America's Christian Madrassehs?

[nickthelemming]

Taken from today's Guardian Online

Comments

[dumnbunny]

"I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam," [Pastor Fischer] tells the camera. "I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine."

...

The "war talk", [Rev Haggard] said, was allegorical.

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Ya know, it's been awhile since I read the Bible, but I could have sworn there was something in there about lieing. I seem to recall God being against it.

The Madrassa Comparisons

[schizmatic]

Bear in mind that a lot of the comparisons to Islam are meant for believers to shame them into being a better Christian. One often hears, for example, "Muslims memorize the entire Qu'ran and you haven't cracked open a Bible once this week." Likewise, drawing on contemporary Islamic extremists is meant to show Christians that Muslims are prepared to die for their faith, whereas Chritians are lazy, slack, and self-indulgent.
The thing that I find oddest and most disturbing about the Jesus Camp thing is that it's showing the politicization of Pentecostals. That is what is deeply strange and disturbing about all of this to me--pentecostals have always had interesting ideas and church services, but they were almost always apolitical. They have a strong sense of the presence of God, Satan, and the entire Biblical cast of characters, but they look at the drama as enacted in the individual lives of believers.
Seeing them leap into politics is disturbing.
As a Marxist, though, shouldn't you have a serene confidence in the inevitability of The

Re: The Madrassa Comparisons

[nickthelemming]

Since I'm not a Marxist, no. :p

Re: The Madrassa Comparisons

[schizmatic]

Curses! Such are the perils of judging one's political opinions by T-shirts.
--Andrew "Alohaist" Reeves

Re: The Madrassa Comparisons

[nickthelemming]

Don't worry, I'll just confuse matters further this week by wearing an Engels t-shirt. ;)

[faulxbourdon]

i've been considering cutting off all contact with media and going into hiding somewhere like greenland. i'm worried that in another 10 years i'm not going to have any rights. but i keep telling myself to keep going and if it come to it then, suicide is an option... there's a bill in wisconsin right now- we vote november second- to limit marriage to 1 man, 1 woman, and ban anything that resembles. there's already a two class society in place here, mostly based on taxes and protection afforded by law only to married couples. codifying it even more is going to make things even worse. christians keep arguing that they have to preserve the religious institution of marriage. but in wisconsin, it's not religious; you have to apply to the state to marry...so, essentially it's a socio-economic contract. thus, limiting marriage to one man and one woman unfairly discrimates against other people who would like to make a similar contract...

sorry about that rant....

[schizmatic]

It's almost certainly probably small consolation, but most of the anti-gay stuff going on legislatively is a rear-guard action. Rates of religiosity are still dropping and acceptance of gays is growing--they've lost, and to some degree know it, but they can still legislatively slow down the advance of gay rights as much as possible.
How likely does it seem that the measure will pass in WI?

[faulxbourdon]

we're not sure... the thing is, gay marriage is already illegal in wisconsin, so this is even more of a slap in the face- to be denied the hope of someday having a civil union. it won't pass in madison, probably won't in milwaukee, but northern and rural wisconsin, it's anyone's guess...