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Who are the Branch Carbonians?
Washington Examiner ^
| 09/24/09
| Mark Tapscott
Posted on 09/25/2009 11:34:52 PM PDT by neverdem
Are radical environmentalists members of a political movement or more like the devotees of a religious cult, one that might dubbed the Branch Carbonians? Truespeak.org’s Jim Guirardi suggests the label and offers an illuminating case for the latter in this post from the American Thinker.
There is much more to Guirardi’s piece, but as a sample, here are his 10 reasons these fanatical devotees qualify as participants in a cult. If these sound somehow familiar, they are based on the criteria elaborated upon in the 2003 book,
“Kingdom of the Cults,” by Walter Martin and Ravi Zacharia:
1. Leadership by a self-glorifying, manipulative New Age Prophet -- in this case, former Vice-President Al Gore, though he is rapidly being supplanted by President Barack Obama.
2. Assertion of an apocalyptic threat to all mankind.
3. An absolutist definition of both the threat and the proposed solution(s).
4. Promise of a salvation from this pending apocalypse.
5. Devotion to an inspired text which (arguendo) embodies all the answers -- in this case, Prophet Gore's pseudo-scientific book "Earth in the Balance" and his more recent "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary.
6. A specific list of "truths" (see the Ten Commandments listed below) which must be embraced and proselytized by all Cult members..
7. An absolute intolerance of any deviation from any of these truths by any Cult member.
8. A strident intolerance of any outside criticism of the Cult's definition of the problem or of its proposed solutions.
9. A "Heaven-on-Earth" vision of the results of the mission's success and/or a "Hell-on-Earth" result if the cultic mission should fail.
10. An inordinate fear (and an outright rejection of the possibility) of being proven wrong in either the apocalyptic vision or the proposed salvation.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agw; catastrophism; climatechange; cults; globalwarming
1
posted on
09/25/2009 11:34:52 PM PDT
by
neverdem
To: neverdem
We already knew they were drinking Kool-Aid.
2
posted on
09/25/2009 11:39:37 PM PDT
by
DHSMostWanted
(Almost 1 year after Obama was elected, the new V series premieres. Perfect!)
To: neverdem
I've been calling them "dirt-worshippers" for years, and I know I was not the first.
They left out the part where they commit mass suicide, but from the proposed crap they are pushing in Congress, they want the whole country to go with them.
3
posted on
09/25/2009 11:44:37 PM PDT
by
Smokin' Joe
(How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
To: neverdem
Those 10 reasons fit the Russian communist state quite well.
4
posted on
09/26/2009 1:05:07 AM PDT
by
thedilg
To: neverdem
Those 10 reasons fit the Russian communist state quite well.
5
posted on
09/26/2009 1:05:35 AM PDT
by
thedilg
To: neverdem
It may take more than facts to de-program the Branch Carbonians. They will need to replace their cult-like beliefs with something else.
6
posted on
09/26/2009 1:31:01 AM PDT
by
Need4Truth
(Quarentine DC)
To: neverdem
7
posted on
09/26/2009 2:51:19 AM PDT
by
AmericanVictory
(Should we be more like them or they more like we used to be?)
To: neverdem
powerful-delusion alert.
Chesterton once wrote -- in answer to the charge the Catholicism is too "rigid and authoratarian" -- that the religious impulse in man is so powerful, wanton and insatiable that, apart from the guidance of the Church -- drives people to do some really weird things, like cut themselves, etc.
Of course he wrote that before people flew passenger jets into skyscrapers, but it's the same idea.
ditto for this secular religion that man has created upon rejecting the true one.
The authority of the Church is for man's benefit, not the Church's. Of course, most people still don't get it...
8
posted on
09/26/2009 3:10:19 AM PDT
by
the invisib1e hand
(dear world: we are so sorry for Barack Hussein Obama. Can you ever forgive us? ** hang the Czars.)
To: neverdem
Settle these cultists on an island and give them each a paper lunch bag with a bologna sandwich, bag of chips, can of Coke and a hand grenade and let’s see what happens.
9
posted on
09/26/2009 3:50:00 AM PDT
by
sergeantdave
(obuma is the anti-Lincoln, trying to re-establish slavery)
To: neverdem
6. A specific list of "truths" (see the Ten Commandments listed below) which must be embraced and proselytized by all Cult members..Where are the 10 commandments he refers to?
To: neverdem
“Branch Carbonians”
Great name for the envirowackos!
11
posted on
09/26/2009 4:14:00 AM PDT
by
RoadTest
( Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols - Psalm 97:12a)
To: neverdem; rdl6989; Little Bill; IrishCatholic; Normandy; According2RecentPollsAirIsGood; ...
12
posted on
09/26/2009 5:08:58 AM PDT
by
steelyourfaith
(Limit all U.S. politicians to two terms: One in office and one in prison!)
To: neverdem
Men defend most violently not the things they know to be true, but the things they fear may be false: Global Warming, Islam, Communism, ... the list goes on. Explains Red Sox Nation, a truly bizarre cult.
To: neverdem
“Branch Carbonians” - I like that.
(And it was classic watching Rush on the Leno video back up to run over the Algore effigy a second time ...)
14
posted on
09/26/2009 7:32:25 AM PDT
by
altair
("We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as president of America." - Gadhafi)
To: neverdem
SECULAR FUNDAMENTALISTS...!!!
15
posted on
09/26/2009 2:36:57 PM PDT
by
gaijin
To: 75thOVI; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; BBell; ...
16
posted on
09/28/2009 6:59:17 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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