Commentary Tidbits

Truthdig: Is ‘Christianized Fascism’ the Biggest Threat We Face Under Trump?

The Atlantic: The Atheists Struggling to Find Therapists in the Bible Belt

Forward: Why Would An Anti-Gay Church Picket Yeshiva University? 

SPLC Hatewatch: Texas Chapter of Anti-LGBT Hate Group Mass Resistance Launches, Helmed by Robert Oscar López

Friendly Atheist: An Oklahoma School Had a Christian Sex Educator Speak to Kids, and (Surprise!) It Was a Disaster

Religion News Service: Francis’ clericalism of mercy is perpetuating the sex abuse scandal

New York Times: Suffer the Little Children: Church Cruelty in Ireland 

Aljazeera: Mass graves in Ireland: A long history of Church abuse

The Advocate: The Handmaid's Tale Trailer Calls Out Apathy as a Cause of Its Totalitarian Regime

Commentary Tidbits

Governing: Is Abstinence-Only Sex Ed on the Rise? 

Tell Me Why the World is Weird: All of the LOLs for this Sermon on "Marrying Young"

Political Research Associates: Dominionism Rising: A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight

Alternet: Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson Is the Star of Bizarre New Extreme Right-Wing Movie Featuring Horrific ISIS Murders 

CNN: Three arguments against covert Christian 'spycraft'

Washington Post: Trump’s pitch to Mormons falls flat

Friendly Atheist: Christian Bigot Who Wants Gay People Cured Condemns Christian Bigot Who Wants Gay People Dead

Chicago Reader: Illinois pastors don’t deserve exemption from conversion therapy ban

The Advocate: National Intervention Needed to End Conversion Therapy

The Advocate: Understanding Anita Bryant, the Woman Who Declared War on Gays

World Conference of Families Co-Hosts Conference in Kenya

The African Regional Conference on Families is scheduled to take place at the Hotel Intercontinental in Naiborbi, Kenya on September 22-24, 2016. According to a promotional video, the event will feature speakers such as Sharon Slater of Family Watch International, Don Feder of the World Congress of Families, and Bishop Salesius Mugambi, who has opposed efforts to "redefine or erode the meaning of marriage". The event's Eventbrite page states that the conference will be hosted by the World Congress of Families, the African Organisation for Families, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, and the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As readers may recall, the World Congress of Families hosts large-scale international events that draw Religious Right leaders from around the world. These events invariably oppose reproductive rights, feminism, and LGBTQ equality. If the itinerary of this event is any indication, the World Congress of Families and its allies have comprehensive sex education in their crosshairs as well.

The conference's Eventbrite page lists the following "threats" facing African families. Some, such as violence against women and girls, are legitimate. Others reflect a worldview that sees LGBTQ people, contraception, and comprehensive sex education as pernicious.

• Pressure from the west to erode natural families
• Female Genital Mutilitaion
• Domestic Violence
• Comprehensive Sexuality Education
• Pornography
• Human Trafficking
• Erosion of parenting responsibilities
• Family attack by media
• Adoption of liberal laws etc
• Population Control and lethal family planning methods

According to Vatican Radio, Anne Kioko, the president of the African Organisation for Families, slammed comprehensive sex education programs because they allegedly teach children promiscuity.

"These programs go way beyond regular sex education and are designed to change all sexual and gender norms of society. They openly promote promiscuity, high-risk sexual behaviour and sexual pleasure even to very young children."

Such attitudes are dangerous, especially in Africa. A continent with high fertility rates will continue to experience economic struggles and pressure on its infrastructure. A continent where many women want to avoid pregnancy but still struggle to access modern contraception will not see all of its women realize their full potential. Comprehensive sex education in Africa (which includes medically accurate content on contraception and sexual decision-making) is vital to achieving a sustainable population, empowering women, and ensuring that future generations thrive. Unfortunately, organizations such as the World Congress of Families and the African Organization for Families want to oppose progress.

Also, talk of the west "eroding" family values seems to be code for advancing LGBTQ rights across the globe. If the Kenya conference promotes anti-LGBTQ ideas, it will be advance homophobia in a country where LGBTQ people already struggle against intolerance and anti-gay legislation (to say nothing of the rest of the continent).

The World Congress of Families, the African Organisation for Families, the Catholic Church, and their allies deserve criticism for promoting these messages. Comprehensive sex education and family planning are vital to both women's empowerment and national economic strength, but the conference organizers fail to realize this. LGBTQ Africans deserve equality, but the conference would rather scapegoat them as a western threat to the "natural family". As usual, the World Congress of Families and its supporters are promoting toxic ideas abroad, which will make the struggle for progress that much harder.

News Tidbits

Religion News Service: 5 faith facts on Mike Pence: A ‘born-again, evangelical Catholic’

LGBTQ Nation: Gay Men’s Choruses fight hate by serenading Focus on the Family

NPR: Anti-Abortion Groups Take New Aim With Diverse Strategies

The Advocate: 'Enemies of Equality' Report Draws Liberty Counsel's Ire 

The Guardian: Prayer and pain: why gay conversion therapy is still legal despite dangers

The Guardian: Doctors urged to advise patients about risks of abstinence-centric sex education

Gay Star News: IDAHOT 2017 will take on anti-gay ‘fear-mongering’ around ‘family values’

Reuters: Contempt ruling upheld against Kentucky clerk against gay marriage

Politico: Republicans building stronger anti-abortion plank in platform

Associated Press: Iowa: Church seeks to prevent transgender bathroom law enforcement

USA Today: Westboro Baptist Church recruits Jigglypuff, a Pokémon, against LGBT community on Pokémon Go

Commentary Tidbits

Spiritual Sounding Board: Doug Phillips: The Sex Abuse Lawsuit Conclusion and Epilogue of His Vision Forum Shipwreck

The Guardian: 'Don't be a slutty apple': Your experiences of sex education

Rosa Rubicondior: Faith Is A Feminist Issue

Bloomberg: Don't Let Mississippi Establish Anti-Gay Religion

Vox: Pope Francis’s gay-friendly comments don’t match the Catholic Church’s actual policies

Commentary Tidbits

Abi Bechtel: Always Them, Never Us: Parsing the Evangelical Response to Pulse

Vice: 'She Didn't Say Vagina': Sex Ed in Fundamentalist Christian Homeschool

Chicago Magazine: The Cult Next Door

Samantha Field: Things Not Even Tolerated by the World: Christians and Hypocrisy 

The New Civil Rights Movement: Trump Promises Evangelical Leaders He Will Strike Down Ban on Tax-Exempt Groups Engaging in Politics

Right Wing Watch: Donald Trump Taps Michele Bachmann, James Dobson & Other Far-Right Leaders For Advisory Board 

Think Progress: What Happens When Gay People Are Told That Homosexuality Is A Sin?

Homeschoolers Anonymous: Homeschooling as a Totalistic Tool

The Advocate: 9 Truly Terrible Reactions to the Orlando Shooting

Commentary Tidbits

Sydney Morning Herald: Child sexual abuse: Are churches covering up or opening up?

Bloomberg: Why it’s so hard to run an abortion clinic, and why so many are closing

Revolutionary Faith: Driscoll’s “Confessions”: The Gospel of Masculinity

Talking Points Memo: Are Evangelicals Supporting The Unrepentant Donald Trump?

Alternet: The Case Against 'Saving' Marriage

Friendly Atheist: This is the Disturbing Material Ohio Students Were Taught in a Faith-Based Sex-Ed Program

News Tidbits

The Guardian: Carly Fiorina accused of 'ambushing' children for anti-abortion rally

Oregon Live: Education department will out every religious college that discriminates against LGBT people

Buzzfeed: Republican Frontrunner For Montana Governor Has An Extreme Anti-LGBT Past

Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier: Iowa lawmakers will investigate gay youth conference on smaller scale

Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers Want Exemptions for Gay Marriage Opponents

Christian Science Monitor: Ted Cruz isn't backing off 'God talk,' even in New Hampshire

Tri-City Herald: Mid-Columbia lawmaker in Olympia asks teens about their virginity

Nashville Scene: Far Right Protests Same-Sex Marriage at State Capitol

LGBTQ Nation: Donald Trump admits antigay hate group leader Tony Perkins helps write his speeches

New York Times: In Ireland, ‘Baptism Barrier’ for Public Schools Draws Protests

Commentary Tidbits

The Nation: The Schools Where Free Speech Goes to Die

RH Reality Check: Attack Videos Against Planned Parenthood Prompt California Bill

Los Angeles Times: Oregon armed protesters invoke Constitution -- with commentary from W. Cleon Skousen

Washington Post: Why the March for Life is becoming a destination for more evangelicals

Anne Landman: District 51 Distributes Flier for Christian Event Targeting Adolescent Girls

When Church Hurts: Is This Your Pastor?

The New Civil Rights Movement: Supporters of Anti-Gay Marriage Bill Rally in Tennessee, Say ‘Cost of Tolerance is AIDS’

The Guardian: Here's fresh insight into Pell's response to the child sex abuse crisis. It's not encouraging.

Commentary Tidbits

The Good Men Project: Sounding Off on “Purity” Parents Who Want to Keep LGBT Information Out of Sex Education

The Grio: Kirk Franklin apologizes to gay community for ‘homophobia’ in black church

The Root: Ben Carson, aka the Negro Pat Robertson, Should Own His Homophobia

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Candidates courting the Christian fringe

Existential Ennui: Christianist Doublespeak

The Guardian: Republicans like to invoke the Bible yet ignore what it teaches about refugees

The Advocate: GOP Hates Extremism Except When Endorsing It

New York Times: Stung by Edict on Gays, Mormons Leave Church

Salon: I went to church with Ted Cruz. He is building an army of young Christian voters in Iowa

Daily Beast: The Religious Fundamentalists Are Losing

Commentary Tidbits

New York Times: The Catholic Church’s Sins Are Ours

Mic: This Pastor Just Said a Woman Doesn't Have Right to Her Body — "It All Belongs to God"

People Magazine: High School Principal Under Fire for Saying Dress Codes Help 'Preserve Girls' Virginity': 'I Need to Control My Eyes as Well'

Talk to Action: Texas Public School Reconsiders `Chastity' Speaker

Gay Star News: The mob of screaming parents who want their kids kept ‘pure’ of LGBTI sex ed

News Tidbits

Associated Press: Kim Davis' husband rallies for religious awakening in Nashville

WRAL: North Carolina bill redefines sex education 'expert'

Q Salt Lake: WCF and Sutherland bringing Prop 8 leader to Salt Lake

Greenville Online: South Carolina conference to equip hundreds to ‘defend their faith’

Gay Star News: Famous rapper says Caitlyn Jenner ‘marketing evil’

Commentary Tidbits

The Frisky: Duggar Homeschool Leader Deletes Flood Of Sexual Abuse Allegations From Facebook Post

Inquisitr: Kim Davis to Receive Award, Be Honored at Values Voter Summit

The Toledo Blade: God, the Supreme Court, Politicians, and Kim Davis’ 15 Minutes of Fame

Talking Points Memo: GOPers, Stop Pulling A Kim Davis On Planned Parenthood And Do Your Job

Entertainment Tonight: Dr. Phil Talks Josh Duggar Scandal: 'I Don't Believe the Whole Truth Has Come Out Yet'

Raw Story: Republicans push to change NC law so Christians can teach public school kids abstinence-only sex ed

The Advocate: 5 Reasons To Be Thankful Rick Perry Dropped Out

Commentary Tidbits

Micah J. Murray: How Not to Discover God’s Will For Your Life

Freak Out Nation: Mike Huckabee: I Support Forcing A 10-Year-Old Victim To Have Her Rapist’s Baby

Rolling Stone: John Oliver Eviscerates American Sex Ed – But the Reality Is Even Worse 

The Atlantic: Christian Bakers Gotta Bake, Even for Gays

Raw Story: Florida couple accused of raping orphaned teen for years — and using the Bible to justify it

Sydney Morning Herald: Australia: Grassroots anti-marriage lobbies have powerful connections

News Tidbits

Pew Research Center: America’s Changing Religious Landscape 

Deseret News: World Congress of Families heading to Salt Lake City in the fall

Washington Post: Obama tackles poverty on a panel in front of Catholic and evangelical leaders

Religion News Service: At Liberty University, Jeb Bush seeks support from evangelicals

Raw Story: Duggar family member: ‘All science’ points to creationism being true

Lincoln Times-News: No non-Christian prayers at county meetings, says Lincoln County chairman

Click Orlando: Florida church sign says homosexuals must repent or go to hell

Huffington Post: California Judge Rules Against Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Program

Gay News Network: Australian Department of Education bans Teen Sex: By the Book for anti-gay sentiments and slut shaming

Metro Weekly: 9 Anti-Gay Billboards from across the U.S.

Commentary Tidbits

Micah Moore at Airborne, Anchored: Who the hell joins a cult?

The Stranger: I Sat In on My Son’s Sex-Ed Class, and I Was Shocked by What I Heard

The American Prospect: How the Decline of Southern White Evangelicals Fuels the Passage of 'Religious Freedom' Laws

Salon: “This man knows as much about Jesus as I do about fixing cars”: Homophobic repair shop gets destroyed by Yelp reviewers

The New Civil Rights Movement: Claiming Trans People Are Sex Offenders, Pastors' Spokesperson Turns Out To Be Serial Rapist

Vice: Why Gay Mormon Men Married to Women Are Fighting Gay Marriage

Faithfully LGBT: Ex-gay stories flourish when bisexuality is ignored

The Daily Beast: The Fundamentalist Witch Hunt’s New Prey

Lady Atheist: The Most Dangerous Christian Denominations: Independent Fundamentalist Baptist

Lady Atheist: Most Dangerous Christian Denominations: Pentecostalism

News Tidbits

Al Jazeera America: Southern Baptists grapple with racist history

Seattle Pi: Mark Driscoll Ministries arrives in time for Easter 

Texas Observer: House Votes to Defund HIV Prevention to Pay for Abstinence Education

9 News: Rep. Klingenschmitt gets support, no more 9NEWS interviews

KOAA 5: Focus on the Family speaks out in support of Religious Freedom Restoration Acts

The Daily Signal: Christian Groups Call for Boycott of Company That Opposes Indiana’s Religious Freedom Law

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana legislator will introduce bill to enhance 'religious freedom'

New York Times: Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

 NPR: What The 2016 Hopefuls Are Saying About Indiana's 'Religious Freedom' Law

Gay Star News: Australia: Christian group asks for right to discriminate against same-sex parents

Washington Post: Robert H. Schuller, ‘Hour of Power’ televangelist, dies at 88

Bill Jack, Who Demanded Anti-Gay Cake, Is Filling in for Kevin Swanson

As discussed in a prior post, Worldview Academy co-founder Bill Jack has filed a religious discrimination complaint against Azucar Bakery in Denver, Colorado. Jack filed the complaint after bakery owner Marjorie Silva refused to write an anti-gay message on a Bible-shaped cake, according to KDVR Fox 31.

I recently learned that Bill Jack not only promotes his right-wing worldview at Christian homeschool events, but that he's an interim co-host on Kevin Swanson's Generations with Vision show. Bill Jack and Steve Vaughan have been co-hosting Generations with Vision during Kevin Swanson's sabbatical, showing themselves to be every bit as right-wing as Swanson. I've provided a few Generations with Vision quotes from Bill Jack to paint a portrait of the man behind the anti-gay cake controversy.

First, in a January 14th show entitled "Cannibalism!", Jack briefly discussed the book Savage Harvest by Deckle Edge, which discusses the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea in 1961. At the 9:22 mark, Jack claimed that the New Guinea Asmat tribe, which allegedly killed Rockefeller, fell into violence and depravity because they turned from God.

"They performed perverted sex acts. They practiced polygamy. They drank each other's urine. They covered themselves in human blood. These are disgusting practices, and these are a people who had abandoned or had drifted away from God, so they had accepted myths, and they were practicing the results of these myths. And so what happened was they had become cannibalistic."

Vaughan and Jack also discussed Ryan Bell, the Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who stopped believing in God after living as an atheist for a year. At the 14:03 mark of "Cannibals!", Jack called atheism a "parasite" on Christianity.

"Atheism is really just a parasite on the body of Christianity. They cannot have a culture that is good without God. Men cannot be good without God, despite what people like Richard Dawkins, famed atheist, says ... Without God, you cut the heart out of civilization. Without God, you cut the heart out of history."

In a January 7th show entitled "Sex, Lies, and the Genderbred Person", Jack blasted people who looked askance at the Response Louisiana. At the 7:49 mark, he mocked dissenters as "Christophobes" who allegedly seek to oppose Christianity and stifle free speech.

"There is this call for a revival, and to express free speech by praying to God, by talking to God, and there are those who want to squelch free speech on a tax-paid institution's campus, hosted by the governor of the state. You know what? If Christians were protesting the LGBTQ rally at LSU, Christians would be called censors and bigots ... So what we have here is the opposition to Christianity ... Christophobes who are trying to squelch free speech, who are trying to be censors and bigots because they don't want to allow free speech. They don't want to allow the discussion of an opposing world view. That is happening all over the country."

Later in "Sex, Lies, and the Genderbred Person", Vaughan and Jack criticized comprehensive sex education, including sex ed provided by Planned Parenthood. At the 26:50 mark, Jack claimed that Planned Parenthood wants to make "pigs" out of children.

"This is what Planned Parenthood does. They want your children to be pigs. They want them to wallow in the muck. And what we need to do is, we as Christians need to expose evil ... Shine the light of truth and grace on such activities. So I urge you as homeschooling parents to investigate what's being taught in public school and to expose it."

In a January 2nd episode entitled "From Heil Hitler to Heil the Secular State", Vaughan and Jack criticized an anti-gun advertisement filmed at a charter school, likening such messages to Hitler Youth propaganda. "The school has become an enclave of totalitarianism in our day, just as it was in Hitler's day," Jack said at the 7:28 mark. Jack accused ominous movements of targeting young people at the 10:48 mark, oblivious to the fact that this is exactly what fundamentalist Christian homeschool advocates like himself do.

"It doesn't matter whether it's a totalitarian government or even the most benign and, well, apparently innocent attempt to bring about peace and justice. They always go with the youth. They try to indoctrinate the youth."

The irony continued at the 1:45 mark, when he lamented that young people are supposedly being used as "puppets" and "pawns" by progressives.

"Ideas do have consequences. Good ideas, excellent consequences; bad ideas, devastating consequences, and it is our youth who suffer. It is our youth who are being used as puppets and as pawns, and that is why we need to re-establish a Biblical worldview in our culture. We need to establish truth and justice based on God's word, not on some man's view."

Jack mused on "The Poisonous Mushroom", a story from an anti-Semitic children's book called Der Giftpilz. At the 23:10 mark, he likened public school education to Hitler Youth indoctrination.

"They're teaching anti-Christian doctrine, they're teaching secularism to students through arithmetic, through geography, through history, through psychology,  through every subject area, and most parents are not aware of what's happening, and as a result, children are being used. They are being, well, enlisted into the modern-day Hitler Youth movement. And pretty soon, parents are going to reap what they sow if we don't wake up and realize how the government schools are abusing our children."

In conclusion, Bill Jack's commentary on Generations with Visions reveals a great deal about his outlook. In Jack's eyes, secularism, non-Christians, LGBTQ rights advocates, and Planned Parenthood are depraved opponents of Christianity, ensnaring the next generation with their wiles. In this paranoid worldview, Christians are to imbue the surrounding culture with a "Biblical worldview", lest society continue to sink into sin. Those who think otherwise are caricatured as modern-day Nazis, indoctrinating children through a modern-day Hitler Youth.

By smearing others in this manner, Jack reveals his black-and-white, us-versus-them view of the world. His bakery stunt can be understood as a way to challenge a society he sees as corrupt. In short, Bill Jack displays the paranoia and siege mentality commonly seen among Christian fundamentalist, and fundamentalist homeschool advocates in particular.

(Hat tip to Homeschool Apostate.)

Commentary Tidbits

The Daily Beast: The Evangelical Apocalypse Is All Your Fault

Women's eNews: Holy and Unholy Misogyny; I See Them Linked Now

Thought Catalog: A Glimpse Into The Abstinence-Only Sex Education Classroom

Washington Post: Why Mike Huckabee matters — a lot

Leaving Fundamentalism: Why creationism matters

Huffington Post: I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist: How I Resolved the Conflict Between Jesus and My Sexuality

News Tidbits

Gay RVA: Hundreds gather for picture to counter ex-gay billboard

Religion News Service: Cardinal Timothy Dolan cuts ties with anti-abortion crusader Frank Pavone 

The Guardian: Sex education from church and state sends mixed messages in Vietnam 

LGBTQ Nation: 'Religious zealot’ pastor who wishes all gays were dead defends sermon