Can you say "Terrorist Training Camp"?
Orcinus tells us of the Combat for Christ course. While their supporters and apologists will no doubt claim that all it does is promote True Christian Manliness in the manner of the Boy's Brigade, some of the course descriptions seem to betray a more sinister agenda....
Weapons Course: This course challenges the Christian Soldier to engage and eliminate his greatest enemies.
Allegory and metaphor? Perhaps. But the fundies are not known for their comprehension of allegory or metaphor. Do you think such an establishment would be tolerated if they were Moslems rather than "Christians"?
And the founder sounds like such a nice person
An Ooltewah Minister faces domestic assault charges..Police say he beat up his own daughter.
A family argument over whom the girl was dating led to the charge.
According to Bradley County Sheriff's reports, Community Baptist church Pastor Bryan Mowery spanked the girl with a belt first -- then threw her into a closet, kicked her and hit her in the face with his fist.
Mowery reportedly also got a nine millimeter handgun from his bedroom and fired it outside his Trewitt Road home.
... For now, Mowery is out of jail on his own recognizance.
It's the existance of things like this that make me wonder if the US Religious far-right is as big a long-term threat as extremist Islamism. What I don't know from several thousand miles away is whether the extremists represent a tiny and largely marginalised fringe, or whether they're the leading edge of something much larger and more dangerous.
Posted by TimHall at February 14, 2006 07:29 PM | TrackBackTiny and largely marginalized fringe. And I say that as someone living in a reasonably-far right state... Fred Phelps, for instance, does not represent the general attitude of Kansans, even Kansans who're denotatively and/or connotatively fundamentalists. (Interestingly, I've noticed a recent trend in the media toward the (more accurate, I gather) label "Phelps family" rather than "Westboro Baptist.")
It's just that they're a very *loud* fringe, and you have to admit they make interesting news stories.
>>Fred Phelps, for instance, does not represent the general attitude of Kansans
Well, I'm relieved to hear that.
Posted by: Tim Hall on February 14, 2006 10:02 PMYeah, the rest of us find him embarrassing. Heck, even the unreasonably-far-right people I know find him embarrassing.
Sounds just the same as the Muslim extremists who keep appearing on UK TV. A small minority, who don't represent the rest of a society but make good news stories for lazy hacks and end up fanning the flames; as in the cartoons episode.
Posted by: Chris on February 19, 2006 02:38 PMExcept Chris - these small minorities KILL people and therefore it seems like news. Capiche?
It wasn't "lazy hacks" who fanned the cartoon episode, it was muslems, who at first merely protested and then that minority fanned the flames. (Unless by "lazy hack" you count the original Danish editor who previously had banned Christ cartoons in his paper because they could offend Christians. True)
Pastor Mowery himself represents a common public, violent and hypocritical Christian who preaches the word but has never fully understood it. These type of camps are probably more common than people might care to believe, camps that spread hate underthe guise of Christianity.
Posted by: Temple Stark on February 19, 2006 11:41 PMI'm not aware that anyone regularly interviewed on UK TV news - BBC, Channel 4 etc has killed anyone. If they had, yes that would be news, but they haven't, so it's not. Capiche? Also, yes "lazy hacks" have fanned the flames, as have extremists on all sides and those who see political capital to be made from it. Bigots, those with religion and those without, have a lot to answer for over the last few weeks.
Posted by: Chris on February 20, 2006 08:27 PM