This is Part VI. Read:

Part I, "Tempting Faith: Bush's 'Faith Based' Initiative a Scam"

PART II, "Tempting Faith: Bush Betrays Christian Conservatives"

PART III, "Tempting Faith: Bush Admin: Christian Cons are "Nuts", "Ridiculous""

In Part IV, Kuo reveals the administration's deliberate and conscious discrimination of non-Christian and otherwise non-Bush-supportive groups.

Clearly this is the most egregious trespass (among many) to American values laid out in Kuo's book -- a clear desecration of the first amendment.

Kuo charges that "the White House's own rationale for pushing the faith-based initiative -- an effort to make it easier for churches and other sectarian organizations to receive federal social-service funding -- was bogus."

(More over the flip...)

This is Part III. Read:

Part I, "Tempting Faith: Bush's 'Faith Based' Initiative a Scam"

and PART II, "Tempting Faith: Bush Betrays Christian Conservatives"

In Part III, Kuo reveals the Administration's disdain for and mockery of Bush's conservative Christian base.

...the book includes charges that high-ranking White House officials referred to prominent conservative Christian leaders as "nuts" behind their backs,

[...]

"National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy,'" Kuo wrote. He added that top political officials in White House aide Karl Rove's office referred to the leaders as "the nuts."

Read Also:

Part IV, "Tempting Faith: Bush Admin Admits Discriminating Against Non-Christians"

This is Part II. Read: Part I, "Tempting Faith: Bush's 'Faith Based' Initiative a Scam"

In Part II, Kuo reveals the knife that the administration brazenly inserted into the back of their alleged allies.

Olbermann: "Kuo cites one example after another of a White House that repeatedly uses Evangelical Christians for their votes while consistently giving them nothing in return."

Olbermann: So, how does the Bush White House keep the 'nuts' turning out at the polls? One way, regular conference calls with groups lead by Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Ted Haggard, and radio hosts like Michael Reagan. ... They did get some things from the Bush White House, like the National Day of Prayer. ... Or 'Little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper were passed out like business cards. Christian leaders could give them to their congregations or donors or friends to show just how influential they were.'"

Olbermann: "When cufflinks were not enough, the White House played the Jesus card, reminding Christian leaders that 'He knew the president's faith' and begging for patience.

(More over the flip...)

Yet another ex-Bush White House official is coming clean on the flagrant dishonesty, shameless politicization, and arrogant self-absorption of the current administration.

This time it's David Kuo, the former number two person in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Kuo, a self-described conservative evangelical, offers the inside scoop on the administration's pursuit of Christian conservative votes even as they mocked them behind their backs.

The full story, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Still unreleased, his book is currently the #13 Best Seller at Amazon), will be released on October 16. But MSNBC's Keith Olberman was able to obtain a copy early and shared some of it's insights on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on October 11th.

(More over the flip...)

          The problem with the new Christians, and the Republicans, is they think they can design and orchestrate the construction of the Kingdom of God, right here on earth, in THIS time, BEFORE its time. Even though Jesus went to great lengths to explain that this would never take place until AFTER HE RETURNS!
     I view this effort as a hostile takeover of this country by the Christian Right, yet they have no right to do this.
     

Former Senator John Danforth (R-MO),  has a book coming out on Tuesday: "Faith and Politics: How the 'Moral Values' Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together."  This is not good news for the religious right, for which he has some strong criticisms consistent with his speaking and writing of the past few years. As a former GOP sentator, U.S. Ambassador to the UN and an Episcopal priest, his words carry some weight. While I am glad that he is speaking out, and I have no doubt that he will add a thoughtfulf and helpful voice to the contemporary discussion of the role of religion and public life, my main criticism is that he should have and arguably could have done a lot more, a lot  sooner. Nevertheless, I say better late than never. Perhaps Danforth's high profile public criticisms of the religious right and the polititians that pander to it, will help others find find their voice. Who knows, maybe even some Democrats can be helped; particularly those who have not yet succumbed to the temptation to throw their principles overboard while attempting to appeal to conservative "values voters."  

Danforth offered this explanation to his home town newspaper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, as to why he only recently has come to be speaking out: "Maybe I was obtuse," he said.  That, and Terry Schiavo.

More on the flip.

Last February, the Internal Revenue Service finally drew the line in the sand. After years of controversy, as the Christian Right sought to build a church-based electoral movement, bending and breaking the rules governing the activities of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organzations, the IRS announced a major education and enforcement program in the run up to the 2006 elections.  

The IRS sought to make the matter as plain and simple as possible:  

"...all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

The issue of tax abuse by tax exempt organizations, particularly churches promises to be a signficant issue over the next few elections. Ground zero in the battle is Ohio, where the Patriot Pastors project has been overtly backing Ohio Sectretary of State Ken Blackwell for governor in 2006. A group of non-Christian right clergy in Ohio have filed complaints about World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church two churches centrally involved in the Ohio Patriot Pastors project, that they felt had way overstepped.

But that was just the beginning.

The IRS is making big news in annoucing the results of a comprehensive review of complaints of illegal electoral activity by non-profit, tax-exempt organizations, including churches, during the 2004 election season. Although the agency was scrupulously neutral in how it presented it's findings from the period leading up to the 2004 elections, and it's planned educational and enforcement activities for 2006, it stated as simply and plainly as possible:

"...all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

This is certainly bad news for the Christian Right, which has encouraged churches to bend if not break the rules proscribing electoral activities by non-profit, tax-exempt groups.

"All politics is local." So said the late speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill. I think he would agree that politics is also built on personal political relationships. Back in the day, when O'Neill was coming up, everybody knew everybody in the neighborhoods of Boston. Who you knew, who knew your family, mattered. But those kinds of neighborhoods and those kinds of relationships are rarer these days. Society is more transient. Far fewer people live in the towns, let alone the neighborhoods where they grew up.

Many of us are more isolated from the communities we live in. We are disconnected from politics and government. We don't know our city councilors or our state representatives. Voter participation is far lower than any other industrial democracy. Politics is ruled by big money, political consultants, ad agencies and television.

But there are deep rumblings and tremors in the body politic that may change that.

There is one aspect of the rise of the religious right that, from where I sit, is grossly neglected. And it's not that many thoughtful, well-informed people don't understand the missing piece, at some level. But in the 16 years since the founding of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, I can't think of an instance in which it has ever been addressed by any signficant opposing institution. The Christian Right has gotten as far as it has for many reasons. But the most important and obvious aspect receives the least attention -- at least when it comes to discussing what to do about it.

Canadians will elect a new government on January 23, and, unless trends change, the Conservatives will not only win a minority government, they are on the edge of a MAJORITY government.  The Conservative Party in Canada, led by Stephen Harper [who bears an uncanny resemblence to Spongebob] is much like the American Republican Party, heavily influenced by the so-called Christian Right.  

American Jews are angry. And they are not the only ones. The rising tide of Christian nationalism, religious supremacism, and theocratic trends, rightfully worries people of miniority religious faiths -- and growing numbers of Christians as well.

But long after the bogus war on Christmas story is over, what we used to call the "culture war" -- a one sided war of aggression being waged against democratic pluralism and the civil and constitutional rights of other Americans, will be going strong.

From Our Word

There's a lot of talk these days about what might happen if Roe falls, and most opinion seems to be roughly divided into two camps.  A sizable contingent feels confident that the Republicans need Roe more than Democrats do, both because it's the most reliable way of energizing their base, and because they fear the voter backlash that would surely follow its loss.  Almost as many people seem to believe that Democrats should shut up about the issue of abortion and let it go, because all it's good for is losing elections.  Their reasoning goes that even if Roe was struck, abortion rights would revert to the states and because -- as some preciously naive poster commented a few days ago -- "Americans are liberal and pro-choice," women would still keep access to safe and legal abortion care.  

Both those opinions are wrong -- for some women, even today, literally dead wrong.  Should you still cling to either of those cherished illusions, PBS Frontline's The Last Abortion Clinic and numerous abortion providers will tell you that you're only whistling past the graveyard.

"Blurring the line between church and state threatens civil liberties and privacy, says former President Jimmy Carter. That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, which draws on Carter's experiences as a president and a Christian."