Washington Post

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

While most of these recommendations are well known to women who are pregnant or seeking to get pregnant, experts say it's important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed.....

"We know that women -- unless you're actively planning [a pregnancy], . . . she doesn't want to talk about it," Biermann said. So clinicians must find a "way to do this and not scare women," by promoting preconception care as part of standard women's health care, she said. [ emphasis mine ]

"Pre-Conception Care" ?

Not that this is a bad idea, but I'm wondering where men fit into the picture. The onus seems to be fully on women : you'd think that human reproduction came about by female parthenogenesis. The question here - for this forum - is : what, if any, are the points of connection between this new CDC position and Christian right ideology ? Is this the next stage, beyond even outlawing contraception, in the plans of some on the Christian right, to encourage women to think of themselves most centrally as mothers-to-be ?

This is a continuation of a series, beginning with an initial post in regards to the 1995 "RIOT Manual"--a guide on "stealth evangelism" for youth published by Teen Mania Ministries and distributed by "Christian contemporary" artist Carman.

We reviewed tactics 1-30 here;  suffice it to say that things only get even more bizarre from here.

And yes, this IS typical of the old "bait and switch" and of current tactics in getting kids into stuff like "BattleCry".

There've been quite a number of good articles written regarding Ron Luce and his "BattleCry" gatherings, as well as his group "Teen Mania":

Responding to the 'BattleCry' campaign: Introducing 'Acquire the Evidence'
"Battle Cry" Youth Rally in Massachusetts, Summer '04
Christ's Righteously Equipped Warriors
Battle Cry Last Weekend in Philadelphia

In a reply to one of the latest posts, I mentioned Luce's extensive connections to the scarier parts of the dominionist movement, specifically the "spiritual warfare movement" within dominion theology.  In that reply, I mentioned Luce having a history of promoting "bait and switch" evangelism--including the actual publication of a manual.

In this post, we're actually going to focus on this manual, which is actually a "blast from the past" all the way back from 1995--and to educate you, the reader, on the ways that Luce encourages youth to recruit kids to dominionism.

Fear and Loathing at Philadelphia's BattleCry tells the story of one woman's experience at the BattleCry rally last weekend. Susanna Taylor was among some 17,000 attendees listening to founder Ron Luce tell his audience why they should "come to Christ:"

He doesn't just want to be in your heart, He wants to own your heart.... There's only one good reason to come to Christ: because He's the rightful owner of your life.... You don't have to know much about Jesus, just enough to surrender your whole life.

As reported by Jews On First : Defending the First Amendment Against the Christian Right, a new group, We Believe Ohio that will have its inaugural event May 17, 2006.

Here is the "We Believe Ohio" statement of belief :

We Believe: We are called as people of faith and loyal Americans to be united in dialogue and action to say:

    * YES to justice for all, NO to prosperity for only a few;
    * YES to diverse religious expression, NO to self-righteous certainty;
    * YES to the common good, NO to discrimination against any of God's people;
    * YES to the voice of religious traditions informing public policy, NO to crossing the lines that separate the institutions of Religion and Government.

Faithful Clevelanders will gather to pray and unveil a shared vision of serving God in word and action by promoting the values of inclusion, compassion and social justice.

We believe the stakes in Ohio are frighteningly high

We will not stand by and bear witness to religion being used as a tool of division and exclusion.  

The time for action is now!

If you are a clergy person, bring your colleagues. If you are a lay person - come as a local leader - and bring your priest, pastor, deacon, elder, rabbi, cantor or imam.

As Jews On First reports :

Under the banner of "We Believe Ohio," mainstream clergy in Columbus are organizing their communities to reclaim the public space that two powerful religious right leaders have crowded with anti-gay "moral" issues. Founded late last year, the organization has grown rapidly to include more than 110 Christian and Jewish congregational leaders.

Their goal, said Rev. Tim Ahrens, co-convenor of We Believe Ohio in Columbus, is to make sure "there's room in the public square for a lot more voices than those strong voices" of the religious right.

That space has been appropriated by two local pastors, Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church and Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church. The two are widely credited with turning out the vote for George Bush's narrow victory in Ohio in 2004. They are also credited with propelling Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell to a primary victory last week.......

"We are living with this every day, watching these two churches," said Rabbi Misha Zinkow of Temple Israel. Zinkow signed the complaint to the IRS and is involved with We Believe Ohio. He told JewsOnFirst that he believes "the real moral issues of the day have been submerged" by Parsley's and Johnson's narrow morality message rather than "poverty and homelessness that religious people should think about.".....

Getting those issues out into the public square will be a challenge. Ahrens said "We're finding people in churches outside the metropolitan areas who have almost been shut down" by the prevailing religious right attitude "that you're not Christian unless you believe the way they do. That's not true. As Christians we're trying to define a faith and a savior that we believe includes all people."....  He said he believes that Parsley's and Johnson's next "wedge" issue will be banning adoption by homosexual parents.

I've written a lot lately on one of the dirty secrets of dominionism--religiously motivated child abuse, which is heavily promoted.  From the literal literal beating of babies, occasionally to death to the deliberate transfer of kids in dominionist homes to other abusive families, it's sadly all too common.

One of the most despicable things about this is that, all too often, it's the dominionist preachers themselves promoting the abuse--and, in the case I'm about to note, sometimes even crossing the line to committing abuse themselves.

"After decades of successful rapprochement.... a long-discredited theological aberration is threatening to open a new rupture between Christians and Jews - in the service of Islam. Replacement theology is, in brief, the idea that Christians are the true inheritors of God's Old Testament promises to Israel"

The salience of "replacement theology" has grown to the point that Christian Reconstructionist theologian Gary Demar has written an extensive article trying to defuse the controversial theological issue....

"Replacement Theology" holds that Jews are not actually Jews. Christians are !

Here is DeMar's take on the subject.

This discussion has not yet extended much beyond Christian circles. In that light, here's a bit of background:

"APPENDIX C: Replacement Theology

An important aspect of the Latter Rain, and all of the Kingdom/Dominion type theologies (including Roman Catholicism), is they have decided that whenever the Bible says ''Israel'' it ''really means'' the church: they believe Israel has been permanantly set aside by God and its place has been given to the church, which has inherited every promise God made to Israel as a nation."

Despite the apologetics of Gary DeMar and others, many Jewish leaders are now asking : despite the support of the Christian right for Israel, is the relationship American Jews have has with the Christian right and the Christian nationalist movement a faustian bargain ? As Rabbi Stuart Federow, spiritual leader of Shaar Hashalom in Houston, writes [ in Jews On First ] :

What bothers me most about the Christian Right is not their agenda for what they consider to be the End Of Days, ultimately our mass conversion. This part of their eschatology is no less unBiblical than the rest of their Christian theology. What bothers me is their most recent response to the Jewish community. Members of the Jewish community were objecting to now Supreme Court Justice Alito's appointment....Members of the Christian Right began to make statements threatening withdrawal of support for the State Of Israel, if the Jewish community did not silence these objections.... That is blackmail! That kind of idea will be heard more and more in the years to come from the Christian Right. But what worries me most, is that there are, indeed, Jews, whose Israel-Uber-Alles approach means they will succumb to this blackmail for fear of losing Christian Right support for Israel. Bridge Strategy Evangelism: This leads me to write about another fear I have. There is a missionary technique called Bridge Strategy Evangelism..... ....What are the standards for acceptance by the Jewish community? So long as one apologizes for the Holocaust, promises it won't happen again, memorializes in annual services our beloved Jewish dead, then they can circulate freely in honored positions among the Jews? So long as one supports the State Of Israel, or donates money to Israel, or leads large tours to Israel, they can be honored speakers to our Jewish community, even as they might be giving money to organizations that missionize us? Where is the line that if a member of the Christian Right crosses (no pun intended!), he or she becomes unwelcome in the Jewish Community, despite their apparent support of Israel and memorializing of the Holocaust?? Is there such a line that they cannot cross? There is a name given to someone, usually women, who are willing to ignore morals and ethics for the sake of some gain, usually monetary gain. However that is an apt description of what the Jewish community does, every time we look the other way when members of the Christian Right support Christian organizations that missionize Jews, pervert our rituals by Christologizing them, and support the sides of social issues that we are against, for the sake of their memorializing the Holocaust or supporting the State of Israel! It is prostituting ourselves, purely and simply!

One of the most overlooked aspects of two particular trends in dominionism--the increasing trend towards spiritual abuse in certain dominionist movements and the trend towards hijacking of moderate Christian churches by dominionist groups like the Institute for Religion and Democracy--is a very successful tactic invented by, and spread by, the inventors of dominion theology--the "cell church" or "shepherding group".

In this post, I will focus on the history of cell churches in dominionist movements, with specific emphasis on how the use of cell churches was largely designed to hijack mainstream congregations...in at least one case, with frightening success, which has disturbing implications for mainstream churches having issues largely resulting from this.

We have a little saying back home in East Texas: Even a blind hog will root up an acorn once in a while.  

And in Tuesday's edition of his daily "Washington Update," Tony Perkins rooted up an acorn of great price.

I just received a recorded call from Jay Sekulow, chief council for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, who is mobilizing his forces for the Supreme Court's consideration of the 2003 law that banned so-called "partial birth abortion," the first federal ban of an abortion procedure since 1973's Roe v. Wade.

This essay was posted on May 9 on Contextual Criticism - http://heavenswork.blogspot.com

The National Day of Prayer has been a traditional part of the religious life of the America since 1952 when President Truman signed its observance into law.  It is supposed to be a chance for the nation to join together in a non-sectarian manner to pray for the country. Here is the President's proclamation for this year's observance, May 4th:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 4, 2006, as a National Day of Prayer. I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance and protection. I urge all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

Now, we can debate the merits or otherwise of a government issued proclamation concerning such a religious matter, but that's not the purpose of this post.  My concern is the brazen way the religious right, in the form of the so-called National Day of Prayer Task Force (NDPTF), chaired by none other than James Dobson's wife, Shirley, has hijacked the observance and reshaped it into a purely sectarian occasion.