In November, I wrote a blog post about the Catholic bishops and their complaints after the church was denied a federal contract to assist victims of human trafficking. Today I'd like to report on an interesting sequel to that controversy.

In a nutshell, the story breaks down like this: In 2000, Congress passed a law designed to crack down on those who engage in the sex trafficking of people; the law also contained provisions providing services to victims of this crime.

Berkeley, California is famous for Free Speech issues, so it is especially shocking that the East Bay Jewish Community Center (JCC) withdrew its sponsorship of a speech by Peter Beinart, a Daily Beast political writer. Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism has now cancelled his appearance.

JCC announced last Friday it was withdrawing sponsorship after it found out that the person slated to introduce Beinart was Penny Rosenwasser, a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Originally, the Bay Area chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace was co-sponsoring the April 17 speech by Beinart along with the JCC and KPFA Radio, a Pacifica Radio affiliate in the Bay area.

Due to technical difficulties, now resolved, I was not able to post about the extraordinary words of Rev. Dennis Terry on the occasion of his notorious introduction of Rick Santorum and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins to his congregation at the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Better late than never I suppose -- because we should never forget what Terry said and what it means for politics in our time. -- FC

It is difficult to imagine a more paradigmatic episode about the state of the Religious Right in American politics.

Pastor John Hagee, the founder of a multi-million dollar media empire anchored by his San Antonio, Texas megachurch that boasts 19,000 active members, and whose incendiary comments about Jews, Catholics and gays caused Senator John McCain to publicly disavow his support during the 2008 presidential campaign, recently boasted that his Christian Zionist organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), had passed the one million member mark.

"Six years ago Prime Minister Netanyahu asked me if we could unite Christians in support of Israel. I told him I didn't know. Having reached 1 million members, I think the answer is clear. America's Christians are uniting in support of Israel," Hagee said at a CUFI meeting in Israel that featured Netanyahu.

Child star turned fundamentalist Christian activist Kirk Cameron's pseudo-documentary Monumental is coming to over 500 theaters across the country on March 27, and from the clips available online, it's clear that Cameron's movie promises to be packed with the same Christian nationalist historical revisionism that David Barton is so well known for. In fact, Barton himself appears in Cameron's film. One of the clips available online shows Cameron visiting Barton's personal museum in Texas, and hearing a few of Barton's lies about the early Congress and Thomas Jefferson printing Bibles to spread the word of God to all American families.

Video debunking these lies below the fold.

Are you Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or a non-believer? If so, Louisiana preacher Dennis Terry has some advice for you: Accept that America is a "Christian nation" or leave the county. Now. You're not wanted here.

"I don't care what the liberals say, I don't care what the nay-sayers say, this nation was founded as a Christian nation. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob - there's only one God. There's only one God, and his name is Jesus," thundered Terry during a Sunday rally for Rick Santorum at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church.

For 70 years the small pristine town of Riverdale has been home to Archie, Veronica, Betty, Reggie, Jughead and an assortment of decidedly wholesome and occasionally zany characters. In Veronica#202 - published in September 2010 - Kevin Keller joined the gang, becoming Riverdale's first openly gay chap.

"Archie's hometown of Riverdale has always been a safe world for everyone. It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books," Archie Comics co-CEO Jon Goldwater explained. Keller "proved so popular that not only is he coming back to hang with Archie and the gang in issue 205 ... but he's getting his own Kevin Keller ongoing series beginning in June," USA Today's Brian Truitt recently reported.

While the public has responded favorably to Keller's arrival in Riverdale, the folks at the American Family Association (AFA) have gone bonkers, a fairly common condition for the anti-gay conservative Christian hate group.

     Ted Weiland, a pastor in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, claims the real downfall of America happened when they adopted a Constitution.  Weiland stated openly what some in the Dominion movement have only muttered under their breath.  They do not like the U.S. Constitution.  Christian Reconstruction writers have called Democracy a political system for cowards.  What makes Ted's comments interesting is the fact that many Religious Right leaders claim the Constitution is a Christian document promoting the Christian faith.  David Barton, no stranger to the Dominion movement, claims prayer meetings held among Christian delegates gave us the document.  Weiland agrees with most scholarly research that this idea is absurd.

Just a few years ago, during the height of the recession, his organization froze wages, stopped contributing to employees' 401(k) retirement accounts, and turned down the thermostat at its new headquarters during the winter, all in attempts to save money. However, at the same time all this belt tightening was going on he was breaking ground on a new 4 million-dollar home on lakefront property in South Carolina, and raking in a record amount of contributions to his ministry.

Meet David Cerullo, and welcome to the world of the "prosperity gospel," where the only people we know for sure are prospering are the ministers running the show.

There are educators in my family, so I know a few things about how challenging that profession can be. The hours are long, the pay is often mediocre and the working conditions are sometimes not great.

But at the same time, I've been taught by teachers and have encountered some at the public schools my daughter and son have attended who were born to the profession. They're just naturals. They have a gift, and it's hard to imagine them doing anything else.

No, this is not about Invisible Children or Kony 2012!

An Unconventional War is one in a series of nine Transformations movies produced since 1999 by George Otis, a pioneer of the New Apostolic Reformation. In the film, a prayer movement led by Apostle Julius Oyet is credited with weakening Kony's Lord Resistance Army (LRA) and ending a decades-long conflict in Uganda through "spiritual warfare in Jesus name." The 2005 "documentary" claims that: 1) surviving youth were treated by deliverance of demons, 2) parents who prayed hardest got their children back first, and 3) the Acholi of Northern Uganda were fortunate to be forced into interment camps (by the Ugandan government) so they could hear the gospel and be shielded from Islam. Julius Oyet and President Yoweri Museveni are the godly heroes, representing "a unique church-state collaboration" against Kony, the demon-possessed villain.

Yesterday Rachel Maddow interviewed Sen. James Inhofe, whose new book includes the claim that Maddow had attacked Inhofe on one of her shows for his views on climate change.  Maddow asked if he had watched the show, which was not about climate change, but about the Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality bill. She quoted The Family member David Bahati, the bill's author, interviewed by Maddow in 2010. Inhofe responded, "Can you tell me who he is? I've never heard of him. ...I don't have any idea who you're talking about. ...Let's talk about something to do with global warming instead of getting off on these hysterical things."  

Really?