Since it's only two weeks from Halloween, I made my usual foray into Christian Right Country to find out what their plans are for this Halloween. I don't know where to be sad or just bored that there is nothing original to report. The same folks are still claiming that if you let your child dress up as Spiderman or a Disney princess and collect candy from the neighbors, that child will wind up killing cats and murdering babies as offerings to his or her Dark Master Darth Vader--er,  Lucifer. Or at the very least they'll end up sneaking copies of Harry Potter books which will lead them into corruption and Satanism, with usual cat killing and baby murdering  along the way. You do get the usually advice that you should give out Jack tracts warning of the dangers of Halloween (dead cats and babies,  and eternal damnation, natch) to the poor misguided innocents who expect candy, not a cheesy cartoon pamphlet designed to lure them into Dominionism .  Funny how these people are always screaming "parental rights" when it comes to their kid being exposed to the theory of evolution or accurate info on birth control and STI prevention--but have no qualms about foisting their values on the children of people who don't buy into their rather unpleasant version of Christianity.

Yawn.

I thought I had nothing to write about this year, and then I remembered something that gave me chills.  Back in 91-94, we were living in Brunswick, ME, and we often visited friends near Boston. One afternoon, we decided to head over to Salem. There are number of great museums  there, from the House of the Seven Gables, where Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestor and one of the judges of the witchcraft trials, lived to the Peabody Essex Museum, home to  many exhibits of historical interest but particularly rich in the China Trade. The first time we went we concentrated on that museum  and having a  late lunch. We avoided the more touristy aspects like the plague.

In 2010, Liberty University got more federal funding than the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In a 2011 Talk To Action story, contributor Bill Berkowitz covered the new trend in which right-wing evangelical colleges and universities were vacuuming up federal dollars. Berkowitz focused on the late-Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, which promotes Young-Earth creationism.
Wrote Berkowitz,

""I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved

This year, the fortieth anniversary of Liberty University, Rev. Falwell's dream -- now being looked after by his son Jerry Jr. -- has become a reality thanks in large part to America's taxpayers.

Founded by Falwell in 1971, Liberty University, which according to its website is "the largest and fastest growing Christian Evangelical university in the world" and "the largest private university in Virginia," is "celebrating 40 Years of Training Champions for Christ."

Liberty U. receives massive government aid

During the last fiscal year alone, Liberty received about $445 million in federal financial aid money, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Over the past few years, Liberty University has raked in so much taxpayer money from the federal government that is now ranked among the top ten universities in the United States receiving federal dollars. It is also Virginia's top recipient of federal money.

In a 2009 piece for RH Reality Check titled "Why is the Federal Government Supporting Evangelism?", Eleanor J. Bader pointed out that LU's [Jesse] Helms School of Government "crows that it turns out 'Christ-centered leaders, able to apply God's word in every area of life.' What's more, LU's webpage showcases its mission, promising students an 'action-oriented curriculum dedicated to world evangelism and repudiation of political correctness.'

"Not sure what that means? The site explains: 'A strong commitment to political conservatism, total rejection of socialism, and firm support for America's economic system of free enterprise.'"

Since it doesn't get much more religiously oriented than Liberty University, a fair question to ask is: Should a private sectarian institution be receiving federal funds?"

Pope Francis' recent statements urging restraint by the Catholic Church on hot-button issues is a hopeful sign that he may be looking to modify the Church's behavior in the political sphere.  His words are likely a reaction to the hierarchy's tendency of late to identify with the political right and to use doctrinal litmus tests for determining the loyalty of Catholics. If one wants a true indicator of Francis' real intentions, however, it might be best to go beyond the general tone of his remarks and explore how much he seems to agree or disagree in specific instances with the worldview of his hard-line predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. In particular, where does he stand, as far as can be determined, on the broad issue of secularism in modern society, a favorite preoccupation of Benedict's.

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if the vile behavior of the likes of Westboro Baptist Church may be on the verge of becoming mainstream for the religious right.  After all, you had two "mainstream" fundie leaders encourage their followers to engage in tactics straight out of Fred Phelps' playbook.  Gordon Klingenschmitt suggested that born-again photographers who work LGBT weddings ought to deface the pictures with Romans 1:32, and Kevin Swanson called for Christian cake decorators to write Leviticus 20:13 on LGBT wedding cakes.

Well, we may be getting yet more proof that Phelps' behavior is gaining more acceptance--or at the very least, more mainstream fundie leaders are willing to condone it.  Yesterday, one of the more popular fundie radio hosts and speakers, Dave Daubenmire, noted how often fundies join the chorus of criticism of Phelps' actions, and suggested that they should back off because he may be doing what God tells him to do.  For good measure, Daubenmire also said that born-agains have no business speaking out against Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones either--after all, he may be just obeying God.  Watch here.

 

There is so much wrong with this that I don't know where to start.  Is Daubenmire saying that we shouldn't speak out against a guy who finds it acceptable to picket the funerals of kids?  And is he saying that we shouldn't speak out against a guy who not only thinks it's OK to burn the Quran--especially during Ramadan, which would be like burning a Bible on Easter or Christmas--but to put an effigy of Obama hanging from a noose in front of his church?

This video seems even more dense considering Daubenmire's background.  Daubenmire was a longtime high school football coach in Ohio, his last stop being in London, south of Columbus.  I would expect such head-in-the-sand commentary to come from someone who spent his career in the fundie bubble, not someone who spent so much time in the secular world.  

Then again, considering Daubenmire's past, something this warped isn't as surprising. Starting in the early 1990s, he came under fire for forcing his players to take part in religious activities.  The ACLU sued the school district in 1999.  Just before the case was to go to trial, the school district and ACLU reached a settlement in which the high school's principal was required to report any complaints about religious indoctrination to both the school board AND the ACLU until 2001.  Under the agreement, any violations could have been reported to the federal court in Columbus and resulted in citations for contempt.  And yet, Daubenmire claims he won.  Talk2Action's Bruce Wilson also reports that Daubenmire filed a libel suit against a group of seven parents and faculty members who spoke out against him, and lost.  And it turns out that Daubenmire has taken part in Koran burnings himself.  

We already knew the religious right is increasingly becoming a ghost from the past.  But if they really are starting to think Phelps and Jones' behavior is even remotely OK, then this movement really has become a cartoon.

Wrote one Talk To Action site member, back in July

"Terry Jones, the jackass preacher who has moved to this county, is now planning another Koran-burning.

His plans are to burn 3000 Korans on the property of a Bill McKinney (a name to check on) on September 11.

I suspect his core motivation is to get more people killed..."

But, it was not to be. Not this time, at least.

As we all know, Westboro Baptist Church is supposedly persona non grata even among the religious right.  But recent statements by two supposedly mainstream religious right leaders have me wondering if Fred Phelps' behavior may be on the verge of becoming mainstream practice.

First, Gordon Klingenschmitt--best known as the yayhoo ex-Navy chaplain who got drummed out for wearing his uniform at a White House protest--suggested that born-again photographers who work at LGBT weddings ought to write Romans 1:32 and other anti-gay Scriptures on the pictures.  hen a few days later, Kevin Swanson of Generations with Vision, who operates one of the most popular fundie podcasts, said that born-again cakemakers ought to write Leviticus 20:13 on the cakes of any LGBT weddings--in effect, telling them to die.

 

If a photographer or cakemaker were to take either of these "reverends'" advice, he or she better have a lawyer on speed dial, as well as a backup plan for his or her finances.  Either sort of behavior is a business-destroying lawsuit waiting to happen.  About the only reason I can think of for why Klingenschmitt and Swanson would even think this is a good idea is so the defendant in the inevitable lawsuit could claim he or she was just expressing his religious views, so therefore what he or she was doing was protected under the First Amendment.  But the closest parallel I can draw is to someone who didn't like how he or she was treated at a store and decided to vandalize it.

I see no difference whatsoever between defacing someone's wedding pictures or wedding cake and picketing someone's funeral.  None, zip, zero.  And yet, we've seen a lot of signs of desperation on the fundie front because the fundies know they're losing this battle, and losing it big.  How else do you describe fundies rushing to the defense of Arthur A. Goldberg, a guy who is being sued for running a conversion therapy outlet that swindled and degraded its clients?  In a previous life, Goldberg was the mastermind behind one of the worst financial frauds of the 1980s, in which he sold billions of dollars in fraudulent municipal bonds to impoverished communities with large minority populations.

Poor Terry Jones.  He has to find a new location, as the original site for his Koran burning is flooded and isn't expected to be usable in time for his plans to deliberately offend Muslims.

Earlier today, I found a real lulu of an article in Charisma magazine penned by Cindy Jacobs.  In her latest piece, Jacobs muses on what to do about how to combat ungodly influences in our cities.  Her solution?  Lay siege to them through prayer.

The army of God is on the move and ready for battle strategy. A new breed of watchmen is emerging across the nations. This breed is ready to lay siege to its cities.

Ezekiel 4 gives a prophetic pattern for establishing the lordship of Christ in your area. Ezekiel was called of God to perform an intercessory act over the city of Jerusalem, much like Joshua when he was called to march around Jericho. Ezekiel's prophetic intercession provides a model—with principles found throughout the Word of God—on how to intercede for a city against spiritual strongholds.

It may look innocuous, but you have to remember that Jacobs and others of her ilk believe that in order for Jesus to come back, Christians must take over all aspects of our culture.  So when Jacobs is calling for intercession against "strongholds," she is calling for her followers to pray against anything and anyone who isn't under "submission" to those of her ilk.

How are they supposed to do it?  According to Jacobs, there are four steps.  First, make a map of the "strongholds" in a city, set a strategy to intercede for the city, implement it, and build a "wall of protection" around it.  

As part of this strategy, "watchmen" should be placed at various points to "spy out, research and harass the enemy through intercession."  This is all too familiar to me.  For those who don't know, during my freshman year at Carolina I was tricked into joining a campus ministry affiliated with one of the more notorious dominionist/NAR outfits, Every Nation (which is itself a repackaging--or at least a linear descendant--of one of the more notorious campus cults of the 1980s, Maranatha Campus Ministries).  They believed that God had "strategically" placed Christians all around the campus.  Although it was never said, it was strongly implied that we were supposed to befriend people only with the purpose of converting them.

As anyone who's delved into these people knows who Jacobs thinks the enemy is.  This is a woman who once declared war on separation of church and state and once said this country was in for a major "shaking" unless it elected more Republicans.