Women Should Not Be Political Leaders, According to Some Religious Right Figures

Right-wing voices have loudly opposed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but Religious Right figures are opposing her specifically because she is a woman. Several Religious Right commentators have either questioned the right of a woman to hold political office, or stated that female political leaders are a result of weak men who cannot lead. This rhetoric helps them justify their disdain for Hillary Clinton, but also reveals their insecurities about powerful women.

Kevin Swanson

Christian Patriarchy Movement enthusiast Kevin Swanson has used Hillary Clinton's campaign as an excuse to spout even more misogynist, paranoid drivel. During the July 31st edition of Generations Radio entitled "The Hillary Clinton Script: 20 Years of Cultural Programming", Kevin Swanson spouted bizarre conspiracy theories before implying that female political leaders lead to failure. According to Swanson, the effort to bring Hillary Clinton to power has been in the works for thirty years. The "Hillary Clinton propaganda machine" embedded in pop culture has produced television shows, gospel songs, and children's books inspired by Hillary Clinton and intended to prime voters to vote for her, he claimed. Pop culture leaders serve as "emissaries for principalities and powers" who have been preparing the public to vote for her through shows such as 24, Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, House of Cards, Supergirl, Scandal, and other shows, Swanson said.

The goal of all these alleged machinations, according to Swanson, is to promote a narrative of a wife winning a power struggle against her adulterous husband by becoming president. At the 22:33 mark, Swanson and his co-host Dave Buehner painted Hillary Clinton's campaign as an attempt by feminists to seize control over the land. Buehner strongly implied that Clinton was behaving like Eve, seeking to take the rightful place of man.

SWANSON: On the one hand, the nation embraces a sexual decadence. On the other hand, the feminists who themselves rather appreciate free love, sexual impurity and adultery, but they don’t appreciate the fact that a woman was taken advantage of. Therefore, in order for [Hillary Clinton] to be vindicated, she has got to prove herself by winning the power struggle over the highest office in the land. This is what defines America today.

BUEHNER: You know, it's interesting, because you go back to the Garden of Eden, and what's the desire of the woman? To take the man's place.

SWANSON. Yeah. And that's feminism's greatest victory. If they can achieve the ultimate zenith of power, this will become the final chapter, in a sense, of the present war that feminists have waged over this nation.

Swanson cited Isaiah 3:12 ("Children oppress my people; women rule over them"), before suggesting that female leaders bring about national failure at the 24:01 mark.

"It's interesting that the three Western nations, the three most powerful western nations will be lead by women if Hillary Clinton is elected as president of the United States. Think about Germany, England, and America. What were the three most powerful nations in the west during World War II? Germany, England, and America. Now, we find the three most powerful nations in the western world ... that are themselves birth imploding, thanks to the feminists and the pro-abortion crowd ... and developing an impressive debt-to-GDP ratio, and doing the best to destroy their entire socioeconomic systems, the three most powerful Western nations led by women, it’s interesting."

In other words, Swanson sees female politicians as not only destructive to entire nations, but as agents of some grand feminist power-grab. His crushing fear of independent women really shines through!

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer is no stranger to misogyny, and in a recent show, he laid out his sexism for all to see. At the 45:50 mark of the August 12th edition of Focal Point, a caller named Jeremy asked Fischer, "What do you think would happen to a man if he went on national TV and said he was voting for Trump because Trump is a man?". Fischer argued that women holding political office is unbiblical. When women held power in the Bible, it was either reluctantly (in Deborah's case) or as a prelude to failure (in Jezebel and Athaliah's case), he insisted. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"I think you could make a pretty good biblical case. That's what I happen to believe, you know. I'm not saying there's one verse in the Bible you could go to that says definitively that only men are supposed to hold political office, but that's always the pattern in the word of God. The kings were all males. When you had a departure from that with Jezebel and Athaliah, it was not a good thing. It did not work out well. Leadership in the church is reserved for men. Leadership in the home is reserved for men. In other words, in God's economy, he has designed leadership and authority in society, and in the church, and in the home to be exercised by men.

You had one female judge. That was Deborah, and she only got sucked into that because the men were such wimps... I think you could make a good case that leadership in culture, society, politically as well as in the home, that that is something in God's economy that's reserved for men."

Sam Rohrer

During the August 3rd edition of Focus Today, American Pastors Network president Sam Rohrer told host Perry Atkinson that many Christians he knew were asking if Hillary Clinton was fit to lead as a woman. At the 0:52 mark, they had this to say. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

ATKINSON: Is it biblical for a woman to become president? Why are you taking this on? What's your interest here?

ROHRER: Well, we covered it on our program because a lot of folks, many Christians ... say 'You know what? Is Hillary Clinton fit to be president?' And I would answer that 'no', she's not for a lot of reasons, but then some would bring up and say, but is it because she is a woman? And because that issue is so seldom talked about ... The scripture does refer to it, Perry, so we did ...

The fact that they're even having this conversation in 2016 boggles the mind.

At the 1:47 mark, Rohrer argued that God calls up women to lead when men display gross incompetence and negligence. He saw nothing sexist about the assumption that men should be the default political leaders and that women can only serve as substitutes when men are weak.

"No, it's not unbiblical for a woman to be in a position of leadership in government, but I say that with a caveat, Perry, because God has an order for things, not because of superiority of one over the other, but because of order. We're told in ... Isaiah 3:8, it talks there when God is judging Israel, because the leadership actually had walked away, making good evil, declaring evil to be good, the protectors of God's law were letting it slip, they rejected all that God had said for them to do as a matter of civil government and God's moral government, and so bad things were happening to the country ... It was a mark of the lack of male leadership in positions to which God had called them. They rejected who God was, they departed, walking away from him, and I think we can draw the parallels to our country, obviously ... God said, 'And women shall be rulers over you.' And that's where a lot of the context comes from, that that's an anathema.

The point here was that God did raise up women. We know he raised up Deborah in the Old Testament when male leadership failed ... God does raise up women. There is no question about it, but the real condemnation is not the women in office. The condemnation is the disregard and the absolute inability for male leadership to perform as God intended it, and I believe that that's the application for us now."

Gary Dull

Gary Dull, head of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network and a member of the American Pastors Network's board, also sneers at female political leaders. During the July 28th edition of Stand in the Gap Today, Dull argued that women should not be in authority over men. Citing Isaiah 3:12, Dull argued that female leaders are either a symptom or a cause of a "spiritually rotten" culture at the 34:12 mark. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"When you read down through the context of Isaiah chapter 3, you will find that God's judgment is being brought upon Jerusalem and the nation ... What we see is that the condition in that nation in that particular period of time was very, very spiritually rotten, and whether that was the cause for women leading them, or that itself brought on the wickedness within the nation is to be debated, but it certainly does at least imply that maybe women should not be in high political positions ... There are other places in the word of God where it appears that a woman is not to be having authority over man. That is not diminishing the position of the woman ...

In God's line of authority, chain of authority, it seems very clear in the scripture that a woman should not be in authority over man, which would limit a woman from being the president of the United States of America or even a queen of some other particular nation."

Hilariously, Stand in the Gap Today's male commentators had been falling over themselves just a few minutes earlier as they insisted that Christianity affirmed women's rights. "Wherever Christianity has gone, the rights of women have been championed. Women have always fared better in Christian countries where the teachings of Christ were honored," David New claimed.

When one remembers that both the Old and New Testaments are full of misogynist content, that early Christians had no qualms about enslaving both men and women, that countless church fathers held women in utter contempt, that Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions barred women from leadership roles, that women frequently endured oppression under Christian regimes, and that modern Christian traditions are by no means immune to misogyny, one sees that New's claim is ridiculous. As if New's statement wasn't silly enough on its own, he made it during a show that seriously questioned whether a woman could be a political leader. The lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

Misogynist rhetoric like this is not only bigoted, but dangerous. Several Religious Right activists are actually arguing that women should not serve as leaders in the American political system. Some fundamentalist men genuinely believe that women's contributions to the political sphere are unnecessary or even harmful. They ignore the right of women as American citizens to participate in politics, both as voters and candidates. They ignore the many advances that female politicians have brought about, and the many female politicians who have served honorably.

We should not only condemn their sexism, but laugh at their insecurity. These men are clinging to a patriarchal belief system because they cannot cope with a world in which women are striving for equality. Their masculinity is so bound up in domination of women that they become defensive and dismissive when faced with the prospect of a female president. If Hillary Clinton wins the 2016 presidential election, expect their whining to be loud and petulant.

Ungodliness is to Blame for Orlando, According to Some Religious Right Figures

Religious Right voices continue to chime in after the Orlando massacre. While some Religious Right figures have blamed gays for their own victimization, others are blaming an insufficiently pious society for the tragedy. In other words, some commentators see the massacre as a consequence of society's insufficient Christian faith and refusal to infuse laws with religious principles.

Two commentators come to mind. First, Kevin Swanson blamed the Orlando massacre on national sinfulness during a recent edition of his Generations with Vision radio show. At the 6:01 mark of his "Why the Orlando Shootings" show, Swanson claimed that America is collapsing because it is celebrating sin. Violence is a natural result of turning away from God, he argued.

"During the breakdown of an American republic, the breakdown of an entire empire, a civilization, a society is breaking down as the social fabric of the nation is unraveling, and that inevitably leads to a political and social collapse, and that's what we're witnessing in our present day. So hopefully, as Christians, we understand what is happening as man is destroying himself, but of course, the gospel of Jesus Christ still reaches ... those who are crying out for God's salvation from sin.

The problem of course with the nation is that not only have we sinned, but sin is now being institutionalized in just about every major institution in this country. That is, sin is preferred, and any form of righteousness is being persecuted across this country. Well today, we're going to talk about some of the effects of what happens when sin dominates in a nation. Violence, destruction, social unraveling is pretty much the result that we have witnessed and will continue to witness in the years to come." 

Swanson ignores the fact that society isn't collapsing and that Christian "righteousness" isn't being persecuted. Furthermore, Swanson's indictment ignores the complex roots of the Orlando shooting, including homophobia, Islamic extremism, and the shooter's personal issues. Rather than offer insight into the shooting, Swanson uses it as an opportunity to spout apocalyptic rhetoric and blame society for not sharing his religious beliefs.

A similar indictment came from American Pastors Network president Sam Rohrer during his appearance on the June 15th edition of The Steve Deace Show. While Rohrer reserved most of his condemnation for the "enemy ideology" of Islam and our "soft" political leaders, he claimed that God "removed his hand of blessing" from America because the nation rejected his laws. Those laws include "God’s design for the family", he said. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"...God has removed his hand of blessing on this country because we've turned our back upon him, and when he removed his hand of protection, these kinds of things come forth ... God has made very clear that every nation that he has established, and He establishes all nations. We’re told that all nations are established by God, even the very geographical boundaries of the nations are determined, that when a nation, any nation, does what God says, meaning that they fear him, that they uphold and enforce God’s moral law and God’s design for the family and for the church and for civil government, all of those are his. When those things are done, then God will bless a nation.

One of those blessings are the increase of wealth. One of those things is a security and protection from the neighbors around them. Even the enemies will be at peace with them, we’re told in a number of places in scripture. But when a nation backs off of that, particularly a nation such as ours that has a very biblical basis in an understanding of biblical principles, that’s where our Constitution came from, Declaration of Independence before that came out of that. When those things were there and put in place, when a nation turns their back on those things as we have and increasingly, arrogantly doing, then at that point the justice of God says ‘I cannot any longer bless’ and these things which you’re doing will lead to not his lack of blessing, but insecurity and so forth. That is basically the sense of where it is."

Rohrer fails to understand that tragedies take place for specific reasons, not because God is angry at America. Infusing society and government with fundamentalist Protestant beliefs would not have extinguished the homophobia, extremism, and personal demons that likely drove Mateen.

Ultimately, it's easier for Religious Right to blame society than to look long and hard at their own attitudes. The Religious Right is a vocal proponent of homophobia, but its adherents are reluctant to consider the ways that homophobic attitudes contribute to anti-gay violence. Unfortunately, self-reflection required humility and honesty, two virtues in short supply among the right.

American Pastors Network's Sam Rohrer on Islam and the End Times

Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors Network and the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, appeared on a recent edition of Focus Today. Hosted by Perry Atkinson, Focus Today is a talk show offered by the Dove, a Christian media network. During their chat, Rohrer veered into talk of the End Times and called Islam a "counterfeit" religion born from the "lies of the Devil". Rohrer and Atkinson's strange conversation reminds us how fundamentalist religion can prevent observers from making sound observations about world events.

At the 1:02 mark, Rohrer complained that only a "remnant" of people still cling to Christian faith, and that world leaders have ignored "the authority of God".

All of those who I call part of the remnant, all of those still hold to the concept that there is God, that he is the creator, that there is such a thing as the fall and sin, and there is redemption through Jesus Christ, that is what I just said, a true biblical worldview.

For those who hold to a biblical world view, it's very clear that as a culture, that as a world, as the world leaders as we watch them, there is a marked departure from the authority of who God is, the reality of who God is, the fact that God is a judge, that there is, in fact, sin, and in fact, have embraced this--we call postmodern mindset ... It really is what Romans 1 talks about, people really having knowledge of God, have purposely denied it, rejected it, and in fact, done what the Devil himself did way back in the beginning, and that is they believe themselves to become little gods.

The discussion turned to global events and how developments in Russia, China, and Iran are "reflective" of Ezekiel 38 and 39. At the 2:49 mark, Rohrer and Atkinson wondered if current events were portents of the End Times.

ATKINSON: Part of [the problem that] ... Christians are wrestling with is the condition of the world now part, literally part of the End Times, which suggests that it's fulfilling Bible prophesy and Bible signs by everything going crazy, so why try to interrupt it? Why try to change it? Has that nullified us? Has that put us in neutral?

ROHRER: Well, you know what? I think that's a great question, Perry, because in reality, what we say is it's not possible to properly evaluate the circumstances of the day, and of the world, what's happening in the Middle East right now as we speak as an example--it's not possible to accurately look at these things without looking at it in light of biblical prophesy. At the end of the day, the whole history of mankind is about God's plan of redemption from the beginning in the Fall, working itself through ultimately when he comes back and he reigns physically in Jerusalem ... To not understand God's plan is to be ignorant ... It's not possible either to look at where we are without saying these are indicators of the End Days, but actually, the disciples thought they were in the End Days then ...

In true Christian fundamentalist fashion, Atkinson and Rohrer painted an ominous picture of Islam, ignoring millions of law-abiding Muslims and the complexity of Islamic religious tradition. At the 6:56 mark, the two men described Islam as "a religion that wants to dominate the world" and a "counterfeit" faith forged by the Devil.

ATKINSON: Before I take a break, I do want to come back to what's happening with terrorism and Paris and all this, but I heard something yesterday on a prominent talk show that just put me on tilt, and I'm going to paraphrase it. It basically says this. Maybe the world is waking up that there's a religion that wants to dominate the world that cannot be tolerated. Wow! What do we do with that one?

ROHRER: Well, the religion that cannot tolerate anything other is obviously Islam. Is it forcing change? Yes it is. There's no question about it. And does it specifically target Christians, the redeemed of the Lord, and Israel, God's people? Absolutely. We know it. Should that not awaken God's people to the reality of where we are? It should, but what do we know is that the truth of Jehovah God is more real and it is greater and it will prevail over the lies of the Devil, of which is a counterfeit such as Allah and Islam, which is taking people to hell ...

Atkinson and Rohrer remind us that fundamentalism makes it difficult to perform a sound analysis of world events. When events are filtered through End Times "prophesies" or attributed to supernatural entities, a reasonable analysis of facts and realities becomes impossible.

APN President Lumps Together Islam, Nazism, and Atheism After San Bernardino Tragedy

On December 2nd, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a gathering in San Bernardino, California and murdered 14 people, according to Reuters. The two shooters were later killed during a shootout with law enforcement. According to the New York Times, the FBI is investigating Farook and Malik's rampage as an act of terrorism. Farook's father claimed that his son agreed with ISIS ideaology, according to AFP, and Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS in a Facebook posting before the rampage, according to a Facebook spokesman.

Americans responded to the shooting with horror and grief, especially since the shooting occurred so soon after another mass shooting in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, one Religious Right figure used the shooting as an opportunity to ridicule those who did not embrace his faith.

In a recent statement posted at Hamilton Strategies, American Pastors Network president Sam Rohrer argued that evil is a "heart issues and a faith issue", not a gun control matter. Unfortunately, he also argued that evil that starts with one's rejection of Jesus, speaking of Islam, Nazism, and "aggressive atheism" in the same breath.

"The degree of adherence to one’s ideology or faith determines their choices and actions ... Only people who embrace evil ideologies take pleasure in death and destruction. It is time to understand that the cause of evil is a heart issue and a faith issue—not a gun issue. And a person’s rejection of Jesus Christ and absolute Truth is where it starts. Whether the particular face of evil is in the form of Nazism, Islam, aggressive atheism or other anti-God ideologies, the resultant choices and actions are only a matter of degree. No nation, including the United States of America, that turns its back on God and embraces an ideology that rejects absolute truth, Jesus Christ and the Bible can long endure."

Ironically, Rohrer warned against using problems for political gain.

"True moral leaders are duty-bound to focus on the true cause of problems and embrace honest solutions, rather than point to symptoms as an opportunity for political exploitation and the furthering of personal agendas ... "

Rohrer's words were beyond insensitive. Using a mass shooting to ridicule atheists and other groups one does not like is tasteless.

Islamic extremists and Nazis cannot be lumped together with law-abiding Muslims and atheists. The values and choices of non-Christians do not automatically lead to evil, nor do they necessarily differ by "only a matter of degree" from those of extremists. Moreover, Christian faith does not necessarily inoculate people against evil, as the Colorado Springs rampage illustrates.

Lumping people into binary categories oversimplifies the problem of evil. Such black-and-white thinking prevents us from understanding the roots of evil behavior. Instead of labeling Christians as "good" and non-Christians as "evil", Rohrer and his supporters should learn more about extremism, the real cause of the San Bernardino rampage.

U-Turn Conference: George Barna's Disturbing Talk on "Brokenness"

To read about George Barna's earlier talk at U-Turn, click here. To read about Paul Blair's talk, click here. To read about David Barton's talk, click here. To read about Sandy Rios and Mike Huckabee's messages, click here.

On March 19th, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network hosted U-Turn: A Conversation with Pastors on Society, Culture, and Leadership at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. George Barna's second talk of the morning, "A Roadmap for the Future: Where Do We Go From Here", began with observations about leadership in congregations, issues of the day, and Christian discipleship. However, the tone of the talk changed sharply when Barna waxed poetic about "brokenness".

"One of the things that I've discovered about discipleship is that there are a number of things that God does in the lives of his disciples, and one of the things he invariably does with anybody who's going to make any kind of a difference is he breaks them. Now, I will tell you this. As I've studied the sermons that are being preached across America today, it is very, very rare to find anybody who preaches about brokenness, about anybody who encourages their congregants to allow God to break them. See, because that's become un-American. In America, we teach that we're overcomers. We're victors. We're triumphant. We're strong. We make it happen. We solve problems. See, but God's way is no, when you're weak is when you're strong. When you're broken is when you're usable."

"We've got a vast majority of people who are accepting Christ as their savior without brokenness," Barna complained, telling listeners that faith requires being broken in "sin, self, and society".

I was disgusted. Challenges make us better people, but traumas that break our spirits prevent us from flourishing. Barna's belief that only a traumatized, "broken" person can serve God ignores the fact that traumatic experiences can cause lifelong psychological and physical harm. The myth that suffering and trauma make us spiritually stronger ignores all the evidence that trauma undermines our well-being. (I encourage people to read about the ACE study to learn more about trauma's devastating effects.) Instead of telling people that God wants them "broken", we should help them find healing and cultivate resilience.

Moreover, Barna's ideas about "brokenness" discourage us from showing compassion toward those who have been traumatized. Barna discouraged audience members from alleviating the suffering of those who are being broken by crisis.

"God gives us the privilege of experiencing crises in our life. He gives us crisis. It might be a physical crisis, it might be an emotional crisis, it might be a financial crisis. There are all kinds of crises that he uses. I found that as I did the research, among those people who have been broken, number one, they had to be broken multiple times because typically we think, 'Oh my gosh, this is an awful circumstance, I've got to overcome it,' and on our own power, we try to undo what God was doing, so God has to give us another opportunity, which means another crisis ... More often than not, churches get in the way of people being broken, and what I mean by that is we're trying to love people, and so when we see somebody endure a crisis, we come up alongside them and say, 'Hey, let us love you, don't worry about it, we're going to overcome this, we're going to wipe this out of your memory, we're going to wipe, we're going to take care of this, you won't even remember that this happened to you' ... See, the whole point is that God needed that person to deal with that situation in order to understand their own depravity and their need for him.

So, we really need to rethink how you come alongside people who are struggling and suffering. Are you trying to take away the pain? Are you trying to alleviate the suffering? Are you trying to ignore what God is putting them through? That doesn't help them. That doesn't help the church. It doesn't help the culture. And so we've got to come to grips with the necessity of being broken."

Being broken is a privilege? God breaks us to teach us how depraved we supposedly are? What kind of spiritual sadomasochism is this? I thought. The faith that Barna described was one of pain and debasement, with God playing the role of a cosmic torturer who breaks the spirits of his victims. I want no part of a deity who abuses his children instead of uplifting them.

We have a moral obligation to prevent trauma and offer succor to those who have been traumatized. If we assign any value to the intrinsic dignity of others, we should "get in the way of people being broken". If we value social justice, we must recognize that some forms of trauma are the result of oppressive systems, and that we have a moral imperative to challenge those systems. No, Mr. Barna, I am not going to ignore the battered woman, the abused child, the hate crime victim, the veteran with PTSD, or the impoverished family going hungry. If your deity can't get with that, you can keep him.


To read additional commentary on U-Turn, visit the following links.

Americans Against the Tea Party: Radical Pastors’ Network Wants Right-Wing Pastor Who Can ‘Call Down God’s Fire’ on America

Lancaster Online: Pastors must take the lead to change the nation

Right Wing Watch: Pastors Network's Sam Rohrer: Gov't Officials' Job Is To 'Promote God’s Moral Law'

U-Turn Conference: David Barton on Preachers and "Biblical Values"

David Barton and The Cry of Sodom http://t.co/aAjzHsfiO5 #LGBT pic.twitter.com/YXQKclLFlr
— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) March 20, 2015

To read about Paul Blair's talk at U-Turn, click here. To read about George Barna's talks, click here and here. To read about Sandy Rios and Mike Huckabee's messages, click here.

On March 19th, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network hosted U-Turn: A Conversation with Pastors on Society, Culture, and Leadership at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. Among the conference's high-profile headliners was David Barton, the founder of Wallbuilders and the author of several contested books on American history.

In a talk entitled "When Pastors Stand for Truth: A Historical Perspective", Barton began by reassuring the audience that America is still a blessed nation, invoking "American exceptionalism". While other nations are experiencing revolutions and new constitutions, America has stayed politically stable. The U.S. is also economically prosperous and productive, producing countless patents, discoveries, and innovations, he observed.

The difference between America's past and present has to do not only with its leaders, but with its religious leader, Barton asserted. He spoke warmly of historical preachers such as Rev. Harry Hoosier and the Black Robe Regiment, disappointed that preachers are barely covered in American history. Barton claimed that the Declaration of Independence sprang from the teachings of colonial preachers, ignoring the Enlightenment origins of its ideas.

"When you look at the Declaration [of Independence] and look at all the rights that are set forth in the Declaration of Independence, historians have documented that every single one of those rights had been preached from the American pulpit prior to 1763. What that means is the Declaration of Independence is nothing more than a listing of the sermons we've been hearing in the church for the last twenty years leading up to the Revolution."

Barton longed for a past in which religious leaders spoke before legislatures and opened state government sessions with prayer.

"You can imagine if we tried to do this today, you know exactly what would happen. 'You can't do that! That's unconstitutional!' Time out. It's the guys who gave us the documents that were the ones who were doing this."

Pastors preached on the issues of their day, Barton told the audience, including homosexuality and judges. After criticizing modern-day conservative pastors for their reluctance to criticize gays, Barton praised Benjamin Goad's 1674 anti-gay treatise, The Cry of Sodom. He scapegoated judges for a myriad of policies he disagreed with, including church-state separation, same-sex marriage, and abortion.

"The righteousness of the land is determined by the judges in that land. As I'll point out to you, it wasn't legislatures that gave us homosexual marriage, it was judges that gave us homosexual marriage. It was not legislatures who said kids can't pray before football games, it was judges who said kids can't pray before football. It was not legislatures who said we're going to have abortion on demand, it was judges who told us ... The righteousness of the land is determined by the judges, which is why God gives explicit instructions for what judges should do."

Barton told the audience that historical pastors preached on a variety of other issues, such as gambling and candidates for elections. He pointed out with chagrin that the IRS forbade churches from promoting candidates in 1954, likening the policy to prophets such as Elijah and Nathan shrinking away from condemning corrupt kings.

Since the Bible discusses political matters, the church should discuss political matters instead of shying away from politics, he argued. Convinced that the Bible supports right-wing policies, Barton cited the Gospels as he argued for the illegitimacy of same-sex marriage, the capital gains tax, and the minimum wage. After quoting Malachi 2:9, Barton argued that just as ancients consulted priests on legal matters, so too should pastors be empowered to comment on the law, since God's law trumps human law.

"You want to learn something about [inaudible], don't go to an attorney, go to a preacher. Why? Because the Bible gives 613 civil laws on how to run a country. The Bible has 613. So if you want to know what the law says, consult God's law ... Don't worry about man's law. It's got to conform to God's law, and that's why you went to the priest to find out about the law, and that's why we preach those kind of sermons, because the word of God deals with all these areas."

The problem is, those 613 laws were produced by a savage iron age culture and have no place in 21st century America. Barton conveniently forgets that many Old Testament edicts were vicious and unjust, such as laws condoning slavery, ethnic cleansing, sexual abuse of war captives, and capital punishment for smart-mouthed children, gay men, rape victims, brides who don't bleed on their wedding nights, followers of other faiths, and people who labor on the sabbath. Even the most rigid fundamentalist would recoil from these practices, since our society embraces a more enlightened moral code than our iron age ancestors. Despite what Barton would have us believe, biblical laws do not provide an appropriate blueprint for 21st century jurisprudence.

Christians have been pressured to "compartmentalize our faith" by "people who hate what we do", Barton told the audience. "We've compartmentalized our faith, which now causes many Christians to believe that there's a difference between the secular and the spiritual. God didn't believe that," he said. God's word speaks to every aspect of life, including government debt, taxes, and education, he assured listeners. Once again, the idea that iron age laws are ill-suited for a 21st century society escapes him.

In the 1960s, Christians redefined the Great Commission as a mandate to evangelize and convert, rather than to disciple people in morality, he claimed. As a result, Christians and non-Christians are becoming indistinguishable in their moral attitudes. Converting people to Christianity without teaching them values is dangerous, Barton argued, pointing to Africa as an example of the consequences. While many African nations are Christian, corruption, poverty and mistreatment of women still fester on the continent, he noted.

"Did you know in the 20th century, we successfully evangelized several countries in Africa? They now for three generations have been 90% Christian nations. We have several countries in Central America. 90% Christian ... Five years ago, statistically speaking, they looked at those countries in Africa that are now 90% Christian. In those countries, AIDS rates have increased, government corruption has increased, mistreatment of women has increased, and poverty has increased. Oh great! We're a Christian nation! Really? Where's the discipleship? Christian behavior should change and make things better. It's not doing that, and that's the aspect we've got to get back into as the church."

Wow. Does the term "white man's burden" ring any bells for you? I thought.

Barton lamented the fact that more churches are not involved in political matters, since churches were seminal in the founding of the United States. To remedy this situation, Barton suggested a threefold solution. First, Christians must be familiar with the Constitution, since ignorance will kill the country.

For starters, they should familiarize themselves with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and so should you, I thought to myself.

Second, the church should be fighting offensively, not defensively. Barton accused the church of once playing defense on issues such as school prayer while groups such as the ACLU play offense. Now, Christian advocates for student prayers, Bible clubs, etc. are going on the offensive, a strategy of which Barton approved. Third, Christians must be familiar with the Bible in order to understand and assert Biblical values.

Much like Barna, Barton paints a picture of a fundamentalist-friendly American past in order to justify right-wing activism today. His audience will be much more enthusiastic about eroding church-state separation, obstructing LGBTQ equality, and elevating the wealthy if they believe that American history vindicates them.

Like Blair, Barton forgets that he shares the U.S. with diverse Christians and non-Christians. His vision for America excludes them, and the blurring of the secular and fundamentalist religious worlds he seeks would impinge on their liberties.

Barton speaks warmly about "biblical" values, but only cites the Biblical passages that reinforce his belief system. The Bible is a collection of books written in different eras and cultures, and it does not present a unified moral code or government template. To boot, many of the values celebrated in the Old Testament are barbaric and grossly inappropriate for 21st century America, but Barton conveniently ignores them. Barton is actually championing right-wing, dominionist values, which he justifies with cherry-picked scriptural passages.

Blair, Barna, and Barton spent the morning of March 19th wooing listeners with pious talk, visions of a golden past, and calls for political action. Judging from the audience's rapt attention, applause, and sporadic calls of "Amen", the three men made an impact. The Religious Right is working hard to energize their base as the 2016 election draws near, but will they mobilize enough voters to sway the election?

U-Turn Conference: George Barna on Values

To read about Paul Blair's talk at U-Turn, click here. To read about David Barton's talk, click here. To read about George Barna's other talk, click here. To read about Sandy Rios and Mike Huckabee's messages, click here.

On March 19th, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network hosted U-Turn: A Conversation with Pastors on Society, Culture, and Leadership at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. The conference focused on the alleged fallen state of the U.S. and the importance of politically active pastors and Christians. After Paul Blair's talk, George Barna of the Barna Group delivered a talk on politics and values in America. In a talk entitled "The Necessity of Engagement: A Statistical Perspective", Barna depicted an America devoid of vision and mired in political passivity, a situation he urged religious leaders to correct.

At this moment in history, people must reflect on what made America great, he told the audience. The source of America's historical greatness, he claimed, was a dynamic partnership between the family, church, and government. All three institutions once shared a common vision that provided people with purpose, hope, leadership, and accountability. The result of this partnership, Barna claimed, was that the government was based on biblical values and limited its intrusion into the family and church, while the family obeyed the rule of law.

Today, the strength of the U.S. is being dissipated due to a lack of a shared vision among its people, he said. Most Americans believe that the U.S. is in decline, the government will not change for the better, and being politically active is efficacious, Barna told the audience. Parents no longer believe that they have a duty to raise children to be good citizens, preferring to let schools teach citizenship. However, declining public schools are failing to teach children to be good citizens, he claimed. Pastors, for their part, are reluctant to engage in matters of politics and citizenship for fear of running afoul of the IRS, he said, adding that churches are abdicating their political influence.

Barna depicted the U.S. as a country losing its Christian faith (ignoring the fact that people of many faiths and no faith make up its citizenry). According to Barna Group research, fewer Americans see faith as important or espouse a "biblical worldview", he told listeners, adding that many pastors don't even embrace a "biblical worldview. The growing numbers of "unchurched Americans" troubled him, as did the decreasing influence of the Bible in America.

There's more to this country than just fundamentalist Christians, you know, I thought. The rest of us are Americans too. Barna's America was a Christian America, it seemed, and his moral vision encapsulated only conservative Christians.

Government, he lamented, is not guiding the American people toward a shared vision. Citizens increasingly have little confidence in the three branches and agencies of the federal government. Many voters are insufficiently informed to make educated voting decisions, he claimed, and born-again Christian voters are no exception. Plenty of Christians do not vote and have not registered to vote, he complained.

Is this about getting out the Religious Right vote for the 2016 election? I wondered.

Barna was disappointed that few churches are allegedly using "biblical" teachings to influence public policy. As a result, America has passed legislation that is supposedly incompatible with the Bible.

"What happens is, we wind up putting policies into place that look like this, things like removing the Bible and prayer from public schools, legalizing abortion, legalizing same-sex marriage, allowing the government to spend way beyond its means, allowing people to work on the sabbath, protecting pornography as free speech, facilitating divorce, penalizing families, reducing religious liberties, instituting unprecedented expansion of entitlement programs, enabling government eavesdropping and data collection on all citizens and businesses, pursuing foreign policies that continually and severely weaken our economy and our global relationships and our security, creating countless laws through judicial rulings and executive orders in disobedience to the Constitution. You see, nobody's holding these people accountable."

Barna complained that voters are not advocating for limited government, despite allegedly wanting to see limited government. He also disapproved of the supposed abandonment of early American values in favor of new, ungodly values, which he blamed for America's alleged decline.

"To what do we attribute the wholesale abandonment of principles and practices that made America great? I suggest that a lot of it lies in the shift in our core values that we have allowed to take place. See, the primary values of early Americans were diverse in their coverage. In comparison, America's values today are much more narrowly focused. We embrace a larger number of values and they're clustered within a smaller number of categories, and the reason for that is today's values are much more self-centered and less other-centered ... As you look at early America's core values, there are a number of them ... Things like contentment and hard work and recognizing and living up to civic obligations and duty, truth and honesty, recognizing and living the importance of the rule of law, frugality, chastity, simplicity. That's something you build a strong country out of because it's common sense and it's based on God's core principles. But when you look at that other list of current American values, what do you see? Things like comfort and entertainment, experiences, expressiveness, individuality, personal control, self-reliance and independence, speed, things that have nothing to do with honoring God and living the way that he's called us to live."

These drastic changes in values have created a culture in which divorce, premarital sex, and same-sex relationships are considered moral, Barna fumed.

"One of the kinds of decisions that these types of values drive has to do with our perceptions of what's acceptable morality, and so when you look at what people believe without morality in America today ... 69% of Americans say that getting a divorce is a moral behavior. 67% say an unmarried woman having a baby is a moral behavior. 66%, two-thirds, say that a sexual relationship between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman is morally reasonable. It goes on and on. Stem cell research, gambling, sexual thoughts or fantasies about people you're not married to, cohabitation, the death penalty. People think all of these represent godly morality. Look at the fact that six out of ten [people] say gay or lesbian relationships, doctor-assisted suicide -- the majority of people say this is acceptable morality."

"Everything is permissible" in American society now because "we've allowed degradation of our religious beliefs," Barna insisted. According to Barna, the American Dream has been replaced by the New Millennium Dream, characterized by tolerance, "customized family", entitlement to rights and services, working only as hard as necessary to get by, and situational truth. Present-day America is different from the America of the 1600-1800s.

Barna partially blames the media and entertainment industry on this alleged shift in values. Ironically, he claimed that the media is feeding people a false version of reality. I'm more concerned about how the Religious Right misrepresents reality, I thought.

"Most Americans do not actually experience reality. What they do is they wait for the media to explain to them what reality is, and so we're being fed a perception of reality that bears no resemblance to what our dreams have been or what the future could be."

American churches need to measure transformation rather than money, square footage, or attendance, Barna told listeners. Religious leaders need to shape people's priorities, lest they fail to take voting seriously and become disengaged from what the government is doing.

Barna's simplistic picture of the American moral landscape sugar-coated the past and dismissed the many positive values of the present. First, in his eagerness to exalt America's past, he ignored the many ugly values that infused that past: racism, ethnocentrism, tolerance of slavery, Manifest Destiny, sexism, and religious intolerance. We should not blindly glorify a past in which women were second-class citizens, blacks were slaves, whites colonized Native American lands and subjected indigenous populations to ethnocide, and people were oppressed for their religious beliefs.

Second, Barna was so eager to demonize the present that he ignored the moral progress than 21st century Americans have made. If Americans are supposedly failing to be other-oriented, how do we explain the abundance of charitable giving and the millions of Americans who volunteer? The countless people who advocate for social justice -- racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, fair conditions for workers -- suggest that other-oriented values are alive and well. The passion with which many people engage politics and legislation could not burn among a passive populace. The America I live in is not a cesspool of selfishness and apathy, but a country with millions of engaged, enlightened citizens. What America is Barna living in?

Barna's caricature of modern morality focused heavily on family and sexuality, suggesting a certain discomfort with relationships that do not fit a married, heterosexual, childbearing mold. It is revealing that family and sexuality issues consumed so much of his attention, rather than other moral issues such as corporate corruption, poverty, interpersonal violence, climate change, and environmental harm. Morality encompasses much more than bedroom habits, but these other moral issues do not rile up Religious Right audiences quite like same-sex marriage and divorce do.

For a speaker who waxed poetic about religious freedom, Barna grossly misunderstood the concept. He listed IRS limitations on clergy politicking, bans on school prayer, and labor on Sundays as signs of American moral decline, rather than examples of healthy church-state separation. If Religious Right figures despise "big government" intrusion into citizens' lives, why would they want government to impose religion on its citizens?

It appears that Barna was trying to encourage his audience to be more politically active by depicting their present world as morally impoverished. To inspire them, he reminisced about an early American golden age that never truly existed and offered a moral vision that was inappropriate for the 21st century.

U-Turn Conference: Paul Blair on God and Government

To read about George Barna's talks at U-Turn, click here and here. To read about David Barton's talk, click here. To read about Sandy Rios and Mike Huckabee's messages, click here.

On March 19th, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network hosted U-Turn: A Conversation with Pastors on Society, Culture, and Leadership at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. As mentioned in a prior post, I spent the morning observing U-Turn, where I listened to talks by David Barton of Wallbuilders, George Barna of the Barna Group, and others. With the exception of Sandy Rios, all the speakers were men, and with the exception of Joseph Green, overwhelmingly white.

A common theme among the talks was that the U.S. had fallen away from its founding biblical principles, and that fundamentalist Christians needed to reclaim the country for Christ once again. To achieve this goal, pastors were to become politically active and disciple their flocks toward conservative political ends. In essence, U-Turn was about rallying fundamentalist evangelical pastors to get their congregants politically active for conservative causes. With the 2016 election just twenty months away, U-Turn was well-timed.

Several hundred people were in attendance to hear speakers describe the alleged fallen state of our culture. I walked into the auditorium in the middle of an introductory talk by Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors Network. Rohrer claimed that God created civil government as an instrument of his authority, and that the Bible contains content relevant to government issues. Christians must speak the truth in the public square, he told the audience. God has raised people up, but if we want to accept God's blessing, we must do "God's will, God's way", he asserted.

Pastors and politicians are both leaders, even though politicians often see religious leaders as merely a "conduit" for votes in "nice territory", Rohrer said. While "jurisdictional difference" distinguishes pastors and politicians, both have similar duties as leaders. The message, it seemed, was that pastors must be prepared to guide their congregants into political matters.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

After a short video promoting the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, Paul Blair of Reclaiming America for Christ took the stage. I cringed at Blair's "machine gun" style of preaching, since he spoke so quickly and loudly that it was difficult to digest what he was saying.

In a talk entitled "The Pastor's Impact: A Biblical Perspective", Blair claimed that it's easy to see why America is in its current condition. Only 9% of born-again Christians espouse a "biblical worldview", while many other Christians have embraced a "postmodernist" worldview, he insisted. Americans have accepted "Platonic Greek" ideas that compel them to keep Jesus in church and outside of other areas of their lives, he argued.

"Civil liberty and religious liberty travel as a pair," Blair told listeners, warning them that to lose one is to lose both. Shortly after the birth of the Christian church in the Book of Acts, Christians experienced persecution throughout history, only enjoying full freedom in the United States, he claimed. Blair listed the Catholic Church as a historical force that oppressed Christians, and I found the fact that he did not consider Catholicism to be a form of Christianity revealing.

"Look back in biblical history. We see the birth of the church in Acts chapter 2, and by Acts 4, we see the church suffering persecution, first by the Sanhedrin, then by the pagan Roman Empire, then by the Holy Roman Catholic Empire during the dark ages, down throughout the centuries. Even around the world today, we're seeing Christians beheaded and impaled and crucified because of their faith. Only in America, and only for the last two-hundred years have we been able to enjoy both civil and religious liberty. We're not the rule. We're the exception to the rule."

In his haste to depict Christianity as an oppressed victim, Blair ignored instances throughout history when Christians (and yes, Catholics are Christians) were politically and socially dominant.

Blair painted a paranoid picture of the government, warning listeners that public education and Common Core were governmental means of controlling the population. He argued that for a dictatorship to take root, it must exercise iron-fisted control over education, media, and conscience. Is this a not-so-subtle jab at President Obama? I wondered.

"Understand that for any tyrannical dictator to enforce his tyrannical control over your person, he must first assume control over your mind. So in order for a dictatorship to be established, first thing they're going to do is nationalize education. Folks, the Bible says its up to the parents to train up their children in the way they should go, but the government seeks to nationalize education. Hello? Common Core? The next thing [is that] they have to control the media, so they can control the flow of information into what you believe the truth is that's out there. And then, finally, you also gave to remove any religious liberty. You cannot have freedom of conscience. Because you cannot have the ability to disagree with the government. Whatever the government chooses to do must be right."

Blair listed two variations of government tyranny: "atheistic communism", in which the government bestows rights and determines what is right and wrong, and theocracy, in which disagreeing with leaders is condemned as both heresy and treason. To escape from such tyranny in the form of a state church, the Pilgrims came to America on board the Mayflower, he noted. The Pilgrims sought civil and religious liberty and understood that God established home, church, and civil government, he argued.

The United States was established with a "biblical worldview" in mind, Blair claimed, listing three biblical principles on which America was supposedly founded. First, the purpose of the government is to ensure the good of the people. Quoting Romans 13:1-4, he argued that the purpose of government is to punish evil and protect good, not to oppress. Next, a written constitution laying out the law for everyone is vital, he said. Rule with the consent of the governed is a godly principle, he added. Finally, Blair emphasized that an absolute standard of truth exists as defined by the will of God. While humans are free to legislate laws, no human law should contradict the will of God as set out in scripture, he insisted. According to Blair, same-sex marriage laws contradict God's will.

"Is there anywhere in the Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelations 22 that tells you what the speed limit on Broadway should be? No, no. So that area is free for man to legislate and determine what is a safe yet effective speed for driving down Broadway. However, what is the definition of a marriage? One man, one woman. Who said so? God did!" [Audience applauds]

I sighed at Blair's tired and familiar arguments. The Religious Right's insistence that America is a Christian nation founded on biblical principles ignores the fact that Enlightenment ideas, not biblical ones, shaped the formation of the U.S. Cherished American rights such as freedom of religion did not spring from the Bible, a fact Blair ignores.

While discussing the history of the Constitution, Blair ranted against the Supreme Court, same-sex marriage, the federal government, and public schools in an effort to defend state rights. The federal government is supposed to be bound by rule of law, but it doesn't honor its boundaries because the people are now "sheep" now. "Judge Roy Moore is a hero!" he proclaimed.

"What happens if the federal government tries to assume more power than what the Constitution gives them? Oh, I know what we've been taught in school. We're supposed to go and pray and beg before the Supreme Court that they will rule 5 to 4 in hopes of allowing the states to continue to determine what natural marriage is. Folks, that is not what the Constitution says... The states are supposed to hold the federal government accountable. We're the ones that created the federal government, not the other way around! Ladies and gentlemen, understand we are not three hundred and eighteen million people ruled by a little dictator in Washington D.C. and nine attorneys in black robes. We are a union of sovereign states that delegated by compact few and designed responsibilities to the general government to take care of the general welfare of the whole. They don't have the right to exceed the limited powers that we gave them ... We have been trained in our government-controlled schools to worship at the altar of the federal government."

On screen, Blair had prepared a "summary of 2014", listing alleged signs of governmental failure, including national debt, NSA spying, Obamacare, Common Core, "discrimination" against the Tea Party, "discrimination" against Christians on military bases, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Blair raged against same-sex marriage, warning the audience that their ability to practice job discrimination against gays was in imminent danger.

"If the court rules that homosexual marriage is natural and normal, and you have to support it, then they will be putting your choice of sexuality, which is behavior, on the same plane as your gender, which you're born [with], or your race, which you're born [with]. And as a Baptist minister, for example, I can discriminate in my hiring practices. For example, I don't have to hire anybody who's a non-Baptist because I am a Baptist minister. However, it would be illegal for me to say, 'I'm only going to hire white Baptists.' That would be discrimination, would it not? And it would be. But if they legitimize homosexual marriage and put it on the same plane as race, then I also won't be able to discriminate against hiring only heterosexual Baptists. Gentlemen, this is the camel's nose underneath the tent. This line cannot be crossed."

The solution to America's problems will not come from trusting politicians, he argued. Christians must be informed, and pastors must disciple their flocks. Pastors are to make sure their flocks hear the gospel, equip them to share the gospel, and educate them in a "biblical worldview", he emphasized. To this end, Blair encouraged listeners to watch videos from the Truth Project and plugged several fundamentalist apologetics websites, including Answers in Genesis.

Blair's "Nehemiah Strategy" was a vision in which the church would reclaim the community, communities would reclaim the city, cities would reclaim the states, and states would reclaim the nation. "Let's reclaim America for Jesus Christ," he concluded.

Blair's hypocrisy was breathtaking. While cultivating the myth of Christian persecution in America, he saw nothing wrong with oppressing gays. While raging against a supposedly tyrannical government, he saw nothing wrong with government encroachment on LGBTQ rights or reproductive rights. The federal government, LGBTQ community, and educational system were cast as scapegoats in his narrative, reduced to boogeymen who stifle believers.

Paul Blair, like many Religious Right commentators, seemed outraged that the U.S. government fails to obey the will of fundamentalist Christians. Blair envisioned an America by and for fundamentalist evangelicals, with little thought for millions of progressive or mainline Protestants, Catholics, or non-Christians. The spirit of democracy, in which all citizens have a voice and everyone's basic rights are to be protected, was lost on him.

The essence of Blair's talk seemed to be that fundamentalist Christians should be outraged by the current state of their country and politically "reclaim" the land. However, fundamentalists share that land with others groups, and those groups will not be silent.


Stay tuned for more posts on talks by David Barton and George Barna! To read additional commentary, visit the following link.

Right Wing Watch: Pastors Network: America Going Down the Tubes, Needs Pastors To Call Down Fire

Making a "U-Turn" in Pennsylvania

On March 19th, the Pennsylvania Pastors Network will host U-Turn: A Conversation with Pastors on Society, Culture and Leadership at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. "It’s time for a course correction in America," the conference website argues, "and our success hinges on re-embracing the proven roadmap that the Bible provides." According to the event website, the conference has several goals for the day.

• Identify the Biblical model for triggering a U-turn in a society.
• Explore the top cultural issues that will confront your church in the next 5 years.
• Learn how pastors can be empowered to speak on political issues without politicizing their pulpits.
• Learn how prayer effectively lays the foundation for spiritual renewal in our nation.

Among U-Turn's scheduled speakers are David Barton (founder and president of Wallbuilders and the author of several Religious Right "history" books), George Barna (founder of the Barna Group), Jeff Mateer (general counsel of the Liberty Institute), and Sandy Rios (director of governmental affairs for the American Family Association and host of the Sandy Rios in the Morning radio show). Former governor Mike Huckabee was scheduled to speak at the event, but his name no longer appears on the conference website or promotional materials.

The Pennsylvania Pastors Network website had much to say about the relationship between religion and government when announcing U-Turn. "Today’s society works hard to separate faith and government, but the Pennsylvania Pastors Network ... believes exactly the opposite should be true," the website states.

"PPN believes that those in the pulpit are "Ministers of God," called by Him to preach the Word and speak truth in the public square. Likewise, those elected to office are not just "politicians" but occupy an equally ordained position as "Ministers of God," with the clear job description of servants of God and God’s servants to the people ... The powerful one-day "U-Turn" conference is open to pastors, leaders and laypeople and is specifically designed to answer questions about society, culture and leadership, with a focus on how cultural trends can be strategically impacted with the truths of God’s Word."

American Pastors Network president Sam Rohrer told OneNewsNow that "the pulpits of America have been silent for far too long" and that "Christian people have felt that being involved in matters of culture can be left to somebody else". Because of this alleged Christian apathy, "evil is advancing in this land", a situation that the U-Turn conference hopes to address.

U-Turn seems intended to encourage conservative religious leaders to talk about political and social issues from the pulpit. This puzzles me, since American religious leaders have been anything but quiet on these issues. Conservative pastors and priests have never been timid about discussing abortion, same-sex marriage, or legislation from the pulpit. As initiatives such as Pulpit Freedom Sunday demonstrate, some members of the clergy have no qualms about endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, in violation of IRS policy. In light of America's extremely vocal conservative clergy, Rohrer's assertions about passive, quiet churches ring hollow. Perhaps his words are another example of Religious Right victim-rhetoric, which depicts the Christian Right as a silenced, shoved-aside victim that must assert itself now that "evil is advancing in this land".

I expect that U-Turn will encourage religious leaders to continue speaking out from the pulpit on political and social issues. What remains to be seen, however, is where church-state separation and IRS policy will fit into U-Turn's conversation. I plan to attend U-Turn, and I'm eager to learn what speakers will have to say.