Headline Of The Day

Via CBS San Francisco:

KCBS has learned that Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways. The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night. “They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing,’” said a homeless man named Robert. But there are no signs warning the homeless about what happens in these doorways, at various times, all through the night. Water pours from a hole in the ceiling, about 30 feet above, drenching the alcove and anyone in it.

RELATED: When he's not literally soaking the homeless at Our Lady Of Maytag, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is either drunk driving or headlining anti-gay hate rallies, as he will do for NOM at next month's Hate March III. (Tipped by JMG reader Robert)

Evangelical Couple Keeps Terminally Ill Daughter Alive Against Her Wishes

An evangelical pastor and his wife in Queens are keeping their terminally-ill daughter, a former Manhattan banker, hooked up to a ventilator against her will because they believe that her stated wish to die naturally constitutes suicide in the eyes of God. And that's a mortal sin that will send her to hell.

Lee’s court-appointed lawyer complained her devout parents — who believe she’ll go to hell if she pulls the plug — are putting her under “incredible pressure.” “She has made herself abundantly clear,” the lawyer, David A. Smith, said of his client, who can’t move from the neck down and is being kept alive by machines. “They stand there all day, and tell her that this is Satan’s work. [snip] His daughter was training for the New York City Marathon last year when she fell ill and was diagnosed with brain cancer. Last month, she had a seizure and was rushed to North Shore, where she has begged doctors to remove life support, they testified. The parents went to court Sept. 24 and asked that the father be appointed guardian. After an emergency hearing, a Long Island judge ruled the tubes could be removed. The family rushed to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and obtained a temporary order keeping life support in place until the judges make a full ruling.

The pastor says, "When someone sets a time and date to die, that is considered as a suicide and sin." The court's decision may come today.

"Ex-Gay" Men To Gather At GA Retreat For Masculine Bonding & Circle Jerks

Allegedly "ex-gay" Pastor DL Foster is selling a November retreat at the glamorous Best Western in Helen, Georgia, where self-hating homosexuals will gather in budget hotel rooms for lessons on masculinity and religious indoctrination.

The Follow Me Discipleship Retreat (FMDR) started in 2003 and is now a yearly Christian event for men who are following Jesus Christ out of homosexuality and sexual immorality into holiness. The mission of Follow Me Retreat is to cultivate and foster integrity, discipline, sexual purity, righteousness and honest fellowship within the bonds of brotherly love.

We chose Helen because its away from the hustle and bustle of the city, has a calm visual effect and provides a peaceful retreat which helps to enjoy time away from the “distractions” of life. Helen has great sight-seeing, exotic food, mountain streams and lots of little wonders to enjoy while fellowshipping. Teambuilding excursions add a slice of excitement.

Among the listed breakout sessions is "Strengthening Your Personal Appearance," where Minister Kyra Jones will provide desissification tips like, "The Neck Roll: That's Just For Black Girls!"

If You Don't Work, You Don't Eat

More of that Christian Love™ from Michele Bachmann.

Today In Christian Love™

According to a new book being promoted on Christian sites, if your son ends up dying from AIDS, that's what he gets for defying God.

“He would get of the opinion that God loves us unconditionally no matter what we do,” Rhodes explains. “I told him that that is true but when we live outside of his bounds and we do things that we know we should not then it breaks the relationship with God and we have consequences that we have to live with, and even die with sometimes.”

Bullied Even After Death

At a school dance following his wake, some classmates of Jamey Rodemeyer chanted "We're glad he's dead." Jamey's sister heard them. Horrible.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Woman Murders Dog For Chewing On Her Bible

A South Carolina woman says that God told her to murder her nephew's dog because it chewed on her bible.

Miriam Fowler Smith, 65, told cops on Monday that she hung and burned her nephew's pit bull after the animal took a bite out of her bible. She claimed God urged her to kill Diamond, a 1-year-old female dog, because the animal was a "devil dog" and would hurt neighborhood children. Smith was arrested on Sunday and remains in Spartanburg County jail. She could face faces 180 days or up to five years behind bars if she's convicted with felony animal cruelty. She does not have a lawyer yet. Authorities said Smith confessed to wrapping an extension cord around Diamond's neck, hung the animal from a tree, and then set the pup on fire.

(Via - On Knees For Jesus)

SAN FRANCISCO: Street Preachers Perform Exorcism On Transgender Woman

Blowing horns and screaming over a public address system, a group of Move Of God street preachers descended on a transgender woman to "lay on hands" and perform an exorcism. They announce on YouTube: "Believed he was a woman for 20 years. In fifteen minutes he is totally set free." Based on this clip, it appears their hapless victim is either drunk or mentally ill.

IT'S TRUE: Constance Tricked Out Of Prom

Constance McMillen has confirmed that a large fancy secret prom took place across town while she and special needs students attended what they were told was the "official" prom.

"They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them," McMillen says. "The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to." Last week McMillen asked one of the students organizing the prom for details about the event, and was directed to the country club. "It hurts my feelings," McMillen says. Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. "They had the time of their lives," McMillen says. "That's the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn't have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom]."

The ACLU says they aren't sure if they can take legal action over the deception.

Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said her organization was still gathering details about what happened Friday night to determine whether they would ask Davidson for sanctions. At the least, Bennett said the details about Friday’s prom would be used in the organization’s damages suit against the district, which is still being developed. “We are disappointed at the sparse attendance, and we’re looking further into the situation,” Bennett said. “Whatever we find will be brought to the court’s attention, whether it is in the damages trial, or whatever. There will still be a trial on the merits. The case didn’t end in the preliminary hearing.”

UPDATE: At the polite request of a parent, I've removed the photos of the prom.

Michigan Churches End Homeless Services Over LGBT Rights

Three Kalamazoo churches will stop providing meals to the homeless because of the city's recent approval of a law protecting gays from discrimination.

Martha’s Table, through which eight churches have provided Sunday afternoon worship and meals for the needy at First Congregational Church, is losing three of the churches because of the issue of homosexuality, even though the ecumenical ministry takes no position on it, said the Rev. Matt Laney, pastor of First Congregational. “The founding principle of Martha’s Table was that churches would come together and put aside their differences in light of what unites us, which is our common commitment to serve Christ and others,” Laney said. “But now this difference has risen above our common commitment to serving Christ.” Laney said representatives of all three churches have been “very clear” that they don’t want to be “guilty by association” with First Congregational and its inclusiveness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said Laney, who publicly supported an ordinance passed by Kalamazoo voters in November that protects GLBT people from discrimination in housing, jobs and accommodations.

The man who created Martha's Table and whose restaurant provides most of the meals refused to comment on his withdrawal, saying, "“I would just as soon let it go. We are just pulling out. That’s all. We would just as soon take a position of silence.”

(Via - Box Turtle Bulletin)

Salvation Army: Want Xmas Toys For Your Kids? Show Us Your Green Card

Talk about the "Christmas spirit." In Houston the Salvation Army wants proof of legal U.S. residency before giving out Xmas presents to needy kids.

In a year when more families than ever have asked for help, several programs providing Christmas gifts for needy children require at least one member of the household to be a U.S. citizen. Others ask for proof of income or rely on churches and schools to suggest recipients. The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children.

The point isn't to punish the children but to ensure that their parents are either citizens, legal immigrants or working to become legal residents, said Lorugene Young, whose Outreach Program Inc. is one of three groups that distribute toys collected by firefighters. “It's not our desire to turn anyone down,” she said. “Those kids are not responsible if they are here illegally. It is the parents' responsibility.” The idea of a charity turning away children because of decisions made by their parents unsettled some immigration activists. “It is very disturbing to think a holiday like Christmas would be tainted with things like this,” said Cesar Espinoza, executive director of America for All, a Houston-based advocacy group. “Usually, people target the adults because the adults made the decision to migrate, where the children are just brought through no fault of their own.”

Just when you think that the cruelty of some Christian groups cannot be topped.....

UPDATE: The Salvation Army is desperately tweeting everybody reporting on this story, pointing us to this Houston Chronicle story which they claim is a correction.

[T]he Salvation Army, which asks for a Social Security number when registering children for its gift program, said it does so only to deter fraud. Flanagan and Salvation Army spokesman Juan Alanis spoke up Tuesday after a story in the Chronicle noted that both groups require birth certificates, Social Security numbers or other documents indicating immigration status. They said it's not their intent to discriminate. Alanis acknowledged that families cannot register for the Angel Tree program, which allows children to request specific gifts, unless one member of the family can present a Social Security number. “It is not because we seek to discriminate. The Salvation Army is not in the business of verifying legal status,” he said. “We have to be good stewards. If we let people register without checking, that could be abused.” Alanis said the agency uses Social Security numbers, rather than some other type of identifier, because “that's just the way we've found to verify it at this point. If other agencies do something different, we'd be interested in finding that out.”

How is that a "correction," exactly?

Love The Sinner, Hate The Service

Gay blogs are buzzing with outrage today over an Arlington, Texas church's cancellation of the funeral of a gay man. The High Point Church cancelled the service, planned for Wednesday, after viewing memorial photos of the deceased hugging and kissing male friends.

Towleroad reports: [Reverend Gary] Simons defended his decision to renege on the offer to his congregation on Sunday, and reportedly received a hearty round of applause. Said Simons: "This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy. We cannot glorify homosexuality as a lifestyle."

Pam Spaulding quotes the church further: "We did decline to host the service - not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle. Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it - yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family. Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness."-- Rev. Gary Simons, minister at High Point Church in Arlington, justifying the church's decision.

The dead man's partner posted a lengthy comment on Box Turtle Bulletin which reads in part: "First of all, let me start by stating that it was a member of the church who offered the use of their facility to us, on behalf of his brother who is/was a member of their congregation. I was introduced to this man as Cecil’s partner. To my knowledge, this person at least was fully aware that we were living openly as a couple. This same member of the church, when were later advised that we could not use the facilities, on his own, with money from his own pocket, not church coffers, went and procured another facility for the funeral. The church did not do so. At no time did a member of the church contact us to indicate that they had a problem with any part of the service we were planning. We never had contact with the minister or any of the administration."

Nothing about any of this is surprising to me. Increasingly, I find myself numbed to Christianist outrages.