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Republicans Charge Obama Is Anti-Catholic and Play Politics with Sex Trafficking Victims

By Sarah Posner

…ents relating to the grant award process by Friday. On the House side, the Republicans’ favorite investigator Rep. Darrell Issa has threatened an investigation if HHS does not turn over the requested information. At the heart of all this (apart from the obvious electoral politics being played here) is what’s wrong with the way federal faith-based funding has grown over the past several decades and how it is perceived by its recipients. Getting tax…

If The National Prayer Breakfast Is Apolitical and Nonsectarian, Why Is It Used to Question Obama’s Faith?

By Sarah Posner

…l speech attacking Obama’s policies as Obama sat a few feet away. In 2012, Rep. Phil Gingrey walked out of Obama’s speech, saying he was “disturbed and offended by the president’s use of prayer and reflection time for partisan politics and class warfare.” That same year, Obama was accused roundly by conservatives of promoting “phony religiosity.” He received no brownie points from conservatives for his 2011 appearance, during which he described hi…

Women Are Not “Pork”

By Ruth Rosen

…history by proposing an historic rupture between sexuality and the goal of reproduction. But if reproduction ceased to be the goal, sexuality might become yoked to pleasure. That is the legacy the religious right has fought against, and it’s that agenda that cut funding for family planning. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, “How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?” Wel…

In Convention Event Democrats Embrace the ‘Nones’

By Chrissy Stroop

…mocrats” in an effort to reclaim the authentic definition of religious freedom, which includes freedom from religion, “from the GOP, which has weaponized it.” Indeed, the DNC platform now includes the choice to believe or not to believe as a fundamental human right. Levin’s opening remarks were followed with comments from representatives of the Freethought Equality Fund PAC, Secular Democrats of Texas, and Secular Democrats of Nebraska. Then came…

Anti-Abortion Activists Intensify Efforts After Health Care Reform

By Sarah Posner

Rep. Randy Neugebauer’s (R-TX) “baby-killer” outburst on the House floor Sunday night is just one reflection of how the anti-abortion movement is using this moment to make health care reform all about abortion, in a way that is bound to (and no doubt intended to) radicalize activists in the coming months. After the House approved the bill Sunday night, anti-abortion groups began comparing health care reform to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor (Troy Newman o…

Catholic Bishops’ Religious Liberty Fight Enables Anti-Jewish Discrimination (Updated)

By Patricia Miller

…inate against non-Christians such as Jews and Muslims. The Greenville News reports that a Jewish woman was turned away as a potential foster mentor for Miracle Hill last spring because “she didn’t share the organization’s Christian beliefs.” At a time of renewed attention to violence targeting religious minorities, it’s worth noting that the roots of South Carolina’s repugnant policy can be found squarely in the efforts of the U.S. Catholic bishop…

Court Rules Religiously-Based Restrictions in HHS Contracts with Bishops Violate Establishment Clause

By Sarah Posner

…out any creed for official favor at the expense of all others.” Last year, Republicans and conservative activists contended that HHS’s decision not to renew the Bishops’ contract under the TVPA amounted to anti-Catholic bias by the Obama administration. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who also did the Bishops’ bidding by holding hearings on HHS’s contraception benefit requirement under the Af…

The Revival of the Pastors’ Policy Briefings

By Sarah Posner

…ich candidate they’re supporting.” (emphasis added). In the 2008 campaign, Republicans noted Lane’s role in getting out the evangelical vote for Huckabee, with a former Texas Republican Party official writing on his blog in 2007: Lane brought together some 250 Iowa pastors at a Rediscovering God in America event in Des Moines. Huckabee, a former pastor, spoke at that event; and many of the Iowa pastors are expected to turn out their members for Go…

“Taliban Dan’s” Teacher: Inside Bill Gothard’s Authoritarian Subculture

By Sarah Posner

…ebster isn’t the only member of Congress with deep connections to Gothard. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), who just became chair of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, is the chair of the board of directors of the IBLP. Other politicians, like Texas Governor Rick Perry, have spoken at IBLP conferences, and Mike Huckabee is fan. And many others, such as Sarah Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, have attended his ostensibly s…

Scopes Redux DOA Pending Expert Input

By Lauri Lebo

…ening to experts. Andy Sher writing for the Chattanooga Free Press, quoted Rep. Richard Floyd (R-Chattanooga) saying that “since the late ‘50s, early ‘60s when we let the intellectual bullies hijack our education system, we’ve been on a slippery slope.” The legislation would require teachers to be helped “to find effective ways to present the science curriculum as it addresses scientific controversies.” It also says that teachers may not be prohib…