Latest Updates: Christian extremists RSS

  • johnpi 7:13 am on January 21, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
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    Muslim anger over military ‘Jesus’ scopes.

    Muslim groups reacted angrily Wednesday after it emerged that the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were using rifle sights inscribed with coded Biblical references.

    The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to immediately withdraw from combat use equipment found to have inscriptions of Biblical references after it emerged that Trijicon has contracts to supply over 800,000 of the sights to the US military.
    ….

    A Muslim-American soldier, who declined to be named due to fears of persecution, said he was “ashamed” and “horrified” by the writings on the gunsights of weapons he used during deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    “There are many other soldiers who feel as I do. Many are Protestant and Catholic and they fear reprisal just as much as I do for trying to stand up to the Christian bullies in uniform who outrank us,” he said in a letter dated January 14 and addressed to Weinstein and his foundation.

    The Secular Coalition for America demanded the US military end its contracts with Trijicon.

     
  • johnpi 4:01 pm on January 18, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists,

    Thousands of rife scopes in use by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq have had Bible verse references printed on them by the Christianist manufacturer.

    ABC is reporting that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been using rifle scopes that bear abbreviated references to Bible verses, including lines like “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

    That verse is rendered on tiny letters on the the scopes, made by Wixom, Michigan-based Trijicon, as “2COR4:6″ referring to chapter 4, verse 6 of the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
    ….

    The company is not shy about its belief system. It confirmed to ABC that its scopes have the Biblical codes. Trijicon’s Web site even says under a section titled “Values” that, “We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals.”.

    Here’s a link to see a slide show of images of the Biblical references.

     
  • buzz 8:20 pm on November 24, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, ,

    Terry Gross interviews the author of a new book on a secretive Christian Fundamentalist group and its connections to government and foreign policy. I could not believe the reach these whackjobs have into congress nor their warped ideas of Christianity. They rival any terrorist group in their belligerent activities.

    You may recognize these names from recent headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts. Stupak and Pitts have become familiar names through the media’s health care overhaul coverage; their abortion funding amendment introduced an 11th-hour twist as the House of Representatives approached a vote on a landmark health care bill.

    Ensign was the focus of media attention over his affair with a campaign staffer. Just last night, a Nevada man disclosed that he found out about his wife’s affair with the state’s junior senator — his best friend — via a text message.

    The common factor among these political players is their involvement with the Family, a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet has written extensively about the influential group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

    (More …)

     
  • johnpi 7:07 pm on September 24, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
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    I’ve been listening in on the national prayer/conference call that has been annouced as a Christianist response to the “Jummah on the Hill” event tomorrow.

    Near the beginning, Shirley Dobson asked that listeners pray for the “seven centers of power.” This is a reference to a dominant idea in the New Apostolic Reformation, a rapidly growing movement within Christianity that advocates a Christian theocratic takeover of the nations of the world, and that advocates “spiritual warfare” and believes the world is infested with demons that can be fought with prayer. This group received a lot of attention last year when Sarah Palin was chosen vice president since her church is in the movement.

    One of the top leaders of the movement, C. Peter Wagner has advocated a form of theocratic imperialism: “God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God,” and that “the enemies’ camp will be plundered.” The “wicked” would be the “godless,” or those who are not Christians.

    Here is a Youtube video explaining the concept of the ’seven centers of power,’ or the “seven mountains mandate,” which are the key sectors of society that this movement targets for Christian hegemony and takeover. Notice the militaristic language throughout.

    Here are some other points advocated by movement illuminaries:

    • claim police department prayer and fasting cuts murder and crime and are convincing police forces to adopt prophecy and prayer based policing.

    • have sent a prayer warfare team to Mount Everest to battle a global demon they claim blocks the prayers of Catholics from reaching Heaven; have boasted the expedition may have helped to Kill Mother Theresa.

    • have developed strategic outlines for taking control of society and government in Austin, Texas and other communities.

    • are exporting an ideology, that includes fighting “witches” and “spirits of witchcraft” to the developing world – an ideology that may have contributed to the torture and death of thousands of African children.

    • have endorsed church-based death squads operating in Central America.

    • promotes the idea, to teens in the movement, that they will form a supernaturally equipped end-time army that will cleanse the earth of evil.

     
  • johnpi 2:42 pm on September 24, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Christian extremists, ,

    A big thanks to blogger Kyle at Right Wing Watch whose reports of mobilization among the US Christianist movement against the ‘Jummah on the Hill’ event has been excellent. He’s had three further posts since I linked RWW last night:

    A group called Operation Save America is “openly declaring that they are heading to DC in order to wage spiritual battle against the rally participants and “storm the gates of hell to defeat the false god of Islam with the unsheathed Word of God and to set people free from the monstrous tyranny and bondage of this religion birthed in the deepest pits of hell.”

    • Second post: Muslim prayer rally sets off a full-blown right wing crusade.

    It seems that with every hour that passes, more and more Religious Right leaders are getting involved, to the point that this is now pretty much a full-blown holy war between the right-wing Christian activists and the organizers of this Muslim prayer rally.

    Most recent: The Christianists who are holding the prayer rally/conference call this evening have toned down their rhetoric and issued a less confrontational press release. However:

    While the NDPTF may be trying to tone down its rhetoric, the same cannot be said for [Lou] Engle, who has issued his own “urgent nationwide call to prayer” in order to stand “against [the] principalities, powers, and forces of darkness” and pray that God will “use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America.”

     
  • johnpi 7:25 pm on September 23, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian extremists, ,

    Anti-Islam events to counter “Jummah on the Hill” go national.

    Christian activists have scheduled a national prayer/conference call for tomorrow (Thursday) evening across four time zones to counter Muslims “dark spiritual intent” and the “rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested.”

    …we are calling Christians all over America to join Lou Engle, Shirley Dobson, Tony Perkins, David Barton, and many other major leaders in America to a national conference call to pray for America. Please join us on Thursday, September 24th from 7:30PM to 9:00PM Eastern Time for possibly one of the greatest moments in American history.

     
  • johnpi 2:08 pm on September 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, Christians in the US military, , ,

    ‘Top ten ways to convince the Muslims we’re on a crusade.’

    Chris Rodda of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation lines up a top ten list of Christianist/Dominionist offensive da…err…idiocy in the US military.

    10. Have top U.S. military officers, Defense Department officials, and politicians say we’re in a religious war.

    9. Have top U.S. military officers appear in a video showing just how Christian the Pentagon is.

    8. Plant crosses in Muslim lands and make sure they’re big enough to be visible from really far away.

    Photobucket

    7. Paint crosses and Christian messages on military vehicles and drive them through Iraq.

    6. Make sure that our Christian soldiers and chaplains see the war as a way to fulfill the Great Commission.

    5. Post photos on the internet of U.S. soldiers with their rifles and Bibles.

    4. Invite virulently anti-Muslim speakers to lecture at our military colleges and service academies.

    3. Have a Christian TV network broadcast to the world that the military is helping missionaries convert Muslims.

    2. Make sure Bibles and evangelizing materials sent to Muslim lands have official U.S. military emblems on them.

    1. Send lots of Arabic, Dari, and Pashtu language Bibles to convert the Muslims.

     
  • johnpi 8:44 pm on September 4, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, , , ,

    Three nationally recognized pastors have declared they are praying for Obama’s death.

    A third, and perhaps even more menacing anti-Obama “death prayer pastor” is Peter Peters of the LaPorte, Colorado Church of Christ. During the 1980’s, members of the white supremacist militia group The Order attended Peters’ church and four months after Pastor Pete Peters and his parishioner Colonel Jack Mohr appeared on Jewish talk show host Alan Berg’s Denver radio show, during which the radio show host confronted Peters and Mohr about their views, Berg was machine-gunned to death. Members of The Order were later convicted of the murder.

    Peters went on to host an October 1992 planning meeting, with white supremacist and NeoNazi leaders, during which an organizing strategy for a national paramilitary network was hammered out. Former Aryan Nations member Floyd Cochran said of Peters, “He doesn’t espouse Hitler. He doesn’t use the swastika or Klan robes. Instead he uses the Bible and the American flag. Peters talks in a language we’re used to hearing. His hatred is masked in God.”

    Amazing. And to think people are worried about Muslim religious violence…

     
  • johnpi 6:44 pm on September 2, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, , ,

    Recently, Fathima Rifqa Bary met a strange evangelical Christian on the Internet. There are other strange evangelical Christians on the Internet.

    A rising star in South Carolina’s evangelical social conservative community, Kristen Maguire, who is the chairwoman of the South Carolina Board of Education, an executive committeewoman of the S.C. Republican Party, and a strong supporter of “abstinence only” education – has been discovered to be the “prolific author of hardcore erotic fiction on the Internet” under the pen name “Bridget Keeney” who writes freely about her interest in sexual adventurism.

    I’ll spare you the details, but there are now also reports about her behavior off-line too.

    Another South Carolina blogger writes:

    I guess if Dominionism is one’s vocation and gettin’ jiggy wit it is that same individual’s avocation, then I guess I can see where a massive conflict could raise its ugly head at an inconvenient juncture, as it were.

    Of course our religious community has its own Kristen Maguire’s – perhaps they should meet and get married for an evening…

     
  • johnpi 3:43 pm on August 30, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, , , ,

    A new Zionist American organization formed two months ago called Z Street – a play off the name of the successful liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street – and its first foray into the media has been to publish press releases and editorials supporting Rifqa Bary.

    The material is mostly pablum and ‘fire for effect’ not worthy of excerpt. They seem to value Rifqa Bary for her effect on their Christian extremist allies. In the effort to gin up the Xians, Z Street announces:

    they [us, the monolithic Muslims] ‘religiously’ condemn prayer in school and other non-Muslim religious expressions.”

    I’m interested to know how Z Street leaders envision Christian prayer in schools affecting Jewish students? Perhaps they’re such big zionists that they think all the Jews will be ingathered to Israel in a few short years so it doesn’t matter. Or perhaps Christian prayer in the schools would prompt more Jewish emigration, so all’s the better.

    Once again, in the over-eager alliance of Zionists and Christian extremists, the Zionists are supporting a movement that is predicated on harming Jewish interests in the long term (another example being that the Christian vision of armageddon has all the Jews being slain or converted to Christians).

     
  • johnpi 3:00 pm on August 30, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, , , , , , , ,

    Unsupervised, unfettered access to the Internet was father’s ‘terrible mistake’ that caused the Rifqa Bary debacle.

    Mohamed Bary is a doting Muslim father, intent on giving his daughter the best education he can. But he says he made a terrible mistake last October: He bought her a laptop computer.

    Because of that laptop and access to the Internet, he says he lost his daughter to Christian extremists.
    ….

    In the weeks before she fled, her parents noticed she would sleep all day and stay up all night exploring the Internet.

    Until this spring, Rifqa was a model student, an obedient daughter. She earned good grades, worked part-time at a Chinese restaurant and called home even if she were running just 10 minutes late.

    But about the time school ended in May, she began all-night Facebook sessions. She started withdrawing from family members and longtime friends, her parents said.

    Many of her chats were with evangelical Christians, her father said. They turned her against him, he said.

     
  • johnpi 6:15 am on August 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, , ,

    Secret Service interviewed pastor who prays for Obama’s death.

    Steven Anderson is the Arizona pastor who prayed for Barack Obama’s death the day before one of his parishioners, who attended the sermon, brought an AR-15 rifle to an Obama event.

    Here is his now infamous “pisseth against the wall” sermon (‘Men’ stand up, anyone who uses the word ‘male’ doesn’t). Seems like there is a rule for everything in Christianity…

     
  • johnpi 4:22 pm on August 4, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Christian extremists, ,

    A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

    The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

     
  • johnpi 8:05 pm on July 6, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Christian extremists, extrremism,

    The ‘10 commandments of the anti-Christ’ are written on big stones in the state of Georgia, according to assorted right-wing nuts/conspiracy theorists in the US. Some fuzzy-headed do-gooder had a giant granite monument built with vague platitudes in 10 languages carved across it back in the 1980s, and fear has grown since then.

    In 2005, Mark Dice (using the pseudonym “John Connor” in reference to the Terminator film franchise) organized a Christian group opposed to the New World Order called “The Resistance” and began a campaign to have the monument destroyed. In 2007, radio personality and filmmaker Alex Jones released a documentary entitled Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement, outlining a plan by the Bilderberg group and other global elites to exterminate eighty percent of humanity. The Georgia Guidestones are cited as primary evidence of this plot.

    That would be the same Alex Jones recently cited by a contributor here at TI.

     
  • johnpi 12:23 pm on May 1, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian extremists, , imprecatory prayers, ,

    Earlier, I linked Umar’s post about the rise of the Christianists in the US military. Here’s a story about one of their chaplains: Barry Lynn of Americans United Against Church and State and Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation were recently the objects of an imprecatory prayer from a former Navy Chaplain who they got in trouble for wearing his uniform for improper political and religious purposes while lying about his status as a former Navy Chaplain (as opposed to being still active duty). An imprecatory prayer beseeches God to make bad things happen to other people. Here’s the prayer (and an audio link too):

    (More …)

     
  • johnpi 7:39 pm on April 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Christian extremists, ,

    Umar Lee weighs in on a new Harper’s article that reports on the influence of Conservative Evangelical Christians in the US military:

    This article only confirms what I have known for a long time and that is that the officer corps of the military and many parts of the military are under the control of the Christian Right and that they view their job today as to destroy Islam. They are Crusaders and when we pay taxes we are paying for their Crusade.

    I haven’t read the article as it is behind a pay wall, but based on what I currently know – mostly from reports from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has a synopsis of the Harper’s article here – I wouldn’t go as far as Umar and indict the whole officers corps, but I would say that it is a big problem, and Obama needs to do more to rein in Christian supremacists and their bigotry in the military…

     
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