The Intelligence² Debate - Stephen Fry (Unedited)
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Guess who wins?

Ex-youth pastor tried to hire hit man to kill girls he was accused of molesting

A former Greenwood Salvation Army youth pastor has been charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill three teenage girls with whom he was accused of having sex. Johnson County prosecutors who charged 30-old Jonathan James Hartman with conspiracy to commit murder Thursday say he also tried to have killed a child of one of the victims, whom he believed to be his. Court documents allege that Hartman offered a fellow inmate $50,000 for the killings while he was being held in Johnson County Jail awaiting trial on charges of child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor.

This simply boggles the modern mind:

Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.

Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.

The girl had previously been reported missing.

The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.

Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.

...A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. Her body showed no signs of bruising.

Colorado:

A former longtime volunteer at the Denver Church of Christ is the subject of an on-going sex assault investigation, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said today. The man is identified as William "Bill" McLaughlin, 45, who is currently charged with multiple felony counts including sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.... Heyden said that the investigation continues because during a 20-year association with the Denver Church of Christ, McLaughlin came into contact with hundreds of children.

Kansas:

A 45-year-old former church youth director in Overland Park was arrested this week on a charge of molesting a 14-year-old girl. Wayne Huston of Overland Park is in jail today on $25,000 bond on the charge of indecent liberties with a child. He kissed and fondled the girl at his house or hers between Nov. 4 and Dec. 4, police said. Nothing happened at the Holy Cross Lutheran Church, said police spokesman Jim Weaver.... Church officials issued a statement saying that Huston worked as a full-time staff member from 1999 to Aug. 3, 2009, and they cannot say why he is no longer employed there.

California:

A Lake County church youth counselor has pleaded guilty to sexual battery on a 14-year-old girl. Christopher Andrew Puryear, 23, of Kelseyville, faces a sentence that ranges from probation to five years in prison.... Puryear was arrested in December after church leaders from Gateway Ministries church outside Lakeport reported he was having inappropriate contacts with at least one teen in a youth group. He was spending a great of time with girls in the group and sending them text messages, they reported.... In exchange for his guilty plea, charges of forced oral copulation and dissuading a witness were dropped in connection with Puryear's assault on the girl and a charge of domestic assault on his wife was dropped, Borg said. The domestic assault on Puryear's wife occurred after the assault on the girl, Borg said. Puryear also had a prior conviction for domestic assault, he said.

Atheism is the new fundamentalism?

Oy:

“Hard punches!” he shouted from the sidelines of a martial arts event called Cage Assault. “Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!”

The young man was a member of a fight team at Xtreme Ministries, a small church near Nashville that doubles as a mixed martial arts academy. Mr. Renken, who founded the church and academy, doubles as the team’s coach. The school’s motto is “Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide.”

Mr. Renken’s ministry is one of a small but growing number of evangelical churches that have embraced mixed martial arts—a sport with a reputation for violence and blood that combines kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles—to reach and convert young men, whose church attendance has been persistently low.

Why not vibrating pocket pussies and streaming hard-core porn?

They just can't keep their filthy hands off teenagers, can they?

Tennessee:

A youth minister at a Wilson County church has been indicted on charges of raping three young children. A grand jury indicted Tavaria Merritt on Thursday of nine counts of rape of a child. Sheriff's department investigators said the 18-year-old served as a youth minister at True Vine Church in Lebanon. They said the charges stem from incidents involving three boys, two 11 year olds and one 10 year old.

Georgia:

In his three years as a youth minister at a small Gainesville church, Phillip Glenn Terrell won over the trust of the tight-knit congregation that treated him like family. But by repeatedly molesting the teenage son of one of the church members, Terrell not only left the boy emotionally scarred, but hastened the demise of Emmanuel Baptist Church. On Friday, Terrell, 38, pleaded guilty to molesting the boy, then 14, at two Forsyth County locations in 2006. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The red brick church on Atlanta Highway, where 50 or 60 parishioners gathered each Sunday at the time of Terrell’s April 2007 arrest, now sits empty.... Terrell was previously charged with child molestation in 2001, when he was a guard at a juvenile detention center in Paulding County. He was acquitted of the charge in a bench trial when the alleged victim was unable to identify him in court. Church officials were unaware of the prior molestation charge when they hired him to handle youth programs in 2003.

And haters? Before you crank it up, please watch this video again:

It's good to hear that certain Christians have their heads on straight about the crisis in Haiti:

As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a US faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need.

Not just any Bible.

These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time. Called the "Proclaimer," the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people", the Faith Comes By Hearing group said.

(More on the Faith Comes By Hearing website.) That's just great. I think if you sent these Proclaimers...

...that would be more useful for the people of Haiti than 600 solar-powered audio Bibles that cost at least $150 each.

(Via Pharyngula, which points out that the Proclaimer website claims the Proclaimer would even work "on the moon." It must be Jesus's power!)

John Travolta doesn't think so.

Tennessee:

Hines Creek Missionary Baptist Church's youth pastor Timothy Daniel Sherritze Jr., 21, raped and sodomized a 14-year old girl repeatedly and when the church learned of it it took no action to stop it, the girl and her mother claim in Union County Court, Tenn.

Florida:

Also this week, the grand jury indicted a former youth pastor accused of molesting children inside a Gainesville church. Phillip Glenn Terrell, 38, has been in the Forsyth County jail since his April 2007 arrest.... Terrell was a minister of education at Emmanuel Baptist Church on Atlanta Highway. He is accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy between January and December 2006.

Indiana:

Investigators said they believe Ronald Wayne Williams was on his computer for hours at a time soliciting young girls to perform sex acts.... According to the investigators, Williams often had personal information on his teenage victims and used that information along with threats to coerce them to perform sex acts before webcams. He would make a comment to them about turning their webcam video into stills or a movie and threatened to distribute them to family members and school.

Authorities said 47-year-old Williams has been a volunteer youth pastor at different area churches. They are now in the process of contacting those churches.

Georgia:

A woman admitted in court that she plotted with a youth minister from her church, with whom she was having an affair, to murder her husband. Michelle Sullins Reynolds pleaded guilty Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter in the death of her husband, Thad John Reynolds. Officials said Michelle Reynolds plotted with her lover to kill her husband at his workplace. She was sentenced to a total of 20 years, minus the five years she's already served in jail. A youth minister from the couple's church, Scott Harper, pleaded guilty in 2008 to stabbing church deacon Thad Reynolds to death in 2004.

Thanks to Slog tipper Rick.

Individual Americans are donating millions of dollars to relieve the suffering in Haiti, our government is pledging tens of millions of dollars and rushing medical supplies and food and hospital ships to Haiti—and all anyone is going to remember about America's response to the tragedy in Haiti is the stunningly hateful santorum that drips from the lips of Pat Robertson. Ugh. Robertson should be "put to sleep," says Don Imus. Imus can be an ass himself—ahem—but he's absolutely right about Robertson.

"Every now and again, the vestments slip," writes Sullivan. "Check out this Amazon page where priests can buy communion wafers. Now check out what the frequent buyers of such wafers also bought."

The pope will be furious but I'm sure the altar boys are grateful.

The Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick, Canada):

"The intensely personal, morally demanding Pentecostal faith is by far the fastest-growing religion in the world, now with 640 million followers and double-digit growth rates every year."

The Telegraph (UK):

There are now over a billion Muslims in the world, a majority in 50 nations. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today….conversion growth is also a reality, particularly in Africa where many nominal Christians are being won to Islam.

The Times of India (from an interview with batshit "philosopher" Slávoj Zizek):

But what’s your stand on political violence?

In an abstract sense, I am opposed to violence. But nobody is actually against violence. Look at the Buddhists. They say you shouldn’t kill, but then they have all the exceptions. During the 40s, one of the great Zen philosophers was writing articles not only justifying Japanese invasion of China but also giving advice on how Buddhist enlightenment allows you to kill without guilt.

How can you dismiss Buddhism so easily? It’s the fastest growing religion in the world.

In the West, Buddhism is the new predominant ideology.