religious right

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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(cross-posted at The Christian Dem Home Journal and DKos)

A few days ago, CBS News released a poll on the issues important to born-again Christian voters. The picture is looking a bit rosier for Dems to peel them away from the Repubs, but there may still be some work to do.

The poll was featured on Thursday's CBS Evening News, and showed that the most important issues for born-again Christians are health care (23%) and Iraq (20%). They also feel that the Democrats, not the Republicans, are talking about their issues. Katie Couric also interviewed Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who was quick to point out that Darfur, global warming and human trafficking are also well ahead of abortion and gay rights among Christian voters.

Needless to say, as a born-again Christian Dem who realized long ago that the Republicans were selling us a bill of goods, this had me psyched big-time. However, a look at the poll's internals shows that there's still a lot of work ahead.

Front-paged by Anglico.

The New York Times is filled with good stories this weekend, but this one takes the cake.

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo. The latest iteration of the immensely popular space epic, Halo 3, was released nearly two weeks ago by Microsoft and has already passed $300 million in sales.
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Far from being defensive, church leaders who support Halo — despite its “thou shalt kill” credo — celebrate it as a modern and sometimes singularly effective tool. It is crucial, they say, to reach the elusive audience of boys and young men. Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, sat in front of three TVs, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gun bursts. Tim explained the game’s allure: “It’s just fun blowing people up.”

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

As my daughter asked, why don't they just hire prostitutes to have sex with all the teenage boys? Wouldn't that keep them coming back, too?

Harlow Barget of State Government Radio featured the following commentary on GOP hypocrisy on his radio show:

I’ve tried to resist, but the temptation to comment is just too great. I’m talking, of course, about the recent sex scandals involving self-righteous politicians in the Old North State.

Maybe the Devil made them do it, but I see the Hand of a Higher Power bringing justice to the smug and proud. In recent years, especially in the South, there has been an overt attempt by pious politicians to exploit religion for their own ends.

The Republican Party as a whole has been successful in winning a majority of churchgoing voters. Fundamentalist Christians in particular have voted overwhelming for Republicans. That’s not some liberal cant. That’s a fact.

There’s nothing wrong or undemocratic about that voting pattern. Republicans have best represented the views of such voters.

What’s been wrong are the suggestions--and it’s more than suggestions from people such as former and disgraced House Majority Leader Tom Delay of Texas--that their opponents are godless infidels.

People can disagree honestly over how to fix our broken health care system or how to interpret Roe v. Wade. But it’s not American to question people’s faith because they disagree with your political solutions. Such absolutism is the path to the world of the Taliban.

stolen from street prophets: http://www.streetprophets.com/story/2007/7/7/102955/8993
by pastordan

Okay, so it's not what you think. ABC News reprints an article from AP's Glen Johnson:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who rails against the "cesspool" of pornography, is being criticized by social conservatives who argue that he should have tried to halt hardcore hotel movie offerings during his near-decade on the Marriott board.

Two anti-pornography crusaders, as well as two conservative activists of the type Romney is courting, say the distribution of such graphic adult movies runs counter to the family image cultivated by Romney, the Marriotts and their shared Mormon faith.

"Marriott is a major pornographer. And even though he may have fought it, everyone on that board is a hypocrite for presenting themselves as family values when their hotels offer 70 different types of hardcore pornography," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, an anti-pornography group based on Ohio.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading conservative group in Washington, said: "They have to assume some responsibility. It's their hotels, it's their television sets."

More below the fold.

There was a conference last week outside of Asheville that just made you go 'Huh?!?' to read about.

Hi Everybody!!!

I've been out of town and/or on vacation all week. I got back Wednesday but with my political and blog hobbies, vacation for this chic meant that I had to stay away from the computer, the phone, the radio, all reading materials and the teevee for the remainder of the week. I cheated a little bit Friday and a smidge yesterday, but mostly I've been incommunicado aaaaall week.

And let me tell you ... it’s been GREAT!!

My s.o. took me to Blowing Rock & Grandfather Mtn. for my birthday. We spent the time dragging our old, out-of-shape 747 wide bodies all over the place hiking and looking and "wow"-ing. Thank God for ice cold mountain streams! Otherwise my feet would have failed me early into the second day. We got home Wednesday but since Thursday I've been piddling in the yard, baking, planting spring veggies, exploring local organic farms (on-line) and doing su doku. Lots of su doku. 8^}

And now I've ruined myself. Tomorrow is Monday and I do NOT want to go back to work. I didn't even go to political meetings I could have gotten to last week. This is what heaven will be like, I just know it ... su doku, good books and piddling in a garden all day. ;)

But today ... I'm getting back to it.

Also mentioned at DKos

Most of you know that when I was at Carolina, I was suckered into joining a hypercharismatic church that was once part of Maranatha Campus Ministries, a notorious campus cult from the 1980s. This church, King's Park International Church in Durham, is now one of the leading churches in Every Nation, which by all indications is a lineal descendant, if not an outright revival, of Maranatha. KPIC's founding pastor, Ron Lewis, is also the pastor of Morning Star New York, a church plant in Manhattan.

Well, a few days ago, one of my fellow EN refuseniks came upon a financial disclosure statement for Sam Brownback's PAC, Restore America. It seems that a mere nine days after Sam Brownback travelled to Manhattan, Lewis and two of his Every Nation colleagues donated a total of $2,200 to this PAC. At the very least, you have a presidential candiate taking donations from a guy with DOCUMENTED ties to a recognized cult. At most, it's potentially a violation of campaign finance laws.