The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party

When religion is a litmus test, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 30, 2005 - explains why conservative Christians turned against Harriet Miers.

Citizenship Sunday at the Christian Coalition, also see the 2004 Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards. They give you a sense of the breadth of their agenda. The organization was reported to be overwhelmed by creditors, but, apparently, it's still kicking.

Maybe the media is starting to notice. From a CNN report: Is U.S. becoming hostile to science? October 28, 2005

"Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians have built a powerful position within the Republican Party and no Republican, including Bush, can afford to ignore their views.

This was dramatically illustrated in the case of Terri Schiavo earlier this year, in which Republicans in Congress passed a law to keep a woman in a persistent vegetative state alive against her husband's wishes, and Bush himself spoke out in favor of "the culture of life."

Money, morals intermingle in contributions, 'Christian business friends' key to 2 Ohioans' Bush donations, Toledo Blade, October 30, 2005

With God on His Side, Meet Rod Parsley: rising star of the religious right, The American Prospect, issue November 23, 2005

Increasingly, Football's Playbooks Call for Prayer, New York Times, October 30, 2005

Kansas Fight on Evolution Escalates, New York Times, October 28, 2004

US House panel votes $844 mln cut in food stamps, Yahoo News, October 28, 2005 - (You may wonder what this has to do with the theocratic right. To understand the parallel to the Irish potato famine, read Let There Be Markets: The Evangelical Roots of Economics, Harpers, May, 2005.)

Statement from Alliance for Justice on Harriet Miers withdrawal for Supreme Court jusitice

Miers Withdraws As Supreme Court Nominee Under Pressure From Religious Right; President Bush Must Resist Right-Wing Demands To Pick Nominee Who Opposes Individual Freedom, Americans United, October 27, 2005

An Unholy Alliance? A TIME investigation shows the lobbyist now at the center of a federal probe had a good friend eager to open doors at the White House: former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed, Time Magazine, October 23, 2005

Mr. Bush, This Is Pro-Life?, Nicolas Kristof, New York Times, October 23, 2005

Ohio Players, Working for Change, October 21, 2005:

Americans must be 'Christocrats" -- citizens of both their country and the Kingdom of God -- the Rev. Rod Parsley told his congregation at the World Harvest Church, located just outside Columbus, Ohio. "And that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy," he said. "That means God is in control, and you are not."

Miers and the Right, The Progressive, October 12, 2005

Feminists in the Nursery, The Progressive, October 19, 2005

Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay, Associated Press, October 19, 2005

FEMA Plan To Rebuild Religious Schools And Other Religious Facilities Is Unconstitutional, Americans United, October 19, 2005

Thomas Friedman, New York Times, October 19, 2005

A delegation of Iraqi judges and journalists abruptly left the U.S. today, cutting short its visit to study the workings of American democracy. A delegation spokesman said the Iraqis were "bewildered" by some of the behavior of the Bush administration and felt it was best to limit their exposure to the U.S. system at this time, when Iraq is taking its first baby steps toward democracy.

The lead Iraqi delegate, Muhammad Mithaqi, a noted secular Sunni judge who had recently survived an assassination attempt by Islamist radicals, said that he was stunned when he heard President Bush telling Republicans that one reason they should support Harriet Miers for the U.S. Supreme Court was because of "her religion." She is described as a devout evangelical Christian.

Mithaqi said that after two years of being lectured to by U.S. diplomats in Baghdad about the need to separate "mosque from state" in the new Iraq, he was also floored to read that the former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, now a law school dean, said on the radio show of the conservative James Dobson that Miers deserved support because she was "a very, very strong Christian [who] should be a source of great comfort and assistance to people in the households of faith around the country."

"Now let me get this straight," Judge Mithaqi said. "You are lecturing us about keeping religion out of politics, and then your own president and conservative legal scholars go and tell your public to endorse Miers as a Supreme Court justice because she is an evangelical Christian.

Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak, NY Daily News, October 19, 2005

"Ohio will be a training ground that will launch a national reformation." more

Faith and the Court, New York Times, October 18, 2005

Doomsday: The Latest Word if Not the Last, New York Times, October 16, 2005

Preaching With a Vengeance, Pat Robertson's Fierce Rhetoric May Have Diminished His Political Clout, Washington Post, October 15, 2005

George W. Bush and the G-Word, Washington Post, October 14, 2005

Frist, Rove, DeLay: Who's looking the other way? Sojourners, October 13, 2005

Role of Religion Emerges as Issue, Washington Post, October 13, 2005

Bush Plays The Faith Card, Ralph G. Neas, TomPaine, October 13, 2005

Professor says 'intelligent design' wrong for schools, Morning Call, October 13, 2005

White House Promotion Of Court Nominee Miers' Religion Is Appalling, Americans United, October 12, 2005

Pat Robertson threatens retaliation against conservative senators who oppose Miers, People for the American Way, October 12, 2005

Christian Leader Says He Was Told of Miers's Beliefs, The Los Angeles Times, October 12, 2005

What Dobson Could Not Revealed...Revealed, Washington Post.com, October 11, 2005

Theologians Under Hitler, a new documentary to be aired on NPR in November

Local Christian Coalition Official Did Molest, Family Members Tell 'The Oregonian' Editor and Publisher, October 10, 2005

Faith-based foreign policy, dailykos, October 10, 2005

The Faith-Based President Defrocked, The New York Times, October 9, 2005

Once powerful Christian Coalition teeters on insolvency, Virginia Pilot, October 8, 2005

Caring For Creation, Bill Moyers, TomPaine, October 7, 2005

Evangelicals Get a Piece of the Promised Land, IPS News, October 3, 2005

Faith-Based Hypocrisy, Washington Post, October 7, 2005

George Bush: 'God Told Me to End the Tyranny in Iraq', UK Guardian, October 7, 2005

Assisted-reproduction bill would bar singles, gays, Associated Press, October 5, 2005

An interview with green evangelical leader Richard Cizik, Grist, October 5, 2005

DeLay, Blunt Traded Secret Donations, The Associated Press, October 6, 2005

Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon, New York Times, October 6, 2005

A collection of articles on the Bush administration's fight to overturn Oregon's Death with Dignity Law

Dobson: Waiting for A Signal from God, DaillyKos, October 5, 2005

In Midcareer, a Turn to Faith to Fill a Void, New York Times, October 5, 2005

Strong Grounding in the Church Could Be a Clue to Miers's Priorities, Washington Post, October 5, 2005

Miers's Ties to Conservative Church May Offer Insights, Knight Ridder Newspapers, October 4, 2005

For the Anti-Evolutionists, Hope in High Places, The New York Times, October 2, 2005