As you can imagine, I get lots of emails. I try to answer most of them as soon as I get them. Some emails take a little more time. Every once in a while I get what I call a “Tar-Baby”[1] email. Once you respond to a “Tar-Baby” email, there is no way to extricate yourself from it. No matter what evidence you offer in response, the emailer, instead of answering the evidence, brings up another line o [...]

Conservative Christians are the target of the claim that religion and politics do not mix. But there is almost no criticism of mixing religion and politics by liberal and left-leaning political groups. Alan Colmes, who sits in the liberal chair across from Sean Hannity on FOX’s Hannity and Colmes, follows liberal religion talking points when he claims that Jesus “believed the rich should give to t [...]

How can there be civil discourse with someone who believes he has “heard it from on high” and enacts laws based on the certainty of belief in a highest authority? “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” It’s the idea of absolutism mixed with the compulsion of civil government that is troublesome to many people. What few people seem to realize is that there are all types of non-religious [...]

All the God-talk in politics is upsetting some people. The media are picking up on this uneasy feeling among the electorate and are fanning the flames of a growing hostility in order to disenfranchise Christian conservative votes. Mitt Romney was so pressured by those questioning his Mormon faith that he addressed the issue similar to the way JFK did in September of 1960. It hasn’t helped that rad [...]

“The Founders of the United States . . . understood that religious freedom was necessary to the ultimate health of the new country. They (perhaps especially Madison) believed in a ‘free market’ for religious ideas, thinking that in such an atmosphere the best religion would prevail without government aid.”[1] “When I heard there were apprehensions that the pope of Rome could be the President of th [...]

On Saturday, August 4, 2007, the House of Representatives passed a $16 billion increase in taxes on oil companies. Actually, this is a lie. Oil companies, like every company in America, see taxes as the cost of doing business. Any tax increase will be passed onto consumers. If the voting public supports this increase, then they have only voted for a tax increase on themselves. The profits oil comp [...]

Cal Thomas, before he was a regular commentator for FOX News Watch and a syndicated print columnist, was the vice president of the Moral Majority from 1980 to 1985.1 While Thomas is still a conservative Christian, he has for some time called on Christians to modify their interest in politics. His first contribution to evangelical disengagement from politics was a book he co-authored with Ed Dobson [...]

A series of articles have been published since the death of Jerry Falwell that encourage Christians to take a non-Falwellian approach and get out of politics. Daniel Vestal, a former Baptist pastor writes that it’s “time to unyoke Christians” and “party politics.”[1] I don’t find Vestal making the same argument to liberal Christians and their identification with the Democrat Party. It seems that o [...]

Numerous currents were coming to a head in the late seventies that few people could have foreseen, the catalyst being the 1973 pro-abortion decision.[1] Jerry Falwell became the point man for an already growing number of Christian activists and organizations. His visibility allowed the numerous and less prominent groups to gain a constituency without the attendant publicity and hassle. No one pred [...]

In a 5–4 judicial squeaker, the Supreme Court ruled that a ban on partial birth abortions is constitutional. The pro-abortionists are hysterical. What’s instructive is how the pro-abortion position is being argued. Maureen Downing, writing the lead editorial in the April 20, 2007 issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (A10), is a good example of purposeful obfuscation. She begins by claiming th [...]

Hugo Chávez is a hero to many in South America. “He roams Latin America, hurling insults at President Bush, sneering at the United States as the enemy ‘empire’ and spending billions in oil money to undermine Washington wherever he can.”[1] The poor consider him to be a “liberator.” “I think God sent him,” Omaira Perez believes. “I think he’s the reincarnation of Simón Bolívar,” the nineteenth-cent [...]

I received an email from a “library specialist” who responded to the following statement made by me: “Theocracy is an inescapable concept. The rejection of one theocratic government leads to the choice of another theocratic government.” She offered the following objection: The above statement is not true. There are other forms of dictatorship or autocracy that have nothing to do with God or with b [...]

Once again, the religious vote is being courted by presidential wannabes. Beware of politicians and their religious rhetoric. Jimmy Carter ran as a “born-again Christian” in 1976. It was the first time in a national election that evangelicals were recognized as an identifiable voting block that could impact an election. The media did not know how to evaluate Carter’s religious rhetoric. Kenneth Br [...]

The other side finds a way to get its people involved, to raise money. Our side is thinking about something else. —James Dobson Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is dealing with the issue of homosexual clergy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church must come to a conclusion on whether practicing homosexual pastor Bradley E. Schmeling of St. John’s Lutheran Church should be relieved of [...]

Since the results of the November 2006 election were so dismal, a number of Christian leaders are reassessing Christian involvement in politics. One editorial writer argued that time and energy have been lost with little to show for the effort. Can you imagine what our nation would be like today if Christians had not become politically active? This is not to say that politics is the solution to ou [...]

Can the gospel and social activism co-exist? Should Christians involve themselves in the world by participating in politics, pursue advanced degrees in education, medicine, science and law, produce films on a wide range of subjects, seek careers in journalism, and develop non-governmental programs for long-term social reform based on a well thought out biblical worldview? Or should Christians spen [...]

It had to happen. What if a Muslim won election in America? On what standard would he bind himself and the declaration of his oath to uphold the Constitution? Well, it has happened. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from the Minnesota House of Representatives who recently became a United States Congressman, is a Muslim who wants to take the oath of office on the Koran. First, the Koran calls for jihad aga [...]

William McKenzie, an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News, has written “Barton: new face of the religious right?”[1] The “Barton” is David Barton of Wallbuilders. Barton has been instrumental in reintroducing Americans to their rich Christian heritage. He is also involved in the Republican Party. Williams considers Barton to be “on the next wave” of leadership of the Christian Right. Th [...]

When Pastor Todd DuBord of Lake Almanor Community Church in Northern California listened to the tour guide at the Supreme Court building describe the friezes, he was in shock. I’ll let him tell it: When she began to speak about the history and architecture of the four marble friezes, which circle the top of the walls on the inside chamber of the Court, I listened intently. The first shock ca [...]

Barry W. Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a lawyer, and the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. In his latest book Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom, Mr. Lynn levels a left-wing attack on biblical ethics. Consider his discussion of the Sixth Commandment: The Sixth Commandment states, “You shall not kil [...]