Bush liaison to conservative evangelicals resigns over repeatedly plagiaizing from other work  

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Lee Russ, of the Watching the Watchers website pointed out that earlier this month in one of his Saturday morning addresses, President Bush "tout[ed] the quality of his nominees":

One of the most important jobs of any president is to find good men and women to lead government agencies, preside over our courts and provide vital services to the American people.

So I have nominated talented individuals for these positions.

WatchingtheWatchers.org went on to remind us of the many "Bush appointees and other White House warriors who left under a cloud or face conflict-of-interest allegations" (see below for more).

Add Tim Goeglein, Bush's much celebrated but little known liaison to conservative evangelical Christians, to that list.  While Claude Allen, the president's former domestic policy adviser was relieved of his duties after stealing stuff from --and making phony returns to discount department stores -- Goeglein evidently was in the word-stealing business.    

In a radical departure from traditional Baptist protocol, Richard Land stated in a recent speech, "What we should want as Baptists, is maximum accommodation."  Land is head of the religious liberty branch of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Christian conservative movement not 'on its deathbed,' says Bishop Harry Jackson

Despite the President Bush's record low approval ratings and the conservative movement's recent floundering, as of Sunday, February 24, three conservative books -- "An Inconvenient Book" by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe, "Real Change" by Newt Gingrich with Vince Haley and Rick Tyler, and "Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg -- were on the New York Times best-seller list. In less than ten days, another conservative tome will be published: "Personal Faith, Public Policy" by Harry Jackson and Tony Perkins,  the head of the Washington, DC-based lobbying group, the Family Research Council.  

Jackson, the founder and Chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and the author of a number of books including "The Warriors Heart: Rules of Engagement for the Spiritual War Zone," used his Monday, February 25 column Townhall.com column both to boost the sagging morale of the Religious Right, and to promote his forthcoming book.

In a piece titled "The GOP Needs Political Viagra," Jackson argued that: 1) despite the "lack of political passion and enthusiasm of the conservative movement," and despite the mainstream media's predilection for burying the Religious Right, the movement is not at death's door; and 2) the Religious Right is actually growing.

"Personal Faith, Public Policy," due out on March 4, provides, according to Jackson,  a clear "blue print for positive, visionary involvement in the political process."

U.S. Christian Zionists backing former Israeli Prime Minister

Joel C. Rosenberg, a best-selling author and one-time aide to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recently reported on his blog that the head of the Likud Party was "waiting in the wings, talking tough on Gaza and Iran, saying [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert should strike hard and fast with 'disproportionate force' against Palestinian terrorists."  

Of major importance to Rosenberg and other Christian Zionists is Netanyahu's opposition to any peace accord that would divide Jerusalem. "We must not repeat this mistake [of the South Lebanon and Gaza withdrawals]," Netanyahu said on Jan. 21. "This time we're going to have an Iranian base facing Jerusalem and the Dan Bloc, which includes Tel Aviv. We have to prevent Iran's armament and not let it establish new bases on our territory."

     I happened upon the Wittenburg Door web site and came across a video that almost caused me to fall off my chair.  By the way, this site has the best article on school prayer I have ever seen, a lengthy historical update on the issue.  The article is writted by editor John Bloom.  The Christian satire site had up a video feed from Bishop Eddie Long.  Long is one of the prosperity gospel evangelists being investigated by Senator Charles Grassley.  I am recovering from meningitis and had wanted to post a comment about Long's tape and link it to religious right concepts on sex as I started to feel better. I am making such an attempt now.

The disgraced Ted Haggard wants an end to his "restoration" process, but a New Life Church official says the process is `incomplete'

On the same day it was reported that Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson had endorsed the candidacy of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, one of Dobson's previously anointed was also in the news.

"A year after [Ted] Haggard agreed to enter counseling with four ministers after his sex scandal, he asked to end the team's oversight of his recovery program," The Christian Post reported last week. "But New Life Church officials believe the termination of the relationship is premature."

In November 2006, Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and was fired from the New Life Church, the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based church he had founded, "after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship," the Post reported. "Haggard confessed to undisclosed `sexual immorality' and to buying methamphetamine."

At the time, Haggard said: "The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life."

Now, the man who in 2005 was listed by Time magazine as one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America, is claiming he is far enough along the road to "recovery" that he wants out of the restoration program.

An early Oral Roberts sighting

I first discovered Oral Roberts when I was a young boy growing up Jewish in the Bronx, New York of the 1950s. Actually, like Columbus "finding" America, I found Roberts quite by accident.

One day while standing (pre-remote control) in front of my parents' 16" black and white television and switching channels hoping to tune into another Million Dollar Movie repeat showing of "Yankee Doodle Dandy," I encountered Mr. Roberts. He was, I believe delivering what appeared to be a very heart-felt sermon to a nicely dressed audience.

I knew from sermons; after all I faithfully attended Hebrew School four days a weeks after a full day at public school, and I was a regular at Saturday morning services at the synogogue where the Rabbi regularly sermonized.

I had even seen Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the stern, humorless and powerful New York City-based Catholic, deliver messages in his always somber voice to the faithful on television.

Roberts was different: He stalked the stage; he raised his voice; he had the crowd in the palm of his hands ... and he appeared to indicate that he could heal the sick, mend the wounded, deflict the afflicited.

It seemed to me that all you had to do to grab a piece of the healing was to place your hands on the television set and let the power of Mr. Roberts do the rest.

That was then.

Now, Oral Roberts University, the Tulsa, Oklahoma institution named after the pioneering televangelist, needs some healing of its own. And that's where Mart Green, a young multi-millionaire comes in.    

Christian Zionists organize to stymie any Israeli/Palestinian peace agreement that would divide Jerusalem

These are busy days for Christian Zionists. While President Bush recently returned from his trip to the Middle East "optimistic" that a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians could be reached by the end of the year, Pastor John Hagee's Christian United for Israel (CUFI) is setting forth plans to put the kibosh -- if not on the entire peace process -- on any agreement that would sanction the division of Jerusalem. And Dr. Mike Evans has launched a "Save Jerusalem Campaign" while Joel C. Rosenberg's Joshua Fund is planning a major celebration in Jerusalem in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary.

CUFI, the pro-Israel lobbying group launched in February 2006 to provide support for Israel, believes that "'Jerusalem must remain undivided as the eternal capital of the Jewish people' (meaning no portion of it should be turned over to the Palestinians)," Sarah Posner, writes in her new book "God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters" (PoliPointPress, 2008).

Will America's Christian Zionists obstruct the shaky peace process?

President George W. Bush returned home from his trip to the Middle East optimistic about the possibility of a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January of next year.

"In order for there to be lasting peace, [Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas and [Israeli] Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert have to come together and make tough choices," Bush said at a joint press conference after meeting with Abbas. "And I'm convinced they will. And I believe it's possible -- not only possible, I believe it's going to happen, that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office. That's what I believe."

If the Bush administration manages to pull off what several presidents before him have been unable to, it will be a major achievement. Why do some Christian Zionists in the U.S., who have consistently supported Bush's foreign policy initiatives and believe that the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical "End Times" prophecy and thus deserving of political, financial and religious support, feel betrayed by Bush's actions?

A conservative insider's take on the GOP presidential contest, the state of the conservative movement, and MoveOn.org

The Christian Right's inability to come together and back one presidential candidate underscores the reality that there are differences within the movement. The deaths in 2007 of longtime movement icons Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy, and the retirement of Robertson as CEO of CBN, is indicative of a movement in transition, and perhaps even turmoil.

Some in the media, and on the left, view these fault lines as symbolic of a major meltdown on the right. It has spurred the churning out of a series of pre-mature obituaries; stories gleefully detailing perceived -- and real -- rifts within the movement. Parts of the Traditional Media may conclude the Religious Right's days are numbered.

Rod Martin comes at it from a different perspective, that of a conservative insider. Relatively unknown outside conservative circles, Martin is a core movement insider.

In the course of the interview -- conducted before the Iowa caucuses via a series of e-mail exchanges -- Martin talked about the state of the conservative movement; the role of the Religious Right in the upcoming presidential election and beyond; and MoveOn.org, an organization that Martin claims is a constant subject of conversation for conservatives.

In 1959 an Arkansas legend by the  name of
Gerald L. K. Smith saw an awakened giant on the American horizon.  He wrote in his The Cross & The Flag magazine that he had never been as encouraged at the awakening of this creature as he was at that hour.

President of Concerned Women for America proud to named 'worst person in the world' by Keith Olbermann

While she certainly doesn't rank up there celebrity-wise with Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity or most of the other previous "winners" of Keith Olbermann's nightly "Worst Person in the World" designation, Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), appears to be taking full advantage of her 30 seconds.

While Wright's response may be indicative of the growing popularity of MSNBC's Olbermann, it also might be indicative of the desperate financial straits CWA has found itself in lately -- I received at least two breath-taking funding appeals from the organization at the end of last year -- or possibly an attempt to show the organization's supporters that it is fighting back against the so-called liberal media.

Nevertheless, Wright told CitizenLink, a news service of Focus on the Family, that "her newest title is actually a positive thing."