U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KA) is forming an exploratory committee to run in the 2008 GOP presidential primary. "Brownback seeks something far more radical [than George Bush]: not faith-based politics but faith in place of politics,"  claims journalist Jeff Sharlet :

In his dream America, the one he believes both the Bible and the constitution promise, the state will simply wither away. In its place will be a country so suffused with God and the free market that the social fabric of the last hundred years -- schools, Social Security, welfare -- will be privatized or simply done away with. There will be no abortions; sex will be confined to heterosexual marriage. Men will lead families, mothers will tend children, and big business and the church will take care of all.

The midterm election is barely over and the religious far right is already acting out over incoming Minnesota Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison's stated intention to be sworn in using the Koran rather than the Bible.

Ellison, the first member of the Islamic faith to be elected to the United States Congress has served in the Minnesota Legislature. His desire to use the Koran at his swearing-in ceremony has apparently caused great consternation and hand wringing among some of the luminaries of the religious and not so religious right. Fox News' Sean Hannity, famous for making mole hills appear as mountains could not pass up an opportunity to dig in to this nonsensical non issue last week.

His invited guest was a guy named Dennis Prager who I am told has a right wing talk-show in Los Angeles, I envision the type of show that Donald Fagin sang of in "Night Fly."

"So you say there's a race of men in the trees, I wait all night for calls like these." Donald Fagin

I will probably never understand what motivates these people to worship the symbols and trappings of a particular religious faith rather than the substance, the core, the Deity. I would think it should be obvious to the fateful that it is Nature's God that is the object of worship not the icons, the bones of the Saints, nor the pot shards of religious history.

But no, this crowd lives on symbolism, Jesus on the dashboard, eat a flag for breakfast, pray loudly in the streets and beat your breast in public so that you may be seen as pious, among the pious. of (In spite of Christ's admonition against such behavior)

Religion aside it is a bit disturbing that after so many years and so much debate that they are still unable to read and understand The Constitution of the United States of America.

It seems to me that somewhere in that document it is clearly stated that the Constitution itself is an establishment of the People of the United States, yes now I remember clearly, it's in the preamble:

"We the people of the United States, in order to for more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

It might be noticed that there is no mention of God, Allah, Yahweh, Jesus, Buddha, nor any others among history's pantheon of available deities. Also notice that there is no mention of God as the establishing authority as the Jimmy Swaggart, Falwell, Robertson, Parsley, Tammy Faye shoofly pie, down home revival wing of American thought would have us believe.

So, Christmas is coming again, huh? I was just remarking to my EfM group last night that I don't think I've experienced a single Christmas where I wasn't either a teacher or a student. Or if I did, I was probably a very new parent at the time. So at the time when I hear others talking about how they've done all their shopping already, or are at very least finishing it up, I'm in the midst of end-of-the-quarter/semester frenzy. "Soon..." I will quietly reassure myself. "Soon, I will be finished with what I'm working on, and will be able to turn my attention to the holidays."


But at the point when I am finally able to do that, some two weeks out from Christmas, all the ads are urging me to check out some "last minute gift ideas".

George Barna is in a snit again.

The title of the  Evangelical pollster's latest report tells why: "Major Christian Leaders Are Widely Unknown, Even Among Christians."

Earlier this fall Barna, president of The Barna Group, was stunned to learn that only one in six Americans knew that Rosie O'Donnell had "verbally assault(ed)" Christians when she said on her daily NBC talk show that "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like the United States."

Now the California-based sociologist and researcher has discovered "that Christianity is losing its grip on American culture."

The following is from a talk by Gene Robinson to the Center for American Progress, on the topic of Working for Justice and the Common Good. It took place on the third anniversary of his becoming the bishop of New Hampshire. Initially, I was thinking I would just try to summarize it, but there is a lot of good stuff here, so I ended up largely transcribing about the first third of it. Will share more in a future post, and in the some of the parts toward the end of the talk/interview, I'll have more of my own thoughts to share.

In a review in Wired Magazine, Clive Thompson says the game is surprisingly good, given its premise:

When efforts to teach Intelligent Design in the public school system hit a brick wall, the determined simply go around. 

 

Today’s Columbus Dispatch tells how students at The Upper Arlington High School now have the option of choosing independent studies in  English and/or history courses this fall to  provide a "classical Christian education."  Though state funds are not used students, who meet in a nearby Baptist church, do receive high school credit. The teachers are non accredited, raising all kinds of red flags. But school administrators see no problems with the program.

The Department of Health and Human Services was sued on November 10 for records relating to funding of crisis-pregnancy centers, according to the legal site, NewsInferno.com.
The action was brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) , a watchdog group that says HHS is refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests it filed on August 4, 2006, for records relating to "pregnancy center" funding.

Whoa! With a MAJOR HAT-TIP TO MYDD for this news, check this out, from the Sioux City-based daily newspaper:

A day after the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections, Woodbury County Republican Chairman Steve Salem had harsh words for his own party, lambasting the influence of the conservative Christian right wing.

Salem said he coined a new phase: "You've heard of IslamaFascists -- I think we now have Christian fascists. What is the definition of a fascist? Not only do they want to beat you, but they want to destroy you in the process."

James Dobson dedicated the Monday morning edition of his radio show, Focus on the Family to the Ted Haggard affair.  He and three guests, Albert Mohler, Ravi Zacharias, and H.B. London, discussed the fall-out of the scandal and its impact on Haggard, his family, his church, and the wider Evangelical community.

For once, I am not going to comment on what Dobson and his pals said.  It's what they didn't say that is the most illuminating aspect of their conversation.

In spite of David Kuo's recent book "Tempting Faith" that exposes the Bush Administration's and RNC's disingenuous, contemptuous exploitation of evangelicals, the right-wing evangelicals seem once again ready to partake of the same befouled communion ahead of the 2006 elections. An overlooked story as America goes to the polls for a hard self-examination over the next week is the Rove-Mehlman strategy to target not only close battleground races with their theocratic believers but also to employ them to pick off vulnerable Democratic or gerrymandered districts in their own stomping ground, the Bible Belt. In Georgia and Alabama, for instance, where local polls run contrary to the rest of the country in support of Bush and the Iraq War, the focus is to balance House losses in other areas with gains against Democratic incumbents in rural districts. Indeed, while Bush is shunned by all but the most desperate Republicans running for office nationwide, he has made several stops on behalf of rural Republican candidates in the South. The target audience -- the evangelical flock.