What's happened so far in 2009?
December 2009
Oral Roberts dies at age 91. Here's my blog entry entitled Praise the Lord, but give your money to me.
Here's a fun one. Rick Warren gets his comeuppance, courtesy of Rachel Maddow, the smartest female TV host in America. Read all about it here...
A member of the Tea Party group shows that she wants to crap on the U.S. constitution by insisting that U.S. schoolchildren sing Christmas carols. Never mind if they're Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Buddhists, etc.
Nov. 4, 2009, Wednesday
Contrary to what some people may think, I'm not hostile to all religion. In fact, I put up a spirited defense of some believers here.
"Everything is OK until the apes stand up." Intrigued? Hint: It's about evolution.
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller (October 29, 2009)
October 22, 2009, Thursday
Christopher Hitchens has a new documentary, Collision, about his debates against fellow author, satirist and evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, as they go on the road to exchange blows over the question: "Is Christianity Good for the World?". It opened October 2009. The trailer ishere.
American Freethought has completed its summaries of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. We've listed the 13 chapters in our easy-to-read blog entry ...
... Now, a brief moment of levity, courtesy of Non Sequitur.
There was a harrowing tale in The Washington Post about a Korean-American teenager who died in what police are now describing as an exorcism rite. Do you know that "it's extremely for murder or manslaughter charges to be filed in relation to religious rituals"? Ergo, you can claim that your crime was part a religious ritual and get away with practically anything. More in our blog ...
October 17, 2009, Saturday
The most e-mailed article in the New York Times today was A Mother, a Sick Son and His Father, the Priest. It's about a Franciscan priest who fathered a son with a woman who had come to him for marriage counseling. The Franciscans required her to sign a confidentiality agreement, but she's willing to break it now that she and her son are battling cancer. There's more ...
October 3, 2009, Saturday
"A charmer" of a movie: The movie The Invention of Lying stars Ricky Jervais(BBC's "The Office") as a poor loser schmuck living in a parallel universe where everyone tells the truth. Down on his luck, he "invents" lying (he tells a bank teller that he has $800 in his account and she promptly gives him the cash) and inadvertently taps into "the fundamental human need for cosmic reassurance." Bonus: Tina Fey and Rob Lowe have cameos. The Washington Post gave it 4 stars. The movie review is here and the trailer is here.
New poll, surprising numbers: 27% of Americans said they don’t practice any kind of religion, a Parade magazine article says. There's more ...
October 2, 2009, Friday
Shtetl on the Prairie: The movie A Serious Man, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a shaggy dog story about a man named Larry Gopnik. A lot of bad things is about to happen to Larry (who like the Coen brothers is of Midwestern Jewish background) for no apparent reason. What is a movie review doing on a blog about religion, you ask? "(The Coen brothers) insistence on the fundamental absence of a controlling order in the universe is matched among American filmmakers only by Woody Allen," says the New York Times reviewer. The trailer is here.
September 9, 2009 (Washington Post)
Opposition to Health-Care Reform Revives Christian Right.
September 8, 2009
August 31, 2009 (Washington Post)
This is suppose to be a religious blog, but politics keeps intruding. It's very creepy. The latest political gaff comes from Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. In his master's thesis for the evangelical Regent University, he criticized working women, birth control for unmarried couples and much more.
August 29, 2009
Jason T. Berggren, a devout Christian, a former pastor and a former heavy-metal Christian rocker has written a book entitled "10 Things I Hate About Christianity." Our blog has the list!
August 25, 2009 (Washington Post)
The paintings of Maqbool Fida Husain, hailed by many as India's Picasso, are not being shown in India because hard-line Hindus are incensed that some of his work depicts Hindu goddesses in the nude. I don't get this. India art is chock-full of nude goddesses.
August 21, 2009
August 23 is Go Topless Day in several U.S. location! The event is being sponsored by Rael, the founder of the largest UFO religion in the world. Our blog has the story.
August 21, 2009 (New York Times)
Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers.
August 20, 2009 (Bloomberg)
A 32-year-old Muslim woman (left) will be caned six times for drink a beer in Malaysia. Her father would like it done in public to serve as an example.
August 19, 2009 (Telegraph)
The burquini has been banned from the northern Italian town of Varalo Sesia by the towns anti-immigrant mayor. Wearing the burquini can lead to a fine.
August 15, 2009
Prosperity gospel preacher, Kenneth Copeland, is still raking in about $100 million a year. So much for that 2007 senate investigation. See our blog for the story.
August 13, 2009 (Washington Post)
August 12, 2009
It's been 40 years since the summer of 1969. Woodstock, Vietnam, Charles Manson, the moon landing, the Stonewall Riots. Enough already! See our blog for a not so nostalgic look at 1969.
August 12, 2009 (New York Times)
The Yale University Press is publishing a book entitled, TheCartoons That Shook The World. It's about the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that lead to riots and the death of 200 people. Missing from the book will be the cartoons or any images of Muhammad. Click here to see the cartoons. They are all over the Internet.
Aug 8, 2009
A demographic time bomb is ticking away in Israel. It's going to get ugly. See our blog for the story.
August 6, 2009
August 4, 2009 (Yahoo News)
Supporters of Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers, demonstrate outside the court in Khartoum.
August 3, 2009
Doonesbury takes on the Family! Click here to read about the family. Go to our blog to see the cartoon. New links will be added daily.
August 2, 2009 (New York Times)
More than 700 people were killed during a five-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria.
August 1, 2009 (New York Times)
Days of rioting between Christians and Muslims in eastern Pakistan, over allegations that a Koran was defiled, escalated Saturday, leaving six Christians dead, including four women and a child.
July 31, 2009
A 7-year old Utah boy stole the family car to avoid going to church. I know how you feel kid. Link to video of car chase.
July 31, 2009 (New York Daily News)
Madonna, the material girl, wrote a first person article for Israel's biggest newspaper about her devotion to Kabbalah and her spiritual awakening.
July 31, 2009
Reverend Ike dies at the age of 74. He was one of the greatest televangelist of his generations. Nobody could get people to open up their wallets like the reverend. See our blog.
July 31, 2009 (Chronicle)
A federal appeals court reversed a lower court's ruling that barred a Santeria priest from sacrificing goats in his Texas home, saying a city's decision to prohibit the ritual violated the man's religious rights.
July 30, 2009 (Washington Post)
A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms. (This is the first bit of news I have found on the Quakers).
July 30, 2009 (Pew Forum)
The Pew Forum surveyed Mormons (see link). It's an interesting look at
Mormon demographics, beliefs and social and political views.
July, 30, 2009
Do you like conspiracy theories? This ones is for real and it's very creepy. Read about The Family on our blog.
July 27, 2009 (ABC News)
An Episcopal ministers embraces Islam and gets defrocked. And I use to think Episcopalians were dull. The above link has a video.
July 25, 2009 (Washington Post)
Earlier this month former President Jimmy Carter wrote about how religion is used to justify discrimination against women and girls. The link has a panel discussion.
July 24, 2009
A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex (one girl was nine years old). See our blog for the story.
July 24, 2009
The grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin, has been caught in a money laundering scheme. See our blog.
July 23, 2009 (Washington Post)
A breakaway American Mormon clan living in Mexico simply wants to practice a little polygamy and grow pecans, but their way of life has been shattered by Mexican drug lords.
July 23, 2009 (Washington Post)
The U.S. Agency for International Development funded programs that rebuilt Iraqi mosques and used biblical lessons to promote sexual abstinence in Africa, despite a prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds to support "inherently religious activities".
July 22, 2009
Sudhus, or religious holy men, watch the solar eclipse through specially designed viewing glasses in Allahabad, India. It was the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century.
July 21,2009
Has the Catholic Church taken a page from the play book of the Protestants? See our blog.
July 20, 2009
Why do religious-theme TV shows keep crashing and burning? See our blog for the answer to this burning question.
June 16, 2009
Why is the fat man laughing? The best religion in the world award? Not! Read more on our blog.
July 15, 2009
Advice for atheists from Miss Manners? Why not! Read her excruciating correct advice on our blog.
July 15, 2009 (New York Times)
The bishops of the Episcopal Church voted to open “any ordained ministry” to gay men and lesbians, a move that could effectively undermine a three-year moratorium on ordaining gay bishops. Update! The archbishop of Canterbury, said the world’s 77 million Anglicans (including Episcopalians) could divide their church into a “two-track model” yielding “two styles of being Anglican. July 28, 2009 (NY Times)
July 15, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)
The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state's social studies curriculum. Three conservative reviewers have recommended a curriculum that emphasizes the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history.
July 13, 2009 (New York Times) the link has a slide show
The Ganesha Hindu Temple in Flushing, Queens was reconsecrating after a $4 million renovation. The five day ceremony involved an elephant, a cow and specialized priests flown in from India. Spectacular ceremony guys but you have to do something about the name of the ritual. Maha kumbhabhishekam is a bit long.
July 10, 2009
President Obama met Pope Benedict today. Obama had an easier time with the pope than he has had with cardinals and bishops in the United States. More on our blog.
July 10, 2009 (NY Times)
Somali Islamist fighters beheaded seven prisoners accused of abandoning the Muslim faith and spying for the government in the largest mass execution since the Islamists were pushed from power two and a half years ago.
July 10, 2009 (Telegraph)
In an attempt to beef up business in Spain, Burger King created a poster with the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, getting ready to devour a big beef whopper. Eating beef is offensive to the world's 900 million Hindus. Burger King pulled the poster and apologized. (The poster reads: The snack is sacred).
July 10, 2009 (Wiki)
Happy Birthday John Calvin! Had he lived he would have been 500 today. Calvin was a major player during the Protestant Reformation and the principle figure in the development of the Christian theology later called Calvinism.
July 9, 2009
Geneticist Francis Collins has been nominated to head the National Institute of Health. Collins is an accomplished scientist, a proven administrator, articulate
and an Evangelical Christian. It's that last one that is going to attract a lot of attention. More on our blog.
July 9, 2009
Another generational pig is making its way through the python. Gen Y (echo boomers, millennial generation) are coming of age. If past trends hold up, they will have a profound impact on religion, society and the economy. See our blog for more.
July 7, 2009 (Reuters)
Pope Benedict signs an encyclical titled "Charity in Truth." It calls for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and said profit was useful only if it served as a means to a brighter future for all humanity. Good luck with this one.
July 6, 2009
Hallelujah! President Obama has finally chosen a church. Or has he? See our blog for the story.
July 6, 2009 (BBC News)
About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible, the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus, are on the Internet (link). The manuscript lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844.
July 7, 2009 (Politico)
A vendor holds a button depicting Ghana's President John Atta Mills, and President Barack Obama prior to Obama's visit.
July 2, 2009
So hunger can be a positive motivator for children? Missouri state representative and Christian bookstore ownerCynthia Davisthinks so. Stephen Colbert weighs in on our blog.
July 2, 2009
Has President Obama picked a church? This story is more interesting than it sounds. See our blog for details.
July 1, 2009
Does religion make you fat? Our blog has the amazing story.
June 2009 events
May 2009 events
April 2009 events
March 2009 events
December 2009
Oral Roberts dies at age 91. Here's my blog entry entitled Praise the Lord, but give your money to me.
Here's a fun one. Rick Warren gets his comeuppance, courtesy of Rachel Maddow, the smartest female TV host in America. Read all about it here...A member of the Tea Party group shows that she wants to crap on the U.S. constitution by insisting that U.S. schoolchildren sing Christmas carols. Never mind if they're Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Buddhists, etc.
Nov. 4, 2009, Wednesday
Contrary to what some people may think, I'm not hostile to all religion. In fact, I put up a spirited defense of some believers here.
"Everything is OK until the apes stand up." Intrigued? Hint: It's about evolution.
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller (October 29, 2009)
October 22, 2009, Thursday
Christopher Hitchens has a new documentary, Collision, about his debates against fellow author, satirist and evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, as they go on the road to exchange blows over the question: "Is Christianity Good for the World?". It opened October 2009. The trailer ishere.American Freethought has completed its summaries of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. We've listed the 13 chapters in our easy-to-read blog entry ...
... Now, a brief moment of levity, courtesy of Non Sequitur.
There was a harrowing tale in The Washington Post about a Korean-American teenager who died in what police are now describing as an exorcism rite. Do you know that "it's extremely for murder or manslaughter charges to be filed in relation to religious rituals"? Ergo, you can claim that your crime was part a religious ritual and get away with practically anything. More in our blog ...
October 17, 2009, Saturday
The most e-mailed article in the New York Times today was A Mother, a Sick Son and His Father, the Priest. It's about a Franciscan priest who fathered a son with a woman who had come to him for marriage counseling. The Franciscans required her to sign a confidentiality agreement, but she's willing to break it now that she and her son are battling cancer. There's more ...
October 3, 2009, Saturday
"A charmer" of a movie: The movie The Invention of Lying stars Ricky Jervais(BBC's "The Office") as a poor loser schmuck living in a parallel universe where everyone tells the truth. Down on his luck, he "invents" lying (he tells a bank teller that he has $800 in his account and she promptly gives him the cash) and inadvertently taps into "the fundamental human need for cosmic reassurance." Bonus: Tina Fey and Rob Lowe have cameos. The Washington Post gave it 4 stars. The movie review is here and the trailer is here.New poll, surprising numbers: 27% of Americans said they don’t practice any kind of religion, a Parade magazine article says. There's more ...
October 2, 2009, Friday
Shtetl on the Prairie: The movie A Serious Man, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a shaggy dog story about a man named Larry Gopnik. A lot of bad things is about to happen to Larry (who like the Coen brothers is of Midwestern Jewish background) for no apparent reason. What is a movie review doing on a blog about religion, you ask? "(The Coen brothers) insistence on the fundamental absence of a controlling order in the universe is matched among American filmmakers only by Woody Allen," says the New York Times reviewer. The trailer is here.
September 9, 2009 (Washington Post)
Opposition to Health-Care Reform Revives Christian Right.
September 8, 2009
August 31, 2009 (Washington Post)
This is suppose to be a religious blog, but politics keeps intruding. It's very creepy. The latest political gaff comes from Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. In his master's thesis for the evangelical Regent University, he criticized working women, birth control for unmarried couples and much more.
August 29, 2009
Jason T. Berggren, a devout Christian, a former pastor and a former heavy-metal Christian rocker has written a book entitled "10 Things I Hate About Christianity." Our blog has the list!
August 25, 2009 (Washington Post)
The paintings of Maqbool Fida Husain, hailed by many as India's Picasso, are not being shown in India because hard-line Hindus are incensed that some of his work depicts Hindu goddesses in the nude. I don't get this. India art is chock-full of nude goddesses.
August 21, 2009
August 23 is Go Topless Day in several U.S. location! The event is being sponsored by Rael, the founder of the largest UFO religion in the world. Our blog has the story.
August 21, 2009 (New York Times)
Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers.
August 20, 2009 (Bloomberg)
A 32-year-old Muslim woman (left) will be caned six times for drink a beer in Malaysia. Her father would like it done in public to serve as an example.
August 19, 2009 (Telegraph)
The burquini has been banned from the northern Italian town of Varalo Sesia by the towns anti-immigrant mayor. Wearing the burquini can lead to a fine.
August 15, 2009
Prosperity gospel preacher, Kenneth Copeland, is still raking in about $100 million a year. So much for that 2007 senate investigation. See our blog for the story.
August 13, 2009 (Washington Post)
A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial trumpets to ward off swine flu. Click here for an interesting video.
August 12, 2009
It's been 40 years since the summer of 1969. Woodstock, Vietnam, Charles Manson, the moon landing, the Stonewall Riots. Enough already! See our blog for a not so nostalgic look at 1969.
August 12, 2009 (New York Times)
The Yale University Press is publishing a book entitled, TheCartoons That Shook The World. It's about the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that lead to riots and the death of 200 people. Missing from the book will be the cartoons or any images of Muhammad. Click here to see the cartoons. They are all over the Internet.
Aug 8, 2009
A demographic time bomb is ticking away in Israel. It's going to get ugly. See our blog for the story.
August 6, 2009
August 4, 2009 (Yahoo News)
Supporters of Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers, demonstrate outside the court in Khartoum.
August 3, 2009
Doonesbury takes on the Family! Click here to read about the family. Go to our blog to see the cartoon. New links will be added daily.
August 2, 2009 (New York Times)
More than 700 people were killed during a five-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria.
August 1, 2009 (New York Times)Days of rioting between Christians and Muslims in eastern Pakistan, over allegations that a Koran was defiled, escalated Saturday, leaving six Christians dead, including four women and a child.
July 31, 2009
A 7-year old Utah boy stole the family car to avoid going to church. I know how you feel kid. Link to video of car chase.
July 31, 2009 (New York Daily News)
Madonna, the material girl, wrote a first person article for Israel's biggest newspaper about her devotion to Kabbalah and her spiritual awakening.
July 31, 2009
Reverend Ike dies at the age of 74. He was one of the greatest televangelist of his generations. Nobody could get people to open up their wallets like the reverend. See our blog.
July 31, 2009 (Chronicle)
A federal appeals court reversed a lower court's ruling that barred a Santeria priest from sacrificing goats in his Texas home, saying a city's decision to prohibit the ritual violated the man's religious rights.
July 30, 2009 (Washington Post)
A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms. (This is the first bit of news I have found on the Quakers).
July 30, 2009 (Pew Forum)
The Pew Forum surveyed Mormons (see link). It's an interesting look at
Mormon demographics, beliefs and social and political views.July, 30, 2009
Do you like conspiracy theories? This ones is for real and it's very creepy. Read about The Family on our blog.
July 27, 2009 (ABC News)
An Episcopal ministers embraces Islam and gets defrocked. And I use to think Episcopalians were dull. The above link has a video.
July 25, 2009 (Washington Post)
Earlier this month former President Jimmy Carter wrote about how religion is used to justify discrimination against women and girls. The link has a panel discussion.
July 24, 2009
A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex (one girl was nine years old). See our blog for the story.
July 24, 2009
The grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin, has been caught in a money laundering scheme. See our blog.
July 23, 2009 (Washington Post)
A breakaway American Mormon clan living in Mexico simply wants to practice a little polygamy and grow pecans, but their way of life has been shattered by Mexican drug lords.
July 23, 2009 (Washington Post)
The U.S. Agency for International Development funded programs that rebuilt Iraqi mosques and used biblical lessons to promote sexual abstinence in Africa, despite a prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds to support "inherently religious activities".
July 22, 2009
Sudhus, or religious holy men, watch the solar eclipse through specially designed viewing glasses in Allahabad, India. It was the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century.
July 21,2009
Has the Catholic Church taken a page from the play book of the Protestants? See our blog.
July 20, 2009
Why do religious-theme TV shows keep crashing and burning? See our blog for the answer to this burning question.
June 16, 2009
Why is the fat man laughing? The best religion in the world award? Not! Read more on our blog.
July 15, 2009
Advice for atheists from Miss Manners? Why not! Read her excruciating correct advice on our blog.
July 15, 2009 (New York Times)
The bishops of the Episcopal Church voted to open “any ordained ministry” to gay men and lesbians, a move that could effectively undermine a three-year moratorium on ordaining gay bishops. Update! The archbishop of Canterbury, said the world’s 77 million Anglicans (including Episcopalians) could divide their church into a “two-track model” yielding “two styles of being Anglican. July 28, 2009 (NY Times)
July 15, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)
The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state's social studies curriculum. Three conservative reviewers have recommended a curriculum that emphasizes the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history.
July 13, 2009 (New York Times) the link has a slide showThe Ganesha Hindu Temple in Flushing, Queens was reconsecrating after a $4 million renovation. The five day ceremony involved an elephant, a cow and specialized priests flown in from India. Spectacular ceremony guys but you have to do something about the name of the ritual. Maha kumbhabhishekam is a bit long.
July 10, 2009
President Obama met Pope Benedict today. Obama had an easier time with the pope than he has had with cardinals and bishops in the United States. More on our blog.
July 10, 2009 (NY Times)
Somali Islamist fighters beheaded seven prisoners accused of abandoning the Muslim faith and spying for the government in the largest mass execution since the Islamists were pushed from power two and a half years ago.
July 10, 2009 (Telegraph)
In an attempt to beef up business in Spain, Burger King created a poster with the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, getting ready to devour a big beef whopper. Eating beef is offensive to the world's 900 million Hindus. Burger King pulled the poster and apologized. (The poster reads: The snack is sacred).
July 10, 2009 (Wiki)
Happy Birthday John Calvin! Had he lived he would have been 500 today. Calvin was a major player during the Protestant Reformation and the principle figure in the development of the Christian theology later called Calvinism.
July 9, 2009
Geneticist Francis Collins has been nominated to head the National Institute of Health. Collins is an accomplished scientist, a proven administrator, articulate
and an Evangelical Christian. It's that last one that is going to attract a lot of attention. More on our blog.July 9, 2009
Another generational pig is making its way through the python. Gen Y (echo boomers, millennial generation) are coming of age. If past trends hold up, they will have a profound impact on religion, society and the economy. See our blog for more.
July 7, 2009 (Reuters)
Pope Benedict signs an encyclical titled "Charity in Truth." It calls for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and said profit was useful only if it served as a means to a brighter future for all humanity. Good luck with this one.
July 6, 2009
Hallelujah! President Obama has finally chosen a church. Or has he? See our blog for the story.
July 6, 2009 (BBC News)
About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible, the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus, are on the Internet (link). The manuscript lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844.
July 7, 2009 (Politico)
A vendor holds a button depicting Ghana's President John Atta Mills, and President Barack Obama prior to Obama's visit.
July 2, 2009
So hunger can be a positive motivator for children? Missouri state representative and Christian bookstore ownerCynthia Davisthinks so. Stephen Colbert weighs in on our blog.
July 2, 2009
Has President Obama picked a church? This story is more interesting than it sounds. See our blog for details.
July 1, 2009
Does religion make you fat? Our blog has the amazing story.
June 2009 events
May 2009 events
April 2009 events
March 2009 events
February 2009 events
January 2009 events
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