Legislators and media pundits in Washington, D.C., continue to obsess over the birth control mandate in the new health care law and whether church-related institutions like hospitals and colleges must provide contraceptive coverage.

While that's going, a quieter tussle in Virginia has captured fewer national headlines. That's a shame because a debate over adoption by same-sex couples in that state is perhaps a better indicator of where the Religious Right wants to take this country.

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney's demagogic claims that President Obama is engaged in a "war against religion" are as unsurprising as they are disturbing. Both candidates are resorting to the ideology of another era that we never quite left behind, and they are just a couple of nuances away from calling Obama a godless communist. Both men frequently denounce the president as promoting secularism -- which is a dog whistle heard across a broad swath of the Religious Right and beyond, as embodying a wide range of evils.

As base and bogus as it is, it was not so long ago  and not so far away, that Democratic leaders and religious figures, and squadrons of "faith consultants" took up the narrative of the Religious Right, claiming that secularists were driving people of faith out of public life and that the words separation of church and state are not in the Constitution.  Those days seem to be over (if not quite forgotten), but I hope we have learned from that experience what can go wrong when we cut loose from the moorings of our history and our most deeply held values.

Meanwhile, the bogus narrative lives on at the highest levels of our public life.  

In January 2012, with the inauguration of former military general Otto Pérez Molina as Guatemala's president, NAR apostle Harold Caballeros took charge of Guatemala's foreign ministry under the new Molina administration - solidifying Caballeros' position as one of the most internationally prominent leaders in C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation.

Along with his extensive participation in the NAR, Caballeros' links to government figures accused of human rights violations and perhaps death squads, and his demonizing of religious beliefs held by Guatemala's native Mayan population - targeted by the military for massacres and torture during Guatemala's civil war, raise troubling questions.

A Christian Post article dated February 5 is one of many reports of denials by televangelist Paula White and her attorney of any ties to "Rabbi" Ralph Messer. The denials were prompted by reports that White had plans for a "coronation" similar to the controversial and widely publicized video of  Eddie Long being wrapped in a Torah scroll by Messer.  Now video has emerged of a similar ceremony with Messer wrapping White in a Torah.  Jewish leaders from around the country have denounced these bizarre Torah rituals, which have no basis in any Jewish practice.  Messer is a self-proclaimed rabbi for Yeshua, advertised as having an "Apostolic and Evangelistic anointing."

As of a little more than one-hour before the kickoff to Super Bowl XLVI, 71% of the vote had been tallied in the Nevada caucuses, and it is clear that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had easily outpaced his challengers --including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- by getting nearly 50 percent of the vote.

On Friday night Newt Gingrich spoke at the "Prayer for America" event at the International Church of Las Vegas (ICLV) led by Apostle Paul Goulet.  Jim Garlow, a member of the campaign's national Faith Leaders Coalition, introduced Gingrich and promoted a pastors' revolt against IRS rules that prohibit endorsement of a political candidate from the pulpit. Following is information on the event, the "non-denominational" Assemblies of God church led by Apostle Goulet, and a brief recap of Gingrich's past history with apostles and prophets of the NAR.

While Newt Gingrich was taking it on the chin in Florida, thousands of miles away in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was beating back a challenge to his Likud Party leadership from ultranationalists, thus making it a so-so week for Sheldon Adelson.

Over the years, Adelson, the casino magnate, has contributed mightily to an assortment of Gingrich's political projects, including his run for the Republican Party's presidential nomination; a range of so-called pro-Israel organizations in the U.S.; and, Netanyahu's political career.

Now that Gingrich has been defeated in Nevada, will Adelson move his money into Romney's campaign war chest?

For anyone who wants to read a book that really goes inside the movement to indoctrinate children through our public schools, I highly recommend the new book The Good News Club by Katherine Stewart. I received an advance copy of the book months ago to review, but, because of working on my own book, just didn't have time to read it and write a review before it came out on January 24. But I'm reading it right now, and from what I've read so far, this is the best book I could imagine to explain to people just how the "The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children," as the book's subtitle describes it, is happening right under everybody's noses.

Should Chick-Fil-A be known for its extensive ties to, and funding of, some of the most aggressively anti-gay groups in America, as well as its role in catalyzing the national "Protect Marriage" (by fighting same-sex marriage) movement -- or should the fast food chicken chain be regarded as an exemplar of the spiritual value of "gratitude"?

According to a project under the aegis of the Yale Center For Faith and Culture called the Spiritual Capital Initiative, that's funded with almost $1.9 million dollars from the John Templeton Foundation, it's the latter: gratitude.  

Michelle Boorstein at The Washington Post's "Under God" blog reports that Faithful America's petition calling for Kansas House Speaker Michael O'Neal to resign now has 40,000 signatures.  That's up from 30,000 a week ago ago when I reported for AlterNet the continuing story of imprecatory prayers directed at president Obama.

The "joke" for several years has been "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109.8."  The verse states, "Let his days be few, and let another take his office."  Haw, haw, haw.  But as anyone who takes the time to look at the Psalm itself will see, the very next verse states:  "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."    

Not so funny after all.

And that continues to be the point.

Since the Supreme Court's 1962 decision banning prayer in the public school classrooms, conservative evangelical Christians have been at war with public education. Many conservatives point to that decision as the harbinger of America's moral decline. For years, Christian Right organizations and their leaders have railed against teachers' unions, opposed tax increases to improve public education, and have even gone so far as to encourage Christian parents to withdraw their children from the public schools. During this period, the Christian Right ran stealth school board candidates and took control of the decision-making process in numerous school districts.

Now, it appears the movement has found another way of imposing its religious views in the public schools; through thinly disguised afterschool Bible study programs.

This is a new twist on "biblical economics" that I've not heard before.  According to Alabama State Sen. Shadrack McGill, a 62% pay increase for the state's legislators in 2007 was  necessary, but large increases in teachers' pay would violate "a biblical principle." McGill was speaking on January 30 at a prayer breakfast that he organized in Ft. Payne, Alabama. McGill voiced his objections to separation of church later that same day at a Jackson County School Board meeting that resembled a revival; participants prayed and sang with their hands raised in the air. (Video below.)

This morning I contacted the offices of Rep. Daniel B. Short and Chief Clerk of the House Richard Puffer and confirmed that C. Peter Wagner was indeed the recipient of a tribute from the Delaware House of Representatives on January 19.  Right Wing Watch posted the link to the Global Spheres e-mail in which Wagner described his reception in Delaware, titled "Apostolic Government in Delaware," and describing the tribute by the Delaware State House for his work "commissioning apostles."  A copy of the tribute and full text follow the article.

[Update 2/2/12: The Delaware House Democratic Caucus contacted me with a statement explaining that individual members can approve a tribute and it should not be considered an endorsement by the Delaware House of Representatives. See a copy of the full text from the Democratic Caucus in the update at Right Wing Watch and also see this Talk2action diary.]

The trial date for Bishop Robert W. Finn,of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri will be September 24, 2012.  Finn and the diocese were charged with failing to report suspected child abuse of one of his subordinates, Rev. Shawn Ratigan.

We have written a great deal here at Talk to Action about the Religious Right culture of conspiracy theory, labeling and demonization as animating factors in resulting hate and violence.  (See Chip Berlet's recent post, for example.)  

However, I fear that as a culture, we (in the broadest sense of we) are becoming so accustomed to the inflammatory excesses of the Religious and other elements of the Right, and their rise to higher levels of public discourse, that we are no longer taking these things seriously.