President Bush has pledged a quarter of the $15 billion he has set aside for AIDS programs to religious organizations, despite the fact that many of these groups have little or no experience with the disease or ties to the continent most affected by the disease, Africa.

Bush committed the money after a group of conservative […]

In a last minute move Sen. John Kerry has declared he will move to filibuster Alito. Kerry’s call was immediately echoed by a number of Democrats, including fellow Massachusetts Sen. Kennedy.
Be sure to take action yourself here! Encourage your Senators to stand up for our rights and support the filibuster.

Or call them directly. […]

In lieu of Senate Democrats taking a meaningful stand against Alito, the New York Times editorial board has called on our legislators to grow a spine and filibuster this nominee.

From the NYT:
Senate Democrats, who presented a united front against the nomination of Judge Alito in the Judiciary Committee, seem unwilling to risk the public criticism […]

“The United Methodist Church is supportive of stem cell research because of the healing opportunities that it potentially gives us, and we as a denomination are very much interested in health in life.”
Great news in MD! The state today is holding hearings on a variety of stem cell plans. Among those providing testimony are a […]

As we promised in December , South Carolina State Representative Mike Fair has reopened a debate around evolution, hoping to weaken the state’s biology standards enough to include creationism and intelligent design in science classes.
From The State:
An Education Oversight Committee panel took no stand Monday on whether to include new language that would allow […]

An article in the New York Times this weekend highlights a controversy over a recently cancelled ABC reality TV series entitled “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” The series, which was scheduled to begin airing this week, followed seven families as they competed with one another to gain the approval of a largely Republican-Christian neighborhood, in the […]

Mark Oppneheimer has written a great piece talking about the various positions Evangelical’s take regarding their Jewish brethren. Very interesting and worth the read.
To me the most interesting part of the piece was the opening discussion about Pat Robertson’s recent comments regarding Ariel Sharon. As Mark points out Robertson is one of the many […]

We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished since launching DefCon in the fall of last year. We’ve become an organization of 35,000 members and we’ve been working to improve our website and how we involve you, our members, in our campaigns. However, one thing is missing: an official DefCon logo.
Since the DefCon community […]

Thirty-one clergy members from Christian and Jewish faiths submitted a complaint to the IRS regarding an innapropriate relationship between two Columubs, Ohio, churches and the Republican Party. According to The New York Times, the complaint contends that:

Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote […]

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 this morning to uphold Oregon’s physician assisted suicide law. Under the law, physicians in the state are permitted to provide terminally ill patients with the means to end their suffering by choosing to end their life.
While the religious right has labeled such legislation “murder,” actively opposing the personal liberty […]

Despite the cruel inaction of our federal government, Maryland seems posed to join the growing number of states willing to take the issue of stem cell research into their own hands. While this move at first glance is part of an encouraging trend, Maryland Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich needs to take some steps to […]

Two of DefCon’s advisory board members, Kate Michelman and Erwin Chemerinsky, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings this week. Michelman and Chemerinsky will most likely appear before the Committee on Thursday to contribute their expertise to the hearings, however the date could change depending on whether the Committee […]

Justice Sunday III is finally over. As with the previous two events, tonight’s temporary journey into the world of American theocracy came with its fair share of euphemisms and wildly inaccurate hyperboles.
PA Senator Rick Santorum charged liberal judges with “destroying traditional morality, creating a new moral code and prohibiting any dissent.”In similar fashion, Dobson, […]

By Chip Berlet
There is tragic irony in the Christian Right’s Justice Sunday extravaganza occurring the week before the national celebration of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Justice was a theme King returned to time and time again.
In April of 1968, the day before he was assassinated, King spoke at […]

In an increasingly normal turn of events, Mr. Pat Robertson stole the show Thursday stating that Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke was another manifestation of God’s will.
From today’s 700 Club:
“He was dividing God’s land, and I would say, ‘Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European […]