Diane Vera

Catching up with the Talk to Action blog, about the religious right wing, I find the following: Evangelical Latino Politicians/Pastors Lead Fight Against Same-sex Marriage in New York by Bill Berkowitz, Wednesday, May 20, 2009. About Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), and Ruben Díaz, a New York state senator from the Bronx who is also a Pentecostal minister.

I also came across the following storis about belief in grand conspiracy ideology by "Full Gospel" chaplains in the U.S. military: (1) Conspiracy Theorist Military Chaplains Promote Anti-American Militia Activity by Chris Rodda, Wednesday, May 20, 2009, and (2) Col. Jim Ammerman, Apostle & New World Order Conspiracy Theorist by Ruth, Monday, June 22, 2009. Ruth has also written another recent Talk To Action blog post about grand conspiracy ideology, Conspiracy as Prophecy, Friday, June 12, 2009.

Also on the topic of military chaplains, I found this rather scary post: Obama's [Reported] New Pastor: "First we get the military, then we get the nation" by Chris Rodda, Monday, June 29, 2009, about Lt. Carey Cash, pastor of the chapel at Camp David.

On Sunday, May 17, there were rallies in Manhattan on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue.

( Links to news stories about the rallies )

What's noteworthy here is the leading role of Hispanic Pentecostals. In years past, here in New York City, our local religious right wing consisted primarily of the Catholic hierarchy plus ultra-Orthodox Jews. Pentecostals and other Protestant evangelicals did not play a major political role around here, as far as I could tell. That seems to be changing.

An even more ominous new (as far as I am aware) development is the direct involvement of a Democratic politician, State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. in organizing an anti-gay rally. Politicians, even Republican ones, don't usually take a direct leadership role in activist organizing for or against specific political causes. Usually they'll only lend their name to a cause that's already well-organized and popular among their constituents. Evidently there must be lots of well-organized homophobia in Rubén Díaz's neck of the woods.

( P.S., May 19, 2009: Religious right wing in Nassau County )

Given my interest in building an activist organization against religion-based bigotry (see the blog of New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry), I should attend the following event, here in New York City: Self-Criticism in the American Muslim and Jewish Communities with Reza Aslan, Moushumi Khan, Rabbi Stern, and others.

"Leading American Muslims and Jews look in the mirror and critique their own communities. They point out where leadership falls short in its efforts to create dialogue bewteen the two communities and explore factors that contribute to hostility and suspicion between the two groups."

( Details here )

P.S., 5/8/2008: Apparently this event has been cancelled.

( More info here )

A while back I noticed a trend, among conservative and traditionalist Catholics, to blame the clergy pedophilia scandals on an alleged conspiracy by Satanists to infiltrate the Catholic hierarchy. For more about this, see my article The "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare -- it's BAACK! The alleged conspiracy of "Satanic pedophiles" in the Catholic clergy.

Now it seems that this same alleged Satanist conspiracy is being blamed for clargy sex scandals involving adults too. Not only that, but one priest has even used this claim in an attempt to get himself off the hook.

( Read more )

I just now came across the following: Are the Quakers Going Pagan? by Matthew Streib, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, 4/28/2008. Among other things, this article says:
( Read more )