Reply #70: It's the fundy "Secular Humanist" card played for a wider audience.

[JHB]

The great fundamentalist boogeyman of the 70s and 80s was "secular humanism" (it still is, but now the fundys get more milage lathering about gays). Standard "this evil cabal ist trying to take over and subvert our way of life. YOU can help by donating to this ministry" line, all to save the world from Carl Sagan and his pals.

Sagan's dead, so there's no secular icon to hold up for the scare-em tactics, so they've gone to the other side of the formula: if you can't hold up a boogeyman, hold up the dear thing the boogeyman threatens! ("One false move and the cute puppy with the big watery eyes gets it!").