"I Don't Hate Married Women! Why, I Have Friends Who Are Married Women! They've Had Me Over For Dinner!"

For married women:

Today, ladies, look your pastor in the eye and ask yourself this question: if my husband viciously attacked me, who's side would he be on? Yesterday, the website MOMLOGIC.com published the story of Sheri Ferber. This story has been actually kicking around for several years, but it's the first time I've seen it covered as a whole story and not just in snippets.

My Husband Assaulted Me, My Church Took His Side

Thursday, August 6, 2009

filed under: love & sex

Sheri Ferber was violently attacked by her husband. What happened after was just as abusive.

Christina Montoya Fiedler:

Five years ago, Sheri Ferber was violently attacked by her husband on the way home from Sunday service. Strong in her Christian faith, she turned to her church, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, for help. Saddleback is one of the largest churches in the country, and is lead by the very popular Rick Warren, author of the best selling "Purpose Driven Life." Many know Warren from his summit between then Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

Sheri says she attempted to confide in a pastor, who refused to hear her story. She says that pastor even called her husband to warn him that she had been "gossiping about their marriage." As a parishioner for 10 years, Sheri was devastated. She says she then went to Warren, Saddleback's leader, but was repeatedly rebuffed by his large staff. She says the closest she ever got to Warren was his assistant. He never responded to her repeated requests.

To top this off, Ferber said that her former husband grew in stature at Saddleback.

The church never asked for my story, never asked to see the police report, never ever asked for facts. I made dozens of calls to the church for assistance via prayer and Godly counsel. They allowed my husband to come in, and be a part of the two ministries I had served in. All help was cut off.

Later, Sheri found out that her husband had had a history of domestic violence. She found that out from his first wife!

Sheri's ex was convicted of domestic violence and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He served 45 days of that sentence. He was also sentenced to three years probation, one year of weekly domestic violence counseling and community service. He was also ordered to stay at least one mile away from Sheri, perform community service and pay her restitution.

The philosophy of Saddleback and Rick Warren on the subject of spousal abuse is: in order for the woman to separate from the man, the abuse MUST BE REPEATED! The husband and wife must seek counseling TOGETHER. If the situation between the couple cannot resolve be resolved, then the wife may move away.

Divorce is not an option.

Evidently pain, suffering and (possibly) death are.

I myself have gotten bad vibes from Rick Warren's staff. Of course, these people are not the brightest bulbs on the planet, but with the stature of Warren constantly on their minds, you'd think that Warren would look bad if they rebuffed any call for help.

Then again, like Warren, they're Southern Baptists. When they see a woman, the first word that comes to mind: "Submit."

Just a thought.

Eric Prince's Blackwater: Christofascism At Work

“...encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life"

It's a tale of power, deceit, murder of innocents, illegal arms smuggling, and religious intolerance. In other words, it's business as usual for Blackwater's Erik Prince. When you have a billionaire father who co-founded Family Research Council, you've just got to prove your worth by killing as many infidels as possible. But first you become: a volunteer firefighter, a pilot (at 17), a White House Intern (under George H.W. Bush), a Navy SEAL, a campaigner for Pat Buchanan BEFORE you inherit over a billion dollars and start a "man's man" mercenary army. (BTW: My own name, VOJIR, has a similar meaning in Czech, only my dad preferred to interpret it as "soldier of fortune.")

Last Monday, Erik Prince was named in two sworn affidavits as the enabler of Iraqi civilian deaths and the chief motivator for several murders of Blackwater employees.

The Nation: , Jeremy Scahill August 4, 2009

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes.

The Times -London:

In one of the statements, John Doe 2, who worked for Blackwater for four years, alleged that Mr Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that his companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”.

Also in the Times article:

Several knowledgeable friends, who did not wish to be identified discussing private conversations, say Prince talked about his reverence for the continuity of the Catholic Church, his desire to go to mass every morning and his appreciation of confession.

Boston Herald.com

From the testimony of a former employee:

"On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince’s employ," he says, "Mr. Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence.

And on the persecution and targeting of Iraqis:

From TruthOut.org:

"To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades."

Another article described Erik Prince succinctly:

"Theocon" with a Christian-supremacist agenda.

In the past, Prince has hired some heavy-duty defense lawyers, including former independent counsel Ken Starr. When he's not running a school for Christian Commandos, Prince's extra-curricular activities include:

Philanthropy: over $1.3 million to Family Research Council and Focus on the Family and undisclosed sums to the Alliance Defense Fund, an evangelical legal group founded (and staffed by) Pat Robertson.

Community Service: on the board of Christian Freedom International, a non-profit group with a mission of helping "Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ."

Politics: A major player among donors to the Republican Party.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally and domestically. The question is why they operated with impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations should be thoroughly investigated," Kucinich said.

Could that mean Dick you-know-who? Heavens!

Blackwater recently changed its name and logo to Xe. It's trying to distance itself from its image, but it still is the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. At least 90 percent of the company's revenue comes from government contracts, of which two-thirds are no-bid contracts.

And Dick Cheney had a veritable love affair with companies and no bid contracts.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa, But Who Cares?

Yes, It's my fault

(But I'm not going to beat a hole through my chest begging forgiveness)

What's the deal? Are the Palins divorcing or not? There are some strange things about all this: the links go like this:

Dan Savage on Slog links to articles on both The Immoral Minority and Alaska Report.

Alaska Report:

Palin lawyer threatens to serve papers at kindergarten, then balks

ImmoralMinority blogs breaks Palin divorce story Updated 11:17am AKDT By Dennis Zaki

Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin's lawyer, threatened Saturday to serve libel papers at a kindergarten to the owner of the highly trafficked "ImmoralMinority" blog for a divorce story on the Palins. The blog was given until 3pm Saturday to remove the story and post a retraction. The blogger stands by the story.

So, I'll admit I fell for the rhetoric. I'm sorry if anyone I steered toward the ImmoralMinority and they felt that it was all a waste of time. However, earlier this year, The National Enquirer published a piece about Sarah Palin's infidelity with Todd Palin's business partner.

Todd Palin no longer has a business partner.


OK, look: I don't like conspiracy theory stories, so why should I attach myself to this kind of story? 1. It's not a conspiracy. 2. Palin has been doing some erratic things lately: her impromptu resignation speech wasn't very coherent. 3. Palin did not wear her wedding ring during her last four appearances.

Apropos of that last angle, I wonder if Palin will say simply: The dog ate her wedding ring.

And no, there was no coverage of it on the major media. Hmmm. Curiouser and Curiouser.

Her publisher and ghost writer must be getting very, very nervous.

Explosion In Alaska! Family Values Tumble Into The Sea!

THE DIVORCE OF THE PALINS! RUN FOR COVER!

Ah, the wondrous facility of the web: within a scant five hours, a rumor becomes widely read, within six hours, it's "the truth" and by seven hours...? If our ancestors saw fortunes fall within hours. We can see ideologies and natioal images teeter on the brink of oblivion within minutes.

The mere mention of Sarah and "First Dude's" possible divorce has set the net on its ear. Even greater, the possibility that there was infidelity on both sides! And The National Enquirer, that bastion of functional illiteracy warned all of us about the affair Sarah was having with Todd's (later ex) business partner:

SARAH PALIN LOVER REVEALED!

In a world exclusive The NATIONAL ENQUIRER names GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin's secret lover!

No less than three members of the man’s family including one by sworn affidavit have claimed that Sarah Palin engaged in an extramarital affair with hus­band Todd’s former business partner, Brad Hanson.

“Todd found out about the affair and was so mad he broke up their partnership at the snowmobile dealership"

- says a close friend

Well, you have to say one thing for Sarah Palin: THIS GIRL CAN RUN!
...from just about anything! Then again, she has plenty to run from: Trig's maternity, Bristol's pregnancy, Levi Johnston's mouth, alleged ethics violations, and any sane person who knew that she would have been dumber than Dan Quayle had she won the vice-presidency.

from Huffington Post:

Pray tell! What will the Christian Right say? Has the world's most famous "hockey mom" flushed her "family values" card down the toilet?

O.K., enough of cheap shots, but...

If the divorce is acrimonious, we'll be eager to see who sides with whom. The morning will bring...what? Who will react? Franklin Graham,?Tony Perkins? James Dobson? Pat Robertson? Then there's the Republican Party. How long will it take for the Republican Party to distance themselves from all of this? (Shudder) Michael Steele make a comment?

No matter who thinks what, the wheels of fame, politics and society will still be turning. And not in Palin's favor.

You betcha!

Whoopi Goldberg - Sister Act - Mother Theresa - McGuire the Pedophile Priest?

Only Three Degrees Of Separation!

Like an (evil) gift that just keeps on giving, the pedophile cases against Father Donald McGuire keep mounting up. But the man who was Mother Theresa's confessor is, oddly enough, himself unrelentingly unrepentant.

Yesterday, I was startled to spy on a news rack the following:

SF WEEKLY, By Peter Jamison, July 27, 2009

FOR HE HAS SINNED

A new lawsuit sheds light on the S.F. years of Mother Teresa's spiritual adviser – who is also one of the Jesuit order's most notorious convicted pedophiles.

Pedophile-priest stories are now so commonplace, half the country doesn't think of "priest" without "pedophile." There was a time, however, when "priest" was synonymous with "GOD." I know. I was raised VERY Catholic (I popped out of the womb into the arms of a nun!). And about the time that I was in a Dominican college prep school, Father Donald McGuire was teaching at another boys college prep school only 10 miles away.

But even for someone already gilded with respect, Donald McGuire was an extraordinary man, a charmer who had a great knowledge of many things and would relate subjects like Greek history and Jesuit doctrine in compelling detail.

"I think deep down inside he enjoyed the coronation that we laypeople gave him, because we felt so lucky that we had this time with this brilliant, devout prophet."

Looking back, it's quite obvious that McGuire held himself in very high esteem. He frequently told some of his colleagues "I could pray rings around you anytime!" But despite his often contemptuousness, he had a love of his students. His male students. His male students in the confessional.

"Bless me father for I have sinned."

I cobbled together this time line from several articles.

1960s: McGuire allegedly abuses victim #1 in Europe.
1968: McGuire allegedly abuses Vic Bender (Victim 2) at Loyola Academy.
1968: McGuire allegedly abuses Victim 3 at Loyola Academy.
1968-1969: McGuire allegedly abuses Victim 4 at Loyola Academy.
1983: Thirteen years after the Jesuits first learned of Victim 4's allegations of sexual abuse by McGuire, McGuire becomes the spiritual director for the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa's order. He becomes Mother Teresa's confessor.
1986: Victim 9 is born. McGuire baptizes him and becomes his godfather.
1987-94: McGuire's alleged molestation of Victim 5 (then 8 or 9 years old) begins. 1987: Victim 10 (brother of Victim 5) is born. McGuire baptizes him. McGuire also baptized his younger siblings.
1999: Victim 9 goes to Chicago to "live" with McGuire at Canisius House. McGuire allegedly uses confessions as a means to begin fondling Victim 9, who alleges that McGuire sexually molested him hundreds of times between 1999 and 2004, including regular abuse during confession.

The abuse, you see, was made more sinister by the fact that he was close to some of the families, had baptized some of the victims and had even become the godfather of one! And here's how Mother Theresa and Whoopi Goldberg came into play:

It was at McGuire's bidding that the 11-year-old came to serve as an altar boy that morning at St. Paul's Convent, a boxy building of yellow stucco that rises from a tree-lined block near the intersection of 29th and Church streets. (The convent houses local novices in the international Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa in 1950.) The priest was close to the boy's family...

Both St. Paul's church and it's convent, were depicted in Whoopi Goldberg's blockbuster movie, Sister Act.

Piecing together the complex web of abuser, victims, and admirers becomes almost incredulous when one finds out who turned him in to the authorities: his own nephew, Kevin McGuire, a lawyer specializing in ...pedophile cases.

SF Weekly:

Kevin McGuire said his uncle's time as a professor in San Francisco, and his later trips to the Bay Area and around the world, were encouraged by superiors as a "pass-the-trash" strategy to keep the predator priest far from his home base. "USF was a place where the Chicago Province sent Father McGuire to get him the hell out of their hair," he said. "That's why this guy was allowed to roam around the country. They wanted him everywhere but Chicago."

Currently? McGuire was defrocked in 2007 and is now serving a 25-year sentence for the abuse of two victims at Loyola Academy. Legally blind from diabetes, and 74-years-old, McGuire will obviously spend the rest of his life in prison. That fact, however, is little compensastion to the victims and their families. Civil suits against the Jesuit order are pending. They will add to the already staggering sum of $1 billion paid out in such suits since 1995.

Remorse? None. The man who was GOD to young boys and confessor to Mother Theresa constantly condones himself by saying that the charges against are motivated by the money extorted from the Catholic Church.

SF Weekly:

As the disgraced priest faces his earthly end, he has resolutely declined to embrace a concept at the very core of Catholicism: repentance. McGuire, the great confessor, has never admitted guilt in any of the instances of abuse for which he stands accused or convicted. He has also taken what could be interpreted as a less-than-Christian stance toward the victims who have chosen to speak against him.

"I want my accusers to be sentenced," he said during the post conviction phase of his first trial in Wisconsin in 2006.

In fact, McGuire compares himself to the likes of Socrates, St. Thomas More and...Jesus.

"Your Honor, I did all of this with the image of Christ crucified before me. I've never been closer to the crucified Christ, never in my life. It's a terrible experience, but it's glorious."

I'll leave the reader here. Enough has been said.

The Coulter-Malkin Conspiracy!

Discredit Every Liberal We Can Lay Hands On!

This past week, both Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin talked about a question put forth by Lynn Sweet of Politics Daily.com to President Obama during his last press conference. They both stated that they KNEW the question was given to the President before the presser. Now they have to take back what they said. Or do they?

Lynn Sweet's RESPONSE:

Ann, Michelle, can we get a beer on this? I'll pay. I'll take an Amstel Light. What are your brews? Because gals, you need to look elsewhere for a new conspiracy. Coulter said on FOX News that Obama "had that question planted." She added, "I do have proof." On NBC's "Today Show" on Wednesday morning, host Matt Lauer, asked Malkin, "Do you think this was a planned question?" Replied Malkin, "Absolutely do."

The full retort:

I wrote a column about how and why I asked the question because I received many queries from readers and viewers. I wrote what I thought were simple, declarative sentences: "No one asked me -- directly or indirectly -- about what I may be asking. No one from the White House tried to plant any question."

The idea that the Obama media machine would try to plant that question -- or any question-- with me is nutty. If they had, my story would have been about their effort to plant a question. And again, why would they have even tried to orchestrate such an off-message query? By the time Coulter and Malkin spoke with such certainty, I had already said that Obama did not have a clue about what I would be asking.

But some right-wingers think that Lynn Sweet is lying. Check out the comments like the one below at Lucianne.com:

Sweet doth protesteth too much. Lots of meandering words. Zero credibility.

Some of them assumed she was lying simply because they surmised she is a liberal. However, two days after the allegations, both Coulter (who said she has proof) and Malkin (who thinks she doesn't need any) have not come up with rebuttals. They themselves have not called Lynn Sweet as liar.

Which of the three has "zero credibility?"

Let me guess.

Will The Human Sacrifice Stop?

I wrote a piece over a week ago that focused on the fate of Bryce Faulkner, the young man who went missing after being pressed to join an ex-gay program. I likened this coercion to a form of human sacrifice.

I'm still waiting for someone to save the sacrifice from the altar.

To date, there has been NOTHING from Bryce Faulkner himself. The "statement" made for the press was given by Exodus International and not Bryce in the flesh.

Coercion can equal imprisonment. Coercion can even equal death. In this case, the emotional death of a person's true self. Even though Bryce is 23 and legally able to cut the strings to his family, those strings are more like electrical wires supplying a current of stability to Bryce: his parents are defined in financial support, physical support and emotional support. Bryce knows this. When his parents told him that they would cut those wires, they told him that he would no longer have any life. It was Exodus or die. "If you're not right with the Lord, you're not right with us. You're dead. Goodbye."

From Bay Windows:

"I don’t believe Bryce was forced to attend the program against his will," Swanson told Bay Windows. "I believe he was economically blackmailed since he was a financial dependent of his parents. They controlled everything and he was given two choices: A) agree to attend treatment; or, B) move out by tomorrow with no phone, car, money, or job."

Gay activist Rev. Brett Harris, who leads Magnolia, Ohio’s Ergonomical Ministries and the Coalition for the Abolition of Homosexual Reformation Tactics, responded to Bryce’s disappearance by creating a "Save Bryce" Web site (http://savebryce.ergonomicalministries.org).

Swanson’s main concern is "Bryce’s safe return ... Bryce needs to know that he is loved and that is why we are searching so hard to find him." He does realize the value of bringing stories like Bryce’s to the attention of the public. "[Ex-gay ministries] are everywhere, and people need to be aware that they are still around and operating in their backyards," he said. Exodus International operates more than 230 locations in North America, including four in Massachusetts. Since the launch of his "Save Bryce" Web site, Harris has received numerous death threats, but said, "It isn’t going to stop me ... It doesn’t matter to me whether Bryce wants to continue the program, we just want to make sure that he’s safe."

From Truth Wins Out

While boyfriend Travis Swanson struggles to free 23-year-old Bryce Faulkner from less-than-voluntary seclusion at an ex-gay boot camp, Faulkner’s antigay family members and a couple of friends appear to be conducting a Facebook campaign in support of Faulkner’s ex-gay reprogramming.

As of July 29:

Bryce is seeking a spiritual reformation away from the worries and struggles of daily living, Bryce is in an environment where he has said he has come closer to the Lord than he has been in some time.

The writers of the Facebook profile are NOT identified. The profile is a CLOSED Facebook Group, making it like a secret support group sponsored by Exodus International.

So, WTF is happening? What's going to come out of all this? Will Bryce come forward? When? How long are his parents going to insist that third parties be involved? If Bryce meets with Travis, will it be as an "ex-gay?" The drama never stops when it comes to religion and same-sex love: "Love God or another man. You can't love both."

However, if everyone who's ever loved someone who's been taken away from them , if they all chip away at Exodus International - bit by bit, day by day - the drama can change. To closure, if nothing else.