Trump Punts on Anti-Gay "Religious Freedom" Executive Order

While the news of the House of Representatives vote on Trumpcare yesterday was depressing.  On a more positive note, the "religious freedom" executive order signed by Der Trumpenführer, while troubling, failed to include the license to discriminate demanded by Christofascists and their political prostitutes in Congress.  To say that the Christofascists and professional Christian class (who live well by peddling hate and division - think Tony Perkins and Brian brown as but two examples) are livid livid is an understatement.    Here's a taste of Brian Brown's shrieking:

This is the second time that President Trump has backed away from signing a comprehensive order protecting religious liberty after LGBT groups complained about the proposed actions. We cannot accept this capitulation on such a critical issue and must fight back. Will you help us insist that President Trump fulfill his repeated promises to protect the religious liberty of people of faith?

By "help us" Brown means send money so that he can continue to make over $500,000 a year. Brown was far from alone in his wailing and lamentations over Trump's failure to exempt Christofascists from non-discrimination laws and ordinances.  American Family Association hate monger Bryan Fischer was equally peeved and blamed Ivanka Trump and her Jewish husband for Der Trumpenführer's betrayal:

These are essentially hollow promises on the president’s part. No church has ever been deprived of its tax exempt status using the Johnson Amendment. . . . the gravest concern is aroused by what the president did not say. The draft of this executive order that was leaked to the liberal media in February contained robust protections for Christians engaged in business from being compelled by government to violate their own values and consciences in showdowns with the radical, vitriolic, and virulently aggressive LGBT lobby.  This morning’s empty and symbolic action on the president’s part most likely betrays the hidden hand of the president’s uber-liberal daughter, Ivanka, who likely leaked the February draft to a liberal rag (The Nation) in order to stir up enough intense outrage from the LGBT community to strangle this baby in the cradle. It worked. Ivanka wore out her red pencil eviscerating the original order, leaving us with today’s order which has very nice language but is virtually entirely lacking in substance. 

While Trump has delivered on some of his promises made to Christofascists, today's failure to include the much demanded anti-LGBT provisions underscores the reality that Christofascists and evangelical Christians are Motivated by two things: racism and homophobia.  In their strange bubble detached from objective reality and moral decency, they believe that the rest of society harbors similar hatreds.  That bubble is about to burst.  A full one-third  of the under 30 generation has left organized religion and many older Americans are following suit.  A piece in Sojourner looks at this reality.  Here are excerpts:

Last Friday, Jerry Falwell, Jr. took to Fox News to proclaim that in Donald Trump, “evangelicals have found their dream president.” Two years ago, this statement would have made virtually no sense, at least on the surface. To many outside the white evangelical world, it seemed — and still seems — inconceivable that a thrice-married serial adulterer, ultimate materialist, casino owner, habitual liar, and unprincipled deal-maker could ever become the standard bearer for a group that professes to base their vote on “family values.”

In the two years since Trump announced his candidacy, we have seen a remarkable moral unmasking of white Americans who call themselves Christian, and in particular those who claim the “evangelical” label. Eighty-one percent of white evangelical voters cast their vote for Donald Trump, and the most recent Pew Research poll puts Trump’s support after his first 100 days in office at 78 percent among white evangelicals (and 80 percent among white evangelicals who attend church once a month).

In supporting Trump’s crackdowns and, in Trump's words, “big" and "beautiful” wall that will keep immigrants out, Falwell is explicitly and proudly saying that white evangelicals voted for Trump not in spite of his racist and xenophobic rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, but because of this rhetoric. How that relates to Christians, including evangelicals, who are in direct relationship to the undocumented immigrants and refugees that Trump wants to deport or keep out of our country, Falwell didn’t say.

Falwell also didn’t mention that Trump’s agenda and proposed budget would brutally cut off vital support to all “the least of these” that Jesus asks us to protect in the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. . . . . Jerry Falwell Jr. has once again shown himself to be nothing more or less than a Republican political operative, interested in advancing his preferred policy agenda much more than examining what it means to be a Christian.

This is about the moral hypocrisy of white American evangelical religious right leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr. causing a crisis in the church, dividing American Christians on racial lines, and astonishing the worldwide body of Christ — the international majority of evangelical Christians who are people of color — and whose leaders keep asking many of us what in the world is going on with white American evangelicals.

That number, 81 percent, has become an international symbol that tragically now represents what white American evangelicalism stands for. It dramatically and painfully symbolizes the white ethno-nationalism that Donald Trump appeals to and continues to draw support from among white American evangelicals. It is the most revealing and hurtful metric of what I will call the racial idolatry of white American evangelical Christianity . . . . .

Racism is not a gospel issue to the Falwells, and never has been. That Donald Trump began his political career with a racist lie about America’s first black president isn’t an issue for Falwell, Jr. That Trump opened his campaign by demonizing immigrants in calling them “rapists” and “criminal” doesn’t matter to Jr. either. And Trump’s xenophobic assaults on Muslims seems to be something that Falwell. also agrees with, as his comments at the Liberty University convocation in 2015 indicate. 

That Trump is the dream president for people like Falwell and such a nightmare for the vast majority of evangelical, Pentecostal, and Catholic Christians around the world, and our brothers and sisters of color in the United States, really says it all.

This stark contrast reveals white evangelical Christianity in America as a bubble — a very destructive one, and one that is about to burst.

I hope the bubble bursts soon and that it accelerates the de-legitimization of conservative Christianity as a positive moral force in society.  Conservative Christianity is a pestilence that needs to be removed from society.  No deference is deserved and the media needs to cease providing a platform to Christofascist leaders and granting a false equivalency to their beliefs. 

"Godly Folk" Freaking Out and Lying About End of Boy Scout Gay Ban

It would almost be amusing to watch the rants of the Christofascists over the Boy Scouts of America's vote to end its ban on gay scout leaders.  The amount of hyperventilation and flying spittle is truly off the charts.  Unfortunately, these same "godly folk" who follow the Ten Nine Commandments - they don't observe the Commandment against bearing false witness and lying - are likewise off the charts in the anti-gay lies that they are disseminating.  The common thread being disseminated is that all gays are would be pedophiles and that all molestation of boys is done by gays.  The REAL truth is that HETEROSEXUAL MEN have been documented to commit the vast majority of sexual molestation.  Thus, both claims are total lies, but sadly we are indeed to a point were if these folks' lips are moving, it's about a 99.99999% likelihood that they are lying.  The big danger is that the ignorant and gullible fall for these lies and that gays will suffer violence as result.  Among those spouting this anti-gay animus are some of the usual suspects (all of whom are welcomed with open arms by the GOP):

Don Blake, president of the Virginia Christian Alliance, a coalition that encourages Christians to stand up against the rise of secular culture, told a central Virginia NBC affiliate that Christians who are involved with the Boy Scouts of America need to protect their children by either starting their own scouting programs or joining already existing programs that do not permit openly gay scout leaders.  "All the church people who believe in the Bible need to drop out of the Boy Scouts and start their own program," Blake asserted. "There are existing programs out there."

Robert Jeffress,who leads the 11,000-member Dallas First Baptist Church, urged parents to "run away" from the organization."My advice to parents who are asking me about this is: If you are concerned about the safety of your boys, you should run, not walk, away from the Boy Scouts as quickly as possible," Jeffress stated. Jeffress then contended that "100 percent" of child sex abuses cases in the Boy Scouts have been committed by "homosexuals."

Not to be outdone, anti-gay hater extraordinaire Bryan Fischer pulled out all the stops and, utterly lied about gays and sex abuse:

"The percentage of child sexual abuse cases in which men molest boys is many times higher than the percentage of adult males who are homosexual, and most men who molest boys self-identify as homosexual or bisexual." . . . . homosexuals are responsible for a staggering "one-third of the total number of child sex offenses." 

 

Ponder that: one percent of the population is responsible for 33 percent of all sex crimes against children. This is just another clear indication that there are unmistakable pathologies associated with the homosexual lifestyle. This is not a lifestyle any rational society should celebrate, endorse or promote, let alone sanction with the term "marriage."

[I]t is the height of irresponsibility to deliberately place homosexuals in positions where they have frequent access to young boys. It is inexcusable and virtually criminal.

It is the same kind of campaign of lies that the Nazis used against the Jews and that Vladimir Putin is currently employing against gays in Russia.  If you want to know why the number of "Nones" is exploding in this country, look no farther than these "godly Christians."  They are foul liars and modern day Pharisees - and most make a plush living as parasites preying on the ignorant, uneducated and gullible.  Yet people wonder why I no longer want to call myself a Christian.  Anne Rice got it right.  If this is what Christians are, count me out.

 

Holocaust Historian Debunks Christofascist Gays Are Nazi Lies

If one compares the propaganda the Nazi regime against Jews and the anti-gay propaganda of the Christofascists one thing becomes striking: the Christofascist campaign against gays utilizes the template perfected by the Nazi regime in the 1930's against European Jews.   E.g., gays/Jews are diseased, gays/Jews are out to prey on children, gays/Jews are a small rich minority harming Christians, etc., etc.  Yet despite this fact, leading mouth pieces for the "godly folks" continue to claim that gays were behind the Nazi regime.   Like everything that comes out of the mouths of these people, it is all a lie.  As Queerty reports, a Holocaust historian has again debunked this vicious lie.  Here are higlights:

Bryan Fischer boasts a huge radio audience, religious right fan base, and a dangerous obsession with homosexuality. Even when his propaganda is disproven by facts, he keeps right on repeating it, ad nauseam. There’s his constant conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia.

One particularly ugly canard, drawn from Scott Lively‘s discredited 1998 book The Pink Swastika, claims that gay men dominated the Nazi Party ranks and instituted many of the horrors of the Third Reich. The notion is so absurd even Lively’s absurd employer, the far-right American Family Association, distanced itself from the claim.

The demonstrably false claim serves several purposes for antigay activists like Fischer. For one, it turns gay men into jackbooted thugs rather than victims of the antigay right that they are today, not to mention in Nazi Germany, where tens of thousands were murdered or perished at concentration camps. It also justifies extreme antigay measures because we are defined as the moral descendants of the worst villains in history. Fischer and his far-right ilk view themselves as under siege, like Jews in Nazi Germany, but they also fancy themselves the conquering Army, led by General God.

[H]e received an email from historian Peter Black with a detailed destruction of the Fischer-Lively claims.

The response from the Holocaust historian, in full:

The Nazis shared the belief with many in the German population that same gender sexual relations were 1) unnatural and immoral; 2) undermined the cohesiveness of the family; 3) increased the habit and temptation to engage in other criminal behavior; 3) encouraged the seduction and corruption of minors; 4) and rendered public sector officials vulnerable to blackmail by foreign intelligence agents and (5) both public and private sector employees susceptible to using or demanding sexual favors in the workplace to obtain or grant discriminatory treatment in hiring, promoting, receiving assignments, rewarding and disciplining employees.

On a broader level, the Nazis also shared with many others among all classes of German society a notion that homosexuality undermined the vitality of the German male, and the capacity of Germans to stand up for themselves diplomatically or in war. Beyond this, the Nazis believed that homosexuals undermined the future of the German race by not devoting their sexual energy to reproduction. Even here, the Nazis had no exclusive ownership of this belief on this belief.

Hence when the Nazis came to power, over the first three years of Nazi rule, they 1) broadened the applicability of the law to criminalize even gestures without touching that might suggest a homosexual relationship or intent to engage in same-gender sex; 2) decreed stiffer penalties for persons convicted under the broader law; and 3) ordered more focused and consistent police enforcement of the law. Under Nazi rule, some 100,000 persons were arrested under the law; approximately 63,000 were convicted. . . . were sent to concentration camps, where hundreds, possibly thousands died under Nazi rule.

There are no records of 40,000 “confessions of Nazi Party members to having engaged in same-gender sex.  There is no record to confirm that the Nazi Party was founded in a so-called gay bar.

While SA Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm did place on his staff individuals who were homosexuals — primarily because he had known them for years and could count on their personal loyalty to him — neither he nor the SA commanders ever recruited on this basis.
There is no documentation that would confirm that the killers on June 30 1934 of Röhm and the other victims, were, as a group, homosexuals, either openly or “in the closet.”  The three main conspirators — Himmler, Heydrich, and Goring — were not homosexuals, nor were the best known of the executioners, Josef Sepp Dietrich and Theodor Eicke.

There is no reliable documentation that would confirm that Baldur von Schirach (Hitler Youth Leader), Franz Gürtner (Minister of Justice to 1941), Otto von Thierack (Minister of Justice (1942-1945) Hjalmar Schacht (Minister of Economics to 1938), Walter Funk (Minister of Economics,. 1938-1945), Hermann Göring, Hans Frank (Hitler’s personal lawyer up to 1939, or any of his personal bodyguards were gay.

There is no reliable documentation to confirm that Hitler worked as a male prostitute in Vienna.

While there is plenty of evidence that both Himmler and Hitler were implacably hostile to the Christian Churches and denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, there is no documentation that provides confirmation that either was, as the article says, “a closet homosexual”.

[T]he existing documentary evidence does not confirm that “many of the guards and administrators responsible for the concentration camp horrors were themselves homosexuals.” After 1941, conviction under paragraph 175 (sexual deviation) for an SS man meant at a minimum expulsion from the SS and could carry a death sentence.  

Attacks on Caitlyn Jenner Underscore the Ugliness of Today's "Christians'

I will be candid and admit that I cannot get my head around what it must be like to be transgender.  For me, coming to terms with being gay was a huge trial and it took me 37 years to finally face the reality about myself.  Thus, I can understand completely why it took Caitlyn Jenner so long to finally gain the courage to transition.  It is not something that one does on a whim or spur of the moment, especially given the amount of therapy and and psychoanalysis one must under go in order to progress to reassignment surgery.  Yet the voices of the far right "godly Christians" are revealing just what foul human beings they are in fact.  Among the ugliest attackers are would be Republican presidential nominee Mike Huckabee and the always foul Bryan Fischer.  Huckabee made light of transgender transition and quipped to his fellow bigots and scam flam artists at at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention that he wished he'd said he felt like a woman in high school so that he could have showered with the girls.  To say that Huckabee is a nasty pig doesn't begin to tell the story.  Here are highlights from Towleroad:

Speaking at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this year, GOP Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said he wishes he could have pretended to be transgender in high school so he could have "showered with the girls" after PE, BuzzFeed reports. The comments came to light over the weekend when a video of Huckabee's speech was posted online by World Net Daily. In the speech Huckabee also sounds the dog whistle of religious liberty (yet again), and conflates providing civil rights to transgender persons with pedophilia and sexual impropriety.

Said Huckabee:

“For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your seven-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can’t be offended if she’s greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man.”

Not to be out done, Bryan Fischer went on one of his typical rants denigration Jenner and said Jenner was controlled by Satan.  The Advocate looks at Fischer's horrific statements and those of the "family values" crowd.  Here are excerpts:

While the introduction of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, was met with mostly positive comments, some negativity has come from the right, including ostensibly “fair and balanced” Fox journalists and the clearly unbalanced commentator Bryan Fischer.

Religious right commentator Fischer, on his American Family Association-affiliated Focal Point show, asserted that Jenner is being controlled by Satan. He prayed that God would “clear up Bruce Jenner's sexual confusion” and “expose the lies of Satan and break their power over his mind.”

Fischer also said, “I’m not going to call him Caitlyn Jenner because that’s not his name and I’m not going to refer to him as a she. He’s a he. He’s a he in every single solitary cell of his body; he will be until the day that God calls him home.” Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover, Fischer contended, shows “how corrupt, how morally corrupt, how morally bent, how morally twisted, how morally confused, how morally bankrupt we have become.”

Other right-wingers making negative comments, reports Media Matters, included Ben Shapiro, Dan Gainor, and the staff of The Daily Caller. Shapiro, who works for Breitbart.com, tweeted such remarks as “A man can never understand a woman’s perspective on abortion, but can magically become a woman” and “Your biological sex is completely mutable, but your sexual orientation is completely immutable” with the hashtag #ThingsILearnedFromTheLeft.

Gainor, of the Media Research Center, tweeted, “If Bruce Jenner can have 4,000 surgeries and say he’s a woman, why can’t he do same and say he’s black?” and invoked the idea of a dachshund calling itself a Great Dane and people saying they’re elves or dwarves.

My contempt for "godly Christians" truly grows with every passing day.   What's noteworthy is that nowhere do these individuals show a shred of compassion for Jenner or by extension anyone who doesn't conform to their hate and fear based religious beliefs.  However, despite these horrible comments, I find encouragement most of all by the fact that the younger generations are leaving religion in droves.  

Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore Denounces "Ex-Gay" Reparative Therapy

Russell Moore

Between Pope Francis stating that the Bible is not irreconcilable with (i) evolution or (ii) the "Big Bang theory, and the head of the Southern Baptists Convent ("SBC") Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission denouncing "ex-gay" therapy and chiding Baptists for their mistreatment of  gays, it has not been a good day for the Christofascists and their knuckle dragging cohorts.  Some in far right Protestant circles will say that Francis' supposed heresy isn't surprising since he is after all a papist.  But Russell Moore is another story.   The truth is, I suspect, that both Francis and Moore realize that if they do not bring their flocks into the 21st century and start to recognize modern knowledge, their denominations are going to wither and die outside of ignorant parts of the world like sub-Sahara Africa.  Religion News Service has details on Moore's surprising admission of the SBC's past errors.  Here are highlights:

Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore denounced reparative therapy at a conference here, saying the controversial treatment that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation has been “severely counterproductive.”

Moore, who serves as president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke to a group of journalists Tuesday (Oct. 28) covering the group’s national conference.

“The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea,” Moore told journalists. “Faithfulness to Christ means obedience to Christ. It does not necessarily mean that someone’s attractions are going to change.”

Moore said evangelicals had an “inadequate view” of what same-sex attraction looks like.

Moore joins a chorus of psychologists and religious leaders who have departed from the once-popular therapy.

In 2009, the American Psychological Association adopted a resolution urging mental health professionals to avoid reparative therapy. Since then, California and New Jersey have passed laws banning conversion therapy for minors, and several other states have considered similar measures.

Earlier this year, the 50,000-member American Association of Christian Counselors amended its code of ethics eliminating reparative therapy and encouraging celibacy instead.

Moore said the ERLC is working with parents of those who are gay and lesbian.  “The response is not shunning, putting them out on the street,” he said. “The answer is loving your child.”

Not surprisingly, AFA's Bryan Fischer and similar hate merchants were quick to condemn Moore.

Civil Rights Groups Call on GOP to Denounce Hate Group Summit

click image to enlarge

The GOP war on gays, women, contraception, non-whites, and religious freedom for all Americans continues unabated even though long term the hate and bigotry that these policies embody are increasingly disavowed by America's changing population.  Picking up on this reality, a group of civil rights and leading LGBT rights organizations have run a full page ad (see the ad above) in the Washington Post calling on the GOP to denounce the upcoming gathering of hate merchants sponsored by Family Research Council, a designated hate group, that disingenuously goes by the name "Values Voter Summit."   The reality is that this summit will be little more than a gathering of white supremacists, religious extremists, homophobes and those who seek to have women subordinated to men.  Here are excerpts from the add:

Dear Mr. Priebus, Fifteen years ago, your predecessor called for party members to shun the Council of Conservative Citizens because of the group’s “racist views.” “A member of the party of Lincoln should not belong to such an organization,” GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson said. His comments had their intended effect: Senior members of Congress distanced themselves from the group. Today, Chairman Priebus, we ask that you take a similar stand and call upon Republican officials to disassociate themselves from the groups behind the upcoming Values Voter Summit.

The reason is simple: These groups engage in repeated, groundless demonization of LGBT people — portraying them as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted, and a danger to the nation. The Family Research Council, the summit’s host, is vigorously opposed to extending equal rights to the LGBT community. Its president, Tony Perkins, has repeatedly claimed that pedophilia is a “homosexual problem." He has called the “It Gets Better” campaign — designed to give LGBT students hope for a better tomorrow — “disgusting” and a “concerted effort” to “recruit” children into the gay “lifestyle.”

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a summit sponsor, has said the U.S. needs to “be more like Russia,” which enacted a law criminalizing the distribution of LGBT “propaganda.” He has also said, "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine, and six million dead Jews.” Similarly, Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, another summit sponsor, has compared those who do not denounce same-sex marriage to those who remained silent during the Holocaust.

This kind of extremism should not be legitimized by elected officials, because it is contrary to our nation’s highest ideals. . . .  Yet, as in years past, several prominent members of your party — including U.S. Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — are currently planning to address the Values Voter Summit that begins on Thursday in Washington. So, the question now is: Will you live up to your own words and tell the members of your party to shun groups that demean other people and deny them dignity?

Will the GOP listen?  I'm not holding my breath.  The GOP has become an ugly sectarian party and rank and file Republicans have prostituted themselves to the Christofascist to such an extent that tawdry whores look virtuous in comparison.

Bryan Fischer Backs Ken Cuccinelli's Sexual Crusade

Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli can try to hide his extreme religious fanaticism - and, in my view, deep mental health/psychological problems - from Virginia voters, but it's simply not working.  Between his insane effort to reinstate Virginia's unconstitutional sodomy law and the loud pronouncements by Christofascists of support their for Cuccinelli, he just cannot hide the extremism.  Now, hate group American Family Association has jumped into the fray and resident extremist Bryan Fischer is trumpeting support for Kookinelli's sexual crusade.  Both Cuccinelli and Fischer want opposite sex vaginal intercourse the only acceptable form of sex in Virginia. The McAuliffe campaign must be salivating with delight.  Towleroad looks at Fischer's bombastic support for Cuccinelli's crusdae to police bedrooms across Virginia.  Here are highlights:

Looks like Virginia Attorney General (and Republican gubernatorial candidate) Ken Cuccinelli has a not-so-surprising ally in his quest to rid the commonwealth of oral and anal sex.  Writing in the Huffington Post, radio host Michelangelo Signorile reports that in a recent interview on his show, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer not only backed Cuccinelli's plan, but also went further, essentially describing it as a necessary public health effort:

In what appeared to be a reference to HPV-related cancers, Fischer said in a conversation with me on SiriusXM Progress that a rise in head, neck and throat cancers "among millennials" is a direct result of the influence of "Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky." Throughout the interview, Fischer refused to clearly state what the punishment should be for those who engage in the sexual activity he believes should be banned, alternating between the idea of issuing summonses like "parking tickets" and "speeding tickets"and putting those who engage in oral sex or homosexual sex -- which he compared to drug trafficking, pedophilia and bestiality -- into something similar to drug rehab, at one point even suggesting an "intervention."

Fischer has brought plenty of crazy to the table before, and he's in fine form in his interview with Signorile.  Asked what he thought about oral and anal sex engaged in by heterosexual individuals, Fischer said, "That kind of sexual activity is destructive to the human body and I don’t care who does it.  Let’s talk about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. We now have an epidemic of cancers of the throat and head and neck among millennials"--apparently, if Fischer is to be believed, because they grew up during Clinton's presidency.

Ken Cuccinelli's sodomy law would make different-sex vaginal intercourse the only acceptable form of sex in Virginia.  That means anal sex and oral sex--whether homosexual or heterosexual, and even amongst married couples--would be illegal.

Even more shockingly, after Cuccinelli lost his attempt to revive Virginia's anti-sodomy laws at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in March--which relied explicitly on the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas invalidating sodomy laws nationwide--the attorney general petitioned the high court to review the decision, in essence asking it to repeal Lawrence.

There's something truly remarkable about the fact that, on this issue at least, there is so little daylight between one of America's most anti-gay voices and the highest law enforcement officer of the nation's 12th most populous state.

As I have stated before, I believe Cuccinelli is a tortured self-loathing closet case.  He reminds me so much of Ed Schrock and other outed GOP politicians.   There is little else to explain his bizarre obsession with gay sex.   And as for the rumors I continue to hear that Cooch has secretly played on our team in the past,  I wish someone would come forward with credible evidence and be willing to sign a sworn statement.  "Outing" Kookinelli would be ever so sweet.

More Hysteria from the Christofascists Over the Boy Scout Vote

One would truly think that the world was ending or that some deadly new version of the Bubonic Plague was sweeping America to hear the shrieks and hysteria coming from the Christofascists - especially those who rely on anti-gay propaganda and animus to fill their financial coffers.  Personally, I wonder whether some are more worried about what the growing societal acceptance of gays will mean for their bank accounts than any deeply held religious beliefs.  Not they they'd ever admit that money, not to quote a blogger friend "an invisible friend in the sky" is their real God.   Here are some of the most insane statements coming from the usual hate groups who make a living disseminating hatred:

AFA's Bryan Fischer:  The Boy Scouts Are Now the 'Boy Sodomizers of America':  On his radio program today, Bryan Fischer weighed in on the decision by the Boy Scouts of America to drop its ban on gay scouts last night.   Admitting that he was shocked by the vote since he was positive that it was going to be retained, Fischer declared that the BSA should change its name to the "Boy Sodomizers of America." Fischer eventually read a passage from the Book of Luke in which Jesus says it is better to have a stone tied around ones neck and be tossed into the sea than to lead a child to sin as a warning to BSA leaders that they will face the judgment of God for endorsing this change in policy.

NOM's Brian Brown:  "It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."   "Today is a sad day for the Boy Scouts of America. They have succumbed to political pressure and abandoned their historic roots in what will prove to be a failed attempt to appease gay activists and corporate donors. Unfortunately, what they have done is said to the world that their oath no longer means much. Their decision to admit openly gay scouts will end up sexualizing the organization.  .   .  .  All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality. It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

Linda Harvey:  Boy Scouts "advancing the sexual anarchist agenda and drawing countless numbers of children into sin."  The Boy Scout leadership has just done what homosexual pressure groups have tried to do for twenty years. They've made respectable the monstrous notion of the "gay" child or teen.   Congratulations on advancing the sexual anarchist agenda and drawing countless numbers of children into sin. What will these leaders say to Jesus when they meet Him?  .  .  .  .  Who are the monsters on this board who would callously foster and feed the deception that any valid orientation exists except God-designed heterosexuality, and that all else is deviance?

TVC's Andrea Lafferty: The Boy Scouts of America can be placed on the same funeral pyre of institutions that have caved into the times rather than remained steadfast." 

"While the Boy Scouts may see a compromise, the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning (LGBTQ) left is already doubling down and insisting they will get the rest and push for gay scoutmasters.  "The lesson is simple.  If you stand for nothing you fall for anything.  The Boy Scout Oath insists on a morally straight life.  That oath, which has been upheld for over 100 years, has been emptied out into a meaningless and vapid nod.  .  .  .  .  "This is the lesson of compromising your moral values.  When we replace virtue with vice, we lose a little bit of America every time.  The Boy Scouts of America can be placed on the same funeral pyre of institutions that have caved into the times rather than remained steadfast."

Concerned Bitches Women for America:   Boy Scouts Put Children at Risk, Open Themselves to Lawsuits.   The Boy Scouts have now opened themselves up to promised lawsuits in the years to come, as this new policy is simply unsustainable. A child that has been openly homosexual throughout his scouting life will supposedly not be able to continue to volunteer for any activities once he turns 18. It is simply legally unsustainable. .  .  .  .  Today, they gave all that away. And it seems it is all for money - not only from sponsors, but from what they save from the use of public facilities, which they are afraid they will continue to lose, as they have in states like California.  .  .  .  . Christian parents have no other choice but to reassess their involvement in the Boy Scouts, who have officially strayed from their original purpose. It is a sad day for children and families."

FRC's Tony Perkins:  'God Will Soon Be Ushered Out of Scouting'  "It is clear that the current BSA leadership will bend with the winds of popular culture, and the whims of liberal special interest groups. There is little doubt that God will soon be ushered out of scouting. Now is the time for new leadership. In the meantime, we will stand with those BSA Councils who will now act to protect boys from a new policy that only creates moral confusion and disrespects the views of the vast majority of Scouting parents," concluded Perkins.

Not a shred of Christian love to be found anywhere from these folks.  It is ALL about hate and bigotry - a terror of those who are different.  Hatred is something that is learned.  And hatred is the hallmark of these organizations and others like the.  Yes, it's sick, but that's the true face of conservative Christianity.

Bryan Fischer Won't Answer a Simple 'Yes' or 'No' Question About Same Sex Attraction

There are not too many anti-gay Christofascists for vile than American Family Association's Bryan Fischer who seemingly has worked over time to justify the organization's hate group designation by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Of course, it's not just gays that Fischer seems to hate.  You can add blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, liberal women - the list is very lengthy.  Thus, it was delicious when Fischer found himself caught up in a bizarre interview with Alan Colmes where Fischer refused to say he's never had homosexual attractions.  A simple "No" response would have been so easy.  That Fischer refused to answer suggests that maybe he IS a closet case like so many other loud homophobes.  Right Wing Watch looks at the interview.  Here are highlights:

We seem to recall that after the last time Bryan Fischer appeared on Alan Colmes' radio program, he vowed never to appear on his show again.  But he must have changed his mind, because last night he returned to Colmes' program to discuss a variety of subjects, like his belief that President Obama will seek to forcibly disarm Christians and that homosexuality will be reponsible for the collapse of the western economy.

But things took a turn for the awkward near the end of the interview when Colmes asked Fischer about his theory that being selective in one's choice of sexual partners demonstrates that being gay is a choice.  When Colmes asked Fischer to explain this, Fischer said it simply proves that "people are not obligated to act on every sexual impulse that they experience," which prompted Colmes to ask Fischer if he had ever experienced any gay impulses ... but Fischer wasn't about to engage in that conversation:

Colmes: Have you ever had a gay impulse?

Fischer: (Laughing) Alan, I am not going to talk about that ...

Colmes: I'm just wondering ...

Fischer: Alan, I'm not going to go there. Give it a rest Alan ...

Colmes: It's a simple yes or no question.

Fischer: We're not going to talk about that.

Colmes: Because maybe if you've been able to overcome your gay impulses and you've been successful in doing it, you could be a model for other people you'd like to see act the same way.
Fischer: The focus here, Alan, is that everybody experiences sexual impulses that if they acted on those impulses, it would destroy them.

Colmes: Well, can you give me an example from your own life? What would be some of yours?
Fischer: You've experienced them ...

Colmes: I have?

Fischer: I've experienced them. Every man, every woman has experienced certain sexual impulses that, if they acted on them, if they conducted themselves by yielding to those impulses, it would destroy them. Ask Tiger Woods about that.

Colmes: I don't think I've ever had sexual impulses that would destroy the society or the culture or make me a deviant in some way. I honestly don't think that's ever happened, even in your eyes, so I'm surprised. I wonder what impulses you're talking about. If you've had them, I'd love to know what they are.

Fischer: Well the focus Alan is on sexual conduct, sexual behavior, not on sexual impulse ...

Colmes: So you won't tell me whether you yourself have been able to overcome a gay impulse?

Fischer: Alan, give it a rest.

As I said, too funny.  Why could he not simply have said "No"?

Jason Collins' Matthew Shepard Tribute

One surprise that came out during NBA star Jason Collins' coming out is that he chose his jersey number to honor Matthew Shepard who was murdered in 1998.  Even Shepard's parents were surprised to learn of the tribute to their son.  Huffington Post covers this disclosure.  Here are excerpts:

In his Sports Illustrated editorial, the 34-year-old Collins reveals he wore the number 98 in 38 games this season while playing for the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards as a silent tribute to Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay college student who was beaten and left to die outside Laramie, Wyo. in October 1998.

Collins writes:

"My one small gesture of solidarity was to wear jersey number 98 with the Celtics and then the Wizards. The number has great significance to the gay community. One of the most notorious antigay hate crimes occurred in 1998. Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student, was kidnapped, tortured and lashed to a prairie fence. He died five days after he was finally found.

That same year the Trevor Project was founded. This amazing organization provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to kids struggling with their sexual identity. Trust me, I know that struggle. I've struggled with some insane logic. When I put on my jersey I was making a statement to myself, my family and my friends."

You can read Collins' full editorial here.  Matthew's parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, told Fox Sports they were honored by the tribute.

Meanwhile, the Christofascists are grumbling and having a cow over the positive reception that Collins has received to date.  AFA's hate merchant in chief, Bryan Fischer was his usual vicious self:

"Everybody is talking about how brave and courageous Jason Collins is and I'm going to submit to you that he's not being brave and courageous at all," Fischer declared. "This is just a shrewd marketing move to wave the rainbow flag right at the time when it can be of the most benefit to him. A year from now, when he's been out of the NBA for a year, nobody is going to care.  This is the only time this would be of any benefit to him ... This is why this is not courageous; he's become a hero to the deviancy cabal and their allies in the political world and academia and the media, like President Obama"

AFA's Bryan Fischer: Gays Should Face Job Discrimination

It is amazing how the "godly Christian" crowd do all in their power to stigmatize gays and make our lies Hell, yet disclaim any responsibility for gay teen suicides or, worse yet, blame our sexual orientation for our plight rather than recognize the soul killing damage the non-stop campaign of hater takes upon its targets.  And the Christofascists just keep piling on with the anti-gay  hatred.  A case in point: AFA's Bryan Fischer who is applauding the firing of a lesbian Catholic school teacher  who was "outed" when her mother's obituary mentioned her partner.  Right Wing Watch looks at the hate and bigotry flowing from AFA which is rightly a registered hate group:

As part of Bryan Fischer’s attempts to “reclaim the ‘D’ word” — discrimination — the American Family Association spokesman is praising a Catholic school in Ohio which fired a teacher after she named her partner in her mother’s obituary.

“The school discriminated against this teacher, yes they absolutely did and they should have,” Fischer said, “they were absolutely right to do it…. It is right to discriminate against people who engage in aberrant sexual behavior, we should discriminate against people like that.”

Fischer maintained that the school was right to discriminate against her “immoral sexual behavior” in the same way “we discriminate against shoplifters.”

As I have said before, it is far past time that the public treat far right Christians with any deference or respect.  They are mean, nasty and despicable individuals.

Chief Justice John Roberts’ Gay Cousin to Attend SCOTUS Oral Arguments

In a surprise wrinkle that will no doubt cause angst and flying spittle in Christofascist circles - Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins will be beside themselves claiming bias although they never complain about Antonin Scalia's glaring bias and prejudice - Chief Justice John Roberts has a gay cousin.  Moreover, she will be attending the oral arguments in the cases of United States v. Windsor  (Docket 12-307), which challenges the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), and Hollingsworth v. Perry (Docket 12-144), which challenges the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8.  Of course, no one knows how Roberts will come down on gay marriage - although some see him as not wanting to be seen by posterity as an equivalent to Supreme Court justices that upheld slaver in the 1800's - it is interesting that he may have a personal stake in these cases.  Here are highlights from Politico:

An openly gay cousin of Chief Justice John Roberts who wants to marry her partner will be in the room during this week’s Supreme Court hearings on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, and she predicted her relative will “go in a good direction” on the case.

“He is a smart man,” Jean Podrasky, a 48-year-old accountant from San Francisco, told the Los Angeles Times. “He is a good man. I believe he sees where the tide is going. I do trust him. I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.”

She will be attending the hearings alongside her partner of four years, Grace Fasano. Podrasky said she usually only sees her cousin at family gatherings, and has no knowledge of his opinions about gay marriage. But Roberts knows she is gay, she said, and she hopes to introduce him and Fasano this week.

Podrasky is sitting in a court section reserved for Roberts’ friends and family. Podrasky went through Roberts’ sister, Peggy, and the justice’s secretary to get the tickets. Roberts is aware is cousin will be in attendance.

Podrasky expects the court to strike down Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

While Podrasky said she doesn’t know if having a lesbian family member impacts Roberts’ thinking, a Pew Research Center poll released last week found 32 percent of those who became supporters of gay marriage after opposing it did so because they knew someone who was gay.

Watch the right wing blogosphere go crazy on this one.
 

Second Poll Shows Majority Support for Gay Marriage

With oral arguments nest week in the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases, another survey  - this one by Reuters - shows majority support for gay marriage and only 25% of Americans strongly opposed.  Yes, the Christofascists are losing the war on gays.   As previously noted, polls and surveys have no direct bearing on how the U. S. Supreme Court may rule, but the more evidence there is a majority public support for gay marriage, the more likely it becomes that justices like Kennedy and even Roberts may decide to support marriage equality and role broadly.  A broad ruling that a constitutional right to same sex marriage exists would be devastating for hate merchants like Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins and a host of others who work to stir anti-gay animus virtually ever day while enriching themselves in the process.  Here are highlights of the survey results:

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide whether the federal government may deny benefits to same-sex married couples that it allows their heterosexual counterparts, Americans seem already to have made up their minds.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said married gay and lesbian couples should be able to qualify for Social Security survivor payments and other benefits provided to married heterosexual couples, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling of 2,886 people between March 5 and March 14.

Majority support for such benefits was seen across all regions of the United States, even in the traditionally more conservative South.

A more extensive Reuters/Ipsos poll of 24,455 people between January 1 and March 14 found only a quarter of Americans opposed same-sex marriage or civil unions, although there were deep regional differences of opinion. Overall, that Reuters poll found 63 percent supported gay marriage or civil unions, with 41 percent of people saying same-sex couples should be permitted to marry.

The greatest support was in the Northeast, with 69 percent of adults favoring a gay marriage or civil-union right. The lowest support was in the South, at 57 percent.

Overall, surveys have shown a drop in endorsement of civil unions simultaneous to a rise in support of same-sex marriage.

[S]aid Julia Clark, Ipsos vice-presiden,  "The long-term trend shows steady movement toward a majority of Americans supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage."

The support for equal federal benefits in the Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests a majority of people, regardless of their views on the marriage question, believe the federal government should not discriminate among couples based on sexual orientation.

Those views were not tied to respondents' own sexual preferences. The overwhelming majority of people who took part in the poll, 93 percent, described themselves as heterosexual or straight.

One can only imagine the shrieks and tears - a flying spittle - at the offices of hate groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association and The Family Foundation.  

Republican National Committee Post Mortem Study: GOP Must Change

Yet another demonstration of the growing gulf between the remaining rational members of the GOP establishment and the delusional, spittle flecked GOP base is a new 97 page report euphemistically entitled "Growth and Opportunity Project" that was sponsored by the Republican National Committee.  The report does a post mortem on the 2012 electoral disaster and  outlines changes that are needed to allow the GOP to prosper and attract a wider range of voters.   It goes without saying that the report (i) does not flat out recognize the Christofascist element of the GOP base for the toxic poison that it is and (ii) still tries to focus on "improved messaging" and better technology rather than admit the GOP's policies are the real root of the party's problems.  It also goes without saying that some of the suggested means of attracting younger voters are anathema to the Christofascists who would rather stone LGBT Americans to death that cease demanding that the GOP cease its official anti-gay jihad.  Metro Weekly looks at the report's release:  Here are highlights:

In an expansive "autopsy" of the GOP, the Republican National Committee released a report today providing a path forward for the party, one that includes gay inclusion, following a series of defeats last November.

Titled the "Growth and Opportunity Project," the 97-page report specifically singles out the GOP's stance on gay-rights issues as being a key contributor to alienation among younger voters and one that must be addressed if national Republican candidates wish to win at the ballot box.

"For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view," the report states. "Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays — and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be."

"If our Party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out," the report continues, adding that disagreement over 20 percent of the issues should not mean the party cannot come together on the other issues. Polling has consistently shown nearly half of conservatives younger than 30 support marriage equality.

"The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue," the report states.
Although the report makes no mention of marriage equality nor does it specifically argue for the adoption of a national position on LGBT rights, it does recommend campaigning within the gay community and "communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case."

The release of the report comes the same day Priebus spoke at the National Press Club in D.C. In a striking statement, Priebus volunteered the name of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who endorsed same-sex marriage last week after learning that his son is gay, when asked what "rising stars" in the party could help "rein in the anti-gay and anti-women sentiments."

"I think Sen. Portman made some pretty big inroads last week," Priebus said. "I think it's about being decent. I think it's about dignity and respect, that nobody deserves to have their dignity diminished, or people don't deserve to be disrespected."

Although Priebus would not say if the RNC supported Portman's position on marriage equality, he said it would not impact the committee's financial support of the Ohio senator.

The bottom line is that the GOP establishment a number of years ago welcomed the Bible beaters into the GOP for short term advantage.  Now, the Christofascists are proving to be a metastasizing cancer  that is killing the GOP's long term chances of survival.  The big issue is how does the GOP establishment marginalize the lunatic base on policy issues yet keep the knuckle draggers going to the polls on election day.  A piece in The Week looks at the GOP quandry.  Here are excerpts:

Fundamentally, the Republican presidential primaries are not controlled by social liberals or social libertarians. They're controlled by evangelicals. The activist energy in the party, the energy that talk radio feeds on and then regurgitates for cud, is decidedly not ready to flip the switch on gay issues. (Rush? Mark Levin? Hannity?) The party platform won't be written by devotees on Jon Huntsman. The GOP cannot win the presidency without evangelicals voting heavily. There is no magic coalition for Republicans right now that does not place social conservatives at its core. That may change as the electoral cohort shifts, but we're a few presidential cycles away from that now.

One thing that's certain: Being pro-gay and Republican won't incur a financial penalty. Almost every big donor in the party either actively or tacitly supports gay rights. The rest are libertarian and don't care. The identifiable social conservative rich folks are dwarfed.

Bryan Fischer at The American Family Association, a registered anti-gay hate group symbolizes the problem the GOP is faced with:

The Christofascists Foam at the Mouth at the Mention of ENDA

Along with denying any legal recognition of same sex relationships, keeping LGBT citizens subject to capricious firing from their jobs one of the pillars of the Christofascist agenda to punish and stigmatize us for refusing to live our lives according to their sick hate and fear based religious beliefs.  It's something I know about full well having been forced from a law firm so that my presence would not "offend the sensibilities" of conservative clients.  The irony, of course, is that the one of the areas where my own firm has seen the most growth in terms of client base is with Hindu and Muslim clients.  

But back to the Christofascsts.  If you want to see the spittle fly and see conniption fits, just bring up the prospect of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act ("ENDA") being passed by Congress.  Even Christofascists darlings like Paul Ryan - who recently said he supported ENDA while speaking out of both sides of his mouth - are not immune from the wrath of the lunatic religious extremists of the GOP base.  Bryan Fischer, a leading mouth piece of the certified hate group, American Family Association, is illustrative of the Christofascists undisguised animus toward LGBT individuals and their desire to retain the right to fire gays at will.  Not only does Fischer lie about the scope of ENDA - which would only apply to businesses with more than 15 employees in its last incarnation - but he seeks to whip the gay haters into a frenzy by depicting ludicrous scenarios that would happen were ENDA to be passed.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at Fischer's lies and undisguised hate speech.  Here are highlights:

Bryan Fischer yesterday on his radio program threatened that “flaming homosexuals… wearing stilettos, a dress and dangly earrings” would apply for jobs in Christian bookstores if ENDA passes into law. Fischer, the public face of the certified anti-gay hate group, American Family Association, claimed “the homosexual lobby” would purposely target religious businesses, including “Christian bookstores,” if the Employment Non-Discrimination Act were passed by Congress and signed into law.

Claiming “ENDA would represent the return of Jim Crow laws” in a blog post accompanying his radio rant, Fischer ludicrously rips former GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan:

Ryan today reiterated his support for ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  This is a horrible bill for a social conservative to support since it would mean the absolute end of religious liberty and freedom of association in the marketplace. It would, in other words, gut the First Amendment. It’s shameful for Ryan, who also voted for this Constitution-shredding bill in 2007, to be so blissfully and blindly unaware of the consequences of this legislation.

Christians “becoming the newest minority utterly deprived of their civil rights,” is offensive on its face. It is not anyone’s civil right to have the right to deprive others of their civil rights. Fischer is angry he’s losing the “right” to be a hateful anti-gay bigot with control over others.

ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, has been introduced into every Congress but one since 1994.  “In 29 states, it remains legal to fire someone because they’re lesbian, gay, or bisexual; in 34 states it’s legal to fire someone solely for being transgender.

Here in Virginia in the coming session of the General Assembly yet another bill will be introduced to protect STATE employees from being fired for being gay or transgender (those in the private sector would still have ZERO protections) and it is guaranteed that The Family Foundation will trot out similar lies and distortions to defeat the bill and maintain special privileges for Christofascists.  And sadly, I anticipate that many black pastors will fall for the lies and hate and once again behave like trained circus dogs for their racists masters at The Family Foundation.

The 25 Worst Anti-LGBT Villains Of 2012

Even though it makes my head nearly explode at times, I regularly follow some of the wingnut "news" sites and the leading anti-gay Christofascists out of a "know your enemy and what he/she is up to" approach.  One cannot combat lies and batshitery unless one stays informed about the activities of the forces of evil as I see many of these anti-gay zealots.  Most are motivated by religious fanaticism and/or making money by peddling hatred (e.g., Kirk Cameron who is desperate to avoid total obscurity).  Whatever the motivation, it is important to stay informed.  In this same vein, Huffington Post has assembled a collection of the twenty five worst anti-gay villains of 2012, although many have been villains for far longer.   Here are highlights from the post followed by a slide show:

While it's been a historic year for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, opponents have also come out in spades. From Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy to '80s teen heartthrob Kirk Cameron, who said homosexuality is "detrimental" and "destructive," we've certainly heard our fair share of anti-LGBT rhetoric in the last 12 months.

Some of the pundits, politicians and pastors who spoke out against LGBT people made claims so outrageous they were often unintentionally comical. Patrick Wooden, an influential pastor in North Carolina, claimed gay men need to wear diapers "because of what happens to the male anus" after sex. And hardly a week went by without Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association lashing out with a new ridiculous statement about how we live our lives and what we're supposedly doing to America.

Because what we don't know can hurt us and it's critical to be aware of who is working to deny, take away or keep us from our equal rights. So take a look at our slide show of the biggest anti-LGBT villains of 2012

Debunking the Christianist Claim that America Descending to Godlessness

As a history major in college and one who has always done massive amounts of historical reading on my own, I constantly am distressed by the manner in which the religious extremists of the far right - the Christofascists who seek to force their beliefs on all citizens - demonstrate a very selective reading of history.  They leave out whatever is inconvenient - much as they do with their recitation of Bible verse - and fabricate entire new story lines when the truth doesn't fit their theocratic purposes.  Faux historian David Barton is a prime example of the latter phenomenon.  An op-ed in the New York Times written by a history professor looks at the rantings of  the likes of Bryan Fischer at AFA and then looks at the real history of religion - and Christianity in particular - in America.  The true picture is not surprisingly far different from that painted by the truth and veracity challenged mouth pieces of the Christianists.  Here are some column highlights:

Conservative activists insist that they protest these developments not to defend special privileges for Christianity, but to respect the founders’ desire for universal religious liberty — rooted, they say, in the Christian tradition. The controversial activist David Barton has devoted his career to popularizing this “forgotten history” through lectures, books and home-school curriculums. 

Bryan Fischer, spokesman for the American Family Association, told me that he saw the “nones” as proof that “the foundations of our culture are crumbling.”  

How accurate is this story of decline into godlessness? Is America, supposedly God’s last bastion in the Western world, rejecting faith and endangering religious liberty? 

The truth is that “nones” are nothing new. Religion has been a feature of human society since Neanderthal times, but so has religious indifference. Our illusions of the past as a golden age of faith tend to cloud our assessment of today’s religious landscape. We think of atheism and religious apathy as uniquely modern spiritual options, ideas that Voltaire and Hume devised in a coffee house one rainy afternoon sometime in the 18th century. Before the Enlightenment, legend has it, peasants hurried to church every week and princes bowed and scraped before priests. Historians have yet to unearth Pew studies from the 13th century, but it is safe to say that we frequently overestimate medieval piety. 

In 1584, census takers in Antwerp discovered that the city had a larger proportion of “nones” than 21st-century America: a full third of residents claimed no religious affiliation.  

Rates of church attendance have never been as sterling as the Christian Right’s fable of national decline suggests. Before the Civil War, regular attendance probably never exceeded 30 percent, rising to a high of 40 percent around 1965 and declining to under 30 percent in recent years — even as 77 percent still identify as Christians and 69 percent say they are “very” or “moderately” religious, according to a 2012 Gallup survey.

We know, then, that the good old days were not so good after all, even in God’s New Israel. Today’s spiritual independents are not unprecedented. What is new is their increasing visibility.  .  .  .  Americans are drifting out of the grip of institutionalized religion, just as they are drifting from institutional authority in general.

‘Religious authority’ is no longer clergy in the pulpit saying ‘Vote for Eisenhower,’ but forwarded URL links or gossip exchanges in chat rooms. There is no referee.”  For a very long time, Protestant leaders were those referees. If individual impiety flourished in centuries past, churches still wielded significant control over civic culture: the symbols, standards and sexual mores that most of the populace respected in public, if not always in private. Today, more and more Americans openly accept extramarital sex, homosexuality and other outrages to traditional Christian morality.

For most of our history, the loudest defenders of the separation of church and state were not rogue atheists, but Protestants worried about Catholics seeking financing for parochial schools or scheming their way into public office to take orders only from mitered masters in Rome.  Activists on both the left and the right tend to forget this irony of the First Amendment: it has been as much a weapon of religious oppression as a safeguard for liberty.

Conservative Christian activists hold those sectarian foundations more dearly than they admit, and they are challenging the Obama administration’s efforts to frame access to contraception and same-sex marriage as civil rights immune to the veto of “private” conscience.  

These legal efforts are less an attempt to redefine religious liberty than a campaign to preserve Christians’ historic right to police the boundary between secular principles and religious beliefs. Only now that conservative Christians have less control over organs of public power, they cannot rely on the political process. Now that the “nones” are declaring themselves, and more Americans — including many Christians — see birth control as a medical necessity rather than a sin, Mr. Sears sees a stark course of action for the Catholic and evangelical business owners he represents: “Litigation is all that our clients have.” Their problem, however, is more fundamental than legal precedent. Their problem is that America’s Christian consensus is fragmenting. We are left groping for something far messier: an evolving, this-worldly, compromise.