Entry #066: Joseph Chambers

”The children and youth of America are living in a crisis-type existence. The basic character traits of a healthy, Christian culture have been lost [...] It was not that many years ago when pre-marital sex was utterly taboo because of a simple respect for our sacred bodies.”

Thus begins Chambers’s essay ”Unclean Children Troubled By Evil Spirits”, which you can find here (and the depravity concerns mainly women – Chambers doesn’t seem to be very well-versed in modern views on gender equality). What is the reason for this downfall? Well, it’s the demons. Literally: Out to create a new Sodom and Gomorrah by possessing the children. The gateways are, according to Chambers, occult books such as Harry Potter, cartoons, ”Rock music and other aberrant forms of entertainment [that] are running rampant in Satanism.” (and of course ”Homosexuality and lesbianism is Satan’s ultimate slap in God’s face”).

So who is this guy? Joseph Chambers is the head of Paw Creek Ministries, is proud to describe himself as being a "classical Pentecostal preacher" and operates a two-hour radio program called "Open Bible Dialogue." The website for his ministry is here - a classic study in fire and brimstone, and lots of clever advice for dealing with the immanent end of times.

You can find a total of 78 essays of his here. Among the more appealing looking ones are ”#12 Tattoos & Body Mutilation”, ’#18 Hell is Rehearsing for Armageddon’, ’#29 Do Muslims Believe Obama is "Islamic Messiah?”’, ”#45 Warfare Praying”, ”#65. Signs in the Sun and Moon; 2010” and ”#71. Horrors of Hell! – but there are literally days of good reading material there.

Lots of attacks on other rapturists there (such as this), and even more on Catholics and Muslims (Islam is a blasphemous cult that will be utterly destroyed). See the essay titled ”Islamic radicals and God’s solution”, which sounds uncannily like something that could’ve been a joint-piece by Heydrich & Streicher anno 1942, although not with ”Islamic” in the title.

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Diagnosis: Clinically insane; his influence is probably limited, but Chambers should really be kept locked up and far away from people. This guy needs serious, professional help.

Entry #055: Thomas A. Carder

While Christians Against Cartoons, who deemed "Dora the Explorer: Dance to the Rescue" to be potentially the most dangerous and blasphemous cartoon they had yet reviewed, is (probably) a spoof, corollaries of Poe’s Law guarantees that it’s going to be hard to tell. This one, for instance, is not.

Neither is Thomas A. Carder. The ChildCare Action Project is a real organization, and this website – despite the blinking lights and striking design – is dead serious. Officially it is an entertainment media analysis service devoted to reporting on the content of films to parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more that they might be in a better position to make an informed moral decision on their own whether a film is fit. Carder’s own biography is seriously disturbing as well. So is their Wikipedia page (who wants to bet this one wasn’t written by Carder himself?). Among the factors that make a movie be deemed unsuitable are ”mentioning evolution, using the word God, and slapstick violence” (not to mention such godlessness as the movie featuring scenes in bars and suchlike).

The CAP review of South Park is a good example (Carder emphasizes that children don’t like it, but feel pressured to pretend it’s fun in front of their parents). The one on Natural Born Killers is another representative entry (apparently Carder is as dutybound to view these analogously to how ”Paul didn't ignore the extremes in Corinth”).

The fact that the site needs disclaimers that denies any allegiance both to the Westboro Baptist Church of Fred Phelps and to the hilarious Landover Baptist Church should tell you all you need to know about what kind of project this is. The intensity of the project seems to have abated a little the last couple of years (fewer updates), but it’s still going pretty strong.

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Diagnosis: Completely unhinged, evil madman. Has actually gained some fame and probably some influence. His activities might easily distance potential sympathizers just as much as attract them, however.

Entry #035: William G Boykin

a.k.a Lieutenant General “My God is bigger than your God” Boykin

Purveyor of possibly the most staggeringly bizarre argument ever made, concerning G. Bush after his reelection: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this”.

Boykin (now retired) was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation. He is also a born-again Christian, author of "Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom". Boykin has cast the "War on Terror" in Biblical terms, seeing the war on terror as a battle between good and evil, or more precisely, between the soldiers of Jesus and the heretics (a Pentagon investigation concluded in 2004 that he had violated regulations by failing to explain these remarks were not made in an official capacity). As an example, listen to Boykin giving a speech about hunting down Osman Atto in Mogadishu: "He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." Hence his nickname. Believes that terrorists are after America not primarily because terrorists hate freedom but because Muslims hate Christians and the U.S. is a firmly Christian Nation (see the entry for David Barton in the Encyclopedia).

Boykin’s relative loudness and official position eventually lead even to George Bush officially emphasizing that Boykin’s statements in no way reflected the point of view of the president or the administration (Rumsfeld took Boykin’s side, however). Pat Buchanan is also a fan of Boykin, apparently subscribing to the view taken by several WorldNetDaily columnists that the criticism of Boykin is an attack on Christian values in America by the Democratic Party.

Some quotes here.

A (relatively) sympathetic interview here.

And he's still running strong and bright. This time, apparently Obama has created brownshirt groups (Nazi-style) to force in healthcare. You can see Boykin interviewed by Bryan Fischer here. This one is worth having a look at as well.

Boykin endorses Santorum for the 2012 elections, and plenty of crazy is brought in the wake of that...and when subjected to criticism, he reacts just the way you'd expect from a first-class fundamentalist bigot.

More fantastically ridiculous paranoia here. (You didn't know that US Department of Treasury was undergoing profound changes to become sharia friendly, did you?) (also here) To think that this guy used to be in a position of actual power is pretty baffling.

Here's Boykin again claiming that Islam (and therefore secularism, since these are the same things) is Satan's willing whore. Reason-wise, it is still clearly going downhill for Boykin. And it started out pretty low.

He's now been added to the roster of the Family Research Council. Serves him right.

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Diagnosis: Batshit insane. Has probably contributed significantly to making the world a worse place to be.

Entry #014: David Barton

This one is my personal favorite. We have mentioned the historical revisionists/reconstructionists before, but Barton is perhaps the most prominent advocate for religiously zealous, Orwellian reconstruction of American history to fit Christian fundamentalist ideals. Barton is a crank historian and Christian Nation apologist (and activist) and founder of Wallbuilders; has written extensively on the alleged religious fundamentalism of the founding fathers and the “true intent” of the constitution as a foundation for a theocracy. Has been caught lying, cherry-picking and fabricating material many, many times, as discussed here (in particular fabricating quotes he attribute to the founding fathers). Many of the alleged quotes have achieved lives of their own, even though Barton has admitted to lying. More here and here.



The problem is that his writing has exerted profound influence over the Texas Board of Education and other radically religious curriculum builders. And of course, his ideological commitments ensure that he can say virtually whatever he wants without being called out by his allies.

Keeping up with Barton's lying, quote-mining and fact-twisting would be a full-time job. He seems, however, to have deteriorated to the point where he doesn't even seem to care to hide it. He knows he has no credibility among those who actually know anything, and he knows that his fan based on the extreme right is willing to accept whatever shit falls out of his mouth. I recommend this deconstruction of Barton's Stewart appearance in several parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five.

Further:
• Hooy. He seems to be kicking it up yet another notch...Oh fucking dear.
• See David Barton "argue" that schools force children to be gay. A good primer on Barton's fraudulent revisions of history can be found here.
• Oh, hell. I can't leave him be. Here is Barton claiming that there is a "spiritual" solution to abortion and poverty because people of faith do not "choose to live in poverty." He claims that once poor people change their humanistic attitude that tolerates abortion, poverty will end. Seriously. Ok. To clinch it, Barton is claiming that actual demonic powers are literally running rampant in the current government. There isn't really much left to say. Barton has fully embraced the crazy of Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins, but is an even more hardcore religious fundamentalist than either (Barton, for instance, is more or less explicitly a dominionist). And that takes some work.
• Ok. One more.
• As mentioned, we are not going to keep track of Barton's antics. That would be a full time job (in fact, Chris Rhodda is thankfully taking on herself that task), to say the least. Barton is nothing if no productive, and just in the course of two days did he manage to spill at least this and this example of insanity, as well as some breathtaking displays of dishonesty. Here's an example of why he is so dangerous.
• ... and from the department of alternative realities, we bring you this.
• ... and one more: Barton spectacularly commits a naturalistic fallacy.
• ...and this must be something of a record, even for Barton. At least he gets slamdunked here, though he'll of course never admit as much.
• And in yet another breathtaking display of wingnut stupid Barton blames the theory of evolution for the (state level) separation of church and state.
It is interesting that Barton doesn't even seem to care about hiding it anymore: He has come out as a pure Biblical literalist who rejects any scientific result that can be remotely interpreted as conflicting with a literal reading of any part of the Bible - and he rejects it precisely because it conflicts with a literal (that is "literal" - meaning reading the Bible so that it fully conforms to Barton's preconceptions about what it ought to say) of the Bible.
• Now, this must surely count as among the most ridiculous things Barton has ever said. At least he does not have the faintest clue about American history, and he props up his ignorance with the most ridiculous glassy-eyed, evangelical explanatory attempt we have yet to see. More of the usual stuff. Here's Barton claiming that secular law leads to sharia, because he doesn't know how words work, what expressions mean, what distinguishes reasoning from delusional ranting, or (even cursorily) how reality is put together. Chris Rodda has started a new series debunking Barton's newest book. You can read the first entry here.
• And here is Barton claiming that schools don't teach his version of history because of evolution. Which would, of course, be an argument against him if it were true, but Barton doesn't quite manage to see it that way.
• Barton is known to try to claim that it's not the religious right who is trying to institute a theocracy, but the liberals. His evidence, however, is more abysmally insane than you'd thought possible.
• This illustrates fairly well the danger a complete loon like Barton pose to civilization.
• A small sample of falsehoods from Barton's most recent book.
• Barton continues his battle against reality, as expected.
• Well, this man sure continues to astound us.

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Diagnosis: Liar and fraud, dishonest quack and zealot, and also a victim of severe confirmation bias. He has had a lot of influence however (Texas Board of Education, for instance) and must be ranked among the most dangerous, destructively influential forces of lunacy out there.

Entry #013: Matt Barber

Our lucky 13th loon is Matt Barber. Barber is a columnist at Worldnetdaily (Where do they find these people, seriously?). Also policy director for cultural issues at DC-based Concerned Women for America (an anti-gay organization), and spokesman for Liberty Legal Alliance. Very, very concerned about gay people, convinced gay marriage is unconstitutional and that there is a gay conspiracy out there (and Obama is in on the conspiracy because the Supreme Court didn’t quite agree about the unconstitutionality (yes, that’s the reasoning)). Barber has absolutely no insight into how the legal system works, which does not prevent him from commenting on it with brazen confirmation bias, fact-twisting and outright lies. Argues for taking children away from gay parents. Like so many of his ilk, Barber is also a moral relativist when it suits his purposes. Also has a serious persecution complex and is worried about gay jihadists.



A (typical) quote in advance of the 2008 election: ”If Bill Clinton was the first black president, Barack Obama, if elected, will be the first "gay" president. No, I don't mean he'll personally decorate the West Wing, open a bathhouse in the Rose Garden or take up with Barney Frank. I mean he'll be the most radically pro-homosexual, anti-family president in history. He's very quietly pledged as much to the homosexual "Human Rights Campaign" and other fawning members of his homo-fascist fan club” (note the interesting characterization of Obama voters in the last sentence).

Trivia: try to find the logical structure of the argument presented here.

Oh, and just to emphasize: even if this is an old post, we haven't forgotten about Barber. He is as repugnantly insane as ever. You can see Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber discuss the New Gay World Order here. And here's Barber denying that he is a Dominionist - he just want fundamentalist Christians in all positions of power and the Bible to replace the Constitution (though he doesn't really recognize the distinction between the Bible and the Constitution).

Ok, Here we go again. And again.

Hey ho ... looks like Barber is in a predicament. At least he knows how to run with a slippery slope. This one sounds like a poor comedy scene, and would have been rather amusing as such. There really, truly is no limit. Breathtaking.

Here's Barber being a total loon and total asshole on the Sandra Fluke matter. And if you want to see Barber going batshit insane due to his fuming, directionless hatred of the SPLC ...

His most recent excursion into making shit up and passing it off as something resembling truth is ripped to shreds here. Would you believe it, but Barber is actually caught lying!

Here's Barber and Staver claiming that failing to overturn Obamacare is judicial activism through omission. You cannot make this shit up.

Every day Barber cranks up the crazy just a little bit. We cannot deal with every piece of delusional insanity, but I suppose we have a duty to check in every now and then. This is where he's at May 2, 2012. Ordinary sane people may not easily conceive of a way to top this one, but I am sure that Barber will continue to impress. More here. And yes folks, this is a guy who considers himself a fighter for morality and decency. At least the world becomes much easier to deal with when you have only one single enemy.

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Diagnosis: Moron; paranoid lunatic with a severe persecution complex; probably little impact beyond the group who already agrees with what he says (i.e. no power to persuade anyone).

Entry #012: Chuck Baldwin

It's our 12th loon, Chuck Baldwin! Baldwin was a 2008 U.S. presidential candidate for the openly theocratic Constitution Party.



Baldwin is a strong advocate for a Christian Nation and a historical revisionist with a persecution complex, arguing tirelessly that the American Constitution is based entirely off of the Bible. At the same time he promotes religious liberty, but Baldwin is one of those who aren’t affected by cognitive dissonance. Baldwin also holds that the Founding fathers were religious fundamentalists – he is known for publicly attributing quotes to them that he has made up himself (but the contents of which, according to him, the founding fathers would have agreed with). For a discussion of his views and arguments, see here.

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Diagnosis: Bigoted, vile, zealous and crazy theocrat, liar for Jesus, paranoid and harebrained (but the martyr tactic is the lifeblood of these dingbats, so a persecution complex is unavoidable). Impact is probably relatively limited (the Constitution party isn’t exactly in the running for many seats), but the Orwellian historical revisionism he stands for is a cause for concern.

Entry #010: Ted Baehr

Baehr runs Movieguide, which, despite its neutral name, describes itself as a ministry "dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media according to biblical principles, by influencing entertainment industry executives and helping families make wise media choices" (i.e. rave reviews of creationist propaganda). Baehr is also chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission and a columnist/movie reviewer for Worldview Times. He wasn’t happy with Religulous, as this review shows (and this review alone merits Baehr’s inclusion in the Encyclopedia)



Also a vigorous opponent of e.g. stem cell research (apparently he views The Family Research Council as an authoritative source here); staunch anti-elitist religious crackpot who argues that science (at least science whose results don’t support (his interpretation of) the Bible) is a liberal conspiracy, as in the article discussed here.

• And here you can see Ted Baehr blithely assume that non-theocratic forms of government equals Marxism.
• Ted Baehr reviews Hunger Games and is - predictably - unable to stay coherent.

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Diagnosis: Zealous, paranoid wingnut and pathological liar, religious fundamentalist and general loon. Angry. Influence: hard to tell; there are a lot of these guys out there, but he is relatively prolific and seems to have some readers.

Entry #009: Michelle Bachmann

Coming in at #9 we have one of my very favorite loons, the lovely Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is the United States Representative of Minnesota's 6th congressional district and a member of the Republican Party.



Judging by a number of trustworthy sources and good evidence (mostly the words that come out of her mouth), she may be the single stupidest person alive (perhaps in competition with Steve King, R-Iowa). Staunch supporter of the teabagging party (including all of their contradictory goals, apparently). Good mental compartmentalizer, for she is apparently completely unaffected by (or aware of) cognitive dissonance. Well, I don't think I can be bothered to update this one anywhere near continuously. This, for instance, is just far too typical. Following is a tasty selection of her wide variety of loony times.

• A quickly assembled but unrepresentative sample of the stuff that falls out of her mouth
• On CO2 emissions.
• On net neutrality.
• Discussion of her view on the swine flu (and the Democrats’ role in it).
• One more informative source of Bachmann quotes.
• An update on moronic crap falling out of Bachmann's mouth can be found here
• This one is pretty awesome.
• Anyone up for more falsehoods from Bachmann?
• Her husband isn't entirely well-hinged either, it seems.
• This one is also rather appalling. And here she claims that Terri Schiavo was healthy.
• At last she's also claimed that hurricane Irene was God's warning to America.
• And just to fill out the picture, she's finally accepted anti-vaxx rhetoric as well, falling for the simplest, most easily refutable talking points from the most insane conspiracy theory-laden antivaxx groups.
• Given the recent noise around Bachmann and HPV, this one deserves a link.
• This one is pretty good.
• Even though she’s obviously lost steam it’s kinda fun to keep track of her campaign. Here’s her claim that the US should follow China and drop the welfare state to boost the economy (the bizarreness of which is rather astounding). Indeed, she’s been making several, uh, interesting foreign policy suggestions lately. There’s a good Bachmann resource here.
• Oh, Michele
• And it never stops, even though you thought the last one was unbeatable.
• Here's the latest Bachmann endorsement of creationist and all the creationist talking points.
• Here's an illuminating interview with Bachmann on Biblical worldviews, public schools and a general lack of touch with anything resembling reality.
• And Bachmann explaining how she wishes to reform the courts to conform to her Biblical view of law. Charming.

Edit: A friend of mine has now provided us with a very detailed profile on Bachmann and what has created her thinking. Thanks!

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Diagnosis: Complete moron – a living embodiment of Dunning-Kruger. Obviously in possession of power and influence, and probably a large fan group as well; in other words very dangerous.

Entry #006: Steven Anderson & Zsuzsanna Anderson

Our sixth loon, Steven Anderson, is a rather frightening one.



An Arizona-based pastor at Faithful Word Baptist Church, Anderson is famous for sermons where he fervently prays (and asks his congregation to pray) for the death and eternal torment of people who disagree with him (mostly President Obama, democrats and gays), including urging his congregation to murder his enemies (i.e. gays and liberals). Strong advocate of Old Testament morality (“God didn’t change his mind”) but oblivious to the cognitive dissonance it brings with it. No qualms about lying about his opponents. Convinced that gays are currently bringing an end to America (and that liberals are really disguised gays – Anderson has several ad hominem arguments of the kind ‘x says p; x is a liberal; hence x is gay, hence p is false, a lie and part of a scheme to bring down America’).

Discussed here, for instance. And here.

After being out of the limelight for a year or so, Anderson seems to have decided to increase the volume.

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Diagnosis: Deranged, vile and very possibly clinically insane. Fred Phelps wannabe. Very dangerous to the extent that some of his (presumably relatively small) congregation might actually do what he tells them to do.
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Here we have an interesting and entertaining addition to my reproduction of the Encyclopedia of American Loons: the wife of Steven Anderson, who goes by the lovely name of Zsuzsanna. Here we have Anita Dalton of I Read Odd Books describe her:


She's one of the most vicious, nasty, mean, arrogant, lying pieces of shit one could ever hope to be the partner of the Pissing Preacher (PP) (explanation for this name here). It's like she was sent from Central Casting. She could not be a better partner to our Steven.
Over on Free Jinger, some think she is abused and should be pitied but I say dear ZsuZsu is Anderson's perfect helpmeet because her hate is just too heartfelt. She's raising her six, soon to be seven, children, to be virulent and ignorant homophobes and conspiracy theorists. And hey, if she births an army, she will never get breast cancer like all us childless lesbian atheists! She rejects all science except that which proves her spurious ideas - convenient!

Here's her blog. Literally every entry has some lovely bit of heinous ignorance, but here are some examples of the well of poisonous hate to be found in this stinking example of fine Christian womanhood:
• Here ZsuZsu says she disregards all science that is contrary to the Bible (she homeschools her kids, hahahahaha), every male OBGYN is a pervert, and she's psychologically torturing her neuro-atypical son, who has dyslexia except charming ZsuZsu says he's "artistic" which means he's thisclose to gay (in other entries she has said she would abandon and disown any child of hers who was homosexual). Don't miss the comments, where she is sure to point out her midwife IS NOT A LESBIAN!

• Here she chimes in on the extended breastfeeding issue, which is pure comedy gold coming from a woman having a baybee a year for Jesus and thinks the Bible has the answer for her every nutritional issue. A highlight: "Mammals are animals. Humans are - well, humans. NOT animals." SOTDT is gonna equip her kids well for life, no?
It's hard to find links when I just read her for fun because she is evil incarnate covered in baby barf, but some of her greatest hits include cursing down a couple down on their luck who came to their church asking for help because Jesus has no use for the poor - oops! ZsuZsu has no use for the poor and thinks that charity weakens people. Her views on welfare recipients are beyond hate speech. She believes that all church nurseries are run by pedophiles so any church that has a separate place for young children during services is probably raping children - found a link for that one. She encourages her children to demean other kids who attend school and have had vaccinations and her children are literally never out of her sight, which means they have zero friends because ZsuZsu hates all children but her own and would never permit other children in her house.

Her suspicion of modern medicine meant that one of her sons who suffers from extreme asthma was near death before she finally got him some proper care and he ended up in the hospital for days. She believes the government is out to get her and everyone else. Her children wear "9-11 was an inside job" shirts and have a poster on their walls that says the same. Though impoverished in every sense of the word, the family took a vacation this year to visit "Dr." Kent Hovind in prison. Hovind is a Christian martyr imprisoned for tax evasion and smurfing so no worries that the Andersons were taking their kids to see a rapist or a common liar and thief. (Editor's Note: We will be visiting the wondrous lunacy of Mr Hovind later on in our Loon Retrospective.)

Also the pictures on her site will warm your heart as the vomit surges forth. Her kids are off-limits to me because they did not choose that life but everything else... The PP in his underpants at the Thanksgiving table was a particular hit with those of us who just don't feel that we see the soft side of vicious hatemongers who want Obama dead.

Seriously, the next time you get the flu and can feel no sicker than you already are, read ZsuZsu's blog. She's the most charmless, jealous, wicked, stupid, self-impressed hate-mongering mommy blogger on the planet.

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Diagnosis: Just like her husband, she's deranged, vile and very possibly clinically insane - and a PERFECT MATCH for her Phelps-wannabe hubby. And despite her blogging, her influence is probably even less than her husband's, due to the subordinate role she would have in a Christian patriarchal community.

Entry #002: Howard Ahmanson

Our second loon is Howard Ahmanson.



Ahmanson is a financier of the Discovery Institute and several other fundamentalist causes, such as Proposition 8 in California. He is an extremely wealthy (multi-billionaire!) magnate whose political agenda is nicely captured in the following quotation: "My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives”.

Here's a link to some real information on this guy. A shadowy figure indeed.

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Diagnosis: Complete loon, extremely influential and very, very dangerous.