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the covert campaign against liberal chuches and the social justice tradition
[above: click on image for YouTube video trailer]"Renewal or Ruin": New Video Documentary By Steve D. Martin Spotlights Secretive Rightwing Effort To Destroy Mainstream Protestant Churches
Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, by Frederick Clarkson
Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
by Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons
sample chapter
God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade For Values Voters
By Sarah Posner
Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History
By Chris Rodda
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism
: by Michelle Goldberg
With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House.
by Esther Kaplan
Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement
Tanya Erzen
Attack on The United Churches of Christ
Attack on The United Methodist Church
"The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy", by Chip Berlet
"Taking Over The Republican Party", a four part series by Joan Bokaer
The Woman in A Mink CoatWhile We Were sleepingAngels On a PinheadUnder Cover of Night
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
The Shaming Projectdoes 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.
Theocracy: 2600 Years--From Zoroaster to Bush. Part Two |
| Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 12:46:51 AM EST |  print story | |
 Part One---Part Two---Part Three Meanwhile, back to Colonial America: 1611, 1630, 1640. Presbyterians establish churches in Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and New York. 1648-1660. The Pilgrims and Puritans form what becomes Congregationalism. The Brit Oliver Cromwell leads a putsch in scary old England, and then manages to loose his head after he dies, following the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. |
1735 – 1745. (about) The First Great Awakening. Religious fervor with a colonial flavor. George Whitfield, a Calvinist Methodist, preaches up a fire. American individualism and egalitarianism chips away at Calvinist ideas of predestination and the elect.
1755. The Separate Baptists are fired up by the First Great Awakening and proselytize across the South.
1766. Methodists plant a denominational tree in NYC.
1782. Congregationalism is stressed out as Unitarian-style ideas begin to form within churches in New England. Is “Man” born of sin and a bad apple seed as the Calvinists proclaim?
1784. Methodists officially split from Anglican Church.
1800 – 1820 (about). Second Great Awakening. Methodists and Baptists gain strength. Religious revivalist fervor is so hot, that an area in upstate New York is dubbed the “Burned Over Distirict.”
1805. Proto-Unitarians steal Harvard from the Calvinists Congregationalists. See “Man” as basically good. This (along with Quaker ideas) leads to the idea of social welfare, prison as a form of rehabilitation, public education.
1820s. Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists oppose ideas of the evangelicals, and slowly fade in importance.
1820s. The idea of Dispensationalism emerges in England and Ireland, in an eschatological derby led by Darby.
1820s. Back in the U.S of A, the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists interact with, embrace, split, and play theological footsie with the ideas of the evangelicals, and start to grow in influence.
1825. American Unitarian Association formed in Boston.
1830. Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) founded by Joseph Smith with publication of Book of Mormon.
1844-1845. Northern and Southern Methodists split over abolition.
1857-1861. (about) Presbyterian Church splits over slavery, although most individual churches support abolition. Method and speed are core issues of the dispute. Some individual churches had seen splits even earlier. New School Presbyterians (fast-track abolitionists) emphasize ideas of Declaration of Independence and suggest there is a moral obligation to the idea of “human rights.”
1860 to 1905 (about). Third Great Awakening. Revivalism redux.
1860-1865 (about). Abolitionism grows, and many Abolitionists see millennial aspect to abolishing slavery. Battle Hymn of the Republic: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword…” Pop quiz: According to one reading of Biblical prophecy, who gets trampled as grapes due to the Lord’s wrath?
1890. Premillennial Dispensationalism gets a boost with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. This becomes a major version of the Bible for evangelicals, especially in the South.
1890-1920 (about). The predominantly postmillennial Social Gospel movement emerges with a number of reform ideas such as settlement houses, and legislation against child labor.
1901. The Southern and Northern branches of the Presbyterians re-unite.
1915 – 1920. Orthodox evangelical theologians start generating a list of the “fundamental” beliefs that they believe every Christian should believe. St. Paul smiles, in a metaphoric/metaphysical sense, of course. This movement becomes known as “Fundamentalism.”
1924. Dallas Theological Seminary founded. Promotes Premillennial Dispensationalism.
The last post will bring us up to the present day. Petitions to add additional dates and details gratefully accepted.
Part One---Part Two---Part Three
Blog Against Theocracy - April 6-8, 2007. Visit the home page of Blogswarm Against Theocracy for many more posts. Technorati Tags: blog against theocracy
Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates
The Public Eye: Website of Political Research Associates - - - Chip's Blog
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