As reported in The Guardian:
A Guardian investigation has revealed that a controversial church whose leader has openly expressed the ambition of creating a “theocracy” in America has accumulated significant influence in the city of Moscow, Idaho.Christ Church has a stated goal to “make Moscow a Christian town” and public records, interviews, and open source materials online show how its leadership has extended its power and activities in the town.Church figures have browbeaten elected officials over Covid restrictions, built powerful institutions in parallel to secular government, harassed perceived opponents, and accumulated land and businesses in pursuit of a long-term goal of transforming America into a nation ruled according to its own, ultra-conservative moral precepts...Wilson further claimed that “we are not yet in a hot civil war, with shooting and all, but we are in a cold war/civil war” and urged readers to “resist openly, in concert with any others in your same position”, claiming that this would not be “rebellion against lawful authority” but “an example of a free people refusing to go along with their own enslavement”...Christ Church was founded in Moscow in the 1990s, and experts who have studied the church estimate the size of the congregation and its offshoot churches at about 2,000, or 10% of the city’s total population.But they also say that the church is increasingly drawing people to the area who are attracted to the idea of northern Idaho as a conservative “redoubt” against American modernity, and by the church’s “reconstructionist” position, which holds that the world will need to be governed according to their interpretation of biblical morality before Christ returns to earth...In the early 2000s, Wilson received criticism over a book, Southern Slavery as it Was, which he had co-written... the book depicted slavery in the antebellum southern United States as “a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence”, and argued that the enslaved enjoyed “a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care”...Christ Church itself is an unincorporated nonprofit, which means that it is not obliged to provide details of its finances to government authorities... But insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity said that all members tithe 10% of their household income, and wealthier members are expected to make an even larger contribution.
More at The Guardian. This is the kind of crap that is proliferating in the United States, encouraged by self-serving politicians, guided by profit-driven evangelists, supported by Russian professionals, and ramped up by the technology of social media.
Seufz, hier gehen wir wieder.
ReplyDeleteIn neunzig jahren werden die geschichtsbücher dies als dunkle periode in Moscow und den USA darstellen.
Sigh, here we go again.
DeleteIn ninety years from now, history books will portray this as a dark period in Moscow and the United States
Mein lieber Mr. Rocket: Vielleicht arbeiten Sie daran, einige der Probleme Ihres Landes zu lösen (Erschwinglichkeit von Wohnungen, steigende Selbstmordraten bei Jugendlichen, die Zerstörung durch Methamphetamin, die Zahl der Kinder in größter Armut, psychische Gesundheitsprobleme durch die strenge Sperrung, Rassismus. ..). Das sollte Sie beschäftigen. Wir wissen Ihre Besorgnis jedoch zu schätzen.
ReplyDeleteMy dear Mr. Rocket, you may be working to resolve some of your country's problems (housing affordability, rising youth suicide rates, the destruction of methamphetamine, the number of children in extreme poverty, mental health problems from the strict lockdown, racism. ..). That should keep you busy. However, we appreciate your concern.
DeleteWhat we are witnessing in America today is the decline of empire. And personally I believe it all started with the Vietnam War.
ReplyDeleteLunatic cults are nothing new; what's new for me is an increasing concern that 50 or 60 million Americans might want to join one. Trumpism being a dress rehearsal.
ReplyDeleteDisclaimer: I am a Christian, and I am not connected to or sympathetic with the church at Moscow.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that their attempts to create a government in conformity with their own morality is viewed as "Pseudo-Christian Crap". Seperation of Church and State is a very recent invention in the history of the world, including Christianity. Second, every single person who votes is voting, at some level, to promote their own lawful/moral agenda. The only difference is what their moral/political agenda is.
So why is it more despicable that they are voting their conscience vs. any other person doing it? From their perspective, the "liberal left" (I hate these terms now because they are immediately triggering) are doing the exact same thing.
Yes, many countries have state religions, in fact they're more the norm than not, even in the modern era. So, if you want to live in such an environment, there are many options to choose from. The point is, the United States was founded on several principles, one of those is the freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State, which was a radical idea at the time. The Supreme Court has confirmed that any requirements to adhere to any religious doctrine to hold public office are unconstitutional. So, if you want to live in a ultra-conservative Christian theocracy, you can move to Vatican City or one of the other many choices of your choosing.
DeleteOn top of all of this, this group, by it's decriptions and actions, no longer fits the definition of a religion. It's a cult!
For all practical intents and purposes, America already is and always has been a theocracy. Christianity and its myriad subsets dominate nearly all American moral, eithical, and political authority. To parody Jeff Foxworthy; If you reference a god on your legal tender... well, you might be a theocracy.
ReplyDeleteYea, we've certainly failed to uphold the Jeffersonian ideal of the bright wall separating the Church and State. But, at least we don't have to swear allegiance to an invisible man in the sky (in reality, the head of the Church) or be flogged or executed.
DeleteYou're right. We're not there yet. But we're headed that way. Iran, 1979. It happened there, then. It can happen here, now. Learn from history.
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