Air Jesus: With The Evangelical Air Force

[reprehensor]

Air Jesus: With The Evangelical Air Force

As Christian broadcasting's leading lights gathered at the National Religious Broadcasters' convention in Anaheim, California, only power-mongering and profiteering could keep their contradictions from bubbling to the surface.

"How many of you out there think ministering the Word is unpopular?" the Rev. James McDonald asked a rapt crowd of hundreds at the opening ceremony of the National Religious Broadcasters' (NRB - website) convention. A beefy, bald-headed evangelist Air Jesus: With the Evangelical Air Forcewith a folksy style and an uncanny resemblance to Jesse Ventura, McDonald spent his 30 minute sermon harping on a theme that would dominate the convention: Christian persecution.

For five days inside the Anaheim Convention Center, from February 11-16, the NRB's attendees conducted business as if they were huddled in the catacombs of Rome rather than welcomed guests at a self-contained suburban city of paisley-carpeted hotels, all-you-can-eat buffets and climate-controlled conference halls directly across the street from Disneyland. Indeed, when McDonald asked attendees for a show of hands in affirmation of his question, nearly every hand in the room shot up.

It might seem ironic for McDonald to invoke the spectre of persecution at the convention of a group that represents the interests of 1700 broadcasters and which enjoys unfettered access to congressional Republicans and the White House. The NRB's influence was best summarized by its new CEO, Frank Wright, who, in describing a recent lobbying excursion to Capitol Hill, said, "We got into rooms we've never been in before. We got down on the floor of the Senate and prayed over Hillary Clinton's desk." Wright went on to rally support for the NRB's handpicked candidate for FCC commissioner, whom he refused to name, and rail against federal hate crime legislation because, "Calls for tolerance are often a subterfuge when everything will be tolerated except Christian truth."

more@link

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Further reference on all things Dominionist and Theocratic:

Conventional Facades: Why the Republicans Have to Hide their Agenda

Farrell: Article III, Section 2 and the Wobbly Wall Between Church and State

Farrell: On a Mission From God

Katherine Yurica: The Despoiling of America

Steve Erickson: George Bush & the Treacherous Country

James Heflin: Their Will Be Done

Geneive Abdo: Bible Belt churches putting Bush in more than prayers

PBS: The Jesus Factor

Joe Bageant: The Covert Kingdom

Rick Perlstein: The Jesus Landing Pad

'Rapture' enablers.

David Gates: The Pop Prophets (LaHaye & Jenkins)

George Monbiot : Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power

Theocracy Watch

William Hare: Bush's Dangerous Rush to Theocracy

Rev. Rich Lang: George Bush & the Rise of Christian Fascism

Some antidotes:

R.P. Nettelhorst: Notes on the Founding Fathers and the Separation of Church and State

The Interfaith Alliance

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I avoid "Christian" radio

but what snippets I've heard doesn't seem to question Bush's pro-rich policies. When I hear that they are questioning them, I might decide that they are really following the teachings of Jesus.

[Sapphire Blue]

2. Calling Michael Moore

Wish he'd film a documentary exposing the Dominionist movement of the radical 'Christian' Right.

[saltpoint]

7. I agree, Sapphire Blue. Moore would be the --

-- perfect documentary director to do it, too.

What a great idea -- I'll second your motion.

[Sapphire Blue]

8. For what it's worth

.... I actually just sent him an email. Hopefully, someone will at least read it.

[98geoduck]

3. It has the "air" of Osama's Taliban movement.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. The Jazz Band

The Jazz Band
Dave Martin c1996


An excerpt....


A broad spectrum of single issue religious and political groups are attempting to destroy our constitutional rights and our way of life. Why are they doing this? What is it all about? Who is really in charge? Is there a hidden agenda? Some people, surprised by the proliferation of right-wing groups, have referred to them as spreading like bacteria. With an analogous eye, we can view them as bacteria in a pond. Pond bacteria can be put to work in wondrous ways. With clever coaching from microbiologists, bacteria already processing compounds in a natural setting can be genetically engineered to flourish while accomplishing other tasks. Like the microbiologist, cultural opportunists can manipulate and husband diverse political and religious groups to work in concert toward a hidden agenda.
A more accurate analogy might be to describe radical right groups in musical terms. The repressive and undemocratic themes we hear from these groups are likened to a musical score, written not for a symphony orchestra but for a jazz band. Let's view right- wing religious and political groups as single instruments in a band. Playing each instrument’s part individually, the original score might not be recognizable, but when jazz instruments play together, we recognize When The Saints Go Marching In. When radical right-wing themes are played together, images are evoked of repressive totalitarian regimes of recent history.

The "New Right" movement was kicked off in the early 1970s by a group of conservative activists which included Paul Weyrich, Joseph Coors and Richard Viguerie. It was Weyrich, founder of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, and Richard Viguerie, direct-mail/fund-raising maven, who first saw the potential of politically organizing church members from a variety of denominations around the abortion issue. It was Weyrich who brought Jerry Falwell into the fold with the formation of the Moral Majority and convinced Pat Robertson to run for president in 1988. Weyrich and Viguerie believed that social conservatives could be organized into a group that would form a constituency larger than the politically active in either the Democratic or Republican parties. Viguerie has been quoted as saying, "I organize discontent."

http://prosocs.tripod.com/jazzbnd.html

[bogey18]

5. Thanks

Thank you for the wonderful set of links. I was just in an argument today with one of my golfing buddies in which he was insisting that the founding fathers were Christians - not that anything I send him is going to change his mind.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. Deists, mostly.

(on edit, uh, reprehensor here, using wifey's computer! Sorry FSC! whups)

Here is a good site about Jefferson and Deism.

www.jeffersonseyes.com

Purchase a copy of 'The Jefferson Bible' for your friend, that should chill him out. Jefferson, (and Washington, and Franklin), did not believe that Jesus performed miracles. Ergo, they were NOT true Christians.

The Jefferson Bible is a cut-n-paste version of several different versions of the Bible, with reference to miracles carefully avoided. No virgin birth, no resurrection, etc. Instead, Jefferson focused on the moral teachings of Christ.