The following is a full text transcription of John Edwards’ speech on the evening of May 14, 2008, the speech in which he endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States:

Thank you. So the question is, what am I doing here?

You know, I was promised a jet-ski, and I haven’t gotten it yet.

I am proud to be here with all of you. Proud to be in Michigan. Proud to be in Grand Rapids. During the course of this presidential campaign, I’ve gotten to know the candidates, and the top candidates very very well. We have all been out speaking about the causes that are so near and dear to our hearts as Democrats, and now we’re here down to two amazing candidates. And before I get too far I want to just take a minute and say a word about my friend and your friend, Senator Hillary Clinton.

[Crowd boos.]

In the past few months and past few weeks I’ve gotten to know Senator Clinton very well. We’ve talked. We’ve met in North Carolina. We’ve talked about the things that she cares about and every single one of you care about, about the men and women in this country who don’t have health care, about the children who don’t have health care, about the men and women in America who just want to have a decent job and go to work. We’ve talked about our own children, our own families, and what I’ve learned about her during that time (and I’ve gotten to know her very well) is that she believes with every fiber of her being that America can be a better place, and that we need change to make America a better place, what it’s capable of being.

And I want to tell you, and I know this is hard to understand sometimes, but it is very very hard to get up every day and do what she’s done. It is hard to go up there and fight and speak up when the odds turn against you. And what she has shown, what she has shown is strength and character and what drives her is something that every single one of us can and should appreciate. She cares deeply about the working people in this country, cares about the families who are losing everything because somebody got sick. She cares about the men and women who are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. This tenacity has shown her strength and determination. She is a woman who in my judgment is made of steel. And she’s a leader in this country not because of her husband but because of what she has done, speaking out, because of standing up.

And we, when this nomination battle is over — and it will be over soon — brothers and sisters we must come together as Democrats and in the fall stand up for what matters in the future of America, to make America what it needs to be! And we are a stronger party because Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, we are a stronger country because of her years in public service, and we’re going to have a stronger presidential nominee in the fall because of her work.

Now, what brought all of us here is the profound belief that we can change this country. That there are service men and women in Iraq who can come home starting today. That our kids deserve to go to better schools than we went to. That we can run our cars on something other than oil. That we can have good jobs that can fill these empty factories. And that the anxiety that all of our people face every day can change when we finally make two Americas one America for every single one of us.

This is why you are here. You are here because of the hope that you carry in your heart that will make this country better. And we have so much work to do in America, because all across America there are walls. There are walls dividing the way things are and the one America we want to see.

And in fact there’s a wall around Washington DC. The American people today are on the outside of that wall. And on the inside are the big corporations and the lobbyists working to protect a system that takes care of them. And guess who struggles every single day? Working men and women see that wall when they have to split their bills into two piles. One: pay now, and one: pay later. When they get bullied at work because they want to join a union. When they see disappointment on the face of their son or daughter because they can no longer pay for that child to go to college. When their CEO who gets a golden parachute and their job gets shipped overseas — and you know something about that here in Michigan. When their wages drop and their kids go hungry. And guess who’s doing just fine? The insiders. The lobbyists. The special interests. Our job come January of next year is to tear that wall down and give this government back to the American people.

There is another wall that divides us. It’s the moral shame of 37 million of our own people who wake up in poverty every single day. In a nation of our wealth, to have millions of Americans who work every single day and still can’t pay their electric bill and pay for their food at the same time? There are mothers out there, working two jobs every day to try to keep their kids from going to bed hungry. There are men and women who have worked hard all their lives so that they can try to buy a home, and they’re living in a tent city because they’ve got nowhere to go. This is not okay, and for eight long long years, this wall has gotten taller.

Yesterday I was in Philadelphia and I was announcing an initiative to cut poverty in half in the next ten years, and I am proud to say today that Barack Obama stands with me in this cause. We also have a wall that divides our two public school systems in America. It is not okay that a child born into a wealthy family gets the best education in the world, and a child born in a small town or the inner city barely gets by. Their education is our education. We’re going to fix that system for them and make these schools good for everybody.

How about health care, right? The big drug companies, insurance companies, HMOs, the politicians who take their money, they’re getting their way. They love that wall just the way it is today. Well, it’s going to be gone as soon as we create real and meaningful health care for every man, woman and child in America.

And there’s also a wall that’s divided our image in the world: the America as the beacon of hope is behind that wall. And all the world sees now is a bully. They see Iraq, Guantanamo, secret prisons and a government that argues waterboarding is not torture.

[Crowd boos]

This is not okay. That wall has to come down for the sake of our ideals and our security. We can change this. We can change it. Yes we can. If we stand together, we can change it.

And the reason that I am here tonight is that the Democratic voters in America have made their choice and so have I.

There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the lasting change that you have to create from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two. And that man is Barack Obama.

This is not going to be easy. It’s going to be the fight of our lives. But we’re ready because we know this election is about something bigger than the tired, old, hateful politics of the past. This election is about taking down these walls that divide us so we can see what’s possible, what’s possible, that one America that we can build together.

Barack Obama understands that to his core. You know, as I have traveled this country, as I’ve learned traveling this country from talking to people like the students we took to New Orleans, who volunteered their Spring Break to go to New Orleans to work to help rebuild the city. A former Army captain that I met who served two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, even after he was badly injured in a grenade attack. And I’ll never forget a man I met named James Lowe. He was born with a cleft palate and it kept him from being able to speak. And he had no health care coverage, and he lived for fifty years in America not able to speak because he had no health care. What I’ve learned, and what Barack Obama has learned? It is about them. It is about you. It is about the people. It is not about us. And that is what we are fighting for.

And it’s about the one America we’re going to build for them. One America where Main Street is strong. One America where struggling towns come back to life because we’ve finally transformed our economy by ending our dependence on foreign oil. One America where the men and women who work the late shift, who get up at dawn to drive a two hour commute, and the young person who closes the store to pay for college. They will actually be honored for that work. One America where no child goes to bed hungry, when we finally end the moral shame of 37 million Americans who wake up every day in poverty. One America where we finally start tackling the real health care crisis in America. One America with one public school system, where a boy in the city and a girl in the suburbs will wake up every day with an equal chance for a quality education. One America that rebuilds our moral authority in the world, not just with our strength but with our soul.

One America where the walls will fall when the war in Iraq ends in 2009 and our service men and women will come home to the hero’s welcome that they deserve. And we will take care of our veterans. We are going to get this part of the war right. We will never again stand by while men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States of America stand in line and have to wait for health care. We will never stand by while 150,000 men and women who wore our uniform go to sleep every night on grates and under bridges. Not in our America! Not in our America! Not in our America when Barack Obama is President of the United States of America!

You know, we’ve been in this kind of place before. In times of war, great depression, deep divisions that tore at the soul of this nation, we came together. We went to work to make sure we passed on a better and stronger country to our children. We will meet this challenge again. This is who we are. This is our moment. This is our time to take down these walls, to close our divide and to build one America that we all believe in. If you want that, if you believe in that, then join me in helping to send Barack Obama to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because we believe that in our America that we love so much, no matter who you are, no matter who your family is, and no matter what the color of your skin, none of those things will control your destiny, and that that one America that I’ve talked about is not only possible but it will be achieved under President Barack Obama starting in January of 2009.

Thank you. God bless you. I’m honored to be with you all. Thank you.

The speech reminds me why John Edwards used to grate on my nerves when he was still running for president. What is this idea to “build one America that we all believe in”? Americans believe different things, and you know, that’s not only all right, it’s what our founding fathers had in mind. And do we have to hear about everybody he’s met and everywhere he’s gone? Does he have to take so long to deliver what was really a pretty simple message?

The answer to that is no, of course. Here’s John Edwards’ endorsement speech, the condensed version:

1. Hi.
2. I like Hillary Clinton. Please don’t diss her.
3. But hey, fall in line behind our nominee who will be Barack Obama.
4. There’s inequality in opportunity and the delivery of social services and health care and education in America. Too many people are poor, even though they work their asses off.
5. Too people including veterans who have served this country are dumped like some pieces of trash.
6. The world outside America sees us when we detain without charges and torture and engage in stupid wars of choice.
7. This is happening in part because corporate lobbyists and their politician cronies sit nice and comfy in their symbiotic relationship of mutual protection. Americans who don’t have a lot of money or power are shut out of a real role in the political system.
8. We can change that if you vote for Barack Obama.

American ayatollahs, take heed: Someone in Congress is thinking of your needs. Republican Representative Todd Akin from Missouri has introduced legislation to establish a government sponsored Year of the Bible in 2008.

From the perspective of the Constitution and American law, Akin’s legislation is clearly out of bounds. What about from the Christian perspective, though?

Theologically, the idea of an official Year of the Bible turns Christian belief into nonsensical blather. How can eternal, cosmic wisdom be confined to just one year? If dedication to Christian religious practice is supposed to remain constant, developing throughout one’s life, how can there be just a single Year of the Bible? What are the rest of the years in one’s life supposed to be? The Year of the New York Times Bestseller, followed by the Year of the Encyclopedia, then the Year of the Dictionary, and then the Year of The Omivore’s Dilemma, and on and on?

Todd Akin’s resolution is a perfect example of how attempts to impose religion through legislation actually end up diminishing religion.

On the positive side, perhaps keeping the Bible contained to just one year could help to keep the theocratic ambitions of the Religious Right at bay. They could have their little Year of the Bible, and then every year after that would be, by definition, not a year of the Bible.

It’s a tempting reinterpretation of a bad idea, but no, I think I’ll stick by the Bill of Rights and the separation of church and state instead.

Yesterday, I wrote an article with the goal of helping Republicans release the poison of anti-Obama hatred from their veins, engaging in a cathartic release so that they could then begin the task of reacquainting themselves with reality. I imagined the worst that the Republicans could say about Barack Obama: Barack Obama Exposed As A Muslim Giraffe From France Whose Secret Brother Is A Stockbroker for Satan!

I was trying to be outrageous, to go so far that even Republicans would recognize how bizarre their anti-Obama rhetoric has become. It turns out, however, that the Republicans were already ahead of me, imagining scenarios just as outrageous as the fantasy I had cooked up.

Take, for example, W.B.B. Johnson, who says that if Barack Obama is elected President, “we revert back into the dark ages and slavery, dictatorship’s and rule. If you won’t stand up and fight now…before they sink their teeth in for the final time…we ALL LOSE!”

What in the world is W.B.B. Johnson talking about? Why does he think that Barack Obama as President would bring about slavery and dictatorship, when Barack Obama has actually spoken out strongly against both?

The answers are not easy to find, given the convoluted nature of W.B.B. Johnson’s conspiracy theories. However, the answer seems to come back to the Bible. Instead of evaluating Barack Obama according to what Barack Obama actually says and does, W.B.B. starts his political analysis from a much more ancient source: The Christian Bible.

W.B.B. Johnson looks first and fundamentally at the words of the Bible, assuming them to be literally true, and seeks guidance in understanding today’s presidential campaign from those words, even though they are almost two thousand years out of date.

So, in W.B.B. Johnson’s mind, whatever the Bible suggests about Barack Obama’s character must be true, even if that is contradicted by everything that Barack Obama actually says and does. Given the plain fact that the Bible never mentions Barack Obama, there’s a wide opening for creative interpretation, and W.B.B. does indeed get quite creative.

His conclusion is that Barack Obama will bring about biblical prophecies of Armageddon if elected President. How will Barack Obama bring about a satanic one world government that will spark the End Times? W.B.B. explains, “The governments of the world are doing in concert, that which only individual kingdom’s had tried in years past. RULE the world and ALL of the people in it! Why do you think they want a hybrid that won’t be patriotic in office?”

Yes, you read that right. W.B.B. calls Barack Obama a “hybrid”. A hybrid, of course, is the result of interbreeding between two species - as when a horse and a donkey create a mule.

What W.B.B. Johnson means to suggest is that Europeans and Africans are not just people of different ethnicities, but actually are two separate species. W.B.B. believes that a “hybrid” like Barack Obama is somehow more likely to lead Satan into power over all the world than purebloods.

So, racism, libertarianism and bizarre religious prophecies all get tied together into a single psychological Gordian Knot that W.B.B. and his ilk cannot break free from once it begins to wind its way around their minds. No facts or logic is needed to support this conception of Barack Obama as the ultimate evil - only fear is necessary, and the fear of Barack Obama seems to support itself.

Republicans are literally being driven insane by their hate for Barack Obama. When I say insane, I mean insane. Crazy.

Crazy is talking about someone who lived in the Middle East thousands of years ago, and thinking that it’s a relevant issue. That’s just what commentator Jill Stanek did in an article for WorldNetDaily - a kooky right wing publication that includes advertisements for “combat training” that “the army doesn’t want you to know”.

Why Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama is Stanek’s headline. Oh, it’s true that Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama, but it isn’t for the reasons that Stanek babbles on about.

Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama because he was a citizen of the Roman Empire who died two thousand years ago.

Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama because he was not registered to vote.

Jesus would not vote for Barack Obama because he didn’t even know that North America existed, and so would have a very difficult time getting to the polls.

What are we going to hear the Republicans write about next? Why Cleopatra would not vote for Obama? Don’t put it past them.

Are you looking for tips on how to best ExPose Barack Obama? Look no further than our video tutorial:

Well, what did you expect?

Some innuendo sourced to Loren Davis, the man who says that the American Flag is itself a secret Satanic symbol? Did you expect some kind of diatribe? A diatribe with nothing more for sourcing than hearsay and third-cousin-twice-removed genealogies? A diatribe claiming that Barack Obama is somehow simultaneously a Satanist, a Christian of the wrong sort, and part of an underground Islamic intifada? Is that what you were looking for?

How embarrassing for you.

Better that you should watch a puppet show. Then try, please try, to stick to the truth in the future.

People will do very strange things in order to hold on to their cherished hatreds.

It’s obvious that the right wing path of fear and attacks on freedom has failed. In a recent poll, 71 people disapprove of George W. Bush’s presidency. However, 29 percent approval remaining for Bush still leaves a lot of people hold on to the harsh, angry agenda of the radical right wing, and those people are very afraid of Barack Obama.

Why are they afraid of Barack Obama? Obama promises to work to end the war in Iraq, instead of allowing for a military occupation of Iraq that continues for, as John McCain has suggested, one hundred years or even ten thousand years. Barack Obama promises to end the regime of torture that John McCain has voted to support. Barack Obama offers a plan of strong action to combat climate change and revitalize the American economy with a new push toward efficient energy technologies. Barack Obama proposes a return to freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution but ignored under George W. Bush.

Worst of all, Barack Obama promises change. There are a lot of people in America who are afraid of change. There are a lot of people who are clinging to the past, to outdated visions of how things ought to be, visions that go back to John McCain’s childhood during the times of Jim Crow, and McCain’s vote to try to kill the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

There are a lot of Americans, sadly, who still don’t want people of all ethnic backgrounds to come together and make a new fully American family. They don’t want Americans of different religions to get along, because they believe that their own religion is the only right way. They get a thrill from seeing American soldiers at war, and the idea of a peace that lasts, without a boogeyman on the horizon, frightens them.

They are so desperate to hold onto their hates and fears that they’ll say anything to try to stop Barack Obama. Some of them have even gone insane.

Yes, insane Insane is the most honest word to describe what some people are saying about Barack Obama now. I discovered what I hope are the depths of the anti-Obama insanity tonight, when a ranting man responded to a video I had posted on YouTube. That man, I discovered, had endorsed a set of truly bizarre videos with titles such as:

- BARACK OBAMA: THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
- BARACK OBAMA THE WOLF PART 2: HIS PUPPETMASTERS
- BARACK OBAMA THE WOLF PART 3: THE BEAST SYSTEM AND ITS MARK
- Is Barack Hussein Obama the Antichrist?
- Barack Obama Antichrist
- Barrack Hussein Obama ILLUMINATI
- Barack Obama is a ZIONIST ILLUMINATI part 1 [I never did find part 2]
- barack obama is the antichrist

There are a group of people out there who are seriously accusing Barack Obama of being the antichrist, in league with Satan. The Loren Davis crowd is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here’s a gem that shows the twisted thinking these people put themselves through in order to justify their hate of Barack Obama:

“Nostradamus prophesied “Mabus” would either be the Antichrist, or the forerunner to the true Antichrist. Obama+bush=oba[mabus]h”

Never mind that Bush comes before Obama. Groan.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these people are just on the margins of the anti-Obama movement. One of their videos that I looked at has had 156,475 viewers in the last two and half months, and the video has a 3-star rating, which means that as many people who view it approve of it whole heartedly as disapprove of it.

That movie accused Barack Obama of running a cult, and runs with an accompanying text that makes claims like,

“The open dismantling of the US, the merging of the North American Union, and really the dawn of the RFID tracking age. A President of the world’s dying superpower will have to oversee the transition into biometric scanning and a cashless society Do you think anyone will by it from Bush? of course not, but you can be absolutely sure Obama will sell this system to everyone, and grab those guns as fast as he can… Makes me wonder if some sort of ‘world leader’ anti-christ type situation will develop, with the elite making the big moves for everything.”

In another part of this same series, the author states,

“I think this video speaks for itself. I stand by everything that’s in here, because everything is documented… I first want to state that Barack Obama is merely a frontman for a sinister cartel of bankers and occultists.”

I’m not going to try to argue logically against this kind of material, because this material has no genuine logic to it. Instead, I’m going to trust that exposing this material Even after everything that we’ve seen under Bush over the last seven years, I still trust that 71 percent of the American people would be shocked to find out that this kind of insane material is being spread around. Expose this weird muttering about Barack Obama and the Trilateral Commission to sunlight, and it disintegrates.

One final note about what makes these people so angry: They hate Barack Obama’s progressive ideals, but more than that, they hate that Barack Obama has gotten the kind of approval they thought their approval would get… their candidate being Ron Paul.

Many of the people claiming that Barack Obama is the antichrist are Ron Paul supporters, who included large numbers of white supremacists and neoNazis, and a huge number of Lou Dobbs dittoheads who believe that American sovereignty is about to be overthrown by international bureaucrats, using the mythical Amero coin and North American Super Highway.

They spent much of 2007 truly believing that Ron Paul was a great hero who was going to win the Republican nomination in 2008, and become the next President. In 2008, their beliefs were rudely contradicted, as Ron Paul mostly got around just 5 percent of the vote in every Republican primary.

How could such a contradiction of their beliefs in a nationwide love affair with Ron Paul fail to come true? It seems that some of them could only come up with one explanation: In order to defeat Ron Paul the Messiah, Barack Obama must be the Antichrist, sent by Satan himself to make Ron Paul look irrelevant.

I just can’t stand it any more. I’ve got to break my jaw-clenched, steaming mad silence, this pisses me off so much.

There’s this black angry preacher who a presidential candidate did not seek the endorsement of and did not receive the endorsement of, and did not invite to join his campaign in any capacity whatsoever. When the presidential candidate found out he said “God Damn America” more than a handful of years ago, the presidential candidate quickly and repeatedly denouced that position. When the black angry preacher decided to keep saying such things, the presidential candidate called a national news conference to reject, renounce, denounce and condemn the black angry preacher. The news media covers this prominently for months on end, and pundits decide that the existence of this black angry preacher may doom the presidential candidate’s campaign.

There’s this white angry preacher who another presidential candidate DID seek the endorsement of, and DID receive the endorsement of, and DID hug on stage at a political rally, and DID proclaim to be proud to have associated with the campaign and was “glad to have” him join the campaign. When this presidential candidate found out that the white angry preacher said “America is under the curse of God, even now,” the presidential candidate responded on national TV that “I’m glad to have his endorsement.” When the white angry preacher continued to say such things, political insiders accepted the presidential candidate’s non-rejection mutely. Hardly any media attention is given to this information, and this presidential candidate continues to sail on to the presidential nomination.

The next time you’re sitting with your friend Rachel and she asks you why those, those, you know, black people say there’s still racism in this country, remember this. Then slap Rachel on the head for me and tell her to get a clue.

One of our good readers, John Stracke, asked a great question this afternoon. I had written an article highlighting our first sale of the Zoroastrians for Obama bumper sticker. The point I was trying to make was that Barack Obama is the best presidential candidate in terms of respect for cultural pluralism, including people of different religions.

I mentioned Zoroastrianism, of course, and the Mormons, and Wiccans, and even seekers in general… but I didn’t mention the atheists. That’s an odd omission on my part, given that I’m a non-religious person myself.

Well, John asked why hadn’t mentioned any bumper sticker for Atheists for Obama. The truth is, it just slipped my mind.

Rest assured, we do indeed carry an atheists for Obama bumper sticker. We’ve got an atheists for Obama campaign button too, for that matter.

But, why would an atheist support Barack Obama instead of one of the other presidential candidates?

Well, why wouldn’t an atheist support Barack Obama?

Okay, that’s not a fair answer. Here’s one for you, then.

You can go ask the official Atheists for Obama group too, if you’re curious.

Here’s a little reminder for those Americans who are getting stuck on all the political pseudoscandals designed to divide us with the idea that only a few elite kinds of people are suited to lead us with the presidency. The USA is a lot more diverse than a lot of people understand.

Take Zoroastrians, for example. Zoroastrians are living here, in the United States, as full citizens with rights and contributions to make to our nation. Yet, whenever we hear about the important role of “faith” in the 2008 presidential election, we always hear about Christianity and the Christian Bible and Christian churches.

That singular portrayal of Christianity as The American Religion is outdated, and disrespectful to Non-Christian Americans. So, we’ve created a series of political bumper stickers for people of non-Christian identity, in order to enable them to assert their cultural identities at the same time as they promote the presidential candidate of their choice.

So, I’m happy to report that this morning, we sold our first Zoroastrians for Obama bumper sticker. It will soon be sent off on its way.

Psst… Christians… Don’t feel snubbed. We have a Christians for Obama bumper sticker for sale too…

…and Wiccans for Obama… and Seekers for Obama… and Mormons for Obama…

… we can all share the American national identity, unless we make it a small thing.

The team behind The Secret, the book and upcoming movie proclaiming that all you have to do to gain what you desire is to wish for it, is being torn apart by acrimony and a lawsuit.

Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha.

You probably have already heard about the public school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio who’s been documented to have plastered the Ten Commandments on his door, put a Bible on his desk and promoted religious creationism to his students. He’s also been alleged by Mount Vernon public schools and a child in his class to have burned crosses into the skin of his pupils. No shrinking violet, John Freshwater says that when the school district tells him to stop abusing his position of authority as a schoolteacher to shove religion down his pupils’ throats and burn it onto their arms, he’s the one who is being oppressed.

My favorite part of all this is Freshwater’s reasoning about why his government job as a public school teacher gives him the right to impose his religion on others:

I cannot with a clear conscience follow a directive that makes religion and the religious viewpoint any less credible by those who deem themselves more enlightened.

Freshwater’s contention is that not putting the Ten Commandments on a door, not sticking a Bible on his desk, not hawking Intelligent Design, and not burning crosses into the arms of the children under his authority would be injurious to religion. By that logic, not putting the Koran on the door would be injurious to religion. Not teaching the children transcendental meditation would be injurious to religion. Not telling children that the Earth sits on the back of a turtle would be injurious to religion. Not burning a Star of David, or a Crescent, or the Vedic Swastika onto a child’s arm would be injurious religion.

John Freshwater seems to feel no need to use the power granted him by the state to shove non-Christian religion down children’s throats. Freshwater’s freedom is only the freedom to shove Christian religion, and within that his own parochial understanding of Christian religion, down children’s throats. Freshwater’s actions are the abuse of power to establish a favored religious understanding and practice in those under his authority. It is to restrain the abuse of government power by zealots like Freshwater that First Amendment restrictions on the establishment of religion are in place.

The Mount Vernon school district is courageously and correctly maintaining its position that Freshwater must stop using his position to push his religious agenda. Some community members, on the other hand, have been holding rallies in support of Freshwater’s use of government authority to proselytize. In the meantime, Bob Pawson, a Trenton NJ schoolteacher and leader of the Scriptures in Schools Project, is calling for fundamentalist Christian teachers across the country to expand their efforts to turn their teaching positions into centers of gospel work:

Teachers, students, and support staff should immediately flood America’s public schools with Bibles. Keep Bibles in class for the remainder of the school year. Find creative ways to use Bible references to complete some homework and in-class assignments each week.

If that’s not clear enough for you, Pawson’s spreading a song around with this message for teachers:

Dare to bring your Bible!
Dare to bring your Bible!
Dare to bring your Bible into school!

Though critics say you shouldn’t,
and really wish you wouldn’t,
dare to bring your Bible into school!

Oh, we don’t need their permission,
we have the Great Commission;
we speak with the Authority of Christ!

And the Holy Spirit
wants ev’ryone to hear it!
So, dare to bring your Bible into school!

Will the constitutional or theocratic vision of America prevail?

It’s a matter of law: non-profit organizations, including churches, must refrain “from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office” so long as they wish to be exempt from taxation for the large number of government services they receive.

Just because it’s against the law and the ethical standards of their own voluntary agreements with the government doesn’t mean that churches won’t go ahead and do it anyway. Far too often, churches want to have their cake (government services without having to pay taxes) and eat it too (interfering in political campaigns).

If and when you have evidence of a church violating the law and the standards of its own voluntary tax-exempt agreement with the IRS, there are two places you can report the violation.

1. Tell the IRS. Use Form 13909 to report any non-profit organization’s violation of its agreement with the government. The form allows you to make an anonymous report if you wish, and it also allows you to indicate that “I am concerned that I might face retaliation or retribution if my identity is disclosed.” Any relevant documentation of the violation can be included along with the form. As the form itself indicates, “The completed form, along with any supporting documentation, may be mailed to IRS EO Classification, Mail Code 4910DAL, 1100 Commerce Street Dallas, TX 75242-1198, faxed to 214-413-5415 or emailed to eoclass@irs.gov.”

2. Tell Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The organization (AU for short) has set up a dedicated website called Project Fair Play with a set of guidelines on politics for churches and other non-profit organizations and an online form through which you can report violations of the prohibition on church politicking. A team of researchers and legal experts employed by AU will look into your report. The advantage here is that with their resources, expertise and dedicated time they may be able to assemble a better case to the IRS than you could on your own.

The IRS makes it very clear: Under law, if churches choose (like any other non-profit organization) to file for tax-exempt status, then exchange for tax-exempt status they must agree to these terms:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all IRC section 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches and religious organizations, are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made by or on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax.

Churches have a great deal going under the current system. They gather huge amounts of income and hold gigantic amounts of wealth in this country. Despite all that income and wealth, churches don’t have to pay a single penny of income tax. Even though churches benefit from roads, utility provision, police protection, investment insurance and countless other varieties of government provision, they don’t have to pay a single penny of income tax. What a deal! All that a church has to do to get this amazing giveaway of government services without paying a penny of taxes is to agree not to interfere in government elections. It’s a completely voluntary arrangement — if a church wants to interfere in elections, then all it has to do is give up its tax-exempt status and start paying income taxes… just like you and I have to do when we get income. Under IRS rules, any church caught interfering in a political campaign is subject to the revocation of its tax-exempt status.

It’s time for the Jonesville Church of God to lose its tax-exempt status. Pastor Roger Byrd put this campaign message on the church sign for all in Jonesville, South Carolina to see:

Since this came to public attention, Byrd has been trying to backpedal on the big “Obama, Osama. Humm. Are They Brothers?” church sign:

It’s simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ…. I don’t know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim? I don’t know. He says he’s not. I hope he’s not. But I don’t know. And it’s just something to try to stir people’s minds.

Suuuure. Byrd doesn’t know if Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden are brothers. Riiiiight. Byrd doesn’t know if Barack Obama is Muslim. Uh huh… well, no, actually not. Actually, what Byrd is saying is bullshit, and Roger Byrd knows it.

It’s not just Pastor Roger Byrd who has stepped over the line of tax laws by turning his church into an anti-Obama campaign organization. Confronted with the church’s violation of the law, Byrd brought the issue up for a vote, in which the whole congregation reiterated its determination to use church resources to campaign against Barack Obama.

This church wants to keep taking services from the government, keep refraining from paying taxes, and then keep interfering in elections. It’s brazenly unethical and illegal activity, and it’s time for the IRS to intervene and revoke the Jonesville Church of God’s tax-exempt status.

Watch out, Republicans. You want to take on Barack Obama on the issue of the American flag? No problem. You’ve left yourselves exposed.

George Stephanopolous ought to have probed the issue of the American flag a little more deeply before he offered his inept question to Barack Obama about whether he really, really, really loves the American flag. If Stephanopolous weren’t so busy taking his political cues from Fox News, he might have actually investigated, and found out what lies beneath the Republicans’ position on the flag…

…some of them think that the American flag is a dark symbol of Satan.

No kidding. I’ve spend the last couple of days looking at American missionaries, and McCain supporters, Celeste and Loren Davis. What I’ve found has been so extreme in its character that it’s often amused me. Who would have thought, for example, that people would seriously accuse the National Football League of being secretly in cahoots with the Devil?

I don’t think a lot of Americans would be quite as amused to discover that Loren Davis Ministries, the apparent source of a bizarre range of nasty and untrue Internet rumors about Barack Obama, has been preaching a radical version of Christianity that regards the American flag as a satanic artifact that promotes worship of the Devil.

It seems far out, but it’s true. The Republicans who have been busy sending around an email from Celeste and Loren Davis have been promoting a man who seems to hate the American flag.

Read the PDF of the article that Loren Davis tried to destroy before it could be made public. In that article, Loren Davis claims that the 5 pointed star is an evil ancient symbol of Satan, and includes the following article and text, attacking the American flag itself as a wicked emblem of a wicked nation.

Loren Davis hates the pluralism of the United States. He detests the Bill of Rights and its separation of church and state. He fears the American flag, suspecting it of being a symbol of Hell itself.

He supports John McCain for President.

What hypocrites these Republicans are, accusing Barack Obama of not loving the flag enough, and at the very same time forwarding around nasty emails in the name of Loren Davis, who himself suggests that the American flag is a symbol of pure evil.

If these Republicans truly loved the flag, and didn’t just wrap themselves in it for the sake of political convenience, then they would reject the allegiance of Loren Davis. But, they don’t. Republicans online defend Loren Davis and his flag-hating ways.

Me, I neither revere nor reject the flag. It’s not the flag I care about. It’s American freedom I care about. That’s why I reject the radicalism of Loren Davis, who stretches credibility to find Satan hiding around every corner, and uses fear of Satan as a justification for attacking the liberty that has made America great.

We ought not to allow such a medieval thinker as Loren Davis to influence our opinions about the American presidential election in 2008. Loren Davis is a shocking example of the very backwards thinking behind the Republican agenda. It’s time for America to move forward with a President who has the courage to form a foreign policy and domestic policy that is not defined by fear of demons that do not exist.