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Replacing Godless Hollywood with Bible-Based “Cultural Dominion”

By Julie Ingersoll

…f mainstream notice of their dominionist goals, NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradford Hagerty’s 2009 story on the Festival made no mention of the dominion-oriented, patriarchal, theocratic underpinnings and goals of the Academy, the Festival, or its sponsors. In his announcement of the inauguration of the Festival in 2004, Phillips described it as a “journey of cultural dominion.” Without directly quoting Rushdoony, Phillips invoked him: “th…

Intelligent Design Trial Celebrates Fifth Year Reunion

By Lauri Lebo

…ded tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield for all the folks from out of town. Barbara Forrest, the philosopher of science and the woman who defense attorney Richard Thompson tried to portray as an evil atheist, brought pralines and proudly showed photos of her children. Additionally, we also discussed what was accomplished and speculated on where the next big anti-evolution battle will likely occur. Can anyone say, “Academic freedom reunion in Louisi…

Final (Probably) Thoughts On The Aqua Buddha Ad

By Sarah Posner

…crats screw up with attack ads that are mild in comparison to demon sheep, Barbara Boxer mushroom clouds, and an assortment of race-baiting offerings. As Joanna points out, social conservatives don’t care that one of their own had a checkered past with keeping the faith. He keeps it now (or so they think) and that’s all that matters. Salvation is the only required redemption. Testimony above deeds. That’s why the hypocrisy argument — that Paul now…

Louisiana Citizens Horrified that there’s Evolution in Science Books

By Lauri Lebo

…are just code words for creationist and pro-intelligent design materials. Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, co-founder of Louisiana Citizens for Science and one of the creationist movement’s most damning critics, said she believes the complaints are merely a tactic to get disclaimers (Warning: These books teach evolution!) added to the textbooks, or pave the way for the inclusion of creationist suppleme…

Louisiana Panel Votes in Favor of Science Textbooks

By Lauri Lebo

…itself a champion of “traditional values” and is affiliated with Focus on the Family, is behind the attack on the textbooks. Most of the complaints seem to have come from its membership. Louisiana Coalition for Science and philosophy professor Barbara Forrest wrote a post about it titled Hell Just Froze Over in Louisiana. But the fight isn’t over. Creationists could still win the day. The life science textbooks now go before the Board of Elementar…

Palin Talks Israel in Anticipation of 2012

By Shalom Goldman

…oreign-policy adviser and neoconservative Randy Scheunemann, recently told Barbara Walters that Israeli settlements need to expand, rather than contract, because “more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead.” Here Palin was not “misspeaking” or making a gaffe; rather she was signaling to her conservative evangelical base that she too was aware that the Rapture was imminent—and with it would come th…

Palin’s Persecution Complex Culminates with “Blood Libel” Accusation

By Anthea Butler

…nces for a successful run at the presidency have been downgraded, and even Barbara Walters expressed “feeling a bit sorry for her.” Palin, however, has remained aloof and cocooned in Wasilla, while hired minions wipe her Facebook page constantly so that negative comments do not show up. So how is Barracuda Barbie a.k.a. Queen Esther shaping her response? The persecution meme. Palin’s typical pattern is that she takes a phrase from somebody (in thi…

Martin Luther King: Libertarian and Anti-Abortion Social Conservative

By Paul Harvey

…ditions that feed King’s emphasis on the poor and disfranchised. Historian Barbara Ransby explains King’s “brilliantly imaginative vision of a different, more just and humane world,” and the real-life relentless harassment and persecution to which he was subject through his last years. In RD, Andrew Murphy articulates the difference of the right’s celebration of “tradition” versus the searching self-critiques of King’s speeches, and the necessity…

Holey Holey Holey: The Problem with a New Study Valuing Religion at $1.2 Trillion Per Year

By Michael Schulson

…f the total revenue of American religious congregations. To get that final number, the Grims took one estimate of the total number of congregations in America (344,894) and multiplied it by another estimate of the average revenue of each ($242,910). Depending on how you look at it, $378 billion is a lot of money, or it’s not very much money at all. It’s more than the net worth of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffet, combined…

Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…an religiosity—about religion as it is lived in the United States today? A number of what I would see as problems in the Pew report suggest to me that our growing fixation with religion-by-the-numbers may be distracting us from richer, more nuanced understandings of American religious practice. Wanted: A Community that Doesn’t Share My Beliefs and Values Take the demographic category of “Nones” itself. The Pew report notes the difficulty with sur…