Political Bill Must Be Paid

Dobson Takes
GOP to Task
by Conrad F. Goeringer
from TheistWatch by American Atheists

May 5, 1995

The Republican party is "insulting" Christians, according to James Dobson, the Christian conservative president of Focus on the Family. In a letter sent on May 1 to Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican National Committee, Dobson claimed that 43 percent of the votes for Republican nominees in the 1994 election were from "evangelical Christians" -- and that bill had to be paid.

The letter was sent in response to a recent fund appeal letter distributed by the Republican National Committee which included voter survey on various issues such as economics and taxation. What's wrong with that? According to Dobson, "Virtually none of the items dealt with the great moral issues of our time."

Saying that it was "simplistic" to think that voters find economic issues to be the most pressing concern, Dobson attacked "safe-sex ideology," "homosexuality in the military, the killing of unborn babes, fetal tissue experimentation, and the assignment of women to combat situations."

But most important of all, according to Dobson, is that voters "want religious liberty restored to the nation's schools, and they demand the right to acknowledge God in the public square." The last was an obvious reference to the proposed "religious liberty amendment" which purports to "guarantee" students the right to pray in school. Alienating even 5 percent of such voters, Dobson warned, "could prove fatal in 1996."

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Circumcision Continues
Despite Condemnations
by Chuck Shepherd

January, 1997

Despite increasing worldwide condemnation of so-called female circumcision in certain areas of Africa, an organization called the the Bondo Society (described in a Reuters news report as a "powerful women's secret society") in Freetown, Sierra Leone, arranged for the unanesthetized clitoral removals from about 600 girls in a homeless persons' labor camp.

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"Antichrist" Time Warner
Publishes Bennett Book
by Conrad F. Goeringer

June 10, 1995

Despite charges that Time Warner is the antichrist of the communications and entertainment industry, we see that one beneficiary of the company is right-wing "Kultur Czar" William Bennett.

The former secretary of education has a best-seller out, "The Book of Virtues," a blend of post-Elbert Hubbard aphorisms mixed with religious detritus.

His latest venture, "The Children's Book of Virtues" is about to be the main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, something that will bring at least six figures into Bennett's personal bank account.

Not bad, especially considering that BOMC is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Wonder if he'll keep such tainted money.

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Falwell Denounces
Operation Rescue Group
by Chuck Shepherd

see also abimalox.htm Sturges

March, 1998

Rev. Flip Benham of the Operation Rescue anti-abortion group protested that the bookstore at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, is managed by indicted child pornographers, referring to the chain Barnes & Noble, which runs the store and was recently indicted in Tennessee and Alabama for selling books by prominent photographers that featured photos of nude children.

"It's a bald-faced lie," said Falwell. "I don't know who [the Operation Rescue people] are, but I wish they'd stop calling themselves Christian leaders."

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Lawbreaking Christians
Stimulate Sales of
Jock Sturges' Works
by Woody Johnson

October, 1997

Dallas -- Four fundamentalist Christian protesters were arrested after they entered a bookstore and destroyed several copies of a collection of art photography by Jock Sturges that includes pictures of nude children. Christians also vandalized books by Sturges in New York City, Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, Independence, Missouri and other cities.

James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, and Randall Terry, former head of Operation Rescue, organized the campaign, which targets Barnes & Noble stores that sell Sturges' work. The men insist the photos are child porn. However, to encourage people, over the airwaves, to break the law is, in itself, against the law.

Meanwhile, the publicity created such a demand for the Sturges' books that the publisher, Aperature, couldn't keep up with orders.

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Library Vandal
Still Busy
by Chuck Shepherd

November, 1997

The Dayton Daily News reported that a vandal operating in local libraries is still on the loose after two years of incidents. The vandal targets books that, as he once wrote, are "an affront to public decency [and that] corrupt young children," such as those on homosexuality or the United Nations, and smears them with human feces.

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"Luck"? "God"?
What about skills?

Track Team
Abandons Mascot
by Cliff Walker
from various sources

February, 1984

The high school track team in Utica, Michigan, bowing to pressure from a minister and a few parents, has agreed to end its alleged idol worship. The idol was an 18-inch-high ceramic figure of a rotund Oriental man, picked up years ago by the school's track coach. The team quickly adopted it as a mascot, and the students would dance and chant around it before sporting events.

The minister thought the use of the statue, called Ho Tai, taught trust in luck instead faith of in God.

The coach maintains that Ho Tai "has nothing to do with our undefeated record last year." We can only hope that skill and dedicated work get the recognition they deserve in public schoools, and that success will not be attributed to "luck" or "God."

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Cal Thomas:
Government is
God's Agent
by Conrad F. Goeringer

May 16, 1995

A recent article in Harper's (March, 1995) titled "Reactionary Chic" lists a disturbing quote by popular conservative-religionist Cal Thomas whose column appears in hundreds of newspapers throughout the country.

Says Thomas: "If we will not be constrained from within by the power of God, we must be constrained from without by the power of the State, acting as God's agent."

'Nuff said.

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What Next?
A Toe Reader!?
by Chuck Shepherd

June, 1997

Netherlands native Imre Somogyi told an audience at a book festival in Chicago that he was the world's first toe reader. In the course of promoting his book, "Reading Toes: Your Feet as Reflections of Your Personality," Somogyi told one New York woman that the inward turn of her right small toe indicated she was likely "to turn away from the subject," according to a Reuters news report. Somogyi said 70 percent of his clients are women: "Women are very open. Men hide their toes."

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Jews Spurn Coffins
to Help God
by Conrad F. Goeringer
from TheistWatch by American Atheists

March, 1995

According to a report from Reuters, coffins are rarely used in Jewish burials in Israel. Bodies are merely wrapped in sheets and wheeled to their graves on hospital-type gurneys.

The rabbis explain that this way the bones can rise unimpeded on the Day of Redemption.

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Evangelical Christians
Are Sexually Active
by Woody Johnson

March, 1984

Researchers at the University of Denver have released the first major survey on the sexual behavior of single evangelical Christians. The survey indicates that strict taboos on masturbation, petting, and premarital intercourse are, for the most part, being disregarded by church members.

Questioning the churchgoing members of several conservative denominations, the study determined that:

The researchers found indications of "considerable conflict in many devout Christians" over sexual matters. They think many Christians are resolving this tension "in the direction of more liberal sexual attitudes."

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Monsignor Dodges
Rape Convictions
by Chuck Shepherd

June, 1997

Trial testimony in Providence, Rhode Island, against retired Roman Catholic Monsignor Louis Ward Dunn, a woman who claimed to have been raped by him in 1965 when she was 18 said she initially did not believe Father Dunn's advances were sexual. She said Father Dunn had asked her to remove her blouse, which she did, and that he had spread talcum powder over her breasts, and that the two of them then killed a bottle of wine, but, she said, "I did not consider that sexual in any way."

Dunn was acquitted of that rape charge. However, the next week, he was found guilty of raping another woman and called by the judge "a sexual predator," but in August the judge granted him a new trial in that case.

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Church Absolves Itself
of Responsibility
by Cliff Walker
from various sources

August, 1997

Dallas, Texas -- A familiar pattern: At first the Church overlooks it. Later, when found out, the Church maintains it was the parents' fault. Now, after losing in court, the Church wants the public to pick up the tab (in this case, in the form of insurance premiums).

A jury ruled that the Roman Catholic diocese committed "gross negligence" by not taking action sooner against a priest who sexually abused at least 11 boys over ten years. The jury awarded the families a total of $119.6 million.

In response to the judgement, Monsignor Robert Rehkemper resigned in August, telling reporters that the incidents weren't entirely the fault of the priest or the diocese: "I don't want to judge [the kids' parents] one way or another, but it doesn't appear they were very concerned about their kids." In other words, the parents were more responsible than the Church because they should have known their kids were being abused. He also opined that once a kid reached age 6 or 7, he should have known that sex with the priest was wrong and reported it.

Now, the diocese has filed a suit against two insurance companies that refuse to pay the jury award. According to "National Underwriter" magazine, many insurers now decline to cover churches for sexual misconduct judgments and others have lowered the limits on what they will pay.

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"Family Values"
Champion Begins
Divorce Proceedings
by Conrad F. Goeringer
from TheistWatch by American Atheists

May 4, 1995

TV evangeloid Robert Tilton -- the guy who lived a "Rich and Famous" life-style and quickie-prayed over stacks of prayer requests from followers -- used to thunder on and on about family values.

Now he has ditched wife #1 in divorce proceedings and has hooked up with Leigh Valentine who has her own thriving ministry.

Perhaps Tammy Faye Bakker started a trend?

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Suserstitious Prime
Minister Resigns
by Chuck Shepherd

August, 1997

Beleaguered Thai prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, acting on advice from his new fortune teller, shuffled his cabinet to make it more "5"-friendly. According to Bangkok's The Nation newspaper, Chavalit began to schedule events at :15 past the hour, changed to jersey number 45 on his soccer team, and moved into a new house whose street address is 555.

Also during the summer, the leading drafter of Thailand's new constitution announced himself to be a "6" man who artificially split one of the 335 proposed articles so there would be 336 and who formerly said he was a "9" man, having set up the drafting committee with 99 members.

Chavalit resigned in November, 1997.

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Where Church Equals State

Iran Censors
Michael Douglas Film
by Conrad F. Goeringer
from TheistWatch by American Atheists

May 16, 1995

On Thursday, May 11, Iranian television broadcast the 1979 movie "Running" starring Michael Douglas. But seventy minutes into the film, it was suddenly replaced with a dead screen, followed by nature shots accompanied by violin music. An exciting program about polio vaccinations came on after that, and finally an announcer who declared: "Good evening, dear compatriots, we regret we are unable to proceed with our feature film due to a problem in broadcasting it."

What happened?

Seems that "Running" featured people doing just that, but they happened to be wearing shorts and sleeveless tops and some of the runners were female. Turns out that exposed female limbs are against Islamic fundamentalist mores, which explains the notorious "wearing of the veil."

Don't look for "Deadly Intentions" on Iranian TV anytime soon.

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Where Church Equals State

Chechens Beat Their
Women Without
Touching Them
by Chuck Shepherd

September, 1997

From an interview by a Russian weekly magazine with the chairman of Chechnya's Islamic Supreme Court, as reported in The Economist:

Interviewer: "[Chechnya's president] has said that touching a woman is, for Chechens, the worst crime of all. Even when doing traditional dancing, the Chechen male must not touch his female partner. But under sharia [Muslim] law, [as punishment] you beat young girls and cut their hair off."

Supreme Court chairman: "We don't beat them with our bare hands. We use sticks."

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Jimmy Carter Asks
God to Defeat Gingrich,
Sway Elections
by Conrad F. Goeringer
from TheistWatch by American Atheists

May 4, 1995

Former President Jimmy Carter is back in the act asking his god for partisan political help. According to a press release from Carter Center, the former president said that he had beseeched his deity "that people like Newt Gingrich would be defeated and Democrats would win the election in a proper way."

God must be a Republican now, or a wimp, considering the outcome of the November voting.

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