Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in Dark Christianity's InsaneJournal:

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
12:57 pm	Goodness Direct and the Jesus Army http://dark-christian.livejournal.com/1165948.html The following was posted by elettaria in her personal journal; I've been given permission to quote it here. Although the group it discusses is not explicitly dominionist in a political sense, there are some things in the description that are very worrisome (particularly the spiritual-warfare rhetoric). Does anyone know more about this group and whether it has any dominionist connections, or whether it's just an ultra-conservative church? Being on a fairly restricted diet, for years I've been using the specialist online retailer Goodness Direct. After a while, I noticed this statement on their site. Back in the 70's a group of Christian friends decided to get together, make flapjack, pack up wholefoods from bulk along with some other healthy goodies, and there began the beginning of Goodness. [...] Throughout all of these years we maintained our basic Christian ethics. We began life as a group of friends, all taking the same wages, and we continue life as a group of friends all earning the same wages. Yes that's right, all of us from managers to fork lift drivers to packers, we all earn the same wage. Radical isn't it? So radical that the BBC decided to do a programme on us for Working Lunch. Being committed Christians (see our church's website) means more than just our Sunday faith - to us it is a way of life and it spills out into our company ethics, our dealings with each other, with our suppliers and with you, our customers. It spills out into the products we sell and why we sell them. It means we deal fairly and squarely with everyone. The website link wasn't there at the time, just some waffle about a Christian charity, but I was vaguely concerned so I rang up and asked if they did any missionary-type work. They told me firmly that they did not. (They lied.) Yesterday I had cause to check that page on their website again, and this time I followed the link to the Jesus Army. Despite their coy suggestion that they are only loosely affiliated with it, they are in fact a part of the Jesus Army, and it's terrifying stuff. Look at their manifesto, for starters. They practice exorcism of demonic spirits. They believe that women should submit to men, and should have long hair and dress differently from men. They have strong opinions on whom members may and may not marry. They hang onto members' children for dear life. This was sounding suspiciously cult-like to me, so I ran a Google search. What came up was beyond alarming. As I'd suspected from their manifesto, women aren't allowed to wear trousers or make-up and must be submissive to men, with stories of extremely restricted behaviour. They have an insane focus on celibacy, to the point where even married couples have to sleep in separate beds. They don't just go evangelising, they target extremely vulnerable people, the homeless, drug addicts and mentally ill, and from what I've gathered it's a "convert if you want any help to survive" deal. People who have visited report that they were followed so closely that they weren't even permitted to go to the toilet alone, and that there was enormous pressure to conform, with one journalist being heavily penalised for slipping away from an all-day prayer session to telephone her mother. Everything is communal, including finances, so it doesn't appear that workers are really paid. Well, some sources say that they'll receive their pay if and when they leave the compound, though others say that they're only paid for a few hours a week and forced to do "voluntary" work the rest of the time. There have been sexual child abuse scandals, and ex-members report the beating of children, although it is unclear whether this is still occurring. And oddly, a rather high number of their members have been murdered, though I have absolutely no idea what's going on there. I am completely horrified to learn where some of my money has been going all these years. If you shop there or know anyone else who does, please pass this on. I'm not telling you where to shop, that's your decision, but I'm urging you to read up on this for yourselves. (Comment on this)
12:57 pm	How to spot a hidden religious agenda http://dark-christian.livejournal.com/1122514.html SOURCE AS A book reviews editor at New Scientist, I often come across so-called science books which after a few pages reveal themselves to be harbouring ulterior motives. I have learned to recognise clues that the author is pushing a religious agenda. As creationists in the US continue to lose court battles over attempts to have intelligent design taught as science in federally funded schools, their strategy has been forced to... well, evolve. That means ensuring that references to pseudoscientific concepts like ID are more heavily veiled. So I thought I'd share a few tips for spotting what may be religion in science's clothing. Red flag number one: the term "scientific materialism". "Materialism" is most often used in contrast to something else - something non-material, or supernatural. Proponents of ID frequently lament the scientific claim that humans are the product of purely material forces. At the same time, they never define how non-material forces might work. I have yet to find a definition that characterises non-materialism by what it is, rather than by what it is not. The invocation of Cartesian dualism - where the brain and mind are viewed as two distinct entities, one material and the other immaterial - is also a red flag. And if an author describes the mind, or any biological system for that matter, as "irreducibly complex", let the alarm bells ring. Misguided interpretations of quantum physics are a classic hallmark of pseudoscience, usually of the New Age variety, but some religious groups are now appealing to aspects of quantum weirdness to account for free will. Beware: this is nonsense. When you come across the terms "Darwinism" or "Darwinists", take heed. True scientists rarely use these terms, and instead opt for "evolution" and "biologists", respectively. When evolution is described as a "blind, random, undirected process", be warned. While genetic mutations may be random, natural selection is not. When cells are described as "astonishingly complex molecular machines", it is generally by breathless supporters of ID who take the metaphor literally and assume that such a "machine" requires an "engineer". If an author wishes for "academic freedom", it is usually ID code for "the acceptance of creationism". If an author wishes for 'academic freedom', it is usually code for 'the acceptance of creationism' Some general sentiments are also red flags. Authors with religious motives make shameless appeals to common sense, from the staid - "There is nothing we can be more certain of than the reality of our sense of self" (James Le Fanu in Why Us?) - to the silly - "Yer granny was an ape!" (creationist blogger Denyse O'Leary). If common sense were a reliable guide, we wouldn't need science in the first place. Religiously motivated authors also have a bad habit of linking the cultural implications of a theory to the truth-value of that theory. The ID crowd, for instance, loves to draw a line from Darwin to the Holocaust, as they did in the "documentary" film Expelled: No intelligence allowed. Even if such an absurd link were justified, it would have zero relevance to the question of whether or not the theory of evolution is correct. Similarly, when Le Fanu writes that Darwin's On the Origin of Species "articulated the desire of many scientists for an exclusively materialist explanation of natural history that would liberate it from the sticky fingers of the theological inference that the beauty and wonder of the natural world was direct evidence for 'A Designer'", his statement has no bearing on the scientific merits of evolution. It is crucial to the public's intellectual health to know when science really is science. Those with a religious agenda will continue to disguise their true views in their effort to win supporters, so please read between the lines. Amanda Gefter is an editor for the Opinion section of New Scientist 28 February 2009 by Amanda Gefter Magazine issue 2697. Cross posted from sceptics (Comment on this)
12:57 pm	Seeking advice http://dark-christian.livejournal.com/1120298.html A dilemma has come up in my family and I'm interested in hearing what y'all think of it. Because of this crappy economy, and because his current company is laying him off this spring, my brother is seriously considering joining the Air Force for lack of any other job opportunities. This bothers me on several levels, not least of which because I fear him getting shipped over to someplace like Iraq (though granted, he's aiming for a mechanic-type position and not an actual combat enlistment, but still...), but also because of the disturbing things I've heard about the dominionist infiltration of the military (including the Air Force). I realize this isn't my decision to make. But I also don't want my brother getting blindsided by something he knows nothing about (re: the dominionist threat), and if nothing else, I'd like to give him some cautionary advice concerning dominionism in the military. So I'd like to ask those of you who have extensive knowledge and/or experience in this particular area (I'm thinking sunfell and dogemperor in particular) if you would be willing to sum up in layman's terms the situation he could face, and/or permit email contact, since I think it would be better coming from someone who knows their stuff, whereas I'm not liable to be taken seriously on account of I have no familiarity with the subject (that, plus my brother leans strong conservative while I'm more socially liberal and we have serious differences on certain topics). I appreciate any help you can give. (Comment on this)