As Passover approaches, this seemed very appropriate…
And appropriately cool and entertaining…
Hat tip AmericaBlog where I first saw it:
Tag Archives: religion
Ricky Martin: Hell’s Ambassador
This is too much…
Emphasis is mine, article is from The Huffington Post:
On March 22, 2011, three days before his first show, Wanda Rolón wrote on Facebook:
“This weekend Puerto Rico receives a man saved and brought from hell to the light, Nicky Cruz, while another one pretends to drag us all to hell. RM [Ricky Martin] has been proclaimed its ambassador (hell’s, that is). Puerto Rico wake up, everyone praise the lord. This is the island of the Lamb. Alert God.”
This statement was later deleted, because angry Ricky Martin’s fans reported the hate-speech through the site’s abuse policy.
Pastor Wanda Rolón expressed her disapproval toward homosexuality in a press conference held on March 24, 2011 at the Capitolio. In said conference, she reinforced her opposition to Ricky Martin’s behavior, stating that he was leading children and young people into the abominable world of homosexuality.
On Friday the 25th of March, a group of anti-homosexuality activists held a protest in front of the Choliseo, while avid Ricky Martin’s fanatics arrived for the anticipated concert. Wanda Rolon’s followers promised to be there for the remaining three days, condemning Ricky Martin’s confessed sexual orientation and the nature of his concert. According to Wanda Rolón and this group, the whole island will join Satan in the afterlife, since four shows were completely sold out.
Ricky Martin hasn’t responded to Wanda Rolón’s accusations, but during his concerts he said, “Don’t be afraid to live, Puerto Rico.”
via Limari Colon: Ricky Martin’s Concert Boycotted by the Church.
Filed under Entertainment, Gay
The Bible vs The Koran, Christians vs Muslims
Very interesting column from Leonard Pitts….
You’ll have to click the link to get your results and read the rest of the column…
OK, put your books away. We’re having a pop quiz.
Below are four quotes. Each is from one of two sources: the Bible or the Koran, although, just to make things interesting, there’s also a chance all four are from one book. Two were edited for length and one of those was also edited to remove a religion-specific reference. Your job: identify the holy book of origin. Ready? Go:
1) “. . . Wherever you encounter [non-believers], kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for them at every lookout post . . .”
2) “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
3) “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ . . . do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.”
4) “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
All right, pens down. How did you do?
via Here’s reason for us to fear fear itself – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com.
Elizabeth Taylor, Al Jazeera and the Raid on Entebbe | The Nation
A little known bit of history that even I had forgotten…
When Elizabeth Taylor died, Al Jazeera English reported that her greatest role was Cleopatra.
They didn’t report that she had offered herself as a hostage at Entebbe in exchange for the 100 hijack victims held by terrorists at that airport in Uganda in 1976. The terrorists turned down the deal, and then Israeli commandos freed the hostages.
“The Jewish people will always remember” Taylor’s offer—that’s what the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Simcha Dinitz said in 1977, according to CNN.
Taylor had converted to Judaism in 1959, when she was 27 years old—Time magazine reported that she had taken the Jewish name “Elisheba Rachel Taylor.” Raised as a Christian Scientist, Taylor converted in part under the influence of her third husband, producer Mike Todd—“born Avrom Goldbogen,” as Time explained, “grandson of a Polish rabbi.”
The year after her Entebbe hostage trade offer, 1977, she married John Warner, who then ran for the Senate from Virginia as a Republican—she campaigned for him actively, and her star power was credited with his narrow victory. Warner reportedly resented being called “Mr. Elizabeth Taylor.”
But life as a Republican political wife in Washington made her “a drunk and a junkie,” she later said, and in 1983 she checked into the Betty Ford clinic. The rest is history.
via Elizabeth Taylor, Al Jazeera and the Raid on Entebbe | The Nation.
Filed under Entertainment, History, Media, Politics, Religion
More Pole Dancing for Jesus
Here is a longer clip of the news story out of Houston…
This is not a joke…
I’m still speechless…
Filed under Religion
House to vote on ‘In God We Trust’ resolution; Still No Sign of GOP Jobs creations bills
These guys were supposedly elected to create jobs…
That was their entire campaign theme…
And they have done absolutely nothing about it since they were elected….
It’s one extraneous or vindictive bill after another….
I can’t believe how much time they can waist on worthless resolutions like this…
I hope people will remember the GOP has just postured, poised, grandstanded and screwed around come election time…
But I’m not hopeful…
The US House of Representatives will have a chance to vote on a resolution to affirm the phrase “In God We Trust” as the nation’s official motto after it was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA), the founder and chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, sponsored the legislation. It would encourage the public display of the motto in all public buildings, public schools and government institutions.
He said he introduced the bill in January because he was troubled by a pattern of omitting God from the nation’s heritage.
“There is a small minority who believes America does not have the right to trust in God, who believes the United States should not affirm trust in God, and who actively seek to remove any recognition of that trust,” Forbes said.
The phrase “In God We Trust” was made the official U.S. motto in 1956, one year after the phrase “under God” was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance.
Critics of the resolution said it violated the establishment clause of the Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”
via House to vote on ‘In God We Trust’ resolution | The Raw Story.
Pole Dancing for Jesus
This is not a joke…
It’s a real news report from Houston…
Texas, of course….
I’m kind of speechless….
Thanks to Mrs Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian’s Facebook Post for making me aware of this….
Filed under Entertainment, Religion
Don’t be wedded to every tradition – Other Views – NewsObserver.com
Great Op-Ed from the Reverend Douglas Long in the Raleigh News and Observer yesterday about people using the Bible to define “traditional” marriage.
As Shakespeare said, “the devil can cite scripture for his purpose.”
So, let’s give it a rest.
It’s also a great response to the infamous Dr Laura Schlessinger comments/letter about Leviticus and homosexuality floating around the web…
Here’s an excerpt and a link to the full editorial at the bottom…
Hat tip to Pam’s House Blend where I originally saw part of this….
The truth of the matter is that the Bible is not a good source supporting monogamous and mutual marriage that our society and culture has evolved to embrace.
More systematically than considering a favorite passage here and there, Vaughn Roste, the son of two Canadian Lutheran pastors with a seminary degree of his own, has undertaken a comprehensive study of passages in the Bible, researching more than 800 Biblical references that deal with marriage. He distilled from that study what he refers to as “The 12 Biblical Principles of Marriage.” In summary, in the Bible:
- Marriage consists of one man and one or more women.
- Nothing prevents a man from taking on concubines in addition to the wife or wives he may already have.
- The concept of a woman giving her consent to being married is foreign to the biblical mindset.
- If a woman cannot be proven to be a virgin at the time of marriage, she shall be stoned
- For those who claim these are all Old Testament laws and that the New Testament supersedes them, consider in the New Testament that:
- Women are allowed to marry the man of their father’s choosing … because women are the property of their father until married and their husband afterwards.
- Interfaith marriages are prohibited.
- If a man dies childless, his brother must marry the widow
- Divorce is forbidden, and finally …
- It’s better, according to St. Paul, to not get married at all.
The point is this, anyone can pick and choose a verse or phrase from the Bible which, taken alone and literally, will appear to support their argument. While people of the Judaic-Christian tradition may disagree on the propriety of same-gender marriage, can we at least agree to not misuse the Bible in the process?
More: Don’t be wedded to every tradition – Other Views – NewsObserver.com.
Filed under Gay, North Carolina, Politics
Bill Maher on Jerry Falwell
I love this….
Truly classic…
Filed under Entertainment, Gay, Media, Politics, Religion, Television
Lost in the 21st Century 
Obesity Rates Higher Among Churchgoers | AlterNet
Another reason I steer clear of organized Religion….
It just isn’t healthy…
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Filed under Religion, Social Commentary
Tagged as Health, Media, religion, Social Commentary, the south