Kyle Mantyla's blog

There is no question that Bryan Fischer played a key role in the resignation of Richard Grenell from his position with Mitt Romney's campaign, as Fischer had  been relentlessly attacking the campaign for having hired an openly gay man to serve as foreign policy and national security spokesman.

And when Grenell finally resigned, Fischer declared it to be a "huge win," saying that the Religious Right had taught Romney a lesson and that the campaign would not make this sort of "mistake again."

And then on Friday, Fischer capped off the crusade by essentially mocking Romney for having caved on this issue to "a yokel like me," saying that his handling of the Grenell situation was now raising questions about Romney's leadership abilities since it showed that he could be "pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America."

But apparently Fischer has since realized that demanding concessions from politicians and then mocking those politicians when then make the very concessions that you demanded might be somewhat hypocritical ... and so yesterday Fischer offered an amazingly back-handed "apology" to Romney, saying that even though the entire fiasco demonstrated Romney's weakness and utter lack of core values, he still deserves credit for having done the right thing in letting Grenell go:

I want to issue what amounts to sort of an apology to Gov. Romney. I was pretty hard on him on Friday and my point on Friday was his waffling when conservatives raised a concern about Richard Grenell - he went silent, he put a bag over Richard Grenell's head, let him fall on his sword, only said supportive things to Richard Grenell after he had resigned - it was an indication of the challenges that we have with Gov. Romney, that he does not seem to have a core set of principles, a core set of values by which he guides himself. And the fact that he could be so - I used the word intimidated or coerced or whatever - could be so influenced by a comparatively small number of conservatives ... and so I think it was illustrative of Gov. Romney's weaknesses and things that we've got to be concerned about.

But, at the end of the day, I didn't make enough of the fact that he did the right thing here. Now, regardless of why he did it - most likely, it was for reasons that are politically expedient - but he did the right thing. He allowed this resignation to take place, probably had some hand in bringing it about; I cannot believe that they were entirely passive in that. But here's the point: at the end of the day, Richard Grenell had stepped down, this homosexual activist, this crusader for gay marriage had stepped down and Romney could have taken a different tack. So I want to give Romney credit for doing that. Now, you'd like to know that he did it on the grounds of principle and conviction and all that - I believe that would kind of be a bridge too far - but nevertheless, Gov. Romney did the thing that he should have done.

• Rob Boston @ Wall of Separation: The Barton Lies: New Book Exposes ‘Christian Nation’ Advocate’s Long List Of Distortions.
• Nick Sementelli @ Bold Faith Type: 10,000 Sign Christian Statement Condemning Pastor’s Violent, Hateful Sermon.
• Towleroad: Maggie Gallagher Explains Why She Goes After Gay Marriage and Not Adulterers and Divorcees.
• Vyckie Garrison @ RH Reality Check: Where's Your Shame, Woman?! Fundamentalist Pastor Takes to YouTube to Fault Women for All Social Ills.
• Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Heartland facing 'mutiny' from donors, staff.
• Sam Stein @ Huffington Post: Nancy Pelosi Hires Think Progress' Faiz Shakir As Director Of New Media.

• Rick Santorum has finally gotten around to half-heartedly endorsing Mitt Romney.
• Michele Bachmann told students at Pat Robertson's Regent University that their graduation was the "literal fulfillment of generations of fervent prayer."
• It seems that James O'Keefe won't be traveling to New Hampshire any time soon.
• 10 Ways 'The Avengers' Are an Example for the Church.
• Bob Vander Plaats says honoring the three Iowa judges who were ousted by the Religious Right over the gay marriage decision is "an insult to all the 525,000 Iowans who overwhelmingly voted these justices out for judicial activism."
• Finally, Jonah Golberg says all the Romney campaign did in letting Richard Grenell resign "was feed crocodiles like [Bryan] Fischer." Oddly, Goldberg didn't mention any of that when he appeared on Fischer's program just last week.

Peter LaBarbera was the guest on the American Family Association's "Today's Issues" radio program today where he, Tim Wildmon, and Tony Perkins discussed the Religious Right's on-going campaign against Dan Savage. 

After the interview ended and before the guest for the following segment was introduced, Perkins took a moment to urge listeners to place Savage at the top of their prayer list in hopes that Savage will be "blinded by the light" and become a "modern day Saul of Tarsus":

I would put out this challenge to folks who are listening: to put Dan Savage on the top of your prayer list and pray for him because I believe he has the potential to be a modern day Saul of Tarsus. I mean, just think if the Lord got a hold of his heart and changed him and turned him from persecuting Christians to being an advocate of Christianity and morality, what a huge impact that would have. So don't get angry at Dan Savage; he's doing what people do when they're lost. Pray for him that he would see the light, be blinded by the light, and come to know Christ as his personal savior.

Hailed as "the Upton Sinclair of this generation" by her Religious Right elders, Lila Rose has been at the forefront of right-wing video guerrilla activism, targeting groups like Planned Parenthood and then releasing selectively edited footage designed to promote her anti-abortion crusade.

Rose, who believes that all abortions ought to be performed in public, has been the guest on James Robison's "Life Today" television program for the last few days, where the two discussed the need for Christians to take the lead in efforts to outlaw abortion with Robison warning that "the Enemy of life, the Enemy of truth" has politicized the issue in order to intimidate Christians into remaining silent, as Rose declared that it was time for the Church to rise up because "this is our nation":

Robison: Don't you think it is a tactic of the enemy of life, the enemy of truth, to try to get something politicized, even though it is spiritual, moral, it is a matter of life, if they can get it politicized then they think they've discounted, dismissed, or written off or discouraged people in the faith community and those who are committed to family from being involved because it's become a political issue. Don't you think that has kept a lot of people out of the fray, so to speak, and from speaking, that's why a lot of people are not even registered or involved? They just say, look at all the dirty stuff that goes on politically so they stay out of it and it just gets worse. Don't you think that's the biggest mistake believers can make is to stay out of the battle for life and not be involved in choosing our leaders and insists that we make the right decisions and the right choices?

Rose: It's crazy what we've allowed. So I think now more than ever the church does need to rise up. We need leaders of faith to stand up and say, "Enough is enough." This is our nation. This is a nation founded under God for the protection of human life because they are endowed by their creator with these rights and we need to remind people this is a country that is based on Judeo-Christian values. That the reason that we're great is because we value human life; we see human beings as being made in the image of God, human beings as being stamped with that beautiful mark of the creator God, and we need to remind people of that otherwise our nation won't succeed.

A new web ad for Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School makes clear that, for both students and faculty, "law is more than a profession, it is a calling" as everyone from Pat Robertson and Jay Sekulow to John Ashcroft and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonald hail the impact that the school has already had on society.

And while Robertson declares that his mission for Regent University is not simply to rival the likes of Harvard or Yale but "to rival Oxford and the Sorbonne in the Middle Ages as a school that can impact the whole society," students are dedicated to ensuring that they "use the law to further the kingdom of God" and "line up human law with what God wants it to be":

Back in 2010, Janet Porter's world was thrown into chaos after her flagship radio program was dropped by VCY America due to her increasing involvement with Dominion Theology and partnership with leaders within the New Apostolic Reformation.

Considering that this radio program was the central focus of her Faith 2 Action activism, Porter suddenly found that her entire career had essentially ground to a halt and she more or less disappeared from the scene for several months ... until she resurfaced in her native Ohio in early 2011, introducing radical anti-choice legislation known as the "Heartbeat Bill" and leading the fight for its passage.

The legislation created a deep rift among Ohio's anti-abortion activists, but quickly gained support from national Republican and Religious Right leaders as Porter organized a variety of stunts and promotions designed to pressure Ohio legislators to pass it, including flooding their offices with heart-shaped balloons and even scheduling a fetus to "testify" on behalf of the bill.

The bill passed in the state House but then stalled when it reached the state Senate amid concerns that it was blatantly unconstitutional. Convinced that she had the votes in the Senate needed to pass the legislation if it could simply be brought to a vote, Porter began holding regular rallies to pressure Republican Senate leaders to allow a vote, even bringing in a variety of self-proclaimed apostles and prophets to wage spiritual warfare as part of her effort.

Recently, Porter's group hoped to set up the pressure with newspaper ads [PDF] warning the Republican leadership that if they did not allow a vote on the bill, "we will work to replace them with people who will."

But all of this pressure appears to have backfired, as today, Senate President Thomas Niehaus announced that Porter's Heartbeat Bill was dead and blasted her organization for its unwillingness to accept any compromise on the legislation and for making "exaggerated and inflammatory statements" about his opposition to it:

President Tom Niehaus says he won’t pass legislation to essentially outlaw abortion in Ohio.

House Bill 125, the so-called heartbeat bill, triggered an unprecedented split in Ohio’s anti-abortion community, which disagreed about whether it was a good legal strategy to enact legislation almost certain to be declared unconstitutional.

In a strongly worded letter to “fellow pro-life Ohioan(s),” Niehaus said the bill was flawed and slammed supporters for questioning the commitment of majority Republicans in the Senate to ending abortion.

“Unfortunately, leaders of an organization called Faith2Action have made exaggerated and inflammatory statements...their claim that we ‘lose more than a school bus full of children every day’ due to a lack of Senate action on the bill is simply false, and I will not continue to allow this organization to question the commitment of my colleagues to ending the scourge of abortion.”

On today's episode of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program, Matt Barber and Shawn Akers discussed the rise in out-of-wedlock births, which they blamed on the fact that "counterfeit marriage" is undermining the value of marriage as an institution.

The discussion prompted Barber to declare that it was absurd to even use the term "marriage" when talking about this issue, because same-sex marriage is really just "mock marriage ... and God will not be mocked," which is why God is turning his face away from this nation:

Recently it dawned on me that so-called "same-sex marriage," to use the term "marriage" isn't even appropriate. It's not same-sex marriage, it's mock marriage because it's not real marriage, it's a mock marriage. And same-sex marriage and the attacks on marriage mock God and his design for the institution of marriage.

And God will not be mocked, Shawn, and as we turn our face from God, relative to marriage and our larger culture on a number of these issues of morality and sexual morality, why should be we surprised when God turns his face from us?

• John Fea: Some Thoughts on David Barton's Appearance on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
• Jim Burroway @ Box Turtle Bulletin: Missouri GOP Lawmaker Comes Out, Denounces “Don’t Say Gay” Bill.
• Jon Bershad @ Mediaite: Here’s Video Of Glenn Beck Taping His Co-Host To A Table And Waterboarding Him With Ensure.
• Towleroad: Pastor Sean Harris 'Retracts' Advice to Parents to Beat Kids Who Seem Gay But Says It's Still an Abomination.
• Michelangelo Signorile @ Huffington Post: The Richard Grenell Fiasco: How a Cynical Political Move Blew Up in Mitt Romney's Face.

• Why does the press write headlines like "Newt Gingrich suspends presidential campaign"? He ended his campaign; he's not planning on resuming it again later.
• Richard Viguerie declares that "conservative and Tea Party activists want one of their own as the GOP's vice presidential candidate."
• Liberty Counsel announces that it is taking its "personhood" campaign to the Supreme Court.
• FRC says Dan Savage is "mentally unstable" and Matt Barber also weighs in on Savage: ""They used to arrest middle-aged perverts who get their jollies from talking dirty to children. Today, they get a television show, a nationally syndicated column, a lecture circuit and multiple visits to the Obama White House."
• Finally, Bryan Fischer continues to gloat in his victory over the Romney campaign, saying it's now obvious that Romney "will do the right thing when it is politically expedient, [so] it’s our job to make it politically expedient for him to do the right thing on as many issues as possible."