Extreme Religion

Susan Brooks Thistlethewaite,
My concern is for EXTREMES in bad journalism. In your article, you have attributed the following statement, which you place in quotation marks, to David Brickner: "Israeli deaths [from terrorism] are God's judgment." If you are going to place something in quotation marks, you better make sure the person actually said it! I challenge you to find that statement in David Brickner's sermon at Sarah Palin's church. Here is a link to the transcript: www.jewsforjesus.org/blog/20080817 In fact, I challenge you to find the the phrase "Israeli deaths" or "God's judgment" in the transcript! If you can't (and you won't), you owe David Brickner and your readers an apology and a retraction. You can read Brickner's explanation of his remarks on the Jews for Jesus website, both in his article and in the interviews he did with Christianity Today and NBC. The website is www.jewsforjesus.org.

"KARLA:
And you call yourselves, Christians? God save us all"

Wow, a liberal accuses those who don't share her bigoted views true Christians.

How progressive!

"You put all these beliefs together and I ask myself if Sarah Palin is going to defend the modern state of Israel as a self-determining democracy and work for peace in the Middle East, or just abandon Israel to destruction from its enemies in order to hasten the Rapture and the return of Christ?"

This is like wondering if JFK would be answering to the Vatican. Such bigotry.

Extreme is laying on a bed of roses and ending up not being able to sleep because of the pain. It's a future you can't afford, even if you can afford the roses you are better off with them in a vase beside the bed. Extreme sports can also get you a vase of roses and they are next to you in a box. People are always trying to box you in politically. A new mattress never comes in a box. It comes in a bag, so you either have it in the bag or in the box. You always get put in a bag before you end up in a box. Any Army grunt can tell you that. Terrorists aren't as good as we are at putting people in bags and boxes. They will put themselves in a box, which is extreme religion. We just keep buying more mattresses to put the kids to bed on, safe and sound. That's because we are civilized and they are not. They are no more advanced than the cavemen of another age. They are hiding from us in caves, with no mattress.

You are opposed to extremes. Where would you stand if you were in ancient Israel? For God or for accepting all the native religions? It seems that God had some very extreme views back then. And what about Jesus? Not exactly your middle-of-the-road, don't rock the boat type of rabbi. It seems to me that you value moderation at the expense of truth. It may be that Palin's church's views are wrong, but you don't attack them for being wrong, but for being extreme.

David Brickner has explained and is continuing to explain how the summary position attributed to him is not his position. Please go to http://www.jewsforjesus.org for the clarification. You can also listen to the entire original sermon.

Please do not bear false witness and pass along reports without that clarification.

It is very clear that you know very little about true evangelical christains. We would NEVER betray Israel. We recognize Israel as a sovereign nation and most of us believe that the Jews are still God's choosen people and nation.

The abundance of mean spirited comments on this particular opinion article scares me to death. I can't believe there are so many vicious people in this country who can't sit at a table and have an open, non-violent discussion. No one says you have to agree with her, but I do recall someone saying to love your neighbor. He didn't qualify that with the words 'only if she agrees with you'. And you call yourselves, Christians? God save us all.

This is ironic, coming from someone as far left-wing-religious as Palin is right-wing-religious.

AMERICA NEEDS SARAH PALIN!!!

http://tinyurl.com/VicePresidentSarahPalin

i,m from the gold and silverstein family ,i fooled and dised many people thru the entire history of mankind. right now i,m the way the truth and life not only in america but in many part of the world i tel you many people accepted me as their savior!dare to give you a serious evidence ,i wispered in georg big ears and inspired him to invade iraq and steal people wealth despite the fact that jesus land not only full of milk and honey but so full of christians who they blessed the invasion ????????????????.

let me give you a secret and a clue ,dis me and refrain from me ,things will be much better .

what is for god is for god and what is for dollarstein is for dollarstein ,please do not confuse me with god !!!

"Religion works best with public policy where it provides the voice of conscience, speaking up for the poor, for those whose voices are hardly heard by the powerful, speaking up against violence and destruction, and speaking up for the care of the earth, this earth that has no voice but ours."

Oh how profound: "this earth that has no voice but ours." Makes me want to go out an hug a tree. What a silly remark. The health of our earth is a worthy cause but this is hardly what religion should be focused on. You come on like a mother earth worshiper. Are you?

If my pastor started preaching about environmental issues, this I would consider to be politics. I don't want the pastor taking sides on wars, talking about pipelines, environmental issues, liberal or conservative causes. Please stick to the gospel and the great commission.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...

This is the true mission of the church, the great commission.

Rev. Thistlethwaite, the posts here may have disproved your premise that Americans are not extremists. Well, in the main I agree but boy, they really come crawling out of the woodwork, no matter how rational or reasonable a hypothesis you write.

"Religion works best with public policy where it provides the voice of conscience, speaking up for the poor, for those whose voices are hardly heard by the powerful, speaking up against violence and destruction, and speaking up for the care of the earth, this earth that has no voice but ours."

Point taken- in fact until very recently I always believed this was the way we functioned as a country. But as the Republican party tapped into the votes fo the religious right, the idea seems to have grown that for those votes they are entitled to run the country as they see fit.

Palin and Obama's religious background can't be compared. for Obama, his religion is his voice of consciousness, but for Palin, it is the way she lives her life and would run the country. Obama is well aware of and follows the concept of separation of Church and state, He believes in the Constitution and the Bill of rights. Palin believes in them only as far as she deems necessary. And then her religion not only guides her but - in her mind- empowers her to force others to live with the consequences of her beliefs.

People can scream about Rev. wright all they want- his so-called "extremism " is a political and social one born out of the history of blacks in this country. The rev. wright empowers his community so that they can help others and themselves and a look at the great social programs his church has run over the years certainly shames the poor showing of Ms. Palin's. And despite his "G-d damn America" comments, made in anger, Rev. Wright is a marine veteran and served this country. I wonder how many of those who point their fingers at him have served anyone but themselves?

"You put all these beliefs together and I ask myself if Sarah Palin is going to defend the modern state of Israel as a self-determining democracy and work for peace in the Middle East, or just abandon Israel to destruction from its enemies in order to hasten the Rapture and the return of Christ?"

Chicago Theological Seminary, is it, Susan? A professor? You ask yourself questions. Wish you could imagine the ones you raise for me.

Could be worse. You could be affiliated with the U of Chicago. Unstable world. Anything is possible. Even a return to the rational.

This...ahem.....article coming from an arch-liberal, Soros funded Center for American Progress 'religion expert' Thistlethwaite has almost no journalistic value whatsoever.

Thistlethwaite reminds me of the Communist Chinese and their government 'approved' churches. I guess Governor Palin's church and theology don't quite mix well with the 'moral relativism/secular humanist agenda of Thistlethwaite and Soros. Then at the end of the article she feigns concern over Isreal and whether the Governor's church has alterior motives like 'the apocalypse' oohh oohh.

Well Ms. Thistlethwaite, I can probably guarantee that although this church may have some kooky practices and theology, at least they aren't Wright's church. I could go into detail like so many Christian Conservatives have done before me but I think you may get my point.

Man, you are a wako. Wake up and get real

God’s will I would think would be to heal everyone. Back in the time Jesus saw that the wealthy were keeping all the protein for themselves and the poor and indentured servitude got only bread, a diet of which leads to severe malnutrition, biochemical malfunction and disease, so he was teaching them how to fish and make nets that they could get needed to eat protein and actually lift themselves from poverty. Therefore his will would be “The End of Disease” which you can read the steps and insight here.

There is no cure for disease, but there is a solution, the end of disease
http://intelegen.com/there_is_no_cure_for_disease.htm

You can also read the Fish Story Here
Sirius The FBI Agent and The Fish Company
http://iamblogging.net/Urgo/archives/2004/10/sirius_the_fbi.html

Obviously the people in positions of power are not doing God’s will because we would be implementing Universal Health not Universal Disease Care.

I have analyzed God's energy system design. Gas pipe lines are not his design.

He suspended a nuclear reactor overhead which distributes energy equally for free, all over the planet, effortless to use.

As I brought to our attention before:

In looking at the energy systems in the human body, and there isn't centralized production of energy, there is decentralized production of energy. Each cell has it's own energy production as should each house on the planet. We do need storage just like the ATP molecule in the body.

It's too bad that some don't have me by their side to duel against the fictions. I have this really cool sword ~Excalibur~.

GM is burdened by disease care costs it runs into the tens of billions. This is not good for America. It is time to implement Universal Health, not Universal Disease Care.

I also know about their internal accounting practices, and hence the need for transparency.

As a professor of theology you have consistently and blatantly campaigned for Senator Obama and against Senator McCain and Governor Palin.

Does that count as mixing religion and politics in a way that is not recommended for a professor of theology who has direct influence on the next generation of pastors and theologians?

Senator Obama attended a Church for twenty years whose pastor, Rev Wright, preached an extreme kind of black liberation theology and made remarks, like "God damn America" the government is responsible for AIDS among the blacks etc. You agreed it was not fair to condemn Senator Obama for his pastor's views or the views of some of his radical friends/acquaintances who influenced his thinking.

And yet you have this great concern about the views of Governor Palin's pastor.

Just wondering.

Susan,

You do yourself no credit by reacting to errors made by Sally Quinn without engaging your own critical faculties.

Quinn got a Fact Checker failing grade this week. You can check the post on Susan Jacoby's on the subject. What Sally said had little to do with what Sarah said.

Sally and the other professionals here need to clean up their act on background research.