IF A contest had been staged in the UK to find the most offensive Easter sermon of 2012, Mark Davies, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewbury would surely have shashayed off with the top prize.

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

NATIONAL Secular Society President Terry Sanderson has described Prime Minister David Cameron’s “fight-back” call to Christians as:

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

A PROTEST planned by parents outside the Church of the Assumption in Pomeroy, N Ireland, on Sunday did not materialise after it became known that the subject of their anger – Fr Martin McVeigh – would not be conducting Mass.

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.

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

LAST year the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority slapped a ban on a humorous but “disrespectful” Phones4U ad featuring a winking Jesus promoting Samsung Galaxy Android phones, much to the delight of the hordes of Christians (98 all told) who lodged complaints about the promotion.

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

A Pennsylvanian church has attracted a great deal of flak, and may possibly be prosecuted for subjecting members of a youth group to a mock kidnapping without telling them it was staged – and the outraged mother of one 14-year-old girl has filed a complaint with police.

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