Richard Land

Land Echoes Call to 'Civil Disobedience' over Contraceptive Decision

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 1/30/2012 4:49 pm

Last week, Brian noted that Jeffrey Kuhner was outraged by the Obama administration’s decision to require most employers to cover contraception in their health plans, calling it an an effort to "smash the traditional family by relentlessly advancing the sexual revolution" and calling upon Catholics to "engage in civil disobedience."

But it is not just Catholics, apparently, as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention was equally outraged about the decision on his weekly radio program, where he too raised the specter of Christians engaging in civil disobedience and ending up in jail:

Land said the question of when civil disobedience becomes a moral option hinges on whether other means of protest are available. “The threshold was lower for Dr. King than it is for us, and the reason is that he and most of the people he was seeking to free couldn’t vote,” Land said.

“We have the right to vote. We have the right to file suit in court,” Land said. “I would argue that there are certain means that need to be exhausted before we reach civil disobedience, but that civil disobedience must always remain the ultimate option if the government forces us to choose between obeying God or man.”

“What I’ve argued is that if we all say we’re going to obey God rather than man -- we’re going to not allow them to restrict our religious freedom -- if we all hang together, then none of us will have to go to jail,” he said. “If we don’t, we may all end up in jail.”

Land: 'Gingrich is the Fonz'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/26/2012 3:12 pm

As we have said before, it is remarkable that media outlets continue to turn to Richard Land for political prognostications given his laughable track record. 

During the last election, Land could not stop talking about how Fred Thompson was a "Southern-fried Reagan" who possessed "a tantalizing combination of charisma, conviction and electability," while gushing that to "see Fred work a crowd must be what it was like to watch Rembrandt paint.” 

Voters, of course, did not see it that way.

Not too long ago, Land was publicly predicting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would resign her position so that she could launch a primary challenge against President Obama and that she would do so within thirty days. 

That was in October of 2010. 

But still, media outlets continue to turn to Land to provide "insights" into political races and so I guess they get what they deserve .... such as pieces like this in which he compares the Republican candidates to the cast of "Happy Days":

For those of a certain age, the remaining GOP field reminds them of some of the cast of the fabulously successful TV series “Happy Days.” Santorum is Richie Cunningham, the bright, earnest student body president who will grow up to be a solid citizen and probably president of the Rotary Club. Romney is Mr. Cunningham, Richie’s father, a stable provider and businessman. Gingrich is the Fonz, Arthur Fonzarelli, who steals the show and the series. It was originally intended to be Ron Howard’s (Richie Cunningham) star vehicle, but from the Fonz’s first appearance all eyes were on him. He was the hot ticket, and the series often revolved around him and his escapades.

While Gingrich is ahead in the polls, the majority of likely Republican voters — according to Rasmussen — still believe Romney is going to be the eventual nominee. Why? Well, I think it is clear that while the Fonz is the most charismatic character on “Happy Days,” Richie and Mr. Cunningham certainly appear to be more stable and successful husband material. And picking a president is in some ways similar to picking a spouse. You’re going to be living with that person and his or her decisions every day for at least four years. Gingrich’s unfavorability rating (56 percent) more than doubles his favorability rating (27 percent) with the general populace in a Fox News and Opinion Dynamics poll.

Gingrich’s challenge will be to get a majority of Americans to believe in his potential to settle down to the task and be the president they need him to be. After all, in “Happy Days,” Mrs. Cunningham always saw more potential in “Arthur” than the other characters. And as we all know, mothers often know best.

Land Calls On Gingrich To Apologize For His Multiple Marriages, Seek Forgiveness

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/29/2011 4:57 pm

Richard Land has penned an open letter to Newt Gingrich, warning him that his personal research reveals that "evangelical women are far less willing to forgive and let bygones be bygones" and won't just ignore his multiple affairs, divorces, and marriages.

As such, Land says Gingrich's only option is to find a "pro-family venue" where he can deliver a public speech where he will confess his sins, seek forgiveness, and assure these women of his respect for marriage: 

Even my own mother, a rock-solid Evangelical, was extremely uncomfortable voting for Sen. John McCain until he acknowledged to Rick Warren that the failure of his first marriage was the greatest regret of his life and it was his fault.

Mr. Speaker, if you want to get large numbers of Evangelicals, particularly women, to vote for you, you must address the issue of your marital past in a way that allays the fears of Evangelical women.

You must address this issue of your marital past directly and transparently and ask folks to forgive you and give you their trust and their vote.

Mr. Speaker, I urge you to pick a pro-family venue and give a speech (not an interview) addressing your martial history once and for all. It should be clear that this speech will be “it” and will not be repeated, only referenced.

As you prepare that speech, you should picture in your mind a 40-something Evangelical married woman whose 40-something sister just had her heart broken by an Evangelical husband who has just filed for divorce, having previously promised in church, before God, his wife and “these assembled witnesses” to “love, honor and cherish until death us do part.”

Focus on her as if she were your only audience. You understand people vote for president differently than they do any other office. It is often more of a courtship than a job interview. I know something of your faith journey over the past 20 years. Do not hesitate to weave that into your speech to the degree that you are comfortable doing so. It will always resonate with Evangelical Christians.

You need to make it as clear as you possibly can that you deeply regret your past actions and that you do understand the anguish and suffering they caused others including your former spouses. Make it as clear as you can that you have apologized for the hurt your actions caused and that you have learned from your past misdeeds. Express your love for, and loyalty to, your wife and your commitment to your marriage. Promise your fellow Americans that if they are generous enough to trust you with the presidency, you will not let them down and that there will be no moral scandals in a Gingrich White House.

Such a speech would not convince everyone to vote for you, but it might surprise you how many Evangelicals, immersed in a spiritual tradition of confession, redemption, forgiveness and second and third chances, might.

Lessons In Civility From The Man Who Said The Democrats Were Nazis

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/3/2011 11:17 am

There are few things more irritating that seeing Richard Land hold himself up as a paragon of civility, the sort of which is desperately needed in today's political arena: 

The faith community needs to be a check against political vitriol in the 2012 election, which two religious leaders say has the potential to be the "ugliest campaign" in decades.

Jim Wallis, the progressive CEO of Sojourners, and Richard Land, the conservative head of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, are two religious scholars with opposing political views. But at their joint event at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday, they agreed on some issues as they discussed and debated faith and the 2012 election.

According to Wallis, while he disagrees with Land on most political issues, they were able to have a civil debate - something Wallis hopes politicians can learn from.

...

Land agreed, saying that the faith community in America must lead by example.

"Instead of attacking the person, we deal with issues and we call people when they start straying from that," Land explained. "We are going to have to be very watchful. I think the temptation for this one to get down and dirty is going to be overwhelming."

...

Land said he worried that when President Barack Obama's re-election campaign looks at the polling numbers, they will realize that Obama "has got no choice if he wants to get re-elected but to take the focus off of issues and start saying, 'Well, my opponent's worse than I would be.'"

Really? 

This would be the same Richard Land who said that Oprah is "unimaginably dangerous," that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would bring "God's judgment on our nation," and that gays are recruiting children in order to bring about the "outright sexual paganization of society."

And who can ever forget the time when Land literally compared President Obama and Democrats in Congress to the Nazis:

President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders of Congress are advocating healthcare reform that will result in rationing of care, making them guilty of the same ideology that fueled the Nazi Holocaust, Richard Land told the Christian Coalition of Florida at a Sept. 26 banquet in Orlando.

“I want to put it to you bluntly. What they are attempting to do in healthcare, particularly in treating the elderly, is not something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely what the Nazis did,” said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

...

Land said he has bestowed on Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the president’s chief healthcare advisor, the “Dr. Josef Mengele Award” for his advocacy of healthcare rationing. Mengele was the German SS officer and medical doctor dubbed the “Angel of Death” for his role in the Holocaust.

“We are faced with what I call ‘biological bigotry’ and it is every bit as pernicious, every bit as evil, every bit as destructive as the racial and ethnic bigotry that has plagued us in the past,” he said.

...

“The Nazis said people should be euthanized when they had lives unworthy of life. … Well, at the very least Dr. Emanuel, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, [Sen.] Max Baucus and President Obama are saying that some people have lives less worthy of life. And the older you are, the sicker you are, the less valuable your life is and the more likely they want to terminate your care,” Land said.

So yes, let's all be lectured by a man who says the Democrats are Nazis and that gays are recruiting on the finer points of remaining civil. 
 

Religious Right Convinces Itself That It's The Media That Is Anti-Mormon

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 11/2/2011 12:00 pm

Ever since Mitt Romney ran for president in 2008, his Mormon faith has been a controversial issue as several Religious Right activists have been calling Mormonism a cult and suggesting that voters should always prefer Christian candidates.

And it is not only Romney's faith that has been a problem from some Religious Right activists, as Glenn Beck's Mormonism has likewise caused concerns which others have tried to assuage. 

So, of course, the Religious Right is absolutely convinced that it is the media and President Obama that will make an issue of Romney's faith should he win the Republican nomination:

"I assume that given the early signs of what an Obama campaign is going to look like, with this class warfare stuff, that every tactic imaginable will be used by the Obama campaign, including attacking the religion of his opponent," said Gary Bauer, president of American Values and a long time leader in the social conservative movement.

Other prominent evangelical leaders told The Huffington Post that they believe Romney will be ambushed by the press.

"The major networks are heavily invested in Barack Obama's reelection," said Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention who heads its ethics and religious liberty commission.

"And they're all going to run detailed specials, now that we have the first Mormon nominee for president: 'What does the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe?' And they're going to go into all the beliefs of Mormonism, hoping to scare the 40 percent of independents who make up the decisive vote in the electorate to not vote for someone who believes such things."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, agreed.

"I think the media, and the American public via the media, will know all they want to know about Mormonism," Perkins said. "I think the left-leaning media that is sympathetic to the president will try to drive a wedge deeper between him and social conservatives."

Land Clarifies Things By Explaining That Mormonism Is Only "Technically" A Cult

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 10/19/2011 11:50 am

It is amazing to watch Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission try to downplay fellow Southern Baptist Robert Jeffress' assertions that Mormonism is "a cult" while admitting that, according to SBC doctrine, Mormonism is, in fact, a cult [PDF.]

Land dedicated a good portion of his radio program last week to discussing the issue, trying to draw a distinction between being a cult in a "social" sense and being a cult in a "theological" sense before finally admitting that while Mormonism may not a "cult" in the former sense, it most is in the latter:

Technically speaking, theologically, a cult is a movement, a religious movement, that claims to still be within the confines of Christianity when it has moved beyond the parameters of orthodox Christian faith. And that certainly fits Mormonism. Mormonism is not just a distinctive denomination within Christianity. Mormonism, using the language of Christianity and claiming to believe in the Jesus of the New Testament and the God of the Bible, promulgate doctrines which are completely at odds with orthodox, with a small "o," Apostles' Creed, standard Christianity. That makes them a cult.

This is, of course, exactly the same distinction that Jeffress has been making, so it is a little hard to understand why Land thinks that he is somehow clarifying things by saying the very same thing that set off the controversy in the first place.

Richard Land's Bizarre Anti-Mormon Media Conspiracy Theory

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 10/18/2011 12:08 pm

While Robert Jeffress is running around telling anyone who will listen that "the Southern Baptist Convention has labeled Mormonism as a cult" and that Mitt Romney is a member of the cult, the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land is trying to do some damage control and suggesting that all Jeffress was really saying is that Mormonism is "a new religion, separate and distinct from the historic Christian faith."

And, according to Land, since conservative Southern Baptists and other Evangelicals have already been inoculated against Mormonism by their own pastors and therefore would have no problem voting for a Mormon for President, the media will have to try to turn off Independents by highlighting the tenets of the Mormon faith in an effort to make voters uncomfortable with Romney so as to help President Obama win re-election:

[T]he vast majority of the 40 percent or so of the American public who identify themselves as “Independents” (and who decide every American presidential election) have only the most cursory understanding of the truth claims or belief system of the Mormon faith. If, and when, Gov. Romney becomes the Republican nominee, the major broadcast networks, all of whom but Fox have abandoned any semblance of objectivity on political matters will be airing specials going into great detail on the beliefs of Mormons. While they will say they are doing this in the public interest, informing voters about Mormonism in light of the nation’s first Mormon nominee for president, their real reason will be much different. Since they are so invested philosophically and emotionally in the re-election of President Obama, they will be hoping that Mormonism’s beliefs will be exotically new and different enough to Independent voters that many of them will conclude that they sufficiently question the judgment of someone who believes such things that they will not entrust that candidate with the presidency.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 10/14/2011 5:37 pm
  • The Los Angeles Times profiles the International House of Prayer.

    •  

  • Bryan Fischer says "our next president must understand that the more devout a Muslim becomes ... the more of a threat he becomes to the national security of the United States."

    •  

  • FRC defends the Protect Life Act, saying it simply "ensures that Americans who want health care insurance with abortion coverage or supplemental abortion coverage can purchase it, but not with federal dollars."

    •  

  • Richard Land is demanding the Pentagon reverse the policy of allowing chaplains to officiate at gay weddings, saying it "degrades both the tradition of high moral conduct in the military and the vital and exclusive role of traditional marriage in society and within our military."

    •  

  • Finally, the quote of the day from Gary Bauer: "The private company that owns Zuccotti Park backed down from its demand that the Wall Street protestors clear out so the park could be cleaned. And how did the protestors respond? Just as Iran or the jihadists in the Palestinian territories do — at the first sign of weakness they attack!"

Alliance Defense Fund To Launch Law School Aimed At Creating "Liberal Chaser" Attorneys

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 9/28/2011 12:56 pm

Religious Right leaders are coming together to form yet another law school to train future lawyers of the conservative movement. The right-wing Alliance Defense Fund is helping Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist institution, start the Paul Pressler School of Law, which will join Liberty University, Regent University and others in providing politicized training to the next generation of Religious Right lawyers.

Pressler’s ties to the Alliance Defense Fund will be similar to the Liberty University School of Law’s partnership with Liberty Counsel and the Regent University School of Law’s (originally Oral Roberts University’s Coburn School of Law) alliance with the American Center for Law and Justice. As Sarah Posner notes, such law schools intend to “teach the ‘biblical’ foundations of the law” and create “lawyers unafraid to inject their particular Christian beliefs, not only into the public square, but quite deliberately into legislation, policy, and jurisprudence.”

According to the National Law Journal, the new law school “is named for Paul Pressler III, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge who helped lead the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1970s.”

The founding dean of the Pressler law school, J. Michael Johnson, was previously senior counsel of the ADF and, according to his Townhall.com bio, has “provided legal representation to organizations such as Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, Toward Tradition, the American Family Association, and Coral Ridge Ministries, and numerous family policy councils and crisis pregnancy centers.” In 2005, Johnson won the “Faith, Family and Freedom” award from Family Research Council president Tony Perkins for his work defending the Louisiana Marriage Protection Amendment, which placed a ban on same-sex marriage in the state’s constitution.

Yesterday on Today’s Issues, Perkins, who is a member of Pressler’s board of reference, spoke to Johnson about the new law school. Johnson said the law school would be “not unlike what our colleagues are doing at the Liberty University School of Law and the Regent University School of Law.” Perkins said, “This law school’s not going to be pumping out ambulance chasers, this is going to be pumping out liberal chasers, I mean we’re gonna track them down, wherever they are and we’re gonna defeat them, and if we can’t defeat them in the policy realm we’re gonna defeat them in the courts.” He added, “This law school is gonna be pumping out God-fearing, American-loving, family-defending attorneys”:

The choice of Louisiana College is no surprise. The school claims it “seeks to view all areas of knowledge from a distinctively Christian perspective and integrate Biblical truth thoroughly with each academic discipline” and believes “academic freedom of a Christian professor is limited by the preeminence of Jesus Christ, the authoritative nature of the Holy Scriptures, and the mission of the institution.”

In 2008 the school barred members of the Christian LGBT group Soul Force from appearing on campus. In his decision to bar the group, the college’s president cited a fake James Madison quote propagated by David Barton, which states that the U.S. government was based on “the Ten Commandments.”

Now David Barton is serving on the board of the law school.

Along with Perkins and Barton, Religious Right leaders on the board include Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association, Alveda King of Priests for Life, Religious Right luminary Tim LaHaye and his wife Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, Kelly Shackleford of the Liberty Institute and Reagan’s Attorney General Edwin Meese. Republican politicians including Reps. Rodney Alexander and John Fleming, former congressman Bob McEwen, and senatorial candidate and Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz are also on the board.

Land: Gay Activists Seek Full-Blown "Sexual Paganization Of Society"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 9/26/2011 5:27 pm

Over the weekend, the Liberty Counsel's Rena Lindevaldsen was a guest on "Richard Land Live!" where she and Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, discussed her new book chronicling the case involving her client, ex-gay kidnapper Lisa Miller.

During the program, Land warned that gay rights activists seek to "reduce [Christians] to the level of the Ku Klux Klan" so that they will be ostracized by society and went on to assert that gays are "recruiting" children, which is a form a child abuse, while claiming that homosexuality is "incomprehensible."  In the end, Land claimed, gays really just want to destroy the institution of marriage in order to bring about the "full-blown paganization" of America:

They're recruiting down in the grade school levels. They're recruiting people for homosexual clubs and it's really child abuse is what it is.

You need to find out what's going on in your school. You need to ask your children what's going on, you need to see what books their reading, you need to know what the teacher is talking about because, I'm telling you, they are trying to brainwash our children in the public schools.

It's the one sin that I know about that I find totally incomprehensible. But obviously some boys do find it comprehensible, because otherwise there wouldn’t be any homosexuality.

Even if you take out AIDS, male homosexuals die much earlier than heterosexual males do because of the inherently dangerous - health dangerous stuff that they engage in. But I don't think that's the big issue - I think that's a side issue. I think the real issue is they want to destroy marriage.

The alternative is not live and let live - it is the marginalization and the ostracizing of people of traditional faith. And it will be the full-blown paganization. You know, they have already started talking about polyamory and pedophilia. They're going to start talking now about lowering the age of consent - they are already starting to talk about it, saying who are we to deprive a child of his or her sexuality? And we’re going to end up like Greece and Rome. If this dam breaks, the tidal wave will be just an outright sexual paganization of society.

 

Beck Endorses "Pulpit Initiative" Effort To Challenge IRS

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 9/26/2011 1:45 pm

Over the last several weeks, Jim Garlow has taken the lead in promoting the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Initiative," an effort to get pastors to speak out on political issues and even endorse or oppose candidates during their sermons in a direct challenge to the IRS.

Last week, Garlow and Richard Land were featured on Glenn Beck's new program to push the effort and got Beck to announce his support as he vowed to do whatever he can to promote it, get pastors signed up, and "make a big deal out of it":

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 9/23/2011 5:26 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 9/21/2011 5:46 pm
  • Pamela Geller declares victory in the ten million dollar lawsuit filed against her.

  • Richard Land explains how the death penalty is actually pro-life.

  • Focus on the Family warns that liberals are using cute, fuzzy animals to brainwash kids into supporting homosexuality.

  • Bryan Fischer explains that we have to support Israel because God said so.

  • Janet Porter's "Heartbeat Bill" prayer rally reportedly drew hundreds of participants.

The Most Terrifying Thing You Will Read All Day

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 9/15/2011 12:29 pm

The Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land explains the key differences between George W. Bush and Rick Perry - basically, Perry is Bush without the education, compassion, intellect, or fancy East Coast-upbringing:

[The] "Don't Mess with Texas" mindset is embraced by both men, but Perry, the Aggie, had neither Bush's parents nor Yale or Harvard to tone it down.

It is clear to those who know former President George W. Bush that he has great respect and affection for the average man and tremendous appreciation for those who have risen through the meritocracy from humble beginnings. However, as one of those "up from the ranks" individuals, I don't believe George W. Bush or any such son of privilege can as fully identify with the average family that lives from paycheck to paycheck as Perry can. Bush loves and appreciates them, Perry is them.

Their different backgrounds make them different men. Perry is less subtle. While both are men of genuine faith, Perry (life-long evangelical) is going to be more overtly Christian in his faith statements than the former president, who became a Methodist but was raised by New England Episcopalians. Perry is more conservative than Bush. He would be the most conservative president since Calvin Coolidge both fiscally and in foreign policy. He would be less interventionist in the latter and far more frugal than "compassionate" in the former. Perry also has a well-deserved reputation in Texas as being a less-forgiving political opponent than Bush. If you cross Perry, he will get even.

It would be a mistake to underestimate the appeal of this candidate's conservative populism. Perry has never lost an election and while he would be offended if you called him an intellectual, Perry is far more shrewd than people assume.

So if your problem with George W. Bush was that he just wasn't "overtly Christian" enough and was too well-educated, well-bred, and compassionate ... then Rick Perry is your man.

Gingrich's Lone Religious Right Supporter Being Wooed By Perry

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 9/1/2011 4:10 pm

As we noted last week, Rick Perry gathered with a whole range of Religious Right leaders at the ranch of right-wing megadonor James Leininger over the weekend and details continue to emerge about what took place during the event, like Perry vowing to them that there would be no revelations about his past that would ever embarrass them.

We are also seeing more reports about which leaders were in attendance:

The meeting received little public attention, though the 200 or so in attendance included luminaries of the Christian right such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, California pastor Jim Garlow, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Washington-area Bishop Harry Jackson, who presides over one of the largest African American churches on the East Coast.

It is especially interesting to see that Garlow was present at the gathering, given that he had pretty much been the only Religious Right leader supporting Newt Gingrich's presidential bid.

The fact that Garlow traveled to Texas to participate in this meeting with Perry seems to suggest that even Gingrich's most ardent supporters know that his campaign is dead in the water.

Land: Obama Worst President Ever

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 7/22/2011 9:46 am

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land has now joined Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association in pronouncing President Obama the worst president ever. Land, who was involved in talks led by James Robison on how Religious Right leaders can unite to defeat Obama in 2012, called Obama a “disaster” in an interview today with the AFA’s OneNewsNow. Land, A longtime critic of the president, compared Obama to Warren G. Harding:

A scholar and Christian leader believes that unless economic conditions turn around, Barack Obama could go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

…

"I think the president has been a disaster, domestically and foreign policy wise -- just a disaster. I didn't have high hopes, but he's failed to meet even my limited expectations," Land admits. "The president has shown himself to be totally unprepared for the job. If the economy does not improve, and I'm fearful that it's not going to, then this president will go down as one of the worst presidents in our history -- right up there with Warren G. Harding."

He further argues that the White House is not the place for on-the-job training.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 7/20/2011 5:31 pm
  • Organizers say it has not been decided if Gov. Rick Perry will speak at his "The Response" prayer rally. Are you kidding me?

  • On a related note, FRC is hoping "The Response" will convince God to save our nation from the jeopardy that it is in with "the economic crisis, wars abroad, political and racial division at home, hardly any untouched by natural and man-made calamities, political and bureaucratic mismanagement, and most of all families and our youth under assault and in crisis."

  • Campus Crusade for Christ is changing its name to Cru.

  • Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign is so weak that he is being dropped from presidential polls.

  • Finally, Richard Land is not happy with the prospect of having a Mormon for the president, but anything would be better than Obama.

Perry's 'Apolitical' Prayer Rally To Include More Religious Right Leaders

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 7/19/2011 4:55 pm

The American Family Association today announced that more traditionally pro-GOP Religious Right organizations are joining them in hosting The Response prayer rally with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Kyle reported that Focus on the Family founder James Dobson is on board, and now Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America have been named co-chairmen. Even though Perry and the AFA are adamant that the prayer rally is apolitical, the fact that leaders of three of the most prominent Religious Right political groups in the country are hosting the event along side a potential presidential candidate makes us think otherwise.

In addition, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Richard Land has already endorsed the rally, and other endorsers — Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and megachurch pastor Tony Evans — have also signed on as co-chairmen.

American Family Association says three more respected Christian leaders have been named as co-chairpersons of the upcoming The Response: a call to prayer for a nation in crisis prayer event.

The new co-chairpersons are Penny Nance, President and CEO of Concerned Women for America; Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council; and Frank Wright, President of the National Religious Broadcasters.

The prayer event will be held at the Reliant stadium in Houston on August 6. Several thousand individuals are expected to attend the event, according to Donald E. Wildmon, founder of AFA which is sponsoring the event.

...

Co-chairpersons announced earlier include Dr. James Dobson and his wife Shirley, Rev. Sammy Rodriquez, Dr. Tony Evans, and Dr. Richard Land.

Richard Land Calls Out Herman Cain's Anti-Islam Stance

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 7/18/2011 3:46 pm

As we noted earlier today, Herman Cain had gone full-on Bryan Fischer in declaring that local officials ought to be able to ban the construction of mosques in their communities.

Now Richard Land, of all people, is taking Cain to task for that position:

"I think the First Amendment is one of those amendments that is too important and protects rights that are too central to our guaranteed rights in this country to be left with a local option," he asserted.

Like Christians, Muslims have the right to have places of worship near where they live, Land said. 

...

The Southern Baptist also asserted that Cain, who boasts that he is the descendant of slaves, should defend Muslims' rights under the Constitution so that they are upheld in every community, city and state.

"Mr. Cain of all people, as an African American, should understand that our civil rights have to be guaranteed on a federal level," he said. "I don't think he would want to leave the civil rights of an African American to the local voters in Philadelphia and Mississippi where they buried three civil rights workers – one black, two white – under a dam after they had killed them."

Land, as you may recall, has been a vocal opponent of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" and even resigned from the Anti-Defamation League's "Interfaith Coalition on Mosques" amid criticism that he was promoting Islam.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 6/30/2011 5:44 pm
  • Randall Terry is in desperate need of donations.

  • Richard Land supports the DREAM Act.

  • FRC says those who are "pro-life and pro-family" should NEVER donate to the RNC.

  • Herman Cain says President Obama is "not a strong black man."

  • Quote of the day from Matt Barber: ""The true motivation here is not for marriage equality; the true motivation is to, under penalty of law, ensure that all Americans are compelled to embrace the demonstrably destructive and immoral homosexual lifestyle."
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Richard Land Posts Archive

Richard Land Announces Retirement under Cloud of Controversy and Scandal
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Wednesday 08/01/2012, 11:34am
In the wake of a plagiarism scandal, controversy over racially inflammatory remarks, and an internal investigation, Richard Land announced Tuesday that he would step down next year as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Land will formally retire in October, 2013 – 25 years to the day he assumed the presidency.  In his letter to the chairman of the SBC, Land wrote that God had led him to a place “where He is releasing me to other places of service in His Kingdom.” Despite Land’s best efforts to spin his... MORE >
Glenn Beck Calls in the Religious Right Calvary for Pre-Restoring Love Meeting
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Wednesday 07/11/2012, 5:00pm
One of the most telling features of Glenn Beck’s 2010 Restoring Honor rally were the overtly religious themes of the rally, along with the launching of a Black Robe Regiment filled with right-wing leaders. The day before Beck’s latest really, Restoring Love, Beck and David Barton are hosting a who’s who of Religious Right activists for a “Christian Leadership Conference” called Under God: Indivisible, including some of the most prominent anti-gay preachers, activists and televangelists in the country: David Barton Writes consistently debunked and... MORE >
Religious Right Divided on Obama's Immigration Announcement
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 06/18/2012, 12:15pm
A number of top Religious Right figures over the last few years have been trying to rally support among conservatives for comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that Hispanics are potential allies in their anti-choice and anti-gay advocacy work while warning that if the Right continues to alienate and demonize Latino voters then they will be writing their own political death sentence. As a result, it wasn’t a surprise to see Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Sam Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference enthusiastically applaud the Obama... MORE >
Richard Land Ends Radio Show in wake of Trayvon Martin Rant, Plagiarism Charges
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 06/04/2012, 11:35am
Southern Baptist Convention’s chief “ethicist” Richard Land signed off from his weekly radio broadcast on Saturday without mentioning why he was leaving the show. He simply stated that his program is ending “due to a variety of circumstances” and asked people to pray for a “spiritual reformation” in America. Land lost his show due to his racially-insensitive tirade about the Trayvon Martin shooting, which he vowed to never apologize for until he eventually did, and for plagiarizing commentaries on his show, including part of his remarks about the... MORE >
Richard Land Loses Radio Show over Racially-Charged Remarks, Plagiarism Scandal
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 06/01/2012, 10:35am
The Southern Baptist Convention’s top “ethicist” Richard Land, a major Religious Right figure and cheerleader for the GOP, is about to lose his radio show, Richard Land Live, as a result of using racially-charged comments while describing the Trayvon Martin shooting and plagiarizing his material. Back in April, we reported that the leader of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) said that African American “race hustlers” were using Martin’s death to “gin up the black vote” for President Obama, whom he said “poured... MORE >
Richard Land Blames the Devil for the 'Homosexual Lifestyle'
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 05/29/2012, 1:15pm
National Organization for Marriage’s Jennifer Roback Morse stopped by Richard Land Live this weekend, where the embattled head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission claimed that homosexuality has demonic origins. Land chatted with a caller who thanked him and Morse for fighting the “demon of homosexuality,” and Land agreed with her that “the Devil takes pleasure in anything that causes destruction in human society and the homosexual lifestyle does cause destruction.” He went on to claim that homosexuality was at least... MORE >
Land Issues 'Genuine and Heartfelt Apology' for Trayvon Martin Comments
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 05/10/2012, 10:17am
Several weeks ago, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, set off a controversy when he delivered a rant on his weekly radio program claiming that all the attention being paid to the Trayvon Martin shooting was "being done to try gin up the black vote for an African-American president who is in deep, deep, deep trouble for re-election." Initially,  Land stood by his comments and vowed that he would never "bow to the false god of political correctness," but as the controversy grew, Land eventually... MORE >
Maybe She Wishes Romney's Position Wasn't So Clear
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Tuesday 05/08/2012, 5:11pm
The Republican National Committee’s Hispanic Outreach Director Bettina Inclan sparked a mini-firestorm today when she told reporters that she could not comment on Romney’s immigration positions because “he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is.”  She later tried to clean up the mess by tweeting that she was mistaken, and that his position was clear, linking to his website.  Unfortunately for Romney and for the RNC’s Hispanic outreach, his position is all too clear: he opposes not only “amnesty” but all “magnets... MORE >