The reliably goofy Christian Newswire presents this press release from Crazytown, fresh from the Mayor today:
Concerned Women for America (CWA) reports on a new Baylor Religious Survey -- released this week at the National Press Club -- which found that fewer believers want to be labeled “evangelical.” In a cultural environment of increasing bias against evangelicals, less than half of those who say that their beliefs are “evangelical” (33 percent) use that label to describe themselves (15 percent). Further, just over 2 percent of those same “evangelicals” are willing to say that the title “reflects their religious identity.”
Dang! How you gonna convince everyone that you speak for all christians when only a small percentage are willing to take on the label 'evangelical'? When you've driven all but the most insane christians running and screaming from any association with you, who's fault is that?
Clearly, said a CWA spokesperson, the fault is with anything other than her own brand of craziness.
“Amazingly, the old stereotypes still exist,” said [Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute Dr. Janice Shaw] Crouse. “Today’s pseudo-sophisticates view Biblical orthodoxy with disdain and/or hostility. The Washington Post, reporting on the Baylor survey, noted that those who view God as ‘engaged and punishing’ are more likely to ‘have lower incomes and less education, to come from the South and to be white evangelicals or black Protestants.’ Such statements -- implying that Southerners, white evangelicals and black Protestants are poor and uneducated -- reinforce old prejudices and continue the negative stereotypes about true believers.”
So, I guess, the study's supposed to be wrong. Forgive me for playing to the stereotype, but only an extremely uncritical thinker would believe that. She doesn't offer a lot of evidence for her claim. "Sadly, some Biblically orthodox believers are unwilling to proudly affirm their faith," she says, "They lack the self-confidence to boldly challenge the negative bias; they don’t want to be called ‘evangelical’ or ‘religious right.’” I wonder why?
CWA is an organization put together by Beverly and Timothy LaHaye. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Tim co-writes the Left Behind novels about the 'end of times'. He also afflicted the world with Jerry Falwell. "I met Tim and Beverly about thirty years ago, while I was on a preaching tour of Southern California," Falwell once said, "I found out that he'd done something no conservative minister had ever done before: He'd organized hundreds of churches into a political bloc. At the time, I'd never heard of mixing religion and politics... More than any other person, Tim LaHaye challenged me to begin thinking through my involvement [in politics]."
He's even nuttier than Falwell, in fact. SourceWatch tells us:
Both LaHaye and his wife, Beverly LaHaye, are 1950 graduates of ultraconservative Bob Jones University. Tim LaHaye later earned a "Doctor of Ministry" degree at the Western Conservative Baptist Seminary.
In 1958, the LaHayes moved to San Diego where Tim LaHaye became pastor of the Scott Memorial Church, a position he held for 23 years. During that time he also started both a Christian school and a college he named the Christian Heritage College. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he regularly lectured and ran training seminars for the John Birch Society. [3]
In the 1988 presidential campaign, LaHaye was named national co-chair of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, only to be fired one week later after an article in the Baltimore Sun that LaHaye had written claiming Roman Catholicism was "a false religion." [4]
LaHaye was later employed by controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon as chairman of Moon's Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF). [5]
Cult leader Sun Myung Moon comes up a lot when you start looking into the religious right -- the religious conservative movement is just chuck full of moonies.
Bev's a lot of fun, too. Her big thing is getting all bent out of shape over the kind of sex other people are having. Predictably, she's into hating gays, but Bev takes things farther. She's taken a heroic stand against bondage and spanking enthusiasts and wants to outlaw hotel porn channels. You know, the big problems facing America -- pants-down spanking and monkey spanking. Let's hope she can fix those and get to work on bra ads on the TV.
And don't worry, CWA will probably get around to dealing with half-nekkid ladies once they've crushed the 'Bratz' line of dolls, which they say 'glamorize hooker chic'.
Clearly, these are people who've really got it together. It's amazing that polls show no one wants to have anything to do with them.
--Wisco
Technorati tags: news; politics; Religious Right; Tim LaHaye; Beverly LaHaye; Crazy People; Concerned Women for America are concerned about a lot of really weird stuff
6 comments:
...those who view God as ‘engaged and punishing’ are more likely to ‘have lower incomes and less education, to come from the South and to be white evangelicals or black Protestants.
Just more proof that reality has a liberal bias.
I laughed out loud several times while reading this.. enough to scare my cat.
Thanks, I needed it.
Fucking reality. It's so unfair that it's owned by all the damn liberals.
From a non christian standpoint:
Isn't the title "evangelical" a title that all christians should consider taking. Didn't jesus call his followers to evangelize when he said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." Maybe those who are so afraid of taking this view don't really believe in Jesus. In my minds eye, there is much more respect for someone who actually follows Jesus' commands than someone who is ashamed of their supposed savior.
How is that a 'non-christian standpoint'?
Perhaps he's atheist, agnostic or of a different religion altogether and is commenting as an outsider looking in.
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