LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY velvetpage)

A long time ago - probably more than a year, possibly closer to two - a link was posted in this community about four different, competing views of the Bible, and how each one formed the denominations that subscribed to it. I'm sure there were four of them, but when i tried googling it, I got several million hits and nothing I changed cut that down very much, nor was what I wanted anywhere in the first fifty or so hits. Does anyone remember this, or did anyone bookmark it?

x-posted to xtian_trackback

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_moon)

I would like to invite you to read this essay, written by a professor of philosophy (who also happens to be my husband) in responce to the passing of Jerry Falwell.

It invites some serious thought and discussion on the nature of religion, society, and culture, and as such, is just the sort of thing this community is interested in.

The essay is here.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY lunalelle)

Before everyone continues the craziness of closeted Donnie Davies and his overt fundie homophobia, I suppose it's important for everyone to know that he's been 'outed' as Dallas-based actor Joey Oglesby, an ex-member of a troop of comedians that specializes in a "comedy stew of dance, homophobic/gay experimentation, male chauvinism, obscure racism, and spiritual revelation."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

The Houston Chronicle's Opinion page had a couple of pieces on evang. Christians.

I love this one - Those poor, mischaracterized evangelicals! All they're really doing is trying to save the world!

Of course it's true that a handful of Christian figures reinforce the worst stereotypes of the movement. Their loopy and triumphalist claims are seized upon by lazy journalists and the direct-mail operatives of political opponents. Yet it is dishonest to disparage the massive civic and democratic contribution of evangelicals by invoking the excesses of a tiny few.


Don't go thinking this election has 'ended' the religious right

So before rearranging their public policy agenda in hopes of attracting evangelicals, the Democrats would be wise to think twice. There has been a radical change in the attitudes of evangelicals — it's just not one that will automatically be in the Democrats' favor.

You see, evangelicals aren't re-examining their political priorities nearly as much as they are re-examining their spiritual priorities. That could be bad news for both political parties.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

evangelicals lose faith in GOP

Younger generation leaving the religious right...?

laying on of hands, years of restoration begins for Haggard

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY velvetpage)

It's about the "Name it and claim it" aspect of dominionism, and its effect on real people, especially a man who claimed healing right until the day the tumor killed him, and the effect on his family.

http://www.reallivepreacher.com/node/817

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

Imagine a secretive religious group with ties to dictators and weapons manufacturers whose ranks include many US senators. Sound like a bad conspiracy theory? I wish. The group is called the Fellowship. You probably know them from their fruits, most notably the National Prayer Breakfast. What I want to know is why I hadn't heard of these guys sooner. Seriously, they've been in the press since 2002 and they've just now come to my attention. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I wouldn't be surprised that their desire to remain an "invisible" groups has something to do with it.

http://www.toobeautiful.org/lat_020927.html
http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html?pg=1
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Fellowship
http://www.alternet.org/story/16167/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_Foundation

Edit: Looks like Sunfell posted about it over a year ago, but I think a reminder is not uncalled for.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

I've been perusing David Limbaugh's website and uncovered a bunch of links to the kinds of organizations that we should be paying attention to. Since Limbaugh is a lawyer, there are quite a few legal organizations among them. Most were obvious in their Domionist sentiments, but some just appear to be benign Christian organizations. It's hard to tell, because "religious liberty" has been used by the Christian Right, including Limbaugh, to mean Christian supremacy. The first organizations I've been unable to pin down is The Rutherford Institute which is pro-life in that it opposes abortion, but interestingly also in that it opposes the death penalty. There's also a lot about the erosion of civil liberties on their website. It looks like they're pretty independant and probably not related to Dominionism. The other is The Christian Legal Society. Their 'core purpose' is "Transforming the legal profession for good one heart and mind at a time by enlisting lawyers and law students everywhere to faithfully serve Jesus Christ in the diligent study and ethical practice of law by ministering to the poor, reconciling people in conflict, defending life and protecting the religious liberties of all people." From what I can see the organization itself is pretty neutral; it doesn't seem to hold any position on any of the issues that we and Dominionists are concerned with.

If you're wondering what a blatantly Dominionist legal organization looks like, see here

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has a new blog that addresses church/state concerns. It looks good- check it out.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kiji_kat)

...but I would be interested in getting some opinions and feedback. Lent has always been a season of mixed emotions for me; there are both positive and negative aspects I associate with it, as you'll see from the entry. This year, I want to make it as positive as possible.

If you're interested, the entry is here.

(This post can be taken down if it's inappropriate. Sorry!)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Technorati Profile

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY caitlin)

I have some very sketchy information on WorldNetDaily, and every time I read the site itself, I feel icky.

Does anyone have any information on the site (aside from the Wikipedia entry, which I have read)...

It is said that WND is a "conservative" site, but stuff I have read on it comes across as Dominionist and such.

C.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY tko_ak)

First, I apologize if this type of post isn't allowed, but I thought it may be acceptable so I figured, why not? I realize it may not fit with this community, and I originally wasn't going to post here, but I was encouraged to do so in christianleft by someone who thought members of this community might be receptive.

Anyway, I founded and maintain gsa_lj, and in an attempt to increase membership in under-represented groups, I've decided to try and get more religious people to join. Unfortunately, many members are pretty militantly athiest, which is fine, but I hate to see people hostile to religion because all they've seen is anti-gay crap spewed. Admittedly, much of it is anti-Christian bias.

So, check the community out. You may like it. We have Christian members, but I'm trying to increase those ranks with tolerant, open-minded, and gay friendly folks. I want people to realize that religion and God doesn't equal intolerance, hate, or homophobia.

Again, I apologize if this type of post isn't allowed.

Cordially,

Jamie
Founder & Maintainer, gsa_lj
jlhobson@gmail.com

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I've added links to our new Wiki to our front door, along with links to two communities that might be helpful to people recovering from spiritual abuse and cultic involvement:

woundedwarriors
hot_seat_cult

If you join these groups, please respect their purpose and posting rules.

I've also tweaked the links list on the sidebar, removing "Jesus on the Family" and adding the Dark Christianity Wiki (where I've added the December Mother Jones issue and its links to the "Periodicals" section). If you find any broken links on the sidebar, let me know.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I found this very insightful Buzzflash interview with Mark Crispin Miller.

He has some very interesting insights:

This is a faith-based movement, which means that we cannot just write off everything they do as mere manipulation by cynics who secretly know better. That some of them are Machiavellian there is no doubt, but there's a pathological component, an apocalyptic drive, that we ignore at our own peril.

What often seems to be mere breath-taking cynicism is, as well, a sort of self-delusion, or self-hypnosis, common to fanatical movements of all kinds, religious and otherwise. These are people who themselves are in the very audience they're always working to arouse. On some level they believe that, if they say something repeatedly and loud enough, it will not just make everybody else believe it, but it will actually make it true. It is that faith-based self-deception that makes the movement deeply frightening - and incomprehensible - to rational observers. There is no arguing with that mentality, which poses a far greater worldly threat than all the humanistic interests on Earth combined.

They respect no worldly powers other than themselves, and so they've set about the reconstruction of our government, to operate it wholly by themselves in their own interests. If it were up to them, there would be no special prosecutors. There would be no independent authorities capable of passing any judgment on them or of enforcing any rules that they would rather not follow. If it were up to them, there would be no parties but their own. It's staggering, but surely less astonishing than the refusal of "the liberal media" to give it the attention it deserves.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

~A few days ago sunfell 'moderated' my Crusader Post. Her reasons as she stated them to me were entirely legitimate vis-a-vis the purpose of this community and I accepted said moderation with as much grace as the egotistical creature I am could muster. And yet there was some good exchange in that post, and also in the Hitler Virgin Mary Painting post that got 'moderated' last month.

~So, in the spirit of furthering that exchange, let me extend an invitation to those here that might be interested to join god_challenged. shamangirl and I started it as a rebuke of, and an answer to, the Xian perversion of challenging_god. [Remember when that community was cool?]

~We are pretty free wheeling, exploring the roots of modern Dominionism and taking on both Jewish and Muslim Fundies, too. And we encourage plenty of Bush Bashing, tho we do try to keep it within the framework of Dommie/Fundie issues.

~Of course, I shall remain an active member of this community, as well. I respect sunfell and the work that is done here. I simply wish to broaden the debate. Please, come and play.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY njtech)

fascinating comparison of the US and Germany

I posted this specifically for the comparrison of religion and government. very intersting stuff. I also like the writers pet peeves at the end. There's a link at the bottom, which you might overlook, which takes you to a forum discussion wi9th over 32,000 posts.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY emilie_burns)

Posting with moderator permission.

woundedwarriors

It's for people, Christian and non-Christian alike, who have been emotionally and/or spiritually wounded by Dominionist groups, extreme Right radicals, and Pentecostals.

From the userinfo:
Whether you're a Christian or not, chances are high you've been insulted, angered, or wounded by a neo-Conservative follower of Religious Right. There are excellent communities devoted to combating the darkness of the Dominionism, and support for various alternate groups, but nothing which I've seen that is devoted solely to the recovery and healing from the damage these people cause. All posts are automatically friendlocked for your protection, and membership to the community is moderated to prevent trolling.

People who've been fortunate enough to avoid this kind of harm but wish to help others are also welcome.

I also request that new members comment to the one public post to leave a screened comment explaining why they would like to join, how they found the comm, etc., to give me an idea who I'm letting into the comm and why. We already know how aggressive these people can be; this is to help reduce the possibility of people coming under further attack.

For more information about the community, just check out the userinfo.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY stray_girl)

Just set up a new community smashedbox "Discusions from the edge" everyone welcome. Who wants to be the first to post?" (please read the profile info)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY silvaerina_tael)

Aside from some rather erronious statements regarding alternative paths

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=10415

is pretty interesting