Google 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




Jewish Family Flees Delaware Town: Stop The ACLU Coalition Director "Pleased" By Outcome
By Bruce WilsonWed Jul 05, 2006 at 11:11:53 AM EST
topic: All Topics section:Front Page printable version print this story
After looking over various treatments of this emerging scandal, I've decided I like Richard Bartholomew's best : see Bartholomew's Notes On Religion. The only details I'd add to Richard's account [Talk To Action version], below, are these : two families seem to have fled the town of Indian River MD., amidst alleged death threats and threats of violence [one family has remained anonymous] and the Dobrich family has sold its home in the town and completely relocated to another area. Further, the Stop The ACLU Coalition also has been doing significant work in the recent campaign accusing the New York Times and the Washington Post of treason, and that, besides being "pleased" by the Indian River outcome, Stop The ACLU is no doubt pleased with its new radio show
UPDATE, and a followup: PLease see the update on this story Richard Bartholomew has kindly posted and also my comment attached to Richard's update. Excerpt: A few days ago, as this story was heating up, I posted an idea - that the bloggers who say they support the "Stop The ACLU Coalition" should simply be asked, directly and politely - one by one as individuals with their own voices - whether they thought the outcome in Indian River was a good thing. I only emailed few people - 7 in all - and only received a response from one person, whose views I sharply differed with but who was willing to post his views and who was, in the email exchange, quite polite. However, nothing more than my call for such an undertaking - which really could have only worked if many joined in, because one person alone cannot serve as any sort of collective moral voice - had an unexpected result. Others in the group of 200 bloggers listed as supporting the "Stop The ACLU Coalition" stepped up as voices of moral clarity to shame an entrenched few who chose to hunker down and defend their behavior. When I called for such a project, there were voices on the left who told me that my idea was pointless because the group in question was "extreme" and all the same......
.

[ Richard Bartholomew writes ]
br / >Stop the ACLU Director "Pleased" with Role in Jewish Family's Flight

A couple of days ago Bruce Wilson posted on a story broken by Jews on First about a Jewish family who had allegedly been forced to leave town after complaining about aggressive proselytising by the local Indian River School District in Delaware. One detail which was not included by Jews on First, but which I picked up on via a commentator at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, was that an organisation named the "Stop the ACLU Coalition" (STACLU) had publicised the family's home address and phone number, in order to "expose" them as "ACLU plaintiffs". STACLU's denunciation wasn't even accurate  - the ACLU has given the family some support, but they are in fact being represented by a Wilmington law firm.

Jesus' General has now contacted STACLU director Nedd Kareiva, to congratulate him for his part in what he calls the "Indian River Pogrom":

...I think you deserve partial credit for making that happen. After all, you did publish their name, address, and phone number on your web site (see screen cap below) as part of your "Expose ACLU Plaintiffs" project. It certainly wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that such information gave people the means they needed to drive the Dobrich family from their home...

Kareiva responds to the General (emphases added):

Pogrom? I'm not sure I want to call it that. That is not an appropriate term, however, I am pleased that we had an effect in this case. We have others we want to put up on the site to shame them but have not gotten around to it. And I'm not so sure I can take credit for it. However, if an ACLU speaker was booed, that's music to my ears.....
story now running at Crooks and Liars and The Daily Kos : see Jesus' General, Bartholomew's Note's On Religion, and Talk To Action for recently uncovered aspects of this scandal

Here's the blurb, from the Stop The ACLU Coalition website, on their new radio show. I believe it's only an internet stream.

Stop The ACLU Radio Show by Jay on 07-02-06 @ 3:58 pm Filed under ACLU, War On Terror, 1st Amendment, Boyscouts, Child Exploitation, News If you haven’t heard yet, a huge line up of conservative bloggers will now be getting their own talk radio shows on Wide Awakes Radio. The launch is on the 4th of July, and we will have our first show next Saturday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. That will be a weekly show for the time being. We are doing some testing right now if you wanna listen in. Just click on the wideawakes radio icon in the left sidebar. Our show will be hosted by me, Misha from Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller, and our other main contributor here Gribbit who put together this little promo video for our show. Tune in! [ Link ]



Display:
I am trying desperately to look up some of the articles that ran way back in 2004, giving some really detailed information about how the whole thing got started.

I had covered the "case" as a "special interest piece" for the Jewish community here at home - and kept copies of the relevant news articles...

...and aaaauuugh, I can't find them!!!

As the resident correspondent from Delaware - I'll keep looking!!!

In the meantime, it's important to note that, despite the long-term state of this "case", the Dobriches are still living in fear of retribution...

-Emily
emilywynn.blogspot.com


by EmilyWynn8 on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 11:52:17 AM EST

If you find it, we would love to hear more about how this came about, and particularly the groups behind it; who they are; what they said, how they did what they did.

by Frederick Clarkson on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 12:09:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
So I can't search my files on my home computer, nor my paper files on the issue... I'm trapped with only what I have saved to my blog - which unfortunately isn't much...

Will check when I get home (late tonight unfortunately)...

-Emily
emilywynn.blogspot.com


by EmilyWynn8 on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 12:14:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You'll find it eventually. You should see my filing system. Any worse and I'd meet the fate of one of the Collyer Brothers.

I talked to Tish Grier this AM and she had some fascinating observations in terms of relevant parallels. Most are tempted to draw parallels with emergent fascism in Germany, progroms in Russia, persecution under Stalin.... Fred Clarkson's been trying to cure me of such impulses, but Tish Grier may have finished the cure, indirectly, by mentioning to me justfiable comparisons that can be made to an earlier period of American 20th Century history. We may even be so lucky as to hear a bit from her on that on this site.

by Bruce Wilson on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 12:37:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

let's stick to the thing itself and avoid analogies.

Refererence to things that happened in another time and place often cloud rather than inform and clarify our present circumstances.  It is not that we should not learn the lessons of history. We should. It is that these lessons need to be applied.

by Frederick Clarkson on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 03:46:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Frederick, I am not sure I would agree, especially in situations such as my people face.

We've only had freedom of religion for 27 years (before 1979 it was against the law for most Native Americans to practice their religion), and we're still heavily to severely persecuted today.

Sue and I lost 4 jobs in the last 8 years directly because we're Native Americans.  We were also thrown out of a church just because of our heritage about 12 years ago.  The usual insults, slurs, and hostility has also been a constant problem.  

Persecution and repression has been a fact of life in this country for hundreds of years.   What has happened to that Jewish family is, in my opinion, a continuation of and return to the "old ways".  

I wish we could help them directly.  We CAN help them indirectly by fighting openly and hard against all forms of oppression and discrimination.

I'm not sure if this would be helpful, but a couple of decent letters of support from TTA and CAP might be appreciated by the family.

by ArchaeoBob on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 07:06:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

There is a difference between drawing shallow, poorly drawn analogies instead of keeping our eye on the contemorary ball and seeing clearly what is happening in the here and now.

When we write, hopefully we do so, having learned the lessons of history, including keeping in mind the history of discrimination in all of its forms. I don't think there is anyone writing on this site who is not quite aware of this history, committed to fighting it, but also learning new things all of the time. (Give us a little, credit.)

But if, when we are analyzing or reporting on a situation, we draw-into our writing, highly charged material from another time another place, we can easily lose sight of the things we need to focus on in the present; and distract from the contemporary story that needs to be told and understood on its own terms.

I am sorry to hear about your experiences with discrimination. That is certainly not America at its best, but it is America at its all too common; and we are all committed to improving in what ways we can.

This site is one of those ways.  It is a place where we can report on the activities and ideologies of the religious right, including those who advocate religious supremacism in all of its forms. And, in fact, that is exactly what we do.  

We have done much to highlight this particular situation. This is not the first, and certainly not the last time we will shine a bright light into dark corners.

by Frederick Clarkson on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 07:54:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yeah... from our perspective- there are so many dark corners that I think someone forgot to turn on the light!

(GRIN!)

I've been thinking about this situation for much of the day.  I think what you've been trying to say is that even though what has been done to this family is evil, the really wicked/sinful/demonic thing is that this new organization dedicated to blocking or stopping the ACLU is starting to be active- and their goal is active (and vicious) discrimination.

I'm very much a "big picture" type of person- when I do research, I generally try to see the big picture- how everything fits together.  That is how I'm seeing this new group- as part and parcel of the big picture.  (However, I also see our history and many other things I've mentioned as part of the picture as well.)

My thoughts about this situation- first, the ACLU has a nasty reputation with the conservative churches I've had the misfortune to be around.  This reputation is false, and now I see that the church leaders deliberately have created it.  People don't hear about the GOOD things done for Christianity by the ACLU, so they have only a tiny, distorted part of the picture.  Thus, they really don't understand the situation at all.

(I know you have heard what some people say about what ACLU stands for.)

We've broken free of the brainwashing and programming, and so we've learned to see the truth.  That truth is in direct opposition to the leaders of the conservative churches.  However, we can't just go in and say "You're listening to liars!"  People won't listen.

So, where do we fit in- how do we help the ACLU?  That is the question we need to ask ourselves.  The next question is how do we get the rank-and-file in the conservative churches to see past the lies, and see the value that the ACLU has brought?

We're already striving against the organizations that have fathered this abomination of a group.  This bunch are just part of the family- and we will end up having to resist them as well.  But we need to think about going one step further- maybe by actually trying to help the ACLU.

I also think that TTA or CAP should do something specific to help this family... even if it is just a letter of condolence and unconditional support!!!

My thoughts...

by ArchaeoBob on Thu Jul 06, 2006 at 10:48:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]











Donate to or support
Talk to Action




David Barton: Bobby Jindal is "One of the Really Cool Guys"
Quite a few articles were written last week about speculative McCain VP pick, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, many focusing on Jindal's signing into law......
By Chris Rodda (0 comments)
Religious Right Leaders Back McCain -- New Set of Problem Pastors?
Ohio Religious Right leader Phil Burress recently said of McCain, "We don't like him, and he doesn't like us." But Burress has gotten himself......
By Frederick Clarkson (1 comment)
Walid Shoebat: The Simon Altaf Connection
Following on from my examination of Walid Shoebat's snake-oil Biblical scholarship a couple of days ago, I decided to check out his former collaborator,......
By Richard Bartholomew (0 comments)
Pulpit Politicking: Why It's Not A Free-Speech Issue
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has recently received calls from a couple of Minnesota pastors who are convinced they have a......
By Rob Boston (9 comments)
CUFI Speaker: "666" is "In the Name of Allah"
When Joe Lieberman gives credibility to the upcoming Christians United for Israel with his attendance, he won't just be lending his reputation to conspiracy-monger......
By Richard Bartholomew (2 comments)
Peter Marshall, Christian Nationalist
Previously I discussed the Reverend Peter Marshall's work here.  Rev. Marshall is a fairly big figure in "Christian America" circles.  From what I know......
By Jonathan Rowe (2 comments)
Short Takes
Time: Amy Sullivan thinks Dobson's attack on Obama may be backfiring. Americans United for Separation of Church & State to Louisiana:  "We are watching."......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Charismatic Dominionists Endorse Bentley
A few days ago I wrote a piece on Todd Bentley's faith-healing revival in Florida, noting support for Bentley from Steven Strang, the influential......
By Richard Bartholomew (0 comments)
Financial Fiddling at Fidelis?
The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-one A little more than a year ago Fidelis, an umbrella advocacy group consisting of various not-for-profit entities, sought to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (4 comments)
RAMBO Returns: Some Notes on Tradition, Family and Property
Tradition, Family and Property's attack on same-sex marriage in California has brought the traditionalist Catholic organisation back into the spotlight. Bill Berkowitz has an......
By Richard Bartholomew (0 comments)
On the Failings of Evangelicalism
Christine Wicker's new book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, tells two stories very well.  First, it explains how Americans have been duped into......
By Mainstream Baptist (0 comments)
All in the Family -- A Review of Jeff Sharlet's New Book
Jeff Sharlet's book The Family has been getting some high profile media attention, most recently with an interview on The Diane Rehm show, on......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
The Discovery Institute, the LA Family Forum, and the "LA Science Education Act" UPDATED
Louisiana has become the latest target of the Discovery Institute, the Seattle think tank whose "Wedge Strategy" for getting intelligent design (ID) creationism into......
By Barbara Forrest (1 comment)
MRFF Urges DoD to Pull the Plug on TBN Special, Demands Investigation
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, urging that appropriate action be taken......
By Chris Rodda (2 comments)
Whatever Happened to the Religious Left?
The annual Netroots Nation conference (formerly the Yearly Kos) will be held this year in Austin, Texas, July 17-20th.  I'm pleased to announce that......
By Frederick Clarkson (4 comments)

Hope Never Dies for Extremists
The extreme political Religious Right hasn't given up hope of getting something out of this election. Their latest ploy involves petitioning the parties for a "True Christian" in the vice-presidential slot. The Christian Anti-Defamation......
By John McKay (0 comments)
Catholic religious right wing: Legion of Christ
Frank L. Cocozzelli's weekly series of posts on "The Catholic Right" (listed here) includes quite a few posts about Opus Dei. There's another, similarly ultra-orthodox Catholic religious order he might want to examine in......
By Diane Vera (3 comments)
Prosyletization in Iraq: A threat to national security
As amazing as it sounds, dominionists may in fact be fomenting terrorism--not just the domestic terrorism like bombings of women's clinics we normally associate, but the very "Islamist terror bombings" that the GOP loves......
By dogemperor (0 comments)
Proselytization in Iraq: A minor history
The recent incident where a Marine was recently found distributing "Bible coins" promoted by a fundamentalist "Bible church" is, sad to say, far from the first incident of overt prosyletisation in Iraq. The truth......
By dogemperor (1 comment)
Source of "Bible coins" distributed by USMC in Iraq discovered
In what is--sadly--yet another case of the extent of which blatant prosyletisation is tolerated in the modern US military, a recent incident where members of the US Marine Corps were handing out coins to......
By dogemperor (0 comments)
What Does the Religious Right Fear the Most?
A poll that one of the giants on the right, Coral Ridge Ministries, sent to their members gives a revealing insight into their world view. ......
By John McKay (3 comments)
UK Abortion Limit Stays at 24 Weeks Despite Washington Think Tank's Tactics
IN GOD'S NAME is a revealing documentary about how the Alliance Defense Fund is using its tactics to try to restrict abortion in Europe as well as in America.  Watch this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeTfW8-dCNE ......
By TMurray (2 comments)
'Christians United For Israel' Joyfully Sing of Israel's Invasion and Destruction
An open letter, from Ray McGovern, a 27-year intelligence analyst with the CIA, to Admiral William J. Fallon, warns of an impending US attack on Iran. If such an event occurred, the resulting war......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
The Petrification of John McCain
We are very pleased to welcome Frederick Lane as a guest front pager. He is the author of several books,most recently, The Court and the Cross: The Religious Right's Crusade to Reshape the Supreme......
By Frederick_Lane (3 comments)
More Biblical Precedent for Allowing Abortion
This is a follow up to my most recent diary entry. ......
By TMurray (1 comment)
John Hagee Says God Made AIDS and Bird Flu But Lord will Protect Him Personally
John Hagee claims 1) that he knows with absolute certainty the will of God (as he told a BBC interviewer in 2003), is 2) sure that he, John Hagee, has a place in heaven......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Biblical support for abortion, who knew?
It turns out that our present legal understanding of when a life is entitled to legal protection is consistent with the Old Testament Biblical understanding of when a fetus becomes a 'life' warranting legal......
By TMurray (2 comments)
2001 John Hagee Film Shows Gangsterish Rabbi, Foppish Catholic Priest In League With anti-Christ
The following somewhat satirical video is built around a brief excerpt from Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee's 2001 55-minute film "Vanished", which followed the prophetic, premillennial plot line of Tim LaHaye's and Jerry Jenkin's......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
PBS "Carrier": A Mixed Blessing
Watching the PBS miniseries "Carrier" was a revelation, but not always a pleasant one... ......
By bughouse square (0 comments)
Will We Ever Learn?
Ever looked at something or did something which at the time seemed good and beneficial only to learn that it was not what you thought?  If we could all have the opportunity to live......
By truthngrace (0 comments)
McCain-Endorser's Church Casts Out "Demon of Anal Fissures", Teaches Vomiting Evil Spirits
[NOTE: for a related story, see Mai Tai Dogs: Pics Show Bush Administration, McCain-Endorser Hagee Schmoozing at Chinese Restaurant] I have to admit, on one level it sounds more entertaining than a church full......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
Bush 41 salutes Sun Myung Moon's effort to subdue the planet.
Sun Myung Moon's end time political front, the Universal Peace Federation had a summit from April 28 to May 2 in Washington DC. The participants took a tour of the Moon owned Washington Times......
By Lou (2 comments)
Advancing The Kingdom
Over the past four years, I've researched the darkest regions of the Christian right for the non-fiction film Silhouette City. The film tracks the movement of apocalyptic Christian nationalism from the margins of American......
By MichaelWWilson (2 comments)
Newspaper Profiles Army of God Spokeman
We have written a great deal about the anti-abortion terror organization, Army of God. One recent post prompted God Tube to take down videos posted by the proprietor of the Army of God web......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Judicial Council Chief James Holsinger and $20 million of UMC Money
Dr. James Holsinger, a leader in the IRD-linked Methodist renewal movement has, until now, been best known for his crack-pot anti-gay views. - FC Dr. James Holsinger, the Bush nominee for Surgeon General  and......
By AJWEAVER (0 comments)
No Constitution Party home for Keyes
Well, that didn't take long.  All the speculation about Alan Keyes finding a home with the rabidly right-wing Constitution Party has quickly come to naught as the CP convention picks radio talk show host,......
By tacitus (0 comments)
Florida Christian License Plate
Well, Florida is at it again. They're considering a "Christian" license plate.  It's supposed to have a cross and a stained glass window on it with the words "I Believe!" More below the break!......
By ArchaeoBob (3 comments)
The Alleged 'Atheist Delusion'
John Gray's ample Saturday Review column in the March 15th edition of London's  Guardian newpaper diagnosed the current climate surrounding religion as one of `moral panic'.  This is true only of the irrational fear......
By TMurray (0 comments)
A Real GI Bill of Rights
As much as I admire Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel for their efforts to reform the military, I respectfully submit that their proposed bill doesn't go far enough... ......
By bughouse square (2 comments)
Mikey's War
There comes a time when ordinary citizens need to step up and openly challenge the perverse Christianization of our national instutions, particularly the military. What follows is an introduction to someone who is doing......
By bughouse square (1 comment)
For McCain, Silence on Religion is Golden
Just one day before lambasting Barack Obama over his recent comments about religion, John McCain was a no-show at Sunday's CNN Compassion Forum on faith.  That's because when it comes to discussing his own......
By Jon Perr (0 comments)
Christian Right Flees Randall Balmer's Challenge On Torture
At the Daily Kos website, I have written what so far is a four part series [1, 2, 3, 4] on the Bush Administration and torture. My series covers the structure of the National......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
Just *what* is "The Family" so desperate to hide?
Over the past few days, I've done some writing expressing concern regarding some revelations that Jeff Sharlet will be discussing extensively in his new book "The Family"--including information regarding apparently widespread and systemic use......
By dogemperor (7 comments)
The *other* members of Hillary's "Family" cell
On Friday, news reports started coming out to the effect that Hillary Clinton may be a member of a cell-church group run by the secretive "Family" nee "Fellowship" org; as the import of this......
By dogemperor (1 comment)
Hagee donating 6 Million dollars to Irael
Today it was reported in the local paper that John Hagee has donated 6 million dollars to Israel.  http://www.theledger.com/article/20080406/API/804062669 It appears to be a big publicity stunt.  The article says that "Hagee... brought hundreds......
By ArchaeoBob (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)