Many are affiliated with Word of Faith International Christian Center run by Keith Butler.

The conflict is between these new churches which preach a prosperity based theme and the traditional black churches which focus on helping the weak though promoting social change and improved equality. Interestingly, the members of the mega-churches still trend Democrat unlike similar demographics in white churches.

Perhaps someone better versed in the issues would like to discuss this?

Hughes response would be funny if it were not so shockingly ignorant of American history. She asked him whether he was aware that

"previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'.

Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and formerly Communist countries, where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O'Connor said we must be ever vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Guess what? The House just passed the very kind of legislation that O'Conner warned us about.

An editorial from today's New York Times discusses a growing body of work that

has shown that the quality of education offered to students varies widely within all school categories. The public, private, charter and religious realms all contain schools that range from good to not so good to downright horrendous.

This point was underscored last week when the United States Education Department released a controversial and long-awaited report comparing public and private schools in terms of student achievement as measured on the federal math and reading tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. As with previous studies, this one debunked the widely held belief that public schools were inferior to their private and religious counterparts. The private schools appeared to have an achievement advantage when the raw scores of students were considered alone. But those perceived advantages melted away when the researchers took into account variables like race, gender and parents' education and income.

Vouchers represent an attempt to blur the "wall" of separation between church and state by diverting tax-payer money, sorely needed for public education, to go to religious schools.

Writes Reid:

opponents of same-sex marriage -- who prefer to call the issue "protection of marriage" -- are confident these days....

yet, supporters of same-sex marriage -- who prefer to call the issue "marriage equality" -- are also optimistic as they look forward to this fall's campaigns. "Attitudes are changing, as people come to see this as a civil rights issue," said Brad Luna, of the Human Rights Campaign....

A nonpartisan poll in Wisconsin last month showed voters evenly split on the issue, with 49 percent favoring such a ban and 48 percent opposed....

Polling in Arizona and Colorado also suggests fairly close divisions....

Beyond that, efforts to put a ban on state ballots are starting to fall short, both in the legislatures and in citizens' initiatives. In eight states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, proposals calling for a ballot referendum banning same-sex marriage failed to pass the legislature this year. In California and Florida, opponents of same-sex marriage were unable to collect enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot this fall.

In Illinois, groups opposing same-sex marriage submitted 347,000 signatures for their ballot proposal, but volunteers who support the unions scrutinized every name and challenged so many that the State Board of Elections refused to certify the proposal. Opponents are appealing that ruling.

So, is the tide turning - as proponents of legal same sex marriage assert ? Or will bans on same sex marriage bew added to the state constitutions of yet more states ?

One aspect of this conflict has received almost no media notice whatsoever regardless of its centrality to the debate. As I've recently written here on Talk To Action, after two years of legal same sex marriage in Massachusetts the traditional family is doing better, perhaps, than anywhere in the US [ see : Christian Right Wrong On Gay Marriage in Massachusetts ]

Some possibilities:

   1. A cynical use of a hot-button issue by those seeking power or wealth. This can include both religious leaders as well as politicians.

   2. A deeply felt personal belief by certain religious individuals that homosexuality is a "sin".

   3. A fear that the hierarchical nature of families will be disrupted. That is the father will no longer be, automatically, the one who controls things.

Discussion of each point below.

As Michael Stewart of the Pensacola News Journal reports:

"Of the 58 charges, 44 were filed against Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, for evading bank reporting requirements as they withdrew $430,500 from AmSouth Bank between July 20, 2001, and Aug. 9, 2002.

....."I still don't understand what I'm being charged for and who is charging me," he [ Hovind ] said.

Kent Hovind, who often calls himself "Dr. Dino," has been sparring with the IRS for at least 17 years on his claims that he is employed by God, receives no income, has no expenses and owns no property."

But, as Ed Brayton drily observes, on Dispatches From The Culture Wars:

"Now I'm no fan of the IRS, an agency I would just as soon didn't exist. But the law is the law and Hovind has been flagrantly violating it for a very long time. The fact that he thinks, or claims to think, that he doesn't really have to pay taxes doesn't budge reality any more than his belief that the world is 6000 years old makes it so."

The Pensacola News Journal article quotes an especially pithy statement from Hovind:

"No one has ever observed a dog produce a non-dog," Hovind once wrote in reply to a New York Times article.

Comedy aside, there is an element to this story that will probably be missed : observers from the mainstream and American left like to laugh at the more colorful characters who populate the Christian right of which Hovind is certainly one - and revel in their downfall. But, buttoned down and sober leaders such as D. James Kennedy draw little attention and - for that - have the greatest effect, and the comedic element the Kent Hovins of the Christian right movement can serve to give the impression that the movement is populated by silly bumpkins who in the end will get their comeuppance.

As a counterpoint to such perceptions, let me recommend the following document, a strategic panaroma of the multiple and interlocking movements that comprise the Christian right:

The Big Picture: A Surprise-laden Survey of the 30 Foremost Movements of God in America