After recent controversy over some atheist funded ads on billboards and buses in Florida (Christians found these ads encouraging people to think for themselves “offensive), atheists decided to be a little clever. Now they have an ad that is going to run on 25 different buses for four weeks. In order to show how Christians argue for Christianity, the atheist organization created a bus billboard quoting Pastor John Hannah (pastor of New Life Covenant Oakwood Church and host of a morning Christian radio show). They quote him saying -
“God is still God whether you believe it or not … just believe.”
Making fun of Christians again, are they? I mean the skill that this pastor has in encouraging people towards his point of view is … just … breathtaking, isn’t it?
Since they hate being made fun of, we can assume that this has offended the Christian community once aga-
Wait, what?
(sigh) Nevermind all that. I was wrong. Apparently this ad was NOT the atheists making fun of Christians but was actually paid for by the Oakwood Church ($5,000) and they meant Pastor Hannah’s quote to be taken seriously. Pastor Hannah explained -
"We wanted to represent our city and the Christian community … I felt like the atheists, to come in and say there probably isn't a God, that's an ATTACK against our faith. WE WANTED TO BE LOUD just as they were loud. Do you hear that, you goddamned atheists?!!! We can fund bus billboards too! WHAT DO YOU SAY NOW? HUH? HUH? HUH? You don’t sound so arrogant now, do ya?”
Surprisingly, when asked about it, atheists did not seem threatened or offended by the ad. Atheist activist Joe McLoughon was interviewed -
Reporter: In response to some atheistic billboards some of your fellows were putting up, this church just funded a billboard which quotes their pastor proclaiming “God is still God whether you believe it or not … just believe.” How does that make you feel?
McLoughon: Wait what? Ahahahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA! No, please don't read it to me again!
Reporter: It's a bold statement - “God is still God whether you believe it or not … just believe.”
McLoughon: HAHAHAHAHAHA! No, I just can't stand i-(chokes) heheheheh! Hahahahaha! I'm dying here.
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Wisconsin Christian Father Found Guilty of Second-Degree Reckless Homicide for Killing His 11-year-old daughter
On a much heavier note, in what is probably the largest religious news story of the week, Dale Neumann (that’s him in the picture to the left joking around with his attorney during the trial) was convicted of killing his 11-year-old daughter, Madeline. Madeline had an treatable form of diabetes, but because her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann believed in faith healing, they decided to heal her with prayer instead of modern medicine.(Note: I'll refrain from joking or making anything up for this story.)
Because she wasn’t treated by a doctor, Madeline’s diabetes progressed to the point where she couldn’t walk, talk, eat or drink. She died on the floor of their house, as they were in the middle of healing her with prayer.
Neumann, who has studied to be a Pentecostal pastor and describes himself as born-again, testified that (a) he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die because God promises in the Bible to heal, and (b) that taking her to a doctor would be disobeying God.
"I can't do that because Biblically, I cannot find that is the way people are healed," Dale Neumann told the jury. "If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God. I am not believing what he said he would do."
Speaking of his belief in “faith healing” he also told the jury about how the Holy Spirit once told him to burn two medical books that he owned. And, as soon as he burned these books, his back pain disappeared.
"It was a spiritual cause of a physical ailment," Neumann said.
His wife, Leilani, also testified saying that they believed that illness is always caused by sin and can only be cured by God. Taking their daughter to the doctor would have been in “complete disobedience to what we believe.”
She also said that they believed their daughter's deteriorating condition may have been the result of a falling out with another couple, and called them once the girl was unconscious and persuaded them to come pray for the girl.
"I asked her if she loved Jesus," the mother testified. "She might have said yes. I know for sure she was acknowledging it. What sounds came out, I don't remember. She was making noises ... My focus definitely was to pray."
The jury was unsympathetic to their beliefs in both trials, and both parents have now been convicted of second-degree reckless homicide, and now face up to 25 years in prison.
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Some Curse Words Make A Church Mighty Upset
St. Jerome’s Catholic Church held a fundraiser called the “Fancy Farm Picnic” where they featured Kentucky Republican Attorney General Jack Conway as a speaker (Conway is running for Senator in 2010). During this speech, his audience gasped in abject horror on two different occasions -First, Conway referred to his Democratic opponent in the 2010 Senate race, Daniel Mongiardo, saying that Mongiardo “sure as HELL can’t speak the truth.”
And then second, he was trying to describe himself to the audience and said - “Go ahead and chew on my hide … it only grows back tougher! You’re looking at one tough son of a bitch!”
Numerous church members were very offended. And they let their complaints be known. This forced Conway to apologize to everyone. Conway depreciatingly said that he just got carried away by “fiery rhetoric” and he was sorry about being so insensitive.
Conway explained - “I’m one very sorry son of a bitch and I sure as hell know when I’ve done wrong. I apologize to y‘all here and I’ll be damned if I say another dirty word again.”
Kim Geveden, spokesman for Mongiardo and his Senate campaign, took the opportunity to respond -
"I think it's sad and disappointing that the church leaders at St. Jerome's ... think that they have to take that step after the attorney general's profanities," he said. "But it's a step they need to take."
By “step” Geveden is referring to the church making a new rule. Saying the word “hell” or phrase “son of a bitch” is now no longer allowed in their church.
Off the record, Geveden said he had just talked to Mongiardo and they're happy to say they now have the Senate race in the bag. "By uttering a mere two words, Conway just lost his entire Christian conservative vote. They're not going to vote for us, but they're not going to vote for dirty-mouth Conway either ... and that's going to be just enough for us to win! Sometimes you just gotta love Christians."
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Catholic Bishop Lights Fire Under the Ass of the Facebooking/Texting/Twittering/Myspacing Generation
English Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols has taken a lot of flak this week for criticizing the new and constantly growing “facebook culture.” Nichols spoke out and said that websites and electronic social networking like Facebook and Twitter are leading young people to build “transient relationships” which leave them unable (or less skilled) at forming real friendships in real life. He said that the internet, cell phones, blackberries, etc. are all “dehumanizing” our lives more than ever before.These comments have so far been criticized and frowned upon in our tech savy culture. Bishop Nichols was considered to be “out of touch” with modern day age, but he wasn't finished -
"I think there's a worry that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community … We're losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person's mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point … Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanizes what is a very, very important part of community life and living together."
"Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities, but I'm wary about it. It's not rounded communication so it won't build a rounded community … If we mean by community a genuine growing together and a mutual sharing in an interest that is of some significance then it needs more than Facebook … Among young people often a key factor in them committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships.”
Whoa. Using Facebook and Twitter too much can eventually result in suicide? Now the online hate mail’s really going to start pouring in.
Nichols continued - "But friendship is NOT a commodity, friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it's right."
Nichols made these remarks after different news stories about young people’s online relationships ending badly have started appearing with regularity. The latest one included a girl in England who committed suicide after her internet friends had posted spiteful messages on the internet about her appearance and clothing.
More after the jump -
The English Bishop also had a number of suggestions to help change this trend. One of his suggestions being derided on Twitter was to revive the old “pub culture.” Nichols said -
"There are pubs where people have their corner, and they're a bit eccentric, but they're welcomed. If they don't turn up, someone will go and see what's happened." Nichols doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that the old-fashioned pub has “declined as an institution” in a time when human relationships are becoming more impersonal and electronic.
In other words, stop texting and twittering and go make some friends over a couple of beers.
Columnist Jonathan Wynne-Jones found Nichols little diatribe to be pretty insightful -
“ … the truth is that many, obviously not all, blogs and websites do have a ‘dehumanizing’ effect. People would never talk to one another the way they do on these sites. Under the cloak of anonymity, people feel free to say whatever they like, no matter how ill-informed or ill-judged. In fact you only have to look at some of the church blogs to see the worst examples of this. It’s as if all normal rules of human interaction go out of the window once these addicts are sat in front of their computer screens … While most normal people are able to enjoy the great benefits of blogs, for those with empty lives and shallow friendships they are a drug, an asylum for the socially inept.”
All I can say is if England thinks they have it bad, they haven't seen the depths of stupidity that our electronic media obsessed American young people are sinking to.
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Osteen Brings His Unique And Powerful Message To Australia
For the first time, Joel Osteen was the main speaker at the “Hillsong Conference” in Australia. He and his wife spoke about very important topics - mostly about love.Joel discussed his relationship with his father (who first pastored Lakewood Church before Osteen turned it into a mega-church of over 40,000 every Sunday). This included a scene where he brought the whole conference to tears as he described his father’s death to them and how hard it was for him. He then explained to everyone that they could all take comfort in the fact that he is doing the work of God.
“God is working behind the scene ... you don't know what is inside. You may not see anything, but don't let it fool you, because God is working behind the scene. He continues His work in the believers. You may not think that it’s necessarily God changing my church from 90 people to over 40,000 people. You might think it was me. But trust me, God IS behind this.”
Osteen’s wife & co-pastor, Victoria, also spoke at the conference. She also focused on the subject of love and relationships. She told the crowd you cannot always expect to agree in a relationship, but that with work, you can make a good relationship happen’ “truth is not about gazing into each other’s eyes, but gazing into the same direction.”
Pastor Aachie Galleghan said later at the conference, “The Osteens’ message just has so much depth to it, it’s amazing! I never understood important love is to a relationship before. Love. Love is what Jesus is all about. I think the world would be a better place if they just embraced Joel Osteen’s message of love.”
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The Governor of Texas Declares that Church and State Go Together
Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, made some controversial remarks this week at the New Life Christian Center. He explained that the idea that laws shouldn't be informed by religion is an extreme position."Freedom of religion is not to be confused with freedom from religion!"
A number of different very politically active church congregations attend this conference, and Perry became even more popular with them as he said that there is currently a great spiritual battle taking place for the very future of the state of Texas and America itself. The only way they were going to win this "spiritual battle," according to Perry, is if Christians stayed actively engaged in the public arena and kept voting for Republicans each election.
Meanwhile, Perry is getting ready for his Republican primary run for governor against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor in next year's election. And his campaign just accused the Hutchison campaign of being slanderous and of setting a negative and divisive tone.
Mysteriously, the Web site for Bailey Hutchison's campaign "contained hidden phrases including 'rick perry gay.'" Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Hutchison's campaign was not condoning those words and did not know thousands of people would be searching for them. He said they would be removed from the site.
Apparently their website has a tool that generates the most frequent Web searches using the two gubernatorial candidates' names, and "rick perry gay" is a commonly searched phrase in google. Unfortunately, even though he wasn't gay, 1970s porn star Rick Perry's reputation is now being tarnished. And it's not helping the current Governor of Texas either.
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