Conservative Babylon

Reprinted with the kind permission of Tracie Harris.

Metro Weekly reports that Pat Robertson‘s theocratic ACLU knock-off, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), has fired senior counsel James Henderson “after reports surfaced on the Internet that he may have had romantic relationships with younger men.”

Bullet points from an aticle in the Patriot-Ombudsman flesh out Henderson’s “Apparent Double Life” — “Conservative Stalwart, Stood with Terri Schaivo‘s Parents … Defender of (more…)

Reprinted with the kind permission of Tracie Harris.

Backstory: “16 Amish Beard Cutters Convicted of Hate Crimes Against ‘Religious Enemies’,” September 22, 2012

TOLEDO, Ohio — Putting all of the Amish men and women convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish behind bars now during harvest season would create a financial hardship for their families and could leave their children hungry this winter, their lawyers said. …
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“You take the good, you take the bad, you take ‘em both and there you have: a washed up teen sitcom actress who finds God and loses her f—g mind.”

We couldn’t come up with a better lead-in for this story than the following post (“So, ‘The Facts of Life’ Boasts TWO Bigots Among Its Alumnae?”) from The Lavender Newswire, October 24, 2007 — which should explain why we’re experiencing a thoroughly unbecoming, off-the-scale amount of pure, unadulterated Schadenfreude at the news of the dissolution of Miss Whelchel’s ordained-by-God, better-than-gay marriage. (Embedded links may or may not still work.)
 
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Backstory:
• Black Collar Crime Round-Up, June 22, 2012
• ”Michael Salman: It Has Nothing to Do with ‘Religious Persecution’…,” July 12, 2012

Remember poor, persecuted little Christian martyr Michael Salman? He’s the radically anti-gay, anti-choice, divorced ex-convict and COGIC minister and pastor of his own in-home church, whose 60-day incarceration became a cause célèbre among those (including himself (more…)

Jury Convicts 16 Defendants on Federal Hate Crimes Charges for Religiously-Motivated Assaults on Members of Amish Community
September 20, 2012 — A jury in Cleveland today convicted 16 people, all residents of Ohio, of federal hate crimes arising out of a series of religiously-motivated assaults on practitioners of the Amish religion, the Justice Department announced.

The convictions stem from a series of separate hate-crime assaults that occurred in four Ohio counties between September and November 2011. In each (more…)

Lee McFarland is fused to Rick Warren‘s ample hip. He learned everything he knows about “church-building” from a seminar (at the “Purpose Driven Conference”) Warren led on the subject at his Saddleback Church; calls the Prop H8monger “buddy”; appears with (or for) Warren at panel discussions; calls Warren the person he admires most; records podcasts Warren plugs on his own blog; and he certainly shares with Warren a deep-rooted homophobia disguised as “compassion.”

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Video after the jump.

Backstory:
• “Jack Schaap Ousted from First Baptist Church of Hammond; Police, FBI Involved,” August 1, 2012
• “Jack Schaap: She Was 17; Church Bets On No Charges, Yet Criminal Investigation…,” August 1, 2012
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Backstory:

• “Jack Schaap Ousted from First Baptist Church of Hammond; Police, FBI Involved,” August 1, 2012

• “Jack Schaap: She Was 17; Church Bets On No Charges, Yet Criminal Investigation…,” August 1, 2012
 

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“We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”

Never mind that not all smart people are “elite,” nor all “elite” people smart — but at least he was right about never having smart people on the side of that reality-crippled parallel universe known as the Far Right. (more…)

Video after the jump.

So far, we think we know this much:

A nonprofit outfit* called “Media for Christ” in Duarte, California, makes anti-Islam film. Producer lies to actors about purpose of film, redubs dialogue.

Producer uploads clip to YouTube using fake name “Sam Bacile” (which, notes the Christian Science Monitor, “is strikingly similar” to the middle name of one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who denies directing the film, but says (more…)

“Without any immediately scheduled Congressional debates on social-issue legislation to energize its base, the Christian right has adopted President Bush’s messianic ‘struggle for civilization’ as a central feature of its culture war rhetoric going into the midterm elections. [Family Research Council president Tony Perkins] framed the issue by linking liberal evildoers with Islamic extremists, warning that ‘we are facing threats from within and from without.’ [Former FRC president Gary Bauer] described how the passengers of United Flight 93 heroically ran toward the cockpit on (more…)

Rampaging chimp video after the jump.

Some stories are just so bizarre on their own, we can’t think of a single witty remark to make them any richer — so we’ll just encourage you to read the stories below, and watch the rampaging-chimp video at the end.

First, check out this profile of the cast of characters (and we do mean characters) — Shirley Oyer and her sons, one who heads his own “United World Church” and claims to be John the Baptist (which Oyer herself apparently believes, (more…)

Seems unthinkable, doesn’t it? Typical of the AFA’s staunch protests against that most cherished value of separation of church and state is this rant from current AFA spokesmodel Bryan Fischer (you know, the one who thinks children being raised by gay parents should be kidnapped in order to “save” them): (more…)

“Typical of other morality crusaders, [Charles Keating] was morally bankrupt. He is nationally known not because of his views on pornography, but his 1992 conviction for swindling small investors of their money, in the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Keating received inappropriate loans, received compensation he was not rightfully entitled to, sold stock back to the company at inflated prices, spent company money on himself in inappropriate ways, and generally (more…)

“One of the many peculiarities is that millions of fundamentalist Christians consider themselves especially patriotic Americans, though in reality it is quite impossible to reconcile the views of the Founding Fathers with those of the Bible on a number of important questions.

“To give only a few examples:

“1. The Bible implies in many places the union of church and state, whereas the American system is based on the separation of church and state.

“2. The Bible generally teaches that civil power comes from God, whereas the Constitution asserts that it derives from the consent of the governed. (more…)

(And we think you think you’re being mighty cute ‘n’ clever by not mentioning any names in order to preserve your tax-exempt status.)

Tim Ruhl, pastor of Proposition 8-pushing, Hate Talk Express church Pleasant Valley Baptist (IFB, of course) in Chico, California — and father of alleged jailbait fondler (and former youth pastor) Jesse Ruhl — says: “You can take it a thousand ways.”

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Grant Storms — and if that doesn’t sounds like a porn name, we don’t know what does — was just sentenced to three years’ probation for wiggling his willy in a public park near a children’s playground.

Storms, who after his arrest said he knew what “hypocrisy” was, admitted on video that “the nature of” his “problem” was “pornography,” and publicly apologized to the gay community for being “proudful” [sic], “arrogant,” and “mean-spirited” in the wake of his efforts to shut down (more…)

Video after the jump.

If you don’t know the gut-wrenching story of Tina Anderson, read it here, and then watch the “20/20″ report — which we’ve posted before, but which deserves to be seen again — and again and again, until everyone knows all the secrets of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church: (more…)