Legislation

"It Is Dominion We Are After. World Conquest ... And We Must Never Settle For Anything Less"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 8/26/2011 11:45 am

As we have been noting for the last week or so, it seems as if the entire Religious Right movement has developed collective amnesia when it comes to the concept of dominionism, claiming never to have heard of it and to have no idea what it means.

In fact just yesterday, Pat Robertson was saying that he had no idea what the term meant and, whatever it was, it did not apply to him.

But, as Sarah Leslie at Herescope reports, it is a little hard to believe that Robertson has no idea what dominionism is considering that he has been quoted as directly advocating for it:

This strange denial by Pat Robertson, cited above, that he doesn't know anything about Dominionism is ludicrous! Robertson is one of the chief purveyors of this doctrine. In Al Dager's book Vengeance Is Ours: The Church In Dominion (Sword, 1990), he describes Pat Robertson's Dominionist views and transcribed a speech in Dallas in 1984 where Robertson said:

Now what do you do? What do all of us do? We get ready to take dominion! We get ready to take dominion! It is all going to be ours--I'm talking about all of it. Everything that you would say is a good part of the secular world. Every means of communication, the news, the television, the radio, the cinema, the arts, the government, the finance--it's going to be ours! God's going to give it to His people. We should prepare to reign and rule with Jesus Christ. (Dager, p. 95)[emphasis added]

By the same token, we now have Matt Barber claiming that dominiomism is nothing more than some silly liberal conspiracy theory:

Barber is the Associate Dean for Career and Professional Development and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Liberty University.  Just last year, Liberty University was a sponsor of the American Vision’s Worldview Super Conference entitled "2010 Sovereignty and Dominion conference - Biblical Blueprints for Victory!"

The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:28 that God created us to multiply, fill the earth, and take dominion of His creation for His Glory. When Jesus came to earth, He gave his disciples the Great Commission and told them to make disciples of all nations, Baptize them, and teach them to obey all that he had commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). These two mandates form the basis for why Christ’s Church exists on this planet. Every square inch of this world belongs to King Jesus. It is our privilege to serve Him by exercising servanthood dominion in every area of life.

Or what about John Aman, Director of Communications at Truth in Action Ministries, who claimed that "dominionism is a sham charge-one reserved for Christians on the right" that was dreamed up by the Left as "a handy way to smear evangelicals like Bachmann and Perry who bring biblically informed moral convictions into public debate."

Truth in Action Ministries was, until just last month, known as Coral Ridge Ministries.  George Grant, who served as the executive director of Coral Ridge Ministries and a close associate of the late D. James Kennedy, wrote a book in 1987 entitled "Changing Of The Guard" [PDF] in which the following passage appear:

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ-to have dominion in the civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

But it is dominion that we are after. Not just a voice.

It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.

It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less.

If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, as the Bible says, and if our commission is to bring the land into subjection to His Lordship, as the Bible says, then all our activities, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all our craftsmanship, all our stewardship, and all our political action will aim at nothing short of that sacred purpose.

Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land - of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. It is to reinstitute the authority of God's Word as supreme over all judgments, over all legislation, over all declarations, constitutions, and confederations.

Amazing, isn't it, how Robertson has no idea what dominionism is despite having openly advocated for it, and how Barber says it is a silly scare tactic even while his employer sponsors conferences promoting it, and how Aman says it doesn't even exist while the former Executive Director of his organization makes it explicity clear that "world conquest" is their goal.

If the Religious Right really doesn't know anything about dominionism, maybe they ought to start reseraching their own history and agenda.

Farah: Gays And Radical Muslims Working Together To Destroy America

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 8/22/2011 1:38 pm

WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah contends that “the homosexual agenda and the Shariah agenda” are working together to endanger the future of America. Farah claims that both the LGBT community and Muslim-Americans want to alter the institution of marriage, use hate crimes laws to silence critics, and implement Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to weaken the U.S. military. According to Farah, only right-wing activists like him are standing up to the “Muslim Mafia and the Gay Mafia,” but even many leaders of the conservative movement are selling out for “Arab cash” and “wealthy homosexual interests.” Farah writes:

Homosexual political activists are pushing hard for the cultural and legal acceptance of same-sex marriage, the adoption of hate-crimes legislation and open homosexual activity in the U.S. armed forces. Opposition to this agenda typically comes from practicing and observant Christians and Jews who recognize the Bible unequivocally condemns homosexual behavior is sinful and that there are grave real-life consequences to nations that condone it.

But I want you to notice who doesn't actively oppose this agenda in American society today – organized Muslim groups.

…

I will tell you why: Because they recognize the promotion of this agenda in the U.S. actually serves the Islamist long-term agenda. They recognize that the success of this agenda promotes the weakening of the United States of America in multiple ways.

Let's examine how.

There is little question the legal acceptance of same-sex marriage will open the door to the legalization of polygamy. It's inevitable. After all, if it is now "discriminatory," as we're told, to prohibit two men or two women from getting married, clearly it is "discriminatory" to prohibit the marriage of one man and two or more women. There is simply no other rational way to view it.

Who benefits? Those who practice polygamy as part of their religion – Muslims.

…

And what about opposition to the gutting of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law? Where are the Muslim organizations on this one? Once again, they are AWOL. Peculiar, isn't it?

Not really. That's because, I believe, the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood tentacles in the U.S. recognize that, ultimately, the U.S. military is one of the last lines of defense of a nation in economic, political and cultural retreat. And they recognize that open homosexual activity within the military's ranks renders it less effective. In other words, it spells victory for the jihadists who ruled the world in the past and intend to rule it in the future.

…

Until recently, you might note, the only organized political opposition to both the homosexual agenda and the Shariah agenda came from conservatives.

But that is changing.

Some conservative activists, flush with Arab cash, are actively networking their new Muslim friends into the movement and through the Republican Party hierarchy. Other conservative activists are selling out to the wealthy homosexual interests. And a few are even straddling both camps in a very strange and dangerous game indeed.

…

So what explains the current brand of patty-cake politics between the Muslim Mafia and the Gay Mafia?

Money, moral relativism, naiveté and power.

But this is a short-term marriage of convenience, not a marriage made in heaven.

The Company That Rick Perry Keeps: Jerry Boykin and Obama's Brownshirt Army

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/15/2011 4:30 pm

When Rick Perry was organizing his massive public prayer rally, we put in a lot of work chronicling the radical views of the activists with whom Perry was partnering. 

But there are others with ties to Perry who were not involved in this effort and therefore never made it on to our list ... people like Jerry Boykin who believes that George Soros and the Council on Foreign Relations worked to collapse the economy in order to help Barack Obama win the election and that passage of healthcare reform legislation is really just cover for Obama to establish a private Brownshirt army loyal only to him:

I vaguely recall having seen clips of Boykin talking about attending Gov. Perry's inauguration in January 2011 and have been trying to track it down for the last week or so but have been unable to find it.  But today I stumbled across a different video of remarks Boykin recently delivered at something called the Gideon Media & Arts Conference where he proudly asserted that he is intolerant while praising Rick Perry for being one of the few political leaders who are willing to stand up for Biblical truth and revealing that he met with Perry recently as part of a private meeting the Governor held in June with right-wing leaders: 

Bachmann, Romney, Santorum Promise "Presidential Commission To Investigate Harassment Of Traditional Marriage Supporters"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/4/2011 11:33 am

As we mentioned yesterday, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann will be joining FRC, the National Organization for Marriage and the Susan B. Anthony List for a ""Values Voter Bus Tour" through Iowa.

In kicking off the event, NOM has announced that Santorum, Bachmann, and Mitt Romney have all signed a five-point "Marriage Pledge" [PDF] that includes a promise to establish a "presidential commission" to "investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters":

One, support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification.

Two, nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal bench judges who are committed to restraint and to applying the original meaning of the Constitution, appoint an attorney general similarly committed, and thus reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to gay marriage into our Constitution.

Three, defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act vigorously in court.

Four, establish a presidential commission on religious liberty to investigate and document reports of Americans who have been harassed or threatened for exercising key civil rights to organize, to speak, to donate or to vote for marriage and to propose new protections, if needed.

Five, advance legislation to return to the people ofthe District of Columbia their right to vote on marriage.

FRC's Selective Outrage

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/4/2011 11:06 am

Listen to this clip from the AFA radio program "Today's Issues" the other day in which Tony Perkins and Ken Blackwell, both of the Family Research Council, complain that people are calling the Tea Party activists "terrorists":

Perkins: You have the comments being made by the Vice President of the United States ... and he's equating conservative members of Congress who are identified with the Tea Party as being terrorists and holding the nation hostage.

Blackwell: Well, that is just consistent with the strategy of define and destroy that the Left, headed up by the President and the Vice President, have been putting on us for the last couple of years ... Look this is an attempt to define those who are asking tough questions not just as being rabble-rousers or folks who are really tough in pressing the issue, but as being terrorists. And this really has to stop.  

Oh, the outrage! 

FRC would never stoop so low! 

Oh wait ... what about this clip from the Family Research Council's very own "ENDA: The End of Religious Freedom in America?" DVD where, at the 1:37 mark, Frank Wright of National Religious Broadcasters calls ENDA and hate crimes legislation "economic terrorism":

Wright: On Capitol Hill, as we say, at the end of the day, ENDA and hate crimes are really a form of economic terrorism. They hold an extortion-like threat over your head and say that if you don't submit, you will pay for it in legal fees and in judgments and in pain and suffering in court for years to come. Some people will stand against that. Some people don't have the resources to stand against that. Others, sadly, are going to cut and run and that is the great pity of the whole thing.

Barton: Only Small Minority Supports Marriage Equality

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 7/29/2011 11:50 am

Selective reading of material to support presupposed right-wing views is David Barton’s forte, so it comes as no surprise that the pseudo-historian is using a shoddy poll on same-sex marriage by an ultraconservative organization to claim that very few Americans support marriage equality.

On WallBuilders Live yesterday, Barton and co-host Rick Green hosted Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund to discuss their opposition to equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Barton and Green ended the interview by discussing the ADF poll which claimed that 62% of Americans were against marriage equality. ADF’s findings were something of an anomaly, given that most other recent polls show the majority of Americans are in favor of marriage equality, a number which even Republican pollsters admit is rapidly increasing. Unlike other polls, the ADF survey didn’t ask participants whether they believe gay and lesbian couples should be legally allowed to marry but instead asked if they agreed with the claim, “I believe marriage should be defined only as the union of one man and one woman.” As Dan Nejfelt of Faith in Public Life points out:

A key difference is that these polls focused on legality rather than the "definition" of marriage. Given that the political debate surrounding same-sex marriage pertains to legislation rather than the contents of the dictionary, it's hard to see the relevance of ADF's data. It certainly is interesting, but it's not even close to a refutation of the overwhelming body of current nonpartisan opinion research pointing to majority support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

But for Barton and Green, the poll demonstrates that the country is united against marriage equality, which they say only has the support of a tiny but vocal minority.

Barton: If you can get a Christian spirit going, it unifies people like crazy. And that’s what we got going on the marriage issue, that’s what we have going on the school prayer issue. The other guys are screaming that it’s dividing. No. When it’s 82 to 18 that’s not dividing, when it’s 62 to 35 that’s not dividing, that’s unifying.

Green: Well the way to divide everybody is to take an issue where only 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 percent are for it and force it on the whole country.

Barton: That’s right. Oh, are you talking about gay marriage here?

Green: I’m not even sure 15 percent are for it. Even when we say 62 percent are for traditional marriage I don’t think you can say 38 percent are for gay marriage, but they might be saying ‘I don’t really know if I want to make that decision.’

Barton: See, that’s when you have to look in the polls to see who are strongly for it. And when you get strongly for, very few. And I love the point he made too, he said they want to do this against the will of the people, that’s why they file lawsuits. I mean, they did not give the people of New York a chance to vote on this, and typically they do not. They file lawsuits against marriage because they can’t win at the ballot box. This is the thing, when it comes to the people they can’t win, which is another great indication that this is a minority driving this agenda. It’s not a majority, it’s not a unifying issue.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 7/22/2011 6:06 pm

PFAW: PFAW Celebrates Certification of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal

Sarah Posner @ Religion Dispatches: Excuses, Excuses: The Polite Regrets of Governors Bailing on Perry's Prayer Rally.

Igor Volsky @ Think Progress: GOProud: Gays Need Guns, Not Hate Crimes Legislation.

Alvin McEwen: Maggie Gallagher's Hypocritical Whine About Corruption

Adam Serwer @ The American Prospect: Stop Using Moozlem Words!

Is Rick Perry a moderate? Perhaps, if the price is right.

Submitted by Miranda Blue on Wednesday, 7/20/2011 5:30 pm

Cross-Posted on the People For blog

Here at People For the American Way, we’ve spent the last several weeks marveling as Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans a blockbuster Christian prayer rally in Houston, gathering around him a remarkable collection of Religious Right extremists – from a pastor who claims that the Statue of Liberty is a “demonic idol” to a self-described “apostle” who blamed last year’s mysterious bird deaths in Arkansas on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Perry claims the event is apolitical, but it is conveniently timed to coincide with the possible launching of his presidential bid and bolstered by groups that are dedicated to working far-right evangelical values into American politics.

Which is why we were all surprised today to find a story in The Hill titled “At second glance, Texas Gov. Rick Perry not as conservative as some think.” Really?


The evidence presented for Perry’s maverick-moderate tilt is that the governor has taken some reasonable positions on immigration reform and that he once angered Religious Right groups by requiring that all 6th grade girls in the state receive a vaccine for HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer.


Perry’s 2007 executive order requiring that the vaccine be offered to Texas’s sixth graders was a wonderful, progressive public health policy…but seemed a little odd coming from a far-right Texas governor. Interestingly, while the move angered Perry’s supporters on the Religious Right, it made one constituency very happy: lobbyists for Merck & Co., the pharmaceutical giant that manufactured the vaccine and stood to gain billions from the new law. The Associated Press reported at the time on the cozy relationship Merck had developed with the newly-reelected Texas governor:


Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Details of the order were not immediately available, but the governor's office confirmed to The Associated Press that he was signing the order and he would comment Friday afternoon.

Perry has several ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

Toomey was expected to be able to woo conservative legislators concerned about the requirement stepping on parent's rights and about signaling tacit approval of sexual activity to young girls. Delisi, as head of the House public health committee, which likely would have considered legislation filed by a Democratic member, also would have helped ease conservative opposition.

Perry also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.

Maybe Gov. Perry just really cared about helping prevent an epidemic and helping girls in Texas receive good medical care. On the other hand, health care for Texans doesn’t seem to have been a major priority for Perry: by last year, the tenth year of his governorship, Texas ranked last in the country in terms of the percentage of the population with health insurance and the percentage of insured children.


The “Perry bucks the Religious Right for the health of young girls” story will probably continue to reappear as he continues to be lauded as the Republican Party’s last, best hope for 2012. But the full story in no way proves that Perry’s an independent-minded moderate. Instead, it offers a case study of the sometimes conflicting priorities of the Religious and Corporate Right, and a politician who tries to appease them both.

 

Right-Wing Columnist: Eliminate Public Schools To Stop "Stalinist" LGBT History Law

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 7/14/2011 4:27 pm

Writing for the ultraconservative Crisis magazine, Kevin Ryan of Boston University’s Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character is outraged over the recently signed California law that makes sure textbooks cover important LGBT historical figures. Ryan said that the policy has a “distinct Stalinist odor” that will bolster the “gay agenda.” But Ryan has a way to respond to the new textbook law: abolish public schools. “Eliminate state-run public schools,” Ryan writes, “make a transition to one of the many school choice options” like home schooling:

Given the brute fact that the state can and does put parents in the slammer for not delivering up their children for the state approved and directed schooling, this new legislation has about it a distinct Stalinist odor. The odor is particularly strong in the nostrils of those parents who believe such grave matters as how one lives out their sexuality is not the educational province of the state bureaucrats who create the lesson plans for teachers.

It is tempting to dismiss this soon-to-be statewide curriculum as just another in a long line of outrageous and kooky, La-La Land events seemingly designed to keep the rest of us chuckling and mildly finger-wagging. However, the Sunshine State is the 800-pound gorilla of the textbook world and teachers and parents in Montana, Iowa and Georgia will surely be seeing the “gay agenda” in their next textbook adoptions.

…

Another idea — and one which is receiving a great boost from legislation requiring a gay-friendly curriculum — is to eliminate state-run public schools. That is, make a transition to one of the many school choice options that put parents back in charge of their children’s education.

Increasingly, the very idea of the state answering the core educational question, “what is most worth a child knowing,” is being acknowledged as dangerous and a violation of parents’ right to control the education of their children. Currently in the US the parents of well over one million children are making huge personal and financial sacrifices to homeschool their children, and the movement is growing. While motivations vary, many of these parents have withdrawn their children from the public school because of the very over-sexualized environment this new California legislation will doubtlessly intensify.

It is tempting to take solace in the idea that this latest school victory by gay activists is a step too far and will spark a revolt. However, the public school teachers unions, local, state and national, are very strong and very politically protected. The opposition is underfunded, disorganized and tends to have a short attention span.

On the other hand, if attempts to alter our children’s understanding of their sexuality and what is the correct way for them to live out their sexuality cannot arouse parents to action, what, in God’s name and our nation’s future, will?

Religious Right Activists Warn GOP Not To Nominate Mitt Romney

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 7/13/2011 1:39 pm

Right-wing activist and former California legislator Steve Baldwin has organized an open letter to “Conservative, Catholic and Evangelical Leaders” asking them to refuse support for Mitt Romney’s campaign for president. Already a number of activists including failed US Senate candidate and Tea Party hero Joe Miller; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; Brian Camenker of MassResistance; Linda Harvey of Mission America; Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association; Ted Beahr of WND and Movieguide; Gary Glenn of American Family Association-Michigan, Kelly Shackleford of the Liberty Institute; Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation; Floyd Brown of WND; Dick and Richard Bott of Bott Family Radio, and the leaders of a number of anti-choice groups have signed the letter.

The letter says that “a Romney candidacy would be disastrous for the conservative movement and for the country,” writing that he is insincere in his conservative beliefs and “continues to support many aspects of the homosexual agenda even today.” The activists claim that “the flatly illegal charade of ‘gay’ marriage exists solely in Massachusetts due to Governor Romney’s illegal actions,” and lists numerous other issues including abortion rights and health care reform where Romney has reversed himself: “Romney has also been both in favor and against minimum wage legislation, capital gains taxes, gun control, amnesty for illegal aliens, campaign finance reform, the Kyoto agreement, gambling, gun control, and many other issues.”

They conclude by warning that nominating Romney “would be a disastrous mistake”:

Most disturbing is the key role Mitt Romney played in accelerating two of the greatest threats to our Judeo-Christian culture and free enterprise system: Homosexual marriage and government control of health care. In both instances, the actions Romney took – or didn’t take – on homosexual marriage and RomneyCare have done lasting damage to our country. Romney’s aggressive efforts to implement the unconstitutional Goodridge decision set a precedent which inspired pro-homosexual marriage activity nationwide, and his RomneyCare bill served as the model for ObamaCare, the biggest lurch toward socialism since the New Deal.

As such, Romney has done more damage to America in his four years as Governor than any Democrat officeholder we can think of. But Romney, to this day, defends his actions on both fronts and sincerely believes he has done nothing wrong, an attitude which only raises additional questions about his fitness for national office. We must question his worldview, his sincerity, and his judgment. We believe the election of Mitt Romney would be a disastrous mistake for the conservative movement and for the country.

Schlafly: Violence Against Women Act Protects Women Too Much

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 7/12/2011 12:03 pm

Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly wants Congress to hold up the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act until it is altered so that it doesn’t benefit women. Schlafly, a long-time critic of the landmark law who believes that married women cannot be raped by their husbands, contends that the Violence Against Women Act goes too far in protecting women from abusive spouses and that the law is merely a feminist plot to tear down men:

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), now up for reauthorization, is in major need of revision. Its billion-dollar-a-year price tag spent by the radical feminists to pursue their ideology and goals (known as feminist pork) make it an embarrassment to members of Congress who voted for it.

For 30 years, the feminists have been pretending that their goal is to abolish all sex discrimination, eliminating all gender differences no matter how reasonable. When it comes to domestic violence, however, feminist dogma preaches that there is an innate gender difference: Men are naturally batterers, and women are naturally victims (i.e., gender profiling).

Starting with its title, VAWA is just about as sex discriminatory as legislation can get. It is written and implemented to oppose the abuse of women and to punish men.

…

Women who make domestic violence accusations are not required to produce evidence and are never prosecuted for perjury if they lie. Accused men are not accorded fundamental protections of due process, not considered innocent until proven guilty and in many cases are not afforded the right to confront their accusers.

Legal assistance is customarily provided to women but not to men. Men ought to be entitled to equal protection of the law because many charges are felonies and could result in prison and loss of money, job and reputation.

Feminist recipients of VAWA handouts lobby legislators, judges and prosecutors on the taxpayers' dime (which is contrary to Section 1913 of Title 18, U.S. Code), and the results are generally harmful to all concerned. This lobbying has resulted in laws calling for mandatory arrest (i.e., the police must arrest someone – guess who) of the predominant aggressor (i.e., ignore the facts and assume the man is the aggressor) and no-drop prosecution (i.e., prosecute the man even if the woman has withdrawn her accusation or refuses to testify).

Rick Perry Partners With 'Apostle' Who Believes God Is Punishing African Americans For Supporting Gay Rights

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 7/11/2011 12:28 pm

Willie Wooten of is one of the latest official endorsers of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally. Wooten, of the New Orleans-based Gideon International Christian Fellowship, is a self-proclaimed Apostle who claims to have “had a positive influence in the governmental arena and has been instrumental in preventing ungodly laws from being enacted within the state of Louisiana and also throughout our nation.”

A critic of gay rights, Wooten has compared being gay to polygamy and incest and argued that “homosexual marriage is not a civil rights issue; it’s a moral issue. It is a deviant type of behavior and lifestyle. How do they do it? It’s too nasty.” Wooten feverishly works against legislation in Louisiana that would grant gay and lesbian couples legal rights and protect gays and lesbians from employment discrimination and school bullying. Wooten claims that because black legislators have oftentimes proposed such legislation, the black community faces a curse from God. According to an article from the Louisiana newspaper The Advocate:

"We call on our lawmakers -- and especially the Black Caucus members -- to be strong and courageous as you give priority to this matter and do all that is in your power to protect historic marriage," Wooten said.

Disasters "heaped upon" Louisiana's black community occur because "a lot of our legislators are not on the side of God and His moral laws,"

In fact, Wooten wrote an entire book about how the African American community is under a curse from God because black leaders have promoted liberalism and the Democratic Party. In Breaking The Curse Off Black America, Wooten blames African American political and religious leaders for crossing God through “immorality,” making God punish African Americans, which in turn leads to the curses of “adultery, incest, children from incestuous union, children born out-of-wedlock, destroyed virginity, bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism.” Wooten says that African Americans beget God’s punishment by voting for Democratic candidates and tolerating homosexuality, and only through Wooten’s brand of ultraconservative politics and spiritual warfare can Black America be redeemed:

Increased numbers of young people were embracing homosexuality (the “Down Low” bisexual lifestyle), prostitution, and all sorts of perversion. How could this be, knowing that we were raised in different environments? Now it is becoming clear. There is a curse on Black America. As I could see this truth being realized, God began pouring an abundance of revelations into my heart (p. 19).

…

The result of a curse brings regret, mourning, and grief. For example, if the sin is sexual, it could bring adultery, incest, children from incestuous union, children born out-of-wedlock, destroyed virginity, bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism, and sodomy. Other curses can be activated through rebellion against God and His words; parents, pastors, rulers and authorities, turning away from God, idolatry, pride, fleshly practices, and touching and harming God’s anointed (p. 64).

…

A dark cloud appears to hover over Black America, even with our measure of achievements, we are engulfed in a culture of sin. Our leadership has led people to agree with sin, leading them into a political party and boldly chiding them if they attempt to go any another way. That party, the Democratic party, is consistently on the wrong side of moral issues. The party led the way for proabortion and homosexuality legislation. Ninety percent of voting Black America have been steadfast in voting democrat. They have not voted issues, they have voted the party and the party has used them. Blacks have been crying out for the same issues and problems to be addressed. Still the masses have voted for ungodly laws. Blacks are on the wrong side of moral issues nationwide (p. 82).

…

The man of God could not have his testicles damaged or defective. This speaks of his inability to procreate. There is an inability by far too many black leaders to produce sons of God who are truly spiritual people. Consequently, there is a great lack of discipleship, and also, there is an out-of-control sexual appetite among too many pastors and church leaders. God does not and never will accept the black leaders’ mantra of “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” or “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” or “touch not mine anointed.” There is too much immorality in the Black Church, namely greed, pedophilia, homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery, and fornication (p. 107).

Right-Wing Columnist Claims Marriage Equality Will Lead To Gulags

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 7/8/2011 2:22 pm

Jeff Mirus of Trinity Communications believes that marriage equality will criminalize Christianity, leading to a totalitarian state and a new gulag archipelago. Far from the first Religious Right activist to suggest that equal rights for gays and lesbians will cause liberty to founder, Mirus, discussing the case of a Mexican priest who was fined for propagandizing against a political party that supports marriage equality, argues that “gay marriage is the perfect totalitarian wedge.” He adds, “gay marriage is the lie that will create the next Gulag”:

In a Mexican case, Fr. Hugo Valdemar was found guilty on July 1st of illegal political activity because he stated that Catholics should not vote for candidates who support same-sex marriage. Fr. Valdemar’s defense is that he wasn’t speaking against a particular party but was merely stating the teaching of the Catholic Church. But the particulars of charge and counter-charge do not make a great deal of difference, apart from the strategies they suggest for legal maneuvering. There have been many similar stories over the past few years from around the world, especially in Canada and Europe. The writing is on the wall. Gay marriage is the lie that will create the next Gulag.

Indeed, gay marriage is the perfect totalitarian wedge, not least in a country like the United States, which has been capable of believing itself uniquely dedicated to liberty even in the midst of slavery and abortion. We Americans, it seems, will be quite willing to sing the praises of our liberty no matter how many of us lose it. It is our national myth, something we worship. But the cause of gay marriage fits the myth better than most issues because it really does seem that those who oppose it are denying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to others. This denial can be accepted for the unborn, in the name of the liberty of their mothers, as it once was accepted for African Americans, who shared judicial non-personhood with the unborn. But gays are well-educated, wealthy and—above all—a logically favored projection of our moral culture. To inhibit their happiness, for any reason, seems just plain wrong.

Why should this be? First, it is necessary to note that the word “gay” refers not to those with homosexual inclinations but to those who champion behavior based on these inclinations as good. In fact, homosexuals who are not gay are a sign of contradiction to the gay world. They are scorned accordingly, in ways that even straights are not. The key to understanding the whole matter is that to be gay or to support the gay lifestyle is to approve and promote sterile sex.

…

No group is more hateful to modern society than the perceived moralistic prigs who, out of what most perceive as religiously-motivated prejudice, seek to diminish the personal sexual liberty of others. Nothing could be more obvious in our current culture than that such people must be silenced and, if necessary, restrained. Moreover, it seems only right and just that their denunciation of the gay lifestyle and their opposition to gay marriage should be criminalized. In fact, it should be criminalized in the name of liberty. That is why gay marriage is the lie that will create the next Gulag.

Save California Takes Last Stand Against LGBT History Bill

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 7/6/2011 3:45 pm

Yesterday, the California State Assembly followed the State Senate in passing a bill that would make sure textbooks recognize the contributions of prominent LGBT figures in California history. Randy Thomasson, the head of Save California, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the legislation, even going so far as to liken homosexuality to drug and alcohol abuse, and is making one final plea to Governor Jerry Brown to veto the bill. If the bill is signed into law, Thomasson in a statement called on parents to “removed their children from the government school system” to protect them from what will be “the most in-your-face brainwashing yet”:

"May this brash attack upon children's innocence finally motivate parents to remove their children from the government school system, and get them into the safe havens of church schooling and homeschooling," said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a leading statewide pro-family organization promoting moral virtues for the common good.

"This sexual brainwashing bill would mandate that children as young as 6 years old be told falsehoods -- that homosexuality is biological, when it isn't, or healthy, when it's not," Thomasson said.

"Parents don't send their sons and daughters to school to learn to admire homosexuality, bisexuality, cross-dressing, "sex change" operations, homosexual "marriages," or to support legal persecution of people who disagree," Thomasson said. "There's already a raft of school sexual indoctrination laws on the books. Impressionable children are already being sexual indoctrinated, but SB 48 would be the most in-your-face brainwashing yet. We urge Governor Brown to respect parents, remember basic academics, and basic family values, and veto this bad bill when it reaches his desk."

"True history focuses on the accomplishments of people -- it doesn't talk about what they did in the bedroom," Thomasson said. "Sadly, SB 48 prohibits teachers from providing students with the facts about these lifestyles. Male homosexuality has the largest transmitter of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, along with higher cancer rates and earlier deaths, but it will be illegal for teachers to teach children these facts to protect their health and their lives."

….

"California government schools are no longer morally safe for impressionable children," Thomasson said. "Because of the raft of sexual indoctrination laws already in force, which promote homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality under the guise of 'discrimination' and 'harassment,' the social engineers are already having their way with more than six million boys and girls, with or without SB 48. That's why we strongly urge loving parents to rescue their children by permanently removing them from government schools and placing them in the safe havens of church schools or homeschooling."

Remembrance of Bachmann Things Past: Her Ties To Janet Porter

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 7/6/2011 2:19 pm

In 2009, Janet Porter of Faith 2 Action organized a right-wing conference in St. Louis called "How To Take Back America" that was co-sponsored by the likes of WorldNetDaily, The American Family Association, Vision America, Liberty Counsel, and WallBuilders.  The keynote speakers at the conference were Mike Huckabee and Rep. Michele Bachmann.

The line-up at this conference was so radical that we put together a report on the participants which gave special attention to the truly fringe views espouse by Porter: 

It is probably impossible to overstate the extremism and lunacy of Janet Porter, whose radio program and Faith2Action.org website gives her a platform for promoting the most unhinged of conspiracy theories.

Porter is Mike Huckabee's biggest fan. She first fell in love when she organized the 2007 Values Voter Debate to which she had personally invited a gospel choir to sing "Why Should God Bless America?" and after which Porter (then Folger) declared that Huckabee had been revealed as the answer to Christians' prayers for a presidential candidate who shared their views, proclaiming him to be the "David among Jesse's sons." During the presidential primaries, she started a front group to attack Huckabee's arch nemesis Mitt Romney and wrote columns claiming that only Huckabee could prevent Hillary Clinton from throwing all Christians into prison and save her fantasy world from this "evil queen and her dragon of slaughter."

She has since claimed that God has cursed America for voting for Obama, that anyone who voted for him is bound for hell , and that anyone who has ever voted for a pro-choice candidate is also living under a curse. She has actively pushed the Birther conspiracies and even alleged that Obama's presidency was the culmination of a decade-long Communist conspiracy twenty years in the making. After the election, but before the inauguration, she called on God to prevent Obama from taking office, while warning that "AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN" to this nation because we deserve God's judgment.

Among other fears she has recently been stoking: the Obama administration is creating internment camps for conservatives and building mass evacuation buses to take them there, while warning that the H1N1 flu vaccine is really a nefarious plot by the government to kill millions of Americans. She helped to create and inflate the Right's false claims that a Department of Homeland Security report was equating conservatives and veterans with terrorists; as noted above, she's now pushing comparisons between the Obama administration and the rise of Nazism.

Porter has written a book called "The Criminalization of Christianity" and claims that hate crimes legislation will lead to Christians being thrown in jail. More recently she's joined the chorus of extremists falsely claiming that the bill would "give heightened protection to pedophiles." As part of her campaign against hate crimes legislation, Porter has repeatedly invited on to her radio show Ted Pike, a rabid anti-Semite who claims hate crimes laws are part of a Jewish plot for world domination.

Of course, the radical views held by Porter and the others in no way dissuaded Bachmann from attending.  In fact, Bachmann appeared on Porter's radio program ahead of the event and used it as an opportunity to praiser her and endorse the May Day at the Lincoln Memorial prayer event Porter was planning for the following spring:

That May Day event ended up being so infused with Seven Mountains Dominion Theology that Porter lost her radio program and almost ended her career at a Religious Right activist, until she showed up in Ohio earlier this year where she began scheduling fetuses to "testify" on behalf of her extremist anti-choice "Heartbeat Bill."  In her downtime, she was busy praying for God to give Christians control over the media and every level of government.

But none of that seemed to bother Bachmann, who joined Porter, Joseph Farah, and others in promoting Porter's "Pink Slip" campaign to warn members of Congress that they would lose their jobs if they voted for legislation opposed by the Right:

In 2008, Porter was a key supporter of Mike Huckabee.  But with Huckabee declining to run for President this time around, Porter's endorsement is still up in the air. 

But given the already existing ties between Bachmann and Porter (and judging by the poll Porter is currently running on her website) it seems increasingly like that Bachmann could wind up being her candidate of choice.

Remembrance of Bachmann Things Past: Praying To Stop Healthcare Reform

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 7/6/2011 11:27 am

Given that Rep. Michele Bachmann is now running for president and among the Republican frontrunners, I was going through our Bachmann archives collecting past posts chronicling the absolute fringe Religious Right leaders with whom Bachmann has eagerly associated herself since getting elected to Congress.

In doing so, I noticed that we had lost our video of Bachmann and Lou Engle at the Family Research Council's 2009 "Prayercast" which was organized in order to seek God's intervention in preventing the passage of health care reform.

And so I thought it might be a good idea to get that video reposted:

Barber: "GLSEN Tacitly Advocates Child Sexual Abuse"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 7/5/2011 10:28 am

On today's installment of "Faith and Freedom Radio," Mat Staver and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel/Liberty University discussed the passage of marriage equality legislation in New York, which they used as an opportunity to attack Kevin Jennings and claim that groups like GLSEN and PFLAG encourage five year-old children to have sex with one another and even support pederasty and child sexual abuse. 

Barber eventually warned that "when we shake our fist against God and rebel against him," as the legislature did in New York, it was only a matter of time before we suffered the consequences:

Janet Porter's Heartbeat Bill Passes Ohio State House

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/29/2011 9:39 am

The Ohio State House finally voted on and passed Janet Porter’s “Heartbeat bill,” which would criminalize abortion in most cases. Conspicuously absent was a statement from the state’s leading anti-choice group, the Ohio Right to Life Society, which actually opposed the bill because it is blatantly unconstitutional. Now Porter’s prized legislation moves on to the Senate, and her group Faith2Action released a congratulatory statement:

“For every battle weary pro-lifer who didn't see how children were going to be protected in our lifetime, come see what God is doing in Ohio. Protection for babies with beating hearts is within reach for the first time since Roe stripped their rights away. I have never been more hopeful for restoring protection to babies with beating hearts than I am right now,” declared Janet (Folger) Porter, president of Ohio-based Faith2Action and a former legislative director for Ohio Right to Life.

In meetings with bill supporters, several of the state senators have expressed interest in serving as a sponsor or co-sponsor for the bill.

The bill was backed by a number of national Republican figures including presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, and Porter even had two fetuses “testify” in favor of the bill.

Fischer: Gays Already Have Marriage Equality

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/27/2011 3:53 pm

Bryan Fischer spent the entire first hour of his radio program today discussing the passage of marriage equality legislation in New York last week in typical Fischer-fashion ... which means me focused on warning about the health risks of gay sex while railing against the "hate crimes" gay activists are committing against Christians.

And, for good measure, he also explained that there was no need to "marriage equality" legislation because gays already have the equality to marry ... anyone of the opposite sex:

Allow me to just point out, once again, that this is literally the same argument made in defense of anti-miscegenation laws:

When societies decide who can and who can't legally marry, they determine who is and isn't really a part of the family. These inclusions and exclusions take place at such an intimate level that they shape what seems natural and, in turn, what is stigmatized as unnatural.

...

From the 1860s through the 1960s, the American legal system elevated the notion that interracial marriage was unnatural to commonsense status and made it the law of the land. During this period, miscegenation law channeled property, propriety, personal choice, and legitimate procreation into one very particular kind of monogamous marital pair: couples that were made of up one White man and one White woman, whose sameness of race was required by law and whose difference in sex was taken entirely for granted. The more Whites believe that interracial marriage was unnatural, the more they assumed that the marriage of one White man to one White woman was the only kind of marriage worthy of the name - and the more they saw their own marriages as the fortunate result of individual romantic preference rather than the obligatory outcome of a legal system steeped in gendered assumptions about race and heterosexuality.

...

The constitutional fiction of miscegenation law held that laws punishing both partners in an interracial relationship were racially equal rather than racially discriminatory. This, for example, was the position the Alabama Supreme Court put forth in 1881 in Pace v. State, a case involving a White woman and a Black man, when it ruled:

The fact that a different punishment is affixed to the offense of adultery when committed between a negro and a white person, and when committed between two white people or two negroes, does not constitute a discrimination against or in favor of either race. The discrimination is not directed against the person of any particular color or race, but against the offense, the nature of which is determined by the opposite color of the cohabiting parties. The punishment of each offending party, white or black, is precisely the same. There is obviously no difference or discrimination in the punishment. The evil tendency of the crime of living in adultery or fornication is greater when it is committed between persons of the two races than between persons of the same race.

The was also the position the Oregon Supreme Court maintained a half century later when it ruled that its miscegenation law did not discriminate against Indians because it "applies alike to all persons, either white, negroes, Chinese, Kanaka, or Indians."

Keith Ellison Opponent Accuses Him Of Being A "Radical Islamist"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 6/23/2011 3:09 pm

A candidate running against Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison says that Ellison, who is one of two Muslim House members, is a “radical Islamist” who doesn’t uphold the Constitution. Lynne Torgerson unsuccessfully challenged Ellison as an Independent in 2010, but her floundering campaign received immense support from the Tea Party Nation and its vehemently anti-Muslim president Judson Phillips. That year, Torgerson said that Ellison “has no business being in our federal government” and that Muslims are subverting the Constitution. In a post on Tea Party Nation that was sent to TPN members, Torgerson accused the Congressman of failing “to support that the United States Constitution should be supreme over Islamic Sharia law.”

Islamic Sharia law must be banned throughout our state and federal governments.

We have duly enacted state laws and statutes throughout our 50 states in this, our United States of America. We also have duly enacted, by our elected officials, federal laws and statutes. Everyone who is a citizen of, and who lives in or visits the United States of America, is subject to the laws of our states and federal government. No one gets to come to the United States and bring their own laws here and expect them to apply in our states or federal government, or our courts. Islamic Sharia has no place in America. We must enact legislation barring the implementation of this foreign, non-representative sect of law. Islamic Sharia law must be banned throughout the United States.

I, Lynne Torgerson, am running for Congress in Minnesota, against radical Islamist Keith Ellison. Keith Ellison fails to oppose banning Islamic Sharia law in the United States. He accuses people of trying to ban it as "conspiratorilists." Keith Ellison also fails to support that the United States Constitution should be supreme over Islamic Sharia law.
Syndicate content

Legislation Posts Archive

Porter: Because Of My Heartbeat Bill, God Will Again Bless America
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 09/27/2011, 12:45pm
Janet Porter saved the big guns for last when she organized her Heartbeat Bill rally last week.  After speakers were done comparing supporters of the effort to Moses and likening women's health centers to concentration camps, Dutch Sheets and Lou Engle took to the podium to beseech God to pass this legislation.  While Sheets asked God to give no rest and no peace to Ohio senators until they agree to pass the bill and "end this curse in America," Engle screamed out, calling upon God to break the demonic spiritual powers over the Senate so that Senators will receive dreams... MORE
Garlow Equates Criminalizing Abortion With Ending The Holocaust
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 09/27/2011, 12:27pm
Jim Garlow of Renewing America’s Leadership (ReAL), Newt Gingrich’s Religious Right group, told activists at Janet Porter’s Heartbeat Bill rally last week that the end of abortion in America will be remembered just like the end of the Holocaust. Garlow told the crowd that after abortion is criminalized, people will tour shuttered abortion clinics in the same way that people now tour concentration camps in Europe. Garlow, who has also been organizing the “Pulpit Initiative” to convince pastors to use more partisan political rhetoric from the pulpit, also... MORE
Engle: "God Has Something To Say To Us In Walmart Parking Lots"
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 09/27/2011, 10:56am
Lou Engle traveled to Columbus, Ohio last week to join Janet Porter, Wendy Wright, Jim Garlow, Bob McKeown, Dutch Sheets and other Religious Right leaders at Faith 2 Action’s rally promoting Porter’s Heartbeat Bill, which would criminalize abortion in the vast majority of cases. The legislation has passed the state House, but the Republican leadership in the Senate has been reluctant to hold a vote on the bill, which is so extreme and clearly unconstitutional that it’s even opposed by the Ohio Right to Life Society. In a speech at the rally, Engle repeated his... MORE
Supporters Of The Heartbeat Bill Are Just Like Moses
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 09/23/2011, 11:48am
Janet Porter continues to post videos from the Heartbeat Bill rally she organized earlier this week.  Yesterday it was Ducia Hamm of the Ashland Care Center who showed an ultrasound of a fetus waving to the crowd and today it is Julie Busby of Ohio Right To Life comparing the supporters of this legislation to Moses because they both have God on their side while those who don't support the bill are going to be judged by God: And just like God was behind Moses to free his people, God is behind the people supporting this bill to stop the killing. How do I know that? Because God will... MORE
Porter Brings Another Ultrasound To "Speak" On Behalf Of Her Heartbeat Bill
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 09/22/2011, 1:57pm
Earlier this week, Janet Porter organized a rally to press for passage her radical "Heartbeat Bill" which has been endorsed by everyone from James Dobson and Roy Moore to Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. For the event, Porter brought in Religious Right activists like Rick Scarborough and Wendy Wright, as well as "prophets" and "apostles" like Lou Engle and Rick Joyner.  And, just as she did when her bill was being debated in the Ohio state house, she brought an ultrasound of a fetus to "speak" on behalf of the legislation. The woman in the... MORE
Personhood Movement Leaders Say Porter's Heartbeat Bill Is Not Extreme Enough
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Wednesday 09/21/2011, 11:37am
Janet Porter’s proposed “heartbeat bill” in Ohio, which would criminalize abortion in the vast majority of cases, is so extreme that the Ohio Right to Life Society refuses to back it, but for some anti-choice radicals, it does not go far enough. As we’ve previously reported, Personhood USA wants to put a personhood amendment on the Ohio ballot in 2012, and Personhood Ohio is no fan of Porter’s “heartbeat bill.” While the personhood movement may appear to be a fringe group, since proponents oppose even draconian legislation like the “heartbeat... MORE
Perkins Blasts California HPV Vaccination Plan, Fails To Mention Perry
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 09/19/2011, 1:23pm
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins dedicated his radio alert today to blasting a plan to help girls receive the HPV vaccine…in California. The issue of HPV vaccination has been dominating the Republican primary since Michele Bachmann attacked Rick Perry for his executive order mandating the vaccine for Texas schoolgirls and for his close ties to the vaccine manufacturer Merck. While the executive order was ultimately overturned by the state legislature, Perry’s decision is facing more scrutiny on the national level. Curiously, Perkins doesn’t mention Perry... MORE