Tag: Jesusland

Pitts Asks Help to Sharpen His ‘Demon Gaydar’

Buck Banks

In yesterday’s Miami Herald, columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. weighs in on the “gay exorcism” scandal with wicked sarcasm:

To Manifested Glory Ministries of Bridgeport, Conn.:

Perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling me what a ”homosexual demon” looks like.

I will confess that until last week, I had no idea demons even had sexual orientations. Or, for that matter, sex. Then I happened upon a video that is making the rounds online. It depicts members of your congregation conducting what can only be described as the ”gay exorcism” of a 16-year-old boy.

He convulses on the floor as if in the grip of a seizure while adults circle above, apparently attempting to holler the gay out of him. They yell things like, “C’mon, you homosexual demon! We want a clean spirit!”

And . . . “Come out of his belly! It’s in the belly!”

And . . . “Right now, I command you to leave!”

And . . . “Rip it from his throat! Come on, you homosexual demon!”

A woman fans a towel at the writhing boy. At one point, the child, limp and unresisting as a sack of flour, is held upright and vomits into a bag. A piano plays gospel chords in the background.

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Church Performs ‘Gay Exorcism’ on Teen

Buck Banks

Here’s the CNN story:

The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They’re trying to drive a “demon” out of him.

“You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!” they say. “You demon, loose yourself!” “You sex demon … you snake!”

The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits — they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.

Patricia McKinney, pastor of the nondenominational church who describes herself as a prophet, said she has even been receiving death threats as a result of the video, but doesn’t understand the outrage.

“I believe in deliverance, I believe in anointing, I believe in the power of Jesus,” she said in a phone interview with CNN. “I’ve been threatened already, I’ve been attacked, and it doesn’t make any sense to us. Really, what they’re doing, they’re putting me out there on the mat.”

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The Mormon Church & Polygamy: A Double Standard?

Helen Radkey

A Temple System Out of Control Or Unofficial Thumbs Up for Polygamy?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicates any church member who practices polygamy. The Church has publicly disowned Mormon fundamentalists, representing the sects of Mormonism which embrace early Mormon teachings that made polygamy a central part of the Mormon faith — the ongoing legacy of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

While the LDS Church says it does not sanction polygamy, behind closed temple doors, and in Mormon databases, many excommunicated Mormon fundamentalists (and their plural wives) have been reclaimed through posthumous rituals for the dead — and, in numerous cases, posthumously reinstated through “resurrected” original LDS ordinances, including baptisms.

Reinventing its polygamous history, the LDS Church is ushering deceased excommunicated Mormon fundamentalists — such as Rulon Clark Allred; Rulon Timpson Jeffs; and members of the LeBaron clan, including notorious killer, Ervil Morell LeBaron — back into the LDS fold.

The LDS temple system is systematically validating the plural marriages of many deceased Mormon fundamentalists who, when they were alive, were excommunicated from the LDS Church because of polygamy. Some of these polygamists have been posthumously sealed in LDS temples to plural wives they married — after the LDS Church officially suspended polygamy.

Why does the LDS Church condemn the practice of polygamy — including the polygamy of Mormon fundamentalists — as the LDS temple system consistently validates deceased Mormon fundamentalists and many of their plural marriages?

Pensito Review contributor Helen Radkey is a Salt Lake City-based researcher into the practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose groundbreaking research showing that the church was continuing to posthumously baptize victims of the Holocaust sparked outrage in recent years.

© Copyright 2009, Helen Radkey — Permission is granted to reproduce, provided content is not changed and this copyright notice is included.

Whose Hands are Bloody Now?

Trish

Dr. George Tiller, right, accepts an award

Anti-abortion extremists (is there another kind?) seem confused about who the victim is in the murder of Dr. George Tiller during a Wichita church service. Despite a years-long coordinated campaign of threats, harassment and incitement of violence against the family planning physician, their main concern is that they will face a backlash from sensible people. Whoops. Should of thought of that a little sooner.

From a transcript of the Bill O’Reilly show from June, 2007 in which Dr. Tiller was ambushed and goaded while attempting to get in his car:

Bill O’Reilly in 2007: “If the state of Kansas doesn’t stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PORTER BARRY, “FACTOR” PRODUCER: Why are you one of the only doctors who does these kind of abortions?

TILLER: Nice day isn’t it?

BARRY: They call you Tiller, the baby Killer. Is that appropriate? .

TILLER: I’m think I’m going to get in my car and go to work.

BARRY: Dr. Tiller, don’t you think…

TILLER: Hi, is this 911? This is Dr. George Tiller. I am at Edgemoore and Harry at QuickTrip. I’m being accosted by the people from O’Reilly. Yes, and they are preventing me from getting in my car and leaving.

BARRY: You can get in your car and go, Dr. Tiller.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Bill O’Reilly, later in that same broadcast:

O’REILLY: Yes, I think we all know what this is. And if the state of Kansas doesn’t stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands as the governor does right now, Governor [Kathleen] Sebelius.

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Bush Invaded Iraq Over Biblical Prophesy of Gog and Magog

Trish

Bush’s combat map?

If you thought Bush was only using the born-again shtick to rally his base, you might be wrong. It’s possible that George W. Bush not only truly believed the most horseshit aspects of fundamental Christianism, but according to Clive Hamilton on Counterpunch, he used them as the basis for the invasion of Iraq.

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped.

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac: “This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.

Hamilton: “Many thousands of Americans and Iraqis have died in the campaign to defeat Gog and Magog.”

The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush’s words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university’s review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.

In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on “a mission from God” in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.

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Huckabee, Media’s Nice Guy, Was the First Republican to Smear Gays in ’08 Debate

Jon Ponder

New York Times columnist Gail Collins perfectly captures the conventional wisdom about Mike Huckabee in today’s edition:

Why would the family values crowd prefer a batshit crazy adulterating New Yorker, a Hollywood actor/abortion lobbyist or a Mormon to one of their own?

Like Bill Clinton, Huckabee was born in a town called Hope and became a pretty good governor of a state that doesn’t make it all that easy. (Plus, you have to love the fact that he lived for a while in a mobile home on the Arkansas Statehouse grounds.) He’s extremely inclusive, defending minorities who are illegal immigrants as well as the ones registered to vote.

Inclusive? Preacher Huckabee was the first and only ’08 candidate (so far) to slur a gay person, who also happens to be a member of Congress:

“Let’s face it,” he recently told a crowd of Christian conservatives in Iowa… “In our lifetimes, we’ve seen our country go from ‘Leave It to Beaver’ to ‘Beavis and Butt-head,’ from Barney Fife to Barney Frank, from ‘Father Knows Best’ to television shows where father knows nothing.”

Collins continues:

On the downside, I think he’d be a terrible president. He doesn’t know beans about foreign affairs, he wants to replace the income tax with a national sales tax, and his positions on social issues are far to the right of the general populace. But why aren’t the social conservatives rallying around this guy? Unlike any of the major candidates, he’s still on his first wife and first position on abortion.

Why would the family values crowd prefer a batshit crazy adulterating New Yorker, a Hollywood actor/abortion lobbyist or a Mormon to one of their own?

Because the Cheney-Bush crowd has spent the last six years scaring the bejesus out of them. These feeble-minded souls are convinced that Osama has an army of suiciders on its way to blow up every Walmart store in America. They want someone who will protect them.

Perhaps types Establishment (or maybe non-Southerners) can’t see Huckabee as his own peeps do. They sense weakness, or at least a decided lack of toughness. (His signature accomplishment is losing 110 pounds.)

Huckabee’s jab at Barney Frank, which was briefly a soundbite from a debate in March, was a pathetic attempt to pander to the haters. It didn’t work because it was way too mild.

If he can’t smear a queer better than that, how can he protect me Osama bin Laden?

Colorado Rockies Only Hire Players Who Are Born-Again Christians

Jon Ponder

I’m not a baseball fan, but I will be rooting against the Rockies in the World Series this year:

“We truly do have something going on here. And God’s using us in a powerful way.”
— Keli McGregor, club president

In a remarkable article from Wednesday’s USA Today [June 2, 2006], the Colorado Rockies went public with the news that the organization has been explicitly looking for players with “character.” And according to the Tribe of Coors, “character” means accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior. “We’re nervous, to be honest with you,” Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said. “It’s the first time we ever talked about these issues publicly. The last thing we want to do is offend anyone because of our beliefs.” When people are nervous that they will offend you with their beliefs, it’s usually because their beliefs are offensive.

Club president Keli McGregor said, “[We] truly do have something going on here. And [God’s] using us in a powerful way.”

One ex-player said team officials inspected the lockers to ensure players weren’t hiding “Playboy” magazines or other immoral contraband on the premises.

League of Fans, Ralph Nader related resource, reports that the Rockies received a $161 million subsidy from Colorado taxpayers to build Coors Field, which opened in 1995. It’s doubtful those taxpayers knew they were supporting a private organization whose membership would be restricted to Christian extremists.

Nearly 1 Mil Evacuated in California – Limbaugh Says Crisis Is ‘Hyped’

Jon Ponder

Local news here in Southern California is reporting that upwards of 1 million people have been evacuated because of the fire storms. Last night, when the number was about half that, Keith Olbermann suggested that this could be the largest forced migration of Americans since the Civil War.

“I am very confident in our ability to do just about anything. You said not on to get overconfident but, I’ll tell you what, the Republican Party is more, gosh, we’re stronger than God Almighty himself.”
— Dittohead caller on Limbaugh’s show yesterday

But yesterday Rush Limbaugh told his easily deluded listeners that the mainstream media is “hyping” the wildfires — and the poor semi-retarded Dittoheads are believing it:

RUSH: No, I’ve been wondering about this, having not been out there. I know how media works. They love this kind of stuff. The worse they can make it sound, the better. The more crisis-prone, the more disaster-certain it is, the more excited by it they are — and I’ve been e-mailing people in Los Angeles. I’ve been e-mailing friends in Southern California. “Are you in trouble from the fires?”

“No, not really. It’s not anywhere near us.”
In fact, a couple people I e-mailed on Sunday didn’t even know about it ’til they got back home Sunday night, even though the fire has been raging through the weekend. You’re right. A lot of people are losing a lot of property here, but the idea that it may not be quite as bad as it is, is an interesting media study.

This is standard Limbaugh. “Global warming can’t real because it’s chilly in my living room. And if I can’t feel it, it is not happening.”

And who’s to blame for the fires — that, as Big Dan pointed out — he says are not happening? Take a guess:

RUSH: [And] these environmental groups, they are to blame for this … They are the ones that are making these fires.

Gotta love this from a caller — a Dittohead who is a Christian but apparently hasn’t gotten the word from church central that you’re not supposed to put mankind above the Almighty:

DITTOHEAD: I am very confident in our ability to do just about anything. You said not on to get overconfident but, I’ll tell you what, the Republican Party is more, gosh, we’re stronger than God Almighty himself.

I’ll bet God is pissed and She will smite this sinner very soon.

H/t: Big Dan

Did CNN’s Rightwing Nutcase Glenn Beck Say Malibu Liberals Hate America, So Deserve Wild Fires?

Jon Ponder

Most of the 300,000 Evacuees Are from Republican Enclaves

On his radio gabfest yesterday, CNN’s resident rightwing crackpot Glenn Beck implied that because residents of Malibu, Calif., “hate America,” they were therefore unluckily suffering the loss of their homes to wildfires:

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire [sic] today.

Leaving aside the fact that there isn’t a “forest” within miles of Malibu, just seconds before that outrageous, though half-baked, assertion, Beck made a statement that contradicted what he was about to say:

[We’re] all one America, that just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean you hate America, and I love America. We all love America. We just disagree on how we should function…

He then contradicted himself in the same sentence a second time, saying he was not referring to Democrats but to nefarious people (liberals? terrorists?) who pretend to be Democrats:

There are a few people that hate America. But I don’t think the Democrats are those. I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that.

Huh? It’s always dicey trying to parse logic from the ravings of an unbalanced mind, but since the fires being reported in the national news yesterday were mostly in the Malibu area, it appears that Beck’s “America haters” are Hollywood liberals who live in Malibu.

Or maybe he was referring to Muslim terrorists who are hiding out in Malibu pretending to be Democrats. (If so, they are rapidly burning through Osama bin Ladin’s fortune.)

Ironically, while the wildfires on Sunday did significant damage to the tiny but wealthy and politically liberal beachfront enclave of Malibu, the widespread and horrendous destruction that is going on now is in the politically conservative areas of inland Los Angeles County, coastal Orange County and throughout northern San Diego County, where around 300,000 people have been evacuated.

This recalls TV preacher and diamond-mine owner Pat Robertson’s prophesy in 1998 that God would destroy Orlando, Fla., with a hurricane because Disney allowed a gay group to host activities in its theme park. Instead, God smote Robertson by hurling Hurricane Bonnie directly at his headquarters in Virginia Beach that August.

Coulter to Medved: ‘Jews Believe That My Savior, a Jew, Was a Raving Lunatic’

Jon Ponder

On Monday, Ann Coulter went on the radio talkshow of rightwing social critic Michael Medved, who is Jewish, to clarify a statement she’d made on Donny Deutsch’s cable chat show a week or so earlier about her desire as a Christian to have Jews “perfected,” meaning, converted to Christianity:

“Here it is just a straight, plain, non-controversial statement of what all Christians believe. Of course, all Christians want everyone to be a Christian, like all feminists would like everyone to be a feminist.”
— Ann Coulter

COULTER: [Judaism], as I explained — Christians accept the Old Testament. Jews don’t accept the New Testament, so, you know, as long as we’re playing this new sport of “he who is offended first wins,” if anyone’s going to be offended by anyone else’s religion, the Jews believe that my savior, a Jew, was a raving lunatic, and you don’t see me sniffling and crying.

Later in the show, predictably, Coulter starts sniffling and whining, if not actually crying:

COULTER: I’m sorry. I just can’t take this seriously, Michael. I don’t know when Donny Deutsch became the Al Sharpton of the Jews, but I don’t think it’s working.

MEDVED: Well, the problem here is that a lot of the major Jewish organizations —

COULTER: Are lying. But they attack me — I mean, it’s — from what I can tell, it’s all the usual suspects. It’s always the same thing. Actually, the only thing that is different here is usually I have told a joke. It is a satire. Here it is just a straight, plain, non-controversial statement of what all Christians believe. Of course, all Christians want everyone to be a Christian, like all feminists would like everyone to be a feminist, though it’s maybe a little more important to us.

And yes, of course, we accept the Old Testament, which is what I said. And as I say in my current book, if the things I say are so outrageous, why won’t they quote me accurately? I am never quoted accurately and, once again, I’m not being quoted accurately here.

For the record, here is what she said to Deutsch:

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