The ubiquitous Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is back in the news. Rodriguez who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (which seems to exist primarily as a vehicle for promoting Rodriguez in public life) is also a leader in Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and of course, immigration is currently one of the hottest issues in the nation.

But National Public Radio's syndicated program Latino USA has a segment this week (in which I make a brief appearance) profiling the prominent evangelist. It raises questions about his ostensibly non-partisan and moderate public image, and suggests that he may be not only more Republican and more conservative than he would like to appear to be, but that he is not nearly as representative of Latino evangelicals than he is often presented in the media as being. Indeed, Rodriguez's view that Hispanic immigrants might be he salvation of Christian America and the conservative movement was heartily endorsed by none other than Pat Robertson.

The PBS show Independent Lens, which airs a different original documentary film every week is featuring The Revisionaries, the Religious Right's efforts to transform public education in Texas beginning on Monday, January 28, 2013. Local broadcast dates and times will vary. Check your PBS station schedule.

President Obama's Second Inaugural Address accomplished something I have not seen any other major politician even try:  To make clear that the Religious Right does not own the definition and meaning of the Declaration of Independence.  

This was an important moment because the Religious Right has increasingly relied on the Declaration as a source of justification for their views, since having lost the argument that God is in the Constitution and that separation of church and state is not.  

Vouchers and tuition tax credits, we're told by those who favor them, will promote "school choice."

This is true, in a sense. But here's the harsh reality: It's the private school that gets the choice, not the parents.

O.S. Hawkins is head of Guidestone, the annuity board of Southern Baptists.  The agency provides health care assistance and retirement options for convention employees and church ministers.  James Robison had Hawkins on his program January 22, 2013.  Religious Right activist Robison, has been aggressively promoting his economic agenda for the nation.

It has been often pointed out that the alleged persecution of the American Christian Right is, to be polite about it, baloney.  But Dr. James F. McGrath, the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, a man who knows history as well as theology, has something more to say to American Christians who cry persecution when things don't quite go their way.  

Judge Roy Moore -- the man best known as "the Ten Commandments Judge" for his smuggling of a two-and-a-half ton monument to the Ten Commandments into the Alabama state courthouse in the dead of night and refusing to remove it -- is back.

Washington is abuzz with preparations for Monday's inauguration. A number of events, private and public, are taking place.

Among them is something called the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast (PIPB), which takes place Monday morning at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Despite its name, this is not an official inaugural event. It's sponsored by a variety of fundamentalist Christian groups and "messianic" Jews. Featured guests include TV preacher Pat Robertson, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Joseph Farah, founder of the website WorldNetDaily.

Normally, I would think this is no big deal. Some fundamentalists have rented space in a hotel to pray on the morning of the inauguration. It's a free country; let them have at it.

But for one thing:

God Loves Uganda, a documentary film about the Christian Right's influence in spreading homophobia premiers a the Sundance Film Festival this week.  The film features, among others, the notorious American antiabortion and antigay demagogue, Lou Engle of The Call.  It also features my colleague Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma of Political Research Associates and author of two related reports on Africa, Globalizing the Culture Wars and Colonizing African Values.

UPDATED to include the official film trailer:

A letter drafted by Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family (FOF), has been getting some attention on social media sites and blogs lately.

In the missive, Dobson, a child psychologist who founded what has become one of the largest and most powerful Religious Right groups in the nation, surveyed the results of the November election. He's not happy.

Chip Berlet speaking at a conference sponsored by the Center for Inquiry, Wooly Mammoth Theater Company, Washington, DC, October 22, 2011.

The national spotlight has moved on -- probably never to return to Rev. Louie Giglio. But before we forget him altogether, it is worth noting that Giglio's handling of the matter revealed a deeply disingenuous man who given the opportunity to clarify his views about homosexuality, engaged in a series of diversions in his letter to the president and in further explanation to his congregation on his blog.

Here are a few brief points.