He describes the resistance to following the Government's COVID-19 rules by Murray Watkinson, the leader of Wainoni's revivalist Celebration Centre and other Christian leaders as "extremely sad".

Richie says Watkinson's posts - which pit faith against science, and religious leadership against civic leadership - present a false dichotomy.

"God has given us brains; God puts leadership in place, so we're following the words of people who, one could argue, God has gifted with the ability to guide us through these sorts of situations," he said.

"Jesus encouraged us to love our neighbour. We've been given very clear instructions here on how to love our neighbour by experts."

"By following the rules, we're looking after the vulnerable; we're looking out for people who are susceptible to having their lives ripped apart by the virus."

Watkins took to social media earlier this month to question whether world powers "have our best interests at heart."

In a post, Watkinson told church members: "We are being told we must listen to science. By implication, this means don't listen to God."

"If God's people and the prophets present an opinion that opposes the worldly narrative we are conspiracy theorists," he wrote.

"Satan is real; he is constantly inspiring people to do unlawful and harmful things; his plan is to deceive the world, separating humanity for eternity from God."

A former attendee who alerted Newshub to the posts said he was worried by the "dangerous" messages Watkinson sent to church members in his post.

The failure to comply with alert level restrictions has initiated discourse regarding religion amid the pandemic, with many highlighting that those of faith are more likely to show scepticism towards science-based evidence.

Murray and Nancy Watkinson started Celebration Centre Church in 1990.

A movement of churches has been established meeting annually in New Zealand and the Philippines.

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• facebook
• celebrationcentre.com
• Image: facebook

Ark Encounter, which unveiled the 510-foot-long model in 2016, says that heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road, and its five insurance carriers refused to cover nearly $1 million in damages. Read more

Radio preacher Rick Wiles said Houston is underwater because it "boasted of its LGBT devotion."

Ann Coulter suggested it might have something to do with the city's former mayor being a lesbian.

"I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor," she tweeted. "But that is more credible than ‘climate change.' " Read more

He thought the documentary aire late last month A Woman's Place, which aired in late July, "accurately portrayed" parts of the community, but did not ask the hard questions.

He said good and bad things and people existed in all communities, but the bad seemed to be the focus of many of the Gloriavale documentaries and media coverage.

Seventeen months after leaving Gloriavale South Canterbury dairy farmer James Ben Canaan gave his first face-to-face interview on Wednesday.

Canaan admitted he had been reluctant to speak out for fear of his experience being wrongfully portrayed.

However, he changed his mind in the hope sharing his story might help New Zealanders understand the "real" Gloriavale.

While he was concerned the community had been portrayed incorrectly about abuse he was disappointed the past sexual abuse allegations were not discussed.

He said child abuse was not condoned in Gloriavale at all. Howver he was disappointed the documentary did not ask questions about why the community was not informed that Gloriavale leader Hopeful Christian, was convicted of indecent assault in the mid 1990s.

"99 per cent of Gloriavale members believe those things never happened", he said.

"If the people of Gloriavale knew the truth about the allegations, the place would fall apart,"

The leaders held up on a pedestal with high regard "would fall to pieces".

"There were other sides of life that weren't touched".

A lot of the members were happy with life, but he knew of people "who aren't happy there, too".

However, this perspective would not come out as people who were unhappy would not be interviewed, he said.

"Everything done is put past the leaders for approval."

But there were a lot of good things in the community, he said.

"Gloriavale is a very stress-free life. Everything is well organised and everyone looks after each other. "

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The doco-series follows the young residents living in an exclusive Christian community on New Zealand's West Coast, as they prepare for marriage, parenthood and life at Gloriavale.

Gloriavale aired during the 8.30pm timeslot on TV2, with last night's numbers securing the show's place as TV2's most-watched show to date this year. Read more

The South Canterbury man, whose name is suppressed, faces charges of assault with a weapon.

He says his hyperactive son needed the punishments. Continue reading

According to the Catholic Professionals Society of PNG (CPSPNG) president, Paul Harricknen, the bishop was attacked when he tried to stop some street preachers carrying pictures of the Pope and cardinals and abusing the Catholic Church.

"When the street preachers were preaching, a Catholic nun walked past the crowd, who were listening to the preaching, and they booed at her," Harricknen said.

"She was upset so she went and reported the incident to police and also rang Bishop Christian and told him of what the street preachers were saying."

Harricknen said when Blouin arrived there and approached those street preachers and told them to stop such preaching, the crowd reacted and started throwing stones at the bishop and one hit him on the head.

"This is totally uncalled for and an unprovoked assault, a clear case of people abusing freedom of speech and a breach of the right to freedom of religion of other street preachers."

"Their actions, without doubt, amounted to criminal offence of breach of the peace, assault and spreading false rumours and we want to know what the Lae police has done or is doing with these street preachers."

Subsequently Lae Met Supt Iven Lakatani cautioned the public speakers after he had confirmed that he had received a complaint.

He said street preachers should stick to the Word of God rather than discriminate against or criticise other denominations in public.

"Nobody is stopping them (street preachers) from preaching in public places. But I have been advising them to avoid preaching in places or locations that are risky," Lakatani said.

Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion has called for respect among churches when preaching the gospel.

"Churches need to respect each other's faith,'' said Dion.

"The government needs the churches to work with it in addressing the spiritual and physical welfare of the people and in our development planning.

"Such messages being preached on the streets are disrespectful to the Catholic faith and it's deceitful because it is misleading the public,'' Dion said.

Source

• thenational.com.pg
• the national.com.pg
• looppng.com
• Image: Screenshot youtube.com

Washington archdiocese said protestors using megaphones were shouting at ordinary Catholics going in and out of churches.

Fundamentalist literature was being distributed.

The protestors attacked the Catholic Church's dogmas, teachings, practices and leaders, including Pope Francis.

In the two instances where protestors "stormed the inside of [a] church just before Mass" they were promptly removed by ushers and off-duty law enforcement officers.

Washington archdiocese told priests to call the police if the protestors repeated their acts.

Parishes were also asked to pray for the protestors.

Continue reading

The Telegraph in the United Kingdom reported Dawkins saying moderate Christian and Muslim believers had inadvertently paved the way for extremists.

Dawkins said ordinary believers do this by being "so nice" that people do not question their faiths.

Saying they had made non-evidence-based belief a "legitimate reason" for their behaviour, he claimed they have now helped "make the world safe" for fundamentalists to exist.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, he told an audience that moderate believers were "so nice" they had made it difficult for society to question their faith.

When asked whether he worried his public comments on Islamic extremism risked endangering law-abiding Muslims, he argued believers of all religions were not unconnected with fundamentalists.

"It's very important that we should not demonise ordinary, law-abiding, very decent Muslims which of course [are] the vast majority in this country," he said.

"What I do think about the difference, and let's leave out Muslims specifically, but the difference between moderate religious people and extremist fundamentalists is that although of course it's only a tiny minority of any sect which is ever going to get violent or horrible, there is a sense in which the moderate, nice religious people - nice Christians, nice Muslims - make the world safe for extremists.

"Because the moderates are so nice we all are brought up with the idea that there's something good about religion [and] faith. That there's something good about bringing children up to have a faith.

"Which means to believe something without evidence and without the need for justifying it.

"They're entitled simply to say 'oh that's my faith, I believe it, you're not allowed to question it and you're not allowed to ask me why I hold it'.

"Once you teach people that that's a legitimate reason for believing something then you, as it were, give a licence to the extremists who say 'my belief is that I'm supposed to be a suicide bomber or I'm supposed to blow up buildings - it's my faith and you can't question that'."

He added: "I'm sure they'd be horrified by it, but nevertheless it could be true."

Source

• The Telegraph
• Image: The Guardian

There was a time when religion seemed to have the corner on dogmatism and excessive zeal. Now it appears to be sharing a corner with a growing number of shrill over zealous atheists.

"Because religion is articulated and administered by human beings, it often falls short of its stated ideals — just like atheism," writes Dow Marmur.

"Though atheists are keen to parade the abuses committed by some religious leaders and attack distortions attributed to others, they don't seem to apply the same criticism to themselves but tend to hide behind what they call reason and science."

Read Dow Mamur's column

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every other week in the Toronto Star

Image: Mississauga.com