LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article from World Net Daily talks about the desire of certain Christians to have a 'country' of their own:

A year after suggesting possible secession from the United States, a group of Christians fed up with American laws they believe are at odds with the Bible is beginning to move to its target state of South Carolina.

ChristianExodus.org has attracted more than 700 members from across America since WND broke the news of its inception last May, and already a half-dozen families have picked up and transplanted to the Palmetto State.

"A year ago, no one had moved. It was just a project on the board," said Cory Burnell, a financial adviser who is president of ChristianExodus. "Now, it's actually happening. Whether it's a couple of years or 20 years, we're gonna get it done."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article from Christian Alliance talks about ethical alternatives to abortion:

Effective Prevention vs. Criminalizing Abortion

Honoring the Sanctity of Childbearing Decisions - Jesus Taught Compassion, Responsibility, and Equality. Following His Call, We Support Responsible, Compassionate Programs That Are Genuinely Effective in Helping Prevent Unintended Pregnancy, An Outcome No Woman Wants. We Affirm That Each Woman's Body Belongs to Herself. No Woman Should Be Forced Either to Bear a Child or to Terminate a Pregnancy.

No one is "for" abortion. Most abortions are attended by an enormous amount of emotional pain. But we think the issue is effective prevention of unintended pregnancy, not criminalizing desperate pregnant women or the medical professionals who help them.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY multiclassgeek)

This may not be news to some of you, but as a non-US resident, I found it very interesting....

Nyogtha, 4th July

This is a folklore/mythology-related column, which takes apart some of the myths and stories that surround Independence Day, and the Revolutionary War as a whole. The interesting bit is at the end of the column; The author doesn't like the Dominionists any more than we do...

Upon reading that ADL is also (though far, far less of an extent than SPLC is) starting to realise that the dominionists are a threat, I did some surfing on their site and a few links off ADL's site:

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4507_90.htm (A report on the ADL condemning having Roy Moore in regards to a Senate hearing on religious intolerance)

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4694_90.htm (in regards to an attempt in Florida to pass a school prayer bill)

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4695_90.htm (ADL's statement on the "Justice Sunday" debacle)

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4510_90.htm (regarding ADL's efforts to fight attempted passage of bills and amendments that would allow churches to promote specific candidates--this is one of the BIGGIES the dominionists are trying to get passed, for obvious reasons (both because dominionist churches do it so much, and because dominionist churches are starting to lose their tax exempt status over it on occasion)

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4519_90.htm (regarding ADL's statement on the Texas Republican Party's official platform (which is pretty much a dominionist tract in and of itself, up to and including promotion of the "Christian Nation" canard)

http://www.adl.org/vouchers/vouchers_main.asp (ADL's statement re school vouchers)

http://www.adl.org/charitable_choice/Charitable_Choice_a.asp (ADL's statement re "charitable choice" initiatives)

http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/boehner_amend.asp (ADL's statement on an ongoing attempt to allow Head Start facilities operated by churches to discriminate--as it is, dominionist groups by and large cannot participate in running a Head Start facility because they keep pushing the right to ban gays, Democrats, and...well, anyone who ISN'T a dominionist. Dominionists are pushing to get this changed so that they can practice "stealth evangelism" on your kids with YOUR tax dollars)

http://www.adl.org/religious_freedom/court_sep_georgia.asp (re ADL efforts on the state level to prevent passage of dominionist-friendly amendments to Georgia's state constitution that would allow sending tax money directly to dominionist groups)

I'll be making a second post, focusing specifically on the context with so-called "Messianic Judaism" (which is an increasing concern in the Jewish community).

Whilst the ADL is rather less blatantly antidominionist than SPLC and still actively courts Evangelical Christians (which IMHO is a *huge* mistake on their part, partly due to the fact so much of the "evangelical" community has been infiltrated by dominionists and/or are blatantly dominionist themselves), they ARE quite concerned about "Messianic Judaism"--aka the propensity of dominionist groups (very often associated with Southern Baptist or Assemblies of God, or "non-denominational" pentecostal groups) to specifically target the Jewish community and essentially convert them to "Christians who keep kosher".

http://www.adl.org/special_reports/jews4jesus/jews4jesus.asp has an excellent article on this, including specifically something we've seen for a long time in the dominionist community--"evangelism by stealth".

http://www.outreachjudaism.org/response.html has a *very* interesting post from a Jewish perspective on "messianic Judaism" and on things pushed in the dominionist community (especially the whole "blood atonement" thing--it's actually actively promoted in dominionist churches that Jews were absolved of sin by blood atonement and that Christ was supposedly the "final blood atonement" (and, at least in the particular AoG church I walked away from, also supposedly spent three days in hell wrestling Satan down...) so it was a duty to convert the Jews because the poor things had to keep kosher and no longer had priests to sacrifice animals *rolls eyes*)

As an aside (and please forgive me for the minor aside here, I think it's important to mention this in context of dominionist groups and the general misuse of Biblical quotes by them--a common practice in coercive "Bible based" cults in general)...they do mention a specific Bible verse, Numbers 15:30-31 (in context of Numbers 15:27-31):

"But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be on him."

This particular phrase was used in the specific dominionist group I walked away from, and (from what I have heard) in many other coercive and dominionist groups--the dominionist group specifically used this to claim that anyone who had been in the church, and later walked away and rejected its teachings, was PermaDamned (tm) because they "acted defiantly" and were "blaspheming the Lord". This included specifically gay people who walked away, or *any* walkaways or kids who were being "defiant" and *especially* people who were outspoken against the church after walking away; this was also specifically termed the "One Unforgivable Sin" (suicide was also considered unforgivable, but only due to the technicality that one could not repent after one was dead for "self-murder").

The verses, incidentially, are part of a larger whole (noted in the article) on absolutions for accidential rather than deliberate sins *in the context of the ancient Hebrew priesthood*--in other words, someone who killed someone else in cold blood was not going to be allowed into the sanctuary, whilst someone who accidentially killed another could get absolution from the priests. http://www.searchgodsword.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T7552 actually gives a fairly decent explanation of the historical context here.

The above link also gives (as another small aside) some info on why certain armageddonist dominionists are trying to produce a line of red calves (and misunderstanding that red calves are for very specific sorts of sacrifices).

http://members.shaw.ca/leemarsh/soc-death.html mentions specific misuse of Numbers 15:30-31 among Jehovah's Witnesses.

(And I do hope you all can forgive me a bit regarding the minor detour; I just thought it useful to show some of the various tactics used by dominionists to keep control of their own flock.)

http://www.outreachjudaism.org/evangelize1.html (on targeting of the Jewish community by dominionists--again, info on "stealth evangelism" including a discussion of the tactics used by dominionist groups; this and the link below also specifically detail how the dominionists' eschatology essentially sees Jews as a pawn to start Armageddon and trigger the Rapture)

http://www.outreachjudaism.org/evangelizingthejews2.html (More on "messianic Judaism" and specific tactics used by dominionists, including taking people to dominionist-run "retreats"--as an aside, the dominionist group I walked away from owns several hundred acres known as "Prayer Mountain" specifically as a church owned retreat, and is even used as a camp by the church's "Christian alternatives" to the Boy/Girl Scouts (the Royal Rangers and Missionettes--yes, even the Boy Scouts are seen as "not Christian enough"))

http://www.adl.org/Interfaith/left_behind_and_jews.asp (more on dominionism and their general escathology in regards to Judaism. In essence, many dominionists essentially see Israel and the Jewish people as a "rapture trigger" or "armageddon trigger"--when all the Jews are reunited in Israel and when a certain number are converted to dominionism, that will trigger the End Of Things. Many dominionists see the existence of Israel itself as a sign of the End.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This New York Times Op-ed talks about the upcoming Supreme Court selection:

July 4, 2005
The Church-State Wall Is the Best Protection Against Religious Strife
By ADAM COHEN

The wall of separation between church and state is in real danger of falling now that Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring. The Supreme Court narrowly reaffirmed its commitment to that wall last week in its Ten Commandments rulings, but only because Justice O'Connor voted to maintain that wall. If her replacement votes the other way, there may soon be more crosses, Ten Commandments monuments and prayers on government property.

There is a growing debate about what impact that would have on American life. That debate subtly found its way into last week's decisions. The justices generally focus more on what they think the Constitution means than on how their decisions are likely to be received. But two of last week's opinions made oblique reference to the rise of the religious right and its increasing anger over the court's religion rulings.( Read more... )