early 70s era jesus freaks seem much more palatable than the current flavor of christians

see more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoV0p1zI4As

A bit strong.

and yes, the current movement in christianity toward dominionism, the end times, and erasing the separation of church and state is very revolting.

gimme some of that good old peace and love and simplicity of the teachhings of christ and the universal sisterhood and brotherhood of people.

i'm sure those people in that video i posted weren't interested in building mega churches that have their own police detail to move traffic.

Christianity is a complex religion comprising many groups from almost every nation on earth. It inspires people ranging from Jimmy Carter and Al Gore to Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson. In America, it can be the inspiration for liberal progressive peace activists, or hate-filled money-grubbing Republicans.

There is no "current movement in Christianity." There are current movements among groups of Christians, obviously. But to categorize all Christians that way is wrong. One of the most fierce peace activists and social progressives I've ever met was a retired minister, and a devout, devout Christian. And his church building was quite average, though his congregation, from what I've heard, was quite above so.

That's what I meant. Categorizing Christians by the most negative stereotypes out there is much like categorizing gays as pedophiles or African Americans as shoplifters, or white males as patriarchal chauvinists. You can find examples, but that shouldn't define the group.

:thumbsup:

All the church goers in my neck of the woods are dominionists,

Hate and kill the Muslims and when they are through with that one, then they will go after the rest of us non-believers. Support King George because he talks to Jesus, etc.

I have co-workers who tell me that. Repeatedly. And out of "love" for me they work hard for my conversion. (Luckily the other half of my co-workers are pagan like me.)

My bigotry has not entitled nation states across the world for the last
two millinia to decimate other nations.

Crusades?? To recapture the Holy Land.

Nope, never advocated a crusade.

Witch hunts resulting in the deaths of eight to fifty million women.

Nope. Never advocated witch hunts.

Inquisitions?

Nope.

Destroying the heathen native indigenous populations everywhere in the world.
Especially here in the New World.

Nope. My bigotry has not incited many of those decimations either.

in this case, the loudest voices in christianity today get the most PR. and these are the one i refer too. i'm not here to provide an exegesis or walk on eggshells.

too bad for the real christians. they might want to actively rein in their brethren.

:hippie:

Jesus was a capricorn
He ate organic food
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandles
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon we'd just nail him up
If he came down again

Chorus:
cause everybodys gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin somethin dirty decent folks can frown on
If you cant find nobody else, then help yourself to me

Eggheads cussing rednecks cussing
Hippies for their hair
Others laugh at straights who laugh at
Freaks who laugh at squares

Some folks hate the whites
Who hate the blacks who hate the klan
Most of us hate anything that
We dont understand

Chorus

CSNY they ain't

spent a whole day talking about evolution with one on a train from Fairbanks to Anchorage in 1976. Fun times.:D

And tended to train their followers (whom they were screwing out of house and home) to be calm and gentle.

Now, they're money grubbing charlatans screwing their followers out of house and home but also preaching a a prosperity gospel to get the followers to make as much money as they can, too; and they train their followers to hate anything different than them, and think that turning America into a theocracy (based on their illegitimate theology) is a good thing (because, of course, they'll be the leaders and can rule with an iron fist like Caesar).

The Jesus Freaks were fucked up, but it was a benign fucked up.

The current crop will destroy the planet if they get the chance.

At least, I'll say that that particular era of evangelical Xians, who seemed to put the emphasis on Jesus more than anything has much more appeal to me than the types whom I've always been surrounded by. Of course, where I live it's doubtful there were ever that many of the hippie-type "Jesus freaks", but I definitely have more respect for those who put the emphasis on love than those who focus mostly on scare tactics like "convert or you will burn in Hell!", and I wish I would have been able to experience being around more liberal Christians because I think it would have significantly altered the views I had regarding the religious while I was growing up.