LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dkmnow)

Published on Thursday, September 6, 2007 by Inter Press Service

Bush Appointee Campaigns for Evangelicals

The head of the U.S. federal government agency that doles out benefits to disabled veterans is under fire for saying Bible study is “more important than doing [my] job.”
by Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO - Two organisations, Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), demanded an investigation Tuesday of Daniel Cooper, President George W. Bush’s undersecretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.Their complaint stems from an appearance Cooper made in a fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

( full text under cut )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_oreilly) Hi all, first time posting an official thing in here... I, like many others I'm sure, came here through the Strikethrough back in May. Anyways, this post is prompted by inkedgeekfreak's latest entry in here. One of the tags was "christian crusade" and it finally movtivated me to post... 

This is the group my parents wanted me to join when I started college Alvernia (Franciscan private school - didn't have the group on campus. Mom was very angry, said I was going to "fall from God" because I was attending a Catholic college) and then when I transferred to Drexel University, they wanted me to join it because Drexel had CCfC. I had no intenetions of joining and made it very clear.

However, my brother had joined it by then, which was extra incentive to my parents to get me to join also. He's become very involved with the group, moved into their "Crusade House" which is a townhouse the group leases just off campus (not entirely sure if it's owned by the college or not). 

How concerned should I be? 

I always found it strange that my brother went from relatively open minded about things during high school to what seems like total surrender to God via this group, once he started college. I've always been glad that he's found something that he feels suits him and that he respects the fact that I don't want any part of it. But since my reading of the various posts here and my slow peeling of the layers of Evangelical Presbyterianism that I was brought up to be since the age of 16, I'm now concerned about my brother with this group coming up amongst discussions here on this community. 

I think I should also mention that his internship involved working for the Republican party to start up "Young Republican" clubs at colleges across PA. He is very much involved with CCfC, the Republican party and politics in general. He was a ward leader for a bit here in Philadelphia and worked on campaigns for ex-Senator Rick Santorum (was a charter member of some club for him or something) and ex-Representative Kurt Wheldon. He's a political science major with an interest in law, particularly concerning the constitution and writes for the Op Ed section of our college's newspaper, The Triangle. He is very pro-ID, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage (where a red flag went off for me on this topic was his desire to "promote virtue" politically, though he emphasized that if any change should be made to the constitution, it should be done legally through a vote, etc).

I'm worried he's one of those kids that will appeal to dominionist groups - see him as a key to help their agenda. He has always struck me as very book smart and overly kind in a sense that he doesn't always think badly of others, so I worry he might not realize the difference between Christian conservatism and dominionism.

Note: I'm not saying being Christian or Republican are bad things. I'm just concerned because certain things I've been reading around and my own political opinions are raising red flags for me and I just want to know if I'm entirely off (which I hope I am) or if my brother is being exposed and possibly sucked in by dominionist groups - or at worst, is already part of it all. Moreover, I want to be able to ensure that this doesn't happen to my other two younger brothers.

Any help or advice on how to investigate this without sending any red flags up with him or my parents is much appreciated.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY drgndancer)

A relative is becoming involved in this organization, and I'm doing some digging. I've looked at their website and done some internet searches, but haven't come up with a lot of specific information. They are clearly at least somewhat coercive and Dominionist (I'm always wary of groups that exist explicitly to propagate their own message), but I can find little specific information on things they have done that I and my family should be concerned about. Telling everyone "They are teh EBIL! Just look at their website! Ebil codewords everywhere!" is not quite as effective as being able to point out specific things they support or have done.

I'm going to continue to investigate on my own, but any pointers or tips would be appreciated.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

firepie asked for a list of Religious Right websites. I found a nice collection of them. Here they are:

American Family Association

Fallwell's Moral Majority Coalition

The 700 Club

James Dobson's Focus on the Family

Breakthrough- Rod Parsley's World Harvest Church

The 10/40 window (world conversion site)

FORCE Ministries (Warning- noisy intro.)

Campus Crusade for Christ

Liberty University

Bob Jones University

That ought to get you started. Anyone else, feel free to add to the list.

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11955&s2=23

Interesting post that states that the (Eastern Orthodox) Patriarch of Iraq has told the American dominionists to "take their Bibles and go home" because they are apparently explicitly targeting not only Moslems but Eastern Orthodox for conversion (often with the same "stealth missionary" tactics used in the US--in this case, taking Iraqi kids for rides in cars and such and then prosyletising to them, even making them hold (Protestant) Bibles and taking pictures for their own fundraising efforts in the States).

This is noted because, as has been mentioned here, many have noted that there is a link between the Iraqi occupation and dominionist "end time" worldview; also, much of the "missionary" effort has apparently been from chaplains in the US Army (which has in large part, in its top leadership and often wholesale, has been taken over by dominionists (in particular AoG)...).

Interestingly, the article also mentions that dominionist groups have literally been getting "massive numbers of Bibles" together for export to Iraq as early as March 2002 "in anticipation for invasion"; also, it notes how the dominionists are actively turning Iraqis against the US (one thing not widely reported in the media--several of the people kidnapped and killed, including a South Korean national, were missionaries from dominionist denominations).

Also, apparently in several cases they are blatantly misrepresenting Eastern Orthodox Christians as Moslems in their fundraising...

The person writing the article does seem to be at least somewhat aware of dominionist groups (in particular Campus Crusade for Christ) but probably would be served in knowing additional info on how the dominionists have actively targeted the military (stuff re the AoG's hijacking of the chaplaincy system as well as info re the present mess with the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs would be extremely helpful to them in enlightening them, I think).

I would also think that this should be widely distributed to the Orthodox and Catholic communities (to show them that no, they are NOT safe from the dominionists, in fact, they're probably going to be the *next* against the wall if the dominionists get what they want)...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

A few months earlier, I wrote about Every Nation (formerly known as Morning Star International)--a pentecostal/charismatic church network.  In reality, it is a reincorporated and repackaged version of Maranatha Campus Ministries, one of the more notorious campus cults of the 80s and a major player in the religious right back then.  I was suckered into joining the Carolina outreach of one of their more important churches during my freshman year (read all about it here).

Now it looks like the whole thing's about to come home to roost--and there's something we can do on our end to help.  While perusing for info on the Tennessee Senate race, I came upon this story at WTVF-TV/NewsChannel 5 in Nashville.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

I was just about to let everyone know about my wife's surgery when I noticed that Morning Star pastor in New Zealand paid me another call.

Jamie went into surgery yesterday--unfortunately, I couldn't be there because that two-week slowdown at the warehouse forced me to have to work and ensure we had enough money coming in. It went well--they're going to have to keep her at least a week, though. But to hear this Kiwi windbag talk, it's all my fault.

He had the nerve to suggest her illness and several other things that happened to me are a direct result of my speaking out against Morning Star International. No, I'm not kidding.

I'm not the least bit surprised that anyone affiliated with this criminal organization disguised as a church would even contemplate such an outrageous suggestion. Think about it. Ron Lewis, pastor of the church that burned me in college, appears to condone his people making vicious and false accusations against his critics in order to discredit them--if you'll remember, several members of Waymaker Christian Fellowship (the name of their outreach at Carolina at the time I was there) falsely accused me of sexual harassment. Brett Fuller, pastor of Metro MorningStar in the DC area (and the driving force behind a planned slave memorial in the National Mall) lives in an almost $800,000 house in a tony portion of Northern Virginia even though his church has only 200-plus members. Any organization that can countenance behavior like this must obviously have decency standards low enough to condone one of their pastors making such an outrageous suggestion.

This coward better hope I don't find out who he is--because if I do, you can bet I'm going to demand a full apology from Morning Star for his palpably un-Christian and insensitive comments.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

As I mentioned before, I find myself in an odd position--a black man who opposes a memorial to slaves near the Lincoln Memorial. Actually, it's not the memorial itself I oppose. It's the guys behind it--Morning Star International.

To summarize, I cannot in good conscience support my tax dollars lining the pockets of a cult--especially one that seems to condone character assasination of the worst type. But there's another reason--these guys are, to put it charitably, dreadful money managers.

Brett Fuller, pastor of Metro MorningStar Church in DC, is the driving force behind this bill. Fuller also spearheads the Youth Life Foundation, founded by Redskins legend Darrell Green. It's one of the crown jewels of Shrub's faith-based initiatives drive. According to Jim Myers, a writer in the DC area, the foundation has a $1.3 million budget and has received $3.1 million in federal grants since 2001. However, it has only one center anywhere near DC--and it serves only 38 kids. And many other learning centers serve more kids for far less money.

Read Myers' article--and think about it. This slave memorial is going to cost several million dollars. But if these guys are pissing away $3.1 million, you think they can handle several million more? I doubt it.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

Hey everyone--I was pointed here by sunfell--wonder if any other Christians are here.

OK, here's more information on Morning Star International--the artists formerly known as Maranatha Campus Ministries. For those of you who don't remember Maranatha, Rick Ross has a slew of articles at his site.

Morning Star knows about the bad press Maranatha took in the 80s, so they fall all over themselves to hide their Maranatha past. But they can't hide everything. We've uncovered at least four former Maranatha churches that are now part of Morning Star, but still operate under their old Maranatha charters. And two of them are blatantly misleading people about their pasts--undoubtedly to put off the inevitable criticism about their pasts.

• King's Park International Church in Durham, NC (the guys that suckered me into joining): claims a 1990 founding date, but was incorporated in 1986 as Maranatha Christian Church of the Triangle; changed its name to Triangle Christian Fellowship in 1990 and KPIC in 1997


• Morning Star Christian Church of the South Bay in LA: incorporated in 1986 as Maranatha Christian Church of the South Bay; changed name to Victory Church of the South Bay in 1990 and to Morning Star in 1993


• Harvest Valley Christian Church in the Bay Area: incorporated in 1986 as Maranatha Christian Church of the East Bay; changed name in 1990


• Morning Star International Church of Boston: claims to be a 2001 plant of KPIC, but was incorporated in 1986 as Maranatha Christian Church of Boston; changed name to New Beginnings Christian Fellowship in 1990, Tree of Life City Church in 1991 and Morning Star Boston in 2001; associate pastor and former senior pastor Brian Diver is spokesman for Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage
  

The two most prominent arms of Morning Star are their campus ministry arm, Victory Campus Ministries; and their outreach to athletes, Champions for Christ. The four churches I've mentioned previously have outreaches at several schools where Maranatha had chapters in the 80s--at Carolina (where KPIC traces its roots), UCLA (they actually got one of their people elected SBP in 2000--but she had a very ordinary term), Southern Cal, Cal-Berkeley, MIT and Boston University. After Christmas break, there's got to be some way we can put the word out at those schools--especially if Maranatha caused problems at those schools in the 80s. Even though they were only "officially" bounced off one campus (Kansas State in 1983), you can probably bet they jumped before they were pushed off a few more.

Champions for Christ, as many of you know, caught all kinds of hell in 1998 for its growing involvement in the NFL. Specifically, an agent with Champions ties negotiated a stupid contract for Curtis Enis. They have chapters at several schools across the country, as well as a few pro teams. They still have substantial clout in the NFL, where they've essentially taken over the Redskins and Jaguars. Rick Ross has more information on them as well.

Morning Star is one of the driving forces behind a bill to establish a national slave memorial near the Lincoln Memorial. It's being spearheaded by the National Foundation for African-American Heritage, headed by Brett Fuller. Fuller pastors Metro MorningStar Church headquartered in Northern Virginia (with satelites in DC itself, Baltimore and Philadelphia) and is also the Redskins' chaplain. There are a couple of major problems. First, as I mentioned earlier, Morning Star adheres to Kingdom Now theology, a kooky philosophy that is essentially fascism in Christian dress. Second, and more importantly, one of Morning Star's churches is Beth Shalom Ministries, a Russian Messianic Jewish congregation in Brooklyn that makes a deliberate point of targeting Russian Jewish immigrants for conversion. Three of the bill's cosponsors--Jan Schakowsky from Chicago, Tom Lantos from San Mateo County and Bob Filner from San Diego--are Jewish. Three more--John Conyers from Detroit, Barbara Lee from Oakland and Major Owens from Brooklyn--have large Jewish constituencies in their districts. And apparently the Freepers are up in arms about it too.

I never thought I'd find myself opposing a bill to memorialize slaves--it's long overdue. But not if it helps line the pockets of a cult.