LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ns_kumiho)

CHARLOTTE HARBOR — The pastor of a Charlotte Harbor church had 16 church members booted from a service after they allegedly refused to stop singing and let the clergyman preach.

Deputies were called at 10 a.m. Saturday by Pastor David Noel of the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Harborview Road.

Noel told a deputy he was instructed by regional church superiors to involve law enforcement to remove the rogue choir.

The deputy issued trespass warnings to the group, and all 16 left the church without incident.

The sheriff's office got another call from the church shortly before noon when a parishioner wanted to file assault charges against Noel.

Edourd Pierrelus, 57, of Port Charlotte, said Noel got mad at him, hit him in the chest and twisted his earlobe during a church service a week earlier.

The man told the deputy the entire congregation of 25 witnessed the attack. Pierrelus said that because of the way the singing dispute was resolved, he now wanted to pursue charges of simple battery.

Deputies say the dispute is rooted in concerns about the handling of church funds. The members of the rogue choir told deputies they'd handle those concerns within the church.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9653226/

Anyone know the story behind all this?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Why am I not surprised?

From Bartholomew's Notes:

Evangelist Targets Asian Buddhists post-Katrina

As Franklin Graham plans “spiritual rebirth” in New Orleans, Charisma reports on the progress of one evangelist in the afflicted Gulf of Mexico (link added):


Evangelist Johnny Jernigan has been neck-deep in storm recovery since Hurricane Katrina smashed the Gulf Coast more than a month ago. But besides delivering food to needy families and helping evacuees reclaim their damaged homes, he has been leading hundreds of people to Christ—people who weren’t open to the gospel before the disaster. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Great, insightful article: Caring for Creation.

It's refreshing to learn that not all evangelicals want to destroy the planet to hasten Christ's return...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY neadods)

From today's Washington Post: "The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a "code of ethics" for chaplains that included the statement "I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated."

( Full text under cut )

As you can see, Focus on the Family is not going down easy, what with their VP of public policy announcing "[I]t is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize. It's protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion." He's forgotten that the First Amendment doesn't mean he gets to trample everyone else's Constitutional rights.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY neadods)

From today's Washington Post: "In 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, the [Library] associations received 547 challenges -- formal, written complaints filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content. (A year earlier, 458 formal challenges were made.)"

Reasons for listing the top 10 challenged lists come right out of the neocon/evangelical playlist: homosexuality, religious viewpoint (put "not our" in front of that), political viewpoint (ditto), and modeling bad behavior.

( Full text under cut )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From time to time, I will post appeals from fellow communities who are on the same 'track' as ours is. This will be rare- I do not want to turn this community into a 'begging bowl'. But sometimes, it doesn't hurt to put out an SOS:

Help a community member.

My source tells me that donations will have be 'a direct, significant help in the effort against the religious right.' There you are.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY droid_1)

Discrimination alleged
The county “issues invitations to deliver prayers to all Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders in the country. It refuses to issue invitations to Native Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Wiccans, or members of any other religion,” justices were told in her appeal by American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Rebecca Glenberg.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9661790/

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

twistedchick led me to these three Boston Globe articles about Religious Right leaders:

James Dobson Founder of "Focus on the Family".

Richard Land a Baptist lobbyist in DC.

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, a megachurch in LA.