LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY transmission31g)

As I'm sure you've all observed, the sort of people drawn to Fundamentalist and Dominionist circles are not exactly the wholesome, morally upright types that they like to present themselves as. In fact, it often seems to be the case, to paraphrase the great comedian Bill Hicks, that the farther you are to the right, the deeper and darker the secrets you're hiding. Anyhow, I came across the following passage in a book about clinical psychopathy called The Emptied Soul: On the Nature of the Psychopath, by Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig, which I think can be neatly applied to the Fundamentalist mindset:

“Individuals approaching the psychopathic extreme are not totally wanting in morality, but they do sense a weakness, an awareness that something is missing, which frightens them. They also suspect that their love is not all that it could or should be. In order to adopt they begin to compensate for these deficiencies [by] becoming morally rigid. Rather than, or perhaps in order to prevent falling into a state of total moral and ethical apathy, they turn compulsively moralistic, championing moral causes for themselves and for others more fanatically than anyone else. These are the people who are always talking about principles, always concerned about “the principle of the master.” They get so lost in principles that they never notice the need for a little milk of human kindness by way of balance. Compensated psychopaths tend to seek out occupations where those with whom they work will help to maintain a moral rigidity, occupations where a strict morality is the order of the day. Therefore we would not be surprised to find large numbers of compensated psychopaths in the so-called helping professions: teaching, psychiatry, the ministry, social work, and the like. It is, for example, difficult for a clergyman to lead a completely immoral life. His profession makes him the moral authority, a representative of Eros in the highest sense of the word, whose task it is to convince others that these values are the ultimate ones. His professional role enables him to shore up his own weak morality and his almost absent sense of eros.
Since compensated psychopaths cannot depend upon eros, their egos work out a moral system which is foolproof in any and every situation. The result, as paradoxical as it may seem, is usually a well-developed morality with an emphasis on the ego’s role but woefully lacking in love. Compensated psychopaths continually and at all costs uphold moral conventions, fanatically defending their moral systems. Were they to relax the hold on their moral code, the entire structure might well collapse like a house of cards, revealing their psychopathic nature. It is rather like cooking, a poor cook sticks assiduously to the recipe, while a gifted one can change this and that according to a momentary whim.”

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gothic_oreo)

Who else has been struck by the irony of of dominionist anti-pedophile groups when there is so much child abuse up to and including pedophilia in Dominionist circles?

Case after case has surfaced and in group after group I have heard tell of children being beaten, sexually abused, and emotionaly abused in these groups. When this happens, the survivor's accounts are often the tale of the circling of wagons, protecting the perpetrator, and blaming the victim.

It seems to me WFI should follow their own books advice and make sure their own house is in order in regards to pedophilia and incest before they go throwing stones at people who are not even associated with such abominations.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY broodingferret)



Snagged from oletheros

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY navytron89) Fromamericablog

http://www.americablog.com/2007/05/gingrich-says-falwells-followers-are.html

Because there is never a shortage of hypocrisy among GOP leaders, Newt spoke about values this weekend at Falwell's college. Gingrich accused those who disagree with the theocrats of doing just what the theocrats are doing. Gingrich claimed that religious people were discriminated against in America. He said that at an institution whose leader, Jerry Falwell, took the lead in discriminating against other Americans. That's a strategic device used by the right wingers. They accuse others of doing exactly what they do. In reality, the theocrats are among the worst haters in America:

"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive," Gingrich said, deriding what he called the "contorted logic" and "false principles" of advocates of secularism in American society.

"Basic fairness demands that religious beliefs deserve a chance to be heard," he said during his 26-minute speech. "It is wrong to single out those who believe in God for discrimination. Yet, today, it is impossible to miss the discrimination against religious believers."

Basic fairness demands that religion not be used as a weapon against other Americans. And, it is wrong to single out anyone for discrimination. But that's what Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Newt all do. Frank Rich summed up Falwell's legacy of hate in one well-written sentence:

Mr. Falwell was always on the wrong, intolerant side of history. He fought against the civil rights movement and ridiculed Desmond Tutu’s battle against apartheid years before calling AIDS the “wrath of a just God against homosexuals” and, in 1999, fingering the Antichrist as an unidentified contemporary Jew.

But, Falwell and his followers are the victims according to Gingrich. Newt's not just a notorious adulterer, he's a notorious panderer.

Ok and now for my comments: Why is Nitwit Gingrinch allowed in public? 

If  Falwell and his followers were victims, where is the evidence Newt? 

All I see is a bunch of hypocritical bastards who want to re-write America and the world in a so-called Christian place which has nothing to do with the teachings of a prophet who may or may not be the "Son of God".

These are people who demand blind obediance in the name of their "GOD" and will do anything including commit acts of violence to get their way. The values that they extoll are for a so-called fantasy realm called heaven, while pushing us away from the goodness of the here and now, by falsely sacrificing ourselves to a supernatural being who may or may not exist. 

If he does exist why does s/he/it leave us struggling to fight each other daily without a reasonable answer(s) or direction based on a doctrine of lies written by a bunch of dead priests who've exploited people through out history. 

No Newt; you're pandering to latest batch of fascist "christian" scum who are no better than the Nazis of WWII. So it tells us alot about your true character and the fact you'd make a deal with the most evil people in the world to win the Presidency and damn us all to a fascist republic which has nothing to do with Christianity or Jesus.     

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/28/tobias-prostitution/

Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.”

Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it “was so broad — and applied even to their private funds — that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.” But President Bush wouldn’t budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution “and related activities” were “inherently harmful and dehumanizing.”

Several groups and countries had their funding cut due to the policy. Brazil lost $40 million for “one of its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms or other measures to stop spreading the disease.”

During an “Ask the White House” online chat in 2004, Tobias defended the policy, saying the U.S. was “partnering with communities” to begin “fighting sex trafficking and prostitution, while still serving victims of these activities.” Tobias added that he was overseeing several “highly successful” relationship programs “aimed at men and boys to help them develop healthy relationships with women.”

A truly inspired idea, having someone who pays for “gals come over to the condo to give me a massage” run programs on developing “healthy relationships with women.”

For that Mr. Tobias earns a Goatse Love Ring. Good links in the original post btw.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY navytron89) So I was reading bartsnotes and see how the fundies are trying to influence children now with an Jesus Christ Action Figure Line.

Personally I find this offensive as this is just another attempt for the Religious Reich and their lackies to warp culture to their own twisted views. The sicker thing is they plan to mass market them to little poor children as personal motivation to make them "better" Christians.

UPDATE:
The plan to mass marketing this pieces of crap for $25-35 in Christian Bookstores nationwide and will release them to the general public around Christmas time for the fundies children and their friends children.  Also there are  plans on showing them on the 700 Club in the next few weeks, so Pat Robertson's flock of retards will buy them up to make more of them. There is also talk in the toy biz about how these may become a investable item, which sicken me. They can't leave pop culture alone now Theocrats have to violate it. 

( Here is the worst one of the bunch....  )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

Source

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY velvetpage)

http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=37&id=23988

A Southern Baptist pastor is arrested for propositioning a male prostitute undercover cop.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

Beautiful hypocrisy:

In a stunning turn of events, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley and leaders of Catholic Charities of Boston announced yesterday that the agency will end its adoption work, deciding to abandon its founding mission, rather than comply with state law requiring that gays be allowed to adopt children.

The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities of Boston, and Jeffrey Kaneb, chairman of the board, said that after much reflection and analysis, they could not reconcile church teaching that placement of children in gay homes is ''immoral" with Massachusetts law prohibiting discrimination against gays...

Almost immediately after the announcement, Governor Mitt Romney, who was in Tennessee speaking to a Republican group, issued a statement saying he would file legislation to exempt religious organizations that provide adoption services from the state's antidiscrimination laws.

Full Story

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This LA Times article tells a not-so-bright story about the "Painter of Light".

Registration required.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)

Inspired by one of sabine_ducat  's LJ memories....

"Blessed are the wealthy....those who patronize Christian bookstores and put the Prayer of Jabez on the bestseller list, those who build 6000 sq. ft homes for their "quiverfull" families and tithe to their megachurches, thereby enabling them to build luxurious office suites and take over radio stations across the land....for theirs is the kingdom of all under heaven.

Blessed are they who spread mourning from one end of the globe to the other...for they shall be comforted by platitudes and lies and will never be forced to confront their destructiveness and evil.

Blessed are the arrogant and prideful...for they will be elected to high office and will inherit the land, plus everything else that they stole, and will not pay any estate tax into the public coffers for the use of the undeserving.

Blessed are they who will never know hunger and thirst...for they shall drive their air-conditioned Hummers to church and carefully lock the doors when passing through areas where the poor live in misery and are forced to whore away their humanity for their daily bread.

Blessed are the merciless...for they will know of mercy, and will rightly reject it for the soft, liberal, demonic ploy that it is.

Blessed are the small and shriveled of heart...for their soul-deep cancerous hunger will create heavenly hallucinations in which God appears and congratulates them on a job well done.

Blessed are the warmongers...for they know themselves to be children of God, divinely appointed to bring all kingdoms, and principalities, and nations, and oil fields, and state parks, and radio stations, and struggling republics, and small rude huts under their dominion.

Blessed are they who persecute for the sake of righteousness, for verily, every single mother impoverished, every homosexual murdered, every brown person tormented, every non-English speaker reviled, and every shock rod wielded brings great rejoicing in heaven, and great shall be their reward. "

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

The anecdotes on this site show very clearly the level of denial these people are capable of.


The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion"

When the Anti-Choice Choose

By Joyce Arthur Copyright © September, 2000

Abortion is a highly personal decision that many women are sure they'll never have to think about until they're suddenly faced with an unexpected pregnancy. But this can happen to anyone, including women who are strongly anti-choice. So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women -- abortion.

In the spring of 2000, I collected the following anecdotes directly from abortion doctors and other clinic staff in North America, Australia, and Europe. The stories are presented in the providers' own words, with minor editing for grammar, clarity, and brevity. Names have been omitted to protect privacy.

Read more here:

http://www.womensservices.com/Information/tabid/61/Default.aspx

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thoth_moon)

Oh, this is TOO good.

http://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=4374

*snark* =)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

I picked this up in the neworleans community, and I thought it deserved a reading over here.

Off the Eric Alterman blog on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/


Name: Nicholas Pisano
Hometown: Destin, Florida

Hello Eric,
Old Navy guy here writing from Michael Savage's "heartland of Christianity" to offer some local observations on things both religious and secular. On the secular front is the controversy regarding the "rebuilding" of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. As many folks outside of the region may not know (or perhaps just fear) neo-conservatives are trying to use the rebuilding as a beachhead for the widest application of their most radical theories on U.S. soil. Conspiracy theories abound because of the unlikeliest of coincidences, but I think it is simply cynical opportunism in the face of human tragedy. Analogues exist for what is happening here (capably documented in David Harvey's History of Neoliberalism): in the neo-conservative experiments in Chile under Pinoche and the most recent four decrees under Bremer's Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority that violated both Hague and Geneva Conventions through his imposition of a flat tax, the privatization of public enterprises and restrictions on workers' rights to organize, bargain collectively and strike.


( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

Conservative Christians Say Fighting Cuts in Poverty Programs Is Not a Priority

By Jonathan Weisman and Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; A08

When hundreds of religious activists try to get arrested today to protest cutting programs for the poor, prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will not be among them.

That is a great relief to Republican leaders, who have dismissed the burgeoning protests as the work of liberals. But it raises the question: Why in recent years have conservative Christians asserted their influence on efforts to relieve Third World debt, AIDS in Africa, strife in Sudan and international sex trafficking -- but remained on the sidelines while liberal Christians protest domestic spending cuts?

Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities, and their priorities are abortion, same-sex marriage and seating judges who will back their position against those practices. ( These are not Christians, they are Pharisees )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Some of the nation's most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on the Sunday that coincides with Christmas Day, a move that is generating controversy among evangelical Christians at a time when many conservative groups are battling to "put the Christ back in Christmas."

Megachurch leaders say that the decision is in keeping with their innovative and "family friendly" approach and that they are compensating in other ways. Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., always a pacesetter among megachurches, is handing out a DVD it produced for the occasion that features a heartwarming contemporary Christmas tale.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ns_kumiho)

Controversial Christian evangelist and pro-gun campaigner Peter Hammond confirmed he has been charged with assault after what he said was an anti-Hallowe'en spree with a paintball gun.

Hammond, director of the Cape Town-based Frontline Fellowship, an organisation dedicated to "missionary outreach", said he would appear in the Goodwood Magistrate's Court on December 20.

He said last night that he had not touched the gun that day, and that it was accidentally discharged by his 10-year-old son.

"It was not intentional and not malicious," said Hammond, who is a vociferous opponent of South Africa's gun control laws.

He said his family - a wife and four children - did not approve of Hallowe'en, which they saw as an "occult holiday celebrating human sacrifice, witches and goblins".

His children had wanted to do a "counter Hallowe'en", and he had agreed to drive two of them around to "do paintballing" on trick or treating youngsters on October 31.

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=49&fArticleId=3018665

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

"Christians" refuse to give drinking water to Wilma victims

(x-posted to religious_left)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=3943412

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

Rick Santorum, Dominionist, anti-gay activist, and all-around fun guy, is not only one of the most conservative men in Congress. It turns out he has an openly gay man on his staff. Behold:

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_429/topsantorumaide.html



"They are like unto whited sepulchres, which are beautiful without and full of dead bones and uncleanness within...."