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RD News Round-Up—December 2, 2008. Rick Warren and Reader’s Digest’s multimedia platform; Faith-based orgs and Katrina; Churches for sale; Breakaway Episcopalians; and Bob Jones U. apologizes for racism; and Ted Haggard returns.

RD News Round-Up—December 8, 2008: Proposition 8—The Rematch; California Supreme Court Justice in Religious Right’s Crosshairs; American Family Association’s 40th Birthday; and “The Last Languages Campaign,” Breakaway Episcopalians, and “Counterfeit Pro-Lifer[s].”

Since the 2004 defeat of John Kerry, a handful of religious Inside-the-Beltway Democrats—called the religious left by some—have seen their influence rise dramatically. But how progressive is their “broader agenda?” And what of religious left leaders who include reproductive justice and LGBT civil rights on their list?

The conservative evangelical founder of “The Call,” Lou Engle, is on a crusade to end legal abortion in the United States. He believes that George W. Bush and his Supreme Court picks were the result of prayer and, as depicted graphically in Jesus Camp, he aims to inspire young evangelicals to defeat the forces of Satan and his legislation.

A distinguished scholar and minister reflects on the persistence of racism in US political history, on the role of religion in political culture, and on the fulfillment of long-awaited vision of a world community built on justice and freedom.

Ghouls, ghosts, goblins and Halloween Hell Houses; Traditional Values Coalition’s shameless Video Voter Guide; More on Sarah Palin’s religious affiliations; Hagee hears a Who-mageddon; No candy, no soda, no birth control!

Top Ten Religious Right groups rake in more than half-a-billion dollars; Churches v. Christian Zionism; Bush turns to faith-based groups to bail US out of health care crisis; Saving the GOP from itself?

While it won’t be the same as it ever was, an Obama presidency will give the Religious Right an opportunity to bask in the glow of martyrdom and seize the mantle of underdog, while it raises hundreds of millions of dollars for its political campaigns and the never-ending ‘culture wars.’

Religious politics in America have been dominated by discourses of fear, violence and triumphalism in recent decades. It may be that after this election, although warnings of doom will issue forth as loudly as ever, other conversations about religion and social change may resound as well.

If the Obama Administration sticks with Bush’s faith-based initiatives they would do well to avoid the numerous mistakes and predilection for corruption that haunted the Bush version.