Christian Right

Top 8 RD stories on religion and the use and abuse of history in U.S. political life.

AlterNet examines Reed’s growing and lucrative political operation.

Republicans lean libertarian on gay rights, but leaders still pander to religious right.

Neo-con, pragmatist, exceptionalist… but not a visionary.

Once we understand that there are shades of evangelicalism, and that they manifest in a variety of political convictions, perhaps we can recognize that religious beliefs deserve legitimate space in the public square.

“Race” as an idea barely existed before the Enlightenment and the onset of modernity in the West. Today, many dismiss the race-concept as an illusion, arguing that “there is no such thing as race;” or in more universalist terms, “there is only one race: the human race.” Yet race continues to demarcate and stratify all the world’s peoples in striking ways.

Most insiders to this world are privy to the open secret of gospel’s deep reliance on the contributions and influence of gay men and women. But Heilbut opens wide the closet doors and peers in with the bright light of righteous outrage for the plight of the children in an increasingly homophobic religious culture, while also bringing a deeply felt sensitivity for the stories of the children and their musical sensibility. As he writes: “It is impossible to understand the story of black America without foregrounding the experiences of the gay men of gospel.”

Right-wing funders support the creation of legislation enacting school vouchers and school choice, both of which take away resources from America’s public schools, furthering a right-wing agenda.

On a visit to Zambia in February 2012, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on African countries to stop treating LGBT people as less than human or as second class citizens. He explicitly asked Zambian lawmakers to stop discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation.

One Million Moms, an organizational arm of the American Family Association, has been involved in an epic battle against gay superheroes since May. In light of DC Comics’ recent announcement that the widely-beloved superhero Green Lantern is gay, which followed Marvel Comics’ announcement that openly gay superhero Northstar would wed his boyfriend in a coming comic book issue, One Million Moms is setting itself up as an archenemy to gay superheroes everywhere.