The Christian Right ...or Wrong?

Introductory Chapter

The world is full of religionists who use their sacred Scriptures to suit their own agendas. Had Bin Laden not sanctified violence as a means to further his 'holy' cause, he would be just another selfish leader using spiritual texts for fear-mongering and separatism.

The global religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are directly linked to the God of Abraham. All three are entrusted with God's Message of the Spirit, which instructs believers to overcome evil with Good, yet all three have, past and present , shown themselves remarkably separatist. They feed and breed idolatry (man-made rituals, fears, and superstitions), and continue to force suffering and death upon those of differing beliefs. Though each thinks itself the 'way' to Salvation, all have grown into false religions, betraying God's Spirit.

Religious businesses that use Scriptures to secure power and control over the souls and pocketbooks of the masses for self-serving reasons were created by humans, not God.

Jesus rejected Israel's scholars and Temple priests because they had made an idolatrous business of God's Word to enrich, empower, and exalt themselves. His Message of the Spirit of the Law over the Letter of the Law attracted masses of Jews away from the Temple, a serious threat to the status of the scholars, priests, and their temple trade. Unable to defeat His Message, they went after the Messenger, seeing to it that He was captured, which led to His death.

God does not instruct the building of corporate temples for idolatrous worship, but the building of the Temple Within, a Temple of Spirit built upon Selfless Love and Good Works. He instructs you to overcome your evil with Good, and reveals these forces to be relative to your heart and motivations . He instructs you not to judge others as hellbound for their sins, because as you judge others for their sins, so shall you, in the end , be judged likewise for yours ('he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone,' John 8:7).

Corporate religions are 'mindsets' that, to thrive , must unite individual minds to their exclusive cause. Indoctrination usually begins in childhood, when enslaving the human mind to idolatrous worship is met with least resistance. The enemy of idolatrous religion is the Spirit Within, which breaks the yoke of idolatry and leads to Salvation.

Romans 8:11 (authored by Apostle Paul )

11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. [But if the Spirit of God that resurrected Christ dwells Within you, the Good Spirit shall quicken you unto Salvation.]

It is human selfishness grinding the gears of religions that serve-up separatism, intolerance, murders, and wars. Can we ever know the depths of misery that 'Holy and Righteous' corporate religionists have wrought upon humanity in the name of God? What do you think September 11 th was about? It was born of the same selfishness that birthed the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Ku Klux Klan, and every separatist, holier-than-thou zealot in history.

A bear cannot catch fish if it cannot see past the pond's rippling surface. The creature's success requires a shift of perception. Realizing the Bible's Message of the Spirit requires a shift of perception . We must look beyond the Bible's literal, 'surface' messages of interwoven contrasts and contradictions to capture its underlying Message of the Spirit (we must see past the 'ripples' to capture God's 'food' for our souls).

Jesus reminds us that knowing the Spirit requires eyes that 'see' and ears that 'hear,' which is not about opening our visual and auditory organs, but about opening our minds.

One famous scene shows Jesus and His Apostles upon the stormy Sea of Galilee . Jesus, asleep in the pitching boat, is awakened by them, as they fear for their lives, being of 'little faith.' Jesus shows His power of God, the Spirit Within Him , when He commands, 'Peace, be still,' calming the winds and waters (Mark 4:36-41; Luke 8:22-25). He is revealing that faith is the power to overcome evil (fear; chaos; ignorance) with Good (trust; peace; wisdom). Faith is the Spirit Within, the power to command peace and wisdom over fearful troubles and emotions.

Calming the stormy sea by bringing peace to its surface illustrates that you have the power to overcome your mind's troubles ('stormy seas') by lifting the Spirit Within to the forefront of your consciousness'| a shift of perception .

The Bible is like a 'stormy sea' when interpreted by fearful, unenlightened minds that lawyer its Scriptures to death. They bicker over the Letter of the Law and suppress its Message of the Spirit, giving rise to so many various and turbulent, contradictory interpretations of the Bible. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all born of the Bible , use Scriptures to justify their corporate systems of idolatry, denying the Bible's 'still, small voice' that is its quiet, constant undercurrent of the Good Spirit.

We are repeatedly instructed to overcome the 'world' with the Spirit, and so too must we overcome the worldly, visible, literal, contradictory, 'surface' messages of the Bible with its One Message of the Spirit. We are to overcome the Letter of the Law with the Spirit of the Law .

Corporate Christianity is split into hundreds of sects, because it denies Oneness and embraces separatism. God's Message of the Spirit is diminished, even fully ignored by religionists lacking eyes to see and ears to hear . If you choose to be spoon-fed the Bible from the minds of corporate religionists, beware to discern the 'wheat' from the 'chaff.'

Eyes that see and ears that hear are needed in order to separate the Bible's fruitful 'wheat' from its unfruitful 'chaff' [the 'wheat' is the Truth that supersedes all else (the Bible's Message of the Spirit; the Spirit of the Law) ; the 'chaff' are lesser truths (inconsequential truths; the Letter of the Law)] . Lesser truths, when EXALTED over the Spirit, become lies. Preachers who serve-up chaff feed their audience Spiritless instruction. If chaff is to be served up, it must be kept in its proper perspective. Better to serve up only the wheat .

The 'wheat and the chaff' is like Jesus' allegory in which a house built upon rock will survive, unlike a house built upon sand (Matthew 7:26- 27). The 'house' is your soul. Is your soul of the strong foundation of the Spirit of the Law (built upon the 'rock'; fed upon the 'wheat') or of the weak foundation of the Letter of the Law (built upon the 'sand'; fed upon the 'chaff')?

The Bible is like a desert of sand (Letter of the Law) threaded with a singular, direct path of rock (Spirit of the Law). The rock path is The Way to Salvation. Preachers who elevate the Letter of the Law over the Spirit of the Law are, metaphorically speaking , throwing a cloud of sand above the rock path, obscuring The Way for many of their followers.

#14 - Hagee, John (February, 2000)

Are you sincere, are you real, or are you a cosmetic Christian? God is turning up the heat and He's exposing the hidden sin, the phony, the pompous, and the religious stuffed-shirts who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. God's exposing that in America.

If God is exposing Christian hypocrisy in America, then one of the ways He's doing it is through this book. You decide.

My authority to challenge corporate-Christian mindsets is the Bible's Message of the Spirit, which they unmistakably deny. I am an independent scholar who, having never been indoctrinated in corporate religion , is not beholding to Catholicism, Protestantism or any of man's church systems. I have been moved since early childhood to help others, and hope this work serves towards the fulfillment of that goal.

#14 - Hagee, John (October 24, 1999)

Some people say, 'Well, I really don't know if the Bible is true, it's so full of errors.' How many of you have heard people make that asinine statement?

No, not an asinine statement considering: 1) the English-language Bible arrived through many language translations; 2) there are Biblical passages that, when interpreted literally , contradict other Biblical passages; and 3) the Four Gospels were written anywhere from 50 to 150 years after Jesus' death. Add to that the evident separatism that split Christianity into hundreds of sects, each built upon varying interpretations of Scriptures.  Is it any wonder why people question the validity of the Bible?

(1 minute, 7 seconds later)

There is no error in Scripture. Perceived error is the fruit of stupidity. I wanna let that thought sit in just a little bit. Perceived error is the fruit of stupidity, and you can have a Ph.D. and be stupid.

There are depths of the Bible that have not yet surfaced into human consciousness. It is only natural for human minds to question perceived inconsistencies when working to unravel and decode the Bible's complex, interwoven, historical, literal, spiritual, multi-dimensional, interconnected stories .

What may appear to us as error is more likely our human lack of understanding. Let us agree that the Bible is without error, that all of its messages are truths. Are its truths to be weighed equally, none being greater or lesser? God forbid . Preachers who weigh all Scriptures equally, not discerning the greater from the lesser, commit a monumental injustice that breeds confusion and spiritual weakness.

This work serves to educate and enlighten through fair and thoughtful criticisms of public messages delivered by Christian leaders, messages that, collectively, reach hundreds of millions worldwide every week.

If you are reading these words, I am delighted you have come this far. I write matter-of-factly, with no intention of offending. If your mind reads this work and your anger is stirred towards me, then seek not to blame me. I do not have the power to make you angry or offended or anything for that matter . This work is a no-nonsense exposé of corporate religions, written not to insult, but to Enlighten.

I researched over 700 hours of Christian leaders who appeared on television ministries, talk shows, and news programs. I did not target any particular ministry or sect. In five years, I had transcribed over 600 pages of false teachings from over 70 preachers. These 'traditional' lies about God and Christ are timeless, passed on from generation to generation , and, per Jesus, shall be taught to the very end. This book presents a robust sampling of the selfishness at the heart of corporate Christianity.

Of the many preachers studied, this book presents 40, most of whom are American televangelists. The fact that some preachers are cited more than others was not by design. All quoted materials are dated as to when they aired on television, spanning from mid-1998 through mid-2003 (an interesting block of years that presents a 'before and after' snapshot of Christian teachings through the much-prophesied-about entrance into the new millennium).

This book is an updated, reworked version of Big Ol' Christian Lies: False Teachings from the Pulpit , which did not name the names of the excerpted preachers, as I wanted to direct the focus upon only their false messages. In time, I learned that naming names was essential to the credibility of the work, having been accused of inventing the unnamed preachers . Even so, it wasn't until I heard the Christless excuses spewed by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson regarding the atrocities of September 11 th that I knew, absolutely, that names were to be named to add credibility to the work and to hold these leaders accountable for their false teachings.

Understand that any one message given by any one preacher within this book is not a full representation of that preacher's body of work. Undoubtedly, they believe they are teaching the 'right thing,' not aware that they are caught in a corporate web of idolatrous worship. Many of them have yet to think beyond their programmed 'mindsets.' You might ask: 'So what?' So plenty! because they are leaders who enrich, empower, and exalt their corporate religions by teaching hundreds of millions to embrace separatism and idolatry over the Oneness Message of the Spirit .

All the quoted material in this work was transcribed verbatim. With extreme care, no quote was taken out of the context of any speech, interview, or sermon.

Due to the serious and potentially-controversial nature of this work, and to prevent being accused of having taken preaching's out of context for critical review, it was necessary, in some cases , that I not chop-up a segment of preaching into shorter segments, but keep it intact, thereby more-fully showing the context in which the preaching was delivered.

I make no comments about how any preacher's message was delivered, though having witnessed hundreds of hours of all-over-the-place emotions and way-over-the-top theatrics, I find it hard to believe that preachers who scream, demand, patronize, mock, and judge, doing so with tireless affectations , are serving up God's word truthfully, sincerely, faithfully, and with humility.

Should you come to see and hear the Spirit more acutely after reading this book, the credit belongs to you and God, as Enlightenment comes via the Spirit Within, and is ultimately yours to accept or reject. Everything has its season, including your spiritual awareness, and everyone is at a different level of spiritual evolution, including myself and the preachers excerpted in this book.

I am well aware that my soul is at stake should I misinform you in any way. With all my heart, I present this work for your consideration, to influence you to realize and embrace the Enlightenments of the Spirit.