One of the deep scandals of our time, and apparently times past, is that sex abuse, particularly of children, has been so tolerated and covered-up. What's more, it is clear that the problem is not limited to the Catholic Church, where the problem is of such extraordinary depth and breadth. It is deeply ingrained in more of society than most of us who were not affected by these things can easily believe. In the past year, I have written a bit about the difficulties the Southern Baptist Convention has had contending with its problems. (Here, here, and here.)

Now comes an investigative report on the ongoing scandal at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, in Greenville, South Carolina, where Republican candidates for president used to have to make a pilgrimage as part of their courtship of voters in the South Carolina primary.

The report focused on how the college treated sexually abused women like criminals.

Eight states still have provisions in their constitutions that either bar atheists outright from holding public office or require people to believe certain things about God and religion before they can be elected.

These provisions can't be enforced. They were declared invalid by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1961 ruling in the case of Torcaso v. Watkins. Yet they linger on, a testament to the bigotry of bygone days.

In light of former Sen. Rick Santorum's recent silly declaration that “the words ‘separation of church and state’ is not in the U.S. Constitution, but it was in the constitution of the former Soviet Union. That’s where it very, very comfortably sat, not in ours” -- it seems like a good moment to to repost Chris Rodda's classic discussion of some of the complications and distortions of history regarding separation of church and state. -- FC

Author Chris Rodda explores historical background to church/state separation, especially in relation to the work of Christian Embassy (link to Talk To Action coverage). The original controversial Christian Embassy promotional video, along with further coverage, can be found at the Jews On First website ]

When my first article appeared last week, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself, so I'd like to do that now, and also to thank Bruce Wilson for inviting me to contribute here at Talk to Action. I am the author of a book called Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, Volume 1. This is the first of what will be a three volume series of books, two on the religious right history lies related to the founding era, and an eventual third volume on the church/state separation battles of the nineteenth century. Free sample chapter PDF

Of the three things listed in the line at the top of the page - "Reclaiming Citizenship, History and Faith" - my focus will be on the reclaiming history part, bringing attention to the historical misconceptions and revisionism that go hand in hand with many of the current issues being covered by others here. So, while Frederick Clarkson, in his recent article When Mainstream Media Miss the Point, brings up The Christmas Wars: Religion in the American Public Square, a discussion presented by the Pew Center on Religion and Public Life, to point out the evasion by the panelists of a reporter's question about the current issue of the Christian Embassy, I'm going take a look at a few of the historical inaccuracies that I noticed while reading the transcript of this event. These inaccuracies came from both panelists, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, and Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek and author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. I will address those from Novak in a separate article, but want to begin with one from Meacham regarding James Madison's opinion on tax-supported chaplains, the most relevant to the issue of the Christian Embassy.

When the Obama administration was young, threats against the president were common, and sometimes quite public. One notorious such incident was that of Rev. Steven L. Anderson of Tempe, Arizona, who in 2009 not only repeatedly asked his parishioners to pray that God take out the president, but also encouraged a member of his congregation to openly carry an automatic weapon outside the arena where the president was speaking in Phoenix.  

Unsurprisingly, Anderson is back in the news -- this time calling AIDS a judgement from God and that the cure is to execute gay people as he said God called for in the Book of Leviticus.

When Stand Up Sunday was convened by Mike Huckabee in Houston it was to feature the leading spokesmen for the Religious Right agenda.  The meeting ended with the keynote presentation from former area pastor Rick Scarborough.  Rick followed the President of the Southern Baptist Convention and famous area pastor Ed Young on the platform.  He was the obvious choice to draw the apparent conclusions and drive home the motivation to carry out the agenda of the group.  Updating what Rick believes about the nation is important for those who follow this national cultural event.  At the meeting in Houston Rick passed out several books about what he holds as American historical truths.  Readers might be interested in what he wrote.

The remarkable and growing alliance between conservative Catholicism and protestant evangelicalism was on prominent display at a recent event at the Vatican. My colleague at Political Research Associates Cole Parke, reported that the conference, the  "Humanum: An Interreligious Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman" featured "similar themes and many of the same faces [as the 2009 American Christian Right manifesto, The Manhattan Declaration] further solidifying the conservative Catholic-Protestant alliance against LGBTQ people and reproductive justice."

This is a crosspost of an op-ed I recently published at LGBTQ Nation.  -- FC

Christian right undermines marriage equality with religious supremacism

FREDERICK CLARKSON
Senior Fellow, Political Research Associates

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." That vision of history's progression has been well illustrated by the past year's landslide of advances for marriage equality.  And as we move closer to a more just society, the nature of the opposition is revealed in the nature of the backlash.

The Christian Right has been operating on multiple fronts to stop--or at least limit--the scope of the advance of marriage equality, including seeking to enable business owners, civil workers, and elected officials to openly discriminate against LGBTQ couples by co-opting the progressive principle of religious liberty.  

One under-reported result of the 2014 elections was the rise of Neo-Confederate politics in the U.S. This included the election of unabashed apologist for the Confederacy Michael Peroutka, who was elected to Maryland's Anne Arundel County Council; and Joni Ernst, a proponent of nullification and secession, who was elected to the United States Senate from Iowa. It has also resulted in divisions on the Christian Right as well as in the wider Republican Party.

Catholic Right pizza mogul Tom Monaghan and his Ave Maria School of Law are back in the news.  Journalist Eleanor Bader has a new article at Truthout about theocratic communities in the U.S. and the challenges they pose to separation of church and state. She focuses most of her attention on the theocratic town that surrounds Ave Maria School of Law.  

Our own Frank Cocozzelli has been writing about Monaghan's empire for years (here and here) at Talk to Action, as well as in the wider context of the Catholic Right in The Public Eye magazine.

Bader continues the story at Truthout.  Its an important read.

A group in Mississippi is collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to change the state constitution in several ways.

The proposal put forth by the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign is pretty wide-ranging and is being pitched as a way to protect "Southern" (read: pro-Confederate) culture. It contains 12 subsections.

I Stand Sunday took place in Houston, Nov. 2, 2014, motivated by the cities' mayor who subpoenaed sermons from local pastors.  The host church had on its platform the who's who of the Religious Right.  Several speakers have been in trouble because of church electioneering.  Don't look for this movement to lose momentum.  

I Stand Sunday took place in Houston, Nov. 2, 2014, motivated by the city's mayor who subpoenaed sermons from local pastors.  The host church had on its platform the who's who of the Religious Right.  Several speakers have been in trouble because of church electioneering.  Don't look for this movement to lose momentum.