Tag: Religious Right

While in the midst of a discussion about the vast unchecked growth of the military, the subject of religion entered our interview.  While on the subject, I mentioned that I am a Quaker, and opposed to the very existence of a military.  We then began to chat briefly about the connection between church membership and political allegiance. Senator Stevenson is a Unitarian Universalist, and though his church does not expressly take the position, he has long been in favor of abolishing the death penalty.  The Senator’s father and Great-grandfather also believed that capital punishment should be cast upon the scrap heap of history.  And as we discussed the particulars of the Religious Left, our interview then turned towards the abuses of the Religious Right.  

One of my relatives on the other side of the political spectrum forwarded an email to me from a group called the American Family Association (why oh why do these folks have to usurp such a nice concept like “family” and twist it into indecipherable political contortions?). Seems that they’re trying to do a writing campaign to the White House to force President Obama to backtrack on his rescinding the Bush administration’s rule that would allow doctors or hospitals to deny people health care if their religion trumped the need of the person standing in front of them asking for help.

http://www.talk2action.org/sto…

However, the story moves on to one island area that remained blighted despite the miracles. This is an island on which the indigenous populations’ ancestors had killed a missionary in 1867. The video shows the process through which the community prayed, fasted, and repented of this generational curse. Like other vignettes in the Transformation videos, native artifacts and ritual items like carved masks were thrown into bonfires. The descendants of the murdered (and eaten) missionary traveled to the island to attend a ceremony of repentance by the inhabitants and release them from the generational curse. The island was also miraculously renewed after the event, including the immediate cleansing of a poisonous polluted stream.

Moral Orel is a really snarky cartoon on Adult Swim that chronicles the faith contradictions of Orel Puffington, son of an evangelical Christian family in the town of Moralton in Statesasota.

Orel’s name was probably taken from Oral Roberts, one of the first and most famous of the televangelists.  Roberts, 89, is still alive; but one of his most enduring legacies, Oral Roberts University, is in considerable difficulty.

ORU is an interesting place.  Having been to Tulsa several times for training, I can tell you from first hand experience it dominates an otherwise declining city; the main tourist attraction in a harsh landscape of boarded up storefronts and empty streets.  Like Liberty (Falwell) and Regent (RobertSON) it is a monument to the fundraising power of its founder.

In fact what most people may remember about Oral Roberts the man is his famous fundraising appeal in 1987 where he demanded $8 million from his followers “Or God will call me home.”

“Call me home!” below-