Texan evangelicals are fighting to change history, starting with the textbooks. Why does this matter to the rest of us?

Texas isn’t known for its great educational system; in fact, Texas has a 19% functional illiteracy rate. California, New York, and Florida are the only states worse off; most states are closer to 10%. So, why should we care what textbooks they buy?

Textbook publishers don’t like to produce multiple editions of the same book to satisfy different states’ requirements. It’s not cost-effective. So, they look to the biggest buyers to tell them what their books should say.

Unlike most states, individual school districts in Texas do not select their own textbooks. They are chosen by the 15-member Texas State Board of Education. This makes Texas the second-largest market for textbooks in the nation, buying up to 48 million textbooks annually.

While California has a larger market for textbooks in normal times, given its current budget disaster, California won’t be buying many textbooks for a few years. All major textbook publishers have turned their eyes to Texas to learn what to write . . . particularly in the areas of science and history.

As we reported several months ago, the Texas Board of Education has been stacked with evangelical Christians. As may be expected, they’re doing everything within their considerable power to rewrite history and science. Last year was an attempt to bring the “strengths and weaknesses” comparison of evolution vs. creationism (an attempt which failed). This year, it’s the social studies curriculum.

The New York Times Magazine reports on the latest Texan manipulations of history:

Don McLeroy, a small, vigorous man with a shiny pate and bristling mustache, proposed amendment after amendment on social issues to the document that teams of professional educators had drawn up over 12 months, in what would have to be described as a single-handed display of archconservative political strong-arming.

McLeroy moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.” The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” Nevertheless, most of McLeroy’s proposed amendments passed by a show of hands.

Finally, the board considered an amendment to require students to evaluate the contributions of significant Americans. The names proposed included Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy. All passed muster except Kennedy, who was voted down.

Pat Hardy, a conservative member of the board who considers herself an independent voice, comments that there are seven board members who openly admit that they intend to enact a theocratic agenda:

They do vote as a bloc. They work consciously to pull one more vote in with them on an issue so they’ll have a majority.

Don McLeroy, a member of the Christian voting bloc, is crystal clear about his views.

“I consider myself a Christian fundamentalist,” he announced almost as soon as we sat down. He also identifies himself as a young-earth creationist who believes that the earth was created in six days, as the book of Genesis has it, less than 10,000 years ago. He went on to explain how his Christian perspective both governs his work on the state board and guides him in the current effort to adjust American-history textbooks to highlight the role of Christianity. “Textbooks are mostly the product of the liberal establishment, and they’re written with the idea that our religion and our liberty are in conflict,” he said. “But Christianity has had a deep impact on our system. The men who wrote the Constitution were Christians who knew the Bible. Our idea of individual rights comes from the Bible. The Western development of the free-market system owes a lot to biblical principles.”

For McLeroy, separation of church and state is a myth perpetrated by secular liberals. “There are two basic facts about man,” he said. “He was created in the image of God, and he is fallen.”

Last year, the Texas Legislature got heat from across the nation over the Board’s attempts to add creationism to science. Texas was mocked by the entire nation, and some legislators got the message.

Will you help them get similar attention this year as the Board rewrites American history to suit a Christian agenda?

Update: The Dallas Morning News has endorsed Thomas Ratliff in the race for Texas School Board District 9 . . . Don McElroy’s district. Why, you ask?

Unfortunately, since being appointed as chairman in 2007, the 63-year-old McLeroy has helped lead the board into skirmishes involving evolution, reading standards and social studies content. The panel even got bogged down debating hip-hop versus country music. The rancor grew so routine that the Texas Senate last year refused to confirm the Bryan dentist as chairman.

McLeroy, a board member since 1999, undoubtedly cares about education. But this panel could use Ratliff’s more practical approach to keep its work focused on essential issues. He’s not an ideological brawler and could develop consensus.

Ratliff has had experience doing just that while serving on boards at his children’s public schools in East Texas. And he says he would listen to teachers and superintendents in determining what students should know. Setting standards is a key function of this board, and Ratliff, 42, would be more in touch with educators than McLeroy. While Ratliff shouldn’t become their captive, Texans are better served by someone who takes teachers’ points of view seriously in crafting curriculum.

The winner of the March 1 primary will enter the 2010 general election unopposed.

You can read about Ratliff (and, if you are so inclined, donate to his campaign — primary is March 1) at http://www.thomasratliff.com/

Related posts:

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2. Science Teacher Suspended After Students Harass Her Over Religion An eight-grade teacher in North Carolina was suspended after students...
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Anti-abortion advocates are playing the race card again. This time, they’re claiming that “Black Children are an Endangered Species” in billboards across Atlanta.

The billboards, all similar to the one pictured above, direct viewers to “toomanyaborted.com”, an anti-abortion website which implies — OK, emphatically declares — that legally-available abortion is a racist plot to commit genocide against the black population in the United States.

Several front-page segments of the site promote the organization’s racist “Black vs. White” mentality:

• The Truth in Black & White

  Nearly 40% of all black pregnancies end in induced abortion. That’s over 3x the rate of white women and 2x the rate of all other races combined. There are beautiful alternatives: adoption and parenthood, but they are not money-makers for abortionists.

• The Negro Project

  American elites (Rockefeller, Ford, Kellogg, Carnegie) championed and funded the beliefs of eugenics, a philosophy of breeding a superior race. It called for the prevention of procreation of the ‘unfit’. This pseudo-science cult created organizations and policies based upon this ignorance. The Negro Project was one of those efforts, spearheaded by Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, to eliminate the ‘unfit’.

• Get Outraged

  ‘Endangered Species’ is a bold collaborative effort between The Radiance Foundation and Georgia’s Operation Outrage that declares there are too many aborted. One is too many. It is designed to heighten the public’s awareness of this often ignored societal tragedy by creating tension in the culture and forcing an abandonment of abortion as a viable option for controlling the birth rates of blacks and the poor.

Sponsored by Georgia Right to Life, the campaign is the brainchild of Ryan Scott Bomberger and Bethany Marie Bomberger, co-founders of The Radiance Foundation.

Ryan, a child of rape who was adopted into a loving family at age 6, and Bethany, an educator, want to promote the “limitless possibilities” of each individual. Well, each unborn individual, anyway. The ones that are pregnant, apparently not so much.

The blatantly racist tone of the billboards and website are not overlooked; in fact, some area residents found them downright insulting:

Some people in the black neighborhoods where the billboards are posted told CBS Atlanta News the message is too harsh.

“It’s not the right message. It’s basically picking us out and saying that we’re having too many abortions and not using protection,” said Tyisha Martin, a black woman who lives near one billboard.

While Bomberger and others who play racial politics claim that Planned Parenthood clinics are sited in lower-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of African American citizens as part of a genocidal plot, one woman of color shares a different perspective:

Loretta Ross, the executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta, said the billboards painted black women as either monsters intent on destroying their own race or victims of whites who control abortion clinics.

“The reason we have so many Planned Parenthoods in the black community is because leaders in the black community in the ’20s and ’30s went to Margaret Sanger and asked for them,” Ms. Ross said. “Controlling our fertility was part of our uplift out of poverty strategy, and it still works.”

Realistically, clinics — which provide neonatal care, family planning, STD counseling and testing, and many other services in addition to abortion — are made available for people without the financial wherewithal to visit a private physician. They are placed where they are accessible to the most people — along mass transit corridors. They are not-for-profit, so aren’t leasing Class A office space; they are conscious of budgets in selecting locations.

Where does that place clinics? Exactly where toomanyaborted claims:

in urban areas where blacks reside.

How would placing a clinic in a middle-class suburb within an office park be useful to the people needing its services?

The statement, that black children are somehow endangered, is also disingenuous. The NY Times reports that

. . . there was little evidence that abortions had made black children unusually endangered. The fertility rate, or births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, among black women remains higher than the national average and has inched up in recent years, according to C.D.C. data.

The Toomanyaborted campaign is an extension of the racist vitriol spewed by the protesters of the Houston Planned Parenthood that we reported on a few weeks ago.

Sadly, instead of promoting personal responsibility and the use of birth control, the campaign promotes paranoia and anti-white sentiment. How is increasing racial tension going to promote a healthy society? Will the Bombergers’ campaign result, for example, in more black children going unvaccinated, as rumors spread that vaccines are another attempt by “evil racist whites” to sterilize the black population?

Georgia Right to Life should be ashamed to jump on this bigoted bandwagon. Sadly, we’re not surprised, given the use of the same arguments by a nearly all-Caucasian crowd’s MLK Jr Day protest at the new Planned Parenthood in Houston.

Related posts:

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Friends:

I have no doubt that you’ve noticed how slowly the site loads. This is partly due to increases in traffic.

However, the other part of the equation is the existing skin, or “theme”. We love it, but it is code-heavy and inefficient. It loads a tremendous amount of code with each page load, but it is too complex to operate properly with plugins designed to speed things up.

We have realized we need to try something new in order to maintain a good experience for you as the site continues to grow.

We’ll be trying out a new look over the next few days. There will be plenty of code editing required in the change.

If the site happens to be down, or look really out of whack, please give it a few minutes and hit refresh. Whatever’s wrong, we’re working on it.

Don’t worry. The database is safe.

On Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin commented that she felt it “absurd” not to consider a 2012 Presidential run . . . and added a subtle backhand to the Tea Party movement.

Hedging her bets, Sarah Palin charged $100,000 to speak at the first Tea Party Nation convention, where attendees paid $500 to get in the convention plus over $300 just to hear her speech. By not speaking for free, Palin avoids being tied too closely to Tea Party Nation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that while Palin was happy to gain support from the (for-profit) Tea Party (Nation) movement, she didn’t want them to interfere with the two-party system:

Asked whether she might run on the Tea Party ticket, Ms. Palin declined to answer directly, saying she hoped that the nascent movement remains a “movement of the people” and that its members “don’t believe that they need some kind of well-oiled machine” to have a political impact.

While Tea Partiers may be offended, they shouldn’t be surprised. It was only just over a week ago that Palin recommended that the Republican Party absorb Tea Party Nation:

Fox’s Greta Van Susteren asked if tea party candidates would end up siphoning votes from GOP nominees, or if the movement will “merge with the Republican Party.”

“They need to merge,” Palin said. “Definitely, they need to merge. I think those who are wanting the divisions and the divisiveness and the controversy — those are the ones who don’t believe in the message. And they’re the ones, I think, stirring it up.”

The pressure to push Tea Party Nation from its original roots as a movement espousing low taxes and smaller government — not a police state and farm subsidies and Republican-only government — may be the reason both Michele Bachmann and Martha Blackburn dropped out . . . leaving Palin as the only big name.

Blogger Kleinhelder at the Nashville Post sums it up nicely.

This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.

The people we saw on the steps of Legislative Plaza and county courthouses across the state last year weren’t “movement conservatives.” Certainly the movement conservatives were there at those protests but the tea parties were much bigger in size, scope and concept than just traditional modern conservatism reheated. Last night, the professional conservatives fixed that for good.

For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.

Sarah Palin.

WSJ provides a bit more on Tea Party Nation:

As first reported by POLITICO, Tea Party Nation is a for-profit company that also operates a social network site by the same name. [Tea Party Nation CEO Judson] Phillips intends to turn a profit from the convention, with the stated goal of seeding a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.

But on Saturday he said there likely wouldn’t be much profit, and whatever money is made will go to a second convention he’s planning for July.

I’m sure Phillips will not show any substantial profit from the convention, and that he will clearly demonstrate why on the Tea Party Nation website.

Be careful if you decide to join the Tea Party Nation forum. Irregular Times collected a few details from the “revolutionary, non-partisan, 100%-password-protected (including the FAQ)” website:

* it is a corporation which has trademarked the phrase “Tea Party Nation” and will sue anyone else who uses the words.

* “You can and will be banned for being a liberal.”

* “Tea Party Nation reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary”

* “Trashing of TPN will not be tolerated.”

* “Questions regarding TPN posted in the public forums or blogs on the site will be deleted.”

* “It is not a forum for… calls for militant uprisings.”

* “Tea Party Nation’s strict No Tolerance policy will not make exceptions… if you see such postings, you immediately report them”

While Tea Party Nation’s speakers call for a revolution for the cameras, any actual revolutionary behavior or dissent will be result in swift dismissal. That’s an interesting combination.

A screenshot would be nice, Irregular Times guys!

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It has been said that a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. I imagine Haitians must be feeling about the same about Scientologists right about now. But don’t worry, they’re staying.

As we reported last week, American actor John Travolta piloted his own Boeing 707 to Haiti, somehow pushing ahead of international aid groups, to deliver Scientologist “ministers” and “doctors” to the devastated island nation. Not content with getting in the way, the Scientologists say they are “there to stay”:

The Scientologists, who are carrying out an operation called The Volunteer Ministry Disaster Relief for Haiti, have already begun plans to build an orphanage in the country.

Members of the group have volunteered to work in the hospitals, using healing techniques that reportedly include touching certain parts of the body or telling patients to stare at the wall.

Ah, the useful “Touch Healing” of Scientology. A firsthand account of the usefulness of the Scientologists is provided by Gawker.com. Let’s see what lessons we can learn about Scientologists!

A Scientologist provides “Touch Healing” to a mortally-wounded Haitian. Or is that a neck rub to a tired American soldier?

. . . I didn’t expect to see 50 scientologists, in their yellow shirts with Volunteer Minister on them. They were completely unprepared for going to a third world country, let alone a disaster zone. One girl was in designer cowboy boots. I asked her if she’d brought any sturdier footwear.

“Oh no, these’ll be fine.”

I asked another guy what he’d packed and he said he hadn’t bothered to bring soap or toilet paper or food, but that he’d just “buy whatever I need at Port-au-Prince airport.” I couldn’t break it to him.

They had no place to stay, and no supplies — their idea was to use the ton of money they had to buy food to distribute when they got there. But there was no food and no water. That was the point.

Lesson One: Scientologists don’t do their homework, and they have a tenuous grasp on reality.

By the time we arrived in Haiti, after a stopover in Miami, we had missed three landing slots at the airport. Aid agencies — genuine aid agencies — from other countries were being turned away, refused permission to land. But we still got a slot straight away. The guy who ran our charter seemed to think that the Scientologists had some real influence with the US Government, who were assigning the slots.

Lesson Two: For some reason, as demonstrated by John Travolta’s earlier landing, Scientologists are more important to the US military than international aid organizations.

The doctors and EMTs in our party headed straight downtown to start working. The Scientologists had nowhere to go, and nowhere to put up the big yellow tent they’d brought for touch healing people in . . .

But they had no-one who spoke Creole, and they brought the weirdness of touch healing into a very superstitious society. They’d leave the tent and come into the general hospital downtown, and try healing people. One of the doctors and one of the nurses told me that the wounded started coming to them to tell them they didn’t want to be treated by the people in the yellow shirts.

Lesson Three: Scientologists are creepy. Oh, and Scientologists don’t respect local cultures.

One nurse told me that the Scientologists actually caused harm — they gave food to people who were scheduled to go into surgery. That then led to complications in the operating theater.

Lesson Four: Scientologists ain’t too bright, especially when it comes to medicine. Not only do they think touching people can cure gangrene, they see no reason to ask whether they should feed a patient or not. (Note: “Complications in operating theater” typically means “Patient vomiting during surgery while under anaesthesia”. That’s why you have surgery on an empty stomach, you see.)

The Church of Scientology has apparently set up an orphanage in Haiti, and has already begun indoctrinating children. And they’re in it for the long haul.

Pat Harney, a spokesperson for the organisation, told The Times: “I have no doubt that in some form or other there will be a church of Scientology here.”

Why? What is there to gain? Why can’t they leave these people alone, and why are people so eager to flit off to Haiti instead of corrupting people here in the US?

There are a couple of reasons. IndyBay provides one:

The Scientology organization has increasingly targeted poor countries such as Haiti in its recruitment efforts. Why would this money-hungry crime-cult be interested in one of the world’s poorest countries? The answer: Because they want to bring Haitians in to the USA on “religious worker” visas to serve as unpaid laborers.

Jeff Jacobsen, an anti-Scientology researcher, provides the following:

Why would a religious group need to bring in workers to the United States? Why would the U.S. set up a special visa for such workers? The Homeland Security office, in regards to religious workers visas, states that “The applicant is entering the United States solely to carry on the vocation of a minister of that denomination, or, at the request of the organization, the applicant is entering the United States to work in a religious vocation or occupation for the denomination or for an organization affiliated with the denomination, whether in a professional capacity or not.” …. The U.S. has recently been revising the rules for such visas to make them more strict in order to avoid fraud. Homeland Security states that in 2005 about one-third of all R-1 applications were fraudulent. …. The Church of Scientology wrote against making the rules tighter. Glen Stilo, secretary of Scientology’s Flag Services organization in Clearwater, Florida, explained in a letter that he feared use of the visas will be restricted to strictly religious duties. “A small percentage of our religious order perform work at our retreat that may not be considered ‘religious functions,’ such as administrative work unique to the ministry section of our church, or upkeep of church property and grounds.”

So, Haitians make good slave laborers for the Church of Scientology.

Anything else?

Did you know that Scientology is a multilevel marketing scheme? That’s right, proselytizers (they call them “Global Pioneers”) get a 12% cut of the “courses” their converts sign up for [citation other than Gawker needed - Jenny]. Not just the first one, but any courses. Yep, residual payments.

What’s a Global Pioneer, you ask? Let’s look at their website! (It doesn’t tell us much, there are many “content coming soon” pages.)

Their goal, noted in the front-page video, is “bringing the world in session”. They’ve had a group proselytizing in Haiti since 2008.

They’re headed up by Cary Goulston. IndyBay points out:

Originally from Boston, Cary Goulston is a hardcore Scientologist who has been in the cult since 1979. He serves the cult as a Field Staff Member (FSM), which means that he actually receives a commission – money – for every new person he brings in to begin indoctrination.

RGP Media has posted a press release from Cary Goulson detailing the Global Pioneers’ successes during the week of January 15 – 22. Among the highlights:

GLOBAL PIONEERS – summary of Major Acheivements Jan 15 – Jan 22

* We got the US Government to include us as part of the “Joint Command” of US and UN Military working with the 5 approved NGOs under the US Southern Command. This entitled us to land and operate a Command Post out of the airport in Port Au Prince.

* First Ever chartered Scientology flight.

* First ever combined collaboration project with VMs, Doctors, EMTs and other humanitarian groups working side by side to help Haiti, sponsored and coordinated by The Church of Scientology VMs.

* Over 300 DRs, EMTs, and VMs sent to Haiti in two chartered flights to Haiti with more coming.

* VMs put in charge of all Doctors and supplies that come in to the airport, registration and distribution.

Keep up with the exciting exploits of Scientology Volunteer Ministers at http://blog.volunteerministers.org, or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ScientologyVM!

h/t to Gawker for the press release and more!

Ex-Scientology discussion forum: http://forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?p=369632

SO, what in does Scientology have with MSNBC? Here’s a nice puff piece, which could have come directly from the Church of Scientology’s own offices:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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An article over at atheistrevolution hits the five most popular ridiculous things religious people believe about atheists.

It would be funny, if it weren’t true.

The list:

# You can’t prove there’s not a god.
# Atheism takes as much faith as Christianity.
# Atheism is a religion.
# You aren’t really an atheist; you’re just mad at god.
# Without god, people have no reason to be moral.

Rather than steal their thunder, I’m just going to send ya over. It’s a great article, and well referenced.

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The Kansas jury deliberated a mere 40 minutes today before determining that Scott Roeder, who shot and killed abortion provider George Tillman last year, was guilty of first-degree murder.

Roeder at no point denied his actions; rather, his claim was that he committed voluntary manslaughter in attempting to stop Tiller from killing children.

He pointed out that legal avenues had failed, as had harassment and assorted terrorist attacks:

He said he had tried “sidewalk counseling” with women visiting Tiller’s Wichita, Kansas clinic to persuade them to seek an alternative to abortion and he noted that previous attacks on Tiller and his clinic — including a shooting and a bombing — had failed to stop the doctor practicing.

Tiller summed up his position thus:

There was nothing being done, and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day. I felt that if someone did not do something, he was going to continue . . . He’s been stopped.

Strangely, Roeder’s defense did not center upon his religion. What religion, you ask?

Roeder said he had attended church with his family when he was younger, but did not consider himself religious until he had a conversion experience while watching the “700 Club” on television in 1992.

The popular show, hosted by Pat Robertson, airs on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“I was alone in my room,” Roeder said. “That day I did kneel down and accept Christ as my savior at that time.”

After that, his views on abortion, which he had always considered wrong, became stronger, he said.

Ah, Pat Roberston’s brand of Christianity. We all know what sort of Christianity Pat Robertson preaches, don’t we? I wonder if Roeder agrees with Robertson on Haiti . . .

Judge Warren Wilbert determined that a voluntary manslaughter conviction — which would have let Roeder go free in five years — was not justified, and informed the jury that they could not consider the lesser charge. Said Wilbert in explaining his position:

There is no imminence of danger on a Sunday morning in the back of a church, let alone any unlawful conduct, given that what Tiller did at his clinic Monday through Friday is lawful in Kansas.

Wilbert’s action relieved pro-choice activists. Says Vickie Saporto of the National Abortion Federation, a voluntary manslaughter conviction

. . . would have been a tragedy and put the safety and security of abortion providers everywhere at risk.

We can’t settle political differences in this country by murdering each other.

It’s reasonable to expect a legal challenge to the conviction. As Randall Terry of Operation Rescue comments,

George Tiller murdered 60,000 babies by his own hand. Scott Roeder knew this. How can Mr. Roeder receive a fair trial if this data is kept from the jury? Will the jury be allowed to hear evidence – such as the grizzly [sic] means by which these babies were slain and disposed of – evidence that would clearly effect Mr. Roeder’s state of mind?

Did Sedgwick County District Court Judge Warren Wilbert already deny Scott Roeder a fair trial, by having a jury questionnaire that was geared to identify Christians and pro-lifers, and thereby exclude them? In other words, has His Honor denied Mr. Roeder a fair trial of a jury of his peers?

If George Tiller has murdered 60,000 Jews, would the judge exclude all Jews from the jury, or insist that only anti-Semites could be jurors?

The jury selection questionnaire asked about religious preferences and opinions on abortion. This is where Terry takes exception.

We expect commentary from Rev. Michael Bray, who attended in support of Roeder. Bray was convicted of conspiracy in an 1985 abortion clinic bombing plot, and is no stranger to promoting violent responses to abortion:

Those pro-life organizations, which have scurried to re-purge themselves and get their press releases out in condemnation of James Kopp [note: James Kopp shot an abortion provider to death in 1998, much like Scott Roeder did last year - J.D.], thwart the very movement they think to be protecting. By condemning defensive action, they belie themselves and nullify all their prolife proclamations, reducing themselves to noisy gongs. Their dignity-of-man protestations ring hollow, and their earnest pleas for the lives of the innocents are as cogent as the hollerings of a glossolalist on a hot tin roof. Rather than advance the effort to contend for justice for the womb children in our land and in the world, these “anti-violence” dupes, with their irrational rhetoric, continue to turn the movement backward. What sense can be made of one who declares, “Human beings are truly being butchered by abortionists! They are serial murderers who kill children with every abortion procedure!” and then says, “Damn that man who saved the innocent children by fatally stopping the murderer”?

…

Likewise, I call all pastors who have condemned James Kopp false. They have failed to handle God’s word soundly and they have failed to guide our fellow citizens into good citizenship, leading them instead into the same sinful condemnation of a righteous fellow citizen. Moreover, they, by such condemnation, contribute to the prolongation of this bloody scourge. They belie themselves and nullify their proclamation of the sanctity of human life.

Who knows how the movement might have been incandesced had pastors and pro-life leaders risen in support of earnest, efficacious, and forceful rescue efforts? No one can know. But we can be sure that the message sent by these errant leaders was that yes, there really is a difference between womb children and the rest of us. The least of us may be cast off with impunity. Their humanity is denied by our lack of action.

Other prominent anti-abortion activists have come out in support of Roeder in the past. He has been declared a “Christian hero” by some. We anticipate an outpouring from the extremists among the anti-abortion community, and will update this article as they come forth.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and members of his new group, Insurrecta Nex, stood outside the courthouse holding signs that said, “Tiller Killed 60,000 Children,” “Give Roeder a Fair Trial,” “Roeder’s Reason: The Babies,” and “Tiller killed 60,000 children.”

What is “Insurrecta Nex“? According to their site (which doesn’t work very well in Explorer):

1.) An act or instance of revolting against death; usually violent death, murder

2.) A group of the ‘tireless minority, keen to set brushfires in the minds of men’

3.) DVD series that will change the course of human history forever, i.e. crushing childkilling underfoot, taking back civilization and enthroning Christ the King in every nation

Seems they’re happy to encourage violence.

Surely Dave Leach, the Iowa anti-abortion activist who helped Roeder put together his (shot down) “necessity” defense, will have words.

Roeder will be sentenced on March 9. The penalty for first-degree murder in Kansas is up to life in prison.

Video of the conviction:

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Jesus and Mary had a busy year in 2009. No matter where you looked, they were popping up in the most unexpected places! Let’s review some of the Jesus and Mary sightings.

Jan. 26: Jesus heads to a tree in Millington, Mich., just outside of Flint, in Ron and Marilyn Bielak’s backyard.

The retired pair are facing foreclosure and believed the sighting would mean help was on the way. A call to their home several months later would indicate the line had been disconnected.

I guess nobody told them that Jesus had taken a second job as a repo man.

On April 10, a Dutch man discovered Jesus’ sweet, crispy love . . . in his Kit Kat bar. At least it wasn’t a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

I wonder if Jesus has all the calories of a regular Kit Kat bar?

Seems this sweet puppy pic was snapped in late 2008, but it became popular in 2009. Close enough. It’s a real picture, not Photoshop.

Jesus? Why won’t you leaf me alone?!

This maple leaf, found on April 11 by Mimi DiMauro of Boston, looks to me to bear the moldy image of Grizzly Adams. Mimi insists it’s Jesus, and says that 3/4 of viewers agree. The others think it looks like John Lennon.

Who do you think it looks like?

The unnamed boyfriend of (possible fornicator!) Linda Lowe made her a Grilled Jesus sandwich. Naturally, she keeps her toasty Savior safe from hungry mouths. But what will happen when she gets a craving for a mouthful of cheesy Salvation?

Is this Jesus, or a production still from the Addams Family?

Why does this Jesus look so much like Cousin It? Say, where’s Thing, and why is Jesus giggling like that?

This is too disturbing.

I’m not entirely sure that’s Jesus in the grain on the left. What do you think? Is it Jesus, or the Homer on the right?

Edvard Munch really brings out the holy in Jesus, don’t you think?

Many more sightings are available HERE and HERE.

Or watch the below video:

This fornicating harlot and her living-in-sin boyfriend saw Jesus in their bathroom.

We should also remember two of Mary’s most noticed appearances.

She spent quite a bit of time in the sun. Here, she brought thousands of Irish the miracle of solar retinopathy.

She also made an inexplicable statement about safer sex.

What’s your favorite deity sighting? And why isn’t there a Dog Poo Jesus?

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This cartoon video explains the basic beliefs of Mormonism . . . Where people come from, where black people come from, what happens when we die, etc.

Enjoy!

The following details are posted on YouTube with the video, which has been re-posted and removed a number of times.

I guess this video has been getting removed from youtube because mormons dont like people to know about their less popular teachings. Im uploading this video to keep the information available. Mormons have been complaining that these are not taught by their religion, but a source of this video provided references to mormon literature for every claim made int he vid:

0:20 – 0:45 King Follett Discourse (History of the Church Vol 6 pg 302-317)

0:54 – 1:00 abraham 3

1:03 – 2:20 Gospel Principles Ch2-3

2:20 – 2:35 Official Statment by 1st presidency 08/17/49 and 08/17/51 and Joseph Fielding Smith in Doctrines of Salvation 1:65-66 2nd Nephi 5:21

2:38 – Gospel Princ Manual Ch3

2:40 – Pre 1982 2Nephi 30:6

2:44 – no longer taught he said early mormon profits… Brigham young journal of discourses vol 1 pg 50-51 and Wilford Woodruffs journal

3:20 – The seer pg 172, brigham young journal of discourses vol 1 p 346 orson hyde journal journal of discourses, vol 2 p 210

3:28 – D&C 113 and Isa 11

3:32 – Journal of Discourses 13:309

3:41 – 3Nephi

4:03 – 4 Nephi, Moroni

4:20 – 4:30 Moroni 10

4:37 – 4:50 State of NY VS Joseph Smith “The Glass Looker” other Court Documents

4:43 – 4:50 1826-1830 convicted of fraud, admitted “peepstoning” was fake.

5:01 – Joe Smith History 1:19

5:16 – 5:21 Howard W hunter “your temple recommend” New Era Apr 1995, 6

5:22 Russell M Nelson “SPirit of Elijah” Ensign Nov 1994, 84 and D&C 128, 138:33

5:27 – D&C 132:17-20

5:36 – Robert L Millet, “Joseph smith among the prophets” Ensign Jun 1994, 19

5:49 – :52 D&C 132

6:03 – Hist of the Church Vol pg 408-412

6:12 – He died in a shootout

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