Well, it seems the Bushistas aren't religious fanatics after all.

Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction

Check part one of the dreaded exclusive report, Windows Media, Quicktime, or transcript at Crooks and Liars .

When President Bush touched on Iraq at his news conference this morning, he may have been revealing more than he knew.

[video] BUSH: The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives.

He was talking about religious extremists in Iraq. But an hour later, Mr. Bush posed with officials from the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is described as the largest, most influential evangelical denomination in a new book by the former number-two man in Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.

The book, "Tempting Faith," not out until Monday, but in our third story tonight, a Countdown exclusive we've obtained a copy and it is devastating work.

There was never any question but that we would have to address school shootings without reference to guns.

"You've outlawed simple prayer.

"Now gunshots fill our classrooms and precious children die . . .

"You regulate restrictive law through legislative creed, and yet you failed to understand that God is what we need."

Until that point, Bush had been having trouble finding his voice on school shootings, which one of his own panelists asserted could number as high as 600 over the past six years. He labeled the violence "inexplissible," apparently merging "inexplicable" and "inexpressible." And he had to guide the discussion away from one panelist's remark about "computer predators" -- a dangerous topic during the Mark Foley scandal.

But on hearing Scott's "unbelievably eloquent testimony," Bush brightened considerably.

Guns Are in Schools but Not in the President's Vocabulary
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; A02

President Bush has always been a disciplined man, but yesterday he set a new standard for self-control: He moderated an hour-long discussion about the rash of school shootings in the past week without once mentioning the word "guns."

At Medical Ambassadors International, one of the leading groups in medical missions, missionaries are trained in a strategy called "Community Health Evangelism," which aims to fully integrate healthcare with Scriptures...

"We don't ask people to convert. We ask them to follow Jesus," he said...

"The church is the custodian of the true solution to AIDS," Muindi said, referring to the behavioral changes that can stop the disease's spread. "If there's anything positive about the pandemic, it's the way people are more receptive to the Gospel when they have a terminal illness. The church has the mandate to deal with such things, and they have the message to bring about a change in behavior that is lasting."

Healing the body to reach the soul
Evangelicals add converts through medical trips
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | October 11, 2006

Southeast Christian Church includes information about Islam, as evangelicals become more aggressive in trying to convert Muslims. (David R. Lutman for the Boston Globe)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Dr. David Dageforde's life changed in a makeshift medical clinic in remote Ethiopia as he stared into the yellow, sunken eyes of a man with advanced liver disease.

The man's family had carried him three hours on a stretcher fashioned from tree limbs and a blanket. Dageforde's years in a lucrative cardiologist practice in Louisville had taught him that this man would die, 11 hours from the nearest hospital.

Amid the grieving family, a missionary began praying, talking of eternal life.

"Seeing their eyes, their faces, their look and understanding" revealed the awesome power of connecting healthcare with spirituality, Dageforde said.

Tucker Carlson to Evangelicals: Duped
By: John Amato on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 5:29 AM - PDT

Tucker Carlson gets honest about what he says the Republican elites feel about the Extreme Christian Right.

Video-WMP Video-QT

Duncan:

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…

While Christian Hospital officials insist they are there to heal, not to proselytize, World Witness's own literature suggests that part of its mission is to spread Christianity.

A brochure for the hospital says "The Jesus Film" "is shown to all patients," and goes on to say that "the hospital and staff feel that through Christ, terrorism will be eliminated in this part of the world," a phrase that offended Muslim leaders who say Islam is about peace, and not violence.

"If I am given such a message, I ask, `Why are you spreading hatred among human beings? What is your agenda?' " said Abdul Rauf Farooqi , a Lahore-based member of the board of the National Religious Schools Council.

Christian groups say that view is mistaken. The Rev. Frank van Dalen , World Witness's executive director, said "The Jesus Film" is only shown in the waiting room, and not constantly. He winced when he was shown the brochure's reference to eliminating terrorism through Christ.

"That's a dumb thing to say. It doesn't work that way," he said.

Together, but worlds apart
Christian aid groups raise suspicion in strongholds of Islam
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff  |  October 10, 2006

SAHIWAL, Pakistan -- The X-ray machine at the Christian Hospital here is emblazoned with a USAID sticker to promote the US government's donation of top-of-the-line medical equipment. So is the blood bank refrigerator, the auditorium for medical lectures, and the radiology computer -- all sparkling new messages of help for the people of Pakistan, a crucial ally in the war on terrorism.

With a cleanliness and order that are in stark contrast to the crowded and filthy municipal hospital across town, the Christian Hospital, run by the Christian group World Witness with US government assistance, seems an easy choice for the nearly all-Muslim community it offers to serve. The public hospital is understaffed and underequipped, with patients slumped in dirty hallways and anxious parents holding crying, sickly babies awaiting a doctor's attention.

But like many Christian facilities in this Muslim nation, the Christian Hospital is an entity apart. It cares for 14,000 to 15,000 patients a year, compared with 1 million at the municipal hospital, and the neediest patients say they can't afford the few dollars for admission and a few blood tests.

There are no national figures on how much money these tax breaks save religious organizations and on how much extra cost is shifted to other citizens. But a typical state, Colorado, reported that religious real estate valued at more than $1.1 billion was exempt from local property taxes there last year. Nationally, tax-exempt financing for religious organizations totaled at least $20 billion during the decade that ended last year.

As Religious Programs Expand, Disputes Rise Over Tax Breaks
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

The similarities between Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, on the north side of South Bend, Ind., and Hermitage Estates, south of town, are almost disorienting. The two retirement communities have the same simple gabled ranch houses, with the same touches of brick and stone, clustered around a pond with the same fountain funneling spray into the air and ducks waddling down the grassy bank.

All of this might seem like the easily ignorable ravings of a Hollywood has-been if the book wasn't climbing bestseller lists. Baldwin writes that "God has called me to go and make disciples of the youth of America. That is what I am going to try to do, and if you try to stop me I am going to break your face." Most frightening of all, Baldwin is succeeding. All of his dude-speak is actually speaking to the dudes. Thanks to his book, videos and live sermons, he continues to draw thousands of young people across the country into his church of celebrity and absolutism.

The youngest of Hollywood’s famous and infamous Baldwin brothers, Stephen was best known for a host of mediocre movies and his passion for blow before Sept. 11, 2001, the day he got religion.

Dude, where's my cross?
Stephen Baldwin preaches to teens that Bono is in league with Satan. Don't laugh, the born-again actor is a cultural advisor to Bush and one of the most popular new evangelists in the country.
By Lauren Sandler

Oct. 09, 2006 | On the National Mall in Washington last year, I had the opportunity to bear witness to actor-cum-evangelist Stephen Baldwin. His Livin' It ministry had set up a giant skate park, and under cloudy November skies young disciples flipped tricks. Baldwin, in giant aviator sunglasses, lumbered onto the half-pipe to testify to his "gnarly" rebirth in Christ to a crowd packed onto bleachers. Before the event, volunteers passed out tiny yellow pencils and "decision cards" to hordes of young spectators, who sat about a hundred yards from where the Constitution lies under thick glass. The cards would commit teens to a life in Christ if they were to undergo their own gnarly rebirth that afternoon.

Most of the evangelical Christians interviewed said that so far they saw Mr. Foley’s behavior as a matter of personal morality, not institutional dysfunction.

All said the question of broader responsibility had quickly devolved into a storm of partisan charges and countercharges. And all insisted the episode would have little impact on their intentions to vote.

Evangelicals Blame Foley, Not Republican Party
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

VIRGINIA BEACH, Oct. 7 — As word of Representative Mark Foley’s sexually explicit e-mail messages to former pages spread last week, Republican strategists worried — and Democrats hoped — that the sordid nature of the scandal would discourage conservative Christians from going to the polls.

Some of these exemptions are rooted in long traditions, while others have grown from court decisions over the last 15 years. Together, they are expanding the ability of religious organizations — especially religious schools — to manage their affairs with less interference from the government and their own employees.

The most sweeping of these judicial protections, and the one that confronted the novice nun in Toledo, is called the ministerial exception. Judges have been applying this exception, sometimes called the church autonomy doctrine, to religious employment disputes for more than 100 years.

As a rule, state and federal judges will handle any lawsuit that is filed in the right place in an appropriate, timely manner. But judges will almost never agree to hear a controversy that would require them to delve into the doctrines, governance, discipline or hiring preferences of any religious faith. Citing the protections of the First Amendment, they have ruled with great consistency that congregations cannot fully express their faith and exercise their religious freedom unless they are free to select their own spiritual leaders without any interference from government agencies or second-guessing by the courts.

Where Faith Abides, Employees Have Few Rights
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

J. Jeffrey Heck, a lawyer in Mansfield, Ohio, usually sits on management’s side of the table. “The only employee cases I take are those that poke my buttons,” he said. “And this one really did.”

His client was a middle-aged novice training to become a nun in a Roman Catholic religious order in Toledo. She said she had been dismissed by the order after she became seriously ill — including a diagnosis of breast cancer.

In her complaint, the novice, Mary Rosati, said she had visited her doctor with her immediate supervisor and the mother superior. After the doctor explained her treatment options for breast cancer, the complaint continued, the mother superior announced: “We will have to let her go. I don’t think we can take care of her.”

The pressure on CARE is emblematic of that facing many other secular groups. President Bush's faith-based initiative has not only increased funding for church groups, but also raised the expectations of the religious right, which has asserted a stronger role in setting policy.

The pattern of outcry by religious conservatives, followed by accommodation by the administration, has been replicated on numerous occasions at USAID, from personnel decisions to choices of who runs humanitarian programs overseas...

James Towey , the former head of the White House's faith-based office, acknowledged that he fought hard to shift international aid to faith-based groups, although he denied it was a political payback.

"The fact is [officials at USAID] tended to be left of center and they tended to be more of a secular perspective than a religious one," said Towey, who served as Bush's top faith-based official from 2002 until June 2006. 

Religious right wields clout
Secular groups losing funding amid pressure
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | October 9, 2006

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family has played a major role in presidential politics.

For six decades, CARE has been a vital ally to the US government. It supplied the famed CARE packages to Europe's starving masses after World War II, and its work with the poor has been celebrated by US presidents. So the group was thrilled when it received a major contract from the Bush administration to fight AIDS in Africa and Asia.

But this time, instead of accolades came attacks. Religious conservatives contended that the $50 million contract, under which CARE was to distribute money to both secular and faith-based groups, was being guided by an organization out of touch with religious values.

Such a bill could have only one motive: to protect unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. The religious right, which has been trying for years to use government to advance their religious views, wants to reduce the likelihood that their efforts will be declared unconstitutional. Since they cannot change the law of the Establishment Clause by statute, they have turned their attention to trying to prevent its enforcement by eliminating the possibility for recovery of attorneys' fees. 

Legislating Violations of the Constitution
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Special to washingtonpost.com
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 12:00 AM

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.

I'm not sure at all I want to see Jesus Camp. I get enough of that from The Word Network, which my mother uses as Muzak. 

"Jesus Camp" opens with an unsettling sequence, during which young Christians -- dressed in camouflage and with their faces painted brown and green -- enact a warlike ritual dedicating themselves to fighting for God. Soon after, we meet the film's stars: 12-year-old Levi, who wears his hair cut short except for a rat's tail, declares he was saved when he was 5 "because I wanted more out of life," and now aims to be a preacher; Rachael, 9, who longs to be an evangelist and is practicing spreading the Word at her local bowling alley; and Tory, 10, who loves to dance but shamefully admits that sometimes she doesn't dance only for Jesus, but also "for the flesh." And we also meet Becky Fischer, the outgoing, charismatic leader of a youth ministry in the kids' home state of Missouri, who serves as a counselor at a summer camp called Kids on Fire in (wait for it) Devil's Lake, N.D...

How many people like this are out there??

"In a year when unfounded charges of deceptive advertising are flying against pro-life alternative to abortion groups from abortion industry advocates like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the National Abortion Federation, we filed a sixteen-count complaint supported by affidavits alleging deceptive acts and practices in the conduct of an abortion clinic's business in violation of N.Y. General Business Law 349," Slattery said.

Abortion Clinic Sued for Posing as a Pro-Life Crisis Pregnancy Center

WHITE PLAINS, NY, September 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday, Expectant Mother Care-EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers filed suit against "Dr. Emily's" abortion clinic with sites in the Bronx and downtown Brooklyn citing evidence of deceptive advertising practices.

Multiple-Choice God
New survey reveals that Americans believe in four basic types of deity.
September 17, 2006

'IN GOD WE TRUST" it says on the penny, and a new survey of religious attitudes supports that sentiment. According to "American Piety in the 21st Century," a survey conducted for Baylor University by the Gallup Organization, 85% to 90% of Americans say "yes" when asked: "Do you, personally, believe in God?"

But the study went further by asking respondents what sort of God they believed in. The results put the perennial debate over the role of religion in public life in a new light.

You'll be able to see it as soon as he takes his head out of his ass. 

Bush Tells Group He Sees a 'Third Awakening'
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; A05

President Bush said yesterday that he senses a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation's struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as "a confrontation between good and evil."

Bush told a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels, and he suggested that might signal a broader revival similar to other religious movements in history. Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.

Trio accused of gunpoint prayer session
September 8, 2006

ATHENS, Ala. --A woman and two roommates are accused of holding her brother at gunpoint as she prayed for his repentance, even firing a shot into the ceiling to keep his attention.

Randy Doss, 46, of Athens said he fled the house when his captors got distracted and later went to police, who were skeptical at first because his story was so bizarre. But police said it checked out, including the bullet hole in the ceiling.

"We found where they patched the hole with caulk," said Sgt. Trevor Harris.

Police said the sister, Tammie Lee Doss, 43, Donna Leigh Bianca, 37, and Ronald David Richie, 45, who live at the Athens house, were charged with unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor. The two women were also charged with menacing, a misdemeanor. All were released on bond.

Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
[P6: This is an abbrieviated form. The original article is still online.]

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

It's pretty easy for me to shift into other folks' viewpoints. I'm talking on a macro level, not detail like "how will my girl react if..."

So I wind up shaking my head sadly when I hear Real Amurrikans screaming in terror about how "Islamofascist" want to destroy our way of life when

1. they proselytize for universal Christianity
2. want to destroy those who proselytize for universal (fill-in-the-blank)

I can't help but note they look to their enemies exactly as their enemies look to them. Which makes me everyone's enemy or everyone's friend because they all look alike to me.

I love it when Mammon worshippers install a petard and, like, ask you to hoist them upon it.

 

Few people know that Focus on the Family—the powerful evangelical Christian para-church based in Colorado Springs—will give you, absolutely free of charge, books, CDs, and DVDs. Usually people pay for these products, and the millions of dollars raised helps Focus on the Family produce yet more books and CDs featuring Dr. James Dobson and other Focus "experts." (Focus on the Family's experts, when they're not chatting on the phone with Karl Rove, run around the country teaching people how to stop being so gay and when it's appropriate to kick their kids' asses.)

George finally got around to speaking in New Orleans today. He wants to specifically support a parochial school (read: religious) school system to compete with the public school system.

When I get a minute I'll post a clip documenting it. 

God's Country?
Walter Russell Mead
Religion has always been a major force in U.S. politics, but the recent surge in the number and the power of evangelicals is recasting the country's political scene -- with dramatic implications for foreign policy. This should not be cause for panic: evangelicals are passionately devoted to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach out across sectarian lines.

I'm going to recommend this article without venturing an opinion on what it says. And I really do recommend it.

Corporate America, take note.

Stafford, population 19,227, is the largest city in Texas without a property tax, and it depends on sales taxes and business fees for revenue. Nonprofits have been attracted by its rapid growth and minimal deed restrictions. "It's thrown everything out of balance, plus providing zero revenue. Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools," City Councilman Cecil Willis said. 

Churches Putting Town Out of Business
Stafford, Texas, has 51 tax-exempt religious institutions and wants no more: `Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools.'
By Lianne Hart
Times Staff Writer
July 31, 2006

“More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,” Mr. McLaren said. “You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.

“Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.’ ”... 

He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurch’s worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with the chorus singing “God Bless America” and a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses.

“I thought to myself, ‘What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?’ ” he said in an interview.

Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing — and the church’s — to conservative political candidates and causes.

The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute “voters’ guides” that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn’t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?

After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.

A thing doesn't have to be tied to the Black Civil Rights Movement to be a civil rights issue.

Gay marriage ban upheld
State Supreme Court reinstates Constitutional amendment
By SONJI JACOBS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/06/06

Georgia's amendment banning gay marriage is constitutional, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.

The decision effectively reinstates the ban, which was thrown out by a lower court judge in May.

The state Supreme Court justices ruled that the amendment to the state constitution, approved by 76 percent of voters in November 2004, does not violate the single-subject rule by addressing other issues such as civil unions in addition to marriage.

The Statue of Liberation Through Christ, as she is called, stands 72 feet tall from the base of her pedestal to the tip of her cross. She was the idea of Mr. Williams, a very successful pastor whose church, World Overcomers, qualifies as mega: it has a school, a bowling alley, a roller rink, a bookstore and, he said, 12,000 members.

[LATER: I decided you need to see this statue to believe it, so I swipe the image from the NY Times]

Lady Liberty Trades In Some Trappings
By SHAILA DEWAN

MEMPHIS, July 4 — On Independence Day, Lady Liberty was born again.

As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but with the Ten Commandments under one arm and "Jehovah" inscribed on her crown.

And in place of a torch, she held aloft a large gold cross, as if to ward off the pawnshops, the car dealerships and the discount furniture outlets at the busy corner of Kirby Parkway and Winchester that is her home. A single tear graced her cheek.

You know damn darn well AmeriChristians don't actually read the Bible. They got their ministers to telll them which fractional sentence is thei week's wisdom.

Paranoia of note:

"It's crystal clear to us that unless we get involved in the outcome of foreign law then we're going to be at grave risk," says Bull. Ann Beeson, associate legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, says "We now see regional and international human rights forums as simply another tool in the fight for social justice here in the United States."

Christian conservatives take the culture wars overseas to foreign courts
By Scott Michels
Posted 6/14/06

When a devout Christian man in England was fired in 2002 for refusing to work on Sundays, his case became something of a cause célèbre among British evangelicals. But the money and part of the legal strategy behind Stephen Copsey's latest court appeal comes not from London but from Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Alliance Defense Fund.