Why Christianists Scare Me More Than Islamists (and Zionists, "Illuminati," and "Russian-Israeli Mafia")

Last month, I stated in my open letter to "conspiracy theorist" expert Mark Fenster that Christianists scare me more than Islamists. It was a quick thought, meant to convey to him that I don't meet the stereotypes he seemed to have. I'll now explain what I meant.

The reasons I am more scared of Christianists are threefold: (1) their weapons are far more powerful; (2) they are closer to home; and (3) only Christianists, not Islamists, have the power to destroy this constitutional Republic.

Below I describe my concerns about far right Christianists and their alliance with right-wing Big Business, and the reasons for my belief that 9/11 was more likely a product of this alliance than of Zionists or some secret group like "the Illuminati."

Wayne Madsen's recent articles about the supposed role of "the Russian-Israeli Mafia" are new to me, and I discuss why I am not convinced by them in Appendix I to this essay.

Here is the information that gives me a gut feeling that our terrorism is home-grown, and not out of Kabul, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, or Moscow:

1. A Truthdig article by Chris Hedges about "America's Holy Warriors"

2. Articles about religious bullying at the Air Force Academy

3. A set of articles by an evangelical Christian group about the alliance of the Christian Right and the Business Right, the anti-Semitism of American elites, and the "Illuminati" as a useful myth.

I want to make it clear that this is not evidence of the involvement of any person or group in 9/11, but rather an explanation of why I am skeptical about allegations that 9/11 was a project of "the Zionists," "the Mossad," "the Illuminati" ( or some other shadowy global elite group), or the "Russian-Israeli Mafia."

And I am open to hearing other views -- this is simply a statement of my prejudices.

I do think that my perspective should be no more offensive to 9/11 Inside Job Deniers than the simplistic "Bush Did It," and is conducive to a broader consideration of various suspects and combinations of suspects with a Christo-Fascist nexus.

Nor should it be offensive to Christians, because I am not talking about Christians. It is true that I believe that Christianists are likely to arise out of certain forms of fundamental Christianity, but I do not mean to suggest that vast majority of believers of all forms of fundamentalist Christianity are not law-abiding citizens peaceably practicing their faith.

I could certainly be wrong about my gut feeling. A variety of religious, corporate, and government interests could have been working in some sick alliance. I don't know. I'm just making it clear where I come from, and why Christianists scare me more than Islamists, Zionists, and Russian-Israeli mobsters.

1. Chris Hedges's "America's Holy Warriors"

I heard Chris Hedges speak a couple of months ago about his work on a book about the Christian right. He had been traveling around the country interviewing fundamentalist Christians. I heard fear and even despair in his voice, and it scared me. The book will be called: “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”

Hedges is a war reporter -- you can read his thoughts about war here:

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hedges.php?articleid=6294

Now Hedges has an article at TruthDig entitled "America's Holy Warriors."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/P100/

Editor Robert Scheer summarizes the article thus:

Editor’s note: The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement.

Another source of information and commentary on the Religious Right is

http://www.yuricareport.com/

2. The Air Force Academy

Christianists in the Air Force particularly scare me, because their weapons are the biggest and most secret:

Here is an article about a lawsuit against religious bullying at the Air Force Academy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4091956.stm

An interview with the plaintiff, along with links to other articles about Christian evangelizing in the military, are here:

http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06a/sep070.html

The Christian Embassy video described in Hedge's article is available here:

http://www.jewsonfirst.org/military.html

Left-wing views of the lawsuit and "Christian Fascism":

http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_363.shtml

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/acad-a30.shtml

http://rwor.org/a/021/christian-fascist-air-force.htm

Please remember that not only I am not making any accusations against any persons or groups, I am talking about Christianists not Christians, who are peaceful believers in a peaceful faith.

It is true that there a violent messages in the Bible, but there is also Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I think Jefferson's Bible is the best for getting straight to Jesus' moral teachings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/

3. Antipas Ministries - a left-wing evangelical Christian influence on my thinking

Here is the website of a group of evangelical Christians of strong faith who have taken Jesus' teachings to heart and are very concerned about what is happening to the organized Church and to their country:

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000238.htm

An affiliate is here, the Institute for the Study of Religion in Politics:

http://www.isrp.org/

I think these articles provide an informed perspective on right-wing Christianists from a left-wing (Jesus-wing, I would say) evangelical Christian perspective. Although I cannot call myself a Christian except in a cultural sense, these articles have affected my world view. It may sound ridiculous, but this is how I think Jesus would view current world events.

Their articles on the "American New World Order System" midway down the topical directory to the right, cover a variety of political, economic, and political issues from a Christian perspective.

(I make a disclaimer at the end, in Appendix II, but generally, these people seem well-informed and good-hearted, and have a very interesting perspective on American Christianity. One of the questions I address is whether they are a cult, which raises some questions about the 9/11 Truth Movement that I address in Appendix III.)

First, here are some examples of their "New American World Order" articles to give an idea of what these folks write about.

(Please just read the titles for now, and scroll down to the section WHY I THINK THE 9/11 TRAIL DOES NOT LEAD TO TEL AVIV, where there are a series of articles by Antipas Ministries describing the anti-Semitism of American elites, Christian Dominionism, and the useful myth of the Illuminati. These are most directly relevant to my views about the perpetrators of 9/11.)

"The American Empire: The Corporate/Pentagon/Missionary Archipelago"(1998)(about the CIA's use of Protestant missionaries in the Third World)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000187.htm

"Death Squads: Bringing in the Kingdom of God Through Terror, Torture, and Death" (1996) (about the Phoenix Program and South American death squads)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000105.htm

"Apostasy: Christianity in the Service of a 'Religio-Political-Corporate-Terrorist' State" (undated)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000040.htm

"The Horror of John Dimitri Negroponte and Everything He Represents" (2004)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000117.htm

"WTO & the Masses" (1999)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000193.htm

"Kosovo and Depleted Uranium Weapons" (1999)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000169.htm

"More Lies & Deceptions Concerning Kosovo" (1999) (good summary of the use of big PR firms like Ruder-Finn and Hill & Knowlton)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000199.htm

"Richard Mellon Scaife: The Evil That Money Can Do" (1998)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000108.htm

"Today's Church: Making Zombies Out of Christians: The Prophets and Apostles Movement" (2002) (this article is a good summary of all their views)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000168.htm

"Lies and Deceipt in the Service of the American New World Order System" (2003) (in this article they say 9/11 probably is an inside job, and even if it isn't it is being used a pretext for war and a police state. Their basic premise is that "The Rich are Capable of Anything.")

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000108.htm


WHY I THINK THE TRAIL DOES NOT LEAD TO TEL AVIV

(I'm not saying it doesn't. Decide that for yourself. I'm just saying why I think it doesn't, and why I am concerned that constant talk about "the Zionists" could lead us away from the true perpetrators.)

Here are a four articles that express a view that I hold -- that American elites are anti-Semitic, that the Illuminati myth is a deception, and that the coalition to be concerned about is in plain site, between the Business Right and the Christian Right:

"The Republican Party and the Jews" (2000)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000082.htm

"MKULTRA: The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (1) A Study of the Mind-Set of the New World Order" (1998)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000179.htm

"Pat Robertson, Illuminism, and the New World Order" (undated), the body of which is entitled "Dangerous Illusions: 'The Illuminati Myth, Anti-Semitism, Pat Robertson & Christian Dominionism"

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000096.htm

"The Christian Right and the Religious Right: An Alliance Made in Hell" (undated)

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000052.htm

Above is the information on which I base my views that Christianist fanatics with military ties and experience, allied with very rich people who are also professed Christians, are more likely to be the culprits than Islamists, Zionists, "Illuminati," or "Russian-Israeli Mafia."

---
Update: Here is another good article by Antipas Ministries: "Conspiracy Theories" (1998), which says that "conspiracy theories" result from government lies and deceit, and has an interesting quote about JFK that likely applies to 9/11.

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000178.htm

In the end, however, the 1976 House and Senate Select Committee members didn't really want to KNOW who they (i.e., the conspirators) in fact were. They seemed to sense that should these people be revealed for whom they actually were and what they had really done, the rage that such revelations would produce against America's foreign policy, intelligence and political establishments among the "masses" would spell disaster for the American political (and even the American economic) system. The elites in both the Democratic and Republican Parties were in agreement on this matter. It was one thing for the citizenry to "suspect;" it was quite another thing for them to actually "know."

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Appendix I

The "Russian-Israeli Mafia"

Wayne Madsen has recently published articles about "the Russian-Israeli Mafia." As far as I could tell, Neil Bush has sold educational software in the United Arab Emirites and Russia, and Clinton called off bombing Al Qaeda because UAE shieks were falcon-hunting in that area of Afghanistan. There is a new report, but none of it is sourced so I don't know what to do with it.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

January 3, 2007

The ties that bind: Scaramella network, Russian-Israeli mobsters, Colombia, Saudi cocaine-smuggling prince, and the 9/11 hijackers.

December 26-27, 2006

WMR can also report that there is a significant penetration of the so-called "9/11 Truth" movement by elements funded and supported by the Russian-Israeli Mafia and its supporters in the Bush administration and U.S. media. The reason for the penetration is primarily to deter the movement from looking at the role of the Russian-Israeli Mafia in the terrorist attacks and ensuring that more far out disinformation theories are accepted as credible explanations for the systematic and coordinated "failures" of the U.S. air defense, air traffic control, law enforcement, immigration, and intelligence systems.

All this seems to have resulted in this article being placed at Portland Indymedia's "9/11 People's Investigation" topic page, even though it does not mention 9/11 at all:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/350915.shtml

(I see they left my comment there, even though I posted it after my censored comment about the NIST report. Go figure.)

I asked a promoter of this story some questions at 911blogger, and got abuse, not answers:

http://911blogger.com/node/5270#comment

The same guy showed up at Portland Indymedia promoting the same story.

"truthout" and I questioned this "Russian-Israeli Mafia" story in comments to a Kyle Hence post at Portland Indymedia, which incidentally is another example of their censorship:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/351231.shtml?discuss

I agree with truthout: "The MAIN perps are very American." And likely professed Christians, I would add.

===============================

Appendix II -- Disclaimer about Antipas Ministries

My disclaimer about this website is as follows:

1. The author S.R. Shearer says he was an Army counter-intelligence officer during the Vietnam War. Some people might want to know that. Who knows, maybe this is propaganda. I like it.

2. Their views on Israel and the Middle East, though they seem well-informed, are seen through the theological prism of belief in a pre-Apocalyptic Gog-Magog War, and of a coming alliance between the U.S. and Israel that signals "the End Days."

3. They don't source their material. [I just realized that they do source some of their articles, and 3 of the 4 of the articles about anti-Semitism, the Illuminati myth, and the Christian Right-Business Right alliance have footnotes, as does the "Conspiracy Theory" article I just added.]

4. They use capital letters to emphasize points.

5. They view America as the Beast, or Babylon, that was prophecied in Revelations, and that Christians must "come out of her . . . that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues (Rev. 18:4).

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000198.htm

They are in Canada, and urging fellow Christians to join them. Most of their fellow Christians say "hell, no."

Well, I told you they were evangelical Christians that believe the end times are nigh.

And even here, their reasoning for moving to Canada is that Christians will be corrupted by staying in this country because it is the only country in the world with a politically powerful Christian church.

The United States is the ONLY nation on earth that possesses a VIABLE and POTENT "Religious Right" Christian community - a community that actually possesses political power. No other Christian community anywhere - not in Canada, not in Mexico, not in Western Europe, not anywhere - possesses political power the way the church does in the United States - raw, naked political power!

This concern would be shared, I think, even by People for the American Way, who think like me that this country can be saved. Not that I haven't thought of moving to Canada.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=People_for_the_American_Way

Maybe Anitipas Ministries is a cult. That's fine, I'm not a member.

============================================

Appendix III -- is the "9/11 Truth Movement" a cult?

Some say that the "9/11 'Truth' Movement" exhibits cult-like behavior:

"Gerard Holmgren, The Truth About Truthlings: The 9/11 Doublethink Movement" (Homgren uses the terms "truth cult" and "Griffin worship cult." This article is worth reading even for those whose feathers might be ruffled. If I could summarize, the theme is that the movement produces "truth heroes" who promote contradictory truths, and that "the word 'truth' [has been disembodied] from any concept other than as a generic marketing logo for the 'truth movement', and a personal quality attributable to a 'truth hero'."

http://members.iinet.net.au/~holmgren/slithering.html

And Nico Haupt, whose ideas I cannot summarize:

http://911closeup.com/nico/911truthling_cult4.html

I will say that we know that MKULTRA was real, and so is the Tavistock Institute:

http://www.tavinstitute.org/index.php

The idea of manipulation of the masses through psychology and social sciences is certainly plausible, no, undeniable. See, e. g., this book Coercion:

http://www.amazon.com/Coercion-Why-Listen-What-They/dp/157322829X

I have no idea if the following information about the reach and activities of Tavistock is accurate, but it would not surprise me.

http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/nwotavistockbestkeptsecret.shtml

All I can say about Nico Haupt is that he can see that there were no real planes on 9/11, so he can't be all that crazy.

I mean this good-naturedly. I think he has done great work and even David Kubiak acknowledged that.

I do have to ask him a question, though, since he raised it. He says:

(Disclaimer: There are voices which claim, that i must be an "Intelligence Operative" by myself. I state for the record, that i never received any direct budget or payroll systems from any international Intelligence, whether government- or privatized associated. Interestingly these claims are directly orchestrated by those at the leadership of the 9/11 Truthling Movement, who have documented connections with US Military or -Intelligence themselves. I also never received any direct or indirect budget from the MIT, was never a member of any political party, church, religion or any listed cult.

My question is: Have you ever received any INDIRECT budget or payroll systems from any international Intelligence, whether government- or privatized associated?

I ask because for MIT, you say "direct or indirect," but only say "direct" for intelligence services.

From what you say in your work, and a book I read "The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters," it seems hard to avoid receiving indirect funding from intelligence services if you are involved in cultural or academic activities in the United States and Europe. So I'm not too worried about it, as long as you are not now an agent of a foreign state.

Even if you are, I'm not. I think for myself.

As Tavistock trained me to do.

Finally, a writer named Angie has not to my knowledge called the 9/11 Truth Movement a "cult," but she has warned about assuming that people in the "truth" movement do not have hidden agendas.

Here, in a salutary article about infiltration and the need to think for yourself, she points out a hidden agenda I am also concerned about -- "the jews did it."

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze25x9n/id9.html

She is concerned about another possible hidden agenda which I am not as concerned about, but which is not unreasonable: whether the exposure of 9/11 is the goal for some hidden agenda such as world government.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze25x9n/id24.html

Angie mentioned David Ray Griffin and Richard Falk and their advocacy of world government, and Griffin responded here.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze25x9n/id25.html

Griffin says that Herman Daly's book For the Common Good, which is listed in my profile as one of my favorites, does not advocate world government. That is true, I think. It's been years since I've read it and my copy is in a box somewhere, but Daly's position was that economies should be national as much as possible, because democratic control and real concern for the welfare of of one's citizens could not extend much beyond that. I was happy when Daly went to the World Bank, because I think they needed his methods, but he did join an institution that is a destroyer of national economies. I don't know about the process theology of Daly's co-author Cobb, who now works with Griffin. I will say that I skimmed Griffin's entry in 9/11 & American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out, and found it disappointing and slightly creepy. I prefer Antipas Ministries' take on 9/11 -- not demons, but rich people in the real world who act like demons.

Small is Beautiful is another one of my favorite books, and don't think we need a world government if the U.S. would just follow international law and quit treating the United Nations
as its tool.

Richard Falk had a strong entry in 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, and I was glad to see a Princeton law professor go on the record saying 9/11 was likely an inside job. But Richard Falk supported increased use of "humanitarian intervention," which as applied in 1990s was equally a tool of the soft side of the Global Dominance Group he describes.

Again, I think Angie has raised very reasonable questions about hidden agendas. I think that environmental problems like global warming are real, but I think that global responses are flawed and subject to great abuse. I can't find the article, but the New York Times wrote a couple of weeks ago about the absurdities that have arisen in "joint implementation" carbon rights trading schemes under the Kyoto Protocol, with bankers and lawyers making lots of money and Chinese companies being encouraged to pollute more by the funds they get. There could be more Malthusian ideas involved -- if there is going to be a climate treaty it must follow this equitable model:

http://www.gci.org.uk/contconv/gcinit.html

In general, I highly recommend the articles at Angie's website, with her warning: don't trust me, don't trust her, think for yourself.

http://angieon911.com/

I particularly want to recommend two of her articles at the above link, which may be provocative for some but are common sense if "truth" really means truth in this movement:

WHY THE FAMILIES ARE WRONG, DEAD WRONG

911 Truth Movement Mistake: the Sibel Edmonds story - DROP IT LIKE A HOT POTATO


I want to end, now that my words have turned blue, with a discussion at a message board about David Kubiak's exchange with Nico Haupt and David Ray Griffin's exchange with Angie. I'm not sure it's fair to compare Griffin's response with Kubiak's response, as Griffin treated Angie with more respect and less ego than Kubiak's response. Other than that, I agree with the sentiments and judgments by Peachtree Pam and proldic.

http://p216.ezboard.com/Nico-Haupts-77-Timeline/frigorousintuitionfrm23.showMessage?topicID=70.topic

Now that my words are black again, I will really end with my reaction to David Kubiak's response to Nico Haupt, as well as to the entire strategy of the 9/11 "Truth.org" movement, is discussed here:

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/guilt.html