Friday, March 5, 2010

Call to Action

Labelling the blog post "Christianist Watch," I approached this latest post on Andrew Sullivan's blog (written by Andrew's under-blogger Chris Bodenner while Andrew is on vacation) as just another typical snippet of theocratic wingnuttery.

Once I got deeper into it and followed the link to Dan Savage's blog on the same subject, however, I realized that this ain't a bunch of political Christianists trying to smear some piece of the Obama legislative agenda. Repent Amarillo is a group of far-right Christian "warriors" who have embarked on a serious quest to purify their Texas city of a whole host of enemies. They are describing themselves as an Army of God. A visit to their website reveals military imagery accompanied by language like this:

1. Intercessory prayer group. This group will be a group of warriors called to intercessory prayer. They will at times be visible to the public and at other times ( depending upon the individual mission) they will be inconspicuous. They will provide prayer covering to the soldier group and will do battle within the spiritual realm to prepare the ground for the planting of God’s seeds, tear down demonic strongholds, and cast out demonic spirits that harass our efforts. Sometimes the intercessory prayer group will operate independently of the soldier group and at other times will work around them.

2. The Soldier group. The soldier group will consist of warriors dedicated to witnessing to groups of unbelievers or one-on-one witnessing. This group will be more visible to the public and will be comprised of bold believers willing to confront the world. This group will be schooled in the “Way of the Master” method of witnessing to the lost. This group will be the ones who plant God’s seeds in the ground that has been prepared by the intercessory prayer group. Believers who participate in this group will have to be bold but loving. Confrontational but composed. The individual members of these two groups are allowed and highly encouraged to move between the two groups based on the individual’s calling and the unique mission involved. In other words, no one is stuck to only one group. Soldiers can pray and intercessory members can witness.


My emphasis. What makes them any different from terrorist groups like the Taliban escapes me.

While this may be a completely local phenomenon in Amarillo, there are stories on Dan Savage's blog that may outrage you (they did me). This is a hate group, a borderline terrorist cell, and a danger to freedom for Americans everywhere. The mayor of Amarillo is Debra McCartt, and her fax number (no email listed on the city's website) is (806) 378-9394. She needs to receive faxes from as many people as possible warning her to take seriously the threat in her city posed by this group. If she and the city police allow this group to operate freely, they are as guilty as these pseudo-Christians in fomenting fear.

Dear Ms. Mayor --

I am writing to lodge my strong objection to the group "Repent Amarillo" that is operating in your city in an effort to harrass, intimidate, terrorize, and ultimately expel citizens and business owners in your city who do not reflect their radicalized version of Christianity. While their tactics appear to involve little more than an aggressive form of group prayer, they have outed a number of individual citizens for behavior to which they object. Some of these people have lost jobs and have become ostracized from their communities. They have among their members people who have illegally hacked into computers to gain access to private information on city residents that is embarrassing to them. Criminality may not be their intent, but their actions need to be watched and highly scrutinized. While they may not be brandishing weapons or stoning adulterers to death in public, their cyber tactics are a close equivalent.

This group does not have a narrow agenda; they seek to cleanse your city of anyone they deem to be un-believers. There is a name for groups like this: Taliban.

Your failure to do anything about curtailing the terrorist activities of this hate group reflects poorly on you, your city, and your citizens who do not stand up in defense of people who are living their lives according to their own, private belief systems. Do not let the City of Amarillo become known as the base for the Christian Taliban.

Sincerely,

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