LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY fuuangel)

Hi! First post. I stumbled across this community through dogemperor's listing of charities.

Short background: I grew up in a heavily Southern Baptist area. I was lucky not to have dominionist parents, but almost everyone else was. We had no sex education in public school and women were somewhat restricted. I was never heavily involved with the church, but there were a lot of things going on that made me uncomfortable. I never realized why until I got to college and realized that not every area was so restrictive and insular.

What's happening nationwide now seems to be a larger echo of what I saw growing up. Quite frankly, this scares me. I want to know, I want to be informed. I never again want to live in the kind of ignorance I grew up in, where the shenanigans I saw there (that are now being repeated on a national scale) seemed normal. I plan to take a look at the links on the community info page and look forward to hearing what all of you have to say.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

to Operation Blessing. Operation Blessing is run by Pat Robertson, and his wife. O.B. used money, planes and it’s tax exempt status to ferry mining equipment to the now failed diamond mines. FEMA has removed them from their hoempage, but....

Listen up:
Robertson has supported the tyranny of Mobutu by engaging in business (Damond Mining) with the tryant:

http://www.tbaptist.com/aab/patsdiamond.htm

From and article found at skeptictank:

OFFICIALS MUM ON ROBERTSON DIAMOND MINE OPERATION PROBE

A yearlong investigation of televangelist Pat Robertson’s activities in Africa is now over, but state officials are sitting on the final report pending a review by attorneys, reports the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. The probe focused on possible inappropriate activities involving Robertson’s Operation Blessing outreach, and a private corporation he operated known as the African Development Co. Based in Zaire, the firm was established by Robertson during the rule of the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The two men established close ties, and Mobutu wined and dined Robertson during one visit to the country; ADC also received vast forestry and mineral concessions, but the diamond mining operation eventually went bankrupt. Mobutu, after a quarter-century of iron fisted rule, died last year in exile from cancer. He left Zaire bankrupt and impoverished, and since 1994 had even been considered persona non grata in the United States.

In April, 1997 two pilots who worked for Operation Blessing charged that planes linked to Robertson and his ministry flew mostly to haul equipment for ADC’s private diamond operation. Robert Hinkle, the chief pilot told reporter Bill Sizemore that of about 40 flights within Zaire during the half-year period he was there, “Only one or at most two” were related to the humanitarian mission of Operation Blessing. The rest were “mining-related.”

“We got over there and we had ‘Operation Blessing’ painted on the tails of the airplanes, Hinkle told the Virginian-Pilot, “but we were doing no humanitarian relief at all. We were just supplying the miners and flying the dredges from Kinshasa out to Tdshikapa.”

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ordos45)

"Thank God for Katrina"

http://www.godhatesfags.com/featured/20050831_thank-god-for-katrina.html

Now not that I feel Fred is only offensive here, using his regular scripture twisting and hate mongering...but he's also definitely crossing the line into Blasphemy when he declares that God is a terrorist. I kid you not...he does...and he says it proudly, implying God's waging revenge because someone pipe-bombed Phelps church.