Church sign: "World War 3 began on 9-11-01"

[Wednesdays]

I happened to drive by the North Side Christian Church in Oklahoma City last night, when I read their puzzling "weekly message" sign on their front lawn:

"World War 3 began on 9-11-01"

For starters, it seems to be a very strange message from followers of Christ. Is there some theological message behind it? What, exactly do they want us to do with that statement?

(edited for clarity)

[noonwitch]

1. I don't think it's a religious statement

It's a political viewpoint, since congress has not declared war in a long time.

[Ilsa]

2. Churches shouldn't be espousing such political messages, IMO.

If they are going to get political, they should be taxed.

[Wednesdays]

3. Actually, I'm kind of tempted to...

switch the words so that the word "began" is at the beginning, and add the word "Bush" before that! :evilgrin:

[Mandate My Ass]

4. That's worrisome

That and the way Bush uses religiously symbolic language when he talks about the war on terror. It promotes the false notion that the whole thing was pre-destined and whatever happens, no matter how disasatrous, was inevitable rather than the consequence of poor decision making.

[Evil_Dewers]

5. WW III began...

with the Scalia 5 in December 2000.

[qb]

6. They're frothing at the mouth for the "Rapture"

when Jesus will bring them all home, and the rest of us will burn in Hell. They see worldwide upheaval as a sign that the Rapture is imminent.

[southpaw]

7. O'Reilly has been making the case

That The War Against Terror (T.W.A.T.) should actually and legitimately be considered World War III. I'm not sure what his argument is, but he has been saying this lately.

Ya reckon some of them church people watch Fox News Channel?

Who woulda thunk it?

On edit... here is the link to O'Reilly's WWIII spew. For those with a strong stomach...


http://www.intellivu.com/main.asp?brand=webcenter.intellivu.aol.com&fnum=298

[JNelson6563]

8. Slaughter the Infidel!!

Same ol', same ol'.

Julie

[uptohere]

9. actually that should be WW 4

WW 3 was the cold war. And it began a lot earlier than that.

But I can't imagine why the pastor couldn't think up anything more inspirational than that.

[Wednesdays]

10. Yeah, real uplifting, isn't it?

And as for O'Really's talking about the war on terra as being WW III, that sorta fits in with the idea of "perpetual war," doesn't it?

[uptohere]

15. nah, he screwed up on the number too

but 4 is liable to take as long as 3. It'll take a generation to get the bile out of the Jihadists given the way they operate.

[Mari333]

11. Oy vey these people

there was one here for awhile that said
HAS AMERICA WAGED WAR ON GOD????
this was right after the 10 Cs were removed in Alabama..
these people live with their heads in a box.

[zbdent]

12. Very early Sunday morning,

put a sign next to it saying:

"God needs your $$$$ to win!"

[azrak]

13. how about

realize that we are in a war. A political and religious war.

[LeahMira]

14. Read what the Pilgrims wrote...

and you'll find that from the very beginning the Christian people who came here decided that this country had some moral imperative to fight the infidel and the savage and eliminate that element from the world, thus bringing Christian civilization to all mankind whether all mankind wanted it or not. The sign you saw is more of the same.

There seems to be a new confidence among Christians now that a "born-again" Christian occupies the White House. Where before it seems that Christians were willing to keep their beliefs in church and at home, now it seems that there is an assertiveness that wasn't there before... as if finally their day has come. It seems that the Christians feel that no longer must they compromise, negotiate, and tolerate differences.

This is troubling to those of us who are not Christian. Especially troubling are some statements from the Bushes to the effect that non-Christians are not good Americans... or at least not as good as Christian Americans.

I imagine that many Christians do believe that 9/11 proved somehow that a war on the Muslim fundamentalists had begun, but I'm very afraid that they have no intention of quitting after Islam is defeated (in their dreams), and that they intend to wipe all non-Christians off the face of the earth. In fact, what I find ominous is that people are leaving the mainstream Christian churches (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.) and flocking to the more fundamentalist churches (Pentecostal, Apostolic, etc.) Post-Bush, it will be difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, I'm afraid.