Last year I was honored to write a story for The Islamic Monthly, a magazine operated by American Muslim writers and scholars.  I see that my piece is now online in a non-PDF form, and so I offer it here in its entirety.  -- FC

Thomas Jefferson's Twilight Reminder About Religious Equality

When he was in the twilight of his life, Thomas Jefferson authored a short autobiography. Written when he was 77 years old, he sought, among other things, to cast in sharp relief the meaning of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom - one of three things for which he wished to be most remembered. (The other two were the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the University of Virginia.) It is worth taking note of Jefferson's final thought on this in light of our current political climate, in which leaders of the Christian Right and politicians seeking their support insist that America was founded as a Christian nation; that this legacy has been taken from us; must somehow be restored; and that American Muslims are somehow an affront to this divine mandate and the intentions of the Founding Fathers.

Jefferson's twilight clarification provides an authoritative rebuttal, which came at the end of the contentious era that gave us the definitions of religious freedom that we use today, even as the arguments against them remain largely unchanged. During this presidential campaign season, which seems likely to be marked by inflammatory rhetoric about religious identity and religious matters, it may be helpful to take a deep breath or two, and take in some historical perspective.

In this series we have been discussing the emerging influence of Thomas E. Woods and other Catholic Right neo-Confederates, who are advocating that states nullify federal statutes and court rulings with which they disagree. Some are calling for outright secession.  The next installment explained why nullification matters and how it can lead to localized tyranny and theocracy. Then we discussed the historical argument against nullification and by extension, secession.

Now we are taking the obvious next step:  The Constitutional arguments against nullification.

We are honored to welcome Cynthia B. Astle as a guest front pager. She is project coordinator for United Methodist Insight, where this post first appeared. Astle was the first woman to be named Editor of the church's national newspaper, United Methodist Reporter, and went on to edit The Progressive Christian magazine. She is a certified spiritual director and a member of the United Methodist-founded monastic association, the Order of Saint Luke. -- FC

I often find myself uncertain of how to balance my twin vocations of spiritual director and journalist. For example, right now I'm struggling with the best way to deal with a bully -- in this case, the Institute for Religion and Democracy, known by its initials IRD.

Here's the scoop: On May 25, John Lomperis of the "Methodist Program" of IRD published a commentary on the demise of UMR Communications and the United Methodist Reporter. In said commentary, he saw fit to cast aspersions on two prior Reporter editors by name: my esteemed successor Robin Russell, and me.

Lomperis tied his critique of Robin directly to an article she had written about a documentary, "Renewal or Ruin," produced by the Rev. Steven Martin about the IRD's effect on The United Methodist Church. However, his critique of me comprises a toxic mix of unfair generalities and false assumptions.

As many of you know, the U.S. Supreme Court decided last week that it will hear an appeal of an Americans United case challenging Christian prayers before meetings of the Greece, N.Y., Town Board.

The high court's decision to hear the dispute during its fall term has led some news reporters to look at practices in the communities they cover. This story from the Panama City (Fla.) News Herald is a typical effort to put a local spin on a national story.

In a recent post, I discussed the apparent lack of sufficient seriousness with which the Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Bishops still treat the matter of child sex abuse by clergy. The Associated Baptist Press picked-up on that post and added that while the SBC insists there is nothing it can do, it has nevertheless added a resource page on its national web site for local churches to deal with the matter.  Its not much, but its a start.  

But the scandal of the Louisville, KY-based Sovereign Grace Ministries, which began as a national network of  charismatic evangelical churches but eventually adapted a Reformed theology -- suggests that the problem of child sex abuse and the seemingly inevitable cover-up in conservative churches -- is a pattern that is deep and wide.  And part of that pattern is that too many leaders enable the abusers with their silence, their refusal to consider that the accusations might be true, and/or their efforts to silence the victims.  Child abuse investigator Boz Tchividjian thinks the silence of Evangelical leaders regarding child sex abuse in evangelical churches is not only "deafening" but speaks "volumes".

Indeed. It speaks volumes about the character and moral vision of the leaders of the conservative denominations that comprise the base of the Christian Right.

The emerging influence of Thomas J. Woods and other neo-Confederate ideologues within the Catholic Right was the focus of the first post in this series. They are advocating the failed concepts of secession and the nullification of federal statutes and court rulings. The second post in the series explored why nullification matters and how it can lead to localized tyranny and theocracy.  To complete the quartet, we will discuss first how proponent's claims for historical justification are simply wrong, and then detail the Constitutional argument against nullification.

A month after the Boston Marathon Bombing, the unified response here in the Boston area is the slogan "Boston Strong," which I see on handmade signs and professional banners hanging on walls and highway overpasses.

In the hours following the bombing, the corporate media engaged in outlandish rumor-mongering, some claiming the perpetrators were domestic right-wing militants.

Talking heads free-associated jingoistic gibberish with their "experts."

The ongoing scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of Tea Party groups took another twist yesterday when evangelist Franklin Graham complained that the ministry founded by this father, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), was also investigated by the tax agency.

Graham wrote a letter to President Barack Obama griping because, he claimed, the IRS sent agents to the North Carolina offices of the BGEA and Samaritan's Purse, a charity Graham runs, to investigate claims that the ministries had waded into partisan politics.

Texas legislators appear to have too much time on their hands. Members of the House of Representatives just passed legislation protecting everyone's right to say "Merry Christmas."

In the first post in this series, I discussed the push for secession and nullification now being made by Catholic Right Neo-Confederates, notably Thomas J. Woods, Jr.   Now, almost a century and a half after that approach was soundly defeated, some Catholic social conservatives are resorting to these pernicious ideas, apparently in order to prevail on such issues such as reproductive rights and gun control.

Former Guatemalan dictator and darling of the American Christian Right, Rios Montt, was found guilty of genocide, making world news. ABC News has a timeline of the trial. The New York Times has the story of the verdict. Below is the story of the original indictment as reported by our own Bill Berkowitz on March 12, 20112: Guatemala's Former Leader Charged with Genocide. Pat Robertson Enabled It. -- FC

These are the exact words of Maj. Douglas W. Duerksen, a military chaplain, which you can hear for yourself in the embedded video below.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, has written an op-ed describing why he joined the advisory board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and why MRFF's mission is important to the future of the military. MRFF is in the "forefront in calling public attention to what they believe is the military's violation of the separation of church and state mandated by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, otherwise known as the Establishment Clause," as stated on MRFF's webpage. Wilkerson joins Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Interfaith Alliance in coming to MRFF's defense.  Over the last couple of weeks MRFF and its founder, Mikey Weinstein, have been under fire from several right wing blogs, publications, and organizations like the Family Research Council, falsely claiming that Weinstein is working as an advisor with the military on a plan to court martial Christians who share their faith.