LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

While I know that some folks have lots of fun poking at trolls on other communities, this isn't the place to do so. All it does is bring them here. That last post went a little too far, and I had to delete it. I do not want this place to turn into an arena of pissing matches between trolls and taunters of trolls. nebris, you're on notice. Don't do it again. Please brag about your exploits on your own journal, and not here. And don't drag this community into your pissing matches outside of it.

And what I have said to nebris I also echo to all here: We will not tolerate this kind of stuff.

Let's get back on topic. I declare a moratorium on all discussion of WFI, its blogs and its members, unless they actually are infesting computers with malware. Any future posts about this group will be deleted.

Thanks, all. Let's resume our normal discourse, shall we?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dabroots)

I posted this very old poem by Carl Sandburg in this community, yesterday, but later noticed that it had been deleted by sunfell's co-mod with the e-mailed note, "Not Appropriate." Okay . . . well, here you go, again, with sunfell's blessing. Bear in mind that my reason for posting this poem is not to "attack" our current President but instead to point out that GWB is not the first U.S. President who has wrapped himself in the Shroud of Turin to get more votes. The World War One era and the early 1920's are, in a way, more complicated when considering the political puffing of Christ's corpse, in that some figures, such as William Jennings Bryan, had opposed America's entry into the First World War but were also Protestant fundamentalists. As far as copyright issues, this poem was written and originally published in the early 1920's. I might be wrong, but I believe its copyright has lapsed.

God's Children

I hear Billy Sunday
And the Kaiser and Czar
Talking about God
Like God was some pal of theirs,
Like the rest of us was in the cold outside,
Like they had been drinking beer with God,
Like as though they know whether God
Calls for a short beer or a gin fizz
Or whether God sleeps in a Y.M.C.A. dormitory
And never goes near a booze bazaar.

When I listen to Billy Sunday
Holler out loud
How God "hates a quitter,"
How God "hates a mutt,"
I can't help it---I feel just like God was some cheap dirty thing
born from a fiddler's bitch and kicked from one back door
to another.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY caitlin)

I understand that the purpose of this community is to discuss and possibly combat the theocratic right.

Although from my understanding of the theocratic right, it appears to be their view that any Christians in this type of community who agree with the purpose of this community are equally as non-christian as the non-christians in this community, if not more so.

And that there are people out there who group the entirety of Christianity in the same group. (I do not)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to counteract the impression, as well as act for positive change in this theocratic right/Dominionist dominated country? (I'm in the US, and non-christian...)

If this post is not allowed, I do apologise and will delete it ASAP.

C.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

~A few days ago sunfell 'moderated' my Crusader Post. Her reasons as she stated them to me were entirely legitimate vis-a-vis the purpose of this community and I accepted said moderation with as much grace as the egotistical creature I am could muster. And yet there was some good exchange in that post, and also in the Hitler Virgin Mary Painting post that got 'moderated' last month.

~So, in the spirit of furthering that exchange, let me extend an invitation to those here that might be interested to join god_challenged. shamangirl and I started it as a rebuke of, and an answer to, the Xian perversion of challenging_god. [Remember when that community was cool?]

~We are pretty free wheeling, exploring the roots of modern Dominionism and taking on both Jewish and Muslim Fundies, too. And we encourage plenty of Bush Bashing, tho we do try to keep it within the framework of Dommie/Fundie issues.

~Of course, I shall remain an active member of this community, as well. I respect sunfell and the work that is done here. I simply wish to broaden the debate. Please, come and play.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

It is a movie with Christian overtones. This does not make it specifically Dominionist nor an automatic threat to our civil liberties. Please keep this in mind. Thank you.

EDIT: This was posted in response to a deleted entry discussing Disney's marketing strategies.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I see that the community's membership numbers are still rising- so let me welcome the newcomers here. the subject of dominionist Christianity is starting to become more widespread and is even beginning to break into the mainstream. You will know that if you came here from another online community.

I would like to remind posters here that it is necessary to stay on topic. "On topic" means that your posts should pertain to the subject we are examining- which is extreme right-wing (dominionist) Christianity and/or its effect on the governments of the world. This board is pretty tightly moderated, and we will delete posts which do not fit the fairly broad guidelines. These are posted on the 'user info' page.

We appreciate your attention to these guidelines.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I have no idea where our previous poster was coming from, but to be honest, her post had nothing to do with the purpose or point of this community. I thought about letting it ride, especially considering some of the excellent and measured replies it got, but ultimately, it had to go. Anime and reality do not tend to mix well, a lot like religion and government. People can believe what they want to, and I know that there are a wide variety of beliefs represented on this board, but we're not here to get into the finer threads of theology- other communities can handle that. We're here to shed critical and educational light on a previously shadowy sect of Christianity that is determined to hijack our government, overturn our constitution, and turn our democratic republic into a theocratic kingdom. Battling demons and cheerleading for Christ may be part of the discussion (which can get really entertaining), but it isn't the purpose of this community.

Bush is just the tip of the iceberg, and in the greater scheme of things, he is rather unimportant, except for his function as a figurehead for this sect to rally around. The real reigns and interconnections of power and influence lie out of sight in the murkier depths of this whole thing, and those depths, those interconnections, those actions are what we're here to examine. If you read the news, a lot of this is finally coming to light, and I'd like to think that communities like ours are providing the illumination.

Sorry about nipping a potentially fascinating discussion in the bud- but I hope that you understand my point of view.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

( On some profile guidelines )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

My occasional check of the membership numbers of this community has revealed that we're at 448 subscribers! Welcome aboard! Don't forget that you have to subscribe to this community in order to post a comment or to reply to a post. Enjoy your visit.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I deleted the last post because the individual who posted was having a massive spam attack. I also banned hir from this site.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Hello, folks-

I just want to make sure that you know that all opinions are welcome here- pro and con. I do, however want to make sure that you know that trolling and/or deliberate asshattery won't be tolerated, and people who don't follow the simple guidelines posted on our front page will be banned from this community.

If you wish to post here or comment on a post, you must join LiveJournal and this community in order to do so. That is the only hoop to jump through. While I believe that information needs to be free, I also know that commitment to a community refines that information.

Thank you.

Sunfell

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I just noted that the subscription numbers of this community have jumped again. (I go away for two weeks...) I'd like to welcome everyone aboard, and sincerely hope that you will find this community educational and informative. Please do not forget to check the information on the User Info page, and visit the sites listed on the blogroll on the left. And of course, if you have anything to contribute, please do, but make sure that you follow the guidelines posted on our front door.

Again, welcome.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

When you post long entries, please use the LJ-cut feature after the third paragraph. It will help on friends lists. A link to the LJ-cut feature is on our front page. Thanks!

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

[Error: Invalid poll ID 530326]

Be sure to read the post below to learn about other peoples' criticisms and recommendations for nomenclature.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Today marks the official launch of Religious Right Watch. I think that this will do a lot to broaden the ability to educate the sleeping giant of the non-religious and moderate Christians in the US (and abroad) about the vipers in our corn crib.

There's a very interesting post there about the terminology used to describe this movement. Here, I use "dominionist" to describe it, because dominion is their major goal above others, but there are other ideas too. An excerpt:

When discussing the Religious Right, especially with people who are not yet well-versed on the subject, it's important to communicate effectively; many commentators use inaccurate or unhelpful terminology.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY metaphorge)

Could I request that the mods enable any member of the community to be able to define new tags, in addition to adding existing tags to entries? I don't think all our bases are covered by the current set.

(This would be done by typing 'tag_permissions friends friends' into the LJ-console.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Hello, all- it's your friendly community founder stepping in for a bit of housekeeping. First of all, I want to welcome all the newcomers who have joined this community in the last few months. I am still astonished at the climb in numbers.

I am not sure if any of you have checked the 'user info' (AKA the Front Door) of this community, so I figured it might be time to post some notes from it here. We do have some posting rules- nothing really difficult, but it helps keep the board running smoothly. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I suppose that I should insert a bit of clarity here for our many new readers. I think that the 'no Bush bashing' rule has become a bit of a stumbling block and perhaps the source of some misunderstandings. Let's correct our course a bit, shall we?

It is impossible to discuss Christian extremists (or what Fredrick Clarkson has called 'religious supermacists') without politics (and Bush) leaching into the discussion. In fact, if it weren't for the marriage between the Religious Right and the Republican Party, I seriously doubt that this community would have much to discuss. It is clear that the purpose of this collision between religion and politics is to chip away at the foundation of our government- like termites chewing away at a wooden house, until it collapses from being gutted from within.

Things like chipping away at the Establishment Clause (separation of church and state) by creating Faith Based initiatives, attacking 'activist judges', that do not kowtow to the desires of the Dominionists to have Biblical based laws, the slow corrosion of our educational systems with the one-two punch of No Child Left Behind and the ID versus Actual Science debate, and the attacks on our social security, environment, and even our pocketbooks with the tax cuts for the rich being shifted to a bigger burden for the vanishing middle class to pay... it all ties together. Every one of these, and many more seeming unrelated little things are termites eating away at this country and our constitution.

The destruction of our country is being guided by End-times-addled people who want to dominate, and then destroy our world to hasten Christ's return. They have said this themselves, if you follow the links to the various sites we have listed.

Where does Bush stand in all this? He is the figurehead of the religious supermacists, as well as the 'divinely ordained and guided' director of all this slow destruction. That "Bush Fish" is just a blatant example of what has been brewing for years under the surface- within the ranks of the Religious right- and out of the media mainstream: that the religious supermacists truly believe that the President is merely one step away from being a divinely ordained 'king' of some new Crusade- once they get those messy judges and the Constitution out of the way. They truly believe this. Heck, they even have "Presidential Prayer Team" that devotes itself full time to praying for the President. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is the first time that such a thing has been so blatantly public or so blatantly one-sided.

Yes, I know that sometimes this sounds like foil-hattery. I wish it was. It isn't. People are blind to all the little holes being chewed in our country's carefully crafted foundation, and they poo-poo the folks like me who have been following this stuff for decades, seeing the patterns and the grass roots and the monies being built up, looking at their parallel universe which has been, until recently, well hidden from the mainstream.

It is OK to criticize this administration. It is still legal (barely) to do so. But we must also avoid stepping over the line from criticism to outright bashing. The line can sometimes be difficult to see, but like someone said about obscenity, we know it when we see it. This community has grown exponentially in the last few months, and we are fine tuning our moderation guidelines. So, please bear with us. We'll find a proper and steady course, and go from there.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

This is a forum to discuss the fringe elements of Christian extremism. It is not a Bush-bashing forum, as per the community profile. Thank you.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gothic_oreo)

Seshen, a Lycian Wicca priestess (seshen) replied to your LiveJournal post
in which you said:


Mr. Mirman: What about
the others? What does Verizon do?
United American Technologies: Okay. Verizon, what they do is they train
their employees to accept the gay and lesbian lifestyle.


Apparently they say MCI runs kiddie porn sites as well. UAT is a phone provider
gaining almost 2,000 subscribers a week based on sales tactics that
promote hate and fear.


Their reply was:

This does not fit the community theme.

Seshen Community Moderator

I respectfully disagree and ask that you do not delete posts outright. Had you read the blog I was linking to, you would have seen that it is about a phone company that is spreading outright lies about other phone companies to get fundementalist customers to sign on all in the name of Homophobia. They are also funneling money into ppolitical campaigns.

From the article:

With 2000 customers reportedly switching to United American Technologies each month, Christian-based lying and phone homophobia is a lucrative business. But they're not just in it for the money. A cut of the proceeds helps fund conservative political campaigns, via a 527 called "Faith Family and Freedom" created by the Republican floor leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. — GREG BEATO

If this does not fit the theme here, I am kind of confused as to what does.