Subject: Religion

• Messiah news: Real Estate and Sushi Edition

  According to the Los Angeles Times, the Santa Ana Performing Arts and Event Center building may soon leave behind the things of this world, and take on the fight against the evil alien power from beyond the stars that's keeping you from fulfilling your potential and living like Tom Cruise. In other words, the building's owner Mike Harrah is in negotiations to sell the place to the Church of Scientology. Harrah needs the money to realize his plan to build the tallest building in Orange County (a

  April 13, 2006

• AIDS 'n' Pagans

  This Sunday (a day named to honor Egyptian sun god Ra), Orange County pagans, witches, warlocks (maybe Moorlachs?) and other so-called heathens are using their mystic powers to fight the AIDS. That's right, I said pagans. Monotheistic religions are so passe. AIDS was first noticed in America when, in 1981, a group of young gay men in New York began to exhibit Kaposi's Sarcoma, a cancer rare outside the elderly population. Thus AIDS became a "gay" disease, as you never get a second chance to make

  June 1, 2006

• 666: Not as Evil as You Think

  If the triple sixes of today's date have made you decide to skip voting and huddle under the blankets at home instead-- or worse, tempted you into planning to go see The Omen-- forget it. The only things you have to fear are the choices on the ballot, and the prospect of shelling out hard earned cash to see the remake of movie that wasn't that good in the first place. Today's date doesn't echo the Number of the Beast, last Thursday's did. Last year, British scholars revealed that according to th

  June 6, 2006

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Ahmanson-Funded Creationists Palling with Islamic Counterparts

  In the Department of Hypocrisy...the Discovery Institute, largely funded by board member, certified homophobe and Orange County native Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., is the country's premier organization pushing for the teaching of creationism in American classrooms over evolution. They're now helping out Islamic creationists in Turkey, according to the excellent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show, The Current. Ahmanson is a Christian of the worst kind, of the kind who considers Muslims apostates

  July 22, 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

• Muslim Groups Consider Breaking FBI Ties Over Irvine Case

  Citing the highly publicized case involving an undercover informant who spied on an Irvine mosque, a coalition of U.S. Muslim organizations has announced it may suspend relations with the FBI."Muslim communities throughout the United States have made significant advances in promoting and contributing to a fair, free and pluralistic society," reads the statement from the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). "Through civil rights advocacy, civic and political engagement,

  March 18, 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

• A Leer Back at OC's History of Theatrical Naughtiness, Nastiness and Outright Sexual Perversions

  February 12, 2009

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

  January 15, 2009

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

  May 29, 2008

• Tuesday - 11/20

  When the Levees Broke: Part II at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey at the Barclay

  November 22, 2007

• Jane C.R. Doe Speaks

  October 11, 2007

• For Christ's Sake

  February 11, 1999

• That Other Quagmire

  May 17, 2007

• 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

• Cruise in Control

  May 4, 2006

• Unflinching Sincerity

  May 4, 2006

• Mind Your Own Fatwas!

  August 11, 2005

• Mystery Scientology Theater

  June 30, 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

• Allah Carte

  November 11, 2004

• 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

• 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

• All of Me

  February 28, 2002

• An Open Letter to the Residents of Buena Park

  December 16, 1999

• Shock Therapy

  February 18, 1999

• 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

• Would it Happen Here? Girl Scout Receives Award for Building Creationist Library

  The decorated Girl Scout and her "Alternate Universe." A few weeks ago five Fullerton girls were awarded the Girl Scouts of America's highest honor, the prestigious Gold Award, for creating community service oriented projects -- food drives, photography workshops, mural paintings, you know the type. "Earning the award reflects an extraordinary degree of leadership and citizenship skills," said Nancy Nygren, CEO of the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, in a press release that ran as an ar

  July 23, 2009