" Their ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of a "faith-based" government that will endure far longer than Bush's presidency ~ all the way until Jesus comes back:" Bob Moser / Rolling Stone
The far right Christian evangelicals are now the nation's most powerful and effective political machine ~ having brought over 4 million new christian voters to the polls in 2004 and will be a major force in this years mid term elections.
They see themselves as ' Crusaders ' and their goal is to rebuild America in their own image.
Bob Moser, Rolling Stone, blew the whistle on them last year with his brilliant analysis of the Dominionists -- biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government .
Excerpt:"This movement is no more about following the example of Christ than Bush's Clean Water Act is about clean water ... It helps that Dominionists have a direct line to the White House: The Rev. Richard Land, top lobbyist for the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, enjoys a weekly conference call with top Bush advisers including Karl Rove ..The Dominionists are also stepping up efforts to turn public schools into forums for evangelism...While the dominionists rely on grass-roots activists to fight their battles, they are backed by some of America's richest entrepreneurs ... The one-two punch of militant activists and big money has helped make the Dominionists a force in Washington, where a growing number of congressmen owe their elections to the machine."
04/08/05 "Rolling Stone" - - It's February, and 900 of America's staunchest Christian fundamentalists have gathered in Fort Lauderdale to look back on what they accomplished in last year's election -- and to plan what's next.
As they assemble in the vast sanctuary of Coral Ridge Presbyterian, with all fifty state flags dangling from the rafters, three stadium-size video screens flash the name of the conference: reclaiming america for christ.
These are the evangelical activists behind the nation's most effective political machine -- one that brought more than 4 million new Christian voters to the polls last November, sending George W. Bush back to the White House and thirty-two new pro-lifers to Congress.
But despite their unprecedented power, fundamentalists still see themselves as a persecuted minority, waging a holy war against the godless forces of secularism. To rouse themselves, they kick off the festivities with "Soldiers of the Cross, Arise," the bloodthirstiest tune in all of Christendom: "Seize your armor, gird it on/Now the battle will be won/Soon, your enemies all slain/Crowns of glory you shall gain."
Meet the Dominionists -- biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government. As the far-right wing of the evangelical movement, Dominionists are pressing an agenda that makes Newt Gingrich's Contract With America look like the Communist Manifesto.
They want to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions.
In Florida, when the courts ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, it was the Dominionists who organized round-the-clock protests and issued a fiery call for Gov. Jeb Bush to defy the law and take Schiavo into state custody.
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
Dear Mr Roland:
After reading this article I am convince of two things. One if we dont put religion back where it belongs and the way it is suppose to be then it would be ruin for the rest of this country existence. and next I always believe the only way is to take away their tax exempt status and see how political they become. the bible does speak about churhces mixing politics and religion. I was told that somewhere in the bible that government will fold if there is a mixing of the two. Maybe it is time that this country turn the tables and let these people know what will happen if this trend continues. Thanks
by
chip90043 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 60 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 8:28:49 PM
Dear Mr Roland:
After reading this article I am convince of two things. One if we dont put religion back where it belongs and the way it is suppose to be then it would be ruin for the rest of this country existence. and next I always believe the only way is to take away their tax exempt status and see how political they become. the bible does speak about churhces mixing politics and religion. I was told that somewhere in the bible that government will fold if there is a mixing of the two. Maybe it is time that this country turn the tables and let these people know what will happen if this trend continues. Thanks
by
chip90043 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 60 comments)
on Friday, October 6, 2006 at 8:29:12 PM
I am going to continue to call these people what my Dad called them, "Holy Rollers".They cherry pick scripture so they can tell us all how we should live and think and call it faith based. And if you look behind the curtain, it all comes down to money and power. The leaders of this faith based cult always have their hands out. They have so many needs. For them to spread the word it takes lots and lots of cash .Cult followers give to them until it hurts for they are trying to buy their way into heaven. I have come to the conclusion that all organized religion have only two gods --Money and Power . It is all based on the needs of the godless. And when they proselytize, they totally miss the point. Jesus never asked for money or power.
by
cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 11:57:40 AM
The US has spent over $350 billion & sacrificed almost 3000 lives to date in the attempt to bring our form of government
(a constitutional republic, not a democracy as many ignorant American believe we are!) to Iraq & perhaps someday to the rest of the Islamic Near East. I personally think it's more about oil & US world hegemony, but those are completely different issues in this case. Then we turn around & permit Christian fundamentalists in this country to flourish to a point where they now pose a very dangerous threat to our Constitution, Bill of Rights & heritage of religious freedom & tolerance. And I do think their ultimate goal is to creat a perverse & destructive theocracy, reminiscent of the middle ages. If they are not stopped, the US could ultimately end up like those countries in the Near East where personal expression & indiviualism is not only discouraged but ultimately punished. What's ironic is the Christian Fundalmentalists despise their Islamic counterparts, yet would adapt, almost
verbatim, their cultural & religious practices. Much of this is due to the indifference of the American people who have long ago foregone the practice of participation in government. Perhaps it's not to late to take back our country before compulsory church attendence becomes civil law.
by
iman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 89 comments)
on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 2:38:00 PM
'Much of this is due to the indifference of the American people who have long ago foregone the practice of participation in government ' ~ Right on, Iman ~ for in a true Democracy you can never allow yourself to be indifferent because, in essence, our involved voice and vote is the true foundation of the Republic.
by
Allen L Roland (907 articles, 7 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 355 comments)
on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 3:32:56 PM
The biggest threat to the American way of life is the Religious Reich. It's not simply because of their draconian ideas. It is because the sheep of the righteous "sheperds" are just plain divorced from reality.
They will blindly follow the edicts of their "clergy", never considering to question the veracity of what they hear because they are encouraged not to think for themselves. This is why they were so easily mobilized in 2004 in the routing of America, part II. Not once did they think, "gee, didn't DUBYA start the war in Iraq? Isn't Jesus a pacifist, a rebel, and a defender of the poor?"
Nope. They didn't even consider whether or not the message of their "savior" flew in the face of the lies they were spoon-fed by their false prophet preachers. Herein lies the true danger of the Religious Reich and their blinded, willingly ignorant followers.
However, on the good side, I think this latest scandal might work in favor of the progressive movement in America. Many of the blinded have had the wool temporarily pulled from their eyes, and they see that they have been lead bleeting down the wrong road. I am just not completely convinced there will be any real damage control possible in the wake of Foleygate. Nor am I convinced that even the most willingly stupified Religious Reich sheep will be so easily conned into believing Foley's actions are the fault of the Democrats. They might just be sick of being herded around by the nose, and start to balk at further attempts to do such.
That's my hope anyway.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 5:29:04 PM
Website-Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party
http://www.theocracywatch.org/ is a complete website about dominionism in the US and contains the history, influence and current news of US religious theocrats in our Congress, Administration and the people pushing this.
It's sections include:
What is a theocracy?
Dominionist influence in the U.S. Congress
Dominionism in action
How did this happen?
Where do we go from here?
And a "What's New?" link on the top.
You can download a video that discusses these topics as well and the threat they pose to this country. Religious freedom, even within Christianity, is the last thing these people want.
What makes the large number of christian conservatives so appealing to the Republican party is their lamb like nature.Most of these devought christians have had the good fortune to have honest and sincerely kind ministers that have lead them and comforted them in difficult times in their lives. This gives them a deep respect for authority,and they gladly follow their leader because past experience has shown them good results.
What these christians need to realize is that the scumbags in Washington dont really give a damn about their well being they just want their votes to stay in power. They need to know that Jesus was crucified becaouse he stood up to they same kind of corrupt people we have in Washington.
Religion and politics dont mix and religous people should not be loyal to one particular party they should study all of the issues and vote for the best person regardless of what party their from.
by
Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 247 comments)
on Sunday, October 8, 2006 at 9:54:32 AM
If I were a christian, I'd be feeling awfully betrayed at this moment in time. The Foleygate scandal proved they were being duped by a bunch of immoral moralists in wolves' clothing. The administration and congress have rammed legislation through that insures we are now officially allowed to torture. Lest we forget, according to the bible, Jesus was tortured mercilessly by the Romans, then he was crucified.
Why was he tortured and crucified? Because he dared to go aganst the Jewish theocracy in power. They sniveled and bitched, and spun Jesus into a threat to the real power in Jerusalem at the time, Rome. The Romans were left with no choice but to end the life of Jesus. Yes, it was the Romans that did the deed of killing Christ, not the Jews. The Jewish theocracy only kvetched about it until the Romans gave in to shut them up. The Romans cracked the whips, made the crown of thorns, and swung the hammers.
Politics and religion do mix, that's the problem. They mix just as well as diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, and with the same disastrous results. When politics and religion are united, the power given to those in charge is dangerous and deadly.
I have heard many people compare our Religious Reich to Islamic fundamentalists. I have also heard people such as Bill Maher refute this simply by saying that the Religious Reich doesn't suicide bomb, or involve itself in other terrorist activities. While I will grant that is true in this day and age, it wasn't just a millennia ago.
In Roman times, the church and the state were one. Firstly, under the pagan Roman rulers, then later when Rome became a christian state. In the former Rome, many christians were turned into lion chow because they did not follow the state religion. Once Rome was christianized, pagans were also dealt the same blow. The Crusades and the Inquisitions were other examples of just the kind of terrorism and death that could be wrought by the mixing of politics and religion. It was their persecution by the Church of England that brought the puritan "pilgrims" to America. It was the mixing of church and state, as well as good old paranoia that brought about the Salem Witch Trials. These trials ended the lives of so many people because of the admissibility of hear-say, and the power people gave to the church at the time. Gee, didn't we just ram a law through congress that allows admission of hear-say in kangaroo military courts? Hmm...what could it mean???
So just because no one has been hanged or burned at the stake by christian fundaMENTALists for centuries doesn't mean they wouldn't like to be able to bring back the "good old days". I am sure that Scary Jerry Falwell would just love to hang Tinky Winky, SpongeBob, and other "gay cultural icons". Just because he can't get away with it now doesn't negate his desire to do so.
In my opinion, the people who suck up to the Religious Reich are willingly ignorant sheep. They don't want to have to form an opinion of their own. They don't want to question whether or not what they are being told is right, true, or even comes from the bible. They don't want to admit they are wrong. They don't want to be held responsible for their own words and actions. They'd rather play follow the leader, then blame the leader as they fall to their deaths off the edge of a cliff they willingly approached.
I don't feel sorry for "submmissive christian conservatives" in the least. They chose their path by their unwillingness to question authority. Their complicity in and active work on the dismantling the constitution are their faults. Their failure to use their brains as nothing more than ear spacers is also their own fault. They are complicit in all of the problems that have arisen as a direct result of their intellectual neglegence. I have not one Iota or sympathy for the plight they have brought upon themselves. As a matter of fact, I hold each and every one of them personally and morally responsible for the reprehensible present condition of our country.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Monday, October 9, 2006 at 2:54:02 PM
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