Category Archives: American Extremists

America’s Problem & Blessing: People Who Take the Bible Seriously (with 2 Rules of Interpretation)

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Frankie Schaeffer grew up in a modern, politically radical, Americanized “Christianity”. He is not pleased with what it teaches or how it operates. In a recent article he gives a fairly thorough explanation of his concerns and how they relate to current political personalities – e.g. Michelle Bachmann. I have to agree with much of what Schaeffer says. Here’s an example: America has a problem: It’s filled with people who take the Bible seriously. America has a blessing: It’s filled with people who take the Bible seriously.

Dobson Resigns. A Sign of More Hopeful Times?

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James Dobson has resigned as board chair at Focus on the Family. I’m sure he can find legitimate reasons to do so – even though it represents a real loss in terms of the enthusiastic labor of most of his life. But I have to wonder also if it’s just another step in the fulfillment of what Jesus predicted so long ago – about false prophets.

Dobson: “House Republicans Stand on Principles”

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“Good News: House Republicans Stand on Principles” That’s the headline on today’s newsletter from the political voice of Dobson’s Focus on the Family. It’s also on their website.   My reactions:   1. Ha ha ha ha ha ha HA! Really. I smile and I chuckle. “House Republicans” and “Principles” in one sentence, without a “no” or “not”? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, that’s hilarious. They say the essence of humor is irony, or the unexpected. Wow, Dobson has the gift!   2. But when you think a moment and realize they have shown remarkable consistency for some years, maybe Dobson’s Citizen-Link has a point.

“Stoplight” Call to Pray For Rain – Insulting, Blasphemous, and Retracted

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The Stoplight Video I’ve tried to watch the Focus on the Family short video “Stoplight” releases in the past, but it’s not good for my blood pressure. This recent one, asking people to pray for rain to disrupt the Democratic Convention’s last day, is a prize-winner for shallow thinking and unChristian behavior. I appreciate that Stuart Shepard apologized for that video in a follow-up video.

Dobson “Favors” McCain Over Obama.

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Politics makes strange bedfellows – it’s often the lure of money and power that does it. I wonder what’s doing it in this case. Here’s Dobson, a leading voice for “family values,” still supporting men whose unsavory characters are on public display and whose personal and political actions have done much to damage our world’s families and little to support or protect them.

Don’t Forward Lying Emails About Public Figures Like Obama – It’s Not a Christian Thing To Do.

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I. Waves of Slander I don’t have statistics, but we all know there’s a lot of falsehood circulating freely online. An email arrives with frightening accusations or innuendos and the reader gets frightened (as was intended) and forwards the email to warn others of the great danger revealed. But what if the email is one of the mostly false ones? How should we react if we’re not entirely sure of it’s truthfulness? After all, when we accept at face value lies about a person, group, or situation, and repeat those lies, we have put ourselves in a very bad place – we have become gossips and slanderers. Slander, you may have heard, is not a Bible virtue,

The Perfect Scandal (Update) – Foley

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Glenn Greenwald on the perfect scandal: The perfection of this scandal lies in its substance, not its theatrics … This scandal has resonated so powerfully because it is shining such a powerful light on the towering hubris, utter lack of intellectual and ethical integrity, and deeply engrained corruption

“The Americans Brought Us Rosy Dreams”

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This is from Muayad Muhsin, the Iraqi artist of a painting of Rumsfeld. “Rumsfeld’s boots deliver a message from America: `We rule the world,‘” Muhsin, 41, said in an interview. “It speaks of America’s total indifference to what the rest of the world thinks.” Muhsin said he signed the painting in the middle, instead of the customary bottom corner, to avoid having it under Rumsfeld’s boots. “The Americans brought us rosy dreams but left us with nightmares. They came with a broad smile but gave us beheaded bodies and booby-trapped cars.”

Robin Meyers on Our “Christian” Leaders’ Immorality

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These are excerpts from a speech given at the Universtiy of Oklahoma by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers of Oklahoma City’s Mayflower Congregational Church. Be sure to read at least the last two boxes. (Numbers added.) (Meyers has a new book out, Why The Christian Right is Wrong which I hope to review soon.) We need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value … 1. When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if … your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith … this is not only not moral, but immoral. 2. When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral. 3. When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teachings, or turn them on their head … you are doing something immoral. 4. When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians … Continue reading →

Hate-talk Training – It’s a Bad Road We’re On

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Are we traveling down the same road the Germans took in the early 1930′s? I can’t say – but some of the landmarks sure look familiar. People get upset when I raise that issue, but for different reasons. One extreme: “That’s ridiculous! Bush isn’t trying to kill people; he’s trying to save America! He’s a true Christian-American hero! Your remarks are outrageous, if not worse!” Other extreme: “Yes! I see the similarities, and they are outrageous and terrifying!” Middle: “Please don’t talk like that. Bush may be incompetent or even a crook, but he isn’t a mass murderer. You hurt our case against him when you overstate it so grotesquely. Please show some sense and restraint.” Well, I didn’t say Bush is trying to kill millions of people. I said (and say) that there are frightening and outrageous similarities between Germany in the 1920′s and ‘30′s and the US today. Nazis in the 1920′s and 1930′s were not killing Jews or Gypsies or anyone in large numbers. But there were other very dangerous things going on that are similar to things going on here. If that means we’re on the same road, or a similar one, then I want us … Continue reading →