We've all heard the whining. From Louis Giglio to contraception, no issue is too small to gin up the whine that white evangelicals are persecuted at the hands of "culture" or alternatively, gay people. Yes, to listen to white evangelicals mule about things is to hear about how gays and lesbians are driving this country into a degenerate downward spiral while the black guy in the White House facilitates.

All of which makes this Barna Group study fascinating:

The findings of a poll published Wednesday (Jan. 23), reveal a “double standard” among a significant portion of evangelicals on the question of religious liberty, said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, a California think tank that studies American religion and culture.

While these Christians are particularly concerned that religious freedoms are being eroded in this country, “they also want Judeo-Christians to dominate the culture,” said Kinnamon.

“They cannot have it both ways,” he said. “This does not mean putting Judeo-Christian values aside, but it will require a renegotiation of those values in the public square as America increasingly becomes a multi-faith nation.”

Patheos notes the particular disconnect on what these folks define as religious freedom:

Well, they say there are numerous examples [of persecution], and then pick three:

1. The brouhaha over Louie Giglio and the Inauguration.
2. The contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
3. The demise of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.

Of these three, exactly none are “religious freedom” issues.

None.

They are, without exception, religious primacy issues.

None of these impact, in any measurable way, the ability of the Conservative Christian community to practice their faith openly and without fear of persecution in the United States.

Bingo. White evangelical Christians have confused their desire to use their religion as a bludgeon against everyone else in society as "persecution." Because they have been accorded power by the cynical right wing of the country (who doesn't really give a damn about their values but needs their votes), they translate that into a giant national whine about how Christians are persecuted, largely at the hands of gay people.

Yet when they're asked whether other religions such as Islam and Judaism should have the right to exist and practice their faiths, they answer "no" with a resounding majority, serving up a large portion of evangelical hypocrisy with their whine.

This was entirely predictable, but still hilarious.

“The moderates have had their candidate in 2008 and they had their candidate in 2012. And they got crushed in both elections. Now they tell us we have to keep moderating. If we do that, will we win?” said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader. Vander Plaats is an influential Christian conservative who opposed Romney in the Iowa caucuses 10 months ago and opposed Sen. John McCain’s candidacy four years ago.

Never mind that Romney didn't campaign as a "moderate" on a single issue--not one. Ignore that he picked right-wing darling Paul Ryan as his running mate. And forget the fact that Romney surged after the first debate, when he Etch-a-Sketched himself lots of moderate positions.

Nope, Romney/Ryan lost because Romney was insufficiently wingnutty. That's the ticket!

“It was the one time we actually contested ideas, presented two viewpoints and directions for the country,” he [Ted Cruz (R-TX)] said at the Federalist Society’s annual dinner in Washington. “And then, inevitably, there are these mandarins of politics, who give the voice: ‘Don’t show any contrasts. Don’t rock the boat.’ So by the third debate, I’m pretty certain Mitt Romney actually French-kissed Barack Obama.”

So, Ted Cruz thinks Romney lost the election because he agreed with him too much during the foreign policy debate? Delusional.

The way politics works is, if don't know why you're losing, you'll just keep losing. So keep it up, guys.

Palin/Cruz 2016!

Over the weekend, there was an interesting piece in the New York Times about Glenn Beck serving as Mitt Romney's unofficial liaison to the evangelical community. And what was interesting was that evangelicals were described in very unflattering terms -- by their own leaders.

“Romney has staked out issues that are aligned with evangelicals,” said Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the conservative nonprofit American Family Association. But, he added, Mr. Romney’s faith may ultimately present a problem in the voting booth. “It’s still an issue for some evangelicals and may influence their voting decision on Nov. 6,” he said. “There are a number of evangelicals who will not vote for someone who doesn’t adhere to orthodox Christianity.”

First of all, not voting for a candidate because they don't share your religious views is simply un-American (yes, that's Michael Medved--stopped clock). Ever hear of the "No Religious Test" clause, Mr. Fischer?

Also, I'm not familiar with "orthodox Christianity." Does it include Catholics? Methodists? Unitarians? What is that exactly, pray tell?

Mr. Fischer said of the complicated relationship between evangelical Christians and Mormons that “evangelicals appreciate what Glenn Beck has done in refocusing attention on the values of our founding fathers,” but “that doesn’t mean evangelicals regard him as a Christian.”

Sectarianism really brings us all together as a country, doesn't it? Just like the Sunnis and Shiites.

Until last month, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Web site listed Mormonism as a “cult” along with Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Hey, Mitt's in good company. A couple decades ago, the same crowd was saying the same thing about "Papists."

“There’s a difference between a public figure like Glenn Beck and someone who could be the president of the United States,” said John C. Green, the author of “The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections.” “Many evangelicals believe this country was founded by Christian leaders. It’s important that the person in the White House be positive about Christianity, if not a devout Christian himself.”

Note the use of the word, "believe" in that sentence. Says it all.

What's ironic is that these people obviously couldn't vote for Thomas Jefferson, a Deist who re-wrote the New Testament by removing all the miracles.

Not terribly "orthodox" of him, was it?

General Motors and Walgreens have left the infectious conservative idea pusher ALEC. Is this a cause for rejoicing? This week's Absurdity Today covers ALEC, Mitt and his travels, and some sensitive topics too.
Absurdity Today is an independent political news parody hosted by satirist and professor of media ethics, Julianna Forlano.

I can't think of a more appropriate way to begin the Republican caucus day in Iowa, than with Chris Matthews' closing segment of Hardball Monday night. This stinging rebuke should haunt Mitt Romney for years to come.

'"Let Me Finish" tonight with this", Matthews begins:

This Republican caucus in Iowa has the looks of a travesty, a victory of dollars over democracy, financial equity over equality.

Romney is destroying the only opponent he fears for the nomination, with the relentless wealth-driven advertising campaign the voter can only escape if he turns off his television set. He`s doing it without his fingerprints on the ads, without his face or his name attached to it. He`s doing it while he stands before crowds, reciting their verses from "America the Beautiful".

If there`s ever been a more cynical use of money and media, it is hard to recall it. And so, what exactly will Tuesday nights results mean, will they mean that Iowa likes Romney? Or will it say that the voters of Iowa have been used to destroy his most formidable national opponent?

What it looks like Iowa will say, in the headlines at least, is what it says often, that it likes the candidate who adheres most closely to the evangelical line. In this case, they have a perfect vessel, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. He`s pro-life, he educates his children at home, he`s opposed to same sex marriage. He is to the evangelicals and other Christian conservatives, one of them.

So, if Santorum gets up around the high 30s tomorrow night, that will be about right.

Continue reading »

I've always been intrigued by the kind of Christians whose main problem with the mainstream churches is that they include concepts like compassion and charity. (I used to work with a woman who quit the Catholic Church because "they aren't strict enough.")

So I can't say this surprises me:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

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Franklin Schaeffer was interviewed yesterday by MSNBC's Tamron Hall, talking about his HuffPo piece describing what's wrong with today's GOP, and why so many onetime Republicans like himself have fled the party for good.

It feels like a consummate summation of the situation, and a clarion call not just for liberals but for everyone who's had enough of movement conservatism.

Bruce Wilson at Talk2Action has come up with easily the most disturbing audio clip of a Rick Warren sermon I've heard yet -- and that's saying something:

On April 17, 2005, at the southern California Anaheim Angels sports stadium thirty thousand Saddleback Church members, more than ever gathered in one spot, assembled to celebrate Saddleback's 25th anniversary and listened as Rick Warren announced his vision for the next 25 years of the church: the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

Towards the close of his nearly one hour speech, Pastor Warren asked his followers to be as committed to Jesus as the young Nazi men and women who spelled out in mass formation with their bodies the words "Hitler, we are yours," in 1939 at the Munich Stadium, were committed to the Führer of the Third Reich, a major instigator of a World War that claimed 55 million lives. Rick Warren has exhorted Christians towards Nazi-like dedication in at least several public speeches and also during a one hour video recording of a talk by Warren, explaining his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, that is currently hosted on the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website. A version of the anecdote can also be found on page 357 of Rick Warren's 1995 book The Purpose Driven Church, which sold over one million copies.

Here's what Warren says, exactly:

What is the vision for the next 25 years ? I'll tell you what it is.

It is the global expansion of the kingdom of God.

It is the total mobilization of his church.

And the third part is the goal of a radical devotion of every believer.

Now, I choose that word 'radical' intentionally, because only radicals change the world.

Everything great done in this world is done by passionate people.

Moderate people get moderately nothing done. And moderation will never slay the global giants. . ."

At which point he launches into a recitation of the achievements of past radicals -- notably, Hitler and Mao:

"In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts, for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said, in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."

And they nearly took the world.

Lenin once said, "give me 100 committed, totally committed men and I'll change the world." And, he nearly did.

A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book, and a group of young people committed them to memory and put it in their minds and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao.

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say 'Jesus, we are yours' ?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have ?

What kind indeed.

It probably didn't cross Warren's mind, but the examples he cites are two of the world's most classic cases of totalitarianism. The products of their regimes -- beyond millions of people dead -- included the forced regimentation of thought and no press or free-speech protections whatsoever.

If that's the kind of fervent "radicalism" he admires, then we badly need to ought to take a long look at just what his agenda really is. And so ought Barack Obama.

Digby has more.

[H/t to Lisa Derrick at La Figa.]

Sadly, No!

The McCain campaign has apparently decided to spread the notion among Evangelicals that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.

Michael Froomkin: New Low For McCain Campaign: Obama == The Anti-Christ

SoonerG says: McCain's Left Behind Attack

Snoopes has more: Obama as Anti-Christ

This is typical for the McCain campaign. Dog-whistle politics is a common tactic by Rove and Lee Atwater. It's in play now right before your eyes and this time it's targeted at evangelicals.

The Dog-Whistle:

Dog-whistle politics, also known as the use of code words, is a type of political campaigning or speechmaking employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience. The term is usually used pejoratively by those that do not approve of the tactics.

Facing South: Gulf Coast nonprofit groups were left out as FEMA gave away $85 million in Katrina supplies.

Fire Dog Lake: If there is a President Obama come next Jan. 20, normal folks better brace for what the right-wing crazies have in mind.

Buck Naked Politics: More BUSCO foreign policy failures: Key setbacks in Iraq for both Bush and McSame.

The Pump Handle: Why the right wing attacks science

A city drowns while a president plays politics. Will the real John McCain please stand up? Will the real threat to academe please stand down? Say hello to Bloomsday and farewell to Eliot Asinof, all this in The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat

HOLY CRAP: Rapture ready evangelicals impersonating Army officers...Mix of politics, religion is a recipe for disaster...G-Dub fired Rove at church...Abstinence only assh*le...Who will save Hillary's soul?...Bobby Jindal isn't the only guy doing exorcisms...Partisan Pastor claims right to violate Federal tax law...Newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention has a credibility problem...Yep, that's what Jesus would do...The F-Word