SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Andrea Stone / “R. Martin Umbarger, [Indiana] National Guard General, Accused of Ethics Violation for Endorsing Christian Group”

The head of the Indiana National Guard recorded a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organization — an act that violates the constitutional separation of church and state, a watchdog group argues, and that is grounds for dismissal, one of the nation’s leading military law experts says.

In the video, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, endorses Centurion’s Watch, an Indianapolis-based sectarian Christian nonprofit that offers marriage counseling to military families. The video was first noted by freethoughtblogs.com.

Read more . . .

RELIGIOUS SATIRICAL POETRY: Bill Moyers / “The Poetry of Philip Appleman” / VIDEO

Bill talks with and invites readings by renowned poet, novelist, and editor Philip Appleman, whose creativity spans a long life filled with verse, fiction, philosophy, and religion. The author of nine books of poetry, three novels, and six volumes of non-fiction, Appleman’s most acclaimed work includes explorations of the life and theories of Charles Darwin. A scholar of Darwin, Appleman edited the critical anthology Darwin, and wrote the poetry books Darwin’s Ark and Darwin’s Bestiary, earning him praise for illuminating the “overwhelming sanity” of Darwin’s thought with clarity and wit. Appleman’s latest poetry collection is Perfidious Proverbs.

Watch video here . . .