Subject: Christianity

• Slack jawed, Hounddog, and Mr. Donohue (not) at the movies

  If there's one thing OC Weekly has in plentiful supply, it's Catholics of varying stripes-- devout, cafeteria, lapsed, vigorously lapsed, potential anti-pope-- with colorful and occasionally bizarre stories from their contacts with Holy Mother Church and its numerous franchises and subsidiaries. From nuns on a swimming pool-slide (an image from Steve Lowery's youth) to a priest who insisted that the Virgin Mary once stole his wallet while he was in a public restroom (a very devout fellow I knew

  January 24, 2007

• LAFF 2007: Westside Ain't the Best Side

  Friday at the fest was a little bit different -- all the interesting-looking films were playing at the Landmark Westside, that new fancy art-house 12-plex at the Westside Pavilion. Parking there is free, unlike in Westwood, where everything else is happening. The trade-off you make is that beer is not free. I tried a $12 Avant-Garde Ale at the theaters beer and wine bar -- it came in a big bottle and was worth $12. A bit French-tasting, so probably not recommended for Republicans. Likewise, the

  June 30, 2007

• Context-Free Reportering Courtesy of the Register

  It's always a guilty pleasure to see a new Orange County Register reporter--usually fresh from college--write a story in which the guy (or cute gal) has no clue about what's in his face. The latest example occurred today, in a piece by one Sean Emery, about the continued restoration of Mission San Juan Capistrano. Emery noted that Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine Faith in Rome, offered a blessing to the Mission's retablo in a Saturday Mass--but that's when the

  July 25, 2007

• Weekly Story on Bishop Brown Pedophile Allegation Proven Right

  Five months ago, OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano broke the news that despite his promises of complete public accountability on the Catholic Church sex scandals, Bishop Tod Brown himself continued to hide accusations that he molested a 12-year-old boy in the 1960s. According to subsequent court transcripts, Orange diocese attorney Peter Callahan snorted that the Weekly's reporting couldn't be trusted because the paper is distributed at coffeehouses and carries massage ads*. Callahan predicted the "

  September 13, 2007

• Statutory Rapist Andrade And Pals Seek to Block Many Things

  A slew of in limine motions filed this past week by former Mater Dei High School boys' basketball coach/admitted statutory rapist Jeff Andrade and his former employers, the Catholic Diocese of Orange. Andrade's lawyers moved that any potential jury not hear "in any manner, either directly or indirectly, any reference to documentation, witness testimony and/or opinions that refer to any allegation that [Andrade] was criminally prosecuted or not criminally prosecuted as a result of his sexual rela

  September 25, 2007

• Bishop Brown Still Doesn't Get It

  Pick up this newspaper this Thursday, when this reporter will have a more in-depth take on the Orange diocese's settling four more sex-abuse cases for about $7 million. In the meanwhile, allow your humble servant to rail about the latest foot-in-mouth case of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown. Today, Associated Press reporter Gillian Flaccus filed a report from Newport Beach, where three of the four victims came forth to face the cameras. She also interviewed Brown, who's scheduled to appear in Orange

  October 8, 2007

• Bishop McFarland to Priests: Stop Touching Boys!

  Just got off the phone with Malcolm Smith, a former priest in the Orange diocese who served at St. Kilian Church in Mission Viejo during the mid-1990s. Smith was there when Patrick Ziemann--then the Bishop of Santa Rosa, formerly a Mater Dei instructor--allegedly abused a boy during confession at a religious retreat. When the boy's mother complained to then-Orange Bishop Norman McFarland about the incident, His Excellency replied by stating he couldn't "conceive it as being possibly true, either

  October 30, 2007

• Stint in OC inspired Obama to run?

  Last month's edition of The Atlantic profiles Barack Obama in several articles. One of them, "Teacher and Apprentice," a must-read piece on the Obama-Clinton relationship by Marc Ambinder, contains a couple of theories about what lit a fire under the man's ass and made him decide to seek presidency. One such theory involves our fair county: Many Obama friends and advisers believe that the realization he actually could be president first hit Obama on December 1, 2006, which happened to be W

  January 7, 2008

• At Your Service: Main Place Christian Fellowship Church Prayer Booth

  Welcome to the first installment of my weekly church review, where I'll visit houses of worship—Christian, Muslim, Baha'i, even Scientologist—and examine what folks of faith need to know: theology, environment, parking, and the all-important sermon. Suggestions for churches to review in the comments section appreciated! At Your Service: Main Place Christian Fellowship Church Prayer Booth Even Jesus needs a lunch break, apparently. For the past six years, souls in need of a quick prayer ha

  March 9, 2008

• Pedophile Protector Apologist of the Day...

  ...Is Patrick Redmond of Newport Beach! Today, the Orange County Register prints his letter blasting star columnist Frank Mickadeit for his supposed "umbilical fascination" with famed Catholic Church sex-abuse victim's attorney John Manly. The trigger for such a clever twist of words? A March 7 column Mickadeit wrote about the return of Monsignor John Urell, the longtime Catholic Diocese of Orange priest who lost it in a deposition regarding his pedophile-protecting past, in which he quoted a Ma

  March 12, 2008

• Wishful Adding

  January 8, 2004

• Hate Pedo-Priests, Catholics? Then Don't Tithe This Sunday

  Had lunch at Norm's in SanTana yesterday with Tucson resident. Frank Douglas, who writes Voice from the Desert, a blog regarding the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal. He was in Southern California to hold a press conference regarding a new effort by the faithful to get the Church hierarchy out of the Medieval Ages and into the present: Send the Bishops a Message, which urges Catholics to not tithe this Sunday as a way of expressing their furor in having to bail out dioceses across the country

  November 11, 2008

• Calvary Chapel Transforms Another Gentle Soul into a Homo-Hater

  Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed by all the protests gay-marriage advocates are holding outside Mormon temples. Yeah, the Latter-Day Saints hierarchy urged their faithful to donate millions of dollars to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, but Mormonism has always been upfront in their homo-hating--too easy a target. Much more devious and hypocritical in their approach is the Calvary Chapel movement. They're the ones whose primary spark, the Original Jesus Freak Lonnie Frisbee (pictured), was ga

  November 14, 2008

• a Peek at the Bishop's Past

  December 6, 2007

• Where do OC's Pedo-Priest Apologists Love To Eat?

  From a trusted source:"So I'm eating at [fancy restaurant] recently and am about to leave, when who do I see but John Urell! He's waiting outside with a bunch of priests. They're dressed super-fancy in suits, laughing, and seemingly ready to have a good time."I realize a lot of you foodies don't bother with the real world of news, so a primer: John Urell is a Catholic priest that for years helped run interference for Diocese of Orange bishops when it came to the local sex-abuse scandal. He's abo

  January 19, 2009

• Rick Warren Offers to Save Homo-Hating St. James Anglican Church, But Where's Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr?

  Rick Warren has finally crossed the Rubicon of homo-hating with his invitation to St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach to set up camp at Saddleback Church because the California State Supreme Court recently ruled they can't stay on their Balboa Peninsula property. A quick primer: St. James split with its Episcopal diocese in 2004 because they didn't like the idea of a gay man getting ordained as a bishop and began taking its orders from a homo-hater in Uganda. So this isn't even a gay-marr

  January 13, 2009

• The Evilest Man in Southern California: Tod Tamberg, LA Archdiocese Spokeshole

  I've rarely covered the sex abuse scandal up the 5 Freeway at the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, because--hello!--LA is LA and Orange County is it. But a scummy incident that happened last Wednesday warrants the attention of all naranjeros and good Catholics.Then, sex-abuse survivors held a press conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, otherwise known as the Rog Mahal after Cardinal Roger Mahony. The survivors were there to talk about the news that the United States Dis

  February 4, 2009

• Pope Benedict XVI to Give Papal Recognition to a Bunch of Orange Diocese Pedo-Apologists

  Who says Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown doesn't take care of his lackeys? Actually, no one: anyone with half a brain (me, me!) knows this. Anyways, Brown sent out a letter to his priests two days ago announcing that "our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has honored papal recognition, to those listed below for their outstanding service to the Church." The list is long, so we're only going to post the worst of the worst. The ceremony for their official installation, according to the letter, is

  February 12, 2009

• Protect the Children, Sign Church's Petition to Ban Mormon Marriage

  When California's gay marriage legal debate gets tough, the tough get weirder: Universal Free Church has now launched a national petition drive to ban Mormon marriage.Mary Cristos, leader of the new, St. Louis-based "Free" religious denomination, says the UFC believes in "religious freedom and religious free speech for everyone, but religious fascism for no one." The church is all about personal freedom in one's own private life, with its lone Commandment stipulating, "At age 18 every UFC member

  March 27, 2009

• A Look at the Orange Diocese's Previous Head Aztlanistas

  Why is this man smiling?I wish I could say it is an April Fools' joke that the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association is going through with its reception for newly ordained Catholic Diocese of Orange Bishop Cirilo Flores despite him never quite getting around to denouncing or disciplining pedo-priests while serving on the diocese's clergy personnel board. At least the president-elect of the OC HBA, Carlos Colorado, has the guts to denounce the cover-up of the rapes of innocents, something that n

  April 1, 2009

• How William Lobdell Lost His Faith in Orange County

  February 26, 2009

• Cirilo Flores Rarely Pursued Discipline of Molesting Priests While Serving on Important Church Board

  January 15, 2009

• Fun With Nuns

  December 11, 2008

• The Catholic Diocese of Orange's History Book Is Pretty-and Pretty Pathetic

  May 29, 2008

• Jane C.R. Doe Speaks

  October 11, 2007

• For Christ's Sake

  February 11, 1999

• Godsmack

  Orange County authors try to bring unity to people of different religious faiths. For this they will face the wrath of believers. Again.

  March 1, 2007

• Great Moments in Orange County Adultery

  1978

  February 8, 2007

• Gloria in Exclusion Deo

  October 12, 2006

• King of the County Pedophiles

  December 15, 2005

• The Sins of the Father

  May 26, 2005

• The "Sins" Of The Father

  May 19, 2005

• A Moral, Abject Failure When It Mattered

  April 7, 2005

• Shreddin'!

  March 24, 2005

• Diary of a Mad County

  March 3, 2005

• Lifestyles of the Rich and Pious

  A Tour of the Orange Dioceses Most Transubstantiastic Homes

  September 16, 2004

• The Army of God

  August 12, 2004

• Dirty Money

  He may agree to pay millions to settle sex-abuse cases, but OC Bishop Brown will still win

  June 17, 2004

• Television Killed the Catholic Star

  March 4, 2004

• The Backlash Passion

  February 26, 2004

• Missionary Positioning

  January 29, 2004

• Dirty Laundry

  August 21, 2003

• A Byrd in hand is worth two Bushes

  May 22, 2003

• Chapman Law Dean Shifts From One Controversy to Another

  Photo by Christopher VictorioJohn C. Eastman (right) listens as John Yoo debates at Chapman last month.The last time you read a Navel Gazing post that mentioned John C. Eastman, dean of Chapman University's School of Law, it was in reference to him teaming with the university's visiting law professor and Bush White House "torture memo" author John Yoo in April to debate two other Chapman law profs in Memorial Hall about presidential power in wartime. One thing Eastman rejected that day was a gov

  May 7, 2009

• 'Angels & Demons' Is Holy Crap, But Not Entirely Un-Fun

  May 14, 2009

• Reminder: Pedo-Priest Apologists to be Honored This Friday at Mission SJC

  Just a reminder to folks that this Friday evening, at Mission San Juan Capistrano's Basilica, Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown will bestow some of his nearest and dearest pedo-priest apologists with papal honors, a ceremony that proves Pope Benedict XVI is still clueless about too much and that Brown and his lackeys have no shame. Why don't those idiot Catholics who protested President Barack Obama's appearance at Notre Dame University protest that? Because it's the fault of the victims and liberals,

  May 18, 2009

• So-Called "Anaheim Priestess" a Big, Loony Fraud

  LeeThe American media is abuzz and aTwittering with reports about how an Anaheim woman who calls herself the Rev. Brenda Lee was removed from LAX this morning after she tried to give President Barack Obama a letter about her opposition to gay marriage. All reported she calls herself a Catholic priestess; the Orange County Register interviewed Lee, who said she's aligned with St. Julia Falconieri in Fullerton and that there's 60 such priestesses worldwide. None reported on what a harmful lunatic

  May 28, 2009

• Rev. Wiley Drake Prays for Obama's Death

  Somehow, we here at Weekly HQ missed that the Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park not only declared last week that the murder of Kansas abortion Dr. George Tiller had been the answer to his "imprecatory" prayers, but that the so-called Man of God later announced he'd made a similar prayer of death for President Barack Obama. Listen for yourself above.Is that even legal?

  June 9, 2009

• What Do Pope, Larry Flynt, Mission Viejo Shoppers Have in Common?

  Media reports that as many as 16 actors and actresses in the adult entertainment industry recently tested positive for HIV have prompted new calls for legislation requiring condom use in all porn videos shot in California. Opponents to condom use include the multi-billion dollar adult entertainment industry, the Roman Catholic Church and visitors to The Shops in Mission Viejo. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) hosted a press conference, protest and rally Monday night in front of Larry Flynt's

  June 16, 2009

• King of the County Pedophiles

  December 15, 2005