Get this: The website is called You’ve Been Left Behind.  “I got out of here and you didn’t.  Deal with it!”

For just $40 a year, believers can arrange for up to 62 people to get a final message exactly six days after the Rapture, that day when — according to Christian end times dogma — Christians will be swept up to heaven, while doubters are left behind to suffer seven years of Tribulation under a global government headed by the Antichrist.

"You've Been Left Behind gives you one last opportunity to reach your lost family and friends for Christ," reads the website, which is purportedly run "by Christians, for Christians." The domain name is registered through an anonymous proxy service, presumably to protect the proprietors from the Forces of Darkness, and not because they're up to anything shady.

The e-mails will be triggered when three of the site's five Christian staffers "scattered around the U.S." fail to log in for six days in a row — a system that incorporates a nice margin of safety, should two of the proprietors turn out to be unrepentant sinners or atheists.

Hmmmm.  That means the e-mails could also be triggered if three of the five “staffers” abscond to Brazil with the money.  Would that qualify as a rapture?

h/t: Kruse Kronicle

A FLDS colony exists at Bountiful, BC, where polygamy has been an open secret for decades, yet provincial governments have refused to prosecute.  The events in Texas have renewed pressure on Attorney-General Wally Oppal to get off his duff.

The Attorney-General of British Columbia should stop wasting time and start prosecuting individuals in the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, a former member of the polygamous sect said Tuesday.

Debbie Palmer, who was married off at the age of 15 to a 55-year-old man, said she does not understand why the province keeps studying the constitutionality of the federal law that forbids polygamy rather than testing it by enforcement.

Rather than enforce the law against polygamy, Mr Oppal has elected to refer the Bountiful file to, not one, but two successive outside lawyers for advice.  Both opposed prosecution; rather, they advised court references to assess the law's constitutionality.  Oppal says he favours a more aggressive approach, but has not actually done anything.  Certainly, he is dithering; he may even be stalling.

Don Stuart, a professor of law at Queen's University, said he was puzzled by what was going on in British Columbia.

"I'm not quite sure why it's necessary to refer a normal law enforcement discretion to a committee," Prof. Stuart said.

"Prosecutors are not supposed to proceed if there's no reasonable prospect of success. If there's an evidentiary problem of getting the proper complainant you can understand why they're not proceeding," said Prof. Stuart. "But assuming there's a possibility of getting the evidence I would have thought that referring the matter to a court for a constitutional reference seems rather odd. Especially if the likelihood here is that people are being hurt."

Ms Palmer says that she was forced to marry an older man who already had five wives.  After he died, she was “reassigned” to another polygamous man who abused her.  She finally managed to escape with her eight children.

Previous related posts:

• Judge issues wake-up call with Bountiful custody decision
• Polygamous leader convicted on rape charges: “It’s about time”
• BC will not charge polygamists with sexual abuse
• BC still thinkin’ about charging polygamists
• BC attorney-general says he’s “not ignoring” polygamy at Bountiful

According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, its [Church of Scientology’s] Irish representative Gerard Ryan, wrote a letter of protest to Mr Ahern asking whether this had been a "pointed snub".

"Perhaps this was simply an error of omission, and if so, I apologise for any inference I may have inadvertently made.

"However, if our church was deliberately not invited I would greatly appreciate if you would tell me why," he wrote.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern wrote back in March last year to say that the letter would be brought to his attention — but there was no further communication with the church.

No word on whether Methodists or Baptists sent letters reminding Mr Ahern of their existence.

h/t: Religion News Blog

Previous related posts:

• Liberal MP endorses organisation linked to Scientology
• Scientologists to renovate Winnipeg landmark
• Tom Cruise revises A Charlie Brown Christmas

West Island Liberal MP Bernard Patry defended his recent endorsement of anti-drug organization Narconon Trois Rivière's prevention campaign despite the latter's supposed links to the Church of Scientology.

"I did not know that they might be tied into the Scientology church," said Patry, who represents the Pierrefonds-Dollard riding. "As a former physician, when I started looking into this, I just wanted to try to find out what type of treatment the drug addicts are getting."
. . .
Globally, the Narconon network has run into problems in several countries in the past. In 1988 in Madrid, Spain, 11 members of the Church of Scientology were arrested, according to the St. Petersburg Times, and a local judge decried how Narconon swindled its clients and lured them toward Scientology. In 2003, the state of Oklahoma in the United States narrowly voted down a resolution honouring the work of Narconon Arrowhead, reported the Tulsa World. Last year, the United Kingdom's prison systems ombudsman recommended Narconon not to be allowed in jails due to its connection to Scientology, reported the Sunday Times.

A local Scientology spokesperson denies everything.

Read the comments for more dirt information about Narconon and Scientology.

h/t: Religion News Blog

Previous related posts:

• Scientologists to renovate Winnipeg landmark
• Tom Cruise revises A Charlie Brown Christmas

"And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking." Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

The "perceiving of the voices" has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca. "One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds," he says.

Of course!  How could any rational person doubt such a compelling argument?

Shanon, former head of the Hebrew University psychology department, said his first experience with ayahuasca was in 1991 when he was invited to a religious ceremony in the northern Amazon in 1991 in Brazil. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," he says. Since that time, he has used it hundreds of times, and has published a book about the plant.

Do you suppose this guy is allowing his personal experiences to influence his reading of the Bible?  Nah!  A psychology professor would never do that.

Anyway, that is not exactly a novel idea.  Back in 1970, John Allegro hypothesised that the New Testament was written by aficionados of “the cult of the phallic mushroom” and that “Jesus” was a code name for the mushroom.  Prof Allegro also claimed that Moses (meaning “emergent snake”) was another myth having something to do with mushroom worship.

By comparison, Prof Shanon’s hypothesis seems almost sane sober down-to-earth, but I doubt it will prove any more persuasive.

The Bible, Homosexuality and Sexual Ethics

This course will examine the Bible’s views on homosexual practice in the context of a broader discussion of human sexuality. Particular attention will be given to the creation texts, the Sodom narrative and related stories, the Levitical prohibitions, the witness of Jesus on human sexuality, and several key texts in Paul (Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 1:10) in the broader context of Pauline sexual ethics. The three main arguments for dismissing the biblical witness on homosexual practice will be assessed and critiqued (the exploitation, orientation and misogyny arguments). The course will also deal with philosophic nature arguments, current socio-scientific information and church and public policy issues. Students will be equipped to think through the issue of homosexual practice and to make a reasoned and compassionate case for the importance of a male-female prerequisite for valid sexual unions.

BIBL/THEO 589: July 14-25, 1:15-3:45 pm
2 or 3 graduate credit hours

Dr Gagnon’s The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001) is essential reading for those who wish to investigate and ponder everything the Bible says about homosexual behaviour.  Many of his articles are posted at his website.

Dr Gagnon is Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Check out the rest of Regent’s summer schedule as well.

c/p: Anglican Essentials Canada Blog

“I need answers and all your questions and your uncertainty are only making things worse”.

h/t: Thinking Christian

Rev. Yvette Shank, president of the church's Canadian office in Toronto, said the church plans to undertake a major refurbishing of the 115-year-old Peck Building, which it quietly acquired last March for a previously unheard of price for the Exchange of $2.2 million.

"We love it," Shank said of the six-storey, brick-and-stone building at the northeast corner of Princess Street and Notre Dame Avenue. "When we're finished with it, it will be a beautiful building."

Shank said the church expects to spend between $7.5 million and $10 million to refurbish the 50,000-square-foot-plus building. It hopes to complete planning by the end of this year "and that will dictate our schedule" for renovations.

A word to the wise for readers from Winnipeg: Be wary of anyone who believes the nonsense taught by that lunatic sect.

In related news, despite Google’s efforts to stop google-bombing, the official Scientology site appears first on a search for “dangerous cult”.

Source of Peck Building photo: Virtual Heritage Winnipeg

h/t: Religion News Blog, which keeps an archive of recent Scientology news stories here

Previous related post: Tom Cruise revises A Charlie Brown Christmas

Rev Piper then connects the abominable practices decried in Psalm 106 to the present practice of abortion.  Here is his conclusion.

Abortion: Sacrificing Our Sons and Daughters to Demons

It is the sacrificing of our sons and daughters to demons. And someday we will see this. And we will be as amazed that it could have endured so long as we are that the enslavement of Africans lasted as long as it did. The issue is just as clear as that one was. And we are just as blind today as they were then. The big difference is that the babies can’t run away. The underground railroad is entirely dependent on you, not them.

The strength to stand up and make a difference in this cause comes not mainly from the raw horrors of abortion, but from the amazing grace of verses 44-45: “Nevertheless [that is, in spite of sacrificing their children to demons], he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” This is what Jesus Christ came to achieve for all who will receive it.

Take Up the Challenge

I pray that the horrors of abortion and the glory of God’s grace will move you to take up the challenge of prayer on the back of the worship folder and to extend yourself in other practical ways for life, both temporal and eternal. Amen.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the rights of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
(Psalm 82:3-4)

Amen, and amen!

h/t: Peter Ould at An Exercise in the Fundamentals of Orthodoxy

Previous related posts:

• “The Triumph of the Will”
• Clergy bless abortuary as “sacred ground”
• Moloch and abortion

The supplies were apparently stolen by members of Puwo Gawe, a cargo cult said to be led by Sister Cora, an excommunicated Anglican nun, and Archbishop Ambo.

Security forces have been directed to detain cult leaders of the Puwo Gawe cult movement over their alleged involvement in hampering the effective distribution of relief supplies.

The cult is reported to have a following in almost all areas of the province.

Yesterday, a team of police and soldiers were deployed to Begabari village along the North Coast with orders to round up cult leaders who allegedly meddled in the efficient distribution of relief supplies transported there last Saturday.

Puwo Gawe members grabbed the supplies, claiming that the goods were cargo given to them by their ancestors.  Police are determined to arrest those responsible for disrupting distribution of desperately needed disaster relief provisions.

George Conger provides some background information on cargo cults in the South Pacific.

Cargo cult devotees believe in the imminence of a new age of blessing and prosperity, whose sign will be the arrival of cargo from heaven.

While the cults first arose in the mid-Nineteenth century when Melanesians first came in contact with the West, they spread quickly during World War II when the American and Australian armies established large supply depots in the region to support the allied campaigns in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

Cult devotees saw the influx of supplies as a sign of the millennium, and many stopped farming and hunting, turning to spam and other army foodstuffs for subsistence. God’s failure to return discouraged many, but the cults survive, led by charismatic leaders who predict the imminent arrival of cargo from heaven.

It is not yet clear whether Abp Ambo, who served as primate from 1983 to 1990, is actually associated with the cult or aided the thefts.  Allegations and unconfirmed reports are all police have to go on thus far.

The marriage of Roy and Teressa Blackmore was by all accounts monogamous.  Mr Blackmore claimed that the church’s marital practice is not connected with his estranged wife's desertion, which would otherwise be clear and sufficient grounds to deny custody.  Yet , Mr Justice Melnick was unable to ignore the fact that Bountiful is a polygamist community.

[W]hatever Mr. Blackmore may argue about the FLDS Church being irrelevant to this application, it is an elephant in the corner of the room of this proceeding that inevitably casts a shadow over it.

The written ruling quotes s. 293(1) of Canada’s Criminal Code, the section outlawing polygamy.

This decision should be an obvious wake-up call to British Columbia politicians, law enforcement authorities, and child protection agencies.

Politicians in British Columbia may be afraid to tackle the polygamous community of Bountiful, but a Supreme Court judge didn't shy away from repeating the obvious this week.

Polygamy is illegal and it may not be in childrens' best interests to be raised within a polygamous society.
. . .
Even though the Blackmores' marriage was monogamous, the judge recognized that if the children were raised by their father, they would be constantly exposed to the FLDS belief that polygamy is essential to reach the highest realm of heaven whether within their extended family, in the community, at church, and at the government-funded Bountiful elementary-secondary school, which last year received nearly $640,000 in grants.

Ms Blackmore believes that Bountiful FLDS leaders pressured her estranged husband to sue for custody after she testified against Warren Jeffs in the trial that resulted in his conviction on rape charges.

Will BC Attorney General Wally Oppal get off his duff now?  Is the BC Child Protection Branch finally going to do something to protect the children of Bountiful?

BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Development has been aware of Bountiful for years but failed to look after its women and children.  A search of the department’s website turned up a telling document dated May 2006: "Director’s Case Practice Audit Report, Interior Region, Creston Children and Family Services".  (Creston is adjacent to Bountiful.)

From pages 5-6 of the pdf document:

The team leader at Creston is currently working with community partners and the Community Services Manager on a proposal for developing services for the women and children of "Bountiful". Bountiful is an isolated religious sect that has often been of interest to the media. There is concern by some members of the Creston community about the safety and well being of the children and the women of Bountiful. This venture of developing services is in its beginning stages.

"Bountiful . . . has often been of interest to the media", but of little interest to the ministry.  Those pesky media are always sensationalising stuff, anyway.

I also notice that the audit report mentions neither the reason for "media" interest nor the distinctive practices of the sect.  Finally, I can find nothing at the ministry’s website indicating whether the "venture of developing services" ever moved beyond "its beginning stages".

h/t: Religion News Blog

Previous related posts:

• Are monogamy and democracy linked?
• BC will not charge polygamists with sexual abuse
• Poll shows overwhelming support for enforcing Canada’s polygamy law
• BC attorney-general says he’s “not ignoring” polygamy at Bountiful
• International human rights law obligates Canada to eliminate polygamy
• BC polygamists send kids to public schools

That's why I am so grateful for the seven-minute video clip linked here, in which The Rev Dr Kendall Harmon presents the big picture, simply and succinctly.  This is what it's all about.

c/p: Anglican Essentials Canada Blog

h/t: TitusOneNine