This article examines - within the context of the religious right's increasing influence over state-level politics, especially since the 2010 election - racist content in Oregon GOP chairman Arthur B. Robinson's Christian fundamentalist home schooling curriculum, as well as his ties to top leaders in the movement on the theocratic Christian right known as Christian Reconstructionism.

On Saturday August 10, 2013, Oregon biochemist and global warming skeptic-turned Republican politician Art Robinson was elected head of the Oregon Republican Party.

[above: anointing of Ted Cruz & Rand Paul, short version]

In the video, Tea Party potentate Ted Cruz is blessed by pastors who claim the Constitution is based on the Old Testament, appear to endorse biblical slavery, depict gay marriage as a socialist plot against the traditional family, and call for a Christian war on secular society.

A few days ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued a press release urging members of Congress not to attend the Family Research Council's annual "Values Voter Summit," which kicks off today.

The SPLC noted that the FRC and the American Family Association (AFA), which co-sponsors the Summit, "have long records of vilifying the LGBT community and spreading other forms of bigotry."

Part one

How Ted Cruz helped insert a carved image of a horned-Moses carrying a tablet with Hebrew letters that read "Thou shall commit murder, Thou shall commit adultery, Thou shall steal" into Supreme Court case law

In 1999, Bush for President campaign aide Ted Cruz helped lock down the Christian conservative vote for Bush, by arranging a meeting between his friend Paul Weyrich, a  key architect of the religious right and new right -- who co-founded the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, and ALEC -- and Bush campaign member Timothy Goeglein, who went on to serve in the presidential administration of George W. Bush.

"We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context." -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz' late friend Paul Weyrich, in a 1980 Dallas speech to fundamentalist ministers. Weyrich is widely credited as one of the top architects of the new right and the religious right.

While a September 8, 2013 Politico story from Stephanie Simon documented U.S. Senator Ted Cruz' ties to pseudo-historian David Barton (one of the more influential national middle-aged leaders on the Christian right), Cruz' ties to the politicized religious right are far more profound than that.

Journalist Mark Ames has an important story -- about the roots of much of modern libertarianism in Holocaust denial -- adding a further disturbing dimension to the neo-confederate movement of our time.

His article appears on nsfwcorp, a magazine that sometimes temporarily drops its pay wall on selected stories to show us what we are all missing. (And if Ames's piece is any indication, those of us who don't subscribe are missing a lot.  At this writing, the story is available for free for another 19 hours.)  

Ames traces the ideology of Charles Koch and his "libertarian empire" (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?) to "the rise of the Holocaust denial industry."  Using the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Denial Timeline as a guide, Ames shows how Koch funded and led elements of this industry as a young man, in much the way he underwrote and created the government shutdown industry of today.  Among the notable figures with roots in the Koch-funded Holocaust denial industry are economists Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman, as well as Christian theocratic theorist and Ron Paul business partner & political adviser, Gary North.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, achieved the seemingly impossible in a recent interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo -- a new low.

Like every other Catholic of any prominence, Donohue was asked about his views on the surprising comments by Pope Francis regarding LGTB Catholics. When the conversation turned to the ongoing priestly pedophilia scandal, he not only failed to embrace the new spirit emanating from the throne of St. Peter -- he continued to attack gay people and as is his wont, he blamed the sex abuses committed by priests on the victims.

The point of this essay is not to unpack the origins of the Tea Party, a co-creation of Ron Paul and the Koch brothers which reorganized and re-energized the activist cadres of the religious right, who dominate the movement, and who swept in to take Congress in 2010.

Rather, my intent is to draw attention to an elaborate plan, hatched by strategists of the religious right, to take advantage of the economic chaos that would likely ensue if the current budget impasse is not resolved by mid-October 2013.

We've seen these disinformation and smear campaigns orchestrated by the Religious Right play out before: Religious Right organizations make an outrageous claim; in this case, a secret meeting aimed at attacking the religious freedom of Christian conservatives in the military, took place at the Pentagon April 23, 2013. This phony claim spreads like a virus through conservative networks. The story takes off at outlets like Breitbart.com, Fox News, WorldNetDaily and other right wing websites, blogs, e-mail newsletters and on twitter.

The target of this particular campaign is Michael L. "Mickey" Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). Since its founding the MRFF has been dedicated to battling Christian fundamentalism in the military. For waging this battle, the Religious Right's has labeled Weinstein -- a registered Republican and former military prosecutor who served in the Ronald Reagan Administration -- an "anti-Christian extremist," "a religious bigot" and the "Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan."

Over the years, Weinstein has been swamped with hate mail.

Now, he is one of the Religious Right's premier public enemies.

[UPDATE: MRFF researcher Chris Rodda breaks new angle - Pentagon Leaders Met with Collaborator of Preacher who Proposed "Military Takeover" of the Government]

[For embedded video of the evangelist calling for a "military takeover" and "martial law", scroll 1/3 through article. Also, this story concerns one particular stream of heavily political, charismatic Christianity that's coming to dominate the Protestant Religious right and also strongly supports the Tea Party agenda: the New Apostolic Reformation. For some articles on the NAR, see 1, 2, 3 - the first two are from the NPR show "Fresh Air", the third is from the Texas Observer.]

"We estimate that between 28% and 34% of officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers) in the U.S. military would either back or be extremely sympathetic to Joyner" - Mikey Weinstein, founder and head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Amidst chaos in Washington, while Republicans in Congress are accused of holding the "full faith and credit" of the United States hostage through the current government shutdown, a leader of the newly emerging, reorganized religious right who has ties to prominent Tea Party Republicans has just called for a "military takeover".

I happened on this post from two years ago, that has some considerable relevance to today. I am reposting it with a few small edits, as part of the fourth anniversary of Dispatches from the Religious Left. (Note that comments may be two years old.) -- FC

As the mid-term national elections loom, it is worth considering where we are going in light of where we have been. That's why when others are writing on the zeitgeist of the political moment, I often find myself absorbed in the evolution of Recurring Themes here at Talk to Action.

We have, for example, discussed how the manufacture of a faux Religious Left by Beltway Insiders a few years ago didn't work out so well.  Then we further discussed the way that separation of church and state is a value that can be vigorously and successfully defended against theocratic candidates of the Religious Right. (Earlier this year, we discussed how a progressive minister running for local office navigated matters of church state separation.)

Today we return to our general, ongoing discussion of the Religious Left. Among the many reasons why we do -- perhaps chief among them -- is that a more dynamic Religious Left would be a major factor in thwarting the theocratic ambitions of the Religious Right.  There are now, and always have been, many politically active religious progressives and many significant organizations within the span of religiously based political progressivism. But a coherent contemporary movement of political consequence has yet to emerge.

In about two weeks, the Family Research Council will hold its "Values Voter Summit," an annual event that has become the largest gathering of the Religious Right in the country.

To get attendees pumped up about the event (and to spur donations), FRC President Tony Perkins has been sending out letters thanking people for signing up. Unfortunately for Perkins, much of the three-paragraph letter consists of a quote by James Madison lauding the Ten Commandments as the foundation of an orderly society - something Madison never said.