Pope Benedict XVI strongly criticized modern-day atheism in a major document released today, saying it had led to some of the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" ever known to mankind. But in his second encyclical, Benedict also critically questioned modern Christianity, saying its focus on individual salvation had ignored Jesus' message that true Christian hope involves salvation for all. "Saved by Hope" is a deeply theological exploration of Christian hope in the afterlife - that in the suffering and misery of daily life, Christianity provides the faithful with a "journey of hope" to the Kingdom of God. "We must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world is not in our power," Benedict wrote. "Only God is able to do this." In the 76-page document, Benedict elaborates on how the Christian understanding of hope had changed in the modern age, when man sought to relieve the suffering and inju...

Christians rally in support of the minister ASHEVILLE – A former church youth leader was sentenced to at least 14 years and four months in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to seven counts of indecent liberties with a child. The charges against Leonard Smith date back 20 years and involve three children. Three more serious charges, which were dropped in a plea bargain, date to 1976. David Clement, spokesman for the extended family that brought charges against Smith, said he is pleased with the jail sentence. “We knew him and his family for 30 years,” Clement said. “We trusted him and we loved him. … You can’t undo love, but if anybody needs the light turned on them, it’s a pedophile.” Smith, 53, was music director and worked with the youths of Sycamore Temple Church of God in Christ in Asheville . About 50 people turned out in support of Smith, and six ministers and three others testified in support of mercy in sentencing him. The other side of the courtroom, where the Clement fa...

The pastor of a small Washington County church has been arrested and charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy for an incident that allegedly occurred nearly 10 years ago with a 15-year-old girl. The Rev. Leonard Frazier, 55, of Stonewall Baptist Church near Chatom , was arrested Tuesday and released from Mobile County Metro Jail on $15,000 bail, according to jail records. The alleged victim is now in her mid-20s, said Mobile County assistant district attorney Steve Giardini. "It took a number of years for her to come forward," he said. Alabama does not have a statute of limitations involving sex crimes against children. Giardini said he didn't know if the woman was ever a member of Frazier's church, but that she knew him through her family. The chairman of Stonewall's deacon board expressed surprise at the allegations against Frazier. "I find him to be a righteous man, and his life has always been lined up with the word," Roscoe Gatson sa...

The president of Oral Roberts University who is facing accusations he misspent university funds to support a lavish lifestyle resigned from his position, officials said Friday. Richard Roberts' resignation is effective immediately, according to a statement e-mailed from George Pearsons, chairman of the school's Board of Regents. Roberts and the university have come under fire since a lawsuit was filed by three former professors. The lawsuit includes allegations of a $39,000 shopping tab at one store for Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay, a $29,411 Bahamas senior trip on the university jet for one of Roberts' daughters, and a stable of horses for the Roberts children. Roberts, son of school founder and televangelist Oral Roberts, had been on temporary leave from the evangelical university, fighting the accusations against him. In a recent interview, the couple denied wrongdoing. Roberts has said the lawsuit amounted to "intimidation, blackmail and extortion." On F...

An Oklahoma panhandle community and atheist family are at odds.

A 49-year-old Chicago pastor is free on bond after being charged with sexually assaulting a young male church member over several years. Jose Rolando Morales of Mount Prospect has posted ten percent of his $400,000 bond and has been released. He's charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and one count of criminal sexual assault. He is accused of abusing the church member starting in 1996 when the young man was eleven years old. The alleged victim is now 22. Morales is the founding pastor of Ashland Christian Ministries on Chicago's Northwest Side. No phone listing for Jose Morales at the address provided by authorities could be found. A listed phone number for the church has been disconnected. MORE: For half of his life, a young Chicago man feared that if he told his secret, he'd be humiliated in front of his family — maybe even deported. That, he says, was what his church pastor told him. And that's what he says drove the 22-year-old to t...

A pro-life activist banned from stepping on the grounds of St. Matthew’s Church in San Mateo after a controversy over his display of signs showing graphic pictures of aborted babies was arrested on Tuesday, Nov. 13, for trespassing on church grounds. St. Matthew’s pastor, the Rev. Anthony McGuire, placed Ross Foti, 72, under citizen’s arrest when he came for the 8:15 a.m. Mass on Tuesday, the Nov. 14 Oakland Tribune reported. San Mateo police arrived and cited Foti for misdemeanor trespassing and released him. Foti has been ordered to appear in San Mateo County Superior Court on Dec. 27. Foti expressed surprise at his arrest to the Tribune , saying he had attended two Masses at St. Matthew’s on the previous Saturday and had received communion from McGuire. McGuire told the newspaper that he had been unable to do anything about Foti’s Saturday appearance, since Foti had left the church before McGuire could speak with him. Foti, a well-known pro-life activist, has long been controvers...

Kentucky 's largest religious body is urging its churches to take sweeping steps to prevent sexual abuse in its congregations, action an advocate for victims says is a good first move, though it falls short of what is needed. The Kentucky Baptist Convention approved a resolution Tuesday at its annual meeting that urges churches to increase their awareness of the issue and obtain professional background checks on all staff members and volunteers who work with minors. The resolution came a day after the convention's Mission Board adopted a more detailed report calling for such policies. The convention also says it will use ads, direct mail and training to educate churches about the threat of sexual abuse and how to detect it. And it has arranged for Protect My Ministry , a company that does background checks, to give Kentucky Baptist churches reduced rates for screening potential workers. "Churches are more than wanting to deal with this, but they don't always know ho...

Reposted from the Freethought Cafe by J.C. Samuelson As has been previously documented , the war on the "War on Christmas" continues to be one of the major seasonal pillars of religious activism in this country. In prosecuting this so-called war, however, religious groups frequently resort to distortions or outright lies in order to further promote a persecution complex among their religious constituency. As before, the American Family Association (AFA) is among those leading the propaganda campaign. The headline of an action item on the AFA website reads, "Federal government tells 85-year-old grandmother she cannot put an angel on Christmas tree." Having thus provoked our sense of fairness, righteous indignation begins to swell and brows furrow picturing grandma being preyed upon by jackbooted (but otherwise smartly dressed) government officials. The Feds must have surreptitiously implemented legislation governing how private citizens may decorate for the holiday...

Reposted from the Freethought Cafe by J.C. Samuelson On November 13th at 8:00 PM, the Public Broadcasting Service program NOVA will be airing a two-hour special that "captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools." The program is titled, Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial , and features trial reenactments as well as interviews with those involved in the trial. " Judgment Day captures on film a landmark court case with a powerful scientific message at its core," says NOVA's Senior Executive Producer, Paula Apsell. "Evolution is one of the most essential yet, for many people, least understood of all scientific theories, the foundation of biological science." She also says that one of the goals of the program is to "[h]eighten the public understanding of what constitutes science and what does not, and therefore, what is acceptable for inclusi...

Reposted from the Freethought Café by J.C. Samuelson Those who found interesting the recent article (also here ) about secular charity in the context of the California fires might find encouragement from the following press release from the Center for Inquiry . By James Underdown On October 26, 2007, the Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles launched a fund-raising campaign through the Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Effort (SHARE) to aid some of the less fortunate victims of the recent California wildfires. The devastation out here is vast. At least fifteen fires destroyed over 1,500 homes in southern California. The fires razed nearly half a million acres and forced the evacuation of over a half million people from their homes. The burned areas stretch from Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles east to the San Bernardino National Forest and south to the U.S.-Mexico border. For almost a week, a smoky haze drifted over our Hollywood offices. Losses total at least $1 billion in San Diego ...

The gospel message that links God with dollars has been called to judgment before a powerful U.S. senator. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters requesting detailed financial documents to two metro Atlanta preachers and four other ministries nationwide whose leaders are known for opulent, or as the ministers would say, blessed, lifestyles. Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and has developed a reputation for demanding financial transparency from non-profits. He wants to know how much Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia and the Rev. Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International in College Park make, how their church-issued credit cards are managed and how many cars, planes and foreign bank accounts they own. He has asked for information on the ministries' boards, business relationships and associated organizations. "I'm following up on complaints from the public and news coverage rega...

Dan Barker , co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation , will be coming to the Dallas/Fort Worth area next Monday to speak to the Freethinkers of UTA (a member of the Secular Student Alliance ), and will also be debating a local Christian apologist, Kevin Harris . Kevin is a regular participant in the Apologia discussion, and is the co-host of the Reasonable Faith podcast with Dr. William Lane Craig . If you're local to D/FW, you really should come and see the debate- and that goes for both theists and atheists. I'd love to see a good mix of people there on Monday. Official information about the event can be found at the Freethinkers of UTA homepage . Date: Monday, November 12, 2007 Time: 7:00 PM Place: University of Texas at Arlington, University Center, Red River/Concho Rooms Participants: Dan Barker (Atheist), Kevin Harris (Christian) Click here for Google Map goodness to help find directions.

West Palm Beach Police said one of their police officers was posing as a prostitute on South Dixie near the Economy Inn on Friday. During the sting they arrested 13 people. One of them is a pastor of a church. Ronald McCaskill , known as "Pastor Ron" by his congregation, is one of 13 men police arrested during a prostitution solicitation sting on Friday. McCaskill was arrested at about 2:00 in the afternoon. By 11:00 P.M. he'd posted $250 dollar bond and been released. “Every Sunday is a celebration,” Jose Gablus, a member of the McCaskill’s congregation said. He said this Sunday was no different. Congregation members said McCaskill was back on the pulpit at the New Life Christian Centre in Port Saint Lucie . “Pastor Ron himself will preach that on the pulpit, that everyone is human and everyone makes mistakes including himself,” Patricia McKelvy, a member of New Life Christian Centre said. Word of his arrest didn't seem to shake many congregation members, who...

Also see Hate on Trial . A Baltimore federal jury awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, deciding that the family's privacy had been invaded by a Kansas church whose members waved anti-gay signs at the funeral. It was the first-ever verdict against Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist Christian group based in Topeka that has protested military funerals across the country with placards bearing shock-value messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers." They contend that the deaths are punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality and of gays in the military. Relatives of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder wept and hugged at the jury's announcement, which came a day after closing arguments in the civil trial in federal district court. "Now I know it's going to be harder for them to do it to anyone else," said Albert Snyder, who mourned at his son's funeral in March 2006 while seven Westboro members waved si...