Donate to or support
Talk to Action








The Indian River Incident : What You Can Do

link > The "Stop the ACLU Coalition" Shaming Project
How you can help stop "Stop The ACLU" just by sending a few emails



 'Left Behind' video game imageThe Shaming Project

does the violence of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" bother you ? If so, what can you do ? Well, to begin with you can email Jonathan Hutson's stories to people you know. That will help to bring more public scrutiny of the game. Public shaming really works ! Just click on the "email" icon and link at the top or bottom of the story and you'll be taken to a form that will allow you email the first story, The Purpose Driven Life Takers or the latest installment without leaving this site. Thanks. 'Left Behind' video game image




More churches stand up to Ohio dominionists!
By dogemperor Fri Jan 27, 2006 at 01:26:10 PM EST printable version print story
Two weeks ago, I reported on a major precedent in the fight against dominionists hijacking our country and hijacking Christianity.

31 pastors of Columbus area churches joined together to file formal legal complaint with the IRS against two dominionist churches--World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church--at the heart of the "Ohio Restoration Movement" and similar moves to set up "Patriot Pastor" movements in other states (such as Texas).

And now the movement by these pastors--which I affectionately refer to as the "Ohio Rebellion" (in the Rebel Alliance or even Revolutionary sense, of course)...is snowballing.


Per the Columbus Dispatch (which has been the major newspaper covering this story) and a recent mirrored post on Dark Christianity:
Religious leaders who accused two evangelical pastors of illegally playing politics came forward yesterday and reaffirmed their decision to challenge the tax-exempt status of the pastors' churches.

Arrayed around the pulpit at the North Broadway United Methodist Church in Columbus, 22 of 31 pastors who originally filed the complaint with the Internal Revenue Service gathered for a news conference to defend their rare and explosive action. Yesterday, the ranks of signers grew to 33.

And the Rev. Eric Williams, senior pastor of the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, said at least two dozen more ministers from Ohio and across the nation have asked to have their names added to the complaint seeking an IRS investigation into the political activities of the Rev. Rod Parsley, of World Harvest Church in Columbus, and the Rev. Russell Johnson, of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.

"We come from different traditions, we come perhaps from different theological points of view, we come from different experiences, but we all come together around this one single concern," Williams said, referring to the pastors representing nine Judeo-Christian denominations.

The pastors want the IRS to determine whether the two evangelical megachurches headed by Parsley and Johnson, along with three affiliated organizations, should lose their tax-exempt status for participating in partisan politics.


The original action--which I reported on here on Talk2Action--by these pastors is in itself historic; to the best of any researchers' knowledge, this is the first time a complaint against a church for electioneering has ever been filed by other members of the clergy.  

The fact that other clergymen, both in Ohio and nationwide, are now joining the Ohio Rebellion is most encouraging indeed.  (This is exactly the sort of action that is needed in mainstream churches, IMHO.)

True to form, the pastors of the dominionist churches have already begun demonising the Ohio Rebellion and the clergy behind it, calling them literally unholy:

Until yesterday, only about nine of the complaining pastors -- whom Johnson (of Fairfield Christian) labeled "an unholy alliance" -- had been identified. But they revealed themselves yesterday under pressure from the public and Parsley, who last week called them the "anonymous 31." The pastors said they acted as individuals and not on behalf of their churches.

The Rev. David W. Meredith of the United Methodist Church said "there was never any intention to keep our names secret" and it was difficult to assemble "very busy clergy" for a public event.

In a statement released last night, Parsley said, "I welcome the news that the liberal clergy members who filed these baseless allegations against us have decided to publicly identify themselves. We've been praying for these clergy since all this began and we look forward to the opportunity to pray for them by name."


(Although it may not seem like it to people outside the dominionist community, Parsley actually directly threatened the pastors making legal complaint.  In neopentecostal churches, especially those into "Third Wave" theology (of which World Harvest Church is an embracer thereof), "word-faith" movements and the "spiritual warfare" aspects of dominion theology, one extremely common method of specifically "cursing people in the name of Christ" is to get groups of people to pray over the names of "targets" for all manner of harm to come over them until they convert (and to will all manner of harm to come to them for the specific purpose of bending them to the dominionists' will).  I've detailed the specific process here.)

Needless to say, the dominionist pastors are trying to play "But if you'd just talked to us...", but the pastors behind the Ohio Rebellion are having none of it.  And, for the most part, their congregations are behind them:

Parsley said if the pastors had come to him personally, "rather than air their grievances in the media, we certainly would have quickly put their fears to rest."

But the Rev. John Edgar, of the United Methodist Church, said, "It's not a conversation about whether or not we should have gone to Pastor Parsley ahead of time. It's about whether or not there's a violation of the IRS code . . . Clearly, there are significant violations. They knew it and the person they were helping (Blackwell) is someone who should have enforced the laws that were being broken."

Most of the pastors who assembled yesterday said they have told their congregations they signed the complaint and were overwhelmingly supported.

"When I told my congregation on Sunday during our worship service, there was a round of spontaneous applause," said the Rev. Kim Keethler Ball, of the American Baptist Church.

"As American Baptists, one of our core values, like the other traditions here, is that we value separation of church and state. For us, this issue falls in that realm and, precisely, (in the complaint) the issue is running a political campaign from church for a particular candidate."

The Rev. Lee Anne Reat, of the Episcopal Church, said she told her congregants she signed the complaint during her sermon Sunday.

"I talked about the need for a broader voice to be heard in the religious domain: a voice that takes into account the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans and the freedoms that we enjoy as people of faith -- freedoms that were an original gift from God. The response from my congregation was that there were a lot of tears, tears of pride. They are very much in support of the action that this group has taken. We stand proudly as people of faith, not an unholy alliance."


We need to see a lot more like this, but this is an encouraging start here. :3



Display:
Thought I'd re-post the link since it may have gotten buried in the previous thread. This news wasn't limited to Columbus. The New York Times (TimesSelect at this point) published a very decent article on the challenge - an exciting development since getting the news out to a wider audience is essential. Even if IRS doesn't do an audit, this kind of coverage will alert more people to the problem, help to educate them about the distinction between the Religious Right "Christians" and mainline clergy, and let the Right know that they no longer have the freedom to operate freely without fear of repercussions. Moderates and liberals tend to "turn the other cheek" and avoid fights. Doesn't work with this aggressive group.

by Psyche on Fri Jan 27, 2006 at 06:24:31 PM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Author of Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill and the "College of Prayer International"
The Uganda New Vision reports the latest on David Bahati, the MP behind the proposed draconian "Anti-Homosexuality Bill"; he was among attendees at a......
By Richard Bartholomew (2 comments)
Rick Warren Repudiates Martin Ssempa
From Warren Throckmorton's blog: STATEMENT FROM PASTOR RICK & KAY WARREN REGARDING ACTIVITIES OF MARTIN SSEMPA IN UGANDA Martin Ssempa does not represent me,......
By Richard Bartholomew (2 comments)
Dobson And Destiny: Will Religious Right Leader Turn His Focus To Electioneering?
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family (FOF), is not a happy camper these days.  "What is happening in Washington right now is......
By Rob Boston (4 comments)
Resource Page on John Hagee and Christian Zionism
Special Focus:  Christian Zionism Following are a list of articles on Christian Zionism that have been posted on Talk2action.org over a period of several......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Progressive Catholics in Maine Push Back on Question One
On Tuesday November 3rd, voters in Maine can either vote yes or no on "Question One," a potential people's veto of recently enacted legislation......
By Frank Cocozzelli (7 comments)
Renewed Controversy Over Hagee's Sermons
Hagee's controversial sermons are again an issue in the aftermath of Elie Wiesel's appearance at Hagee's church.  This was further escalated after Max Blumenthal......
By Rachel Tabachnick (0 comments)
Back to Israel, Back To Africa ? : The Economist on Pro-Israel Anti-Semitism
As The Economist's Democracy In America blog notes , support for Israel doesn't preclude anti-Semitism: Bigotry comes in many forms, and can easily be......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
CBN Scrubs "Witch Candy" Blog Post
The Christian Broadcasting Network has caved in to scoffers and mockers and scrubbed a blog post which explained the dangers of Halloween - specifically,......
By Richard Bartholomew (8 comments)
Rick Warren Must Denounce Antigay Bill in Uganda
We here at Political Research Associates are calling on Pastor Rick Warren to denounce a bill now being debated in Uganda that criminalizes homosexuality.......
By abbyscher (1 comment)
Family Member Stupak: "I am not trying to kill health reform"
Blue Dog Democrats in Congress played a "magnificent" role in blocking health care reform during the Clinton administration. And, under the "courageous" and "smart"......
By Bruce Wilson (2 comments)
Extreme Lobbying : Southern Baptists' Richard Land Defends Nazi Analogies
Earlier this month I criticized some offensive comments about health-care reform made by Richard Land, the top lobbyist for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).......
By Rob Boston (5 comments)
An Open Letter To Elie Wiesel
Dear Mr. Wiesel, Your years of tireless campaigning for human rights and against anti-Semitism have earned our deepest respect. For this reason we have......
By Rachel Tabachnick (1 comment)
Donohue, Scalia, and Religious Supremacy
On October 7, 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of a seven-foot cross currently standing in the Mojave National Preserve......
By Frank Cocozzelli (6 comments)
Worldwide Biblical Zionists
This is Part Three in a series of articles on why we need J Street, and a new perspective on the meaning of "pro-Israel."......
By Rachel Tabachnick (1 comment)
Top Ten Reasons Christian Zionism "Impairs Israel's Interests"
This is Part Two in a series about the dangers of Christian Zionism, and why organizations like J Street are badly needed to provide......
By Rachel Tabachnick (0 comments)

US News & World Report Showcases Creationist Ray Comfort
US News and World Report's Dan Gilgoff has charitably provided evangelist Ray Comfort a media platform in the form of a US News & World "exclusive" through which Comfort defends his efforts to distribute,......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Atheist billboard in Central Florida
The organization "Atheists of Florida" sponsored a billboard promoting atheism in Lakeland, Florida.  I, however, have some concerns. ......
By ArchaeoBob (1 comment)
Transcript: Billy Graham and Richard Nixon, February 21, 1973
The following is my own transcript of a 20 minute phone conversation between Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, on February 23, 1973. As far as I am aware this is the only publicly available,......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Rifqa Bary being sent back to Ohio now
Well, there's a change in this case.  After the judge gets immigration documents and so on from the parents, he will send her back. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
The War on The War on Christmas Goes To Pot
The first day of Fall could be considered the official launch date for the annual war on the war on Christmas, which represents a significant part of the the American Family Association business model......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
School Officials off the hook
Today it is reported that the judge excused the school officials who violated the agreement they had over separation of Church and State. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
Dominionists trying to outlaw birth control
Well, they're at it again in Florida. ......
By ArchaeoBob (2 comments)
No Danger for Rifqa Bary
The FDLE just completed an investigation and found "no credible reports of threats" against Rifqa Bary. ......
By ArchaeoBob (1 comment)
Truth hitting the mainstream!
I've despaired of ever seeing anything critical or exposing Dominionism hit the mainstream press.  There is now an exception. ......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
Extremism?
The term extremism is currently in vogue to describe hate groups and other malcontents listed as such by knowledgeable monitors like SPLC and others in the T2A sidebar, but while we all know what......
By Jay Taber (2 comments)
My Netroots Nation Panel Talk
Where Do We Stand in the Bright Light of History? Netroots Nation August 14, 2009 Thank You, Professor Ledewitz, for initiating this discussion of a progressive vision for church and state -- and Netroots......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Transcript, Jan. 18, 2009 Steven Anderson Sermon Excerpt
Note: the sermon excerpt video and transcript below, from a January 18, 2009 sermon by pastor Steven Anderson of the Tempe, Arizona Independent Baptist Church, begins at approximately 21:30 into Anderson's  one hour, four......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
More anti-Muslim provocation
The local paper reports that students in Gainsville, Florida are wearing T-shirts with "ISLAM IS OF THE DEVIL" printed on them. ......
By ArchaeoBob (1 comment)
Rifqa Bary to stay in Florida
The young ex-Muslim girl who ran away from her parents will be allowed to stay in Florida.  The news article has strong indications that this is purely political. ......
By ArchaeoBob (10 comments)
Framing Fascism
In her recent article, Sara Robinson argues the United States is well on its way to becoming a totalitarian, fascist state. As evidence of this inevitability, she cites current town hall disruptions and threats......
By Jay Taber (11 comments)
Rock Paper Scissors
GOP-sponsored vigilantism has happened before. It is an integral part of domestic terrorism aimed at ethnic minorities and other sub-populations targeted by White Nationalism and Christian Fundamentalism. Catholics, Jews, Blacks, and Native Americans have......
By Jay Taber (2 comments)
PA Shooter's Church taught: "You can commit mass murder, then still go to heaven"
George Sodini, the 48-year-old misogynist who shot up a Pennsylvania Gym full of women on Aug. 4th, killing three women before turning the gun on himself, believed God wouldn't judge him by his actions.......
By Stacey Tallitsch (0 comments)
Vatican grilling Catholic sisters
While I am not Catholic, I accidentally ran across this article which is of interest to us on this blog - it involves Vatican actions that concern attempts at political control... ......
By ArchaeoBob (3 comments)
Sect Controls Women's Destinies
by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer On The Issues Magazine Had I not escaped one night five years ago with my eight children from the manipulation and control of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of......
By On The Issues Magazine (4 comments)
The Religion of Fear
<h2> Living on Guard</h2> In The Religion of Fear, Jason C. Bivins examines conservative evangelical culture as it intersects with America's love affair with spectacular violence and the popular culture of fright that has......
By Jay Taber (2 comments)
Monvee: Profiles of the Mega-churched.
[ed: updated from diary section] Over the last 20 years, a consolidation from the small protestant church has given way to the "Mega-church" where community fellowship goes to die, and prosperity-gospel-rock-concerts are born. Just......
By Stacey Tallitsch (10 comments)
Woman Shoots ex-Husband in Groin, To "Let The Demons Out"
An investigating detective read an entry from a three ring binder, written shortly before the crime: "I know now what I have to do. There are three demonic spirits in (Dr. Loher), one assigned......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Separation of Church and State attacked in Florida
A Central Florida organization, "The Community Issues Council" has funded a number of billboards attacking the separation of Church and State, using "Quotes" from some of the Founding Fathers. ......
By ArchaeoBob (5 comments)
Radio host: We're only united through Christianity
Most of you in Indiana may know about Peter Heck, who hosts a daily radio show in Kokomo and puts out a column that appears in several newspapers across the state and in OneNewsNow.......
By Christian Dem in NC (1 comment)
Cindy Jacobs--the new leader of the NAR
You may remember that Lou Engle has made moves of late to position himself as the new power in the religious right.  He's a member of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, a group......
By Christian Dem in NC (2 comments)
James F. Linzey Espouses anti-Semitic, White Racialist Conspiracy Theory
James F. Linzey is a prominent, active duty chaplain in the United States military. Linzey has stated that he was the command chaplain for the Operation Iraqi Freedom troop mobilization prior to the US......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
White Supremacist named as Holocaust Museum Shooter
An 89 year old, vehemently antiSemitic  Ron Paul supporter has been named by police as the gunman who opened fire in the Holocaust Museum shortly after noon today: Gunman, guard shot at Holocaust museum......
By CynthiaGee (0 comments)
From Focus On The Family to La Familia Michoacana
I didn't think my work on the religous right would converge with what I'm doing on the narcoguerra in Mexico...but here it is: the Faith-Based Cartel. ......
By julydogs (2 comments)
A Pagan Among the Mainstream Churches in Boise
The participation by an "out" Pagan in the Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force proves that some religions will accept and welcome help from all quarters, in recognition that we are all human.  The glaring......
By Chiawana (3 comments)
Clarkson on CounterSpin
Hear me discuss the Tiller assasination this week on the nationally syndicated radio program CounterSpin, the progressive media criticism show produced by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).  You can also listen via Mp3......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)

More Diaries...


Donate to or support
Talk to Action

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
(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)