[spapsinee]

Been mentioned on 'poly before. I think the thread was titled "Christians can brainwash kids too" or some such.

EDIT: Oh, and FWIW, the Antiochian Orthodox Church is currently concentrating a good deal on the Charismatic movement. We've gained plenty of converts from them in the past, since we have a lot of the zeal they do plus we have historical roots. I've heard stories of Pentecostal preachers with strong Orthodox sympathies who are just afraid to "come out of the closet," so to speak. It's a bit of an impasse at this point because our presence in the USA is still limited (plus we're divided), but at least we can say we're working on it...

[Druspills]

Interestingly enough, I have recently been making up the beginings of one of those post-apocalyptic stories where the US breaks up into many little pieces all in some sort of civil war, and the story revolves around fundies trying to invade all the other states and impose their theocratic views

[agiopwer]

Or form a Jiha... er... crusading army bent on world domination!

[Lotyqnag]

Not the ones mentioned in the article. They have no sense of structure to organize around; their identity is formed entirely in opposition to their supposed enemies'.

Now, there ARE much more dangerous ones out there, or so I've heard. The theonomists/dominionists. The ones who actually want to impose rule by OT law and aren't afraid to use subterfuge or dirty tricks to do it. I don't know much about them, but they sound scary from what I've been able to find.

EDIT: Hmm, this film has been mentioned on Talk2action though...man, I wish it were possible to keep straight where these whackjob movements begin and end!

[ScosyGissiok]

Originally posted by DaShi
Whoohoo! Christian Heavymetal! "Burn in Heaven! Burn in Heaven!" You were clearly influenced by Yoko Ono´s hit single "hell in paradise"

[tipokot]

it is nice to know that scaremongering about muslims is balance by scaremongering about Christian fundies though.

[RussellPG]

"It wasn’t so long ago that another puritanical youth army, Mao Zedong’s Red Guards, turned the world’s most populous country inside out. Nowadays the possibility of a right-wing Christian American version of what happened in China no longer seems entirely far-fetched. "

Yeah, cause being willing to proselytize people is the same as being willing send them to forced labor. We see how thats worked out with the Mormons and Chabad Jews. I dont like fundie missionaries, but i have the sense to tell the diff between them and someone who wants to send me to a labor camp.

and cause thinking churches you dont like are empty and dying means you want to ban them. Hell, I know at least one Reconstructionist Jew (think funky Unitarians with more Hebrew, "eco-kashrut" that sort of thing) tell me that Reform Judaism is "spiritually bankrupt". Religious triumphalism (my group is thriving, yours is dying) is not uncommon, and not necessarily associated with intolerance.

[SobiquYo]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Should we not be scaremongering about Christian fundies?
.
Correct. we should not, just as we should not be scaremongering about muslims, or commies, or anyone or anything else. We should look at all these phenomena rationally, and calmly, and analytically, so that our overreaction does not create worse things than what we fear.


WRT muslims, that would mean taking steps that make it harder to win over moderate muslims. With respect to Christians, that would mean ignoring possibilities for dialogue, it would mean intensifying mutual fear, distrust, and sense of persecution.

[AK47rulz]

North Dakota? Well at least they are far from civilisation...

[BrainTop]

christian heavy metal.

[zatronanec]

Originally posted by DaShi
Whoohoo! Christian Heavymetal! "Burn in Heaven! Burn in Heaven!" wouldn't it be freeze in heaven?

[Khcyhshq]

Nah. Gotta save 'em for use against that rogue asteroid that might hit Earth in the 2030s.

[StizePypemype]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
North Dakota is home to one of the United States' main nuclear missile fields. Hmm ... I think there's roughly 150 Minuteman multi-warhead missiles housed beneath the gently rolling plains of the NoDak state.

But, hey, no worries. The Feds got a tight handle on them there missiles.

Gatekeeper Yeah, actually, they do. It would be real unpleasant to try to take over one of those silos. The occupants tend to be very highly trained, duty bound sorts, and completely willing, under standing procedures, to detonate the missle (not the warheads, obviously) in place, if necessary, to prevent takeover. Even if you got in the silo, (autmatic weapons in tight, constrained spaces can ruin your whole day), knew your way around, and managed to do anything else other than get in before you were killed, you wouldn't be able to target it on anything, nor would you live long enough to get to the warheads to be able to do anything with them, even if you could extract them. (lots of specialized tools, machinery and know-how needed, plus time, which you wouldn't have.)

[sadgpokx]

But remember guys -- it's only Islam that has internal problems.

[GenrieAB]

They have female preachers?

They can't be very conservative then.

Oh and the "straight arm salute" is a standard charismatic ritual. The members of the congregation extend their right arms to "feel the spirit". The arm isn't supposed to be held rigid as in a salute. I attended a Catholic wedding where the congregation did this thing. It took me a few seconds to catch on. I initially thought they were giving the "Sieg Heil" salute.

[Pwy9egVW]

I do believe there are standards that parents or guardians must maintain if they are to home-school their children, but it's by no means universal.

Gatekeeper

[allmyflights]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Also, I look forward to the day that these Evangelicals take over the country. Don't you mean backwards? Jan 20, 2001 was that day.

[Wgnhqhlg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_school

"Some studies have suggested the academic integrity of home education programs, demonstrating that on average, home-educated students outperform their publicly-run school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects. Moreover, the performance gaps between minorities and gender that plague publicly-run schools are virtually non-existent amongst home-educated students.[9]"

My observation was that homeschooling was really good for academics. Where it was weak in was in socialization..

JM

[Glamyclitlemi]

Originally posted by Jon Miller

My observation was that homeschooling was really good for academics. Where it was weak in was in socialization..

JM Jep,
that is the main concern I have,
that these fundamentalist parents use the homeschooling,
to keep their kids away from children outside of this fundamentalist movement, so that they can better indoctrinate them (and that the kids don´t get in contacts with views other than those they parents present to them).

Aside from this I fully agree,
that, if done right, homeschooling can lead to a better intellectual performance than normal education at school (no miracle after all, in homeschooling the kids could get their education more intensely and in smaller groups than they would get at schools and could be taught by people who normally know them better than any normal school teacher would).

[casinobonbone]

my cousins were home schooled. They had a lot of trouble in public schools. It was about 90% black and the rest were white, hispanic, and native american. And they faced a lot of abuse from what I understand.