During the 1990's Former Reagan Administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett published the popular book The Book Of Virtues - A Treasury of Great Moral Stories. At the 2006 Values Voter Summit I heard Mr. Bennett state that the Iraqi city of Fallujah should have been leveled with nuclear weapons, following the murder of four American contractors. Declared Bennett to cheers from the several thousand gathered for the conference, "When 4 Americans Are Hung.... You Level The City." Bennett drew a pointed comparison to the nuclear immolation of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Moving along...



Michele Bachmann

In a May 2, 2009 post Chris Rodda discussed Minnesota Republican Representative Michele Bachmann's use of a fake George Washington quote to attack President Barack Obama. Bachmann was one of the co-sponsors, along with Republican Representative Mike Pence, of House Resolutions H.Res 888 and H. Res 397 which, as Rodda covered in a running series at Talk To Action, were packed with falsified American history designed to support the dubious claim that America was founded as a Christian nation (see: 1, 2.)

Ergun Caner

Ergun Caner, President of Liberty University's seminary, has been accused of fabricating his life story to create the impression that he made a dramatic conversion from Islam to born-again Christianity, reports Rob Boston of Americans United For The Separation Of Church and State.

Jim DeMint

In December 2009, US Senator Jim Demint attended a nationally televised Family Research Council-sponsored billed as a "Prayercast" against Health Care reform. Leading the event was evangelist Lou Engle, who has been criticized for supporting the so-called "Kill the gays" bill in Uganda, claims that homosexuals are possessed by demons, and has written, "The most 'dangerous terrorist' is not Islam but God. One of God's names is avenger of blood. Have you worshiped that God yet ?" Engle has also declared that legalized abortion will lead to a second American civil war (see linked story, above.)

Lou Engle appeared in the 2005 Heidi Ewing / Rachel Grady runaway hit documentary Jesus Camp. The official website for the documentary states that at Becky Fischer's "Jesus Camp" summer camp, "kids are taught to become dedicated soldiers in God's army and are schooled in how to take America back for Christ." In the film, Fischer states her desire to indoctrinate the children at her camp so that they have the same level of dedication as Hamas suicide bombers.

Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee

On Friday June 9, 2009, Lou Engle blessed and anointed Former Speaker of The House of Representatives Newt Gingrich ("the guy who divorced the second of his three wives while she was dying of cancer") and Former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (who during the 2008 presidential primary called for the US Constitution to be brought into line with biblical law.) Both men featured have attended and spoken at multiple Family Voter Values Summits. In a January 2008 Talk To Action story I detailed some of Mike Huckabee's ties to the Christian Reconstructionist movement, which aspires to reimpose Biblical capital punishments such as stoning.

Bryan Fischer

Then there's Bryan Fischer, Director of the American Family Association. As Jonathan Rowe explains, Fischer appears confused about American history (he thinks the US was founded as a Christian nation) and as Bill Berkowitz details, Fischer has led the AFA to new heights of gay-bashing and anti-Islamic bigotry. On a surrealistic note, as I covered in late June 2010, Bryan Fischer has claimed that God has sent bears and Killer Whales to attack Americans for neglecting the Bible. Kyle Mantyla of People For The American Way has a compilation of Fischer's "long record of hate speech" here.

Janet Parshall

Then there's nationally syndicated evangelical radio host Janet Parshall. In 2006 as Max Blumenthal described, Parshall was exuberant when Israel invaded Lebanon during the summer of 2006:

"[Parshall] became ecstatic at the outbreak of violence in Lebanon and Israel. "These are the times we've been waiting for," Parshall told her audience on July 21. "This is straight out of a Sunday school lesson." "

James Inhofe

At the 2006 Voter Values Summit I also had the pleasure of attending a last-minute appearance by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a dedicated Global Warming denialist who gave a long, rambling speech in which the senator claimed Global Warming was a United Nations plot to destroy America. Here's my transcription. Excerpt:

Anyway, in 1970 the United Nations came up with something called the IPCC, the International Planet Panel for Climate Control [ ed: the correct name is "The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change". The IPCC was established in 1988 ] , and they came up with one guy who said he was a scientist and they had this thing called the hockey stick that said this is what the temperature had been and how it's visibly related to the hockey stick, Global Warming's coming in, and how we're all going to die. Well, that was in 1970 and all the liberals joined in, the Hollywood crowd all joined in, and this was the liberal agenda that they enjoyed so much. And so - get the scene now - back, that was, the ilk, the, the idea of this is that the, the, the climate is changing, it's going up, and it's due not to actual causes but due to the release of CO2 and what they call anthropogenic gasses. Man made gasses. The motive of this is to try to shut down this machine called America, stop building, stop - y'know - driving around and all these things and so - ah, anyway - we were just about to sign the Kyoto treaty when I became chairman of the committee that Gil talked about in his introduction, its called Environment and Public Works. Now, in this committee we have jurisdiction over this, uh, all these areas, so I thought "we need find out what the truth is about the Global Warming."

I made the following graphic in honor of Senator Inhofe's speech: