LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dunesong)

Hello all :)

Here is an interesting bit from the Pandas thumb:

http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2006/03/what_were_up_ag.html

Excerpt:

An elementary school teacher in Bennett, Colorado, has been suspended for showing her class a 12-min portion of the opera Faust, according to reports in the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

-snip-

Parents accused Ms. Waggoner of devil worship and, in at least one instance, of not being a Christian, as if not being a Christian were somehow reprehensible. In fact, Ms. Waggoner, herself an opera singer, describes herself as a Christian and has two Christian recordings among her credentials.


For those interested in the evolution - creation/ID side of things that have been popping up here as of late Pandas Thumb is a good resource. Another is http://www.talkorigins.org/

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

It's becoming almost like reporting on Phelps - we should keep an eye on him and what he does, but giving him press time may not be the best thing...

Robertson says Islam is satanic


He remarked that the outpouring of rage elicited by cartoons “just shows the kind of people we’re dealing with. These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it’s motivated by demonic power. It is satanic, and it’s time we recognize what we’re dealing with.”

...

Robertson also said that “the goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination.”


Like that’s not Christianity’s goal? Or the goal of dominionists? At least in the sense of converting as many as possible?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

BENNETT, Colo. - Some parents in this prairie town are angry with an elementary school music teacher for showing pupils a video about the opera "Faust," whose title character sells his soul to the devil in exchange for being young again.

"Any adult with common sense would not think that video was appropriate for a young person to see. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a high school student," Robby Warner said after two of her children saw the video.

Another parent, Casey Goodwin, said, "I think it glorifies Satan in some way."

Full Story

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY synergybc)

This might seem a little lightweight compared to some of the things posted in this community, but I thought it fits its theme. There's a designer in Sweden who's anti-establishment and is putting out some jeans named "Cheap Monday" that are flying off the shelf with a logo that bears a skull with an upside down cross on it. Supposedly they're working on introducing them in the U.S. I'm skeptical that they'll make it without having all sorts of fundamentalists getting up in arms about it.

Here's the link to the article at Yahoo News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051230/ap_on_re_eu/sweden_devil_s_denim

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY adoka)

Many Bible believing scholars argue that “other gods” such a Buddha, Mohamed, Krishna, Vishnu, and the rest are, in fact, demons who hide themselves behind the masks of these long dead teachers, and mythical characters. As such, the other religions of the world are not only contrary to Christianity, but are by nature demonic. Christian scholars argue that all other spiritual doctrines (especially Eastern) have been crafted by Satan himself to lead the world astray. They teach that the “spirit guides” of the New Age Revolution are the “spirits of devils,” and their purpose is to lead mankind into darkness.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

Evangelist Franklin Graham said Tuesday that Hurricane Katrina could lead to a spiritual rebirth of a sinful New Orleans. Graham, the son and designated successor of the Rev. Billy Graham, said he doesn't believe the devastating storm was a punishment from God for what he sees as the city's ties to satanic worship and sexual perversion.

"I'm not saying that God used this storm as a judgment," Graham said. But he said the city's Mardi Gras revelry and ties to voodoo were adverse to Christian beliefs.

...at least among the "latter rain"/"third wave"/"spiritual warfare"/"deliverance ministry" crowd (which, of relevant note, is not only the predominant flavour of dominionism that is pushed by the AoG and other pentecostal groups, but by Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye et al):

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=8493

This is a look at a website set up by a dominionist into "deliverance ministry" and gives you a real idea of the mindset (completely unfiltered) of dominionists within their own media, etc. (Complete with the whole "if you look at anything unapproved by our church you WILL be infested with demons and lose your salvation" bollocks--which is very similar to the principle of "body thetans" in Scientology, one of the most damaging aspects of that coercive group (see http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/fishman.html and http://home.snafu.de/tilman/bu/bph-4.19.96.html for the Scientologist version of "deliverance ministry", only they call it "clearing the planet") and in coercive groups in general.)

( More info about the folks who run yourgoingtohell.com )

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).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY meta4life)

I caught this one on The National Post (Canadian):

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all.

A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist. (Read More...)

Posted an entry about it on Metaphors For Life's blog today too.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Arkansas Democrat-Gazette op-ed asks some tough questions of the Religious Right. This article is notable that it's in a very right wing paper in a very red state.

Does it strike you as odd that persons calling themselves Christians are furious that the U.S. Supreme Court found executing juveniles unconstitutional? Do you find even odder that such individuals describe themselves, straight-faced, as adherents of the "culture of life"? Are you surprised to learn that people called conservatives would quote Joseph Stalin? Yes, that Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet dictator and mass murderer. And no, I am not making this up. It happened recently at a Washington conclave held by something called the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. If not household names, many in attendance were familiar controversialists, representing right-wing groups like the Family Research Council, the American Conservative Union, etc. Catholic anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly spoke, along with unsuccessful GOP Senate nominee Alan Keyes and Alabama’s Judge Roy" Ten Commandments" Moore. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, having fled the jurisdiction—er, left town to attend the pope’s funeral, addressed the group on TV. But the real headline-maker was Edwin Vieira, allegedly an expert in constitutional law.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

A Peculiar People

This is not a healthy thing to want to believe is true. And yet, despite the fact that no actual practitioners of Satanic Ritual Abuse have ever been found, thousands of people believe in it because they somehow want it to be so. These believers fail the test that C.S. Lewis speaks of in Mere Christianity:

The real test is this. Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible?

The dates and activities in our police officer's handout almost certainly came from one of the many books detailing the sex, abuse, torture and dismemberment allegedly practiced by these alleged worshippers of the Christian Satan. (See this helpful list of " Satanic holidays, as viewed by conservative Christian authors.") These books were written mainly by evangelical Christian authors writing for Christian publishing houses like Word, Zondervan and Broadman & Holman.

As with most urban legends, it's difficult to determine precise origins for many of these stories. But it certainly appears that some devout, Christian writers sat down and devised elaborate rituals involving group sex, dismemberment and the rape of infants. That these writers ran this material by the devout Christian editors at these publishing houses. And that these publishing houses packaged these claims, bound them attractively, and shipped them out to the local Mustard Seeds, Wellsprings and other devout Christian bookstores across the country.

Read the whole article- it's quite interesting.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

There would have been a national uproar over the "evil witches" and another example made of "this is what they are, look at the enemy."

But, of course, since she was planning it in the name of Jesus, she's simply considered "irrational."

Police: Couple planned to 'sacrifice' children

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

It was bound to happen: Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction' has gotten the attention of the born-again Satanic cult conspiratists. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad, and they weren't grasping at straws.

Satan Busters

The following is typical of the misinformation and smearing that such people perpetuate in their desire to find the devil under every stone:

Super Bowl Sunday, February 1st, was also the traditional Pagan/Satanic holiday of Candlemass or Imboloc. The rites traditionally called for young women to parade around town naked invoking the spirit of Pagan saint Brighid or Brigit (pronounced BREE) in an effort to bring on lactation in farm animals. Brigit was also revered as the goddess of spring and represented by the sun. A close examination of the footage shows a bare breasted Janet Jackson with a strange sun ornament piercing her nipple, both clear references to this Satanic Occult ceremony. The public outcry seems to have largely missed the point. This act was not just about SEX, it was about SATANISM.

First of all, Imbolc (they misspelled it, of course) is a Celtic holiday, not a general purpose Pagan or "Satanic" holiday and is celebrated on February 2nd, and is a Christian holiday, too. Candlemas is the Christian name for it- it was when candles for the churches were blessed. (But to some of these guys, Catholics are Satanic, too...) We all know that naked people- especially women- are automatically 'Satanic' no matter what they're doing, but I doubt that anyone in their right minds would be parading around naked in early February in those northern climes. While Brigit was a Solar goddess, her symbol was a lot different from a solar symbol, and it shows the lack of in-depth scholarship on the part of the writers that they didn't come upon the ancient swastika symbol (which used to represent the sun and good luck) which actually was her symbol. Then they could have combined Nazis with Satanism and stupid antics at overblown sports events. Oh, well.

Instead, they run off on a whacked tangent, associating various stars and Masonic compass roses in public buildings with Satanism, and finding them everywhere. I guess that being a "Satan Buster" means that you have to avoid learning anything about architecture or the design of public buildings, ancient holidays, or sun symbols.

Morons...

Sunfell