The "Invisible Children's" crusade #STOPKONY 2012 the organizers have a somewhat patronizing attitude in their assumptions that people in Africa are like helpless children who are constantly in need of help from Western Nations especially the USA. The Invisible Children's campaign plays on various racist stereotypes which are applied to all Africans and taken for granted for example assuming all Africans as being backward , lacking education, superstitious and as helpless victims.
This is a bit ironic given the appalling results of a number of studies dealing with the mistaken beliefs of Americans and their lack of general knowledge about the world and even about America compared not to other affluent Western nationsLarge numbers of Americans in Alabama and Mississippi as mentioned by Cenk believe in the Biblical count of creation and reject the science of Evolution ; they also believe that Obama is a Muslim, a radical socialist,and they believe homosexuality should be outlawed along with interracial marriages . They further believe that the rights of women should be restricted more than the rights of men.
Many Americans are also convinced because their religious and business leaders tell them that Jesus believed in a laissez-faire deregulated wild west style of Capitalism As for superstitions Radical Christian Evangelicals believe in God and Satan and in Angels and Demons which are constantly interfering in peoples lives and in the destiny of nations and of humankind.
The elites in America are quite happy to support and to fund religious organizations which indoctrinate American consumers and workers to believe that Christianity supports unfettered capitalism. These uberconservative Christian Evangelicals have been indoctrinated through a selective reading of the Bible including the teachings of Jesus that the rich prosper because they are "the chosen of God while the poor lacking a deep and sincere belief in Jesus are set aside to be punished by God and by man.
So according to the Religious Right God ordained a natural hierarchy in which the true Christians are rewarded and those who are not Real Christians get left behind economically and in their status. The Religious Right explain that the reason some people who are successful and yet are Non-Christians who are Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists ,Sikhs are successful because they have made a deal with Satan or The Antichrist and his minions. These Non-Christian religions Evangelicals argue pay homage to Satan or other demonic forces.
So to some extent religion is "the opium of the people" when it is used by others in this case the elites of Wall Street and those in Washington to control most of the citizens of America so they won't even dare take a peek behind the curtains to see who is in control and what their agenda is. It is not the bogus Illuminati or some other non-existent secret society but merely a matter of Greed for more material wealth and/or for increased power. In essence they are normal human beings who do not have any supernatural power nor are they automatically the favored of God or Jesus.
Jesus told the rich man to go home give away all his wealth and only then could he become a true follower of Jesus. Jesus also said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle as it is for a rich man to enter the Gates of Heaven.
The acquisition and hoarding of massive amounts of wealth is not according to Jesus a way to become a chosen of God. It is a matter of faith , prayer, love, empathy and the doing of good works of living a decent life not one that is merely self-serving and narcissistic and adherence to Winner Take all and if you snooze you lose ideology. Jesus reminded people that they are all part of the same community and each is precious and that real Christians will help out not just their friends and family but also strangers who are in need of help.
Unfortunately the leaders of the Church over the centuries squashed all such notions since they believed that the Church must become rich and powerful. It is not that many of us reject the basic teachings of Jesus but rather the Christian philosophy, theology and ideology which perverted the teachings of the Nazarene known as Jesus.
ENDNOTES
Spiritual Mapping and Spiritual Warfare - Muthee and the "Transformations" Franchise / 1 by Rachel Tabachnick at Talk2Action.org, October 30, 2008
Kony 2012's Visible Funding: Invisible Children's anti-gay, creationist, Christian right donors by Xeni Jardin at boingboing, march 12, 2012
Invisible Children Funded By Antigay, Creationist Christian Right by B.E. Wilson at Alternet.org, March 11, 2012 also see :
Kony 2012's Visible Funding: Invisible Children's anti-gay, creationist, Christian right donors by Xeni Jardin at boingboing, march 12, 2012
Who are the Apostles? What is the New Apostolic Reformation? Seven Mountains Campaign? Rachel Tabachnick at Talk2Action.org, March 30, 2011
American Evangelical Lou Engle Promotes 'Kill the Gays' Bill at Sunday's Rally in Uganda BY Waymon Hudson, Huffington Post, May 4,2010
Over 1,300 people gathered at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda on Sunday to hear American Evangelical Lou Engle preach at a rally and prayer service against "homosexuality, witchcraft, and corruption." Engle's involvement in organizing TheCall Uganda was mired in controversy from the very beginning given his long history of violent anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric and preaching. At past TheCall rallies, like the one in support of Proposition 8 in California, Engle called homosexuality a "spirit of lawlessness" and called for "martyrs" to become "God's Avengers of Blood" to stop the "homosexual agenda" at all cost. Engle's newly founded chapter of TheCall Uganda comes at a time of unparalleled violence and animus towards LGBT people in the country, including the odious Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which calls for life imprisonment for gays and their supporters, as well as the death penalty in some cases.and more recently: Scott Lively, U.S. Pastor, Wages Uganda Anti-Gay Effort, Lawsuit Alleges by Bridget Murphy at Huffington Post, March 3, 2012
Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin Are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America The New Apostolic Reformation, the largest religious movement you've never heard of, aims to take control of communities through 'prayer warriors.' March 1, 2010 by Bill Berkowitz, Alternet.org,March 1, 2012
and so it goes, GORD.
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