The growth of radical Christianity
 

Shortfuse wanted to talk about it and I thought I would make a thread for him.

-Rudey

What do you mean by radical Christianity? Street preachers of suicide bombers?

Oklahoma City was one example. And isn't McVeigh dead?

-Rudey

Hate to stay on this but the KKK who preached christian values while murdering blacks at night.

Hitler preached Christian Values

I can go on and on with examples if you need more.


My point of the last thread and this is that Radicals in both groups are not rising. They've always been there. Just kept it on the DL if you will.

I don't know enough about the KKK but regarding Hitler, he wasn't doing it because of Christian values. He didn't murder 6 million Jews at any point because of Christian values. It's not even a point of interpretation given how he formed alliances with many non-Christians.

Regarding the KKK, were they a religious institution? Of course some might say the KKK doesn't kill any longer. It doesn't excuse their actions but there were the Crusades, there was the inquisition, there were the pogroms, but some might consider this the dark age of a religion. Do you know what I'm saying?

-Rudey

I think that they were. But that is up for debate because people can argue differently. But they called themselves the WHITE CHRISTIAN KNIGHTS of the KKK.

I have to disagree about Hitler too.

Unless somebody directly under him got him mixed up, it's safe to say he was talking about non-christians or better yet Jews. Hitler made pacts with non-christian societies only to further his Nazi goals. The Soviet Union kept him from fighting a war on 2 fronts (which he totally dismissed as soon as he "thought" the Soviets weren't able to stop him) and the Japanese were there to keep the Allies stretched out into the Far Pacific defending their possesions.

Please cite an example of this.

If Osama Bin Laden talks about liking hamburgers I don't consider his main goal to be eating hamburgers in life. Hitler also made pacts with Muslims and Arabs and, as you mentioned, the Japanese who were not Christian. He wasn't trying to enforce Church law and to strengthen the Church.

To me (this is my opinion), the KKK wishes to separate races. This is something that has been shared by other radical racial groups. To me Osama wants to conquer you and make you follow his version of Islam and to be governed by his Sharia. I don't think that the KKK is a religious organization because of that. And perhaps they have fused religion with racial separation, but then again I think it is racial separation that they want to spread and religion is not the epicenter of their beliefs.

-Rudey

Since you decide to skip over it.

About the Klan that is why I said it's up for debate.

My opinion not saying it's right, but hte reason why I say that they were is this. They infused Christian values with seperating the races. Religion was a HUGE part of the KKK and there's no way (for me anyway) to see otherwise.

You think Bin Laden a hamburger guy?

The South African Apartheid Government used the bible to legitimized what they were doing. The church that provided the backing, the Dutch Reform Church, finally admitted to their part last year. Unfortunately, many in the Dutch Reform Church still hold the notion that the bible gave the whites in South Africa the right to persecute non-whites.

He's got diabetes so he's not gonna have a sweet tooth.

-Rudey

Religion was not the reason they were doing it though, regardless of whether they tried to legitimize it through a church. They were doing it to maintain control and power and, for some, a separation of races.

-Rudey

I'm wondering if "radical" Christianity is "growing" because of the media tactics that some churches use to promote themselves. This weekend, an article on the growth of fundementalist churches in suburban Canada appeared. It discussed also how "traditional" churches, who may or may not be more "liberal" are losing members.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...=1105130003853

p.s. the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church no longer share a hymnal.

I have not done my research in a lonnnnggggg time to support my arguements, however I have found that many use religious icons with zeal for controlling the minds of the masses and mobs...

Tactics to forbid certain folks in doing things because a divine power could smite is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Just switch the dieties around and the epistemologies, and you have "mind control".

However, as a spiritual person, I do not find "religiousity" in and of itself oppressive, I find its power structure in religion inappropriately used. And based on my cultural heritage, one does not fool with the Universe--because it has a way of "reaping what is sown"... Or what comes around, goes around...

Look what happens to these vile folks that spew ugliness... Hitler commited suicide... Most of the Klansmen die lonely in a bad nursing home with no game and no teeth... And as far as Osama... Is he still alive and kicking for real--with his dialysis due to diabetes?

That's why evil just is not good, IMHO...

Or, there's a thin line between love and hate...

And don't hate, 'cuz it means you ain't gettin' any, or it ain't good. 'Cuz if you got some, and it was good--what reason wuld you have to hate???

"The Republican Party... reaffirms the United States of America is a Christian Nation..."
--GOP platform document 2002

"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
--G. W. Bush

"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. I am doing the Lord's work."
-- Adolf Hitler

DeLay said that God is using him to promote "a biblical worldview" in American politcs.
--Washington Post

I am only an instrument , on which the old God Sings his song.
--Goebbels

"(Americans) have no king but Jesus"
--Attorney General John Ashcroft

God is with us.
--Adolf Hitler

The 'wall of seperation between church and state' is a metaphore based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicityl abandoned.
--Supreme court justice William Rehnquist

If you do a Google search, you can find quotes like that from Jimmy Carter too.

the difference being Jimmy Carter wasn't a power-hungry warmonger

no, he was instead a spineless, deferential farce who looked the other way when confronted with corruption and wrongdoing (while president, he's since done great things). Pick your poison buddy, no one is exempt.

And thus was a perfect President and perfect human being? He had his own problems.

No he was a war criminal. Also please stop talking after you told people on greekchat that America should be bombed. You said you were leaving America...when will this happen?

By the way I like how you quote bits and pieces and not whole speeches...makes you look even better.

-Rudey

Jimmy Carter was a war-criminal? Hmmm, i have something to look up.:D

To me he was.

-Rudey

i wouldn't go so far as to say the peanut farmer, and nobel peace prize winner was a war criminal.

i definitely would not draw parallels between Republican leadership and the Third Reich.

i will say that religion has taken a more visable role in the discussion of motives. many of my friends suspect that the separation of church and state is more grey since the President has declared his Christianity to be influential in his decision making. but President Bush is not the only one making decions. foreign and domestic policies aren't unilateral decisions made by some over-zealous Christians in a dark room.

many of my friends object to the fact that Christianity has anything to do with the President's decisions. but i like to think that President Bush will draw upon all his knowledge (jokes aside), including what he may have learned from that book about J.C.

"radical christianity" has always been around, like any radical religious sect. i think it seems more prevalent because of the War on Terror. more disturbing to me is hearing the term "Zionist propaganda," from leaders in the Middle East. where i view the war as a war on an oppressive minority, terrorists (and consequentially radical Islaamists,) there are people who see it as a Christian crusade, war on Islaam, and Right-Wing conspiracy to impose religious blah blah rabble rabble....in conclusion, san diemus high school football rules.