It seemed like it was only a matter of time before actor Stephen Baldwin emerged as as a person of interest on the religious right. That's why when I read a very strange profile of him last year, I made note of it in a short diary last year.  In light of Max Blumenthal's report for The Nation about Baldwin's role in Operation Strait Up, which seems destined to be much discussed around here, I thought I would reprise that diary on the flip.  First a word from Max:

Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm  of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq"  in the near future.

Will Bold New 'Crusader' Rhetoric help Turn Tide In Iraq ?

Courtesy of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon Chaplain's Office, troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be able to unwind, after a hard day's urban warfare, by playing a video game in which they command a Christian fundamentalist army waging urban warfare in America ! On the streets of New York City ! Plus, in the game screens appear, between different levels of play, with short, helpful essays such as one that explains how the Theory of Evolution is clearly impossible. And, the game will be provided to US troops, free of charge, by a fundamentalist ministry that says it's waging a 'military crusade'... How cool is that ?

On Monday, researchers working for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ( MRFF ) uncovered evidence calling into question the veracity of the testimony given to the Pentagon Inspector General in the investigation in the wake of MRFF's lawsuit concerning top Pentagon officials and US military officers who appeared in a promotional video, made for fund raising purposes, of an organization called "Christian Embassy", an offshoot of Campus Crusade For Christ, that evangelizes Pentagon members, foreign diplomats, and White House employees.

Kicking it into high gear after his father's death, Falwell defends Ann Coulter, and appears at a historic evangelical Christian/Muslim meet-up in Washington

The Rev. Jonathan Falwell appears to be picking up from where his father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, left off.

In his first contribution as a regular weekend columnist for the conservative online publication, WorldNetDaily, Falwell issued a dad-like attack on the liberal media while making a spirited defense of best selling author/provocateur Ann Coulter.

Falwell accused the traditional media of consistently distorting her remarks. Volunteering his support for the embattled Coulter, Falwell wrote: "As long as you continue to contradict the policies of the mainstream ... you will carry a target on your back. This is a truth my dad, Jerry Falwell, experienced almost daily throughout his 51 years in ministry."

More than you want to know about someone you'd rather know little about

In December of last year, I wrote a profile of Jason Christy. This was shortly after Joel Hunter, the senior pastor of the nondenominational Longwood, Florida-based Northland Church, also known as Northland A Church Distributed, and a founder of both Christian Citizen and the Alliance for the Distributed Church, said that he would not be assuming the presidency of the Christian Coalition in early January.

Christy, who in September 2005 had been named executive director of the organization only to resign a month later, said that it was clear that the Coalition had "picked the wrong captain (Hunter) for the wrong ship."  At the time he looked like an up-and-coming twenty-first century Christian evangelical entrepreneur. I subtitled the piece for Media Transparency, "Is the twenty-first century evangelical entrepreneur ready for prime time?"

Now, Don Byrd has alerted us to Christy's current situation -- and to quote the Life of Riley's (old television show) Chester A. Riley (played by William Bendix), "What a revolting development this is."

After the jump, more on the exploits and exploitations of Jason Christy.

(click on image to watch video)

The now notorious "Christian Embassy" video, first publicized by journalist (and now Rolling Stone associate editor) Jeff Sharlet became the centerpiece of a legal case from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that alleged the participation of high ranking Pentagon military officials in the video, filmed in the Pentagon, amounted to a massive violation of DOD regulations. The video featured high ranking military officers describing, in glowing terms, the work of the "Christian Embassy" in evangelizing within the Department of Defense and among both US and foreign politicians. A co-founder of Christian Embassy, Bill Bright, pioneered the use of communist organizing tactics such as "cell groups" and in the 1970's described his efforts as "conspiracy to overthrow the world."

Imagine:

On a sunny Memorial Day afternoon, Christian rock and country bands play while volunteers from the sponsoring church, which espouses end-time theology, wander amidst the audience, trying to win souls for Jesus before advent of the Rapture, Tribulation, and battle of Armageddon. USAF jets streak overhead, performing stunts.

The commander of a nearby base has bused troops in, while other soldiers have arrived in Humvees, Blackhawks, and Chinooks. Children line up for a chance to sit in helicopter cockpits....

Later, up on stage before thousands, active duty United States military officers in uniform stand at attention while speakers, citing falsified history, declare that America was founded originally as a Christian nation and inveigh about how "secularists" have subverted that purported "Godly" heritage and chased religion from the public square, sending the nation into a moral free fall. Christians, they thunder, must reclaim America for God. Before it is too late.... Here's an excerpt from a sermon given a one such event: http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/27/1299298/litany_of_rage.mp3

Dr. James Dobson and Dr. John MacArthur, two influential evangelical family counselors, 'blame' battered women for their plight, says Christian evangelical author Jocelyn Andersen.

While domestic violence -- also known as intimate partner violence -- is in no way limited to any particular race, religion, ethnic group, class or sexual preference, author Jocelyn Andersen maintains that for far too long too many evangelical pastors have tried to sweep the problem under the rug. According to Andersen, the problem of physical, as well as emotional and spiritual abuse, is being exacerbated by the outdated teachings of several high-profile conservative Christian pastors.

In the introduction to her new book "Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence" (One Way Cafe Press, 2007), Andersen points out that "The practice of hiding, ignoring, and even perpetuating the emotional and physical abuse of women is ... rampant within evangelical Christian fellowships and as slow as our legal systems have been in dealing with violence against women by their husbands, the church has been even slower."

Andersen maintains that domestic violence in Christian families "often creates a cruel Catch-22 as many Christians and church leaders view recommending separation or divorce as unscriptural, but then silently view the battered woman, who chooses not to leave, with contempt for staying and tolerating the abuse. Victims quickly pick up on this hypocritical attitude and either leave the church altogether -- or begin hiding the abuse. Either way they are giving up the spiritual guidance, and emotional support, they desperately need."

While Giuliani and McCain register 'morally repugnant' on the religious right's traditional-values meter, Romney has a bigger problem: some conservative Christian evangelical leaders don't believe his religion measures up

For more than two decades social and economic conservatives have artfully put aside their differences and forged a powerful coalition -- under the umbrella of the Republican Party -- that has won five of the last seven presidential elections and, until this past November, controlled Congress for more than a decade. Ken Connor, the Chairman of the Center for a Just Society, described it in a recent column titled "Base to GOP: Hasta la Vista, Baby!" as "One of the most successful coalitions in modern political history."

The "Reagan Coalition," as Connor termed it, "brought the Republicans great success, including occupancy of the White House and twelve years of control over the House of Representatives." These days, writes Connor, the coalition is "fraying" and "and is on the verge of unraveling."

While Connor places the blame for the "unraveling" on the current debate over immigration, there has been ample reporting about how conservative evangelical Christians are also highly dissatisfied with the current slate of candidates running for the GOP's presidential nomination -- particularly the top tier of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Senator John McCain, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

This well-publicized disenchantment hasn't stopped candidates from courting the religious right. Rudy Giuliani's recent jaunt to the Rev. Pat Robertson's Regent University campus was an example of how both declared and undeclared candidates are searching for love in all the Religious Right's places.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of "Stand in the Gap," evangelicals hope to bring 250,000 men to Washington to re-ignite the Christian men's movement

Ten years ago this October, somewhere between 500,000 to one-million -- depending on who was doing the tallying -- Christian men gathered in Washington, D.C., to "Stand in the Gap." At the time, the Promise Keepers (PK), the chief organizer of the event, appeared on the verge of becoming a major force in conservative politics. Within a few years, however, money dried up, media interest peaked and peeled off, and leadership squabbles ensued. The bubble burst.

Despite scaling down their activities and continuing to function, the organization pretty much dropped off the radar screens of the traditional media.

With its 10th anniversary only a few months away, get ready for a SITG sequel!

Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program

On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."

In this case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF - website) "objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money," the Associated Press pointed out. According to the website of the White House Office, in 2006, its Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "hosted 110 workshops, providing grant writing training to over 9,500 new and potential federal grantees. Since 2002, our Centers have hosted over 350 workshops across the country, training over 30,000 people."

The decision will no doubt encourage the administration to keep pouring money into its faith-based initiative. And while it dealt a blow to the initiative's critics, it will not prevent advocacy organizations from continuing to challenge the faith-based initiative in the courts; a news release by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United), pointed out that the decision would not "affect most legal challenges to the 'faith-based' initiative."

While the antiabortion, antigay Army of God is the best known Christian terror organization in the U.S., there are others who come to violence via their particular religious vision.

The most recent example of what police describe as a "domestic terrorist group" is in the news in Texas today. The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports that three young men, part of a small domestic terror cell, were arrested for the attempted bombing of a conservative evangelical church. The article doesn't say why this church was targeted except that, according to the police, the group does not believe that Christianity should have more than one denomination, and that the group is dedicated to violence to bring people around to their point of view.

Its early yet. But here is what we know so far: