DAVID JEREMIAH ADMITS RICHARD FOSTER’S “CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” PROMOTES NEW AGE PRACTICES!

DAVID JEREMIAH ADMITS RICHARD FOSTER’S “CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” 
PROMOTES NEW AGE PRACTICES! 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

For many years now, Lighthouse Trails has been trying to warn the
body of Christ about the book that first introduced contemplative
spirituality into the evangelical/Protestant church. That book, Celebration of Discipline
by Richard Foster, was released in 1978, and in that first edition,
Foster said, “we should all without shame enroll in the school of
contemplative prayer.” Since then, and largely because of the
influence of that book, contemplative spirituality has saturated the
church in no small way, and many Christians have truly “enroll[ed] in
the school of contemplative prayer.” Through our research, we have
determined that over 90% of the  Christian colleges, seminaries, and
universities (the places our future pastors are trained at) have, to one
degree or another, accepted Richard Foster’s spirituality via their
Spiritual Formation programs (which always use textbooks either by
Foster or ones that point to him). What’s more, from years of research
and correspondence from believers, we estimate that a copy of Celebration of Discipline sits on the bookshelves of the majority of Christian pastors and leaders today.

celebrationWhile
we have dedicated ourselves day and night for 15 years to bringing
this issue to the table of present-day Christianity, hoping to see
Christian leaders at least acknowledge that there is an issue here, our
message has, for the most part, been rejected or simply  ignored by
the evangelical  leadership. And yet, one of the most prominent,
well-known, and respected evangelical leaders has himself put into
print that Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline promotes New Age practices. Here are Jeremiah’s own words from his book, The New Spirituality in the chapter titled “New Age Influence in the Church” (subtitled: In this lesson we see how the New Age movement is changing the church):

Sometimes false doctrine—and in the case of
this present study, New Age ideology—gets into the church from within,
and sometimes from without the body. Once it infects the church it
can spread like an infection. . . .

Dr. Norman Geisler, Christian apologist, was
attending one of the most respected, and largest Baptist churches in
the country. He was astounded to hear the huge choir singing a song
whose lyrics included: “I [meaning God] am the grass you walk in, I am
the air you breathe, I am the water you swim in.” That is pure
pantheism. God is not the grass, nor the air, nor the water. Those are
all elements He created, and He is totally distinct from them. It is
shocking that someone in the leadership either didn’t have the
discernment to recognize what the lyrics were saying, was too busy
with musical things to notice. But that’s how New Age influence enters
the church—when no one is watching.

Dr. Geisler has also made some notes on the contents of one of the best-selling Christian books of our day, Celebration of Discipline
by Richard Foster. Geisler noted some 15 different places in the book
where New Age and Eastern practices were recommended for
Christians—thing such as Transcendental Meditation, turning from
“manyness” to “oneness,” meditating on the void (nothing), and others.
(The New Spirituality, David Jeremiah, Turning Point, 2002, pp. 106-107; emphasis added)

David Jeremiah acknowledges that once New Age
ideology “infects the church it can spread like an infection.” And
surely, we have seen this take place.

Two things are sad and confusing: First, Christian leaders must not share David Jeremiah’s concerns about Celebration of Discipline
because 14 years after Jeremiah stated wrote this, Foster’s influence
has only escalated within the church and Christian colleges. Second,
and this we find most confusing, one year after The New Spirituality was published, Jeremiah’s book Life Wide Open
was released. In that book, as we have written about in the past on a
number of occasions, Jeremiah says there are a handful of people who
have learned the secret to living a passionate life (for God), and
then he proceeds to name a number of these people which include New
Age sympathizers, a Buddhist sympathizer who converted to Catholicism,
ecumenist and contemplative advocate Rick Warren, and a Catholic
contemplative mystic. You can read about this in our article “David Jeremiah’s Book Life Wide Open – Still Sold on His Website – Still Includes New Agers.”

While we cannot understand how David Jeremiah
could favorably point to those with New Age persuasions shortly after
warning about the New Age in The New Spirituality, nevertheless,  a major player in today’s Christian church warned about Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and the practices that book endorses.

Perhaps not too many pastors and leaders read David Jeremiah’s book, The New Spirituality.
Perhaps they have no idea what David Jeremiah (and Norm Geisler)
think about Richard Foster’s book. If you have a pastor, and you think
he might have a copy of Celebration of Discipline in his
pastor’s library, you might consider printing this article and giving
him a copy. Tell him, this time it isn’t Lighthouse Trails saying it
but rather is a leader whom they most likely respect saying it.

Related Article:

Celebration of Discipline – 38 Years of Influence! – Probably On Your Pastor’s Bookshelf”

SERIOUS CONCERNS OVER BETH MOORE’S NEW SERIES “ENTRUSTED”

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SERIOUS CONCERNS OVER BETH MOORE’S NEW SERIES “ENTRUSTED”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

LTRP Note: We find it noteworthy that on the eve of our going to press with Roger Oakland’s new book, The Good Shepherd Calls,
we read this letter to the editor that arrived in our inbox this
morning. The things this letter talks about are some of the same things
Roger discusses in the book. What’s more, this letter to the editor is
more proof that it isn’t just Lighthouse Trails, Understand The
Times, and a handful of other discernment ministries that see what is
coming about. (Those whom we challenge and critique want people to
think that it is indeed just a handful, but it isn’t.)  Based on the
phone calls, e-mails, letters, and social media comments for nearly 15
years, it is clear that many Bible-believing Christians understand
the times in which we live and see the apostasy coming upon the
church. As for the letter below, we commend this woman for speaking up
and warning her church members.
Dear Lighthouse Trails:
My
small Southern Baptist church recently finished Beth Moore’s
“Entrusted” series which includes articles from her daughter Melissa
Moore.  Not having experienced Beth Moore I wanted to give her the
benefit of the doubt.  Being informed by Lighthouse Trails and other
discernment websites, I approached the class with a good deal of
wariness.  I love Beth and Melissa Moore as sisters in Christ.  I was
hoping to find nothing of concern in “Entrusted.”  This was not the
case.  Following are some of my concerns.
Quite a lot of this study had to do with unity.  Beth had
several pages of praise for the unbelieving “hero,” Rabbi Gamaliel and
his speech that unified the Sanhedrin, holding him up as an example
for church leaders to follow.  She then contrasted Gamaliel with
believers Paul and Barnabas and expressed dismay that they should
split in a disagreement over John Mark, as though it was an avoidable
incident over a minor problem.  She had a strong emphasis on not
“compromising fellowship,” with a major criteria for unity being that
we join together for evangelism regardless of denomination, and with
the assumption that we all believe the same basic Gospel message.  All
other major doctrines seemed to be a minor concern.  There was a
quick negative comment about what divides us, the inerrancy of
Scripture being one of them. She read Acts 14:3 concerning God’s use
of signs and wonders through Paul and Barnabas, saying that she wants
and expects wonders and indicated we should as well.  Before one of
her grandchildren was born, “a word had been spoken” that led them to
believe the child would be a boy, but it was instead a girl . . . a
false prophecy.  .  Her daughter Melissa wrote approvingly about
traditions of the early church (i. e., Roman Catholic), the liturgy
and especially the creeds, with a desire to see all churches united in
incorporating these traditions in weekly worship. There was a
personal story from Melissa about how comforting she found this form
of worship, as she was sharing the same worship experience with
churches all over the world at the same time.  Lastly, Beth switched
among at least eight Bible versions, including The Message. Beth Moore

There were other comments scattered throughout the videos
and written materials with which I disagreed mixed in with a majority
with which I did agree, making it difficult to sift through it all. 
However, at the inerrancy of Scripture comment, I couldn’t hold my
tongue.  When I told the ladies’ Bible study group that I couldn’t
agree with Beth on this, as well as her subtle comments promoting
ecumenism, I was met with defensive hostility and warnings about
division in the church.  I never intended to cause waves or division,
but I love those ladies and I couldn’t let this pass.  There was
obvious tension and discomfort at the next church service.

How can we unite in evangelism when we don’t even agree on
how to be saved?  How can we unite with those who hold unscriptural
views on marriage, sexuality, abortion, health-and-wealth,
etc.?  Doesn’t it matter what a new believer is taught?   Is being
safely in the fold all that matters?  Most importantly, the world
appears to be nearing Christ’s return and we are warned about the
increase of apostasy and deception.  The experiential emergent
movement, Chrislam, etc. are rapidly transforming the world’s
religions by incorporating Roman Catholic traditions and encouraging
religious unity.  Aren’t Bible studies like this one leading in the
same direction?  Yet churches like mine seem completely oblivious. 
Should we not warn them, or at least raise suspicion?
I haven’t been back.  I don’t want to be the focus of the
problem.  My hope and prayer is that these brothers and sisters whom I
love will instead focus on the major issue of discerning apostasy.  I
pray they don’t trust anything that comes from any source without
doing a thorough evaluation.  And I pray they discuss everything
before admitting it into the church, perhaps electing a trusted group
of Bereans to act as a defense against apostasy.
Thank God for Lighthouse Trails Research and similar
discernment websites, speaking the truth, and shining the light in the
darkness.  Thank-you, LTR!
Cathy
Related Articles:
Remembering the Enticing Appeal of Richard Foster and Beth Moore’s Be Still Film
Beth Moore & Priscilla Shirer – Their History of Contemplative Prayer and Why War Room Should Not Have Used Them
Is Beth Moore’s “Spiritual Awakening” Taking the Evangelical Church Toward Rome?

“CATHOLIC” ST. ANSELM COLLEGE BANS PEOPLE FOR GETTING DEATH THREATS~SO WHY WASN’T STUDENT WHO GOT DEATH THREATS EXPELLED?

 
 DiSalvo and the latte-sipping Levesque: unable to implement basic
security measures, or just Leftist ideological thugs and foes of free
discourse?

 Saint Anselm College, as seen from above | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
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“CATHOLIC” ST. ANSELM COLLEGE BANS PEOPLE FOR GETTING DEATH THREATS~SO WHY WASN’T STUDENT WHO GOT DEATH THREATS EXPELLED?
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
 “Catholic” college sticks up for pro-abortion Trump foe. My latest in FrontPage:
 

According to a fawning profile
in New Hampshire’s Union Leader Sunday, after Lauren Batchelder, a
student at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, questioned
Donald Trump at a Republican candidates’ debate about equal pay for
women and abortion rights, Trump outed her on Twitter as a staffer for
Jeb Bush – whereupon, Batchelder claims, she received death threats from
all over the country. “Campus security at Saint Anselm was incredibly
supportive, she said” – which is ironic, since if Saint Anselm
administrators had been consistent, Batchelder would have been expelled:
in an ugly demonstration of how only the Leftist point of view is
acceptable on campuses nationwide these days, Saint Anselm last year
banned me from the campus on the pretext that I have received death
threats.
Saint Anselm claims to be a Catholic college, but it is actually just
another center for Leftist indoctrination, with a veneer of Pope
Francis-type Catholicism. Batchelder’s pro-abortion stance didn’t
trouble them at all – but my own opposition to jihad terror, violating
as it does so many politically correct shibboleths, troubled them a
great deal.
The sorry story unfolded this way. Several years ago, a student group
invited me to speak at Saint Anselm. The event was going ahead and
posters were being put up advertising the talk when Saint Anselm’s
then-President, Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., canceled my
appearance, reportedly citing complaints he had received from Muslim
students at the school. Islamic groups, like their Leftist allies, share
a taste for shutting down their foes rather than engaging their ideas,
and Fr. DeFelice was happy to oblige them.
The following year, after Fr. DeFelice was replaced as President of
the college by Dr. Steven R. DiSalvo, and Saint Anselm’s philosophy
department tried again to get me on campus, inviting me to be the guest
speaker at a symposium. But DiSalvo nixed that appearance as well.
Several Saint Anselm professors balked at this, complaining to DiSalvo
that colleges were supposed to be centers of free inquiry and
intellectual engagement, and that he was acting contrary to what
institutions of higher learning were supposed to be all about by banning
points of view in line with political correctness.
Cornered, DiSalvo found an excuse: he was all for free inquiry and
unpopular opinions (the unpopular question in my case being the rather
obvious point that Islam is not really a religion of peace), but he just
couldn’t allow me to speak on campus because I had received death
threats. He explained that, were I to be present on campus, Saint Anselm
students would be endangered – what if a violent extremist were to
burst onto campus while I was speaking?
Absurd. Since I first began receiving death threats, I have spoken at
universities nationwide, including UCLA, Temple, Penn State, UNC, UVA,
Dartmouth, DePaul University, SUNY in both Binghamton and Stony Brook,
Brown, Cal Poly, and many, many others. When people who have threatened
appear in public, they generally are in the company of security
personnel who are equipped and prepared to deal with any incident. Why
Saint Anselm considered any kind of security arrangements to be
inadequate, DiSalvo didn’t explain, leaving open the question: why is
Saint Anselm College so much more unsafe than all other campuses? Other
colleges and universities nationwide can and do host speakers who have
been threatened, and take measures to ensure everyone’s safety. Saint
Anselm, by its own admission, can’t do that.
But as implausible as it was, DiSalvo stuck with his security excuse.
And so, on one swing back up to New England last summer, however, I was
asked to appear on a Fox News show, but a Fox producer told me that I
couldn’t do the segment from the Videolink at Saint Anselm’s New
Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP), as she had been told that I was
not welcome to use the Videolink there. This was based on the same
pretext: because I have received death threats, my presence constituted a
danger to the students.
Since I doubt that everyone who has received death threats is banned
from Saint Anselm College (and indeed, Donald Trump spoke there after
receiving highly publicized death threats over his proposed Muslim
immigration moratorium), I went to the college to try to find out why,
only to be violently confronted by a security guard, James Stankiewicz,
who became hysterical and unhinged, and assaulted me when I asked him
mildly if the NHIOP received public funding. I was then banned from
going onto the campus altogether, on pain of arrest. When I wrote
politely to Neil Levesque, the head of the NHIOP, which was directly
responsible for the ban, asking for information about why I was banned
and for a list of who else had been banned from campus for receiving
death threats, he had a corrupt cop from the Goffstown, New Hampshire
police department threaten me with arrest if I contacted Levesque again.
This is how a Leftist “institution of higher learning” deals with
dissenting points of view these days. Only one point of view is allowed:
when I received death threats, I was banned from Saint Anselm College,
but when Lauren Batchelder received death threats, she received
protection from the same college, even though her opinions oppose its
stated principles — but not from contemporary Leftist
fashion. Batchelder can only hope she doesn’t get Jim Stankiewicz mad.
What is happening at Saint Anselm College is happening at colleges
and universities all over the country nowadays: deviate from the
hard-Left line, and you will be brutalized, roughed up, and threatened
with arrest. The idea that Saint Anselm College or any similar
institution in the U.S. today is actually an institute of higher
learning, rather than simply an indoctrination center for the
authoritarian Left, operated by thugs with no respect for civil
discourse, is absurd.
Saint Anselm College, like so many other outposts of American
academia, has swiftly descended from the days when ideas could be
entertained and dismissed on their merits alone. But as ridiculous as it
is, the contention of DiSalvo and Levesque that those who have been
threatened should not venture onto campus should be taken at face value.
Anyone else who has received death threats and goes to Saint Anselm
should know that there they are exposed and vulnerable. Who wants to be
on a campus that claims that it can’t take elementary security measures?
It’s high time to drain the swamp, in academia as well as in the political realm.

 

PELOSI’S DAUGHTER LEADS EFFORT TO ROB TRUMP’S ELECTORAL VOTES

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PELOSI’S DAUGHTER LEADS EFFORT TO ROB 
TRUMP’S ELECTORAL VOTES
 Far-left and rogue elements of CIA setting framework to justify stealing election
BY CLIFFORD CUNNINGHAM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is leading the
effort to steal Electoral College votes from Donald Trump over
accusations of Russian hacking made by elements of the CIA.

Ten
electors, led by Pelosi’s daughter Christine, have called for an
intelligence briefing on claims made by rogue elements of the CIA that
the Russian government hacked the DNC and John Podesta’s emails to
directly benefit Donald Trump.
The 10 electors in question comprise nine Democrats and one Republican.

In their letter, addressed to Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper, the electors asked if there are “ongoing investigations into
ties between Donald Trump, his campaign or associates, and the Russian
government interference in the election.”
“We further require a
briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact
the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to
serve as President of the United States,” they added.

The electors also called on Donald Trump and his campaign to
unequivocally prove “that he and his staff and advisers did not accept
Russian interference, or otherwise collaborate during the campaign, and
conclusive disavowal and repudiation of such collaboration and
interference going forward.”
The Hamilton Electors, a rogue group
determined to stop Trump’s victory, are also using the accusations of
Russian hacking to push for electors to switch their votes.

“2016 will go down as one of the most successful cyber attacks in US
history unless electors do our job and reject Donald Trump at the
electoral college,” said Michael Baca, a Democratic elector from
Colorado.
Chris Suprun, a Republican elector from Texas, said “the
idea that a foreign government has interfered with our elections to
undermine their credibility, much less support one of the candidates,
indicates a Rubicon has been crossed for our nation, and we need to
consider it carefully.”
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee
(PCCC) has urged opponents of Donald Trump to stage protests in all 50
state capitols when the electors meet to cast their ballots on December
19 in the hopes of forcing some to switch their vote for Hillary
Clinton.
The PCCC, founded in 2009 by former MoveOn organizers
Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, has close ties to far-left
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
The attempt to steal the
election from Trump through the Electoral College comes after the
colossal failure of Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s recount effort in
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Upon conclusion of the
recount in Wisconsin, Trump actually gained a net total of 132 votes. A
federal judge denied Stein’s recount request in Pennsylvania, claiming
her allegations of voting machine hacking “borders on the irrational.”
The
supposed secret assessment from the CIA, first reported by the Jeff
Bezos-owned Washington Post, has not garnered unanimous support from the
intelligence community. The Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI) has refused to endorse the CIA’s assessment because
of “a lack of conclusive evidence” to prove intent.
It is clear
that the far-left, in conjunction with the mainstream media and rogue
elements of the CIA, are laying out a case to justify stealing the
election from Donald Trump, or assassinating him outright.

PROOF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS DID INTERFERE IN ELECTION; TO HELP HILLARY CLINTON

 Proof Foreign Governments Did Interfere In Election - to Help Hillary!
PROOF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS DID INTERFERE IN ELECTION; TO HELP HILLARY CLINTON 
 Hillary Clinton has received financial compensation from multiple foreign entities
BY KELEN MCBREEN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Hillary Clinton has a rich history of being influenced by
outside forces, yet the media is currently focused on claiming Russia
helped Trump get elected despite having no substantial evidence.

Private
emails found on Hillary Clinton’s private email servers during her
tenure as Secretary of State provide a clearer picture of the
“pay-to-play” connections between Clinton’s State Department, the
Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative and the private
investment consulting and investment firm of Teneo Holdings, Inc. in
Manhattan.
For a full list of the foreign governments Clinton has answered to, you can download an extensive spreadsheet because the list is almost too large to publish in a web-friendly format.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the top two players:
– A Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, bragged about the Saudis funding 20% of Clinton’s presidential campaign earlier this year.
– The Communist Chinese have put massive amounts of money into the pockets of Clinton via U.S. subsidiaries.
Some of the other donors include countries that may surprise you:
screen-shot-2016-12-13-at-11-49-34-am
From
selling millions of dollars of weapons to corrupt governments such as
the Saudis, Qataris and Kuwaitis, to “influence-buying” within the
Clinton State Dept., there is no shortage of evidence exposing Clinton’s
level of compromise.
Alex Jones breaks down the amount of influence foreign countries have on Hillary Clinton:

 

Alex
Jones sends an emergency message to Donald Trump that he must fight
back against accusations of Russian involvement in our elections:

 

VIDEO: LIBERALS WANT URINALS INSTALLED IN WOMEN’S RESTROOMS FOR TRANSGENDERS

 Video: Liberals Want Urinals Installed in Women’s Restrooms
VIDEO: LIBERALS WANT URINALS INSTALLED IN WOMEN’S RESTROOMS FOR TRANSGENDERS
 Cultural transformation of American values 
nearly complete
STAND UP SPLASH PANELS TO BE USED INSTEAD OF TYPICAL URINALS OR TOILETS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Liberals in California are perfectly OK with urinals being
added to female bathrooms in the name of transgender equality, as
exemplified in social prankster Mark Dice’s latest video.

“Obama
has issued a new transgender bathroom equality bill,” Dice tells a
couple walking on the beach, before asking their opinion on urinals
being installed in women’s restrooms.
Check out the video for some sad, but hilarious reactions:

 

TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: BANNING CHRISTMAS POSTER VIOLATES FIRST AMENDMENT

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TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: BANNING CHRISTMAS POSTER VIOLATES FIRST AMENDMENT 
BY STEVE BYAS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

“She said my poster is an issue of separation of church and state.
She said the poster had to come down because it might offend kids from
other religions or those who do not have a religion.”


That is how Dedra Shannon, an aide in the school nurse’s office at
Patterson Middle School in Killeen, Texas, explained the confrontation
she had with the school’s principal concerning the poster she had used
to decorate the door to the nurse’s office in the school, depicting a
famous scene from the traditional Christmas TV show A Charlie Brown Christmas.


In the scene, a frustrated Charlie Brown asks if anyone knows what
Christmas is all about. At that point, his friend Linus quotes the
biblical passage about the birth of Christ found in the second chapter
of Luke’s gospel, including the words, “For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.” Linus then tells
Charlie Brown, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Inspired by that scene from the TV program that has run for almost
half a century, Shannon used the image of Linus, a scrawny Christmas
tree, plus the Bible verse that Linus cited, in a six-foot poster on the
door of the nurse’s office.

Across America, school nurses regularly inform young teenagers about
the availability of birth control pills, and even where they can access
an abortion, but this is the poster that is “offensive” in Killeen,
Texas?

Shannon put the decoration up on December 5; then on December 7 the
school’s principal told her, “Please don’t hate me, but unfortunately
you’re going to have to take your poster down.” According to Shannon,
the principal said it was “an issue of separation of church and state.
She said the poster had to come down because it might offend kids from
other religions or those who do not have a religion.”

The principal said Shannon could leave up the poster itself, if she removed the Bible verse.

“I just took the entire thing down,” Shannon said. “I wasn’t going to
leave Linus and the Christmas tree without the dialogue. That’s the
whole point of why it was put up.”

Shannon noted, “Throughout the school there are talks about
diversity. Well, you aren’t being very diverse if you are not allowing
the Christians to put something up that refers to a Christian holiday.”

Last year, another school canceled a stage performance of “A Charlie
Brown Christmas” because of concerns it might violate the First
Amendment to the Constitution. Or at least a judge’s interpretation of
the First Amendment. But it is highly unlikely that James Madison would
have viewed a poster of Charlie Brown as a violation of the First
Amendment, which prevents Congress from establishing a national religion.

The Killeen school administration defended the principal’s action.
“Our employees are free to celebrate the Christmas and holiday season in
the manner of their choosing. However, employees are not permitted to
impose their personal beliefs on the students. The display in question
was a six-foot-tall-plus door decoration in the main hallway of the
school building, and included a reference to a Bible verse covering much
of the door.” Horrors!

Texas Values, a non-profit advocacy group, is providing legal
representation to Shannon. In a letter the group sent to the district,
they argue that the display is no more of an establishment of religion
than the Pledge of Allegiance (which includes the phrase “under God,”
and has been upheld by federal courts).

“It’s amazing that even a quote from ‘Charlie Brown’s Christmas’ is
not even safe for some overzealous or misguided government officials,”
said the group’s president, Jonathan Saenz.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton weighed in on the controversy,
declaring the actions of the school district a violation of both the
First Amendment and Texas law.
He argued that Shannon’s display is
specifically protected by the “Merry Christmas Law,” which was enacted
in 2013 by the Texas Legislature. “We passed that law precisely because
of this type of discrimination against people of faith,” stated Paxton,
adding, “No school official in Texas can silence a biblical reference to
Christmas. This is an attack upon religious liberty.”

The “Merry Christmas Law” was a reaction to school districts and
government agencies telling employees that they could not even so much
as say “Merry Christmas” to fellow employees.

This is not the first time in history that the Christian faith in
general, and the celebration of Christmas in particular, have come under
attack by governmental authorities. In the 1930s, National Socialists
(Nazis) in Germany pushed the “de-Christianizing of rituals related to
birth, marriage, and death,” according to Klaus Fischer, writing in his
book Nazi Germany: A New History. In 1938, carols and nativity
plays were forbidden in the schools. Even the word “Christmas,”
celebrated in Germany for over a thousand years, was replaced by the
secular “Yuletide.”

One is not surprised that a totalitarian regime such as that led by
Adolf Hitler would hate the Christian faith, but it is disheartening, to
say the least, that such an attitude could prevail in the heart of
Texas.

“I’m disappointed,” Shannon said of the school’s censorship of the poster. “It is a slap in the face of Christianity.”

It would seem so. All across the country, Christian beliefs are
regularly challenged in the public schools, including beliefs about
evolution and creation, the institution of marriage, and abortion. The
Christian belief that sexual relations should be within the institution
of marriage between one man and one woman is not only ridiculed, it is
labeled as bigoted.

Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of teachers in the
country’s public schools who are devout Christians, but they are often
afraid to speak of their faith for fear of being reprimanded, fired, or
sued.

Yet, Christmas is a federal holiday. Considering that, shouldn’t
students be informed, as part of their education, just what it is that
Christians believe about Christmas? After all, without the birth of
Christ, no such holiday as Christmas would even exist. In fact, it is
very unlikely that the United States of America would even exist had not
Jesus Christ been born.

For example, teaching in a civics class what Democrats believe,
citing the party’s most recent platform, is certainly not imposing the
Democratic Party on students. Teaching what Adolf Hitler, Muhammad, Karl
Marx, or Woodrow Wilson believed is not imposing the beliefs of those
historical individuals on anyone, either.

Linus, a cartoon character created by Charles Schulz, a devout
Christian, accurately summed up what Christmas was “all about” —
certainly what Christians believe it is all about. Should school
children be shielded from that knowledge? After all, the celebration by
Christians of the birth of Christ has generated a wealth of literature
through the years, including A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, and the poem “T’was the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Moore.

Is an explanation of what Christians believe about their own holiday,
which places such literature in context, something that should be
censored in the public schools? Is it imposing a religion to say that
Christians believe the birth of Christ is “what Christmas is all about?”

Perhaps Shannon’s father, Danny Brey, pastor of the Soliders of the
Cross Cowboy Fellowship near Fort Hood (located outside Killeen), said
it best: “People want us to be tolerant for everything but they don’t
tolerate Christianity. They bow down to everything else, but when it
comes to Christianity…”

Just as the Apostle Paul demanded his rights as a Roman citizen under
Roman law, Christians should likewise demand that they be treated
equally in the public schools, which their tax dollars financially
support.

GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: DHS ATTACKED OUR FIREWALL

 http://fannin.fetchyournews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/11/GA-SOSKemp-1.jpg
DHS ATTACKED OUR FIREWALL 
BY C. MITCHELL SHAW
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

On Thursday, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp sent a letter to
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ask “why [it] was
attempting to breach” the firewall protecting his computer
infrastructure. The letter also drew attention to the fact that “under
18 U.S.C. 1030, attempting to gain access or exceeding authorized access
to protected computer systems is illegal.”

In the weeks and months leading up to the elections, DHS and other
federal agencies expressed growing concerns over the threat of Russian
hackers penetrating government computers. Many of those concerns were
based in the oft-repeated claim that the hacking of the databases and
e-mail servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was the work
of Russian hackers. That claim has never been proved, and many experts
have said it is not the case. In fact, Julian Assange — the founder and
public face of WikiLeaks, which published the DNC documents — flatly
denied that the source was Russian.
Based on the accepted “wisdom” that the hacks came from Russia —
whether from individual hackers or directed by Moscow — DHS issued a
series of recommendations to the states for protecting their voter
registration and election systems against attacks aimed at hacking the
election. DHS also offered its assistance in providing “cyber hygiene
scans or penetration testing” before the elections. As Kemp reminded DHS
in his letter:

Georgia was one of the only few states
that did not seek DHS assistance with cyber hygiene scans or penetration
testing before this year’s election. We declined this assistance due to
having already implemented the security measures suggested by DHS.

It appears that — in keeping with its heavy-handed approach in
general — DHS was unwilling to take no for an answer. On November 15 —
days after the election — “an IP address associated with the
Department of Homeland Security made an unsuccessful attempt to
penetrate the Georgia Secretary of State’s firewall,” according to
Kemp’s letter. Kemp also reminded DHS of the fact that its attempted
penetration of the firewall was both unwanted and unsuccessful:

At no time has my office agreed to or
permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our
network. Moreover, your Department has not contacted my office since
this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would
require testing or scanning of our network. This is especially odd and
concerning since I serve on the Election Cyber Security Working Group
that your office created.

Kemp’s letter
also makes the point that one of his responsibilities as secretary of
state is to “protect Georgians’ data against the type of event that
occurred on November 15” and that since he takes that responsibility
seriously, he has “contracted with a global leader in monitored security
services to provide immediate responses to these types of threats.” He
wrote:

As you may know, the Georgia Secretary of
State’s office maintains the statewide voter registration data base
containing the personal information of over 6.5 million Georgians. In
addition, we hold the information for over 800,000 corporate entities
and over 500,000 licensed or registered professionals.
As Georgia’s Secretary of State, I take
cyber security very seriously. That is why I have contracted with a
global leader in monitored security services to provide immediate
responses to these types of threats. This firm analyzes more than 180
billion events a day globally across a 5,000+ customer base which
includes many Fortune 500 companies. Clearly, this type of resource and
service is necessary to protect Georgians’ data against the type of
event that occurred on November 15.

It is noteworthy that Kemp sees this attempted intrusion by DHS as a
threat. If DHS were correct and Georgia were in need of DHS
“assistance,” it would seem that DHS would have succeeded in penetrating the firewall protecting the Georgia secretary of state’s computer infrastructure. Since DHS failed to hack into those systems, it is fair to assume that Russian hackers do not pose a credible threat to those systems, either.

Perhaps the only thing more embarrassing to an overreaching federal
agency than telling it you don’t need its help is proving it by
preventing them from forcing it on you.
This case illustrates the value of a free-market approach. By
contracting with “a global leader in monitored security services” (a
private firm), Kemp was able to “protect Georgians’ data against” even an attack launched by DHS.
By demonstrating the value of a free-market approach and the fact that
states can handle these matters themselves without “assistance” from the
federal government, Kemp also demonstrated the lack of value of DHS and
its heavy-handed approach.
That is just peachy.
______________________________________________________

Election Hackers Revealed As DHS Agents 

 Published on Dec 14, 2016

After
exposing a massive cyber attack of Georgia’s state elections network,
the Secretary of State confirms the IP address of the hacker leads back
to the DHS.

ABORTIONISTS SUE TO STOP TEXAS FROM REQUIRING BURIAL, CREMATION OF ABORTED BABIES

ABORTIONISTS SUE TO STOP TEXAS FROM REQUIRING BURIAL, CREMATION OF ABORTED BABIES
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 AUSTIN — A coalition of abortion providers have 
filed suit in an effort to stop Texas officials from requiring that they
 bury or cremate the bodies of the unborn children they kill instead of 
having them incinerated with medical waste and dumped in landfills.

“The regulation enshrines into law an exceedingly narrow set of
beliefs regarding embryonic and fetal personhood, and what is
appropriate for the disposition of embryonic and fetal tissue,” the lawsuit,
filed on Monday, asserts. “These views do not reflect the diversity of
views people hold about when human life begins and about the proper
disposition of bodies.”

As previously reported, the rule, requested by Gov. Greg Abbott, is set to take effect on Dec. 19.

“Governor Abbott believes human and fetal remains should not be
treated like medical waste, and the proposed rule changes affirms the
value and dignity of all life,” spokesperson Ciara Matthews said in a
statement in July when the proposal was first announced. “For the
unborn, the mothers and the hospital and clinic staff, the governor
believes it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our
respect for the sanctity of life.”

Abortion facilities customarily contract with third party medical
waste companies to dispose of the aborted babies, which are usually
classified as “pathological waste.” The containers of aborted babies,
mixed in with boxes of bodily fluids, tissues and other items that are
not permitted to be thrown in the trash, are then transported to an
incineration plant where they are burned into ash and then dumped into
landfills.

However, current Texas law also allows for other types of disposal,
including “grinding and discharging to a sanitary sewer system,”
“chlorine disinfection/maceration followed by deposition in a sanitary
landfill” or other “approved alternate treatment process, provided that
the process renders the item as unrecognizable, followed by deposition
in a sanitary landfill.”

The new law will now mandate that abortionists utilize services provided by funeral homes rather than medical waste companies.

Therefore, several abortion facilities are seeking to put a stop to
the requirement, with Whole Woman’s Health, Brookside Women’s Medical
Center, Austin Women’s Health Center, Alamo Women’s Reproductive
Services, and others filing suit. As previously reported, the medical waste company Stericycle was fined $42,000 in 2011 for dumping fetal remains from Whole Woman’s Health with household and commercial trash.

“It imposes a funeral ritual on women who have a miscarriage
management procedure, ectopic pregnancy surgery, or an abortion,” the
legal challenge, filed in part by the New York-based Center for
Reproductive Rights, reads. “It also forces healthcare providers to work
with an extremely limited number of third-party vendors for burial or
scattering ashes, threatening abortion clinics’ provision of care and
their long-term ability to remain open, as well as cost increases for
women seeking pregnancy-related medical care.”

It also asserts that the plaintiffs aren’t aware of any burial or
cremation service that isn’t more expensive than using a medical waste
disposal service, and that the rule will make women feel shame and guilt
over ending the life of their unborn child.

“By depriving women of the moral agency to act in accordance with
their own views about personhood, the regulation deprives women of
dignity,” the suit states. “The regulation’s imposition onto women’s
autonomy and invasion of their privacy will also harm women spiritually
and emotionally, causing trauma, guilt, shame, anger, and
feelings of exploitation and violation.”

The abortion providers are therefore seeking an injunction, as well as a declaration that the rule is unconstitutional.

“Governor Abbott believes human and fetal remains should not be
treated like medical waste, and the proposed rule changes affirms the
value and dignity of all life,” Matthews said on Monday in response to
the suit. “For the unborn, the mothers and the hospital and clinic
staff, the governor believes it is imperative to establish higher
standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life.”

Abortion is Murder from I’ll Be Honest on Vimeo.

“PALESTINIAN” & LEFTIST “ACTIVISTS” ATTEMPT TO INDOCTRINATE ITHACA, NEW YORK THIRD GRADERS INTO HATING ISRAEL

“PALESTINIAN” & LEFTIST “ACTIVISTS” ATTEMPT TO INDOCTRINATE ITHACA, NEW YORK THIRD GRADERS INTO HATING ISRAEL
BY PAMELA GELLER
 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 Palestinian Lies and Myths: Jihad and Jew Hatred
 

The ghouls of the Obama-era Left leave no stone unturned in
demonizing the Jews and indoctrinating children into the hating of the
good for being the good.

This is analogous to the “Palestinian” indoctrination of children:
they teach them at the youngest ages to hate Israel and want to kill
Jews. And now the same thing has come to Ithaca, New York.

“VIDEO: Activists manipulate third-graders into hating Israel,” by William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection, December 11, 2016 (thanks to Armaros):

Ithaca (NY) third grade event shows how anti-Israel indoctrination has moved into elementary schools.

Anti-Israel activism by faculty at colleges and universities receives
a lot of media attention in part because campuses generally are open to
the public and college students are able to report on what happens.

Faculty-inspired anti-Israel activism, however, is not limited to
colleges and universities. I hear many parents and students complain
that by the time many students reach college, they already have been
turned against Israel.

Far under the radar, the attempt to demonize Israel is moving down
the educational chain even into elementary schools, pushed by activists
who accept no boundaries even for young children. Yet because such
activities take place in schools to which access is limited, and the
young students are not developmentally able to report on what happens,
it’s rare to obtain hard visual proof.

We have such proof.

On Friday morning, September 18, 2015, the third grade classes at the
Beverly J. Martin School in Ithaca, NY, heard a presentation on “human
rights” by Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi and local anti-Israel activists, led by Ariel Gold. We broke the story a couple of days later, Anti-Israel activism hits elementary school in Ithaca, NY.

Based on documents produced pursuant to a NY Freedom of Information
Law (FOIL) request and court rulings, previously we were able to
document that the Tamimi event was an anti-Israel propaganda event. At
least one third-grade student suffered nightmares and a Letter of Reprimand was issued to the school principal for attempting to cover-up the nature of the event.

Previously, though, we didn’t have any video of the Tamimi Event,
just the paper and electronic record of communications. While that paper
and electronic record was shocking, only video could fully convey what
happened.

After over a year of investigation and litigation, including a court order
under the NY Freedom of Information Law, Legal Insurrection has
obtained a partial video of the Tamimi Event. That partial video shows
how, after the main portion of the presentation was over (for which
there is almost no video), the third-grade students expressed strong
hostility to Israel and were encouraged to do so.

That video, which has been blurred and bleeped to protect student
identities, is embedded in its entirety below. As bad as I expected it
to be, it was worse. I was shaken as I watched the manipulation of these
8 and 9 year olds in a public school.

This video, and the Tamimi event, should serve as a clarion call.

The Attempt to Portray the Tamimi Event as Loving

On Sunday night, September 20, 2015, Legal Insurrection broke the story, Anti-Israel activism hits elementary school in Ithaca, NY.

Because of Tamimi’s notoriety for exploiting children
in videotaped confrontations with Israeli soldiers, Tamimi’s mere
appearance in a third grade class raised suspicions about the event. The
Tamimis are best known for the 2012 video
of daughter Ahed confronting Israeli soldiers for the cameras, for
which she received an award from then Turkish Prime Minister (and
current President) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Subsequent to the Ithaca third-grade event, Tamimi was barred from entry to the U.S.

Gold is an Ithaca-based anti-Israel activist who now works for Code Pink. She is best known for generating publicity through disrupting speeches and events, and even prayers at the Western Wall. Gold uses her own children in her anti-Israel activism.

Gold, who was Tamimi’s national tour coordinator, arranged the Tamimi
event at the elementary school. The discussion was guided by teacher
Brooke Burnett, a friend of Gold, and partially filmed by Mary Anne
Grady Flores, another Ithaca activist who is friends with Gold and
Burnett.

[Bassem Tamimi and Mary Anne Grady Flores at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School][Image via Ariel Gold Facebook]

[Bassem Tamimi and Mary Anne Grady Flores at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School][Image via Ariel Gold Facebook]

Gold has attempted to describe the Tamimi event as loving and
promoting peace, even the call for the school children to become
“freedom fighters for Palestine”:

Tamimi also defended the event:

Initially, the principal of the elementary school, Susan Eschbach,
also attempted to downplay the significance of the Tamimi event. In a
September 22, 2015, statement to the school community Eschbach denied
there was anything improper. The statement provided, in pertinent part (full text here):

Responding to the concerns about Tamimi’s arrival at BJM….

There were many adults present in the class and at no time was there
an anti-Israel, anti-Palestine, anti-Jewish, or anti-Muslim stance. The
children took away from this experience several messages .”I can be an
ambassador for peace.” “ You can make friends across borders and that is
a good thing.” “Children want the option to live peacefully and to go
to school. Children can help stand for these desires.” “Everyone should
work things out to live together.” And “love will make peace, not hate.”
The children had meaningful, relevant, and appropriate conversations.

Superintendent: Politically Skewed, Inflammatory, and Not “Developmentally Appropriate”

The statement from Eschbach to the community was rebutted, in
substance, when Superintendent of the Ithaca City School District
(ICSD), Dr. Luvelle Brown, later released a statement denouncing the
event, Superintendent: Third Grade event “politically skewed, inflammatory” against Israel.

The Superintendent’s statement provided, in part (emphasis added):

… The assumed purpose of the talk was to focus on human rights and peace. Upon further investigation, we have learned that the speakers went beyond the original intent of the talk. Additionally, school administration was not informed beforehand of the invitation to include one of the speakers.

The following statements are some of the most egregious examples from the presentation:

● At the beginning of the session, the speakers showed a brief video
of a young Palestinian girl who references Israelis killing
Palestinians;

●There was an indication by the speakers that Israel has broken many
United Nations’ laws and that Israel controls all of the resources of
the geographic area;

● In a closing statement of how students could help, a speaker spoke
of solidarity and being freedom fighters for Palestine; to bring peace
and protect the future of their children.

The Ithaca City School District’s position is that such statements are not
developmentally appropriate for third graders, nor aligned with the New
York State standards. The statements were politically skewed,
inflammatory, and not endorsed by the Ithaca City School District
.

… We recognize that the Israeli Palestinian conflict is very
sensitive to many members of our community. We also recognize that this
delicate topic was not presented in a manner consistent with its
importance. We sincerely regret that this has occurred.

Jewish Voice for Peace,
in which Gold is active, started a petition drive asserting that
criticism of the Tamimi event was an attempt to stifle Palestinian
voices, and 31 parents at the Beverly J. Martin school (it’s unclear if
any had children in the class), led by Ithaca College Park School of
Communications employee Nicole Koschmann, submitted a letter to the
editor of the Ithaca Journal, Teachers know best about school speakers, defending the Tamimi event:

We, 31 Beverly J. Martin Elementary School parents, are
writing in regards to recent news regarding the Palestinian human-rights
activist visit at BJM on Sept. 18….

We parents believe teachers are the professionals in their field
regarding the developmental stages of their students, what is
appropriate, and what relates to the standards that need to be taught.
They are trained in this. Law professors at Cornell University do not
have this expertise. Political activists do not have this expertise.
This knowledge lies with teachers and their principal….

The reactionary swell created outside of BJM as a result of this
event is especially shameful when one considers the amount of resources
the teachers and administrators have had to divert from their job of
educating our children.

Our children were not preyed or imposed upon by the visitors that
day. Instead, they were exposed to a perspective and a situation.

The conversation will continue at school and at home. We are not
afraid of differing opinions. In fact, teaching students to disagree
respectfully, and with patience and compassion, is one of the key
elements of teaching human rights. Unfortunately, this is not a lesson
many adults have learned.

IRAN’S DEFENSE MINISTER: TRUMP COULD TRIGGER “WORLD WAR” AND “DESTRUCTION” OF ISRAEL IF HE PROVOKES IRAN

 
IRAN’S DEFENSE MINISTER: TRUMP COULD TRIGGER “WORLD WAR” AND “DESTRUCTION” OF ISRAEL 
IF HE PROVOKES IRAN
BY ROBERT SPENCER
 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
And what is on the horizon if Trump doesn’t tear up the deal and lets the Islamic Republic 
of Iran proceed on course? World war and the destruction of Israel.
 

“Trump’s Iran stance could threaten a WORLD WAR and the destruction
of Israel, warns Tehran as it cautions the Donald against ‘provoking’
them in the Middle East,” by Thomas Burrows, MailOnline, December 11, 2016:

The Iranian defense minister has warned that Donald Trump
could trigger a world war and the ‘destruction’ of Israel and small
Gulf Arab states if he provokes the Middle Eastern power.

Trump’s election victory has raised the prospect the US will pull out of the nuclear pact signed by Barack Obama last year.

During his campaign, Trump was strongly critical of the agreement
that saw Iran agree to limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the
lifting of international sanctions on its oil industry and finances.

In September 2015, the billionaire told a crowd: ‘Any
commander-in-chief worthy of defending this nation should be prepared to
stand up on 20 January 2017 [inauguration day] and rip to shreds this
catastrophic deal.’

He also called the deal a ‘disaster’ and ‘the worst deal ever negotiated’.

This has led to panic among US allies in the Gulf, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan has claimed.

‘Even though a businessman, the assistants that … (Trump) has chosen
may map a different path for him, and this has led to unease,
particularly among Persian Gulf countries,’ Dehghan told a security
conference in Tehran, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

‘Considering Trump’s character and that he measures the cost of
everything in dollars, it does not seem likely that he would take strong
action against our country,’ he said.

‘Enemies may want to impose a war on us based on false calculations
and only taking into consideration their material capabilities…

‘Such a war would mean the destruction of the Zionist regime (Israel)
… and will engulf the whole region and could lead to a world war,’ Mehr
quoted Dehghan as saying.

‘Among other consequences of the war, would be the destruction of the
city-states on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, because they
lack popular support,’ Dehghan said, referring to small Western-allied
Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.

However Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a
fierce critic of the agreement, hoped he could work with Trump to
dismantle the deal.

He said: ‘I know Donald Trump. And I think his attitude, his support
for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about
the Jewish people.’

Pressed on what those options might be, Netanyahu said he had ‘about five things in my mind’, but did not elaborate….

 
 

BUNDY: A TRUE STORY MADE FROM PRISON!

BUNDY: A TRUE STORY MADE FROM PRISON! 
BY GAVIN SEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

This is a true story about one of Americas most courageous families.

Controversy is state I’ve learned to live with, a badge of honor that
often stings. It’s a badge the Bundy family possesses in abundance,
because you stand up, you will always be attacked. My brother and I
stood with the Bundy’s in 2014; we saw the truth and we felt the danger.
When Oregon happened there was no question in our minds that these men
and woman deserved the support of all who love liberty. Their message
was pure. But much of America did not feel the same. Why?

Like many activists and prisoners, from patriots to the natives. The
hate for the Bundy’s comes from lies who’s intent is to make the story
of a warrior misunderstood.  Our “justice” system goes to great lengths
to ensure the real story does not reach the masses. This works because
we don’t really want to know how bad it is. That’s why it’s important to
share a story no matter how you feel about a person. Watch it and make
sure others do the same, sending it to those who know and to those who
do not.

People often say, there’s nothing we can do. But I do something every
day and if you will set aside differences and do something with me, we
will set this nation free.

Many don’t know that these men are still in
prison. That they are abused and even tortured by prison staff,
disregarded by judges and lied about in media propaganda. This is not a
story of privileged white ranchers. This is a story about every falsely
imprisoned man and woman, black or white, Christian or Muslim, liberal
or conservative. A story about the way they suffer every day.

This is HD version that includes all 3 parts. I’ll want to share a
little of how it happened, but more importantly I want you do to
something. Any of you can make a video, show up somewhere, call a
prison, support the suffering or interrupt a meeting of entitled
politicians to speak the truth. It’s what America was built on.

When Ammon Bundy asked me to record this story for the world, I knew
it was important. Ammon had been working for some time on articulating
the real story of his family and those who stood with them. It needed to
be open, honest and brief. As always, Ammon had the words, we just
needed to do something with them. I figured I would add some stills and
video and we’ll push it out. Once I realized what Ammon had poured into
this message, I saw a real documentary of Americas darkest times. What
resulted took the last three months to finish.

Sound comes first so I setup the call in over my computer versus
cellular because quality is a problem. Even at that it took a lot of
post production to get the final sound, which still sounds like a phone,
but not like a the bad jail phone that it is. We had to work to try and
restore some of the richness to his voice, but you still know that it’s
coming coming a cement prison.

At times Ammon was frustrated, distracted by jail noise, reading on
scribbles notes on top of notes. I have been on the inside trying to get
a messages out from a jail; it is utterly exhausting in way that you
can only know by being there. But Ammon just kept calling back until we
had it all.

Next came video. We needed the story and we needed footage to match
the story. The Bundy’s and others had clips of critical moments, but
there had to be more, so my family and I went to Nevada and camped out
for days trying to capture the essence of the ranch. The crowning moment
of that was the last evening, the one where you see the Bundy cowboys
riding off into the Sunset  and the birds flying over the Virgin river.
It my 20 years of filming I have never had a shot like those birds. I
was glad Carol pushed the boys to saddle up and me to break out the
cameras again that final night.

Then came the hard part. As I reviewed the project I realized how
much was required and we started collecting more photos, more footage
and more of the key bits that took this from a phone call to a full
documentary that we had to mix around with work at my Studio that pays the bills.

Fine tuning a project of this scale and then laying in a good
soundtrack takes time. Sometimes people complain about the music in a
video, but it’s essential to the emotion of a story because it coneys in
part what you lack in the story by not being there. I was at Bundy
ranch, I know what it felt like, but many do not and that has to be told
not only with words but with sound in order to even partially convey
the truth of it.

This is not just a story about the Bundy’s. It’s the story of the
struggle every man woman and child in America must face. Freedom, or
slavery. I think the finished result is beautiful. I’m always amazed by
how well Ammon speaks and even though he could not be here in person,
together we managed to defy the evil of our court system in a small way
and make a story for the world that is brief, compelling and most of
all, the truth.

Thanks for for spreading this message.You can share or embed the
video and if you need to you can download and re-post it so long as it’s
not being sold or used for profit.

If you want to contribute my my work and expenses visit my donation page. To donate to the Bundy family go here.
___________________________________________________

Cliven Bundy And The Truth About 

The Bundy Family History.

CLIVEN BUNDY’S DAUGHTER: MY FAMILY IS BEING TREATED LIKE RAPISTS/MURDERERS.


BLASPHEMOUS NOVEL “THE SHACK” TO BE RELEASED AS FILM FEATURING GOD AS WOMAN; MUSIC FROM HILLSONG UNITED

 
BLASPHEMOUS NOVEL “THE SHACK” TO BE RELEASED AS FILM FEATURING GOD AS WOMAN; 
MUSIC FROM HILLSONG UNITED 
BY HEATHER CLARK
 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Concerns are being raised as the popular and blasphemous novel “The 
Shack” will be released as a film in 2017—a book that portrays God the 
Father as a woman, and that some say unbiblically teaches universalism.

William P. Young’s 2007 novel is stated to have sold approximately 20
million copies and has been translated into 39 languages. In 2013,
Lionsgate Entertainment obtained the rights to turn the book into a
film, which is now scheduled to be released in March 2017 and is
currently being promoted nationwide.
“The Shack” tells the story of a man named Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips
who faces a crisis while on a family vacation as his youngest daughter
Missy is abducted and presumably killed in an abandoned shack. Years
later, the grieving father receives a note from “Papa,” who
tells Phillips that it has “been a while” and to meet up at the shack
the following weekend.
Reluctantly, Phillips returns to the site, where he meets the
Godhead, portrayed as what Young called a “fat black woman,” another
young woman named Sarayu, and a carpenter named Jesus, who seek to help
him deal with his faltering faith and to learn to forgive.

The film features Octavia Spencer as “Papa,” who is asked blatantly
by Phillips, played by Sam Worthington, “Where were you when I needed
you?”
“I never left you. I never left Missy,” she replies with tears.
Sumire Matsubara, a young Asian woman, plays the Holy Spirit, portrayed in the book as Sarayu.

Spencer told reporters prior to the film’s production, “[P]eople have
to remember it’s a manifestation of God—how [the film subject] sees
God—not necessarily how or who or what God is.”
In addition to music from country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill,
Lady Antebellum, Brett Eldredge and Dierk Bentley, the film also
features songs from Christian-identified groups Hillsong United and
NeedtoBreathe.
But some have expressed concern not only over the portrayals in “The
Shack,” but also the numerous messages that they state are
unbiblical. James De Young, a professor of New Testament Language and
Literature at Western Seminary in Oregon, wrote a book entitled “Burning
Down the Shack: How the ‘Christian’ Bestseller is Deceiving Millions.”
“A relationship with God comes only by personal trust or faith placed
in Jesus Christ,” he told WND. “For the book to ignore this core of
faith is to propound another and different gospel to that of Jesus and
the Apostles. It is the heart of the gospel, but it is ignored in the
heresy of universal salvation.”
De Young said that in “The Shack,” “ultimately there’s no divine
Savior and Lord, because if people including the devil and his angels
get into Heaven, there’s no cross left to preach.”
“If we cast off the uniqueness of the gospel message, then God is
relegated to an understanding of a deity of our own creation,” he
stated.
Others have also noted that “The Shack” suggests that God is all love
and no justice, and will never judge men for their sins, nor will any
be tormented eternally in Hell.
“I can already imagine ‘The Shack’ Bible studies, sermon series, and
of course the social media hype, not to mention busloads of small groups
fellowshipping and praising ‘Papa’ for another opportunity to share
Jesus. But which Jesus?” asked Amy Spreeman of Berean Research.

 ________________________________________________________
 OCTAVIA SPENCER PLAYS GOD (BUT NOT THE GOD OF THE BIBLE):
 The Shack: Its Dangerous Theology and Error 
(Full Documentary Film)

THE SHACK: Exposing Its Dangerous Heresies (Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Interview)

________________________________________________________
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE SHACK & THOSE PROMOTING IT AND OTHER SOURCES; THESE ARE JUST TWO:

SEE ALSO: https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/christians
-falling-for-the-shack-must-get-back-to-the-word-of-god/

MACY’S NO LONGER DONATING TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD THROUGH EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM

 
MACY’S NO LONGER DONATING TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD THROUGH EMPLOYEE 
MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

A watchdog group that monitors the social stances of major
corporations, as well as those who donate to the abortion and
contraceptive giant Planned Parenthood, has announced that the retail
store Macy’s has discontinued donations to the organization through its
matching program.

“Macy’s confirmed with 2ndVote … that the company no longer gives and
no longer matches donations to Planned Parenthood,” 2ndVote said in a
post on Wednesday.

Representatives with the retailer had explained to the Daily Signal
last year that Macy’s hadn’t been giving to the organization directly,
but matched employee donations in a few instances.

“Our company makes no direct donations to Planned Parenthood,” it
said. “In our Matching Gift program, we will match our employees’
donations to any 501c3 organization. We are a company of 160,000 people,
and we do match a small handful of gifts each year to Planned
Parenthood organizations given that they are 501c3.”

Macy’s has not released an official statement declaring its
discontinuance, and is not commenting to the media, but 2ndVote
states that they were able to obtain confirmation.

“Macy’s has listened to its customers and this shows that informed
consumers are able to effectively engage companies for taking positions
on the issues,” said 2ndVote Director of Communications Robert
Kuykendall. “Ultimately, people don’t want to support organizations like
Planned Parenthood that don’t match their values and they would rather
do business with a more neutral company, especially on the life issue.”

Kuykendall’s organization maintains a list of companies that give to
Planned Parenthood in one form or another. It currently has 36 major
corporations on its direct donation list, including Avon, Clorox, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Starbucks and Verizon.

2ndVote says that 25 percent of Planned Parenthood’s annual revenue comes from private donations. Planned Parenthood’s annual report released last December outlined that it received $353 million in private contributions and bequests from June 2014-June 2015.

The organization also received $553 million in government grants
during the period, up from $528 million the year prior, which equated to
43 percent of its total income. And despite its expenditures, Planned
Parenthood still garnered a $61 million dollar profit.

It performed 323,999 abortions, or approximately one-third of all abortions nationwide when compared to data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

As previously reported, Planned Parenthood, originally known as the
American Birth Control League, was founded by Margaret Sanger, a
feminist who decried what she characterized as women serving as
“incubators.”

“Woman’s role has been that of an incubator and little more. She has
given birth to an incubated race,” she wrote in “Woman and the New
Race.” “In the mass, she has brought forth quantity, not quality. The
requirement of a male dominated civilization has been numbers. She has
met that requirement.”

“This is the dawn. Womanhood shakes off its bondage. It asserts its
right to be free. In its freedom, its thoughts turn to the race. Like
begets like. We gather perfect fruit from perfect trees,” Sanger said.
“The relentless efforts of reactionary authority to suppress the message
of birth control and of voluntary motherhood are futile. The powers of
reaction cannot now prevent the feminine spirit from breaking its bonds.

Sanger, who was a staunch advocate of eugenics, also made a
correlation between birth control and the purification of the races,
referring to those with disabilities as being “morons,” “idiots” and
“imbeciles.”

“Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law,
is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding
out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who
will become defectives,” she wrote in the aforementioned publication.
“If we are to make racial progress, this development of womanhood must
precede motherhood in every individual woman.”

 

SWEDEN: MUSLIM MIGRANTS DEFECATE, MASTURBATE, SCREAM ISLAMIC CHANTS IN CHURCH PEWS

SWEDEN: MUSLIM MIGRANTS DEFECATE, MASTURBATE, SCREAM ISLAMIC CHANTS IN CHURCH PEWS  
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Christians have become frightened to visit the Holy
Trinity church as newcomers are reported to yell loudly and smash liquor
bottles during services, masturbate in the pews and urinate and
defecate both inside and in the church grounds.

The “newcomers” are Muslim migrants that the Christians tried to open their hearts to and welcome.

These Muslim migrants event went a little further:

Aside from leaving their offensive bodily fluids
everywhere, the migrants scream Islamic chants and smash liquor bottles
on the floor in an attempt to silence Christian worshipers from praying
to God.

Can one imagine the same being done by Christians in a mosque? It’s
shocking and disgusting what the West puts up with in the name of
political correctness and diversity. It’s even an insult to Muslims
themselves: the most “racist” or ethnocentric gesture is to treat human
beings as if they were animals who cannot be expected to behave in a
civilized manner.

 
 

“Security Guards at Church Services As ‘New Clientele’ Defecate, Masturbate in Pews,” by Virginia Hale, Breitbart, December 9, 2016:

A church in Kristianstad has been forced to hire guards
to keep the peace at services after the disruptive behavior of “new
clientele” has become increasingly serious in recent years.

Christians have become frightened to visit the Holy Trinity church as
newcomers are reported to yell loudly and smash liquor bottles during
services, masturbate in the pews and urinate and defecate both inside
and in the church grounds.

Concerned locals have even reported concern over attempts to kidnap children during baptism.

Police yesterday gave the go-ahead to the church to have Security
guards at all future services, weddings and christenings. Staff have
also received training on how to deal with threats and violence and
sessions on conflict management are in the works, the Kristianstadsbladet reported.

Holy Trinity administrative manager Bengt Alvland told the newspaper
that people have repeatedly tried to steal silver, and staff are having
to keep the organ locked to prevent them from climbing on top of it to
disturb worshipers.

He also recounted how, during baptism, people have tried to take
children away from the priest and parents as the ceremony was ongoing.
In addition, people have sat masturbating in the pews.

 “[A man] was pulling on his penis. He did not stop, even when a
female police officer told him to”, Alvland said, adding: “There are no
limits or inhibitions for these people. It makes the staff feel very
concerned”.

He revealed that the people whose behavior is proving so disruptive
are not the town’s “old homeless”, but are instead a “new clientele”.

“The fact that there are more security guards at the Town Hall and
the railway station means there are fewer places for these people to go.
Therefore, the church has become the weakest link”, Alvland explained.

Speaking on Holy Trinity’s request for security presence during
services, he said: “We want a peaceful and safe environment for our
staff and visitors”. The security industry is booming
in Sweden, with sales for market leader Securitas reaching 80 billion
Swedish krona in 2015, twice the amount the nation spends on defense.

After numerous comments on the story were posted on
Kristianstadsbladet’s Facebook page, many of which connected the
disturbances with mass migration to the city, the Swedish church issued a statement insisting that it’s “Swedish men aged 35-45 with drug problems” who are causing the trouble.


Stein Flom Jacobsen questioned this, writing
on Facebook: “I see that these persons will be described as ‘Swedish
men……’ what does that mean that they’re Swedish citizens, or that they
are so-called ‘ethnic Swedes’? I know several addicts and have met a lot
of them but never understood them to be menacing, or heard of this form
of vandalism in churches, temples or mosques”.

BOSTON ISLAMIC CENTER WITH TIES TO MULTIPLE JIHAD TERRORISTS HOSTS INTERFAITH CALL FOR PEACE

BOSTON ISLAMIC CENTER WITH TIES 
TO MULTIPLE JIHAD TERRORISTS 
HOSTS INTERFAITH CALL FOR PEACE
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

The cynicism of this is breathtaking, but the easy marks among Jewish and Christian leaders are lining up to participate.

“It’s ironic that they would hold a rally against hate in one of the
most hateful houses of worship in New England where imam after imam has
been found to preach anti-Semitism, homophobia, and hate for the United
States, its people and its government.”

Yes, but there is never any shortage of useful idiots among Jewish
and Christian leaders. And this article goes easy: not only was the
Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center frequented by the Tsarnaev
brothers, Siddiqui, and Mehanna, but also Ahmad Abousamra, the Islamic State’s “social media guru.”
And Alamoudi wasn’t just “sentenced in 2004 to 23 years in prison for
taking part in a plot to kill Saudi royal officials”; that operation was
an al-Qaeda plot.

“Controversial Islamic center hosts interfaith call for peace, despite terror ties,” by Brooke Singman, Fox News, December 9, 2016:

A Boston Islamic center that has been linked to convicted
terrorists is hosting an interfaith event on Sunday to promote peace,
but some critics say such “hateful houses of worship” are a dubious
venue for a message of solidarity and hope.

The event, at Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, is entitled
“Out of Many, One,” and has Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Sen. Elizabeth
Warren, D-Mass., slated to speak. It is sponsored by the Greater Boston
Interfaith Organization, and aimed at bringing religious communities
together under common beliefs.

This Cambridge mosque has been at the center of controversy for years.

“My hope is that we can provide a place for members of the community,
who are so fearful and concerned about our values being challenged, to
speak up,” Interfaith Organization Board Member Nahma Nadich told
FoxNews.com. “We need to affirm our values and be in solidarity with
each other to protect all members of our community against hateful,
divisive rhetoric.”

But the location of the event has raised concerns, as the Islamic
Society of Boston Cultural Center operates two mosques –one in Boston,
where the event will be held, and one in Cambridge where several
convicted terrorists reportedly worshiped. They include Boston
Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev; Aafia Siddiqui, who
plotted a chemical attack on New York City and Tarek Mehanna, who was
sentenced in 2012 to 17 years in prison for conspiring to aid Al Qaeda.

In addition, a founder of ISBCC, Abduraham Alamoudi, was sentenced in
2004 to 23 years in prison for taking part in a plot to kill Saudi
royal officials, has allegedly worshiped at the mosque.

Neither the mosque nor top officials have been implicated in criminal
activity. But critics say several speakers at the mosque have delivered
fiery and hateful sermons, and that its connections to terror make it
an unlikely host of an event calling for peace.

“It’s ironic that they would hold a rally against hate in one of the
most hateful houses of worship in New England where imam after imam has
been found to preach anti-Semitism, homophobia, and hate for the United
States, its people and its government,” Director of Research at
Americans for Peace and Tolerance Ilya Feoktistov told FoxNews.com.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz has
dismissed Americans for Peace and Tolerance’s claims as “incredibly
racist and unfair.”

But Feoktistov referred to a 2010 video of Abdullah Faaruuq, a guest
preacher, exhorting worshipers to “grab onto the rope, grab onto the
typewriter, grab onto the shovel, grab onto the gun and the sword.”
Faaruuq told FoxNews.com last year that ISIS was not created by Islamic
teachings, but rather by America.

“It was created by the United States’ encouragement into other
people’s countries seeking weapons of mass destruction that don’t
exist,” Faaruuq said. “Destroying their societies and leaving the bitter
taste in young people’s mouths.”

In August, ISBCC appointed an associate imam, Abdul-Malik Merchant,
who, according to APT shared anti-Semitic posts on social media.
Merchant issued an apology to the Jewish community.

Local Jewish leaders said neither the ISBCC nor the mosques it operates should be judged by the actions of a few….

Feoktistov said faith leaders and elected officials are turning a blind eye to what has taken place in the mosque.

“I think lawmakers discount the hatred for political reasons because
the hatred is being spouted by what they consider to be a valuable
minority,” Feoktistov told Fox News. “They are holding this event at an
extremely hateful place, and that doesn’t bother them at all.”…

The “Interfaith call for Dignity & Diligence” event will take place at ISBCC in Roxbury, on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m.

ISBCC Executive Director Yusuf Vali said in a statement that the work
at the ISBCC embodies a community that “builds bridges” and “brings
people together.”…

MITT ROMNEY IS OUT, REX TILLERSON IS IN

 MITT ROMNEY IS OUT, REX TILLERSON IS IN

Exxon Mobil CEO reportedly Trump’s top pick for secretary of state

 Alex Jones breaks down the reason that Donald Trump has
reportedly picked Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state,
passing over both Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who had been on the
short list to be America’s top diplomat.

 

BERLIN SENATE’S NEW MUSLIM SECRETARY OF STATE CLAIMS SHARIA “ABSOLUTELY COMPATIBLE” WITH GERMAN LAW

MERKEL COULDN’T FIND A GERMAN, SO SHE APPOINTS A PALESTINIAN WITH MIDDLE EAST MULTICULTURAL SYMPATHIES LIKE HERS
 http://www.infiniteunknown.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Sawsan-Chebli.png
BERLIN SENATE’S NEW MUSLIM SECRETARY OF STATE CLAIMS SHARIA “ABSOLUTELY COMPATIBLE” 
WITH GERMAN LAW 
BY ROBERT SPENCER
 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Stonings, amputations, warfare against non-Muslims, institutionalized 
subjugation of women and non-Muslims, denial of the freedom of speech — 
what do you mean, incompatible with German law? This is the new, Merkelian, 
multicultural Germany.
 

“Berlin’s New Secretary of State is Pro-Sharia Law Conservative Muslim,” by Oliver JJ Lane, Breitbart, December 11, 2016 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The daughter of Palestinian immigrants is to be the
Berlin senate’s secretary of state for coordinating federal and state
affairs, but attention has focused on her recent remarks in support of
Sharia law.

Berlin state senate member, former deputy speaker for foreign affairs
and Muslim rising star of German politics Sawsan Chebli is to get a new
cabinet post. The appointment by the Red-Red-Green coalition government
has caused concern after a recent interview in which she expressed her
view that Sharia law was perfectly compatible with secular German
society.

Speaking back in August alongside Berlin Social Democrat party Mayor
Michael Muller, she not only defended Sharia law against suspicion by
many Germans who she accused of not understanding what it meant, but she
also went on the attack too. Criticising members of anti-mass migration
party Alternative for German (AfD), she said their views towards
foreigners made them fundamentally un-German.

Speaking to the Franzfurter Allgeimeine Zeitung,
she said: “My father is a pious Muslim, hardly speaks German, can
neither read nor write, but he is more integrated than many
functionaries of the AfD who question our constitution”.

Germany’s newspaper of record and the nation’s most widely-read broadsheet Welt reported Sunday
that while the politician attempted to portray the image of the perfect
“successful migrant” who despite being born to illiterate, stateless
parents was able to succeed in education and enter politics, there are
“cracks” displayed by her support of Sharia.

In August she complained that in political discourse, German national
law and Sharia law are always presented as contradictory to each other,
and said “Everyone talks about Shariah, but hardly anyone knows what
Sharia means”. Remarking that Sharia exists “largely to govern the
relationship between God and man”, Chebli said Sharia law was
“absolutely compatible” with Germany….

______________________________________________________

Germany: Steinmeier sending diplomat to Turkey to improve relations – FM spokesperson 

 Published on Aug 8, 2016

Spokesperson
of the Foreign Ministry Sawsan Chebli announced today that Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has sent State secretary Markus Ederer
to Turkey in order to have direct talks with the Turkish authorities,
during a press conference in Berlin on Monday.

SOT, Sawsan
Chebli, spokesperson for Foreign Ministry (German): “We must ask
ourselves the question: ‘what do we actually want?’ Turkey is an
important partner. Turkey is an important neighbour and with each set of
the refugee agreements there are important things we have to discuss
with and work with them on: political, economic, and, based on the 3.5
million Turkish-Germans living here, we have a closer relationship. And
when we take a look at Turkey we must ask ourselves the question: ‘how
do we get out of this very difficult, very [..] confrontational
situation?’ It is important for us to have another conversation which is
why Foreign Minister [Frank-Walter] Steinmeier sent the Secretary of
State to Turkey to have a direct conversation with the Turkish [and]
also to search for different levels and to strengthen and bring closer
the conversation, instead of, like I said, speaking over the mega phone
and microphone.”

SOT, Sawsan Chebli, spokesperson for Foreign
Ministry (German): “In our view it is good that, following the downing
of a Russian warplane through Turkey in the past years, that there is an
approach. We can only welcome that, because the more that is spoken to
each other – also with the conflict background in the region in which
Turkey is part of – the better.”

SOT, Sawsan Chebli, spokesperson
for Foreign Ministry (German): “Turkey is and will stay an important
partner in NATO and we don’t presume therefore at the present moment
that [NATO] cooperation, through the relationship between Russia and
Turkey, could somehow have an impact [on NATO relations].”

PRESIDENT TRUMP, HERITAGE FOUNDATION IS THE CONTROLLED OPPOSITION

PRESIDENT TRUMP, HERITAGE FOUNDATION IS THE CONTROLLED OPPOSITION
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
By Kelleigh Nelson


December 12, 2016
NewsWithViews.com
Don’t
fear the enemy who attacks you, but the fake friend who hugs you.
The
government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline
themselves.
—Thomas Jefferson
In my
last article
, I documented Heritage Foundation’s drafting and
promotion of job destroying NAFTA, but Heritage is also responsible for
many other ills that American citizens face today, including healthcare
and education.
Who
Funds Heritage
Heritage
is not required to disclose its donors, but according to a Media Transparency
report in 2006, donors have included the John
M. Olin Foundation
, the Castle
Rock Foundation
, the Richard
and Helen DeVos Foundation
(founders of Amway and father-in-law to
newly appointed Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos), Bradley
Foundation
(board members include Federal Reserve and CFR members),
the Koch Brothers and Claude
Lambe Foundation
, and Richard
Mellon Scaife
, who gave over $30 million to Heritage.
Scaife
supported abortion, and paid for a full-page ad in the WSJ in 2011, “From
the Desk of Richard M. Scaife – An Open Letter to Fellow Conservatives:
Why Conservatives Should Oppose Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood.”
His mother was a good friend of Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger,
and had her in for tea every Sunday afternoon.
The
list of President Trump’s Supreme Court justices was culled with
the aid of the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. Only two justices
on the list are truly pro-life. There are now 38 signees on the Coalition
Letter on the Pledge for a Pro-Life Nomination for Justice Scalia’s Seat
on the Supreme Court
.
Over
the past 25 years, Heritage has also been funded by private foundations
such as Pew
Charitable Trust
which also funded many GOALS 2000 initiatives. Bill
Clinton signed the Goals
2000
law on March 31, 1994, creating new education bureaucracies and
facilitating federal control of local education institutions.
William Greider’s bestseller, Who
Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy
reveals other
benefactors: “Heritage received grants from Amoco, General Motors,
Chase Manhattan Bank (David Rockefeller) and right-wing foundations like
Olin and Bradley.”
Heritage
and National Healthcare
As John
Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things.” Heritage has promoted
much that is anathema to our Constitution. Let’s look at the facts.
Assuring
Affordable Health Care for All Americans
is the Heritage Foundation
plan, written by Republicans and endorsed by the so-called conservative
right. You will notice that Stuart
M. Butler
wrote this Heritage monograph. Butler is a Brit who is a
senior fellow at the liberal Brookings Institute, the same Institute that
is promoting the privatization of education. Please pay particular attention
to Item #2 on page 6 of this document wherein it states, “Mandate
all households to obtain adequate insurance.”
James
Taranto, who writes the Wall Street Journal’s “Best
of the Web” column, put forth a lengthy and informative discussion
on the conservative origins of the individual mandate, whose inclusion
in Obamacare is today its most controversial feature on the Right.
Taranto
writes that he was there when the Heritage Foundation was promoting the
mandate:
Heritage
did put forward the idea of an individual mandate, though it predated
Hillary Care by several years. We know this because we were there: In
1988-90, we were employed at Heritage as a public relations associate
(a junior writer and editor), and we wrote at least one press release
for a publication touting Heritage’s plan for comprehensive legislation
to provide universal “quality, affordable health care.”
As
a junior publicist, we weren’t being paid for our personal opinions.
But we are now, so you will be the first to know that when we worked
at Heritage, we hated the Heritage plan, especially the individual mandate.
“Universal health care” was neither already established
nor inevitable, and we thought the foundation had made a serious philosophical
and strategic error in accepting rather than disputing the left-liberal
notion that the provision of “quality, affordable health care”
to everyone was a proper role of government. As to the mandate, we remember
reading about it and thinking: “I thought we were supposed to
be for freedom.”
The
plan was introduced in a 1989 book, “A National Health System
for America” by Stuart Butler and Heritage Senior Researcher,
Edmund Haislmaier. We seem to have mislaid our copy, and we couldn’t
find it online, but we did track down a 1990
Backgrounder
and a 1991
lecture
by Butler that outlined the plan. One of its two major planks,
the equalization of tax treatment for individually purchased and employer-provided
health insurance, seemed sensible and unobjectionable, at least in principle.
But
the other was the mandate, described as a “Health Care Social
Contract” and fleshed out in the lecture. [Link]
Now,
Stuart Butler claims
we shouldn’t blame Heritage
for the Obamacare mandate. He links to
the Amicus brief filed in the 11th
circuit court of appeals
, dated May 11, 2011. If you read the Amicus
brief, notice Edwin Meese’s name as well as Randy
Barnett
, of Georgetown University who has long been promoting a Constitutional
Convention with Michael
Patrick Leahy
of Tennessee.
I find
it interesting that the Affordable Health Care Act was signed into law
by Barack Hussein Obama on March 23, 2010, but Heritage Foundation didn’t
file their Amicus brief until over a year later. Ahem!
Heritage’s
Mandate for Leadership
In 1980,
Heritage published their Mandate
for Leadership
to guide the incoming Reagan Administration and its
transition team. Working the high-level inside track on these personnel
hiring’s was Reagan’s “Kitchen Cabinet,” of which Council
for National Policy member, Joe Coors, was probably the best-known member.
A Reagan
loyalist since the 1968 GOP convention, Coors began spending a lot of
time in Washington, D.C. and at the White House. The attempt at governance
by the Kitchen Cabinet became so elaborate that they actually established
an office in the Executive Office Building across from the White House.
Embarrassed
by the image of a covey of millionaires seeming to run parallel and sometimes
conflicting personnel recruitment operations, senior White House staff
produced legal opinions saying that it was illegal for a private group
to occupy government property, in this case a White House office.
Although
Coors produced a legal opinion arguing there was no violation of law,
Coors and friends were evicted. Heritage could hardly claim diminished
relations with the Reagan Administration, however, as an estimated two-thirds
of its Mandate recommendations were adopted in the first year of the Administration.
Further,
Heritage was using a letter of endorsement from White House Chief of Staff,
Ed Meese, CNP charter member, in a December 1981 fundraising effort. In
his letter of endorsement, Meese promised Heritage’s president, Edwin
Feulner
, that “this Administration will cooperate fully with
your efforts.” The newly elected Ronald Reagan passed out copies
of the Mandate at his first Cabinet meeting, and it quickly became his
administration’s blueprint. By the end of Reagan’s first year
in office, 60 percent of the Mandate’s 2,000 ideas were
being implemented. After leaving the Reagan Administration, Meese joined
the staff of the Heritage Foundation and is still there today.
Meese
and his cronies were also involved in the theft of the Inslaw/Promis software
that enabled the Justice Department to track criminal prosecutions. [Link]
Meese had his intelligence buddies put a trap door in the software so
the Bushes could monitor everyone. The Justice Department started sharing
the illegally obtained PROMIS software with other agencies, including
agencies where PROMIS was modified for intelligence purposes and sold
to foreign intelligence operations in Israel, Jordan, and other places.
Michael
Risconsciuto
of the Wackenhut security firm (former FBI and CIA) had
testified that he was contracted to install a “trap door” in
the software to allow the CIA to tap into PROMIS software worldwide. It
appears that the original petty crimes of the Justice Department led to
the exposure of a sensitive national security operation. [Link]
It also
monitors all of us, and today there’s an even greater software program
out there…but that’s another story.
Edwin
J. Feulner
, formerly the president of Heritage Foundation, had a yearly
income including deferred compensation of $1,098,612. Former Attorney
General, Edwin Meese, takes home half a million a year from Heritage.
This is where your $25 monthly donations go…to enrich the lives
of these top dogs. Feulner is also a charter member of the Council
for National Policy
(CNP).
The
Rockefeller/Heritage Connection
Education
researcher Chey Simonton states in her article
on the Rockefeller/Heritage Connection
,
“The
top men of the Heritage Foundation, first Weyrich, then Ed Feulner,
and now Jim DeMint, with the trust and cooperation of masses of sincerely
committed conservatives, have been in a position to further elitist
Rockefeller goals. (These are the Rockefeller Republicans Phyllis Schlafly
called the Kingmakers, in her book, “A
Choice Not an Echo
.”) Along with radical World Government
advocate, Walter Hoffman of the World Federalist Association, they participated
on the 16 member U.S.
Commission on Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations
.
Working with the US Information Agency, Feulner also participated in
facilitating the infamous 1985
US-Soviet Education Technology and Cultural Exchange Agreement
.
Soviet pedagogy, based on behavioral
conditioning
for a compliant collective labor force, is a dream
come true for the dozens of multinational corporations funding all the
think tanks promoting
American education reform. The humanist Carnegie Foundation,
a century-long collaborator with Rockefeller philanthropy, facilitated
the Soviet side of this Exchange Agreement.”
Remember,
in 1934, the Carnegie Corporation called for a shift from free enterprise
to collectivism. They wanted the Soviet planned economy. [Link]
Thus,
Heritage’s communist connections, were established rapidly after the historic
meeting between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit
.
Feulner
was appointed by Reagan as chairman of the U.S.
Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
. The commission was responsible
for expediting a signed Soviet-American
Educational Exchange Agreement
. The National American Legion was one
of hundreds of conservative groups refusing to do anything about the US/Soviet
Education Agreements.
In
1995, education researcher, Charlotte
Iserbyt
, identified conservative “Wolves
in Sheep’s Clothing
,” who not only gave the Soviets access
to American education, but whose act of treason “virtually
merged the two educational systems.”
Leading the pack for
an educational exchange initiative was none other than:
“Edwin
Feulner, former President of Heritage Foundation, who strongly supported
the U.S.-Soviet
education agreements
, and who had an office in Moscow, supported Soviet-style
magnet schools (i.e., tax supported choice/charter
schools), and had state affiliate organizations across the nation writing
charter school legislation that reads like it has been written by the
U.S.
Department of Education
, the Carnegie
Corporation
and the National
Education Association
.”
“Paul
Weyrich’s constitutional-convention promoting American
Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC)
gave an award to Oregon’s Department of Education for its education
reform, especially the work force training component and its certificate
of initial mastery (CIM) necessary to get a job
. Same old Common
Core folks! See the June, 2011, WSJ article, “Industry
Puts Heat on Schools to Teach Skills Employees Need
.”
 We must
remember, the 1955 UNESCO
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
book, MENTAL HEALTH IN EDUCATION, is the earliest reference
to the need for “choice” in education. The Charter Schools concept,
strongly marketed around the country by Heritage affiliates, with the
help of many CNP members in every state, attempts to link patriotic free
enterprise themes to a blatantly unconstitutional system of corporate
fascism to business/government partnerships in the education of our children.
At the
same time, note that Heritage founder, Paul Weyrich, once served as advisor
to former Russian President, Boris Yeltsin of Chechnyan genocide fame.
He wrote about it in an article in the Heritage
affiliate, Townhall Magazine
. In 1987, Weyrich also wrote an article
in The Washington Post, A
Conservative’s Lament
, which virtually recommended a new Constitution
and parliamentary form of government for the U.S.
Both
Feulner and Weyrich were also involved with other powerful players and
shadowy figures, some from the right and some from the left. They have
been included in groups formed to reinvent the UN, supposedly to face
the 21st century. It is becoming more and more evident that Weyrich and
Feulner were in fact organizing a tight group that represented the merger
of right and left, which we have seen over the past 65 years, and which
was quite obvious in our recent election.

“BASIC BIOLOGICAL TRUTHS”: ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS RULING ALLOWING LESBIANS TO BE LISTED ON BIRTH CERTIFICATES

“BASIC BIOLOGICAL TRUTHS”: ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS RULING ALLOWING LESBIANS TO BE LISTED ON BIRTH CERTIFICATES
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Supreme Court of 
Arkansas has overturned a lower court ruling that allowed lesbian 
partners to be recognized on birth certificates even though they are not
 the biological parent, stating that it is not unconstitutional to 
“acknowledge basic biological truths.”
“What is before this court is a narrow issue of whether the
birth-certificate statutes as written deny the appellees due process,”
Justice Josephine Linker Hart wrote
on behalf of the majority. “In the situation involving the female
spouse of a biological mother, the female spouse does not have the same
biological nexus to the child that the biological mother or the
biological father has. It does not violate equal protection to
acknowledge basic biological truths.”
As previously reported,
six lesbians had filed suit last year against the Arkansas Health
Department’s Vital Statistics Bureau after it declined to recognize both
women as the parents on the birth certificates, which they sought to do
in order to obtain insurance coverage for the children.
The bureau stated that the women needed to obtain a court order in the matter.

In their lawsuit, the women alleged that the refusal
violated the U.S. Constitution because they could not both be listed
just like heterosexual parents. But the state argued that the
requirement to obtain a court order is the same for heterosexual couples
who have children out of wedlock and marry after the birth.

Last November, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox sided
with the lesbian women, stating that the birth certificates should be
amended to include both of their names.

He drew a distinction between the various plaintiffs,
however, as some had “married” before the birth and some after. Fox said
that the latter scenario was not as clear in his mind in siding with
the women, but decided to likewise allow their names to be listed.

But on Thursday, the state Supreme Court overturned Fox’s
ruling, stating that there is an “important governmental objective” in
requesting that biological parents be listed on the birth certificate,
such as having genetic information available for medical purposes.

“The purpose of the statutes is to truthfully record the
nexus of the biological mother and the biological father to the child,”
it outlined. “On the record presented, we cannot say that naming the
nonbiological spouse on the birth certificate of the child is an
interest of the person so fundamental that the State must accord the
interest its respect under either statute.”

“[T]he challenged classification serves an important
governmental objective—tracing public-health trends and providing
critical assistance to an individual’s identification of personal health
issues and genetic conditions—and that the means employed—requiring the
mother and father on the birth certificate to be biologically related
to the child—are substantially related to the achievement of those objectives,” the court declared.

Cheryl Maples, the attorney for the women, decried the
ruling, stating, “There’s no requirement that DNA be given or that there
be a biological relationship to a child to get on a birth certificate
for a father, for the non-birth parent. All you have to do is legitimize
the child, and you’re entitled, if you’re heterosexual. This is wrong.”

But Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office said that they are satisfied with the outcome.

“If any changes are appropriate, it is the job of
legislators to do so, not the circuit court,” spokesman Judd Deere told
reporters.

MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY & AMERICAN CULTS: EXAMINING THE RETENTION PRACTICES OF SCIENTOLOGY, MORMONISM, & THE WATCHTOWER

MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY & AMERICAN CULTS: EXAMINING THE RETENTION PRACTICES OF SCIENTOLOGY, MORMONISM, & THE WATCHTOWER 
BY SETH DUNN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Religious Marketing in a Land of Opportunity

Before British journalist Christopher Hitchens would ever become known as one of the “Four Horseman”[1] of the New Atheism movement, he was an award-winning, widely-read, globe-trotting journalist.  In a 1997 interview with The Progressive,
the well-traveled Hitchens was asked why he chose to make his home in
the United States.  He answered, “The first thing I can remember I ever
wanted was to go to the United States. And for reasons that are as
conventional as you can imagine: I wanted to know if it was really true
that it was the land of opportunity, of democracy, and individual
liberty. My conclusion was that, at least as compared to the ancien
regime under which I had been brought up, it was.”[2] 
Hitchens eventually became an American citizen and exercised the
individual liberty afforded to him by his new country (along with its
free market) to author and promote his best-selling[3] book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.  Hitchens,
a vociferous and virulent critic of religion, promoted his book by
touring the United States from coast to coast seeking to debate
religious leaders about the soundness of his atheistic argument that
religion “poisons everything”.  He did not lack willing debate opponents
anywhere he went.[sg_popup id=”1″ event=”onload”][/sg_popup]

Nearly 80% of Americans identify as adherents of a certain religion.[4]  
Almost all of these religions were imported from the Old World. 
However, some of them are uniquely American.  The free exercise of
religion guaranteed by the United States Constitution has, since 1789,
allowed ample opportunity for not only the practice of religion but the
invention and promotion of it as well.  The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon sect) was founded in the
United States in 1830 by New York native Joseph Smith.[5] 
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (commonly known
as the Jehovah’s Witness sect) was founded in 1870 by Charles Taze
Russell.[6]  US Navy veteran L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1953.[7] 
 In totalitarian societies, such as those from which the very first
non-native settlers of the American continent fled, these three sects
would have likely been banned by law and quashed shortly after their
founding.  However, in the land of opportunity, they have been allowed
to thrive.

The convergence of the free market with freedom of religion has made
it easy for religious organizations to grow on the American continent. 
As religious organizations seek growth, they take part in what
sociologist George Ritzer has termed “The McDonaldization of Society”
which he defined as “the process by which the principles of the
fast-food restaurant are coming home to dominate more and more sectors
of American society and the rest of the world.”[8]
“Churches unintentionally pick up on the ideas of McDonaldization
through leadership magazines, conferences, and books that teach how
churches can engage more of the American culture through certain
structural, communications, and ministry models.”[9] 
One of these models is brand marketing and, often times, it is picked
up on quite purposefully.  Marketing strategy has come to be taught in
seminary courses.  One seminary course text[10], Pastor’s Handbook, advises church leaders to emulate the practices of McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Disney World.[11] 
The successful execution of church marketing is perhaps why religious
activity has turned into one of the largest sectors of the American
economy.

According to the authors of a study entitled “The Socio-economic
Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis” and
published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research, their
most conservative estimate of the revenue of faith based-organizations
is “$378 billion annually – or more than a third of a trillion
dollars…more than the global annual revenues of tech giants Apple and
Microsoft combined.”[12] 
Their least conservative estimate places “the value of faith to U.S.
society at $4.8 trillion annually, or the equivalent of nearly a third
of America’s gross domestic product.”[13]  These figures are staggering, especially when it is considered that religious activity is an unregulated sector
of the economy.  The American economy, though fairly considered “free,”
is not without regulation.  Massive corporations such as Apple and
Microsoft as well as smaller, less influential businesses are regulated
by powerful federal, state, and local government agencies which are
tasked with protecting American consumers and investors.  Examples of
such agencies, which regulate diverse sectors of the American economy,
include the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, The Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board, and the United States Department of
Agriculture.  Additionally various medical licensing boards protect
patients from being taken advantage of by abusive or incompetent doctors
and therapists. The missions of these various organizations fall in
line with a biblical understanding of civil government.[14]  They are “avengers who bring wrath on the one who practices evil.”[15]

The Mission of the Federal Trade Commission and similar agencies can
be summed up very simply: they exist to prevent and eliminate “unfair or
deceptive acts or practices” [16]
committed by nefarious and unscrupulous actors looking to turn a profit
in the marketplace.  If a business becomes monopolistic or colludes
with major competitors to corner the market, it is broken up by
government “trust-busters”.[17] 
If a business engages in an unfair marketing practice, such as a
“bait-and-switch”, it subject to reprisal from a government authority. 
However, if a religious organization becomes monopolistic[18]
or engages in such a psychological marketing trick (as long as it’s not
selling a guaranteed material good), it is insulated from prosecution. 
Religious organizations can, quite frankly, lie to and psychologically
manipulate their patrons in order perpetuate themselves numerically and
financially.  Ironically, the very same religious and personal liberty
that allowed Christopher Hitches to publish and promote a book about how
religion “poisons everything” allows certain religious organizations to
poison everything.

Of course, Hitchens and the rest of his New Atheist cohorts are
incorrect to assert that “religion” poisons everything.  As atheists,
they are committed to the idea that all religions are false.  If it is
the case that all religions are false then the leaders and adherents of
religions are either under delusion or, even worse, knowingly
manipulating people to into believing lifestyle-effecting lies, often in
the course of supporting themselves financially or procuring for
themselves some degree of cultural influence.  However, it is not the
case that all religions are false.  God exists and, furthermore, He has
revealed how religious activities should be carried out in the pages of
the Bible, which He inspired.[19]
 According to God’s word, true and acceptable religion is “to visit
orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by
the world.”[20] 
The antithesis of true religion is, in the course of seeking after the
things of the world, taking advantage of the poor and ignorant,
especially while making a tidy profit.[21] 
Thus, in the absence of government regulation of religious practice
(which historically, has been shown to be ill-advised and disastrous),
it is up to God’s true church to expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness[22] perpetrated by the proprietors of false religion.

American society is full of religious organizations that defy God’s
definition of true religion and blaspheme Him by disseminating
unbiblical teachings about His natureHisJhhh hgg.  In an economy where
taking unfair advantage of people is strictly prohibited in every sector
but one, nefarious and unscrupulous actors looking to turn a profit are
most likely to drift to that particular sector.  In America, that
sector is religion.  While it may be true that the leaders of
seeker-sensitive, market-driven Christian churches are in some way
motivated by profit, the orthodox Trinitarian Christian theology which
they hold to and promote may insulate their parishioners from eternal
damnation.  In other words, someone (though he may be sorely lacking in
discipleship) might actually come to saving faith through the gospel as
presented by a McDonaldized Willow Creek, Purpose-Driven, or Andy
Stanley church. Though neither is regulated in the American society,
there is a difference between a huckster with the biblical gospel and a
huckster with a false one.[23] 
Examples of the latter type of huckster arguably include Joseph Smith,
Charles Taze Russell, and L. Ron Hubbard.  Though they died long ago,
these men founded cults that are today still operating successfully and
drawing new converts.  Using psychological manipulation techniques and
marketing tactics that profited-motivated businesses are prevented from
unfairly implementing, these cults and other like them, control the
minds and lives of millions of Americans.

By properly applying scripture, Christians can expose and critique
the unbiblical and eternally damnable beliefs perpetrated by these
cults.  Since men inherently lack the divine ability to see into the
hearts and minds of others, there is no guaranteed way to determine
which cult leaders and members are hucksters who know they are
perpetrating a lie and which cult leaders are genuinely deceived (or
even demon-possessed).  The Bible provides revelation from God which can
be trusted to expose the false teachings of cults, regardless of the
unknown internal motivations and mindsets of cultic false teachers. 
Unfortunately, cult-members are often so brainwashed and conditioned by
their cults that they are unable to see the way that their religious
leaders have twisted and misapplied religious texts, especially the
Bible, to gain control over their lives.  They may refuse to listen to
biblical correction altogether.  Thus, another method of exposing
damaging cult practices to deceived cult members may be useful: exposing
the psychological tactics of cults.  No one likes to be ripped off or
manipulated to their own disadvantage, even a cult member.  Mormons,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Scientologists can appreciate the type of work
done by the Federal Trade Commission and consumer watchdog groups as
much as atheists and Christians can.  Thus, Christians have the
opportunity to identify the psychological tricks used by cults and
inform cult members of the various ways of which they are being taken
advantage.  Cult members, especially those who are savvy businessmen,
having their eyes opened to the manipulative nature of their cults, will
be empowered to abandon them.  The religious vacuum created in their
lives can then be filled by a biblical Christian witness.  There are
many examples of psychological manipulation being implemented by
American cults.  By examining some of these examples, Christians can be
prepared to engage in the practice of cult-busting as a part of the
overall process of proclaiming the biblical gospel.

Escalation of Commitment – The Sunk Costs of Life in a Cult

Scientologists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons, because of the way
their cults operate, are prone to engage in the practice of Escalation
of Commitment.  Escalation of Commitment is defined as the “’persistence
in a losing course of action by a decision-maker’.  It is marked by the
continuing investment of resources (e.g. time, money) despite negative
feedback about a previous decision.”[24] 
For a decision to be considered Escalation of Commitment it must
involve “(1) a previous loss; (2) the option to either continue or
withdraw from the decision situation; and (3) uncertain consequences of
making the decision to continue or withdraw.”[25] 
Perhaps the simplest and most relatable example of Escalation of
Commitment is a moviegoer who buys a ticket to a really bad two-hour
movie.  After one hour of not enjoying the movie, rather than walking
out, the moviegoer stays in his seat and finishes watching the film. 
Leaving at the halfway point would force the moviegoer to admit that he
wasted his ticket money.  Instead of leaving and preserving for
alternate use the remaining hour of his day, he holds out hope that the
movie might get better.  It doesn’t and he wastes another hour watching
the movie until its end.  With each passing second of the bad movie, the
commitment of the moviegoer to a doomed endeavor (watching a bad movie when his intention was to enjoy a good movie)
escalates.  Wasted time and money on a movie ticket does not amount to
much in the course of one’s life.  However, the cost of a single movie
ticket pales in comparison to much larger losses than can be incurred by
the same flawed thinking.  Consider the case of an investor who
purchases a block of stock for $10,000.  After a period of months the
value of his investment plummets to $5,000.  Market analysis indicates
that the company in which he owns stock is likely to go out of
business.  Rather than admit his error, sell the stock, and recoup
$5,000 of his investment for alternative use, the investor keeps his
stock until it is worthless.  Such irrational behavior is not limited to
individuals.  Large organizations and their managers also engage in
Escalation of Commitment when they refuse to abandon large-scale
multi-million dollar projects that show little indication of future
success.  According a 1987 article in Harvard Business Review
entitled “Knowing When to Pull the Plug”, “…all managers will make some
mistakes and stick with some decisions longer than they ought to. Recent
research has shown, however, that the tendency to pursue a failing
course of action is not a random thing. Indeed, at times some managers,
and even entire organizations, seem almost programmed to follow a dying
cause.” [26] 
No one makes the choice to enter into a course of action, whether it is
a relatively unimportant or life-changing one, unless he thinks he is
making the right decision.  Yet even highly-compensated business
executives are hesitant to admit failure when it becomes apparent. 
“Research has also shown…that executives fail to recognize when a
project is beyond hope. People have an almost uncanny ability to see
only what accords with their beliefs. Much like sports fans who
concentrate on their own team’s great plays and the other team’s fouls,
managers tend to see only what confirms their preferences. For example,
an executive who is convinced that a project will be profitable will
probably slant estimates of sales and costs to support the view. If the
facts challenge this opinion, the manager may work hard to find reasons
to discredit the source of information or the quality of the data. And
if the data are ambiguous, the manager may seize on just those facts
that support the opinion. Thus information biasing can be a major
roadblock to sensible withdrawal from losing courses of action…In
addition to the effects of rewards and biased information, (an
additional)  psychological mechanism may be at work. Sometimes even when
managers recognize that they have suffered losses, they may choose to
invest further resources in a project rather than accept failure. What
may be fostering escalation in these cases is a need for
self-justification.”[27] 
In the process of commitment escalation, decision makers demonstrate
undue attachment to “sunk costs,” which are defined as “costs that have
already been incurred and thus cannot be recovered.”[28] 
Because of their desire for self-justification they do not wish to
admit that the sunk costs which they have occurred have been wasted. 
The type of thinking present in Escalation of Commitment, which causes
individuals to continue with bad consumer choices and businesses to
continue with doomed investments projects, is the same type of thinking
that helps cults retain members.  Where cult members begin to doubt
their religious choices, Escalation of Commitment keeps them from
leaving their cult.

The religious practice of The Church of Scientology provides what is
perhaps the best example of Escalation of Commitment in religious life. 
According to the doctrine of scientology, “every person has two minds –
the analytical mind and the reactive mind.”[29]  The reactive mind is the “single source of human aberrations and psychosomatic ills.”[30] 
The purpose of practicing Scientology is to rid one’s self of the
reactive mind, thus entering in to a superior state of consciousness,
known in Scientology as “going clear”.  The reactive mind is removed
though the process of auditing.  Auditing sessions are offered by the
Church of Scientology for a fee.  As a Scientologist progresses in his
religious practice, paying for auditing session after auditing session,
he learns more and more about the very secretive religious beliefs of
Scientology.  A practitioner of scientology begins with the status of
“preclear.”  After a Scientologist has “gone clear” through the auditing
process he can receive the status of “Operating Thetan”.  However, his
potential for progression does not end at that point; there are
different levels of Operating Thetan status which can be achieved, up to
level eight.  To achieve these various levels one must continue paying
for auditing sessions.  At Operating Thetan Level Three, the
Scientologist is entrusted with the secretive story of how the reactive
mind came to wreak havoc on the human psyche.  According to the doctrine
of scientology, millions of years ago an intergalactic overlord named
Xenu was dealing with overpopulation in his empire.  To solve his
problem, he transported a multitude of frozen people to earth in space
planes. Once there, the frozen people were dumped into volcanoes and
obliterated by atomic bombs.  As their souls floated up into the
atmosphere, they were caught by soul-catching devices that Xenu had
placed there in anticipation.  These souls were then brainwashed by Xenu
and trapped on earth.  As humankind evolved from early primates, these
souls or “thetans” inhabited their minds.  Even today, when a child is
born, one or more thetans leap into his body, essentially becoming his
soul.  The reactive mind is a result of the bad experiences of these
thetans in their past lives.  Once a human “goes clear” as a
sufficiently leveled Operating Thetan, he can control matter, energy
space, and time. [31]  The cost of the auditing sessions necessary to obtain this plainly ludicrous explanation of humanity’s problems[32] is estimated to be between $200,000 and $400,000.[33] 
The amount of money and time spent to obtain Operating Thetan Level
Three is perhaps the ultimate religious sunk cost.  Admitting the
colossal mistake that one has progressively wasted hundreds of thousands
of dollars and worked thousands of man-hours to obtain a “clear state”
in a religion that is plainly as made up as a bad science fiction novel
takes a Herculean psychological effort.  Furthermore, the discrediting
of critical sources is a key tactic of Scientology’s leadership. 
Critics of Scientology deemed “suppressive persons” by the church are
essentially shunned by church members.  Furthermore, suppressive persons
can be maligned under Scientology’s “fair game” doctrine.[34] 
The maligning of the character of former Scientologists is easily
enabled by the auditing practice, as church members often admit
embarrassing facts about themselves in order to facilitate the process
of going clear.  The Scientologist who considers leaving his religion
faces losing friends, family, reputation, and any perceived progress in
attaining a higher state of consciousness.[35]

The structure of the Jehovah’s Witness religion also leaves its
members susceptible to Escalation of Commitment.  Unlike Scientology,
this religion is not a “pay to play” faith where adherents are expected
to pay their church for spiritual services.  However, like Scientology,
this religion teaches a form of works righteousness (or
self-justification), requires a significant investment of personal time,
and exhorts enormous influence over personal, professional, home, and
family life.  Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for their
house-to-house proselytizing.  Each Jehovah’s Witnesses is considered a
“publisher” [36]  by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.[37]
Publishers are required to turn in a periodic “time report” to the
elders of their local congregation which detail their witnessing
activities.  “This report is put on their file. There are secret files
kept on all Jehovah’s Witnesses which are only viewed by the elders. If a
Jehovah’s Witness refuses to turn in a time report, they are
disciplined and put on list called ‘irregular publisher.’ The individual
will be on this black list until they again turn in regular reports.”[38] 
A convert to the Jehovah’s Witness faith “eagerly attends five meetings
a week and spends at least ten hours a month knocking on doors and
witnessing to people….if the JW is male and has not dropped out (of
publishing) he has the opportunity to progress through the ranks
publisher, servant, and perhaps even elder (a member of the
congregation’s governing board).”[39] 
If a Jehovah’s Witness spends seventy hours a month in preaching work,
he attains the level of “Pioneer”.  One can become a “Special Pioneer”
by devoting one hundred thirty hours or more to ministry each month. [40]
 In a way similar to how Scientology confers “Operating Thetan” levels
to practitioners who have earned them, the Watch Tower confers
prestigious levels of achievement on its dedicated members.  Any member
who begins to doubt the teaching of the Watch Tower or consider the
troubling the nature of its well-documented doctrinal flip flops, is
faced with Escalation of Commitment; admitting that the Jehovah’s
Witness faith is a false one also means admitting that he has wasted
countless hours pounding the pavement sharing the faith, all his kingdom
work has been for naught, and his earned status in the organization is
meaningless.  Further complicating matters is that Jehovah’s Witnesses
are discouraged from reading “apostate” literature (i.e. literature that
is critical of the Watch Tower).  So a Jehovah’s Witness is already
conditioned to trust the Watch Tower and doubt its detractors.  Former
Jehovah’s Witnesses are considered apostates.  “Apostates are the most
despicable people on the face of the earth, Jehovah’s Witnesses are
taught, with the result that a Witness would much rather encounter
someone expelled from the sect for theft or adultery than find himself
face-to-face with an apostate. The Watchtower tells them that they ‘must
hate’ apostates and that they must not be ‘curious about apostate
ideas.’ Therefore, any information that may come from an apostate source
can be dismissed without even listening to it.”[41] 
The Watch Tower, though Escalation of Commitment, sets its members up
for failure.  They are conditioned to doubt negative information about
the Watch Tower, trust their own biased information, and fear losing
their personal investment in self-justification.

The Mormon faith is also set up to capitalize on Escalation of
Commitment.  “Mormonism’s leaders believe that their organization, which
was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, has God’s complete authority,
unlike any other institution on the face of the earth.”[42] 
“This authority comes through the LDS priesthood. There are two
divisions of the priesthood: the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods,
both of which are held only by males. The Aaronic priesthood is known as
the ‘lesser’ priesthood and is made up of deacons (12 years old),
teachers (14 years old), priests (16 years old), and bishops (the leader
of local bodies of LDS believers). Meanwhile, the Melchizedek
priesthood is named after the priest mentioned in Genesis 14…The offices in this (priesthood) branch are elders, high priests, patriarchs, seventies, and apostles.”[43]  Faithful Mormon males between the ages of 18 and 25 are expected to participate in a two-year long mission trip[44] as a part of their priesthood duty.[45] 
Upon entering the Mormon mission field, the title of “elder” is
conferred upon a young man.  As is the case with Scientology and the
Watch Tower, the Mormon Church confers exclusive and prestigious titles
upon its members.  In the case of Mormonism, these titles are conferred
upon men who are still in their formative years. Mormons must earn the
right to enter their religious temples through clean living.  Only those
Mormons who support church leadership, are morally clean, pay a full
tithe, live in harmony with the church, and do not sympathize with
apostate groups earn a temple recommendation.[46] 
Inside of the temple is where Mormon marriage ceremonies are performed;
only those church members with a temple recommendation can attend these
ceremonies.  Husbands and wives who are sealed in a Mormon temple
marriage are taught that they have the opportunity to become gods and
goddesses of their own planet.  Without a celestial marriage, a Mormon
cannot become a god and continue his family into eternity.[47]  Furthermore, if a Mormon’s spouse leaves the Mormon faith, he cannot stay married to her and still become a god.[48]  As is the case with the priesthood, Mormon marriage commitments are typically foisted upon relatively young people.[49] 
As Mormons mature and learn more about their religion, there is good
reason that they should doubt what they have been taught.  The Mormon
creation myth is every bit as fantastical and intergalactic as that of
Scientology.  The Book or Mormon is not supported by any extant
archaeological evidence.  The character of Joseph Smith was dubious at
best.  As with L. Ron Hubbard, the historical record outside of his own
cult paints him as a cad.  Maturing Mormons who are tempted to leave
their faith face admitting that their priesthood titles and celestial
marriage commitments are fanciful fabrications and that the work they
performed for the salvation of themselves and others will not pay off. 
Adults who decide to leave the faith must admit that they wasted two
years of their life on a Mormon mission.  As it the case with the
Jehovah’s Witness and Scientology cults, members of the LDS church are
conditioned to look at their own biases with rose-colored glasses while
dismissing detractors as apostates.  Escalation of Commitment exerts
heavy pressure on Mormons to remain Mormon in the face of ample evidence
that their religion and its founding prophet are counterfeit; their
sunk costs are heavy.

The Consistency Trap – Mandated Testimony of Falsehoods

From small American beginnings, the Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness
religions have spread all over the world.  The Mormon Church estimates
its worldwide membership at 15,634,199.[50]  Jehovah’s Witnesses estimate their worldwide number to be 8,220,105.[51] 
These numbers are impressive, considering that neither religion is yet
two hundred years old and that both began with only a handful of
adherents.  However, these numbers are not surprising.  Mormons and
Jehovah’s Witnesses are known as the some of the most prolific
proselytizers of any faith.  Every Jehovah’s Witness is expected to be a
“publisher” who turns in witnessing reports.  The mandate of the Mormon
Church is “every member is a missionary.”[52] 
Because proselytizing is formally required by these cults (not just
expected as in other religions), its members are susceptible to falling
into what is known as a “consistency trap”.  (Ironically, they may try
to use such a trap themselves in order to make converts).  G. Richard
Sell, a professor of Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton College of Business, explains the use of consistency traps as
follows: “Skilled negotiators know about the human need to appear
consistent and try to use it as often as they can.  Truly manipulative
people go beyond identifying their counterparts’ standard for
positioning purposes and try to trick their opponents by using what I
call consistency traps.  The goal of a consistency trap is to precommit
you to a seemingly innocent standard and then confront you with the
logical implications of the standard in a particular case – implications
that actually turn out to run against your interests.  This is a form
of intellectual coercion.”[53]  The consistency trap can be a marketer’s best friend.  They can also be useful for cults.

Testimonial write-in contests, which are typical of consumer product
marketers, provide an excellent example of a constancy trap in action.  A
typical contest resembles the following: The producers of Parkay Butter
offer $5,000 to the consumer who writes in the best testimonial
explaining why she “only uses Parkay Butter on her table.”  Not only
will the winner receive the cash prize; her testimonial will be printed
on Parkay’s butter packages.  Thousands of submissions are sent to
Parkay.  For the cost of $5,000 to one winner, Parkay gains the business
of every contest participant (to whom they paid nothing).  Each losing
contestant submitted a testimony saying that she would “only use Parkay
Butter on her table.”  Her own words, even though no one outside of
Parkay will ever see them, will convict her in her own mind every time
she is on the dairy aisle of the grocery store and thinks of reaching
for a different brand of butter.  At the same time, almost no one is
expected to begin buying Parkay butter because of the testimony of some
stranger that is written on the package.  The purpose of the contest all
along was to seal the participants in a consistency trap, not reach new
customers.[54] 
The proselytizing of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses provides the same
benefit to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society, respectively.

Mormon Missionaries and Jehovah’s Witness publishers fail to gain a
new convert much more often than they successfully win one.  Each time a
Mormon Missionary or Jehovah’s Witness intentionally shares the
teaching of his cult, he reaffirms that teaching and his dedication to
his church in his own mind.  It is the practice of Mormons to share
their testimonies[55]
before their church.  Without doing so, a Mormon cannot participate in
temple ceremonies.  “A Mormon testimony consists of being able to say,
unequivocally, ‘I know the LDS Church is true and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.’”[56] 
In order to reject Mormonism, a Mormon must admit that he dedicated two
years of his life on a mission trying to convince other people that a
lie was the truth.  A generational Mormon must admit that he passed this
lie on to his own children and encouraged them to go on missions of
their own.  He must admit that every time he said “The Holy Spirit
revealed to me that the Book of Mormon is true,” that he was deceived.[57] 
He must admit that he gave a false testimony to his church about what
he said he “knew”.  Similarly, in order to reject the Watch Tower, a
Jehovah’s Witnesses must admit that he spent countless hours going to
countless houses, knocking on countless doors, and trying to convince
countless people to believe a false gospel.[58] 
The Mormon and Watchtower cults, like marketers selling butter with a
testimonial contest, condition their members to stay consistent with
their doctrine through mandated and repeated personal testimonies.  In
order to admit that Joseph Smith was a liar, the Mormon has to admit
that he is a liar himself.  In order to admit that the Watch Tower is a
false prophet, the Jehovah’s Witness must admit that he is a false
prophet himself.  These cults have set up a systematic consistency
trap.  Their leaders arguably understand the old axiom of business: “It
is usually far cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to find
new ones.”[59]

Bait and Switch – What the Cultist at the Door Doesn’t Share

Without any documentation from cult leadership to confirm, it’s
impossible to definitively claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, and the Watchtower Bible or Tract Society
intentionally use consistency traps to retain members.  However, there
is a psychological manipulation tactic that Mormons and Jehovah’s
Witnesses certainly use to gain converts; the bait-and-switch.  “The
term bait-and-switch is most commonly used to refer to an
advertising practice that is both unethical and illegal…It typically
involves an advertiser luring customers into the store by advertising a
product at an unrealistically low price (the bait).  The customer is
then told that the advertised goods are (1) not available or (2) of
inferior quality and/or not suitable for the customer’s needs.  The goal
is to “switch” the customer to another, more expensive product or one
that has a higher profit margin.  What sets bait-and-switch apart from
other advertising practices is that the store does not intend to sell
the advertised product – the advertised product is intended to attract
customers, who are then persuaded to buy another product.”[60]

When Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on a door, they are often not entirely
honest about the full requirements of their religion to the person who
answers it.  “Dangerous cults don’t reveal all of their strange
doctrines when they try to recruit new members.  For a Jehovah’s Witness
to start his recruitment effort by saying, ‘Join us; if your child ever
needs a blood transfusion you have to let him die’ or ‘Join us; our
kids will have to give up sports and Christmas’ would be a
deal-breaker.  Usually the Jehovah’s Witnesses approach people with more
orthodox teachings – beliefs that are shared with other religious
groups….As the prospect becomes more interested and more committed to
the cult, the leaders gradually introduce the more bizarre doctrines. 
The initiate is not allowed to know the inner secrets until he is fully
indoctrinated.”[61] 
Jehovah’s Witnesses (themselves a sub-Christian cult) typically operate
within culturally Christian communities; they “bait” prospects with
generically orthodox Christian teachings as they initiate regular
Bible-study with them.  Then, once the commitment of a prospect has
escalated, Jehovah’s Witnesses “switch” to teaching the heretical,
controversial tenets of their cult.  Mormons do this as well.  Like
Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are a sub-Christian cult that typically
operates in culturally Christian areas.  Mormon missionaries approach
prospects with generic Christian language.  They refer to Jesus as
“savior” and to “the Godhead”.  However, the Jesus to which they refer
is not the Jesus of orthodox Christianity but a created spirit-being
from Kolob.  The Godhead to which they refer is not the Triune God of
orthodox Christianity but “Three gods— God the Father, Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Ghost— who, while distinct in being, are one in purpose.”[62] 
Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons hide the heretical, controversial
tenets of their cult.  Mormon missionaries are not supposed to tell
prospects and new converts about “deep doctrine” because it often scares
off new members.  Such “deep doctrine” includes the notions that there
is a heavenly mother, that Mormons can become gods, and that those
Mormons who don’t pay their tithes could die in by falling fire.[63] 
Deep doctrines come later, after commitment has escalated. 
Scientologists arguably participate in bait-and-switch tactics as well. 
Prospective scientologists are enticed with the idea that L. Ron
Hubbard’s “Dianetics” methodology can improve their psychological
state.  It is only at Operating Thetan Level Thee that they are informed
of Scientology’s space opera creation myth.

Christians and Consumer Advocacy

At the most basic level, lost is lost.  Whether someone is an
atheist, a non-religious theist, or a cult member, his biggest problem
is that he doesn’t know Jesus and his biggest need is the gospel.  The
gospel, that Christ died for humanity’s sins and was raised on the third
day in accordance with the scriptures,[64]
is the same for every person no matter his background.  Still special
care can be taken to approach non-Christians in accordance with their
backgrounds and personal situations.  Cultists, like all nonbelievers,
are separated from God by their sin.  However, they are additionally
insulated from and prejudiced toward biblical truth by the doctrinal
perversion and mind control perpetrated by their cult.  This is a wall
that needs to be broken down.  If a Christian attempts to break that
wall by showing the cultist that he has been, as it were, sold a bill of
goods, the Christian needs to ensure that the cultist knows that he
isn’t just trying to sell him Christianity as a replacement product.

The Christian needs to present himself as someone who is there to
help the cultist in the same way consumer advocates and government
agencies are there to help consumers who have been ripped off.  In
today’s Christian culture, this can be a difficult thing to do.  Perry
Noble, the former pastor the largest Southern Baptist Church in the
World[65]
was removed from his office in July of 2016 for the abuse of alcohol. 
His ministry comeback endeavor is church growth consulting.  In
advertising his services, Noble stated, “Some may argue the church is
not a business – I would disagree.  After all, at one point in serving
as the Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church I was responsible for 425
employees and a $63,000,000 budget – which takes way more than a prayer
meeting to manage!”[66] 
Christianity is not a transactional religion and Christ’s church is not
a storefront.  Methodological success and millions of dollars in
revenue do not make a religious organization successful before the
Lord.  Cultists who have spent their lives in works-based,
self-justifying religions must be able to see that Christian salvation
comes by God’s grace alone.  Cultists who have been trying to work their
way to God need to be told, “It’s not by doing good deeds. You can’t
work your way in. You do not have the ability to produce the things that
only God can do in your life…. You can’t, and God never said you could.
But He can, and He always said He would.”[67] 
The Christian life is not for sale; salvation is free a gift of God. 
Success in the Christian life comes by the sanctification of the Holy
Spirit.  No gimmicks and manipulations are needed.

The Christian should be wary when exposing the psychological tactics
cults use to cult members.  His audience might not be a deceived,
ignorant, and innocent victim but a willing perpetrator of psychological
manipulation and business-like marketing.  An iconic 1997 edition of
Time Magazine featured the phrase “Mormons Inc” superimposed over a
picture of the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple.  An article inside of the
magazine revealed that the Latter Day Saints were some of the world’s
savviest businesspeople.  Its writer reported, “…the Latter-day Saints
employ vast amounts of money in investments that TIME estimates to be at
least $6 billion strong. Even more unusual, most of this money is not
in bonds or stock in other peoples’ companies but is invested directly
in church-owned, for-profit concerns, the largest of which are in
agribusiness, media, insurance, travel and real estate. Deseret
Management Corp., the company through which the church holds almost all
its commercial assets, is one of the largest owners of farm and
ranchland in the country, including 49 for-profit parcels in addition to
the Deseret Ranch. Besides the Bonneville International chain and
Beneficial Life, the church owns a 52% holding in ZCMI, Utah’s largest
department-store chain.  All told, TIME estimates that the Latter-day
Saints farmland and financial investments total some $11 billion, and
that the church’s nontithe income from its investments exceeds $600
million.”[68] 
The Mormons are not novices when it comes to growing businesses or
religions.  Neither or Scientologists; their religion counts among its
adherents some of the film industry’s most influential power brokers. 
Their mindsets should be juxtaposed against that of Jesus.  L. Ron
Hubbard, a writer of pulp fiction before he founded his religion, is
famously credited with saying, “You don’t get rich writing science
fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”[69]  Jesus Christ, who died the death or a poor man and didn’t so much as have a place to lay his head[70] said, “I will build my church.”[71]  He did just that, without marketing, manipulation, or mind control.  The same cannot be said of the American cults.

*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not
necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any
church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the
educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material
displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.

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requirements for the Degree of Master of Science, 2012.

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—. “What Is a Pioneer?” JW.ORG. 2016. https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/jehovahs-will/jw-pioneer/ (accessed November 28, 2016).

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[1] Evangelical Philosophical Society. “Interview with Paul Copan: Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?” Evangelical Philosophical Society. April 7, 2008. http://blog.epsociety.org/2008/04/interview-with-paul-copan-is-yahweh.asp (accessed November 13, 2016).

[2] Abramsky, Sasha. “Christopher Hitchens Interview.” The Progressive.
December 16, 1997.
http://www.progressive.org/christopher_hitchens_1997_progressive_interview.html
(accessed November 13, 2016).

[3] Hitchens, Christopher. “God Bless Me, It’s a Best-Seller!” Vanity Fair. September 2007. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/09/hitchens200709 (accessed November 16, 2016).

[4] Pew Research Center. “Religious Landscape Study.” Pew Research Center. 2016. http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/ (accessed November 11, 2016).

[5] McKeever, Bill and Eric Johnson. Mormonism 101: Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints. Revised and Expanded ed. Baker Books, 2015. p 20.

[6] Barker, Jason. “Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.” Watchman Fellowship. 2011. http://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/watchtowerprofile.pdf (accessed November 16, 2016).

[7] Branch, Rich. “Church of Scientolgy .” Watchman Fellowship. 1994. http://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/scientologyprofile.pdf (accessed November 16, 2106).

[8] White, Thomas and John Yeats. Franchising McChurch: Feeding American’s Obsession with Easy Christianity. David C Cook, 2009. p 13

[9] ibid

[10] This text has been used in the course Church Leadership and Administration at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is published by a Southern Baptist publishing company.

[11] On pages 318, 384, and 386 of Pastor’s Handbook,
Pastor John Bisagno encourages readers to adopt some of the business
practices of these secular hospitality companies in order to attract and
retain church attendees.

[12] Grim, Brian J and Melissa E. Grim. “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 2016. p 2

[13] ibid

[14]
Their size, scope, competence, and compliance with a Christian view of
justice are debatable.  However, that debate is outside of the scope of
this paper.

[15]Romans 13:1-7

[16] Federal Trade Commission . “The Antitrust Laws.” Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws (accessed November 19, 2016).

[17]
“Trust-busting” is a term that referred to President Theodore
Roosevelt’s policy of prosecuting monopolies, or “trusts,” that violated
federal antitrust law.  See http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/trust-busting for further explanation.

[18]
It may seem strange to refer to religious organizations as
“monopolistic,” however, one of the marks of a cult is that, like a
monopoly, it corners the market on something desirable.  In the case of a
cult, it purports to have the market cornered on truth.  According to
the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, one of the tendencies of a
cult is that it “often considers traditional religious systems to be
apostate and it alone possesses the complete truth.”  For more
information see https://carm.org/cults-outline-analysis.

[19] 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21

[20] James 1:12

[21] Luke 20:47, Ezekiel 16:49, Amos 5:12, Titus 1:11, 1 Peter 5:2

[22] Ephesians 5:11

[23] Philippians 1:15

[24]
Horn, Marianna L. “The downside of persistence: The effects of mood on
an escalation of commitment paradigm.” A thesis submitted to the
Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of Master of Science, 2012.

[25] ibid

[26] Staw, Barry M and Jerry Ross. “Knowing When to Pull the Plug.” Harvard Business Review, 1987.

[27] ibid

[28] Investopedia. “Sunk Cost.” Investopedia. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunkcost.asp?lgl=no-infinite (accessed November 27, 2016).

[29] Branch, Rich. “Church of Scientolgy .” Watchman Fellowship. 1994. http://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/scientologyprofile.pdf (accessed November 16, 2106).

[30] ibid

[31]
This information was a closely guarded secret for decades.  In recent
years, media producers and former scientologists have begun to
disseminate this information on the internet, in books, in documentary
film, and even in an episode of South Park.

[32] It must be noted here that L. Ron Hubbard was a writer of science fiction stories before he founded Scientology.

[33] Branch, Craig. “Church of Scientology: A Religious Mafia?” Watchman Fellowship. http://www.watchman.org/articles/scientology/church-of-scientology-a-religious-mafia/ (accessed November 27, 2016).

[34]
Breaking critics through litigation is a key strategy in fair game
doctrine.  Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard once remarked, “The
purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The
law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody
who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not
authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional
decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.”  For more
information see https://gsethdunn.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/fair-game-scientology-ergun-caner-lawsuits-and-the-georgia-baptist-convention/.

[35]
It is worth noting that the United States government (specifically the
IRS) did challenge the religious status of the Church of Scientology. 
The church was the subject of a massive FBI investigation that included
raids on church property.  A number of church operatives went to jail as
a result of these investigations.  Eventually, through the use of
litigation, The Church of Scientology obtained recognition as a
“religion” by the IRS.  For more information see Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

[36] Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. “What Is a Pioneer?” JW.ORG. 2016. https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/jehovahs-will/jw-pioneer/ (accessed November 28, 2016).

[37]
“The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit
corporation formed in 1884 under the laws of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.  It is under the structure of this corporation, as
well as a number of affiliated legal entities, that the religious group
known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses” carries out its worldwide work.  For more
information see https://gsethdunn.wordpress.com/2016/11/09/a-doctrinal-overview-of-the-watch-tower/.

[38] http://www.watchthetower.net/. “Tools of the Trade.” http://www.watchthetower.net/.
http://www.watchthetower.net/tools1 (accessed November 28, 2016).  The
proprietors of Watchthetower.net are Paul and Pat Blizzard.  The
Blizzards are former high-level Jehovah’s Witnesses who are well-known
detractors of the Watch Tower.  For more information on the Blizzards
see http://www.watchthetower.net/bio.html.

[39] Hewitt, Joe B. Rescuing Slaves of the Watchtower. Garland, TX: Hannibal Books, 2011. p 11

[40] Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. “What Is a Pioneer?” JW.ORG. 2016. https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/jehovahs-will/jw-pioneer/ (accessed November 28, 2016).

[41] Reed, David. Answering Jehovah’s Witnesses: Subject by Subject. Kindle Edition. Baker Books, 2011. p 18

[42] McKeever, Bill and Eric Johnson. Mormonism 101: Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints. Revised and Expanded ed. Baker Books, 2015. p 303

[43] ibid p 12-13

[44] Intellectual Reserve, Inc. “Missionary Program.” Newsroom. 2016. https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/faqs?lang=eng#4 (accessed November 28, 2016).

[45] Intellectual Reserve, Inc. “Preparing to Serve.” www.lds.org. March 18, 2016. https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/faqs?lang=eng#4 (accessed November 28, 2016).

[46] McKeever, Bill and Eric Johnson. Mormonism 101: Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints. Revised and Expanded ed. Baker Books, 2015. p 244

[47] ibid p 143

[48] Naylor, Carma. A Mormon’s Unexpected Journey: Finding the Grace I Never Knew. Vol. 1. Enumclaw, MA: Winpress Publishing, 2006. p 214

[49]
The median age for a first marriage in the U.S. has climbed to 25.8 for
women and 27.4 for men. In heavily Mormon Utah, the median age for
first-time brides has jumped from 20 in 1970 to 22 in 2008, and from 22
to 24 for men. For more information see http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-04-22-mormon_dating_21_ST_N.htm.

[50] Intellectual Reserve, Inc. “Facts and Statistics.” Newsroom. September 01, 2016. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics (accessed September 18, 2016).

[51] Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. “How Many of Jehovah’s Witnesses Are There Worldwide?” JW.ORG. 2016. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/how-many-jw-members/ (accessed November 2016, 2016).

[52] Naylor, Carma. A Mormon’s Unexpected Journey: Finding the Grace I Never Knew. Vol. 1. Enumclaw, MA: Winpress Publishing, 2006. p 158

[53] Shell, G. Richard. Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People. Penguin Books, 2006. p 46

[54]
This contest scenario is not of my own invention.  It was presented by
the professor to my Psychology 101 class at Georgia Southern University
in the year 2000.  It’s been sixteen years since I took that course. 
His Parkay butter example sticks with me but I do not recall the
professor’s name.  He was a Buddhist who proscribed spanking children so
I didn’t put a lot of stock into some of the other things he said.

[55]
A Mormon testimony includes affirming the knowledge that one preexisted
with God on Kolob before being born on planet Earth.  Mormons believe
that they preexisted as God’s spirit children on another planet before
coming to Earth as humans.  Similarly, Scientologists believe that their
thetan souls preexisted as extraterrestrials before their human hosts
were born on Earth.

[56] Naylor, Carma. A Mormon’s Unexpected Journey: Finding the Grace I Never Knew. Vol. 1. Enumclaw, MA: Winpress Publishing, 2006. p 7

[57]
Mormon testimony almost typically includes the claim that the Mormon
received a “burning in the bosom” from the Holy Spirit that testified to
the truth of the Book of Mormon.

[58]
I use the term “countless” hyperbolically here since Jehovah’s
Witnesses literally keep count of their witnessing encounters and turn
in reports documenting their counts to their church’s leadership.

[59] Hayes, Jenny and Frances Dredge. Managing Customer Service. Gower Publishing Limited, 1998. p 4

[60] Fisher, Josie. Bait-And-Switch Practices. Vol. 1, in Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, edited by Robert W. Kolb. Sage Publications, 2008. p 139

[61] Hewitt, Joe B. Rescuing Slaves of the Watchtower. Garland, TX: Hannibal Books, 2011. p 43-44.

[62] McKeever, Bill and Eric Johnson. Mormonism 101: Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints. Revised and Expanded ed. Baker Books, 2015. p 31

[63] Dunn, Seth. “An Interview with a Former Mormon.” Seth Dunn – A Christian Worldview. November 25, 2016. https://gsethdunn.wordpress.com/2016/11/25/an-interview-with-a-former-mormon/ (accessed November 28, 2016).

[64] 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

[65] That church is NewSpring Community Church in Anderson, SC.  For more information see http://thomrainer.com/sbc500/.

[66] Noble, Perry. “My Next Step.” PerryNoble.com. November 28, 2016. https://perrynoble.com/blog/my-next-step (accessed November 28, 2016)

[67] Barber, Wayne. “Ephesians 1:18-20 by Wayne Barber.” PreceptAustin.Org. August 01, 2016. http://www.preceptaustin.org/ephesians_118-20_by_wayne_barber (accessed November 28, 2016).

[68]
Van Biema, David. “Kingdom Come – Salt Lake City Was Just for Starters –
The Mormons’ True Great Trek Has Been to Social Acceptance And a $30
Billion Church Empire.” Time Magazine, August 4, 1997.

[69] Wikiquote contributors. “L. Ron Hubbard.” Wikiquote. March 16, 2016. https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=L._Ron_Hubbard&oldid=2100019 (accessed March 28, 2016).

[70] Matthew 8:20

[71] Matthew 16:18

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