« Gordon Klingenschmitt
July 24, 2008
Gordon Klingenschmitt: Constitutional Scholar
Want to know what Klingenschmitt thinks of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit's ruling on the Fredericksburg City Council case? Well,, he's helpfully released a version of the decision interspersed with his own erudite legal reasoning: "KLINGENSCHMITT COMMENT: THE WORD ‘JESUS’ IS NOW ILLEGAL RELIGIOUS SPEECH, BANNED BY O’CONNOR’S TWISTED READING OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT. ‘GOD’ IS PERMITTED, BUT ‘JESUS’ IS BANNED. THAT’S NOT FREEDOM. YOU MUST ‘LEAVE JESUS OUTSIDE’ IF YOU WANT TO SPEAK IN A GOVERNMENT FORUM. O’CONNOR IS WRONG, AND SO IS THE CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG."
Posted by Kyle at 4:18 PM | Permalink
June 18, 2008
The Return of the 'One-Day Crusade'
Nearly a year after Rick Scarborough began his ambitious “70 Weeks to Save America” to sign up thousands of “Patriot Pastors” and voters at church rallies across America, only to have it peter out due to money, mechanical problems, slim turnout, and Alan Keyes, and nearly three months since announcing the project’s triumphant comeback, Scarborough is finally holding a “Patriot Pastor” rally in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring disgruntled ex-chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, “National Statesman/Evangelist Dr. Rick Scarborough,” and a singer billed as the “Pavarotti of gospel.”
This “One-Day Crusade” will be held at Two Rivers Baptist Church, home of Rev. Jerry Sutton, who is no stranger to church-based politicking. In 2005, he hosted a rally in support of President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees (including future Chief Justice John Roberts). Billed as a protest against “activist judges” supposedly trying to “silence” people of faith, “Justice Sunday II” brought together some of the biggest names on the Religious Right, such as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and then-National Evangelical Association President Ted Haggard, along with Robert Bork, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, Bishop Harry Jackson, and then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Sutton himself boiled down the message he hoped the audience would take home:
Number one, it's a new day.
Number two, liberalism is dead.
Number three, the majority of Americans are conservative.
Number four, you can count on us showing up and speaking out.
And number five, let the church rise.
Sutton, who is a research fellow with Richard Land’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and ran for president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006, has been involved in an imbroglio at his own church recently, when 71 members sued the church over financial mismanagement (along with Sutton’s “lavish lifestyle” and “authoritarian” leadership).
Posted by Ezra at 5:28 PM | Permalink
March 18, 2008
Fighting It Out on the Pages of WND
Just because Mike Huckabee has dropped out of the presidential race doesn’t mean Janet Folger is done campaigning for him, penning an open letter to John McCain urging him to tap Huckabee as his VP:
I'm not telling you whom to pick, but if you want the vice presidential candidate who in addition to winning the "must win" states in the primary, who has the best cost/vote ratio, who has proven he can energize the base of the party, who defended (not attacked) you even before you won the nomination, who is honest, consistent and according to Rasmussen, has the least opposition among American voters, Mike Huckabee is your guy.
Ask him, I'm sure he would be honored to be your vice president, and I'm sure millions more would be honored to vote for you if you do.
While Folger has already made peace with her principles by deciding to throw her support behind McCain, her one-time comrade-in-arms Gordon Klingenschmitt is having none of it, taking to the pages of WorldNetDaily to chastise Folger for selling out:
In a recent WND column, Janet Folger begs social conservatives to vote for John McCain. She believes McCain will rescue "most everyone" from our political "burning building" – when in fact McCain has already locked arms with the Kennedys, Feingolds and liberal Democrats to keep social conservatives "out" of politics while they burn our constitutional republic to the ground.
…
McCain not only refused to participate in Janet Folger's Values Voter Presidential Debate, he has repeatedly distanced himself from religious groups. He won the Republican nomination without faith-based voters. So, if he wins the White House, will he suddenly listen to our pleas? No chance! Only by treating ourselves with respect can we demand respect from others. Have we no dignity?
Klingenschmitt and Folger have a long history together, as she was one of his staunchest defenders when he was fighting to keep his job as a Chaplain in the Navy, with Folger regularly citing Klingenschmitt’s legal fight as evidence of the on-going “criminalization of Christianity."
After being discharged from the Navy, Klingenschmitt linked up with Vision America’s Rick Scarborough and Alan Keyes for their “70 Weeks To Save America Crusade” and then quickly lined up to support Keyes’ own vanity run for President (he’s currently listed at the top of the “Honor Roll” on Keyes’ website for his efforts to secure 104 pledges to support his campaign.)
But it looks as if now Klingenschmitt and Folger are on the outs. In fact, it looks like Klingenschmitt is on the outs with the Republican Party altogether, announcing that Keyes is reportedly leaving the GOP and that he intends to follow suit so that he may “continue to support Dr. Keyes wherever he leads our Exodus”:
Abandon McCain's sinking ship! Man your lifeboats! I cannot violate my conscience in November. I'll make a statement with my vote, instead of wasting it on Clinton, Obama or McCain. Faith-minded people cannot tolerate evil, whatever its degree, since Christ taught us, "Be ye perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect." Show some self-respect and have faith in God. America needs principled leaders who have borne the battle for liberty and are unashamed of the wounds received in doing so. I'll vote for Alan Keyes, writing in his name if necessary. Join us, and someday you'll stand before God with your head held high, blameless and unashamed of your vote.
Posted by Kyle at 4:25 PM | Permalink
November 30, 2007
'Patriot Pastors' ... for Huckabee?
Rick Scarborough, a pioneer in organizing churches around partisan politics, has seen his national stature rise dramatically in the last few years—the Texas ex-pastor even starred on CNN’s “God’s Warriors” series—but he’s also faced some setbacks. His “Patriot Pastors” strategy was dealt a blow last November when voters in South Dakota rejected an abortion ban and Missourians voted in favor of embryonic stem cell research, despite non-stop church-based organizing by Scarborough in both states up to Election Day. He also discovered the fact, known by most other political advocacy groups, that full-time lobbying or organizing for or against legislation is not tax-deductible—a sad day for him.
And his latest “Patriot Pastors” campaign—the ambitious “70 Weeks to Save America” tour that was to culminate on Election Day 2008—has apparently suffered from a lack of media coverage, spotty participation, and finally abandonment by Scarborough’s partner, Alan Keyes, who is running for president again. “Needless to say, this created a serious reevaluation of our whole program to register voters and to educate Christians through our Seventy Week campaign,” wrote Scarborough, who announced that sparser church events would be “augment[ed]” by voter registration drives and rallies at state capitols, “followed by an all out effort to move Values Voters to vote their values on Election Day '08.”
But sometimes opportunity knocks. Joining Randy Brinson, head of the embattled Christian Coalition of Alabama as well as a voter-registration outfit, Scarborough is bringing his “Patriot Pastors” act to the Iowa caucuses:
Beginning December 6, Vision America will be joining forces with RedeemtheVote.com in an effort to mobilize thousands of Values Voters all over Iowa as we barnstorm the state for ten days. We have been offered the use of a bus that has been especially designed for rallies, complete with a roll out stage, satellites on the roof to connect with the worldwide media, loud speakers and spotlights.
We will be working with the Iowa Family Policy Institute as well as the Iowa Christian Alliance, two very aggressive and effective pro-family organizations. Our goal is to host three rallies a day as we crisscross the state, registering thousands of voters and mobilizing tens of thousands to vote their values during the Iowa caucuses in January.
"Fox News," "US News and World Report," and other national media have expressed interest in covering this groundbreaking event as we travel the length and breadth of this important state.
Scarborough’s “One Day Crusades” this year have so far been focused on next year’s general election. Why the sudden interest in the Republican presidential primary? Well, Scarborough has heartily endorsed his former seminary classmate, Mike Huckabee, as has Brinson. And media are reporting that Huckabee has a shot of winning the Iowa caucus.
While Scarborough’s help may or may not push Huckabee over the edge in Iowa, the activist is still hedging his bets. After all, Rudy Giuliani still leads in national polls, and some have speculated that Huckabee’s surge ultimately benefits Giuliani by siphoning off far-right support for Mitt Romney. Scarborough has publicly waffled over whether he would support Giuliani were he nominated, but while he’s said Giuliani’s stance on abortion is unacceptable, he’s also been giving himself some wiggle room. Radical Islam, he said recently, is “the ultimate life issue."
Posted by Ezra at 5:40 PM | Permalink
October 22, 2007
He Ain't Fringy, He's My Brother
No doubt there were a handful of people scattered among the audience at the Values Voter Summit who supported Alan Keyes for president, or were at least aware that he is a candidate, so it must have ruffled one or two feathers when the M.C. boasted several times that “all 9 major Republican candidates” were speaking. Third-time GOP presidential candidate Keyes, who has appeared at two debates which the frontrunners skipped, was not invited.
Most of Keyes’s erstwhile friends have been silent, but one man has spoken out: Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. “Chaps,” the discharged Navy chaplain who has gone on tour with Keyes on Rick Scarborough’s “70 Weeks to Save America,” claiming that he was prohibited him from praying in the name of Jesus (though in reality he was discharged for violating rules against wearing his uniform at political or partisan events). “Some of you know I've endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for president, because I believe he's the most Christ-like candidate we have in the Republican primary,” Klingenschmitt writes.
Alan bears the political scars to prove his deep commitment to the cause of righteousness and freedom in America. Nobody can dispute his decades-long sacrifice of personal fortune and reputation to fight tirelessly beside pro-life protestors, pro-marriage families, Minutemen border guards, Ten-Commandments judges, tax-cut conservatives, strict Constitutionalists and, yes, chaplains who pray in Jesus' name.
So why did the Family Research Council, or FRC, intentionally exclude Alan Keyes from their "open invitation to all candidates, even Democrats" event this weekend in Washington, D.C.? While giving the prime-time speaking slot to Mitt Romney, FRC not only excluded Alan Keyes from the speaker's podium, even after repeated requests to include him, they didn't even list him as a choice in their straw poll. …
Was Alan's schedule already booked? No, he flew across the country from California to Washington ready to speak at FRC anytime this weekend.
Apparently, Klingenschmitt’s tenacity in promoting Keyes (and knocking the “gatekeepers” such as FRC, comparing them to the Pharisees) has already burned some bridges. He provides a copy of an e-mail from FRC’s Tom McClusky:
Please refrain from contacting me on any matter, now or in the future. I am a big fan of Mr. Keyes and am friends with people who have supported him and worked for him in the past. However I will no longer tolerate your baseless accusations against an organization I am proud to work for or your not so subtle digs at people I admire greatly.
Your actions reflect poorly on those you claim to represent.
Undaunted, Klingenschmitt apparently wants to play hardball, threatening to convince Keyes to make a third-party run:
While Alan Keyes remains (thus far) too loyal to the GOP to take my advice, I hereby advise him to lead an exodus with approximately one million Americans who voted for him in 2000, and seek the nomination of a third party.
Keyes has indeed been mentioned as a possible Constitution Party nominee.
Posted by Ezra at 5:31 PM | Permalink
September 17, 2007
Who's Who At the Values Voter Debate
Below are short biographies of those who have been mentioned as participating in tonight's "Values Voter Presidential Debate" in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
Joseph Farah
Farah, designated to moderate the Values Voter Debate, is publisher of WorldNetDaily.com, a right-wing web site that provides a home for a large stable of infamous and lesser-known commentators, such as Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Roy Moore, Jerome Corsi, and Jonathan Falwell (son of the late Jerry Falwell). In his own column, Farah accused Bush of being involved in the “War on Christmas,” said Democrats opposing the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown were “racist to the core,” and started an early anti-Giuliani pledge.
In 1992, Farah founded the Western Journalism Center to counter supposed liberal media bias. The group went on to sponsor Christopher Ruddy’s lengthy “investigation” of the Clinton Administration, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from conspiracy theories about the death of Vince Foster.
Phyllis Schlafly
Schlafly first made a name for herself in right-wing circles with her pro-Barry Goldwater book “A Choice Not An Echo” in 1964 and then firmly established herself as a bona fide force by almost single-handedly leading the campaign to kill the Equal Rights Amendment.
In 1974, she established the Eagle Forum, an organization that focuses on a wide variety of issues, ranging from standard right-wing concerns such as reproductive choice and “judicial supremacy” to more arcane topics like open hostility to various international treaties, including the Genocide Convention, and opposition to mandatory vaccination. Recently, Schlafly has become increasingly concerned about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, which she and many others believe is part of a conspiracy to create a North American Union that will usurp US sovereignty.
Schlafly has long been an ardent anti-feminist, defending the notion that men should not marry career women, despite the fact that she possesses a Masters degree and a law degree, runs one of the most influential right-wing organizations in Washington, DC, has testified before more than 50 congressional and state legislative committees, has been a delegate to the Republican National Convention nearly ten times, has thrice been elected President of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women, and was twice a candidate for Congress from Illinois.
Schlafly has a long history of making outrageous claims, as evidenced by her statements in the last year blaming the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech on the University’s English Department and claiming that married women cannot be raped by their husbands.
Judge Roy Moore
Moore, former Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court was ousted from the Alabama Supreme Court for his refusal to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse despite orders from a federal court judge to do so. Moore quickly became one of the most popular figures in Alabama and an icon among the Religious Right who paid for Moore and “the Rock” to tour the country visiting churches and conferences of conservative Christians in at least 31 states.
Moore considered challenging President Bush as a third party candidate in 2004 but instead decided to focus his sights unsuccessfully on the governorship of Alabama in 2006.
Moore writes a column for Worldnetdaily on issues ranging from decrying proposals to expand pre-kindergarten programs as an attempt by “liberal elites” to “indoctrinate our youth,” on par with the formation of the Hitler Youth to linking the conviction of Cheney aide Scooter Libby on perjury charges to the removal of 10 Commandments Monuments in courtrooms across the country.
Moore is currently Chairman of the Foundation for Moral Law, a nonprofit legal group that represents individuals in religious liberty cases and works to education the public on the necessity of acknowledging God in law and government. They most recently represented the three protestors arrested for disrupting a Hindu prayer in the Senate.
Rick Scarborough
Scarborough is president of Vision America and a pioneer in organizing “Patriot Pastors” to get out the vote, a model of religious-right electoral activism designed to supplant the waning Christian Coalition. The Texas-based former Southern Baptist pastor, a long-time ally of Tom DeLay, formed the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration with stalwarts such as Jerry Falwell and Phyllis Schlafly to oppose “activist judges.” Scarborough organized a “Judicial War on Faith” conference following the death of Terri Schiavo in 2005, and a “War on Christians and Values Voters” conference in 2006.
In the summer and fall of 2006, Scarborough concentrated his efforts on opposing a stem-cell research initiative in Missouri and a referendum in South Dakota that repealed an abortion ban. Scarborough toured both states with Alan Keyes, warning of a dystopian future of clone slavery, not to mention the wrath of God, if the measures succeeded, which they did.
Scarborough has already begun holding church political rallies in anticipation of 2008. His “70 Weeks to Save America” tour, featuring Keyes and ex-chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, is designed to “enlist 100,000 Values Voters, 10,000 key leaders, 5,000 Patriot Pastors and 5,000 women” right up to Election Day. As he explained at the first of a planned “One Day Crusades,” quoting from the “Rick Scarborough Version” of the Bible: “He who hath the most votes wins.”
Gordon James Klingenschmitt
Klingenschmitt has only recently become a high-profile right-wing activist, thanks to his relatively high-profile fight with the US Navy over what he claims where attempts to prohibit him from praying in the name of Jesus, though in reality he was discharged for violating rules against wearing his uniform at political or partisan events. Klingenschmitt’s attempts to portray himself as a martyr has been so over-the-top that it even prompted his former commanding officer to set the record straight:
“I was the dishonored ex-chaplain’s supervisor for the past 2 years. I found him to be totally untruthful, unethical and insubordinate. He was and is contemptuous of all authority. He was not court martialed for praying in Jesus’ name. I sent him out in uniform every week to pray at various ceremonies and functions. He always prayed in uniform and in Jesus’ name. He was never told that he could not pray in Jesus’ name. In fact, the issue of prayer had nothing at all to do with his dismissal from the Navy. He disobeyed the lawful order of a senior officer.”
Klingenschmitt spoke at last year’s “The War on Christians and Values Voters,” hosted by Vision America, where he went so far as to compare himself to Abdul Rahman, the man who faced a potential death sentence for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan. Since his discharge from the Navy, Klingenschmitt has again teamed up with Vision America and is taking his tale of persecution around the country as part of the “70 Weeks to Save America Crusade” where he has joined Rick Scarborough and Alan Keyes.
Don Wildmon
Wildmon is the Founder and Chairman of the American Family Association, which exists primarily to decry whatever it deems “immoral” in American culture and lead boycotts against companies that in any way support causes, organizations, or programs it deems offensive, particularly anything that does not portray gays and lesbians in a negative light.
Over the years, AFA has targeted everything from the National Endowment for the Arts, Howard Stern, and the television show “Ellen” to major corporations such as Ford , Burger King, and Clorox. AFA has also been particularly focused on Disney, declaring that the company’s “attack on America’s families has become so blatant, so intentional, so obvious” as to warrant a multi-year boycott.
Recently, AFA has been busy warning that proposed hate-crimes legislation is designed to lay the “groundwork for persecution of Christians,” attacked presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his time on the board of Marriott Corporation because the company offers adult movies in its hotels, and warned that the US Senate was “angering a just God” and bringing “judgment upon our country” by allowing a Hindu chaplain to deliver an opening prayer.
Mat Staver
Staver is the Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, as well as the Dean of Liberty University School of Law, both of which are directly tied to the late Jerry Falwell. Liberty is a nonprofit organization dedicated to “advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family” which routinely files lawsuits and argues cases claiming religious discrimination against Christians.
Last year, Staver offered public school teachers advice on how to sneak discussions of Christianity into “literature class, art class, music class, whatever course it is” by subtly turning the discussion toward the “Judeo-Christian influences on the subject matter.” He was also active during the last election, urging pastors to “put their toe right on the line” and endorse candidates from the pulpit, claiming that tax laws prohibiting such things were unconstitutional.
Staver was also featured on the recent CNN series “God’s Warriors” where, along with Jerry Falwell, he made clear that the Right’s ultimate goal is complete control over the Supreme Court, saying that he is training future generations of lawyers at Liberty University to "keep fighting at the Supreme Court until we have a new day. We never ever, ever give up."
Staver is also the author of several books, including “A Complete Handbook for Defending Your Religious Rights,” “Take Back America,” and “Judicial Tyranny.”
Paul Weyrich
Weyrich, President of the Free Congress Foundation has been one of the foremost right wing strategists for 35 years and is often referred to as the father of the Religious Right. He helped draft Rev. Jerry Falwell to head the Moral Majority, and helped to start several other groups that have become pillars of the right-wing movement, including the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council and the highly secretive Council for National Policy. He is currently the president of the Free Congress Foundation.
He was quoted in 1984 describing his efforts as a departure from strategies pursued by traditional conservatives: "We are different from previous generations of conservatives…We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country."
Weyrich was also one of the first to recognize the political potential of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Opposition to abortion was one of the biggest factors uniting the coalition of disparate groups known as the “New Right” that elected Ronald Reagan president in 1980.
According to Media Transparency, ' Weyrich was one of the earliest commentators to advance the idea that the United States is engulfed in a cultural civil war." Describing this "cultural civil war," Weyrich once said, "It may not be with bullets, and it may not be with rockets and missiles, but it is a war, nonetheless. It is a war of ideology, it's a war of ideas, it's a war about our way of life. And it has to be fought with the same intensity, I think, and dedication as you would fight a shooting war."
Weyrich strategic vision is matched by his aggressive promotion of grassroots activism. He pioneered America's Voice (formerly known as National Empowerment Television), a cable network designed to rapidly mobilize Religious Right followers for grassroots lobbying.
Weyrich’s most recent efforts include the Arlington Group, the newest coalition of the leaders of Religious Right groups brought together by Weyrich and Don Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, to coordinate activities. The group is widely credited with being the driving force behind the effort to put marriage protection amendments on the ballot in 11 states in the 2004 election.
Star Parker
Parker, founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), is the author of such books as “Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats” and “Uncle Sam’s Plantation,” denouncing social service spending as a form of racism against blacks. She’s been a featured speaker at right-wing events such as CPAC, the Christian Coalition’s Road to Victory, and Mayday for Marriage.
Aryeh Spero
A former rabbi and radio talker, Spero has generally been on the periphery of the Right, although he has been involved with groups such as Rick Scarborough’s Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration (a group opposed to “activist judges”), Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (4 or 5 people organized by the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue to protest the supposed “war on Christmas”), and Stop the Madrassa (organized to protest an English-Arabic school in New York). Spero’s own group is Caucus for America, although the Values Voter Debate program lists him as part of Jewish Action Alliance, a New York City-based outfit formed after the Crown Heights riot.
Spero styles himself one of the first Jewish leaders to endorse Ronald Reagan in 1980, although by 2000 he was an advisor to Pat Buchanan’s Reform Party bid.
Richard Thompson
Thompson, a former Detroit-area prosecutor known for dogging Jack Kevorkian, co-founded the Thomas More Law Center with Domino’s Pizza magnate Thomas Monaghan. The Center frequent argues, files briefs on, or simply opines about cases or laws involving abortion (unsuccessfully suing Planned Parenthood to make them hype a supposed connection to breast cancer, for example), gays (e.g., opposing adoption by gay couples), and religion (e.g., school prayer). In the group’s most famous case, they unsuccessfully defended the Dover, Pennsylvania school board’s policy promoting “Intelligent Design” creationism.
Brent Bozell
Bozell is Founder and President of the Media Research Center, which has worked since 1987 to make “liberal media bias” a household term.
Bozell is also a founder of the right-wing online news service CNSNews.com and the Culture and Media Institute (CMI), which describes its mission this way: “to thwart the efforts of the liberal media to subvert America’s culture, character, traditional moral values, and religious liberty.”
Bozell is founder and Executive Director of the Conservative Victory Committee (CVC), an independent multi-candidate political action committee that has helped elect dozens of right-wing candidates over the past ten years. He was National Finance Chairman for the 1992 Buchanan for President campaign, and Finance Director and later President of the former National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).
Bobby Schindler
Schindler is the brother of the late Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose feeding-tube removal sparked a fierce nationwide debate in 2005. He now tours the country speaking at anti-choice and anti-euthanasia events.
Schindler endorsed Sen. Sam Brownback earlier this year and accompanied him on a “Pro-Life, Whole Life” tour of Iowa. He is currently the Executive Director of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.
Tom Scott
Scott is President and CEO of Sky Angel Television Network, a Christian and family direct-to-home satellite television service has been on the air for 10 years and currently provides 36 channels of Christian TV and radio, family entertainment, and 24-hour news channels. Satellite channels include the Liberty Channel from the campus of Liberty University, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the most watched faith channel, and FoxNews, among other. Sky Angel will be broadcasting the Value Voters Debate.
Vic Eliason
Eliason is the founder and head of VCY America, a religious broadcast ministry based in Wisconsin. In 2006, Eliason signed on to a letter blasting Rick Warren for inviting Senator Barack Obama to speak at an AIDS event held as his church because of the latter’s position on abortion. The letter, signed by the likes of Phyllis Schlafly, Janet Folger, Peter LaBarbera, and others called on Warren “to rescind his invitation to Senator Obama immediately. The millions of silent victims who have died because of the policies of leaders like Senator Obama demand a response from those who believe that life is a gift from God.”
In 1995, Eliason agreed to pay Julie Brienza, a former United Press International reporter, $255,000 to settle a lawsuit filed after he led a successful radio campaign to get her fired because she was a lesbian, proclaiming that “Christianity has triumphed” when her employment was terminated. [Associated Press, 5 April 1995]
Posted by Kyle at 12:53 PM | Permalink
September 14, 2007
The Next Klingenschmitt?
The name Danny Harvey will probably start showing up in a lot of right-wing outlets, as he is claiming that he was fired by the Leesburg Regional Medical Center in Florida for praying "in Jesus name." The hospital says it was because he refused to be "respectful of the different religious beliefs of our patients and ... lead them in their faith in their time of need." In what comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody, former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt is already on the case and will be joining a march in protest of Harvey's firing this weekend.
Posted by Kyle at 2:38 PM | Permalink
August 16, 2007
Scarborough Decries Presidential Forum: 'What’s Next? The Bestiality Debates?'
Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, writes that the recent Democratic presidential forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and Logo TV was “the latest reminder of how far we have fallen from the exalted purposes upon which this nation was founded”: a “homosexual sponsored debate carried live on a homosexual television network.”
So far this political season we have had Frosty the Snowman asking questions over YouTube and now the "Gay Debates" to see just which candidate is willing to grant the most favor to a lifestyle which historical Christianity calls sinful. What’s next? The Cross Dresser Debates? Or perhaps the NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Lovers Association) Debates? Or here’s one for the ages -- The Bestiality Debates. Not possible? That’s what I thought about our leaders attending a debate sponsored by homosexuals twenty years ago.
Scarborough, a former Texas pastor, was a pioneer in developing the “Patriot Pastor” model of church-based electoral organizing, and he’s currently touring churches with Alan Keyes and ex-Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt to build up a “base” for November 2008. As he explained, quoting his “Rick Scarborough Version” of the Bible at his first “One Day Crusade” last month (of a planned 70): “He who hath the most votes wins."
So far, turnout – and press coverage – has been slim for Scarborough’s events, and although reports aren’t in yet for yesterday’s scheduled rally in Sulphur Springs, Texas, organizers claim the project is “gaining momentum.” Unfortunately for them, the effort is running low on financial support.
Posted by Ezra at 4:03 PM | Permalink
August 1, 2007
The Never-Ending “War on Christians”
Somehow, over the course of the last several years, loud voices on the Right have managed to convince huge numbers of Christians in thriving congregations that they are somehow under attack by all things secular -- from progressives, feminists and the culture in general to the government and the courts.
A key technique in this bogus "us-against-them" rabble-rousing is planting the idea that Christians are victimized on every front. Right-wing activists, pundits, and leaders seek to spin any and all developments in a manner that suggests they and all Christians in America are being constantly discriminated against and harassed.
At Vision America’s “The War on Christians and Values Voters” conference in 2006, right-wing activists spent two days telling one another horror stories about how people were supposedly being arrested simply for sharing their faith or losing their jobs for standing up to a government hostile to Christianity, citing ousted Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore and ousted Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt as the two most high-profile examples – Klingenschmitt ever went so far as to compare himself to Abdul Rahman, the man who faced a potential death sentence for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan.
Since then, the idea that Christians are under attack has been a standard rallying cry for the Right, cropping up most recently in their opposition to hate crimes legislation which they claim will lead to “open persecution” of Christians and pastors being dragged from the pulpit and thrown in jail.
So ingrained has this idea become on the Right that they are always on the look-out for new evidence that Christians are being victimized – and columnist, pundit, and blogger Michelle Malkin claims to have found the latest example in the group of South Korean Christians being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan:
Across Asia, media coverage is 24/7. Strangers have held nightly prayer vigils. But the human rights crowd in America has been largely AWOL. And so has most of our mainstream media. Among some of the secular elite, no doubt, is a blame-the-victim apathy: The missionaries deserved what they got. What were they thinking bringing their message of faith to a war zone? Didn't they know they were sitting ducks for Muslim head-choppers whose idea of evangelism is "convert or die"?
I noted the media shoulder-shrugging about jihadist targeting of Christian missionaries five years ago during the kidnapping and murder of American Christian missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in the Philippines. The silence is rooted in viewing committed Christians as alien others. At best, there is a collective callousness. At worst, there is outright contempt -- from Ted Turner's reference to Catholics as "Jesus freaks" to CBS producer Roxanne Russell's casual insult of former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer as "the little nut from the Christian group" to the mockery of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.
So the fact that media coverage has been round-the-clock in Asian nations but not round-the-clock here in the US has less to do with the fact the victims are, you know, from South Korea than it does with the fact that US media is openly hostile to Christians?
You really have to marvel at the Right’s ability to use the kidnapping and murder of South Korean Christians in Afghanistan in order to suggest that it is really Christians here in America that are under attack.
Posted by Kyle at 4:07 PM | Permalink
July 27, 2007
Vision America Already In Debt
Vision America is carrying out a "70 Weeks to Save America" Campaign leading up to the 2008 election. So far, they've only held three of their "One Day Crusades" but they are already losing money: "Our first three crusades have been a success, but they have not been fully self supportive--meaning that we have had to subsidize them from our ongoing operational budget. We could really use your help at this time. If God has blessed you and you can afford to help us, I would be most grateful ... Gifts there are not tax deductible but they are God-Blessable."
Posted by Kyle at 3:07 PM | Permalink
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