Religion // Current

Jonestown Cult Survivor

In 1971, cult leader Jim Jones established the headquarters of the Peoples Temple on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, CA. The... more

CHARMOSH
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James Dobson: Just Another Failed CEO

After donating over $600,000 to defeat gay marriage in California, James Dobson recently announced layoffs at Focus on the Family.... more

omnipotentpoobah
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Comparison of Christianity and Judaism

Christianity has a close relationship with Judaism, both historically and theologically. Jesus, the twelve disciples, the author... more

carre
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Man as God? Five Percent Nation of Islam | Nation of Gods and Earths

Appeal to Urban Blacks. The religion is popular among urban black youth, and serves as a positive influence that distracts... more

lateefx
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Is it logical to believe in god?

I think this video is fascinating. It's been a question which I've been going over in my head as of late so I was kind... more

middle_east
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Fabled Enemies

Seven years after 9/11, the supposed mastermind behind the attacks is still at large, and the nation is entrenched in multiple... more

covelogibbs
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Support for Women Left Behind by Husband Sent to Prison.

FreshStart Fellowship is a Non-Denominational Non Profit Organization trying to open Helps Centers in Major Cities all across the... more

FreshStart_Fellowship
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Scientology doesn't like to be badmouthed

British bookstores, and the British arm of the online retail site Amazon, have been forced to pull the sale of a new book critical... more

TrevTar
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Corpus Loquens

"Non vi farete incidere nella carne per un morto, né vi farete dei tatuaggi addosso. Io sono il Signore" (Lev.... more

philozei
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Gay haters and the like have been beguiled by organized religion.
I used to be one of your kind. I too fell into the group of being someone that was self elevated and bigoted. In time I became educated to the reality of what it means to be gay.

I watched someone dear to me deal with the fact they were gay. They lived in the heart of a racist and bigoted land. You know I am speaking of Utah when I say this.

From an early age, this boy knew he was attracted to people of the same sex. He listened to his father and stepmother make jokes with his friends about all of those "gay bastards."

He decided he was going to make himself not gay. He tried everything he could think of to entice himself with things from the opposite sex. Relentlessly for two years he pursued this endeavor with no avail.

He sought out advice from counselors and numerous friends as to what he should and could do. He found nothing that could resolve his issue of being gay. He chose not to be gay but it wouldn't go away.

Facing great fear of condemnation and bodily harm from the Mormon masses and others he often contemplated suicide. For a period of about two years he toiled with the battle of whether or not he was worthy of living or if he should end it all by killing himself.

Having observed his intense struggle, I came to the conclusion that being gay was not his choice, but rather being something he was born with. Since this observation I have become an advocate for gay rights.

Hopefully you will witness someone near and dear to you go through this same struggle. I do not mean that I wish this experience on anyone that is gay.

However, if you are fortunate enough to have someone you care about that is gay, you will come to understand as I have. It will literally change your life and perspective if you have any dignity what so ever as you watch them try to deal with it.

Being gay is not a choice!

Is this really the cross they must bear? The things written in the bible as to this subject were written by people such as you. They neither could understand it nor could they accept it. Thus they invoked God and condemned it. Since, how many have been tortured by the likes of you?Gay haters and the like have been beguiled by organized religion. I used to be one of your kind. I too fell into the group of... more

JuliusBC
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35 responses

3 days ago

The Summum of all fears: mummies, free speech, and the Supreme Court

Can a fringe religious sect that believes in mummifying pets and their owners force a landmark Supreme Court decision on free speech?

Reverend Fred Phelps, the infamous head of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, runs a website called www.godhatesfags.com and wants to erect a monument in Casper, Wyoming's Historical Monument Plaza depicting Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998. The caption would read, "Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, in defiance of God's warning 'thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.'"

The city of Casper has declined to host Phelps' monument. But whether the city can keep it out hinges on how the US Supreme Court decides a major free speech case involving a fringe religious sect that specializes in mummification of its adherents and, occasionally, their pets. If the court comes to the rescue of the religious group, whose cause civil libertarians would normally support, cities and towns across the country might have no choice but to showcase all manner of bizarre or hateful monuments, like the one proposed by Phelps.

On Wednesday, the court heard oral arguments in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, a case that is essentially forcing the justices to decide which is worse: letting the likes of Phelps fill public plazas with a parade of horrors, or allowing governments like Pleasant Grove to discriminate against religious minorities when it comes to adorning public space. The case got its start in Utah, a perennial hotbed of church/state separation litigation, and centers on a Ten Commandments monument in Pleasant Grove's Pioneer Park. The monument is one of many erected around the country by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in the 1960s and '70s with backing from Cecile B. DeMille, who was promoting his Charlton Heston movie. The monuments have generated a host of litigation in the past few years, and at least one previous Supreme Court decision.

Summum is a small religious sect founded in 1975 by the late Summum Bonum Amon Ra (who also went by Corky). The group operates out of a pyramid in Salt Lake City and is most famous for carrying on the Egyptian tradition of mummification, a practice that is also the sect's primary source of income. Over the past 15 years, the group has become a thorn in the side of Mormon Utah towns that have public displays of the Ten Commandments. Summum first sued several towns to have the monuments removed in the mid-1990s. When those efforts failed, the group sought to erect monuments of its own, displaying its "Seven Aphorisms." Summum believe that God gave Moses the Aphorisms before he handed down the Ten Commandments, but that Moses destroyed the original tablets because the people weren't ready for the received wisdom. The Aphorisms, in the shortened version, are "Psychokinesis, Correspondence, Vibration, Opposition, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender."

Stephanie MencimerCan a fringe religious sect that believes in mummifying pets and their owners force a landmark Supreme Court decision on free... more

Brendan_M
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21 responses

3 days ago

Is atheism a religion?

"For some strange reason, many people keep getting the idea that atheism is itself some sort of religion. It's an... more

DeliaTheArtist
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90 responses

3 days ago

On politics, religion, and freedom

A well written opinion piece: "It's unfortunate that too many people in America are confused about the place of... more

DeliaTheArtist
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32 responses

3 days ago

US: day of protests for gay rights

"Nearly two weeks after California voters narrowly passed Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution that... more

DeliaTheArtist
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16 responses

3 days ago

IRA groups behind surge of attacks in Northern Ireland

IRA splinter groups are behind a surge of attacks in Northern Ireland and are increasingly trying to kill police, a report has found.

Amid a political stalemate in the British province, the Independent Monitoring Commission report says Irish Republican Army dissidents are behind "a more concentrated period of attacks than at any time since we started to report on them 4 1/2 years ago".

"We believe that dissidents have also been undertaking planning and preparation for other attacks," the report says, noting that Republican dissidents of the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and the Real IRA (RIRA) "have been especially active".

The IMC says the Real IRA badly wounded one police officer by detonating a bomb under his private car in May; fire-bombed four businesses; tried to recruit disillusioned members of the mainstream IRA; and "continued to seek to obtain weapons from associates, criminals and from overseas as well as by manufacturing them itself".

The Continuity IRA tried twice in recent months to blow up police patrols near the border. The group planted a remote-controlled bomb under a small bridge in June, and in August fired rocket-propelled grenades that contained Semtex plastic explosive.

In both cases, the homemade devices failed to detonate fully.

A devolved power-sharing government between pro-London Protestants and Republicans who want union with Ireland resumed in Belfast last year, nearly a decade after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement ended most violence.

But the loyalist Democratic Unionists and Republican Sinn Fein have failed to agree on the crunch issue of policing, leading British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to warn in September that they were putting a decade of progress at risk. Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary, Shaun Woodward, underlined the need to reach agreement on devolving police and justice powers from London to Belfast.

"It is clear that both RIRA and CIRA have been more active ... in recent months and they remain determined to kill police officers," he said, while also warning that loyalists had been "disappointingly slow" in decommissioning arms.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern slammed the dissidents. "These groups have no mandate - they represent only themselves," he said. "Their criminal activities should leave no doubt about their priorities.

"Members of these groups need to leave behind their failed ideology, move on and join the rest of the people of this island in rejecting violence and in building a better, more inclusive society to the benefit of all."IRA splinter groups are behind a surge of attacks in Northern Ireland and are increasingly trying to kill police, a report has... more