assassination plot foiled

A plot to assassinate the Danish cartoonist who drew an image of muhammad that was published in newspapers was stopped when three men (one Danish citizen of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians) were arrested. There was unrest in Denmark consisting of burning schools and cars. This might have been caused by the reprinting of the cartoons which was done in solidarity of the cartoonists.

you can't always get what you want

Huckabee supporters pray for deaths of leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. There is a new word I learned from this story: imprecatory prayer is prayer for the misfortune of others. The pastor that made the call is being investigated by the IRS for endorsing Mike Huckabee because under tax exemption status, churches are not allowed to endorse candidates for election. Should churches lose their tax exempt status when they ask god to smite their enemies? Of course, when the Baptist Press reports on the story, they leave off a bit of what the rest of us find quite hypocritical.

islam is not oppressive to women and journalists (just don't kill me)

A journalist has been sentenced to death in Afghanistan under sharia law for downloading a report that says that islamic fundamentalists use the Koran to justify oppression of women. Apparently he did nothing more than read the document and for that he was sentenced to death.

Grisham calls baptist convention intolerant, then is labeled as "negative"

John Grisham was a voice of tolerance, anti-war, and anti-poverty at a baptist convention. His speech was then labeled as "negative" by the reporter.

How strange that the reporter in question picked out such positive aspects of the speech, such as
* Baptists should be inclusive rather 'proudly intolerant' (e.g. excluding women)
* should use the mission of the ministry to raise children out of poverty
* oppose the Iraq war

and then call the speech negative.

plead insanity

A priest for the Orthodox Church in Bucharest, Romania was convicted of killing a young nun during an exorcism ritual. Apparently the nun had schizophrenia and the priest and 4 other nuns decided to try to cure her by performing the ritual but accidently killed her. The priest and the nuns were each given a sentence of 5-6 years.

god, save us from your follower

"I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than trying to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."
-- Mike Huckabee
And of course, Mike, you know the word of god, so we should let you change the constitution.

the attack of the pope

The pope was supposed to speak at the opening ceremony of La Sapienza university in Rome but he cancelled because of protests from university professors who pointed out that this pope has a bit of an anti-free academic history. The pope gave a speech in 1990 also at La Sapienza where he said that he thought that the trial of Galileo was right and just. Pope John Paul in 1992 admitted that the earth did not stay stationary, only three centuries after Galileo was tried for heresy.
The pope in a blatant hypocritical remark said this weekend "I encourage all of you, dear academics, to always be respectful of the opinions of others, and to seek the truth and the good with an open and responsible mind because we might jail and torture you just as we did to Galileo." Ok, so that last bit I might be misquoting him, but of course for the physicists at the university this is actually what is happening since there many in the general public who are calling for their jobs.
So lets analyze this carefully: You are not allowed to disagree with the pope or you will lose your job.
There was a large crowd at the Vatican this last weekend in what the media is calling support of the pope although apparently there were protesters there too.
The real hypocrisy is that the pope was the one who cancelled his own visit and now is playing the victim and crying saying that he doesn't get to speak. boo-hoo. Um, mr. pope, sir? Don't you get to speak to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people every week? The professors are not asking you not to speak, just not at their ceremony where you will be given an open position to attack academic freedom (as you did last time).

first it was harry potter...

Relgious groups are calling for a boycott of The Golden Compass, both the movie and the books, because of their anti religious undertones. The movie apparently hints (although somewhat abstractly) that religion removes free will. The behavior of these groups seems to confirm this.

who does islamic law protect?

In an extreme case of failed justice of islamic law a rape victim in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 90 lashes for seeing a male friend who is not a relative without an escort. When she protested her sentence was changed to 200 lashes. These types of miscarriages of justice could happen all the time but the victims are unlikely to come forward.

cute little bear named mohammed

A British teacher in Sudan was convicted of insulting religion (but cleared of inciting hatred and showing contempt of religious beliefs) because she allowed students in her class to name a teddy bear mohammed. She was sentenced to 15 days in jail. Protesters gathered outside of the Republican Presidential palace, some calling for her death, were somehow not charged with insulting religion.

value voters priorities

Richard Land says we shouldn't hate value voters because they want to ban abortion and gay marriage. He is the primary author of the Land Letter, so try to put what he says in context: he supports the Iraq war but somehow values life (at least the lives of his fellow baptists).

He believes that reducing abortions by making them illegal is the way to go. I disagree and think that we need to reduce the the need for people to have abortions in the first place but that women need to be able to freely choose to have or not to have children. Priorities shimorities.

His statement that "marriage is anything but a personal, private relationship" is fine, I agree that recognizing a relationship is not personal, but societal. Richard Land needs to be aware that by not recognizing same sex relationships, christians are marginalizing gays and lesbians. For some reason he needs to be "convinced" that same sex relationships have value to gays and lesbians (I don't see where it is his business) and until he is convinced he will stand in the way of those relationships existing. If those are his priorities I think we have the right to hate him for it.

religious leaders

A bishop was stripped of his position after it became public that he had an affair with his brother's wife. Earl Paulk was the archbishop of a protestant mega-church in Atlanta, but no longer. The wife said that she was manipulated into the affair. The fact that he received praise from the President of the U. S. is no surprise, it seems to be a strong indicator of corruption.

Also Cardinal Frances George was elected president of the U.S. council of catholic bishops. In this NPR story, he is at least partially faulted with allowing abuse by a priest to continue to abuse children in his own archdiocese as late as last year.

Pat (heart) Rudy

Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy Guiliani for president. Everyone is quite quick to point out that Rudy is not a supporter of the three things that Pat Robertson is partially responsible for being in the GOP's platform: guns, gays and god.
It seems clear why Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy to me: Rudy Giuliani is the front runner and Mr. Robertson is notorious for 'predicting' the future based on what he hears in the news.
I have less respect for Rudy for acknowledging Pat Robertson. I know he has to because of politics but the minute that the front runners say to Pat, "you are a nutcase, take your fundamentalist extremism and go hide in a cave somewhere" then Pat Robertson will have no power to call down the wrath of god on people who fail to do his bidding.


Pat had another fit recently and told people that yoga is evil and a form of pantheism. I wonder if Rudy is ok with this.

Its ok, because Jesus forgives me

Michael Vick, America's least favorite sports hero, asked forgiveness from Jesus and gave his life over to god.

Extremism - Islamic, Christian and Jewish

I only saw part of Christiane Amanpour's report on 'God's Warriors.' It addressed in three separate reports many examples of the type of religion that I address on this website.
One of the comments that she responded to on CNN's website asked the question 'How can you even begin to compare Islamic extremists with Christians or Jews? How can you even put them in the same sentence?'
Which brings me to the cartoon by Chuck Asay that I am posting with this text. How does one attempt to reduce religous extremism? The Christian response seems to be "kill them, kill them all!"

Yet another DOMA supporter gets caught with his pants down

What is it with these people that are so deep in the closet that they are politically active against the rights of gays and lesbians to marry and then get caught having sex in a bathroom stall? This time it was Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.
I wonder if he will ask god and his family for forgiveness...

Jesus gets divorced

Some guy named Jesus (some guy that claims that he is the second coming) gets divorced. Who knew that in the second coming of Jesus, he would turn out to be a gambler and a womanizer? I do not understand why this Jesus guy has anyone who listens to him claim that he is the second coming and then showers him with gifts and money. There is a homeless guy down the street who does this too and he is lucky if people give him spare change.

Candidates wear their faith on their sleeves

Of the major candidates mentioned in this article only Rudy Guiliani doesn't seem to use his religion as a selling point of his candidacy.

Man killed trying to perform an exorcism

Police interrupted a exorcism being performed on a 3 year old when a relative called them. Upon entering the room the tried to stop a man from choking the girl. The police tried subduing him with a taser and placed him in handcuffs and then he died suddenly.

Christians demand rights to commit hate crimes

Christians seem to be worried about being able to express their views on homosexuality (with a stick). They have been calling a bill passed by the House of representatives a 'thought crimes bill' while the title of the bill seems to be titled 'Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.' Nothing of what the religious right says about the bill seems to be true, but that has never mattered in politics, what matters is what people believe to be true. Here's a sample:
1. would make Americans too afraid to report a Muslim acting suspiciously in an airport or on a plane, effectively giving jihad terrorists a free hand
2. creates second-class victims and a legal system of 'separate and unequal,'
3. muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality
4. places us on a slippery slope toward religious persecution
5. your grandmother's mugging will not receive as much attention as the "hate crime" committed against a homosexual