  • Finally, Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen provides coverage from inside "The Awakening" conference which nicely compliments our coverage.

Maggie Gallagher Is In Love ... With Marco Rubio

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 3/10/2010 1:46 pm

In her latest column, the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher openly declares that, having met Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio at a Council for National Policy event over the weekend, she is now madly in love: 

I met Marco Rubio in Naples, Fla., this weekend, where he gave the keynote speech at the Council for National Policy.

Never fall in love with a political candidate, I tell myself; they will break your heart. Besides, expecting more than one Reagan in a lifetime is just plain greedy. Not to mention stupid.

And then I heard Rubio in Naples, and what can I say? I fell in love.

Now that is kind of creepy ... but not as creepy as the final paragraph in which she warns Gov. Charlie Crist that he had better not sully her fantasies about Rubio:

I don't know what dirt he has on Rubio -- or thinks he has -- but, Charlie, I'm telling you: Don't kill our dream. The political blood on the floor will be yours.

When she said she had fallen in love with Rubio, I didn't realize that she meant that literally.

Religious Right Now Exporting Its Anti-Marriage Equality Abroad

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 2/25/2010 5:44 pm

By now, we are all used to out-of-state Religious Right groups descending on places like Maine, Washington, DC, and elsewhere in order to set up shop in their nonstop effort to fight marriage equality ... but I have to admit that I never expected them to start exporting their efforts abroad.

But here they are, setting their sights on now fighting marriage equality in Mexico:

In response to a move to institute same-sex marriage in the Federal District which includes Mexico City (on March 4), more than 120 pro-family/pro-life leaders from 35 countries have signed the "World Congress of Families Leadership Petition To Save Marriage In Mexico City."

The Petition notes that "Mexico's Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman." Further, that all social ills begin with the decline of the family. Also "marriage substitutes ... undermine marriage and the family." The Petition observes that "children need both a mother and a father" and that those raised by two men or two women are "psychologically and socially disadvantaged."

The Petition calls on the government of Mexico City to refrain from implementing same-sex marriage and demands that the issue be decided at the national level, "with due regard to the nation's religious traditions, the wishes of the Mexican people and the needs of children and families, and consistent with Mexico's Constitution." Click here (www.worldcongress.org/special/wcf.mexpetsig.1002.pdf) to access the full Petition along with a list of signers.

U.S. signers (signing as individuals) include: Gary Bauer (American Values), Allan Carlson (World Congress of Families), Tom DeLay (former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives), Joseph Meaney (Human Life International), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Michele Velasco (Priests for Life), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America), Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage), Dr. Paige Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary),Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family) and Dr. Jerry Newcombe (Coral Ridge Ministries).

You Can Spend $4000 and Twelve Days Helping to Bring About The Next Great Awakening

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 2/16/2010 4:34 pm

I have spent over a decade analyzing and monitoring the Religious Right and I have to say that I have never seen anything like this upcoming "Next Great Awakening Tour," which is a $4000, 12 day right-wing tour of the East Coast hosted by David Barton, Jim Garlow, and David Lane in which participants will visit "the sites of the 1st and 2nd Great Awakening, while praying for the 3rd." [PDF]

The "Great Awakenings" of the past have been times of nationwide religious revival and it is sites that played important roles in previous religious and political awakenings throughout Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC that participants will be visiting:

We welcome you to a truly great tour. Jim has led several church history tours in Europe and some in the US and David Barton has led over 200 tours in Washington, DC and others on the East Coast. We believe this NEXT GREAT AWAKENING TOUR is the most significant tour we have ever led or heard of. When you consider the line-up of speakers, this is the finest tour of its kind. This is a most unique tour.

But, of course, this is not a strictly spiritual journey, but rather a political one judging by the special speakers the event has lined up [PDF], including Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, Harry Jackson, and others:

Special lectures by

Governor Mike Huckabee (NY) “Overcoming Obstacles to an Awakening”

Newt Gingrich (DC) “Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation’s History and Future”

Scott Rasmussen (NJ), nationally known founder of the Rasmussen Poll, “My Spiritual Odyssey”

Congressman Bob McEwen (DC) “Biblical & Timeless Foundations to Civil Government: Renewing the ‘Mind’ of Government”

Senator Rick Santorum (DC) “The Moral Foundations for Our Nation”

Tony Perkins (DC) “Spiritual Renewal & Public Policy”

Dr. Robby George (Princeton) “The Manhattan Declaration: A Blueprint for Spiritual Renewal”

Dr. Ken Minkema (Yale) “Jonathan Edwards & the 1st Great Awakening”

Billy Wilson (Philadelphia) “Practical Steps for Awakening America”

Gabriel Joseph (DC) “A Conversation About Indicators for Spiritual Renewal – Data and Survey Results”

Lance Wallnau (Philadelphia) “Strategizing Cultural Transformation”

Dr. Joseph Mattera (NY) “Components of Cultural Transformation”

Christopher West (DC) “Sexuality, Marriage & Spiritual Awakening”

Maggie Gallagher (DC) “The Importance of Marriage in America’s Needed Spiritual Awakening”

Bishop Harry Jackson (DC) “Renewing a Nation through High Impact Leadership”

Christopher Anderson (Madison, NJ) “National Awakenings Under John Wesley and Francis Asbury”

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 2/12/2010 6:33 pm
  • Did you know that today is the "Day of Purity"?  It is, thanks to the Liberty Counsel.

  • Maggie Gallagher and Andrew Sullivan will debate the question "Is There a Place for Gay People in Conservatism and Conservative Politics?" next week at the Cato Institute.

  • Concerned Women for America hops aboard the Judge-Walker-Is-Biased-Because-He's-Gay bandwagon.

  • Do you ever get the impression that conservatives are just going to attack President Obama over anything and everything.

  • Finally, why did Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing suddenly stop distributing food to those in need in Arizona?

Will Anyone On The Right Condemn Lisa Miller's Disappearance?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 2/8/2010 5:36 pm

I am utterly fascinated by the fact that seemingly nobody on the Right is willing or capable of decrying the fact that Lisa Miller has kidnapped her daughter and disappeared rather than abide by court ordered custody arrangements with her ex-partner.

So far, the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher has been the only one even willing to say that she "cannot endorse what Lisa Miller has done," though even she followed that up by saying "but I understand it."

Others who have weighed in, like Peter Sprigg and Gordon Klingenschmitt, fully support Miller's actions, while Miller's lawyers at the Liberty Counsel have quietly been trying to wash its hands of the case and steadfastly refusing to even comment.

And now, via OneNewsNow, we find yet another activist, Peter Heck, condoning and justifying Miller's action:

It's interesting how "civil unions" are always portrayed as the happy middle ground in the battle over same-sex marriage. Even some pro-family advocates are willing to accept the legitimacy of civil unions as some sort of victory for them since they stop short of conferring the semantic title of "marriage" upon homosexual partners. And yet, this tragic story involving the innocent Isabella demonstrates that "civil unions" are not effective compromises, but rather weapons used by social activists to assist in their ongoing struggle to undo cultural norms and moral standards through legal confusion.

Consider also that Janet's attorneys are attempting to use the 1980 Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to benefit their client. The PKPA was enacted to prevent a disgruntled parent who lost a custody hearing from taking their child into another state to try to get a different custody ruling. In other words, this law was intended to prevent a rightful biological parent from having their child taken from them. Yet, thanks to what the homosexual lobby has accomplished, this law is now being twisted into a tool to do exactly what it was intended to prevent.

When Hollywood portrays or the mainstream media reports on those practicing homosexuality, they paint a picture of normalcy that does not exist, and they engage in grotesque mischaracterizations that equate sexual behavior (that is always a choice) with genetic identity (that is never a choice). The consequence is a fundamental reshaping of society -- families reconstituted, laws rewritten, mores restructured.

Despite the propaganda campaign to portray homosexuals as passive victims and those with traditional moral values as aggressive oppressors, the "gay rights" movement is seeking this very type of cultural revolution. But don't take my word for it. Paula Ettelbrick, the former legal director for the homosexual Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said: "Being queer is more than setting up house, sleeping with a person of the same gender, and seeking state approval for doing so....Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex, sexuality, and family, and in the process transforming the very fabric of society."

Indeed it does. And little girls like Isabella have their lives ruined in the process.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/28/2010 6:36 pm
  • It might help if Rudy Giuliani actually watched the State of the Union Address before he went on television to criticize it.

  • Rep. Steve King seems to think that James O'Keefe's arrest is part of some sort of left-wing plot.

  • Is Orly Taitz planning on running for office?

  • Sometime, when you see things like this, you wonder why people even bother trying to debate the issue of marriage equality.

  • Finally, Maggie Gallagher seems to be setting her side up to play the victim should they lose the Prop 8 trial, claiming that a bunch of their witnesses withdrew out of fear of having their testimony televised.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/21/2010 6:36 pm
  • Concerned Women for America declares the Citizen's United decision the "first in a series of steps to reclaim the ideals our Founders believed in when they fought and died to establish a country where we can be truly free to speak and worship our God without government interference."

  • John McCain's wife and daughter may support marriage equality, but he most certainly does not.

  • Maggie Gallagher will be debating Jonathan Rauch on marriage on Jan. 25 at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

  • Apparently, the election of Scott Brown "put a stake in the heart of Camelot."

  • Wow, the Traditional Values Coalition really, really hates transgender people.

  • Bonus TVC lunacy: "The American people must quarantine Obama by electing conservatives to the Senate and House in November. His Al Capone management style must be brought under control. Our nation’s future depends on what each of us does this year to fight every aspect of the Obamunist agenda."

  • Finally, if you can't make it to the National March for Life, you can always Sarah Palin, Governor Mike Huckabee, James Dobson, Tony Perkins and other for the Virtual March for Life.
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Maggie Gallagher Posts Archive

Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 09/30/2011, 5:46pm
Joseph L. Conn @ Wall of Separation: The Religious Right’s Partisan Scheme To Politicize Churches. Steve Benen: The end of The Great Muffin Myth. Good As You: Maggie Gallagher on 'taking over the world for Christ.' James Crugnale @ Mediaite: Rick Santorum Lashes Out At Perry, Cain, Romney On Laura Ingraham Show. Alvin McEwen: Teacher in the middle of 'suspended for being anti-gay' scandal exonerated, may seek further legal action. Ashley Lopez @ Florida Independent: Abby Johnson: Planned Parenthood ‘working with the devil.’ MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 09/27/2011, 5:34pm
Of course Sarah Palin is threatening to sue over "The Rogue." Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) is planning an investigation into Planned Parenthood. Bryan Fischer continues his "gays commit hate crimes" crusade. Looks like Mat Staver intends to use his position on the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations to limit the reach of the government ... which is pretty much exactly the opposite of the purpose for which it was created. Maggie Gallagher talks about her new Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance. Finally, September is... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 09/23/2011, 5:43pm
Michael B. Keegan @ Huffington Post: The Imaginary Class War. Steve Benen: Republican debate audience boos U.S. soldier. Andy Kroll @ Mother Jones: Rick Perry's New Endorser: New Hampshire "Sold" Adopted Kids to Homosexuals. Tommy Christopher @ Mediaite: Rep. Michele Bachmann Lies About Her HPV Vaccine Claims During Republican Debate. John @ Bold Faith Type: Abortion, "Witch Hunts" and the Catholic Right. Warren Throckmorton: NARTH to Feature Anti-gay Activists at Annual Convention. Carlos Maza @ Equality Matters: Meet NOM... MORE >
Right Wing Round-Up
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 09/20/2011, 5:41pm
PFAW: "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is History, But There’s More Work to Do." Towleroad: Anti-Gay NOM Activist Maggie Gallagher Attends Staged Broadway Benefit for Team Challenging Proposition 8. Zara Golden @ Mediaite: GOP Congressman Tells MSNBC’s Chris Jansing How He Squeaks By On $400k. Texas Freedom Network: Barton Tries to Suppress Free Speech. Tanya Somanader @ Think Progress Health: Texas GOP Rep On Cuts To Family Planning: ‘Of Course This Is A War On Birth Control.’ Frederick Clarkson @ Talk To Action: Another... MORE >
Barton: "Hang These Four Republican Scalps Over The Senate Rail" For Supporting Marriage Equality
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 08/09/2011, 4:03pm
Today on WallBuilders Live, David Barton and co-host Rick Green had the National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher as a guest to discuss NOM’s efforts to defeat senators that voted for the marriage equality law in New York, especially the law’s four Republican supporters. Following Gallagher’s interview, Barton lauded NOM’s campaign and warned that unless those Republicans are defeated, “Ken Mehlman,” the former head of the Republican National Committee and Bush campaign chief who recently came out as gay, “and his kind [will] come in... MORE >
At Ralph Reed Confab, Obama Portrayed as Enemy of Faith and Freedom
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Monday 06/06/2011, 8:59pm
Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, D.C. this past weekend was essentially a relentless repetition of the GOP’s 2012 attack themes on the Obama administration, mixed with Religious Right leaders’ demands that the Tea Party not abandon social conservatives’ priorities and conservative politicos’ appeals for unity behind whichever candidate emerges from the presidential crowd.  Just about everyone running, or thinking about running, for the presidency on the Republican side was in attendance with the exception of Newt Gingrich.... MORE >
Gallagher: "People Are Afraid To Say What They Really Think About Marriage"
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 05/10/2011, 1:29pm
Back in March, Maggie Gallagher wrote a column attacking the idea that marriage equality could be a way to foster economic growth for states and today she was the guest on "Wallbuilders Live" to discuss it. To kick things off, hosts David Barton and Rick Green mocked the idea, calling it "wacko on steroids" while Barton, of all people, demanded that we be "logical" about this before asserting that the Disney corporation lost money year after year when it supported gay rights and, once it reversed course, became profitable: Barton: So everything is about... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 04/15/2011, 5:47pm
Maggie Gallagher continues to recycle the same tired-old arguments long after they’ve been discredited. Creationists react to the “first homosexual caveman found.” Donald Trump surges among Republicans as his birther campaign seems to pay-off. Mike Huckabee’s supporters in Iowa are waiting in the wings. Anyone want to go to a miniature golf tournament with Rick Santorum? I know I do. Lastly, Bryan Fischer does not like Mitt Romney. MORE >