A GROVELLING apology made a few weeks back by self-proclaimed ‘messiah’ Lee Man-hee, 88, head of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, for his cult’s role in spreading coronavirus cut no ice with officials in the city of Daegu, who are now seeking damages of 100 billion won (£66m). According to The Independent, the city at the epicentre of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak, has filed a civil damages suit against the church, which has insisted it fully complied with government efforts to… Read more
June 26, 2020
South Korean cult is being sued for £66-m for spreading COVID-19
June 26, 2020 By Barry Duke
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June 25, 2020
Rainbow stamps sales soar in Spain, thanks to far-right party Vox
June 25, 2020 By Barry Duke
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Demand for the stamps dramatically increased after Santiago Abascal, above, leader of a homophobic ‘family values’ party Vox, slammed the Spanish postal service Correos for promoting homosexuality According to Euro Weekly News, Correos came under fire from Abascal after it created a special rainbow stamp to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month. It also gave some if its delivery vans and postboxes a rainbow makeover. The stamp makes special mention of a street in Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol. Pasaje Begoña… Read more
June 25, 2020
Lockdown-defying rabbi detained and ‘tortured’ in Israel
June 25, 2020 By Barry Duke
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ANGRY Orthodox Jews in New York City gathered on Tuesday outside of the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan to protest the Israeli government’s ongoing ‘oppression of the anti-Zionist community’ and the imprisonment and the alleged ‘torture’ of Rabbi Binyamin Friedman, above, who has been kept in detention for 12 weeks. After Friedman was hauled off by the police for attending an outdoor Beis Shemesh prayer gathering he was allegedly chained to a bed for 19 hours in a prison’s “punishment wing”… Read more
June 24, 2020
UK lawmakers voting today to ban demos outside abortion clinics
June 24, 2020 By Barry Duke
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FOLLOWING our report four days ago that the joyless leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance – Sid Cordle, above – had been fined for £100 for breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic in London, comes news that MPs are voting today on a bill that would protect women from being harassed by anti-abortion Christian fanatics outside all clinics in England and Wales. According to the BBC, the bill is being introduced Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq who said:… Read more
June 23, 2020
Another botched artwork restoration leaves Spain in stitches
June 23, 2020 By Barry Duke
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THE increasingly irreligious Spanish have a sharply-honed sense of fun – especially in regard to messed up ‘sacred’ objects. Best example was the laughter that engulfed the country when the ‘Monkey Jesus’ story broke in 2012. Another wave of mirth hit Spain this week when it was reported that a painting of the Virgin Mary suffered a similar fate at the hands of a furniture restorer who was paid €1,200 by an art collector to clean his copy of Bartolomé… Read more
June 23, 2020
Odd bedfellows: an Orthodox Greek prelate & a gay rights champion
June 23, 2020 By Barry Duke
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BACK in 2017, ahead of Australia’s plebiscite to legalise gay marriage, the Greek Orthodox Church spent a great deal of time and money opposing same-sex unions. Then, at the beginning of this year, church members had a WTF? moment when the man who successfully pushed hard for marriage equality – Liberal Party Senator Andrew Bragg – was awarded the highest honour the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia can bestow. Bragg became the the first non-Greek and non-Orthodox person to receive… Read more
June 22, 2020
UK broadcasting watchdog fails to grasp Christian ‘news’ content
June 22, 2020 By Barry Duke
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IN MAY this year the regulatory body Ofcom sanctioned LoveWorld UK, headed by Nigerian pastor Chris Oyakhilome, above, for peddling conspiracy theories, notably that COVID-19 was being spread by 5G networks. Shortly after, on May 22, the Lagos-based National Daily Newspaper blasted Ofcom’s action. Reporter Ifeanyi Izeze described the move as “astounding” and suggested that evangelical outfits such as LoveWorld should not be be held to the same broadcasting standards as the “secular”media. This is part of the writer’s defence of… Read more
June 22, 2020
Bishop blasts female learning: ‘They be smarter than their husbands’
June 22, 2020 By Barry Duke
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IN his 1970 three-act play, Happy Birthday Wanda June, Kurt Vonnegut Jr has one of his characters – a despicable sexist moron named Harold Ryan – utter these words after discovering that his wife had earned a Master’s Degree: ‘Educating a beautiful woman is like pouring honey into a fine Swiss watch: everything breaks.’ I was reminded of that line when I read that Edir Macedo, above, a billionaire evangelical bishop in Brazil who enjoys sitting in young men’s laps while… Read more
June 21, 2020
Christian media ignore new UK study that shows the godless are least likely to be affected by COVID-19
June 21, 2020 By Barry Duke
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AFTER the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed on June 19 that people who have ‘no religion’ had the lowest rate of death involving Covid-19 between March 2 and May 15, Freethinker reader ‘Broga’ predicted in a comment that this report was unlikely to get much coverage. On this one, silence will be what the ‘people of faith’ want and need. With a compliant media and politicians they will get it. He was partly right. The report has appeared… Read more
June 21, 2020
Megachurch pastor who lied about slavery responds to critics
June 21, 2020 By Barry Duke
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THERE was outrage after pastor Rod Parsley, above, of the World Harvest Church in Ohio falsely claimed in a recent sermon that America’s founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, all freed their slaves either in their lifetimes or after their deaths. This is was a flat-out lie, according to the Jefferson Monticello plantation, which says on its website: Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 human beings throughout the course of his life. 400 people were enslaved at Monticello; the other 200 people were… Read more
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