Republican big wigs and their staffers went on an all-expenses-paid junket to Israel and stood near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

But this wasn’t a prayer meeting and they didn’t treat the place like Holy Ground. Instead, they burst out the bubbly. Drunkenness followed. And at least one Republican congressman got naked and jumped into the sea where Jesus once walked on water.

The FBI got involved. The scandal was hushed up — for a year. But they couldn’t hide their misconduct forever. And now Politico has the details.

Question of the day: Does the typical U.S. politician in 2012 behave more like Solomon or Belshazzar?

Do we as Americans run the risk that one day, in the midst of our eating and drinking and self-congratulations, a hand will appear on the wall and write:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

My friend Ted Olsen from Christianity Today has co-written (along with blogger Ken Smith) a fascinating story about ties between a former Unification Church official named David Jang and key Southern Baptist leaders. The controversial South Korean preacher has been hailed as the “Second Coming Christ” by some of his followers — a label Jang currently rejects.

But for some Christians, the adulation heaped on Jang by his followers sounds disturbingly familiar to the worship heaped on “True Parent” Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.

Jang has a college in California and his followers have set up the Christian Post, a highly-read evangelical news web site.

Jang’s ventures include some of this nation’s best-known evangelicals. And Southern Baptists are considering turning over their massive New Mexico retreat center — virtually free of charge — to Jang’s school.

Since the story is appearing in Christianity Today, it has the backing of the nation’s most influential evangelical publication. And because it has Ted Olsen’s byline on it, it has additional credibility.

The 1980s had the Moral Majority.
The 1990s featured the rise of the Christian Coalition.
These days, the leading Christian Right lobby in Washington, D.C. may be the Family Research Council.

The group has close ties to the Republican Party. It’s a major voice for traditional marriage and repeal of Roe v. Wade.

It’s also been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has expanded its portfolio (originally focused on fighting racism) to targeting groups that take conservative stances on homosexuality and immigration.

Today, a gunman opened fire at the Family Research Council’s Washington offices.

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON— A law enforcement official says a suspected gunman made a negative reference about the work of a conservative Christian lobbying group before shooting a security guard.
(more…)

Paul Ryan, an Ayn Rand acolyte, may have some explaining to do about the inconsistencies between Christianity and AynRandianity.

At a time when the Soviet Union was promoting Godless Communism, Ayn Rand was a standard bearer for a new brand of Godless Capitalism — a code of morality that rejected charity as weak and Christianity as evil.

She hated God and promoted a “Greed is Good” gospel.

Paul Ryan was a big Ayn Rand fan, even throwing an Aynd Rand birthday party in 2005 to mark the Centennial of Ayn Rand’s birth. He says Rand is required reading for his staff and has indicated that the morality behind his philosophy of government comes from Rand, not Rome.

Ryan is apparently backtracking from Rand now that he’s wooing the Christian Right. But look for this issue to pop up some more between now and November.

Indeed there’s already a devastating ad, created by the American Values Network (a group of Democratic insiders).

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Roe v. Wade on Jan. 23, 1973.

By a 7-2 vote (with Justices Potter and White dissenting), the nation’s high court tossed out the abortion laws of all 50 states.

The decision didn’t ruffle many evangelical feathers — not at first. Roman Catholics almost single-handedly led the fight to repeal the court edict.

No one worked harder than Nellie Gray, who died Monday.

Gray organized the first March for Life in 1974 and led the annual event for nearly three decades.

Gray, a Texan born in 1924, was a convert to Catholicism and an attorney.

Beliefnet is releasing a list of the 100 Most Inspiring Songs of All Time.

Oddly enough, the all-time most-inspiring song of all time — according to Beliefnet — is “Over the Rainbow.”

The first ten songs, picked by Beliefnet “based on data gathered by its writers and editors” are:

“Somewhere over the Rainbow” by Judy Garland
“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
“Lean on Me” by Bill Withers
“Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler
“Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson
“We Are the Champions” by Queen
“Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston
‘Imagine” by John Lennon
“You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban
“One” by U2