The latest to launch a tirade  against something he clearly knows nothing about was the former leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who blamed “secular values” for the violence carried out in totalitarian states, and for some 20th century conflicts that killed millions.

In an address at Leicester’s Anglican Cathedral, O’Connor said:

The propaganda of secularism and its high priests want us to believe that religion is dangerous for our health. It suits them to have no opposition to their vision of a brave new world, the world which they see as somehow governed only by people like themselves. They conveniently forget that secularism itself does not guarantee freedom, rationality … or violence. Indeed, in the last century, most violence was perpetrated by secular states on their own people.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, contemptuously dismissed this latest outburst:

Cardinal Murphy O’Connor is simply echoing the Vatican’s familiar and untrue line that ‘secularism’ is the enemy of religion. It is certainly the enemy of power-seeking religion, as with the Vatican’s present version of Catholicism, but it upholds the rights of religious believers to practise their faith freely and without hindrance.

His presentation of Christianity as being under attack is a familiar one and still completely unconvincing. It is part of a wider campaign to reassert Catholic influence.

Sanderson added:

Murphy O’Connor says that the ‘high priests’ of secularism can’t guarantee freedom from violence or immorality. But we should never forget that Mr Murphy O’Connor himself was guilty of disgracefully covering up some of the most horrific crimes of a paedophile priest when he was Archbishop of Arundel and Brighton – allowing the perpetrator to continue abusing children in other parishes. Why Murphy O’Connor was never brought to justice over this remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, howls of “persecution” are still reverberating around Washington, where a full-page ad, urging “liberal” and “nominal” Catholics to abandon the Church, was recently placed in the Washington Post by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

The ad asked:

Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to the Dark Ages? Do you choose women and their rights, or Bishops and their wrongs?

The ad is similar to the full-page ad that the organisation placed  in The New York Times in March, which is still creating shockwaves among conservative religionists.

The ad stated:

It’s a disgrace that US health care reform is being held hostage to your church’s irrational opposition to medically prescribed contraception. No political candidate should have to genuflect before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And it asked:

As a member of the ‘flock’ of an avowedly anti-democratic Old Boys Club, isn’t it time you vote with your feet?

To view the full version of the Washington Post ad, click here.

When the FFRF placed a similar ad in the New York Times in March, it was accused of “hate speech”, according to this report which quoted Catholic League President Bill Donohue as saying:

Not a single Catholic who reads this ad will be impelled to leave the Church. That is not the issue. The issue is the increase in hate speech directed at Catholics.

Donohue also said the ad represented a “palpable” demonisation of the Catholic Church.

This abominable practice has to be stopped.

I WAS horrified to learn earlier this month that “a group of senior medical experts” in Australia are advocating circumcision for infant boys, claiming there is now strong evidence that circumcision reduces risk of infectious diseases and cancer.

The Circumcision Foundation of Australia, whose members include several professors of medicine, is led by Sydney University medical scientist, Brian Morris. He has written to State and Federal health ministers appealing for an end to the ban on elective male circumcision in public hospitals, and for a substantial increase in the Medicare benefit for the operation.

The Federal Government withdrew Medicare benefits for circumcision in the 1980s but quickly restored them after an outcry from the Jewish community. The Government is now considering whether the procedure should continue to qualify for Medicare payments.

The Foundation claims that about half of uncircumcised boys will suffer “an adverse medical condition as a result of their foreskin over their lifetime”, but those opposed to genital mutilation – and that exactly what it is – say there is little medical reason to circumcise an infant and that it should be withdrawn from Medicare coverage unless found to be medically necessary.

I now learn that a conference is to take place in the UK in July to discuss the issue of unnecessary circumcision. Delegates from child protection, health, equality and diversity, human rights, medical ethics and legal backgrounds will gather at the conference on Thursday, July 26 at Keele University, Staffordshire to explore how boys might be protected from being unnecessarily damaged by the practice.

According to a press release issued by Glen Poole, Strategic Director of The Men’s Network, a baby boy from Oldham bled to death after a religious circumcision. “The fatality,” the statement said, “raises major concerns for everyone working to safeguard children in the UK.”

The Oldham death will now be the subject of a manslaughter trial later this year

Meanwhile, an Oxford report revealed that 45 percent of botched circumcisions at an Islamic school led to complications, and that research from the charity NORM-UK reveals that as many as 9 out of 10 therapeutic circumcisions could be avoided.

The statement added that:

There are growing concerns that the unequal rights of boys and girls in the UK to be protected from unnecessary genital cutting, could compromise local, national and international initiatives to work with circumcising communities to protect girls from female genital mutilation.

The “How To Prevent Unnecessary Male Circumcision” one-day workshop and mini-conference is hosted by the charity Genital Autonomy.To find out more about the conference and to book a ticket see: http://www.genitalautonomy.org

For media enquiries contact Glen Poole at The Men’s Network on 07981 334222 or email: glen@themensnetwork.org.uk

Hat tip: Bill Murray (Australian report)

Ron Banerjee leads the prayer protest

A HINDU man in Toronto was at the forefront of a demonstration yesterday against Muslim prayer sessions being held at Valley Park Middle School, which, according to this report, has an 80 percent-strong student body.

Ron Banerjee, claiming to represent a group called the Canadian Hindu Advocacy, began complaining  about the prayers earlier this year.

It’s discriminatory.  It raises lots of questions in terms of ‘Why are Muslims alone being allowed to do this?’ This is part of the Islamification of society.

Banerjee, who organised the demo, was joined by several faith-based groups including the Jewish Defence League of Canada and the Christian Heritage Group.

But a poll being run by City News shows that 59 percent are in favour of accommodating the Muslim students.

For three years, hundreds of students have been praying in the cafeteria at the school during their lunch hour. The school doesn’t run or pay for the service.

Toronto District School Board Director of Education Chris Spence said the decision to hold the prayer sessions was made in consultation with the school community and that it is simply trying to accommodate the religious beliefs of its many Muslim students, as mandated by the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Board trustee Shaun Chen previously told City News:

We have a predominantly Muslim population in the student body, so the parents were asking for a space where we can provide for Friday prayers.

The service is operated by members of the Valley Park community, and was unopposed by parents of other students at the school before Ron Banerjee raised objections.

The school began the Friday services to prevent students from missing classes to pray at a nearby mosque.

Banerjee doesn’t buy it.

If they want to accommodate the Muslim students, they get a one hour lunch break, the mosque is five minutes away, they can just tell them to pack a lunch and during your one-hour break go off to the mosque.

In the meantime, Canada’s largest Hindu group, Canadian Hindu Network, says the views of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy are not representative of mainstream Hindus.

Hat tip: Canada Dave

The Crouches: 'We need every cent you can spare for our garish clothes and silly hair-dos'

THE world’s biggest Christian broadcasting network – the Trinity Broadcasting Network founded by Paul and Janice Crouch – has been hit by a lawsuit from Crouch family members alleging widespread embezzlement, plus allegations of spending by the ministry that helped cover up sexual scandals and a discrimination lawsuit.

Allegations include:

The cover-up and destruction of evidence concerning a bloody sexual assault involving TBN and affiliated Holy Land Experience employees; the cover-up of director Janice Crouch’s affair with a staff member at the Holy Land Experience; and the cover-up of director Paul Crouch’s use of TBN funds to pay for a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford (a former TBN employee who said he had a homosexual affair with Paul Crouch).

In 2010, TBN paid an undisclosed sum in damages to one of its employees, Brian Dugger, who claimed he suffered harrassment and discrimination at the hands of TBN employees. Paul Crouch Jr taunted Dugger with pornography, and said:

Brian has a man-gina!

He also said TBN:

Was no place for fairies.

The lawsuit details massive spending on private jets, mansions in California, Tennessee and Florida and a $100,000 mobile home for Jan Crouch’s dogs paid for through sham loans.

The suit comes in the wake of the sacking of Brittany Koper, the granddaughter of Paul Crouch. The suit alleges Koper discovered the illegal financial activities, conveyed her concerns to ministry leaders, and was told to shut her gob.

O happier days: Janice Crouch pictured with Brittany Koper

According to this report, when the whistle-blower refused to shut up:

She allegedly faced threats of physical and lethal violence.

TBN preaches the “prosperity gospel” which promises material rewards to those who give generously. Since it was set up in the 1970s it has become the biggest Christian TV network with a presence on every continent except the Antarctic and has 18,000 affiliates. It also owns the Holy Land Experience, a Christian amusement park in Orlando.

Their shows feature such highlights as Jan Crouch tearfully giving an account of how her pet chicken was miraculously raised from the dead.

And, in one rich moment of black comedy,  the elaborately-coiffed Benny “The Hair” Hinn appeared on TBN  to tell viewers that, if they were to put their dead loved ones’ caskets in front of the TV and hold the corpses’ hands to the screen, they would “be raised from the dead…by the thousands”.

TBN took in $92 million in donations in 2010 and cleared $175 million in tax-free revenue, although the recession has dramatically hit what it rakes in from its followers.

The network has fired back by pointing out that the lawsuit comes from family members who were themselves accused of embezzlement, though those charges were dismissed, and called the allegations of excessive spending “fabrications.”

You can read more here.

Hat tip: Terry Sanderson

An artist's impression of the cross God want on Bear Mountain

A MISSOURI man, Dean Brown, once had a vision in which God told him to erect a seven-foot cross on land he bought atop Bear Mountain.

The Almighty then decided to massage the message.

Dean’s son Kerry said:

It started as a vision with a 7-foot-tall cross just so people would have a place to go and meditate with the Lord. As time went on, additional portions of the vision came to him and ultimately it was to build the largest cross that anyone has ever seen.

Now, to bring his dad’s vision to fruition, Kerry Brown intends building the $5-million, 200-ft high cross on the mountain – and, astonishingly, county officials have given the monstrosity their blessing.

Brown hopes to have the project completed by the end of 2013. The cross will feature a 100-foot crossbeam and twin elevators to the 17-story-tall horizontal bar.

But having commissioned the cross, God is proving somewhat reluctant in stumping up the cash. So far only 410,000 bucks have been raised through donations.

After receiving approval from the Taney County Planning and Zoning Commission four years ago, Brown said fundraising for the project began in earnest in December.

We’ve been working up to this for a while. But at this point, we still have quite a ways to go. Our dollar amount doesn’t come near what we need at this point.

He added:

It’s going to be a family-friendly, free admission venue where people can have an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Brown, a former attorney now living in Branson, is hoping the estimated eight million people who travel in and out of Branson each year will propel the cross into an international tourist destination.

I know St Louis has the Gateway Arch and San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge, and those are all fantastic monuments, but they’re all secular monuments. This will be the first monument to the spirit of man and there’s a reason why it’s being built in the heartland of the nation. It’s absolutely in the right place at the right time and it’s going to have ten times the spirituality as any one of those monuments.

No to gay marriage, but a three-in-bed romp is OK, suggests this Methodist church sign

THE Freethinker got itself castigated in the Telegraph yesterday.

Defending the godly against the slings and arrows of the “liberals” and “elite” who reacted with fury over South Carolina’s vote against gay marriage, columnist Brendan O’Neill – in an an article entitled “The bile being spat at the people of North Carolina exposes the ugly elitism of the gay-marriage lobby” – wrote:

A majority of North Carolina’s voters – 61 per cent – voted for the amendment to the state’s constitution, which says: ‘Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognised in this state’. For doing this, for having the temerity to say that marriage should stay as it is, they have been subjected to extraordinary levels of abuse and ridicule.

The media says they’re all ‘bigots’. Apparently they were driven by a typically Southern hatefulness.

He added:

Gay-marriage supporters have even deployed borderline racial lingo to express their fury with the uninformed hordes of North Carolina. The secularist magazine Free Thinker (sic) describes them as ‘knuckle-draggers’. So does Daily Kos, the must-read blog of the liberal set: it slated the ‘hateful, paranoid, bigoted, right-wing knuckle-draggers’ who voted for Amendment 1.

And:

The idea that hatred and ignorance have ‘enveloped’ the people of North Carolina is widespread. The gay advocacy group Faith in America said voters had been ‘duped’ by religious leaders; they were ‘uninformed or deceived’. The only reason Amendment 1 passed, says Faith in America, is because of ‘the populace’s misunderstanding about sexual orientation’.

Of course it isn’t possible that voters simply had a considered moral objection to gay marriage – no, they were clearly all brainwashed by religious crazies. The passing of Amendment 1 shows that voters should not be trusted to rule on sensitive moral matters, says the LA Times. Apparently these kind of ‘anti-gay’ votes will continue until ‘people of conscience put a stop to it by asserting that tyranny of the majority is wrong’.

O’Neill concluded:

 This orgy of bile, from the mainstream branding of North Carolina’s voters as ‘ignorant’ to the peripheral demands that they do the world a favour and kill themselves, shows what is behind the gay-marriage campaign. This is not about rights and equality, or love and happiness. Rather, gay marriage has become a tool through which the right-minded sections of society express their moral superiority over the dumb, the brainwashed, the insufficiently cosmopolitan, the churchgoing. Gay marriage has become a kind of weapon, wielded by the right-on to demonstrate that they are better – that is, less brainwashed and more caring – than your average redneck or country black.

Supporting gay marriage has become a kind of cultural signifier, a way of distinguishing oneself from the ignorant throng.

Given all this, it is possible that the voters of North Carolina were not only voting against gay marriage, but were also sticking two fingers up at the sneering cultural elite which has been hectoring them for weeks to do ‘the right thing’ and embrace ‘liberal values’. In the intensively divided America of 2012, being against gay marriage can now be seen almost as an act of political rebellion, against a faraway elite which fears and loathes anyone who is not like them.

 

Kuwaiti MPs raise their hands in favour of the death penalty (AFP/Getty images)

“RELATIVELY liberal and moderate” Kuwait is on the verge of introducing the death penalty for Muslims who offend their god, the Koran,  Mohammed and his wives, and other assorted “prophets” of the Religion of Peace.

Explaining the need for this draconian new law, MP Ali al-Deqbasi said:

We do not want to execute people with opinions … because Islam respects these people. But we need this legislation because incidents of cursing God have increased. We need to deter them.

The draft legislation allows for repentence. Anyone who apologises for his or her “blasphemy” will be spared capital punishment and will instead be jailed for five years and fined of $36,000. Non-Muslims found guilty of defaming Allah and or the “prophets” face a jail term of a maximum 10 years.

The vote for the death penalty came after authorities arrested Sh’ia Hamad al-Naqia for allegedly cursing Mohammed, his wife and companions on Twitter last March. The Kuwaiti parliament approved the draft law by a majority of 40 to six.

Amnesty International has described the law as:

A flagrant breach of the country’s international human rights obligations.

And The Daily Beast’s David Keyes pointed out:

The new law is seen by many as a test case of America’s role in Middle East. Liberals throughout the region are watching President Obama’s reaction. If the emir signs the law—a move that Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Jamal Shehab assured reporters will happen—then this will be a tremendous setback for freedom in the Gulf.

The US is Kuwait’s largest trading partner and billions of dollars in advanced arms have been shipped to Kuwait in recent years. Precisely because of this tremendous leverage, firm opposition by the Obama administration could convince the emir not to sign this law.

Meanwhile it is reported here that a British TV channel that broadcast a talk saying it is acceptable to murder anyone who disses the kiddy-diddler who invented Islam is facing a heavy fine or potential closure by Ofcom.

The regulator found that DM Digital was the first UK broadcaster to break the broadcasting code for material:

Likely to encourage or incite the commission of a crime or lead to disorder.

The media regulator commissioned two English translations of the programme which revealed that the presenter of the show said:

If someone takes a step in the love of the Prophet, then this is not terrorism.

He also made a number of comments citing a “duty” to kill those who insult Big Mo, including:

I hail those who made this law [Pakistan's blasphemy law] which states that one who insults the prophet deserves to be killed – such a person should be eliminated.

Ofcom said:

We considered that the broadcast of the various statements made by the Islamic scholar … was likely to encourage or incite the commission of a crime.

DM Digital’s target audience is Asian viewers, with programmes in languages including English, Punjabi, Urdu, Kashmiri and Hindi. It is licensed in the UK and also broadcasts to the Middle East and parts of Asia.

 Hat tip: BarrieJohn

President Obama: all love is equal

WITHIN hours of Barack Obama’s announcement yesterday that he was now in support of gay marriage,  Catholic and Baptist leaders issued statements deploring the President’s stance.

In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, Obama described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this decision, based on conversations with his staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and his wife and daughters.

New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement:

We cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society.

The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better. Unfortunately, President Obama’s words today are not surprising since they follow upon various actions already taken by his Administration that erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage.

I pray for the President every day, and will continue to pray that he and his Administration act justly to uphold and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. May we all work to promote and protect marriage and by so doing serve the true good of all persons.

And it is reported here that the Rev Bryant Wright, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, predicted that voters will hold Obama accountable for what Wright calls:

A calculated, politically expedient decision that completely ignores the biblical foundation of marriage.

But in the ABC interview, Obama linked his decision to his faith in Jesus Christ and the Golden Rule, which he paraphrased as:

Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

This “golden rule” evidently does not stretch to North Carolina, where voters this week made theirs the 31st state to enact a constitutional amendment defining marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman.

In praising N Carolina’s knuckle-draggers, Brian Brown, President of The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) declared:

So much for the idea being promulgated by the media and the elite that same-sex marriage is inevitable. Just the other day, gay activists were predicting victory in North Carolina, but instead marriage won an overwhelming victory.

NOM played a major role in the passage of the North Carolina marriage amendment. NOM contributed $425,000 directly to the campaign and raised “countless additional funds for the effort”.

Note: You can express your appreciation of Obama’s stance by signing a Thank You e-card here. It states:

Thank you for standing up to boldly say that all love is equal.

This is an incredible, historic moment with huge implications for all nations. As many US states continue to ban marriage and 76 nations criminalize people because of who they love, your leadership takes this issue to the next level.

Together, we support you in challenging attacks as they come.

 

Andrea Williams: the concerned face of Christianity

NEVER quite rational at the best of times, Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern and a Director of the Christian Legal Centre, went completely off the deep end after reading in the Sunday Telegraph that that 40 councils in England and Wales have recently decided to abandon, or “water down” the practice of saying prayers, with more considering doing so.

The frothing fundie – according to this National Secular Society report – bleated:

These changes highlight the rise of a totalitarian and bitter kind of secularism that seeks to remove all traces of Christianity from public discourse. The claim that secularism is the more neutral option is a myth. Secularists are determined to uproot our Christian foundations whilst simultaneously advocating the false notion that atheism provides the correct principles upon which society – and its values – should be based.

And she stated:

Atheism however is by no means neutral. It is deeply rooted in the rejection of God and the objective standards of morality that He lays for the benefit of all mankind. As a nation we need to be determined not to forego the values based on the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which have shaped our country for centuries and made it the thriving and flourishing nation that it is today.

I urge all other councils not to give in to the pressure to conform, but to be vocal and visible for the Lord Jesus by continuing to keep prayers on their agenda.

I imagine the NSS’s Keith Porteous Wood muttering “oh no, here we go again” before taking a deep breathe and pointing out:

She is blatantly and deliberately misrepresenting secularism for her own evangelical ends. The Bideford court order remains in force and she and others are shamelessly inciting councils to break the law. The courts have similarly seen through these unprincipled religious tactics – that is why we won the court case and why they have ultimately lost every employment case they have brought.

And NSS Campaigns Manager Stephen Evans added:

If individual councillors wish to seek spiritual guidance before meetings their freedom to do so remains intact. Removing prayers from the formal business simply means prayers are no longer imposed on unwilling participants.

However much the Government wants to believe it, this is not a Christian country. There is therefore simply no justification for Christians, or any other religious group, to assert their supremacy over other religious groups or over non-religious people by making prayers an integral part of the formal civic business.

The absence of prayers doesn’t impose atheism on anyone; it simply creates a neutral space and removes an unnecessary barrier to local democracy being equally welcoming to all sections of society.

Meanwhile, David Robert Grimes, writing in the Irish Times in a brillian opinion piece – Evil, militant anti-Christian secularism is simply a myth – points out:

… for all their bluster and hand-wringing, for all the tabloid outrage, ‘militant secularism’ makes as much logical sense as ‘aggressive pacifism’ or ‘hardline tolerance’; it is an oxymoron, a cynical attempt to paint equality and fairness as infringing upon the religious, who seem aghast that after decades of entitlement they might actually be expected to play fair.

Good looks, bad attitude: pretty boy William Swinimer with his devout dad. Pic Mike Dembeck, The Canadian Press

A CHRISTIAN student at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia, proved a major irritant to fellow pupils with his ravings about Jesus and threats of damnation against those who did not accept Christ as their saviour.

But what got William Swinimer suspended for five days last week was his refusal to stop wearing a bright yellow T-shirt that declared:

Life is wasted without Jesus.

According to this report, students said Swinimer has been preaching and making them feel uncomfortable, and the shirt was the last straw so they complained.

Student Riley Gibb-Smith said:

He’s told kids they’ll burn in hell if they don’t confess themselves to Jesus.

Swinimer wore the T-shirt every day to class for several weeks, even after the principal told him repeatedly to stop wearing it, before he was suspended.

In this report, student council vice-president Katelyn Hiltz said that kids need to feel safe, welcome and comfortable at school, and many didn’t feel that way because of Swinimer’s preaching.

But Swinimer’s pastor at the Pentecostal Jesus the Good Shepherd Church, Varrick Day, said the teen was merely protesting against two years of discrimination against his expression of his religious beliefs. The pastor added:

He doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, to be the troublemaker.

He says Swinimer may not go back to the Forest Heights at all and they are currently looking at how he else he can earn the few remaining credits he needs to graduate.

Last Friday the school reversed it ban on the young zealot’s T-shirt, and yesterday he turned to Forest Heights – briefly.

His father, John, took him home almost at once, saying his son won’t participate in scheduled discussions about freedom of expression and religious tolerance:

He will not attend this school unless they are having reading, writing and arithmetic – good old fashioned academics. When they’re having forums, when they’re having other extra-curricular activities, he will not attend that school.

Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, the superintendent for the South Shore Regional School Board, said it was unfortunate that Swinimer won’t take part in the discussions.

We’re very disappointed that William is not here to work with the other students and the facilitators that we have today so that we can move forward. We’ve been trying to reach out to him since last week and during the weekend, so that’s a big disappointment to us.

Hat tip: Canada Dave

Michael Coren: Photo Peter J. Thompson/National Post

MICHAEL Coren is on a mission to prove that there is a monumental conspiracy to destroy Christianity:

I believe the evidence is overwhelming … that Christianity is the main, central, most common, and most thoroughly and purposefully marginalized, obscured, and publicly and privately misrepresented belief system in the final decades of the twentieth century and the opening years of the twenty-first century.

This quote appeared in the National Post last week in an interview with the Toronto-based writer and broadcaster, who has just published Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity.

In a Q & A session with religion reporter Charles Lewis, Coren said:

Christians are marginalized, they’re mocked, they’re told their views don’t belong, they’re told to keep their views out of the public square and keep their religion at home. And where it can be quite sinister is at universities where Christian students they’re told that their ideas are stupid. I’ve even seen it with my children who are in university. Somehow Christianity is not a valid area of thought any longer. You can bring your socialism, your feminism, your homosexuality, your anti-Zionism into the class but if you bring your Christianity that’s not to be taken seriously.

And:

Christians are mocked for believing in the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection but really what they are mocked for is the moral consequences of their beliefs: that life begins at conception and ends at natural death, that abortion is wrong, that promiscuity is wrong. We live in a culture where no one wants to hear the word ‘no’.

In an attempt to draw a distinction between Christianity and Islam, he said:

Muslims read the Koran just before they attack and declare what they’re doing is in the name of Allah. The Koran supports violent acts. And I’m afraid many ordinary Muslims rejoice in these attacks. But nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus justify violence. Jesus never led armies and was not a warlord. The few Christians who do these terrible things do it despite their Christian faith.

Coren is particularly irked over the fact that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, is portrayed in the media as a  Christian fanatic.

Breivik hadn’t been in a church in 17 years. There is just no evidence for Christian terrorism today.

Breivik himself is quoted here as saying:

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.

Where Coren really gets himself up a gumtree is over the subject of homosexuality.

Charles Lewis:

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts represents ‘grave depravity’ and ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered … and under no circumstances can they be approved’.  It also says gay people should be loved and respected. You say you have gay friends. Wouldn’t most gay people be insulted by being told their behaviour is ‘intrinsically disordered?’

Coren:

If someone calls me a homophobe because I believe marriage is between one man and one woman, then I would rejoice in that. But frankly, with gay friends, I try to avoid the subject. They know I am opposed to gay marriage and they also know I’m fond of them as people and would defend them against personal attack. But let me be clear, anyone who hates gay people is a moral criminal.

Lewis:

But a gay person might still ask, how can you be my friend when you think what I do is ‘intrinsically disordered’.

Coren:

First, I would never use the same language as the Catholic Church. It sounds too clinical. A young gay woman once asked me if God loved her. I told her, ‘We all face challenges. You are loved as a person but you are more than your sexuality. We’re all sinners and we’re all struggling. I just can’t affirm homosexual behaviour’.

In Heresy, according to Amazon, Coren:

Takes on, and debunks, ten great myths about Christianity: that it supports slavery, is racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-intellectual, anti-Semitic, provokes war, resists progress, and is repressive and irrelevant.

One wonders what colour the sky is in the world Coren inhabits.

Hat tip: Pepper Chomsky

THE Military Atheists & Secular Humanists at Fort Bragg (MASH) today rallied supporters to show their disapproval of an “awful” North Carolina Baptist preacher who recently advocated violence against kids thought to be gay.

According to the Freethoughts blog, Priscilla, the new MASH leader, secured a permit for members to protest outside Pastor Sean Harris’s Berean Baptist Church. It was reported the local Humanist organisation, CNCAH would be bringing out their members too.

See more on church the picketing of the church here.

A DISCUSSION beneath a report that visitors to religious websites were more likely to catch a computer virus than those who trawl porn sites took a turn for the weird after one commentator – Muggins – said:

Well if someone believes in fairy tales then yes they are more prone to viruses.

“Kevintrs”  – whom I assume has creationist tendencies – hit back with:

Strange, I tend to agree with you on this one. People who believe in evolution are far more likely to commit sexual immorality and have sex outside of a committed marriage to one partner of the opposite sex ­ hence they are more prone to have sexually transmitted diseases.

He added:

As for getting viruses on one’s computer – it can happen to anyone – irrespective of whether they believe in the evolutionary fairytale or not.

“Lurker2358″ joined the fray with:

Religious people are probably more prone to real viruses too, since Catholicism forbids the use of a condom.

“Kevintrs” had an answer to this too:

Your logic does not necessarily compute: If Catholic people were to follow biblical principles in addition to the Catholic prescriptions they should abstain from sexual immorality and hence not have ANY sexually transmitted viruses.

If, however they didn’t follow the biblical precepts and had sex outside of a committed marriage to one partner of the opposite sex, why on earth would they constrain themselves to submitting to the Catholic idea of not using a condom? Doesn’t make sense.

The virus study was published earlier this week by the US-based anti-virus vendor Symantec and revealed that sites with religious or ideological themes were found to have triple the average number of “threats” that those featuring adult content..

Symantec said in the report:

It is interesting to note that websites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth. We hypothesize that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the Internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free; it’s not good for repeat business.

Pastor Harris (click on pic for report and video).

Addressing the issue of kids who may be homosexual, pastor Sean Harris said:

Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you crack that wrist.

The idiot also said:

Man up! Give him a good punch – you’re not gonna act like that.

Asked by a WRAL-TV presenter about his choice of words, Harris, who was prancing like a prat around his flock when he uttered them, said:

If I had to do it again, would I say it differently, yes I would.

But he defended himself by saying Jesus often used hyperbole. For example:

If your eye causes you sin, pluck it out.

The pastor insisted he was employing the same technique.

Everyone in the congregation that morning understood that there was no intent in any way, shape or form to break a wrist.

But:

The Bible makes no compromise on effeminate behaviour. God created you a male, God created you a female. If you were created a male, you are to act like a man.

Katharine Royal heads a ministry called Diversity in Faith. She describes herself as bisexual, and says the pastor’s word choice went far beyond the pale.

Chuck Fager, who heads the local Quaker house, added:

Maybe he intended this thing about smacking your kids around if they don’t act like ideal little boys and ideal little girls …. was meant it as a joke. I’m not laughing.

But don’t, for a moment, assume Harris is one of them thuggish, knuckle-dragging homophobes who make up America’s Bible Belt. Toward the end of the sermon he did say:

If you have a person in your house who is gay, love them with Jesus Christ, your job is not be homophobic.

 Hat tip: Andrew Shaw

Cardinal Seán Brady

THE beleaguered Catholic Primate of All-Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has reacted swiftly to a BBC  investigation into his failure to protect children from abuse in the 1970s.

The BBC’s This World show revealed that Cardinal Sean Brady, who has been under pressure to resign some some time, had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

Today, a spokesman for Brady said, among others things, that:

It would be unreasonable and grossly unfair to judge the actions of those at that time by the standards of the clear guidance from the State and the church that only came into existence some 20 years later.

Also that:

It would be totally disingenuous to suggest that Fr Brady, in 1975, had the power to stop Brendan Smyth …

And:

Cardinal Brady has apologised . . . to all victims of abuse. Cardinal Brady has . . . led and developed robust child safeguarding policies and practices since 1996, which include the policy of reporting such allegations to the civil authorities.

The BBC said that  in 1975, Brady – then a priest and teacher in County Cavan – was sent by his bishop to investigate a claim of child sexual abuse by a fellow priest. That priest was later exposed as Ireland’s most prolific paedophile, Father Brendan Smyth.

The first child to tell his parents about the abuse was 14-year-old Brendan Boland.

Brady’s role in the affair became clear in 2010, when it became known that he had been present when the abused boy was questioned.

He claimed, however, that the boy’s father had accompanied him, and described his own role as that of a note-taker.

But the BBC uncovered the notes Brady took while the boy was questioned. The child’s father was not allowed in the room, and the child was immediately sworn to secrecy.

What Cardinal Brady failed to tell anyone in 2010 was that Brendan Boland had also given him and his colleagues the precise details of a group of children, some of whom were being abused by Smyth.

Cardinal Brady did interview one of them and swore him to secrecy.

This World spoke to all of the children who Brendan Boland had identified. They all told the programme that to the best of their knowledge none of their parents or families were warned in anyway about the paedophile Smyth.

Four of them had been abused by Smyth. Two of them continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.

One of them – originally from Belfast – told the programme that Smyth continued to abuse him for another year. He also said Smyth abused his sister for a further seven years and then in turn, his four younger cousins, up to 1988.

Cardinal Brady did consider his position as Primate of all-Ireland when his role in the secret inquiry was first exposed. At the time the Church stressed that in 1975:

No state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland.

Gary O’Sullivan, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper, said Cardinal Brady had questions to answer.

If a child can see the need to save other children, how come priests, ministers of Christianity, cannot have the same awareness.  If he wants to stay in this leadership position, he should show leadership and come out and answer these questions because this culture of silence failed children.

The BBC’s Ireland correspondent, Mark Simpson commented:

Cardinal Sean Brady has been under pressure for some time. But he has always made it clear he will not resign, unless there is specific proof that his failure to act allowed clerical child abuse to take place.

Clearly, he does not believe the evidence in the BBC documentary meets that criteria.

However, with the media spotlight on his past, the Catholic primate is struggling to shift the focus to the present and the future. That is a very uncomfortable position, for any church leader.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Johnny Wong and Keith Paulusse. Paulusse photo: John Woudstra

WHEN Melbourne’s Gateway Adventist Centre’s “chief elder” Johnny Wong discovered that a key figure at a language school for international students operated by his church was in favour of gay marriage, and that most of the teachers were gay or lesbian, he immediately took steps to have the school shut down.

That happened in mid-April, and since then a very public row has developed between Wong and the school’s Keith Paulusse, whose support of gay marriage even had him branded as a “paedophile” by another Seventh Day Adventist “elder”.

According to this report, Wong told retired pyschologist Paulusse, 62, that he would give the church “a bad name”.

Later, when Paulusse, a celibate gay man and a member of Gateway, tried to address the mostly student congregation at its worship service on April 21, police were called. He was arrested and ordered not to attend for four months. He said:

I have been completely ostracised and stigmatised. Head elder Johnny Wong was dismayed at the robust discussion on my Facebook page. The other point the SDA Church did not like was that nearly all the six teachers were gay or lesbian, and not Seventh Day Adventists.

Mr Wong emailed Mr Paulusse to remind him that the church was committed to a biblical view of marriage as solely between a man and a woman, and could not be associated with supporting same-sex marriage.

In the email he said:

Recently I noticed you have been getting involved with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, that is a concern to me personally. Directing your energy to soul winning will be more profitable, eg getting Bible students and bringing them step by step to Jesus.

Paulusse retaliated by revealing on Facebook a “shocking” example of “spiritual and psychological bullying” of a 75-year-old man by Wong.

Paulusse said the victim, referred to as “Bill”, was suspected by Wong of being gay, and the “elder”:

Shoved the Seventh Day Adventist policy of entrenched discrimination of Gay and Lesbian people under his nose. A grossly inhuman thing to do.

He added:

It is immoral for Bible workers to spread the Gospel and then to shove the SDA Church’s Position Statement on Homosexuality on people whom they suspect might be GLBT. This is not the work of The Holy Spirit but of the unholy spirit and a misrepresentation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he concluded:

The SDA Policy against Homosexuality is both incorrect from a Biblical standpoint, and from a scientific standpoint it is totally incorrect. It is immoral and misrepresents what Jesus and the founder had to say about homosexuality … Absolutely nothing! The SDA position goes directly against the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Of course SDA do not adhere to this UN Declaration.

The school, which operates two days a week, has reopened as the Unitarian School of Languages at the Unitarian church in East Melbourne.

The latest of these is The Young Atheist’s Handbook, written by former Muslim Alom Shaha, a physics teacher at a comprehensive school in London. When he is not teaching, he works as a film-maker, writer and science communicator.

Alom Shaha

Shaha grew up in a strict Bangladeshi Muslim community in South-East London in the 1970s and 80s. He was expected to go to mosque regularly and recite passages in Arabic from the Koran, without being told what they meant.

He spent his teenage years juggling two utterly different worlds: a chaotic, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic family life on a council estate, and that of a student at a privileged private school set amongst the idyllic green playing fields of Dulwich.

In a charming blend of memoir, philosophy, and science, Shaha explores the questions about faith and the afterlife that we all ponder. Through a series of loose “lessons”, he tells his own compelling story, drawing on the theories of some of history’s greatest thinkers and questioning the fallacies that have impeded humanity for centuries.

He recounts how his education and formative experiences led him to question how to live without being tied to what his parents, priests, or teachers told him to believe, and offers insights so that others may do the same.

Robin Ince, writer and comedian said of The Young Atheist’s Handbook:

A book that destroys the cliche of the atheist as joyless rationalist and shows the humanity, love, and concern that often lies behind godless thinking.

And atheist comedian Tim Minchin said:

More than just a great handbook, this is an honest and often very moving story about valuing truth over hope, even in the face of grief.

Shaha passionately believes that a largely white (and male) atheist movement has to do a great deal more to engage with non-believers in ethnic groups.

In the Guardian in 2010 he stated:

There are issues that black and Asian atheists face that white atheists do not, for example, greater pressure to adhere to the religion of the communities in which they live. Since first writing about my atheism in public, I have been contacted by a number of Asian people who don’t believe in God but feel they have to carry on the pretence of being a Muslim because they genuinely fear that the consequences of “coming out” would be unbearable. They fear being ostracised from their family and friends, and “not being able to get married”. Sure, there are some white people who might face these same issues, but I would suggest the problem is more widespread in, for example, some Muslim communities than in the typical readership of the Guardian.

Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk

A POLL currently running on Irish Central indicates public support for Irish priests who say they will defy a new law forcing them to report details of sexual abuse revealed in the confessional box. The poll was prompted by a report that Ireland’s Justice Minister Alan Shatter is to introduce new legislation which will force the clergy to reveal all details disclosed in confession.

But priests have vowed to defy the law despite the threat of a 10-year jail sentence after the introduction of the mandatory reporting legislation.

The 800 strong Association of Catholic Priests has even said that its members will flout the Shatter law.

Spokesman Fr Sean McDonagh told the Irish Independent:

I certainly wouldn’t be willing to break the seal of confession for anyone – Alan Shatter particularly.

Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond Field said:

The seal of the confessional is inviolable as far as I am concerned, and that’s the end of the matter.

Under the new law, every person in the state is obliged to report suspected sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults to police.

Minister Shatter said:

I would expect that if there was someone going to confession who was a serial sex abuser, I don’t know how anyone could live with their conscience if they didn’t refer that to the gardai (police).

McDonagh also told the Irish Independent that a New Zealand Columbian priest, Fr Francis Douglas, was tortured to death by the Japanese during World War Two because he refused to reveal information received in confession about the Filipino guerrillas.

He is held up to us as a model of how you deal with this extraordinary sacrament. You shouldn’t put into legislation something that cannot be enforced. It makes a mockery of the legislation. Confessions are held in private so that priests do not know who is in the confessional box.

I would question whether the mandatory reporting requirement will stop even one case of child sexual abuse.

In response, Minister Shatter again highlighted the failure of the Catholic Church authorities to act on warnings from victims – and the movement of priests accused of abuse from parish to parish.

Meanwhile, it is encouraging to note that a Facebook page, set up in support of Ray D’Arcy, the Irish radio presenter who accused the Roman Catholic Church of “fucking up” his country, is getting fantastic support. So far it has attracted over 3,200 “likes”.

UPDATE: Tonight the poll is running strongly AGAINST the priests’ stance, with 58 percent saying they support the new law!

The presentation, given to “draw attention” to the Coalition for Marriage’s campaign against the Government’s proposal to allow gay couples to marry in civil ceremonies, caused pupils to “bristle” with anger and some considered:

Buying gay pride badges to pin on our uniform and thought about staging a Stonewall coup by posting the ‘Some people are gay – get over it’ posters around school.

These were the words of sixth-form student Katherine, who, in an exclusive Pink News report, said:

In our assembly for the whole Sixth Form you could feel people bristling as she explained parts of the [Catholic Education Service] letter and encouraged us to sign the petition. She said things about gay marriage and civil partnerships being unnatural. It was just a really out-dated, misjudged and heavily biased presentation.

She added:

Most importantly though, there are several people in my year who aren’t heterosexual – myself included – and I for one was appalled and actually disgusted by what they were encouraging. After all, that’s discrimination they were urging impressionable people to engage in, which is unacceptable.

Numerous organisations including the British Humanist Association, the National Secular Society and SchoolsOut have indicated that the presentation could be in breach of multiple laws.

Greg Pope, the Deputy Director of the Catholic Education Service told Pink News:

We wrote to Catholic secondary schools to let them know of the archbishops’ letter on the government’s gay marriage proposals. We’ve asked them to draw attention generally to the Coalition for Marriage petition which is an open petition that people of all ages can sign. We have been aiming this towards older pupils and parents. The archbishop’s letter is a positive statement of the Church’s support for marriage, rather than negative comments about gay marriage.

The Coalition for Marriage themselves pointed out that the petition is not open to people “of all ages” as the Service suggested, but only to those aged 16 and above.

When alerted to this, Pope said that the Catholic Education Service would be clear in any future correspondence with schools that the Coalition for Marriage petition had an age restriction, but that it was not planning to contact schools again on the subject.

On the particular claims made by the student that the headmistress had called gay marriages “unnatural”, Pope conjured up these weasel words:

All pupils deserve to be treated with respect and tolerance. If a pupil or parent feels the school has not lived up to that, all schools have complaints procedures which meet the Department for Education requirements.

Conor Marron, who set up the Coalition for Equal Marriage to build grass roots support for equality and oppose the campaign of the Coalition for Marriage, told Pink News:

This is incredibly worrying.  These children are shamelessly being used and manipulated to further the goals of the religious right, most likely without the knowledge or permission of their parents.

With children as young as 11 being drawn into this without being adequately equipped with maturity and an understanding of the issues at hand is nothing less than abusive scaremongering.

He added:

They claim that one of their reasons to campaign against same-sex marriage is to try to protect children. This just goes to show how untrue that is, and that they will use any tool and stoop to any low to get what they want.They are the ones who are a threat to children, and this is a shining example as to the dangers of faith schools.

Sue Sanders, co-chair of Schools Out, told Pink News:

I hardly think telling people to sign a petition that limits LGB people their human rights is either appropriate or legal.

The Catholic Education Service said in response that the school is permitted by the Act to teach sex and relationship education in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, but that it would not be allowed to discriminate or permit discrimination against pupils on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The Coalition for Marriage petition has attracted  over 467,000 signatures, while the Coalition for Equal Marriage has almost 49,000.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Ray D'Arcy

The former children’s TV presenter told his 245,000 listeners that the Catholic Church had, in many ways, “fucked up this country”.

According to this report, he faced up to the fury of church leaders this week by telling his listeners on his Today FM show:

When I was referring to the Catholic Church, and I thought people would take this to be the case, I was referring to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, not to people like my mother who is a devout Catholic and a great Christian.

He added:

I never meant to cause offence to them. And it is the hierarchy of the Catholic Church who have taken offence and are demanding an apology. That won’t be forthcoming. There won’t be a retraction. Because in my opinion the institution of the Catholic Church has caused well documented damage to the country and you don’t need me to go through the litany of the documented things they have perpetrated.

Ireland’s most popular presenter is now facing the prospect of being investigated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

The Communications Office of the Irish Bishops had demanded a full apology, and a spokesperson for the Church revealed at the weekend that the matter would be referred to the BAI in the form of a formal complaint unless an apology is made.

Catholic communications chief Martin Long, according to this report, demanded that the station and D’Arcy retract the “insulting” and “offensive” comment.

In a letter to station bosses, Long said:

Mr D’Arcy’s statement is grossly offensive and factually inaccurate. All those who hold the Catholic faith dear are deeply insulted by this appalling language.

By any objective or subjective measure, lay and religious members of the Catholic Church have and continue to contribute to the common good of our society, particularly in the areas of poverty, social justice, health and education.

He added:

In addition, it is shocking to hear such language on a national radio station at 9.15 on a school-day morning. I ask that an apology and a retraction be broadcast by the presenter at an equivalent time the next time the programme is broadcast, on Monday, 23 April.

Hat tip: Angela K and Glenn

As part of a Wiccan-related ceremony, two Nottingham men got naked and started a fire indoors to rid the premises of negative vibes.

Mohammed Aftab Mughal, left and Terence Williams

This resulted in the pair – Mohammed Aftab Mughal, 21, and Terence Williams, 51 – having to be bundled in their birthday suits out of Williams’s house in Blair Court, The Meadows, by firemen, then later being charged with arson.

According to this report, Nottingham Crown Court was told how a neighbour became concerned after seeing thick smoke coming from the house.

When he looked inside, could see Williams standing next to a fire completely naked and throwing things on to it.

Siward James-Moore, prosecuting, said:

The flames were licking around Mr Williams’ ankles at that stage. Mr Williams was staring right through him.

The court heard the pair had been burning white sage leaves and a candle as they meditated. But when Mughal said there was a “negative vibe in the air”, they decided to burn it away with lit newspaper.

Said Mr James-Moore.

Terence Williams suggested both their clothes should be burnt to enhance the ritual they were undertaking. Fire crews were called to the property at around 11.50am on October 21. Firefighters entered the address and found two males within, these two defendants, both of them were completely naked. They initially refused to leave, were not concerned for their own safety and were shocked the fire service was called.

Williams, 51, described the daft goings-on as a Wiccan ceremony, involving burning items to cleanse their souls.

The court heard there had been three different fires in the house. There were two gas canisters in a cupboard, which were potentially a threat had the fire got out of control.

In sentencing the pair, who both men pleaded guilty to arson, to 12 months of community service, the judge, recorder Jason MacAdam, told them:

This fire was caused through stupidity rather than malice.

The judge noted both of them had done a great deal of good in their lives, and were:

Dedicated to doing good acts for people in the future.

Hat Tip: Gill Kerry

IN A thoroughly depressing display of stupidity and godly fervour, hordes of miracle-mongers came charging through a gate opened by the Sun yesterday with a report headed Fabrice Muamba: I asked God to protect me … he didn’t let me down.

The comments section of the report is laced with excruciating utterances of superstitious guff, typified by:

Every knee shall bow & every Tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is lord. Please Muamba tell us more about heaven.

This suggests that the writer believes that devout Christian Muamba spent more than an hour confabulating with God or Jesus (or both) while medics were trying to revive him after his heart stopped and he crashed unconscious to the pitch 41 minutes into the FA Cup tie at White Hart Lane earlier this year.

Mind you, buried in this mindless morass was one sane observation:

God bless the defibrillator and the skill of the medics who treated him.

The god that struck Muamba down, then revived him 78 minutes later, did so to prove his power, suggested Muamba’s dad, who is quoted as saying:

I said to God, ‘You are the one who resurrected Lazarus from the dead. Now in this moment glorify yourself’.

And his capricious god dutifully obliged …

What she calls her “ecclesiastical pursuit chariot” – a 1994 Mercury Sable – was ticketed in February, 2011, but Flamond, in a June 13 letter to Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht, claimed she had her own plate — made of paper and bearing the biblical verse Rom. 11:29:

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

She then mounted a constitutional challenge against the tickets, arguing in a written Charter notice that the provincial civil laws do not apply to her because she is a Christian minister bound only by God, the Queen of England and the Constitution Act of 1982.

But this week Provincial Court Judge John Henderson tossed out her challenge, ruling that:

The Alberta Traffic Safety Act applies to “every single person” who operates a motor vehicle in the province.

Henderson also dismissed several other motions seeking to have the tickets quashed, including ones alleging wrongful prosecution and bias by the Crown and judge, who was also accused of coming close to treason.

The matter was then adjourned for trial on October 23.

In her Charter notice, Flamond included several letters she had written to people in authority.

She also called the car “church property” and accused the officer of stealing it and taking it to the “city pound.”

The Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International is a Christian denomination that does not believe in the authority of the Canadian government and wishes to use the King James Bible as the rule of law.

Flamond is by to means the only unhinged member of the church.  According to this report, in 2006 one of the congregation – Karen Ponto – had to be dragged kicking and screaming from Saskatoon provincial courtroom. She yelled at the judge that her arrest for contempt of court was a violation of her rights as a Christian.

Hat tip: Dog Gone

The LCWR, which has around 1,500 members in the US,  says on its website that it was left stunned by the findings of Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF, formerly the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. In 1981 a certain Joseph Ratzinger was appointed to head the Inquisition).

Pope Ratzinger once headed the Inquisition

The CDF said in its findings, published this week:

While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death … Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.

The naughty nuns also stand accused of issuing occasional statements:

That disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.

The CDF thundered:

This is not compatible with its purpose.

And it pointed out:

The Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated life …

In a sinister, Mafia-like move, the Vatican has called in a trio of “heavies” to knock the wayward nuns back into line. Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle has been named the CDF’s  “Archbishop Delegate” for the kick-ass initiative, assisted by Bishop Leonard Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki.

It will be the task of the Archbishop Delegate to work collaboratively with the officers of the LCWR to achieve the goals outlined in this document, and to report on the progress of this to the Holy See …. In this way, the Holy See hopes to offer an important contribution to the future of religious life in the Church in the United States.

Hat tip: Robert Stovold

Austin Sprout. Click on pic for video report

Five years earlier, the Oregon teenager’s fundamentalist dad, Brian Sprout, met his Maker after refusing medical treatment for sepsis that set in after an injury sustained in a fall.

Austin’s parents, Brandi and Russel Bellew, who attend General Assembly and the Church of the First Born in Pleasant Hill, Cresswell, now face second-degree manslaughter charges – and this week six of their children were made wards of the state. But they may continue to care for their remaining children under a state-supervised “in-home safety plan”,Lane County Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Eveleen Henry ruled in a brief afternoon hearing.

Terms of that plan include the presence of a state-approved “safety provider,” immediate notification of the state Department of Human Services if any of the children has “medical symptoms, illness or injury” and calling 911 if any medical emergency arises.

The safety monitor, Del McCracken, is a fellow church member, but “believes in seeking medical care and advocates for the children to have medical care,” the plan states.

The children are a blended family, created when Brandi and Russel Bellew married after both were widowed.

Brian Sprout was the biological father of three of the six children placed in state custody.

Monday’s hearing was packed with more than two dozen relatives and supporters of Brandi and Russel Bellew. Many were fellow church members who bowed their heads and appeared to pray during the hearing.

During the hearing lawyer, Bob Schrank, representing the Bellews, challenged as unnecessary the state’s request that both parents undergo a comprehensive psychological exam.

But child protection caseworker Jennifer Long Perkins said the state had a solid basis for seeking the exams:

By no means are we suggesting that these parents are crazy. But we are asking the family to make a significant, life-changing decision about a practice (faith-healing) they have long upheld. We want a professional opinion that they are able to do that.

Judge Henry ordered the exams, but allowed the couple to delay them until their criminal case is resolved.

Hat tip. Angela K

Rosie O'Donnell faces up to a mad Christian fundie. Click on pic for video.

A complaint received by Norwich City Council about the stuff the Norwich Reformed Church was dishing out at a weekly “outreach” bookstall on the council-owned Hay Hill site prompted a review of the materials produced by the church’s pastor, Reverend Alan Clifford.

As a result, the council contacted police as the literature, particularly the leaflet entitled Why not Islam?, was considered to be “hate-motivated”.

The church was then told to bugger off and never darken the market again … or until such time someone decides it was all a horrible misunderstanding and that a gross infringement of freedom of expression had taken place.

The council-run Eaton Park Community Centre has also been contacted with a view to ceasing any further bookings made by the church.

A council spokesman said:

Although the police advised that no criminal offence had been committed, we have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to foster good relations between people of all backgrounds and religions. By allowing premises owned by the council to be used by an organisation publishing such material, we would be failing in that duty. People across Norfolk have recently been urged to stand up to hate-motivated and intolerant behaviour through a publicity campaign and as a council we have to play our part and take action where necessary.

Clifford, who has scuttled off  to the Christian Institute for advice, said an “extraordinarily silly” form of “political correctness” had emerged.

While the opinion of the Christian Institute is awaited, it is hoped that in due course, common sense might prevail, and that Norwich Reformed Church’s rights to worship and witness will be restored.

 Hat tip: Angela Kingdom (O’Donnell report) and Agent Cormac

According to this report, the bishops were “in revolt” over the scheme announced in the recent Budget.

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said the move was “regrettable”:

Vincent Nichols

Nichols, who, courtesy of a certain Pope Ratzinger, came to his post in 2009 vowing to fight “an aggressively secular agenda”, added:

At a time of increasing austerity, it would be regrettable if they (listed churches) had to face higher costs for repairs and alterations from planned changes to VAT.

And the Right Reverend Christopher Chessun, warned that extending VAT to cover listed building improvements would:

Cause a great deal of difficulty for those caring for the nation’s heritage.

He added:

The extra costs this tax will impose on building projects, which enhance community and other use, will damage the ability of the church and others to undertake important work in building social cohesion.

Religion and social cohesion? Please tell me Chessun is having a laugh.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, has written to Chancellor George Osborne urging him to exclude places of worship from the VAT extension or to boost a rebate scheme from which churches can reclaim spending on this tax.

The Treasury has pointed out that this grant scheme had been increased by £5 million to offset the VAT change.

But religious leaders have warned that the extra money will not fully cover the increased bill from having to pay VAT, at 20 per cent.

A Treasury spokesman said:

Currently listed places of worship, of any faith or denomination, can claim a grant equal to the VAT paid on eligible repairs and maintenance works. The scheme will be extended to include approved alterations to listed places of worship.

Hat tip: Pax Tayer

According to Recovering From Religion, Jerry deWitt – now its Executive Director – became a non-believer after more than 25 years of Pentecostal ministry in his home state of Louisiana. His “coming out” cost him his job, and almost hishome, but he could not be happier because he feels he has regained his integrity.

Jerry deWitt saw the light and ditched Christianity

DeWitt said he could not abide the hypocrisy of the pulpit. His story emerged at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne through his friend and fellow former pastor, Dan Barker, founder of an online support group for clergy who have lost their faith.

The international group, including at least one Australian and a former imam, has grown to more than 200 members in its first year. Most have left their jobs, but more than 50 are still active clergy, Mr Barker says. The group, The Clergy Project, is getting up to 40 applications a month, each of which is carefully vetted by volunteer screeners to make sure it is genuine.

Said Barker

It’s a sanctuary, where they feel they can hold on to their sanity.

Funded by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, the support group has several forums, all of which are confined to members.

Barker, founder of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, left the ministry in 1984 after 19 years as a preacher.

Leading philosopher Daniel Dennett said the mismatch between what the clergy believed and what their parishioners expected them to believe was a source of real anguish.

One told me, if you offered retraining you’d have 10,000 members tomorrow.

Dennett has led a study involving several of the clergy.

Christian leaders know it is true. Hardly anyone denies it is a phenomenon, but no one knows how big it is. They are like gays in the 1950s, but without gaydar.

He said these ministers were caught in ”an insidious trap baited with goodness”, but it caused most of them real suffering.

Lord George Carey

In a submission to the European Court of Human Rights in support of a clot of “persecuted” religious fanatics who proved unfit for purpose in their respective jobs and were rightly dismissed, Cary writes that Christians can be sacked for manifesting their faith, are vilified by state bodies, are in fear of reprisal and can even be arrested for expressing their views on sexual ethics. All of this:

Affects the moral and ethical compass of the United Kingdom. Christians are excluded from many sectors of employment simply because of their beliefs; beliefs which are not contrary to the public good … It is now Christians who are persecuted; often sought out and framed by homosexual activists.

Christians are driven underground. There appears to be a clear animus to the Christian faith and to Judeo-Christian values. Clearly the courts of the United Kingdom need guidance.

Carey’s hope that his latest bleat would result in outpouring of sympathy, or even vigorous nods of agreement were dashed when commentators immediately set about exposing him as paranoid loon with a very tenuous grip on reality.

This, from Guardian columnist Martin Robbins:

In his latest outburst, Carey is guilty of at least three sins against his flock: he fear-mongers regarding the ability of Christians to express their faith in public, he regurgitates a slew of mythical episodes of Christian persecution, and he entirely misrepresents secularism.

Robbins then points out that Carey can hardly claim that “the outward expression of traditional conservative Christian values has effectively been ‘banned” in Britain’ when, as a life peer, he:

Lives in a palace, holds a seat in the House of Lords (alongside twenty-odd other Bishops from the Church of England), and has his remarks published on the front pages of newspapers.

Ophelia Benson, over at Butterflies and Wheels makes pretty much the same point – then dismisses him in two words:

Filthy man.

And Executive Director of the National Secular Society, Keith Porteous Wood said:

Lord Carey is not just wrong, but the truth is the opposite of what he asserts. Far from the UK being less intolerant than the rest of the world on religion, it is perhaps the most religiously tolerant country in the world.

Hat tip: Marcus Robinson

A water drop is shown forming on toe of the drippy Jesus (click on image for video)

In this case, all Edamaruku did was to demonstrate that there was nothing miraculous about the water dripping from the feet of Jesus, on a cross at the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni.

The cross, according to this report, had become the centre of attraction for an ever-growing crowd of believers. Hundreds came every day to pray and collect some of the “holy water” in bottles and vessels.

Sanal Edamaruku travelled to the church with a TV crew, identified the source of the water (drainage near a washing room) and he demonstrated the simple mechanism – capillary action – by which it reached Jesus’ feet.

Some hours later, in a live programme on TV-9, Sanal explained his findings and accused Catholic Church officials of miracle mongering. They had been clearly milking the drippy Jesus to the max with an aggressive PR push.

Click on image for the debate

A heated debate ensued, in which five church personnel and representatives of the Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC) demanded that Sanal apologise. He refused and argued against them.

They then threatened to file a blasphemy charge against him – and they did.

On April 10 he received a phone call from a Police official at Juhu Police Station in Mumbai ordering him to the station to face the charges. Edamaruku also revealed that FIRs (First Information Reports prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of an offence) have also been filed in Andheri and other police stations under Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code. These are apparently based on allegations that his exposé  had hurt Catholics’ “religious sentiments”.

N D Pancholi, Convenor of the  Sanal Edamaruku Defence Committee, said in a statement:

It is distressing that the Mumbai police has chosen to harass and victimise him for doing his fundamental duty. The Sanal Edamaruku Defence Committee appeals to all progressive individuals and organisations to protest and oppose the reprehensible steps of the Maharashtra police in filing FIRs against Sanal and stand behind him in solidarity for the cause of scientific thinking and freedom of expression.

 Hat tip: Zé Fontainhas

Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena. Pedro Armestre / AFP - Getty Images

Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena is facing charges related to her alleged role in a baby-trafficking network of clerics and doctors that operated in Spain from the 1940s until the early 1990s. Children were taken from their parents and sold to other couples.

More than a thousand cases have been filed with Spain’s attorney general.

During her court appearance on Thursday, crowds of mothers claiming their newborns were stolen reportedly chanted, “shameless” at the nun. Shortly after refusing to testify, the nun issued a statement denying the allegations.

Under no circumstance have I ever had any knowledge of the separation of a newborn from his or her biological mother under force and threats. It disgusts me to the depths of my being. I consider it inadmissible and unjustifiable.

Meanwhile, police documents published in Australia implicate the Catholic Church  in the suicides of at least 40 people who were sexually abused by priests in Victoria.

The reports, written by Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson, allege that the Church appears to have known about a shockingly high rate of suicides and premature deaths but has chosen to remain silent.

They linked the suicides to the sexual abuse perpetrated by a band of paedophile clergy, including Gerard Ridsdale, Bryan Coffey, Paul Ryan, Robert Best and Edward Dowlan. Most of the victims were abused between the 1960s and late 1980s.

One of the reports says it would appear an investigation would uncover many more deaths as a consequence of clergy sexual abuse.

Det-Sgt Carson wrote that at the end of last year that the sheer number of young men who were abused or suspected to be the victims or abuse, and who had met a premature death, continued to grow.

A spokesman for the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese claimed that the only information it has about such suicides is what has appeared in the media.

We don’t have access to any information that links suicides with sexual abuse.

Victims and their relatives have called on Premier Ted Baillieu and Attorney-General Robert Clark to create an inquiry with royal commission powers to examine sexual abuse involving religious organisations.

Just days after the Melbourne’s Sunday Age carried a damning expose of “reparative” treatments to Australian homosexuals, it was announced that London buses would be carrying ads advocating gay cures. Behind the ad campaign were two crackpot outfits: the Core Issues Trust (motto: God’s heart in sexual and relational brokenness …) whose leader, Mike Davidson, believes “homoerotic behaviour is sinful”, and Anglican Mainstream, a worldwide orthodox Anglican group whose supporters have equated homosexuality with alcoholism. The advert was due to say:

Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!

Such was the outrage that to the planned campaign that London Mayor, Boris Johnson immediately crushed it.

Johnson, who contacted the Guardian to announce he was stopping the adverts within two hours of their contents becoming public, said:

London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses.

His main rival in next month’s mayoral election, Ken Livingstone, said Johnson should never have allowed the adverts to be booked.

London is going backwards under a Tory leadership that should have made these advertisements impossible. They promote a falsehood, the homophobic idea of ‘therapy’ to change the sexual orientation of lesbians and gay men.

The campaign was an explicit attempt to hit back at the gay rights group Stonewall, which as part of its lobbying for the extension of marriage to gay couples is running its own bus adverts saying:

Some people are gay. Get over it.

The Christian groups used the same black, red and white colour scheme as Stonewall and in a statement announcing the campaign accused it of promoting:

The false idea that there is indisputable scientific evidence that people are born gay.

The gay ex-vicar, Labour MP and former minister Chris Bryant, said the advert was cruel for promoting the idea that you could become “ex-gay” and he said it would particularly hurt teenagers struggling to come to terms with their sexuality.

The emotional damage that is done to the individuals who try to suppress their sexuality, the women they marry and the children they might have is immeasurable. Most sane Christians believe that homosexuality is not a lifestyle or a choice but is a fact to be discovered or not. The pretence that homosexuality is something you can be weaned off in some way is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of creation.

Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of Stonewall, said the adverts were “clearly homophobic” and added:

The only reason some gay people might want to stop being gay is because of the prejudice of the people who are publishing the ad. The promotion of this voodoo therapy is hugely irresponsible given the damage that it appears to do to some people.

Both men said the advert should not be banned, however, because they believed in freedom of speech.

Attempts to “treat” or alter sexual orientation have been strongly condemned by leading medical organisations. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has warned that “so-called treatments of homosexuality create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination flourish” and concluded in 2010:

There is no sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.

The dotty Rev Lynda Rose, a spokesperson for the UK branch of Anglican Mainstream, said her group adhered to scripture that all fornication outside marriage is prohibited and believed that homosexuals were:

Not being fully the people God intended us to be.

She said therapies endorsed by Anglican Mainstream and Core Issues were not coercive and were appropriate for people who wanted to change their sexual attractions, for example if they were married and worried about the impact of a “gay lifestyle” on their children.

Hat tip: Remigius and BarrieJohn

A NEW book about evolution that yellow-bellied publishers in the US were too afraid to publish has won the prestigious Lane Anderson Awardin the young reader category in Canada.

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, by Daniel Loxton, won the 2010 Lane Anderson Award in the young reader category for a book published in the field of science and written by a Canadian. The  book was also a finalist in the Silver Birch competition earlier this year – and is in the running for a third book award for Canadian children’s non-fiction.

According to this report, the book – aimed at young readers between eight and 13 – sent publishers in America running for the hills because they thought it might be controversial and was “too hot a topic”.

Loxton said that he has already received angry emails from creationists demanding to know why his book doesn’t give “equal time” to their point of view. He explains that his book is about science, not religion. Furthermore, the Christian creation story is only one of many from various cultures around the world.

No one objects to the Bible or creationism being taught in schools as literature or religion – just not as science.

However, over in Tennessee, educators have been given the green light to bring creationism and “intelligent design” into classrooms under the guise of “encouraging scepticism and evidence-based reasoning”.

Robin Zimmer, a biotechnology consultant and affiliate of the creationist Center for Faith and Science International in Knoxville, said in support of what is being called the Monkey Bill, nicknamed after the notorious ‘monkey trial’ of 1925, in which Tennessee prosecuted high-school science teacher John Scopes for violating a state law against teaching evolution:

Critical thinking fosters good science.

The new bill allows public-school teachers to:

Help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories.

Biological evolution, global warming, the chemical origins of life and human cloning are listed as examples of such theories.

Opponents say that the real goal of the bill is apparent from the list of subjects it singles out. Said Eugenie Scott, Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in Oakland, California:

HB 368 and other bills like it are a permission slip for teachers to bring creationism, climate-change denial and other non-science into science classrooms.

Hat tip: Canada Dave and BarrieJohn (Tennessee report)

Big Mo Enait rejects Dutch mores

WHEN Mohammed Enait, a lawyer by profession, applied for a job as a client manager at Rotterdam Council, he made it quite clear that his religion forbade him to shake hands with any women he might come into contact with.

Council recruiters in the social services department reacted by telling him to take a hike.

Claiming he was being discriminated against, man-mountain Mo took the council to a court in The Hague, where his case was dismissed this week.

The court, according to this report, found his refusal to shake hands with females of the species “unacceptable”, and said his stance would have damaged the relationship between the council and its clients.

Back in 2009, the arrogant idiot had his knuckles rapped by the Netherlands bar association for his refusal to stand up when judges entered a court, as well as for his insistence on wearing a funny hat during proceedings.

After he was reprimanded by the association, Enait indicated that he intended avoiding the problem by pleading only minor cases where he is not required to rise.

He claimed at the time that he was “fighting for the rights of orthodox Muslims and that he was “a victim of political persecution”.

A Rotterdam court last year ruled in favour of Enait, arguing that an exception could be made on the basis of deep religious conviction. But the judge was later overruled by the council for the judiciary, which said all lawyers must demonstrate their respect for the rule of law and exceptions are not acceptable.

The first ruling was heavily criticised by members of the Dutch parliament at the time. Christian democrat Sybrand van Haersma Buma said:

It is unacceptable that one individual with extreme beliefs can challenge [our] general rules of conduct.

And while on the subject of mad Muslims, news is just in that Abu Hamza, the hook-handed horror that UK officials have long wanted cleared out of Britain, could soon be handed over to the United States, which wants to put the hate preacher and four other Islamic fanatics on trial for alleged terrorist activities. Human rights judges ruled there would be no violation of the European Human Rights Convention if the UK extradited the five to the US.

Abu Hamza

The ruling, after a series of controversial human rights judgments against the Government, was welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron. He said:

It is right we have proper legal processes, although sometimes one can get frustrated with how long they take.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the Government:

Will work to ensure that the suspects are handed over to the US authorities as quickly as possible.

Hat tip: Glenn (Dutch report)

According to this report, Ghana’s Women and Children’s Minister, Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, intervened after the girl was accused by her classmates of ‘stealing the brains of other students’ in order to get top grades.

The student, who scored straight As, fled to Gambaga, a camp for witches in northern Ghana, after community members threatened violence.

This is one of hundreds of mainly elderly Ghanaian women forced into protection camps after being accused of witchcraft. Click on pic for video

She was released after NGOs and civil servants explained to the community that the student was simply bright. Her case has attracted such media attention that on Wednesday an academy in the capital, Accra, said it was seeking funding to offer her a scholarship.

Gariba said it is important that “such bizarre maltreatment of girls and children (is) eradicated” in Ghana.

Although the Ghanaian government says witchcraft does not exist, the country is home to about 16 formal camps where accused witches, who are usually female, can seek refuge.

In 2010 the BBC reported that  a 72-year-old woman, accused of being a witch in the port city of Tema, near Accra, was set on fire by a group of five adults, one of whom is believed to be a pastor.

Christian pastors are often implicated in violence directed at people accused of witchcraft. According to this report, pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” in various parts of Africa, and 13 churches were named in case files.

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Police said the suspects tortured the woman, Ama Hemmah, until she confessed to being a witch, before dousing her with kerosene and setting her on fire.  She died from her injuries the following day.

According to reports, the suspects say that they poured anointing oil on the woman which caught fire as they were trying to drive out an evil spirit.

Elsewhere in Africa, women are still jailed for suspected involvement in witchcraft. As recently as 2010, hundreds of women were still behind bars in Liberia, accused of casting spells.

In Malawi, 45 people were imprisoned for being witches in 2011, despite the presence of a “witchcraft act” that was inherited from the UK 100 years’ earlier and which denies the existence of the phenomenon.

The Roman Catholic Bishop Of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies

Davies, according to this report, used the PAGAN festival to warn Britons that if they persisted in undermining Christianity, the country would fall victims to “the most sinister of ideologies” – such as Nazism.

This posturing nitwit – who surely must be aware of the fact that it was German Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church who put total power within the Nazis’ reach – said:

It has, indeed, been the experience of this past century, as both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have observed, how the most poisonous ideologies have arisen within the Christian nations of Europe.

Thus Nazism or Communism attempted to discard the Christian inheritance of faith and morality as if it had never existed.  They sought either to return to the pagan past or to ‘re-create’ and ‘redeem’ humanity by political will and ideology with terrible consequences.

He then lamented:

Today we are becoming increasingly aware that there are those in leading positions within our society who wish to see history somehow reversed, who wish the very light which Christianity brought to these islands would recede.

Equally foolish, but in this case simply vacuous and banal, were the words of “Dumbledore”. The Archbishop of Canterbury used his last Easter message before his retirement later this year to attack what he called the downgrading of religious education.

Rowan Williams criticised the Government for not including religious education as a subject counting towards the English baccalaureate, an alternative to A-levels which is being offered by more and more schools.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, summed up the collective Easter tosh thus:

The churches are in revivalist mode and are stopping at nothing to stem their haemorrhaging support and boost their power.

To do so they are inventing persecution, threatening the Government, rewriting history and even persecuting an oppressed minority – gay people.

Hat Tip: Agent Cormac

Ahead of his sermon, the BBC reported that he would tell worshippers to “wear proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ” each day of their lives.

The cardinal, who is the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, hopes increasing numbers of Christians will adopt the practice of wearing a cross in a “simple and discreet” way as a symbol of their beliefs.

A lapel pin costs £1 – less than a chocolate Easter egg – and could be given as gifts, he will say.

Slipping on my entrepreneurial hat, the idea came to me that a lucrative venture, targeting True Christians™, could be launched in association with Dr Gunther von Hagens.

A close-up of a section of von Hagens' crucifixion piece

The controversial anatomist, whose work often requires the use of human cadavers and body parts, has recreated an anatomically correct version of the crucifixion, and tonight the results of his work will be shown in a special Channel 4 documentary.

Von Hagens says of the work:

The piece draws on Christian traditions, with the skeleton symbolising frailty, finitude and human transience, while the vascular system, in which the blood is transported around the body, stands for the miracle of life.

Now the problem with the cross, as many Christians acknowledge, is that too many people wear the symbol purely for decorative purposes. Barbara Smoker, feisty atheist campaigner and a past President of the National Secular Society (she’s now approaching 90 and still going strong), once told me that she spotted a young woman on the Tube wearing an ostentatious cross on her ample bosom. This prompted her to ask the woman whether she was a Christian.

The answer she got was:

Good grief, No! I just wear this to draw attention to my tits!

My idea is that churches could team up with von Hagens to produce a miniature of his work, either as a pin or a pendant. Being truly gory, this is likely to appeal far more to yer hard-core True Believers™ than to mere fashionistas – and would thus help sort the Real Deals from the phonies.

Just a thought …

Teresa MacBain addressing the AA conference (click on pic for video)

In a move that took local Christians completely by surprise, MacBain left the church and a few days later stood at the podium of an American Atheist conference where she told a delighted audience that   she didn’t believe in God. She admitted:

I was one of those crazy fundamentalists, right-wingers, haters … that’s the only word I can use for it.

Though still shocked, the congregation MacBain left behind behind say they still have faith that she will return.

Said Methodist superintendent Antonio Fernandez:

God Allows u-turns. We are praying for Teresa. Maybe in the future she will come back.

MacBain told American Atheists that she had been a Christian for 44 years. Her father was a Baptist preacher – and she apologised for using her time as a minister to verbally abusing atheists from the pulpit.

In a YouTube video recording of her speech, she tells the audience:

You were the ones who were going to burn in hell and I’m happy to say, as I stand before you, I’m going to burn with you.

She revealed that she was a member of the Clergy Project. It’s an online community that aims to be a safe place for clergy members who are secret non-believers. MacBain wrote a testimonial for the site under the fake name “Lynn”. At the time she had not yet resigned form her duties.

She wrote:

Every week I struggle with the fact that I’m lying when I stand before my congregation. I’m leading a double life.

She was embraced and cheered for by the crowd. But, despite the support, MacBain expressed concern about life after the conference.

I am well known in my community. I’m well respected. I’ve been in Florida, in Tallahassee for eight years. I’m really interested once all this gets out to see what happens, and I’m really scared honestly.

A friend of the former minister said MacBain’s experience of declaring her atheism was:

Like coming out as a homosexual.

Tallahassee Atheist founder Mark Palmer was a Mormon minister until six years ago. He too decided he didn’t believe in God.

It was a multi-year long process, you don’t just wake up one day and say all this stuff I’ve been taught my whole life… let’s bin it.

As for the Lake Jackson Methodist members MacBain has preached to for the past 3 years, Palmer says they should be fine.

Teresa is a good and loving and beautiful person and if they were leading their lives in a way that she would approve of, I can’t believe she was leading them too far astray.

 

Praising the Lord too loudly: Members of the New Generation Church in full cry

But, according to this report, the local authority’s pleas to the church to dampen down the din fell of deaf ears. In a bid to resolve the situation, the council also gave advice to the church on ways of reducing the noise levels, but this too was ignored by the arrogant, anti-social idiots who run this unruly establishment.

Matters came to a head when Deacon Everton Lewis-Gordon and pastor Sean Samuel appeared before magistrates in Nottingham charged under the Environmental Protection Act with noise nuisance. The charges against the deacon were withdrawn but Samuel was fined a total of £360 and ordered to pay costs of £300 to Nottingham City Council.

The council brought the prosecution following complaints about amplified singing, music and preaching.

Noise pollution officers judged the volume of noise coming from the services to be a nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act after recording sound levels during services, some which could last up to three hours, Nottingham City Council said.

After no sign of improvement was seen, nor heard, the matter was taken to the courts.

Alex Norris, portfolio holder for community safety and area working councillor said:

We have tried everything we can to bring this matter to a resolution without resorting to court. Unfortunately, over a prolonged period of time, the unacceptable noise levels – sometimes above the traffic noise on the busy road –  have not reduced and we have felt that prosecution was the only option open to us.

He added:

Noise nuisance of all kinds – including amplified music – can seriously undermine people’s peaceful enjoyment of their own homes and we will always act to protect that right.

In Nigeria the authorities are more heavy-handed when it comes to this sort of thing. A news report on YouTube reveals that the Lagos State Government has shut down the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Ministry and six other churches in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria over the intolerable levels of noise they were producing in a bid to get God’s attention.

Hat tip: Angela K.

An unctuous speech of such disingenuousness and hypocrisy that it almost takes the breath away.

Terry Sanderson. Photo: Julian Simmonds, The Telegraph

Writing on the NSS website, Sanderson points out that Cameron, who gave an Easter reception for Christian leaders at Downing Street this week, started by saying he welcomed the Easter message as being one of hope.

But at the same time admits that he has problems believing a word of it – particularly the resurrection! Even so, he welcomes what he calls the ‘Christian fight-back’ in Britain. It is not clear what this ‘fight-back’ is against but he measures it in ‘the enormous reception of the Pope’s visit’.

However, the Pope’s visit – as the Catholic Church’s own research showed – was a comprehensive flop.

Addressing Cameron’s reference to the Bideford Council case, Sanderson said:

Cameron says ‘we’ve won the argument over Bideford Council and the fact that if councils want to say prayers before council meetings they should. They have ‘won’ by declaring that a High Court judgment is, in their opinion, wrong and have unilaterally over-ruled it. Isn’t that the sort of thing that dictators do – particularly theocratic dictators? The interpretation that Mr Pickles has put on the Localism Act is highly suspect and untested in court, yet he blithely announces that it means whatever he says it means.

Cameron then said:

I think we see the fight-back in this very strong stance that I’ve taken and others have taken in terms of the right to wear a crucifix. I think this is important. People should be able to express their faith.

But, asks Sanderson:

When did people not have the right to wear a crucifix or express their faith? This is a fantasy propagated by Christian extremists in this country and one that the Prime Minister has embraced either through cynicism or gullibility?

He also failed to mention that his own Government’s legal arguments in the European Court say that employers have the right to restrict the wearing of jewellery (not crosses –but any jewellery) in the workplace if it is necessary. I think he is hoping nobody notices that.

Sanderson added:

Perhaps the most telling part of the speech is about his conflict with religion over gay marriage. He hopes that the religious leaders he is addressing will not be too harsh. And just in case they won’t let up in their relentless and unpleasant campaigning against gay rights, he throws out a hope to them that he might give in to their bullying.

The Prime Minister said:

If this doesn’t go ahead, to those of us who’d like it to go ahead, there will still be civil partnerships, so gay people will be able to form a partnership that gives them many of the advantages of marriage.

This, said Sanderson,  is the first inkling that the promises he made to the gay community are very likely to be betrayed.

He doesn’t want to lock horns with the churches on this because he needs them on board for his ‘Big Society’ project. Ah yes, the Big Society, the idea that ‘faith-based’ organisations are somehow going to run our public services without any extra money from the Government.

Sanderson concluded:

Britain is one of the most secularised countries in the world. Even on a conservative estimate a third of population has no religion (with about 20 percent being outright atheists). What is the place of this gigantic minority? Are we supposed to just fall in line behind our ‘faith leaders’? Are we supposed to stand by as they take over the education system for their own propaganda purposes; usurp secular social services and religionise them; and bring their small-minded illiberal teachings into our bedrooms and even our health care?

Mr Cameron’s craven speech in which he promises religion the key to the country is a gross insult to those of us who don’t have religion and don’t want religion. It is a warning to gay people that the tables are turning and that ‘religious rights’ will soon pull ahead of everybody else’s rights – particularly theirs.

This courting of religion by politicians has sinister echoes of the American approach. But the Prime Minister should recognise that Britain is not America – and even in America he should heed the fate of Rick Santorum, who has taken this idea of theocratising a secular nation to its logical conclusion. The people have roundly rejected him.

Terry Sanderson. Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS, The Telegraph

'Freelance exorcist' retired Police Chaplain Father Barry May. Picture: Richard Hatherly

WE all know that the global financial crisis has led to a surge of repossessions … but POSSESSIONS?

Apparently so, if a barmy Perth-based non-denominational Christian ministry is to believed.

According to this report, Set Right’s head honcha, known as “Apostle” Michelle Pecoult, says her outfit has seen a “massive rise” in possessions, and now exorcise four or five people a day. She said people find them online and through psychic fairs and they also visit schools and prisons.

The Set Right website notes that depression is:

A common low ranking demon while schizophrenia is another demon we have met often and evicted.

Ms Pecoult added.

We’ve removed schizophrenia. People have been healed of it… God is greater than any medical doctor, he’s greater than me. We’ve seen absolute physical healing… and people in a major state of depression. Depression can be a symptom of a demonic power being in there. Jesus dealt with lunatic spirits, they’re real. You can’t get rid of them by medication. You have to renew your mind.

This superstitious bilge has alarmed Dr Choong-Siew Yong, a practicing psychiatrist who represents psychiatry on the AMA’s Federal Council, who said he was concerned about untrained practitioners making claims that contradict the science. He warned that claiming someone was possessed could reinforce their delusions and stop them getting proper care.

There is an enormous amount of research that has discredited the idea that people with psychiatric conditions such as depression and schizophrenia are because of demonic possession. That’s a very old idea, not held up by science. 

He added:

We’d be concerned that people were missing out on reliable, well-evidenced, modern medical treatment. Some people with psychotic illnesses do believe that they’re possessed, or have strange religious ideas… but when they’re assessed by a doctor there will be a diagnosis of mental illness.

The highly-delusional Pecoult says her team has intensive training through the “Holy Spirit” to treat people and worked in conjunction with her husband Vince who has a psychology degree.

She emphasised that they do not take payment for exorcisms but do it to “Glorify God”.

Hubbie  Pecoult claims to have said he studied psychology until the Bible taught him that there might be a spiritual root to mental health issues. He said they counsel people after “deliverances”.

The casting out of demons is the easy part of the process.

Referring to a two-year-old who fell into Set Right’s clutches, Ms Pecoult said the boy was:

Unaware of what was going on. [He] was in a normal play situation and suddenly he was unable to move, speak, do anything… he started growling and snarling.  (The demon) was told to leave and in 20 minutes he had left. The child didn’t know.

She said while sometimes they have to do “emergency” procedures, generally they like to talk to the person first.

The Catholic Church has warned of an increase in possessions and the need for exorcisms, with some priests blaming popular culture series such as Twilight and Harry Potter though no possessions or exorcisms are shown in either series of books and films.

On Sunday 60 Minutes interviewed three American teen exorcists and their mentor, the Reverend Bob Larson, who says he has 100 teams of exorcists travelling the world and visiting countries as far flung as Australia.

Former police chaplain and Anglican priest Barry May, who is also an author and “freelance exorcist”,  says while demand for exorcisms was on the rise, he would only have done 25 exorcisms over 40 years.  He is approached far more often but prefers to offer people the “ministry of healing”.

Hat tip: Bill Murray

Fr McVeigh: Parents want answers to his Powerpoint porn presentation

Church officials are reportedly remaining tight-lipped as to why McVeigh was not there to do the body-and-blood of Jesus mumbo-jumbo thing.

But it’s everyone’s guess that his non-appearance was related to an embarrassing flash drive incident in which around 16 “indecent” gay images were projected onto a screen at the start of a Powerpoint presentation the priest was giving to parents of children attending St Mary’s Primary School children at the end of last month.

The meeting was held in preparation for First Holy Communion. An eight-year-old boy is understood to have also been present in the room.

Afterwards parents of children at a Pomeroy primary school called for McVeigh to step down pending a full investigation of the incident.

A statement from the parents described how the priest put the memory stick into the computer and began scrolling through folders before he opened one entitled ‘new folder’.

This contained “approximately 16 indecent images of men”, which they said were previews to other folders, at which point Fr McVeigh quickly removed the memory stick.

Said the parents:

He was visibly shaken and flustered. He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room. The co-ordinator and the teachers then continued with the presentation … the parents who viewed the pictures were horrified and distracted. Twenty minutes later he returned, he continued with the meeting and wrapped up by saying that the children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the Church.

Later McVeigh told the Ulster Herald that he expects that the appearance of the images will be “legitimately explained”

But the parents are said to be “enraged” that priest has refused to step aside pending a full investigation and has continued to say Mass in the village.

The questions that remain unanswered are the fact that Fr McVeigh is still saying Mass and has not been suspended pending an investigation. In any other responsible organisation this would have been the first action.

The parents are enraged that Fr McVeigh has been entrusted with the pastoral care of their children. However, he has given no explanation for why he left the room for 20 minutes after the incident or no apology to the offended child, parents or teachers.

A statement from St Mary’s principal Sean Devlin said:

I would like to point out that this issue is not in any way connected with the school or with any member of our staff. As far as the school is concerned, the matter is being dealt with under the appropriate Armagh Diocesan procedures.

The Armagh Diocese have since informed parents that a priest from a neighbouring parish will lead the forthcoming First Penance service, but this has not halted the grumbles:

Worried mums and dads said:

We feel that the situation is not being treated with the gravitas that it warrants and we as parents feel that the Church are doing nothing and hoping that we will go away.

In a statement, Cardinal Sean Brady said:

The Archdiocese immediately sought the advice of the Police Service of Northern Ireland which indicated that, on the basis of the evidence available, no crime had been committed. The priest has stated that he had no knowledge of the offending imagery. The priest is co-operating with an investigation of the matter on the part of the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of Armagh also confirmed that Cardinal Sean Brady was aware of the incident.

Fr McVeigh has stated that he had no knowledge of the offending imagery. The priest said:

As the incident is being investigated, I wouldn’t be able to comment until the investigation is finished. Hopefully that will be soon. I don’t know how it happened but I know what happened. There are people making innuendoes who weren’t even there but in this day and age these stories grow.

All I can do is let the incident be investigated and be open to that investigation so that what happened can be legitimately explained.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn, Pete H, Steve Jackson and Martin Richards. My thanks, too, to EWTelco, Spain for getting me back online a day earlier than expected after I decided to change my ISP. And here’s some good news about the Freethinker blog, brought to my attention by Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society.  Results like this give me the strength to keep on keeping at ‘em.

According to this report, the Jesus- and John Wayne-loving Obama hater – Wanda Derby, 71, of Richland Hills, is currently free on $11,500 bail after being charged with the second-degree felony of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor assault with bodily injury.

The charges relate to an alleged attack on Lloyd Guerrero, an actor whose home is in Los Angeles, but was in Texas at the time of the incident.

Lloyd Guerrero

Derby attacked the 25-year-old man on Wednesday night. She referred to her victim as a homosexual, and told authorities that the man “has AIDS and is going to kill her son”, according to a police department news release.

The Conservative Babylon blog dug up a few interesting things about Derby, including the fact that she is a hard-core right-winger who loves Jesus, Republicans and the military, and hates welfare recipients.

CB commented:

And while we are not at all qualified to judge anyone’s mental state, especially gleaned from posts on a Facebook page, a few of Derby’s posts make us wonder if extreme conservatism and mental illness may indeed go hand-in-hand.

Any homophobic remarks that may have been posted are now gone, but the posts that remain paint an unsettling picture.

Hat tip: Buffy

PLEASE NOTE: I shall be off-line for a couple of days due to a change-over of ISP. Normal service should be resumed by Wednesday.

HAVING inflicted all sorts of woes on Tesco for donating £30,000 to London Gay Pride without seeing any signs of contrition or repentance, a mightily peeved Almighty has brought out his latest weapon again the supermarket giant: MICE!

An infestation of the little critters of a Tesco Metro in Covent Garden, London, is God’s latest handiwork against  the homo-lovin’ chain, claims Britain’s looniest Christian, Stephen “Birdshit” Green.

On his Christian Voice blog this week, the demented Green says:

It doesn’t get any better for Tesco, who have seen their ‘big price drop’ flop, sales and profits drop, the worst performance of the ‘big four’ over Christmas, their share price plummet, their UK operations CEO sacked, their local management in a spin, all since announcing a £30,000 gift to London Gay Pride in November 2011.  

And he concludes:

Nothing has gone right for Tesco since they decided to support ‘gay pride’.  Their only hope is to repent of that decision and put their trust in God.

This prompted “Dave” to comment:

Wow! I’m impressed with your deity. Day by day, he ignores suffering, poverty, war and famine. Yet upset him by giving a bit of money to a festival celebrating human rights, and he sends in the mice. That’s power.

Hat tip: Remigius

So what was a delegation of 12 Quakers thinking when they turned up at Buck House earlier this week to deliver a message of loyalty to our Lizzie in celebration of her  diamond jubilee this year?

According to this report, some Quakers, supporting the address, argue that it gave Friends an opportunity to “raise issues of Quaker concern at the heart of power”.

But many other Quakers believe that the denomination’s commitment to equality is inconsistent with addressing someone as a superior. Some go further and argue that faith in the Kingdom of God rules out loyalty to a human ruler.

The address began by offering congratulations on the Queen for hanging in there for 60 years. It went on to say:

We give thanks for the commitment you have shown through six decades as monarch and for your steadfast upholding of the value of faith to our nation’s well-being.

The address also called for equality for same-sex marriage:

Because of our deeply held belief that we see the light of God in everyone which leads us to respect the inherent worth of each individual and each loving relationship.

There was particular anger that the address described the monarch as “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”. Quakers generally avoid titles and refer to people by their names only. However, it is reported that Joycelin Dawes, who read out the address, declined to curtsey to the Queen, choosing to nod her head instead.

Quaker Joycelin Dawes reportedly just nodded at the Queen, rather than curtsey

Wrote the socialist Quaker blogger Tim Rouse:

To be a Quaker, and uphold a testimony to equality, is mutually exclusive with supporting or endorsing the monarchy. Facilitating, endorsing, or simply acknowledging the legitimacy of the monarchy is contrary to the testimony to equality.

Another dissident Friend, Stuart Masters, took issue with the bit of the address which stated:

We lament the resort to armed conflict as an instrument of policy. We welcome your personal commitment to peace, such as you have shown in relation to Ireland.

He said that Quakers had effectively:

Told the commander in chief of the British armed forces how much we appreciate her commitment to peace.

Quakerism developed in England in the 1650s. It grew out of a number of radical groups linked to the parliamentarian side in the English Civil War. Quakers emphasise that anyone can experience God directly and inwardly.

They are perhaps best known for their commitment to pacifism. In the UK, Quakers are the largest Christian group so far to have endorsed same-sex marriage.

There are around 400,000 Quakers worldwide, including about 23,000 in Britain.

The ASA’s daft decision passed almost without comment. No huge fuss, as far as I can ascertain, was kicked up by outraged defenders of free expression.

But this week we DO have a fuss – this time over the ASA’s marginally more sensible decision to ban a God Can Heal leaflet handed out by a bunch of Christian freaks in Bath called Healing on the Streets (or HOTS, if you prefer).

The ad makes ludicrous claims about God’s ability to heal real horrible things like back pain, arthritis, MS, fibromyalgia, paralysis and … well, you name it … and God, who most likely inflicted this stuff on you miserable sinners in the first place, can make it all vanish if only you’d go on bended knee (the non-arthritic one) and pray for forgiveness and healing.

The fuss is being made by a gaggle of Jesus-lovin’ MPS – well, three actually – who have challenged the ASA’s ban on the grounds that:

It appears to cut across two thousand years of Christian tradition and the very clear teaching in the Bible. Many of us have seen and experienced physical healing ourselves in our own families and churches and wonder why you [the ASA] have decided that this is not possible.

This is a quote from a letter sent to the ASA by Gary Streeter (Con), Gavin Shuker (Lab) and Tim Farron (Lib Dem) who want the ASA to produce “indisputable scientific evidence” showing that prayer does not work – otherwise they will raise the issue in Parliament.

Ooo-er, that should make for an entertaining debate.

Streeter points out in his letter:

You might be interested to know that I received divine healing myself at a church meeting in 1983 on my right hand, which was in pain for many years. After prayer at that meeting, my hand was immediately free from pain and has been ever since. What does the ASA say about that? I would be the first to accept that prayed for people do not always get healed, but sometimes they do. That is all this sincere group of Christians in Bath are claiming.

He added:

It is interesting to note that since the traumatic collapse of the footballer Fabrice Muamba the whole nation [what, even the UK’s huge atheist population?] appears to be praying for a physical healing for him. I enclose some media extracts. Are they wrong also and will you seek to intervene?

Hat tip: Pete H and BarrieJohn

Prat in a hat: Ratzinger, 84, pictured in Mexico

ALL is not well with the Pope first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America. In Mexico City, according to this report, gay rights and women’s rights groups gathered this week to demonstrate at the capital’s  Independence Monument and said that they were not impressed by the Pope’s message of peace. One of the demonstrators told Reuters:

For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has been persecuting, killing, imposing fines and criminalising us … We’ve had it with nuns, priests and all churches when they act against human rights and against Jesus’ word.

Despite the country having the second highest Catholic population in the world Mexico City recognises gay marriage and has abortion available on demand – and the Catholic Church is less than happy about it,

This is probably why Ratzinger gave Mexico City a wide berth, and travelled instead to Guanajuato, where  he referred to the mistreatment of children, without specifically mentioning Catholic paedophilia scandals of recent decades.

I wish to lift up my voice, inviting everyone to protect and to care for children, so that nothing may extinguish their smile, but that they may live in peace and look to the future with confidence.

The Pope has met with abuse victims in many foreign countries but, much to the annoyance of abuse victims in Mexico, pointedly avoided addressing the issue in that country.

Anti-Pope protesters in Mexico City

One of the women’s rights protesters in Mexico City, where a Fuck the Pope … but Use a Condom banner was prominently displayed, said:

They accuse women who have abortions but they tolerate priests who rape and commit acts of paedophilia.  In reality, they are very hypocritical …

Shortly before a meeting between Ratzinger and President Felipe Calderon, victims of sexual abuse accused the Vatican of protecting a notorious Mexican priest for decades, and expressed frustration that Pope Benedict XVI would not meet them in Mexico.

The  group including alleged victims of abuse by Marcial Maciel, the late founder of the influential Legion of Christ religious order.

Three Mexican authors took the opportunity of releasing a book accusing the Vatican of hiding or ignoring cases of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

The book, La Voluntad de no Saber (Willing Not to be Aware), chronicles multiple cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by Maciel, a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest who was influential at the Vatican.

The book was authored by Jose Barba, a former seminarian who says he was the victim of sexual abuse by a priest. Historian Fernando M Gonzalez, a co-author, says the book is based on 212 documents leaked from the Vatican. Alberto Athie, a former Catholic priest and whistle-blower, also contributed to the book.

According to the book, the Vatican had knowledge of multiple cases of sexual abuse committed by Maciel decades ago, but church authorities chose to do nothing about it.

Meanwhile, in the US, the trial of two Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Originally three were accused in a landmark child sex-abuse case involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but one co-defendant, Edward Avery, entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy. The victim was then a 10-year-old altar boy, Avery a 57-year-old priest.

Avery’s plea leaves Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev James Brennan on trial. Brennan, 48, is charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Lynn, 61, handled priest assignments for the archdiocese as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. He is the first US church official ever charged with endangering children for allegedly failing to oust Avery and Brennan from ministry despite prior child-sex complaints.

Both Brennan and Lynn have pleaded not guilty. Avery agreed to serve two-and-a-half  to five years in prison for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and conspiracy to endanger a child’s welfare. More importantly, he acknowledged that the archdiocese kept him in parish work despite knowing of the earlier complaint.

Lynn remains the focal point of the trial. He could get up to 28 years in prison if convicted of two counts each of conspiracy and child endangerment.

With regard to Avery, a Grand Jury report alleges that Avery’s victim said he was passed around by two priests and his Catholic school teacher at St Jerome’s Parish.

When Mass was ended, Fr Avery took the fifth-grader into the sacristy, turned on the music, and ordered him to perform a ‘striptease’ for him. … When they were both naked, the priest had the boy sit on his lap and kissed his neck and back, while saying to him that God loved him.

Oral sex and penetration is alleged to have taken place afterward.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn (US trial report)

According to this report, the pastor of the Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown said the church is “so saddened” that the girl was traumatised following the incident last week.

John Lanza said the teens that were taken in the mock raid had their heads covered with pillow cases before they were led to a van, which transported them to his home, where they were interrogated in a dark corner of the basement. Photo: Joe Hermitt, The Patriot-News

But pastor John Lanza said he had received emails of support from other students at the church, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, because the intent was to prepare them for what they might encounter as missionaries. He didn’t disclose the names of those involved but said the mock kidnappers included an off-duty police officer and a retired Army captain.

It was a youth event, to illustrate what others have encountered on a regular basis.

He added that the focus of the lesson was “the persecuted church” in other countries.

Lanza said there were about 17 students at the meeting and the mock kidnappers covered the students’ heads, put them in a van and interrogated them. Neither the students nor their parents were told about the raid beforehand, he said, though it was discussed with the parents of one youth who might have health issues.

TV station WHTM interviewed the girl who complained. She said:

They pulled my chair out from underneath me, and then they told me to get on the ground. I had my hands behind my back. They said, ‘Just do as I say, and you won’t be hurt’.

The girl said the teens were taken to the pastor’s house, where it appeared he was being assaulted. Eventually, she said, the adults in charge revealed it was a staged event.

The girl added:

They heard me crying. Why not right then and there tell us it was a joke, when you see me crying?

Lanza said the church has conducted similar events at least twice before, adding that:

There was much thought given to the safety aspect. If anyone was ever uncomfortable, they would be removed from the exercise.

But he acknowledged that part of the idea was to shock the students with the experience.

Lower Swatara Township police Chief Richard Wiley declined to comment until an investigation into the raid is complete. The names of the mother and daughter who complained haven’t been made public.

Lanza said he “would love to” apologise to the girl and her mother but feels he can’t until the police investigation is done. He said the church wants to keep doing the programme but would make changes.

I would find a way that we could continue to keep the shock value, but I would find a way to inform the parents beforehand.

An ABC News report of the incident drew many negative comments, but one supporter of Lanza’s little jape was “Last Man Standing”, who wrote:

After reading most of these comments I can clearly see why this church is teaching about persecution of Christians. Sounds to me like one spoiled mommy and her spoiled brat need a wake up call. Its not all about their dainty little feelings. Its about reality. When this happens to them in real life who will they call on to help them? “oh GOD please help me” will be the first words out of their mouth.

Hat tip: Gasputin

Dorothy Griffiths

The Telegraph reports that Alzheimer’s sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her.

Agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge at the time, told staff they would have to wait. Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing:

It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to wait for him to finish.

The inquest was also told that an ambulance was not called for almost four hours after Mrs Griffiths fell from bed and cut her head and suffered a gash to her hip. She died later in hospital last November.

Bhutto failed to appear at the inquest and a summons had to be issued for him to attend the resumed hearing later in the year.

Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts-Wood said he had contacted Bhutto during a recess and he denied being the duty nurse that night,saying he had only been there on a course.

Speaking after the inquest was adjourned Dorothy’s daughter Jean David, 61, said:

We are quite upset that Mr Bhutto hadn’t appeared and we are having to come here again. We would like it [the inquest]to have been done and dusted but we can’t leave it without his evidence.

Hat tip: Angela K and BarrieJohn

According to this report, the Rev Steve J Angi, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, gave permission to priests to say exorcism prayers at a rally outside the clinic.  The anti-abortion group holding the exorcism is called “40 Days For Life”.

Ruth Reddens, an organiser of the 40 Days for Life campaign that planned the vigil, sought Angi’s permission to perform the “exorcism of locality,” designed to drive evil out of a place, rather than out of a person. She said:

Hopefully, the spiritual battle will be won.

Those participating in the rally and exorcism read the Prayer to St Michael the Archangel, written by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.

It reads, in part:

Seize the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the devil and Satan, bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit, that he may no longer seduce the nations.

Said the Rev Earl Fernandes, dean of the Athenaeum of Ohio seminary in Cincinnati:

This (prayer) is said over a place that’s infested with the evil spirit, to remove any evil that might happen to be there.

On “40 Days For Life” website blog, the group boasts that since their prayers began, various abortionists recommended against abortion or even quit.  They call this a victory and babies’ lives were saved.

The website also shares a video from Priest for Life on their site.  The one in the video, Fr Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life, calls Women’s Centers “killing centers” and encourages people to pray against abortions.  He also labels it a “Holocaust”.

The group plans prayer vigils at the Cincinnati clinic all throughout March.

Back, briefly, to the lunatic Terri Proud. She said in an email to a constituent:

Personally I’d like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a ‘surgical procedure’.

Hat Tip: Pete H (Proud report)

According to this report, all hell broke loose when FAU student Jonatha Carr interrupted associate Professor Stephen M Kajiura and asked:

How does evolution kill black people?

When Kajiura attempted to explain that evolution doesn’t kill anyone. Carr became violent.

A classmate reported that Kajiura was discussing attraction between peacocks when Carr raised her hand to ask her question about evolution. She asked it four times, and became increasingly upset each time Kajiura’s answer failed to satisfy her.

A video taken by the student, Rachel Bustamante shows Carr ranting and threatening to kill the professor and several students. At this point, the witness who contacted the police claimed

No one was comfortable in the room. I realized the situation was escalating and went out to call the police.

Bustamante said here that:

Clearly, this person has some SERIOUS emotional issues within herself and the discussion of PEACOCKS was the catalyst to the unleashing of this insanity.

Vice president of student affairs Dr Charles Brown said in a statement that police took Carr off campus and to a hospital for involuntary examination under the Florida Mental Health Act, commonly called the Baker Act. A second video shows a limp Carr being dragged to a patrol car by several officers; WSVN reports police used a Taser to subdue Carr once she was inside the vehicle.

Peter Tatchell

He was presented with the £5,000 Irwin Prize by the author and freedom of expression campaigner Nick Cohen at a formal lunch attended by a number of prominent scientists, journalists and writers.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

We are very pleased to have been able to reward Peter’s lifelong commitment to human rights and to honour his support for a just and inclusive secular society. He has been active in many progressive campaigns over the past forty or more years, not least in gay rights, and has had to endure much public and press abuse because of it.

He added:

But he has persevered and now he has made the unprecedented transition from public enemy number one to national treasure. I’m very pleased to see that at last he has been recognised as a true secularist and someone who has given much to the cause. He’s already made the transition from ‘public enemy number one’ to ‘national treasure’.

Of course, you’d have had to live on the moon not to have been aware of Peter’s many campaigns to drive forward human rights. He is an international player and perhaps his most famous confrontation was that with Robert Mugabe, the tyrant of Zimbabwe . This resulted in him being badly beaten by Mugabe’s thug-like minders.

Sanderson said:

He has also faced physical attacks in Russia and regularly finds himself the subject of attack in the streets and on public transport. His home is a fortress, but his determination remains resolute.

The NSS first came across Peter when, in 1998, he audaciously climbed into the pulpit at Canterbury Cathedral and interrupted the Archbishop mid-flow. He wanted to call him to account for his antipathy to gay rights, something the Archbishop had consistently refused to address.

He pointed out that:

Peter was charged under an obscure piece of legislation: the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction act 1860. It uniquely protects churches from ‘riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour’ and prosecutes anyone who ‘shall molest, let, disturb, vex, or trouble’ a priest. The reverse, of course, doesn’t necessarily apply. For all those who have been molested, let, disturbed or troubled by a priest, there’s little redress – particularly given that the worst offenders are secreted away by the pope in the Vatican , beyond the reach of those troublesome international arrest warrants.

It is a law that uniquely protects churches and chapels – in other words a religious privilege – and it was at that point that we took up his cause. A conviction could have resulted in a substantial prison sentence.

The magistrate could not avoid finding Peter guilty but showed his contempt of the law under which Peter was convicted by fining him a derisory £18.60, the year the Act was passed expressed in pounds and pence.

According to the New York Times, the Church is planning to turn the tables on the advocacy group, SNAP, which has long supported victims of paedophile priests, by demanding that the group discloses more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.

The ghastly Donohue said targeting the network was justified because:

SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.

Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group:

The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.

He added that bishops were also rethinking their approach of paying large settlements to groups of victims:

The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one.

However, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said Mr. Donohue was incorrect.

“There is no national strategy,” she said, and there was no meeting where legal counsel for the bishops decided to get more aggressive.

Meanwhile, from Holland comes a report that at least one boy under the age of 16 was castrated to “help’” his homosexual feelings while in Catholic church care in the 1950s. And there are indications at least ten other boys were also castrated – but the he claims were not included in the Deetman report on sexual abuse within the Catholic church published at the end of last year which found that at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were said to be aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the commission, lead by former Christian Democratic party chairman Wim Deetman, said.

The castration was reportedly performed on  Henk Heithuis after he told police that he had been sexually abused by priests. Amazingly, after giving evidence, he was delivered into the hands of a Catholic-run psychiatric institution where he was then castrated because of his “homosexual behaviour”.

The Deetman committee was informed about the castrations in writing but did not include mention of them in its report because:

There were few leads for further research.

Neither did he final Deetman report mention that a leading politician with the Catholic people’s party, KVP,  tried to have prison sentences dropped against several priests accused of abusing children in 1958.

MPs are now calling for a full parliamentary investigation into the abuse scandal because of concerns about the neutrality of the Deetman inquiry. MPs are due to question Deetman at a hearing next week.

Hat Tip: Bill Murray (Donohue) and Glenn

Rowan 'Dumbledore' Williams

But here are some who count themselves among those glad to see that back of “Dumbledore”:

George Broadhead, of the UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) said:

The appointment of Dr Rowan Williams ten years ago was welcomed by some LGBT activists, notably Christian ones, as they believed him to be on the liberal wing of the Church of England and would take a benign stance on LGBT relationships and rights. However, they were soon disillusioned.

It is obvious that any sympathy Williams may have had for LGBT people has been sacrificed by the need to keep his Church unified. Thus, although he condemned the murder of Ugandan gay activist David Kato, he declined to condemn the Ugandan Anglican Church from backing the hateful and draconian anti-homosexuality bill introduced in the country’s parliament.

Broadhead pointed out that, regarding the issue of gay bishops, Williams had said:

There’s no problem about a gay person who’s a bishop. It’s about the fact that there are traditionally, historically, standards that the clergy are expected to observe.

Asked what was wrong with a homosexual bishop having a partner, he said:

I think because the scriptural and traditional approach to this doesn’t give much ground for being positive about it.

Williams has been at the heart of the debate over gay marriage and in February 2012 he said that the law has no right to legalise same-sex marriage.

If it is said that a failure to legalise assisted suicide – or same-sex marriage – perpetuates stigma or marginalisation for some people, the reply must be, I believe, that issues like stigma and marginalisation have to be addressed at the level of culture rather than law.

Broadhead concluded:

It is obvious that hostility towards LGBT sexual relationships and rights emanates largely from the three main religions – Anglican, Roman Catholic and Islam – and nothing had changed for the better in the Anglican Church under the leadership of Rowan Williams. I understand that the present Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is tipped to replace Williams and if this happens it will be a clear case of going from the frying pan into the fire.

Church of England General Synod member Alison Ruoff was another critic, and was quoted by the BBC as saying:

Under Archbishop Rowan’s tenure, the Church has really gone in a most liberal direction. Many, many churches have gone away from Bible truth and that’s really to the detriment not only of the Church of England but also to the detriment to the nation.

He’s a kind, wise, warm, godly man, but had he actually stood up and been counted as a leader, I think we would be in a very different place in the Church of England from where we are now, and that is thoroughly regrettable.

And Head of the Progressive Conservatism Project at think tank Demos, Max Wind-Cowie (don’t BarrieJohn, just don’t!) said:

His period of leadership over the Anglican Church has been marked by a real lack of leadership on a range of theological subjects – from the issue of women to gay priests. Dr Williams has shown himself to be incapable of holding the communion together both domestically here in the UK and globally, and I think his time in office has done a lot of damage to the Anglican communion.

Hat tip: Graham Martin-Royle, BarrieJohn and many others

According to this report, David Coppedge, who worked as a “team lead” on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons, alleges that he was discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about ID, and handed out DVDs on the idea while at work. Coppedge lost his team lead title in 2009 and was let go last year after 15 years on the mission.

Opening statements are expected to begin Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court after two years of legal wrangling in a case that has generated interest among supporters of ID. The Alliance Defence Fund, a Christian civil rights group, and the Discovery Institute, a proponent of ID, are both supporting Coppedge’s case.

Coppedge’s attorney, William Becker, says his client was singled out by his bosses because they perceived his belief in ID to be religious. Coppedge had a reputation around JPL as an evangelical Christian and other interactions with co-workers led some to label him as a Christian conservative, Becker said.

In the lawsuit, Coppedge says he believes other things also led to his demotion, including his support for a state ballot measure that sought to define marriage as limited to heterosexual couples and his request to rename the annual holiday party a “Christmas party.”

The Jet Propulsion Lab has dismissed Coppedge’s claims. In court papers, lawyers for the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL for NASA, said Coppedge received a written warning because his co-workers complained of harassment. They also said Coppedge lost his “team lead” status because of conflicts with others.

Coppedge, who began working for JPL as a contractor in 1996 and was hired in 2003, is active in the ID world and runs a website that interprets scientific discoveries through the lens of ID. His father authored an anti-evolution book and founded a Christian outreach group.

His case was launched in April 2010, alleging religious discrimination, retaliation and harassment but he amended his suit to include wrongful termination after losing his job last year.

Coppedge is seeking attorney’s fees and costs, damages for wrongful termination and a statement from the judge that his rights were violated, said Becker.

Hat Tip: Canada Dave

Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon

According to this report, Siddiq-Conlon – a convert to radical Islam – is accused of posting the threat on the Facebook page of the popular 2Day FM radio program The Kyle and Jackie O show.

Police also allege he viewed child abuse material on the internet using his laptop computer between July last year and his arrest on the night of the Mardi Gras parade.

Siddiq-Conlon has previously come to attention in the media for his outspoken views, particularly his call for Australia to become an Islamic state ruled by sharia law.

He faced Burwood Local Court and was granted bail to re-appear on May 8.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Siddiq-Conlon said of the alleged threat:

It was just a moment of passion and I didn’t mean it and that’s all.

He denied accessing child pornography from his computer.

Nothing to say on that – of course police believe they have some evidence but you know of course we don’t have any of that stuff.

Prior to Siddiq-Conlon’s court appearance, the editor of Muslim Village, Ahmed Kilani, commented:

As someone who is in regular close contact with leaders of the Australian Muslim community, I strongly emphasise that despite the constant media profile given to him, Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon is not recognised in any capacity as being a leader, Islamic cleric or spokesperson of the Australian Muslim community.

He is rather considered by Australian Muslims to be a self-promoting media-created phenomena, that has no Islamic qualifications, zero credibility and no influence over the affairs of the Australian Muslim community. To use the Australian vernacular, he is a ‘Neville Nobody’.

He added:

Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon, regardless of his guilt or innocence, is a fitting reminder to all of us that not everyone that wears a cleric’s gown, grows a beard and can quote a few phrases from the Quran is an Islamic authority that should be followed and respected.

Hat tip: Bill Murray

That’s the foolish and petulant view of David A Bradley, a man who claims to have written a prayer that was subsequently inscribed on a plaque fixed to the auditorium wall of Cranston High School West, Rhode Island.

There it languished for around half-a-century until an uppity atheist teenager, Jessica Ahlquist, mounted a legal challenge to the thing, and forced its removal.

Bradley was incensed, and penned the following letter to the Hartford Courant, which ran it on March 7 – and spelled atheist wrong in the headline!

I read the article Feb. 26 about a fundraising campaign among atheists to build a $40,000-plus scholarship fund for Jessica Alquist of Cranston, R.I …

How nice of them. Jessica was duped by her ACLU-leaning father and uncle into bringing suit against the city of Cranston over the display of a school prayer that I wrote in 1960.

Dear Jessica isn’t yet old enough to know the meaning of atheism. She was used (and permanently injured) by powers and ideologies in the name of secular liberal progressivism that she can’t possibly understand at her tender age.

I can’t believe The Courant would dignify such an award by such a group and to such a person with a piece on its pages. The R I judge’s ruling in this case and the subsequent headlines fly in the face of all that is decent and moral about the United States and its Constitution.

Furthermore, I’d like to think that, as the author of the moral and upstanding school prayer in question, I’d be entitled to ten or a hundred times as much money as Jessica has been awarded for having torn it down and repudiated decency and morality in our schools. Where are my donors?

Now here’s a thing! When The Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, reproduced Bradley’s letter on his blog yesterday, the following comment, posted by New Zealander Marc Gregory du Pille appeared:

Mr Bradley is being rather overgenerous to himself with his view of his contribution to the banner. The text of the school prayer was identical to one which had already been in use by the school for  some years and was broadcast over the school PA until this practice was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in 1962.  

The artwork was almost identical to a similar banner at nearby Hugh B Bain Middle School, except that the school colours were changed from Bain’s to CHSW’s.  There was no student artwork involved whatsoever. Mr Bradley and his group’s major involvement was to raise funds for the project.  The Creed and the School Prayer Banners were painted and erected by a professional.  The whole project was initiated and supervised by the school administration at every stage.

If this is correct – and du Pille later assured readers that this information is contained in court records –  it would appear that Bradley is not only an idiot but a liar.

Here’s how Mehta responded to Bradley’s letter:

Where do you even begin with tripe like that?

Jessica’s in her mid-teens now. She became an atheist years ago. I became an atheist when I was 14. A lot of people can tell you that they became atheists at a young age. Whenever we first began to think critically and ask questions — that’s when it happened. (Edit: Obviously, Bradley knew he believed in god at the age of 12, but Jessica can’t be an atheist at 16? Hypocrisy, anyone?)

Jessica wasn’t duped by anyone, nor was she a pawn of the ACLU. This was a decision she brought to their attention, not the other way around.

Oh, and the scholarship for Jessica isn’t for $40,000. I’m still awaiting the final numbers, but it’s more than that.

A lot more than that.

Bradley isn’t entitled to anything. But if he wants to help pay the $150,000+ in legal fees the district owes, I’m sure they’d appreciate his help, considering he’s part of the reason they got into this mess in the first place.

 

The cross, he said, had become some something “which religious people make and hang on to” as a substitute for true faith.

His comments came on the day it emerged that the Government is to argue in the European Court that Christians do not have the “right” to wear a cross as a visible manifestation of faith.

He now stands accused of failing to stand up for the right of believers to wear crosses in the workplace.

Andrea Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting part of the European Court claim, said the remarks were “unhelpful”.

Judges in Strasbourg are to consider a test case on religious freedom in Britain later this year. It will bring together four separate cases, including that of Nadia Eweida, a British Airways employee who faced disciplinary action for wearing a cross at work.

And in this report, Lord Cary accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined in official life.

Documents drawn up by the Foreign Office argue that wearing a cross is not protected under the European Convention on Human Rights because it is not viewed as an essential component of Christianity.

Carey said that the Government’s reasoning:

Is based on a wholly inappropriate judgment of matters of theology and worship about which they can claim no expertise.  The irony is that when governments and courts dictate to Christians that the cross is a matter of insignificance, it becomes an even more important symbol and expression of our faith.

Back in 2010, the ex-archbish whined:

In recent years, there has been a wave of relentless and shameless attempts to hollow out our nation’s deep-seated roots in the Christian faith. This is despite the fact that 72 per cent of the population say they are Christian.

The Christian women bringing the case, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, claim that they were discriminated against when their employers barred them from wearing the symbols.

They want the European Court to rule that this breached their human right to manifest their religion.

Lawyers for the two women claim that the Government is setting the bar too high and that “manifesting” religion includes doing things that are not a “requirement of the faith”, and that they are therefore protected by human rights.

They say that Christians are given less protection than members of other religions who have been granted special status for garments or symbols such as the Sikh turban and kara bracelet, or the Muslim hijab.

Hat tip: Pete H and BarrieJohn

“Emo”  – according to this report– is a form of punk music developed in the US. Fans are known for their distinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts.

It’s a look that outraged Iraq’s Interior Ministry, which linked it to “Satanism” and ordered a community police force to stamp it out.

The killings have reportedly been carried out  in Baghdad by Shi’ite militants.

Militants in Shi’ite neighborhoods, where the stonings have taken place, circulated lists on Saturday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do not change the way they dress.

The bodies of 14 younsters have been brought to three hospitals in eastern Baghdad bearing signs of having been beaten to death with rocks or bricks, security and hospital sources told Reuters under condition they not be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Nine bodies were brought to hospitals in Sadr City, a vast, poor Shi’ite neighborhood, three were brought to East Baghdad’s main al-Kindi hospital and two were brought to the central morgue, medical sources said.

Six other young people, including two girls, were wounded in beatings intended as warnings, the security sources said.

A doctor at al-Kindi hospital told Reuters:

Last week I signed the death certificates of three of those young people, and the reason for death I wrote in my own hand was severe skull fractures.

A leaflet distributed in the Shi’ite Bayaa district of east Baghdad seen by Reuters on Saturday had 24 names of youths targeted for killing. It declared:

We strongly warn you, to all the obscene males and females, if you will not leave this filthy work within four days the punishment of God will descend upon you at the hand of the Mujahideen.

Another leaflet in Sadr City bore 20 names.

We are the Brigades of Anger. We warn you, if you do not get back to sanity and the right path, you will be killed.

In a statement last month the interior ministry said it was monitoring “the ‘emo’ phenomenon, or Satanism” which it said was spreading through schools, particularly among teenage girls.

They wear tight clothes that bear paintings of skulls, they use school implements with skulls and wear rings in their noses and tongues as well as other weird appearances.

After reports of the stonings circulated on Iraqi media, the interior ministry said this week that no murders on its files could be blamed on violent reactions to the “emo” look.

All cases of murder recorded were for revenge, social and common criminal reasons.

Surprisingly, leading Shi’ite clerics have condemned the stonings. Abdul-Raheem al-Rikabi, Baghdad representative for Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, called the killings “terrorist attacks”.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s brave stand gave UK-based ex-Muslim Maryam Namazie the idea of launching the Nude Photo Revolutionaries Calendar in support of the blogger, who said that the pictures she posted were:

Screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy.

Elmahdy describes herself on her Facebook page as :

An atheist living for the past five months with her boyfriend, blogger Kareem Amer, who, in 2006 was sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison for criticizing Islam and defaming former president Hosni Mubarak.

Yesterday – to mark International Women’s Day – the calendar was launched on Namazie’s blog.

Click on pic to see a promotional video for the calendar

She said:

What with Islamism and the religious right being obsessed with women’s bodies and demanding that we be veiled, bound, and gagged, nudity breaks taboos and is an important form of resistance.

The calendar is designed by Sonya J F Barnett who said:

I felt that women needed to stand in solidarity with Aliaa. It takes a lot of guts to do what she did, and the backlash is always expected and can quite hurtful. She needed to know that there are others like her, willing to push the envelope to express outrage.

Among those supporting the calendar initiative were Nina Sankari, who said:

In solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, I would like to stress that our bodies (and thoughts) belong to us and to nobody else.

And Anne Baker said:

Men in frocks constrain, control and intimidate women the world over in the name of God … it has to stop.

Poppy Wilson St James added:

I find it strange that it is more acceptable to seen on screen violence and guns than even a nipple. There is something wrong with our mindset if that is what we accept as the norm and shy away from nudity which is a completely natural state.

And Emily Dietle pointed out:

If it weren’t for people who took a strong stand against misogyny and for free expression, we’d still be in an age where showing your ankles was taboo.

You can join the “Scream” on Facebook and on Twitter under the hashtag #NudePhotoRevolutionary, and you can buy and download the calendar via Namazie’s blog. Proceeds will go towards supporting women’s rights and free expression.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

According to a report yesterday in the New York Times, prosecutors are investigating the death of a newborn boy who died in last September after contracting herpes after he was subjected to:

Ritual circumcision with oral suction.

Utterly disgusting: a picture of metzitzah b’peh being inflicted on a Jewish infant

Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J Hynes, confirmed that the investigation was continuing, but declined to comment further.

The cause of death of the 2-week-old boy, who died at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn on September 28, was Type 1 herpes.

The ritual of oral suction — or in Hebrew, metzitzah b’peh — is practiced almost exclusively in ultra-Orthodox communities and, to a lesser degree, in Orthodox Jewish communities, despite efforts by the city to curtail it and educate communities about its health risks.

The procedure occurs during the circumcision ritual of the bris, as the practitioner, or mohel, removes the foreskin of the penis and then sucks the blood from the wound to clean it.

In 2003 and 2004, the city reported three cases of Type 1 herpes that were linked to circumcision, involving a boy on Staten Island and twin boys in Brooklyn, one of whom died. The procedures were done by one mohel, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, who was later prohibited from performing the ritual in New York City.

According to the NYT report, the authorities have not determined the identity of the mohel in the most recent case, but since the death they have been trying to work with the Hasidic community.

In 2004, after the death of the twin, the Brooklyn district attorney tried to open an investigation but received little cooperation within the community, according to a person with knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was not brought to trial.

Roughly two-thirds of newborn boys in the city’s Orthodox communities are circumcised with metzitzah b’peh, said Rabbi David Zwiebel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, who said he was using a calculation based on religious school enrolment figures.

He said that the mohels in the Hasidic community were cognisant of hygiene and that there were things they could do to reduce the risk of herpes without ending the practice.

The rabbi said:

We’re not oblivious to what’s going on. The worst thing that could happen is if the authorities regulate this practice, then it could go underground. I think the practice would continue, but there could be significant difficulty in gathering evidence. I would hope that our government officials take steps in conjunction with the community.

In 2005, Mayor Michael R Bloomberg assembled rabbis throughout the city to try to persuade them to move away from metzitzah b’peh. But they said that the practice was safe and that there was no definitive evidence that it caused herpes. Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said at the time:

The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years. We do not change. And we will not change.

But in the Bronx on Tuesday, the mayor talked about the medical examiner’s findings in the most recent death, which was also investigated by the health department.

There is probably nobody in public life who fights harder for the separation of church and state than I do, but I just wanted to remind everybody: religious liberty does not simply extend to injuring others or putting children at risk. And we will continue working with the community and others to prevent more baby boys from suffering these tragic fates.

Hat tip: Remigius and Ivan

The imam who advocates wife-beating. Click on pic for report.

It was reported today that the unnamed imam in the city of Terrassa is under investigation for:

Disseminating discriminatory messages and violating the principle of equality and of women’s right to physical and moral integrity.

He allegedly called Muslim men to “discipline” errant wives using physical and psychological violence.

Local police said:

He provided concrete examples of the manner in which wives should be beaten, how to isolate them inside the family home and how to deny them sexual relations.

Some 1,500 people usually attend Friday sermons by this imam in Terrassa, a city of some 200,000 residents in Spain’s northeast, which is home to a large Muslim community.

The investigation comes eight years the arrest and conviction of Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, an imam in the southern Spanish town of Fuengirola.

In his 120-page book, Women in Islam, he urged husbands not to hit their wives on sensitive parts of the body or with force but, rather:

On hands and feet, using a light rod so that the blows don’t leave scars or bruises.

At his trial, Mustafa’s lawyer argued that the book, distributed in Islamic bookstores in Barcelona, merely rehashed versions of Islamic writings from the 13th to 19th centuries and did not represent the imam’s personal views.

See reports here, here and here.

Following a grotesque rant from Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who said, among other daft things that same sex unions were the “thin end of the wedge” and would lead to the “further degeneration of society into immorality – and likened gay marriage to “slavery” and a “violation of  human rights” – the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, has prepared “a warning” to be delivered to his sheeple this Sunday.

A poll in the Telegraph indicates how divorced from reality church leaders are. Click on image to vote.

In the form of a letter, it will be read from the pulpit in 2,500 churches during Mass as the Government prepares to announce the terms of a national consultation on a proposed change to the law on marriage.

As well as setting out Church teaching, “the warning” is addressed to a wider audience, arguing that marriage is a “natural institution” with a meaning understood far beyond the confines of the religion. It says that extending it to same-sex couples would reduce marriage to:

Just to the commitment of the two people involved. There would be no recognition of the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for the procreation and education of children.

Unfortunately, all this blather has obscured a recent report which indicates that lesbians and gay men have been identified in a UK study as having:

 The right mix of skills and experience to raise children who have been in care, and give them a great new start in life.

In recent surveys that were done at the behest of New Family Social there was a great amount of support and recognition for the strengths of LGBT couples, and this was highlighted when the country’s first ever National LGBT Adoption and Fostering Week was held to highlight powerful stories of adoption and foster families, as well as the localities and organisations that are in the forefront of helping all children find loving homes.

Seventy-two percent of social workers surveyed saw the “amount of energy and enthusiasm” LGBT adopters bring to the process as a significant strength, while 76 percent saw “openness to difference, and supporting a child with a sense of difference” as equally important.

For a long time, LGBT people tended to be seen as a “last resort” when placing children. Now adoption and fostering agencies see them as having a key role to play in meeting the urgent need for more new homes for children in care.

Hugh Thornbery, Strategic Director of Children’s Services at Action for Children, said:

Over the years, our LGBT foster carers and adopters have helped to transform many children’s lives. We welcome more applications from LGBT foster carers and adopters; the main thing is that you are able to give children and young people the care and support they need to be happy and fulfilled.

Andy Leary-May, Director of New Family Social added:

More and more LGBT people are choosing adoption and fostering as a way to form a family, and we want prospective parents to see just how rewarding it can be, and how much advice and support is on offer from our huge community of families around the UK. The fact that so many agencies want to recruit from the LGBT community show just how far things have come in the past 5 or 6 years.  Social workers are becoming more aware of our strengths, and we are being treated more fairly, and are being matched with children more quickly.

According to the BBC, Mary Doogan, 57, and Concepta Wood, 51, claimed they were being forced to supervise staff taking part in abortions. But judge Lady Smith, at the Court of Session, said:

Nothing they have to do as part of their duties terminates a woman’s pregnancy. They are sufficiently removed from direct involvement as, it seems to me, to afford appropriate respect for and accommodation of their beliefs.

Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood

The midwifery sisters were employed as labour ward co-ordinators at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, although Ms Doogan has been absent due to ill health since March 2010 and Mrs Wood has transferred to other work due to the dispute.

The health board maintained that the Abortion Act did not confer on the midwives any right to refuse to delegate, support or supervise staff providing nursing care for women going through abortions.

The midwives, whose case was bankrolled by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, claimed that the health board decision also breached their rights under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to freedom of religion.

But Lady Smith said she was not satisfied that their Article 9 rights were being interfered with.

She said their right of conscientious objection was not unqualified and they had agreed to take up the roles of labour ward co-ordinators, although they now took objection to the job content.

The judge added:

In any event, the nature of their duties does not in fact require them to provide treatment to terminate pregnancies directly.

A spokeswoman for the health board said:

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recognises the absolute right of staff to conscientiously object to participate in treatments authorised within the Abortion Act 1967. We are fully supportive of staff who hold a position of conscientious objection and make every effort to accommodate them, however at the same time we have an unequivocal duty of care to ensure the safety of our patients and as such we must balance this responsibility with the rights of the conscientious objector.

Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said:

We are very disappointed by the judgment. SPUC has supported the midwives in bringing their case, and will now be considering their further legal options with them.

In a statement issued after the case, Doogan said:

Neither Connie nor I stand in judgement of any woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy for whatever reasons. We are more than aware of the difficult choices that some expectant mothers may be faced with in a crisis pregnancy.

However, in holding to the view that life should be protected from conception to natural death, neither do we wish to be judged for exercising what is our legal right to refuse to participate in the process of medical termination of pregnancy.

 Hat  tip: Agent Cormac & Angela Kingdom

Trouble is, a lot of people – mainly Jews – aren’t seeing the funny side of this barminess, and there has been a lot outrage expressed on the Internet following a report that some Mormon had baptised the parents of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

The Church of Latter-Day Saints had to apologise over that blunder ­ – and apologise once more after it was reported that Anne Frank, the famous diarist and Holocaust victim, had been secretly co-opted into the Mormon Church. She had been “christened” at a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic. A local child, acting as her spiritual proxy, is believed to have been dunked in a font during the ceremony.

In an apologetic statement, the Mormon Church’s PR department neither confirmed nor denied that the event had taken place, but declared itself:

Absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism.

It is distressing when an individual wilfully violates the Church’s policy and something that should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention.

Some wag (or wags) then thought:

Whoa, if dead people can be turned into Mormons, what’s to stop us from turning dead Mormons gay?

And so, people, we now have the All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay site.

Click on pic to join the fun

I discovered its existence via this piece written by “queer Jew” Jay Michaelson, who concluded:

Of course, what we’re really offended by is that some living person somewhere thinks that this [post-mortem baptisms] is okay to do, using the names of our deceased and our historic heroes. It’s not offensive because their belief is efficacious; it’s offensive because of what it reveals about their intentions and attitudes toward people we hold dear.

Come to think of it, that’s true whether the people in question are dead Jews or living gays.

This prompted one Mormon to comment:

We believe that post-mortal spirits are sentient beings with moral agency, so they should be, and are, able to decide for themselves what choices they make. Denying individuals (alive or dead) the opportunity to choose for themselves is an affront to the justice and mercy of God. (I understand how events like the Holocaust can make it difficult for many to believe in justice and mercy, and indeed, to believe in God.)

Perhaps another example, the most important example of a vicarious ordinance, will clarify our viewpoint. Christ has already paid the price for the sins and errors of all human, whether they accept it or not. However, this atonement does not become operational until we accept Christ’s sacrifice for us. If this concept is an affront to non-Christians (including Jews), at least it is a loving and Christian one.

Well, the Christians in Parliament all-party group, led by Conservative MP Gary Streeter, have now published their findings – and their report, Clearing the Ground, opens by saying that in the UK:

Gary Streeter, MP

There is a high level of religious illiteracy which has led to many situations where religious belief is misunderstood and subsequently restricted.

And it alleges that civic and legal authorities in the UK, suffering from this so-called ‘religious illiteracy’, have forced laws on Christians:

Compelling them to provide services that they had never previously offered and which may be contrary to their beliefs.

This led Simon Barrow, co-director of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia to say of the report:

This is not clearing the ground, it is muddying the water.

In his scathing response, Barrow says:

Initial impressions from this report are that it raises significantly more questions than it answers. For example, it seems to assume that most people who are convinced Christians automatically share, or should share, a range of prejudices – notably against LGBT people – which make them unwilling to comply with requirements to act in a non-discriminatory way in the provision of public services.

This is not the case. Many Christians from all traditions believe that equal treatment of others is not simply a legal requirement but a Christian obligation.

He continues:

The report employs the dubious notion of ‘competing rights’ to seek to posit a clash between Christians (taken to be a homogenous group) and gay people (who are assumed to be quite separate from Christians). In fact, the whole point of the human rights convention and UK equalities legislation is to seek to ensure fair treatment regardless of religion or belief, or indeed sexual orientation. It protects Christians against discrimination as much, but no more, than anyone else.

He went on to point out that:

The Christians in Parliament document also jumbles up a range of quite distinct and different legal cases, advocating the notion of ‘reasonable accommodation’ in a way that stretches from matters like workplace dress, where negotiation may be entirely appropriate, through to cases where exemption from equality requirements in the provision of goods and services would clearly disadvantage and discriminate against those not sharing narrowly conservative Christian views. This is not ‘clearing the ground’, it is muddying the waters.

Mr Barrow added:

The bottom line here is that being a Christian is no longer a ‘trump card’ in public life in the way that it may once have been, and many Christians whose views are not reflected by this report will undoubtedly say, on strong theological grounds, ‘nor should it be’. Christianity is a free choice, and freedom of belief is abused when it is imposed on people, particularly in a limited and limiting way.

The general public mood now is that discrimination and prejudice against gay people, for example, is as unacceptable in public life as discrimination against black people or any other social or ethnic group. It is very sad that some Christians find this hard to accept, and wish to maintain a privileged position for themselves, regarding equal treatment as ‘discrimination’ against them.

He also pointed out that legal cases brought by a small number of religious complainants have failed again and again.

This has not happened because there is bias or ignorance in the legal system, but because of a failure of evidence …  Specific attempts to show that the law has been inaccurately or unfairly interpreted have been notably unsuccessful, so attempts are now being made to insinuate prejudice. This is regrettable, to say the least.

Flew, then a member of the NSS a good while before he completely mislaid his marbles and found God, loudly called out my name and demanded that I publicly declare whether or not I was a member of the Communist Party.  Puzzled, and now wide-awake, I demanded to know what prompted the question.

Flew snorted that he took the gravest exception to a several articles I had written in the Freethinker, attacking South Africa’s Christian national’s apartheid regime, and calling for its overthrow.  These, he said, could only have been penned by “a seditious communist”, and expressed his full support for the South African government. I politely replied that he was making “a complete horse’s arse of himself”, whereupon he threw a bunch of papers he was holding into the air, and flounced out of the meeting room.

My recollection of that meeting was prompted by the sight yesterday of Flew’s photograph, dredged up from Noah’s Arkives, on the front page of the newly-launched Regal Standard.

The Regal Standard has been produced as an antidote to the Global Atheist Convention, to be held in Melbourne in April.

According to this report, the ridiculous rag is the “brainchild” of semi-retired, semi-intelligent pastor Dennis Prince,  co-founder of Kingston City Church in Clarinda, who “felt God” tapping him on the shoulder to tell him that the convention was happening on his watch, and he had to do something about it. So he spent $A5000 and some 300 hours producing the paper featuring a dead crypto-fascist twit on the front page, and needs to sell 45,000 at an average of 20¢ each to recover his costs. He said:

It surprised me when I got all the articles together how compelling was the case for God and his greatness. I was delighted and humbled by that. But I know that atheists will raise hard questions – some are insurmountable.

No. Really?

The lunatic added:

People know intuitively that God is there, we see it in the morals of creations. The paper should not try to defend God but honour him and reveal something of his work.

While I’m disturbed about the convention, I see a positive spin-off. Public interest will be stimulated, and we get to give the answers. Otherwise the gullible will be led down the garden path.

Convention organiser David Nicholls, President of the Atheist Foundation of Australia sees the paper as:

A sign of desperation by the creationist camp. I’m certain the people on the creation side think we are the work of the devil.

The 2012 convention has an even stronger line-up of speakers than the first in 2010, including Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, philosophers Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss.

Meanwhile, Creation Ministries grizzled that:

There is little doubt that the media will give full-on coverage as they did last time, with features and interviews sympathetic to the atheists and antagonistic toward God …  It’s unlikely the media will give Christians opportunity to balance atheistic misinformation about science and the Christian faith. At the last convention in 2010 the ABC and Melbourne Age effectively acted as a mouthpiece for the godless program.

But CMI says every cloud has a silver lining:

The next few months provide an amazing opportunity for Christians in Australia to make a bigger impact for Christ than usual. The Regal Standard is one effective tool that can be used as a conversation starter with friends, to answer questions that people ask, and to distribute through communities, universities and workplaces.

Yeah, right!

Please note: there may be a break in service starting soon as I am in the process of changing  internet provider, and have been warned that I may be off-line for a period. Get on with it, Teletec, I’m getting tired of repeating this bloody message!

Clarke, 61, was appointed last year as Visiting Professor of Politics and Faith in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at the University of Lancaster, and, according to today’s Telegraph, now has a new part-time job involves working with the Religion and Society Programme, a £12 million research effort to establish and define who we are and what we believe in as a nation.

Ex-politician Charles Clarke

Clarke is quoted as saying:

The traditional view on the Left is that faith is a pernicious thing and just wrong. I happen to believe that in general faith is a force for good.

And that:

I believe very strongly that faith has to be properly thought about in Britain. We have a very ill-informed debate about things like faith schools, in which people are talking out of deep prejudice about what they say is happening, when it is not actually the case.

In his inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor etc in Lancaster last March, Clarke said:

In the UK no serious assessment of education policy, community development, social care, scientific and technological change in health, counter-terrorism or constitutional reform is complete without a serious consideration of the relationships between faith and politics.

However the relationship is all too often characterised by misunderstandings and misrepresentations. Malevolence and disrespect are commonplace even amongst intelligent commentators whom one would expect to be better informed.

For example at the time of the recent visit by the Pope some of the attacks upon the Catholic Church by so-called rational humanists were ill-informed and intemperate. Much discussion of Islam is similarly unbalanced.

And:

Some contributions to debate about the existence of faith schools betray almost no understanding of the ways in which such schools work and peddle colourful images which are often utterly misleading.

What I find distressing about the conduct and language of some of those who, like myself, cannot bring themselves to believe in the existence of God, is the contempt they so often express towards those who do have faith, and the ways in which they seem to consider almost every act of believers as motivated by malevolence, evangelistic ambition or self-interest. And too often their condemnation is larded with self-satisfied arrogance and condescension.

And:

During my political life I have come across an enormous range of individuals for whom faith has been an immensely important positive motivator, and sometimes an absolutely essential support in times of difficulty. They do not deserve to be maligned and challenged in the way that they often are, or to have their own conduct and beliefs confused with those of the sectarians, extremists and obsessives who certainly do exist within every faith as amongst those of no faith.

And:

Humanists and atheists would rightly deny that philosophical beliefs such as theirs led inevitably to the secular totalitarianism of Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot. They should not make the similar charge that adherence to a faith leads inevitably to the Inquisition or religious intolerance of other forms.

There’s more. MUCH more. But I am far too dispirited to delve further into this misguided man’s nonsense.

Hat tip: Jeanne C.

Please note: there may be a break in service starting soon as I am in the process of changing  internet provider, and have been warned that I may be off-line for a period.

But when it comes to smiting rogues who nick metal from church roofs, the Celestial Psychopath has sanguinely chosen to look the other way.

This, perhaps, is his way of testing the ingenuity of his representatives on earth with an indifferent “it’s your problem, so solve it” shrug.

So they have, in a way.

A report in the Telegraph this week says that special movement sensors are to be hidden in spires and finials triggering a “booming voice” warning miscreants that they have been detected and that security guards are on their way.

The initiative, backed by the Church of England, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office, comes after the rate of metal thefts reached “catastrophic” proportions in some dioceses with an average of seven churches targeted every day.

An insurance company has donated £500,000 to pay for hi-tech alarms to be fitted in 100 churches in England, Scotland and Wales judged to be most at risk.

But organisers hope that hundreds of other parishes will raise funds themselves to fit the devices – adapting the traditional church roof appeal model to cope with the metal theft crisis.

Last year alone the insurance firm Ecclesiastical – which provides cover for 96 per cent of Anglican churches – received 2,600 claims for metal thefts, the highest ever in a single year.

The Church of England, which alone is responsible for almost half of all grade one listed buildings in Britain, has admitted the task of maintaining its buildings is becoming impossible.

Metal theft is now being viewed as a treated as a serious threat to Britain’s national heritage.

A security campaign called “Hands of Our Church Roofs” is being backed by an actress and a bishop: Liz Hurley and the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres.

The bishop said said:

Since the metal vandals have descended in such hordes over recent years our duty of maintenance has become nearly impossible. New Government legislation will undoubtedly help, but we all need to remain vigilant and try to get a step ahead of these well-organised raiders.

Miss Hurley added:

Beautiful old churches are at the heart of so many of our communities and I find it truly shocking that anyone would steal lead from a church roof. I heartily endorse the campaign to have alarms fitted.

There’s another solution that may be cheaper and more satisfying. Many ex-servicemen find it hard getting employment in the UK, and they could be enrolled as gunners on church roofs.

Given his past form, God would no doubt approve of the resultant slaughter.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Please note: there may be a break in service starting soon as I am in the process of changing  internet provider, and have been warned that I may be off-line for a period.

I hadn’t realised that it was Ash Wednesday, which apparently gives one licence to ashify the faithful … at least in America where an “Ashes to Go” campaign has spread like wildfire.

First concocted back in 2007 by the Episcopalian Rev Teresa K M Danieley, the scheme has now caught on among least 49 Episcopal parishes across 12 states in the USA which, according to this report, offers ashes to passersby at train stations, bus stops and college campuses.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of Christians as a sign of mourning and repentance to some non-existent deity called “God”. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.

Which means, I guess, the burned up remains of my Camels aren’t acceptable. Pity.

Justifying “Ashes to Go”, Bishop Stacy F Sauls, chief Operating Officer for the New York-based Episcopal Church said:

We live in a time where we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to us. We have to meet people where they actually are.

Danieley, the rector of St John’s Episcopal Church in St Louis, said the idea was born in a Bible study discussion in late 2006 or early 2007. That first year, she offered a brief Ash Wednesday liturgy to about 75 or 100 people who crossed her path.

For at least some people, it’s working. Kathleen Dimmich, a 26-year-old real estate agent, became an active St John’s parishioner after getting her ashes from Danieley in 2009.

I had been in St Louis for maybe a month and hadn’t found a church yet. The mobile Ash Wednesday programme showed that St. John’s was obviously an active parish in my neighborhood, which was important to me.

Danieley rejects any notion that “Ashes to Go” is “cheap grace”.

We can’t pretend that the way we did things 50 years ago is what we should be doing today. When a church is seen as inflexible, it’s seen as not in touch. What is more important: that someone participates in a meaningful liturgy or that they do it in a particular space?

Please note: there may be a break in service starting soon as I am in the process of changing  internet provider, and have been warned that I may be off-line for a period.

Celestina Mba and Andrea Williams

Mba, a Baptist employed at the Brightwell children’s centre in Morden, thought this was a violation of her Christian beliefs – and so did the Christian Losers’ Legal Centre. Together they went sobbing to an employment tribunal, which yesterday found that:

While the claimant’s belief is deeply-held, it is not a core component of Christian faith.

In what the Daily Wail described as “a further blow to Christianity”, Judge Heather Williams QC, of the London South Employment Tribunal, said that Merton Council did not promise Mba that she would never have to work on Sundays when she interviewed for the job in 2007, but still reasonably accommodated her belief for two years – a belief which is not held by all Christians.

There was no express agreement ever arrived at by the parties that the claimant would never have to work on Sundays. On the contrary, she was contracted to work on Sundays.

Mba, who was born in Sierra Leone and moved to Britain when she was 21, expressed her “amazement” at the decision here:

I thought that this country was a Christian country and known for its welcome and hospitality to all people. I worked hard for years at my job, and to lose it because of intolerance towards my faith is shocking to me.

Losing the case was pretty much a foregone conclusion, given that Mba had the support of the CLC’s Director, Andrea Williams, who has a long history of failing to prove “persecution” in cases such as these. Here is a list of CLC cases.

For the umteenth time, the rancid Williams was forced to express “extreme disappointment” over the decision:

Celestina was let down by her employers, who failed to continue to accommodate her beliefs. She was an employee who wished to observe Sunday. Her employers forced her to choose between her job and her faith. This was unacceptable, and we are disappointed that the Judge did not agree with her.

She blathered on:

There needs to be a reasonable accommodation of the Christian faith across the public sphere, for the good of all. Pressure from employers against Christians expressing their faith is an increasingly a regular hallmark of what Baroness Warsi has described as our ‘deeply intolerant culture’.

In less than 20 years we have moved to a situation in this country where Sunday is hardly observed at all and, if you do, you find yourself pushed out.

Now, contrast the snivellings of Mba and Williams with a GENUINE case of Christian persecution – that of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who was sentenced to death this week for apostasy, having converted from Islam to Christianity.

Hat tip: Birdshit’s Postman, BarrieJohn and M A Chohan (Iran report)

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This is Jonathan Ricci, a US citizen who was arrested in 2008 for nicking communion wafers (click on pic for report)

According to this report [in Italian] a normal Sunday mass, in Campobasso, was transformed into “a veritable Dante’s circle” immediately after the Eucharist. The batch of “holy” biscuits handed out in a church in the Italian town was said to contain ergot sclerotium, which may cause hallucinations and attendant irrational behaviour, convulsions, and even death.

The report said that, after ingesting the communion wafers, the faithful went apeshit, with some deciding that the priest, Don Achille, at the Church of the Holy Spirit,  was the incarnation of the Devil, and chased him away from “their little darlings”.

One witness was quoted as saying:

I have never seen anything of this kind – and I was at the G8.

A furious spokesman from the Archdiocese of Campobasso-Bojano hotly denied the report, describing it as:

An attack on the Church. We must respect the sacred. This also applies to those who do not believe.

Hat tip: Remigius

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Not only did district Judge Mark Martin dismiss the case against Talaag Elbayomy, he called the victim, Ernie Perce,  a”doofus.”

Perce, one of a number of the Atheists of Central Pennsylvania group who participated in the parade, said that Elbayomy:

Grabbed me, choked me from the back, and spun me around to try to get my sign off that was wrapped around my neck.

Both men then reported the incident to Sgt Brian Curtis. After speaking to both victim and assailant, the copper concluded:

Mr Perce has the right to do what he did that evening, and the defendant in this case was wrong in confronting him.

Judge Martin, who has done several tours of duty in the Middle East, said Perce would be put to death in those societies for his crime, but Perce quite rightly wonders why that’s relevant in the US.

He let a man who is Muslim, because of his preference of his culture and his way of life, walk free from an attack.

But R Mark Thomas, who defended Elbayomy, applauded the judge.

I think this was a good dressing down by the judge. The so-called victim was the antagonist and we introduced evidence that clearly showed his attitude toward Muslims. The judge didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have done if I was in that position.

Although Elbayomy denied touching Perce, Curtis said he admitted grabbing Perce’s sign and beard on the night of the incident.

Talaag Elbayomy said he was at the parade with his wife and two kids and felt he just had to do something. In fact, he too called police because he thought it was a crime for someone to depict Mohammed in such a way.

Hat tip: Remigius

According to this report, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu, of Pinal County, built a reputation as a rising, conservative star by taking a hardline stance against illegal immigration, attacking the Obama administration and appearing alongside Sen John McCain in a 2010 re-election ad.

But, last Saturday, Babeu’s conservative image took nose-dive as he was forced to confirm publicly that he is gay and was involved in a relationship with a Mexican immigrant who claims the sheriff threatened to have him deported if he revealed their relationship.

The revelation prompted Babeu to call Romney’s staff to say he would step down from his post as state campaign co-chair.

Babeu denies any wrongdoing, and has vowed to continue his battle for a Republican congressionalal nomination in an extremely conservative rural congressional district. He recognises he is fighting an uphill battle, especially in a state where “family values” are staunchly upheld by a large evangelical Christian and Mormon population

At a lengthy press conference, Babeu said he hoped voters would stick by him, but his opponents think that’s unlikely. Arizona Sen Ron Gould says Babeu is sure to lose major support among the family-values voters who oppose gay marriage.

Babeu previously avoided a public stance on gay rights, but came out in favour of them on Saturday.

I can be a supporter and get out there and help articulate as we progress as a culture and a society, that there should be individual liberties and there should be individual freedoms. For any other person to define somebody else’s relationship and say it not OK, that is not who we are as Americans.

Some political observers think Babeu’s career could be over. Long-time Arizona Republican political consultant Sean Noble said:

There is no question that his budding congressional campaign is over. Because it is a Republican primary in a conservative district, it’s likely that the thing that hurts him the most is that he was in a gay relationship.

Babeu’s acknowledgment that he is gay came after a story in the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly magazine that quoted a former lover, Jose, as saying Babeu threatened his immigration status if he revealed their relationship.

Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a former campaign volunteer. He said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career.

Jose provided the New Times with photos of him and Babeu embracing. It also posted a cell phone self-portrait of a smiling Babeu in his underwear, and another of what appears to be the shirtless sheriff in a bathroom, posted on a gay dating web site. Babeu didn’t deny their authenticity.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

On offer at a generous discount from The Catholic Company, which describes chastity “expert” Jason Evert’s book as “simply perfect” and that “satisfaction is guaranteed”, Pure Manhood asserts:

Click on pic for an hysterical video

Every day boys and young men are bombarded with messages and images that encourage them to make sexual impurity a way of life. And since it looks like so much fun, they can easily be made to feel as if they’re foolishly missing out on something really great.

However, Jason Evert’s Pure Manhood will help them to see things in a new light. Best of all, it will give them the spiritual tools they need to stay pure—or to return to purity …Pure Manhood will be a priceless gift to both the young men who read it and to their future families.

I flipped over to Amazon in search of independent reviews, and found this, from “JB”:

Pure Manhood is pure fabrication. This is a sad case of a misguided man with questionably “good” intentions dispersing lies in hope of conforming our youth to unrealistic standards. I quote, ‘any guy who relies on a condom for protection should meet a friend of mine who used a condom every single time and caused seven pregnancies” (p31). Yeah … sure he did … I had the displeasure of meeting Evert at a book signing. He signed my book then stealthily made a reach for my groin. I didn’t want it. He was too strong … There may be some fabrication in this review… perhaps I am emulating Evert’s anecdotal ability.

And this:

Evert recently came to my school and distributed free copies of this book. In less than a day, a petition was created by outraged students, condemning some of the views expressed. Here’s why: While Evert may be a Catholic author, he goes far beyond the Catholic stance when talking about homosexuality. He uses hateful language to reinforce false stereotypes about homosexuality that do nothing to aid gay teens or their peers. He even goes so far as to imply that the mortality rate of gays is natural proof that it is wrong. Even the Catholic Church would reject this stance and argue that there is nothing natural about the teen suicides or the AIDs epidemic that cause this high mortality rate. This sort of hatred is ridiculous. To be distributing this material at a high school when a third of all gay teens are attempting suicide due to intolerant environments ought to be criminal.

It was carnival time on the Costa Blanca this weekend, and I grew 'closer to the Lord' when – after a few sherries – I was persuaded to participate in the frivolities wearing a cassock and clutching a cross.

What drew my attention to this rancid little 54-page offering by Evert – (married to the lovely Crystalina;  together they run Chastity.com) – was a weekend report in the Guardian which shockingly reported that Pure Manhood had been distributed to Roman Catholic schools across the Lancashire region in 2010 by a US preacher who spoke to pupils.

The book, among other things, discusses a boy dealing with “homosexual attractions” which, it suggested, may:

Stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse.

More shocking still was Education Secretary Michael Gove’s response to the TUC, which accused him of failing in his legal duties by supporting the distribution of the book.

Gove said:

The education provisions of the Equality Act 2010 which prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the curriculum. Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons, therefore, will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the act.

Gove’s response triggered anger from the TUC. Brendan Barber, the TUC’s General Secretary, said:

Having written to the Education Secretary to express our worry about the distribution of homophobic literature in faith schools, his lack of concern is very alarming.

Hat tip: Roger Farrington and Agent Cormac