The Church & the Paranormal on Coast to Coast AM

Charles A. Coulombe, "Catholic journalist and historian" tonight's guest on C2C.The Church and the Paranormal - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

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Saudi Arabia's War on Witchcraft - Ryan Jacobs - The Atlantic

Psychotic fanatics and their persecutions of all that's offensive:

Saudi Arabia's War on Witchcraft - Ryan Jacobs - The Atlantic: The Saudi government's obsession with the criminalization of the dark arts reached a new level in 2009, when it created and formalized a special "Anti-Witchcraft Unit" to educate the public about the evils of sorcery, investigate alleged witches, neutralize their cursed paraphernalia, and disarm their spells. Saudi citizens are also urged to use a hotline on the CPVPV website to report any magical misdeeds to local officials, according to the Jerusalem Post.

According to a director of the religious police's witchcraft division in Riyadh, the unit provides confidentiality to informants. "We deal with sorcerers in a special way. No one should think that we mention the name of whomever files a report about sorcery," Sheikh Adel Faqih told the Saudi Gazette. In 2009 alone, at least 118 people were charged with "practicing magic" or "using the book of Allah in a derogatory manner" in the province of Makkah, the country's most populous region.

Northern Territory government to repeal centuries-old witchcraft, tarot card law - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Northern Territory government to repeal centuries-old witchcraft, tarot card law - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): A recent review of the Territory's Summary Offences Act found a centuries-old law citing anyone caught conjuring spells or predicting the future could face one year in prison.

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 has been inherited from Britain and has since been repealed in most other parts of the Western world.

But Northern Territory Attorney-General John Elferink says a legal quirk meant it stayed on the Territory's statute books.

He says a year in prison is a pretty stiff punishment for a tarot card reader and has promised to finally repeal the legislation.

"This legislation was enacted because it was there essentially as a form of consumer protection," he said.

Tenn. judge changes infant's name from 'Messiah' - Yahoo! News

Surprised article didn't mention the legality of this in regards to the first name change. Does the judge have the legal right - - constitutional right -- to impose the name change? Is this a matter of freedom of religion issues? Parents are appealing.

Tenn. judge changes infant's name from 'Messiah' - Yahoo! News: NEWPORT, Tenn. (AP) — A judge in Tennessee changed a 7-month-old boy's name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and "that one person is Jesus Christ."

The riddle of the 'angel priest': Holy man appeared from nowhere to pray with trapped girl and rescuers in traffic accident, told them she would be OK and then vanished | Mail Online

The riddle of the 'angel priest': Holy man appeared from nowhere to pray with trapped girl and rescuers in traffic accident, told them she would be OK and then vanished | Mail Online: Pinned inside her mangled Mercedes, seriously injured and fading fast, Katie Lentz turned to her rescuers on the lonely open stretch of Missouri highway and asked them to pray.

Struck head-on by a drunk driver on Sunday morning, emergency workers had been battling for an hour and a half to free Lentz, but to no avail.

But as they joined hands a Catholic priest appeared, even though there were no bystanders and the road was blocked, who offered a prayer and an instruction to the rescuers that they would now be able to free her.

Suddenly, heavy equipment needed to cut through the metal arrived from a nearby town and Lentz was pulled from the wreck in time to be saved - but when they turned to thank the priest, he was gone.

When Christians Eat Their Own: 'Alabama state champion coach and AD fired for being a member of the wrong church"

Alabama state champion coach and AD fired for being a member of the wrong church | Prep Rally - Yahoo! Sports: While Phillips had never been forced to attend the school’s affiliated church when he was only a coach, that changed when he became the school’s athletic director. As confirmed by the Advertiser, East Memorial Christian Academy’s athletic director was expected to attend the East Memorial Baptist Church, even though there was allegedly not an official clause in the contract requiring such attendance.