Free Republic

Halloween has its origins in superstition and sadly, it invokes old and new superstitions still. Halloween, from "All Hallows Eve," was the evening before the Catholic All Saints Day and was supposed to be haunted by demons jealous of the holy day to follow. It also had roots in prehistoric Celtic mythology. But in modern times it's developed into a fun day where children dress in ghoulish or cute costumes and canvass the neighborhood for candy while adults at masquerade parties imbibe more mature fare. Granted some juveniles get more into the tricks than the treats. And the occasional morbid-Goth...

A Sickening Healthcare Call! Thursday, August 20, 2009 As the debate about healthcare rages, religious “leaders” are weighing in. In a recent teleconference, pastors from around the country gathered to discuss the issue with the White House (and record it for later non-partisan use). As I listened to the call, I had to fight to keep from hitting the stop button. The call began with a prayer led by a female pastor from Georgia (one of several female ministers, deacons and church leaders in what was an obvious nod to feminists, and the theological and political left) then descended into...

It doesn't rank with last year's Exorcism of Sarah Palin, but the Blessing of Newt Gingrich is an early contender for Church-Based Political Moment of the 2012 presidential campaign. It's also the clearest evidence yet that Gingrich is positioning himself to the far Christian Right of fellow 2012 presidential hopefuls Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Gingrich's latest venture into the conservative evangelical world came when he spoke/preached at Lou Engle's "Rediscovering God in America" conference last Friday, hosted by Rock Church in Virginia Beach and broadcast on GodTV. Last month, Gingrich made a very public conversion to the Catholic faith...

On Sunday, abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered at his church in Wichita, Kan. He was one of a handful of doctors in the U.S. who performed late-term abortions and for decades had been a target of virulent criticism from antiabortion activists. His clinic had been bombed and vandalized, and in 1993 he was shot in both arms in a failed assassination attempt. Tiller's alleged killer, Scott Roeder, is a long-time radical antiabortion activist with reported ties to a militant antigovernment organization called the Freemen. Within hours after the murder, every antiabortion group in the country denounced the attack. Robert...

A new polling analysis from Gallup finds that the Republican Party has lost support among nearly every major demographic subgroup, from college graduates to married people to those making under $30,000 a year. In 2001, 47 percent of college grads leaned Republican. Today, just 37 percent do. Support among married people has slid from 51 percent to 46 percent. Just 28 percent of those making less than $30,000 lean Republican, down 9 points in the past eight years.

Is "Christian America" dying? And if so, should we mourn or cheer? These questions, raised in a recent cover story by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, opened a vigorous and continuing debate (note: I am an occasional contributor at Newsweek). The article has been peppered with criticism from religious conservatives who say it demonstrates the anti-religious bias of the mainstream media. This reaction actually demonstrates something different: that it is easier to read a headline than it is to read an article. The Newsweek cover declaring "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" was provocative in a typical, newsmagazineish sort of...

Another obituary was written about the "Religious Right," and as we Christians just passed Palm Sunday on the way to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, it is an excellent time to do some soul searching. Washington Post reporter Kathleen Parker queries in her article "Political Pullback for the Christian Right" whether the movement is dead, ineffective or has lost its way. "Is the Christian right finished as a political entity? Or, more to the point, are principled Christians finished with politics?" she asks. She then goes on to include criticisms of leaders like Dr. James Dobson as either having compromised...

OPINION - Pat Robertson, one of those Christian spokesmen that makes Christians cringe every time he opens his mouth, has struck again. At least he’s not calling for violence…this time. Strangely, though, this time around he is endorsing Obama and Obama’s coming socialist policies. Kurt Nimmo at Infowars reports: On December 23, the “conservative” preacher Pat Robertson told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux that he was pleased as punch with the election of Barack Obama. “I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him. But so help me, he’s come in forcefully, intelligently. He’s picked a middle of the...

Learning From Conservative History: Main Trails . . . and Less-Traveled Paths - 01/02/09 This is part three of a symposium on contemporary conservatism hosted by ISI at Yale in November, 2008. Read part one. Read part two.By training, I am an historian. I love the discipline and believe that historical mindedness—the ability to see and understand the grounding of current institutions, issues, and events in the complex matrix of the past—this is the superior way to make sense of reality.All the same, I have been troubled for over a decade by the growing interest of American conservatives in...

December 05, 2008, 1:40 p.m. Enough with the Oogedy-BoogedyReligion, politics, and us. By Shannen W. Coffin Kathleen Parker’s war on religion in the Re-public-an square entered a new phase today. In her syndicated column, she nobly attempted to explain her use of the term “oogedy-boogedy� to describe religious conservatives. It’s not that she is “anti-God.� It’s just that God really shouldn’t be mentioned in polite company. Religion can inform our values (gee, thanks). But reason, not religion, should inform our public debates. I hadn’t realized religion and reason were mutually exclusive. It seems Pope Benedict hasn’t gotten the memo,...

In this, the interregnum between the end of one administration and the beginning of another, there’s not much for Republicans to do except look for ways to entertain themselves while Democrats are occupied with the serious business of creating a government. The problem — and the GOP is just waking up to this — is that there is absolutely nothing for them to do but wait. No one cares what they think of President-elect Obama’s choice for attorney general or any other cabinet post. The Clinton drama has always been a Democratic farce and only involved the Republicans as onlookers,...

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I'm bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among...

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results. Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren't anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts. The...

David Frum to the Religious Right: Drop Dead Posted by Tom Piatak on November 05, 2008 After weeks of expressing contempt for the delcasse Sarah Palin, David Frum has now expressed his disdain for the voters who liked Palin and who have propelled the GOP to victory after victory since Reagan’s election in 1980, the evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who vote Republican because of their concern over issues like abortion. According to Frum, such voters need to be jettisoned because “College-educated Americans have come to believe that their money is safe with Democrats--but their values are under threat from...

While it is sometimes useful to think of political and social groups as either "left" or "right," there are times when such labels are extremely misleading. Political commentators run into particular problems when they think of evangelical voters as the "Christian right." A recent USA Today editorial, for instance, was headlined “Why the Christian right fears Obama." The author argued (in essence) that the Christian right fears Sen. Barack Obama because the Christian right isn't all that fond of Sen. John McCain and might shift its support to Obama. The author here is only one of many commentators who, not...

At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among the Republican base. "Collectively we feel that he will support and advance those moral values that we hold much greater than Obama, who in our view will decimate moral values," said Mat Staver, the chairman of Liberty Counsel, a legal advocacy group, who previously supported Mike Huckabee's candidacy. "There are people who came...

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics. It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections. "I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama. "To be running against...

On May 22, 2008,a new era began in the history of what is called the Religious Right. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain rejected the endorsements of two of the leading Evangelical pastors in the United States, Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Rod Parsley. The impact of McCain publicly disavowing these two major figures will create a new alignment among politically active religious conservatives and the political parties. In my recent book Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States, I wrote a final chapter titled, "Can the Democrats Get Religion, Can the...

Among Republicans, the move of religious conservatives to the campaign fringe has come about for two reasons, one intentional, the other accidental. When McCain was nominated, Republican voters knew that the Religious Right wasn't going to play the role it had with Bush in 2000 and 2004. The natural affinity didn't exist between these religious activists and the religiously reserved McCain. The expectation remained, however, that through an effective faith outreach, the McCain campaign would bring reluctant religious conservatives into the fold. It would be a tough sell, but given the choice between Obama, the "infanticide candidate," and the pro-life...

The assault on America's religious beliefs is not a new one. It is derived from a practice which Damon Linker, the author of Theocons: Secular America Under Siege referenced in his December 2007 article for The New Republic titled, "Atheism's Wrong Turn, Mindless argument found in godless books." He stated that far from being what modern journalists incorrectly label the "new atheism," the campaign to "act as missionaries for unbelief" is centuries old. Advertisement The American version of this mission to demonize religion is founded on a distorted interpretation of the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Those...

The “Religious Right” lost its religion when it began to identify with first being a “conservative” movement within one Political Party.

<p>Christian right leaders are abuzz today because a new online candidate guide that has been posted by Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of Jim Dobson's conservative Christian empire. The webpage offers edited excerpts of recent webcasts with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, explaining where the candidates stand on "pro-family issues."</p>

"They said all sorts of ludicrous things [about Romney]... that when he became president he would pass a bill for same-sex marriage." The push-polling has hit other candidates too, but it highlights Mr Romney's particular difficulties in selling his candidacy to the religious right since he is a Mormon. While much attention has focused on the possibility of "firsts" in the Democratic race with a woman in Hillary Clinton or African American in Barack Obama as real shots at the White House, Mr Romney would be the first Mormon president. It's something that's firing up the evangelical community, which is...

No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory -- with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful Religious Right.... Today, the religious right has splintered into as many different factions as O.J. Simpson has alibis. Unable to find one candidate who fits the bill of being both true-blue on the issues and electable, America's ayatohlahs have divided their loyalties. Indeed, in some cases, they've even declared war against each other. The National Right to Life League has endorsed Fred Thompson, even though he opposes a constitutional amendment to...

Religious right is deadBILL PRESS 26.DEC.07 No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory — with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful religious right. Starting in 1979 when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives have been the most powerful voting bloc in the Republican Party. Ironically, they began by casting out of the White House a born-again Christian who continued, as president, his lifelong practice of teaching Sunday school, and replacing him with a divorced and remarried man who seldom stepped inside a church. But...

Despite his current standing in the polls, Mike Huckabee remains an under-funded and chronically disorganized long-shot when it comes to actually winning the GOP Presidential nomination. While easily the most gifted TV communicator in the field, the former Arkansas governor displays some serious vulnerabilities as a candidate for the White House and his innumerable critics and rivals have attacked these weaknesses with gleeful ferocity. Even if he fails to win a place on the national ticket, however, Huckabee’s startlingly strong campaign provides potent benefits for both his party and his country. In the two weeks remaining before the Iowa Caucuses...

Who are the bad guys in the Hanukah story? And who are the good guys? These are serious questions with serious consequences. Most Jews (and certainly most Christians) dismiss the winter holiday as a trivial, feel-good festival about candles, potato pancakes, spinning tops (dreidls),and eight nights of gifts, without coming to terms with its serious, relevant and distinctly uncomfortable messages. While frequently (and fatuously) described as a “celebration of tolerance,” Hanukah is more properly designated as an annual re-dedication to the values of the Religious Right. No wonder that so many American Jews (with their reflexive, often ignorant liberal instincts)...

DALLAS - When a pair of Mormon missionaries knocked at the door of Jerry Pierce's home in a north Dallas suburb last month, he marshaled his arguments and stood his ground. "I look forward to encounters like that. I like to talk to them about the nature of Christ and who Jesus is," said Pierce, a staunch Southern Baptist, the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is running into similar resistance as he tries to win over Southern Baptists and other evangelical Protestants in the race for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2008 U.S....

RICHMOND, Va.—There's no shortage of polls underscoring America's sour mood these days. Surveys generally show that 7 in 10 Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction and that most Americans believe their leaders in Washington are doing a poor job. U.S. News led the way in explaining this trend with a recent special report on why Americans think Washington is broken and what can be done about it. If anything, the warning signs are getting gloomier. A new focus group of Republican voters from the Richmond area, conducted last Thursday evening, was a case in point. All...

Could Hillary win the religious vote? Nov. 5, 2007 Paul Kengor [I hope posting the link above to a USA Today article doesn't violate FR's posting guidelines. If so, will the Moderator please delete this thread?] In this opinion piece, Kengor discusses Hillary's faith background, and why religious conservatives are still skeptical of her faith claims. Most troublesome is her support for abortion. He concludes that if the religious right stays home (or bolts to a third party in protest of Rudy Giuliani representing the GOP), they will hand Hillary the presidency.

I had said Fred Thompson could do him a lot of good if he passed “the Russert primary” with flying colors. His campaign had been dismissing the Washington press corps, and implicitly running against the media, refusing to do the things candidates traditionally do (enter early, do five events a day, appear at the New Hampshire debate instead of the Tonight Show). But every once in a while a Washington media institution really does matter, and Meet the Press is one of them. Simply because Tim Russert, without commercial interruption, will throw hardballs and curveballs for a solid half hour,...

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....

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 — Rudolph W. Giuliani strolled into the maw of the religious conservative movement Saturday, and won applause from a crowd of over 2,000 with language of Christian inclusiveness and shared values. Mr. Giuliani made a litany of promises meant to convey that he would not be their enemy if elected president, but he was followed to the podium by Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister, who drew boisterous standing ovations. Mr. Huckabee’s speech, full of his trademark quips and red-meat declarations about faith and values, had the feel at times of a Pentecostal tent...

Churchgoers' support for Giuliani perplexes religious right October 15, 2007 ROBERT NOVAK novakevans@aol.com The most surprising recent national polling result was an answer given by Republicans who attend church weekly when Gallup asked their presidential preference. A plurality chose Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic who in 1999 said: "I don't attend regularly, but I attend occasionally." Their choice raises deep concern among prominent conservative Republicans who feel it would be a serious mistake for leaders of the religious right to scorn the former mayor of New York. This is threatening to become a major problem because, contrary to the conventional wisdom,...

Conservative evangelical leader Dr. James Dobson admits that a third-party plan supported by pro-family leaders might unintentionally help elect democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The influential pro-family advocate still contends, however, that he would rather vote following his values than compromise and be forced to choose between two pro-choice candidates. “We’re very, very concerned about the implications of a Hillary Clinton presidency, but you know, we have been working … for 35 years, I’ve been trying to defend the unborn child,” Dobson said on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes show Monday. “That’s been my life. That’s been my belief, along with...

Although much of my new book, "What's the Matter With California," is humorous, this is one story from that book which is not. Steven Nary has spent the last 11 years in prison for daring to defend himself against homosexual rape by an illegal alien in San Francisco. Read "Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 for more background. This is the final of 5 parts featured this week in WorldNetDaily. Parental discretion is strongly advised.While awaiting trial in the San Francisco City Jail for the murder of Juan Pifarre, a gay man and a Hispanic activist, Steven...

Back in May 2000, I learned firsthand that James Dobson is a tough man to please. Dobson, the prominent Christian conservative who believes that his religious brethren have the God-given right to vet Republican presidential candidates, invited some political journalists to dine with him at his headquarters in Colorado Springs. As we silently forked our pasta salads, Dobson explained why he was so disappointed in frontrunner George W. Bush. Bush, apparently, was not sufficiently conservative, because he had not yet categorically renounced the idea of choosing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as his running mate. Ridge was a defender of abortion...

About the only thing worse than painting yourself in a corner is doing it when the floor doesn’t need painting in the first place. So I was doubly disappointed a couple of days ago when Dr. James Dobson, a one-time child psychologist who has become a leading Christian activist, absolutely skewered presidential candidate Fred Thompson in what was to me a dazzling display of dumb. I’ve long admired and adored Dr. Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” and believe he’s a genius when it comes to kids. This week, in what was called “a private e-mail to friends,” the doctor proved...

- Snip -But does their "pro-family" agenda really stem from evangelicals' desire to change the behavior of others? There are at least three reasons that evangelicals are concerned about issues like abortion, sexual promiscuity and marriage. First, most obviously, evangelicals subscribe to a traditional form of the Christian faith that views the Bible as a literal and authoritative guide to family life.- Snip - Second, in the past 40 years, evangelicals have come to see their pro-family worldview as a countercultural badge of honor. It signals both to themselves and to the broader society that they have not conformed to...

Does the MSM have the vaguest clue about what makes Republicans tick? For months the liberal media has been propounding the absurd notion that John McCain's quest to obtain the Republican presidential nomination has been undermined by his support for the Iraq war. The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart seems a good guy, but he has now added a clueless coda to that misperception, suggesting that McCain's efforts to repair his relations with the religious right has done him in. Capehart was part of a panel on this afternoon's "Hardball." Mike Barnicle guest hosted for Chris Matthews, and asked the question...

Like the Olympics, it's a game that's played every four years. The media march out on the field in their ideologically matching blazers and try to convince the GOP to ditch social issues. Their pitch goes something like this: Republican voters are far more moderate than their party's platform. The day of the religious right has come and gone. With pro-life, pro-marriage stands, the party alienates legions of voters who agree with it on taxes, spending and defense. An article in the July 5 Wall Street Journal ("Giuliani Support Hints at Shift") argues, "Mr. Giuliani's lead in the polls -...

You've got to hand it to Barack Obama. He used his presidential campaign speech to a church to call for separation of church and state and then divided himself from the "religious right" by labeling the movement "divisive." Not every rhetorician could get away with that kind of sleight of mouth. First off, the very presence of Obama speaking before the United Church of Christ's 50th anniversary national General Synod is somewhat remarkable. He's running for president. And this is the congregation of Barry Lynn, the founder of American United for Separation of Church and State, who runs a personal...

I've been thinking about Barack Obama's speech on religion in Hartford on Saturday and also the recent forum where the three leading Democrats discussed their own theologies -- Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, Hillary Clinton is a strict Methodist and John Edwards was raised as a Southern Baptist but joined the Methodist Church while in college. This is the first time in recent memory that Democratic candidates on the campaign trail have been so candid about their religious affiliations and beliefs; religion and the sanctity of belief are subjects that have been "hijacked" -- to borrow Obama's...

One thing we can generally predict about human behavior is that when people are unhappy, they go on the hunt for someone to blame. Taking a lot of heat for today's discontents is the so-called "religious right." Just consider books, some hot sellers, of recent years: Jim Wallis' "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It"; "How the Republicans Stole Religion: Why the Religious Right is Wrong About Faith & Politics and What We Can Do to Make It Right" by Bill Press; and, more recently, Victor Gold's "Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How...

COOPER: Author and outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens is about as far from Jerry Falwell in his beliefs as one could get. Christian fundamentalists are a major target of his new book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." He joins me now from Raleigh, North Carolina. Christopher, I'm not sure if you believe in heaven, but, if you do, do you think Jerry Falwell is in it? CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "VANITY FAIR": No. And I think it's a pity there isn't a hell for him to go to. COOPER: What is it about him that brings up such...

This time it may be the Democrats who are getting religion. Former Sen. John Edwards invoked "My Lord" when asked about moral influences on his life in the first Democratic presidential debate. At a campaign event on the day of the Virginia Tech massacre, he offered a prayer and — in a pointed break from Democratic candidates' usual wariness of offending religious minorities — closed with the words "in Christ's name." Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. comfortably works in references to his faith at public appearances. Even before his presidential candidacy, he gave a well-received speech arguing for a greater role...

The list, which was published last week by Religion News Service (RNS), hopes to show the strong influence that religion has had on the “Grand Old Party” over the past years, and how these leaders’ voices may solidify a candidate’s run towards the presidency.“When Focus on the Family founder James Dobson can raise doubts by questioning whether Fred Thompson is a ‘Christian,’ or prays the nation doesn’t get ‘stuck’ with a President John McCain, that really reflects the power religious conservatives have to shape the GOP run for the White House,” said Kevin Eckstrom, editor of RNS, in a statement....

Excerpted from http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/04/post_47.html USA Today has complained about copyright issues, so cut and paste the link to read the full article: -------------------------------------------------------- My local Barnes & Noble has the following titles on display — Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam ; The Quotable Atheist; Letter To A Christian Nation; God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist; and The God Delusion, which is a New York Times best-seller. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has become the first member of Congress to announce that he doesn't believe in God. He's probably just looking for a...

As they court the evangelicals who have become so crucial to their party, Republican presidential candidates are stepping into the middle of a family fight. Christian conservative activists are more split than ever over whether to keep the movement's focus on abortion, marriage and sexual chastity -- or scrap that approach as too narrow. The founders of the religious right, now in the twilight of their leadership, see even the suggestion of expanding the agenda as a dangerous distraction. In public, and sometimes in personal ways, they are trying to beat back the challenge. "It's an ongoing debate within the...

James Dobson is the Godzilla of the religious right. Other leaders have blazed for a while and then guttered out—Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson because they were incapable of buttoning their lips, Ralph Reed and Bill Bennett because, in different ways, they fell prey to the temptations of casinos. But until now Mr Dobson has gone from strength to strength. Mr Dobson has long enjoyed unrivalled clout with Christian conservatives. Who else could have derailed a bankruptcy bill that was beloved by business (in 2002) or ejected Tom Daschle from his South Dakota Senate seat (in 2004)? The Dobson-inspired House...