Religion in the news - round-up

Texas State Board of Education (Dominated by 10 Republicans with only five Democrats in opposition) decides, without using any testimony from historians, sociologists, or economists, that Senator Joe McCarthy's suspicions were confirmed, that Milton Friedman and Frederick Hayek should be added to the textbooks as economists to study and that Thomas Jefferson is to be tossed out and St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin brought in as influences on the Founding Fathers. Worthy people, of course, but Jefferson was staunchly secular and the two named replacements were religious people.

"Glenn Beck has repeatedly attacked the concept of social justice and churches that promote it, asserting that it is 'code language for Marxism' and warning that 'when you see those words, run.'"
Beck: "...social justice and economic justice are code words. Look for those code words, and then ask your church, 'What do you mean by that? What is that?' Because they're code words..."
The piece doesn't mention Methodism or any other type of non-Evangelical Protestantism, but I think we can safely assume that the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) would be on Beck's target list.

The religious right appears to be unhappy sharing the same party with the teabaggers and corporate enablers.

And no, the teabaggers of the right wing have nothing in common with liberals. There's simply not much prospect of all of us ever working together to solve common problems. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, is a devoted follower of Ayn Rand and has a considerable following in the Republican Party. Unfortunately, that means he doesn't see the Bush years as disastrous (Speaking here in an economics sense). He sees them as bright, happy days where the right philosophy was applied.

Here's a dose of reality to counter Ryan's notion:

Jane Hamsher, the proprietress of firedoglake.com, has long had a real problem with both the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood for being in the tank for abortion opponents. They were both caught off-guard and completely flat-footed when Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) sprang his antiabortion-rights health care provisions on the House right before their bill was passed. The good news is that NARAL and Planned Parenthood have both denounced the Stupak provisions, but "...neither NARAL nor Planned Parenthood scored either the House or the Senate bill — making a complete mockery of their entire scorecard system."

Thankfully, Stupak and his provisions have run into problems, even though none of those problems can be traced to either NARAL or Planned Parenthood.

On the even-more-positive side for news on health care, serious issue is taken with Representative Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) position that if we can't get the public option into the health care bill right now, that it's doomed never to go in.

Had to shake my head when I saw this: Iran is prosecuting people who tortured dissidents while the US feels free to lecture other countries, including Iran, on human rights.