A Book on the Legacy of Pat Robertson

The Most Dangerous Man in America? : Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition

by Robert Boston

Copyright 1996 Prometheus Books

This is written as an expose' and therefore will either be applauded or heavily criticised. No matter who reads it, the response tends to be strong.

In some ways the book being almost twenty years old is outdated. Robertson himself will before long disappear from the scene along with what remains of the first generation of Christian Right leaders.

The Wasting of Colombia: Profiting from the War on Drugs While Destroying Integrity and Civilization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_2OkN1w8I

I was spending some time on the Drug War with my kids and made use of this video. I found it provided a good overview but it's really just the beginning. The War on Drugs has largely proved catastrophic for not just American society, but for many in Latin America as well. They've been plunged into violence, civil war and in some cases a reversion to feudalism under the sometimes celebrated drug lords and in other cases the aristocratic landowners.

Ruining a Good Thing

The Internet desktop experience is being ruined by mobile devices and stupid gizmos. I do not like Google but I have to applaud them for their general simplicity.

Infinite Scrolling

Hover Menus and Hover Zoom Effect... in fact all hover features.

Re-designed Websites geared toward Mobile devices and Social Networking

Streaming locking up because of advertising breaks

I find these things to be maddening and there are an increasing number of websites that I'm deleting because I can't stand the experience anymore. It's all bells and whistles and miserable to try and navigate, let alone search for something. You can't focus because of all the pop-up and out rubbish. Forget it.

I guess it's just another example of how in a few short years something can quickly be ruined.

Television is much the same way. Looking back on the TV experience of the 1970's and 80's we never realized how good we had it! As I mentioned before I ditched television in 1995 and recently had it hooked up again so we could watch the 2014 Sochi games. I enjoyed the Olympics but had it turned off as soon as they were done. We had it all of three weeks. Apart from the moral issues, the whole television experience has been ruined. I'll stick to the online world but even many aspects of that are getting so frustrating, I'm utilizing it less and less.

The positive is... it continues to lead me to re-think my uses of time and how and what I let affect my mind.

2 Timothy 2.14-19

2 Timothy 2.14-19

The Manufactured Reality of Ted Cruz and his Father

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZBgLSJj4Jg

 

Wow, this guy knows absolutely nothing about Scripture or the God of Scripture. The Bible is just a book of power to him, a means of gain. The Covenant and Kingdom are concepts unknown to him. To apply the Mosaic Covenant to America is de-covenantalize Moses and Christ. It is an act of sacrilege. Was the Law for Edomites or Egyptians? The Mosaic Epoch was a Theocracy not a democratic republic. It cannot be replicated.

The US-Israeli Dynamic: The Concerns of a Worldwide Empire and the Aspirations of a Regional Hegemon

Margolis doesn't mince words in his latest commentary. It is amazing how despite the chaos resulting from the destruction of Iraq, despite the anti-Al Qaeda/anti- USA sentiments of the Arab Spring, as the dust starts to settle, it's still the USA and Israel dominating the Middle East. It's grown even more messy than usual but the masters have not been dethroned.

Iranian Cinema

I know I've spoken of this in the past but it's worth revisiting. If you are interested in a truly edifying and moving cinematic experience, then look into the films of the Iranian Majid Majidi.

His films are beautiful and provocative and offer a window into a world few Westerners are familiar with.

The Shapur Effect in Pakistan

Those who attack churches are murderers and enemies of Christ, even when they attack congregations that are not Biblical. They don't know the difference do they?

And yet, the United States and its false Church bear some responsibility. The West has agitated the region for centuries and the United States has been heavily involved in the region for the better part of fifty years. It plays enemies off against each other, uses them, throws them away, and then picks them up again when convenient.

The Right Contemplates Crossing the Rubicon

Margolis offers accurate and astute commentary on the recent debacle with Netanyahu and the activities of the American Right. I thought the leader of Iran's comments were also correct in his labeling of the Right's actions as the sign of America's disintegration.


That's the only place it can go. The breakup of an Empire is always an ugly thing but it would be a glorious thing to see the heresy of Christian Americanism consigned to the flames. Heaven will rejoice.


One thing is clear, the Right cares nothing about the United States unless they can dominate it. Patriotism is idolatry and for Christians a form of theological harlotry but their version of it is even more twisted in that they literally hate and dismiss roughly half of the country. They only believe in the ideals of the country when they are in charge.


This will continue to escalate and at some point in the future will lead to violence. It may be closer than many realize. Dangerous lines are being crossed as the country edges toward Constitutional and existential crisis.


http://ericmargolis.com/2015/03/the-best-congress-money-can-buy/

Extra-Scriptural Commitments Trumping the Text

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/who-killed-jesus-christ/

This article represents a grave error to be avoided. While I can appreciate (in the larger article) the criticism of the Christian Right calling on the state to transform society, the author (and interviewee) still make the same fundamental error... that of Transformationalism.

The Most Evil Man in Town

Imagine a nice little town tucked away in the woods and hills, a quaint slice of Americana. There are dozens of these places like this around where I live. It's not all quaint though. This is also the Rust Belt and Appalachia. It's an impoverished area, a wreck, a shell of its former glory. It's beset by a charming and quite captivating decay. It's also afflicted with drugs and alcoholism. There are a lot of good upstanding old-fashioned type folk, but their numbers are growing few and there are hosts if not hordes of disheveled, base, uneducated and quite obscene people who are becoming the pillars of these small towns.

A Musing on Evangelical Antithesis, CCM and the Christian Right

The Supreme Court decisions regarding Bible reading and prayer in public school no doubt played a part in the unification and resurgence of political Christianity in the 1970's. However, I don't believe these factors are as central and crucial as they're made out to be.

Magisterial Protestantism and America's Founding: Did Knox and Calvin Believe in Religious Liberty?

https://store.hslda.org/from-tyndale-to-madison-p43.aspx

An ad for this book turned up in my inbox.

What a strange narrative these folks have sought to create. Religious Liberty, and then to cite Calvin and Knox?

2 Timothy 2.3-13

Notes on 2 Timothy 2.3-13