LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

"Evangelical youth leader Ron Luce thinks the secular media is demonically-inspired, and he’s fighting fire with fire. Religion writer Jeff Sharlet describes BattleCry, Luce’s angry attempt to infiltrate enemy bastions like MTV and Hollywood."

You can listen now at the link above. Transcripts will be available Monday afternoon (in some U.S. time zone, presumably).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Those of you with Air America to listen to have probably heard about "State of Belief". It's an excellent radio show. For those of you without access to Air America, I've found the online website, complete with archives.

State of Belief

The January 21 show features another interview with Chris Hedges, who talks about "American Fascists".

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

For those interested, "Real Religious Left" now has a 3-part transcript of the "State of Belief" program up.

Also, for the NPR listeners in the community, today's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" will feature the founder of Patrick Henry College, which turns homeschooled Christian kids into political activists.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I have a shortwave radio. And nearly every American English station I tune in is Christian. How did this happen? Here's the answer:

"It is still a free country and they have a right to say a lot of things," said WWCR General Manager George McClintock.

"We pretty much let anyone say what they want," said Weiner. "Our listeners demand that we be as open and free speech as possible. They crave it. They demand it."

Besides, "The FCC doesn't really monitor the content on U.S. shortwave," White said. "I don't think they see that as their mission or concern. They are more worried about whether a station's technical parameters are correct."

That said, U.S. shortwave broadcasters often suffer grief from their clients' programming. Even radio's renegades have their limits.

For instance, WWCR learned that neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel was using his airtime to deny the Holocaust. "We threw the program off," said McClintock. Zundel had been broadcasting in German, and WWCR's operators didn't understand what he was saying.

Even so, many Americans associate U.S. shortwave with far-right broadcasts. This is ironic, given that most of what McClintock calls "militia money" stopped flowing to shortwave broadcasters when the dreaded year 2000 finally arrived. Apparently the New World Order's "non-collapse," in McClintock's words, severely hurt the militias' ability to solicit donations from listeners.

All in all, U.S. SW broadcasters operate in a strange, Twilight Zone kind of world, but one that they relish. Passport's Magne believes that U.S. shortwave broadcasters enjoy it so much that they don't want the FCC to loosen its archaic restrictions on domestic shortwave.

"The truth is that they like it the way it is," he said. "If the rules were changed, it could open the floodgates to more competition."

An unfair accusation? Not according to WRMI's White.

"We discussed changing the rules at the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters' convention a few years ago," he said. "In fact, the FCC asked for our help in doing so. However, after some discussion, a lot of people came to Magne's conclusion: that we're all better off just leaving things as they are. After all, under the current regime, the FCC pretty much leaves us alone. If the rules were changed, then they might get serious about enforcing them."

"If it works for you, leave it alone," said McClintock. Granted, the FCC shortwave rules are "as loose as a goose," he said. But "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

Poor Dobson. The Khristian Right's Agenda hasn't borne fruit:
From Media Matters
,blockquote>Dobson: Republican majority has "very little" to show for "pro-family, pro-moral" agenda; Santorum pushed marriage amendment in response
Summary: On his radio program, James Dobson complained that the Republican Party has "very little ... to show for it" in terms of accomplishing the goals of "the pro-family agenda, the pro-moral agenda, [and] the sanctity of life." In response, Sen. Rick Santorum expressed his desire for Congress to vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, describing the amendment's purpose as "protecting marriage ... between one man and one woman."</blockquote>

Poor babies. That's what they get for selling their soul(s) for the Whole World - It profited them not a whit. Oh,and thier is audio.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY scarcrest)

State of Belief starts Sunday on Air America Radio. I have a feeling the topic of Dominionism will come up sooner rather than later, as the host is the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance and a former Southern Baptist Convention official from the days before fundamentalism marched in and stuck a sword through Jesus' heart.

I've created a syndication feed for the show's site at state_of_belief -- looks a bit more ambitious than some of the other Air America Radio sites.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

If this is too off topic, let me know and I'll delete!

I know O'Reilly gets old, but c'mon...

"At this point, anyone who thinks the ACLU is looking out for the folks, sticking up for your rights, is absolutely hopeless. The American Civil Liberties Union has become the attack dog in the secular progressive jihad to change the culture and political landscape in America."

Yeah, that's it.

( More Here )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ccroft)

Hi guys,

I'm surprised no-one has posted a link to the transmission from BBC Radio 4 yesterday yet, but I'm absolutely glad to; it is I think a 30-minute radio broadcast that makes for some essential listening at the end of 2005.

You can hear it online. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml and select 'Analysis'. You will need RealPlayer installed (and Internet Explorer too it seems - didn't work with Opera). The BBC has provided links for those who need to set themselves up for web-broadcasts.

The show summary itself:

"Analysis (30 min)
Broadcast on Radio 4 - Thu 29 Dec - 20:30

Is God on Their Side? Andrew Brown asks why many Americans see themselves and much of world history in religious terms, and where this outlook is taking the superpower."

It's a very intellectual programme, and you will find input from university professors from both sides of the Atlantic, left wing and right wing, as well as some current thoughts from ex president Jimmy Carter recorded specifically for the programme.

Happy new year all.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ammitbeast)

Sam Harris, author of the book The End of Faith will be on KQED-fm (88.5, I think) at 2 a.m. on the morning of Fri., 12/23/05 (about two hours from now as I post this). KQED-fm is a radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I heard this lecture, which closely follows his book, while driving home from work tonight. He speaks about the dangers of religious fundamentalism and religious moderation -- Harris feels the latter apologizes for fundamentalism and provides a buffer against rigorous intellectual challenges aimed at religious extremists. He also speaks a bit about dominionists.

I'll post the name of the lecture series later when I can gather that information. The lecture may be available as an audio stream, podcast, etc.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's a very interesting Fresh Air show featuring scholar Bart Ehrman who talks about how the Bible has been edited and changed through the ages.

In some research I've been doing on LPFM godcasting networks, I've found that...to put it mildly...this is something very, very big and something that I am probably going to need assistance with from multiple folks.

Hence, I'm posting to Dark Christianity to see if anyone would be interested in assisting me with a bit of a research project.

Basically, what this research project is going to consist of is:

a) Finding out ownership of LPFM, translator, and "full power" FM stations in the top 50 Arbitron markets (I already have the pages saved from the research site at RECnet, so I would mostly need to mail a copy to people for however many they wanted to work on)

b) With translators, finding out which station they translate and noting this in an Excel database as well as the RECnet URL for the translated station

c) If you feel up to Google surfing, searching on the call letters of the translated station to see if they have links to obvious "godcaster" or dominionist radio stations.

People who may be interested in this project are invited to contact me at dogemperor (at) livejournal (dot) com and I can provide further details including examples of what I'm looking for (I've set up an example already for Colorado Springs, CO).

This will be the initial basis for a mapping of dominionist "godcaster" networks and mapping specifically links between godcasters in the US.

From there, I hope to post a report--along with a few folks on Talk2Action--on godcasting networks and how they are explicitly targeting radio stations, give an accurate count of dominionist-operated translators, etc.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY evil_genius)

Godless America
on This American Life.
Listen

At a time when House Majority Leader Tom Delay calls for enacting a "Biblical world view" in government, when Christians are asserting their ideals in the selection of judges, in public school science classes and elsewhere, This American Life spends an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place.

Prologue. Two stories about people who suddenly realize they're the only ones around who value the separation of church and state. Paul Williams, a city councilman in Janesville, Wisconsin wants to make sure a Salvation Army built with public money doesn't proselytize. Soon he's getting attacked in the local press ... and by President Bush. And a Georgia teacher finds that by teaching what she's supposed to teach – evolution - she turns her school against her. (9 minutes)

Act One. The Substance of Things Hoped For ... in Government. We hear a quick rundown of all the ways that Christian conservatives are making headway in advancing their values as public policy, why they think total separation of church and state is not what the founding fathers intended. And why they're wrong. On the Christian side of this argument is Pastor Russell Johnson of the Ohio Restoration Project, which is trying to recruit "patriot pastors" to get involved in state politics, and Bill Carrico, a Virgina legislator who's trying to make sure people can express their Christianity in schools and other public places. And then there are the videos and speeches of David Barton, whose group, Wallbuilders, is trying to teach people that the founding fathers meant for America to be a Christian country. On the other side are Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Cornell government professor Isaac Kramnick, co-author of The Godless Constitution. (18 minutes)

Act Two. God Said, Huh? Julia Sweeney, a Catholic, tells the story of how her faith began to crack after reading a most alarming book ... called the Bible. Her story is excerpted from her play, "Letting Go of God," which ran in Los Angeles. Her other one-woman monologues are "God Said, "Ha!" and "In the Family Way." (29 minutes)
Song: "When the President Talks to God," Bright Eyes; also "God Bless America," Connie Francis

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

the republicans, on page 119 of THIS DOCUMENT tells it like it is... how the Religious whackos are to be used:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."
-Mike Scanlon

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross is going to feature President Jimmy Carter, who is a born-again Mainstream Baptist (see sidebar for link to their site). According to the blurb I heard this morning, he's going to lay into the overweening evangelical takeover of the government.

That ought to be a treat!

UPDATE- the show is now available to listen to. Carter goes into detail about the takeover in 2000 of the Southern Baptist Convention and the very negative changes that the fundementalist/dominionist people imposed on this faith. He talks about a very restrictive creed that was imposed upon the previously creedless Baptist church, and why he left.

It's very interesting.

Project Tocsin has a very interesting article on their blog page regarding godcasters that is in reference to a recent article on the main group in the US coordinating "godcasting" groups, televangelists and the like. (The original Harper's article is available here as part of their "Soldiers of Christ" collection on dominionism.)

Specifically, the Tocsin article details a national conference of "godcasting" broadcasters by the National Religious Broadcasters, which included an awards ceremony at which an FCC employee received an award:

The convention opened on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony highlighted by the prestigious Chairman’s Award which was something of a paradox as it was “for serving the Christian community in a distinguished and exemplary manner,” but it was given to a nonbeliever, homophobic talk radio host, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who received a standing ovation. She acknowledged the award by saying she was “just a Jewish girl from the Bronx,” and that “we both serve the same God.”

Another award which one would think raises conflict-of-interest issues was given to Federal Communications Commission Chief of Media, Roy Stewart, the senior staff person who handles all broadcast matters. He accepted his award saying, “It is you who should be honored.”

FCC spokesperson David Sisk said the bureau had no policy about FCC employees receiving awards from those whom they regulate that everyone including the FCC commissioners receive awards all the time. Also honored as TV program of the year was Pat Robertson’s 700 Club.

This so far makes two confirmed dominionist-friendly regulators in the FCC--the other being advisor Penny Nance (whose connections to dominionist groups are thoroughly documented here.

The really worrying thing, however, is that Roy Stewart is head of the Media Bureau of the FCC (which is the division that regulates both radio and television stations, including LPFM stations). Per the FCC Phonebook he is still employed there, and per the Media Bureau's bureau chief listing he is Senior Deputy Media Chief of the Media Bureau. Roy Stewart is also--notably--Chief, Office of Broadcast License Policy. (In other words, the very guy who accepted the award from the National Religious Broadcasters is the very guy who sets official FCC policy for who gets and who doesn't get an FCC broadcast license.)

Disturbingly, the FCC also apparently sees no conflict of interest in receiving awards from dominionist "godcasters" (many of whom are blatantly hijacking LPFM licenses to set up barely regulated "godcasting" networks and would in fact be applying for LPFM and translator licenses from the Media Bureau itself).

We may have just found direct evidence of collusion between dominionists (and the hijacking of LPFM licenses) and the FCC itself. I'll keep you all posted.

( References for NRB and dominionist links )

In a bit of a followup I'm doing in relation to this post (in regards to a front group for Calvary Chapel groups in California attempting to hijack the LPFM license of a high school in Massachusetts) I decided to do a bit more research on just how deep the rabbit hole went insofar as *this* particular group and its abuse of LPFM licensure rules to set up "godcasting" networks via translator licenses.

( I found the hole goes very, very far indeed... )

The good news is that apparently the two stations at the "heart" of this little godcasting empire are at the end of their licensure period (their licenses expire at the end of 2005) and are thus in the "public comment" period.

Complaints to the FCC are probably warranted. You know you want to. In fact, the FCC makes it easy:

You may file a complaint via e-mail at fccinfo@fcc.gov or by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY.

In an example of dominionist media's misuse of noncommercial radio/television frequencies (including the buying up of LPFM licenses) and the FCC's new favouritism of dominionist causes (one of the FCC's heads is a former head of a dominionist pro-censorship group and was also associated with numerous other dominionist groups):

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=107694

Maynard High School's radio frequency, 91.7 FM, is being seized by a network of Christian broadcasting stations that the Federal Communications Commission has ruled is a better use of the public airwaves.
``People are furious,'' said faculty adviser Joe Magno.
Maynard High's WAVM, which has been broadcasting from the school for 35 years, found itself in this David vs. Goliath battle when it applied to increase its transmitter signal from 10 to 250 watts.

According to Magno, that ``opens the floodgates for any other station to challenge the station's license and take its frequency.''
Using a point scale that considers such factors as audience size, the FCC ruled the Christian broadcasting network the better applicant. WAVM is given 30 days to appeal, and has done so.
If the FCC refuses to overturn its decision, WAVM will fall silent.
``The little guy does not stand much of a chance. Legally, we don't have a leg to stand on,'' Magno said.

Yes, you heard it right. The FCC is *preferentially* giving LPFM licenses to dominionist-operated radio networks instead of the schools and community stations for which they were intended. (Both the 10-watt and 250-watt station licenses would be regulated under the rules for LPFM radio.)

Again, this is actually an extension of tactics used by dominionist-run "religious broadcaster" groups. Further examples of the hijacking of LPFM licenses (which were originally intended for community radio stations, nonprofit stations run by schools, etc.):

http://www.radiodaddy.com/requests/lofiversion/index.php/t1393.html
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/21639
http://www.prometheusradio.org/translator_action.shtml (from Prometheus Radio, one of the groups that originally worked to get LPFM licenses legalised in the US and which is now fighting the hijacking of LPFM by dominionist groups)
http://www.diymedia.net/feature/fcc/f072004.htm
Info on the FCC's links to dominionist groups is via a previous post to this community (in relation to appointment of Penny Nance--who has links to a great deal of dominionist groups--to the position of FCC advisor)( And now some technical info, which leads to the Usual Suspects )

EDIT: Edits to allow the links to actually be *clickable*.

Those of you with posting privs to DefCon America's news forums and/or Talk2Action are strongly encouraged to forward this information.  Others are formally given permission to link to and mirror widely.

http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001727.asp
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001010563

Martin, the new head of the Federal Communications Commission, has recently appointed Penny Nance as advisor.

Nance is associated with a fair number of dominionist groups, including:

• Concerned Women for America


• Center for Reclaiming America (which is a blatantly Christian Reconstructionist group)


• "Kids First Coalition" (a dominionist group that also specialises in "stealth evangelism" and targets teenage moms)

Very interestingly, all of the groups she has worked for have pushed senators to ban peer-to-peer applications using dominionist arguments (not the "oh my god they're violating copyright" arguments, rather, "oh my god they could be trading KIDDIE PORN").

It's actually bad enough that very nearly 100 percent of complaints to the FCC on "indecency" in radio and television are from a single dominionist group, the Parent's Television Council.

(Yes, I feel safe in calling PTC dominionist. Two major funders are the DeVos Foundation (the bankroll foundation set up by the founders of Amway specifically for dominionist causes) and Castle Rock Foundation (one of *several* groups set up by the Coors family to bankroll dominionists); the previous article and http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=62 also have further info on dominionist links with PTC. The parent group of PTC, Media Research Council, is also known to be linked to dominionist groups and has pretty much stated they won't be happy unless ALL networks are essentially turned to PAX TV fare.)

The scary thing is, we are likely now to have someone on the boards of the FCC even *friendlier* to their complaint...

UPDATE 10/25/05:

It appears that--per this FCC release--Penny Nance may be operating as the public relations folks for the division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau specifically dealing with obscene/indecent broadcast. Especially considering Penny Nance's known history of working for dominionist pro-censorship groups this is especially disturbing.

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)

Yesterday's segment of Talk of the Nation feature Evangelical leaders on the political right and left discussing the politicization of their beliefs and the future of their movement.

Guests:

Barrett Duke, vice president for research with the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University in N.Y., and an evangelical Christian who is a political liberal

Rev. Rob Schenck, minister of the Evangelical Church Alliance; president of Faith and Action; and a conservative evangelical Christian

Link to audio track on the site.