Here’s a question for Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel – what do you and your organization have to hide?

Liberty Counsel is a Religious Right legal group operating from Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University. It does things like argue that the Ten Commandments should be displayed in public buildings, that all abortions should be illegal and that marriage equality should be denied to gay couples.  Read more

Last month I wrote about Religious Right pseudo-historian David Barton’s new book The Jefferson Lies, which attempts to prove that Thomas Jefferson was an orthodox Christian and not really a strong advocate of church-state separation. Read more

In March, Americans United intervened in Lenoir City, Tenn. after we received reports about a public school that openly favors Christianity. Read more

On May 8, a group called Come Pray With Me plans to hold a prayer service in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.

This is kind of a big deal. Statuary Hall isn’t some sort of public facility that anyone can use. Groups have to get permission from the congressional leadership to hold events there, and it’s not often granted.

So what is Come Pray With Me, and why does it merit this honor? Read more

Is America a fundamentalist Christian nation where government and religion are merged?

Of course not. But if you stopped by the Cannon House Office Building here in Washington, D.C., today, you’d certainly think so.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force commandeered a large room there for the morning and turned it into a fundamentalist revival tent, replete with the usual Religious Right mix of faith and partisanship. Read more

Yesterday Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), issued a rather hysterical email appeal for funds. No news there. Perkins does that all of the time.

This particular message, headlined “Help stop secular tyranny,” took a line that’s increasingly popular with the Religious Right these days: “Woe is me! We’re being persecuted.” Read more

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who is chair of the House Armed Forces Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, has been opening subcommittee meetings with Christian prayers.

“Heavenly Father,…help us to be wise, help us to be good planners and good stewards,” Akin said at the start of a March 29 hearing, according to Congressional Quarterly. “And we pray that you help us with the somewhat busy schedule this morning, and the votes and all. And I pray in Jesus’ name.” Read more

I spent Saturday afternoon in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol at the Unite Against the War on Women rally. Overcast skies and cooler-than-normal temperatures didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of this crowd. Attendees were determined to send a message: Americans won’t stand for an oppressive combination of church and state making our personal decisions for us.

Bruce F. Press Photography Read more

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty of crimes against humanity yesterday for his involvement in a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. I wonder if Taylor’s former business partner Pat Robertson will visit him in jail.

Taylor was convicted by a UN-backed special court on 11 counts of aiding murder, rape, terror and conscription of child soldiers and sex slaves. He supported vicious rebels in Sierra Leone during that country’s 1991-2002 civil war, and in return, received blood diamonds. Read more

In what looks like another example of the Roman Catholic hierarchy’s “war against women,” an Indiana teacher said she was fired by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend (Ind.) because she received in vitro fertilization. Read more