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Jehovah’s Witness Charged Over Blood Transfusion

A Jehovah’s Witness member faces a year in prison over her refusal to allow her son to receive a blood transfusion that might have prevented his death in August, Interfax reported Thursday.

Ilya Orlukovich, 11, was hospitalized in Moscow on Aug. 9 after being hit by a car, and he died two weeks later, a spokesman for the city branch of the Investigative Committee told Interfax.

He said the boy’s mother forbade doctors from offering a blood transfusion because of a Jehovah’s Witness teaching that prohibits such operations.. More

Preacher arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin

Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Workington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.

Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act. More

Need Prayer? Drive-Thru Takes Orders To Go

LOMA LINDA, Calif. -- Joyce Kim needed a sign to remind her to pray.

She found it a few months ago along a stretch of rural road where she and hundreds of other Southern California commuters drive home every day.

A 4-foot placard reads "Need Prayer?" Shawn Heggi, a self-appointed Christian spiritual counselor, sits in a blue tent in the field nearby.

Now Kim tries to stop every Friday to pray with Heggi, 35, and two of his friends. They pray for a solution to Kim's financial troubles, the domestic violence victims she works with and the medical career she put on hold during her mother's 11-year battle with ovarian cancer.

"I go to church when I can, but that's on a set time," Kim said. "There may be times when I don't have time to go to church. This is just open, it's free, it's available for anybody, so I stop as often I can, when I can." More

Board denies Jehovah’s site request

MERRIMACK – The Merrimack Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in search of a church of its own for 25 years, will have to keep looking.

Prompted by a host of concerns, the town Zoning Board voted down a proposal Thursday to allow a church on Wire Road, a residential zone where the congregation sought to build on the site of a retired farmland.

Congregation leaders, who have moved from location to location for 25 years without a home church, had selected the property at 62 Wire Road because of its size and location, as well as the quiet neighborhood, they said this week.

But neighbors, speaking against the proposal, expressed concerns over traffic, lighting and noise, among other issues the church could bring to the East Merrimack neighborhood, prompting the board to vote 3-1 against the project. More

Saudi woman beats up virtue cop

It was a scene Saudi women’s rights activists have dreamt of for years. When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition.

But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping. A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for unmarried men and women to mix.

For unknown reasons, the young man collapsed upon being questioned by the cop. According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face. More

Priest Sex Abuse Linked to 13 Suicides in Belgium

Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, a special commission said Friday.

Professor Peter Adriaenssens, chairman of the commission, said the abuse in Belgium may have been even more rampant than the 200-page report suggests.

"Reality is worse than what we present here today because not everyone shares such things automatically in a first contact with the commission," he told reporters.

Adriaenssens, a child psychiatrist who has worked with trauma victims for 23 years, said nothing had prepared him for the stories of abuse that blighted the lives of victims. More

Terry Jones Accused of 'Spiritual Abuse' at Cologne Church

The world is holding its breath -- and it's all down to a tiny Christian fundamentalist church in Florida.

Next Saturday, on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rev. Terry Jones and his colleagues plan to burn hundreds of copies of the Koran on the church's property in Gainesville, Florida.

The White House has condemned the plan, and Muslim organizations around the world have warned of the consequences should the Koran-burning go ahead. But the church is sticking to its plans.

Naturally the radical Islamophobes know very well that their deliberate provocation could trigger potentially violent protests and riots. But they have washed their hands of any responsibility. "Let's just make one thing clear," the wannabe Koran-burners write on their blog. "A small church, in a small town, down a back road, burning copies of its own books, on its own property, is not responsible for the violent actions anyone may take in retaliation to our protest." More

Cleric in hot seat after calling for women to give men breast milk to avoid illicit mixing

A Saudi cleric finds himself in the hot seat after issuing a decree permitting unrelated women and men mingle so long as the guy drinks the woman's breast milk.

Sheik Abdel Mohsen Obeikan, a scholar and a consultant at Saudi Arabia's royal court, has called for women to give men breast milk to establish maternal relations and get around the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on mixing between men and women who are unrelated.

"The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman," UAE-based Gulf News quoted Obeikan as saying in local media reports. "He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women without breaking Islam's rules about mixing."

Some Islamic scholars frown on the mixing of unmarried men and women. Islamic tradition, or hadith, stipulates that breastfeeding establishes a degree of maternal bond, even if a woman breast feeds a child who is not her own. More

Man claims ‘Yahweh’ sold him a foreclosed home

POLSON, Mont. — A Lake County jury convicted a transient of stealing a house in foreclosure by removing "for sale" signs, changing the locks and filing strange paperwork with the county claiming he purchased the house from Yahweh.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour Tuesday morning before convicting Brent Arthur Wilson of theft, deceptive practices and tampering with public records or information. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 19.

Wilson was charged in February after Polson real estate agent Ed McCurdy investigated the removal of "for sale" signs from a $380,000 house he was selling on behalf of a lender in August 2009.

Further investigation found Wilson tried to use the house as collateral for a $125,000 loan he sought from a Missoula financial institution. More

Iran government issues style guide for men's hair

In an attempt to rid the country of "decadent Western cuts", Iran's culture ministry has produced a catalogue of haircuts that meet government approval.

The list of banned styles includes ponytails, mullets and elaborate spikes. However, quiffs appear to be acceptable, as are fashioning one's hair in the style of Simon Cowell or cultivating a 1980s-style floppy fringe.

Most of the models are clean-shaven although one picture features a man with a goatee beard, previously frowned upon by Iran's conservative clerics. Using hair gel is also within the law, albeit in modest quantities.

The "journal of Iranian hairstyles approved by the ministry of [culture and Islamic] guidance" was previewed at a government-approved hairdressing show in Tehran. More

Police say San Antonio man molested girl at church

Ramon Sanchez has asked God to forgive him following an admission he made to San Antonio police, according to the arrest warrant.

Police said the 73-year-old man confessed to molesting a 12-year-old girl at church and lured her with money.

The arrest document explains the alleged incident happened on Jan. 10. The victim alleges Sanchez started giving her money at Kingdom Hall in the 300 block of Price to befriend her. Police said the elderly suspect told the girl she could get money from him when he went to the restroom during church services. More

Registered sex offender to become ordained minister

LOUISVILLE, KY - A Louisville man who already leads the praise and worship at a church wants to take a higher role. He is a registered sex offender and will be ordained as a minister. It is something that is not sitting well with some.

At City of Refuge Worship Center, everyone is welcome. "Everyone sins, but He has forgiven us," said Kimberlin Bowling.

But what about sex offenders? "You may go to church somewhere and there may be one sitting right next to you and you don't even know it," said Bowling.

People at City of Refuge know about Mark Hourigan, who was charged in 1998 with sodomizing, sexually abusing and intimidating an 11-year-old boy. Convicted of two counts of sex abuse, Hourigan did his time in prison. More

Iranian cleric makes earthquakes and promiscuity link

TEHRAN, Iran — A prominent hard-line Iranian cleric elaborated on his claim that promiscuity and immodest dress cause earthquakes, saying Friday that God may be holding off on natural disasters in the West in order to let people sin more and doom themselves to hell.

The cleric, Kazem Sedighi, sparked widespread derision with his pronouncements in a prayer sermon last month that women who don’t dress modesty spread adultery in society, in turn increasing earthquakes.

In Tehran’s main weekly prayer sermon on Friday, he defended the claim but added some further explanation on why some places are hit more than others. “Some ask why earthquakes and storms don’t occur in the Western world, which suffers from the slime of homosexuality, the slime of promiscuity and has plunged up to the neck” in immorality, he said. More

Jehovah Couple Disown Son For Receiving Blood

A Jehovah Witness man, Kwabena Afum and his wife, Margret Afum aka Abena Oduma, have had a brush with the law after creating an unnecessary chaotic scene at New Edubiase Government Hospital in a bid to prevent medical officers from giving blood to their son.

Kwabena Afum was arrested last week Tuesday and granted a police enquiry bail the next day for causing panic and chaos by allegedly mobilizing some members of his church to foment trouble at the hospital.

He has since disowned five-year-old Jepheth Asamoah, who is currently in the custody of the Social Welfare Department in the district, even after his release. More

Pope: Church's own sins to blame in sex scandal

LISBON, Portugal -- In his most thorough admission of the church's guilt in the clerical sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday the greatest persecution of the institution "is born from the sins within the church," and not from a campaign by outsiders.

The pontiff said the Catholic church has always been tormented by problems of its own making - a tendency that is being witnessed today "in a truly terrifying way."

"The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice," he said. More

Niqab woman booted from class again

MONTREAL - A Muslim woman in Quebec has been kicked out of a language course for the second time because of her refusal to remove a religious face covering.

The Egyptian immigrant made headlines last week when it was revealed provincial Immigration Department officials expelled her from a government-sponsored French class several months ago after she refused to take off her niqab.

Known only as Naema in Quebec media, she had since enrolled in another government-sponsored French class, this time at a community centre for immigrants in Montreal. More 

A woman recalls her childhood of abuse by JW stepfather

In December 2005 I finally made my statement to the police. I wore a pinstripe shirtdress over jeans, so the police would know that I was someone capable of ironing and therefore reliable and truthful. I was left alone while the detective collected pens and paper, for it was to be a written statement, rather than a recorded or videoed one. It took six hours.

I told her about rapes and beatings. I told her everything I remembered. There was no room for me to cry, so I didn’t. I had done my difficult thing and now the statement was to be sent to the CID in Wales, where I grew up, and I had only to sit back and wait to hear from them.

The house becomes very cold when my stepfather Karl comes home. The air changes. I don’t like it when he is around living things. I like it best when he is driving a car, because then his hands are busy.

And I don’t like being a Jehovah’s Witness. Every Sunday morning and Tuesday and Thursday evenings we go to meetings at the Kingdom Hall. We have to sit very still or Karl hits us. It’s normal to hit children in the Kingdom Hall so he can do it and not worry. More

Passions over 'prosperity gospel': Was Jesus wealthy?

Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.

But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn't so poor after all.

Anderson says Jesus couldn't have been poor because he received lucrative gifts -- gold, frankincense and myrrh -- at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments. Even Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, lived and traveled in style, he says.

"Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey," says Anderson. "Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation."

Many Christians see Jesus as the poor, itinerant preacher who had "no place to lay his head." But as Christians gather around the globe this year to celebrate the birth of Jesus, another group of Christians are insisting that Jesus' beginnings weren't so humble. More

Muslim Scholars Say Body Scanners Violate Laws of Islam

Airport security is and will continue to be an important topic in the post 9/11 world. There is a fine line between security and the invasion of a traveler's privacy.

Many are claiming that the new full body scanners at some airports that show images of the human body in detail are an invasion of privacy.

The full body scanners were first detailed in 2009 and show anatomically correct images of the person being scanned that are only seen by the operator. After a failed Christmas day bomb scare on a Detroit-bound flight, speculation arose after that Obama could decree the wider use of full body scanners in airports. More

One of 'Jehovah's People' guilty of groping Minnie Mouse at Disney World

A 60-year-old Schuylkill County man was found guilty Tuesday of groping a woman dressed as Minnie Mouse while he and his family were visiting Walt Disney World in Florida.

John W. Moyer of Cressona was convicted of battery by a jury in Orange County Court in central Florida. Judge Wayne Shoemaker sentenced Moyer to 180 days of probation, 50 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

Moyer also must undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment, if necessary. The judge also ordered Moyer to write a letter of apology to the victim, Brittney D. McGoldrick, who is an employee of the amusement resort. Moyer did not testify during the trial.

"I am not guilty, and I pray to Jehovah, God, that he has mercy on Miss McGoldrick and the jury," Moyer said to WFTV 9. "I'm sorry they came up with the wrong verdict. More

Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Text Suggests

Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing — an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign.

The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible's Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.)

Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month.

"It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research," said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text. More

Followers find fulfillment without possessions at Twelve Tribes

The days begin early at Morning Star Ranch, where residents rise before dawn to pick their crops before a single leaf can wilt in the rising sun.

Then there are prayers at 7 a.m., followed by more planting, plowing or packing under the Valley Center sun.

At day's end, there is no TV to watch, no games to play and not even a dog to pet. And at the end of the week, as every week, there is no pay for all the work.

For the residents who call the ranch their home, though, it's paradise on Earth.

"It's what I dreamed life could be like," said David Alexander about life in the Twelve Tribes, the Commonwealth of Israel, a Christian community where he has lived six years and is known by his Hebrew name David Derush. More

Saudi religious police bar sale of red items to enforce Valentine's Day ban

The Saudi religious police have begun cracking down on stores selling any items that are red, heart-shaped or otherwise allude to the banned celebration of Valentine's Day, the Associated Press reports.

The AP, in a dispatch from Riyadh that quotes a Saudi official, says inspectors are even ordering stores to toss out such items as red roses.

The kingdom bans celebration of Western holidays such as Valentine's Day, named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the third century. More

Does Jesus save aliens?

Four hundred years after Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for his belief in the "plurality of worlds" (aliens), scientists and religious leaders gathered this week at a seemingly more open-minded Vatican for a conference on astrobiology (aliens).

The meeting focussed on current science, rather than the theological quandaries thrown up by the possibilty of other life forms beyond this planet. But that hasn't stopped debate spilling over outside the conference.

Yesterday I spoke to Paul Davies, a cosmologist from Arizona State University, just after he addressed the conference. In his view, the possibility of other civilisations - potentially more intelligent than our own - puts Christians “in a real bind”. Specifically, he says that nobody's satisfactorily addressed the question of whether aliens get saved. “The Catholic church offers a very species specific brand of salvation. Noone says that Jesus came to save the dolphins and certainly not little green men,” he said. More

Respected Jehovah's Witness groomed and molested young girls over years

A RESPECTED Jehovah's Witness who served as an elder betrayed the trust placed in him by abusing young girls.

James Michael O'Brien followed one schoolgirl into a kitchen when she was alone away from adults making tea at meetings he was hosting.

He pulled her towards him, sexually assaulted her and began to kiss her.

On another occasion he conducted a further sexual assault, Richard Wright prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday. She felt very angry about what was happening because adult worshippers in the Kingdom Hall "had a significant amount of trust placed in them", he said.

A second girl said when she was aged between 10 and 11, O'Brien touched her many times over her clothing when they were together for religious activities. More

Pastor Rapes Two Sisters

A 42-year old Shepherd of Celestial Church of Christ, Pastor Toyin Kadiri, has been arrested by the police in Lagos for allegedly raping two sisters at the same time.

Toyin was alleged to have raped the victims, names withheld, who are aged three and eight, when their parents had left for work.

P.M.News gathered that the pastor, who is married and has children, committed the crime when his wife and the victims’ parents were not at home on the day of the incident.

The incident happened at 28, Giwa Street, Onipanu, Ilupeju, Lagos, where the accused and the victims’ parents reside. More

Hi-tech holy water calms flu fear

Catholic churches in Italy are installing automatic holy water dispensers to help reduce the risk of spreading swine flu. The outbreak of the H1N1 virus has led many churches to suspend the tradition of having holy water in open fonts into which people dip their hands.

The new machine works like an automatic soap dispenser, squirting water when a hand is passed under the tap. Inventor Luciano Marabese says he is being inundated with enquiries.

Father Pierre Angelo Mota, from Capriano Briosco, north of Milan, said squirtable holy water had surprised some of his parishoners at first. "It has been a bit of a novelty," he said. More

A Witness account

The boy was just five years old and desperately ill, but as he crouched in the back seat of Donna Ryder's car, he became more fugitive than cancer patient.

Police in New Brunswick were already out looking for the child when, according to Ms. Ryder, she hid him and his mother in her Dodge Omni and drove them to Fredericton, away from children's aid officials who might have forced the son of Jehovah's Witnesses to accept a blood transfusion.

Fellow officials of the Church then took over, whisking the child to their Canadian headquarters, she says. The patient and his family ended up eventually in Mexico for alternative treatments that abided by the sect's controversial -- and vigorously enforced -- ban on receiving blood. He died soon after. More

World's biggest animal sacrifice

Kathmandu - Thousands of Hindu devotees have flocked to a village in Nepal ahead of the planned sacrifice of more than 300,000 animals in a ceremony condemned by animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot.

Priests are preparing for the slaughter of more than 15,000 buffaloes and 300,000 birds, goats and sheep during the event, which starts Tuesday and is thought to be the biggest ritual sacrifice anywhere in the world.

Every five years, the village of Bariyapur, near Nepal's southern border with India, hosts this religious festival dedicated to Gadhimai, the Hindu goddess of power. More

God is not the Creator, claims academic

Professor Ellen van Wolde, a respected Old Testament scholar and author, claims the first sentence of Genesis "in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth" is not a true translation of the Hebrew.

She claims she has carried out fresh textual analysis that suggests the writers of the great book never intended to suggest that God created the world -- and in fact the Earth was already there when he created humans and animals.

Prof Van Wolde, 54, who will present a thesis on the subject at Radboud University in The Netherlands where she studies, said she had re-analysed the original Hebrew text and placed it in the context of the Bible as a whole, and in the context of other creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia.

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean "to create" but to "spatially separate". More

Egypt anger over virginity faking

A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.

Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law.

The device is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a female to feign virginity on her wedding night. There is a stigma about pre-marital sex in conservative Arab societies.

The contraption is seen as a cheap and simple alternative to hymen repair surgery, which is carried out in secret by some clinics in the Middle East. More

Christian cult stole our kids, say parents

A number of parents are stuck in a desperate battle with a church in Durban's upmarket suburbs that they accuse of "stealing" and brainwashing their teens.

Calling Grace Gospel Church in Pinetown a "mind-controlling" Christian cult, the parents claim girls have been married to men they hardly know, chosen for them by the church.

The church is a branch of Church Team Ministries International (CTMI), an international Christian group with head offices in Mauritius.

The group's leader, Basil O'Connell-Jones, was sent to Durban from another CTMI branch, Selborne Park Christian Church in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 2003. More

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop’s 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student. More

'Twilight' series spawns religion

How far is too far in our Twilight series fandom? With newspapers gaggling over film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson's choice of wardrobe and hairstyle on a near-daily basis (though I'll give some of them credit, lately - see here), a readership of Stephenie Meyer's hit series that has reached over 30 million, the film reaching the number one spot for the year (see here), and children running around biting other children in the name of Twilight (supposedly - see here), we have to step back and wonder, when is our fandom getting to be too much?

Pillow Biters, one my favorite Twilight blogs, is reporting that the so-called Cullenist religion might be going "overboard to a realm that would make Mormon mom Stephenie Meyer cringe." More

Baby P ‘dad’ turns Jehovah in prison

The monstrous stepdad of Baby P has become a Jehovah’s Witness in jail. Sadistic brute Steven Barker, 33, keeps a bible in his cell and has told prison staff that he has "found God at last".

Last night officers tasked with guarding the beast from attacks by fellow cons remained dubious about the motive for his sudden conversion.

But a senior source at Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire insisted: "Barker is deadly serious about his new faith."

Evil Barker was caged with twisted lover Tracey Connelly, 28, after she helped him torture to death her defenceless 17-month-old toddler Peter. Barker is also serving life for raping a girl of two. The source said: "A lot of officers feel his conversion is a cynical move to try to win them over because it makes him look like he's got a moral compass after all. More

2 arrested in church thefts

TEMECULA - Two people were arrested on suspicion of burglarizing vehicles in church parking lots during services, a sheriff's sergeant said today.

Alfred Gonzales, 32, and Saira Utley, 22, were arrested around 9:15 a.m. Sunday at Hope Lutheran Church at 29141 Vallejo Ave., said Sgt. Steve Kusy, of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The pair were driving in a black Toyota Camry in the parking lot of the church, when a deputy checked the license plate and discovered that it was reported stolen, Kusy said. More

Many Women Targeted by Faith Leaders, Survey Says

One in every 33 women who attend worship services regularly has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader, a survey released Wednesday says.

The study, by Baylor University researchers, found that the problem is so pervasive that it almost certainly involves a wide range of denominations, religious traditions and leaders.

"It certainly is prevalent, and clearly the problem is more than simply a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work, who co-authored the study.

It found that more than two-thirds of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance. More

Murrieta minister to be sentenced for murder of wife

A Murrieta man convicted of murdering his longtime wife and making the killing look like it was done by an intruder is scheduled to be sentenced Friday and faces a lifetime in prison with no chance of parole.

Kelle Lee Jarka, 41 at the time of his trial, was convicted by a jury that deliberated about two hours in September before deciding he murdered his wife, Isabelle, at the family’s home and that the killing was for financial gain.

Prosecutors successfully argued Jarka, who was having financial problems, wanted to collect $1.3 million in life insurance on a policy he had taken out on his wife of nearly 20 years.

During the trial, prosecutor Burke Strunsky described Jarka as a man so enamored with his upper-middle-class lifestyle and position within his congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, that he was willing to sacrifice the life of his loving wife to maintain it. More

Pastor charged with 'video voyeurism'

A pastor at a Lake Elsinore church has been arrested for allegedly taking pictures up women's skirts with his cell phone camera without their knowledge, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

John Albert Kleinpeter, 51, was arrested Friday at his Murrieta home and charged with one count of video voyeurism for sexual pleasure, which is a misdemeanor, said Riverside County district attorney's office spokesman John Hall.

Kleinpeter's arrest followed an investigation into a series of incidents at Temecula and Murrieta Target stores where witnesses say they saw him use a cell phone camera or small mirror to secretly photograph or view up the skirts of unsuspecting female adult shoppers, according to investigators.

Kleinpeter is also known as "John Andrews," whom authorities said is a pastor at Generations Community Church in Lake Elsinore. More

Scientology calls for internet, media censorship in Australia

The “Church” of Scientology has called upon the Australian Government to censor the internet and media locally in direct response to protests from Anonymous.

In a long, rambling submission made to the Australian Human Rights Commission made earlier this year, the Church dedicates two and half pages of its six page submission to attacking Anonymous, calling Anonymous among other things “a hate group” of “cyberterrorists” that is engaged in a “malicious campaign of hate” that is “an anathema to democracy.”

The submission plays the we do nothing wrong card, stating:

In Australia Anonymous have mounted a sustained campaign of misinformation against the Church. As we are a minority religion with the vast majority of the population unaware of our true beliefs and humanitarian programs, their campaign has no justifiable purpose and violates the Church of Scientology’s and parishioners rights to human dignity and religious freedom under the Constitution. More

Religious fanatic hijacked Mexican plane after 'revelation'

MEXICO CITY—A Bolivian religious fanatic briefly hijacked a jetliner from the beach resort of Cancun as it landed in Mexico City on Wednesday, police said. All passengers and the crew were released unharmed. The Bible-carrying hijacker used a juice can he said was a bomb to hold the 103 passengers and crew on the tarmac for more than an hour.

Masked police stormed the aircraft with guns drawn and escorted several handcuffed men away without firing a shot. Police later said there was only one hijacker, and the other men aboard were detained because the suspect had told a flight attendant he had three accomplices. The others were quickly released.

Jose Flores, 44, later told police his three companions were "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Flores hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576 after a divine revelation, according to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. Flores said Wednesday's date—9-9-09—is the satanic number 666 turned upside down. More

A Society Based On Literature Distribution

I was recently invited to visit the Australian headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s a large complex in Sydney with about 270 people living on the site. The center of the complex is a huge printing press printing their magazines: Watchtower and Awake!, twice a month in more than 25 languages. The magazines are available in Australia in 82 languages and world-wide they print in over 160 languages!

I often distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books in Sydney’s Town Hall station and in recent years we share the spot with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It appears to me the general public are far more interested in purchasing and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books about Krishna than their “Watchtower.” However, although the public seem quite disinterested in their literature they distribute an enormous quantity of it world-wide. So when Shaun invited me to visit their Australian headquarters I was interested to see how they managed to print and distribute so much literature first-hand.

I discovered to be an “active” Jehovah’s Witness one has to distribute literature. They seem to value more the hours spent in distributing the literature and preaching then the actual quantity of magazines sold. Every member is called a “publisher” and the mission of the “publishers” is very clear. To distribute the magazines and preach to the general public. Most of this is done door-to-door. More

Man vs. God

Karen Armstrong says we need God to grasp the wonder of our existence

Richard Dawkins has been right all along, of course—at least in one important respect. Evolution has indeed dealt a blow to the idea of a benign creator, literally conceived. It tells us that there is no Intelligence controlling the cosmos, and that life itself is the result of a blind process of natural selection, in which innumerable species failed to survive.

The fossil record reveals a natural history of pain, death and racial extinction, so if there was a divine plan, it was cruel, callously prodigal and wasteful. Human beings were not the pinnacle of a purposeful creation; like everything else, they evolved by trial and error and God had no direct hand in their making. No wonder so many fundamentalist Christians find their faith shaken to the core. More

Sex offender Philip Garrido used Jehovahs Witness to get early parole

Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy are under arrest for the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard, then 11 years old, on June 11, 1991. Garrido was a convicted sex offender for past three decades who had been in an out of jail. Nancy was a devout Jehovah’s Witness who converted Garrido to the religious sect prior to 1978.

1991 was 18 years ago and the couple held the child and sexually abused her. Philip Garrido fathered two children by the abducted Dugard.

The Garrido’s kept Dugard and her children locked up in a backyard compound in Antioch California, east of San Francisco. They used the girl, along with being their sex slave, to handle telemarketing for printing business related to religious brochures the Garrido’s were promoting. More

Faith healing 'risks recovery'

Dr Tony Cassidy said he believes that some people who put their trust in faith healing may be less likely to adhere to medical advice.

He will be presenting his research at a British Psychological Society conference in Birmingham.

The Coleraine-based academic's research team questioned 766 people on their belief in and intention to use faith healing.

They were also surveyed about their intention to adhere to medical advice.

"We found that belief and intention to use faith healing was a significant predictor of self-reported non-adherence to a medication," Dr Cassidy said. More

Scientology defectors come forward - accounts of abuse

They are stepping forward — from Dallas and Denver, Portland, Las Vegas, Montana — talking about what happened, to them and their friends, during their years in the Church of Scientology.

Jackie Wolff wept as she recalled the chaotic night she was ordered to stand at a microphone in the mess hall and confess her "crimes" in front of 300 fellow workers, many jeering and heckling her.

Gary Morehead dredged up his recollection of Scientology leader David Miscavige punishing venerable church leaders by forcing them to live out of tents for days, wash with a garden hose and use an open latrine.

Steve Hall replayed his memory of a meeting when Miscavige grabbed the heads of two church executives and knocked them together. One came away with a bloody ear. More

Death risk high in childbirth among Jehovah’s Witnesses

LONDON: Pregnant Jehovah’s Witnesses are six times more likely to die during childbirth than other women, mainly due to an increased risk for severe bleeding, Dutch researchers said yesterday.

Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions for religious reasons, and knowing the risks more precisely can help health workers better prepare for dealing with people who decline lifesaving measures, said Jos Van Roosmalen of the Netherlands Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who led the study. More

Irish Catholics Say Stump Looks Like Mary

DUBLIN -- Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

The phenomenon at St. Mary's parish church in Rathkeale, population 3,000 or so, harkens back to decades when Catholic devotion and pilgrimages were the dominant feature of rural life in Ireland.

Some are tying the fervor for Rathkeale's "Holy Stump" to Ireland's stunning economic decline over the past year.

"People have been crying out for something good to happen. And this is all good for the soul," said Noel White, who has been overseeing a church project to cut down trees dangerously overhanging the neighboring school playground. More

US pastor opens church to guns

A pastor in the US state of Kentucky told his flock to bring handguns to church in what he said was an effort to promote safe gun ownership.

Pastor Ken Pagano told parishioners to bring their unloaded guns to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a service celebrating the right to bear arms.

He said he acted after church members voiced fears the Obama administration could tighten gun control laws.

When the service began, some 200 people were present, AP news agency said. "We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns," Mr Pagano told the congregation. More

Pope Urges Forming New World Economic Order to Work for the ‘Common Good’

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a “true world political authority” to oversee the economy and work for the “common good.”

He criticized the current economic system, “where the pernicious effects of sin are evident,” and urged financiers in particular to “rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity.”

He also called for “greater social responsibility” on the part of business. “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty,” Benedict wrote in his new encyclical, which the Vatican released on Tuesday.

More than two years in the making, “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Charity in Truth,” is Benedict’s third encyclical since he became pope in 2005. Filled with terms like “globalization,” “market economy,” “outsourcing,” “labor unions” and “alternative energy,” it is not surprising that the Italian media reported that the Vatican was having difficulty translating the 144-page document into Latin. More

Mormons and Gay Marriage: Are Mormons Misunderstood?

Last November, Jay Pimentel began hearing that people in his neighborhood were receiving letters about him. Pimentel lives in Alameda, Calif., a small, liberal-leaning community hanging off Oakland into the San Francisco Bay. Pimentel, who is a Mormon, had supported Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. And that made him a target. "Dear Neighbor," the letter began, "Our neighbors, Colleen and Jay Pimentel" — and it gave their address — "contributed $1,500.00 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. NEIGHBORS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THEIR NEIGHBORS' CHOICES." The note accused the Pimentels of "obsessing about same-sex marriage." It listed a variety of local causes that recipients should support — "unlike the Pimentels."

Pimentel, a lawyer and a lay leader in the small Mormon congregation in Alameda, is markedly even-keeled. Yet the poison-pen note still steams him, even though in May the California Supreme Court validated Prop 8 as constitutional. More

Man sees subtle victory in fight against Jehovah's Witnesses

Legal judgments can sometimes wear disguises. What appears to be a loss - as did, at first blush, the ruling on Monday dismissing Lawrence Hughes' appeal of a lawsuit against the Canadian branch of Jehovah's Witnesses - may, in fact, offer subtle victory.

That, at least, is Mr. Hughes' impression, as he continues doggedly, nearly seven years after the death of his daughter, Bethany, to hold the sect's governing Watchtower Society and its lawyers responsible for her death. "I see it as a win," he said yesterday.

For a man who has lost his daughter, been shunned by his surviving children, divorced by his wife and gone bankrupt from legal costs, reduced to defending himself in court, the instinct to imagine the smallest of triumphs must be powerful. More

The Father Cutie Scandal: Sex and the Single Priest

Caught by paparazzi in the tender embrace of a woman on a Florida beach -- is this how celebrity Catholic priest Alberto Cutié's meteoric religious and multimedia career crashes down to earth?

Or does he emerge from a period of prayer and contemplation, humbled and chastened, renewing a vow of priestly celibacy he apparently violated -- and only recently publicly questioned?

It's Cutié's call.

In a brief telephone interview Wednesday, a day after he was relieved of his duties at his Miami Beach parish and the church's media arm, the internationally known priest and media personality said he was taking an indefinite leave for ``personal reflection.'' More

Survey: Faithful support terror suspect torture

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did. More

San Diego County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies

SAN DIEGO -- A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home.

Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.

Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'" More

Jehovah's Witnesses: 'End is near'

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- If you feel like the world has been crumbling down around you lately, the Jehovah's Witnesses say - you're right. It is. In fact, beginning this weekend, they'll be holding a series of public lectures entitled "How to survive the end of the world".

"It's imminent. It's at hand," says local Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Travis Telfair.

Local Witnesses will be holding 14 consecutive 'conventions', as they call them, at their convention center on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard - formerly the West Palm Beach Auditorium. They hold such gatherings each year, but this year's theme is, admittedly, far more alarming. Spritually surviving an imminent apocalypse! When? More

Afghan Taliban Kill Young Woman, Man for Eloping

A Taliban firing squad killed a young couple in southwestern Afghanistan for trying to elope, shooting them with AK-47s in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region, officials said Tuesday.

The woman, 19-year-old Gul Pecha, and the man, 21-year-old Abdul Aziz, were accused by the militants of immoral acts, and a council of conservative clerics decided that the two should be killed, officials said.

The two had hoped to travel to Iran, which borders their home province of Nimroz, but their parents sent villagers to bring them home, said Sadiq Chakhansori, the chief of the provincial council. Once back home, the pair was either turned over to the Taliban by their parents or the militants took them by force, the officials said, providing slightly varying accounts. More

Ohio Christian school tells student to skip prom

FINDLAY, Ohio, - A senior at a Christian school in Findlay, Ohio, has been barred from graduation for attending a prom at a secular high school, his family said.

Tyler Frost, 17, disobeyed his principal at Heritage Christian to accompany his girlfriend to her prom at Findlay High School Saturday night.

Frost danced, held hands with his girlfriend and listened to rock music in violation of Heritage Christian's fundamentalist Baptist rules. More

Sheep sex arrest cited as proof of Britain's moral decline

Dr Akinola, the Primate of Nigeria and a leader of traditionalists worldwide, said the alleged offences of bestiality in south London showed how "spiritual degradation" was destroying the country's soul.

He also claimed the advent of civil partnerships for homosexual couples showed that politicians are "upturning the natural order" and doing away with God and family life.

Dr Akinola referred to the alleged farmyard sex crimes in an important speech to the General Synod of the Church of Nigeria, the 18 million-strong church's governing body, last month. More

Judge rules minister ineligible for confidentiality protections

An ordained minister with the Jehovah's Witnesses voluntarily talked to detectives investigating the bludgeoning death of a Murrieta woman making him ineligible for the confidentially protections afforded by law to clergymen and their parishioners, a judge ruled Friday.

The ruling means that Jose Cespedes must testify during Kelle Lee Jarka's trial on charges of murder for financial gain in connection with the April death of his wife, Isabelle Jarka.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer ruled Cespedes waived his rights to confidentially, in part, because he freely gave statements to investigators on four separate occasions between April and June.

The ruling comes in response to Cespedes, an ordained minister with the Spanish Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Temecula, claim that he should not be compelled to testify because Kelle Jarka's statements were confidential communications between a clergyman and his parishioner. More

Mom Believes Son Will Come Back From Dead

A Baltimore mother charged with starving her son to death with the help of alleged fellow members of a religious group to which she said she belonged had been so brainwashed by the group that she agreed to withdraw her guilty plea if the child is resurrected in human form, according to her attorney.

"I have never seen anything like this in a plea agreement," said Steve Silverman, the attorney representing Ria Ramkissoon, 22, who was a member of the faith-based religious group One Mind Ministries at the time of her son's death in December 2006.

"It's clear [my client] is brainwashed," Silverman said today. "She is delusional, and the mere fact that she is currently insisting upon a caveat that her plea be dismissed if her son is resurrected speaks for itself."

Silverman said that Ramkissoon, who admits to withholding food and water and food from her son because he refused to say "amen" after meals, remains confident that her son, who had just celebrated his first birthday at the time of his death, will rise from the dead. More

Vatican insider calls Benedict's papacy a disaster

POPE BENEDICT'S repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his message in the internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders have said.

The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger about the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that AIDS "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".

His remarks - and a furore over his lifting of a 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who questioned the Holocaust - has left him looking isolated and out of touch. More

Founder of Islamic TV station accused of beheading wife

NEW YORK - The founder of an upstate New York TV station aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife, who was beheaded, authorities said.

Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, said Andrew Benz, Orchard Park's police chief.

Hassan was arrested Thursday.

His wife filed for divorce February 6, and police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's home, Benz said. More

`Sex-y' sermons cause stir in rural Alabama

GOOD HOPE, Ala. — It's one thing for a church in a big city like Dallas or Atlanta to tackle the ticklish topic of sex. It blends in with the urban scene.

It's another thing when a small-town congregation puts up billboards with the phrase "Great sex: God's way" on rural highways to promote a sermon series. You can't even legally buy beer in Cullman County, and a preacher is talking about S-E-X on Sunday morning?

Daystar Church, whose congregation has grown dramatically under pastor Jerry Lawson, has run up against the sensibilities of a conservative north Alabama community with a monthlong focus on sex.

Sex just isn't an appropriate topic for church, some say, and others are upset over the church's signs, which advertise the sermon series and accompanying Web site.

"It's really stirred up the people here," said Good Hope town clerk Joann Jones. More

Georgia judge jails Muslim woman for wearing headscarf

A city judge in Georgia has in the past eight days barred two Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves from entering his courtroom, jailing one, and prompting an inquiry from the civil rights office at the US department of justice.

Judge Keith Rollins of Douglasville, Georgia, yesterday ordered Lisa Valentine, 41, to jail after she refused to remove her scarf before entering the courtroom, citing rules governing appropriate dress. Last week, Sabreen Abdulrahmaan was forced to leave Rollins's court before her son's probation hearing because she would not remove her scarf.

"It's a religious right," Valentine said. "It's our constitutional right that we can have our religious practices, no matter if it's a courtroom or not. He's supposed to be handing out justice, not taking away civil rights." Valentine said she sought to accompany her nephew to a traffic hearing yesterday but was told by a court security officer that she could not enter the courtroom with her headscarf on. She said she refused to remove it and turned to leave, saying, "This is bullshit". More

Church strips saucy sign

A Brampton church has removed a sexually suggestive message from a sign in front of its building after a complaint from the public.

The sign in front of Heart Lake United Church on Sandalwood Parkway East usually has inspirational messages on it, according to resident Nicole Cedrone.

So as she drove home from the doctor's office this week, she did a double take when she saw the most recent message: "Lying in bed shouting Oh God doesn't constitute going to church." More

Jehovah’s Witness jailed for trying to abduct girls

A FORMER teacher, businessman and senior Jehovah’s Witness who tried to abduct a five-year-old was yesterday jailed for six years. Robert Edward Bill, 54, was told by a judge that he was still in denial about his predatory interest in young children despite a series of convictions.

He has been found guilty at separate trials of the attempted abduction of the girl in Holywell two years ago, of indecently assaulting a seven-year-old 10 years ago, and of possessing 730 pornographic images of children.

Prosecuting at Caernarfon Crown Court, Simon Medland described how the girl had been returning home from a playground when Bill, “for malign purposes”, drew up in his car and asked: “Have you seen a cat?”

By chance the girl’s uncle arrived at the scene at that moment and her mother, who had been watching from a window, ran to her. More

Disney accused by cleric of corrupting children's minds

Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex, has accused the corporation of "exploiting spirituality" to sell its products and of turning Disneyland into a modern day pilgrimage site.

He argues that it pretends to provide stories with a moral message, but has actually helped to create a more materialistic culture.

In a guide to helping people find happiness, the abbot, who starred in the hit-BBC series The Monastery, warns that society is in danger of losing its soul because of growing consumerism and the decline of religion.

He suggests that many people have become obsessed with work, sex and eating in an attempt to ignore their underlying unhappiness, and criticises corporations and industries that have benefited from promoting false notions of fulfilment. More

Jewish group sued over 'Adventist' name

What's the first thing that pops to mind upon hearing the word "Adventist"? The Seventh-day Adventist Church, probably.

Leaders of the international Christian church with 15 million followers have a trademark on the word in the United States. They say no one else can use it, not even a small Jewish society in North County.

The church filed a lawsuit Nov. 24 against The Federation of Jewish Adventist Society to force the Valley Center group to stop using the word in its name.

The Maryland-based leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church alleges trademark infringement and unfair competition in the suit, filed in San Diego federal court. More

Man accused of abusing girls he met through religious organization

FORT EDWARD - A Hudson Falls man was arrested Tuesday on charges he had sex with two underage girls in Argyle, an arrest that came a month after he was charged with having sexual contact with an underage girl in Rensselaer County as well.

In all, police believe Judd A. Gauthier, 22, had sexual contact with at least five underage girls, whom he knew through his involvement with a local religious organization, authorities said.

Gauthier, of Lower Feeder Street, met the teens through his involvement with a local Jehovah's Witnesses congregation, officials said. He is a member of a congregation but did not hold any position of leadership, officials said.

He has been charged in connection with three of the underage sex cases so far and was jailed Tuesday for lack of bail after arraignment. More

Indonesian Muslims banned from practicing yoga

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia's top Islamic body banned Muslims from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the chairman of the group said Monday, citing concerns it would corrupt their faith.

Cleric Ma'ruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued the ruling following weekend talks attended by hundreds of theological experts in Padang Panjang, a village in West Sumatra province. Though not legally binding, most devout Muslims will likely adhere to it because they consider ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, sinful.

The ban, which follows a similar edict in neighboring Malaysia, was passed after investigators visited gyms and private yoga classes across the country to see what effect Hindu rituals like chanting mantras might have on Muslims. More

Disgraced pastor Haggard facing new sex allegations

Ted Haggard, one of our favorite members of the Rainbow Pastor Club, is back again.

A megachurch paid a 20-year-old man to keep silent about a sexual relationship he had with disgraced evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, a senior church pastor said. Haggard denies the new accusation.

Haggard, who was fired amid allegations that he used drugs and patronized a male prostitute in 2006, had a sexual relationship with a second man -- a 20-year-old volunteer at his megachurch, said the Rev. Brady Boyd, a senior pastor at the church. More

Vatican 2.0: Pope gets his own YouTube channel

VATICAN CITY — Puffs of smoke, speeches in Latin and multipage encyclicals have all been used by the Vatican to communicate with the faithful. Now the pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining the wannabe musicians, college pranksters and water-skiing squirrels on YouTube.

In his inaugural YouTube foray Friday, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed viewers to this "great family that knows no borders" and said he hoped they would "feel involved in this great dialogue of truth."

"Today is a day that writes a new page in history for the Holy See," Vatican Radio said in describing the launch of the site, http://www.youtube.com/vatican More

Farmer links seed patents to the Antichrist

Michael White, who farms near Scottsboro, keeps a Mason jar full of wheat grains next to his well-worn Bible. Capped with an antique zinc lid, the jar was filled by his grandfather decades before anyone dreamed of genetically altering plants or animals.

The jar reminds him of what he considers God's first earthly gift to humanity: seeds. It's a gift that is in danger of being eradicated, White says, through increased genetic manipulation of plant genes, hybridization and the patenting of living genes by large corporations. God's gift of seeds, given the day after he separated dry land from water and the day before he hung the sun, moon and stars is not something that should be taken away from a farmer. More

Pope slams human organ trade

Pope Benedict condemned the trade in human organs as an abomination on Friday and urged caution in removing organs for transplant from dying donors who might not actually yet be dead.

The pontiff told scientists and bioethicists meeting at the Pontifical Academy for Life that the worldwide illegal organ trade often made victims of innocent people, including children.

Buying and selling of human organs is a lucrative business for suppliers and countries that allow foreign "transplant tourists" to have operations they cannot get at home. Organs are often bought from poor peasants and sometimes harvested from condemned prisoners. More

Sex invariably spells trouble, says Dalai Lama

LAGOS, Nigeria -- The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom."

"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.

He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs.

"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said. More

Scientists discover brain area linked to pain resistance during intense religious experiences

Religious emotions and believes have often been linked to a capacity to deal with pain, as those images of Philippine men being willingly crucified during religious festivals so well demonstrate. But although changes in pain sensitivity during a religious experience are well documented, the exact psychological or/and neurological reasons of the phenomenon are unclear and, as such, have now become the aim of an investigation by a group of scientists, philosophers and psychologists from the University of Oxford.

The research, to be published in the next edition of the journal Pain1, reveals, for the first time, that religion-associated pain resistance is linked to the activation of the brain right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), an area associated with both cognitive down-regulation of pain and reassessment of the emotional meaning of an experience – for example by giving a neutral or even positive meaning to a noxious experience, and so making it much easier to cope with. More

'God said she needed to be taken off road'

A speeding pickup rear-ended a woman's sedan on the South Side on Friday morning and sheriff's officials say the driver said it was Jesus' will because the other motorist was not “driving like a Christian.”

The bizarre incident that shut down southbound U.S. 281 above the Medina River happened about 7:25 a.m.

“He just said God said she wasn't driving right, and she needed to be taken off the road,” said Lt. Kyle Coleman of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

The driver of the pickup was identified in a Sheriff's Office news release as Michael E. Schwab, 52, of Blooming Grove.

Schwab told first responders at the scene that “the other vehicle was not driving like a Christian and it was Jesus' will for him to punish the car,” according to the release. More

Nepal 'Buddha Boy' returns to jungle

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- A young man believed by followers to be a reincarnation of Buddha has returned to Nepal's jungles to meditate alone, police said Saturday, as scholars cast doubt on his supporters' claims.

Known as the "Buddha Boy," Ram Bahadur Bomjam, 18, became famous in 2005 after supporters said he could meditate motionless for months without water, food or sleep.

"Bomjam went back into the jungle late Friday and all the devotees have left," police officer Gobinda Kushwaha told AFP from Neejgad, a town in Bara District, 60 kilometres (37.5 miles) south of Kathmandu. The "Buddha Boy" reappeared earlier this month after supporters said in March 2007 that he was going to meditate for three years in an underground bunker, although he was spotted on two occasions.

For the last 10 days, he has been blessing thousands of devotees who came daily to the site in dense jungle close to Neejgad. More

Church Pastors Dismiss Mental Illness

In a study of Christian church members who approached their church for help with a personal or family member's diagnosed mental illness, researchers found that more than 32 percent were told by their pastor that they or their loved one did not really have a mental illness.

The problem was solely spiritual in nature, they were told.

Here's the thing: Other studies have found that clergy, and not psychologists or other mental health experts, are the most common source of help sought in times of psychological distress. More

Man killed at Hollywood Scientology center made prior threats

When he was a UCLA student 15 years ago, Mario Majorski was a committed enough Scientologist that he helped file a federal lawsuit against a professor who called the church a cult.

On Sunday, Majorski stormed the church's Celebrity Centre in Hollywood with a sword in each hand. He was shot dead by a security guard who police say had every reason to fear for his life and the lives of hundreds of others gathered on the property.

The reasons for Majorski's transformation from fervent believer to attacker remained a mystery Monday.

A church spokesman said the 48-year-old had not participated in Scientology activities for more than a decade, but in recent years he had made a series of threatening phone calls to church offices in Los Angeles and Oregon, where he had been living. More

Murder accused: 'I did it for God'

Samurai swordsman Antonie Dixon says God told him to chop off the heads of the two women he lived with, then plunge the sword through his own heart.

Dixon, 40, faces eight charges relating to the January 22, 2003 incident during which Rennee Gunbie and Simonne Butler were attacked with a samurai sword at Pipiroa, near Thames, and James Te Aute was shot dead in Auckland.

Defence lawyer Barry Hart told the jury in his opening address that calling Dixon to give evidence was a big step but it was taken so Dixon could tell the jury about himself.

Dixon told the court he hated himself and his life and had sought permission from God to kill himself. He said he was told that first he must behead Renee Gunbie and Simone Butler then plunge the sword into his own heart.

Speaking in a barely audible voice, Dixon earlier described his childhood growing up in an Auckland boarding house run by his mother, with three of his seven siblings. "I was the chosen one," Dixon said. He could communicate telephathically with his mother and got "messages" from radio music and programmes. Being the "chosen one" also meant he was regularly "raped and sodomised" by multiple church elders from an early age till he was about 15, he said.

As he got bigger and stronger "they would just bring in extra men," Dixon said. His mother was a schizophrenic who also sexually abused him, and would chain him to a clothesline. His father "had demons" that, on one occasion, "escaped from his body and raped one of the other Jehovah’s Witnesses", he said. More

Priest: No communion for Obama supporters

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein. More

Warring monks threaten destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

A long-running row over the rights to a rooftop section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could bring the entire structure tumbling down, destroying Christendom’s holiest site.

While renovations are needed across the church, the small Deir al-Sultan monastery on its roof has reached an “emergency state”, according to engineers who completed an evaluation this month.

The Times has learnt that in 2004 the two chapels and twenty-six tiny rooms that comprise the monastery were pronounced in dire need of reinforcement. They have since deteriorated to the point where engineers now fear that they will crash through the roof and into the church, venerated by millions of Christians as the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus. More

Saskatoon church failed to report sexual abuse

SASKATOON, Canada - Two women who were sexually abused in their adolescence by a trusted older relative say elders of the small-town Jehovah's Witness church in which they were raised did not report the situation to police after he admitted touching them inappropriately during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"We were left to endure years of guilt and shame," one of the women wrote in a victim-impact statement read aloud by Crown prosecutor Krista Zerr during the man's sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench on Monday. "I felt like damaged goods."

Due to a publication ban on information that could identify the victims, the convicted man's name cannot be published. He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault earlier this year, on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial. In exchange, the Crown dropped charges of sexual interference and sexual touching, as well as a charge related to a male complainant. More

Pakistan 'child wedding' halted

Police in southern Pakistan have arrested two people for attempting to wed a seven-year-old boy to a four-year-old girl, officials say. It is believed to be the first time they have broken up such a marriage as the wedding was taking place.

The arrested men - the father of the groom and a cleric who performed the ceremony - say the wedding was meant to end a feud between the two families.

Child marriages are more common in remote tribal areas of Pakistan. In the latest case, family members of the children involved argued that they wanted them to get married in advance of their real wedding which will be held when the pair reach the marriageable age of 18. More

Controversial church plans to picket after deadly crash

SCOTT COUNTY, Tenn. - As a community mourns the loss of the four young cheerleaders, and a grandmother and unborn baby in the second car, Westboro Baptist Church, known for protesting soldiers' funerals, claims it will show up in Scott County to picket.

With one teenager buried, and another lying in the funeral home, people here say they're disgusted to hear that a group would take advantage of this tragedy to make a political statement.

Flags fly at half-staff, and you can't drive far in Scott Co. without seeing ribbons, in memory of those who died.

As everyone here stands united in their time of suffering, news that a group may use this event to protest is very upsetting.

Resident Ronnie Brock says, "Well, I'd say they don't need any extra grief at all with the tragedy that's happened. I'm sure the families have been through a lot and they'd just like a little bit of peace."

The group that plans to protest is from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. Their news release says "God Hates Tennessee" and says the cheerleaders "died for Tennessee's sins." The group that's known for strong anti-homosexual views told us by phone they now plan to protest at the high school, rather than at the funerals. More

Prince's door-to-door preaching shocks fans

Prince is often chased through the streets by his fans - as he tries to convert them to the Bible.

The singer, who became a Jehovah's Witness in 2001, goes house-to-house to preach about the faith.

And fans are sometimes so stunned to find the rock legend on their doorstep that they don't want to let him go.

He recalls, "Sometimes fans freak out. It might be a shock to see me, but that's no reason for people to act crazy, and it doesn't give them licence to chase me down the street." More

The rival to the Bible

The world's oldest surviving Bible is in bits.

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found - or stolen, as the monks say - in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation.

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection. More

Girl, 3, wanted for role of living goddess.

Nepal's astrologers are reviewing horoscopes to find the replacement for the current goddess, who is 11.

"If we don't change her now, we'll have to wait until next year which could be late," said Deepak Bahadur Pandey, a senior official at the state-run Trust Corporation that oversees cultural affairs in the politically turbulent Himalayan nation.

"If the girl starts menstruating while serving as kumari, it is considered inauspicious."

For hundreds of years, living goddesses have been held sacred in Nepal and their blessings have been sought by officials and others seeking good fortune. More

Religious dissident arrested in Beijing, escapes from captors

Hua Huiqi, a religious dissident who was detained by the authorities Sunday as he made his way to a church service where President George W. Bush was scheduled to pray, has escaped from the police, human rights advocates and family members say.

Hua slipped away from his guards Sunday night after they fell asleep at a makeshift detention center, and he then went into hiding, said relatives and an e-mail message that he sent to the organization Human Rights in China.

His older brother, Hua Huilin, 52, was also seized by the public security agents as the two rode their bicycles to the church, but he was released after a few hours. The older Hua said both men had been roughed up and warned that their legs would be broken if they persisted in their efforts to attend church services at Kuanjie Protestant Church, an officially sanctioned congregation where Bush and his family attended morning services Sunday. More

Sikh girl wins battle to wear religious bangle at school

A Sikh teenager who was barred from school for wearing a religious bangle regarded as a ‘handcuff to God’ was discriminated against and should be allowed to return to classes, a judge has ruled.

Sarika Watkins-Singh was excluded after insisting she be allowed to wear the Kara – a bracelet worn by many Sikhs as a symbol of faith – despite her school’s ban on jewellery other than wristwatches and ear studs.

The 14-year-old, who had been a prefect at her school in South Wales, said tearfully that she was ‘overwhelmed’ by her High Court victory and described herself as a ‘proud Welsh Punjabi Sikh girl’.

The ruling means no school can stop a Sikh pupil from wearing the Kara to classes. More

Visits by McCain, Obama to Orange County church underscore Pastor Rick Warren's prominence

When John McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage Saturday at the sprawling religious campus of Orange County's Saddleback Church, their presence will vividly underline the reach that has made Pastor Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation. But the joint appearance -- one of Warren's highest-profile endeavors -- will also underscore a tension that is central to his role.

Pastor Rick Warren Warren has been called perhaps "America's most influential pastor," an evangelical megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church, reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. More

Jews debate the ethics of kosher food supply

The friend who told Susan Cetlin earlier this summer that she loves Aaron's brand kosher chicken didn't get the nod of agreement she might have expected.

Instead, Cetlin, a psychologist whose Sharon home is kosher, listed allegations of unsafe working conditions and underpayment against Aaron's parent company, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest producer of kosher meat and the object of a large immigration raid in May. Cetlin is boycotting Agriprocessors, and soon her friend was, too.

The raid on Agriprocessors' Iowa plant has sparked debate in the Jewish community about the role of ethical considerations in the production of kosher food and sets the backdrop against which the moderate Conservative movement will issue guidelines Thursday for an ambitious new "hekhsher tzedek," Hebrew for "certificate of righteousness." The additional stamp would identify producers of kosher foods that meet its standards regarding working conditions, treatment of animals, and the environment. More

Art student depicts Obama as Jesus

He wears Jesus' robes and a neon blue halo, looks like Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and is causing a stir at a Chicago art school.

An undergraduate student's paper mache sculpture of Obama as a messianic figure - entitled "Blessing" - went on display Saturday at a West Loop gallery run by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. By Monday, word of the piece had spread on political blogs, and the school had been flooded with calls.

David Cordero, 24, made the sculpture for his senior show after noticing all the attention Obama has received since he first hinted he may run for the presidency.

"All of this is a response to what I've been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins," Cordero said. "In a lot of ways it's about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped." More

Court saves baby's life

Port Elizabeth - Strict religious beliefs nearly claimed the life of a 14-day-old baby at the weekend.

The Legal Aid Board and Port Elizabeth High Court had to intervene on Friday night to save the life of a baby boy.

Dave McGlew of the Legal Aid Board in Port Elizabeth said the baby was born 10 weeks premature on June 23.

He had to have an urgent blood transfusion, but the religious beliefs of his parents, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, did not allow it.

Jehovah's Witnesses keep strictly to the Bible's decree that no form of blood may be eaten. They believe this is applicable also to the storage and transfusion of blood. More

'Pro-Life' Drugstores Market Beliefs

When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.

That's because the drugstore, located in a typical shopping plaza featuring a Ruby Tuesday, a Papa John's and a Kmart, will be a "pro-life pharmacy" -- meaning, among other things, that it will eschew all contraceptives.

The pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of drugstores around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who assert a "right of conscience" to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable. More

The end of the world is nigh. Its name is Gordon

I'm sitting in a Chelsea café having coffee with the first horseman of the apocalypse. He's very pleasant for a harbinger of doom and is not, as the Bible predicts, holding a bow and arrow but a Granny Smith's apple.

The horseman, or as he is known to friends, Gordon Ritchie, 50, latter day prophet and head of the Jehovah's Witness splinter group The Lords' Witnesses, is quite sure that the Bible refers to him in Revelation 6 when it predicts that the end of the world will be ushered in by four horsemen representing Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. Naturally, such a claim is bound to call forth the Paxman in any journalist and I decide to put it to the test.

“Do you ride?”

I ask. “Well, I've been pony trekking,” he replies. More

Muslim woman: Scarf kept her from seat near Obama

DETROIT - A young Muslim woman said she and another woman were refused seats directly behind Barack Obama — and in front of TV cameras — at a Detroit rally because they wear head scarfs.

Hebba Aref said Wednesday that she and Shimaa Abdelfadeel were among 20,000 supporters who gathered to see Obama on Monday at the Joe Louis Arena when the groups they were with were separately invited by Obama campaign workers to sit behind the podium. But Aref said the campaign workers told members of both parties in separate discussions that women wearing hijabs, the traditional Muslim head scarves, weren't included in the invitation and couldn't sit behind the podium.

Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer, said a member of her group was told by a campaign worker that she could not invite Aref because of "a sensitive political climate." More

Teen from faith healing family dies at Oregon home

GLADSTONE, OR — A 16-year-old boy whose parents rely on prayer instead of medical care has died following an illness marked by stomach pains and shortness of breath, authorities said.

Officers and a deputy medical examiner were called to the family's house about an hour after the boy's death late Tuesday afternoon, said Sgt. Lynne Benton of the Gladstone Police Department. Gladstone is located south of Portland.

Benton said the boy was surrounded by family when he died and a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities.

The boy got sick about a week ago and — like all members of the religious order — did not receive medical attention. His condition worsened Sunday and members of the church gathered for prayer, Benton said. More

Witchdoctor killings condemned

Known as the "Zeru Zeru", or ghosts, Tanzania's albinos have put up with the name-calling and the stigmatisation of being "black in a white skin" for years. The unluckier ones have even been kicked out of their home by relatives who see their condition as a curse on the whole family. Now albinos in the east African nation face an altogether more deadly threat. They have become the favoured prey of traditional healers, who kill them to harvest their body parts for get-rich-quick concoctions.

In the most gruesome of a spate of albino murders in the north-west region around Lake Victoria, one corpse was exhumed with all its limbs cut off. Others have been found minus tongues, genitals or breasts.

"In the past, albinos have been killed after being accused of witchcraft but this is a new phenomenon. This time they are being targeted by the witchdoctors themselves," said Simeon Mesaki, a sociologist at the University of Dar es Salaam. More

Florida Considers 'I Believe' License Plates

Florida residents may soon have the option to purchase license plates that display and represent their faith, thanks to a new measure currently under review in the Florida legislature.

Under the new legislation, residents will be able to purchase license plates engrained with the words “I Believe” alongside the image of a cross and stained glass church window.

Democratic Rep. Ed Bullard, one of the bill’s sponsors, was among those who showered praise for the measure, noting that it would give residents more freedom to choose from a variety of the current over 100 different license plate options available in the state of Florida.

“They may not be into the manatee, they may not be into Challenger,” Bullard said, speaking of the other license plate options available to state residents. More

Where angels no longer fear to tread

BY THE standards of European scientific collaboration, €2m ($3.1m) is not a huge sum. But it might be the start of something that will challenge human perceptions of reality at least as much as the billions being spent by the European particle-physics laboratory (CERN) at Geneva. The first task of CERN's new machine, the Large Hadron Collider, which is due to open later this year, will be to search for the Higgs boson—an object that has been dubbed, with a certain amount of hyperbole, the God particle. The €2m, by contrast, will be spent on the search for God Himself—or, rather, for the biological reasons why so many people believe in God, gods and religion in general.

“Explaining Religion”, as the project is known, is the largest-ever scientific study of the subject. It began last September, will run for three years, and involves scholars from 14 universities and a range of disciplines from psychology to economics. And it is merely the latest manifestation of a growing tendency for science to poke its nose into the God business. More

Sin & Death in Mormon Country: A Latter-day Tragedy

On March 2, 1982, Kip Eliason, age 16, distraught and filled with self-hate over his inability to stop masturbating, committed suicide. Before asphyxiating himself, Kip left his father a note:

"Dear Dad,
I love you more than what words can say. If it were possible, I would stay alive for only you, for I really only have you. But it isn't possible. I must first love myself, and I do not. The strange feeling of darkness and self-hate overpowers all my defenses. I must unfortunately yield to it. This turbulent feeling is only for a few to truly understand. I feel that you do not comprehend the immense feeling of self-hatred I have. This is the only way I feel that I can relieve myself of these feelings now. Carry on with your life and be happy. I love you more than words can say.
—Your son, Kip"

Kip Eliason's five-year struggle to overcome masturbation started at age 11 when his grandmother persuaded him to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), whose members are better known as Mormons. Kip was an intelligent and sensitive young man, perhaps too sensitive. More

Slain Girl's Father talked of seeing God

After admitting he had killed his 12-year-old daughter, William Redman told an emergency medical technician at the bloody scene of the slaying that he had seen God, according to a police report.

Redman, 54, was at the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center Thursday, recovering from what the report said were self-inflicted wounds to his arms, wrists and neck.

He is accused of slitting the throat of his daughter, Gloria, on Wednesday at the Road Runner RV Park on Boulder Highway near Flamingo Road, where the family lives.

After William Redman slit his daughter's throat with a knife, he told a 911 operator who asked him how his daughter died: "It was the way Jehovah does things." He told a police sergeant, "I saw the light. What a trip," the report stated. More

Young girls' rapist jailed

A Jehovah's Witness, who raped two young girls and sexually assaulted another, has been jailed for ten years.

Patrick Nolan, 61, was told by a judge at Bradford Crown Court: "This was an appalling act of self-gratification."

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC added: "I have to deal with you for the most serious offence a man can commit, short of homicide. Society would be outraged if I didn't pass upon you a sentence measured in years."

Nolan pleaded guilty to four charges of rape and one of indecent assault, committed on three different girls between 1983 and 1991. More

The ATM in the Church Lobby

Is that an ATM in the church lobby? Credit and debit card swipe machines in churches may startle some of the pious, but such kiosks, already present in some houses of worship, might become even more commonplace now that a new IRS regulation is in effect.

Beginning with gifts given in 2007, the IRS will demand documentation for charitable contributions under $250. Once, all one needed was a diary entry to vouch for such donations. Specially designed ATMs at church will help document such spur-of-the-moment cash gifts, as well as planned giving. Also as a result of the new IRS rule, credit card donations and tithing are likely to increase too because such electronic fund transfers leave a paper trail.

Large urban churches have been accepting credit cards for several years, tapping into the Generation P (for Plastic) aversion to carrying cash. Pastors like to tell jokes about parishioners collecting Frequent Flier points on the way to heaven. More

Banned From Church: Shunning of the Flock

On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."

Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff's officer. One held her purse and Bible. The other put her in handcuffs.

The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey's real offense, in her pastor's view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when she had questioned his authority, he'd charged her with spreading "a spirit of cancer and discord" and expelled her from the congregation. "I've been shunned," she says. More

Beat up infidel tourists, says radical cleric

ISLAMIC cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has returned to his hardline rhetoric with a call for followers to beat up Western tourists and for young Muslims to die as martyrs.

In the sermon, organised by an Islamic youth organisation and delivered a few kilometres from the home village of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas, Bashir likened tourists in Bali to "worms, snakes, maggots", and specifically referred to the immorality of Australian infidels.

The address was caught on video by an Australian university student.

"The youth movement here must aspire to a martyrdom death," said the cleric, who was convicted of conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, but was later cleared and released from prison.

"The young must be first at the front line - don't hide at the back. You must be at the front, die as martyrs and all your sins will be forgiven. This is how to achieve forgiveness."

During the sermon, Bashir talked of a previous visit to Australia, claiming that he had wanted to see the "beauty of the ocean" but was told by a friend there was "one condition" of a visit to the beach. "He said if you enter that area you must be completely naked," Bashir told the crowd of about 300 hearing his sermon. More

Jehovah's Witnesses elders refusing to testify in molestation case

A legal battle is looming over Riverside County's need to protect children, and people's right to practice religion without government intrusion.

A prosecutor wants leaders of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation to testify about what a Murrieta man accused of molesting two girls told them. So far, two of the elders who oversee the Windsong Valley Congregation in Wildomar say that defendant Gilbert Simental's statements are confidential and they do not want to testify.

Simental, 49, of Murrieta, is charged with molesting two of his daughter's friends when they came to his home for sleepovers between July 2005 and July 2006, according to court papers. The girls are sisters who were 9 and 10 at the time, according to the court records. More

Was Moses high on Mount Sinai?

JERUSALEM - When Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, he may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor.

Writing in the British philosophy journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an “altered state of awareness,” Shanon hypothesized. More

Pastor Wants 30 Days Of Sex For Couples

The pastor for Relevant Church in Ybor City is challenging the couples in his congregation to get busy in bed every night for a month.

Wirth said the supposed 50 percent divorce rate is the reason behind the 30-Day Sex Challenge.

He said too many couples let the stress of jobs and daily life get in the way of intimacy. But there's a catch to the pastor's every day sex challenge -- it's for married couples only.

Unmarried people -- even if they are in a long-term relationship or living with someone -- are asked to abstain from sex for 30 days. More

Saudi Arabia's plans to behead woman, an accused witch

Saudi Arabia's religious police plan to behead a woman accused of being a witch, a human rights group said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch has asked the country's king to intervene over "absurd charges that have no basis in law".

Fawza Falih was arrested and interrogated in the northern town of Quraiyat two years ago and was sentenced to death.

The judges who convicted her relied on her forced confession and the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them.

One man claimed that he became impotent after Falih cast a spell on him. More

Jehovah's Witness husband allegedly wages holy war on Catholic wife

RACINE, WI - A man allegedly threatened to injure and kill his wife after an all-day argument over religion. The man, 30, is charged with substantial battery, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, false imprisonment and intimidating a witness. If convicted, he could face up to $40,000 in fines and 35 years imprisonment.

According to court records: Officers were sent to a 21st Street home at 8:23 p.m. Jan. 13, where they found the victim visibly upset and shaken. She said she and her husband had been arguing all day, since she refused to go to a Jehovah’s Witness meeting that morning. The woman said her husband is a Jehovah’s Witness while she is Catholic. She said he felt she should practice the same religion he does, and that she was lying to their daughter by allowing her to celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter.

Starting that evening, the woman said their fight escalated. She said her husband has martial arts experience and has told her that he could “punch through steel if he wanted to.” She said her husband strangled her until she blacked out, held a knife to her throat and threatened to cut her hand off and to kill her. More

Outrage as Church backs calls for severely disabled babies to be killed at birth

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.

Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions. More

A Catholic Church Turns Into A Mosque

Believe it or not! A parish Church turns into a mosque every Friday, for the Muslims brothers and to offer their customary prayers.

This isn't a sequence from any Bollywood film, but a reality in the parish of Our Lady of Assumption of Ponzano near Venice, the romantic city of Italy.

The pastor of the parish, Don Aldo Danieli, 69, affirms, "It's useless to speak of religious dialogue and then bang the door on their face. Pope John Paul II addressed them as, 'dear Muslim brothers'. How can we close our church doors to them?" More

Who Would Jesus Date?

Christian endtimers leave their “mark” on the RFID industry

Christian endtimers opposed to RFID have formed numerous, interconnected groups whose leaders testify before legislators in the U.S. and Europe.

They’ve written books for major U.S. publishers. They’ve done thousands of TV and radio interviews, and protested at major retailers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Now, the RFID industry seems ready to admit, the Christians are costing them money.

The production levels and profits predicted by the RFID industry and computer trade rags five years ago have not materialized.

But rather than discussing production costs, or bad forecasting, RFID industry leaders are blaming the “bad information” being spread about the technology’s capabilities by Christian endtimers–even when they do not mention the Christians explicitly. More

"Anonymous" threatens to "dismantle" Church of Scientology via internet

A hacking group calling itself "Anonymous" has posted a chilling video on the internet, announcing that it plans to "dismantle" the Church of Scientology.

Wired.com reports that Anonymous has flooded Scientology servers with a distributed denial of service attack, is choking the Church's phone lines with prank calls and sending looped faxes of solid black pages.

"Over the years, we have been watching you -- your campaigns, your suppression of dissent, your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye," a synthesized voice on the video tells "leaders of Scientology".

"Anonymous has therefore decided your organisation should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind and for our own enjoyment." More

Spank your wife for Christ

Practitioners of Christian Domestic Discipline (CDD) are Christian right wingers who believe the Bible gives them permission to dominate their wives and enforce their domination through ritualistic spankings. Most of the people who practice this lifestyle maintain that the spankings are designed to enforce the husband’s leadership in the household, and not as a form of sexual stimulation.

The CDD website (which is the largest domestic discipline site on the web) does admit that “Though we recognize by its very nature this subject can be erotic, we will keep this website as clean and wholesome as possible. However, we will not seek to deny the erotic nature of some CDD marriages, as we believe it is a natural consequence of following God's plan. After all, He created eroticism to be enjoyed inside a Christian marriage.”

Several Christian family sites have published articles attacking the practice, with one noting flatly that “Domestic discipline is BDSM [Bondage & Discipline/Sadism & Masochism].” The author goes on to state that “Domestic discipline is based on misinterpretations of the bible” and “If you are in a domestic discipline marriage please seek counseling so that you can make an informed, rational decision about your marriage relationship.” More

Slain sisters mourned at Christian, Muslim services

Lewisville, TX - Sarah and Amina Yaser Said looked luminescent in their pink dresses, a pink flower in each girl's hair. One might have thought the sisters were sleeping were it not for the matching pink-lined coffins that held them.

Their Christian funeral service Saturday – followed by a Muslim service later in the day – served as a reminder of the promise their short lives held and the needless tragedy of their deaths. Police believe they were killed by their father, a 50-year-old cabdriver.

And the police presence was a reminder that the girls' Egyptian-born father, Yaser Abdel Said, is still on the run.

Amina, 18, and Sarah, 17, who both attended Lewisville High School, were found shot to death in a taxi at an Irving motel Tuesday night. More

Pope condemns climate change prophets of doom

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind. More

Crucifixes made in sweatshops

First it was toys, then clothing and sneakers, sporting goods, furniture, and now crucifixes. Crucifixes are being made at the Junxingye Factory in Dongguan, China, by mostly young women—several just 15 and 16 years old—forced to work routine 14 to 15 ½-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:30 p.m., seven days a week.

There are also frequent 17 to 18 hour shifts ending at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and even monthly all-night 22 ½ to 25-hour shifts before shipments must leave for the U.S. All overtime is mandatory, and anyone missing even a single overtime shift will be docked a full day’s wages. It is common for the workers to be at the factory at least 100 hours a week. Workers are paid just 26 ½ cents an hour, which is half of China’s legal minimum wage (already set at a below-subsistence level) of 55 cents an hour. After fees deducted for room and board, the workers take-home wage can drop to just nine cents an hour. More

Church group find marijuana in their pizza

FLORENCE, AL -- An Alabama church group got the shock of their lives when they found marijuana in their pizza. It happened at a youth outing in Florence the day before Thanksgiving, and police still aren't sure where the pot came from.

The pizza came from a Papa John's restaurant in Florence.

The district office for Papa John's sent this press release:

"We have been notified by the Florence police of a possible incident of product tampering with a pizza order on November 21st, where a customer claims to have discovered marijuana on his pizza. We have investigated internally and have no reason to believe that the product tampering occurred at our restaurant or by any of our employees. We take great pride in serving a high-quality product to our customers and in our 12 years of serving the Florence community have never had an incident like this. We are cooperating with the police in their processes to get to the bottom of this claim."

Authorities did say an off duty Florence Police Officer ordered the pizza. More

Jehovah's Witness who refused blood transfusion dies

SEATTLE, WA - A few hours after a Mount Vernon judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah's Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion, even though that refusal might kill him, the boy died in a Seattle hospital.

Dennis Lindberg of Mount Vernon died shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday in his bed at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, the boy's biological father, Dennis Lindberg Sr., told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Hospital spokeswoman Teri Thomas said she could not confirm or deny anything about the case at the request of the boy's legal guardian, who is an aunt.

Earlier Wednesday, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader knows "he's basically giving himself a death sentence."

Doctors diagnosed the boy with leukemia in early November and began treating him with chemotherapy at Children's Hospital, but stopped a week ago because his blood count was too low, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. The boy refused the transfusion on religious grounds. More

For young Sikhs, the turban is old hat

AMRITSAR, India: The day 14-year-old Jugraj Singh abandoned his turban and had a lifetime's growth of hair cut off, he collected the tresses from the barber shop's floor and packed them into a plastic bag. Then he threw the bag into a river flowing out of Amritsar, the spiritual home of the Sikhs.

"It was my parents' idea to float it down the river; they thought it would be a display of respect to the hair I had cut off," said Singh, now an 18-year-old business student. "For me it wasn't an emotional moment."

Like many young Sikhs, he found the turban a bother. It got in the way during judo classes. Washing his long hair was time-consuming, as was the morning ritual of winding seven meters, or more than 20 feet, of cloth around his head. It was hot and uncomfortable. More

What would Jesus Buy?

"What Would Jesus Buy?," a documentary produced by Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me"), follows Reverend Billy and members of his Church of Stop Shopping on their Christmastime journey across America. Traveling the country in their bio-diesel buses, they preach the gospel of putting away one's wallet to throngs of confused, bargain-hunting shoppers at mega-malls and Wal-Marts. In the last 50 years, the U.S. has gone from global producer to global consumer. And we've got the overflowing landfills and crippling credit card debt to prove it.

What could have been a bone-dry exercise in dogmatism is instead a witty, abrasive and hugely entertaining romp, thanks to director Rob VanAlkemade. Credit is also due to Reverend Billy, the alter ego of Billy Talen, who, after watching in horror as Disney took over his neighborhood (New York's Times Square), decided to mimic the local street preachers, the only people being heard over the commercial din. Since launching his crusade in 1997, Reverend Billy has been banned from 130,000 Starbucks worldwide, as well as from every Disney property. He has also added the 35-member Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir to his routine, a Baptist-style event delivered with all the evangelical, red-faced zeal you'd expect from a man who earnestly believes the world is plunging headlong toward what he calls "The Shopocalypse." More

New evidence in Jehovah's Witness molestings

Frederick McLean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the United States, charged with 17 counts of child sexual abuse in California. Law enforcement sources say that when a victim’s family confronted McLean in 2004, he allegedly confessed. But before he could be arrested, McLean fled.

Authorities identified at least eight victims that McLean allegedly abused over the course of nearly a decade. One victim estimated McLean molested her “over 100 times,” according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Deputy Marshal Thomas Maranda, who is leading the hunt for the 56-year-old fugitive, says McLean gained the trust of many of his victims through his leadership position, as a so-called ministerial servant, in his local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses near San Diego.

“His role in the church was significant,” Maranda explains, “because we believe that his participation in the church gave him access to his victims.” More

Nun, 79, declines to fight sex case

A nun who taught in Chicago-area Roman Catholic schools for more than three decades pleaded no contest Monday to molesting two teenage boys at a Milwaukee elementary school in the 1960s.

Sister Norma Giannini, 79, was scheduled to go on trial Monday at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. But instead she entered the no-contest plea and now stands convicted of two felony counts of indecent behavior with the underage victims.

According to a criminal complaint filed last December, Giannini engaged in dozens of sexual encounters with the two boys while she was 8th-grade teacher and principal at St. Patrick's School in Milwaukee. The complaint said that many of the incidents took place in the church convent, the school office and one student's home.

The complaint said the boys were 12 and 13 years old at the time of the abuse. Both of the students—James St. Patrick, 53, and Gerald Kobs, 55—attended Monday's hearing. St. Patrick said that he began abusing alcohol and drugs after the incidents and continued to do so for 35 years. He and Kobs "built up the courage over the years" to come forward, he said.

St. Patrick said he had sexual contact with the nun more than 100 times, beginning when he was in 7th grade, often after she removed him from class and took him to a bathroom in her office, the complaint alleged. St. Patrick told authorities that "her actions caused him to be confused because he had been taught that nuns were married to Jesus," the complaint said.. More

Too much time on teachings of Islam?

The parents of children at Houston Elementary School plan to complain to the school board about concerns they have with a seventh-grade history textbook, which they feel pays an undue amount of attention to the teachings of Islam.

When Jim Self asked his son last week what he was learning in school, he was surprised to hear his 12-year-old boy say that he was learning about the Prophet Muhammad.

That night Jim Self and his wife, Korina, flipped through their son's textbook, "History Alive!: The Medieval World and Beyond," and found at least three chapters dedicated to the Islamic faith, including an entire chapter dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad. More

Church nixes native dancing at Habitat for Humanity event

A Winnipeg church prevented aboriginal dancers from performing at a Habitat for Humanity event this week, saying the performance was not an expression of Christian faith.

Habitat for Humanity invited Kim Houle and her children to perform at its annual volunteer appreciation night, which was held Tuesday in an auditorium Habitat had rented for the event inside the Church of The Rock.

But the afternoon before the performance, the church told Habitat it could not allow the dancing.

"Native spiritual dancing has its roots in a different spiritual belief system that is incongruent with traditional Christian worship," Pastor Mark Hughes said in an e-mail. More

Teachers ordered to dress as Muslims

A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day – to celebrate a Muslim festival.

Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.

The morning assembly will be open to all parents – but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.

Just two members of staff – a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant – are Muslim. More

Actor's Risque Past Halts 'Adam' Film

The man who plays Adam in a video aired at a Bible-based creationist museum has led a different life outside the Garden of Eden, flaunting his sexual exploits online and modeling for a clothing line that promotes free love.

After learning about his activities Thursday, the Creation Museum in Kentucky pulled the 40-second video in which he appears.

"We are currently investigating the veracity of these serious claims of his participation in projects that don't align with the biblical standards and moral code upon which the ministry was founded," Answers for Genesis spokesman Mark Looy said in a written statement.

The actor, Eric Linden, owns a graphic Web site called Bedroom Acrobat, where he has been pictured, smiling alongside a drag queen, in a T-shirt brandishing the site's sexually suggestive logo. The Web site, which has a network of members, allows users to post explicit stories and photos. More

Devotees serve spiritual food to detained blasphemer

IMPHAL, India - A 60-year old man who is in police custody for allegedly chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, Shan-na-mahoure" (beef is the best) repeatedly in front of devotees of Krishna was served prasadi (spiritualised food) Saturday by a devotee in police custody even as he was accused of blaspheming Lord Krishna.

Recently) devotees from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) who were running a mobile shop selling books and other items faced an old man blaspheming Lord Krishna by announcing in front of them "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, Shan-na-mahoure" five times. This drew the devotees` ire and a heated arguement resulted between the old man and the devotees.

Following the argument two persons who came with the old man assaulted one of the devotees named Braja Bhakta Das, 28 years, spiritual son of Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami of ISKCON, Manipur. The incident occurred at around 3.50 pm at Rup Mahal Tank in the heart of Imphal city. Though the devotee was not physically injured his clothing was torn in the assault. More

Would you seek sex advice from this man?

Ayatollah Khomeini had global fame as a religious leader of Iran, but a lesser known role he sought after was to advice the public on sex and relationships.

Doctor Ruth and Doctor Phil are blithering idiots compared to the manifest wisdom of Ayatollah Khomeini, who penned this nugget of wisdom:

"A man can marry a girl younger than nine years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breastfed. A man, however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than nine, other sexual act such as forplay, rubbing, kissing and sodomy is allowed. A man having intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has not comitted a crime, but only an infraction, if the girl is not permanently damaged. If the girl, however, is permanently damaged, the man must provide for her all her life. But this girl will not count as one of the man's four permanent wives. He also is not permitted to marry the girl's sister."

Ayatollah Khomeini also noted:

"A Moslem woman may not marry a non-Moslem man; nor may a Moslem man marry a non-Moslem woman in continuing marriage, but he may take a Jewish or Christian woman in temporary marriage."

Khomeini was also an ardent advocate of animal welfare, as indicated when he penned this:

"The meat of horses, mules, or donkeys is not recommended. It is strictly forbidden if the animal was sodomized while alive by a man. In that case, the animal must be taken outside the city and sold."

Further advice may be found here: More

Let's call God Allah

Bishop Martinus Muskens of Breda in The Netherlands has called upon Christians to begin calling God “Allah”. Bishop Muskens is confident this will promote better relations with Muslims and, after all, “God doesn’t really care how we address Him.”

Speaking on the Dutch TV programme Network, Bishop Muskens says it could take another 100 years but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches. And that will promote rapprochement between the two religions.

More than 30 years ago Bishop Muskens worked in Indonesia and, there, God was called Allah, even in Catholic churches.

In the Arab world God is called Allah. The long history of Christianity in the Arab world led to the development of a rich Christian-Islamic theological vocabulary, which makes God a normal equivalent to Allah. Both Muslims and Christians use the word in the Middle East. More

Jehovah's Witness spared jail for sex attacks

A Jehovah's Witness has been spared a jail term after admitting a series of sexual assaults on children and adults in Clevedon.

Michael Porter, of Okehampton Close, north London, admitted 24 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency on 13 victims aged 18 months and older.

Among the individuals were others involved in the faith.

Judge Tom Crowther at Bristol Crown Court sentenced Porter to three years of community rehabilitation.

But Porter's sister, Tina Hughes, said: "I am absolutely disgusted. He should not have walked free.

"He has lost nothing. We have to tell the victims we have got no closure. He is an evil person. He is not human." More

China to Buddhas: Get permission to reincarnate

Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.

“The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order.

The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing. More

Minister Charged With DUI And Indecent Exposure

Tommy Tester, a 58-year-old minister, joined the Rainbow Pastor Club when he was taken into custody on charges of indecent exposure, DUI and violating the open container law.

Tester was arrested after he urinated in plain view in front of a car wash where children were standing, according to the Johnson officer.

Tester was wearing a skirt at the time and offered to perform oral sex on the police officers that arrived on the scene.

The pastor of the Gospel Baptist Church in Bristol, VA is also an employee of a Christian radio station WZAP-AM. The stations owner, Al Morris, was reported as saying, "We do not know all the details and facts concerning the arrest; but for the time being Tommy has been relieved of his responsibilities at the station until such facts surrounding the case are determined. We pray that this matter can be quickly resolved. In the meantime, we ask you to pray for Tommy and for WZAP." More

Vatican trades Carbon Credit Indulgences

Leave it to the Vatican to place itself on the wrong side of yet another great moral divide.

In 1517 Pope Leo X offered indulgences in exchange for donations to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica.

This July, the Holy See announced it would become the first fully green sovereign state by accepting a donation of "carbon credits" from a subsidiary of Planktos, a Foster City firm hoping to profit from the global market in CO2 offsets — the scheme whereby companies, individuals, and now nations can buy forgiveness for their global warming sins.

So just like Leo X's absolution peddling scheme a half-millennium ago, the pontiff has set his church up to look morally ridiculous. More

Wal-Mart Gets Religious - Toys, That Is

Wal-Mart is about to bring religion to the toy aisle.

Early next month, 425 Wal-Mart stores nationwide will begin carrying faith-based toys from One2believe that target parents who would rather that their kids play with a Samson action figure than a Spider-Man action figure.

It's the first time the world's largest retailer has carried a full line of religious toys. "We're seeing interest from parents in faith-enriching toys," says Melissa O'Brien, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Wal-Mart is known for it's low wages and limited healthcare coverage for their employees. Maybe the Jesus Doll can do "major medical mojo" on the workers, or the famous "loaves -n- fishes trick", to help stretch that strained household food budget. More

Reverend Billy Locked Up

Reverend Billy was arrested and detained while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square. The police claimed his preaching it at this month's Critical Mass constituted "Harassment of a Public Official". The NYPD has a history of some controversial arrests at the Critical Mass events, and at last night's the number of police practically outnumbered the riders. According to one account,

"...even unaffiliated riders were ticketed as they approached the park. Reverend Billy and his partner Savitri D were reciting the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to the gathered police force when Lieutenant Daniel Albano, head of the NYPD's Legal Division, ordered the Reverend's arrest and detention at the 13th Precinct station. It is believed Albano is the public official Reverend Billy has been charged with harassing." More

In U.S. Mormons are in the spotlight

Salt Lake City, Utah - After more than a century on the fringe of America's consciousness, Mormons are riding a wave of media attention and public scrutiny -- and say they welcome the chance to set a few things straight.

From Mitt Romney's bid to become the first Mormon in the White House to Public Broadcasting Service's four-hour documentary on Mormonism in May and a Hollywood movie opening this month focusing on one of Mormon history's darkest episodes, the once-isolated religion is moving into the open.

But areas the church would rather forget are sharing the limelight, including its awkward ties to nearly 40,000 fundamentalist Mormons who practice polygamy, which the church introduced before the Civil War and then banned in 1890.

"Big Love," HBO's series about a fictional polygamous family headed by a Viagra-popping husband in Utah, begins its second season this month, while Mormon fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs will keep Americans tuned in to a real-life polygamous drama at his trial in September. More

Jehovah's Witnesses settle abuse cases

Nashville, Tenn. — A victims' rights group released documents that showed the Jehovah's Witnesses recently settled civil suits with 16 people who claimed they were sexually abused by church elders or that church officials failed to act on abuse allegations.

The group, called silentlambs, held a news conference in Nashville to demand that the denomination change its policy for responding to sex abuse reports.

Settlements were reached in late February and early March, according to court records obtained by silentlambs and posted to the group's Web site. Fourteen of the cases were filed in California; the other two were in Oregon and Texas.

Details about the settlement terms could not be disclosed under confidentiality agreements negotiated between the parties, said Stephen Owens, a plaintiffs' attorney involved in the California cases. Other cases are still pending, according to silentlambs, which couldn't say how many. More

Man scalds baby, Wife blames Satan

GALVESTON -- “That was not my husband; my husband is a wonderful father. Satan was working through his weaknesses,” said Eva Marie Mauldin, the 20-year-old mother of the 2-month old who was severely burned after her father placed her in a hotel room microwave in Galveston two weeks ago.

She blames the devil and some form of a demonic possession of her husband for what happened.

“I believe Satan works through our weaknesses. Satan attacked (Joshua) through his weaknesses,” said Eva Marie. More

Is Bishop Brown a boy diddler?

Orange County Catholicism hasn’t quite been the same ever since Bishop Tod D. Brown made like Martin Luther and hammered a document to the doors of Holy Family Cathedral in early 2004. That document, titled “The Covenant With the Faithful,” featured seven theses that Brown claimed represented a new era of transparency for a diocese long plagued by priestly pedophilia and its cover-up by Church and even county leaders.

He especially pointed the faithful to the fourth thesis: “We will work collaboratively with all members of the diocese to promote an atmosphere of openness and trust, and empower them as partners in parochial affairs and thereby create a new era for our Church in Orange County.”

But the promises quickly proved a PR sham, as His Excellency reverted to secrecy and stonewalling in dealing with the victims of priests and lay workers who once roamed the county’s parishes with little fear of punishment. When Brown did as he promised and finally released the names of accused priests serving in the Orange diocese just a month after his public nailing, it came in the form of a one-page press release. The names were bunched together in one paragraph, one after another, without explanation—no corresponding years of service or number of accusers. And while the Orange diocese settled with more than 90 victims for $100 million at the end of 2004, it still fought with lawyers to block the release of personnel files that revealed church complicity in molestations.. More

No Church for Church

A CATHOLIC publishing giant is refusing to sell Charlotte Church’s music after she called the Pope a NAZI.

The Welsh beauty made the slur about German-born Pope Benedict XVI in a jape for her new TV show.

She also dressed as a nun and smashed a Virgin Mary statue in a pilot episode of Channel 4’s All New Charlotte Church Show.

Now incensed directors of US-based Ignatius Press have pulled her CDs and DVDs from its catalogue and website.

The firm said: “We can’t stand by a woman who uses her stature in the media to mock the Eucharist, slander the Holy Father and denigrate the vows of religious women. Please join us in praying for this troubled young woman.”

Catholic-raised Charlotte, 20, sang for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican at the age of 12.. More

"All in the name of God" says abusive Mom

An evil foster mother was convicted of horrifically abusing three children — to raise them “in accordance with her faith”.

Fanatical Jehovah’s Witness Eunice Spry, 62, believed the two girls and a boy were possessed by the Devil and wanted to “purify” them.

She beat them with sticks and metal bars, forced them to drink bleach and eat their own vomit and faeces, and starved them naked in a locked room for a month.

She also kicked them, pushed sticks down their throats, strangled them, forced their hands on a hot cooker and rubbed their faces with sandpaper, a court was told.

Spry, described as chilling and cold, denied abusing the three and said she was only trying to bring them up according to her faith.

She told a jury at Bristol Crown Court: “I sweated blood for those children. I went to great lengths to protect them from immorality. “From a Christian point of view we expect our children to be obedient. As it says in the Bible, ‘Children, be obedient to your parents and make the Lord proud’.” More

Utah Republican says illegal immigration is plot by Satan

Provo, UT - A Utah County Republican delegate may not be catching hell for calling illegal immigration a satanic plot, but he isn't gaining any converts, either.

District 65 Chairman Don Larsen is urging the closing of national borders to illegal immigrants to "prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion."

"In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S.," his resolution states. "The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness."

"In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S. The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness. " More

German court to decide on Sun Myung Moon visa

Koblenz, Germany - Lawyers for South Korean religious figure Sun Myung Moon told a German court Thursday he should be permitted to enter European Union nations and demanded Germany drop a visa ban against him.

Judges of the Rhineland Palatinate administrative tribunal said they would rule in mid-May on the case.

Germany's constitutional court had referred the case to the tribunal after deciding a 1995 ban on Moon and his wife was invalid because it was a restriction on religious freedom.

Because of the EU's open borders, the German ban effectively keeps the 87-year-old founder of the Unification Church out of many EU countries.

Youth-welfare officials regard Moon's organization as a sect that exploits the psychological instability of many young people. More

Jehovah's Witnesses' Pleiadian Space God

Those neatly dressed men and women who come to your door with a Bible in one hand and briefcase in the other are not from a church. Known as Jehovah's Witnesses, they are actually working for a large multinational corporation known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. This corporation has a president and board of directors, just as any Fortune 500 company would. Watchtower, Inc. currently owns billions of dollars worth of real estate in Brooklyn, New York, a farm and several publishing facilities.

Jehovah's Witnesses volunteer their time and donate money to the corporation, which has six million members worldwide. In exchange for their volunteer work, the corporation promises them that they may have a chance to survive a future worldwide destruction known as Armageddon, and afterward live forever on a deindustrialized paradise Earth.

One vital component to Watchtower theology is their main god known as Jehovah. This god resides in the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. This is explained in their literature by one of their prominent leaders known as Joseph F. Rutherford. In the 1928 book Reconciliation, on page 14 Rutherford explains:

"The constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades appears to be the crowning center around which the known systems of the planets revolve.... It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heavens;...."

" The constellation of the Pleiades is a small one compared with others which scientific instruments disclose to the wondering eyes of man. But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is small when compared to the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God."

View a copy of this quote in context

Who Would Jesus Sue?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be "appalled" at how the United States has ignored the plight of those suffering around the world, and that he believes children should have private time to pray while at school.

Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."

"I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs," Edwards told the site. "I think he would be appalled, actually."

Biblical accounts describe Jesus as a teacher and as a healer of multitudes of people who came to him for that purpose. Edwards, in contrast, obtained most of his massive wealth in lawsuits againt those attempting to bring healing to his clients.

Edwards also contrasts with Jesus in that he has a new $6 million, 28,000 square-foot mansion in North Carolina and a luxurious beach house, while Jesus had "nowhere to lay his head.” More

Priest jailed for exorcism death

The Devil is apparently alive and well in Romania. A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils.

Irina Cornici, 23, died after being starved and chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east.

The ritual in 2005 was led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, the priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village. He and four nuns were convicted of manslaughter. The nuns got jail terms ranging from five to eight years. More

Muslim Woman Police Officer in Controversy

London , UK - A Muslim woman police officer has sparked a new debate by refusing to shake hands with Britain's most senior police chief for religious reasons.

The incident happened at a passing-out parade where Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was inspecting a line-up of 200 recruits.

In addition to refusing a traditional congratulatory handshake from Sir Ian, the WPC - who wore a traditional Muslim hijab headscarf - also declined to be photographed with him as she did not want the picture used for 'propaganda purposes'. More

Priest Faces 6th Lawsuit Alleging Abuse

Miami, FL — A man who says a former Roman Catholic priest sexually abused him as a teenager sued the Archdiocese of Miami for at least $25 million Wednesday, raising the number of lawsuits involving the ex-cleric to at least six.

The 21-year-old man, identified in the complaint as John Doe No. 28, alleges that Father Neil Doherty sexually abused him while Doherty served as pastor at St. Vincent Catholic Church in Broward County, which falls under the archdiocese's jurisdiction.

Doherty — who was charged last year with several counts of child molestation — befriended the boy when he was 14 in 1999, according to the lawsuit. After a "quick grooming process" The pastor began sexually abusing Doe in various locations, including Doherty's car and in the bedroom of the St. Vincent rectory, said Jeffrey Herman, Doe's attorney. More

Pat Robertson Predicts "Massive Terror" for US

Virginia Beach , VA - When Pat Robertson is not too busy calling for the assasination of select world leaders, he takes time to forsee coming massive terror attacks.

On Robertson's television show "The 700 Club" he predicted that there would be a terrorist attack that would result in "mass killing" in the United States in late 2007. He further clarified this position with "the Lord didn't say nuclear. But, I do believe it will be something like that." Robertson says that he develops his predictions during prayer retreats when God speaks to him.

Pat Robertson has a long history of making controversial statements on a wide variety of subjects. Among some of his more memorable claims: in 1985, he said that he used his powers of prayer to steer Hurricane Gloria away from Virginia Beach, Virginia and his company's headquarters. In 1998, he stated that allowing "Gay Days" to occur at Disney World could result in variety of natural disasters to strike Orlando, Florida, including the possibility of a meteor strike. In 2005, He told Dover, Pennsylvania residents "if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to god." This was due to the fact that the school board in the town had rejected the idea of teaching the intelligent design theory in its public schools. Also in 2005, he called for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. A statement he later denied making.. More

Clinton Hires Faith Guru

Washington, DC - Burns Strider, one of the Democratic Party’s leading strategists on winning over evangelicals and other values-driven voters, will join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as she prepares to launch her 2008 presidential campaign.

Strider now heads religious outreach for the House Democratic Caucus, and is the lead staffer for the Democrats’ Faith Working Group, headed by incoming Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created the working group in 2005 when Democratic strategists recognized that the party lost ground in the previous election because of trouble appealing to centrist and conservative voters in rural areas, who tend to be church-goers driven by moral issues. Strider was an aide to Pelosi when the group formed and joined Clyburn’s staff as policy director of the Democratic Caucus in 2006.

Observers of Clinton’s expressions of faith say religion has always been important to her, that she attended prayer group meetings while first lady, and that she joined a Senate prayer group shortly after winning election in 2000. More

Rabbi Sentenced In Internet Sex Sting

Not wanting to let Catholic priests have all the fun, a Maryland rabbi was caught in a television sting operation trying to solicit sex from a 13-year-old boy over the internet.and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.

David A. Kaye, 56, told the judge that he traveled to Herndon for what he thought would be sex with a boy "as a cry out for help to fight my personal demons." Sobbing as he acknowledged his father, who sat in the courtroom in a wheelchair, Kaye said his conviction had made him face "the reality of who I am. . . . I know I need help. I pray that God allows me to get that help."

Kaye's attorney, Peter D. Greenspun, said the rabbi, who was featured last year on the "To Catch a Predator" series on "Dateline NBC," kept his sexuality secret and spent thousands of hours chatting online in search of liaisons. More

Gay Marriage Opponent Ted Haggard in Gay Tryst

Colorado Springs, CO - With a Clintonesque explanation about visiting a male prostitute and not having sex, then buying methamphetamine and not partaking of it, Ted Haggarty has joined the Rainbow Pastor Club.

"I am guilty of sexual immorality, I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark and I've been warring against it my entire adult life", Haggard said in a letter that was read to his New Life Church in Colorado Springs by a church overseer.

Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after being accused by a male escort of having had a sexual relationship with him. He also agreed to step down as senior pastor of the New Life Church. More

Jesus the Jehovah's Witness Lured Boys for Sex

Goshen, NY - A 50-year-old Jehovah's Witness has been found guilty of trying to lure underage boys in Middletown to have anal sex with him and pose for nude photographs.

Jesus Cano was detained by Middletown police on June 24. Cano had been handing out a small packet of papers that included a written note, several pictures of his naked buttocks and a name, phone number and e-mail address.

Cano is a Mexican national with a valid visa to reside in the U.S. That visa will be revoked now that he's been convicted of a felony, and he will be deported after he serves his sentence. More

Muslim Cleric Justifies Rape of Unveiled Women

Sydney, Australia - Australia's top Muslim cleric was roundly condemned for saying women who didn't wear a veil were asking to be raped.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward accused Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali of inciting sexual assault by excusing the perpetrators while blaming the victims.

She said the Egyptian-born Mufti of Australia should be deported. 'It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise,' Goward said of the leader of Australia's 350,000 Muslims. 'I think it's time he left.'

Al-Hilali likened unveiled women to 'uncovered meat' in a fasting month sermon in Arabic to 500 worshippers at Sydney's biggest mosque.

'If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem,' he said. More

Pope changes what happens in the afterlife

Pope Benedict XVI of the Roman Catholic Church has many powers. His spoken and written word is infallible. His edicts are followed by hundreds of millions of people worldwide as a divine directive. He directs the actions of church clergy. Now it appears he has the power to alter what happens to souls in the afterlife.

The Pope has cast aside centuries of Catholic belief by abolishing formally the concept of limbo, in a gesture calculated to help to win the souls of millions of babies in the developing world for Christ.

All the evidence suggests that Benedict XVI never believed in the idea anyway. But in the fertile evangelisation zones of Africa and Asia, the Pope — an acknowledged authority on all things Islamic — is only too aware that Muslims believe the souls of stillborn babies go straight to Heaven. For the Church, looking to spread the faith in countries with a high infant mortality rate, now is a good time to make it absolutely clear that stillborn babies of Christian mothers go direct to Heaven, too. More

Moslems don't flog this Bishop

Some Moslems may want to flog the Pope right now, but according to an Islamic cleric they are not permitted to "flog the bishop" during Ramadan.

With regard to whether masturbating while fasting breaks the fast or not, Sheikh Hamed Al-Ali, instructor of Islamic Heritage at the Faculty of Education, Kuwait and Imam of Dahiat As-Sabahiyya Mosque, says:

"Masturbation during the daytime of Ramdan breaks the fast, based on the Hadith that a fasting Muslim gives up eating, drinking, and sexual desire for the sake of Allah. Since masturbation is a kind of sexual desire, a fasting Muslim must avoid it. The Prophet’s (peace and blessing be upon him) mention of “sexual desire” after “eating and drinking” is evidence that it breaks the fast if one does fulfill his or her sexual desire during the daytime of Ramadan. Therefore, masturbation does invalidate the fast, as it is one of the sins that if someone does it he or she would be violating the sanctity of this month.". More

Our Friends, the Hezbollah

Hezbollah, meaning “party of God”, is a Shia Islamist organization in Lebanon.

It follows a distinct version of Islamic Shia ideology developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Tthe group's manifesto includes three goals: the eradication of Western imperialism in Lebanon, the transformation of Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Islamic state, and the complete destruction of the state of Israel.

Not as widely known, Hezbollah has its origins in Muslim Brotherhood ideology, which is a direct import from the Nazis. This is clearly seen in their salute, which has no connection with any Muslim or Arab culture, but is a direct inheritance from the Nazi salute of the Third Reich. They are supported by Iran, which has the Farsi meaning of "Land of the Aryans."

Frag an Infidel for Christ

The Left Behind series of books focuses on a group of people who missed the Rapture. The Rapture is an event purported by certain Christian cultists in which Jesus teleports his followers out of this world to heaven. Those remaining on Earth will endure a terrible time of death and misery known as the great Tribulation.

These books have been very popular, selling over 50 million copies. They portray an evil character known as the Antichrist, who is a tax and spend liberal doing Satan's bidding, while the protaganists, known as the "Tribulation Force", thwart the antichrist and his Keystone Cops minions at every opportunity.

Now the game world can join in the excitement with the release of the official game of the series, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The game environment is set in New York City. For the really daring gamers, they can switch sides and fight for the Antichrist. More

Presbyterian Church publishes 9-11 plot book

Louisville, Ky. - A controversial book about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks printed by the official publishing house of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has upset some of the congregation's members.

The book, "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11," alleges that the Bush administration was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The author, David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus at Claremont School of Theology in California, argues that the towers collapsed because of explosives and not because airliners crashed into the buildings. More

Jesus 'healed using cannabis'

Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.

The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims. More

Church leader jailed over 'slave wages'

A church leader who brought illegal immigrant workers into the UK to renovate his house was sentenced to three months in prison today.

Pieter Van Rooyen, 46, paid South African labourers "slave wages" for construction work on the luxury home on the Isle of Man, the High Bailiff's Court in Douglas heard.

Van Rooyen, who resigned as a Barclays bank manager before admitting the charge, made the men work up to 72 hours a week.

They were paid as little as £1.36 an hour and were not allowed to leave Van Rooyen's home without someone watching them. More

Islamic cell phones has Koran and points way to Mecca

SINGAPORE - The world’s first cell phone for Muslims is now on the market. It was introduced in Asia by the Singapore based company Ilkone Asia.

According to the company’s web site, the Ilkone I-800 phone provides Islamic prayer times for users wherever they are in the world and even points them toward Mecca when they select the city and country where they may be.

The phone also contains the full text of the Koran with English translations.

“The objective of the i-800 is to satisfy the needs of specific Muslims around the world, and the Middle East in particular, through a range of phones providing advanced Islamic solutions, applications, and functionality,” Tellawi said. “Ilkone will be a relevant and integral part of the personal lives and practices of modern Muslims everywhere, and the advanced mobile technology of Ilkone phones will meet their practical, technological, and emotional needs.”

The name ‘Ilkone’ comes from the Arabic word meaning “universe. More

In Bob we trust: the Subgenius world view

Quincy, MA - In many ways, Eric Walker is just a regular guy, a shy tech-support worker and self-admitted geek who lives with his wife in Quincy.

But in other circles, Walker, 37, is known as the Rev. Modemac, an ordained minister for the Church of the Subgenius, a world of geeks and weirdos, mavericks and misfits who meet to counter the Conspiracy, and, of course, to spread the Slack.

The First Church of Bob operates out of Walker's Copeland Street home, an online parish community, if you will, that is part of the larger Subgenius world, an almost too-weird-to-describe network tending to draw sci-fi nerds, skeptics and social outcasts who can let loose, commiserate and just be weird - mostly in online chatting.

Subgenius was founded in 1980 when Bob supposedly spoke to Ivan Stang of Cleveland and told him to start the church.

If nothing else, the religion is forthright about making money. Asked about the $30 fee to become a minister, Stang said, ‘‘Of course it's a rip-off, but you're getting ripped off every day.'' More

Student Arrested, Threatened To Blow Up Christian School

Some parents send their children to church affiliated schools to avoid the worldly distractions in the public schools, but in this case something went terribly wrong.

Authorities say an 18-year-old high school senior was arrested after he threatened to blow up his private school on the popular MySpace.com Web site.

Deputies say they searched Brian Hall at Sonrise Christian School yesterday and found a set of brass knuckles and a knife.

Polk County deputies say they searched Hall's vehicle, they found two more knives and a pipe with marijuana residue inside. More

'Jesus' arrested for sexual assault on man

Lochbuie, CO - A self proclaimed pastor and illegal alien was arrested in Colorado for sexual assault on a 20 year old man.

For 10 days, Jesus Alonso Ochoa-Gomez sexually assaulted a 20-year-old man, holding him hostage until the victim escaped to Aurora, Lochbuie police said Friday.

In early May, Ochoa-Gomez, now in custody in Weld County, moved into a house at 209 Wenatchee St. in Lochbuie. While his wife was away in Mexico, police said he assaulted the victim, who was much smaller than Ochoa-Gomez, an illegal immigrant.

"It started with pornography and fondling, and progressed to penetration," Sgt. Dan Boyle said.

Ochoa-Gomez is being held on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have have put a hold on his release. More

Antichrist, a woman?

Godless: The Church of Liberalism is the fifth major work by conservative pundit Ann Coulter. It was published on June 6, 2006 (06/06/06) to coincide with the number of the beast from The Book of Revelation.

The cover of the book shows Miss Coulter in a slinky black dress, with the word "GODLESS" imposed across the bottom of the image. The red letters flow onto her black dress in such a way that the first impression of the word is "GODDESS", with her image rising up above that word.

This is predictive programming in its purest form.

An important fact to realize is that book covers are very carefully designed. Nothing is left to chance in the words and images put on the cover, and how they are juxtaposed. On the day associated with the Beast of Revelation, also known as the Antichrist, the publishers of that book have offered up as a GODDESS our own "Crazy Annie" Coulter.

So, do you prefer her name on your forehead, or right hand?

Church Kicking: fad or here to stay?

A growing number of people around the world have started to go to church, but not for traditional worship.

They attend church in order to kick the building.

In a departure from the usual singing, sermon and of course, potluck, these individuals approach church buildings and other church property, and then kick it. Several of them have documented their endeavors for the web.

The movement appears to have an ecumenical flavor with the inclusion of Mosque beaters and Synagogue ignorers. One intrepid woman removes her clothing and engages in church whipping.

God Tells Man To Sacrifice Wife, Children

A man sentenced to 90 years in prison for attempting to set his Orlando home on fire with his family sleeping inside said God commanded him to sacrifice his wife and children, according to a Local 6 News report.

Hans Missal, 51, admitted to dousing his Orlando home with gasoline last March. Missal also duct-taped the doors shut and ran a hose from the house to a car tailpipe while his wife, son and daughter slept before he attempted to set the structure on fire.

Missal said he was following God's orders. More

Islamic extremists' love of hardcore porn

So how does a pious Islamic extremist and potential terrorist pass the time? He watches hardcore porn. Investigators found that at least one of two Islamic extremist planning an attack on the US from Canada was in possession of hardcore pornography.

n Muslim societies the calls for all women to be covered completely and constant diatribes that sexual immorality is a threat to Islamic nations have become commonplace. Yet there is mounting evidence that terrorist extremists commonly view hardcore pornography. More

Mothers expect Damien on 6/6/06

FOR one group of expectant mothers, their due date holds an extra dimension of dread. The prospect of giving birth on June 6, 6/6/06, has prompted talk of spawning devil children on Armageddon day.

For Hollywood and the worldwide entertainment industry it is by contrast a once-in-a- century opportunity to turn evil into gold. Leading the charge is 20th Century Fox, whose remake of The Omen, the classic 1970s horror film, will appear on June 6.

While some Armageddon believers fear that 6/6/06 will be “a day of satanic power” that may be marked by a comet hitting the Earth, others believe that the world is coming closer to what is widely known as “the rapture” — the moment the Lord calls the Christian faithful home and millions of born-again evangelicals will suddenly disappear from the Earth, leaving non-believers behind. More

Wives help man rape daughters

He has multiple wives who gave him scores of children, including five teenage girls whom he raped repeatedly over a period of 18 months before one of them blew the whistle on him.

The 45-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, had subverted parts of the Quran to justify incest.

While conducting a religious lesson, he convinced his wives that he had ownership over his children, which included having sex with them.

To add to these worries, he learnt that the girls were behaving inappropriately with boys.

He concluded that having sex with his daughters to “satisfy” them, so they would be less likely to go with others, was the lesser of two evils, said the lawyer. More

Pastor sent to Purgatory jail for accused sexual abuse

St. George, Utah. - A pastor was jailed after St. George police said he molested an 11-year-old student at a Christian school where he was a teacher.

Gabriel E. Carlin, 32, St. George, was booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility Tuesday night for investigation of four counts of sexual abuse of a minor, a first-degree felony.

Carlin taught at the East Harbor Christian Academy in Washington, Washington County, where the victim attended school, St. George Police Sgt. Craig Harding said. The reported abuse began nearly a month ago, investigators said.

Attempts to reach officials with the East Harbor Christian Academy were unsuccessful Wednesday. Telephone numbers listed for the school were disconnected. On his Web site, Carlin refers to himself as "Pastor Gabe" and said he is the senior pastor of Living Faith Community Church in St. George. He said he and his wife operate a "classical Christian school." More

Israeli women decorate sacred places with their panties

Many woman would do anything to have a smart, handsome and well-to-do husband. Israel’s sacred places' guards often see a strange ritual.

Israeli women who go on pilgrimage to the grave of the Jewish Rabbi Yenothan ben Uziel tie their panties and bras to the grates of the burial-vault and to the nearby trees. They believe this will help them find good husbands in the future. More

Anti-Gay Pastor caught cruising for male "services"

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A pastor who has spoken out against homosexuality was arrested after propositioning a male undercover police officer outside a hotel, authorities said.

Claiming he was in the area "pastoring to police", the Rev. Lonnie Latham, 59, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail.

This event raises the issue about those individuals, mostly men, who are very concerned about the fact that men are having sex with each other. They are sometimes a bit too concerned about this, almost an obsession.

Are you listening, Lou Sheldon? Know what I am saying, Fred Phelps? What secrets do you hide, Jerry Falwell? As Shakespeare said it, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." More

Christmas abandoned by Christians

The usual suspects in the "War on Christmas" include the ACLU, the schools, the malls, and Wal-Mart with their policy of a generic "Happy Holidays" type of greeting.

Now it has come to our attention that the latest place to find Christmas abandoned is at the local Christian church.

This is not a few isolated churches, but a nationwide trend. Expect it to come to a megachurch near you. More

Intelligent Design outed: religion, not science

Intelligent Design is the notion that living organisms are simply too complex to have evolved merelyevolution, and that it's necessary to postulate a designing Intelligence to explain the living systems we see.

Advocates of Intelligent Design (ID) have claimed that it's a scientific theory, a legitimate rival of the Darwinian theory, that warrants being taught in the science classes of America's public schools.

Critics of ID have declared that ID isn't science at all. They say it is a way of sneaking religion into the public schools.

Now, none other than Pat Robertson has blown the cover of ID. The citizens of the town of Dover, Pennsylvania voted to reject a school board that promoted ID, and Robertson let loose with a warning. If something bad happens to you, Robertson said to the people of Dover, don't bother turning to God. He might not be there for you, he warned them, because "you just voted God out of your city."

Oops! Thanks, Pat, for connecting those dots. More

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