As of March 3, the Rapture Index ("The prophetic speedometer of end-time activity") stood at 188, tying the record high recorded on February 18, 2013. According to raptureready.com, when the Index hits above 160, it's time to "Fasten your seat belts."

"Wherever we Americans look, the threat of apocalypse stares back at us," Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of Apocalypse Management: Eisenhower and the Discourse of National Insecurity, recently wrote at tomdispatch.com. "Nuclear extermination and environmental extinction" are grave threats, but they are "crowded out ... by a host of new perils also labeled `apocalyptic': mounting federal debt, the government's plan to take away our guns, corporate control of the Internet, the Comcast-Time Warner mergerocalypse, Beijing's pollution airpocalypse, the American snowpocalypse, not to speak of earthquakes and plagues."

While off the charts apocalyptic scenarios abound and may smell of gloom and doom, they are a Godsend for Christian filmmaker Timothy Chey, making it the perfect time to publicize his recent film, "Final: The Rapture."

I recently published a story about a neo-Confederate theocrat in Democrat's clothing running for office in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He is also running in the June 24th primary for the county Democratic Party Central Committee.  In my story, I detailed how Pastor David Whitney is a dyed in the wool theocrat who has a history with the theocratic Constitution Party and with its 2004 presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka. Peroutka and Whitney are running as an odd couple ticket for the District 5 seat on the County Council. Whitney is running for the Democratic nomination, and Peroutka is running for the GOP nomination. (Peroutka is also running for the GOP County Central Committee.)

But in a blog post based on his sermon at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church, in Pasadena, MD on Sunday he denounced, but didn't deny my story. Let's examine what he said.

Pardon me for engaging in some blatant self-promotion, but I wanted to let members and friends of Americans United know that my new book, Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You The Right To Tell Other People What To Do, is being released today.

Two issues inspired me to write this book: the controversy over the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act and the spread of legal same-sex marriage in the states. 

This is crossposted from the Eyes Right blog at Political Research Associates.  Readers will also want to see the article by Adele Stan at RH Reality Check which highlighted the views of Pastor David Whitney regarding the "justifiable homicide" of abortion providers. -- FC

There was a quietly dramatic moment on February 24th in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Two former leaders of the theocratic Constitution Party (CP) declared their intention to run in the June 24th primary election--as a Democrat and a Republican. The pair are running, respectively, for seats on the Democratic and Republican Party county central committees, as well as for the Anne Arundel County Council. (The county is part of the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan area.)

While changing political parties is not an uncommon thing in today's political world, what makes the actions of these men extraordinary and of national significance is who they are, their obvious coordination, and their personal histories and political vision.

You might have read over the weekend about a law passed by the Arizona legislature that would allow the owners of stores and secular businesses to refuse to serve certain customers if they deem that doing so would offend their religious beliefs.

The measure, SB 1062, is getting quite a lot of attention. All eyes are on Gov. Jan Brewer, who hasn't yet said if she'll sign the bill into law. Brewer has indicated that she'll act this week.

"I've seen most of the films about Jesus produced in the past 50 years, and "Son of God" is the best. -- Pastor Rick Warren

Ten years ago, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" brought in $600 million at the box office. This week, "Son of God," another Christ-centered film, is coming to a Cineplex near you.

It may not garner the massive box office receipts of Gibson's "The Passion," but several high profile evangelical pastors and Catholic Church officials are doing their darnedest to see that "Son of God" becomes the next super-successful Christian flick.

Finely tuned advance work is key to drumming up buzz, both for a film's premiere and its opening weekend, as that first weekend often determines a film's box-office success or failure.

When pundit Kirsten Powers published an op-ed in USA Today arguing that the recent effort in Kansas to allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, is an update of Jim Crow -- the Christian Right Twitterverse went wild.

While each such episode commands a lot of attention, it is part of a larger story of a deep and probably lasting social and political change in the U.S. -- one that one way or another will shape the public lives of everyone reading these words. This may seem like a bold thing to say -- something that has not been validated by the punditocracy -- but give it time.

Over the past year, Rachel Tabachnick and I have written a great deal about the Neo-Confederate elements of the Religious Right. I have focused upon Catholic Neo-Confederates Thomas DiLorenzo and especially Thomas E. Woods, Jr. They claim that without an individual state's right to secede or at least nullify locally unpopular federal laws and judicial rulings, tyranny reigns.  History not withstanding, they say that secession and nullification are necessary for the expansion of freedom.

I have argued that if Woods' ideas were to prevail, the only freedom that would be expanded would be the freedom to oppress. That freedom to oppress has inglorious roots and those roots have a name that has faded into the fog of history. Its name is Mudsill.

Dan Patrick is a Houston area state Senator who is running for Lieutenant Governor of Texas.  Dan is a big player in the State's Religious Right/Tea Party connection.  He attends church with Ted Cruz.  The common fellowship, Second Baptist in Houston, is deeply entrenched in state politics with members who led the state GOP.  The church landed in court accused of electioneering in violation of tax exempt status.  Patrick, once a local sportscaster, has a large following and tends to win his elections without much opposition.

Jamie Coots, a third-generation snake-handling Pentecostal preacher, has handled his last snake. Coots, one of the stars of  "Snake Salvation," a reality show on the National Geographic Channel (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/snake-salvation/), died Saturday night after being bitten by one of his serpents, and then refusing medical treatment.

According to Christianity Today, "Emergency workers tried to convince the minister's family to let them take him to the hospital, but his wife and son refused."

"He always said, 'Don't take me to the doctor,'" his son Cody Coots told the Herald-Leader. "It was totally against his religion."

Frank Taaffe has repeatedly been given a platform on network and cable news shows in defense of George Zimmerman, Michael Dunn, and Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. This includes an appearance as recently as last week on HLN's Nancy Grace Show's coverage of the trial of Michael Dunn, the "loud music" shooting that resulted in the death of Jordan Davis.  When Taaffe's not playing the role of analyst on television, he doubles as co-host of a white supremacist broadcast with the name "Standing Our Ground." I posted an audio clip earlier today at Political Research Associates of Taaffe talking about who qualifies to be called "nigger."  I've also posted a slightly longer version of this raw exchange below in order to document the fact that major network and cable news programs have helped to provide a media platform to a white supremacist. In the discussion of the Stand Your Ground laws of Florida and other states, it is imperative that we acknowledge the role of the mainstreaming of racist ideology in media.

[Update: The "Standing Our Ground" audio excerpt below is from the October 3, 2013 podcast.]

Crossposted from Eyes Right, the blog of Political Research Associates

Gregory M. Aymond, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans, has declared economic war on anyone who participates in the construction of a new regional Planned Parenthood facility in New Orleans.

Yet another Catholic prelate denouncing an abortion provider might seem to some like a small, if dramatic, moment in the so-called culture war--but I think this incident may be a bellwether.

The archdiocesan newspaper Clarion Herald front-paged Aymond's open letter, in which he declared that the Archdiocese and its related institutions will not do business with anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, "involved in the acquisition, preparation and construction of this facility." Aymond makes clear that even in the era of Pope Francis, the theocratic impulses that drive the so-called culture war are undiminished. "The archdiocese, including its churches, schools, apartments for the elderly and nursing homes," he decreed, "will strive in its privately funded work not to enter into business relationships with any person or organization."