Thanks to everybody who showed up at the Lifeway Christian Store in Brea on Saturday for my book signing!
400-408 – Today, we're going to talk about cults, bouncing off the "red flags" found in the Dove World Outreach Center Academy Rulebook of Pastors Terry and Sylvia Jones.
• USA Today (9/11/2010) Florida pastor says his church will never burn Quran. (1:03) Pastor Terry Jones on NBC TODAY @ 9/11/2010 says they will never burn a Koran.
• The Smoking Gun (9/8/2010) Koran Burner: Creepier Than You Think. Check out the Dove World Outreach Center Academy Rulebook linked in the article.
413-423 – Calls
Why People Join Cults – A cult or gang provides the person with a sense of structure, direction, and purpose with intense feelings of belonging and acceptance, literally becoming the person's surrogate family. Most cult members were once involved with some form of anti-intellectual Christianity, and entered the cult when the recruiter offered them answers and the "truth" of the cult.
Distinctive Traits – Cults claim an exclusive monopoly on truth, finding all other "Christians" apostate, and often supporting their exclusivism with one or more extra-biblical sources of authority; and if the Bible is used, context is abandoned, and biblical words are redefined allowing the cult to sound Christian. Salvation is always a result of works rather than grace through faith.
Cultic Behavior – Behind the veneer of love and acceptance, lurks a deeply repressive organization requiring blind allegiance to an omnipotent Prophet or leadership team who make significant life decisions for socially severed cult members, and motivate them to do the will of leadership through guilt, shame, and ridicule.
Warning Signs – 1) Do they believe their group is the only true church, the leader the only true prophet, and their book the only true revelation? 2) Do they encourage you to change your occupation or class load so you can work more hours for the group? 3) Do they require you to raise money and recruit new members? 4) Is their budget a secret? 5) Do the leaders take an unusual interest in you that requires an increased demand on your time and increased commitment to their group? 6) Do they discourage you from associating with family, friends, other Christian groups and authors? 7) Does the leader expect blind obedience and absolute compliance? 8) Do they seem to overemphasize submission? 9) Do they discourage independent thinking as a sign of weak faith? 10) Do they receive a lot of criticism from outside the group and treat it as an attack from Satan? 11) Do they have legalistic rules? 12) Do they attempt to control your dating, occupation, major, social time (i.e., "shepherding")? 13) Do they control people with fear and shame? 14) Do they have discipline meetings where members are confronted, humiliated, and forced to confess and repent? 15) Do they disfellowship ex-members?
428-437 – Calls
443-452 – Calls
458-508 – Calls
512-523 – Calls
528-539 – Calls
544-554 – Calls
558-608 – Calls
612-623 – • Fox News (9/13/2010) Parents Sue Catholic School for Denying Admission to Their Unvaccinated Son. Did you defile your kids when you got them vaccinated? Are immunizations a "violation of God's supreme authority, and therefore, unholy"?
A New York couple is suing a Catholic high school for refusing to grant a religious exemption that would allow their 14-year-old son to enroll in ninth grade without state-required vaccinations, claiming immunizations are a "violation of God's supreme authority."
Andrea and Paul Polydor, of Garden City, believe human bodies "should not be defiled by vaccines," according to a complaint filed in Nassau County Court against Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale.
They claim their son -- identified in the seven-page lawsuit as "JP" -- should be granted an exemption to public health laws that require children to be inoculated for diseases including mumps, measles, rubella, hepatitis B and others.
"[W]e are all created in God's image," reads a letter the Polydors sent to the school on Feb. 13, according to the lawsuit. "Therefore, we must not defile our blood and our bodies with diseases and other impure substances. As the divine Architect, God designed our bodies to have immune systems that must not be defiled by vaccines. Immunizations are a violation of God's supreme authority, and therefore, unholy. Since immunizations are unholy they violate my religious beliefs."
The Polydors also claim that using vaccines would show a "lack of faith in God, and His perfectly designed immune system," according to the lawsuit.
• Health Daily News (9/13/2010) More Evidence That Vaccines Don't Cause Autism.
628-639 – Calls
644-656 – • Dennis Prager (9/7/2010) Why the Right Fears Transforming America -- and the Left Seeks It.
(1:02) Gingrich: FNS. Newt Gingrich speaks with Chris Wallace about the mosque and Obama on Fox News Sunday @ 9/12/2010.
• Christian News Wire (9/11/2010) Quran Torn-Up at White House: Ten Christians Gathered At White House and Tore Passages from the Quran that Call for Violence Against Christians and Jews.
• Arthur Brooks & Paul Ryan (9/13/2010) The Size of Government and the Choice This Fall. In polls, Americans overwhelmingly prefer small government and low taxes to the alternative. Yet they've been given big government, one program at a time. Mr. Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future" (Basic Books, 2010). Mr. Ryan is a Republican congressman from Wisconsin and the author of "A Roadmap for America's Future".
• Breitbart (9/12/2010) Doomsday warnings of US apocalypse gain ground.
• Fox News (9/13/2010) Gibbs, Boehner Spar Over Tax Cuts as Congress Prepares for Limited Battle.
• Fox News (9/13/2010) Imam Says NYC Mosque Site Is Not 'Hallowed Ground'.
• Ibn Warraq, NRO (9/13/2010) One Imam, Multiple Messages: The truth about the main figure behind the Ground Zero mosque.
• NRO Editors (9/13/2010) Obamacare: Low Politics, High Costs.
• LAT (9/12/2010) A new year, a new school complex for L.A. Unified. The $578-million RFK campus opens on the site of the old Ambassador Hotel.
• Chris Carpenter, CBN (9/13/2010) Author Interview – Frank Pastore: Struck Down But Not Destroyed.
• ABC News (9/12/2010) A Look at Potential Tax Hikes. The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation are due to expire at the end of the year. Congress is set to take up the issue this month. If Congress does nothing, families at every income level face tax increases next year.
2011 Income # tax returns Cum. Tax Increase
Less than $10,000 28,681,000 28M $70
$10,000 to $20,000 24,383,000 53M $410
$20,000 to $30,000 8,523,000 62M $756
$30,000 to $40,000 15,679,000 77M $893
$40,000 to $50,000 13,001,000 90M $923
$50,000 to $75,000 23,972,000 114M $1,126
$75,000 to $100,000 15,245,000 130M $1,837
$100,000 to $200,000 16,885,000 147M $3,672
$200,000 to $500,000 3,757,000 150M $7,187
$500,000 to $1 million 608,000 150.6M $18,092
$1 million and over 315,000 151M $101,587
