WWW 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




Only in America?
By joelpWed Feb 01, 2006 at 07:39:14 PM EST
topic: Analysis of Christian Right section:Shadow War On Mainline Churches printable version print this story

Political candidates vetted and controlled by powerful religious leaders? Small cells of dedicated but covert believers operating within the upper reaches of government to pursue ideological agendas? Public declarations pledging to destroy government and rule only by God's laws? Sounds like a stereotypical Hollywood or cable news description of Islamic terrorists on the march...

But, in fact, it's right here in America. Jeff Sharlet's expose of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback in the current issue of Rolling Stone (entitled God's Senator) reveals more details on these special interest groups and blatantly anti-democratic elected officials in Washington today, and the similarities between them and the mullahs and terrorist "sleeper cells" they vilify.

Sharlet's article contains interesting info on the Religious Right's latest favorite conservative Senator and potential Presidential candidate Brownback, who has received public and monetary support from an A list of Religious Right leaders and organizations including Harold Bredesen (described as the "spiritual father of Pat Robertson"), James Dobson, (Focus on the Family), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women of America), Rod Parsely (Thee Center for Moral Clarity) and David Barton (Wallbuilders).

Brownback seeks something far more radical: not faith-based politics but faith in place of politics. In his dream America, the one he believes both the Bible and the Constitution promise, the state will simply wither away. In its place will be a country so suffused with God and the free market that the social fabric of the last hundred years -- schools, Social Security, welfare -- will be privatized or simply done away with. There will be no abortions; sex will be confined to heterosexual marriage. Men will lead families, mothers will tend children, and big business and the church will take care of all.

The personal information on Brownback is interesting, but some of the most startling info in the article pertains to the tactics, methods and goals of the American Theocratic Right.

One of the little-known strengths of the Christian right lies in its adoption of the "cell" -- the building block historically used by small but determined groups to impose their will on the majority. Seventy years ago, an evangelist named Abraham Vereide founded a network of "God-led" cells comprising senators and generals, corporate executives and preachers. Vereide believed that the cells -- God's chosen, appointed to power -- could construct a Kingdom of God on earth with Washington as its capital. They would do so "behind the scenes," lest they be accused of pride or a hunger for power, and "beyond the din of vox populi," which is to say, outside the bounds of democracy. To insiders, the cells were known as the Family, or the Fellowship. To most outsiders, they were not known at all.

"Communists use cells as their basic structure," declares a confidential Fellowship document titled "Thoughts on a Core Group." "The mafia operates like this, and the basic unit of the Marine Corps is the four-man squad. Hitler, Lenin and many others understood the power of a small group of people." Under Reagan, Fellowship cells quietly arranged meetings between administration officials and leaders of Salvadoran death squads, and helped funnel military support to Siad Barre, the brutal dictator of Somalia, who belonged to a prayer cell of American senators and generals.

One very interesting attitude these elected leaders seem to hold is that their constituency actually consists of not thousands or millions of voting citizens, but only ONE - God. Would this info be of interest to the thousands who vote for or against these candidates if they were told directly that, if elected, their views and interest meant nothing, and the candidate would only concern himself with his interpretation of God's will? Rather convenient accountability, I would say - is God a registered voter in their district (and, if so, to what party...)?

They were striving, ultimately, for what Coe calls "Jesus plus nothing" -- a government led by Christ's will alone. In the future envisioned by Coe, everything -- sex and taxes, war and the price of oil -- will be decided upon not according to democracy or the church or even Scripture. The Bible itself is for the masses; in the Fellowship, Christ reveals a higher set of commands to the anointed few. It's a good old boy's club blessed by God. Brownback even lived with other cell members in a million-dollar, red-brick former convent at 133 C Street that was subsidized and operated by the Fellowship. Monthly rent was $600 per man -- enough of a deal by Hill standards that some said it bordered on an ethical violation, but no charges were ever brought.

Brownback still meets with the prayer cell every Tuesday evening. He and his "brothers," he says, are "bonded together, faith and souls." The rules forbid Brownback from revealing the names of his fellow members, but those in the cell likely include such conservative stalwarts as Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee, former Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma and Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma doctor who has advocated the death penalty for abortion providers. Fellowship documents suggest that some 30 senators and 200 congressmen occasionally attend the group's activities, but no more than a dozen are involved at Brownback's level.

I am reminded of bin Laden's organization of the 911 hijackers: 4-5 men per cell, and only one actually knew the entire plan and ultimate goal. They were told to blend in, shave their beards, etc. These American Religious Fundamentalists KNOW their views are unpopular, and would NOT be successful in a transparent democratic system, so they stay quiet publicly, fly under the radar and wait...

Another of these "cells", which includes Brownback's supporters listed above, is battling that democratic and pluralistic Constitutional value (and the Right's newest "N" word"), "secularism":

Every Tuesday, before his evening meeting with his prayer brothers, Brownback chairs another small cell -- one explicitly dedicated to altering public policy. It is called the Values Action Team, and it is composed of representatives from leading organizations on the religious right. James Dobson's Focus on the Family sends an emissary, as does the Family Research Council, the Eagle Forum, the Christian Coalition, the Traditional Values Coalition, Concerned Women for America and many more. Like the Fellowship prayer cell, everything that is said is strictly off the record, and even the groups themselves are forbidden from discussing the proceedings. It's a little "cloak-and-dagger," says a Brownback press secretary. The VAT is a war council, and the enemy, says one participant, is "secularism."

The VAT coordinates the efforts of fundamentalist pressure groups, unifying their message and arming congressional staffers with the data and language they need to pass legislation. Working almost entirely in secret, the group has directed the fights against gay marriage and for school vouchers, against hate-crime legislation and for "abstinence only" education. The VAT helped win passage of Brownback's broadcast decency bill and made the president's tax cuts a top priority. When it comes to "impacting policy," says Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, "day to day, the VAT is instrumental."

This article contains very interesting and ominous insights into tactics that are regularly attributed to "evil doers" who "hate our freedom". But it's just like cries against "activist Judges" so regularly heard from the Right: their real complaint is not that these judges are "activists," but that they are not FAR-RIGHT activists. These movements are fully committed to "ends justify means" operations. Democracy and the Constitution mean nothing - who cares if you're LEGAL, as long as you are RIGHT.

Sound familiar, Mr. Bush?


Los Angeles-based artist Joel Pelletier is the creator of "American Fundamentalists (Christ's Entry into Washington in 2008)", an 8x14 foot painting depicting American religious, political and economic fundamentalists. He has been touring the US with the painting talking about "American Fundamentalism and the Threat to Democracy and Freedom of Faith." In March 2006 the painting itself goes to Washington DC; other confirmed 2006 locations include Buffalo, Detroit and Minneapolis (more at americanfundamentalists.com)




Display:
I sincerely believe that we should utilize the 'single constituent' angle to start chipping away at these 'cells'. If more people realized that their elected officials do not care one whit about the needs of the people, and only listen to a single 'constituent'- God, they might start questioning other motives of these people.

Just like a post below, where deeper reading of the Bible reveals that life begins at first breath, we need to start revealing and exploiting the weaknesses in their arguements.

by Lorie Johnson on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 10:51:54 AM EST


A poster on my Live Journal community found some commentary about and by Jeff Sharlet on the World MagBlog. It's the usual stuff, until Sharlet comes in at comment #26:

The biggest irony here is in calling me biblically illiterate, when the conversation in which this exchange occurred began with me wanting to talk with Brownback about the passages in Leviticus and Romans most commonly cited in defense of an anti-homosexuality view. I know my Bible reasonably well, though only in English, so I spent some time with some Bible scholars who read Greek, Hebrew, Latin, etc. I thought Brownback and I would have a good, thick conversation.

But he didn't know the scriptures. This man who has legislated against homosexuality based on the Bible did not know the biblical basis of his own arguments. So he fell back on a definition of "natural law" that should offend any serious Catholic, absurd social science about Sweden that's been utterly debunked, and bland recitation of one of the few Bible verses he does know. THAT should be the scandal.

Very interesting...

by Lorie Johnson on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 11:04:57 AM EST


Thanks Joel for linking and quoting from Sharlet's article. I hope you do not mind that I linked to your post and used some of the quotes in a post at the Christian Alliance for Progress.

by Carlos on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 12:06:54 PM EST
That's what we're here for (and although I certainly quoted liberally from the article, there's plenty more there that should be of interest)! BTW, Jeff Sharlet is an editor at the terrific NYU Center for Religion and Media blog the revealer

by joelp on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 12:32:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]


I can't thank you enough for your article and for the link to the Rolling Stones piece, which, otherwise, I'd never have seen.  I read the entire piece and was astounded at how deeply the theocratic cancer in our body politic has spread.  I'm more energized than ever to keep working in my own limited way to expose and oppose this cancer and get others to do the same.  

I don't completely share the view of many participants in this blog that better organizing within the electoral system is the main thing that's called for, although I certainly would not oppose efforts in that realm.  I just feel that broad independent and conscious political action of people in our  milliions in the streets, as it were -- for "in the streets" should include in the churches, workplaces, coffee shops, unions, etc.-- stand a better chance of driving out the theocrats than by relying on elections.  However, the two approaches are surely not mutually exclusive, but one of the lessons I learned in the sixties was that what we did in the streets had much more to do with ending the war in Vietnam than what was done on Capitol Hill.

Watch for what happens in tomorrow, Feb. 4, as "The World Can't Wait" movement rallies in D.C. in opposition to the horrors we all here believe should be resisted.

by larry jones on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:35:27 PM EST

Doesn't happen in workplaces and coffee shops - and even in churches* ?
Democracy happens everywhere !  -  And, the Christian right has sought cultural and electoral gains in tandem. If democracy is relegated to some special occasion that happens at best once or twice in a year, isn't it dead ?

* the Christian right has been using the avenue for about two decades now  - though it's important to know relevant electoral laws governing this.

by Bruce Wilson on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 10:41:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]


...about the "controversy" stirred up by the Brownback "friuts" comment in this artiocle (see Fred's posting on this): You bet, the whole Brownback "fruits" is another example of blaming or focusing on the messenger to distract the true point of the story. The Rolling Stone article on Brownback highlighted an ultimately minor player in an ENOURMOUSLY HORRIBLE major web of far right political organization, originally designed by a handful of men, created from the ground up in the form of these little "cells". As I started casually reading the article, I found myself increasingly agitated and ultimately horrified by what Sharlet was  exposing. I could sense that he saw the enourmity of the story, and that it extended FAR beyond "Brownback Mountain", but (as Fred and Bruce suggests) the implications are so enourmous that it is almost impossible to put them into context next to this very small-minded man.

It makes me long for Hunter S. Thompson, who through a surrealistic fictionalized account of reality was able to communicate the true reality he saw, and outrage he felt. I get similar comments about my painting - the info and people are there, but the URGENCY in the colors and style communicate even more. Words are NEVER enough, which is why we need to come at this from many differnt angkes and media.

Ultimately, the Rolling Stone article was a failure in its attempt to communicate and shake up its readership and the media, because the scope of the article, and the movements it hints at, are truly TOO LARGE for 100 issues of the Rolling Stone. Or 100 books. Or a VERY large painting. So we have to keep piling it on, creating our OWN grass rroots movement made up of "cells", of which Talk2Action is one.

BTW, I do love inventing words - the religious right's arguments against plurality is bigotry pure and simple, but as long as they can cling to the "god's word" argument for that contradictory and very poorly edited volume, I suggest this form of bigotry/racism (since most religions are culturally hereditary) should be called FAITHISM.

by joelp on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 07:16:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]



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)

Short Takes
TFN Insider: The Texas Freedom Network reveals that "An intelligent design" supporter of today is a creationist with a thesaurus." Religion Dispatches: The immoderate,......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Holiday Harangue: Utah Lawmaker Wants To Mandate `Merry Christmas'
The Religious Right's annual whine-fest about the "War on Christmas" is coming along right on schedule. James Dobson has issued his list of "naughty......
By Rob Boston (1 comment)
Organizing in Response to Fred Phelps
Rev. Fred Phelps, the vile anti-gay activist and head of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, will make several stops in Boston on December 12th,......
By Frederick Clarkson (6 comments)
Creationism: The Latest In Military Suicide Prevention
Here at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), we get countless complaints about religiously based mental health and counseling programs, which, over the past......
By Chris Rodda (5 comments)
Short Takes
The Public Eye:  Chip Berlet shows how knowledge of the various submovements and ideologies of the Religious Right, matters. (As distinct from the mindless......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Loony List: James Dobson Tells Us Who's Been Naughty And Nice
The day after Thanksgiving is "Black Friday," the traditional start of the December holiday shopping season. Nervous retailers are watching the bottom line, fretful......
By Rob Boston (4 comments)
Revelation of an Afterword
Jeff Sharlet has let the cat out of the bag by posting his Afterword to Dispatches from the Religious Left at The Revealer (the......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
The Oogedy-Boogedy Gap, Defined
It was not so long ago that liberals and Democrats were wringing their hands about how more deeply religious voters were tending to vote......
By Frederick Clarkson (16 comments)
Why Religious Heritage Battles Matter
For a variety of reasons, folks of different ideologies want to "claim" the Founding. If their heritage gave it to us, as the theory......
By Jonathan Rowe (0 comments)
Documentary Explores Evangelicals for Obama and Dissatisfaction with Republican Party
The UK's Channel 4 has just broadcast a documentary about American evangelical dissatisfaction with the Republican Party and increasing support for the Democrats. Entitled......
By Richard Bartholomew (1 comment)
What Obama Owes Catholic Voters
The Catholic Right-Part, Seventy-three Some Catholics think President-elect Obama owes American Catholics something for providing him with a 54% plurality. As Frederick Clarkson recently......
By Frank Cocozzelli (4 comments)
The Religious Right's 'War on Christmas' Began Centuries Ago
As Talk To Action writer Frederick Clarkson observes, proclamations from Bill O'Reilly, claiming the existence of a leftist assault on Christmas, are "part of......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
Blaming the War on Christmas on -- You Know Who
As we enter into the season of overheated and half-baked claims about the desacrilization of the Jewish and Christian holiday season, led by Bill......
By Frederick Clarkson (5 comments)
Short Takes
Daily Kos: Diarist John Campanelli shows what's wrong with next-generation Religious Right leader Huck's take on gay rights. Buzzflash:  Bill Berkowitz surfaces the deep......
By Frederick Clarkson (3 comments)
Beating of Jewish Soldier at Fort Benning Turns Allies Into Foes
Just over a year ago, Sgt. Brian Kresge of the website Jews in Green had nothing but praise for Mikey Weinstein, founder and president......
By Chris Rodda (0 comments)
What's next for the Religious Right? Back to the Future.
After the collapse of the Moral Majority in the late `80's and the during the rise of the Christian Coalition, another movement, (or better description) of hysteria was sweeping over the country. It became......
By Stacey Tallitsch (1 comment)
After the election
Some observations I've made, now that the election has been over for several days (admittedly based only a few samples- but I think that they are telling): Unlike when Bush won (when conservatives were......
By ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
Shorter Dobson - Post-Election Special
James Dobson devoted two half-hour radio shows to his post-Obama victory thoughts along with a cadre of six other religious conservatives.  Here is a brief summary of their discussion... ......
By tacitus (5 comments)
Katherine Harris & Ken Malone, October 3, 2008
(what this story is really about): this post is an adjunct to a larger story, Katherine Harris, Sarah Palin Linked To Same Prayer Warfare Network which explores the fact that both Katherine Harris and......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Ignorance and Arrogance
Ignorance results primarily from two sources: poverty and privilege. Either denied an education or entitled to power, this isolation that enables ignorance breeds arrogance, and our society suffers from both.In an interview on American......
By Jay Taber (3 comments)
Imagining a Witchcraft-Fighting Vice President
Other recent Talk To Action stories on this subject Katherine Harris, Sarah Palin Linked To Same Prayer Warfare Network Palin's Movement Urges 'Godly' To 'Plunder' Wealth of 'Godless' Palin's Spiritual Warfare Network Partners With......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Spiritual Mapping and Spiritual Warfare - Muthee and the "Transformations" Franchise / 1
Palin's Churches and the Third Wave Series By The New Apostolic Reformation Research Team Introduction A video starring Thomas Muthee as a prayer warrior and witch hunter was released in 1999. "Transformations" was the......
By Ruth (0 comments)
Spiritual Mapping and Spiritual Warfare - Muthee and the "Transformations" Franchise / 2
Palin's Churches and the Third Wave Series By The New Apostolic Reformation Research Team Part Two (continued)part one     part three A video starring Thomas Muthee as a prayer warrior and witch hunter was released in 1999.......
By Ruth (1 comment)
Spiritual Mapping and Spiritual Warfare - Muthee and the "Transformations" Franchise / 3
Palin's Churches and the Third Wave Series By The New Apostolic Reformation Research Team Part Three (continued)part one     part two There are Transformations networks connected to Sentinel Group and "prayer warriors" under the authority of Wagner's......
By Ruth (0 comments)
Rev Andrew Weaver: A Fighter for Justice to the End
In the world of the intertubes the word "friend" has taken on a whole new meaning. A friend can be someone you've never met, never even talked to except through the medium of the......
By mick arran (0 comments)
Setting Priorities
Two of the people with the most on-the-ground experience in dealing with white christian nationalists in the United States -- Devin Burghart and Eric Ward (both currently with Center for New Community's Building Democracy......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Christianity was Hijacked
Kevin Annett's documentary film Unrepentant tells the story of the Canadian holocaust. For those unfamiliar with the systematic mass murder of indigenous people in Canada by the United Church of Canada and the Canadian......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
IMAGINE: Media as a Sanctuary for Dissent
"The media should be a sanctuary for dissent. It is our job to go to where the silence is."-Amy Goodman ......
By eileen fleming (0 comments)
Berlet, Clarkson and Maley on the Radio
The syndicated radio program Writer's Voice , which originates at WMUA, the radio station at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, recently featured Dispatches contributors Chip Berlet, Leo Maley, and me in an hour......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Reconquering a Continent
When it comes to threatening behavior, mainstream media's cover-up of Governor Palin's violent friends is a much bigger story than her abuse of power. Of particular interest to Native Americans -- according to Dr.......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Power of Moral Sanction
With the question of how to effectively oppose the rise of fascism in the United States now in vogue, I thought it apropos to revisit this essay from 2002, The Power of Moral Sanction.......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Where's the Action?
It would seem the objective of action is at hand. Organizing for that step can take multiple forms, but one that is essential to any political success is generating a list of supporters and......
By Jay Taber (5 comments)
Dispatches from the Religious Left -- on Grit TV
Following the dramatic launch event for Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America, held at Middle Collegiate Church in NYC, Laura Flanders invited several of us to appear......
By Frederick Clarkson (1 comment)
Remembering Iran-Contra
For those too young to have watched the live TV coverage of the Iran-Contra scandal, the notion of murderous felonies being coordinated out of the White House basement might seem fanciful. With the new......
By Jay Taber (1 comment)
The Problem With Militias
Sarah Palin supports the militia movement? Public Good Project's Paul de Armond explains why that's a problem. ......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Assemblies of God, Palin, and me
I spent eight years of my life as a Pentecostal in the Assembly of God. It's as odd and alien a sect to most people as Mitt Romney's Mormonism. ......
By whaleman42 (2 comments)
Dispatches from the Religious Left -- Now Available!
At least it is now "in stock" over at Amazon.com. It should also be widely available in independent bookstores and chain stores as well.  I will not clutter this site with too much news......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Transcript for Mary Glazier Video
Transcript of Audio "Opening the Gate of Heaven on Earth: Receiving the New Prophetic Wind for Increase" Conference, June 12 - 14, Everett, Washington Description of Conference at: <a href="http://freshpublishing.com/global-harvest-ministries-c-192-p-1-pr-33372.html ">http://freshpublishing.com/global-harvest-ministries-c-192-p-1-pr-33372.html Mary Glazier Alaska......
By Ruth (0 comments)
"Seven Mountains" and the "Joel's Army" plan for takeover
In yesterday's post, I went into some of the initial detail on a statement given by Thomas Muthee in the infamous sermon where he "annointed" Sarah Palin and also claimed to literally run a......
By dogemperor (0 comments)
Christian Fascism
[also see: Brent Bozell's Newbusters Insults Christian Conservatives - editor] Sarah Palin's propulsion into politics was fueled by religious intolerance, organized through malicious harassment, and targeted at democracy. Her use of the power of......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Politics of Thuggery
Much as most Americans prefer politics as entertainment, or at most as an informal seminar, the reality is that the politics of thuggery -- especially as practiced by the GOP -- is anything but......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Thomas Muthee's "Seven Mountains" and coded messages
Today's diary is--and yes, I know, this is a shocker--NOT going to be about Sarah Palin.  At least, not directly.  This is more towards some of her supporters...and especially in light of Palin throwing......
By dogemperor (2 comments)
New Model for Change
With American society in free fall, some activists are now reviewing the effectiveness of political organizing models they've used in the past. We suggest they include in their discussions two of our reports on......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
Promoting Murder in America
Contrary to public opinion, promoting murder is not protected by the Constitution. Nor is it protected by tax exempt status, as in the case of charitable trusts and organized religions. The only place we......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)
War of Ideas
<h2> Attacking the Truth</h2> Robert Parry talks about the role of right-wing US foundations in funding the attack on truth in media. ......
By Jay Taber (0 comments)

More Diaries...