“I think Pastor Ted is Gandalf"

Can't wait for the slash fiction.

Yikes. I kept finding passages on that site I was going to paste here as a holy-crap-this-is-insane kind of thing, and then I'd read on and find something worse.
When did "Christian fundamentalist" come to have a meaning that has nothing to do with the fundamental teachings of Christ? I was raised in a relatively conservative Christian household, where it was constantly reinforced that we, along with everyone else, had no business judging anyone. The way to "spread Christianity" was to set a good example, to be kind and patient and thus to quietly make an impression on anyone who might be looking for it. I know that this "I have moral authority and therefore I have the right, and the duty, to tell you what to do" thing is nothing new, but it makes me very sad and scared and, most of all, angry.
Over the years, I've discarded most of the basic Biblical stuff I was taught, but if anything has stuck with me, it's stuff like the passages quoted here:
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2005/05/private_propert.html

I admit I thought of that too when I first saw the thread title. What a great alternate Lord of the Rings that would be. Dougal as both Merry and Pippin...

I read that article in print. There's another great one about the budding Christian Fascist movement in the same issue that is even more scary. Man I love Harper's.

something i read the other day amused me... fundamentalism's earliest 20th roots were "an attempt to reverse through tolerance some of the negative splintering effects of Protestantism..."

the idea was, "find the fundamentals of christian faith so we can have something to agree on and forget about our differences."

a shame that it's been used to draw a circle which has turned into a 50ft stone wall that says, "if it's outside of that circle, it's WRONG... and so are you!!!"

and like kirsten pointed out, funny how they grew the circle to include a bunch of random shinola just the same as anybody else...
m.

Interesting piece about Ted Haggard's past experience with fighting demonic forces first hand.

http://toiletpaperonline.typepad.com/the_blog/2005/06/too_late_haggar.html

Though the book Primary Purpose isn't new, Noel Black over at the Toilet Paper Blog combed through it and found lots of funny and disturbing stuff about Ted's views on covens, warlocks, demon battle

I love the paintings that accompany this article, especially the one of the bald naked guy getting honey poured over him by vestal maidens.

SUBTLE

FECK!