LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

'ADL's Foxman warns of efforts to 'Christianize America''

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jehovahsfitness)

"Christians" refuse to give drinking water to Wilma victims

(x-posted to religious_left)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This NYT article casts a ray of hope upon the care of this planet:

When Cleaner Air Is a Biblical Obligation
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 - In their long and frustrated efforts pushing Congress to pass legislation on global warming, environmentalists are gaining a new ally.

With increasing vigor, evangelical groups that are part of the base of conservative support for leading Republicans are campaigning for laws that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming.

In the latest effort, the National Association of Evangelicals, a nonprofit organization that includes 45,000 churches serving 30 million people across the country, is circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This interesting Times of London article talks about the literal interpretation of the Bible:

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.

The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.( Read more... )

...speaking of political contributions:

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=W05&Cycle=2000 has a list of church groups that have donated politically (something that one would think would be enough to shut down the tax exempt status of churches, but apparently not...though it should).

Apparently the AoG (through private individuals) was the second largest church-related donor in the *country* in 2000, with over $22,000 going to Republican candidates.

Per http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00005165&cycle=2000, nearly all of this money went to John Ashcroft's campaign for election--and he was *still* beaten by a dead man.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From Stratego:

The UK is willing to use the laws of libel and slander to protect its citizens from violence-provoking hate speech. Given that, the UK media has been going after a number of fundamentalist evangelists who have had no shame about publicly announcing that London *deserved* to be bombed in the 7/7 attacks.</a>

Sky News has done a report about Fred Phelps:

Inside The Church of Hate
Updated: 20:01, Tuesday October 25, 2005

The Sky Report has secretly filmed one of America's most controversial Christian ministers praising the London bombings.

Fred Phelps says that terrorist outrages and natural disasters such as Hurricane Rita are examples of God's wrath against countries such as America and Britain for tolerating homosexuals and homosexuality.

Fred Phelps, who set up the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, told our undercover reporter about the attacks, which killed 52 people:

"Oh I am so thankful that happened. My only regret is that they didn't kill about million of them. England deserves that kind of punishment, as does this country (America)".

They even secretly filmed inside his church. Links to the video are here (Windows Media Player Required.)

The video is interesting- at the very end, you see first hand the twisted 'logic' that the family uses to spread their hatred- a misinterpretation of Scripture: that Jesus said people would hate him, and that God blesses people who are hated.

There's also a fierce reaction in the UK to this hate speech, especially from the US.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kittynboi)

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16025

Churches, local government ties strengthen after Katrina

By The Associated Press
11.06.05
The Mississippi agency that promotes President Bush’s faith-based initiative usually draws about 25 church groups to its sessions on tapping government funds for social service projects. This month, that number nearly doubled.

It is just one sign that, as congregations in the Gulf Coast and surrounding states begin to focus on long-term recovery from Hurricane Katrina, a closer relationship between churches and state and local governments is developing.

The trend fits neatly with Bush’s second-term goal of encouraging states and cities to get more involved with his faith-based initiative, since large sums of tax dollars go to states as block grants. The states “control where the money goes,” said Bryan Jackson of the Roundtable on Religion and Social Policy, a nonpartisan research group.

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I doubt a great deal of people in general will question if this is good or not. I'm not against helping the less fortunate or disaster victims, but people really need to be aware that helping is often NOT the only goal of these groups, and bringing them closer to government is a bad idea.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sydneycat)

Evolution in the Bible, says Vatican
By Martin Penner
07-11-2005
From: The Australian


THE Vatican has issued a stout defense of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly.

His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.

"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the real message in Genesis was that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator".

This idea was part of theology, Cardinal Poupard emphasized, while the precise details of how creation and the development of the species came about belonged to a different realm - science. Cardinal Poupard said that it was important for Catholic believers to know how science saw things so as to "understand things better".

His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the "intelligent design" view, which says the universe is so complex that some higher being must have designed every detail.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

Church... State....
Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena risks losing its tax-exempt status because of a former rector's remarks in 2004.
By Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch
Times Staff Writers

November 7, 2005

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that "good people of profound faith" could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, "Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster."


Isn't his just unbelievable? Politics fromt eh pulpit is ok, ifyou support dubyapaloozer and his wartiers.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY pearlandopal)

I posted the other day asking for information about the New Apostolic denomination. Thanks so much for everyone's input! I think that one weekend when we have time we'll give it a try and see how it goes. If people are interested I'll report back on what I find.