15 years for Texas pastor

Pastor Tomas Gonzalez confessed to his crimes back in June. Gonzales molested young girls over several years with some girls as young as five years old.

Two indictments, 18 counts, but in the agreement it was a total sentence of 15 years, is running concurrent with each other, in other words it's only one sentence, is not one sentence on top of another sentence, it's all going to run together," Salinas said.

Gonzalez, was the pastor of Templo Nueva Vida in the Weslaco area when he was arrested by Mercedes Police back in June.

One more pedophile pastor is off the streets. I wonder how many more there are?

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Child Molestation

Another Baptist Arsonist

Carva Lee White, the music director at Sunflower Missionary Baptist Church in Leavenworth, stands accused of trying to burn his church down and profit from the repairs.

White is accused of setting fire to the church twice, on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 last year. He had planned to persuade the pastor to file an insurance claim, collect the money, help inflate the repair bill and then embezzle the money, according to the indictment.

Later on Oct. 31, the church’s pastor left a phone message at the Church Mutual Insurance Co. in Merrill, Wis., in order to make a claim. The insurance company paid out about $109,000, according to the indictment.

Carva White has a history of exploiting his position as a pastor. He’s a scammer of the worst sort.

Carva Lee White used to preach at a church at 1300 Bennington. But the church was not touched by fire. White's ministry was interrupted instead by his prison sentence on a bank-fraud charge.

And then there was his other church that burned.

In 2005, White relocated to Aurora, Missouri. His church convened in a barn, which was destroyed in a fire while White and his followers ate dinner at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

White had this to say at the time.

White suspects arson. "I was a black man in a white town, bottom line," he says.

Christians are a strange breed. Who would follow this man?

Technorati Tags: Christians,Hypocrisy,Arson

The pastor and the sex offender

The real test of a man’s charters is what he does when under stress. Pastor Leon Mark of Mark Christian Ministries was accused by a parishioner of assault during a church services. Pastor Mark failed the test and he has a horrible fashion sense.

Pastor Mark allegedly assaulted Carl Eugene Anderson during an exorcism.

He told deputies the preacher singled him out and told him to open his Bible.

When Anderson refused, he claims the pastor put his hands on Anderson's head and began shoving him and calling him a devil.

Pastor Mark responded to the accusation by outing Anderson as a sex offender.

Mr. Anderson is a convicted sex offender who became a member of our church. We've been counseling him and helping him restore his life to get it back on track.

What a jackass. Did I mention that Leon Mark is Carl Anderson’s brother-in-law? Can’t you feel the Christian love?

Technorati Tags: Christians,Sex Offenders

A bible burning nutball

Is there anything special about the King James version of the bible? For that matter, is there anything special about any version of the bible? My guess is that the answer is no. Then why would a pastor burn bibles? It must be about ego and publicity.

Pastor Marc Grizzard told Asheville TV station WLOS that the King James version of the Bible is the only one his small western North Carolina church follows. He says all other versions, such as the Living Bible, are “satanic” and “perversions” of God’s word.

And he knows this how? Did God tell him? No… I’m pretty sure he made it all up himself.

Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan's bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect.

These are perversions of God's Word, the King James Bible.We will also be burning Satan's music such as country , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.

We will also be burning Satan's popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort, Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham Rick Warren Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.

Hello. My name is Marc Gizzard and I am a hater.

Related articles

• A New Kind of Christian Book Burning (friendlyatheist.com)
• Publicity-Hungry Minister Lures Reporters to Church with Flickering Lights* (mediabistro.com)

Technorati Tags: Christians,Bibles,Baptists,Book Burning

He could be a 2 time loser

If only former youth pastor Norman Pugh had been convicted in his first trial. We let him walk in 2006.

A jury took just an hour-and-a-half to acquit a former youth minister charged with child molestation in Oglethorpe County.

Norman Pugh, 40, broke down in tears Wednesday as the verdict was read.

The 16-year-old girl who testified that Mr. Pugh had fondled her 18 months ago also wept at the verdict.

His church rallied around him. He had lots of support. The accuser was a lying slut.... You get the picture. Speed forward three years and former youth pastor turned truck driver Norman Pugh stands charged with molesting a teenaged girl. Nobody stands in his corner.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents and Oglethorpe County sheriff's deputies arrested Norman Anthony Pugh, 43, on charges of aggravated child molestation, sexual exploitation of a child, electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor and making obscene telephone calls to a child involving a different victim.

At least he was not currently working as a youth pastor.

I need a picture of Norman Pugh. Does anybody have one they could send me?

Technorati Tags: Baptists,Pedophiles,Clergy Abuse

Burning down a church

Few things bring out racial accusations faster than a fire at a Baptist church.  And when racists actually burn down a church, we react with the horror the act deserves. But when a pastor stands accused of burning his own church, which is common these days, we collectively groan in embarrassment. Our outrage saved for another day. Not me. I’m outraged for another reason. The bastard was playing on racial fears to enrich himself. How is that even remotely Christ like?

45 year old Reverend Joseph Howard is charged with hiring someone to set fire to his church so he could collect insurance money.

The church was about to be auctioned off when it burned. Is Howard that dumb? He must be. I’m sure jail awaits him after an embarrassing trial. But no worries, he’s still the pastor and all. God’s got his back.

Howard’s church, Trinity Metropolitan Church in Albany, burned to down December 31, 2007. He set the fire to recover substantial damages. He was originally arrested in January of 2008.

Technorati Tags: Hypocrisy,Arson

BIG SIN little sin

I was talking to a co-worker yesterday when she mentioned that “All sin is the same to God.” I flinched, she had picked a pet peeve of mine. The argument that God sees all sin the same, be it a white lie or cold blooded murder, always seemed wrong to me, even as a child. What kind of a God would send a man to hell for complementing an ugly haircut and forgive a murder? And how could this same God accept a simple prayer as proof of repentance? It all seemed so silly then, but nobody thought my questions funny at the time. They accepted God’s cruel and arbitrary rule with a simple faith that I did not possess. It was one of the first things I can remember that set me apart from the believers. There would be many more to follow. I wanted God to be fair, and he was anything but.

I asked my co-worked about a social lie. I describe a social lie I had told a few minutes before when I visited another co-worker at her cubicle. I complemented her haircut. It was a lie. The haircut made her look fat and butch. I don’t think it was style she was shooting for. But who am I to tell her otherwise? I smiled and gave her a complement. I asked my Christian friend, did my lie place my eternal soul in jeopardy?  She repeated her simple statement, “All sin is the same to God, unless you repent you will go to hell.”

I told her that if a parent imitates God in their relationships with their children, they children were likely to run away. Anybody with common sense sees the injustice of the relationship.

She replied with, “I have faith”. I smiled at that. I knew she had faith. But I also know her to be a self-righteous office busybody who sins with the best of us. She is your typical sin/repent/sin again Christian. The world is full of them.

I told her that I think of myself as someone who tries to be good, but that when I fail, the only person I owe an apology to is the one I hurt. When I tell a social lie, nobody is hurt. She replied with, “You hurt God.” And then she told me I was going to hell. Um… I’m already there, mind if I have a pretzel?

Technorati Tags: Christians,Sin

G. Love at the Hollywood Bowl

My wife and I caught G. Love and Special Sauce at the Hollywood bowl last night. They played a 5 or 6 song set between the opening act Brett Dennen and the headliner Jason Mraz. It was a weird night. G. Love is a blues influenced band who has been around since the early 90s. This was my first time seeing them perform live. I enjoyed their performance. You see them for yourself onYouTube with their songs, Cold Beverage, Baby’s Got Sauce, or Hot Cookin’. I plan to catch them again the next time they come to town.

Brett Dennen’s set was odd. He is awkward on stage. He’s a tall lanky ginger kid who moves stiffly and is a bit out of sync with his music, plus he’s a tad on the androgynous side. Put that together with a voice like Carol Channing and you soon start asking yourself, when will this set end? Don’t get me wrong. I like Dennen. I have all of his work. But I’ve always listened to him one or two songs at a time. I love his powerful song Ain’t No Reason, but of course he did not sing it at the concert, instead he opted for She’s Mine and Make You Crazy. I will not pay to see him perform again.

Jason Mraz, well I knew I was in trouble before we climbed the hill to the Hollywood bowl. The crowd looked odd. And by odd I mean the crowd was mostly white or Asian women between the ages of 14 to 30 accompanied by slim men with odd little hats. By the time his set started, every seat in the house was full. When I’m Yours played, ten thousand voices sang along. It was a spiritual experience for most of the audience.

I don’t get Mraz. His music runs counter to my desire for funky rifts with an edge un-blunted by an enthusiastically optimistic outlook. I felt like one of the only people in attendance who did not drink the cool aid. But by odd coincidence, a coworker sat in the row ahead of me. He looked miserable too.

My wife told me this morning that if we ever get married again, Lucky will be our official song. I don’t think I’m going to be able to avoid Mraz much longer. If the wife likes him, I’m doomed.

At times Jason Mraz reminded me of the great Bob Marley. I think it was a combination of his Reggae influenced sound, and his desire to spread love via his lyrics. It was a disturbing thought for me as I wanted to dislike Mraz, but I found by the end that I could not.

When sitting in the Hollywood Bowl the audience cannot help but see a large well lit Christian Cross atop the Cahuenga Pass behind the venue. The only way to avoid the thing is to sit in the box seats so that the dome will hid it. The rest of the audience is forced to see a cross hovering over the stage the whole night. It pissed me off.

The cross is a historical Landmark originally erected in 1924 to honor actress Christine Wetherill Stevenson. A religious woman who help found the Hollywood Bowl. I’m all for tearing it down.

Technorati Tags: Music,Concerts

Why do they go to trial?

Bruce Lee Goss must have seen his conviction coming. He was caught in the back of a car with a half nude 13-year-old girl. How do you explain that away? The self proclaimed pastor insisted on a jury trial. Deliberations took 30 minutes. Guilty!

When I read these stories I ask myself why they bother. The plea deal, however unappealing, will be better than a trial conviction. This dumb pedophile could go away for a long time. He deserves it too.

Goss was in the news before. Back in the mid-90s. His church was burned down in a wave of arson attacks against black churches. It was a national epidemic at the time. The funny thing is… Goss had recently bought the property and then purchased a $40K insurance policy on it. A few days after buy insurance his derelict church was  burnt to the ground by “racist” arsonist. It made the national news. I’m thinking there may be another motive.

Technorati Tags: Pedophiles,Clergy Sexual Abuse,Arson

A dead balloon

I saw this balloon in the gutter outside my house early yesterday and was immediately taken back to my childhood. The movie The Red Balloon was a standard of 1960’s era primary school time fillers. I've seen it at least a dozen times. It won the Palme d’Or for short films back in 1956 so by the time I was in grade school it was how teachers exposed young minds to art. I think it worked. I’ve dreamed about red balloons my whole life.

Technorati Tags: Art,Photography,Films

Choices, so many choices

I make choices each day which dictate if I will post on my blog or not. The last week has been hard. I’ve started to have nightmares related to my hypocrisy watch posts again, so I backed off for a few days.  I was also hit with a complex project at work, so all my mental energy was stolen away.  10 hours of hard work and my brain does not like the idea of sitting in front of a computer. I have trouble enough just unwinding once I get home.  At least I have my camera. It’s weird, but I always take pictures when I’m under stress. I think the creative act is what  I need to turn my mind off. It takes the edge off. I shot this picture one day this week on my ride home. Urban ugly… I like these shots the most.

A Lutheran Pastor made a bad choice. He was busted for possession of child pornography. The dumb bastard. I hope they send him away for a few years.

Andrew John Spallek was senior pastor of Salem Lutheran Church until Sept. 23, when he resigned citing “personal reasons,” according to Sunday’s church bulletin…

…The indictment, sealed until last week, accuses Spallek of possessing 13 images of child pornography on two computers. Some were pictures of children having sex with adults, the document says.

I’m sure he was just doing research to protect children from exploitation. Or…  maybe not.

Nightmares be damned. These hypocrites demand attention.

Technorati Tags: Photography,Clergy Sexual Abuse,Child Pornography

You seem like a nice guy

I had lunch with an evangelical Christian who knows I am an atheist blogger. He reads my blog. He also reads links from the Atheist blogroll at random. He was curious about the blogroll. He question seem centered around why would a nice guy associate himself with some many bad people. I had to laugh. He misinterpreted what I do, and why I do it.

 

He observed the following:

1 -You don’t write about atheism

2 - Some bloggers are full of hate.

3 - You seem like a nice guy

4 - You have a problem with pastors

He got most of it right and most of it wrong too. It is true that I don’t write about atheism. I don’t believe in atheism like Christians believe in Christ. Atheism is just a word that describes my lack of believe. It’s not a religion. I prefer to write about when believers try to force their moral agenda on me. I don’t care what other people believe and by now I’ve learned there is no changing another person mind on the issue. I don’t believe in the metaphysical, you do… ok, what next?

The statement that some of the bloggers are full of hate seems over the top. I think he means some of the bloggers write about religion or atheism and are passionate about it. I think it makes him uncomfortable. I think it makes a lot of Christians uncomfortable. It does not translate to hate. It translate for a lack of sympathy for the beliefs of the faithful. They are no longer considered special. It might hurt, but it’s not hate.

I am a nice guy. I spent a great deal of time talking about the concept that what we do is more important  than we are what we think. We went down an existential rabbit hole for awhile, but in the end he understood that I’m reality based when it comes to morality.  He actually agreed with me in the end. What you do is more important than what you say or by extension, what you believe.

Now pastors… It’s not that I don’t like them. I think that because they claim moral authority, they should be held accountable when they fall.  In addition, I grow weary of Christians telling me I am amoral by virtue of my atheism. My blog’s endless parade of hypocrites simply says that if I am amoral, then so are you.

I also described a hug from Jim Jones in vivid detail. But that is a disturbing story for another day.

I shot a few pictures this week. The one at the top I caught as I was driving home. Photography is such good stress relief.

Technorati Tags: Christians,Atheism

Atheist Blogroll: New members and a change

We have a 11 new members of the Atheist Blogroll. Please click on the links and pay them a visit.

1. Konstantine's Nook of the Web
2. Reading and Critically Reviewing the Bible in 365 Days
3. Humanistische denktank
4. I Like Portello
5. Infidel Bob
6. The Door in the Wall
7. Dwasifar's daily gripe
8. Stig Martyr
9. Struck by Enlightning
10. BroadSnark
11. Iced Borscht & Other Delights

Blogrolling.com has a policy which limits the display length of a blogroll to 999 members. Since we have 1045 members, 46 blogs from the bottom of the list no longer display. I changed the full member list to 999 members using the rolling method. This means the most recently updated blogs will be at the top of the list. An unanticipated side effect is that blogs that are no longer active will filter down to the bottom of the list and are much easier to find and remove.

I’ll post the full list as a unique post month-by-month on the resource site for the Atheist Blogroll.

Technorati Tags: The Atheist Blogroll,Atheism

A Christian blog on the Atheist Blogroll?

Part of the pain of managed the Atheist Blogroll is the occasional Christian (and Islamic) blogger who tries to sneak on. To combat this, I read several posts from each blog. I find one or two stealth Christian blogs each month. I don’t know why they want on, but they sure are persistent.

I’ve let one agnostic on the blogroll who built a good case for his position. He believes there may be a god, but he is not religious and is firmly agnostic. We talked for a few weeks before I let him on. I read his blog weekly. I think I made the right choice.

I received an email from Jonathan Weyer of The Thomas Society requesting membership.

I would like my blog, The Thomas Society (www.thomas2026.wordpress.com) to join the atheist blog roll. But, before I get too far into it, I should tell you that I'm a Christian minister at Ohio State. However, our blog has Christian and atheist posters on it. So, I know we don't strictly meet the qualifications in this regard, but we have a high degree of credibility in the atheist community, including myself being on the Secular Student Alliance's speaker's bureau.

Here are some links to prove that:

http://www.secularstudents.org/ (look up the speaker's bureau section)

If we don't meet the qualifications, I completely understand.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Weyer

I said no to the request, but thought I would run it by the larger community. I’m curious, what do you think?

Technorati Tags: The Atheist Blogroll,Atheism

Quilt of offensive arts

New Atheist Blogroll member Humanistische denktank has an interesting section called Quilt of Offensive Arts (NSFW). You’ll need to translate the captions, but it is worth the effort. It’s funny though, the one piece that is sure to get you fired in the USA is hanging on the wall of the Musée d’Orse. I’ve seen it myself.

If you enter the museum for Offensive Art, you are at risk of being offended. Nobody compels you to enter...

Technorati Tags: Art,Atheism