Looky What I Got in the Mail!

This kind-hearted speaker is coming to my sweet little town to warn us about the Second Coming! Mr. Dwight Kruger is so popular that he needs a hotel for his presentations, not a measly church!

And they spare no expense! This 4-page glossy full-color brochure was sent to everyone in town. Boy howdy he must love Muncie!

There's next to nothing on the website: http://www.bibleprophecyseminars.com.  Yep, not a ministry, a seminar!   If you want to know when they'll be coming to an out-of-the-way fundytown near you, you just choose your state and you can see the schedule.   But if you don't live in the Midwest, or the deep South, you lose!   They only preach to the choir.

After a little googling I found that this Dwight Kruger is a Seventh-Day Adventist, and in 2009 he was pastor at three Indiana churches.  He's currently the pastor at the local Seventh Day Adventist church.  I wonder how he manages what with all his traveling around warning people to be afraid of tornadoes!  It's Spring in the Heartland.  God will whip up a tornado if you don't listen up!

(The tablet has 1776 in Roman numerals)

"Be Prepared for the Next Earth Shaking Event!"

Yes, there are four horsemen!

 

The small print:

 You will learn about these topics:

• Israel in Prophecy
• The Millennium
• America in Prophecy

 

Richard Dawkins Interviews Dense Idiotic Creationist Woman

I am ashamed for my gender, but men have Ken Ham so I guess there's idiocy all around.

What I'd like to know is how Richard Dawkins can talk to her for this length without slapping her. He deserves a medal of honor. She only has a few points that she makes over and over: Eugenics, no fossils, eugenics, no fossils, eugenics, no fossils... each human is unique in their DNA (unlike every other animal on the planet?)

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself if you can take it:

April 6 Link Round-Up

Last weekend was the American Atheist's 50th Anniversary Conference in Austin.  I wish I had gone!  I used to live in Austin, and I missed it a LOT this winter!  Some videos:

• Richard Carrier on Atheism Plus (summary: don't be a dick)
• Matt Dillahunty on Atheism & Skepticism (summary: don't be a sucker)
• Hector Avalos: Religion and Violence (summary: holy books say go ahead and be a dick)

North Carolina wants to assert states' rights over the Establishment Clause 

Man who defrauded Christians receives sentence of 65 months in prison.  No word on his time in Purgatory.

Apparently Christians are easy marks for Ponzi schemes.  The Foundation for New Era Philanthropy scammed $135 million in the 1990s.  Members of an Atlanta megachurch and other churches (including Osteen's church) were fleeced to the tune of  $11 million.  "He quoted scriptures!"  Well then of course he was trustworthy!  the term for this is "Affinity Fraud."  Let us prey!

Nevada legislator receives death threats after admitting she had an abortion as a teen.   If you threaten to kill someone are you still "pro-life?"

The Psychiatric Treatment of the Fundamentalist Patient in Medscape Today accuses psychiatrists of not being understanding enough of the benefits of religious belief.

50 Ways to be a Loser in Life (Note that reading blogs isn't one of them)

Get into your wayback machine and check out Frank Zappa defending music against censorship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc  He mentions incest in the Bible and says the biggest threat against the U.S. is movement toward a Fascist Theocracy in 1986.  The conservatives are heated up over Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher."  The conservative resorts to Hitler, predictably.

And now for something completely different, your favorite Biblical characters do the "Harlem Shake"



The cast of "Jesus Christ Superstar" has way too much fun with "The Harlem Shake"



A Christian youth group jumped on the meme and they're finding out how sensitive their religion is now! 180 downvotes vs. 69 upvotes. Let's upvote the poor kids! They need encouragement.



Pentecostal Style!

Ladies, Stand up and Be Counted!

According to the results of the atheist census so far, 75% are male!  Can this be true?  Or is it just that more male than female atheists have been counted?  I only just discovered the census this week, so maybe it's not getting enough exposure.  Well, I'm exposing it here:

http://www.atheistcensus.com/

Go get counted, whoever you are!  Fewer than 200,000 have been counted so far.

Acquire the Fire: Coming Soon to an Arena Near Me (and probably you too)

I'd never heard of this until it hit the local paper today:

Ball State to "Acquire the Fire" this Weekend

MUNCIE — Acquire the Fire youth ministry is back in Muncie this weekend, gathering thousands of young people in Worthen Arena for what its website bills as “a highly charged spiritual event.”

The two-day rally has become a repeat visitor to Muncie, using Ball State University as one of its many venues nationwide for years now.

Ball State, in turn, is happy to welcome Acquire the Fire each year, according to Dan Byrnes, director of sports facilities.

Worthen is primarily a sports venue, so it doesn’t bring in a lot of non-sports events such as this one, but Brynes called Acquire the Fire “a very positive event, full of energy, and we love it have it. We’re glad they keep coming back.”

Who are these wonderful people?  A few minutes on google, which is apparently more time than the author of this post was willing to spend, and I saw that it is a cultish Christian organization that has been profiled on MSNBC.   Acquire the Fire is a high energy rock concert that is a "ministry" though it seems totally for-profit to me.  It is the hook to reel in kids for their Teen Mania internships.  The internships cost $8,000 for a year of abuse and working as slave labor in a call center.  Teen Mania has (belatedly) dropped their ESOAL hell week ritual, which drew complaints for years, and was broadcast to the world on the MSNBC documentary and a local television news show (linked below).

ESOAL was modeled on Navy Seals training, but with one big drawback: no medical or psychological screening for the program.  Some kids graduated from their "internship" and claim it did wonders for them.  Others were traumatized and now need therapy for PTSD.

I am trying to decide whether to buy a ticket and video part of this or to paper all the cars with flyers about the cult they just supported with their allowance money.

These arena type things are harmless generally, with the rock concert experience culminating in an altar call, but this one in particular gives me the creeps.  Former Teen Mania victims are ambivalent about the event.  It's a happy time rah rah for Jesus weekend, but also the introduction to the abuse they suffered.

Inside Teen Mania from MSNBC (2011)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A local television station story on the abusive ESOAL program (2010)
Part 2
Part 3
Follow-up


Belated cancellation of ESOAL
 They are justifiably embarrassed but it took years of criticism for them to drop it.

Recovering Alumni blog
Recovering Alumni youtube channel

Secular Leaders' Open Letter to the Secular Community

I'd have changed the title to communities because we agree on only one thing, or non-thing so we come in many stripes.  But otherwise I like this statement linked below:

http://www.atheistrev.com/2013/04/secular-leaders-address-incivility-in.html

Having experienced scathing incivility at a blog that's moderated by someone who thinks it's okay to insult people, I'm rather skeptical of the success of this statement.  Nice people will behave nicely.  The rest make us look bad as a whole, rather than representing only themselves.  They need to be reminded how to be civil.  This statement is a good start.

Debate: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Bart Ehrmann vs. William Lane Craig. Craig starts by "establishing" his "four facts." Hilarity ensues.  Happy Easter!