Just saw a program on "ID" called God's Next Army... I am CONCERNED
I just saw a program about Patrick Henry College and we had better get ready to take on an WELL ORGANIZED group of people that want NOTHING else but to make the United States a Christian Theocracy and have the Bible replace the Constitution.
This college brags that they are making the next leaders of America. They brag that they have had more interns in the White House than any other college or university over the past decade.
They are using debate teams and moot court competitions as the training ground for what they hope are future State Attorney Generals, Federal and Supreme Court Judges and other positions that will allow the influence of religion to reign supreme over any other view without exception.
They are training the minds of what appear to be some really intelligent kids to do the bidding of Right Wing Evangelicals in whatever government position they can get in to.
It is time to speak up about what is happening in suburban Washington DC, so that we are able to keep tabs on their graduates and where they end up. I think Monica Goodling was a graduate of this school and we saw how she wielded the power given her.
Please put this on your radar screen and keep an eye out for those that hire and promote these graduates.
I have no problem with a religious school or beliefs of anyone as long as they don't try to make my belief's match their views of how EVERYTHING should be.
Given the opportunity this college and their graduates will try and take over anything they can get their hands on.
So keep an eye out and speak up when you become aware of graduates of this college in government positions.
I think you might be underestimating the importance of such schools. To the degree that they are successful in educating their students, they undermine the students' rigid ideology. To the degree that they are successful in reinforcing their students' rigid ideology, they undermine the students' education.
There's a reason that those who hire these mental midgets to work for them in government won't actually hire the same people to represent them in court.
November 26, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
68% of republicans want Sarah Palin to run for President in 2012. That is more than any other republican. What does that say about their level of intelligence, and their requirement/desire for a thoughtful, intelligent leader? They could care less that she lied about that "bridge to nowhere." They don't carte that she stabbed people in the back just to get to be a mayor of a hick town in Alaska so her ambitions could get going.
I heard a report on NPR about Patrick Henry school as well, quite some time ago. We cannot ignore this drive to power based on nothing except ideology. The problem is, these politicos have no sense of honesty; they only want to win. We saw that with John McCain's candidacy (which he now claims to be proud of) -- no lie is too obvious; no slur is too egregious. They have no honor; they only want to win, and justify it in the name of god. The great justifier of all lies, stealing and murders.
November 26, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps I am placing a little too much confidence in the idea that ignorant people can't do that much damage. After all, there are plenty of examples to the contrary.
November 26, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
There has been a decades-long attack on public education by various far-right lunatic fringe special interests. One of those is the "gotta have God in the schools" fanatics. Others are "patriots" who want only whitewashed history taught in the pbulic schools. The latter were successful to the degree that the fact that this country was established by means of genocide -- that deliberate extermination of the AmerIndians -- was so suppressed that it was a major discovery and human rights issue when it was made mainstream no sooner than 1969.
Keep people stupid and you can get them to believe anything -- such as that the Second Amendment protects an "individual" right -- even though it does not.
And such as the "Divine Right" nonsense that rights exist regardless whether the law stipulates them.
And how many have adopted the euphemism for "religion" that is "faith-based," as if the euphemism were actually accurate and legitimate? "Faith-based means, in fact, "based upon RELIGION". And that deceit was brought to you by the same people who have for decades opposed "race-based laws" -- which "laws" INCLUDE the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment.
Are those minorities hopelessly out-of-touch if they believe they can prevail over a majority of the sane? The SC stopped the counting of votes in order to unconstitutionally appoint a person some believed was "put into office by God".
The SC ruled, against all the hard evidence, that the Second Amendment protects an "individual" right -- and millions who don't know better believe it, instead of determining for themselves whether it does, which is not all that difficult.
The SC has essentially gutted Brown, but because not outright overturned the inattentive believe it is still in force.
Torture is debated as to effectiveness, not based upon the fact that it is a war crime that cannot be made legal.
A small number in control can do huge damage -- and can work to make the damage PERMANENT. All the latter takes is a stupefied population willing to accept it based only on being told it is "true" and "patriotic" and "God's will" and the like.
November 26, 2008 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on. You have more intellectual integrity than this screed.
Faith-based means social services delivered via the vast church infrastructure in this country. A community that has been doing the government's job for years on a shoestring budget provided by their parishioners. Obama will certainly funnel money into those efforts as a way to deliver some of the very progressive changes he espouses. Though I have no religious beliefs of my own, I heartily approve of this tactic as a way of convincing people that looking out for each other should be our underlying theme as a nation.
It's about results not the particular type of organization delivering those results.
November 27, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember that "no blinking" answer Palin gave about not thinking once, never mind twice, about accepting the call to run for Vice President?
Faith.
Faith based belief she was the new Esther.
No need to think because faith is all that's necessary - just open your mouth and out pops God's will.
Why? Cuz you prayed for it.
The United States will be reaping damage from the Bush/Rove faith based initiative for a generation. Critical thinking is anti-faith, thus anti-god dontchaknow. Also.
November 27, 2008 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
That is a dubious poll number taken right after the republican party took a thorough ass whipping. Of course they are going to rally around their bruised and vanquished champion. Come back to me in 2011 and see where Sarah Palin is in the GOP. I suspect she has a bright career in Alaska television.
November 27, 2008 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
They mjight not hire them to represent them in court initially. But if they manage to get a judge appointed, they will have their ilk represent them before that judge.
November 26, 2008 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wonderfully said.
November 26, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
...but incorrect.
November 26, 2008 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be educated is essentially to be flexible so as to learn (1) one's erorrs, and then (2) undo one's errors.
A genuine education is the ability to UNLEARN the erroneous, the outdated, the incomplete, in order to learn the alternatives.
Learning an inflexible dogma -- rather, committing that to memory as substitute for the ability to actually think -- is not learning: it is the negation of the ability to think, and learn. And negation of one's "God"-give free will.
November 26, 2008 9:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now I understand. You think those kids are getting a "genuine education" at PHC. They are getting a fair presentation of all the alternatives and learning about all the arguments of the various political philosophies. No wonder you're optimistic.
November 27, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had flash backs to 1980 when I read your post. It's not like PHC and its ilk haven't been at this for decades. Ashcroft's justice department, after all, was populated by Christian soldiers.
Just as a note, Monica Goodling is a graduate of Messiah College, studied at American U, and and received a degree in law from Pat Robertson's Regent U law school.
November 26, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm surprised she went to Messiah -- my limited knowledge of that school is that it's Mennonite and not at all associated with the super-charged fundamentalism found in Falwell's or Robertson's college.
A friend of my oldest daughter went there and was looking for internships in Washington, D.C. He was offered one with the so-called Family Research Council and his advisor at Messiah recommended strongly against it.
Goodling must have a spectacularly narrow mind to have gone both there and American U. and still believe the things she belives.
November 26, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the college's website:
"Messiah College is a Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences. The College is committed to an embracing evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church. Our mission is to educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character and Christian faith in preparation for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society."
November 26, 2008 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not being Christian, I have no idea what
means.However, the mission statement doesn't sound particularly objectionable or over the top.
November 26, 2008 8:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Massachusetts-Bay Puritans hated Ana/baptists. And "Papists". They were banished* from the colony; and if they returned were, by law, executed.
Same for Quakers.
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*They also enacted a statute which prohibited the production, possession, and distribution of "Anabaptist tracts". Replace "Anabaptist tracts" with "illegal drugs" and . . .
November 26, 2008 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anabaptists include Menonites, Quakers and such. They are distinguished by the belief that only adults can make the decision to be baptized.
November 27, 2008 7:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
PHC is worth watching. The rebound for Republicans will come from somewhere. There is a bravado among Christians with their "righteousness" that blinds them to the possibility that they might not be right. But in this day and age, if they have the illusion of "righteousness" people will vote fo them. It's pretty obvious to an unbiased observer that Sarah Palin is an idiot, but there are millions of people in love with what she is about, In Your Face Christianity. It's right up there with the voyeurs who watch FOX to giggle while O'Reilly abuses the fools who think they can argue with him and win. He screams them down without logic and the "fans" eat it up.
November 26, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
There might remain a possibility that the GOP might go the way of GM or Chrysler.
(Discounted brands dustbin.)
These fabulous automatons can start looking for a job in the new reality-based economy!
November 26, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
More likely go the way of the cut-out bin. Some buy only from there.
November 26, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "In you face Christians" (love that phrase GregorZap!) don't have enough numbers and scare the moderates. I read about PHC 6 years ago and their graduates were supposed to take over the world by now. Sarah Palins crazy talk drove the indies and moderates away from the Republican Party. They can run her again if they want but they lost BIG, no recounts, no squeekies, no supreme court. They don't scare me anymore. Americans just won't put up with them being in office, even for an experiment. I agree with Bushicide - The GOP hasn't got the numbers to get it together. They courted the base IYFChristians and lost their moderates. The IYFC base will scream bloody murder if the GOP tries to moderate. Loving the hoisted by thier own petards aspect of the whole thing - such fun.
November 26, 2008 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Americans just won't put up with them being in office, even for an experiment.
_____
Really? Then how did the Bushit criminal enterprise get into office -- the majority were ignorant of the Constitutional requirements, so accepted the unconstitutional appoint as if legal?
And how did he manage to be there for another 4 years? Because the majority believed the mockeries of election theft as being impossible.
And everyone knew Hitler's little clique couldn't do any harm.
November 26, 2008 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The whole decades-long experiment that ended with the Bush presidency was repudiated by the American voter this year. Bluesplashy is simply employing common sense when evaluating the relative importance and influence of fundamentalist Christians moving forward compared to the vast ocean of moderates of decided to stand up this year.
November 27, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
McCain picked Palin because the evangelical base was starting to rumble. Palin started talking and moderates started walking. She was the first to campaign explicitly on the evangelical talk. See what happened?
November 27, 2008 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
For future reference:
http://www.talk2action.org/
I enjoy their generally mature, open minded and still honest in their faith approach and coverage of religion and politics. They follow the religious environment that often goes unnoticed in my radar.
November 26, 2008 9:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not that my endorsement means anything, but it really is a great site. Highly recommended for anyone who's interested in church/state issues.
November 26, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, where have you been? This shit has been going on for years. PHC is not the only College or organization engaged in this; they won't be the last.
The Discovery Institute is a larger threat in my opinion. Starting at the top and working your way down has a much slower effect then what DI does, which is start at the bottom. Introduce your craziness into Primary education, dumb-down the entire populous.
November 27, 2008 1:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Trickle down economics wedded with bottoms up education. The quesion is will they meet in the middle and get the votes. Dare I say, I pray they won't?
And yes this s**t has been going on at least since the bush administration set up shop.
November 27, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
FYI, Free Speech TV is airing "A Breif History of Disbelief" Dec. 3,4,5 9-10 PM. Even though this series is widely available for viewing online, I think that it is still a commendable decision on their part.
November 27, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I find the notion that there is some grand conspiracy of fundamentalist Christians plotting to create an American Theocracy to be giving them much more credit for power than they deserve. They are going down in flames, not rising like a Phoenix.
These people reached the nadir of their influence and power starting with Reagan and going right through until Bush. They have been exposed as frauds and traitors to the vast majority of moderate Christians who find that brand of "faith" abhorrent. Barack Obama is more representative of the Christian faith now rising in America.
Fundamentalists are a small (and shrinking) minority of American Christians, yet they still have a fairly sophisticated machine they have built up over the last 30 years that will take years to atrophy.
November 27, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed Jason, thank you for the voice of reason. I sometimes, well not sometimes - all the time!, get very annoyed at the American obsession of religion mixed with politics. But in one case this can be a good thing. Because we pay so much attention to this topic we noticed when they started talking about controlling our lives. Americans other obsession with personal freedoms - or at least the illusion of them - will not allow any forthright firebreathing evangelical reach political office.
November 27, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
JEM,
Keep in mind that in order for a phoenix yo rise from the ashes they first must go down in flames.
I believe these folks have a VERY LONG view of their tactics and dismissing them out of hand leaves "US" open to the proverbial attack from within.
November 28, 2008 8:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am saying they are going down in flames. That your concerns of their "long view" are misplaced as they have already blown their wad these last 30 years.
There will be no rising from the ashes for them. That is my point. The only way to give this fringe ideology any sort of influence is to continue worrying about some grand conspiracy. It also leads people who are simply Christian to begin wondering when the "liberals" are coming after them.
Continued worrying about remote possibilities won't help move this country forward. How about a little faith that we are smarter than that and have finally woken up? I don't see any of the current generations going back to sleep or forgetting the lessons of our maturation.
November 28, 2008 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I watch it too and would like to see the sequel to it filmed after the 2006 and 2008 ass-whipping the right received. They have been at this for years and the are waning in their influence, funny how a bad economy and two failed wars can make their extreme right to life and anti-gay agenda seem so far off point... my favorite part was the science teacher talking about true science and then in the next breath saying they teach creationism and that she believe in the literal Noah flood, yeah there future looks bright...lol
November 27, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink