"Members of the Westboro Baptist Church have disrupted funerals across the country over the past few years with profane signs saying that deaths in Iraq are retribution triggered by America's tolerance of homosexuals.

A church news release explains: "God is punishing America for her sodomite sins... The 33 massacred at Virginia Tech died for America's sins against WBC (Westboro Baptist Church). Just as U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq each day for America's sins against WBC."

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/ (Another political & religious agenda to be fought at this particular time?)

Westboro Baptist Church to protest at Virginia Tech

You just gotta read this story. This is amazing stuff - this is ...potentially...revolutionary.

I cannot wait for the Discovery Channel special on this.
No doubt - even if it is absolutely positively authentic - if it could be proven beyond the shadow of a DOUBT - people still would not believe this one. People will resist this as surely as they do evolution.

Tomb of Jesus and Mary Magdaline

All was fine as long as he was a pentecostal chaplain, but, thinking he could change his religion as easily as most chaplains change their denomination, this very qualified guy found himself booted right out of Iraq.

"When Larsen came along last spring, Sacred Well's leaders thought they finally had someone the military could not possibly reject: a physically fit 6-foot-4 clergyman originally ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who holds a master's degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Moreover, Larsen had spent 10 years as an officer in the National Guard, finished near the top of his class in chaplain's training and was already serving as a chaplain in Iraq."

The Army insists there was no discrimination involved.

Yeah, right.

General Richardson says that there aren't enough wiccans IN the military to support a full time Wiccan chaplain, but though there are over 4,000 wiccans serving with now - no - chaplain, there are "22 rabbis for 4,038 Jews, 11 imams for 3,386 Muslims, six teachers for 636 Christian Scientists."

Wiccan Chaplain booted from the military

"The real issue with these people is not their specific faiths. It's their addiction to thinking they are right. It's an addiction to believing they have a corner on the market of truth. In other words, it's an addiction to a "made-truth," that is, to a belief that the truths they've created in their minds are indeed absolute truths and that everyone else must be made to believe in the same truths lest they perish. ...

"CHRISTIANS ARE BEING PERSECUTED"

Ever hear the phrase, "You can dish it out, but you can't take it"? That's what's happening when Fundamentalists use this statement. They have been on the attack for years now, trying to deny rights to homosexuals, trying to outlaw abortions, trying to keep women from obtaining equal rights, and trying to impose their own morals - many of them non-biblical - on the rest of society. Non-Fundamentalists are finally fighting back by speaking out against their campaigns, their media onslaughts, and their mistaken notions of truth, and the Fundamentalists don't like it very much. They can dish it out, but they can't take it. So when people of good conscience stand up for their rights, Fundamentalists cry foul - they claim they are being persecuted.

Fundamentalists see this "persecution" as biblical proof of being on God's side. It's not. Their so-called persecution is merely the rest of society defending itself from their attacks.

esus was not the uptight, judgmental founder of Fundamentalist Christianity. He was radical. He was compassionate. And he was forgiving. Rather than thumping people over the head with the Old Testament (the New Testament hadn't been written yet), he spent much of his time standing up to the Fundamentalists of his day. In Matthew 23:27 he said they were nothing more than "whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." And isn't that so true. These are people who claim their made-truths come straight from the Bible, and yet they don't even know what's in it. They wear a facade of righteousness, and yet they sin by adding their unfounded doctrines to the Bible. They like to condemn others for living in sin, and yet they are blind to all the sins they simply ignore or write off as irrelevant.

You don't have to let them get away with it. The next time they launch an attack, stand up for your beliefs, stand up for your rights, and fight back with their own words. Or rather, fight back with God's own words. "

Good reading. I so needed to read this tonight. I've spent the last 3 days trying to argue with a powerful brick wall about an issue that to me should be so clear - equal opportunity for children of all religions. Yet, I hit a brick wall....and a hysterical 'You people are trying to take the Christ out of Christmas!' WTF - I can't deal with these mean ass people.

How to defend yourself & fight against the Christian Right

"MADISON, Wis. - A federal lawsuit filed by Wiccans against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will proceed despite a request by the VA that it be put on hold for perhaps as much as a year.

The lawsuit, filed in November by a California group, accuses the VA of coming up with "excuse after excuse" for more than nine years for not putting the Wiccan symbol on grave markers of veterans who were members of that religion. The department does not allow Wiccan religious symbols on veterans' headstones in national cemeteries.

The VA argued in a motion filed Jan. 19 with the U.S. District Court in Madison that the lawsuit should be put on hold while the department finalizes a new rule governing symbols on gravestones. That process could take as long as 12 months, but the agency will make a decision on the Wiccan request within a month after the new rule is issued, the government's motion said.

The Wiccans' attorney objected, arguing that nothing requires the VA to finalize its rules within a year or to take up the Wiccan request at all.

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz issued a one-line order on Jan. 26 allowing the case to proceed. He set a trial date for June 29.

"We're pleased that the litigation will go forward, and the VA will not be able to delay further coming to the right decision and giving the families of veterans the memorials that they're entitled to," said Richard Katskee, lead lawyer in the case for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

U.S. Attorney Erik Peterson, who is defending the government, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Selena Fox, a Wiccan high priestess with Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, praised the judge's decision.

"The VA's decade-long pattern of delay, disregard and discrimination against the Wiccan religion must stop," she said. "The thought of possibly having to wait more than a year to have our case heard was terrible."

A nature-based religion, the Wiccan faith is founded on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons."

Judge rejects US govt. motion, allows wiccan lawsuit to continue

This is just a GORGEOUS picture. Leave it to National Geographic.

This has actually been a spot of contention for a while - the right of modern pagans to use ancient religious temples. The government has in the past taken the position that they don't want Greece associated with paganism.

Great pic.

Modern Pagans Worship at Ancient Temple of Zeus

"BARNEVELD, Wis. — With an estimated 400,000 members nationwide, and a high-profile fight with the federal government over veterans' grave markers, Wiccans are moving into a more prominent place in the religious landscape.

Selena Fox is leading the way.

A Wiccan priestess and founder of Circle Sanctuary, a 200-acre nature center in the Wisconsin woods about 30 miles west of Madison, Fox battles for acceptance..."

Goal of Lawsuit for Wicca: Acceptance

This is disturbing.

"Scientology snuck into Clearwater, Florida in 1978 under the assumed name of United Churches. Since then they have come to dominate the ... all » small town.

I lived in Clearwater for two years, working with a group which was helping people defrauded and abused by Scientology. During this time, police officers started to accept off duty jobs from Scientology. I documented the police officer's bias during that time. The police department accepted $176,000 a year from Scientology and was called by some "Scientology's police force."

Scientology comes to Clearwater, FL - Disturbing Video

This is a beautifully done video of the Winter Solstice Celebration at Stonehenge.

Beautiful Video of Winter Solstice at Stonehenge

"BY THE light of the full moon, witches in Glastonbury will tonight be casting a "circle of protection" around Britain's centre of mysticism after a group of militant Christians cast salt at them in an attempt to "cleanse" the town of paganism.

One Roman Catholic was fined and two cautioned by police after
the "alternative Hallowe'en" festival in Britain's centre of magical mysticism turned into a spiritual battle between Christianity and paganism.

Now even the local Catholic priest has told his fellow Christians
that they are not welcome in the town. "

Bad Vibes in Glastonbury after Cathololics Against Pagans