Friday, August 17, 2007

The American Taliban on CNN

This is a preview of Christiane Amanpour's upcoming series "God's Warriors" that takes a look at the group 'Battle Cry' breeding hate and intolerance under the guise of religion right here in the US. "Armed with faith and prepared for battle" ... "against the evils of secular society and pop culture," Battle Cry's members are taught by their leader Ron Luce, that they must retake America from those he ironically refers to as the "virtue terrorists that are destroying our kids" ... "raping virgin teenage America on the sidewalk."
Watch it:

Pam Spaulding:

God’s Warriors and the homegrown ‘Battle Cry’

Rolling Stone did a piece on Luce and his movement back in April, “Teenage Holy War.” *
They rise, heartened; the crowd, en masse, swears off “harlots and adultery”; the twenty-one-year-old MC twitches taut a chain across the ass of her skintight red jeans and summons the followers to show off their best dance moves for God. ...

“When you enlist in the military, there’s a code of honor,” Luce preaches, “same as being a follower of Christ.” His Christian code requires a “wartime mentality”: a “survival orientation” and a readiness to face “real enemies.” The queers and communists, feminists and Muslims, to be sure, but also the entire American cultural apparatus of marketing and merchandising, the “techno-terrorists” of mass media, doing to the morality of a generation what Osama bin Laden did to the Twin Towers. “Just as the events of September 11th, 2001, permanently changed our perspective on the world,” Luce writes, “so we ought to be awakened to the alarming influence of today’s culture terrorists. They are wealthy, they are smart, and they are real.
”Even as he tells kids to swear off pop culture, Luce doesn’t swear off capitalism, cashing in for Jesus by making money selling Battle Cry books, t-shirts, and videos.

When you have cult of personality BS going at this level, you know the power over these kids has likely gone to Luce’s head. At this rate, how long will it be before he’s caught with a hooker, or at a rest stop blowing some guy, or, heaven forbid, molesting an underage kid? It’s only a matter of time with folks like this if the current trend holds.