In effect, the Alabama prison’s policy is that a Christian inmate has the right to receive spiritual solace from a member of his faith – but members of other faith traditions or those who seek secular counselors can be denied that same right.

Earl Jackson is an old hand at manufacturing right-wing outrage. In January 2009, he went ballistic after President Barack Obama, speaking during his inauguration, made the non-controversial (and rather obvious) point that Americans hold many different religious and philosophical beliefs.

Democrats who now control the U.S. House of Representatives plan to alter the chamber’s ban on hats so that a newly elected Muslim woman can wear a headscarf.