'Jesus People' – a movement born from the 'Summer of Love' - WTOP

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love.” Popular culture remembers the tens of thousands of joyous young hippies that descended upon San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to celebrate personal expression, drug experimentation and easy sexuality.

What’s less known and what I discovered in my own research is that Haight-Ashbury also proved to be fertile ground for a startling new combination of the hippie style with conservative evangelical Christianity – the “Jesus People.”

The reasons behind the rise of the hippie movement were complex: A rejection of conformity and materialism in American culture and the emergence of a drug culture both played a part.

The 1960s counterculture also contained a decidedly spiritual dimension that attracted a great deal of hippie interest. The movement incorporated meditation, the occult, Native American spirituality and Eastern forms of religion such as Zen Buddhism and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (“the Hare Krishnas”).

However, as writer and observer Charles Perry pointed out in his book “The Haight-Ashbury: A History,” the Summer of Love brought with it a number of problems including overcrowding, crime, sexually transmitted diseases and bad drug trips. Every night thousands of penniless young people would “crash” in whatever space they could find or simply sleep on the streets.

'Jesus People' – a movement born from the 'Summer of Love' - WTOP

How the Summer of Love helped give birth to the Religious Right - Vox

They came to San Francisco seeking something more — something significant, something transcendent. By the summer of 1967, a half-century ago this year, nearly 100,000 hippies and counterculture kids had gathered in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to drop acid, indulge in free love, and escape the confining strictures of their middle-class upbringings. They wanted to join the revolution.

Yet the utopia called the Summer of Love wouldn’t last, and, after the movement faded out, not all of them went back to professional career paths. Disillusioned by bad trips and a sense that their pursuit of hedonism had been empty, thousands of burned out hippies soon experienced something possibly even more revolutionary than tuning out and turning on: a born-again religious conversion.

Sex, drugs, and — Jesus? It’s not what the Summer of Love generally calls to mind. But of all the things that came out of San Francisco in 1967, perhaps none was more unexpected, or more consequential, than the Jesus Freaks or, as they were more commonly known, the Jesus People.

While they would give up their drugs and promiscuous sex, the Jesus People retained much of their countercultural ways, bringing their music, dress, and laid-back style into the churches they joined. Their influence would remake the Sunday worship experience for millions of Americans. As the historian Larry Eskridge has argued, today’s evangelical mega-churches with their rock bands blasting praise music and jeans-wearing pastors “are a direct result of the Jesus People movement.

How the Summer of Love helped give birth to the Religious Right - Vox

February 14-15 2016::End of the day round-up (pg 2)

 Bryan Fischer: 'The Proper Christian Response' To A Gay Couple's Wedding Is 'Grief And Sorrow'

"If you have a biblical worldview, you'd be grieved for them," he said. "You'd be grieved for what they're heading into, grieved for the way in which homosexual behavior separates them from God, the risks that it's putting them at, the risk that it's going to put children to if they're adopted into that household. So the proper response would not be joy, it would not be celebration; the proper Christian response would grief and sorrow over what these two people are doing to themselves and also to others."

Although this is pre-Iowa in date, it highlights the split or implosion that is occurring within the Reich. You have evangelicals that are bonkers against Trump and say to support Cruz but yet the support for Cruz does not align with the entire GOP.


The Fate of the Religious Right May Be Foretold in Iowa

Speaking at the rally, Vander Plaats invoked his severely disabled son, Lucas, and said he was outraged to see “a candidate for president of the United States openly mocking and insulting people with disabilities.” (He was referring to Trump’s scornful imitation of the disabled New York Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski.) Vander Plaats recalled that only a week before, at an event in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump boasted that he wouldn’t lose support even if he shot someone.* The crowd in the packed hall hissed. “Right away I thought of John Lennon and the Beatles saying, ‘We’re more popular than Jesus,’ ” Vander Plaats said. “That’s a pride, and an arrogance, and a temperament that is a roll of the dice to be president.” 

Soon it was Cruz’s turn to speak. He promised that on his first day as president, he would instruct the Justice Department to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood. Cruz said he’d appoint judges who would overturn last year’s “shameful” and “fundamentally illegitimate” Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. He asked the assembled to pray. “Father God, please, continue this awakening. Continue this spirit of revival, awaken the body of Christ, that we might pull back from this abyss,” Cruz said. His cadences were those of a preacher.

The near-forgotten history of the Holocaust's gay victims

To this day, the number of homosexual men interned and killed in concentration camps is unknown; it is estimated to lie between 10,000 and 15,000 people, of whom at least half died in the camps.

It can’t take into account the lives of those arrested and detained for other reasons – the gay Jews, Gypsies, and ‘Antisocials’ whose sexuality was considered the least of their ‘crimes’.

In the film Paragraph 175, highlighting the plight of the Holocaust’s homosexual victims for recognition of their suffering, Heinz F. recounts his ordeal in the camps, starting with a call from the local police station.

‘”You are suspected to be homosexual. You are hereby under arrest.” What should I do?’ he says.

‘And then it was straight to Dachau. From there, without a trial, I was immediately sent to Dachau.’

Without knowing why, he spent one and a half years in the concentration camp; just days after he was released, Heinz was arrested again, on charges of homosexuality, and sent to a prison to wait for a trial.

‘I couldn’t understand all of this. And while I was there, nearly all the homosexuals were deported to Mauthausen,’ he says.

‘And nearly all of them were killed.’

Heinz himself was sent to Buchenwald, where prisoners were first labeled with ‘Paragraph 175’ on their jackets, before the pink triangle was introduced.

In the camps, a majority of gay men were supposed to be re-educated – but only Germans were spared the gas chambers.

Instead of sending them to their immediate death, the Nazis selected the Germans in their camps for slave labor, castration or forced them to take part in human experiments.

Almost two thirds of the men held in the camps died.

[Please note the film Paragraph 175 can be found online!!]

From what I can tell, this bill has been withdrawn (for now) but still important as it seeks to amend "Section 9-703 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Special Assembly Occupancies," by providing for additional types of activity to be regulated, amending the application procedures and increasing the fee for a Special Assembly Occupancy license and for Promoter registration, clarifying the role of the Police Department in approvals of licenses, and making other technical changes; all under certain terms and conditions."

This treads dangerously close to the types of censorship that Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), achieved in the 80s-90s, and continuing today.  To borrow from Frank Zappa, "the PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretation and enforcement problems inherent in the proposal's design."

New bill would create a registry of all the bands and DJs that play Philly: ‘It’s become necessary’

A new bill from Philly City Councilman Mark Squilla would require owners of nightclubs, cabarets, bars and restaurants in the city to collect the names, addresses, and phone numbers of entertainers — bands, rappers and DJs — in a registry, and to share that personal information with police upon request.

The proposal, which was introduced last week and is headed to a committee hearing, would directly involve the Philadelphia Police Department in the approval process for so-called “Special Assembly Occupancy” licenses — giving law enforcement de facto veto power over whether shows can be held at venues that hold 50 or more people.

Police spokeswoman Denise James would not comment, instead referring Billy Penn to the department’s public affairs office, which did not respond.

Police would factor into their decision-making things like “crime, traffic, litter, noise, parking and hours of operation; as well as any community concerns, particularly those of neighbors in the immediate vicinity,” according to the bill. The bill even covers live-streaming of shows.

 ‘The bill will be amended’: Squilla, Oh respond after artist registry uproar

Comments from other city officials seemed to echo Oh’s words. Commissioner Richard Ross’s legal advisor, Captain Francis Healey, claimed the bill was being “misinterpreted and the department was only interested in getting advanced notice so police can be properly prepared for shows or other events,” according to a report on Philly.com.

Kenney spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told the site the Mayor would “work with the community and City Council to make any changes to the legislative language necessary to make the intent clear and assuage public concerns.”

Squilla, in his statement, stressed that “this provision is NOT intended to restrict artistic expression or any kind of entertainment, but rather is aimed at addressing public safety and quality of life issues.”

Like previous remarks he made to Billy Penn, Squilla did not cite any specific incidents that may have prompted this legislation; why collecting information on performers playing venues hosting 50 or more audience members improved “public safety”; nor why police involvement in license approval was necessary. Squilla also did not address opponents’ concerns about his proposed annual licensing fee hike from $100 per year to $500 every two years.

Home remedy for 18-month-old's case of lice ends in tragedy

Though the Head Lice Center says it hasn't been scientifically proven that mayonnaise helps treat head lice, it's an oft-used technique that many people have claimed success with. Mayonnaise is used because it contains oil, which suffocates the lice.

It's a simple enough treatment, and an inexpensive one: Spread full-fat mayonnaise on the scalp, and then cover the coated area for about eight hours. Something like a shower cap or plastic wrap would work well, but the Head Lice Center reminds parents that plastic wrap should never be used on children.

That's the fatal mistake that the unnamed Massachusetts couple made, resulting in their young daughter's death. CBS reports that the toddler fell asleep with the bag on her head. Investigators suspect that it then slipped down over her mouth. At the time of the CBS report, no charges had been filed against the parents.

The Netherlands has recognised the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion

A spokesman for the Dutch arm of the group said: ‘The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is since today officially registered as Denomination!

‘Our church stands for equality for all. Therefore, anyone can sign up free of charge and without obligation.
‘To express our faith we put a colander on our heads. Also on official government documents.

‘We come together in local churches and at events. Our services are especially devoted to socialising. So we eat pasta, we drink beer and discuss faith.’

Albino woman murdered in Kasungu: Malawi Police hunt for killers | Malawi Nyasa Times Malawi breaking news in Malawi

School of Doubt | Going Up Against the Good News Club: An Interview with Dan Courtney

 One tactic of cultic indoctrination,,,

But the most important discovery that demanded my attention was one particular club activity I found. In this activity a child, as young as 5 years old, is singled out. The child is presented with an envelope and told that they have earned what’s in it. After some discussion the child opens the envelope and finds the word DEATH written on a piece of paper. The instructor tells the child “…you have earned death – separation from God forever in a terrible place of punishment…”

After I picked myself up off the floor, I sent the lesson to a mental health professional (a psychotherapist) and simply asked for their opinion. He described, in a very basic sense, how children need to feel good about themselves and feel safe to grow into well adjusted adults, and how presenting this lesson to a child undermines that entire process. He was quite blunt in saying that this lesson is, “incompatible with mental health.”

Another example of church planting,,,

There are so many issues it’s hard to single one out – The Good News Club is part of a broader religious right push to actually destroy public education; they use children to evangelize other kids in the school as a way to bypass objections from parents that don’t share their extreme beliefs; they intentionally use schools so kids think the message is sanctioned by the school – but for me the one overriding issue is the psychological abuse of the kids. Parents expect schools to be a place that is safe for their kids, and then in comes this group claiming to be nothing but fun and games, when in fact they’re causing real, long-term damage to innocent children. And this isn’t just my opinion, but rather a broadly accepted view in the mental health community, and backed up by the real human tragedy of lives spent in shame and fear.

On the 2001 Good News Club vs. Milford Central Schools,,,

Aside from the broad legal issue in which religious speech was granted unprecedented privilege, it’s rationally indefensible.  The majority opinion in this case concluded that children – as young as 5 years old – would not perceive the message provided to them in a school classroom immediately after the regular school day as sanctioned by the school. In other words, we’re supposed to believe that 5 year olds can distinguish between official school instruction and the instruction of a private club in the very same room, often by instructors that volunteer in the classroom during the regular school day. This is preposterous on its face.

School of Doubt | Going Up Against the Good News Club: An Interview with Dan Courtney

When Senators Sabotage Science | Roy Speckhardt

Inhofe is already off to a great start in 2015, spouting pseudo-science and degrading the effectiveness of his new committee with inaccurate diatribes against global warming. Just this week, he made a speech on the Senate floor lambasting the "hysteria" surrounding climate change, while also "disproving" claims that the earth is getting warmer by bringing a snowball into the Senate chamber.

Obviously, Inhofe has a very hard time understanding the difference between changes in weather and changes in climate. And while he and others among the Religious Right may personally believe that the earth is fine due to their god's protection, most other Americans, both theistic and non-theistic, are extremely concerned with what the future holds if our federal government does not maintain a scientifically-accurate environmental policy.

While Inhofe might be the most powerful climate skeptic in Congress, he surely is not the only one. Senator Roger Wicker, a Religious Right politician that recently presided over the National Prayer Breakfast, voted against a resolution which stated that the Senate did not think global warming was a hoax. Senator Marco Rubio, a rising star who sits on the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, went as far as to say, "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying. And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it." Perhaps most shocking is the fact that around 30 percent of all U.S. Representatives deny or question the science behind climate change.

When Senators Sabotage Science | Roy Speckhardt

The year in homophobia: Ten of the worst anti-LGBT stories of 2014 – LGBTQ Nation

This article sums up pretty much the past year of blogging and more of what is to come.

Supporters of marriage equality made tremendous progress this year in striking down discriminatory bans on same-sex marriages while, on the local level, more municipalities have enacted legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Radical Right, however, sees these changes as a reason to find new strategies to fight what it believes is a tyrannical government bent on persecuting conservatives and inviting divine punishment. Facing losses in court and at the ballot box, many conservatives hope that their brand of anti-gay politics may find more success overseas.

Just in case you thought that the debate over gay rights was “over,” we decided to look back on some of the anti-gay Right’s worst moments of 2014.

10. Comparing LGBT Americans To Nazis And Terrorists
9. Civil Disobedience To Stop Gay Rights
8. Breakaway Anti-Gay Nation
7. Dave Agema’s ‘Common Sense’
6. Duggars Show ‘Love’ For Gays By Fighting Gay Rights
5. Rick Perry Goes There
4. Ted Cruz’s New DOMA
3. Still Angry About Repeal Of DADT
2. ‘Forced’ To Watch Michael Sam’s Kiss
1. Cheering On Uganda And Russia

This year, Uganda’s president signed into law a new version of the country’s “Anti-Homosexuality Act” which imposed extreme penalties for the crime of being gay (though dropping its provision making homosexuality a death penalty offense in certain cases). American anti-gay activists mostly offered praise to the East African nation. At least one group thought that Uganda should have kept its death penalty plank.

While the country’s top court ultimately struck down the law on technical grounds, organizations such as Concerned Women for America, Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association defended Uganda, with the latter condemning criticisms of the law as Satanic. Pastor Scott Lively, who helped craft the original anti-gay bill, spoke out in favor of the new law.

Glenn Grothman, a Wisconsin lawmaker who last month won his race for an open seat in the U.S. House, also attacked opponents of Uganda’s anti-gay law, warning that people like Sec. John Kerry will bring about God’s judgment on America for his criticisms of Uganda.

The Uganda news came at a time when many U.S.-based activists were already pleased with new laws in Russia criminalizing speech in favor of gay rights and enthralled with Vladimir Putin, demanding that America enact similar laws.

The year in homophobia: Ten of the worst anti-LGBT stories of 2014 – LGBTQ Nation

Seize the Day! (Well, what if we did?) | Political Research Associates

I recently wrote that the Christian Right does not want us to think about Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the enactment of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. The bill is widely regarded as the taproot of how the founding generation sought to reconcile the relationship between religion and government.

The enactment of the bill has been celebrated annually, mostly via presidential proclamation, since 1993.

And when I say that the Christian Right does not want “us” to think about it, I mean everyone who is not the Christian Right and their allies, and especially not LGBTQ people and the otherwise “insufficiently Christian.” I think that is why the Christian Right is mostly so eerily quiet about it, even though religious freedom is so central to their political program.

But what if we did?

What if we seized this day to think dynamically about the religious freedoms we take for granted at our peril; freedom that is in danger of being redefined beyond recognition. What if we decided to seize this day to consider our best values as a nation and advance the cause of equal rights for all?

[,,,]
The Constitution, framed according to “The Virginia Plan,” drafted primarily by Madison, contains no mention of God or Christianity. In fact, the final text’s only mention of religion is in the proscription of “religious tests for public office,” found in Article 6.

In other words — Jefferson’s words— one’s religious identity, or lack thereof, has no bearing on one’s “civil capacities.”

Seize the Day! (Well, what if we did?) | Political Research Associates

Religious Right Cheers On Vladimir Putin As Anti-LGBT Violence In Russia Surges | Right Wing Watch

Just how bizarre is the Reich's "love" of Putin? Well they can't really seem to be able to make up their minds, as just 7 days prior, presidential hopeful Ben Carson stated that he would tell President Obama to stop violating the Constitution: “Our president is very much like Putin.”

So is Putin a good guy or a bad guy?

While most of the news on Russia this week has been focused on the country’s ongoing financial collapse, it is important to highlight a report released by Human Rights Watch on Monday documenting the rise of anti-LGBT violence in Russia along with the ways the government, which recently passed new laws curbing LGBT rights, has ensured virtual impunity for the perpetrators of such attacks. Following the report’s release, Russia added a LGBT legal aid group to a list of NGOs that must register as “foreign agents.”

The uptick in violence against LGBT Russians certainly won't discourage Religious Right activists from supporting Putin, many of whom also seem more than willing to ignore his deadly incursion into Ukraine , support for laws curbing the freedoms of Russian evangelical Christians and other human rights abuses.

Nothing, it seems, can dissuade many of Putin’s American supporters, several of whom recently attended an anti-LGBT conference at the Kremlin, from believing that the U.S. should adopt anti-gay laws modeled on Russia’s, such as a ban on gay “propaganda” and adoption by same-sex parents.

In fact, many Religious Right activists in the U.S. believe that Putin is on a mission from God to save Russia, and the world, from the LGBT community.

Religious Right Cheers On Vladimir Putin As Anti-LGBT Violence In Russia Surges | Right Wing Watch

My horrible right-wing past: Confessions of a one-time religious right icon - Salon.com

I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old former Republican religious right-wing activist who changed his mind about religion and politics long ago. The New York Times profiled my change of heart saying that to my former friends I’m considered a “traitorous prince” since my religious-right family was once thought of as “evangelical royalty.”

You see, only in the Mafia, the British Royal family and big time American religion is a nepotistic rise to power seen as normal. And I was good at it. And I hated it while hypocritically profiting from it — until, that is, in the mid-1980s, I quit. These days I describe myself as an atheist who believes in God.

Ironically I helped my father become famous in the religion sector. In the 1970s I directed and produced two film series featuring Dad with book companions that became evangelical bestsellers: “How Should We Then Live?” and “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” By the time Dad and I completed two nationwide seminar tours launching those projects, I was being invited to speak at the biggest religious gatherings, including the Southern Baptist Convention and the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters.

The leaders of the new religious right were gleefully betting on American failure. If secular, democratic, diverse and pluralistic America survived, then wouldn’t that prove that we were wrong about God only wanting to bless “Christian America?” If, for instance, crime went down dramatically in New York City, for any other reason than a reformation and revival, wouldn’t that make the prophets of doom look silly? And if the economy was booming without anyone repenting, what did that mean?

What began to bother me was that so many of our new “friends” on the religious right seemed to be rooting for one form of apocalypse or another. In the crudest form this was part of the evangelical fascination with the so-called end times. The worse things got, the sooner Jesus would come back. But there was another component. The worse everything got, the more it proved that America needed saving, by us! Plus, it was good for fundraising.

Some 30 years later, what we helped start — I am sorry! — continues. With the Republicans in control of the House and Senate the question arises — again — Where does the American far right find the energy to oppose everything and everyone again and again?

[,,,]
The difference between now and then is that back then we were religious fanatics knocking on the doors of normal political leaders. Today the fanatics are the political leaders.

You can’t understand why the GOP was so successful in winning back both houses of congress in 2014, and wrecking most of what Obama has tried to do, unless you understand what we did back then.

[,,,]
And that strategy was simple: Republican leaders would affirm their anti-abortion commitment to evangelicals, and in turn we’d vote for them — by the tens of millions. Once Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, “we” would reverse Roe, through a constitutional amendment and/or through the appointment of anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court or, if need be, through civil disobedience and even violence, though this was only hinted at at first. In 2016, the dream we had will become a reality unless America wakes up. The Republicans are poised to destroy women’s rights. They have a majority on the Court to back them up.

My horrible right-wing past: Confessions of a one-time religious right icon - Salon.com

How One Religious Organization Bankrolls America’s Social Conservative Movement | ThinkProgress

In 1882, a group of Catholic men gathered together by New Haven, CT pastor Father Michael J. McGivney incorporated an organization to provide for the families of its deceased members. More than 125 years later, the Knights of Columbus boasts of more than 1.8 million members and of “donating more than $167.5 million to charitable needs and projects” in 2012. Among its members: presidential 2016 hopeful Jeb Bush (R), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R), and Justice Samuel Alito.

But while much of the Knights’ charitable efforts in recent years have supported purely altruistic causes such as the Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity, millions of their charitable dollars have funded a very socially conservative ideological agenda: opposing abortion, LGBT rights, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and pornography, while supporting public funding for religious organizations.

[,,,]
In a November interview, the organizations’ top official noted that the Knights’ “first principle is charity,” and that its success has come due to its focus on “mission integrity.” But for several decades, that charity has also included work to overturn Roe v. Wade. Each year, the organization reaffirms, by resolution, its “deep and historic commitment to oppose any governmental action or policy that promotes abortion, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, euthanasia, assisted suicide, or other offenses against life.” In so doing, the Knights also reaffirm their “long-standing policies of not inviting to any Knights of Columbus event, persons, especially public officials or candidates for public office, who do not support the legal protection of unborn children, or who advocate the legalization of assisted suicide or euthanasia.”

[,,,]
Beyond just words, the Knights of Columbus have invested millions into the “culture of life” agenda. Between local chapters and the national organization, the Knights’ “Ultrasound Initiative” have provided more than $14 million worth of ultrasound machines to local “pro-life pregnancy care centers,” based on the belief that “a free ultrasound exam often helps an abortion minded woman to decide to choose life for herself and her child.” They have also worked to defeat a successful stem-cell research amendment in Michigan ($100,000), to pass an unsuccessful proposal to ban public funding of abortion in Florida ($100,000), and to oppose a defeated a Massachusetts initiative to allow physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients ($450,000).

The Knights of Columbus see this as a charitable rather than social issue. Citing Catholic values and the words of Pope Francis, Cullen explained, “we believe that many of our contributions across the board have a social justice component. We do not understand how providing ultrasound machines to pregnancy resource centers is somehow a ‘social’ issue, but building houses with Habitat for Humanity is not.”

How One Religious Organization Bankrolls America’s Social Conservative Movement | ThinkProgress

'New Avenues Of Misrepresentation And Overstatement': A Devastating Review Of David Barton's Pseudo-History​ | Right Wing Watch

Back in 2012, Religious Right pseudo-historian David Barton published his book "The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson," through which he sought to portray Jefferson as someone who would make today's Religious Right seem moderate by comparison.

In response to Barton's book, Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Grove City College, began to expose Barton's long track record of producing shoddy works of "history" and, with a fellow Grove City professor, co-authored a response to Barton's book called "Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President."

As a result, Barton's work came under increasing scrutiny and Thomas Nelson Publishing pulled his book from publication. Jay Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Creationist think tank, emerged as a top critic of Barton's disreputable scholarship within the Religious Right and was so alarmed by it that he asked Gregg Frazer, a history professor at Master's College, a Christian university in California, to review some of Barton's work, most notably his popular DVD "America’s Godly Heritage."

After viewing it, Frazer wrote an utterly scathing review of Barton's work for Richards, which Richards then reportedly used in making the case to others in the Religious Right movement that Barton's historical scholarship cannot and should not be trusted.

Today, with Frazer's permission, Throckmorton posted a copy of his review of Barton's DVD on his website and it is absolutely devastating.


'New Avenues Of Misrepresentation And Overstatement': A Devastating Review Of David Barton's Pseudo-History​ | Right Wing Watch

The Religious Right’s 10-Point Playbook For Hijacking Nations

Wayne Besen's (of Truth Wins Out) response to Mary Zeiss Stange Op-ed - Beware the Christian extremists:

I’ve come up with 10-Point Playbook that these homegrown Christian extremists use when they attempt to accomplish their frightening goals. As I go through this list, you will recognize some of the insidious techniques that have, sadly, been woven into our political process: [Brackets mine, all stuff I have posted about]

1) Find inflammatory wedge issues and scapegoats to divide people and force them to choose sides  [Marriage equality]

2) Persuade people to join your righteous “team” in its effort to purify society. Demand absolute loyalty and obedience to that team’s leaders (even above allegiance to the state) [American Family Association, Family Research Council]

3) Identify and cultivate key major donors to fund mission. To reward their support, back conservative economic policies [Koch Brothers, Greens (Hobby Lobby), Waltons (Walmart), John Schnatter (Papa Johns)]

4) Create parallel infrastructure and institutions (i.e. private education, conferences, think tanks, and charities)  [John Birch Society, Heritage Foundation, The Gathering]

5) Build an insular media cocoon to disseminate propaganda. This vast echo chamber is contemptuous of contradictory facts, suspicious of reason, and impervious to mainstream media scrutiny  [Fox News,BarbWire, Glenn Beck,WorldNetDaily]

6) Infiltrate society’s major institutions in a clandestine effort to undermine, influence, and ultimately control (See 7 Mountains Movement: government, education, family, religion, entertainment, business, and media)  [Texas State Board of Education]

7) Facilitate the decline of secular government by deliberately and persistently creating crises in confidence and eroding trust in venerable institutions  {GOP/TP, Gov't shutdown over Debt Ceiling, IRS and Benghazi]

8) Oppose all gun control laws and tacitly encourage local militias, so in the event of insurrection fundamentalists are the most well armed sector of society  [NRA, Gun Owners of America]

9) Constantly agitate and manufacture havoc, because theocracy can only be attained amid chaos. Without a functioning central government, the shadow infrastructure created by fundamentalists makes them the best situated to fill a vacuum, restore order at the price of liberty, and install their regime  [Racism,, see #7]

10) Export model abroad: Send influential emissaries and dedicated missionaries; deploy basic services to create dependence; and dispense money to acquire strategic local alliances; while organizing key international gatherings and fostering opposition at The United Nations…we’ve seen the manifestation of these efforts most notably in Uganda and Russia – with both nation’s veering far to the right, restricting freedom, and passing draconian anti-gay laws  [Uganda, Russie]

The Religious Right’s 10-Point Playbook For Hijacking Nations

9 Truly Evil Things Right-Wing Christians Do | Alternet

Christians may be a super majority in the U.S. They may control the U.S. Congress and, as we all were reminded recently, the Supreme Court. But that hasn’t stopped Bible believers from preparing their children for martyrdom. Web resources abound for church youth leaders who want to make sure their young charges are ready when the lions come for them. Titles include, “Expect to be Persecuted” “Persecution Equals Reward” and “Adventure Game—Persecution of Christians and Paul of Tarsus.”

Stuff Fundies Like is a blog by and for people coming out of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist tradition. Recently one former Baptist told how his high school youth group had been divided into two groups, assigned to play the roles of persecutors and martyrs. In 2012 a youth pastor in Pennsylvania made international news by staging the kidnapping of his young charges to help prepare them for the horrors to come.

The Christian persecution complex is absurd. Modern American Christians are not persecuted or under attack. But for Christians who are truly concerned about hostility toward their faith, I have a bit of advice: Don’t be evil. And don’t let your co-religionists get away with being evil either.

No, really.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus gives his disciples a lot of contradictory advice. Modern day followers pick and choose, but one piece that often gets ignored is this: Be harmless as doves. This advice is not only profoundly moral; it is profoundly self-protective. Far fewer people would be entertaining themselves with fantasies about lions if more Christians took this little nugget seriously. A huge part of the antagonism that even moderate Christians face from outsiders is due to the fact that too many devout believers claim a righteous mandate to say and do things that are truly horrible.

Let me spell it out,,,

9 Truly Evil Things Right-Wing Christians Do | Alternet

Escape from Christian Fundamentalism - the Kids Who Flee Abusive, Isolated Christian Homes | Alternet

Another great illustration of how poisonous religion is in the lives of human beings.  Further along in the article is an "outline" of the history of the home school movement based in Christian ideology, as well as, the influence of the Quiverfull movement (think "the Duggars").

To most people, it would have sounded like overreaction to innocuous forms of teenage rebellion. But Lauren, who’d cut ties with her family the previous year, knew it was more. The sisters grew up, with two brothers, in a family that was almost completely isolated, they say, held captive by their mother’s extreme anxiety and explosive anger. “I was basically raised by someone with a mental disorder and told you have to obey her or God’s going to send you to hell,” Lauren says. “Her anxiety disorder meant that she had to control every little thing, and homeschooling and her religious beliefs gave her the justification for it.”

It hadn’t started that way. Her parents began homeschooling Lauren when she struggled to learn to read in the first grade. They were Christians, but not devout. Soon, though, the choice to homeschool morphed into rigid fundamentalism. The sisters were forbidden to wear clothes that might “shame” their father or brothers. Disobedience wasn’t just bad behavior but a sin against God. Both parents spanked the children with a belt. Her mother, Jennifer says, hit her for small things, like dawdling while trying on clothes.

[,,,]
Even conservative Patrick Henry felt like a bright new reality. While much about the college confirmed the worldview Lauren grew up in, small freedoms like going out for an unplanned coffee came as a revelation. She describes it as “a sudden sense of being able to say yes to things, when your entire life is no.”  [That is a scarey thought!!]

[,,,]
As of October, Homeschoolers Anonymous had published nearly 200 personal accounts and attracted more than 600,000 page views. For those outside the homeschooling movement, and for many inside it, the stories are revelatory and often shocking. The milder ones detail the haphazard education received from parents who, with little state oversight, prioritize obedience and religious training over learning. Some focus on women living under strict patriarchal regimes. Others chronicle appalling abuse that lasted for years.

They want to show what goes on behind closed doors in some Christian homeschooling families, to share "the stories we were never allowed to talk about as children."

[,,,]
As a teenager, Stollar toured the national homeschool debate circuit with a group called Communicators for Christ, sharpening his rhetorical skills and giving speech tutorials. Along the way, he found himself increasingly disturbed by what he saw. He met families that follow the concept of “Quiverfull”, wherein women are submissive to men and forgo contraception to have as many children as God gives them. He encountered entire communities where women wore only denim jumpers for modesty’s sake, where parents burned their daughters’ birth certificates to keep them at home, where teenagers practiced “betrothal,” a kind of arranged marriage. He met homeschooling kids who dealt with the stress by cutting themselves, drinking, or developing eating disorders—the very terrors their parents had fled the public schools to avoid. “Even as a conservative Christian homeschooler,” Stollar says, “I was constantly experiencing culture shock.”

[,,,]
In 2013, HSLDA lobbied against a proposed Pennsylvania bill that would have required a short period of oversight for parents who decide to homeschool and already have substantiated abuse claims against them—in essence defending the right of abusive parents to homeschool without supervision. The group is currently challenging state laws that allow anonymous tips to Child Protective Services to be grounds for investigating parents. In June, the HSLDA–authored Parental Rights Amendment was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with 64 co-sponsors. The amendment would enshrine in the Constitution parents’ “fundamental right” to direct their child’s upbringing however they see fit, free of state interference.


Escape from Christian Fundamentalism - the Kids Who Flee Abusive, Isolated Christian Homes | Alternet

 A bit of an addendum:  This article is a veritable who's who of the Reich and those who do battle against them:

The Reich:

• Liberal author and educator John Holt (1960) advocated a child-directed form of learning that became “unschooling”—homeschooling without a fixed curriculum.
• Education researcher Raymond Moore (1970), a Seventh-Day Adventist, who argued that schooling children too early—before fourth grade—was developmentally harmful.
• Focus on the Family founder and Christian parenting icon James Dobson (1982) invited Mooreonto his radio show for the first time.
• Michael Farris and Michael Smith (1983) founded the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). With Moore’s imprimatur and Dobson’s backing, Farris and Smith started out defending homeschooling families at a time when the practice was effectively illegal in 30 states [Farris also is founder of Patrick Henry College.
• R.J. Rushdoony, founder of the radical theology of Christian Reconstructionism, which aims to turn the United States into an Old Testament theocracy.
• The emphasis on discipline has given rise to a cottage industry promoting harsh parenting techniques as godly. Books like To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl.
• Youth civics ministries like TeenPact, which hosts training camps for homeschoolers to mingle with lobbyists and write sample legislation, encourage homeschoolers to “change America for Christ.”
• HSLDA’s youth-activism group, Generation Joshua, works on voter-registration drives, lobbies at state legislatures, and door-knocks for conservative candidates.
• Kevin Swanson of the Christian Home Educators of Colorado warned listeners of his podcast, Generations with Vision, about “apostate homeschoolers” who were organizing online.
• Darren Jones, a staff attorney for HSLDA.
• Willie Deutsch, a Patrick Henry graduate who worked on HSLDA’s Parental Rights Amendment campaign.

The battle warriors:
Hännah Ettinger, who writes “Wine & Marble” a blog about transitioning out of fundamentalist culture.


Homeschoolers Anonymous, launched by two homeschool graduates, Ryan Stollar and Nicholas Ducote. Their goal was to show what goes on behind closed doors in some Christian homeschooling families—to share, as one blogger puts it, “the stories we were never allowed to talk about as children.”


No Longer Quivering, “Survivor” blogs written by former fundamentalists, started by Vyckie Garrison.


Rachel Coleman, a 26-year-old leader in the ex-homeschooler movement. “We were the shock troops, the best trained and equipped, the ones who were to make a difference in the fight—a fight between God and Satan for the soul of America.” Coleman, who co-founded the watchdog site  Homeschooling’s Invisible Children, is writing a doctoral dissertation at Indiana University about children and the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s and 1980s.


Elizabeth Esther, author of a forthcoming memoir about leaving fundamentalism, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide.


Heather Doney, who co-founded Homeschooling’s Invisible Children with Coleman.

Son Of Former Moral Majority Executive Comes Out / Queerty

What’s it like to grow up gay when you’re the son of the former Vice President of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority? Daniel Dobson knows. His father Ed is a leading figure in the national evangelical movement. Now Daniel, 28, has decided to come out and is speaking about his experience as a gay Christian.

“It’s morally right for me to do it,” Daniel Dobson told The Grand Rapids Press. “I feel I have something good to contribute to the conversation, something positive.”

Dobson says he knew when he was 13 that he was gay, but was afraid to tell his parents. At 18 he signed up with the Army and did two tours of duty in Iraq. During a firefight on his first tour, he turned to a notecard with a Biblical verse that his father gave to him: “The Lord has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” The verse gave him the courage to accept himself.

Son Of Former Moral Majority Executive Comes Out / Queerty

6 Biggest Religious Right Threats to America

Lawmakers like Fiscus often push their agenda in defiance of established constitutional law, and sometimes hope they can create a case to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn previous decisions that contradict their personal beliefs. Americans Uni­ted combated a wide array of state-level leg­islative schemes in 2012 that sought to tear down the critical safeguards that keep church and state separate,,,With most state legislatures starting their annual sessions this month, here is a look at some of the top threats to church-state separation expected in 2013, including school voucher bills, creationism ploys, “conscience” exemptions, anti-shar­iah legislation and so-called “religious freedom” and “prayer” caucuses.

[,,,]  Advocacy groups have worked hard to build support for vouchers. StudentsFirst, the Memphis Commercial Appeal says, has given thousands of dollars to candidates in legislative campaigns in the last two years. The newspaper said that group donated $427,000 through its Tennessee PAC between January and November 2012 alone.

[,,,]  “If a student thinks something isn’t true, then they can question the teacher and the teacher would have to come up with some kind of research to support that what they are teaching is true or not true,” Kruse told the Indianapolis Star,,,But Micah Clark, executive director of American Family Association of Indiana, was a little more forthcoming about the bill’s true intent. He told the Star that he sees the proposal as a form of protection for teachers who want to discuss creationism and intelligent design.

[,,,]  Legislators regularly come up with new schemes to allow coercive prayer and proselytizing in public schools, and Americans United staffers expect this year to be no exception,,,In Virginia, a proposal was filed just ahead of the 2013 legislative session that would create a state constitutional amendment to “secure further the people’s freedom of speech and right to acknowledge God” on public property and presumably in public schools.

[,,,]  The news media has reported widely on the campaign by the Cath­olic bishops and the Religious Right to win “conscience” exemptions from provisions of the Obama health care reform, but this issue has also filtered down to the state level. Sectarian lobbies want to exempt religious institutions and individuals from a broad range of laws that ensure civil rights and civil liberties,,,A leading proponent of this type of legislation is the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Washington, D.C., group that advocates public policy based on the “Judeo-Christian moral tradition.”

[,,,]  A similar movement to the one orchestrated by the EPPC is under way thanks to the efforts of U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.),,,That may not sound so sinister, but critics say it’s every bit as misleading as the EPPC “religious freedom” caucuses. The CPCF claims to encourage state lawmakers to “partner with churches and para-church organizations, and ultimately preserve faith in God as lifeblood of America.”

[,,,]  The U.S. Constitution already prohibits government enforcement of religious law, but right-wing groups are insisting that legislatures take the extra step of banning shariah – Islamic law,,,As of press time, anti-shariah legislation had been pre-filed for the 2013 legislative sessions in Alabama and Florida. Texas has pre-filed a bill proposing a ballot measure to amend the state’s constitution to prohibit enforcement, consideration or application of any “religious or cultural law.”


6 Biggest Religious Right Threats to America

Keeping Watch: The Latest, Biggest Threats From The Religious Right

These are very real threats to real religious freedom. Make no mistake, there are groups of fundamentalists who have the agenda of dominionism, to create a Christian nation in America. They have no thought for the Constitution. No respect for other faiths. No love for democracy. They are backed by powerful monied interests. Some of the things I’ve written about are simply religious nuts trying to force their faith on the rest of us. But these Christian Reconstructionists are dangerous. We must know and understand the difference while resisting all attempts to align U.S. laws with religion – any religion. When it comes to government, the only thing we should worship is the Constitution. Outside of that, hey, whatever floats your boat. Just don’t try to sink mine.