Weekly Weird Religious News

weird religious newsFor this weekly posting of weird religious news I usually pick just three items to highlight and then zoom in on those. This week I’ll do something slightly different. Instead I’ll give you a quick listing from various different sources to illustrate that religious weirdness is not simply running at a burn rate of just three items per week. Instead it is both pervasive and abundant.

Most humans are to one degree or another religious. We are like this because we inherit it from our social context. What is also rather clear is that most humans regardless of there specific belief, or lack of any belief, are both decent and honourable, generally strive to live a good life, and have no desire to force others to conform, but instead happily embrace diversity. Sadly, there are some who take religion to an entirely different level and proceed to inflict an astonishing degree of intolerance, hate, and outright fraud. Those are the fundamentalists and fraudsters, and so this column is dedicated to them.

So what happened during the past seven days?

Lots.

Right Wing Watch

Right Wing Watch reports the following ..

Via the Friendly Atheist

The Friendly Atheist reports the following stories …

  • Franklin Graham: We Lost a WI Supreme Court Seat Because Christians Didn’t Vote
  • Christian College President Enters Conditional Guilty Plea in Fraud Case
  • Why Do Evangelicals Love Guns So Much When Jesus Preached a Message of Peace?
  • Christian Prosecutor Charged With Trading Lenient Sentences for Sexual Favors
  • In Australia, Two Politicians Used God to Manipulate a Controversial Vote
  • Christian Author: We Must Avoid Vaccines Since the Bible Never Mentions Them

(The bible does not mention rather a lot of things: cars, electricity, TV, democracy, guns, Trump, almost every modern medicine available, etc… good luck on avoiding all of those)

  • Woman Who Said She Was Raped By Mormon Leader Files Lawsuit Against LDS Church
  • Idaho GOP Lt. Gov. Candidate Says Women Should Be Put to Death for Abortions
  • AZ House Debates Bill Letting Teachers Put “God Enriches” Signs in Classrooms
  • Megachurch Pastor: Jesus Visited Me But “I Never Saw the Front of His Face”
  • “The Bible is Back in School” Because of Me, Says Alabama School Board Candidate
  • Christian Woman Used Taser to Wake Up Her Teen Son for Church on Easter
  • Michigan Priest Possibly Sets New Dollar Record for Theft by U.S. Clergy
  • Mormon Church Instructor Admits He Sexually Abused Kids as Young as 2
  • This Christian Professor Scoffs at Atheists For Finding Meaning Outside Religion
  • Frank Schaeffer: Many Evangelicals Spent Easter Asking “Who Do We Hate Next?”
  • To Save Jesus, Audience Member Attacks Roman Soldier in Passion Play
  • Televangelist Jim Bakker: God is Testing Our Faith Through Donald Trump

Cartoon of the week

One last thought

The above is not a list of items gathered over a year or a month. Instead it a list of what popped up in just the last seven days.

My favourite is perhaps the suggestion that vaccines should be avoided because the bible does not mention them. It’s a wonderful idea that we should promote – “if it is not in the bible, you must avoid it”. Encouraging the nutters to go full Amish will in effect solve all the problems that they generate today – they should personally avoid the use of cars, TV, radio, anything operated by electricity, modern healthcare, and even printed books, because none of them are mentioned in the bible.

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