Dark Christianity: Exploring and Exposing Dominionist Christiani

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080818/cm_usatoday/misunderstoodmegachurches;_ylt=AgdNMNrxBZ83i31ECc.yU.Os0NUE

Now of course, I haven't cross-referenced any of the stated facts yet, and I could only guess at credibility of source, but if accurate, this information could be useful in delineating dominionist activity.  (If not accurate, I would be interested to know just what the author was up to.)

I got this in an email from the DCCC

Rep. Bachmann: No need to fix Global Warming, Jesus already saved the planet

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) told the website OneNewsNow:

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that." WATCH

This is totally 4 years late, but the thing with Russia and Georgia reminded me of the start of the Iraq war, in a roundabout way (partly because I was wondering how the Dominionist preachers were interpreting it for their congregations, if the PMDs were tying it into the Gog & Magog thing, and so on). And back in fall of 2003/spring of 2004, there was a big sign in a paddock down the street from my house. It's a fairly busy thoroughfare, being a main route to I-95 from one part of town, even though there were no less than 3 horse farms at the time. So the people who owned that farm would put religious and political signs up all the time.

Anyway, this particular sign always had me confused and Google and a post to christianity back then didn't help me any. Here's what it looked like:
I am
Releasing
A
Quickening

Obviously, it had to do with the newly waged war on Iraq somehow, and I was under the impression that it was religious because of the other signs that would show up next to the road. Now that I'm more aware of Dominionism and the huge likelihood that these people belonged to the nearby Assemblies megachurch (now renamed a Church of Christ, I think?), I suspect that it must be a coded message of some kind.

It's been bothering me for years that I couldn't figure out what was meant by the sign, even though the farm was sold two years ago and is now home to about 40 condominium residents. Those of you more familiar with the codewords, perhaps you could enlighten me so I can finally stop wondering?


(Also, ps, what are the Dominionist preachers saying about Russia and Georgia?)

Come rain and floods to drown out Obama, pray Christians

A Christian fundamentalist group is praying for a deluge to drown out Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks' time.

Focus on the Family is asking for "abundant, torrential" downpours to flood Denver and silence Senator Obama when he accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28.





You'll notice, of course, that Mr Shepard is *very* careful to cover his arse in case the rain doesn't come...

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is having its day in Court.

Some of us what happened last Christmas when Green Bay city officials installed a Christian nativity scene atop a public building. Drama ensued when the city would not allow displays representing other religions - including the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. They mayor referred to a proposed Pastafarian display as “silly”. (Clearly he hadn’t seen my schematic (below)).

Now the city of Green Bay is being sued. Not by us - by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

You can read the full story on the FSM website:Court Date Set For Green Bay Nativity Scene Lawsuit.

The Dominionists don't have a prayer as long as we have the FSB on our side.

It's been a while ago, but the case of University of California can deny course credit from religiously based schools.

Judge says UC can deny religious course credit

A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

Another victory for common sense, I'd say.

UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.

For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.

Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.

He also said the Christian schools presented no evidence that the university's decisions were motivated by hostility to religion.

Does anyone know anything about this group? All I can find is a little bit of information contained in this article.

One of the names, Steven Bynum, is also pinging at me - but again, no info.

The group itself sounds particularly scary, especially given how they treated the little boy (starving him to death when he wouldn't say 'amen' and considering him to be a demon).

Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life", is the subject of the cover article of the current issue of Time.

I read the article, and one of the more unsettling points of it is that Warren (and, IMHO, other mega-ministers) are changing the very nature and concept of religion in the USA in profound and somewhat irreversible ways, and are definitely hard at work far outside the USA establishing their own brand of religion as the culture of countries around the world whose existing culture is ill equipped to fend it off or even understand its true nature. The article is somewhat more enthusiastic than I am about that idea, but the mainstream is definitely becoming aware that this brand of religion is very much a force to be reckoned with, and it is slowly but surely shifting the whole paradigm of religion itself on an increasingly global basis.

The story about the current experiments going on in Rwanda is especially interesting, and for people like me, chilling ..

I didn't blink twice at the article I posted yesterday about "The True Bible Society" announcing that McCain may be the antichrist.

Colorado Springs. A bible scholar raving about the Apocalypse. "The End Times Journal." It was all par-for-the-course, so I assumed the author wasn't lying, though it seemed to me he was being sardonic.

That may have been a mistake on my part. kurtmorris did some searching and could find no listing on the web for a "True Bible Society" and though there are several web publications called "The End Times Journal," none are yet referencing this "study." I did some searching myself. I couldn't find a theologian named Derek Jenkins except for a liberal Anglican priest unlikely to have been the Derek Jenkins quoted.

Either these organizations are not on the web or the author of the article was attempting parody but missed the mark. Or he was angered by the recent implication in McCain's ad that Obama may be the antichrist and he was deliberately striking back. (And lying.)

I just wanted to mention that there are some questions that need answering. The Dominionists and End Timers are enough of a problem that no one needs to make up more craziness. I hope that's not what the author did. I'd be interested if anyone does turn up substantiating facts. (Not about McCain being the antichrist, but that the references in the article are legitimate. Or not.) Thanks!

McCain the Antichrist?

"Biblical scholars in Colorado Springs have uncovered startling evidence that Senator John McCain may be the Antichrist. Their conclusions, while highly controversial, may have a dramatic impact on the 2008 elections, since many Bible-believing Christians have already expressed doubts about McCain’s fealty to Christianity.

The analysis was conducted by the respected True Bible Society, and it will be published next month in the End Times Journal.

The analysis was especially ironic, given that it came out just one day after McCain was accused of subtly hinting that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. McCain ran a commercial depicting Obama as 'The One,' giving rise to charges that he was sending a subliminal messages to anti-Obama Christians."

Published in The Nation, reprinted at Common Dreams.
Click link at top for entire article

(I think it's quite impossible for McCain to be the antichrist for sheerly practical reasons. The antichrist has decades worth of milestones to reach to qualify for the title -- McCain just doesn't have that kind of time left.)

Just to update silvaerina_tael's earlier entry about the Phelps' plan to picket the funeral of the young man beheaded in Canada.

Church members enter Canada, aiming to picket bus victim's funeral (Updated from former headline "Border guards to turn away church group aiming to picket bus victim's funeral")
.

This was forwarded from a friend, and I thought it newsworthy enough to mention. These idiots are planning on picketing a funeral, their stock in trade, of a 19 year old kid. The kid was murdered on a Greyhound bus on his way home from Edmonton to Winnipeg. It was brutal, senseless, and, as far as I know, there was no motive at all.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/story/4209152p-4801884c.html

I'm hoping they get, once again, turned back at the border, as they have announced their intentions well ahead of time. They probably expect to be as well, and are just using this to further their sick, twisted agenda. Another part of me is hoping they are serious, and do something colossally stupid, like show up at the funeral, get landed in jail, and deported.

My aunt in Colorado mentioned this group to my mother over the weekend...as in she's trying to encourage her son to join these people, despite the fact that she knows almost nothing about them.

Just the name alone — not to mention the location — raised a few red flags for me. I immediately thought "steeple-jacked Catholics," and subsequently told my mother to advise her sister of this fact.

However, my curiosity was pricked and I did a little bit of online research.

First off, they have this Web site, which seems to identify them as actual Catholics...except in looking over the site, there are some things that are just pinging me as simply wrong. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there are a couple of things I saw in the "About EC" pages that strike me as...I dunno...not "typically" Catholic. Also, quoting the bible in connection with sports? Since when do Catholics do that?

(Note: I am currently Unitarian Universalist, but I was raised Roman Catholic complete with Catholic School Education from Grades 4 through 12. So, honestly, if it was common to fling around bible quotations in connection with anything within Catholicism, you'd think I would've noticed before now.)

However, there appears to be another Evenagelical Catholic Church that really pings the radar. According to Wikkipedia this group (which appears to have little connection to the other Evangelical Catholic group) are actually an off-shoot of Lutheranism.

Needless to say, the more I dig, the more hella confused I get on this.

Clearly, there's quite a few red-flags attached to both groups, and definitely my initial "run away and stay away" instinct was on the money.

That said, does anyone know anything about these guys? Or can someone hand me some links where I can do additional research? Because I guarantee that there will be questions.

I should also note that I live in a part of the country that's heavily Roman Catholic, and I've never, ever heard of "Evangelical Catholics" until just this week.

In news that could go equally in "News Of The Weird" *and* as another sad commentary on how some neopente dominionist groups are becoming increasingly violent, it would appear that "Assemblies great-granddaughter" Set Free Ministries is now in a wee bit of a world of trouble.

It is necessary here to give a wee bit of backgrounder. Set Free Ministries is, as has been noted, an "Assemblies granddaughter" (via Calvary Chapel) and, like most other denominations in the "Assemblies family", is a dominionist neopentecostal group; the decidedly *unusual* schtick that Set Free uses is that they have apparently set themselves up as a Joel's Army biker gang, complete with quite a bit of support by neopentes in the Joel's Army movement and complete with a non-negligible televangelism empire. (One of the few advantages to having dominionist relatives is that often they will unintentially give you intelligence on this--such as my mother trying to promote Phil Aguilar, Set Free Ministries' "preacher", as a "biker preacher". Sorry, still not biting, kthx. :D)

Set Free has had a less than stellar reputation for some time--among other things, Set Free can ultimately be considered the product of "Assemblies family incest" as it is essentially not only a Calvary Chapel "daughter" but was in fact encouraged in its split to sue Calvary Chapel (in a rare case of open legal fisticuffs between dominionist groups) by the owners of Trinity Broadcast Network, Paul and Jan Crouch (who are Assemblies-linked). The group has had a reputation for blatant interference with politics in Orange County, California, among other things.

Even worse, there is *quite* the record of coercive activity--including some disturbing signs of abuse. Set Free Ministries tends to be almost universally considered a highly coercive group by exit counseling groups (including by International Cultic Studies Association, Steven Hassan's Freedom of Mind Center, and Rick Ross Institute) and has been subject of a specific mention in the book "Churches That Abuse" as a textbook example of an abusive "Joel's Army" group. (At the time that "Churches That Abuse" was written, mention of abuse in "Bible-based" groups in general tended to be quite rare.) Phil Agullar is known to have been sued over the sexual abuse of three separate children (the case was eventually settled) and per an Orange County Register expose in 1991 may have had two prior convictions for child sexual abuse (though he isn't showing up on the California sex offender registry).

In non-sexual-abuse related reports of coercion, Set Free Ministries (in a pattern similar to other coercive religious groups) is known to have run several front businesses including the Fabulous 7 Motel and Emma's Restaurant (in El Cajon, CA). There are reports that persons are almost totally isolated for the first 60 days and required to turn over a third of paychecks even after the first 60 days--among other abuses similar to those documented in not only Teen Challenge but also other coercive "faux rehab" programs like Straight, Inc. and Narconon. In addition, there are also confirmed reports that Set Free uses an abusive "cell church"/"discipling and shepherding" model common to "Assemblies family" churches and well documented to cause grave psychological harm. Set Free is also known to promote the concept of "deliverance ministry" (again, like other "Joel's Army" and "Assemblies family" groups)--including the use of "theophostic counseling" and "recovered memory therapy" to uncover "evidence" of hidden Satanic ritual abuse--concepts that in practice are nearly identical to highly abusive practices within Scientology and identically damaging, including regular reports of frank psychotic breaks caused by severe psychiatric injuries and documentable personality changes. The two practices combined--common in "Joel's Army" groups--can cause documentable creation of "cultic personalities" in as short as a three day period and in combination may well amount to one of the most coercive programs ever documented.

This rather extensive backgrounder is necessary because it gives you an idea on just how monumental the recent legal pwnage of Set Free Ministries really *is*. And yes, they are now quite in a bit of trouble--per the Orange County Register, it appears that Set Free Ministries' leadership--including Aguilar--is now in jail on US$1 million dollars bail.

The story itself is pretty damn epic. It would appear that Set Free Ministries was essentially busted by damned near the entire Anaheim, CA SWAT team (yes, over 150 police officers raided all of their facilities) over a particularly nasty barroom brawl in Newport Beach; as best as is known now, Set Free Soldiers (the "Joel's Army on Harleys" division) got quite a bit stabby with the local branch of the Hells Angels, and now the entire membership of the gang involved in the brawl (including none other than Trinity Broadcasting Network darling Phil Aguilar himself) are now up on charges of attempted murder. Apparently the SWAT team discovered our "God Warriors" took the concept of spiritual warfare a little *too* literally:
Authorities obtained search warrants for residences of members of both motorcycle gangs, including two residences in Costa Mesa, one in Rancho Santa Margarita and four in Anaheim, said Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor. A large number of weapons and ammunition were seized in Anaheim and Costa Mesa, he said.
(For those keeping score: the Hells Angels group is out of Costa Mesa, Set Free is out of Anaheim.)

Needless to say...this is going to be highly interesting *indeed*. (For lulz/shaking of head--check out the comments on the article. Gotta be some major astroturfing going on...)