• Ken Braun @ Michigan Live: Dave Agema should resign after Facebook post citing a Holocaust denier.
• Simon Maloy @ Media Matters: Ben Carson Back To Apologizing For "Offensive" Anti-Gay Remarks.
• Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: The right's lingering '47 percent' problem.
• Jeremy Hooper: Mike McManus says 'perverted' gays were largely molested, want to destroy marriage.
• Towleroad: Senator Mary Landrieu Personally Believes in Marriage Equality But Won't Back It Because of Louisiana's Anti-Gay Laws.
• Warren Throckmorton: The Covenant: A Mormon Mission Tool?

• Rick Santorum is considering another run for president in 2012 because, if recent history has demonstrated anything, it is that GOP presidential candidates who can't even win the nomination the first time have a really good track record of winning the next time around.
• Did you miss NOM's sparsely-attended anti-marriage rally outside the Supreme Court?  Now you can watch all the boring speakers.
• Michael Brown explains that "there is no such thing as an unrepentant, born-again Christian prostitute."
• Edward Hudgins of The Atlas Society says the GOP should take up all the Religious Right leaders who are threatening to leave the party on their offer and show them the door.
• Finally, Tony Perkins for Senate?

On today's radio program, Bryan Fischer took a call from a woman named Vicki in Illinois who called in to get his advice on whether or not she needed to find another church because the one she is currently attending is gay-friendly and has not only an lesbian pastor but openly gay Sunday School teachers.

Not surprisingly, Fischer urged her to get out of that church immediately, saying that being in that environment was going to corrupt her children by getting them to think that homosexuality was okay which will "destroy them in body and soul and spirit."

Instead, Fischer counseled, she needs to find a church run by a "happily married pastor" who "has a biblical view of homosexuality that it is a sin [and] that it's not something that a healthy society ever ought to embrace":

Yesterday on TruNews, End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles lashed out at Fred Luter, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, for initially denying and then retracting his remarks that tied gay rights to nuclear threats from North Korea.

But Wiles is not backing down from his claim, which Luter had agreed with, that there is a connection between “gay rights fanatics” and North Korea’s desire for a nuclear strike on America. Yesterday on his program, he condemned Luter for disavowing his comments during an interview with Anderson Cooper.

“Poor pastor Luter, he wilted under the heat of CNN’s cameras, he recanted what he said on TruNews,” Wiles said, “He tucked his tail between his legs like a frightened puppy; he made Joel Osteen look like the winner of the tough man contest.”

He went on to maintain that Supreme Court decisions on the separation of church and state, legal abortion and gay rights have put the US on “a rapid descent into darkness,” which has prompted God to remove His “hand of divine protection over this nation” and make the country “vulnerable and ripe for destruction.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper was talking about me last night on CNN, he had Southern Baptist President Fred Luter on CNN last night regarding my comments linking North Korea’s threats to nuke America to America’s slide into debauchery. Poor pastor Luter, he wilted under the heat of CNN’s cameras, he recanted what he said on TruNews. He tucked his tail between his legs like a frightened puppy; he made Joel Osteen look like the winner of the tough man contest. Where are the real men of God in this country? Have they all lost courage to speak for God when this nation is facing destruction? I promise you I will not recant, I will not bow, I will not run and I will now cower. Will you stand with me? We need your support now more than ever.

What has Anderson Cooper, Alan Colmes, Salon magazine and the Huffington Post in an uproar about TruNews? It’s because I dare to declare that the United States of America is quickly approaching its day of reckoning. Since the 1962, 63 Supreme Court rulings banning prayer and Bible reading in the public schools to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the murder of tens of millions of innocent babies to the upcoming court decision on homosexual marriage, the USA has been on a steady downhill slide as a nation. We are now in a rapid descent into darkness. There is a Holy God in Heaven who made this nation great. It is my Heavenly Father who blessed America; it is my Heavenly Father who made this country wealthy, made it powerful and made it mighty. It’s the same God who built this nation because of the righteousness of the early generations of Americans who will be the same Holy God who will remove His blessings and protection from this land because the nation has chosen debauchery and open sin as its way of life.

His patience with this nation is nearing its end. It isn’t God who is destroying America. He is trying to save this country. We are committing suicide as nation. God is withdrawing His hand of divine protection over this nation; He is stepping back, removing the spiritual dome that for hundreds of years shielded America. He will be silent as America’s enemies encircle this nation and see that our moral defense shield is down and we are vulnerable and ripe for destruction.

The Family Research Council has caught wind of a new theory percolating in the right-wing blogosphere and in certain circles on Capitol Hill: that the Department of Health and Human Services is using a new Obamacare rule to empower the long-defunct ACORN to commit voter intimidation and fraud.

The new rule in question is HHS’s solution to the problem of signing up 30 million uninsured Americans on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges. Under the rule, HHS will recruit “navigators” to walk uninsured people through the process of finding an insurance policy on their state’s exchange. According to the Washington Post, “Groups such as unions, chambers of commerce, health clinics, immigrant-service organizations, and community- or consumer-focused nonprofits can use the grants to train and employ staff members or volunteers to provide in-person guidance — especially to hard-to-reach populations — and to provide space for them to work.”

Here’s where ACORN comes in: A draft questionnaire [pdf] for insurance applicants, in compliance with 1993’s “motor voter” law, gives applicants the option of registering to vote.

Enter Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Oversight, who last week attacked the plan to ask insurance applicants about voter registration, saying, “It raises questions as to why HHS is gathering voter information, how the agency intends to use such information and how the information could be used by the navigators.” His fears were then picked up by Breitbart.com, which announced this week, “HHS resurrects ‘ACORN’ through Obamacare.”

Yesterday, the Family Research Council picked up this story and ran with it in its daily email, warning that an “army of ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and union activists” will use their roles as insurance navigators to “influence people’s party affiliation.” The email adds: “With this administration, it isn't a question of whether they would abuse their power--but when!”

The rule, which is available for public comment for the next few weeks, also includes a "voter registration provision," leading many--including Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.)--to question how this army of ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and union activists would twist their access to influence people's party affiliation. With this administration, it isn't a question of whether they would abuse their power--but when!

ACORN, of course, disbanded in 2010 after a right-wing smear campaign accused it of large-scale voter fraud – accusations that turned out to be completely false. But that hasn’t stopped 49 percent of Republican voters from believing that ACORN stole the 2012 election for President Obama – an illusion gleefully perpetuated by groups like the FRC.

Ex-gay activist Joe Dallas appeared on The Steve Deace Show this week to discuss the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships and warned that gays and lesbians will “bring the judgment of God” on America. Dallas, who recently wrote a book condemning homosexuality with actress Anne Heche’s mother Nancy Heche, warned that the gay rights movement will bring society “one more step down the ladder towards a much lower standard of human behavior” and leave people in a “dismal” state.

Deace: Where does this end ultimately? What happens to the individuals here that are struggling with their sexuality when we allow public policy to essentially say: ‘do whatever you want.’ What ultimately will be the price they will pay?

Dallas: The individuals will be given a green light to express their desires as they see fit. Some will claim to find deep fulfillment in that, some will form relationships that they report as being very healthy and satisfying, others will find that their lives take directions that they didn’t expect and they’ll be deeply disappointed.

There’s really two ways I look at this: one is theologically and one is socially. Socially I think it will be one more step down the ladder towards a much lower standard of human behavior. Theologically, I think it will be a green light to engage in behaviors that bring the judgment of God. Either one looks pretty dismal to me.

As you can imagine, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality head Peter LaBarbera is none too happy with TIME’s cover story on the success of marriage equality advocates, telling the American Family Association’s news service yesterday that the magazine is “publishing indecent photos” and “promoting perversion.” After lamenting that children might see the magazine covers of same-sex couples kissing, he went on to blast his home state senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) for “pushing homosexuality in the Republican Party” by endorsing marriage equality.

But Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is "upset" by how the magazine is jumping the gun.

"This is shocking that TIME magazine would do this -- basically publishing indecent photos, promoting perversion on the cover of their magazine, where on racks across the country children can see this," he laments. "This is an in-your-face promotion of homosexual immorality, and I'm very upset that they would go to this length."

And LaBarbera is especially dismayed that the order to print the photos came from the top.

"The managing editor of TIME, Richard Stengel, said the images published by TIME were -- quote -- 'beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage' -- unquote," the AFTAH president reports. "How can you be more confused? Two people of the same sex kissing symbolizes the love of marriage?" Marriage has historically been between a man and a woman, and he asserts that media moguls cannot change that.

LaBarbera adds that the media and the far left are confused, and he submits that the article and cover photos are a sellout to the homosexual lobby, as corporate America supports TIME through its advertising dollars.

…

"He was always liberal on social issues, and he was a favorite of the so-called moderates in the Republican Party," the AFTAH president notes. "But I certainly didn't expect that he would capitulate this fast. This very simplistic explanation by Senator Kirk fits a man who really ... never treated the social issues seriously."

While Kirk's decision is not a surprise, LaBarbera points out that it will still benefit the pro-homosexual forces.

"The sad thing about this is it gives fuel to the left's 'inevitability' claim," he offers. "The left and the media are promoting homosexual marriage like never before -- they're saying it's unstoppable; it's inevitable. Of course that's not true; nothing's inevitable. But they're really pushing homosexuality in the Republican Party. Senator Kirk's defection on this issue only helps the left."

Janet Parshall hosted a panel on Islam with Family Research Council vice president Jerry Boykin and phony ex-terrorist Kamal Saleem during February’s National Religious Broadcasters convention, where Saleem described how he instantly healed his sister of a stomach hernia and headaches:

Boykin cited a report from Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy that claims that judges in fifty court cases have used Islamic law in making their decisions and that Sharia “has been insinuated into our legal system.”

However, as the ACLU points out, “the CSP report consists mostly of 50 judicial opinions, which the authors copied and pasted word-for-word simply because they mention Islam or involve claims brought by Muslims, contending that these cases serve as evidence of the so-called ‘Sharia threat.’” The report doesn’t even attempt to prove that Sharia law is being used in courts, but merely finds that there are some court cases which “happen to involve Islam or Muslims.”

Boykin went on to cite Oklahoma’s unconstitutional Sharia ban and insisted that the media is refusing to reveal “the true nature of Islam.”

Later, Boykin called for people to support Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert and Trent Franks over their role in leading the witch hunt against Muslim-Americans serving in government, which he said proves that they are “standing on the word of God” and “their belief in Christ.”

We need to understand that one of the fundamentals of Islam is Sharia, Islamic law. It has been insinuated into our legal system and we did a study that showed fifty court cases, twenty-three states judges used Sharia. Right now there are efforts in over twenty states to prevent that from happening with legislation at the state level called ‘American Laws for American Courts.’ Initially Oklahoma passed it and it was immediately challenged by Eric Holder and the Justice Department but there are other states that have passed it and still more that are working on it. So protect us from Sharia. Those are prudent laws that would protect us from judges being able to practice Sharia and violate Article VI of our Constitution by doing so. Second thing is; everything needs to get informed on this. If you are tied to the mainstream media you will never know anything about the true nature of Islam.

…

There’s a lack of leadership in America today. Leaders are intimidated, they’re afraid and they will not confront the Muslim Brotherhood; they will not face up to what is really happening in America. Those who will are people that are standing on the word of God. Start with Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Trent Franks; they are a very small number who are standing on God’s word and because they have the spirit of God they see this for what it is. They need our help. We need to lite up Washington in support of these people that are the only ones that are unafraid because of their dependence upon God’s word, they are unafraid to confront this; yet they get pilloried from everybody across the country because they have stood up to the realities of the Muslim Brotherhood. We need to stand with them, we need to pray for them and we need to stand with them as they stand for us because of their belief in Christ.

One of the most interesting things about watching Bryan Fischer's program on a daily basis is learning to understand the bizarre manner in which he views the world.  And it is not his vehement hostility to Muslims, or gays, or liberals that demonstrate his warped view of reality but simpler things like how he interprets seemingly benign comments and events.

On yesterday's program, Fischer provided a good example of the sort of lens through which he views the world when he ripped President Obama for supposedly insulting the people of Iowa by sharing a story in which Michele Obama said she could understand why people would want to own guns.

While speaking in Denver earlier this week, Obama was making a point about why it is so hard to make any progress on gun control legislation, saying that people on "both sides of the debate sometimes don't listen to each other.  The people who take absolute positions on these issues, on both sides, sometimes aren't willing to concede even an inch of ground." 

The key to overcoming this was to build trust, Obama said, and try to understand the positions of people with different points of view. In demonstrating this, he told a story about something Michelle said to him:

And so one of the questions we talked about was, how do you build trust?  How do you rebuild some trust?  And I told the story about two conversations I had.  The first conversation was when Michelle came back from doing some campaigning out in rural Iowa.  And we were sitting at dinner, and she had been to like a big county, a lot of driving out there, a lot of farmland.  And she said, if I was living out in a farm in Iowa, I'd probably want a gun, too.  If somebody just drives up into your driveway and you're not home -- you don't know who these people are and you don't know how long it's going to take for the sheriffs to respond.  I can see why you'd want some guns for protection.

But for Fischer, this story does nothing but demonstrate Obama's "sneering contempt for everybody in middle America; it is condescending, it is patronizing, it's insulting" because Obama is basically saying that "Iowa is some kind of third world country" and a murderous hell hole: