Lynda Edwards, Investigative Reporter

Laughing in the face of COVID-19 has been sport during pandemic-era stagings of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and its regional offshoots.

"Thousands of patriots and not a damn mask in sight,” Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas beamed at CPAC Orlando in 2022. He cast vaccine and mask mandates as “a battle between power and liberty.”

Then-White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in February 2020 depicted COVID-19 as a prosaic flu erroneously hyped by the media as something that "brings down the president"— then Donald Trump.

And in March 2020, CPAC leader Matt Schlapp told Fox News of the novel coronavirus: “[W]hat the CPAC experience has taught the whole country ... is that it's actually hard to get it."

But as CPAC’s flagship event returns in March to Maryland’s Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center just outside Washington, D.C. — the same hotel where a VIP attendee triggered one of the nation’s earliest COVID-19 scares — conference organizers are quietly expressing a level of COVID-19 trepidation attendees almost certainly won’t see on-stage.

"COVID-19 has been declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization,” reads the "WAIVER OF LIABILITY FOR COVID-19 IN ATTENDING CPAC EVENTS” posted on CPAC’s website.

Several sobering paragraphs follow: “COVID-19 is reported to be extremely contagious. The state of medical knowledge is evolving, but the virus is believed to spread from person-to-person contact and/or by contact with contaminated surfaces and objects, and even possibly in the air. … COVID-19 can cause serious and potentially life-threatening illness and even death”

The waiver further presents CPAC as an event that comes with health risks.

“Attendance is of such value to me [and/or to my children,] that I accept the risk of being exposed to, contracting, and/or spreading COVID-19 in order to attend CPAC’s events in person,” CPAC’s waiver states. “I hereby forever release and waive my right to bring suit against CPAC and its officers, directors, employees, or other representatives in connection to any exposure, infection, and/or spread of COVID-19 related to my attending CPAC events."

Could someone who refused to sign the waiver still attend CPAC?

“No,” CPAC spokesperson Kaylee Spielman told Raw Story this week. “The COVID waiver needs to be checked for an individual to attend CPAC as it’s part of the registration process.”

She also said the host hotel has no COVID policy for guests, which may be a relief for CPAC staff who would be expected to enforce it.

“Sanitizer will be located all around the hotel and event, although masks will not be provided,” Spielman explained. “If an individual wants to wear a mask, they will have to bring one for themselves.”

In 2021 at CPAC’s Orlando conference, there was an unnerving moment when two CPAC organizers took the stage. A soft-spoken man and woman introduced themselves to the crowd as CPAC’s liaison with the hotel. The man began by reminding the crowd that everyone in CPAC was a capitalist — and as such, support the rule of law and private property. The hotel was private property, he noted, which meant CPAC should respect the hotel’s rules, which he asked his colleague to detail.

She explained that the hotel asked guests to wear masks in congested areas.

"Booooooo!" erupted from the crowd punctuated by screams of "Freedom" with the sporadic: "Bullshit!"

The couple quickly left the stage.

COVID-19 denialism has threaded through CPAC since 2020, when an attendee who owned an expensive “gold ticket” became infected. The gold ticket bestowed the bearer with opportunities to mingle with top Republicans.

Some GOP guests, including Cruz and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, voluntarily self-quarantined for two weeks after meeting the gold ticket holder. Politico reported that some attendees complained that wealthy purchasers of expensive tickets were given more truthful and in-depth briefings about the risks of contracting COVID than those who bought ordinary tickets.

That uneasiness about COVID’s true dangers being hidden from the masses proved correct. While Mulvaney was telling CPAC audiences that COVID was concerning but under control, Trump was confiding to journalist Bob Woodward that COVID was far more dangerous than most Americans knew.

Covid was deadly "not just (to) old people, Bob ...young people, too," Trump said. "You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed … It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

In January, President Joe Biden’s administration announced that it would wind down its treatment of COVID-19 as a national emergency and end emergency declarations altogether on May 11.

COVID-19 has killed more than 1.1 million people in the United States since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 3,000 people in the United States have died each week of COVID-19 for the past several weeks, CDC data indicates.

The scent of coffee and vanilla wafted from the foyer where the 200 worshippers would mingle and discuss social justice projects after the service.

But as the children's choir sang "God is in Control,” fear filled the church as a sweaty, disheveled man stumbled in, and stood behind the pews.

He clutched a battered backpack.

Congregation deacons who edged closer heard him murmuring to himself. Suddenly, the man screamed, "Get back, demons!"

The deacons grabbed the man and hustled him outside. He opened the backpack for them. It contained t-shirts and a screwdriver. They called 911 — and gave the man cinnamon rolls and coffee to go. They later learned he was schizophrenic and homeless.

No one in the church was harmed that day. Yet for a moment, the pastor, who described the never-before-reported scene with Raw Story on condition that he and his church not be named, had wished he had been carrying his Beretta APX handgun while preaching from the pulpit. He had worked in law enforcement and in security so he would often quip that he had “muscle memory” of a gun at his hip. But he later acknowledged to church elders that he wasn't a skilled enough marksman to shoot someone without accidentally wounding congregants.

The pastor’s predicament — keep houses of worship gun-free or go armed to the pulpit — is no longer novel. Recent, violent attacks on houses of worship — from Texas to South Carolina to Pennsylvania to Alabama — compel Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and Buddhists alike to protect their congregations while still embracing their missions of welcoming strangers and comforting the sick.

Watch: Brooklyn bishop robbed at gunpoint while livestreaming church service

More than four in five Black voters rank crime as their top concern, according to a 2020 Pew Research poll.

And states such as New York, for example, are tackling the problem by banning guns from "sensitive" places throughout the state, including houses of worship.

But not all clergy believe New York state’s approach is correct. They’re willing to fight for their convictions, too: Expect 2023 to bring a pitched legal battle — one with notable political and partisan undertones — over whether guns are the ideal protection God’s shepherds can offer their flocks.

Already, two Black evangelical ministers, a white evangelical pastor, and a synagogue leader are suing to lift that ban.

The results of these cases could have national implications.

A GUN-OWNER’S VIEW FROM THE PULPIT

The two Black pastors suing to pack heat from the pulpit minister in high-crime neighborhoods in Buffalo, N.Y., and nearby Niagara Falls.

One of the pastors, Trinity Baptist Church Rev. Jimmie Hardaway Jr., is so devoted to his Niagara Falls community that he serves as a public school substitute teacher in addition to ministering to his congregation.

His church is near Gluck Park, where volunteers installed colorful playground equipment a few years ago and picnics, block parties, and children’s fun fairs are increasingly common. But locals say that at night, men go there to drink, and fights often escalate into gunfire. Hardaway says he carried a licensed gun for protection before the new ban on firearms in churches became law.

Hardaway's fellow plaintiff is the Rev. Larry Boyd of Open Praise Full Gospel Baptist Church who serves Buffalo's historic Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood — a diverse community dotted with restaurants serving Polish, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi and soul food.

The predominantly Black East Side neighborhood recently won $10 million in grants for streetlights, a new park and farmers' market. But gun violence from within threatens East Buffalo, and last year, an out-of-town white supremacist traveled from across the state and killed 10 people at the local Tops Friendly Markets grocery store.

Hardaway has befriended New York State Jewish Gun Club founder Tzvi Waldman, a leader in Rockland County’s Hasidic community, after meeting in a Facebook discussion group focused on gun laws and small businesses. Waldman, too, is suing to lift New York state’s gun ban for synagogues.

Waldman introduced Hardaway to the law firm Cooper & Kirk — a firm that Hardaway said was looking for religious leaders to be pro bono plaintiffs.

READ: This election 'prayer warrior' recruiting MAGA pastor's revenue mysteriously grew to $5 million a year

Waldman told Raw Story that the Hasidic faithful don’t use phones or drive cars on Sabbath so they sometimes worry about anti-Semitic encounters as they walk to worship. He says he believes Jewish worshippers are safer if he's armed whether they are praying or communing indoors or out.

His club, meanwhile, teaches gun safety as well as first-aid and marksmanship.

“If you’re prepared to take a life you should learn how to save a life,” he explained. The religious leaders’ legal fight is about defending innocent people from those who will do them harm.

“We don't want to be a militia. We don't hate government," Waldman said, adding that hopes for the day when gun violence will be an interfaith issue with churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples sharing information and searching for solutions.

"Military personnel live in a different universe from ours when they train to defend themselves and others. Not everyone can put themselves in the combat mindset," Waldman said.

LAWYERS WITH POWERFUL GOP CLIENTS

Cooper & Kirk is no mom-and-pop outfit. On the contrary, it’s built itself into a powerful legal force, particularly in conservative circles.

For example, the Miami Herald reported that it earned $5.9 million from legal wrangling spawned by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis culture war sorties, including blocking felons from voting, opposing vaccination requirements and advocating for the Parental Rights in Education bill, or so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill because of its prohibition on discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with young public school students.

Cooper & Kirk’s other Republican clients include Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, former national security adviser John Bolton, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Hardaway told Raw Story there’s one key difference between himself and many of Cooper & Kirk’s other clients.

"I'm a Democrat," he said.

Hardaway has no plans to convert to the GOP.

READ: What Memphis police videos didn't show before cops beat Tyre Nichols

"I just accepted free legal help offered from an effective law firm,” he explained.

But he’s nevertheless been bombarded with right-wing media interview requests.

"Everyone wants to be my friend," Hardaway said. "They want me to say I agree with them on guns. But I don’t agree on everything although I’d like to build on what we have in common.”

Hardaway, for example, disagrees with GOP opposition to universal background checks. He supports red flag alerts, which the National Rifle Association and its affiliates detest. And he supports a ban on gun sales to those convicted of domestic violence which GOP elected officials fight against.

Hardaway expressed gratitude toward Cooper & Kirk lawyers who research the right-wingers requesting interviews with him then share their candid assessments of the interviewers with Hardaway. It helps him deflect those who might make him or his church uncomfortable.

"Cooper & Kirk researched our church's social media before they represented us to make sure we weren't crazy or strange," Hardaway recalls.

Cooper & Kirk managing partner and Harvard magna cum laude alum David Thompson declined Raw Story's interview request, citing a heavy workload.

A separate lawsuit against New York involves the white evangelicals at His Family Tabernacle in the low-crime village of Horseheads, N.Y.

First Liberty Institute, a Texas law firm with powerful GOP connections, represents the church’s leader, the Rev. Michael Spencer, who told Charisma News — an online religious magazine that prints "prophecies" of Trump's return to power — that he fears attacks by "lunatics, whether they be demon-possessed, whether they just be individuals that are God-haters."

First Liberty Institute’s CEO, Kelly Shackelford, has been friends with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for 30 years.

The Associated Press reports that when Paxton took office in 2015, "his first, most prominent hires were First Liberty attorneys.” First Liberty lawyers were on the 2016 Trump White House transition team.

Spencer is also represented by President George W. Bush's U.S. Solicitor General, Paul Clement, one of an elite handful of lawyers who has argued more than 100 U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Now in private practice, the New York Times called Clement a "rock star" among oil industry lawyers. Clement's unswerving devotion to the National Rifle Association exploded into melodrama on June 23, the day he won a case for an NRA ally.

Minutes after Clement's victory, his employer, Kirkland & Ellis, announced it would never take another Second Amendment case. Clement and SCOTUS litigator Kim Murphy immediately resigned from Kirkland and announced they would found their own firm with the NRA as a client.

The month before this legal clash, America was devastated by massacres at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and the mass shooting in Buffalo. Social media trolls defending the NRA by posting bogus false flag theories prompted lawyers to debate whether scorched earth gun enthusiasts were a good fit for their talents.

Shira Feldman, an attorney for the nonprofit Brady United Against Gun Violence, said that powerful, conservative law firms can afford to take on pro bono gun cases.

"If a law firm representing the gun industry sues a state or city and wins, they could be eligible for attorneys' fees paid by the state or city," Feldman told Raw Story. "Litigation can be long and expensive, and municipal budgets are often very limited. Fortunately, this hasn't discouraged cities and towns from continuing to pass and defend important life-saving gun laws that keep our communities safe."

LEARN TO SHOOT BEFORE TAKING A GUN TO CHURCH

Paul Lake grew up in rural Alabama with a family who taught him gun safety and marksmanship. A former policeman and volunteer EMT, he trained a safety team for his church years ago. He left a corporate world job to launch Dallas-based Sentry One Consulting whose clients range from congregations of 200 to megachurches of 15,000.

And Lake doesn't believe everyone should handle a gun, "not even in the Wild West."

He advises against pastors being armed in pulpits regardless of their shooting skills.

"Most congregations want pastors focused on their sermons and their roles of comforting and guiding congregations," Lake said.

Lake advises churches to hire off-duty police for security.

Since that’s not financially feasible for all places of worship, Lake teaches safety teams to stop potentially dangerous people before they enter a sanctuary. Doorway greeters and parking lot guides should warn each other and sanctuary deacons using walkie-talkies or phone apps when they spot a disoriented or angry person.

Pastors, in particular, should be aware of worshippers' mental health triggers; job loss, divorce, an IRS audit.

These steps can prove more powerful — and effective — than any pistol-packing pastor.

"If the only thing you know about guns is which end to point at the bad guy, you aren't going to be able to help a church safety team," Lake told Raw Story.

For armed church security guards, Lake and his Sentry employees test volunteers, who must clear their guns from their holsters and jackets, unlock the safety and shoot accurately in less than two seconds. Lake sees the test as literally life and death. He studied security camera video of a 2019 Texas church shooting. In less than five seconds, a stranger whips out a sawed-off shotgun to kill an armed volunteer and an usher. If a worshiper is too slow, Sentry urges him to take an unarmed protective role.

CAN GUN VIOLENCE BRING NEW VOTES TO THE GOP?

In struggling segments of a city, even residents who never enter urban houses of worship can appreciate their impact. Sociologists describe houses of worship as oases that keep a neighborhood vibrant in harsh times by offering free pantries, social hubs, mentoring and a moral compass.

During Buffalo’s December blizzard, for example, a pastor opened his church to more than 154 neighbors without power and shared his family’s stocked fridge for days.

Likewise, when a congregant is killed or wounded by gun violence, the church is there to comfort the bereaved long after the candle-lit sidewalk altars of photos and flowers disappear.

In 2020, pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety surveyed more than 1,000 Black voters about their most urgent issues. Gun violence was a top priority. But 96 percent wanted a candidate who supports background checks for all gun sales, a position the GOP base emphatically opposes. And 93 percent support disarming domestic abusers and red flag laws.

While the days when houses of worship could comfortably leave their doors open all night for lost souls searching for supernatural comfort have largely passed, Pastors such as Hardaway still hope they can be what Psalm 91 describes as a fortress where visitors don’t fear the “terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day.”

While the court battles over defensive weapons in churches ensue, Lake urges church safety teams to remember their primary mission — being an ambassador of their faith, and using that faith as a shield and protection.

Lake explains: "A greeter could say, "Brother, it looks as if something is troubling you or weighing on your heart. Would you like to talk or pray with me?"

A teammate can call 911, just in case. As Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10, be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

CAL State San Bernadino design major Nohemi Gonzalez saved enough money to live her dream of studying in Paris for a semester.

On November 13, 2015, the college senior met friends for dinner in the 11th arrondissement — a neighborhood known for edgy art and racial and religious diversity. As diners applauded the staff at La Belle Équipe, who brought a birthday cake to a waitress at 9:30 p.m., a dark car stopped nearby. Soon after, two heavily armed men emerged and blasted the candlelit tables with gunfire. In less than three minutes, 19 were dead. One of those killed was Nohemi.

Across Paris, ISIS shooters and a suicide bomber attacked a popular bar, a Cambodian restaurant, a nightclub concert, a sports stadium and La Belle Équipe. The terrorists killed 130 people.

Investigators later learned that some attackers were recruited by an ISIS video posted on YouTube. Noemi's family sued Google, which owns YouTube, after learning from investigators that the men clicked on a link to the video after YouTube recommended it as content they might enjoy. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Gonzalez v Google on February 21.

But Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media giants have powerful protection from such liability thanks to Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act.

Created in 1996, Section 230 states that social media are neutral tools offering recommendations based on an online visitor's usage, not distinguishing between moral and immoral content.

"Platforms are encouraged to voluntarily block and screen objectionable content; however, they are granted immunity if they do not," explains Bipartisan Policy Center analyst Sabrina Neschke.

But Section 230 was crafted in the internet's infancy, long before Artificial Intelligence and other revolutionary tech advances enabled algorithms to guide users into the darkest corners of the web. Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Section 230 still fits the sophisticated, AI-enhanced algorithm that social media uses in 2023.

Interestingly, Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife became well-known for posting debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, urged SCOTUS to tackle the question.

"Thomas has previously voiced skepticism toward Section 230," Neschke wrote. "Thomas expressed dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court’s decision to not further review (last year's) Jane Doe v. Facebook, Inc., stating, “Assuming Congress does not step in to clarify 230’s scope, we should do so in an appropriate case."

Jane Doe v Facebook Inc. resulted when an adult male predator befriended a girl, 15, via Facebook and convinced her to meet him. He raped, beat and sexually trafficked her. Jane Doe argued that Facebook was liable for violating anti-sex trafficking laws.

People for the American Way's Supreme Court analyst is attorney Elliot Mincberg — a former House Judiciary Committee chief counsel for oversight and investigations. He told Raw Story this is a possible landmark case for social media platforms.

"This case is nuanced and complex," Mincberg said, adding that it's also more unpredictable since it won't trigger "the break along conservative and moderate justices that you see with cases involving LGBTQ rights or guns."

There has been surprisingly broad bipartisan support for getting Gonzalez v. Google heard in America's highest court. Trump loyalist Sen. Josh Hawley and the Biden Justice Department filed briefs urging SCOTUS to consider Gonzalez's position.

The Justices' decision could dramatically alter the social media landscape.

Section 230 allowed a new form of communication to evolve by shielding social media platforms from endless lawsuits from online visitors who disliked some content. Mincberg condenses Section 230’s protective message: “Don’t blame Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc., because they are only messengers.”

Gonzalez family attorney, Keith Altman, argues that today's robust tech giants are obliged to take more responsibility for the content they recommend and showcase.

"By their terms of service...on YouTube, you have to submit your articles for monetization to Google," Altman told NBC News. "Then they start putting ads on our pages and sharing revenue with you."

The National Association of Attorneys General's Dan Schweitzer explains that the Gonzalez family's lawsuit argues that algorithms are no longer neutral tools but more like the human book or film reviewers who analyze then recommend content.

"They argue that Google’s allowing the content to be posted on its website and recommending the content are two separate acts, and only a lawsuit based on the former would seek to treat Google as a publisher and thus entitle it to immunity," he wrote. "Petitioners also point out that the recommendations are not themselves a communication from a third party but rather are from the interactive service itself."

When 27-year-old Don Abram was in middle school, he dreaded going to his single mom's Chicago South Side church where he was often the only male in a sea of females overflowing the pews. Other Black teens in his neighborhood taunted him as "fruity" with "sugar in his tank." Abram dreamed of being a pastor but he had a secret that would be an obstacle: he was gay, kept it from everyone, even his mom. He dreamed of being a pastor. He comforted himself with the idea that he could at least be an usher, greeting newcomers, and distributing cardboard church fans and Kleenex.

But at 14, he debuted as a preacher in the Greater New Mount Eagle Missionary Baptist. His sermon was a smash so he kept preaching. Later, in Harvard Divinity School, Abram realized that his Mount Eagle congregation must have figured out he was gay and still loved him even if they were baffled by his sexuality.

"They never mentioned my being gay....but that's often how Black (Christians) react," Abram told Raw Story.

That may change fast. Now that attacking LGBTQ morality is central to religious right political campaigns, Black churches are trying to figure out what Jesus would do. Religious right leader and Trump loyalist Ralph Reed's nonprofit spent $42 million on the midterms. He told NPR his strategy for wooing Black and Latino churchgoing voters by attacking Democratic support for LGBTQ rights. He felt that white mostly Republican evangelicals could win "a minimum of 25 percent in the Black community."

But is that strategy working?

Today, Abram heads Pride in the Pews, a nonprofit that helps dozens of predominantly Black churches across the nation that want to learn how to welcome LGBTQ Christians into their congregations. When asked whether any of his clients mentioned voting Republican due to the party's anti-LGBTQ stance, he said no. But anyone seeking his help would be ready to respect LGBTQ rights. Black pastors come to him because they want to survive.

"They need young members, the next generations to join the congregations," he said. And pastors are keenly aware that millennials and Gen Zers don't view the LGBTQ community as a threat to Christianity or American morals. Pastors find that their young Black congregants have a friend or respected teacher or cool boss who is LGBTQ -- or they met LGBTQ protesters marching beside them after George Floyd's murder. They don't want to drag themselves to church Sunday morning if their LGBTQ friends are unwelcome.

Young Black and Latino voters are credited with turning the midterms from a red wave to a red ripple with 89 percent of Black youths and 68 percent of Latino youths casting their votes for Democrats

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

The George Floyd protests inspired Abram to launch a project documenting the civil rights battles of 66 Black LGBTQ Christians for a book and a documentary called "Can I Get a Witness?" He chose the number in honor of the 66 books of the Bible.
Abram's own story landed him on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. Yet he has moments when he wonders if politicized attacks on LGBTQ community members were more influential than projects like his.

He told Chicago's Windy City Times that he wondered if the Black church members who marched with him "on Saturday (would) then on Sunday go into pulpits and preach against my right to exist."

Interestingly, Black churchgoers seem to be more progressive on the issue than the ministers who lead them. Lifeway's 2020 poll found 44 percent of Black churchgoers support same-sex marriage compared to 15 percent of Black clergy.

Abram doesn't limit its welcome to progressive churches. He wants to bring Black Christians struggling to understand what God teaches them about LGBTQ folks to the discussion table. He wants to meet people where they stand whether or not they understand what all the letters in LGBTQ stand for. And he follows a Black Bible study tradition: don't just look at what the Bible says, look at what God and Jesus did. He explains that Black Christians don't obsess over the Apostle Paul's verse ordering slaves to obey their masters. They focused on how Moses liberated his people from slavery.

Abram's sermons often focus on stories about how Jesus welcomed the marginalized and those whom society considered outcasts.

In June, Donald Trump headlined the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Policy Conference where he dutifully stressed Ralph Reed's talking points. Trump denounced “left-wing indoctrination” of schoolchildren by educators “pushing inappropriate sexual, racial and political material” on children.

“You can’t teach the Bible, but you can teach that men can get pregnant, and kindergarteners can pick their own gender,” Trump said.

But it's not clear if that message resonates with Black evangelicals.

Raw Story interviewed 11 Black pastors in seven red or purple states for this story. All of them had received numerous emails from far-right "ministries" that warned about LGBTQ indoctrination in public schools and drag shows. One Texas pastor and one in Tennessee went to a protest out of curiosity. The Texan mistook two right-wing protesters for predators because they were skulking around the venue filming children with their phones. The Nashville pastor said storytime ended when a screaming protester disrupted a reading of Dr. Seuss.

The pastors are interested in a civil, informed discussion of issues like how and when it's appropriate to answer children's questions about LGBTQ issues.

"But the (Extremists) aren't interested in discussion," Peabody and two-time Emmy winner Imara Jones, a Black transgender woman, told Raw Story. The Columbia University and London School of Economics alum doesn't believe that proposed Texas legislation to make drag performances adults only will placate protesters. "The extremists aren't interested in being placated...They focus-grouped this tactic...They'll keep using it."

RUBIO CALLED OUT FOR VIEWING DRAG QUEENS AS A BIGGER MENACE THAN HURRICANES

Drag performances have been part of American entertainment for so long—from powderpuff football games (high school cheerleaders put on shoulder pads to play while guys wear wigs and cheerleader dresses), comedians Milton Berle, Monty Python, and Flip Wilson playing female characters, Tyler Perry's family-friendly Madea films, Rudy Giuliani in drag for a charity skit in which Trump kisses Giuliani's cheek and motorboats his fake boobs.

Yet drag queens are repeatedly presented in right-wing politicians' ads as a threat to children. GLAAD tracked attacks on drag queen events (20 in Texas) in all the 48 states. (Only West Virginia and South Dakota had none.)

Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio aired an October campaign ad, days after Hurricane Ian had ripped up his state's Gulf Coast. But the ad's star was a drag queen, Lil Miss Hot Mess.

“The radical left will destroy America if we don’t stop them,” Rubio's voiceover warns grimly. “They indoctrinate children, trying to turn boys into girls” as a photo of Lil Miss Hot Mess reading to children in a library fills the screen. Rubio used the photo without her permission.

Lil Miss Hot Mess was furious. She publicly wondered why Rubio was obsessing over nonexistent drag queen dangers instead of helping Florida's still homeless hurricane victims trying to salvage belongings from rubble.

A common theme for pro-Trump candidates is that children are allowed to get transgender surgery without parental permission or knowledge. Jones (aka Lil Miss Hot Mess) says she isn't aware of any proposed or current state or federal law that would allow this. Jones says that she realized she was transgender as a child but she agrees that "trans surgeries aren't recommended for consideration until after 16 and then, of course, only with the consensus of parents, doctors, therapists," Jones sees the right-wing warnings about forced surgeries on children as a "red herring" to distract voters from candidates who envision a theocracy instead of a democracy.

When the multinational marketing and polling firm Ipsos completed a September 2022 survey about U.S. parents' priorities for public schools, gender confusion and drag queens didn't pop up as concerns.

"When it comes to K-12 schools, parents are most worried about safety, bullying, and preparing children for success," Ipsos reported. "Parents feel these are the issues that elected officials should focus on for K-12 public schools... Parents didn't want educators distracted by the battles over whether or how to teach kids about gender and sexuality, battles they perceived as political."

"Supermajorities strongly agree that classrooms should be places for learning, not political battlegrounds, with three in four Americans (76%) and parents (77%) sharing this sentiment."

Polls predicting a midterm red tsunami demonstrated that what Americans tell pollsters about their priorities may not always reflect what's in their hearts. As much as voters feared inflation and street crime, they voted for democracy in waves rather than supporting anti-democracy extremists. Jones thinks it's too early to know if Black Christian voters will drift to the GOP due to the attacks on LGBTQ equality.

But Black evangelical pastors often refer to voting as a sacred duty, invoking the civil rights activists who sometimes died for the right to vote. They made the voting booth a sacred place and that may be where Black evangelicals respond to religious right attacks.

The mercury plummeted to 27 below zero while 44 mph winds blasted snow and ice, making the forest all around the tracks invisible. The freight train's power died 78 miles from the nearest village or farmhouse. It was right before the birth of Iowa-based locomotive engineer Jeff Kurtz's son, and he desperately wanted to be with his wife.

Climate change is throwing railway workers into more extreme weather, so blizzards and scalding heat waves are new everyday challenges. Some trains still have wood stoves that can keep a crew from freezing while they await rescue through a scary winter night. But this one didn't.

"So, we did what we always do when we're dead on the tracks; we got some paper towels soaking wet, then stuffed them around the door and windows," Kurtz told Raw Story. "The towels freeze solid and keep some of the wind from blowing in." He was grateful he wasn't stuck in a "bomb train" loaded with thousands of gallons of flammable, toxic chemicals.

Most Americans don't realize that bomb trains roll through U.S. cities daily. Even derailments and explosions don't get much national attention. Kurtz said there are no federal rules limiting how long a train can be and that the average train is a mile and a half long — and getting longer.

Railroads made record profits last year, yet they continue cost-cutting by assigning just one lone worker to keep a train as long as three miles on the tracks, running smoothly, Kurtz says. He regards one-person crews as dangerous, especially for bomb trains.

And there's always a hazard to be aware of. In summer, it's "sun kinks," stretches of track where the rails are so hot, the metal expands, making it impossible for wheels to roll along evenly.

Rail workers have been pleading with Congress since 2017 for more crew and shorter trains for the sake of workers and the public. And bomb train derailments are always a bizarre pain, even when there are no fatalities.

In 2007, a train loaded with propane exploded, forcing the evacuation of Oneida, New York homes, farms, the county jail, and an elementary school. The nearby forest blazed so intensely firefighters couldn't get near enough to douse it. The fire and toxic fumes closed down part of the state thruway.

The most famous deadly bomb train explosion was across the border in Quebec in 2013. A train of 67 cars carrying oil derailed. The blast obliterated Lac-Mégantic's historic downtown and killed 47 people. Thousands of gallons of fuel polluted the river, groundwater and soil for miles.

Last month, a derailed freight train full of highly corrosive hydrochloric acid leak forced the evacuation of 200 St. James parish homes in Louisiana. Hydrochloric acid damages the lungs and throat if inhaled and burns the skin if touched. Residents' houses were washed with chemicals that neutralized acid that had leaked from ruptured cars all over the ground. Well water had to be tested. Some soil had to be excavated and removed.

The acid's vapor is heavier than air, so they settle on the ground like a fog falling on a field. Farmers noticed there was a white film over cabbage and cauliflower fields. Residents say the acid clouds peeled paint off their vehicles.

Pres. Joe Biden averted a Christmastime railway workers' strike that would have cursed America with toilet paper shortages, inadequate medical supplies and moms fist-fighting in toy stores over the last Squishmallow or CoComelon Boo-Boo. Congress approved an emergency contract for rail workers that gave them more money but not the seven days of sick leave they desperately wanted. Kurtz says the inherent danger of the work is so stressful he's sure Americans don't want a worker with flu working any train, especially bomb trains. Rail workers are on call 24/7, often work on national holidays, and are separated for weeks from spouses and children to travel the rails.

"If you make a career of railway work, you're probably going to die young, die lonely and you will die unloved," Kurtz told Raw Story. "It's too much stress on a family to have one parent away for weeks at a time, never able to get permission to have a day off to go to your kid's game or take your wife to a movie or a concert on your anniversary."

EVEN KEY REPUBLICANS SUPPORTED SICK LEAVE FOR WORKERS

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics didn't track annual train derailments until 1990. America averages 1,704 derailments per year.

That doesn't include the deadliest of railroad accidents — crossing collisions. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says there were more than 1,600 collisions between trains and vehicles last year, with 500 at crossings.

If a long train malfunctions with just one crewman aboard, he must often walk more than a mile lugging a heavy toolbox, careful not to fall down a crumbly embankment or off a cliff to get to the problem. If there's a collision, EMTs and firefighters do the same. The U.S. Department of Transportation has TV ads showcasing this danger. The ads show a firefighter and medic running and panting alongside a stopped train, past a crumpled car door lying on the ground near twisted metal debris, and the faces of anxious onlookers as the first responders try to reach the injured.

"I can't even see the end of it!" the medic gasps.

The camera shows endless train cars around a curve.

The ad warns viewers that it can take long trains over a mile to screech to a halt after a crew member hits the brakes. But the ad puts the burden on car drivers to stop faster, not on railroads to restrict trains to a safe 8,000-foot length.

"Stop. Because trains can't," the ads grimly warn.

What's more troubling is that the DOT launched similar ads in 2017, when long trains were a new phenomenon that workers warned Congress was perilous. Railway workers test their skills and reactions to hazardous situations in a simulator akin to those that airline pilots use for training. In 2017, Kurtz said the simulator seemed flummoxed by mundane problems like faulty rails or sharp turns.

Railroad Workers United describes itself as a "caucus" of railroad workers from all crafts, all carriers, and all unions across North America. Kurtz recalls that one of the big union's significant breakthroughs was getting railroads to agree not to punish workers for going to the hospital.

Kurtz and other union negotiators felt hopeful this month because key Republicans, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley and Lindsay Graham, supported seven sick leave days for rail workers. Kurtz suspects that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was unenthused because railroad owners, like billionaire Warren Buffett, are such huge political donors.

The rail industry's political action committees gave $3.7 million to GOP and Democratic candidates for the 2020 elections, with 44 percent going to Democrats and 56 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive PoliticsBiden vowed to help railway workers get paid sick leave. Kurtz isn't sure it will happen even if Biden means well."So far, this Democratic administration is like our HR department on steroids," he remarks.

The Association of American Railroads didn't respond to interview requests. But the website for the group representing railroad owners and executives said that "more than 99.99% of all hazmat moved by rail reaches its destination without a release caused by a train accident, making rail a responsible choice when compared with other modes, like trucks."

The association has a national training center to teach first responders how to handle HAZMAT crises and "lowered HAZMAT accident rates by 64% since 2000."

It doesn't address why railroads can't give what the unions want: seven paid sick days and two workers assigned to every train. Kurtz says union members would be happy with trains limited to 8500 feet or about a mile and a half. Many U.S. railroad investors supported the call for sick leave via their membership in the 50-year-old Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of investment advisers and shareholders.

These changes seem easy, but the unions have been pleading for them for more than five years. Kurtz worries that "maybe it will take a catastrophe," a derailment too deadly to ignore, to bring about change.

Just in time for Christmas and Hanukkah shopping, New York City is auctioning gifts that were given to Mayors Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani and Bloomberg that range from the unique and exquisitely beautiful to, in the case of Rudy Giuliani, the heavily used.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pristine Nike Air Force 1 sneakers signed by hip hop OGs Ice-T and Fab 5 Freddy currently stand at $510—and a winning bidder can run off in them on Saturday when bids close.

Meet the Gifts to the City auction, organized by the NYC Department of Citywide Administration. Bids are placed online. No shipping, so have a pickup truck ready to carry that big bronze statue. Most New Yorkers think of city auctions as a way to sell goods seized from drug lords or abandoned by bankrupt millionaires. This is different. All this swag was fleetingly bestowed on former NYC mayors. The gifts mayors get from movie legends, kings, queens, dictators, and star athletes legally belong to New York. The mayors must leave gifts behind when they leave office.

That doesn't mean they don't use them a lot first.

Giuliani's Tiffany "world traveler" cufflinks are too grimy to discern Earth's continents engraved on the globe-shaped jewelry. The official description admits there is "some tarnishing" but the cufflinks are in "fair condition." They come with a small Tiffany's blue velvet pouch. The cufflinks still awaited their first bid as this story filed.

Giuliani's true gem is a Spalding basketball in great condition signed by the miraculous 1999 Knicks, the magical team that went from #8 seed to the NBA playoffs. It's priced now at $510.

Giuliani also left behind a bizarre bit of sports memorabilia; a Louis Vuitton faux soccer ball, covered with some plush material with complex stitching. It does not look as if it were made to kick across a muddy field. It's wrapped tight in a leather harness with a long leash.

A search of the site for gifts left behind by former mayor Bill de Blasio turned up zero.

But Bloomberg's gifts included the bronze Prometheus statue by Greek sculptor Pavlos Angelos Kougioumtzis. He depicts the trickster Titan who had a fatal soft spot for humans as an abstract figure lifting its arms toward the sun. In the ancient myth. Prometheus angered the gods by stealing a bit of sun and giving the gift of fire to ancient Earthlings. Right now, bids stand at $162.50. Kougioumtzis lives in Athens and most of his public art is displayed in Greece. He attended the University of Oregon on a Fulbright scholarship and left behind at least one sculpture in America: an abstract bronze statue of Nike, winged goddess of victory, for Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics.

Bloomberg's bounty also includes a Tiffany gift: a stainless-steel cake slicer with a sterling silver handle. The cake slicer, for some reason, was used instead of a shovel to break ground for the Museum of the City of New York in 2006. Other Bloomberg gifts include an elegant Waterford cut glass vase and a 25-inch string of pearls.

The auction site says prospective buyers can schedule an in-person view of sale items.

Some items may not have monetary value, but as the organizers point out, possess an incredible historic value. One item among the gifts given to New York City's first Black mayor embodies pop history and painful insight into how Americans accept social class. When the man who remains NYC's sole Black mayor met Black superstar Diana Ross, what gift did she give him?

A glass apple paperweight.

She didn't bother to sign it. The apple has the Friar's Club emblem on it, so there wasn't even a way Dinkins could prove to his buddies that the world-famous diva gifted His Honor. She clearly considered her presence as his gift, not some crystal blob she handed to Dinkins.

By contrast, an unnamed Egyptian gift-giver gave Dinkins a platter of intricately interwoven leafy vines made of sterling silver nestled in a teak box with a purple lining.

If nothing in the mayoral bonanza pops as a perfect gift, there is a way to follow the flashy footsteps of Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost and Pete Davidson, who bought a defunct Staten Island ferry. The auction is selling a vessel that was once a romantic landmark for lovers, a 2-story, glass-enclosed restaurant. Afloat next to a Queens pier. the Manhattan skyline glittered like a broken aurora borealis all around diners. Silver and candlelight sparkled in its huge windows. The restaurant was a frequent backdrop for wedding photos. But it closed forever after exasperated employees who hadn't been paid after the owner's arrest walked off the job in 2015.

As The City reports, the floating restaurant has a link to De Blasio's mayoral history. The FBI accused the owner of underreporting $17 million in sales and wages to the IRS. De Blasio was accused of doing favors for the owner in exchange for campaign donations, which he denied. De Blasio was never convicted of a crime, although prosecutors continued to criticize his fundraising methods.

"Safely removing the barge will require hiring professional engineers to remove it at the winning bidder's expense," the auction site warns.

Sadly, the fallen beauty's condition is bluntly described as "poor." Bids start at $15,000 and the winner must have a safe plan for getting the restaurant barge to its new home.

Funds raised by the auction support a state agency that cares for historic records and makes them available to the public for research.

The Texas Family Project debuted this summer with a donation page powered by National Republican Senatorial Party's fundraising platform WinRed with the aim to be "the most powerful force in Austin." Its mission? To "expose attacks on children's innocence" and send "boots on the ground" and a "political cavalry of pro-family forces" to protect those kids.

It identified the major menace against kids as ...drag queen storytimes.

And so it launched a Drag Queen Alert System.

Whenever and wherever Texans hear there's a drag queen event near them, they can fill out the online form on the website of the Texas Family Project's partner, Defend Our Kids Texas.

That cavalry riding to the rescue takes the form of right-wing Blaze TV anchor Sara Gonzales, whose bio says she is a mom and president of a beauty products company. Gonzales announced this new venture on Tucker Carlson's show where she shared a video of a Plano, Texas drag brunch, where a drag queen in a prim dress covered with drawings of kittens flashed her granny panties. She danced to a song whose lyrics are absolutely not appropriate for a child. One child is noticeable in the video in a roomful of adults.

Gonzales told Carlson that drag queen story hour was a "sinister attempt by the left (that wants) this radical country. The only way they can achieve that is by complete chaos and confusion. What is the best way to confuse children? Confuse them about their sexuality. Confuse them about their gender...Things their little brains are not ready for...Then Big Daddy Government to pick us up and take care of us at the end of it all."

She also told Carlson that what deeply enraged her was that the restaurant owner advertised the event as appropriate for all ages.

But, that is a lie.

With that information, the drag brunch seems more indicative of parents who wouldn't shell out for a babysitter than indoctrination.

Gonzales did not respond to Raw Story requests for an interview and did not respond to detailed questions emailed to her.

The day before the Colorado Springs massacre

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Gonzales went to the artsy university town of Denton, Texas. She was alerted to a drag queen story at Patchouli Joe's bookstore. Her Blaze TV colleague, self-described "troll" and "comedian", Alex Stein. also came to Denton and posted videos online ranting about the "drag queen storytime."

There was no drag queen storyteller.

Denton mom Amber Briggle, whose teenage son is transgender, asked Patchouli Joe's bookstore if she could read three picture books for a Transgender Storytime on the last day of National Transgender Awareness Week.

She chose three picture books that she thought would help kids understand that someone who looks different than the usual idea of a boy or girl shouldn't be bullied, feared, or shunned. One book entitled "Neither" is about a magical land of bunnies and birds where a bird with bunny ears is born and finds friends and neighbors.

"Amber was born a woman and she's never performed in drag," Patchouli owner Joe Mayes told Raw Story by phone.

Denton's public library has hosted drag queen story hours, but canceled them after receiving violent threats. Mayes is a veteran who served in the military for 20 years. He was apprehensive because the Proud Boys came armed to some LGBT events. And he told Raw Story that a Denton eatery that hosted a drag queen story hour last year (books included an allegory about a red crayon that draws in blue) lost its investors and was forced to close. But he had faith in Denton, a charming town so friendly, residents donated dozens of chairs to create a Chairy Orchard in a shady grove for folks needing a break from the Texas heat.

Two days before his event, angry calls from all over the West flooded their phones. In addition to Gonzales, another organization, Protect Texas Kids, had its own LGBT alerts. It urged its followers to go to Denton to protest storytime.

"All except one call was from outside Denton and someone from Durango, Colorado called 27 times," Diane Mayes sighed.

Gonzales and Stein complained about antifa providing security for the event.

But that was also a lie.

Security was provided by the local roller derby team, who were invited by Briggle.

The other two picture books Briggle read were "It Feels Good to Be Yourself" which explains terms like transgender and "When Aidan Became a Brother."

The Mayes and their staff had no idea who Gonzales and Stein were. Before the reading started, Mayes got complaints from worried parents about a strange woman they said was "creeping" through the store filming children. She was wearing black cat ears on a headband. She said that she was from Blaze TV, which the Mayes hadn't heard of. There were police outside to calm protesters and keep sidewalks clear. One of the staff got an officer who asked Gonzales to leave.

Gonzales kept filming as she walked out and screamed at parents with their children, "This is child abuse! Child abuse! You should all have your children taken from you."

Outside, Gonzales spotted two volunteer security guards dressed in black, from the top of their masks to the tips of their boots. Each had a splash of color from a rainbow scarf. They carried automatic rifles. Texas is an open-carry state where folks bring their guns to town halls and school board meetings. But Gonzales and Stein both kept ranting about the two guards being antifa.

But, those guards weren't antifa.

They were members of Denton's Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club.

Named after the Civil War abolitionist, the club's Second Amendment enthusiasts don't believe gun ownership should be confined to right-wingers. The club calls itself a "multiracial community defense against white supremacy."

The Mayes were surprised to see the gun club members there. Joe said a parent had invited them to provide volunteer security.

In their videos, Gonzales and Stein react as if the guards were there to intimidate them although the guards don't react to either. The guards keep their weapons pointed down and stand still as Gonzales poses in front of them pretending to bite her nails. They silently listen to Stein ramble through disjointed insults then repeatedly squeal: "I'm so scared!"

He weirdly told the LGBT supporters with rainbow flags next to the guards that they loved children "a little too much," then added strangely, "I empathize with you."

In the video, Stein looks like a husky man. When a smaller, unarmed man carrying a rainbow flag crowds him, Stein easily knocks him down with one arm. No one touched Stein who laughs loudly.

The very next day, a gunman with an AR15 burst into a Colorado Springs drag show and slaughtered five attendees, wounding almost two dozen more.

Security at LGBT events seem pragmatic.

Drag queen debate still unfolding

Stein returned to Denton for a city council system two days later with a newly toned message. He waved a photo of the same volunteer security guards he mocked at the event, but this time told council members they were "disgusting" and there to threaten people. Stein hastily interjected that he was "pro-trans" and "pro-gay. He screamed about the bookstore storytime indoctrinating children to become transgender. Finally, a council member told him his allotted time was up.

Author Michelle Tea launched Drag show story time in 2015 in San Francisco. She wanted to find a way to decrease bullying, especially of gay students. She wanted to help children understand as early as possible that because someone lives life differently, that isn't automatically a reason to dislike or fear them.

For the overwhelming majority of American parents, transgenderism is going to be an unfamiliar topic so books will be useful for answering children's when they meet or see a transgender person someday, somewhere. The Mayes, who are parents, believe that when, how and at what age those books should be encountered is a valid point for discussion. Stein and Gonzales wasted an opportunity to use their intellects and communication networks to offer ideas about how to teach children that differences don't have to signal evil or danger.

Meanwhile, the conservative Daily Caller reported that the video prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to view the drag queen buffet video and declare the legislature would “protect Texas kids by prosecuting these types of totally inappropriate acts.”

Now that the midterms ended without a red tsunami pollsters predicted or The Storm that QAnon prophesied, terrorism experts think there's a chance for pro-democracy Americans to help QAnon believers ready to flee the conspiracy-driven movement.

Dublin City University's James Fitzgerald is an assistant professor of terrorism studies at the School of Law and Government. He has studied QAnon extensively. He suggests the path to victory over Q hysteria may be "empathetic engagement with conspiracy adherent."

And he detects a new vulnerability in QAnon-ers, opening an opportunity for Democrats and moderates to give empathy a try.

"As President Biden was sworn in and Donald Trump exited the stage with no mass arrests, nor any hint at the Storm, QAnon believers were left reeling and strangely unanchored," Fitzgerald writes. "In one Telegram channel with over 18,400 members, doubts began to mount; one user wrote: “It’s obvious now we’ve been had. No plan, no Q, nothing”. In the months since, more and more expressions of doubt have appeared on 8kun and other dedicated spaces, as a façade normally defined by total conviction begins to crack."

After the 2020 presidential election, disenchanted QAnon followers who believed right-wing religious "prophecies" of landslide Trump victories launched Reddit message boards QAnonCasualties and ReQovery. About 200,000 Reddit users shared tips on how to release their Q beliefs that had become their addiction.

But some Q followers will need professional counseling before they can attend a town hall hosted by Democrats or moderate Republicans to discuss rationally how to improve public schools or end child trafficking. Social psychologist Sophia Moskalenko and security analyst Mia Bloom documented mental illness stats within QAnon's ranks in their book, Pastels and Pedophiles, published last year by Stanford University Press. Among those arrested for insurrection and rioting in the U.S. Capitol, 68 percent reported mental health diagnoses including "post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, and Munchausen syndrome by proxy– a psychological disorder that causes one to invent or inflict health problems on a loved one, usually a child, to gain attention." By contrast, only 19 percent of Americans have similar mental health diagnoses.

Their research found QAnon followers reported high rates of depression and lack of control over events in their lives. It's easy to imagine how someone who felt his life was pointless and unimportant would be drawn to complex, wild conspiracies that suddenly enchant the world with bizarre dangers and stealth monsters only he has the power to see and fight. This summer, Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research completed an in-depth study called Depressive Symptoms and Conspiracy Beliefs. It found depression makes a person far more likely to embrace conspiracy theories.

Like Fitzgerald, those scholars concluded an effective way to help someone addicted to fake conspiracies was empathy from family and friends who were not QAnon followers (and professional therapy). Having a sane, supportive circle of colleagues or friends can help a person who wants to leave QAnon finally break free.

"Perhaps not surprisingly, the most consistent positive type of social support is having people with whom to talk when sad or depressed, while the least impactful is having people who can lend money," the Northwestern scholars report.

There are some issues that these scholars don't tackle, like whether it's safe to be empathetic with a heavily armed QAnon follower gripped by a crisis of belief. But as the 2024 election hurtles toward us, they all express hope that people of goodwill can find a way to help those who want to leave Q's cult sooner rather than later.

As Fitzgerald concludes, whatever replaces QAnon could be worse: When QAnon ‘dies’ — as it surely will — it will be replaced by a similar antagonism that reflects anew the politics and anxieties of our time. We will not be able to explain it away by pointing at ‘the algorithm,’ nor will we erase its presence by obliterating online footprints as they take shape.

When conservative white evangelical preachers denounce ex-Pres. Donald Trump's law-abiding, Christian political opponents as Satanic baby traffickers, they are violating a Constitutional Amendment designed to ensure the separation of Church and state.

Signed into law in 1954 by Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, the bipartisan Johnson Amendment forbids tax-exempt churches, religious schools, and 501c3 nonprofit charities from endorsing or opposing political candidates or raising money for political campaigns. If a ministry violates the amendment, the IRS is supposed to revoke its tax-exempt status and require it to pay taxes.

That seldom happens.

"The Johnson Amendment is a toothless tiger," attorney and Liberty Counsel founder Matthew Staver told Raw Story. Liberty Counsel offers pro bono lawyers to conservative pastors fighting battles against abortion, same-sex and COVID vaccinations. "No church has ever lost its tax exemption as a result of this amendment. This Johnson Amendment will eventually be repealed. If the IRS ever tries to enforce the amendment, it will be ruled unconstitutional under the First Amendment."

The amendment was not controversial when it was passed. Republicans and Democrats crafted it to serve two purposes that the founding fathers wanted: preventing bogus 'holy wars' by churches condemning others for political purposes, and allowing houses of worship to spend their money on charitable causes in their communities without the burden of taxes.

Florida-based Liberty Counsel is classified by the IRS as a tax-exempt ministry although it does not list food pantries, helping the disabled, staffing homeless shelters, or other charitable outreach among its services. Last Saturday, as Floridians were digging out of hurricane debris, Liberty Counsel posted an urgent alert on its website that slams Rev. Ralph Warnock, Georgia's Democratic Senator headed to a December runoff election.

"URGENT UPDATE: The U.S. Senate returns on Monday to VOTE NEXT WEEK on the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act," Liberty Counsel begins. "Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to use the vote to sway the Georgia Senate runoff. HR 8404 will legalize every perversion of marriage you can think of. Going far beyond same-sex marriage, this bill forces every state and territory to give legal recognition to the crazy marriage laws of any other state—including California’s sick child bride laws that allow pedophiles to marry children. But it is even worse than that, thanks to the rabid LGBTQ lobby that seeks to punish any who refuse to bow to their gender-bending sexual perversions. Any church, business, nonprofit organization, school, adoption center or even a private person will be forced to comply and participate in the madness—or face Department of Justice investigations and massive civil lawsuits designed to bankrupt Christians who insist on God’s plan for marriage."

(HR 8404 actually proposes that states who do not recognize same-sex marriages as legal respect the legal status of same-sex spouses married in states where their unions are legal.)

There's a nationwide effort encouraging far-right pastors to defy the IRS by openly supporting GOP candidates, and rendering the Johnson Amendment impossible to enforce. The Black Robe Regiment, supported by Trumpers Mike Lindell and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is the most famous. Black Robe proudly refers to Liberty Counsel as its partner. Staver was a star speaker at an October conference where pastors were taught how to lobby and be political activists at a gorgeous lakeside Coeur d'Alene, Idaho golf and spa resort.

Liberty Counsel's website encourages churches to donate to its ministry which staunchly opposes same-sex marriage and is anti-abortion, and does not support LGBTQ rights because it takes the stance that "there is no evidence a person is born homosexual" and calls for schools to "indoctrinate" children to embrace heterosexuality.

Liberty Counsel is closely affiliated with Liberty University, founded in Virginia by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. Falwell launched the 1970s Moral Majority movement that made far-right Christian extremism into a GOP political powerhouse.

One of Liberty Counsel's clients is Liberty University, which just claimed a record-breaking enrollment of 15,800 on-campus students. Staver was dean of Liberty University School of Law for over eight years. He and Falwell Sr. launched the law school in 1989 with the goal of it being a tool to adapt U.S. law to conservative Christian views.

Liberty's law school students dream ambitiously. The school built "a 330-seat courtroom that contains the only known replica of the U.S. Supreme Court bench, accurate down to the angles and measurements," the website says. It's a place where students can practice for the day when they may be arguing a case before America's highest court.

Staver may have even met a conservative Supreme Court justice because of his place on the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy. CNP members include Ginni Thomas (bogus conspiracy theory superspreader and wife of Justice Clarence Thomas), Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Heritage Foundation president Kay Cole James, disgraced National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre and the executive vice president of the pro-Trump Family Research Council (which won IRS status as a church despite a public outcry).

The poster for Staver's posh Idaho conference refers to the "separation of church and state myth."

Interestingly, one of the issues the Idaho conference stressed is that Christian pastors must embrace "public school exit." The assumption is that public schools can't provide a morally sound education so an alternative to teaching kids must be found. On the website, a list of dangers faced by students in public schools scrolls past photos of elementary school students. The dangers include "brainwashing, bullying, transgenderism, fake history, globalism, suicide, depression, violence, gangs, climate change, Marxism."

That hodgepodge is intriguing because there are dangers that parents of all political views would agree children need to be rescued from: depression, bullying, gangs, fake history, and violence. But the list maker torpedoes chances of valuable problem-solving discussion by adding bizarre boogeymen like "brainwashing," "Marxism" and "globalism" that don't appear in normal elementary schools.

The Texas Tribune, Pro Publica, and the New York Times recently documented ministries that seemingly violate the Johnson Amendment, yet face no repercussions from the IRS or the Department of Justice. Some Black evangelical pastors told Raw Story that they disagreed with their inclusion in the articles because, as private citizens, they retain the right to endorse or oppose candidates. They noted that many white evangelical pastors mentioned in the reports don't bother with that distinction and endorse candidates from the pulpit during worship services.

The most flamboyant may be Global Vision Bible Church’s Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke. Last year, he told his church, as its pastor, that "Hollywood pedophiles are gonna be exposed. Fraudulent sleepy Joe, he's a sex trafficking, demon-possessed mongrel. He's of the left. He ain't no better than the Pope, Oprah, Tom Hanks, and the rest of that wicked crowd...(God's) going to expose Kamala Harris for the Jezebel demon that she is."

YouTube deleted Locke's channel this month because he consistently violated community standards like smearing people as pedophiles who are not pedophiles.

But video snippets of his defamatory sermons are still posted across YouTube.

When Locke screamed the following at his congregation this spring, the nonpartisan watchdog Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a formal complaint with the IRS.

"If you vote Democrat, I don’t even want you around this church. You can get out. You can get out, you demon. You can get out, you baby-butchering election thief," Locke screeched. "You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. I don’t care how mad that makes you. You [can] get as pissed off as you want to. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. … They hate this nation! … You cannot be a Democrat and a Christian. You cannot. Somebody say “Amen.” The rest of you get out! Get out! Get out in the name of Jesus."

In that sermon, Locke also defended the insurrection and vowed that another insurrection would erupt soon, saying the Bible says Christians will take back the government by force.

It doesn't.

Satan is the only one in the Bible who shares Locke's view. In the gospel of St. Luke chapter 4, verses 1 through 13, Christ is fasting and praying in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights when the Devil appears. He takes Christ to a mountaintop and shows him all the nations and kingdoms of the world. He offers to seize them and deliver them to Christ if He will become an ally. Jesus rejects the Prince of Lies with this famous retort: "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

Locke apparently did not want an IRS audit of his church's finances. He responded to the FFRF complaint by publicly renouncing his tax-exempt status. But cofounder Annie Laurie Gaylor told Raw Story that the IRS never told her foundation that Locke's tax-exempt status was removed.

Gaylor says FFRF has successfully gone to court to get the IRS to fill a job crucial to investigating the abuse of the house of worship classification.

There are pastors violating the Constitution," Gaylor said. "But it's a hard battle; the IRS used to publish a list of organizations that lost their tax exemption, but it hasn't done that for 15 years. I'm not sure the IRS even requires people like Greg Locke to announce on their websites when they no longer have tax exemption."

The IRS is unlikely to take as bold a position as Christ on a mountaintop. But Locke apparently was not eager for anyone to scrutinize his finances. He said he would surrender tax exemption for his megachurch. But as of Monday, the donation page of his Global Vision Baptist Church does not mention whether donations are tax deductible or not.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Idaho Trump-loving megachurch pastor opposes a woman's right to vote

Disciples of right-wing megachurch pastor Doug Wilson, a devoted Trumper with a booming media empire, knew who to blame for Republican midterm losses.

Women.

Especially college-educated women.

Wilson is known to most non-Trumpers for teaching that wives must obey husbands in all matters, including sex. His most famous aphorism is that God designed the male as the one who "penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” He counsels married couples that sex is "not an egalitarian pleasuring party" so women shouldn't expect to enjoy it as much as men. Wilson advises husbands to tell their wives how to vote.

In addition to being pastor of Christ Church in Idaho, Wilson launched a religious college and models for private schools and homeschoolers, is a popular speaker on the political/ religious revival circuit, and owns a book-publishing house. It published his novel "Ride, Sally, Ride" about a Christian student so enraged by his neighbor's sexpot wife, he throws her into a recycling compactor, then faces murder charges.

Former Fuller Theological Seminary instructor Steve Rabey partners rounded up the reaction to the midterms from an array of Wilson's disciples for Roys Report, an online Christian newsletter.

Right Response Ministries, a frequent partner of Wilson's on YouTube shows and live events, tweeted after seeing a chart on TV showing that women, particularly college educated, are more likely to vote for Democrats. The ministry tweeted: "Takeaways: 1) Yes, women are more easily deceived than men. 2) Yes, the majority of universities are merely institutions for deception. 3) Yes, the 19th Amendment was a bad idea."

Bnonn Tennant, co-author of It’s Good To Be A Man published through Wilson’s Canon Press, battled women on Facebook after calling women's suffrage a "rebellion" against God. He continued, “Voting is an act of rulership. Since rulership is not given to women, women should not vote."

Tennant added that in a modern society where “women are allowed/expected to vote, it is prudent for a husband and wife to discuss how to vote, so they can double the impact of their household vote.” Another one of Wilson's authors, Stephen Wolfe (The Case for Christian Nationalism) tweeted that he believes only heads of households should vote so a widow supporting children might be allowed to vote.

Wilson and his male followers are not cultural oddities. They are part of the theonomist movement which advocates America being ruled by divine law rather than the Constitution. They favor embracing Old Testament rules and regulations.

In September, Wilson told Meet the Press he aimed for a spiritual takeover of his town, Moscow, Idaho that would exemplify the ideal of laws imposed by God, not the government.

Tragically, the pretty university town has been in national headlines this week because four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their off-campus home. As of Friday, police said they had no suspects.

Wilson's Christ Church claims a membership of at least 800 in person and far more online. That is impressive, given Moscow's population of only 25,800. But Wilson seems as controversial there as he is popular. In August, one of his former deacons pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. There are two websites for people who have fled Christ Church. Both are anonymous to protect the users' identities from Wilson's followers.

And Wilson's candidly combative tone makes many non-members uneasy. The logo of his New Saint Andrews College says: "Swords and Shovels. Build. Fight." On Wednesday, in his blog, he attacks the FBI for infiltrating the Proud Boys at the Capitol on January 6.

"The top echelons of the FBI have done their level best to fulfill their self-appointed role of becoming partisan hacks, obtaining Russian hoax warrants under pretenses known by them to be false—managing thereby to attain an astounding level of corruption—and all without anybody associated with these monkeyshines ever having to spend any time in the Big House," Wilson wrote. "We now know that the top law enforcement agency in the United States is itself lawless."

And Wilson published an anthology he edited called "No Quarter November" with this promo: "Some people want to know what it is about November that makes us want to burn things. We don’t think we have a moral obligation to be incendiary: the world for some mysterious reason has become flammable."

NOW WATCH: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi steps down while the next generation steps up

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At least 246 Texans died when the power grid the state depended on failed after being battered by three February 2021 winter storms. Some data analysts put the death toll closer to 800.

That Texas grid and the Texans who count on it for heat and light, are in for another rough, wild winter according to a trusted energy watchdog that warned of those 2021 dangers. The not-for-profit North American Electric Reliability Corp assesses how prepared American and Canadian energy providers are for winter deep freezes and summer heat waves. NERC released its winter 2022-23 winter readiness report for America's grids. It found that the grid Texas relies on, ERCOT, was at risk.

Grids for the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin also face heightened risk, NERC warns.

Interestingly, the rest of the Midwest is rated in good shape, thanks to wind power added since last winter.

When three snow and ice storms battered Texas one after another, the most catastrophic power failure in Texan history resulted. Texans died, some freezing to death. Others died of carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to get warm. There are still many unanswered questions about who made some disastrous decisions leading to and during the power outages. For example, many downtown Dallas luxury hotels continued to get electricity, keeping guests warm on Valentine's Day, while hundreds of homes remained dangerously cold, dark, and without power. Gov. Greg Abbott never explained why he initially and wrongly blamed wind turbines for the power failure, a falsehood repeated by The New York Times and CNN, and many right-wing news outlets before it was corrected.

NERC's 2022-23 grid report card was discussed in detail at a national association of utility commissioners last weekend.

“It’s a sobering assessment," said Fritz Hirst, NERC director of legislative and regulatory affairs. "A large portion of North America is at risk of insufficient supplies during the extreme winter scenarios.”

Hirst gave said that the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator which provides energy in the Midwest and ISO New England all face elevated winter reliability risks,

The online journal, Utility Dive, covered the conference where dangers posed by New England's storage tanks at oil-fired power plants that are currently "only about 40% full, down from 54% last winter."

ERCOT's lawyers sent a January 2022 letter to the Texas Public Utility Commission that its equipment is ready for winter, at least the mild winter NOAA predicts.

Hirst said red states of the Southwest should have an easy winter due to clean, renewable power sources including increased wind energy, Utility Dive reported. And the Pacific Northwest should have ample winter power due to massive hydroelectric generation.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting milder winter temperatures for Texas and the Great Plains with little snow or ice.