From Christianity Today about the Nigerian preacher and the chopped off head found in his possession, they quote Benjamin-Lee Hegeman, a former missionary to West Africa:

“Some people call it syncretism, but it may be more like dual religious allegiance, where Christianity is practiced in the daytime and occult [practice] is done at night. Many of the pastors will preach from the pulpit that this type of thing is wrong, but secretly take part in it at night. There is the mentality, especially in African Initiated Churches, where the prosperity gospel is preached, that you do what you’ve got to do to get ahead. You rely on the powers available to you. You are hopeful that Christ will help, but when he can’t come through on Sunday, you may take out a different insurance policy at night.”

In case it’s not obvious, I love segues. By finding this article, it gives me reason to mention the USA Today article recently published about Christians and New Age beliefs they hold along with all their Jesus love. I think dual allegiance is found in all kinds of places, and in all kinds of ways:

Syncretism — mashing up contradictory beliefs like Catholic rocker Madonna’s devotion to a Kabbalah-light version of Jewish mysticism — appears on the rise.

And, according to the survey’s other major finding, devotion to one clear faith is fading.

Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year (excluding holidays, weddings and funerals), 35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations.

They are like President Obama, who currently has no home church. He has worshiped at a Baptist church, an Episcopal one, and the non-denominational chapel at Camp David.

“Mixing and matching practices and beliefs is as much the norm as it is the exception,” Pew’s Alan Cooperman says. “Are they grazing, sampling, just curious? We really don’t know.”

Even so, says Pew researcher Greg Smith, “these findings all point toward a spiritual and religious openness — not necessarily a lack of seriousness.”

Other findings: belief in astrology – 25% of respondents said yes. “Spiritual energy” in living things – 26%. 23% said yoga was “spiritual” and 24% thought reincarnation was likely.

They quote Albert Mohler, currently president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. Not only does he see this as “a failure of the pulpit” but calls this mixture of ideas “au courant confusions” -aka fashionable, in much the same way mysticism and “New Thought” made waves in Dickens’ day and other times. Julia Jarvis, a peer of his embraces the variety a lot more than he does.

“My mother feared for years that I was no longer saved, but just two days before she died, she had an epiphany,” Jarvis says. “She said she was ‘told’ in a spiritual experience to put aside all religious and political differences and just love each other. That was her blessing to me, and that’s what I’m doing.”

And she’s obviously not alone in that. I think that if religions won’t adapt, the people have to. That’s why this happens. And if enough people do enough adapting, a new religion will probably be created to encompass those new beliefs. That seems to be how it’s worked in the past so there’s no reason to assume it won’t happen again in the future.

———-
Side note: via Evolution Is True I discover Roger Ebert’s delightful tirade over the New Age movement and creationism and politics. That’s totally worth a read.

Two reasons I post this. First, it’s an interesting article. Second, I’ve never seen any news report anywhere actually use the phrase “crack team of detectives” before. This is not a recent story (June, 2008) but I found it while I was hunting around for prosperity post ideas and it was too good (in a sick kind of way) not to share:

A pastor and his wife are now cooling their heels in police cell in Benin-City for allegedly using human heads to prepare rituals for church members.

THE police in Zone 5 Headquarters, Benin paraded a couple said to be pastors of a church in Asaba, Delta State, for alleged involvement in ritual killing. The couple who gave their names as Benjamin and Patience Ojobu were arrested last weekend allegedly with fresh human head in their house, after the police got a petition alleging that the couple engaged in using human skulls to prepare charms for worshippers in their church.

Following the petition against the couple from neighbours, Sunday Vanguard learnt that the police commenced investigation into the matter. Having monitored the couple for weeks as church members during which both the old and the young allegedly thronged their residence to purchase one charm or the other, a crack team of detectives from the office of the AIG Benin, in collaboration with men of the Delta State police, stormed the residence of the couple in Asaba to effect their arrest.

Patience’s attempt to skip out with one of the skulls was stymied by police. Benjamin is reported to have dropped to his knees full of tears and confessions. ASP Ebi Orubibi, the Zonal Police public relations officer, had this to say:

They have confessed that they use human head to fight witchcraft and also concoction for prosperity and for other spiritual purposes. We discovered that the human head is that of a teenage girl. We are still investigating the issue but it is very sad that people who call themselves men of God will engage in such act and deceive their followers.

Child sacrifice happens to be another ancient (but not dead – bad choice of words?) practice designed to please gods. It’s supposedly why people give dolls as gifts – to stand in for the days when people gave children as gifts. That was also on the History Channel video I watched at my Freethinkers Festivus party on Sunday and I have no idea what their source would have been for that one. This fun Christmas: Harmful to Children article provides information about Roman Saturnalia rituals, though, which certainly weren’t child-oriented.

The report includes part of an interview between authorities and Benjamin:

How did you get the human head?

I got it through somebody called John who works in a cemetery. He brought it for me and said I should buy and I bought it for N3,000. But I am so sorry now, I did not know it is an offence.

You are a man of God in this white garment church. Why are you involved in rituals?

Yes, I am a man of God. But I do this outside church hours. I am both a native doctor and a man of God. This is my personal practice, I do it to complement my church job and I have been assisting a lot of people with it. I use human skulls to do charms for prosperity, to make money and for protection. After preparing the charms, I give them to members of our church and other people who are not members.

So how do you feel now?

I am very sorry, I am not happy at all because of my condition. I never knew it is a crime that I was committing. If I had known, I would not have done what I did.

No idea what the condition might be. Gullibility can’t be cured by a spell, though. That’s for damn sure.

Via the Washington Post I find a fine example of “true Christianity” just in time for this, their most important holiday: Cashmas. No, sorry. I mean Christmas.

the past decade has seen this pernicious doctrine proliferate in more mainstream circles. Joel Osteen, the 46-year-old head of Lakewood Church in Houston, has a TV ministry that reaches more than 7 million viewers, and his 2004 book “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential,” has sold millions of copies. “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us,” Osteen wrote in a 2005 letter to his flock.

Joel is a fellow I’ve written about before so I will focus on other players in the God Loves Your Money (In My Hands) prosperity game.

Oral Roberts died recently (memorial is today). I hadn’t heard of him, but according to this article he once asked his flock to donate $8,000,000 to his “cause” within a few weeks or God would call him back to heaven. Sly dog. I bet that worked, too. Preying on the gullible. Praying, too, I suppose.

Funny story from Tulsa World about him – seems he and another evangelist pal of his, T. L. Osborn, thought they’d head over to India to minister to the unwashed masses by taking up missionary work. They “returned to California after a few months, a complete failure on the mission field.” Roberts must have fled into the impeccably pristine world of television with great relief, a place he could advertise his services without having to go anywhere. Osborn, on the other hand, “eschewed television, preferring personal ministry. It was said of him at one time that he had preached to more people face-to-face than anyone else in history.” And, Osborn’s international ministry “took them to almost 100 nations over 50 years, pioneering outdoor meets that often drew 100,000 to 200,000 people.”

Can’t fathom that. Woodstock at least had rock music.

Anyway, back to the Post:

Few theological ideas ring more dissonant with the harmony of orthodox Christianity than a focus on storing up treasures on Earth as a primary goal of faithful living. The gospel of prosperity turns Christianity into a vapid bless-me club, with a doctrine that amounts to little more than spiritual magical thinking: If you pray the right way, God will make you rich.

But if you’re not rich, then what? Are the poor cursed by God because of their unfaithfulness? And if God were so concerned about 401(k)s and Mercedes, why would God’s son have been born into poverty?

Nowhere has the prosperity gospel flourished more than among the poor and the working class. Told that wealth is a sign of God’s grace and favor, followers strive for trappings of luxury they can little afford in an effort to prove that they are blessed spiritually. Some critics have gone so far as to place part of the blame for the past decade’s spending binge and foreclosure crisis at the foot of the prosperity gospel’s altar

It may surprise readers, but after the video I watched yesterday at my Freethinkers Festivus party, I think it’s worth mentioning that Osteen, Roberts, and their comrades in arms (weighed down by gold watches) are preaching a lifestyle that predates Christianity. Sadly, I don’t remember which culture it was, and asking Google for prosperity rituals gives me witchcraft sites, which is less than useful at the moment.

Anyway, according to this History Channel video (from 1998, some History of Christmas episode), it was tradition (somewhere) to gorge one’s self and loved ones with as much food as could be swallowed, and be merry at the end of the year to somehow hint at the universe about how great the following year should be, and hope the universe and relevant gods follow through on that.

To see prosperity prayers failing to deliver in the current economy must be a blow for a lot of these ministries and their followers. Even the Salvation Army is grousing over how little money they’re getting this year compared to last. At least their ambition is to help feed people year round. What do these preachers do with all their money? Maybe they could give some of that back to their poorest parishioners. It’s not like they won’t get more later.

Turns out not to be a repeat from last year. The same disgusting preacher dude is making headlines once more and once more I acknowledge Mojoey for mentioning it:

Pastor Daniel Cormier was convicted of sexual assault Friday in Canada in a case involving a 16-year-old girl. His previous conviction occurred last January for the sexual assault of a girl aged 10.

Cormier is a freak. He needs to spend a long time in prison, 15 to 20 years at least. With Canada, this is unlikely. They are a “humane” country. It’s much better to have Cormier out of prison and preying on children in 2014.

From the CBC article:

He’s already serving a five-year sentence, handed down last January, for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl he had claimed as his bride after a ceremony at his Downtown Church.

The victim at the centre of the latest trial was a parishioner and volunteer at the facility.

Cormier was accused of sexually exploiting the girl between 1993 and 1995 when she was 16 and 17 years old.

She told the court she was naive and had no sexual experience before meeting Cormier at his so-called church. Eventually they ended up together at a religious retreat in the Laurentians, with her sleeping in his bed.

Mojoey’s disgust has to do with both Cormier, and the bias he thinks is evident in CBC’s reporting of the incident: “self-described” pastor and “so-called” church.

The bias is obvious. No self respecting legitimate pastor would molest a child, right? It’s just freaks like Cormier who actually commit the crimes. I have ample examples showing that this is just not true. The clergy sexual abuse epidemic is real and happens in every major denomination.

I also have ample examples of people starting a church as a way to make a few bucks and avoid taxes. Any random Joe off the street with a Jesus loves you message can start a church. There are no standards. I could open Mojoey’s blessed church of the holy Jeebus for $100 and the patience to stand it line at city hall. With luck, I could be in business by next Saturday night. Beer is our sacrament, put $2 in the collection plate and bask in the glow of Mojoey’s love. …you must be 21 and like reggae to attend.

Well, I’d go. I like reggae. I don’t know if Canada tracks these storefront religious organizations in any way. I don’t know if they have to be affiliated with any of the typical denominations or if they really can just take a bible and say the words and be a legal church that easily. Can anyone who wants to rent a hole in the wall and has enough leftover cash for folding chairs and candles set up shop, no official standards required?

If the answer really is yes, that’s a hell of a system.

Seems faulty at the start, anyway:

The power of prayer has long been controversial, but a new study in a leading psychological journal finds some of the first scientific evidence that it truly works – at least on the person doing the praying.

While previous studies have looked largely at the people being prayed for, investigators flipped the research model to examine those who personally engage in the religious practice. They found that even a single prayer for a loved one led to increased self-reported willingness to be forgiving of that person.

Self-reported willingness. How can that actually be measured and verified? How precise is that? And forgiving of that person in terms of what level of behaviour? I could more easily forgive someone I love for wearing my new earrings without asking than I could for sleeping with my spouse.

Though the research leaves open the possibility of divine intervention, investigators don’t claim any “miraculous event.” They instead focus on scientifically quantifiable factors, such as prayer’s ability to prime a more selfless state of mind.

Again, how did they measure this state of mind? Not that I want to be critical of psychology here, but really. How did they measure it, with more self reporting? How do they know everyone’s being truthful?

“This is not an attempt to proselytize; our position is one of absolute neutrality,” says study co-author Frank Fincham, a world expert on relationship science. “What seems to be operative here is that people experience a selfless love when they pray; they appear to be connecting more with humanity and feeling more positively toward humanity as a whole. That’s what leads them to be more willing to forgive.”

The new study, published in the journal Psychological Science, draws data from 119 people over two experiments.

How did they measure that which “appears to be” a human connection? Was it not there before the prayer?

In the first “experiment” people praying for their romantic partner claimed more feelings of forgiveness than the ones who recorded thoughts about their partner instead. In the second, three groups of pro-prayer people were given tasks – pray for a friend, pray about a topic, and think positive thoughts about a friend.

People in the first group were much more likely to be forgiving of that friend than those in either of the latter two groups, which notably showed no significant differences between them. The first group also expressed more “selfless concern” during the testing period.

Fincham suggests that the findings illustrate prayer’s ability to insulate relationships and regulate emotion in cases of conflict. But does that have to do with the prayer (as in direct line to god) or the act of praying and how the mind sorts out ideas in the process?

While Fincham says religious communities are “overjoyed” at the findings, critics such as Richard P. Sloan – author of Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine – are skeptical that prayer can, or even should, be subjected to scientific scrutiny.

“There’s been this tendency to try to justify religious ritual and spiritual practices based on their effectiveness … It’s a ridiculous trivialization,” says Sloan, a professor of behavioural medicine in psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. “They’re making prayer into some sort of spiritual vending machine, where you deposit something in it and you get a desired outcome.“

That’s a good line. But really, isn’t that how people who pray often treat it? Give me this and I promise…give me strength and help me to…

So Sloan doesn’t want people to try and measure the effectiveness of prayer? Why would that be? Because it’s been shown by other studies that prayer doesn’t make a lick of measurable difference? How dare they try and tell believers that it’s a waste of time beyond this personal good-feeling level? That’s pretty much what these so-called experiments have discovered anyway. Self-described willingness to be more forgiving. For the self, not for the person being prayed toward. To make your self feel better about something. To make yourself feel like you’ve made a difference. To make yourself feel like you’ve helped simply because you’ve acknowledged a problem.

This comes via Sports Illustrated, about a new book exploring the nature of god belief on the sports field (and behind the scenes) and why it seems to be so commonplace these days to see prayer circles and thanks to god for successful touchdowns etc. The book is called Onward Christian Athletes by Tom Krattenmaker.

There’s no intent to alienate people, only to share Biblical truth, said Vince Nauss, president of Baseball Chapel, which provides chaplains to every major league baseball team.

“If there’s an exclusivity, it’s because Jesus put it out there,” Nauss said. “So I don’t think there’s anything to apologize for, or to dance around in a politically correct environment.”

The influence of Christianity in locker rooms can be traced to people such as baseball pioneer Branch Rickey, the executive who brought Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1954, Rickey agreed to help college football coach Don McClanen found the influential Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Baseball Chapel was established for players like ex-New York Yankee Bobby Richardson, who was mobbed at local churches on Sundays, Nauss said. By 1975, it had established programs for every major league team.

Another prominent group, the international sports ministry Athletes in Action, places about half of the NFL’s chaplains.

Krattenmaker said evangelical ministries have a near monopoly in pro clubhouses because they seized the chance, then won the teams’ trust by not exploiting their access. Other faith groups simply haven’t done the work, he said.

“The conservative Christians got their upper hand in the sports world the old fashioned way,” Krattenmaker said. “They earned it.”

Same way a lot of Christian groups have gotten the upper hand over the years, I think – be they missionaries or conquerors.

Krattenmaker’s stance on this is better than expected. He’s not against the religiosity of it all, he’d just like to see players and teams acknowledge the fact that their fans might not believe what they do, so to use some sense and tact once in a while. Plus,

He also sees a credibility-bruising selectivity in the theologically and politically conservative messages evangelicals in sports trumpet.

In his book, for instance, he highlights retired Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy’s public stance against same-sex marriage. But Jesus’s teaching that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” doesn’t get much attention among hyper-wealthy athletes, he said.

Big surprise there. Cherry picking at its finest. And, their faith doesn’t encourage them to be better people, necessarily. The article offers up a few names of players who are adamantly Christian but made headlines for less than Christian behaviour. Charlie Ward, a Heisman trophy winner, claims

he tried to show his Christianity through his struggles.

“I wanted people to see that I was real, but also to wanted (them) to see humility and how you handle certain situations and allowing your faith to kind of be shown through your hang ups,” he said.

Ward said he knows that everyone doesn’t want to hear about his faith. But he said Christians are also exposed to messages in the media they don’t want to hear, and there’s a quick solution.

“They can turn off the television,” he said.

And you know what else? People could boycott those sports entirely and encourage everyone who’s annoyed with overt religious expressionism on the field and floor to do the same. Think a drop in revenue would send a message?

Again I ask, what makes this news worth following, Associated Press? What makes this news?

Her parents say a New Jersey elementary school teacher told a third-grader the Bible was inappropriate reading material for quiet time.

Michelle Jordat tells MyFoxNY.com her daughter, Mariah, cried when the teacher told her to put the Bible away.

The principal at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge apologized and said the teacher made a mistake. The principal says school policy allows children to read the Bible or any other religious book during quiet time.

The school board addressed the issue for concerned parents on Tuesday night.

So, discipline the teacher, give the upset kid a pat on the head and a special bible bookmark she can use next time and call it end of story. What makes this something that needs to make headlines in a newspaper? What makes this news?

I do not understand why parents take stories like this to the press. This is not religious persecution. This is a teacher who was unaware of a school policy who has now been alerted and corrected. What made this an issue for “concerned parents” and the school board, too?

Christ in a cracker. Talk about retarded.

Read this:

Using radiocarbon methods, the investigators discovered that this man dated back to 1-50 C.E., and did not receive a secondary burial, which was particularly rare for this type of tomb.

And, while they found this man buried in a shroud (who in life had suffered from both leprosy and tuberculosis, according to his DNA), it was simply weaved, nowhere near as elaborately as the Shroud of Turin people like to claim had once touched Christ. Did that one ever get carbon dated and age verified? Apparently so, but I suppose this is a point where Christians claim the dating process is a sham, even though it so obviously isn’t. Why deny the validity of that research just to hold onto some silly miracle story?

Anything scientific that sheds light on actual, verifiable history is worth noting. Any false ideas that don’t hold up against scientific fact should be set aside.

And not because someone won big. Oh no. It’s because the casino gambled with its banking system and lost. A lot:

The Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority lost more than $1 million from its casino banking machine system partly because of lax supervision, the provincial auditor says.

In Provincial Auditor Fred Wendel’s latest report, released Tuesday, he looked at the finances of a long list of agencies, including SIGA.

In particular, he examined a loss of $1.2 million in casino cash from the Bear Claw Casino near Carlyle and the Living Sky Casino in Swift Current.

Wendel told reporters how the system was supposed to work: privately owned automated teller machines were loaded with casino cash, and as customers withdrew money, the ATM company was supposed to replenish SIGA’s bank account.

Instead, a “switch provider” — a company that does money transfers — failed to get all the money to SIGA’s account. According to Wendel’s report, “SIGA told us that a shareholder of the ATM supplier was able to get the switch provider to divert money due to SIGA to other bank accounts.”

Where the $1.2 million was sent was not disclosed.

I was going to laugh, but SIGA’s “casino cash” for those machines comes out of the pockets of the gamblers in some manner, so really it’s the gamblers bilked out of their own money twice.

In the few times I’ve gone to casinos (including Swift Current’s) I take forty or sixty bucks cash with me and that’s it. No credit card comes along for the ride, and the debit card also sits at home sulking. So once my cash is gone, it’s gone and I’m done. But I tend to have good enough luck with the machines to win most of what I bring back. I really don’t see the point in playing, frankly. You may as well toss your hundred dollars to the wind and let whoever finds it benefit from a very literal windfall.

I wonder how far the wind took that $1.2 million…

Call it soccer, call it football, but either way it’s a sport for fans and fanatics. It’s not a sport I follow (I follow none at all, actually) but my interest was piqued by an article at the Daily Mail Online. Apparently Liverpool is sucking this year and Jamie Carragher wants to pray for God’s assistance in winning the season and improving team morale.

Liverpool’s long-serving defender made no attempt to conceal the crisis engulfing his club after a 2-1 defeat by Arsenal left them in seventh place, 13 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

Conceding that confidence had been shredded by just three wins from their past 15 games, Carragher admitted they may need divine intervention to make up ground and salvage a place in next season’s Champions League.

I’m reminded of a joke. Every week a man prayed to God to win the lottery. “This week, God, let it be this week!” On and on. Finally God’s booming voice knocked him off his kneecaps – “It would help if you bought a ticket.”

You have to work for what you want, not prance around a field waiting for some god to deliver it. Same goes for any situation, I find.

‘It is going to be a grind at times between now and May, but it is clear what must be done,’ he said.

‘We have to stick together, show some character and, as I am doing, pray to God that at the end of the season there will be something worthwhile for all we have been through.

‘We’ve got to dust ourselves down and move on because, when you look at the quality of our players and stature of the club, it is clear we should be doing better.

‘It is tough at the moment, but part of being a Liverpool player is having character in abundance.

And wouldn’t it be worthwhile as a Liverpool player to have skill and talent in abundance, too? Do they? Like I mentioned above, I don’t follow sports. Do they need better coaching? More drills and practices? Better defense and offense strategies that can stand up against the better teams?

Asking some invisible deity to take an interest and take pity on their suffering isn’t what will win games.