Aug 13 2008
I find it bloody annoying how some Australians - church leaders and politicians mainly - describe this country as a ‘christian’ nation or a ‘christian’ society. Australia isn’t actually.
Our society, like most civilised Western democracies, is a secular society that tolerates religious belief.
I believe the word ’secular’ doesn’t describe our society well enough though - so I have come up with an alternative that I’ll run by you.
Aug 12 2008
Came across this today. Great interview - if you can spare the hour or two to watch all 8 parts of it. Here’s the final part and for what it’s worth, I believe the most damning criticism of this dangerous cult yet.
Jason Beghe was in for 13 years and in his words ‘I got into it because I wanted to help‘, now he’s doing this interview for the same reason. Good on him, it takes guts to do what he’s doing.
The full interview is here.
Scientology: 8/8 Jason Beghe Interview from Mark Bunker on Vimeo.
Jul 24 2008
I was watching the Sunday morning program on Channel Seven last week at the conclusion of WYD and one of the presenters (who shall remain nameless, I don’t want him to get into hot water!) could hardly contain himself and spent the entire time trying so hard to be respectful of the catholics and their faith - but failing miserably. I loved it. It was so obvious what he thought of the whole nonsense but he somehow managed to walk the fine line between being totally disrespectful and reporting the facts.
Jul 23 2008
I’ve written before about the charlatan Benny Hinn. Seems his ability to fool the gullible is as strong as ever.
Excerpt from an article on the Freethinker
“EXPERTS in South Arica are claiming that a genuine miracle took place at a massive evangelical rally staged by American “prosperity” preacher Benny Hinn, who is touring the country with his “Miracle Crusade”.
The genuine, verifiable event – attributed to “the power of the Almighty” – occurred when thousands of pounds miraculously left the bank accounts of around 1,000 of devout Christians, and within minutes inexplicably surfaced in Hinn’s sizeable off-shore bank accounts.
It happened when Todd Koontz, a guest speaker at the “Miracle Crusade” told the 18,000 believers at the Coca Cola Dome near Johannesburg that God had created a “two minute” window of opportunity, during which time the Almighty would make hundreds into millionaires, or even billionaires.”
Sigh… there’s an idiot born every minute. Read the rest of the story here.
Of course, Benny the Hair has made some outrageous claims in the past too - the following transcript details Hinn’s exact words on the October 19, 1999, Praise the Lord show :
“Here’s what I see for TBN. You’re going to have people raised from the dead watching this network. You’re going to have people raised from the dead watching TBN … I’m telling you, I see this in the Spirit. It’s going to be so awesome-Jesus I give you praise for this-that people around the world-maybe not so much in America-people around the world who will lose loved ones, will say to undertakers, “Not yet. I want to take my dead loved one and place him in front of that TV set for 24 hours.” …
I’m telling you, I can feel the anointing talking here. People are going to be canceling funeral services and bringing their dead in their caskets, placing them-my God! I feel the anointing here-placing them before a television set, waiting for God’s power to come through and touch them. And it’s going to happen time and time-so much it’s going to spread. You’re going to hear it from Kenya to Mexico to Europe to South America, where people will be raised from the dead. So much so that the word will spread that if some dead person be put in front of this TV screen, they will be raised from the dead and they will be by the thousands …
I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set and as people are coming closer I see loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen.”
Ok, I rest my case, he’s certifiable…
Jul 22 2008
I didn’t intend to write anymore about the WYD (well, it should really be named WCYD - add the word ‘christian’ in there), but all the media coverage just got up my nose.
I mean, look, as was reported by the Seven network - 25% of Australians classify themselves as ‘christian’ and presumably this would include hundreds of thousands who just put that down on the census because they can’t be bothered putting ‘other’ or ‘none’ down, from some deep sense instilled into us all that we must be christian (or some other faith) to be ‘good citizens’. Oddly though, catholic church sites reckon that 25% of AUSTRALIANS are catholic… ok, so something is odd there. By my maths, I make it around 6% of the population may have been indoctrinated into the catholic religion - but I bet that far less are actually ‘practicing’.
Jul 02 2008
from the Sydney Morning Herald 1st July - link to full article.
Edited July 9th.
Seems like Sydney-siders aren’t happy about being told what to do (or not do..) - this article on msn.com.au has the story. My favourite t-shirt slogan so far is “$5,500, a small price to pay for annoying Catholics“.
Love it.
Mar 16 2008
The Chasers is an Aussie comedy show that takes the proverbial out of most things - they do a good job on the Hillsong church in this one. A bit of info about this church is on this page at the Millennium Project
Mar 13 2008
Well, the Vatican has, in an apparent attempt to give ‘moral and ethical behavior’ more significance in today’s times, announced seven new deadly sins.
They are - in no particular order of severity I guess: genetic modification, human experimentations, polluting the environment, social injustice, causing poverty, financial gluttony and taking drugs.
So why are these seven classified as ‘deadly’ I wonder? Surely the catholic church could be charged with causing untold counts of social injustice and causing poverty. Don’t get me started on financial gluttony!
Mar 06 2008
If you haven’t seen it, here it is (until the ‘church’ bully-boys demand it be taken down again) - the Tom Cruise video.
I’ve never thought much of him as an actor, now I reckon he’s a fruit-loop as well.
I’d add more, but really the whole ‘S’ thing is a non-issue to me - I mean, if someone is stupid enough to believe in a ‘religion’ founded by a science fiction writer turned con-man, then hell, go for it. The rest of us will just ignore you. Period.
