Dominionism - "The Despoiling of America"

[webglider]

Here are some links to Christine Amanpour's CNN Series "God's Warriors" on You Tube which follows extremist Christian, Jewish, and Muslim groups.

The rise of Blackwater and teenage Christian warriors seem to parallel the SS and the Brownshirts of Nazi Germany.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxc50X0ab8o&feature=related

 

[Laura]

Conquering by Stealth and Deception - How the Dominionists Are Succeeding in Their Quest for National Control and World Power

By Katherine Yurica

September 14, 2004

Paul Weyrich’s Secret Manual on How to Win Politically

Since the writing and posting of my essay, The Despoiling of America in February 2004, there is more and more evidence that not only has a cultural war been launched, but that the plotters are winning it. “Dominionism” now looks more like a term that is applicable to both right-wing-religious believers and to the neo-cons who were created and born in an astonishing resurgence of an immoral Machiavellianism: both groups believe in domination and control. While religious adherents adopted a decidedly heretical Christian doctrine,[1] the neo-cons continue to use the American churches to help execute their cabal. It was expressed this way by a Yurica Report talk board participant:

“One of the more sinister aspects of the current crisis is the influence of Leo Strauss on the pro-war, “neo-cons” who are determining so much of our foreign policy. While the Christian right thinks it is running the show, Leo Strauss’ irreligious philosophy is actually in control. Strauss believed that the rulers should not be religious, but should use religion to manage the people — which he evidently regarded as a stupid herd. He also believed that a state of war was great for controlling and directing the masses. So it’s all come together: the weirdest book of the bible [Revelations], with its mysterious disasters; the scheming behind the scenes warmongers and an incident of terrorism that has served admirably as the Project for a New American Century’s hoped-for ‘new Pearl Harbor.’” Adrien Rain

Americans and the main-stream media have been very slow in catching on to the fact that we are in a war—a war that is cultural, religious and political. One document not mentioned in The Despoiling of America is the closeted manual that reveals how the right wing in American politics can get and keep power. It was created under the tutelage of Paul Weyrich, the man who founded the Free Congress Foundation. Conservative leaders consider Weyrich to be the “most powerful man in American politics today.” There is no question of his immense influence in conservative circles. He is also considered the founder of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank made possible with funding from Joseph Coors and Richard Mellon-Scaife. Weyrich served as the Founding President from 1973-1974.

To get a sense of how revolutionary the political fight for power in the U.S. is, we need to look at a few quotes from what has been dubbed, “Paul Weyrich’s Teaching Manual,” the Free Congress Foundation’s strategic plan on how to gain control of the government of the U.S. Written by Eric Heubeck, and titled, “The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement,” the document is no longer available at the Free Congress Foundation’s website for obvious reasons. But excerpts are published at the Yurica Report. The excerpts explain why the Dominionists are winning; the tactics they endorse are sheer Machiavellian:

I have paraphrased the four immoral principles of the Dominionist movement as the following:

1) Falsehoods are not only acceptable, they are a necessity. The corollary is: The masses will accept any lie if it is spoken with vigor, energy and dedication.

2) It is necessary to be cast under the cloak of “goodness” whereas all opponents and their ideas must be cast as “evil.”

3) Complete destruction of every opponent must be accomplished through unrelenting personal attacks.

4) The creation of the appearance of overwhelming power and brutality is necessary in order to destroy the will of opponents to launch opposition of any kind.

According to Jeffry Sharlet, Hitler’s Mein Kampf and William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich are studied as textbooks in a particular leadership training group he wrote about in Harper’s magazine.

Eric Heubeck, the author of Mr. Weyrich’s manual, does not mince words. Here is a sample of the most immoral political program ever adopted by a political movement in this country. Notice that the manual begins with the adoption of the fundamental fact of Machiavellianism:

“This essay is based on the belief that the truth of an idea is not the primary reason for its acceptance. Far more important is the energy and dedication of the idea’s promoters—in other words, the individuals composing a social or political movement…

“We must, as Mr. Weyrich has suggested, develop a network of parallel cultural institutions existing side-by-side with the dominant leftist cultural institutions. The building and promotion of these institutions will require the development of a movement that will not merely reform the existing post-war conservative movement, but will in fact be forced to supersede it—if it is to succeed at all—because it will pursue a very different strategy and be premised on a very different view of its role in society….

“There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular culture….

“Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions….

“We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment’s rest. We will endeavor to prove that the Left does not deserve to hold sway over the heart and mind of a single American. We will offer constant reminders that there is an alternative, there is a better way. When people have had enough of the sickness and decay of today’s American culture, they will be embraced by and welcomed into the New Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the existing society by the people will thus be accomplished by pushing them and pulling them simultaneously.

“We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime…

“We must create a countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities, multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths…

“We will be results-oriented rather than good intentions-oriented. Making a good-faith effort and being ideologically sound will be less important than advancing the goals of the movement…

“We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that attracts those kinds of people….We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple terms….”

In actuality, the concept that dominionist minded conservatives should establish parallel or dual institutions is a new form of segregation. This is especially apparent when a conservative institution offers the same services or products as the liberal oriented institutions. In other words, if it is not possible for dominionists to takeover or grab power in every institution—they create a parallel world so that the left is to be separated and segregated from the right and conservatives are urged to purchase from the conservative institutions.

The fact that Weyrich’s plan has actually been instituted is all around us. The Council on Foreign Relations is mimicked by the secretive dominionist Council for National Policy. [2] The so called “liberal” press is countered with Fox News and Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, and dominionist talk show hosts spew their right wing political views and venom from coast to coast. Public schools are countered with private home and chartered schools. And in the last few months a move has been made within the churches to break-up and divide denominations along the lines of conservative beliefs in certain social issues so that two sets of churches will be created: one that practices right wing politics and one that is liberal!

It almost mimics what Jesus said he would do in the Bible: those on the Lord’s left will be cast into outer darkness, those on the Lord’s right will be the chosen elect, the over-comers of God’s people. This biblical imagery appears to be a powerful biblical affirmation for church-goers who desire to be on the Lord’s “right” politically as well—until one realizes that when the two groups of people stand facing the Lord—the mirror image is reversed: those on his right will be those facing him on the left; those on the Lord’s left will be those facing him on the Lord’s right! It’s just an aside, but it suggests to me that justice will actually be done, when the Lord says, “I never knew you” to those who loudly proclaim their hypocritical religious devotion to him, while ignoring his command to feed the poor and cloth the naked. The biblical passage goes on to say that those about to be cast out ask, “When did we fail to feed the poor and cloth the naked?” The answer is: “In as much as you did it unto the least of these my children—you did it unto me.” When dominionists seek to privatize medicare and social security, and deregulate corporate controls on whole industries, so that the poor and needy become poorer and needier, they have done it to the Lord.


The Myth of Terrorism and How the Corporate Complex Joined the Power Grab

Yes! To this thought I hold with firm persistence;
The last result of wisdom stamps it true:
He only earns his freedom and existence,
Who daily conquers them anew.
Thus here, by dangers girt, shall glide away
Of childhood, manhood, age, the vigorous day:
And such a throng I fain would see,--
Stand on free soil among a people free!
Then dared I hail the Moment fleeing:
“Ah, still delay—thou art so fair!”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, from Faust

The entire strategic conversion of the U.S.A. and its constitutional order into a theocratic corporate market-state is based upon an alleged threat to the “security” of the country. The political analysis of how, why and the historical “necessity” for the market-state has been laid out in a book for all of us to read. It’s the road map that joins the corporate world with the religious world.

The eloquent analysis from an eloquent and brilliant mind can be found and read in: The Shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbitt. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002. Almost the entire book was written prior to September 11, 2001; however Bobbitt made insertions into his text to account for 9/11’s impact upon America’s foreign and domestic policies. Bobbitt uses Shell's Scenario Planning as his model to test possible scenarios in risk planning for the future. His book was being offered for sale at several think tank web sites when I decided to purchase it. He is a lawyer--professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. Inscriptions in two of his books show that he may have had a recent Christian conversion experience. He's a brilliant man. He was a fellow at King's College, London, in the War Studies Department and was counselor on international law at the Department of State. He was the director of intelligence, senior director for critical infrastructure and senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council (under Clinton). He cites Condoleezza Rice' writings several times in the book.

Time Magazine published Bobbitt's essay explaining his book on September 9, 2002. He wrote:

“If September 11 is the forerunner of a new world conflict, coping with the conflict could bring a new constitutional order in its wake. In the 21st century, what might be called ‘market states’ could replace nation-states. Market states will have the same borders and political systems as nation-states but will shift important responsibilities from government to the private sector; multinational corporations will become surrogate agents of government, filling roles that government can no longer play and blurring the boundaries between political and corporate leadership....”

My response to Mr. Bobbitt is this: Corporations are not democratic bodies. They do not make good governments. (I have 20 years of experience working within a corporate entity that attempts to govern a community. Its record is dismal; it acknowledges no constitutional rights for its citizens. Only the bylaws and Articles of Incorporation hold sway and even these are frequently broken should it be advantageous for the board to do so.)

I call Bobbitt a dominionist based on his political preferences and his religious leanings. For instance Bobbitt prefers the privatization of medical care, social security, pensions and schools. (At page 671.) He prefers the discouragement of government regulations of any kind and will tolerate income disparities. He prefers that job creation be achieved at the cost of job security. And he prefers an all-volunteer military. [3]

Moreover, Bobbitt prefers a laizze faire “entrepreneurial” market-state that is confrontational to workers as opposed to two other possible market states which he creates as models: The “mercantile model” (in which he says consumer opportunities are sacrificed to the long-term opportunities of the society as a whole) and the “managerial model,” which he says is often called the Soziale Marktwirtschaft, (p. 672) (Social Free-Market Economy) that provides a social safety net for society. Thus Bobbitt places himself completely in line with the political right’s agenda. Moreover, while holding the Christian banner aloft, he that Christianity betrays. For he willingly places corporate business interests above the welfare of the people. In my understanding of the scriptures, Bobbitt’s model is not a Christian model—it is in fact the antithesis of Christianity. (In this I agree with Jimmy Carter.)

One of the more astonishing statements I came across in Bobbitt’s discussion and praise for the entrepreneurial market-state is this:

“The Entrepreneurial Model tends to loosen the identification that citizens feel with the larger polity: autonomy and individual achievement are so prized and the consumption of particular goods so meaningful an act of self-definition that the citizens of these states ‘invent’ their citizenships, identifying themselves with those subgroups within the state with whom they share a consumption pattern.” (Page 670.)

Mr. Bobbitt has just described corporate heaven! But in reality, Bobbitt is envisioning a Faustian perversity, for he replaces Faust’s vision of a free people standing on free land—the American ideal—with a vision of citizens identifying with their peers based on each other’s pattern of purchases. Faust was willing to give his eternal soul for his vision of freedom. What price does Bobbitt and the religious-right pay for their vision I wonder?

Let’s look at another vision. This one is based in fear. Bobbitt regards terrorist groups as “virtual states.” What an incredible elevation of the Mafia concept. We are asked to accept superpower equivalence for those criminals who have the imagination to network! Hence the war against the virtual state can last 100 years or more. Bobbitt’s emersion in war and his fear of attacks blinds him to issues of what is moral in warfare. He lumps retaliatory military strikes by the U.S. for an attack upon the U.S. with pre-emptive strikes against an alleged enemy.

I want to contrast two passages. One is written by Bobbitt, the other by Mr. Bush’s writers. First Mr. Bobbitt:

“…[N]uclear weapons strategy, clandestine intelligence collection, and covert action sometimes require a level of secrecy that is incompatible with open government or even the relation between parliamentary oversight and the citizenry that links government to the people… It is simply absurd to think that a system of nuclear deterrence could be maintained if the president had to go to Congress for a declaration of war before launching a retaliatory or pre-emptive strike.” (p. 235)

In September, 2002, Mr. Bush delivered a document to congress titled, “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” In it congressmen read:

“For centuries, international law recognized that nations need not suffer an attack before they can lawfully take action to defend themselves against forces that present an imminent danger of attack…. We must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today’s adversaries. Rogue states and terrorists do not seek to attack us using conventional means…Instead, they rely on acts of terror and, potentially, the use of weapons of mass destruction—weapons that can be easily concealed, delivered covertly, and used without warning…To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively.”

Mr. Bush needs war. Mr. Bobbitt sells the idea of the necessity of war in this quote:

“There is a widespread view that war is simply a pathology of the State, that healthy states will not fight wars. This view ignores the role strategy plays in the formation and continuance of states. War, like law, sustains the State by giving it the means to carry out its purposes of protection, preservation, and defense.” (p. 780)

How Machiavellian Mr. Bobbitt sounds. Peace is bad for us. And war is not only good—it’s a necessity.

I would add this: Mr. Bush’s April, 2004 press conference brought a new vision I had not heard before: “America” he said, “is called to bring freedom and liberty to the people of the world.” It immediately reminded me of Pat Robertson’s phrases. The words “liberty” and “freedom” had special meaning to him and to “Christians” like Patrick Henry: “Liberty carries a heavy responsibility. It demands Christian self government…” (This definition was offered on the 700 Club on July 1, 1986.)

Does Mr. Bush mean that the U.S. will preemptively invade other “heathen” and “uncivilized” nations and establish “Christian” governments over them? Maybe.

Lastly, in closing his book, Philip Bobbitt reiterates his own uppermost emotion: “We are entering a fearful time, a time that will call on all our resources, moral as well as intellectual and material…” He then closes his amazing work with this:

“I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year: ‘Give me a light, that I might tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’” (p. 823)

As a Christian, I always thought that God was light or illumination and this is particularly true because Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." I also took to heart Psalm 23: where we are taught “to fear no evil.” In the end, all that Philip Bobbitt has is the fact that he is surrounded by darkness. He has placed his hand in the hand of someone he thought was God, but he cannot really see who it is that is holding his hand.

Pity the nation that submerges itself in fear and its rhetoric. Americans and the British did not get through WWII by dwelling on fear. They did not overcome their enemies by cowering in the darkness and placing their hands in the hand of an unknown stranger. They won because they overcame their fears and outfought their enemies. That is our task once again. These are not “fearful” times. These are the days of creativity and courage. Since when has any nation trembled before a handful of criminals? Call them what you may—Pirates? Outlaws? Gangs? Or Goliath? They have never had a future much less a projection of a hundred years of successful criminality. Our world has never been safe from dangers: mankind has been subjected to earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, diseases, accidents, and has not death visited both the young and old? But civilization keeps marching on. Let us never follow false leaders into the valley of fear ever again.

Notes:

[1] The doctrine that Christians should seek worldly power and use it to dominate the culture of any country they occupy was first expressed by Pat Robertson on his 700 Club show in the 1980’s. On his 700 Club television show (5-1-86) Robertson said:

“God’s plan is for His people, ladies and gentlemen to take dominion…What is dominion? Well, dominion is Lordship. He wants His people to reign and rule with Him…but He’s waiting for us to…extend His dominion…And the Lord says, ‘I’m going to let you redeem society. There’ll be a reformation….We are not going to stand for those coercive utopians in the Supreme Court and in Washington ruling over us any more. We’re not gonna stand for it. We are going to say, ‘we want freedom in this country, and we want power…’”

Robertson said on his program the 700 Club (5-13-86):

“We’ve sat idly by long enough and said, ‘Well religion and politics don’t mix.’ Don’t you believe it. If we don’t have moral people in government then the only other people that can be in government are immoral. That’s the only way it goes. Either you have moral people in there or you have immoral people.”

[2] The Council for National Policy (CNP) was founded in 1981 when Timothy LaHaye (author of the Left Behind series) became the organization's first president. LaHaye is credited with the idea of the organization. The CNP has been cloaked in secrecy since its inception. The organization holds three meetings each year to plan the strategy for implementing its agenda. The activists meet with their financial backers who put up the money to execute the agenda of the institution. The membership list and any speeches made to the members are kept in strict secrecy. White House officials have appeared before the group, including President Bush, but their remarks have been held in secrecy. The Yurica Report obtained a list of members from several years prior that reveal the heavy weights in the Christian and hard right dominionist movement. Here is a sample: Gary Bauer, Pat Boone, Grover Norquist, Dr. Gary North and R. J. Rushdoony, (North's father-in-law, the founder of the Christian Reconstructionist and Dominionist movement), Lt. Col. Oliver North, Pat Robertson, James Robinson, Howard J. Ruff, Nelson Bunker Hunt, Howard Ahmanson, Jr., Phyllis Schlafly, Bob Jones, III, Jack Kemp, Alan Keyes, Dr. James Kennedy, Beverly LaHaye, Tim LaHaye, Marlin Maddoux, Peter Marshall, Jr., Dr. James Dobson, Jeffrey Coors, Joseph Coors, Bill Bright, Major General John K. Singlaub, Lt. General Gordon Sumner, Jerry Falwell, Father Charles Fiore, Alan Gottlieb, Lt. General Daniel O. Graham, Edwin Meese, Paul Weyrich, John W. Whitehead, Rev. DonaldWildmon, Pierre du Pont, Ann Drexel, Arnaud deBorchgrave, Richard DeVos, Terry Dolan, Sen. William Dannemeyer, Jesse Helms, etc.

[3] This latter point of an all-volunteer military may appear to be a surprising inclusion. However, it's worth looking at the dangers of an all-volunteer military. Dr. M. Scott Peck in his book The People of the Lie writes :

“A draft--involuntary service--is the only thing that can keep our military sane. Without it the military will inevitably become not only specialized in its function but increasingly specialized in its pyschology. No fresh air will be let in. It will become inbred and reinforce its own values, and then, when it is once again let loose, it will run amok as it did in Vietnam. A draft is a painful thing. But so are insurance premiums; and involuntary service is the only way we have of ensuring the sanity of our military ‘left hand.’ The point is that if we must have a military at all, it should hurt. As a people we should not toy with the means of mass destruction without being willing to personally bear the responsibility of wielding them. If we must kill, let us not select and train hired killers to do the dirty job for us and then forget that there's any blood involved. If we must kill, then let us honestly suffer the agony involved ourselves. Otherwise we will insulate ourselves from our own deeds, and as a whole people we will become like the individuals described in previous sections: evil. For evil arises in the refusal to acknowledge our own sins.” (At page 232)

 

[webglider]

In actuality, the concept that dominionist minded conservatives should establish parallel or dual institutions is a new form of segregation. This is especially apparent when a conservative institution offers the same services or products as the liberal oriented institutions. In other words, if it is not possible for dominionists to takeover or grab power in every institution—they create a parallel world so that the left is to be separated and segregated from the right and conservatives are urged to purchase from the conservative institutions.

The entire strategic conversion of the U.S.A. and its constitutional order into a theocratic corporate market-state is based upon an alleged threat to the “security” of the country. The political analysis of how, why and the historical “necessity” for the market-state has been laid out in a book for all of us to read. It’s the road map that joins the corporate world with the religious world.

These quotes from Laura's post seem to imply an intentionality in separating the Christian Right from main stream institutions - in this case the economy - by creating their own parallel Christian based economy which was the subject of a former post of mine.

Since the deregulation of many aspects of main stream financial institutions occurred under a mostly controlled Republican congress, a number of whom were/are conservative Christians, I wonder if there was a plan to build up a separate Christian economy while creating conditions which would allow the mainstream institutions to fail.

In trying to follow this line of thought, the following question of Cui Bono arises: How would the Christian Right benefit from engineering an economic collapse in the United States? Are they hoping for social unrest which would give the perfect excuse to unleash Blackwater on the general population.

Were companies linked to the Christian Right registered to sell stocks in their companies?

 

[Gaby]

Puts in a better perspective Matt Damon's questioning about Sarah Palin, "I need to know if she really think that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago."

Ride the Ark with Noah and Tyrannosaurus Rex

_http://www.counterbias.com/877.html

May 2 2007
Counterbias.com
MEL SEESHOLTZ

Bill Maher drew fire when he said that Christian fundamentalists (and other religious zealots) suffer from a “neurological disorder” that “stops [them] from thinking.” He was right, sort of. Religious fundamentalism may not, strictly speaking, be a neurological disorder. But it certainly is a pathology that prevents rational thinking and leads to the advocacy of ignorance, stupidity and hate.

Consider the new $27 million, 60,000 square-foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, scheduled to open May 28, 2007. The brain-dead concoction of Answers in Genesis, the “creation-science” museum features exhibits of human children playing with dinosaurs in Eden.

AIG founder and president Ken Ham maintains that since the Bible explicitly says the world was created in six regular days, dinosaurs co-existed with man. Indeed, Mr. Ham has authored a book titled Dinosaurs of Eden. But if that $9.99 title is too expensive, try another of Mr. Ham’s titles – What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? – in which he explains how “the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history, and solving the mystery of when they lived and what happened to them.” And all that bible-based “knowledge” is on sale for just fifty cents on AIG’s web site.

Some of Mr. Ham’s other “scientific” arguments and exhibit information at the Creation Museum are that Tyrannosaurus rex was a strict vegetarian, every kind of dinosaur was among the passengers on Noah’s ark, dinosaurs went extinct only a few hundred years ago, and the waters from Noah’s flood quickly carved the Grand Canyon just a few thousand years ago.

But there’s still more at AIG’s Creation Museum, as Andy Mead noted in his Lexington Herald-Leader article. There’s more “scientific” absurdities:

"The museum has a planetarium. But its programs, unlike those at other planetariums, will say that the light from the stars we see did not take millions of years to get here. …"

And there’s even some “sociological” ones:

There also will be an exhibit suggesting that belief in evolution is the root of most of modern society’s evils. It shows models of children leaving a church where the minister believes in evolution. Soon the girl is on the phone to Planned Parenthood, while the boy cruises the Internet for pornography sites.

The “root of evil” theme was echoed by the president of Creation Worldview Ministries, Grady McMirty – “a full-time creation evangelist who travels the world teaching Christian and secular audiences about the scientific evidence supporting the biblical view of creationism” – when he claimed that teaching the reality-based theory of evolution was largely responsible for the massacre at Virginia Tech. McMirty’s nonsensical rant was the focus of a story carried by One News Now, the reincarnation of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association’s Agape Press propaganda organ, which is notorious for its own pathologies.

Let’s be honest. Only someone with a neurological disorder or a pathological need to promote stupidity and ignorance in the name of a bible-based, fairy tale worldview would argue for “scientific” answers in Genesis or that “belief in evolution is the root of most of modern society’s evils.” When one considers the realities unveiled by quantum mechanics, Einstein’s relativity and, more recently membrane theory, the pathology called “the biblical worldview” and the mental disorder – or more likely the ulterior motives – of those advocating it become clearer and even more sinister.

Mr. Ham – whose real-world compensation is reported to be $120,000 a year – and his profitable non-profit organization want people to disregard all scientific knowledge and empirical evidence and believe that the myths in Genesis are literal history. Like Jerry Falwell, they want everyone to believe “the Bible is the inerrant...word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible, without error in all matters [including] geography, science, history.” And, of course, these bible-bleating Christian leaders want the sheeple to send money to support their “ministries” of stupidity and ignorance… and the posh lifestyles these spokesmen for “God” enjoy.

Beyond money, there’s power. AIG and its Creation Museum – affectionately dubbed “The Fred and Wilma Flintstone Museum” by mainstream scientists – may be quirky media curiosities, but they do help divert attention from the machinations of their brethren in the dominionist movement, many of whom are also involved with the ultra-conservative star-chamber known as The Council for National Policy.

From Chris Hedges’ book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America:

Dominionism is a theocratic sect with its roots in a radical Calvinism. It looks to the theocracy John Calvin implanted in Geneva, Switzerland, in the 1500s as its political model. It teaches that American Christians have been mandated by God top make America a Christian state. … Dominionism preaches that Jesus has called on Christians to build the kingdom of God in the here and now … America becomes, in this militant biblicism, an agent of God, and all political and intellectual opponents of America’s Christian leaders are view, quite simply, as agents of Satan. Under Christian dominionism … the 10 Commandments for the basis of our legal system, creationism and “Christian values” form the basis of our educational system, and the media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all. Labor unions, civil-rights laws and public schools will be abolished. [links and italics added; the three “dominionism” links are to different reference sources]

Theocracy Watch offers extensive information about dominionism, its history and its advocates. The links in this excerpt provide a summary:

The theocratic right seeks to establish dominion, or control over society in the name of God. D. James Kennedy, Pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries, calls on his followers to exercise “godly dominion ... over every aspect ... of human society.”

At a “Reclaiming America for Christ” conference in February, 2005, Kennedy said: “Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors – in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.”

The names and organizations of the Christian Right’s leading dominionists are well known: James Dobson and Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council, Louis Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coalition, Don Wildmon and the American Family Association. But there are less well-known ones who exert considerable influence. The Southern Poverty Law Center just put together mini-profiles of some of them in the African-American community. How odd that those who were once subjected to slavery and horrific discrimination by those advocating a previous version of “the biblical worldview” would now use the same tactics to engender hate and oppress others:

Bishop Wellington Boone [of] Norcross, Ga. A spokesman for the patriarchal and largely white Promise Keepers evangelical men’s movement, sidekick to Focus on the Family leader James Dobson and a popular guest on the “700 Club” hosted by Pat Robertson and his Christian Broadcasting Network, Bishop Wellington Boone preaches that homosexuality unchecked “will result in the ultimate destruction of society.”

Boone is a strict Christian “dominionist” who advocates replacing constitutional democracy with Biblical law. …

Rev. Keith Butler [of] Detroit, Mich. The Rev. Keith Butler is the pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center, which has more than 22,000 members. Called “one of the Detroit area's most outspoken opponents of homosexuality” by the Detroit Metro Times, Butler wrote in a 2003 Detroit Free Press editorial that “the gay lifestyle is based on a behavior choice that endangers family, children, and the core of society. … The attempt to push this decadent lifestyle into mainstream society … is simply wrong.”

Ironically, Butler’s church has produced several gay pastors, such as the Rev. James Karl Jackson of Detroit.

A Republican since 1980, Butler served one term on the Detroit City Council before running for the U.S. Senate last fall. He said God handpicked him to clear out Democrats, who are “on the wrong side of Judeo-Christian issues.”

Science is the primary target of creationists. Gay Americans and civil equality are among the main targets of dominionists. Both groups are predominately Republican. As Andy Mead noted in his article about AIG’s Creation Museum,

When the Gallup Poll asked people about their views on the subject [of human origins] in March, 47 percent of the Americans polled said that God created humans pretty much in their present form some time in the last 10,000 years. That belief was strongest among those with less education, regular churchgoers, people 65 and older, and Republicans [italics added].

Ultra-conservative Republicans and bible-thumping dominionsts are beyond the reach of reason and rationality. Not surprisingly, education is their archenemy. Perhaps that’s why they’re among the chief supporters of creation museums. (Others are being built in Arkansas, Texas, California, and Florida.) They need to corrupt the minds of the young to make sure the future moves backwards. And what better way to do that than with animated fairy tales masquerading as education. From Andy Mead’s article:

[But Eugenie Scott, a former University of Kentucky anthropologist who is director of the California-based National Center for Science Education, said the information provided in the [AIG creation] museum “is not even close to standard science.”

Scott visited the museum recently as part of a British Broadcasting Corp. radio program. Although she didn't get a tour, she saw enough to know that the museum will be professionally done. And, she says, that's worrisome.

“There are going to be students coming into the [science] classroom and saying, ‘I just went to this fancy museum and everything you’re telling me is rubbish,’” Scott said./quote]

Bill Maher was right, sort of. A neurological disorder is something one does not choose to have. But choosing to twist and warp education in order to advance ignorance and stupidity defines pathology. Choosing to twist and warp religion in order to advocate discrimination and hate and conjure a theofascist state defines pathology.

Is this for real? :(

 

[Scottie]

In trying to follow this line of thought, the following question of Cui Bono arises: How would the Christian Right benefit from engineering an economic collapse in the United States? Are they hoping for social unrest which would give the perfect excuse to unleash Blackwater on the general population.

It seems to me that it's the old "do evil in order to do good" thing that these people seem to cling to. If the economy is in shambles, the people will accept whomever steps up to the plate and promises "salvation", both materially and spiritually. If they can make a ton of people believe that Saddam and 9/11 were linked, they can make people believe that pigs can fly and that dinosaurs not only were around 4,000 years ago, but that they're actually still around - especially when people are starving, jobless, etc.

Even in the Great Depression, there were some institutions that did okay. So one possibility is that some banks for example will weather the impending crash, and those will be the ones that are controlled by the religious fanatics. Problem solved!

:O

 

[PepperFritz]

In trying to follow this line of thought, the following question of Cui Bono arises: How would the Christian Right benefit from engineering an economic collapse in the United States? Are they hoping for social unrest which would give the perfect excuse to unleash Blackwater on the general population.

It's not so much how they WOULD benefit, but how they BELIEVE they would benefit. These people want the world to be "re-made" in their image, according to their simplistic black-and-white ideas of how things should work, who should be in charge, who should be rewarded, and who should be punished. That's why they're so hell-bent on war and destruction -- they believe that the only way to create the "new world" is to destroy the old one, and that includes its economic structure. If you were to point out to them that such destruction would negatively effect EVERYONE, including right-wing Christian fundamentalists, they would be completely unconcerned. Because at the heart of their belief is the idea that they are righteous and chosen, and therefore will not suffer in the coming destruction. Only the "bad" will be destroyed, while the "good" will be spared....

It's a textbook example of STS wishful thinking....

 

[Hildegarda]

an intentionality in separating the Christian Right from main stream institutions - in this case the economy - by creating their own parallel Christian based economy which was the subject of a former post of mine.

This is true. I have seen those christian business directories. The catchphrase "vote with your dollar" is also very common. They would boycott the undesirable mainstream businesses\chains, sometimes on the basis of a single incident that is against their "moral values", and flock to the stores run by one of their own.

It goes the opposite way too: a business of theirs would be barely breaking even, but they would keep it going almost as a community service to fellow Christians.

In trying to follow this line of thought, the following question of Cui Bono arises: How would the Christian Right benefit from engineering an economic collapse in the United States?

I don't know whether they have a master plan that includes such collapse, and whether they would benefit from that. Rather I think they are hoping to band together and weather whatever is coming. As in, safety in numbers. They are big on paranoia and walling up in their enclaves against the heathens.

Also, the business prosperity is a sign of god's blessing, so it's almost ones duty to be prosperous.

There is something else that I think is really, really important to understand. These people WANT THE WORLD TO END. They are PRAYING FOR IT sometimes even. They want all the prophecies of the Bible come true, they want the sin to be scorched and washed away -- and, they are certain that they would be among the righteous ones who would be raptured and lifted off before the brown matter hits the fan. And even if they aren't sure about rapture, they would still give anything to be in the kingdom of God, wherever its location may end up being, in heaven or here on earth. So the followers are cheering for every sign that the predictions are unfolding, and the leaders are doubtlessly working around the clock to fulfill the prophecies, and indeed those prophecies become self-fulfilling.

So, even if they wouldn't necessarily benefit directly from the collapse, in terms of survival and wealth accumulation - but the larger picture it represents can very much be to their liking.

osit

 

[anart]

There is something else that I think is really, really important to understand.  These people WANT THE WORLD TO END.  They are PRAYING FOR IT sometimes even.  They want all the prophecies of the Bible come true, they want the sin to be scorched and washed away -- and, they are certain that they would be among the righteous ones who would be raptured and lifted off before the brown matter hits the fan.  And even if they aren't sure about rapture, they would still give anything to be in the glory of God.   So the followers are cheering for every sign that the predictions are unfolding, and the leaders are doubtlessly working around the clock to fulfill the prophecies, and indeed those prophecies become self-fulfilling.

So, they wouldn't necessarily benefit from the collapse in terms of survival and wealth accumulation - but the larger picture it represents can very much be to their liking. 

Yep, this is true - and wishful thinking will getcha every time - which means that a lot of innocent people are going to die and there will be an enormous amount of societal and global loss - all for the fantasies of people who are sound asleep and lost in dreams of hate, fear and control.  Things will NOT go how they think they will - but as Lobaczewski said, 'Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the ground along with the human body whose death they are causing". 

And then, there is the idea that catastrophe mirrors the human experiential cycle, so as the madness ramps up, so do the 'earth changes' - all in all we really do have a front row seat for the 'really big shew'.  If 'all there is is lessons', then this is a time of difficult lessons, but perhaps in that fire, a new future will be born - a future these Dominionists cannot even fathom because it falls outside the bounds of hate, entropy and control.

 

[Mr. Premise]

Plus they think they will be raptured. So they think that all the tribulations that will happen to the rest of us is a good thing.

I had a conversation with a guy sitting next to me on a plane recently. I was reading Jane Jacobs's Dark Age Ahead and he remarked
about how his pastor had been telling him about this kind of stuff. He was in his 60s, was a high-level engineer/consultant, etc. We had
been speaking a bit earlier in the flight, but then he started to talk about Revelations and how bad things were going to get for those who weren't going to be raptured by the Lord. So I said something noncommital about how clearly things are coming to a head in the
world. Then he said that his pastor had been talking about how all our culture is so negative, and that 20 years ago (!), everything was
presented more positively. I again tried to be noncommittal and said something like, yes, the dark stuff in our culture happened gradually
and it was hard to see it unless you look back. He then said that blogs and everything always talk about how terrible everything is,
and if you say things are good, nobody likes it. That really surprised me because a moment earlier he had been talking about how
the world was coming to an end and most people would suffer horribly. It actually gave me a bit of cognitive dissonance talking to him.

The stuff they have been taught to think by their pastors doesn't make sense to people who think, but to them it does. It's hard to explain, but you get a weird feeling from it.

They are getting more open about talking about it to strangers, too.

In trying to follow this line of thought, the following question of Cui Bono arises: How would the Christian Right benefit from engineering an economic collapse in the United States? Are they hoping for social unrest which would give the perfect excuse to unleash Blackwater on the general population.

It's not so much how they WOULD benefit, but how they BELIEVE they would benefit. These people want the world to be "re-made" in their image, according to their simplistic black-and-white ideas of how things should work, who should be in charge, who should be rewarded, and who should be punished. That's why they're so hell-bent on war and destruction -- they believe that the only way to create the "new world" is to destroy the old one, and that includes its economic structure. If you were to point out to them that such destruction would negatively effect EVERYONE, including right-wing Christian fundamentalists, they would be completely unconcerned. Because at the heart of their belief is the idea that they are righteous and chosen, and therefore will not suffer in the coming destruction. Only the "bad" will be destroyed, while the "good" will be spared....

It's a textbook example of STS wishful thinking....

 

[Pierre]

There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular culture…

With Palin the world will certainly enter this third stage. It's probably a mere coincidence but Palin seems to be part of a subgroup of dominionism called "third wave", a revival of the third reich before the coming of the Wave ?

From http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/0244/84583

Palin's Churches and the Third Wave

Part One
History and Theology of the Third Wave

Sarah Palin has refused to acknowledge belonging to any specific denomination or any particular religious stream. However, it is now well documented that she spent her youth in an Assembly of God church and has regularly attended another AoG church, as well as two Independent Churches. At least three of four of these churches have close ties to prominent organizations and leaders in the Third Wave movement, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation.

This is a worldwide movement so completely ignored by the press that there is no single accepted term that has been coined for the identification for the group. In addition to Third Wave and New Apostolic Reformation, it is also referred to by the names of some of its more extreme theologies, such as Joel's Army and Manifest Sons of Destiny. Its roots are in a revival of the manifestations and beliefs of the New Order of Latter Rain which has been repeatedly condemned by the General Council of the Assemblies of God since 1949.

Palins's refusal to define her denominational background has resulted in much speculation about her religious beliefs and their impact on her worldview. An enormous amount of misinformation has resulted, since many of the writers lack the benefit of knowledge of these diverse theologies. Writers who are knowledgeable about the Third Wave movement have posted similar information on this site. However, this post is intended for use as a history and theology reference for the material in Part Two.

Part Two is documentation of the extensive links between these churches and major leaders of the Third Wave.

The following is a brief primer on the history of Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God (AoG), the largest Pentecostal denomination worldwide. This overview includes the development of a movement known as the Third Wave or New Apostolic Reformation, which has taken root not only in AoG and other Pentecostal denominations but across the Evangelical spectrum.

The Third Wave is one of the largest movements in Dominionism, a group of theologies that promote taking "dominion" over the social and governmental functions of the U.S. and the world. This material has previously been covered in much greater detail by writers on this site, but my purpose is to create a single summary that can be used as a foundation for those writing or blogging about this movement, but are unfamiliar with its history and theology. The Evangelical world is not monolithic, and many well intentioned writers and activists may do more harm than good in the coverage of Palin's churches. I plead with you to read this historical explanation before jumping to my next posting on Palin's churches.

Pentecostalism and Fundamentalism

Pentecostalism emerged almost exactly a hundred years ago. Its beginnings were simultaneous with the organization of the Fundamentalist movement, but distinct in many beliefs and practices. Fundamentalists emerged as an anti-modernist group drawn from many mainline Protestant denominations. The name Fundamentalism actually comes from a series of publications titled "The Fundamentals" sent to churches across the country, outlining the group's support of literal interpretation of the Bible. They organized in support of their shared beliefs and against the prevalence of the Social Gospel and perceived movement away from orthodox belief in the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy. (This is the theological meaning of the word Fundamentalism despite its current use as a synonym for extremism. I have capitalized theological terms in this post so they will not be confused with generic counterparts.)

Pentecostalism was preceded by the Holiness movement of the 1800s. A series of revival meeting which featured the "outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit" are considered the beginnings of the movement. It was believed that the emergence of these signs indicated a renewal of the supernatural gifts at the biblical Pentecost. The early Pentecostals believed that the bestowal of these gifts, such as speaking in tongues, were mission tools that would allow them to save the world for Christ before the end times. As it grew, the movement splintered into various cooperative fellowships, including Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Church of God (Cleveland), and International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Eventually the movement would result in literally thousands of denominations worldwide. Today the combined number of Pentecostals and related movements is estimated at 500 million people.

While sharing many beliefs, the Fundamentalists shunned Pentecostals. Fundamentalists generally believed that supernatural manifestations had ended with the New Testament Christians (cessationism) and objected to the ecstatic form of Pentecostal worship. Furthermore, Pentecostalism began as a racially integrated movement and included women in positions of leadership. Fundamentalists also differed in their end time theology (eschatology), since they had widely embraced Dispensationalism, the belief that the world is growing increasingly evil, and the church increasingly apostate, while the world is hurtling toward a cataclysmic end. True believers will be spared the horrors of the end time when they are secretly Raptured from the earth. Following the Rapture, those remaining will suffer through the horrors of the Tribulation, reign of the Antichrist, and the wars of Apocalypse until the return of Jesus. A detailed explanation of this doomsday timeline and the corresponding theology was developed in the mid 1800s by John Nelson Darby, and widely distributed through the use of the Scofield Bible. A distorted version was later popularized in the fiction of Hal Lindsay, and more recently, Tim LaHaye's Left Behind Series.

The Scopes evolution trial of 1925 marked a significant downturn in the status of the Fundamentalist movement in America. William Bell Riley and colleagues, who had recently formed the World Christian Fundamentals Association, hired William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution. The newly formed ACLU hired Clarence Darrow for the defense. Despite the fact that the Fundamentalists actually won their case, the ridicule they received from the public was credited with sending the movement on a culturally separatist path for decades. During the time of separation that followed, Dispensational belief spread rapidly through much of Pentecostalism, marginalizing its restoration impulses. Interesting hybrid theologies emerged as Pentecostals tried to fit their revivalist message into a Fundamentalist doomsday mold.

Evangelicalism

After World War II, several young Fundamentalists including Billy Graham, whom William Bell Riley personally chose as his successor to lead his bible college, decided to bring Fundamentalism back into mainstream society. This group of young Fundamentalists headed a movement to discard Fundamentalism's separatist nature and reintroduce their beliefs to a wider audience. The new neo-Evangelical movement, as it was known, used television to directly market their message to large audiences. Their remarkable successes resulted in the creation of an Evangelical umbrella that brought together a vast array of Fundamentalists from a variety of denominations and Pentecostals. The National Association of Evangelicals, the National Religious Broadcasters, and hundreds of cross-denominational entities were formed. A number of Pentecostal denominations joined the NEA, including the Assemblies of God.

Latter Rain

As Pentecostal denominations were developing institutionally and joining forces with the larger Evangelical body, a new revival was brewing. It was grounded in the ideas of Latter Rain, a theology that had, from the beginnings of Pentecostalism, been used to juxtapose their belief in their end time supernatural gifts with the imminent doomsday scenario of Dispensationalism. The New Order of the Latter Rain was led by faith healer William Branham. George Warnock wrote Feast of Tabernacles in 1951, considered to be the classic text of the movement.

These theologies greatly altered the doomsday narrative of Dispensationalism. Dispensationalists were consumed with the role `ethnic Jews' must play in the apocalyptic drama by returning to Israel and rebuilding the Temple. Warnock's Feast of Tabernacles redefined the Jewish feast days in Christian terms with each representing a fulfillment of the coming Kingdom of Jesus. The Feast of Tabernacles, which corresponds with the Jewish celebration of Sukkot, is not yet fulfilled. Its fulfillment signifies the manifestation of the Sons of God or Overcomers who would take dominion over the earth. There would be no more waiting passively for the Rapture. A non-denominational and global church not divided by doctrine would be restored through the Fivefold Ministry and recapture the earth from evil, therefore allowing the return of Jesus. The most extreme form of this theology included the idea that these Manifest Sons of Gods would achieve perfection of the saints and become like small gods themselves with great supernatural powers.

In 1949, the General Council of the Assemblies of God condemned the movement as heretical. The practices condemned included overemphasis on bestowing gifts by the laying on of hands, personal prophecy, Manifest Sons of God teachings, branding of those who denounced the movement, and more. Many left the Assembly of God to continue the movement. Others continued to blend together aspects of Dispensationalism with the ideas of Latter Rain. Many of the young leaders of the period like Paul Cain, Bill Hamon, and Oral Roberts would survive to lead another wave decades later. Since 1949 the term Latter Rain has been linked to the beliefs and manifestations of the condemned movement and therefore the term is sometimes avoided by its adherents.

Charismatic Movement

By the 1960s a new movement brought practices of Pentecostalism to mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. This was called the Charismatic movement, and was considered separate from Pentecostalism, as its participants sometimes stayed in their home denominations. This movement opened the door for a greater acceptance of charismatic style worship and belief outside of Pentecostalism. The Third Wave is sometimes referred to as the hyper-charismatic movement. However, Charismatics are not necessarily advocates of Third Wave beliefs.

The Third Wave

The Latter Rain heresy began to be revived in the 1960s by some who had been involved in the earlier movement and also by former hippies who became involved in the charismatic nature of the Jesus Movement. John Wimber (formerly keyboardist of the group that became the Righteous Brothers) is credited with reviving many of the ideas through the Vineyard Movement. Wimber was the founding director of the Department of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. C. Peter Wagner also taught in the program and later became head of the department. Through this program they introduced the concept of "Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth."

By the 1980s extensive revivals of the Latter Rain type manifestations began taking place. These included the Kansas City Prophets, Toronto Airport Blessing, and many other revivals, as well as the hundreds of ministries that have been built around this renewed movement. Wagner named the post-denominational movement New Apostolic Reformation, but it is also referred to as the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit, and Kingdom Now. The term Latter Rain is avoided by some because of its heretical connotations.
Manifestations of outpouring of the spirit at these revivals include holy laughter, slaying in the spirit, and episodes of uncontrollable jerking or shaking.

Again, in 2000, the General Council of the Assemblies of God confirmed the validity of 1949 ruling condemning Latter Rain in Resolution 16. The movement and its many unorthodox beliefs and manifestations are spelled out on the conference site. The heretical activities and belief include Dominion or Kingdom Now theology, Joel's Army, Manifest Sons of God, Prosperity Gospel, Birthing, and Generational Curses. However, this time the resistance by the Church has done little. The movement has overrun many Assemblies of God churches, as well as much of Pentecostalism, and has made incredible inroads into the larger body of Evangelicalism.

The movement is organized in the U.S. and around the world by networks of Apostles. The most extensive Apostolic network is headed by C. Peter Wagner, who has several hundred Apostles for whom he provides `Apostolic cover.' These Apostles then may have authority over hundreds or even thousands of churches or ministries, according to Wagner. Wagner is the founder of Global Harvest Ministries and the World Prayer Center, (sometimes jokingly referred to as the Pentagon of Spiritual Warfare) which shares the property of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. At the time of development of the center, the church was led by Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals before his scandal and departure.

Many of the unorthodox ideas of the Third Wave such as "spiritual mapping" and "strategic level spiritual warfare" were developed as missionary tools during the frenzy of missions that occurred by these groups in the lead up to the year 2000. Wagner developed a strategy for territorial spiritual warfare based on spiritual mapping. This idea came from Third Wave colleague Ed Silvoso who claimed to have used spiritual warfare to expel a warlock from the area of Arroyo Seco in Argentina which was blocking their efforts to plant churches. This supposedly cleared the way for the development of 82 new evangelical churches in the region. The methods of spiritual mapping were further developed and spread through the efforts of Wagner as a tool for world and U.S. missions.

The AD 2000 mission and focus on the 10/40 window (referring to all the countries that fall between the 10th and 40th parallel) were coordinated by Wagner and Luis Bush. Wagner writes in his book, 100 Gateway Cities, that the 10/40 window is targeted, "Because is a stronghold of Satan." The book maps out each country in the 10/40 window along with every group of unsaved peoples. Spiritual mapping, 24/7 intercessory prayer, and other data is now managed through the computer systems of the World Prayer Center. This was first publicized to the mainstream in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harper's Magazine, May 2005, titled "Soldiers of Christ."

Another Wagner partnership is with George Otis, Jr., creator of the Transformation Videos. These videos document the success of spiritual warfare in transforming various cities around the globe. This is based on the belief that transformation of social ills can only occur through the supernatural means of a unified Christian effort. It is the presence of demons and territorial spirits, witches, and generational curses that cause problems in society. If the demons are driven out through spiritual warfare, prayer, and fasting, then the community will have conquered the enemy. Crime and corruption will decline, crops will overproduce, and enormous vegetables will grow. The problems of environment degradation, lack of water, and other severe ecological problems can only be solved if communities take the necessary steps taught by the transformation ministries to get God to heal the land.

The first Transformation video was produced in 1999 and the idea of community transformation through this method continues to grow. A number of revivals and ministries are based on the idea of driving sin out of cities through this method. Various city testimonies are used to demonstrate miraculous examples of transformation through intervention of God after the Christians in the community band together. The term Transformation with its spiritual dominion connotations has become a buzz word in faith-based programs. It implies that government social services and aid programs are in vain unless linked to a spiritual effort and campaign to lead the community toward Christianity. These videos are used as testimony to that idea. The belief that sin and generational curses are the obstacle to wealth and health is also the belief behind the Prosperity Doctrine or Word Faith ministries. Many of these are also associated with the Third Wave.

The Apostles of the Third Wave believe that they hear directly from God, and have a divine mandate to form a new worldwide global church for the end times. The Third Wave leadership's greatest vitriol is directed toward those church-going Christians who are not open to the new visions and prophecies . One of the most prominent leaders and authors of the movement is Rick Joyner who heads Morningstar Ministries. (This is not to be confused with Morningstar International, another New Apostolic network founded by Rice Broocks, formerly of Maranatha. Because of the confusion they changed their name to Every Nation. This is the parent organization for the controversial Force Ministries.) Frequent references are made by Joyner to the coming war with those in the church with those who are not genuine Christians. The Southern Poverty Law Center site features an excellent piece on Todd Bentley of the Lakeland Healing Revival, who was supported by both Wagner and Joyner until Bentley's recent fall from grace. The SPLC points out that most objections to the movement have come from other conservative Christian churches.

The movement is youth oriented, and is designed to raise a young `Joel's Army' which will dominate the world both spiritually and politically. All opposition to their goals is branded as evil. A glimpse into this world was shown in the movie Jesus Camp, which featured Becky Fisher, a former pastor of Morningstar Ministries, one of the best known Third Wave ministries, closely associated with Wagner. Youth are told that those born since 1973, the year of Roe vs. Wade, will take control of the world to present to Christ on his return. Wagner now claims that the `Second Apostolic Age' began in 2001.

The movement stresses obedience to authority. The term Shepherding has been largely dropped because of the negative connotations of groups like Maranatha which were accused of cult-like control over college students. However, structures in which members answer to someone in authority over them still exists.

The movement's leadership is strongly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church despite their attempts to portray a unity with Catholic believers. For them it represents the ultimate example of an institutionalized apostate church. Wagner and his leading Apostles take trips to foreign countries to hold extended prayer vigils and conduct spiritual warfare to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This refers to a super demon from the time of the Babylonian empire which they believe is the source of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church. This is a similar concept to that of the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon frequently featured in John Hagee's sermons. Hagee was an Assemblies of God pastor until defrocked after his divorce.

The Third Wave beliefs concerning Jews are a complex hybrid of Dispensational and Latter Rain teachings. (This will be addressed in a future series of postings.) Many Third Wave leaders, including some of Wagner's Apostolic network, are currently involved with Christian Zionism through John Hagee's Christians United for Israel and associated activities. Latter Rain participants in the Christian Zionist movement emphasize terms like `Restoration of the Tabernacle of David' and `Davidic worship.' While Dispensationalists believe that a remnant of "ethnic Jews" are required to fulfill the end time drama, many Third Wave adherents teach that Messianics, or converted Jews, along with Gentiles will share the Kingdom together as "one new man." The Feast of the Tabernacles is now celebrated by thousands of Christians in Jerusalem and hundreds of locations around the world. (Some participate in this event due to their embrace of Latter Rain ideas, but many others are adherents of a revival of Armstrongism, a variant of British Israelism, which is the belief that Anglo-Saxons are the lost ten tribes of Israel and will fulfill the role of Israel in the end times.)

Dominionism

The Third Wave/New Apostolic Reformation is one of the largest streams, but not the only movement which is now identified by the term Dominionist. The use of the term identifies those Christian groups which believe that they must work not only to improve the world, but that they are mandated to literally take dominion over society and government of the U.S and the earth. That which is considered evil must be fought and destroyed. Dominionists do not believe in the separation of church and state or religious pluralism. While Dominionists work together politically, the Third Wave stream is, for example, a separate entity from the Reconstructionist movement which emerged under the leadership of Rousas J. Rushdoony. An ardent Calvinist from an Armenian background, Rushdoony viewed himself as a second Calvin, and wrote a tome promoting theocracy. The Institutes of Biblical Law and other Rushdoony teachings have provided much of the doctrinal guidance for the political activity of the Religious Right.

Dominionism can take a number of different forms and involve different theologies, although there is beginning to be a startling merger of efforts of these various streams. For instance, both have similar blueprints for taking dominion over the various "kingdoms" such as the education, law, science, etc. This has been a difficult movement to follow because Dominionism is not synonymous with Evangelical, Fundamentalist, or any specific denomination, and therefore is difficult to isolate unless you follow the activities of individual ministries and networks. Many Evangelicals avidly support the separation of church and state, and should not be painted with the same brush as those who would support an American theocracy.

The Dominonism that has emerged from the Fundamentalist movement has been much better documented than that which has emerged from Pentecostalism. Perhaps this is because religious and secular scholars are much more knowledgeable about those groups that emerged from a lineage of mainstream Protestantism denominations. The Third Wave movement has gone almost unnoticed, even by those who write regularly on Dominionism, even though the Pentecostal/Charismatic stream of Dominionism is by far the larger movement. Wagner claims that there are as many New Apostolic Reformation churches in the U.S. as Southern Baptist churches. The movement worldwide is estimated as high as 100 million people. And yet its impact is completely under the radar of most researchers outside of those in the movement itself.

Understand the Differences

It is important to recognize that Pentecostalism is not monolithic. Many of the greatest opponents of the Third Wave movement come from inside Pentecostalism, and there is increasing concern about the movement from numerous Evangelical groups. The best descriptions available online often come from these groups, but have to be read understanding the viewpoint of the writer. For instance, some of those most closely following the extreme activities of the Third Wave may also object to women as religious leaders or have objections to interfaith gatherings. For this reason I have not linked this article to any of those sites, despite the value of their extensive information.

Part Two contains the information on the Third Wave activities and organizations in which Palin's churches have participated.

Additional Note: When I first entered this posting I used both 'Latter Rain' and 'Latter Day Rain' interchangeably. While this is often done, the more correct term is 'Latter Rain' and I should have used it thoughout in order to avoid confusion. This movement has no relation to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

[Pierre]

Original article : http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/03830/11602

Video : Palin's Churches and the Holy Laughter anointing

This posting documents the extensive involvement of several of Sarah Palin's churches in the Third Wave Movement, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, Joel's Army, and Manifest Sons of God. Journalists, bloggers, and others who wish to make use of this information are advised to read the preceding post, Part One, in order to understand this movement in context of its history and theology. This movement is cross-denominational and there is no specific denomination that completely embraces it. It has been condemned by the General Council of the Assemblies of God since 1949. Please read the background information first if you do not have previous knowledge about the Third Wave Movement and an understanding of its relationship to Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and the larger body of Evangelicalism.

Again, if you are not familiar with the Third Wave, please take time to read this summary in Part One. However, if you are someone who can readily identify Todd Bentley, and know why he is in trouble, you have passed the test. Continue reading.

Bruce Wilson video documentary on Sarah Palin's churches - Wasilla Assembly of God. [Documentation for all of the footage used in the video can be found at the end of the article at _http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/8/114332/7479]

Wasilla Assembly of God
Senior Pastor Ed Kalnins

The church is a member of the General Council of Assemblies of God but is involved in numerous Third Wave/Latter Rain activities specifically condemned by the General Council of AoG since 1949 and again in 2000. This is the church of Palin's youth. They have posted on their site that she was a member until 2002 and frequently participates in events there including a recent speech for the graduation ceremony of the Master's Commission class. Just below that notice is an advertisement for a prophetic conference at the church to be led by Steve Thompson who oversees prophetic ministry at Morningstar Ministries, one of the internationally best known organizations in the movement. This is a repeat visit for Thompson.

Morningstar is a major force in the Third Wave movement and its founder, Rick Joyner, is a prolific author of Third Wave and Manifest Sons of God theology. You can purchase his books around the world including in Africa and Asia. Morningstar purchased part of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Heritage Park for their headquarters and conference center. Becky Fischer, whose ministry was featured in the movie Jesus Camp, was a pastor for Morningstar before starting her own ministry.

The students of the Master's Commission program have visited Morningstar and feature pictures of the visit on their site. This video is an example of the events that are held at Morningstar. A cell phone anointing can be viewed toward the end of the video. Frances Frangipane, co-author of a number of Third Wave books with Joyner and Thompson, has also spoken at the church.

Posted on the site is an upcoming visit by Bishop Thomas Muthee. He is also a repeat visitor to the church. Muthee is featured on the first Transformation video by George Otis of Sentinel Group. See the previous post, Part One, for background on the Transformation videos. Muthee's story of saving the village of Kiamba, Kenya by combating a witch is well known in Third Wave groups.

In addition to the Transformation Video, Muthee's story is featured in a book by C. Peter Wagner titled 'Praying with Power.' Wagner has served as the central coordinating figure of the Third Wave movement and heads the International Coalition of Apostles. Wagner's approximately 500 Apostles each have churches and ministries under their authority, some with hundreds or even thousands.

The Master's Commission at Wasilla AoG is an international program that replaces college with religious training grounded in Third Wave ideas. The senior pastor, Ed Kalnins was a graduate of the Original Masters Commission Phoenix. The program at Wasilla last for three years and costs $7,900. per year. Students are trained in prophetic gifts, prayers, authority, and intercession. Books by Francis Frangipane and Steve Thompson are included in the curriculm. Other texts for the program are by John Bevere who trained under Benny Hinn ( must watch this video) at Orlando Christian Center.


Juneau Christian Church
Senior Pastor Mike Rose

Palin's church in Juneau is pastored by Mike Rose. Juneau Christian is also listed as a member of the General Conference of Assemblies of God. Mike Rose is a longtime associate of Rodney Howard-Browne, an international leader in the movement. Many credit Rodney Howard-Browne with beginning the manifestation of Holy Laughter worldwide, including handing down the anointing for the Toronto Airport Blessing. He was interviewed by Tom Foreman on CNN in July 2006. In this video he is speaking in tongues with Kenneth Copeland.

The former General Superintendent of the Australian Assemblies of God, Andrew Evans, has written about Mike Rose as an example of someone who has learned how to accommodate manifestations of the Third Wave, such as Holy Laughter, in his own church without disrupting services. The article in Renewal Journal #7, 1996, described Rose as "an advisor of Howard Rodney-Browne's Revival Ministries committee... He informed me that he had sat in on over 110 of Rodney's meetings.."

An additional note about Juneau Christian Center - a Christians United for Israel (CUFI) event is scheduled for Juneau Christian Center but the reference has been scrubbed from John Hagee's CUFI site.

The Juneau Christian Center changed its name from Bethel Assembly of God. Recently they have built a new youth center called the HUB for which they applied for $50,000 from the city council and were attempting to get a total of $600,000 in public funds. They presented this as a community center that would be open to all youth.


Church on the Rock, Wasilla
Senior Pastor David Pepper

The youth of Church on the Rock attended The Call, Nashville in July 2007. The Call is a Third Wave/Latter Rain youth movement designed to lead "Joel's Army" in taking dominion over the U.S. for the Kingdom. Lou Engle was also featured in the movie Jesus Camp. He can be seen toward the end of this trailer leading the kids to repeatedly yell `righteous judges.' This video features both Rick Joyner of Morningstar and Lou Engle of The Call explaining their view of the 'Joel's Army' movement. Engle is also founder of the Justice House of Prayer or JHOP.

An additional note on Church on the Rock - Jonathan Walker, Youth Pastor, lists `teaching abstinence in public schools' in his bio.


Wasilla Bible Church
Pastor Larry Kroon

I have not seen a direct connection to the Third Wave. They have had repeat visits by David Brickner, the international leader of Jews for Jesus. Promotional materials for the Liberated Wailing Wall, one of the major performance projects of Jews for Jesus, have included testimony from Larry Kroon, senior pastor of the church. See the ad with Kroon's testimony on page four.

Also, they have had seminars led by Art Mathias, former head of Alaska Christian Coalition. Mathias is head of Wellspring Ministries and teaches healing, and deliverance from evil spirits and generational curses. Mathias also conducts seminars around the country teaching Hebrew Roots materials. [Because of the significance of this story, it is important that each piece of documentation be precisely correct. This paragraph concerning Art Mathias should have been placed under the Church of the Rock, instead of Wasilla Bible Church, as documented in numerous places on Art Mathias’ Wellsprings Ministries site, _www.akwellspring.com. My apologies for the error.]

These are just some examples of the Third Wave Movement at work in several of Sarah Palin's churches. An excellent summary of the dangers of the movement can be found on Southern Poverty Law Center's site This site also includes the answer the first question posed at the beginning of this article. Todd Bentley has now fallen from grace and left the Lakeland Revival but not because he repeatedly kicked a colon cancer patient in a healing ceremony. (The printed commentary on the video is not mine.) Bentley's activities were widely supported by much of the movement leadership including Morningstar's Rick Joyner who participated in a special anointing ceremony for Bentley. See incredible prophecy scene at about 50 seconds into this video. Joyner and other major leaders of the Third Wave are in the background. Answer to question two - he has had to leave the Revival because he is getting divorced.

 

[webglider]

I just spent hours writing a post connecting the bailout of Bear Stearns and AIG to the a Bush contributor, and a believer in creationism respectively. I somehow lost the post so I'll try to reconstruct it although not with the same detail as the first. Psyche's post gave me an idea:

I found the following quote in psyche's post.

AIG founder and president Ken Ham maintains that since the Bible explicitly says the world was created in six regular days, dinosaurs co-existed with man. Indeed, Mr. Ham has authored a book titled Dinosaurs of Eden. But if that $9.99 title is too expensive, try another of Mr. Ham’s titles – What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? – in which he explains how “the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history, and solving the mystery of when they lived and what happened to them.” And all that bible-based “knowledge” is on sale for just fifty cents on AIG’s web site.

So the fact that the founder of AIG was a creationist may explain why AIG was bailed out.

Lehman Brothers may not have been bailed out because George Soros had stock in Lehman Brothers. The right HATES Soros. Soros escaped from the nazis during WWII and founded The Open Society Institute which is everything the Christian Right loathes. Below is an article about Soros' March holdings in Lehman Brothers.

George Soros Loves Lehman Brothers (!)
By Morgan Housel
August 19, 2008 Comment (0) Recommend (1)
George Soros is a complicated man. If you've ever read any of his books, you know what I mean; he's one-third Warren Buffett, one-third Karl Popper, and one-third UNICEF. It's quite an eclectic mix, one that can leave investors who follow his moves in a scramble to understand the method of his madness.

This is one of those situations.

Soros recently disclosed a sizable stake in Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), nearly 10 million shares. That might not be a huge surprise; Lehman has been clobbered to such a pulp that it's hard to justify its price, absent a looming collapse. Its current price, less than half of book value, is a fat discount from peers like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) -- perhaps rightfully so. Of course, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and Soros is scooping up shares he apparently sees as cheap.

But isn't this the same guy who said ...
Confused? So am I. Soros has been one of the most vocal critics of financial firms. The first page of his latest book warns: "We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. In some ways it resembles other crises that have occurred ... but there is a profound difference: the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion ..." Earlier this year, he described the threads of credit default swaps linking financial firms together as "a sword of Damocles that is bound to fall." Yikes.

That isn't the kind of language you'd expect to hear from someone bullish on a company like Lehman. Short of a complete turnaround in opinion, what else could possibly explain his move?

Two possibilities come to mind. Either this is a short-term trade Soros plans on ditching if Lehman makes a quick rebound (in fact, it already has -- shares are up more than 10% since bottoming out in July), or it's a bet that recapitalization moves will shore up Lehman's balance sheet enough to justify trading closer to its peers. As for the latter, some feel the extreme negativity that has annihilated Lehman's shares might be overblown, and that the hedges it has put in place to stabilize assets could mellow things out. Given the outrageous amount of negativity, any news that's slightly positive is bound to be significantly positive for Lehman's shares.

Don't get too excited here
Having Soros in Lehman's corner is a tremendous vote of confidence, but be careful here. If you're eager to follow Soros, it's probably better to read his outlook on financial companies, rather than follow his trading moves. He's voiced his opinion about their future, and it's terrible at best. If your only justification for owning Lehman is because Soros does, too, you might be setting yourself up for trouble. After all, he won't tell you when he plans on selling.

Bear Stearns may have been bailed out because of Tony Novelli, the CEO of Apex Oil and a contributor to Bush's campaign: http://www.campaignmoney.com/contributors.asp?pg=686

He owned shares in Bear Stearns:http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/03/24/story1.html

Friday, March 21, 2008
Tony Novelly burned by Bear Stearns 'fire sale'
St. Louis Business Journal - by Rick Desloge
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Apex Oil Co. majority owner and Chief Executive Tony Novelly lost an estimated $9 million March 16 when investment banking firm Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $2 a share.

A year ago, Novelly held 177,905 shares in Bear Stearns, a stake then worth about $26 million. He had been stocking up in March 2007, buying 50,000 shares in one week alone in the investment firm, where he is a director. Bear Stearns stock was then trading at $150 a share.

He still holds 125,000 shares, according to his most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, made Jan. 2. That stake was worth about $9.6 million before a liquidity crisis forced Bear Stearns to negotiate what the investment community is calling a fire-sale deal to JPMorgan. The deal makes Novelly's stake now worth about $250,000.

Novelly, 64, already had taken a $3.1 million loss at the end of 2007 when he sold 50,000 shares of his Bear Stearns stock at $86.78 a share, according to insider trading data. It was his first reported sale of his Bear Stearns holdings. He had paid more than $7.4 million for the stake in March 2007.

JPMorgan's $2-a-share stock offer came as Bear Stearns saw its cash reserves dwindle and as the Federal Reserve Bank pushed to shore up the ailing financial industry.

Investors had been pulling cash out of Bear Stearns for days leading up to the announced deal with JPMorgan, said Ken Crawford, a portfolio manager who follows Bear Stearns at Argent Capital Management in Clayton. Ultimately the financial markets lost confidence in Bear Stearns' ability to execute trades, he said, and "the liquidity was sucked out of the company like a Hoover vacuum gone crazy."

Bear Stearns reached an agreement with JPMorgan on March 14 whereby JPMorgan would provide a secured loan for up to 28 days while Bear Stearns sought permanent financing. Forty-eight hours later, JPMorgan announced the two companies would merge. The deal still needs shareholder approval, and shareholders are grumbling about the price. Bear Stearns stock was trading at more than $77 a share at the beginning of March and closed at $30 a share March 14, the last day of trading before JPMorgan announced its buyout.

The offer has raised speculation that some investors may push JPMorgan for a higher price, though Crawford and people in the investment community have said the JPMorgan deal might be tops, particularly if Bear Stearns cannot find another buyer. The company's 14,000 employees reportedly own about a third of Bear Stearns' shares. Bear Stearns closed at $5.33 a share March 19.

JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Michael Cavanaugh said during an investor conference call March 16 announcing the Bear Stearns deal that the $2-per-share price "gives us flexibility and margin for error that was appropriate given the speed at which the transaction came together."

Novelly is required to disclose his Bear Stearns holdings as a company director. The majority of his stake is held through St. Albans Global Management, a company where he is chief executive.

Novelly has been a Bear Stearns director since 2002 and received cash fees of $62,500 for his service in 2006, plus stock awards now worth a fraction of their $160,000 stated price at the time of the grants. Novelly is listed as chairman of the company's four-member finance and risk committee, which Bear Stearns set up in January 2007. That new committee had responsibilities that included assisting the board in its oversight of Bear Stearns credit, market and operational risk management, and reviewing policies and procedures on the company's trading and investment risks, according to Bear Stearns' 2007 proxy. Novelly also sits on three other committees, including the Bear Stearns audit committee, the corporate governance and nominating committee, and the qualified legal compliance committee. Bear Stearns has not yet issued a 2008 proxy statement.

Bear Stearns expanded its local presence in April 2005 when five brokers left the Clayton office of Merrill Lynch & Co. to start an institutional trading office at Shaw Park Plaza. That office now has a staff of 10, according to a Bear Stearns spokesman. It primarily serves institutional clients.

Tony Novelly's son, P.A. Novelly II, was a Bear Stearns broker in St. Louis for 14 years before leaving in 2005 to join Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., where he is a broker in the Clayton office. Tony Novelly declined a request for an interview through Doug Hummert, general counsel for Apex Oil.

If my hypothesis is correct, then that would mean that the Fed used tax payer monies to bail out their friends.

This can't be right.

 

[Azur]

I just spent hours writing a post connecting the bailout of Bear Stearns and AIG to the a Bush contributor, and a believer in creationism respectively. I somehow lost the post so I'll try to reconstruct it although not with the same detail as the first. Psyche's post gave me an idea:

I found the following quote in psyche's post.

AIG founder and president Ken Ham maintains that since the Bible explicitly says the world was created in six regular days, dinosaurs co-existed with man. Indeed, Mr. Ham has authored a book titled Dinosaurs of Eden. But if that $9.99 title is too expensive, try another of Mr. Ham’s titles – What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? – in which he explains how “the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history, and solving the mystery of when they lived and what happened to them.” And all that bible-based “knowledge” is on sale for just fifty cents on AIG’s web site.

Is AIG the insurance company the same as AIG _http://www.answersingenesis.org/ founded by Ken Ham? I couldn't find any info on who founded the American International Group.

Edit: found this: _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Group. Unrelated, it seems.

 

[webglider]

Is AIG the insurance company the same as AIG _http://www.answersingenesis.org/ founded by Ken Ham? I couldn't find any info on who founded the American International Group.

No. I don't think so.

Thanks Azur. I seem to be wrong, wrong wrong.

Oh well. It seemed like a good idea.

I did some more research and this is what I found:

Wednesday, September 17 2008 - 9/11 Precedents

A.I.G. -- Part Two of a Multi-Part Series
In light of this week's news about AIG, we wish to remind readers of a very important "From the Wilderness Special Investigation" underway just prior to 9/11/01 ... following is a very brief portion of a very thorough series.

– Ed.


HOSTAGES: A Multi-Part FTW Special Investigation

* Medellin Cartel Cofounder, Carlos Lehder: A Free Man in Gov't. Charade?, -- "Wife" of Drug Lord Speaks
* American International Group, Arkansas, ADFA, Contras, Goldman Sachs, Carlos Lehder and Coral Reinsurance
* Exposing CIA Covert Operations

A.I.G. -- Part Two of a Multi-Part Series

by Michael C. Ruppert
August 14, 2001

...FTW has also conducted an extensive investigation into AIG and its predecessors, including the C. V. Starr Insurance Companies, revealing deep connections to US intelligence dating back to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II. These connections include documented CIA operatives connected to drug smuggling from Southeast Asia and a current board member, Frank Wisner, Jr., whose father was a key figure in the creation of the CIA. History, as well as AIG's current operations, suggest that these relationships continue unabated today. ...

Deconstructing AIG

The seemingly mundane insurance business is, in fact, one of the primary weapons of intelligence gathering around the world. And the founder of AIG, Cornelius Starr, was an architect of its use in World War II. Consider these quotes from a September 22, 2000 story by Los Angeles Times reporter Mark Fritz entitled, "The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men."

"COLLEGE PARK, Md.--They knew which factories to burn, which bridges to blow up, which cargo ships could be sunk in good conscience. They had pothole counts for roads used for invasion and head counts for city blocks marked for incineration.

"They weren't just secret agents. They were secret insurance agents. These undercover underwriters gave their World War II spymasters access to a global industry that both bankrolled and, ultimately, helped bring down Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

"Newly declassified U.S. intelligence files tell the remarkable story of the ultra-secret Insurance Intelligence Unit, a component of the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, and its elite counterintelligence branch X-2.

"Though rarely numbering more than a half dozen agents, the unit gathered intelligence on the enemy's insurance industry, Nazi insurance titans and suspected collaborators in the insurance business. But, more significantly, the unit mined standard insurance records for blueprints of bomb plants, timetables of tide changes and thousands of other details about targets, from a brewery in Bangkok to a candy company in Bergedorf. 'They used insurance information as a weapon of war,' said Greg Bradsher, a historian and National Archives expert on the declassified records. That insurance information was critical to Allied strategists, who were seeking to cripple the enemy's industrial base and batter morale by burning cities

"Germany had 45% of the worldwide wholesale insurance industry before the war began and managed to actually expand its business as it conquered continental Europe. As wholesalers, or 'reinsurers,' these companies covered other insurers against a catastrophic loss that could wipe out a single company. In the process, the wholesaler learned everything about the lives and property they were reinsuring. [emphasis, mine]"

"The men behind the insurance unit were OSS head William "Wild Bill" Donovan and California-born insurance magnate Cornelius V. Starr. Starr had started out selling insurance to Chinese in Shanghai in 1919 and, over the next 50 years, would build what is now American International Group, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world. He was forced to move his operation to New York in 1939, when Japan invaded China. In the early years of the war, the German insurance industry expanded its business as it conquered continental Europe. Nazi insurance brokers who traveled with combat troops during invasions also scoured local insurance files for strategic data."

On the special value of reinsurance as a vehicle for intelligence gathering Fritz wrote:

"Such convoluted business dealings were traced largely through the work of Ernest Stiefel, a member of the intelligence unit who diagrammed the way insurance companies pooled their risks, invested in and insured each other and, as a result, willfully or witlessly shared data about nations at war. 'Stiefel mapped the entire system, said [Timothy] Naftali, a historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. "Each time I take a piece of your risk, you've got to give me information. I am not going to reinsure your company unless you give me all the documents. That's great intelligence information"

Later in the story Fritz confirmed the value of reinsurance as a vehicle for money laundering:

"With the Axis defeat imminent, U.S. intelligence officials focused greater attention on ways the Nazis would try to use insurance to hide and launder their assets so they could be used to rebuild the war machine..."

And how did Starr benefit from his service? Fritz writes:

"Starr sent insurance agents into Asia and Europe even before the bombs stopped falling and built what eventually became AIG, which today has its world headquarters in the same downtown New York building where the tiny OSS unit toiled in the deepest secrecy.

Starr died in 1968, but his empire endures. AIG is the biggest foreign insurance company in Japan. More than a third of its $40 billion in revenue last year came from the Far East theater that Starr helped carpet bomb and liberate.

In The Shadow Warriors: OSS and the Origins of the CIA (Basic Books, 1983) author Bradley F. Smith shed more light on Cornelius Starr and the OSS.

"It [a secret intelligence operation in China] was formed in April 1942, when [Bill] Donovan persuaded British insurance magnate C.V. Starr to let C.O.I. (Covert Operations Intelligence) use his commercial and insurance connections in occupied China and Formosa to create a deep cover intelligence network. Although the State Department was nervous about the operation, Donovan went ahead and, with the cooperation of the U.S. Army, bypassed the diplomats in operating the communications system. Starr's people handled their own internal communication, then turned over their intelligence findings to [General Richard] Stillwell's headquarters for dispatch to the U.S. Starr, who was residing in the U.S. at the time, provided these services to the Allied cause. Later Starr became disgusted with what he considered Donovan's inefficiency and transferred his services to the British S.I.S. But the Starr-Donovan connection worked in China at least until the winter of 1943-44.

"The establishment of the Starr intelligence network, an operation so secret that it even escaped the attention of Chiang's [Kai Shek] security police (and of historians heretofore), was a major accomplishment for an intelligence operation barely six months old" [p.133]

Continued ...

Read the rest of this article at From The Wildernes.com


[© Copyright 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and From the Wilderness Publications. All Rights Reserved. May not be reprinted or redistributed without the express permission of the author]

[EDITORIAL NOTE - From The Wilderness is a sole proprietorship and dba. It is written and edited by one person; Me. I do almost all of the research. Therefore, in the following story, for both legal reasons and for better reading I have decided to use the personal pronouns "I" and "me" instead of standard editorial references in the third person.

Source URL: _http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/part_2.html

I also found this. It keeps getting more interesting.

AIG. Conspiracy Theories of the World Unite

<< 1 2 3 >>

_http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread392224/pg1

Topic started on 17-9-2008 @ 12:24 PM by dbates
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American International Group (AIG) was rescued by the Fed yesterday with a $85 Billion loan. As always, when you're talking about conspiracy theories, follow the money. While looking into exactly what AIG was I ran into some pretty shocking accusations.

It started with a news article from back in 2000 that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Read the full article below for a better picture, but here are a few highlights from the story.



The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men

They knew which factories to burn, which bridges to blow up, which cargo ships could be sunk in good conscience. They had pothole counts for roads used for invasion and head counts for city blocks marked for incineration.

They weren’t just secret agents. They were secret insurance agents. These undercover underwriters gave their World War II spymasters access to a global industry that both bankrolled and, ultimately, helped bring down Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

The men behind the insurance unit were OSS head William “Wild Bill” Donovan and California-born insurance magnate Cornelius V. Starr.

Starr died in 1968, but his empire endures. AIG is the biggest foreign insurance company in Japan. More than a third of its $40 billion in revenue last year came from the Far East theater that Starr helped carpet bomb and liberate.


Funny I never thought of insurance companies making money from war, but it really does make sense. The higher the risk of things being blown to little bits, the higher the insurance premium paid. Also, it's obvious that insurance companies might know war strategy ahead of time if they're asked to increase insurance or shift policy detials to cover a new suspected risk.

Just to show you how central that AIG is to the U.S. government look no further than former AIG Board Chairman Maurice Greenberg who was hand-picked by AIG founder Cornelius Starr to run the North American portion of AIG. What else did Greenberg have his hands in. He was on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and was offered the job of Deputy Director of the CIA during the Reagan administration. (Which he turned down) That's a lot of pull for just one individual to have.

Looking further I found hints of AIG's involvement in the Arkansas Whitewater scandal that involved the Clintons. I'm sure an entire series or rabbit trails exist if you followed that path. Some of this is speculation but it's probably worth reading and looking into.


Whitewater, The Federal Reserve, and The C.I.A.

Arkansas Development Finance Authority and Sanwa Bank shared a deal
with Coral Reinsurance of the Barbados. Coral's main customer was
American International Group AIG.

In just a few weeks, AIG reportedly ran 450 million dollars through the
Barbados front.

Now for my favorite little piece of information (if it's true). Let's go back to the first summary where I stated that insurance companies stand to make barrels of money during war time and their fore-knowledge of information in what's going on. At Online Journal Jerry Mazza's discussion of his entry 9/11 and the Greenberg Familia where he points out that AIG's (possible) involvement in the 9/11 attacks is quite interesting. The first point I noticed was that AIG had sold off the majority of their risk in the World Trade Centers to their competition before 9/11.

Answering the mail re: Greenberg & AIG

"(4) AIG was NOT the main insurer of the WTC. Chubb, Zurich Swiss re., St Paul and CAN were."

Ah yes, Mr. Smith, but only because AIG/Marsh sold the risk and reinsurance to their competition. Take a look at pages 5-6 from the 30-page Morgan Stanley Special Report on 9/11 (September 17, 2001), that proves Buffett et al stood to gain . . .

"Even [after losses of $800 million] A.I.G. would turn a profit of several hundred million dollars for the quarter" [/quote



I thought that this was odd at first. AIG actually made a large profit after 9/11? Then my mind flashed back to the La Times article and it fit together. If the world was a terrible place full of terrorism and war it would be much more profitable for an insurance company than a peaceful world. AIG could now charge higher rates for insurance and the masses would come crawling to them begging to be insured. Step 1. Create the problem. Step 2. Create the solution. Step 3. Profit.

Since 9/11 there have been a few major attacks such as in Spain and London. Not so much that AIG would have to pay out billions and billions in settlements, but enough to keep premiums up and enough to keep a line of people at their door begging for insurance.

Of course some of this appears to be pure speculation, but is it really? It's not an impossible scenario is it? AIG tied to the CIA, drug money, terrorism, and greedy politicians. That's quite a tale. As for why they're in the tank right now. I suppose someone got greedy. We already know that Greenberg was forced out of the company and 3 other top execs. were canned after they took the Fifth during questioning.

So the Fed lets Lehman collapse, but bails out AIG. Is AIG an intelligence front, a war chest revenue stream, or maybe just controlled by bureaucrats? Who knows. I just wondered if anyone else was curious about all of this.

 

[Azur]

Oh well. It seemed like a good idea.

There's no question that you have expended energy in looking into things, but I have to ask (from clues here and in other threads), are you looking to find data to fit a particular model?

Are you searching for data to justify what you have already "gelled" as a mental structure, or are you gathering info to add to a fluid, changeable perception matrix?

Harsh question maybe, but you're no newbie here either. :P