Hackers (Yawn)

Some people hack maliciously, and we've had our share of these dark denizens here.  At the end of June one or more ethically challenged individuals hacked in and posted some tasteless links here, so we're now taking some time to think about how to make them unwelcome.

In the meantime, we're pleased to announce that Google has finally stopped censoring our Best and Worst American Politicians page.  This is one of our more exciting recent additions.  An especially interesting insight that we gleaned from our research in preparing that page is that fundamentalists and the absolute worst members of Congress enjoy a very, very cozy relationship.

In a way, though, the insight wasn't terribly surprising.  Take back-seat politician and fundamentalist millionaire James Dobson, for example.  Dobson resides in Colorado Springs, where he manages an organization known as Focus on the Family.  Nominally, Dobson is an expert on spanking children (he's all for it), but he is also a member of the hyper-secretive Council for National Policy, an invitation-only club for oilmen, real estate barons, and CEOs, as well as televangelists and other like-minded folk.

And then there's Dobson's "let's take over the world" Dominionist connection, which isn't well known, but which amounts to an even more overtly political link than that to FotF or even the CNP — which is truly saying something.

Now, you probably haven't heard of Dominionism, so here's the short version, according to one Al Dager, author of Vengeance is Ours: The Church In Dominion:

Dominion theology is  predicated upon three basic beliefs:  1) Satan usurped man's dominion over the earth through the temptation of Adam and Eve; 2) The Church is God's instrument to take dominion back from Satan; 3) Jesus cannot or will not return until the Church has taken dominion by gaining control of the earth's governmental and social institutions.

Now, that's not in my Bible — or anybody else's either, for that matter.  But views like this certainly do dovetail nicely with the other crowd that aims to take control of the planet, namely, the neocons — who currently control institutions such as the World Bank, which is a conveniently big stick to be used for that particular purpose, if that's your ambition in life.  And then there are the neocons in the White House . . . .

Mother Jones magazine has explored (in the 12/05 issue) the intimate financial connections between neocons (which includes Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank until he embarrassed Bush); and www.mediatransparency.org unveils so-called Patriotic Dominionism's financial ties to neocons. 

And there are a number of other interesting ties as well, which we'll have a look at here by and by.

In the meantime, the thing to know is that Patriotic Dominionism (Dobson's sect) certainly isn't patriotic.  It is, indeed, flagrantly and militantly anti-democratic — that's "democratic" with a small "d" as in "democracy".  Here's Rick Joyner in Taking the Land:

We are coming to the times when passive Christianity and passive Christians will cease to exist.  There is a maturity, a discipline, and a divine militancy coming upon the people of God.  Those who have succumbed to humanistic and idealistic theologies may have a hard time with this, but we must understand that God is a military God.  The title that He uses ten times more than any other in Scripture is "the Lord of hosts," or "Lord of armies."  There is a martial aspect to His character that we must understand and embrace for the times and the job to which we are now coming.

There's not a lot of room for democracy in that particular vision of the future, or so it seems to me.  (What happens to these "passive" Christians, one wonders, when they "cease to exist"?)  But then, who needs democracy when you've gained "control of the earth's governmental and social institutions"?

In light of all of this, the obvious question would seem to be:  why would birds of a neoconservative bent flock together with birds of a fundamentalist persuasion?  Very clearly indeed the focus isn't the care of the American family. The neoconservative agenda is all about making the very wealthy still more wealthy, and pursuing that path has led to the destruction of the American economy.  Nor does the focus have anything to do with Christ, who anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the Bible knows was a populist to the bone.  (When asked by a rich young man what he should do to obtain eternal life, Jesus remarked "...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24)

The marriage is, instead, one of convenience.  Neoconservatives need a moral fig leaf for their increasingly militaristic antics, and phony religiosity fits the bill nicely.  (Rich man George Bush once said that his favorite philosopher was Jesus.)  For their part, many fundamentalists lust after political power above all else (in order to obtain the means of forcing their beliefs on everyone else), and here the neoconservatives make convenient bedfellows.  (What they would do to one another if their objectives were ever achieved one shudders to think.)

With the influence of this crowd making itself felt in American politics, the extensive connections between "conservative" politicians and fundamentalists should truly not have come as a surprise.

Let us return now to our hackers, who also seem to need to learn a little something about democracy. 

In American society we are fortunate to have something called the first amendment.  That is what provides Dobson with the opportunity to air his views (endlessly).  Freedom of speech is a fundamental right.  And this right is forcibly abrogated when hackers do what they will to interfere with freedom of expression, which is, of course, very much what they have done here.

Jesus said that we should do unto others what we would have them do unto us.  And that was better advice even than it seems.  Ugly deeds undertaken from ugly motives have a way of eventually being attributed to their proper source.  And when that happens, all Hell can break loose.

So, hackerfolk, unless you want Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reily fitted out with muzzles, rein in your disgraceful, anti-American impulses.  Or else head for your favorite dictatorship/theocracy.  (You might like it in, say, Iran.)

Well, enough said for now, but stay tuned.  We'll eventually return to our regularly schedule program here.

 

--Your Editor

(Not especially well loved by the Dominionists - but then, who would want to be?)