ProgressOhio

As have Presiidents before him, Barack Obama has issued a Proclamation declaring January 16th Religious Freedom Day.

Religious Freedom Day celebrates the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom arguably the philosophical, historical and legal taproot of religious freedom, equality and separation of church and state -- and a powerful argument against Christian nationalism. As the Proclamation states "... it was the genius of America's forefathers to protect our freedom of religion, including the freedom to practice none at all."

"No man shall ... suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess ... their opinions in matters of religion."

When Thomas Jefferson first proposed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1777, he stated that this right of individual conscience must be extended to everyone, including: "the Jew, the Mohametan, and the Hindoo." Jefferson was not arguing the demographics of majority and minority religions, but first principles of equality.

It took time to advance them, even then. James Madison as governor of Virginia managed to push Jefferson's bill through the legislature in 1786--the year before the drafting the federal Constitution, of which Madison is credited with being the principal author--as well as the principal author of the First Amendment. Virginia had already disestablished the Anglican Church, the day after it joined the revolution in 1776.

There is no mistaking the meaning of formally extending religious liberty to all in the wake of disestablishment and as a famous forerunner to the Constitution itself.

History is powerful, which is why the Religious Right is so vigorously fighting to revise it to suit their contemporary political and religious interests.

On the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club” today, after a lengthy interview with a missionary who talked about helping the victims earthquake in Haiti, Rev. Pat Robertson had some interesting thoughts as to why the earthquake struck the impoverished nation:

"And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.

“They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the 3rd and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil.

“They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.'

“True story.

“And so the Devil said, 'Okay, it's a deal.’

“And, uh, they kicked the French out, you know, with Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

“But ever since they have been cursed by, by one thing after another, desperately poor.

“That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican Republican.

“Dominican Republic is, is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etcetera.

“Haiti is in desperate poverty.

“Same island.

“They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.”

Watch It:

Erick Erickson at Redstate makes a case against TSA administrator-designee Errol Southers by suggesting that only Muslims can be terrorists, and for Southers to dare suggest that there are other kinds of terrorism makes the would-be TSA official totally unacceptable.

Mr. Southers, in 2008, said he was more worried about “Christian identity” terrorist groups inside the U.S. than islamic terrorists. What are “Christian identity” terrorist groups? White-supremacists naturally. The KKK. And the Southern Baptist Convention.

Southers identifies pro-life groups and anti-government activists as particular problems.

Well, of course they're problems. If you look at the raw numbers from 1993-2009, there were many more terrorist attacks inside the U.S. by anti-abortion evildoers than by Islamic evildoers.

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog

You have to love right wing hypocrisy

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Parsley is claiming to be the victim of a "demonically inspired financial attack":

The Rev. Rod Parsley, megapastor and televangelist, has issued a desperate plea for money, telling his flock that he is facing a "demonically inspired financial attack" that is threatening his ministry.

Parsley is asking for donations by Dec. 31, calling that date an "unavoidable deadline" during an episode of Breakthrough posted yesterday on www.rodparsley.com. Breakthrough is Parsley's television show.

A message titled "Crisis -- Urgent" on the Web site says ministries such as Breakthrough and World Harvest Bible College are "in jeopardy."

The headline of the appeal for donations reads: "Will you help me take back what the devil stole?"

When asked to comment, Parsley's World Harvest Church issued a statement saying the recession caused a decline in member giving in 2009, which has led to a fourth-quarter deficit of $3 million despite a 30 percent reduction in the budget.

This year, the church settled for $3.1 million with a family whose son was spanked at its day-care center in 2006, to the point his buttocks and legs were covered with welts and abrasions.

The boy, then 2, said he was spanked with a "knife" by a substitute teacher. His parents, Michael and Lacey Faieta, believe it was a ruler.

The Faietas said the payment was made this year. During yesterday's Breakthrough broadcast, Parsley referred to a $3 million check he had to write from the ministry.

"The Faieta decision imposed against us earlier this year has made our circumstances more serious," the statement said. No indication was given as to why the money must be raised by Dec. 31 or what specifically could happen if it's not.

The Faietas said Parsley refused to meet personally with them and that the church did not apologize or take accountability for the beating.

The Faietas said today that they had seen Parsley's Web appeal.

Mr. Faieta said he and his wife were "disgusted" and "saddened" by Parsley's words.

Watch It:

Chris Matthews corners Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin, who has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., from receiving Holy Communion due to his views on abortion.

In the interview Mathews exposes the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Church's abortion position: If it's really and truly murder, you're talking about prosecuting mothers, sisters, lovers and friends for having them. Mathews is quite aggressive with the bishop, demanding to know exactly what legal penalties he thinks should be legislated.

Watch It:

After the tragic shooting at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who reports now indicate had some contact with a radical Islamic cleric, during the Bush Administration, former Alaska governor, now book promoter and serial liar, Sarah Palin called for increased profiling of Muslims in the military last night on Fox News.

Watch It:

“I say profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save innocent American lives, I’m all for it then,” concluded The Alaskan Mooselini.

So I guess she by default is saying she also wants to start profiling Christian Fundamentalist would-be terrorists, too? You know, like the Teabaggers who threaten to kill the president, the abortion clinic stalkers, the militias…?

Gambling is increasingly becoming an addiction for states trying to balance their budgets in the midst of an economic crisis. 

Giving in to the temptation by allowing casinos or expanding state-sponsored gambling would heap the financial burden on those least able to afford it, said several United Methodists on the front lines of the public policy debate.

Rev. John Edgar, Chairman of the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force speaks on the social costs of gambling at a press conference on Issue 3 at ProgressOhio on October 5, 2009.

Watch It:

From BeliefNet: Conservatizing the Bible

The eager young men at Conservapedia are p.o.'d that the Bible might be seen as too liberal. So they've come up with the Wiki-style Conservative Bible Project, to make sure the Lord doesn't go all wobbly on us. Excerpt:

As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:[1]

Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias

Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity

Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[2]

Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[3] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle"

Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[4] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census

Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.

Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story

Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels

Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities
Thus, a project has begun among members of Conservapedia to translate the Bible in accordance with these principles. The translated Bible can be found here.

"The liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio"? Hoo-wee! Elitists like to use words, and lots of 'em! "Unnecessary ambiguities"? But how are you going to abide by the conservative mandate to avoid "dumbing down" Holy Writ while at the same time avoiding big words liberals use?

More seriously, the insane hubris of this really staggers the mind. These right-wing ideologues know better than the early church councils that canonized Scripture? They really think it's wise to force the word of God to conform to a 21st-century American idea of what constitutes conservatism? These jokers don't worship God. They worship ideology. As Mark Shea says:

Right wing dementia marches on apace. Some of this has a grain of sense to it, as ideological madness always does. For instance, the dumb attempts to feminize Scripture are pernicious and need to stop. But seriously: the story of the woman taken in adultery is "liberal"? Free market as Sacred tradition? Liberal wordiness?

You really need to read the whole Conservapedia entry to grasp how crazy this is. It's like what you'd get if you crossed the Jesus Seminar with the College Republican chapter at a rural institution of Bible learnin'.

Original Content From BeliefNet

Apparently, Carrie is now an official speaker/martyr for the Christian right, obviously, and while her entire speech is hilarious (work those crazy eyes, girl!), the last 30 seconds are nothing less than pure comedy gold.

"I'm not really into politics, at least I wasn't at the time. But now I have a new outlook on this.
And I am disgusted at the way some people can be so intolerant. It disgusts me."

Watch It:

Pastor Steven Anderson's Gospel of Hate

Let me tell you something: Barack Obama has wrought lewdness in America. America has become lewd. What does lewd mean? L-E-W-D? [Pause] Obscene. Right? Dirty. Filthy. Homosexuality. Promiscuity. All of the -- everything that's on the billboard, the TV. Sensuality. Lewdness! We don't even know what lewdness means anymore! We're just surrounded by it, inundated with it!

... And yet you're going to tell me that I'm supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things -- you're gonna tell me I'm supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he's in Phoenix, Arizona.

Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell. When I go to bed tonight, that's what I'm going to pray. And you say, 'Are you just saying that?' No. When I go to bed tonight, Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell.

You say, 'Why would you do that?' That our country could be saved.

CNN's Rick Sanchez covers the story.

Watch It:

Full Transcript Below:

What in the world happened in Zanesville, Ohio yesterday?

In one evening, this town of 25,000 saw a Tea Party protest, an entirely separate protest with a 70 foot hot air balloon and a Koran-burning extremist and a national camera crew dispatched on a three county "chase" and stalking of Rep. Zach Space.

You can thank Fox News.

First, the most audacious part of the story, the presence of "Coach" Dave Daubenmire. In the words of a blogger on Daubenmire's own site:

Coach Dave and a handful of dedicated citizens chased Zack Space across three counties last night in an attempt to secure a face to face meeting with their Congressman. [...]

For three hours the group waited for someone from the Congressman's office to speak with.[...]

 Here is an eye-witness press report Space's handler did agree to meet with Coach but only if no cameras or press were present. So much for transparency and freedom of the press. [...]

The entire event was filmed by FOX NEWS NATIONAL and will be shown Friday from 6-7 EST on FOX REPORT with Brett Baier. 

Apparently, Fox News spent hours covering Daubenmire's antics across Ohio countryside.

Before they went, did Fox spend even a single minute looking into Daubenmire?

Here's Daubenmire leering at a child, who is staring at a fetus he has out for display on the streets of Columbus.

Here's another picture of him burning a freshly-ripped Koran:

Just today, the Columbus Dispatch reported this reader reaction in an article about another of Daubenmire's planned stunts:

A central Ohio resident who read similar language in a newspaper advertisement for one of the Hebron meetings was alarmed and e-mailed The Dispatch that it sounded like a militia mobilizing to take down the government.

Yes, he's not only a man of actions, but of words. Earlier this year, he wrote of President Obama:

With his silver tongue, and his mulatto ancestry he was able to lure away enough-middle-of-the roaders to carry him on his magic carpet to the highest office in the land.  [...]

But let there be no doubt, he is the marionette that the communist puppet masters had been grooming for years. A true Manchurian Candidate he was the perfect hand-picked front man programmed to do the communist’s bidding. With the help of the socialist media, the socialist labor unions, and the socialist entertainment industry he was swept into office with the bogus claim that he was America’s first “black” president. He was the first president “of color,” to be sure. But the color is red, not black.

Fox News in particular should have been interested to read the rest of Daubenmire's article from March. Daubenmire goes on to lay out his entire game plan. Speaking about Tea Parties and 912 meetups, he says they:

...may garner media attention, it may invigorate those that attend, but in the long run, without an established, focused plan of attack these events will not accomplish what the well-intentioned attendees pray will happen.   [...]

Take the focus off of Obama and begin to apply pressure to the person in your district elected to represent you! Demand he make a choice. He will either stand with the people (who are gathered outside of his office with signs and megaphones) or with America’s first red president. Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book… [...]

If you have any influence in any of these rallies, please change the location and begin to congregate outside the offices of your Congressional Reps. Make appointments with them the day of the rally. [...]

Force them to publicly choose between the red President and red blooded Americans.

This isn't a case of Fox News pointing a camera for a minute at a lunatic assembled outside at an event they were already covering.

No, Fox apparently sent a camera crew to a town of 25,000, an hour away from a major airport, then followed a racist, Koran-burning lunatic "across three counties", and sat outside while he harassed Rep. Space at a private fundraiser for three hours.

The kicker?

“I’d just like to talk to him,” said Daubenmire. [...]

Later, Space offered to meet with two of the group, without the media present.

Daubenmire rejected the offer, and said they would wait until Space came out.

Daubenmire's only interest in putting on the most audacious show possible, and Fox News is enabling the most extreme of the extreme.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time that a Fox outlet has gone to extreme lengths to enable tea partiers attempting to embarrass Rep. Space.

Just three days ago, a Cincinnati Fox affiliate sent a camera crew on a round-trip of over 5 hours, to go to Rep Space's Zanesville office. Was there a major announcement on tap or a ten thousand person-strong Tea Party welling up?

No:

Two men, Ron Elble and Tom Montgomery, had intended to drop off a letter to Space's Zanesville office complaining about the congressman's lack of conducting a town-hall forum on the issue here.

Instead, they were surprised to meet Space and sat down with him for about an hour and a half, Elble said.

Ask anyone who has ever worked in activism or public relations what the odds are of a TV crew spending AN ENTIRE DAY on any story, particularly if the story is two anonymous citizens dropping a barely controversial letter off to a not particularly well-known elected official.

Space said while he was surprised by a news crew from Fox 19 Cincinnati who were also at the office with the men, he sat down with all of them.

"I thought it was just two guys coming, and there ended up being like six or seven people," Space said. "So I went and got doughnuts and coffee and we sat down. We had a good conversation."

[One of the protesters] Montgomery, a long-time insurance agent who deals with health insurance, also said it was a good meeting.

As the Cincinnati station has not aired this footage, one can only assume it is also destined for the aforementioned 'Fox Report' set to air tonight at 6. 

Will Rep. Space will be displayed as magnanimous and reasonable, as both the protesters and the local media describe?

Or will the "fair and balanced" reporting of Fox show something else entirely? Stay tuned.

This is scarier than the "tea partiers" or "birthers".

Watch It:

Sex and power inside "the C Street House"

If sexual license was all the Family offered the C Street men, however, that would merely be seedy and self-serving. But Family men are more than hypocritical. They're followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to "advance the Kingdom." They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby -- and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.

The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. The Family's goal was the "consecration" of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a "Worldwide Spiritual Offensive," but in Washington, it amounted to the nation's first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson -- Pat Robertson's father. Membership lists stored in the Family's archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.

Sharlet is the author of the bestselling "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power."

Yesterday, when Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed a marriage equality law, Maine became the fifth state to allow legal same-sex marriage. On the Christian Broadcasting Network today,

Pat Robertson responded by claiming that the “ultimate conclusion” of legalizing same-sex marriage would be the legalization of polygamy, bestiality, child molestation and pedophilia.

“You mark my words, this is just the beginning in a long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to be abhorrent,” said Robertson.

Watch It:

-Think Progress

URGENT ACTION NEEDED!!!

WHAT

Women’s Group (at OSU) Demands Cancellation of Rape-Promoter Tucker Max
Sexual Assault Awareness Month has barely come to a close, and already
The Ohio State University is choosing to create a hostile environment
for women, violating its own non-discrimination policy as well as
state and federal law.  On Monday, May 11th OSU will be sponsoring the
rape-celebrating Tucker Max as a speaker, using OSU students’ dollars.
 [an example] From a Tucker Max story describing his several-week persistent
coercion of a woman into anal sex, “I was going to **** her in the
butt and film it without her consent.”* Also, from his own website;

My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.

At the same time The Ohio State University is paying for Tucker Max to come to campus, university officials are telling students that there is "no money" to set up a fund for OSU students who are raped / sexually assulted. The fund would help cover the high costs of seeking medical attention after such an attack which can cost survivors hundreds and even thousands of dollors before its all said and done... So there is money for Rape-Promoters but not for Women??????

 WHAT CAN YOU DO? 

STOP THIS EVENT FROM HAPPENING!!!

WARR demands that Ohio State follow its non-discrimination policy as
well as state and federal law and does not use the student activity
fee to violate students’ rights.

First, decide for yourself what you can do to help but here are some suggestions

1) get a group of friends together, decide on some tactics (noise makers, banners, chants, etc) and come shut down this "presentation".

2) get a group together, make some signs, and hold a protest at the corner of 15th & High - let the public know how OSU is spending student fees and tox dollars

3) engage students who are going to the event..

4) Contact OSU by phone and email and let them know what you think about them bringing this jerk to campus.

    * Ohio Unio Activities Board: 614.292.3117 or  ouab@osu.edu 

    * OSU President Gordon Gee: (614) 292-2424 or gee.2@osu.edu

    * Ohio State Parent Association: (614) 688-4888 or

           parent-association@osu.edu

    * Ohio State Alumni Association: (800) 678-6355 or

          griffin@ohiostatealumni.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP / LET STUDENTS KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO SUPPORT THIS EFFORT CONTACT;

Woym & Allies Rising in Resistance - WARR (student group at OSU)

Stephanie Diebold
diebold.5@osu.edu

Miss California Carrie Prejean lost the first prize in the Miss America Pageant because of her views on same-sex marriage.

But, as the new spokesperson for the National Organization for Marriage, is a woman with capped teeth and new fake breasts really qualified to speak out against things "unnatural" that aren't "Biblically correct?"

Gathering Storm: Miss California Trying to Redefine Traditional Breasts for the Rest of Us

Now, in the latest twist in the tale, a celebrity gossip blog, The Dirty, has released some salacious photos of Ms. Prejean. The blogger has promised that he has more and will release them in due time.

Shocked by the photos, and the blogger's accompanying insults Miss California fired back with this statement:

"I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be. But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive."

 Intolerant and offensive?  I guess that makes it a stand-off.

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

Last week, Iowa and Vermont joined Connecticut and Massachusetts to legalize same-sex marriage. Progressive religious voices and civil rights groups worked hard to help achieve these victories, moving us closer to our nation’s promise of equality and justice for all. Even so, conservative religious opponents are criticizing the victories, claiming that same-sex marriage violates the biblical definition of marriage. They are wrong, and here’s why.

1. There are few biblical verses that address homosexuality at all, and most of those are not directed at homosexuality per se. Opponents of same-sex marriage routinely cite seven verses in the Christian Bible as condemning homosexuality and calling it a sin. But when taken in context, these lessons speak not against homosexuality itself, but rather against rape, child molestation, bestiality, and other practices that hurt others and compromise a person’s relationship with God.

2. Jesus never said one word against homosexuality. In all of his teachings, Jesus uplifted actions and attitudes of justice, love, humility, mercy, and compassion. He condemned violence, oppression, cold-heartedness, and social injustice. Never once did Jesus refer to what we call homosexuality as a sin.

3. The Bible never mentions or condemns the concept we call same-sex marriage. Although opponents of same-sex marriage claim that lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender unions violate biblical principles, no verses in the Bible explicitly address gay marriage or committed same-sex relationships.

4. Those who claim a “biblical definition of marriage” as a model for today ignore various marital arrangements in the Bible that would be illegal or condemned today. The Bible is filled with stories of polygamy and husbands taking concubines. In accordance with the culture and laws of the past, women were often treated like property that could be traded or sold into marriage. Today we understand that these examples of marriage reflect the cultural practices of the time rather than a spiritual model for today.

Original Content from The Center For American Progress