When he got fired by his board, he turned around and sued the bastards, then bitched to the press ("Do you want to feed the children or feed the lawyers?"), then convinced funders to pull millions of dollars in gifts, then threatened to destroy the charity with bad publicity ("the Web will kill you"), and then had the gall to say he wants to sit down and work it out "in a Christian way," without all the lawyers.

Of course he doesn't want lawyers—he's clearly a bully who gets what he wants by intimidation. Lawyers always want to use rational argument and garbage like that.

And what did our good Christian neighbor get fired for in the first place?

Directors fired Jones after he admitted having hidden microphones installed in April in the charity offices of three executives, including his daughter, Larri Sue Jones, the charity’s general counsel.

Police began an investigation after a private investigator on Aug. 19 found remnants of the devices in the ceilings. Prosecutors are not expected to charge Jones.

And why was a private investigator inspecting the ceilings of this "Christian" charity?

The Oklahoman leaves that stone unturned.

Thanks to Slog tipper Matt.

At the bustling Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, FL, pastor David Hughes usually preaches the gospel, the good news. But Sunday, the news was bad. "There is brokenness, anger and a lot of hurt. This is an ugly story,'' Hughes told a sanctuary packed with several hundred worshipers for the 11:15 a.m. service. The story broke Saturday when Coral Springs police arrested one of the church's youth pastors, Russell Dion Lewis, 28, and charged him with custodial battery and 10 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation.

Police said Lewis molested a 14-year-old girl and tried to rape her. Investigators added that the contact between Lewis and the girl, even if it was consensual, was illegal because of the girl's age. Lewis was held Sunday in the Broward County jail on $20,000 bond.... "We are all about forgiving,'' Hughes said. "But when it comes to our children, we're pretty hard-nosed around here.''

Maryland:

A former Germantown youth pastor was sentenced to 10 years of probation on Monday for sexually abusing an altar boy in 2001 and 2002. The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 58, who was a pastor at Mother Seton Parish at the time of the abuse, was found guilty of third-degree sex offense in July.... Cote abused Brandon Rains, now 22, and living in Florida, when he was 14 and 15 years old but still denies what he did was wrong, according to county prosecutors. The abuse included sexual touching and watching pornography, and Cote bought Rains gifts, took him to dinner and gave him money for marijuana, prosecutors have said. After Rains' allegations were made in 2003, the Dominican order sent Cote for psychological evaluation, conducted an investigation and cleared him of any wrongdoing, church officials have said.... Cote then was assigned a position as youth minister and associate pastor in Providence, R.I.

Georgia:

Police in Pooler have arrested a local teacher and youth minister on allegations he molested a 13-year-old boy six years ago. Mark Kit Lucas, 47, was booked Friday into the Chatham County jail on a felony charge of aggravated sexual battery in an assault reported to police earlier this month.... At Woodlawn Baptist Church in Garden City, Lucas was recognized in 2004 for going beyond his duties as youth and education director, according to Savannah Morning News archives.

California:

Three former Sunnyvale residents announced today they have sued the Mormon church, the Boy Scouts of America and their stepfather in San Francisco Superior Court for alleged childhood sexual abuse. The three men, who are brothers now aged 39, 41 and 43, claim that William E. Knox, 65, a Mormon church and Boy Scouts leader, molested them repeatedly in Sunnyvale between 1977 and 1987.... The lawsuit alleges [that] Knox used his position as a church elder and youth leader to begin abusing them when they were members of a church-chartered Boy Scouts troop for which he was assistant leader. The molestation began during individual sleepovers at Knox's Sunnyvale apartment, according to the lawsuit. [Knox eventually married the mother of the three boys and] the sexual assaults allegedly continued at the family's Sunnyvale home, in Knox's car on trips to church and Boy Scouts activities, and during Scouts camping trips, according to the lawsuit. The alleged abuse included fondling, child masturbation and oral copulation, the lawsuit said.

Leaders of the Church of Christ, Scientist, are pushing a proposal that would help patients pay someone like Lewis for prayer by having insurers reimburse the $20 to $40 cost.

The provision was stripped from the bill the House passed this month, and church leaders are trying to get it inserted into the Senate version. And the church has powerful allies there, including Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who represents the state where the church is based, and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who said the provision would "ensure that health-care reform law does not discriminate against any religion."

Faith healing. Deficit hawk Orrin Hatch and John Fucking Kerry (!) want health insurers to pay people to pray. Because not paying people to pray somehow amounts to religious discrimination? Jesus Christ, it's time to start a new religion that has just two sacraments: abortion and homosexual sodomy. It might be the only way to protect choice and secure gay rights in this lunatic asylum we call a country.

* Evangelical Christians insist that Mormons are not real Christians and fake Christians are the worst kind of Christians, aren't they?

Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people increased, prompted in part by last November’s highly charged Proposition 8 initiative, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California, according to a new report released today.

There were 134 sexual-orientation hate crimes reported last year, up from 111 in 2007, and [anti-gay hate crimes] were more likely to be violent than hate crimes motivated by race or religion, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

Gay people sure are violent—just look at how we're always throwing our faces at the fists of gay bashers and how we make conservative religious people look bad by forcing them to strip us of our civil rights. How do we sleep at night?

The letter defines marriage as "a natural institution established by God the Creator" and called it "a permanent, faithful, fruitful partnership between one man and one woman" that has two purposes: "the good of the spouses" and "the procreation and education of children." ... "Since marriage and same-sex unions are different realities, it is not unjust discrimination to oppose the legal recognition of same-sex unions," the letter says. "These unions pose a serious threat to the fabric of society that affects all people."

The reality, of course, is that marriage is an institution created by humans, not supernatural superfriends, and that the institution of marriage has evolved over the ages to accommodate changing realities and changing cultural values. Why aren't women property anymore? Why is love central to our understanding of marriage? Why are women allowed to have custody of their children in the event of a divorce? Because the institution of marriage has evolved and changed. Marriage, as practiced by heterosexuals today, may be permanent, may be faithful, and may be fruitful. But heterosexuals are not required to remain in marriages that make them unhappy, they are not required to be monogamous, they are not required to procreate. Some more from me—and my enormous, illuminated nose—on marriage...

Back to the Baltimore Sun's write-up...

While "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" does not represent new Catholic teaching, bishops said the pastoral letter would address a need for an authoritative source to which church leaders may refer as they campaign against divorce, unmarried couples living together and same-sex unions.

The Catholic Church is campaigning against divorce and cohabitation? Really? Is there any evidence of that? Is the Catholic Church funding ballot initiatives that would make divorce illegal? Are they pushing legislation that would make it illegal for landlords to rent apartments to unmarried heterosexual couples? Is the Catholic Church demanding that opposite-sex couples provide proof that they're married before they're allowed to check into hotels?

Please. The Catholic Church is only "campaigning" against the rights of gay couples. They want discrimination against gay couples enshrined in secular law. The Catholic Church does make gentle suggestions to opposite-sex Catholic couples—pretty please don't get divorced, pretty please don't shack up—but they'll annul a Catholic's first marriage (or second or third) for a fee, and they'll still marry straight Catholic couples who are already living together. There is no "campaign" being waged by the U.S. Asshole Catholic Bishops against the rights of straight couples. Please.

This site was created to provide you with an outlet to save LGBT children from the hypocrisy of priests in the Archdiocese of Washington who engage in romantic and sexual relationships, and yet stand silent while Archbishop Wuerl and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops increase their dogmatic war against all LGBT children of God. If you know that one of the priests in the Archdiocese is gay, or having a heterosexual affair, please share your story.

Was it something I said?

For the record: those of us who've criticized the president from the left—because he's not delivering the change he promised—are the same people out there condemning the assholes who are trying to get the president killed. I've been a prominent critic of the president for his inaction on his promises to the gay community—as has Rachel Maddow—and here I am months ago on Countdown calling out the haters on the religious right. We can do both: hold the president accountable, express our displeasure and impatience in reasoned and reasonable ways, while condemning and marginalizing the haters on the right. We can't let the worst people in the world get away with threatening the life of the president—where's the Secret Service?—and allow their threats to hold us and our politics hostage too. That's what they want.

And remember, kids: there is no morality without religion.

Some of the new sexy photographs that have been unearthed Prejean allegedly took herself, of her own reflection in a mirror, alternately topless and completely naked.

Carrie Prejean is young, beautiful and not very bright. And she wasn't politically active until she gave a convoluted and inaccurate answer to a question about same-sex marriage at the Miss USA pageant. Here's the answer that launched a hundred billion blog post. From her response it's clear that Prejean believed same-sex marriage was already legal in all 50 states:

"I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman."

Carrie thought it was great that Americans were free to choose between same-sex and opposite marriage—we're not, of course, but she thought we were—but she personally believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I can live with that. In fact that's all gay people really want. Gay people should be free to marry and other people should be free to believe that our same-sex marriages are wrong because their religion forbids it or because that's how they were raised or because they just think it's icky. Just because same-sex marriage is legal doesn't mean that everyone is required to approve. Interracial marriage is legal despite the disapproval of some; inter-faith marriage is legal despite the strong and sometimes violent disapproval of most religious traditions; divorce is legal despite the disapproval of Jesus Christ himself and despite being forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church. Gay people want the same deal interracial couples, inter-faith couples, and divorced-and-remarried couples all have now: our marriages should be legal even if some people disapprove.

Anyway, back to Prejean: I thought Perez Hilton went too far when he labeled Prejean a bitch for her response to his question. But I quickly came around to Perez's position—she is bitch—after Prejean leapt into bed with Maggie Gallagher and the National Organization for Marriage. (Did you know that Gallagher had a child out of wedlock? And that she's currently in an inter-faith marriage?) It seemed like a transparent effort on Prejean's part to cash in, to parlay her loss at the Miss USA pageant into a career as a spokesmodel for the religious right. Prejean's sudden passion for anti-gay politicking seemed insincere and opportunistic—she hadn't been publicly religious, politically active, or rabidly homophobic until after the pageant—and that's why she drew the scorn of mean-spirited bloggers everywhere.

And now we have proof that the person Prejean pretended to be after that pageant—the good Christian girl with a strong moral code who was chosen by God to stick it to the homos—doesn't jibe with the person she was before the pageant, i.e. a highly sexual and sexually active young woman with breast implants and a string of ex-boyfriends to her name. Carrie Prejean was not the very model of modern right-wing Christian conservatism that she pretended to be to ingratiate herself with the likes of Maggie Gallagher. She was an average young American woman, a little prettier and dimmer than most, with sexual urges and desires and agency. She was just another young woman aware of her own erotic power, a young woman with a digital camera, another young woman sexting her boyfriend because it turned her on to turn him on.

This aspect of Prejean's life—her ownership, control and delight in her own sexuality—is newsworthy because Prejean was working to deny others the same ownership and control over their sexualities. Prejean endorsed discrimination against others based on sexual expression and that invited scrutiny of her own sexual expression. Prejean wasn't exposed as a "hobby pornographer," as Dave put it, because she believes that same-sex marriage is wrong; the woman who replaced Prejean as Miss California also opposes same-sex marriage and no one has pried into her private life. (I can't even recall her name.) Prejean was exposed because the only justification she was able to give for her opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians was her good Christian upbringing (her parents had an ugly divorce), the way her Christian values shaped her worldview, and her moral superiority. None of that stood up to scrutiny.

And now the gig is up: Carrie's new friends—her hater friends—are dropping her and scrubbing her from their websites. Her book tour ended before it began and the only thing anyone is going to remember about her book is that Prejean—with all her sex tapes and dirty pictures—condemned pornography and urged young women not to show too much skin.

And honestly—now that this is all over—I feel kind of sorry for Prejean. She thought she was being attacked by All Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (AGLE) after one gay dude, Perez Hilton, called her name. And then Maggie and NOM and the conservative Christian movement offered her a chance to get back at the homos and make herself a huge pile of money in the process. The praised her, advised her, and pretended to be her friends. All she had to do was play the martyr and tell her story. But when her real story got out—when those pictures and videos got out—Maggie and NOM and her new friends dropped her. Perez abused her, Maggie used her, and now she's done.

28-year-old Jeffery Frodermann, of Menahga, accepted a plea deal for having sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl. Frodermann was a youth minister at Sebeka United Methodist Church. According to the Menahga Chief of Police Scott Koennicke, "Frodermann will likely spend six months behind bars and another six on house arrest." Frodermann will also have a nine year probation period and have to register as a sex offender, but Quentin Ness, who lives across the street from the church and has three daughters of his own, does not believe the punishment was harsh enough. "If it were my daughters I'd want him to get life. Not six months."

Pennsylvania:

Two Aston men, one with ties to a church youth group in New Jersey and the other a Neumann University sophomore, are behind bars on possession and dissemination of child pornography and related offenses. Timothy Earl Bottomley, 24, of Scott Lane, and Brett M. Fenimore, 21, of the 3700 block of Concord Road, were remanded to the county prison.... They were among four men charged with or arraigned on multiple counts of possession of child pornography, dissemination of child pornography and/or criminal use of communication facility. Bottomley, who was taken into custody without incident at his Aston home Monday night, had told investigators “he was a youth minister at a church in New Jersey."

Missouri:

Kansas City police have found that a youth minister driving a group of four other teens from the church was traveling 86 miles per hour before a deadly accident. The accident occurred Oct. 11 at 68th Street and North Ames Avenue.... Mahoney said in this case, the youth minister was going an estimated 86 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone at the time of impact. Kelsey Morris, 16, was critically injured in the crash and died the next day in the hospital.

Today's YPW compiled by Slog tipper Rick, who adds that there is hope for America's wayward youth pastors...

Mann said he told Clements he used to play saxophone and Clements invited him to jam with his band, the Bill Clements Group. In 2006, Mann had what he calls a “dramatic theological shift” and began writing songs—some about religion, as well as other topics. Mann, 31, was raised Baptist in Eckhart, Ind., and went to college to become a youth minister, but said he is now an atheist.

Whatever happened to pushing free electronic Bibles on BBSes, like back in olden Internet times? And also, fun: This particular Bible is the Holman Christian Standard, a modern translation owned by the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, with its origins in the backlash against the politically correct New International Version. No word on whether you can download a patch to switch your "sons of God" back to "children of God."

• "Now gamers can have fun and follow their faith!"

The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.

Hot on the heels of her View grilling and idiotically aborted appearance on Larry King Live, Prejean has abruptly pulled out of a splashy speaking gig. From TMZ:

TMZ has learned Carrie Prejean just pulled out of a talk she was supposed to give this afternoon at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington D.C.—an exclusive club for Republicans only.

An insider at the Capitol Hill Club tells TMZ Carrie canceled five minutes before she was supposed to speak because her camp wanted to avoid a repeat of last night's "Larry King Live" fiasco — when she almost walked off the set.

Carrie faced a fresh wave of criticism this morning after her former hookup told us she wanted him to lie about her sex tape and tell people she was underage when she filmed it ... when she was really 20-years-old.

Also on TMZ, some damning anti-Prejean testimony from Miss California USA president Keith Lewis:

"The public is finally getting a glimpse of the real Carrie Prejean who lives in her own delusional world. The childish behavior, her negative attitude, the sarcasm and condescending tone, the disrespect and continual lying she is demonstrating now is only a fraction of what we endured during her reign and after. Anyone who buys her book is supporting a woman who is actually the opposite of everything she claims to be. I sincerely hope she is able to get the psychological help I believe she has shown to clearly need."

Don't forget, Prejean's whole horrible week was originally supposed to function as publicity for her new book, the full title of which is Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks, which currently ranks #701 on Amazon's Bestsellers List—a gratifyingly ridiculous position for a book whose "author" has been on a headline-making weeklong press blitz. From the book's inside flap:

Carrie Prejean endured the hellish nightmare that the liberal media can inflict on anyone who disagrees with their agenda, but her faith, courage, and conviction have made her a role model for how we can stare down the bullies of political correctness and reclaim our God-given rights to freedom of speech, thought, and conscience.

And that was written before the events of this week. What a wonderful world we live in. Now please enjoy what for me is the ultimate image of the whole Carrie Prejean saga—a photo taken by the boyfriend for whom Prejean diddled herself on camera, which accomplishes the amazing task of making a thin, pretty, ostentatiously "Christian" woman look like a fat slut.

Carrie Prejean, you are a national treasure.

Gays should and must reciprocate. For this is not something that many other churches, including my own, have been able or prepared to do. I wish, of course, that Michael Otterson, who is also a decent and sincere man, had not framed the position in such a defensive way: "The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage." That's a lamentably inflammatory way to describe gay citizens' genuine attempt to seek equality in civil marriage—which we certainly don't see as "violence" in any way at all. But the extremity of that quote may well have been necessary to avoid a backlash among conservative Mormons. And I would much rather focus on the positive gesture than the back-handed swipe that accompanied it.

The other thing to say about this is that it speaks very highly of the strategy of Equality Utah, the state's main gay group, who decided to call the LDS bluff when the church said it was merely opposed to civil marriage—and not other protections for gay and lesbian citizens. Equality Utah immediately tried to get the church to endorse civil unions. That was a non-starter, but in response, we have this support for an anti-discrimination ordinance. Treating religious groups as interlocutors to be engaged, rather than as enemies to be attacked, has not been successful in most places. I did my best with the Catholic hierarchy in the 1990s and got little but contempt or terrified silence in response. Imagine the impact if the Pope came out and explicitly endorsed anti-discrimination laws for gay and lesbian people and used those words and expressed the kind of respect the Mormons just have. It would do a huge amount of good—for gay people and for the church. This Pope cannot do that; but the Mormons just did. More power to the Mormons.

A youth minister has been charged with sexual battery for making sexual advances toward two women. Byron Alston, 46, was arrested on a warrant Tuesday and charged with two counts of felony sexual battery and one count of felony criminal confinement.... According to an Indianapolis Metropolitan police report, Alston offered to give a 23-year-old woman the job she was interviewing for if she had sex with him. The woman refused and Alston then committed a lewd act in his office in front of her, the IMPD report said. In June, a 19-year-old woman alleged that Alston grabbed her and put her hand down his pants.

Florida:

A sex scandal shocks a local Catholic Church. A youth minister has been arrested after having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in his ministry. 24 year-old Brendan McConnell was arrested Monday. His alleged victim is a teenage girl under the age of 16. The two met while McConnell was a volunteer in the Life Teen Program here at Our Lady of Light Catholic Church. The Lee County Sheriff's Office is not releasing the exact age of the girl, but we do know she is between 12 to 15 year's old. McConnell's arrest report states the victim's mother found 23 pages of instant messages between McConnell and the victim. The messages were regarding sexual acts the two performed on each other.

Victoria, BC:

Part of Adore’s success, [Pastor] Moore says, is using technology as a way of connecting with people. The congregation has a website, a blog and a Facebook group and podcasts each sermon.... Meanwhile, the parish’s youth minister, Bradley Cameron, relies on Facebook, an e-mail listserve and text messaging to stay in contact with parish youth. The 19-year-old says his church also uses modern media and scenarios set in the present to underscore its teachings. “The message doesn’t change, but the way we reach people can and must,” he says.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

The Catholic Church manages numerous city-owned homeless shelters in Washington D.C., serving about 68,000 people a year—not all of them Catholic, not all of them straight. Maybe it's time for the city's homeless shelters to be under new—and secular—management.

Prejean threatened to walk off King's Wednesday night interview after King asked her why she'd settled a lawsuit against the Miss California USA Pageant.... Prejean didn't answer.

King repeated: "You can't even say why you settled?"

"Larry," Prejean replied, "it's completely confidential and you're being inappropriate."

It gets worse for Prejean. A caller begins a call with, "I'm a gay man and I love pageants," and Prejean reaches to disconnect her mic. "Did she hear the question?" King asks. Prejean retorts, "Yeah, I think you are being extremely inappropriate right now, and I'm about to leave your show."

Carrie only takes questions now from straight beauty pageant fans, Larry. Video at RawStory.

UPDATE: Here's the video...

First, you have to love the way Carrie waves her book around and smiles at the camera. That sent little starbursts right up my leg. And it seems pretty clear that Carrie was prepared to continue with the interview until Larry took a call from a gay man. That was the last straw—Miss Prejean isn't interested in speaking with gay people, only persecuting gay people. And why would she take off her mic off and then sit there? This is how you take off a mic and storm off a set, Carrie.

UPDATE 2: And it turns out that Carrie isn't a child pornographer after all—just a liar.

Carrie Prejean's ex-boyfriend—the guy to whom she sent the XXX solo video—tells TMZ Carrie and company called him last week and tried getting him to "lie" and say she was 17 when she shot the video. During an audio interview with TMZ, the man—who asked us not to reveal his identity—says Carrie sent him the video when they were involved with each other in 2007. He says Carrie sent him numerous explicit videos and insists the one in question was shot when she was 20.

"It's deplorable what happened to you," says Barbara, "on the other hand—it's the best thing that happened to you." My point exactly, Barbara.

Salt Lake City has become the first Utah city to offer housing and employment protections for gays and lesbians—an action supported by the Mormon church. The City Council, in a unanimous vote Tuesday, passed a pair of nondiscrimination ordinances that would bar landlords and employers from discriminating based on sexuality—a protection not currently afforded under state or federal laws. In a rare public appearance before local lawmakers, a representative from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints read a supporting statement at a public hearing before the Salt Lake City Council....

It's a welcome development—we'll take it—but no one is fooled: this "rare" action is an attempt to blunt charges of anti-gay bigotry leveled against Magic Underpants, Inc., in the wake of Prop 8 and the assault on the rights of gay couples that was waged and funded by the Mormon Church. This action wouldn't have been taken if those charges—legit charges—hadn't been leveled. And they just had to get a dig in...

"The church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage," said Michael Otterson, managing director of the LDS Church's public affairs office.

Take it from the Mormons—they know all about doing violence to people's marriages.

Apparently the sexy tape, which Prejean made for a boyfriend, shows the then-17-year-old Prejean naked and masturbating. Other 17-year-old girls who've made similar tapes for their teenage boyfriends have been arrested and charged with child pornography. Which is absurd, of course, and I'm not suggesting that Prejean should be arrested. But it's interesting that the same God who, according to Prejean, chose her to be his anti-gay messenger on earth didn't intervene when his soon-to-be-chosen messenger was fingering out how to set up the camera. But I agree with her here...

“Did I think it would come back now and haunt me? No. But I think that a lot of young people can learn from this. Nothing is private anymore. Nothing is private.”

She's right: nothing is private anymore. Unfortunately for Prejean her private sex tape didn't surface before she wrote her new book—Still Standing—which includes this advice for young women:

In the book, Prejean talks about her Christian beliefs and condemns the ubiquity of pornography. Young women should resist the pressures of popular culture, of sex, she said, writing, “Our bodies are temples of the Lord. We should earn respect and admiration for our hearts, not for showing skin to look sexy.”

If gay people didn't shoot our political enemies during the AIDS crisis, Peter, it seems highly unlikely that a gay assassin is coming to kill you, despite the loose talk of one anonymous commenter. No need to make a federal case out of it.

And we all know it's not a cap you want popped in your ass, Peter.

I can never look at an alternative version of the last supper—and there are so many—without recalling the outrage that greeted Folsom's Leather/Fetish Supper a few years back, the only alt version that has ever drawn fire from the religious right. Via MyFormative.

"I consider if someone is homosexual, it is a provocation and an abuse of this place... It is offensive to our buildings and our religion."

Noor Faleh Almaleki died Monday of injuries suffered when she was run over October 20 in a parking lot in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria, Arizona, police there said. Authorities said they expect to change the aggravated assault charge against her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, to more severe counts after meetings with prosecutors, Peoria police announced.
Peoria police said Faleh Hassan Almaleki believed his daughter had become "too Westernized" and had abandoned "traditional" Iraqi values. Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef told CNN the family moved to the Phoenix area in the mid-1990s, and Almaleki was unhappy with his daughter's style of dress and her resistance to his rules.
After the incident, Almaleki's father drove to Mexico, abandoning his vehicle in Nogales, Peoria police said. He then made his way to Mexico City and boarded a plane to Britain, where authorities denied him entry into the country and put him on a plane back to the United States, police said.

Well, if her father's idea of "'traditional' Iraqi values" justifies things like running over his own fucking daughter with a car, who could blame her for abandoning it?

h/t: CNN