You're now citing the SPLC Plain Ol'? --- it's good to post from different groups ... it raises one's awareness.
The SPLC is a "Hate Group/Hate Site"; --- interesting choice of words considering they're a jewish group. and I am surprised that you are not championing them....My how times have changed. --- not much changes ... I'll continue to post an opposing viewpoint and you'll call me goofy. It's quite fun. According to the SPLC, Franklin Graham and his global charity Samaritan's Purse is probably listed as a terrorist group. On Monday, January 4, 2016 at 8:16:07 PM UTC-6, KeithInTampa wrote: > > You're now citing the SPLC Plain Ol'? > > The SPLC is a "Hate Group/Hate Site"; and I am surprised that you are not > championing them....My how times have changed. > > According to the SPLC, Franklin Graham and his global charity Samaritan's > Purse is probably listed as a terrorist group. > --- 5 Reasons Franklin Graham Is Once Again the Worst Thing to Happen to God in a While Man, this guy never gives up. Franklin Graham seems once again to be suffering from an all too common form of fundamentalist pathology that has him spouting off hateful imprecations in the name of Jesus without the apparent filter that allows most properly socialized adults to navigate the world without a significant portion of the population thinking you're a pestiferous twit. You think that's harsh? Hyperbolic? Not sufficiently deferential to the scion of the Billy Graham empire? *"Shouldn't the son of the man who built up such good will over the years receive the benefit of the doubt?"* you may be asking. I can see how you might be feeling a bit protective. Franklin Graham is something of a shrinking violet, unused to the rugby scrum of public life. Having kept himself out of the limelight for so long now, keeping to himself, refraining from comment, it's understandable that you might be a little sensitive when he seems under attack from the mean, vindictive bullies on the left. If you consider Franklin Graham a prophet, a steadfast man of God only doing his duty as God's ecclesiastical hit man, you'll probably want to stop reading now, because the rest of this is just going to raise your blood pressure. Because Franklin Graham is at it again, stirring the pot, making life difficult for those who follow Jesus to raise their heads in public. A casual review of his Facebook page <https://www.facebook.com/FranklinGraham?fref=ts> over the past couple weeks turns up these heartwarming examples of Franklin's public theological reticence: 1. *On the Boy Scouts decision to allow Gay adults be scout leaders:* *More disappointing news about the Boy Scouts of America yesterday as they voted to allow gay adult leaders. 79% of their Board voted in favor of this unfathomable change--I still find it hard to believe that BSA doesn't see the dangers in this. Why would anyone want to entrust their son to an organization that has gone this direction?* (It's not your job to protect the dignity of people created a particular way by God. Your job is to heap as much public scorn on folks as you can muster.) Question: Um, excuse us, but aren't you heaping scorn on Franklin Graham right now? Answer: The difference here is that whereas Franklin Graham (a rich, straight, white, male) sits atop his own religious media empire, immune to the slings and arrows of plebeians like me, the folks Franklin Graham regularly takes aim at are very often the people who've traditionally found their place at the back of the socio-politico-economic line. Trying to put a crack in the protective armor of someone that well-insulated for the purpose of calling attention to his violent and harmful dictums is an entirely different thing from carelessly humiliating those who've too often lived in a fragile place their whole lives. The difference, to use an unfortunate analogy: I'm punching up; Franklin Graham regularly punches down. 2. *On the apocalyptic influence of Muslims* *We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled. Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized--and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn't allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now?* Question: What would Jesus do? Answer: Put Muslims in internment camps, apparently. Ok, to be fair he didn't actually say that. But boy did he tiptoe right up to the line. Does anyone honestly think that, given the power (and half a chance), Franklin Graham *wouldn't* imprison Muslims--just because they're Muslims? What would stop him? Certainly not his theology, since it's pretty clear that Franklin believes Jesus hates pretty much everybody he hates. [Which certainty, I imagine, has God cringing every time Franklin opens his mouth. Because, let's face it, it's often difficult for even God to escape the advanced billing of God's most enthusiastic (but unfortunately, enthusiastically wrong) supporters.] 3. *On public civility:* *Ripping into each other, mocking each other, telling lies about each other and to the American people isn't a display of leadership. You have put yourself forth as a candidate for the highest office in the land. Take the high road. All of us want to hear your ideas for the future. No one wants to hear the backbiting, petty squabbling, and negative attack ads that make a mockery out of our elections.* Wow! We're (mostly) among friends here, right? Does anyone *not* see the delicious irony of this quote coming from the keyboard of Franklin Graham? One gets the impression that he wakes up every morning drafting new lists of people in his head God really shouldn't have to be bothered with anymore. This is the guy who in practice seems to believe that the high road is simply the most strategic vantage point from which to pick off the enemies of God--or at least the challengers to Franklin's vision of who God would have as enemies if God had the sense to ask Franklin. 4. *On President Obama evangelizing on behalf of things Franklin doesn't like:* *I didn't know that we were sending our president halfway around the world to promote the gay & lesbian agenda!* Interesting that Franklin Graham is heir to a tradition, one of the primary functions of which is sending people halfway around the world to promote a variety of agendas much closer to Franklin's heart; Christianity, for one--at least a fundamentalist version of it. Before I go any further, let me just say that I'm not against telling the story of Jesus to those who've never heard it. Sharing something you care about deeply with other people can be a wonderfully generous and human (not to mention, Christian) thing to do. But let's be honest, much of the history of western Christian mission work is as much about creating Westerners (even if only inadvertently) as about sharing Jesus. All of which is to say, Franklin Graham is a part of a tradition used to sending people halfway around the world to promote agendas. The difference is that the President's agenda calls for people to be given dignity and respect for who they are, while Franklin Graham's agenda often leaves people feeling they're not worthy of dignity and respect until they become like him. 5. *On Christianity in the crosshairs:* *As Christians we've got to take a stand for our religious freedoms. It's a new day in America--Christianity is in the direct line of fire* Turns out, though, Christianity isn't in the direct line of fire, only Franklin Graham's version of it is. If your faith commits you to treating LGBTQ people and Muslims and liberals as though God's only use for them is populating the seedier sections of hell, then it's going to feel like you're in the direct line of fire; when people say you don't get to do that if, on the other hand, you happen to be seeking to widen the embrace envisioned by the reign of God (as is a significant portion of the rest of Christianity), you will find that your faith not only isn't in the direct line of fire, it's often celebrated (even by those who disagree with you) as a gift to a world bent on destroying itself in the name of parochial orthodoxies. Here's the thing, Franklin Graham isn't the voice of Christianity, let alone a stand in for the voice of God. In fact, much of the rest of Christianity has to work overtime because Franklin Graham invests so much energy saying things that make the rest of us who take God seriously shake our heads; which is why Franklin Graham is once again the worst thing to happen to God in a while. *Follow Derek Penwell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/reseudaimon <http://www.twitter.com/reseudaimon>* > > > On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 9:06 PM, plainolamerican <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> >> http://www.salon.com/2015/04/07/6_modern_day_christian_terrorist_groups_our_media_conveniently_ignores_partner/ >> TUESDAY, APR 7, 2015 02:15 PM EDT6 modern-day Christian terrorist groups >> our media conveniently ignoresThey don't get the coverage of ISIS or >> Boko Haram, but organizations like "The Army of God" are no less >> dangerousALEX >> HENDERSON <http://www.salon.com/writer/alex_henderson/>, ALTERNET >> [image: 6 modern-day Christian terrorist groups our media conveniently >> ignores] >> >> The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently released an in-depth >> report on terrorism in the United States. Covering April 2009 to February >> 2015, the report (titled “The Age of the Wolf”) found that during that >> period, “more people have been killed in America by non-Islamic domestic >> terrorists <http://www.splcenter.org/lone-wolf> than jihadists.” The >> SPLC asserted that “the jihadist threat is a tremendous one,” pointing out >> that al-Qaeda’s attacks of September 11, 2001 remain the deadliest in U.S. >> history. But the study also noted that the second deadliest was carried out >> not by Islamists, but by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City on April 19, >> 1995—and law enforcement, the SPLC stressed, are doing the public a huge >> disservice if they view terrorism as an exclusively Islamist phenomenon. >> >> The report, in a sense, echoed the assertions that President Barack Obama >> made when he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in February and >> stressed that Muslims don’t have the market cornered on religious >> extremism. In the minds of far-right Republicans, Obama committed the >> ultimate sin by daring to mention that Christianity has a dark side >> <http://www.salon.com/2015/02/06/wingnuts_latest_meltdown_conservatives_go_nuts_over_obamas_remarks_on_christianity_and_islam/> >> and >> citing the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition as two examples from the >> distant past. Obama wasn’t attacking Christianity on the whole but rather, >> was making the point that just as not all Christians can be held >> responsible for the horrors of the Inquisition, not all Muslims can be >> blamed for the violent extremism of ISIS (the Islamic State, Iraq and >> Syria), the Taliban, al-Qaeda or Boko Haram. But Obama certainly didn’t >> need to look 800 or 900 years in the past to find examples of extreme >> Christianists committing atrocities. Violent Christianists are a reality in >> different parts of the world—including the United States—and the fact that >> the mainstream media don’t give them as much coverage as ISIS or Boko Haram >> doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. >> >> Below are six extreme Christianist groups that have shown their capacity >> for violence and fanaticism. >> >> 1. The Army of God >> >> A network of violent Christianists that has been active since the early >> 1980s, the Army of God openly promotes killing abortion providers—and the >> long list of terrorists who have been active in that organization has >> included Paul Jennings Hill (who was executed by lethal injection in 2003 >> for the 1994 killings of abortion doctor John Britton and his bodyguard >> James Barrett), John C. Salvi (who killed two receptionists when he >> attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1994) >> and Eric Rudolph, who is serving life in prison for his role in the Olympic >> Park bombing in Atlanta in 1996 and other terrorist acts. Rudolph, in fact, >> has often been exalted as a Christian hero on the Army of God’s website >> <http://www.armyofgod.com/>, as have fellow Army of God members such as >> Scott Roeder (who is serving life without parole for murdering Wichita, >> Kansas-based abortion doctor George Tiller in 2009), Shelley Shannon (who >> attempted to kill Tiller in 2003) and Michael Frederick Griffin (who is >> serving a life sentence for the 1993 killing of Dr. David Gunn, an OB-GYN, >> in Pensacola, Florida). >> >> Although primarily an anti-abortion organization, the Army of God also >> has a history of promoting violence against gays >> <http://www.salon.com/2002/02/19/gays_10/>. And one of the terrorist >> acts that Rudolph confessed to was bombing a lesbian bar in Atlanta in 1997. >> >> 2. Eastern Lightning, a.k.a. the Church of the Almighty God >> >> Founded in Henan Province, China in 1990, Eastern Lightning (also known >> as the Church of the Almighty God or the Church of the Gospel’s Kingdom) is >> a Christianist cult with an end-time/apocalypse focus >> <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/17/world/la-fg-china-doomsday-arrests-20121218>: >> >> Eastern Lightning believes that the world is coming to an end, and in the >> meantime, its duty is to slay as many demons as possible. While most >> Christianists have an extremely patriarchal viewpoint (much like their >> Islamist counterparts) and consider women inferior to men, Eastern >> Lightning believe that Jesus Christ will return to Earth in the form of a >> Chinese woman. But they are quite capable of violence against women: in May >> 2014, for example, members of the cult beat a 37-year-old woman named Wu >> Shuoyan to death in a McDonalds in Zhaoyuan, China when she refused to give >> them her phone number. Eastern Lightning members Zhang Lidong and his >> daughter, Zhang Fan, were convicted of murder for the crime and executed >> in February >> <http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/02/china/mcdonalds-murder-culprits-executed/>. >> In a 2014 interview in prison, Lidong expressed no remorse when he said of >> Shuoyan, “I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a >> demon. We had to destroy her.” >> <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29581195> >> >> Eastern Lightning’s other acts of violence >> <http://en.people.cn/n/2014/0603/c90882-8735801.html> have ranged from >> the killing of a grammar school student in 2010 (in retaliation, police >> believe, for one of the child’s relatives wanting to leave the cult) to >> cult member Min Yongjun using a knife to attack an elderly woman and a >> group of schoolchildren in Chenpeng in 2012. Christian groups are not >> exempt from Eastern Lightning’s fanaticism: in 2002, cult members kidnapped >> 34 members of a Christian group called the China Gospel Fellowship and held >> them captive for two months >> <http://www.vice.com/read/the-chinese-cult-who-kidnap-christians-and-paint-snakes> >> in >> the hope of forcing them to join their cult. Although mainly active in the >> communist People’s Republic of China, Eastern Lighting has been trying to >> expand >> its membership in Hong Kong >> <http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/world/asia/china-eastern-lightning-killing/> >> . >> >> 3. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) >> >> The mainstream media have had much to say about the Islamist brutality of >> Boko Haram, but one terrorist group they haven’t paid nearly as much >> attention to is the Lord’s Resistance Army—which was founded by Joseph Kony >> (a radical Christianist) in Uganda in 1987 and has called for the >> establishment of a severe Christian fundamentalist government in that >> country. The LRA, according to Human Rights Watch, has committed thousands >> of killings and kidnappings >> <http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/21/qa-joseph-kony-and-lords-resistance-army#3>—and >> >> along the way, its terrorism spread from Uganda to parts of the Congo, the >> Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. The word “jihadist” is >> seldom used in connection with the LRA, but in fact, the LRA’s tactics are >> not unlike those of ISIS or Boko Haram. And the governments Kony hopes to >> establish in Sub-Saharan Africa would implement a Christianist equivalent >> of Islamic Sharia law. >> >> 4. TheNational Liberation Front of Tripura >> >> India is not only a country of Hindus and Sikhs, but also, of Muslims, >> Buddhists, Catholics and Protestants. Most of India’s Christians are >> peaceful, but a major exception is the National Liberation Front of Tripura >> (NLFT). Active in the state of Tripura in Northeastern India since 1989, >> NLFT is a paramilitary Christianist movement that hopes to secede from >> India >> <http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/national-liberation-front-tripura-nlft> >> and >> establish a Christian fundamentalist government in Tripura. NLFT has zero >> tolerance for any religion other than Christianity, and the group has >> repeatedly shown a willingness to kill, kidnap or torture Hindus who refuse >> to be converted to its extreme brand of Protestant fundamentalism. >> >> In 2000, NLFT vowed to kill anyone who participated in Durga Puja >> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/953200.stm> (an annual Hindu >> festival) And in May 2003, at least 30 Hindus were murdered during one of >> NLFT’s killing sprees. >> >> 5. The Phineas Priesthood >> >> White supremacist groups don’t necessarily have a religious orientation: >> some of them welcome atheists as long as they believe in white superiority. >> But the Christian Identity movement specifically combines white supremacist >> ideology with Christianist terrorism, arguing that violence against >> non-WASPs is ordained by God and that white Anglo Saxon Protestants are >> God’s chosen people. The modern Christian Identity movement in the U.S. has >> been greatly influenced by the Ku Klux Klan—an organization that has >> committed numerous acts of terrorism over the years—and in the 1970s, new >> Christian Identity groups like the Aryan Nations and the Covenant, the >> Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) emerged. Another Christian Identity >> group of recent decades has been the Phineas Priesthood, whose members have >> been involved in violent activities ranging from abortion clinic bombings >> to bank robberies >> <http://preps.spokesman.com/stories/1997/nov/01/sentencing-delayed-for-valley-bomber-but-no-third/> >> (mainly >> in the Pacific Northwest). On November 28, 2014, Phineas Priesthood member >> Larry Steven McQuilliams went on a violent rampage >> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/01/police-austin-shooter-belonged-to-an-ultra-conservative-christian-hate-group/> >> in >> Austin, Texas—where he fired over 100 rounds at various targets (including >> a federal courthouse, the local Mexican Consulate building and a police >> station) before being shot and killed by police. >> >> 6. The Concerned Christians >> >> One of the ironic things about some Christianists is the fact that >> although they believe that Jews must be converted to Christianity, they >> consider themselves staunch supporters of Israel. And some of them believe >> in violently forcing all Muslims out of Israel. The Concerned Christians, a >> Christianist doomsday cult that was founded by pastor Monte “Kim” Miller in >> Denver in the 1980s, alarmed Colorado residents when, in 1998, at least 60 >> of its members suddenly quit their jobs, abandoned their homes and went >> missing—and it turned out there was reason for concern. In 1999, Israeli >> officials arrested 14 members of the Concerned Christians in Jerusalem and >> deported >> them from Israel <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/251815.stm> because >> they suspected them of plotting terrorist attacks against Muslims. One >> likely target, according to Israeli police, was Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa >> Mosque >> <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/jews-muslims-share-al-aqsa-mosque-2013111184111359951.html>—the >> >> same mosque that was targeted in 1969 (when a Christianist from Australia >> named Denis Michael Rohan unsuccessfully tried to destroy it by arson) and, >> Israeli police suspect, was a likely target in 2014 (when Adam Everett >> Livix, a Christianist from Texas, was arrested by Israeli police on >> suspicion of plotting to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem >> <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/09/israel-indicts-texan-plot-attack-muslim-sites> >> ). >> >> In 2008, Denver’s KUSA-TV (an NBC affiliate) reported that members of the >> Concerned Citizens had gone into hiding >> <http://www.culteducation.com/group/864-concerned-christians/3559-christian-cult-still-in-hiding-after-10-years.html> >> and >> that Miller hadn’t been seen in ten years. >> >> -- >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >> >> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. >> * Read the latest breaking news, and more. >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "PoliticalForum" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
