Last week, we reported on Mayor R. Rex Parris of Lancaster, California declaring his a “Christian community“. The American Family Association wrote on the same story on their OneNewsNow site. Rather than any reference to the separation of church and state, they focused on how evil Muslims were “irked by ‘Christian’ comment“:

The Greater Los Angeles area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has denounced the comments. The chapter says it plans to file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Justice Department. Executive director Hussam Ayloush says elected officials shouldn’t be using their public positions to impose their religious beliefs.

Naturally, the AFA folks had to run a poll. They asked, “What characteristic of the Christian faith is most beneficial to a community?”

Is it Forgiveness? Christians are commanded to forgive, and a forgiving spirit helps build community. Nah.

How about Repentance? It’s important for Christians to demonstrate that we are all disgusting sinners who should grovel before God as unworthy. Meh, not so much.

I know! I know! It’s Self-Control, right? Christians should be models of moderation, and show people how to avoid a hedonistic lifestyle.

5.57%? No self control here.

A whipping 72.89% said “Integrity/Honesty” was the most important thing Christians bring to a community.

Click thumbnail to see full-sized version.

Here are three news headlines demonstrating that honesty and integrity. All are culled from today’s christianheadlines.com, a news aggregator site.

Pastors Use Church to Commit Mortgage Scam:

Philadelphia pastor Jamaar Manlove, along with wife Rhonda and uncle Larry Manlove, used the Vision Builders Christian Fellowship as a front for a scam to steal home equity from desperate homeowners facing foreclosure.

. . . desperate homeowners would go to the Manloves’ church, after allegedly being told there was a buyer who would purchase their home and lease it back to them.

“They’re unable to buy it back, or get the financing to buy it back, and in the meantime, the perpetrator has stolen whatever equity remained in the house,” Biden said.

All three are wanted by the state, but have yet to be located.

Pastor sentenced jail time for embezzlement

Compton, California pastor Eugene Joshua Sims, former pastor of the Double Rock Baptist Church, was sentenced to one year in jail and five years of probation for embezzling $800,000 from the church . . . and restitution.

Prosecutors say Sims set up a private bank account and between March 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, 2008, he diverted $800,000 in church donations to his private bank account and threatened parishioners who questioned his finances.

Finally,

Woman accused of stealing $91,000 from church

Paulette Dumont volunteered to handle financial and administrative work for the Assumption Catholic Church of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. While there, Ms. Dumont helped herself to $91,000.

RCMP say a woman who did financial and administrative work for the Assumption Catholic Church has been arrested over the writing of unauthorized cheques.

Paulette Dumont, 64, is charged with fraud and theft over $5,000.

Police say the cheques were written between 2002 and 2004.

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I have no doubt that you’ve noticed how slowly the site loads. This is partly due to increases in traffic.

However, the other part of the equation is the existing skin, or “theme”. We love it, but it is code-heavy and inefficient. It loads a tremendous amount of code with each page load, but it is too complex to operate properly with plugins designed to speed things up.

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If the site happens to be down, or look really out of whack, please give it a few minutes and hit refresh. Whatever’s wrong, we’re working on it.

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If you’re a regular reader, you know that this is pretty much a two-person operation, “The Jenny and Mike Show”. (We do enjoy and appreciate the occasional, delightfully snarky commentaries from Dr. Tom.)

We both work full time, and try to maintain lives off the Internet as well. So, while we manage to catch stories sooner than many sources, or connect the dots in ways not apparent elsewhere, there’s a lot of news about the Paliban — people who want to inject religion into politics generally, and Christian theocrats more specifically — that we don’t report on.

We’re hoping to find a few good men and women who’d like to do some writing.

Subjects might include:

• Biographies of the Real Paliban (anyone from Pat Robertson or Sarah Palin to R.J. Rushdoony or Gary DeMar — a long-neglected project)
• Reviews of books, movies, video games, etc.
• Paliban scandals (Which pastor got caught with a teenage prostitute this week? Who is backpedaling from his support of the Ugandan Death-to-Gays law?)
• Intelligent commentary on current events, popular culture, etc.
• Pro-atheist or antitheist commentary
• Education on religion; what the Bible (or other religion’s scripture) really says, compared to “popular” beliefs
• Attempts to manipulate school curricula
• Or something completely different!

If you’d like to see your name (or your nom de plume) on our virtual pages, drop us a line using our swanky new CONTACT FORM. Tell us the sorts of things you’d like to write.

Do you have a blog already, and want to cross-post some of your work here? We’ll be happy to have a look at your writing and see if it’s a good fit!

Our author guidelines are available online HERE.

Hedging her bets, Sarah Palin charged $100,000 to speak at the first Tea Party Nation convention, where attendees paid $500 to get in the convention plus over $300 just to hear her speech. By not speaking for free, Palin avoids being tied too closely to Tea Party Nation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that while Palin was happy to gain support from the (for-profit) Tea Party (Nation) movement, she didn’t want them to interfere with the two-party system:

Asked whether she might run on the Tea Party ticket, Ms. Palin declined to answer directly, saying she hoped that the nascent movement remains a “movement of the people” and that its members “don’t believe that they need some kind of well-oiled machine” to have a political impact.

While Tea Partiers may be offended, they shouldn’t be surprised. It was only just over a week ago that Palin recommended that the Republican Party absorb Tea Party Nation:

Fox’s Greta Van Susteren asked if tea party candidates would end up siphoning votes from GOP nominees, or if the movement will “merge with the Republican Party.”

“They need to merge,” Palin said. “Definitely, they need to merge. I think those who are wanting the divisions and the divisiveness and the controversy — those are the ones who don’t believe in the message. And they’re the ones, I think, stirring it up.”

The pressure to push Tea Party Nation from its original roots as a movement espousing low taxes and smaller government — not a police state and farm subsidies and Republican-only government — may be the reason both Michele Bachmann and Martha Blackburn dropped out . . . leaving Palin as the only big name.

Blogger Kleinhelder at the Nashville Post sums it up nicely.

This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.

The people we saw on the steps of Legislative Plaza and county courthouses across the state last year weren’t “movement conservatives.” Certainly the movement conservatives were there at those protests but the tea parties were much bigger in size, scope and concept than just traditional modern conservatism reheated. Last night, the professional conservatives fixed that for good.

For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.

Sarah Palin.

WSJ provides a bit more on Tea Party Nation:

As first reported by POLITICO, Tea Party Nation is a for-profit company that also operates a social network site by the same name. [Tea Party Nation CEO Judson] Phillips intends to turn a profit from the convention, with the stated goal of seeding a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.

But on Saturday he said there likely wouldn’t be much profit, and whatever money is made will go to a second convention he’s planning for July.

I’m sure Phillips will not show any substantial profit from the convention, and that he will clearly demonstrate why on the Tea Party Nation website.

Be careful if you decide to join the Tea Party Nation forum. Irregular Times collected a few details from the “revolutionary, non-partisan, 100%-password-protected (including the FAQ)” website:

* it is a corporation which has trademarked the phrase “Tea Party Nation” and will sue anyone else who uses the words.

* “You can and will be banned for being a liberal.”

* “Tea Party Nation reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary”

* “Trashing of TPN will not be tolerated.”

* “Questions regarding TPN posted in the public forums or blogs on the site will be deleted.”

* “It is not a forum for… calls for militant uprisings.”

* “Tea Party Nation’s strict No Tolerance policy will not make exceptions… if you see such postings, you immediately report them”

While Tea Party Nation’s speakers call for a revolution for the cameras, any actual revolutionary behavior or dissent will be result in swift dismissal. That’s an interesting combination.

A screenshot would be nice, Irregular Times guys!

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The big buzz on the Internet tonight is that Sarah Palin appears to have read notes off her hand during an interview. Yep, it looks like she did.

People obsessed with Palin’s new interest in palm-reading have made videos with commentary left and right. And every one of them ignores the words from her mouth and the reactions from the audience.

Yes, she looked at her hand. Were you listening at the end of the clip?

You heard her right. “Allowing America’s spirit to rise again, by not being afraid . . . not being afraid to kinda go back to some of our roots as a God-fearing nation, where we’re not afraid to say . . .” [video ends]

That segment of the interview starts on the video below at 3:53. Her full comment:

Allowing America’s spirit to rise again, by not being afraid . . . not being afraid to kinda go back to some of our roots as a God-fearing nation, where we’re not afraid to say . . .especially in times of potential trouble in the future here, we’re not afraid to say, you know, we don’t have all the answers as fallible men and women, so it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again. To have people involved in government who aren’t afraid to go that route, not so afraid of the political correctness that, you know, they have to be afraid of what the media would say about them if they were to proclaim their reliance on our Creator.

Judson Phillips, the promoter of the for-profit event and the interviewer for the Q&A, responded with “Amen” as the crowd applauded madly.

In this brief statement, I see the following three-part Palin litmus test for candidates she will support:

• Must be openly (“not afraid of the political correctness”) a follower of the [Judeo-]Christian God;
• Must promote a national religious identity following that deity (“seeking divine intervention” as a nation; “a God-fearing nation”);
• Must be a Creationist (“reliance upon our Creator”; a Creator creates, rather than allowing to evolve).

Watch for yourself:

The full speech and full Q&A session may be viewed HERE.

Here, more on hand-reading. No, I can’t read it, either. Kinda looked like a swastika to me.

UPDATE: Huffington Post enhanced the image from a point in her speech. The words are, “Energy”, “Budget Cut”, “Tax”, and “Lift American Spirits”.

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Richard and Malinda Pickett have spent the last five years working to adopt three siblings from an orphanage in Haiti. Their heartwarming story (sans Silsby’s subterfuge) may be found in its entirety HERE. In part:

Richard Pickett

We had been supporting three siblings for about two years when I (Richard) took a trip to Haiti in May 2005. On the trip I had the oldest boy, Danielo, with me the entire time, the oldest girl, Daniela, for all but two days of my trip, and Danel, the little boy, was with me 6 of the 11 days. During this time they captured my heart. They are bright children and have very good hearts . . .

I decided then that Malinda and I had to adopt the children. I worried that when I returned to the States that she wouldn’t understand. There was just no way in my mind I could see leaving these children in Haiti. In 11 days I had fallen in love with them. I spoke briefly with Malinda about it while I was in Haiti and she seemed receptive. We only spoke three times for 10 minutes a piece while I was in Haiti so there wasn’t a lot of time to discuss any details.

When I came back Malinda was ready to adopt them. We started calling the children once a week and she would sit there and cry the whole time. She would tell me her heart ached as if her own natural children were away from her. And she hadn’t even met them yet.

We’re now in our 5th year of adoption.

Over the five years of work to adopt the three children, the Picketts visited Haiti a number of times, spending quality time with the siblings at the orphanage outside Port-au-Prince. Following the quake, their story made local headlines:

It’s been a 5-year battle to adopt the children, and the Pickett’s haven’t lost hope. They legally adopted the children almost two years ago, and now they may finally get to come home.

“This week’s been a rollercoaster, not knowing if Daniela is alive, then finding out she is, and then finding out we can get their visas.” With visas ready, Richard plans to go to Haiti and bring their children back next week.

After Richard left, Malinda says, the calls from Silsby started.

[Silsby said] “When they get to the Dominican, I’ll help you get them over.”

And I told her no, my husband is over in Haiti advocating for our adoption to be finished and get our kids home and you know at this time I don’t think we need any help.

Silsby wouldn’t give up, and called back twice more. Malinda tried to impress upon Silsby the effort involved in adopting children from Haiti:

Do you realize? We’ve been waiting 5 years to get our children, you know it’s not that easy to just go to Haiti and pick up kids. You know, you can’t do that.

Richard Pickett brings the tale of Silsby’s obsessive stalking to a close.

She kept persisting, and Malinda kept saying no, don’t bother our children, and Laura decided to show up at the orphanage anyway, and ask for our children, and said that Malinda had sent her there. And our children were not there at the time, they were with me.

The hubris of this woman!

Richard Pickett doesn’t think Silsby was interested so much in heroics, as something else. He read of her financial woes (which the Paliban Daily recounted for you HERE), and thinks Silsby saw dollar signs in those three teenagers.

. . . maybe do a mild form of extortion, because here we are, obviously interested in caring for our children and if she had them in the Dominican, she could use us as leverage to have us pay for their support.

UPDATE: The UK Times reports that Silsby is also due in court for separate civil trials in February and March.

Ms Silsby, who is currently in a cell in Haiti, is due in court in Idaho for a civil jury trial on February 22.

She is also due to appear in court in March to answer a second civil suit brought against her by an Idaho law firm, Beer & Cain, for $4,526 in unpaid fees.

What do you think? Was Silsby after glory? Money? A life of luxury in the Dominican Republic, funded by others? All of the above?

Related posts:

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2. A Haitian without a Scientologist: Like a Fish without a Bicycle? Don't worry, the Scientologists are staying in Haiti. And they're...
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As the Wall Street Journal reports, Laura Silsby and her live-in nanny Charisa Coulter formed a non-profit organization last November. The “New Life Children’s Refuge” is, according to Silsby,

dedicated to rescuing, loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children, demonstrating God’s love and helping each child find healing, hope, joy and new life in Christ.

Drew Ham, one of the pastors at Central Valley Baptist Church of Meridian, Idaho, informs the WSJ that the pair brought their idea to his congregation, which shared their desperate desire for heroics by swooping in uninvited and “rescuing” children in other nations with different cultures.

In 2006, Silsby was eWomen's Businesswoman of the Year.

Unfortunately, it seems Silsby hadn’t any money to get these grand plans off the ground.

Ms. Silsby had purchased a two-story house in Meridian, where a neighbor said she was known for her blue Lexus convertible and her dog, Bentley. Her financial difficulties mounted last year. Idaho court records show several judgments against Ms. Silsby in 2009 . . .

One suit, filed in federal court in Miami, alleged that Personal Shopper [Ms. Silsby's now failed business] owed more than $320,000 to Florida-based TSG Media Inc. The suit was settled in November 2008, according to an attorney for TSG, David Filler. He declined to disclose the terms of the settlement, but he said that Personal Shopper failed to make good on the settlement

…

In December, her house was foreclosed on, according to John Browning, a Boise broker who said he was hired to sell the house as part of the foreclosure.

Ms. Silsby said she would be leaving the country soon, said Mark Ehlhardt, who runs a UPS store in nearby Kuna where Ms. Silsby rented a mailbox.

Further, 14 former employees of Silsby have filed suit, seeking unpaid wages over the past two years — including time before the company ran into financial difficulty. I guess Silsby doesn’t need to honor her commitments.

Following the quake, Silsby and Coulter got busy. Shucking off all connection to reality — lack of funds, lack of legal counsel, complete personal financial collapse — they came up with a half-baked plan and took advantage of the quake to gain donations.

. . . they planned to rent a 45-room hotel in Cabarete, a coastal town in the Dominican Republic near Magante, where they intended to house Haitian children while building their permanent facility. The plan was to drive a bus to Port-au-Prince “and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages,” and return to the Dominican Republic, the document said.

The document may be found here. In part,

Another attempt to gain glory leads to another fall.

The Plan:
Rescue Orphans from Port au Prince, Haiti
• Friday/Saturday, Jan 22nd : NLCR team fly to the DR
• Sun Jan 23rd: Drive bus from Santo Domingo into Port au Prince, Haiti and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the DR
• Mon Jan 24th: Bus arrives in Cabarete, DR at New Life Children Refuge
• Haiti Team: Laura Silsby, Charisa Coulter, Carla Thompson, Nicole & Corrinna Lankford
Paul Thompsons Team from East Side Baptist Church, Twin Falls
Provide love and care for the children
• Interim New Life Children Refuge Location: NLCR is in the process of buying land and building an orphanage, school and church in Magante on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now vs. waiting until the permanent facility is built. He has provided an interim solution in nearby Cabarete, where we will be leasing a 45 room hotel and converting it into an orphanage until the building of the NLCR is complete.
This interim location will enable us to provide a loving environment for up to 150 children, from infants to 12 years old.
• Team Needed: NLCR is praying and seeking people who have a heart for God and a desire to share God’s love with these precious children, helping them heal and find new life in Christ. Please prayerfully consider a 2 week or longer mission trip to help NLCR provide rotating staffing for the care of the children over the next 6 months.

Prayer Requests
• For discernment of God’s will and direction throughout this trip and for Him to prepare the way before us
• For God to continue to grant favor with the Dominican Government in allowing us to bring as many orphans as we can into the DR
• For God to guide us to the children He wants us to bring to NLCR and for their physical, emotional and spiritual healing

Not having money for this expensive feat was no problem. After all, their imaginary friend was helping them in their heroics. And people online were praying for them! (Oh, and asking for donations. We can’t expect God to do the heavy lifting.)

Showing up with a bus, with no knowledge of local laws or culture, would be far more helpful than, say, contributing to aid organizations working to do something useful!

Silsby wouldn’t let details get in her way . . . like documentation. She had a mission from God to save these children from voodoo and introduce them to her imaginary friend!

Last week, the group entered Haiti from the Dominican Republic, met with the pastor and gathered a group of children, Mr. Ham said. The group had signed permission “to take children from Haiti back to the Dominican Republic,” as well as documentation from the Dominican Republic itself, he said. But when the group got to the border, Haitian officials told the group they lacked “one document,” Mr. Ham said.

Carlos Castillo, the Dominican Republic’s consul general in Port-au-Prince, gave a different account: In an interview he said he met with Ms. Silsby on Friday and told her she lacked any documents to transport children, and warned her not to try or she could be arrested.

Sounds like someone’s not telling the truth. Does anyone care to guess who?

What is accomplished when we decide to engage in great heroics that bring us personal glory, instead of helping in a more humble, yet productive way? In this case, a number of children are removed from their parents, and put through additional hell, to no useful purpose. And the heroes likely get six to nine years in jail.

My question for Silsby: If your goal is to help children, aren’t there plenty of abused, poverty-stricken, neglected kids right here in the United States that you can help? Why is it necessary to be the Great Hero swooping into another nation and taking children away from their home?

Granted, it does have certain Christian appeal. Many Christians, for example, believe in the “Rapture”, in which all “True Christians” will be abducted by aliens lifted up to Heaven in an instant, before God unleashes years of torment upon humanity. Is that not exactly what Silsby was trying to do? Provide a “Rapture” for Haitian children, snatching them away from the failing world of their birth to take them to a new, beautiful place where they would live in peace and serenity with God?

UPDATE on Laura Silsby:

Silsby’s group attempted to abduct the adoptive children of a Bowling Green, Kentucky couple during their Haiti trip.

Richard and Malinda Pickett of Bowling Green, Kentucky have spent five years working to adopt three Haitian children. Despite Malinda’s insistence that they did not want Silsby’s “help”, Silsby showed up at the orphanage in Haiti to pick up their children . . . claiming Malinda had sent her.

More HERE. And a h/t to PPT at Websleuths.com for pointing out this disturbing twist!

UPDATE on Eric Evans:

Evans wants everybody to know that not only is he not building a complex for Silsby, but he’s never even discussed it with her:

Evans has been deluged by reporters calling him and knocking on his door wanting to know more about the Kuna project, which he had never heard of until today. He said he did talk to the Journal, but did not know where the information about the Kuna home came from.

Kuna City Planner Steve Hasson also has not heard of any such project.

Evans met Silsby, who has been charged with child abduction in Haiti, a couple of years ago when he sold her a house in Meridian. He has not worked with her on any other projects since then, Evans said.

Thanks to commenter Tai for the Evans update! -Jenny

Update: Adding a poll. -Jenny

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As we reported last week, American actor John Travolta piloted his own Boeing 707 to Haiti, somehow pushing ahead of international aid groups, to deliver Scientologist “ministers” and “doctors” to the devastated island nation. Not content with getting in the way, the Scientologists say they are “there to stay”:

The Scientologists, who are carrying out an operation called The Volunteer Ministry Disaster Relief for Haiti, have already begun plans to build an orphanage in the country.

Members of the group have volunteered to work in the hospitals, using healing techniques that reportedly include touching certain parts of the body or telling patients to stare at the wall.

Ah, the useful “Touch Healing” of Scientology. A firsthand account of the usefulness of the Scientologists is provided by Gawker.com. Let’s see what lessons we can learn about Scientologists!

A Scientologist provides "healing touch" to a mortally-wounded Haitian. Or is that a neck rub to a tired American soldier?

. . . I didn’t expect to see 50 scientologists, in their yellow shirts with Volunteer Minister on them. They were completely unprepared for going to a third world country, let alone a disaster zone. One girl was in designer cowboy boots. I asked her if she’d brought any sturdier footwear.

“Oh no, these’ll be fine.”

I asked another guy what he’d packed and he said he hadn’t bothered to bring soap or toilet paper or food, but that he’d just “buy whatever I need at Port-au-Prince airport.” I couldn’t break it to him.

They had no place to stay, and no supplies — their idea was to use the ton of money they had to buy food to distribute when they got there. But there was no food and no water. That was the point.

Lesson One: Scientologists don’t do their homework, and they have a tenuous grasp on reality.

By the time we arrived in Haiti, after a stopover in Miami, we had missed three landing slots at the airport. Aid agencies — genuine aid agencies — from other countries were being turned away, refused permission to land. But we still got a slot straight away. The guy who ran our charter seemed to think that the Scientologists had some real influence with the US Government, who were assigning the slots.

Lesson Two: For some reason, as demonstrated by John Travolta’s earlier landing, Scientologists are more important to the US military than international aid organizations.

The doctors and EMTs in our party headed straight downtown to start working. The Scientologists had nowhere to go, and nowhere to put up the big yellow tent they’d brought for touch healing people in . . .

But they had no-one who spoke Creole, and they brought the weirdness of touch healing into a very superstitious society. They’d leave the tent and come into the general hospital downtown, and try healing people. One of the doctors and one of the nurses told me that the wounded started coming to them to tell them they didn’t want to be treated by the people in the yellow shirts.

Lesson Three: Scientologists are creepy. Oh, and Scientologists don’t respect local cultures.

One nurse told me that the Scientologists actually caused harm — they gave food to people who were scheduled to go into surgery. That then led to complications in the operating theater.

Lesson Four: Scientologists ain’t too bright, especially when it comes to medicine. Not only do they think touching people can cure gangrene, they see no reason to ask whether they should feed a patient or not. (Note: “Complications in operating theater” typically means “Patient vomiting during surgery while under anaesthesia”. That’s why you have surgery on an empty stomach, you see.)

The Church of Scientology has apparently set up an orphanage in Haiti, and has already begun indoctrinating children. And they’re in it for the long haul.

Pat Harney, a spokesperson for the organisation, told The Times: “I have no doubt that in some form or other there will be a church of Scientology here.”

Why? What is there to gain? Why can’t they leave these people alone, and why are people so eager to flit off to Haiti instead of corrupting people here in the US?

There are a couple of reasons. IndyBay provides one:

The Scientology organization has increasingly targeted poor countries such as Haiti in its recruitment efforts. Why would this money-hungry crime-cult be interested in one of the world’s poorest countries? The answer: Because they want to bring Haitians in to the USA on “religious worker” visas to serve as unpaid laborers.

Jeff Jacobsen, an anti-Scientology researcher, provides the following:

Why would a religious group need to bring in workers to the United States? Why would the U.S. set up a special visa for such workers? The Homeland Security office, in regards to religious workers visas, states that “The applicant is entering the United States solely to carry on the vocation of a minister of that denomination, or, at the request of the organization, the applicant is entering the United States to work in a religious vocation or occupation for the denomination or for an organization affiliated with the denomination, whether in a professional capacity or not.” …. The U.S. has recently been revising the rules for such visas to make them more strict in order to avoid fraud. Homeland Security states that in 2005 about one-third of all R-1 applications were fraudulent. …. The Church of Scientology wrote against making the rules tighter. Glen Stilo, secretary of Scientology’s Flag Services organization in Clearwater, Florida, explained in a letter that he feared use of the visas will be restricted to strictly religious duties. “A small percentage of our religious order perform work at our retreat that may not be considered ‘religious functions,’ such as administrative work unique to the ministry section of our church, or upkeep of church property and grounds.”

So, Haitians make good slave laborers for the Church of Scientology.

Anything else?

Did you know that Scientology is a multilevel marketing scheme? That’s right, proselytizers (they call them “Global Pioneers”) get a 12% cut of the “courses” their converts sign up for [citation other than Gawker needed - Jenny]. Not just the first one, but any courses. Yep, residual payments.

What’s a Global Pioneer, you ask? Let’s look at their website! (It doesn’t tell us much, there are many “content coming soon” pages.)

Their goal, noted in the front-page video, is “bringing the world in session”. They’ve had a group proselytizing in Haiti since 2008.

They’re headed up by Cary Goulston. IndyBay points out:

Originally from Boston, Cary Goulston is a hardcore Scientologist who has been in the cult since 1979. He serves the cult as a Field Staff Member (FSM), which means that he actually receives a commission – money – for every new person he brings in to begin indoctrination.

RGP Media has posted a press release from Cary Goulson detailing the Global Pioneers’ successes during the week of January 15 – 22. Among the highlights:

GLOBAL PIONEERS – summary of Major Acheivements Jan 15 – Jan 22

* We got the US Government to include us as part of the “Joint Command” of US and UN Military working with the 5 approved NGOs under the US Southern Command. This entitled us to land and operate a Command Post out of the airport in Port Au Prince.

* First Ever chartered Scientology flight.

* First ever combined collaboration project with VMs, Doctors, EMTs and other humanitarian groups working side by side to help Haiti, sponsored and coordinated by The Church of Scientology VMs.

* Over 300 DRs, EMTs, and VMs sent to Haiti in two chartered flights to Haiti with more coming.

* VMs put in charge of all Doctors and supplies that come in to the airport, registration and distribution.

Keep up with the exciting exploits of Scientology Volunteer Ministers at http://blog.volunteerministers.org, or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ScientologyVM!

h/t to Gawker for the press release and more!

Ex-Scientology discussion forum: http://forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?p=369632

SO, what in does Scientology have with MSNBC? Here’s a nice puff piece, which could have come directly from the Church of Scientology’s own offices:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Chuck’s latest column at WingNutDaily, titled “God Save the U.S. and Our Courts”, includes mention of candidates he’s supporting in gubernatorial races in 2010:

We’ve recently seen great patriot victories in states like New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, but we must recognize those triumphs are only beginnings to America’s much-needed government overhaul. That is why I am backing other conservative candidates like Bob Vander Plaats for governor of Iowa, John Kasich for governor of Ohio and Judge Roy Moore for governor of Alabama.

Let’s review, shall we?

First on Chuckie’s list is Bob Vander Plaats of Iowa.

WHO?

If you don’t live in or pay attention to Iowa politics, you probably have no idea who Vander Plaats is. He’s been a candidate for Governor (or running mate) for the last several elections. He also wrote a book, Light From Lucas: Lessons in Faith From a Fragile Life, expressing how his son’s disability has taught him a sick lesson about his god:

Through the silent instruction of our son Lucas, this collection of inspirational life-lessons was born.

The third of our four children, Lucas is severely disabled. His fragile life has taken our family through years of uncertainty and brought us to the end of ourselves countless times. Yet God uses the weak to inspire the strong.

That’s right, Bob’s imaginary friend caused Bob’s son to be severely disabled in order to teach Bob (and others, presumably) a lesson about the nature of God.

This really should tell us all we need to know about Bob, but let’s look a little deeper.

Vander Plaats announced his candidacy (this time around) using gay marriage as his platform:

Republican Bob Vander Plaats, 46, a Sioux City businessman, officially announced his campaign in his hometown of Sheldon on Monday by saying he would issue an executive order putting the issue same-sex marriage in the hands of the legislature and the voters of Iowa on his first day in office.

In June, Vander Plaats also said he would issue an executive order stopping same-sex marriage until the legislature either passes a law legalizing it or passes a constitutional amendment banning it. He furthermore said after doing so, he said he fully expects Democrats to try to remove him from office for “promoting lawlessness.”

Here’s where Bob stands on some issues of interest (selected points, follow link for full list):

• FOR a federal fair tax that will reduce the cost of tax compliance and further foster economic growth.

  
  
  The “Fair Tax” is a 23% national sales tax being promoted at Fairtax.org. Analyses of the tax suggest that, to be revenue-neutral, the tax would have to be closer to 30%. It is also suggested that such a high sales tax would result in the creation of a substantial black market, a new direction for organized crime.

• FOR representation of public school, home school and private school on the Iowa Board of Education.

  
  
  Iowa taxpayers fund public schools. They do not fund home schooling or parochial schools. Why should these people direct state curriculum decisions?

• AGAINST federal involvement in Iowa’s classrooms and a one-size-fits-all approach.

  I can only imagine what this means. Things like standardized testing that requires students to know what “science” is? But that’s just speculation on my part.

Those are all small potatoes. Now for the stuff Chuck really likes:

• FOR a stay on same-sex marriages until the General Assembly rewrites state law or Iowans are allowed to vote on the definition of marriage as one man and one woman.
• FOR defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
• FOR protecting the words “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance.
• FOR the right to display the Ten Commandments.
• AGAINST embryonic stem cell research.
• AGAINST human cloning.
• AGAINST abortion.

Can you see why Chuckie loves this guy?

Next on Chuck’s list is John Kasich of Ohio.

His website doesn’t say a whole lot. From “What I Stand For” page:

lower taxes – Create a tax climate that allows Ohio to compete with other states to attract new businesses, foster job creation, and keep our precious, existing jobs here

make government more efficient and effective – Skinny-down state bureaucracy to ensure taxpayers are getting their money’s worth, and reform state government into a 21st century partner with Ohio’s job creators – not one that punishes business with outdated or unnecessary regulation;

transform our education system – Help our kids achieve, compete and succeed to meet the workforce demands of tomorrow’s economy

end the influence of special interests – Build common-sense solutions to our problems and kick out those who, for too long, have kept us from fixing all that is wrong in our state

That’s all Kasich is willing to say he stands for. However, John Kasich is a nine-term former Congressman and a Fox News host (of the “Heartland” show). He has also guest-hosted regularly for Bill O’Reilly.

I’m starting to see why Chuck’s taken a shine to this guy.

Kasich has been endorsed by Ohio Right to Life. As Marshal Pitchford, the chairman of the Ohio Right to Life Society Board of Trustees says:

John Kasich had an outstanding pro-life voting record during his career in Congress. His running mate, Mary Taylor, is an articulate advocate of the right to life movement.

Not really enough to call Kasich a member of the Bigotry Party, though. Must find more.

The bulk of Kasich’s interviews of late focus on economics; making Ohio more business friendly. OK, that’s not bigotry. How’s this:

Are social issues such as abortion and marriage important in the race for governor, I asked. Kasich believes that all social issues matter and recalled his own strong pro-life record in Congress and support for the marriage amendment that enacted in the state in ‘04.

Ontheissues.org gives us a run-down of Kasich’s record, which helps to fill some of the gaps.

In 1999, Kasich voted in favor of banning adoption by gay couples in Washington, DC.

On multiple occasions, Kasich voted or cosponsored House resolutions to amend the US Constitution to permit school prayer.

Kasich co-sponsored a resolution for a School Prayer Amendment:
H.J.RES.52 (2001), H.J.RES.66 (1999), S.J.RES. 1, H.J.RES.12, H. J. RES. 108, & H. J. RES. 55:

Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual or group prayer in public schools or other public institutions. No person shall be required by the United States or by any State to participate in prayer . Neither the United States nor any State shall compose the words of any prayer to be said in public schools.

H. J. RES. 78 (1997):

To secure the people’s right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience: Neither the United States nor any State shall establish any official religion, but the people’s right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, or traditions on public property, including schools, shall not be infringed. Neither the United States nor any State shall require any person to join in prayer or other religious activity, prescribe school prayers, discriminate against religion, or deny equal access to a benefit on account of religion.

There is other news about Kasich, regarding his employment with Lehman Brothers in the years leading to its collapse. But that doesn’t say much about his support of the Bigotry Party platform.

Kasich’s efforts to steer clear of social issues in his campaign and focus on economics — promising Ohioans that he will eliminate the estate tax and income tax, without explaining how the 30% reduction in revenues will affect state services upon which many rely — has helped him strengthen his lead over Democrat Ted Strickland.

Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who roared into office three years ago with nearly 61 percent of the vote, trails Republican John Kasich 51-45 percent in a Dayton Daily News/Ohio Newspaper Poll released Sunday, Jan. 24.

Kasich appears to be 2010’s top Stealth Theocrat.

Third on Chuck’s list is Judge Roy Moore of Alabama.

Moore may be best known as the Alabama Chief Justice who was removed from office in 2001. Why? He refused to obey a Federal court order to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama State Supreme Court’s Rotunda. Moore became a hero to the religious right.

However, he didn’t need to lose his job to attain Bigotry Party standing. This is a judge who believes, just like some folks in Uganda, that homosexuals should be jailed or executed.

In the case of Ex Parte, H.H., a 2001 custody dispute in which a lesbian mother attempted to gain custody of her children from her ex-husband, who had demonstrated “excessive disciplinary actions” against the children, Moore came down in favor of the father for reasons having little to do with the welfare of the child.

His decision, in part:

I write specially to state that the homosexual conduct of a parent — conduct involving a sexual relationship between two persons of the same gender — creates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone is sufficient justification for denying that parent custody of his or her own children or prohibiting the adoption of the children of others.

In this case there is undisputed evidence that the mother of the minor children not only dated another woman, but lived with that woman, shared a bed with her, and had an intimate physical and sexual relationship with her. D.H. has, in fact, entered into a “domestic partnership” with her female companion under the laws of the State of California. But Alabama expressly does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships. � 30-1-19, Ala. Code 1975. Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated. Such conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws of this State and is destructive to a basic building block of society — the family. The law of Alabama is not only clear in its condemning such conduct, but the courts of this State have consistently held that exposing a child to such behavior has a destructive and seriously detrimental effect on the children. It is an inherent evil against which children must be protected.

An inherent evil.

Moore continues, after a lengthy discourse on case law, to conclude with another rant about homosexuals:

To disfavor practicing homosexuals in custody matters is not invidious discrimination, nor is it legislating personal morality. On the contrary, disfavoring practicing homosexuals in custody matters promotes the general welfare of the people of our State in accordance with our law, which is the duty of its public servants. Providing for the common good involves maintaining a public morality through both our criminal and civil codes, based upon the principles that right conscience demands, without encroaching on the jurisdiction of other institutions and the declared rights of individuals.

The State may not interfere with the internal governing, structure, and maintenance of the family, but the protection of the family is a responsibility of the State. Custody disputes involve decision-making by the State, within the limits of its sphere of authority, in a way that preserves the fundamental family structure. The State carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle.

Moore sure seems qualified as a member of the Bigotry Party.

But wait, there’s more!

Moore is presently President of the Foundation for Moral Law, which:

. . . exists to restore the knowledge of God in law and government and to acknowledge and defend the truth that man is endowed with rights, not by our fellow man, but by God!

…

The Foundation for Moral Law is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization located in Montgomery, Alabama. The Foundation maintains a two-fold focus:

I. Litigation—The Foundation for Moral Law represents individuals involved in religious liberties cases and files amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) briefs in state and federal courts. To read our legal briefs go here.

II. Education—The Foundation conducts seminars to teach the necessity and importance of acknowledging God in law and government. To find out more about our seminars, go here.

The Foundation for Moral Law was established December 2002, with Pastor Phillip Ellen as President, Mr. Randy Stafford as Vice-President and Dr. Mel C. Glenn Sr., as Executive Director. Dr. Rich Hobson was chosen by the board to be president of the Foundation in November 2003, with Pastor Phillip Ellen assuming the office of vice-president of the Foundation. Currently, Judge Roy Moore serves as President and Dr. Rich Hobson is the Executive Director.

These folks aren’t stealthy at all. They’re full-on Christian Reconstructionists . . . Paliban. Still have doubts? Here’s their Statement of Faith:

Statement of Faith
We believe in one God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the truth of the Holy Scriptures, the infallible Word of God.

We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross and rose again to life so that all who believe in Him, by faith, will be forgiven of their sins, and gain eternal life in Heaven. That He ascended to the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe that Jesus Christ fulfilled the requirements of the Law stating: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37 -39).

We believe that the Ten Commandments are given by God and describe duties we owe to Him and to each other. They are the basis of our virtue and morality.

We believe that the United States of America was founded on the laws of Nature and Nature’s God, and that Almighty God is sovereign over the affairs of men, exercising jurisdiction over the family, church, state, and each individual.

We believe that God is the Creator and Author of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The site includes a section about the Ten Commandments monument and a bio of Roy Moore. Not surprisingly, Moore, like Chuck Norris, writes a biweekly column for WingNutDaily (or did, until July of 2009). Moore’s, called Our Moral Foundation, includes glistening pearls of wisdom like “Obama’s Attack on Our Christian Heritage” and “Miss California is Right“.

These are Chuck Norris’s three gubernatorial picks. What do you think of them? And what about Chuck?

(h/t to Ed Brayton for sending us off on this trail of terror.)

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Lancaster, CA is the sixth-largest city in Los Angeles County. Its population is about 150,000; not a bustling metropolis, but not a backwater burg, either. NBC Los Angeles reports that Mayor R. Rex Parris, presently up for re-election, veered from the expected subjects of his January 28 State of the City speech to urge citizens to support a local ballot measure.

Mayor R. Rex Parris

In response to a recent complaint, with respect to the invocations that contained reference to Jesus Christ, shall the City Council continue its invocation policy in randomly selecting local clergy of different faiths to deliver the invocation without restricting the content based on their beliefs, including references to Jesus Christ?

The complaint the measure references was made by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

The measure itself is bad enough, in that it makes clear that the Council has local clergy lead prayers at City Council meetings. But Parris’s comments made the real meaning of the measure perfectly clear:

We’re growing a Christian community, and don’t let anybody shy away from that.

Is Lancaster a Christian community?

“We’re growing a Christian community”. Not, “We’re a growing, Christian community,” but “We’re growing a CHRISTIAN community.”

There was a bit more, apparently only reported at Breitbart and in far greater detail in the Antelope Valley Press:

“We’re growing a Christian community, and don’t let anybody shy away from that,” he told an audience of 160 people, mainly pastors and their spouses, during his State of the City address Tuesday at the John P. Eliopulos Hellenic Center.

He said he wants the community’s electorate to validate a Christian stance in the April municipal election, in which a ballot measure endorses prayers at city meetings, specifically with permission to invoke a specific deity, including Jesus.

While Parris, who is running for a second term as mayor in April, said he didn’t care which candidates the voters favored, “I do want them voting for that prayer amendment,” referring to a measure asking voters whether or not the City Council should seek religious guidance before its meetings.

The council put the measure on the ballot after the American Civil Liberties Union sent the city a letter of warning that said allowing “sectarian” prayers, such as those that mention Jesus Christ, at government meetings is divisive and unconstitutional.

“I need them standing up and saying we’re a Christian community, and we’re proud of that,” he said, speaking as his multimedia PowerPoint demonstration flashed a big-screen picture with a large Christian cross and the phrase “2010 Growing a Christian Community.”

Now it gets really strange.

Parris maintained in post-speech remarks that a Christian city had a better sense of community than what he described as an “atheistic city,” and said the progress Lancaster has made over the past several years came about because of the sense of cooperation between the various elements in the city.

As a prime example, he referred to the recently announced 31% drop in the Lancaster crime rate in the past two years, commenting, “That 31% is the difference between a city that is dangerous to live in vs. a city that is safe to live in.”

So . . . Christianity is new to Lancaster? It’s only been there since 2007? Or has Lancaster long been a “hotbed of Bible-thumpin’ activity”?

Church-state separation activists, Parris says, “want … a fight. They want their 15 minutes of fame.”

Apparently, some folks in Lancaster want to bring the fight to the activists.

In 2008, City Councilor Sherry Marquez brought forward a proposal to display an “In God We Trust” sign in the Council chambers. Debbie Phillips, a Lancaster resident who believes in the separation of church and state, spoke out at the May 13 meeting where the issue was being debated. As is customary, she was required to provide her address to demonstrate residency.

The Council passed the measure unanimously, and the sign is proudly displayed in the chambers. As for Phillips?

On May 29, she found the words “In God We Trust or?” scrawled in shoe polish in foot-high letters across two windows and a sliding-glass door of her house.

She called the police to report the vandalism. Said Sgt. Michael Willoughby:

Because of the nature of the event, we are going to submit it to the D.A. and let them decide. Based on experience, unless there’s actual damage, it doesn’t really fall under the vandalism section.

I wonder if an arrest would be made if “Your God is Imaginary” were scrawled in shoe polish on the side of a church in Lancaster. Anyone care to bet?

Phillips wasn’t thrilled with that response.

I feel like this is a message from the local religious community telling me they are more powerful than I am. This is also a violation of my First Amendment rights. I don’t appreciate them coming onto my property and defacing it.

Some would say Phillips shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Lancaster has a history of hosting irrational Bible-beaters. It was even home to renowned Biblical pseudoscientist Charles K. Johnson, President of the Flat Earth Society from 1971 until his death in 2004.

Though now based in London, the Flat Earth Society provides an extensive Online Library of Flat Earth writings and a Discussion Forum which you can join.

You’ll be pleased to know that, for the first time since 2001, the Flat Earth Society reopened to new members in October of 2009.

Available in a rainbow of colors. Show your irrational pride!

He believe[d] that the Apollo moon missions were a massive hoax perpetrated by the US government. “You can’t orbit a flat earth,” sa[id] Mr. Johnson. “The Space Shuttle is a joke–and a very ludicrous joke.”

Johnson was living in Lancaster back in 1980, when Science Digest interviewed him.

Nobody knows anything about the true shape of the world. The known, inhabited world is flat. Just as a guess, I’d say that the dome of heaven is about 4,000 miles away, and the stars are about as far as San Francisco is from Boston.

But that’s not all. Did you know that the UN’s symbol is identical to the Flat Earth Society’s map?

“Uncle Joe (Stalin), Churchill, and Roosevelt laid the master plan to bring in the New Age under the United Nations,” Johnson discloses with confidence. “The world ruling power was to be right here in this country. After the war, the world would be declared flat and Roosevelt would be elected first president of the world. When the UN Charter was drafted in San Francisco, they took the flat-earth map as their symbol.”

Why declare the world flat? Johnson responds that a prophesied condition for world government (Isaiah 60:20) is that the “sun shall no more go down.” This could be fulfilled by admitting that sunrise and sunset are optical illusions. The UN did adopt for its official seal a world map identical with the one on Johnson’s office wall. But Franklin Roosevelt died coincident with the UN’s birth, and the other imminent events described by Johnson never came about.

That’s enough about Charles Johnson. Point being, there have been loonies in Lancaster for decades. Ms. Phillips, are you really surprised? I mean, did you even look at your city’s logo?

IT HAS A CROSS IN IT!

Update: Naturally, some Christians are horrified that some Americans are willing to stand up to violations of the Establishment Clause in the US Constitution and demand that religion not be a part of government.

Says Iggy:

Welcome to Obama’s “Hate Crime” law…if you are Christian and make pro-Christian statements that directly or indirectly insults anyone not Christian, be ready to face the “Hate Crime Bill”…

That’s right, the Constitution is now “Obama’s Hate Crime Bill”!

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