Today, the New York State Court of Appeals will decide whether the state’s constitution “allows” same sex couples in New York City the right to marry. Yesterday, Georgia’s highest court declared it would “expedite its review of a ruling that struck down the state’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage.”
Next week the Senate is likely to […]

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. If any of you missed the chat with Michelle Goldberg last week you can listen to it here.
There has also been a great deal of attention brought to DefCon’s most recent ad over the last week, highlighting the religious right’s influence on our nation’s stance on stem cell […]

DefCon advisory board member and author of the recently released Kingdom Coming will be joining us for our third DefCon Book Club chat, today @ 2 p.m. eastern.
Hope you all can join us. The book is VERY powerful, and Michelle is an incredible resource for our organization and the movement in general.
You can […]

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of the popular magazine The Nation, has written her second blog posting about DefCon, this time highlighting our ad in yesterday’s NYTimes. You can see her post here.
Her first post, which came in early May, introduced her readers to our efforts.
The Nation has played a strong role in […]

Today, DefCon launched a major campaign calling on Sen. Frist to put the health of the American people above the agenda of the religious right, and allow for a vote on stem cell research. The campaign includes a new ad, which you can download here (pdf format).
Also, be sure to take action here.

Steven Milloy, the editor of the infamous anti-environmental site JunkScience.com, is apparently expanding his anti-science focus to the field of stem cell research. Today he published this article on FoxNews.com, entitled, Congress Overlooks Stem Cell Fraud and Futility.
From the article:
The Senate is preparing to vote this summer on a bill restoring funding to embryonic […]

UPDATE: A senate committee approved an amendment banning gay marriage this a.m: “‘I don’t need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I,’ Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and […]

In honor of the official launch of her first book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, DefCon advisory board member Michelle Goldberg has posted two pieces over at Huffington Post. As with most of Michelle’s articles they are right on point. You can read them both here.
If you can, pick up a copy of […]

I’m currently reading Michelle Goldberg’s powerful new book, Kingdom Coming, which hits bookstores this Monday (and is the subject of the DefCon book club chat later this month). In the introduction she quotes Ned Ryun, director of Generation Joshua, explaining his strategy to reinsert God, the Bible, and his theology back into the public square: […]

During an April 9th sermon, Bishop Alfred A. Owens — pastor of the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in Washington D.C. – bestowed this piece of first rate intolerance on his congregation:
“It takes a real man to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. I’m not talking about no faggot or no sissy…Wait a minute! Let […]

The Lousiana Senate has passed a bill 34-1 that would allow for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in local government buildings. The bill is strikingly similar to the one passed by the Georgia legislature in March and later signed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue in April.
As in Georgia, the bill stipulates that the […]

Lots of interesting stories in the news this weekend, including a Sunday NYTimes op-ed by none other than Mr. Jerry Falwell.
On Saturday the Washington Post reported that religion is once again rearing its head among Air Force brass .
Maj. Gen. Jack Catton recently emailed fellow Air Force Academy graduates encouraging them to donate […]

On Friday, April 21 DefCon held its second DefCon Book Club Chat with advisory board member and the co-author of the Godless Constitution, Isaac Kramnick. The chat can be accessed here. Isaac led us through a fascinating conversation of the founder’s intentions regarding the separation of church and state, explaining that for many of our […]

Over the last several years stem cell research has assumed a priority position on the religious right’s hit list. Early in their campaign, the group saw success playing off the anti-choice contingent of a population that simply knew too little about this important scientific field.
However, as the potential of stem cell research has become better […]