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Weyrich, Who Coined
'Moral Majority,' Dead at 66

OBITUARY

Dec 18, 2008 1:00 PM CST

Weyrich, Who Coined 'Moral Majority,' Dead at 66

Conservative thinker gave name to movement key in GOP rise

(Newser) - Paul Weyrich, the influential conservative who co-founded the Heritage Foundation and coined the term “moral majority,” died today at 66, the Washington Post reports, after years of poor health. A reporter, Weyrich got his Washington entree in 1967 as press secretary for a Colorado senator. At a 1979...

The GOP
Has a God
Problem

OPINION

Nov 19, 2008 11:00 AM CST

The GOP Has a God Problem

Parker: It's time for a break-up with the Christian Right

(Newser) - After getting death threats for dissing Sarah Palin, Kathleen Parker is stirring up trouble in the right-wing ranks again. The Republican Party is going to go the way of the Shakers if it doesn’t lose some of that old time religion, she writes in the Washington Post. The party’...

Clerics to Defy IRS, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

Sep 25, 2008 12:08 PM CDT

Clerics to Defy IRS, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

Ministers aim to test constitutionality of ban

(Newser) - Pastors from 22 states plan to purposely defy the IRS this Sunday by endorsing presidential candidates in their sermons, the LA Times reports. The so-called “pulpit initiative” aims to trigger a legal showdown, testing the constitutionality of the law forbidding such endorsements by tax-exempt groups. “There is nobody...

Why Palin Is
Mac's 'Meal Ticket'

OPINION

Sep 17, 2008 9:19 AM CDT

Why Palin Is Mac's 'Meal Ticket'

The culture of celebrity, evangelical ideals, and small town nostalgia combine to enable Palin's 'outsized' influence

(Newser) - The number of enthusiastic Republicans have doubled in polls since John McCain picked Sarah Palin for his ticket, and Palin figures in slightly more news coverage than her running mate. That might be expected, but she is mentioned 10 times more than Democratic counterpart Joe Biden. Tim Rutten offers up...

How Did Dems Inherit
Ozzie & Harriet Mantle?

OPINION

Sep 5, 2008 5:31 AM CDT

How Did Dems Inherit Ozzie & Harriet Mantle?

Evangelical love for Palin family highlights dramatic switch in 'family values'

(Newser) - The enthusiastic evangelical reaction to a working mother with an unwed pregnant teenage daughter on the GOP ticket highlights the dramatically changing face of conservative Christian America and could spell trouble for the Dems, Hanna Rosin writes in Slate. Evangelicals now actually score worse than the rest of America on...

Evangelicals Fall
for Obama's Line

OPINION

Jul 29, 2008 6:40 AM CDT

Evangelicals Fall for Obama's Line

'Gullible' voters don't recognize 'Marxism couched in religion'

(Newser) - Barack Obama talks such a good game that he may fool a sizable contingent of evangelicals into supporting him, David N. Bass writes in the right-wing American Spectator. "Unlike past Democratic presidential nominees, he's not schizoid when it comes to talking about his own faith (which, admittedly, is a...

Lefty Kinda Still Likes This Guy

OPINION

Jul 17, 2008 2:23 PM CDT

Lefty Kinda Still Likes This Guy

Bush has 'lowered my standards'

(Newser) - “What can I say?” writes left-leaning Jonathan Chait in revealing his continued affection for John McCain. “Bush has lowered my standards.” Remember, McCain was once “the country’s foremost progressive champion”—battling the religious right and tax cuts while pushing immigration and anti-global warming advances....

Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda

BOOK REVIEW

Jul 8, 2008 7:50 PM CDT

Evangelicals' Sex Talk Has Hidden Agenda

Despite racy rants, they push abstinence, anti-gay views: author

(Newser) - Sex is no longer taboo for the religious right—but the evangelical sexual revolution is no liberation movement, historian Dagmar Herzog argues in her new book, Sex in Crisis. Instead, Herzog asserts that “evangelicals, over the last couple of decades, have beaten liberals at their own game by adapting...

Bush Edits Jefferson on Religion

Jul 5, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

Bush Edits Jefferson on Religion

President leaves out phrase condemning 'monkish ignorance'

(Newser) - Thomas Jefferson may be a founding father, but that doesn’t stop President Bush’s speechwriters from editing his words as they see fit, Ed Brayton writes on his blog, Dispatches from the Culture Wars. In a July 4 speech, Bush recited a famous Jefferson quote on “the blessings...

Huffington Unmasks 'Pandering' McCain

OPINION

May 6, 2008 6:37 PM CDT

Huffington Unmasks 'Pandering' McCain

Senator denies not voting for Bush in 2000

(Newser) - John McCain said after the 2000 election he hadn’t voted for George Bush, Arianna Huffington wrote yesterday, and the bombshell has provoked angry denials from the camp of the future GOP nominee, whom she once "admired and even loved." Firing back, the Huffington Post founder further details...

Who Wins the Flip-Flop Primary?

Feb 5, 2008 3:20 PM CST

Who Wins the Flip-Flop Primary?

Romney and McCain spar over mind-changing label

(Newser) - John McCain and Mitt Romney are calling each other flip-floppers in new online ads that mimic a cutting anti-John Kerry 2004 campaign commercial, the Post’s Michael Dobbs reports. The ads copy its use of the "Blue Danube" Waltz to mock each other's changing views on tax cuts—but...

In Shift, Clergy Gives
More Dollars to Dems

Dec 22, 2007 2:05 PM CST

In Shift, Clergy Gives More Dollars to Dems

Donations favor Obama, Clinton over Huckabee

(Newser) - In a shift from 2004, Republican presidential and congressional hopefuls are losing clergy support as measured by campaign donations, Politico reports. According to FEC data, clergy and religious groups have given Dem candidates $367,000 but the GOP just $288,000. Of the Dem haul, Barack Obama leads with $107,...

Huckabee Exposes GOP Fault Line

OPINION

Dec 21, 2007 7:32 PM CST

Huckabee Exposes GOP Fault Line

Populist candidate prompts a Main Street v. Wall Street split

(Newser) - The unexpected surge of populist Mike Huckabee has exposed a core Republican rift, separating the religious right from the financial conservatives, EJ Dionne writes in the New Republic. Hucksters tend to be socially conservative but they're tired of seeing protection of the wealthy prioritized above family values, and they're not...

'Geeky Hip' New Billy Graham Grabs Next Generation

Dec 11, 2007 5:30 AM CST

'Geeky Hip' New Billy Graham Grabs Next Generation

Masses won over by Bell's 'Letterman' style

(Newser) - Bible-thumper Rob Bell wears geeky-hip glasses, once aspired to be David Letterman, and was momentarily poised for rock stardom, reports Time magazine. And he may be "one of the most important 21st Century Christian leaders," according to one biblical scholar. Nine years ago, Bell founded a nontraditional church...

Huckabee: The GOP's Obama?

OPINION

Dec 9, 2007 1:51 PM CST

Huckabee: The GOP's Obama?

Rich: Huck's 'politics of joy' temporarily trumping his rivals' 'Nixonian gloom'

(Newser) - What explains Mike Huckabee’s sudden transformation from long-shot hopeful to polling contender nipping at Giuliani’s heels? It’s not just tardy rallying of the religious right behind the Baptist preacher, argues the New York Times' Frank Rich, but Huck’s Obama-esque rejection of the Rudy-Romney “calling cards...

Senator Attacks Free-Spending Megachurches

Dec 5, 2007 3:34 PM CST

Senator Attacks Free-Spending Megachurches

Tax-exempt status at odds with ministers' perks: Grassley

(Newser) - Sen. Charles Grassley thinks big-spending pastors of so-called “megachurches” might be abusing their tax-exempt status, NPR reports. Ministers in these stadium-sized churches preach a gospel of wealth, and practice what they preach—driving Rolls Royces, flying in private jets, living in mansions. “Maybe that's not illegal,” the...

Anti-Abortion Group to Back Thompson

Nov 13, 2007 7:39 AM CST

Anti-Abortion Group to Back Thompson

NRLC decision could boost his campaign among conservatives

(Newser) - An influential anti-abortion group will endorse Fred Thompson today, despite qualms among the religious right over his hesitancy to see abortion as a federal issue, the Tennessean reports. "The key is how he voted," a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee says. The decision could give...

Robertson Backs Rudy; Brownback, McCain

Nov 7, 2007 10:20 AM CST

Robertson Backs Rudy; Brownback, McCain

Mitt's the loser as religious right lines up

(Newser) - Two Christian leaders took sides in the GOP primary today: Pat Robertson chose Rudy Giuliani and Sam Brownback went for John McCain. The far-right electorate has been generally despondent about its primary choices, and the endorsements are seen as major coups for socially liberal Giuliani and down-but-not-out McCain, Politico reports.

GOP Gays
Feel Party
Has Strayed

Nov 2, 2007 6:29 PM CDT

GOP Gays Feel Party Has Strayed

Focus on fiscal restraint lost in courting Christian conservatives

(Newser) - Log Cabin Republicans are growing in number, but they’re also growing in frustration that the Grand Old Party is abandoning fiscal prudence for social extremism. Claiming 20,000 members in 40 chapters, the 30-year-old gay conservative group says the Republican platform will lose its relevance unless it looks beyond...

Evangelical Semantics Shadow Romney

Oct 30, 2007 4:51 PM CDT

Evangelical Semantics Shadow Romney

In Southern pulpits, 'Mormon' doesn't always equal 'Christian'

(Newser) - Mitt Romney is vying aggressively for the religious right's support, but experts are advising him not to overdo it. Political strategists and religious experts alike caution that it’s dangerous for the Mormon candidate to sell himself as a Christian. Bloomberg looks at the complicated intersection of politics, faith, vocabulary,...