Virginia

Last month, we posted a video of Janet Porter speaking at the Convergence 2010 conference during which she prayed that God would had control of the media over to Christians so that they could take dominion over the nation:

She followed that up a few days later by explaining that this was part of an effort to "to take dominion in every area" in order to "occupy until Jesus comes."

When Porter says that it is her goal to "take dominion" over every aspect of American culture, she is entirely serious, as this is a key part of a movement to capture the "7 Mountains" and is going to be a central feature of her upcoming May Day prayer rally:

7:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Every hour will generally feature times of prayer and proclamation, including words from the Constitutions of all 50 States, as well as a number of our Presidents and American patriots. Prayer times will include both corporate and personal silent prayer. Prayers of repentance will be offered about each of the "Seven Mountains of Culture," which are: (1) Business; (2) Government; (3) Media; (4) Arts and Entertainment; (5) Education; (6) Family; and (7) Religion. A number of leaders have been asked to offer prayers of repentance in each of these areas and subcategories, such as the military and our court system.

This 7 Mountains theology was started by Bill Bright, Loren Cunningham, and Francis Schaeffer back in 1975 and aims at quite literally having Christains defeat "the enemines of the Gospel" in order to  gain complete control over every aspect of American life:

When it comes to government, the goal of the movement is to install a "virtual theocracy" overseen by "true apostles" who will fight Satan and his Antichrist agenda: 

All governments suffer from corruption, a built-in sabotage that guarantees their eventual implosion. The only government that will never have any corruption is the theocratic Kingdom of God. Here on earth, there will always be something less than a perfect government. We can (and should), however, insist on high ideals, principles, and individual character—people who can help manifest a form of government that is a blessing to a nation. We cannot instill a theocracy in a human government because theocracy is transcendent to humanity. The Kingdom of God can be superimposed on people through influence, but only God Himself can be “theo.” Therefore, any attempt to establish a physical theocracy is ill-conceived unless it is reinterpreted as something other than what it actually means. (-cracy—government, theo—of God). A government can potentially function as a virtual theocracy, but only as the individuals in power allow themselves to be puppets (i.e. servants) of the theocracy (God’s rule and reign). The goal is to bring the influence of heaven to bear on whatever political machinery that exists

...

One of the primary roles of future government leaders will be to instruct in righteousness. The more God’s judgments are poured out on earth, the more explicitly will they be able to give that instruction

...

We need to fill the entire mountain with children of the Kingdom who know why they are there: to allow the Lord’s house to be exalted. This mountain has many niches and grooves and many ways to approach it. Some may be called to go after unjust laws as their arena of action. Others may be called to formulate foreign policy or push for budget reform. The more significant the repercussions of those laws and policies, the higher the mountain level represented. However high we go, enough grace will be provided because this is our Promised Land

...

A new model of national leadership will develop as God exalts His mountain above all other mountains. There will be Joseph-type presidents of nations who will carry great spiritual authority and great civil authority. At various times, these presidents will need to step back and forth between those roles and address the concerns of each. There will be times to address the nation and say, “I will now speak to you outside of my civil authority but in my capacity as a minister and servant of God.” One can then address the moral and righteousness issues of the nation and speak out of the spiritual authority God has given him or her.

Among those listed as participating in Porter's May Day prayer rally are dozens of Religious Right leaders including James Dobson, Rick Scarborough, Mat Staver, Wendy Wright, Harry Jackson, and David Barton, as well as several Republican members of Congress: 

Congressman
Randy Forbes (Virginia)

Congressman
Trent Franks (Arizona)

Congressman
Louie Gohmert (Texas)

Congressman
Steve King (Iowa)

Congressman
Cliff Stearns (Florida)

Back in 2008, I wrote a post entitled "Welcome to the Neighborhood, Crazy Right-Wing Pharmacy" about the opening of "full life pharmacy" in my neighborhood in Virginia that refused to sell birth-control pills, condoms, cigarettes or pornographic magazines.

I no longer live in that neighborhood, which is why I was unaware that it has now gone out of business until I saw this article over at Pam's House Blend:

DMC Pharmacy, a pro-life Catholic pharmacy that opened with much fanfare in Chantilly, Va., in October 2008, closed last month because of lack of funds.

"We could not make it work financially," said Robert Laird, executive director for the pharmacy, whose letters stood for Divine Mercy Care. "We could never get that big push to make it viable and finally the board of directors said enough was enough."

By the time the store closed March 4, it was losing in the tens of thousands of dollars per month ... Situated next to a Catholic bookstore, the founders hoped to attract clientele from St. Timothy and St. Veronica, two nearby Catholic parishes totaling 20,000 members. Within five miles were four other booming churches with 30,000 Catholics. And it was situated in the fast-growing Diocese of Arlington with 428,417 adherents.

But regular customers never materialized in great numbers.

• PFAW Statement: Virginia Governor Celebrates the Confederacy, Forgets Slavery.
• Towleroad: Houston Clergy Want Mayor Annise Parker to Rescind Sweeping Anti-Discrimination Order.
• Zachary Roth: Far-Right Virginia AG Launches PAC.
• David Weigel: Pre-gaming the SRLC straw poll.
• Rachel Slajda: Man Who Threatened Cantor Not Fit For Trial.
• Simon Maloy: Wash. Times gives platform to lunatic Randall Terry.

Earlier this year, Lisa Miller kidnapped her daughter Isabella and disappeared in order to avoid complying with a court ruling granting custody of the child to her former partner, Janet Jenkins; a ruling that came about due precisely to the fact that Miller had repeatedly refused to abide by court-ordered custody arrangements. Miller was recently held in contempt of court and now faces arrest. 

Shortly after Miller disappeared, Liberty Counsel, which had represented her for years and turned her into a right-wing celebrity, tried to wash its hands of her, at least as it pertained to her legal representation in Vermont but the effort was rejected by the judge.

For the most part, Liberty Counsel has steadfastly refused to comment on the case, which is a notable change considering that they used to release public statements regularly every time they were in court or filed a brief on Miller's behalf, saying only that they don't know where Miller has gone.

But now, via Lez Get Real, we find out that LC has filed an appeal on Miler's behalf in the Vermont Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the Vermont trial judge's custody ruling.

Signed by LC's Mat Staver, Stephen Crampton, and Rena Lindevaldsen, the brief [PDF] claims that the trial judge violated Miller's constitutional rights in granting custody to Jenkins and claims that several of the trial courts' factual findings should be reversed, blaming the tension between the two women entirely on Jenkins.

LC states that Jenkins position that "Miller's beliefs concerning homosexuality [are] bigoted and hateful" has created a hostile environment between the two women, as has the fact that Jenkins "would not permit [Isabella] to attend a conservative, Bible-believing church such as [Isabella] attended in Virginia" and "wouldn't allow [Isabella] to attend a church that taught that homosexuality is a sin" even though Isabella "has already made the personal decision to accept Christ as her Savior, reads the Bible daily and knows from reading the Bible what is right and wrong."

So basically, LC's position is that it was Jenkins' refusal to support Miller's new-found ex-gay Christian beliefs that homosexuality is an abomination and take Isabella to a Jerry Falwell-like church in Vermont during her visitations where she could be taught that sort of lesson from the pulpit that created a hostile environment between the two women and forced Miller to cut off all contact between Jenkins and Isabella. 

I have to say that I think Miller might have been better off had Liberty Counsel been able to pull out of representing her in Vermont as the organization tried to do last month, because this is just pathetic.

Last month, VA Gov. Bob McDonnell made news when he rolled back anti-discrimination protections for gay state workers, doing so on the grounds that such protections for "sexual orientation" had never been passed by the state legislature.

Now McDonnell is saying that he probably wouldn't even sign such a bill if one were passed by the state legislature because he doesn't think it is needed: 

Based on numbers he’s seen, Gov. Bob McDonnell said today he’s not sure the state needs a law protecting people against bias based on sexual orientation.

Asked on his monthly radio appearance on WRVA if he would sign such a bill, the governor said, “I don’t know that we need it based on the numbers that I’ve seen.“

“There really isn’t any rampant discrimination on any basis in Virginia,“ he said. “If you’re going to have a law, it needs to actually address a real problem.“

Of course, the very point is that "the numbers" could now potentially skyrocket, thanks specifically to McDonnell, who has made it easier to engage in "rampant discrimination" against gays in Virginia.

And so even if the state legislature then passes a bill to remedy it, McDonnell says he probably won't sign it because he doesn't think it is necessary.

This New York Times profile of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli mentions his anti-gay views, his flirtations with Birtherism, and even his Social Security paranoia and notes that Cuccinelli's magnetism for controversy is not sitting well with fellow Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.

But I think that was best demonstrates Cuccinelli's radical views is the people who are coming to his defense:

“Ken is in tune with typical family people, people who work in this state,” said Robert G. Marshall, a Republican delegate from Prince William County. Mr. Cuccinelli’s popularity, he said, derives from his sharp legal mind and steadfastness to his principles regardless of what others think.

“When others make him seem controversial, it just raises his name recognition,” Mr. Marshall said.

That would be Bob Marshall, the Delegate who made news last month when he declared that disabled children were God's punishment for abortion:

You know someone is radically right wing when Bob Marshall declares that they are doing a great job.

• Peter LaBarbera declares victory, citing MassResistance's fundamentally misleading claims.
• "Looking Forward on the 5th Anniversary of Terri's [Schiavo's] Death"? That's a really bad title for a FRC event.
• Her group just launched, but Virginia Thomas' Liberty Central is already breaking the law.
• Phyllis Schlafly will be a featured speaker at Tax Day Tea Party rally in Michigan.
• Glenn Beck calls Jim Wallis "Jeremiah Wright on sedatives."  I call Glenn Beck "Joseph McCarthy without the acute hepatitis."
• Speaking of Glenn Beck, it just so happens that I've been reading a biography of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called "Rough Stone Rolling" and I came across a section that seemed rather interesting, given Beck's Mormon faith and obsession with Socialism

The revelation put forward the arresting doctrine that the economies of earth and heaven must correspond: "If ye are not equal in earthly things, ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things." The leveling of property introduced the Saints to the heavenly order. "For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you."

One cannot tell if Joseph Smith understood how much he was asking of his followers in requiring the consecration of property. Questions about self-interest and obstinacy were not ones he entertained. The revelation said everyone was entitled to draw on the storehouse of common property, that "every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold." Afterwards, whatever surplus was acquired was to "be cast into the Lord's storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church." The Saints were to work hard for each other. That asked a lot of individualistic farmers and artisans in the expanding market economy of nineteenth-century America. Nothing was more sacrosanct in American ideology than the individual's right to the fruits of his labor. Equalizing wealth required each person to be "seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God." Could they? The little band of Saints had no prior experience with equality of property. Equality had always meant equality of rank in political society and equality before the law. Not even the most radical voices in the Revolution had called for the leveling of wealth. Only a few utopians like the Shakers had experimented with the redistribution of property. Joseph expected people to sacrifice personal advantage for the good of the whole in a society long devoted to private gain.

The other day we noted that it was seemingly impossible for any Religious Right figure to be deemed so radical that Republican members of Congress would decline to appear at events with them, highlighting the fact that the American Family Association's militantly anti-gay Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy, Bryan Fischer, was being featured in a Family Research Council hosted health care webcast along with Rep. Tom Price, (R-GA), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

The event aired earlier this week and, as it turned out, Fischer wasn't even the most radical person involved as that honor went to Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall:

Last month, Marshall made news by declaring during an anti-Planned Parenthood press conference that disabled children are God's punishment for abortion and then asserting that he had never said anything of the sort.

I didn't bother grabbing any of the video of Fischer or Marshall because, frankly, they didn't say anything particularly interesting, with both insisting that health care reform is unconstitutional.

But what was interesting was the fact that Fischer and Marshall were featured together in the webcast and their appearance was sandwiched in between Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. David Vitter.

In short, today's conservative movement consists of right-wing leaders who think gays should be treated like criminals and that God punishes women who've had abortions with disabled children ... and high-profile Republican members of Congress.

When Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli isn't speculating about whether or not President Obama was not born in the United States, he apparently worries about the federal government tracking his family.

In an overlooked recording from the campaign trail, candidate Cuccinelli told a crowd that he was considering not registering his son for a Social Security number because "it is being used to track you." He also claimed that many others are not registering for Social Security numbers for the same reason.

Watch:

We're gonna have our 7th child on Monday, if he's not born before. And, for the very concerns you state, we're actually considering – as I'm sure many of you here didn't get a Social Security number when you were born, they do it now – we're considering not doing that. And a lot of people are considering that now, because it is being used to track you.

If the newly unearthed "birther" comments didn't establish Cuccinelli as a bona fide member of the paranoid, anti-government Tea Party movement, this video should do the trick.