Anyone who's studied the religious right can't help but notice a pattern to how they've operated over the last three decades. They get a little bit of power, only to overreach and get smacked down hard. Then they slither back into the shadows and wait a few years to build back up again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Well, if a video captured by People for the American Way is any indication, the overreach is beginning in earnest.
You may remember that prominent New Apostolic Reformation "prophetess" Cindy Jacobs is spearheading a prayer initiative for this election called Fast Forward. Well, last week at a rally to launch the event held in Washington, the Family Research Council's national prayer director, Pierre Bynum, was on hand to represent his organization, and openly called for non-Christians to be banned from holding office. Watch for yourself.
Well, you can't say they didn't warn us.
The folks at PFAW's Right Wing Watch have dug up evidence that indicates Jacobs is working hand-in-glove with the FRC on this "Fast Forward" drive. The FRC has been in a sort of informal alliance with Jacobs, Peter Wagner and other prominent dominionists for some time, and it looks like this appearance by Bynum pretty much cements it.
Bynum gets it wrong--there has never been a ban on non-Christians holding office at the federal level. Yet it looks like he's waxing nostalgic for the days when the states could impose religious tests with impunity. As a matter of fact, several states (including mine) still formally ban anyone who doesn't believe in God from holding office. However, since Torcaso v. Watkins in 1961, those provisions have been unenforceable. Of course, we know that if the religious right had its way, anyone who rendered such a decision would be arrested by the Capitol Police and haled before the House Judiciary Committee for impeachment hearings.
Update: It should be noted that Bynum is the latest religious-right figure to openly call for the gutting of the First Amendment. Earlier, Robert Jeffress (the same guy who claimed Mitt Romney was unqualified to be president because he's a Mormon) declared that freedom of religion invites the wrath of God. And Jacobs herself wants her followers to pray for the end of the separation of church and state. I say again--the overreach is beginning in earnest. They forget, though, that we're the ones surrounding them.