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American Family Association, Bible Ignored, Trainer Dies:

[The AFA calls for the death by stoning of a whale and the whale's owners] But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, “the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:29)

NCR Hanelsblad, More Priests’ Abuse Victims Speak Out:

Over the last few days, 15 men have come forward to share stories of abuse at the hands of Dutch Salesian priests in the 1960s. One of the accused is now one of the most powerful in the order.

BBC, Voodoo Religion’s Role in Helping Haiti’s Quake Victims:

“Some Christian communities do not want to give food to voodoo followers.”

The Guardian, Gay Activists Attack Ugandan Preacher’s Porn Slideshow:

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of a bill that would impose the death penalty for some offenders, aired the explicit slideshow to several hundred people during a church service in Kampala yesterday. Explaining his decision to display the images, the evangelical preacher said it was necessary to educate people “about what homosexuals do”.

The Guardian, Malawi Police Launch Operation Against High-Profile Gay and Lesbian People:

Fears of backlash across Africa as US evangelists accused of spreading religious zeal behind homophobic campaigns. Okware Romano, a protester, said: “I have a verse in the bible in Leviticus 20 verse 13. It says that homosexuals should be put to death … yes.”

Miami Herald, Adoption ‘Lawyer’ Tied to Child Sex Case:

The man providing legal advice to American church workers charged with trying to take children out of Haiti did jail time in the United States for bank fraud years before emerging as the key suspect in a child prostitution ring in El Salvador, according records and interviews.

Political Insider, Georgia’s Christian Right Comes Out Against Bill Aimed at Child Prostitution:

The weight of the state’s Christian right movement just came down in opposition to a pair of bills that would steer young girls under the age of 16 into diversionary programs instead of arresting them on charges of prostitution.

The Local, Jesuit School Sex Abuse Scandal Spreads Through Germany:

The scope of a child sex abuse scandal that was uncovered at an elite Berlin Catholic school last week has spread to other parts of Germany and beyond, the provincial superior for the country’s Jesuit order Stefan Dartmann has revealed.

Sky News, Russian Orthodox Believers Hospitalised After Drinking Holy Water:

Those affected, including 48 children, are being treated in hospital for acute intestinal pain after drinking water from wells around a local church last week.

National Organization of Women, NOW Denounces Justifiable Terrorism Defense in Wichita Murder Trial:

Roeder has admitted shooting Dr. Tiller in the head as the physician ushered at Sunday morning church service. But Roeder and his lawyers say this heinous act wasn’t murder because he was driven by his religious fervor to save unborn children. Under Kansas law, voluntary manslaughter is the “unreasonable but honest belief” that the use of force was justified.

CBS News, Ex Mistress Vanessa Bulls Says Preacher Killed Wife:

Reverend Matt Baker drugged his wife, handcuffed her to the bed under the guise of spicing up their marriage, then smothered her with a pillow until she died in 2006.

Part of a series that never ends [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] and etc.  The American Family Association should be subject to federal investigation for the call to murder based on religion.  The sex laws in Uganda are horrid, but not as horrid as they’ve been portrayed. Based on the amount of sexual abuse of children among Christian clergy, perhaps the State of Georgia is protecting a monopoly in standing against child prostitution laws.

I’ve been told more than once and more than twice that without religion (preferably the religion of the person talking to me) there is no moral guidance and people will act as beasts.  Here are people who had religion, many acting as leaders and experts in their religion, who are acting like beasts.  Was the breakdown in their religion or in the individuals?  If the breakdown is in the religion, then the religion is in need of improvement or being abandoned.  If the breakdown is in the individual, what was broken in the religion that put these people in charge?  I can find examples of people acting as beasts in the name of atheism, particularly in The Terror.  Hundreds of men and women have been killed by atheists because these men and women were religious.  Why, then, are there billions upon billions of men and women killed for their religion by other religious people?  In a straight body count, atheism is less murderous than any religion or all religions.  The fine blog Dwindling in Unbelief has a handy score card of those killed by God in the Bible compared to those killed by Satan in the Bible.  Guess who stands tall on the more majestic mountain of corpses?

Moral behavior demands choice.  If I’m forced to help someone or forced to hurt someone I am not making a moral choice.  Where there is an omnipotent and all-powerful God who has decided for me what I am to be and do, I have no choice.  Where there is religion, there is no morality.  Moral behavior is limiting the harm we cause by learning from our mistakes.  Over time we can become less immoral, even if we never become all-moral.

Capital News Service, Legislator Says Disabled kids are God’s Punishment:

[Virginia] State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood. “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Delegate Bob Marshall, Statement on Recent News story by Capital News Service:

A story by Capital News Service regarding my remarks at a recent press conference opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood conveyed the impression that I believe disabled children are a punishment for prior abortions. No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion. I have devoted a generation of work to defending disabled and unwanted children, and have always maintained that they are special blessings to their parents. Nevertheless, I regret any misimpression my poorly chosen words may have created as to my deep commitment to fighting for these vulnerable children and their families. Sincerely, Delegate Bob Marshall

No need to apologize, State Delegate Marshall!  Because you were right the first time.  Christianity does consider the disabled to be cursed by God. Let’s consult the primary evidence…

Who makes people blind? “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?” – Exodus 4:11.
Does God make people blind as a punishment? “The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” – Deuteronomy 28:28
What about people with other disabilities; does God hate them too? “Whosoever … hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. [...] Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries.” – Leviticus 21:17-23
And those who God favors, if they kill disabled people are they rewarded? “And David said on that day, Whosoever [...] smiteth [...] the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” – 2 Samuel 5:8
Did Jesus know about these laws and want us to keep them? [Jesus said] “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:18-19.

See, State Delegate Marshall?  You stood up for your faith in the public square.  Don’t let your critics force you to back down.  In fact, I’d like to encourage you to go that one step further and detail what you mean when you say “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord.”

Should we sacrifice first-born babies likewise as we sacrifice ox, sheep and liquor? “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.” – Exodus 22:29.
That’s pretty harsh. Sure about that God? We’re supposed to kill children for you? “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah…. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands…. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child…. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth…. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed.” – Judges 11:29-40.
Just asking one more time, God, it’s right in your eyes to offer human sacrifices? “Josiah … did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord … And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars.” – 2 Chronicles 34:1-5.
Yikes. How do you think I’m supposed to feel after killing a child? “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” – Psalm 137:9.

The problem isn’t that State Delegate Marshall misrepresented Christianity.  It’s that he represented it accurately to a Christian nation that makes a point of being ignorant of its own religion. Let’s see what else this moral giant has said.

Wikipedia, Robert G. Marshall:

Marshall sponsored the Marshall-Newman Amendment to the state constitution that prohibited same-sex marriage as well as civil unions, domestic partnerships, and “other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.” It also prohibits the recognition of other states’ such legal arrangements. [...] When asked about abortion in the case of incest, Marshall replied that sometimes incest is voluntary. In response to abortions in the case of rape, Marshall said, “Your origins should not be held against you [referring to the victim's unborn child]. The woman becomes a sin-bearer of the crime, because the right of a child predominates over the embarrassment of the woman.”

God bless State Delegate Marshall. He’ll get nothing but curses from me.  Spitting hatred and contempt.

When the little girl on the witness stand said, “No, it didn’t happen,” Frances Keller put her head in her hands and began to sob. It was the second day of what would be a six-day trial of Keller and her husband, Danny, on charges that they’d sexually assaulted a young girl, Christina Chaviers, in the summer of 1991, when the 3-year-old was an infrequent drop-in at their home-based Oak Hill day care. Among the multiple counts were allegations that Danny had forcibly penetrated Christina with a pen and his penis and that Fran had performed oral sex on Christina and forced the girl to do the same. The charges were based on statements Christina had made, first to her mother, Suzanne Guinne, and then to her therapist, social worker Donna David-Campbell. There was no definitive physical evidence.

On the witness stand, the little girl sat on her older sister’s lap, chewing on a lollipop. “Did Danny ever touch you in a way you didn’t like?” Assistant District Attorney Judy Shipway asked. “No,” Christina replied.

“Did Fran ever touch you [in] a way you didn’t like?” Shipway asked. “No,” the girl replied.

Shipway tried a different approach. Did Christina tell anyone else that Danny had hurt her? She did not reply. Shipway asked if Christina would like to “whisper to me” her answer. “No,” she said.

“Christy, when you say no, do you mean you don’t want to talk about it, or do you mean, no, it didn’t happen?” Shipway asked. “No, it didn’t happen,” Christina replied once and then again. “No, it didn’t happen.”

“But did you tell somebody it happened?” Shipway asked. “Yes, yes, yes,” she answered.

Fran held her head in her hands; all the emotion of the last year and a half welled up. Finally, she thought, everyone in the courtroom had heard the truth: Nothing had happened. Fran felt a measure of relief – certainly, this whole ordeal would soon be over. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Fran and Danny Keller were each convicted of sexually assaulting Christina Chaviers, and each was sentenced to 48 years in prison. For the Kellers, now 58 and 68, respectively, it was effectively a life sentence. They’ve since come up for parole, but neither will acknowledge the remorse that is a requirement of release – after 17 years, the Kellers still fiercely maintain their innocence.

And in fact, the Chronicle’s reinvestigation of the Fran’s Day Care case has revealed serious problems with the state’s case against the Kellers – including questions about the quality and reliability of the state’s medical evidence and forensic interviews. Moreover, the sensational nature of the charges themselves, in a period of hysterical national rumors about supposed “satanic ritual abuse” at day care centers, made it virtually impossible for the Kellers to receive a fair or even rational trial. Finally, our investigation has uncovered potentially exculpatory evidence that the Kellers’ defense attorneys say they were not aware of at the time of the 1992 trial.

In light of the problems with the original prosecution and this additional evidence, there remain substantive doubts about the Kellers’ guilt. Indeed, it’s an open question not only whether the Kellers were rightly convicted – but more fundamentally, whether any crime ever happened at Fran’s Day Care at all.

Article continues.  Fran and Danny Keller are in prison for ritualized child rape that never happened, while well-documented real-life ongoing ritualized child rape organizations wring their hands and say oh, so sorry, oh, so sorry.  So very, very sorry.

Telegraph, Battle to save tigers intensifies with only 3,200 left on Earth:
The threat is compounded by the market for their body parts, which are deemed to hold medicinal properties in some cultures.

The Guardian, Martin Robbins on Christian and Islamist extremists in Nigeria:
On 29 July, Christian witch-hunters accused of torturing and killing local children attacked and beat campaigners for child protection at a public meeting in Calabar, Nigeria. The same week, hundreds of members of the Islamist group Boko Haram were killed in suicide attacks on police stations across the north of the country.

Gawker, Teabagger Worried His Magic Prayers Made God Kill Sen. Inhofe:
A panicked teabagger called up C-SPAN in tears today, worried that he accidentally killed Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe by praying for Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd to die.

BBC, Zulu king wins South Africa bull-killing case:
A bull-killing ritual can go ahead on Saturday after a court ruled against an animal rights group which tried to have the practice banned in South Africa. ARA claimed that the killing took some 40 minutes and involved dozens of men trampling on the beast as they tried to break its neck.

ESPN, Dominic Raynor: World Cup to be “blessed” with slaughtered cows:
“We must have a cultural ceremony of some sort, where we are going to slaughter a beast,” Trust chairman Zolani Mkiva said. “We sacrifice the cow for this great achievement and we call on our ancestors to bless, to grace, to ensure that all goes well.”

Yahoo! News, 10,000 E. African albinos in hiding after killings:
The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven thousands of Africa’s albinos into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers who can make up to $75,000 selling a complete dismembered set.

BBC, Albino victim evicted from safe-house:
One year ago, Mariam Staford Bandaba, an albino woman living in Tanzania, was viciously attacked by a machete-wielding gang who tried to kill her and sell her remains for witchcraft. She escaped with her life, but only just. The attackers chopped off one of her hands – the other had to be amputated in hospital, where she spent weeks recovering from her horrific injuries.

LA Times, Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced as witches:
Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files. Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

Guardian, Stepfather confesses to sticking 42 needles into boy’s body:
The stepfather of a two-year-old boy found with 42 needles in his body has confessed to jabbing them into him as part of a religious ritual, Brazilian police said today. Roberto Carlos Magalhaes claimed that a woman who went into a trance commanded him to stick the needles into the boy’s body, a police inspector, Helder Fernandes Santana, said.

All articles continue at links.  Superstition can be fun, and may be unavoidable.  But superstitions that lead to nonsense and brutality such as the above should have no sympathy from anyone.  It just does not matter if these are ancient traditions, or deeply-held convictions, or bring mental relief to practitioners.  These people should be shunned, at the very least.

Wall Street Journal, Club, Church Clash in Texas: Across the country, religious congregations are entering nontraditional spaces at an increasing rate, religious experts say, as churches seek to lower their rent and attract worshipers with an informal atmosphere. [These Christians are only doing as they are compelled to do in 1 Timothy 2:8.]

Delaware County Daily Times, Father kills son in domestic dispute:
Smythe said he personally knows Caldwell, a pastor at the End Times Harvest Mission for Christ in Philadelphia, to be a “very good man.” [Clergy killing their own children is how God knows one is a good man, says Judges 11:29-39.]

Gawker, Teabagger Worried His Magic Prayers Made God Kill Sen. Inhofe: A panicked teabagger called up C-SPAN in tears today, worried that he accidentally killed Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe by praying for Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd to die. [Prayer can kill people, as anyone who has read Numbers 21:3 knows.]

Des Moines Register, Man taken to hospital after castrating self: Police said he told dispatchers he did it for religious reasons. [Clearly stated religious reasons found in Matthew 5:29-30.]

Mail Online, ‘Four-year campaign of abuse from parishioners’ forces village vicar and his family from home: ‘It has been the worst time of my life. I used to be a committed Christian, now I am agnostic. ‘If this is Christianity in action I don’t want anything to do with it.’ [That big baby doesn't know he got off easy, compared to what should have happened according to Deuteronomy 13:6-10.]

Detroit Free Press, Black clergy to sound AIDS alarm at meeting: The nation’s black church leaders have been “woefully silent, even though this is something that is destroying people,” the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, pastor of New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, said Saturday. [Keeping silent is best, because sickness is only caused by lack of faith.  See Matthew 9:22.]

TPMMuckraker, Jetton Fought To Keep Ban On Gay Sex, Calling It ‘Deviate Sexual Intercourse’: Rod Jetton, the former Missouri House Speaker, fired a state lawmaker from his committee chairmanship in 2007 because the lawmaker had changed a bill in order to end a state ban on gay sex – or what Jetton called “deviate sexual intercourse.” Jetton was charged with felony assault Monday after a girlfriend alleged that he had beaten and choked her during a recent sexual encounter, in which she failed to use a mutually agreed upon “safe word.” The woman also suggested that Jetton may have slipped a date-rape drug into her glass of wine, causing her to lose consciousness. [That's what men of God do, don't you know.  Haven't you read Deuteronomy 21:1-14?]

IrishCentral, Irish Catholic nuns offer compensation for Church child sex abuse: The Sisters of Mercy in Dublin have offered $193 million in money and property to those who were abused by nuns in their order. [Those brats don't know how lucky they have it - try Psalm 137:9 on for size.]

NJ.com, Mom expected God to provide food, daughter testifies: Over three months in 2006, as her five children grew more emaciated and listless by the day, Estelle Walker made no move to find a job, no effort to scrounge up a meal, her kids told a jury yesterday. “We were supposed to wait for God to provide,” said Walker’s oldest daughter, now 21. “And that’s what we did.” At one point, the daughter said, she and her siblings went 11 days without food. When police were at last summoned to the Sussex County cabin by neighbors, investigators found the children so malnourished they had difficulty talking. [That's how God takes care of his flock, as seen in Exodus 16:14.]

All articles continue at links.  When you read about Christians doing crazy, violent, disgusting things, where do you think they get their ideas?  I have my suspicions…

Once again I have enjoyed the benefit of reading the words of those who are my enemies and of reading source documents as well as commentary on source documents.

Like many others, I have been reading about a proposed anti-homosexual law in the country of Uganda.  I have read consistently that the law would sentence homosexuals to death.  Then I read a press release from a group in England that supports the proposed law.  The press release made different claims:

In fact, the death penalty in David Bahati MP’s ‘Anti-homosexuality Bill’ is only for ‘aggravated homosexuality’; which is knowingly infecting others with AIDS, sodomy with minors and homosexual rape. Promoting homosexuality would however be punishable by a jail term.

It cannot be true that the proposed law both does and does not sentence homosexuals to death.  This was the benefit of reading the words of my enemies (Christian Voice, authors of the press release): I learned what I thought was true was instead in question.  One way to resolve this contradiction was to consult the source document, granting an equal mistrust to all commentators.  Here is what the source document says:

A person commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality where the (a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years; (b) offender is a person living with HIV; (c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed; (d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed; (e) victim of the offence is a person with disability; (f) offender is a serial offender; or (g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy or overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to ahve unlawful carnal connections with any person of the same sex.  A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death. [PDF]

The press release of my enemies is more accurate than the commentary of my friends and the mainstream media.  The section of the proposed law quoted above speaks of homosexuality in the way some laws in the United States spoke of sodomy, as a catch-all for anything other than genital-to-genital sex between a man and a woman.  Homosexuality in itself is criminalized with a jail term (life), not with the death penalty.

I am against all laws pertaining to victimless crimes.  Sex between consenting and informed adults is nobody’s business, and that includes homosexuality.  The proposed anti-homosexual law is bad enough as it stands.  Homosexuality does not merit life in prison or extradition, as the law calls for.  I am against this law, and against those who support this law.  But there is no need to exaggerate how bad this law is by falsely claiming it threatens homosexuals with the death penalty exclusively due to their homosexuality.

In the beginning God made man all messed up and prone to do bad things, which got God mad.  So God cursed man and even killed everybody except one family in a flood.  God was still mad but later said okay man here’s a second chance.  God sent God to man as a sacrifice to God, which pleased God so it was all good.  Christmas is that story.

Jesus Christ was the 28th or 43rd decendent of David.  Those two numbers are pretty close. The important part is that Jesus was a decendent of David because not one or two but three prophecies demand it.  But if there are one or two verses that say Mary was instead from the house of Levi then lighten up, okay?  Listen.  His parents Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, they were already there because that was their home town.  Unless it was Nazareth.  Yeah, Nazareth, maybe.  One of those two.  Either way, they went from Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth.   Or maybe from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Jerusalem to Nazareth.  Don’t get too hung up in the details, it’s not like the Bible is supposed to be perfect or anything.  Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem because that’s what the prophecy says.  Or almost says.  Close enough.  And He had to be coming back from Egypt from somewhere (unless He wasn’t) because there was this other prophecy that said so, or at least had some of the same words in the sentence.  You have to grant me that.  Galilee, that’s for sure where He was born.  As to what really happened at Jesus’ birth maybe only His mother knew.

Just put all that to the side for a second.  What matters, what really matters is that Jesus was born to be the messiah.  Galilee is for sure where He was born, so just ignore that part where it says that can’t be true no matter how strongly it says so.  Jesus was God made flesh, which God said – twice – He would never do, and God never lies, so that’s a miracle right there.  Jesus was full of miracles.  He said there would be only one ‘kind’ of Christian, not thousands of denominations.  Jesus said He wouldn’t give any signs, then He did – hey!  He’s God, He can do that.  You can’t do that, can you smart guy?  Jesus came to save everybody, or maybe just some people.  You never know so you gotta be good, He’s more powerful than Santa like that.  Jesus said He’d always be with us or maybe not.  Jesus always followed the law, except about what He could eat, washing His hands, the Sabbath, fasting, adultery, divorce, lying and stealing.  Jesus even knew He’d be beheaded just like John the Baptist but Jesus used time travel powers and got crucified instead.

Okay you’re trying to use logic and science and stuff, big bang, you think you’re a monkey or something.  Well this monkey has his mind open enough to believe that Jesus came back from the dead, which is the slam-dunk evidence He was the real deal. When the women went to Jesus’ tomb it was open.  Or closed.  He had all this holy powers on Him, so you couldn’t touch Him or you could but it’d be like wow.  Jesus stayed on Earth for one day or eight days or forty-plus days or something, plenty of time for thousands of people to see him.  That’s how we know He rose up into the sky from the Mount of Olives.  Jerusalem.  Bethany.  Whatever, they saw it happen.  There’s really good evidence for Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

Two years ago (24 November 2007) I wrote about Mamie Manneh. Manneh was accused of illegally importing monkey meat “for religious ceremonies.”  Her lawyer wanted the charges dismissed “because they impinge on the importer’s right to freedom of religion,” that “bushmeat has spiritual significance and Ms. Manneh’s actions were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” “From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.”  Here is what I had to say about that…

Mamie Manneh is an attempted murderer who illegally imported the remains of endangered species into the USA for the purpose of eating them. Handling and consuming this animal can lead to some of the most nightmarish diseases known to humanity. Only spongiform encephalopathy and religion can soften the mind enough to cause a person to hold Mamie’s ‘culture’ or ’sincere beliefs’ worthy of consideration in this regard. It’s easy to look around and see that no one around you is eating monkey and that almost anyone you ask would be horrified at the idea. It’s easy to not lie to customs. It’s easy to not run over people in cars. It’s easy to not have nine kids that you can’t take care of because you’re in prison for trying to kill a woman. I wish it was easy for judges to laugh and scowl and toss her superstitions out of the courtroom. But that would mean tossing out superstitions that are in better favor with the majority, such as Christianity and Judaism and Islam. How much better it would be if the Constitution of the United States were in effect, and there was no establishment of religion in America.

Time marches on.  In the past two years Manneh has had two more children, bringing the total to eleven.  And for her crime?  A crime Jane Goodall wrote could have “grave consequences on public health?”  A crime which could cause outbreaks of Ebola, measles, tuberculosis and retroviruses similar to HIV among even those who do not eat monkey meat as part of their superstition?  Probation.

Once again, religion is the get-out-of-jail free card.  You can chew off part of a baby’s penis, causing the baby to get herpes which leads to the baby’s death, then another, then another, and get… a warning.  You can neglect your child until they die of curable diseases… but if you are able to demonstrate you mumbled magic spells to an invisible monster that lives in the sky while you watched your child die and did nothing, you can get a reduced sentence.

Spitting contempt is all these morally retarded creeps deserve, and it’s all I have for them.  How much worse, though, that they are given leniency in court.

FIVE people who stared at the sun in the hope they might be witnessing religious apparitions are being treated for serious eye damage, a top eye surgeon has revealed. Reports of pilgrims to Knock seeing the sun dance in the sky and changing colour indicate serious eye damage. And a number of people who attended the recent religious gathering at the Catholic shrine are reporting symptoms of damaged retinas, said Dr Eamonn O’Donoghue, of University College Hospital in Galway. Dr O’Donoghue revealed he is treating five patients for serious eye injuries caused by staring at the sun at recent gatherings at Knock organised by Dublin “spiritual healers” Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson.

Article continues. I hope that the five people who are now blind regain their sight. If the five are of diminished intelligence, or are very young children, then my sympathy is with them all the more. Their friends and family and society at large will now be caring for them in ways that they used to be able to care for themselves. Their lives have been made less. Having said that, I have discharged the entirety of my compassion for those five blind people. They engaged in a stupid act for a stupid reason and may be paying for it the rest of their lives. The spiritual healing prayers of every Christian on Earth offered night and day for a hundred years will do exactly nothing for them, but science may lessen their self-inflicted suffering to some degree. Perhaps they’ll recognize which team made them go blind and which team helped them see again?

Many plants have the ability to regulate how much exposure to the sun they get. So can insects. Most land animals have eyelids. People have eyelids, protruding brows and heads that can tilt. People have the ability to move into the shade. We’re inclined from the DNA level on up to limit how much sunlight goes in our eyes. Except for very young children and those with diminished intelligence, people have the sense to recognize staring at the sun is painful and causes damage to your eyes. It takes religion to go against all that and make a person stare at the sun until they go blind. So you know what? They got what they deserved. But spiritual healers like Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson deserve so very, very much more.