Religious Right

The How to Take Back America conference, to be held in St. Louis Sept. 26, will tackle topics like “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists” and “How to counter the homosexual movement.” And one of its featured speakers will be Minnesota’s own Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Minneapolis pastor John Piper seems to have sprouted the idea that God sent a tornado to the Minneapolis Convention Center last Wednesday to express his displeasure that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was considering relaxing its teachings on LGBT issues. But his statement has blossomed among theologians and members of the religious right chiming in with their own answers to the question: Did God send the Minneapolis tornado because Lutherans were voting on gay issues?

The religious right is ramping up its campaign against health care reform, even joining with the “tea party” movement to encourage conservative Christians to swamp town hall meetings. Minnesota’s religious right leaders say that the health care reform package is against God’s plan for health care and that Christians should go to community forums and “read them the riot act.”

The Christian Coalition is making a comeback thanks to former Minnesota campaign strategist, Jack St. Martin. St. Martin and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed have launched the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a new group that’s been described as the “Christian Coalition 2.0.”
The new organization will feature Reed as the group’s head, and St. Martin [...]

A Wisconsin couple was arrested on Saturday for distributing bibles without permission at Twin Cities Pride, Minnesota’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender celebration. After Brian and Doris Johnson, self-described “born-again Christians,” were denied a vendor table at the festival, the couple took matters into their own hands.

The Family Research Council has announced that Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be a featured speaker at September’s Values Voter Summit. The annual conference hosts leaders from the anti-gay rights and anti-abortion movements, and last year was host to the controversial “Obama Waffles” flap.
Other confirmed speakers this year include American Family Association president Don Wildmon, Eagle [...]

After a several-month hiatus, Katherine Kersten’s lightning rod-conservatism is back at the Star Tribune, and her edgy, faith-tinged opinion hasn’t failed to disappoint those looking for controversy.
Her Sunday-only column this week took aim at atheism and what she perceives as its detrimental impact on society. She argues that without faith in God, people have no [...]

The Associated Press asks prominent evangelicals and leaders of the religious right if Jesus would condone torture. Some evangelicals say every life is sacred and torture is not peaceful and therefore incongruent with Christian teachings. But religious right leader Gary Bauer says that while Jesus wouldn’t torture, he would permit his followers to do so.

Openly gay  Iowa state Sen. Matt McCoy says that same-sex marriage is in his state to stay following a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex couples to wed there in 21 days. Religious right leaders immediately vowed to fight the decision with a constitutional amendment as they did with Prop 8, but Iowa [...]

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has called President Obama an “anti-Catholic politician” and has condemned the University of Notre Dame for inviting Obama to speak at the school’s graduation in May.