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Would Tea Partiers Consider Jefferson a Heretic?

By Lauri Lebo

One of the cornerstones of the new, and notorious, Texas social studies curriculum (see “Texas Textbook Massacre“), is the assertion that America was founded as a Christian nation. Meanwhile. Tea Party politicians leading up to today’s election have been tripping all over each other arguing the case of American Exceptionalism — the idea that God blessed this nation because of our Christian values. In response, Ed Brayton at the blog Dispatches fr…

Attacks on Science: Predictions for the New Year

By Lauri Lebo

…te material, perhaps?) Expect the battles over this issue to take place in Texas and Louisiana. Because of financial constraints, the Texas Board of Education has decided to delay the adoption process of new science textbooks, which had been scheduled for this spring. Lacking new up-to-date textbooks, school districts may instead use supplemental materials. Outgoing board member and young earth creationist Don McLeroy said last year that the provi…

Exclusive: Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz, Hasn’t Gone Away, It’s Just Gotten More Secretive

By Frederick Clarkson

…d integrity of library staff and trustees. She says, however, “There are a number of organizations that argue that Drag Queen Story Hours are inappropriately sexualizing young children; are attacking conservative Christian values around sexuality.” But, she avers, “we always circle back to the fact that these are not programs that anyone has to attend, that parents are always part of the program and are invited to be there with the children. Some…

Packed with Threats of Political Violence, Media Largely Ignore the NAR’s ‘Million Women’ Rally in DC

By Frederick Clarkson

…lor thought it was less. But certainly tens of thousands attended, and the number may even exceed a hundred thousand. Whatever the actual number at the Mall, the audience was much larger since the event was live-streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble and translated into several languages. The Jumbotrons that lined the Mall were alternatively closed captioned in English and Spanish. It’s difficult to imagine any other religious or political even…

Mike Johnson isn’t Just Your Average Christian Right Avatar — He’s Influenced by Fringe Movements Unfamiliar to Most Political Analysts

By Annika Brockschmidt

…rdingly, he called the Supreme Court’s landmark 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which declared the criminalization of gay sex unconstitutional, “a devastating blow to fundamental American values and millenia of moral teaching.” In another article, he asserted that “same-sex deviate sexual intercourse” was “dangerous” to society as a whole and that “homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the str…

In a Time of Irrational Fear and New Media: The Deadly ‘Dance Plague’ at 500

By Ed Simon

…ic well-being of your fellow citizens? At a time when a disturbingly large number of people believe in the “QAnon” conspiracy; when “pizzagate” inspired a gunman to raid a pizzeria; where “flat-Earthers” have a growing fan-base; or where people ingest Tide Pods; can we really argue that these aren’t as foolish a bit of mass hysteria as dancing oneself to death? Scottish journalist Charles Mackay contends in his 1841 classic, Extraordinary Popular…

Of Zionism and Anti-Zionism: The Ultra Orthodox and the Settler Movement in Israel

By Shaul Magid

…e solution: develop Haredi communities in the territories where housing is cheap (through government subsidies), where they can maintain a lifestyle separate from secular Israel, and where their communities can continue to grow at an enormous rate. This is a particularly modern problem. The growth rate of the Haredi world is not solely the result of their big families. When you have a society that is essentially middle-class averaging seven childr…

Gas For Two Bucks a Gallon? Bachmann Taps a Pipeline to the American Sacred

By Rosamond C. Rodman

…e heady days of $2 a gallon gasoline. When Bachmann promised the return of cheap fuel, she tapped into that mythic connection between Americans and their cars. It isn’t simply that American’s worship the car or make it a sacred object; although one could not be blamed for thinking so. The Los Angeles Times reports that Americans spend almost 100 billion a year on new car purchases alone, not counting used car purchases or maintenance of existing c…

House GOP Hires Lawyer to Prevent Federal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…gths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples.” I suppose Boehner can pander to the religious right and continue to defend “traditional” marriage, but I think it’s fair to ask why—when jobless rates continue to hover near 10 percent—which issue may be most important to God: how people arrange their intimate relationships, or how we feed and care for those families…

Dispatches from the Election: Around the Moon, Safely

By Glenn W. Smith

…ate break-in. The first international oil embargo and the disappearance of cheap gas. The US embassy rooftop retreat in Saigon. Disco. Nixon’s resignation took out a symbol of corruption, but the demoralizing corruption lived on. It is not surprising, then, that the nation’s anxiety was marked by a turn to religion, even if that turn was unexpected. Some protestant mainline churches that had been engaged in the civil rights movement, well, moved o…