The Anti-Christ and his followers will be electing the next president
sweetpotato
Posts: 1,278
Here ya go. Another election hijacked by these fucking religious right ultra-"conservative" "family values" loons, I can see it now. Every single one of them will be out voting, wearing their crosses and waving their "prayer cloths", and touting their dead baby "pro-life" picket signs.
Poor Jesus. He's gotta have a migraine over how these people have fucked up his message. No wonder I'm a Buddhist.
God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the GOP Crusade for Values Voters
[size=-2]By Sarah Posner, PoliPoint Press
Posted on January 22, 2008http://www.alternet.org/story/74440/
The following is excerpted from Sarah Posner's new book, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters It is reprinted here courtesy of PoliPoint Press. [/size]
Inside the Trinity Christian Church in Irving, Texas, a crowd starts gathering in the afternoon for a Victory Healing and Miracle Service that is to begin at 7 p.m. that evening. People have traveled from as far away as Ohio and Arkansas and Georgia to participate. Most are waiting in the perimeter lobby of the church, camping out with pillows and Bibles, ordering pizza, and waiting for an event that has been hyped on Christian television for months. I approach one woman, an African American member of televangelist Rod Parsley's World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio. Judging from her clothes, the woman could scarcely afford the plane ticket she bought to see a performance of the preaching phenomenon whose services she can attend three times a week at home in Columbus. She's almost in a trance, barely able to focus on me or what I am asking her, and she brushes me aside as I inquire about her journey. People are waiting to see healings and miracles; Parsley claims a quarter of a million people have mailed in prayer cloths (and money) so that he could put his "anointing" on them. Once returned to the donor, the prayer cloths can be used to heal anything in a broken life, from depression to cancer to joblessness to debt.
Trinity Christian Church is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the largest Christian television network in the world, and is on the grounds of the Irving outpost of the Orange County, California-based conglomerate that monopolizes the Christian airwaves with its Word of Faith message of health and wealth. As a movement, not a denomination, Word of Faith has no membership or doctrinal requirements, but its tenets have become embeded in the late-twentieth-century nondenominational movement known as neo-Pentecostalism. Yet while it presents itself as a benign message of hope and purpose, critics of Word of Faith charge that it is a heresy that robs its followers of spiritual fulfillment, an affinity fraud that robs them of their money, and a distortion of the Scriptures, run by authoritarian preachers who rob their followers of their autonomy.
The main tenets of Word of Faith are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. The believer, a "little god," is anointed and therefore can reject reason in favor of revelation, a "higher knowledge that contradicts the senses." It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment are denounced as the work of Satan.
Poor Jesus. He's gotta have a migraine over how these people have fucked up his message. No wonder I'm a Buddhist.
God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the GOP Crusade for Values Voters
[size=-2]By Sarah Posner, PoliPoint Press
Posted on January 22, 2008http://www.alternet.org/story/74440/
The following is excerpted from Sarah Posner's new book, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters It is reprinted here courtesy of PoliPoint Press. [/size]
Inside the Trinity Christian Church in Irving, Texas, a crowd starts gathering in the afternoon for a Victory Healing and Miracle Service that is to begin at 7 p.m. that evening. People have traveled from as far away as Ohio and Arkansas and Georgia to participate. Most are waiting in the perimeter lobby of the church, camping out with pillows and Bibles, ordering pizza, and waiting for an event that has been hyped on Christian television for months. I approach one woman, an African American member of televangelist Rod Parsley's World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio. Judging from her clothes, the woman could scarcely afford the plane ticket she bought to see a performance of the preaching phenomenon whose services she can attend three times a week at home in Columbus. She's almost in a trance, barely able to focus on me or what I am asking her, and she brushes me aside as I inquire about her journey. People are waiting to see healings and miracles; Parsley claims a quarter of a million people have mailed in prayer cloths (and money) so that he could put his "anointing" on them. Once returned to the donor, the prayer cloths can be used to heal anything in a broken life, from depression to cancer to joblessness to debt.
Trinity Christian Church is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the largest Christian television network in the world, and is on the grounds of the Irving outpost of the Orange County, California-based conglomerate that monopolizes the Christian airwaves with its Word of Faith message of health and wealth. As a movement, not a denomination, Word of Faith has no membership or doctrinal requirements, but its tenets have become embeded in the late-twentieth-century nondenominational movement known as neo-Pentecostalism. Yet while it presents itself as a benign message of hope and purpose, critics of Word of Faith charge that it is a heresy that robs its followers of spiritual fulfillment, an affinity fraud that robs them of their money, and a distortion of the Scriptures, run by authoritarian preachers who rob their followers of their autonomy.
The main tenets of Word of Faith are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. The believer, a "little god," is anointed and therefore can reject reason in favor of revelation, a "higher knowledge that contradicts the senses." It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment are denounced as the work of Satan.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Barack Obama."
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
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Well before the service is scheduled to start, the church sanctuary fills up. The best seats are reserved for pastors affiliated with Pars¬ley's franchise, the World Harvest Church Ministerial Fellowship. Soon church employees are shuttling people to overflow rooms inside the TBN studios a couple of parking lots away. I am crammed to the point of immobility in an upper-balcony pew of the four-thousand-seat sanctuary. The praise and worship bands are louder than I've ever experienced at any Word of Faith service, hyping the crowd into a frenzy and making it impossible to talk to anyone around me. People are dancing and singing, reaching their arms out toward the stage and holding their palms cupped upward, all set to receive the anointing.
The overamplified pop music of the Crabb Family, a band frequently featured on TBN programming, is nothing compared to the collective shriek of thousands of whistles that Parsley's assistants pass out in buckets. The whistles, it turns out, are surrogate shofars (the ram's horn blown in synagogues on high holidays) because, Parsley tells us, he couldn't find actual shofars. Parsley has a real shofar for himself, and after he blows it, he anoints himself the arbiter identified in the Gospel of Luke who will announce Jubilee. It's Jubilee, Parsley says with his characteristic absence of humility, "when the prophetic voice announces it. And I'm here to tell you, it's Jubilee." As pandemonium breaks out in the crowd, Parsley continues: "It's time for a perpetual party. Your long face is out of order. Your depression has got to go. . . . No more quiet services, mundane Christianity has got to go. Shout it, it's Jubilee!" He implores his audience to blow their whistles, which he claims can miraculously heal; he proclaims, "All tumors, swallowing problems, and cataracts are healed as people blow the whistles."
Parsley pays homage to his TBN patrons, who are broadcasting the service, saying "Let's thank God for Paul and Jan for making this night possible. We love you." The Crouches, who first hosted Parsley on their programming in 1983, when he was only twenty-six years old, have proclaimed Parsley a prophet who "challenged God's people to break through beyond status quo Christianity - invade enemy territory and overthrow the kingdom of darkness." Parsley recounts that Jan Crouch had "something wrong with her throat for years and God gave her a tremendous healing" after she used one of Parsley's prayer cloths.
Over the course of the evening, Parsley will slay people in the Holy Spirit, lay hands on them, and profess to heal their cancer, homosexuality, and financial problems. He will walk over the pews as people sway and fall to the floor. He will take credit for a woman's new job as a marketing and database manager, which she says she got after she sent Parsley her last $6. He will claim, with two members of his congregation as his witnesses, that he cured their adopted baby who was born without a brain. "His head was the size of his shoulders, nothing but water in that globe," Parsley boasts. "They brought him into service, we laid hands on him. The six o'clock news carried it; the eleven o'clock news carried it. Here are the brain scans. Here's the child with no brain. Here is the child after the prayer with a fully developed, completely normal functioning brain."
Parsley recognizes that for many people his faith healing doesn't quite jibe with his recently acquired -- and carefully cultivated -- status as a political player. In a relatively short time, Parsley has hoisted himself onto the national political stage. He has been named one of the fifty most influential Christians in America and one of the ten most influential GOP religious kingmakers shaping the 2008 race for the White House. In a television broadcast a week before this service, Parsley claimed to be "the only preacher brave enough to be in the White House one day and praying over prayer cloths the next, casting out devils." But his in-your-face attitude spills over into a nationally televised nose-thumbing at his critics, in which he showcases the Word of Faith revelation knowledge. As one Word of Faith follower told me, "In a nutshell, that's what faith is. Believing the word instead of the circumstances." As a result, scholarship, journalism, and other non-biblical pursuits of truth are derided.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Like Bush's 2000 campaign slogan, Compassionate Conservatism, Word of Faith preachers often give lip service to their church's community service projects yet worship at the altar of hyperindividualism and unregulated capitalism. Many of these televangelists spend millions of dollars of church funds on luxury jets, take huge salaries out of church coffers to build themselves mansions, and treat themselves to other luxuries like clothes, vacations, and high-end dinners. They use the free advertising of their churches and television shows to sell countless books, tapes, and DVDs of their sermons, raking in millions that go into for-profit church-related enterprises that line their own pockets. All of this activity is rationalized as obeying Jesus' command to spread the Gospel throughout the world. Yet it is all possible precisely because there is virtually no oversight of the preachers' activities. Tax-exempt churches do not file tax returns and are under no obligation to divulge their finances to donors or the public. Where profit-driven church meets the cornerstone of conservative economic ideology, televangelists have been enriching themselves in an unregulated marketplace trading on God, the cult of personality, and American dreams of riches and success.
Although some observers of the 2006 election have pronounced the conservative Christian movement dead, Parsley's preaching in the service reveals exactly why the Word of Faith movement will play a big role in keeping it alive through the 2008 elections and beyond. While Parsley's audience is under his spell, the mayhem is suddenly suspended when Parsley yells, "Stop! I just heard the Holy Ghost." The audience falls silent, hoping for a direct line from God. Instead, Parsley delivers a political speech.
To his rapt audience, Parsley answers the question he says many people are asking him in the wake of the 2006 midterm election that was a disaster for Republicans. "What happened to the values voters?" Parsley insists that they didn't go away; they just became what he calls "integrity voters," meaning that "they stood up and said regardless of what you espouse with your rhetoric, if your lifestyle doesn't produce godliness, you're not going to have our vote."
Parsley takes his self-created opportunity to parlay his own rendering of "integrity" into his speech, melding his prosperity gospel with a message of individualistic entitlement that fuels the Word of Faith movement. Parsley's own wealth is built on the tithes and offerings he solicits through his church, television show, and Web site, but he justifies taking the donations by claiming that he serves God's kingdom by giving some of the money away. He says that "the government cannot do what the church must," insisting that the church must focus on issues of justice in addition to those of "righteousness." He claims that "if every church in Ohio had done what mine has done in the last year, there would not be one hungry person in the state. Not one hungry person." But he doesn't say what it is his church has done; did it take in the homeless or help people find jobs? That is not clear. But the Word of Faith message, the gospel of money and greed is clear, and Parsley implies - though he offers no proof - that his wealth is godly because he redistributes it. "It's time we stop being intimidated by the naysayers who say it's godly to have nothing. That's a lie, that's a lie. It's godly to believe for more than enough because there are always those who don't have enough."
He will not document his generosity, however. Parsley operates his ministry under tight familial control, with a complete lack of transparency and accountability. But mixed up in his contrived message of his own generosity, he implores his audience to be generous to him. That, the Word of Faith credo goes, will result in givers being blessed with their own financial harvest. With the thousands in the audience repeating each phrase, he tells them to "throw your hands up and say, 'Bless me, Lord! I'm a giver. I'm a tither. I'm going to bless your kingdom. And I receive financial abundance!'"
[size=-2]Sarah Posner has covered the religious right for The Nation, The American Prospect, AlterNet, and other publications, and writes The FundamentaList for The American Prospect Online. Her new book is God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPoint Press). [/size]
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
How is what they are doing any different than 99% of all our politicians?
Lie to large groups of people take their money through coersion or the point of a gun and then promise to redistribute it "fairly"?
All of these guys are full of shit. It really dosen't matter the party affiliation.
I wish you guys would take what they say less seriously than thier actual physical actions.
The morons ALWAYS get the most press.
I find it especially humorous they preach defying logic science and reason. Yeah if you're going to steal a lot of money from idiots you kind of have to keep them away from information.
I seriously doubt the next president will be another religious nut. Most of the SC vote for Huck is probably on the Fair Tax. That's about the best thing he's got going for him... it's definately not that he's superbly religious.
Why people vote to control others social values is beyond me.
one big difference is that they're tax exempt. the other is that they claim to be doing god's work. toxic combination.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Yeah I agree It's really sad that these gigantic cult mega cults get the same status as some small religious groups that really do good work in society. It's essentially a shister tax shelter for the 3 named book writers.
semantics are different, but in general. Same type of fraud with politicians as the public speakers in question. They vote thier own salaries, they spend other peoples money liberally, live lavishly on the publics dime and generally wreck up and pollute the world. It honestly dosen't matter what they profess. They are all full of shit. It's why I continually vote for small national government with more power held locally. Less opportunity for Large corruption. Unfortunately, there really aren't any canidates for me.
who comes closest out of all of them?
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
of course, I'm not saying they are, just they are closer in relation, lol...otherwise by my own philosophy, I'd be the anti-christ...shivers...
Stop by:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14678777351&ref=mf
well considering i'm not claiming to hear the voice of god and that he's telling me to take all your money in exchange for rubbing my sweaty forehead on your piece of fabric, i'd say i'm not it.
but thanks for your concern. :rolleyes:
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Why don't they just stick to the Hymnns? Those actually sound pretty cool... kinda Satanic at times, but a nice sound. And Southern Christian Gospel... come on... that stuff is GREAT!!! Stick with the classics and please... quit making music that makes Jesus cry.
Hail, Hail!!!
Which bands are you talking about? Just curious. Name a few.
Dude, Stryper rules. Take it back.
for the least they could possibly do
Hell... i don't know. Those horrid Christian 'Punk' or 'Metal' bands you hear at those Harvest-fests in the park or at the beach, trying to 'recruit' skater and surfer kids. They are the worst. I would rather hear Justin Timberlake singing Mariah Carey's greatest hits than that pollution... that's how bad it is. Turn that shit down.
In my opinion... if you want to get kids into the church... give them the message of Jesus. Don't market His teachings using horrid music disguised as 'The Offspring' to trick them into it.
Hail, Hail!!!
A simple "I don't know. I'm just spouting off", would have sufficed.
I don't know the names of those horrid bands... except, maybe 'Creed'.
Hail, Hail!!!
i'm so smart. i KNEW you were going to say Creed.
That's because that's the only name I know.
...
It'd be like me asking you what the names of Neo-Nazi OI bands. You don't know what their names are... but, you know what they sound like and you know they suck... right?
Hail, Hail!!!
technically I would have to say I think they suck (their subject matter definitely sucks) b/c I haven't heard any of them...and please don't lump creed into christian music...there's a few good bands in that genre and I don't want creed ruining it for everyone
Actually, a more accurate analogy would be me saying "secular" rock music sucks and then citing Nickleback as my proof. Ridiculous, yeah? Or going to the local pub for a few sam adams and some music, hearing some shit garage bands and saying "gee willakers, "secular rock music really sucks balls." Absurd.
Secular Rock Music??? That's funny. You're funny. So, to Christians... that term 'Secular Rock' groups music into 'everything else'... from Pearl Jam to Techno to RAP to Country to Death Metal to Paris Hilton... it's all 'Secular Rock' to you? Sorry if I offended you with my distaste for 'Christian Rock'. Are you saying that if shit garage band were a Christian Rock shit garage band, you would say, "Gee willakers... that Christians Rock music is some mighty fine music"?
Since you are in the know... tell me of some 'Christian Rock' bands that don't suck. Enlighten me... but, please... don't say, 'Petra'.
(Also.. Amy Grant does NOT qualify as 'Rock' to us Secular types)
Hail, Hail!!!
Now you're dissing Petra?!? oh no he didn't ...
for the least they could possibly do
What can I say... I have bad taste in music. I mean... come on... I listen to Pearl Jam.
Hail, Hail!!!
Now there's a nice Christian rock band.
for the least they could possibly do
just b/c you got lucky with one band doesn't give you any cred
Hallelujah, motherfuckers.
Hail, Hail!!!
and listening to... 'Jars Of Clay' will?
...
Remember... I have a Born Again brother that listens to this stuff. He thinks I need to be saved.
What I need to be saved from the crap I have to listen to in his truck.
Hail, Hail!!!
there are a lot of "bad" christian rock bands for sure, just as any genre..but there are some good ones. just don't discount all of them. and no, jars of clay won't give you cred either.
I bet there are.... just like there are probably some good techno house music and some good corporate country music, some good Britney-esque music out there. I just haven't heard any of it, yet.
And I'm not 'bashing' Christians... I'm making fun of 'Christian Rock'. I love Christian Gospel music... it makes me feel really good. And I like most of the Hymnns... but, not the scary ones that reminds me of black hooded Satan worshipers walking through a cemetary at mid-night.
And personally... I think sending a Southern Baptist Gospel Choir to those Harvest-fests (instead of a Sum-41 look alike band singing about lifting up their soul for Jesus) would better suit the recruitment criteria. Don't cheapen Christ's message with some lame sales gimmick... that's all.
Hail, Hail!!!
No, i wouldn't say that at all. i would say they suck. My only point was, not trying to fight with ya because that would be a pretty stupid fight, that "Christian rock" is just as diverse as rock music in general. Some of it, indeed is shite. But to make the statement that "Christian rock" music is all horrible because you heard petra, stryper, or creed, and admitedly cannot name anything else, is ridiculous. If you are not a Christian, obviously you will not be interested in some of the thematic elements. Thats cool. But i would submit to you that i'm quite sure you have enjoyed some "christian rock" music without even knowing it.