Worse than a clown. *shudders*

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The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it’s causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times,” Pastor Terry Jones told CNN’s Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

Jones wrote a book titled “Islam is of the Devil,” and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.

Imagine if a Muslim church in FL was hosting a “International Bible Burning” event. They’d flip. But because it’s a religion other than theirs, they think it’s great.

What does such an event accomplish? It does not change anyone’s mind, it only fuels anger and violence.

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Bishop Broadhurst, who is the chairman of the Forward in Faith organisation, declined to say whether he would leave the Church of England, because he said he needed time to talk to the priests under his pastoral care.

“My organisation has 1,000 priests and about 8,000 lay people in it. None of those priests are happy,” he said.

“Now people have to decide whether they will knuckle under – if they do, that is not a very happy situation for them or the Church – or whether they’ll go, or whether they’ll just defy it, and I can see that happening with many people.”

Part of me finds it hard to suppress a little soupçon of glee over this; as an atheist it confirms some of my opinions of religion in general so very nicely – particularly that some people simply use religion as a cloak for bigotry and that their bigotry is far more important to them than any faith they might profess. Most of me, however, finds it deeply sad that the laws of my country still permit exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation on religious grounds, effectively allowing organisations like the CofE to remain decades behind the rest of society in their attitudes towards equality and fairness.

Background story from the BBC.
Main story from the BBC.

This is not the case with James Ault, a sociologist who studied various conservative religious movements in America and spent three years attending a fundamentalist church. The result is a documentary and a book, Spirit and Flesh.

There’s a lengthy summary of the book over at Blog on the Way. I don’t want to summarize the summary, but here’s a taste:

Ault’s most disarming and perceptive insight is that Fundamentalism, though it emphasizes reliance on the sacred Scripture, is primarily a religion in the Oral Tradition. The beliefs, which have a certain flexibility, are disseminated through the sermons and lessons and by person-to-person conversation. People share sermons, pass around tapes, and attend conferences where they hear the leaders of the religion make their pronouncements. Bible reading, rather than being systematic or scholarly, is performed selectively in order to “hide God’s Word in the heart,” which is a euphemism for memorization. At the appropriate time, learned texts are slapped onto a situation. But sermons carry the beliefs and transmit them. Bible reading serves the sermons.

[...]

Ault’s next most disarming insight is that Fundamentalism relies upon situation ethics. He expressed surprise that the preacher, a man he came to admire, would thunder that divorce was always wrong, and everybody would shout “Amen!” yet several people in the church were divorced. They felt no incongruity about condemning divorce yet also being divorced. Ault learned that the Fundamentalist mindset believed that it believed in the absolutes that it claimed, yet the culture was one of addressing every situation individually and evaluating it in light of multiple factors. While remaining conservative and morally strict, Fundamentalism, nonetheless, relied upon situation for its moral decisions, not absolutes. Divorce, in the end, was NOT always wrong if a situation was one that was intolerable or “unavoidable”. The people, he noted, saw no contradiction in what they said vs what they actually practiced. They thought they believed in an absolute morality, and they practiced situation ethics.

Jeri Massi, the blogger at Blog on the Way, is herself a former fundamentalist. She still Christian, but she’s made a study of her former community, and she’s able to provide a list of the aspects of Fundamentalism that Ault and other scholars have picked up on.

The idea is that Christian fundamentalists are making the Bible itself into a God and placing an heap of of expectations on it that are to much for any collection of books to bear. There’s something to this, but I notice there are all different levels to which even fundamentalists ascribe.

Inspiration

As some basic level, beneath that which most people would call idolatry, is the idea I remember from Catholic school: the Bible is inspired. This meant something very similar to what we means when we say an artist is inspired; the author received some insights and ideas (from God, it was assumed) that they proceeded to work into prose. But they were human authors, who were capable of writing some poorly worded sentences or confusing an issue. Thus we needed something more with which to illuminate the text, and the Catholic answer to that is Christian tradition maintained and developed by the Church.

Dictation

Somewhere beyond that is verbal inspiration, in which the Gospel authors are merely secretaries, taking dictation from the Almighty. This sidesteps the messy process of having to consider the mentality of the author; instead, we’re getting it straight from God. One doesn’t have to believe that every jot and tittle is accurate since the books may have changed a bit since their original manuscripts, but presuambly the Bible is absolutely reliable on matters of faith and salvation.

One idea I often hear is that God is loving, and would not leave us with flawed instructions on how to achieve salvation. This assumes a lot about the way God might operate, or what “loving” means in the context of an infinite non-corporeal entity, but it does make a certain sense. However, once you start reasoning this way, there really is no limit. What else might an all-loving God provide us with in his Word?

Absolute Sufficiency

Ken Pulliam over at Why I De-Converted from Evangelical Christianity has some thoughts on the more extreme form of this idolatry, in which the Bible offer guidance on things having little to do with salvation. As one fundamentalist co-woker explained to me, “All truths are found in the Bible,” and these apparently include truths relating to psychology; thus Biblical or “nouthetic” counseling:

“Nouthetic” comes from a NT Greek word meaning: “to admonish,” or “to correct.” This type of counseling says that man’s basic problem is sin and that the job of the counselor is to point out to the counselee the nature of his sin and then admonish him to confess it and ask God to heal him. The father of the movement is Jay Adams, longtime Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Westminster is a very conservative evangelical Reformed seminary. Adams burst on the scene in 1970 with his book, Competent to Counsel: Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling. The very popular book has been used by thousands of Pastors to guide them in their counseling methodology.

And so Adams believe he can derive principles for the Bible which allow him to deal with depression and other psychological problems. You can read Pulliam’s entire post, but I can give you a hint: Adam’s methods are both misogynistic and toxic.

Let me close with a joke that Darrell Dow, blogger at Stuff Fundies Like, left in one of his comments on the topic:

Jay Adams, Tom Cruise, and Mary Baker Eddy walk into an emergency room…and see a man in a full body cast moaning in pain.

Tom Cruise declares “this man is not injured, he merely needs to audit himself into a clear state to uncover his thetan reality then his so-called pain will cease.”

Mary Baker Eddy contradicts “No, this man merely needs to acknowledge that his physical flesh is a sinful manifestation and that only pure spirit can be righteous then he will understand his pain is an illusion.”

Jay Adams says nothing but picks up a Gideon Bible and begins beating the man on the head with it.

“What are you doing?!” ask the other two in horror.

“Discipleship!” yells Jay loudly “By the time I’m done he’ll still be in pain but by golly he’ll at least have the decency to feel guilty about it!”

My friend “i” was gathering microbiologists and came across your blog! The mystery of Gods Word is finished Rev:10:7! It the Word has all along been a medical code/key sent us for the now end of sickness and premature death! Rev:21:4! Go too His gathering site for any unmired of Adam and Eve, where Adam and Eve are now honoured for their completed mission/research! On The site much proof in Verse, and much proof in medical science and the news! Read the entire site, “i” am the small wretch sent to gather the inheritors of earth/144,ooo who now inherit the promisedland/paradise/laboratory called earth! www.Adamandeveseedgatheringministry.com..much respect too all of Adam and Eve unmired, and of His Red Clay People unmired! r.p.berry / Elijah paul Moses {{Prepare for many to again be drown/crushed for these verse’s which have come alive Deut:32:43, Matthew 24:7-8-30! Matt:25:34! Rev:21:3-4-7! we have much to be found so doing! The Great Physician was/is just what He claimed, the Son of God, and our Healer! Prepare for stones/meteors too Africa Sudan Kush, and Earthquakes around earth, literally making us sway to and fro/reel}}

W. T. F.

Bellevue Baptist Church pastor Steve Gaines told his congregation Sunday that any church leader found in serious sin would have been prohibited from coaching in the church’s athletic leagues, just as a woman who acknowledged she is gay.

“You have to have certain standards for leadership,” Gaines said in a video posted on the Internet. “Leadership is not a right. Leadership is a privilege.”

Of course — leadership is for bigots like Steve!

“We all know that every coach is a sinner, every player is a sinner. We understand all of that,” he said. “It’s not that we are trying to have a sin-free ball league.”

He noted if another coach was currently an adulterer, cohabiting with someone, hooked on pornography, or participating in “the sin of homosexuality,” they would suffer the same fate.

What Steve means is admit to those sins. But rarely do religious bigots admit to their secret sins, so most of his flock will be fine.

Could you imagine if they banned everyone who looked at porn? Steve would be without any coaches. I wonder if his standards apply to the other biblical sins too… does he ban people who are fat (gluttons)? Does he ban anyone who lies (which would be everyone)?

By the way, this is the same Steve Gaines who failed to report one of his ministers molesting his own son:

An assistant prosecutor said Bellevue Baptist Church Pastor Steve Gaines may have committed a crime if he knew the “moral failure” a church staff member confessed to him six months ago involved child molestation. [...]

Gaines has admitted that Paul Williams, a minister on staff at the Memphis, Tenn., mega-church for 34 years, told him in confidence about inappropriate behavior that occurred 17 years ago.

While Gaines did not disclose details of the confession, a Web site critical of his leadership alleged Williams molested his own son. Church leaders have suspended Williams and launched their own investigation, due to last a month.

Way to go, Steve. You’re a role model for bigots and bastards everywhere!

Guilty as Spongebob

Jim’s writings were revered like Apostle Paul’s in my childhood home. His Focus on the Family propaganda is so wholeheartedly American that it became brand. After three decades of homo-terror warnings, not even his ridiculous boycott of Spongebob made him lose credibility among disciples. Spongebob is guilty of “homosexual advocacy,” Dobson says.

He was born in Louisiana in 1936 and born again at three. He received his doctorate in child development in 1967, and later founded both Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.

Both oppose women, gays, and science. Dobson describes gays as “Nazis” and “THE greatest threat to your children. It is of particular danger to your wide-eyed boys, who have no idea what demoralization is planned for them.”

They want more funding for abstinence ed, a proven failure since the U.S. has 70 times the rate of gonorrhea among youth than European countries with sex ed, and among the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the world.

The Same Song and Dance

His evidence is often based on the work of Paul Cameron, disbarred from the APA for making up research. Other sources have made it clear that Dobson has twisted their work or not even read it.

Dobson quoted in Time, Drs Carol Gilligan, of Harvard: Kyle Pruett, of Yale, and Angela Phillips, of Goldsmiths College. All 3 were irate that he lied about data, among a barrage of letters from experts he’d used in various works. Some asked him to post their letters on his Focus website with a public apology. He didn’t.

Dr. Robert Spitzer was among the outraged. He helped remove the disorder status from homosexuality in 1973. And so his 2001 research showing that “gays could change” was praised by Dobson for the “courage” to overturn the “myth.”

But Dr. Spitzer said Focus “once again reported findings of my study out of context to support their fight against gay rights.”

Calling Dobson on his lies doesn’t faze him. “Communities do not let prostitutes, pedophiles, voyeurs, adulterers, and those who sexually prefer animals to publicly celebrate their lifestyles, so why should homosexuals get such privileges?”

Poor Little Wiener Dog

Unruly wiener dogs are another thorn. Jim brags in one book about beating his dog for not heading to bed on time. “That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other,” he writes.

His other pet issue is against “population control.” Dobson supports fringe extremist prolifers like Randall Terry. He thinks taking the Pill or the morning after pill is abortion, too.

Tubal ligation? “For obvious reasons, the Bible is absolutely silent on these recent technological procedures.” Umm, yes. Obvious reasons.

But for a man who concerns himself with “helping families thrive,” he sure hates children. “… pain is a marvelous purifier,” he has famously written. In one of many parenting guides, he calls kids: bratty, pugnacious, anarchists, horrid, negative, sour, sullen, selfish, insane, obnoxious, spoiled brat, groaning lump, and so forth.

Dobson also demanded the resignation of a minister who asked Christians to care about creation! The climate controversy is shifting the “emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence…”

Let it Rain

But does any of Dobson’s nonsense really matter?

Time Magazine called him “the nation’s most influential evangelical leader.” His media empire spans 150 countries and 7,000 TV stations, reaching 220 million daily. Chris Hedges called him “perhaps the most powerful figure in the Dominionist movement.” He is widely accredited with rallying the Lord’s troops to vote for and land the win of George Bush.

Obama of course is “lowest common denominator of morality” with a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution, who edits “God’s word to fit his liberal worldview.” So Dobson’s servants released a video commanding Christians to pray for “rain of Biblical proportions” on the day of Obama’s historic nomination speech.

It was sunny all day. But rain it did — at the Republican convention. Hurricane Gustav hurled itself at the southern Bible belts, causing the largest U.S. evacuation exodus in history with 2 million people headed north.

The Lord has spoken.

As a resident of the Southern US, I tend to make the mistake of thinking that the power struggle between fundamentalists and secularists is confined to my region, and that the rest of the world is somehow a little more enlightened. A UF reader has kindly sent in a letter informing us of a similar struggle Down Under. From the email:

Over here in Australia the battle is on a slightly different footing as organized religion battles to stay in the class room. They have 1 hour per week, and an unwritten agreement that there will be no alternative tuition during scripture time. This is being challenged with an ethics class and the churches are fighting tooth and nail to stop it.

I have to say: that Save Our Scripture website is pretty creepy, and it looks like they have their tentacles in a number of different issues, from education to anti-gay legislation to video game ratings. (My apologies to any intelligent, gay, video game-loving cephalopods out there.)

Fortunately, the Big Controversy of Evolution hasn’t raised its ugly head yet in Australia…oh wait, what’s that? It has?

Damn.

Is there a place the fundies haven’t gotten to?