LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here are a couple of Daily Kos Diaries that are relevant to this community:

A Black Baptist Minister Takes on the Theocrats Writes Rev. Carlton W. Veazey:

"Progressives who think warnings about 'theocracy' are an exaggeration should take a closer look at 'Justice Sunday: Filibustering People of Faith,' Veazy wrote. The event was "beamed into conservative churches across the country: a political rally from a large, comfortable mega-church in Louisville, with a middle-class audience listening with rapt attention to political operatives who self-identify as religious leaders-and at the bottom of the screen, streaming video with the photos, names and phone numbers of targeted U.S. senators. The visual message was clear: the church is dominant over the state and senators should toe the line on eliminating the filibuster and confirming Bush judges or pay the price."

***

"There is a right way and a wrong way to engage religious voices in the public square. I believe "Justice Sunday" reflects the latter and highlights several disturbing trends... As a Baptist minister for more than 40 years with a profound respect for religious freedom and pluralism, I fear it will get worse. In fact, I think we are teetering on the brink of theocracy and the Christian Right could conceivably use the battle over the judiciary and weakening support for reproductive rights to push us over the edge...."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Washington Post has some very interesting articles today:

Taking Vacations Religiously talks about missionaries at resorts and beaches, and touches upon the problem of the deceptive tactic of 'bait and switch' events:

Some religious groups try to appeal to tourists by offering programs that at first seem entirely secular.

On a recent Saturday night, about 100 teenagers and young adults showed up for a film on the beach advertised on signs throughout town that said only: "Free! SURF MOVIE 8:00 PM." Most attendees were surprised when they realized that the main film featured evangelical surfers talking about their relationship with Jesus. Tables on the boardwalk offered free suntan lotion, "JESUS LOVES ME!" stickers and a "Surfers Bible New Testament."

Tom Clarke, a founder of Florida-based Everlasting Rock Ministries, which organized the event, said he didn't want to scare people off with an overtly religious message in the ads.

"I don't want anyone to think that we're the Jesus freaks," said Clarke, 39, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., as he sat on the boardwalk. "We're not trying to shove religion down anyone's throat. We're just trying to encourage a positive lifestyle."

Matt Tiberi, 15, from Middletown, Del., said he considers himself a Christian but almost never goes to church. But after watching the movie during a day trip to Ocean City, Matt said he felt moved to become more religious.

"It tells you how God helps you out whatever you're doing," he said.

Some groups criticize such advertising as deceptive. "They are using stealth strategies to try and suck people in," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics. "They know if they advertise religion, then people won't go. You really do have to question the ethics here of what they are doing."

BAGHDAD -- With arms outstretched, the congregation at National Evangelical Baptist Church belted out a praise hymn backed up by drums, electric guitar and keyboard. In the corner, slide images of Jesus filled a large screen. A simple white cross of wood adorned the stage, and worshipers sprinkled the pastor's Bible-based sermon with approving shouts of "Ameen!"

National is Iraq's first Baptist congregation and one of at least seven new Christian evangelical churches established in Baghdad in the past two years. Its Sunday afternoon service, in a building behind a house on a quiet street, draws a couple of hundred worshipers who like the lively music and focus on the Bible.

"I'm thirsty for this kind of church," Suhaila Tawfik, a veterinarian who was raised Catholic, said at a recent service. "I want to go deep in understanding the Bible."

Tawfik is not alone. The U.S.-led toppling of Saddam Hussein, who limited the establishment of new denominations, has altered the religious landscape of predominantly Muslim Iraq. A newly energized Christian evangelical activism here, supported by Western and other foreign evangelicals, is now challenging the dominance of Iraq's long-established Christian denominations and drawing complaints from Muslim and Christian religious leaders about a threat to the status quo.

The evangelicals' numbers are not large -- perhaps a few thousand -- in the context of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians. But they are emerging at a time when the country's traditional churches have lost their privileged Hussein-era status and have experienced massive depletions of their flocks because of decades-long emigration. Now, traditional church leaders see the new evangelical churches filling up, not so much with Muslim converts but with Christians like Tawfik seeking a new kind of worship experience.

"The way the preachers arrived here . . . with soldiers . . . was not a good thing," said Baghdad's Roman Catholic archbishop, Jean Sleiman. "I think they had the intention that they could convert Muslims, though Christians didn't do it here for 2,000 years."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's an article from today's New York Times about the chaplain corps in the US military:

Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.

It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on "The Purpose Driven Life," the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services. In the hotel hallways, vendors from Focus on the Family and other evangelical organizations promoted materials for the chaplains to use in their work.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

Cross posted from my LJ.

~I'm beginning to believe that the Bushanistas have another reason to avoid military conscription besides the obvious one: They are looking at achieving a 'critical mass' of Fundamentalist Christians in the armed forces, effectively an 'army of god'. Bet that thought curdles your pooh.

~Re-read the entries in dark_christian over the past few months if you think I'm 'over the edge' on this.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This WSW article talks about the 'whitewash of systematic bigotry' perpetrated at the USAF Academy. An excerpt:

If leaders at the US Air Force Academy—which trains young men and women to serve as officers in a branch of the US military—promote and tolerate religious discrimination against non-Christians, and openly espouse evangelical views in the course of official academy functions, this is clearly a violation of these Constitutional protections against the “establishment” of religion.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This NYT Op-ed talks about the recent inquiry in the USAF Academy religious case:

Obfuscating Intolerance

A Pentagon inquiry's finding of no overt religious discrimination at the Air Force Academy strains credibility, considering the academy superintendent has already acknowledged it will take years to undo the damage from evangelical zealots on campus. Indeed, amid its thicket of bureaucratese, the report by an Air Force investigative panel goes on for page after page describing cases of obvious and overt religious bias. But it tosses all of these off as "perceived bias," as if the blame lies with the victims and not the offenders, and throws up a fog of implausible excuses, like "a lack of awareness" of what is impermissible behavior by military officers.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

Time has compiled a three-page report: Whose God Is Their Co-Pilot?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Hot off the web:

Panel Finds No Overt Religious Intolerance at Air Force
By MARIA NEWMAN

A military panel looking into complaints of religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy found no instances of overt discrimination, officials said today, but concluded that the academy failed to accommodate the diverse religious needs of cadets and staff.

At a Pentagon news conference, Michael Dominguez, the acting secretary of the Air Force, said that he had ordered a review of practices at the academy after hearing allegations of religious disrespect at the campus, located in Colorado Springs.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

Here's a run-down on the broadcast:

( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dinpik)

I just heard it coming home from school -- the chaplain who complained about the heavy-handed evangelizing at the Air Force Academy will be on Talk of the Nation today, probably between 2:45 and 3: 00 pm.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From Frederick Clarkson's blog:

Periodically, we here at FrederickClarkson.com are compelled to recognize an individual in American politics or government whose efforts on behalf of theocracy are, well, extraordinary. This week we recognize the efforts of U.S. Rep. John Hoesttler (R-IN) who has pushed through legislation in the House that would deny funding to enforce the ruling of a federal court which declared that a display of a monument to Ten Commandments in a court house in his district was unconstitutional. He also declared on the House floor, that "Democrats cannot help denigrating and demonizing Christians." Finally, in a House committee meeting, he referred to "the mythical wall [of] separation between church and state that's been erected by the courts." (Although he did not say this last item this week, our judges have ruled that it counts since the remark came to our attention this week.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here we go again- when the bullies can't win, they holler about being persecuted. Anyone see a pattern?

Indiana Republican says Democrats demonize Christians

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman accused Democrats on Monday of "denigrating and demonizing Christians" by concluding there was religious intolerance at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

During debate on a proposal by Democrats that would put Congress on record against "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" at the academy, Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., criticized Reps. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and David Obey, D-Wis.

"Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians," Hostettler said.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Thanks to kyburg for this article. From Sojourners (registration required):

Debunking traditional gender roles

by Sandra Dufield

SojoMail 6-08-2005

The attempt by House Republicans to keep women from serving in military combat support and service units is a tangible example of a broader conservative agenda concerning the place and function of women.

Seeing their "family values" motto becoming a staple in the American vernacular, many right-wing religious conservatives are attempting to make another plank of the Republican Party platform a part of the American psyche by promoting traditional roles for men and women.

Armed with claims of "tradition" and a narrow interpretation of the Bible, many religious conservatives believe the best way for men and women to have a successful marriage is when the husband is "the leader" and has final decision-making authority and the wife submits to his leadership and decision-making.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

This may or may not be relevant...but applications to the Air Force Academy are down nearly 25%. I wonder if it's the rape scandal or the revelations about the Dominionist takeover that caused the drop? It's the largest application drop for any of the service academies, including West Point, where graduates are almost certain to be sent directly to Iraq upon graduation.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Today's Diane Rehm Show is about evangelism at the USAF academy. It'll be archived soon, and is worth a listen.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thedemonprist)

From this link: ( Text of article inside )

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11955&s2=23

Interesting post that states that the (Eastern Orthodox) Patriarch of Iraq has told the American dominionists to "take their Bibles and go home" because they are apparently explicitly targeting not only Moslems but Eastern Orthodox for conversion (often with the same "stealth missionary" tactics used in the US--in this case, taking Iraqi kids for rides in cars and such and then prosyletising to them, even making them hold (Protestant) Bibles and taking pictures for their own fundraising efforts in the States).

This is noted because, as has been mentioned here, many have noted that there is a link between the Iraqi occupation and dominionist "end time" worldview; also, much of the "missionary" effort has apparently been from chaplains in the US Army (which has in large part, in its top leadership and often wholesale, has been taken over by dominionists (in particular AoG)...).

Interestingly, the article also mentions that dominionist groups have literally been getting "massive numbers of Bibles" together for export to Iraq as early as March 2002 "in anticipation for invasion"; also, it notes how the dominionists are actively turning Iraqis against the US (one thing not widely reported in the media--several of the people kidnapped and killed, including a South Korean national, were missionaries from dominionist denominations).

Also, apparently in several cases they are blatantly misrepresenting Eastern Orthodox Christians as Moslems in their fundraising...

The person writing the article does seem to be at least somewhat aware of dominionist groups (in particular Campus Crusade for Christ) but probably would be served in knowing additional info on how the dominionists have actively targeted the military (stuff re the AoG's hijacking of the chaplaincy system as well as info re the present mess with the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs would be extremely helpful to them in enlightening them, I think).

I would also think that this should be widely distributed to the Orthodox and Catholic communities (to show them that no, they are NOT safe from the dominionists, in fact, they're probably going to be the *next* against the wall if the dominionists get what they want)...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's another article that breaches the mainstream about the theocratic thrust of the Christocrats:

Fear of a Christian theocracy isn't just liberal hysteria

By Jonathan Chait
SPECIAL TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Conservatives have been arguing for years that the religious right is simply misunderstood. These vilified godly folks don't want to impose their beliefs on anybody else, we're told. They simply want to defend their traditional beliefs and practices against the aggressive impositions of a secular culture. Therefore any suggestion to the contrary is liberal hysteria or, worse, discrimination against "people of faith."

So how do conservatives explain what's been going on at the Air Force Academy?

As a number of newspapers have documented, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., has essentially established evangelical Christianity as its official religion.

The examples are legion. Last season, the football coach hung a banner in the locker room laying out a "Competitor's Creed," including the lines "I am a Christian first and last" and "I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Revealer asks if Europe should be worried about Evangelical politics in the US. The answer is yes. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thedemonprist)

Apologies in advance if this has nothing to do with anything...but I found this article from the BBC website tonight, and it triggered something in me. ( Text of article inside... )We know that the dominionists purposely spread fear and misinformation in their efforts. I wonder if this is potentially an example, seeing as how they want to incite bloodshed so that they can justify their taking over/destroying the world. I mean, this is more than a spelling error or a faulty headline in a popular magazine - serious harm was done.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but it really makes me wonder.