Some prayers were never meant to be answered.

This is just too funny; both in irony and the 'ha-ha' way.

I've always been amused that on the few, occasional, incidents of earthquakes in California, our self appointed prophets will tell us we're being judged for 'immorality' or 'liberal politics'. However, EVERY YEAR HURRICANES HIT FLORIDA AND THE GULF COAST!

Now, I do not believe that area of the country is being judged. That's just how the weather is in that area of the country. However, with people so eager to ascribe divine judgement to the weather patterns, why are their mouths so silent when they keep getting hit with hurricanes every year? Anyone ever think they are being judged for consistently voting bigots and conservative hypocrits into office who keep bringing the country into more debt and war mongering?


Well, I'll just shut my mouth now and allow a more eloquent medium to express my view.

Check out the YouTube where the representative from Focus on the Family prays for rain to occur during Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, then check out the letter from Michael Moore currently being circulated to those on his mailing list:



An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dear God,

The other night, the Rev. James Dobson's ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be cancelled.

I see that You have answered Rev. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don't blame You, I know You're angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an "Act of God" -- when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized -- and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush's FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, "There you go again!"

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven't been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America's "wholesale slaughter of unborn children." His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don't do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven't sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time -- they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don't know what, Bush's head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government's response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W's to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It's done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I'll leave that to the followers of Rev. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. To all of God's fellow children who are reading this, the city New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

Bible Madness/Don't Go In The Church now on DVD!

Bible Madness and Don't Go In The Church, two movies I made about fundamentalism and it's benign and terrible consequences, are now available on the same DVD.

They are now available from Heretics of Hollywood.

Visit this page for more info: Bible Madness/Don't Go In The Church.

Just so you don't forget. . .

Jane Doe #2's case against Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, is set to begin on October 13, 2008.

Mark your calendars!

Religulous

Probably wishful thinking on the part of the poster.

Notice the similarities with this article:

A charge of lewd and lascivious behavior has been dropped against an 18-year-old resident of a Baker County home for troubled youths who had been arrested in an investigation of consensual sexual activity with another teenage resident. . .

McCormick said one boy came to a camp administrator and said he had made up the story about the abuse. Eventually, two boys said they simply wanted to get someone in trouble and a third said he made up the story, McCormick said. He said the admissions were taped with a volunteer teacher who is not part of the school administration.

Bessinger said prosecutors have not heard those statements.


With this post:

I have been told that the charges against John Wilson and Benjamin Lewis and the investigation closed against each of them, as the boys who brought the accusations confessed to investigators that they knew accusations of sexual misconduct and physical abuse was the "best" way to get back at these men in their rebellion against the rules.

Yes, charges were dropped with the 18 year old boy, but the prosecutors haven't confirmed anything about the other two. The boys apparently confessed to an 'independent investigator' (i.e. the volunteer teacher) that they made it up. However, it doesn't mean anything unless they confessed it to a prosecutor. As that would be a felony, to lie to a prosecutor, they might be a bit more circumspect saying such a thing to an official of the state.

Once again, more proof as to why independent investigations, when it comes to this particular crime, are not to be trusted.

Thanks to Walkin' With Jesus at the FFF for pointing this out. I forgot about that article!

Disturbing Behavior? It's not just a movie!

I just got through watching Disturbing Behavior, which is offered as a free download through my cable company. This movie totally bypassed me when it was released in 1998.

It concerns a community where the parents have fallen under the spell of a youth psychologist who promises treatment for troubled teens. Basically, we have The Stepford Wives for high school.

What makes this movie especially disturbing, many years after it's release, is the fact that, in real life, many parents have fallen under the spell of religious leaders who essentially promise what the doctor, in this movie, offers on screen.

Troubled by your kids choice in music? Concerned about the friends they are hanging out with? Afraid they may not be the 'chip off the old block' you always envisioned?

Send them to a Christian camp where their entire behavior will be controlled by a competent staff who will feed them scripture, and corporal punishment, until they either give in or discover even newer reasons to hate Christianity and what we pass off as the 'typical American family'.

Disturbing Behavior does not offer a camp, just a simple operation.

The thing is, this operation cuts off the sex impulse, but whenever the kids get turned on, the sexual impulse turns violent. They become abusive monsters, just like in real life.

Are we sure this is fiction? That seems to be the norm in most fundamentalist Christian camps. Especially those that attempt to turn gay teens straight. Or skeptical teens into followers of the Christian herd.

Sexual thoughts are replaced with biblical stories of war, beatings for breaking the most minor of rules, and the ever present threat of hellfire.

If Disturbing Behavior changed the pseudo science into religion, you'd have a real life version of what many have already experienced in this country.

Doubt me?

Check out the following links:

Hephzibah House.
The Truth about New Horizon's ministry.
International Survivors Action Committee.

One of the more disturbing scenes in the movie is when the main character learns that his parents enrolled him in the program to make him a robot.

There is probably nothing worse than learning that your parents have stopped listening to you.

The already fragile bond between parent and child can easily be killed by the disturbing behavior of parents tuning their kids out but giving an all too willing ear to the latest fundamentalist quack.