Exposing the Religious Right

My friend, Larry Hicks, from the Humanist Association of Tulsa, sent me the link to a web site that I really want to share with you. It is called, "Exposed! Unmasking the Agenda of the Radical Religious Right: Dismantling the Constitution of the United States of America". There are articles on the most prominent leaders, the organizations and the politicians who are teaming up with the religious right. Here's something from the home page:

November 2, 2004.

The day the US as we know it ended.

Melodramatic? Many might think so. I don't. At no other time in the history of this nation have we been so divided. Not even during the Civil War. The divisiveness of that time in our history was caused by the North seeking to extend to blacks the rights that whites already had. In other words, to include more people under the mantle of protection offered by the US Constitution. This time, however, not only are there attempts to actively disenfranchise roughly ten percent of the US population, but the current administration is seeking to remove rights from every citizen: unless you happen to be white, straight, male and Christian. And rich. I almost forgot that one. For the first time in the history of our nation, there is a determined and concerted effort to write discrimination into the US Constitution. To use the document that protects individual rights to deny those rights to gay Americans. To bypass the First Amendment by taking down the wall of separation between church and state. To bypass the checks and balances of our governmental system by legislating judicial jurisdiction. To subvert the limitations on executive power through legislation like the PATRIOT Act. To use fearmongering to persuade the masses to allow restrictions to basic freedoms like speech, association, religion and the press. To equate patriotism with blind obedience and non-questioning acceptance.

Sadly-- and frighteningly-- these efforts are succeeding as witnessed by the results of the presidential election on November 2, 2004-- the day America died.

The purpose of this site is to expose these efforts...

Specifically, Larry linked to the article on Oral Roberts because Mrs. Roberts just died and that's in the news here in Tulsa. I recommend it. For now, here's a sample:

...Married at the age of 20 the Christmas after Hitler's Kristallnacht in Germany, Roberts and his wife eventually had four children. His daughter, Rebecca, and her husband Marshall Nash, died in an airplane crash in 1977, leaving an estate of more than $10 million dollars. (The size of their estate as well as Roberts' own lifestyle has led many to question the financial dealings of the ministry.) His oldest son, Ronald, committed suicide in 1980. Today, son Richard and his second wife, Lindsay, are very active parts of the Oral Roberts' ministry, while not much is ever written about daughter Roberta.

Oral began preaching in tent revivals and eventually took on four short-lived pastorates before he had his first "revelation" from God. Roberts and his wife, who had both grown up in poverty, had become involved with a denomination that believed that in order to be truly Christian, one had to be poor. But neither of the Robertses wanted to remain poor and during a prayerful plea for help, Roberts says God led him to III John 2: `I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.' Shortly thereafter, Roberts claims a second talk with God in which God told him directly that he would have the power to heal and to cast out devils. The focus of Roberts' ministry from 1947 onward then became faith healing. Within months of his revelation, his services were drawing crowds so desperate for relief from pain and suffering that he had to move his services to a larger building. The following month, he resigned his pastorate to take his healing "show" on the road. By 1950, Roberts' healing services were being broadcast across the country and attended by more than 15,000 people.¹

...By 1986, the City of Faith was deeply in debt. In January, Roberts announced he had received another message from God: a message that lost him a great deal of his credibility with many folks. Roberts claimed that God told him that 10 months ago that he had one year to raise $8 million dollars or God was going to "call him home." Roberts said he had already raised $3.5 million of that and only needed to raise $4.5 million more. In April, Roberts announced they'd raised a total of $9.1 million and that God had spared his life. This money was to be used for full scholarships for medical missionaries to be sent overseas according to still another command from God. But those scholarships never materialized and no one is quite sure what happened to the $9.1 million that was raised. By the end of 1989, Roberts had closed the medical school and the City of Faith hospital (the clinic had closed at the beginning of the year) in order to pay off the staggering debt...

You just can't make this stuff up.

Is there any chance you caught "Dateline" on NBC last night? Stone Phillips was interviewing Tim LaHaye and his co-writer for the "Left Behind" series. It was all about the end times and the rapture and how God is running out of patience with us. This was on immediately before the new drama - entitled "Revelations" - about the end of days. Folks, this is prime time, major network television taking this stuff seriously. It is very worrying.

Today, I created a new folder in my "Favorites" box entitled, "Religious Right" and I plan to reorganize what I've already bookmarked and place anything remotely on the coming theocracy in that new folder. I'll make an effort to keep up to date on what the movement is up to and will, of course, share important reports with you.