Judge: Druggists may withhold “morning-after” pill

Great news! Pharmacies can now cite religious reasons for not making the ‘morning-after’ pill available to those who request it! What’s that you say? Your health/life might be in danger? Too bad! It’s the pharmacist that really matters here, not you. Just think about how the pharmacists must feel, I mean, Jesus very specifically said “Thou shalt not dispense morning-after pills to potentially pregnant women who requesteth”. Would you want to burn in hell for eternity (give or take a few days) because you gave a 14 year old girl morning-after pills? Not me, that’s for sure.

Judge: Druggists may withhold “morning-after” pill

A federal judge has suspended controversial state rules requiring pharmacies to dispense so-called “Plan B” emergency contraceptives, saying the rules appear to unconstitutionally violate pharmacists’ freedom of religion.

The rules appear to force pharmacists to choose between their own religious beliefs and their livelihood, Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma wrote Thursday.

Some pharmacists believe the emergency contraceptive pills, also called “morning-after pills,” are tantamount to abortion because they can in some cases prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.

“Whether or not Plan B … terminates a pregnancy, to those who believe that life begins at conception, the drug is designed to terminate a life,” the judge wrote in a 27-page order granting a preliminary injunction.

Thus, Leighton said, the current rules “appear designed to impose a Hobson’s choice for the majority of pharmacists who object to Plan B: dispense a drug that ends a life as defined by their religious teachings, or leave their present positions in the state of Washington.”

Under Leighton’s order, pharmacists may now refuse to dispense the medication but must refer a patient to “the nearest” or “a nearby” source for the drug.

State officials said it was too early to say whether they would appeal.

“This is a complex issue with a complex ruling,” said Donn Moyer, a state Department of Health spokesman. “We’re certainly going to talk to our lawyers.”

Priest Charged With Stealing Babies

God loves it when you steal babies and given them away with the label “gift from god”, right?

The mystery of ‘miracle babies’

A UK court has ordered evangelical preacher Gilbert Deya back to Kenya to face five counts of child stealing.

The self-proclaimed bishop of a congregation with 36,000 UK members claimed he could give infertile couples ‘miracle babies’

The children’s true parentage remains unknown.

It is also unclear how Mr Deya and his wife convinced churchgoers that they were pregnant when they were not and how they believed that they had given birth in backstreet Kenyan clinics.

Kenyan police say Gilbert Deya Ministries is an international child trafficking ring.

A British family court judge agreed, saying infertile couples and congregation members were “deceived” by Mr Deya and that he was motivated by “the most base of human avarices: financial greed”.

Mr Deya regards the children as miracles given to him by God for his followers.

Bible Ban At The 2008 Olympics

Now as much as I dislike religion, I think this is outright stupid. China’s showing it’s true colors with this ban.

Bibles Banned at 2008 Beijing Olympics

Organizers for the 2008 Olympics in China have released their list of items banned from the Olympic village where the athletes will stay.

Among the “prohibited objects” — Bibles.

The Catholic News Agency reports that the committee behind the Beijing games cited “security reasons” for the ban.

Athletes are also prohibited from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.

The ban seems to undermine comments released by the country’s top religious affairs official. Last month, Ye Xiaowen acknowledged that he expected large numbers of religious faithful among the athletes, coaches and tourists to be swarming into the officially atheist nation during the Olympics.

Xiaowen, director-general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said on Oct. 17 that China plans to offer religious services for foreigners. He recognized that religion will play a positive role “in promoting economic and social development” in the future, Reuters reported.

Religious Belief

Religious Belief By Charles Darwin

During these two years[1] I was led to think much about religion. Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers (though themselves orthodox) for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality. I suppose it was the noveltry of the argument that amused them. But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian. The question then continually rose before my mind and would not be banished, — is it credible that if God were now to make a revelation to the Hindoos, would he permit it to be connected with the belief in Vishnu, Siva, &c, as Christianity is connected with the Old Testament. This appeared to me utterly incredible.

By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is suppoted, — that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become, — that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible by us, — that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneous with the events, — that they differ in many important details, far too important as it seemed to me to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eyewitnesses; — by such reflections as these, which I give not as having the least noveltry or value, but as they influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation. The fact that many false religions have spread over large portions of the earth like wild-fire had some weight on me. Beautiful as is the morality of the New Testament, it can hardly be denied that its perfection depends in part on the interpretation which we now put on metaphors and allegories.

But I was very unwilling to give up my belief; — I feel sure of this for I can well remember often and often inventing day-dreams of old letters between distinguished Romans and manuscripts being discovered at Pompeji or elsewhere which confirmed in the most striking manner all that was written in the Gospels. But I found it more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to invent evidence which would suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief crept over me at very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlasting punished.

Catholic principal accused of loitering for prostitution

Wow, this is such shocking news. It totally doesn’t happen on a weekly basis, does it?

Catholic principal accused of loitering for prostitution

The principal of a Catholic high school in Bardstown received a citation from Louisville Metro Police on Halloween Eve after they allegedly spotted him dressed like a woman in an alley in the Russell neighborhood.

Paul A. Schum, 50, of the 5100 block of Maryview Drive in Louisville, was cited Tuesday for loitering with the purpose of prostitution, according to police records.

Schum, the principal at Bethlehem High School, was wearing an all black leather outfit with fishnet stockings and a pair of fake women’s breasts, the records show.

Schum requested personal leave from his post at the school pending the outcome of the investigation, according to a statement yesterday from the Archdiocese of Louisville, which oversees the school. Schum denies the allegation, the statement said.

Schum is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 27.