Sunday, November 08, 2009

The Religious Right & its Enemy "Secular Humanism" (Liberalism)

UPDATE: 1:17 PM,Nov.8, 2009

"The idea that a coordinated campaign by “secular humanists” was aimed at displacing Christianity as the moral bedrock of America actually traces back to a group of Catholic ideologues in the 1960s. It was Protestant evangelicals, especially fundamentalists, who brought this concept into the public political arena and developed a plan to mobilize grassroots activists as foot soldiers in what became known as the Culture Wars of the 1980s…."
Quote from:The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy! By Frederick Clarkson Publiceye.org Spring 2008 Vol. 23, No. 1

"Nothing short of great Civil War of Values rages today throughout North America. Two sides with vastly differing and incompatible world-views are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society...the struggle now is for the hearts and minds of the people. It is a war over ideas. And someday soon, I believe, a winner will emerge and the loser will fade from memory. For now, the outcome is very much in doubt."
from:Dr. James Dobson, Children at Risk, p. 19–20

James Kennedy's praising False Idols of his Americanized Christianity, the Founding Fathers have become Saints or Prophets equal to Jesus disciples, the founding documents are seen as Holy Writ & that America was created by Divine Providence / God therefore the President of the USA is comparable to King David. But Kennedy's God is a blue-eyed blonde guy of a nice middle Class Family
"Twilight's Last Gleaming" Dr. James Kennedy 1993 Sermon
sshaalan June 04, 2009





In general the art of the truly great national leaders at all times consists among other things primarily in not dividing the attention of a people, but in concentrating it upon a single foe. The more unified the application of a people's will to fight, the greater will be the magnetic attraction of a movement and the mightier will be the impetus of the thrust. It belongs to the genuis of a great leader to make even adversaries far removed from one another seem to belong to a single category, because in weak and uncertain characters the knowledge of having different enemies can only too readily lead to the beginning of doubt in their own right.

Once the wavering mass sees itself in a struggle against too many enemies, objectivity will put in an appearance, throwing open the question whether all others are really and only their own people or their movement are in the right.

And this brings about the first paralysis of their own power. Hence a multiplicity of different adversaries must always be combined so that in the eyes of the masses of one's own supporters the struggle is directed against only one enemy. This strengthens their faith in their own right and enhances their bitterness against those who attack it.
Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf, pp 118-119

In these statements from Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler shows his deep understanding of how to use propaganda in order to control the masses. Honesty or truthfulness has nothing to do with such a technique. (Leo Strauss -The Noble Lie, and the amoral elitist Ayn Rand would agree) So for his own purposes Hitler created one enemy by focusing on the Jews but he admits he added to the "conspiracy theory" all of his and Germany's other enemies.He didn't need truth to make the most improbable connections; his followers were to accept some things as a matter of Faith over Reason. The Jewish people in his view were behind various political movement which arose in the 19th century ; liberalism, relativism, Marxism, Hegelian philosophy, feminism, labor unions,Anarchism, Communism, Democracy , All that had gone wrong in Germany was caused by the behind the scenes nefarious activities of a world wide Jewish cabal.

In Hitler's view the Jews had spent hundreds of years permeating all levels of German and European society thereby undermining the true spirit of Germany and Europe. Hitler believed that the Jews...constituted a foreign entity or like a cancer in the German state which must be removed from any positions of power or authority. Further Hitler argues that Jews should be segregated from the German Aryan population.Because the problem with the Jews was one of race or blood or genes this could not be fixed by re-education of any sort' Eventually all Jews would have to be removed from the Nation for it to achieve its ultimate goals .

Secular Humanism, Liberalism Relativism Tolerance

In the same way Hitler talked about the True Germans or the "Real" German People and the Aryan Race so we hear in the United States similar use of language. The conservatives whether secular or religious also talk about "Real Americans" who are true patriots who are willing to defend the US Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The Real Americans are also defined as those who believe in unfettered capitalism-no regulations whatsoever- that rights which labor has accumulated over the past century should be tossed away in favor of Rapacious Capitalism and the right to work and the right of the employer to pay whatever rate he wishes etc.There should be no rules about gun ownership . The public schools should be shut down . Children should either be home-schooled attend private schools or be sent to the workhouse.

Sunday Sermon from the late Dr. James Kennedy founder of Coral Ridge Ministries

James Kennedy argues that the relativist post-modernists (liberals, Secular Humanist) will tolerate just about anyone or any group except Christians. "So they are gunning for You" he proclaims. These relativists are unable or unwilling to discern between good and evil. They therefore are willing to allow people to take part in evil actions. The way things are going our society as we know it is not just changing but is devolving and soon we will be back to living in jungles under the law of the jungle.
James Kennedy says that things are so bad it is time for Christians to get up out of their pews and become politically involved in order to take their country.

Relativity, Tolerance and Discrimination - Part 2
February 05, 2008
Dr. D. James Kennedy, delivers this powerful message.



and from Summit Ministries:
For example In a series of videos Summit Ministries details their views on the "Secular Humanist Conspiracy' which looks a lot like the erroneous "Jewish Conspiracy"- So as once the enemy of Christianity and of Western Civilization's traditional values and institutions were "The Jews" they are now replaced by "Secular Humanism" or "liberalism" . Any ideas or values which these conservative Christians dislike or see as pernicious are labeled as being generated by "Secular Humanism".



In this clip they explain how the banking system is controlled or will be by "Secular Humanist'-
according to those who adhere to the "Jewish Conspiracy" it is the Jews who are said to control The International Banking system along with every other major institution whereas the Religious Right argue that it is not the Jews but the "Secular Humanists" who are trying to take complete control of America's institutions. The "Secular Humanists" are accused of trying to create "The New World Order"(NWO) Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and Conservative Evangelical fundamentalists and others promulgate this conspiratorial world view.


Economics - Secular Humanism Worldview



The conservative Evangelical Fundamentalists organization Summit Ministries for example proclaims it was created as a response to the dangers and perniciousness of "Humanism" /Secular Humanism/Liberalism or Postmodernism which is out to undermine and destroy Christianity.

according to their website Secular Humanism is taking over American institutions and society and its culture at an alarming rate.

Not only are large numbers of Christians (and especially Christian youth) abandoning their faith; they are adopting the false ideas presented throughout our culture - Darwinism, naturalism, relativism, postmodernism, pluralism, and many others. Christians have simply not been taught how to develop a comprehensive Christian view of reality or an intelligent biblical defense regarding the fundamental issues of our day.

"Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism [Atheism], and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?"

— Charles Francis Potter, Humanism: A New Religion, p. 128


Summit Ministries® is an educational Christian ministry whose very existence is a response to our current post-Christian culture. Today, countless Christian youth have fallen victim to the popular ideas of our modern world. Most have adopted these ideas into their own worldview, while still others go on to renounce their Christian faith altogether.

Summit views its role in God's kingdom as a catalyst to counteract this alarming trend.


In this article by John Stonestreet found at the Summit Ministries website he has replaced the term "Secular Humanism" with "Postmodernism" as the enemy of Christianity but it is the same old boogeyman as that described by Francis A. Schaeffer in 1982 the video of that sermon is posted on left side bar.

"Ideas Have Consequences:
How Postmodernism Changes the Rules" By John Stonestreet October 30, 2009


While there are significant disagreements among the various expressions of postmodernism, there is a key belief that characterizes all of them: an acute awareness of our “situatedness” as humans.

As I described in an earlier article, postmoderns deny that there is any overarching story, or metanarrative, to the world. Therefore, we all come from a perspective, or bias, that is shaped by the culture, or the “little stories,” we inhabit. Kevin Vanhoozer states, “Postmoderns are so preoccupied with the situated self that they cannot get beyond it.” Because of this “situatedness,” no one can claim objectivity for his or her views.

This is the clearest difference between postmodernism and most worldviews. Whereas the central concern of other worldviews is what the real world actually is, the focus of postmodernism is on how we perceive and how we describe what the world is.
Postmodernism: A Worldview of Contingency

...In the postmodern worldview, everything is contingent; nothing is fixed.
We are trapped in our situatedness. There are no foundations that are not themselves contingent from which to build a certain and agreed-upon body of knowledge. Knowledge really comes down to one’s perspective—we never really have the facts; there is only interpretation.


The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy! By Frederick Clarkson Publiceye.org Spring 2008 Vol. 23, No. 1

One of the most remarkable, and least remarked upon, features of the contemporary discussion of faith in public life is that a defining feature of the religious right worldview has filtered deeply into mainstream and even progressive thought. This defining feature is the idea that somehow God, and/or Christianity, and/or “people of faith” are being driven from “the public square.” It is a powerfully animating idea for many Americans; yet it is rarely factually supported and even more rarely challenged.

Interestingly, much of this distortion hinges on a single word. The word is “secular” and such variants as “secular humanists,” “secular fundamentalists,” and just plain “secularists.” While the word has simple and benign definitions, the word is also the touchstone of a powerful and usually subterranean set of meanings that often makes it a term of derision and demonization.

Tracing the word “secular” exposes how an important and dynamic dimension of religious right ideology has drifted to the top of American political discourse as well as elements of the liberal/left. This has, as we shall see, consequences for the mainstream discussion of separation of church and state, while also fomenting unnecessary divisions among progressives, and even raising the specter of old fashioned red baiting with is echoes of the “Godless Communist”1 smear leveled at generations of American progressives.

Secular Baiting Goes Mainstream

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney staged a speech at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, in Midland, Texas early in the GOP presidential primary season in 2007. It was considered a speech of great moment for Romney, particularly given the personal introduction by former president Bush. It was at least a trial balloon on the party’s approach to religious freedom and separation of church and state. Indeed, Romney sought at once to echo John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 campaign speech in which the Democrat declared that the Catholic Church did not speak for him and he would not speak for Rome; that his religious views were private; he believed in the absolute separation of church and state; he would be president of all of the people; and would swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States. In so doing, Kennedy at once dissolved some people's concerns about whether he harbored any divided loyalties to the Vatican — and set a standard for the relationship between organized religion and candidates for office for a generation.

Romney’s task was a little different. He wanted to dissolve concerns about his Mormon faith and simultaneously appeal to conservative Christian evangelicals, many of whom were explicitly anti-Mormon. He cast himself within the broad American tradition of religious liberty and separation of church and state — and then the other shoe dropped. “In recent years,” he declared,

"...the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life.

It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America —the religion of secularism. They are wrong. The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square."

In making this charge, Romney tapped a deep vein of religious right ideology; attributing malevolent intentions and considerable power to “some” people; an unnamed “they”—who are somehow seeking to foist a new religion of secularity on unsuspecting Americans — and subvert the will of the founding fathers to boot. He didn't say who, and he didn’t say how, or offer even a hint of a fact in support of his argument. He didn’t have to. He was offering the first few notes of a tune so well known to his intended audience that they could complete it themselves. The tune carries the story of Christian nationalism that has served as an animating vision of the Christian Right for decades. It was heard by those with ears to hear it. And the key word to unlocking the inner tune was the word “secular.”

Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates, writes that for decades, the religious right has promoted a conspiracy theory that Christianity is under attack by “secular humanists.”

"The idea that a coordinated campaign by “secular humanists” was aimed at displacing Christianity as the moral bedrock of America actually traces back to a group of Catholic ideologues in the 1960s. It was Protestant evangelicals, especially fundamentalists, who brought this concept into the public political arena and developed a plan to mobilize grassroots activists as foot soldiers in what became known as the Culture Wars of the 1980s….

The idea of a conscious and coordinated conspiracy of secular humanists has been propounded in various ways by a variety of national conservative organizations and individuals."


For example, longtime televangelist and religious right leader, the late D. James Kennedy, offers a typical religious right use of the term: “God forbid that we who were born into the blessings of a Christian America should let our patrimony slip like sand through our fingers and leave to our children the bleached bones of a godless secular society. But whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: God has called us to engage the enemy in this culture war.”

Perhaps the most infamous example is Reverend Jerry Falwell’s explanation to Pat Robertson of the 9/11 attacks on Robertson’s 700 Club cable TV show: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”

By framing these claims as a conspiracy to provoke a "Culture War," Berlet concluded, “conservative Christians transform political disagreements into a battle between the Godly and the Godless, between good and evil, and ultimately between those that side with God and those that wittingly or unwittingly side with Satan.”


and a related article of interest in which Cal Thomas talks about Communism's "fellow Travelers" who still tout to the Communist Party line and how they are influencing American society:

Communism’s Enablers and Excusers By Cal Thomas Tribune Media Services Nov. 7,2009 at Indiana Gazette

On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was pulled down to the consternation of leftists, who still had faith socialism could work with the right leaders, and to the delight of conservatives, who believed that socialism and communism guaranteed mutually-shared poverty.

Two years later, the Soviet Union crumbled. Soviet communism might not have endured for 70 years had it not been for enablers in academia, religion and journalism. Lloyd Billingsley has written about them in “The Generation That Knew Not Josef,” as in Stalin.

When the wall fell, leftists could not bring themselves to admit they had been wrong, much less apologize for their misplaced faith. So they did what they do best: they made excuses.

The Media Research Center (MRC) has compiled reports, editorials, articles and commentary that extend over the last 22 years revealing how the pre-Fox, pre-talk radio liberal media were the handmaidens of one of the greatest totalitarian evils to strike the planet. The underlying myth in much of their “reporting,” notes the MRC’s Rich Noyes, was that free market capitalism was a greater threat to human happiness than communism.

Reading these quotes, in light of history, resembles a “Saturday Night Live” comedy skit.

In 1987, before the wall collapsed, CBS anchor Dan Rather said, “Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy.”

Strobe Talbott, then of Time magazine and soon to be an influential member of the Clinton administration, wrote on Jan. 1, 1990, “(Soviet leader) Gorbachev is helping the West by showing that the Soviet threat isn’t what it used to be, and what’s more, that it never was.” How is it possible to simultaneously have been a threat, but not a threat? The millions who died in gulags, starved to death or were assassinated might have a different interpretation of Russian history under communism.

After the liberation of Eastern Europe, according to the MRC, some journalists attacked capitalism for “exploiting” the newly freed workers. A Los Angeles Times reporter touted “communism’s ‘good old days,’ when the hand of the state crushed personal freedom but ensured that people were housed, employed and had enough to eat.”


and so it goes,
GORD.

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