14/07/2005
The 700 Club
The 700 Club
I am a glutton for punishment. I try to swim two to three miles every morning. On days that I don’t swim I try to run, or at least do some yoga to stay flexible. But physical torture isn’t always enough so I turned on “The 700 Club” for some mental torture today.
That statement was a lie. The swimming, running and yoga were true, but watching “The 700 Club” was a lie. Actually when we went to the gym this morning I went to the pool and my wife went to run on the treadmill. While she was on the treadmill she started watching the TVs hanging from the ceiling. In our gym there are multiple TVs hanging from the ceiling and you need to tune your radio to an FM frequency to pick up the sound. For the last few days the TV with the comedy shows being broadcast had trouble broadcasting the sound, so my wife began to watch “The 700 Club” on another TV.
After our workouts she brought me the news. She told me that The 700 Club is now telling its viewers to prepare for Nuclear War. Well, if you don’t know, the 700 Club is a TV show where they tell their viewers to be saved by Jesus Christ because the end of the World is at hand. Sometimes they tell you other things, but it is usually because they are trying to get to the main point along the way.
The problem is that they have millions of people watching their show, but only 700 are going to be saved. Hence the name. [As a disclaimer to those Christians who thought that the 700 Club actually did mean that only 700 people would be saved and went to the 700 Club web page I will point out that this is meant to be sarcasm. The 700 club was actually founded by 700 members who invested $10.00 each to get the scam ...er program off the ground. The idea was that they could run a scam where they would tell viewers that the end of the world was near and they should donate all their worldly possessions to the 700 Club. Obviously the 700 Club wasn’t very creative, just look at the name. Anyway, Pat Robertson was heard saying, “If only one millionaire were to donate to us we would get, uh… a lot of money each. Just think about it.” (sorry, that was satire.)] Of course their viewers are all convinced that they are the saved ones. The shows producers think that the 700 should be chosen based on the number of viewer hours each person has, therefore the 700 with the highest number of viewer hours are the saved ones. I’m guessing that God doesn’t see eye to eye with the producers.
So, why is this interesting?
This is interesting because the 700 club is now telling their viewers that Iran is the new nuclear threat. Of course twenty-five years ago it was the Russians. And three years ago it was Iraq. Now it’s Iran.
So, this means that the Radical Right who are the faithful viewers of this extremist show are now being told that they are subject to the wrath of Iran. Does everyone remember what happened when Condi and George told their Radical Right Followers that Iraq was going to cause mushroom clouds to appear over our cities? Of course, we invaded Iraq and we killed over 100,000 Iraqis, and nearly 2000 Americans.
Are we ready to do this again?
Well, I think that we should know what the enemy is thinking. It doesn’t matter if the enemy is coming from outside of the US, or from within. We should all be prepared to fight the enemy within with the Democratic war of words. And, we should know that “The 700 Club” is one aspect of the enemy within.
politics and religion
15:50 Posted in Culture, Politics, Religion | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this | Tags: religion
Comments
You talk about Rightist "lies" and the right being in denial, yet you write garbage like:
" The problem is that they have millions of people watching their show, but only 700 are going to be saved. Hence the name."
No. Did you just make that up? Or did someone lie / deceive / speak that mistakenly to you? Is your science that sloppy?
Come to think of it, have you published anything scientific on your blog? Or is this "Dr" thing a charade? I see reference to it on your other site -- but then, this post is so full of factual errors, what should one believe?
"Of course, we invaded Iraq and we killed over 100,000 Iraqis, and nearly 2000 Americans."
Definitely not that....
Posted by: Dan | 14/07/2005
Yes I did make it up, and yes I know that the 700 founders are the source of the name...
Posted by: Dr. Forbush | 14/07/2005
I was under the impression that terrorists were killing Americans and Iraqis in Iraq.
Maybe you are using language and arithemetic loosely?
What was the purpose of knowingly mistating the origins of the 700 Club name? Or were you ignorant of the truth at the time?
Posted by: Dan | 14/07/2005
I am sorry that you weren't able to pick up on the tone of the post from the first paragraph.
However, the essence of "The 700 Club" is that only a few can get to heaven. Whether it is 700 or not isn't the point. Assuming you can pick up on the tone of the post I don't believe that I am out of line. Perhaps I'll experiment more along these lines, it seems to have struck a nerve.
Posted by: Dr. Forbush | 14/07/2005
Also, I didn't know that the terrorists had MOABs that they could drop in the middle of cities and still miss Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Dr. Forbush | 14/07/2005
"only a few can get to heaven"
Oh? What number? I have never heard that. Please, how many is "few." Or is this another case where "tone" allows you to speak untruths?
"I didn't know that the terrorists had MOABs that they could drop in the middle of cities"
Misdirection. Or are you claiming that a single MOAB blast killed a hundred thousand?
Posted by: Dan | 15/07/2005
Dan, you'll be happy to know that I put a disclaimer in my post to correct any misconception by those who have trouble with sarcasm.
American soldiers killed a large number of Iraqis with indiscriminate force. They killed more Iraqis than terrorists killed Americans in 9/11. Of course this indiscriminate use of force was justified on false information and fear mongering. You can quibble about the numbers but a true American patriotic Christian should be more concerned with the facts and lies the government is telling its citizens than whether exaggeration, satire and sarcasm should be permitted in a blog.
As to the number of those going to heaven, I sure I don't know. But extremist Christians claim that only those who are saved by Christ are going. This surely limits your pool right off.
Posted by: Dr. Forbush | 15/07/2005
I am sorry you are not able to write clearly, so that the reader may understand what is sarcasm and what is not. Your factual inaccuracies and mistatements are so common and repetitive it blinds one's ability to see when you are purposefully yet humorously incorrect (that is, sarcast), when you are purposefully but not humorously incorrect (that is, lying), to when you are accidentally incorrect (that is, just plain wrong).
For instance, earlier you argued that the US killed somewhere on the order of one-hundred thousand Iraqis. Now you compare it to the events of 9/11, which caused somewhere around a factor of thirty times less fatalities. A factor of thirty is pretty big, yet you effortless shift from one to the other.
Are you this loose with numbers in your scientific work?
Posted by: Dan | 15/07/2005
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