Anyone see the MSNBC report on the Pentecostal sect?

I think this is a group the left need to watch. I grew up with a pentecostal best friend that finally pissed me off by telling me I'm "going to hell" and that "George Bush is a good man who knows what he's doing".

I don't hold anything against the individual, independant thinking Pentacostal, but from what I understand this quickly growing group of fundies is heavily conservative.

The thread about Pat Buchanan inspired me to post this. He was in the report talking about the conservative nature of this sect of christianity.

Some here may think it's harsh that I say we should 'watch' (or keep tabs on) a religious group, but religion has a huge influence in this country, as I'm sure most of you know.

I was raised in Catholic teaching, I now consider myself agnostic. I believe any major Christian religion that teaches acceptance towards war and general hatred is horriblly distorting the teachings of christ.

The numbers in this MSNBC report alarmed me.

one guy all hit up is demanding that kerry be excommuniated excommunate kerry because he voted for abortion law I cannot believe it ,

this is an ominous sign for things to come if we take the back seat and let crazy fake religious impose their vision of the world

How come I always hear on the corporate media about liberal Catholic politicians who vote against punishment for abortion, but never hear about conservative Catholic politicians who vote for death penalty laws? The Catholic church condemns abortion AND the death penalty. You always hear on the corporate media about how liberal Catholic politicians are in conflict on abortion, but never hear how conservative Catholics are in conflict with regards to the death penalty.

The answer I think is because, of course, 99% of television is corporate television so of course that's what you'd hear.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1391734

I bet MSNBC didn't report any of this!

they are *very* scary. now this is painting with a broad brush, naturally there are some within who are sane, but there are many many many (!) who are, for lack of any better assessment, not. met plenty and really do not like them as a community. pretty freaky group of people. they only other group of people i've met who are remotely as zealously fanatic are some wahabbi muslims from saudi arabia. *shudder* freaky people.

when someone expounds about the divine right of kings, theocracy, the damnation of everyone, even other christian denominations, the stripping of women's sovereignty over their body, the imminent (and gleefully anticipated) ending of the world - with active work towards it! (check politics), and basically demonizing all things human and free you start to notice yourself backing up in preparation to run away from the clinically insane. no, i've learned from experience there are some scary people out there and the best defense is to flee. these people are of that ilk. run, run quickly, and run far. if they are sane then you'd probably run across them again in a more sane part of town...

CNN's Candy Crowley did a feature on Kerry and the Catholic Church earlier today.

is a member of a Pentecostal church.

a church in Pennslyvania.

Pentecostals are the core of the loony fundie right wing in Canada. Stockwell Day, former leader of the loony fundie right-wing party (first Reform, then Alliance, now Conservative Party), comes out of that.

This article, about him and the loony fundie right wing in Alberta generally (a small town in particular), is very instructive reading -- and very entertaining, for those who enjoy a good tale of loony fundie right-wing nuttery:

"Bentley, Alberta: Hellfire, Neo-Nazis and Stockwell Day
A two-part look inside the little town that nurtured a
would-be prime minister - and some of the most notorious
hate-mongers in Canada"

http://www.straightgoods.com/item313.shtml
Part 1: Day's roots in the religious right

http://www.straightgoods.com/item317.shtml
Part 2: The Neo-Nazi connection


They have schools, and specifically the "School of Tomorrow" (ask google) curriculum out of Texas. That curriculum was taught at Day's outfit's school in Alberta. Here's what a government investigator had to say about it (very long article; this is a minor excerpt; emphasis added):

Alberta senator Ron Ghitter headed the 18-month commission on schooling in the wake of the Keegstra affair. His report raised serious questions about the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), a curriculum imported by the Centre from the Texas-based School of Tomorrow and a rigid set of prescriptions for fundamentalist teaching on scripture and creation science.

"ACE schools were schools of dogma," says Ghitter, a former cabinet minister. "They didn't follow official curriculum and the kids who came out had sort of a twisted Christianity with anti-Semitic overtones."

Ghitter recalls one telling incident in a Red Deer Christian school where he discovered an ACE book that argued "all kinds of Buddhists and Muslims are evil." He took the book to the principal, who promptly denied knowing anything about the literature, saying that it was an old book. Ghitter checked the cover: it was new.

"It's repulsive that people would be teaching this material," he explains. "But in certain pockets of central Alberta - Eckville, Bentley, Red Deer - they're good people but they sometimes take the position that their religion is right and others are inferior."

... But there was more to the ACE material than just Bible teaching. Social studies lessons warned students that democratic governments "represent the ultimate deification of man, which is the very essence of humanism and totally alien to God's word."

Science lessons taught pure creationism, noting that all evolutionists were guilty of "depravity and sinfulness."

In other words, the ACE material that Day so passionately defended sometimes took an extreme and dismissive view on secular society - a position that was radical even for religious private schooling.

Be afraid. I don't know about down there, but there are places up here where they are definitely problematic.

.

I started life in a Southern Baptist church and ended up a "charismatic." It was a pretty toxic combination. When my Depression began, one of my friends absolutely insisted I was demon possessed and tried to cast the demon out of me. When I began questioning the religion, she said, "I can see the devil at work in your life."

These people are completely nuts and dangerous as hell. They believe that they have a direct line to god, so they can do whatever they want and feel no guilt.

The fundy religion itself is extremely toxic and subjects its adherents to abuse of every kind.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Good night. I'm way too sleepy.