LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY rialian)

Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's an article from Christianity Today about the old evangelicals addressing the new ones.

We mainliners had our day in the sun. Remember Prohibition? It was more than an opportunity for cool gangster outfits and Kevin Costner's best movie. The national banning of alcohol by constitutional amendment was a result of Methodist efforts to "spread Scriptural holiness over the land." Oddly familiar, isn't it? Groups like the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, led by the great Methodist social prophet Frances Willard, prayed, raised money, and badgered politicians to get their way. The Temperance Union was the forerunner of the cute old ladies of the United Methodist Women (UMW) who, in a church I pastored, often gathered to bake and gossip and pray.

We did then what you do now: We imposed our way on a divided populace by sheer force of electoral muscle and religious rhetoric. Our effort to take America for Christ is now a peculiar cultural artifact, a curiosity gathering dust on the shelf of early 20th-century history. We built triumphant monuments to our importance. At the Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., a prime, front-pew seat features a plaque marking where the President of the United States should sit when he attends—not unlike churches in Constantinople that once featured imperial boxes for the emperor to ride his chariot into without having to dismount. But Caesar's seat goes empty these days, even with a Methodist President.

This is not to denigrate monuments from a more triumphant age of mainline Protestantism—many such places still do fine ministry. But church influence on politics is fickle. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's," our Lord says. The last people in the world who want to be caught dead pledging allegiance to the wrong Lord ought to be evangelicals.

The whole article is excellent. And here is an interesting reply to that article, by another Christian writer.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just updated the DC Wiki to add a section about 'bad laws'. If your state is proposing, or has passed a law, resolution, or amendment to the constitution which advances the agenda of the Religious Right (anti-gay, marriage, abortion, declaring Christianity the state religion, kicking out activist judges, etc,) please post a link to it in the wiki.

Here's the main page of the new section where you can see what has already been constructed. Please follow the editing protocols set up. And make a note as to whether this law is proposed, or already passed. And make sure to differentiate between a bill, a resolution, or a constitutional amendment.

Remember, knowledge is power, and like a writer at Talk to Action has said, many states like to pass 'me too' laws echoing bad laws in other states.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

The Hartwell Sun has reported in passing on some disturbing comments made by Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer. For those of you who don't know, Schaefer is one of the main driving forces behind anti-abortion and anti-contraception legislation in Georgia. Here she explains one of the reasons for her anti-choice stance:

50th District Senator Nancy Schaefer, who serves on the economic development committee, mentioned jobs, industry and tourism as issues needing attention. She said we need to "make Georgia a destination."

Commenting on illegal immigration, Schaefer said 50 million abortions have been performed in this country, causing a shortage of cheap American labor. "We could have used those people," she said.

In other words, abortion is bad because it depresses the birth rate, thereby reducing the number of poor people available to work sh*tty jobs.

You know what else can depress the birth rate? Birth control.

It sounds to me like Schaefer wants to try out Romanian dictator Ceausescu's failed population policies on Georgians. I'm sure she believes this would be God's will...

Update: See wyldraven's comment below for background on Scheafer's dominionist philosophy.

This Just In: Schaefer states the same thing in a newspaper editorial: "I am convinced [illegal immigration] is a consequence to the almost 50 million children we have put to death in their mother's womb through abortion. The large unfilled job market in Georgia would not be a problem if the almost 50 million Americans were here filling many of those jobs." You can't make this sh*t up!