Category: Evangelicals

Obama Will Win: Why and How His Critics from the Left and Right Will be Proven Wrong

Wise words from Frank Schaeffer.

I love Crazy for God. I intend to read Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism).

I like Frank.

From The Brad Blog:

Before he’d served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted Left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled Right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds — including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious Rightwing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter — are sticking with our President. Why? Because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama’s steady supporters will be proven right. Obama’s critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst…

Read the rest of the commentary here.


Evangelist Oral Roberts Dead At Age 91

From WTAE Pittsburgh:

Evangelist Oral Roberts, who rose from tent revivals to found a multimillion-dollar organization and an Oklahoma university bearing his name, has died. He was 91.

His spokesman A. Larry Ross said by phone from Carrollton, Texas, that Roberts died Tuesday of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif. Roberts was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday. He had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006.

I still remember 1987, when Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home," that God would kill him.

He got his money.

Read more here.


OUTRAGE Targets Closeted Pols Who Campaign, Vote Against Gay Community

From Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) comes OUTRAGE, a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians with appalling gay rights voting records who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to. Boldly revealing the hidden lives of some of the United States’ most powerful policymakers, OUTRAGE takes a comprehensive look at the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media’s complicity in keeping their secrets.

With analysis from prominent members of the gay community such as Congressman Barney Frank, former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey, activist Larry Kramer, radio personality Michelangelo Signorile, and openly gay congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (Representative, Wisconsin 2nd district), OUTRAGE probes deeply into the psychology of this double lifestyle, the ethics of outing closeted politicians, the double standards that the media upholds in its coverage of the sex lives of gay public figures, and much more.

Source: http://www.outragethemovie.com/

Learn more about OUTRAGE on Facebook.


Conservative Blogger Matt Drudge Near Top of Out Mag’s Power List

Out Magazine has released their Power 50 list, featuring the leading figures in the gay community.  Much to the chagrin of the far right, I’m sure, Matt Drudge makes his debut on the list in 6th place.

Right-wingers know Drudge is gay, right?

From the lead-in to the list:

Power and Money have always been close companions, and the global economic crisis has only made them more so. But the Out Power 50 list has never been only about person wealth: congressman Barney Frank rose to the top this year because of his power over national financial policy. On the other hand, since just about everyone from Warren Buffet (not on our list — he’s not gay) to Dolce & Gabanna (also not on the list — they don’t live and work primarily in North America) has taken a personal financial hit, changes in person wealth generally didn’t affect rankings.

Any surprises?  Rosie O’Donnell dropped from 31st to 42nd.  The editors are sorry to not hear from Rosie any more, “We’ll admit it: The world is quieter, and maybe even a bit more boring, without daily updates from the mouth of Rosie. (She’s even abandoned her blog, at least for the time being.)”

Jodie Foster dropped from 13th to 36, “There’s not much doing in the life of Jodie Foster these days. But as the highest-paid openly lesbian actor in Hollywood — she got $15 million for her role in The Brave One — she’s got a lot of sway.”

Facebook creator Chris Hughes makes his debut on the list at number 32, “Not only is the 25-year old Harvard grad a cocreator of one of the most triumphant starups in recent history — a little marvel called Facebook — he also helped Obama land in the White House. Hughes left Facebook in February 2007 to serve as director of online organizing for Obama and launch My.BarackObama.com (orMyBO), allowing supporters to form groups, raise funds, and plan events online. ”

Neil Patrick Harris debuts at number 28, the editors saying, “Named one of last year’s Entertainers of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, Out cover guy Harris could do no wrong wherever he showed up.”

Suze Orman moved from 24th to 22, “Personal finance guru Orman came out publicly in The New York Times two years ago, but with the economy now on life support we need her more than ever. ”

Making his debut to the list at number 7 is Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson, “Baptized Vicky Gene (his parents had been hoping for a girl), Bishop V. Gene Robinson has been a lightning rod in the debate over the church and homosexuality ever since his consecration in 2003. But while the 77 million — member Anglican church of which Robinson is a member remains deeply conflicted over the issue, his series of meetings with Barack Obama in the run-up to last year’s election was a powerful signal of the new administration’s inclusiveness. ”

In what may be the biggest surprise, or disappointment, to the right wing and conservative America in general, Matt Drudge debuts on the list at number 6:

Matt Drudge — the archly conservative 42-year-old owner of the right wing news–aggregating site Drudge Report—also happens to love Chaka Khan, The Young and the Restless, and sex with men. Though he often plays coy about his homosexuality — “I go to straight bars. I go to gay bars,” he once said — he had a long-term relationship with a male landscaper. The power of Drudge is formidable; he reports that his site averages 20 million page views a day. Unfortunately, his agenda is often antigay, anti-choice, and anti-tolerance. No one said power was always used for good.

The weird right is taking being led over the cliff by a gay man.  I suppose there’s poetic justice there somewhere.


Glenn Beck’s Obama Derangement Syndrome

Visit Media Matters for America.


Media Whores Randall Terry, Fred Phelps Coming to Notre Dame

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!

Notre Dame President Fr. Dan Jenky will not rescind the university’s invitation to invite President Barack Obama to give the 2009 Commencement address at Notre Dame and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.  Jenky is right to stand by his invitation.

The invitation has drawn the attention of two media whores: radical pro-life activist Randall Terry and radical closeted anti-gay activist Fred Phelps.

Randall Terry respects life so much that he once arranged to have a dead fetus sent to Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.  No word on where or how he procured the fetus.

Terry tells The Observer that his movement had, regretfully, fallen out of the spotlight, and needed a boost.  He said he first heard the news that Obama was going to Notre Dame last month:

“And when we came back, and I followed the news of President Obama’s invitation, a light went off in my head, that, that’s the line,” Terry said. It was the “golden opportunity,” as he called it, for the pro-life movement.

So Terry packed his bags and moved himself and his family – his wife and four children – to South Bend just a week after the announcement was made. And he’s staying, he said, until the Commencement ceremonies on May 17.

“We’ve already got over 20 local volunteers, within the next 10 days we will have six full time staff on the ground. Many local alumni are bending over backward to help us because of their outrage at this,” Terry said.

Terry has already held press conferences at ND.

Members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church have also announced their intention to picket the Notre Dame Commencement.  The group was in Pittsburgh today picketing the funerals of the three police officers shot and killed last week.

I won’t link to Phelps’ Web site — don’t care to contribute to his Google page rank.  But the site does indicate that Fred and his group will picket at ND.  Their rationale?

Obama Hates you, take U 2 Hell! E Angela Blvd & N Notre Dame Ave How appropriate that the biggest pedophile mill in the whole entire world would have Beast Obama speaking at their 2009 Commencement.

And it goes on from there.

Terry has pledged to “make a circus” of the Commencement.  Well, the stage is set.  Phelps and Terry will have to compete for the spotlight.

Who will win?

Time to call out the angels.


Conservative Poster Child Joe the Plumber is Horny

Conservatives can’t seem to find the right poster child.  They’re still looking for the right face to steer their ship.

They tried Sarah Palin, who can’t pass up any chance to appear on television, even in front of the slaughter of Thanksgiving turkeys. They flock again and again to Rush Limbaugh, who wants America to fail.

And then there’s Samuel Wurzelbacher, who, for some strange reason goes by the name Joe the Plumber (Not a Joe, not a plumber).  Sam-the-Joe-the-Plumber wants to make money, and lots of it.  He’s desperate for attention from the conservatives, even though he didn’t really support John McCain in the last presidential election.

Joe the Plumber supports Joe the Plumber.  So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that his comments “in the ballroom of Washington’s Grand Hyatt hotel for the Media Research Center’s annual “DisHonors Awards” ceremony designed to bash the dreaded liberal elite media,” according to the Washington Post’s Mary Ann Akers:

The Republican’s Working Man hero Joe the Plumber could barely contain himself last night before a crowd of adoring, media-bashing conservatives.

“God, all this love and everything in the room – I’m horny,” declared Joe, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher.

The particular state of his libido was way too much information, certainly for the Sleuth. But she wasn’t the only slack-jawed person in the room.

The remarks did not go over too well among the apparently un-horny crowd:

“Did Joe the Plumber really just say he’s horny?” “Did you hear Joe say ‘horny’?” “Why is he horny and why is he telling us?”

And those were only the comments overheard at the Sleuth’s table.

Joe was all hot and bothered over the standing ovation he received as he walked on stage to accept accolades from the top liberal media watchdog. Len Greenwood‘s GOP country classic “God Bless the USA” boomed overhead as Joe, wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a flannel shirt unbuttoned to his navel, strolled on stage.

After declaring he was horny, Joe mumbled a few other things about being the “token redneck” and the media loving him, and then sat back down in a sea of conservative luminaries that included G. Gordon Liddy, former Attorney General Ed Meese, radio talk show host Mark Levin, Fox News’ Brit Hume and former House speaker (for half a minute) Bob Livingston.

This is your poster child, far right?


Rev. Warren: Obama’s First Big Mistake

Barack Obama and Rev. WarrenNo matter how try to I spin this in my mind, it still makes no sense.

Why did President-elect Barack Obama invite Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration?  Warren is the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, a man who supported Proposition 8 in California, the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Why him?  What kind of pandering is this?  Why honor Homophobia-incarnate front-and-center on such an historic occasion?

Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, perhaps put it best in an open letter to the President-elect:

Let me get right to the point.  Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans.   Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years.  And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.

Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness.  In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, “there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.”  Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it’s a lie today.

We will forever remember Bill Clinton’s First Big Mistake, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” his infamous collapse as Commander-in-chief before the far right forces of the military?

Has Warren undergone a conversion in the last few weeks?  The HRC has been calling for religious leaders to join the fight against Homophobia for years.  Warren is Homophobia personified.

Sorry, I don’t get it, Barack.

Who’s next?  Bob Jones University President Steven Jones for evening prayer?

Let the pandering begin.


Dr. James Dobson cries out from the gutter

Dr. James Dobson
Dr. James Dobson decided to climb out of the depths and take a shot at Barack Obama this week.

We last took note of Dr. J in November, 2006, when he refused to serve on the panel of Christian experts who were working to restore disgraced preacher Ted Haggard.

Now Dobson is an expert again, and he had to reach all the way back to 2006 to fabricate something nasty about Barack Obama.  Why go back to 2006?  Was he on a “Haggard Hiatus”?  Just now opening his email?

From the Chicago Tribune:

The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pre-taped radio segment, which runs 18 minutes and highlights excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech.

“Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?” Obama said. “Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?” referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

Dobson did not react well to Obama’s speech:

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament.

“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said.

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Dr. J must feel aweful lonely these days.  No doubt he hardly recognizes the Christian right these days.  They’re not obsessed with abortion and homosexuality any more.  They’re concerned about global warming.  They’re concerned about global poverty, health care, and AIDS.  They don’t like the war in Iraq.

Many of them may just vote for Barack Obama.

It’s worth it to read the full text of Obama’s ‘Call to Renewal’ Keynote Address.  The senator reflects on a bizarre statement from his 2004 carpetbagging opponent for the U.S. Senate, Alan Keyes:

I want to give you an example that I think illustrates this fact. As some of you know, during the 2004 U.S. Senate General Election I ran against a gentleman named Alan Keyes. Mr. Keyes is well-versed in the Jerry Falwell-Pat Robertson style of rhetoric that often labels progressives as both immoral and godless.

Indeed, Mr. Keyes announced towards the end of the campaign that, “Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama. Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved.”

Obama used the occasion to share his own path to church:

It wasn’t until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma.

I was working with churches, and the Christians who I worked with recognized themselves in me. They saw that I knew their Book and that I shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me that remained removed, detached, that I was an observer in their midst.

And in time, I came to realize that something was missing as well — that without a vessel for my beliefs, without a commitment to a particular community of faith, at some level I would always remain apart, and alone.

He stressed the importance of participating in a faith community:

Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts.

You need to come to church in the first place precisely because you are first of this world, not apart from it. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away – because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey.

How will Dobson argue now that Obama is a Muslim?

It’s a long road to walk alone.  Dobson doesn’t care for John McCain, but he hates Obama more.

I’ll pray for Dr. J, and campaign for Barack Obama.


Bush Administration Supressing Science — Again

Stop by The Bad Astronomy Blog today, and take a look at this excellent entry/rant by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer. There exists a book at Grand Canyon National Park titled Grand Canyon: A Different View. Different, yes. It tells the story of how the Grand Canyon was formed in a matter of days during, you guessed it, Noah’s Flood.

Poor Noah. The Hebrew Creation Myth is destroyed yet again.

I penned a review to this book at Amazon.com:

A true wolf in sheep’s clothing. I can’t believe that people of faith — any faith — would believe this garbage. And, what, if we don’t like this book we’ll burn for all eternity? I don’t recall reading that in the Bible anywhere.

Because it’s not there.

Virtually every Scripture Scholar in the world understands the beautiful teachings of the Christian Creation Myths, and their importance. If you really believe that the story of Adam and Eve is really about two naked little people running around in the woods stealing fruit, well, you won’t burn for all eternity — you’re just missing the many profound points of the Creation Myths in the Bible.

This book is an insult to believers everywhere.

Paid for with your tax dollars.