The Vatican Arrested a Feminist Activist for Kidnapping Baby Jesus - Mic

Bare breasts, kidnapping baby Jesus, and caped Vatican police.

The Vatican Arrested a Feminist Activist for Kidnapping Baby Jesus - Mic: Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the woman, Ukrainian citizen Iana Aleksandrovna Azhdanova, stands accused of vilification of religion, obscene acts in public and theft. A Vatican policeman stopped Azhdanova, who had "God Is Woman" written on her bare chest, after she seized the statue of the Christ child and attempted to make off with it shortly after Pope Francis had finished reading his Christmas greeting to the faithful assembled. The policeman attempted to cover Azhdanova with his cape with mixed success. (More importantly, please take a moment to appreciate the fact that Vatican police wear capes!)

Ohio homeowner told to take down his zombie nativity scene | Fox News

Fox news

The Religious Taste Police in Ohio are highly offended:

Ohio homeowner told to take down his zombie nativity scene | Fox News: An Ohio homeowner was ordered by town officials to remove a Nativity scene in front of his house that featured zombies instead of wise men and a baby Jesus.

Town officials will take "legal action" if owner doesn't take it down. Not sure what legal action that might be; freedom of speech and all that.

Vatican Observatory & ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

Tonight's Coast to Coast : Vatican Observatory and ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM. Host George Knapp, who is one of the best!

Always love it when we get the Pope, Vatican, and UFOs all in one...

Florida School Board Blocks Bible Distribution After Satanists, Atheists Demand Equal Time

While an Atlanta, GA school is giving away Bibles,(link in post below) a Florida school does some backpedaling after Satanists take advantage of their rights:

Florida School Board Blocks Bible Distribution After Satanists, Atheists Demand Equal Time: A school board in Florida is moving to ban the distribution of Bibles and other Christian materials after a satanist group requested to distribute its literature.

Orange County Public Schools decided last week to adjust its "passive distribution policy" so that no religious materials, Christian or satanic, can be put in public schools.

School's Bible Giveaway Prompts Threat of Lawsuit

Atlanta, elementary school gives out Bibles:

School's Bible Giveaway Prompts Threat of Lawsuit: According to an 11 Alive Atlanta story, Jessica Greene was alarmed when her fifth-grade son Leo brought home a brand new Gideon Bible on Thursday. “I was just shocked that the school system would do that,” she told 11 Alive. “I tried to contact the superintendent. He has not returned my call.” According to Leo, “We were in class, our teacher said that these people had volunteered to hand out Bibles, and she said there’s going to be a line in the library.” Students were then given a choice to either take a bible or not, he said. Leo took one. But one child who chose not to, according to FFRF’s letter, “was teased and ostracized and forced to defend herself by saying that she ‘believed in God, but in a different way.’”

Russian Orthodox Priest Seeks to Outlaw “Neo-Pagans” | The Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt reports on the following efforts to outlaw paganism in Russia. Scary how paganism is considered as heinous as Nazism.

Russian Orthodox Priest Seeks to Outlaw “Neo-Pagans” | The Wild Hunt: MOSCOW –An influential figure in the Russian Orthodox Church has said he’d like to see “neo-paganism” made illegal in that country. In remarks at the international congress of Orthodox youth, as reported by Interfax, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin declared, “Let’s say that three things – Wahhabism, Nazism and aggressive neo-paganism – should be removed from the country’s life at the level of the law. Let’s not try to be friends with any of that.” (via The Wild Hunt)

McMass wants to put McDonald's in a church - LA Times

McMass wants to put McDonald's in a church - LA Times: Would you be more inclined to go to church if services came with a Big Mac and a side of fries? That's the idea behind McMass, a group whose goal is to put a McDonald's franchise in a church.  The group, led by Paul Di Lucca, a creative director at the church branding agency Lux Dei design, has launched a page on the IndieGoGo crowdfunding site. He's looking to raise $1 million to build the first McDonald's church.

News - Some say Virgin Mary, others say Jesus: Mystery image grows on Iowa tree - The Weather Network

You say potato… Jesus, Mary, ??? Actually it does look very holy like:



News - Some say Virgin Mary, others say Jesus: Mystery image grows on Iowa tree - The Weather Network



Related: this excellent 2007 piece by Richelle Hawks on Marian images in a Utah tree. 

‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins’: Patti Smith invited to perform at Vatican Christmas concert! | Dangerous Minds

Patti Smith (of whom I am a fan)  will sing at the Vatican. It is indeed a surreal world.

‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins’: Patti Smith invited to perform at Vatican Christmas concert! | Dangerous Minds: You have to commend Pope Francis for his good taste in music—it’s been announced that Patti Smith is slated to perform at the Vatican Christmas Concert in Rome—but you have to wonder if he’s ever heard The Patti Smith Group’s cover of “Gloria”?

You read that right, the poet/singer who shocked an entire nation nearly forty years ago singing “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” on Saturday Night Live back in 1976 was asked to take part in the festivities at the Auditorium Conciliazione on December 13th after Pope Francis personally invited her, according to The International Business Times.

Student Omits ‘Under God’ From the Pledge of Allegiance, School Vindictively Lowers His Grades | Americans Against the Tea Party

Student Omits ‘Under God’ From the Pledge of Allegiance, School Vindictively Lowers His Grades | Americans Against the Tea Party







Very disturbing story of a high school student who refused to include the words "under God" when he lead students in the pledge. School authorities have found themselves a loophole by saying the student wasn't punished because he refused to say the pledge "properly" but because he refused to do his assignment. Uh huh.



He got detention, his grade was lowered, and he is being threatened with more punishment if he doesn't say the pledge.

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TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists

TIME magazine has apparently has a nasty and stupid article on witches:

TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists: In a piece entitled, “Why Witches on TV Spell Trouble in Real Life,” TIME writer Jennifer Latson suggests that this revived interest in witchcraft is “mere silliness” at best and a sign of troubled times at worse. In the article, much to the offense of pagans and witches everywhere, Latson quotes history professor, Emerson Baker, in this amazingly offensive passage.

“Witches, like terrorists, threaten to wipe out everything you believe in. If they could, they would overthrow your government, overturn your faith, and destroy your society.” (Inquisitir, October 28, 2014)

Very sad and stupid.

Vatican & ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

This Sunday's Coast to Coast: Vatican & ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

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Witches, pagans and Wiccans in Alabama: A growing culture and a struggle for acceptance | AL.com

Nice and interesting article on pagans and wiccans in Alabama:

Witches, pagans and Wiccans in Alabama: A growing culture and a struggle for acceptance | AL.com: "In Alabama, marriage equality isn't as scary as paganism," Darksbane says. "I am more readily accepted for being gay than for being a witch."

"Once when I was dressed [like a witch], a woman came up to me at a restaurant and said, 'I wish I could drag you out in the street and beat you to death.' I said, 'Do you not realize how un-Christian that sounds?'" 

Mad World NewsMuslim Woman Forced to Remove Her Face Veil In Public, Didn't End Well

Mad World NewsMuslim Woman Forced to Remove Her Face Veil In Public, Didn't End Well: Cast members performing the opera La Traviata “objected strongly” to the presence of a woman in the audience wearing a niqab-type veil, who was seated in the front row. A singer didn’t spot the woman until the second act of the show, which was when several performers said they didn’t want to sing until she was removed from the Bastille Opera house, according to the Daily Mail.

The show’s director Jean-Philippe Thiellay confirmed the woman was kicked out of the venue, a move supported by France’s ban on Muslims covering their face in public. The law has been in effect in the socialist country since 2011.

Muslim women who reside in and around Paris found in violation of the law are typically given a fine; however, this is the first known incident of someone being ejected from an artistic venue. Thiellay said the security guard told the offender that in France there is a ban of this nature, before he asked her to either uncover her face or leave the auditorium.

Seems bigoted, sure, but turn it around… just think what it'd be like for say, a westerner living in some Muslim countries? And one as always, has to question why Muslims -- or any religious group at all --  who adhere to their traditions so strongly are both surprised at the responses of others to that adherence, and why they have chosen to live in a country not "theirs" or not overall welcoming of their conformist natures to their traditions?

 

'Godless' Churches Open Doors

'Godless' Churches Open Doors: Apparently, atheists are yearning for their crack at potluck dinners and picnics: There's no church in the traditional sense, and no steeple, but what opened its doors in Rochester, NY, this past Sunday is no less than an atheist church. Dubbed the Sunday Assembly, the group skipped the pastor and the choir and got the church party started with what the Democrat and Chronicle calls "an upbeat, rock band rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Man in the Mirror.'" In the hourlong, laid-back service that followed, the group of 50 or so congregants focused on the theme of "wonder" via pop songs and a speech by a local education professor.

And you thought Unitarians were on the fence...