OUR MOST RECENT EMAIL UPDATE

McCain endorser Rod Parsley preaches bigotry and Christian supremacy, recordings show. Ohio megachurch Pastor Rod Parsley, credited with turning out the vote for President George W. Bush in 2004, has not yet had media attention as a problem endorser of Sen. John McCain. But he should. Like McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee, who is increasingly reported as an embarrassment for the Republican presidential contender, Parsley has made bigoted statements about Islam, calling it a "false religion". JewsOnFirst.org has obtained recordings of two of Parsley's church services that show his animus to Islam and theocratic tendencies. Oliver North is a guest speaker at one of the services. Please click here.

Christian right legal organization mounts challenge to IRS political restrictions. In hopes of challenging the federal law forbidding tax-exempt organizations from supporting political candidates, the Alliance Defense Fund has launched a "Pulpit Initiative." The ADF is recruiting churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit on September 28th. Click here

* Moderate evangelicals issue Manifesto separating their faith from political ideology. The distinguished scholars and clergy who signed the Manifesto last week are attempting to reclaim the word "evangelical" from the religious right, which uses it in a partisan political context. Click here.

From our previous email updates:

John McCain confronted with endorser Hagee's anti-gay remarks. We have updated our postings on McCain's acceptance of the endorsement of Christian Zionist leader Rev. John Hagee with reports on McCain's recent visit to New Orleans. Activists led by MoveOn demanded that McCain address Hagee's statement that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for a planned gay parade. Hagee got a headline saying he'd retracted the statement; we encourage you to read below the headline. Click here.

Constantine's Sword opens in theaters. James Carroll's film adaptation of his book opened in theaters around the country this week. We have posted a selection of reviews and reports on the film, which focuses on anti-semitism and religious authoritarianism and includes a segment on Mikey Weinstein's struggle against aggressive proselytizing at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Please click here.

Ben Stein's anti-Darwin film Expelled opens to derisive reviews. Critics found plenty to pan and mock in actor and columnist Stein's foray into the culture wars on behalf of beleaguered creationists. We have posted a choice selection of reviews. Please click here.

New Jersey football coach cannot join "voluntary" prayers with team, court rules. A federal appeals court ruled this week that a New Jersey school district was correct in ordering coach Marcus Borden not to pray with his team. In its ruling, the court noted Borden's two decades of religious activism. Please click here.

Compassion forum provides setting for Democratic candidates to discuss religion. We have posted a collection of reports about last weekend's forum at Messiah College in Pennsylvania; among the reports are harsh critiques from the religious right. Please click here.

Christian Right group that controls National Day of Prayer bars all but fundamentalist Christian clergy. A "Task Force" linked to Focus on the Family excludes Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists and even moderate evangelical Christians from participation in the thousands of events it organizes around the United States on the first Thursday in May -- May 1st this year. "Task Force" organizers must sign a fundamentalist statement of faith and a commitment to invite only Christians to participate, JewsOnFirst reports. Nevertheless, last year the group obtained proclamations from every governor in the nation. Please click here.

John McCain's bigoted endorses go largely unremarked, writes Marji Mendelsohn in a commentary contrasting the lack of furor over the anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim bigotry of McCain endorsers Pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley with the row over Barack Obama's pastor. McCain, who stood with both of these religious right leaders to accept their endorsements, has not been held to account for their bigotry. Click here.

* Bush administration backs "pro-life" ob-gyn's who won't refer patients for services. We have posted links to reports about the Bush administration's attack on the effort by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology to require "pro-life" physicians to refer patients elsewhere for services they won't perform. Click here.

Christian Zionist leader Hagee in unprecedented appearance at Reform temple. Rev. John Hagee's appearance last week at the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles was the first opportunity for a Reform congregation to take the measure of the televangelist who heads Christians United for Israel. In a special report for JewsOnFirst.org, Robin Podolsky recounts that Hagee, in dialogue with Rabbi David Woznica, referred to Jesus as a "Reform rabbi" -- and then spoke of how, in the wake of Armageddon, a "remnant" of Jews would “weep at the sight of the one whose side they had pierced.” Please click here.

* California Court rules that home schooling parents need credentials. Please click here.

February 26, 2008. We have just posted an interview with "Jane Doe," whose family was one of the two Jewishfamilies who sued a Delaware school district for unconstitutionally sponsoring religion. The families announced today that they have reached a negotiated settlement with the district.

JewsOnFirst broke the story of this case in June 2006, with a report about the local community's hostility to appeals for respect for religious minorities. One Jewish family moved out of the community to avoid harassment. The Doe family managed to remain in the community because the court granted them the protection of anonymity.

But it wasn't easy. In the interview Jane Doe talks about how difficult it was for her family to hear elected officials ridculing them in the media without being able to respond. She also recounts how the district proselytized, pressured and discriminated against Jewish children. Please click here to read our interview with "Jane Doe," as well as details of the settlement and settlement documents.

Republican Jewish Coalition responsible for mailing anti-Muslim film. The Republican Jewish Coalition sent out a mailing received by Reform rabbis and other Jews that included a DVD of the controversial anti-Muslim film Obsession, JewsOnFirst.org has learned. The mailing, at least part of which was sent under the postal permit of a leading Christian Zionist organization, also included a cover letter by a former Israeli ambassador. Please click here.

Condemnations of hate come late. January 27, 2008. Jewish organizational leaders have condemned an email smear campaign against Barack Obama. Their condemnation of the emails, which allege that the Democratic presidential hopeful is a covert radical Muslim, are too late, we say in an editorial posted this evening. Please click here.

The 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade last week was marked by protests of the Supreme Court decision upholding a woman's right to privacy and reports of new strategems by the Christian right to overturn the decision. Click here, please .

Huckabee: "amend the Constititution so it's in God's standards." Mike Huckabee lost the South Carolina Republican primary to John McCain Saturday. But his loss was so narrow it can be said that Huckabee almost won in South Carolina. It can also be said that he almost retracted what he said to supporters' cheers last week: "It's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards." Please click here.

Following Huckabee's decisive victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 3rd, we began posting some of the former Southern Baptist pastor's positions on the issues, along with reaction to and analysis of his victory. Click here. Please also see the essay by Rev. Stan Moody considering statements Huckabee made on Israel and Palestine at a fundraiser hosted by a Jewish Huckabee supporter in New Hampshire. You can read Moody's essay here.

Another revisionist "Christian nation" resolution has been introduced in Congress. We would like to call to your attention a bill introduced by House Republicans that would put Congress on record asserting a Christian religious foundation for the United States. The measure, House Resolution 888, also designates the first week in May as "American Religious History Week." You'll find more information and links for taking action to oppose this measure at the right, on our home page.

This measure follows the passage of House Resolution 847 that "acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States." As we reported last month, congressional Democrats -- including most Jewish Democrats -- voted for that resolution. Rep. Barney Frank told us that Congress has no business making such pronouncements on religion. Click here.

Christian right lacks the brains to govern, John Whitehead said in an interview with JewsOnFirst.org. That was not the only surprising statement made by Whitehead, a founder of the Christian right and president of the Rutherford Institute, which won the Supreme Court case requiring elementary schools to host after-school Good News Christian clubs and represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment case against President Bill Clinton. Whitehead has become critical of the Christian right's involvement in government and, he told Jane Hunter of JewsOnFirst, some movement leaders now regard him as a traitor. Please click here to read the interview.

South Carolina church adds foot-washing to its shoe giveaway in public schools. A South Carolina church's shoe giveaway in public schools this month were planned to include ritual foot-washing "as Jesus did." We learned that the schools identify needy children and their parents to the First Baptist Church of North Augusta, which runs the shoe distribution. Jews who live in the area told us there is local indifference to church-state separation. Our report includes a recorded conversation with the chairman of the Augusta Jewish Community Relations Council. Please click here.

Christmas "war" in seasonal flare-up. We are collecting reports from around the country about the Christian right's annual campaign to put religious displays on public property and get businesses to drop their inclusive expressions of "happy holidays" in favor of greetings acknowledging the Christian majority's religious holiday. Click here.

Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney vie for Christian right voters in Iowa. With the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, Mike Huckabee, an avowed biblical literalist with a television ad identifying himself as a "Christian leader," is surging ahead in the polls. His latest TV ad appears to feature a luminous cross behind him. We have updated our report originally posted on December 12th with links to numerous new reports and video of that ad. As you scroll down, you'll see them identified by the "update" icon. Click here

Golden Compass challenges absolutist dogma. As the much awaited film debuted last weekend, a leading Southern Baptist intellectual, Dr. Albert Mohler, challenged it as a "directly subversive" attack on biblical Christianity. In a short essay, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak of JewsOnFirst challenges Mohler's rigid defense of original sin and the Fall. Click here.

Christian right urges no Israeli concessions Three leaders of the Christian right joined a delegation of right-wing Jews in a meeting with President Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley just before the Annapolis peace conference. The group urged the Bush administration not to press Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. Click here.

Court rules Iowa cannot fund religious prison program. An appeals court ruled last week that Iowa could not pay for a religious program run inside one of its prisons by a right-wing evangelical Christian group. The court said that the state's support of the program, run by Chuck Colson, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment. However the program can continue with private funding. Click here.

Philadelphia scouts will pay dearly to discriminate against gays. Rather than drop its discriminatory policy toward gays, the Boy Scouts' Philadelphia chapter relinquished the dollar-a-year rent it was paying for its city-owned headquarters. Philadelphia will now charge the scouts market rate of $200,000 annually for the building. There were the usual howls of outrage on the group's behalf. Click here.

Appeals court lifts injunction against Indiana legislature's sectarian prayers. Citing the recent Supreme Court decision that taxpayers without a personal financial stake do not have standing to sue the government for violating the Establishment Clause, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said citizens represented by the ACLU lack standing to stop prayers to Jesus during government business. We asked if the Speaker of the Indiana House intends to reinstitute the sectarian prayers but did not get a conclusive answer. A question about the implications of this first application of the Supreme Court's ruling produced a clearer, though grimmer, answer. Click here.

Bakersfield, California school district votes to put "In God We Trust" posters in every classroom. Led by fundamentalist Christian board member, Pastor Chad Vegas (pictured here), the Kern County High School District voted 4 to 1 on Monday to order the posters hung. Our coverage includes a recorded conversation with Mike Miller, past president of Temple Beth El in Bakersfield, who attended the board meeting to oppose the posters. Please click here.

New York Times Challenged on "Evangelical Crackup." In his October 28th New York Times Magazine cover story, David Kirkpatrick argues that fundamentalist Christian evangelicals are losing the great power they had in the national Republican Party. He also reports that the Christian right is moderating and diversifying. We disagree with this thesis. (How could we not, given the two preceding items?) And we find ourselves in good company. Click here.

Harry Potter character outed as gay. Reaction from the religious right to author J.K. Rowling's outing of Albus Dumbledore has been muted, so far. But given the aversion to the Potter books by some (though not all) on the Christian right, we've posted some reports about the outing, and we're on the lookout for more. The section beneath the one on Dumbledore includes material on the recently retracted report that Dr. James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, was a Potter fan. Click here.

Widespread denunciation of "Islamo-fascism Awareness Week." Interfaith groups, among other critics, reproached right-wing activist David Horowitz, Ann Coulter and their associates for staging "Islamo-fascism awareness weeks" on campuses around the country last week. Critics --including JewsOnFirst's co-director Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak -- warned that the events promoted a blanket condemnation of Muslims and their faith. Protesters at a University of Southern California event (pictured here) carried signs affirming religious unity against hate. The featured speaker at the USC event was Ann Coulter, who earlier this month said that Christians want Jews to be "perfected" by converting to Christianity. We have posted links to materials about Coulter's statements as well as to an op-ed co-authored by Beliak. Please click here.

Sacramento's militant Slavic evangelical Christians among founders of international anti-gay organization. The new group, Watchmen on the Wall, which is dedicated to fighting acceptance of homosexuality, held its US inaugural meeting in Sacramento, according to recent reports. The reports coincide with a court appearance of one of two Slavic immigrants charged with the anti-gay hate-crime killing of Satender Singh (pictured here) . We've posted links to these reports with our most recent report on the Singh case here.

A lackluster "Values Voters" confab last weekend in Washington. The Family Research Council's "summit" was yet another venue for Republican presidential hopefuls to court the religious right -- with, it turned out, indifferent success yet again. Much more interesting to us were the descriptions of the breakout sessions, especially "Christian Students, the University of Babylon, and the Fiery Furnace: Surviving and Thriving in America's Most Repressive Atmosphere." Click here.

New Bush family planning official opposes contraceptives. The Bush administration has appointed Susan Orr of the Family Research Council (and previously of Pat Robertson's Regent University) as acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. Orr has opposed the inclusion of contraceptives in health insurance coverage, arguing that fertility is not a disease. Her post oversees more than a quarter of a billion dollars to provide contraceptives to low income families. Please click here.

* Push to pass the federal Employment Non-discrimination Act. ("ENDA" would bar discrimination against LGBT individuals. See our earlier email item, below.)

Pre-primary angst grips Christian right. Numerous reports are appearing about the failure, to date, of the Christian right to line up behind a Republican presidential contender -- and about a meeting in Utah last week at which Christian right leaders discussed backing a third-party candidate. Click here.

Sen. John McCain calls U.S. a "Christian nation." During an interview last week Republican presidential contender McCain made a number of Christian nationalist statements, including a claim that this country was established as a Christian nation. Jewish organizations reproached McCain, as did several major editorials. Click here.

"See you at the pole" day brings prayer to the schoolyard. See You at the Pole is a national group that coordinates annual prayer rallies at school flag poles. It claims those rallies are student led. However, coordinating the students is a slick organization that has branded its name, obtained a telephone number that reads "817.HIS.PLAN" and collected the endorsement of dozens of Christian right institutions (among them Focus on the Family, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Campus Crusade for Christ and Southwest Baptist University) and created sophisticated media downloads such as the one shown here. Please click here.

Religious right confab rallies activists against marriage equality. A "Family Impact Summit" in Florida last month heard luminaries of the Christian right on a range of issues, especially opposition to same-sex marriage. Click here.

We've also posted material on these topics:

* Scandal allegations engulf Oral Roberts University

* Supreme Court declines to hear appeal against requirement that health benefits include contraceptives

* Court won't hear Christian right appeal in effort to force library to allow worship service

Hospital chaplain's effort to stop distribution of Gideons' books costs her her job. As director of pastoral care for a community hospital in Maryland, the Rev. Kay Myers halted the placement of sectarian Christian books in patients' rooms. Myers told JewsOnFirst her decision was one of the carefully measured steps she had taken during her seven-year tenure to move her department to a professional level of pastoral care. The hospital's response was not so measured. And within months Myers was forced to resign. Click here.

Religious right "values voters" favor Mike Huckabee. Some of the Christian right's most strident organizations came together last weekend for a straw poll and debate. Many of the Republican presidential contenders participated. The winner was former Arkansas governor (and Baptist minister) Mike Huckabee. Click here.

Push to pass federal bill barring job discrimination brings on a barrage from the Christian right. As Congress moves toward a vote on legislation to bar workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, the Christian right is unleashing extreme rhetoric to whip up homophobia among its followers. "If [the bill] is signed into law, homosexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, and even she-males will be considered protected minorities under federal law," incited the Traditional Values Coalition. Using the logo pictured here, Focus on the Family argued that the bill, known as ENDA, is bad for business. Click here.

Happy New Year from JewsOnFirst.org! Our co-director, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, posts his High Holiday sermon. In his sermon Beliak urges Jews and their organizations to put aside archaic fears and recognize present-day threats, particularly efforts by the Christian right to Christianize our nation. A major challenge facing the American Jewish community, writes Beliak, comes from within the Christian right -- from Christian Zionists who claim to love us. Click here.

In updated sermon, Madison rabbi explains his opposition to Christian Zionists. Rabbi Jonathan Biatch of Temple Beth El in Madison has updated the sermon that JewsOnFirst.org posted last March. In that sermon, Biatch announced that he would not support an upcoming "Night to Honor Israel" sponsored by Christians United for Israel. The event was hosted by a local church and backed by the local Jewish Federation. You can read Rabbi Biatch's updated sermon here.

Leading Southern Baptist pastor urges prayers for the death of his critics. Pastor Wiley Drake, who has served as a vice president of the national Southern Baptist Convention, used his tax-exempt church facilities to endorse Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee last month. When Americans United (AU) for Separation of Church and State protested, Drake issued a call for "imprecatory" prayer -- specifically for the death of several AU leaders. We have posted the text of Drake's call, news coverage and more. Click here.

Glitches in Ted Haggard's Rehab. The team overseeing the "rehabilitation" of Ted Haggard, who headed the National Association of Evangelicals and the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs until he was outed as gay, has stopped Haggard's bid to raise funds for his family's support. The group of pastors supervising Haggard's "recovery" from his affair with a male prostitute and use of methamphetamine nixed the fundraising and the ministry, telling Haggard to get a job. Click here.

Sacramento authorities charge two men in killing of Satender Singh. We update our report of last month (see below) with news that manslaughter and hate-crime charges have been filed in the fatal assault on Satender Singh, confirming witness accounts that the assault was motivated by hatred of gays.

As local community leaders had anticipated, the men charged with attacking Singh (pictured here) are from the Sacramento area's Slavic immigrant community which has become identified with militantly anti-gay Christian fundamentalism. Our reporting includes interviews with the Sheriff's office and community leaders. Please click here.

DOD Inspector-General finds officers' participation in Christian group's video inappropriate. In a report released last week, the Defense Department's inspector general found that seven military officers, among them four generals, acted inappropriately when they participated in uniform in a promotional video for a conservative Christian evangelical organization, the Christian Embassy.

The Christian Embassy proselytizes to high-ranking military and civilian officials. According to the I.G. report, the organization, which has ties to the right-wing Campus Crusade for Christ, used the video for fundraising. Click here.

Leading evangelicals counter Christian Zionists with call for Palestinian state. Last week more than 30 prominent evangelical Christians sent a letter to President George Bush supporting a Palestinian state as part of a two-state Middle East peace settlement. The letter comes ten days after the leading Christian Zionist group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), convened in Washington and denounced Bush's new initiative on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Obliquely referring to CUFI in their letter, the evangelicals said it was "a serious misperception...that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution." Please click here for links to documents and reports on the letter and CUFI's response.

Religious Right leaders lunch with Arab diplomats. Earlier this month, some of the Christian right's leading personalities lunched with a large group of Arab ambassadors. The Christians wanted the Arab countries to drop their prohibition on proselytizing; the Arabs wanted the Christians to moderate their partiality to Israel. The Christians are claiming victory. Televangelist Benny Hinn, who organized the meeting, says that some ambassadors are offering him stadiums to preach in. Click here.

Christian Zionist group downplays end-times talk to focus on lobbying. A session of Christians United for Israel's lobbying conference in Washington yesterday (July 17th)was missing the usual apocalyptic bombast of its leader, Pastor John Hagee about Iran sparking the battle of Armageddon. Instead, a "Talking Points" briefing started with a speech by Sen. John McCain and proceeded to reviewing legislation to advocate at lobbying sessions with legislators today. JewsOnFirst has exclusive coverage of this session of CUFI's conference, which was closed to the media, plus an audio clip of McCain that has not been aired elsewhere. Please click here.

Christian fundamentalists disrupt Hindu chaplain's Senate prayer. In an unabashed show of bigotry, religious right organizations disrupted the first Hindu ever to offer the opening prayer in the U.S. Senate. Chaplain Rajan Zed ultimately delivered his prayer, but not until screaming Operation Rescue activists were arrested. One Christian right organization campaigned to prevent the prayer. Christian right columnists penned rants, in one case about "false idols." You'll find links to that as well as a variety of reports and the video of the disruption here.

Christian Right Gathering Honors Deposed Alabama Judge Roy Moore -- Under a Confederate Flag. Leaders of the hardcore Christian right gathered under a Confederate flag in Maryland on July 3rd to honor Roy Moore, the deposed Alabama Supreme Court chief justice. That flag, and those present beneath it, concatenated Christian nationalism and Southern irredentism.

The day's honors included the naming of an athletic field after Moore, the unveiling of a "Marylandized" Ten Commandments "monument" -- nearly identical to the one that Moore famously installed in his Alabama courthouse -- and the presentation to Moore of a cake decorated as a replica of the Alabama monument.

We have posted recordings and photographs of the ceremony. Our report also includes background on the "dignitaries" seated on stage. Several of them are adherents of Christian Reconstructionism which advocates replacing U.S. democracy with a theocracy. One has ties to the neo-Confederate League of the South. Also present was a member of the Maryland legislature, whom we interviewed. Please click here.

Southern Baptists rely on deception in effort to convert Jews. Six million Jews and only 15 Southern Baptist Messianic Churches! That juxtaposition by a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) official involved in the denomination's aggressive evangelizing of Jews prompted JewsOnFirst to ask the SBC: is its objective to empty Judaism of American Jews and make them all Messianic Southern Baptists? We also talk with rabbis and Christian clergy about the Southern Baptists' use of "Jewish-style" Christianity and Christian Zionism in their efforts to convert Jews. Accompanying our report are two recorded conversations -- one with Rabbi Neal Katz and Rabbi Barry Block, both of Texas, and the other with members of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism. Please click here.

Televangelist riffs on Romney's underwear. Florida televangelist Bill Keller whose attack last month on presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith as "satanic" sparked a watchdog complaint, has used his tax-exempt ministry again to electioneer against Romney. Keller entitled his latest essay in bigotry "Mr. Romney, show me your underwear!" Click here.

PBS distributes religious right film. It is unclear why PBS agreed to distribute a propagandistic film that pushes a Christian right revisionist version of this nation's founding. The film, Wall of Separation, purports to explore a "controversey" that the US was established as a religious rather than secular government. Its publicity poster here, with the tag "the phrase that divided America" shows the filmmakers' disingenuousness. Click here.

Indiana sued over chaplain ministering to state employees. Minority outreach for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (pictured here) went awry when his social services agency hired a chaplain to coach clergy in securing faith-based funding. The chaplain, however, ended up ministering to agency employees. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the agency, Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration. Click here.

General who said "I knew my God was a real god and his was an idol" retires from the military. Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin who called Islam a false religion and said of his encounter with a Somali warlord that he knew "my god was a real god and his was an idol" has retired. In his last assignment, Boykin was responsible for commando-type actions against militant Islamist leaders. Click here.

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