CHURCH SIGN: God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians

Christians and atheists are typically at odds, at least when it comes to theology. So when a church posted a sign that praised “kind atheists” over “hateful Christians,” it’s no surprise the message gained a great deal of attention. While some were offended, many more were supportive of the sentiment the church was attempting to spread.
The United Methodist Church is reporting that Rev. Tom Tate of Rose City Park United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, chose to make the bold statement about the state of Christian character and the need for believers to be nice and loving to those around them. The church sign, which reads, “God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians,” has been spreading wildly via social media, prompting hundreds of calls to the church from across the nation and the globe.

Image Credit: UM Portal

While the message may be a tough pill to swallow for some Christians who believe that non-belief is a tragic societal occurrence — even more tragic than Christians behaving badly — Kay Pettygrove, an administrator at the church, says that positivity has been the predominate sentiment. Pettygrove claims that there has been 30 positive comments for each negative one and says that the church is “flabbergasted” over the response.
“I got an email from a young Mormon man saying, ‘Thank you so much. It made me rethink how I treat people,’” she explains. “Many atheists have said, ‘If there were more churches like yours, we would probably reconsider.’”

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Word's Oldest Practicing Doctor Dies At Age 114

ATLANTA - Family members say Dr. Leila Denmark, who was the world's oldest practicing physician when she retired at age 103, has died in Georgia. She was 114.

Denmark died Sunday in Athens. A funeral is planned for 1 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Athens.

Her grandson, Steven Hutcherson of Atlanta, says she became the first resident of Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children when it opened in Atlanta in 1928. She also admitted the first patient at the hospital, now part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Denmark began her pediatrics practice in her home in Atlanta in 1931 and continued until her retirement in 2001.

Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Denmark was the world's fourth-oldest living person when she died.
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Egypts Ban On Pornographic Websites Is Being Met With Resistance

CAIRO -- An Egyptian court has ordered the government to ban pornographic Internet websites in order to protect society and its values.

The decision and a similar initiative in parliament has fed into fears by liberal and secular Egyptians that their country is moving down the path to fundamentalist Islam, following a sweeping victory by Islamists in parliamentary elections.

The ruling Wednesday came from a lower court and can be appealed. Three years ago a court made a similar ruling, but it was not enforced because at the time, officials argued filtering systems were not effective.

Human rights activists criticized the latest ruling and warned it was a violation of freedom of information in an already conservative society.

The pornographic website issue recently underlined the Islamist domination of parliament, when an ultraconservative lawmaker presented a query asking the government to ban pornographic websites because they endangered the morality of the country's youth. The lawmaker asked the government to introduce legislation banning sites that promote corruption and immorality.

Internet specialists said trying to ban pornography with a court ruling or legislation is ineffective. The use of parental controls is considered a more common way to curb access of minors to offensive content.

"It is very hard to implement and is ... a waste of resources," said lawyer Soha Abdel-Attie of the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights. She said it was not clear if the new court order builds on the previous case or was a new ban.

Others said the ban is a violation of freedom of expression and information and could be followed by other steps to censor dissidents.
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Atheists Offer Porn To Students In Exchange For Bibles

Members of Atheist Agenda at the University of Texas at San Antonio (Photo by Brent Harris)

 

Annual "Smut for Smut" event on Texas campus attracts little attention this year 

 

A small group of students at the University of Texas at San Antonio spent two days last week sitting in the middle of campus next to bright red signs covered in large black letters. One said "Free Porn." The other offered "Smut for Smut."

The students, all members of Atheist Agenda, hoped to entice their classmates to turn in their Bibles in exchange for pornographic magazines - a provocative offer designed to shock and attract attention.

"The point is not to hand out porn, but rather the primary purpose is to get people to come talk to us so we can get our message out," Kyle Bush, the group's president, said. "We want to spread atheism and bring it more to the spotlight. We offer another alternative to people who might not fit in anywhere else."

The event caused an uproar on campus in 2008 and made headlines around the world. But this year, few students took notice. During the four hours Atheist Agenda members spent next to their signs each day, only about 30 people stopped by to get information about the club or start a debate. 

In addition to Bibles, the group offered to collect other religious texts, including the Quran, and any books written by prominent pastors, including Joel Osteen and Rick Warren. During the event, Atheist Agenda collected five Bibles, one Encyclopedia of Islam, and one Quran. The group plans to donate the books to a local library.

Despite the event's ability in previous years to attract attention for atheism, Bush said the group didn't have any financial backers outside its student members. The group raised all of the money needed to put on the event themselves, he said. One of the group's fundraisers included selling popsicles.

"A lot of the money comes from members," Bush said. "Like if we need posters, somebody will go and buy posters."

The group purchased 140 pounds of pornographic magazines for $30 from a seller on Craigslist.

Students who passed by the group's tables without stopping had mixed reactions. Mark Martinez said he wouldn't trade in his Bible but supported Atheist Agenda's right to hold the event: "It's their belief."

About 30 yards away from the tables, a small group of students stood in a circle, holding hands, heads bowed. The students, members of the campus vocal club Victory and Praise Choir, quietly sang worship songs between prayers.

The singers first gathered to protest the atheist event last year, Assistant Choir Director Tarvia Demerson said. They hope to show people walking by that the atheists aren't the only ones willing to make a bold, public statement about their beliefs. 

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Michelle Obama Tells Children "Convince Your Grandparents To Vote For My Husband"

Michelle Obama, who has quickly become the Obama campaign’s tip of the spear when it comes to fundraising and vote-getting, is now stumping for children to convince their “great-grandparents” to vote for her husband. At an event at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – for which tickets cost at least $500 – Michelle said:

I mean, I can’t tell you in the last election how many grandparents I ran into who said, I wasn’t going to vote for Barack Obama until my grandson talked to me, until my great-grandson talked to me, and talked about the future he wanted for this country.

You can get out there with your parents. You guys can knock on doors. I had one young lady who brought me a petition — she’s already working. You can convince wrong people. Sometimes we don’t listen to ourselves, but we will listen to our children.

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Condo Owner Told To Remove Jewish Mezuzah Ornament Or Face Fines

Fox News--A Connecticut condominium owner has been told by the complex's management association that she must remove a Jewish religious symbol or face fines, advocates told FoxNews.com.

Barbara Cadranel, an internationally-renown harpsichordist living in Stratford, Conn., contacted the Connecticut Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League earlier this month to report that she had been told by the California Condo Association to remove the mezuzah -- a small object inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah placed on the doorpost of a Jewish family's home -- or face fines of $50 per day, according to ADL's Connecticut Regional Director Gary Jones.

"It's pretty rare," Jones said of disputes between condominium association and owners involving mezuzot. "The obligation to place a mezuzah on the doorframe or doorpost is a right in the Bible. Jewish people everywhere, including those in condominiums, post a mezuzah as a reminder of their religious obligations."

Jones said Cadranel, 60, who could not be reached by FoxNews.com for comment Friday, has retained Nathan and Alyza Lewin of Lewin & Lewin, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that has notified the condominium association that its actions are in violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act.

Cadranel told The Hartford Courtant she received the mezuzah as a gift last fall. She now feels "violated" after being told to remove it, she told the newspaper.

"I'm bullied and I'm saddened," she told the Courant. "It's changed my whole existence here." 

Cadranel, who "travels the world" playing harpsichord and other classical instruments, travels so often that "she doesn't have a real home," Jones said.

"For the first time in awhile, she's had a place to call home," he continued. "So it's very disconcerting to her that this would be an issue.

"It's not a decorative choice, or a choice at all when a condo association or anyone says that a mezuzah can’t be put on a doorpost or doorframe. Basically, they are telling the Jewish person that he or she cannot live there."

Attempts to reach representatives at the California Condo Association were not successful Friday. According to an agreement with its condo owners, the display of items like Christmas wreaths and crosses on doors is allowed, but the display of other items such as mezuzah on doorposts is not, the Jewish Ledger reports.

The association's attorney has said that Cadranel was well aware of the bylaws when she purchased the unit on Aug. 31, 2010, the Courant reports.

"The declaration expressly prohibits unit owners from hanging or displaying anything on the outside windows or outside walls of any building, and also prohibits any sign from being affixed to or placed upon the exterior walls … without prior consent of the association's board of directors," attorney Kurt Ahlberg, said in a March 21 response.

Jim O'Neill, spokesman for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, said his office had not received a complaint on the matter.

"If she files a complaint, we'll certainly look into it," O'Neill told FoxNews.com.

Similar disputes have occurred at condominiums around the nation. 

In the most well-known case, a Chicago couple sued after being told they couldn't put the symbol on their door. The case dragged on from 2005 to 2009, eventually making its way to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals before the parties settled. The couple was permitted to keep the symbol in place. 

The case led city officials and Illinois state Legislature to pass laws barring condominium associations from banning the symbols. Some states have enacted laws specifically protecting condo residents’ rights to put up mezuzahs.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/30/connecticut-condo-owner-told-to-remove-jewish-religious-ornament-or-face-fines/#ixzz1quEMto1P

NBC Launches Investigation After Today Show Chops Up 911 Recording To Make Zimmerman Sound Racist

Fox News--NBC has launched an internal probe after running an edited version of the 911 call from George Zimmerman -- the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin -- that made Zimmerman sound racist.  

"We have launched an internal investigation into the editorial process surrounding this particular story," the network said in a statement to the Washington Post on Monday.  

NBC's "Today" show ran the edited audio of George Zimmerman's phone call to a police dispatcher in which Zimmerman says: "'This guy looks like he's up to no good … he looks black." 

But the audio recording in its entirety reveals that Zimmerman did not volunteer the information that Martin was black. Instead, Zimmerman was answering a question from a police dispatcher about the race of the "suspicious person" whom Zimmerman was speaking about.

A transcript of the complete 911 call shows that Zimmerman said, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."

The 911 officer responded saying, "OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?"

"He looks black," Zimmerman said. 

The abridged conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher that NBC ran on March 27 has been blasted by media watchdog groups as misleading. Critics have said the edited version was made to suggest that Zimmerman targeted Martin because he was black -- an accusation by many that is still under investigation. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/02/nbc-launches-internal-probe-over-edited-11-call-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/#ixzz1quAYS3LP

Going On Vacation? Why Not Try Communist North Korea!

AFP - North Korea attempted on Sunday to lure foreign tourists to the hermit country to help celebrate a major anniversary, pledging to make "every possible sincere efforts" to show visitors a good time.
Preparations are under way at the scenic Mount Kumgang to arrange transport and lodging for foreigners who have apparently showed "keen interest" in visiting the communist nuclear-armed nation.
There are no official figures on how many foreign tourists visit North Korea each year, but their cash -- the North charges exorbitant prices for everything from beer to accommodation -- is a major boon to the moribund economy.
The resort at Mount Kumgang, where a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a soldier in July 2008 after allegedly straying from the area, was developed by the South Korean giant Hyundai Asan and opened in 1998.
It once earned the impoverished North tens of millions of dollars a year from South Koreans eager to see the other half of the Korean peninsula, but the tours have been banned since the fatal shooting of the South Korean housewife.
The development, which has since been deserted, "is fully open to all tourists in the blooming best tour season of April", a spokesman for the tourism authority in the Mount Kumgang area told state media KCNA.
The spokesman pledged "all kinds of special privileges" to tour firms willing to go there, stressing the North was in celebratory mood for the centenary of the birth of its founding president, Kim Il-Sung, on April 15.
"We welcome all the tourists coming to Mount Kumgang and will make every possible sincere efforts to let them spend pleasant days in the best scenic spot," said the spokesman.
The resort in the coastal Mount Kumgang was developed with South Korean money as a symbol of reconciliation between the two Koreas, who are still technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended only in an armistice.
But the 2008 shooting there and a general deterioration in ties has seen the North and South fail to agree to find a compromise on tour groups from South Korea returning.
Frustrated with the long stalemate and desperate for foreign cash, Pyongyang last year stripped Hyundai Asan of its exclusive right to run tours to the idyllic area that boasts breathtaking views, lush vegetation and waterfalls.
Foreign tourists face immense restrictions on visits to North Korea, which can ordinarily only be made as part of a closely watched tour group. Most areas of the country are off-limits and visitors are forbidden to talk to the locals.
Pyongyang on Sunday renewed criticism of what it called South Korea's "grave provocation" over Mount Kumgang. Seoul has been lobbying for a blanket ban on all foreign tourists going there.
The North is set to lavishly commemorate the anniversary with various festivals and events including the launch of a satellite that has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community.
Pyongyang insists it is a peaceful space project but Washington and Seoul see it as a disguised missile test banned under UN resolutions.
The North, which desperately needs foreign aid to feed its 24 million people, slammed Saturday the US suspension of food aid over the disputed launch, calling the move an "overreaction".
The communist regime under the late ruler Kim Jong-Il set 2012 as the year to become a "strong and prosperous nation".

Read More From France24.com

Teen Mob Attacks On The Rise In Minneapolis Police Looking To Enforce Curfew

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There have been six mob attacks, in all, since February. Now, police are now wondering if an 8 o’clock curfew keeping anyone 17 and under from two downtown streets will stop the violence.

Nicollet Mall is a destination for many. Outdoor patios where drinks and food are served are a draw not only to people who live here, but also tourist.
Since February, when the sun goes down, later in the evening, mobs of teens take advantage of the darkness and attack.

A video captured on 6th Street and Nicollet shows how the mob of teens viciously attacks innocent people.

Police have made four arrests, but continue to search for others. They’ve beefed up patrols and monitor video from cameras that cover the entire downtown area.

Minneapolis Police have asked the city attorney if it can impose a curfew of 8 p.m. along the mall and Hennepin Avenue.

For some, talk of an earlier curfew for 17 year olds and under won’t stop the violence.

Read More from ABC Minnesota

Atheist And Agnostic Festival Held At Military Base

Christian Post--The U.S. military hosted an event meant specifically for atheist and agnostic soldiers for the first time Saturday on the grounds of a large Army base in North Carolina.

"Rock Beyond Belief," an event featuring secular speakers and musicians, was held on the main parade ground at the Fort Bragg military base. It was modeled after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's "Rock the Fort" evangelistic event that was held at the same venue in 2010.

"I love the military," The Associated Press quoted Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists, as saying. "This is not meant to be a black eye."

The organizers claim on the event's website that they are not interested in being a counter-event to the "offensive" "Rock the Fort" concert, or in putting on an anti-Christian, anti-religious event. "Rock Beyond Belief" is a day of fun and entertainment, they say.

Griffith had invited Christian soldiers to the event, and had said a free barbecue meal would be provided to the first 1,000 Department of Defense cardholders.

Atheist and agnostic soldiers at Fort Bragg have been pushing for gaining recognition as a faith group that would have the right to hold meetings inside the facilities. And Saturday's concert, attended by a few hundred people, was also aimed at making a case for that demand.

Prominent British atheist Richard Dawkins was a speaker. "We're never antagonistic toward religious believers, we're antagonistic toward religious belief," he claimed. "There is no good, honest reason to believe in a god or gods of any kind, or indeed in anything supernatural. The only reason to believe something is that you have evidence for it."

What is your occupation?

"We got any Darwin fans in the house?" asked Baba Brinkman, a rapper, before launching into a song about evolutionary biology.

The Delaware-based Stiefel Freethought Foundation, which promotes and supports the free thought movement, had donated $70,000 for the event. Its founder Todd Stiefel was quoted as saying that the Army should not host events like Saturday's concert and the BGEA-sponsored event that prompted it. "I would like this to be the last one of these events."

Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski at Fort Bragg said the hosting of "Rock the Fort" was a non-issue. "We don't treat soldiers who are atheists as atheists, we treat them as soldiers," he said. "They're soldiers first."

The post commander had earlier refused to allow the festival to be held on the main parade field. Griffith had to cancel the event scheduled for April 2 last year. However, with the backing of groups working for church-state separation, Griffith complained to the Secretary of the Army that the fort was discriminating against certain religious groups. Cooperation was pledged as a result.

"This just might be the turning point in the foxhole atheist community's struggle for acceptance, tolerance and respect," Griffith said after the permission to hold the event was granted last August. "It's an amazing time to be a nonbeliever in the U.S. military on the cusp of a major breakthrough."

Jason Torpy, president of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that it's important to understand the background of how the atheist event came about. The festival was conceived as reaction to the Billy Graham's event, which received some manpower and financial support from the base command at the request of some chaplains.
Griffith and atheist groups objected to it, alleging it was an army-sponsored platform to seek converts.

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