marriage

One of the things we are constantly hearing from Religious Right leaders is that we are in, or will soon be in, "the next great awakening."  What that means, nobody ever really explains but it seems to entail millions of people becoming dedicated Christians and then voting for Republicans who will outlaw abortion and gay marriage and taxes.

The question of how we will actually know that we are in the midst of "the next great awakening" also goes unexplained ... but on "Prophetic Perspective on Current Events" yesterday Rick Joyner gave us a hint: NFL games would be canceled because all the players and fans would be too busy attending revival meetings, but the stadiums would not be empty because they "were built for revival, the owners just didn't know it."

Watch:

• PFAW: PFAW Foundation Demands that NY Town Clerks End Marriage Discrimination.
• Steve Benen: The candidates weren’t the only ones on display.
• David Weigel: Bachmann Asks: Can Gardisil Make Your Kids Retarded?
• Tim Murphy @ Mother Jones: Pediatrician: "The Problem is People Like Michele Bachmann."
• Zaid Jilani @ Think Progress Security: Peter King Laments First Amendment, Wants ‘Better Controls’ On Facebook, Twitter, And The Internet.
• Warren Throckmorton: David Barton again defends Glenn Beck as a Christian.

Roll Call reports today that four Republican congressmen sent staffers to the Indiana Family Institute with funding from their congressional office accounts. “The April payments of $500 from Indiana GOP Reps. Larry Bucshon, Dan Burton and Todd Young and $1,000 from Rep. Todd Rokita to the Indiana Family Institute stand out because it is rare for Congressional offices to make direct payments to political organization,” Paul Singer writes, adding that “the Members also offer their time to the IFI for the training sessions.”

The Indiana Family Institute is the state affiliate of the Family Research Council, and led the push the defund Planned Parenthood in Indiana and for the legislature to place a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the ballot. The group also claimed it successfully defeated an anti-bullying bill because it would “allow homosexual activists to silence free speech.”

According to its manual Ignite: An Enduring Cultural Transformation, the IFI describes its political goals of fighting the “radical liberal agenda” and training leaders “grounded in a biblical worldview”:

You see, Indiana Family Institute (IFI) is unique. Strategically, IFI works at the state level to unite a coalition of allied national and local organizations. Operationally, IFI works effectively in all three areas – education, legislative, accountability – required to truly transform the culture. Philosophically, IFI works on a wide range of culture-defining issues. Organizationally, IFI works to engage churches, pastors, and their members in their government. God has blessed IFI with the unique opportunity to be a catalyst for cultural transformation.

…

Cultural transformation begins with leadership. Leadership of all ages and backgrounds. Leadership grounded in a biblical worldview. Leadership armed with the information and skills to influence others. IFI’s educational programs work to identify, train, and activate these leaders across Indiana both in the home and the public square.

IFI’s political goals include: Pass the Marriage Amendment. Pass a bill to stop tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood, Indiana’s largest abortion provider. Oppose Indiana Equality, Planned Parenthood, ACLU, etc. efforts to push their radical liberal agenda.

…

IFI’s legislative programs provide a strong and respected voice for values in the legislature.

In the last several years alone, IFI has actively engaged on numerous critical pieces of legislation. By God’s grace and thanks to the generous support of loyal donors, IFI was successful in many of those battles – including working to pass the Marriage Amendment through the Indiana House once and the Indiana Senate five times (though former House Speaker Pat Bauer ultimately stopped it from being placed on the ballot) and defeating multiple bills by Indiana Equality, Planned Parenthood and other radical leftist groups that would have diminished religious liberty, used the government as a tool to promote homosexuality and expanded abortion in Indiana.

Last month we noted that Michele Bachmann was headlining a fundraising event for the Florida Family Policy Council where she received the organization's William Wilberforce Award.

But just because the FFPC thinks Bachmann is a hero for her willingness to stand "firm for principles of life, marriage or family in the face of opposition," that apparently doesn't translate into support for her presidential campaign as FFPC president John Stemberger is announcing his pending support for Rick Perry because Bachmann is just not a realistic or viable candidate ... and Mitt Romney "wasn’t Mormon enough":

Florida evangelical leader John Stemberger is a step away from endorsing Rick Perry for president, a big coup for the Texas governor and a loss for fellow Republican Michele Bachmann. Stemberger's likely endorsement follows some top-level Perry staff hires.

"We really like Michele Bachmann She has stellar credentials when it comes to our issues. She is an amazing woman. Our primary drive is principle and the issues," Stemberger said. "But we also have to be realistic, pragmatically, and determine who’s viable."

Stemberger said that meant he and the Florida Family Policy Council, which has an email list of about 65,000 Florida evangelical voters, had two choices.

"This is a two man race between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. And there’s a growing consensus among evangelical leaders and, to some degree, among those in the tea party and pro-life Catholics that Rick Perry is the most trustworthy candidate on our issues," Stemberger said.

"There are too many trust issues with Mitt Romney," he continued. "The issue not that he is a Mormon. The issue is that he wasn’t Mormon enough. If he had been consistent with traditional Mormon values his whole career, that would make me feel a lot more comfortable about where he’s coming from. Perry is a lot more solid on our issues."

Janet Mefferd, one of the leading Christian conservative radio talk show hosts in the country, dedicated part of her show yesterday to discussing the rise of dominionism in conservative politics. Along with her guest, “Christian apologist” Robert Bowman of the Institute for Religious Research, Mefferd expressed her grave concerns about the growing influence of dominionists and their participation in Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally. They defined dominionism as the belief that fundamentalist Christians should have control over positions of political power and administer law according to Biblical precepts.

The whole program is worth listening to, as Bowman and Mefferd discuss the New Apostolic Reformation, the Seven Mountains mandate, and Christian Reconstructionism from a conservative point of view.

As we’ve previously noted, many of the leading critics of dominionism are in fact social conservative Christians. But according to Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber, dominionism is a liberal conspiracy theory akin to Holocaust denial, and even mainstream journalists have dismissed dominionism as nothing but a left-wing scare tactic used against religious politicians.

Throughout the program, Bowman notes that many in the Religious Right have embraced dominion theology even if they don’t refer to themselves as dominionists and Mefferd was concerned about how “longtime, reputable evangelical leaders” have joined forces with avowed dominionists because of their shared panic that they are losing the fight on social issues like marriage and abortion.

Mefferd specifically pointed to The Response as a prayer rally where dominionists were “mainstreamed,” as traditional Religious Right leaders like James Dobson, Don Wildmon and Tony Perkins shared the stage with New Apostolic Reformation leaders like Mike Bickle and Alice Patterson, and the rally’s official endorses included NAR figures C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Che Ahn and John Benefiel.

The two both warned Religious Right against partnering with figures associated with the “off-kilter” dominionist movement, which Mefferd called “a strange turn of events” for the movement:

Mefferd: It seems to me from what I’ve read about the New Apostolic Reformation and dominion theology this is a little bit off-kilter to me. What’s interesting to a lot of evangelicals is seeing this sort of thought being mainstreamed, now you’re seeing gathering with longtime, reputable evangelical leaders, who are not necessarily Pentecostal or subscribe to dominion theology, but they’re joining hands with some of these people to achieve political ends which seems like a strange turn of events.

…

Mefferd: So if Christians go for instance to a prayer rally and there are a lot of dominionist people there, people who are interested in this theology and ascribe to this theology, is there any particular problem with those who don’t subscribe to dominionist theology joining hands, and having a big get together, theologically, if they have a prayer rally together, is there any sort of problem with that?

Bowman: Boy you’re gonna get me in trouble here. First of all, I gotta say that mature and well-meaning Christians can have different point of view on this thing. But my own personal opinion is that I do think it’s a problem. If you’re a Christian who does not subscribe to these neo-Pentecostal, fringe ideas about apostles and prophets being restored to the Church in the Last Days to establish a Kingdom of God movement before the Second Coming of Christ, mixed in with all the Word of Faith, health-and-wealth gospel stuff.

If you don’t agree with that, and of course I don’t, then participating in rallies and conferences and conventions where these teachers and leaders of that movement play a prominent role, I’m not just saying they happen to be there along with other people, but if they are playing a prominent role in one of these activities, then I think participating in that lends credence and support to that particular movement. And I find that personally troubling, I wouldn’t want to do that.

Mefferd: I think that’s very well stated and I think it’s very fair. You ought to know what you’re getting into. I think no matter what you’re joining in, if you’re going to a conference, going to a revival meeting, going to a prayer rally, I think it always benefits you to know exactly who the organizer is, what they believe, and then you can discern whether or not it’s something you really want to participate in.

The Family Research Council has released a series of radio ads in North Carolina, calling for the state legislature to place a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality for gays and lesbians on the ballot this November. North Carolina already prohibits same-sex marriage by statute, but the FRC says it’s not enough, warning, “Our laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman could be overturned.”

Organizers of the marriage amendment have called marriage equality an evil plot concocted by Satan and said an amendment is needed to “put a big letter of shame on the behavior.” According to findings from Public Policy Polling published today, while 61% of state voters oppose legalizing same-sex marriage, just 30% support the constitutional amendment.

Listen:

Marriage is at risk in our state. Our laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman could be overturned. Marriage between one man and one woman benefits families in society so we must preserve the marriage laws in our state Constitution.

On September 12, the North Carolina legislature will vote on putting a marriage amendment to a vote of the people. Powerful voices in our state capitol are threatening your right to vote on marriage. Take a stand for marriage. Call Rep. Chuck McGrady and ask him to vote yes to the marriage amendment. It's not about party, it's about marriage.

And on September 12, join us for a rally supporting marriage at 11 a.m. in front of the legislative building in Raleigh. Bring a sign and take a stand for marriage.

Frank Turek is a corporate consultant who "conducts dynamic training and development programs in Leadership, Sales, Customer Service, Team Building and other people-skill topics essential for business success."

He is also a Religious Right activist who writes books like "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist" and "Correct, Not Politically Correct; How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone" and hosts a radio program called "Cross Examined" that airs on the American Family Association's radio network.

Recently, those two career paths have begun to come into conflict with one another and Turek's anti-gay activism has started to cost him consulting jobs. This development has, of course, transformed Turek into a Religious Right hero and yesterday showed up on "Today's Issues" with the AFA 's Tim Wildmon and FRC's Tony Perkins to tell his tale.

During the discussion, the topic turned to the AFA's boycott of Home Depot (or "Homo Depot," as they called it) over the corporation's support for equality and gay pride parades ... which prompted Turek to rail against gay pride and diversity training programs:

Anytime you have to call something "pride," there's a problem with it, particularly when it comes to behavior because you don't hear people walking around saying "heterosexual pride" ...

Pride? Pride? Pride is, as we all know, really the root of all sin; we want to do it our way rather than God's way.

And secondly, the other thing I'd like to bring up is do you have to have corporate training programs to teach people that men were made for women and that women were made for men? No! You only need corporate training or indoctrination programs to try and cause people to believe something they know isn't right. You don't need diversity training for man-women relationships - we all know that's the natural way, that's the designed way, that's the teleological way. We only need to be talked out of what we know is true, and that's why we have these corporate propaganda programs.

Ron Baity of Return America, the group behind the campaign to pass an amendment to North Carolina’s constitution that would ban same-sex marriage, which is already barred by statute, joined right-wing radio host Janet Parshall yesterday on her show In The Market. Parshall said that marriage equality efforts come from “the Father of Lies and the Accuser of the Brethren,” two names for Satan (John 8:44; Revelation 12:10). She said that Satan has marriage in his “crosshairs” because he wants “to tear down the idea of Christ’s unconditional love for us.”

Baity agreed with Parshall’s analysis and warned that government will be changed for the worse if same-sex marriage becomes legal. “I’m afraid defense is down in our country,” Baity went on to tell Parshall, “Rght now in our economy and everything else we’re experiencing in our nation I don’t think is anything less than God trying to get our attention”:

Parshall: But as a pastor do you ever stop and think, of course it makes sense that marriage is under attack. It’s the first institution that God created in a place of perfection, it’s emblematic of the love that Christ the bridegroom has for his bride, the Church, so if you were the Father of Lies and the Accuser of the Brethren, boy I tell you marriage would be in my crosshairs, I would go after that with every bit of energy I’ve got because I would want to tear down the idea of Christ’s unconditional love for us and what he’s done for us and that message is repeating in the model of marriage. So from a biblical vantage point doesn’t it make sense that marriage is under attack?

Baity: Absolutely, and it’s been well stated that as the home goes so goes the government. Because the home is the theater for the government and what happens there in that basic institution will eventually determine what happens in that next generation. You know to a great degree it will determine who sits in the Oval Office and who sits in the halls of Congress and in our local legislatures. Our forefathers would not recognize our nation today, we have moved so far. And you know I’m afraid defense is down in our country Janet and I’m afraid that we are right now in our economy and everything else we’re experiencing in our nation I don’t think is anything less than God trying to get our attention.

• WND sure does love promoting anti-gay books.
• Phyllis Schlafly sure does get worked up over the oddest things.
• Judicial Watch has filed a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of the Family Research Council "for records related to the DOJ's decision not to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act."
• Poor Frank Turek.  He keeps losing jobs because of his anti-gay activism.
• Finally, Gary Cass says that ten years after the 9/11 attacks "this murderous ideology has infiltrated all the way to the White House."