Rupert's Religious Ark: Will The Pope, Rick Warren And Pat Robertson Jump Ship?

Hell, Can They Even Swim?


















As the Murdoch Empire takes a pounding in the UK's Parliament, the media and the court of public opinion, another interesting tidbit makes for drooling speculation: Murdoch's long arm of publishing includes a bizarre dichotomy  - pornography and Christian books.


But wait, it may not be so dichotomous! It might, in fact, be just a matter of quid pro quo: Murdoch's religious affiliations have been just as quiet about the latest hacking scandal as they've been about his porn industry. Perhaps they don't want to draw too much attention to the financial dealings and donations with the media mogul.


Catholic? Southern Baptist? Born Again?


Murdoch's personal religious leaning are murky to say the least: he has never formally pronounced his allegiance for any one Christian denomination or sect. While wed to his second wife, a Roman Catholic, he received an award:

 Catholic Herald 

In 1998 Rupert Murdoch was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory. He had apparently been recommended for the honour by Cardinal Roger Mahony, after giving money to a Church education fund. A year later he donated $10 million to help build Los Angeles Catholic cathedral.

Rupert's son, James, also created a firestorm when it was discovered that before meeting the pontiff in London during his visit, Murdoch had donated 100,000 pounds ($156,000) to the promotion of the visit. It became known as the "pope-for-hire" situation.  


Murdoch's hailing of Benedict's election was a bit brazen (and off he mark), but helped to dispel the rumors that Cardinal Ratzinger was still harboring Hitler-like tendencies. (see The Sun's Headline). 


The 700 Club Connection


Billionaire televangelist Pat Robertson has certainly profited from Murdoch's business ventures:

From donations provided by viewers, Robertson bought the Family Channel, sold part of its stock at a personal profit of $90 million, and then sold the rest to right-wing media mogul and FOX owner Rupert Murdoch for $1.82 billion.

Even die-hard Robertson fans considered the purchase to be an outrageous sellout: Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily wrote: "...Robertson was ready, willing and able to climb into bed with Rupert Murdoch ..."

Murdoch also owns two of the largest online religious sites, Beliefnet and Inspirio, but perhaps the biggest strangle hold he has is on religious publishing.


The Rick Warren Connection

"Do the religious authors making their fortunes off Murdoch wear gloves when they cash their royalty checks? Do they ever dare look in the mirror?"

                    - Frank Schaeffer, son of influential theologian Francis Schaeffer 

Murdoch's pornography empire is not too far down the publishing road from the likes of Zondervan and Harper Collins - two of the largest religious book publishers in America, if not the world. Under Zondervan, in fact, another empire flourished: The Purpose Driven Life, for after the sale of 20 million copies worldwide, it remains one of history's biggest bestsellers (appropriately, after The Bible). And with Zondervan's sales, the fortunes of Pastor Rick Warren have soared as well.* In addition, Murdoch has openly donated $2 million to Warren's P.E.A.C.E. plan, enabling a greater evangelical voice in foreign nations (primarily in Africa). 


Pastor Rick has repeatedly stated that he is Murdoch's pastor although Murdoch does not live in Orange County where the 120-acre Saddleback Church compound is located. He has also deflected charges of hypocrisy in dealing with Murdoch, reportedly the "king" of pornography:

‘I don’t have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on.’

THE HEAT IS ON


Pornography aside, the hacking scandal has Catholics, evangelicals and other religious leaders calling on the religious community to sever all ties with Murdoch and to reassess their relations with his publishing venues and, yes, even FOX News Channel.**


But will the likes of Rick Warren and Pope Benedict follow suit? Will Zondervan and Harper Collins authors defect to other publishers? 


The problem here is that today's religious leaders, like Murdoch, go where the money goes and follow Rick Warren's chief motto: 


"Whatever It Takes."

*Enabling Warren to give back 25 years of his past salary to his beloved Saddleback Church. Warren says that he now "reverse tithes" giving 90% of his income to the church. This has been disputed, however, since concrete tax returns and financial statements have not been made open to the public. 

** Over one year ago, the Jewish community called upon Murdoch to sanction Glenn Beck for his references to the Holocaust, signing an open letter to Murdoch in Murdoch's own Wall Street Journal. It was posted on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Uganda's "Kill-The-Gays" Pastor Accused Of Extortion And Bribery To Push Bill

"Poo-Poo Pastor" allegedly resorted to extortion several times.
May know who killed activist David Kato

Rev. Martin Ssempa may have a hard time getting his beloved "kill the gays" bill passed, even though he's tried for years to have Ugandan homosexuality criminalized and some gays put to death. Last week, it seemed that, with the help of Ugandan legislator, David Bahati, the bill would surely go through Parliament, but there were rumors that the bill would be killed. Yesterday, taking matters into his own hands, Ssempa brought what he said were two million signatures in support of the bill and even brought two "ex-gays" to testify how they had been indoctrinated by slain gay activist David Kato.


The two "ex-gays," Paul Kagaba and George Oundo summarily spoke to speaker of Parliament, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi in the company of Ssempa and Bishop Julius Oyet. They both related how they were "indoctrinated" by Kato by being raped by him after which  both became gay activists for a time until brought under the pastoral influence of Ssempa.


Ssempa, it seemed, had made his final, definitive argument for the (now internationally infamous) "kill the gays" bill.


Then an hour later, George Oundo was able to speak to the New York Times:

“David Kato was murdered; it was a plot,” Mr. Oundo said. “I don’t support the bill.”
I’ve always been gay,” Mr. Oundo said, in a timid but growing voice. “I didn’t choose it.”
“David Kato was the first one who taught me to protect my human right,” Mr. Oundo added.
Mr. Oundo said that his presence alongside Mr. Ssempa at Parliament had been to “protect” himself and that he had been contacted only that morning by Mr. Kagaba about the meeting and offered about $42 to attend. He said Mr. Ssempa had offered him about $2,000 in 2009 to repent and switch sides in the debate, but later reneged. Either way, Mr. Oundo became a poster-child for Mr. Ssempa’s anti-homosexuality movement.

Mr. Ssempa declined to comment on the allegations.

Mr. Oundo's last words to the Times: “If I live or die, I am gay, and if I am buried, bury me gay,” he said.


Martin Ssempa is an enigma of sorts: his siblings died of AIDS and he told himself that it was their promiscuity that caused their death. At the time, he was a celebrity: a national break dancing champion. He eschewed fame for membership in a local Baptist Church and performed in plays to educate students about AIDS. He studied sociology and received a Masters of Arts Degree at Philadelphia Biblical University. NOTE: there is no reference to Mr. Ssempa ever receiving a Masters of Divinity from PBU or any other institution. His own website DOES NOT MENTION ORDINATION OF ANY KIND, yet he insists on being called "Pastor" and dons all the trappings of ordained clergy (see picture above).


Ssempa also gained some international influence by working with George W. Bush's PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. It should be noted that, for some unknown reason, the two had a falling out and Warren has since distanced himself from Ssempa.


While campaigning against homosexuality, Ssempe repeatedly portrayed gays as people who regularly eat feces and practice extreme forms of anal sex, earning him the sobriquet of "Eat Da Poo-Poo" Pastor. He has also been known to accuse his rivals of pedophilia and homosexuality. Such accusations, once substantiated, can lead to catastrophic straits and everyone in Uganda knows that people have been brutally beaten, ostracized and, like David Kato, killed. 


George Ounda's accusations may lead to an inquiry (if Ounda is willing to testify), but any full-blown investigation is doubtful: Ssempa's influence runs as high as President and Mrs. Mousseveni. Ssempa also has connections with the U.S.'s Christian Right: "Prophet" Lou Engle and organizations like Family Research Council and American Family Association. 


I've written before about Rick Warren's influence in Africa, particularly Uganda, so something puzzles me: just what was it that made Warren cut off association with Ssempa? It must have been something quite serious because after all, Ssempa has long held to Warren's motto:


"Whatever It Takes." 

Senator Karl Kruger Gay?? No Way!!

At least not with a house as tasteless as this. The previous owner was a mobster who wound up taking a contract out on the architect - I wonder why!!

Joe My God:
While recently outed anti-gay New York state Sen. Carl Kruger and his gynecologist boyfriend await trial on federal bribery and corruption charges, the New York Times examines what Kruger did with all that looted dough.

Ciavarella Is Convicted, But The" Kids For Cash Scandal" Does NOT Come To An End

Progressives aren't perfect, but this situation sounded like something the oh-so-righteous side would do: sending kids to detention centers for profit. But I delved into the situation of former juvenile court judge Mark Ciavarella, who was convicted today of racketeering and extortion charges and received a shock when I read TWO searing accounts:

SCRANTON, Pa. — A former juvenile court judge was convicted yesterday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups.

And this:

Maybe the Luzerne County Democratic Committee can explain these donations from former Judge Mark Ciavarella to their party during his retention campaign. Sitting judges should not be making political donations according to the judicial cannons.

LUZERNE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE 10/31/2005 $500.00
LUZERNE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE 4/19/2005 $6,000.00
LUZERNE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE 9/30/2005 $6,000.00

And some of the donations were under the auspice of HIS OWN "retention committee"! 

Now back to the real cause celebre:

Ciavarella insists that he is innocent of the "kids for cash" scheme, but has pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering. Over $2 million in bribes and extortion were culled by the former judge who sentenced kids to the juvenile detention centers built by his cronies. 

Amidst all of the pleas of innocence in the "kids for cash" scheme, Ciavarella only admitted that he "neglected to report the payments on his tax returns and hid them from the public, but he denied any plot to take kickbacks or extort money." And while the trial wa strictly to concern itself solely with the aspect of bribes and extortion, the prosecutor did state that the kids were "pawns in a scheme to enrich himself."

Over 4000 convictions of young adults were dismissed when the state's Supreme Court ruled that Ciavarella had "complete disregard" of their constitutional rights. 

You can listen to some of the testimonies of the young victims HERE.

The irony that the verdict was mixed and at Ciavarello was not immediately incarcerated and let go on his own recognisance was not lost on Sandy Fonzo, the mother of one of Ciavarello's victims:

"My kid's not here anymore!" yelled Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide last year at age 23. "He's dead! Because of him! He ruined my ... life! I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever!" Ciavarella glanced at Fonzo, then turned his back.

Fonzo's son, Edward Kenzakowski, was a 17-year-old all-star wrestler with no prior record when he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom for possession of drug paraphernalia. She said her son never recovered from the months he served at the detention centers and a wilderness camp.

The court also noted the amount of donations Ciavarella gave to the Democratic National Committe - presumably helping him to keep his elected position on the bench. Sentencing will be next month, and although Ciavarella could receive a sentence amounting to the rest of his life, sources say that he will receive the minimum: 12 1/2 years. 

Ms. Fonzo would obviously like it to be a lot longer.

Two years ago, one comment about Ciavarello's donations to the Democratic Committee:

So there are corrupt Democrats? I suppose that means that the financial debacle the Republicans just brought us to means nothing, because there are are dishonest and greedy Democrats as well. That is a classic Republican response. Face it, Republicans have brought us to financial ruin, NOT Democrats.

I give up.