Today's Cultural Warfare Update

It's neat, watching all the theocon and fundamentalist groups swivel their guns around all at once; it looks like they've decided they can't vote for a Mormon, so are going after Mitt Romney hard now, in favour - reportedly - of Fred Thompson of Tennessee. That's kind of neat; the sectarian nature of the new politics are coming out in no uncertain terms any longer, with multiple theologians denouncing Mormonism as incompatible with Christianity, and the theocratic groups condemning Mr. Romney for not moving against hotel-room pay-per-view pr0n enough when he was on the board at Marriott. Mmmm, spicy. Plus, yay, sectarian politics! That works so well in Iraq.

Most of the rest of this is a Focus on the Family update, the majority of which is their usual gaybashing and sectarian-politics cheerleading, but includes one interesting bit: apparently Focus on the Family is just fine working with SatanMTV if MTV is doing a documentary on "Christian Soldiers," by which they - and by "they," I do mean Focus, not MTV - mean civilians working to destroy secularism in American society, not soldiers of faith in the military. That's neat.

And now, today's news.

Hamas condemns Fatah leadership in the West Bank by saying they have "proof of homosexual relations between Fatah officials"; gosh, sounds familiar;

Anti-abortion activist firebombs women's health clinic with his car and gasoline bomb, similarly to Glasgow's airport attack (but even less competent and with less gasoline) - however, somehow, it's not terrorism;

First Things's Richard John Neuhaus specifically supports opposition to Mitt Romney's candidacy on the basis of sectarian, religious reasons - specifically because his nomination would bring too much respectability to Mormonism, and proclaims that America is better off if people think and vote that way. Ah, the brave old world of sectarian politics. THANKS, FUNDY ASSHOLES;

Okay, so get this; a fundamentalist would-be lawyer fails the bar exam in Massachusetts - barely - in part because he refuses to answer the question about same-sex marriage in Massachusetts law. He's suing, claiming that being required to answer the question violates his first amendment freedom of religion;

Former Soviet Union fundamentalists becoming very, very active in anti-gay protest an activities; this is from last year, but I missed it when it first came out. Spotted in dark_christian, the organisers are on the Pink Swastika bandwagon, and local theoconservative leaders in California are glad to see them showing up;

Eyeon08.com, a blog which is theoconservative-aware to the degree of their politics, at least, is suspecting with good reason that the Focus on the Family/Family Research Council/Christian Broadcasting Network axis of the theoconservative movement - along with the Southern Baptist Convention leadership - have moved now decisively against Romney and are now on the Fred Thompson bus;

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, denounces the idea that Mormonism is a form of Christianity, declaring it fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, and that it "clearly identifies historic Christianity as a false faith." Interestingly, he does not mention Mitt Romney by name, but "mitt romney" is one of the tags, and his commenters are certainly cognizant of whom he speaks; take this in the context of a clear majority of Republicans now being of the opinion that they have to share the strong religious faith of any candidate they support, and, well;

The New York Times reports on the Family Research Council denunciation of Mitt Romney's Marriott connections. Remember, the FRC doesn't say jack without kissing Focus on the Family founder James Dobson's ring - and oh look, there's Focus on the Family in on it first-hand. Also, note also the American Family Association's Michigan branch chirping up, too;

Focus on the Family reports the Ohio Citizens for Community Values as being the main instigator of the remove-pr0n-from-hotels story; this is one of the ways that they make themselves look bigger than they are, by reporting co-ordinated activities as independent; they do quote their own obvious sockpuppet (Focus Action) as well, though;

FotF's ad today is for an anti-pr0n book;

A New Jersey school had blocked anti-gay "Day of Truth" fundamentalist protests against queer students at their school; the Alliance Defense Fund rang them up and got them to back down;

Odd FotF story claiming that when military parents are deployed, child abuse rates rise; this is surprisingly not gender-specific, and refers to both "moms and dads" being deployed overseas. I put it here because I'm wondering whether it's part of the no-women-soldiers meme or if they're planning some policy change w.r.t. the Iraq war and want to lay groundwork; I find that very unlikely, but there it is;

FotF uses a horrifying of a woman stabbed in a robbery being left to die on abortion rights; for reference, there's a rather classic case of a woman being raped and murdered in plain view while she screamed for help in New York City back in the 1950s; abortion was not legal, of course; only in that case, instead of five people failing to provide aid, it was hundreds;

American Family Association's One News Now reports that the fundamentalist Liberty Council is threatening to sue Maryland school districts over GBLT-inclusive sex education, claiming that it "denigrated religion" - specifically, fundamentalist Christianity, by not condemning GBLT people;

WorldNetDaily also condemns comprehensive sex education including queers on the basis of including queers; link found on CultureDefense.org;

WorldNetDaily trumpets "ex-gay" former "rising star in the 'gay rights' movement"; he has, of course, converted to evangelical fundamentalism and is now saying all the Right Things for their movement, including "homosexuality is death";

ACLU sues to remove a portrait of Jesus labeled "To Know Peace, Obey These Laws" from a courtroom claiming, gosh, religious endorsement much? The Alliance Defense Fund calls the lawsuit "mind-boggling"; ADF spokesman Mike Johnson says that the painting isn't in any way specific to one faith; the reason they can say things like that with a straight face is because they have the belief that only Christianity is an actual religion; everything else is a "cult" or some variant. This is what's being turned against Mitt Romney and Mormonism now;

Focus on the Family's version of the New Jersey school board allowing the Alliance Defense Fund's anti-gay "Day of Truth" protests;

FotF reports on the latest attempt to "get" abortion-provider George Tiller of Kansas; they've been after him for years;

FotF condemns Democrats and "liberal politics" for keeping a 4th Circuit Court position unfilled since 1994; one presumes that Republican control of the Senate over the last 12 years is irrelevant, or at least uninteresting, or at least not useful for blaming the Enemy Party;

Live Earth is seven-continent series of concerts intended to raise awareness of global climate change. Focus on the Family calls it "Al Gore's message of global-warming extremism" and condemns NBC for carrying a bunch of the concerts. Frankly, I'm just amused as all hell that the Live Earth people got a band from Antarctica. YES, ANTARCTICA. Even better is that there are people on my friendslist who have been in bands in Antarctica, but sadly, they are not the band representing the continent. It's this Britband instead, of course, but they are at least actual research group members. They're no GWAR, but it'll do;

Liberty Legal Institute, a fundamentalist evangelical legal action firm like the Alliance Defense Fund, condemns ACLU lawsuit against Texas programme of elective Bible courses in public schools; it is possible to have these courses be Constitutionally valid, but my assumption is that they are going to be prostelyzation-oriented until demonstrated otherwise, given the track record;

Focus on the Family pushes their Creationist book, "A Case for the Creator - Student Edition," containing "reliable, substantiated evidence from science that backs up your faith";

San Diego fucks up and makes special accommodation for Muslim student prayers; now the Pacific Justice Institute - rightly, to my mind - is calling for equal treatment, which they of course deserve; PJI Attorney Pete Lepiscopo calls it "the opportunity to return prayer to school";

Anti-abortion-rights group to protest National Educational Association annual convention;

Focus on the Family puff piece thanking first lady Laura Bush for promoting abstinence-only education in Africa;

Focus on the Family: tolerance will destroy you, your faith, and your children, promoting the book The New Tolerance: How a Cultural Movement Threatens To Destroy You, Your Faith, and Your Children;

Okay, so; Washington, DC city government gets about 25% of its budget from the Feds. DC has a domestic partner registry. The Republican-controlled Congress has included an amendment to the DC appropriations bill banning any monies (presumably just from the fed) being spent on anything having to do with those icky DP registry for queers. The Democrat-controlled Congress just passed a new one with the same amendment, after Chief Executive Mr. Bush said that if it wasn't included, he'd veto the whole thing. This is form a Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to thank Rep. Goode (R-VA) for helping make all that happen.

Focus on the Family interviews Southern Baptist Rev. Bob. Stith, who is in the "ex-gay" conversion movement;

Focus on the Family spins MTV poll, saying "Sixty-two percent [of 17-29 year olds] said abortion should be outlawed or restricted" and noting a majority oppose marriage rights for GBLT couples; what they don't mention is that the "outlawed" percentage is quite small and the majority in opposition, while still a depressing majority, is the smallest of any age group;

FotF condemns California legislative committee for "bill to push gay agenda in schools"; as far as I know, it's the same bill as before, saying that public school teachers can't adopt lesson plans that are anti-queer, but remember: if it's not condemnational, it's "promoting homosexuality" or "special rights" or "push[ing] the gay agenda," etc, etc, etc;

Focus on the Family promotes "Intelligent Design" creationism DVD;

Kansas legislator to introduce bill removing health exemption from their late-term abortion ban, so that health will no longer be a reason; current law provides an exemption for "substantial and irreversible" harm to a "major bodily function," which Focus on the Family calls "difficult to enforce;"

Focus on the Family reports that Louisiana passes its own, separate ban on the so-called "partial birth" abortion procedure; one of the points of this is to make state prosecutors available to prosecute doctors and/or patients who might seek out the procedure;

Apparently working with MTV is just fine when they're following "Christian Soldiers," by which Focus on the Family does not mean "soldiers of Christian faith in the military," but civilians between the ages of 16 and 28 who are "devoting [their] life to saving society from secularism"; they provide the email address and contact information for the MTV contact for the documentary.

( Articles and excerpts below )