Let's discuss the good ol' Christian Right...or the bastard offspring of

[Thtwudbeme]

the Moral Majority from the Carter/ Reagan years.

Just out of curiousity, what denominations do DUers associate these fruitloops with?

I wonder...with something like 85% of Americans claiming to believe in God; exactly how many of those are the Right Wing weirdos that have taken over the Republican party?

Anyone good at math? I really wonder how many of these Book of Revelationers we are dealing with.

[Warpy]

1. I always associated them with the kind of church

that had a cross outlined in neon, but it's become big bidness. They're more often associated with really glitzy churches with huge halls, bad rock bands, and pompadoured preachers. That's where it's the most comfortable for them to hate, where they get the most permission.

However, haters can be found in all churches and in all denominations. Those of us who are believers and go to church need to make sure they know they don't have OUR permission to hate.

[paparush]

2. My wife is a recovering Baptist, of the southern persuasion.

And I do mean recovering. Recovering from the serious psychological harm done by a small group of demagogues.

[Lars39]

7. I can relate.

Please tell your wife that she's not alone; there are quite a number of us, unfortunately.

[kwvining]

3. Mostly

Southern denominations, like the Baptists, etc, and crazy fuckers, like Mormons and Benny Hinn.

[Perky]

6. Benny Hinn has actually been pretty apolitical

I think he is way over the top theologically but I don't think he is RWer

[mrcheerful]

8. Or splinter groups of baptist or Mormon. A lot of crazy people felt the

main church wasn't strict enough in their teachings of the old testament and Revelations. If you listen to Pat, Benny, Jerry and the rest, you can see how heavy they rely on Revelations in their sermons. It also appeals to people that seek revenge on people they think did them wrong. Nothing like having them calling for the wrath of god down on you for a wrong they feel you did on them.

edited because i forgot speel checker

[Perky]

11. If you are going to dis the preacher you need to understand a little

Theology.

Hinn Sticks almost completely to the Gospels and Acts, because that it where most of the Healing take place and that is whay he isabout.. He does not go near eschatology.

Falwell is a dispensationalist but also know better than to get to deeply into Revelation because then he has to deal with the Church of Laodicea. He does spend alot of time in the OT looking for ways to justify his politics.

Pat is the only one wh deal with Relevation and call down the lightening bolts and uses exchatology(his view of the apocolypse) to explain why the world does not make sense to him.

He and Falwell come at world from VERY IFFERENT PERSPECTIVES THEOLOGICALLY, but they both wind up in the same wrong place.

[mrcheerful]

13. Was talking about the ones who follow them. The followers have this deep

dark need to seek revenge without being sent to hell for it. People like the ones I named feed into that need, Hinn isn't the only one who does the faith healing, I've seen Pat and Jerry both call for the faithful to touch their TV screens to get Divine healing. BTW, part of the revenge they seek transfers over into their greed, they will send thousands to these people for either healing or the best revenge getting something from their enemies in the form of cash rewards for being a christen. See the clip about TV's god warrior, shes a good example of these TV preachers followers. Having crossed a few of these followers all I can say is scarey peeps.

[Perky]

16. I seriously doubt you have seen Falwell

do the "touch the screen" thinf. Fundies are typically dispensationalist: they do not believe in faith healers. Falwell would lose a large portion of his support if he went over that line.

[Perky]

4. Exactly?

Exactly?

10,316,248 Modern Day Phariseess
and about 19,756,328 sheep they have led astray.

Largely Southern Baptists and AGers

Now remember that belief in God covers a great bit or the religious spectrum
but 85% of 300,000,000 is about 255M believers (including Christian Jews and Moslems)

But Belief in God does not translate in being a wingnut. Being an evangelical doe not translate. Even being a Docrinal Fundamentalist does not automatically translate into being a fruitloop.

[Joe Bacon]

5. Let's start with the Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God

You also have Scaife or Ahmanson financing Religious Right cells in Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, UCOC, Catholic churches and Jewish temples.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Southern Baptist and Assembly of God, and a shitload of independant

non-denominational ones.

Whenever you come across a non-denominational church, especially if they mention being non-denomination in their church name (either "Free church" or "non-denominational" or "independant") it's a good bet they aren't affiliated with any other church, their "pastor" will be self-made and uneducated, and they will be very insular and adhere to some form of abomination fundamentalism that has little to do with real Christianity and a lot to do with "Thank Jesus we're not going to hell like everyone who isn't part of this church!".

Wisconsin and Missouri Synod Lutherans can also have their fundy whackjobs, though they tend not to go on TV. They tend to hate and cast judgment in the privacy of their homes and sanctuaries, so I don't bother with them too much.

Mormons can be that way, too.

And other words to look for in a church's name to determine if they are fuckjobs or legitimate churches: if you see any of these words, stay away: "Free", "Independant", "Bible", "Faith", "Evangelical", "Pentecostal" or "Charismatic". Though the word "Evangelical" is not always a fair determiner: there are many legitimte churches that use the word "Evangelical" since all Christians are, by definition, evangelical - I think of the Evangelical and Reformed churches (now part of the United Church of Christ) as well as some others that use the word that aren't scary, hypocrite assholes (any more than any of us Christians are unavoidably hypocrites, but at least most of us are actually FORGIVING hypocrites).

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. I'll add

word of faith and prosperity churches to your list - although some of them use the independent or non-denominational moniker. Same group would include the victory churches, abundant life churches, living anything churches and the rhema churches.

Time for a brain bath now.....

[SPKrazy]

10. I'd Guess 30% of 85%, or roughly a third of them are fundies

I have no basis for that guess, I'm truly hoping that most who call themselves Christians aren't fundies

also, the * base seems to run around 30%. Maybe the fundie count is even less since we know that some of his base is just good old wealthy folks.

And some are just plain morans too.

[Jed Dilligan]

14. Most actively anti-gay and anti-choice sects

have been Mormons and Catholics IMO, but I associate the fundie movement with "splinter" churches; the big-name denominations of Protestant (Lutheran, Episcopalian, even Baptist) tend to veer moderate-to-liberal politically.

[Recursion]

15. What about this "Bush is Antichrist" guy?

http://www.bushisantichrist.com

He seems both quite fundamentalist and quite right