A Canadian views the "left behind" group in the Florida panhandle..

[madfloridian]

LeHaye, Hindson, and Frazier... he tells of attending a conference with them. Scary that these guys are so close to this administration.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1107989413916

SNIP..."The whole coast from Panama City on the east to Pensacola on the west, apart from having the most beautiful beaches in the world, is the focus of some of the most intense conservative evangelical activity in the entire U.S. Superchurches, training schools, and all kinds of crusades abound..."

Let me illustrate by describing an all-day Saturday conference at one of the largest Protestant churches I have ever been in, The Village Baptist Church in Destin, Fla. The facilities there are gleaming, spacious, comfortable.

The theme of the day was Left Behind: A Conference on Biblical Prophecy about End Times, and it featured three of the leading voices in the U.S religious right today: Tim LaHaye, Gary Frazier, and Ed Hindson. LaHaye was one of the leaders included in Time magazine's Jan.31 story on evangelicals most influential in the presidency of George W.Bush. He appeared, for that reason, a few nights ago along with three other prominent evangelicals on Larry King Live...."

SNIP..."How the Christian "God of love" treats those "left behind" makes for lurid reading indeed.

To sum up the essence of the three speaker's messages all that long Saturday, I have never heard so much venom and dangerous ignorance spouted before an utterly unquestioning, otherwise normal-looking crowd in my life. For the $25 fee, the 800 devotees certainly got a plateful...."

And this part is very scary, and it makes me want to weep for what so many in our nation have become.

SNIP.."But these fantasies were harmless compared with the hatred against Islam that followed. Here are some direct quotes: "Islam is an intolerant religion — and it's clear whose side we should be on in the Middle East." Applause greeted these words: "Allah and Jehovah are not the same God ... Islam is a Satanic religion ...We will never be able to understand their (Muslim) mentality ... They're going to attack Israel for certain. ..."

I don't think this type of rhetoric is confined to the Panhandle of Florida. I have heard a lot of it spoken in casual conversations which accidentally turn to politics. I just really did not realize where it was coming from.

[CindyDale]

1. Somebody should ask him why if the end is near do we need to spend so

much money "fixing" Social Security.

[tanyev]

3. Brilliant.

I'm going to use that.

[tsuki]

2. We have some of the scariest groups now in the Panhandle.

You may have read of the baiting and scare tactics used by the Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola to scare off "suspected" Kerry voters at their church that was being used as a voting precinct.

We have a scary group on HWY 98 called Christian International that uses prophets and prophesying to control their members.

The above example is another church. We have them in Niceville, Valp, Panama City. It is frightening. That is why I call it the fRight Wing.

BTW, I am a native of NW FL. Before the development here, I grew up with Halloween being a dress up day for children and a great money maker for schools. Now it is SATANIC and all the schools have had to change it to "Fall Festival."

It ain't the natives; it's the imports. And the question most asked by natives is...Where do these people come from?

[CindyDale]

5. Did you all hear about this group IRD?

It's a group funded mostly by the foundation of a major stockholder in Gulf Oil.

Here's a link to the story on it:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipients/irdi.htm

Through its "Association for Church Renewal," this group has also tried to infiltrate Baptist and other faiths.

No doubt there are other "oily" groups trying to get control of the churches, too.

[blm]

8. This religious belief is all about politics and was calculated years ago.

It really is not much different than any island where a witchdoctor rules and claims all power and knowingness.

Except any one of these faux Christians like LaHaye would declare that island's beliefs to be barbaric.

But, really, what's the difference? For the LaHaye Christian it really is all about control, political power, and greed and avarice.

[screembloodymurder]

4. Pensacola is the AF base

that is responsible for 911.

[tsuki]

7. Naval Air Station.

[Toucano]

6. Good article! Thanks n/t

[The Straight Story]

9. hmmm sounds like DU in a way.....

I don't mean that in a really negative way mind you, but in a core sense way.

bushy is satan, evil, and would fit into the above as islam. Some here feel the end is near, bushy engineered 9/11, flee the country, don't read those right wing sites as they are all lies (read only things that re-enforce your beliefs), donate when you can to bbv, du, and candidates, people in red states deserve the pain and suffering they are to get, and so on and so forth.

Point is, one can always find ways to view others as wacko extremists if they look hard enough. How far apart groups really are is sometimes hard to tell at the core level - they sometimes just have different terms they use to describe something while operating in similar fashion.

If we really believe bush will bring about the end, then why do we care about any legislation (et al, like ss) as someone pointed out above. What we believe is that if he is not opposed things will get bad - so we prepare on one hand and go about as though life will go on, while preparing for the worst at the same time.

I have known many fundies who believe the end is near, but still go on because being near and being here are two different things.

BTW - this is not to throw water on the whole article, it is just a personal observation the whole thing from a different level. The 'end' of some things is probably near (and who knows, yellowstone may blow soon, nuclear war, metorite, etc) - no point in not playing both sides of the aisle just in case.

Many christians do believe the end is near - but they also know they may be mis-interpreting the signs and such so they live life as it is, plan for retirement, while at the same time keeping a wary eye on things. Much like us and bushy boy. He may destroy the world, earth as we know it, budgets, et al - but we still go to work and pay taxes which pay his salary and for the war.....

[Warpy]

10. Sadly, he's correct.

You can find that same venom in every single state in this country at evangelical churches large and small.

These poor saps believe this stuff with all their hearts. It's possibly the biggest doomsday cult this world has ever seen, and I'm afraid that unless the mainstream churches stop dropping the ball on this stuff and start telling people that these are cults and that you can't force god's hand on the end of the earth that they're only going to gain more and more power until they really do start world war three just so they can "git Raptured."

It's gone way beyond pussyfooting around this stuff, hoping not to offend Republican church members. This is our survival, folks, beacuse not only do these people don't think we have a future, they want to make absolutely certain we don't.

This is the biggest struggle of our time. The idiot in the White House is only the symptom. This is the disease.

[madfloridian]

11. I have often posted about our Southern Baptist churches here.

People are just beginning to realize that their church was literally hijacked out from under them. I was of that denomination until the Iraq war. Their support for it as a holy war was a turning point in realizing something serious was wrong.

I know of one Baptist church that split along moderate/conservative lines. I know of another about to do so.

Most of us are good people who were suddenly in the middle of something strange. Before my father died several years ago, he was starting to feel something was wrong. He was chairman of the deacons, and he would come to see us and just worry. He was good a man.

I am very sad that so many of the people in these churches are just becoming aware...and equally as sad is that many are fine with it.