Frank Schaeffer was on fire in this interview with Rachel Maddow, prompted by a bizarre NJ poll that showed 35% of the conservatives in that state believe Obama is the anti-christ. Heh, “We have a village idiot in this country, it’s called fundamentalist Christianity”. Gold star for Schaeffer!

He’s right. Those are minds that are lost, and we have to move past them.

We’ve got a fine gang of nuts coming up through the religious ranks right now. There are some real lunatics associated with Sarah Palin: she’s linked to her home-town priests, Ed Kalnin and Thomas Muthee, who are linked to Morningstar Ministries and Rick Joyner. These cranks have a plan.

Muthee is an international celebrity for his role in a series of documentary videos, seen by millions worldwide, that claim Christians can reduce crime, murder, traffic accidents, addiction, and environmental degradation by driving out, from cities and towns, demon spirits and accused witches.

I am most amused by the clip at that link in which Joyner complains about the unfair treatment Palin received from the press, because they jumped on every crazy little thing she said. The press largely missed her religious beliefs, possibly because they’re so far out there it’s hard to believe a candidate for high office believes in any of that nonsense. She’s a “third wave” Christian.

In an interview for a September 12, 2008 Religion News Service story Rick Joyner stated, “We are probably described as Third Wave. We have had a lot of influence from movements that I think are identified as Third Wave.” The Third Wave is a newly emergent tendency in Christianity, little more than two decades old, which now encompasses by some estimates five percent of the Earth’s population and has been promoted from Ted Haggard’s former Colorado Springs mega-church.

Third Wave doctrine teaches that Christians must reclaim the Earth from demons spirits which possess cities, towns, geographic territories, people, ethnic groups, and even family lines. The cleansing of those demons, and unbelievers, from Earth will usher in a Christian utopian age.

And then there’s Pastor Steven Anderson, the loon who has been praying for Obama’s death. There is a short compendium of some of the most hateful, looney things Anderson has said, and it’s not pretty. Homophobia and petty-minded vindictiveness are apparently not obstacles to claiming spiritual authority…they seem to be more like preliminary qualifications.

Let’s keep all of these nasty, crazy people out of political power, OK? Please?

Frank Page is a former head of the Southern Baptist Convention (i.e., nuts) and is also now a member of the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In an interview, he talks about what’s going on in that council, and there is actually some good news.

My hope was that there would have been more time for focusing on formulating actual policy recommendations for the president. They keep saying that that’s something we’ll have more time for in the future. But most of our time so far has been briefings from administration officials about various government programs that are already in place.

So they’re wasting a little money and time by keeping these believers around, but they’re not wasting a lot of money by actually paying attention to them and letting them set policy. That’s reassuring, but not particularly efficient…unless, of course, the efficiency lies in keeping the delusional thinkers tied up in committee meetings.

But then, the way they’re thinking delusionally is aggravating. Page is the most conservative member of the team, and what do they put him on? A fatherhood committee.

There have been times when my voice and voices of others have been kindly heard, but the wish is always expressed that we need to find common ground or consensus. For example, I’m on the fatherhood task force, and there have been times when I have attempted to deal with the issue of fathers being better fathers because of their faith traditions, that they need to be true to the Bible or some other holy book about what makes a man a good father.

And they kindly listen, and then we move on to what government programs are available for fathers. It’s more about how the government would like to help fathers and here’s what government money is available for this problem. I feel that the key to solving those problems is not government money but the responsibility that’s rooted in one’s faith.

I can’t quite imagine a more disastrous social policy than basing male roles on the patriarchal misogyny of the Bible. Well, except for using that book to define female roles.

I also doubt that they’re actually honestly looking for common ground. There’s a notable absence of fierce god-hating atheists on the council (hey, if they can put conservatives who want to destroy the public school system on school boards, why not anti-religious crusaders on the Faith Council?), so I think the system is more interested in stacking the deck.