Holy Freeloading! Here are 10 ways religious groups rob taxpayers

Have you ever thought about starting a new religion or perhaps a hometown franchise of an old one? Perhaps you’re just looking for a career ladder in a religious enterprise that already exists. No? Maybe you should.

Religion is big business. There are lots of options (over 30,000 variants of Christianity alone), and if the scale is right it can pay really, really well. Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church, has an estimated net worth of $27 million. Benny Hinn comes in at 42. Squeaky clean tent revival pioneer Billy Graham bankrolled around 25. Even Eddie Long who has been plagued by accusations of sex with underage male members in his congregation counts his bankbook in seven digits.

Alabama Legislature May Give Fundamentalist Church Its Own Police Force: What Could Go Wrong?

Donald Trump’s election didn’t just empower the alt-right troops with their #MAGA hats and Pepe the Frog avatars. The religious right is also more quietly making moves to consolidate power on a state and local level, aided by Trump’s promises to appoint conservative-friendly judges and to strike down legal limits on church-based politicking.

But even in the current environment, it’s startling to learn that the Alabama legislature is considering a bill to give a Birmingham-based church its own police force. The bill, Senate Bill 193, would specifically authorize the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, which has more than 4,000 members, to hire its own police force that would be “invested with all of the powers of law enforcement officers in this state.”

The New Religion Of Choice For White Supremacists

On Monday, three Virginia men were charged with plotting to attack and bomb black churches and Jewish synagogues, reportedly with the goal of triggering a “race war” in the United States. Suspects Ronald Chaney and Robert Doyle, who FBI officials say are also plotting to kill a local jewelry dealer and rob an armored car, were outspoken white supremacists, bound by a common desire enact violence against Jews and African Americans.

Public Elementary School Allegedly Waged Shame Campaign Against Students Who Don’t Believe In God

A lawsuit filed on behalf of a non-religious family details a series of actions by teachers and administrators that, even if they were not designed specifically to humiliate the family’s children, certainly should be expected to have that effect.

According to a complaint filed on behalf of the family, who is identified as the “Does,” teachers at the Swainsboro Primary School in Swainsboro, Georgia “regularly led their classes in Christian prayer,” a practice that violates the Constitution’s First Amendment. When the Doe parents complained that their children’s kindergarten and first grade teachers were leading the class in unconstitutional prayers, their teachers allegedly “told the Doe children to leave their classrooms and sit in the hallway while the rest of the class prayed.” One of the children, a first grader, said that the teacher “used her mean voice” when she told the child to leave the classroom. Meanwhile, Cel Thompson, a kindergarten teacher, allegedly “announced to the entire kindergarten class that Jamie [Doe] was not allowed to pray to God and then told Jamie to wait in the hallway while the rest of the class prayed.”

Pope Francis Slams 'Prejudiced Mentality' Of Believers Who Fearfully Cling To Religious Laws

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In a powerful sermon that signaled his desire to push ahead with historic reforms, Pope Francis on Sunday (Feb. 15) said the Roman Catholic Church must be open and welcoming, whatever the costs.

He also warned the hierarchy not to be “a closed caste” but to lead in reaching out to all who are rejected by society and the church.

Christian Group Fires Woman For Not Making Efforts ‘To Reconcile Her Marriage’ And Now She Can’t Sue

A federal court has ruled that a woman cannot sue a Christian campus organization that fired her for having a troubled marriage, even though the group reportedly didn’t let go two male staffers when they divorced their wives.

According to MLive, Alyce Conlon worked for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship — an evangelical Christian organization — in various capacities since 1986, eventually landing a job as a spiritual director in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2004 to 2011. But when she informed her superiors that her marriage had fallen into disarray, Conlon says InterVarsity — which purports to uphold the sanctity of marriage, according to MLive — put her on paid leave to afford her an opportunity to salvage her relationship.

Religious Conservatives Finally Admit What They Really Want Out Of Hobby Lobby

For two and a half years, the Obama Administration has tried to strike a balance between the health needs of workers and the sensibilities of employers who object to contraceptive care on religious grounds. Just last month, the administration announced its most recent accommodation for these religious objectors — an employer can exempt itself completely from the federal rule requiring employer-provided health plans to cover birth control, so long as it informs the government that it seeks a religious exemption and tells them which company administers their health plan.

Saying Lord's Prayer At School To Continue For Now In S.E. Alberta

The practice of reciting the Lord's Prayer will continue for now at some schools in southeastern Alberta.

The issue came to a head earlier this month after a complaint from a mother whose son attends Dr. Hamman School in Taber, about 50 kilometres east of Lethbridge.

Arkansas Bible Course Bill Proposed By Rep. Denny Altes To Teach Elective In Public Schools

Arkansas schools could soon have an easier way to teach a Bible course as part of its public curriculum.

Republican state Rep. Denny Altes has proposed a bill that would allow the state's public school districts to adopt an elective curriculum for academic study of the Bible. The course would "consist of a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture and politics" and would "be taught in an objective and non devotional manner with no attempt made to indoctrinate students as to either the truth or falsity of the biblical materials or texts from other religions or cultural traditions."

Mike Huckabee: Newtown Shooting No Surprise, We've 'Systematically Removed God' From Schools

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) weighed in on the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. on Friday, saying the crime was no surprise because we have "systematically removed God" from public schools.

"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"

Christian Pastor Calls For Starbucks Boycott Over Gay Marriage Support

A Christian pastor is asking customers to boycott Starbucks due to the company's support of a bill to legalize gay marriage in Washington state, King 5 News reports.

"Christians are upset with Starbucks for turning against God...Starbucks can follow Satan if they want to," Steven Andrew, and evangelical pastor and president of the USA Christian Ministries in California, said in a statement. "However, pastors are to help Christians. Are you on the Lord's side? Will you help the USA be blessed by God?"

The call for the boycott was released Tuesday, a day prior to the bill's passage in Washington's State Senate Wednesday night, according to Reuters.

USA Ministries is also asking for Christians to stop serving the brand at their church facilities and events.

The Seattle-based coffee chain joined more than 100 other firms in backing the same-sex marriage bill.

Other companies taking a similar position include Nike, Google and Microsoft, Half Moon Bay Patch notes.

If the bill passes in the state house of representatives next week, Washington will become the seventh U.S. state to recognize same-sex unions.

Original Article
Source: Huff 
Author: Tara Kelly 

Shadrack McGill, Alabama State Senator, Says Keeping Teacher Pay Low 'A Biblical Principle'

Someone alert the unions: raising teacher pay will actually make for worse teachers--according to one GOP lawmaker.

Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill said that increasing teacher pay is against "a biblical principle" because it might attract people who otherwise wouldn't do the job.

"Teachers need to make the money that they need to make," McGill said, according to the Times-Journal. "If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach ... and these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It's just in them to do. It's the ability that God give 'em."

McGill's comments came at a prayer breakfast this week in Fort Payne, Ala. State legislators are currently weighing raising teacher pay. One GOP leader proposed raising salaries of newer teachers by 2.5 percent, but critics argue that it isn't fair to longer-serving educators, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

A recent report might justify critics' worries, showing that Alabama is actually leading the nation in starting teacher salaries, while lagging behind in average teacher pay, the Dothan Eagle reports.

The national average starting salary for a teacher is $39,000. New York Times columnist Nick Kristof has argued that paying teachers more would help attract better people to the profession, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has repeatedly vocalized his assertion that teachers should have salaries starting at $60,000 and the opportunity to make up to $150,000 based on performance.

Original Article
Source: Huff 
Author: Alana Horowitz 

Mississippi Rejects Bill to Grant Pre-Embryonic "Personhood," Outlaw Fertility Aid, Birth Control

Voters in Mississippi have overwhelmingly defeated an amendment to establish that a fertilized human egg is a person, despite support for the measure from the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor. If passed, it would have made Mississippi the first state to grant constitutional rights to embryo from the moment of conception. We speak with Diane Derzis, owner of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. She notes supporters had hoped to use the Mississippi measure to mount a legal attack on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the right to abortion. "If you make a fertilized egg a person, not only have you banned abortion immediately, you have banned most forms of birth control, as they work by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. That’s very clear. There’s no two ways about that," Derzis says. Efforts are underway in at least six states, and at the federal level, to adopt similar laws.

Video
Source: Democracy Now! 

Mississippi 'Personhood' Law Could Cause Legal Mayhem, Experts Warn

If Mississippians vote to pass an unprecedented initiative on Tuesday that would declare a fertilized egg a legal person under the state Constitution, nobody -- including the authors of the initiative -- knows exactly how that law would be interpreted and enforced. But legal and medical experts are concerned that the "personhood" amendment could spur a litany of expensive court battles, bogus lawsuits and moral and political conundrums beyond the scope of women's choice.

The somewhat vague question facing Mississippi voters at the ballots is: Should an undeveloped embryo have the same legal rights as a person? If the people answer yes, then state lawmakers will be faced with the challenge of figuring out what Proposition 26 means for practical purposes and how to implement it.

The process of interpreting and implementing the amendment is likely to be complicated and fraught with legal challenges, considering the word "person" appears more than 9,000 times in the Mississippi constitution. The law would unequivocally ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or life of the mother, but advocates on both sides argue about the legal implications beyond abortion. The initiative could be interpreted to ban emergency contraception as well as the regular birth control pill, which can both affect a fertilized egg's ability to attach to the uterus. It could also complicate the legality of in vitro fertilization, which can result in a number of unused embryos, and stem cell research.

Pat Robertson: Crack In Washington Monument A Sign From God, Earthquake Signals Coming Of Christ

Televangelist Pat Robertson suggested Wednesday that cracks in the Washington Monument caused by the August 23 earthquake could be a sign from God, and the natural disaster “means that we’re closer to the coming of the Lord.”

To explain the rare east coast quake, Robertson pointed to the Biblical prophecy of the end of the world, which claims there could be potential devastation from natural disasters leading up to Jesus' return to Earth.

On his television show, "The 700 Club," Robertson said:

"I don't want to get weird on this, so please take it for what it's worth, but it seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America's power. It has been the symbol of our great nation, we look at that monument and we say this is one nation under God. Now there's a crack in it."