Barack Obama is looking for support from some of the most intolerant and corrupt “Christian” right leaders.

An article entitled Obama Meets with Conservative and Progressive Religious Leaders at the Christian Broadcasting network, included a list of “religious leaders” that Obama is trying to get support from…

Most of these leaders are rabidly anti-gay and anti-choice. And they even include one “religious leader” who played a role in Monica Goodlings efforts to put more right wing Christians in the DoJ….

Here’s a partial list…

TD Jakes – One of those mega-church preachers who enriches himself (he lives in a $1.7 million mansion) while “saving souls”  Read more 

I only do that because it’s big and fluffy. Yack:

Most of the work presiding over chamber debate in the House and Senate is decidedly dull, following procedure and managing time on the floor, but every gaffe, cough and parliamentary ruling is caught live by the cameras of C-SPAN.  Read more 

Confession time…

In 2006, I ran for the US House against an unholy a far-right DINO and lost in the Primary. I drop the phrase, "I placed second in a three-way race", to either joke-it or to save face—it could be either. In reality, the incumbent got 86.2%, I got 10.0% and Mr.Last Place got 3.8%.  Read more 

Or perhaps they should try to keep the, you know, pedophiles out of the party. A lot of teens think creepy old men hitting on them over the IM system while standing up and singing with the Faithful on Sundays is, well, hypocritical. Music to my ears:

Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.

At an unusual series of leadership meetings in 44 cities this fall, more than 6,000 pastors are hearing dire forecasts from some of the biggest names in the conservative evangelical movement.

Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation.  Read more 

Courtesy of Rollins Riggs for the NYTimes

From the Memphis Times via the NYTimes:

On Independence Day, Lady Liberty was born again

As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but with the Ten Commandments under one arm and “Jehovah” inscribed on her crown.

And in place of a torch, she held aloft a large gold cross, as if to ward off the pawnshops, the car dealerships and the discount furniture outlets at the busy corner of KirbyParkway and Winchester that is her home. A single tear graced her cheek.

It was not clear if she was crying because of her new home, her new identity as a symbol of religion or, as the pastor said, America’s increasing godlessness.

You were maybe expecting Martin Luther King Jr? Or the modern equivalent?  Read more 

**(See Chicago Dyke’s post here.)

Another stunning example emerges, of the Christian Right’s version of “free to be me,” which invariably involves making claims that the privileging of Christianity in various ways at various levels of governement is a constitionally protected claim to religious liberty.

A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they’re suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from “state-sponsored religion.”

What might those two families mean by that phrase, “state-sponsored religion?”  Read more