At first I was about to ignore this story thinking it was just one more story about Crazy Alaskans and their religions, but the more I read the more I felt I needed to address the situation.

Church dispute ends up in superior court

AT ISSUE IS FIRED PASTOR: Hearing scheduled Feb. 27.

The Associated Press

Published: November 30th, 2008 10:08 PM
Last Modified: November 30th, 2008 10:35 PM

FAIRBANKS — A dispute at a Baptist church in Fairbanks between the pastor, church leaders and members of the congregation has ended up in court.

Members of the Corinthian Baptist Church were in Fairbanks Superior Court last week. At issue is whether a vote earlier this month by church leaders to remove Pastor S. Anthony Justice was legitimate.

Some members of the congregation also say the locks have been changed and they are being kept out of the church building.

Justice, 30, had been at the church for 15 months. During his tenure, he was credited with boosting the congregation, particularly with younger members. But in August, church leaders met and decided Justice’s performance was lacking.

They suggested some areas for improvement, according to Gregory Silvey, the Anchorage lawyer representing members of the church’s board of trustees.

Three months later, four trustees and a deacon voted to dismiss the pastor. Two trustees dissented.

At first glance this looks like a simple matter of an employer and employee dispute. The church’s board, who is responsible for staffing, seems to have a clear cut case of being the employer simply firing an employee it no longer wished to retain. Alaska isn’t known for being on the side of working stiffs, even if Sarah Palin says Wasilla Main Street is all about the people. On second look though I am not sure this is simply a matter of employment disputes.

About two dozen members of the church and at least one trustee took the matter to court, saying the church leaders did not follow church bylaws when they fired the pastor. They asked Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle to reinstate Justice. “This is some church members trying to stop other church members from hijacking the church,” said John Franich, the attorney for those in favor of keeping Justice as pastor.

After having talked to a friend in Fairbanks who knows a bit more about the story (see guest post coming soon) this seems like just the sort of case that needs to be in the courts. The pastor had a softer gentler view of the world than the fire and brimstone old guard wanted to hear being preached. To me this seems like the church board, most of who may or may not be pastors in their own right hired a man to minister to the flock.

They decided this man of god’s views, actions and by extension conscience and wasn’t the sort of hate mongering bigotry they wanted after the fact. This screams to me of an employer trying to force and employee to say something against their conscience to further the goals of the employer. This isn’t something I am sure they have legal ground to require. If they don’t have that sort of standing it might be sufficient grounds not only for reinstatement, but for a wrongful termination lawsuit.

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once again on the campaign trail we continue to hear McCain and Palin both talk to Joe Six pack and all those hockey moms how they are going to clean up the world and keep their children safe from H-O-M-O-SEX-uals.  There only standing on this issue is their Biblical faith, which Sarah Palin likes to pridefully boast she has more of than anyone ever, because she can she atheist Russia from her backdoor.

Let us examine this biblical passage she holds near and dear to her. From Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13

“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.”

“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

Alright let us just assume she really believes her bible so it is her duty to make sure the law reflects America’s Christian values.  If she is going to do that though without being a hypocrite and panderer she must follow all the rules.  Let’s examine where Sarah Palin’s Sunday Sacrilege in a new feature I want to call, Bible Fail!

From Leviticus 117-8
7 And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

Surely you won’t suggest that the farmers in Iowa turn away from the other white meat. Governor?  By the by have you every eat a ham sandwich Sarah?

From Leviticus 19:3

“Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.”

All the candidates fail on this one if they are campaigning today, but only Sarah Palin and John McCain the good upstanding Christians who believes the bible is the literal word of God are going to Hell for this violation.

From Leviticus 19:3

Do not steal
Do not lie
Do not deceive one another.

Do I really need to tell you which of these she has done by misappropriating campaign money for clothes, make-up, and hair styling.  Then there is Troopergate.  Then there is her campaigning.

From Leviticus 19:18

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Troopergate…

From Leviticus 19:19

Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material

Surely all her garments can’t be made of a single fiber could they?

From Leviticus 19:26

Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it.

Sure she doesn’t eat all kosher does she?

From Leviticus 24:16

anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

Have you heard her talk about praying for a pipeline?

That sounds pretty blasphemous to me.

Governor Palin with all of these violations of Leviticus a book you claim to believe in do you really think it would be a good idea for you to be in power?  Do you think it wise to be the vice president?  Do you think God might just bring down his promised wrath on the country for your disobedience?

From Leviticus 26:14-17

if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror,
wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away
your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat
it. I will set my face
against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who
hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is
pursuing you.

Can you as Americans allow a person who says she believes the bible literally yet doesn’t follow it to the same degree become the number two leader in the land?  Do you want to chance it?

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Bill Maher promotes Religulous on The Daily Show with John Stewart. He makes a fine point that Scientology isn’t any crazier than Christianity, and that people accept Christianity only because they have been around it all their lives. As a true agnostic he asks questions that no one wants to answer. Even if you are religious this seems like a good film for you to watch. If you believe you should be able to answer these questions or at the very least ask them and say I don’t know but I want to find out. I doubt Sarah Palin can do that and it scares the hell out of me there is a chance she could be one seventy two year old’s heart beat away from being the president.

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Vatican sex guide urges Catholics to do ‘it’ more often
By Julian Coman
Last Updated: 12:32am BST 31/10/2004

A Vatican-sanctioned sex guide is encouraging churchgoers to make love more often in an effort to offset “impotence and frigidity” and address papal concerns over declining birth-rates among Italian Roman Catholics.

The controversial book, It’s A Sin Not To Do It, written by two theologians, promises the reader answers to “everything you wanted to know about sex but the Church (almost) never dared to tell you”.

This new Vatican sex manual on a positive note has says nothing about priests getting it on with anyone. However it does go on to contradict the churches new modern deadly sins.

“In view of the trivialisation of sex and the rise of impotence and frigidity in consequence, as well as the increasing number of only children, it is better for the Church to promote sex in the right circumstances, instead of just focusing on prohibitions and perversions.”

What the church fails to realize is how how having lots of extra children violates their new first Deadly Sin of the Modern Age causing pollution. In the western world we can reasonably expect a child born in the year 2000 to live until the are 75 and 85. Of that lot if the girls have one child at the age of 25 with an even distribution of male and females. You can expect a stable population at a one child per couple. If you double the birthrate and leave all other things like premature death and gay or infertile children out of the population you triple the population in only two generations. Since the Vatican knows it is hard to convert people without the crusades and inquisition, breeding an army a flock of slaves of birth believers might seem like the answer.

Factoring in real statistics from around the world we find that the actual population growth according to any number of population clocks and calculators the world growth rate is about a hundred and 150% over the next two generations. We are expected to hit roughly nine billion people by 2048. If you think things are bad now when it comes to pollution and scare resources, you haven’t seen anything yet. If the Vatican among others in the breeding for the Bible camp gets its way, we could hit that mark a lot sooner.

In the end any time we start to talk about the environmental responsibility be it pollution or natural resources, we need to stop and consider the impact of population growth. Westerners can no longer ignore this simply as a problem in other countries, it is real problem here at home. In the US we have a net gain of one person every thirteen seconds. While that is lower than the expected world population growth, it is still population growth of 130%

What is the solution to the population crisis? If we wish as a world to ever achieve environmental responsibility, we need to decrease our population significantly. While I can’t see any governments actually advocating any population controls other than China. We certainly need to be discussing this and being blunt with the numbers. There is one easy solution for those who can afford it to have more one child, adoption. There are plenty of children who need loving families, both her in the states and abroad. If you can afford more than one, then think about sharing the love and doing something environmentally responsible for the child you already have.

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I have been sitting around wondering what my Sunday post would be, and then it was all of a sudden an hour before Monday. I have been perplexed by my friends in the GBLT community who still claim to be fundamentalist Christians. It had also been a while since I did a comparative tech piece so for all the Geeks and Gays in my buddy list, this one is for you!

What’s your Christian OS?

The best question one can ask during this political season is not are you a Christian, but “what kind of Christian are you?” Too often American’s settle for someone claiming to be Christian and calling it good enough. Oh sure they make a few distinctions between Catholics and protestants. For the most part though Americans can’t really define what is and isn’t protestant, except to say, not Catholic.

If Catholicism was Christianity 1.0, and the reformation brought about Christianity 2.0, the question is where are we now? I would say we have moved into at the very least 4.0 sp2. What happened to version 3.0? Those are all the American splinter sects of the original Protestant stock that came to this continent. Those groups include the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 7^th Day Adventists among the popular choices. I liken them to open source programming since they are so easily modified to suit your needs.

So how did we get to 4.0 sp2? The answer is easy, social progress and the need to believe. When did version 4.0 come about? The Beta versions of 4.0 starting appearing as science started to disprove many biblical stories during the mid 19^th century. As scientific advancement and social progress have continued to move forward, so has the nature of Christianity delivering into at least sp2 of Christianity 4.0.

Well what does this new and improved operating system provide us? Many of the new believers are willing to accept that the facts of the bible might not be accurate, and that it is the meaning of the story rather than the facts that are important. Sp2 Christians are also likely to disregard whole passages and entire books, especially from the Old Testament. For Example many in the GBLT community who take issue with the old school stance against their life style, are quite happy to disregard Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

What’s next in the development of the Christian OS? I believe we are already seeing the development of 5.0. I believe the key feature of the new belief will allow believers to choose the combo feature pulling in both aspects of divine predestination and freewill. Under the new system this will no longer cause a fatal error for hypocrisy. On the flip side of allowing more contradiction, they will be completely eliminating the Old Testament as a legacy application.

Please know your Christian OS version and have all relevant registration information before calling the Divine at:
1(866)ROF-LMAO.

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I have been sitting around wondering what my Sunday post would be, and then it was all of a sudden an hour before Monday. I have been perplexed by my friends in the GBLT community who still claim to be fundamentalist Christians. It had also been a while since I did a comparative tech piece so for all the Geeks and Gays in my buddy list, this one is for you!

What’s your Christian OS?

The best question one can ask during this political season is not are you a Christian, but “what kind of Christian are you?” Too often American’s settle for someone claiming to be Christian and calling it good enough. Oh sure they make a few distinctions between Catholics and protestants. For the most part though Americans can’t really define what is and isn’t protestant, except to say, not Catholic.

If Catholicism was Christianity 1.0, and the reformation brought about Christianity 2.0, the question is where are we now? I would say we have moved into at the very least 4.0 sp2. What happened to version 3.0? Those are all the American splinter sects of the original Protestant stock that came to this continent. Those groups include the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 7^th Day Adventists among the popular choices. I liken them to open source programming since they are so easily modified to suit your needs.

So how did we get to 4.0 sp2? The answer is easy, social progress and the need to believe. When did version 4.0 come about? The Beta versions of 4.0 starting appearing as science started to disprove many biblical stories during the mid 19^th century. As scientific advancement and social progress have continued to move forward, so has the nature of Christianity delivering into at least sp2 of Christianity 4.0.

Well what does this new and improved operating system provide us? Many of the new believers are willing to accept that the facts of the bible might not be accurate, and that it is the meaning of the story rather than the facts that are important. Sp2 Christians are also likely to disregard whole passages and entire books, especially from the Old Testament. For Example many in the GBLT community who take issue with the old school stance against their life style, are quite happy to disregard Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

What’s next in the development of the Christian OS? I believe we are already seeing the development of 5.0. I believe the key feature of the new belief will allow believers to choose the combo feature pulling in both aspects of divine predestination and freewill. Under the new system this will no longer cause a fatal error for hypocrisy. On the flip side of allowing more contradiction, they will be completely eliminating the Old Testament as a legacy application.

Please know your Christian OS version and have all relevant registration information before calling the Divine at:
1(866)ROF-LMAO.

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I have been sitting around wondering what my Sunday post would be, and then it was all of a sudden an hour before Monday. I have been perplexed by my friends in the GBLT community who still claim to be fundamentalist Christians. It had also been a while since I did a comparative tech piece so for all the Geeks and Gays in my buddy list, this one is for you!

What’s your Christian OS?

The best question one can ask during this political season is not are you a Christian, but “what kind of Christian are you?” Too often American’s settle for someone claiming to be Christian and calling it good enough. Oh sure they make a few distinctions between Catholics and protestants. For the most part though Americans can’t really define what is and isn’t protestant, except to say, not Catholic.

If Catholicism was Christianity 1.0, and the reformation brought about Christianity 2.0, the question is where are we now? I would say we have moved into at the very least 4.0 sp2. What happened to version 3.0? Those are all the American splinter sects of the original Protestant stock that came to this continent. Those groups include the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 7^th Day Adventists among the popular choices. I liken them to open source programming since they are so easily modified to suit your needs.

So how did we get to 4.0 sp2? The answer is easy, social progress and the need to believe. When did version 4.0 come about? The Beta versions of 4.0 starting appearing as science started to disprove many biblical stories during the mid 19^th century. As scientific advancement and social progress have continued to move forward, so has the nature of Christianity delivering into at least sp2 of Christianity 4.0.

Well what does this new and improved operating system provide us? Many of the new believers are willing to accept that the facts of the bible might not be accurate, and that it is the meaning of the story rather than the facts that are important. Sp2 Christians are also likely to disregard whole passages and entire books, especially from the Old Testament. For Example many in the GBLT community who take issue with the old school stance against their life style, are quite happy to disregard Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

What’s next in the development of the Christian OS? I believe we are already seeing the development of 5.0. I believe the key feature of the new belief will allow believers to choose the combo feature pulling in both aspects of divine predestination and freewill. Under the new system this will no longer cause a fatal error for hypocrisy. On the flip side of allowing more contradiction, they will be completely eliminating the Old Testament as a legacy application.

Please know your Christian OS version and have all relevant registration information before calling the Divine at:
1(866)ROF-LMAO.

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It is Sunday again and low and behold there are people driving down the snow topped ice sheet we call my street. At just after seven, I have already heard four accidents. I am not exactly sure why the cops actually bother to leave, they know there will be two or three more fender benders before church actually starts. In some ways I can truthfully say I admire people of faith. The truly faithful have something I will never have, the ability to believe in something that there is absolutely no hard evidence to support, not even sound scientific theories. It takes a lot of guts to say I believe in something that all the evidence of the world points against. Of course that is the nature of faith. The people who irk the fuck out of me are those that claim to be believers but don’t have any real faith. I can’t stand the pretenders who change the rules to suit them either. There are those who will tell you they can do that because that is simply how they interpret the bible, but I just can’t buy that.

On this marvelously cold Sunday I leave you with two things to think about. Is Christian faith so weak that they must crusade every movie that might espouse a belief other than Christianity? Why is it Christians, the long time persecutors of non Christians done in remembrance of a time when it was they were the persecuted by the powerful, feel the need to attack The Golden Compass movie? Could it be not that it denigrates the church and Christianity, but rather the story of a fictional church in a fictional world is portrayed as the antagonist in the allegorical tale of absolute power corrupts absolutely? Might it be the movie and the book it is based on hits a little too close to home for some Christians? Lastly, I leave you with the Christian musing on the matter of theology. If the Lutheran Pastor has rear ended the Calvinist Pastor (I actually think this is the case by looking out the window) who is at fault based on their understanding of theology? Legally the Lutheran is at fault as he slid into the Calvinist. Will the Calvinist who believes in predestination and not free will be able to fault god rather than the other driver? Will the free will believing Lutheran acknowledge that he is the sole responsible party for the accident and that neither the ice and snow applied by the will if not direct hand of of god, nor the lack of plowing and salt the city failed to provide is the ultimate cause of the accident?

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