The late Jerry Falwell once claimed in one of his newspapers that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson and Ted Kennedy all had  earlier held one political position they agreed on.  They were all pro- life.  An L.A. Times author once asked me about W.A. Criswell's early pro-choice position.    Criswell was once president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  At the time he was president he held pro-choice views.  Years later, when pro-life became the trend in his circles; Criswell changed his views and used his influence to bash any politician who advocated tolerance for abortion choices.  The head of the Christian Life Commission during this time, Foy Valentine, was supportive of abortion rights and spoke openly of such.  In historical context, Baptists at the time were in opposition to Vatican claims that saving the life of a mother was not a moral choice. Baptist doctrinal statements often were based on opposing Catholic views.

There is an old parody of a Beach Boys song that goes something like this; "The Presbyterian girls are hip, I really dig those clothes they wear, and the Methodist girls with the way they kiss, they keep their  boy friends warm at night..but I wish they all could be Southern Baptist girls..."

There is an effort underway by Rev. Michael Bray, a convicted terrorist and a leader of the underground Army of God network to free one of their captured members. Shelly Shannon, (aka "Shaggy West") is serving a long sentence for the attempted murder of Dr. George Tiller and for a series of arsons across the West in the 90s. Bray is organzing a petition requesting that president Bush pardon her before his term expires. In his letter to the president, Bray describes Shannon "as a biblical Deborah or Jael or a Joan of Arc."

I have written a great deal about Bray and the Army of God, which has played a central role in the politics of abortion in our time, and has been driving force behind many of the 17 murders and hundreds of bombings and arsons that have ravaged womens reproductive health facilities and staff over the past few decades.  And while I doubt that Bray's effort will succeed in getting Shannon released, the campaign serves as an opportunity to highlight just a few aspects of this particularly dark side of the war of aggression being waged by the religious right against the civil and constitutional rights of others -- that pundits euphemize as "the culture war."

Rev. Carlton Veazey  president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), recently sent an e-blast to friends and supporters. It was part of an end-of-the-year fundraising pitch in which he linked to a "vision" for reproductive justice for the Obama era and the new Congress.  

I am honored to say that the vision he posted on his organizational web site is an essay "Reproductive Justice and A Comprehensive Social Justice Ethic" that he and Marjorie Signer contributed to  Dispatches from the Religious Left:  The Future of Faith and Politics in America.  

Their chapter, like others in the book, is written from the stand point not only that it is important to know what we are for as well as what we are against; (that is too easy a slogan) but from the standpoint of a clear-eyed understanding of our moment in history and the politics of our time. It is a politics that necessitates and takes into account the Religious Right and the overlapping  comprehensive worldviews behind their anti-reproductive justice political agenda.

You can read Veazey's e-blast on the flip and follow the link to his chapter from Dispatches from the Religious Left.

Back in February, there was a fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Asheville, North Carolina.  Investigators said that there was no sign of arson, but the violent, anti-abortion driven Army of God was celebrating anyway.

Army of God spkesman Rev. Don Spitz also wrote that the "Fire at Planned Parenthood abortion mill is deemed not arson, but not everyone is sure."  He then posted a video on God Tube (not to be confused with You Tube) where he also raises the question as to whether the cause was other than arson; and wondered whether Planned Parenthood itself might have been responsible.

Earlier this year, antiabortion revolutionary theocrats celebrated the tenth anniversary of the crimes of Paul Hill, the ex-Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) minister who, on July 29, 1994 assasinated abortion provider Dr. John Britton and James Barrett one of his escorts, and seriously wounding another, June Barrett, outside a clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Hill was convicted of his crimes and was executed by the State of Florida.

The festivities were called Paul Hill Days. The underground Army of God organization is now promoting a video of the celebration's reenactment of the murders.  The following post on the Army of God web site, is apparently written by AOG spokesman Rev. Donald Spitz.

We are honored welcome Dr. William F. Harrison, a distinguished physician from Fayetteville, Arkansas as a guest front pager. Dr. Harrison saw first-hand the terrible personal and social consquences of illegal abortions during his days as a medical student and resident prior to Roe vs. Wade. He has since then, continued to live his commitment to provide high quality medical care including abortion care: death threats and violence not withstanding. -- FC

This AP headline appeared in at least a few newspapers the morning after Christmas -- and was given a two sentence recognition on CNN.

Albuquerque authorities investigate fires at abortion clinics
Associated Press - December 25, 2007 8:45 PM ET

For many of us, it brought back memories of events in Pensacola, FL on Christmas Eve, 1984 when 2 abortion clinics and one ObGyn office in that city were firebombed by 2 young men and their girlfriends, who called those bombings "a birthday gift for baby Jesus."  I am sure Heysus was grateful for his gift. Just as He must be pleased by GWB's modern day "crusades" against the infidels in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

After all, He isn't called "the Prince of Peace" for nothing.

I did an expanded version of this at Daily Kos and Blue Mass Group, and decided to import it back to Talk to Action. -- FC

The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops is too poor, according to The Boston Globe, to send to its local parishes, its traditional instructional mailing on how to approach politics and public policy. The Globe did not explain why the Bishops are broke and buried the point in the last paragraph of the story -- but we can guess that it probably has something to do with the massive payouts the church has made to settle lawsuits related to the priest pedophilia scandal.

Traditionally, the document has been mailed to all parishes in the United States; this year, to save money, the cash-strapped bishops' conference will e-mail the document to parishes and post it on a website.

However, the Globe headlined the story, O'Malley draws line with Democrats:  Backing abortion rights candidates 'borders on scandal'.

"Forget SICKO," writes Time OUT NY. Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye's megadocumentary on the politics of abortion is "sure to raise a conversational ruckus."

If the film is as big or bigger than SICKO it will certainly transform the discussion of abortion in America.

It may do so anyway.  Or not.  We'll we'll soon see.  

The long anticipated film premeirs at the Film Forum in New York on October 3rd for an exclusive run until it opens in Los Angeles on October 12th, and then throughout the U.S. in October and November.

Guest front pager Ann Rose is, among other things, a partner in the National Women’s Health Organization, a group of 5 abortion and family planning clinics in the Eastern and Southern United States. She is also the co-founder of Hot Flash Report. -- FC

Convicted anti-abortion terrorists Don Benny Anderson, and brothers Matthew Moore and Wayne Moore, were released from jail and into a halfway house yesterday, September 11, 2007.  

Don Benny Anderson was convicted in 1982 of kidnapping the owner of an abortion clinic and his wife in Illinois.  The doctor was forced at gunpoint to make an audio recording urging then President Reagan to oppose abortion, even though Reagan already did.  After 8 days in fearful captivity, the couple were released unharmed, but have remained relatively low profile since then.  Anderson was released yesterday from Federal Prison into a halfway house near the clinic after spending 24 of his 30 year sentence in jail.  The infamous Army of God claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

While the media is obsessed with foreign terrorists and the Petreaus report and the fear of Iraq, Iran, AlQuida, Osama Bin Laden, and other boogey-men, these three bonafide convicted terrorists will be walking the streets.  But wait, these dudes are "White Christians", so never mind.  The chilling details of their crimes are below the fold.

DFLA's "Trojan Donkey" effort, to advance the Christian right's reproductive rights agenda within the Democratic Party seems to be well en route to success, judging by this latest abdication, by House Democrats, of responsibility for the health of young Americans. As James Waggoner, President of Advocates For Youth writes at RH Reality Check:

Today, the House Democrats will waltz into the mark-up of the Labor HHS Subcommittee and proudly present a bill that puts their stamp of approval on domestic abstinence-only-until-marriage programs--an ideological boondoggle that threatens the health and well-being of America's youth.

The most appalling aspect of this sell-out is that that the Democrats will not only fully fund the worst of the failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs--they'll give them a $27 million increase--the first in three years!....  [note: for more details, see this SIECUS press release]

The "Community Based Abstinence Education" program in question was initiated, under President Clinton, as a bipartisan effort although, in reality, most of the federal money dispersed under the program, now proven ineffective, actually funds activists on the Christian right. I have to wonder about who was advising the Democratic Party on this, but in light of what certain campaign consultants favored by some Democratic Party insiders have recently stated, the HHS Subcommittee's behavior seems less suprising. On November 13, 2006 at a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life roundtable event, co-founder of the hot new political consultancy "Common Good Strategies" Eric Sapp declared that "I'm pretty sure the pro-life Democrat package also had significant funding for abstinence [education] - which we all know is the most effective way to reduce unwanted pregnancies."

Our Theocrat of the Week, Joseph Scheilder, head of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action Network (PLAN) won on a technicality. But oh, what a technicality it was!

But that is not the reason he is our Theocrat of the Week.