Gloria's Oversexed Mind

The rift in the Episcopal church over homosexual clergy continues to widen with this latest development in Kansas.

Kansas Episcopal church plans to separate

The largest parish in the Episcopal diocese of eastern Kansas plans to separate from the national Episcopal Church in part because of the ordination of an openly gay bishop.

The Christ Episcopal Church of Overland Park announced its separation plan on Sunday.

In 2003 the church withheld some of its financial commitment to the Episcopal diocese to protest the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson, who lives with his same-sex partner in New Hampshire....

March 9, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kind of sobering to think that homosexuality may split this church apart permanently.

That is the power of sex.

Sex drives wedge in Anglican ranks

....Thirty-five primates representing 77 million Anglicans have asked the North American churches to quit a key representative body until 2008 and explain their attitudes toward gays.

Conservatives from the Sydney diocese are among church leaders to have demanded the North American churches repent and withdraw their sanctioning of blessings of gay unions and the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

A communique published yesterday after four days of wrangling in Northern Ireland also calls on leaders to use their influence to enforce "a moratorium on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions and on the consecration of any bishop living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage".

The move in effect buys the church more time to resolve the acrimonious debate over gay bishops but offers little succour to progressives in the church....

March 1, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sex and fraud woe for Greek church

Greece's Orthodox church, buffeted by sex and corruption scandals, met in emergency session yesterday amid lurid claims that have included one newspaper publishing photographs of a 91-year-old bishop naked in bed with a nubile young woman.

Scrambling to resolve the worst crisis in the church's modern history, the embattled spiritual leader, Archbishop Christodoulos, convened the rare meeting as allegations of skulduggery, sexual improprieties, trial rigging, drug and antiquities smuggling engulfed the institution....

Greeks have watched dumbfounded as allegations of their priesthood's dissolute lifestyle have unfolded on their television screens.

Snatched tape-recordings, aired nightly, have revealed rampant homosexuality among senior clerics who, unlike ordinary priests, are under oaths of chastity.

The alleged debauchery has not been limited to monastic cells. Last week, claims emerged that Metropolitan Theoklitos of Thessaly, a leading churchman, had been arrested on suspicion of drug dealing in a police raid on a notorious nightclub in Athens.

The priest was reportedly rounded up with Seraphim Koulousousas, the archbishop's former private secretary, also implicated in another "unholy affair" involving gay sex with a bishop.

In a setback for Archbishop Christodoulos, Mr Koulousousas announced this week that he was leaving the church to embark on a career as a fashion designer in Paris.

The Greek Orthodox church sees homosexuality as an "abomination," with the archbishop recently describing it as a "blatant, crying sin...."

February 22, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

U.S. Catholic Church Sees 1,092 New Sex Abuse Claims

The U.S. Roman Catholic Church received 1,092 new claims of priest sexual abuse last year and paid more than $157 million to deal with them, according to an audit of the pedophile scandal released on Friday.

"The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over," Kathleen McChesney, head of the U.S. church's Office of Child and Youth Protection, told reporters.

"What is over is the denial that this problem exists, and what is over is the reluctance of the church to deal openly with the public about the nature and extent of the problem."

This audit, the second report on the church response to the pedophile scandal that erupted in 2002, was made public four days after one of the most notorious pedophile offenders, defrocked priest Paul Shanley, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for raping a boy in the 1980s....

Of the 1,092 allegations reported in 2004, most involved incidents between 1965 and 1974, McChesney said.

The charges involved at least 756 priests and deacons, and the vast majority of victims -- 78 percent -- were male. Most were between the ages of 10 and 14 when the abuse began....

February 19, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Papal fixation with sex upsets priests

Most of Melbourne's Catholic priests are more disturbed by the Pope's attitude to sex issues than by unmarried couples or homosexuals living together, according to a leading Melbourne priest.

They believe the Pope's "excessive" devotion to Mary undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that bishops are out of touch and "under the thumb of Rome", according to Father Eric Hodgens of St Bede's in North Balwyn.

Writing in the independent internet magazine OnlineCatholics, he says that older priests ordained between 1955 and 1975, who form up to 70 per cent of the Melbourne total, "do not like the strong personality cult of the Pope and resent the bishops' sycophantic style of quoting him incessantly".

"Most of them are no longer committed to the old taboos on sexuality. Most do not believe that couples living together are doing something very wrong," he says. "Most are happy to have homosexual couples living lives of commitment. They find the Roman heavy insistence on these issues obsessive and wonder why...."

February 4, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A chilling, fascinating view inside a Christian evangelical group.

Murder-Suicide Brings Scrutiny to Church

BLYTHE, Calif. - The crewcut young man stares into the video camera and recites a plan to kill his mother, her husband — and anybody else affiliated with The Family International, a church with roots in the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Between expletives, he vows revenge for physical and sexual abuse he claims was inflicted on him, his sister and "thousands" of other children by older members of an organization with communal homes scattered worldwide.

"Anger does not begin to describe how I feel about these people," says Ricky Rodriguez, who loads bullets into a handgun and admiringly strokes a hunting knife. "I've seen how ugly humans can get."

Hours later, Rodriguez — groomed to inherit leadership of The Family, a church once known as the Children of God — would stab to death a prominent former member in Arizona, then drive to this California desert town and shoot himself in the head.

The murder-suicide earlier this month has refocused attention on a group accused of rampant sexual, physical and psychological abuse of child members from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.

"They've left a trail of broken minds and bodies," said Daniel Roselle, a former member from Los Angeles...

For an independent history of the Church, read The Family, at UVa's library. Or see below:

"About the Family" on religioustolerance.org

Church Beliefs

....Sexual enjoyment, from masturbation to intercourse is considered a gift of God. It is an activity that is to be thoroughly enjoyed as a major focus of one's life.

They believe that Jesus had sexual relations with Martha and Mary.

Some members believed in "the Gabriel doctrine" that the angel Gabriel engaged in sexual intercourse with Mary at the time of Jesus' conception.

The Holy Spirit is perceived as feminine in nature, and is referred to as a "Dream Queen" or "Holy Queen of Love"...

January 27, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A very interesting article about Jews in the SM scene and rabbinical attitudes towards BDSM.

The ties that bind

After 5000 years of persecution, you'd think we'd be sick of it: name-calling, whips and chains, submitting to dominance. We Jews ought to be pretty over that whole scene by now. And we are -- until it comes to the bedroom door. Most sex experts estimate that ten to fifteen percent of sexually active adults regularly go in for kinky sex -- and much as our rabbis might prefer to keep it under wraps, the tribe fits right into that kink-inclined population.

Jews who like it a little different have been going public lately, coming clean about their interest in the intertwined cultures of sadomasochism, bondage, and leather play. Many express this by joining fetish groups: some general interest, some drawn together precisely because of a shared affinity for knishes and kreplach. At this past November's Fetish Fair Fleamarket, an annual event in Boston that brings together BDSM leaders, practitioners, and the just plain curious, one of the most popular discussion sessions was "Birds of a Feather" -- a space for Jewish conference participants to discuss pressing issues like how to reconcile traditional Jewish views of sexual behavior with an active BDSM lifestyle....

January 24, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

A fascinating, in-depth report about a conference called to address the ideological conflicts between Jewish orthodoxy and the field of psychology.

Psychology and orthodoxy seek common ground

.....The controversy started when psychologist Michal Ferenz spoke about a case she treated in her work at the Shilo Institute. A religious woman of 28 asked for her help in informing her parents that she was living with a female partner. In the course of their conversations, it developed that her father used to beat her as a child and that her father was himself a battered child. The grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, had convinced his son that the mitzvah of "honor thy father" obligated him to accept the beatings; the father tried in his turn to convince his daughter of this, but she responded differently than he had, drew away from men and developed a sexual tendency toward women. Ferenz, a religious psychologist, said that she had not tried to persuade her client to alter her sexual behavior.

Her remarks caused a tumult in the hall. Rabbi Yitzhak Shilat, one of the heads of a hesder yeshiva , asked Ferenz if she also "suggested to her religious patients that they eat pork or altogether abandon the religion." Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, head of the Ramat Gan Yeshiva, said, "The rabbis face a difficult struggle with psychologists" and that "the question that needs to be discussed is how to prepare psychologists to give backing to the Torah truth behind which we stand." It was untenable, he said, for a psychologist to come to a yeshiva high school and say, as he claimed had happened at one of the yeshivas, that "masturbation is normal....."

January 17, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I blogged last week that the Lutheran church was preparing a revised policy on gay clerics and parishioners. The results have been announced, to mixed reviews. Excerpted below are the key features of their new policy on homosexuals.

If you'd like to read the complete report, visit the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Lutheran gay policy: Same but different

....The task force, charged with taking on the issue of sexuality in the church, recommended Thursday that:

• The church keep its policy against gay and lesbian clergy with partners but allow leeway in choosing whether to discipline such ministers and congregations that approve their employment.

• The church "continue to respect" the bishops' statement against same-sex ceremonies. Local bishops would give pastors and congregations discretion in ministering to same-sex couples.

• Lutherans should concentrate "on finding ways to live together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements."

In an interview after the recommendations' release, Nebraska Bishop David deFreese emphasized the latter point....

January 17, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lutherans ready to reveal study on stance toward gays

It's an anxious time for many Chicago Lutherans as they await the results this week of a three-year study on sexuality that examined whether their denomination should change its stance on the ordination of homosexuals and blessing of same-sex unions.

At the denomination's Chicago headquarters Thursday, leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will announce what actions a 14-member task force on sexuality will recommend the 5 million-member denomination take at its biennial Churchwide Assembly in August.

"People feel like what the church decides may threaten our unity as a congregation, and people feel like they are being asked to make a personal decision as the church is making an organizational decision," said the Rev. Collette Broady-Preiss, pastor of Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Beverly. "It creates a lot of anxiety and fear...."

January 11, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of my pet peeves is that when someone who commits a crime is known to be kinky or gay, his or her sexual identity becomes the scapegoat: it was the perversion that made him (or her) do it.

Yet lthere's been a gruesome trend in America: Christian moms who kill their children, believing that it is what God wants them to do. And this week, we have another good Christian, Lisa Montgomery of Kansas, who killed a pregnant mother and cut the baby out of her body.

If the last five baby-killers in the news were sadomasochists or swingers, it's obvious how media would report the crimes and what church leaders and politicians would be saying. If the baby-killers frequented gay or lesbian bars--and not the Sunday services and church functions these women attended--the hate speech would fly. Yet here we see a frightening pattern of religious delusion driving women to commit the ultimate crime and no one is making a peep about it.

Below, a provocative article from the Houston Chronicle, which pleads for a more humane and rationale approach to sentencing the mentally ill. Although it alludes to the religious connection, the paper leaves that political hot potato alone.

Mad moms, insane law

At a time when I should be thinking about a particular Madonna and child, I find myself preoccupied with Andrea Yates.

And three other Texas women since Yates who, like her, killed their babies after a history of mental illness....

• Andrea Yates killed her five children in 2001. She had been repeatedly hospitalized for depression. A psychiatrist who saw her after her fourth birth described her as one of the sickest people he had seen. She called the police on herself, and said she killed the children after conversations with Satan because it was the only way to guarantee heaven for them and protect them from her inadequacies as a mother.

• Lisa Diaz of Plano killed her two children, 3 and 5, in 2003. She had repeatedly sought medical help for terminal illnesses she did not have. She said she killed her children, and then repeatedly stabbed herself in an attempted suicide, to save them from evil spirits and terminal diseases that she thought she had given them. A jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

• Deanna Laney of Tyler killed two sons and maimed a third in 2003, then called 911. She said God told her to do it to test her faith. Even the prosecution's expert psychiatrist said she was legally insane. A jury found her not guilty.

• Earlier this year, Dena Schlosser of Plano killed her 10-month-old son, then called her husband to tell him what she had done. She belonged to a fundamentalist sect. When police arrived, a hymn was playing in the background and a Bible was open in her bedroom. She told a police officer she "felt like I had to" kill the baby. The night before, she told her husband she wanted to "give her child to God," according to police....

These cases have several things in common.

They involve horrible homicides of small children. The women have histories of psychiatric illnesses. The women made no attempt to escape responsibility for their acts, none of the deception that denotes most crimes....

And they all involve religious extremism.

December 20, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Pizza courier 'targeted' Amsterdam sex zone

Justice authorities arrested a Moroccan man last month after receiving a tip-off that Islamic extremists were allegedly planning an attack on the Red Light District in Amsterdam, it was reported on Friday.

The pizza-delivery courier allegedly conducted reconnaissance of the capital's prostitution zone while riding through the area during work hours on his scooter. He was arrested on 5 November. Newspaper De Telegraaf described him as a "radical Moroccan pizza deliverer."

....emails warned that "terrorists in Amsterdam East" were plotting an attack on the Wallen area in Amsterdam, De Telegraaf reported. Muslim extremists, the paper said, were allegedly furious at the lack of morals in the prostitution zone....

December 14, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another sad sign of our times.

Methodist Church Defrocks Lesbian Minister

The United Methodist Church defrocked a lesbian minister who lives with her partner Thursday for violating the denomination's ban on actively gay clergy — the first such decision by the church in 17 years.

A 13-member jury made up of Methodist clergy convicted the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud on the second day of her church trial. Methodist law bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from ministry. Nine votes were necessary for a conviction and the jury voted 12-1 to find Stroud guilty.

It then voted 7-6 to defrock Stroud, the bare majority necessary in the penalty phase of the trial, though her supportive congregation in Philadelphia has said Stroud can continue performing most of her duties....

The last time the 8.3 million-member denomination convicted an openly gay cleric was in 1987, when a New Hampshire church court defrocked the Rev. Rose Mary Denman....

December 3, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oy vey.

Religious fanaticism is really becoming the rage.

Sex and the City star gets cover-up in Israel

Jerusalem, November 24: Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker's fashion sense raised the ire of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel who demanded that billboards featuring the actress in a skimpy dress be covered up.

Photos of Parker lying in a skin-revealing, spaghetti strap gown were pasted on billboards across Israel promoting Lux soap.

But ultra-Orthodox Jews took offence at the sight of Parker's arms, back, shoulders and even a little thigh....

November 25, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Although this practice was once celebrated in Hindu art and romanticized in books and films, it has in fact represented a nightmare for women. Girls are recruited early in life and trained to become temple women, who are "picked by goddess, dedicated to men"...and exploited by religious fanatics.

'Divine' sexual exploitation continues: NHRC

Women belonging to the socially underprivileged classes continue to face sexual exploitation under an archaic Hindu system, abolished decades ago by the government.

A National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report on prevention of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes found that the tradition of divine prostitution, popularly known as the Devdasi system, was still alive in many parts of the country.

The decadent custom under which girls are offered as dedications to temples to propitiate the deity "is far from dead; the dedication ceremonies have shifted from main temples to the house of priests or smaller temples with no publicity and fanfare", the report stated.

Once offered to the temples, these girls are considered the wife of the presiding deity or more simply public property. They live in temples and can be used by men, usually belonging to caste Hindus, as they like and whenever they like....

In some cases, Devdasis are also pushed into brothels.....

"Recently, a tribal girl who was ordered by the village community into prostitution as a result of violation of some customs was reported. The girl later committed suicide," it went on to say, but did not give details of where and when the incident occurred.

The NHRC report, however, said the Devdasi system was still prevalent in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and the northeast despite the respective governments undertaking rehabilitation programmes for the those who had been liberated....

October 28, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some people really like their vegetables.

A devotee to the Chinese Shrine of Jui Tui in Phuket, Thailand, has his face pierced with a host of kitchen knives as he and others prepare to take part in the annual Vegetarian Festival Wednesday, Oct. 20. 2004. Ritual Vegetarianism in Phuket traces it roots back to the early 1800's. The festival begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts for nine days. Participants in the festival perform acts of body piercing as a means of shifting evil spirits from individuals onto themselves. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

You might be wondering--knives?? Power tools? What's next? How about a bicycle? Check out Yahoo's slideshow and you will never complain about your silly little titty piercing again.

OWWWWW.

October 21, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Don't know if you've been tracking this story but it's been a fascinating historic episode in Western religion. The Anglican (known as Episcopal in the US) Church has been bitterly torn over homosexuality in the wake of the US and Canadian diocese's acceptance of same-sex marriage and openly gay clergy. Abroad, particularly in Africa, clergy have been outraged at the growing permissiveness. The political rifts within the Church have reached crisis proportions. Now, at last, the Church's leaders (in the UK) have come out with a harsh judgment for North America: they must cease to welcome gays in their pulpits or at their altars.

Coming at this moment in history, when US relations with the rest of the world is in transition, and with turmoil in other churches on the same core social value--how established religious institutions adapt to changing sexual mores--this event is bound to have innumerable and as yet unpredictable repercussions.

Anglicans Urge Ban on Gay Marriage, Gay Bishops

LONDON (Reuters) - Anglican leaders, striving to stop their loose association of churches falling apart, urged North American Episcopalians on Monday to ban same-sex marriages and the consecration of gay bishops.

They said liberal North Americans had "broken the bonds of communion" by approving gay unions and ordaining Gene Robinson, a homosexual divorced father of two, as bishop of New Hampshire.
They asked the liberals, based in Canada and the United States, to apologize for their actions and to promise it would not happen again -- at least for now.

In a further fillip to church conservatives, the Anglican hierarchy proposed an Anglican Covenant, a statement of faith which would stress the common identity and shared beliefs of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

Frank Griswold, leader of the 2.3 million U.S. Anglicans -- known as Episcopalians -- gave the report a cool welcome, noting that it strove for a "containment of differences."

"However," he added in a statement, "Unless we go beyond containment ... we will do disservice to our mission...."

African Anglicans applauded the church for its decision to reprimand the liberals....

"Homosexual behavior is deviant, unbiblical, un-Christian and unnatural," said Archdeacon Oluranti Odubogun, Secretary General of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, the African church's most strident anti-gay voice.

British gay rights campaigners were dismayed by the proposal for a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex marriages.

Leading gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell described it as "undisguised homophobia more typical of a fascist party than a supposedly Christian organization.....

October 19, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I can't say I'm a regular reader of Catholic World News, but one of their editorials caught my eye..and drove my eyebrows clear to my hairline.

Satiation Therapy is, at best, a controversial type of therapy. Like its kissing cousin--Aversion Therapy--it's never been proven successful with pedophiles or other sexual predators. Indeed, these therapies may exacerbate the underlying emotional problems that drive people to commit the crimes in the first place. Personally, I consider these therapies to be sheer quackery. The notion that you can "cure" sexual identity is in itself preposterous. Criminal sex is not so much a sexual problem as a personality problem: dig into any sex criminal and what you find is that the sexual issues are only one small piece of a much larger disorder.

Meanwhile, the notion that priests would be sexually intimate with a sexual predator is so morally offensive that I can't imagine why the Church would not immediately oust these persists. By engaging in sex with an offender, all they have done is perpetuate his own twisted notions of right and wrong and the pathological attitudes towards sex and intimacy. Sadly, after such priestly ministrations, it is not that surprising to me that Nolin ended up committing an even more heinous crime.

The healing ministries

A Cape Cod jury has convicted gay rapist Paul Nolin of murdering 20-year-old Jonathan Wessman last September. So ends one chapter of a story so grotesque in its details as to be improbable in fiction. A brief review:

In 1982, Nolin kidnapped a 10-year-old boy from a playground, tied him up with a belt, raped him, and left him lying naked in the woods.

At the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous, Nolin was "treated" by Fr. Donald Turlick, a priest on leave from the Diocese of Bridgeport, who employed Satiation Therapy, whereby the patient is made to masturbate in response to normal stimuli until ejaculation, then forced to continue masturbation while fantasizing about paraphilic images.

Turlick commenced a sexual relationship with Nolin -- attested to by guards, prisoners, and other therapists -- smuggled him contraband gifts of condoms, silk pajamas, and gold chains, and then testified at a 1995 hearing in Suffolk Superior Court that Nolin was no longer "sexually dangerous." Nolin was released in 2000 and came to live in Fr. Turlick's home on Cape Cod.

Turlick introduced Nolin to another promiscuous gay priest on Cape Cod, Fr. Bernard Kelly, who not only employed Nolin as a parish handyman and catamite, but rewrote his own will so as to make Nolin the heir of a $1.4 million horse farm and half of his remaining estate. Kelly was later found to have embezzled funds, perhaps as much as $800,000, from his Woods Hole parish.

On September 20, 2003, Nolin beat and knifed Wessman to death, then parked his vehicle at Fr. Kelly's rectory with his permission, next ditched Wessman's car and asked another friend, Shawn Shirmer, to give him a ride home. Shirmer admitted he too was sexually intimate with both Kelly and Nolin and that the priest had occasionally given him money for yard work....

October 8, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Minister avoids jail in sexual battery

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A 73-year-old Baptist minister convicted of sexual battery likely will not spend any time in prison under a sentence handed down by a judge today.

The Rev. James Fincher, pastor of Faith Missionary Baptist Church, was found guilty in August by a jury of inappropriately touching a woman who came to his office last fall to borrow $100. He was acquitted of a criminal confinement charge.

The woman said Fincher restrained her as she tried to leave his office and told her he wanted her to expose herself in return for the loan.

September 21, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Second US Catholic diocese goes bankrupt after childsex scandals

TUCSON, United States (AFP) - The US Catholic Diocese of Tucson became the second in the country to file for bankruptcy after being hit by a wave of lawsuits and settlements linked to priestly child abuse.

In filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Bishop Gerald Kicanas insisted that the move was not aimed at escaping financial responsibility and issued a heartfelt apology to victims of sex abuse by priests.....

September 21, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Feel the Christian love.

Evangelist threatens to kill gay men

A Canadian television station is under investigation by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission after airing evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's remarks threatening to kill gay people.

During a televised sermon Swaggart said: "I'm trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."

I don't know which is worse. His pathological homophobia, his violent tendancies, or the fact that a preacher is advocating lying to God.

September 21, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

World Lutheran body launches sexuality study

GENEVA — Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation have created a task force to study ‘‘family, marriage and sexuality.''

The action by the Lutheran body, made up of 138 member denominations with 65 million congregants, came as the 77 million-member Anglican Communion awaited a crucial report addressing a severe split among member churches over gay relationships and biblical teaching.

Lutheran federation President Mark Hanson, also head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the task force would help Lutherans ‘‘understand each other's contexts'' but not force ‘‘decisions that would be divisive.''

September 20, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A priest charged with sexual misconduct will no longer play the organ in Shaftsbury.

I couldn't make this up.

Former priest will no longer play organ

ARLINGTON, Vt. A former priest who resigned last year amid sexual abuse allegations will no longer play the organ....at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Arlington and First United Methodist Church in nearby Shaftsbury....news reports about two misconduct lawsuits filed against Paulin prompted the Catholic Church to end the organ arrangement.

September 16, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Name change for Little Dicker chapel

The pastor of Little Dicker chapel has changed its name because too many "depraved" minds found it funny.

Pictures of men - many of them exposing themselves - outside the chapel have been winging around the internet and between camera phones....

He says so many jokers were flocking to have their picture taken outside the chapel that they were clogging the narrow local lanes.

September 15, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I am so queer!

Outspoken evangelist provokes strong reactions near CC campus

Andrew Nelson, a Colorado College sophomore with a rainbow-dyed beard, watched from the back of the crowd as Jed Smock waved his Bible and condemned Nelson’s peers.

“It really pains me to see this and makes me sad,” said Nelson, a Christian. “It’s just this additional stereotype I have to wear . . . that is forced on me.”

He wasn’t alone. “I don’t see any love in his actions,” said sophomore Betsy Friedlander, also a Christian.

Some students walked away. Some argued. Others mocked him.

To Smock, a man who’s spent 30 years taking his hellfire and brimstone message to college campuses, their reactions did not seem important. It was the message he was intent on giving.

“When you masturbate, you’re already sort of a homosexual,” he said, because by nature, self-gratification is a same-sex act.

September 14, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Church can't afford new sex-abuse claims

BOSTON - Less than a year after it paid $85 million to settle 541 sexual-abuse claims, the Archdiocese of Boston is facing at least 140 new claims that a church spokesman says the church cannot now afford to settle, partly because it has been unable to recoup money from its insurance policies to cover last year's settlement.

...Even if the suits were settled for the $20,000 maximum allowed under the charitable immunity standard, the archdiocese could be facing claims worth nearly $3 million. If the archdiocese followed the standard it set in settling the 541 cases last year, the bill would be more in the range of $20 million, legal analysts say.

The archdiocese borrowed the money used to settle the cases last December and since then has sold the historic cardinal's residence and surrounding land in Brighton to Boston College for $107 million to reduce its debts. It has also scheduled 82 parishes for closure as part of a drastic cost-cutting effort.

September 13, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Silence of gay bishops 'will split Anglicans'

Gay christians are accusing homosexual bishops in the Anglican communion of caving in to a conservative agenda and plunging the church into further crisis.

They are outraged that a number of bishops known to be gay but not 'out' in public have refused to speak up for homosexual rights in the church while the Eames Commission looked at the issue, which could split the church.

September 12, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Religion, alcohol and lighter fluid do not mix

Monday, August 30, 2004

A Spokane man was arrested early Sunday after he sprayed lighter fluid on his girlfriend and her bed, then lit the bed on fire.

The incident occurred when the couple got into a fight about religion after returning home from a tavern. The woman was not seriously injured.

These religious arguments do tend to get ... fiery. Back in May, a Eugene woman allegedly poured boiling oil on her boyfriend's face during an argument about the Bible.

September 1, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Sick Lives of Problem Priests
Legal Papers Describe Santa Barbara's Long History of Pedophilic Catholic Priests

Catholic priests and friars began sexually abusing Santa Barbara's children way back in the 1930s and, for the past 70 years, the Catholic Church has done little to remedy the situation that its hierarchy makers knew all too much about. Rather-explains legal papers filed this week by Santa Barbara attorneys Tim Hale and David Nye, who represent a victim of such abuse-the church has continued to use Santa Barbara as a dumping ground for their problem priests to the present day.

In fact, the attorneys argue, when assessed on a per capita basis, Santa Barbara County-at one point or another home to 31 alleged offenders and more than 60 victims-may regrettably boast "one of the highest" number of priestly pedophiles in the history of the sexual abuse scandal that since the 1990s has been rocking one of the planet's oldest, wealthiest, and most powerful institutions. In comparison to other counties, Santa Barbara has five times as many cases as Orange, four times as many as Los Angeles, and at least twice as many as Boston, which until now has been considered the center of these allegations. Many remember when Santa Barbara made national headlines in the early 1990s for the St. Anthony's Seminary sexual abuse scandal-which is disturbingly outlined in this report-but these charges, if true, could make Santa Barbara the poster child for a community done wrong by the Catholic Church.

August 27, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

...or at least that's what this group of progressive clergypeople seem to believe.

Religion Experts Ask How Jesus Would Vote

AUSTIN, Texas - Just a few miles from George W. Bush's former office at the state Capitol, a panel of religious experts weighed a question with relevance to many people of faith: How would Jesus vote?

It's a complex topic that can't be boiled down to simple political terms, said religious leaders who attended a Texas Faith Network conference in Austin on Tuesday. Many at the conference voiced concerns that the religious right dominates discussions of faith and morality in politics. They complained that issues such as abortion and gay marriage seem to take priority over hunger, corporate crime and even the war in Iraq....

"If ever there were a bleeding-heart liberal, it was Jesus Christ," Moore said at Congregation Agudas Achim synagogue. "I think the carpenter from Galilee was the original Democrat."

August 18, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The poetry was the final straw.

Romanian cleric in trouble for long sermon

A Romanian orthodox priest is to live in seclusion for a month after delivering a five-hour funeral service.

Agapie Aurel Rusu has also been ordered to live on just bread and water for the month as a punishment.

The case of the long funeral service has also came under the attention of consumer protection authorities after complaints regarding the things he's alleged to have said during the service.

It's reported the priest wanted to get revenge on the 21-year-old dead man's relatives who had wanted another priest to officiate the funeral.

He talked during the sermon about politics, history and even heart surgery. He's also said to have used many poems to illustrate the sermon.

August 18, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Telegraph Publisher launches 'youth Bible' - a tale of sex and masturbation

Sex is "fulfilling," masturbation is "difficult to resist" and Mary Magdalene "had something of a dodgy past". A new "youth Bible" which talks frankly about pornography and lust has been condemned by traditionalists for "dumbing down the message of salvation".

The Contemporary English Version Youth Bible, jointly published by The Bible Society and Collins - which also publishes more traditional versions of The Bible - is written in modern idiom and includes a number of extra passages penned by contemporary authors on "youth issues".

The passage on pornography advises teenagers "to avoid the top shelf of the newsagents, [and] pray as you surf [the internet]". A section on masturbation cites St Paul's exhortation in Thessalonians not to be "a slave of your desires", but admits that "it can provide a release....

August 11, 2004 in Books, Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pope hits out at feminist radicals

"In a letter to bishops "on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the world" the Vatican blames feminism for seeking to eliminate the biological differences between man and woman."

Uhhhh....I wonder what the Pope has to say about doctors who perform sexual reassignment surgery?

It's hard to fathom why he felt it necessary to make this statement now; and why he puts all the blame on feminists, when socio-economic changes and social progress are prompted by a complex confluence of forces. If the world has responded to certain feminist arguments (for example, that women are capable of equal job performance and deserve equal pay for same; or that fathers should take a more active and intimate role in child-rearing) perhaps it's because those arguments make more sense and have more emotional resonance to Westerners than the illogical and inhumane standards of past decades.

As always, the Vatican has its finger on the pulse of....a corpse.

July 30, 2004 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This falls into the category of "you just never know what will pop up when you google for 'spanking'"...

ChristianityToday: To Spank or Not To Spank?

from the article:
"Does a biblical view of childhood and parental responsibility require that corporal punishment be part of our child-rearing style as Christians? And related to this, what level of sanction or punishment is necessary to train children up to Christian maturity?"

June 29, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Now, this priest--who advocates the end of celibacy for Catholic clergy--really has balls. And he's used them too.

Porn or Confession? Priest Tells All

June 11, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thanks to Michael for forwarding this positively jaw-dropping article about a priest whose defense for child molestation is that it was done for legitimate spiritual reasons.

Is it just me, or does it seem like more and more people are trying to use God to justify their sins?

Or maybe God really does want everyone to do SM....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

*****************************

Priest Sentenced on Molestation Charge

UPDATED - Sunday April 18, 2004 8:04pm

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A priest accused of molesting a teenage boy has pleaded no contest in the case, but argues that he committed the acts in question for spiritual reasons and not sexual gratification, his lawyer said Sunday.

Anthony Jablonowski, 69, was sentenced Thursday to between 15 months and seven years in prison for one count of taking indecent, immodest or immoral liberties with a minor, his attorney Dallas Laird said. The amount of time he serves will depend on his behavior in prison.

The victim, now in his late 30s, stepped forward recently with allegations that Jablonowski had molested him at least once in the early 1980s at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Guernsey, about 100 miles north of Cheyenne. He was 17 at the time.

During an investigation, authorities learned that Jablonowski regularly took men to the church basement, asking them to strip naked before they were gagged, blindfolded and hung upside down from the ceiling, Platte County prosecutor Eric Alden told The Denver Post in Sunday's editions.

According to Alden, the men's genitals were manipulated to induce pain while they prayed. He could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Laird said his client could not talk about the rituals, citing an oath of confidentiality concerning prayer and confession.

The activities were not sexual, and were tied to a legitimate practice of penance and redemptive suffering, Laird said. Several people testified they found the prayers spiritual - not sexual - in nature.

"There are certain things that happen which are not sexual but could be interpreted that way," Laird said.

According to the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, Jablonowski was a priest in Wyoming for about 10 years. He was serving at a monastery in Ohio when the molestation charges surfaced, Laird said.

Jablonowski, whose priestly faculties were revoked after the allegations surfaced, remained at the Platte County jail Sunday. It was unclear whether he would be transferred to a state corrections facility because of safety concerns, Laird said.

April 22, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thanks to Eric for pointing me to this incredible story about the Vatican, which is officially stating that the use of condoms can't prevent transmission of AIDS

Next week, the Vatican will be announcing that the earth is flat and the moon is made of green cheese.

April 16, 2004 in Religion, Science, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cross-Dressing Heats Up Republican Race

From the article:
"DALLAS (Reuters) - What started as a dull runoff race to field a Republican candidate for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives has heated up due to a controversy over cross-dressing.

"The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women's clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels....

"Walls, 64, who describes himself as a fervent Baptist, told the paper his family had "dealt with" the issue of his cross-dressing and that he asked for forgiveness. "

*******

So I guess if he's a fervent Baptist, he never danced in that dress?

April 7, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Stories like this one always get under my skin. This Court TV report covers another in an apparently infinite deluge of grisly Texas tragedies: Husband stands by woman accused of stoning their two sons to death.

Her credentials as a good Christian are raised in her favor--even though it's some of those Christian beliefs which drove her to commit this abomination. The nihilism instrinsic in Judgment Day scenarios can cast a pall over troubled minds. And you know she read all about stoning in her Bible and, undoubtedly, had fantasized about it many a time. Personally I love the Bible, but clearly it's a very dangerous book in the wrong hands. Not unlike the books from Paladin Press that are constantly being censored and yanked off shelves. Of course, no prosecutor has the cajones to prosecute Christian beliefs, even when they are extremist and potentially mentally destabilizing. And really, who can blame them?

Imagine replacing the text with a belief system that's unpopular, such as Islam or Wicca or Scientology...or..like, say, ummm...how about sadomasochism?

Here is some of the original text from the article.

"Gary Bell, Dee Laney's brother-in-law and the pastor of her church, testified that the defendant was a devoted and loving wife, mother and Christian who believed deeply in her Pentecostal convictions. One of those beliefs is that Jesus Christ will return to Earth one day and on occasion speaks to the faithful. Bell, who is married to Dee Laney's sister, recalled an incident at least a year before the killings where Dee Laney told other members of the congregation that God had spoken to her in some way. "Dee came down as I remember and said to me she had something she would like to share," said Bell, pastor of the First Assembly of God Church in Tyler. "The gist of what she shared with the church was that God ... had communicated to her that she should get her house in order because the Lord was coming." Laney never said anything about harming her children and the incident did not ring any alarm bells because it was consistent with the Pentecostal beliefs that more 14 million people share, Bell told jurors.
"We live constantly with this belief that we should stay ready," he said."

Now my version:

"Master Sonambulus, kittyb*tch's brother-in-law and the leader of her local SM group, testified that the defendant was a devoted and loving slave, housegirl and sadomasochist who believed deeply in her leather family's traditions. One of those beliefs is that the Marquis de Sade will appear in Omaha one day and on occasion speaks to submissives. Sonambulus, who is married to kittyb*tch's sister, recalled an incident at least a year before the killings where kittyb*tch told other members of the congregation that de Sade was thinking he might show in Denver instead. "kittyb*tch came down as I remember and said to me she had something she would like to share," said Sonambulus, leader of the Last Assembly of Sick Honchos (LASH) in Abilene. "The gist of what she shared with LASH was that de Sade ... had communicated to her that she should get her toybag ready." kittb*tch never said anything about harming her children and the incident did not ring any alarm bells because it was consistent with the sadomasochstic beliefs that tens of millions people share, Sonambulus told jurors. "We live constantly with this belief that we should keep our toybags ready," he said."
------------

I wonder if the prosecution would be "half-hearted" if the woman who murdered her children was kinky.

March 31, 2004 in Current Affairs, Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Billboards Target Christian Porn Addicts

From the article: "Almost 18 percent of people who called themselves born-again Christians admitted visiting Internet porn sites, according to a 2000 survey of 1,031 adults by the evangelical group Focus on the Family. In a 2002 Pastors.com survey, more than 50 percent of responding pastors reported viewing pornography in the previous year. "

So what would happen if millions of men who are right now relieving their frustration, anxiety, and sexual needs simply said no to porn? I think there would be even more divorces and nervous break-downs.

And why is it the man's problem alone to solve? If you want to understand why a couple isn't intimate, and why one member of the couple is turning to outside sources for stimulation and relief, you have to look at BOTH parties before assigning blame.

This article omits the fact that many of the wives of these men are so inhibited about sex, or otherwise so ambivalent, that they may be causing or contributing to their husbands' so-called addictions. I know some women technically toe the church line and let the men run their sex life, following his lead because that's what being a "good Christian wife" is all about. ButI also know many good Christian wives are secretly angry, frustrated and turned off by their husbands' sexual appetites and would just as soon avoid sex altogether--which in turn, makes their husbands depressed and infinitely more inclined to seek out pictures of the kind of sex they wish they were having.

The article cites the case of one fellow who admits to being a life-long porn consumer. It's easy to think that the problem, then, is purely his alone. But most of us are life-long masturbators, yet welcome intimacy and tend to prefer partnered sex over masturbation when we find someone we love. So why did he sink back into his old behaviors? Could it be because married sex wasn't nearly as exciting? There's a thought!

I also think that porn addictions and other sexual addictions are almost always a symptom of depression, not a disease unto themselves. As a general rule, when people get lost in fantasies, you may assume that it's because they are unhappy with their real lives, or at least find more satisfaction from fantasy..

Meanwhile, there are plenty of good reasons why Christians would feel depressed about sex--from the sex-negative messages from pulpits, the fear of going to hell for sexual sins, the absence of reliable, science-based sex education, and the antiquated notions on what constitutes normal sex and what men and women can do together in bed. What these pastors are missing is that the problem is not that porn is bad: it's that their congregationalists sex lives are so bad it drives many men to consume massive quantities of porn. The problem is that all too many Christians enter marriage completely unprepared for adult sex or intimacy.

Shaming and scolding men into morality only goes so far: in the end, it generally produces an emotionally sicker individual. Until the clergy start working on the underlying problems, and address adult sexuality with compassion, they will never be able to stop even the most moral of men from going to the most sordid of places.

February 12, 2004 in Religion, Sex and Sadomasochism | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack