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After the owner of a wedding hall was caught on tape refusing an interracial couple “because of our Christian race,” questions are resurfacing about the possibility that anti-LGBTQ “religious exemptions” might be paving the way for legalized racial discrimination.

Homophobia, misogyny, and contempt for the poor are so very much taken for granted and accepted as “Christian” within The Family that its principals are able to say, with a perfectly straight face, that they have no political agenda when they support and subsidize authoritarian leaders around the world who exemplify and implement these hatreds.

When we hear religious conservatives using the language of “prayers” and “favor” as a disaster strikes, it’s important to recognize that this pious rhetoric conceals neoliberal politics that impede the work of government institutions of disaster management.

It turns out that Christian activists are perfectly willing to let federal judges desecrate their religion, so long as the desecration also allows them to promote their religion.

This story should sound familiar, especially given the blame thrown at godlessness in the wake of mass shootings and the “thoughts and prayers” offered as a “solution.”

The sages, or rabbis, whose teachings were collected in the Mishnah, had a concept they called ‘tumah,’ or ritual impurity. This term, which to some readers might conjure visions of judgmental tub-thumpers, isn’t at all equivalent to today’s abstinence warriors.

Project Blitz and legislators like Reed, who are willing to nationalize Christianity, threaten our Constitution.

We could debate whether immoral people seek out positions in the clergy or whether clerical life corrupts people, but that debate misses the point.