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Franklingate sex scandal

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E. O. Wilson, "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth" effort to unite the two world views: secular and religious.  and Save America's Forests 

Islamica Magazine "Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI" below

go to Evolution page 2

Go to Intelligent Design Jokes page 8  or its duplicate: Intelligent_Design_Jokes

Marjoe Gortner   MSNBC Evangelical Crackup

go to: Franklin Scandal, Omaha, 1989, White House, Pedophilia, call boy ring pages

George Carlin, religion

• RaidersNewsNetwork "One possible link between the CNP and organized sexual deviants that is closer to Haggard’s backyard lies with his close friend and CNP member James Dobson’s promotion of Joseph Nicolosi’s reparative therapy. This controversial psychotherapy is supposed to help homosexuals rid themselves of their gay desires. To prevent homosexuality in young boys, Nicolosi recommends that a father "even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger" (no pagination). This is a very bizarre method of preventing a young boy from becoming sexually confused, to say the least. It is questionable whether reparative therapy is effective or not. So why is it still embraced by people in the Evangelical establishment. Is reparative therapy used to cure young boys, or seduce them?"

• Bill Maher  Comments by HBO's Bill Maher insulting the Pope and calling Catholicism a "cult" that promotes "organized pedophilia" have stirred resentment among American Catholics, many of whom are upset that he would say such a thing the week before Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States. The comments were made on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, Apr. 11. He compared the Texas polygamy scandal with the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in the United States in 2002. "I'd like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult," Maher told his audience. "Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That's right, the Pope is coming to America this week and, ladies, he's single." Mary Ann Kreitzer, president of the Catholic Media Coalition, an umbrella group of Catholic organizations, called the comments, "a horrifying anti-Catholic diatribe."

• Ny Times  "Gabriel's Revelation    JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.  ....  , it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time. "

Pope Benedict, & Southern Baptist Convention, sexual abuse cover-up   top       

• Bishop Accountability,   Abuse, tracker, Catholic priests
• Ananova, search 
• Buzzle intelligent life on the web
• On July 11, 1990, Gary Caradori was killed along with his 6-year old son in the crash of his small plane, after a mid-air explosion, the cause of which was never discovered. He had told friends repeatedly in the weeks before his death that he was afraid his plane would be sabotaged. GeorgeWalkerBush, death list
• Catholic Citizens
• Child abuse involved 1200 priests, 4000 children
• DailyKOS "Ratzinger is also the author of a May 2001 letter to bishops stating that the "Crimine solicitationies" law (regarding strict secrecy in sex abuse cases) is still in effect."
• Good Vibrations  toys, sex education, erotic and informative books, adult videos, no porn.
• Indymedia, Winnepeg, 'The Fellowship' Cedars, Campus Crusade, World Vision, Christian mafia, 
• Insider Magazine, Wayne Madsen article, Expose the Christian Mafia
• Interfaith Alliance alternative voice to religious right
• Inquiry.ca Cornwall sex abuse scandal cover-up
• The Linkup - Healing Alliance, Enabling survivors to discover life after abuse. Catholic priest sexual abuse of children.  Cost to the church: over $1 billion.
• Multiline, clergy child molesters
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force  Bush Watch
• Religious Tolerance Clergy sexual abuse, chronlology: Boys Town and 1993-2002
• SNAP Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,links, discussion board, support group.
• Theocracy Watch, Rise of Religious Right in the Republican Party    
• This is London Ratzinger pedophile priest cover-up policy documents  MORE below
• Village Voice, Cardinal Bernard Law, Catholic priest sexual abuse cover-up
• Voices of the Faithful, Boston, Archdiocese crisis

• 11,000 child abuse claims since 1950
• About.com Pope Benedict led cover-up of pedophile priests 
• Abuse Penitent end priest penitent for child abusers
• All About Christianity
• Answers  Roman Catholic sex abuse cases, Vatican 
• Boston Globe
• Boston Globe
• Catholicity Mary Foundation
• CIN Catholic Information Network search
• Christian Monitor  
• ClassActionAmerica
• Bishop Accountability counselor Michael Wolf, Rev. James Kelly,  sexual abuse
• Catholic News
• CBS News "Former Boys Town pupil James Duffy alleged in a lawsuit last month that the Rev. James Kelly and a counselor, the late Michael Wolf, repeatedly molested him in the late 1970s."
• Green-Rainbow Need to Know, Ratzinger, fascist, text file, local
• lacklandpub.lackland.af.mil (Air Force Logistics Command, nfu visitor
• The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
• Hidden Mysteries "Another Sadistic Pedophile GOP Religious Right Wingnut ..Rev. Thomas J. Smith defrocked, sexually assaulting and whipping boys, 1973-2004, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua accused in cover-up.
• No Beliefs Hitler with Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, 1935
• North American Freedom Foundation "Advocating for U.S. and Canadian victims and survivors of mind control, torture, slavery, and related terror through education and remembrance."
• Vatican
• Wikipedia Catholic Church sexual abuse cover-up
• Wikipedia, Vatican
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topic map

• 700 Club, The
• Agape Press Christian headlines, religion news.
• Pope John Paul, no saint, Marcial Maciel protector, child sex abuse,
• American Center for Law and Justice  
• Babtist Press Newsfeed
• Catholic.org "When a federal report, ordered by Congress and chartered by the U.S. Department of Education, exposed rampant sexual abuse in public schools throughout the country, politicians and the mainstream secular press corps all but ignored it."
• Catholic News A Service of Church Resources, news, telephone ads
• Catholicity Mary Foundation
• CBC   Cornwall sexual abuse cover-up
• Christian News Today 
• Christian Coalition
• Christian Monitor latest Christian headlines
• Common Conservative 
• Concerned Women of America
• Family Research Council
• GlaxoSmithKline vaccine manufacturer,
•  
• US Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities, info
• Vatican, cover-up central
• YouTube
• Weekly Standard ""Pedophilia Chic" Reconsidered The taboo against sex with children continues to erode. by Mary Eberstadt"

• Historicist "Here is the text of the statement by Jerry Vines, outgoing president of the SBC: "ISLAM IS FOUNDED BY MOHAMMED, A DEMON-POSSESSED PEDOPHILE WHO HAD 12 WIVES, AND HIS LAST ONE WAS A NINE-YEAR OLD GIRL." (emphasis added) So said Reverend Vines. and NewsLibrary search: "jerry vines" pedophile... and pic
• Counterpunch "Pope Benedict XVI, a Rightwing Politician  ....  In most of the media coverage of Cardinal Ratzinger's election as successor to John Paul II, he has been presented as very conservative on moral and religious issues. His opposition to legalizing abortion, homosexual marriage, and the ordination of women and his support for continuing the celibacy of priests and other church traditions, all have contributed to his reputation as a profoundly conservative religious person. Not much has been said, however, about his political views, except his being a member of the youth branch of the Nazi Party in Germany (the Hitler Youth). This was mentioned, then quickly dismissed as having no significance, since, as the Herald Tribune (21 April 2005) noted, "Everybody had to be enrolled in Hitler Youth at that time." Otherwise, his political positions have been overlooked, ignored, or set aside as having no relevance.  ...  Surrounded by what the Italian press has called the "theo-cons," Ratzinger has a political project aimed at strengthening conservative forces worldwide, but particularly in Europe, supposedly awash in moral decay. His intervention in political matters is very aggressive
• Communion-Liberation "Is the war that has been announced against Iraq a just war? “All I can do is invite you to read the Catechism,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger replied with a mischievous grin, “and the conclusion seems obvious to me…” For the guardian of Catholic orthodoxy, the obvious conclusion is that the military intervention that is taking shape “has no moral justification” (September 20, interview on the Italian national news program). The Catechism, Ratzinger explained, does not embrace a pacifist position a priori; indeed, it admits the possibility of a “just war” for reasons of defense. But it sets a number of very strict and reasonable conditions: there must be a proper proportion between the evil to be rooted out and the means employed. In short, if in order to defend a value (in this case, national security) greater damage is caused (civilian victims, destabilization of the Middle East, with its accompanying risks of increased terrorism), then recourse to force is no longer justified. In light of these criteria, Ratzinger refuses to grant the moral status of just war to the military operation against Saddam Hussein. The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith added another consideration: “Decisions like this should be made by the community of nations, by the UN, and not by an individual power.”
• Counterpunch "The reality, however, is quite different. Ratzinger is profoundly political. And his political positions are more than conservative, they are ultra-right-wing. He was one of the most ultra-right cardinals of recent times. I will elaborate on this, but first, let's dispense with the claim that every young person in Germany at that time was in the Hitler Youth. That is nonsense. Many young Germans, including Catholics, not only refused to join the Hitler Youth but fought against Hitler in a courageous and principled way. In a village near where the young Ratzinger lived (near Marktl ­ a mere 15 miles from Braunau, Hitler's birthplace), two thousand Catholics signed a petition protesting the Nazi order to remove crucifixes from schoolrooms. In Munich, where Ratzinger later became archbishop, twenty Catholic students were executed in 1942 for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at the university. They became known as theWhite Rose -- die weisse Rose. There was an anti-war resistance in Germany, including a Catholic resistance, which Ratzinger never joined, supported, or recognized. Even later, when Germany regained democracy, Bishop Ratzinger of Munich never paid tribute to those who had been killed because of their commitment to liberty and freedom. Among them, incidentally, were many communists, whom Ratzinger had defined as "scum."
• SBC clergy sexual abuse coverup --Kenneth Payne, pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church outside Lynchburg, Va. He claimed innocence but recently was found guilty of molesting a teenage boy he tutored.  --Garrett Dykes of Calvary Church in Wetumpka, Ala. He pleaded guilty to molesting an 8-year-old girl.  --Larry Nuell Neathery of Westside Victory Baptist Church, in Fort Worth, Texas. He was convicted of 25 charges of sex abuse of five boys.  --Gregory Stanley Dempsey, former music minister at Oak Creek Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. He just started a prison sentence for statutory rape of someone who attended the church.  --John O. McKay of First Baptist Church of in Hondo, Texas. As EthicsDaily.com reported Oct. 11, he is currently serving a 10-year sentence for a sex assault.  --Doug Myers, most recently pastor of a community church in Florida, was, as EthicsDaily.com first reported Jan. 5, pastor of Southern Baptist churches in Maryland, Alabama and Florida before he was sent to prison in January for seven years for molesting a fatherless grandson of a church member
• MSNBC  MIAMI - "A couple who leads one of Brazil's biggest evangelical churches pleaded guilty on Friday to smuggling tens of thousands of dollars into the U.S. in luggage, a backpack and a Bible.  Estevam Hernandes Filho, 53, and Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes, 48, are also charged in Brazil with stealing millions of dollars from parishioners for luxuries such as mansions and horse farms. ...  The couple — known as Apostle Estevam and Bishop Sonia to their thousands of Christian faithful — admitted evading U.S. currency requirements and conspiracy."

Mormons    top

• Dark Side of Salt Lake City "Mere children are institutionally raped and enslaved, both mentally and physically, by their patriarchal masters. As is evidenced in the case of Tom Green, the institution is one of long-standing in this state; I, of course, mean polygamy. Elizabeth Smart is now one of the latest victims of this abomination of "an American Zion."
• ExMormon "Recovery from Mormonism  A site for those who are Questioning their faith in the Mormon Church And for those who need support As they transition their lives to a normal life.  We are not affiliated with any religion and we do not advocate any religion."
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• Answers.com
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• & ephebophilia
• Jesus is Savior "Homosexuality is a Sin!  Frightening Gay Statistics Violence and Homosexuality | Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse | Next goal of Homo Agenda?"
• SkepticTank "The Mormon Cult keeps pedophilia legal in order to cover it's embarrassing past"
• StopMormonSexualAbuse attorney
• Wikipedia Mormons

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 
• Mormon.org "This is an official site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
• Weekly Standard ""Pedophilia Chic" Reconsidered The taboo against sex with children continues to erode. by Mary Eberstadt"

John Mark Karr    top

• American Progress Action Fund, 'human brokers', 'made in the USA', sex slaves,  cramped garment factories, major brand clothes.
• WayneMadseReport: Hastert, Northern Marianas, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, slave labor, child prostitutes
• topic map

• Answers.com John Mark Karr, Boulder County Jail, JonBenet Ramsey, 
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• Wikipedia, Northern Marianas, Abramoff, Tom DeLay, federal subsidies, Rep. John Dolittle, Abramoff, Rep. Richard Pombo,  alleged links to the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, stopping legislation aimed at cracking down on sweatshops and sex shops', 2001.  harbor the most abusive labor practices, 
• notes: Karr, information on involvement of top US officials in child prostitution trade in Thailand, male staffers, homosexuality illegal in Muslim monarchies, NGOs, religious organizations all over east Asia involved in covering up child sex trade. 
• TheSun Christopher Neil

• ABC News child pornography charges, 2001,  District Attorney Mary Lacy, confession, lost computer, botched evidence, 
• Christopher Neil, Canadian seminarian, child molester, Thailand, Operation Vico,
• John Mark Karr, Jon Benet Ramsey, falsely admitted to killing Jon Benet Ramsey, was whisked out of Thailand,  diplomats, pedophilia, embarrassing info on Republicans.  Child sex trade
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• CNN John Mark Karr, Boulder, Colorado, school teacher, DNA tests failed to link him to JBR.
• Department of Homeland Security
• Time Netherlands nanny, Honduras teacher, Thailand, Bangkok Christian College, Saint Joseph's Convent, fired from all. 
• Republicans have fought hard to keep regulations out of CNMI, free market system.  forced abortions, 
• U. S. Embassy, Yangon, Rangoon, Myanmar,
• Weekly Standard ""Pedophilia Chic" Reconsidered The taboo against sex with children continues to erode. by Mary Eberstadt"

• WayneMadseReport: "New Australian documentary on Bali bombing  A new Australian documentary features the complicity of then-US ambassador to Indonesia Ralph "Skip" Boyce in the Bali bombings in 2002. WMR was investigating Boyce, now ambassador to Thailand, for his involvement in the cover-up of the role of US diplomats in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, in providing children for sexual trysts with visiting U.S. officials, including Republican members of Congress. It was Boyce who helped arrange for John Mark Karr's hasty retreat from Bangkok to the United States after Karr's arrest.  The diplo-pedo cover-up includes current Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who has a major conflict of interest in the misuse of orphanages in the region for purposes of sex between Western VIPs and minors.  Google video  (Video is almost 2 hours in length) "  FoolMeTwice, the movie
• WayneMadseReport: "State Department sources have also reported that the visits of Hastert and other congressional leaders and staff members to certain Southeast Asian nations and the Northern Marianas should come under the scrutiny of the House Ethics Committee, now officially investigating "Pagegate."  The Northern Marianas became infamous in the scandals involving Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff because of the presence in the US slave labor territory of Asian children being used as prostitutes.  Conveniently, Foley co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which would have had authority to investigate charges of child prostitution in the Northern Marianas.  Were Hastert and other congressional visits to Thailand and Vietnam on the up-and-up?  Our State Department sources report that it is no secret that a number of U.S. Foreign Service officers working out of the U.S. embassies in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Hanoi, and Manila have been involved with underage nationals of the host countries where they are assigned.  In fact, many have rotated their assignments between countries that look sideways at child prostitution and sex between adults and minors.  In fact, John Mark Karr, as previously reported by waynemadsenreport.com, was quickly whisked out of Bangkok after his arrest on pedophilia charges.  The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, working with the CIA and Department of Homeland Security, arranged for Karr's quick departure from Bangkok on a business class flight to the United States, where all charges, including those stemming from Karr's "admission" that he killed JonBenet Ramsey and child porn charges, were later dropped.  waynemadsenreport.com has learned that Karr may have been aware of the identities of top U.S. officials in the child sex trade in Thailand and that he was sprung from Thai authorities to prevent him from testifying in a Thai courtroom.  Hastert visited Vietnam, along with Palmer, in April of this year and spent three days in the country.  Hastert, along with Illinois GOP Rep. Ray LaHood, canceled a visit to Thailand and Vietnam in January 2006.  Hastert was also in Thailand in January 2002."  
• Christopher Neil, Canadian seminarian, child molester, Thailand, Operation Vico, John Mark Karr, Jon Benet Ramsey, falsely admitted to killing Jon Benet Ramsey, was whisked out of Thailand,  diplomats, pedophilia, Republicans.  more

• DefCon Campaign to Defend the Constitution, Because the Right Wing is Wrong, search Dobson, Reed Abramoff
• Huffington Post "it is becoming increasingly clear how extensively he collaborated with the Christian right to advance his casino schemes. Ralph Reed was paid no less than $4 million by Abramoff and his Indian casino clients to serve as a liasion to the Christian right."
• Media Matters 
• Nation  "Abramoff's Evangelical Soldiers" by Max Blumenthal
• Raw Story
• Religious Right Watch
• Talk to Action   

• search terms: Senate subpoened Dobson emails, Faith-based initiative, Coushattas, Louisiana, Tom Minnery, Reed, Dobson, Abramoff, Rev. Lou Sheldon, Traditional Values Coalition, Dominionist leaders, 
• The Denver Post  Focus onthe Family are now providing detailed responses in stories than ran in the March 8 editions of 
• Rocky Mountain News

• Agape Press "On Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, Dobson denied his organization has taken any money or had any direct ties with Abramoff, insisting that he "had never met the man," had "never talked to him on the phone," and has "never taken a cent from anybody having to do with the fight against gambling."
• Family.org website of Focus on the Family, Dobson
• Focus on the Family, Response to Abramoff Matter
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews An American group lead by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, raises tens of millions from Christian evangelicals for Jewish causes.
• Olasky's World Magazine Olasky coined the words 'Compassionate Conservativism'...
• New York Times search: full page Defcon ad on Reed, Abramoff, Dobson
• Reed, Ralph  see Intelligent Design pages
• Right Faith
• Will Gonzales recuse himself from the Abramoff investigation?

Nation article on Dobson Reed, Abramoff BELOW

End of the World, Apocalypse, Tribulation....BS    top   MORE at Intelligent Design Jokes

•  Buzzle on AIPAC Iran war mongering.
• Smirking Chimp, Bill Moyers, "There is no Tomorrow
• World Socialist Web Site "John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, who is close to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, preaches that the day is fast coming when “All over the earth, graves will explode as the occupants soar into heaven.”
• notes: The name Armageddon is found in Revelation 16:16. It is part of a vision of the Apostle John in which kings from the East gather to oppose God. The name in Hebrew means Mount of Megiddo.  "Since Megiddo was a place where various armies were defeated (in history)," Koester said, "the name Armageddon is suitable for the battle at which the forces of evil are defeated at the end of time."

  The battle represents the final showdown between the forces of good and evil, said Cathy Gutierrez, religion professor at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who writes on religion topics.

  "While all three major monotheisms -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- believe in some version of an ultimate conflict between these forces, the use of the word Armageddon itself usually denotes a Christian understanding of these events," she said.  Contra Costa Times

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• Stein, Stephen Prof "The Continuum History of Aocalypticism" by Stephen Stein, an Indiana University emeritus professor, who has made a study of the apocalyptic predictions held by people such as Hagee, and to date contends, they are all wrong.   and Contra Costa Times

• Washington University  The end of the world has already begun
• Wikinews  World ends
• Intelligent Design Jokes has moved 

• Bush White House Bush is a Pentacostal, who believe in end times.
• Paul Crouch: In his book "The Shadow of the Apocalypse," Paul Crouch, co-founder of the conservative Christian-oriented Trinity Broadcast Network, writes, "Jesus Christ ... will rescue Israel, avenge those who have suffered in his name, punish the wicked, redeem the earth, imprison Satan and reign victorious over the earth." Contra Costa Times
• Discovery Institute Christian Reconstructionists
• Hagee: "Following Ezekiel 38, Russia will give military leadership to the radical Islamics who want to destroy the state of Israel and control Jerusalem," he said. "That is the battle of Gog and Magog. And God himself will destroy the Russian-Arab coalition. The world will see God defending Israel as it hasn't seen since Pharaoh."
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews An American group lead by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, raises tens of millions from Christian evangelicals for Jewish causes.
• Parental Guide "The soon coming climax"

• Creationist jokes, more search terms: FAQ, principle evidence, bible, holy, author of the Universe, You can't ignore science. Noah's ark was big.  What does radioactive dating have to do with Christian girls?  And what about fossil evidence?  What about Antarctic ice cores?  Did dinosaurs coexist with men?  Age of the earth and the Geologic Column are top and bottom.  Is Laboratory evolution demonstrated?   and what about Hawiian walabies examples of the same kind.  Do professors say  the Neanderthal man an old geezer?  Is the earth's molten interior hell of eternal fire and brimstone?  It's all a satanic conspiracy because of liberal humanists and godless communists with open minds.   ....... These references to creationist jokes is meant to be offense to Christians.  This site is about trying to stop the Iraq War and the put in jail the people who started it.  The fundamentalist Christians, more than any other group voted for Bush and therefore are completely complicit in starting that war.

Liberation Theology   top  

•  Luiz Antonio Rodriguez dos Santos active in movement, St. Paul the Apostle Church  
• Workers' Party, celebrate International Labor Day, anti-imperialism, anti- privatization, criticize neoliberalism, 
• Ratzinger: on Liberation Theology: fusing of the Bible's view of history with Marxist dialectics", movement active in the poorest areas, Ratzinger:"the theology of lebeation is a singular heresy",
• sanctions imposed on liberation theologians Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Jon Sobrino of El Salvador, Pedro Casaldaliga of Brazil, focus issues of social injustice and poverty, 

• LA Times 
• Wikipedia, Liberation theology is a school of theology that focuses on Jesus Christ as not only the Redeemer but also the Liberator of the Oppressed. It emphasizes the Christian mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, particularly through political activism. Some elements of certain liberation theologies have been rejected by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church

• Aquino, Felipe, conservative theologian, 
• Ratzinger, search Liberation Theology, "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith launched its probe into Sobrino in 2001, when the section was still headed by Ratzinger. It zeroed in on two of Sobrino's theological publications, "Jesus the Liberator: A Historical-Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth" (1991) and, from 1999, "Christ the Liberator: A View From the Victims." Wikipedia
• New York Times Liberation Theology persists, defiant force in South America, Ratzinger said: 'fundamental threat to the faith of the church', 'a preferential option for the poor', 80,000 base communities in Brazil, Roman Catholic, bible circles meet regularly, death squads made martyrs: Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, El Salvador, Dorothy Mae Stang, nun, shot. Luiz Antonio Rodriguez dos Santos active in movement, St. Paul the Apostle Church
• President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil

Darwin Online, The Complete Work of Charles Darwin  go to page 2

• ForwardAmerica, search Bush, pedophilia, Latin America, Franklin, White House
• Information Clearing House, Five part series on Christian Zionism
• Theocracy Watch, Rise of Religious Right in the Republican Party    

• Conspiracy Archive Dominionism, pedophilia,
• RaidersNewsNetwork The Deep Politics of God (Part Seven): The CNP, Dominionism, and the Ted Haggard Scandal ... By Phillip Collins and Paul Collins ... The Franklin Cover-up and the CNP
• Iconbusters sex crimes, Covenant House, Bruce Ritter
• RumorMillNews  Covenant House, Latin America, Bush Family Connections, Americares

• Bush Whitehouse search stem cell, cloning
• Council for National Policy Policy Counsel ... "Policy Counsel is designed to inform the American public by publishing articles concerning a wide range of topics and expressing a variety of opinions.  The views expressed in the articles published in Policy Counsel are those of the authors. These views should not be construed as the views of the Council for National Policy, as an attempt to aid or hinder the enactment of any legislation, or as an intervention in any political campaign for public office."
• Southern Baptist Convention

Gambling might not rank as high as homosexuality or abortion on the list of social evils monitored by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, but its growth has provided many occasions for his jeremiads. The indictment of Indian casino lobbyist and influential GOP activist Jack Abramoff was one such occasion. In a January 6 press release issued three days after Abramoff's indictment, Dobson declared, "If the nation's politicians don't fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we'll see." He concluded with a denunciation of vice: "Gambling--all types of gambling--is driven by greed and subsists on greed."

What Dobson neglected to mention--and has yet to discuss publicly--is his own pivotal role in one of Abramoff's schemes. In 2002 Dobson joined a coterie of Christian-right activists, including Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several Louisiana casinos that infringed on the turf of Abramoff's tribal clients. Dobson and his allies recorded messages for phone banking, lobbied high-level Bush Administration officials and took to the airwaves. Whether they knew it or not, these Christian soldiers' crusade to protect families in the "Sportsmen's Paradise" from the side effects of chronic slot-pulling and dice-rolling was funded by the gambling industry and planned by the lobbyist known even to his friends as "Casino Jack."

The only Christian-right activist confirmed to be completely aware of Abramoff's rip-off was Ralph Reed. He and Abramoff have a long and storied history together. When Abramoff chaired the College Republican National Committee in the early 1980s, Reed served as the organization's executive director. They reunited in 1989, when Abramoff helped Reed organize the remains of Pat Robertson's failed 1988 presidential bid into the Christian Coalition. In 1997, with the Christian Coalition under IRS investigation and Reed facing accusations of cronyism from the group's chief financial officer, he left to start his own consulting firm, Century Strategies. Reed contacted Abramoff right away. "I need to start humping in corporate accounts," Reed told him in 1998. "I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts."

Though Abramoff apparently was not fond of Reed, he viewed him as useful. "I know you (we!) hate him [Reed], but it does give us good cover and patter to have him doing stuff," he wrote in a February 14, 2002, e-mail to his business partner, Michael Scanlon. "Let's give him a list of things we want...and give him some chump change to get it done." Reed thus became Abramoff and Scanlon's liaison to the Christian right, enlisting his evangelical allies into a web of shadowy casino hustles for "chump change."

Reed's first sleight of hand was enticing Perkins, Falwell and Robertson to try to block a 2001 bill in the Louisiana legislature loosening restrictions on riverboat casinos, which would have posed a competitive threat to Abramoff's clients, the Coushattas. At the time, Perkins was a right-wing State Representative hailed by Reed as the legislature's "anti-gambling leader."

As Perkins lobbied his colleagues against the riverboat bill, he pushed Reed to pour money into an aggressive phone-banking campaign to rally conservative Christian voters.

With a steady supply of gambling industry cash, Abramoff dumped a phone-bank budget of more than $60,000 into Reed's war chest for PR efforts against his clients' rivals, the Jena Choctaws (Reed had asked for $150,000)--supplementing the $10,000 in tribal gambling money he directed to Reed's 2001 campaign for chair of the Georgia GOP and the nearly $4 million he ultimately funneled into Reed's personal account. Reed then recruited Falwell to record a phone message against the bill. He also solicited the help of his former boss at the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, thanking him for his "leadership for our values." Like the answering of a prayer, tens of thousands of Louisiana Republicans suddenly were bombarded with the voice of God against vice, played by Robertson and Falwell.

On March 22, 2001, the bill was resoundingly defeated in the legislature. "You are the greatest!!!" an ecstatic Abramoff wrote to Reed.

Miracle accomplished, Abramoff tapped Reed's services again in January 2002, when his clients learned that then-Louisiana Governor Mike Foster had secretly approved a casino site for the Jena Choctaws. Following a battle plan devised by Scanlon (who inexplicably signed a memo outlining the plan, Mike "The Sausage King" Scanlon), Reed re-enlisted his evangelical allies to rev up grassroots pressure on Bush Interior Secretary Gail Norton, who had the final say on the Jena deal.

Reed first prompted Dobson to attack the Jenas' lobbyist, Washington super-lawyer, former RNC chair and current Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, during a Focus on the Family broadcast. (In his 2002 campaign for governor, Barbour described himself as "a five-point Calvinist" on American Family Radio.)

"Let me know when Dobson hits him," Abramoff wrote to Reed on February 6, 2002. "I want to savor it." That same day, he e-mailed Scanlon, "He [Dobson] is going to hit Haley by name! He is going to encourage people to call Norton and the WH [White House]. This is going to get fun."

Abramoff transferred more cash to Reed to blast Dobson's tirade against the Jena casino across Louisiana airwaves. Abramoff was confident his Bush Administration contacts would make sure all the right people heard Dobson's hit. "Dobson goes up on the radio next week!" he told Scanlon on February 20. "We'll play it in WH [the White House] and Interior." Abramoff's gamble paid off when word of the ad filtered through the tension-filled halls of the Interior Department. "[White House liaison] Doug [Domenech] came to me and said, 'Dobson's going to shut down our phone system,'" an unnamed former Interior official recounted to the Washington Post. " 'He's going to go on the air and tell everyone who listens to Focus on the Family to call Interior to oppose the Jena compact.' "

But Abramoff's fun didn't stop there. Reed urged a Who's Who of the Christian right to lobby Norton against the Jena compact with a stream of breathless letters. On February 19 Perkins warned Norton that gambling leads to "crime, divorce, child abuse." American Family Association chair Don Wildmon sent a lengthy missive to Norton filled with statistics on gambling's adverse social impact. The Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly sent another. American Values president Gary Bauer declared in a letter to Norton that the compact ran "contrary to President Bush's pro-family vision." Focus on the Family vice president Tom Minnery wrote Norton and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to demand they stop the deal. Dobson capped the mail blitz with his own missive against gambling expansion.

Despite the best efforts of Abramoff and the Christian soldiers Reed recruited, in December Norton approved the Jena compact. Soon after, Louisiana's new governor, Kathleen Blanco, reversed the deal on the basis of her opposition to casino growth. Abramoff's goal was achieved, but all his work was for naught. And his skulduggery was beginning to catch up with him. "I hate all the shit I'm into," he moaned to Scanlon in a February 2003 e-mail. "I need to be on the Caribbean with you!"

Karen Armstrong

source: Transcript from Bill Moyers interview.