LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY amethyst_hunter)

From Yahoo news comes an interesting article on Our Friend (not) Fred:

Kansas minister preaches doom and hatred
By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 3, 12:38 PM ET

OGDEN, Iowa - The soldier's flag-draped casket is set on the gymnasium floor, below the unlit scoreboard, before bleachers crowded with mourners.

They are there for Sgt. Daniel Sesker, the young man known for an infectious laugh and a wide smile, his life taken abruptly by an improvised explosive device outside Tikrit. Inside his high school, those who loved him are just beginning to grieve.

Outside, near a cornfield awaiting planting, picketers thank God for Daniel Sesker's death, talk approvingly of his entrance into hell, and mock the mourners. Amid gusting winds, they struggle to hold up signs that read "Thank God for IEDs" and "God Hates Your Tears."

And back home in Kansas, tucked away in an office over Westboro Baptist Church, Pastor Fred Phelps need only think of what he's done, and he cracks a smile. ( Read more )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dabroots)

Evangelist Billy Graham, over the past fifteen or so years, has increasingly cloaked himself in the mantel of being the grand old man of American Protestantism. He has stopped waving his arms about. His voice has grown quiet. But I think his claim from 20-plus years ago that I overhead while passing my mother's TV (while my mom was enjoying her usual Saturday night routine of watching three hours of televangelists, getting primed for Sunday morning.) has never really wavered: "It is impossible to lead a moral life without Jesus Christ." Really. That's the message that he has helped purvey to the world for decades, and is really at the heart of the exclusionary, basically hateful view of anyone who dares to disagree with the Christian fundamentalist message: If you disagree, you are damned to Hell and you deserve to burn there for all eternity. And if you do not deem yourself to be a Christian, you have no moral compass and are therefore a sinner. billygraham.org is a powerful machine, a juggernaut plowing into the 21st century, broadcasting his message on cable stations 24/7.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dabroots)

Just a wee bit off topic -- A big (literally) book from a few years ago worth your consideration is James Carroll's Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews--A History. It's pertinent to consideration of the darkness in Chrisitanity because it explores the origins and development of anti-Semitism through the agency of the Roman Catholic establishment. In turn, the reader can catch a whiff of how the perceived need to reject, condemn and punish deviant thinkers has become an integral part of Christianity, in general, over the centuries.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY willowwild)

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hephaestos)

"When I watch him, I see a man with his heart in the right place," said Delia Randall, a 22-year-old mother from Provo, the hub of a county that gave Senator John Kerry just 11 percent of the presidential vote in 2004. "I like George Bush because he is God fearing, and that's how a lot of people in this area feel."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY folktraveler)