The Jesus Landing Pad

It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"—this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0420/perlstein.php

:wtf:

Apocalyptics are driving US policy at EVERY LEVEL.

Sick, scary nitwits.

I meant to post that a few days ago... thanks!

...does that make me a bad person?

You tell me if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

all instruct that a "cleansing" is to be welcomed because humans have made it necessary. We screwed up, so to speak. It is a genuine acceptance and devotion to God's will... and not self-interest. But, to those with eyes to see, it is ultimately in everyones self-interest.

I am an 'Apoplectic Apocalyptic' not because I look forward to it, but because it is clear to me that it is in the works, and it pisses me off that it had to come to this.

God's will is just alright with me.

I do not believe that there is an immenent reset about to happen. I do not believe that we can rely on some other being to set things right. I do believe that it is entirely our responsibility to set our society and this planet on a path it can survive. To simply set back and wait (not assuming that is what you are doing) is to me giving up one's responsibility and simply adds to the problems.

Appocalyptic Chrisitans Like Reagan look at the destruction enveloping this world and believe themself to not have to worry about it. It doesn't need to be fixed. Its all going to be swept away. This is the world our children are being born into. And neglect is choking the life out of this planet.

self-serving and misguided.

I was trying to draw a distinction between the fundamentalist fantasy and the genuine message from the wisdom teachings.

You don't wanna miss out on the Rapture do ya? We have to recreate the Temple.

I honestly think this is a cult spin off from some other form of Christianity.
Its a whole different mutation - an a pretty odd one at that.
I got to hear one of the authors of the Left Behind series on Terry Gross's Fresh Air a couple of months back. This linking of Israel to the stuff in Revealatoins is at the heart of it.

What frightens me is that others take them seriously. I can't believe they take themselves seriously.

between the original import of the Christian message and misguided, distorted, and destructive Christian theology.

http://www.biblicalresearchinstitute.com/rapture_4.html

Chrisitans spouting this nonsense are either fools or frauds.

plunged into the very heart of our government.

/sarcasm

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

not a bad roll model.

edit- or role model, either....for that matter. LOL

I mean if you believe the bible it certainly does seem to indicate that we have limited time to run around down here. In fact a close reading of it would suggest that the end should have come some time ago. It is a curious balance that some Christians adopt where they accept the teachings of Jesus but do not hold to the end times supposedly set to happen.

I would be curious to hear various positions on this issue from our friendly neighborhood Christians.

to happen in that generation.. This is why evangelicals are so freaked out about getting the message out, because Paul was desperate to win over as many converts as he could in the short time left.

Because liberal christians are more relaxed in their interpretations, they can see Jesus as coming again either as the RWers do, via reincarnation, or via the goodwill of people to each other.

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

Soon seems to have been Jesus' time table for his return. He is even credited with having said that he would return before some of his apostles "tasted death". Now either there are some seriously old and angry apostles running around or something is up.

A lot of Jesus' teachings of property make sense only when viewed through the lens that the stay here would be short. The advocacy of giving everything away if it is asked for certainly suggests abandonment of material considerations. This would leave a person ill equiped to provide for themself in a long term situation. Socially its embrace would have devestated the economy. It is no wonder this aspect of his teachings are rejected by the bulk of his followers and only adhered to by certain clergy.

for what... 150 years after he died?

Mark is considered to have been penned around 50 years after his supposed death. The other gospels come much later. It is suspected that they are based in large part on Mark as well as a lost document called the Gospel of Q.

Relying on the actual wording is a tricky thing itself. The Jesus Seminar after years of research concluded that there was very little in the bible that they could confidently say was actually said by Jesus.

The trouble is that each sect has its own take on the varicity of the bible. Telling a person that we simply do not know who wrote the Gospels has little impact on who they believe wrote them. Thus a conversation with a liberal Christian would be much more open to discussing the symbolic aspects of what the bible represents while a literalist would have a fit at the merest suggestion of an error in the book.

As you said we really have very little reason to take the bible literally.

That being said, anyone who does (and this goes for ANY religion, not just Christianity) is a moron. IMNSHO, that is. :)

I have met too many extremely intelligent fundimentalists to simply dismiss their state of mind as being moronic. It is far more complex than that. Remember these are issues that centuries of philosophers and thinkers have pondered long before us. It is not so readily dismissed for all. We benefit from the thinkers that passed before us and have much of our philosophy predigested for us. Not all have access to the same schools of thought and thus cannot so easily see the gaps and holes in their beliefs. And reason and logic cannot be brought to bear on a problem in our mind unless doubt already exists therein. For it is examining doubt that reason and logical thought was invented for. Where there is no doubt there is no reasoning.

Some may believe that Yashua (aka) Jesus transports himself through space or wherever, by beam, or thought process. Lets just say for the sake of practicality he travels by vehicle. If his vehicle travels at the speed of light, by the speed of light time factor he has only been away for a few months or so.
He may be very well on his way back landing his vehicles at various locations on Earth.
Christians should be very suspicious if his announcement to you all will be something like, all the white meat board onto saucer 1, and all the dark meat board onto saucer 2!

Book of Revelation is a letter written by John while imprisoned on the island Patmos around 96ad. The letter was addressed to the 7 existing Christian churches essentially describing the fate of Rome. The scriptures are symbolic and there is much visualizations that resemble the OT book of Daniel (which is one account of the 1st Diaspora into Babylon when Israel was conquered and the Temple was destroyed in 586BC).

Much of the end time religious beliefs are a literal interpretation of Revelation. In America, the first group (I am aware of) that interpreted a literal version of Revelation was the Millerites.

Miller gathered a group around himself to await the end based on Napoleon conquering the Vatican in 1799(?). Miller claimed this was the beginning of the 1000 year reign of Christ and that Christ was crowned in heaven on this date. They waited in vain in 1834 (I think this was the first date of the end). Nothing, Nada. Slowly Millers followers left him.

Other 'millennium' groups started over the years and there have been many, many end dates put forth. Well, we are still here.

My take is Christ was crowned in heaven immediately on ascension, and Christian followers have been added all this time. In other words, there is no end date other than 70AD when Jeruselem was destroyed by the Romans. The 70AD date is what Jesus prophesy regarding the end date refers to in the gospels.

Whatever damage we do to the earth, WE are going to have to clean it up. All this end times stuff does is allow people to place their responsibilities on God and He will clean up the mess for them.

I call this the ultimate in irresponsibility. God as I understand him does for me what I cannot do for myself, but he absolutely will not do what I am supposed to do.

This, on top of the PBS program about Bush's religions, plus Bush thinking God called on him to take out Saddam...

The Bush Cabal is completely out of their fucking minds. They don't care about facts or evidence, they only care about their ideology.