The late Rev. Jerry Falwell always insisted that he spoke for “the moral majority.” However, it appears that his university, Liberty University, is equally interested in silencing what they consider to be the “immoral minority.” The school this week shutdown the the Liberty University College Democrats as inimical to their moral mission. The Republican Student organization was retained.
Continue reading “The Price of Liberty: University Bans Democratic Student Organization on Morality Grounds”
Category: Religion
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the departing Archbishop of Westminster, had a few things to say about sin this week in welcoming his replacement. It turns out that the greatest sin is not clergy child abuse, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or the like. The greatest sin? Atheism.
Continue reading “Cardinal: The Greatest Sin Is . . .”
Recently, we discussed the forthcoming book by former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, the leading cleric who was accused of date rape and covering up the abuse of children by other priests. The church paid $450,000 in 1998 to a man who had accused him of assault. Now, Weakland insists that he and other priests did not know it was a crime to have sex with children and thought they would not remember or they would “grow out of it.”
Continue reading “Weakland: I Did Not Know Sex With Child Was a Crime and Thought Kids Would “Grow Out of It””
Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, have disappeared in the wake of losing the court fight to block chemotherapy needed to save Daniel’s life. He is suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma and an x-ray on Monday showed that the tumor had grown.
Continue reading “Minnesota Mom Flees with Ailing Son To Avoid Chemotherapy”
Scientists have discovered what is being heralded as the long sought “missing link” — a 47-million-year-old fossilized skeleton of a monkey called Ida that is 95% complete. It is believed to show a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Of course, anyone who has a master’s in creationist science in Texas or runs as a GOP candidate for president can tell you that the researchers have been duped. Since the Earth is only 10,000 years old, the radiometric dating is obviously wrong by roughly 47 million years and evolution is just a god-hating, atheist-advancing theory.
Continue reading “Darwinian Dilemma: Scientists See Fossil As “Missing Link” While Creationist Scientists See Old Dead Monkey”
In past blogs, we have been keeping track of the horrible fate of children and women in Nigeria and other parts of Africa accused of witchcraft. Belief in witches is common in Africa and shown recently with disclosures about one of Gov. Sarah Palin’s favorite preachers. Now, these children are protesting to try to get the world to pay attention to their plight and to get the government to act.
Continue reading “Bewitching Protest: Accused Nigerian Child Witches Protest Abuse”
GQ has an array of daily briefing booklet sent by Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush on the Iraq war and the war on terror that featured Biblical sayings. This is the reading prepared for a president who called the war on terror a “crusade.” Such Biblical inspirational sayings as “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death” were coupled with triumphant pictures for the President’s daily briefings. The covers read like a Sunday school workbook for an adolescent student.
The Frisco Independent School District in Texas was faced with complaints about Gideon volunteers hanging around outside of schools to pass out bibles to children. They solved the problem by inviting them into the school where free bibles are now made available to the students — a move that has caused some parents to object.
Continue reading “Texas School District Resolves Controversy Over Christian Groups Distributing Bibles Outside of Schools By Inviting Them Inside”
Minnesota Judge John Rodenberg has ruled in the case of Daniel Hauser, 13. We discussed this case earlier regarding the religious objections that the parents raised to chemotherapy for Daniel’s cancer –even though he has a 90 percent chance of survival with the treatment and little or no change of survival without it.
Continue reading “Court Overrules Parents in Religious Refusal of Chemotherapy for 13-Year-Old Boy”
The former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, 82, is about to publish a memoir on his gay lifestyle as a Catholic priest and sexual scandal. “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop” will be released in June.
There has been a long controversy over the ability of the religious right to justify most any position of the GOP on the environment or civil liberties in terms of religious faith. However, the recent Republican effort to embrace and justify torture presented a bit of a problem for the faithful, particularly Christians who worship a man who was tortured to death on a cross. That presented no problem for Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate and leader of the religious right, who has announced that it would have been immoral for the Bush administration not to torture people.
Rev. Albert Cutie, known in Miami as “Father Oprah” for his popular radio program, has admitted to an affair with a woman after being taken off the air after the release of photos with the woman at a bar and the beach.
Continue reading “Cutie Confession: “Father Oprah” Admits Affair With Woman”
The Saudi Arabian legal system has given the world yet another medieval moment: Judge Hamad Al-Razine has ruled that husbands are allowed to slap their wives for over-spending or excessive shopping.
Continue reading “Saudi Judge: Husbands Are Allowed to Slap Wives Over Over-Spending”
After a sham of a trial, Journalist Roxana Saberi has been released from an Iranian jail after an appeal. She had been convicted on charges of espionage.
Continue reading “Journalist Roxana Saberi Released From Jail in Iran”
Daniel Hauser, 13, is dying of cancer and needs chemotherapy. However, his mother, Colleen Hauser of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, is in court this week fighting the treatment on religious grounds. Hauser has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but the family is against modern treatment on religious grounds and believes in healing cancer with herbs and vitamins . . . and prayer. Continue reading “Dying Boy in Sleepy Eye: Parents Withholds Needed Chemotherapy From Boy on Religious Grounds”