Churchless potpourri

I've got some interesting links floating around my email inbox, thanks to blog visitors who wanted to share some churchless info. Also have a few other cyberspace-inspired thoughts floating around my psyche.

Might as well toss them all into a potpourri post...

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Wow! How did the United States ever come out victorious in World War II without having "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Makes me wonder why every president now finds it necessary to say May God bless the United States of America at the end of his State of the Union speech. (Thanks for sending the You Tube link, Robert.)

 

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An India-based spiritual/mystical organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has an outpost at an estate in Haynes Park, England. The RSSB guru is supposed to be God in  human form. Yet lightning struck the Haynes Park center last summer. Could this be a sign from the real God? (Thanks for the link, Amrat.)

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Great... I thought my biggest problem was trying to lose a couple of pounds that I've gained recently. Now, thanks to an email from Bob, I've learned: "Prayer Warriors and Palin Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America."

Imagine a religious movement that makes geographic maps of where demons reside and claims among its adherents the Republican Party's most recent vice presidential nominee and whose leaders have presided over prayer sessions (one aimed at putting the kibosh on health-care reform) with a host of leading GOP figures.

...NAR's [New Apostolic Reformation] videos, according to researcher Rachel Tabachnick, "demonstrate the taking control of communities and nations through large networks of 'prayer warriors' whose spiritual warfare is used to expel and destroy the demons that cause societal ills. Once the territorial demons, witches, and generational curses are removed, the 'born-again' Christians in the videos take control of society."

Well, Oregon has so many churchless heathens, demons, and witches, I'm probably low on the list of Prayer Warrior targets. But it's cool to imagine my house being on a map of "where demons reside."

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On the positive side, vampire writer Anne Rice has rejected organized Christianity (note: so far as I know, she isn't a vampire, but merely writes about them).

The author Anne Rice, best known for her vampire novels, made waves last week when she declared on her Facebook page that she had “quit being a Christian.” Twelve years after her return to Catholicism, Rice said she still believed in God, but that, “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.”

Uh-oh. I think I know a well-known author who has just gotten herself on the Prayer Warrior radar.

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This is a moving mini-movie about a meteor who comes to grips with his/her inevitable fall to earth. We're all going to meet the same end: fallen. I liked how Mr./Ms. Meteor handles the journey.

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

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The Center for Inquiry announced the winner in its Campaign for Free Expression Video Contest. Nicely done. Blasphemy must be protected along with religiosity.

 

Comments

[Dungeness]

Makes me wonder why every president now finds it necessary to say May God bless the United States of America at the end of his State of the Union speech.

It's straight from the playbook to
appeal to the Godly base. And de
rigeur if you happen to be a secret
Muslim afraid of being out'ed.

[Bob]

I love and respect my country - don't get me wrong - but there is something about Pledge of Allegiance that doesn't sit well with me.

That film presents a bunch of youngsters, IMO, being subject to brainwashing.

Bob