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RELIGION

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« Reply #125 on: May 01, 2012, 09:09:33 am »

Being very free with your stereo types this morning akadaka I see.
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« Reply #126 on: May 01, 2012, 10:27:36 am »


Bible-bangers aren't the brightest, study shows

By ABBY GILLIES - HERALD on SUNDAY | 5:30AM - Sunday, 11 November 2011

THE more religious you are, the less likely you are to be intelligent, a new scientific study has found.

According to researchers, Christians — particularly fundamentalists who believe the Bible is God's word — have a lower IQ than those who are less religious.

A possible reason behind the finding was a tendency for more intelligent people to challenge religious claims, said one of the researchers, New Zealand psychologist Professor Tim Bates.

"If you believe in religion, you haven't really questioned things," he said. "Brighter people were less likely to feel that religion plays a dominant role in their life."

To reach the conclusion, researchers from the University of Edinburgh compared the results of responses from 2300 adults with varying levels of religious belief. They rated themselves on a scale of one to five in response to a range of statements about their spirituality, religious identification, practices, support, mindfulness and fundamentalism.

Statements and questions included: "The Bible is the actual word of God"; "I feel God is punishing me for my sins or lack of spirituality"; and "How often do you pray in private?"

To measure intelligence, researchers carried out tests on recall, memory, verbal fluency, processing and reasoning. For example, participants were asked to recall a series of digits backwards and recite a list of words after a delay.

The researchers found higher IQ scores were significantly associated with lower scores on five of the six measures of religiosity — all except spirituality.

The strongest result was in the area of fundamental beliefs.

Intelligence was an "inoculation against fundamentalism", with each 15-point increase in IQ making people about half as likely to have strong fundamentalist views, said Bates.

"People who claim The Bible is the literal word of God are typically less likely to be intelligent," said fellow researcher Gary Lewis.

He and Bates agreed that those with higher IQs were more likely to challenge the claims made by religion.

The finding was a "fairly bold statement" to make, said University of Auckland Professor of theology, Elaine Wainwright.

She agreed fundamentalists were less likely to challenge religious beliefs, but questioned whether this was related to intelligence.

Intelligent people helped to progress religion in new directions, she said.

The study also found that women were more religious than men and those who rated high in openness were less fundamental but more spiritual.


Related story: Christian group builds replica ark to get Bible sceptics on board 

______________________________________

FAITH IN THE INTELLIGENCE OF HIS FLOCK

Bishop Patrick Dunn is unconvinced there is a link between religion and smarts. — Photo: Janna Dixon.
Bishop Patrick Dunn is unconvinced there is a link between religion and smarts.
 — Photo: Janna Dixon.


The findings of the University of Edinburgh study were "a bit hilarious", said Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn. "The suggestion that the less intelligent you are the more religious you would be seems to be degrading and insulting," he said.

Many devoutly religious people, including business leaders, judges and school teachers, were highly intelligent, said Bishop Dunn.

"I can't take [the study] very seriously."

He was unconvinced there was any connection between intelligence and religion.

IQ testing, like that used in the study, was a useful tool but could not show a person's full intelligence, he said.

"I've encountered people of great intelligence and I've encountered idiots who have a high IQ. Most people have a gift — some of them will show up in an IQ test, but not all of them will."

However, he did agree that less intelligent people of all faiths tended to be more fundamental in their thinking, "whether they claim to be Christians or atheists or Muslims or whatever".


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10750898


Theres intellegence and then theres intellegence... I've not met to many overly smart ministers/ priest etc in my time...
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« Reply #127 on: May 02, 2012, 02:53:15 pm »



http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/207699/nz-woman-who-dated-british-pm-now-nun

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« Reply #128 on: May 19, 2012, 05:48:09 pm »

Religious ignorance NZ's 'Achilles heel'
LOUISE RISK Last updated 05:00 19/05/2012

A professor who has spent many years studying links between terrorism and religion says ignorance toward religion is New Zealand's greatest weakness in the face of terrorist threats.

Douglas Pratt, a Waikato University religious studies professor who has advised the Australian Federal Government, the Australian Federal Police and the FBI on religious extremism, described the nation's lack of understanding about religion as our "Achilles heel".

"New Zealand's biggest danger has been in its naivety around religion and diversity. We have an attitude that it's a private matter to be discussed behind closed doors," Prof Pratt said.

"We think if everyone goes to the beach and has another barbie, everyone's happy."

Prof Pratt said a decision to keep religion and education secular in the late 19th century has led to a poor knowledge of religions, so Kiwis were more susceptible to getting caught up in extremist activities because they were "gullible".

He highlighted the distinction between education and indoctrination, and said it was "tragic" the New Zealand education system was so lacking.

Prof Pratt said although New Zealand was broadly considered a safe country extremism-wise, it was not without religious fundamentalists.

And there was no way of predicting random acts, like those of Norway's mass-murder-accused Anders Breivik, who "came out of nowhere".

"With the internet globalisation of all the activities now, one never knows who's beavering away in their bedroom."

Prof Pratt said the broadly adopted academic view of the 1960s that religion was on its way out was wrong, and though terrorism had recurred throughout history, now more than ever it was driven by religion rather than politics.

"Globally speaking, religion is on the rise."

Adrienne Windsor, assistant administrator at Bridges church in Cambridge, said an increased interest in Christianity meant attendance numbers were "definitely" on the rise "across the board, all ages really".

But Mrs Windsor did not believe there was any real danger of extremism in the Waikato. "I don't, to be honest, although I guess there are a number of new cultures coming into the Waikato with new immigrants.

"I don't think there's any danger of extremism."

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand president Anwar Ghani said Muslim numbers were also growing in Waikato.

Dr Ghani said New Zealand was "one of the best places to live" and while he supported the idea of more religious education in schools, he said Kiwis' "respect for each other [was] very good" and there was rarely any opposition to religious activities.

Ad Feedback He did not think religious terrorism was likely either.

"You can be fairly confident that we don't have that problem or even the reasons or cause for it."

Prof Pratt's inaugural professorial lecture, The persistence and problem of religion, is on next Tuesday at 6pm at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at Waikato University. All are welcome.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6950228/Religious-ignorance-NZs-Achilles-heel

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« Reply #129 on: May 27, 2012, 01:00:44 pm »


From the Los Angeles Times....

Conservative bishops court the disdain of Catholic women

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM - Thursday, May 24, 2012

Cartoon: David Horsey/Los Angeles Times/May 23, 2012.

AMERICA's conservative Catholic bishops are so worried that some woman in their employ will get access to birth control that they have filed 12 lawsuits against the federal government. What they are failing to see is a much bigger challenge that should have them truly worried: the independence of Catholic women.

At issue in the lawsuits is the Obama administration’s pending regulation that would require church-run institutions, like universities and hospitals, to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of any employee healthcare package. The Roman Catholic Church, of course, condemns birth control and equates some contraceptive methods with abortion. This dispute erupted in February and spilled over into the Republican presidential primaries, onto the floor of Congress and, notoriously, into a three day Rush Limbaugh rant in which he labeled a pro-contraceptive woman a slut.

When Republicans saw that siding with the bishops was causing them to rapidly lose ground with female voters, they tried to change the subject. And once the Obama administration massaged the regulation to mandate that insurers, not employers, provide contraceptive coverage, the brouhaha seemed to die down.

But now it's back. The insurance loophole is not big enough for the consciences of some bishops and leaders of Catholic institutions to pass through. Women who work for them will still be getting contraceptives as a benefit of their employment. Conservative bishops have been very vocal in their condemnation of the Obama administration and they are organizing a “Fortnight for Freedom” to run from June 21 to July 04 in which they plan to highlight threats to religious freedom — which they consider the contraceptive mandate to be.

Out of 195 Catholic dioceses in the U.S., though, just 13 are going to court. In all those nonlitigating sectors of the church, there are thousands of Catholics, including quite a few bishops, who think the lawsuits are not only premature, but that the conservative bishops have turned this into a partisan, anti-Obama crusade.

In California, church leaders are complaining that, before anyone rushed to court, the dispute should have been addressed by the entireU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Reportedly, lawyers for the California bishops have sent a letter to the national bishops’ group that calls the lawsuits “ill-advised” and “imprudent.”

Moderate priests and bishops are refraining from participation in the “Fortnight for Freedom” because they see it as too tainted by pro-Republican election-year politics. While they share some of the concerns about contraceptive coverage, they believe the issue has been hijacked by right-wingers in the church.

So, there is revolt in the clerical ranks. And if the conservative bishops don’t see that as a problem (and, since they have so successfully stifled progressive Catholic voices in recent years, they may not), they should think about all those Catholic women who are weary of old, unmarried men telling them how to be holy. The undisputed fact that the vast majority of Catholic women use birth control suggests that the bishops are defending a prohibition that seems absurd to most of their parishioners.

Catholic women have had further reason for disenchantment in recent days. Conservative Catholic leaders have attacked Melinda Gates for pledging $4 billion of Gates Foundation money to provide contraceptives to 120 million women in developing countries. Gates, herself, is a Catholic who was educated by the nuns at the Ursuline Academy of Dallas. Those nuns have given Gates their strong support, telling her she is “living under Catholic values.”

But, of course, we know what the conservative bishops think of all those liberal nuns. Just recently they came down hard on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for, among other things, being too cozy with the White House on health reform, including the contraceptive mandate.

The men in the church hierarchy may not think they really need the nuns; the good sisters are, after all, an aging and dying breed. But the bishops should be wary of pushing the broader sisterhood of Catholic women too far. Right now, Catholic women are simply ignoring them. One day, they may abandon them.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-catholic-women-20120523,0,834728.story
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« Reply #130 on: June 15, 2012, 11:55:41 am »

Thought this was interesting


Bones in Bulgaria may be John the Baptist
11:16 Fri Jun 15 2012
by
AAP

Scientists have found new evidence they say supports the theory that a knuckle bone and other human remains found under a church floor in Bulgaria may be of John the Baptist.

The relics found in a small marble sarcophagus two years ago on a Bulgarian island called Sveti Ivan, which translates as Saint John, also included a human tooth, part of a skull and three animal bones.

A research team from Oxford University dated the right-handed knuckle bone to the first century AD, when John is believed to have lived until his beheading ordered by king Herod, the university said in a statement.

And scientists from the University of Copenhagen analysed the DNA of the bones, finding they came from a single individual, probably a man, from a family in the modern-day Middle East, where John would have lived.

While these findings do not definitively prove anything, they also don't refute the theory first proffered by the Bulgarian archaeologists who found the remains while excavating under an ancient church on the island.

Many sites around the world claim to hold relics of the saint, including the Grand Mosque in Damascus which says it has his head.

The right hand with which the prophet allegedly baptised Jesus in the River Jordan is also claimed to be held by several entities, including a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Montenegro.

"The result from the metacarpal hand bone is clearly consistent with someone who lived in the early first century AD," Oxford University professor Tom Higham said of the new study.

"Whether that person is John the Baptist is a question that we cannot yet definitely answer and probably never will."

Bulgarian archaeologists had found a small box made of hardened volcanic ash close to the sarcophagus.

The box bore inscriptions in ancient Greek that referred to John the Baptist and the date that Christians celebrate his birth, June 24.

The findings of another Oxford researcher, using historical documents, suggest that the monastery of Sveti Ivan may have received a portion of John the Baptist's relics in the fifth or early sixth centuries.

The findings are to be presented in a documentary to be aired on The National Geographic channel in Britain on Sunday.


http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8484042/bones-in-bulgaria-may-be-john-the-baptist

Can't help wondering if there are enough remains to comfirm cause of death, not that that would prove anything. All they know for sure is that the bones came from one person, there is no way of telling exactly who that person was. Counterfiet relics all the over the place.
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« Reply #131 on: June 19, 2012, 09:25:30 am »

 Undecided

Bulgaria puts "vampire" skeleton on display

Reuters
June 12, 2012, 4:38 am

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's history museum plans to display a "vampire" skeleton next week after unearthing the 700-year-old remains of two men stabbed through the chest with iron rods.

Archaeologists, excavating a monastery near the Black Sea city of Sozopol, discovered the skeletons which were buried in a pagan ritual that they said was aimed at keeping the men from turning into vampires.

"This was a pagan belief widespread in the Bulgarian lands in the 12th to 14th centuries. People were very superstitious then," National History Museum head Bozhidar Dimitrov said.

"Throughout the country we have found over 100 such 'vampire' burials of mainly noblemen from the Middle Ages who were branded bloodsucking immortals."

Dimitrov explained that these people were considered bad during their lifetime and according to pagan beliefs could become vampires after death and continue to torment the living.

"That's why they were often pierced with rods, wooden or metal," he said.

The Balkan country, which remained pagan until it embraced Christianity in the ninth century, borders Romania -- birthplace of the 15th century ruler often associated with the popular fictional character upon which Dracula is based.

Romania's notorious 15th century ruler Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler was no vampire, but his cruelty and name inspired the fictional Dracula created by novelist Bram Stoker.

The finds in Bulgaria have sparked interest from vampire enthusiasts all over the world and the small Balkan country may seek to capitalise on its pagan heritage.
(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/odd/13924019/bulgaria-puts-vampire-skeleton-on-display/
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« Reply #132 on: July 01, 2012, 12:21:09 pm »


A bishop with bare feet and dreads

Wellington's new Anglican Bishop ordained

By JODY O'CALLAGHAN - Fairfax NZ News | 5:00AM - Sunday, 01 July 2012

BAREFOOT BISHOP: Justin Duckworth was ordained as the Anglican Bishop of Wellington. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
BAREFOOT BISHOP: Justin Duckworth was ordained as the
Anglican Bishop of Wellington. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.


THE country's first dreadlocked, barefoot bishop has been ordained to his seat at Wellington's Anglican Cathedral.

Waikanae commune co-founder Justin Duckworth, 44, was led into his cathedral by about 140 family and supporters yesterday, after being voted in by fellow bishops.

His popularity was apparent as people overflowed the 1200 available seats to stand in aisles and watch from the foyer, cheering as he was officially ordained to his Wellington seat.

And there was giggling as their bishop donned his mitre (the traditional bishop's hat) on top of his long bohemian hair-do for the first time.

Despite his previous qualms, it fitted.


Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington with Archbishop David Moxon. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington with Archbishop David Moxon.
 — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.


Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington washes the feet of St Marks Church School pupil Mitchell Chin. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington washes the feet of St Marks
Church School pupil Mitchell Chin. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.


Speaking about her free-spirited husband who previously shied away from the mainstream church, Jenny Duckworth said she would "gladly share" him with the Wellington diocese.

"I'm not sure what is the greatest miracle, the diocese choosing Justin, or Justin choosing the diocese."

She talked of their "hidden-away" commune in the Reikorangi Valley, near Waikanae, before singing a short piece for the congregation.

Justin Duckworth was handed a wooden matai traveller's staff, carved by a member of the Ngati Porou at Rimutaka Prison — where he said he used to be more comfortable than facing a crowd of nearly 2000 people.

But he wanted to "leave a legacy amongst the lost, the last and the least", he said. "I want to say how proud I am to be your bishop."


Justin Duckworth after his ordination as Bishop of Wellington makes his way back to the Cathedral to bang the Canterbury Doors with his Pastoral Staff. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
Justin Duckworth after his ordination as Bishop of Wellington makes his way back to the Cathedral
to bang the Canterbury Doors with his Pastoral Staff. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.


Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington takes a seat for the first time in his Cathedral. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington takes a seat for the first time
in his Cathedral. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.


Foxton resident Joan Bassett came with "busloads" of well-wishers to see their new bishop.

"It's a wonderful, inspiring event to happen in our life."

"The bishop is a leader of all people and he spoke so well. With humility and courage."

"He is perfect."

Duckworth later explained her husband's bare feet as being "just that he doesn't like wearing shoes".


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-central/7199701/Wellingtons-new-Anglican-Bishop-ordained
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« Reply #133 on: July 01, 2012, 06:28:49 pm »




Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington washes the feet of St Marks Church School pupil Mitchell Chin. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.
Justin Duckworth after his Ordination as Bishop of Wellington washes the feet of St Marks
Church School pupil Mitchell Chin. — Kevin Stent/ FAIRFAX NZ.



did you mean this one KTJ .......?

a senior moment or were you over come with emotion ?

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« Reply #134 on: July 01, 2012, 06:32:07 pm »


Have you been indulging in Lysergic Acid Diethylamide again? 
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« Reply #135 on: July 01, 2012, 07:15:05 pm »


Have you been indulging in Lysergic Acid Diethylamide again?

Have you ? 

 
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« Reply #136 on: May 16, 2013, 01:12:57 pm »



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« Reply #137 on: May 21, 2013, 01:29:03 pm »


From the Los Angeles Times....

Defector from anti-gay church struggles with her past

Libby Phelps' family and faith told her that homosexuality was a sin and she was helping
others find salvation. In the four years since she fled Westboro Baptist Church,
her parents have not spoken to her. And her journey is far from complete.


By JENNY DEAM reporting from Topeka, Kansas | Monday, May 20, 2013

The Rev. Fred Phelps, Libby Phelps' grandfather, leads the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas. Her father, Fred Phelps Jr., also is a church leader. — Photo: Michael S. Williamson/Washington Post.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, Libby Phelps' grandfather, leads the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas.
Her father, Fred Phelps Jr., also is a church leader. — Photo: Michael S. Williamson/Washington Post.


THE HOUSE was empty, just as Libby Phelps had planned. Slipping inside that afternoon four years ago, she felt as if her heart would burst through her chest.

She peeked through the curtains, terrified that her aunt and uncle across the street would notice the cars parked in the driveway with doors and trunks open.

Moving quickly with three co-workers by her side, she shoved clothes, high school yearbooks, photo albums, a pillow and an old TV into boxes and suitcases. She felt like a thief in her own home. And, in a way, she was.

At age 25, Libby Phelps was stealing her life back.

She never dreamed growing up in Topeka that her last name would become so evil to so many. Her grandfather is Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, a place despised by many for its virulent protests against homosexuality at the funerals of U.S. troops.

For Libby, church and family had always been intertwined. Nearly all of Westboro's 70 members descend from her grandfather. Libby's father, Fred Phelps Jr., is the oldest of 13 children and a church leader. She is one of 55 grandchildren.

The Phelps clan lives in a tight radius only a few blocks wide in central Topeka. The children attend public schools; the adults have professional careers. But they socialize almost entirely with one another.

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls them "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America."

From the time she could hoist a sign that read "God Hates Fags", Libby picketed with her grandparents, parents, brother and two sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, first in Topeka and then across the land. Her family and her faith told her that homosexuality was a sin and she was helping others find the path to salvation.

She believed it with all of her heart.

Until she didn't anymore.

Troubling questions nagged at her as she grew into adulthood: "How could 70 people be right and everyone else be wrong?"

Libby walked one last time through the only house she had ever lived in. Her parents and older sister, Sara, who still lived at home, were out of state picketing. Suddenly her phone started to buzz. It was her mother sending her a text message: "You having a good day?"

She began to cry. Lately the church had questioned her obedience. Her parents suggested she be more contrite. Her grandfather had asked her just a few days before whether she was thinking of leaving. Even as she reassured him, she could not stop herself from forming a plan.

Libby did not answer her mother. She set the phone on her bed and walked out the door. Her parents and grandparents have not spoken to her since.


In 2007, Libby Phelps takes part in a Westboro Baptist Church demonstration at Tammy Faye Bakker's memorial in Rancho Mirage, California. — Photo: Megan Phelps-Roper.
In 2007, Libby Phelps takes part in a Westboro Baptist Church demonstration at Tammy Faye Bakker's memorial in
Rancho Mirage, California. — Photo: Megan Phelps-Roper.


Libby Phelps pickets against Billy Graham and the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006. — Megan Phelps-Roper.
Libby Phelps pickets against Billy Graham and the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006. — Megan Phelps-Roper.

Westboro Baptist Church members protest at the funeral in Wichita, Kansas, for George Tiller, a doctor who provided abortions, after he was killed by an antiabortion activist in 2009. In 2011, after the family of a slain soldier sued church leaders over a protest at a funeral, the Supreme Court ruled the action was protected by free-speech rights under the 1st Amendment. — Photo: Charlie Riedel/Associated Press.
Westboro Baptist Church members protest at the funeral in Wichita, Kansas, for George Tiller, a doctor who provided abortions,
after he was killed by an antiabortion activist in 2009. In 2011, after the family of a slain soldier sued church leaders over
a protest at a funeral, the Supreme Court ruled the action was protected by free-speech rights under the 1st Amendment.
 — Photo: Charlie Riedel/Associated Press.


LIBBY had grown up with the belief that the world was full of bad people who would do her harm. In the first months of her new life, she was terrified of strangers. She would go to a party and wonder what her parents would say. She would watch people from afar, wanting to fit in but not knowing how. She still has a hard time trusting others.

"Over time, though, I am less and less the person I used to be," she said. Recently, she has set out to visit places she had been before but this time without a picket sign.

She was 12 when the picketing began.

It was the summer of 1991 and her grandfather took two grandsons on a bike ride to a park in Topeka. The park had long been a hookup spot for gays. The family story goes that Fred rode ahead and when he circled back, a man was trying to lure the boys into the trees.

Furious, he went to the city and demanded it clean up the park. When Topeka's government did not act, he posted his first sign on a park restroom door: "Watch Your Kids. Gays in Restroom."

He went to local churches for support. He found none.

He became convinced he and his offspring were chosen to battle a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. They needed to take their warnings directly to the public. Fred, now 83, describes his church as Old School Baptist and subscribes to the Calvinist belief that certain people are picked for salvation before birth.

In the beginning, Libby saw the picketing as a play date with her cousins. Every week the children carried signs with messages of damnation and trudged around in a circle in Gage Park until a pattern was worn into the grass. Sometimes in the summer it got so hot that Libby's mother would wrap a wet washcloth around her neck. In the winter, getting their snow gear on took longer than the picket.

"I didn't even know what a homosexual was," Libby said.

Before long, her grandfather's crusade expanded beyond Topeka. Family members were dispatched to picket government offices, schools, military bases and pop culture events for what the church perceived as acceptance of homosexuality.

Libby picketed dozens of gay pride parades around the country, the AIDS quilt tour, the Academy Awards, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's funeral, Jenna Bush's wedding, a public memorial for firefighters in California, college football games, soldiers' funerals, actor Bernie Mac's funeral, a Billy Graham event, the Sago mine disaster funerals in West Virginia and President Obama's 2008 inauguration. She even picketed her high school and college graduations before taking part in the ceremonies.


Libby Phelps' parents, Margie, left, and Fred, center, protest in Baltimore in 2007. Libby says she misses her parents but has not had contact with them. After she fled, she received an email from a church member saying her parents wanted no further communication with her. — Photo: Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun.
Libby Phelps' parents, Margie, left, and Fred, center, protest in Baltimore in 2007. Libby says she misses her parents but
has not had contact with them. After she fled, she received an email from a church member saying her parents wanted
no further communication with her. — Photo: Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun.


Libby Phelps holds up a protest sign while picketing at a soldier's funeral in Wichita, Kansas, in 2007. — Photo: Megan Phelps-Roper.
Libby Phelps holds up a protest sign while picketing at a soldier's funeral in Wichita, Kansas, in 2007. — Photo: Megan Phelps-Roper.

IT HAD never been easy growing up as a Phelps.

Holidays were not celebrated. She was forbidden to date. She could not wear makeup, pierce her ears or cut her hair. As her family's notoriety grew, she realized she was despised. Classmates would move to the other side of the room to avoid her. Her parents told her persecution made her stronger.

Once, when Libby was 17, Sara asked their parents what they would talk about as a family if they didn't picket.

"Don't say that. Don't even think like that," Libby recalled their father bristling.

Later that night, maybe for the first time, Libby began to wonder: "Am I doing the right thing? Should I be telling people they are going to hell?" She quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, she said, church members were jubilant, saying God had punished the United States for condoning homosexuality. But Libby didn't feel happy.

Soon afterward, one of her favorite cousins, Joshua Phelps-Roper, abruptly left the church. She was told to never speak to him again.

Years before, Libby's oldest sister had also left the church. When her sister tried to visit home, church members told her she was not welcome. Libby saw the price of betrayal.

Yet she worried that those around her were becoming more extreme.

In February 2009, a fight over a bikini brought back rebellious thoughts that she had once swatted away.

Libby was working as a physical therapist at the time her family planned a trip to Puerto Rico. A co-worker lent her and her sister bikinis, and their mother snapped a modest picture of the two on a beach.

The photo was displayed on a table before church one Sunday. By the end of the service it was gone.

Libby was accused of dishonoring her parents, and an intervention was called. Church leaders told her they noticed her faith was slipping.

She was afraid, but unlike her sister Sara, she did not apologize. She reminded her critics that other church members had worn bikinis without reprisal. It only made them angrier. She was told she was trying to live in both worlds. She would have to choose.

"What is in your heart?" an aunt demanded.

Libby wasn't sure. Once she figured it out, she knew what she had to do.


Libby Phelps with her boyfriend at the time, Logan Alvarez, in Venice, Italy, in 2010. They have since married. Her parents did not attend the wedding. — Photo: Libby Phelps.
Libby Phelps with her boyfriend at the time, Logan Alvarez, in Venice, Italy, in 2010. They have since married.
Her parents did not attend the wedding. — Photo: Libby Phelps.


SINCE Libby left Westboro Baptist Church in 2009, there have been about 10 other defections — most of them grandchildren, including Sara.

Steve Drain, a Westboro spokesman, downplays the departures. "They're not of us," he said. "They want to define God in their own terms. Good luck with that." His daughter Lauren left and recently wrote a book critical of the church.

Libby married in July 2011. Her parents did not attend.

Her name is now hyphenated: Phelps-Alvarez. Now 30, she lives in Lawrence, Kansas, about 20 miles from her childhood home. She has new friends, a new family, a new world. But she misses her parents. Just after she left, she received an email from a church member saying her mother and father wanted no further communication with her. Her parents did not respond to requests for an interview.

Libby isn't sure what she believes anymore. She no longer hates homosexuality, but her journey is far from complete: "Everyone thinks when you leave you do this 180. It doesn't work that way."

Sometimes she and her cousins talk about reaching out to those they hurt. Libby remembers when the Phelps clan picketed the funeral of a soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2006. He was the husband of one of her favorite instructors in college.

Libby wishes she could explain her past to the woman, but what could she say?

"I guess I would say I am so sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing."

She is not yet ready to make the call.


Libby Phelps at her 30th birthday party in Lawrence, Kansas. — Photo: Logan Alvarez.
Libby Phelps at her 30th birthday party in Lawrence, Kansas. — Photo: Logan Alvarez.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/columnone/la-na-westboro-church-defector-20130519-dto,0,7242930.htmlstory
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« Reply #138 on: June 23, 2013, 08:04:35 pm »


Bishop Duckworth leading the charge

He's been shackled to his children on an anti-slavery march, mistaken for a pimp
in seedy Cuba Street, and founded a modern monastery. Nikki Macdonald talks
to Bishop Justin Duckworth about his colourful past and his greatest
challenge yet — revitalising the Anglican Church.


By NIKKI MACDONALD - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Saturday, 22 June 2013

Bishop Justin Duckworth of the Anglican church. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Bishop Justin Duckworth of the Anglican church. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

BY THE glow of a candle stub cradled inside a coconut shell, Justin Duckworth says sorry for letting anxiety and stress get in the way. And at morning prayers the next day, in the tiny chapel he helped build in the foothills of the Tararua Range, the Bishop of Wellington asks God for insight into a difficult problem.

It's a rare glimpse into the weight of the task facing the head of Wellington's Anglican Church, a year on from his surprise election to an erstwhile fusty old boys' club. The dreadlocked, barefoot bolter who'd lived a life on the edge of society and the church, is now charged with reviving an institution in decline.

If there's one thing the 45-year-old wants to drive home to the church, it's the need to enact their faith and live "peculiar lives". And few could be more peculiar than Duckworth's own — the boy from Stokes Valley turned urban missionary turned modern monastic.

That simple wooden chapel is the centrepiece of Ngatiawa River Monastery, the spiritual community Duckworth and his wife Jenny founded, which has been their home for the past 10 years.

The couple bought the dilapidated old Presbyterian camp, tucked under the hills behind Waikanae, as a refuge for "strugglers, seekers and servants".

It's a place of contemplative quiet, and listening without judgment. Of a thrice-daily rhythm of prayer rung in by an old railway iron. Of communal meals seasoned with laughter. Of home kills, fruit trees, roaming sheep and escaped ginga pigs. Like Duckworth, it's faith in action, with a smile. The roster sports goofy photos in place of names, and the "bringer of morning cheer" is exhorted to "fake it till you make it".

And, like most things in Duckworth's life, Ngatiawa comes with a revealing story, told with self-deprecating humour and disarming candidness.

The Duckworths didn't exactly buy Ngatiawa. They agreed on the sale, moved out of their ex-mattress-factory shared home in Te Aro, then applied for a mortgage.

"We're not the brightest people in the world," Duckworth laughs. "We didn't really consider the fact we didn't really have incomes ... our Christian mortgage broker tried three banks then made like Pontius Pilate and washed his hands of us. We're sleeping down the road in a barn in one room, our gear is already shifted in — totally unprofessional, we've got no income and no bank is going to lend us a mortgage. It was a disaster."

TSB eventually came to the rescue. But it wasn't the first or last disaster of the couple's life on the margins, from 20-somethings running a Newtown home for troubled and troublesome girls; to communing with streeties and prostitutes in seedy upper Cuba Street; to learning to sand floors and "build things that stand vaguely upright" here in this cold silent river valley. And all while bringing up three children.


Bishop Duckworth lights the fire. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Bishop Duckworth lights the fire. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

The “barefoot bishop” stands in front of the fire. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
The “barefoot bishop” stands in front of the fire. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

Duckworth is a doer. He does church, does life, does marriage. He's never had a 20-year plan, he just does what he thinks is right. But when Kapiti vicar Henry Resink asked if he would consider running for bishop, Duckworth had to completely rethink his life and contemplate moving from the church's back pew to its front row.

Looking for guidance, Jenny went to Jerusalem on the Whanganui River to pray, and Duckworth trekked to the exposed top of Mount Kapakapanui, overlooking Ngatiawa. No great strain for a veteran of 10 Southern Crossing runs who once climbed Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, Tongariro and Taranaki in one day. Except he pitched a tent on the summit in the freezing wind.

"It was bad. I'm in my sleeping bag, I've got all my polypropylene gear on and I'm totally hooded up and I'm freezing. I'm thinking I'm going to die, being the softy that I am. In my brain I'm going through all my survival things: if the tent blows over in the night I just grab my jacket and my boots and just get out of here."

"I was scared. And then I had one of those God moments. When I say God moments, I just mean a thought comes into my head that I wouldn't normally think and I think where did that come from? Either it could be some strange mental process or it could be God. I had one of those ‘could be God’ moments which was saying: ‘I am going to be with you; it's going to be fine. The actual real issue here is do you have the courage?’ That was for me and for the church, in some senses, and that stuck with me really strongly."

Duckworth's life has been peppered with "if only people could see me now" moments. There was the time he awoke in a tepee in Golden Bay, next to a Buddhist with a tea towel on his head chanting.

And the time, during their six-month sabbatical in 2007, when Jenny volunteered the family to walk from Birmingham to Liverpool in the Lifeline anti-slavery march. They were yoked together and wore black T-shirts saying "So sorry". "I couldn't believe how much it impacted me, getting chained to my children and walking around the English countryside. It was profoundly humiliating."

And then there are times like these, when he stands before 25 people gathered on a sunny Sunday at St Paul's church in Waiwhetu — a bishop in the mainstream church he's spent his life avoiding.

Robed up and perched on his wooden throne, Duckworth could almost be mistaken for any old clergyman. Those trademark dreads are tucked into the chair's high wooden back, his bare feet barely visible beneath the opulent scarlet tepee of robes. But when he opens his mouth there can be no mistaking his world of difference.


Justin with his family from Left, wife Jenny, Luca, Maya, and Jesse at the Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Justin with his family from Left, wife Jenny, Luca, Maya, and Jesse at the Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast.
 — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.


The dreadlocks of Bishop Justin Duckworth. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
The dreadlocks of Bishop Justin Duckworth. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

If the Anglican Church is a mildewed King James Bible, all thees and thys and filthy lucre, Duckworth is its edgy modern translation.

Duckworth's sermon is about Peter's denial of Christ. Jesus, he says, had invited Peter to "come and hang out. Turn up to church, you might even get a free feed. You might even see some decent preaching."

"If I was Jesus, which my wife often thinks I think I am ... " Duckworth continues, raising one of several laughs.

But interspersed with the dubious grammar and street-speak is discussion about the exact meaning of the original Greek wording. It's typical of Duckworth's remarkable ability to bridge worlds — he might be down with the kids but he's no theological slouch.

Even the church elders seem sold — as he processes out, carrying his shepherd's crozier and too-broad grin, an old codger turns to his mate: "What a refreshing change."

But with declining church congregations worldwide and New Zealand census figures showing Anglicans fell from 584,793 in 2001 to 554,925 in 2006, is revitalising the Anglican Church a bridge too far?

Brought up in "dog-eat-dog" Stokes Valley, Duckworth wasn't raised on a diet of religion. He went once to Sunday School, and that was once too often.

His mother, Claire, an art teacher at Taita College, struggled with mental health problems, sometimes landing in hospital. His parents split when he was about 10 and his father, Les, moved north and on to Melbourne, before returning this year. But Duckworth doesn't play the victim card. His mother, he says, was incredible, the sole parent bread-winner fighting to keep her life in balance.


Bishop Justin Duckworth of the Anglican church at the Ngatiawa River Monastery. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ. Inscribed blocks at the Chapel of Tarore. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
LEFT: Bishop Justin Duckworth of the Anglican church at the Ngatiawa River Monastery. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
RIGHT: Inscribed blocks at the Chapel of Tarore. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.


It was his teenage years that brought him to God — that unhappy constant jockeying to be in the right peer group. He went looking for hope, reassurance and a sense of purpose and found it at Youth for Christ, a group of young people "who actually had fun together and it was relatively upbuilding".

"I've always been captivated by the idea that I want to meaningfully contribute ... I started to explore God and it seemed to work out quite good, so I took another step."

There were no half measures. At about 15, he underwent full immersion baptism in the Waikanae River in freezing May and began to lead youth camps at El Rancho, at the same time as leading his school soccer team.

Good at maths and science, but "horrendous" at English, he figured he'd study at university and get a regular job like his peers. But throughout his science degree at Victoria, followed by honours in philosophy, a post-graduate in theology through Melbourne and a masters in development studies through Massey, Duckworth continued doing youth work, determined to help the next crop navigate teen angst.

At 27, he was married, studying, fostering three or four teenage women, running a home for troubled teenage girls in Newtown and about to have his first child, Luca, now 18. It was the first of the family's 20 years of shared homes.

To be a supportive man in lives devoid of male role models was "beautiful", Duckworth says. But it comes with obvious caveats.

"Your home no longer has the total freedom of your traditional home. You are on show and you have to learn to live an incredibly disciplined life. What has been lovely is me and Jenny have done everything together. What she loves I love. The people she cares about I care about. The people she pours her life into I pour my life into. That's a beautiful way to do marriage."

Money has always been tight. Jenny worked part-time as a primary school teacher. The couple worked for the council's summer city programme, roping in their young charges to help.

In their book Against the Tide, Towards the Kingdom, Jenny recalls her mother's joy that, at 20, she was seeing "a nice young man".

"The fact he didn't wear shoes, had something of an afro, and earned money in odd ways was clearly just a student phase."

"At the point where I took the beautiful new grandchildren to live in a dodgy end of the city squashed into a dark office space with no hot water, she stepped back from thinking we were moving out of this phase."


Justin at the Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast with his Crozier. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Justin at the Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast with his Crozier. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

The Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
The Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

The Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
The Ngatiawa River Monastery on the Kapiti Coast. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

It was in those dingy upper Cuba Street digs that Duckworth set about building relationships with street people, from prostitutes to glue-sniffers who posted themselves to bed in clothing bins. He would set out at 9.30pm and walk a circuit, returning at midnight.

"I didn't know what I was doing. The circuit included the working women and then the transvestites. I didn't have the confidence so I'd sort of go, ‘How are ya?’ and mumble a comment. Years later I met one of them who said, ‘Oh, are you a Christian? Is that what it was about? We always thought you were a pimp’."

They would invite streeties for meals, support them in court, visit them in jail. But they weren't all miraculously cured of their various afflictions. Far from it.

"You get one or two wonderful success stories, but most of the time people are just people and they're messy and they're fragile. If you choose to give your life for people who are fragile and vulnerable then your heart will be constantly broken. You're dreaming if you think you're gonna cure the world. But that doesn't still mean compassion and care isn't valid."

But doesn't failure shake his faith?

That, says Duckworth, is one of the reasons people become disillusioned with religion. Because they are under the illusion of a "triumphalistic view" that they can change the world by being "successful". Duckworth argues that Jesus only transformed the world through redemptive suffering.

"So I think that's what I signed up for. What other plan do I have? That's the only one that seems to offer much hope."


The Chapel of Tarore. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
The Chapel of Tarore. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

When Resink conceived the fantastical idea of nominating Duckworth for bishop, he worried he'd be laughed out of church. He saw the church as too institutional, too business-like.

"I saw in Justin something that was quite radical, different, crazy. But I also saw somebody who was very authentic about the best of the ancient tradition of the church as well. He really practises what he preaches; he's a natural leader; he talks well and he talks out of real life. And he's theologically very articulate."

When he mooted the idea to close confidants, their response was: "You've got to be kidding". But a day later they'd changed their minds.

Duckworth wasn't entirely outside the church, having been ordained a priest in 2006 after recognising he needed to join the club to have his views heard. But when the election process began, he remained the rank outsider, Resink says.

"But that was also the attraction, because when people looked at it, they thought ‘this is either crazy, or there's something really in this’."

The night Duckworth found out he'd been elected, he barely slept, excited and terrified at the ramifications. A year and an awful lot of sausage rolls later he's almost assembled his leadership team and is primed for change.


The Bishop's jandals, along with other shoes, outside the dinning room and kitchen. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ. The community roster in the kitchen. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
LEFT: The Bishop's jandals, along with other shoes, outside the dinning room and kitchen. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
RIGHT: The community roster in the kitchen. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.


So, how bad is the state of the church?

"I think we're moving into a place of more appropriate humility in the church. We're not that flash, we're not always getting it right in many cases. And we can no longer believe in a Christendom where the church must be the centre of society. That's well and truly gone. I think it's good for the church to stop resting on its history."

Despite ageing church populations and census figures showing more than one third of all Kiwis now profess no religion, Duckworth doesn't believe young people have lost interest in faith. The question is, are they finding God at church?

"At this point in history talk is really cheap. As a church we have to be people who actually live what we proclaim," Duckworth says. And where better to start, he tells the Waiwhetu congregation, than with the living wage campaign. Those with generous, or scandalous, salaries should share with those who struggle. It's a campaign that will inevitably bring conflict with moneyed, old-school Anglicans.

"Some people are reacting to that," he admits. "But on a simple level the living wage campaign is a no-brainer. If you've got two coats and somebody else hasn't got one, you give them one of your coats. That's what it says in scripture."

A bishop has no fixed term, and Duckworth's predecessor, Tom Brown, retired at 69. However, seeing himself as a pioneer and averaging five-year "seasons" in the past, Duckworth will stay only to achieve his goals.

"Years from now we will get to the point with the diocese where we've done what we can do and we'll have no problem at that point leaving it."

Duckworth does want to see the Anglican Church radically changed. But not in the way some fear. "It is about helping the church to move one or two degrees back towards true north."

The church would, he says, be revolutionised if every parishioner had two shared meals every week, one to support a church member and one to spend time with someone on the edge.

Someone like the grey-haired woman being confirmed for the first time at Waiwhetu. "I have walked alone through this life since 18 months," she tells the congregation. "I struggled through school. I decided God hated me, so I hated God. I ended up in an alcohol centre. I lived up the road from this church and God said come to my house. Yes, I still find life a struggle. The difference now is that I'm not alone."


Talking during an evening with the community. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Talking during an evening with the community. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

Dinner with the community. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Dinner with the community. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

Justin helps with the after-dinner cleanup. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.
Justin helps with the after-dinner cleanup. — PHIL REID/Fairfax NZ.

Ngatiawa was largely born out of frustration at how hard it was to encourage addicts to change in the central city, where geography worked against them.

"We dreamed of getting a place where it was easier for people to live a healthy life, and harder for them not to. Here you're an hour and a half's walk from the shops. The only trouble you've got is what you bring."

On Ngatiawa's blackboard plotting the comings and goings of the waifs, strays, strugglers and youth groups who use the community as a base, the weekend is given over to a group of Anglican Studies students. As bishop, Duckworth invited them to learn at Ngatiawa to see faith at work, continuing his personal philosopy of always "anchoring study in context".

But what of his children — didn't he worry they would be damaged by exposure to so much fragility? Not to mention the physical hardship — the dew on the bunkhouse pillows in the morning, the houses with no hot water. Duckworth says they were always careful to debrief their kids, to help them understand what they were seeing.

They don't appear to have suffered terribly. Luca has just left home for a 6-month trip volunteering in Thailand and Mozambique. At the end of the year, when Jesse, 17, finishes school, Duckworth, Jenny and 14-year-old Maya will leave Ngatiawa to concentrate their efforts on the diocese. That will be the next challenge for the family — to leave the community they pioneered and reinvent themselves in Wellington.

The next chapter for the church will be equally fraught, with the looming decision about whether or not they will perform marriages for gay couples.

Duckworth won't say publicly where he stands on the issue, believing it would distract from the conversation. "We need to discuss what we all think, not what the bishop thinks".

But he will say that, in his theological division of beliefs into type 1 — the negotiable fundamentals, and 2 — the arguables or nice-to-haves, same sex marriage falls into type 2.

"Recognising that although many of my dear friends believe that it is a type 1 issue, for me it's a type 2 issue. I don't need people to agree with me on this."

Back at Waiwhetu the congregation stands for the final hymn: "Rise up church with broken wings, fill this place with voices again". That will only happen, says Duckworth, if the church comes to see a different way of doing things, as "a group of family and friends on a wonderful mission", rather than a corporation.

The service's parting words could be a mantra for Duckworth's life. "May God bless you with just enough foolishness to believe you can make a difference."


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/8826469/Bishop-Duckworth-leading-the-charge
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« Reply #139 on: June 24, 2013, 12:56:46 am »

meanwhile

Rodney Hide: Maori prayers cause for chuckles


48 comments
 

By Rodney Hide

 
I am an anti-theist. I just don't believe in God. I am pleased there isn't one. Nothing would irritate me more than a supernatural force knowing everything and hovering above directing all that happens in the world. It would be like suffering a metaphysical Kim Jong-il without the farce or humour.
 read the rest http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10892293
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« Reply #140 on: June 27, 2013, 12:58:01 pm »


Convicted burglar to lead church

Baptist pastor with colourful past, including fraud and
burglary convictions, will soon be Dean of Wellington.


By REBECCA QUILLIAM - The New Zealand Herald | 5:30AM - Thursday, June 27, 2013

LLOYD WILKINSON.
LLOYD WILKINSON.

A BAPTIST PASTOR who is about to become Wellington's new Dean of the Anglican church comes with a chequered past, including convictions for fraud and burglary of a parishioner's house — all while he was a Bay of Plenty pastor.

But the church says Lloyd (known as Digby) Wilkinson is an "ideal" candidate who has moved past his criminal background.

Bishop of Wellington, Justin Duckworth will announce to the Wellington congregation on Sunday that Wilkinson will be the capital's new dean. Wilkinson, a senior pastor at Palmerston North's Central Baptist Church, will start his new role in January next year.

His ascent through the church ranks comes 10 years after being sentenced to 175 hours of community service at the Tauranga District Court after guilty pleas to a charge of theft, two of fraud and one of burglary.

The offences occurred between March 2001-October 2002, when Wilkinson was a pastor at Tauranga's Otumoetai Baptist Church.

Two involved false insurance claims on personal property, one the theft of an office laptop computer — which he later sold back to the church for $3456 less than the insurance company had paid out — and the fourth charge concerned a break-in at a parishioner's home.

The householder was overseas and had left a key with the church office.

Sentencing judge Peter Rollo said Wilkinson had an "exemplary background" until the offending.

Bishop Duckworth said yesterday Wilkinson was an "incredibly" good communicator and proven leader.

He accepted some parishioners might have concerns around Wilkinson's criminal history, which was something Wilkinson had spoken about, as well as his journey forward from that.

"In many senses it's the church's message of transforming grace lived out in his life. So I think in some sense it makes him an ideal candidate to make him a church leader, in the fact that he has experienced transforming grace from a place of deep despair to actually finding a way forward again and putting his life back together."

An Anglican Church spokesman, Lloyd Ashton, said the appointment was a "brilliant decision" by the church and was what the church was all about.

A senior pastor at Otumoetai Baptist Church, Brian Cochran said Wilkinson maintained a positive relationship with the church.

"I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I know that he was well loved and respected, despite his slip-ups, shall we say."

Wilkinson's appointment surprised one bishop, the Right Reverend Te Kitohi Wiremu Pikaahu, who said such appointments were usually given to people with a "high profile".

Victoria University religious studies senior lecturer Geoff Troughton said Wilkinson must have undergone a certain amount of rehabilitation during his time at the Central Baptist Church.

"I would imagine there had been a fairly thorough checking out of his background and how it had gone in Palmerston North," he said.

Wilkinson was not available for comment yesterday.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10893252
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« Reply #141 on: June 27, 2013, 12:58:13 pm »


‘Grace and disgrace’ led to new dean's rebirth

Wellington's new Anglican Dean had a fall from grace in 2003,
when he was convicted of fraud.


By OLIVIA WANNAN - The Dominion Post | 7:01AM - Thursday, 27 June 2013

THE NEW Anglican Dean of Wellington will have no problem preaching on the parable of the prodigal son — he has a story of redemption almost as compelling.

The Rev Digby Wilkinson, 49, had his own fall from grace in 2003 when he was convicted of theft, insurance fraud and burglary.

He was sentenced to 175 hours' community service, and resigned from his role as minister of the Otumoetai Baptist Church in Tauranga.

The offending stemmed from his addiction to buying mountainbikes, leaving him struggling to service debt. He was left "jobless, characterless, close to friendless, alienated, disenfranchised and without hope", he said.

"In a strange way, I needed to experience grace and disgrace together."

The experience had taught him more about God, he said when writing of the events.

After his conviction, he helped at the creche his daughter attended, attached to the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Tauranga. He often visited the church and was offered the position of a preaching associate two years later.

He was ordained in 2006. In another unusual twist for an Anglican, he has been a leader of the Palmerston North Central Baptist Church since 2007.

Bishop of Wellington Justin Duckworth said Mr Wilkinson had made faith relevant to younger generations during his time in Palmerston North, and was an "obvious" choice for the role of dean.

"He just stood out," he said. "He will honour the tradition of the Cathedral of Wellington but he will also lead it into being a contemporary cathedral of the 21st century." He hoped the church community would see Mr Wilkinson's personal struggles as a sign of humanity and a source of inspiration.

"It's a story of profound grace — him falling apart so spectacularly, but since then having done such an amazing job of putting his life back together."

Mr Wilkinson, who is married with three children, was born in Wadestown and attended Wellington College to year 12.

Before becoming involved in ministry, he worked for New Zealand Railways as a mechanical fitter repairing main-trunk-line locomotives.

He will conduct his last church service at Palmerston North Central Baptist Church on Christmas Day, and take up the position of Dean of the Cathedral of St Paul on January 26th.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/8847641/Grace-and-disgrace-led-to-new-deans-rebirth
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« Reply #142 on: September 12, 2013, 01:07:36 pm »


From the Los Angeles Times....

Orthodox Jewish chicken-killing ritual draws protests

By MARTHA GROVES and MATT STEVENS | 3:50PM - Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Protesters outside the Ohel Moshe synagogue protesting the kaparot practice in their parking lot on Pico Boulevard. — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.
Protesters outside the Ohel Moshe synagogue protesting the kaparot practice in their parking lot on Pico Boulevard.
 — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.


IN A PARKING LOT behind a Pico Boulevard building, inside a makeshift tent of metal poles and tarps, a man in a white coat and black skullcap grabs a white-feathered hen under the wings and performs an ancient ritual.

He circles the chicken in the air several times and recites a prayer for a woman standing nearby whose aim is to symbolically transfer her sins to the bird. The young man then uses a sharp blade to cut the hen’s throat.

In the days before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, this ritual will be repeated untold times in hastily built plywood rooms and other structures in traditional Orthodox Jewish communities from Pico-Robertson to Brooklyn, New York. Promotional fliers on lampposts in the area advertise the kaparot service at $18 per chicken or $13 apiece for five or more.

But the practice is increasingly drawing the ire of animal rights activists, and some liberal Jews, who say the custom is inhumane, paganistic and out of step with modern times.

“An animal sacrifice in this day and age?” said Wendy Dox, a Reform Jew and animal-rights activist who lives near the Pico alley. “That is not OK with me.”

This year, activists have launched one of the largest, most organized efforts ever in the Southland to protest the practice, known variously as kaparot, kapparot or kaparos.

Over the weekend, a coalition of faith leaders and animal-rights proponents held a “compassionate kaparot ceremony” during which rabbis used money rather than chickens for the ritual, an accepted alternative. Organizers say more than 100 people attended and some stayed to demonstrate late into the night.

Since the ceremony, activists including several staunch vegans and alarmed residents have taken to Pico Boulevard each evening, handing out fliers, setting up candlelight vigils and even bargaining with one kaparot manager to rescue chickens on the chopping block in exchange for protesting more peacefully.


Destined for slaughter, chickens caged and ready for kaparot. — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.
Destined for slaughter, chickens caged and ready for kaparot. — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.

The demonstrations have sometimes gotten testy. Protesters and kaparot managers alike contend that they have been peppered with anti-Semitic slurs.

In one instance Monday night, police were called after a woman refused to leave a parking lot where she heard the screeching of fowl. By the time police arrived, she had walked down the block. No one was injured and no arrests were made.

But activists said they were expecting business at kaparot sites to soar as Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jewish people, draws near. The holiday begins Friday evening.

“We’re sick and tired of people making money off of these animals,” said Rabbi Jonathan Klein, co-founder of Faith Action for Animals, which organized the weekend protest. “These people are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They are not doing it because they want to remove people’s sin. They’re doing it because there’s money in it.”

Practitioners typically donate the slaughtered chickens to feed the needy, but that doesn’t satisfy critics who decry the conditions under which the birds are caged and stored.

Resident Ken McPeek, 65, has posted his own fliers protesting the practice. Five years ago, he was walking down an alley near his house when he saw people clustered around a parking lot and heard the squawks of birds. When he peeked in, he saw a man slitting the throats of chickens and throwing the corpses into a barrel “like they were footballs.”

“I’ve been to Vietnam, I worked in packing houses, but this was particularly shocking,” he said. “I told them — and I remember what I said, ‘You've gotta stop this. This is wrong’, They laughed at me.”

Kaparot is mentioned in Jewish law texts at least as far back as the 16th century and was originally meant to jolt practitioners into recognizing their own mortality, according to Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, an adjunct professor of Jewish law and ethics at Loyola Law School. The idea was to encourage them to transform sins into good deeds.


Jewish kaparot ceremony: chickens being sacrificed. — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.
Jewish kaparot ceremony: chickens being sacrificed. — Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times.

Many Jews living in the Pico-Robertson area immigrated from countries where families invite kaparot practitioners to their homes to perform the ritual. Here it’s more out in the open.

Bait Aaron, a Sephardic Orthodox outreach organization, this week has been performing the ritual in a tent in the parking lot of the corner building it rents at 8701 Pico Blvd. In the alley behind were stacked wire cages filled with clucking hens, their white feathers matted together with the sticky residue of yolks from the eggs they had laid and smashed.

After each ritual slaughter, the man in the black skullcap drained the chicken’s blood into a white plastic bin then put the bird on ice. Two butchers schooled in kosher practices stood by to pluck and dress the birds.

Rabbi Yakov Nourollah, a spokesman for Bait Aaron, said the kaparot crew “were doing everything within code … and in a humane way.”

“We’re not going to change our tradition,” Nourollah said. “We’re in a free country. This is America, you know.”

Still, Terrance Powell of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said he was surprised to hear that the birds were being dressed on the spot rather than in an approved slaughterhouse. “We’re very mindful not to interfere with religious freedom,” he said. “But that’s something that would have to be discussed.”

Asian, Latino and other communities have also grappled with outcries over cultural practices involving the slaughter and handling of animals.

Most rabbis would not consider the slaughter of chickens in compliance with kosher law as animal mistreatment, Adlerstein said. But he added that reports have surfaced that chickens were not stored and fed properly before slaughter and that chicken corpses were sometimes tossed into the trash.

“If you think about what the ritual is in its element, you’re taking chickens that are destined to die anyway … and people are paying good money for the right to have those chickens slaughtered and then fed to the poor,” he said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. People would be grossed out a little bit if they found out they were just spending money to draw the blade against the chicken’s neck, and that’s it.”


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-orthodox-jewish-chickenkilling-ritual-draws-criticism-protests-20130911,0,6030072,full.story
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« Reply #143 on: October 06, 2013, 02:31:23 pm »



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« Reply #144 on: February 16, 2015, 02:48:06 pm »


Meanwhile, the clap-trap continues....



from The Dominion Post....

Wellington Bishop named Cardinal

By HANK SCHOUTEN | 10:24AM - Sunday, 15 February 2015

INDUCTED: Newly elevated Cardinal John Atcherley Dew looks on before meeting friends and relatives after taking part in the Consistory at the Vatican on February 14th, 2015. — ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/Reuters.
INDUCTED: Newly elevated Cardinal John Atcherley Dew looks on before meeting friends
and relatives after taking part in the Consistory at the Vatican on February 14th, 2015.
 — ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/Reuters.


THE Archbishop of Wellington Cardinal John Dew officially became a cardinal last night in a ceremony in St Peter's Basilica, in Rome.

He was the fourth of 19 new cardinals to kneel before Pope Francis to have rings of office placed on their fingers and red biretta hats placed on their heads.

Cardinal Dew's two sisters and as many as 30 other family members including grand nieces and nephews were there for the ceremony said church spokeswoman Simone Olsen.

She said the service was shown in a live feed from the Vatican website, something that was not possible the last time a New Zealander Cardinal Thomas Williams was made a cardinal in 1983.

Cardinal Dew will tonight (Rome time) celebrate his first Mass as a Cardinal at St Paul's Basilica Outside the Walls.

It will be dedicated to the people of New Zealand, for the Catholic Church in New Zealand and those who sent messages of support.


Related news stories:

 • Archbishop John Dew named as new Kiwi cardinal

 • Study in scarlet: NZ Cardinal John Dew's new wardrobe


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/66207303/Wellington-Bishop-named-Cardinal



from The Dominion Post....

Family celebrates with new Kiwi cardinal John Dew

By HANK SCHOUTEN | 5:00AM - Monday, 16 February 2015

PAPAL AUDIENCE: Archbishop John Dew is ordained as a cardinal by Pope Francis at St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. — FRANCO ORGILA/Getty Images.
PAPAL AUDIENCE: Archbishop John Dew is ordained as a cardinal by Pope Francis
at St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. — FRANCO ORGILA/Getty Images.


ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON John Dew was scheduled to celebrate his first mass as a cardinal this morning after being inducted to the office by Pope Francis.

The service, dedicated to the people and Catholic Church of New Zealand, was to be celebrated at Rome's St Paul's Basilica Outside the Wall.

About 30 members of the cardinal's family — his two sisters and their extended families — were there for the mass.

They had all travelled to Rome for his induction at St Peter's Basilica where he received his cardinal's rings of office and scarlet red biretta hat.

He was the fourth of 20 new cardinals to kneel before the Pope and declare fidelity and obedience to the church leader and his successors.


FORMER POPE: Archbishop John Dew is congratulated after the ceremony. — FRANCO ORGILA/Getty Images.
FORMER POPE: Archbishop John Dew is congratulated after the ceremony.
 — FRANCO ORGILA/Getty Images.


At 66, Dew is likely to be able to vote for the next Pope. However, five of the new cardinals — being over 80 — will be ineligible to cast a ballot.

Dew has previously laughed off suggestions that he might one day be selected as Pope himself, with the leaders of the Catholic Church traditionally selected from within the College of Cardinals.

While the new role carried with it strict formalities in some countries, such as the address of “Your Eminence” or “Your Beatitude”, Dew would be more likely to answer to a more casual “Cardinal John”.

Church spokeswoman Simone Olsen said the service was watched with joy and hope by many New Zealand Catholics who were able to see a live feed on the Vatican website.

That was not possible the last time a New Zealander, Archbishop Thomas Williams, was ordained a cardinal in 1983.

Pope Francis told the service that cardinal was a word derived from “cardo”, or hinge. This referred to the cardinals' role as a pivot, a point of support and movement for the life of the community.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/66224890/Family-celebrates-with-new-Kiwi-cardinal-John-Dew
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