During the one and only debate between Republican candidate Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter in the presidential campaign of 1980, Carter went off on Reagan about his record on Medicare. With one superbly delivered line - "There you go again" - Reagan disarmed and deflated Carter, and pretty much won the debate; all the while forever etching a phrase into the political lexicon.

Instead of Reagan's "There you go again," one couldn't help but think "There they go again," while reading reports that the conservative Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, is demanding that his archdiocese's Catholic High School teachers adhere to Catholic doctrine in their professional and private lives. Across the Bay, Bishop Michael Barber, who plowed similar ground last year -- to great consternation amongst faculty, staff and parents -- issued a new contract with a little bit of kinder, gentler language.

Thomas Jefferson wanted to be remembered for three things, which he had carved on his gravestone:

Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
& Father of the University of Virginia

As it turned out, other than the Declaration, history has mostly focused on other aspects of Jefferson's life and career.  But this year, a number of us sought to breath fresh life into our remembrance of one of Jefferson's foundational contributions to the best of our aspirations as constitutional democracy:  religious freedom.

I recently wrote a column at LGBTQ Nation summarizing what happened when we seized the moribund Religious Freedom Day, and stood with Jefferson and his ally James Madison in the bright light of history.

Right on cue, the right wing is in high dudgeon over comments President Barack Obama made during last week's National Prayer Breakfast that are supposedly anti-Christian and offensive.

The president was pointing out that the terror and bloodshed of groups like ISIS is hardly unique from an historical perspective.

Judicial Tyranny, compiled by Mark Sutherland, is a book that appears to represent what Religious Right types proclaim is the final word on the courts.  The book was handed out recently at the Houston meeting in response to the Mayor's soliciting of pastor's sermons.

Why should you be interested in the ongoing prattling of the Rev. Franklin Graham? Let me count the ways: 1) He's the son of Billy Graham, the world-renowned evangelist, and that gives him access to a multitude of media platforms; 2) He desperately wants to inherit his father's unofficial title of "America's Pastor"; and, 3) He is considered a highly respected player in the world of conservative Christian evangelicalism.

Graham is also a mean-spirited Christian nationalist, and one of the most consistent voices arguing that Christians in this country are being persecuted, victimized and "excluded from the public square." And, over the past few years, he has carved out a well-deserved reputation as one of the United States' leading religious-based Islamophobes.

Instead of inheriting his father's mantle, Franklin Graham seems to be on the road to occupying the space left by the death of Topeka's anti-gay madman, Fred Phelps.

The leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) made quite a splash last week when they announced they would support a law banning discrimination against LGBTQ people - with one condition.

Some analysts hailed the move. A few headlines writers even got a little carried away and asserted that the church had endorsed gay rights or forged a compromise that other conservative religious groups could use.

image, right: Pastor David Lane, screenshot from Right Wing Watch video

"Where are the champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see on America? Who will wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture?

... You ask, "What is our goal?" To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us. You ask, "What is our aim?" One word only: victory..." - Pastor David Lane, 2013 World Net Daily op-ed titled "Wage War To Restore a Christian America".

Like the monarch in Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, The Emperor's New Clothes, the theocratic ambitions of the organizers of the big Christian Right rally in Baton Rouge last weekend, are more than a little obvious.

In my preview of the event, I noted that it was in some ways a reprise of the giant prayer rally organized by many of the same people for many of the same reasons in Houston in 2011.  

The 2011 event served as the de facto launch of Gov. Rick Perry's ill fated campaign for president, and turned out some 30,000 people. The Baton Rouge event, according to local press accounts, rallied only three or four thousand to the cause. The Baton Rogue prayer rally was as political as the 2011 event. This time, the candidates and the turnout were different.

When I obtained a post from a private email listserv of gun control advocates, I wasn't sure what to do with it. Then I heard that an intense discussion had broken out and that it was spilling out onto social media, and spreading like a western wildfire. Prochoice gun safety advocates were not happy about the promotion of an anti-abortion leader by Everytown for Gun Safety, the national organization founded by billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg.

It all started when Kirsten Moore, Director of Partnerships at Everytown posted an op-ed to a private listserv of gun control advocates.  That was not unusual, but the op-ed was authored by anti-abortion militant Rob Schenck who linked gun safety with the anti-abortion cause in a hair raising fashion and not too subtly invoking 9/11 and the twin towers:

"Twin terrors - Abortion, gunfire"

There is a big Christian Right rally in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday, January 24th. The event, called The Response, is intended to, among other things, recharge the batteries of the Christian Right going into the next election season and to encourage conservative Christian clergy to run for office.

I have published a short primer about the event, at Political Research Associates.  Here is an excerpt:

With Jeb Bush is in full presidential exploration mode, Mitt Romney keeping us all on the edge of our seats about whether he'll toss his hat into the ring yet again, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie taking it on the chin for being a Dallas Cowboy/Jerry Jones fan-boy while awaiting more Bridge-gate investigations to unfold, Dr. Ben Carson patenting the crazy, Ted Cruz being  ... well ... Ted Cruz, Rand Paul being ... well ... Rand Paul, how is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor and former Fox News Channel talk show host, going to get any play?

The answer is simple: Excoriate President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama for their bad parenting choices in allowing their daughters to listen to the music of Beyoncé, which in Huckabee's new book titled "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy," he calls "obnoxious and toxic mental poison."

Ever wonder what makes a city bible-minded? According to an annual list put together by the American Bible Society (ABS) and the Barna Group (a Christian-based polling outfit), a Bible-minded city is made up of "Individuals who report reading the Bible in a typical week and who strongly assert the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches are considered to be Bible-minded."

The list of the most, and the least, bible-minded cities, is based on interviews with over 60,000 people from across the country.

So, which cities topped the list & which cities bottomed out and remain biblically-challenged?