Monday, November 13, 2006

I'm late getting to this, but I just got my copy of the November issue of Church & State, the newsletter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and I learned from it that I missed all kinds of swell stuff at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in late September. For instance, I missed this:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), who is seeking to move up to the Senate, offered the crowd her personal religious testimony and begged for support. Harris, down 20 points in the polls at the time, insisted she would win and that God would deserve the credit. (Harris also told attendees that separation of church and state is a lie and that 34 percent of the Constitution comes from the Bible.)

Not 33, not 35 -- 34. (No word on whether she provided documentation for this.)

I missed William Bennett encouraging the U.S. to behave more like Saddam:

Former Education Secretary William Bennett called for escalating the Iraq conflict and even suggested extending the warfare to civilians. He recommended leveling whole cities to bring them under control -- "When four Americans are hanged...you take out Fallujah. You flatten the city!"

Oh, and I also missed this:

Although the Bible actually has little to say about the Antichrist –- he is mentioned by name only five times –- interest in this evil figure has always been intense.... one speaker espoused one of the more unusual theories about this mysterious opponent of Christianity: The Antichrist, the Rev. Dwight McKissic said, may be gay.

McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, put forth slim evidence for the assertion, citing a murky passage in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Daniel. Interestingly, the verse in question, Daniel 11:37, does not mention the Antichrist by name. It talks instead about a prophecy concerning a Persian king who will amass great power and oppress God’s people.

This monarch, the King James Version of the Bible says, will not share "the desire of women."

Although other translations of the scripture differ radically, to McKissic, the KJV text is proof enough.

He asked the crowd, "Could it be that the Antichrist himself may be homosexual?"

Assailing the gay rights movement, he added, "I believe it's from the pit of hell itself that this movement is inspired, that it has a satanic anointing."


There's quite a bit more at the links.

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