Starting tomorrow, same-sex couples in Rhode Island will be able to legally marry - despite the best efforts of a local Religious Right activist to stop them.

The Rhode Island legislature approved marriage equality earlier this year, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the measure into law. At the time, Chafee invoked the spirit of the state's founder, iconic religious liberty pioneer Roger Williams.

There's a new right-wing super group in Washington, D.C. and it aims to out conservative any other conservative group currently operational.

Meet Groundswell, a newly organized conservative effort aimed at combating progressives, the Obama administration, Congressional RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), and the evil machinations of Karl Rove.

As David Corn recently reported in Mother Jones, its participants have "been meeting privately since early this year to concoct talking points, coordinate messaging, and hatch plans for 'a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation.'"

What might separate Groundswell from other long-term like-minded entities is its apparent commitment to action. A key to the group's success will be how quickly, broadly and effectively it will be able to craft and dispenses an assortment of messages.

There is big news from across the pond regarding Nessie the Loch Ness monster. Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), a publisher of Christian school and home school materials is dropping their science text book's claim that Nessie is real.    

The ACE curriculum among  others, became the focus of controversy in recent years when Louisiana for the first time allowed public funding for vouchers and charters for religious private schools. The inevitable controversy regarding separation of church and state led to a closer examination of the materials that would be purchased with public funds.  ACE's claim that the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness monster helped to disprove the theory of evolution was widely ridiculed. The Scottish newspaper The Herald reports that the new edition of the ACE science text drops the claim.

But curiously, the paper also reports:  "The updated book is only available to creationist-taught pupils in Europe, but campaigners say America is likely to follow suit."

"Likely"?  

Sponsored by Fairvew Baptist Church of Lufkin, the civic center of the east Texas town will hold a three day rally for American Revival.  The town is often a host for Scarborough rallies featuring Tom Delay, David Barton and other who's who of the far right in American politics.  This time a local church claims responsibility for the weekend.

Over the past few decades, there have been numerous attempts by both Religious Right leaders and Republican Party officials to woo Catholic officials and Catholic voters. These days, while the GOP is still paying attention to winning Catholic votes, the Religious Right is spending more time focusing on forging alliances with high-powered Catholic Church officials.

In a new essay, veteran journalist Frederick Clarkson pointed out that, "Evangelicals and Roman Catholics have found common ground -- and the motivation to set aside centuries of sectarian conflict -- by focusing on these issues while claiming that their 'religious liberty' is about to be crushed. The movement is mobilizing its resources, forging new alliances, and girding itself to engage its enemies. It is also giving fair warning about its intentions. It may lose the long-term war, but whatever happens, one thing is certain: It won't go down without a fight."

Its the dog days of summer and almost nobody has the time or interest in reading some long essay on the Internet -- even if it runs against the grain of the Conventional Wisdom. (Maybe especially if it runs against the grain of the Conventional Wisdom.) Its too hot, or too raining, or people are too on vacation or too something to get into something like that.  

Anyway, having recently published one of those in The Public Eye, I am grateful that the dog days have not deterred Bill Berkowitz, Rob Boston, Scott Isebrand, Bill Lindsey and Paul Rosenberg from enhancing our summer reading with some thoughtful responses.  

As the old saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows, and one of the big political issues currently making these strange bedfellows is the issue of gays in the military. We now have the right-wing Catholics joining forces with some of the most anti-Catholic Protestants in the country. This 'strange bedfellows' alliance has become tantamount to a nineteenth century Catholic champion like Bishop John Hughes joining forces with the anti-Catholic nativist party!

I, and others, have previously written about what's going on here, so, before diving into the latest chapter, here's a quick synopsis for those who haven't been following this escalating story:

If Harry Emerson Fosdick were to give his famous 1922 sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" today, the style might be different, but the content might be surprisingly similar. It was given at a time when the clash of a science-driven urban moderism and religion was perhaps at its height. Some of those kinds of battles continue today on everything from matters of creationism to climate science. And at time when the ever nefarious Institute on Religion and Democracy works for the demise of the mainline liberal Protestantism that Fosdick sought to defend and advance; and the progressive Protestant legacy is being actively reconsidered by scholars; progressive Christians of many kinds remain an active part of our religious and political life. Of course, there is much more going on in our politics and culture than the state of institutional churches, but the story of these churches remains a central part of our story as a nation, whether we are part of these institutions or not.

Much has changed and much has not changed since 1922, as a reading of Fosdick's historic sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" will show -- and is worth considering.   Excerpts below:

Two years ago this summer, a media barrage was leveled at those of us who have been writing about dominionism over the years. The dominionist views, background, and associates of GOP presidential contenders Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and even Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), were getting some serious media attention.  Readers of the smear articles were variously told that dominionism did not exist; or that if it did exist, its adherents were few; but that in any case, everyone should go on about their business, nothing to see here.

Rachel Tabachnick, currently a Fellow with Political Research Associates -- then, one of the main targets of the smear campaign -- got the best revenge, however, in recently publishing a major essay in The Public Eye magazine: Spiritual Warriors with an Antigay Mission: The New Apostolic Reformation.  The piece discusses, among other things, the the New Apostolic Reformation's roots in and advocacy of dominionism -- making it very hard to deny -- although I have no doubt that some will continue to try.  

Columnist Bill Berkowitz recently wrote about this important work, here. Check out an excerpt from Tabachnick's essay, below.

It would be hard to be awake in America and not sense that some deep currents are shifting somewhere beneath the surface of our our politics and religion -- things that go unmeasured by sociologists and pollsters. But but we do get glimpses of these developments in the media and in the actual political behavior of conservative pols and religious leaders. Nevertheless, it can be hard to see, even when it is right in front of us.

Trends are often like that. We don't really see them, until we do. And when we do, we are surprised that we hadn't fully realized it before.  

And that's how I have felt about the growing alliance between the leaders of the U.S. Catholic Bishops and the leaders of the protestant evangelical Christian Right.  I have written an essay, Christian Right Seeks Renewal in Deepening Catholic-Protestant Alliance, for the next issue of The Public Eye magazine about this and some of the implications.  Here are some excerpts:

It is important to have good answers to the assertions of the theocratic leaders of the Christian Right.  Is the religious liberty of members of the American armed forces under attack as claimed by among others, Tony Perkins and William Boykin of the Family Research Council?

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance and the Rev. Barry Lynn   executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State answered in a commentary at Religion News Service.  These longtime proponents of religious liberty say no, there is no threat.
 

The seditious rumblings are getting louder on the Christian Right.  Over the past year or so, we have heard important conservative evangelical and Catholic leaders describe the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) generally, and its provisions for contraception coverage in particular, as "tyrannical."  These claims have sometimes been accompanied by warnings that civil war is possible. We have heard the same things regarding marriage equality.

One does not have to believe that a revolution could be seriously mounted (or that if it was, that it could succeed) to recognize that those talking about these things are serious, and that there are people who are influenced by these leaders.