Churches want your kids, so they develop elaborate programs to get them. The church knows that if they donât get a kid before that child is an adult, the task of converting them becomes exponentially harder. Conversely, if you can convince a child as young as five or six years of age that they were born flawed, inherently evil, worthless and in need of saving, then it is possible with the right amount of âtrainingâ to have a disciple for life.
âTrain up a child in the way he should go,â as the Book of Proverbs says, so that when the child is grown âhe will not depart from it.â So when some wolf in sheepâs clothing like Bert Farias writes an article on the âCharisma Newsâ website, with the headline: âExtremism: The Key to Launching a Spiritual Revolution,â some folks might get a bit nervous. Farias also said, âWe need a touch of wholesome extremism to launch a counterculture Jesus revolution.â To do this requires ââŠequipped and empowered radical youth.â The goal of Farias and his ilk is â⊠to upset the sinful status quo of society and the church.â These self-righteous types donât even trust the institution they represent; how egocentric are you when you think you, and you alone, are the only one on earth to correctly interpret what God intends for all people?
Farias makes it clear he speaks in metaphorical terms of âspiritual warfare,â not one of guns and bombs, but it is not a long journey from spiritual extremism to violent extremism, and the rhetoric used by preachers like Farias make the transition not only easy, but almost inevitable if a person truly believes that everybody else is possessed by demons who hate god and his chosen people.
The Southern Poverty Law Center follows several groups known as militant Christians. These groups consist of the âend timersâ who are preparing for and expecting to participate in the last great cosmic battle between good and evil for control of this world. Folks, they are stomp-down f*cking crazy, and worst of all, look forward to killing in the name of God.
In 2012, the SPLC reported on The Church at Kaweah, a congregation of militant Christians near Sequoia National Park in California. These people believe there is evil in everything, especially the government, the arts and education. Pretty much anything that advances humanity is a threat to their narrow world view. So in order to help God out, they form small militias and conduct military training because thatâs exactly what Jesus told his followers to do.
The SPLC article quotes Frederic Clarkson, a journalist identified as an expert on the religious right:
âWhat is remarkable here is the openness with which they speak of religious war to advance Godâs laws and Godâs government ⊠Less surprising is that the war is to be waged against the government and the usual stew of far-right enemies â although, clearly, Muslims seem to have replaced Communists as the most fearsome, frontline Satanic soldiers said to be creeping over the border and into society.â Â
Theology of this sort is no different from a theology that flies airliners into buildings or kidnaps and murders school children, or of a belief system that condones butchering another human being in the name of god.
After the Scopes âMonkey Trialâ in 1925, church leaders took the position that politics and government were evils of manâs own making, and the righteous should eschew association with such things. But after Roe vs. Wade in 1973, Jerry Falwell and other Church charlatans began to take a more active role in politics, culminating with the Moral Majority and the election of Ronald Reagan. The religious right, despite dwindling numbers, has become more and more powerful until the current Republican Party now must answer to the fundamentalist fanatics before taking a position on any issue.
As church membership continues to wane in America, and fewer and fewer coins in the coffers ring, the more extreme elements will be all that remains, and their hatred towards the rest of us, the god-haters, the lovers of sin and immorality, will escalate. That is reason enough to be ever-diligent to ensure that the line of separation is kept plainly marked and well illuminated. It doesnât matter which faith or which god; it is a very easy transition from the rhetoric of Farias, to the Kaweah Church to 9/11. The only difference is who the infidels are.
