BACK in 2009 US atheist Bart Centre launched a website called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, a service that promised True Christians™ that left-behind atheists would care for their pets if they were suddenly swept up to heaven to be be with Jesus on Rapture day. Three years later Centre confessed that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax designed to poke fun at the idea of the Rapture, but many – including me – were taken in by the sheer professionalism… Read more
April 7, 2019
Come Rapture day, who will be left to care for Christians’ pets?
April 7, 2019 By Barry Duke
26 Comments
April 7, 2019
Mormons: gay marriage is now a ‘serious trangression’, not ‘apostasy’
April 7, 2019 By Barry Duke
33 Comments
IN what is regarded by many as a startling U-turn, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reversed a 2015 ruling that classified people in same-sex marriages as ‘apostates’, subject to excommunication. Earlier this month, Mormon bigwig Dallin Oaks, above, announced – hooray and hallelujah! – that children of parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender may now be blessed and baptised. And the church will no longer characterise same-gender marriage as “apostasy”, although it… Read more
April 6, 2019
Doc who said she’d give Jews ‘wrong meds’ has job offer withdrawn
April 6, 2019 By Barry Duke
14 Comments
KERN Medical Center in Bakersfield, California, this week withdrew a job offer made to Dr Lara Kollab, above, who was fired last year from the Cleveland Clinic after it was discovered that she had posted anti-Semitic tweets. A number of Kollab’s tweets from her time as an undergraduate student were uncovered by the Canary Mission, an organisation that tracks offensive social media posts by pro-Palestinian activists. “I’ll purposely give the yahood the wrong meds,” she tweeted in 2012, using the Arabic… Read more
April 6, 2019
Shock and indignation follows Amsterdam priest’s ‘coming out’
April 6, 2019 By Barry Duke
14 Comments
AT the beginning of April Catholic priest Father Pierre Valkering, above, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination by coming out as gay – and went so far as to use the occasion to publicise his new book, an autobiography which details his sexual exploits. These revelations “came as a shocking surprise to the diocese”, said Catholic blogger Mark de Vries, who wrote: The sexual excesses of Pierre Valkering, and the way in which he made them public, are an example… Read more
April 5, 2019
Angry Christians oppose nuclear weapons church service
April 5, 2019 By Barry Duke
7 Comments
LONDON’S Westminster Abbey plans on holding a service in May to recognise ’50 Years of Continuous at Sea Nuclear Deterrent’ – but some Christians are dead set against the event. According to this report, anti-nuclear activists are now calling for the service to be cancelled and have launched a petition urging the Dean of Westminster Abbey not to go ahead with it. The Bishop of Colchester, the Right Rev Roger Morris, above, is among those opposing the service, and The… Read more
April 5, 2019
Producers of Easter items must ensure they don’t offend Christians
April 5, 2019 By Barry Duke
32 Comments
THE UK’s advertising watchdog says there’s a ‘fine line’ between humour and sacrilege and companies producing Easter goods should be aware that Christians have very thin skins. Well, the Advertising Standards Authority didn’t actually use the phrase “thin skins” but that what it clearly implied when it warned in a press release last week: Given the sensitivities surrounding people’s religious beliefs, marketers must take care not to cause serious or widespread offence when using religious references in their campaigns in… Read more
April 4, 2019
Holy smoke! Book-burning priest fined for illegal bonfire
April 4, 2019 By Barry Duke
16 Comments
THE Rev Rafal Jarosiewicz, a Catholic priest who recently led a book-burning ceremony in Gdansk, Poland, has been fined by local authorities. An anti-smog group has also reportedly complained to prosecutors about the illegal burning of books and other items in an open fire outside a church. Jarosiewicz, above wearing glasses, has since described the stunt as “unfortunate”, saying the ritual was not intended to condemn specific authors, religions or social groups. He published the apology late Tuesday on the… Read more
April 4, 2019
UK psychologist complains of the ‘queering’ of Muslim school kids
April 4, 2019 By Barry Duke
8 Comments
Dr Godfrey-Faussett, above, a convert to Islam, has been referred to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for expressing daft and ‘unethical’ views about relationship and sex education (RSE) lessons, including sections on LGBT+ partnerships. The psychologist, described here as “a prominent campaigner against RSE lessons”, has argued that lessons about LGBT+ relationships – which use story books to teach about different families – are part of a: Social engineering programme to corrupt children. She complains about the “queering of the Muslim community”… Read more
April 3, 2019
‘Liberal’ Jewish seminary refuses to ordain an openly gay student
April 3, 2019 By Barry Duke
9 Comments
JEWISH Queer Youth has castigated New York’s Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for refusing to ordain openly gay rabbinical student, Daniel Atwood, pictured left above with his partner Judah Gavant. In a Facebook statement posted yesterday, JQY, said: We stand with our beloved JQY community leader, Daniel Atwood, along with all LGBTQ young people who must now endure yet another rejection from Orthodox institutions. Simply put, tethering graduation to the suppression of LGBTQ dignity is a form of torture. It happens every day… Read more
April 3, 2019
Pastor warns local paper that she has a knife and cuts people
April 3, 2019 By Barry Duke
7 Comments
CALIFORNIAN pastor Hope Carpenter, above, on a weekend visit to South Carolina, told the congregation at Greenville’s Relentless Church that she had a knife in her handbag and that she ‘cuts people’. Her threat, according to this report, was aimed squarely at a the staff of a local paper, the Greenville News, which had been critical of the megachurch’s husband and wife leaders, John and Aventer Gray. The paper had covered John Gray’s disclosure on a daytime talkshow of an “emotional… Read more
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