Photo: Social Media

I shot this today at The Grove in Los Angeles. This scene was repeated in front of every store. Men and their iPhones...

A pastor and his needs

Youth pastor Chris Allen Phillips was arrested for allegedly embezzling $80,000 from the Mechanicsville Advent Christian Church. Phillips was allegedly paying an ugly prostitute hush-money to cover up a $200 blowjob. He told police he had paid Tony Farnsworth $100,000. Phillips is an idiot. 

A church elder said this week that Phillips has been placed on leave without pay as the church's youth minister but declined further comment about why Phillips was relieved. Phillips told Hanover investigators that he paid Farnsworth as much as $100,000, according to a search warrant. His arrest Thursday night on the embezzlement charge indicates some portion of that money came from his church.

Source: Hanover pastor arrested for embezzling from church

Who pays $100,000 to an ugly hooker to cover up a blow job? Who steals $80,000 to cover a morals crime? Its like shooting a fly with a howitzer. But seriously, $200 for a blowjob? Phillips is out of his mind. 

Atheist Hero Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Temp

Rep. Juan Mendez is an atheist hero for delivering a secular invocation at the Arizona House invocation on Tuesday.

A state lawmaker acknowledged that he is an atheist as he gave the daily House invocation Tuesday, urging legislators to look at each other, rather than bow their heads, and “celebrate our shared humanness.”

Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, who said it was freeing to be open about his secular views, also introduced about a dozen fellow members of the Secular Coalition for Arizona who watched from the House gallery.

Source: Arizona Lawmaker: I'm an atheist by Mark K. Reinhart.

It takes guts to come out as an elected official. Thank you Rep. Juan Mendez.

A pastor and his temper

Pastor Roberto Padilla was arrested for beating his wife. Padilla is the pastor at Pentecostal Mission Church in Storm Lake.

Roberto Padilla was arrested in March and charged with Domestic Assault Causing Injury, after allegedly striking his wife several times with his hand and kicking her, according to a police official. Padilla was released on bail a day after his arrest.

Church council officials said they will be meeting with Padilla in Storm Lake to discuss his future. He is currently the church's only pastor, but a council member said that violence is strictly forbidden.

Source: Arrested pastor raises church council concern

Questions

• Why would you meet with a pastor who beat his wife? 
• Why not just fire him? What is the church doing to help the alleged victim? 
• Will the meeting be public? 
• Will church members be able to attend? 
• Will the results be published?

Transparence helps heal wounds. Just saying.

A pastor and his gun

Pastor Jay Shuck was arrested for pointing a loaded gun in the direction of his wife, daughter and two children, plus he hit a cop. 

Authorities say when they arrived at the scene the gun had been put away, but tell us they have cell phone footage of the incident.

MPD says Shuck struck an officer while being arrested and was Tased.

According to Facebook Shuck is the pastor at Parkview and United Methodist Church.

Source: MPD says pastor arrested after he pointed loaded gun at his family

Questions

• Why is Jay Shuck still a pastor? 
• Why is it important to point out the Shuck is a pastor? 
• Why does a pastor have a gun anyway?

The gun ownership thing really bothers me. Did Jesus want his representative to own guns, and by extension threaten their families with violence and possible death? 

Senator Inhofe and disaster funding

It is ironic that a tornado leveled a city in Oklahoma, the home state of Republican fiscal hawk Jim Inhofe. The Senator has a long record of voting against disaster funding. How much do you want to bet the Inhofe will seek every possible dollar in aid for his people?

Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, both Republicans, are fiscal hawks who have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country. They also have opposed increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief.

Late last year, Inhofe and Coburn both backed a plan to slash disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. In a December press release, Coburn complained that the Sandy Relief bill contained "wasteful spending," and identified a series of items he objected to, including "$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies."

Read more: Oklahoma Senators Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Have Shaky Records On Disaster Relief

Hypocrisy comes in all forms.

As I write this they are pulling dead children out of Plaza Tower Elementary School. I'm not sure I can watch anymore. This is heartbreaking. 

Check out this new documentary, A Devil in God's House

I found this documentary via a comment on my blog which invited me to speak at the premiere of the movie on July 13, in Chicago. I'll going to try and make it. 

A Devil in God's House

• Director L'Tisha Vaughn
• Writer: L'Tisha Vaughn
• Stars: Samara Smith

The documentary is about clergy sexual abuse. The victim, now 34, is unable to press criminal charges, so she opted to tell her story of abuse as a child via a documentary.

The film is produced by Tiny Production, which looks like a worthwhile community venture too.

TPAC’s Can I Live Project invites Chicagoland youth to create original & positive staged & filmed works from Plays, Poetry & Spoken-Word, Dance Productions, Music Videos, Public Service Announcements and much more!!!! Check out our Tiny Production Works page to see works by TPAC students all across the city!!!!

How can you not love TPAC?

The Spirit of Jezebel is bullshit

I've said it many times on this blog. When you assign behavior to an imaginary being, concept or demon, you enable the behavior. It is like saying that the devil made me do it, which is just a way of trying to escape direct responsibility for your actions. When a pastor has an affair, he is not guided by the Spirt of Jezebel. He's guided by his penis and a lack of impulse control. He has no character. 

Jennifer Leclaire seems intent of giving pastors an easy way out despite overwhelming evidence that these pastors are driven by base sexual and monitory desires. These people are simply not living up to the our expectations for their behavior. It's a common failing, and not driven by demon possession, or the influence of some nebulous spirit.

Jezebel is essentially a spirit of seduction that woos people into sexual immorality and idolatry. Jezebel comes to kill, steal and destory[sic[ by tempting you and then escorting you, willingly, into immorality and idolatry. Revelation 2:20 clearly reveals what the spirit of Jezebel is and its sinister motives. Jesus said, “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.” We have a responsibility to resist the devil and he will flee. Jezebel is no exception but many continue falling because they don't see the big picture. Jezebel justifies the sins of immorality and idolary[sic] with a false doctrine of grace.

Source: Why Megachurch Pastor Keep falling into sexual Immorality by Jennifer Leclaire

My explanation is for this behavior is simple. People are not what they seem, even pastors. The true measure of any person is in what they do, and not in what they believe. A pastor who preaches morality and lives amorally, is a cancer who can never be trusted again.

I have another problem with the Spirit of Jezebel concept. It is a feminine label for sexual amoral behavior and represents a subtle shift towards blaming the woman instead of the man. To be clear, in a case of pastoral infidelity, there are often two people twho should be held accountable. The pastor fell, but so did his mistress. In the case of sexual abuse, it's all on the pastor.

At least Leclaire built an interesting list:

• David Loveless, formerly of Discovery Church in Orlando - resigned over sex scandal 
• Isaac Hunter, formerly of Summit Church - resigned over sex scandal.
• Sam Hinn, formerly of Gathering Place Worship Center in Sandord, resigned over sex scandal. 

I could add a few more. 

Moved to tears - Same Love

I heard this song for the first time today as I left my neighborhood this morning on the way to work. I was moved to tears.

Same Love - An absolutely beautiful song. Thank you Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Pastor Cedric Cuthbert arrested

Pastor Cedric Eugene Cuthbert of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Sanford, was arrested for watching child porn on his work computer while at work. Cuthbert was allegedly alternating between writing his Easter sermon and watching videos of young girls engaged in graphic sex acts. All this while working the night shift for Disney.

An employee-relations manager at Disney was alerted last month when Cuthbert tried to access several blocked websites from his work computer, the manager told Orange County deputies

Disney's monitoring system takes screen shots of employee computers every three seconds and recorded Cuthbert writing an Easter Sunday church sermon on John chapter 13 verses 1-35 and Psalm 148 while loading pornographic YouTube videos involving teenage girls.

Source: Disney worker watched child porn at work while writing sermon, cops say by Desiree Stennett

I think we can safely assume that Cuthbert is an idiot as well as an alleged pervert. Who surfs porn at big companies these days? Especially not big companies with security systems that capture a copy of your screen every three seconds. Can anyone say, "Big Brother?"

Imam Shahid Mehdi arrested

Imam Shahid Mehdi was arrested for the attempted rape of a woman in a public park. He allegedly whipped his penis out and chased her through the park. But wait! There's more! Imam Mehdi recently went on record as a misogynist. He thinks women who do not wear the hijab are asking for it, and by 'it" I mean… well, you know what I mean. 

“Women are not entitled to respect when they walk around without a Hijab. They are to blame for it when they are attacked,” Imam Shahid Mehdi said.

“All the crimes that occur against women is because they are not covered. When they are not covered, you have no respect for them. ”

“She disobeys her master, there are two places in the Qur’an has ordered her to cover themselves (…) Women make a clean society dirty when they walk around without a Hijab. They are not entitled to respect and are not valuable as those who wear a Hijab.”

Source: Muslim Imam Claims Women Who Don’t Wear Hijabs are “Asking to be Raped”, Arrested for Trying to Rape Woman

The image I have of this man running through a park with his willy out… it really is quite disturbing. 

Youth pastor Samuel Yoon arrested

Youth pastor Samuel Yoon New Community Mission Church in San Leandro, Ca., was arrested at a Orlando youth conference for soliciting prostitution with an underage teen girl. Yoon was expecting to meet a 14-year-old girl.

Did I mention that Yoon is a Southern Baptist?

Pastor David Berman demonstrating Christian values

Watch this video of a man confronting two Robin Hood activists. It's a little scary. I actually thought the man was being too aggressive and could potentially pose a risk to the two young men he was confronting. 

The man is Pastor David Berman (cheesy website). The Robin Hoods' activism is simply dropping coins in Keene's parking meters, plus filming the meter readers. The Robin Hoods are being sued by the city of Keene for allegedly harassing meter readers. The case is about lost parking fine income for the city and is not the focus of my attention today. The behavior of Pastor Berman interests me though. I must ask, is this how a Christian should act? Is this how a pastor should act? Is this love? Is this compassion? Heck, is this even the way the issue should be handled? 

Pastor Berman is angry, belligerent, pedantic, and most of all, he's acting like a child. Is this what Jesus would do? I don't think so.

Berman originally posted his video to Youtube, but after other people noticed his un-Jesus-like behavior, he pulled it.  Come to think about it, when a pastor is exhibiting un-Jesus-like behavior, who or what is he emulating? 

The conflict that troubles me the most is Berman's insistence that the activists are somehow enabling tyranny while protesting against the government. It's just crazy. 

Berman is a fraud. He is a fraud as a Christian, and questionable in other ways too. Check out where he got his Th.D 

The coolest thing ever

Space Oddity version by Commander Chris Hadfield. Yes!

How is this not terrorism?

Terrorism: The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

America Blog asks the question. My answer is simple. Read the dictionary. 

No terrorism please, we’re gunmen. A bizarre story out of New Orleans, where two or three gunmen opened fire on a Mother’s Day parade, injuring 19 people, including two children.

Sure sounds awfully familiar, almost like a redux of the Boston Marathon bombing. But you’d be wrong.

You see, when two guys use bombs to hurt people en masse at a marathon, it’s instantly “terrorism.” But when two to three people use guns to hurt people en masse at a parade, it’s simply “the relentless drumbeat of street violence.”

What’s the difference?

Intent is the difference. There was no political motive is the New Orleans shooting, at least none that I've heard. This article provides some background.