LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

I have created a Wiki site for a recommended reading and viewing list for this community. It can be found at http://dark-christian.clanxanadu.org/.

Currently the site is password protected, mostly because it has been suggested that Dominionists might decide to vandalize the site and destroy what it contains. I personally am inclined to open it and let this community maintain the list, and trust the Wiki concepts.

But for now, it remains locked. I invite discussion on whether that should remain so.

Moderators: If my use of the community name is deemed inappropriate, let me know and I will immediately generalize and remove such references.

EDIT: The consensus is in... It is now open for editing.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just checked the community stats, and see that our subscriber population has crossed the 600 member threshold. How about that! That's pretty good for such a specialist community.

Welcome aboard, newcomers, it's good to have you here. I hope that you get something out of this community, and that you also post and comment as well. Make sure that you read and heed the community guidelines. And check out the places linked on the sidebar.

The interest and critical examination of Dominionist Christianity is growing. This is a good thing. Maybe we won't become a theocracy after all, if we have enough people aware of what is going on. We're the critical element, we will make the difference in the long run.

Again, welcome aboard.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I see that the community's membership numbers are still rising- so let me welcome the newcomers here. the subject of dominionist Christianity is starting to become more widespread and is even beginning to break into the mainstream. You will know that if you came here from another online community.

I would like to remind posters here that it is necessary to stay on topic. "On topic" means that your posts should pertain to the subject we are examining- which is extreme right-wing (dominionist) Christianity and/or its effect on the governments of the world. This board is pretty tightly moderated, and we will delete posts which do not fit the fairly broad guidelines. These are posted on the 'user info' page.

We appreciate your attention to these guidelines.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just checked the subscriber numbers for this community, and we have over 500 members now! Welcome aboard! This community has become a very dynamic and insightful place, and I have all of you to thank for this. I do hope that you are getting something from this community. It is meant to inform, inspire, and give insight to what is happening to our country- and even give us a means to do something about it. I think it's working.

Even better, many similar sites are popping up all over the Web. This is encouraging. If we crosslink to each other (like on the sidebar) we can bring information and investigation of dominionism to many others, who in turn can learn and spread the word.

Dominionists are a small minority, but they are powerful, rich, and most important, loud. There are many more of us than there are of them, and as the Dover school board elections amply demonstrated, we have the ability to sweep their minions out of office and out of power. We can turn the tide, and we have a long ways to go.

It is very gratifying to see such an eclectic mix of people here. Christians, Pagans, Jews, Agnostics, Atheists... this place is a cross-pollination spot of ideas and beliefs. I sincerely hope that it remains so. If we can talk to each other, learn from each other, understand that the dominionists have hijacked the Christian faith (and we all suffer for it), and not all Christians are like they are, then we can move towards solving the problem in a peaceful, and uniquely American way- tossing them out of power with We The People power. They have used it, and are actively trying to remove the ability of the rest of us to use it. We must not permit that to happen.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

My occasional check of the membership numbers of this community has revealed that we're at 448 subscribers! Welcome aboard! Don't forget that you have to subscribe to this community in order to post a comment or to reply to a post. Enjoy your visit.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I deleted the last post because the individual who posted was having a massive spam attack. I also banned hir from this site.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just checked the User Info for this board, and we have 409 registered subscribers! Wow- that's pretty amazing for a board as esoteric as this one. Goes to prove that this subject is gaining interest all over the place.

I want to welcome all the newcomers, and invite you to read the older posts, visit the sites on the blogroll, and read our front page. And if you find something that is relevant to the topic, please post it!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just noted that the subscription numbers of this community have jumped again. (I go away for two weeks...) I'd like to welcome everyone aboard, and sincerely hope that you will find this community educational and informative. Please do not forget to check the information on the User Info page, and visit the sites listed on the blogroll on the left. And of course, if you have anything to contribute, please do, but make sure that you follow the guidelines posted on our front door.

Again, welcome.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Right now, this board is monitored and maintained by seshen and I. She's an excellent mod, but I don't want to saddle her with the sole monitoring of this increasingly busy community when I am out of town. Plus, we're both in the same time zone, which isn't too bad for most things, but leaves this board unwatched overnight.

So, I am soliciting for another moderator. I'd love to have one from Down Under, or perhaps Europe- to cover those 'down' times, but experience trumps location. I want someone who is familiar with this community, and who can be laid back and fair, but who isn't afraid to apply the Stark Fist of Removal or the Troll Hammer if a troublemaker comes along.

If you are interested in applying for this job, please email me at dark_christian (at) comcast dot net.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

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Be sure to read the post below to learn about other peoples' criticisms and recommendations for nomenclature.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY metaphorge)

Could I request that the mods enable any member of the community to be able to define new tags, in addition to adding existing tags to entries? I don't think all our bases are covered by the current set.

(This would be done by typing 'tag_permissions friends friends' into the LJ-console.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Hello, all- it's your friendly community founder stepping in for a bit of housekeeping. First of all, I want to welcome all the newcomers who have joined this community in the last few months. I am still astonished at the climb in numbers.

I am not sure if any of you have checked the 'user info' (AKA the Front Door) of this community, so I figured it might be time to post some notes from it here. We do have some posting rules- nothing really difficult, but it helps keep the board running smoothly. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Livejournal has just enabled the "Tags" feature on their journals, and since I just upgraded this community to a paid account, I'm also using this feature as well. It will help in searches through the various entries. I've got a pretty good list going now, but suggestions for additional tags are always welcome.

So, when you make an entry that talks about say, gay marriage, and it's an article, you can use both the 'article' and the 'GLBT rights' tags. Same with entries about movies, politics, specific Dominionist matters like the 'end times' 'rapture' and 'culture of life'. Eventually, all the entries will be tagged, so that researchers can use this site easily.

Enjoy!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just looked at the stats for this board, and we've reached 300 Livejournal subscribers! So, I have kept my promise, and have just purchased a year's paid account for this community. This will give us more features to use, as well as helping out Livejournal.

So, if you see some changes in the next few days and weeks, it's just me working to improve the interface and usability of this site.

If you have any suggestions for sites or blogs to go on the upcoming sidebar, please submit them. I've found one template that will hold 30 entries, so we'll have a good roll.

Again, I want to thank folks for patronizing this community.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just took a look at the community stats, and we're just about to bust 300 registered users. Color me totally astonished. This community started out as a little 'hobby horse' of mine, and in the last six months has really grown. And that doesn't even count the 'casual' readers who are not Live Journal users.

So, welcome aboard, newcomers- I hope that you are enjoying this community. I am getting ready to purchase a paid account for it so I can do a proper blogroll and other features for it. So watch out for 'tweaks' ahead.

As the creator of this community, I am curious about how you found it, and what you think of it. I am well aware that we have a very eclectic mix of people here who bring a wide spectrum of experience and interest to this place. It is gratifying that there is enough interest in this often difficult subject to bring people here to talk about it- for a long time, this was a very solitary interest.

Again, welcome aboard. Keep finding and posting interesting articles- this is a participatory community.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just checked the latest stats on this community, and we've topped 270 subscribers! That doesn't even count the non-lj folks who read it- I need to figure out how to count those readers, too. (Anyone?)

So, welcome to the new readers and to the lurkers, too. There is a ton of stuff online about the Religious Right (and its myriad forms), and its impact on our government and our lives. I try to find as many articles of interest as possible, but I have some excellent assistance here, too. Thank you all for bringing this community to life.

This community is in a constant stage of development and upgrade- and if you have ideas about how to make it even better, feel free to share them with me- either here or by email. I now have an actual email address on the front page. It's dark_christian at comcast dot net.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I suppose that I should insert a bit of clarity here for our many new readers. I think that the 'no Bush bashing' rule has become a bit of a stumbling block and perhaps the source of some misunderstandings. Let's correct our course a bit, shall we?

It is impossible to discuss Christian extremists (or what Fredrick Clarkson has called 'religious supermacists') without politics (and Bush) leaching into the discussion. In fact, if it weren't for the marriage between the Religious Right and the Republican Party, I seriously doubt that this community would have much to discuss. It is clear that the purpose of this collision between religion and politics is to chip away at the foundation of our government- like termites chewing away at a wooden house, until it collapses from being gutted from within.

Things like chipping away at the Establishment Clause (separation of church and state) by creating Faith Based initiatives, attacking 'activist judges', that do not kowtow to the desires of the Dominionists to have Biblical based laws, the slow corrosion of our educational systems with the one-two punch of No Child Left Behind and the ID versus Actual Science debate, and the attacks on our social security, environment, and even our pocketbooks with the tax cuts for the rich being shifted to a bigger burden for the vanishing middle class to pay... it all ties together. Every one of these, and many more seeming unrelated little things are termites eating away at this country and our constitution.

The destruction of our country is being guided by End-times-addled people who want to dominate, and then destroy our world to hasten Christ's return. They have said this themselves, if you follow the links to the various sites we have listed.

Where does Bush stand in all this? He is the figurehead of the religious supermacists, as well as the 'divinely ordained and guided' director of all this slow destruction. That "Bush Fish" is just a blatant example of what has been brewing for years under the surface- within the ranks of the Religious right- and out of the media mainstream: that the religious supermacists truly believe that the President is merely one step away from being a divinely ordained 'king' of some new Crusade- once they get those messy judges and the Constitution out of the way. They truly believe this. Heck, they even have "Presidential Prayer Team" that devotes itself full time to praying for the President. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is the first time that such a thing has been so blatantly public or so blatantly one-sided.

Yes, I know that sometimes this sounds like foil-hattery. I wish it was. It isn't. People are blind to all the little holes being chewed in our country's carefully crafted foundation, and they poo-poo the folks like me who have been following this stuff for decades, seeing the patterns and the grass roots and the monies being built up, looking at their parallel universe which has been, until recently, well hidden from the mainstream.

It is OK to criticize this administration. It is still legal (barely) to do so. But we must also avoid stepping over the line from criticism to outright bashing. The line can sometimes be difficult to see, but like someone said about obscenity, we know it when we see it. This community has grown exponentially in the last few months, and we are fine tuning our moderation guidelines. So, please bear with us. We'll find a proper and steady course, and go from there.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

This is a forum to discuss the fringe elements of Christian extremism. It is not a Bush-bashing forum, as per the community profile. Thank you.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

It seems that there is a lot of news about the Dominionists out there, and I expect that there will be more as things continue to heat up in Congress and elsewhere. I've been chasing down as much of it as I can, plus cruising about a dozen blogs to keep posted on various things.

Up until now, I've been posting articles as I find them, but perhaps I should adapt twistedchick's aggregator style and put the newsworthy and blogworthy stuff into a single or twice-daily digest with links on them.

I figured that I should toss this out to the rest of you, and see what you think. This does not mean that if you find a post-worthy article that you can't post it individually- please continue doing so.

So, here's your poll question:

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LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just went and checked the 'stats' of this community, and was surprised to find that there are 230 LJ members reading it, and probably a whole bunch of 'anonymous' readers reading it also. Wow. What started as a small side community that I created to scratch a 25-year old 'itch' has become something quite a lot bigger than I expected. (The 'itch' I speak of came from reading Conway and Siegelman's "Holy Terror" in '82. It lit my curiosity, and because I was surrounded by evangelicals in the USAF, I felt I needed to learn about them just for self-defence.)

I want to welcome everyone here, encourage you to read the older posts, and follow the links on the front page. This community serves two purposes: to examine the Dominionist Christian movement and its effect on our government, laws, and leadership, and to serve as a place for 'walkaways' to decompress and tell us about what it was like 'inside'. ( Read more... )