Kyle Mantyla's blog

Last week, Randall Terry released a video demanding that we and others acknowlege his primary "victory" in Oklahoma over President Obama , which we gladly did. 

But now it seems that Terry is not particularly pleased with the coverage that his video received and so he is back with a new video, this one warning us, Jezebel, The Huffington Post, TPM Muckraker, and The Young Turks that he will testify against us all on the Day of Judgment because we promote murder while mocking God and His servants and are thus condemning ourselves to Hell:

It looks like Vision America's Rick Scarborough is launching a new prayer and fasting effort timed to coincide with the 2010 elections called "40 Days to Save America" which, he insists "is not a political effort" because "the political problems which beset us are symptoms of a deeper spiritual malaise:

Starting on September 24, and continuing through November 2, we are calling for a Great Religious Awakening through 40 DAYS of prayer, fasting and repentance ...The place to start isn’t with primaries, platforms and conventions, but rather through prayer, fasting and repentance.

• We are calling for pastors, priests and rabbis to open their churches and synagogues throughout America for 40 days for prayer and fasting, each person seeking their own level of unselfish sacrifice as we corporately and individually seek God for His intervention in our beloved nation.

• We are calling for Christian and Jewish voters to make informed choices, voting not as Republicans or Democrats, but as followers of the living God.

• We are calling for our leaders to have the wisdom and discernment to act according to His will and not based on personal or partisan considerations.

In a video announcing the project, Scarborough says the goal is the recruit 40,000 religious leaders who will lead the congregations in forty days of prayer and fasting for the nation leading up to the election because "this is a time of national tragedy where he must have God help us [because] it is almost as if He is sounding the alarm": 

• Towleroad: Rachel Maddow Throws Down with Senator Inhofe About His Ties to Anti-Gay Evangelism in Africa.
• Rachel Tabachnick @ Talk To Action: Inhofe To Maddow: Never Heard of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill Author David Bahati.
• Steve Benen @ Maddow Blog: Santorum would target porn if elected.
• Bill Morlin @ Hatewatch: ‘God Hates Fags’ Church Preparing Ad for Limbaugh Show.
• John M. Becker @ Truth Wins Out: President Obama Goes on Record Opposing Marriage Discrimination in NC.
• Tommy Christopher @ Mediaite: James O’Keefe ‘Accomplice’ Nadia Naffe To Tell All.

• Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition aims to register 115,000 voters in Virginia for the November election.
• James Robison says "there is no question we are living in the end times."
• Bradlee Dean is no fan of the SPLC, saying the organization makes money "while working hand in glove with the mainstream media to attack America’s foundation using a Communist/Marxist agenda."
• Quote of the day from an unnamed conservative operative who does not think very highly of the Council for National Policy: "They’re always behind, always late to the game and not relevant. It’s one of these self-validating echo chambers where they sit around four times a year and tell each other how great and important they are, and believe their own press."
• Finally, the Star-Spangled Fish allows you to show the world just how much you love America and Jesus at the same time.

Earlier this week, Randall Terry demanded that we acknowledge his "victory" over Barack Obama, our "baby-killing president," in Oklahoma's Democratic primary.

So we guess that we are also obligated to take note of the fact that, despite his "victory," Terry will not actually receive any delegates because his "campaign" failed to file the proper paperwork:

Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry said Friday he's been told he will not be allocated any delegates from the Oklahoma Democratic primary because his campaign did not file the proper paperwork and because the national party does not recognize him as a legitimate candidate.

"This action is 'political insider trading,' " Terry said in a release. "It's stealing in broad daylight. It shows the power and the corruption of the (Democratic) Party."

State party rules say candidates must file a delegate slate ahead of the primary, which party leaders said Terry did not do.

As we noted last month, every Friday David Barton and Rick Green host "Good News Friday" on their "Wallbuilders Live" radio program during which they discuss "good news from around the nation the media doesn't report."

These programs are particularly interesting because they typically feature stories that Barton has plucked from the media which, he believes, demonstrate that the Religious Right is racking up victories all over the country.

The problem with these stories, as with so much else that he does, is that Barton has a tendency to over-simplify and misrepresent just what is taking place.

He did it a few weeks ago when he falsely claimed that an Eastern Michigan University had won a lawsuit against the school after being thrown out of her program for refusing to "affirm a client’s homosexual behavior," citing religious objections. 

The court had merely ruled that the student had a right to sue and did not rule on the merits of the case itself, but Barton nonetheless proclaimed it to be a "huge, huge victory [that is] going to be cited across the nation for all sorts of other kids that are facing the same kind of discrimination."

And he did it again today when he asserted that study shows that teens who remain abstinent earn $370,000 more in the lifetimes:

If a teenager wants to earn $370,000 more in their lifetime than all their neighbors, you know what they need to do? A study now shows that if you are not sexually active as a teenage, you do earn $370,000 more in your lifetime than others.

Now explain that ... it just shows God's ways work.

If that claim sounds familiar, it is probably because Amber Haskew, Coordinator of the Day of Purity, made it earlier this year and, as we pointed out then, the figure comes from a 2005 Heritage Foundation report that didn't actually provide any data to support this assertion, but simply predicted that students who abstain are also likely to do better in school and therefore have higher lifetime earnings:

Teens who abstain are likely to have greater future orientation, greater impulse control, greater perseverance, greater resistance to peer pressure, and more respect for parental and societal values. These traits are likely to contribute to higher academic achievement. In short, teen virgins are more likely to possess character traits that lead to success in life. Moreover, the practice of abstinence is likely to foster positive character traits that, in turn, will contribute to academic performance ... In our society, greater educational attainment leads, on average, to higher lifetime incomes. Because they are more successful in school, teen virgins can expect to have, on average, incomes that will be 16 percent higher than sexually active teens from identical socio-economic backgrounds. This will mean an average increase of $370,000 in income over a lifetime.

Obviously, the study did not show that those who abstain early nearly $400K more, but merely estimated that those who did so would demonstrate "greater educational attainment" and therefore earn more, on average, over their lifetimes.

But that is not what Barton reported at all and this demonstrates a central point about Barton and his work:  if he cannot be trusted to accurately report on contemporary issues that are easily verifiable to anyone with internet access, how can he be trusted to accurately report on the things that he plucks out of centuries-old documents squirreled away in his private library that very few others ever get to see or examine? 

Back in 2009 and 2010, when David Barton was tapped as an "expert" to help the Texas State Board of Education rewrite the state's social studies standards, he claimed that he was not promoting any sort of agenda, but was simply dedicated to reintroducing into the curriculum ignored parts "of history that certainly should be presented."

Around the time this was all taking place, Barton appeared on some Rhode Island public access program where he said that his work on rewriting the Texas curriculum gave him tremendous optimism about the future of America because the textbooks written for Texas schools would be used all over the nation and influence the students over the next twenty to thirty years who will eventually be elected to public office:

Barton's involvement in rewriting the Texas standards provoked such an outcry that he now has to do all this sort of work in secret so that nobody knows just how or where he is reworking to inject this long term, right-wing political agenda into the nation's curriculum.

• PFAW: Senate Confirms Groh and Fitzgerald; Votes Should be the Norm, Not the Exception.
• Kevin Drum: Hispanics Hate the Republican Party.
• Markos @ Daily Kos: Santorum tells Puerto Ricans to start talking American.
• Good As You: Focus on the Family's anti-intellectual #glaadcap response: Offends me more than my ethics will allow me to tell you.
• Blog Cabin: True Conservatives Benefit from GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project.
• Aaron McQuade @ GLAAD Blog: GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project Explained.

• Needless to say, the Religious Right is not pleased with GLAAD's new Commentator Accountability Project, as Peter LaBarbera specifically blames us for taking "quotations from pro-family leaders out of context to make them appear as 'hateful' as possible."
• Scott Lively complains that "anyone who dares to stand up and speak the truth about homosexuality from a biblical perspective will suffer persecution."
• Gary Bauer says "we’ve been warned — our worldview is under threat. As I frequently note, the culture war is real. And only one side will prevail."
• Roy Moore says "it was not by the people" who removed him from this Alabama Supreme Court and "the people have now restored me."
• Cindy Jacobs' United States Reformation Prayer Network declares that "the current presidential election is probably the most significant election of our nation"s history. Our nation stands in the valley of critical decisions concerning Israel, war in the middle east, same-sex marriage, legalized murder, socialist/communist governance, our natural resources, healthcare, and so much more that will determine whether or not we plummet in a downward spiral or stay the hand of the Lord's righteous judgments."
• Finally, the Family Research Council targets Planned Parenthood in its latest prayer update: "Pray the states, one by one, will break free from Planned Parenthood. May the next President and Congress (House AND Senate), demolish the unholy yoke that has bound American federal taxpayers to the abortion holocaust and the criminal activities of the nation's largest abortion enterprise."

James Robison had an important message for the viewers of his "Life Today" television program today: "now is the day of reckoning" and the time to "get out of the pig pen of rotten decisions" and turn this "prodigal nation" back to God .... and it starts with the next election!