jesus freaks changing history at our National Parks

http://www.nypress.com/16/53/news&columns/signorile.cfm

In God We Camp
Evangelicals pitch religion in the nation’s parks.

You might have guessed that George W. Bush’s evangelical armies would wreak havoc upon governmental health agencies, where they can have an impact shaping policy on abortion, contraception, safer sex and other social issues. But surely they’d have little interest in the National Park Service, right?

Guess again. Last week a watchdog group charged that the park service is caving in to zealots intent on a theocratic remake of American history and geology recorded at historic sites from the Lincoln Memorial to the Grand Canyon National Park. It’s a story that has been simmering for a while, never quite boiling over in the media, like so many stories these days regarding the Bush administration. And it certainly wasn’t going to finally bubble up last week in the middle of cow madness and terror scares—not to mention the endless, schmaltzy Christmas stories—though it represents a further scary slouch toward theocracy.

-snip-

"The park service leadership now caters exclusively to conservative Christian fundamentalist groups," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch in his group’s release. "The Bush Administration appears to be sponsoring a program of Faith-Based Parks."

-snip-

The new tape will reportedly contain footage of a 1997 "Promise Keepers" rally and a march supporting Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Neither event took place at the Lincoln Memorial or on the Washington Mall, which would still make the alteration an ugly, ideological and inaccurate revision of history—even if nothing is being removed from the tape.

PEER’s Jeff Ruch told me that he believes the park service, by now denying any attempt to actually cut out some images, is doing damage control, having been caught red-handed. His group’s claims about the scrubbing of the tape, he says, were based on several sources inside the park service who told him that deputy director Donald Murphy had sent down a directive. Ruch was also following what theocratic gasbags had been claiming regarding the success of their pressure campaign to get the tape excised and altered.
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read all of this and weep

i'm just trying to understand your point.

you'll understand

this is just more of the christian right trying to turn this country into a christian nation

as science debunks more and more of their long-held beliefs, they are getting more and more aggressive.

much like a cornered dog

...you would know that spreading the word of Christ is one of the basic tenates of the religion. Probably THE most important one. They consider it their duty to save others.

In other words, no need to try to bash them for "trying to turn this country into a christian nation". Any of them would readily admit that is the basic goal.

That being said, I've never met a single one who would support any kind of American theocracy. No matter how much those like you shreik like cornered dogs to the contrary.

i'm angry, pissed, horrified, boiling, -- this has to stop and now!

or "Atheist Assholes," you'd be hopping mad.

Some of us here love Jesus, and we're not freaks.

I have no idea what the article was about, because the title of your post put me off enough that I don't even want to read it now.

I didn't get the OP, but then I read the article. There are two issues here: pressure to remove photos and clips of gay-rights and abortion-rights rallies from Park Service videos, and whack-job creationist literature being distributed at park offices.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a non-profit group that represents park workers and public employees, charged in a release last week that the National Park Service is hell-bent on removing images of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, pro-choice marches and gay rights marches from an eight-minute video tape located at the Lincoln Memorial covering historic gatherings that have taken place there and on the Washington Mall.

"The park service leadership now caters exclusively to conservative Christian fundamentalist groups," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch in his group’s release. "The Bush Administration appears to be sponsoring a program of Faith-Based Parks."

You only have to look to the history of park service under the Bush administration to see the proof of its pandering to the fundies. This summer the Grand Canyon National Park’s bookstore began selling The Grand Canyon: A Different View, which offers a creationist account of the canyon’s origins.

BTW, not all Christians are Jesus Freaks (indeed most aren't). However I prefer to use the term "fanatics" to make sure regular Christians don't think I'm targeting them when I attack the whack-jobs.

not surprising. We have hardcore RW fanatics in all branches of government.

I have no objection to "fanatics," "zealots," "Christian right," or whatever as terminology. It's all descriptive and factual. Thanks for being descriptive and not malevolent.

to sneak in christian propaganda.

Why should a park cater to christian propaganda?

Christianity is EXTREMELY disrespectful and offensive in some implementations.

I believe it is a mixture of Gnostic spiritualism perverted by Romans into a brainwashed cult of loyal passive workers.

So some appreciate then nuggets of truth presented and some emphasize the facist control aspects of Christianity.

I am for the truth aspects and against the control aspects.

I thought there was something in the rules against ad hominems and something about civility, but I guess I could be wrong. :eyes:

but the religious fanatics are truly freaky.

most seem so far out of touch with the tenets of the religion, I've got to wonder why they think of themselves as such.

Who gets to decide who the "real Christians" are?

Should it be people like Pat Robertson, who call themselves Christian, but whose views on politics most of us fell uncomfortable with?

Or should it be the leaders of the Episcopal Church who recently voted to ordain a gay man as a bishop?

Or should it be folks who are not even Christian, but who feel comfortable saying that some Christians (like those who agree with them politically) are "real", while others are not?

I'm not particular to any god-type belief, so I'll sit in judgement.

Besides, when you equivocate like that, then no one is responsible, and Christians who aren't Christians judged in the hereafter, and whether the hereafter exists or not, the here and now is corrupted and all we can say is "Oh, but who are we to judge?"

Live in the here and now and tell these hypocrites that they need to pay for their lies now.

I hope everyone understands that it is all our best interests to respect each other in the future.

Also the subject of this assault on public parks is more about conservatism then Christianity. The fact they include "anti-Vietnam" as one of the park no-no's is a dead give away.

I, like Michelangelo Signorile, who reports that "a watchdog group charged that the park service is caving in to zealots intent on a theocratic remake of American history", think that our GOvernment should never cave into zealots who are intent on making America a theocracy.

On the other hand, though, I note that Signorile apparently approved of the use of the Lincoln Monument and the National Mall by an Ordained Christian minister (some called him a "theocratic gasbag") and a large group of his "minions". This group of zealots were permitted to use the Lincoln Memorial for an all-day rally to try to change the policy of the United States to one that hey felt was more in line with their own Christian world-view. The Minister who led the rally, during his remarks before the assembled masses, and on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, actually quoted the words of a Christian Hymn!

I am speaking, of course, about the 1964 March on Washington, led by the noted Christian zealot (zealous about the rights of all human beings), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

nt

Who are you to tell me that Martin Luther King was not a Jesus Freak?

MLK was an ordained minister (A Baptist minister, if I recall correctly).

He frequently quoted the Bible in his speeches.

He prayed in public -- even on public land, such as the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

He invoked Jesus' teachings about human relations often -- and usually in an effort to get people to act like Jesus.

He, like Jesus, expected his followers to be non-violent and to embrace love and not hatred.

And YOU say he was not a Jesus freak??!!

Most Jesus freaks I know do all of those things.

Please explain?

He claims the love of jesus...he claims he was born again. Are you and he in the same religion? Do you think he talks to your god? Does your god tell George Bush that all his horrible actions are justified?

control everything. Scary thought....

good one

right to practice their religion. Thye do NOT have a right to exclusive proselytizing, and removing that which they don't like from videos--no right at all. It has nothing to do with "Jesus" and everything to do with shoving the god down the throats and doing so in a bullying manner, using stealthy methodes to invade our National Parks and most likely everything else that is National and belongs to all the people who pay for it--partly anyhow. These are OUR parks, and as an atheist, I would like to enjoy these parks without having to read about the god Jesus, who I do not believe ever existed.

I am not required to have to be subjected to that abuse in an evnvironment melieu that I have paid for and that belongs to ME also as well as the Jesus freaks or whatever they are.
This latest outrage from the fanatic, right wing extremeists, sounds so terribly shallow and so terribly desperate to me, that I can only shake my head. I will never understand why this god, the Jesus, needs people to sell him and why they must do so at th expense of others--invading their private space, unabashedly in every situation. I wonder at times if they do enjoy a rather misguided sense of "power" in claiming it is perfectly fine, even that it is their "right" to invade the space of others and if others do not like it, they can just move aside and get out of the way-- self appointed as it is.

You say that as an atheist, and that when you go to our parks, you would like to enjoy them without having to read about this god Jesus, whom you do not believe ever existed. And I think I hear you saying that it is your opinion that being subjected to having Jesus shoved down your throat is "abuse".

Let me ask you this: Suppose that you are a person who has the view that God created the world in 7 days, and that you hold that view as strongly as an atheist who believes that Jesus never existed. Isn't it possible that such a person might object -- and object as strongly as you do about being subjected to the abuse of having Jesus shoved down your throat -- to being subjected to what he or she might call the abuse of having a point of view that they feel strongly about shoved down his or her throat?

Bigotry is alive and well.

This is NO WAY to win converts.

Forget about winning converts, calling other people demeaning names because of what they believe is simply not the best way to lead a life.

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