Religion & Politics: Brownwood, Crawford & Israel
Being discussed on Brownwood Talk Radio. Call in guest was Rev. Jim Vinyard ( background-see below - adherents of Revava, the far-right Jewish group and background information. ).
April 11, 2005 THE WORLD
Bush, Sharon to Meet as Tension Brews
* Differences over West Bank settlements and pressure from rightist blocs at home may stir discord between allies at today's Texas summit.
By Peter Wallsten and Tyler Marshall, Times Staff Writers
CRAWFORD, Texas — Throughout their shared time in office, President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have been ideological soul mates, each man reaping political windfalls with key voting blocs at home for their cooperation.
But as Bush and Sharon meet at the president's ranch today, the potential for discord between the two friends and fellow ranchers looms larger than ever. And for both men, the political crosscurrents are increasingly complicated as each faces growing pressure from right-leaning supporters who worry that Israel is giving up too much, too fast to the Palestinians.
---------------------
" The strain in Bush's base will be evident today in Crawford, just a few miles from his ranch, when a group of Baptist preachers and Orthodox rabbis holds a rally to protest the road map and the Gaza withdrawal. Some plan to wear bright orange shirts and hats with the message, "Israel belongs to the Jews."
"I love President Bush, I voted for him twice. But I have no idea why he's doing this," said the Rev. Jim Vineyard, pastor of the 3,500-member Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and a rally organizer.
"I wish I could be with President Bush for 15 minutes," Vineyard added, "to stand with him with a Bible and tell him that when he stands before the judgment seat of Christ, he will have to give an answer to the Lord Jesus Christ why he gave the little land of Israel to the Arabs." "
-----------------------
Background info:
Police halt 'ultranationalist' Jerusalem protest
(Filed: 10/04/2005)
Israeli police have prevented a march by ultranationalists on a site in Jerusalem that is sacred to Jews as well as to Muslims. Police carry away a protestor
The march on what Muslims call Haram al-Sharif and Jews call Temple Mount was due to be in protest against Israel's plan to pull settlers out of the Gaza Strip, but was banned because of the threat it posed to the peace process.
Thousands of police were ready to stop adherents of Revava, the far-right Jewish group, but only a small number eventually turned up for the march and there were only a handful of arrests.
Palestinian militants had threatened to abandon a ceasefire with Israel if the march went ahead.
The compound houses the 1,300-year-old al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock mosque and is Islam's third holiest site.
It is also sacred for Jews, treasured as the spot where King Solomon's Temple, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, once stood.
Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is due to meet US President George W Bush tomorrow to discuss the peace process.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/10/uisrael.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/10/ixportaltop.html
-------------------
Know your Guest ?
Friday, February 13, 2004
Outed!
Jim Vineyard formerly on staff at First Baptist of Hammond (Jack Hyles' church), has been the subject of previous posts on the FFF from men who left Vineyard's present church (Windsor Hills Baptist Church) and school (Oklahoma Bible College). While verbal abuse, violence, intimidation, crude language, and even corporal punishment have figured in previous discussions about Vineyard, the most shocking allegation is that he has told married women to masturbate in order to sexually arouse themselves for their husbands. Jerry Watson has asserted more than once that when he and his wife went to Vineyard for counseling, this is exactly what Vineyard told his wife to do. At least one other person gave an account of Vineyard telling a woman to look at herself nude in a mirror and do this.
In terms of sexual obsessions and indiscretion in language and actions, Vineyard's alleged homophobia is already legend, and he is credited for seeing tendencies to homosexuality in other men where there are none. It amounts to a mania according to some who briefly joined his inner circle of hunting and fishing buddies.
But now, evangelist Tim Lee has produced what he claims is a letter from a pastor to Vineyard, rebuking Vineyard for telling a young woman about oral sex in graphic detail. The Evangelist has also produced what he claims is Vineyard's reply to the pastor, a letter in which the recipient is called a "pharisaical 'fart' of a pastor" and a "squirt".
If you read the FFF, you realize of course that Tim Lee resorts to namecalling frequently, though he seldoms uses sexual innuendo. He contents himself mostly with calling lost people idiots, though he makes a regular habit of it, and runs a quasi-column on who is currently on his idiot list. But even his indifference to the requirements of his own office for kindness and dignity pale in comparison to the excesses of Jim Vineyard, if those excesses are true.
There currently are enough witnesses against Jim Vineyard to validate the situation of him speaking inappropriately to women as a problem that needs to be investigated by the elders. But this problem, of course, takes place in the disobedient churches of Independent Baptist Fundamentalists, where there are no elders: just one pastor and several subservient deacons. The pastor is not held in check by a board of peers, and other fundamentalist pastors do not preach against the corruption that every day increases in fundamentalism.
So even though everybody who reads the letters are shocked, nobody is going to take any real steps to do anything. And Jim Vineyard, if he has really done any of these things, will get away with it.
http://www.pipeline.com/~jeriwho1/2004_02_08_archive.html
<< Home