Christian Subversion Update - Mississippi Missionary Baptists

State Rep. Credell Calhoun, D-Jackson, introduced House Bill 427, which would violate the Establishment Clause.

Photo credit: Mississippi House of Representatives

Mississippi May Mandate Ten Commandments and Pledges to State, U.S. Flags in Schools | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

American Christian fundamentalists are continuing their campaign to subvert the US Constitution, apparently in the belief that the Establishment Clause either doesn't or shouldn't apply to them. This time a concerted effort is being made in Mississippi to make the teaching of Christian dogma compulsory in public schools, to have Mississippi taxpayers pay for it and to impose fines for complying with the Constitution and Supreme Court Rulings forbidding it.

As the Jackson Free Press reports:

Catholic Abuse News - Trust in the Clergy Hits a New Low

U.S. Catholics' Faith in Clergy Is Shaken

A recent Gallop poll has uncovered a huge decline in the perceived ethical standards of clergy in the USA, especially amongst Catholics.

In a survey conducted at the end of 2018, after the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report which found that over 300 priests had abused over 1000 children in 70 years in Pennsylvania alone, only 31% of Catholics believe the ethical standards of clergy (of all denominations) is high or very high. This compares with 49% just a year earlier. In 2008, it was more than double, at 68%.

Catholic Abuse News - The Nuns' Stories Updated

Sister Lucy Kalappura

Congregation threatens to dismiss “rebel” nun – Matters India

No sooner did I report on the promising, though uncharacteristic, response of the Catholic Church in India to the news of the arrest on rape charges of Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, than this update arrived in my 'to read' list. The response it seems is not quite what it first appeared to be.

The church seems now to have resorted to the time-honoured tactic of siding with the abuser, bullying the witnesses and ignoring and vilifying the victims.

Catholic Abuse News - The Nuns' Stories

Sister Josephine Villoonnickal, left, sister Alphy Pallasseril, center, and Sister Anupama Kelamangalathu, at St. Francis Mission Home, in Kuravilangad.

Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup

Nuns in India tell AP of enduring abuse in Catholic church

The sexual perk of choice for Catholic priests in Britain, Europe, North and South America, and Australia, is traditionally vulnerable children over whom they are able to exercise control, although nuns feature too, especially in places like Africa and Asia where many nuns come from a misogynistic, patriarchal and uneducated background.

In India, it seems, according to this AP News report, the choice for recreational sex for priests is nuns. Many Indian Catholic nuns come from a culture which reveres Catholic priests and in which a woman is expected to be servile and subservient.

Catholic Abuse News - Covering Their Backs

Cardinal O'Malley (left) and Cardinal Dolan

O’Malley Turns in Dolan for Abuse Cover-Up

The fall-out from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report into sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, and their cover-up by bishops and cardinals, continues.

As more American States launch similar investigations, cardinals like Boston's Sean O'Malley have started to distance themselves from the scandal by turning other colleagues in, according to this Spanish language report in Religión Digital.

The president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Seán O'Malley, has denounced his counterpart, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in a letter to the Papal nuncio in Washington for the cover-up of the crimes of the convicted pedophile priest, Donald Timone.

Catholic Abuse News - The Missionary Position

American Roman Catholic priest Rev. Kenneth Bernard Hendricks looks at documents after being arrested in a church in Naval town in the island province of Biliran, central Philippines.

Credit: Bureau of Immigration PIO via AP

American priest facing 'horrifying' sex abuse charges during his time as a missionary in Philippines | ABC News.

An American Catholic priest, Rev. Kenneth Hendricks, has been arrested in the Philippines and charged with sexually abusing young boys. He is now facing extradition to Ohio, USA where he is also under investigation for similar crimes in the state.

The case started when two Filipino boys came forward with allegations of abuse to local authorities, prompting an investigation. More boys have subsequently come forward with very similar stories. According to Ben Glassman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Ben Glassman:

Each of these victims got to know Father Hendricks through the course of his official work as a priest... he befriended them, he would invite them to his residence, often to take a bath or shower. That interaction would proceed to kissing... fondle their genitals... [and] ultimately have oral or anal sex with the victims... It is horrible, horrible abusive conduct. It is grooming children, young children who are interested in being involved in church activities and taking those kids and sexually abusing them.

The director of communications for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Mike Schafer, tried to distance the archdiocese from Hendricks and his alleged crimes by stressing that he was ordained a priest in the Philippines and had never held any position with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. However, Hendricks is listed on the archdiocese website in connection with his missionary work and has received funding from them.

Catholic Abuse News - At Least 500 More in Illinois

Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago. "Profound regret".

Investigation identifies 500 Catholic priests and clergy accused of sex abuse in Illinois - ABC News

Contrary to Pope Francis' protestations of regret and promises to root out and put a stop to paedophile and sexually abusive priests and the church's routine cover-up and facilitation, it continues unabated it seems, at least in the six Catholic diocese in the State of Illinois, USA, if the outgoing District Attorney General, Lisa Madigan is to be believed.

An investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priest in the state of Illinois, launched last August following the shocking Pennsylvania Grand Jury report showing that 300 paedophile Catholic priests had abused over 1000 children, has already uncovered evidence that about 500 priests have had credible accusations of sexual abuse made against them although the Illinois dioceses have only named 185.

They had initially only named 140, then after the investigation began, named a further 45. (It is a measure of how we have got used to the scale of the problem when we used terms such as 'only' when referring to 185 sexually abusive Catholic priests in one state. How long will it be before we find ourselves talking about 'only' 500?)

This was revealed in Madigan's initial report into her office's investigation, released by her director o communications, Maura Possley.

Catholic Abuse News - Cardinal Pell "Convicted"

Cardinal Pell convicted of sexual abuse in Australia | Catholic News Agency

Despite a gagging order preventing any reporting of the trial, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting that Cardinal Pell has been convicted unanimously by an Australian court of the historical sexual abuse of two altar servers in the late 1990s when he was Archbishop of Melbourne.

This has not yet been confirmed by the Australian judiciary, which remains under the gagging order. The same source which reported this conviction to CNA is the same source which reported that a mistrial had been declared last October when the jury was deadlocked at 10-2 in Pell's favour.

The reason for the gagging order is that there is a second trial scheduled for early 2019 concerning allegations of other abuse of minors when he was a priest in Ballarat in the 1970s. The judge decided this trial might be influenced by the Melbourne trial making a fair trial impossible.

Cardinal Pell is the highest ranking Catholic cleric to stand trial on sex-abuse charges, being effectively number three in the Vatican, as prefect of the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy.

Christian Sexual Abuse News - Others Do It Too!

They were terrorized, trapped and even sexually abused. Now, these former members of independent fundamental Baptist churches share how their experiences will affect the rest of their lives.

Click to hear their stories.

Fundamental Baptist church pastors cover up sex abuse, rape | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

In the spirit of Christmas when Christians purport to feel goodwill to all, it seems only fair to Catholics to bring news that shows their priests, bishops and cardinals are not the only Christian clergy who take advantage of their position to sexually abuse children and vulnerable adults. As these two reports show, the clergy of other Christian churches do the same when the opportunity arises.

First, a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram revealing how the practice of sexually abusing vulnerable people by pastors in Independent Baptist churches is commonplace, as is the practice of cover-up and moving priests to other locations where they can continue abusing an unsuspecting congregation, just like the Catholic Church does:

Earliest Primates Were From North America

The unusual tooth sockets in UF specimen 333700 upended the hypothesis that Teilhardina brandti was a younger species in the genus. The sockets closely resemble those in Teilhardina asiatica, thought to be the most primitive Teilhardina species.

Credit: Florida Museum image by Paul Morse

Oldest-known ancestor of modern primates may have come from North America, not Asia – #FloridaMuseumScience

The earliest known primate may have come from North America!

But! Creationists should calm down! This is not another opportunity for a 'Nebraska Man'-style hoax*. It is from a time when Eurasia and North America were part of the same landmass about 56 million years ago. At that time, Earth was warm enough for palm trees to grow around the Arctic Circle.

This discovery by scientists from Florida University suggests the earliest known example of basal primates, a genus named Teilhardina did not come from Asia as was once thought. A detailed analysis of 163 teeth and jaw fragments recovered from Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, showed that specimens found in North America which had been classified as Teilhardina asiatica were more primitive and were those of an earlier species, now named T. brandti.

Malevolent Designer News - Getting Ready to Hit Back

Staphylococcus epidermidis

Source

The potentially deadly bacterium that’s on everyone’s skin.

You may not have heard of Staphylococcus epidermidis but you have almost certainly heard of its close cousin, S. aureus, that in its antibiotic resistant form (MRSA) has become such a problem in hospitals, causing life-threatening infections in wound sites. Now, scientists have warned that S. epidermidis, an abundant, commensal bacterium on human skin, has the potential to become a serious health risk.

If you subscribe to the intelligent design notion, the only possible interpretation of this news is that a designer with malevolent intent has prepared for the eventuality of human medical science overcoming its current favourite harmful pathogens, like MRSA and Escherichia coli.

S. epidermidis is a close relative of S. aureus, the antibiotic-resistant form of which (MRSA) is a major health risk, especially in hospitals, following surgery. S. epidermidis is a normal, commensal bacterial species found on the skin of every human being. Normally, it is harmless but, in the right circumstances, it is also a serious health risk following surgery when it infects operation sites.

Catholic Abuse News - Bash the Gays

Cardinal Müller. Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2012-2017)
"Nobody told me!"

Catholic Cardinal: LGBTQ People Are to Blame for Sex Abuse Scandal

The latest senior Catholic cleric to jump on the bandwagon and join the growing tendency to externalise the child sex abuse scandal by blaming it all on others, is Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

Cardinal Müller is the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In other words, the Pope's enforcer who job it is to make sure the church's dogma and Papal diktats are complied with. He joins a growing list of senior Catholics and Catholic apologists who have formed an alliance with the extreme right and are taking the opportunity to simultaneously try to dissociate the Catholic Church from culpability in the world-wide clerical sex abuse scandals and victimise and stigmatise the LGBT community.

Christianity News - Abusing the Gullible in South Korea

Lee Jae-rock. 15 years for "habitually" raping his followers.

South Korean Church Leader Sentenced to Prison in #MeToo Case - The New York Times

Continuing the tradition of Christian cult leaders exploiting the gullibility of their followers for sexual gratification, one such leader of a Christian cult in South Korea has been convicted of "habitually" raping his female followers and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

75 year-old Lee Jae-rock, who founded the mega-church, Manmin Central Church in Seoul, South Korea, has been the subject of allegations of corruption such as extortion, faud and sexal abuse for several years but it was only when the #MeToo movement caught on in South Korea that eight former members of his cult came forward with specific allegations. Some of them alleged that he had lured them to his apartment and ordered them to strip off "as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden", then he raped them.

Malevolent Designer News - Sleeping Sickness

The parasite that causes African sleeping sickness can cause death in humans if not treated.

Credit: College of Science

Researchers reveal secrets of parasite that causes African sleeping sickness

The intelligent designer hates Africans. This is obvious from the way it has designed a nasty little parasite and a clever delivery system, that is designed not only to make Africans sick and die but also prevents them using the same domestic animals that allowed Eurasians to develop agriculture. The nasty little parasite is a trypanosome that causes sleeping sickness.

This parasitic trypanosome and its tsetse fly vector have huge economic importance to Africa because while the African native megafauna are all unsuitable for domestication, the Eurasian animals that were used as transport and to pull ploughs in agricultural cultures are all susceptible to it and so agriculture could never spread south of the Sahara to any significant extent, nor could food sources such as sheep and pigs, save in the highlands of Ethiopia, where the tsetse fly is absent.

Catholic Morality News - Fleecing the Flock

Fr. Lenin Vargas-Gutierrez

Court docs allege priest lied about cancer diagnosis, sex addiction therapy and charity projects | Starkville Daily News

According to a report by Ryan Phillips in Starkville Daily News, Father Lenin Vargas-Gutierrez, a pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Starkville, MS, USA, in the Diocese of Jackson, is alleged to have hit on a novel solution to two problems: how to cover up the fact that he is HIV positive, and how to supplement his income and provide a living to which he feels entitled.

The report says:

According to a 37-page affidavit filed Friday by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Special Agent William G. Childers in U.S. District Court in Jackson, an ongoing investigation into Father Lenin Vargas-Gutierrez, a pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Starkville, shows the priest is accused of lying about being diagnosed with cancer and soliciting money from parishioners for treatment and other pet projects.

Catholic Abuse News - Vatican Blocks Child Protection Plan

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.
President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Vatican tells U.S. bishops not to vote on proposals to tackle sexual abuse, spurns outside investigations - The Washington Post

In a quite extraordinary intervention, the Vatican has ordered the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to drop plans to debate and adopt a code of conduct that would strengthen measure to protect children and prevent their abuse by Catholic clerics.

This proposal was to be debated today at the Conference AGM, but on Monday the Conference president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, told them that the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, acting on instructions from the Holy See, had blocked it pending a meeting of world-wide Catholic leaders next February.

Hypocrisy News - Kim Davis

Kim Davis - Rejected

Apparently, Jesus has decided on a change of career for Christian arch-bigot, Kim Davis, now she has been rejected in favour of a Democrat by Kentucky voters in the midterm elections.

Readers will remember how the (now former) Rowan County clerk gained notoriety and became the poster-girl for white right Christian extremism when she decided her religious prejudices entitled her to victimise homosexuals by denying them marriage licences for same sex marriage, while being paid by Kentucky taxpayers for doing a job she was refusing to do. She even achieved glorious martyrdom by being sent to prison by a court for refusing to do the job she was taking money for doing.

She acquired even more notoriety and the adoration of the extreme Christian right, when she helped Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò embarrass Pope Francis and give hope to the extreme right that his reforms were mere PR and not to be taken seriously. Viganò , then Papal legate to Washington and bearing a grudge, arranged a clandestine meeting between Davis and Pope Francis at the end of his visit to the USA, in which Francis appeared to encourage Davis to continue breaking the law in his host country. Details of the meeting were immediately released to the press by a triumphant Viganò.

Intelligent Designer News - E. Coli Success

Transmission of Antibiotic Resistant E. coli Mapped in Wild Giraffe Social Networks

A progress update on the Intelligent Designer's campaign to make human and other animals get sick and die, using the bacterium Escherichia coli.

The story so far:

E. coli is the name of a highly diverse group of bacteria which displays far more genetic diversity than entire families of multicellular organisms with only about 20 percent of genes being common to all strains. Some authorities believe the taxon is overdue for revision and that some bacteria classified as Shigella should be reclassified as strains of E. coli while some E. coli, for example, the K-12 strain, should occupy a different taxon. Some strains have no flagellum, so lack motility.

Rapid Evolution of Barn Swallows

Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica

Roeselien Raimond Photography

Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica

Barn swallows may indeed have evolved alongside humans

Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) are one of only a handful of species that have co-evolved with humans but are not parasitic on us. This commensal evolution depended on the ecological niches we have provided during our own evolution and, in this case, as with House sparrows, particularly the social evolution of agriculture and settled dwellings on and in which to live. Barn swallows nest almost exclusively in man-made structures, hence their popular name.

Now researchers have tentatively established when the species took up residence with humans and when they radiated relatively rapidly into the six regional subspecies now recognised.

Dinosaur Eggs Confirm Bird Evolution

A selection of bird eggs and a fossil theropod egg (on the right).

Image credit: Jasmina Wiemann/Yale University

Dinosaurs put all colored bird eggs in one basket, evolutionarily speaking | YaleNews

More evidence today, if any more were needed, of the dinosarian origin of modern birds. This time it is evidence that the pigments birds use to colour their eggs evolved in dinosaurs who needed to camouflage their eggs in open or partially open nests on the ground.

The study also changes our thinking on how and when bird egg colour evolved.

It had been believed that birds evolved egg colours multiple times according to environmental pressures, however, all bird use the same two pigments, red and blue, in various combinations and patterns to achieve the different markings. This study challenges that view by showing that dinosaurs also had pigmented shells.