LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY einatlanta)

The big news in Atlanta this morning: Eric Rudolph is taunting his vicitms from his Supermax jail cell. Rudolph was convicted of the Olympic bombing here in town, plus bombing several abortion clinics. Many people in Georgia think he should have gotten the death sentence, but his trial was conducted in Alabama, and he was only given life.

Eric still belives that anyone helping abortion doctors should die, and has nothing but contempt for his victims. He still enjoys the support of many a fanatic. The local articles require log-ins, so behind the cut is the AP story copied from a free source. Our local news has been running interviews with lawyers who are trying to pass laws similar to those restricting criminals from keeping photos of their victims in cells. The lawyers want Rudolph's missives from jail to stop.

As of earlier this morning, if you looked on the Army of God website, you could find his supporter reading out Rudolph's letters. I can't bring myself to link to the videos, but they're out there.

( Associated Press Article )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

"...where ever the soldiers go, there goes the word of God..."

http://www.gwaihir.org/archives/2005/05/too_stupid_to_r.html (my apologies if this is a repeat)

Specifically:

Q: Mr. Vice President, thank you for coming to Georgia, and thank you and the President for your leadership in the war on terror. Millions of Americans appreciate that.

My question is, I watched the press conference the other night with the President, and it seems like when the two of you come up with serious ideas that those from the other faith, in the other party, all they do is demonize and, in many cases, just lie and try to divide the older generation, our grandparents from us, those in our 30s.

Yes, you are reading this right: Cheney is buying into the whole dominionist "If you aren't with us, you're with SATAN" thing. That statement is actually a coded message to dominionists.

And they're now officially, in Avengelical-speak, labeling *all* Democrats and Republicans who don't toe the dominionist party line as bona-fide devil-worshippers. (Explanation below.)

Dominionist groups, including the specific group I walked away from (the AoG) believe, flat out, if you are not a dominionist (and often a *good* dominionist at that)--if you're not a frothing Avengelical--you are a flat out diabolist. They see people from non-dominionist denominations as literal *devil worshippers*; they flat out claim there *are* only two faiths, Avengelicalism and, well, Satanism.

As noted before, dominionist groups don't even see other Christians as "truly Christian" (as evidenced by the fact that other mainstream denominations worldwide, even relatively conservative denominations like the Eastern Rite and the Roman Catholic Church, are getting increasingly angry about Avengelicals practicing "sheep-stealing"); they literally see all other non-dominionist denominations as "satanic" and even as *perversions* of Christianity itself (ironic, seeing as many of the institutions they label as "satanic" are as old as Christianity itself and most dominionist denominations are less than 100 years old; the oldest, the Southern Baptists, actually split from the mainstream Baptists over slavery in the 1840's and has gone hardcore dominionist largely in the past 15 years or so).

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=6020
http://www.henryinstitute.org/commentary/read.php?article=20050601b (from the horse's mouth himself)

The senior VP for academic administration at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (which has been quite thoroughly turned dominionist by Al Mohler and his cronies) states flat out he's *training* his kids to be little sociopathic monsters:

Moore said a reader objected to an earlier column mentioning he took his two young sons to see “Stars War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” because the film is “way too violent for children.”

Moore went on to say it is only the second movie the boys had ever seen.

“One was a tender, touching Christmas movie about a little boy who discovers that Christmas is all about believing in the miracles within,” he said. “The second was a cartoonishly violent movie in which men go face-to-face with evil aliens; often chopping off limbs in the heat of battle.”

Moore went on to quip that he repents of “taking them to the Christmas film.”

“This is because of my overall philosophy of childrearing,” he explained. “I am aiming to raise up violent sons.”

“I am not seeking to raise sons who are violent in the amoral, pagan sense of contemporary teenagers playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video games or carjacking motorists,” he explained. “I want them to be more violent than that.”

“I want them to understand that the Christian life is not a Hallmark Channel version of baptized sentimentality,” he continued. “Instead, it is a cosmic battle between an evil dragon and the child of the woman, an ancient warfare that now includes all who belong to the Child of the Promise (Rev 12).”

Sadly, this is *not* uncommon in dominionist households. They quite literally are instructing kids to be violent because in their mind they're breeding "Christian Soldiers".

And these are also the folks largely responsible for "Justice Sunday" and "Justice Sunday II" (Highview Baptist in Louisville is Al Mohler's church, and essentially the "home church" for the seminary)...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

Cross posted from my LJ.

~I'm beginning to believe that the Bushanistas have another reason to avoid military conscription besides the obvious one: They are looking at achieving a 'critical mass' of Fundamentalist Christians in the armed forces, effectively an 'army of god'. Bet that thought curdles your pooh.

~Re-read the entries in dark_christian over the past few months if you think I'm 'over the edge' on this.

Australia also has a growing problem with dominionists, and in fact, from dominionist groups that may sound very familiar to US readers.

Family First (http://www.familyfirst.org.au) is a political party in Australia that, like dominionist groups (such as Focus on the Family) here in the States, practices "stealth dominionism" in claiming publically that it is merely a party focusing on "family concerns".

The truth is that Family First was founded by multiple heads of the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God and is increasingly regarded as a de facto political wing of the AoG in Australia (a bit of backgrounder; generally the AoG is the biggest non-Catholic/non-Anglican church in Australia, certainly the largest pentecostal one by far).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_First_Party has info (pro and con) on this particular dominionist group.

http://www.abc.net.au/central/stories/s1218591.htm has a commentary from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including statements by a member related to "deliverance ministry" as practiced within the group/denomination (specifically telling people to tear down liquor stores/beer stores and Moslem mosques to "pull down Satan's strongholds").

http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2004/09/21-0001.html has information ergarding the links between Family First and AoG (and further firming up the fact that it is in fact de facto a political wing of the denomination).

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/15/1097784045621.html also has another report on the group, including a telling statement where the public face slips and the "private face" shows:

Fielding is not the only one to be gagged: all hopefuls were disendorsed as party candidates after the election to prevent them speaking on behalf of Family First. Harris admits the decision was partly due to the conduct of some representatives during the poll campaign.

A volunteer was disciplined for answering "yes" when asked whether Family First backed lesbians being burned to death.

(In my experience, at least in the group I walked away from...yes, they would have supported lesbians being burned to death, and a lot more people besides :P More info on the particular quote in question: http://atheism.about.com/b/a/117359.htm)

The AoG has a history of dominionist activity in the US that is quite well documented (known AoG associated dominionists in the US government include ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft, the main advisor on religious issues to George W Bush, and Admiral Boykin; as far as dominionist orgs themselves, many local branches of dominionist groups like AFA are in effect run by persons in AoG churches) and the church itself is a heavy practitioner of "deliverance ministry"--a form of dominionism that states that everything outside the church group is infested with demons (and all ills are the result of demonic influence) and that people must "take dominion over Satan" and "tear down Satan's strongholds" in all areas including takeover of the government--dominionism and the prevailing "demon haunted world", especially in AoG churches practicing "Third Wave"/"Brownsville/Pensacola" type theology, are very much two sides of the same helix). John Ashcroft, interestingly, was an example of how this is often done in practice (both in his political views and his "eccentricities" such as annointing areas with Wesson oil and covering up Lady Justice's boobies). The AoG also has a known history of "stealth evangelism" and in fact considers it completely acceptable and desirable. (For the record, I am a walkaway from an AoG church, so I do know of what I speak.)

The AoG has also, almost since its inception, heavily targeted other countries--especially in South Korea and in Australia. Australia in particular has given press regarding scandals among AoG churches, many involving involuntary exorcisms and diversion of funds. In fact, many exit counselors in Australia are beginning to consider the AoG in and of itself a coercive group (which would fit the experiences of myself and other walkaways from that denomination). (http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/3658/ has a good page on this in general) This is something that the US has exported to Oz, and they are having to deal with it as a result...

Interestingly, there are indications of at least sympathies betwen the Australian dominionists and the American ones (aside from the AoG being heavily involved in both): http://au.messages.yahoo.com/news/top-stories/17610/ Howard, the present PM of Australia, is also heavily influenced by dominionists including Family First (see article below); furthermore, Family First has stated publically that American dominionists are whom they take example from (http://neovox.cortland.edu/vox/vox_100/vox_100.html) and at least one documentary has commented on the "heavily American flavour" of Family First (http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/article.php?sid=1175)

There's also evidence they're (much like the dominionist groups that are heavily AoG and Southern Baptist influenced here in the US) using explicitly sectarian tests for things like refugee status: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/refu-a04_prn.shtml (And people WONDER why I say Oz is *NOT* an option for people who may need to make refugee plans in the event the dominionists *do* take over completely.)

Anyways, this is posted to show that the same people who are causing the problem in the US are now trying to cause similar problems for other countries, and that it is NOT a problem of the US alone. Countries *IN GENERAL* and people *in general* are going to need to take much more of a proactive stance to make sure people like this never get *in* office, and also to make sure regulations are passed and *enforced* to make sure the crossing of religious and political lines doesn't happen. We do *not* need a "Christian Taliban" in Oz or the US.

It's also interesting how the same usual suspects seem to be responsible :P (Now *tell* me again that I'm exaggerating?)

http://www.isebrand.com/article_america_left_behind.htm

Very good article on how the dominionist right thinks, as explained through the "Left Behind" books--and how this is influencing US foreign and domestic policy (which is honestly something I've seen for a while, but this puts it rather better especially for folks who may not entirely be familiar with dominionism).

One thing of note that I have not seen before--apparently one of the folks directly advising Shrub on dominionist/"Religious Right" issues, Doug Wead, is AoG; in other words, the very dominionist denomination of which I walked away from, which pretty much has hijacked the Armed Forces chapliancy program to create "Christian Soldiers", the one which Ashcroft is a member of--is directly steering the President of the United States in all his kowtowing to the dominionists. (It would *ALSO* explain why there is so much specific AoG friendliness and imagery in the present administration. I would also not be shocked to see a lot *more* links with that specific group; as an AoG walkaway, I can say that they've been working at this for a goodly forty years :P)

One of the things I'm impressed on is showing the specifics of the armageddonist theology implicit in at least the AoG-flavoured branches of dominionism (which is actually an excellent primer, and also matches what I remember in the group I walked away from) as well as how Shrub is being influenced by these folks and is actively sympathising with them--in other words, it gives a rare glimpse into the thought processes involved.