Crush All Boxes!

I'm working on a longer post about values and other stuff. In the meantime, I wanted to post a long and informative comment by a person named BushNotMyPresident from a discussion at the excellent MyDD; s/he seems to know what s/he's talking about vis a vis what I would call our domestic madrassas-lite. The post (called 'Our New Base'), is a must-read, too; it has some good news in it.

Now, the comment in question, and many thanks BNMP, whoever you are:

Understanding the Religious-Right

Well, I personally think that religion is what happened on election day Nov 2. I attended my local Kerry/Edwards party on Tuesday. The problem of the religious-right came up. We all agreed that something is going to have to be done about these religious people. However, I get the impression that most Democrats don't understand the religious-right, who they are and how they break down. As a person that grow up in the Charismatic Church from age 4 to age 13, I can help with this. I am not an expert, but I can give the basics.

The top reasons for being a Republican are the following: 1)Greed, 2) Religion, 3)Fear(losing guns or terrorists), 4)Racism

The threat to the Republican are the following: 1)People of Color, 2) Regular people, 3) Poor people.

Well, the republicans targeted one of their threats through the religious-right. This threat would be the people of color. They made some successful inroads in this area. The black vote went from 9% in 2000 to 13% in 2004 nationally. The Latinos in Florida went wild for Bush this year. We should think about Texas, there are tons of people of all kinds of colors. However, there is a lot of religious-right influences in this state.

The primary threat to the Democrats is the Pat Robertson crowd of churches. These churches break-down into the following categories:1)Charismatics, 2)Pentecostals, 3)Assembly of God, 4)Church of God, )Evangelicals, 6)Evangelical Free, 7)Full Gospel, 8)Foursquare Gospel, 9)Apostolic, 10) what is called the Five-Fold ministry. Watch churches that call themselves 11)into Prophecy, 12)Faith-based ministry, 13)Non-denominational, 14)Inter-denominational

The secondary threat to the Democrats are the Jerry Falwell crowd of churches.
These churches break-down into the following categories: 1) Fundamental Baptists, 2) Independent Baptists, 3)Southern Baptists, 4) Some of the white General  Baptist churches.

The above is the real threat to Democrats. Now, some of you may not know any people like this or kids. This isn't a surprise to me. Many of these types of Christians in Robertson's and  Falwell's Fundamental/Independent Baptist crowd shelter their lives and children from the real world. Many of their children are home schooled or go to Christian schools. Christian school is very different from Catholic, Private or Prep schools.  Christian schools are not as focused on education or technology, but religion and discipline (corporal punishment is strong in many Christian schools). Examples of Christian schools are the following:   Evangelical Christian school, Christian Academy of Knoxville, Temple Baptist Academy , Knoxville Christian School. There are so many more of these schools in Knoxville and state of Tennessee and all around the country.  I would not recommend them academically. My Mom put me in one and I paid for it academically until high school. I was way behind when I went to public school in 7th grade. Teachers in these schools are often hired on their religious affiliation and not their qualifications. There curriculums are all written by religious people and that is the only reason they use them not because they are the best. I can't stand the Abeka curriculum. Other curriculums are Bob Jones Press, and Saxon.

These types are Christians send their kids to colleges like the following: Oral Roberts University(OK), Bob Jones University(SC), Brigham Young University(UT), Liberty University- Falwell's University(VA), Lee University(TN), Johnson Bible College(TN), Crown College(TN), David Lipscomb University(TN) etc.. these types of universities are all around the country as well.

I think Democrats need to find away to go after the Religious-Right. A good place to learn about the Religious-Right is to watch Christian television. In my area, we have 3 stations on our basic cable of this. All of these networks are run by Charismatic/Pentecostal type of Christians These would be the following: 1) Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN), 2) Christian Television Network, 3) INSP - The Inspiration Network, 4) Sometimes you will see things on PAX, the program Worship comes on late at night between 12:00AM and 4:00AM or 5:00AM. It the kind of worship that would be common in a Pat Robertson type of church.

I can tell you what types of sermons you will hear in the Charismatic/Pentecostal Church. Their sermons tend to be based on the following: 1)Prosperity, 2) Seed Faith, 3)Tithes/Offering, 4)Supernatural Healing, 5) Self-perfection,  6)Salvation and  7)Morality.

You won't hear much about the following:1) Love thy neighbor, 2)Helping people, 3)Helping the poor and 4)Kindness. However, you may hear that the poor are cursed because they don't live for God, pay tithes or sow seed.

Fundamental Baptist preach a lot about what is wrong with other faiths and salvation.


The directory of Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches


Assembly of God Home page
AG Colleges
Church Directory

Religions that are fairly new, but growing and something to watch or be concerned about:


Catholic Charismatic


Charismatic Episcopal

You should also keep in mind that cults like the Jim Jones/Jonestown
and David Koresh
 Both of these guys came out of the Charismatic Church. The power of many Charismatic preachers is amazing. They can suck all kinds of people up. David killed some very educated people and people of color.