"Reclaiming America for Christ" Where Scripture is Law (oh yeah)

[donsu]

http://www.newtimesbpb.com/issues/2003-11-27/feature.html/1/index.html

United States of Jesus
The folks who are "reclaiming America for Christ" are pushing an agenda for a Taliban-like state where Scripture is law
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-snip-

But defeatism seemed barely a distant memory at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale one blustery Friday morning last month at the opening of the Rev. D. James Kennedy's national Reclaiming America for Christ conference. In a ceremony that subtly blended religious and patriotic rhetoric, six young men clad in dark-green military uniforms, carrying flags and faux carbines, marched reverentially up the center aisle of a sanctuary decked out in red, white, and blue bunting. Two theater-size video screens flashed a recurring montage of a rural, steepled church, the Statue of Liberty, and the U.S. Capitol. The roughly 500 men and women rose to their feet from the pews and pledged allegiance to the American flag and then to the Christian flag. A robust-voiced woman belted out the national anthem, and the recorded strains of God Bless America wafted in the air as the color guard marched out.

-snip-

Coral Ridge Presbyterian, an imposing rectangular building with a modernistic 300-foot steeple looming over Federal Highway, has become the epicenter for the Christian right's most ardent generals and foot soldiers, thanks mainly to the coalition's steadfast leader. For 30 years, the 73-year-old Kennedy has been broadcasting The Coral Ridge Hour on Sunday mornings (with a combined listening and viewing audience of about 3.5 million) in front of his 9,000-member congregation. They're engaged in a "cultural war," they say, but their campaign is far broader than that. For the faithful, America was founded as a Christian nation, so their fundamentalist brand of that religion must be the mortar that binds the U.S. Constitution.

-snip-

Judging by the rhetoric flying around his church recently, Christian Utopia shapes up as a Taliban-like society in which gays and lesbians are driven underground or even forced into "treatment" for their "illness" by commandment-spouting judges; capital punishment is routine and speedy (some hardliners even take the position that, not to worry, God will sort out possible innocents from the guilty in the hereafter); pregnant women have little autonomy over their own bodies -- and Scripture, brothers and sisters, is the immutable authority on everything from zoning laws to foreign policy.

-snip-

Indeed, the fundamentalist faithful are no longer political outsiders. Take Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and a speaker at the Reclaiming America conference. In 2001, Bush appointed Land to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which he is now chairman. Land has the ear of Karl Rove, the president's closest adviser. In other words, he's essentially part of the administration.
-snip-
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NOTE THIS: "he's essentially part of the administration."

[theivoryqueen]

1. Am I the only person who actually read "the Handmaidens Tale"?

[Javneh]

2. Saw the movie

but didn't read the book. Sounds like a good read though. Who is the author?

[Bunny]

6. Margaret Atwood?

I think.

[theivoryqueen]

7. Yup. Anybody with a uterus should fear this regime.

Although I would advise all males currently within drafting ages to be careful as well.....

[Bake]

29. Add to that anyone who is not a fundie fanatic!

That includes most Christians, as well as anyone who is of another faith, or no faith, or humanist, or atheist, or agnostic, or anything else. Scary. They NEED a big defeat at the polls, in the worst way. They cannot be encouraged, nor can their brand of authoritarianism be tolerated.

Bake

[Melsky]

5. Someone needs to tell them it's supposed to be fiction

not a how to book. These people are seriously scary.

[prolesunited]

11. Actually, I had the opportunity

to hear her speak this summer and those were pretty much her own words.

If you haven't read the book yet, do it. It's a good read on its own but even more gripping given the current political climate.

[Scott Lee]

8. Nope. It's an eye opener, and years ago I thought it was a blueprint

for what America might try to become. Like Mein Kampf, it may prove to be just that.

If you're into books, check out Kurt Vonnegut's stuff. I liked what he said about Christianity in America; to paraphrase, he was amused that a country founded by Northern Europeans that worshipped horned gods of the woods, burned people in wickermen, and practiced witchcraft today found themselves wandering en masse into stone halls to worship a MidEast wind God for Hebrew goatherders. Kurt thought that was a hilarious image, and noted that we were all practicing the wrong religion.

[theivoryqueen]

15. I too saw "something wicked this way"... coming

when I read it long ago - those were the days of ERA and Roe v. Wade and the sexual revolution and a lot of fat white fucks were upset that their dinners weren't on time and their wives had stopped taking their stepford medications..... and now, here they are, back again, and this time holding more power and determined to use it to put the plebes and chicks and minorities back in their places once and for all.

[donsu]

14. I read it and actually made a small wreath and carried it for yrs.

nt

[elfwitch]

19. Been walking around in a Handmaidens Tale Deja Vu for 3 years

I knew that these creeps were heading for this type of world the first time I heard the phrase "compassionate conservative".

It is almost enought to make you want to get your tubes tied just in case.

These neo-con Jesus freaks make me sick. A Jesus addiction appears to be more harmful than a heroine addiction these days,

[AntiCoup2K4]

3. This wouldn't be so bad, except....

...None of these fucking idiots appearently have ever READ the Bible.

Actually, if the United States acted according to the teachings of Jesus Christ, we would certainly be a lot better off. Unfortunately, the reich wing seems to think the Sermon on the Mount had something to do with a Ted Nugent speech regarding the proper placement of dead animal heads on your living room walls.

[Blue_Chill]

4. All extremism leads to evil

Christianity is certainly no exception.

[KensPen]

9. you are all wrong

Our country owes all it's ideals,
it's laws
it's foundation,
upon Jesus Christ and the 10 commandments.

just ask any republican.

[theivoryqueen]

17. fanaticism and fundamentalism are about the same

they are extreme versions of cultish behavior. All religions are cults and all cults are inherently dangerous as they seek to convert and control.

[Tyler Durden]

10. "ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, MARCHING AS TO WAR!"

PLEASE, please, please, please let me get the FUCK out of here.

When the next election is stolen, the camps will open up, and if we are still here, in we go!

[Lars39]

12. Let the wheat be separated from the chaff.....

tax the *churches* that preach politics. "Cancel out their salvation" at the voting booth...IF these these churches can't pony up the dough for the taxes, let 'em "wither on the vine". They have totally by-passed "obey the laws of the land", and are going full-tilt to making the laws of the land, in order to create a theocracey. I call this treason.

[prolesunited]

13. Thank you for posting this article.

Truly frightening and I think I will be sharing it with a few people.

Did you see this one? How can these "churches" retain their tax-exempt status? What a powerful statement: Vote for a Dem and go to Hell. Hope there's a special place for these people.

Dozier freely mixes politics and religion in the pulpit.

"I do not teach people to become Republicans, even though I am a Republican," he says. "I do not teach people to become a Democrat. I teach them to know and understand the issues at large. And I know they're going to do the right thing in the voting booth. We want to be very, very careful as Christians not to 'cancel out our salvation' as we enter into the voting booth. Many Christians are doing that. They're praising God on Sundays, then on election Tuesdays, they are 'canceling out their salvation' because they are siding with the enemy, with the devil."

[HydroAddict]

16. Coral f'in Ridge. Freakin fundi-nuts

Every Sunday morning this guy is on one of my local channels preaching his HATE and propaganda. It's flat-out disgusting and worthy of censorship.

This Kennedy nut once had an entire sermon explaining "The evils of tolerance". I was floored. I couldn't believe what I was hearing coming from this "man-of-christ", on a Sunday morning when the kiddies can tune in. I grew up thinking clergymen were good people at heart, but this bigot changed that perception real quick.

BTW, I've also come to learn the Chick-Fil-A is in cahoots with this cult. Haven't eaten there since. And I suggest everyone else do likewise, boycott their greasy crap.

[theivoryqueen]

18. good to know, will avoid CFA

[elfwitch]

24. Chick-Fil-A

I tend to not financially support any business that closes on Sunday for "God and Family". I try to stay out of Hobby Lobby for the same reason. They actually have that posted on their operating hours sign.

[Liberator_Rev]

20. The ANSWER is "Liberals Like Christ"

The fact that 75% or more of US voters identify themselves as "Christian" would be a HUGE ASSET to Liberals and/or Democrats if only they would take the message of our web site and run with it, i.e. those who actually KNOW what Christ taught and stood for know that he was LIBERAL, if ever there was one, and people who get serious about FOLLOWING Jesus, instead of USING him, have to be or become "Liberals Like Christ" :


at http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org .

See what Christ might say about the "Christian Coalition" & "Religious Right" imposters.

or DON'T COMPLAIN when the pseudo-Christians lead you off to the concentration camps!

[elfwitch]

25. pseudo-Christians lead you off to the concentration camps

They'd haul me off anyway. They generally come after Jews first.

[Liberator_Rev]

27. Sad to admit that you've got THAT right !

We're trying to make Christians aware of just how guilty they ARE on that score, with our http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/RCscandal pages.

[elfwitch]

28. If more people would...

Sadly, an awful lot of "so-called Christians" think Jews had the Holocaust coming to them for that whole "killin Jesus" thing.

I'd say that even a few mainstream Christian groups are still holing on to that myth.

All non-Christians are in danger when people like this get control.

[Cat Atomic]

21. When fascism comes to this country, it will be on a cross.

I have to disagree slightly with Huey Long's "wrapped in a flag" statement. The people that really fuel the extremism are the religious fundamentalists. They make it possible for corporatists to get elected, because they only need to give the fundies a few symbolic things to secure their vote. But it's true- the fundamentalists are getting more and more influence on the Republican Party. They've got a tiger by the tail in many respects.

[elfwitch]

22. Jesus addiction...

It seems that these folks get addicted to the whole Jesus thing. I've known a few junkies in my time and I can tell you that the Jesus freaks scare me more than a guy hooked on smack.

GW* obviously replaced one addiction with another. I wonder how many of these folks would test high on the addictive personality scale? Shouldn't there be some kind of rehab for this? A detox program maybe?

Their addiction becomes dangerous to us all.

[seemslikeadream]

23. The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party

"When we win this revolution in November, you will be doing the Lord's work, and He will richly bless you for it." Senator James Inhofe, Christian Coalition rally, October,2002.

"We need to find ways to win the war" Karl Rove told a gathering of the Family Research Council in March, 2002. The Family Research Council is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations of the Religious Right today. Rove wasn't talking about the war on terrorism. He was talking about the war on secular society.

To understand the war on secular society, we should go to Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, who told the Denver Post in 1992 that his goal was to "take working control of the Republican Party."

Robertson named his enemies in a 1992 newsletter, Pat Robertson Perspective. The list includes, among others, the National Organization for Women, the National Education Association, the National Council of Churches, the Gay-Lesbian Caucus, as well as People for the American Way, and Americans United for a Separation of Church and State.

TheocracyWatch a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University
www.theocracywatch.org

[prolesunited]

26. Just in case someone missed this article in Harpers

It ties in quite nicely with the one that's been posted. They've got BIG plans for the U.S. and there are many of them already in government circles (R and D) waiting for their chance to make it happen.

Jesus Plus Nothing

This is how they pray: a dozen clear-eyed, smooth-skinned “brothers” gathered together in a huddle, arms crossing arms over shoulders like the weave of a cable, leaning in on one another and swaying like the long grass up the hill from the house they share. ... And they pray, assembled at the dining table or on their lawn or in the hallway or in the bunk room or on the basketball court, each man's head bowed in humility and swollen with pride (secretly, he htinks) at being counted among such a fine corps for Christ, among men, to whom he will open his heart and whom he will remember when he returns to the world not born-again but remade, no longer an individual but part of the Lord's revolution, his will transformed into a weapon for what the young men call “spiritual war.”

http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html

[library_max]

30. Wouldn't it be great if they were really reclaiming America for Christ?

For the Christ who required his followers to forgive everybody, all the time?

For the Christ who had nothing but condemnation for the rich?

For the Christ who forbade his followers to pray in public?

For the Christ who preferred the company of prostitutes and tax collectors to the company of priests and pharisees?

For the Christ who drove the money-changers out of the temple?

For the Christ who said, "Take the beam out of your own eye before you worry about the speck in your brother's eye."

But no. They're reclaiming America for Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the more unenlightened parts of Paul's epistles and mostly for their own personal prejudices. Bleaugh.