I sometimes help out with logistics when Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn is traveling for a speech or a debate. I'm used to people asking me what hotel chains Barry prefers or what he likes to eat, but in September when Barry was debating Religious Right attorney Mat Staver at Liberty University, I got a question I hadn't heard before: The folks at Liberty wanted to know if Barry or anyone traveling with him would be armed. The school had no objection to Barry or anyone in his party carrying a concealed weapon, they just wanted to know beforehand.

I'll admit I was a little taken aback. I guess I shouldn't have been. Nor am I surprised by recent comments by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who has recommended that students at the school carry concealed weapons so "we could end those Muslims before they walk in and kill."

In the wake of Friday's horrific shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, we're hearing calls to deescalate the rhetoric around the issue of abortion.

The implication is that both sides are reaching for rhetorical excess. The problem with this claim is that it's demonstrably untrue.

In the heat of our political moment, we sometimes don't see how our future connects deeply to our past. But the Christian Right does -- and they do not like what they see. The Christian Right has made religious freedom the ideological phalanx of its current campaigns in the culture wars. Religious freedom is now invoked as a way of seeking to derail access to reproductive health services as well as equality for LGBTQ people. But history provides little comfort for the theocratic visions of the Christian Right.

The first national Day of the New Year will be one that most of us have never heard of. Authorized by Congress in 1992, Religious Freedom Day has been recognized every January 16th by an annual presidential
proclamation commemorating the enactment of the  Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786.

This seemingly obscure piece of Revolutionary-era legislation is so integral to our history that Thomas Jefferson asked that his tombstone recognize that he was the author of the bill, along with the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the University of Virginia as one of the three things for which he wished to be remembered.

It is worth taking a moment to understand why Jefferson thought it was that important.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed more than 120 people and wounded hundreds of others, a number of major conservative Christian evangelical groups have joined 27-+ governors, and Republican Party presidential hopefuls, in demanding that President Obama shut the borders to refugees from Syria, the majority of which are women and children. While Donald Trump's anti-immigrant sound bites are feeding the frenzy against the refugees, and Senator Ted Cruz and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have called for allowing only Christian refugees into the country, conservative evangelical Christians are finding themselves doing battle with some mainstream Christian organizations supporting the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

Last week, a community meeting was held in Spotsylvania County, Va., to discuss plans by a group of Muslims who want to relocate and expand an Islamic center where they have been worshipping for 15 years.

What should have been a routine matter of zoning turned ugly when two men in the audience began hurling insults.

This is a revised, updated and retitled post I did on the long term trend of significant political progress of the Christian Right and the increasing electoral hegemony of the Republican Party, where the Christian Right plays a major role. -- FC

Recently, journalist Matthew Yglesias published an influential article in which he points out that currently, “70 percent of state legislatures, more than 60 percent of governors, 55 percent of attorneys general and secretaries of state – are in Republican hands. And, of course, Republicans control both chambers of Congress.”

While Republicans have done all this, he observes, “Democrats have nothing at all in the works to redress their crippling weakness down the ballot.” The failure to develop an effective electoral response to the growing influence of the Right is especially remarkable because journalists and other political observers have seen the situation developing for years. Republicans have control of the legislative and executive branch in 25 states, making erosions of reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and labor rights likely, and reforms and advances, unlikely. And yet, there is a remarkable degree of denialism of the seriousness and magnitude of the problem.

If you're like me, you've been sitting around anxiously awaiting the release of the American Family Association's "Naughty or Nice" list of retailers for the 2015 holiday season.

Just kidding. I haven't been awaiting the release of this list - and I suspect you haven't either - but the AFA sent it to me earlier this week, so let's take a look at it, shall we?

According to some polls, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination is Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who believes that ancient Egyptians built the pyramids to store grain.

Not far behind Carson (or leading him, other polls say) is Donald Trump, a millionaire real estate developer whose platform consists mainly of insults delivered while he waves his arms and screams.

Tomorrow several conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives plan to hold a public reading of the Aitken Bible on the East Front Lawn of the Capitol. Among the participants will be U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who once famously quizzed AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn about hell during a congressional hearing.

So what is the Aitken Bible, and what are people reading from it? As it turns out, this Bible has been the subject of much bad history from the Religious Right. It's important to set the record straight.

Many a day I drove on I 45 past the statue of Sam Houston.  The monument to the statesman is the largest in the nation dedicated in memory to one person.  Houston was baptized in a tributary to the Brazos River by a Baptist minister.  The Baptist minister did not understand Baptist doctrine and after baptizing Houston asked how it felt to have his sins washed away.  Houston looked at the preacher  and replied that if his sins were just washed away, "Lord help the fish that swim downstream."

In 1952, a private group sought permission from government officials to erect a large cross atop Mt. Soledad near San Diego. They did it because they wanted a place to hold sunrise services on Easter. Once erected, the huge cross was dedicated to "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" during a Christian service.

As time went by, some people began to question whether it was appropriate to display a towering symbol of Christianity on government-owned land, and in 1989 a lawsuit was filed.

I have a daughter named Claire who is 21 years old and working her first job in journalism since graduating from college. I'm awfully proud of her, but like all dads, I can't help but fondly remember days gone by when she was a little girl.

For several years, Claire was enamored with a popular line of toys called American Girl dolls. For the uninitiated, these dolls, made by the Mattel company, feature girls from specific historical periods. Each girl comes with a backstory, as well as lots and lots of outfits and accoutrements.