The growth of the lending industries has been unprecedented in the past 30 years. More people than ever have borrowed more money and at higher rates than ever before.

In the "good old days" people had a mortgage on their home and perhaps car payments and that was it. Now people have credit card debt and various other types of loans including second mortgages and paycheck loans.

A video that will be broadcast the weekend of August 26/27 on several stations (mostly Christian broadcast stations) aims to blame evolution for the Holocaust -- to draw a cultural connection from Darwin to Hitler.

This post aims at examining the logic of that implication and, in particular, at what the attempt to make such a connection says about the moral character of those who would try to make it.

For the second time in less than a month, radical right leaders (those champions of family values) have used the family of a political candidate as a target for attack. In late July it was the shameful questioning of the sexual orientation of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and his wife. The most recent attack has taken place in Arkansas at the hands of the American Family Association.  Rep. Snyder's wife is a Methodist minister, but because she doesn't subscribe to their intolerant world-view, she's a target for smear.  Check out a post over at Faith in Public Life for the AFA email.  

The AFA can't come right out and campaign against Rep. Snyder, so they attack his wife's theology to fire up their base as election season approaches. As usual, the willingness of these groups to manipulate religion for partisan gain seems to know no bounds.

Richard Bartholomew covers this significant breaking story :

D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries is preparing its latest volley in the war against science: a new TV programme which will show that Charles Darwin was responsible for Adolf Hitler. WND reports (link added):

"This show basically is about the social effects of Darwinism, and shows this idea, which is scientifically bankrupt, has probably been responsible for more bloodshed than anything else in the history of humanity," Jerry Newcomb[e], one of two co-producers, told WorldNetDaily.

 ...Co-producer Jerry Newcomb[e] said before the advent of Darwinian beliefs, the basic concept was that man was made in the image of God, and was therefore valuable. But Darwin changed all that.

The story originally was broken by Ron Brynaert of RAW STORY :

An upcoming television special produced by a Christian broadcaster that features conservative pundit Ann Coulter blames Charles Darwin for Adolf Hitler, RAW STORY has learned.

"Author and Christian broadcaster Dr. D. James Kennedy connects the dots between Charles Darwin and Adolf Hitler in Darwin's Deadly Legacy, a groundbreaking inquiry into Darwin's chilling social impact," announces a press release issued by Florida's Coral Ridge Ministries. "The new television documentary airs nationwide on August 26 and 27 on The Coral Ridge Hour."

"To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler," says Dr. Kennedy.

But, Richard Bartholomew adds - via Pharyngula - a significant aspect to this story. Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project, appears in ( in some fashion ) in the new "documentary" but Collins, according to Pharyngula, may be less than happy with that fact.

Writes Bartholomew:

Collins did not wish for his written response to become public, but

...He's unambiguous in stating that he was interviewed about his book, and that was then inserted into the video without his knowledge.

Stay tuned.

As the National Center For Science Education reports, a new organization called HOPE for Ohio Education

"...is seeking to unseat a member of the board of education who was at the forefront of efforts to compromise the treatment of evolution in the state science standards. Speaking to the Columbus Dispatch (August 12, 2006), HOPE's chair, Lawrence M. Krauss of Case Western University, explained, "We hope to raise the profile of school-board elections ... We've seen in Ohio and Kansas how significant these elections can be.".... HOPE is [ alao ] targeting Deborah Owens-Fink, who represents the Seventh State Board District.... Krauss contended that Owens-Fink "has systematically worked to dilute and distort the teaching of science in the state.".... HOPE expects to recruit Tom Sawyer -- a former teacher, mayor of Akron, and member of Congress -- to challenge Owens-Fink in the November 2006 election."

[ cross posted on We Unite Ohio ]

Deacon Tim's excellent piece on Anglican orthodoxy ("Babies, Anglicans, and the End of the Reformation") alludes briefly to a meme that seems to be gaining currency in progressive religious circles -- and probably shouldn't be.

The notion that fundamentalists have more babies, and will thus win in the end by sheer force of numbers, is one that they've been gleefully promulgating among their own faithful for the past couple years. We, however, should not be helping that idea take legs and spread into the mainstream, because it's probably only "truthy" at best.

Doctor's For Life International win Constitutional Challenge in South African Courts

I, for one, am really glad that the "orthodox Anglicans" have finally come out of their Papist closets and told us that, not only do they think some people (women, gays and lesbians) are not full members of the Body of Christ, but that the Bible commands Christians to have lots of babies.

Researcher John Gorenfeld [ link to his website ] has dug up this rather striking CSPAN clip, from 1984, in which Unification Church head Rev. Sun Myung Moon boasts that:

Several hundred million dollars have been poured into America because this nation will decide the destiny of the world. These contributions are primarily coming from overseas.

A Kenyan bishop who helped spread Satanic panic in the 1990s wants Kenya's national museum to move hominoid fossils from pride of place, on grounds that they conflict with Christian doctrine.

Ethics Daily ran my latest article today, which is entitled "Signers of Environmental Statement Funded by ExxonMobil." It deals with signers of the recent Interfaith Stewardship Alliance statement on the environment, which downplayed concerns about climate change.

The Alliance of Baptists was one of many religious groups that criticized the Bush Administration's new humanitarian aid policies toward Cuba. Now comes news that the Treasury Department has fined the Alliance $34,000 over some visits to Cuba for "allegedly engaging in tourist activities while in Cuba for religious purposes -- a charge the Alliance denies." I have some important questions at Blog from the Capital, but we can start here: what does "full-time religious activities" mean?