These fundy whackos in North Dakota are scary.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Should we not be scaremongering about Christian fundies?
.

Correct. we should not, just as we should not be scaremongering about muslims, or commies, or anyone or anything else. We should look at all these phenomena rationally, and calmly, and analytically, so that our overreaction does not create worse things than what we fear.


WRT muslims, that would mean taking steps that make it harder to win over moderate muslims. With respect to Christians, that would mean ignoring possibilities for dialogue, it would mean intensifying mutual fear, distrust, and sense of persecution.

[lord of the mark]

"At Kids on Fire we see children in camouflage and face paint practicing war dances with wooden swords and making straight-armed salutes to a soundtrack of Christian heavy metal. We see them weeping and speaking in tongues as they are seized by the Holy Spirit. And we see them in Washington at an anti-abortion demonstration"

the implication being all these are closely linked. In fact most anti-abortion folks are not pentacostals (the ones who are into speaking in tongues) Most are garden variety evangelicals, plus some Catholics, Orth Jews, and a few others. And most Pentacostals, AFAIK, arent into the SocietyforCreativeAnachronism type games.

[Provost Harrison]

North Dakota? Well at least they are far from civilisation...

[Gatekeeper]

North Dakota is home to one of the United States' main nuclear missile fields. Hmm ... I think there's roughly 150 Minuteman multi-warhead missiles housed beneath the gently rolling plains of the NoDak state.

But, hey, no worries. The Feds got a tight handle on them there missiles.

Gatekeeper

[Dis]

christian heavy metal.

[Dis]

It wasn’t so long ago that another puritanical youth army, Mao Zedong’s Red Guards, turned the world’s most populous country inside out. Nowadays the possibility of a right-wing Christian American version of what happened in China no longer seems entirely far-fetched.

the left is so looney to make this comparison.

Once these kids hit their teenage years, they will throw all this crap out because it isn't cool.

[Dis]

Originally posted by DaShi
Whoohoo! Christian Heavymetal! "Burn in Heaven! Burn in Heaven!"

wouldn't it be freeze in heaven?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
North Dakota is home to one of the United States' main nuclear missile fields. Hmm ... I think there's roughly 150 Minuteman multi-warhead missiles housed beneath the gently rolling plains of the NoDak state.

But, hey, no worries. The Feds got a tight handle on them there missiles.

Gatekeeper

I say it's high time they fired them on themselves

[Gatekeeper]

Nah. Gotta save 'em for use against that rogue asteroid that might hit Earth in the 2030s.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
WRT muslims, that would mean taking steps that make it harder to win over moderate muslims. With respect to Christians, that would mean ignoring possibilities for dialogue, it would mean intensifying mutual fear, distrust, and sense of persecution.

Y'know, even without much scaremongering about them, they already have quite the persecution complex.

You'd think they were the Holocaust-era Jews of America or something, with the way they talk about how the secular satanists treat Christianity.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
North Dakota is home to one of the United States' main nuclear missile fields. Hmm ... I think there's roughly 150 Minuteman multi-warhead missiles housed beneath the gently rolling plains of the NoDak state.

But, hey, no worries. The Feds got a tight handle on them there missiles.

Gatekeeper

Yeah, actually, they do. It would be real unpleasant to try to take over one of those silos. The occupants tend to be very highly trained, duty bound sorts, and completely willing, under standing procedures, to detonate the missle (not the warheads, obviously) in place, if necessary, to prevent takeover. Even if you got in the silo, (autmatic weapons in tight, constrained spaces can ruin your whole day), knew your way around, and managed to do anything else other than get in before you were killed, you wouldn't be able to target it on anything, nor would you live long enough to get to the warheads to be able to do anything with them, even if you could extract them. (lots of specialized tools, machinery and know-how needed, plus time, which you wouldn't have.)

[Odin]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
North Dakota? Well at least they are far from civilisation...

Devil's Lake is in the civilized eastern half of the state.

[MrFun]

But remember guys -- it's only Islam that has internal problems.

[OzzyKP]

LofM

[Dr Strangelove]

They have female preachers?

They can't be very conservative then.

Oh and the "straight arm salute" is a standard charismatic ritual. The members of the congregation extend their right arms to "feel the spirit". The arm isn't supposed to be held rigid as in a salute. I attended a Catholic wedding where the congregation did this thing. It took me a few seconds to catch on. I initially thought they were giving the "Sieg Heil" salute.