Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 28, 2009, at 9:40 am
As the LA Times points out, the Church of Scientology, which has its international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, has taken some public relations hits in the past 12 months, not the least of which was a three-part series in the St. Petersburg Times that detailed the accusations made against the church’s leader, David Miscavige, made by former high-ranking church officials.
Now, it has debuted a new series of 1-minute ads to push back against the bad PR, the LA Times writes:
On Saturday, June 27, thousands of people gathered in the streets of St. Petersburg, FL for the city’s annual Gay Pride parade and festival. While we were celebrating and honoring the legacy of the LGBT civil rights movement, our local NBC affiliate (WFLA-Ch. 8) was airing Speechless: Silencing the Christians, an hour long special paid for by the conservative American Family Association (AFA) that makes a series of specious and demeaning claims about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
You can’t mix oil and water, and you sure can’t mix politics and religion. It’s not because one is more noble than the other. It’s because their goals are at odds with each other.
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Several hundred protesters took to the streets in San Francisco last week during a court hearing on Proposition 8, the amendment to the California Constitution that restricts same-sex marriage. Prop 8 was voted on in Nov. 2008 and followed a ruling in May that overturned restrictions on same-sex marriage. After that, California was in the business of marrying same-sex couples. This of course changed when California voted on Proposition 8 with 52 percent in favor of banning same-sex marriages. Now the court will have to rule on the validity of Prop 8.
By Peter Schorsch
PoHo contributor
Peter Schorsch is a political consultant and writes St. Petersblog 2.0.
I just returned from mass and taking part in Ash Wednesday. It was uplifiting to see so many of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ take a moment out of their busy day to attend afternoon services. If only so many people would show up for the twelve o’ clock mass on the other 364 days out of the year.
My receding hairline on Ash Wednesday.
But that kind of holier-than-thou sentiment reminds me, first, to humble myself, and, secondly, of a statistic I once read. It said that while 140 million Americans watch some part of the Super Bowl, more than 180 million put on the Sunday Best for Easter services.
According to Wiki, Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned. In the liturgical practice of some churches, the ashes are mixed with the Oil of the Catechumens (one of the sacred oils used to anoint those about to be baptized), though some churches use ordinary oil. This paste is used by the priest who presides at the service to make the sign of the cross, first upon his own forehead and then on each of those present who kneel before him at the altar rail. As he does so, he recites the words: “Remember (O man) that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
One of the most important aspects of the Lenten season is sacrificing something that you really care about as a sign of your devotion. Not that kind of sacrifice! More like not eating chocolate for forty days.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Dec. 7, 2007, at 10:53 am
Pastors Randy and Paula White are likely headed for more criticism after they declined to provide financial information about their Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries to a congressman looking into media reports about a handful of mega-churches in the US and the lavish lifestyle their founders enjoy. From the Trib:
A defiant Randy White, however, addressed his congregation at the Thursday night service, indicating he was ready for a fight.
“You hear me, and you hear me well,” he said. “When the enemy wants to attack the church, he attacks the character and the finances. The devil is a liar.”
White told the congregants there have been “no laws broken and no misappropriation of money” regarding his church.
“We walk in integrity. We have checks and balances, checks and balances,” he insisted. Many of his comments were met with applause.
The next step could be congressional subpoenas or an IRS probe, the story predicted. I haven’t read any allegations of wrongdoing about these churches, but it is clear that their pastors are living high on the hog while collecting lots of money from some folks who can’t quite afford the amounts they are contributing. The Whites and some of the other churches preach prosperity theology, that great wealth is a sign of a blessing from God.
Here’s Flashpoint’s Brendan McLaughlin interviewing Paula White about her prosperity gospel.
I’m all for people making money; just not from the poor and troubled who are looking for answers and prosperity of their own.
UPDATE: Here’s a link to parts 1 & 3 of Brendan’s interview with PW. Thanks for David F for sending them along.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 2, 2007, at 2:09 pm
Actually, they are walking into the studios of the Tampa Bay Community Network tonight for a 10 p.m. live broadcast of The Bleepin’ Truth on Bright House cable channel 20 in Tampa. (Hillsborough County cut funding for the channel last week, so county residents likely won’t be able to see it.)
On the talk show made famous by Joe Redner getting winged by a flying chair in a dispute with a guest last year, the issue of religion and tolerance will be explored (and likely tested) by evangelist Bill Keller, Council on American Islam Relations leader Ahmed Bedier and Redner.
Keller has been a staple on various national news shows since May, when he criticized Islam on his live call-in television prayer show, saying it was a “1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell.”
The next step could be congressional subpoenas or an IRS probe, the story predicted. I haven’t read any allegations of wrongdoing about these churches, but it is clear that their pastors are living high on the hog while collecting lots of money from some folks who can’t quite afford the amounts they are contributing. The Whites and some of the other churches preach 
