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Author Archive for ZC
Pentagon investigation faults generals for endorsing evangelical ministry
So this Christian Embassy outfit gets a little too cozy with Pentagon officials, who go on to violate rules and regulations concerning endorsement of religions. Air Force Academy grad and general-purpose fly in the fundagelical ointment Mikey Weinstein files a lawsuit. The Pentagon, caught once again violating the Secret Code of Military Toughness, has a special investigation look into the matter. The prevaricating Pentagonal parson doesn't come off too well.
The investigation concluded that seven current and former Pentagon officers -- including four generals -- who appeared in the video violated Defense Department regulations against endorsing political or religious organizations while in uniform. It also found that the Pentagon's former top chaplain improperly "provided a selective benefit to Christian Embassy" by deceptively obtaining permission for the group to film inside the Pentagon.Col. Benson, of course, sees nothing wrong with lies and special favors to one religious group.
The report cleared two civilian Defense Department employees who appeared in the video, saying their appearances did not create the impression that the Pentagon endorsed Christian Embassy.
The investigators faulted the chaplain, Col. Ralph Benson, for providing unrestricted access to the Pentagon to dozens of volunteers for Christian Embassy and other religious groups via identification badges normally given to military contractors. (emphasis Zen's)
According to the report, Benson also contended, through legal counsel, that preventing his involvement in the video violated his First Amendment rights as a chaplain. But the investigators disagreed and noted that he had misled officials in his request for permission to film the video by claiming it was about the work of the Pentagon chaplain's office.In addition to having an Invisible Friend, Col. Benson has a wonderfully self-serving way of justifying his deliberate violation of the rules.
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New Life Church, the Colorado Springs church founded by ex-gay-pastor Ted Haggard, is on the verge of naming a new leader. Brady Boyd is the last godman standing, and will probably be named the new pastor after a series of pro forma sermons over the next few weeks.
Boyd comes to his calling honestly, being unburdened with any formal theological training, holding a journalism degree and previous jobs in marketing and sportscasting. A showbiz sensibility seems to pervade his metaphors. When asked about his "conversion" at age 21, he describes it as a Hollywood moment, "Scene one. Take one. The beginning of my life." Maybe it's that Hollywood element that infuses his female followers with a churchly frisson:
Hmm. . . . all the ingredients needed for a hubris sandwich are right here. In a year he'll have a cable TV show. In two he'll be nationally known. In three, he'll have a Jimmy Swaggert moment, followed by tearful public confessions. But since it's likely to be transgressions hetero rather than homo, the odds are he'll be forgiven.
At least, that's how Hollywood would write it.
Boyd comes to his calling honestly, being unburdened with any formal theological training, holding a journalism degree and previous jobs in marketing and sportscasting. A showbiz sensibility seems to pervade his metaphors. When asked about his "conversion" at age 21, he describes it as a Hollywood moment, "Scene one. Take one. The beginning of my life." Maybe it's that Hollywood element that infuses his female followers with a churchly frisson:
Gateway Church member June Lee Sessions reacts another way: "When Brady preaches, I get the shivers."
Hmm. . . . all the ingredients needed for a hubris sandwich are right here. In a year he'll have a cable TV show. In two he'll be nationally known. In three, he'll have a Jimmy Swaggert moment, followed by tearful public confessions. But since it's likely to be transgressions hetero rather than homo, the odds are he'll be forgiven.
At least, that's how Hollywood would write it.
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Jesus 2.0 Launched- Online Christian Video Sharing Site Connects Millions
In its ongoing effort to copy secular success, the eminently lame Christian video site Godtube has expanded. I'm especially impressed with their confusion of fact and faith, as in
Wow. The first day and they've already gotten a half million "monthly" visitors. Jesus 2.0 must really be a "for prophet" business model. Anyway, this Demented Fuckwit recognition goes to the innumerate pinhead who wrote this press release, with special recognition to the editors who let this self-serving tripe go to publication.
Technorati Tags: Demented Fuckwit Award, Godtube, Jesus 2.0
In its ongoing effort to copy secular success, the eminently lame Christian video site Godtube has expanded. I'm especially impressed with their confusion of fact and faith, as in
GodTube.com today announced its official launch and is already attracting more than 500,000 unique visitors permonth
Wow. The first day and they've already gotten a half million "monthly" visitors. Jesus 2.0 must really be a "for prophet" business model. Anyway, this Demented Fuckwit recognition goes to the innumerate pinhead who wrote this press release, with special recognition to the editors who let this self-serving tripe go to publication.
Technorati Tags: Demented Fuckwit Award, Godtube, Jesus 2.0
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Study Eyes Why Youths Quit Church
A new study by the Southern Baptist Convention finds that 70% of young church-goers flee the church between the ages of 18 and 22, most saying they just wanted "a break from church". "Moving to college" and "work responsibilities" were also popular reasons for a more secular lifestyle. Personally, I'm guessing beer and sex are also important drivers of the trend.
The authors have no real idea of how to recapture those who abandon the church. It's a good sign, I think, one that defines the limits of influence for this flavor of applied superstition. What implications this mass desertion may have for the political influence of the SBC remain to be seen.
At any rate, it's hard to see how fewer Baptists can be a bad thing.
Technorati Tags: Southern Baptist Convention, secularism, church absenteeism
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Zen Curmudgeon
Dr. Dobson: 'What I Think About Harry Potter'
Dr. Dobson's opinion — in fact, he said a few years ago on his daily radio broadcast that "We have spoken out strongly against all of the Harry Potter products." His rationale for that statement: Magical characters — witches, wizards, ghosts, goblins, werewolves, poltergeists and so on — fill the Harry Potter stories, and given the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology in the larger culture, it's difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds.
Or maybe he just can't stand the competition for "young, impressionable minds?"
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, James Dobson
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The Brody File: David Brody Blog - CBN News
Considering the page's content, which has to do with Mitt Romney supporting gay participation in Boy Scout activities, this headline was inevitable:
Brownback Campaign Rips Romney on Boy Scouts Position
Technorati Tags: Brownback, Romney, Boy Scouts
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Tiny Tablet Proves Old Testament as Fact - CBN News
So this "Vienna professor" has found a clay tablet in the British Museum that has a name on that matches the name of an Old Testament king's chief eunuch. Some other "expert" at the Museum said, "a throwaway detail in the old testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means the whole narrative of Jeremiah takes on a new kind of power."
Umm, yeah, I guess it could. Could also be a coincidence. Or maybe they just found a first draft. The report doesn't specify the actual name (and I ain't about to look it up), but what ya wanna bet it's the Babylonian equivalent of "Bob"?
Technorati Tags: CBN, British Museum, Pat Robertson
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In today's newsletter, Tony "I'm Not Psycho" Perkins if the Family Research Council paraphrases a report in the Washington Times in which former Reaganite Frank Gaffney's contribution to a PBS Series, "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center" was withheld from broadcast. Mr. Perkins naturally assumes there's some skullduggery afoot at PBS, and points out that Mr. Gaffney's piece makes some unflattering claims about Muslims:
Gaffney and another co-producer documented in this film that Muslim radicals are pushing to establish parallel societies in America and Europe governed by courts applying Sharia law rather than civil courts.
Goodness. Can't have that. Unless, of course:
ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State's sovereign authority retained under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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Miracles Outside the Church Walls - U.S. - CBN News
CBNNews.com - REDDING, California - Imagine a church where so many believers get excited about miracles that more healings happen outside the church than in it.
Ya mean they finally heard about hospitals?
Seriously, here's the question I ask whenever some intent believer (usually a Benny Hinn acolyte) carries on about "healing": the abandoned wheelchairs, crutches and canes are okay, but where are the prosthetic arms, legs, pacemakers, and glass eyes? Is there a case in which even one anencephalic baby got into college?
Now that would get me excited.
Technorati Tags: CBN, faith healing
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Townhall.com::Get the Government Out of Sex Ed::By Jennifer Roback Morse
Tony "I'm Not Psycho" Perkins of the Family Research Council is promoting another innumerate article criticizing the effectiveness of birth control and touting the efficacy of abstinence. It's a remarkable piece energetically attacking the providers of legal, safe family planning, including abortion. It's remarkable mostly for this:
Planned Parenthood and its allies in the sex education business have had conniptions over federal funding for abstinence education. But at least abstinence actually works. If you don’t have sex, you won’t get pregnant. It works every time.
So much for the Virgin Birth, I guess.
Technorati Tags: Planned Parenthood, Tony Perkins, contraception, Jennifer Roback
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Dr. Dobson continues to draw lines in the sand, but those bullies at the National Association of Evangelicals keep smudging things up. When NEA VP Richard Cizik defined global warming as the "litmus test for evangelical support" Dr. D and his friends angrily demanded Cizik's termination. It didn't happen, but to the friendly fundies at Focus, this fight isn't over yet. On its CitizenLink Web site, one of the Doctor's proxies make this amazing statement about the NAE position:
It's a fine thing to have such a simple way to select your overseers, a method that seems entirely rooted in a profound concern about other people's genitalia.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: Focus on the Family is now completely irrelevant.
"That is an outrage," said Bill Saunders, senior fellow for bioethics at the Family Research Council (FRC). "The litmus test should be the destruction of human beings and the undermining of marriage. Nothing else reaches that level."
It's a fine thing to have such a simple way to select your overseers, a method that seems entirely rooted in a profound concern about other people's genitalia.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: Focus on the Family is now completely irrelevant.
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First Lady Uses Faith to Battle Disease - U.S. - CBN NewsLaura Bush thinks the African health care crisis can be fixed by applied superstition.
Mrs. Bush says those groups know very well the healing power of faith.Umm, Laura, you do understand that mosquito nets work whether you believe in them or not? Right?
[. . . ]
"There is a way to reach out," she said. "For instance, putting these kits together for World Vision to deliver or going through with your Sunday school or other faith based groups to raise money for mosquito nets."
Technorati Tags: Faith-Based healing, Laura Bush, mosquito nets
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Baptist Degree in Homemaking
The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which boasts exactly one woman on its faculty, if offering a degree program for pastors' wives - in homemaking.
Course work includes three hours of "general homemaking," three hours on "the value of a child," seven hours of "design and apparel"--including a four-hour "clothing construction with lab"--seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation and a three-hour course on the "Biblical Model for the Home and Family."
Presumably, the "clothing construction with lab" course starts with something simple - like a berka.
Technorati Tags: Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson, homemaking
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Charlotte.com : Charlotte news, events, Panthers, Bobcats, jobs, cars, homes
Bob Teixeira, a Charlotte, NC man, went to considerable trouble and expense to convert his motor vehicle to biofuel. Now he's run up against little-known state and federal laws that levy a fine for not paying motor fuel taxes. Since he powered his car with vegetable oil purchased at Costco he also avoided paying the motor tax, which is illegal in North Carolina and violates a federal law as well. Having already spent $1,200 for the engine modifications, he's being fined by the state $1,000, and will be required to post a $2,500 bond before he can legally drive his vegetative vehicle. Another $1,000 federal fine is expected.
The N.C. agency that imposed the sanctions is willing to negotiate over the fine amounts and conditions,
But officials say they'll keep pursuing taxes on all fuels used in highway vehicles. With its 29.9-cent a gallon gas tax, the state collects $1.2 billion each year to pay for road construction.
"With the high cost of fuel right now, the department does recognize that a lot of people are looking for relief," said Reggie Little, assistant director of the motor fuel taxes division. "We're not here to hurt the small guy, we're just trying to make sure that the playing field is level."
So the playing field is "level" in the sense that everyone gets to pay for the roads they drive on, not an unreasonable expectation. But with $1.2 billion a year to manage, it seems likely that the N.C. Revenooers could cut the "small guy" a little slack. The small guy has invested quite a lot to get into biofuels - maybe that "level" playing field could extend to recognizing and crediting that effort.
Technorati Tags: motor fuel tax, Bob Teixeira
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Dang. Now that the Creationist Museum has shown us the real situation of man and dinosaur peacefully coexisting on Noah's Ark (it's a museum, fer chrissakes, it's gotta be real) it's time to update the Immutable, Inerrant Word of God to reflect the new truth.
John Spaulding has photoshopped a few changes. How long until Dr. Dobson starts selling, err, accepting donations for the new, improved Immutable, Inerrant Word of God?
ZC
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Today's email from Dr. Dobson's FRC ActionUpdate (is there a James Dobson ActionFigure?) is encouraging the faithful to oppose stem cell legislation pending in Congress. As part of its pro forma outrage, it includes the following,
Let me get this straight: G. W. Bush, the father of twins, is against cloning?
Well, I guess he oughta know.
Technorati Tags: Bush, stem cells, cloning, FRC, James Dobson
Earlier this morning, the White House released a statement reminding members of Congress that the administration "unequivocally oppose[s] all forms of human cloning."
Let me get this straight: G. W. Bush, the father of twins, is against cloning?
Well, I guess he oughta know.
Technorati Tags: Bush, stem cells, cloning, FRC, James Dobson
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Poor Peggy Noonan. The Thousand Points of Light have been dying out one by one for her. After six years of being ignored, Ms. Noonan and her traditional conservative peers have just gotten a taste of what the rest of the world has been putting up with from this profoundly inept administration.
OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan
"Unpatriotic" has a familiar ring to it. I wonder if the Bush apologists will be able to morph that into "traitor", as they did for so many opponents of the war. And I wonder what the Republican Prez hopefuls think about Mr. Bush further alienating the remaining Republican faithful.
But mostly I'm having a little schadenfreunde moment. Despite machinations toward a "permanent majority", the pendulum always swings back.
Technorati Tags: Peggy Noonan, immigration bill, Republican
OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."
"Unpatriotic" has a familiar ring to it. I wonder if the Bush apologists will be able to morph that into "traitor", as they did for so many opponents of the war. And I wonder what the Republican Prez hopefuls think about Mr. Bush further alienating the remaining Republican faithful.
But mostly I'm having a little schadenfreunde moment. Despite machinations toward a "permanent majority", the pendulum always swings back.
Technorati Tags: Peggy Noonan, immigration bill, Republican
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abc13.com: Tuberculosis patient let back in US by border inspector who disregarded warning
(5/31/07 - ATLANTA, GA) - A globe-trotting Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was allowed back into the U.S. by a border inspector who disregarded a computer warning to stop him and don protective gear, officials said Thursday.
First, somebody figure out how the border security guy screwed this up. (And please note this happened considerably north of Tio Tom Tancredo's line in the southern sand.)
Second, let me be the first to resurrect a fine old word in the following joke:
Did you hear about the scrofulous personal injury lawyer? But I repeat myself.
Technorati Tags: TB, border security, Andrew Speaker
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Pentecostalist refuses to wear pants
33 year old Tahita Jenkins lost her job as a bus driver for the New York Transit Association after refusing to wear the pants required by the bus drivers' dress code. Claiming skirts are required by God, she even brought a note from her preacher, but to no avail. (It could be that letterhead from "The Holy Ghost Headquarters Prayer Band Mission of New Beginning Deliverance Church" was less than convincing.)
Had Ms. Jenkins won her case, I imagine she would then be a "Depantstecostalist". Or maybe not.
In any case, the religious requirement of skirts on women does show God has a lot in common with Paris Hilton. Except she's more famous.
Technorati Tags: Penetcostalist, bus driver, Paris Hilton
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So there's this guy Justin who has mounted a video cam on his head for the purpose of letting all of us listen in while he takes a whizz. Sounds pretty oh-so-Jennie-cam to me, but he's got an audience. And now he's hired a chick sidekick, Justine Ezarik.
She sure looks familiar, though, doesn't she. . .
Oh, yeah, I remember. She's been in the movies. When last seen, she was having hot puppet love and saving America from Kim Jong Il.
She sure looks familiar, though, doesn't she. . .
Oh, yeah, I remember. She's been in the movies. When last seen, she was having hot puppet love and saving America from Kim Jong Il.
T. Rex, Other Big Dinosaurs Could Swim, New Evidence Suggests
T. Rex, Other Big Dinosaurs Could Swim, New Evidence SuggestsIt's beginning to look as though the dinos didn't need the Ark. Maybe Noah was riding a brontosaurus?
Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News
May 29, 2007
Predatory dinosaurs such as the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex could swim, say scientists who claim they have found definitive proof of the behavior.
Technorati Tags: Creation Museum, Ken Ham, dinosaurs
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Conservative Christians and the Media - U.S. - CBN News
Technorati Tags: CBN, Media Matters, grammar
Conservative Christians and the Media CBN News May 29, 2007 CBNNews.com - A new report on religious news coverage claims that the major media give too much coverage to religious conservatives. And is silencing spiritual diversity.A news report on religious news channel CBN claims that left-leaning organizations funded a study of mainstream media coverage of religious conservatives. And is silencing grammar teachers.
Technorati Tags: CBN, Media Matters, grammar
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Harry Potter wins in Ga. court | Local News | pnj.com
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, lawsuit, witchcraft, Laura Mallory
Harry Potter wins in Ga. courtI do enjoy Christians who think righteous attitudes are persuasive. And have standing in legal situations. But at least Ms. Mallory is reconsidering her tactics.
HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writer
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A suburban Atlanta mother who believes the best-selling Harry Potter books promote witchcraft said Tuesday she may take her quest to ban the writings from her county schools to federal court after a state judge rejected her latest effort.
Laura Mallory, who said two of her four children attend public schools in Gwinnett County, told reporters it may be time to rethink her arguments with the help of an attorney.
“I maybe need a whole new case from the ground up,” said Mallory, who was not represented by an attorney at the hearing.You think?
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, lawsuit, witchcraft, Laura Mallory
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In the Missionary Lizard Position.
(h/t Pharyngula for the image)
Technorati Tags: Creation Museum, Pharyngula, Missionary Lizard Position
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