OVO

Katharine Houreld, 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.” [...] The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria’s 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire. Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children’s Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa. Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected “witch children.” Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner’s material worries as well as spiritual ones — eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day. “Poverty must catch fire,” insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo’s main streets. “Where little shots become big shots in a short time,” promises the Winner’s Chapel down the road. “Pray your way to riches,” advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.

BBC, Vicar who raped young boys jailed:

A West Yorkshire vicar has been jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of raping two young boys and sexually attacking others. The Reverend Peter Hedge, 47, from Holy Trinity Church at Queensbury, near Bradford, had denied the attacks, which happened between the 1990s and 2000. A jury at Bradford Crown Court found him guilty of more than 30 indecent assaults as well as the rapes. A judge said he was a “dreadful disgrace” to the church. Hedge was also found guilty of another serious sexual assault. The court heard the vicar abused his position of trust to gratify himself sexually with six boys and then paid them to keep silent. The judge described Hedge’s actions as “calculated and systematic abuse”.

Greg Risling, Prosecutors brought fraud charges Thursday against a family doctor accused of promising terminally ill cancer patients in their darkest hours that they would be cured with an herbal treatment:

Using her influence as an ordained Pentecostal minister, Dr. Christine Daniel tapped into the vessel of faith to entice people from across the nation to try her regimen. She even appeared on cable’s Trinity Broadcasting Network in 2002 touting her cancer cure and its 60 percent success rate, according to federal investigators. Authorities arrested Daniel, 55, at her San Fernando Valley home Thursday and charged her with two counts each of wire and mail fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 80 years in prison.

John Christoffersen, Court won’t block release of sex abuse papers:

The Supreme Court refused on Monday to block the release of documents generated by lawsuits against priests in Connecticut for alleged sexual abuse. The justices turned down a request by the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport. Several newspapers are seeking the release of more than 12,000 pages from 23 lawsuits against six priests. The records have been under seal since the diocese settled the cases in 2001. Courts in Connecticut have ruled that the papers should be made public. The decision ends a legal battle that dragged on for years and could shed light on how recently retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan handled the allegations when he was Bridgeport bishop.

Mark Mcgivern, College Reverend found dead faced investigation over child indecency:

A Cambridge University churchman who was found dead in his home faced child sex allegations in Scotland. Police were investigating indecency claims against the Rev Ian Thompson, 50, who is thought to have killed himself. Thompson, the dean of chapel at King’s College, died of asphyxiation at his house in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, on Thursday. The Glasgow-born cleric had already been reported to the procurator fiscal by Strathclyde Police over indecency allegations in Kilmarnock. His widow, Ann, said: “He was a wonderful man who was well-loved by people of all walks of life.” A university spokesman said: “We are neither confirming or denying any of the allegations.”

Nick Pisa, Vatican priest caught in red light district after police chase:

A Vatican priest led police on a high speed car chase leaving three officers injured after being caught in a red light zone, a court has heard. Father Cesare Burgazzi, 51, said he ‘floored’ his Ford Focus car after he mistook the plain clothes officers who tried to flag him down during a spot check as robbers. During the twenty minute early hours chase – which was described in court as “like something from a Hollywood movie” two police cars crashed and three police left injured. The court in Rome heard that Father Burgazzi was a priest who worked at the Vatican’s State Department and was also a master of ceremonies at St Peter’s Basilica.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Church court rejects Pa. ex-bishop’s new trial bid:

An Episcopal Church court has rejected a defrocked Pennsylvania bishop’s bid for a new church trial based on a recently discovered cache of letters related to his case. Charles E. Bennison Jr. was removed from his post last year after a church trial in Philadelphia found he covered up his brother’s sexual assaults of a teenage girl in the 1970s. Bennison’s lawyers argued that more than 200 letters recently found contradict witness testimony and show the victim tried to hide the relationship, hampering any intervention by the bishop.

Riazat Butt and Anushka Asthana, Sex abuse rife in other religions, says Vatican:

The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was “busy cleaning its own house” and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger. In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males. The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that “available research” showed that only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.

Jennifer Dobner, Woman in Smart case competent for trial:

A state court judge said Friday the Utah State Hospital has determined that the woman charged in the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart is competent for trial. [...] Barzee, 63, and her estranged husband, Brian David Mitchell, 55, face charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary for the June 2002 kidnapping of Smart in Salt Lake City. [...] Barzee had long refused medication for religious reasons. In 2006, Atherton ruled Barzee should be forcibly medicated, and the Utah Supreme Court upheld the ruling in late 2007. Attorneys for Barzee appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court but were denied a review in May 2008 and Utah State Hospital doctors began forced treatment. [...] A self-proclaimed religious prophet, Mitchell also has been ruled incompetent for trial. Last year, Atherton refused to order forced medication, saying she was not convinced that anti-psychotic medications would restore Mitchell’s competency. Mitchell faces a Nov. 30 competency hearing in the federal case. Smart was 14 in 2002 when she was taken from her bedroom at knifepoint. In federal court testimony Oct. 1, Smart said Mitchell raped her daily and forced her to use drugs and alcohol. She also said Mitchell used religion as a ruse to get what he wanted, but never appeared to be spiritual or close to God.

Press Association, Priest jailed for child sex attacks:

A Roman Catholic priest referred to as the “devil in a dog collar” has been jailed for eight years over a string of sex attacks on young boys. Father David Pearce, of Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, Ealing, used his “undoubtable charm and guile to bamboozle these boys and put them in a state of mind control”, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Mike Ference, Let’s make a deal – let’s finally protect children instead of dysfunctional sex freaks:

My last examiner article was not meant to be prophetic. I guess after almost 20 years of investigating dysfunctional sex freaks like Raymond Lahey, a 69-year-old Roman Catholic Bishop who was recently released on $9,000 bail, charged with possessing and importing child pornography, maybe it just comes with the territory. [...] CBS News quoted from an email Earle had sent to his brother Billy: “During the investigation in 1989 I did reveal to police that during a visit to Father Raymond Lahey’s house in Mount Pearl, I found catalogs of child pornography addressed to Ray Lehay. The pictures were of teen boys sexually aroused.” If the report is accurate, did Lehay play let’s make a deal with the Canadian court system to keep the information hushed up? Was Lehay rewarded with a bishop post because of his skills in parleying deals with government officials to cover up sex abuse crimes against innocent children? Did Lehay help Catholic hierarchy cover-up other clergy abuse crimes? If so, how many other victims went without help? How many resorted to drugs or alcohol? How many victims committed suicide? We have to ask these questions. Catholic church hierarchy have had decades – if not centuries – to fess up to dysfunctional sex freaks parading around as priests, bishops, cardinals -  and yes, even popes. Instead, God’s most precious commodity – innocent children – are nothing more than bargaining chips for whatever prizes the Catholic church doles out to protect dysfunctional sex freaks. Contestants can win cash and other prizes; scholarships to Catholic universities and colleges for sons and daughters; lucrative distribution contracts with Catholic institutions; career advancement and job placement with corrupt political cronies; the list goes on and on. And so do the crimes and the cover-ups.

Tanya Gold, Ignore the bells and the smells and the lovely Raphaels, the Pope’s visit to Britain is nothing to celebrate:

In his actions on child abuse and Aids, Joseph Ratzinger has colluded in the protection of paedophiles and the deaths of millions of Africans. As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Pope John Paul II’s chief enforcer), it was Ratzinger’s job to investigate the child abuse scandal that plagued the Catholic church for decades. And how did he do it? In May 2001 he wrote a confidential letter to Catholic bishops, ordering them not to notify the police – or anyone else – about the allegations, on pain of excommunication. He referred to a previous (confidential) Vatican document that ordered that investigations should be handled “in the most secretive way . . . restrained by a perpetual silence”. Excommunication is a joke to me, perhaps to you, but to a Catholic it means exclusion and perhaps hellfire – for trying to protect a child. Well, God is love. He also waved aside calls to discipline Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Mexican founder of the global Legion of Christ movement. Allegations of child abuse have stalked Maciel since the 1970s. His victims petitioned Ratzinger, only for his secretary to inform them the matter was closed. “One can’t put on trial such a close friend of the Pope as Marcial Maciel,” Ratzinger said. Two abuse victims sued him personally for obstruction of justice, but he claimed diplomatic immunity.

All articles continue at links.  Part of a series that never ends [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and etc.

It is one thing, I am told, to defend the free speech rights of Holocaust deniers; but to engage and defend the content of their views, however cautiously – well, that’s another matter. Smoky’s over the line, says the one consumed with electric suspicion. And questions must follow. What are your motives? Do you hate Jews? Do you still beat your wife? Of course, the abstract argument is fine as far as it goes. It’s just that it doesn’t go very far. If we are serious, the next question must, at some point, intrude. Put another way, if people are being sent to jail for expressing ideas and writing words – and they are – it is only natural and fair to ask: what are those ideas? What are those words? When does a thought expressed become a crime? When it is incitement? When it is a lie? Could it be more complicated? Or less? My position is simple. I believe that you absolutely have to get your fucking hands dirty. I am convinced this is ultimately a matter of decency, and I mean this without irony. [...]

Decades ago, when the works of Henry Miller and William Burroughs and Hubert Selby and Jean Genet and other “literary outlaws” were at issue, expert witnesses lined up to testify as to the redeeming merit of every presumed obscenity. Sometimes the good guys won, and sometimes they lost. But such recourse is largely denied to today’s class of thought criminal. When Ernst Zundel’s lawyer attempted to defend the credibility of her client’s presumptively criminal views, they locked her up. Thus a game is rigged. Grove Press isn’t going to step up this time. It’s easier to sign the petition and shrug. If the lying fuckers should’ve known better, if they’re as bad as CP traders, if they only stoke the embers of a special hate – then a problem may filed away with an asterisk, that might as well be a swastika.  A subject has become inseparable from the stigma that latches. In lieu of discourse, one finds crass signage and deflective satire. A genuine controversy is held hostage by the nuanced strictures of dinner-party form, by the huff and heat of the latest never forget editorial. Yet the noise can only mask a familiar authoritarian gesture. The greatest taboo of our age is sustained in the synchronized cultural choreography of finger-wagging, sometimes from the professoriate, sometimes from the judge’s bench. You are being admonished. You are being told not to consider that there could be a second possibility. You are being told, in so many ways, not to look. And it’s only too easy to abide. All you have to do is read from the script you’ve been handed. Tell yourself it’s of a class with snuff porn or whatever agreed-to boundary. Console yourself with anti-hate sugarplums and bubbles and Frankfurt-schooled excuses. Play it safe. You will have their blessing. Yet something is wrong. Because people are in prison for writing and selling books. Once again, the public library etagerie is arranged for your edification. Construction paper letters stapled to the tackboard. Mark Twain and D.H Lawrence chain-locked in the display case. Harry Potter facing off against familiar cartoon christian enemies. Newsclips about southern school-board busybodies wringing hands over Heather’s two mommies. Banned Books Week as nostalgia, as distraction. As crude extortion, really – once you know what’s missing. And you don’t even feel the chill.

People are in prison for writing and selling books.

Article continues at link.

As if the issues surrounding socialized medical care weren’t complex enough… should the United States expand its tax-supported medical care programs to cover all tax payers, here are some of the issues that will have to be addressed:

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Puerto Rico’s Largest Medical Facility Unlawfully Fired Nurse Because He Refused to Disobey His Religion:

Puerto Rico’s largest medical center violated federal law when it refused to accommodate a male nurse’s religious beliefs, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed yesterday. Further, the EEOC said, Hospital Auxilio Mutuo unlawfully suspended and fired the employee because of his religion. According to the EEOC’s suit, EEOC v. Hospital Auxilio Mutuo, Case No. 3:09-cv-1797, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, a male registered nurse told the hospital he could not cut his hair short as an observance of his religion, Santeria. Nevertheless, the man was suspended after he explained his religious beliefs to the hospital and asked for an accommodation. Further, the EEOC said, the hospital retaliated against the nurse by firing him after he complained about the discrimination. The hospital’s policy allows female employees, but not males, to wear their hair any length, the EEOC said.

Barbara Anderson, Hmong shamans help at Valley hospitals:

Staff at most hosptials would be baffled by an instruction like this on a bedside chart: to prepare patient for surgery, provide 15 minutes of soft chanting and tie a red string around the neck. It’s different at Mercy Medical Center in Merced. There, nurses know they must call a shaman. Mercy is the nation’s first hospital with a formal policy for Hmong shamans, allowing the traditional healers, working alongside doctors, to help patients recover. Hospitals across the country are paying attention as they seek to accommodate cultural beliefs of diverse patient populations. In the San Joaquin Valley, the Hmong are one of a few ethnic groups — including some indigenous Mexican cultures — that practice shamanism. For those with traditional beliefs, calling on a spiritual healer is as important to good health as making an appointment with a doctor. They may go without care if they can’t have a shaman nearby, sometimes with devastating consequences.

American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Understanding Satisfaction with Shamanic Practices among the Hmong in Rural California:

The Hmong are a group of people from Southern China, Laos, Northern Vietnam, and Thailand who have immigrated to the US and who have settled in rural counties in Central California. The literature suggests, the Hmong routinely use the services of shamans as part of their health care services. The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the levels of satisfaction among Hmong clients who use shamans and their services in Fresno County with regard to factors associated with animal sacrifice, gender of the shaman and the practices inside or outside of the client’s home. Data were collected from 115 study participants in a rural California county. Findings from this study suggest that clients who had shamans conduct the rituals at their own homes and those who used live animals were significantly more satisfied than those had to travel to meet the shaman and those whose shamans’ use dead animals.

If the State must offer medical care, and if the State is forbidden from establishing one religion over another, and if medical care and religion are considered one in hospitals, then the State is forced into the position of paying for religious services – all religious services – if they are claimed to be “medical” or “traditional” or “healing.”  Is there anything that religion can’t make more complex and oppressive and harmful?  The alternative is for the State to insist only on secular medicine, leaving “alternative” services to the patient in question.  That seems reasonable to me.  Will that happen?  Is that happening now?

The following is an excerpt from Max Blumenthal’s new book, Republican Gommorah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party, published by Nation Books.

A few miles down the road from Colorado Springs [a home to James Dobson's Focus on the Family], in the quiet bedroom community of Eldredge, a deeply disturbed young man named Matthew Murray followed the unfolding debacle at New Life Church [once under the stewardship of Pastor Ted Haggard] with an interest that bordered on obsession. Murray, a sallow-faced, bespectacled 24-year-old, had been indelibly scarred by a lifetime of psychological abuse at the hands of his charismatic Pentecostal parents. Murray’s mind became crowded with thoughts of death, destruction, and the killings he would soon carry out in the name of avenging what he called his “nightmare of Christianity.” On an online chat room for former Pentecostals, Murray heaped contempt on his mother, Loretta, a physical therapist who homeschooled him to ensure that his contact with the outside world was severely limited. [...] An authoritarian Christian-right self-help guru named Bill Gothard created the home-schooling regimen implemented by Murray’s parents. Like his ally James Dobson, Gothard first grew popular during the 1960s by marketing his program to worried evangelical parents as anti-hippie insurance for adolescent children. Based on the theocratic teachings of R. J. Rushdoony, who devised Christian schools and home-schooling as the foundation of his Dominionist empire, Gothard’s Basic Life Principles outlined an all-consuming environment that followers could embrace for the whole of their lives. [...]

At the Charter School for Excellence, a school in South Florida inspired by Gothard’s draconian principles that receives $800,000 in state funds each year, children are indoctrinated into a culture of absolute submission to authority almost as soon as they learn to speak. [...] After graduating from Gothard’s home-schooling seminars, which constituted the bulk of his education (Colorado has no educational records for Murray after third grade), he was presented by his parents with two options for higher education. The first choice was Haggard’s alma mater, Oral Roberts University. [...] Murray’s second option was the “Discipleship Training School” of Youth with a Mission (YWAM), a Christian Reconstructionist-inspired missionary group that trained bright-eyed youngsters to spread the gospel of Colorado Springs to under-evangelized Third World nations. Desperate to escape his parents’ rigid order, Murray joined YWAM. But as soon as Murray enrolled at YWAM’s training center in nearby Arvada in 2002, he found himself trapped in an authoritarian culture even more restrictive than home. He realized that, as another student of YWAM bluntly put it, the school’s training methods resembled “cult mind-controlling techniques.” [...] Murray lurched to the polar opposite edge of his parents’ fanatical faith, replacing their Bible as his inspiration with the writings of Aleister Crowley, a flamboyant, self-proclaimed Satanist. [...] Murray had been indoctrinated so thoroughly into charismatic Pentecostal culture, however, that even while he railed against his religious upbringing, he could not abandon his ingrained attraction to religiosity. So instead of fleeing hardcore Christian culture for secular humanism, a natural position for jaded skeptics like him, he traded his former faith for Crowley’s occultism. [...] Now he practiced Crowley’s faux faith as fervently as his parents wished he had worshipped their neo-evangelical macho Christ. But the occult only led Murray into a confusing new world of cheap thrills. By his own account, he engaged in “every sort of sexual pervrsion [sic]…that’s legal,” from anonymous gay sex to bestiality. He boasted of his proclivity for binge drinking, his love for death metal bands, and his penchant for spewing “blasphemy.” He envisioned his new experiences as positively transcendent. “In a way it’s like I’m just about completely rebelling against christianity [sic] in any way that I can,” the enragé mused, “but this is a little different of a rebellion.”

Article continues.  There’s no one solution that can make every young man and confused parent live happy lives.  But refraining from introducing the problems of superstition in the first place might be helpful.

EsoZone is a mutant unconference, Portland Oregon USA, October 9 and 10 2009.  See you there!

The Internet Archive suggests that The Raving Atheist started some time in 2002.  By September 2002 the site described itself as “an atheistic examination of the culture of belief: how religious devotion trivializes American law and politics.”  The site and its author have had a curious history.

The Raving Atheist (TRA) was influential on me in three ways when I found it in 2004.  First, TRA’s essays clarified for me the importance of distinguishing between religious belief and theocracy.  TRA wrote (quote): “any person asserting a special individual right or attempting to dictate social policy based about a belief in god must first 1) define the god, 2) prove that the god exists and 3) demonstrate how the right or policy follows from the belief in god.” Religious belief can be foolish, harmful and sad (or clever, helpful and joyous) but it is largely a matter of personal choice.  The trouble for all of us starts when religion is enfranchised into law.  The Raving Atheist helped me understand theocracy is where my criticism should primarily be addressed, with criticism of religion in general coming behind.  I often fail, but I’ve tried to criticize theocracy more harshly than religion or any particular religion.

Second, TRA reminded me that no set of beliefs is a package deal.  Just because a person is an atheist does not mean they are necessarily also a capitalist or a communist, although some capitalists and some communists would like to claim otherwise.  In this case, the reminder came in the form of TRA being strongly in favor of atheism and strongly against abortion.  That’s a combination I’d never seen before, TRA himself said it was rare and which remains a minority view.  TRA was banned from anti-abortion Christian sites for being an atheist, and looked at askance for being anti-abortion by atheists.  This rare combination of beliefs was helpful to me, whether or not I shared them.  Just as the Dalai Lama is not a vegetarian, The Raving Atheist and you and I pick and choose and invent our beliefs from a variety of inspirations.  Sometimes they seem to go together, sometimes we find others that share our beliefs and they appear to form a self-consistent ideology.  But it is just as likely we’re dressing up our preferences in fine justifications.

Third, for better and for worse The Raving Atheist influenced my writing style.  He didn’t just use reasoned criticism to address his concern.  He also heaped scorn and mockery on those he opposed.  TRA took news stories about theocracy and changed the wording so their absurdity and cruelty was emphasized.  I do these things as well.  If you like my work in this style, thank TRA.  If you don’t, blame me.

The better influences that TRA has given me remain, I hope, as I’ve changed in being an atheist and a writer.  TRA has also changed. There were few posts to the blog between 2006 and 2009.  Among them was a June 2006 post stating TRA “will never write another bad word about Jesus or Christianity on The Raving Atheist.” TRA also wrote:

“Neither Christ nor Christianity shall ever again be maligned on this site, I have vowed. In contemporary America continuing this blog under such constraints might appear to rival the composition of a thousand-page novel without the letter ‘e.’ Or perhaps without the alphabet, given that Christianity equates Christ with God, and that the denial of His existence could be fairly construed as an insult. The seeming impossibility of the challenge might suggest an abandonment of disbelief. Consequently charges of atheist heresy, of conversion to theism, have now been lodged against me. With such conversions I am well familiar. Often I have questioned whether a committed, well-read atheist has ever come to faith. No one is better able to recognize the symptoms of a religious transformation than I. But my own diagnosis I will not disclose. [...] I can only assure you that I will not be acting indifferently or agnostically. What has led me to this point, whatever this point is, is a firm conviction that I must go beyond words and set an example. I will not say whether what lies behind that conviction is God or not. You will have to content yourselves with the understanding that the truth of His existence, whether founded in fact, logic, or a combination of both could not possibly vary with what my words might command you to believe. But I will not tell you what I believe. And I will not tell you why I will not, and you will never trick it out of me.”

Reading that I wondered if I could write in favor of atheism without criticizing religion. I haven’t done so online, but I do have a book manuscript that attempts to do just that. Perhaps someday it will get that last bit of editing and see print.

On December 22, 2008, TRA wrote: “Three years ago, I promoted and appeared in the atheist documentary The God Who Wasn’t There, dedicated to the proposition that Jesus never existed. TODAY I DEDICATE THIS SITE AND MY LIFE TO THE WORSHIP AND SERVICE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.”  Is this evidence that some beliefs are package deals, that it’s impossible to stay atheist if you’re against abortion?  Some say yes.  But I’m going to stick with no.  Just because you’re a vegetarian or a nature-worshiper or an occultist doesn’t mean you’re also a fascist.  Just because you’re an homosexual it doesn’t mean you’re gay.  You are what you are by choice and by chance, and political correctness of every stripe be damned. I am still puzzled when friends have a mix of heresies that don’t match my own.  But it doesn’t threaten me like it used to.

As of September 2009 a Google search for “Raving Atheist” returns his blog as the first match, with the byline “Atheistic examination of American law and politics.”  The site‘s own byline is “Dedicated to Jesus Christ, Now and Forever.”  The back content is mostly there, and what isn’t there is usually at the Internet Archive. TRA’s site isn’t as funny or inspirational to me as it used to be.  But the number of anti-abortion atheists was small, and the number of atheists-turned-Christian is also small.  TRA’s site is worth reading at minimum for its rarity.

hidden knowledge. witches & sigils.

fuck yeah occultism

BBC: Thieves have killed an endangered Sumatran tiger in an Indonesian zoo and stolen most of its body, officials say. Only the intestines of the female tiger were left, staff at Taman Rimba Zoo said. Police believe the thieves intend to sell the animal’s fur and bones. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild. [...] A 2008 study by British-based wildlife trade monitoring network, Traffic, showed that tiger bones, claws, skins and whiskers were being sold openly in eight cities on the island. Traffic says tigers are killed to supply parts for souvenirs, Chinese medicine and jewellery. The Sumatran tiger is listed as critically endangered, the highest category of threat.

The world would be a better place with more live tigers and less fake medicine.

Prayed for receeding of glacier, now praying for its return. As if prayer worked, ever, in all of human history, even once.

Swiss want permission to reverse an ancient deal they did with the Almighty

Nigerian atheist attacked by a mob of Christians at a child witchcraft conference: Nigerian atheist Leo Igwe was attacked this week by a mob of Christians at a conference he staged to discuss Child Rights and Witchcraft.
Murder-defendant Houston brothers may represent selves: “We’ve got the best counsel in the world,” Leon Houston said. “We’ve got God on our side.”
Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To Sex With 22-Year-Old Intern: According to his website is “a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school.” He recently sponsored a bill designed to prevent gay couples from adopting children. Also quoted as saying he ‘didn’t believe young people should have sex before marriage anyway, that his faith and church are important to him, and he wants to promote abstinence.’
100 Huntley Street hosts suspended during Ponzi scheme probe: Ron and Reynold Mainse have been relieved of their duties as hosts of Christian program 100 Huntley Street after allegedly becoming involved in a $14.1-million Ponzi scheme.
Pastor and sons face fraud charges: They allegedly ran a multi-million dollar, faith-based affinity fraud for at least five years that duped thousands of investors into buying bonds that raised at least $120 million. The Reeves allegedly stole $6 million for themselves in the process.
Priest held for selling body parts: The Zion Apostolic Church priest and a casual worker for at least two mortuaries were arrested after police were called to a home in Acornhoek, where they found a white woman’s breast and hand on Saturday.
‘I was only giving the boy anatomy lessons’, said paedophile priest: The 79-year-old ex-priest from Melbourne refused to apologise for the assault on the boy for fear of a compensation claim being made against the church.

This is another installment in our continuing series of Things Atheists Didn’t Do.

Still More Things Atheists Didn’t Do | Quick Hitts

Hakim Bey, The Real Reason for Gun Ownership, eating disorders, V. Vale, Christian terrorism.  First publication of Evil Eye by Hakim Bey.  Review of Surviving Prison and The Idle Warriors.

• Front Cover by James Ellis.
• The Real Reason for Gun Ownership by The Company of Freemen.  Reprinted from the 1990 Main Catalogue of Loompanics Unlimited.
• Evil Eye by Hakim Bey. Ink drawings by Trevor Blake. First appearance in print.
• Review of Surviving in Prison by Harold Long. The second time a publisher honored me by sending a book to review.
• Review of The Idle Warriors by Kerry Thornley. Another book from another publisher, sent to me for free to review. As I began to take OVO more seriously, others did as well – I hope they sold a book or two because of my reviews.  Sixteen years later I would publish a book by Kerry, The Dredlock Recollections.
• Interview with Melissa. This interview with a friend about her eating disorder made an impression on many readers. What I thought I knew about eating disorders and television has changed since this interview was published. As of 2010, Melissa is doing just fine.
• Warbucks Intra-Family Communique by Ernest Mann. Ernest Mann advocated refusing to take pay for one’s work, with the idea that if everyone worked for free then the need to charge for goods and services (and scarcity of goods and services) would vanish, bringing universal prosperity. Earnest Mann was murdered on 12 March 1996.  He was 69 years old and resided in Little Falls, Minnesota USA. He was murdered by his grandson, who then killed himself.
• Interview with V. Vale of Re/Search. I have seen interviews with Vale published after this but I have yet to see one published before. In the interview I mention that the office of AIDS Response Knoxville was fire bombed: Vale said that wasn’t reported on the West Coast. It is still the case that Christian terrorism is underreported in the United States. The Internet now offers the kind of ‘clipping service’ for under-reported news that Vale wished for, but access to the ‘real’ news has not changed the masses (“this kind of control mentality will apparently always be with us…“). In May 1990, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were injured by a bomb that exploded in their car. They were accused by the FBI of being responsible for the bomb. Judi died from cancer in March 1997, but her family and friends kept the case alive. In August 2002 they were awarded $4.4 million in their civil rights lawsuit against the FBI: the court determined they had been framed. Jock Sturges was arrested for ‘child pornography’ in April 1990 but the case against him was dismissed a year later. In the mid 1990s Christian groups caused ‘child pornography’ charges to be brought against the book chain Barnes & Noble for stocking work by Sturges. Vale copy-edited this interview but I can claim all the remaining errors for my own.

OVO is a collection of new works in the public domain edited and published by Trevor Blake since 1987. New issues are in progress.

NIGERIAN atheist, Leo Igwe – a regular contributor to the Freethinker – was attacked this week by a mob of Christians at a conference he staged to discuss Child Rights and Witchcraft.

Nigerian atheist attacked by a mob of Christians at a child witchcraft conference

Rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns

Poaching Crisis As Rhino Horn Demand Booms In Asia

Hello, this is Robert Sheaffer. I’m an author, a free-lance writer, and skeptical investigator of all manner of bogus claims. Skeptical resources on UFOs, the “paranormal,” feminist “scholarship”

The Debunker’s Domain, by Robert Sheaffer.

A Philadelphia man’s accused of using Tarot cards and mysticism to lure three teenage girls into having sex with him.

Girls: He Tricked Us Into Sex With Tarot Cards – News- msnbc.com

The Zion Apostolic Church priest and a casual worker for at least two mortuaries were arrested after police were called to the home of a sangoma in Acornhoek, where they found a white woman’s breast and hand on Saturday.

Sowetan News – Priest held for selling body parts

Police suspect the body parts are being sold in neighbouring Tanzania, for use in witchcraft.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Witnesses testify in albino trial

The women were recruited in Nigeria with false promises of legal employment and then illegally brought to Spain where they were forced to work as prostitutes, police said in a statement. Police said the ring carried out “voodoo rituals and black magic to frighten the women and keep them always under control with the threat of ‘destroying their souls” or ‘making them crazy’.”

[Article continues at link. There's a limit to how much I can do about false promises of legal employment, or illegal border crossing, or forced labor. But there's one thing I can do that might save someone from an experience like these women had. And that is to discourage people from believing in invisible monsters. If you believe in invisible monsters, you might be bullied into doing something you don't want to do by other people who threaten to turn the invisible monsters loose on you. But if you don't believe in invisible monsters, you can just laugh at such threats. It doesn't matter if the invisible monster is a voodoo creature, God, the approval of others, souls or other species of humbug. Laugh at the invisible monsters and their handlers. This is a natural universe and for a short time you're part of it. Enjoy. - Trevor Blake]

A mother accused of homicide for only praying while her 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes knew the girl was gravely ill at least a day before she died

In-law: Wis. mother knew daughter was gravely ill