{"id":8,"date":"2008-08-16T08:58:29","date_gmt":"2008-08-16T08:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html"},"modified":"2008-08-16T08:58:29","modified_gmt":"2008-08-16T08:58:29","slug":"conspiracy-theory-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html","title":{"rendered":"Conspiracy Theory Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Warren certainly did not want to share the official limelight with anybody from the religious right to the religious left. So,Jay, I wouldn’t worry too much about any conspiratorial cabal of progressives managing the conversation tonight.  (However, I understand that he has plans to meet with an eclectic group of about 30 religious figures before the candidates are interviewed.)  My problem with Pastor Warren doing the interviewing rests more with his already articulated views about some of the very issues you are concerned about.  You may recall that prior to the last Presidential election he sent out a kind of “pastoral” letter explaining how issues like stem-cell research should be front and center, non-negotiable issues upon which to make a decision to cast your vote.  And as we both know, he’s not been out there advocating for the use of all those unwanted frozen embryos for use in the research that could ultimately save the lives of thousands of us. In that same missive he actually said this and other core “religious right” issues (like abortion and same sex marriage and euthanasia–whatever he means by this- are “not even debatable”). This is all discussed in the profile of him in Fortune magazine.http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/magazines\/fortune\/fortune_archive\/2005\/10\/31\/8359189\/index.htm<\/a>  So even if he does bring these issues up tonight, he thinks he knows the one and only “correct” answer to any question about them that he poses.  Maybe it turns out they are “debatable” only if you are the moderator who gets a few million people to tune in–and maybe buy one of your books tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick Warren certainly did not want to share the official limelight with anybody from the religious right to the religious left. So,Jay, I wouldn’t worry too much about any conspiratorial cabal of progressives managing the conversation tonight.  (However, I understand that he has plans to meet with an eclectic group of about 30 religious figures…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-church-politicking","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\nConspiracy Theory Begins - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conspiracy Theory Begins - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rick Warren certainly did not want to share the official limelight with anybody from the religious right to the religious left. So,Jay, I wouldn’t worry too much about any conspiratorial cabal of progressives managing the conversation tonight.  (However, I understand that he has plans to meet with an eclectic group of about 30 religious figures…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-16T08:58:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conspiracy Theory Begins - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conspiracy Theory Begins - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Rick Warren certainly did not want to share the official limelight with anybody from the religious right to the religious left. So,Jay, I wouldn’t worry too much about any conspiratorial cabal of progressives managing the conversation tonight.  (However, I understand that he has plans to meet with an eclectic group of about 30 religious figures…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2008-08-16T08:58:29+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html","name":"Conspiracy Theory Begins - Lynn v. Sekulow","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-08-16T08:58:29+00:00","dateModified":"2008-08-16T08:58:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/conspiracy-theory-begins.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conspiracy Theory Begins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/","name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}