LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY neadods)

A Book Review: My Fundamentalist Education by Christine Rosen.

This slender memoir (231 pages including the acknowedgements) is the surprisingly sweet story of roughly 10 years in a girl's life in Florida from the mid 70s to the mid 80s. It's a good read, but one for a very limited audience. The title, and the drive behind writing the book, was an attempt to explain what fundamentalist beliefs are and how they shape the children raised in them. This is not, however, an angry expose by a breakaway; Rosen is quite matter-of-fact, humorous and even a little nostalgic as she describes what she thought and felt as she was taught to list the Dispensations, "Walk Thru The Bible," and pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and the Bible, while admitting that she has long since fallen away from that life.

Religious tension runs as an undercurrent throughout the book. Rosen wavers between wanting despearately to be a missionary to rejecting several core teachings, especially when she realized that girls were punished for independence and spirit. Rosen's father and stepmother weren't particularly religious; like many parents, they sent their daughters to the school because it was the best and safest one they could afford, not specifically because it provided religious indoctrination. (Indeed, that indoctrination finally alarms them to the point of withdrawing the girls from Keswick and ending the book.) Rosen tries her underaged best to Save her immediate family, but she is also unprepared to deal with, much less understand, what her birth mother is going through during her brief visitations and custody weekends. The reader will figure out long before the child narrator that "Biomom" is manic-depressive and self-medicating with increasingly hardcore Pentacostal and evangelist churches.

The book is divided into thematic chapters told in chronological order. "Sword of the Spirit" talks about how important the Bible was as the fundamental textbook (while pointing out the desirability of the tabbed Bibles - they gave you an edge in the daily verse-search competitions.) "Here Comes the Son" was about learning about Revelations, and the terror of wondering each time she heard a loud car horn, thinking she was about to be swept away from life before she'd lived it. My favorite chapter was "Heresies" which was about the tension between her interest in evolutionary biology and the creationist teachings she was surrounded with in school, and includes this great paragraph:

I found I didn't like the science I learned at school as much as I had liked it at the science center, where we had learned that part of the appeal of scientific research was the opportunity to do great things in the world with it, like cure diseases and win Nobel Prizes. At school, science was simply another reminder of God's power and of the wonder of His creation. We learned about it so that we could learn more about God, not so that we could use it to do exciting things.

I love that paragraph because I think it sums up the current religio/science situation so nicely.

There are no deep answers here nor major religious insights, but there is a pleasant story and a little bit of understanding of the child's eye view of religion.

x-posted to personal journal

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY paigegirl)

Everyone these days is talking about Creation vs Evolution, so I thought it might interest some to see what they actually mean when they say "Creation Science". These notes are from a seminar on tape I used to have, the book is short but the tape was about 5 or 6 hours long. It's called "The Panorama Of Creation". The host is Carl Baugh who has his own TV show entitled Creation in the 21st Century on the Trinity Broadcast Network at 7:30 AM (EST) on Fridays.

Creation Evidence Museum

Search for PANORAMA OF CREATION for the book the seminar was based on.

http://www.epicidiot.com/evo_cre/young_earth_evidence.htm

The Great Deluge:
Mid-oceanic ridge is formed by stellar energy heating up inner core, increasing pressure stretched the earths crust ripping it caused eruption of underground chambers of water. Underlying rock sprang up and continental plate slides away, downhill slope over lubricating layer of water, hydroplates. Hit resistance and buckled. Buckled up: mountain ranges. Buckled down: ocean trenches. By their sliding away, formed deep basins to where the waters retreated forming modern day oceans. Bursting open of those fountains, subterranean chambers (supersonic spray) and that which were the torrential rains from the eruption of the crystaline sphere about the earth (Genesis 7:11- 'windows of Heaven....'). The oceanic ridge is granite.

Conditions under which the 'Arch of Heaven' existed before Deluge:
A firmament of water (Genesis 1:6) Such firmamental features are not uncommon planetary aspects. This firmament in thin metal sheets, transparent in pure state. This crystalline ring called pre-acryllic halo. A pure and transparent gold would filter out cosmic radiation. Water (H20) compressed under super cold circumstances plus electro magnetic field, produces metallic hydrogen. Strong crogenic (frozen) circumstances becomes crystalline mkes pink light. Super conductive fiber optic faromagnetic human clock is set by light, pink light, tranquilizes neral transmitters within human brain. This canopy would filter short wave spectral radiation from the sun and stellar bodies, but would allow long wave and spectral radiation in. A double atmospheric pressure causes extreme growth within genetic bounds (macro-evolution). These conditions would parallel that of a hypoberic chamber, would be embodied with thier full potential. Enriched oxygen generates full brain capacity, therefore in a POST-FLOOD world with diminished magnetism man has begun to de-evolve in not only intelligence but bodily function, life expectancy is shorter. In opposition, pre-flood man: Adam lived 930 yrs, Methuselah lived 969 yrs. A 2.1 eighth atmospheric pressure causes extreme growth. Without protection of crystalline halo: current water cycle. Decay of magnetic field explains diminishing functions and growth of humans. Ultra-violet radiation (short wave-UUV) damage: shin cancers. molecules in atmosphere become free radicals and produce slow dying.

Carl Baughs Case For Instantaneous Creation:
Radioactive chain reactions, uranium and granite paralleling a photographic plate, recording energy levels. Natural decay of uranium captured in the helium 4 molecule is a measurable amount in our atmosphere, shows currently a little over 6600 yrs of decomposition. By product of uranium is helium 4. Magnetic field loses 1 half energy 1400 yrs.
According to Carl Baugh: Every 82 yrs half the worlds population is wiped out by disease, war, plagues, pestilence. Using this formulae, setting the flood as 4300 years ago and multiplying by the families of Noahs sons with a 2 percent growth of population each year is approximately 4.5 billion. Addionally according to life origins by Charles Darwin: add 2 million yrs according to formulae, 41 hundred yrs ago at that rate: 2 x 10 to the 98th power = 16 billion light yrs old. Continuing to expand at that rate leaves not enough space in the universe, 10 to the 81st power of electrons is the maximum.

X-posted to liberal, dark_christian & challenging_god

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

Fred Phelps is the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. The congregation is made up mostly of his family. Phelps has 13 children, 54 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. He describes himself as an "old-time" gospel preacher who says, "You can't preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God." Phelps and his family have made a name for themselves by showing up at high-profile events preaching their hate-filled brand of Christianity. They blame homosexuals for the destruction of America.

This past weekend's target was Army Sgt. Jessie Davila.

NOTE: This is a new one, since the last protest at Army PFC Christopher Marion's funeral.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY vanar_en_daeor)

Bluemoontide's posting of the article about the Christians moving to South Carolina mentions Darla Wynne. It reminded me of the atrocities and discrimination Darla's been through by these guys in the Bible Belt. I found the original article I had read a while back and thought it would be informative to post the link to it here.

Warning though, some of the stuff, especially what was done to her pets because she doesn't follow these people's (and I use that term very loosely) view of God and the Bible, is quite graphic.

http://www.exploringthecauldron.com/October05/DarlaWynne.htm