Ohio Religious Right leader Phil Burress recently said of McCain, "We don't like him, and he doesn't like us." But Burress has gotten himself out ahead of the pack of Religious Right leaders who appear poised to finally get around to helping McCain. In the wake of McCain having been recieved by Billy and Franklin Graham, and a widely reported meeting of Religious Right leaders in Denver this week, we are about to see how badly the Religious Right wants to stop Barack Obama, or at least limit the damage.

This is not a question so much as an announcement.

Indeed, pastordan and I have teamed up for a panel under that title at Netroots Nation this year in Austin, Texas, July 17-20th.

This diary is nothing less than a shameless, but mercifully short, advertisement for our session.

Peter Akinola is not exactly a household name, but he could well be the problem pastor of neo-conservatism. He is certainly less well known in the U.S. than John ("McCain threw me under the bus") Hagee, but he is every bit as consequential.

   
He is he spiritual leader of thousands of Americans, including many Washington insiders who attend schismatic Episcopal churches that have placed themselves under his authority in recent years. He is Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, a cruel and ostentatiously anti-gay cleric and a driving force in the widening schism in the worldwide Anglican communion, who makes James Dobson seem liberal and Hagee a relative man of peace.
 

All that now stands in the way of legislation, passed with the help of Democrats, that would allow the teaching of creationism in the Lousiana public schools is an unlikely veto by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal  

While we mull that over, Barbara Forrest, one of the nation's leading experts on the knavery that is "intelligent design," has posted at Talk to Action a discussion of the role of the Religious Right's Discovery Institute and Focus on the Family's state political affiliate in the passage of the bill, and how these organizations have apparently cowed or owned political leaders of both parties.

I think he can.

James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, says the Barack Obama distorts the Bible and has a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

This according to the Associated Press, which was provided a copy of Dobson's pretaped remarks that will air on Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio program.

Dobson's colorful attack on Senator Obama, who taught constitutional law for twelve years at the University of Chicago, invites examination of Mr. Dobson's views on the Constitution -- something I have written about from time-to-time.

The Commencement season has rolled around again, and as I hear reports of what various important people have said, I can't help but be reminded of a commencement address, that for me is a commencement address for all seasons; for all schools; and for all time.

I first blogged about this three years ago, and intend to make it an annual thing, as long as I continue to blog.

Commencement addresses are tricky things. Most speakers go in knowing that expectations are at once very low and very high. People would love to hear a remarkable address, but they know they are unlikely to hear one, the best efforts of the speaker not withstanding. But sometimes a commencement speaker rises to the occasion and captivates an audience -- and is remembered -- if for no other reason, than for having done so.

The 2008 Platform of the Texas Republican Party -- will make the Religious Right weep for joy. That is, no doubt, because they wrote it. The Religious Right continues to dominate the state party in Texas and the 2008 platform is Exhibit A.

Fortunately, The Texas Freedom Network has sifted through the platform for us -- and found a document that demonstrates that politicaly powerful elements of the the religious right not only have a theocratic agenda -- they have put it in writing.  

Here are a few examples from the TFN's just released report that illustrate my point.  

I have pounded the theme that the religious right is not dead so often that I am too bored to say it again.  But suffice to say, that the religious right has become a problem for John McCain. Not so much because there are evangelicals, particularly young people, who are disaffected with the GOP (because there are); and not so much because the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party are pursuing them (as they are) but because many serious activists are going to sit out the presidential race or work down ticket races instead. This general idea has been promoted by longtime conservative movement leader Richard Vigeurie for a long time. He and other movement leaders argued that the GOP has "betrayed" them, and that it is time to regroup. Add to this the longstanding tensions between McCain and the religious right (and movement conservatives in general), and there is a potential electoral disaster brewing for John McCain.  

I am updating and reprising this post because the issue of John McCain's professed Christian nationalism is a real question that goes to his core beliefs as well as his ongoing relationship with the religious right.

In an interview with BeliefNet, last year, John McCain came out as a Christian nationalist. This is a disturbing development from a man who has been profoundly critical of the religious right in the past, but has courted movement leaders, and received the endorsement of some (and was forced to renounce some too) while seeking the GOP nomination for president over the past year.

In this interview, he comes out more strongly as a Christian nationalist and critic of separation of church and state than any nominee for either party in modern American history.

The notion that America once was, and should be once again, a Christian Nation, is one of the  definitive characteristics of the ideology of the religious right.

Until recently, John Hagee was not exactly a household name. But he has, as leading Christian Zionists before him have been, a larger than life figure to those whose political world centers around rightwing Israeli politics. This includes elected officials and senior staff of both major parties in the United States.

There is a stupifying amount of stuff written about the religious right in all media all the time these days. Much of it not very useful. No one can possibly sort through it all anyway. But here are a few items I came across over the past few days that I think are useful.

As the recent rolling exposes of Texas evangelist John Hagee and Ohio theocrat Rod Parsely show -- there are influential leaders with dangerously bigoted and often anti-democratic views.  And these leaders are so signficant, that someone like John McCain -- well actually John McCain himself, and his side- kick Joe Lieberman -- are willing to turn a blind eye to their very public views.  Mike Huckabee certainly had his share as well, although prior to the blow-up over Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, most people and certainly the media were less than curious about the views of even important leaders of the religious right, most of whom supported Huck's campaign.

Much ink has been spilt over the various moderate and sometimes even progressive trends in the world of evangelicalism. And even while writing about "faith" remains strongly in fashion, I remain of the view, politically speaking, that there is much less in these trends than meets the eye. At least so far.

As much as we may welcome evangelicals young and old who have come to, or who have always shared, concerns that are far wider than those of the litums tests of the religious right, and reject the conflation of one's views on homosexuality and abortion with Christianity itself -- too many folks have jumped to premature conclusions on these things. And as Chip Berlet reminded us last summer, it is just plain wrong to sacrifice the human and civil rights of women and LGBT people in the pursuit of seemingly available political constituencies.

In the wake of the the widespread revulsion over John Hagee's unambiguous views that God sent Hitler to drive the Jews to Israel in order to fulfill his interpretation of Biblical prophesy, and John McCain's repudiation of his views as "crazy and unacceptable," Hagee has issued a press release. It is posted on the web site of his organization, Christians United for Israel. In it he makes many statements. Many of them undoubtedly heart felt. Many of them are no doubt true.

But what Hagee does not address is the original controversy, while furiously tossing red herring in all directions.  

Senator Joe Lieberman's bizarre alliance with John Hagee is not as strange as it seems, now that people are noticing. His role as a headliner at the Christians United for Israel conference is of a piece with pandering to the religious right by political leaders, including leading Democrats over many years, particularly when it comes to the religious right's support for Israel.  

Now of course, there are many who are supportive of Israel and are not part of or sympathetic to the religious right. And that will remain unchanged.  But Leiberman, while no longer a member of the Democratic Party, and of course John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, epitomize the way that pols of both major parties have been more than willing to turn a blind eye to the apocalyptic, anti-democratic, hate-infused agenda of Hagee, among others. Hagee and the religious right grew powerful in part because of, not inspite of the pandering and accomodation of the likes of Leiberman.  

Much has been written here at Daily Kos about the odd, secretive religious right network that has infiltrated the halls of power; cultivated the powerful; and calls itself The Family. The journalist who has done most of the groundbreaking research and reporting on The Family, (including Sen. Clinton's longtime involvement) is Jeff Sharlet (aka Ishmael).

A few weeks ago, the NBC Nightly News reported on the The Family, featuring an  interview with Jeff -- as well as  dramatic video of Family leader Doug Coe preaching about the kind of "covenant" that he says made Hitler among others, powerful -- commanding loyalty among his followers, and that this is what Jesus requires.

Now Jeff's book on the subject, The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power is out, and I have written a review which appears in the current issue of The Public Eye  magazine.

Bruce Wilson's recent video post on how prominent McCain ally, John Hagee, has claimed that God sent Hitler and the holocaust as a way to force the Jews to emigrate to Israel -- is rapidly gaining public notice. Yesterday, Sam Stein, a political reporter at The Huffington Post, picked-up on the story. And last night, Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown did a segment based on Bruce's (aka Troutfishing) shocking discovery. (See Troutfishing's highly recomended and much discussed post on this.)

The New Yorker magazine's Ryan Lizza told Olbermann that

"on the offensive scale of one to ten, claiming that God sent Hitler to hunt down the Jews and force them to Israel, is about a 20."

The Real News Network, a new, international news service, has a video reporton the issue of religious indoctrination and intolerance in the U.S. military. The segment titled Holy warriors in the US Armed Forces: Separation of church and state being dissolved within the military can be viewed at the RNN web site.

In it, is a case example of how important points can be undermined by ill-considered uses of language.