Editor: Not an Empty Tome
The general editor of the Bible Literacy Project fires back a defense of the textbook The Bible and Its Influence in response to Sen. Scott Beason’s criticism of the project.
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April 16, 2008
April 11, 2008
Beason Divinity School
Sen. Scott Beason (R - Gardendale) jumps into theological waters and offers his take on “The deception of the Bible Literacy Project” for WorldNetDaily yesterday.
Those can be difficult waters to navigate.
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January 4, 2008
More on Brinson and Iowa
Phillip Rawls for the Associated Press this afternoon:
The chairman of the Montgomery-based Redeem the Vote [Randy Brinson] said Friday he believes his organization’s campaign in Iowa to encourage voter participation by faith-based citizens helped Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama win in party caucuses.
And about the comment from Doug Gross, Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign chairman, that “if Republican turnout today is 80,000 or more, Mr. Romney’s campaign could be in trouble,” well… “With 93 percent of GOP precincts reporting, 112,349 Republicans had participated in their caucus.”
Turnout was at an all-time high, over 346,000 Iowans caucused.
This is going to be an interesting ride.
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January 3, 2008
Brinson’s Huckabee Help
Dr. Randy Brinson, he of the prodigious email list and head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, is among the conservative Christians rallying support for GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in today’s Iowa caucuses. His recent mass email attempts to sway (and encourage turnout among) Iowa’s conservative Christians with faith-based doubts about rival Romney’s fitness as a candidate.
Randy Brinson, a friend of Mr. Huckabee’s who founded the nonpartisan evangelical voters registration organization, Redeem the Vote, sent out another mass e-mail directly criticizing Mr. Romney for “parsing words from his own faith experience as a Mormon and equating it to the Christian faith, which is a particularly difficult Christians to accept.”
“Many in the media have equated this to some kind of religious intolerance among Christians toward Mormons,” Mr. Brinson continued. “The fact is that evangelicals hold no animosity toward any faith but they equally disdain the fact that some want to rewrite the basic truths of the Christian faith to fit their own belief system, or equating Mormonism to another Christian denomination.”
Mr. Brinson added, “If his Mormon faith guided his present moral convictions, what guided him when he was pro-choice and pro-gay rights, since he states he has always been a devout Mormon?”
Doug Gross, Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign chairman, said in The New York Times that “if Republican turnout today is 80,000 or more, Mr. Romney’s campaign could be in trouble.” That would indicate a larger-than-expected evangelical turnout, and presumable good news for former Baptist minister Huckabee.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the caucuses shake out on both sides of the aisle.
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December 3, 2007
Huckabee and Brinson: Match Made in Heaven?
Did you see the weekend’s Washington Post article suggesting that Alabama MD Randy Brinson and his email list of 71 million names get some of the credit for Mike Huckabee’s surge among GOP presidential candidates? The article called it “one of the most coveted lists in Republican politics.”
FWIW, the article did not mention that Brinson is also now head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
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October 18, 2007
State Bd of Ed Approves Bible Literacy Textbook
The State Board of Education has now approved the textbook The Bible and Its Influence for use across the state though some of its members appeared not to know it until after the fact.
The book and its use in schools was a matter of contention in 2006 when a Senate committee voted 4-2 for legislation that would approve the book for use in schools. Then-senator Bradley Byrne (R - Fairhope) objected to what amounted to an end run around the state’s textbook selection process:
“Take the name of the book out [of the legislation authorizing an elective course on the Bible in public schools], and we’re fine,” he said, noting that he has nothing against the book itself but thinks it’s “bad education policy” for the Legislature to put specific textbooks in the Alabama Code.
Sen. Scott Beason (R - Gardendale) “said he didn’t like the book because of its content.” His comment speaks directly to the point of how difficult (or impossible) it is to teach religious issues in public schools to the satisfaction of everyone interested.
Local school boards will decide if they want the textbook used in their local schools.
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May 23, 2007
Three Items on Christian Coalition of Alabama
Three items…
- First, a little more about John Giles’ new group Christian Action Alabama keeping the url for the Christian Coalition of Alabama (http://www.ccbama.org/). Of course that is bound to cause some confusion, but it’s worse than that. There are references all through the site that would mislead readers into believing they were actually at the website for the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
For example, the “Email Alerts” page mentions the “Christian Coalition of Alabama” eight times, as if you are at the Christian Coalition of Alabama web page.
The title bar (at the very top of the browser) for the “Contact Us” page reads “Christian Coalition of Alabama: About Us - Contact Us.” Could it be more misleading? And the email address offered is cca@ccbama.org, which would make sense if you were trying to contact the Christian Coalition of Alabama, but hardly makes sense for Christian Action Alabama.
No wonder there is a suit.
- If you want to see the details of the Christian Coalition suit (discussed at greater length here), you can see the filed papers in a large pdf file (23 MB).
- FYI, Randy Brinson, new head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, was mentioned at the end of a Washington Post article yesterday in a context of how a new generation of evangelical Christians has a broader agenda than their predecessors.
Update: Brinson has agreed to drop the suit and the CAA website has removed many of the references that would make you think you are on a website for the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
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May 21, 2007
What’s Behind the Curtain of Giles’ Christian Coalition?
The head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, Dr. Randy Brinson is suing John Giles, who led the Christian Coalition of Alabama for eight years.
The suit contends that after Giles was asked to resign from the CCA, he has refused to give the group’s current leadership necessary records, including membership and lists of contributors, or to give up its official Web site. The suit contends that the latter has caused confusion, leading many to believe that Giles is still with the organization.
This raises all kinds of interesting questions about why Giles won’t turn over the records. Can you imagine a pastor leaving a church and refusing to turn over the church’s membership records to the new leadership? Can you imagine the outgoing head of a charity refusing to turn over donor lists to the new director?
Why has John Giles so adamantly refused to reveal who has bankrolled the Christian Coalition of Alabama even to the new leadership of the Christian Coalition of Alabama? Would there be more embarrassing revelations like the finding from 2005 congressional hearings that the CCA was using casino money to fight Gov. Siegelman’s proposed lottery? (The CCA claimed they were “tricked.”) Steve Flowers went so far as to say in 2006, “The Coalition headed by John Giles was discredited last year when it was revealed that the group was supported financially by Indian gambling interests.”
And what kind of institution has so little organizational structure that outgoing leadership can prevent new leaders from getting those kind of bookkeeping records? I mean, I can imagine a garden club where an outgoing leader could keep anybody from knowing whose dues were current. But a professional organization?
This really reinforces the idea (suggested previously) that the Christian Coalition has been propped up by donors with a political agenda but has no real organization or membership.
Giles stated “that filing a lawsuit was not the way Christians should handle their differences.” But what is Brinson to do? He’s not asking for monetary damages. Giles has even kept the url for the Christian Coalition’s website (http://www.ccbama.org/) and is using it for his new organization, Christian Action Alabama. The title bar (at the very top of the browser) on every page of the web site except the home page reads “Christian Coalition of Alabama” though the content refers to Christian Action Alabama and has nothing to do with the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
March 7, 2007
Payday Loans Attract Interest
A bill to subject the payday loan industry to the regulation of the Small Loan Act is being introduced by Sen. Bradley Byrne (R - Fairhope) and has the support of Democratic Party Chair Joe Turnham and the Christian Coalition of Alabama.
The banking industry brought suit a few years ago charging that the payday loan industry was operating in violation of the Small Loan Act which limits the interest charged on loans to 36% annually. The case dragged on, and in the interim the legislature passed legislation which specifically removed the industry from the oversight of the Small Loan Act. That legislation allowed payday loan lenders to charge $17.50 for a $100 loan that may be only for two weeks, which amounts to an annual interest rate of over 400%. Sen. Byrne now says he made a mistake supporting the legislation.
Afterward, the courts ruled that payday loans had been subject to the terms of the Small Loan Act up until the time that the new legislation passed.
I know one policy analyst who keeps up with these things who had speculated that the Legislature, having given the authorization for payday loan lenders to operate as they do now, may be reluctant to repeal that authorization.
But there appears to be some momentum toward doing just that… GOP Senator Byrne, Democratic Party Chair Turnham, and the Christian Coalition of Alabama? That’s some broad support.
Don’t expect the industry to go away quietly into the night…
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March 3, 2007
Selma’s Pulpit Visitors
Activities in Selma this weekend commemorate the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march. Selma pulpits are seeing visitors tomorrow, some in a “command performance:”
It was [GA’s U.S. Rep. John] Lewis who invited Obama to Selma a month before Clinton decided to go. And it is Obama, not Clinton, who has been awarded Selma’s prime real estate - the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church where the famous march began.
Clinton will be speaking at the black First Baptist Church a few yards away on Martin Luther King Jr. Street. [Jesse] Jackson and [Al] Sharpton have reserved pulpits at Tabernacle Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church, respectively.
Though curiously, Jackson “will not be coming because of an already scheduled trip to Ghana.”
October 25, 2006
Christian Principles in an Election Year
The National Council of Churches (whose member faith groups “include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations”) offers Christian Principles in an Election Year complete with a companion group study guide. It is also available in a reproducible format in a pdf file.
October 2, 2006
Alternative Faith-Based Voter Guide
From the Associated Press:
Redeem the Vote, a Montgomery-based group that registered thousands of religious voters in 2004, plans to distribute what it calls an “alternative voter guide” on races for statewide offices and the Legislature.
It will list candidates’ responses to a questionnaire about issues of faith, rather than highlighting their responses to hot button issues like taxes.
I know that some legislators are people of faith who are frustrated by surveys circulated by the Organization Formerly Known As the Christian Coalition of Alabama. An objection to such surveys is that by only allowing for one word answers, narrow assumptions are made about what is or is not a Christian response.
Redeem the Vote’s questionnaire asks candidates about where they go to church, their favorite Bible verse, how they will publicly acknowledge their faith, and what role their faith will pay in formulating public policy.
They can give explanations rather than using one word answers like the Christian Coalition of Alabama required.
If we are going to inject the candidates’ faith into the discussion via a questionnaire, I understand the desire to have one that allows for the expression of more of the breadth and depth of candidates’ religious experiences and backgrounds.
“… [A] voter guide that gives a real glimpse into the heart and decision-making process of a candidate is a truer and fairer measurement of a candidate’s moral position,” [Redeem the Vote] founder, Dr. Randy Brinson, said.
State Republican Party Chairman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh responds by objecting to the messenger, not the message, and “calls Brinson ‘a Democrat propaganda machine.’” This despite the fact that “two years ago, Randy Brinson and his group Redeem the Vote helped ‘President Bush by registering 100,000 voters nationwide through concerts by Christian music acts and other events.’” She is “encouraging Republican candidates not to respond to the questionnaire.”
September 27, 2006
GA Christian Coalition Breaks Away
Like Noah and his neighbors, Georgia’s Christian Coalition and the national organization are waving goodbye with no plans to see one another again.
This is the fourth state group to leave the national Christian Coalition. Alabama’s group jumped or was pushed last month.
September 19, 2006
God’s Politics
Jim Wallis of the Soujourners Community, author of God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, has started a new blog called God’s Politics. He and Ralph Reed are in a dialogue (well… an exchange of blog posts) to get it started.
August 25, 2006
Political Plagiarism
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| Judge Roy Moore points to the original author |
I was flipping through some pages last night and saw again the recent quote from House minority leader Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn who charged that the positions taken by the Alabama Legislative Democratic Leadership Council in their Covenant for the Future represented “the worst case of political plagiarism in Alabama history.”
First, I get that Hubbard wants to make an issue of who got to these positions first. But if he really wanted these issues passed, couldn’t he say, “Welcome.”
And then I thought, this is the worst case of political plagiarism in Alabama history?
Which made me wonder if God got as worked up when Judge Roy Moore put a copyright notice on his Ten Commandments monument.
(R) Jeff Sessions (1-19)
(D) Vivian Figures (33-1)
(D) Artur Davis (1-49)
(R) Mike Hubbard (13-1)
(?) David Bronner (OFF)