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Banned
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Uhhh...Halx, up until now, I've kind of danced around coming right out and telling you this. I am "the evil one", and I am taking over TFP in an attempt to expose and stop the forces of righteousness and all that is American from having "their way" with our government and our sinful, promiscuous, homosexualized culture.
I'll give it back to you when I'm done, but I probably don't have to tell you, it's going to be a long. long, conflict:
Quote:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/02/311193.shtml
Is the United States an Infant Theocracy?
author: Lawrence Butts
The word theocracy is derived from two Greek words meaning "rule by the deity." Throughout history theocracies have gained control of nations for short periods of time.
Among Christian societies the most notable theocracies were the Papal States under various popes and in the Muslim world a theocracy was established by the prophet Muhammad in Medina in 622. So the religious fundamentalism that gives rise to theocracies is not something new to our culture. No matter what the belief system or religion, theocracies all have similar characteristics.
1. The society and its leaders believe they have a divine right.
2. The divine mandate is interpreted in specific political contexts.
3. Civil rights and a code of conduct are dictated by religious dogma.
4. Individual aspirations are subordinate to the priorities of the state/religion.
5. Domestic and foreign policy is guided by a religious ideology.
6. Leaders are part of a theologically trained elite.
7. Leadership is limited by religious dogma and is rarely skilled in economics.
The framers of the United States Constitution were keenly aware of problems associated with the mixing of church and state. Perhaps we Americans should once again take a look at the vision the framers of the constitution had when they added the 1st Amendment and see if that vision resembles the country we have today?
Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
homepage: homepage: http://justiceer.com/
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It is time to "pass the baton" from our current "holy warrior" and leader, to Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney?
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091201594.html
....Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.
"A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me," Bush said during a 1 1/2 -hour Oval Office conversation on cultural changes and a battle with terrorists that he sees lasting decades. "There was a stark change between the culture of the '50s and the '60s -- boom -- and I think there's change happening here," he added. "It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening."....
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Consider the opinions of republican 2008 presidential "frontrunner", "pastor Mike" Huckabee's co-author
and christian evangelical "reconstructionist", George Grant:
Quote:
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2...rer-christian/
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....Dispensationalists haven't cornered the market on End-Time interpretation. The reconstructionists (also known as dominionists), a smaller but politically influential sect, put the onus for the Lord's return not in the hands of biblical prophesy but in political activism. They believe that Christ will only make his Second Coming when the world has prepared a place for Him, and that the first step in readying His arrival is to Christianize America.
"Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ," <h3>writes reconstructionist George Grant.</h3> Christian dominion will be achieved by ending the separation of church and state, replacing U.S. democracy with a theocracy ruled by Old Testament law, and cutting all government social programs, instead turning that work over to Christian churches. Reconstructionists also would abolish government regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. EPA, <h3>because they are a distraction from their goal of Christianizing America, and subsequently, the rest of the world. "World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish," says Grant. "We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less." Only when that conquest is complete can the Lord return.</h3>
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<h3>Is Ron Paul's platform a christian reconstructionist's "dream"?</h3>
Quote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michel...a_b_20989.html
Posted May 14, 2006
What is Christian nationalism?
I've just published a book called Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, and since it appeared, I've been asked several times what Christian nationalism is, and how it differs from Christian fundamentalism. It's an important concept to understand, because the threat to a pluralistic society does not come from those who simply believe in a very conservative interpretation of Christianity. It comes from those who adhere to a political ideology that posits a Christian right to rule. Christian nationalists believe in a revisionist history, which holds that the founders were devout Christians who never intended to create a secular republic; separation of church and state, according to this history, is a fraud perpetrated by God-hating subversives. One of the foremost Christian revisionist historians is David Barton, who, in addition to running an organization called Wallbuilders that disseminates Christian nationalist books, tracts and videos, is also the vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party. The goal of Christian nationalist politics is the restoration of the imagined Christian nation. <h3>As George Grant, former executive director of D. James Kennedy's influential Coral Ridge Ministries, wrote in his book "The Changing of the Guard:"</h3>
"Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish."
In the Christian nationalist vision of America, non-believers would be free to worship as they choose, as long as they know their place. When Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala became the first Hindu priest to offer an invocation before Congress, the Family Research Council issued a furious statement that reveals much about the America they'd like to create:
"While it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country's heritage...Our founders expected that Christianity -- and no other religion -- would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship. They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference."
The iconography of Christian nationalism conflates the cross and the flag. As I write in Kingdom Coming, it "claims supernatural sanction for its campaign of national renewal and speaks rapturously about vanquishing the millions of Americans who would stand in its way." At one rally at the statehouse in Austin, Texas, a banner pictured a fierce eagle perched upon a bloody cross. For a liberal, such imagery smacks of fascist agitprop. But plenty of deeply committed Christians also object to it as a form of blasphemy. It's important, I think, to separate their faith from the authoritarian impulses of the Christian nationalist movement. Christianity is a religion. <h3>Christian nationalism is a political program, and there is nothing sacred about it....</h3>
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<h3>George Grant's blog:</h3>
Quote:
http://www.kingsmeadow.com/2003_10_01_blog_archive.html
Friday, October 3
Still Roaring, Still Running
In the year 325, a conference of pastors and elders was held in the northern Mesopotamian city of Erbil in order to select delegates to attend the first Ecumenical Council in Nicea. The council had been called by the Emperor Constantine to resolve a great Christological debate.....
...That little gathering in Erbil so long ago was the last pastor’s conference in the region for nearly 1700 years—years marked by oppression, persecution, tyranny, and slavery. But two weeks ago all that changed! I was privileged to speak at a gathering of pastors and elders from the harried, marginalized, and sore afflicted churches of Iraq. They came from every imaginable background, ethnic group, denomination, and theological persuasion. Some were part of a remarkable evangelical missionary thrust among the Kurds in the north. Some came from as far south as the border with Kuwait. Some were from historic enclaves of Syrian Orthodox, Nestorian, or Chaldean Catholic communities. Some lived under a warrant of death because they had converted from militant Islam or occultic Khakhai. All were wary, weary, and war-worn.
We were all in grave danger, just being there. As the conference proceeded, <h3>the danger only increased because of what we determined to declare to all who would listen: Jesus Christ is Lord over all things; He is Lord over every Mullah, every Ayatollah, every Imam, and every Mahdi pretender; He is Lord over the whole of the earth—even Iraq! That’s not exactly politically-correct over there right now. But, that’s OK because it just so happens to be true.</h3>
I was in Iraq as a part of a Servant Group International team—a team you graciously and generously supported with both your intercessions and finances. Both investments paid off tremendously. Not only were a number of men and women drawn into life eternal by God’s great mercy, all of the nearly 400 attendees were profoundly encouraged to work for the fulfillment of their “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven” petitions.
While the team was in the country, <h3>we had the opportunity to spend time with some of the brave men and women in the armed services currently stationed in that embattled part of the world. We made an effort to encourage the dedicated chaplaincy corps in their heroic and fruitful efforts to proclaim the Good News among the American troops.</h3> We did teacher training at the Classical Christian Schools we’ve established over the past three years. We had the opportunity to witness a glorious baptismal service for the thriving evangelical churches in the north. We had interviews with government officials. And we spent time offering direction and counsel to the leaders of a fledgling Kurdish university that has just reopened its doors after a long season of isolation, uncertainty, and instability.
We often felt we were in the middle of a tense cinematic drama—perhaps one imagined by Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. It was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of before. I’ve never seen a situation so desperate. I’ve never witnessed a land so needy. I’ve never known a people so bound by fear, doubt, anger, and hopelessness. Just the kind of situation where the Gospel can have its greatest effect.....
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Quote:
http://web.archive.org/web/200210202...b_archive.html
Abercrombie and Porn
By George Grant
Your teenage daughter probably learned much of her fashion sense from them. She probably picked up a good bit of her taste for hip hugging Capri pants, skimpy tank tops, slouchy cargo khakis, high riding plaid boxers, form fitting and midriff baring t-shirts, and frayed nylon surf wear from them as well. Now, if the doyens of cool at Abercrombie and Fitch have their way, she’ll also be learning all the joys of group sex, homoeroticism, exhibitionism, pornography, and gang rape from them as well.
Really. I’m not making this up.
The Spring Break 2001 edition of the ultra gauche clothing retailer’s slick quarterly catalog is appropriately entitled “XXX.” It features 275 pages of fresh-faced, clean-cut, and innocent-as-the-dawn teen models cavorting in various stages of dress and undress—mostly the latter—in an exotic Bermuda beach-front setting. It also features profiles of various porn stars, angry lesbians, embittered author-ingrates, and grizzled rock-and-roll kulturistas offering their best advice on how and where to indulge in the joys of privileged promiscuity and pompous perversity.
Oh yes, and it also features the spring line up of logo wear, jeans, t-shirts, polos, cargo shorts, sandals, and ball caps. Nifty, huh?
The flagrant flaunting of moral convention evident in the catalog’s full-frontal nudity, group sex scenes, wild wave raves, and flirtatious drug use is really nothing new in the world of high fashion. Calvin Klein and Benneton have toyed with such mores for years. What is shocking about Abercrombie’s porn is that no one seems to notice. No one seems to care. This mainstay of the American mall culture appears to be able to prance about in its Fellini-like debauchery with total impunity.....
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<h3>A list of some of the books George Grant has authored:</h3>
Quote:
http://www.kingsmeadow.com/drgrantphotos.html
....<h3>Kids Who Kill, with Gov. Mike Huckabee 1998</h3>
Y2K: A Novel, with Michael Hyatt 1998
Just Visiting: How Travel Has Enlightened Lives Throughout History, with Karen Grant 1999
Lost Causes: The Romantic Attraction of Defeated Men and Movements, with Karen Grant 1999
Shelf Life: How Books Have Changed the Destinies of Men and Nations, with Karen Grant 1999
Going Somewhere: A Dan and Bea Adventure 1999
Christmas Spirit: The Celebrations of the Season, with Gregory Wilbur 1999
The Pocket Patriot: Citizenship Basics for the New Millennium 2000
Hero Tales: How Common Lives Reveal the Uncommon Genius of America, ed. 2000
The Christian Almanac: Each Day in History, with Gregory Wilbur 2000, 2004
From Bannockburn to Flodden: Tales by Sir Walter Scott, ed. 2001
From Gileskirk to Greyfriars: Tales by Sir Walter Scott, ed. 2001
From Glencoe to Stirling: Tales by Sir Walter Scott, ed. 2001
From Montrose to Culloden: Tales by Sir Walter Scott, ed. 2001
Garden Graces: How Gardening Has Shaped Art, Music, and History, with Karen Grant 2001
The Absolutes: The Indisputable Principles of Civilized Society, with James Robison 2002
<h3>Center of the Storm: Principled Leadership in Times of Crisis, with Katherine Harris 2002</h3>...
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Yes...it is THAT Katherine Harris, and you can read about her "christian crusade" in this TFP thread"
<a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=107938">Is Catherine Harris, the Hero in the FLA 2000 Vote Recount, a Mainstream Republican?</a>
Quote:
http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/...gave-religion/
Huckabee: U.S. gave up on religion
School shootings were wake-up call, he says
1998/jun/08
By Linda Caillouet
....The shootings were just one more wake-up call to the nation, he said.
"I fear we will turn and hit the snooze button one more time and lose this great republic of ours."
Huckabee said ungiving individuals are responsible for higher taxes.
"I'm often asked why taxes are so high and government is so big. It's because the faith we have in local churches has become so small. If we'd been doing what we should have -- giving a dime from every dollar to help the widows, the orphans and the poor -- we now wouldn't be giving nearly 50 cents of every dollar to a government that's doing ... what we should have been doing all along."
Huckabee also explained why he left pastoring for politics.
"I didn't get into politics because I thought government had a better answer. I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives."
He compared his entry into politics to "getting inside the dragon's belly," adding, "There's not one thing we can do in those marbled halls and domed capitols that can equal what's done when Jesus touches the lives of a sinner."
The most basic unit of government is not the city council, quorum court or state legislature, Huckabee said. "It is Mom and Dad raising kids and teaching them respect for authority, others and God."
The nation has descended gradually into crisis, Huckabee said, and repairing the damage needs to be gradual, too. He said the solution is simple: faith in Christ......
....Huckabee concluded his speech by recalling his 10th birthday, when he accepted Christ.
"I went to Vacation Bible School for all the wrong reasons -- I was told they'd give me all the cookies I could eat and all the Kool-Aid I could drink. But that day I got something better than cookies and Kool-Aid. I got the Savior.
"I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.".....
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<center><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/24/7b/9cab225b9da0165c25511110.L.jpg"><br>
</center>
Quote:
http://www.motherjones.com/washingto...lism-book.html
Mike Huckabee: Playing Both Sides of the Pulpit
Washington Dispatch: The candidate says he wants to unite the country. But in a 1998 book, Huckabee was a fierce culture warrior, equating environmentalism with pornography, homosexuality with necrophilia, and nonbelievers with evildoers.
By David Corn
December 17, 2007
....And Huckabee was obviously trying to come across as a friendly and reasonable fundamentalist who eschewed the politics of division. But not too long ago, Huckabee was quite willing to be divisive. In a 1998 book decrying American culture, Huckabee was no seeker of common ground. He drew stark lines, equating environmentalists with pornographers and homosexuality with pedophilia and necrophilia. He also declared that people who do not believe in God tend to be immoral and to engage in "destructive behavior." He drew a rather harsh picture of an American society starkly split between people of faith and those of a secular bent, with the latter being a direct and immediate threat to the nation.
The book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence, was hardly a call to come together. <h3>Huckabee wrote it with George Grant in response to the March 24, 1998, school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas</h3>. The book was published in early June of that year, its cover featuring a blurry photograph of a young boy pointing a gun at the reader.
In Kids Who Kill, Huckabee argued that school shootings were the product of a society in decline, a decline marked (and caused) by abortion, pornography, media violence, out-of-wedlock sex, divorce, drug use, and, of course, homosexuality. Huckabee and his coauthor bemoaned the "demoralization of America," observing, "Despite all our prosperity, pomp, and power, the vaunted American experiment in liberty seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes." Huckabee, who was governor at the time and a well-known social conservative, blasted away at those whom he held responsible for America's ills, and he took a rather tough stand against government social programs and their advocates. In lamenting the "cultural conflicts" besetting the country, he wrote,
Abortion, environmentalism, AIDS, pornography, drug abuse, and homosexual activism have fragmented and polarized our communities.
Why was he lumping environmentalism with activities he considered sinful? He did not explain further. A few pages later, Huckabee complained,
It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.
Huckabee did not say what public endorsement of pedophilia or necrophilia he had in mind. But he did seem to be equating homosexuality with both.
Throughout the book, Huckabee warned of going soft on immorality. He slammed those Christians who accept a "misguided version of 'tolerance'" and do not voice outrage at cultural deterioration. Mocking such Christians, he huffed, "We don't want to offend anyone." He denounced what he termed "radical ideological secularism," and he declared, "in the name of civil liberties, cultural diversity, and political correctness, a radical agenda of willy-nilly moral corruption and ethical degeneration has pressed forward." Without identifying any secularists by name, he wailed,
The legal commitment of ideological secularism to any and all of the fanatically twisted fringes of American culture—pornographers, gay activists, abortionists, and other professional liberationists—is a pathetically self-defeating crusade that has confused liberty with license.
This is not the rhetoric of a fellow looking to heal divisions within American society. And Huckabee approvingly quoted a "pastor-patriot" of the early 1800s who said, "Every considerate friend of civil liberty, in order to be consistent with himself, must be the friend of the Bible." That's a rather fundamentalist definition of a civil libertarian.
In Kids Who Kill, Huckabee addressed the decline of manners and civil discourse in American life. He favorably cited the trenchant analysis of the modern media culture that Neil Postman, a liberal critic, presented in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. Huckabee argued that the entertainment industry "is conditioning kids to kill." But he also groused about unnamed "modern government-sponsored social engineers," claiming that "virtually every dollar poured into" government social programs "has only made matters worse." With such a remark, he was planting himself firmly in the government-is-the-enemy camp.
Elsewhere in the book, Huckabee denounced no-fault divorce and claimed that "equality in the workplace has ironically worked against women in innumerable ways." Looking for an expert on this matter, he pointed to a 19th-century author named Peyton Moore, who once noted, "Whenever we attempt to muddy the distinctions—the God-given distinctions—between men and women, it is always the women who ultimately lose." He didn't say that women should stay at home. But he heaped scorn on those who advocate workplace equality for women.
So what to do about a culture that breeds kid killers? Faith is more important than policy or politics, Huckabee argued. The "Judeo-Christian religion," he wrote, states "that faith counteracts the destructive effects of sinful actions and activities." That's what you would expect a religious-minded person to believe. But Huckabee went further and declared that nonbelievers tend to be evildoers:
Men who have rejected God and do not walk in faith are more often than not immoral, impure, and improvident (Gal. 5:19-21). They are prone to extreme and destructive behavior, indulging in perverse vices and dissipating sensuality (1 Cor. 6:9-10). And they—along with their families and loved ones—are thus driven over the brink of destruction (Prov. 23:21).
Huckabee is certainly entitled to his religious beliefs and his own view of human nature. He is free to think that nonbelievers cannot be trusted. But should Huckabee be allowed to play both sides of the pulpit? Kids Who Kill presented a black-and-white perspective: environmentalists, homosexuals, civil libertarians, supporters of social programs, advocates of workplace equality, and nonbelievers are on the dark side and allied with the forces of decline; people who believe in the Bible are the decent Americans. In 1998, Huckabee was claiming a religion-oriented cultural war was under way in the United States and he was happy to be a warrior for his side. Now he says he wants to bring together a "polarized" society. His 1998 book—full of unforgiving rhetoric—indicates that Huckabee is more comfortable creating divides than bridging them.
David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington bureau chief.
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Fear not, Halx, we were born and raised for this moment, it is our destiny, and victory over the politcal backers of "the Christ", will be ours if we can expose their ridiculousness to the remaining American voters not yet enamored by their unwavering faith and grace!
Last edited by host; 12-17-2007 at 11:10 PM..
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