LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

..this just seemed to belong here.

The location of Justice Sunday III was recently announced in an email targeted at pastors in the Philadelphia area:

Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. :3

(per the article)

Greater Exodus seems to be affiliated with People for People (a group founded by a former NFL football player who became a pastor and who also was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes--a group occasionally associated with "stealth evangelism" including "stealth altar calls" at public schools), and IS a Baptist church (per this this document) and apparently has quite a history of political involvement including crossing the line to frank politisation at times:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=9034
http://www.pewtrusts.com/news/news_subpage.cfm?content_item_id=301&content_type_id=13&page=nr2 (includes actually hosting Republican National Convention events at the church itself--a definite legal no-no)
http://www.priestsforlife.org/news/01-07-04bushjuly4.htm
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0031,dubya4,16951,6.html
http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2005/01/can-gop-count-on-black-religious-vote.html

One of People For People's pet projects is voucher programs--not surprising as they run a charter school (registered as a 501(c)3) and the organisation itself is also registered as a 501(c)3.

Needless to say, the good folk at DefCon America and Talk2Action are being notified posthaste :3

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

Amusing article from Slate on those low-budget 'Left Behind' apocalypse films.

http://www.slate.com/id/2131365/

The article is pretty funny, even if the subject matter is not. Take a look!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gleef)

[This was originally intended to be a reply to this post by thornewilder, but I got interrupted halfway through writing it, and I realized it was of more general use, so I decided to make it a separate post.]

Many churches and other religious organizations put forward a "Statement of Beliefs" or similar document. Many of us are trying to figure out which churches and other religious organizations are Dominionist, which are scary but not Dominionist, and which can be either safely ignored or safely worked with. It would be very useful to know more about these Statements of Belief and what they do and don't tell us about the group we want to know more about. This post explores this issue, using the Statement of Beliefs of the Nazarene group linked to in an earlier post.

I'd say, chances are they aren't Dominionist (but don't expect sweetness and light out of them), but don't count 100% on that.

From a more general viewpoint, I hope I've better illustrated how these Statements can be used as part of an exploration of a group.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dark_rekhet)

....or the danger?

"When You Need a Miracle"

For a bit of background, I have been to a few of Rev. Kostelnik's sermons. Long story short, I had relationship with a man who was a member of this church who also thought I needed saving. It was always a confusing situation. "Pastor Joe", as he likes to be called, is by all accounts a nice man, kind to animals, all that. I wanted so much to like the guy. Unfortunately during his sermons he did what I consider to be no-no's if I'm going to like a person. He claimed to have witnessed miracles, he claimed to have performed miracles, and he did the whole usual thing about other religions. Mentioned something about Christians prayers being closest to God, and that only the Christian god is a living one, etc. As a non-Christian I found this offensive, and as a person with a chronic illness as well, my warning bells went off.

I wonder how many people have been suckered into churches because they have been told that is where they have to be for god to hear them, or that's where they need to be to be healed?

And to add to it, the sister site created by the same people has a few articles that I found to show their Dominist attitudes fairly well.

"America's Innocence Lost"

"Is There a Plague on America?"

And a last one that shows their religious intolerance.

"Religions United in World Peace"

Intolerance like that hurts me deeply. *sigh*

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY reannon)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/12/02/creationism.class.cancel.ap/index.html

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ns_kumiho)

Controversial Christian evangelist and pro-gun campaigner Peter Hammond confirmed he has been charged with assault after what he said was an anti-Hallowe'en spree with a paintball gun.

Hammond, director of the Cape Town-based Frontline Fellowship, an organisation dedicated to "missionary outreach", said he would appear in the Goodwood Magistrate's Court on December 20.

He said last night that he had not touched the gun that day, and that it was accidentally discharged by his 10-year-old son.

"It was not intentional and not malicious," said Hammond, who is a vociferous opponent of South Africa's gun control laws.

He said his family - a wife and four children - did not approve of Hallowe'en, which they saw as an "occult holiday celebrating human sacrifice, witches and goblins".

His children had wanted to do a "counter Hallowe'en", and he had agreed to drive two of them around to "do paintballing" on trick or treating youngsters on October 31.

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=49&fArticleId=3018665