From Mystic Politics: 'Why Can't the Mormon Church Stop Baptizing Anne Frank?'

Link and comments from one of my favorite blogs about the Mormons penchant for baptizing Anne Frank:Mystic Politics: Why Can't the Mormon Church Stop Baptizing Anne Frank?

"Monsignors' mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks - Yahoo! News

"Monsignors' mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks - Yahoo! News

Colin Andrews announced at the McMinnville UFO Festival two years ago that soon we'll be seeing these whistle blower type events unfold...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.

"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.

The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.

Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.

Among the heap of scandalous topics: Vatican and banks, over all corruption, "cronyism,"
the true "owners" of the Vatican, power plays. In other words, the usual.

Just For Fun...

Humanists seek Army designation | JournalNow.com

Humanists seek Army designation | JournalNow.com:

Soldiers who don't believe in God can go to war with "atheist" stamped on their dog tags, but humanists and others with various secular beliefs are still officially invisible in the Army.

Maj. Ray Bradley is currently to be the first humanist recognized as a "distinctive faith group leader" by the Army. In the meantime, he can't be designated as a humanist on his official records or dog tags, although he can be classified as an atheist.

The distinction may not seem like a large one to those unfamiliar with humanism, but Bradley, based at Fort Bragg, says it's the equivalent of being told that "Christian" is an acceptable designation, but not "Catholic."

"Humanism is a philosophy that guides a person," Bradley said. "It's more than just a stamp of what you're not."

Humanism's core beliefs range from the assertion that knowledge of the world is derived from observation and rational analysis to the conviction that working to help others also promotes individual happiness.

Philip Coppens: The Lies of Fatima

The following from Philip Coppens:The Lies of Fatima;The apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima in origin had nothing to do with prophecies or, indeed, the Virgin Mary. But through a series of manipulations, the Church created one of the most elaborate lies, which formed the backdrop of major political events.

The story of the BVM at Fatima contains numerous fascinating elements. One aspect of the story is the following concerning Lucia, who kept the "secrets" and lived the rest of her life in a convent. But this, Coppens suggests (and the facts support) wasn't due entirely to Lucia's devotion as a Catholic.

...shortly after the Fatima apparitions, she was forced into a convent (she was not a devout Catholic when the visions happened; her father was actually an atheist), sent to a nunnery where she could not communicate with anyone because language barriers, and was later placed in solitary confinement, to make sure she didn’t speak to anyone; access to Lucia required the consent of the highest Vatican circles and it was rarely granted. What Lucia desired, was therefore totally at the Pope’s discretion.

It's been suggested before, and Coppens discusses this in his article, that the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul ll in 1981 had something to do with the Fatima secrets. So much so that "the bullet was later set in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima."

But was the secret a true prediction of an assassination attempt, or manipulated revelations by the Vatican -- manipulated to the extent of holding prisoner a woman for just about her entire life? Coppens shows us how the latter seems to be the case.

Note: be sure to read Lon Strickler's piece about Philip's article at his blog Phantom and Monsters!

Mystic Politics: Google Removes Content After Complaints By Hindus, Muslims and Christians

Don't know what the content was, but apparently it didn't offend Jews, Buddhists, Wiccans, etc. Wonder what Google would have done in that case?Mystic Politics: Google Removes Content After Complaints By Hindus, Muslims and Christians

Philip Coppens: The Atheist Religion

One of my favorite thinkers in the area of aliens and philosophies, Philip Coppens, who writes about the religion of atheism, and why, despite the denial of atheists, theirs is a belief system. I'm not a Christian or subscribe to any particular religion -- don't believe in Jesus, for example -- but to say that I'm an atheist is wrong. Very wrong. I've been active in a Buddhist tradition lately, attending functions, etc. and am always about the solitary witchy thing but I'm not religious and I don't believe in a mono-theistic entity, unless you consider universal consciousness, manifested as everything, including us, as "God." And I'll throw in spirits and angels, why not. I've had direct experiences with those to know their reality. The atheists, like Bill Mahr and Ricky Gervais, who Coppens discusses, have the same kind of tunnel vision as religious nuts. While they often make pertinent points about various religions they can't step beyond the obvious: ridiculous rules and interpretations, harmful, violent and fatal behaviors to see that it isn't all about the stupidity and greed of humans. On the case