It is helpful for Rev. Ortiz to make it clear for us.

by Frederick Clarkson on Fri Dec 02, 2005 at 08:17:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

In fact, a lot of dominionist churches actually go one step further--in that any church group that is not expressly allied with them, and everyone else for that matter, is a card-carrying devil worshipper.

Yes, I'm serious.  No, I am not making this up (in the immortal words of Dave Barry).

In the worldview of churches in the dominionist movement that are into the whole "spiritual warfare" thing in particular, they quite literally divide the world into two sides--themselves and fellow dominionists as Good Guys, and everyone else as in literal league with Satan.  If you don't attend a dominionist-friendly church, you are attending a "lukewarm" church in their eyes (and this is if you're going to a moderate Protestant church) and thus "God will spit you out"; liberal churches like the Unitarians, UCC and American Friends Service Committee, as well as non-Protestant Christian traditions like Catholics and the various Eastern Rite traditions, are seen as forms of paganism and thus Satan worship (in fact, the only Friends groups that most dominionists tolerate are the Evangelical Friends International which are, for all intents and purposes, essentially "Pentecostal Friends" in that they have taken nearly all the trappings of evangelical churches and have more in common both culturally and religiously with pente/charismatic groups than with the larger Friends committee); atheism is seen as a religion in and of itself, specifically Satan worship; Jews are tolerated as one of "God's chosen people" but are still going to hell unless they convert to "Messianic Judaism" and become kosher pentes (and this presumably applies to the Samaritans as well); other Abrahamic faiths (Islam/Bahai/Druze/etc.) are all condemned as forms of devil worship and specifically as "mockeries of the gospel by Satan"; all non-Christian, non-Jewish faiths are condemned as devil worship (including Deism) and even being an agnostic is considered devil worship.

People who walk away from the group are especially condemned--in these churches it is explicitly taught that people who leave or criticise the church are committing blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and thus committing the one sin God will not pardon.  (Seeing as that entire verse was referring to claiming that the acts of Jesus were the result of a literal bargain with Beelzebub--not merely walking away or criticising--this gives you an example of the sorts of "scripture twisting" that go on.)

Being a good dominionist isn't a total escape from things, either.  Among other things, being gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered (either being actively gay, or even acknowledging the possibility that one may be gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered) is considered a form of devil worship and people who leave as a result of "reparative therapy" not working are considered to have "rejected Jesus"--in fact, gay people are rarely referred to as gay but as "Sodomites" (even though the actual sin of Sodom was violation of the laws of hospitality, not homosexuality); people who have abortions (or even use certain forms of birth control such as the IUD (which prevents implantation and fertilisation) and both the pill and Plan B (which prevent fertilisation, and may prevent implantation) are considered to have engaged in "Molech worship" (specifically referring to the sacrifice of children to a Babylonian deity in the Old Testament) and abortion in general is called "Molech Worship"; people who associate with people outside the church or in fact listen to any media not approved by the church are "opening doorways for Satan", etc.  Feminists, too, are accused of being possessed of the "spirit of Jezebel" and of trying to infect the world with a "Jezebel spirit".

Progressives are likewise condemned, with general rants that they support Satan because they support "Sodomites" (gays) and "Molech worshippers" (abortion providers) and "Jezebels" (feminists).

by dogemperor on Sat Dec 03, 2005 at 09:00:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]