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Christian camp leader jailed for child sex abuse 2007-10-08 05:05:10 A Christian former camp leader robbed boys of their innocence and grossly abused his position of trust when he sexually abused them over a 14-year period, a court has heard.Neville Cyril Collins, 44, was yesterday sentenced to 11 years in prison for abuse of six boys between 1984 and 1998.The victims were aged 11 to 16 when Collins abused them at Boys' Brigade and Exercise Novice Warrior camps in Auckland and other places in the North Island.Trusted by the boys' parents and considered a "father figure" to some of the victims, he also abused them in their homes and his home.Three of the victims were at the High Court at Rotorua for the sentencing and excerpts of their victim impact statements were read out."He took from me my innocence, my trust and confidence in all areas of my life," one victim wrote. "I have lived with this for 21 years - the pain, the guilt, feeling dirty, the anger and embarrassment - all this time."Another victim said Collins had taken away his dignity. "When h ...

Oral Roberts: True Christianity 2007-10-07 18:24:46 Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."At a chapel service this we ...

Welcome to This World 2007-10-07 13:18:57 From the Washington Post: By Matt CherryCelebrating the major transitions in life is as old as humanity. Even before there was organized religion, people marked key moments in their lives with ceremony and music, with solemn commitments and joyful celebrations.The birth of a child is one of the most significant of these rites of passage. It is a time for family, friends and community to come together to offer love, support and encouragement. It’s a time for a party.Rites of passage are also a time for reflection. They are moments when we step back from our daily concerns and look at our lives in a broader context. And when we think about the span of our whole life -- the arc of its development through key moments of birth, adulthood, love, parenthood, and death – we try to make sense it of it all. We explore the beliefs and values that give shape and meaning to our lives.For many people these values – and their underlying existential beliefs – are spiritual. Every religion has ...

Freethought Radio on the airwaves 2007-10-06 05:55:40 From the Washington TimesBeginning today, the 14 percent of Americans who label themselves as nonreligious will be able to turn on the radio once a week and hear a show that caters to their specific beliefs — or lack thereof.The first national broadcast of a Freethought Radio program will be aired over Air America Radio out of Madison, Wis., with such guests as Christopher Hitchens, author of the best-selling book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."Mr. Hitchens will be aired today on XM Satellite channel 167 and over WWRL-AM (1600) in New York City from 7 to 8 p.m., the show's regularly scheduled time."Our radio show is one with heritage," co-host Dan Barker said. "We vote, serve in the military and sit on juries."Mr. Barker, who is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation along with Annie Laurie Gaylor, said atheists, agnostics and nonreligious are "rejecting the illness" of religion."We don't need what religion provides," he said. "If salvation is a c ...

Skeptic Bible Study: Pedophilia in the Bible 2007-10-06 05:16:24 A video by John Anderson ...

Skeptic Bible Study: Jesus Never Existed 2007-10-06 05:10:02 By John ArmstrongIs Jesus the ultimate urban legend? http://www.godvsthebible.com/. ...

THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS A SHEEP BEATER 2007-10-06 04:23:21 By Brian Worley of ExMinister.Org A REAL LIFE STORY UNFOLDS Have you ever experienced such a horrible moment or event in your life that you will never forget? Mine was looking into the heartbroken eyes of the father and mother of two relatives at the funeral home. Knowing that nothing you could say would comfort them in their grief. They had just tragically witnessed the gruesome accident and death of their infant child a few days prior. I wanted to show support by being their with them at a most difficult time. I had been an exminister for less than a year at the time of the funeral. I had never told them about my leaving the faith and I wasn’t sure if anyone else had told them either. Knowing what I knew about the ministry, I hurt inside knowing that my relatives would be getting worthless “Christian” answers to comfort them. People mean well, but I know that the bible’s answers bring about more questions, and causes more pain than comfort. Ministers know of many Christian p ...

Pastor charged in wife's death 2007-10-05 21:09:24 The former pastor of the Revival Center in Vincent is charged with murder in the October 2005 shooting death of his wife.Timothy Dane Tillman, 43, was in the Shelby County Jail this evening with bond set at $500,000 after being returned from central Florida earlier in the day. He is charged with intentional murder, said Shelby County Chief Assistant District Attorney Bill Bostick.Tillman is accused of deliberately shooting his wife, Janet Lorita Tillman, 40, at the couple's Vincent home on Oct. 26, 2005. The death was investigated by Vincent police and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation.Tillman had contended the shooting was accidental and occurred when his shotgun accidentally fired while he was cleaning it, striking his wife in the back.Story Link ...

Norway flourishes as secular nation 2007-10-05 05:04:29 Rev. Rick Mason notes that atheism is on the rise. He blames Christian fundamentalism. Certainly the ineptness, dishonesty and lack of ethics of the overtly God-fearing Bush administration may be turning people off on God.A case study shows what this could mean for America. Norway has embraced secularism at the expense of its Christian roots. A 2005 survey conducted by Gallup International rated Norway the least religious country in Western Europe.In Norway, 82.9 percent of the population are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (they are automatically registered at birth and few bother to be unregistered). However, only approximately 10 percent regularly attend church services and identify themselves as being personally Christian.A 2006 survey found: 29 percent believe in a god or deity; 23 percent believe in a higher power without being certain of what; 26 percent don't believe in God or higher powers; 22 percent have doubts.Depending on the definition of atheism, Norway thus ...

FFRF Puts Up First-Ever Nontheistic Billboard! 2007-10-04 05:07:21 Reposted from http://www.ffrf.org/The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is the nation's largest association of atheists and agnostics, is unveiling what is believed to be the first nontheistic billboard in Madison, Wis. The whimsical full-color 48-foot billboard mimics a stained-glass window and warns, "Beware of Dogma." "We are launching a campaign to place freethought billboards up around the country, wherever an irreverent billboard is needed--which is practically everywhere!" says Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation spokeswoman. "We don't go to Mass, but we can go to the masses," adds Dan Barker, Foundation co-president. "We think it is time for the rest of us to use the mass media to counter the ubiquity of religious messages on roadsides everywhere!" (Madison, Wis., locals can look for it on the feeder road off the West Beltline next to Culver's Restaurant, facing west, Oct. 2-16, 2007.) The Foundation will be erecting another billboard to greet attendees of its 30th nationa ... Billboard

AoG pastor on trial for rape of grandaughter 2007-10-03 05:36:28 The state concluded its case today against a Stanley minister accused of aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl last year.The defense will present its witnesses Wednesday. Many of those are expected to either be character witnesses or witnesses who will testify that the alleged victim was not telling the truth.The day ended on an emotional note as several members of the jury, made up of nine women and three men, appeared moved as a father tried to explain the blow to his life as he tried to sort out details of sexual abuse allegations his daughter aimed at his father.One female juror on the front row pulled a Kleenex from her purse and another made a quick swipe to her eye as Dusty Warren admitted he initially dismissed his daughter’s allegations because there wasn’t a question in his mind that his father, Burcham Paul Warren, could have done such a thing.Paul Warren was more than Dusty Warren’s father but also his pastor.The former pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Churc ...

A House Divided 2007-10-01 05:13:09 By Tim SimmonsThere is one Moslem temple in Carbondale, Illinois. A small town of 26,000, the town is also home to one Jewish synagogue and two Catholic churches. The number of Protestant churches?Forty-seven.With three main streets and probably 150 smaller residential streets, there really is a church on every corner. But Carbondale isn't the exception when it comes to the number of Christian churches it boasts, but rather, it seems to be the norm. Take any small town of roughly 30,000 to 40,000 residents, anywhere in the southern half of the United States, and you'll find a similar pattern. Here's three I picked at random.Carlsbad New Mexico (pop 26,000)54 Protestant churchesWest Memphis, Arkansas (pop 28,000)55 Protestant churchesGainesville, Georgia (pop 26,000)71 Protestant churchesWith such seeming consistency, one might conclude that having a church on every corner is normal. But just because something happens frequently or is considered normal, it doesn't make it goo ...

The love of the Creator is inside everyone 2007-10-01 05:07:43 Sent in by Trish I was raised as a Christian. My mother's side of the family was Christian, my father never talked about his side, so I don't know what they believed in. My father didn't enjoy church but came if my mother pressured him enough. By the time I was in junior high, he had refused to attend completely.We attended a United Church every Sunday. I began going when I was about 3. I was a gifted child, speaking and reading at a very early age, with a phenomenal memory. I was very uncomfortable in the building, it seemed cold, empty and unfriendly to me. I remember colouring Bible stories and being anxious because I couldn't understand the contradictions we were told to believe, such as the David and Goliath story. (Thou shall not kill...unless killing is "allowed"?) I was adept at sensing energies and feeling auras and had a number of psychic like experiences that my mother told me I "imagined" and that things like that were of the Devil. My mother had a thing for th ...

Freethinking atheism leads to Communism? 2007-10-01 04:58:21 By Rick WThis is not a reply to the usual Christian last-ditch effort of saying "Communists were atheists, and look how they behaved and what happened to them." Well, what I am about to state is that the radical Communist societies in which so many people were killed were/are more religious than atheist and that such figures as Stalin, Mao, and Kim Il Sung could not have held sway over their respective nations had their citizens been strictly freethinking atheists.Repressive dictators usually have a "cult of personality" around them. This has long been the case, as kings were often thought of as divine rulers - either gods themselves or those who had been specifically chosen by God to rule the masses. Some of these kings might have been atheists and merely used the idea of God as a way to make the downtrodden masses fall in line (which most of the time, they happily did). However, I bet that most kings actually believed that they, themselves were God's chosen one, and so were just ...

Christianity , Guiltianity, or Controllianity? 2007-09-30 07:30:00 Sent in by Darlene I write this in anguish of spirit. I have lived my whole adult life in a very religious, what I would now call “legalistic, controlling, guilt filled, suppressed, yet full of pride and hypocrisy, groping around desperately trying to find a fulfilled, meaningful life. My Christian walk and doctrinal beliefs led me to feel pride, as if I were set apart and a better human being than my fellow neighbor. I looked down at them as if they were evil and probably as if they were like a rat infestation. Everywhere I went I took this spiritual pride and thought I was so much better than they. Because I had “the truth,” I was saved and they lost. I only felt comfortable with those who were of like mind and we could enjoy a conversation of the evil of the world. There is comfort in numbers.I rarely went out in public, except to church and to do groceries once or twice a week, and rarely associated with anyone unless they were under the same convictions as me, lest the ...