This didn’t end well.
A woman who worked for Flowers 1-800 has been fired after a death threat directed at an outspoken biology professor over this post was sent from her computer.
Background - a University of Florida study council member upset with the money being given out by the council to fund religious groups went to campus mass in June and didn’t swallow the host. Instead he took it home, put it in a ziplock bag and things got very ugly for him.
Outrage from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League and other Catholics led to the university saying it was going to post security guards at mass, and that this student could face suspension or expulsion. The story was picked up by PZ Meyers and he started receiving threats for mocking the Catholic belief of transubstantiation and suggested his readers send him wafers (he called them crackers) to desecrate.
He also pointed out the power of the Catholic Church to sway the University administration.
It got a lot worse very fast. The Catholic League and others suggested letters to Myers University demanding he be fired. (The student had returned it with an apology)
Death threats by mail are a federal offence. (which is a federal offense in the US) Meyer fans sent letters of protest to the email server address - 1-800 Flowers. and he told them to stop.
It turns out the employee who owned the computer didn’t send the death threat to the professor. It was her husband. He used her work computer and work email, it appears she didn’t have password protection etc. It’s too bad she has to pay for what her husband has done, if I was her boss I’d send her to a computer security course and re-hire her.
He apologized, blamed Meyers, atheists, people that hate the Catholic Church, the people that complained to 1-800 Flowers said he didn’t mean it, made assumptions equivocated, and dared Meyers to offend Muslims.
I feel very badly for this women, she wasn’t aware her husband used her work computer and she has paid dearly for his threat and not securing her work email. You have to wonder, if a man is going to go off like that about this, what other anger issues does he have - what about her safety?
Canadian Todd Bentley who has been getting a lot of theological scrutiny from US Christians for his extra-biblical dominionist/Manifest Sons of God/health and wealth prosperity beliefs complete with angels, portals, other new age and occult teachings at in Lakeland Florida shows, disappeared last week. traditional US media picked up on his outrageous clams, asked for verifications (this is not new) and exposed the unwillingness and inability to verify them by Bentley’s Fresh Fire, God TV and his fellow ‘apostle’ group.
God TV scrambled to resume normal programming. It appears Bentley showed up in Louisville and it has been announced he is returning to the Lakeland venue Friday. It’s no secret charismatics and pentecostals have been uncomfortable with his meetings which have been drawing thousands desperate for healing. (47 million people in the US have no health insurance, many more have problems with their health insurers), faith healers are often the only option left since medical care isn’t accessible. Thousands of people saw him assault people that came up on stage for prayer because of streaming online and sites like YouTube.
When Bentley disappeared July 12th after CNN, AP, ABC, The Province and Christian bloggers had pointed out the lack of transparency, his theology, his sudden disappearance was announced this way by his staff:
Fresh Fire Ministries announced yesterday that Todd Bentley would be taking some time off to refresh and to rest from the Florida Outpouring after nearly one hundred days of ministry. The Lakeland meetings will continue and Todd will remain the leader of this move of God.
It appears Bentley’s ‘refresh and rest’ meant talking his show on the road.
God TV sent this out July 16th:
Todd Bentley has announced he will be back ministering at the Lakeland Outpouring from Friday this week.
…we are now going to resume our LIVE on-air coverage of the Lakeland Outpouring from this Friday 18 July.
A church in Oklahoma decided not to give away an semi-automatic assault rifle during a youth weekend.
Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a $850 semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event’s organizers was unable to attend.
The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.
Ross says it isn’t all about guns it’s about teens finding faith. The only reason the gun wasn’t given to someone was because an organizer pulled out. Not to worry some saved kid will get a semi-automatic assault rifle if they show up to bible camp next year.
Update: Now it’s a shotgun, not a rifle and it wasn’t paid for by the church, it was donated.
Ethics Daily
5 Responses to “Christians lock and load - bad behavior”
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So, that’s how the PZ Meyers blog post that displayed the death threat ended. It is terrible that this woman lost her employment, but it’s worse that she is married to a sociopath.
On another topic …. what’s your opinion about Stephen Harper refusing to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics? I suspect that his purported absence-to-be is specifically intended as a message of support for Christian Evangelist missionaries who are routinely arrested in China.
“(47 million people in the US have no health insurance, many more have problems with their health insurers), faith healers are often the only option left since medical care isn’t accessible.”
You seem to be doing an admirable job reporting on the charlatan, Bentley. But then you do some serious misleading yourself with the quote above, giving no context, whatsoever. First, the majority of the uninsured are due to “structural unemployment”(going from one job to another). Second, by law, everyone has access to healthcare by any hospital they walk into. Even if it’s a runny nose in an emergency room(medicare among other govt programs). Third, you made it seem as if the terminally ill or handicapped will be cured if only they did have access to healthcare(which they all do). Does that mean there are no terminally ill or handicapped in Canada because you have socialized healthcare?
DeBeauxOs:
Good question - I don’t know.
If he believes staying home makes a personal statement on human rights, that makes sense - as for making a Canadian statement - a high level delegation attending rather negates it.
I wonder if his decision has to do with Asian-Canadian and conservative votes, I can’t see Harper putting human rights above his own political ambition, staying away would impress sectors of his base.
Tim:
How should I have said it?
If you look at Bentley’s early Cdn meetings, they appear to me to be far more about ‘impartation, evangelism and prophecy’ - not as much about healing.
Check out the Wayback Machine
US health care coverage figures here:
http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html
Regardless of the cause, I think you’re right on with the statement that those attending Lakeland are desperate for healing. I’ve been watching a truncated version of the GodTV broadcast on the Miracle Channel, and I’m always taken aback when they pan the audience. The expressions on their face, their posture, their evident fervor - is stunning. That’s why these ‘revivals’ happen - because people want it so bad.
Which makes the work of the false profits leading them on all the more heinous.