From: k206027@smog.DKRZ-Hamburg.DE (Bakayaroo Banzai)
Subject: Re: Pot-Kettle-Black (was Re: Homophobes in the Military..)
Organization: Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum GmbH, Hamburg
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 09:04:15 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.160855.16757@galileo.physics.arizona.edu> krueger@galileo.physics.arizona.edu (Ted Krueger) writes:
>In article <1992Dec14.155111.3969@news.DKRZ-Hamburg.DE> k206027@smog.DKRZ-Hamburg.DE (Bakayaroo Banzai) writes:
>
>[Please forgive me if I got the attribution wrong.  I did quite a bit of 
> chopping to this article.]
>
>>If we want to teach
>>children that hating others based on their beliefs is wrong i'll
>>get behind that 100%. I am not a Paganphobe..:) If I was, i'd have
>>to go move to Pat Robertson's Christian Ostrich-Hole Wonderland
>>Condominiums where all employees and residents are guaranteed
>>100% Born-Again Bible Whumpers...
>
>Isn't it funny that the people who "claim" to be "the most" in favor of 
>"not judging others based on their beliefs" often show a propensity for 
>crashing fundamentalist Christians into the walls.
>
>Their creed must be, "Don't judge others...unless they're Christians."  
>I see this creed rampant in our society today.
>
You did get the attribution right Ted. Congratulations...

You also managed to miss the point by a mile.
Being by definition a "Born-Again Fundamentalist" I would guess that
i'm entitled to criticise the group to which I belong. Let me give
you a little background:

	I have been a believer since 1970 when I attended a bible
	summer camp in Korea.

	At 16 I left home to join a religious commune of "Jesus Freaks"
	in California. They quickly formed all the attributes of a 
	full-blown cult (taking medicine away from the sick, reducing
	food intake to starvation rations, referring to all dissenters
	as "demon-possessed", etc.) I had to run away to escape.
	They then "excommunicated" me and did not allow any of their
 	members to speak to me.

	After several long months suffering from self-recrimination
	and doubt over leaving the commune (this is what happens
	to brainwashed individuals after leaving this kind of 
	situation) I began attending a much more mainstream church.
	Through the love and respect of my new church family I was
	finally able to put my life back together.  

Consequently, I view all individuals who claim to have some sort of
hot-line to God with great suspicion. I have been following the
career of Mr. Robertson for several years now and have come to the
conclusion that his crusade has very little to do with God or 
morality and everything to do with personal ambition and power. 
People like him want to separate the Church from the people they
are meant to serve (the poor, the hungry, the sick) and impose
arbitrary moral standards which, instead of bringing people a glimpse
of God's love, will simply drive them farther and farther away.
TV Evangelists like the Bakkers and Robertson often advocate the
total separation of their followers from the society in which they live.
The Bakkers even went so far as to build a sort of Christian theme
community in which all employees and residents were to be certified
believers. This is totally contrary to the life of Christ and the
examples of the early Church. Pat and his ilk are only concerned with
judgement, not mercy or love. He wants to build a theocracy based 
upon his interpretation of the Bible. Nothing could be more dangerous
than that. If you doubt this just call up a mental image of the 
Ayatollah Khomeini and superimpose Mr. Robertson over it. They're a
lot closer in spirit than you might think.

If I bash the man it's because I know whereof I speak. I'm not an 
extremist of any political persuasion. I've seen the best and the
worst that humans can produce from their spiritual beliefs. Randall
Terry and Pat Robertson are sailing on their own windpower, not God's.

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