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Pious Perverts See other Pious Perverts Articles Title: The Passion of the Left: Hating Christians The Passion of the Left: Hating Christians January 21st, 2006 If viewers happened to be tuned into CSPAN several weeks ago, they were in for quite a spectacle. CSPAN was re-airing a conference that took place in May of 2005 with the ominous title, “Examining the Real Agenda of the Far Religious Right.” Sponsored by the New York Open Center, the conference was anything but open-minded. Instead, participants launched into a litany of complaints against the so-called Christian Right that bordered on bigotry. I half expected it to end with a pitchfork armed mob breaking down the doors of a local church. Perusing the Open Center’s website, one will find the sort of New Age psychobabble melded with eastern mysticism and apocalyptic environmentalism that is common on the left these days. Having been taught by multiculturalism to hate their own western religious background, they turn instead to the east. It just goes to show you that people need to believe in something. Those who run the Open Center obviously believed they were enlightened in holding their anti-Christian confab, but elitist would be more like it. Every time a speaker referred to a particular Christian belief or quoted a remark they found particularly inflammatory, the audience snickered knowingly, as if to say, “what a fool.” Obviously, the secular fundamentalists of the Open Center consider themselves far more reasonable than those nutty Christians. But judging by the level of paranoia expressed at the conference, I wouldn’t bet on it. At one point, a speaker spoke about the need “to save democracy” from the “Christian Right,” to which the audience broke out in applause. An associate professor of comparative studies equated the zeal of the “Christian Right” with that of “suicide bombers.” A former Pentecostal minister gave a presentation titled, “Christian Jihad,” while someone claimed to unveil, “The Real Hidden Religious Agenda: The Theocratic States of America.” For those suffering under such delusions, evangelical Christians are indeed the biggest threat to America and the entire world for that matter. Meanwhile, actual threats from a different religion go unnoticed. Not once during the conference was it mentioned that the real suicide bombers are Islamists who have been killing innocent civilians all over the world. Call me crazy, but isn’t the zealot who’s actually acting on his beliefs just a tad scarier than the one who’s simply talking about it? Anyway, in a democratic society, belief does not equal theocracy. Islamists on the other hand, are actively pushing a system that hearkens back to the 7th Century and they’re not taking no for an answer. To compare this approach to that of American citizens simply exercising their democratic rights is beyond ludicrous. The conference attendees seemed particularly concerned with Christians who believe literally in the Book of Revelations, The End Days, The Rapture, Armageddon and so on. They labeled such beliefs Dominionism and decried its real or imagined influence. They spoke menacingly about Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series and referred to its “surprising popularity.” The fact that 82% of the country is Christian seems not to have come under consideration. Much like those who lament the popularity of conservative talk radio as if it weren’t simply a case of supply and demand, the Left is simply in denial about the nature of their country. Lest it be thought that Christians were the sole objects of wrath, “Neoconservatives” or in other words Jews, were also reviled. Apparently, it’s the Christians and the Jews that are the problem. The funny thing is that’s exactly what the Islamists are always saying. And that’s exactly why some of us are so concerned with maintaining that bulwark of Western civilization, the Judeo-Christian alliance. At precisely the time that Jews, Christians and all those interested in advancing democracy should be banding together in the face of a fascistic and totalitarian threat, the Left would have us hasten our demise. It’s no coincidence that as Christianity has declined in the West, Islam has been ascendant. Whether through demographics in Europe or ideological sway in America, Islam is clearly on the rise. In an ironic twist you couldn’t make up if you tried, the attacks of 9/11 seem actually to have helped this along. The number of Muslim converts is growing, with disaffected secularists being ripe for the picking. Meanwhile, Saudi money continues to pour into the coffers of U.S. institutions and to taint future generations with the stain of Wahhabism. The left flank in the battle against Christianity certainly hasn’t been neglected. The fact that President Bush is a man of faith has upped the ante for the left and they’ve been in anti-Christian overdrive ever since his election. While organizations such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State were doing damage long before Bush’s presidency, the campaign to erase Christianity from American public life has reached new heights in the past six years. This combined with the encroachments of Islamism has led to an ideological battle in which Christianity finds itself on the defensive. Although almost a year ago, the attitudes expressed by leftist attendees at the Open Center conference have if anything magnified in the time since. A recent article by Bill Moyers demonstrated the same anti-Christian fervor, complete with references to the “rapture index.” Moyers’ main bone of contention is that evangelical Christians somehow threaten environmentalism. Never mind terrorism, it’s the specter of global warming we should be worried about. Then there’s the new television show, The Book of Daniel, which portrays an Episcopal priest and his family as a collection of druggies, perverts and sociopaths. When NBC’s Nashville affiliate chose not to run the show due to the large number of complaints from viewers, those on the left immediately cried, “censorship.” To them, not publicizing one of their pet projects is tantamount to banning it. Yet Christians are not taking the abuse lying down. Groups such as the American Center for Law and Justice, The Alliance Defense Fund and others have had great success tackling the legal front. The recent hoopla over the “war on Christmas” was really generated by the Left, which is simply outraged that Christians are now fighting back. Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation have jumped into the fray as well, demonstrating that Christians are not alone in this struggle. The secularists’ attempts at bullying are in fact starting to have the opposite effect and Christianity in America is now stronger than ever. I certainly hope so, for in civilizational battles, those that cease to believe in anything tend to fall by the wayside. And if people aren’t willing to fight for their civilization, there’s always someone waiting in the wings that is. Cinnamon Stillwell is a columnist for http://SFGate.com and a staff writer for the New Media Alliance. cinnamon@cinnamonstillwell.com
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#17. To: Architecture - 3000 ! (#0)
I think this article is a prime example of what happens when you take some obvious truths and swirl them around through an ideological blender. The result ain't fudge ripple,but it's close. It's obviously true that much of the Left hates Christianity. I think that's for a number of reasons - they hate their own European culture in general and anything that emanates from it,and they hate anything that creates or implies restrictions on their own behavior, especially licentious behavior. They hate tradition and authority in general as well, and they want to push forward the perverse, the bizarre, and the exception as commonplace, ordinary and natural. That's just a general underlying facet of their overall ideology. It expresses itself, for example, in the obsession with gay rights. However, this article, for me, loses steam when the author equates neo-cons with Jews and implies that there is no validity to any of the concerns of the Left. While many, if not most neo-cons are Jewish because of their primary concern for Israel, a significant number - especially in power - ARE fundamentalist Christians (or they present themselves as such, even though in the case of George Bush, he is obviously "conflicted"). The problem with these highly visible fundamentalists is that they frequently use religion to cloak their darker goals towards money and power. However I do believe that the apocalypitc element of this type of fundamentalism can be dangerous in that it leads to uncritical acceptance of Israel and all she does and claims, and that it inherently seems to accept and PROMOTE a NWO based on the idea that Jesus is gonna rule over one world with no countries or borders. If someone realiy believes this and thinks it's a good thing, they may well do whatever it takes to bring it about. Another offshoot of this messianic thinking is a lack of interest or desire in fixing the problems of a broken world, s if Jesus is coming back, fixing things might slow down that timetable or actually prevent it from happening. I think many of these people want to destroy the world in some part of their psyche as they believe it will be rebuilt in one NWO for the better. There's been so much NWO thinking that's seeped through in the past few generations, even into thing as seemingly innocuous as Star Trek. I guess bottom line my belief is that people should never subscribe to political ideologies - they always twist the truth to fit their own beliefs rather than adjusting their beliefs to fit the truth. If I were discussing this with the author I would say that while its obvious in general that the Left hates Christianity, it is also true that there is some problem with the extreme Christianity of some of the right and where it is taking us politically. Hope this has been coherent, I've only had one cup of coffee and I'm typing on an unfriendly computer today ....
Just a general idea I've had that I might as well express in this thread as any. While I have nothing against the Jews or even Israel, other than that I think it was a dumb idea to begin with, I think there is a real real problem with this idea that some fundamentalists have that they have to protect Israel at all costs, and that it's at least as important as America,if not more so, because it's the "Promised Land". To me that'sa poisoned and misleading concept. Any land can be the "Promised Land" if the people there live by God's law and follow that in their hearts. We should not take use of biblical words like Jerusalem in Revelations any more literally than we might take Babylon. I think the United States had the promise of being the New Jerusalem, but because our hearts are unpure and we lust for money above all other things, we've become Babylon. I think we've failed the test as a nation, and I don't know if there's any more hope for us than there was for Rome. Maybe some other country will emerge eventually as the New Jerusualem, as long as the people heed the word of God. But when they don't....they're finished.
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