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Many paranoid social conservatives blame the triumph of moral liberalism on a conspiracy of sinister secular humanists, using the media and the public schools to indoctrinate their children and grandchildren in a godless morality. But the truth is that social conservatism has been undermined by technological progress, which has increased the opportunities for freedom in matters of sex and censorship while raising the costs of enforcing traditional norms.

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"In 1970 there were around 40 lobbying firms advocating on behalf of religious organizations, today there are over 200. They’re in Senate halls and Congressional offices working to influence your elected representatives. And it’s not just same sex-marriage and pro-choice issues on their agenda. “In any congressional session, religious leaders will … be embroiled in battles over food stamps, foreign aid, civil rights litigation, social security, funding for day care, environmental protection farm bills and the list goes on,” says researcher Allan Hertzke."

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Raising the issue of this sort of moral calculus is dangerous because it suggests that Dionne is willing to tolerate some amount of child rape in service to the greater good. But how much child rape should be tolerated? How many of those who insist that the good outweighs the bad would maintain this position if it was their own child being raped by a priest?

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The thing I like to emphasize is that secularism is a social justice movement. Religion is too easily used in government as a tool to oppress politically vulnerable individuals; we’ve seen it again and again throughout history. The best way to protect human rights and advance human well being is to keep religion out of government.

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Authors Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor, and Michael Coulter, a humanities and political science professor, are both conservative Christians. (Grove City is a private Christian institution where, according to its website, the “ethical absolutes of the Ten Commandments and Christ’s moral teachings guide the effort to develop intellect and character in the classroom, chapel, and cocurricular activities.”)

I started the book last night after dinner and couldn’t put it down. To be blunt, it’s a hammer. Throckmorton and Coulter look at numerous pieces of disinformation spread by Barton and give the real story, usually backing up their claims with words from Jefferson’s own writings.

progressive secular humanism church and state David Barton lies Thomas Jefferson history

"Ever since boy genius Rep. Paul Ryan invoked his "Catholic faith" to justify his budget—you know, the one all the Republicans, including Mitt Romney, think is super awesome because it lets the rich get richer and the poor get poorer—he's been getting a lot of criticism for trying to hide behind Jesus. He got spanked by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, who said the proposed cuts in Ryan's budget are "unacceptable" and "unjustified and wrong," and his whole budget "fails to meet these moral criteria." Ryan told them to get bent, though, because he "respectfully disagrees" with Jesus the bishops, because apparently, you can do that as long as you're not talking about vaginas, in which case, if you don't do what the bishops say, you're going to hell and you hate America, sinner. "

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The USCCB disagreed, arguing the government's acceptance of their restriction was an accommodation of their religious belief, not an endorsement. The government is allowed to accommodate religion to remove burdens on free exercise of religion. There is no question USCCB's restriction was motivated by deeply held religious beliefs, but this is not a burden on free exercise of religion because there is no legal obligation mandating the USCCB provide abortion or contraceptive services. If the sincerely held religious beliefs of the USCCB do not allow them to fulfill the requirements of this government contract, they are free to not take the money. This is about the government authorizing the use of taxpayer money by a religious institution to impose its beliefs on others.

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But it’s Grudem’s conclusions on the environment that concern us today. He writes, “Long-term trends show that human beings will be able to live on the earth, enjoying ever-increasing prosperity, and never exhausting its resources.”

Grudem further explains, “[I]f God put us on this earth to develop and use its resources for our benefit and with thanksgiving and for his glory, and if God is a good and wise creator, then it is completely reasonable to think that he would create in the earth the resources that we need and that there would be ways that we could discover to use these resources more wisely.”

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Here in the United States, those who self-identify as religious tend to be exactly the opposite of their British counterparts when it comes to politics. As the Pew Research Center recently discovered, “Most people who agree with the religious right also support the Tea Party” and its ultra-conservative economic agenda. Summing up the situation, scholar Gregory Paul wrote in the Washington Post that many religious Christians in America simply ignore the Word and “proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated union busting, minimal taxes, especially for wealthy investors, and plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations.”

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"A Texas pastor who has repeatedly called Mitt Romney's religion a cult is now endorsing the former Massachusetts governor because President Barack Obama "opposes Biblical principles."

Dallas pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress first said in 2007 that Romney was not qualified to be president because “Mormonism is a cult.”

"Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise," Jeffress told his congregation. "Even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult."

"It's a little hypocritical for the last eight years to be talking about how important it is for us to elect a Christian president and then turn around and endorse a non-Christian," he added. "Christian conservatives are going to have to decide whether having a Christian president is really important or not."

But in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the pastor reversed course after Romney became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. "

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The Tennessee bill hijacks language from scientists and skeptics: Teachers are allowed to promote “critical thinking” in areas where there’s “debate and disputation.” That’s not unreasonable on the surface, since there are plenty of areas of dispute — the value of certain cancer screenings, the safest way to store nuclear waste, or what benefit feathers would have bestowed on dinosaurs.

And critical thinking skills can be taught by examining bad science, such as cold fusion, or pseudoscience, such as homeopathy. But those aren’t the controversies the bill drafters care about. The bill singles out climate change and evolution.  

The summary says that schools cannot prohibit “any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.”

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" I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation…

It's difficult to overstate how just radical this remark is. Progressive taxation has been around for nearly 100 years. A progressive tax was endorsed by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. And we still operate under a progressive tax.

Why? Because a progressive tax helped the country pay for fighting two World Wars, the interstate highway system, putting man on the moon and created the social safety net programs of the New Deal and Great Society. And it transformed the country from the extreme wealth inequality of the Robber Baron era to the thriving middle classes of the '50s, '60s and '70s."

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"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday said that President Barack Obama had taken his war on faith to the next level by wanting to establish a new "religion" for the purpose of rejecting all religious doctrines.

At an event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a supporter asked the candidate what the Obama administration's motive was for mandating that the health insurance provided by all religious institutions cover contraceptives for women.

"I think there is in this country a war on religion," Romney replied. "I think there is a desire to establish a religion in America known as secularism.""

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The purpose of the Day of Truth (yes, yes, now it's the Day of Dialogue) was, as I said before, to "encourage" religious people to speak out against LGBT students and how they're offending the sensibilities of the religious folks (because, apparently, there's not enough of that already). You have to sink pretty low to stage a counter-event to something meant to end bullying, but religious conservatives have been playing the how-low-can-you-go game for a long time, now, so it doesn't even qualify as surprising anymore.

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Dionne's problem remains his support for "accommodation" to religions in the secular activities. Dionne cannot muster an argument to distinguish his position in principle with that of the bishops.

The progressive position is this: (1) insure religious liberty and freedom by complete government non-interference with freedom of worship; and (2) insure religious liberty and freedom by insisting that no religion shall be exempt from our secular laws when such religions engage in secular activity.

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I can't use the words I'd like to use to describe this big bully, but you can rest assured that he's got at least some of the famously rigid and conservative church hierarchy behind him. So now the American church's cardinals and archbishops have to make a choice: More toxic PR fallout from allowing Donahue to attack people who were raped as children, or try to hold onto the cash? Hmm.

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Not just a brand of theology but a particular, and bad, epistemology. Tax dollars are going to support claims that “faith” can know things just as science can know things, but by a different methodology or “way.” Really. If that claim is true, then it would seem reasonable for tax dollars to finance bridges built according to faith, medical research conducted according to faith, agricultural technology discovered by faith. Tax dollars pretty much don’t do that though (except when they do, as with “complementary” medicine). Why is that? Because “faith” is not in fact a way of knowing. Therefore, tax dollars shouldn’t be used to support claims that it is. Lying should be left to the private sphere.

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Why do we not believe in Rick Santorum? The simplest reason is that we have never actually seen him, and I suspect neither have you. Oh sure, we see television footage of someone claiming to be Rick Santorum, but television is notoriously unreliable. It could be special effects; it could be an actor brought in to play the role; it could be photoshopped footage from an old bin Laden raid, heavily edited and with American flags liberally pasted in. While it may not be immediately obvious why mainstream media would want us to believe someone as ridiculous as Rick Santorum exists, you have to admit the glaring lack of any contrary views only serves to make the whole thing even more suspicious.

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“One thing I think is crystal clear — there is no First Amendment violation by this law,” Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA, told TPM. “The Supreme Court was very clear in a case called Employment Division v. Smith, written by none other than Antonin Scalia, that religious believers and institutions are not entitled to an exemption from generally applicable laws.”

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Watching this man pontificate on religion and America is blood curdling. In this video Fr. Thomas Williams tries to say that maybe their founder had multiple personalities. I don't hear much shame from these two over Maciel's behavior, do you? In the above video, Bill O'Reilly shifts the discussion very quickly away from any mention of sexual abuse that was allowed to go on by the church across the world for decades and and how disgusting it is that men like Morris then try to lecture Americans on our system of government or the rights of women.

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