Right Wing

• If Michele Bachmann thinks she is going to be able to downplay her anti-gay views and history, she had better think again though, of course, she'll always have GOProud there to defend her.
• Gary Bauer tries to win libertarians over to the anti-gay marriage side.
• Reminder: Harry Potter is very dangerous.
• Cindy Jacobs records a video urging people to attend "The Response."
• Finally, Ralph Reed says "the evangelical vote is not Lady Gaga; it’s more like Madonna. We don’t need to reinvent what’s been around for awhile, we just need to keep it sharp." I have no idea what that means.

• Apparently the lawsuit against Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally is somehow President Obama's fault because "the White House is creating an environment of hostility in America."
• Bryan Fischer continues to defend Michele and Marcus Bachmann.
• Herman Cain continues to lead in the anti-Muslim bigotry primary.
• Obama is just like Hitler says the entirely rational Victoria Jackson.
• Finally, I am just growing so tired of Right hiding their "we are so much better than everyone" views behind the concept of "American exceptionalism."

• Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 48 today and the Traditional Values Coalition is not happy, saying it will "[molest] the minds of young impressionable youth."
• Operation Save America will "provide a voice for Caylee Marie Anthony" on behalf of the "50 million unwanted American children have been murdered by their parents with impunity."
• The Travis County Republicans will be providing buses to Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally ... so be sure to sign up!
• This is a real thing: "South Central L.A. Tea Party group will hold a major rally to expose the lies and misinformation of the NAACP."
• Finally, quote of the day from Sally Kern: "We have more churches today ... that are saying homosexuality does not go against biblical truth. Another factor is homosexuality is being taught in our schools as a normal and acceptable lifestyle, so when that happens, you are going to have more young people coming out of school who have a more favorable attitude towards homosexuality."

• Michele Bachmann's church thinks the Pope is the Antichrist.
• The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing to stop Rick Perry's prayer rally.
• I am looking forward to Bryan Fischer complaining again about how the nation is feminizing the Medal of Honor.
• Peter LaBarbera says giving gay equality just makes Muslim hate the US even more.
• I think it is funny to see David Brody complain about other reporter's lack of journalism standards. 
• The Family Leader's Bob VanderPlaats does damage control.

• Sarah Posner @ Religion Dispatches: God’s Law is the Only Law: The Genesis of Michele Bachmann.
• Towleroad: ABC News Looks into Marcus Bachmann's 'Pray Away the Gay' Clinic.
• Igor Volsky @ Think Progress LGBT: Bachmann: I’m ‘Very Proud’ Of Husband’s Ex-Gay Therapy Clinics.
• Good As You: Bachmann in '04: 'It’s part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay.'
• Justin Elliot @ Salon: The man behind the Marriage Vow.

As we've been reporting on Right Wing Watch, Texas Governor Rick Perry is working a number of radical preachers to plan his upcoming Christians-only prayer rally. Perry's partners in the event include extremists who believe that tolerance for homosexuality caused the September 11th attacks, Oprah Winfrey is the harbinger of the Antichrist, the deadly Japanese earthquake was caused by the country’s Emperor having sex with a demon, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell caused bird deaths in Arkansas and violence should be considered to overthrow President Obama, among many other extreme beliefs.

One self-described ‘Apostle’ who has signed on as an official endorser to Perry's The Response prayer rally is John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, a group affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation with ties to other The Response endorsers including Cindy Jacobs, C. Peter Wagner and Jay Swallow. In a sermon last August, Benefiel argued that America is under a curse from God because the country possesses monuments to pagan idols and that Americans needs to renounce those idols if not destroy them. Benefiel claims that the Statue of Liberty is in fact a “demonic idol” because it represents a “false goddess.”

Watch:

Libertas is also called the Freedom Goddess, Lady Freedom, the Goddess of Liberty. You know there’s a statue in New York harbor called the Statue of Liberty. You know where we got it from? French Free Masons. Listen folks that is an idol, a demonic idol, right there in New York harbor. People say, ‘well no it’s patriotic.’ What makes it patriotic? Why is it? It’s a statue of a false goddess, the Queen of Heaven. We don’t get liberty from a false goddess folks, we get our liberty from Jesus Christ and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no connection whatsoever. So I’m just telling you we practice idolatry in America in ways that we don’t even recognize.

• The New York Times profiles Mike Bickle and his International House of Prayer.
• Ralph Reed is supporting Gov. Rick Perry's "The Response" prayer rally.
• The Family Leader drops the crazy slavery language from its candidate pledge.
• The ACLJ's "Ground Zero Mosque" lawsuit has been tossed out of court.
• Glenn Beck is moving to Texas.  That sounds about right.
• Apparently conservatives just need to be more militant.
• Don't tell the Tea Party, but Michele Bachmann used to work for the IRS.

• Mary Tuma @ Washington Independent: What Perry and the nonprofit AFA can’t say at next month’s prayer event.
• Julie Ingersoll @ Religion Dispatches: Who Would Jesus Starve?
• Dan @ TFN Insider: Barbara Cargill: Some Things Never Change.
• Andy Birkey @ Iowa Independent: Bachmann first to sign Vander Plaats’ social pledge.
• Alan Pyke @ Political Correction: Rep. Bachmann's Far-Right Family Pledge Argues Black Kids Were Better Off In 1860.
• Susan Crabtree @ TPM: Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath.

Right Wing Watch has documented the close ties between Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally and the International House of Prayer (IHOP), not the least of which is that IHOP’s affiliated The Call rallies appear to serve as a model for The Response. Mike Bickle, the founder and executive director of IHOP -- who along with Lou Engle made IHOP a prominent force in the Religious Right – is also an official endorser of The Response. Like Engle, Bickle is a radical who pushes extraordinary End Times prophesies.

In an undated GOD TV video about the End Times, Bickle claims that Oprah Winfrey will be one of the principal “pastors” of the “Harlot Babylon,” which he says is the precursor to the coming of the Antichrist. Bickle predicts that progressive Christians and humanitarian activists will work with Winfrey to create a unified one-world religion based on tolerance that will ultimately be used by the Antichrist to take global power and introduce demon-worship. Bickle goes on to argue that the End Times will see marriage outlawed due to the legalization of same-sex marriage: “Marriage as an institution will be forbidden in parts of the earth, as one of the signs of the times, the gay marriage agenda, which is rooted in the depths of hell, this is not about love, this is deception.”

Bickle: The Harlot Babylon is preparing the nations to receive the Antichrist. The Harlot Babylon will be a religion of affirmation, toleration, no absolutes, a counterfeit justice movement. They will feed the poor, have humanitarian projects, inspire acts of compassion for all the wrong reasons. They won’t know it, beloved they will be sincere, many of them, but their sincerity will not in any way lessen the impact of their deception. The fact that they are sincere does not make their deception less damaging. I believe that one of the main pastors, as a forerunner to the Harlot movement, it’s not the Harlot movement yet, is Oprah. She is winsome, she is kind, she is reasonable, she is utterly deceived, utterly deceived. A classy woman, a cool woman, a charming woman, but has a spirit of deception and she is one of the clear pastors, forerunners to the Harlot movement.