Texas child welfare officials conceded Tuesday that a newborn's mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect's ranch, is an adult.

The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

Can I have your car when you are Raptured?...

Bibles to be Delivered with 'Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'...

The rabidly Zionist evangelical Christian right constitutes some of the most powerfully visible evidence that Zionism is the premier threat to world peace. Watching these flag-waving religious nut-jobs cheer and weep and pray with fervour for the annihilation of Iran and its people is about as scary as it gets.

The State Department "Office of Global Anti-Semitism" says the New Testament claim that the Jews had Christ crucified is "classical anti-Semitism"--a historic form of hate. It included as an "anti-Semitic incident" the case of a Polish priest who said Jews killed Christ.

'Respect atheists', says Cardinal...

John Hagee's end time theology transmogrifies Christianity into little more than a death cult in which the State of Israel is worshipped like a latter day Golden Calf. Despite his weird views, Hagee has access to senior politicians in the US and Israel; he likes to brag that he has met every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin.

President Bush praised Hagee's CUFI for "spreading the hope of God's love and the universal gift of freedom." How to square "spreading . . . God's love" and the "gift of freedom" with bombing the Iranians is hard to fathom, but, in any event, evangelicals like Hagee have been among President Bush's strongest supporters and the president is not about to abandon them now.

Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears.

Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes.

Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he'd been accused of wizardry.

YOU ARE FREE TO SUBMIT TO AUTHORITY - CLERGY SELL OUT TO ASSIST WITH MARTIAL LAW...

Oh, I can't wait to get the e-mails from folks who will say, "Yeah, but Obama was a member of the church."

True, very true.

But if the marker is now saying anything unacceptable to the masses, then that should be the standard for any pastor: white, black, male, female, conservative or liberal. And any candidate, member or not.

"Excuse me," I said, walking up to an in-charge-looking man with a name tag who was standing near the front of the bus. "I see everyone has blankets. I didn't bring any. Is this going to be a problem?"

The man was about five feet one and had glassy eyes. He looked up at me and smiled queerly.

"Name?" he said.

"Collins," I said. "Matthew Collins."

He scanned his clipboard, found my name on the appropriate sheet of paper, and X-ed me out with a highlighter. "Don't worry, Matthew," he said, resting his hand on my shoulder. "A wonderful woman named Martha is going to take care of you at the ranch. You just tell her what you need when you get there."

I nodded, glancing at his hand, which was still on my shoulder. He waved me into the bus.

Since the MSM acted as judge, jury and executioner by passing sentence that Obama must be guilty of something, since he attended Wright's church, then all Catholics must be guilty of something, since they have faithfully attended their churches and lavish fulsome praise upon Benedict.

Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee's views?

Hidden From History...

Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust...

The slide I found particularly interesting/shocking/sad, was his new(?) slide containing a graph of human population growth over the past couple hundred-thousand years. It started off good. He pointed at the beginning of the graph, showing the population of humans on Earth from 200,000 years ago, and referred to the "rise of humans."

Cool beans. So he believes that Homo sapiens evolved from other hominid ancestors, right? Nope. In the very same breath, he then continued to explain that according to his religious beliefs, this "rise of humans" was God's creation of mankind -- apparently 200,000 years ago. His graph then changed to include the caption "Adam & Eve" above this starting point.

Wha...?

Better think this one through. Bush coveted the oil wealth of Iraq. In order to get that wealth Bush bore false witness to We The People, the Congress, and the world. Bush then stole that wealth, and killed a lot of people in the process. And by claiming that God told him to do all that Bush took the Lord's name in vain, I think. So, he's batting 500 in terms of breaking the Ten Commandments, ... and all who support him are accessories to the crime.

And what is the result? Did your God deliver a swift and easy victory to George Bush by flinging natural disasters onto the infidel?

No, the natural disasters are hitting the nation that invaded Iraq based on that false witness thing I mentioned before. Hurricane Katrina wrecked our largest seaport, through which America's war machine exports much of its cargoes of death around the globe. Katrina also savaged the oil infrastructure, and oil is the lifeblood of conventional warfare.

Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up

One person told me their nephew came home from Iraq and hasn't had a sober day since. Oh well, I can't do anything about it so that's why I'm asking you to help us out if you have time. If you have something like an X-Men team or Bat-Angel or Super-Someone you send in such cases, now would be a good time. And I don't think that you need to bring down the whole planet to get all of us to wake up when most of us are awake and it's the few of us that all of us feel you need to have a chat with. So can you help us out here. Nome sayin?

Rational Response Squad...

The whole idea behind Christian Zionism is to align America with the nation of Israel so as to "hurry God up" in his efforts to bring about Armageddon. As Hagee tells it, only after Israel is involved in a final showdown involving a satanic army (in most interpretations, a force of Arabs led by Russians) will Christ reappear. On that happy day, Hagee and his True Believers will be whisked up to Heaven by God, while the rest of us nonbelievers are left behind on Earth to suck eggs and generally suffer various tortures.

If this pro-torture stand was Dobson's alone, there would be little attention paid to it. But last month an ethics professor, Daniel R. Heimback, at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, favors torture much as Dobson does. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders also favor torture. A Baptist Press (BP) release reported that to oppose torture "threatens to undermine Christian moral witness in contemporary culture." They went on to say that situation ethics necessitates that sometimes torture is the right thing to do.

A federal appeals court sought compromise Monday between a liberal group demanding the names of White House visitors and the Bush administration, which says releasing the names would erode the president's power. ADVERTISEMENT

If released, the documents would show how often prominent religious conservatives visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence, allowing a glimpse into how much influence they exerted on government policy.

The come by the droves.... not to walk in the steps of Jesus, but rather to spit on them. Jesus preached love, these people preach hatred... yet they believe He will return. Even if He does, I doubt very much if they would be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.... Heaven is a HATE FREE ZONE!

Get Religion For Your Brain Today! You'll Be Believing Stuff In No Time!

Every year I marvel again at the genius of this ceremony. It unites the whole family, and everyone - from the venerable grandfather to the smallest child - has a role in it. It engages all the senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. The simplistic text of the Haggadah, the book which is read aloud, the symbolic food, the four glasses of wine, the singing together, the exact repetition of every part every year - all these imprint on the consciousness of a child from the earliest age an ineradicable memory that they will carry with them to the grave, be they religious or not. They will never forget the security and warmth of the large family around the Seder table, and even in old age they will recall it with nostalgia. A cynic might see it as a perfect example of brain-washing.

Compared to the power of this myth, does it really matter that the Exodus from Egypt never took place? Thousands of Egyptian documents deciphered in recent years leave no room for doubt: the exodus of masses of people, as described in the Bible, or anything remotely like it, just never happened. These documents, which cover in the finest detail every period and every part of Canaan during this epoch prove beyond any doubt that there was no "Conquest of Canaan" and no kingdom of David and Solomon. For a hundred years, Zionist archeologists have devoted tireless efforts to finding even a single piece of evidence to support the Biblical narrative, all to no avail.

"Although atheism is negative in character ("A" - no, "Theos" - god), it need not be destructive. When used to eradicate superstition and its detrimental effects, atheism is a benevolent, constructive approach. It clears the air, as it were, leaving the door open for positive principles and philosophies based, not on the supernatural, but on man's ability to think and comprehend. Religion has had the disastrous effect of placing vitally important concepts, such as morality, happiness and love, in a supernatural realm inaccessible to man's mind and knowledge.

Why I am not a Christian Part I...

"Morality and religion have become so intertwined that many people cannot conceive of ethics divorced from god, even in principle - which leads to the assumption and misconception that the atheist is out to destroy values. Atheism, however, is not the destruction of morality; it is the destruction of supernatural morality. Likewise, atheism is not the destruction of happiness and love; it is the destruction of the idea that happiness and love can be achieved only in another world. "

One of the problems I have with religion... wait a minute... I've got a number of problems with religion and I think I'll cover them all here today.

We're your friendly neighborhood atheist activists!

Documents on church administration and the abuse crisis, including major collections of diocesan and investigative files from: Boston MA | Manchester NH Davenport IA | Portland ME | Fort Worth TX

"put the Church's interests ahead of child safety- OR FACE EXCOMMUNICATION"

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'

The government has predetermined an important role for the clergy should martial law become a reality in America. While federal military-police powers will hold a key position of authority, the clergy may provide the means for further subduing the public.

Some of America's leaders are fundamentalists who literally believe in Armageddon. Many of these folks believe that Christians must help bring nuclear war to the middle east in order to bring on the apocalypse, so that the "second coming" will happen (and see this).

These folks are obviously dangerous. But this essay is not about them. It is about the other governmental leaders who are not fundamentalists, or perhaps not even religious at all, but are still creating a self-fulling prophecy of doom.

A former West Haven rabbi has been given a suspended five year prison sentence for possessing child pornography.

Clergy Abuse Victims Want UN to Investigate Vatican...

En route to the U.S. for his first American visit since being elected, Pope Benedict said he is "deeply ashamed" of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic church in 2002.

Italy's public broadcasting corporation, RAI, was accused yesterday of withholding approval for the screening of a controversial BBC documentary that accuses Pope Benedict of covering up sex crimes by Roman Catholic priests.

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

Pope Says Church Will Bar Pedophile Priests...

But Benedict's prayer service that evening with U.S. bishops at a famed Washington basilica preclude him from coming to the dinner, according to the White House. Catholic leaders will be there instead.

Thoughts on the Bible by Michael Rivero...

'Perhaps you do not yet see that the worst is awaiting your kind in the face of the coming Islamo-Christian War, from which my kind will arise victorious. Perhaps G-d will find it suitable that a terrorist attack will end your misery. I shall personally pray for it to be so."-Orri Joseph Avraham, an Israeli Citizen in an email to this writer

These so-called Christians are literally celebrating on the graves of Palestinians murdered by the very state they so adore. They are here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel without a glance at the suffering that resulted from that founding.. They sing, they dance, they bask in the 'Glory of the Lord'..... what about the Palestinians? Do they really believe them to be 'children of a lesser God?' Where were they when a siege was placed on Gaza resulting in starvation, a medical crisis, a systemised plan to ethnically cleanse an entire nation off the face of this earth.... WHERE WERE THEY??? Do they really believe this is what Jesus would want?

"By not including Boston on his trip, Pope Benedict may give the appearance of trying to avoid the sexual abuse scandal," said Dan Bartley, president of Voice of the Faithful, a Boston-based lay group that formed in the wake of the abuse scandal that rocked the city in 2000.

"Avoiding the scandal will not fix the many challenges facing our church today," Bartley said.

A British documentary claimed that Pope Benedict XVI was implicated in the systematic cover-up of child sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests.

Before becoming head of the church, the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger enforced church doctrinal orthodoxy, including a "secret Vatican decree which seemed to shelter the perpetrators and silence the victims of abuse", the Panorama programme said.

This was the 1962 document Crimen Sollicitationis, which told top churchmen how to deal with priests who "solicit or provoke the penitent toward impure and obscene matters", according to a translation from Latin on the BBC website.

It imposed an oath of secrecy on victims, witnesses and those probing abuse claims and said that anyone breaking this would be excommunicated, the BBC said.

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

History of Religion Map in 90 seconds (requires shockwave)...

Israel Police said Monday they will begin extradition proceedings against Rabbi Elior Chen, who fled to Canada shortly after one of his followers was charged with systematic child abuse including burning her toddlers, making them eat feces, and putting them in a suitcase for days.

By 444 BC, the laxity of Jewish practice in Judah rose to the concern of a Kohen in Babylon named Ezra. He persuaded the Persian Emperor to permit him to return to Judah, with a large contingent of Babylonian Jews, and restore the rigorous practice of the Jewish religion. The Persian Emperor also approved sending Nehemiah as governor, to supervise the secular management of Judah to support whatever Ezra needed. You will find all this written in the OT books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The net result of these efforts was the restoration of rigorous Jewish practices in Judah until around 330 BC, when Alexander the Great conquered the region. There was so little of note that happened during this period that scholars call it "The Quiet period of the OT" (Old Testament).

Now, when you quote Ezekiel from the OT, (the yellow sheet you gave out), you are, and please excuse me for being critical, far off base. Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian Captivity, and foretold events that would surround the return from the Babylonian Captivity. When his prophecies came true, the Kohanim, who wrote the OT, canonized his writing as "holy" and incorporated them into the OT. Ezekiel's prophecies pertain to a period 25 centuries ago! They have nothing to do with the modern era, or the modern "state" of Israel.

Now consider the three quarters of a million people who were displaced to make this Jewish exclusivist (racist) state. And consider the massacres, the rapes. Consider the total and utter progressive strangulation of Palestinian society. Consider the attacks on Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and on the USS Liberty. Consider the siege of Gaza. Consider the checkpoints, closures, extra-judicial executions, the jails filled with Palestinian teenagers on "administrative detention"- held without charge. Consider the widespread use of torture. Consider the children that are dying every day. As a man of God, do you really want to support this? Even if you were right about scripture, do you want to support this? What kind of man of God supports a death-crazed racist program of land theft that kills so many thousands of innocents? Are you a man of God or are you hypnotized by a fantasy which is terribly destructive?

Like distant thunder and lightning that warn of an approaching storm, recent events strongly suggest a false-flag attack on the Catholic Church-either in the form of an assassination on the Pope himself or a terrorist attack on the Vatican-may soon be in the works for those wishing to widen the present 'clash of civilizations' between the Christian and Muslim worlds for Israel's benefit.

Among the county's historic directional sign post, farm equipment and gazebo stand several monuments and expressions of free speech. The displays include an Iraq and Afghanistan Soldier's Memorial, Statue of Liberty, chainsaw-carved monkeys and bears, Jesus carrying a cross, and the most recent display added -- a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Pope Benedict XVI will visit a synagogue and hold a private meeting with Jewish leaders during his historic trip to the United States later this month, church officials announced Thursday.

A Brooklyn yeshiva and its head administrator are being sued for $10 million over alleged sexual abuse by a rabbi who taught there for several decades.

The lawsuit is the fifth to be filed against Yeshiva Torah Temimah and administrator Lipa Margulies alleging sexual abuse by Rabbi Yudi Kolko.

Kolko was arrested for a second time in September for allegedly molesting a boy at the yeshiva, and then released on bail.

He was previously charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and with endangering the welfare of a child.

Therefore I was not at all surprised when during his 27-year papacy John Paul II became a great antagonist of American imperialism and of savage Capitalism with its laws of consumerism, hedonism, and unemployment. He sounded like Marx when he said, "Unemployment creates in its victims a serious condition of emargination. Money must not be one's major concern since it has the power to enslave men's souls."

Magdi Allam, the notorious Egyptian-born Italian Islamophobe-turned-Catholic, has been trying to create the impression that his highly-publicized conversion to Roman Catholicism at the Vatican last week is a genuine spiritual transformation.

However, a plethora of anti-Islam statements and remarks by the controversial neophyte suggests that the man is an imposter and that his conversion had more to do with morbid hatred of Islam and Muslims and less with true spirituality.

Religious orders operating within the diocese, such as the Salesians, accounted for 40 of the 64 clergy Advertisement members accused of abuse -- more than 60 percent -- a MediaNews examination of thousands of court documents has found. Two additional religious order priests were reported to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, but they could not be independently verified through court records.

A couple whose church preaches against medical care are facing criminal charges after their young daughter died of an infection that authorities said went untreated.

Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted Friday on charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava. They belong to the Followers of Christ Church, whose members have a history of treating gravely ill children only with prayer.

VIDEO - How the Neo Cons use the Myth of religion in politics...

Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the World's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday. "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,"

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

Police say a pastor who was reported missing from his home in western New York has been found at an Ohio strip club.

Two Creationists take home schooled kids on a tour of a natural history museum filling their minds with Young Earth Creationist Bullshit.

Authorities arrested six people, including the man who admitted to hiring her services as a witch. They were due to appear before a magistrate on Friday.

Empty grain elevators surrounded by a swollen White River await a harvest that may never come as floodwaters drown wheat already planted this spring.

Last year, Arkansas produced about 28.7 million bushels of wheat. Now, muddy waters have run through fields for days, taking with it expensive fertilizer treatments already applied to the soil.

Allegations of sexual abuse by the principal of a fervently Orthodox girls school in Melbourne has shocked the Jewish community and sparked fierce debate over whether a Jewish community newspaper should have reported the allegations.

Since Hillary Clinton has launched a frontal attack on her opponent's church and pastor, it's worth noting that she has some odd religious ties of her own. When I was profiling her two years ago, I learned about her involvement with a secretive Christian organization called The Fellowship that has operated in the Washington shadows since the 1930s.

Calls for the west to use force to restore its values in the face of radical Islam reveal a profound detachment from reality

The highly-publicized conversion to Catholicism of a naturalized Italian citizen of Egyptian origin this week once again illustrates the uneasy relations between Islam and western Christianity.

The problem, of course, doesn't lie in the conversion itself. People after all should be free to choose their faith and way of life without coercion. The Quran itself declares that "let there be no compulsion in religion."

But the problem lies in the vindictive atmosphere surrounding the conversion ceremony, including the anti-Islamic allusions and insinuations.

While many of Israel's 15,000 or so "Messianic Jews" [italics added - Jews who believe in Jesus' divinity are not recognized as Jewish by mainstream Jews and Jewish groups. - Israel Insider editor] have experienced harassment and prejudice at the hands of orthodox Jewish individuals and organizations, persecution has not hit anywhere close to this kind of violent level before.

St Peter's journey to Rome led to the spread of Christianity in the West and the foundation of Roman Catholicism, so the Church has always taught.

But a new documentary will challenge the link as nothing more than a "conspiracy of faith". In it, prominent academics accuse the Vatican of misleading the world over the fate of the man regarded as Jesus Christ's closest disciple. In allegations likely to spark controversy, they accuse the Church of fabricating a connection with the apostle to validate giving ultimate power to the papacy.

As much as the city of Philadelphia is known as the city of 'brotherly love', Israel has become to be known a the country of 'intolerance and hate'.

This not only manifests itself as hatred towards Muslims, but also as hatred towards fellow Jews. We see it between the different Christian sects in the community. If one decides to worship differently than the others, he is hated. We see this constantly in ongoing episodes between the Orthodox, the Conservative and the Reform among the Jews. Recently a new target has been those associated with the group known as 'Jews for Jesus'.

At a gas station, I scored the paper and coffee, spilled some on the front page - the closest thing I've got to a religious ritual - then parked in front of a row of insanely pretty salt-box houses shining like mad teeth on the river bank.

One was missing a pick-up in the driveway; its screen door was left half-open, and there was a letter taped to the window. The Sheriff's Notice of eviction. Another foreclosure.

God damn America.

Dozens of Filipinos, including the boy and an 18-year-old girl, were nailed to crosses and scores more whipped their backs into a bloody pulp as the country's devout Roman Catholics marked Good Friday.

ARE CHILDREN THE CANNON FODDER FOR THE RAPTURE?...

Contrary to popular belief, Easter does not represent the "historical" crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In reality, the gospel tale reflects the annual "crossification" of the sun through the vernal equinox (Spring), at which time the sun is "resurrected," as the day begins to become longer than the night.

Rather than being a "Christian" holiday, Easter celebrations date back into remotest antiquity and are found around the world, as the blossoming of spring did not escape the notice of the ancients, who revered this life-renewing time of the year, when winter had passed and the sun was "born again." The "Pagan" Easter is also the Passover, and Jesus Christ represents not only the sun but also the Passover Lamb ritually sacrificed every year by a number of cultures, including the Egyptians, possibly as early as 4,000 years ago and continuing to this day in some places.

Easter is "Pessach" in Hebrew, "Pascha" in Greek, "Pachons" in Latin and "Pa-Khonsu" in Egyptian, "Khonsu" being an epithet for the sun god Horus. In Anglo-Saxon, Easter or Eostre is goddess of the dawn, corresponding to Ishtar, Astarte, Astoreth and Isis. The word "Easter" shares the same root with "east" and "eastern," the direction of the rising sun.

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father--Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer--denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were very much like things pastors on the right say too.

Christ continued. "But I come before America today, for she is the greatest danger to world peace since Genesis.

"To suggest that God, our father, would ever be on the side of an America--or any country, for that matter--which attacks poor, defenseless, impoverished people out of revenge, fear, ignorance or greed, contradicts everything I stand for today and, more importantly, died for two thousand years ago."

EASTER IS CANCELED!...

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.

John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's? You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not.

Beat your swords into plowshares...

We all have families, some of us are fortunate enough to have what we call 'extended families'. I am one of those fortunate ones as I love my friends as if they were family and treat them as such.

Because of this 'mini philosophy' of mine I have a 'son' who is a Muslim and a 'daughter' who is a Christian. We all rejoice in each others' Holidays and Festivals, but it is a special treat when they all fall out on the same days. We all go by different calendars, but every so often they coincide as was the case this year.... read the following to see what I mean, in a post written by the woman referred to as 'my daughter' above... my dear Nola, a very special person.

AND NONE AT ALL TO MCCAIN'S RIGHTWING MINISTER PAL AND CLINTON'S MEMBERSHIP IN A GROUP OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS?

THE NAZARENE...

The recent coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright has often cast him as a marginal, almost fringe figure, but Trinity Church is a major Chicago institution, and Wright has long been a prominent pastor on the American scene.

And an anonymous blog set up to defend his church offers some compelling photographic evidence of this: A photograph of Wright and President Clinton, which it says was taken on September 11, 1998 -- the date of a White House gathering for religious leaders.

When the Rev. William Procanick put his hand on the Bible during his sex-abuse trial in Oneida County Court earlier this year, he swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But as the former Clinton pastor was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl at his home last March, Judge Michael L. Dwyer said Procanick sacrificed his honesty the day he testified.

Tim Russert, in front of millions of Americans on Tuesday night, was quick to force Barack Obama to denounce Louis Farrakahn repeatedly until he worded it to Russert's satisfaction (evidently the words "unacceptable and reprehensible" didn't quite get the job done). Despite the fact that Obama never sought Farrakahn's endorsement, Russert felt this line of questioning was appropriate given Farrakhan's intolerant remarks about Jews in the past.

Okay, so let's accept Russert's argument that this is a fair line of inquiry. If that's the case, then why isn't he pressing John McCain about radical religious extremist uber-nut John Hagee?

Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan clash over the teaching of evolution. Ed Murrow's classic narration of this story, pictures taken during the trial, plus scenes from the movie inspired by the events --Inherit the Wind.

The language used by Reverend Jeremiah Wright to denounce his country is certainly "inflammatory" and has brought him wide vilification. Yet, the words of this otherwise gentle man of peace are nowhere as damnable as the actions of the man of war in the White House responsible for killing more than a million human beings in Iraq. Yet the president's uncounted lies have never been subjected to the intense scrutiny on TV that the networks are now devoting to Rev. Wright's comments! And why is that?

Reliable sources in Mosul, asserted today, that the murdered Iraqi Bishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was a staunch opponent to the US occupation of Iraq, denouncing many times and publicly the assassination of the Iraqi legitimate President Saddam Hussein.

The mentioned sources explained that the late Archbishop of Nineveh, Paulos Faraj Rahho was one of the most outspoken Iraqi high graded clerics who rejected publicly and utterly the US' occupation of Iraq and denounced many a times President Saddam Hussein murder by the US.

Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraq on Sunday, days after the body of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found near the northern city of Mosul.

Anonymous, which describes itself as a loosely affiliated group united against the injustices perpetrated by Scientology, coalesced in January after a video of Scientologist Tom Cruise was leaked to YouTube and then promptly removed because of threats from Scientology attorneys.

Members of Anonymous claimed this was an affront to the freedom of the Internet. A video message from Anonymous taunting the leaders of Scientology received more than 2-million views on YouTube.

Mgr Girotti said genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs were all mortal sins.

50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight

The Roman Catholic church in the United States paid out 615 million dollars (400 million euros) last year for child sex abuse cases involving members of the clergy, or 54 percent more than the previous year, a report showed Friday.

"The voices, flamboiements, the voice of the horn and the mountain steaming" that the Israelites saw, according to the Bible (Book of Exodus), as they camped around Mount Sinai, the researcher noted, own hallucinatory experiences in the Amazon after absorbing ayahuasca, a beverage made from vines that drink the Latin American shamans. «Avec l'ayahuasca, j'ai éprouvé des visions religieuses et spirituelles» souligne le professeur qui a consommé plus d'une centaine de fois la décoction. "With the ayahuasca, I had visions of religious and spiritual," said Professor who consumed more than one hundred times the decoction. La transmission divine à Moïse des tables de la Loi serait donc, estime-t-il, le fruit d'une hallucination collective. The transmission God to Moses tables of the Act would be, he says, the result of a collective hallucination.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

What Christians Don’t Know About Israel...

A group of concerned people of many faiths, who support Pope Benedict's public statements in opposition to the Iraq war, are encouraging him to confront President Bush on the matter during the Pope's scheduled April visit to the United States.

fastest growing position on religion is atheism...

The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs came under fire earlier this month for inviting to a conference on terrorism three men who make questionable claims to being former terrorists, and whose message was more about religious conversion than counterterror strategies.

There is little on the planet more disgusting and infuriating than the in your face prosperity of Televangelists, Christian College Executives, Healing Hedonists and Mega-Church Ministers. I see it locally here when a pastor type comes into visit the sick with a gold ring on each finger, gold watch, gold necklace and dressed to kill. Of course, they always carry a dog eared Bible to send the correct message when the lay it up on the counter for all to see.

The medical examiner's office said the official cause of death is pending toxicology reports.

American Jews are losing interest in Israel, according to figures released Tuesday in the American Jewish Committee 2007 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion.

Amazing moment the world's biggest Christ was struck by lightning...

How is it that we have drifted away from being an informed, active, knowledgeable, and dedicated group of highly motivated Christian patriots to a group of impotent and anemic sheep? Our Christian forebears must be turning over in their graves, because we are in the process of squandering the greatest human sacrifice--save that of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ--ever made: the sacrifice of America's Founding Fathers.

The Rev. Andrzej Trojanowski, a soft-spoken Pole, plans to build a "spiritual oasis" that will serve as Europe's only center dedicated to performing exorcisms. With the blessing of the local Catholic archbishop and theological support from the Vatican, the center will aid a growing number of Poles possessed by evil forces or the devil himself, he said.

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian...

Trent Huddleston claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he discovered an "unrestricted" account used to funnel "unusually large" sums of money through the university each month _ which would exceed US$1billion on an annual basis _ that was not used for any legitimate university purpose.

Church Could Have Avoided Scandal, Prominent Clerical Authority on Child Abuse Writes...

Pope backs surge of exorcism squads 'to fight the Devil head on'...

Pope backs surge of exorcism squads 'to fight the devil head on...

The strongly anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews has attacked Ashkennazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger as a "very well paid Zionist stooge" and a "a wicked emissary of evil" who should be expelled from Israel, following Metzger's reported comments proposing that poor Gazans be moved to a Palestinian state established in the Sinai.

At present there are 450 legal cases taken by victims of clerical abuse in Dublin alone.

Martin's own inquiry team has also identified 147 priests and members of religious orders against whom allegations of sexual abuse were made over the last 60 years.

These are busy days for Christian Zionists. While President Bush recently returned from his trip to the Middle East "optimistic" that a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians could be reached by the end of the year, Pastor John Hagee’s Christian United for Israel (CUFI) is setting forth plans to put the kibosh — if not on the entire peace process — on any agreement that would sanction the division of Jerusalem. And Dr. Mike Evans has launched a "Save Jerusalem Campaign" while Joel C. Rosenberg’s Joshua Fund is planning a major celebration in Jerusalem in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary.

The God Delusion explores the unproven beliefs that are treated as factual by many religions and the extremes to which some followers have ... taken them. Dawkins opens the programme by describing the "would-be murderers .. who want to kill you and me, and themselves, because they're motivated by what they think is the highest ideal." Dawkins argues that "the process of non-thinking called faith" is not a way of understanding the world, but instead stands in fundamental opposition to modern science and the scientific method, and is divisive and dangerous.

Successful sexual-abuse suits against parish priests have cost archdioceses across the country so many millions of dollars that the church has been forced to put properties up for sale.

Burkle never intended to capitalize on the church's distress, but was aware of its large landholdings in the U.S. He had the foresight to start a company that would buy up properties and either resell them or develop them, which he has done for a tidy profit, our source reports.

Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinners and shunning those who won't repent.

Here's some background. On the TV show "Trading Spouses", the producers take 2 different families form different walks of life, and for a week, the mothers swap homes and live with the other. The goal is to expose both sides to differences and hopefully get them to appreciate what they have. The mixes can be "socialite family to harlem bronx family", or "Rich family to welfare only", etc... Each family then gets $50,000 and the other person writes a letter saying how they SUGGEST the money gets allocated, based on what they see.

Well this episode they took a Pagan family and a Fundamentalist Christian family. The pagan woman was well received by the Christian's home and overall theyr family liked her...thought she was strange, but liked her. The Christian woman however was convinced that she had entered God's testing ground and basically was a nut, convinced that she was God's warrior and that she HAD to convery this heathenestic family, had the most closed mind ever, and totally lost it, clutching to her Bible crying almost every day. It was a funny 2 shows!

The clip here is after the week was over, and the Christian mother is returning to her family. As you can see, she is mentally unbalanced...there is no other word for it. Remember her family LIKED the pagan woman, as did her kid. See the terror in their eyes as this woman flips out in front of her OWN family!

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.

The Jesuits were founded for 2 basic reasons:

1. Enforce the Bull of Pope Alexander VI that strictly prohibits any nationality but Spanish from visiting the New World without a license.

2. Use the vast New World gold and silver to subjugate the entire world to the Spanish Inquisition.

Of the existing 113 licenses that allow souvenir selling in Rome, 112 belong to Jewish vendors.

On the occasion of the opening of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on the Mall in Washington, noted Jewish author Melvin Jules Bukiet called the Museum a “statement of raw power,” and added: “It’s not Jewish tragedy that’s remembered on the Mall this week; it’s Jewish power to which homage is paid.”

THuckabee defends his call to re-write the Constitution....

Judaism Is A Racist Idea...

In the deposition, Earl Paulk said under oath that the only woman with whom he had ever had sex outside his marriage was Brewer. But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother's son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church.

As part of Brewer's lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.

Galileo's inquisitors maintained the scriptures indicated the Earth was stationary.

Huckabee: The Constitution Should Be Amended To Conform To The Word Of Gods...

Is Religion a Threat to Democracy?...

Hinn and Dollar are among six televangelists being investigated by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley to determine if the high-profile preachers violated their organizations' tax-exempt status by l