The extreme political Religious Right hasn't given up hope of getting something out of this election. Their latest ploy involves petitioning the parties for a "True Christian" in the vice-presidential slot.
The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, an organization run by a former staffer of the late Rev. D. James Kennedy, is calling on conservative Christians to sign a petition seeking a "True Christian" vice president.
Gary Cass, who used to lead the Center for Reclaiming America at Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he doesn't think either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain meets his standards for being such a Christian.
"So the best we're going to get out of this election cycle is an evangelical Christian running for vice president," he said.
The group isn't suggesting names but is citing criteria for a perfect candidate, including that it be someone who is against abortion and for defining marriage as "a union between one man and one woman." It plans to send the petition to the presidential candidates.
By "True Christian" they, of course, mean someone who agrees with their particular sectarian-political position, which is a minority position among American Christians. To them, most American Christians don't qualify as true Christians.
Considering these guys are never, ever going to vote for a Democrat, the real point of the petition is to pressure McCain to allow them to name his VP in return for them not staying home in November. More likely, they know McCain will lose and this is just them positioning themselves to argue that it was their lack of support that lost him the election and thus blackmail the Republican Party to cave into the Religious Right's demands even more in the future than it has in the past. The whole business of saying they plan to send their petition to both parties is just cover for tax purposes.
Frank L. Cocozzelli's weekly series of posts on "The Catholic Right" (listed here) includes quite a few posts about Opus Dei.
There's another, similarly ultra-orthodox Catholic religious order he might want to examine in future posts: the Legion of Christ, a "religious congregation of pontifical right" for priests and seminarians, and its associated lay "apostolic movement," Regnum Christi. Like Opus Dei, the Legionaries have a reputation for authoritarianism, secrecy, and courting the rich and powerful.
As amazing as it sounds, dominionists may in fact be fomenting terrorism--not just the domestic terrorism like bombings of women's clinics we normally associate, but the very "Islamist terror bombings" that the GOP loves to use to frighten America into voting a red ticket.
We detailed yesterday on how Christians in Iraq (including communities literally founded by the apostle Thomas) have been targeted due to aggressive prosyletisation by dominionist "missionary" groups; today, we focus on how our soldiers are targeted and becoming targets due to the actions of dominionists...and how some of the very folks targeting both our nation's fighting folks and Iraqis are essentially dominionist rogue agents in the US military's chaplaincy.
The truth is, this sort of thing has been going on literally since Gulf War I, and ramped up in Gulf War II--and, ironically, has directly threatened the future existence of two of the oldest Christian churches in the world--churches that can literally trace their founding to one of the Twelve Apostles. Even more disturbingly, most of the worst prosyletisation has been with civilian dominionist groups that target both Iraqi citizens and US military personnel.
We detail the history of dominionist "missionary" efforts in Iraq, and the "dry run" in Lebanon, below.
One thing that has not yet been revealed in this incident--which has already led to the suspension of at least one Marine--is the source of the coins, a fundamentalist "Bible church" which increasingly has embraced both war imagery--and America's fighting men.
IN GOD'S NAME is a revealing documentary about how the Alliance Defense Fund is using its tactics to try to restrict abortion in Europe as well as in America. Watch this trailer:
An open letter, from Ray McGovern, a 27-year intelligence analyst with the CIA, to Admiral William J. Fallon, warns of an impending US attack on Iran.
If such an event occurred, the resulting war with Iran would likely have the overtones of a religious war - between Christianity and Islam. Since it's inception as a website and venture, Talk To Action has featured many stories concerning religious war and religious militarism. Many high ranking members of the US military expect religious war, even apocalyptic religious war, and the three most significant contenders to be next US president have all ventured militarist rhetoric vs. Iran, especially Arizona Senator John McCain, whose parodic singing of "bomb, bomb Iran", in a VFW hall in 2007, became notorious but who also, on April 2, 2006, to Tim Russert on Meet The Press, stated that a US war with Iran "could be Armageddon". McCain's controversial endorser Pastor John Hagee, whom McCain has also endorsed on numerous occasions, calling Hagee in one instance "widely respected and admired across America", has been militating for a US attack on Iran since the US invasion of Iraq, and Hagee has openly stated and written that such an attack would precipitate a catastrophic war.
McCain and Hagee have co-endorsed each other, and members of John Hagee's Christians United For Israel routinely sing, at every "Night To Honor Israel" event they hold, a joyful-sounding song which, in scriptural terms, refers to Israel's coming, expected destruction. The lyrics in "Blow The Trumpet in Zion", sung at nearly ever Christians United For Israel event, come from the 2nd Book of Joe, below:
Joel 2 (New King James Version)
Joel 2
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the LORD is coming,
For it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The LORD gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
In the YouTube video excerpt below, from the Christians United For Israel "Night To Honor Israel" event July 2007, members of John Hagee's San Antonio Cornerstone Church sing "Blow The Trumpet In Zion" :
IN his 1997 "Prophecy Study Bible" [Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1997] Pastor John Hagee explains his understanding of those verses (2nd Book of Joel, chapter 1, verses 2-11) :
"Joe uses the terrible locust plague that has recently occured to illustrate the coming day of judgment when God will directly intervene in human history to vindicate his righteousness. This will be a time of unparalleled retribution upon Israel (2:1-11) and the whole nation (3:1-17) but this time will culminate in great blessing and salvation for those who trust in the Lord...
It is a time of awesome judgment upon people and nations that have rebelled against God...
The land will be invaded by a swarming army; like locusts, they will be speedy and voracious. The desolation caused by this great army will be dreadful...
Joel ends with the kingdom blessings upon the remnant of faithful Judah." [John Hagee, John Hagee Prophecy Study Bible, pages 1026-1028, emphasis mine]
Following Ray McGovern's letter, below, are Talk To Action stories concerning Pastor Hagee and Hagee's relationship with John McCain.
The Religious Right has successfully spent the last thirty years putting the fear of God into Republican presidential candidates. Those who deviate from the evangelical political liturgy are threatened with the special purgatory of corporate golf games and Viagra ads reserved for unsuccessful Republican nominees. And of all the hymns aspirants are required to memorize, none is more sacred than "A Mighty Fortress Are Strict Constructionists."
If there was one candidate who gave the impression that he could carve his own path to the nomination, it was Senator John McCain. The Senator, after all, is a bona fide war hero whose military service and survival of years of imprisonment is eloquent testimony to his personal courage. Eight years ago, when contesting the nomination with George W. Bush, Senator McCain spoke and acted like a candidate confident he could prevail without kneeling at the altar of religious or political extremism.
John Hagee claims 1) that he knows with absolute certainty the will of God (as he told a BBC interviewer in 2003), is 2) sure that he, John Hagee, has a place in heaven ( declared in sermons ), and thinks 3) God will afford him special, personal protection from infectious diseases. In the following video clip, Hagee says God sent AIDS and Bird Flu but that he, John Hagee has a "policy" which will protect him; in a week-long appearance on Word-Faith televangelist Kenneth Copeland's "Believer's Voice Of Victory" television show, which has a broadcast range reaching millions, John Hagee declared, "Our hope is this, Psalms 91, that no plague shall come nigh that dwelling. I have a policy right in this book, says I'm going to be OK." As he utters that, Hagee smacks his Bible with a self-satisfied thwack while Copeland chimes in with the obligatory "praise God!".
Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi recently went undercover to investigate John Hagee's church and wrote up the experience in an absurdist account, Jesus Made Me Puke, which provides details of a special weekend retreat put on by Hagee's Cornerstone Church and conveys the impression that Hagee's Church has institutionalized a special program of self-improvement via the "guided vomiting" up of the profusion of demons Hagee's followers appear to consider themselves infested by - such as, described by Taibbi, the "demon of anal fissures", the "demon of handwriting analysis" and the "demon of the intellect."
It turns out that our present legal understanding of when a life is entitled to legal protection is consistent with the Old Testament Biblical understanding of when a fetus becomes a 'life' warranting legal protection.
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