The Nation magazine claims the regions that are most obsessed with family values have the highest rates of family breakups.   We have heard for years that the rates of divorce among Christians are higher than the rates in the secular world.  The article in Nation says, "It looks as if right-wing Christianity itself  undermines modern marriage."

An outbreak of common sense has struck parts of the South Dakota legislature.

Last week, the state Senate's Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 to reject a completely unnecessary bill that would have made it clear that clergy can't be forced to perform wedding ceremonies that violate their right of conscience.

There is a serious problem of human trafficking for purposes of sex and labor.  Particularly heinous is the trafficking in children. But urban legends that have been promoted by political leaders not withstanding, it does not exist in any greater degree around major sporting events like the Super Bowl than at any other time of year.

A number of media outlets have continued to spread the urban legend -- which was debunked in a 75 page report (PDF) by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women in 2011. Advocates for sex workers and exploited children say that the claim that the Superbowl attracts unusual amounts of prostitution is still a myth and that politicians, law enforcement and even the New York City area Roman Catholic Church are overreacting.  

While there is much more to say about all this, let's take this moment to note that there are voices of the victims and advocates like the  Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Christa Brown of StopBaptistPredators, and Dylan Farrow who deserve to be heard when the distractions of the Super Bowl are over.  Let's point out that there are prominent religious leaders who have enabled or covered up for perpetrators. Some of these are also leaders of the Christian Right who claim to promote "family values."  One culture warring cleric, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, has even been convicted of failing to report the suspected crimes of a priest under his supervision who ultimately got 50 years in prison.  Finn remains in office.

A current article in Slate Magazine includes a map of the schools in the U.S. teaching creationism while receiving taxpayer funded vouchers or "scholarships."  A substantial number of Pennsylvania schools that both teach creationism and receive public funding through "school choice" programs were not included on that map.  It will be important to keep updating the map to include all of the programs that divert public funds to private schools, and to emphasize that the public-funded teaching of creationism is not limited to the South. [Graphic at right is title of a chapter on creationism in A Beka's Matter & Motion in God's Universe textbook.]

This is crossposted from Eyes Right, the blog of Political Research Associates, where I will be doing a series of posts on the Christian Right and child sex abuse. -- FC

The exposure of widespread sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy--and of the subsequent cover-ups by church leaders--has rocked the Catholic church for more than a decade. Less well known, though closely analogous, is the issue of widespread abuse within Protestant evangelical churches.  Such stories raise doubt that the evangelical/Catholic alliance that defines the contemporary Christian Right is, in any legitimate sense, a defender of "family values."

Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC recently set off a firestorm by accepting a $1 million grant for its new School of Business and Economics from the Charles Koch Foundation.  Progressive minded organizations such as Faith in Public Life called on CUA to return the money, noting how Charles Koch's extreme libertarianism is far out of step with Catholic social teaching on economics.

Many on the Catholic Right responded by slamming Faith in Public Life  for being funded in part by philanthropist George Soros, who they point out is an atheist. But if George Soros' belief (or in his case, non-belief) is in play, why isn't the same standard applied to Charles Koch?

Today, anti-abortion activists and advocates will once gather at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for its annual "March for Life." This year, there is un-likely to be any hitches in the giddy-up of the marchers, and the chanting from the crowd is apt to be louder than ever. That's because this year's "March for Life," held on the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 ruling which deemed abortion a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution, is being staged against the backdrop of a wave of anti-abortion legislative victories in the states.

And many movement activists see these victories as paving the way to even more limits on access to abortion.

For more than forty years, the movement has had one goal in mind: an outright ban on all abortions.

It's no surprise when Glenn Beck promotes G. Edward Griffin's book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, but a bit more shocking when PBS NewsHour casually introduces the book to its audience without caveats. I've had several conversations over the last week with progressives who were impressed with the NewsHour presentation on Chris Martenson, co-founder of the blog Peak Prosperity. But there was a big red waving flag in the interview that should have been a warning to progressives - the interviewees' fascination with Griffin's Federal Reserve conspiracy tome. Liberals beware.  Shared complaints do not equal shared agendas.  Yes, Willie Nelson and Ron Paul are on the back cover of the wildly popular book, but buying into its premise may result in being "political bedfellows" with the John Birch Society and its conspiratorial worldview.

I wasn't able to settle on my favorite post from 2013 to reprise on New Year's Day. But today I found the one I wish I had found then. Here it is again, with some minor revisions -- FC

The recent smear of prominent Christian journalist Cynthia Astle by the ever-nefarious Institute on Religion and Democracy was a stark reminder that the war of attrition against the historic mainline Protestant churches, continues. It was also a reminder that there is more to the story than the culture war and other controversies at summer meetings of The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Church of Christ.

Consider for example, Rev. Jim Tonkowich -- who had never even been a member of one of the churches that IRD trollishly claims that it wants to "renew" -- who nevertheless served as the organization's president from 2006-2009.  Tonkowich, then a member of a schismatic evangelical Presbyterian sect ran covert and not so covert campaigns to foment division and discord in the mainline churches which he characterized at the time as marked by "division, polarization, and discord."

Now he has not only become a Catholic but claims that the best way for Protestant Churches to solve their problems is to also become Catholic.

Journalist Paul Rosenberg, writing at Salon.com has shined a light into a dark corner of American public life -- and found elements of the religious and secular far right operating in plain sight -- and making great strides in the states.  He identified reasons why few of us have heard much about these things.

First, there's the blind spot of routinely underreporting state-level political news, most notably, recent waves of right-wing legislation: antiabortion laws, voter-suppression laws, stand-your-ground laws, etc. Second is the blind spot of conservative radicalization, which the media staunchly refuses to report on, except through the limits of the he said/she said format, which automatically blurs and obscures the story.
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In tandem, the two blind spots have obscured the story of state-level conservative radicalization throughout the post-Vietnam era.

Rachel Tabachnick and Frank Cocozzelli and I took a look into those blind spots over the past year, resulting in a special issue of The Public Eye magazine.

Rosenberg summarized it this way:

By "church" I do not mean the low-key Ottawa Christian and Missionary Alliance Church that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper occasionally attends. Rather, I mean the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination itself - of which much can be said.

I still use a large desk calendar, one made out of paper. (Yep, I admit I'm a dinosaur.)

This calendar thoughtfully fills me in on holidays major and minor. On March 17, I can celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Benito Juarez's Birthday. I wouldn't want to miss Administrative Professionals Day on April 23, and Victoria Day (May 19) is a big deal in Canada. For you internationalists, Oct. 24 is United Nations Day.