As our society slowly moves toward treating LGBT people with the dignity and equality all human beings deserve, the reaction of religious-right groups has been almost unhinged. Their leaders have adopted increasingly vitriolic and hateful rhetoric in their desperate attempts to defend discrimination. That fact has been on clear display as the Houston City Council’s Committee on Quality of Life […]
Religious Right Watch
The religious right strategically uses religion and religious language, combined with patriotic symbols, to push a political agenda that has little connection to the values of mainstream people of faith. It is, in short, a political rather than religious movement. The Texas Freedom Network has monitored the religious right in Texas since 1995.
Resources
- The Rise of the Religious Right in Texas (2006 Report)
- The Religious Right and the State Board of Education (2008 Report)
- The Religious Right and Sex Education
- The Bible and Public Schools
- How the Religious Right Hijacked the National Day of Prayer (2005 Report)
- The Texas Restoration Project
- David Barton Watch
Why Does the Right Have Such a Problem with History?
What is it with right-wingers who seem to have so much trouble with American history? See this tweet today from Peggy Venable, Texas policy director for the Koch-funded, anti-government Americans for Prosperity: “Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading” — Thomas Jefferson Except that there’s no evidence Jefferson ever said that. The Monticello […]
Extremist Lauded by TX Legislator as a 'Brave Patriot' Wonders if 'Negroes' Better Off as 'Slaves, Picking Cotton'
It turns out that the Nevada anti-government extremist lauded recently by Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, as a “brave patriot” has some pretty offensive things to say about African Americans. Earlier this month hundreds of armed, anti-government “militia” activists converged on Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Nevada. They did so to support Bundy, who has been illegally grazing […]
Rafael Cruz Falsely Claims San Antonio Will Fine Pastors Who Preach Against Homosexuality
Rafael Cruz, the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, is joining David Barton in spreading blatant mistruths about San Antonio’s revised Nondiscrimination Ordinance. That ordinance now bars discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing and public accommodations. Barton told hundreds of pastors gathered in Austin earlier this month that the ordinance bars anyone who criticizes […]
Rafael Cruz: Separation of Church and State Is a 'One-Way Wall'
David Barton wasn’t the only prominent speaker (see here, here and here) at the Texas Renewal Project event on April 3-4 in Austin. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Rafael Cruz, father of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, were among the list of right-wing evangelical speakers at the gathering of hundreds of pastors and […]