Evangelical Christianity is some wierd stuff....

[rumguy]

Anyone else see this program on 60 minutes? They think everyone else on this earth but them are damned to hell. Even other Christians who don't see it as they do...

They think a "rapture" will happen where they will just disappear and everyone else will be left behind. They even have videos they have made to be left behind for all us non-believers, so we can understand what happened.

Do Bush and Ashcroft believe this crap? God, no wonder we are a lost country...

[Wonk]

1. QuickTime & mp3 here for those who missed it

45 M QuickTime

3 M mp3

"You know we see it in foreign countries and we think,
'How can this religious fundamentalism become so violent?'
Well, it's that same shrill rhetoric, it's that same shrill power
that motivates. ... And that's happening in this country."
- Tom Daschle

[charlie]

19. Wonk comes thru again!

Just snagged it... many, many thanks!

[BigDaddyLove]

20. Thanks Wonk!!!!!!!!!

:yourock:

[JohnnyFianna1]

2. Same old..same old

Yup those evangelicals, a strange bunch indeed. Everyone who doesn't believe in our political ideology is a communi...uh... going to hell. Yeah, that's it going to hell. Hehehe. To think they used to be a part of the Democratic Party base, before Falwell, back in the days when the only way parties could compete with each other was by compromise (before Ted Kennedy and Raygun anyway).

[LoZoccolo]

5. I read somewhere that 30+% of them still vote Democratic...

...which is why I wonder why people still start threads that are this inflammatory. There's a lot of interesting discussion that could go on about the establishment clause, separation of church and state, and what not, and I'd rather see people discuss that than just rage against a group that really is pretty hard to broad-brush.

(Yes, I know this is a dupe of what I posted to another thread.)

[rumguy]

7. I doubt 30% of them vote democratic...

What I saw on 60 mins. tonite - none of those people would vote for a democrat...

[LoZoccolo]

9. Well I guess that settles it then.

:eyes:

[rumguy]

11. If you look at their beliefs I don't see how they could vote for a Dem

Ardently anti-abortion, against gay marriage, etc...

[LoZoccolo]

17. Like I said...very diverse group of people...

...which is why I don't think this bull-in-a-china-shop treatment is appropriate here. It certainly doesn't convince the people who may believe different things than you or I to put the beliefs rooted in their religion to put them aside for purposes of establishing government and practice them privately. It may, however, convince them they're not welcome here, they'll get steamrolled by our party, and they'll run to the other one.

Anyways, it's a theological distinction and not a political one - I have no reason why we're discussing it here outside of issues about the separation of church and state perhaps.

About this thing you saw - the media tends to cover the most interesting sensational part of something. It's like during the anti-war protests, you'd see maybe more coverage of the communists and all that.

Or the loudest part of Dean's post-caucus speech. Without much of the before and after.

[leesa]

22. Wrong. It is very much a political distinction. They are forcing their

beliefs onto us by creating legislation in line with their belief system. Where've you been? How would you feel if we inserted "under Allah" into the pledge of allegiance? Or "in Buddha we trust" on our dollar bills?
Not everybody believes Christian doctrine you know. And it's not because we haven't been exposed.
They want to create an American Taliban as repressive and horrific to those who don't believe their dogma as anything the Taliban could come up with.
Sorry, but I cut no slack for people who force themselves on me (two of them at my door today to tell me all about the 'truth'.

[LiberalFighter]

23. A saw a segment by James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries

He is another that is nut case.

[LoZoccolo]

24. Find any evangelical denomination...

...that defines it's distinction between itself and non-evangelical denominations in terms of political power, and I'll be impressed at your ability to search for it.

I have a good friend who's an evangelical Christian woman who's nothing like what you describe, actually believes in abortion last time we talked about it, and another co-worker who's actually very liberal - actually describes himself as a socialist - who very much wants Bush* out of office and laughs at the secretary of the interior that Reagan picked that believed it's not a worry that we trash the environment because he believed that Jesus would come soon enough. I've seen some of them support civil unions legislation.

When you're going off at the mouth like that, you're talking about two of my friends that way.

Remember that segment on the Daily Show (haven't had cable in a long time so I don't know if they still have it) called "God Stuff" that would lampoon religious excesses? It was produced by a group of evangelicals that edit The Door magazine, and they're definately very critical of a lot of the evangelical Christian establishment:

http://www.thedoormagazine.com/home.html

We could argue all night about how it's all about how you define the word "evangelical" (I think you should allow the group define itself personally)...but like I said twice...it's a diverse group defined by theological beliefs...all this is prejudice and broad-brushing, tantamount to saying Muslims are terrorists and Jews are snobs, and in light of it, I understand why some of them feel threatened enough to take it out on us politically (but in a I-understand-why-people-rioted-in-LA-after-the-Rodney-King-verdict kind of way).

[many a good man]

10. 30+% consider themselves "liberal"

At least that's what I've read. I've never heard any numbers about party affiliation.

Then again, with the people they hang out with, it must be easy to be the most liberal one in the bunch! I guess anything short of stoning is considered "liberal."

[alcuno]

6. Welsome to DU, JohnnyFianna1

I am a Catholic and find evangelicals to be a scary, scary bunch.

[alcuno]

3. The peril of an apocalyptic president.

He's a danger to the country and I'm not insulting his beliefs. No country with the capability to create armageddon should have as their president a "true believer" of the apocalypse. Those who believe in the "end" may make it into a self-fulfilling prophesy.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. wow, that's not inflammatory at all!

no, not one bit!

[rumguy]

8. I'm gonna change my title...

[oregonjen]

12. Naive question here...

Is that like the Jehovah's Witnesses? The same type of thinking that everyone else will go to hell?

[JohnnyFianna1]

14. No

Jehovah's believe that it's possible for even atheists to get to at least purgatory if they follow His message but refuse to follow Him. And yes, 39% of Christians, around 70 percent of Catholics vote democratic. Not all of us Democrats are atheist you know (though if you believed the Christian right you'd think so).

[UTUSN]

13. Exactly, Very Weird

Phariseeism, religiousity, sanctimoniousness ain't much of a religion. A friend of mine succumbed to Mexican protestantism several years ago. I respected it without probing, except to make it clear that they should not try to prostletize around me or attack my lapsed Catholic background (no attacks on "statues" and the "Virgin" Mary). Fine. Fast forward several years. I noticed what a premium this cult places on the Tithing thing, and soliciting donations, and, yes, cashing in on Shrub's "faith-based" funding, plus the usual tax exemption-------but at the same time, they refused to visit one of their own in prison, refuse to take principled stands. It's a poor (in the barren sense) "religion", focused on parading external signs of praying WHERE EVERYBODY CAN SEE.

But ALL types of fundamentalism (Cath/Prot/Heb/Mus) is gonna be the death of us all.

[rumguy]

15. "parading external signs of praying"

I think that sums up very well what I've noticed too. It's like they want to get in everyone's face about it...

[Wonk]

18. Like that American Airlines pilot did on Friday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=352402&mesg_id=352402
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=353639
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=9&u=/ap/20040209/ap_on_re_us/pilot_christianity

[rumguy]

21. wow - I'd be pissed if I heard that on a flight...

[lastknowngood]

16. Just another cult that is running our country so we better be

paying attention.