Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 8, 2008; A03
CHICAGO -- Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.
The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.
"For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church," ADF attorney Erik Stanley said. "It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It's not for the government to mandate the role of church in society."
Yet an opposing collection of Christian and Jewish clergy will petition the IRS today to stop the protest before it starts, calling the ADF's "Pulpit Initiative" an assault on the rule of law and the separation of church and state.
Backed by three former top IRS officials, the group also wants the IRS to determine whether the nonprofit ADF is risking its own tax-exempt status by organizing an "inappropriate, unethical and illegal" series of political endorsements.
"As religious leaders, we have grave concerns about the ethical implications of soliciting and organizing churches to violate core principles of our society," the clergy wrote in an advance copy of their claim obtained by The Washington Post.
The battle over the clergy's privileges, rights and responsibilities in the political world is not new. Politicians of all stripes court the support -- explicit or otherwise -- of religious leaders. Allegations surface every political season of a preacher crossing the line.
What is different is the Alliance Defense Fund's direct challenge to the rules that govern tax-exempt organizations. Rather than wait for the IRS to investigate an alleged violation, the organization intends to create dozens of violations and take the U.S. government to court on First Amendment grounds.
"We're looking for churches that are serious-minded about this, churches that understand both the risks and the benefits," Stanley said, referring to the chance that they could lose their coveted tax-exempt status or could set a precedent.
Stanley said three dozen church leaders from more than 20 states have agreed to deliver a political sermon, naming political names.
"The sermon will be an evaluation of conditions for office in light of scripture and doctrine. They will make a specific recommendation from the pulpit about how the congregation would vote," he said.
"They could oppose a candidate. They could oppose both candidates. They could endorse a candidate. They could focus on a federal, state or local election."
Such endorsements are prohibited by a 1954 amendment to the Internal Revenue Code that says nonprofit, tax-exempt entities may not "participate in, or intervene in . . . any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office."
In a Sept. 3 letter to two United Church of Christ pastors in Ohio who are organizing the challenge to the ADF, Stanley appealed to them, "as one Christian brother to another," to abandon their criticism. He asserted a "constitutional right to speak freely from the pulpit" and said IRS rules "stifle religious expression."
Former IRS lawyer Marcus S. Owens, however, opposes the ADF's strategy and its legal reasoning. Working with the Ohio-based clergy, he contends that the Supreme Court would be unlikely to overturn appellate court rulings on the issue or a related precedent of its own.
Owens also criticizes ADF and its lawyers for "actively advising churches and pastors that they should violate the tax law and offering to explain how to do that. The tax system would be shut down if you allowed attorneys to counsel people on how to violate the tax law."
Owens, a former director of the IRS office that regulates tax-exempt organizations, will ask the tax agency to investigate ADF lawyers for "this flagrant disregard of the ethical rules." He is joined by former IRS commissioner Mortimer M. Caplin and Cono R. Namorato, who headed the office of professional responsibility at the IRS until 2006.
The two Ohio pastors, the Rev. Eric Williams and the Rev. Robert F. Molsberry, have called for hundreds of clergy to preach on Sept. 21 about the value of the separation of church and state.
Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, calls "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" a "stunt" that is part of an effort by the religious right to build a church network that will "put their candidates into office. It's part of the overall game plan."
"This is an extraordinarily reckless scheme that they are promoting," Conn said. "The federal tax law is clear. Churches are charitable institutions that exist to do charitable things. That does not include politics. Political groups do politics."
The Alliance Defense Fund is a legal consortium that considers itself the antithesis of the American Civil Liberties Union. It spends more than $20 million a year to underwrite legal battles and train lawyers to push the country in socially conservative directions.
Founded in 1994 by Christian conservatives including James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family and William R. Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, the ADF has challenged same-sex marriage initiatives, stem cell research and rules that limit the distance protesters must keep from abortion patients. It helped the Boy Scouts ban gay Scout leaders.
Defining its latest mission, the ADF declared that pastors have "too long feared" the loss of tax exemptions.
"We're not encouraging any congregation to violate the law," Stanley said. "What we're encouraging them to do is exercise their constitutional right in the face of an unconstitutional law."
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wash. rampage suspect in court: ‘I kill for God’
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - "I kill for God. I listen to God," a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.
Isaac Zamora made the chilling comment twice at the brief hearing in Skagit County District Court while investigators wrapped up their work at eight crime scenes. The 28-year-old is being held on $5 million bail in the wake of Tuesday's rampage, which left six people dead and four injured.
District Court Judge Warren Gilbert read each charge and the penalties, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. That doesn't mean the death penalty is off the table, according to the Skagit County prosecutor.
"Do you talk about it? Sure you talk about it," Prosecutor Rich Weyrich told the Skagit Valley Herald. "Where it goes, it's way too early to decide that."
Zamora was not required to enter a plea Friday. The charges filed in District Court allow Zamora to be held in custody for 30 days. He will later be formally charged in county Superior Court.
A hearing has been set for Oct. 3.
Killing spree
The affidavit for probable cause, which details in support of the charges, remains sealed for 10 more days while the investigation continues.
The attacks began near Zamora's mother's home near the tiny town of Alger, 70 miles north of Seattle, and continued on Interstate 5. After a high-speed police pursuit, Zamora surrendered at a sheriff's office in Mount Vernon, about 20 miles south of Alger.
Among the dead was Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson, who had gone to check on Zamora after his mother called authorities.
Also killed were a man shot at the same location as Jackson; two male construction workers shot nearby; a 48-year-old woman found a few houses away; and a 64-year-old motorist killed along I-5 near a rest stop, authorities said. Two people were wounded near Alger — one by stabbing — and two were wounded on the freeway, including a state trooper.
Zamora, who has a long record of run-ins with the law, had been admitted several times to hospitals for mental health treatment and attempted suicide several times, his friends and family said.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Texas Court: Exorcism is protected by law
Texas justices throw out jury award after teenager alleged church ordeal
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that a lower court erred when it said the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God's First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion did not prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by a "hyper-spiritualistic environment."
Laura Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later experienced hallucinations after the church members' actions in 1996, when she was 17. Schubert said she was pinned to the floor for hours and received carpet burns during the exorcism, the Austin American-Statesman reported. She also said the incident led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric help.
But the church's attorneys had told jurors that her psychological problems were caused by traumatic events she witnessed with her missionary parents in Africa. The church contended she "freaked out" about following her father's life as a missionary and was acting out to gain attention.
Abuse and false imprisonment?
The 2002 trial of the case never touched on the religious aspects, and a Tarrant County jury found the Colleyville church and its members liable for abusing and falsely imprisoning the girl. The jury awarded her $300,000, though the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth later reduced the verdict to $188,000.
Justice David Medina wrote that finding the church liable "would have an unconstitutional 'chilling effect' by compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs."
But Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, in a dissenting opinion, stated that the "sweeping immunity" is inconsistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and extends far beyond the Constitution's protections for religious conduct.
'Intentional abuse'
"The First Amendment guards religious liberty; it does not sanction intentional abuse in religion's name," Jefferson wrote.
After the 2002 verdict, Pleasant Glade merged with another congregation in Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb.
A message left for the church's attorney Friday evening was not immediately returned, and calls to two numbers listed in Schubert's name went unanswered.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Faith-healing parents charged in baby's death
15-month-old girl died from untreated infection, authorities say
Mon., March. 31, 2008OREGON CITY, Ore. - A couple whose church preaches against medical care are facing criminal charges after their young daughter died of an infection that authorities said went untreated.
Carl and Raylene Worthington were indicted Friday on charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter Ava. They belong to the Followers of Christ Church, whose members have a history of treating gravely ill children only with prayer.
Ava died March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. The state medical examiner’s office has said she could have been treated with antibiotics.
Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner, said the child’s breathing was further hampered by a benign cyst on her neck that had never been medically addressed, The Oregonian reported.
Laws passed in the 1990s struck down legal shields for faith-healing parents after the deaths of several children whose parents were members of the fundamentalist church.
Since those laws took effect in 1999, “We haven’t seen any cases of significant medical neglect ... until now,” said child abuse Detective Jeff Green of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
The Worthingtons could face more than six years if convicted on the manslaughter charges and up to a year on the mistreatment charges, said Greg Horner, chief deputy district attorney. They were released on $250,000 bail, he said.
Horner said he didn’t know whether the couple had lawyers to speak for them. A number listed for the couple was disconnected. A man who answered the phone at the church Monday would not identify himself and said: “We’ve been told ’No comment.”’
The Worthingtons also lost a baby boy in 2001, but an investigation was closed after family members told police the child was stillborn. Several other Followers of Christ children have also been stillborn or died during home births in recent years, and none of the deaths resulted in criminal charges, authorities have said.
Behold the power of ignorance
Prayer for healing results in 11 year olds death...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wait for end of world wraps up early - Silly Fundies
MOSCOW - Seven women who had holed up in a cave for months with other members of a Russian cult awaiting the end of the world emerged Friday night and were being treated by emergency workers, regional officials said.
More than two dozen others remained behind but were expected to come out as early as Saturday, the governor's office said.
About 35 members of the Christian cult entered the cave near the village of Nikolskoye, 400 miles southeast of Moscow, in early November to await the end of the world, which they expected in May. They threatened to detonate gas canisters if police tried to remove them by force.
The vice governor of the Penza region, Oleg Melnichenko, said in televised comments that the seven women came out voluntarily, carrying satchels with their belongings. He said the cult leader, the self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov, was brought from a local psychiatric hospital to help persuade the women to leave.He said the women walked on their own nearly a mile to a prayer house, where emergency workers were talking with them, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
"There is no reason to urgently hospitalize any of them," Melnichenko was quoted as saying.
Four children still reported in cave
Another official in the governor's office, who gave only his first name, Alexander, said the other cult members still in the cave were expected to give up their vigil, perhaps by Saturday. He said four children, reportedly under age 2, were among those in the cave.
Melnichenko said officials feared that melting snow could eventually lead to the collapse of the cave, but there was no immediate threat to those who remained behind.
Officials had repeatedly enlisted the help of priests from the Orthodox Church in an effort to persuade the group to leave, communicating mainly through a small chimney pipe that poked up through the snowy hillside.
Earlier this week, Melnichenko told reporters that some of the cult members had indicated they might leave the cave on Orthodox Easter, which is April 27.
Leader in psychiatric hospital
Kuznetsov has been charged with setting up a religious organization associated with violence. Earlier this week, officials said they had seized literature that included what appeared to be extremist rhetoric. He has been confined to a psychiatric hospital since November.
An engineer from a devout family, Kuznetsov, who goes by the title of Father Pyotr, declared himself a prophet several years ago. He left his family and established the True Russian Orthodox Church and recruited followers in Russia and Belarus.
He reportedly told followers that, in the afterlife, they would judge whether others deserved heaven or hell.
Followers were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, Russian media reported.
CHILD EVANGELISM - SICK!!!
This film by BAFTA award-winning director Amelia Hann, follows these pint-size preachers as they go about their missionary work spreading the word to 'drunkards, adulterers and thieves' and uncovers the unsettling and often disturbing truth behind child evangelism.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Creationist “University” - Hovind's Alma Mater lol!!! Seriously
So where did you get your degree”
“At a small university. You probably haven’t heard of it”
“Oh really? Well, how small is it?”
“Um. About 50 feet wide by 75 feet long”
You may have heard of the “scientist” who has been pushing Intelligent Design “theory” for a while, Kent Hovind. Hovind has been one of the biggest supporters of the idea of Intelligent Design as a “science” and is known for operating Christian theme parks, television donation beg-a-thons and for promoting his claims that he has proven evolution wrong with his scientific research. Kent isn’t doing that at the moment however. He’s taking a break at the Edgefield US Federal Correction Institution until 2015, assuming he behaves himself, for tax evasion.
One thing worth noting: It’s actually somewhat rare in the United States to go to prison for simply not paying taxes. What the government really wants is you to pay up, so in most cases, the penalty leveled is restitution and possibly interest on unpaid taxes and fines. Generally, putting someone in prison isn’t really helpful to the tax man because it doesn’t allow the person to work and therefore pay their back taxes. Kent went to prison because he’s been pulling this crap since at least the early 1990’s and has also done some things to hide his assets. So, the whole “I’m sorry I don’t keep good records and my account didn’t tell me so please just let me pay the back taxes and this won’t happen again.” line has pretty much worn out it’s effectiveness on sympathetic judges.
But getting back to the topic I started out with…
Kent Hovind, or as he prefers to call himself “Doctor Kent Hovind Ph.D.” got his education at Patriot Bible University. Patriot claims to be a Christian university which specializes in Bible study courses and theology and also various science courses. The sceince courses, of course, are not religious but actual fact-based scientific pursuits.. It just so happens to be at a Christian school, but that’s no big deal because after all, Notra Dame is a Catholic university and nobody seems to claim their physics or chemistry department isn’t legit, right? sure…..
Well, as it turns out Patriot Bible University is primary an independent study and distance learning institution. There’s not really anything wrong with that, considering that such programs have proven their worth in providing a solid eduction to working adults or those who can’t travel through a combination of online courses, video lectures and supervised exams at local institutions. But, Patriot University is not actually accredited as a degree-granting university.
Actually, it’s not even recognized as a valid institution by any major educational body. It can’t even grant any kind of industry-recognized certification. That would tend to put it on the bottom of the heap in terms of “diploma mills,” most of them at least do a better job at pretending to be real.
They do however claim to be “Christian Accredited” which I guess means that Christ gave them the thumbs up. So if you call them into question, you’re actually assaulting the word of the risen lord and you’ll be turned into stone or get cudies and smell bad or something bad like that.
The “university” claims to have an annual graduating “class” of between 50 and 100, but of course, it is a small establishment which is committed to specialized areas of education and research. How small? Well, it can’t be that small, because the university president apparently lives on campus, as her private residence is actually the same address as the school. The photo below however proves that it was big enough for them to have the funds and space to erect a church-looking kinda thing on the side of it. It’s only two-dimensional, but who’s counting, right?
They do however have something of a parking lot (complete with trap rock grit to keep the dust from kicking up too much) and a concrete wheelchair ramp and stairs and such. They even have a commercial-grade streetlamp. So, that’s got to count for something. Oh and there’s a dumpster too, which coincidentally is a good place to put one of their degrees.
If you’d care to check it out you can always hit up Google Earth or Google Maps. The measurement tool puts the place at about 75 feet wide by about 50 feet deep, but that tool’s not always accurate so it might be as wide as 80 feet in reality.
The Address is:
Patriot Bible University
1135 French St.
Del Norte CO 81132
You can also find more info and get some more pictures here.
It’s on a lovely secluded road not far from a couple of trailer parks and a small housing development. There’s also a gas station just a little ways up the street! Apparently campus life and the university community are really hopping! The only problem is that apparently the University is under attack by the same forces that defamed poor Kent and oppose teaching of “the truth.” But they school assures us that they will prevail!
So there you go. If you want a degree and don’t want to actually learn anything this place might be the place to go. I remember being told a while ago that “too many students are just concerned with the reputation of a school and not with whether or not it’s the proper fit for them.” That might be a good statement in this case. Because if reputation means nothing to you and you’re an outright liar and federal convict, this school is a perfect match!
This blog was reposted from Depleted Cranium's blog.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Dangers of False Comfort - Everything's Cool
Everything’s Cool
Directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold
Working Films
2007, 100 minutes
Everything’s Cool, an award-winning documentary, is playing in New York and Los Angeles. If it’s not playing at a theater near you, find out how you can host a screening in your own community.
About the Film
After two decades of research, computer modeling, and miles of ancient glaciers melting away, most scientists around the world agree that human behavior is causing global warming and it is happening faster than ever anticipated. Policymakers around the globe are now more than ever looking incredulously at the United States and waiting for some action; if the U.S. as a nation and a government does not aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade, the problem of climate change will eventually dwarf all other economic and social problems. Inaction by the U.S. places everyone else on the planet in jeopardy.
The good news is that many leaders of the industrialized world are finally focusing on strategies for a low-carbon future. The bad news is that here in America, while Al Gore has certainly put a respectable dent in the impenetrable wall of American denial about climate change, there is still no federal strategy on the issue and the only energy bill on the table lavishes billions of dollars on the very industries that are the source of the pollution and problem. The people of the United States and millions of not-yet-born future citizens are in very deep trouble. Enter Everything’s Cool, a “toxic comedy” about global warming coming to America.
Filmmaker’s Statement
“For fifteen years now, some small percentage of the world’s scientists and diplomats and activists has inhabited one of those strange dreams where the dreamer desperately needs to warn someone about something bad and imminent; but somehow, no matter how hard he shouts, the other person in the dream—standing smiling, perhaps, with his back to an oncoming train—can’t hear him. This group, this small percentage, knows that the world is about to change more profoundly than at any time in the history of human civilization. And yet, so far, all they have achieved is to add another line to the long list of human problems—people think about global warming in the way they think about violence on television or growing trade deficits, as a marginal concern to them, if a concern at all.”—Bill McKibben, 2003
Posts
