Christianity

TPM’s Justin Elliott and Versha Sharma collect statements from conservative groups calling for Muslim-Americans to be purged from the military in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association — well, some American families — writes, “It it is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims [...]

Add another conservative activist to the ranks of people blaming the Ft. Hood massacre on Islam. Here’s Gary Bauer, in his end-of-day email sent to supporters, arguing that while some Muslims are all well and good, “there are also ’sleeper cells’ or ’sleeper individuals’ who are jihadist ticking time bombs inside our own ranks.”
Whole letter [...]

Adam Serwer has an absolutely sterling post about the dangers of assigning collective guilt to American Muslims for the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan:
In the past few months, we’ve seen a number of shootings performed by white men with right-wing fringe beliefs–but while an attempt to assign the responsibility for the murder of George [...]

Ft. Hood’s commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, said today that there are unconfirmed reports that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted “God is great” in Arabic before opening fire yesterday at the Army base. Again: we will soon be able to hear Hasan’s motivations in his own words. Even if he shouted such a thing, it [...]

Susan Jacoby in The Washington Post points out a largely overlooked exchange with Justice Antonin Scalia in that cross case heard by Supreme Court earlier this month. The case revolved around whether the government can keep a war memorial consisting of a solitary cross on public parkland. But while American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Peter [...]

Political candidates often invoke God and spirituality on the campaign trail, but Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign against Torture, would like more pols to live up to those professed beliefs once they’re in office. President Obama, for example, has spoken eloquently of his own religious awakening, and of the importance [...]

In my story today, I quote Gov. Rick Perry’s (R-Texas) incredibly specific reading suggestion for the audience at the Values Voter Summit.
“Lately,” said Perry, “I’ve found myself going back to a book that’s titled ‘The 5000 Year Leap.’”
There were head nods and noises of approval from many members of the audience. That book, written by [...]

The Minnesota Independent reports on the latest craze in debt collection services: invoking Jesus.
“What Would Jesus Do” if he owed money to a collection agency? That’s one of several questions raised by a lawsuit filed in a Minnesota court. A Monticello debt collection company is facing a federal class action lawsuit because it sent out [...]

The National Organization for Marriage has just blasted out a statement from its unofficial (but most prominent) spokesmodel, Carrie Prejean.
I am a Christian and I am a model.  Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. The photos of me taken as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly [...]

Via Adam Serwer, the Atlantic’s Chris Good notes a correlation between church attendance and support for torture in a new Pew study:
A combined 54 percent of at-least-weekly church-goers say torture is either often or sometimes justifiable; for those who attend monthly or a few times a year, that figure is 51 percent; for those who [...]