Jeff Sharlet's speech to the FFRF Convention about the Family

[MindPilot]

http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2009/april/sharlet.php

If you have ever wondered who was pulling Bush's puppet strings, or why Obama took a sudden right turn after taking office, how Democrats and Republicans so frequently seem to be two sides of the same coin, this will explain it all.

After I listened to this speech, I realized that nothing is ever going to fundamentally change in our government, "we the people" is just a facade, the Family is the true center of power.

[juno jones]

1. I can't believe somebody unrecced this

Afraid are you?

Well I'm afraid of the family, and I'm afraid for my country.

Let this be seen. KICK KICK KICK.

[K8-EEE]

7. K&R to undo the unrec!

All is well!

[juno jones]

16. Thanks!

:)

[kestrel91316]

2. K&R

[Sinistrous]

3. K&R

[Mari333]

4. kinda sorta kinda always suspected as much

but its wonderful when some of their members get caught with their pants down isnt it.

[AnnInLa]

5. "Trickle-down" Christianity

Just listened to an interview Sharlet did on NPR, can't find it right now, but it should be on the NPR website somewhere. Was stupified that The Family believes certain successful (whatever their def of successful is) are chosen by God to affect others' lives by bringing them more faith if they already believe, or bring them to Christianity if they don't believe. These "chosen" are politicians like Ensign and other C-street residents, world leaders, religious leaders, etc etc. These leaders are "above morality,"....even if they behave immorally, they are still the "chosen" are are favored by God because they influence the lives of others in a beneficial way (trickle-down benefits.) David (of Bible fame) was one of the chosen....altho he was an adulterer and murderer, God still favored David as "chosen," because he brought others to God. O-Kay.

They don't believe in churches, per say....as churches are too public and minister to the vast rabble. They stay private and "above" the churches, influencing popular ministers/preachers. Evidently their ultimate goal is to control the world, to make it over into a vast Christian theocracy where the leaders of the world dispense law and order, guided by Christian principles. Therefore, with that kind of world, guided by these Christian "chosen" leaders, there will be no need for laws and petty legislatures and governments-by-the-people.

They are not cynical, and really believe in remaking the world as a Christian theocracy, with the "chosen" leaders in charge, of course.

Give me a chaotic, rabble-based world-order any day!

[PATRICK]

12. I wonder if if even this is just a cover

for another conflict paradigm to empower the usual suspects. One big shift from the wonderful Cold War enablement of topdown tyranny has been to create practically from whole cloth, Islamic theocracy and Christian theocracy along the lines of fascism versus Communism which melted down so disastrously in WWII
with the triumph of half measure sanity. When the Cold War attempted successfully to employ the distraction blown by Hitler, the great crusade against "godless" communism its happy marriage to suicidal atom weapons was a natural. The actual threat now is simply global warming, which is a fear suppressed so the mutual Armageddon checkers tournament to keep the masses distracted enables the same top players to keep their better world focus unnoticed, untouched, manipulative and controlling.

The guy who set up this ministry to the "top" easily sold the powerful on amoral usefulness and "divine" affirmation of their right to rule and a confraternity to mask it. No conversion needed other than the conversion of simple spiritual doctrine to autocratic utilitarianism. Nobles love their crowns, their own crowning top of the social and divine pyramid and their mutual support in the lust for money power and well.. just lust for its own sake. This perversion of religion humanity and truth has little to do with the things it perverts other than to channel away the competition. How much, if any, sincerity these reptiles have in their self-enabling belief systems of control is probably a moot point, but I but their is an overset(and subsets) of the totally cynical that would put up Howdy Doody as a God if it could advance their careers and make a dishonest buck for their permissive lifestyles.

It is simply self-evident utterly lawless evil wearing shoddy sometimes glittering, disguises, pathetic in modern times. That they with impunity, though discovered, still play for our destruction is a cause for a single maddened scream from billions of repressed throats.

[orwell]

6. His writing is a little disjointed...

...but the thrust of his topic is not.

It's amazing that so little light has been shown on this group of religious fanatics. Jeff Sharlet should be commended for his ongoing efforts to do so.

The amazing thing about all this is how much this group covets money and worldly power, the two things that Jesus frequently rails against in the Bible. One could even posit that in many ways this cabal has become that which they profess to hate, metaphorical antichrists.

Thanks for the link.

[MindPilot]

9. My link is to the transcript of a speech

which may explain the disjointedness.

Yeah, your are right about their worldview being the complete opposite of what a "real" Christian professes to be and believe.

In the vernacular of a different family, "chosen" would be referred to as "made".

[Octafish]

8. ''Gott mit Uns.''

Know your BFEE: The Fellowship ‘Preys’ for America

We can beat these holy roller NAZIs. We'll use the aspect of the Creator Gandhi worshipped -- The Truth.

[AntiFascist]

10. K&R n/t

[bigmonkey]

11. The only way to get progress is to first realize everything is hopeless.

I always find this perspective, so elegantly expressed in your comment, so enlightening. It's so new, and encourages change so effectively.

:sarcasm:

And don't remind me you have a right to say whatever you want - it's irrelevant. What you say, unless you are really promoting resignation in the face of the staus quo, is very unlikely to help at all. What's your goal, just self-expression of your despair? It's completely counter-productive unless it encourages more people than it discourages.

[Joanie Baloney]

13. Hey Monkey

It IS discouraging, butt-munch! How do you expect the OP to post his frustration...with smiley faces?

:mad:

(I guess that emoticon would do!)

-JB

[bigmonkey]

17. Precisely!

You got it exactly. I have no problem with someone expressing their frustration, just with the expression of it through such discouraging rhetoric. It's entirely counter-productive. To avoid being aware of the influence of the mode of expression seems entirely self-indulgent to me. The expression of the frustration is not.

Hey, I didn't call you names.

[MindPilot]

14. I'm very sorry to have allowed reality to intrude on your perfect little rainbow world.

If you have a solution, please share it, because I've been actively dealing with this shit since the Reagan administration and I'm out of ideas.

[bigmonkey]

18. The way you express yourself has an effect.

I've got no rainbow world I live in. I share the frustration, but if one wants the situation to improve, the expression of the frustration in terms that discourage natural allies is counter-productive. Some small percentage of people redouble their efforts when told that all is lost. Emphasis on "small".

I have a friend who was talking with an activist about her frustration with the issue they were both working on, and she said something like "why do we even bother?" The activist replied "Because sometimes they lose." The OP exhorts the reader to believe that "they" never lose. How is this even true?

[Luminous Animal]

15. Jef Sharlet's article in Harper's, March 2003

Jesus plus nothing

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525