Lee Dunn's List: PERSECUTION

• School goes ballistic when 2nd-grader draws Jesus
• Boy, 8, said to gets psych evaluation after sketch of Christ on cross called 'violent'
• Posted: December 15, 2009
  12:51 pm Eastern
  
   

  By Chelsea Schilling
   <!--- copywrite only show on NON commentary pages as per joseph meeting 8/23/06 ------>   <!-- copyright --> © 2009 WorldNetDaily 
• An 8-year-old boy has been suspended from school and forced to undergo a psychological evaluation after he drew a picture of Jesus Christ on the cross, his father claims.
• A teacher at Lowell Maxham Elementary School in Taunton, Mass., allegedly said the second-grade student created a violent drawing, the Taunton Daily Gazette reported.

  • However, according to the Massachusetts' DOE and Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jenkins of the 8 year old would have received school credit if he had instead been drawing a picture of a homosexual sex act.
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• The boy's picture portrayed a crucified Jesus with Xs over his eyes to indicate that he had died on the cross.
• The child's father, outraged at the school's action, asked to remain anonymous to protect his son.
• He said his boy drew the picture after returning from a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat.

• He said when the teacher asked students to draw something that reminded them of Christmas on Dec. 2, the boy recalled his trip and created a portrait of Christ on the cross.  

  "As far as I'm concerned, they're violating his religion," he told the newspaper.  
• Associated Advocacy Center educational consultant Toni Saunders said, "I think what happened is that because he put Xs in

• The father said the following is the drawing in question:  

   
• Saunders said the boy has special needs, and the school reacted inappropriately.
• "They made him leave school, and they recommended that a psychiatrist do an evaluation," she said.
• But the boy's father told the newspaper the school required an evaluation – at the parents' expense – before the student would be allowed to return.

• "When she told me he needed to be psychologically evaluated, I thought she was playing," he said.

  However, the school district claims the boy was never suspended.
• "This incident occurred nearly two weeks ago," said a statement from the district. "It was handled appropriately, and the school staff and family had been working together in a cooperative and positive manner."
• The district also claims the picture published above is not the same drawing that was discovered by the teacher and that the teacher did not assign the students to sketch a picture that reminded them of Christmas.

• The father stands by his story. He said his son, who receives special reading and speech instruction, has never shown a propensity toward violence. 

  "He's never been suspended," he said. "He's 8 years old. They overreacted." 
• The boy returned to school on Dec. 7, but he said his son has been traumatized and will be transferred to another school in the district.
• The district said its actions were not religious and nature and were based solely on the wellbeing of the student.
• Bloggers have overwhelmingly demanded that the teacher be fired. They posted the following responses:

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• NJ Teacher Tells Girl to Put Away Bible
• Principal apologizes for 'mistake'
• Updated: Tuesday, 15 Dec 2009, 10:38 PM EST
  Published : Tuesday, 15 Dec 2009, 10:37 PM EST
• MYFOX NEW YORK STAFF
  MYFOXNY.COM
• A teacher at the Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge, N.J., told a 3rd grader that the Bible was not appropriate reading material for quiet time, and ordered the girl to put the book away, according to the girl's parents.
• Now the principal is apologizing, saying that the teacher made a mistake and that school policy absolutely does allow children to read the Bible or any other religious book during quiet reading time.
• "This was injustice," Jordat says. "No other child has to go through this again."
• Jordat accepted the principal's apology, but wants something in writing stating that reading the Bible is OK during personal reading time. She also says she will speak to a lawyer.
• The Old Bridge Board of Education held a meeting Tuesday evening and addressed the issue for concerned parents.

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• David Heilbroner

   

  Award-winning documentary filmmaker

   

    Posted: December 14, 2009 01:37 PM
• Evangelicals, Israel, and the End of the World
• It's been just nine years since dooms-dayers expected the new millennium to bring the end of the world, yet the cry of "Armageddon" still rings out.
• Last month alone, NASA had to allay fears of a 2012 end-of-the-world scenario.

  • Oh? NASA said it? Gee! I feel better already!
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• And why not? We all know humans are doomed. Either our sun will explode in a few billion years or God's wrath will consume the planet tomorrow.
• But few Americans have embraced the coming of the End Times as intensely as the Evangelicals profiled in Waiting for Armageddon,
• a documentary I co-directed with Kate Davis and Franco Sacchi, to be released theatrically in New York City, Providence and Boston in January.
• In the film, we join Christian Evangelicals on an explosive tour of the future as they see it, from anguish to the sublime perfection of a new world.
• There are some 50 million Evangelicals in the US who believe in the literal truth of Bible prophecy.
• You can argue theological accuracy all you want. This massive block of citizens possesses unshakable belief that the end of the world will be heralded by a series of prophetic events some of which have occurred (e.g. 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina) some of which are ongoing (the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan).
• I am not talking about Bible-thumping, street-corner ravers, though one or two do appear in our film.
• The people we profiled -- from Evangelical leaders to rank-and-file believers -- are for the most part formidable, intelligent, well-educated. And all are fixated upon Israel (the land of Christ's return).
• Waiting for Armageddon opens with James and Laura Bagg, an attractive pair of 30-something jet-propulsion engineers living in Connecticut. Yes, Evangelical rocket scientists from the Northeast.
• "We could be raptured out of this world during this interview," Laura says, referring to a miracle where all good Christians disappear from earth and rematerialize in the clouds as chaos seizes the world.
• "There will be car crashes and plane crashes. And the people left behind will be asking, 'Are they coming back for me?'"
• Then James Bagg explains that, "You see God has a plan for the world and it all centers around Israel."
• The Baggs are, in a way, typical. Millions of Evangelicals share one political belief even more sacred perhaps than opposition to abortion or same-sex marriage: The belief that Israel must remain a Jewish state forever.
• If that sounds unfamiliar or contradictory, then you've never spent much time listening to Evangelicals.
• End Times theology declares that the Jewish people must maintain control of Israel and Jerusalem, and retake the Al-Aqsa Mosque (a/k/a the Dome of the Rock), or Jesus won't return. Period.
• Understand, they are talking about mankind's ultimate salvation. And if that means embracing foretold disasters and wars including the Battle of Armageddon, so be it.

  • The "smear." If you believe in something does not mean you are the cause of it nor actively pursue it. I believe America is in deep doo-doo and is on a slippery slope. Because that is my belief does not mean I am trying to push it over said cliff. The Anti-Christian, Anti-Bible element in this nation and elsewhere fear what they profess to not believe in. That fear of "what if the Fundies are right" translates into hatred of what they perceive as the conduit of their fear..Evangelicals or those who take the Bible literally. Smear and slander always precedes persecution. It happened in Germany in the pre-war years to the Jews. You're known by the company you keep and Herr Heilbroner and his type are in company with some notorious history.
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• Professor Gary Dickerson from the all-Christian Corban College puts it this way: "I don't look at the wars in the Middle East with the hope that things will work out. We've been told, Israel will experience this distress all the way to the end."
• Thus comes the central political reality explored in Waiting for Armageddon: that Evangelicals risk creating what the Rev. Barbara Rossing calls "a self-fulfilling prophesy of death and destruction."

  • The "lie" that comforts in the way a short blanket does on a bitterly cold night, the Anti-Fundie covens.
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• This is no small sect. Evangelicals control some 60,000 US radio stations.
• They meet in 25,000-member megachurches and sit on school boards and legislatures across the country.
• As the Rev. Mel White, former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham and Pat Robertson puts it, "They are everywhere and they are not going away."
• Embedded in its dramatic illustration of the End Times, including a Christian tour of Israel, Waiting for Armageddon offers an object lesson:
• That if people believe their God has revealed the ultimate course of history, then nothing, not even war, with all its bloodshed and horror, is to be feared.
• It's a reality that, whether dealing with the Taliban or the Jews or the Evangelicals or even Sarah Palin, every leader -- religious or political -- needs to understand if true dialogue can take place.
• Because for a great many true believers, the end of the world is just the beginning.

  • ..And is in the end of your self deification as the sum total of all there is..along with the Horned "god" behind the "Keep The Party Going" crowd.
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• Christianity and the crash
• posted by  The Editors
• More than a year into one of the worst economic downturns in American history, many minds are still at work connecting the factors that contributed, in one way or another, to the current crisis.
• In the December 2009 issue of The Atlantic, Hanna Rosin added to the debate over the causes of the crash by casting light on the role played by the prosperity gospel—a strain of Christian teaching tens of millions of believers strong, which proclaims that an unfaltering faith in God will lead to monetary and other material blessings in this lifetime.
• In the article, Rosin exposes concrete examples of banks teaming up with prosperity preachers to convert believers into subprime loan customers and examines the underlying structures and themes that maintain the prosperity gospel as a plausible theology for many Americans.
• In light of the questions raised and conclusions put forth in Rosin’s article, we asked several esteemed scholars and journalists: What can we say about the relationship between contemporary Christianity and Americans’ economic attitudes, behaviors, and notions of responsibility?
• We are pleased to offer their responses below.

• Our respondents are:

   

  Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religion, University of Pennsylvania

   

  John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

   

  William E. Connolly, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

   

  Harvey Cox, Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

   

  Michele Dillon, Professor of Sociology, University of New Hampshire

   

  Michael S. Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California

   

  D. Stephen Long, Professor of Systematic Theology, Marquette University

   

  Rachel McCleary, Senior Research Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

   

  Sarah Posner, Associate Editor, Religion Dispatches

   

  James K.A. Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College

   

  Mark C. Taylor, Chair of the Department of Religion, Columbia Universiy

   

  Jonathan L. Walton, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of California – Riverside

   

  Diane Winston, Knight Chair in Media and Religion, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

• ______

   

  Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religion, University of Pennsylvania
• First, I take issue with “contemporary Christianity” or Christianity being labeled the cause of the Crash.

  • I agree Ms Butler..These friggers from the Left/Liberal have their own "witch hunts" and the imagined "witch" is by and large the Christian or Christian community. Most of these Gas Bags wouldn't know a real Christian if one slapped them between the eyes. I particularly resent someone with the sir name "Rosen" witchhunting Christianity..i.e. a "Jew." And I am not anti-semitic! In fact I am a supporter of Israel by and large. However, criticize Israel or any Jewish community and you are immediately labeled "Anti-Semitic." It is time for the Jews to apply their own rules to every other group. Jews go after Christians; Christians have the right to go after Jews.
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• What is lost in this conversation is Christianity—at least the last time I read the New Testament, it was, in part, about caring for the poor, or “the least of them.”
• This particular “hybrid,” the “prosperity gospel,” is a strand of religious capitalism that has its roots in 19th century thinkers like E.W. Kenyon and 20th century purveyors like Norman Vincent Peale, and Oral Roberts.
• Placing fiscal responsibility in “prooftexting” of biblical scriptures is par for the course for most Americans who consider themselves biblically literate.
• Of course, that depends on what the definition of literacy is for the individual, and that is usually measured against the pastor’s teachings, as Rosin’s article shows.
• Her assertion that “Roberts’s fame had faded by the late 1980s, and prosperity preaching briefly imploded soon after” is just wrong.
• Rosin’s article is flawed at points.
• On the contrary, Prosperity preaching maintained a certain presence. What were Frederick K.C.Price, John Osteen (Joel Osteen’s dad) Kenneth Hagin, and Kenneth and Gloria Copeland doing in the last half of the 1980’s? Twiddling their thumbs?
• Much like the foreclosure crisis, the elements of this so called “implosion” have continued to be active within churches in America and around the globe. A useful exercise is to show how the financial market’s optimism and pyramid schemes had their counterparts in these types of churches on a global level.
• Prosperity is not merely an “American issue” but a global one.
• The upshot is that whatever American beliefs about responsibility, economics, and fiscal behaviors are, they are trumped by the belief that God is in the business of blessing, not cursing, and praying in the name of Jesus will get you a hundredfold return if you just give 10% or more.

• ______

   

  John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology
• The Biblical tradition is a two-edged sword.
• There is much in the Bible that connects the right relation with God to prosperity, long life, and many descendants.
• The idea that virtue pays is not a monopoly of the biblical tradition, but it certainly gets support there, and participants in the tradition can exploit such “good news” and have done so.
• This has paid off for the exploiters especially well in the context of American capitalism.
• The general idea, so prevalent in our society, that our system rewards intelligence, discipline, and hard work, has been religiously transformed and amplified by the prosperity gospel. No doubt this contributes to the consumerism that in turn makes living beyond one’s means acceptable.
• There is another tradition in the Bible that the “prophetic” one, that condemns this idea. In this tradition the reason for faith in God is not that this will lead to personal prosperity but that God loves us despite our unworthiness and calls us to love God and, therefore, the whole of creation.
• We serve our neighbors not because this is good policy but because our neighbors, and that is everyone, are beloved of God. This message is not popular, and some of the prophets were killed for their pains.
• Jesus stood in this tradition and died on a cross. He condemned the quest for wealth in no uncertain terms.
• Some Christians who condemn the quest for prosperity in this life have emphasized otherworldly rewards for virtue. But Jesus taught that the basileia theou (the “Kingdom,” or “Commonwealth,” of God on earth) is worth our sacrifice whatever happens to us here or beyond).
• Jesus’s true followers are those who out of love seek the common good here and now.
• Many of them do find joy and personal fulfillment in such a life, but they seek first the Commonwealth of God.

• ______

   

  William E. Connolly, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
• An evangelical-neoliberal machine created the recent economic crisis.
• Launched as early as 1981, upon the election of Reagan and publication of George Gilder’s Wealth and Poverty, this complex set the United States on a destructive and predatory course.
• The link between the right edge of neoliberalism and a large swath of evangelicals is twofold.
• The first link is through complementary beliefs. The right edge of neoliberalism presents the market as a self-balancing mechanism that retains its beauty as long as the state is limited to regulating the money supply, providing defense, punishing crime, and obstructing labor unions and consumer movements.
• And does evangelicalism? Gilder and other religious marketeers identify more volatility and chanciness in the market than neoliberals do, but they maintain the belief that it is subtended by divine providence.
• These two sets of beliefs, taken together, license investment adventurism and consumption excess, just as they oppose state efforts to tame both.

• ______

   

  Harvey Cox, Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

• I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

   

  Jesus, Gospel of John 10:10

   

  Thus the Lord blessed the end of Job’s life more than the beginning: he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and as many she donkeys.

   

  Job 42:12
• Biblical faith has nothing against either prosperity or abundance.
• A bountiful life on earth in addition to eternal salvation has always been integral to the Good News. It is inequality that the Bible condemns, the denial of distributive justice.
• The reason it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God is not that he enjoys worldly goods, but that he enjoys them at the expense of the poor.
• To the man who had two coats, the exhortation to give one to the poor might move him to share, but to the person who has no coat it states a claim he can legitimately make on someone who has a closetful.
• In the Bible, prosperity trumps poverty. The voluntary poverty of St. Francis or of Vincent de Paul was admirable. And it no doubt helped them to understand the bereft people they sought to serve.
• But both knew quite well that involuntary poverty is ugly and degrading. When it is voluntary, poverty is a choice; but when it is not, it feels like a curse.
• Can anyone expect a hungry mother of three in a fetid slum of Recife or Lagos to respond to a message about the spiritual benefits of poverty?

• ______

   

  Michele Dillon, Professor of Sociology, University of New Hampshire
• Of the many varied ways Christian scripture has been used throughout history to give sacred legitimacy to particular interests and political agendas, the notion that God will reward the faith-filled with material riches has always struck me as particularly pernicious pseudo-theology.
• I personally recoil at the term “prosperity gospel.”
• The Bible is certainly a document open to many diverse interpretations and there is ambiguity in several of its passages. Yet there is little equivocation in its core message that the good life is not one defined by material acquisition and ostentatious consumption but by purposeful acts motivated by generosity and concern for others.
• The Sermon on the Mount is supposed to make Christians focus on loving their neighbor, not their Mercedes Benz.
• I appreciate, nonetheless, the hold of the prosperity gospel in contemporary American society. Hanna Rosin notes that prosperity gospel churches flourish in Sun Belt states with high levels of home foreclosures.
• It may be more relevant to note that these states (e.g., Florida and Arizona) also have high levels of migration and population instability. These factors make it harder for individuals to find protective buffers against the many persuasive get-rich-quick sales agents and schemes in contemporary society.
• In unsettled times, unsettled people are vulnerable to siren calls, however well veiled by prosperity pastors, loan officers, hedge fund managers, or reality television producers.
• I don’t think we should see the prosperity gospel as a cause of the recent recession, but one among several elements in our entrepreneurial culture promising salvation through short-term investments and wishful thinking that defer the debts of accountability and responsibility toward others.

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