Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided to not host a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School this year,” school board members said in a statement.

Yes, Constance’s constitutional right to free expression is a distraction, so rather than accommodating this brazen display of non-heteronormative individuality, the school has used her as an excuse to cancel the whole thing. I don’t know the details of this county’s social scene (although apparently the social hub is a bowling alley!), but in my high school, the prom was the most important event in all of high school. The school’s decision to pin this cancellation squarely on the fags only adds to the incredible hostility already found throughout the deep south.

Constance had this to say about the event:

All I wanted was the same chance to enjoy my prom night like any other student. But my school would rather hurt all the students than treat everyone fairly

According to the US Census data, about 96% of folks in Itawamba county affiliated with a congregation are evangelicals. Furthermore, about 92% of all people living in Itawamba county are ‘exclusively white’, and homosexual tolerance from  these folks has historically been pretty crap. Hell, Mississippi was one of the states that attempted to ban gay adoption, so these sort of ridiculously homophobic attitudes are none-too-surprising.

In an even more disgusting move, the school simultaneously called for a private prom to be held in lieu of the school-sponsored one. This would allow them the ability to keep the homos out while still satisfying their view of what a proper human being ought to be. The school, who does after all, represent the government in the area, is setting an example of how responsible adults ought to act when faced with such a threat to the status quo as this young woman represents.

Thankfully, the ACLU  has been closely following the case, and today filed suit against the county, hoping to reinstate the prom for everyone. Christine Sun, who will represent Constance in the upcoming lawsuit, said this:

It’s shameful and cowardly of the school district to have canceled the prom and to try to blame Constance, who’s only standing up for herself. We will fight tooth and nail for the prom to be reinstated for all students

It is a sad statement of the times that these folks require the ACLU to force them to do the right thing. Jesus himself sat down with the most marginalized members of his society and showed incredible compassion for all of them, but the bigotry of these Christian school board members is so strong that they must ruin the party for everyone just to continue their hate of one innocent girl who just wants to go to her prom like all her friends.

Shame on you, Itawamba Agricultural High School. I hope your pending destruction at court will teach you something, but I know better. Your students deserve better role models than you, so I’m glad courageous heroes like Constance McMillen are there.

Related posts:

1. School Courts Damnation with Sodomite Prom “Queen” A high school in Los Angeles has openly spurned God...
2. Satan Possesses Mississippi Coed A Pelahatchie, Mississippi high school student spent three days speaking...
3. Embryos Could Be People Too: Personhood Colorado, Mississippi Qualify Ballot Measures Personhood Colorado and Personhood Mississippi have submitted sufficient signatures to...

The Conference’s directive states that Catholic hospitals have “an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally . . . This obligation extends to patients in chronic and presumably irreversible conditions.”

Executive director Rev. Thomas G. Weinandy explains that if a patient’s advance directive states that she doesn’t want a feeding tube, “and the reason they don’t want it is they basically want to die, then the Catholic institution would explain to them they can’t cooperate with that and they would have to go to another institution.”

He follows with a hypothetical example of Catholic kindness and compassion:

If someone had a stroke and the doctor says he won’t die though he may be very sick, then they should give him nutrition and hydration [regardless of advance directives]. You can’t just starve him to death. It’s hard to know whether someone can regain consciousness or not.

Barbara Coombs Lee is president of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit which provides end-of-life counseling and information on advanced directives (living wills). She comments,

If family members believe they know what mom or dad wants but get the message from hospital or nursing home staff that it’s sinful and wrong, that’s a pretty hard thing for a grieving family to deal with. It feels like someone is trying to guilt and shame them.

Guilt and shame. From religion? I can’t imagine.

Related posts:

1. Northwest Freethought Conference – March 26-28 March 26-28, 2010 is the Northwest Freethought Conference in Renton,...
2. Non-Theist “Unity Conference”: Would You Go? Back in 2008, a "Unity Conference" joining the major non-theist/freethought...
3. Penn & Teller Episode About Catholic Church – Free Online! The entire episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t, in which...

The New York Times reports that, following the Irish scandal (which we recently reported on), new abuse allegations have surfaced over the last few weeks in the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany.

Rev. Federico Lombardi, Press Office Director for the Vatican, addressed the issue by reading a note on Vatican Radio. In part:

. . . over recent weeks the debate on the sexual abuse of minors has also involved the Church in certain central European countries (Germany, Austria and Holland). And it is on this development that we wish to make some simple remarks.

The main ecclesiastical institutions concerned – the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference – have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago.

Yes, a desire for transparency. Timely and decisive action. Remember those words.

Pope Benedict’s brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, directed the Regensburg boys choir from 1964 to 1994. Thirty years.

A number of abuse cases at the two Catholic Bavarian boarding schools from which the boys were drawn have since surfaced.

The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who lived in the Regensburg boarding school of the choir until 1967, said the school had an “elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust.”

He said the headmaster at the time “would choose two or three of us boys in the dormitories in the evenings and take them to his flat.” He said there had been red wine, and that the priest had masturbated with the pupils. “Everyone knew about it,” said Wittenbrink.

The likelihood that Ratzinger was unaware? Wittenbrink comments:

I find it inexplicable that the Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it.

Der Spiegel reports on the “transparency” and “timely and decisive action” taken by the local diocese.

Despite many indications, the Regensburg Diocese did not make abuse cases public until contacted by SPIEGEL last Thursday. Now the chair has pledged to investigate everything rigorously and to present an interim report at the end of March.

“Timely and decisive action.” Covering up sexual abuse cases dating to the 1970s and 1980s is “timely and decisive”? This shows a “desire for transparency”?

Much as anti-gay California lawmaker Roy Ashburn “desired transparency” only after he was arrested for DUI leaving a gay bar, the Catholic cult only “desires transparency” after being caught for its decades-long strings of abuses and crimes.

With transparency like this, who needs curtains?

Georg Ratzinger responded to the allegations in a recent interview.

In an interview published Sunday, Ratzinger was quoted as saying by the Rome daily La Repubblica that there was “discipline and rigor” but no terror during his 30 years as head of the Regensburg choir from 1964 until 1994.

[He] said the abuse accusations also reflected “a certain animosity toward the church.”

That’s right. The people claiming that Catholic priests beat and sexually abused them are only doing so because they hate the church, not because they were beaten and sexually abused by pedophiles who went unpunished.

Related posts:

1. Catholic Church Asks Parishioners to Cover Costs of Sex Abuse Lawsuits In a revolting move clearly demonstrating the true depravity of...
2. Catholic Cardinal Blames Islamization of Europe on Atheists A leading Catholic cardinal blames secular thinking, and atheists in...
3. US Conference of Catholic Bishops Takes End-of-Life Decisions Away from Patients and Doctors The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has adopted a directive...

Ashburn told KERN radio:

Well, I am gay … Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. But I am gay, but it is something that is personal. And I don’t believe — I felt with my heart — that being gay did not affect, wouldn’t affect how I do my job. Again, what happened through my own actions the other night changed all that.

He continued, explaining his virulently anti-gay voting record:

My votes reflect the wishes of the people in my district. And I have always felt that my faith and allegiance was to the people there in the district, my constituents. And so as each of these individuals measures came before the legislature, I cast ‘No’ votes, usually ‘No’ votes, because the measures were almost always about acknowledging rights or assigning identification to homosexual persons.

Inga [Banks, radio show host]: Did you agree with those votes?

Ashburn: I felt my duty — and I still feel this way — is to represent my constituents. I cherish the fact that we have a remarkable system of government, and that system of government provides for representatives elected by the people to go to the legislative bodies, whether it be Washington, D.C., or Sacramento, and to cast votes on behalf of the people, not my own point of view not my own internal conflict, certainly to use my best judgment. but to vote as my constituents would have me vote. There’s never been a doubt in my mind on the position of the majority, the vast majority of people in my district — the 18th senatorial district — on these different issues. And so I voted as I felt I should on behalf of the people who elected me.

So, it is clear. Ashburn, a closeted homosexual, voted against his own interests and those of people he supposedly cares for, voted in favor of discrimination against those people, and lied to his constituents — people who, his words suggest, would never have elected an openly-gay man to represent them — in order to secure re-election.

His nightmares are now coming true, as conservatives blast him. Randy Thommason of SaveCalifornia, demanding Ashburn’s immediate resignation, cries:

His lying, cheating ways have boiled over and the public’s trust has been shattered . . .

He vowed to be faithful to his wife, then broke his vows when he chose homosexuality over his marriage . . .

He repeatedly lied to people who asked him to honestly tell them whether he was living the homosexual lifestyle . . .

Now that he has openly identified with the ‘LGBT’ lifestyle, Ashburn is dramatically out of step with his constituents, has lost their trust, and is in danger of voting against their conservative family values . . .

I can’t even begin to list the things wrong with those statements.

Ashburn has decided not to seek re-election. Surprise, surprise. I imagine he’ll quietly fade into the background and hide like the coward he is.

Related posts:

1. Anti-Gay Lawmaker Arrested for DUI After Leaving Gay Club Once again, a virulently anti-gay lawmaker has been nailed (figuratively...
2. AFA Attacks AAA over Gay-Friendly Policy Imagine the horror Don Wildmon must have felt. The dread...
3. Anti-Gay Crusaders Boycott PepsiCo Don Wildmon's American Family Association continues its months-long boycott of...

The unidentified boy accepted a ride from the driver of New Beginnings Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church’s van. The driver soon pulled a gun and kidnapped the boy, taking him to church instead of school. They weren’t going to pray.

The man, 34-year-old Robert James Washington, Jr., a church volunteer, directed the 15-year-old boy into the pastor’s study. There, he ordered the teen to strip . . . then raped him. Once satisfied, Washington drove the boy to school.

KTBS3 News of Shreveport and KSLA 12 of Shreveport report that Washington, a volunteer at the New Beginnings Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church, did not know the boy. He is being held without bond pending an initial court appearance, and is charged with aggravated kidnapping and rape.

Related posts:

1. Baptist Pastor Takes Page from Landover Baptist School of Salvation For years, Landover Baptist Church has offered a Free Playstation...
2. Catholic Church Asks Parishioners to Cover Costs of Sex Abuse Lawsuits In a revolting move clearly demonstrating the true depravity of...
3. Nude Worship Offends People Who Don’t Attend That Church At White Tail Chapel in Ivor, Virginia, the Lord isn't...

Just over a week ago, members of the Secular Coalition of America met with Tina Tchen, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and representatives from the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. The Secular Coalition, led by executive director Sean Faircloth, a former Maine state legislator, is comprised of Secular Humanists, agnostics and atheists.

The agenda for the meeting was threefold. The group’s concerns: (2)

• That all children have access to necessary medical treatment regardless of their parents religious beliefs and that faith based childcare services be held to the same health and safety requirements as all other such services in the community.
• That secular, agnostic and atheist members of the military have the same protection as members of minority religions in the face of systemic Christian proselytizing and discrimination.
• That alternatives to government-funded faith based initiatives, that alienate those of no or different belief systems, and subject those needing service to religious proselytizing, be considered.

The President was not to attend the meeting, nor were any policy formulations or decisions to be made. The meeting was simply an audience with members of the Administration to express the views and concerns of 16% of the American population.(3)

None of the items on the agenda demand, or even request, the inclusion of the group’s practices or beliefs as public policy or law. None of the Secular Coalition’s points for discussion require the adherence to any theology or sectarian doctrine. None of the points of discussion were aimed at imposing any belief system onto the policies and laws of the United States. All of the points were aimed at protecting those who are either too young to choose for themselves, or have chosen differently, from religion’s intolerance, doctrinal dictates, discrimination, and proselytizing. The Secular Coalition was simply asking that the protections afforded by the First Amendment be upheld.

What was asked for was equal rights for all individuals, their belief systems or world views, and protection from any religion imposing its rules on others. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution’s Establishment Clause prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another.(4)

Adherence to the First Amendment is all that was requested. There was no assault on any religion. There was no request to repeal, or infringe on, the guaranteed rights of any religion. There was no defamatory rhetoric used regarding this meeting, by the Secular Coalition, against religion.

In their press release, Secular Coalition for America Executive Director Sean Faircloth stated,

We are very pleased that the Obama administration is affording us this opportunity to present our positions on issues of high importance, issues of freedom and fairness that affect every American, regardless of belief. Our Founders knew that there was no place in American government for the privileging of religion, or of one belief over another, and that will be a central theme in our interaction with the White House.

The response from Christian groups, on the other hand, was anything but tolerant, or even civil.

“In God We Trust,” which states it “was founded to push back against… anti-religious activists,”(5) berated the White House for meeting with “hate-filled groups”. Says IGWT’s Chairman, Bishop Council Nedd (seen at left):(6)

It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation. President Obama seems to believe that it is a good idea to have a key senior aide plan political strategy with people who believe faith in God is a disease. Some of the people in this coalition believe the world would be better off with no Christians and no Jews and they aren’t shy about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God.

Bill Donohue (seen at right), President of the Catholic League, said the meeting provided a “definitive answer” about the administration’s stance towards religion.

People of faith, especially Christians, have good reason to wonder exactly where their interests lie with the Obama administration. Now we have the definitive answer. In an unprecedented move, leaders of a Presidential administration are hosting some of the biggest anti-religious zealots in the nation. (7)

Fear and defensiveness permeates the Christian response. Their high level of societal control was called into question. From the perspective of the religious, what non-theists represent is far more frightening than any opposing theology. The challenge represented by non-theists is a greater threat than any gun, bomb, sword or tank. Religions seem to thrive and even strengthen with war, conflict and martyrdom. They have no defense against the peaceful challenge of rational thinking.

This is one thing that unites the religious regardless of their creed. There is one thing of fundamental importance to their existence that they all share. They share the need for others to accept their tenets with unquestioning faith. They need to protect belief in that which can be neither observed nor proven. They cannot address each other on the fundamental veracity of their beliefs. They are unable to challenge each others credibility or legitimacy without challenging their own. They all suffer from the same fundamental and insurmountable weakness. To this end they will profess to be the stalwart champions of religious tolerance while locked at an impasse of contradictory and often diametrically opposed doctrine. As a result, even more than each other, they fear the non-theists. While religions may compete with each other for followers, territories, and wealth, they cannot threaten each other’s very existence as non-theism and rational thought can. While they may inflict financial and territorial losses on each other, rational thought has the potential to relegate them to the realm of mythology. The only perceived threat to their existence is rational thought and therefore they make effort to disenfranchise, disempower and discredit.

It is this fear, this realization of the vulnerability of theistic paradigms, that fuels the inappropriate and irrational aggression toward non-theists, as exemplified by Nedd and Donohue, and causes Christendom to continuously violate the First Amendment. Considering their tenuous position, the perception of non-compliant non-theists as a threat is understandable. The potentially apocalyptic impact of rational thought, peaceful non-compliance, and judicious intolerance of religious delusions, makes desperate measures, born of reactionary insecurity, understandable. Understandable but neither acceptable or legal.

Christianity in America has enjoyed, in violation of the First Amendment, preeminent and preferential status. Christian organizations have not done this simply by their numbers, which is precisely the kind of exploitation by a majority the First Amendment was designed to protect against, but because of their flagrant and successful attempts at insinuating themselves into politics and the legislative process. The fact that Christian organizations and churches have become overtly political organizations and political action committees, while enjoying tax exempt status, only compounds the affront to the American people and their Constitution.

Without proposing any assault on religion, or any new rules, this needs to be corrected. There is no need for new rules. The First Amendment must be adhered to and respected. The results of not doing so will be disastrous to American society. Religions can not be allowed to require anything from anyone who is not an adherent to their faith. Religious doctrine and dogma cannot be the basis for any law, policy, legislation or governmental procedure. It may, simply by coincidence, be in agreement with the law, or vice versa, but it cannot be the basis. Any status, access, influence or inclusion enjoyed by one religion, must be available to all religions, belief systems, and world views.

The First Amendment exists for the protection of individuals to practice their own religion as well as the protection of American society from religion. The failure of strict enforcement will invite all religions to demand the same generous latitude, political involvement, educational influence and untouchable status afforded Christian interests, organizations and institutions. After all, the First Amendment is clear about the equal status of religions. Unless Americans are willing to start compromising with Sharia Law(8), they may want to reconsider the carte blanche often afforded Christendom.

The United States of America is a secular country and its Constitution is a secular document. American Christendom has been allowed to violate the parameters of the First Amendment for far too long and must now be reigned in to compliance. The important point to remember is that religions exists within American society, not the other way around.

(1) – http://www.alan.com/2010/02/26/christian-groups-blast-white-house-for-meeting-with-atheists/

(2) – http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/25/88475/obama-aides-to-meet-with-atheists.html

(3) – http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations

(4) – http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=about_firstamd

(5) – http://www.ingodwetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=53

(6) – http://www.alan.com/2010/02/26/christian-groups-blast-white-house-for-meeting-with-atheists/

(7) – http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/03/reaction_to_white_house_meetin.php

(8) – http://www.shariah.net/

Related posts:

1. Atheists Visit White House – Religious Right has Fit After meeting with various religious groups for many, many years,...
2. Liam Fox: Foreign Policy is Not a Faith Based Program Israel is the number one recipient of American foreign aid,...
3. Liam Fox: Religion and the Myth of Coexistence The "COEXIST" campaign is a beautiful notion. But by being...

Recently, some female residents of Bristol, VA were handed a pamphlet titled Women & Girls by some, shall we say, “Godly folk”. The pamphlet asserts that females who refuse to dress modestly and instead choose to dress, oh I dunno, however the hell they want, are causing men to sin in their hearts and are therefore sinning themselves.

But wait, there’s more!

The pamphlet also suggests that female rape victims are partially responsible for rape:

“You may have been given this leaflet because of the way you are dressed,” it begins. “Have you thought about standing before the true and living God to be judged?”

“Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

Gee.  That’s a great question.  Let me think about that one…

YES!

Rape is a crime.  Rape is not sexy, nor is it even sex.  Rape is an act of violence committed by a criminal who is unable to control his criminal urges.  No matter the provocation, the only person responsible for rape is the rapist. End of story.

Or maybe they’re right. Maybe this elderly woman was wearing a sexy, skimpy nightgown to bed, and the burglar just couldn’t control the devil inside him. Or perhaps this two-year-old girl was dressed way to inappropriately for her age. Hows about we make all women wear a burka? Maybe then rape would cease, right?

Oh, wait…

Let’s just put the kibosh on this right now. Rape is a very serious offense, committed by seriously disturbed individuals.  Rape is not some hot-button word that you can just throw on a pamphlet to pretend like you won an argument. Let me not even get into what the bible says about it.

Rape is not funny.  Rape is not trivial. And rape is not her fault.

Related posts:

1. David Letterman Suggests Palin Rape Monday night, late-night talk show host David Letterman suggested that...
2. Failed Faith Healing – Conviction in Oregon; God’s fault? Oregon couple prayed instead of taking (now dead) son to...
3. Mayor of Los Angeles-Area City: Grow as “Christian Community” Lancaster, CA mayor Rex Parris is promoting a ballot measure...

Father Gabriele Amorth is the lead Exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. He has been a priest for 60 years. He is declared the “most famous Catholic exorcist in the world”, having performed over 70,000 exorcisms. In his own words, from a 2003 interview:

Of course [I was afraid of Satan], but I also knew that Jesus had beaten Satan and the Virgin had crushed him. So I put myself under the protection of both Jesus and Mary. ‘Wrap me in your cloak,’ I said to the Virgin, ‘and I will always feel safe.’ And in fact, over the years I have performed over 70,000 exorcisms and nothing has ever happened to me.

Note: Amorth began performing exorcisms in 1986. In 17 years (1986 – 2003), he claims, he performed 70,000 exorcisms. That’d be 11.3 exorcisms per day, every day, for 17 years. The energy this man must have! -Jenny

And yes, Amorth has daily chats with Satan himself. From 2000:

I speak with the Devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in day out, for 14 years.

Now, the man who has performed 70,000 exorcisms also informs that interviewer that it’s difficult to determine who is possessed:

It is not easy. There are many grades of possession. The Devil does not like to be seen, so there are people who are possessed who manage to conceal it. There are other cases where the person possessed is in acute physical pain, such agony that they cannot move.

It is essential not to confuse demonic possession with ordinary illness. The symptoms of possession often include violent headaches and stomach cramps, but you must always go to the doctor before you go to the exorcist. I have people come to me who are not possessed at all. They are suffering from epilepsy or schizophrenia or other mental problems. Of the thousands of patients I have seen, only a hundred or so have been truly possessed.

So, 70,000 exorcisms (50,000 at the time of the 2000 interview), of which only a hundred or so were “truly possessed”? How did he know the difference?

We can sort out the phoney ones. We look into their eyes. As part of the exorcism, at specific times during the prayers, holding two fingers on the patient’s eyes we raise the eyelids. Almost always, in cases of evil presence, the eyes look completely white. Even with the help of both hands, we can barely discern whether the pupils are towards the top or the bottom of the eye. If the pupils are looking up, the demons in possession are scorpions. If looking down, they are serpents.

Readers, you may be shocked that this brave and clearly eminently rational man went toe-to-toe with an imaginary bogeyman 70,000 (or maybe 100) times, and never once was harmed. You may be disturbed that he speaks to a figment of his imagination, and more so that it answers. However, his more recent statements will truly horrify you.

In a new book of Amorth’s memoirs released last month (presently only in Italian), Marco Tosatti — biographer of Pope John Paul — has released Amorth’s accusations of Satanic sects within the Vatican. Said Amorth,

Yes, also in the Vatican there are members of Satanic sects. There are priests, monsignors and also cardinals!

More explicitly, a segment of the interview:

- There are Satanists in the Vatican?

“Yes, even in the Vatican there are members of satanic cults.”

- Who is involved? Is it simple priests or laity?

“There are priests, bishops and even cardinals.”

- Forgive me, Father Gabriel, but how do you know?

“I know people who have been observing it, because they had the opportunity to observe it directly. And this is something that has been ‘confessed’ several times by the devil Even under obedience in the exorcisms.

- The Pope is informed of this?

“Of course, he was informed, but he does what he can. It is something terrifying. Keep in mind also that Benedict XVI is a German pope, he comes from a nation resolutely closed to these things. In Germany, in fact, there are almost no exorcists, and yet the Pope believes [in them]: I had the opportunity to speak with him three times before, when He was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He believes, and how! And he spoke explicitly in public several times [about this]. He welcomed our association of exorcists (in October 2005, BEM); [at the time] he also delivered a fine speech, encouraging us and praising our apostolate. And let us not forget that the devil and exorcism, John Paul II also spoke a lot about it. “

- While it’s true what Paul VI said that the smoke of Satan entered the Church?

“It’s true, unfortunately, because in the Church as there are followers of satanic cults. The details of the” smoke of Satan “, Paul VI spoke June 29, 1972. Then, as this sentence created a huge scandal, November 15, 1972, he devoted an entire speech to the devil, on Wednesday, with some very strong words. Of course, it broke the ice, lifting a veil of silence and censorship that has lasted too long but it had no practical consequences. It took someone like me– who was a nobody– to spread the alarm in order to get results.

He knows because people have observed it directly. Yet the defense?

Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Spanish priest and theologian who specializes in demonology and is now studying for his doctorate of theology in Rome, responded to Fr. Amorth’s assertions on March 1.

After reading reports of Fr. Amorth’s accusations pointing a finger at members of the clergy, including cardinals, Fr. Fortea declared that it is a “duty of justice” to speak out in their defense.

The Spanish priest then explained the sources of information used by Fr. Amorth to say that Satanic sects are operating in the Vatican.

In addition to the people that seek help for demonic possession, said Fr. Fortea, “innumerable persons come to us who claim to have visions, revelations and messages from Our Lord.” Among these, “a certain number offer apocalyptic messages and revelations about the infiltration of Satanism and the Masons within the dome of the Church.”

Is that what Amorth said? “I know people who have been observing it, because they had the opportunity to observe it directly. ” Is “observing directly” the same as “receiving a vision”?

The other source Fr. Amorth refers to, according to Fr. Fortea, is the demons who are being exorcised. Of this, the Spanish priest wrote that knowing whether or not the demon is telling the truth “is in many cases impossible.”

“Father Amorth does not have other sources of knowledge than the two that I just cited,” indicated the Spanish exorcist, “I refer to his own words for this affirmation.”

I can read his words. He says that the information comes in part from people who have directly observed, not from “visions from Our Lord”.

What do you think? Is this a vast cover-up? Are there Satanic sects in the Vatican?

Could it be an error in translation, and Amorth meant that there is “Sodomite Sex” in the Vatican?

Related posts:

1. American Family Association Supports Pat Robertson’s Haiti “Satan Pact” with Lies In a move that probably shouldn't come as a surprise,...
2. Penn & Teller Episode About Catholic Church – Free Online! The entire episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t, in which...
3. Haiti Devil Pact Update! WorldNetDaily and Evangelical Christians Slam Robertson We've done some more digging, and added more historical facts...

California State Senator Roy Ashburn was arrested for DUI after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in Sacramento (the state capital of California) . . . while driving a trick — sorry, a “male passenger” — home (or to a place of rendezvous?).

So?

Not only is Ashburn a Republican, he is a divorced (so much for family values) father of four, and has a solid anti-gay voting record. MSN reports that Ashburn has “voted against every gay rights law, including Recognising Out-Of-State Same-Sex Marriages and Expanding Anti-Discrimination Laws”.

The worst part?

Ashburn was driving a state vehicle.

Ashburn commented:

I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.

There are those who say no apology is sincere. If you were truly sorry, they say, you wouldn’t have done what you did.

What do you think? Does that apply here? Is Ashburn only “sorry” because he got nailed?

Related posts:

1. Anti-Gay Lawmaker Roy Ashburn Comes Out Anti-gay Republican California State Senator Roy Ashburn, arrested on suspicion...
2. California Divorce Ban Could Save $4.8 Billion Annually The Institute for American Values estimates that the 2010 California...
3. Anti-Abortion Groups to Use MLK Day to Protest Houston “Abortion Supercenter” On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, anti-abortion advocates will rally...

March 26-28, 2010 is the Northwest Freethought Conference in Renton, Washington (13 miles outside Seattle).

Details HERE.

It may be big:

The first Northwest Free-thought Conferences were planned and run by the Corvallis Secular Society, Eugene Atheists and Freethinkers, Humanist Association of Salem, Humanists of Greater Portland, and United States Atheists. The first conference, attended by 100 people, was held in 1998. Subsequently, conferences were held in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002.

The 2009 conference, “Darwin@200, and Other Matters,” at Portland State University was the resumption of this series. It featured Dr. David Domke, Roy Speckhardt, and Dr. Bob Park as keynote speakers. For 2010, we hope to expand the program to include a wider variety of speakers, workshops and panels.

The Northwest Free-thought Alliance coordinates the efforts of almost 50 free-thought groups in the Northwest, including member organizations of the Northwest Free-thought Coalition (NWFC), in planning and hosting this annual regional conference.

2010’s keynote speakers include Ophelia Benson and Dr. David Domke.

Thanks to Pharyngula.

Related posts:

1. Glenn Beck in Bed with Big Business There may be a modestly-successful boycott of his television show...
2. Non-Theist “Unity Conference”: Would You Go? Back in 2008, a "Unity Conference" joining the major non-theist/freethought...
3. US Conference of Catholic Bishops Takes End-of-Life Decisions Away from Patients and Doctors The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has adopted a directive...