Religion

The religious right’s annual “War on Christmas” is ramping up early this year, and at least one Minnesota-based company is on its hit list. Targeting retail stores that use the word “holiday” instead of “Christmas,” a trend it says the Nazis began, the American Family Association includes SUPERVALU, Eden Prairie–based owner of Cub Foods, among its targets for using the h-word in its ads.

Bradlee Dean, the founder of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International told the attendees of the group’s “Appeal to Heaven” fundraiser that the media “demonizes” him for bringing his fiery brand of Christianity into public schools. Then he pointed out one of the reporters he feels is behind such attacks, the Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey.

A controversial ministry that says it preaches in public schools held a fundraiser in Bloomington Thursday night, drawing a crowd of about 400 attendees. You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International offered attendees a preview of their new documentary, an appearance by Rep. Michele Bachmann and a fiery sermon by front man Bradlee Dean that called liberals “criminals” and urged attendees to fight a “war” for the faith against liberals.

The two leaders of evangelical ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCR) have chastised President Obama twice in the past two weeks for appearing at public school assemblies in Chicago while he was a U.S. senator. Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillian complain that Obama used high schools to campaign. But they praise their [...]

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation [...]

The Rev. Nate Bjorge quit his position with the First Lutheran Church in Little Falls last week after the church voted to remain a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, voted to allow churches to roster gay and lesbian pastors at a meeting in Minneapolis [...]

Rep. Keith Ellison, speaking at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Friday, said that better relations between the United States and the Arab-speaking world are in the best interests of all of us. But while Ellison seeks  peace, a group of Republicans is embracing the opposite.

Faith leaders from several faith traditions gathered at the Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday afternoon to speak out in support of marriage rights for gays and lesbians in Minnesota.

Civil liberties groups say that You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International — a ministry/punk band that brings its Christian message to public school kids — is causing schools to run afoul of the constitutional principle of separation of state and church. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who says such a separation is a “myth,” will be headlining a fundraiser for the group in November.

Under pressure from the religious-right legal outfit Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the city of Elk River removed an ordinance that banned religious groups from holding worship services in the city’s library. The council voted on Aug. 17 to remove the restriction.