Freethought Today, June/July 1997

You Won't Believe You're Reading This

Sources: Associated Press clips from a variety of newspapers, unless otherwise noted.

Before & After "B.C." Although the Los Angeles Times properly refused to publish a "B.C." cartoon strip with an Easter theme, Pat Robertson's "700 Club" and Christian Coalition drummed up enough flak that the newspaper ran the cartoon strip, belatedly, on April 6. However, the newspaper had the last word. It placed the not-funny cartoon, which often features pious Christian evangelism these days, on the religion page. Source: Los Angeles Times, 4/6/96

Virgin Birth Insurance? British insurance broker Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson says it's their "duty" to offer "Virgin Birth by Act of God" insurance. Virgin policyholders concerned about the approach of the second millennium will pay two pounds a week for one million pounds of insurance if impregnated by "Act of God." GRIP sold 300 policies in one week for insurance against alien impregnation. Source: English Press, 4/97

Church-Going Dangerous To Health. The 70-year-old pastor of Messiah Baptist Church, Detroit, was arrested on May 4 for wielding a knife during services, but told police it was just his way of trying to "calm" a frenzied crowd. Some 75-100 parishioners were in a shouting/shoving match over a member who disagreed with the minister. Source: Detroit Free Press, 5/5/97

Dangerous To Health Part II. A man from McKeesport, PA, who stabbed himself repeatedly in the chest claiming to be Jesus, turned around and attacked two paramedics at his home and punched a nurse in the face at a hospital emergency room. It took six police to subdue him. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/31/97

Charity Begins At Temple. India's wealthiest Hindu temple, the golden-roofed Venkateswara in Tirupati, raises millions of dollars by selling the hair of pilgrims who shave heads to demonstrate their faith. The temple's 600 barbers shaved the heads of 6.5 million last year, raising about $1.82 million in sales to the U.S. and Europe for wig-making. 5/5/97

KKK Prays At Bar. Casa Nova, a 60-year-old bar in Boswell, PA, which recently "went gay," has been harassed for four months and is now being singled out by the Christian-based Ku Klux Klan, which conducted a prayer vigil there. 5/12/97

Religious Bigotry OK? A bill supported by Pres. Clinton to outlaw employment discrimination against gays and lesbians would specifically exclude small businesses, the military, and religious groups. 4/25/97

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Naval Station Everett spends up to $3,000 a year to provide an organist for Protestant Sunday services in the chapel at the Smokey Point Family Support Complex, and a similar amount for a guitarist for Sunday Masses. Source: Everett Herald (WA), 4/97

Shouldn't She See A Psychotherapist? Romanian-born Sanda Davis, 42, charges psychotherapy clients in Ottawa, Ontario, up to $80 an hour for "soul healing," claiming she has seen demons surface in clients, laugh and walk out of the office. Source: Ottawa Citizen (CANADA), 5/3/97

U.S. Frieze Sparks Indian Riot. Hundreds of Moslem separatists rioted in Srinagar, India in March to protest a sculpture reputedly depicting the prophet Mohammed holding a Koran in one hand and a sword in the other on a frieze in the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. 3/14/97

Now Nike Insults Allah. The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that Nike Inc. apologize for using a logo depicting flames on athletic shoes that resemble the word "Allah" in Arabic script. 4/10/97

Faith Healing A Dog. Rev. Allison Brown, owner of a puppy hit by a car in Exeter, prayed over the dog at the accident site, saying "I have a divine power to heal," instead of taking it to the vet. She accused the RSPCA, who were called to the scene, of kidnapping her dog. Source: London Times Internet edition, 4/18/97

Will Of God Vs. Precautions. Iranians fatalistically called a May 10 earthquake--killing 1,500, injuring 4,400 and leaving 60,000 homeless--"the will of God." But Iran's top seismologist said his government has not educated villagers about where and how to build earthquake-secure homes. Bahram Akasheh said humankind "cannot predict earthquakes, but it can learn to survive them." 5/14/97

Their Own Worst Enemies. The keynoter at a Lake Ozark, Missouri Praise Keepers convention (a female version of Promise Keepers) told women not to join if their husbands forbid it, but to "sit back and pray . . . and be obedient." Praise Keepers' idea of "topics pertinent to women"? How to pray, control weight and avoid affairs. 11/30/96

Now We've Heard Everything. A junior-high-school teacher convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old female student protested that his "acts of love" dated back more than 1,000 years to their past life in Tibet, when she saved his life by taking an arrow meant for him. The unpersuaded judge sentenced Roger Katz of Santa Fe to a year and a half in prison, calling him a "wolf in sheep's skin" who preyed on a youngster. 5/11/97

Clerics Demand Stoning. Bangladesh clerics are demanding an execution by public stoning of former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad and his mistress Zeenat Mosharraf, a member of Parliament, for their 14-year adulterous affair. 4/13/97

Preaching Causes Breach of Peace. Police arrested a patron of the Foxwoods Resort Casino in April after he became outraged that nobody would listen to his preaching and created a scene. Source: Norwich [CT] Bulletin, 4/30/97

Israeli Fanatics Riot About Street. Almost a thousand ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police in Jerusalem, throwing stones and calling them "Nazis," after the Supreme Court ordered that a thoroughfare be kept open on the Sabbath. 4/20/97

Safer To Be A Freethinker. About 300 Muslims en route from Mecca were trapped and burned or trampled to death when a fire tore through a tent city in Mina, Saudi Arabia. About 1,300 pilgrims were injured. Thousands have died during the Muslim pilgrimage in the past two decades from such disasters as stampedes, gun battles, plane crashes, and bombs. Sources: AP/Charleston Gazette, 4/15,16/97

This Gives Me A Headache. Although most kids recover from Tylenol overdoses, the Vatican ruled that the recovery from Tylenol poisoning ten years ago of an American toddler, named after a nun killed by the Nazis, was a "miracle." The March 8 recognition was necessary before canonizing Sister Teresia Benedicta. 4/19/97

Virgin Mary Sightings. Visions of the "Virgin Mary" drew thousands of people for three weeks to highway signs in Yakima Valley and Moses Lake, Washington, creating traffic problems. The devout called it "a miracle straight from God," but state Department of Transportation officials pointed out the signs are chemically coated to prevent oxidation, accounting for rainbow patterns on the metal, which the faithful said resembled "Our Lady of Guadalupe." Sources: AP, 4/9/97; Herald-Republic, 4/13, 29/97

Virgin Mary Gets Around. Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary has been spotted in Clearwater, Florida, with half a million visitors descending, some by tour bus, since a Dec. 17 TV news report that her image was on a three-story glass building. A "Miracle Management Team" at a cost of $40,000 policed crowds and offered a hotline on parking and traffic. A convention of 100 scientists and glass experts coincidentally meeting in Clearwater examined the Seminole Finance Building, identifying the rainbow swirls as corrosion of metallic elements on the glass's coating. Officials in Santa Cruz, CA, are still dealing with visitors to Pinto Lake park where "Our Lady of Guadalupe" was spotted on an oak tree in 1992. Sources: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 1/24/97; Herald-Republic, 4/97

Will The Real Jews Please Stand Up? The 600-member Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada declared that the Reform and Conservative branches "are not Judaism at all," condemning their assimilation and intermarriage. A 1990 study found that 41% of U.S. Jews are Reform, 40% Conservative, and only 7% Orthodox. 4/1/97

Dangerous to Children's Health. Officials at a Fontana (CA) Christian school accused the city of "sabotage" for citing the 62-student school for fire/safety code violations endangering children. City officials were denied a temporary restraining order by a San Bernardino judge in May, who ruled that students must stay out of hazardous basement classrooms. Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 5/2/97

New Form of Noise Pollution. Calcutta officials can't get Moslem imams and Hindu priests to abide by court rulings and federal guidelines curtailing the decibel levels of religious prayers and chants routinely broadcast over speakers. During the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, religious songs blare from thousands of loudspeakers for 10-days 'round-the-clock. 4/2/97

Not Rallying 'Round The Flag, Boys. Colorful spring rainbow flags placed by the Chamber of Commerce on Sylacauga (AL) city poles were hastily removed in April after clergy protested that the image symbolizes the gay and lesbian movement. The flags were replaced with a "smiling sunburst" image to placate Christians. Source: Daily Home (AL), 4/18/97

Hell On Earth? A revival has been taking place four days a week ever since Father's Day 1995, at the Brownsville (FL) Assembly of God church, packing in 2,200 at every service, with an overflow of 1,000+. More than 1.5 million have attended the revival, according to church officials, with 100,000 "repenting their sins" during altar call. Source: Washington Post, 4/27/97

No Girls Allowed. Cowed by conservative Southern Baptists who fear "a capitulation to feminism," the International Bible Society has scrapped its gender-neutral translation of the New International Version of the Bible, which had changed "men" to "people." "It's a victory for the word of God," said a Baptist seminary professor. "You don't compromise Scripture just to make women feel included." Source: AP, 5/28/97