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Millions of Evangelical Christians Want to Start WWIII to Speed the "Second Coming" ... and Atheist Neocons are Using Religion
MILLIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS WANT TO START WORLD WAR III ... TO SPEED UP THE SECOND COMING
The Founding Fathers weren't particularly anti-Islam.
But millions of Americans believe that Christ will not come again until Israel wipes out its competitors and there is widespread war in the Middle East. Some of these folks want to start a huge fire of war and death and destruction, so that Jesus comes quickly.
According to French President Chirac, Bush told him that the Iraq war was needed to bring on the apocalypse:
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”…
There can be little doubt now that President Bush’s reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam’s Iraq was the fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord.
And British Prime Minister Tony Blair long-time mentor, advisor and confidante said:
“Tony’s Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone – Iraq too – was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better.”
Mr Burton, who was often described as Mr Blair’s mentor, says that his religion gave him a “total belief in what’s right and what’s wrong”, leading him to see the so-called War on Terror as “a moral cause”…
Anti-war campaigners criticised remarks Mr Blair made in 2006, suggesting that the decision to go to war in Iraq would ultimately be judged by God.
Bill Moyers reports that the organization Christians United for Israel - led by highly-influential Pastor John C. Hagee - is a universal call to all Christians to help factions in Israel fund the Jewish settlements, throw out all the Palestinians and lobby for a pre-emptive invasion of Iran. All to bring Russia into a war against us causing World War III followed by Armageddon, the Second Coming and The Rapture. See this and this.
This all revolves around what is called Dispensationalism. So popular is Dispensationalism that Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series has sold 65 million copies. Dispensationalists include the following mega-pastors and their churches:
They are supported by politicians such as:
- Texas Senator John Cronyn
- Former House Minority Whip Roy Blunt
- Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
- And others
Dr. Timothy Webber - an evangelical Christian who has served as a teacher of church history and the history of American religion at Denver Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Vice-President at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL, and President of Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee - notes:
In a recent Time/CNN poll, more than one-third of Americans said that since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, they have been thinking more about how current events might be leading to the end of the world.
While only 36 percent of all Americans believe that the Bible is God's Word and should be taken literally, 59 percent say they believe that events predicted in the Book of Revelation will come to pass. Almost one out of four Americans believes that 9/11 was predicted in the Bible, and nearly one in five believes that he or she will live long enough to see the end of the world. Even more significant for this study, over one-third of those Americans who support Israel report that they do so because they believe the Bible teaches that the Jews must possess their own country in the Holy Land before Jesus can return.
Millions of Americans believe that the Bible predicts the future and that we are living in the last days. Their beliefs are rooted in dispensationalism, a particular way of understanding the Bible's prophetic passages, especially those in Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. They make up about one-third of America's 40 or 50 million evangelical Christians and believe that the nation of Israel will play a central role in the unfolding of end-times events. In the last part of the 20th century, dispensationalist evangelicals become Israel's best friends-an alliance that has made a serious geopolitical difference.
***
Starting in the 1970s, dispensationalists broke into the popular culture with runaway best-sellers, and a well-networked political campaign to promote and protect the interests of Israel. Since the mid-1990s, tens of millions of people who have never seen a prophetic chart or listened to a sermon on the second coming have read one or more novels in the Left Behind series, which has become the most effective disseminator of dispensationalist ideas ever.
***
During the early 1980s the Israeli Ministry of Tourism recruited evangelical religious leaders for free "familiarization" tours. In time, hundreds of evangelical pastors got free trips to the Holy Land. The purpose of such promotional tours was to enable people of even limited influence to experience Israel for themselves and be shown how they might bring their own tour group to Israel. The Ministry of Tourism was interested in more than tourist dollars: here was a way of building a solid corps of non-Jewish supporters for Israel in the United States by bringing large numbers of evangelicals to hear and see Israel's story for themselves. The strategy caught on.
***
Shortly after the Six-Day War, elements within the Israeli government saw the potential power of the evangelical subculture and began to mobilize it as a base of support that could influence American foreign policy. The Israeli government sent Yona Malachy of its Department of Religious Affairs to the United States to study American fundamentalism and its potential as an ally of Israel. Malachy was warmly received by fundamentalists and was able to influence some of them to issue strong pro-Israeli manifestos. By the mid-1980s, there was a discernible shift in the Israeli political strategy. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Jewish state's major lobbying group in Washington, D.C., started re-aligning itself with the American political right-wing, including Christian conservatives. Israel's timing was perfect. It began working seriously with American dispensationalists at the precise moment that American fundamentalists and evangelicals were discovering their political voice.
***
Probably the largest pro-Israel organization of its kind is the National Unity Coalition for Israel, which was founded by a Jewish woman who learned how to get dispensationalist support. NUCI opposes "the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of Israel."
***
In their commitment to keep Israel strong and moving in directions prophesied by the Bible, dispensationalists are supporting some of the most dangerous elements in Israeli society. They do so because such political and religious elements seem to conform to dispensationalist beliefs about what is coming next for Israel. By lending their support-both financial and spiritual-to such groups, dispensationalists are helping the future they envision come to pass.
***
Dispensationalists believe that the Temple is coming too; and their convictions have led them to support the aims and actions of what most Israelis believe are the most dangerous right-wing elements in their society, people whose views make any compromise necessary for lasting peace impossible. Such sentiments do not matter to the believers in Bible prophecy, for whom the outcome of the quarrelsome issue of the Temple Mount has already been determined by God.
Since the end of the Six-Day War, then, dispensationalists have increasingly moved from observers to participant-observers. They have acted consistently with their convictions about the coming Last Days in ways that make their prophecies appear to be self-fulfilling.
***
As Paul Boyer has pointed out, dispensationalism has effectively conditioned millions of Americans to be somewhat passive about the future and provided them with lenses through which to understand world events. Thanks to the sometimes changing perspectives of their Bible teachers, dispensationalists are certain that trouble in the Middle East is inevitable, that nations will war against nations, and that the time is coming when millions of people will die as a result of nuclear war, the persecution of Antichrist, or as a result of divine judgment. Striving for peace in the Middle East is a hopeless pursuit with no chance of success.
***
For the dispensational community, the future is determined. The Bible's prophecies are being fulfilled with amazing accuracy and rapidity. They do not believe that the Road Map will-or should-succeed. According to the prophetic texts, partitioning is not in Israel's future, even if the creation of a Palestinian state is the best chance for peace in the region. Peace is nowhere prophesied for the Middle East, until Jesus comes and brings it himself. The worse thing that the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations can do is force Israel to give up land for a peace that will never materialize this side of the second coming. Anyone who pushes for peace in such a manner is ignoring or defying God's plan for the end of the age.
***
It seems clear that dispensationalism is on a roll, that its followers feel they are riding the wave of history into the shore of God's final plan. Why should they climb back into the stands when being on the field of play is so much more fun and apparently so beneficial to the game's outcome? As [one dispensationalist group's] advertisement read, "Don't just read about prophecy when you can be part of it."
ATHEIST WAR HAWKS MANIPULATE BELIEVERS TO BEAT THE DRUMS OF WAR
Leo Strauss is the father of the Neo-Conservative movement, including many leaders of the current administration.
Indeed, many of the main neocon players - including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Stephen Cambone, Elliot Abrams, and Adam Shulsky - were students of Strauss at the University of Chicago, where he taught for many years.
The people pushing for war against Iran are the same neocons who pushed for war against Iraq. See this and this. (They planned both wars at least 20 years ago.) For example, Shulsky was the director of the Office of Special Plans - the Pentagon unit responsible for selling false intelligence regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass. He is now a member of the equivalent organization targeting Iran: the Iranian Directorate.
Strauss, born in Germany, was an admirer of Nazi philosophers and of Machiavelli. Strauss believed that a stable political order required an external threat and that if an external threat did not exist, one should be manufactured. Specifically, Strauss thought that:
A political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat . . . . Following Machiavelli, he maintained that if no external threat exists then one has to be manufactured
(the quote is by one of Strauss' main biographers).
Indeed, Stauss used the analogy of Gulliver's Travels to show what a Neocon-run society would look like:
"When Lilliput [the town] was on fire, Gulliver urinated over the city, including the palace. In so doing, he saved all of Lilliput from catastrophe, but the Lilliputians were outraged and appalled by such a show of disrespect." (this quote also from the same biographer)
Moreover, Strauss said:
Only a great fool would call the new political science diabolic . . . Nevertheless one may say of it that it fiddles while Rome burns. It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it fiddles, and it does not know that Rome burns.
So Strauss seems to have advocated governments letting terrorizing catastrophes happen on one's own soil to one's own people -- of "pissing" on one's own people, to use his Gulliver's travel analogy. And he advocates that government's should pretend that they did not know about such acts of mayhem: to intentionally "not know" that Rome is burning. He advocates messing with one's own people in order to save them from some "catastophe" (perhaps to justify military efforts to monopolize middle eastern oil to keep it away from our real threat -- an increasingly-powerful China?).
What does this have to do with religion?
Strauss taught that religion should be used as a way to manipulate people to achieve the aims of the leaders. But that the leaders themselves need not believe in religion.
As Wikipedia notes:
In the late 1990s Irving Kristol and other writers in neoconservative magazines began touting anti-Darwinist views, in support of intelligent design. Since these neoconservatives were largely of secular backgrounds, a few commentators have speculated that this – along with support for religion generally – may have been a case of a "noble lie", intended to protect public morality, or even tactical politics, to attract religious supporters.
So is it any surprise that the folks who planned war against Iraq and Iran at least 20 years ago are pushing religious disinformation to stir up the evangelical community?
Conservative Christians were the biggest backers of the Iraq war. And the Neocons are catering to them to try to back them into war with Iran, as well.
I've recently seen a swarm of spam claiming that all Muslims are evil, that they want to take over the world and establish a Muslim caliphate, and that they want to nuke Iran. They misquote Muslims and use false statements to try to stir up religious hatred.
They are simply promoting the Straussian playbook: stir up religious sentiment - even if you are personally an atheist - to create and demonize an "enemy", so as to promote war ...
NOT A PROBLEM WITH A PARTICULAR RELIGION ... BUT OF IMMATURITY
Most Americans confuse Zionism and Judaism. But many devout Jews are against Zionism, and Zionists can be Christian.
And as I've repeatedly noted, fundamentalist Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus are all very much alike, and often willing to use violence to spread their ideology ... while more spiritually mature Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus are all much more tolerant and peaceful than their evangelical brothers:
As Christian writer and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck explained, there are different stages of spiritual maturity. Fundamentalism – whether it be Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Hindu fundamentalism – is an immature stage of development. There are peaceful, contemplative Muslim sects – think the poet Rumi the poet and Sufis – and violent sects, just as there are contemplative Christian orders and violent Christian groups (and peaceful and violent atheists).
While there are certainly some Arab terrorists, Islam cannot be blamed for their barbaric murderous actions, just as Christianity cannot be blamed for the Norwegian Christian terrorist - Anders Behring Breivik's actions. University of Chicago professor Robert A. Pape – who specializes in international security affairs – points out:
Extensive research into the causes of suicide terrorism proves Islam isn’t to blame — the root of the problem is foreign military occupations.
The 9/11 hijackers used cocaine and drank alcohol, slept with prostitutes and attended strip clubs … but they did not worship at any mosque. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. So they were not really Muslims.
And even atheists like Stalin can be terrorists, or at least genocidal maniacs.
Indeed, all religions teach compassion, love and the Golden Rule. Likewise, atheism teaches respect for the individual, the most good for the most people, and helping everyone reach their human potential.
Some within each philosophy follow these teachings, and others want to kill everyone who doesn't agree with them. The issue is not really the label of this religion or that, but of maturity and true spirituality and compassion.
Postscript 1: Neoliberals and Neoconservatives are very similar in many ways. And because Neocons are not conservative, nothing in this post is meant to criticize conservatism.
Postscript 2: Most evangelicals are not dispensationalists, and so do not want to bring on armageddon.
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Being a Marxist (Groucho, not Karl), I think I have the answer to what that phrase means...
I'd never belong to a club that would accept me as a member.
DosZap .... Jesus explains all here
Mark 10:16-31 (KJV)
16And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
17And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
18And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
19Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
20And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
21Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
22And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
23And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
24And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
26And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
27And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
28Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
29And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
31But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.
There was a narrow gate in the wall of Jerusalem called the Needle's Eye. In order for a camel to go into Jerusalem at night, it had to pass through the Needle's Eye after having its freight removed. It could not pass through while loaded.
Actually, kamilos ('camel') may have been mistaken for kamelos ('cable'), or, alternatively, in the word in question in Aramaic can mean either 'camel' or 'rope,' depending on pointing, so it is entirely possible that the parable is actually about threading a needle with a (large) ROPE and it's impossibility, and may have gotten mixed up with camels because of Rabinnical sources speaking of elephants and needles.
It’s always best to be accurate …
Do all other translations of the Bible use this exact same wording? Perhaps his wording was accurate according to whatever translation he used.
RichardP,
Easy enough to find out for yourself. You can download bible software for free (very powerful) and you can additionally download 24 different bible versions. There are also many free helps that you can download if desired. After doing that look up Mark 10:25 in as many versions as you have downloaded. I will provide a link below that you can download E-Sword FREE.
I will say though that his rendering was not accurate no matter the translation. Here is the ISV translation ....
Mar 10:25
It is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God."
http://www.e-sword.net/
Did you personally hear god clearly state this in Mark 10.25? Your premise is dead in the water from the gitgo.
If it is written then it is written, is it not? What's your problem? Lack of reading comprehension? Does all that evolutionary dogma in your head interfere with your synapses? Or is it that you have a problem with faith? If so that's rather peculiar given that to believe in ANYTHING requires faith, of one form or other... Yes, even atheism requires faith of a kind. Evolution also requires faith. A lot of it.
Yes, even atheism requires faith of a kind. Evolution also requires faith. A lot of it.
Well, that's just a load of horseshit. Here's a clue...learn about the scientific method and you won't embarrass yourself on line quite so much.
Assume there are a finite number of prime numbers (numbers divisible only by themselves or one). Label these numbers p1, p2,...pn. Note that n could be an extremely large number, but it is nevertheless, finite. Now this product is divisible with a remainder of zero by any prime number. Now add 1 to the product. If you divide this product plus 1 by any of the listed prime numbers, you will have a remainder of 1. Hence, the number (p1*p2*...*pn) + 1 is a new prime number not in the original list which was presumed complete. Therefore, there are an infinite number of prime numbers.
Are you convinced by this proof that there are an infinite number of primes?
Where does this conviction come from?
You messed up the proof, quite badly in fact, so the answer is no. You start without properly describing the multiplication to produce the product, and add the incorrect assertion that the product is divisible by *any* prime, which is nonsense.
Can you go look that up and repost it correctly? Thanks.
"Describing the multiplication to produce the product." Well, ya see, it's like this. You've got n primes and you assume that's all the primes there are. Now ya multiply them all together, see? So it's ok, by golly, to say "any" prime cause each and ever one of those critters is in that product which you don't understand. Now you add one to that product of primes--you remember which product I'm referin to? the one that wasn't properly described? And yes, the product itself is divisible by any prime because each and every one of them is in the product as a factor, so when you divide through by any prime you get a remainder of zero. That's what divisible means.
You are either a pedant or an ignoramus.
sorry - double post
Bumper sticker I love: "Jesus is coming and boy, is he pissed"
I'm guessing I know who the holy one would be pissed at, and I don't think they are Muslims.
The one I love is simpler: "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"
Answer: no one
So-called Christian "believers" need to take a hard look inside. They might not like what they see.
The one I love is simpler: "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" Answer: no one ...
We only know about Jesus by reading what is written about him. Did you miss this:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on Earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39 NASB)
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. (Luke 12:49-53 KJV)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_to_bring_a_sword
"If you're gonna do business with a religious son of a bitch.. GET IT IN WRITING. His word ain't worth shit, not with the good Lord teaching him how to fuck you on the deal"
William Burroughs
My first screwing in business was at the hand of a born-again Christian. His reason for not paying me: "God didn't want you to have that money."
Sadly I've had a number of subsequent screw-overs since... I'm running down the list of world religions, and will soon start on ethnicities...
Big Corked Boots
My first screwing in business was at the hand of a born-again Christian
You sure about that?, claiming and being are two separate issues.
I can say/claim, I am whatever I want............doesn't make it so.
The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse is strutting around on Pennsylvania Avenue, and is riding rampant over the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Screw him, and the horse he rode in on!
The belief in some sort of invisible entity is just immature and comes from the dark ages when "The Fear of a deity" was used to control the masses - Seems it still works.
I do not belong to any group - Athiest or whatever --- I am just this guy.........
Atheists can be as annoying as a religious fanatic. Just live in Realityville and mind your own business. But these freaks won't leave it alone, will they?
Religious people should feel free to practice their beliefs in the US. People that think it's a lotta crap should feel free to ignore religion. Politicians and religion is a dangerous mix. If we start getting close to having any theocracy imposed on the US, be it catholic, christian or muslim, you will see real bloodshed and churches burning everywhere.
Feeling lucky punk? Start a religious war in this country and see what happens.
newsflash - religion and politics are embedded, the system is symbiotic. one can choose a flavour or colour variant, but there's little difference in systems with massive rulebooks, laws and guilt/punishments for "the wicked" - the model is one and the same.
while we don't as yet have a proper theocracy, we certainly have a "belief system" hierarchy that emulates the religious model carefully.
"Start a religious war in this country and see what happens."
Apparently you've missed that it's been going on for quite some time now*... Much, however, has been externalized (much to the horror of the various "brown people" of the world), for now...
* "God" got attached to our fiat money. "God" got stuffed into our secular "pledge of allegiance. And,"God" is supposed to be sworn to in order to give "factual" testimony while in our secular legal courts that adhere to a Constitution that is supposed to require no religious tests in order to serve public office.
The people driving all these wars are the zionazis. They want what their 'god' has promised them and if they don't get it they will destroy the world. I say send them smallpox or ebola and be done with it.
They want what their 'god' has promised them ...
We only know this by reading what has been written. Go read what has been written. There you will find that God promised the land to Abraham and his children. No caveats in the writing. Was Ishmael one of Abraham's children? Where in the writing does it say that Ishmael, one of Abraham's children, was not covered by the promise made to Abraham and his children? The promise was not made to Abraham and only some of his children.
This is another case where you skip past the (bullshit) article and go to the comments, which are far more interesting :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=33C65V9JdbE
WB7 depicted the true God, our Jamie, with the FBI / Iranian explosive placebo belt...
Demon will blow us apart anyway, he armed with derivatives.
Me thinks the unified Church of Ponzi, ( judeo-chistian-islamist oil & nukes thugs ), shall do something against this horrible blasphemy .... :-P
______________________
... but, b4 WB7 dies on the cross, or in some accident, me prints 2 quadrillions blessings for a small amount oxygen in my lunge ... . Nothing but a good laugh ...
Cut to the end of The Life of Brian and sing along with "Always look on the bright side of life."
As for the Sermon on the Mount, I always preferred "Blessed are the cheese makers."
The Greek shall inherit the Earth?
as a cheese maker myself, I'm down with being "blessed" - you bring the wine.
... sing along with "Always look on the bright side of life ...
Keep on the Sunny Side of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpsr4tKwZ-I
the greek shall borrow the earth at 17,353,498%
Jesus is/was the truth, it's the politicians that're the lie. There are alot of holes in the article, about specific Christian dogma, not sure if its the author's fault, or those quoted. Seems too often the biggest haters of Christianity get all their info from the MSM about Christ, yet refuse to believe the MSM on the economy. Havin' it both ways, so if Christ is the lie, then the economy must really be all fine, dollar gettin' stronger, jobs coming back, Obama's a leader, and a peacemaker, Soros the smartest money guy around due to exceptional intellectual skill, etc...if using the same "MSM will lead you to the TRUE answers" standard. Whewww, good to know, I been sweating nothin' for the last few years.
Despite the differences in faith, all people end up the same: dead!
Sorry, George, you lost me on this one. I know lots of Christians, and have for decades. None, EVER, has said anything along these lines.
Consider yourself fortunate to be among sane folks. Keep them that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0CvCtAeg_o
You need to get out more...
Hagee should be considered a domestic terrorist and warmonger. He appears to be quite insane.
And, again!, it's about POWER. Lots of people are nuts, but the problem is is when they are able to gain power. If we are to rise to any "next level" we'll need to learn that the concentration of power is BAD.
Pat Robertson was once quite dominant. This so-called representative of "Christians," who may have as much as $1 billion to his name, has a LOT of voice. Nothing like blaming the deaths of children on "homosexuals" and whatnot. Lots of homophobes out there (WTF? are gays/lesbians going to overrun the population?) who love being able to latch on to this guy (because he says the "Bible" says so). Where is the condemnation from the "good Christians?" Where were they when Hitler rose to power? (Gott Mit Uns)
I don't know whether insane people flock to power or whether power makes people insane. Perhaps it's a little of both. But at any rate it should be more than clear the THE PROBLEM IS POWER ITSELF.
Human history is the story of the masses dealing with or victims of miscreants, nutcases and liars, whether the latter group be political, military or religious.
Self-appointed leaders, charismatics who led the masses astray, or the nutcases and/or liars who gathered flocks with The One and Only Truth (c)---at most there can be only one truth, so at least all but one, and maybe all, religious founders were nutcases or liars---fill the pages of our history books. Too bad, but probably inevitable.
Once again you´re full of hyperbolic crap George. If you´re going to go down this road, at least pick on something that is a little more palpable. I´m an independent, but I know what is good for me and my interests.
How about giving us a little hate speechery into the muslim version of Armageddon, and how the the muslims are the drivers of the current Apocalyptic course we are on by trying to bring about the 12th Imam and a world Caliphate? GW, you really can find no supporters of world Caliphate movement such as the MB, Hezbollah, Al-Qaida, Hamas, CAIR, and sympathizers in the Obama Adminstration? No supporters, in plain sight, to be found anywhere? Really?
Or, how about the environmental wackos, the stealth neo-Malthusians, who want to de-populate billions off the globe to save their precious "Gaia". Widespread war will wreck the plants, so cutting off energy to promote mass starvation seems to be their preferred method. The NWO UN atheist elites and neo-fascists love this one because it will save huge money on the future socialist promises and unfunded liabilities that have been made. This is how the central planners and their enviro-nazi do-gooders plan to default on the human race. No evidence from hacked emails from East Anglia University in the UK and the UN to support any of this clap trap, eh George? After all, the atheist central planners did such a great job in the 20th century murdering 100 million people who didn´t believe in their Utopian vision. George, if you don´t have any evidence that this ideological hardcore fringe group has not changed their tactics and goals, then why look a bigot and a fool going after people who pay their taxes and peacefully excercise their First Amendment?
Factoids: Conservatives earn 50% more college degrees than liberals, pay more taxes, are less likely to cheat on their taxes, are more tolerant of others, and give more to charity (by far). It´s not even counter-intuitive, that´s why liberals demand free stuff from government and conservatives don´t need to. The difference is so great that if liberals could just keep up with conservatives, there would be no national debt and social problems would be nil. 90% of prison inmates in the USA identify with the democrat party. (Joseph Fried, 2008, Rhetoric vs Reality... Democrat vs Republican)
GW, if you hyperventilate over fringe theories you find under rocks, instead of exploring the obvious ones staring you in the face, it just makes you look fringe. Get back on track.
Way to go GW, you kicked over a rock.
Conservatives are more tolerant of others? Research contradicts that idea. Lots of research. There was another paper published just last month, another in a long series of studies on the topic.
From Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact:
"According to social-dominance theory, the positive association between right-wing ideologies and negative evaluations of out-groups reflects the fact that both constructs share the core psychological element of a desire for hierarchies among groups (Sidanius, Pratto, & Bobo, 1996). Socially conservative ideologies have therefore been conceptualized as “legitimizing myths”: Although they are often rooted in socially acceptable values and traditions, such ideologies nonetheless facilitate negative attitudes toward out-groups (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; see also Jost et al., 2003; Sidanius et al., 1996; Van Hiel et al., 2010)."
Emphasis mine.
Current count: 3 Green Arrows; 13 Red Arrows
You were saying something about "fringe?"
So, you think GW is "fringe" for suggesting that the people who were actually in control of the Pentagon might have manipulated the credulous believers, and yet you also believe that some neo-pagan sect has the desire and the wherewithal to kill billions, supposedly because they want to welch on their pension entitlements. If you're mainstream, America is lost.
I'll take this in two partts:
So, you think GW is "fringe" for suggesting that the people who were actually in control of the Pentagon might have manipulated the credulous believers?
I never said or thought anything about the Pentagon. I said that I've know MANY christians, over a long period of time, and I that have NEVER, EVER heard any of them promote such idiocy.
yet you also believe that some neo-pagan sect has the desire and the wherewithal to kill billions, supposedly because they want to welch on their pension entitlements.
I do? WTF? Who are the pagans?
I take it you're not gwar5's very indiscreet sock puppet, so I think you've replied to me in error.
If you really want more replies to your post, the people whom you engage in deep conversations about eschatology are hardly going to be a random sample of the population. I don't know about you, but the places I frequent the hardcore god squad are more likely to picket than patronise.
So, the shit in the Book of Revelations, AND, all those preachers calling for all the wars, AND GW Bush and Tony Blair's words, ALL false?
And you go on to spew a bunch of crap that's UNRELATED to these facts?
FAIL!
All those preachers? Really? How many? 10? 50? 200? Hate to point it out to you (you evince a need for these people to be monsters), but there are at least hundreds of thousands of preachers who would be horrified by the idea of purposely starting wars to bring on the apocalypse.
But, if you need to hate believers, go ahead. Cherry-pick your facts and pretend that they are all sub-human.