Religious Right Watch

Marriage equality will be hot legislative issue in 2009

Same-sex marriage will again be a hot topic in the state Legislature this year, and some new initiatives are sure to create controversy. But for a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community that has been playing defense against social conservatives for more than a decade, the 2009 legislature will be the friendliest in years, some lawmakers say.

Anti-abortion postcard stirs up Minnesota Catholics

Roman Catholic bishops throughout the United States are planning a massive postcard campaign days after the inauguration as part of an attempt to block the Freedom of Choice Act, known as FOCA, a reproductive health initiative supported by President-elect Barack Obama. But one Minnesota priest is breaking ranks with the national campaign, raising the ire of local and national pro-life Catholics, including some who are calling for his excommunication from the church.

Minnesota’s Capitol not an active front in ‘War on Christmas’

Washington state’s capitol has been beset with proliferating religious displays this holiday season — some of which are being taken as shots across the bow in the annual “War on Christmas” promoted on Fox News. “Fox and Friends” co-host and former Miss America Gretchen Carlson has been especially exercised about it, citing her Minnesota roots [...]

Pope: Saving world from gays as important as saving the rainforest

In a speech Monday, Pope Benedict XVI asserted that saving mankind from gays and transgenderism was as important as saving the rainforest.
“We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way,” said the pontiff. “The Church speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected… The rain forests [...]

Religious Right Watch: The ‘War on Christmas’

What is the reason for the season? For some it’s to squabble over when and where people celebrate the birth of the Christian messiah Jesus Christ, and it’s part of the holiday tradition known as the “War on Christmas.” This year the war features a child-molesting Santa Claus, Nazis, gay marriage, Frank Costanza’s Festivus pole and a look back at the most anti-Christian Christmas-bashers in American history: the Puritans.

Obama responds to critics over Rick Warren as outrage from gay community grows

The fallout from the decision by President-elect Barack Obama to select evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration continues as Warren explains his incendiary statement, Obama explains his decision, the pundits weigh in on what Warren means to the Obama team and LGBT leaders continue to cry foul.

Gay community slams Obama on inauguration pastor pick

Leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community expressed their outrage Wednesday over plans by President-elect Barack Obama to have Pastor Rick Warren deliver the invocation during the inauguration on Jan. 20. Warren was a supporter of California’s Proposition 8, an initiative that rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples. Obama’s decision has generated anger and distrust from many corners of the community.

Faith-based Minnesota Teen Challenge cannot evade scrutiny

If you accept taxpayer money, you have to accept that you’re going to receive public scrutiny. That simple point seems to be eluding Minnesota Teen Challenge (MNTC), the faith-based drug treatment program which secured a federal earmark in early 2008 arranged by Rep. Jim Ramstad, for its “Know the Truth” program which aims to prevent drug use.

Last week, the program sent two nearly identical letters to both the Minnesota Independent and the Huffington Post responding to articles critical of their programming.

Evangelical lobbyist asked to resign after supporting Obama, civil unions

When a top lobbyist for the country’s largest organization of evangelical Christians publicly acknowledges he supports civil unions and voted for Barack Obama, it’s practically a sin. And it’s something that’s sent Rev. Richard Cizik, a 28-year lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals looking for a new job. After sharing his views on National Public Radio last week, he was asked by NAE president Leith Anderson, a pastor at Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Eden Prairie church, to resign as the NAE’s chief lobbyist.

Religious Right Watch: Christian fringe paints gays as ‘religious bigots’ in NYT ad

A sign that the culture war is being waged anew took up an entire page of the New York Times on Friday. United under the moniker “No Mob Veto,” a coalition of religious-right figures vowing to shame “anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry” placed the ad, which has raised ire among gay and lesbian activists and others. But the group’s role in championing religious freedom is suspect: Several of its members have expressed bigotry against Mormons, Muslims and Jews.