If you missed the broadcast of the program featuring Terry Gross’s conversations with Rev. D. James Kennedy and me, you can listen to the archived show online. You can also order tapes, CDs and transcripts.

If you heard my interview on Fresh Air, and are visiting for the first time, welcome! (If you are a regular, welcome back, as always.)

I write often about politics and religion, but I also write about state politics in Massachusetts and make occasional forays into other matters that capture my interest. But if you are here because you are interested in my work on the religious right, here is a sample.

Religious Equality in America

New York Conference on Theocracy a Big Success

I’m told that my book Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy can sometimes be hard to get these days. But I know for certain that the best place to get it is here.

I will be a guest on the National Public Radio show, Fresh Air with Terry Gross on Wednesday, May 18th.

“Is the division eroding between church and state? And should it? We talk with minister James Kennedy of the Presbyterian mega-church Coral Ridge, founder of the Center for Reclaiming America. Also, Frederick Clarkson, author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.”

Kennedy was, in 1973, one of the leaders of the conservative schism that became the Presbyterian Church in America. Here is a piece I wrote about Kennedy in March on this site.

For a sneak preview of my side of the argument, see my recent essay, Religious Equality in America.

To find out where and when you can hear the program in your area, here is the station list and program schedule. Times vary.

Please forgive my voice, I was coming down with a cold when we taped the interview.

No, thats not a Texas dance band. Its how MA Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick plans to spend Saturday, May 21st. He’s coming to the western wing of Massachusetts — making appearances in North Adams, Pittsfield, Northampton, and Greenfield.

This is his first visit to this part of the state since he electrified the MA Democratic Platform Convention in Lowell last weekend with his oratory. Here is what two western Mass bloggers had to say about the speech:

Noho-missives declared: “I’m biased, but I think the story of the convention is the emergence of Deval Patrick as a genuine star in the Massachusetts Democratic party. I was helping with floor activities and was visibly a supporter (wearing the neon t-shirt that was visible from any part of the arena) — after he spoke, many fellow delegates came up to tell me how much they liked the speech…. Patrick fit in very well with Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, both gifted orators.”

Michael Wilcox says, “reading it on the screen won’t evoke (unless you were there) the visceral reaction produced by his delivery to an arena in which thousands of people were screaming, “yes, we can!”

Here is the speech that brought Democrats to thier feet in Lowell, and people have been talking about ever since.

May 14, 2005

Tsongas Arena Lowell, Massachusetts

Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you…

Thank you, Phil, for that generous introduction. And thank you fellow delegates for your warm welcome.

As Phil told you, I have been blessed with many opportunities: to serve my community as a lawyer and a volunteer; my country as a senior government official; and the customers and employees of two big companies as an executive.

In so many ways, I have lived the American Dream- because I got a better chance in Massachusetts. And I was taught that success is not what you get, it’s what you give. So, I am running for governor because I want a better chance for you and everyone else in the Commonwealth. [More]

Just a quick welcome to two recent arrivals to the left of the Massachusetts political blogospheric firmament.

Lynn, a friend from The Daily Kos, now has her own place, Left In Lowell.

Patrick Abegg, a leader in Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, has just launched Cape Ann Dem.

I will be visiting them often.

Undoubtedly there will be much more from the blogosphere and the morning newspapers about the goings on at the Massachusetts Democratic Platform Convention. But here are three fresh-from-the convention reports.

.08 Acres and a Donkey reports that of the three men seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor “Deval Patrick… got by far the biggest reaction from the crowd. He really brought the house down and the standing ovation he got at the end of his speech was made up of more than just his volunteers — not so with the other candidates. Neither Reilly nor Galvin can compete with him when it comes to oratory — he is on a completely different level. Neither my wife nor the other delegates sitting in our area had heard him before and all were extremely impressed; one even said that “he’s our Obama”. After his showing today, I would be extremely surprised if he couldn’t get the 15% of the delegates he needs at next year’s nominating convention to get on the ballot.”

He also reports that “Contrary to what anyone might tell you, there was no controversy regarding the equal marriage rights plank, and in fact all the focus on it in the media over the past week or so has been completely overblown. There was no one taking signatures to remove it from the platform — and there were people taking signatures for just about everything — nor were there any protests that I noticed.”

Charley at Blue Mass Group agrees about Patrick’s speech: “This is straight from my scrawled notes: “BIG APPLAUSE. PARTIAL STANDING O. Enthusiasm!” If he has name recognition problems in the statewide polls right now, that sure wasn’t evident in Lowell this morning. His signs were everywhere, and his people were very visible, wearing neon-chartreuse t-shirts.

On Bill Galvin: “His stump speech, frankly, sounds like a small-market truck commercial. Paraphrasing: To win, like the Patriots, we need teamwork. And teamwork means a great QB. We’ve got to get our state moving again. What happened to Massachusetts? We used to be a leader. We will be again with the right leadership. I know the problems of this state, and I know how to fix them.

“Oh, thank goodness, it’s all settled then! The response to Galvin’s speech was as wooden as its conception and execution.”

On Tom Reilly: “…I don’t envy him for having to follow Patrick. He was greeted with warm but not fervent applause. He seems to be positioning himself as the candidate of the acceptable, electable middle: We will not waste tax money, we will grow the economy and jobs. Especially striking was his emphasis on reaching out to independents — that they need to be listened to, not lectured to. People who are struggling to send their kids to college, young people who are considering moving away because of the high cost of housing — these folks used to be Democrats. These are our friends and neighbors…. There is a nugget of real compassion in Reilly’s speech that could be expanded — I hope he does so. If he finds his inner Bill Clinton, he could actually be a decent candidate.”

Blogger Orient Lodge – Aldon Hynes a Democrat from Connecticut was the only press-credentialed blogger at the event. He has a detailed report on how the chair of the convention stifled debate and claimed there was no time for anything more than an up or down voice vote to both the charter and the platform. The ploy was met with loud calls for “new leadership” from the floor.

“I spoke with quite a few different people about the events. People close to the chair argued that he would never do anything improper to get his way in a vote. They talked about the importance of getting business done quickly so that people wouldn’t need to stay all day and leave out of boredom. I questioned how this related to making new people feel welcome in the party and staunching the flow of people out of the party. They justified the action saying that people had been given adequate opportunity to express their opinions already, yet had no suggestions about how to make people feel more welcome.”

“Others were less charitable, Hynes continues. “Some leaders in the party refused to say anything other than that they could not comment. They seemed to view the event as a damaging fiasco and recognized that nothing is ever truly off the record…. Those who were opposed to the charter revisions, however, were livid. Some compared the chair to Stalin. Others compared him to Bush.”

I was an elected convention delegate, although I was unable to attend. I had studied the charter changes in advance and would have voted against some of them, (all of them if necessary). In my view saving the substance of a “platform convention” til the end when people are eager to go home, and then ramming-through controversial changes to the charter by lumping them together with the platform strikes me from this distance as epitomizing some of both the appearance and substance the party’s problems.

I will post more convention reports of interest, if any come my way.

What happens when church merges with state? What happens when government agencies promote one religious view over another? What happens when one version of Christianity is promoted over another by government agents?

Look no further than the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado where conservative evangelical Christianity is aggressively promoted, conflated with the mission of the Air Force, cadets of other faiths are frequently insulted and forced to choose between mandatory academy functions and their religious holidays, and now a Lutheran chaplain has been fired for daring to criticize the culture of religious bigotry, and religious supremacism protected and enforced on campus.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been on the case for months, and so now are major newspapers in the nation.

The Washington Post, for example reported that “Amid a rising chorus of complaints about preferential treatment for evangelical Christians — and command pressure on non-evangelicals — among the 4,000 cadets, a Pentagon task force is visiting the Colorado Springs campus this week to study the religious atmosphere and propose possible remedial steps.” But the fired chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton has not been asked to brief the taskforce.

The Post continues that surveys of cadets and alumni, “have shown that some students said they felt a heavy and sometimes offensive emphasis on evangelical Christianity, with praise for cadets who pronounce their ‘born-again’ status and insults aimed at Jews, Roman Catholics and non-evangelical cadets.
One staff chaplain reportedly told newly arrived freshmen last summer that anyone not born again ‘will burn in the fires of hell.’”

“‘Such slurs have been heard for decades on the campus, according to Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, a 1977 academy graduate who said he has repeatedly complained to the Air Force brass about the ‘religious pressure’ on cadets. ‘This is not Christian versus Jew,’ Weinstein said. ‘This is the evangelical Christians against everybody else.’”

“The Air Force’s new attention to the issue stems from an earlier scandal at the school in which female cadets said commanding officers ignored or played down numerous cases of sexual assault by male students.”

“As part of its response to the sexual assault charges, the academy asked a team from Yale Divinity School to visit the campus during the summer training for incoming freshmen.”

“‘We were asked to study the quality of cadet-centered pastoral care,’” said Yale Prof. Kristen Leslie. ‘What we found was this very strong evangelical Christian voice just dominating. We thought that just didn’t make sense in light of their mission, which was to protect and train cadets, not to win religious converts.’”

“Morton, who was executive officer of the squadron of 16 chaplains at the academy, said she shared the concerns expressed by the study group from Yale.”

“‘The evangelicals want to subvert the system,’ Morton said. ‘They have a very clear social and political agenda. The evangelical tone is pervasive at the academy, and it’s aimed at converting these young people who are under intense pressure anyway.’”

This is what happens when church and state are merged. Government officials will use their positions to promote their religious and religiously-informed political views; they will punish and purge those who disagree; and they will persecute those in the weakest position who do not go along. They feel justified in doing so, because they claim that their religious views require them to do so.

Similar justifications were made in years past to justify institutional racism and second class citizenship for African-Americans. Racial supremacy is no longer in fashion. But religious supremacism is on the rise — promoted by leaders of the Christian Right and their allies in Congress and the White House.

Let’s keep the spotlight on the outrageous conduct of the religious supremacists at the Air Force Academy. Religious bigotry by agencies and senior officers of the federal government must be condemned in no uncertain terms, and a culture of religious equality maintained.

[Crossposted at Talk to Action]

The level of conversation in the media is rising regarding the Christian Right. One good example was a recent interview, on the nationally syndicated radio program, Democracy Now!, with Amy Goodman, titled The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical Political Movement featured an interview with journalist Chris Hedges and Rev. Joseph Phelps, of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, who hosted a counter event to the Christian Right’s rally for religious bigotry, Justice Sunday.

Here is some of what was said:

Phelps: “…it’s obvious that they’re trying to get out a very clear message. And the message, it seems to me, is a message of domination. Of trying to conflate the Bible and the Constitution and create a whole new entity, which many of us fear would be a form of religious right theocracy.”

Hedges: “Christian America… this is an America where people like you and me have no place. And you don’t have to take my word for it, turn on Christian broadcasting, listen to Christian radio. Listen to what they say about people like us. It’s not a matter that we have an opinion they disagree with. It’s not a matter of them de-legitimizing us, which they are. It’s a matter of them demonizing us, of talking us — describing us as militant secular humanists, moral relativists, both of which terms I would not use to describe myself, as a kind of counter-militant ideology that is anti-Christian and that essentially propelled by Satan that they must destroy.”

Phelps: “Well, in their system, women — they will talk a game about women having, you know, an equal role, but it’s a silent role. It’s a silent role. They can’t speak in Church. They can’t teach any children over then about the age of 10. So, that’s part of the problem here is they’re unwilling to talk. They’re unwilling to talk with their own women. They’re unwilling to talk with the fellow Baptists like me, like you. I have tried to enter into dialogue for years with Dr. [Albert] Mohler, with others in our city. They’re not interested in dialogue, because, in their construct, they have the answer.”

Phelps raises an important point. There is much talk about the need for dialog. And dialog can be a good thing. But what about those who are not interested in dialog? What about those who are interested in power and domination? It is certainly important to dialog with those whom we can — but we must also to rise to the occasion and counter the drive for power by the theocratic Christian Right which has been in high gear for about 15 years.

Thanks to Jesus Politics for calling attention to this program.

Evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) said recently on Fox News that “The National Day of Prayer goes back to the Continental Congress with George Washington, when he set aside a day of prayer.” Graham apparently went on to invoke the “Judeo-Christian” tradition, and that evangelical Christians are somehow carrying forward the true intentions of George Washington.

But, Jonathan Hutson reports at Talk to Action, the new blog devoted to discussing the Christian Right and ways of most effectively opposing it, that Graham is misrepresenting what Washington said and what he meant. “In fact,” Hutson writes, “President George Washington used his first proclamation of a national day of prayer and thanksgiving to take a preemptive slap at anyone who might try to hijack the holiday for their own sectarian purposes.”

I wrote the other day, “If religious equality is to survive in our time, I believe it is necessary for us to reclaim our history and stand up to the historical revisionism of today’s theocratic Christian Right.” Reclaiming our history was one of the three main themes of my speech at the recent conference on the theocratic Christian Right in New York a few weeks ago.

Hutson’s debunking of Graham’s slippery invocation of Washington and the founders is exactly the kind thing we need more of, and that we are committed to doing at Talk to Action.