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I read in Robert Novak’s column this morning that Mike Huckabee held a fundraiser earlier this week at the Houston home of Dr. Steven Hotze. As Novak notes, Hotze is “a leader in the highly conservative Christian Reconstruction movement.” Christian Reconstructionists, for those unfamiliar with the term, are Religious Right radicals who believe that America, and the rest of the world besides, should be governed in accordance with strict Biblical law. And yes, that includes stoning adulterers. Here’s a snippet from “A Manifesto for the Christian Church,” a 1986 document from an outfit called the Coalition on Revival that was...

ince Vatican II the Mass has fallen victim to various kinds of irregularities. This issue has been much discussed from various perspectives, but in this article we will examine a previously neglected aspect of the situation — namely, the psychological reasons why priests have introduced these changes. We will not deal with theological explanations for why the Mass has been subject to liturgical experimentation, nor will we discuss liturgical rationales for such innovations. Instead, we will focus on the psychology of the priest and those assisting at the liturgy that is, on the psychological motives as distinct from theological and...

Within a few years of its publication in 1907, "Christianity and the Social Crisis" swept through America's Protestant churches like a nor'easter, selling more than 50,000 copies to ministers and laypeople alike. In an age of social upheaval, Walter Rauschenbusch's jeremiad was meant to rouse the church from its pietistic slumber. "If society continues to disintegrate and decay, the Church will be carried down with it," he warned. "If the Church can rally such moral forces that injustice will be overcome . . . it will itself rise to higher liberty and life." The summons found many converts. Reflecting on...

Only weeks after voting for a resolution that "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world," nine Democrats in the U.S. House refused to vote for a Christmas resolution that condemns the worldwide persecution of Christians.

ABC News' Eloise Harper: For the first time the press has been invited to join New York Senator Hillary Clinton on an outing to church - a woman led the congregation, Associate Pastor Rev Jill Flyr. Coincidently the topic of the sermon was the Children's Defense Fund - a cause familiar to Clinton - and one she brings up regularly while campaigning. Flyr said to the audience in her sermon ""let the candidates know that they need to be strong advocates for children." Bonnie Campbell, the owner of the church, served in the Clinton administration as Head of the Violence...

In the final Election Day reckoning, the race did not go to the loudest or most passionate religious voices. Instead, the judgments of moderate Catholics and Protestants were more influential than an impressive turnout by religious liberals and conservatives, according to the University of Akron's fourth national survey of religion and politics released this week.The post-election survey of 2,730 adult respondents showed an increasingly polarized religious electorate, with nearly 90 percent of conservative evangelical Protestants voting for President Bush and nearly four in five liberal mainline Protestants choosing Sen. John Kerry. But it was in the center, among moderate Protestants...

People who start having sex at a younger or older than average age appear to be at greater risk of developing sexual health problems later in life, a new study suggests. The findings, according to researchers, cast some doubts on the benefits of abstinence-only sexual education that has been introduced in U.S. public schools.Using data from a 1996 cross-sectional survey of more than 8,000 U.S. adults, the researchers found that those who started having sex at a relatively young age were more likely to have certain risk factors for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) -- including a high number of sexual...

OK, today on Laura Ingraham's show, the website shows as a guest Rev. Billy of the "Church of Stop Shopping". This guy is a known Code Pink associate and participates in the Code Pink disruptions of Congress. Here's 14 pages of Google hits on Rev. Billy and Code Pink (two words)Here's 12 pages of Google hits on Rev. Billy and CodePink (one word) The guy dresses in clerical garb and mockingly imitates an evangelical minister. The Church of Stop Shopping was this clown's response to the President's message that the public should carry on their normal activities (Go shopping...) rather...

The honesty and transparency themes are driving much of voter sentiment in this election. It helps explain the surprising success of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee. And we see similar dynamics with the Democratic candidates. Consider a "The Economist/YouGov'' poll out last week. When Democratic voters were asked which phrases they would use to describe their candidates, results included the following: * Honesty: Obama 54 percent, Clinton 35 percent. * Moral: Obama 54 percent, Clinton 34 percent. * Religious: Obama 29 percent, Clinton 19 percent. * Says what he/she believes: Obama 60 percent, Clinton 39 percent. Clinton's growing image of untrustworthiness...

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Within days of introducing a $50 billion plan to combat AIDS, Sen. Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation at one of the nation's most influential evangelical churches after addressing its "Global Summit on AIDS and the Church." If the Democratic presidential frontrunner's aim was to make inroads into the electorate's heavily Republican evangelical community, her appearance at Saddleback Church with pastor and "The Purpose Driven Life" author Rick Warren apparently didn't hurt.

One might ask why it is important to understand the relation between the Leftist/Marxist/Islamist Alliance and the Emerging Movement among Churches and Mosques. It is because it indicates the movement of a historically conservative church and other organizations into the fold. These Emerging Church and Mosque Movements are the elephants in the pew. The Radical Islamist Movement has realized that the tactical weapons of terrorism and suicide bombing may not be achieving their goal for world domination, and that seduction, economics and political action are more effective in winning the war. In this essay, I address how the Leftist/Marxist/Islamist Alliance...

by Richard Lawrence Poe Monday, November 26, 2007 Permanent LinkMore Columns MOST AMERICANS never heard of Saul Alinsky. Yet his shadow darkens our coming election. Democrat frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both worship at the altar of Alinskyism. In a 1971 book called Rules for Radicals, Alinsky scolded the Sixties Left for scaring off potential converts in Middle America. True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as...

On Sunday mornings, most parents who don't believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids' soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there's no need for church, right? Maybe. But some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. "When you have kids," says Julie Willey, a design engineer, "you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on." So every week, Willey, who was...

Ron Paul, the Anti-Republican candidate for President and a favorite of White Supremacists like David Duke, has unveiled a new defense strategy to counter charges of Anti-semitism. The campaign of the candidate who claims to disdain ethnic collectivism now boasts an organization called "Jews for Ron Paul." If Jews for Ron Paul puts you in mind of Jews for Jesus, you're not far wrong. Because Jews for Ron Paul is a scam. Jim C. Perry, the Executive Director of Jews for Ron Paul and heavily featured as the spokesman for the front group. Like many Jews for Jesus figures, Jim...

Democratic leader Howard Dean blasted the GOP's lack of diversity in a speech to Jewish communal leaders. Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also appeared to criticize the practice of including an invocation of Jesus at the end of pre-game prayers at scholastic sporting events. Dean made the remark Sunday during a decidedly partisan speech at the opening plenary of the United Jewish Communities' General Assembly in Nashville. He painted the Republican Party as religiously and racially exclusive. His speech to the 3,500 Jewish communal leaders in attendance followed an address by the University of Tennessee's basketball coach, Bruce...

I believe that Dick Cheney is a liar; that Donald Rumsfeld is also a liar; and that George W. Bush was, and is, clueless about how to be the president of the United States. ...They have shamed our beloved nation in the world by this war and the shameful way they have fought it. Almost 4,000 young Americans are dead because of the lies of this administration, tens of thousands more wounded and maimed for life, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also dead, and 400 billion dollars wasted—because of their lies, incompetence, and corruption. But I don’t favor impeachment, as...

In the darkest hour of despair, when all hope seemed lost, the communal leader called together his counsel of the faithful and uttered ritual sayings. Sounds like something out of the eighth century, doesn't it? Just this past week, however, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, facing a massive and seemingly unrelenting drought, declared that "The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that from is from a higher power." He then sent out responses to leaders of several faiths to take part in a prayer service. The potential establishment clause violations inherent in state sponsored prayer are disturbing....

The cover story of Sunday’s New York Times Magazine pronounced the demise of the religious right in America. The ranks are demoralized, split, and liberal evangelicals are taking over with a new agenda for the environment and the poor. On the editorial page, the acerbic Frank Rich coordinated his column with the magazine, concluding, “Inauguration Day 2009 is at the very least Armageddon for the reigning ayatollahs of the American right.” Wow! Just three years ago the press touted conservative evangelicals as the most powerful voting block in America. What happened? Nothing. The press is up to its old tricks....

LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee Thursday denounced a bill by Sen. Jim Holt that would deny state benefits to illegal immigrants as un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life. Holt, R-Springdale, replied later that Christian charity does not include turning a blind eye to lawbreaking. Senate Bill 206, filed Wednesday, also would require proof of citizenzhip to register to vote and would require state agencies to report suspected cases of people living in the country illegally. "Somebody needs to ask Sen. Holt what welfare this bill would stop," Huckabee said in a question-and-answer period with reporters on Thursday morning. Many aid...

Americans who don't believe in God have decided it's time they had a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Their new advocate describes herself as a "soft, fuzzy atheist." Lori Lipman Brown starts Monday as executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. Her two goals: keep religion out of government and win respect for a stigmatized minority. The magnitude of those challenges is, well, biblical. Think Daniel entering the lion's den, or David taking on Goliath. Christian conservatives wield enormous clout here through a network of advocacy groups and relationships with politicians from President Bush on down. Atheists, humanists and...