A blogger named Sara Robinson (who contributes to The Group News Blog, Orcinus, and OurFuture.org) has written many excellent articles detailing the rise of right-wing extremism. In this post, she discusses some of the criteria intelligence agencies use to determine if a group is simply crazy or on the road to domestic terrorism.
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/how-dangerous-flds
It's a good exercise to read the post and consider how our various houses of worship measure up according to these criteria.
Twelve Factors For Determining If Your Church/Mosque Is Simply Unhealthy Or Downright Dangerous
1. Marching Toward the Apocalypse
2. A Theology of Violence
3. The Chosen One
4. Goin' Up To The Country
5. Political Influence
6. Takin' Care of Business
7. Crimes of Intimidation
8. Increasingly violent rhetoric
9. Blaming the government
10. Intensification of illegal activities
11. Shaming the Leader
12. Blundering Authority
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2 comments:
Khadija
Hi how are you today?
What's your position on tithing for a church? Or giving any money towards a churches funds or 'community projects'?
AK,
I'm a little tired from my allergies today. Thank you for asking.
I don't know what various Christian doctrines are regarding tithing; so I can't directly speak to that.
What I will say is that I don't like the unprofessional manner in which so many Black institutions (including houses of worship) handle money. I don't like the lack of transparency or accountability. I think it's better to have a transparent process with regularly scheduled financial reports to the members.
It seems to me that any sort of organization would require membership dues in order to have a minimal expected budget for the year. I've heard that some Jewish synagogues charge annual membership dues.
Having fixed membership dues (with people being free to contribute more if they wish) and regularly scheduled fundraisers seems like a more orderly way of handling things, instead of passing the hat around repeatedly while begging the audience for money.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
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