Tag: religion

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“Is the traditional, accepted view of the life of Christ in some way incomplete?

• Is it possible Christ did not die on the cross?
• Is it possible Jesus was married, a father, and that his bloodline still exists?
• Is it possible that parchments found in the South of France a century ago reveal one of the best-kept secrets of Christendom?
• Is it possible that these parchments contain the very heart of the mystery of the Holy Grail?

According to the authors of this extraordinarily provocative, meticulously researched book, not only are these things possible — they are probably true! so revolutionary, so original, so convincing, that the most faithful Christians will be moved; here is the book that has sparked worldwide controversey.”

A new religion has Americans looking to the stars

Belief in aliens is no longer fringe. Fifty-one percent of Americans think that unidentified flying objects are likely controlled by extraterrestrials — an increase of more than 20 percentage points since 1996. And one in three believe we’re likely to make formal contact with aliens in the next 50 years.

But as someone who studies the psychology of religion, what’s most striking to me isn’t the widespread belief that aliens are out there — in the vastness of the universe, it’s unlikely that we’re alone — but rather the growing popularity of blending this belief with spirituality. From group sky-watching sessions in the desert Southwest to backyard meetups in suburbia, people are using practices like meditations, mantras, and offerings to try to commune with god-like entities they believe possess vast knowledge and technological power. And since UFOs are the supposed vehicles that aliens use to visit earth, looking for them, or sometimes even trying to entice them to appear, is a primary focus.

Is that enough to qualify this growing movement as a religion? For some scholars, the answer is yes. Diana Walsh Pasulka, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, says many faiths are characterized by stories of divine beings coming down from the sky. Whether it’s angels, spirits, or gods, we humans have always looked to the heavens for entities greater than ourselves and yearned to join them in their higher realms. Aliens easily fit that narrative. And in truth, religions based around enlightened extraterrestrials aren’t new. Raëlism, for example, is a minor religion that emerged in the 1970s in which adherents seek communion with the Elohim — an alien race they believe created Jesus, Buddha, and other great teachers as alien-human hybrids.

But now UFO spirituality is no longer only comprised of small cults; it’s a burgeoning movement — one the psychologist Clay Routledge argues can fill the spiritual needs of a growing segment of secular Americans. The question is: Why?

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‘We Want It Now’: Black Clergy Demand $15 Billion in Reparations From ‘White Churches’ in Boston

Black clergy in Boston are demanding a $15 billion reparations package paid for by “white churches” in the local area.

The demands were made during a press conference the Resurrection Lutheran Church, organized by the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, according to The Boston Globe.

Among the speakers Reverend Kevin Peterson, who previously led a campaign to rename the popular tourist site of Faneuil Hall because of the name’s links to a slaveowner.

“We call sincerely and with a heart filled with faith and Christian love for our White churches to join us and not be silent around this issue of racism and slavery and commit to reparations,” Peterson declared.

“We point to them in Christian love to publicly atone for the sins of slavery and we ask them to publicly commit to a process of reparations where they will extend their great wealth — tens of millions of dollars among some of those churches — into the Black community,” he continued. 

Also speaking at the event was Danielle Williams, the director of a social justice group called Prophetic Resistance Boston, who claims her great-great-grandmother was a slave in North Carolina.

“Black people, the descendants of slavery, have been washing the feet of our oppressors for well over 400 years,” Williams reportedly said. “Now it’s time for you to wash our feet. The descendants of slavery, we want our reparations. We want it now.”

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Witch hunts: Why were so few ‘witches’ killed in Wales?

Britain has a long and bloody history of burning people accused of witchcraft at the stake.

About 4,000 were sent to their death in Scotland and 1,000 in England, but curiously just five were killed in Wales.

In his new book, author and historian Phil Carradice tries to unpack this anomaly and finds several explanations.

He believes it is at least in part down to the Welsh language.

“Very few examiners or judges spoke Welsh,” said Phil, from Eglwys-Brewis, Vale of Glamorgan.

He also believes it could be explained by many of Wales’ small, rural communities being so reliant on their local wise women.

“They made potions and charms and were an accepted part of the community,” he said.

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Former Mormon lifts the lid on church’s ‘creepy’ baptisms for the DEAD that sees children being put through ‘traumatizing’ ceremonies to ‘save’ those who have passed away

A former Mormon has lifted the lid on the church’s bizarre ‘baptisms for the dead’ – revealing the temple sent her to a cemetery to take pictures of gravestones as a kid and then forced her to participate in a ceremony for the deceased.

Alyssa Grenfell, 31, who now works as an assistant principle in Austin, Texas, was raised in a ‘devout Mormon family’ in Utah, but decided to leave the ‘controlling religion’ in 2017.

She has since dedicated her life to helping others ‘navigate their own way out of the LDS church’ – releasing her own ‘guide’ called How to Leave the Mormon Church, while also becoming a viral social media star for sharing her experiences online.

Most recently, Alyssa spoke out about a ‘creepy’ process that saw the group baptize people who have passed away – even if they weren’t members of the religion before their death.

In a video shared to her YouTube channel last week, where she has more than 85,000 subscribers, Alyssa announced: ‘The Mormon church is baptizing your dead relatives.’

She explained that members of the religion believe that ‘everyone must be baptized by the proper Mormon authority’ to move on to ‘Spirit Paradise’ when they pass away.

‘Essentially, when someone passes away, if they haven’t had the chance to receive a Mormon baptism, they’re not saved,’ she said.

‘So Mormons take the names of those who have not been baptized and take them to the LDS temple.

‘They also believe that it’s up to the person to accept or reject the baptism on the other side.

‘That’s why Mormons have no qualms about baptizing basically everybody against their will because they think everyone should have the chance to accept or reject it, and that the choice is left to them once the practice is complete.’ 

Alyssa explained that when someone living would get baptized, the priest would also baptize anywhere between five and 15 dead people at the same time.

And for each deceased person, the living person who is getting baptized must be dunked into the water, which meant they were sometimes going under ‘over and over again’ in quick succession.

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10-Year-Old Kids Denied Drinking Water In Class Because Of Three Muslims Observing Ramadan

Twenty Four children were told they could not drink water at a school in Germany because three other students in the class were Muslims observing Ramadan, according to a report.

The 10-year-old kids in Frankfurt were all denied drinking water due to the tiny minority fasting for the Islamic holy month.

German outlet NIUS, notes that the fifth graders informed their parents after two teachers at the school made the decision. 

One parent commented “At dinner, we always talk about how the day was. I asked my daughter what was new at school. She then told us that two teachers had forbidden the students from drinking in class because three of the 27 children were fasting.”

The teachers were reported to have prevented students from accessing the water dispenser in the hall or having water bottles on their desks.

But it gets weirder.

A father of one of the students noted “We found this announcement strange…the children in fifth grade are between 10 and 11 years old. Even for religious Muslims, the fasting requirement only applies from the age of 14.”

“The fact that 24 children have to take three children into consideration when it comes to basic physical needs, that’s a strange intervention,” he added.

The school has refused to comment on the claims, according to the report.

As Remix News notes, the incident occurred in the same German city, the only one, where Ramadan lights were installed last month.

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Hospital Pays Job Applicant Who Refused Mandated Flu Shot

A hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., has agreed to pay a settlement to a job applicant who had been offered a position, but then was arbitrarily rejected because he declined to take a flu shot hospital officials demanded.

News of the settlement comes from Liberty Counsel.

The fight involved Trinity Health Grand Rapids, which previously was known as Mercy Health St. Mary’s. The resolution includes a consent decree that allows paying of some $50,000 to the worker who was rejected.

The case originally was filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and charged the hospital improperly denied a job applicant’s request for a religious exemption to the flu shot.

The requirement for such shots later was dropped by the hospital, which agreed to train leaders on religious rights in addition to paying the settlement.

“According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, even though the hospital’s former flu shot policy allowed for a religious exemption, the hospital determined the applicant’s articulated religious beliefs were ‘insufficient’ to grant the exemption and denied it without an explanation. Trinity Health, which had made a conditional job offer to the applicant, then rescinded that job offer and did not give the applicant an opportunity to address the concerns with his request.”

The EEOC accused the corporation of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The report explained federal law insists that employers make reasonable accommodations for religious employees – unless those accommodations create an “undue hardship” on the company.

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Ex-SC church volunteer pleads guilty to felony child sex crimes. Gets no prison time.

A former South Carolina church youth volunteer will avoid prison but must register as a sex offender and wear a GPS ankle monitor for life after admitting to illegally touching children in crimes that spanned years, according to York County court records and lawyers in the case. William Pinckney Carpenter III, 64, of Chester, pleaded guilty Wednesday to four felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child in a hearing at the Moss Justice Center in York for crimes that went from 2011 to 2021, documents show. Carpenter pleaded guilty to touching children over their clothes, said prosecutor Misti Shelton, 16th Circuit assistant deputy solicitor. The crimes happened when Carpenter was a church volunteer at two Baptist churches in Rock Hill and York, at a private home, and aboard a bus during a church activity, Shelton said. Judge Dan Hall sentenced Carpenter after agreeing to accept the negotiated plea and sentence deal made between Carpenter and prosecutors, said Shelton and Carpenter’s lawyer, Montrio Belton of Rock Hill. A 15-year prison concurrent sentence on each of the four convictions was suspended to probation as part of the deal, according to the lawyers and court documents in the case. A conviction can carry up to 15 years prison for each charge under South Carolina law. A plea agreement means the victims will not have to go through a trial where they would have had to publicly testify, and there is always a chance of a not-guilty verdict.

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The stories of the women accused of being witches must be told

THERE has been an increased interest in the Scottish witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th centuries in recent months, with campaigns ongoing for an apology, a pardon and a national monument.

Much has been written about the numbers accused – about 3837 – the role of the Kirk and the courts, and the beliefs of both the church and the accusers. But what of the women who were accused? What was the experience of those taken in for questioning?

Those accused of witchcraft were predominantly women – 84%. They were Christian but also said to be practitioners of magic. These magical powers might have been innate, inherited from a mother or grandmother, or they might have been gifted by the fairies.

These powers could be used to help heal a sick child, find lost property or gain a husband. Those with a reputation for being a witch might well be tolerated within a community – and indeed welcomed by some – for a time until external pressures caused the community to turn against them.

The turbulence of the Reformation and the wars of the Three Kingdoms were the two main pressures communities faced at that time. For John Knox, the father of Scottish Calvinism, power was unnatural to women therefore any woman who had power could only have derived it from an evil source – Auld Nick, meaning the Devil.

With that mentality added to the command “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” in the King James version of the Bible, magical practitioners came under threat.

When an accusation was first made, these women were taken from their homes and dragged in front of the Kirk minister and elders to face an aggressive interrogation.

The moral leaders of their community castigated them as evil, wicked and in thrall to the Devil. Physically, there might be several men crowding round them, roaring and bellowing in their faces about their black, sinful soul. They were scared and disoriented – and expected to confess to the very worst of crimes. Torture might be used to force that confession.

Trial records note that accused women were tortured by “hanging them up by the thombes and burning the soles of their feet at the fyre”.

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‘Witch doctor’ sentenced to life for brutal attack on woman during ‘cleansing ritual’

A self-described “witch doctor” was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman during what he called a “cleansing ritual.”

Hassan Shalgheen, 45, was found guilty Tuesday by a jury in Georgia of rape, false imprisonment, theft by deception, battery and sexual battery for the February 2023 attack, and investigators say four other women later came forward to report similar experiences, reported WAGA-TV.

“Victims should not have to feel like they are alone when dealing with this type of crime,” said Gwinnett County district attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson. “We encourage people who have experienced such heinous crimes to come forward and we will get justice. We thank the team that worked on this case, and we thank the jury for returning a conviction.”

The victim met Shalgheen at his Duluth apartment to receive a “healing ritual to remove evil spirits,” for which she paid him a $200 deposit and agreed to make additional payments over 30 days, after booking an appointment through social media.

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