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Mother Theresa's Masochism: Does Religion Demand Suffering to Keep People Passive?

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Passive acceptance or even glorification of suffering can be adaptive when people have no choice. But why does so much religion -- particularly Catholicism -- fetishize pain?

With a new Pope at the helm, the Catholic hierarchy has set about to polish its tarnished image. Can an increased focus on the poor make up for the Church’s opposition to contraception and marriage equality or its sordid [3] financial and sexual affairs? The Bishops can only hope. And pray. And perhaps acce...

GEORGIA: Presbyterian Pastor Claims There Is ‘a Place for Slavery in Godly Cultures’

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:46:00 +0100

"There is a place for slavery, then, in Godly cultures." - Pastor Joe Morecraft (chalcedonchurch / You Tube)

In a recently posted You Tube sermon, the pastor of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church, Dr. Joe Morecraft says in a Biblical society, the godly must own “the fool who despises God’s wisdom” because it’s the only way to keep those with a “slave mentality” from ruining other people’s families.

Based on Proverbs 11:29, Morecraft makes a case for Biblically justifi...

Study: Belief in an angry God associated with variety of mental illnesses

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:19:00 +0100

People who believe in an angry, punishing God are much more likely to suffer from a variety of mental illnesses, a scientific study published in the April edition ofJournal of Religion & Health finds.

The study, conducted by Marymount Manhattan College Assistant Psychology Professor Nava Silton, used data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults to examine the links between beliefs and anxiety disorders like social dysfunction, paranoia, obsession and compulsion.

To do this,...

Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0100

At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister. “If you ask anything in faith, believing,” they said. “It will be done.” I knew they were quoting the Word of God. We prayed together, and I went home confident that God had heard my prayers.

But my horrible compulsions didn�...

REPORT: Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious ...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:59:00 +0100

The number of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is the highest it has ever been since data on the subject started being collected in the 1930s.

The number of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is the highest it has ever been since data on the subject started being collected in the 1930s, new research has found.

Sociologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University analyzed results from the General Social Survey and found t...

IRELAND: Report: Catholic laundries enslaved women and girls in Ireland as recently as 1996

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:57:00 +0100

Taoiseach (prime minister of Ireland) Enda Kenny fails to formally apologise for involvement over female enslavement causing more outrage.

After more than seven decades of exploitation and a 10-year struggle for justice, Ireland on Tuesday admitted its role in the enslavement of thousands of women and girls in the notorious Magdalene Laundry system, but stopped short of issuing a formal apology from the government.

A long-awaited report headed by Senator Martin McAleese said there was “...

Hypocrisy: Catholic hospitals claim fetus is not a person

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

In a cynical attempt to defeat a wrongful death lawsuit a major Catholic health provider has successfully argued a fetus at seven months does not have the same legal rights as a person. The legal argument stands in defiance of church doctrine, and reflects a flagrant moral hypocrisy.

The case involves the 2006 death of a 31-year-old woman seven months pregnant with twin boys, who was brought in to the emergency room at St. Thomas More Hospitalynical attem...

How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:23:00 +0100

Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland

Behind Pope Benedict XVI is a porfolio of property that includes commercial premises on London's New Bond Street. Photograph: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis

Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investm...

Evangelist Claims God Gave Christians Diabetes Cure, Says They Won't Share With Non-Christians

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Evangelist Lance Wallnau announced on the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Praise the Lord that God is giving Christians "technology that can heal diabetes" within months, along with technology “that is going to revolutionize our dependence on oil and energy.” However, Wallnau shared that these new discoveries will only be “given to Kingdom-minded believers” and not sold to benefit the general public.

Later in the interview, Wallnau likened the development to the Apostle Paul, ...

The Secret Sex Lives of Christian Women

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

There’s something sexual about the way that some churches present the idea of God to young Christians, particularly women

The following article first appeared in the Hairpin.

Sex and evangelical American religion have a lot in common: Both are weird and personal; both inspire prescriptive, reductive public dialogue; and both are used as conduits for ecstasy, punishment, comfort, self-satisfaction, and pain that can turn into pleasure. When I was a teenager going to music festivals f...

Does the Bible Make Americans More Violent?

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Americans can be notoriously prudish about sex, yet our entertainments are stuffed with violent acts. Could this go all the way back to the Bible?

My friend Li is an Evangelical Christian and, in keeping with her family values she keeps an eye on what her children view and read. In the summer, she took her 12-year-old daughter to the Hunger Games. “It’s the perfect movie for her,” Li commented. “No swearing and no sex.” No swearing; no sex. Just pe...

West Point cadet quits, cites 'criminal' behavior of officers, promoting fundamentalist Christianity

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:25:00 +0100

UPDATE Dec. 5, 2:25 p.m. ET:

Cadet Blake Page has learned from his superiors at West Point that he will be given an honorable discharge and not be required to pay "recoupment" costs for three and a half years at the military academy. He told NBC News that when out-processing is finished, he will move to Minnesota and "continue the work I've started in whatever way I can."

Blake Page, a senior at West Point, has announced he will leave the military academy to protest what he says is unconsti...

Christian Group Says Demon Sex Makes You Gay

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The reigning scientific consensus on sexual orientation is that it's an inherited, biological trait, but that's just because scientists don't know how to party. A far sexier explanation has been offered up by Christian magazine Charisma, [3] which conducted its own investigation into the origins of homosexuality to reveal the real culprit: sex with demons.

"Can demons engage in sexual behaviors with humans?" the magazine asks. Why yes, they can! At least according to the article's pr...

INDIA: Man Faces Death Threats and Jail for Pointing Out That Weeping Jesus "Miracle" ...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Sanal Edamaruku faces jail for revealing 'tears' trickling down a Mumbai church statue came from clogged drainage pipes.

When water started trickling down a statue of Jesus Christ at a Catholic church in Mumbai earlier this year, locals were quick to declare a miracle. Some began collecting the holy water and the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni began to promote it as a site of pilgrimage.

So when Sanal Edamaruku arrived and established that this was not holy water so much as holey plumbing, ...

Air Force Academy's Orwellian "Religious Respect Conference" Indicates Clear Bias ...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:18:00 +0100

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado is an institution of inestimable worth to the United States military. In addition to being a service academy graduate and son of a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I'm also the father of two sons, a son-in-law, and a daughter-in-law, each of whom are proud alumni of USAFA. Even my brother-in-law is a proud alum of USAFA. As such, I know well the top-notch standards of stellar professionalism to...

Judaism: A Threat to Humanity

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Official Israeli Rabbi Yosef and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament agree: Gentiles/Goys exist to serve Jews and Israel.

Judaism, like all of the “revealed”/hearsay man-made religions, breaks the people of the world down to “us versus them.” In Christianity and Islam the “us” are the believers and the “them” are the non-believers. In Judaism this also holds true to a point. However, in Judaism much importance is placed on being an ethnic/racial Jew and not merely a religious...

How Christian Fundamentalism Feeds the Toxic Partisanship of US Politics

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

When evangelicals attack 'the gay agenda' of an anti-bullying event in schools, something is sick in America's religious culture

Mix It Up at Lunch Day is one of those programs that just seems like a nice thing to do.

The idea is that on one day of the school year, kids are invited to have lunch with the kind of kids they don't usually hang out with: the jocks mix with the nerds, lunch tables are racially integrated, et cetera. Sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of the...

The Myth of the Christian Right

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 08:16:17 +0100

GOP politicians and their followers love to play the Christianity card. They wave their bibles and wag their fingers at anyone whose behavior doesn't pass their sanctimonious moral judgment.

They call themselves Christians, but in Catholic school I was taught that Christians adore and follow Jesus Christ. These holier-than-thou Republicans don't reflect the Jesus that I read about in the New Testament.

To illustrate this point, let's compare the teachings of Jesus with the actions of h...

NEW YORK: Deeply Religious Newburgh Man Crushed By Falling Crucifix, Loses Leg

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 22:10:00 +0100

Pizza Parlor Worker Prayed Before Statue, Prior To Wife Being Cured Of Cancer

NEWBURGH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – David Jimenez believed his devotion to a crucifix was responsible for his wife being cured of cancer. Well, the crucifix fell on him, crushing one of his legs.

And as CBS 2’s John Slattery reported Friday, the leg had to be amputated.

Jimenez sees tragic irony in losing his leg to a crucifix he had prayed to. The crucifix had been outside the Church of St. Patrick in Newburgh. Fo...

PENNSYLVANIA: Judge slams lawmakers for ‘premeditated pandering’ to Christian voters

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:45:00 +0100

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over a Pennsylvania General Assembly resolution that declared 2012 as the “Year of the Bible,” but hammered state lawmakers for approving the legislation.

“At best, H.R. 535 is a benign attempt to reaffirm the underlying principles of the Reagan proclamation of 1983,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner wrote in his decision (PDF). “At worst, it is premeditated pandering designed to provide a reelection sound bite for use by membe...

The 10 Most Dangerous Religious Right Organizations

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100