In his “Washington Update,” Tony Perkins expresses his frustration that “Congress returned to work--not on judges, marriage, or the war supplemental bill--but on changing the weather” and outlines his strong opposition to the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill: “The bill's 500 pages are a complicated mess of distorted science, pork projects, and a tax-and-trade solution that will send U.S. jobs overseas and result in the most massive expansion of the federal government since the New Deal.” Perkins is particularly stunned that lawmakers are concerned with the “inconclusive” evidence of global warming rather than what’s really going to make the country melt: “If anything is heating up, it's marriage. This Congress is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the real crises facing this nation as they refuse to intervene.”

A few days ago, a high school wrestling coach in Dearborn, Michigan was let go due to concerns that he had been allowing an assistant coach, a local clergyman, to try to convert Muslim students to Christianity:

A veteran wrestling coach at Fordson High School lost his job amid concerns that his one-time assistant, who is a local minister and parent of a wrestler, attempts to convert local Muslim youths to Christianity.

The decision not to renew the contract of Jerry Marszalek, a coach for 35 years at Fordson, sparked a firestorm of controversy, with 200-300 parents packing a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night to support the decision of the school's principal, Imad Fadlallah.

…

According to Marszalek, parents and community leaders, Fadlallah and other parents have long been concerned about contacts between the wrestling team and a local clergyman, the Rev. Trey Hancock of the Dearborn Assembly of God.

Hancock, who helped Marszalek with the team for 10 years, and whose son, Paul, is now a member, confirmed that he attempts to convert Muslim youths to Christianity and that he baptized a 15-year-old Muslim student in Port Huron a few years ago.

…

Hancock insisted that he never attempted a conversion as part of his work with the wrestling team, or on school grounds. But when asked if he understood the concerns of Muslim parents, he said, "I consider it my work to pastor to anyone who is within my reach. So I can imagine they would be concerned. But is the Dearborn Public Schools going to be dictating what every pastor can or cannot do within his congregation?"

Obviously, the problem was not what Hancock was doing “within his congregation” but rather what Marszalek was allowing him to do in his capacity as a coach.  Imagine, for a moment, if the roles here had been reversed and a Muslim coach had been trying to convert Christian students – the Right would have gone absolutely ballistic.  But instead of acknowledging that these coaches clearly overstepped their bounds, the Right has done was it always does in such situations: play the victim

The controversial incident at Fordson reflects a growing hostility towards Christianity throughout the country, and not just among members of the growing Muslim population. In recent years, Christian persecution has taken on a variety of forms in the United States—from a rising intolerance for proselytizing to the eradication of nearly all historical Christian references in public school textbooks. Although the magnitude of persecution in the U.S. is hardly comparable with that typically experienced in countries such as China, Burma, and Sudan—where persecution is so severe that thousands of believers are often martyred for their faith—the anti-Christian perception in American schools, media, and mainstream society is proving to be a cause for concern for Christians in the United States.

As we noted a few weeks ago, the Right did not react well to the California Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians, with people like Janet Folger going so far as to proclaim it signals the end of the world.

In the days since the ruling was handed down, the Right doesn’t appear to have mellowed … if anything, some of them seem to be getting more and more riled up by the day.  Take, for instance, this recent rant by Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber:

So-called "same-sex marriage" is a counterfeit. It's a fraud and not even a good one at that. If marriage is a Rembrandt, then the ridiculous and oxymoronic notion of "gay marriage" is a Rembrandt knock-off from the pages of Mad Magazine. It's a silly novelty.

I know. I'm "mean-spirited." But in light of the California Supreme Court's recent opinion - which enigmatically manufactured a "constitutional right" to "same-sex marriage" out of thin air - I think we need to come back to earth for a moment. Mind you, re-entry into reality's atmosphere will inevitably burn some folks.

When same-sex friendships (or more often, seconds-old acquaintances) are twisted and sexualized, practitioners of "the sin that dare not speak its name" are forced, at every level, to merely mimic the genuine article. They jump through a series of inelegant hoops to create a fantasy world wherein two people of the same gender clumsily imitate natural heterosexual pairings properly designed for procreation and the healthy rearing of children.

Even "gay sex" (male-male anal sodomy) is a crude, man-made imitation of the natural heterosexual reproductive process (only the fallen mind of man could concoct such depraved and foul behavior). Sadly, as millions of homosexuals have had to learn the hard way, this disordered, makeshift simulation of a natural biological process is coldly rejected by the very human biology it mocks.

…

Ellen [DeGeneres] compounds the sin of homosexuality by using the platform she's been given to lead others astray. She guides her many adoring housewife fans into rebellion against God's divine and explicit natural order by suggesting they celebrate sin and entertain, along with her, the "gay marriage" delusion.

Still, God will not be mocked. It's the height of humanist hubris to believe that man (including judges) can radically redefine that which God has created. We can never sanctify that which natural law rejects and God expressly condemns. Especially when God Himself, out of sheer love for each of us, offers us so much more.

I'm sorry (well not really) for my lack of contrived "sensitivity," but Ellen, sweetie (to borrow from a presidential candidate), no amount of wishful thinking or going through the motions will make your illicit same-sex "relationship" with Ms. DeRossi a "marriage." You may get a piece of paper that says it is, but, in the eyes of God and most of the world, your counterfeit "marriage" will never be worth the paper it's written on.

Before he was hired by CWA, Barber worked for Allstate Insurance until he was fired for penning anti-gay columns for right-wing websites – go figure.

Speaking of right-wing groups going completely over the top, the Traditional Values Coalition weighs in on the equality legislation in Colorado that we wrote about a few days ago … or, as TVC calls it, “The She-Male Restroom Bill”:

The McCain campaign not-so-subtly selectively edits an AP article, posting it on its website under the headline "McCain to . . . Claim Mantle of Change" when the original AP article headline was "McCain to Try to Claim Mantle of Change." The version posted on the McCain site also strangely cuts off the end of the article, right after the line "Against McCain's voluminous record, Obama's Senate record is thin ..."

As Congress debates whether to continue federal funding of abstinence-only sexuality education, the National Abstinence Education Association is launching an effort to organize a million supporters, with the help of the “Swift Boat Vets” PR firm.

“Parents for Truth” apparently aims to recruit support by the same method NAEA used in a poll last year: touting salacious details supposedly drawn from comprehensive sex ed curriculum and falsely implying that abstinence programs provide comparable information about contraceptives. From Focus on the Family’s Citizenlink:

NAEA Executive Director Valerie Huber said most parents would be shocked to learn what is being taught in "comprehensive" sex-education classes.

“ 'Comprehensive' sex education is often very graphic and explicit,” she said. “It is not age-appropriate, and it actually encourages sexual activities that put teens at risk for not only disease, but a host of other consequences.

“With abstinence education, the purpose is to provide all of the risks associated with teen sexual activity and encourage them to wait until marriage. And while contraception can be discussed, it’s always within the context of why abstinence is the best choice.”

A recent congressional report gives us an idea of what that “context” means: condoms being discussed only to discourage their use as risky and unreliable.

While recent studies have cast doubt on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs to such an extent that even President Bush has seemed to back away from the fight, “Parents for Truth” is looking beyond the fight over federal funding, encouraging parents to push abstinence-only on a local level. Subscribers “will be provided information on what is going on in their state, in their community," said Huber. "[A]nd they will also receive tools so that they can fight and win battles in their own schools on behalf of their children."

Back when we first started writing about John Hagee back in 2006, we took issue with Kathleen Parker’s claim that people like Hagee were not very influential because nobody at the White House took them seriously.  As we noted at the time, that argument would have been more effective had Hagee and others from his Christians United for Israel not regularly been invited to the White House and had President Bush not been sending messages to their annual gatherings.  

As it turns out, Hagee did indeed have significant influence at the White House, as Scott McClellan confirmed yesterday in an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” – from the transcript:

GROSS: My guest is Scott McClellan. He was the White House press secretary from July '03 to May of '06. And his new memoir about those years is called "What Happened."

I've got a John Hagee question for you. You devote some of your memoir "What Happened" to social conservatives and their influence on policy in the Bush administration. And I know when John Hagee, who's been so much in the news lately, ever since his endorsement of McCain, which that's a bond that's been broken.

Mr. McCLELLAN: Yes.

GROSS: When he had his first summit for the Christian Zionist group that he founded, Christians United for Israel, President Bush sent a recorded greeting to Hagee and to the conference. Did Hagee have much sway within the Bush administration?

Mr. McCLELLAN: Well, he was one of a number of evangelical pastors, social conservative ones that were certainly part of our outreach at the White House. We had a person and a public liaison that was specifically tasked with reaching out to social conservative leaders. And so those leaders, yes, had a heavy influence on some of the White House policies. And I think that was one of the things that also hurt the president was that, at times it looked like his emphasis was on some of these issues that were important to social conservatives, like Terry Schiavo, like the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and stem cell research. I think a lot of people were wondering, `Why are you spending so much time focusing on these issues when, you know, there are issues on energy and health care and the economy that need to be addressed?'

GROSS: So Pastor Hagee was influential within the Bush administration?

Mr. McCLELLAN: I'd say he was one of a number that certainly had some influence and was able to quickly get someone on the phone at the White House. So yes.

Speaking of Hagee, it looks like all the negative press he has received in recent weeks is not dampening his standing in the community, as Joe Lieberman and Gary Bauer continue to stand by him, some Jewish leaders continue to praise his pro-Israel views, and some churches still want him to address their conferences:

The New York Times tells how Gov. Bobby Jindal has made Louisiana a hospitable place for school vouchers, tax cuts, creationism and the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian conservative group with ties to James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Rev. Gene Mills, director of the Forum, explains the close relationship: “I believe there are some philosophical principles we share, that naturally put us closer. There are a lot of shared values. We value human life and limited government. There’s a lot of common ground.”

After three whole weeks in DC, Cassy Loseke, an intern at the conservative National Journalism Center, has discovered she’s not in Nebraska anymore. While riding “On a Crowded Train of Isolation,” she apparently has also figured out what ails the nation’s capital: “It was almost as if these people were looking for answers to life problems by reading a newspaper or listening to blaring iPods. Perhaps they were looking for something bigger and better than themselves and searching for it through their careers… That's why the men and women never make eye contact on the train, refuse to practice patience and always seem in a hurry to get to their next destination…. The people of DC are not what I thought they'd be. They definitely don't know how to maintain great personal relationships. Yes, they excel at professional relationships, but make up for it by lacking in their private lives… Maybe I won't find my husband here - I'm OK with that.”

Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition provides two possible explanations for Barack Obama’s “resignation” from Trinity United, both of which accuse Obama of base political maneuvering: "Only one of the two following options may be true; for the past twenty years Senator Obama was a member of a church fellowship that was the foundation of his spiritual and moral reasoning -- or -- he sat in the pew of Trinity United Church simply for the political gain such relationships could bring….If his church membership was truly spiritual -- then this action shows a fundamental lack of integrity. Obama's resignation of membership in Trinity United Church demonstrates that he will trade even on his faith for political advantage."

Impugning the religious faith of others based on their political views is one of the basic themes of the Religious Right, but it’s still refreshing to hear it as openly stated as this simple test: a “True Christian” is one who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.

That’s the message of “True Christian VP,” a petition drive from Gary Cass’s “Christian Anti-Defamation Commission,” which is “calling for each candidate to select a true Christian as a running mate for the all important 2008 elections.” And in case there might be any confusion, the group has narrowed down the definition of “true Christian” to two criteria:

What qualifications are embodied in a truly Christian candidate for the Vice Presidency? Quite simply, the candidate will demonstrate actions and hold the beliefs personified by all of us who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Savior: the need to be re-born in Christ and the affirmation of historic Christianity, having a demonstrable and proven record of support for traditional Christian morality.

A life of dedicated Christian service to the public is demonstrated by the following:

Support for traditional marriage. As a Christian, the candidate for Vice President must affirm that marriage is an institution created by God and defined as a union between one man and one woman. …

Support for the Right to Life, proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, without exception.

The group also clarifies that, for example, the two Democratic candidates for president would not qualify as “real Christians”:

Who is the real Christian seeking the Presidency of the United States?

The three major presidential candidates, Democrats Barrack [sic] Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican John McCain have presented Christian voters with a vexing problem for Christians.  Both Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have declared they are Christians, yet based on their votes, both have consistently demonstrated a failure to support the values and policy positions important to Christians. While Mr. McCain proclaims support for traditional Christian values and morality, he has chosen to not discuss his own religious beliefs.

Since founding his group last year, Cass has concentrated on promoting two ideas: one, that Christianity is being persecuted (or “bashed”), and two, that other people’s faith is fair game. In particular, Cass attacked Mormon candidate Mitt Romney for his religion’s supposed “secret rituals” and “hostility to Christianity.” Presumably Cass isn’t happy that Romney is being floated as a potential running mate for McCain.

This counterintuitive notion—that Christianity is to be defended from persecution in public culture by attacking others’ faith—is apparently shared by the so-called Christian Defense Coalition, which attacked Obama over the weekend for resigning from his church after public disagreements. “[I]f his church membership was truly spiritual -- then this action shows a fundamental lack of integrity,” declared Patrick Mahoney, who has attacked Obama’s religious credentials for some time. “Obama's resignation of membership in Trinity United Church demonstrates that he will trade even on his faith for political advantage.”