Civil Commotion

• Defense Asks for Venue Change in Ex-Preacher’s Murder Trial

  Attorneys for a former Kentucky preacher accused of killing three people are seeking a change of venue for their client’s trial.

• Third lawsuit filed against Baptist church, youth pastor convicted of sex abuse

  A third lawsuit has been filed by someone claiming to be a victim of Jeff Eddie, the convicted child molester who was formerly children’s minister at a Baptist church in Muscle Shoals.

• Catholic priest faces invasion of privacy charges in Council Bluffs

  A retired Catholic priest is suspended from ministry and facing invasion of privacy charges after an alleged incident at a high school track meet in April, according to a news release from the Diocese of Des Moines.

• McLoud Pastor Denies Child Abuse Allegations

  A McLoud pastor and his wife have been charged with crimes against a child.

  Law enforcement arrested the couple Sunday but now, they are fighting back on the allegations against them calling them simply untrue.

• Case Involving Abuse By Lincoln Priest Headed Back To Trial Court

  A man abused by a priest at Holy Family Parish in Lincoln in the 1990’s will have his day in court.

  Monsignor Norman Goodman was a pedophile that abused children at the church over several years. A lawyer for one victim says the Diocese of Peoria turned a “blind eye” to that ongoing abuse.

• Woodstock man files sex abuse lawsuit against Norwich Diocese

  A 37-year-old Woodstock man has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Norwich alleging he was sexually assaulted hundreds of times by a priest while serving as an altar boy during the 1990s.

• Former priest scheduled in court today

  The former priest accused of killing a McAllen teacher and beauty queen is set to make another appearance in court Thursday for a scheduled pre-trial hearing.

• Supporters attend first appearance backing local pastor accused of assaulting three women

  Dozens of supporters attended a first court appearance for a China Grove pastor accused of inappropriately touching three women, all of whom filed private warrants through the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office.

• Allegheny County priest charged with DUI after running car into his church

  More than a month after a driver crashed his car into an Allegheny County church, authorities have charged a priest with driving under the influence in connection with the incident.

• NJ priest suspended for supporting gay groups

  The Catholic archbishop in New Jersey has barred a gay priest from ministry because the cleric supports gay advocacy groups and has backed a Catholic high school counselor who was fired when church officials discovered the woman was in a same-sex marriage.

• First Baptist bookkeeper rang up $250K in charges on Carrollton church’s credit cards, police say

  A bookkeeper at a Carrollton church is accused of using church credit cards to ring up more than $250,000 in personal charges over the course of five years.

• Bond revoked for midstate pastor charged with murder

  Bond has been revoked for a Houston County pastor charged with fatally shooting his fiancée last year at his townhouse off Macon’s Stinsonville Road.

• Joseph Presley: 23-Year-Old Youth Minister Gets 30 Days In Jail

  Joseph Presley is being called the next Brock Turner by lots of people on social media, after learning about Presley’s plight. As seen in the below YouTube video with news footage from KSPR, Joseph received 30 days in jail for molesting the 8-year-old boy who was in Presley’s care.

• Woman claims former Jesuit priest, Zen instructor, repeatedly raped her as a child at Loyola University

  A decade after his death, a beloved and eccentric Jesuit priest who taught Zen at Loyola University has been accused of repeatedly raping a young girl on campus more than 30 years ago, allegations that prompted church officials to begin paying the woman’s medical bills after she came forward last year.

• Developer pleads to knowledge of felony in corruption case

  A developer entered a guilty plea Friday, boosting the likelihood that he’ll testify against the Rev. Kenneth Fairley of Hattiesburg on theft and money laundering charges at Fairley’s planned trial next week.

• Former WV priest named in school’s report of sexual abuse

  A former Episcopal priest from West Virginia was among those named in a report this week that described how an elite New England boarding school became a kind of “private hell” for dozens of students who were sexually abused in the 1970s and 1980s.

Follow the link, and you’ll find this:

Why did David’s affliction result in faithfulness and his prosperity result in sin? We all know. David was desperate for God when Saul (acting as a messenger of Satan, it would be fair to say) afflicted him. This experience even resulted in glorious psalms of worship (like Psalms 18, 54, and 57). But when David was not desperate for God, he was more vulnerable to his self-destructive depravity.

Whatever It Takes, Lord

The same is true of us. When are we most prayerful and faithful? When we keenly feel our desperation for God, like we can’t live without him. And we are most vulnerable to sin when we don’t feel that way.

So far as it goes, this is a humdrum, fairly commonplace observation: People appeal to an Invisible Friend living in the sky when things look hopeless and there is no help in sight.

This is the ‘brokenness’ that nitwit fundies are forever rhapsodizing about, and when he calls that a good state to be in the writer goes w-a-a-a-y too far.

There are people who want to make other people’s life harder for no other reason than to be able afterwards to offer them their recipe for alleviating life (for example their Christianity).

Friedrich Nietzsche
Human, All Too Human, §555

Consider the implications of it. You have a friend — Fred, say — whom you care about deeply. Fred has a career that he likes, a wife that he loves, is content with his life, et cetera, et cetera. Unhappily, Fred is not a pitiful nitwit who believes in talking snakes.

Hadn’t you better (underhandedly would probably be best) screw-up Fred’s life so that, broken, he seeks our Invisible Friend? You know you should!

An awful lot of smiling piety covers no more than subterranean malice, and these pathetic weasels cannot be reasoned-out of their sickness. Stay away.

There’s a Holy Man in Missouri who claims to have restored a woman to life by sending her a text message via FaceBook.

“Raised from the Dead! David E. Taylor Commands Her to Live Through Sending a Text Message Through Facebook — Releasing the Supernatural Resurrection Power of God! She Lives!” declared Taylor in an announcement on his Facebook page with a photo of an unidentified elderly woman who appeared to be getting some form of medical treatment.

A message that was sent by the woman’s daughter, according to Taylor, also indicated that not only was she raised from the dead but she was also healed of diabetes.

Honestly, I marvel some days at the degradations that pastors visit upon their flocks. Consider this catalog of insults from Mac Brunson, for example.

The Danger of Human Accomplishment

The church of God has more resources at its disposal than at any time in history. Technology, training, facilities, and connectivity enable us to share, pray, minister, and proclaim the gospel to everyone…everywhere…..at any time. The danger in this progress is that it can lead God’s people to overestimate what they can achieve by their own accomplishments…and minimize the work of God.

This happens in our personal lives, as well.

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1. Act out of passion rather than Godly principle.

2. Move in our own time rather than moving in God’s time.

3. Force a door to open that God has not yet opened.

4. Operate in our own way and ignore God’s will or plan.

5. Counsel with self and not with God.

6. Operate out of a personal agenda and not out of a Godly directive.

7. Operate from a position of human strength rather than Godly wisdom.

Luckily, the proprietor of your local 501(c)3 is a bona fide expert on what Our Invisible Friend wants of you; there is no need to be an adult and set your own agenda. In fact, that’s a bad thing that’ll probably cost you BIG TIME; the thing to do is get it fixed in your head once for all that you’re no damn good.

And don’t forget to show your gratitude by turning-over 10% of your income for the rest of your life.