The group, Spirit of Faith Community, is planning a Wednesday afternoon demonstration at Bachmann’s Woodbury office using the biblical story of loaves and fishes to convince her to support a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans to help create jobs.

“Jesus would support this bill,” said Brandon Nessen, the group’s spokesperson. “Ask the wealthiest to contribute so that ordinary families can get back on two feet again.”

The group will re-enact the biblical story of Jesus Christ using either five or seven loaves of bread and several small fish, depending on the version of the story, to feed thousands of starving people. The story is seen as a lesson to help the less fortunate.

The event is being organized by members of the “religious left,” according to a press release. “A group of church-going progressives will descend on her Woodbury office to ask her to support President Obama’s jobs bill, which would use revenue from taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pay for infrastructure projects and other bipartisan policies aimed at stimulating job growth,” the group’s statement said. “The group will reenact a version of the biblical story of Loaves and Fishes to demonstrate that Jesus created abundance from apparent scarcity just as Congress could do with the President’s jobs package.”

The Spirit of Truth Faith Community describes itself as “a faith community from the Christian tradition that strives to put love and justice at the center of everything we do. We are a group of people who realized we wanted to live out our values of love and justice, and that we needed a faith community to do it.”

Southern Illinois University sociologist Darren Sherkat posts on his blog a brief rundown of analysis he performed on raw data from 2010 that GSS recently released. Sherkat reports that for the first time in American history, same-sex marriage has more support than opposition, a massive shift from the first time GSS asked the question just 22 years ago, when more than three-quarters of Americans opposed same-sex marriage and only 12.4 percent supported it.

Image courtesy Darren Sherkat

The findings come on the heels of January’s publication in the most recent issue of sociology journal Social Science Research of a paper entitled “Religion, politics, and support for same-sex marriage in the United States” that Sherkat co-authored. Using 2008 data, Sherkat and his colleagues broke down support for same-sex marriage along religious and political lines. The results, though hardly surprising, paint an interesting picture of the origins of people’s opinions on same-sex marriage. Sherkat has posted some of the findings on his blog, including a graph showing the relationship between political affiliation, degree of fundamentalism and support for same-sex marriage among those who identify as Christians.

Almost inevitably, “philosophical” Christians who believe that the stories in the Bible are fables designed for moral instruction were much more likely to support same-sex marriage than both those who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and literalists who believe the Bible depicts the actual history of the world. Biblical literalists offered the most opposition to same-sex marriage, and Democrats of all types were significantly more likely than their Republican counterparts to support same-sex marriage.

Image courtesy Darren Sherkat

“Jack, have you no decency? Have you no shame?” Paul asked Conway during the fourth of five scheduled debates between Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates.

Paul said Conway’s actions were “a disgrace” that should disqualify Conway from the heated contest Kentuckians will decide Nov. 2.

The debate was full of barbed exchanges such as these, but Conway held his ground and continued to ask Paul why he would voluntarily join a group like the one he participated in at Baylor. Paul refused to answer and declined to shake Conway’s hand at the end of the debate.

On a related note, there’s a new PAC with a tongue-in-cheek name, Americans for America — tagline: “If you’re not with us… You must Hate America” — that’s attempting to run its own radio commercials against Paul that tie the candidate’s laissez-faire attitude towards mine safety to the recent near-disaster in Chile. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it leaps on Paul’s previous comment that “accidents happen” in a bid to galvanize the state’s sizable coal worker population to take a long look at Paul’s stance on workplace safety regulations.

They both answered no, but the first full debate for the Board featured lengthy conversations about Christianity and creationism, as well as the role of sex ed in public schools. The Texas Independent has the story.

Glenn Beck speaks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the Restoring Honor rally on Aug. 28. (Patrick Caldwell)

When Glenn Beck scheduled a mass rally for Aug. 28 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, many were skeptical of his claim that the proceedings would be fully nonpolitical, especially with former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin scheduled to speak. To the surprise of his liberal critics, Beck held largely true to his word at Saturday’s event, the Restoring Honor summit. Palin spoke primarily as the mother of a combat veteran. Beck discussed the country’s founding fathers at length, but barely mentioned today’s politicians or parties. Attendees largely heeded Beck’s call to leave all political signs at home. One message rang loud and clear throughout the speaker system lining the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool: America is a godly nation, and preferably of the Christian variety.

[Congress1] Across town, the previous day, Tea Party organizers held a markedly different meeting. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) hosted the Defending the American Dream summit. It left history and religion almost entirely behind, instead focusing on taxes, the scope of governmental regulation and organizational efforts to support “free-market” candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

These two events presented a fractured picture of the nation’s farther-right grassroots-focused politicos, blanket-termed the Tea Partiers. Supporters of the movement often describe it as an uprising of the people, and it is popular: Though estimates vary, the Restoring Honor event likely drew at least 80,000, and thousands gathered for AFP’s conference at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel’s ballroom. But beyond popularity, the similarities between the rallies were few. Restoring Honor proffered grand statements on the country’s religious nature and the need to return to an ideal of traditional American values. AFP burrowed down on the anti-governmental regulation topics that animate business executives.

AFP’s position as one of the main monetary backers of the Tea Party is well established by this point. Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch bankroll AFP, which just launched its Remember November campaign to sway the midterm elections, kicking off with a $4.1 million ad buy targeting two dozen congressional Democrats. At Friday’s summit, AFP offered activist-training panels and set up a phone bank so that conference attendees could stop in to make calls throughout the day.

Restoring Honor, on the other hand, was heavy on inspiration, filled with religiously themed stories of individual triumph. Few lines received louder applause than mentions of God or Jesus. The whole event had the atmosphere of a televised megachurch sermon, only with a little more patriotic discussion and more flags.

Beck himself credited the success of the rally to God answering his prayers. The event was hosted as a fundraiser for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that provides education funds to the children of soldiers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Beck described a moment when he prayed to God, worried that there was no possible way the event would reach its fundraising goal near the scheduled date. Just two days later, Beck said, without his mentioning his concerns on air or to friends or family, the required $600,000 in donations came through.

“I come to you as someone that will declare their principles and their values. We can disagree on politics, we can disagree on so much. These men and women here don’t agree on fundamentals. They don’t agree on everything that every church teaches. What they do agree on is God is the answer,” Beck said near the end of the rally.

Speaker after speaker lamented the current state not of politics, but of culture: America needs a return to tradition, to the ideas and ways of the founding fathers. While there were fewer political signs and colonial garb than at past Tea Party gatherings, the Mall was a sea of flag paraphernalia. Red, white, and blue were the dominant colors as far as the eye could see.

AFP’s summit, in contrast, was a largely business-casual affair. Panels drilled down on topics such as how to discuss economics with your friends or the threat of Democrats passing legislation during a lame duck session. There were panels like “Free Speech vs. Media Reform,” “Finding Common Ground with Local Chambers and the Business Community” and “State Budgets in Crisis.” The closest the proceedings got to rabble-rousing was a breakout session titled “Repealing ObamaCare.”

Indeed, the social issues that have animated other rallies received scant mention. Washington Post columnist George Will, accepting AFP’s highest award and discussing education policy, noted that the focus should be on parent-child ratios rather than teacher-child ratios. But it went little further than that. Instead, the speakers discussed things like the estate tax and the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts. When Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) gave one of the keynote addresses in the evening, some of the loudest audience applause came while she railed against the Obama administration’s interventions in the private market.

Still, the conferees in the hallways were happy to discuss more populist grist. Nancy Gingrich, a friendly retired woman who had traveled by bus from Georgia, readily listed her concerns with the Obama administration. Not only does she fully believe that President Obama is secretly a Muslim, Gingrich also questions whether Attorney General Eric Holder may be hiding his Islamic intentions as well.

And attendees such as Gingrich demonstrate that while the AFP and Beck rallies seemed polar opposites, they in fact represent two sides of the same political coin. Pundits are too quick to label the Tea Party movement a grassroots uprising, or a secretive operation funded by billionaire libertarians. As is usually the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle: The Tea Party movement receives support and guidance from organizational forces like AFP, but is comprised of folks like Gingrich getting on buses and showing up at rallies.

What it also sounds like is … Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Dana Priest reports:

The Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid “adverse events,” the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims.

At least we know now that extremists of all stripes agree that U.S. Muslims shouldn’t serve in the U.S. military, an institution through which so many Muslim-Americans have heroically given their lives for their country. The more polite version of this rancid argument is provided by none other than Bill Kristol.

Whole letter after the jump.

Jihad at Fort Hood

Every American this morning should be outraged not only about the murderous rampage against U.S. soldiers in Ft. Hood, Texas, by Major Nidal M. Hasan, but also by the sickening effort of Big Media, and even some U.S. officials, to deceive us about what has taken place.

For eight years we have been fighting radical Islamists around the world, and we have been the victims of jihadist attacks by lone radical Muslims repeatedly here in the U.S. Yet as the story broke of the carnage yesterday, 13 dead and 30 wounded, virtually every major media outlet, along with our own government, seemed to have as their main goal convincing us that the event had nothing to do with terrorism or radical Islam.

But minute-by-minute, more information is coming to light that can’t be ignored. We have found out that six months ago Major Hasan may have defended Muslim suicide bombers on his web page, comparing such acts to the sacrifice a U.S. solider makes when he falls on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Col. Terry Lee, who worked with the killer, said Major Hasan had said, “Muslims shouldn’t be fighting Muslims.” Back in June, when a Muslim convert assassinated a U.S. soldier at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, Col. Lee said that Major Hasan seemed happy about the event and that he was confronted by other officers. (You may recall that it took days for Obama to acknowledge that attack, yet the White House issued a rare Sunday statement when late-term abortionist George Tiller was killed.)

In recent weeks, while off the base, Major Hasan started wearing Arabic and religious clothing. He passed out Korans on the morning of the shooting. Survivors in the facility where Major Hasan went on the attack reported that he yelled, “Allahu Akbar,” (Allah is great) before he opened fire – the same words shouted by the jihadists on 9/11 and which have been repeated by our enemy in every attack since.

Nor is this an isolated incident. In June 2003, Sergeant Hasan K. Akbar attacked his fellow soldiers as they gathered in Kuwait to start the liberation of Iraq. He killed two officers and wounded many more. Numerous plots by American Muslims have been uncovered in recent years to attack Fort Dix, the Quantico Marine Corps base and other military facilities.

No one is suggesting that an Al Qaeda operative contacted Major Hasan and ordered yesterday’s attack. But the evidence certainly indicates that Major Hasan was becoming more and more committed to radical Islam and growing increasingly hostile to the American military that paid for his education and repeatedly promoted him. NPR reports, “Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work… He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues…”

I understand the media’s politically correct mindset. What is inexcusable is why the military and the FBI continue to be so reticent about acknowledging the nature of the enemy we are confronting. Instead of going into denial, our military, the FBI and other intelligence agencies need to admit the obvious. While thousands of loyal American Muslims have served in the military, and some have died with other Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are also “sleeper cells” or “sleeper individuals” who are jihadist ticking time bombs inside our own ranks. Similar attacks are inevitable the longer our leaders engage in self-deception. The brave men and women in uniform, who are on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, should not have to worry about being killed at home by the same enemy they are fighting abroad.

Obama’s “Shout out”

As details of the Ft. Hood carnage poured in yesterday afternoon, the White House announced that President Obama would make a statement at a previously scheduled event. Close to 5:00 PM, cable stations switched to cover the president’s remarks as he was getting ready to speak at a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Interior Department. What happened next has callers to talk radio shows all over the country outraged.

Instead of bringing a somber demeanor into the room, the president seemed to many to be light-hearted and frivolous. He thanked various staffers, and then said he wanted to give a “shout out” to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, who he incorrectly identified as a “Congressional Medal of Honor” winner. After several minutes of banter, the president read a somber, brief statement about the shootings. Increasingly, this White House seems “tone deaf.” How hard is it to realize that this was not a time for joking or “shout outs.” In fact, it would have been more appropriate to cancel the speech and make a reassuring statement from the White House on the events in Texas.

This morning, the president made another statement ordering flags to fly at half-staff until Veterans Day. But he also cautioned us not to “jump to conclusions” until we have all the facts. (The last time there was a pending law enforcement issue, the president was the first to jump to conclusions when he said the Cambridge Police Department “acted stupidly” for arresting his friend Professor Louis Gates.)

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 Tiller, or the killing of police in Pittsburgh, or the assault on the Holocaust Museum to white men as a whole would rightfully be seen as idiotic, there are those who sit poised and prepared assign the alleged actions of one man to an entire people. This is, quite frankly, the best reaction groups like Al Qaeda could hope for–the strength of their narrative of a war between Islam and the West ultimately rests on our own actions. We should not indulge them or those that share a similar worldview.

I wrote a very long piece about Serwer’s last point way back in 2005.

Again, this is a teachable moment. Already I’m seeing conservative writers on Twitter start to set themselves up as the real victims of PC hysteria for daring to oh-so-bravely point out that Hasan is a Muslim Muslim Muslim. Let’s not let anyone get away with euphemism or prejudice. Those in the media who insist on pointing out that Hasan is a Muslim should have to account for why, exactly, they find that characteristic so significant. Chances are they can’t and won’t — because few people want to face up to their own bigotry, and fewer still will want to do so in public.

Actually, it’s only common in Christian cemeteries. You won’t find a cross in the resting places of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus, Jacobi notes, adding “How did this man ever get a reputation as an intellectually respectable conservative judge?”