Beware the Dominionists

They are a very small portion of the American population, approximately seven percent. They are well organized. They are fanatical in their objectives and equally fanatical in their tactics. They believe that the only ways to express their Christianity are by converting others or by exterminating those who refuse to convert. They are doggedly anti female; they believe in violence as a means to an end; and they aren't only engaged in a culture war--they are engaged in a war against individualism. They are working behind the scenes, trying to establish themselves in key institutions, and, to make matters even worse, they are longing for an economic collapse or another terrorist attack in the hope that they can accomplish their long plotted coup. They are the Dominionists and they comprise as great or greater threat to the safety and security of United States as any Islamic terrorist.

What makes the Dominionists so dangerous?

First and foremost they do not believe in Representative government. They believe that America should be a theocracy run according their very unamerican principles and diktats. Or, if you prefer, they believe that they must first conquer America and then use the power of their newly acquired American theocracy to conquer the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

Secondly you can't argue with these people. They firmly believe that facts and opinions are interchangeable. They genuinely believe that there is no room for debate because their warped, neofascist interpretation of the Bible is the last word on everything.

Thirdly, they have been working very hard to increase their numbers. Indeed, they make the most efficient of cult leaders look like rank amateurs. Once they acquire a new member they do everything possible to cut that individual off from outside opinions. But they do reach out to two institutions: the military and law enforcement. They understand that in the event of a national calamity it makes sense to have influence in the two institutions that can enforce their repressive agenda. (It is no accident that we saw General Jack Catton, a member of Christian Embassy, proselytizing in full uniform.)* The Dominionists seek to infiltrate those institutions to prepare the way for a neofascist movement with the name Jesus connected to it to fool others. It isn't as if this movement is patriotic or religious. Granted, Biblical terms and the name of Jesus Christ are used with great, often wild abandon, but when you look beneath the surface this is in fact the same kind of movement that was employed by Hitler in his undermining and eventual overthrow of the Wiemar Republic.

Nor can one say that this is a hopeful movement. Many forms of Christianity preach a message of hope, of salvation. Not the Dominionist movement. The message of the Dominionist movement could not be more clear: Just wait for a disaster brother, and then join us or die." As I said, they compose a very small portion of the American population, perhaps no more than seven percent. But if there is a crisis they will almost certainly be able to depend on the born again constituency for additional support. As we learned during the economic crash of the late 1920s and 1930s despair drives people to irrational ends and that is exactly what the Dominionist movement is hoping for--a situation in which the American people feel lost, in a state of despair. It is no accident that they support an economic policy of Social Darwinism. The game plan after all has been to destroy the economic safety nets and to support policies that reduce the size of the middle class, creating a widening gulf between the rich and the poor. Some have suggested that this is merely because Republicans prefer order over potential chaos, that they seek to weaken the middle class because a healthy middle class will have the time to think about issues such as freedom and ways to expand liberty. But when seen from a different angle, the economic polices of the last 12 years may well have been designed to create, not reduce, stability in the hope that an economic collapse would lead to chaos and despair. Such a climate would prove advantageous to the Fascist Domionionist movement.

It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. If these people ever come to power there will be bloodshed. They will do anything and everything to establish their world wild theocracy (Thousand Year Reich?) and they aren't about to let little things like truth, decency, Christianity, and human life get in their way.

*See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6610025

See also

http://endtimepilgrim.org/dom.htm
and
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/ChRecon.html

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS WARS

Editors' Note. This Post oirginally appeared on THE COALITION FOR A REPUBLICAN-FREE AMERICA in December 2005. We are posting it again because it appears as if the Christian Reich is going to wage another hate campaignb to prove how much it loves the Prince of Peace

Yours Truly, Advocate 1 and Brandon

THE CHRISTMAS WARS:
How the Radical Christian Right is Bastardizing Christmas and Christianity
A Brief History of the Christmas Wars
By Advocate 1 and Brandon

-------""I am not going to let aggressive totalitarian and anti-Christian forces in this country diminish, denigrate, the holiday and the celebration. I'm gonna use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the world of people who are trying to do that.."

Bill O'Reilly trying to sound like a Christian.


-------It seems as if the Radical Christian Right has stepped up its attack on America and mainstream Christianity by extending the Cultural War to include the words Happy Holidays; and while they may not realize it, they haven't exactly done a lot to equate their battle cry of "Merry Christmas" with anything especially Merry or Christian either.

-------On the surface, the whole thing seems rather bizarre. Christ, after all, never politicized his religious teachings; and the last we knew, bringing horror into the world of concerned Americans who oppose a Christian Republic or a Fundamentalist theocracy isn't exactly a Christian standard. So you just have to wonder: Why would the same professional misanthropes who so fervently complain about political correctness, want to demote the words "Merry Christmas" to the mere equivalent of right wing political war chant? Why would they want use Christmas, of all things, as an excuse to infuriate the American people at what they claim is the holiest time of the year?

-------First and foremost, we need to remember that this isn't the first time that the Pseudo Christian Right has used Christmas as a weapon against its opponents.

-------During the 1920s Henry Ford warned us about a Jewish conspiracy to remove Christmas from the public square. According to Ford and his ilk, there was a Jewish plot to eliminate Christmas caroling and Christmas pageants. Ironically, the current crusade against the term "Happy Holidays" also has a certain racist/antisemitic ring to it as well. The only other religious Holidays during the month of December are Hanukkah and Kwanzaa--a Jewish holiday and an African-inspired holiday. So you have to ask yourself, " what are the cultural warriors complaining about this time?" Are they really offended because they can't hear the words "Merry Christmas" on demand or are they just offended by Blacks and Jews? If it's the first scenario, we would suggest that they need to develop a few grown up characteristics such as patience and perspective; if it's the second scenario they clearly need to get a grip on their racist/antisemitic tendencies Granted, one might argue that conservative Jews and Christian Fundamentalists have forged a political alliance of convenience, based on Israel's right to exist and the Fundamentalists' literal interpretation of Revelations, but let's not deceive ourselves. This does not mean thay the Radical Christian Right has become more tolerant and accepting of the Jewish people. Rather, the Fundamentalist take on the Jews and the Nation of Israel is that Jesus, the beloved "Prince of Peace" will come back at the end of times to punish the Jews to eternal damnation because they refused to accept him as the Messiah.

-------Real love and compassion there.

-------The supposedly "Pro Christmas" crusade was renewed during the 1950s, when the John Birch Society decided there was a United Nations plot to replace Christmas decorations with symbols of one world government. In 1959 this fanatical little group (think KKK in street clothing) published a revealing pamphlet, "There Goes Christmas," claiming, "...one of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." This time the targets were American department stores, which they assumed were a part of a clandestine Soviet/United Nations plot. And the last we knew, the John Birch Society had a decidedly anti-Semitic streak to it as well....

-------The current crusade only combines the worst of both, religious fanaticism and outright paranoia. That much became obvious when Fox Propaganda Minister, John Gibson offered his half baked ideas about Christmas and religion on November 17 of last year. Gibson, the author of The War On Christmas suggested:

-------"Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion -- Christianity -- that they've been granted about their religions over the years."

-------Which on the surface, actually sounds reasonable. But Gibson then went on to offer the following remarks.

-------"I would think if somebody is going to be -- have to answer for following the wrong religion, they're not going to have to answer to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to....And that's fine. Let 'em. But in the meantime, as long as they're civil and behave, we tolerate the presence of other religions around us without causing trouble, and I think most Americans are fine with that tradition."

----- -Hardly the image of the devout, Christmas- loving Saint that the folks at Fox and Penguin Books have been promoting, is it?

-------Can you believe this guy? Only moments after he stated that the religious minority (a code word for Jews?) should be more tolerant of the Christian majority, Gibson then revealed himself as a judgemental, Christian supremest who was only saying what God would say if God only knew what was going on down here. (A special hint to our readers. When you die, go to Heaven, and see Mister Gibson there, you should worry about where you went.)

-------Needless to say we really aren't surprised by this.

-------Since the early 1980s the Radical Christian Right has grown increasingly militant, and paranoid. This, after all, is the same crowd that has been warning us about a "Satanic, New Age Conspiracy" which is allegedly poised to take over the entire world; the latest assault on "Happy Holidays," being the most recent in a long line of paranoid conspiracy theories. Granted, the right to both hate and fear your fellow Americans is protected by the American Constitution,, but the Radical Christian Right hasn't only turned these "time honored practices" into art forms; they have also created a delusional, world wide conspiracy that is so involved and so far-fetched that you need a flow chart just to keep track of the various groups, individuals, and practices involved.

1 acupressure
2. acupuncture
3. aerobics at the YMCA
4. Alcoholics Anonymous
5. American Civil Liberties union
6. Amway Corporation
7. Atari Computer Corporation
8. Biofeedback
9. Blue Cross/Blue Shield
10. Buffalo New York Public Schools
11. Campbell's Soup Company
12. Catholic Church/Catholic Communion
13. Cocoon (the movie)
14. Cousins: Norman
15. creative visualization
16. ending world hunger
17. environmental movement
18. Free Masonry
19. gay rights
20. globalism
21. Gorbachev: Mikhail
22. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
23. guided imagery for success and prosperity
24. happy holidays
25. health food
26. holistic health practices
27. The Hunger Project
28. Huxley: Aldous
29. hypnosis
30. the information revolution
31. Jehovah's Witness
32. Jewish Cabala/Judaism in general
33. Life Magazine
34. Lions International
35. Lockheed Corporation
36. Minneapolis City government
37. Mobil Oil Corporation
38. Monsanto Corporation
39. Mormon Church
40. Mother Theresa
41. The Muppets
42. NAACP
43. Nader: Ralph
44. National Aeronautic Space Administration
45. National Organization for Women
46. Native American religious ceremonies
47. NBC Television
48. Newsweek Magazine
49. New York City government
50. Planned Parenthood
51. pluralism
52. Polaroid Corporation
53. Pope John XXIII
54. positive thinking
55. Prince Phillip of England
56. Princeton University
57. Proctor and Gamble
58. Readers Digest
59. rock and roll
60. Rockefeller Foundation
61. rosaries
62. Save the Whales
63. self-realization
64. Social Security Administration
65. stress management
66. transcendental meditation
67. Tutu: Desmond
68. UNESCO
69. United Nations
70. United States Navy
71. University of Michigan
72. University of Texas
73. vegetarian diets
74. Welesa: Lech
75. Westinghouse
76. world peace efforts
77. Yale University
78. Yeltsin: Boris

-------Those are just a few of the many people, places and things that this crowd considers "New Age," "evil," or "Satanic."

-------And just who are the spin masters behind this unadulterated lunacy? You guessed it: Dave Hunt, Texe Marrs, Ralph Reed, James Dobson, Ted Haggard, the late Randall N. Baer, Eric Buehrer, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Douglas Groothuis, Joseph Kennedy, Mel (deceased) and Norma Gabler, ad nauseum.

-------To quote Marrs: "The New Age appears to be the instrument that Satan will use to catapult his Antichrist to power...When Christians refuse to be initiated into this Satanic religious system, they will be dealt with very harshly....The New Age is working hard today to set up an environment against Christians...so the public mood will be ready when the Antichrist begins his brutal anti-Christian programs." (1987).

-------And to make the situation still more interesting, even the Christmas-mocking Gibson himself has couched his arguments in brazenly conspiratorial terms:

-------"It's like the secret bombing of Cambodia--it was a secret from everybody except the people getting bombed. Same deal here. People trying to keep Christmas in schools and parks and libraries and city halls know about the war on Christmas. The people waging this war are trying to keep it secret, but it's too late. They have been outed."

-------Nope. No paranoia there.

-------Worse yet, the Christmas warriors aren't always dependable when it comes to the facts.

-------Consider, if you will, religion in public schools. Our public schools are more religious now than they were at just about any time in our nation's history. Students pray, study the Bible, and hold rallies around flag poles; they distribute literature and discuss religion with their fellow classmates. Or to be be succinct, student-generated(religious activities are perfectly legal and constitutional. But that isn't the main objective. The idee fixe of the Radical Christian Right is top down religion; using the power and authority of school personnel and public tax dollars to impose a particular (read literal) interpretation of a particular faith on people of different religions and denominations. Translated into modern English, they want to turn America's public school system into a hotbed of Ultra- Fundamentalist extremism.

-------Spokespersons for the Radical Christian Right admit as much.

-------In 1990, Robert Simonds, founder of Citizens for Excellence in Education, made no effort to conceal his agenda.

-------"I hope I will see, " Simonds noted, "the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have public schools. The churches will have taken over again, and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be ." -------In a similar vein, Jerry Falwell, founder of the former Moral Majority went to far as to say:

-------"America was founded by Godly men who had in mind establishing a republic not only Christian in nature, but a republic designed to propagate the Gospel worldwide."

-------The upshot here is that the Christmas warriors couldn't care less about Christmas. Indeed, there are times when it appears as if they don't even care about Christ.

-------They are not trying to promote Christmas and they certainly are not trying to promote Christianity. Instead of promoting the true spirit of Christmas they are merely exploiting the day in their ongoing attempt to establish a repressive interpretation of the biblical text. Instead of promoting the true spirit of Christmas they are wishing the horrors of hell fire and brimstone on anyone and everyone who dares to disagree with them. -

------To call their hateful, paranoid behavior Christian, is a little like calling Adolf Hitler a good samaritan.

REPUBLICANS ARE WITHOUT HONOR

EDITOR'S NOTE
This post appeared on The Coalition for a Republican-Free America on November 1, 2006 of this year. It was written by Brandon and I am presenting it here because it is still relevent to the debate as to whether or not the Republicans really support the troops or not.

Advocate 1


REPUBLICANS ARE WITHOUT HONOR
by Brandon G

Will someone please tell me why John Kerry didn't behave as forceully in 2003 as he did at the press conference that he called yesterday?For those of you who missed this--and you were God awful unlucky if you did--John Kerry cracked an off the cuff joke about how young people should study hard and get good grades or they might get stuck in Iraq. Of course the comment was directed at our combat-dodging president who hated studying,and who got by on a C average--the implication being that George W. Bush was so stupid that he didn't bother to study what might happen in Iraq if we were to launch a war of choice.

Of course that was the intended meaning.

Deputy Propaganda Minister, (i.e. Spokes Liar) Tony Snow had other ideas and decided it would be a really nice idea to suggest that Kerry was calling our troops ignorant and undereducated. Do you remember a point that I recently made about the Republicans? How everything they accuse other people of doing is in essence a form of projection, a twisted form of confession in which they project their many sins and twisted beliefs onto others? Well, I have a felling that this is exactly what the Republicans--Bush and his inner circle in particular--really and truly think about the troops. We have already seen how Republicans present friendly images of themselves to the people they are manipulating and exploiting. Witness how Bush, Rove, and their ilk played the Christian Right for what it was worth and then referred to them as nutty and difficult to handle. We've seen how Rove praised his gay step father and then used gays as whipping boys to energize the Christian base of the party--only to ridicule those same Christians when he thought no one was listening. And let's not forget that sick "comedy" routine" in which George W. Bush made a mockery out of American troops by creeping around the Oval Office looking for the missing weapons of mass destruction.

Trust me. We've seen it time and time again. When these lying sons of bitches accuse someone else of doing something it's usually to smear an innocent victim and to cover up the fact that this is what Bush and his cronies have been doing or thinking themselves. Translated into the every day vernacular, when Spokes Liar Tony Snow accused John Kerry of mocking the troops, Snow was actually admitting that this Administration has manipulated and exploited the troops, only to believe that the troops were foolish for allowing themselves to be deceived by the Greedy Old Perverts in the first place. Or to be succinct: George W Bush, who truly is of limited intelligence, believes that the troops are as stupid as he is. Personally, I rather liked John Kerry's comeback at yesterday's press conference: "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won't work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq." To that I would only add the following. For some reason John Kerry felt that he had a reason to apologize when no reason was required in the first place.

If anyone owes the troops and their families an apology it is George W. Bush and his chicken hawk cabinet, which have never looked upon our young men and women as anything except disposable cogs in a machine. More than 2,800 dead; more than 20,000 wounded or permanently disabled. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 600,000 Iraqi casualties and more than a million Iraqis displaced. A police force which is saturated with militiamen and insurgents who take the training skills they receive from American soldiers and then use those skills to--you guessed it--kill American soldiers; stop loss measures which keep American soldiers on duty for however long this President and his puppet masters think it is necessary, ad nauseam.

Of course I would never expect an apology from Bush nor any of the thugs and Brownshirts who dominate this Administration. That might be a human thing to do, and as we have all learned during the past six years, at least 28 percent of the Republican Party is incapable of anything which even remotely resembles a loving, compassionate thought for anyone or anything. And they have the audacity to go after John Kerry?

What can I say?

George W. Bush and his supporters are without honor.

CHEAP GRACE

This is a link to a very long article that we wrote about the motives--the often selfish and destreuctive motives--of the Radical Christian Right. It was a collective effort by five of our central members and we hope you enjoy it.

Please be so kind as to click on:

CHEAP GRACE

THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM: Credits

To see the Sources and Credits for THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM please be so kind as to click on:

THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM: CREDITS AND SOURCES