Florida has done it again.  The legislature passed a law that went into effect today protecting the "right to public prayers".

Running for a seat in Oregon's 4th District, Congressional candidate Art Robinson has proposed dumping crude oil waste and radioactive waste at sea, and he advocates that children read a racist 19th Century novel (which Robinson prints and sells.)

Then there's the "Biblical stoning" issue...

Arthur Robinson has lots of ties to the Christian Reconstructionist movement, including being friends with leading Christian Reconstructionist theologian Gary North, who has described execution-by-stoning as a "community project," (rocks are cheap, plentiful, and convenient, North argues.) Art Robinson's Christian homeschooling curriculum even features a 51-minute interview with Christian Reconstructionism's intellectual founder, R. J. Rushdoony. So what is Christian Reconstructionism ? Let's start here:

As Walter Olson began his sardonic "Invitation To A Stoning", published in the November 1998 issue of Reason Magazine,

For connoisseurs of surrealism on the American right, it's hard to beat an exchange that appeared about a decade ago in the Heritage Foundation magazine Policy Review. It started when two associates of the Rev. Jerry Falwell wrote an article which criticized Christian Reconstructionism, the influential movement led by theologian Rousas John (R.J.) Rushdoony, for advocating positions that even they as committed fundamentalists found "scary." Among Reconstructionism's highlights, the article cited support for laws "mandating the death penalty for homosexuals and drunkards." The Rev. Rushdoony fired off a letter to the editor complaining that the article had got his followers' views all wrong: They didn't intend to put drunkards to death.

Christian Reconstructionism has come a long way since then.  

It's really hard to tell whether Youtube poster BillyBobNeck is on the level or not - could his videos be satire ? His 102 videos to date have titles like "murderous gay nazi cannibals," "homobama isn't president," and "Jesus didn't play sports." My favorite so far is BillyBobNeck's video in which he asks,

"What letter does socialism start with ? - "S" What letter does Satan start with ? - "S" What letter does sodomy start with ? - "S" What letter does soccer start with ? - "S" I'm going to give you a great big guess on this ? - It's "S"

Do you think this is some kind of coincidence or something ? Do you really honestly think that because it ain't. It ain't at all. Soccer is against God."

BillyBobNeck goes on to reason that God gave human beings two arms, two legs, and two hands. So, because Soccer players aren't allowed to use their hands it goes against God's plan. I suspect that he's quite serious, but judge for yourself.

[ed - for the fuller context of this story, see Bruce Wilson's Talk To Action story, Christian Book On Manly Aggression Inspires Violent Mexican Fundamentalist Narco-Cult Leader.]

Given the current disturbing growth of the U.S. imperial presidency, you might think this headline was a leak from the bowels of the CIA or the NSA. But in fact, it concerns the dark past of a famous Christian inspirational book author who, at a top-secret anti-gay Colorado conference conference in 1994, outlined a strategy for stripping the rights from an entire segment of American society:

"To the extent we can control our public image, we must never appear to be bigoted or mean-spirited. And you noticed the qualification--- to the extent we can control our public image. We must never APPEAR to be attempting to rob anyone of their rights, of their constitutional rights...

Since his Focus on the Family days John Eldredge has made a major name for himself, along with Rick Warren, in the Christian inspirational book business and his 2001 book Wild at heart: discovering the secret of a man's soul has sold over a million copies.

But the fact that the book has become a key source of inspiration for a ruthless cultic Christian paramilitary fundamentalist crime syndicate that controls  most of the Crystal Meth traffic in the US and is fond of tossing severed heads into Mexican discos suggests John Eldredge's Christian pop psychology oeuvre is not all sweetness and light, and Eldredge's Focus on the Family career reveals a less flattering side to Eldredge's airbrushed persona.

US Supreme Court upholds UC Hastings School of Law prohibition on subsidizing student organizations that practice discrimination.

Many US Catholic dioceses have affilitated foundations - separately incorporated religious non-profits - to make additional funds available to the bishop at a time of dwindling "Sunday collections" and to shelter assets from lawsuits against the diocese. These foundations are eligible for the same tax and nondisclosure benefits available to all religious organization in the US - contributions are tax deductible, earnings such as investment income are tax exempt, no financial reporting is required, no disclosure of where the money comes from or where it goes is necessary.

As a breathless World Net Daily story asks,

"Is there a spiritual, biblical connection to the BP oil catastrophe?

A new video on YouTube is suggesting a possible link to the disaster due to America's recent treatment of Israel, and at least one well-known Bible analyst, Hal Lindsey, thinks there's a valid correlation."

Umm... a "valid correlation," Mr. Lindsey ? Can you attach some statstical parameters to that ? Then there's a competing evangelical "Godly smiting by toxic crude oil" theory, from Black Christian News which claims that "The Gulf catastrophe is in fact a result of Obama pushing a homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage." Well then. But if we're thinking in Biblical terms, wouldn't it be reasonable to ask if God is smiting the Gulf Coast and the Bible Belt because of the region's historically high rates of teen pregnancy, teen births, divorce, sexually transmitted diseases, and infant mortality ?

In a September 2009 television appearance Republican Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul proposed that the American health care system needed a healthy dose of capitalism. In a 1999 letter to the editor of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Daily News, he claimed that public health care is like sending goons to rob your neighbor at gunpoint. Rand Paul has a better idea, which sounds remarkably similar to defeated Nevada Republican Senate primary candidate Sue Lowden's Chicken Health Care Barter Plan

Petraeus, the general who has been mentioned at Talk to Action for seeming support of dominionist activities is in the news as a replacement for leading the effort in Afghanistan and I'm concerned.  

[hat tip to rightwingwatch for catching this one]

"God said a curse would fall on a land which turned its back on him, and one consequence would be more tragic deaths at the hands of predatory animals." - thus spake evangelist Bryan Fischer, referring to a recent deadly bear attack on a 70-year old man in Yellowstone National Forest. Earlier this year, Fischer made waves with his claim that a trainer at SeaWorld in Florida died from a Killer Whale attack because SeaWorld didn't pay proper attention to Biblical scripture. Fischer is a confirmed scheduled speaker at the upcoming Family Research Council's Voter Values Summit. Other confirmed speakers for the event are Mike Huckabee, and Republican Congressional Representatives Michelle Bachmann, and Mike Pence.

Probably the best analytic writing I've come across so far on the Tea Party movement in all its hellish, amorphous complexity is James Scaminaci III's multi-part series at PoliticalChili.com, Origins of the Tea Party Movement [for lists of specific articles in the series see here, and here.] But before getting into Scaminaci's extensive series (which probably should be repackaged as a book) try his analysis, based on a recent poll, of where the Republican Party is currently at, God's Own Party: Republicans May Be Proto-Christian Reconstructionists - what you get from Scaminaci isn't as breathless, snappy, and oh-so-massaged-by-editors a read as you'll get in much of mainstream media analysis but James Scaminaci III keeps his eye on the ball.

A few weeks ago, the British documentary "Saving Africa's Witch Children" was shown on HBO2.  The New York Times published On a Visit to the U.S., a Nigerian Witch-Hunter Explains Herself.  Here on Talk To Action, Christian Dem in NC posted Nigerian preacher promotes child abuse in the name of the Lord.

The witchhunts in Africa are an absolute horror.  Thousands of children have been abandoned or worse -- in some cases tortured, mutilated, or killed -- on suspicion of being witches.

Note that the African witch hunts are NOT purely a resurgence of indigenous African beliefs, but are influenced by today's most rapidly-growing (worldwide) form of Christianity, the independent ("nondenominational") Charismatic churches, especially the "Apostolic and Prophetic" movement within "nondenominational" Christianity. Worse yet, there are close ties between at least some African witch hunters and at least some American religious right wingers. For example, Sarah Palin was "anointed" by Thomas Muthee, an African witch hunter. And there are churches here in the U.S.A. with a similar witch hunt mentality. For example, the well-known now-disgraced former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard used to brag about having driven "witches" out of town.  (About Ted Haggard, see Soldiers of Christ: Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch by Jeff Sharlet, Harper's Magazine, November 2, 2006.  This article includes the following: "He sent teams to pray in front of the homes of supposed witches -- in one month, ten out of fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market. His congregation 'prayer-walked' nearly every street of the city.")

Thomas Muthee and Ted Haggard both are or have been major leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (as has been documented in various posts here by Rachel Tabachnick, Bruce Wilson, and others).  To those here who have been researching the NAR, it would be worthwhile to examine the extent to which the problem of witchhunts in Africa is tied to the NAR networks.