LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

After a bit of retooling and revision, we're now back on the air. The major change is something new: moderated posting. What this means is that when you post to the community, it will go into a queue for moderation, where it will either be approved or rejected by someone on the moderation team. And as you post, you will be removed from 'moderated' status, meaning that you can then post freely without going through the queue. Eventually, all fairly frequent posters will be unmoderated. Since the vast majority of the membership are lurkers, this means that we'll be back up to speed fairly quickly.

We've also retooled and simplified the User Info guidelines. I'm including them here so you can read them:

Dark Christianity Posting Rules in a Nutshell:

This isn't your standard religious discussion board. We wish to maintain a high level of interest and integrity. In plain English, we require you to do your homework.

* On-topic posts involve information, news, book reviews, and non-imflammatory observations about Dominionist Christianity. On-topic subjects include "Steeplejacking" (takeovers of moderate churches by extremist groups), stealth evangelism, military infiltration, organizations formed by and for people of Dominionist pursuasion, political motives tainted by Dominionist intent, the continuing attempts to subvert the sciences, schools, human rights, etc.
* Posts that are not on topic, or do not have some some explanatory element that connects them directly to the main subject of this board will be deleted. While we understand that there are degrees of connectedness, the responsibility is yours to make that connection.
* Please treat other posters and their religious beliefs (and/or lack thereof) with respect. There are many people of many beliefs (and none at all) who belong to this community. Be considerate. This includes calling 'troll' to questionable posters, use of profanity, sniping at other posters or the moderator team, or posting (or reposting) intentionally inflammatory posts or provocative comments.
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* Please check previous posts and tags to avoid multiple posts on the same subject. This might mean going back several pages, but check the tags first- they have been organized and are actively monitored. This community has been around long enough that we have 'chestnuts' that get revived from time to time.
* If the subject you're talking about is the least bit vague or unclear, please "connect the dots" and explain WHY what you are posting is on-topic in this community. If you are posting a link, please "set it up" with a short summary.
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* DO NOT post news articles in their entirety here- post an excerpt (use blockquotes or italics) and a link to the original article. Most papers now maintain better archives, so the chances of it vanishing entirely are not as great.

If you absolutely MUST snark or snipe, take it to either antitheism or religionsnark. Or snark away in your own journal.

Any member who breaks these rules will get one warning and on the second occurance will be suspended for 3 months. If the user continues to break the community rules, rather than being suspended a third time, the person will banned.

Joining and posting to this community means that you agree to follow the above guidelines.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY crazyjane13)

(x-posted from crazyjane_13

It's a beautiful day, don't you think?

It seems that the Assemblies of God/Dominionist/fundie types may have finally outsmarted themselves, at least as far as the Australian federal election (coming Real Soon Now, honest) is concerned.

Y'see, Danny Nalliah, sometime pastor for Catch the Fire Ministries, has shot off his mouth yet again.

Some of you might remember that this is the guy who - despite numerous appeals - was convicted under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act for vilifying Muslims in a particularly horrible manner. He's also been known to exhort his followers to burn down mosques, Hindu temples, "covens" and places where lesbians gather.

Not content with spreading a gospel of hate in Australia, in April this year he even took it upon himself to visit the US - in order to protest against a hate crime bill (HR254). Of course, CFM's website describes that as "wildly successful", but then it would, wouldn't it?

But take heart, friends and neighbours.

A report in today's Australian newspaper details how Prime Minster John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello held private meeting with Nalliah back in August. Coincidentally, this was about the same time that Howard was meeting with the Exclusive Brethren (more on that in a later post).

Anyway, at these meetings, Nalliah assured Howard and Costello of his support. In a letter to his followers, however, he revealed that the Lord had, in fact, told him to spend one-on-one time with the PM, and to prepare "Australia's future prime minister". A second letter clarified that Nalliah wasn't talking about Mr. Rudd - in fact, Nalliah claimed he was "well-justified" in attacking the Labor Party for their "support of homosexuality and abortion".

The Australian also noted that Mr. Costello had written letters of support to Nalliah during the religious vilification case. Costello, apparently, has no trouble being associated with a man who exhorts his followers to violence against anyone he thinks is evil.

The Howard government copped a lot of flak for meeting with the Exclusive Brethren - but there was a general feeling of "they don't vote, so it doesn't matter too much". Nalliah and his ilk do vote however - and both Howard and Costello have just been caught publicly supporting and accepting the endorsement of a convicted criminal who justifies his atrocious behaviour by saying, "God told me to do it".

Now, apparently, God's told him to throw his weight behind Howard's election campaign - and presumably Costello's, in the future.

I've got three little words for this.

Kiss.

Of.

Death.

This one isn't going away, Mr Howard. You and your sidekick have been caught with your interest groups down. Australians don't, as a general rule, stand for this kind of overt interference in government.


... See why I said it was a beautiful day??



Postscript : If you want more info on CFM, check out the above link - they are becomingly more and more openly Dominionist by the day. Their "Rise Up Australia" campaign has some rather revealing little statements about an "army of laborers" and "a Daniel generation of spiritual warriors" - and let's not forget establishing God's "presence, authority, and righteousness in Government".

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blackletter)

I came across this school system a while ago, and, though initially intrigued by the general idea, was troubled once I looked at their website. Only after I joined this comm and found out about Dominionism did I realize just how troubled I should be.

First, a brief explanation of what University Model Schools (UMS) are. Contrary to their name, they are not some sort of preparatory school…or, at least not preparatory for college. Rather, they are a cross-breed between home schooling and private schooling. The idea is that the child attends classes two or three days a week and receives home schooling the rest of the week. Now, this idea alone isn’t so bad. It offers an alternative to home schooling that takes some pressure off the parents and gives socialization to the kids.

But one look at their website leaves me cold. Any school that lists “education” as number FOUR in their mission statement is automatically problematic.

Here’s a few choice quotes from their “Vision and Values” section. (Text bolded by me.)

Under their “Guiding Principles”:
1. “Love and Glorify God”
2. “Help Fulfill the Great Commission” (i.e. Proselytize and Convert)
3. “Affirm, Encourage, and Equip Parents” (Make sure the parents are properly proselytizing their children. Under this, the website says, “The vast majority of Christians come to a ‘saving faith’ in Christ when they are children, under the influence of their parents.”)
4. “Educate With Excellence” (At last, we get to the education part. Rather odd for a school to consider this to be of relatively little importance. Better righteous than educated seems to be the message here. Further look into this “guiding principle” reveals that education of character is emphasized over academic education. Academics almost seem an afterthought, important only as a tool to proselytize.)

Under “Biblical Worldview”:

“For the past several decades, Christian thinking has become increasingly secularized. A humanistic mind has supplanted the Christian mind in nearly every area of life, and the results have been catastrophic. Only able to see issues in “bits and pieces,” rather than through a comprehensive Biblical framework, many Christians today are unable to even recognize, much less solve, the serious social, political and cultural problems that confront the nation and the world. Only through the recovery of a truly Christian worldview—a mind renewed by Christ and filled with God’s wisdom—will Christians be able to influence the culture and make a difference in it.”

“When man sins and separates himself from God, he loses the good of reason—his thinking becomes “futile,” his heart is “darkened” and his mind becomes “depraved” (Romans 1). With his heart and mind no longer valuing or beholding Truth, his way of seeing and understanding the fundamental issues of life—his worldview—becomes distorted, no longer providing him with an accurate picture of reality.”

(So at best, all atheists, non-Christians, and secularized Christians are misguided and slightly insane…no longer able to accurately perceive reality. At worst, depraved. Ipod commercials and StarWars are brought up as examples of ungodliness.)

Under Reasons Leading to Development of UMS we get a reference to James Dobson and Focus on the Family and the importance of “saving” children from the godless modern culture.

Now, I’m fairly new at this, but the recruitment of children and the emphasis on political change and cultural warfare are screaming Dominionist to me.

Bruce Wilson, Chris Rodda, and Military Religious Freedom Foundation have now posted more info in regards to an increasing scandal--namely, it seems that neopente groups (and in particular Campus Crusade for Christ-linked groups) have not only aggressively targeted the military but are explicitly running programs to turn soldiers into (in Campus Crusade's own words) "Government-Paid Missionaries"--the same sorts of missionaries that have resulted in fully half of the Christian population of Iraq fleeing for their lives due to dominionists having made even non-dominionist Christians targets.

The full article is at TruthOut; the first link goes to the "Cliff's Notes" version on DailyKos.

I have also posted a companion piece on DailyKos detailing Campus Crusade's history of promotion of dominionism and its links to the Assemblies in particular; some of the info (in particular, in Sara Diamond's Spiritual Warfare that I used for research) points to Campus Crusade possibly having targeted the military as early as the mid-80s for wholescale steeplejacking.

Your comments--and, for you DailyKos users, your recommends--are, as always, appreciated. I'll also be glad to answer any questions here as well.