The Wall of Separation Blog

A Columbus, Ohio, minister has come up with a great idea to counter Religious Right propaganda about churches and partisan politics. On Sept. 21, the Rev. Eric Williams, senior pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ, is calling on pastors throughout the country to preach sermons on the importance of church-state separation. The action comes [...]

Yesterday I received a call from an Associated Press reporter in Anchorage who wanted to talk about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s use of religious rhetoric. A video surfaced recently of Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, giving a speech to a group of ministry students at her former church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. During [...]

At the end of this week, the Republican National Convention will come to a close and move the 2008 election season into its final months. With the new VP picks on the tickets and the buzz surrounding the conventions, it wouldn’t be surprising if more religious leaders have the urge to spout off on their picks [...]

The announcement by Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant has drawn an interesting response from the Religious Right: It’s no big deal. James Dobson of Focus on the Family issued a statement lauding the Palins and asserting, “Being a Christian does not mean you’re perfect. Nor does it mean [...]

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have launched a new campaign called the 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal. On the surface, it sounds pretty harmless: register people to vote, pray and work to get people to the polls. But this is the fundamentalist-dominated SBC we’re dealing with here, so things are [...]

Denver’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says he is “tired of people telling religious folks to be quiet in the public square because of constitutional questions of separation of church and state.” And it looks as though the Democratic Party might be tired of hearing from Chaput. Despite being the leader of Colorado’s largest religious [...]

He’s baaaaack! Like Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies, you just can’t get rid of Randall Terry. According to news accounts, Terry and 12 others were arrested yesterday outside the Democratic Convention in Denver. His press release in advance of the event said he and other “Catholic and Evangelical Christians will peacefully ‘break [...]

The Democratic National Convention kicked off yesterday, and I couldn’t help but notice the opening invocation. Polly Baca, a former Colorado state senator, led off with a prayer that mentioned Jesus Christ and ended with her crossing herself “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” That’s how Roman Catholics pray. Others [...]

Last week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal opened the door for state agencies and state contractors to engage in “faith-based” discrimination in hiring. Jindal’s predecessor, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, issued an executive order that banned discrimination in all the areas covered by anti-discrimination laws, including race, religion, gender, national origin, political affiliation and disabilities. Her order added [...]

More and more Americans are expressing discomfort with the idea of mixing religion and politics. A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds 52 percent agreeing that houses of worship should keep out of politics, an eight point increase since 2004. “This marks the first time since the Pew Research Center [...]

I can’t say I agree with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops all that often. The hierarchy’s stands for tax aid to religious schools and against reproductive rights, civil rights for gay people, stem-cell research and other issues are often wrong from my perspective. That’s why I was surprised to see a recent Religion News Service [...]

Right-wing Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity got all cranky on the air the other night about Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn’s complaints regarding the recent presidential forum at Saddleback Church. “Who cares what Barry Lynn says?” he blustered, after cohost Alan Colmes, in an exchange with Pastor Rick Warren, cited Lynn’s take. Since Hannity [...]

When we last caught up with Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition director and disgraced lobbyist, he was flogging his first novel, a political thriller called Dark Horse. The book is not exactly a runaway best-seller. Publisher’s Weekly ran a small (and not terribly positive) blurb and the Buffalo News seemed to like it, but I have [...]

I headed up to New York City this weekend to visit with some friends from college, but before I arrived, I made sure to let them know that on Saturday night, from 6 to 8 p.m., I had to watch the interviews the Rev. Rick Warren was holding with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John [...]

Most political observers will be watching the Rev. Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church tomorrow evening, where Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are scheduled to take part in a presidential forum on faith and values. The Saddleback event is not a debate, and McCain and Obama won’t appear on stage at the same time. But both men [...]

The University of California won a major victory last week when a federal court upheld the university’s decision to deny credit for several Christian high school courses because they were too narrow and not rigorous enough to meet entrance requirements. The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by Calvary Chapel Christian School, five Calvary students and [...]

It’s good to know that there are some members and supporters of Focus on the Family (FOF) who do not believe God is petty and vindictive. These FOF backers spoke up recently after Stuart Shepard, FOF’s director of digital media, made a short video for the Religious Right group’s Web site urging people to pray for [...]

I’m always amazed at the hatred the Religious Right aims at America’s public school system. Last Thursday, Concerned Women for America (CWA) sent out an email with the subject line: “Please Help Our Children.” At first, I thought maybe the group had come up some sort of assistance program for needy youngsters. What an incredibly foolish thought! CWA [...]

The folks at the Alliance Defense Fund seem to think voters vote best when they have no clue what they are voting on. In California, voters will cast ballots in November on Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that, as the title states, “Eliminates the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.” Lawyers for the ADF – the Religious [...]

Even after 28 years of work at Americans United, I am still amazed and appalled at the misinformation, intolerance and just plain of meanness that often erupts when church-state issues appear in the public square. USA Today’s online edition is carrying a Religion News Service account today of developments in a Utah legal dispute over the [...]