Organizers for Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer event in Houston this summer claim people of all faiths will be welcome (so long as they’re open to converting to Christianity, apparently). Now a Christian-right group is worried that Muslims might show up to pray at the event, which supporters claim is an opportunity to bring Americans together in support of their country. An email from the Pray in Jesus Name Project to far-right activists is warning that Muslims might try to disrupt the August 6 event at Reliant Stadium in Houston. From the email:
Sadly, although the stadium was rented by non-denominational Christians, it may be interrupted by Muslims who are already demanding to share our stage to pray to Allah.
But if you attend, and the Governors of all 50 States attend (none of whom are Muslim), it will signal our greatest public statement of all–that American is returning to its Christian roots.
Could the hostility toward Muslims, not to mention Jews and other non-Christians, be any clearer? It’s shameful that the governor of Texas insists on associating with intolerant groups that oppose religious freedom for anyone who doesn’t share their views.
The Pray in Jesus Name Project was founded by Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) last year asked the IRS to investigate whether the Pray in Jesus Name Project was violating tax laws by trying to use churches to advance a political agenda. The Project had distributed voter guides in churches that identified electoral candidates as “Anti-Jesus” or “faith friendly.” CREW noted that the Project’s voter guides rated Republican politicians like U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., as 100% “faith friendly” even though the two had been involved in very public sex scandals.
Take a stand against far-right groups and cynical politicians who use faith as a political weapon by signing our open letter to Gov. Perry. The letter calls on the governor to make his August event truly open to speakers and attendees from all faiths as well as to people of goodwill who are not affiliated with a faith tradition. The letter also calls on Gov. Perry to demonstrate his commitment to religious tolerance by ending the association between his office and the American Family Association, a hate group the governor has asked to organize the event.
“Pray in Jesus Name Project??”
I knew Klingenschmidt was a loon, but does that mean he’s never heard of apostrophes?
I think it would be great if United Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, moderate Southern Baptists, Northern Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and other such non-Christian slime from hell showed up and held their own prayer rally outside of the stadium—maybe do some tailgating along with it. I’ll bring the banana pudding.
Anyone else who wants to show up and act like a respectable human being is welcome too. “So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19).
The last time Rick Perry asked the multitudes to pray, it was for rain, and they were asked to pray all Easter weekend. Well, lo and behold, the weather front that had been observed out in the Pacific did roll through the Metroplex area and drop some rain. I think I saw in an earlier post where some of GGH’s fanatical followers took credit for bringing the rain. If they take credit for that rain, they will also have to take the blame for the hundreds of people killed by that storm as it rolled through the rest of the South. Is it safe for Rick Perry to have a prayer meeting?
It is prefectly possible to devise prayers, etc which are acceptable to all faiths. I suggest Gov Perry contacts his local ordained Interfaith Minister, who I’m confident will advise and even lead the prayers.
Prayers = wishing out loud? Yeah, that might be acceptable to “all faiths.”
In den alten Zeiten, wo das Wuenschen noch geholfen hat….”
– the Brothers Grimm, in The Frog King
They will ask us to pray for the sun to rise, and if it happens, they will take credit for that, too.
If I were only a Muslim, I absolutely would show up to pray at this shindig, just to watch the organizers melt away from fear.
People who don’t even know that the words “Allah” and “God” mean exactly the same thing should not be commenting on Islam.
Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are, depending on crrcumstance, can be mutually exclusive. One cannot be an atheist Baptist, or a Bhuddist Shia.
But can a non-Denominational Christian include non-Denominational Muslim? The concept of Christ not being divisne, but mortal, is included in some bery old Christian churches, The concept that Christ was not human but divine, is also held by certain Christian beliefs, What separates a Mormon from a Catholic, and is that any different than the differece between a Catholic and a Muslim?
Mormonism and Islam consist of differing add-ons to Judaism and/or Christianity.
Freedom of speech without freedom of religion sin’t free. Freedom o religion without freedom of speech is oppression.
Gary Cooper, you crack me up! “They will ask us to pray for the sun to rise, and if it happens, they will take credit for that, too.” THAT’S funny…and true.
Pray to, GASP, Allah? That is what that bunch of Xians are supposedly going to be doing. Allah is merely the name of God in Arabic. Of course God almighty doesn’t listen to the prayers of a Jew because they were smart enough to know a phony baloney bunch when they saw one. Not Jesus, he was kind of cool. He knew his scriptures and used them wisely. But he never claimed to be God. The problem with Xians is that they don’t know the first thing about Judaism, nor what it means to be a son of God. It is IMPOSSIBLE to take any scripture LITERALLY, yet that is exactly what those ill-meaning people do; take the words of the bible literally. Not knowing how people in Asia write, they cannot possibly know what the words mean. BTW, how could any of the “gospels” have been written by people who had seen Jesus’ ministry? That would make any of them around 100 years old but nobody lived that long back then. There were no tape recorders or shorthand, how did they know what someone said some 70 years prior? Can you tell me what YOU said last week on Wednesday afternoon? Obviously, I loath Perry and hypocrisy. In this case, they’re the same.;
Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your father in Heaven.
Matthew 6:1
And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
Matthew 6:5
Hi Beverly. The thing you might not be aware of is the fact that many members of the Religious Right do not believe that Allah is the same holy entity as the Jewish/Christian God. They believe that this Muslim “god” lied to Mohammed when he said that he was the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. The RR and fundies would cite the scripture saying that angels and demons can appear to human beings in the form of great beauty and light that one might swear is an angel from heaven.
Rather, and this is for all you Muslims out there too just so you will know the facts as I understand them, the Religious Right and its supporters believe that the entity “Allah” in the Koran is actually Satan himself or one of his higher level demons. Therefore, for the past 1300 years, Muslims have actually been facing Mecca on their prayer rugs several times per day to worship the Prince of Darkness rather than God. The Koran is an evil book of falsehoods and lies that was written or inspired by Satan. All of Mohammed’s ministry was a comprehensive work of evil directed by Satan, and his assent into heaven from the Dome of the Rock location (or wherever) was a cheap Satanic attempt to imitate the ascension of Jesus because Satan is filled with jealousy that God can pull off such great stunts and he cannot—so some kind of Satanic attempt was perhaps obligatory. Islam is a fruit of the Anti-Christ.
(Please be advised that the last paragraph is NOT necessarily what this author or TFN Insider believes about Islam, Mohammed, and the Koran. Rather, it was an attempt to articulate what a number of outsiders on the Religious Right (and their supporters) appear to believe based on my years of observing them and things that they have said at various times.)
Peace to all.
Monothridm, the religious concept that there is only one God, doesn’t exist in either Christianity or Islam so long as there is a belief in Satan. The one-upsmanship that the insecure and unsure need to build a self confidence crutch, requires drama, Drama, as tought in any wrutubg school requires the Hero and the Villain, Satan was created as the multi purpose villain that created to provide victimes to rescue by assault and battery on the alleged victim.
The creation of Satan is closer to Zoroastrianism than Islam an/or Christianity.
Query:
If Islam is the fruit of the Anti-Christ, from whence cometh that fruit called the Religious Right?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Since Jesus Christ is sixth of seven prophets of Islam, there can be no Anti-Christ in or of Islam. Mohammed made no claims to divinity. Within Christianity there was (is still) considerable controversy whether Christ was neither divine nor human, both, or sequential. The decisions concerning Christ’s divinity were made in conferences of church potentates,
Since Satan preceded the New Testament, Satan is not the Anti-Christ. There may be some evidence, likely available from the LeftBehind that establishes whether Satan was promoted/demoted to Anti-Christ statues. That might prove difficualt as Satan exists in Islamic doctrine.
It is also difficult to establiish that Islam is the mind of the Anti-Christ since the Protestant Refiornation, the Papacy was identified as the Anti-Christ according to to Luther, Calvin, Mather, and Knox. Since the Papacy is mortal, the Anti-Christ is, and is elected from within the Papal Conclave of the College of Cardinats. Thus the Anti-Christ must either be reincarnated on each election, or that there is a list of Anti-Christ candidates who compete for the Anti-Christ position in said Conclave.
The belief in Papal Satanism is fundamental to protestant fundamentalism. The best selling Left Behind series of the apocalyotic books, comics, videos, dvd, and movies clearly show that the Anti-Christ is from “Romania” and is the Secretary General of the United Nations (or EU, depending of which series. The inflluence of the LeftBehind in Tea Party circles in the hysterical stance on Islam.
The sad part of Islamo-phobia is that there are enough fools in Islam to be sucked in by the same argument with small changes in the cast of characters, There hasn’t been a more perfect villain ever. Even Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan had something to offer.
IN response to the outcry against Gov Perry’s Prayer Meeting, Jesus Christ said: “BEWARE OF THE LEAVEN OF HEROD”
Most Christians know what the leaven of the Pharisees is, but I think few know what the Leaven of Herod is. It is the forming of unholy alliances between church and state, religion and government. But I can’t help but wonder where the outcry was when Rick Warren is drunk on the leaven of Herod in his Global Peace Plan? Remember the Antichrist will destroy many with PEACE. Without even attacking Muslims, but simply sharing what their own eschatology teaches about the End of Days, you can determine for yourself if Islam is a religion of peace. See “Islamic Jesus vs. Biblical Jesus” at perfectpeace plan dot com for proof. Finally, what’s next? Apologizing to the Native Canaanites for seizing their land that God swore to give to Abraham and his descendants until the end of time.
SIncerely,
James Sundquist
Director
http://www.theperfectpeaceplan.com