I have been writing an ongoing series in regards to the troubling subject of religiously motivated child abuse--one of the darker secrets of the dominionist community--starting with an article regarding one of the five to fifteen or more reported deaths a year in the US attributable to religiously motivated child abuse and which are largely summarised in a wrap-up here.  Some of these cases are truly horrifying--including kids being shuttled to multiple locations for continuation of abuse and even some of the very parties legally required to report such abuse being some of the perpetrators.

The folks behind Stop The Rod have been some of the best folks around at exposing this dirty secret of dominionism and keeping the promoters of "Bible-based baby-beating" from sweeping the subject--and the occasional corpse, and the scores more psychically and physically wounded from this--under the rug.  Among other things, they were among some of the first to do an expose of the works from the Pearls now linked to the death of a child, and have done valuable work in also exposing the promotion of religiously motivated child abuse by Tedd Tripp (whose methods in some ways are even more abusive than the Pearls'!), Richard Fugate, Reb Bradley (who at times literally commits plagarism of Fugate's baby-beating manuals), Lisa Welchel (who became quite infamous when she promoted the use of "hot saucing"--placing hot-sauces and extracts--on the tongues of small children for things like "sassing"; Tabasco's manufacturers (McIlheny Inc.) and Texas Pete's makers both issued statements calling the practice "strange and scary" and giving strong warnings about it) and has a heartbreaking and horrifying story from a survivor of--and the main test subject for--Roy Lessin's baby-beating books.

And now the folks at Stop The Rod have begun their same stellar work at exposing abuse from probably the most well known name in religiously motivated child abuse--none other than Dr. James Dobson.

Yes, that Dr. Dobson.  As in the guy behind "Focus on the Family" Dobson.  Sit tight--this is going to be a heck of a ride.  

Back in July, as Max Blumental noted, the US Rep. for Colorado Tom Tancredo agreed with a radio caller who hinted darkly at an alleged Catholic plot to swamp US Protestant culture with a "Catholic human tidal wave" from south of the border:

During a July 19th appearance on American Family Radio, anti-immigration movement figurehead and potential 2008 GOP presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo of Littleton, Colorado, made his anti-Catholic sentiments explicit. Responding to a caller's suggestion that Catholics have a surreptitious plan to cultivate political hegemony in the US by ushering in waves of Catholic immigrants across open borders, Tancredo lays into Catholics and concluded that the caller "does have a point."

Talk To Action member Big Daddy Weave details [ see link above ] the fanatical internecine ideological purges ongoing in the Southern Baptist Convention.

A few choice quotes from Big Daddy Weave's bestiary:

Fellow Southern Baptist to assume there are no liberals amongst us is a most naive and dangerous assumption. There are. And they would like nothing better than for us to lower the standard of inerrancy under the guise of widening the tent.
    -Dr. Bradley Reynolds, Professor of Christian Education, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (August 2, 2006)

It appears that the disgruntled moderates and liberals within the SBC have simply regrouped and revised their strategy. Now, it seems that they have cloaked themselves under the veil of conservativism." They say that they are conservatives, that they believe in inerrancy, and that they were for the Conservative Resurgence. Then, they turn around and say that they want the SBC to become more "cooperative" with other "conservatives" that do not affirm inerrancy; they are constantly criticizing the SBC, the IMB Board ofTrustees, conservative leaders in the Resurgence, the BF&M, and they portray the Conservative Resurgence as some kind of "denominational takeover," etc., etc., etc. Obviously, the "handwriting" appears to be identical to that of the moderates and liberals from the past - those that want the SBC to take a "leftward" turn theologically. It appears that they want to sew discord within the SBC and either "widen the tent" or burn it to the ground! I, for one, am fed up with the antics of these liberals and moderates - BTW, this includes those who refer to themselves as "conservatives" in a very "liberal" sort of way -- within the SBC.
    -Jeremy Green, Senior Pastor of Second Baptist Church, Waco TX

Liberals, liberals everywhere..... they look and sound so much like conservatives then they turn out to be liberals ! - So one has to be very, very careful !

I had found some very interesting info in researching Focus on the Family's status as a charity (in relation to a Dark Christianity thread on how FotF hasn't shipped promotional material to people (they had allowed persons to literally get FotF materials for free, or for "donations" of a token amount ranging from one cent on up); one of the queries I had was if this could potentially trigger investigations of FotF's "charity" status by state Attorneys-General).

What I found was, to put it mildly, very interesting indeed.  There are some rather substantial irregularities in FotF's tax exempt status and some definite hanky-panky going on with how they are soliciting collections in the first place.

EDIT: I now have included forms and instructions on how to file your own complaint to the IRS. See below.

[ UPDATE : is this bill just about religious displays in literal "public squares" ? NO it is vastly farther reaching. H.R. 2679 is designed to gut the Establishment Clause, to render it largely meaningless. See text of bill, below.]

H.R. 2679 has emerged from the House Judiciary Committee and is ready to hit the floor. What is H.R. 2679 designed to do ? Well, it's designed to defund plaintiffs in Establishment Clause cases by eliminating awards for attorney's fees. What will that mean ? Well, let's take a case that's not hypothetical at all, a real incident.

So - for example - if you're a Jewish family living in Southern Delaware and you complain about the rather blatant and exclusionary promotion of Christianity in the local public school and you and your family are subsequently harassed and your children called "Christ killers", subject to death threats, and eventually hounded out of town ( and along the way you have to sell your house of 18 years under duress ), the point of the law is to make it harder for you to seek some sort of legal redress.  

The Akron Beacon Journal reports today, September 13, on the latest wrinkle in the Ohio school board controversy. The board did not discuss or vote on proposed changes to Ohio's science curriculum, the ""controversial issues template" that appeared designed to insinuate the teaching of Intelligent Design into Ohio's public schools.

Indeed, the public outcry over tactics by one faction of the Ohio school board faction that appears to support ID, oppose stem cell research, and question the science of Global Warming seems to have moved the board to spend its two hour meeting on Monday erasing fake references Global Warming and stem cell research

that were surruptiously added to the official minutes of the board's last meeting in July. A tape recording from the July meeting reveals those subjects were never discussed, and references to them were later secretly added. On Monday the official record was once again altered - this time more publicly - to expunge the fake references from the July record and thus erase official evidence of the attempted deceit.

No, Starbucks didn't literally come out against birth control. They merely have printed a special line of coffee cups with a quote from an "intelligent design" advocate, and that quote doesn't even get directly at the heart of the matter, it's oblique. Here's the quote:

The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we respond to this simple but profound question: Does every human life have equal moral value simply and merely because it is human? Answer yes, and we have a chance of achieving universal human rights. Answer no, and it means that we are merely another animal in the forest.

- Wesley Smith
  senior fellow with the Discovery Institute

Well and good but for a for wee points.

But, before I begin let me note that Starbucks magically lets itself off the hook with the following disclaimer, found on their website :

In the tradition of coffee houses everywhere, Starbucks has always supported a good, healthy discussion. To get people talking, "The Way I See It" is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on our widely shared cups.

So, an op-ed coffee cup ?  Hmmm.  Meanwhile.....

YWAM has funded the creation of ABC's new "The Path To 9-11" 'propagandamentary' ( or 'mockumentary' ) that ABC/Disney plans to air Monday night.

But, YWAM has its fingers in many pies, and one of those pies is Ohio.

YWAM has partnered in an evangelism campaign with "Patriot Pastor" leader Rod Parsley's "Reformation Ohio" project to the tune of 10 million dollars.
( thanks to Talk To Action member Darwin for the tip

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty joined 14 other religious organizations in opposing Section 590 of the Defense Authorization bill that passed the House.

When military personnel are required to attend public events at which a chaplain offers a prayer--as opposed to the voluntary attendance of military at religious services--it makes sense for the prayer to be inclusive and non-denominational. That principle reflects the current state of military guidelines and is supported by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces.

But, tacking Section 590 onto the Defense Authorization bill, the House has decided to get involved in this careful balance,  empowering chaplains to pray sectarian prayers even at events at which military attendance is mandatory.

The statement in opposition to this portion of the legislation, signed by the Baptist Joint Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, The Episcopal Church and many other religious organizations, includes the following (you can read the entire statement at Blog from the Capital):

On the occasion a prayer is called for in a large-group setting or "command ceremony" where attendance may not be voluntary however, chaplains should pray in a more inclusive manner. If a chaplain does not feel comfortable offering a non-sectarian, inclusive prayer in such a setting, he or she should have the right to refuse to participate without negative consequences.

The House language shows a lack of respect for the diversity of religious beliefs in our military. It is common courtesy to pray in as inclusive a manner as one's faith tradition permits when praying during a multi-faith gathering, particularly when attendance is compulsory.

Incredibly, there is a Religious Right twist to the ABC/Disney 9/11 mini-series. Walt Disney must be turning in his grave.

The director of the series, David Cunningham founded The Film Institute as an offshoot of an evangelical organization, Youth With A Mission.  And guess what?  David happens to be the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission.

Apparently, the "mission" of this stellar new film company is to begin the godly transformation of Hollywood. Guess they're not exactly into Truth, as the bible would have it.

One of the advisors to the film is John Miller, former ABC correspondent, author of The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It, and . . .Mr. Miller also serves in the current bush Administration as as the assistant director of public affairs for the FBI.

One more thing;  Youth With A Mission is a huge financial backer of none other than Rod Parsley's Reformation Ohio

Path to 9/11 the propaganda piece that may or may not air on ABC next Tuesday, is a project of a group I haven't seen mentioned here before, YMAW or Youth With A Mission.  The source behind this pig with lipstick was a mystery till some of us at Kos did a little research into the background of the director, David Cunningham.