Frank Schaeffer: An Open Letter to John McCain

Frank Schaeffer: An Open Letter to John McCain:

"Senator John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as 'not one of us,' I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence...." Continue Reading

This post first ran in the Baltimore Sun as an op-ed on Oct 10, 2008. Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. Now in paperback.

The Witch Hunter Anoints Sarah Palin

Max Blumenthal: The Witch Hunter Anoints Sarah Palin

Wasilla, Alaska

On September 20 and 21, I attended services at the church Sarah Palin belonged to since she was an adolescent, the Wasilla Assembly of God. Though Palin officially left the church in 2002, she is listed on its website as "a friend," and spoke there as recently as June 8 of this year.

I went specifically to see a pastor visiting from Kiambu, Kenya named Thomas Muthee. Muthee gained fame within Pentecostal circles by claiming that he defeated a local witch, Mama Jane, in a great spiritual battle, thus liberating his town from sin and opening its people to the spirit of Jesus.

Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared.... Continue reading -- you won't believe the rest.

The Youtube version is below (Palin appears after about 7:30):

Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave: Video Documentary

MUST SEE. MUST READ.

New video documents Sarah Palin's two and a half decade church, Wasilla Assembly of God, as part of a rapidly growing, "underground" church movement aimed at achieving Christian political dominance which seeks to eliminate crime and addiction by driving out "territorial demons" and holds that "curses" can be transmitted down family lines.



Bruce Wilson (Huffington Post) reports:

"Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.....

Continue reading.

read more | digg story

Also See:

• Palin's Churches and the Third Wave

  "Sarah Palin has refused to acknowledge belonging to any specific denomination or any particular religious stream. However, it is now well documented that she spent her youth in an Assembly of God church and has regularly attended another AoG church, as well as two Independent Churches. At least three of four of these churches have close ties to prominent organizations and leaders in the Third Wave movement, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation.
  
  This is a worldwide movement so completely ignored by the press that there is no single accepted term that has been coined for the identification for the group. In addition to Third Wave and New Apostolic Reformation, it is also referred to by the names of some of its more extreme theologies, such as Joel's Army and Manifest Sons of Destiny. Its roots are in a revival of the manifestations and beliefs of the New Order of Latter Rain which has been repeatedly condemned by the General Council of the Assemblies of God since 1949...."

Technorati tags: Sarah Palin, Church, Jesus Camp, Master's Commission, Third Wave, Wasilla, Wasilla Assembly of God, Politics, 2008 Election, news

Danger: Sarah Palin's Worldview

Be afraid. Be very afraid. The more we learn about this woman, the scarier it gets. In his choice of Sarah Palin as VP, John McCain has shown his inability to make wise decisions. Putting this woman a breath away from the Presidency is beyond irresponsible. It is theatre of the absurd. Read on.

Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview:

"Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God.

Her speech in June provides as much insight into her policy leanings as anything uncovered since she was asked to be John McCain's running mate...."

Photo Credit: Sarah Palin. (Huffington Post)

Also See:

• Palin and Her Pastors: “Those that die without Christ have a horrible, horrible surprise”—By Ken Silverstein and Sebastian Jones (Harper's Magazine)


• McCain Camp Didn't Search Palin's Hometown Paper Archives:

  "The McCain campaign has gone to great lengths to present the selection of Sarah Palin as one made after a careful, meticulous vetting process. But evidence continues to suggest that the Arizona Republican made his VP choice with surprising haste...."

• Palin Investigation Stalled By McCain Campaign, State Legislator Says


• Palin Forced Staff To Resign In Loyalty Test


• The Real News Network: McCain, Palin and the Iraq War:

  Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern on Palin and what McCain knew about false info that led to Iraq war (Part 1)

If Obama Must Explain Wright, McCain Must Explain Rev. Rod Parsley

McCain Spiritual Guide Accused Govt. of Enabling "Black Genocide" | Video | AlterNet:

"In largely unnoticed speeches, Rev. Rod Parsely has compared Planned Parenthood to the KKK and Nazis, claiming it targeted blacks.

This past week, Sen. Barack Obama's pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has taken an exceptional amount of heat in part for comments that suggested the U.S. government had introduced AIDS into black communities.

But it turns out he's not the only religious confidant to a presidential candidate who thinks the state has targeted black populations with death and disease.

Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio -- whom Sen. John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser -- has suggested on several occasions that the U.S. government was complicit in facilitating black genocide...."

Also See:

• The Republican Right's Moonie Problem:

  "You don't get to watch Moon's 'hateful' and 'anti-American' remarks being replayed endlessly on CNN and Fox.
  
  A number of folks -- notably Ezra Klein and Glenn Greenwald -- have already pointed out quite adroitly that while the media have had little compunction about whipping up a phony controversy about Barack Obama's "pastor problem", there's almost nothing that white evangelical pastors can say that might bring down similar approbation. John McCain's "spiritual advisers" Rod Parsley and John Hagee really are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this...."

Technorati tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Reverend Rod Parsely, politics, politics of fear, 2008 Presidential Election

MUST WATCH: Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007

"Zeitgeist" is the one documentary that is "required watching" for all. You can view the entire film by clicking on the Blog Title link or the video below. You can also view the movie in sections by clicking on the links below.



Whichever way you choose to view, WATCH THE ENTIRE FILM. Once you see it, you won't have to ask why.

Watch "Zeitgeist - The Movie" - Part I:

• Zeitgeist: Religion Part 1 Of 3


• Zeitgeist: Religion Part 2 Of 3
  


• Zeitgeist: Religion Part 3 Of 3

Watch "Zeitgeist - The Movie" - Part II:

• Zeitgeist: World Trade Center (Part 1 of 4)


• Zeitgeist: World Trade Center (Part 2 of 4)


• Zeitgeist: World Trade Center (Part 3 of 4)


• Zeitgeist: World Trade Center (Part 4 of 4)

Watch "Zeitgeist - The Movie" - Part III:

• Zeitgeist: Federal Reserve (Part 1 of 5)


• Zeitgeist: Federal Reserve (Part 2 of 5)


• YZeitgeist: Federal Reserve (Part 3 of 5)


• Zeitgeist: Federal Reserve (Part 4 of 5)


• Zeitgeist: Federal Reserve (Part 5 of 5)

RESEARCHERS!!! Interactive transcript with citations at Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007 Start research there!!

Zeitgeist was created as a non-profit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used/referenced. Soon, an Interactive Transcript will be online with detailed footnotes and links so exact sources and further research can be relayed.

Though many different frauds are addressed in Zeitgeist, at the present time the most important issue is exposing 9/11 and thus exposing government sponsored Terrorism. If we do not, they will erode all of our civil liberties and an oppressive, military style, surveillance based Police State will take firm root.

On Aug. 4th 2007, the Senate passed the Bush backed 'spy bill', which preserves & expands the illegal domestic spying program. I hope people are educated enough by this time to know that such legislations have nothing to do with Terrorism, and everything to do with monitoring and controlling American dissent.

Furthermore, on May 9 2007, Bush signed the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which gives Bush near full dictatorial powers in the event of a "National Emergency". Bush, and the people he works for, will be able to do ANYTHING they want if a "National Emergency" is deemed. All they need is a "New 9/11". The US Constitution will no longer be applicable.

In regards to this Directive, Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, has come out and said he feels the White House is preparing to STAGE A NEW 9/11 and the executive order is designed to capitalize on such an attack, specifically to impose Martial Law and Invade Iran.

IN ORDER TO STOP MARTIAL LAW AND THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE US CONSTITUTION, WE MUST STOP ANOTHER FALSE FLAG ATTACK. THE FIRST STEP IS TO EXPOSE THE 9/11 FRAUD. THIS IS THE EVENT THAT IS BEING USED TO JUSTIFY THE DEVELOPING POLICE STATE, NOT TO MENTION WORLDWIDE OPPRESSION.

It's important to point out that there is a tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding, without the necessary research performed. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is based on documented evidence. Any corrections, clarifications & further points regarding the film are found at Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007

Technorati tags: NWO, Terror, Terrorism, Bankers, IRS, FRS, Federal Reserve, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Bush, Cheney, 911, video, documentary, YouTube

China Through Kristof's Looking Glass

According to Nicholas Kristof in today's Times op ed, "If the Chinese government continues to nurture the rule of law, China could increasingly move toward greater democracy."

Maybe. But they have a long way to go.

And let's hope they don't model their "rule of law" after ours .... where the heads of government need not obey the laws they are sworn to uphold or answer to the people.

From Torture to Plaintiff: a Pilgrim's Progress in China
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times

WEIHAI, China

Every evening in a little village near this coastal city, peasants gather in a private home and do something that used to be dangerous. They pray.

They are Christians gathering in a little “house church,” reflecting a religious boom across China. But their story also underscores another trend: the way the legal system here offers hope of chipping away at the Communist Party dictatorship.

The tale begins a year ago when the authorities here in Shandong Province raided this house church and carted 31 Christians off to the police station. Such crackdowns are the traditional way the Communist Party has dealt with house churches in rural areas, and some Christians have even been tortured to death.

But this incident ended differently.

Tian Yinghua, a 55-year-old evangelical Protestant who runs the church in her living room, was outraged after she was ordered jailed for 10 days.

“We had done nothing wrong at all,” explained Ms. Tian. “We weren’t criminals.”

So Ms. Tian contacted a prominent Christian and legal scholar in Beijing, Li Baiguang, who traveled to Shandong Province to do something that once would have been unthinkable: Sue the police.

Even more unthinkable, Ms. Tian won. The police settled the case by withdrawing the charges. The police also formally apologized, paid symbolic damages of 1 yuan (a bit more than a dime) and promised not to bother the church again.

It was a historic victory for freedom of religion in China — and, even more important, for the rule of law.

“The police don’t bother us at all,” said another church leader, Wang Qiu. “They just stay away.”

That seems to be a growing pattern. The central government’s policy toward religion is much more relaxed than a few years ago, and in coastal areas the government usually lets people worship freely.

“In most places, it’s no problem today,” said Mr. Li, who himself was imprisoned for more than a month two years ago for his legal activism. “It’s just a problem in backward areas, or if you directly attack the Communist Party.”

Mr. Li, who enjoys a bit of protection because President Bush invited him to the White House last year, says that last year he filed suits like this one in eight provinces. The other he lost, but even in those cases the authorities were shaken enough that they have stopped harassing Christians, he says.

“On the surface we lost,” he said. “But in reality, we won in every case.”

Han Dongfang, a Chinese labor activist now exiled to Hong Kong, says that he has also found that suing the authorities is often an effective way to increase labor protections. Mr. Han was a leader in the Tiananmen protests of 1989, but now he is trying to bring about change from within. “I believe this is the way to develop a civil society, not through a revolution,” he said.

Of course, the legal system is still routinely used to oppress people, rather than to protect them. China imprisons more journalists than any country in the world, and one of them is my Times colleague Zhao Yan. Judges never go against the Communist Party; what they can do is rectify local injustices where the higher party officials are indifferent.

Moreover, even when lawsuits are allowed to go forward, many Chinese police and judges are so corrupt that they sell themselves to the highest bidder.

A common saying, which I even saw in an illegal poster pasted on a government building in Beijing, goes: “The bandits used to hide in the hills. Now the bandits are in the courthouses.”

Still, the rule of law has gained immensely since the 1980’s, when a defense attorney was imprisoned for having the temerity to claim that the police had arrested the wrong man and that his client was innocent. If the Chinese government continues to nurture the rule of law, China could increasingly follow the path of South Korea and Taiwan away from autocracy toward greater democracy.

Easing the repression could also change the religious complexion of China. Estimates of the number of Chinese Christians vary widely, but the number may be approaching 100 million, many of them evangelical Protestants who aggressively recruit new believers. And with the more relaxed policy, the numbers are soaring.

“In 20 to 30 years China will have several hundred million believers,” said Mr. Li, the lawyer who helped the Shandong church. “That will make China the biggest Christian nation in the world, with more Christians than the entire U.S. population.”

Photo Credit: Nicholas Kristof. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)

Technorati tags: Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, China, Christianity, Law, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, news, commentary, op ed

An Easter Sermon

An Easter Sermon
by Robert Wright
The New York Times

Jesus knew viral marketing.

In the Gospel of Mark, the disciple John complains that nondisciples are selling bootlegged copies of Jesus’ miraculous powers. “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Jesus tells John to quit obsessing about the intellectual property and to focus on getting the brand out. “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.” Jesus adds, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

Fast-forward two millennia. Weeks after 9/11, George Bush says roughly the opposite. His famous “You’re either with us or against us” means that those who don’t follow his lead will be considered enemies. The rest is history. Today, Jesus has more than a billion devoted followers. Mr. Bush has ... well, fewer than that.

The religious left — yes, there is such a thing — complains that Mr. Bush ignores the Bible’s moral injunctions. But leave morality aside. If he could just match the Bible’s strategic savvy, that would make a world of difference.

Consider a teaching of Jesus that seems on its surface devoid of strategic import. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Christians often cast this verse as innovative, a sharp break from Jesus’ Jewish tradition. But the same idea can be found in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), and here it is clear that the point of the kindness is to thwart the enemy: “If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on their heads.”

Coals of fire? As the editors of the New Oxford Annotated Bible explain, submitting to this treatment was an Egyptian ritual that “demonstrated contrition.” (And how!) “The sense here seems to be that undeserved kindness awakens the remorse and hence conversion of the enemies.”

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s unlikely that sending Osama bin Laden a Hallmark card would induce paroxysms of self-doubt. Still, there are other ways that reining in hatred can hurt your enemy’s cause.

Suppose, for example, you were nurturing a nascent religious movement in the Roman Empire, and your antagonists welcomed excuses to harass you. Suppose, that is, you were the Apostle Paul. When Paul preaches kindness to enemies, he uses not the formulation found in the Gospels, but the one from the Hebrew Bible, complete with the coals of fire.

Of course, Mr. Bush is more in the shoes of the Roman emperor than of Paul. America isn’t a small but growing religious movement. It’s a great power threatened by a small but growing religious movement — radical Islam. But the logic can work both ways. Great powers, by mindlessly indulging retributive impulses, can give fuel to small but growing religious movements. If you want to deprive jihadists of ammunition, make it hard for them to persuade others to hate us.

Right after Paul espouses kindness to enemies, he adds: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Sounds like naïve moralizing until you look at those Abu Ghraib photos that have become Al Qaeda recruiting posters.

The key distinction is between man and meme. Yes, a great power can always kill and torment enemies, and, yes, there will always be times when that makes sense. Still, when you’re dealing with terrorists, it’s their memes — their ideas, their attitudes — that are Public Enemy No. 1. Jihadists are hosts for the virus of hatred, and the object of the game is to keep the virus from finding new hosts.

The Internet is fertile ground for memes, and jihadists are good at getting the brand out. One of the few things Osama bin Laden has in common with the Jesus of the Gospels is belief in the power of viral marketing.

The ultimate in viral marketing was Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. Deemed a threat to the social order, he was crucified under Roman auspices. But the Romans forgot one thing: If you face a small but growing movement that threatens the imperial order, you shouldn’t attack the men in ways that help the memes.

Mr. Bush says his favorite philosopher is Jesus. One way to show it would be to spend less time repeat- ing the mistake of the Romans and more time heeding the wisdom of Christ.

Robert Wright, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, runs the Web site Bloggingheads.tv.
Maureen Dowd is on vacation.

Photo Credit: Robert Wright. (Bloggingheads.tv)

Technorati tags: Robert Wright, The New York Times, Jesus Christ, Bible, Terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, Morality, religion, Easter, news, commentary, op ed