posted 08-30-2003 10:49 AM            

At President George W Bush's inauguration in Washington on January 20 he will swear allegiance to "One Nation Under God". The oath was only instituted in the twentieth century and some liberals believe it is unconstitutional. But on that weekend, not far from the inaugural platform, another group will gather, little known and largely unreported, who are really committed to the oath. They take it literally.

The White Rose Banquet will hold its fifth annual bash in semi-secrecy, charging adherents $40 for the dinner in aid of its Prisoners of Christ fund, which helps 14 anti-abortionists currently serving a total of 200 years in US prisons for vandalism, arson, and murder. The banquet actually marks not the inauguration, but the coincidental anniversary of the 1973 Roe v Wade US Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion.

The host will be the Rev Michael Bray, a Maryland Lutheran clergyman and author of A Time to Kill, a book that justifies murder of abortion doctors. He served four years in prison for an arson campaign in the mid-1980s, in which several abortion clinics and the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union were burned.

Bray has invited as guest of honour Marjorie Reed, another felon, who did eight years for a series of New Jersey clinic arsons in the late 1980s. Also to be honoured is Dennis Malvasi, who served five years for three clinic bombings in New York. The star of this rogues' gallery, the Rev Paul Hill, a schismatic presbyterian, has sent regrets. His presence is unlikely, due to his forthcoming execution for the 1994 shotgun murders of an abortion doctor and his assistant in Florida.

Unrepentant, he, Bray, and the others still argue these were justifiable homicides, and two years ago the banquet was read a long letter from Hill. It began: "Greetings in the name of our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ," and recommended reading Psalm 91 - He shall call upon me, and I shall answer - as Hill himself had before heading for the clinic.

Like the others, Hill is a Christian Reconstructionist, a faction of the religious right that seeks to turn America into a theocracy, overthrowing democratic institutions and replacing them with a Christian society applying God's laws. It is easy to dismiss militant theocrats as a fanatical fringe, and indeed they are a minority even among the 20% or so of Americans who comprise the Christian right, but their influence is extraordinary, and is increasing.

Although never so described in the mainstream American press, these people are revolutionaries practising terrorism in the name of God to further their aims. They are as violent as most Muslim terrorists, perhaps more so, yet they avoid public exposure, let alone condemnation, of their agenda. America is indeed in thrall to the Christian right, and its true nature goes largely unreported.

Last year, God's "warriors" were favoured, or blessed as they would put it, by the fact that the then presidential candidates, Al Gore and George W Bush, are committed Christian fundamentalists, and both support key policies of the Christian right. But a president Bush is better, having instigated such policies as governor of Texas, and already as president-elect he has announced the formation of a federal office to promote "charitable choice", the provision of federal funds for religious charities engaged in welfare work.

Yet this principle had been already recognised by President Bill Clinton, a Southern Baptist, in the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 that he signed despite outrage from liberal supporters. Al Gore too has urged "faith-based organisations", or FBOs in Washington jargon, to share in government services. The Salvation Army marches again.

In truth, both Bush and Gore are little more to militant theocrats than the sympathetic liberals Stalin once dismissed as "useful idiots".

Like Uncle Joe's communist cadres, theocrats are single-minded, disciplined devotees of their cause: imposing a dictatorship not of the proletariat, but of the priesthood. Although Marxism-Leninism is often likened to a religion, this says more about Christians, who are supposed to exhibit love and forgiveness, than the comrades. They can dismiss such indulgences as bourgeois sentimentality.

Let us be clear: theocracy, whether of the Calvinistic reconstructionist variety or the fuzzier kind advocated by charismatics, Pentecostals, and Southern Baptists such as televangelist Pat Robertson or the Rev Jerry Falwell, is a very tough regime indeed.

It calls for the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers (presumably with dispensation for the men of the cloth in those ranks), blasphemers, and abortionists. As a theocracy it would be a reign of terror that subjugated women, instituted censorship, and reduced the non-religious (and the wrong- religious) to peonage.

With abortion as the ultimate justification for violence, God's terrorists are approaching a quarter of a century of mayhem in north America. According to the Department of Justice, the present total is more than a dozen murders, 15 attempted murders, 209 bombings, 72 arsons, more than 750 death and bomb threats, and unknown hundreds of acts of vandalism, stalking, burglary, and harassment. Two on the FBI's 10 most wanted list are Christian terrorists: Eric Rudolph of Christian Identity, a fugitive from the Olympic bombing that killed one in Atlanta in 1996 and a fatal abortion clinic bombing in in which a nurse was also blinded; and James Kopp, a disciple of the fanatical Catholic group, Lambs of Christ, who murdered an abortion doctor in Alabama in 1998 and up to five in Canada with a high-powered rifle.

"The American media have reported these incidents, but they don't use the phrase 'Christian terrorists', although that clearly is what they are," says scholar Frederick Clarkson, author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. "The media are terrified of being accused of anti-religious bigotry. They also say we don't hear from them these days, but that's because they deliberately kept quiet during the election year; it's not generally realised how anti-democratic they are. They are essentially authoritarian and it's a scandal America is not being told."

Their push for a theocracy will continue under the Bush regime. They want an extension of charitable choice, and abolition of the ban on government funds for charities that overtly proselytise (no prayers, no soup) and those that discriminate (no soup for non-Christians). They also seek school vouchers, by which parents get government money to send their children to special schools, which are often church-run. This is despite more evidence that the public has rejected the idea; two voucher propositions on the November ballot in California and Michigan were roundly defeated.

Meanwhile, the Christian soldiers win small victories. The US Supreme Court ruled recently that the government could supply computers to religious schools as well as secular ones. The eventual aim of abolishing the widely held interpretation of the US constitution, that Church and state should remain separate, gains fractional ground, as the religious right takes case after case to the Supreme Court.

A more immediate task is to dismantle the entire structure of government welfare, and a leading exponent of this has been a writer and advocate who is one of Bush's advisers: Marvin Olasky. A former practising Jew, atheist, and communist, he is now a born-again Christian and reconstructionist and teacher of journalism at Texas University.

He popularised the Bush slogan "Compassionate Conservatism" with a book of that title, and advocates employing openly religious FBOs while exploiting the modish language of multi-culturalism to include: "Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and atheist." Not mentioned is that none of these has the Christian zeal for conversion.

Yet again, Olasky receives little media attention. Writer Joan Didion, in the New York Review of Books, recently pointed out that Bush made a key speech in July 1999 promising to "look first to faith-based organisations, charities, and community groups that have shown their ability to save and change lives". Present were political correspondents from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, yet none reported that Bush said federal money should be "devolved" to FBOs, or that "faith" could be the ultimate means test, or that "redemption" trumped "reform". Didion remarked drily: "That a mainstream American presidential candidate should make these remarkable statements might have seemed worth reporting."

It is also little realised that theocrats are not just Protestant fundamentalists, but include a tiny Catholic faction of extremists who verge on the falangist crypto-fascism of the late caudillo of Spain, General Franco. One such practitioner is Father Frank Pavone and his Priests for Life group in New York. He is a fanatical opponent of abortion and has close ties to the Vatican.

A study of Pavone published recently by the Institute for Democracy Studies shows that the priest openly opposes the US constitution's insistence on separation of church and state. "Not only do individuals have a duty to obey God, but so do governments," he says. "Separation of Church and state does not mean separation of God and state." He adds that Christians should "awaken" to this, "not just Catholics, but all Christians, believers, and all Americans".

Father Pavone also openly declares that "breaking a law of trespass to prevent killing is perfectly justified if it rescues babies [from abortion clinics] and in other circumstances". In his booklet Our Media in the Streets he advocates guerrilla warfare tactics against women's healthcare clinics that include threats and acts of physical violence in blockading them, despite a new law of Congress forbidding such behaviour.

Pavone is almost a moderate compared with Father David Trosch of Mobile, Alabama. He published a cartoon in an anti-abortion pamphlet of a surgeon being murdered over the caption: "Justifiable Homicide?" He advocated the "termination as vermin" of the president of the United States, the attorney general, and the Supreme Court judges. This declaration caused his bishop to remove him from his parish, but Trosch, an advocate of murderous terrorism, has not been unfrocked.

Yet the Christian warriors keep suffering casualties, especially when confronting the temptations of sex. The latest to fall is the fire-and-brimstone theologian and broadcaster Randall Terry, founder of the militant Operation Rescue anti-abortion group and a theocrat. He is engulfed in a scandal that has caused his enforced sabbatical for a year. Terry and his wife of 18 years separated after disclosures that Terry was dallying in what his church delicately called "a pattern of repeated and sinful conversations with both single and married women".

A new group Terry formed, called the Loyal Opposition, is without its founder. As so often in these cases, it could not be more ironic - the group's mission was to "preserve the sanctity of traditional marriage".

posted 08-30-2003 11:45 AM            

quote:

---

Yet the Christian warriors keep suffering casualties, especially when confronting the temptations of sex. The latest to fall is the fire-and-brimstone theologian and broadcaster Randall Terry, founder of the militant Operation Rescue anti-abortion group and a theocrat. He is engulfed in a scandal that has caused his enforced sabbatical for a year. Terry and his wife of 18 years separated after disclosures that Terry was dallying in what his church delicately called "a pattern of repeated and sinful conversations with both single and married women".

---

posted 08-30-2003 12:03 PM            

Religious Right Leader Randall Terry
Censured By New York Church

Randall Terry, one of the most extreme figures in the Religious Right, has been censured by the Binghamton, N.Y., church he attended for 15 years and stands accused of abandoning his wife and children and engaging in “sinful” relationships with other women.

The letter of censure from Terry’s former pastor, Daniel Little of Landmark Church, was issued last November but came to light only recently when it was posted on the World Wide Web. It has also been circulating among e-mail discussion groups sponsored by feminist organizations.

In a separate letter explaining the censure, Little wrote, “Many of [Terry’s] longtime friends...are shocked and bewildered that a man who has traveled the country pleading with Christian people to think and act biblically is now thinking and acting so anti-biblically.”

The censure letter accuses Terry of leaving his wife Cindy and their two children “in preparation to divorce, annul or otherwise dissolve their Christian marriage and for his unwillingness to repent of sin....” It also accuses him of a “pattern of repeated and sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women.”

Terry is currently living in Vermont where he is opposing efforts to legalize same-sex unions. Contacted by The Washington Post, he denied Little’s charges, calling them “absolute nonsense, insanity.” Terry acknowledged that he is separated from his wife and said his marriage is in “crisis” but denied he had done anything improper.

Asked about the allegations of inappropriate relationships with other women, Terry cited a letter signed by four pastors that says, “Mr. Terry has asserted he has only had sex with his wife.”

Little responded by comparing Terry to President Bill Clinton. “That’s like saying, ‘I did not have sex with that woman,’” Little observed. “Both Terry and I know what the accusation is referring to.”

Terry has since left Little’s church and has joined another denomination, the Charismatic Episcopal Church. Recently some pastors in that denomination issued their own letter, declaring Terry’s censure from Landmark Church null and void.

Terry’s problems are ironic, considering his past writings. In his 1995 book The Judgment of God, Terry observes, “We have become a sex crazed society. Women are viewed as sex toys to be used and discarded by vile, pathetic males (I shall not call them men); families are destroyed as a father vents his mid life crisis by abandoning his wife for a ‘younger, prettier model,’ homosexuals and lesbians are no longer content to secretly live in sin, but now want to glorify their perversions.”

posted 08-30-2003 10:12 PM            

with the cross of Jesus going on before.

Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;

posted 08-31-2003 02:59 AM               

What are you talking about? You are confusing me here! The article I read was about Christian Soldiers and their fight in the name of God. Where do you read anything about Iraq, Muslim extremists, and Bush? Bush being lame or not has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand either. I thought we were talking about the freedom of religious choice and the fact that we all have free will to believe, or not believe, as we choose.

Know-This quote:
When there are starving, homeless, unloved, diseased, abused and forgotten people all over the world, it forces the question. WHY SHOULD ANYONE SUPPORT A GOD THAT PROMOTES SUFFERING?

MY QUESTION............
IF KILLING IS WRONG, WHY DOES "YOUR GOD" KILL US ALL?????????????????
DEATH IS NOT NECESSARY
PAIN IS NOT NECESSARY
THIS IS WHAT "GOD" GAVE US
THIS IS WHAT YOU PRAISE OUT OF FEAR
PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO REVOLT AGAINST THE CRUELTY..........AND ALL SYMBOLS THAT REPRESENT SUCH DESPAIR..........."BIG GOD, NO GOD".
**********************

Sounds to me like you’re acting a little on the fanatical side here yourself! Sorry, but your thinking is just a little twisted and off base. The God I know does not promote any of the above concepts you accused him of. WE (as in you, me, us) are responsible for our own lives. It’s always easier to blame someone else for our misery and suffering. We need to take responsibility for the shape our lives are in. If you don’t like something, change it or get out of the situation, or remain and wallow in self-despair. I know, its not always easy to change something but there is usually a way.

posted 08-31-2003 12:20 PM               

I do not have to read my own statement - I know what I am saying and what I believe and my memory is NOT faulty. Not all Muslims or Middle Easterners are terrorists and there are some sects of Christians that are fanatics. And no, we people are not just now getting it. If you want to start a topic trashing Bush and his administration, by all means, do so. That still has nothing to do with this thread!

You’ll probably jump all over this statement – but who is to say that Bush is or isn’t a Christian? Christian to me means a person who follows the examples of Jesus Christ. Just because someone goes to church on Sundays, says prayers, or uses certain words and phrases does not make them a believer in anything. And I am not saying Bush is or isn’t a Christian. Who truly knows what is in another’s heart and mind anyway? That is between the individual and his God (if he even has one). Many people go through motions, yet live a lie – its called being a hypocrite. This applies to all people, all religions, even to the ones that have no belief in a creator.

You’re right, you don’t know if I’m a schizophrenic or not. And I HAVE had visions while awake, during meditation, or while dreaming that were NOT drug or alcohol induced. And it matters not if you or anyone else knows it or believes it. Yes, this is a personal thing - between me and my source.

posted 08-31-2003 03:19 PM            

I am personally saved by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and will never deny Him to
anyone, ever.

There are many people I know who are of other faiths including pagans, they are not bad people just confused and deceived.

posted 08-31-2003 07:19 PM            

maybe I should follow your lead and take some time off...seems to elevate the powers of observation...

posted 09-01-2003 08:34 AM            

bush need not be a 'christian' to be president:

The Presidential oath is unique in that no President can violate the US Constitution while swearing the oath of office.

THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Article. II.
Section. 1.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The phrase included in almost all other oaths: "so help me God" is specifically not allowed in the Presidential oath:

THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Article. VI.
...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.*

A President cannot both swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and violate the Constitution in one breath.
The oath would be invalid and the President not lawful.

*Called "the Separation Clause" because it specifically sets up a 'wall' between religion and public office.

Those terrorists who claim legal authority for imposing their warped views of religion on all others are willfully unaware of the actual documents/ Bible & Constitution.

Jesus to Roman soldiers who asked him what they should do:
"Do harm to no man."
(Not to 'impose your will on others in my name')

posted 09-01-2003 03:49 PM            

"I urge all Texans to answer the call to serve those in need. By volunteering their time, energy or resources to helping others, adults and youngsters follow Christ's message of love and service in thought and deed."
Therefore, I, George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, do hereby proclaim June 10, 2000, Jesus Day in Texas and urge the appropriate recognition whereof,
In official recognition whereof,
I hereby affix my signature this
17th day of April, 2000.
"Jesus Day 2000" Proclamation

posted 09-01-2003 04:21 PM            

And I still don't see why such a display is so necessary on any level.

posted 09-01-2003 05:55 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by KNOW-THIS:
"You will never hear G.W invoke the name of Jesus Christ. Not going to happen."

Just for the record

"I urge all Texans to answer the call to serve those in need. By volunteering their time, energy or resources to helping others, adults and youngsters follow Christ's message of love and service in thought and deed."
Therefore, I, George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, do hereby proclaim June 10, 2000, Jesus Day in Texas and urge the appropriate recognition whereof,
In official recognition whereof,
I hereby affix my signature this
17th day of April, 2000.
"Jesus Day 2000" Proclamation

---

Where in that proclamation does our dear dubya call himself a 'christian'?

Why shouldn't he call himself anything he wants.
Texans have always been proud of telling the biggest whoppers of any state.

On to the Holy War in Iraq.
How 'christian' is it to cause the deaths of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians?
Win their hearts and minds by killing more of them in one year than Saddam or Iran's armies did.

Afghanistan was about getting the opium crop back into full production wasn't it?

Anyway dubya has encouraged millions of Americans to pray daily:
"Please God..only one term!"
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/04/15/in_touch/index_np.html
>Onward Christian soldiers
Conservative fundamentalists with close ties to President Bush are planning a new missionary push in Iraq -- and they might already be converting U.S. troops to their cause.

Charles Stanley, the former two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a close ally of former President George Bush and a fervent supporter of the current president's war on Iraq.
< http://junior.apk.net/~bmames/ht0045_.htm
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2002/0201onward_body.html
>The war Americans have not seen has featured hopelessly outgunned Iraqis trying desperately (and futilely) to defend their country with small arms, before and after Saddam's fall; dead and badly wounded civilians, often children, in city after city, flooding hospitals that no longer have even aspirin to give them; US Marines standing by and watching as some of humankind's most ancient and precious treasures are looted, and its civil infrastructure destroyed.

While most Americans have not seen these images, the Arab and Muslim worlds have, non-stop, for a month. And unlike Americans, who can't catch the Bushites contradicting the previous week's official line, they will remember. And terror groups will be ill-equipped to handle the flood of new volunteers.
< http://eatthestate.org/07-17/OnwardChristianSoldiers.htm

posted 09-02-2003 01:56 AM            

'God bless' spells more trouble for Guardsman
Superiors give his job back but still bar him from uttering phrase

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: August 22, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A military honor guard fired last year for saying "God bless" has been restored to his position.

But he claims authorities went back on their word and continue to forbid him from uttering the familiar words of encouragement while presenting the flag to veterans' families at funeral services, Fox News reports.

Patrick Cubbage, 54, a retired army sergeant, notes there are countless references to God and various religions at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in North Hanover, N.J.

And most all funeral services include a reference to God, he argues, but state military and Veterans' Affairs officials want military chaplains and civilian clergy to handle the religious talk.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the Vietnam combat veteran believed he was only following orders in giving the blessing as he presented a folded flag to family members.

He cited the federal flag presentation protocol detailed in training literature he was given when he began working as a part-time guardsman at the cemetery in October 2001.

Cubbage, a former Philadelphia police officer, said after being fired he renewed faith in his freedom of speech and religion, but that quickly changed.

"It's freedom from religion, not freedom of religion," he told Fox News.

Cubbage, who notes President Bush concludes his speeches with the phrase, says he would not invoke God if a family member objected, but claims that's never happened in the 500 funerals in which he's participated.

"Where's the dignity for the veterans and the respect for their families at this flag presentation?" Cubbage asked, according to Fox. "Not only that – how about the courtesy to our own country to say God bless the United States of America? I mean, what's so hard about that?"

Fox News found that an instructional video distributed by the Department of Defense includes a reference to God, in which a soldier says, "God Bless America."

An attorney for Cubbage is threatening a lawsuit and taking his fight to Capitol Hill, according to Fox.

posted 09-02-2003 08:40 AM            

If they start taking crosses down because they are "offensive"...i'm going to get mad. That's persecution.

What's going to go up instead???? Illuminati Pyramids on every steeple?

WHO defines what goes?

THE PEOPLE.

Period.