On Friday, January 25, three days after the fortieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision -- which established a woman's constitutional right to abortion -- tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters will once again hold their annual March for Life rally in Washington D.C. 



While there hasn't been another assassination of a doctor performing abortions since the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller -- who performed abortions at his clinic in Wichita, Kansas -- incidents of anti-abortion violence against health  clinics have continued. In 2010, Molotove cocktails were thrown at Planned Parenthood clinics in Madera, California and in north Texas. In January 2012, the American Family Planning Clinic in Pensacola, Florida was firebombed, and in April a bomb exploded on the windowsill of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wisconsin.



There have, however, been a series of anti-abortion legislative initiatives that have changed the political landscape, making access to abortion much more difficult.

Yet, despite these initiatives, recent polling has found that the American public continues to support Roe v. Wade.

Vouchers and tuition tax credits, we're told by those who favor them, will promote "school choice."

This is true, in a sense. But here's the harsh reality: It's the private school that gets the choice, not the parents.

O.S. Hawkins is head of Guidestone, the annuity board of Southern Baptists.  The agency provides health care assistance and retirement options for convention employees and church ministers.  James Robison had Hawkins on his program January 22, 2013.  Religious Right activist Robison, has been aggressively promoting his economic agenda for the nation.

It has been often pointed out that the alleged persecution of the American Christian Right is, to be polite about it, baloney.  But Dr. James F. McGrath, the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, a man who knows history as well as theology, has something more to say to American Christians who cry persecution when things don't quite go their way.  

Judge Roy Moore -- the man best known as "the Ten Commandments Judge" for his smuggling of a two-and-a-half ton monument to the Ten Commandments into the Alabama state courthouse in the dead of night and refusing to remove it -- is back.

Washington is abuzz with preparations for Monday's inauguration. A number of events, private and public, are taking place.

Among them is something called the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast (PIPB), which takes place Monday morning at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Despite its name, this is not an official inaugural event. It's sponsored by a variety of fundamentalist Christian groups and "messianic" Jews. Featured guests include TV preacher Pat Robertson, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Joseph Farah, founder of the website WorldNetDaily.

Normally, I would think this is no big deal. Some fundamentalists have rented space in a hotel to pray on the morning of the inauguration. It's a free country; let them have at it.

But for one thing:

God Loves Uganda, a documentary film about the Christian Right's influence in spreading homophobia premiers a the Sundance Film Festival this week.  The film features, among others, the notorious American antiabortion and antigay demagogue, Lou Engle of The Call.  It also features my colleague Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma of Political Research Associates and author of two related reports on Africa, Globalizing the Culture Wars and Colonizing African Values.

UPDATED to include the official film trailer:

A letter drafted by Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family (FOF), has been getting some attention on social media sites and blogs lately.

In the missive, Dobson, a child psychologist who founded what has become one of the largest and most powerful Religious Right groups in the nation, surveyed the results of the November election. He's not happy.

In the 1960's and '70's, compassion driven theologians drove a dialogue that helped to secure abortion rights. Since then, the Religious Right has dominated the conversation. How can we reclaim the high ground in the debate about abortion as a part of thoughtful, wise loving and living?

Most Americans think of childbearing as a deeply personal or even sacred decision. So do most reproductive rights advocates. That is why we don't think anybody's boss or any institution should have a say in it. But for almost three decades, those of us who hold this view have failed to create a resonant conversation about why, sometimes, it is morally or spiritually imperative that a woman can stop a pregnancy that is underway.

My friend Patricia offers a single reason for her passionate defense of reproductive care that includes abortion: Every baby should have its toes kissed. If life is precious and helping our children to flourish is one of the most precious obligations we take on in life, then being able to stop an ill-conceived gestation is a sacred gift. Whether or not we are religious, deciding whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy is a process steeped in spiritual values: responsibility, stewardship, love, honesty, compassion, freedom, balance, discernment. But how often do we hear words like these coming from pro-choice advocates?

Chip Berlet speaking at a conference sponsored by the Center for Inquiry, Wooly Mammoth Theater Company, Washington, DC, October 22, 2011.

The national spotlight has moved on -- probably never to return to Rev. Louie Giglio. But before we forget him altogether, it is worth noting that Giglio's handling of the matter revealed a deeply disingenuous man who given the opportunity to clarify his views about homosexuality, engaged in a series of diversions in his letter to the president and in further explanation to his congregation on his blog.

Here are a few brief points.

A conservative evangelical pastor tapped to give a prayer at a presidential inauguration becomes suddenly controversial when his statements or associations are exposed. We've seen this before. In late 2008 it was Rick Warren, scheduled to give an opening prayer at President Barack Obama's first inauguration, who became the center of controversy, especially for his stance on gay marriage. Warren's disturbing ties to antigay activism in Uganda would become an issue later the same year [1]. Now, it's Louie Giglio. But there's more and worse than what has yet come out on Giglio, who until yesterday had been scheduled to give a benediction at President Barack Obama's second inauguration.