Rapture Cult Declares War on Heretics

[godhatesrepublicans]

Rapture Cult Declares War on Heretics
By Brian Hollister Davis

As the past few years have shown, whoever gets to frame how the debate is discussed will win the debate. For example, when the Radical Right Wing in America dominated the media in December of 2005 with talk about a fictional “War on Christmas,” they automatically won the debate by getting everyone to use the phrase “war on Christmas” to discuss it.

The latest attempt to create a debate and frame it was "The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006" conference was held on March 27 and 28 of 2006 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Speakers at the "War on Christians" conference included such “Values Vote leaders" as Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Gary Bauer, the president of American Values, Alan Keyes, the recently defeated Republican Senatorial candidate from Illinois, Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of Eagle Forum and a 50-plus-year conservative activist, Janet Parshall, a popular right wing radio talk show host, Ohio's Pastor Rod Parsley, the founder and president of the Center for Moral Clarity, the beleaguered and indicted Congressman, Tom DeLay (R-TX), and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). These are all people who can get buzzwords out to the world.

Scheduled panels included “The Gay Agenda: America Won't Be Happy”; “The ACLU and Radical Secularism: Driving God from the Public Square”; “Hollywood: Christians through a Distorted Lens”; “Jews Confront the War on Christians”; “The Judiciary: Overruling God”; “The Media: Megaphone for Anti-Faith Values”; and “Taking Our Faith to the Ballot Box”.

Rick Scarborough, the President of the organization Vision America said in a letter promoting the event: “The left intends to eliminate God-based morality from our government to achieve its goal of cultural Marxism in a secular state.” Notice how many buzzwords Scarborough crammed into that one sentence to whip his readers into an unthinking snarling reaction, like a dog at the approach of a mailman. I counted seven.

I see this as a glimpse of election tactics to come. The 1980s gave us “the War on Drugs,” which was used as a smokescreen to distract Americans from the Republican led war on the Middle Class. The recent “War on Terrorism” has fallen apart as a Republican rallying cry, because the Iraq War has become a huge disaster for the Bush administration. As a replacement, for the next several election cycles, the Radical Right will try to whip its voting base into a frenzy of donations with an artificial “War on Christianity.”

In 2004 John Kerry blew his chance to save the nation from Neo-Conservativism because he thought countering the lies told by the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” was beneath him. Let’s not blow our chances in 2006 and 2008 to defuse the rhetorical bomb of a “War on Christianity.”

We need to puncture this puffed up piece of nonsense, and do it is such a way that every time some political hack or second rate preacher tries to use it to drive their listeners to the polls, the NASCAR dads, security moms and values voters will laugh back in their faces. And I know how to do it.

Tell everyone you know my winning strategy, and maybe we’ll get our country back. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the East Coast “Rapture-Ready Concentration Camp for Damned Heretics” in early 2009. I’ll be the one screaming “I Told You So!” at the top of my lungs.

Here it is. Every time someone uses the phrase “War on Christians” in your presence, reply as follows;

“You mean the War on Heretics declared by the followers of the Rapture Cult? I think it’s a bad idea. I think the Rapture Cult wants to start the same sort of Religious war in America that the Neo-Cons created in Iraq.”

That’s it. With 42 words, you have Judo-flipped the framing of the argument to where you can’t HELP but win the debate.

If asked about the phrase “War on Heretics,” point out that the Rapture Cult is clearly attempting to persecute those who disagree with their Cult’s take on theology. There is no way for a Radical Right mouthpiece to argue away the point you just scored. You’ve asserted a perfectly true charge that the Radical Right is attempting to force others to bow before their Alter in their Church. Congratulations, you have now reframed the argument and have practically won the debate.

The other person now has to argue away the concept of Free Will, the entire Protestant Reformation and two centuries of American religious freedom to justify why their side should have supreme religious authority over all Americans. Any half awake debater could destroy them.

If challenged on the term “Rapture Cult,” my web site http://www.godhatesrepublicans.org is a good place to begin gathering information on why the Radical Right is relying on bad theology to browbeat people of faith into following them on their path to destruction.

The short version is that the Radical Right’s religious arm are preaching an interpretation of scripture that only goes back to 1835 and the Irish Protestant John Nelson Darby, and runs counter to almost 2000 years of mainstream Christian thought. Darbyism and the obsession with “true Christians” being Raptured away from the final battle between good and evil is a very recent invention, and isn’t “fundamental” to Christianity at all. Darbyism and the Rapture is a minor cult, a blip in the history of Christianity, and the Rapture Cult makes up much of the leadership and donor list of the Radical Right Wing Republicans.

Hit your opponent with this totally correct information, and again, you’ve turned the argument away from the mythical “War on Christianity” and forced your opponent on the defensive. They’ll have to explain why 2000 years of mainstream Christianity was wrong, and why the tiny minority of worldwide Christians who support the Rapture Cult are right.

I’m begging you, spread this talking point around. If we let the Radical Right and their fictional “War on Christianity” takes hold in the popular imagination, then they’ll win. If we reframe the argument as it truly is, the Rapture Cult and their “War on Heretics,” then we win. The stakes are high, time is short.

Brian Hollister Davis is the webmaster and primary author of http:// www.godhatesrepublicans.org

[nashville_brook]

1. ridicule is my favorite 'rule for radicals'

really great piece!

[oscarmitre]

6. Saul Alinsky fan?

Sorry, way off topic I know, just good to know he's still being read.

[godhatesrepublicans]

16. Alinsky was a genius IMHO.

I've read his book maybe a dozen times in the past 20 years. It's usually on the list of books I suggest to folks.

[havocmom]

2. Excellent points! K&R

Bookmarked this and your site. Good stuff to use :thumbsup:

Welcome to DU! You are now on my list of posters to be sure and read. Good to have you here. We are stronger for you presence among us. Thank you for the good weapons for battling the theocracy drive of the Rapture Cult!

[xchrom]

3. k & r

however we fight these freaks -- fight them.

they are as dangerous an enemy as you will ever see.

i think liberals tend to underestimate the implacable nature of these folks.

[crikkett]

4. welcome to DU!

PS sigh, what kind of 'god' hates anything?

[Minnesota Libra]

5. Someone posted an article by Dean the other day that set out.............

.....talking points and I wish I had bookmarked it.:grr: It would have been perfect for framing future discussions with neocons.

If anyone has the link to that article PLEASE post it for me:hug:

[saltpoint]

7. Wow. If that's "God-based morality," as they claim, then

I'm the next Republican Senator from Utah.

[Mist]

8. I think the question that should be asked, constantly, is

"Who is preventing you from worshipping?" What case have they made that anyone is preventing them from worshipping as they please?

[vickitulsa]

11. That's a good one too. Thanks!. nt

[quiet.american]

9. "Rapture Cult" - great frame. n/t

[underpants]

10. Didn't Darby thinkup the rapture after he fell off a horse & hit his head?

Yep

Also check out W's spiritual advisor Marvin Olansky

Great piece-well done.

One last thing. There was an article around here last week about how David Duke and the white supremicists are not taking up anit-Semitism as their main message. Every time I see the right talking about Jews I wince thinking they are setting up their other half for the big punch.

Also check out the owner of Regenery press (sp?) --who publish Keyes and Hannity and the Clinton Chronicles -- Tom Phillips and his ties to the White Supremists.

[vickitulsa]

12. I totally agree with this OP and am adopting the term Rapture Cult

immediately. I plan to use it profusely at every turn, whenever I can find ANY opportunity to toss it out there!

"Cult" is a word absolutely NO ONE wants to be associated with, and it's not that difficult to pin it on someone who is really fanatical about their religion -- to the point that trying to push it onto everyone else is a high priority in their life.

I lost my best friend to the Rapture Cult, and I can't even talk with her anymore because she won't hear a WORD against her intensely brainwashed attitudes. She's an intelligent lady, too -- and her husband plays along while behaving totally opposite to their so-called "morality." I know, because I worked for him very briefly as a secretary and heard his language on the job as opposed to how he talked in his home....

The Rapture Cultists are hellbent on destroying our democratic republic and turning it into a theocracy, and we MUST FIGHT BACK HARD to put an end to their successes! The OP has it right, it's largely in the framing of the argument and the language we use to frame the debate.

[roseBudd]

13. We must not underestimate the tool of mockery, it is essential and the GOP

uses it extensively because they understand it's value.

See Cheney speaks to the reptile brain:


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-13.htm


First there's the most primitive of our brains, sometimes referred to as the "reptilian brain" because we share it in common with reptiles like alligators and komodo dragons. The reptile brain has a singular focus: survival. It doesn't think in abstract terms, and doesn't feel complex emotions. Instead, it's responsible for fight-or-flight, hunger and fear, attack or run. It's also non-verbal - you can stimulate it with the right words, but it operates purely at the level of visceral stimulus-response.

The second brain is one we share with the animals that came along after reptiles - mammals. The mammalian brain - sometimes referred to as the Limbic Brain because it extends around and off of the reptilian brain in a dog-leg shape that resembles a limb - handles complex emotions like love, indignation, compassion, envy, and hope. Anybody who's worked with animals or had a pet knows that mammals share these emotions with humans, because we share this brain. While a snake can't feel shame or enthusiasm, it's completely natural for a dog or cat. And, like the reptile brain, the mammalian brain can also be stimulated indirectly by words, and is also non-verbal. It expresses itself exclusively in the form of feelings, although these are more often felt in the heart than the gut.

The third brain - the neocortex ("new" cortex) - is something we share with the higher apes, although ours is a bit more sophisticated. Resting over the limbic brain (which is, in turn, atop the reptilian brain), our neocortex is where we process abstract thought, words and symbols, logic and time.

When Dick Cheney recently took John Kerry's comment about sensitivity in the war on terror out of context and spun it for his audiences, he was performing a psychologically masterful bit manipulation of all three brains. Only ridicule with a subtext of fear has this power.

[NJmaverick]

14. Time to frame this right - IT"S A WAR ON FREEDOM!

We need to refer to the religious right's war on freedom at every opportunity. Only with this proper framing will there be HONEST debate.

[enough]

15. k&r

[lala_rawraw]

17. It is simple, like any chess game

You identify the threat, and if you are the left, you identify that this Rick character has a long criminal history of some sort, that may be related to sex abuse with children or something of that nature. In other words, he can declare war on heretics, but that means he opens himself up to research on just how moral he is. So start researching.

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

18. "War on Heretics declared by the followers of the Rapture Cult"

Brilliant!

I would also love to see someone use words like "jihad" or "fatwa" to describe what these jerks are doing, as those words tend to make their knees jerk.

k&r