Congress lends Statuary Hall to religious right activists

[edcantor]

I'm curious about why, exactly, the House Republican leadership is willing to lend these folks Statuary Hall, which is rarely lent to anyone. Would the Speaker's office be equally gracious towards other faith groups or for an atheists' event?

Just to be clear, the point isn't that these religious right figures shouldn't be allowed to host prayer rallies; they obviously should. What's more, whether I find their agenda and/or message offensive is irrelevant. Rather, I'm interested in knowing why this exclusive area of the U.S. Capitol is being made available to fringe, far-right activists, when Statutory Hall usually isn't available to much of anyone for special events.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/08/11598257-congress-lends-statuary-hall-to-religious-right-activists


Further material here:

http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/capitol-circus-religious-right-leaders-plan-dc-prayer-rally-for-evil

[edcantor]

1. Who are these people?

But, as is often the case with the Religious Right, there’s more going on here. When I visited Come Pray With Me’s website to get information about the May 8 event, I immediately noticed that all of the speakers are far-right zealots.

They include Jim Garlow, a California pastor active in Republican politics who has openly endorsed candidates from the pulpit; Bishop Harry Jackson, a Maryland preacher known for anti-gay activism; Alveda King of the extreme anti-abortion outfit Priests for Life and David Barton, the Religious Right’s favorite pseudo-historian.

Then I watched a video of Cummins speaking in Tyler, Texas, in April of 2011 and noticed that it was the usual combination of Religious Right fringe politics mixed with fundamentalist theology. Cummins’ rant was a bizarre cocktail of crazy, mixing assertions that America is a “Christian nation” and attacks on legal abortion and marriage equality with assaults on the Supreme Court’s school prayer decisions and topping it all with a dose of birtherism.

I noticed that Cummins had written a book titled The Church: In a State of Separation. It was available for free on the church website, so I downloaded it to take a look. Let’s just say it was “enlightening.” In fact, my brain is still spinning from this kooky tome.

http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/capitol-circus-religious-right-leaders-plan-dc-prayer-rally-for-evil

[longship]

2. While nobody was looking...

they tore down Jefferson's bust and replaced it with a bust of Thomas Aquinas, replaced the Declaration of Independence with one of those cheesy Ten Commandments tablets from DeMille's movie.

Just kidding, but not so much. These church people really piss me off.

[edcantor]

3. What part of the First Amendment do Republicans fail to understand?

Somehow, we have enabled our most ignorant Republican elected officials to simply ignore the Constitution whenever they wish while many other elected officials sit silent as it happens.

Are there no churches or even parks or hotels or stadiums in DC where space could be rented?

What I would like to know is how much rental was charged to this group. None? An outright gift of federal building usage and untold symbolic promotional value to the Rightest, most loony wings of the Christians in our land ?