Are the U.S. Social Conservatives about to start a whole new religion?
September 09, 2008 09:42 AM UTC
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Many religions first start off as cults. The U.S. has influenced Christianity a lot with its own odd cults over its history. The whole "Rapture" thing was thought up in the U.S. (the Left Behind books exploited that). There's always been a lot of Speaking in Tongues/Faith Healing/Casting out Demons Pentecostal stuff in the U.S. But if it hits the White House again and again (remember When Bush seemed religiously radical?), and Palin's cult church gets publicized beyond its own dreams, could it all grow into something bigger ... and a whole new politically radical intolerant Pentecostal type U.S. religion is born?
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Comments: 126
Kay K., Sep 9, 2008, 9:57am EDT "
I know you are ignorant of this, Kay, but there are actually other countries out there in the world where the standard of living far exceeds the standard of living here in the US. With much more educated populaces, where religion truly in kept separate from government. I have a wide array of choices within those parameters. And, thankfully, I'm very well-educated so I won't have a problem finding employment.
With your religious fanaticism, you'll be the ones living in caves, not me.
You crazies can bring this country back into the same state as the Middle Ages in European history. Or, better yet, present day Iran or Syria. Good luck with that.
Kay seems to be ignorant on most topics, and to enjoy proving it repeatedly.
Sheryl, you needn't mention your fine education...it is obvious by your foolishness.
I'll help you pack.
How predictable. The religious crazies with their anti-intellectual fervor! You'll soon have schools with most books banned, and with half the day spent in military training sessions with live weapons. Onward Christian Soldiers!
To hell with the Islamic radicals - we have our own home-grown terrorists right here among us in the US. Mark-John-Paul-Ringo here I bet would gladly lead a battalion against us intellectual, university-educated heathens, wouldn't you now, dear?
That's not joking or fooling, Kay. That's pure ignorance and hate. The kind your party and your religious leaders have fostered for years and years in this country. And I will not play your "joking" game, because I find it degrading and offensive and hateful. I am sick of your party and your snide, snarky, laughing, degrading remarks at anybody who disagrees with you. At anybody who points out your lack of knowledge or experience. At anybody who actually deals in the world of facts, not mythology. Your ignorance and hypocrisy may amuse you, but believe me, it does not amuse the intelligent, truly compassionate and reasoning people with whom you attempt to hold "discussions". Your constantly stooping to language such as "loons" and "moonbats" and such show your lack of maturity and ability to communicate on an adult level.
Take your snarky, mean, and hateful "little fun" remarks and shove them. I won't play your little playground bully games. They're pathetic.
Look for my next article, when I post it shortly. It addresses the same thing.
One of our problems is that we are a pretty big country with a variety of folks. It would be easier if we were a small country and everyone was a Lutheran.
"Are the U.S. Social Conservatives about to start a whole new religion?"
Regarding the topic - are the U.S. Social Conservatives about to start a whole new religion - they obviously want to hide whatever they have planned.
Late last night, I send a link to the article The Despoiling of America - How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State to a friend. Knowing how the Republican Party has been busy scrubbing everything they don't want us to see, I also copied the article. Good thing. This morning, the article is gone.
This was a well-written, researched, and cited article. About the author: Katherine Yurica was educated at East Los Angeles College, U.S.C. and the USC school of law. She worked as a consultant for Los Angeles County and as a news correspondent for Christianity Today plus as a freelance investigative reporter. She is the author of three books. She is also the publisher of the Yurica Report.
Katherine Yurica recorded and transcribed 1,300 pages of Pat Robertson’s television show, The 700 Club covering several years in the mid 1980’s. In 1987 she conducted a study in response to informal inquiries from the staff of the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representives, which was investigating whether television and radio ministries were violating their tax-exempt status by conducting grass roots political appeals, endorsing candidates, and making political expenditures as defined under Section 527 of the IRS code. The Subcommittee on Oversight published Katherine's study in Federal Tax Rules Applicable to Tax-Exempt Organizations Involving Television Ministries on October 6, 1987, Serial 100-43. (Published in 1988.)
Peter, Kay, Johnboy, LaLa queen (and her alters), and others like them come here only to disrupt and distract from topics they hope the rest of us will not explore.
I managed to get to the article I mentioned above through a back door. When I've finished checking to see if the sources she cites still exist, I'll be back with more info, pertinent to the topic. Meanwhile, if you want to research Russ Peterson, former Republican Senator from Delaware who said, "“Our cherished American way of life is under attack by the far right-wing Republicans who are now running the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. This is the product of a conspiracy that has been growing over the past few decades through the use of evil tactics and strategies, lies and deceptions to transform America.
“Deception is now the hallmark of the Bush administration. Read of the frightening chicanery in furthering an imperial strategy, nurturing the military-industrial complex, waging war on the environment, plunging the nation into debt, demeaning the needy, antagonizing the world and using terrorism to frighten and exploit." -- you might find more of what you are looking for.
Reconstructionism argues that the Bible is to be the governing text for all areas of life--such as government, education, law, and the arts, not merely "social" or "moral" issues like pornography, homosexuality, and abortion. Reconstructionists have formulated a "Biblical world view" and "Biblical principles" by which to examine contemporary matters. Reconstructionist theologian David Chilton succinctly describes this view: "The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law." http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre1.html
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No Longer Without Sheep
Reconstructionism had been of interest to few outside the evangelical community until the early 1990s, when its political significance began to emerge. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre3.html
Ahhh - see why they like to insinuate that we are all conspiracy theorists?
But I'm not sure.
And to answer my own question up there - who knows how and when a new major religion will start (they all have their own history) - but I wonder about this Penticostal stuff becoming something more than it is now, especially when people like Palin get power and expect Church and State to go together.
But only hindsite is 20/20
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The most successful ministers knew the psychological importance of creating “enemies” that were attacking the church. Jerry Falwell maintains the rule: “To be successful, keep a good fight going all the time.” (Think Kay and Johnboy)
No need for science and technological advance, we've gone far enough. Logic and careful thought are now the identifiers of closet freaks who want to control you with their ability to accept differences and encouragement of free thinking.
You want to know how to destroy a powerful civilization? Nothing works more effectively than internal decay. America: Rome 2.0
Sandy - I'm going have have to spend some time on your comments - they are very deep.
"or is it spew your bile? "
Well, vile is an adjective and wholly inappropriate for the context in which you used it unless it describes a noun and it does not. It reall needs to modify something. For example it would be inaccurate to a filthy, criminal, corrupt vile. But it would be acceptable to detest a filthy, criminal, corrupt, vile Republican like Larry "wide-stance" Craig.
Bile, on the other hand, is that green stuff that comes out of a snake's mouth when you run over it with your car. It's a bitter, brownish to greenish yellow digestive juice secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. It may be considered "vile" by some but the term "vile bile" seems a tad too contrived for my taste, though technically accurate.
The ability to "spew" bile, however, is absent. You cannot do that. You know...in case you didn't know.
Incidentally, Sandy may seem intolerant to you but I'm curious. Is intolerance always bad? I mean, what should people tolerate? There seems as if there should be a limit, yes? ...And who tells us where that limit is? Do others tell you what you must tolerate and what you cannot tolerate? Or is that something decided on an individual basis? Would you tolerate anything? Or...are you intolerant as well?
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
If the fundies want to practice and believe in their own religions, that's one thing. But they are trying to make THEIR religion a National Religion. That's where other beliefs are barely tolerated.
I think this is an "ever-present danger" and while we are looking to the east and focusing on the problems there, the Christian fundies are stealthily taking over our government when we weren't watching.
And I think Sheryl's posts were right on the mark as well. I would expatriate somewhere else. It's not "Love it or leave it......for Iraq." There ARE other places that are perfectly fine to live in and in many ways superior to the US.
Stephanie=Frowns 2.0
;)
Sometimes wit is not deep.
I think you did waste your time. Some people just want to play, and can't handle anything that's a little "too deep".
Peter, *1.I think the religion you describe has been born and is doing quite well. It is possible that they're about to get even closer to power and to infiltrating the state. *2.However, the way these things go, the more power they get, the more people will wake up, see them for what they are, and reject them.
I agree with Aniko on both counts. Christianity is FUBAR. It is not what it started out to be. It has devolved.
Is intolerance always bad? No, it is not. It is wrong to tolerate the intolerable.
Sandy, I have to say I resent this. What word are you speaking of BTW? I don't use any word to insult others. I don't insult other religions. Many (please notice I did not say all) of my religion have a live and let live attitude toward other religions.
"Reconstructionism is a theology that arose out of conservative Presbyterianism (Reformed and Orthodox), which proposes that contemporary application of the laws of Old Testament Israel, or "Biblical Law," is the basis for reconstructing society toward the Kingdom of God on earth.
I know what Reconstructionalism is because I was a Jewish history major before I switched to American history (more jobs). But to be fair I went to goodsearch.com and serched under religion reconstructionalist and here is what I found. The top article was What is Judaism?
If you click on Contemporary Judaism you will find Reconstructionalist Judaism:
A new form of humanistic or secular Judaism developed out of American Conservative Judaism in the mid-20th century: Reconstructionalism (still relatively small in population).
If you consider the word 'cult' an insult, that is probably because you have used it to insult others.
You aren't trying to imply that reconstuctionism is simply about Judaism are you? That would be terribly misleading.
1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.
–adjective
9. of or pertaining to a cult.
10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.
[Origin: 1610–20; < L cultus habitation, tilling, refinement, worship, equiv. to cul-, var. s. of colere to inhabit, till, worship + -tus suffix of v. action]
—Related forms
cultic, cul·tu·al Audio Help /?k?lt?u?l/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kuhl-choo-uhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, adjective
cultish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
If you agree ENOUGH is ENOUGH, do it now.
Thanks for the links, Sandy. I'm definitely not interested in living under any kind of authoritarian theocracy, and I can't imagine why anybody else would either. I guess some people are just freaky that way.
They're here in Australia, too. Even managed to elect a federal Senator. Guess what they've named their party? The Family First Party.
"I'm a Christian who thinks it's wrong to use lies and half truths to fool people to gain power. The people of the USA will not put up with a government that becomes socially restrictive and subdues freedoms because of religious ideology."--End
Rubbish. Explain, in some detail and specificity, where "governmental theology" has restricted any Freedom, or has been Socially "restrictive," in ANY fashion.
You, Sir, are a Liar. Those who know Him, know the Lie. You know nothing of the Christ, his Message, or his Work. You Lie about "governmental restriction on the basis of Theology," and you Lie about Theological "restrictions" on Society. And you tell the most despicable Lie of all...that you Know HIM.
118 coments
Are you all earning any points or just having fun? I still have no clue how this works.
I read this a short time ago, and when I read your comment here, addressed to William Dotani, there was an immediate correlation I made that I think you might also recognize. Have fun! :)
I'd say no. They do seem to be modifying the old religion AND trying to impose it on the nation, but I don't think they are starting a new religion. I guess I think it's more like they are trying to whip up a new religious movement.
And yeah, it's scary.
Ok, well I guess that leaves me out of this discussion since I do not judge who is the real or the fake, especially who is the real or the fake Christian. We have a hard enough time with our own religion to be going around having a judging contest about others.