To celebrate our 15th year, the Texas Freedom Network is bringing Arianna Huffington to Austin for a very special evening. One of the most influential women in the media, Huffington will share her unique insights on the current political climate, as well as the far-reaching effects of the resurgence of extremism - including the damage done by the far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education. The event will take place on Monday, May 3rd at 7 p.m at Congregation Agudas Achim (Dell Jewish Community Campus) located at 7300 Hart Lane Austin, Texas 78731. Tickets cost $25 and are available at www.tfn.org. Seating is limited, so it is recommended you buy your tickets today.
The religious right is still a powerful force in Texas, but is it finally on the decline in the rest of the country? That's what E.J. Dionne, the award-winning columnist for The Washington Post, suggests in his best-selling book Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right. You can still reserve a seat to hear Dionne talk about the religious right's influence at a TFN Faith and Freedom Speaker Series event this Thursday (September 24) in Austin. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity St, in Austin.
You can reserve a seat at www.tfn.org.
Dionne is one of the nation's most respected voices on faith and politics in America today. Dionne has reported for the New York Times and the Washington Post and began writing his column for the Post in 1993. He has also been a frequent commentator on public television's NewsHour, NPR's All Things Considered and major network news shows.
This is the fourth year of TFN's Faith and Freedom Speaker Series, which brings to Texas leading voices and cutting edge thinkers from the busy intersection of culture, politics and religion in contemporary America.
Admission is free, but you must reserve your seat at www.tfn.org.
Keep an eye out for the Texas Freedom Network booth in the exhibit hall at Netroots Nation this week in Austin! Meet staff members and learn about our organization.
This weekend TFN Deputy Director Ryan Valentine will speak at Netroots Nation on two separate panels:
Fighting for Progressive Values in Texas
(Friday, 1:30 p.m.)
What Ever Happened to the Religious Left?
(Saturday, 4:30 p.m.)
The Texas Freedom Network is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether a Houston-based nonprofit foundation and its backers improperly sought to drag churches into Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign in 2006.
Tax records just uncovered by TFN indicate that a Houston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit called the Niemoller Foundation, created in May 2005, spent about $1.26 million in 2005 to fund the activities of the Texas Restoration Project. The foundation’s list of four “substantial contributors” included three major donors to Rick Perry’s political campaigns over the years: San Antonio businessman Jim Leininger, Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, and East Texas chicken tycoon Bo Pilgrim. The fourth donor listed by the foundation, beer and wine distributor Don O’Neal of Colleyville, has also given smaller amounts to Perry campaigns.
The Texas Restoration Project hosted thousands of pastors and their spouses at six “Pastors’ Policy Briefings” in 2005, at a time when Republicans Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and state Comptroller Carole Strayhorn were considering seeking their party’s nomination for governor. They sponsored a seventh event to celebrate Gov. Perry’s inauguration in 2007. Gov. Perry spoke at all seven “briefings.” No other candidates or potential candidates for governor in 2006 received invitations to speak.
Come hear why the religious right's dream for America is a nightmare.
Rev. Barry Lynn's evening presentation will focus on the explosive issue of religion in public schools, explaining why true religion doesn't need the government's assistance.
You're invited to join the Texas Freedom Network Board of Directors for...
TFN's 12th Anniversary Celebration "Let Freedom Sing!"
Saturday, October 6, 2007
7:30 - 11:00 p.m.
La Zona Rosa
612 W. 4th St.
Austin, TX 78701 Click here to RSVP
The evening will feature live performances by Skyrocket! and the phenomenal Ruthie Foster, delicious food from local caterers, one of the best silent auctions in town, and a fantastic live auction not to be missed. Please join the festivities by purchasing tickets or signing up as a sponsor today!
Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, comments on Sen. Barack Obama's controversial recent speech about religion and the Democratic Party over at Huffington Post.
And everyone wants the Founding Fathers are their side -- even Christians and secularists. The battle continues, but, as one scholar put it:
"I hope the evangelicals [who claim Founders as their own kind] and the people who say the Founders were atheists or agnostics will do more reading."
There's also news of a 72-foot sea-foam-green Statue of Liberation -- a replica of the Statue of Liberty holding a cross instead of a torch -- being erected in front of the 12,000-member World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church in Memphis.
As election season heats up, an interfaith group of clergy is launching a campaign to protect Texas churches and other houses of worship from partisan political battles.
“Dragging churches into partisan politics endangers the integrity of our houses of worship and is disrespectful of the faith and beliefs of all congregants,” said Father Samuel Hose, pastor of St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Round Rock.
Hose and more than 100 other Texas clergy have already signed on to the Respect Our Faith campaign. The Texas Faith Network, a project of the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, is sponsoring the campaign.
The campaign calls on clergy and laypeople to pledge to promote civic engagement in congregations while still protecting sacred spaces from partisan politics. These pledge signers will also work to educate congregants about the campaign.
“This campaign is not intended to make houses of worship ‘politics-free’ zones,” said Rabbi Neal Katz of Congregation Beth El in Tyler. “The goal is to stop politicians from using our sacred spaces to divide people of faith for partisan political gain.”
The campaign’s launch comes just four months after the Internal Revenue Service reported that the incidence of improper political activity by charities and churches has been sharply increasing. The IRS has investigated churches in various states after complaints that pastors endorsed from their pulpits Republican or Democratic candidates for office.
In Texas pressure groups such as the Texas Restoration Project have recruited pastors in an effort to make churches into partisan political machines backing favored candidates, issues and viewpoints to the exclusion of all others.
“Clergy can protect the integrity of their houses of worship by ensuring that all political viewpoints are respected in their congregations,” said the Rev. Gerald Britt, a Baptist pastor and executive director of Central Dallas Ministries.
Politicians should not exploit people of faith by seeking or accepting the endorsement of their churches and other houses of worship, said the Rev. Timothy Tutt, pastor of United Christian Church in Austin.
“Our campaign is a line in the sand,” Tutt said. “We are putting politicians on notice that ‘enough is enough’ – keep partisan politics out of our houses of worship and respect the faith of all Texans.”
Clergy and laypeople can learn more about the campaign at www.respectourfaith.org.
Stories about yesterday's launch of the campaign can be read in:
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gives Christian theme park tax-exempt status:
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has signed into law a bill that would grant theme parks that display, exhibit, illustrate and interpret biblical manuscripts the same tax-exempt status as museums.
The law is the product of a four-year legal battle involving the Holy Land Experience, a live-action biblical museum in Orlando, developed by Zion's Hope, a nonprofit Christian ministry that oversaw it for its first four years.
. . .
Guests of the Holy Land Experience walk through a 15-acre walled city that depicts Israel during the life of Jesus. There are geographical replicas of historical sites and theatrical renditions of biblical events. Most notably, the park is home to a scriptorium where the oldest artifact is an approximately 4,350-year-old votive nail on which ancient Babylonian worshippers scribbled prayers to their gods.
In other news, Pope Benedict XVI tells Catholic clergy to stay out of politics.
Also, Lou Dobbs takes some time away from the immigration debate to give a good critique of the under-funding of American public schools.
And, finally, out of Georgia comes a story discussing the lengths some conservative Christians will go to in an effort to keep kids from learning about evolution (read: science).
On April 25, 2005, during a meeting about parent complaints with [an evolution teacher's] principal, Rick Conner, she recalled: "He took a Bible off the bookshelf behind him and said, 'Patty I believe in everything in this book, do you?' I told him, 'I really feel uncomfortable about your asking that question.' He wouldn't let it go.'" The next day, she said, in the lunchroom, "he reached across the table, took my hand and said: 'I accept evolution in most things but if they ever say God wasn't involved I couldn't accept that. I want you to say that, Pat.'"
Once DeLay finished testifying, Sparks explained he could either leave or stay for the rest of the proceedings.
"My recommendation is to run like a rabbit," Sparks quipped according to an Austin American-Statesman account.
Baptist historian Walter Shurden, director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., warns that there is a growing theocracy in the United States and Texas.
"I am suggesting . . . that there are American Christians for whom the adjective is more important than the noun. I am suggesting that some Christian churches in our country have become political temples and that some clergy have embraced willingly the title of 'patriot pastors.' I am suggesting that theocrats have an eye on the machinery of the national and state governments, and they make no apology for it."
In response to U.S. Rep. John Carter's comment that "there is no racial bias in Texas," the state's civil rights advocates are hitting back with facts. (Also, check out a great comment in our diary yesterday on DailyKos showing just how many racist organizations exist in Texas.)
And, finally, prominent black leaders said Monday they will organize against Christian conservatives they say have used gay marriage and abortion to distract from larger moral issues such as the war, voting rights, affirmative action and poverty. Yay!
