Tag: Jesusland

Elderly Nuns Evicted As Church Raises $660 Mil Fine against Predator Priests

Jon Ponder

The Catholic Church in Southern California must pay $660 million to victims of ephebophile priests, so, naturally, one of the first things to go on the chopping block is a nuns’ home in Santa Barbara.

“We all have to pay the price for the sins of the few … I didn’t get a raise this year.”
– Spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reacting to nuns’ loss of their home and jobs.

The nuns have four months to move out, according to a letter from the archdiocese. The notice, which was dated June 28 but not received until the end of August, asked the women to vacate the property no later than Dec. 31 — and noted that an earlier departure “would be acceptable as well.” Signed by Msgr. Royale M. Vadakin, the archdiocese’s vicar general, the letter offers the nuns no recourse but thanks them for their understanding and cooperation during a difficult time.

The convent is a small house Santa Barbara’s Eastside, a rapidly shrinking lower-income section of one of the toniest and most desirable cities in the United States. (Oprah has a home nearby; Michael Jackson and the Reagans have owned ranches in the area.) The modest convent is the home of three nuns:

Sister Angela, who formerly worked at Catholic Charities [in Santa Barbara] and is now retired, suffers from failing eyesight and other health problems and uses a walker. But she continues to do volunteer immigration and translation work with parishioners. Sister Consuelo works in Catholic education at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. Sister Margarita is the housekeeper and takes care of Sister Angela. They maintain the building using Sister Angela’s Social Security SSI disability allotment and Sister Consuelo’s income. They have no idea where they will go before the December 31 deadline arrives — possibly to the Los Angeles-area Bethany convent.

The nun’s house has been assessed at $98,000, but home prices in the neighborhood start around $700,000 (a steal in Santa Barbara). Not surprisingly, a bishop’s residence in a neighborhood nearby where prices start at $1.5 million is not being sold:

“Auxiliary Bishop [Thomas] Curry of Santa Barbara is residing by himself in a former convent in San Roque, an upper-crust area,” [said Rosemary Escalera Gutierrez, who is the real life sister of Sister Angela]. “The convent there is triple the size of the Bethany Convent and is triple the value. Why not sell the more lucrative real estate that houses one individual?”

And Bishop Curry has been accused of complicity in the sex scandal:

Bishop Curry was in the news last week when it was revealed that he may have been aware that a priest accused of sexual abuse planned to flee to his native Mexico in 1988. The priest is still a fugitive.

Reacting to a reporter’s inquiry about the nuns’ eviction, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Archdiocese was less than compassionate:

“We all have to pay the price for the sins of the few,” [Tod] Tamberg said. “I didn’t get a raise this year.”

A group of Santa Barbarans met last week to formulate a plan to help the nuns. It would be nice to think that God is on their side.

Christian ‘Family’ Group Deploys Sexy Videos in New Fundraising Appeal

Jon Ponder

Last year, the Mississippi-based American Family Association (AFA) reported a net worth of $32 million, most of which it raised by its relentless message of hatred for gay people.

It’s a win-win. AFA raises millions from the sexy videos, and the burger chains get tons of free promotion among a key customer demo: sexually repressed Christian carnivores.

It’s way too soon to surmise that professional homophobia is losing its financial luster but it is interesting to note that in a recent fundraising email, AFA has turned its sights on a burger chain’s use of sexy women in television ads. The AFA fundraiser says:

CKE Restaurants, Inc. (Hardees/Carl’s Jr.) is hitting new lows in their latest round of television commercials. After offending families with Paris Hilton and Hugh Hefner-driven ads over the past few years, the hamburger chain is taking its history of sleaze marketing to a new level.

One of the latest ads, now on national television, depicts a sexualized female teacher in a high school classroom doing a stripper-style dance on top of her desk, while male students do a rap song about her “flat buns.” [Video above left. – Ed.] (Warning: This ad is offensive and provided only for the purpose of educating our members).

In another ad, a scantly-clad woman gyrates to a countdown of things she wants a man to do to her. All the time, she is eating a “patty melt” sandwich. [Video above right. – Ed.] (Warning: This ad is offensive and provided only for the purpose of educating our members).

Yeah, right! The AFA would never dream of using sexy videos on the internet to raise money. Sending around salacious material like that might offend its members — or about half of the men, at least:

A new survey shows that five of ten Christian men in the U.S. — and two of ten Christian women — are addicted to pornography. The survey was conducted by ChristiaNet.com, an online Christian Internet community.

The AFA email concludes with its money shot:

Thanks for caring enough to get involved. If you find our efforts worthy, would you consider making a donation to help us continue?

Sincerely,
Don

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder & Chairman
American Family Association

P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!

It’s easy to dismiss AFA’s actions as silly prudery but even well-funded enterprises like AFA and its competitors in the homophobia industry, which collectively gross over $400 million annually tax free, do not need expensive marketing research to know what any kid in Marketing 101 can tell you: Sex sells.

The bottom line leads to a cynical conclusion: Sending out a fundraising email with links to sexy videos may well be a win-win for both AFA and the fast-food joints. AFA could raise thousands or more in tax-free dollars, and the restaurants will get tons of free publicity among a key customer base: sexually repressed Christian carnivores.

A New Online Compendium of Republican Sleaze

Jon Ponder

A Review:Tommy Korioth at Basket of Puppies deserves kudos for the hard slogging he did in putting together the Republican Culture of Corruption – An Extended List.

During divorce proceedings, one Focus on the Family physician and Bush FDA appointee was accused of anally raping his wife for eight years. When asked about it, he said, “I missed.”

There are around 200 entries categorized by high profile crimes (espionage, corruption and bribery and perjury), sex-related offenses (child rape, child pornography, rape, sexual harassment, lewd conduct and prostitution) and lesser offenses including drugs and DUI.

The list also looks at specific cases, including those of Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, the Merit System Scandal in Kentucky and the incredibly under-reported White House gay prostitution ring in the George H.W. Bush administration.

Talk show hosts get their own break-out as do Republican serial killers. There were at least two: Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, and Ted Bundy.

As extensive as the list is, there is so much Republican sleaze out there that no one person could list them all. A couple of notable omissions here include the DUI of George W. Bush at age 30, and Dick Cheney’s two arrests in the 1960s.

(Korioth’s list also does not cover adultery, per se, however for a review of the most egregious cases, we put together The Real Threat to Marriage: Top 10 GOP Adulterers last year.)

A few notable from the Republican Culture of Corruption that were news to me or that I’d forgotten:
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Like Its Boycotts, AFA’s ‘Debate’ Will Likely Be Ineffectual

Buck Banks

Donald “The Wildman” Wildmon is touting the American Family Association’s upcoming GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate Sept. 17. Here’s how he describes it:

We’ve heard the questions from talking snowmen. We’ve gotten the crumbs that fell from Chris Matthews. Now it’s our turn. It’s time the candidates answer questions from the largest voting block in America: the values voters. Yes, the values voters.

It wasn’t supposed to be just a GOP event among the presumptive losers. Wildmon invited all candidates, Democrats and Republicans to come to Fort Lauderdale to answer real questions. Of course no Dems are coming, and the list of GOPers who have committed to the event reads like the also rans following the primaries: Huckabee, Brownback, Hunter, Paul, Tancredo and Cox.

What does Wildmon say makes this debate different?

The candidates will be asked questions related to abortion, immigration, marriage and other issues Values Voters consider important.

If you want to see where they stand on the traditional, pro-family issues, don’t miss this debate.

Whoa, there should be a wide array of differing opinions among these white guys in black suits with red ties, setting off a spirited debate among them to see who can be the most right-wing and least tolerant.

Of course, this marginal event is not being broadcast by any television network, but will be streamed live from the AFA Web site.

GOP Moral Relativism: Sen. Craig Must Resign But Sen. Vitter Can Stay

Jon Ponder

The clamor for Sen. Larry “Wide Stance” Craig to resign is growing by the minute among Republicans in Washington. The senator’s inadvertent self-outing in an airport men’s room in June has rendered him too morally impure to remain in the GOP.

So what are the moral dictates behind the decision that Craig should go but Vitter can stay? There aren’t any. It’s all politics.

But when it was revealed in July that Sen. David Vitter’s number appeared in the D.C. Madam’s call list, these same Washington Republican elites readily accepted his apology for his “sins.” No one among the capitol’s conservative elite called for Vitter to step down.

Whatever happened to the Republicans’ vaunted “moral absolutism” on matters like these?

We have two Republican senators, both vocal supporters of “family values” — both have admitted to engaging in illegal activities. One pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover cop, the other got nabbed paying for sex, allegedly had a child with a prostitute and reportedly has a fetish for diapers.

So what are the moral dictates behind the decision that Craig should go but Vitter can stay?

There aren’t any. It’s all politics. The governor of Vitter’s state is a Democrat, and she would be eager to replace him with a Democrat. The governor of Idaho is a Republican, so his seat is safe. It’s that simple.

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Homophobia Inc.: Message of Hate Raises Hundreds of Millions of Dollars – Tax-Free

Jon Ponder

Homophobia has flourished in the Bush era, both as a potent political tool — many people believe George Bush would have lost Ohio in 2004, and thus a second term, if Karl Rove hadn’t made sure there was an anti-gay initiative on the state ballot — and as an industry unto itself. In just one year, the top 10 Christianist groups that promote homophobia raised over $400 million in tax-free dollars:

  • Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN)
    Founder, CEO and Director: Pat Robertson
    2004 Revenue: $186,482,060
  • Focus on the Family
    Founder and chairman: Dr. James C. Dobson
    2005 Revenue: $137,848,520
  • Coral Ridge Ministries
    Founder and President: Rev. D. James Kennedy
    2005 Revenue: $39,253,882
  • Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)
    President, CEO and General Counsel: Alan Sears
    2004 Revenue: $17,921,146
  • American Family Association (AFA)
    Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Donald Wildmon
    2005 Revenue: $17,595,352
  • American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)
    Founder and President: Pat Robertson, Chief Counsel: Jay Sekulow
    2005 Revenue: $14,485,514
  • Family Research Council (FRC)
    Founder: James C. Dobson, President and CEO: Tony Perkins
    2005 Revenue: $9,958,115
  • Jerry Falwell Ministries
    Founder and Director: Jerry Falwell (deceased)
    2005 Revenue: $8,950,480
  • Concerned Women for America (CWA)
    Founders: Tim and Beverly LaHaye
    2005 Revenue: $8,484,108
  • Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)
    Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
    2005 Revenue: $6,389,448

All of these groups use homophobia as a fundraising tool, but while some address a wide range of social issues, four of them — Focus on the Family, AFA, FRC, TVC — are one-trick ponies that focus all or most of their activities on promoting homophobia. (The late Falwell and CWA arguably could belong to this group too.) These four groups raised $169 million of the revenue in 2005.

If fundraising for these four hate groups remains flat each year from 2005 through the end of 2007, they will have raised about $500 million among them in three years.

Tax free.

Another Man Killed for Being Gay; Murderer Says He Was Serving God

Trish

We wish Ryan Skipper’s death were the last one we ever had to hear happened because someone was so threatened by the idea of homosexuality that they killed. But it wasn’t.

Mangum, who described himself as “definitely not a homosexual,” said God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is the “worst sin.”

A Texas man said he was doing God’s work when he randomly targeted and brutally murdered a 46-year-old Southwest Airlines flight attendant named Kenneth Cummings Jr. earlier this summer.

Terry Mark Mangum, 26, told [Brazoria County newspaper] The Facts in a jailhouse interview Friday that he had targeted and killed Cummings because he was homosexual and that he stabbed him in the head. He called his actions “God’s justice.”

…Mangum told The Facts he went to a known gay bar in Houston that night to specifically target a homosexual and said that Cummings, “just happened to be the one that I bumped into.”

…After 600 volunteers spent several days searching through high weeds, dense brush, dump sites and even an abandoned golf course, a bone was found in a dried-up pond. Searchers originally thought the bone belonged to a cow, but after looking at it again, searchers dug around it and found charcoal, Miller said. As they dug deeper, they found a burned body that later was confirmed to be Cummings, Miller said.

The murderer in this case was obviously not only hate-filled but deranged.

“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet,” said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. “…I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing.”

[…]

Former Christian Action League Pres. Pleads Guilty to Hooker Charges

Jon Ponder

Via Pam’s House Blend, Coy Privette — the 74-year-old right-wing Christian nationalist politician, former Baptist preacher and member of the Baptist State Convention, who was fired as the president of the Christian Action League after he was arrested June 19 for aiding and abetting prostitution — has pleaded guilty to those charges.

When we first reported this story, several Privette supporters wrote in to say that, despite the fact that the charges were investigated by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation, the allegations were either erroneous or trumped up and politically motivated to take down a prominent spokesman for “family values.”

Summers taped phone conversations with Privette for investigators and gave police a picture of Privette kissing her cheek, which she took with her camera phone.

Now that Privette has pleaded guilty, the preponderance of the evidence against him has been revealed:

Privette, who has made few public appearances since his June 19 arrest, had to sit in public and watch as [a prosecutor] spelled out details about investigators’ evidence that he paid Salisbury resident Tiffany Denise Summers for sex six times from May 4 through June 25.

Investigators had records from two Salisbury hotels where Privette signed in under his own name. They had separate security tape images showing Privette and Summers in the same hotels on the same days.

They also had evidence from Summers, 32, who cooperated with authorities once investigators called her in.

She taped phone conversations with Privette for investigators and gave police a picture of Privette kissing her cheek, which she took with her camera phone.

He was sentenced to 48 hours of community service and a year of probation, and is required to undergo counseling and pay court costs.

Privette still holds elective office on the Cabarrus County Commission in suburban Charlotte.

Hate Crimes Bill Will Not Restrict Bigots from Using the ‘N-Word’ – Or Ministers from Preaching Hate against Gays

Jon Ponder

Jesus Cries When Christians Lie

A new version of the hate crimes law being debated in Congress would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of currently covered conditions, including race, color, religion, national origin, gender or disability.

If hateful speech and thoughts about blacks were illegal, 99 percent of the Republican Party would be in jail.

Christian extremists, including a cadre of rightwing African-American preachers, are engaged in a coordinated disinformation campaign to convince their followers that this new law, dubbed the Matthew Shepherd Act, would institute new penalties, including jail time, for their hate speech against gays.

Of course, the bill has no such language. Speech, even hate speech, is fully protected under the First Amendment. The new law only criminalizes actions that lead to the bodily harm of the protected groups.

In editorial in the Los Angeles Times today, Geoffrey Stone debunks the Christian disinformation campaign:

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