Mike Pence,Powerful Christian Supremacist

[Stephen Fox]

Willie Tee baited me so here for his Edification and any body else who wants to know the truth

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/mik ... s-history/

Click on the links in this article.

Further expands the world of Trey Gowdy and David Barton and the links outlined in current issue of Christian Ethics Today, article by Frederick Carlson with reference to Julie Ingersoll new book.

As Ingersoll points out Nelson Price is part of this wider David Barton network, Ben Carson and Eric Metaxas as promoted by FBC Spartanburg Truth for a New Generation conferences.

And Trump Sec Ed part of the Amway network of Charles Stanley so all of Pressler and Helms dreams have come true.

Keep an eye weekly on the facebook wall and newsletters of Baptist Joing Committee. Gonna be an interesting four years, and I hope every issue of Christian Ethics Today is scorching. Grand Furman grad Pat Anderson is editor 65 grad which means he shared two years on campus with Marshall Frady.

[Stephen Fox]

In my view the greated preacher on the Planet

http://ruminations.generousorthodoxy.or ... risis.html

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

I said that Stephen would have a lot of fun the next four years because of Trump's election and he gets a head start here although he will have to lay a bit more groundwork on Pence, something more than the usual casual connectionalism.

Typically, we get the (yawn) breathless, sinister (Snidley Whiplash theme), grave, and somber warning about Pence being more dangerous than Trump. Odd, I don't recall any warnings about Obama's governing by Executive fiat or the most significant public policy change in our lifetimes, the one opposed by half the country, being accomplished in a totally partisan manner, nor the world being aflame after Hil's frequent flyer Sec State debacle.

I do think that it would be helpful to have a session with Play Doh to calm the feverish mind and then post a sober, reasoned, restrained comment.

If we get this stuff now, wait until Jan 20th and beyond. After Trump's Day One actions i suppose the planet will be doomed to a point beyond where it can be rescued by the windmill-hugging, coal-hating solarphiles.

Although retired, I'll be on duty full time on that date to provide a reality check on the status of the sky falling.

[Stephen Fox]

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater; his sister Betsy married Dick Devos of Amway. So hardwired many tangled connections not only to Charles Stanler but the SBC Takeover Cabal. The article points out another strong connection to SBC, that of Prince to Chuck Colson a hero of my facebook friend Ginny Dent whose father Harry was caught up with Colson in Watergate. Ginny has been on board of SBC IMB and Harry before he died Mohler's SBTS. Ginny is big fan of Eric Metaxas.

So Blackwater has inroads now not only to Vice President, but also Department of Education.

So it is a strange new world for the Baptist Joint Committee to monitor these coming years.

Keith, I do hope you find the Frederick Clarkson piece in current issue of Christian Ethics Today and get on their mailing list. Almost as much as me editor and Furman grad Pat Anderson has been aware of the network of David Barton and Christian Reconstructionism since we first discussed it in the Halls of the New Orleans SBC in 1990.

Read the Pence article again. Blackwater escaped my registration on the first cursory read.

[William Thornton]

I don't like, nor have I seen the evidence for, Pence being tagged with the tendentious perjorative phrase "Christian Supremacist." There are tensions among some of our freedoms that is being worked out in a democratic and constitutional manner. If leftists prefer to demonize their opponents, and this seems to be the preferred strategy here and elsewhere, then it will be left to reasonable people to work it out while the hysterics are displayed on the sidelines.

One may be certain that there are plenty of watchdogs including not only the BJC and mod/lib Baptists but also many SBCers like myself, the ERLC, and the usual anti-religion groups. Many of those on Stephen's list of deplorables are not liked by considerable numbers of SBC leaders.

But...we could have had a continuation of the gummit-by-fiat policies of Obama/Clinton. Look for trump to do far more bi-partisan stuff than my mod/lib friends have seen the last eight years.

[KeithE]

[Jim]

[William Thornton]

I'm not a dominionist and called attention to Cruz the Elder's interest in this. What you will find is that there are some SBC dominionists, and there is a spectrum of such, along with some taken with the historical propagandist Barton. I'm inclined to view the politicians as more opportunistic than doctrinaire. Pence didn't endear himself with the state's religious liberty law stuff. But reality never slowed down a rabid religious liberal anyway.

And you have happy Thanksgvng also.

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Quality and impact, not quantity. If trump cancels only a numerical few, I suppose you will data spin that as good and not object?

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

Hillary was (is?) a Christian Dominionist??

[KeithE]

[Jim]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Like most politicians, there's more rhetoric than practical application. Pence was a not-so-great governor of a reliably Republican state with a job approval rating south of the 50% mark, and likely headed for a defeat at the polls over some of the extremist legislation that was passed and signed under his leadership that was failing to perform according to expectations. I see nothing in this particular piece that is inaccurate, at least from spot checking on the surface. But Pence is the VP, and what I've seen from Trump tells me that he will call all the shots, and Pence will spend most of his time on the golf course waiting. Pence, like Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney, is a good reason for congress to avoid impeachment, or his enemies to avoid assassination.

It's hard to tell where Dominionism, as a perspective and philosophy, engages with Evangelicals. The blending of politics with church among Evangelicals has skewed their doctrinal beliefs. Through my Christian school experience, I'm thoroughly familiar with Barton, and have noted for classes through the years his complete and total lack of any kind of factual corroboration. He has to either re-interpret facts, or ignore them, to support his thesis. Anyone who takes the time to do the research for themselves will see that the whole idea is neither Biblically supportable, nor factually accurate, and most high school sophomores draw that conclusion pretty quickly. What bothers me, though, is that many Americans accept information that tickles and plays to their personal biases, while ignoring facts and they aren't capable of discerning truth. A loud preacher that appeals to emotion and bias gets many more followers than one who "rightly divides the word of truth." The common thread seems to be that most politically active evangelical leaders worship the same god Trump does, and that's money.

God engaged in one covenant with a nation, Israel, and there's no invitation extended for another, because of Christ. Dominionism is heresy, plain and simple. If Pence becomes a channel to bring it into the US government, it will be just one of many issues that will complicate the Trump administration, and hopefully lead to its early defeat.

[Haruo]

[Jim]

In Allah's Name (or shame)

Another GI killed today
In Muslim country far away,
He was not meant to be at war,
Oh no...just to support the war –
That is, support the chosen side
The president identified...
Obeying orders, he would die
No matter that he wondered why.

The Muslim war was strangely fought
Since all the Muslim blood was bought
By other Muslims who were fraught
With hatred that Mohammad taught
To be out-poured on infidel
To send his soul right straight to hell,
But also in Muslim onslaught
On Muslim wrong on Islam-thought.

And so another coffin filled
With youthful life so early stilled,
A tragic waste and just for what? –
Vile fratricide...what senseless rot!
The Muslims relish civil war,
For centuries they keep no score...
Far better just to let them fight,
In Allah's name, they all are right.

JLC
25 November 2016