Christian Right

Resisting Culture Warriors Down Under

How Australian Activists Fought Back Against the World Congress of Families

According to one of the activists who successfully infiltrated last weekend’s World Congress of Families (WCF) event in Melbourne, Australia, Larry Jacobs—vice president of the U.S.-based Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society and managing…

Article

If Democracy is a Crime Under Religious Right's Biblical Law, What is the Punishment?

If the Old Testament Biblical Laws that are foundational to the contemporary Christian Right are to be the standard, then it stands to reason that the biblically prescribed punishments would, in their view, fit the crimes. If that is so, then many…

Article

Michigan Seeks to Become Third State to Protect Youth From Ex-Gay Therapy

Conversion or “ex-gay” therapy continues to come under fire, this time in Michigan where Representative Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor) has introduced House Bill (HB) 5703to ban “sexual orientation change efforts” for minors.

Article

Museveni Plays Politics with Human Rights

On Friday, Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) on procedural grounds. While this ruling is a significant victory for Uganda’s LGBTI community, the road forward remains rocky and steep.

Article

Let's Not Ignore the Overt Calls for Violence from the League of the South

The League of the South is involved not in an eccentric nostalgia for retrograde racial politics and wishful thinking about secession of the Southern states so much as a revolutionary vision of theocratic, white nationalist violence.

Article

The Christian Dominionists Who Benefit from David Tyree’s Fame

Former New York Giant David Tyree’s personal views on gay marriage have been the topic of much debate since his recent hiring as director of player development for that franchise, but the press has overlooked an even more significant problem. For…

Article

Dominionism Disguised as Aid

Rick Warren's Expanding Influence in Rwanda

Expanding access to basic healthcare is an important and valuable goal, but what happens when those made responsible for providing the care also hold conservative religious ideologies? What sort of sexual and health education is being taught? How…

Article

Anti-Gay Gatekeepers of the NFL

The NY Giants’ David Tyree Controversy

The New York Giants’ hiring of former player David Tyree as the director of player development has resulted in controversy and a statement from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The controversy stems from a 2011 interview with the National…

Article

Whose Family? Religious Right's "Family Values" Agenda Advances Internationally

Recently, we’ve seen a new round of right-wing “family values” efforts at the international level, focused particularly on the United Nations.

Article

“Libertarian Scaife” and His Religious Right Legacy

Richard Mellon Scaife was the “epitome of a libertarian,” or at least, that’s how he was described in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review following his death on July 4. “Libertarian Scaife” is apparently how he wished to be remembered in the city where…

Article

Archbishop Tells Africa Homosexuality is a Human Rights Issue, Will American Culture War Exporters Listen?

The Archbishop’s courageous words came at the time when Zambians were awaiting the ruling on a same-sex couple James Mwape and Phillip Mubiana, who were pulled from their home and arrested on charges of being homosexual in May, 2013.

Article

GOP Voters in Maryland Face Dilemma as Theocrats Win Party Primaries

Michael Peroutka, one-time presidential candidate of the Constitution Party, won the Republican primary for a seat on the County Council and GOP Central Committee. Peroutka and his ilk believe that holding local office empowers them to defy state…

Article

VIDEO: Hobby Lobby Decision Restricts Religious Freedom

PRA’s executive director Tarso Luís Ramos joined The David Pakman show to discuss how SCOTUS’ Hobby Lobby decision actually restricts religious liberty. “Despite the rhetoric of Christian Right groups, the battle for the meaning of…

Press Release

Demographic Winter

Right-Wing Prophecies of White Supremacy’s Decline And What They Mean for Reproductive Justice

Many anti-contraceptive arguments couched in secular rhetoric are designed to incite fear, even panic, concerning not the deaths of “preborn children,” but rather the demise of entire populations.

Article

PRA's Fred Clarkson Discusses Religious Liberty on Between The Lines Radio

PRA’s senior fellow, Frederick Clarkson, joined Between The Lines radio this week to discuss the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, and the broader campaign to redefine religious liberty by the Religious Right.

Press Hit

Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos Explains Hobby Lobby Decision on Real News Network

PRA’s executive director Tarso Luís Ramos appeared on The Real News Network to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. “The decision effectively transforms the Framer’s notion of religious liberty as a shield against…

Press Hit

PRA Discusses American Culture Warriors in Africa on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

PRA had the opportunity this last week to work with HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, discussing the U.S.-based conservative evangelicals who are responsible for exporting the culture wars to Uganda and other African nations.

Press Hit

RELEASE: Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma Applauds Obama Admin Sanctions on Anti-LGBTQ Ugandan Leaders

After the Obama administration announced new sanctions against officials responsible for human rights violations in Uganda on Thursday, PRA applauds the plan for targeted sanctions against officials responsible for human rights violations in Uganda…

Press Release

In Post-Hobby Lobby Era, Rick Warren Says He Is Willing to Go to Jail

Even though ERLC president Moore says he is confident Hobby Lobby will win their case, the panelists nevertheless agreed that Christians, and all people of faith, face creeping governmental “persecution.”

Article

Exploiting the Fear of Exploitation

The Truth Behind the Right's Resistance to Human Trafficking

A sign that says "The Truth shall set the children free."

The abuse, manipulation, and exploitation of others is unacceptable in any context, and should be confronted and stopped. Yet conservative religious groups, lobbyists, and legislators have done little to curb the harmful elements of the sex trade.…

Article

Some Christian Right activists have lost hope that a Christian Nation can be achieved in the United States through the formal political process—including a high-level GOP operative. They are calling for martyrs and thinking about religious war.

Article

Meet Seyoum Antonios, Ethiopia’s Martin Ssempa

As has become a standard for these persecutors of sexual minorities and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), Antonios criticized and blamed Western influence (for the existence of sexual minorities in Africa), while hiding the…

Article

VIDEO: Fred Clarkson Explains the Fight for Religious Freedom

The concerted effort by the Religious Right to redefine Religious Freedom is steadily making its way through the courts and legislators. Political Research Associates’ senior fellow, Fred Clarkson, explains why all Americans (religious and non-…

Webinar

RELEASE: Rick Warren's Return to Africa a "Grave Threat to Human Rights"

What will rick warren preach about lgbtq people this time?

Press Release

WATCH: Rev. Dr. Kaoma Discusses American Culture Warriors in Africa on The David Pakman Show

PRA’s senior religious and sexuality researcher, Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, joined David Pakman this week to discuss the origins of American culture warrior’s involvement in the persecution of sexual minorities and women in Africa.

Press Hit

HISTORIC: African Commission Acknowledges Need to Protect LGBTI People

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has taken a major step toward protecting the rights of LGBTI people by adopting a resolution condemning violence against individuals based on their “real or imputed sexual orientation and…

Article

Homosexuality is Not Un-African

It is legalized homophobia, not same-sex relations, that is alien to Africa

It is ironic that an African dictator wearing a three-piece suit, caressing an iPhone, speaking in English and liberally quoting the Bible can dare indict anything for being un-African.

Article

RELEASE: New book exposes U.S. right-wing attacks on African women & sexual minorities

American Culture Warriors in Africa: A Guide to the Exporters of Homophobia and Sexism is the groundbreaking new book designed to educate U.S. audiences and motivate all people of conscience to take action that interrupts the persecution of women…

Press Release

LGBTQ Rights - African Politicians' Biggest Scapegoat

The ultimate irony of this sad tale is that it is not LGBTQ people who are foreign to Africa, but rather the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is being used against them.

Article

Southern Baptist Leader Takes Religious Liberty Arguments to the Absurd

Like other Christian Right leaders, Moore continues to rely on historical revisionism, bogus science, dubious claims of religious persecution, and hints darkly of tyrannical governmental violence to come. But his arguments in favor of discrimination…

Article

Beyond Lively & Warren

U.S. Conservative Legal Groups Changing African Law to Persecute Sexual Minorities & Women

While the exposure of the direct involvement of U.S. conservative culture warriors like Scott Lively, Lou Engle, and Rick Warren in draconian anti-gay laws in Russia, Uganda and Nigeria has put many in the Religious Right on the defensive, there are…

Article

Maryland Neo-Confederate Candidates Back Plan to Defy Judge’s “No Sectarian Prayer” Order

The theocrats in both counties and their mentor, Judge Roy Moore, help illuminate a certain approach to contemporary debates about religious freedom.

Article

Saddleback's Approach to Mental Health Issues Misses the Mark For LGBTQ People

What Warren considers to be “professional approaches to mental health and healing” includes certain approaches that perpetuate hurt and harm rather than work to combat it, and that rely on homophobic “science” and a conservative Christian …

Article

Sex, Love, and Aid

The drama of love, sex, and the complicated nature of international aid and involvement is playing out not only on the cross-continental political stage but also in two recent film and theatre productions. In fact, God Loves Uganda (2013) and…

Article

Profile on the Right: Americans United For Life

For almost 50 years, Americans United for Life (AUL) has chipped away at women’s reproductive rights—both within the U.S. and abroad. AUL’s president, Charmaine Yoest, has described the organization as the “legal architect of the pro-life movement…

Profile on the Right

A Baptist Sexuality Summit for the Ethically Challenged

When Russell Moore ascended to the presidency of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), he claimed that he wanted to pull the public policy arm of the SBC back from the culture warring ways of…

Article

ITN News' Channel 4 and PRA's Kapya Kaoma Take Down Scott Lively

PRA’s senior researcher Kapya Kaoma joined ITN News’ Channel 4 (England) in a spotlight feature about Scott Lively’s involvement in the creation of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The piece includes PRA’s exclusive video of Lively…

Press Hit

Phelps May Be Dead, But Fundamentalism Lives On

Surveying the many responses to the demise of Fred Phelps, who was notorious in even the most secular of spaces.

Article

Only Fools Believe?

Pastor Rick Warren and Global Homophobia

The recent passage of highly punitive anti-LGBTQ legislation in Nigeria, Uganda, and Russia has brought renewed media scrutiny to certain conservative American evangelicals known for campaigning against homosexuality abroad. Pastors Scott Lively and…

Article

Profile on the Right: Mike Bickle, Founder of the International House of Prayer

Mike Bickle is the founder and director of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) and one of the pioneers of the apostolic and prophetic movement (also known as the New Apostolic Reformation or NAR). IHOP, based in Kansas City, Missouri, is a…

Profile on the Right

LA Times Op-Ed: U.S. Christian Right Behind Global Homophobia

PRA’s senior religion and sexuality researcher Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma published an Op-Ed in the LA Times this morning, detailing U.S. conservative evangelical involvement in the spread of anti-gay legislation across the world.

Article

Dr. Ben Carson, the Right's Latest Great Black Hope

From Alan Keyes to Herman Cain, various Black candidates have been floated in hopes that they held the keys to a GOP victory among Black voters (and promptly shunted to the side once they prove otherwise). The latest in this parade of short-lived…

Article

Updating the Image of Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry

The most recent “softer-language” campaign to launch from the Right is the Imago Dei Campaign, organized by a group of Christian Right leaders and Hollywood allies. The group, whose name translates from Latin to “image of God,” is seeking to alter…

Article

Profile on the Right: Mark Regnerus

In 2012, Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, published the “New Family Structures Study” in Social Science Research journal. His report claimed that children of same-sex parents faced substantial…

Profile on the Right

Guest Post - Right-Wing Evangelicals in Uganda

Telling the Whole Story

merican right-wing evangelicals have pushed for laws criminalizing homosexuality, banning marriage equality, and suppressing pro-equality advocacy in many parts of the world.

Article

Scott Lively & Rick Warren: The PR Campaign to Whitewash the Right's Anti-Gay Uganda History

The process of turning someone who claims “gay = Nazi” and that “equal rights = condoning pedophilia” into a “moderate” is quite the sight to behold.

Article

Rev. Kapya Kaoma Discusses Uganda on Al Jazeera English's "The Stream"

While U.S. right-wing pastors are desperately trying to go back and claim they had no involvement in the creation of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Rev. Kaoma has undercover video footage proving that not only did they encourage anti-LGBTQ…

Press Hit

Two Neo-Confederate Leaders Join Republican & Democratic Parties to Run For Office

Two former leaders of the theocratic Constitution Party (CP) declared their intention to run in the June 24th primary election—as a Democrat and a Republican. The pair are running, respectively, for seats on the Democratic and Republican Party…

Article

PRA's Jay Michaelson Discusses AZ's SB 1062 on CNN

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ explosive report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Liberties, joined CNN to discuss how Arizona’s SB1062 is only the beginning of the Right’s push to…

Press Hit

VIDEO: Rev. Kapya Kaoma Discusses the U.S. Religious Right Behind Uganda's Anti-Gay Law

Political Research Associates’ Senior Religion and Sexuality Researcher, Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, joined The Real News Network to discuss how U.S. conservative evangelicals are the real culprits behind Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Law.

Press Hit

Jay Michaelson Discusses Arizona Anti-LGBTQ Bill On NPR

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ Redefining Religious Liberty: the Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, joined NPR to discuss how the Right has twisted the meaning of “religious liberty” to advance a bill in Arizona that…

Press Hit

Profile on the Right: Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) is an evangelical organization established in 1987 to “defend against the accommodation of secular feminism” in the church and promote gender “complementarianism,” which teaches that “distinctions…

Profile on the Right

RELEASE: Uganda President Signs Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Despite promises not to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill until he had heard from U.S. scientists, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has broken that promise and put the lives of every LGBTQ Ugandan in jeopardy.

Press Release

While the demand for adoptable babies is increasing in the United States—driven in large part by evangelical Christians—the number of babies available for adoption is declining. Adoption agencies are now targeting tribal nations as a potential new…

Article

Decriminalizing Queer Requires More Than Diplomacy

Relics of the colonial era, combined with a new wave of aggressive fervor from U.S. conservative evangelical missionaries, have created the perfect foundation for an all-out war against LGBTQ people.

Article

WARNING: U.S. LGBTQ Organizations Falling Into Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Trap

Various human rights organizations in both the U.S. and Uganda are demanding a recall of the U.S. Ambassadors to Uganda and Nigeria. These organizations are falling right into the well-organized trap set by U.S. conservatives.

Article

RELEASE: Uganda President Persecutes LGBTQ People For Political Power

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is walking a political tightrope on the backs of LGBTQ Ugandans. In declaring that he will sign Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Museveni seeks to solidify his crumbling political power while putting the blame for…

Press Release

Why Did Bob Jones University Terminate Its Sexual Abuse Investigation?

Silence, evasion, and cover-ups remain the characteristic responses of evangelical leaders to abuse within their communities. The latest example of this culture of avoidance may be Bob Jones University.

Article

Beyond Bullying: Equally Excellent Education for All?

The 2014 Creating Change Conference was held in Houston, Texas on January 29 - February 2 and included several panels led by staff and fellows of Political Research Associates. The following is a summary of my portion of the panel titled “Beyond…

Article

"Scrambling to Make Sense of Russia" - PRA's Jay Michaelson on NPR

PRA’s Jay Michaelson, author of the groundbreaking report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, joins local NPR outlet WNPR News to discuss how anti-LGBTQ laws aren’t limited to Russia, they’re cropping…

Press Hit

VIDEO: Kuchu Diaspora Alliance Protests Uganda's LGBT Policies

Gathering outside the Ugandan embassy in Washington D.C., Victor and other members of the KDA protested against Uganda’s pending anti-homosexuality law and the exportation of homophobia by U.S. evangelicals to Africa.

Press Hit

The Stuff of Which Religious War is Made

Gregory M. Aymond, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans, is the leader of the majority religious institution in the state’s largest city, and he has made clear he is willing to use its economic leverage against any person or business…

Article

Considering #SochiProblems Beyond Russia

On Twitter, journalists are popularizing the “#SochiProblems” hashtag, documenting shoddy and ill-prepared accommodations. Yet the bigger concerns have more to do with human rights than broken doorknobs.

Article

FRC's Anti-Choice Conference

How the Right Co-Opts Feminism and Racial Justice

The conference marked another episode in the Right’s ongoing campaign attacking women’s bodily autonomy and access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare. As PRA detailed in its Summer 2013 issue of The Public Eye, these efforts have…

Article

Uganda President Museveni Will Likely Sign Anti-Homosexuality Law

While international media praises Ugandan President Museveni for “blocking” the Anti-Homosexuality bill—in reality he’s politically weak, trying to appease both sides, and will likely sign the bill.

Article

When the “Family Values” Agenda Includes Child Sex Abuse

The exposure of widespread sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy—and of the subsequent cover-ups by church leaders—has rocked the Catholic church for more than a decade. Less well known, though closely analogous, is the issue of widespread abuse within…

Article

National Journal: PRA Researchers Describe U.S. Evangelical Involvement in Russia & Uganda

Political Research Associates’ researchers Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma and Cole Parke discuss how U.S.-based conservatives are working directly with the governments of nations like Russia and Uganda to bring about anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Article

"Accidental Activism" and Redefining Religious Liberty

Accidental Activist illustrates not only the considerable efforts of the Religious Right to foster paranoia about anti-Christian persecution but also the intentionality and sophistication of the narrative. Through its melding of conservative racial…

Article

AUDIO: PRA's Jay Michaelson Discusses "Religious Liberty" on NPR

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, joined NPR’s All Things Considered program over the weekend to discuss the Right’s claim that…

Press Hit

Medicaid Expansion and the Right, Part 4

Alternative Models

As the Medicaid expansion adds successes such as the ones in California and Massachusetts, the Far Right and conservatives will continue to promote ideological ballast to bog down these successes. The 2013 government shutdown, the repeal of section…

Article

Medicaid Expansion and the Right, Part 2

The Role of Conservative Think Tanks

However absurd, vague, or speculative these politicians’ excuses for not expanding Medicaid may be, they leave millions of people with no access to healthcare.

Article

Different Countries, Common Threads

Connecting the dots in the global surge of anti-LGBTQ attacks

The passage of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill last Friday brings renewed attention to the plight of LGBTQ people in Africa.

Article

RELEASE: Uganda Passes Anti-Homosexuality Bill

The Uganda Parliament has passed the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill, first proposed in 2009 and condemned by the international human rights community, President Obama, and other international dignitaries.

Press Release

The Anti-Democratic Policies of the Right’s “Defense of Marriage”

Today, in the face of approximately 52 percent support for marriage equality in all 50 states, the Right continues to cite populist support in their endeavors.

Article

East vs. West? Russia, Ukraine, and the Anti-Gay Wedge

In the debates leading up to this current political moment, the LGBTQ community became a useful scapegoat for pro-Russia factions. Ukraine was the first post-Soviet country to decriminalize homosexuality following independence from the Soviet Union…

Article

Profiles on the Right: "No Greater Joy" and the Pearl Family

Hana’s death was the third confirmed case of an adopted child murdered by parents who followed the teachings of No Greater Joy Ministries (NGJ), founded by Christian fundamentalists Michael and Debi Pearl.

Profile on the Right

Zambia First Lady Deserves Praise for Pro-LGBT Speech? Think Again.

The global North LGBTI and Human rights groups have heralded Zambia’s First Lady Christine Kaseba’s “positive” statement on homosexuality. But if you read her full remarks in context, there’s isn’t anything praiseworthy about it.

Article

EXPOSED: How the Right’s State-Based Think Tanks Are Transforming U.S. Politics

Two networks of conservative, state-level think tanks have matured rapidly over the past three decades. By crafting public policy, collaborating with Republican state legislators, and fostering new leadership for the Right, they have significantly…

Article

While Sochi Olympics Spark Global Outrage Over Anti-LGBTQ Laws, Local Groups Fight for Real Change

Russia’s recent surge of anti-LGBTQ legislation has prompted responses from human rights defenders around the globe. The upcoming Winter Olympics (set to be hosted in Sochi, Russia) has become a significant platform from which to demonstrate and…

Article

Profiles on the Right: National Organization for Marriage (NOM)

NOM’s mission is to defeat same-sex marriage at the polls, in the legislature, and in the courts, from state to state and across the country. The group functions as an organized infrastructure that coordinates state and federal initiatives into a…

Profile on the Right

The Scott Lively Trial

Where are we and what happened yesterday?

The African LGBTQ advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) has sued Lively for crimes against humanity, specifically for inciting the persecution of Ugandan LGBTQ people.

Article

Post Palin Feminism and the Continued Assault on Women's Rights

The nomination of a “traditional” woman—“She wears makeup. She is pretty. She is an evangelical Christian. She is anti-abortion. She is also White.”—to so high a position publicly unearthed the conflicting views on feminist identity buried within…

Article

Three men in suits and a woman holding a mic.

Though based in Illinois, the World Congress of Families (WCF) has a global mission. It seeks to spread anti-choice, anti-LGBTI policies and ideas worldwide, as well as a conservative definition of the family.

Profile on the Right

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