Religion *is* a Problem

“LYNCHBURG, Va. – A Liberty University student who told a family member he had made bombs and planned to attend the funeral of the Rev. Jerry Falwell was apparently upset about an anti-gay fringe group that protested at the funeral, authorities said.

Officials were still trying to figure out what Mark David Uhl planned to do with the bombs. Police do not believe he intended to disrupt the funeral Tuesday or harm the Falwell family, Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said.

Uhl, 19, was being held without bond in the Campbell County Adult Detention Center on charges of manufacturing an explosive device. It was not known if he had a lawyer, and messages seeking comment left at numbers believed to belong to his family were not returned.

Uhl, of Amissville, was arrested Monday night after a family member contacted authorities, who found homemade bombs in the trunk of Uhl’s car, Major Steve Hutcherson said.

Gaddy described the five bombs as “sort of like napalm” and about the size of soda cans.”

Read more @ The Star >

In this case, Mr. Uhl is clearly the perpetrator of violence and he is wrong. I’m posting this story because his actions were in response to hate messages founded on religious beliefs.

“Members of the Gig Harbor Church of Nazarene are deeply shocked. Their former pastor Stephen Kerr, who they had trusted to teach them religion and values, now sits in jail, accused of molesting a 7-year-old girl.”

“Stephen Kerr was arrested for allegedly trying to have sex with a 7-year-old girl while making her watch videos of children playing with men’s private parts.

Kerr pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday. Hughes said he was surprised by the plea, because Kerr told him something different.

“He openly confessed it, you know,” said Hughes. “There was no question to the fact that he had admitted to his guilt. But it was explained to me that there are technical, legal reason for that.”

Prosecutors believe the sexual abuse had been going on for at least two years.”

From KOMO TV >

After creating the “Abuse of Power” category for the last post I decided to search the web for similiar stories because I realized that “clergy abuse” is something that I had, up to this point, neglected. I’ve got to say, I’m not sure I have the stomach for this. I don’t think that I am capable of actively searching out stories like this one. It saddens me and it sickens me. If I run across them, that is one thing and I will post them, but this is too much.

“A Fort Worth pastor accused of paddling and raping women under the guise of scriptural teaching has been suspended by the national body of the Church of God in Christ.

The suspension comes more than three months after a Fort Worth woman sued the Rev. Sherman C. Gee Allen of the Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ, contending that he repeatedly beat her with a paddle from 2001 to 2005 and forced her to have sex with him.

Since then, eight more women have come forward with similar stories, according to the woman’s lawyers.”

From Dallas News >

What is even more disturbing than beating and raping women is using your supposedly sacred authority as leverage. Sickening. People innocently trust “men of God” almost by default. To take advantage of that to do harm to someone is corrupt in the worst kind of way. These women will be haunted by the memories of this abuse for the rest of their lives and may never be quite the same again. It’s too bad that there isn’t a hell for this fellow to burn in.

Thank you to reader Kriscinda for sending this story in. I decided to create a new “abuse of power” category just for this type story which is dissappointingly common.

“Religiously justified violence is first and foremost a problem of “sacred” texts and not a problem of misinterpretation of texts.”

- Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Anti-War Activist

“A Myrtle Beach man and admitted atheist was attacked and robbed on Thursday night by a group of men who took offense to an anti-Christian phrase on his windshield.

The victim told police he was getting out of his car in the parking lot of the Crabtree Gym in Myrtle Beach about 8 p.m. when the men pulled up beside him and inquired about a derogatory statement on the back windshield of his car, according to an incident report.”

News story here >

For an interesting discussion on this incident, check out this site:

My own opinion on the subject is that while the man was asking for it (by having such a sticker on his car in a predominately Christian country), the Christians certainly didn’t have to give it to him.

“Five people, including two Muslim children, have been killed by suspected Islamic rebels in separate attacks in Thailand’s violence-torn south, police have said.

A group of militants ambushed a motorcycle late on Friday (local time) and shot dead a 45-year-old Muslim man and his two children, an 11-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, in Yala, one of three Muslim-majority provinces.

Also in Yala, a 37-year-old Muslim man was hacked to death by militants in public view at a market late Friday, police said.

They also found the body of a man in a river in the province.”

“Police said several hundred Muslim women and children also blocked a highway in Yala on Saturday as they continued their sit-in for the third consecutive day to demand authorities release suspected militants.

About 20 kilometres away from the sit-in, hundreds of Buddhists also took to the streets, demanding the Muslims end the road blockade.”

“More than 2,100 people have been killed in the ongoing insurgency in the three south provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.

The Muslim-majority provinces were once an autonomous sultanate, until the region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

Separatist unrest has erupted periodically ever since.”

From ABC News Online >

What strikes me about this article - besides the death and suffering of presumably innocent people - is the distinctions made between groups of people on the basis of their religious beliefs (Buddhists vs. Muslims). The article gives very little information about the motives behind these deaths but repeatedly labels the victims and the perpetrators by their religious affiliation. Would these people be fighting and killing each other if religion didn’t exist?

Dawkins would be happy to know that the phrase “Muslim children” in the first sentence did actually make me cringe this time…

“Does believing that “God is on our side” make it easier for us to inflict pain and suffering on those perceived to be our enemies? If we think God sanctions violence, are we more likely to engage in violent acts?

The answer to both those questions, according to new research, is a resounding “yes,” even among those who do not consider themselves believers.”

“”I think many people use God as their justification for violent and aggressive actions,” Bushman said. “Take the current conflict in Iraq as an example. Bush claims that God is on his side. Osama bin Laden claims that God, or Allah, is on his side.”

History is replete with other examples of wars fought in the name of God, involving nearly every religion on the planet.”

From ABC News >

Absolutely fascinating, *scientific* research supporting what, by now, should be obvious to any person with even the most basic, elementary knowledge of history.

“Two Christians in Pakistan have been taken into protective custody yesterday to protect them from militants who believe they are guilty of blasphemy and want to kill them, Release International has said.

Five Christians have been charged with blasphemy and others are linked with a case that has already led to a mob attack on a Christian colony in Punjab.

There are growing concerns that Christians in Toba Tak Singh could face further attacks from Islamist hardliners.”

“According to Muslims, Christians snatched a religious sticker bearing the name Mohammed from a Muslim boy and began beating it with their shoes. They claim angry Christians then went round to the Muslim’s home armed with a pistol and sticks and made insulting remarks against Mohammed.”

“The five Christians were charged with blasphemy after a squabble between children escalated into a mob attack on a Christian colony in the Punjab, causing Christians to flee their homes.

It is an illustration of how quickly tensions can spring up and get out of hand in a nation where blasphemy can be punished by the death penalty, RI has said.”

From Christianity Today >

I’ve often heard religious apologists say that if people weren’t fighting over religion they would find something else to fight over… as if it’s human nature to fight and religion is just an excuse that pops up frequently. Pray tell, what other than religion could motivate this specific chain of events?

Religion is a problem.

A Christian preacher was attacked by up to 25 masked men in view of his family. The attack is believed to be a scare tactic to get him to stop converting Hindus to Christianity. The preacher is hospitalized but believed to be in stable condition.

More here: http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/30/stories/2007043005341200.htm >

I don’t know for sure, but I don’t believe that these were necessarily bad men. It is more likely that their religious beliefs are such that they thought that violence was the lesser of two evils in this situation. They couldn’t just sit idly by while their people were being tricked into joining a false religion and worshipping a false God. When salvation is thought to be at stake, even otherwise “normal” people will do some fiendish things… and this is why religion is a problem.

In North Korea alone, 300 people are killed each year for their faith. Here are some examples of the religious persecution that takes place:

* In one prison, a warden hung a Christian man upside down and ordered him to deny his beliefs. Eventually the warden stabbed at him and pushed him to the ground, ordering 6,000 prisoners to trample him to death.
* Eight prisoners stayed silent when told to deny the existence of heaven, so an infuriated prison official ordered other inmates to pour molten iron over them.
* Some reports say Christian prisoners are deliberately crippled so they cannot walk; others are left naked and so starved they eat the rats scampering in their prison cells raw.

More on this can be found here.

This is an example of a government trying to force its religious beliefs onto it’s people. Oddly, the major religions in North Korea are Buddhism and Confucianism - two typically nonviolent faiths. This is also an example of how religious faith can be used to justify/cause/allow suffering.