This post is an updated version of my post from this same date last year, which, not surprisingly, was titled "One Year Ago Today, the 'Least Credible History Book in Print' was Published."

(I am also once again giving away a free PDF version of one of my books, just like I did last year to mark this anniversary, so be sure to scroll down to the end of this post to get this year's freebie!)

There are days when fundamentalist zealots do something so off the wall that I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so I do a little bit of both.

Today is one of those days. This emotional roller-coaster comes courtesy of a band of extremists who have fine-tuned creationism and have concluded - wait for it - that Copernicus and Galileo were wrong: The Earth really is the center of the universe.

Mike Huckabee mailed out an open invitation to all Texas pastors inviting them to attend the Texas Renewal Project.  The first 1,000 to respond got free hotel accommodations plus breakfast and two banquet meals.  Wives were welcome to come along with no charge.  Mike's invite noted our Christian heritage is under attack by a "force more destructive than any other threat America has faced in decades."

Fr. C.J. ("John") McCloskey is in many ways the  American face of the secretive Catholic organization, Opus Dei.  He is a former Wall Streeter, who is well-connected on the Catholic Right and among the political and media elite of Washington, DC. There, he fosters his message of traditional Catholicism and supply-side economics framed with a reactionary view of the American people as being either "Bible Christians and faithful Catholics" or a "...culture of death."

McCloskey recently raised the stakes of his geo-political vision in an essay in which he considers secession in response to  and the continuation of Roe vs. Wade as the law of the land, which he sees as epitomizing the "tyrannical regime" that is the government of the United States.

This is cross-posted from The Huffington Post. It expands and updates previous posts about the Neo-Confederate theocrats Michael Peroutka and Pastor David Whitney.

Maryland Tea Party activist and State Delegate Don Dwyer (R) is a well-known character who once enacted an Annapolis version of the Boston Tea Party - donning a tricorner hat and Colonial breeches to dump floating boxes labeled "tea" into the Annapolis harbor. He was once named Legislator of the Year by the far-right Gun Owners of America, headed by Larry Pratt.

Dwyer also floated an idea, Operation DINO (Democrats In Name Only), in March 2013, calling on Republican gun owners to become Democrats in order to vote out progressives in the 2014 Democratic primaries. And while he did not do the switcheroo he urged others to do, some of his political soulmates have switched parties and dressed up as Democratic candidates.

I'm not a lawyer, but let me give you a little free legal advice anyway: It's never a good idea to defy a federal judge's ruling.

A member of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners in Maryland may be about to learn that the hard way. Robin Frazier opened a meeting last week with a prayer that included a reference to Jesus Christ - even though the county is under court order to stop using sectarian prayers.

Today's Washington Post has an interesting story about how the personal religious beliefs of members of the Supreme Court might affect their decisions.

The question is especially relevant now with the high court poised to hear oral arguments tomorrow in a pair of cases that could have far-reaching consequences for what religious freedom means.

With a column vigorously supporting Vladimir Putin's anti-gay crusade in Russia, Evangelist Franklin Graham finds himself edging closer to inheriting the mantle of Fred Phelps, rather than that of his father, Billy Graham.  

In the column, titled "Putin's Olympic Controversy," Graham not only declares his support Putin's treatment of gays in Russia, he also maintains that the Russian leader is handling gay issues better than President Barack Obama.

“Many of you may be thinking that I have lost my mind,” Republican Del. Don Dwyer wrote in a March 2013 email and Facebook post to his GOP colleagues in the Maryland General Assembly. Dwyer's mind-losing idea was to switch parties in order to drag the Democratic Party to the right (indeed, the Neo-Confederate, theocratic right) in the 2014 primaries.

“If the gun community alone follows me in this strategic plan, we will have a devastating effect on the next statewide election,” he surmised. He posted a comment on a Maryland gun owners’ forum, stating, “Friends, I am considering taking ‘Operation DINO’ statewide. DINO stands for Democrat In Name Only.” He then spearheaded a Free State DINOS website, which urges Republicans to reregister as Democrats, and sells mugs and T-shirts of dinosaurs emblazoned with the Maryland flag.

One thing regional Baptist GOP candidates share in common is a deep affection for gun rights.  The endorsements of pro-gun positions takes precedence over the promotion of public education, economic concerns and even social issues.  Second Amendment concerns trumps First Amendment issues.  The irony of such is that Baptist have a rich heritage in support of the First Amendment, even as a doctrinal statement of faith.

Who would have imagined that in 2014, Noah, yes the Noah of the Biblical story of Noah and his Ark, would be garnering so many headlines. A plan to build a Noah's Ark theme park in the hills of Kentucky is once again under serious consideration. Conservative Christian lawmakers in Texas have apparently fallen for a Ponzi-like scheme launched by a fellow who claimed to have discovered remnants of Noah's Ark near Mount Ararat in Turkey. And, hold on to your life rafts kids; in the coming weeks, two new films based on the story of Noah will be released.

Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri has so far survived  calls for his resignation or removal by Pope Francis. Finn is a convict who not only failed to report suspected child abuse by a parish priest under his charge:  He has become the symbol of ongoing institutional intransigence in addressing the problem of child sex abuse in the Church.

Many Catholics in Finn's diocese -- including priests and nuns -- have had more than enough of him. As the National Catholic Reporter recently reported they have formally appealed to the Vatican "to conduct a canonical review of Bishop Robert Finn say the church's lack of response to his misdemeanor conviction has caused further spiritual harm to the diocese."