5 Reasons the Religious Right Should Stop Whining About Being Persecuted | | AlterNet

5 Reasons the Religious Right Should Stop Whining About Being Persecuted | | AlterNet:

I’ve been writing about the Religious Right for nearly 25 years now, and one thing that never ceases to amaze me is when the leaders or supporters of these organizations claim they are being persecuted. Really? In a country that has a strong Christian culture and where at least 75 percent of the population professes some form of Christianity, it would seem odd that Christians would be persecuted. Yet the claim is made, constantly.

Lawsuit over 'Jew or not Jew' iPhone app dropped after Apple removes it worldwide - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Lawsuit over 'Jew or not Jew' iPhone app dropped after Apple removes it worldwide - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

In context -- France's history with Jews, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, etc. -- understandable outrage. On the other hand, I remember playing "Jew not a Jew" as a kid, and dh and I still play it. It was with pride: Danny Kaye, Jew. etc. The app in question was developed by a Jew. Still, offense was taken, and app removed...

New Mass translation launches in American parishes - Yahoo! News

Quote of the day:

New Mass translation launches in American parishes - Yahoo! News:

"It's confusion. All it's doing is causing confusion," she said. "You want to go to church and be confused?"

Cross revealed inside tree trunk at church - ktla.com

Cross revealed inside tree trunk at church - ktla.com:

Landscapers chopping down a pine tree at an Escondido church discovered the shape of a cross throughout the trunk.

"I was like wow we stumbled on something here," said owner of Star Landscaping Jim Rants. "It's God and mother nature working together."

Pamela Anderson as Virgin Mary

On the surreal misogynist and throw back henryMakow.com the following:Pamela Anderson as Virgin Mary: Catholics Outraged

Controversial “anti-Semitic” vodka billboard taken down in NYC | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Controversial “anti-Semitic” vodka billboard taken down in NYC | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

A billboard for Wodka vodka in NYC has been taken down and destroyed after complaints that the advertisement's message is anti-Semitic. The New York Times reported that the billboard featured a long-haired dog wearing a yarmulke and another dog wearing a Santa hat with the words, "Christmas quality, Hanukkah pricing," alongside the photo.

Putin Confidant Brings Virgin Mary’s Belt to Moscow � Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

Putin Confidant Brings Virgin Mary’s Belt to Moscow: Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

(Thanks to The Daily Grail for link.)

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Could you tell the difference between an alien visitation and being touched by an angel?

Could you tell the difference between an alien visitation and being touched by an angel?

Not all alien visitations look like a giant saucer descending from the skies. Sometimes aliens just look like visitors of a different kind, as in this classic story by Pat Cadigan. The other day, we featured Cadigan's essay about loving the Other — now here's her story "Angel," as featured in the new anthology Alien Contact.

(thanks to Tina Sena for link)

Vatican takes legal action over Benetton pope kiss ad | Reuters

Vatican takes legal action over Benetton pope kiss ad | Reuters

The Vatican said on Thursday it would take legal action to stop the distribution of a photo montage in an advertisement by the Italian fashion firm Benetton showing Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth.A statement said the Vatican had told its lawyers in Italy and around the world to "take the proper legal measures" to stop the use of the photo, even in the media.

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB: In Search of the Divine Feminine

Via the blog Mystic Politics, this article on the Divine Feminine at Huffington Post:

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB: In Search of the Divine Feminine: Where does this notion of the Divine Feminine come from? Is the question of the Divine Feminine simply a current fad? A silly notion of even sillier feminists? Or could it possibly have deep and ineradicable roots in the tradition itself?

However much we mock the idea, the truth is, ironically, that every major spiritual tradition on earth carries within it, at its very center, in its ancient core, an awareness of the Divine Feminine. In Hinduism, Shakti -- the great mother, the feminine principle -- is seen as the sum total of all the life-giving energy of the universe. She is the source of all. In Buddhism, Tara is seen as the perfection of wisdom, and in Buddhism, wisdom is life's highest metaphysical principle! Tara is considered the light and the prime source of Buddhahood and so of all Buddhas to follow.

20 Most Evil People of the 13th Century CE | Francis of Assisi

Interesting, but both Jewish and Catholic bigotry. Who knew St. Francis of Assisi was Jewish, for example.20 Most Evil People of the 13th Century CE | Francis of Assisi

Giovanni Bernadone Morosini (Moriconi) (aka Francis of Assisi and aka Marino Morosini) was born in Paris as one of several children to powerful Jewish Sephardic Venetian trader/banker Pietro Bernadone Moriconi and Pica de Bourlemont from France.
The name "Francis" is a nickname and was never his proper name--simply meaning "Frenchman" -- on account of his birth in Paris. Similarly, "Assisi" is a deliberate corruption of the ancient word for the location Ascesi meaning "(he) has ascended". Therefore the fuller nickname "Francis of Assisi" properly translates to "the Ascended Frenchman".
And the rest at link.

Contrary to revised history, the Venetians had not yet seen any compelling reason to convert to Christianity until this period, so Giovanni was almost certainly Jewish. By the end of the 12th century, the Morosini family banking and trading empire in wool, fine cloth, salt and grain stretched from England to Constantinople. However, events leading up to the Treaty of Venice and the expulsion of Venetians from France in 1182 and Byzantine in the same year which ruined the family fortunes.

Young Women Nabbed In Bloody Satanic Sex Ritual | The Smoking Gun

In another news item, that I posted yesterday on Animal Forteana, the crimes were said to be partly inspired by the idea of invoking were wolf spirits. Here, in The Smoking Gun, more details, with the Satanic sex angle as focus: Young Women Nabbed In Bloody Satanic Sex Ritual | The Smoking Gun:

Two young Milwaukee women were arrested this week after an 18-year-old Arizona man--who traveled to Wisconsin by bus after meeting one of the suspects online--told cops that he was held captive in the duo’s apartment for two days and slashed and stabbed more than 300 times as part of an apparent satanic sex ritual.
A Milwaukee Police Department search warrant for the East Knapp Street apartment where the man was held details his ordeal. The warrant authorized cops to seize an assortment of items from the residence, including “knives or other cutting instruments,” blood and DNA evidence, duct tape, restraining devices, and “Books or literature relating to Satanism or the occult.”

Vatican tells Roman Catholic priests to spice up their sermons with scandal | Mail Online

Vatican tells Roman Catholic priests to spice up their sermons with scandal | Mail Online

Roman Catholic priests have been told to inject 'scandal' into their sermons by a senior official from the Vatican.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said priests needed to liven up their often 'dull' sermons with the scandalous parts from the Bible.

Cardinal Ravasi, the Vatican's most senior cultural officer, added that if priests did not change their ways sermons risked becoming 'irrelevant'.

Cardinal Ravasi is a possible candidate for the next Pope. Besides urging the use of scandals and spice, Ravasi thinks social media is a helpful tool to inspire:

"...congregations were 'the children of the television and the internet'. . . The advent of televised and computerised information requires us to be compelling and trenchant, to cut to the heart of the matter, resort to narratives and colour."

'We need to remember that communicating faith doesn't just take place through sermons. It can be achieved through the 140 characters of a Twitter message.'

Lastly, look within the Bible for spicy ingredients:

The Cardinal added that the Bible was 'crowded with stories, symbols and images.'

Indeed.

Vatican stunned by Irish embassy closure | Reuters

This is quite a big gesture out of Ireland: Vatican stunned by Irish embassy closure

Catholic Ireland's stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church's handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.

Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy in the Vatican.

In turn, the Vatican is "extremely irritated" by this action.

Devil found in detail of Giotto fresco in Italy's Assisi

Devil found in detail of Giotto fresco in Italy's Assisi - Yahoo! News

ROME (Reuters) - Art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in the clouds of one of the most famous frescos by Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, church officials said on Saturday.

The devil was hidden in the details of clouds at the top of fresco number 20 in the cycle of the scenes in the life and death of St Francis painted by Giotto in the 13th century.

The discovery was made by Italian art historian Chiara Frugone. It shows a profile of a figure with a hooked nose, a sly smile, and dark horns hidden among the clouds in the panel of the scene depicting the death of St Francis.

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Vatican and ETs | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.

Vatican and ETs | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.:

It has generally gone unnoticed in mainstream Catholic literature that over the last two decades or so, the Vatican has publicly turned its attention to the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects and the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life on other planets. It is known that both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI were given secret information about the existence of extra-terrestrial beings during their meetings with USA presidents, and maybe that is why the Vatican appears to be preparing itself to handle the biblical fall-out from the possible public disclosure of the reality of non-earthly intelligent entities.