Hagee-run "Jesus Camp" for adults

Instead of focusing on Hagee directly, we're going to focus on the sorts of stuff that are not in the public eye--namely, that Hagee runs a weekend "Jesus Camp" for grownups that was successfully infiltrated--and escaped from--by Matt Taibbi, reporter for Rolling Stone.


Thanks to Matt Taibbi--possibly one of the first persons to ever successfully infiltrate a neopente dominionist church for the specific purpose of investigation and expose--we know this crosses over into the literal sense, too...and we get, as a bonus, a glimpse into the horror of just what it feels like to be recruited into a "Bible-based" coercive religious group.

It honestly cannot be overstated just how dangerous Matt Taibbi's infiltration was. Hagee's church is known to promote highly coercive "cell churches" and is among the more extreme of "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" churches; the consequences if Taibbi had been exposed before he was able to escape would have been disastrous.

That said--somehow Taibbi did manage to infiltrate, escape, and has written his own version of Bilbo Baggins' "There And Back Again" in the Rolling Stone article Jesus Made Me Puke--so named for an incident to be described in the article, itself a segment of a new book called "The Great Derangement" (which focuses on conspiracy-theory promoters, with a large section dedicated to the infiltration of Hagee's church). The article is probably one of the best exposes of the inner workings of these groups that I have seen--and hits sufficiently close to home that I have had to do readings in parts to avoid being "triggered" (I myself do have diagnosed PTSD as a result of growing up in the stuff we'll be discussing--and this and the next post should reveal just why people get PTSD after being in these groups).

Read it all -

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/9...2943/580/511990

The Christian Taliban are as whacky as the muslim Taliban.

If there is a God, I hope he/she/it sees the way clear to bring this Hagee character front and center well before the election, and to hang him like a fukin boat-anchor sized albatross around McSame's neck.

That was a very interesting article. It demonstrates how the evangelicals are taught to accept that intellectualism is bad and needs to be suppressed or removed from the human mind via prayer to cast out demons.

What's ironic is their group sessions are very secular and even new age in nature.

Matt Taibbi has the best title for a book, "IT SMELLS LIKE DEAD ELEPHANTS" that totally cracked me up. Saw him on Bill Maher's show, he did a segment on Hillary's debate with Obama. They showed the CNN countdown... he looked into the camera and said, " 2 hours 51 minutes to bulls&!t. I hit the floor in laughter. Matt is definitely cool.

More info on Tabbi's report............

Deliverance ministry, in and of itself, is known to be possibly one of the most abusive tactics ever documented (and I think this may well be the first time that a formal documentation of the harmfulness of a "deliverance ministry" has been done, at least based on commonly used tests of coerciveness); as it is, the service itself tests as literally more abusive in some aspects than Scientology. In addition, people surviving this particular flavour of holy hell often end up with severe psychiatric injuries, some of which have required inpatient treatment, almost invariably lead to PTSD in survivors, and have on occasion resulted in fatalities.

In the case of John McCain's present "spiritual advisor", John Hagee, the comparison is both literal and figural--right down to the "deliverance ministry" practice of upchucking the Devil (no, we aren't making this up). Thanks in part to a successful expose by Matt Taibbi that finally blows the cover off the "private face" of neopente dominionism, we learn the vomit-induciveness isn't just figurative.

Binge and Purge for Jesus

In yesterday's post, we went into detail on how Matt Taibbi recounts the process of "recruitment" in Hagee's church and in particular an "Encounter Weekend"--essentially a "Jesus Camp for grownups" that combines coercive tactics with pop psychology (in a manner that has more in common with Scientology "auditing sessions" than your typical prayer retreat). Along the way, I've noted how several of the tactics do compare with those used in coercive groups and themselves raise multiple red flags among those of us familiar with how religiously abusive groups work.

Read it all -

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/10/1787/26874

Jehova's Witnesses have called out the likes of Hagee and Parsley. Where do the rightie jerks get off calling the Catholic Church the Harlot? They are riding the back of the Beast of Government, to enrifch themselves and impose their view of God's word on the this country. But, soon or late, Government, having crushed all opposition with the help of the Harlot, will turn on her and devour her as well.

I dread the thought of the havoc that confrontation might wreak on an already-over-stressed society.

Won't be pretty a bit, if the confrontation is put off too long.

Been there, done that. Having grown up in that kind of environment, I understand the mind control they use over their "flock". It can definitely be called a cult IMO.

that was a good article.

Ah! Another example of smorgassbord Christians! It never ceases to amaze me how much from the Old Testament these people seem to take (especially from Leviticus, Deuteronomy and a third book that has slipped my mind's grasp) completely forgetting that Jesus doesn't really come into the picture until the New Testament, when God finally chills out a bit and is a lot less, um, wrathful.

This type of Christian often needs to be reminded that Jesus was the Prince of Peace -- he reached out to people who did not believe as he did and was not peaceful only to those who loved and adored him. They also need reminding that Jesus' gospel spoke of love of everyone . . . not just those who followed him blindly. And, when he said that Peter would be the rock upon which his church was built? Well, even the son of god can have a sense of humor and speak ironically every now and again.

Interpretation, interpretation, interpretation . . .

Peter was fallible, but morally up-right. He was, effectively, the first Pope. And the Pope is considered infallible when addressing Biblical interpretations.

See what happens when men start deciding for themselves what the tenets of their faith are supposed to be and twist it to their own authoritarian needs?

Let's not beat around the bush. John Hagee may portray himself as the most zealously pro-Israel televangelist in the nation (at least among the big-time televangelists), but he's really an anti-Semite. I'm sorry, but when you start throwing around terms like "international finance," you've gone over the line. It's "polite" anti-Semitism, but anti-Semitic nonetheless.


So now it's time to throw Hagee an anvil.

Watch video

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/14/131016/384/36/535925

I agree. These "fundy" evangelists are just using the pro Israel stance to get their Armageddon, which Lieberman and a few others are happy to oblige by starting a war with Iran.
According to Christian doctrine, Jews that do not believe Jesus is their Messiah will not enter Heaven.