The times are changing and so are Evangelical politics. The new thinking is to move away from single issue politics. No more focusing on Anti-abortion or Family Values. The Manifesto also calls for and end to Anti-Intellectualism. How refreshing.

An Evangelical Manifesto is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for. It has been drafted and published by a representative group of Evangelical leaders who do not claim to speak for all Evangelicals, but who invite all other Evangelicals to stand with them and help clarify what Evangelical means in light of “confusions within and the consternation without” the movement. As the Manifesto states, the signers are not out to attack or exclude anyone, but to rally and to call for reform.

As an open declaration, An Evangelical Manifesto addresses not only Evangelicals and other Christians but other American citizens and people of all other faiths in America, including those who say they have no faith. It therefore stands as an example of how different faith communities may address each other in public life, without any compromise of their own faith but with a clear commitment to the common good of the societies in which we all live together.

For those who are Evangelicals, the deepest purpose of the Manifesto is a serious call to reform—an urgent challenge to reaffirm Evangelical identity, to reform Evangelical behavior, to reposition Evangelicals in public life, and so rededicate ourselves to the high calling of being Evangelical followers of Jesus Christ.

My litmus test is James Dobson. if he apposes the manifesto then it is moving in the right direction.

James Dobson, founder of the conservative group Focus on the Family, reviewed the document and was asked to sign it, Dobson spokesman Gary Schneeberger said.  Dobson reportedly consulted the group’s board of directors but did not sign it “due to myriad concerns about the effort,” according to Schneeberger.

Source: Evangelical group issues political manifesto against "single-issue" politics

For the record - Dobson refused to support this. Yes! Our decade of hate is coming to a close.

Jack Clark is a pastor convicted of sodomy by force and statutory rape. His victim was a 12-year-old girl from his own congregation. Clark skipped bail and has been on the run since 1997.

Clark is a classic pedophile. He cultivated his relationship with a helpless 12-year-old girl, and then used her for his pleasure. Now Jack Clark is going to jail for a very long time.

Investigators say Jack began earning the girl's trust by allowing her to watch movies -- something strictly forbidden by the church -- after his wife went to sleep. Gradually, cops believe Clark began touching the young girl inappropriately, and his actions eventually escalated.

Source: AMW.com | Jack Clark - Fugitive

This is my first America's Most Wanted case. I'm going to include them in my newsreader for now on. They are a good source of information on criminal activity. And they do not forget.

Pastor Stanley Daniel is heading to the big house.

The Rev. Stanley Daniel pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy and two counts of distribution of obscene material Thursday morning in front of Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Tom Young, who sentenced him to 20 years each on the first two charges and 12 months each on the second two.

Source: The Randolph Leader: News

What did Daniel's do? He ran a program for at risk youth, and then he raped one of them.

Jones told the judge he would expect the evidence to show at trial that Daniel was in charge of a program for troubled youths when he engaged in sexual intercourse, sodomy and oral sex with one of the youths in the program.

Facebook is a neat place - I participate in several Atheist groups. The most ambitious is Are there 250,000 Atheists here? I wanted to give them a plug. If you are on the blogroll and would like to participate in this facebook group, please log in and join.

I've included a recent email from one of the 800 Atheists who have joined so far.

Bigger than any "dissent"

Today, the group "Are there 250,000 Atheists here?", is nearly at eight hundred members. This is amazing in less than two months time, with as little public advertising as we've gotten.

What's more amazing is that we've officially destroyed "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism", who stand at over seven hundred signatures as of early 2008.

While we've got a long way to go to really show that there are plenty of us out there in contrast with the religious majority (look at all the religious groups!), we're advancing at a good enough clip. I'm really proud of all the effort put into the group so far by the other administrators of the group, and all of the effort put forth by you, the members, so far.

Good work, and keep it up guys! We're almost 1/250 of the way to our goal, we can't slow down now! Tell your friends and your friends' friends!

Email: theDOTmotleyDOTcrueATgmailDOTcom

Website: The Seeker (not a blogroll member)

We stand at 692 active blogs on the Atheist Blogroll. Just 8 more until we reach our next milestone.

We shrink:

• Talking to theists (Inactive)

We change:

• Living with missy & other thoughts (New url)

We grow:

• Mickipedia
• Grattans.us
• Fed up with religion
• Arizona Atheist
• The Religion Test
• Something from nothing
• Babble and Rants (In Spanish)
• Of microbes and men
• eAtheist.com

A special thanks to Religion is man-made. Keep sending those dead links my way.

Down where I live in Northern Orange County I am free to leave my home late in the evening for a meal. 9:00 PM is not a deal breaker. The are Hundreds restaurants go choose from. That's not the case in Los Angeles in Westlake Village. I'm stuck in a place that turns the light off by 9:00 PM. The place is a ghost town.

I ventured out to eat at Brent's Deli. It is a highly rated restaurant within walking distance of my hotel. They flipped the closed sign over as I walked up. The place was empty. I'm not complaining, they are only open until 9:00 PM. It says so right on the door. What I'm pissed about is being turned away at two other restaurants because it was too late to serve me.

I ended up driving north on Thousdand Oaks blvd only to find every suitable eating establishment closed or closing. I ended up at Los dos Amigos where I walked into an empty restaurant. The staff was not pleased that I had showed up after the mopping had started, but they insisted I stay and eat. I wanted soup. They obliged. I was happy until a man walked through the door looking for a late nigh bite too eat. He carried a bible.

The inevatable questions started soon after James introduced himself. You know the one. "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?" My answer was "I can't say I've ever met this fictional charater". My comment started James talking. He did not shut up for 15 minutes. Which was just enough time for me to finish my soup, pay the bill, and then scurry out the door. I drove to my hotel on the empty streets of this strange city. The only people I saw were restaurant employees heading home for the night.

Sean McManus writes in the April 21th issue of New York Magazine, Do Atheists Need a Church of Their Own?

Many atheist sects are experimenting with building new, human-centered quasi-religious organizations, much like Ethical Culture. They aim to remove God from the church, while leaving the church, at least large parts of it, standing. But this impulse is fueling a growing schism among atheists. Many of them see churches as part of the problem. They want to throw out the baby and the bathwater—or at least they don’t see the need for the bathwater once the baby is gone

Source: Do Atheists Need a Church of Their Own? -- New York Magazine

This is further proof that I have a limited awareness of what is going on in the world around me. I set in front of my PC and pound out a few posts each week. I occasionally attend an Atheist meetup group meeting. I correspond with my fellow atheists, I even promote the cause via the Atheist blogroll. But I'm stumped on this atheist Church thing.

Do I know of the equivalent of atheist churches? Do I hear this topic discusses in my travels or when reading other bloggers? No. Do I want to go to a church for atheists? No. Meetup groups are hard enough to attend. I can't imagin joining a group that meets every Sunday, like a Church. But somebody wants this, or at least that's what Sean McManus tells us. New York City Atheists, a group quoted in the McManus article, seems to aspire to the goal of an atheist church. I just don't understand why. My reaction is like... eww. If the meeting is a well organized exchange of ideas, perhaps with an open bar, then count me in.

BTW - New York City Atheists are proud Atheist blogroll members.

I actually don't know what to say. This is stupid.

Steve Kreuscher wants a judge to allow him to legally change his name. He wants to be known as "In God We Trust."

Kreuscher (CROY'-shir) says the new name would symbolize the help God gave him through tough times.

The 57-year-old man also told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald he's worried that atheists may succeed in removing the phrase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.

Read More...

Kreuscher is afraid Atheist will do what now?

That's right. If you can't minister to lost young souls with the good book, why not minister with your smelly little... you get the idea.

The pastor of a small southwest Missouri church is charged with statutory rape and sodomy for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl in the church office.

Forty-nine-year-old Randall Danny Russell of Act II Church in Neosho also was charged Wednesday with child abuse.

Source: UPDATED: Pastor charged with sex abuse of 16-year-old girl | KSPR News | Local News

Randall Danny Russell appears to be a fringe pastor making it up as he goes along. is he a real pastor?  No. Randall Russell is a self proclaimed pastor in a country where anyone can be a pastor.

Russell’s accuser says he had her disrobe in front of him in a church office after services on a Sunday under the pretense that it would help her get “closer to God,” according to authorities. He then allegedly photographed her while she was naked.

The alleged victim says Russell later began forcing oral sex and sexual intercourse on her, usually on Sunday afternoons after services, according to authorities.

“He’s a self-proclaimed pastor,” Sheriff Ken Copeland told the Globe. “He’s not affiliated with any denomination as far as we can tell. But they all call him pastor, and he claims to be a pastor.”

Source: Another fringe-church, sex-abuse case surfaces w/ Randall Danny Russell probable cause affidavit

My prediction is that Randall Russell is going down. Police found nude pictures of the girl on his computer. Nude picture of an underage girl on a church computer... What the hell?

Only 16 years...

The Rev. Artis Caver stood silently before a judge as the former pastor of Harvest Missionary Baptist Church received a sentence of 16 years in prison.

But church members were not silence; they spoke openly in the case of the pastor who stole from the church, reported NewsChannel5.

People spoke for both sides, all referencing religious scripture. Some called for mercy, while others contended "what a man soweth," he gets.

Source: Ex-Pastor Gets 16 Years For Stealing From Church - News Story - WEWS Cleveland

I was betting on 70.

Read more...

We shrink:

• globeLinkCircadian (inactive)
• Genesis-fel (gone)
• Hayleys Paranormal Blog (gone)
• http://lecontestataire.blogspot.com/ (gone)

We change:

• izzwold dot org (new url)
• Ian's Brain - Busted Neurons (new url)

We grow:

• Because No One Asked
• Resurrecting Reason
• Black woman thinks
• Let go - forget god
• Maximum Likelihood
• The Arrogant Atheist 
• Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists

We have 684 active members. We add a few every week. I can see our blogroll hitting 1000 before the end of the year.

A special thanks to Religion is man-made. Keep sending those dead links my way.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is writing a letter of clemency on behalf of Phillip Miles. Graham thinks the hapless pastor should get a pass for smuggling ammunition into Russia.  I wonder, if Miles were an Atheist, would Graham care? Would anyone care? My guess is no.  Senator Graham would not care, nor would the press, nor would anyone else. If Miles had been an Atheist this issue would not make the press at all.

Why is this issue in the press? Because Phillip Miles is a Christian pastor and we all know, pastors can do no wrong. Except, they do plenty of wrong, and we all know that too. So why does everyone seem to care for what befalls this man?

Those of us who travel know the rules, leave your weapons, explosives, ammunition, and pornography at home. Countries like Russian and China (ask me about the fun I had in China with a hand held GPS a few years ago), have little or no tolerance for violating their laws. Miles should have known better.

Does Miles deserve special treatment? No! He should serve his time like a man, or his family should pay the appropriate bribe to secure his release, or his family should allow the State Department to work out some deal with Russia. Who knows, maybe he could serve his time back in the USA?

I am curious, what do my fellow Atheist think on this issue?

My goodness, what are the Baptists drinking these days? They seem to be going nuts, or at least their leadership is going nuts.

James L Walls Jr., mayor of District Heights and associate pastor at Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church was busted for soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer. I guess Walls was after some of that down-low quickie action. Or, maybe he's just gay? Can you be gay and a Baptist pastor? Maybe Baptists don't consider oral sex to be "real sex". I know you can be gay and the mayor of any town in the USA (except maybe for towns in Texas).

Walls has a Wiki entry. I am sure this seemed like a good idea when he was a rising star in the Democratic party. He might want to reconsider his wiki resume strategy. With his future in question, it may well document his decline.

James L. Walls Jr., 30, was arrested at 12:30 a.m. at Sixth and F streets NW, near Verizon Center. He was charged with solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes, police said. He was issued a citation and released.

Walls, who is single, was known as a rising star among young Democrats in Prince George's County. He was the youngest person elected mayor of District Heights -- a community inside the Beltway with a population of about 6,000. He was elected mayor in May 2006; his term runs until 2010.

Source: District Heights Mayor Arrested in Sting - washingtonpost.com

Jon Moore is creepy. He is an assistant to the pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Colorado Springs. Jon was arrested for sexually assaulting a teenaged girl.

Moore had been a member of the church for nearly four years.  Carroll says he didn't see the need for a background check.  NEWSCHANNEL 13 checked and the sexual assault offense was the only one to come up in the state of Colorado.  Carroll says now, the church is being much more cautious about who it hires.  Moore's next court date is May 19.

Source: Pastor Assistant Charged in Sexual Assault Case

The Moore case has it all. Shock and disbelief, stand by your pastor, and not doing background checks. My guess is that Moore is in for a little prison time.

And finally, convicted sex offender and former Baptist pastor Edward E. Greene's name was in the press this week. His victim filed a civil suit alleging members of Marquette Manor Baptist Church knew of the abuse but did nothing to protect her.

"The leadership of the church knew things were going on, knew they had people engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with minors, but didn't call police," said the woman's attorney, Marc Pearlman. "Instead, they handled it 'internally,' which solved nothing."

Source: Downers Grove church sued in sex assault case

Get your wallets out boys, this one is going to hurt.

Another "youth pastor" admits his crimes.

The Boardman man charged with raping a young boy three times between June 2002 and June 2004 and filing false tax returns has pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor offenses in the rape case.

Darryl L. Adams, 44, of Glenwood Avenue, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and two counts of assault Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. His victim was 14 when the offenses began

Source: Youth pastor pleads guilty to offenses against teen

The founder of a Christian school is recorded trying to trade sex for a diploma.

At graduation ceremonies he talks about God, but you'll hear the founder of a Houston-area Christian school not only talk about sex, but ask for it on tape.

It's the middle of the day when a white pickup truck pulls into the back of a motel on 1960. Then it goes to the very back to park for a long while. We already know who the driver is. His name is LaVern Jordan and he runs Parkway Christian School.

Title borrowed from youtube's gobee53