GodAssault

[atommom]

Because certain trees are sprouting in the Middle East, the world will soon end. Because the European Union has grown to its current size, fiery death and plagues of locusts are about to descend on the planet. Because Israel established a homeland, non-believers will, in a short while, suffer agonizing horrors before being damned to an eternity of pain.

And now a word from our sponsor -- a real estate agent helping Christians find their dream homes.

This summer, I joined the rush hour in San Bernardino. Every day, descending the final hill from Los Angeles into the fastest growing region in California, I tuned into Christian radio station K-Wave. The station broadcast lessons on Christ-sanctioned financial planning as well as sermons on faith-rooted marriages. But its mission of missions was to map out, just the way the Weather Channel describes approaching storm fronts, the end of the world now bearing down upon us.

The deep voice of Pastor Chuck Smith filled my car each morning. Founder of Calvary Chapel, a "mega-church" with a publishing company, Bible colleges, and franchises in every state, Pastor Chuck inspired two followers to write the best-selling Left Behind novels about the Apocalypse. Soon obsessed with the station, I started wishing my Democratic friends in L.A. would join me in K-Wave's freeway congregation.

http://www.alternet.org/story/21769/

[realFedUp]

1. a good essay

worth reading.

[Bellamia]

4. Best read

at lunchtime, on the deck, enjoying the sunshine. I'm looking forward to it, I printed it out. Thanks a bunch.

[undergroundpanther]

2. I think these

"losers" in life pinning hopes on an Apocalypse have an insight...

There is something wrong with this world,where the poor get poorer and the cheaters prosper and bullies get away with it all.


When our society is full of abusive people people who have been hurt who can't seem to heal from emotional pain,who have no support,have trust issues,feel hopeless but don't want to become a monster to succeed,can look to the"church" because in effect the church offers a "win" without selling ones soul//on the surface.Abusers and exploiters of others who will be forgiven,ignored,excused,enabled and trusted even though they are untrustworthy in this life will be judged by a bigger supernatural bully and finally mercifully stopped.

Sure these rapture Christians operate with a lot of fear but what they seek more is acceptance and a way to make the suffering,aka helplessness.Realize most suffering in this world is caused by dominating,arrogant,selfish,bullying ,deceptive,sadistic, authoritarian, people,the people who are"successful" or who have no conscience the winners in this world who benefit from and get pleasure from making other people serve and suffer for them.



These rapture Christians are vulnerable traumatized people, they want to be avenged,and be protected from the "dominator class"not go to therapy where you learn happy go lucky bullshit like change your mind and attitude and life will feel better..for some people because of the nature of their life patterns,upbringing ect..they haven't a clue how to fix it.... they just want to be accepted,heard,cared about and all the bullies of this world and in their lives stopped without a risky confrontation or changing themselves ..People in a mental state like this on some deep level know a sociopath lives for "winning" and they can't compete so they play another game besides the game of success in this world..

This failure to thrive,and promises of a new FAIR game where the good win is what a fascist bullshitter can exploit to get his grubby hooks into people who are tired of struggles they seem unable to beat by themselves..He will sell them what they want to hear love,acceptance an end to suffering A pastor of a rapture church has a different angle on the game,if he can keep the"losers" hooked on a dream and give them fake feel good love and fellowship they never had in middle school as he skews their trust,warps their ethics, makes them forget the pain that makes them frustrated in life,and twist the fact the winners of the world are the destroyers of the world and they will pay someday as they gradually switch from people tired of suffering into Christian soldiers willing to make their enemies suffer for God.They make good hearted people who want to heal but can't go bad as if a little bloodbath will remove the pain of a bad relationship an abused childhood or feeling like the world does not accept you..

Using a bible literally becomes an easy excuse maker that removes the responsibility of having to justify why you act like an ass even though you know full well what it feels like to be emotionally abused.

Rapture Christians want to destroy the world because sociopaths want to posses and control everything in it and so the game goes on two opposing games that are because we will not take the anti social elements in society and hold them accountable for the abuse they do..So on an unconscious level we deny,escape pretend and hold into Utopian fantasies that make sure bullies and exploiters get away with it...When hurting people are ignored and resentment is fueled by social inequality this despair and truth about the awful game a sociopath personality plays with non sociopath people to get control of ever thing they see becomes a tiny bit more conscious.

This I think for at least the people who are life's' losers described in the article want,they want out of this world where bad people win..If justice on Earth does not help a person in pain or care, where else can they go,for comfort love?

When kids grow up learning they can't trust human beings,because people hurt them..Where can they go..We ARE social creatures..Well they can make up an imaginary powerful friend who will not betray them and who will set things right for a victim in this world..When a child learns there is no higher authority in the home when a tyrant grinds a family down they learn helplessness.If you grow up convinced there is no real justice, no higher authority that cares, when you are all alone,suffering ..The idea you can become a priest and KING in heaven a place where everyone is a king and authority has alot of appeal to people in pain who feel powerless in an unequal culture.

When kids grow up believing there is no adult with power to protect them from abusers of trust you have a problem.When said kids become adults it becomes compounded betrayal when social authority will not care,will not help,when people have to compete and do a million things to be eligible for help,and society becomes isolated, abusive,hypocritical,sick,corrupt and tyrannical.Abused people ask deep inside where can you go to escape the pain of this life? They can always go into a dream church where a n authority declares bullies will pay for their deeds no one sees or believes and the people with no conscience will feel the emotional price for inflicting the pain that victims of bullies felt forever. When you see the statistics of child abuse spouse abuse,poverty.. it is startling what potential this rapture game has.

http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/general/stats/index.cfm

Just some thoughts on the dynamics the article hinted at.

[realFedUp]

3. a look at who are believers....

snip

Religious scholar Donald E. Miller, who studied Calvary Chapel for his book Reinventing American Protestantism, found its congregations to be dominated by blue-collar Americans. Only 20% of church members had a college degree. Over half of the pastors Miller surveyed had grown up, or spent parts of their lives, in single-parent homes; 70% had parents who abused drugs or alcohol. The numbers were similar for the congregants, almost a third of whom claimed to have been physically and/or sexually abused.

In my friends' world, such numbers would be as alien as the Rapture itself, but I suspect Pastor Chuck knows them intimately. His mission is to embrace those the world leaves behind and promise them a new chance in the after-life.

[undergroundpanther]

6. This is why we have to stop abusing others,

And stop letting abusive people get away with doing it.We need to step up and help people,the scapegoats,the battered kids and women the neglected,the less popular the awkward..and people need to stop hiding from each other somehow,get out and care about each other because authority will not make equality happen~ever.

Equality must be a priority set by equality minded people who value a life lived without tyranny.By people asserting the human rights of all people to be respected,secure,deal with people who are honest,and not tolerate people around them treating people who are NOT abusers of trust or abusive like a dupe,a loser or a person to be abused or scapegoated.It is almost impossible to do this inner work of self knowing and assertion of your own human rights after suffering childhood abuse all by yourself.People need people to help them ..this healing begins by separating authoritarians who abuse power,from power.If this does not stop them,you gotta take away their freedom to take part in abusing humanity stop the games...

[realFedUp]

8. nicely said. sounds like a real Christian message

[Bellamia]

5. Looks like

I'll be having dinner on the deck also, what with the posting of Book 2,and believe me, Id rather read than watch TV news any day. Thanks to you too for your post.

[atommom]

7. I think you're absolutely right about the abuse these people have

suffered. Our society is sick. The ironic thing is that many of those who have been so badly treated turn to an ideology that has no mercy for other victims of abuse. It really is tragic.

Thanks for the link. I'm looking forward to going through some of that info.

[Shallah Kali]

9. Better to blame people for their suffering than have no reason why......

Uncertinity is hard to tolerate. It can be easier to deal with a system that blames everyone saying they are innately sinful than try to find a way of dealing with the fact that bad things happen to good people. Also if abuse is what you are used to abuse is what you will gravitate to simply because it is what is normal for that person. If only one can be good enough, pure enough, obedient enough one will get sucked up to heaven never to be hurt again just like an abuse victim can think if only I did this or that the abuser will be appeased. The world can be a scary place and a belief system that tells people that if only they do X good, long, and hard enough they will finally Be Safe is more comforting than accepting that no matter what you do you will never be 100% safe. Maybe I am speculating too much here based upon my fundy neighbors. They are so terrified of everything, alternating between praying for the end to come soon and celebrating some new horror as a sign that Jesus is coming.

[atommom]

10. That mindset certainly would make them accepting of the RW

/Dominionist dogma. Things that leave us liberals puzzled would make complete sense to them. No wonder we don't understand each other...