The Religious Right started as a grass roots movement and gradually
gained steam over a period of years. There is nothing wrong with
Christians catching fire in a great spiritual revival and carry a
message of redemption and everlasting life through Jesus Christ our
Savior, but somewhere along the way, Christianity became big business
for profit, and it really took off with the Evangelical TV Ministrys of
the 1980, including charismatic Christian Ministers like Bob Backer,
Jimmy Swagger, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, and Jerry Falwell. With a new
TV media able to reach members by the millions, a new Jesus Christ with
a new message was created by the Religious Right shaping Jesus Christ
into their own image, rather that the Religious Right conforming to the
teaching of Jesus Christ found the the new testament of the Holy Bible.
As the Evangelical Religious Right movement gained traction, the
movement became drunk with its own new found financial and political
powers, hungry for even more.
The message being preached by these evangelical TV ministries slowly
changed to grow the TV viewers and increase the millions of dollars
being donated everyday. The message was change to become more appealing
to the members, so the memberss were told that God would Bless those who
sent in contributions, that tithing was as important as any of the 10
commandment in obtaining salvation, that the Jewish laws of the Old
Testament should be applied today and were on a par with the new
testament, that God would bless those who stood with his chosen people
and curse those who stood against his chosen people, and the new
covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ began to be de-emphasized.
The evangelical began to preach the imminence of the end time, the
battle of Armageddon, and the returning of Jesus Christ. The church
began to teach the need for war, even preemptive war, rather that
peace. Members of the movement were not ask to pray for those in need,
but rather the member became pray warriors of the movement, and asked to
pray for or against various causes as defined by the church leadership,
like change in the Supreme Court, or passage of an amendment to the
Constitution banning gay marriage. The church also began to emphasize
evil and immorality within America and other countries including the
evil of being poor. In the US things like gay marriage, homosexuality,
abortion, and government removal of religion from the public square
began to be attacked. These hot button issues brought in millions of
dollars of donations around the country via TV request for support on
this issue, or that issue, and it also turned out millions of voter on
election day to support the Republican (George Bush as Messiah) government.
People who know how to use power are alway interested in any grass root
movement that takes hold and begins to gain critical mass. The idea is
to infiltrate the movement, work into leadership positions within the
movement, and thereby steal the power of the movement for personal
gain. For example, if there is a grass root movement in some foreign
country that opposes an enemy of the US, the CIA will be quick to
support that movement with advisers, technical instructors, weapons, and
propagandist to encourage the movement to overturn the US enemy, and
establish a regime that would be a Democracy and on good terms with the
US. This is how Fidel Castro came to power, but the US discovered to
late that he was really a communist. Anyway, the Religious Right
movement has been used by the Neo-conservative (e.g. Zionist war
zealots) Bush Administration to maintain political power even as the
Bush Administration uses the power of America, and the American people,
to benefit a foreign country to the determent of US citizens. A world
in which the only thing that matters is political power, is an
interesting world in which nothing is quite what it seems and the still
deep waters hide powerful currents and undertows for the unwary.
There are laws which prohibit religious organizations from being
involved in politics. If a religious organization becomes political,
they should lose their tax exempt status, and be liable for income
taxes, just like any other business, and contributions to such political
churches acting as PAC, should not be tax deductible like it is for
organization that meet the requirements of the IRC Section 503c type
organization, but the Neo-conservative Bush Administration is not about
to enforce the laws banning churches acting as PAC, because thorough its
Neo-conservative influence, it is able to wield and control the power of
the Religious Rights grass roots movement.
This problem is something that should be at the top of the next
Administration's agenda.
Regards,
LelandJ
William Sanders wrote:
Leland said -
"Hey, its not really pulpit unless you have a bible thumping Religious
Righter hypocrite standing behind it spouting the End of Day with an
approaching battle of Armageddon, (eg WWIII) at the door.
Regards,
LelandJ"
I think perhaps we're not watching the same news programs ? CNN and it's
subnetworks have been doing special programs since Thursday last week,
giving the 'pulpit boys' time to get the message out. Hagee and his crew
have been rather prolific these last 5 days.
The thing that really bothers me (and I was hoping someone else would put
a stop to it) is that the Religous Right have organzined into a
money-paying organization, taking the time-tested model of Paid Lobbyists
combined with dropping millions of dollars into campaign funds to get the
'proper' attention.
It went even more south as the concept of 'faith-based initiatives'
started becoming reality. You know - the concept of giving federal funds
to a church, who in turn promise to use it for rebuilding communities
locally via drug-rehab programs, work-training programs, etc etc. I had
thought that if most non-religious entities had failed so often in doing
these things, what harm could it have to have it done with a religious
spin? Well, that turned into a pork-barrel project and there was much
debate in the house and senate, and it's not been funded (YEAH!)
Moving during the past 8 years, the Religious Right have funded so many
Republicans in the House and Senate, along with general RNC/P funding, and
they took it in, hook, line, and sinker - to make up that wonderful
'NeoCon' label.
If you guys want to talk about the seperation of Church and State in the
USA, stop the political fundraising going on within the Evangelical
Christian Movement. Anything else seems stupid. Politicians pay
attention to those who pay them campaign funds, and they have been paying
attention for these last 8 years.
Michael Madigan - about your original post:
Alas - thats how it's been - The Zionists have made a solid political
inroad over the last 45-50 years, and have used that same concept of
paying political contribution money to those who they wanted to control,
and then having their special interests protected. But - any other block
does this too - some of the bigger faux paux's were from the Steel
Industry ages past.
In short - its a basic model for getting the attention of any politican -
if you (as a group) want something done, pay yer money and hedge yer bets.
I'd love to see the Religious Right TOTALLY out of the picture, but that
cash machine keeps on sending money out to Politicians, and they keep
taking it, making promises to do things on the RR agenda, and turning
themselves into that NeoCon Republican model that just doesn't work for
this country.
I'm not a bible thumper, and I'm trying to stay non-political, after
becoming an in-the-closet Republican after George Bush became the Governor
of Texas . All I can hope is that someone else can make these same
linkages that I have, and stop the bullsh|t.
Our country was founded on the concept of seperation of Church and State,
and when the Church can buy power , somethings totally busted. I keep the
concept that Religion and Politics are personal, not to be shared with
others as opinions, etc etc, but the progression of events over the last 8
years makes me quite disgusted ..
regards [Bill]
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