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Christian Coalition sets agenda for 2006
By Lorie Johnson Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 01:06:19 PM EST printable version print story
The Christian Coalition announced its legislative goals for 2006.
topic:
Of the ten goals cited, four of them are overtly religious in intent- and, if enacted into law, would further corrode the Establishment Clause.

Three others are meant to further their goals to make any kind of abortion impossible to obtain, including crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.

The final three goals are intended to make the Right's hold on our government permanent.

It is clear that the political setbacks they are suffering are in no way diluting their resolve for turning our country into a theocracy. We should keep an eye on the development of these goals, and do what we can to stop them.




Display:
These are important signposts of things to watch.

Scariest -- the continuing false assertion that their agenda derives from the will of the people: The 2004 election has shown that America has become more conservative and concerned about the deterioration of the culture and Americans want a change.

And the sole thing to agree upon: That, according to Roberta Combs, president, the placement of Samuel Alito on the U.S. Supreme Court ... will determine the course of American culture for at least a generation.

by cyncooper on Wed Jan 18, 2006 at 09:38:01 PM EST


I wish there were a way to post billboards or make commercials with this level of detail so that people would be forced to see what's going on...

Particularly troubling to me is #9:

9. Passing in the U.S. Senate Congressman Hostettler's Legislation Which Passed in House 242-182 Protecting 10 Commandments in Response to Infamous Supreme Court Decision in January 2005  The legislation would prohibit use of funds to enforce judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana's ruling.

If you can't block or remove rules you don't like, then just make sure that they can't be inforced...

-Emily
emilywynn.blogspot.com


by EmilyWynn8 on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 04:25:22 PM EST


We have to keep a close eye on all the Dominationists. Thanks much for helping us keep up to date.

I was fascinated by their third priority::

Making Permanent the 2001-2003 Federal Tax Cuts. The Christian Coalition is supporting efforts in the 109th Congress to finally make permanent the tax cuts passed during the years 2001 and 2003 including the increase in the child tax credits and the elimination of the marriage penalty tax.

I support child tax credits. I support the elimination of the marriage tax penality even though I can never take advantage of it because I am legally kept from marrying. However, I find it odd that the Christian Coalition thinks that the third most important priority for religious conservatives is to make the rich richer.

This doesn't seem to be a very Christian point of view to me, or did I miss the Bible passage about how it's our holy duty to help the rich?  

by Silver on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 05:02:30 PM EST

Sometimes I think that certain sects have special Bibles with extra subliminal verses that only attending their services enables you to see and hear.

Sort of like "They Live!" and the magic glasses.

by Lorie Johnson on Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 08:50:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Actually, if you want to know where all that comes from...it's yet More Fun with Scripture-Twisting.

Specificially, dominion theology (again, I am speaking largely from where the stuff stems from in pentecostal churches, you folks in the SBC who are largely getting this second and third hand may find your mileage may differ) in pente groups encompasses word-faith or "name it and claim it" theology.

"Name it and Claim it", aka "prosperity gospel", actually pretty explicitly teaches that if you are poor you, or one of your ancestors, has done Something Really Bad and Sinful and either you or your ancestors have let "demons of poverty oppress you".  Their theology also teaches pretty explicitly that "there is no reason that a child of God should be poor".

If you are poor, you are generally very strongly encouraged to spend almost all your waking hours in the church or a church-promoted political dominionist group, go often to "deliverance services" where faith-healers "exorcise the generational curse of poverty" from a family, and donate not only your mandatory regular tithes of ten percent but "seed-faith offerings" of anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of pre-tax income, with claims that "God will increase this tenfold".

(Yes, you read that right.  A lot of the name-it-and-claim-it preachers popular in pente dominionist circles, like Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Hagin and Creflo Dollar, actually promote God as a divine pyramid scheme.  I couldn't make this up if I tried.)

If you're still poor after all that, you're usually accused of having some "secret sin" in your life, or of having something innocuous (like a peace symbol, or Nike shoes, or your kids are playing with Pokemon or Cabbage Patch Kids) that is a demon-infested "doorway for Satan", and you have to get rid of it and devote even more of your time and money to the church.

Or, of course, you're also often accused of not having enough faith, or not "naming and claiming" enough.

(Does it show that I grew up in a dominionist church that was really, really heavy into the "name it and claim it" BS?  Or that this was about the only thing my mother and father would regularly fight about (when my mom was wanting to give over 50 percent of our pre-tax income when we were so poor we were running up our credit cards at salvage stores because that was the only place we could afford to buy groceries)?  Or that they'd promote this stuff to poor people in the soup kitchen they ran?)

Anyways, yeah.  Dominion theology in pente churches does some interesting bits of scripture-twisting (and sometimes not even that--more often than not it's based on "rhema", "revelations from God" that are not in the Bible per se but are still seen as a new gospel by pente groups, especially by the AoG and neopentecostal groups) to essentially have a "Biblical" policy of "Screw the poor, they're all sinners anyways".

There are times I am quite convinced that, if there is anything to the Second Coming at all, Jesus would throw the lot of them out again.  

I am also, sadly, convinced that if there is anything to the Second Coming at all that Jesus would end up being killed all over again and we'd be wearing little nooses or M-16's around our necks 2000 years from now. :(

by dogemperor on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 03:50:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]





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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by up to 1/2 million people. See our site section featuring Over 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game. Media inquiries click here
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