The FundamentaList..This week in the religious right:

[Joanne98]

This week in the religious right: Pentecostals cry "bigotry" while Grassley says "corruption," McCain makes headway with the religious right, and conservatives mock gay and lesbian teens.

Sarah Posner | April 23, 2008

1. Copeland Continues to Hurl Elitism Charges at Grassley

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, the most defiant of the Grassley Six, hosted former Bush family confidant and adviser Doug Wead at its Eagle Mountain International Church in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday. For decades, Wead has come to the defense of scandal-plagued televangelists, including Jim Bakker, the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Paul Crouch, Robert Tilton, and Grassley target Benny Hinn, on whose board Wead served from 2003-2005 (Wead served on the board after a scathing expose of the televangelist aired on NBC). At Copeland's church, Wead combined preaching with political protest as he continued to charge Grassley, his fellow Republican, with "elitism" for pursuing the investigation.

Last week, I reported that Wead had accused Grassley, a Baptist, of launching the investigation because of a doctrinal disagreement with the Pentecostal televangelists, all of whom preach the Word of Faith, or prosperity gospel, doctrine. (For the historical and doctrinal roots of Word of Faith and Wead's role in introducing Word of Faith teachers like Copeland to presidents and presidential candidates, read my book God's Profits.)

On Sunday Wead continued to press those same charges, arguing that "you cannot say there is not a legitimate scriptural rationale for these doctrines, they're there in the Bible. If the Constitution allows freedom of religion, people who believe these doctrines and interpret them the way they choose to interpret them, have a right to believe that. And there shouldn't be elitists who seize power in government to stop them from believing them. We've always had elitists like that who try to protect us dumb people, because we're so dumb and we're so stupid." That's a classic ruse used by the televangelists. They have long argued that, because Pentecostalism originated as a religious movement of the poor and uneducated, any criticism of its religious expression and worship style must stem from the disdain of mainline Protestants and evangelicals who engage in the theological equivalent of sipping lattes and driving Volvos.

Many evangelicals, including charismatics who engage in Pentecostal-style religious expression such as speaking in tongues, and most recently John Revell, the editor of the Southern Baptist Convention's magazine, do challenge Word of Faith (again, for the details of that theological debate, read my book), but no one is disputing that Copeland's followers have a constitutional right to believe it if they choose. As Warren Smith, spokesperson for Ministry Watch, a Christian organization that has called on the televangelists to be financially transparent, put it, "This is not a doctrinal question. This is a question of openness and transparency. I don't care if Kenneth Copeland believes in the Easter Bunny. ... If he believes that the Bible teaches that his followers should sell their homes and give the money to Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Copeland should relieve himself in gold-plated toilets and drive around in Bentleys and fly around in Lear jets, that's fine, just disclose that, completely and fully to the public and his donors."
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_042308

[DUgosh]

1. During the biggest drought

Kenneth Copeland's wife had her own private jet completely redone in pink leather at an aircraft refurbisher near Uvalde Texas. I doubt if her elite contributors know or care. But the workers in Uvalde had never seen a pink cow. There was much talk and laughter. Ms. Copeland used the company in Uvalde because of Uvalde's high population of Catholics.... not much chance of word getting around about the excess to her evangelical right wing base.
In the Texas Hill Country near Tarpley Texas, John Hagee damned up the Williams Creek where it feeds the Hondo Creek so he could build a tank ( in Texas thats a small lake or small pond ) big enough for ski boats. Believe me it takes alot of water for a man his size to ski. However, farmers and ranchers who depend on the downstream seasonal flow of that creek for irrigation and water for cattle can tell you all about it. Many have had to sell their cattle and some have lost land that had been in their families for generations. The old timers that gather mornings at the Hondo Dairy Queen for coffee can tell you tales of the excessive flow of semi trucks with food supplies, boats, Humvee's and other expensive toys that are taking into Hagee's Tarpley compound that was supposedly built for a retreat for church members, but has become home of present wife and former church secretary Diana Castro's uncles, aunts, cousins and many other family members.

[Joanne98]

2. You sound like you have some inside info....

You can copy and paste your comment and put it here...
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_042308#postComment

[DUgosh]

3. Aircraft refurbishment

Is big business in Uvalde and Hondo, Hondo has one of the largest aircraft landing strips in the US, left over from WWII. As for the damning of the creeks, I live about 14 miles south of Hagee's compound. It rained heavy last night. Normally after a rain like that the Williams creek springs would feed the Hondo creek and within 5 hours the Hondo Creek at our place would flow it. It's dry. Am I bitter. Sure. You may post my comments anywhere you like. Hagee's lawyers know where to find me.