THEISTWATCH FOR AUGUST 24, 1995 Contents: Israel - MUSLIM RELIGIOUS GROUPS CONTINUE TO THW
THEISTWATCH FOR AUGUST 24, 1995
Contents:
Israel--MUSLIM RELIGIOUS GROUPS CONTINUE TO THWART PEACE
Colorado--THE MEN BEHIND PROMISE KEEPERS
United States--GUIDELINES ON RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ISSUED
United States--SCHOOL DRESS CODES MAY BE CHALLENGED BY THE
RELIGIOUS (Editorial Opinion)
World--THEISTWATCH SHORT SHOTS
____________________
____________________
MUSLIM RELIGIOUS GROUPS CONTINUE TO THWART PEACE
by Conrad Goeringer
Efforts to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process continued with the August 28 suicide bombing of
two Jerusalem buses, killing five people. The
fundamentalist Hamas organization which opposed the PLO-
Israeli dialogue, quickly claimed credit for the massacre.
Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was
founded in 1928 in Egypt to drive the British out of the
Middle East. Today the organization supports the
establishment of an "Islamic Social Republic" modeled
along the lines of Iran. The group is divided into four
sections: political, security, military and information.
It has a budget of about $30 million per year. Weapons and
training come from Iran, but the group also receives help
from a network of Islamic fundamentalists throughout the
world. Funding is also believed to come from Saudi Arabia.
Splits within the Hamas organization, however, are
beginning to provide a glimpse into the operations of this
shadowy movement. Hamas is recruiting heavily among
disillusioned youth in the Gaza district who are impatient
with Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Veterans of the
famous "stone throwing" period, many have spent time in
Israeli jails. The organization provides them with an
action-filled if rigorous lifestyle of self-sacrifice and
a sense of identity as part of a larger, religious-
political struggle.
Religion plays an important part in the Hamas
training. Young recruits are ordered to execute a certain
person, only to find that their guns are empty. They are
also promised that death in the service of Islam renders
the terrorist a martyr with instant entry into heaven. And
they are told that their reward for faithful service will
be "70 vestal virgins to wait on him, plentiful water to
drink, and lush pastures to rest in," according to USA
Today (August 22).
That sort of religious zealotry and the promise of an
idyllic hereafter obtained through bloodshed dates back
hundred of years to the infamous Order of Assassins, begun
by the Persian Hasan Saba around 1090. The order subjected
its followers to a rigorous program of training and
indoctrination, often using hashish-induced delusions and
promises of an indulgent reward in heaven.
Not all Hamas recruits, though, may need such
incentives. They often come from the poorest segment of
Palestinian society and have nothing to lose in the
confrontation with either the Israeli security forces of
Shin Beth, or Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
***************
THE MEN BEHIND PROMISE KEEPERS
Christian Men's Group features men with long and checkered
pasts in the religious right
by Conrad Goeringer
More on the Promise Keepers, that group of sports-
oriented-kind-'o-guys who now pack football stadiums and
sports arenas to sing, pray, cry, and "cross the goal
line" in dedicating their lives to Jee-zus. Founded in
1990, the organization is the dream of Bill McCartney,
former Colorado University football coach. THEISTWATCH
has been a bit amazed at how McCartney and his newfangled
group have managed to import the symbolism of The American
Jock into what otherwise would pass as a grade-b religious
camp meeting. McCartney's long-winded presentations to the
(men only) crowds are packed with sports vocabulary, along
with references to "real men." Logging onto the Promise
Keepers site on the World Wide Web, though, turns out to
be even more of an experience! For starters, you can send
comments to the Promise Keepers movement through something
called "wavemaker.com," which we suspect has something to
do with those "stadium waves" that sport-geeks love. But
even if "wavemaker" isn't part of the PK ambience, we next
checked out the list of 1995 men's conferences under a
colorful logo titled "Raise The Standard." In an ode to
the old "muscle art" of the Soviet Era, three arms are
depicted clutching a banner with a cross-on-crown motif.
The same artistic style pervades logos for something
called "PointMan," an individual described as "the
church's agent to Promise Keepers," who must be appointed
by a pastor. This logo depicts the profile of three
square-jawed types. No room for Casper Milquetoasts in
this outfit!
The "Speaker Team" for the Promise Keepers listed a
few names, a "blast from the past." We recognized Bill
Bright of the old Campus Crusade for Christ who two
decades ago was the beneficiary of all sorts of fat-cat
money and blitzed the nation with a "Here's Life,
America!" religious campaign. Watergate crook Chuck Colson
is also on the Promise Keeper's roster of speakers. Joseph
Garlington of the Covenant Church in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, popped-up, too. He was a guest on Pat
Robertson's "700 Club" when the popular televangelist
split with the "Shepherding" movement. Read all about it
in Sara Diamond's book "Spiritual Warfare," chapter four.
Another Promise Keeper speaker is Franklin Graham,
the president of "Samaritan's Purse" based in Boone, N.C.
and son of the famous Billy Graham. Franklin was part of a
bizarre scheme to settle thousands of Laotian Hmong tribal
refugees in the jungles of Guyana. An attorney for the
infamous Jim Jones entered the drama, a man named Jionell
Luckhoo, who served as go-between for Graham and Guyana
president Forbes Burnham. Seems that the entire plan was
killed, though, when CIA agents working with Laotian drug
lord General Vang Po ordered Hmong refugee leaders to
abandon the scheme and remain in Thailand for further
assignments.
Jack Hayford of the Church on the Way, Van Nuys,
California has been a regular on the Trinity Broadcasting
Network, the country's #2 religious broadcasting
operation. "Pastor Jack" was the personal minister to Paul
and Jan Crouch, who along with Jim Bakker, the guy who
paid for Tammy Faye's mascara bills, founded the TBN.
Trinity and Crouch distanced themselves from Bakker when
the PTL scandal broke, insisting that their own media
should "be used primarily to reach out and preach the
gospel."
Another Promise Keeper speaker is Billy Kim,
identified in PK literature as affiliated with the Far
East Broadcasting Company, Seoul, Korea. FEBS is mentioned
in Diamond's book as having played an integral part in
cold war intrigue; "FEBS staff in both Laos and the
Philippines have boasted of their work with and for the
CIA."
She adds that Sig Mickelson, former president of
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, referred to "The Far
East Broadcasting Company, a U.S. government operation
with intelligence ties similar to RFE and RL. It's signals
were aimed at Japan and China."
THEISTWATCH will maintain its watch on the Promise
Keepers, lookin' out for any sneak plays.
GUIDELINES ON RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ISSUED
Department of Education guidelines seen as an attempt to
stall "Religious Equality Amendment"
by Conrad Goeringer
Letters from the U.S. Department of Education to the
nation's 15,000 school districts began arriving this week,
outlining the government's guidelines on religious
expression in public schools. And so did a letter from the
Rutherford Institute, whose president charged that
"Clinton's directive can be misleading, and in some
instances case law fails to support some of its asserted
principles."
Last month, Clinton reaffirmed the alleged "religious
heritage" of the United States, along with the importance
of religion in the nation's cultural and social life. The
president stopped short of endorsing official school
prayer in the public schools. Political observers believe
that this was Clinton's way of trying to defuse the
conservative religious agenda for a "Religious Equality
Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution. Clinton ordered the
Education Department to inform the nation's school
districts as to what is and is not permissible regarding
religious exercise by students, parents, and teachers.
Passage of a "Religious Equality Amendment" has
become a major goal for various Christian political
organizations, including the powerful Christian Coalition.
While the exact wording for the amendment has not yet been
introduced, it is expected that the legislation would
permit prayer in public school classrooms, organized or
initiated by students (possibly even teachers) or
outsiders. Critics protest that this would result in
excessive entanglement between government and religion,
since it would make religious worship part of the official
"business" of schools. They also warn that a "Religious
Equality Amendment" would result in further intrusions of
religious doctrines into school curriculums, especially
through the teaching of pseudo-science "creationism" and
"Christian revisionist" theories of history.
In other related developments, on August 22 USA TODAY
(8/22) reported that West Virginia's Upshir County School
Board has approved an idea from "local citizens" to place
Bibles in school hallways. Also, the Clinton guideline
which permits students to wear religious garb -- including
Jewish yarmulkes and Muslim head scarves -- may run into
the latest fad in some school districts, having youngsters
wear uniforms. (See TW story which follows).
SCHOOL DRESS CODES MAY BE CHALLENGED BY RELIGIOUS
Exempting religious students from wearing uniforms is
wrong; requiring uniforms even worse
by Conrad Goeringer
In the fifties, it was comic books. Then came pelvis-
pumping rock 'n roll, the Beatles, tie-die T-shirts, long
hair. By the 1970s it was a wave of bad-taste gold jewelry
and polyester (all to the beat of future-Scientologist
John Travolta strutting along to the tunes of the Bee
Gees). Then came pit bulls, devil worship, and gangs.
It seems that Americans have become adept in finding
some group, real or imaginary or exaggerated to blame for
a variety of complex social ills, while ignoring the truly
important problems that cannot be solved with simple,
cliche-ridden panaceas.
How about the one that "taking prayer out of the
public schools," the evil mischief of the "most hated
woman in America," Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, has
resulted in drug use, sexual abandon, violent crime, the
defeat in Vietnam, teen pregnancy, homosexuality. About
the only thing Mrs. O'Hair has NOT been saddled with is
the depletion of the ozone layer, but rest assured that
charge may someday come.
Which leads to the latest example of American comic-
farce, the collision between "religious rights" and the
simplistic faddism of a growing number of U.S. school
districts. To wit: the return of the notorious school
dress code.
A friend of mind has witnessed the pendulum of dress-
code hysteria swing from one extreme to another, all in
the course of seeing his son and then his grandson be
called onto the principal's carpet. In the mid-1960s, the
son was hauled in by school disciplinarians for the
offense of having "long hair." In 1992, the grandson was
disciplined for having "too-short hair," a possible sign
(said the school authorities) of involvement with
skinheads, devil-worshippers, or gangs.
Meanwhile, schools have been doing everything they
can and sometimes what hysterical parents insist on to
fight drugs, gangs, hip-hoppers, knives, guns, boomboxes
and other vices, at any expense.
Dress codes have become a perennial favorite of those
who are searching for a panacea to tightened school
budgets, striking teachers, wavering test results and
other legitimate problems. Telling kids not to wear "gang
colors," even going back to the Nancy Drew days of skirts
and blouses for young women, is a lot easier than cutting
class size or having an extended school year. It's
cheaper, more convenient, and mollifies parents. It also
looks good for school boards, and it creates a new day-to-
day drama within the soap opera world of school
administrations.
But as expected, religious advocates want a special
exemption from even school dress codes. Under the Clinton
guidelines and certainly under a proposed "Religious
Equality Amendment" religious students will be permitted a
wide range of skull caps, scarves, beads and other
ornaments which distinguish them from "other" students,
and which announce their religious affiliations to the
entire community. Religionists, of course, say that this
has something to do with their beliefs and their gods; but
does their deity require assistance in picking out his,
her or its followers in the crowded hallways of a public
school?
Religionists have also demanded exemptions from a
wide range of laws which right or wrong still apply to
everyone else. Some religious groups insist on their
"right" to use drugs, while others can be hauled off to
jail for the offense of smoking a harmless joint. Is this
right?
Uniforms in schools, of course, are meant to "level"
the student body and to, ostensibly, minimize the
expression of individual tastes and preferences. That in
itself is wrong, but it is even worse to require that all
but religious students must dress in a certain way. If
anything, the presence of school dress codes and the
exemption of religious students would probably emphasize
differences. School uniforms are the fashion equivalent of
trying to ban all speech because we find some speech
offensive. Students justifiably rebelled against this
authoritarian practice in the 1960s; school test scores
did not drop suddenly, nor was there an overnight epidemic
of violence.
Uniforms will not solve the problems of American
education any more than "putting God back in the
classroom" will, as many "Religious Equality Amendment"
boosters insist. Both proposals have no good basis in
history. Neither solves a legitimate problem. And they
endanger the rights of everyone.
THEISTWATCH SHORT SHOTS
by Conrad Goeringer
The nation's schools may be showing some improvement,
thank you, without the alleged benefits of mandated prayer
and Bible reading or the invasive agenda of the
conservative-religious front. That's according to the
annual "Condition of Education" report released Monday,
August 21 by the U.S. Education Department. According to
Secretary Richard W. Riley, students are taking more
challenging science and math courses, achieving higher
test scores, and dropping out of school less. The study,
however, noted that minority students still need more work
to improve their performance and that all students need
improvement in English reading and writing skills.
***************
We're glad to report that Muslim-convert "Iron Mike"
Tyson is keeping a low profile about his religious
affiliation. Maybe that is because fans, officials, and
the media are fighting mad about Saturday's 89-second
"bout" with Peter McNeeley, which at last count had
brought in about $55 million. Tyson may be thanking Allah
for his $250,000-a-second "comeback" orchestrated by
promoter Don King, but fans are blaming a premature call
by McNeeley's manager, Vinnie Vecchione, for stopping the
bout.
Now Bob Arum, promoter for ringside evangelist George
Foreman, wants his man to take on Tyson, saying that the
winner could walk home with as much as $80 million. And
just think, whoever survives that slugfest can thank the
"god" of his choice: Jehovah or Allah!
Talk about a "fix"!
***************
We have no comment whatsoever on a report from
Baltimore that 700 nuns have agreed to donate their brains
postmortem for research purposes into Alzheimer's and
other degenerative mental disorders.
***************
Wake up and smell the coffee, Bob. Political
autopsies continue to pour in following last weekend's
straw poll vote in Iowa, which showed Senator Robert Dole
in a dead heat with Texas Senator Phil Gramm for the GOP
presidential nod in 1996 and conservative-religious
flagwaver Pat Buchanan coming up dangerously fast to third
position.
POINT: The combined Gramm-Buchanan vote (4,504) far
exceeded the Dole vote of 2,582. The Philadelphia Inquirer
noted that this "provided fresh evidence that the GOP
nomination process is being increasingly dominated by
right-wing ideologues (read: "religious dogmatists")
within the party, a bad sign for Dole who is essentially a
mainstream Republican dealmaker."
POINT: Dole's first-place tie with Gramm turned out
to be only 2 percent higher than in 1987 when he finished
behind televangelist Pat Robertson; and it was a full 2
percent lower than when a similar Iowa straw poll was held
last year. The real winners in Iowa's Pat Buchanan, the
Christian Coalition, and the religious-conservative
agenda.
***************
Even with a "Religious Equality Amendment" and the
introduction of bogus "creationism" into public schools,
Biblical literalists who believe that everything was
invented by some all-powerful deity in the course of a
seven-day workweek have more and more difficulty squaring
Genesis with scientific facts. Last week it was announced
that paleontologists have found more direct and
unambiguous evidence for upright walking (also known as
bipedalism) along the evolutionary tree. The discovery
took place in Kenya and has revealed a new species of
human ancestor that lived four million years ago. The leg
and arm bones found near Lake Turkana place the emergence
of bipedalism back by nearly half a million years.
Scientists say that it supports the growing contention
that bipedal locomotion was a defining adaptation which
set human ancestors apart from quadrupedal apes.
Who (besides "creationists") says there are no
missing links? The latest discoveries fill in even more of
the blanks in helping us to know our ancestors, including
Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis, Robustus, Boisei, Ethiopicus
and Afanensis, the last known affectionately as "Lucy."
Try finding those folks listed in Genesis!
***************
Hey, when you're living in filth, squalor, ignorance,
exploitation, and religious superstition, what better way
to solve the problem than by changing a name? In an
outburst of religious-ethnic atavism, the Indian
government has decided to change the name of the city of
Bombay to Mumbai. Makes a difference, doesn't it? Mumbai
is taken from the name of a Hindu goddess. In an
Associated Press report, Bachi Karkaria, editor of the
"Bombay Times" said that "Mumbai harks back to a past that
is glorious. Bombay, on the other hand, represents grit,
gumption and a go-getting spirit that's perfectly suited
to the present, and the future."
The name change was instituted by the right wing
Hindu party known as Shiv Sena, which won control of the
state legislature in March.
***************
THEISTWATCH has been updating readers on the
political footsies involving TV evangelist Pat Robertson
and Zaire's dictatorial strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko. Pat
has become Mobutu's personal spinmeister, telling viewers
of the Christian Broadcasting Network that the Zairean
honcho has "seen the error of his ways." How convenient,
especially since Robertson has forestry
concessions and as diamond mining operation in Zaire.
On Monday, August 25, Mobutu's army dumped another
2,000 Rwandan refugees back across the border where they
face possible "ethnic cleansing" in the Hutu-Tutsi war.
Another 26,000 refugees poured out of three camps and
fled, all to avoid the forced repatriation. And why not?
There is a growing scandal linking the wholesale slaughter
of civilians in Rwanda with many priests and religious
officials who often packed their churches with refugees,
then tipped off bloodthirsty government troops.
***************
Our recent report on the use of "shame" in the war
against prostitution prompted Margie Wait to update us on
the situation in her home state of Colorado. You may
recall that Philadelphia has joined the ranks of other
U.S. cities which tries to publish names and even
photographs of men caught soliciting the favors of
prostitutes. What's next?, we asked. Public floggings? It
seems that the cranky and draconian "bible law" solutions
advocated by fundamentalist Christians, specifically those
calling themselves "Reconstructionists" was finding favor
in the public imagination and the halls of government.
Ms. Wait informs us that Colorado enacted a "John's"
law in 1994 and that those arrested for this victimless
crime are to have their pictures published in the
newspapers. Fortunately, both the Rocky Mountain News and
the Denver Post declined this opportunity to act as hand-
maiden for the State and Church, but the smaller Aurora
Sentinel did not. Our mention of Hawthorne's "Scarlet
Letter" prompted Wait to observe, "It appears that Aurora,
Colorado wants to find many Hester Prynnes."
Wonder how Jimmy Swaggart feels about this idea.
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