Tag: Jesusland

Pat the Predictor Has Been Talking to God Again

Buck Banks

Obnoxious prognosticator: Pat Robertson and God were chewing the fat the other day, you know, jaw-jacking, and God told Pat that terrorists are going to attack the United States in 2007, causing a “mass killing.” But “I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” Robertson told the audience of The 700 Club, his television platform for launching his nutty announcements on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The Associated Press looked at some of Pat’s other God-given predictions and outrageous statements from the past:

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election.

Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In 2005, Robertson predicted that Bush would have victory after victory in his second term. He said Social Security reform proposals would be approved and Bush would nominate conservative judges to federal courts.

Lawmakers confirmed Bush’s 2005 nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. But the president’s Social Security initiative was stalled.

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America’s coastline in 2006.

Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring’s heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

And don’t forget Pat’s call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Regarding the accuracy of his prophecy, Robertson said, “I have a relatively good track record. Sometimes I miss.”

Gee, Pat, I thought God was making the predictions and just telling you about them. Are you insinuating that God is not infallible? Or do you need to have your hearing checked?

Bush Theocrats Censor Grand Canyon Geology, Insist It Was Formed by Noah’s Flood

Jon Ponder

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER):

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by [PEER].

PEER says the new director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, has been stalling requests to remove a book that presents the Creationist version of the formation of the Grand Canyon titled, “Grand Canyon: A Different View,” by Tom Vail. The group also says that the park’s interpretive rangers are forbidden from providing the age of the canyon based on its geology.

In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of [Vail’s book]. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.

According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or completed.

Bush appointees in the NPS defend selling the book by saying that bookstores are like libraries and should present a variety of different views. PEER says that “both law and park policies make it clear that the park bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such, materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes.” PEER has obtained records showing that during 2003, park officials rejected 22 books and other products for the park’s bookstore and approved only one new sale item — the book presenting the creationist version of the canyon’s origins.

Have a Very Merry Mithras

Jon Ponder

Mithras was a god whose mythology originated in Greece in the 2nd century B.C. and spread to Rome 100 years later. As gods’ bios go, the story of Mithras has a familiar ring:

  • Mithras was born of a virgin on December 25th in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds.
  • He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
  • He had 12 companions or disciples.
  • Mithras’ followers were promised immortality.
  • He performed miracles.
  • As the “great bull of the Sun,” Mithras sacrificed himself for world peace.
  • He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
  • His resurrection was celebrated every year.
  • He was called “the Good Shepherd” and identified with both the Lamb and the Lion.
  • He was considered the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” and the “Logos,” “Redeemer,” “Savior” and “Messiah.”
  • His sacred day was Sunday.
  • Mithras had his principal festival of what was later to become Easter.
  • His religion had a eucharist or “Lord’s Supper,” at which Mithras said, “He who shall not eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved.”

Mithras ascended into heaven at the age of 64, in 208 B.C.

Jews to Mormons: Stop It with the Posthumous Baptisms Already

Buck Banks

Morbid Mormons: Since the 1990s the Mormon Church has been posthumously baptizing Jews and adding them to its genealogical database in Salt Lake City. But the Latter Dayers went too far when they baptized by proxy legendary — and dead — Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Association.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called on the Mormon Church to remove its namesake from the church’s on-line database of posthumous baptisms, and to be quick about it.

Proxy baptism is a caring expression of faith that provides deceased persons the opportunity to accept or reject what we believe to be a blessing offered in their behalf.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center, made the urgent request after being informed by Salt Lake City researcher Helen Radkey that Wiesenthal’s name had been added about a week ago to the Mormons’ International Genealogical Index.

“We are astounded and dismayed that after assurances and promises by the Mormon Church, Mr. Wiesenthal’s life and memory, along with so many other Jews, would be trampled and disregarded,” Hier said.

Wiesenthal “proudly lived as a Jew, died as a Jew, demanded justice for the millions of the victims of the Holocaust and, at his request, was buried in the State of Israel,” he said.

“It is sacrilegious for the Mormon faith to desecrate his memory by suggesting that Jews on their own are not worthy enough to receive God’s eternal blessing.”

Hier also urged the Utah-based Church to remove the names of all other Holocaust victims from the list.

Many Jews, including Holocaust victims, have been found on the index.

Mormon officials promised in 1995 to stop the practice of posthumously baptizing Jews, but did not. They reiterated the pledge in 2000.

Strangely, the Mormon Church is not just baptizing the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, it also has baptized the architect of the Holocaust — Adolf Hitler — as well as Hitler’s parents and his girlfriend Ava Braun. That happened back in 1993, as uncovered by intrepid researcher Helen Radkey. There has always been controversy surrounding the question of whether Hitler was Jewish, due to the fact that his father might have been illegitimate with an unnamed Jewish father, though most sources agree that there is no convincing proof he was Jewish. What authorities do agree on is that Hitler was afraid of discovering that he was a Jew, which was a driving force in his decision to pursue the Final Solution.
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Groups Charge Iraqi Christians Being Persecuted

Buck Banks

Send in the lions: And we thought it was just Sunnis and Shiites who were duking it out in Iraq. It appears a third group — Christians — are bring systematically persecuted and forced to leave the country, according to UPI.

Now I’m no fan of religion in general, but this situation just points to yet another failure of George Bush’s ill-advised, poorly planned invasion of Iraq and its terrible aftermath.

‘They are being bludgeoned by the Islamic extremists. Their priests have been beheaded, churches bombed and there’s a recent report of a crucifixion of a teenage boy.
— Nina Shea

Several groups are calling for improved treatment of Christians in Iraq, who they say are being martyred, persecuted or forced to flee the country to survive.

Among the atrocities are the bombing of more than 15 churches, the kidnapping and murder of 13 Assyrian women in Baghdad in August, and the beheading of a priest in Mosul in October, says Julia Sorisho Rodgers of Christians for Assyrians of Iraq.

“A lot of people in Washington don’t know who the Assyrians are,” said Rodgers, who organized a Dec. 4 rally outside the White House to protest the treatment of Assyrians, who include Christians, Catholics and Orthodox Church members.

In addition to petitions circulating on the Internet, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has urged granting refugee status to these persecuted believers. In November, USCIRF wrote to Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, urging her to expand refugee options for the Chaldo-Assyrian and Sabean Mandean communities.

It also asked Dobriansky to urge the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to resume full refugee status for Iraqi asylum seekers and speedily assess claims.
[…]

Haggard’s Church Launches Witch Hunt to Out Closeted Gay Staffers

Jon Ponder

Loving and accepting these men for who they are, as God made them, without judging them, apparently never crossed these Christians’ minds.

What would jesus do if one of his apostles was nabbed for lustful behavior? Why he would encourage the rest of the apostles to secretly turn in their colleagues for similar behavior, of course.

In the wake of the scandal caused by hidden sexuality of its former head pastor, Ted Haggard, that’s exactly what the leadership of New Life Church in Colorado did. They encouraged church members to secretly inform on other closeted gays on the staff. The Soviet-style turn-in-your-neighbors pogrom has already produced results, with the announcement of the resignation of an associate pastor:

Christopher Beard, who headed a ministry the New Life Church that trained young adults in leadership skills, has stepped down after admitting to an incident of sexual misconduct several years ago and a series of decisions displaying poor judgment.

Church elders declined to disclose what the sexual misconduct involved, except to say it did not involve minors…

Fearing another potential scandal that could destroy the 14,000 member church elders asked parishioners for information about the “spiritual character” of other church staff and leaders.

Members are urged to fill out a form on the church’s Web site that goes to a panel of four pastors from other churches that have agreed to help New Life weed out problem people.

Associate pastor Rob Brendle denies it is a witch hunt but says “we want to give people who feel they have relevant information access to people in authority.”

Loving and accepting these men for who they are, as God made them, without judging them, apparently never crossed these Christians’ minds.

Just think: If Jesus had encouraged his apostles to rat each other out, perhaps he would have gotten wind of Judas’ scheme to turn him over to the Romans, and he could have avoided the whole cruxifixion, ascending-into-heaven thing.

Jay Bakker: ‘What the Hell Happened to Christianity?’

Jon Ponder

The son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker has an op-ed up at CNN, co-written with a colleague, Marc Brown, in which he questions the politicization of Christianity by the political right:

What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity…

So when did the focus of Christianity shift from the unconditional love and acceptance preached by Christ to the hate and condemnation spewed forth by certain groups today? Some say it was during the rise of Conservative Christianity in the early 1980s with political action groups like the Moral Majority. Others say it goes way back to the 300s, when Rome’s Christian Emperor Constantine initiated a set of laws limiting the rights of Roman non-Christians. Regardless of the origin, one thing is crystal clear: It’s not what Jesus stood for.

His parables and lessons were focused on love and forgiveness, a message of “come as you are, not as you should be.” The bulk of his time was spent preaching about helping the poor and those who are unable to help themselves. At the very least, Christians should be counted on to lend a helping hand to the poor and others in need.

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Another Evangelical Preacher Is Forced Out of the Closet

Jon Ponder

Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel, a 2,100-member church in the Denver suburbs, resigned last week and came out to his congregation in a 32-minute videotaped message that was played during services yesterday:

“I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy,” Barnes said in the 32- minute video, which church leaders permitted The Denver Post to view. “… I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”

His wife, Char, cradled his hand.

Barnes’ resignation was prompted by an anonymous phone call to an associate pastor at the church. Barnes’ name had been mentioned, the caller said, as part of a campaign of “blowing the whistle” on closeted gay evangelicals.

Christian Right: GOP and Wal-Mart Have Forsaken God

Jon Ponder

This almost makes me want to shop at Wal-Mart:

Some Christian conservative groups say both Wal-Mart and the Republican Party have “forsaken God.” And just as the GOP took a hit in the elections earlier this month, the groups say the retail giant’s lower-than-expected November sales figures are the wages of that sin.

Why are sales below estimates? “It is for the same reason things went south for the Republican Party this past election cycle,” read a statement by the Rev. Flip Benham and Pat McEwan, with Operation Save America and Operation Save Wal-Mart. “Wal-Mart has forsaken God and it has forsaken the people who love Him.”

The groups led protesters on Nov. 24 to picket the “gates of hell” — that is, Wal-Mart stores around the country. They say Wal-Mart, like the GOP, has strayed from its founding principles, set by founder Sam Walton, citing Wal-Mart’s dispensing of “Plan B” contraception and the fact that the retailer is a corporate member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Christian Terrorist Attempts Bombing of Assembly

Jon Ponder

Christo-facsists:

The loyalist [Protestant anti-Catholic] murderer Michael Stone forced the suspension of the inaugural meeting of Northern Ireland’s transitional assembly yesterday, when he stormed into the entrance hall of the parliament building armed with a knife, a handgun and what police said was a “viable” bomb.

The extraordinary scenes – as security staff wrestled him to the ground and politicians were evacuated into the rain – overshadowed political rows in the chamber where Ian Paisley was deemed to have signalled the Democratic Unionist party’s conditional assent to power sharing with its republican opponent Sinn Féin. Between six and eight devices were recovered after Stone’s attack. They were defused by the army’s bomb squad.