Christianists

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Amid calls from activists in Orange County for a ban on gay conversion therapy, conservative and religious groups along with two men who survived the Pulse nightclub shooting hosted a rally Saturday at Lake Eola Park promoting “deliverance to the LGBTQ community” through religion. Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan in an interview Friday with non-profit Truth …

Over the last week White House flacks have declared that Mike Pence cannot possibly be considered anti-LGBT because, after all, he totally shook hands with Ireland’s gay prime minister and even had a meal with the PM and his partner. That prompted CNN’s fact-checkers to dredge up a mountain of anti-gay actions and quotes from Pence, none of which were …

Hemant Mehta reports at The Friendly Atheist: Nothing weird about this. Just a Christian guy who’s staking out a local park before the sun comes up in order to keep the “witches and satan worshipers” away with his Jesus prayers. I would normally just dismiss him as a kook… except that kook is Tim Kelly, a man who won a …

CNN reports: Vice President Mike Pence once argued that homosexuality was a choice during his fight in the early 1990s against local efforts in Indiana to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Pence’s opposition to LGBT equality has long drawn the scorn of gay rights activists and made him a champion of the Religious Right. But scrutiny of Pence’s record …

The Associated Press reports: Students at Liberty University in Virginia have gathered to protest in the wake of news reports containing allegations that school president Jerry Falwell Jr. “presides over a culture of self-dealing” and improperly benefited from the institution. The News & Advance reports the students gathered Friday at the private evangelical university in Lynchburg. Photos show students holding …

Charisma News, the site best known here for its anti-witchcraft tutorials, its claim that the lifespan of gays is shortened by 20 years, its warning that burning breakfast eggs can summon demons, and its declaration that yoga is white witchcraft, is today quite naturally the place where Jerry Falwell turns to make his case against his accusers. “We have nothing …

Religion News Service reports: In the wake of reports alleging objectionable rhetoric and conduct by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., students at the evangelical Christian school plan to call for internal and external investigations into the president and administration at a protest on campus Friday (Sept. 13). “We are not calling for Falwell to resign right now,” said Elizabeth …

Oliver Willis reports at Shareblue: Mike Pence is scheduled to visit with the group Concerned Women for America (CWA), a virulently anti-gay conservative group, days after the White House insisted that Pence was not “anti-gay.” Under the “core issues” section of the CWA’s website, the group declares, “CWA believes that marriage consists of one man and one woman.” CWA laments …

Ars Technica reports: Reuters today published a selection of emails in which Falwell used insulting or disparaging language to describe Liberty University students, staff, and parents to other administrators. “I’m not going to dignify the lies that were reported yesterday with a response,” Falwell told the AP, but he said he hired “the meanest lawyer in New York” to pursue …

The Christian Post reports: On the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a delegation of American evangelical leaders met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the state of religious freedom and the battle against extremism in the kingdom. The timing of the visit drew the ire of critics on social media who noted that …

Reuters reports: In emails to his colleagues over the years, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr has denigrated students and staff at the Christian university he runs, referring to one student as “emotionally imbalanced and physically retarded” and calling the school’s police chief a “half-wit.” The barbed comments, contained in email exchanges reviewed by Reuters, emerge as the evangelical political …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: After obtaining a perfunctory decision last year in her favor, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Washington State is back before the U.S. Supreme Court with a renewed call for a First Amendment ruling allowing her to refuse service to same-sex couples seeking floral arrangements for their weddings. In her 41-page petition for …

The Christian Post reports: A photographer has pushed back against any suggestion that images he captured of Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. at a Miami Beach nightclub in July 2014 were photo-shopped as the Christian college leader admitted Wednesday to being at the club for about 30 minutes. In a statement to Politico, Jerry Falwell allegedly denied the existence …

NBC News reports: Exposure to “conversion therapy” — efforts by a secular or religious professional to change a transgender person’s gender identity — is associated with thoughts of and attempts at suicide, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Dr. Jack Turban, the study’s lead author and a resident physician in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, …

“You better believe I’m praying. You better believe I’m up there singing the name of Jesus. You better believe I’m walking around those parameters saying, ‘I lift this up and I dedicate every ounce of this place as holy ground and I dedicate it by the superior blood of Jesus.’ “Every door that God opens for me, I invoke the …

CNN reports: A dozen leaders of a California-based ministry have been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of forced labor of mostly homeless people, a US attorney said. Imperial Valley Ministries leaders recruited people by promising food and shelter, and instead forced them to beg for money for nine hours a day, six days a week and to give …

Yahoo News reports: A debate billed as a major showdown between competing visions of religious conservatism last night revealed, more than anything, the profound fear that drives the “culture war” on the right: that Christians will face literal extermination at the hands of Democrats if Republicans lose power. That’s not just a metaphor: One side, represented by a prominent Catholic …

From the owner of a Miami Beach nightlife agency: For 21 years, I have maintained an impeccable reputation for documenting Miami Beach’s storied social scene. We wholly reject Jerry Falwell Jr.’s baseless allegation in yesterday’s Politico report by Brandon Ambrosino that one of our pictures was “photo-shopped” or manipulated in any fashion. We, in fact, did not know Politico’s purpose …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: Even experts have trouble forecasting a storm’s path. To say that the president is “anti-science” because he — a non-meteorologist — couldn’t prophesy where the hurricane would hit is a pathetic fight for his opponents to pick. Especially, as many of us would point out, based on the Left’s flat-out denial …

Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: James Goll, a self-proclaimed prophet and intercessor, appeared on The Jim Bakker Show today, where he suggested that God had recently told him that he is allowing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to remain on the Supreme Court in order to give her “time to repent” and “come to the Lord.” “Will [Trump] be re-elected? …