LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY swisscelt)

I know I'm not saying anything new here, but I wonder: When did "Pray for our leaders" become Praise for our Leader?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Reggie White comes clean about athletic evangelization in this Salon article. (Day Pass or registration required.)

In an interview aired on the NFL Network four days before his death -- part of an hour-long program on religion in pro football -- White talked about his new direction. The man who once claimed that God told him to leave Philadelphia and sign with Green Bay, stated, "Sometimes when I look back on my life, there are a lot of things I said God said. I realize he didn't say nothing. It was what Reggie wanted to do. I do feel the Father ... gave me some signals ... but you won't hear me anymore saying God spoke to me about something -- unless I read something in scripture and I know."

In the interview, White also rejected a practice at the very heart of the athletic Christian movement, one he did much to popularize: the perceived imperative for the star athlete to use his stature to spread the Christian message. That was one of the founding goals of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes when it formed a half century ago, and it remains a major thrust of athletic Christianity today, acted out every time a player points to the heavens after a touchdown or home run, credits Jesus in an interview, or puts his fame to work in front of church congregations and youth gatherings. "I was an entertainer," White said. "People seemed to want to be entertained rather than taught."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This CounterPunch article on 'moral values' is subtitled "Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian Tendencies in Americans".

A small excerpt:

The belief that President Bush's "moral values" helped him to win re-election has led certain political and theological pundits to conclude that the Democrats must "get religion" and bridge the "God gap" if they are to regain the presidency. They are being told to get a grip on God and morality and, like the Republicans, let their light of faith shine for all religiously-motivated voters to see if they are ever to achieve a political resurrection. Those who interpret the presidential election in these terms appear to miss a critical point: rather than faith-based "moral values," the election appears to reveal a growing morality gap in America. We may not be witnessing the ascendancy of "moral values" but the rise of authoritarian tendencies in Americans. It is this apparent phenomenon, and the moral and spiritual crisis it represents, that need to be examined and addressed.

Following World War II, social scientists conducted a landmark study of how great masses of supposedly enlightened, Christian people willingly tolerated the systematic oppression and extermination of millions of their fellow citizens and others (Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Black persons, mentally and physically-impaired people, and political dissenters). A related concern was how masses of other people, who profess freedom as a God-given birthright, could stand by for so long and allow such religious, racial, ethnic, ideological and homophobic hatred to continue. The aim of the study was to employ the scientific method to understand what in an individual causes him to be prejudiced, and to use the findings to help in seeking solutions to inter-group prejudice and hatred. The study revealed that authoritarian tendencies in an individual's personality make him receptive to anti-democratic propaganda and policies that target out-groups for discrimination and destruction. (The Authoritarian Personality, Adorno, et al, pp v-viii, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1950).

The personality tendencies of the authoritarian-disposed individual were found to include:

--"Desire for a strong leader" [italics added] resulting in "submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the in-group" (Ibid, pp 231, 228);

--"Cultural narrowness" [italics added] seen in rigid acceptance of the conventional middle-class values of "the culturally 'alike'" and the tendency to reject and punish "the culturally 'unlike' . . . who violate conventional values." (Ibid, pp 102, 228);

--Unreflective ethnocentric patriotic conformity, rooted in the belief that one's own nation is superior and should rightly dominate and that other nations are inferior and threatening out-groups (Ibid, pp 107-109);

--Negative stereotyped perceptions of the members of "unlike" out-groups (Ibid, pp 228, 235, 236), rather than seeing them as individuals who also laugh and cry and love and hate, or who, in the words of Joseph Berger, "lived, laughed, cursed, fought, who did the things human beings do" ("At Holocaust Museum, Turning a Number into a Name," The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2004);

--Anti-introspection, i.e. resistance to self-understanding, to soul- searching, to cause-and-effect analysis of individual and group behavior, unable to tolerate ambiguity, belief in mystical, unexplainable phenomenon, disparaging intellectual attempts to perceive life's nuances and complexities (Ibid, pp 236, 235); and

--Aggression, involving "the ethnocentric need for an out-group" who represents "the intrinsic evil (aggressiveness, laziness, power-seeking, etc.) of human nature . . . [that] is unchangeable [and] must be attacked, stamped out, or segregated, wherever it is found, lest it contaminate the good." (Ibid, pages 232-234, 148).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ladyegreen)

Crossposted from own journal, via a request from sunfell

Everywhere I turn there are strange folks coming out of the woodworks with even stranger ideas. God gave us the ability to think, to reason, to understand. His chosen people were the tribes of Israel and it was/is their destiny to wrestle with God, if one is inclined to believe such things. Obviously God wanted us to be more then small minded yes men or he wouldn't have designed us the way he did. Yet more and more Americans are dismissing the gifts God has given us. To be quite frank about it as a Christian I believe these others have fallen away from God and can count themselves as part of the corrupted beings that inhabit the lake of fire they like to worry about so much. I'm very serious about this line of thought. It's a rather consuming idea that has taken hold of me and won't let go.

I've been taken to task online and in private emails about denying certain individuals as being Christian. The idea has not been shaken loose, on the contrary it is in fact growing. I perfectly respect everyones right to believe and think as they choose. That is not the issue, so most of the emails and tirades have been addressing precisely the wrong thing. There is a difference between respect of belief and validation of said belief. I have had a terrible time letting the validation happen. This most horrific occurance has uprooted some of my base personality, somethings very much taken for granted by myself and most anyone that knows me. Such as my very liberal bend and flexibility when it comes to others and my generally easily given tolerance have all taken major hits. I simply cannot sit idly by, smiling up into the face of thieves and liars. Cannot give my tolerance and acceptance to those who defile my faith and harm others in the name of God.

I never knew I had it in me to be hard or perhaps cruel, but apparently I do. I'm quite angry at the state of things, quite angry at these people such as the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, and the Coral Ridge Ministries. And what they are are not doing to help their fellow man. I picked this up from dark_christian and went to look for myself. Only Focus for the Family says anything about the disaster in Asia but it's below them asking for donations to them first. They have the money, time and resources to harass, belittle and actively seek to harm their fellow man in the name of Christ, in the name of families and of morals but their is no room left in their hearts or minds to spare for those who are in need. Not in Asia, not in Africa, not in their own back yard.

And yet I am suppose to nod, smile and give them room to claim they are of the same faith, the same genesis as me? I think not. I know not. They may claim they are Christian as much as they like, have at and have on. I still have no more intention of agreeing then I would agree that the world was made of carefully molded velveeta cheese.

While they are too busy to actively help others they aren't too busy to attack education, science and sex education in particular. All around the internet stories are popping regarding schools being brought under fire to remove or discredit evolution, in Texas, in Alabama, and here in Georgia where I live. Ray Bradbury wrote a fascinating short story once where the government had decided to elmininate anyone who was too smart, so at a particular age, I believe it was 14, a child had to drink a pink liquid that made him tell the truth so the child could be tested to see if they were too *smart*, if they did they simply never came home again. How frightening that story seems to me now.

As much as it tears at my heart, as much as it bothers me, I would rather live in a world bereft of spirituality then to live in a world bereft of free will and thought. You cannot destroy true spirituality yet free will can be crushed from a man, or washed from his mind if the right pressures are applied.

A young girl saved quite a few lives in Asia. On holiday with her mother she recognized the signs of a tsunami and told her mother who in turn told the hotel staff. It's worth noting the girl was British, not American.

Quick action by Tilly's mother and Thai hotel staff meant Maikhao beach was quickly cleared, just minutes before a huge wave crashed ashore. The beach was one of the few on the Thai island of Phuket where no-one was killed.

This is why science must stand, why education must stand, why I cannot and will not validate one more person who utters God's name as an excuse for behaving as a perfect jackass. Had this girl been raised here in America, in a dumbed down state where Creationism has replaced science do you think she would have learned what she needed to know to save her own life and the lives of others? Or would she have been sitting on the shore staring at the unusual waves and the fish flopping on the beach waiting for death to over run her? And if you think she would have known, it's not that bad yet, how much longer do you think it will be before it is that bad? Before you answer that or feel comfortable do you know how many people I know of who firmly believe that condoms do not protect against the AIDS virus because their church told them so? Not, do not believe it's a hundred percent effective, not, believe abstinence might work better but flat out do not believe at all. More then you would be comfortable with, more then I am comfortable with.

The atheists, the secular, the agnostics and those of other faiths have all started to rise to stop a flood of ill will and maliciousness. They will not be enough, it has to be US, it has to the Christians themselves who come to turn back the tide. We have to cast out those who have corrupted our faith. We can pray for them, we can try to reason with them, we can invite them to our homes and churches, we can even attempt to win them back to Christ but we must not accept them as being Christian. They are not Christian, some of them may be lost and confused, some may truly believe they are the next best thing to Christ Himself, and of those I hope many come to their senses. But most of these so called Christian Warriors no full well that they do not walk the path of their so called religion. They walk among us, their sins and lies protected by a faith they are corrupting from the inside out, the rot becoming more evident with each and every day. Christians must come to the forefront of the battle because it is in our name that great harm is being done.

I will not yield.

Ladye