:|buckeye-ELO@nospam.net wrote:
:|> IT'S TIME TO START TAKING THE THEOCRATS SERIOUSLY Tell A Friend
:|> http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_randolph_051102_it_s_time_to_start_t.htm
:|>
:|> IT'S TIME TO START TAKING THE THEOCRATS SERIOUSLY
:|> Tell A Friend
:|>
:|> by Randolph T. Holhut
:|>
:|> http://www.opednews.com
:|>
:|> DUMMERSTON, Vt. - The nexus of evangelical Christianity and Republican
:|> politics is a force that is transforming the United States, and not
:|> for the better.
:|> As someone who firmly believes that church and state should be
:|> separate entities, I find it disgusting that GOP, in the minds of some
:|> Republicans, now stands for God's Own Party.
:|
:|
:| That is right. It is GOD OWN PARTY for the better
:| of America.
:| You find this disgusting? You filthy little Demon-craps
:| good for nothing...
:|

:|> This implies, of course, that Democrats are tools of Satan.
:|> But the biggest question I have regarding Christian Republicans is how
:|> does one claim to be a good Christian and still follow a political
:|> party that is very selective about which parts of the Bible it follows?
:|>
:|> The answer might be found in a recently-released documentary,
:|> "Theologians Under Hitler," produced by Methodist Pastor Steven
:|> Martin. It will be aired on public television in the coming weeks.
:|> The film is based on the 1985 book of the same name by Robert
:|> Ericksen. It looks at three prominent German Protestant theologians -
:|> Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus and Emmanuel Hirsch - and how their
:|> writings were used to legitimize the Nazi Party during its rise to
:|> power in the 1920s and 1930s.
:|> In an interview in June, Martin said he hopes the film "opens up the
:|> discussion to talk about what it means to be uniquely Christian in the
:|> world today. And I think that is the most crucial discussion we can
:|> have today in the church."
:|>
:|> That's because, as Martin put it, "pastors are trying to lead some
:|> civil discussion of Christianity in context of a divided country and
:|> what it means to be a Christian in context of a divided society. This
:|> program gives you a very safe environment to do it."
:|> While discussing current events from the pulpit is problematic, Martin
:|> said "you can talk about history."
:|>
:|> And this is history worth discussing. To talk about how German
:|> churches helped Adolf Hitler come to power, you have to talk about how
:|> church and state became one in Germany.
:|>
:|> In the aftermath of World War I, when Germany was a beaten, exhausted
:|> nation, a new vision of Christianity started to emerge. It was a
:|> vision that championed a nationalist agenda. The idea of the
:|> resurrection of Germany merged with the image of the resurrection of
:|> Christ. It was a seductive image, especially when one considers the
:|> depth of Christian faith in Germany and its attractiveness as a
:|> antidote to a chaotic modern world.
:|>
:|> The German Christian movement was the result. The Nazi swastika
:|> started to appear on church altars. The idea of volk espoused by
:|> Hirsch - a united, racially pure Germany - tapped into the
:|> long-simmering anti-semitism of Germans. It didn't take much of a leap
:|> to equate the elimination of Jews with the fulfillment of God's plan.
:|> What made it possible was theologians such as Kittel, who advocated
:|> for a Christianity divorced from its Jewish roots, or Althaus, who
:|> linked Hirsch's volk and Hitler's ideas together in his writings.
:|> Given the respect that people have for church leaders, having people
:|> like Kittel, Althaus and Hirsch supporting Hitler made Nazism respectable.
:|>
:|> Martin's film doesn't mention present-day politics. It doesn't need
:|> to. A viewer of the film with even the slightest bit of knowledge
:|> regarding today's Republican Party can see how the combination of
:|> church and state perverts both church and state.
:|>
:|> Radical clerics such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson
:|> certainly don't have the intellectual status of an Althaus or Hirsch.
:|> But they most certainly are influencing political thought as their
:|> German counterparts did in the 1930s. They have succeeded in making
:|> their version of evangelical Christianity as the official religion of
:|> the Republican Party. All other faiths need not apply. They want a
:|> theocracy, one volk under one churchified state.
:|>
:|> That's why the Founding Fathers made sure separation of church and
:|> state was put into the Constitution. They had enough knowledge of the
:|> religious extremists of their era to know that no faith or religious
:|> sect should be allowed to dominate a free people.
:|>
:|> But the present-day Christian Right doesn't see it that way. Like the
:|> German church of the 1930s, they see our open, secular society and the
:|> principles of the Enlightenment it was based upon as evil, and see the
:|> people who believe in these principles as evil.
:|>
:|> Too many liberals don't take the prospect of a fundamentalist
:|> theocracy seriously, or think that the Christian Right and its
:|> followers can reasoned with. Unfortunately, reason is an impossibility
:|> when dealing with people who openly seek your destruction in the name
:|> of the God they believe in.
:|>
:|> This nation is lurching toward theocracy and we need to understand
:|> what happens when church and state become one. The evangelicals who
:|> believe that God chose George W. Bush to be president will probably
:|> not see Martin's film. But for everyone else who believes that
:|> religion and politics shouldn't mix, especially in light of what
:|> happens when they do, this film is a must. More information about
:|> "Theologians Under Hitler" can be found at www.vitalvisuals.com.
:|>
:|> Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than
:|> 25 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He
:|>
:|> *****************************************************************
:|> Posting and reading from alt.politics.usa.constitution OR alt.education
:|>
:|> You are invited to check out the following:
:|>
:|> The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
:|>
:|> American Theocrats - Past and Present
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
:|>
:|> The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
:|>
:|> [and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
:|> Church and State in general, listed below]
:|>
:|> HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
:|> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
:|>
:|> [Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
:|> all over the U.S. and a couple from overseas as well]
:|>
:|> ***************************************************************
:|> . . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
:|> respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
:|> take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
:|> page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
:|> 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
:|> Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
:|> . . .
:|> ****************************************************************
:|> THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
:|> SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
:|>
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
:|> ****************************************************************

:|Maybe if you fucking morons started taking Islamofascism seriously, the
:|world would be a safer place.
:|

:|buckeye-ELO@nospam.net wrote:
:|> IT'S TIME TO START TAKING THE THEOCRATS SERIOUSLY Tell A Friend
:|> http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_randolph_051102_it_s_time_to_start_t.htm
:|>
:|> IT'S TIME TO START TAKING THE THEOCRATS SERIOUSLY
:|> Tell A Friend
:|>
:|> by Randolph T. Holhut
:|>
:|> http://www.opednews.com
:|>
:|> DUMMERSTON, Vt. - The nexus of evangelical Christianity and Republican
:|> politics is a force that is transforming the United States, and not
:|> for the better.
:|> As someone who firmly believes that church and state should be
:|> separate entities, I find it disgusting that GOP, in the minds of some
:|> Republicans, now stands for God's Own Party.
:|> This implies, of course, that Democrats are tools of Satan.
:|> But the biggest question I have regarding Christian Republicans is how
:|> does one claim to be a good Christian and still follow a political
:|> party that is very selective about which parts of the Bible it follows?
:|>
:|> The answer might be found in a recently-released documentary,
:|> "Theologians Under Hitler," produced by Methodist Pastor Steven
:|> Martin. It will be aired on public television in the coming weeks.
:|> The film is based on the 1985 book of the same name by Robert
:|> Ericksen. It looks at three prominent German Protestant theologians -
:|> Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus and Emmanuel Hirsch - and how their
:|> writings were used to legitimize the Nazi Party during its rise to
:|> power in the 1920s and 1930s.
:|> In an interview in June, Martin said he hopes the film "opens up the
:|> discussion to talk about what it means to be uniquely Christian in the
:|> world today. And I think that is the most crucial discussion we can
:|> have today in the church."
:|>
:|> That's because, as Martin put it, "pastors are trying to lead some
:|> civil discussion of Christianity in context of a divided country and
:|> what it means to be a Christian in context of a divided society. This
:|> program gives you a very safe environment to do it."
:|> While discussing current events from the pulpit is problematic, Martin
:|> said "you can talk about history."
:|>
:|> And this is history worth discussing. To talk about how German
:|> churches helped Adolf Hitler come to power, you have to talk about how
:|> church and state became one in Germany.
:|>
:|> In the aftermath of World War I, when Germany was a beaten, exhausted
:|> nation, a new vision of Christianity started to emerge. It was a
:|> vision that championed a nationalist agenda. The idea of the
:|> resurrection of Germany merged with the image of the resurrection of
:|> Christ. It was a seductive image, especially when one considers the
:|> depth of Christian faith in Germany and its attractiveness as a
:|> antidote to a chaotic modern world.
:|>
:|> The German Christian movement was the result. The Nazi swastika
:|> started to appear on church altars. The idea of volk espoused by
:|> Hirsch - a united, racially pure Germany - tapped into the
:|> long-simmering anti-semitism of Germans. It didn't take much of a leap
:|> to equate the elimination of Jews with the fulfillment of God's plan.
:|> What made it possible was theologians such as Kittel, who advocated
:|> for a Christianity divorced from its Jewish roots, or Althaus, who
:|> linked Hirsch's volk and Hitler's ideas together in his writings.
:|> Given the respect that people have for church leaders, having people
:|> like Kittel, Althaus and Hirsch supporting Hitler made Nazism respectable.
:|>
:|> Martin's film doesn't mention present-day politics. It doesn't need
:|> to. A viewer of the film with even the slightest bit of knowledge
:|> regarding today's Republican Party can see how the combination of
:|> church and state perverts both church and state.
:|>
:|> Radical clerics such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson
:|> certainly don't have the intellectual status of an Althaus or Hirsch.
:|> But they most certainly are influencing political thought as their
:|> German counterparts did in the 1930s. They have succeeded in making
:|> their version of evangelical Christianity as the official religion of
:|> the Republican Party. All other faiths need not apply. They want a
:|> theocracy, one volk under one churchified state.
:|>
:|> That's why the Founding Fathers made sure separation of church and
:|> state was put into the Constitution. They had enough knowledge of the
:|> religious extremists of their era to know that no faith or religious
:|> sect should be allowed to dominate a free people.
:|>
:|> But the present-day Christian Right doesn't see it that way. Like the
:|> German church of the 1930s, they see our open, secular society and the
:|> principles of the Enlightenment it was based upon as evil, and see the
:|> people who believe in these principles as evil.
:|>
:|> Too many liberals don't take the prospect of a fundamentalist
:|> theocracy seriously, or think that the Christian Right and its
:|> followers can reasoned with. Unfortunately, reason is an impossibility
:|> when dealing with people who openly seek your destruction in the name
:|> of the God they believe in.
:|>
:|> This nation is lurching toward theocracy and we need to understand
:|> what happens when church and state become one. The evangelicals who
:|> believe that God chose George W. Bush to be president will probably
:|> not see Martin's film. But for everyone else who believes that
:|> religion and politics shouldn't mix, especially in light of what
:|> happens when they do, this film is a must. More information about
:|> "Theologians Under Hitler" can be found at www.vitalvisuals.com.
:|>
:|> Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than
:|> 25 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He
:|>
:|> *****************************************************************
:|> Posting and reading from alt.politics.usa.constitution OR alt.education
:|>
:|> You are invited to check out the following:
:|>
:|> The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
:|>
:|> American Theocrats - Past and Present
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
:|>
:|> The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
:|>
:|> [and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
:|> Church and State in general, listed below]
:|>
:|> HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
:|> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
:|>
:|> [Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
:|> all over the U.S. and a couple from overseas as well]
:|>
:|> ***************************************************************
:|> . . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
:|> respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
:|> take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
:|> page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
:|> 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
:|> Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
:|> . . .
:|> ****************************************************************
:|> THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
:|> SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
:|>
:|> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
:|> ****************************************************************