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No crocodile tears from us:
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“We aren’t supposed to talk about religion, but it was a Mormon that tied Matthew Shepard to a fence, a Baptist who beat him to death, and a Catholic (Rep. Foxx) who called it a hoax.”— “Chance,” responding to
Jay’s claim of culpability
in the Tel Aviv murders
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The blockbuster article from The Nation is too complex to excerpt coherently, so just read on — and then, after the jump, take a look at a very abbreviated map that explains just a few more reasons we detest everything Erik Prince (and, in fact, his entire, theocratic, un-American family) stands for.
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According to witnesses, the unidentified gunman, wearing a mask, stormed into the club and began shooting in all directions. Then he fled. Hundreds of Israeli police have launched a manhunt for the assailant.Voice of America
August 2, 2009
More after the video.
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U.S. military accused of atrocities
against Iraqi gaysRefugee tells stunned audience that soldiers
detained, executed gay civiliansA fundraising event to benefit an LGBT community center in Lebanon last week took a surprise turn when stunned audience members were shown graphic photographs of beheaded corpses and images purportedly depicting U.S. soldiers preparing to execute gay Iraqis.
Two gay Iraqi refugees, who declined to use their real names, delivered a presentation at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters July 24 in which they detailed alleged abuses of fellow gay Iraqis while calling on their audience to donate funds to Helem, a Lebanon-based center that works to address the plight of LGBT people in the Middle East.
One of the Iraqis, who goes by the name “Hussam,” showed the audience of about 80 people gruesome images, including shots allegedly of a beheaded man who was gay and another of the victim’s twin brother grieving over the severed head.
While asserting that anti-gay violence in Iraq is often committed by Iraqis, Hussam also said U.S. service members were involved in anti-gay hostility. …
More shocking details at the link.
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In the wake of the shocking revelation about Bluehost shutting down Web sites of Zimbabwean and Iranian dissidents (and one Belarusian national living and working in the U.S.) on the grounds that Bluehost was just following federal law (which is a crock), this naturally caught my eye:
EFF Releases ‘Surveillance Self-Defense International’
for Iranian Dissidents and Other Protestors
SAN FRANCISCO — July 21, 2009 — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released “Surveillance Self-Defense International” (SSDI) today, a practical guide to help activists from around the world use the Internet safely under repressive regimes.
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After all, this was the guy who said, “To me, God’s in control”:
Actor Stephen Baldwin files for bankruptcy in NY Actor Stephen Baldwin, brother of Emmy winner and “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin, filed for bankruptcy in New York on Tuesday, according to a court document that says he is millions in debt.
The 43-year-old actor filed for Chapter 11 protection claiming he owes more than $2.3 million and owns a New York property valued at only $1.1 million. His wife, Kennya Baldwin, also is named in the document. …
So, why do we care?
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Or: A Funny Thing Happened While Investigating the Lesbian Web Site That Ran Up Against the Mormon Web Host: I Stumbled Across an International Incident.
First things first: There are only five hard-and-fast rules I follow in life, without exception:
1. Keep your marriage vows.
2. Be nice to people until they give you a reason not to be.
3. Give money to homeless people, and never question what they’re going to do with it.
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Honestly (and all perfunctory “wouldn’t wish it on anybody” statements aside), I don’t know if the presumably imminent departure of Kim Jong-Il (the five-year survival rate of people with pancreatic cancer is a mere 4%) and the rise of his son, Kim Jong Un (whom Kim Jong-Il named as his successor last month — which is no secret to anyone but the North Korean people, who apparently haven’t yet been told) is a good thing, or a bad thing.
What I do remember are the warnings we heard when Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il’s father, was dying, and Kim Jong-Il was poised to assume power — which can be boiled down to: “If you think the father is crazy, wait ’til you get a load of the son.”
What do we know about Kim Jong Un, and what can we expect — or fear?
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“Investigating reports of the murder and torture of gay men in Iraq, Ashley Byrne found that some gays found Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship preferable to the threat of violence they face today. …”
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“The Obama administration announced in the statement it would disregard provisions of the legislation…”
What’s this about?
DADT?
DOMA?
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There is a very small cadre of mainstream journalists who have more than earned the highest level of respect and deserve the undivided attention of every American who cares about truth over spin, and substance over style. They’ll never lie to you, or tell you what they think you want to hear. (I said it was a very small cadre.) Paul Krugman is one. Molly Ivins was another.
Two of this exclusive group, writing about two separate issues, ask the same essential question about Barack Obama: Why such unwillingness — or cowardice — to do the job the people hired him to do: reverse the offenses of his predecessor, and work for the best interests of the American people?
When Helen Thomas and Bob Herbert speak, I listen. If only Obama would too:
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“Growing” controversy? “Growing”? What, has no one been paying attention since we invaded Iraq? This has been a major “controversy” to me for, oh, I dunno, like six freaking years:
Now, this is one good Christian… Not!, April 6, 2003
Franklin Graham, Christian Crusader, April 21, 2003
One more excellent read on Franklin Graham…, April 21, 2003
Well, better late than never, I suppose, that the U.S. MSM is finally shedding some light on this (six years ago, I had to rely on independent bloggers and the British papers for most of my information) — no matter how annoyed I get that it takes so bloody long for the MSM to catch up with us crazy lefties who’ve been saying “I told you so” all along:
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AMY GOODMAN: Were you a supporter of Saddam Hussein?ALI HILI: No, no, no, no. Actually, I’m personally, I have big hate for this person. He is the worst thing that ever happened to Iraq, maybe, until we saw these religious mullahs who were brought to the government to lead this country. We were much better off in the Saddam time, although he’s a tyrant.
So, this is what we “liberated” Iraq for? Betcha Obama won’t have any more to say about this than Bush did — although I’d love to hear The Big O’s reasoning about the way we should respect all deeply-held religious beliefs:
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The winning entry in a Memorial Day essay contest sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary spends more than half its space recounting the origins of Memorial Day itself, citing names and dates you retained just until the test was over, and which you won’t remember five minutes from now.
It’s the second paragraph that’s worth the read; seventh-grader Samantha Guevremont (Carver Middle School, Plymouth, Mass) has more clarity on war — particularly this sham of a “war” in Iraq that’s been going on literally half this girl’s life — than any of the crooks who began it, any of the flag-waving chuckleheads who supported it, or any of the inept conrgresscritters who don’t know how to stop it:
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Marriage of Saudi Arabian girl, eight, annulled An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a man in his 50s has had the union annulled, it was reported yesterday. …
The child, who has not been named, had been told by a court last December that she would not be allowed to divorce her husband until she reached puberty. …
The previous judge had ruled for the second time earlier this month that the marriage was legal. The father is said to have married the child to a friend to pay a financial debt. …
In many Saudi child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for dowries, or following the custom by which a father promises his daughters and sons in marriage while still children. …
No figures are available for the number of arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents in the kingdom, where the strictly conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. …
Related:
Whose Idea of “Traditional Marriage”?, February 28, 2009
Whose Idea of “Traditional Marriage” Again?, March 18, 2009
Whose Idea of “Traditional Marriage” Again? Marital Rape Now A-OK in Afghanistan, March 31, 2009
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I knew this name sounded familiar — and now I’m sorry I ever studied up on PNAC, ’cause at this juncture I’d rather forget everything I ever learned in the past eight years, and live the rest of my life in blissful ignorance. But once your eyes have been opened…
You ready? It’s a bad one, folks:
Obama picks Ross as Mideast envoy Dennis Ross, a former top diplomat for the George H W Bush and Clinton administrations, will become the Obama administration’s top envoy on the Middle East, an internal email from Mr Ross’s current employer has revealed.
Mr Ross, who previously served as the US envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is set to take a wider role as Hillary Clinton’s top adviser for the Middle East as a whole. Ms Clinton herself is due to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing for Secretary of State next Tuesday.
Executives at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the think-tank where Mr Ross works, told the organisation’s board that Mr Ross had “accepted an invitation to join the Obama administration as ambassador-at-large” in a job “designed especially for him,” covering a range of issues from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Iran.
The email, first reported by Chris Nelson, a Washington-based foreign policy expert, adds that Mr Ross “will not reprise his previous role as special Arab-Israeli peace envoy, a post that will be held by someone else; rather he will be working closely with both the special envoy and the secretary.”
Mr Ross is likely to strike a high profile in his new job, particularly given the current Gaza conflict and mounting fears about Iran’s nuclear capacity. He served as an adviser on the Middle East to president-elect Barack Obama during the election campaign, calling for bigger carrots and bigger sticks to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons capacity. …
More at the link. And if mention of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy alone hasn’t already given you a heart attack, here’s the rest of the story on Ross, from the invaluable Right Web:
Although generally considered a political moderate, Ross has been closely associated with a number of neoconservative-led organizations and policy initiatives. A consultant for the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Ross supported the advocacy efforts of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which played a key role advocating invading Iraq in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also frequently promotes aggressive Mideast policies in his writings and congressional testimony, and regularly teams up with scholars from organizations like the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to craft policy approaches toward Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues in the region. …Ross got his start in high-level policymaking working under Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon during the Jimmy Carter administration, where Wolfowitz headed up a project called the Limited Contingency Study, the results of which, writes author James Mann, “would play a groundbreaking role in changing American military policy toward the Persian Gulf over the coming decades.” …
After the election of Ronald Reagan, Wolfowitz became head of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff, where he assembled a team of advisors that included a number of figures who later became closely involved in neoconservative-led campaigns, including Ross, I. Lewis Libby, James Roche, Zalmay Khalilzad, Alan Keyes, and Francis Fukuyama. Discussing this period, Mann points to Ross in arguing that “not everyone on [Wolfowitz’s] staff was a neoconservative. … The fact remained, however, that Wolfowitz’s policy planning staff turned out to be the training ground for a new generation of national security specialists, many of whom shared Wolfowitz’s ideas, assumptions, and interests.”
Also during the Reagan presidency, Ross “served as director of Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council staff … and as Deputy Director of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment,” according to his biography on the website of the Harry Walker Agency, a speakers bureau that also promotes, among others, former George W. Bush aide Peter Wehner, the neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, and alarmist antiterror wonk Steven Emerson. …
During the presidency of George W. Bush, Ross continued his policy work as a consultant to and fellow at WINEP, authoring policy papers, penning op-eds, and providing congressional testimony on Middle East issues. He repeatedly joined forces with neoconservatives, signing open letters for PNAC, advising advocacy groups like United against Nuclear Iran (whose leadership include former CIA director James Woolsey and hawkish weapons proliferation expert Henry Sokolski), and joining AEI scholars Michael Rubin and Reuel Marc Gerecht in discussing Mideast policies with their counterparts at the Brussels-based Transatlantic Institute…
In 2006, Ross joined a cast of neoconservatives and foreign policy hawks in supporting the I. Lewis Libby Defense Fund, an initiative aimed at raising money for the disgraced former assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted in connection to the investigation into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name. Ross served on the group’s steering committee along with Fred Thompson, Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes, Bernard Lewis, and Francis Fukuyama. The group’s chairman was Mel Sembler, a real estate magnate who serves as a trustee at AEI and has funded the group Freedom’s Watch. …
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ross supported the advocacy work of PNAC, a neoconservative-led letterhead group that advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein in response to the attacks, even if he was not tied to the them. Ross signed two PNAC open letters on the situation in post-war Iraq, both published in March 2003. The first of these, “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” was issued on March 19, 2003, the day before the United States began its invasion. The letter argued that Iraq should be seen as the first step in a larger reshaping of the region’s political landscape, contending that the invasion and rebuilding of Iraq could “contribute decisively to the democratization of the wider Middle East.” Other signatories included Max Boot, Eliot Cohen, Thomas Donnelly, Joshua Muravchik, and several other core neoconservatives. …
In the aftermath of the invasion, Ross—as well as a number of neoconservatives—expressed deep skepticism about the course of the war and the future prospects in Iraq. …
However, in critiquing Bush’s Mideast policies, Ross has limited his criticism to issues of implementation, while giving the White House high marks for its objectives. …
Ross’s approach to Iran appears to have grown increasingly belligerent over time. …
During the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections Ross participated in two study groups aimed at influencing the next president’s policies toward Iran, both of which proposed extremely aggressive approaches. …
Much, much more at the link, with lots of sourcing.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. I know I am.
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Sales boom for shoemaker who made
footware hurled at BushA Turkish shoemaker who made the famous footwear that was hurled at President Bush during a visit to Baghdad is enjoying a massive sales boom, it emerged today.
Ramazan Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of the Model 271 brogues that were thrown by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi.
His Istanbul-based firm normally sells about 75,000 pairs a year for about £28 each.
Around 120,000 orders were made from Iraq, where thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to demand Mr al-Zeidi’s release. …
At least I was smart enough not to buy stock in Bruno Magli.
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Oh, no, no, don’t get me wrong — I mean, Georgie Boy has such good reflexes! Yeah, yeah, that’s what I mean…
Really, I could watch this again, and again, and again…
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Dear Catholics: Before you get all huffy and submit that nasty comment:
1. I’m an ex-Catholic (by choice, not excommunication — yet), so I get to say whatever I want about the Catholic church. (I’d have the right anyway, but lest you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, I was you, so challenging my Catholic cred is a waste of your time.)
2. There’s no other way to read the Vatican statement than the way it’s summed up in the following headline — I couldn’t say it better myself:
Vatican would rather gay people
were executed than married(and it doesn’t want disabled people to be protected, either, in case it promotes abortion)
The full extent of the regressive nature of the Vatican under Ratzinger was made clear this week when it was revealed that the Vatican had opposed two United Nations resolutions aimed at protecting gay and disabled people from discrimination and death.
When France proposed a resolution seeking all nations to decriminalise homosexuality, the Vatican immediately said it would oppose the resolution. This is despite the fact that up to 70 nations still have legal punishments for gay people including, in some instances, the death penalty. In a number of Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, homosexual acts are still a capital offence.
The UN resolution is due to be proposed by France later this month on behalf of the 27-nation European Union. But Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage. …
A strongly worded editorial in Italy’s mainstream La Stampa newspaper said the Vatican’s reasoning was “grotesque”.
Franco Grillini, founder and honorary president of Arcigay, Italy’s leading gay rights group, said the Vatican’s reasoning smacked of “total idiocy and madness”. Mr Grillini said the resolution had nothing to do with gay marriage, but was aimed at stopping the execution of gay people in Islamic countries.
An editorial in Rome’s left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper said the Vatican’s position “leaves one dumbstruck”. Margherita Boniver, a leading member of Italy’s leftist Democratic Party, called it “alarmingly anachronistic”.
The gay rights activist, Grillini, said he feared what he called another “Holy Alliance” between the Vatican and Islamic states at the United Nations to oppose the proposed resolution. …
Meh, I’m not at all “dumbstruck” — it’s nothing more or less than I’d expect from the Holy Roman Inquisitors.
But — oh, yeah — it is indeed “grotesque” “idiocy and madness.”
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Erika Stutzman, for the Daily Camera editorial board:
Another break in the wall:
Honor separation between church, stateThe First Amendment — worded to give Americans freedom of speech, freedom of and freedom from religion — created a “wall of separation between church and state,” according to Thomas Jefferson.
And throughout our history, that wall has been bolstered by the courts, which have rightfully used to it to balance between the laws of the land and its inhabitants — devoutly religious, non-religious and everyone in-between.
Who in their right mind would want to tear it asunder?
If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants to preach from the pulpit — rail, even — against gay marriage, the wall should protect it. If Catholic priests want to do the same against abortion, the wall provides them ample shelter. …
But religious groups — tax-exempt on their side of the wall — cross the line when they directly try to interfere with passing laws and the election of politicians. …
And the Mormon church directly told its members to work to pass the anti-gay-marriage amendment, Proposition 8, in California by volunteering their time and money. That’s not a sermon against gay rights: It’s an appeal for money and a campaign to enact a specific state law.
The separation of church and state has served this country very well. For the various groups that will try to topple that wall: Look to countries with religious rule and ask what it is about those countries that you admire.
Consider that you can be a Muslim in America, and wear the veil if you wish, attend services as you like, and celebrate religious holidays without fear of government retribution. The same cannot be said for Catholics or Mormons in Saudi Arabia. In fact, if a Saudi citizen converted to either, he could — by law of the land — be executed.
Admirable? …
More at the link.
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Block out ten minutes when you won’t be interrupted. When you’re done, you’re going to want to pass this video around to everyone you know.
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From UK Gay News, Peter Tatchell’s statement of September 25:
This morning, I received news from Iraq that the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad, Bashar, aged 27, a university student, has been assassinated in a barber shop.Militias burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.
He was the organiser of the safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad. His efforts saved the lives of dozens of people.
Bashar was a kind, generous and extremely brave young man — a true hero who put his life on the line to save the lives of others.
My thoughts go out to his loved ones and to the other members of Iraqi LGBT.
Their courage is an inspiration to all people everywhere fighting against injustice.
See also:
Newsweek Brings Murderous Oppression of Gay Iraqis to Forefront
August 28, 2008
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George Washington’s Cousin, a.k.a. Thom Butler, has something to say that wouldn’t carry half as much weight if it came from non-believing homo heathens like us:
All I have to say … is that we need to BE CAREFUL!!! As you will see in the video (go to the links at the end for more, if you can stomach it), the election of Sarah Palin would be no less than the final ascension of the first of The American Taliban to reach high executive office. It’s a plan that began with these people back right about the time I graduated from seminary (1980) and the arch-conservative factions of a number of Protestant denominations swore that they were going to take over first their denominations and then the country as a whole. I stood in an auditorium in LA while Bailey Smith, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, made that declaration and I went home and watched as my church (a church open to and welcoming gay people among others) was harassed and eventually thrown out of the SBC.These people believe in it… These people want it… These people will make it happen. These people aren’t your relatively benign, live and let live neighborhood Presbyterians (or Episcopalians, or even most Baptists), these people are fanatical, war-mongering, psychotics and they absolutely believe that what they do comes by direct order from God. There is no difference between the churches that Sarah Palin comes from and the deep fundamentalist Islamic mosques and schools of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia; no difference except the fact that one believes in a demented Jesus while the other believes in a demented Mohammed. BOTH are wrong, BOTH are evil, and BOTH are terrifying. They are drunk, free-wheeling maniacs commandeering Arnold Schwrzanegger’s Hummer and speeding down the political freeway with God in the back seat smoking crack and yelling out orders.
Jim Jones on steroids and lugging gigantic containers of kool-aid.
John McCain is too ignorant of these folks and their beliefs to realize the deal he’s made, or — and I truly believe this — he wouldn’t have made it. Giving the Republican Party, and the country, to these people is literally a “Disaster of Biblical Proportions!”
While it’s possible that John “… would rather lose an election than a war,” he clearly IS willing to sell our country down the river to these takeover fanatics in order to win THIS election.
If you thought we were at war before… get ready for friggin’ ARMAGEDDON…
Their ultimate goal is to destroy the world so they can go home to Jesus.
More at the link, including the video that sparked Thom’s post.
Sound crazy? Nope. This isn’t the raving of some delusional end-timer; Thom is explaining the Radical Religious Right’s — specifically, the Reconstructionists‘ — delusions about hastening the end of the world, so they can be raptured into Heaven (while the rest of us stay here and suffer for a thousand years under the reign of Satan).
Hey, we don’t pull this stuff out of our butts. As a matter of fact, over the years I’ve cited, repeatedly, a 2000 article by Gary North — a Christian Reconstructionist himself, but a surprisingly candid one — who pulls no punches as he explains “The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism’s Support for the State of Israel” — which is not an indictment of Israel by any means, but an eye-popping exposé of the false, completely self-serving allegiance of radical American religionists to Israel:
Vocal support of a pro-Israel American foreign policy is basic for the leaders of American Protestant fundamentalism. … Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell have been pro-Israel throughout their careers, beginning two decades before the arrival of the New Christian Right in the late 1970’s. These men are not aberrations. …What was it that persuaded almost the entire fundamentalist movement to move from either hostility or neutrality to vocal support of Israel? No single answer will fit every case, but there is a common motivation, one not taken seriously by most people in history: getting out of life alive. …
Just prior to Jesus’ return to set up an earthly kingdom, argue most amillennialists and all premillennialists, there will be a time of persecution, called the Great Tribulation. … The dominant premillennial view says that Jews will suffer the Great Tribulation. Born-again Christians will have flown the coop — literally. This is the doctrine of the pre-tribulation Rapture.
According to pre-tribulation premillennialists, who are known as dispensationalists, Jesus will come secretly in the clouds and raise deceased Christians — and only Christians — from the dead. Immediately thereafter, every true Christian will be transported bodily into the sky, and from there to heaven: the Rapture event. …
The Rapture-based escape from history is now universally believed by fundamentalists to be imminent. …
But when? That has been the great question. The answer: “Soon.” But why soon? Why not a millennium from now? The psychological answer: Because men do not live that long in this millennium. The main selling point for fundamentalism’s Bible prophecies is to get insight into what is coming soon. In this case, the issue of mortality is central. As the slogan says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” The doctrine of the imminent Rapture allows Christians to believe seriously that they can go to heaven without dying. Millions of Americans believe this today.
But how can they be so sure? Because of the events of 1948. In that year, the crucial missing piece of the prophetic puzzle — the restoration of the nation of Israel — seemed to come true. …
Dispensationalism’s critics had long asked: “Where is the nation of Israel? Where are the Jews?” Not in Palestine, surely. So, dispensationalists tended to apply this prophecy of near-destruction to Jews in general — only symbolically residing in Israel — until 1948. This was one reason for their silence on Hitler’s persecution. Hitler was just another rung in the ladder of persecution leading to the inevitable Great Tribulation. …
According to Zechariah’s prophecy, two thirds of the children of Israel in the land will perish, but the one third that are left will be refined and be awaiting the deliverance of God at the second coming of Christ which is described in the next chapter of Zechariah. …
In order for most of today’s Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the central motivation in the movement’s support for Israel. It should be clear why they believe that Israel must be defended at all costs by the West. If Israel were militarily removed from history prior to the Rapture, then the strongest case for Christians’ imminent escape from death would have to be abandoned. This would mean the indefinite delay of the Rapture. The fundamentalist movement thrives on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not the indefinitely postponed Rapture.
Every time you hear the phrase, “Jesus is coming back soon,” you should mentally add, “and two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will be dead in ’soon plus 84 months.’” …
This specific motivation for the support of Israel is never preached from any fundamentalist pulpit. … Fundamentalist ministers expect their congregations to put two and two together on their own. It would be politically incorrect to add up these figures in public. …
Their eschatology has produced a kind of Catch-22 for fundamentalists. What if, as a result of evangelism, the Jews of Israel were converted en masse to Christianity? They would then be Raptured, along with their Gentile brethren, leaving only Arabs behind. This scenario would make the immediate fulfillment of prophecy impossible: no post-Rapture Israelis to persecute. So, fundamentalists have concluded that the vast majority of the Jews of Israel cannot, will not, and must not be converted to Christianity.
This raises an obvious question: Why spend money on evangelizing Israelis? It would be a waste of resources. This is why there are so few active fundamentalist ministries in Israel that target Jews. They target Arabs instead. Eschatologically speaking, the body of an Israeli must be preserved, for he may live long enough to go through the Great Tribulation. But his soul is expendable. This is why fundamentalists vocally support the nation of Israel, but then do very little to preach to Israelis the traditional Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.* …
Which brings us full-circle to Sarah Palin: 1) an Assemblies of God theocrat, from the party that, for its own non-religious purposes (i.e., votes, money), has embraced 2) Dominionists, who are determined to 3) bring about the end of the world as we know it, so 4) they will float to Heaven on a cloud with Jesus, without having to experience physical death.
And Sarah Palin is vying for the number-two spot in the United States government.
Now, if you haven’t yet read Thom Butler’s post and watched the video at the link, do it.
And be afraid. Be very afraid.
And then stop being afraid, and make your McCain-Palin-supporting friends and family understand what they’re really voting for. It can be boiled down into a high-concept summary; e.g.; “McCain’s running mate believes that hurrying up the end of the world is a good thing, so she and her fellow Christians can get Raptured to Heaven sooner than scheduled. Do you want somebody like that just one heartbeat away from the presidency?”
Also recommended:
What is Dominionism? Palin, The Christian Right And Theocracy
Chip Berlet, September 5, 2008
* Yes, Sarah Palin’s church welcomed a Jews for Jesus spokesperson, so it could be argued that Palin’s church isn’t Dominionist — but that argument would be pretty hollow. Who was the Jews for Jesus guy preaching to? Other Jews? No, he was preaching to the choir. Literally. The already-”saved.”
And, frankly, I’m sure there are plenty of fundies who do attempt to convert as many American Jews as possible, knowing full well that there will always be plenty of Jews left in Israel to fulfill the “blood atonement.”
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Good on Newsweek. There are still far too many people (especially on the so-called Left) who stick their fingers in their ears and go “Lalalalalalala!” when it comes to the government-sanctioned slaughter of our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Kill Nobody wants to talk about gays in Iraq,
much less who is killing them.When militiamen from the Mahdi Army came by the compact, two-story stone home in the Doura neighborhood of Baghdad, they weren’t looking for Sunnis to harass. They were hunting gays. “Bring us your son’s cell phone,” one ordered the middle-aged man who came to the gate. … This time they left, but vowed to come back if they found any evidence he was gay — or was talking to undesirable foreigners. Now that Iraq’s sectarian war has cooled off, it’s open season on homosexuals and others who infuriate religious hardliners. …
Iraqi authorities scoffed at the subject [of gays in Iraq] — when not scolding a reporter for even asking about it. …
As with a number of Muslim societies where homosexuality is officially nonexistent but widely practiced, the policy in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule was “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But that has changed. Iraqi LGBT, the London NGO that Nadir works for, says more than 430 gay men have been murdered in Iraq since 2003. …
The only recourse for Iraqi gays seems to come from activists abroad. Iraqi LGBT, which was founded to defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis, looks after about 40 young men between the ages of 14 and 28 in several Baghdad safe houses. There they are fed, can watch TV, hang out and sleep in cramped quarters, their beds inches apart. They stay away from neighbors and rarely leave their immediate area. …
Saif, one of the older residents at an Iraqi LGBT house, recalls Saddam’s repressive but secular regime wistfully. “Those were the most beautiful days of our lives,” he says. “The fall [of Saddam] was the worst thing to happen.”
Most people seem to prefer that the subject just go away. A written request for an interview at the Legal Section of the Ministry of Human Rights was greeted with a suggestion to delete the word “gays.” A sympathetic senior government official warned that a direct request to talk to a minister about gays could result in a short conversation. “I would ask about women, displaced people, children and others before you get to that,” he offered. …
Even relatively liberal people in Iraq seem to have harsh attitudes toward this subject. “These people are not welcome in the society because they are against the social, natural and religious rules,” said one well-educated Iraqi who did not want to be identified more closely. A Baghdad executive said religion and tradition have made the overwhelming majority of Iraqis hostile to homosexuals. “Nobody is interested in talking about this at all,” he says with a grim chuckle. …
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