LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY catvincent)

Found via Buzzflash

"Most Americans pay little attention to what's going on in Africa, and even less to the work evangelical Christian organizations are doing there. Except for the occasional article about the AIDS pandemic, a devastating drought, or an armed conflict, generally speaking only Africa-focused academics, inveterate news junkies, and/or former and current Peace Corps volunteers have their fingers on the pulse of developments in Africa.

Several high-powered U.S.-based Christian evangelical organizations are not only following developments in Africa, but they are making news. Some of these groups view the small countries of Africa as a Petri Dish for religious and social transformation."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Parsley is the creator of the "Patriot Pastor" movement. Here's an in-depth article about him and his church:

With God On His Side

An excerpt:

When Zell Miller took the stage at one of Ohio’s largest “megachurches” last August, there was no talk of spitballs or duels, but there was plenty of rhetoric about soldiers and war. As the featured speaker at both a regular Sunday-evening church service and a political rally for about 1,300 pastors the following morning, the former Georgia senator wasn’t talking about gun-toting soldiers bringing democracy to the Middle East. Instead, to the delight of thousands of congregants at the World Harvest Church in Columbus, Miller spoke of Bible-toting Christian soldiers bringing theocracy to America.

The apostate Democrat came to Ohio as the special guest of televangelist Rod Parsley, a rising star of the Christian right who was lifted from political obscurity onto the national stage for his role in mobilizing voters in favor of his state’s gay-marriage ban last year. Parsley, a Bible-college dropout who claims to have begun his evangelical career in his parents’ backyard by preaching to a tiny congregation nearly 20 years ago, now boasts a 12,000-member church with affiliated schools offering education from preschool through college; a daily television program, Breakthrough, seen on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and other fundamentalist-Christian television outlets; a 2,000-member fellowship of affiliated churches; and a political organization, the Orwellian-sounding Center for Moral Clarity. But Parsley, who is hailed by the theocratic Christian right as a model of virtue and a representative of “values voters,” has been questioned by congregants and even his own family about his church governance and secretive fund-raising practices.

“Probably President Bush would not be in office today had it not been for him,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, a black pastor from the Washington, D.C., suburbs and a fellow rising star in the religious right. A registered Democrat who said that he and Parsley share the same theological and political viewpoint, Jackson runs the High Impact Leadership Coalition, which promotes its “Black Contract With America on Moral Values.” That effort has led Jackson into alliance with the Arlington Group, a coalition of the Christian-right political elite with which Parsley is also affiliated. According to Jackson, Parsley’s style of preaching is “very, very user-friendly to African Americans,” which may explain why the white pastor has a congregation that is 40-percent black. Jackson also maintained that Parsley’s work with Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, as a “black and white team” campaigning for the gay-marriage ban in churches across Ohio, created the “ricochet effect” of bringing out voters for George W. Bush in 2004.

Jackson was careful to point out that Parsley did not explicitly campaign for Bush, which would have jeopardized his church’s tax-exempt status. But that was something Parsley clearly wanted to do in light of his $2,000 contribution to the Bush-Cheney campaign and his outspoken contempt for the Internal Revenue Service rules that prohibit clergy from endorsing candidates. His tag-team campaign for the gay-marriage ban with Blackwell -- who was not only the state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election effort but also supervised the election as secretary of state -- certainly provided support to Bush. Now, through campaign contributions and joint public appearances, Parsley is supporting Blackwell’s bid to become the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2006.

Although Parsley has barely stopped short of explicitly endorsing Blackwell, he insists that party affiliation doesn’t matter, and that he supports anyone, Republican or Democrat, who shares his view that the Bible offers the ultimate word on morality. Portraying himself as nonpartisan, and even as a Christ-like savior of the less fortunate, he claims (borrowing from Miller) that he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican but a “Christocrat.”

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jrfrench)

Let others worry about the rapture: For the increasingly powerful Christian Reconstruction movement, the task is to establish the Kingdom of God right now—from the courthouse to the White House.

...

When I last saw Gary DeMar, he was shepherding Roy Moore through a crowd of true believers at the Restore America rally. As they walked by, I asked Moore, “Do you favor a theocracy?” The judge turned and looked at me, shook his head, frowned, and walked away. But DeMar, in our interview, had already answered the question.

“All governments are theocracies,” he said. “We now live in a secular humanist theocracy. I want to change that to a government with God at its head.”

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I found a new word in "Kos" that eclipses our previous favorite, "Avengelical" for sheer deliciously ironic truth:

"Tablibangelist"

It's a collision of "Taliban" and "Evangelist", and brilliantly describes the aspirations of the Dominionists without busting too hard on genuine Evangelists. Plus, it doesn't look like a typo. "Talibangelical" can also be used.

"Pat Robertson displayed his Talibangelical bias when he condemned Dover PA for voting out the ID-iots from their school board."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Looks like word is starting to percolate into the farther flung corners of Webdom. Here's a little article I found on The Witches' Voice:

Scared Yet?

Excellent article with good background.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Meet the Fundies
By Steve Satterwhite, Texas Observer
Posted on October 20, 2005, Printed on October 20, 2005
Alternet

Every soul who testified at the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on May 19 on the topic of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions had more to say than they could cram into the three minutes made available to each speaker.

There were so many people who wanted to testify that the hearing was held in a packed Senate Chamber instead of a committee room. For upwards of 10 hours, they took their turns, the on-deck speaker sitting beside the one who was already testifying.

For those who supported gay marriage and gay rights in general, the proposed amendment was cast as a hideous step toward the Dark Ages, a crippling legal twist on the civil definition of marriage. What's worse, it codified discrimination in the state constitution, a document that should be used to guarantee civil rights. It would deny some human beings the freedom to be fully human.( Warning: Some of this article contains graphic material. )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

From the Boston Globe:

When they told us in Sunday School that God is everywhere, they could have been talking about the recent news cycle. With Harriet Miers, we see that God lives in the politics of the US Supreme Court nomination process. In a culture defined by the separation of church and state, President Bush and his allies have mastered the use of religious affirmation as a deflection not only of criticism, but of critical thought. God is thus a trump card, a free pass. If the president, senators, and members of Congress can justify their decisions by appeals to God, why not judges?

...In the argument between creationists and scientists, those aiming to defend God make absolute claims about mysteries of the deep past as if they themselves were there. Air Force flyers have thought of God as their co-pilot in the past, but in today's Air Force, God sits atop the chain-of-command. At the US Air Force Academy, which was rocked by sex scandals not long ago, God is now the designated dean of discipline, but this jeopardizes infidel careers. Unit cohesion requires conversion. Indeed, displays of faith can be a prerequisite for promotion throughout a government where the White House itself is a House of God. In Iraq, meanwhile, someone will turn his body into a bomb today, killing others by blowing himself up while saying, "God is great!"

Full Editorial

I had originally intended this as a reply to this post but due to the length of the post I am actually going to set up a dedicated post for this (also so, hopefully, it doesn't get lost in the clutter).

Dominionism, both in and of itself and in the religious and other groups associated with dominionism, share enough characteristics with groups traditionally considered coercive groups (or "cults", in the case of coercive religious groups) that the groups associated with dominionism, and likely the entire dominionist movement itself, are better seen as a coercive religious group *in and of itself* rather than as a strictly political movement. It is my belief (as a walkaway and as an informal researcher) that it is likely impossible to fully understand dominionism (as a political movement) unless one sees the political aspects of dominionism in a larger context of a general coercive mindset existing in the "parent" groups of the dominionist movement.

In this post, I will directly compare lists of coercive tactics used by four groups active in research of coercive groups (FACTnet's summary of research by Dr Margaret Thaler Singer, info from Rick Ross Institute, info from Steven Hassan's "Freedom of Mind", and lists from the International Cultic Studies Association (a group, ironically, that had to change its original name, the American Family Foundation, due to confusion with the dominionist group American Family Association)) in comparison with coercive tactics used in the dominionist community at large and with specific aspects of the dominionist community in particular.

( Comparison 1: Coercive tactics of dominionist groups as evaluated per Dr Margaret Thaler Singer's checklists )

( Comparison 2: Coerciveness of dominionist groups per Robert Lifton's models of thought reform )

( Comparison 3: Rick Ross's list of coerciveness as compared to dominionist groups )

Well, as the next two lists are fairly long, there'll be a part 2 to this. Part 2 will actually focus entirely on the BITE model (due to the fact the BITE model is a *very* extensive checklist).

(EDIT: Cleaned up the formatting. And hoooo boy, did the formatting need a cleaning!)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY scarcrest)

I had a long entry ready to post, put it in my own journal by mistake, copied it to paste here, deleted it from my journal, accidentally hit "copy" again and thus lost it. Just as well: Part of it was me posting something on behalf of a non-member who's now joining in order to post it herself.

But the point: The community info page here says this is a community to look at the malevolent side of Christianity. It also says, very clearly, that this isn't a journal for bashing Christianity as a whole. (If one wants to join a community for discussing the traumas the Christian faith has brought upon oneself, might I recommend exchristians.)

As kitten_goddess pointed out earlier, it's important that, in our fight against the monster of Dominion Theology, we not become the same intolerant ideologues that we're fighting. As neadods points out, the enemy we oppose is also striking out against moderate and liberal Christian groups.

Some people in this community are Christians. Others (myself included) are not. But we have a common enemy. Even if we don't see eye to eye in a theological sense, rampaging against any Christian who walks through the door will only drive away allies in the fight against Dobson and his ilk.

Look at it this way: If a person's diagnosed with cancer, the first course of treatment suggested by an oncologist is probably not going to be "Take him out back and put two bullets in his head." Fundamentalism is a cancer that invades a religion; even if it can't be eradicated, it can be put into remission. We can't stop people from engaging in willful ignorance or stop them from wanting to keep others in the dark with them, but we can mobilize voters to get to the polls and crush their efforts to put their puppets into power.

We can't take away the "Christian Taliban" faction's freedom to believe or to discuss their beliefs; we can, through joining our efforts with moderate to liberal Christians, push them back toward a marginal position over time. Nontheists such as myself, and members of earth-centered religions will likely remain in a minority for the foreseeable future; making alliances with tolerant Christians is our best chance at having any sort of civil rights protection from state-sponsored religion.

Just my two cents' worth.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Talk to Action article talks about the overt and protracted attempts to 'undermine and destroy' mainline churches in the US.

Rev. John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ acknowledged on Friday what mainline church leaders have been reluctant to address for two decades. The rightist Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) and allied groups are seeking to undermine if not destroy the mainline Christian churches in the United States.

The conservative movement and parts of the corporate sector have loathed the rise of the social gospel in the mainline churches for a century. They have loathed the social justice traditions that were catalysts for the civil rights movement, women's rights, and principled opposition to the excesses of American foreign policy from Vietnam to Central America. [emphasis mine- ed] It was the latter that led to the formation of the IRD as a hub of antichurch organizing. Since then, IRD-affiliated "renewal" groups have been at the center of nearly every controversy in mainline Christianity -- most recently, but certainly not exclusively, issues of gay and lesbian equality in church and public life.

Several people mentioned this on other forums, and Nagisa specifically called it here, but now it's official:

http://www.local6.com/news/5052104/detail.html

Roy Moore--known Christian Reconstructionist and golden-boy of the dominionist movement--has officially announced his candidacy for governor of Alabama.

( a brief history of Roy Moore's hanky-panky )

There is already discussion on multiple forums--one which I think needs to turn into an organised campaign--to specifically see which churches and dominionist groups (with 501(c)3 non-profit status, such as how AFA and Focus on the Family are organised) are endorsing Roy Moore over the next few months and start filing reports to the IRS and state tax authorities of illegal politicking to have the tax exempt status of those groups revoked. (As Roy Moore is pretty much adored over and advocated/cheerleadered on by almost every dominionist group in the country--including a few specifically set up for the cheerleading of this idiot--it's possible that *most* dominionist groups could end up losing their tax exempt status if groups work in an organised fashion to monitor and report.)

EDIT: A fairly full history of Moore's misbehaviour is here.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From The Staten Island Advance

FEMA needs to change policy of blessing the dead
Government policy is a violation of the principal of church-state separation
Friday, September 30, 2005
By RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's errors and blunders are by now well known, including those I personally witnessed in an early September visit to hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston's Astrodome.

But Newsweek magazine recently reported another, more hidden, problem, that FEMA requires chaplains to recite a blessing over the bodies of hurricane victims. The requirement also extends to civilian contractors involved in recovering the dead following Katrina and Rita.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

"Many people around the world do not understand the important role that faith plays in Americans' lives.....previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'."
-Karen Hughes, current State Department Undersecretary

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Sierra Times article is very interesting:

The American Empire: An Unholy Alliance between Church and State
Lee R. Shelton IV

The man hailed as the first Christian emperor of Rome was Constantine, whose alleged "conversion" in 312 A.D. came on the eve of a great battle for the Roman throne. In the simplified version of the legend, Constantine saw a flaming cross in the sky emblazoned with the words "In hoc signo vinces," meaning "By this sign, conquer"--and he proceeded to do just that.

Constantine the Great, however, was far from Christian. Throughout his life, he remained a worshipper of Sol Invictus (the Invincible Sun) and retained the title of "Pontifex Maximus," which meant that, in addition to his duties as emperor, he served as the chief priest of the Roman pagan religion. (Ironically, the Catholic Church continues to bestow that title on its popes.)( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gothic_oreo)

A state senator in Alabama says Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on a sinful part of America.

State Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, wrote in a weekly column for news outlets: "New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness. It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Scientific American has an interesting article about the subversion of science for political gain. An excerpt:

Subverting scientific knowledge for short-term gain

By Boyce Rensberger

Thomas Jefferson would be appalled. More than two centuries after he helped to shape a government based on the idea that reason and technological advancement would propel the new United States into a glorious future, the political party that now controls that government has largely turned its back on science.

Even as the country and the planet face both scientifically complex threats and remarkable technological opportunities, many Republican officeholders reject the most reliable sources of information and analysis available to guide the nation. As inconceivable as it would have been to Jefferson--and as dismaying as it is to growing legions of today's scientists--large swaths of the government in Washington are now in the hands of people who don't know what science is. More ominously, some of those in power may grasp how research works but nonetheless are willing to subvert science's knowledge and expert opinion for short-term political and economic gains.

That is the thesis of The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney, one of the few journalists in the country who specialize in the now dangerous intersection of science and politics. His book is a well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right wing's assault on science and scientists. Mooney's chronicle of what he calls "science abuse" begins in the 1970s with Richard Nixon and picks up steam with Ronald Reagan. But both pale in comparison to the current Bush administration, which in four years has:

* Rejected the scientific consensus on global warming and suppressed an EPA report supporting that consensus.
* Stacked numerous advisory committees with industry representatives and members of the religious Right.
* Begun deploying a missile defense system without evidence that it can work.
* Banned funding for embryonic stem cell research except on a claimed 60 cell lines already in existence, most of which turned out not to exist.
* Forced the National Cancer Institute to say that abortion may cause breast cancer, a claim refuted by good studies.
* Ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remove information about condom use and efficacy from its Web site.

swiftpaws

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

The following is an excerpt from an article in the August/September issue of Southern Brew News, a circular aimed at beer enthusiasts living in the Southeastern U.S. This article is not available online, I'm afraid.

===============================
A North Carolina grassroots organization has been trying to change a law [that] prevents beers with more than 6% alcohol from being sold in the state. This group goes by the name of Pop the Cap...

In July, as House Bill 392 (the Pop the Cap bill) was making its way to the Senate floor, something potentially disastrous happened... Senator [Jim] Jacumin (Burke and Caldwell Counties) made his point known quickly. He felt that North Carolina should not allow high alcohol beers into the state because it would cause a "loosening of sexual inhibitions, more pregnancies and more abortions." ( Plus some good ol' Strom Thurmond racism )

[Senator John] Kerr, who has been a firm supporter of NC wineries in the past, is for some reason staunchly against the [bill]... Kerr has been quoted in the Daily Reflector (a Greenville, North Carolina paper) as having been approached by religious groups, asking him to slow the bill down.
===============================

( More about Georgia's experience )

Oh, and I don't think the high-priced "high-gravs" have increased our unwanted pregnancy or abortion rates, either. Interestingly, such things are not as much of a problem in Belgium and Holland, where many of these beers are brewed. I wonder why?

EDIT: "On Saturday, August 13, 2005 Governor Mike Easley signed House Bill 392 (a.k.a. the "Pop The Cap" bill) into law." The theocrats lost this one, but I still think it's instructive to review their efforts in this case.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY heartlikeawheel)

The following is a statement made by an evangelical Christian on a political board that I frequent.

See if it doesn't make your blood run cold as it did mine:

It is your opinion that God has no place in the politics of our nation. That is wishful thinking on your part. The simple fact of the matter is that when so many believe He exists, and most of those believe in Him as the Bible presents Him, then you have a problem because He is going to enter into policy whether you like it or not.

I'm not telling you what I believe SHOULD happen, but rather sharing a simple logical conclusion of what has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. You are free to rebel against it, but you're fighting the mother of all uphill battles. Accept the fact or not...it won't change the fact that the majority of people in this country don't like a minorty telling them that their religion can't be expressed in the public policy arena, and that with the power of the majority, such as it is given in this country, will exercise the same to keep God in the public policy arena.

Notice he claims that he isn't saying he believes it "should" happen, but he makes no bones about the fact that he think it WILL happen.

They're gaining power, they know it, and I am not ashamed to admit that I am more afraid than I can say. I have nowhere to run if this country turns into a theocratic state as it looks like it's heading toward. But I'll tell you what, I refuse to live under a Christo-Fascist regime. If that means my life, so be it. But I'll send some of them home to see their God as well.

I can't even believe I'm seeing this. I never thought America would threaten to become a Christian Saudi Arabia. What the hell has happened to us??

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Tom Paine article is interesting:

With God On Our Side?
Paul Waldman
September 19, 2005

Paul Waldman is a senior fellow with Media Matters for America and a senior contributor to The Gadflyer.

The anti-Americans in our midst are out in force again, saying everything that goes wrong is America’s fault. They just won’t stop running down this country, their hatred never far from the surface.

I’m speaking, of course, about conservatives.

A certain brand of conservative, anyway. Seeing the misery caused by Hurricane Katrina, some on the right knew what was going on: God hates America. Or at the very least, he’s really, really angry with us. And you don’t have to go to the maniacal Rev. Fred Phelps of “God Hates Fags” fame, whose latest project is www.godhatesamerica.com, to find this kind of rhetoric. It comes from people with strong ties to the Republican party.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY metaphorge)

"The notion of spiritual freedom is at risk, and the fourth observance of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is an appropriate time to think about it."

I love Bill Moyers, and he makes many excellent points in this article. (located via alobar)