Christian couple ban swearing and gambling from North London pub

Here's an amusing story from the, err, Daily Mail. A devout Christian couple have been sacked as landlord and landlady of the Kings Head in Islington after they banned punters from swearing and gambling on the horse racing inside their establishment. As if that wasn't enough they added Bible questions to the pub quiz and, astonishingly, took down the pub's dart board and replaced it with what one local described as "some kind of calligraphy".

Unsurprisingly thirsty regulars who hadn't already been barred by the couple chose to seek their beer-fix elsewhere, and owners Oakfield Taverns moved quickly to remove Krista and John Fleming, who took over at the pub last September.

Things atheists could do without...

You could probably devise quite a long list, but one thing would surely be anti-religious video games. A graduate of the University of Virginia has designed a game where the object is to prevent the spread of Christianity and Islam by travelling through history killing those religions' key prophets. As if that wasn't inflammatory enough, the ultimate aim of the game is to behead the prophet Muhammad.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the developer has chosen to keep his identity secret though, given the fact that publishers are fairly unlikely to be queuing up for the rights to his game, he's probably pretty low on al-Qaeda's hitlist right now.

Still, as the report from Virginia news channel WSLS10 shows, silly ideas like this give people a good excuse to have a go at atheism in general. The game's creator seems to think he's doing non-believers a huge favour – "Atheists have never really had anything to speak for them like this" – but with any luck few people will agree. If this game does actually exist, it sounds just as bad as the fundamentalist Christian title Left Behind: Eternal Forces (aim: convert or kill the infidels) and we think we'll give it a miss.

US marine withdrawn for proselytising in Iraq

A story on the BBC website gives me a good opportunity to direct readers to an excellent New Humanist article from earlier this year.

A US marine based in Falluja has been withdrawn from the area for allegedly distributing coins engraved with evangelising messages in Arabic. According to reports, one side of the coins read "Where will you spend eternity?" while on the reverse was a well known Bible verse: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

The move follows complaints from residents of Falluja, and officially soldiers are forbidden from "proselytising any religion, faith or practices, and our troops are trained on those guidelines before they deploy".

The strength of evangelical Christians in the US military has been an issue for some time and earlier this year in New Humanist David Belden reported on the efforts of Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, to expose and force an end to their influence. It's frightening stuff and I strongly urge you to read it...

Californian Ford dealership tries the bigoted approach to advertising

I thought I'd round off the day with a bizarre story I came across on PZ Myers' ever-excellent blog Pharyngula.

Kieffe and Sons, a Ford car dealership in Mojave, California has produced a radio ad which, rather than pointing out, say, the quality of their service or the range of cars on offer, instead chooses to play on the stat that "86% of Americans say they believe in God" and suggest that they're not interested in custom from the remaining 14%:

"But did you know that 86% of Americans say they believe in God? Since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians, who believe in God, we at Keiffe & Sons Ford wonder why we don't tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up. I guess maybe I just offended 14% of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case then I say that's tough, this is America folks, it's called free speech. None of us at Keiffe & Sons Ford are afraid to speak out. Keiffe & Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond, if we don't see you today, by the grace of God, we'll be here tomorrow."

It's certainly a novel approach to marketing - "come and visit our good old traditional bigoted Christian car dealership. You won't see any filthy atheists/Muslims/Jews/Hindus/others hanging around here while we're giving you the hard sell". Not sure why they feel it's going to make anyone buy but, as PZ points out, you can't rule out the possibility that it might prove successful.

One atheist blogger tried writing directly to Ford to complain about this rogue dealership, but as her post shows this didn't exactly prove successful.

Here's a YouTube clip with the audio from the ad:

Christians feels misrepresented by media over Embryology Bill

I've been off for a couple of weeks and I was pleased to see that while I was away religious attempts to restrict scientific progress and abortion rights failed as the controversial elements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill made it safely through the Commons.

Now a story from a Christian news source tells me that the Christian Broadcasting Council is concerned that the Christian viewpoint was misrepresented in the media during the debate over the matter.

Chairman Olave Snelling feels "Christians and pro-life campaigners are portrayed in the media as people who do not care about the cure of diseases, research and the plight of unwanted pregnancy" and that "the public and MPs were not adequately informed about the issues and the consequences of certain parts of the Bill, despite the best efforts of many Christian and pro-life groups who worked tirelessly with MPs."

Which isn't how I remember this debate. Think back to Easter weekend, when clergy from across the Christian spectrum were given ample (excessive) column inches and airtime when they chose to use their most holy day to "inform" the public on the perceived dangers of the bill. They were using their top guys (bishops, cardinals etc), so presumably this amounted to their "best efforts". Anyone seeking the news had little choice but to hear and read these views, but unfortunately for them their "best efforts" comprised some of the most stunningly ill-informed and ignorant opinions heard in recent public debate. If this sounds strong, let us recap for a moment:

Cardinal Keith O'Brien (Scotland's top Catholic): "This bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life." Other descriptions of the bill included "monstrous", "grotesque", "hideous" and of "Frankenstein proportions".

Dr Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham (Anglican): "Gender-bending was so last century; we now do species bending".

Add to this failed attempts at debate by representatives of anti-abortion groups (see the BHA's Andrew Copson's demolition of Paul Tulley from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children live on BBC News) and it's difficult to argue that Christians weren't given a fair chance to make their points. They even had a free vote in Parliament play with. But ultimately they were wrong, and fortunately reason won the day.

Ex-footballer Gavin Peacock to train for religious career in Canada

Continuing my fondness for stories where football meets religion, I thought I'd pick up on the news that former Chelsea midfielder Gavin Peacock is to emigrate to Canada to take a three-year Masters course in Divinity with a view to becoming an ordained Christian minister.

Now, this isn't one of those shock sporting conversion stories – Peacock's born-again and has been a Christian since the age of 19 – and in my opinion the real story is the reshuffle his departure will initiate in the BBC's punditry ranks. They've already lost Ian Wright as a result of using him as a "comedy jester" and with Peacock off with God they'll be forced to take on two new names to back up their diminishing football coverage. No doubt certain friends of mine who are as obsessed with punditry as they are with the game (you know who you are) will furiously debate the potential impact of Peacock's departure, but personally I'm a fan and would prefer it was someone else disappearing to the other side of the world to become a minister. Lawro, if you're reading this, have you ever considered the religious life?

For this premium unleaded, may the Lord make us truly grateful...

Fuel's in the news right now, what with the recently-ended Scottish refinery strike (advice to drivers "Don't panic". Cue mini-panic) and a convoy of truckers entering London to protest against rising diesel prices.

With this in mind, perhaps all those worried about petroleum-related matters should study the antics of Rocky Twyman (what a name) of Washington state, who last week held three separate "gas-station pray-ins".

Rocky's worried about rising "gas" prices in the States (perhaps he should try filling up over here) and has asked fellow motorists to join him in a simple call of "God, deliver us from these high gas prices."

And his efforts haven't gone unnoticed, at least here on Earth, with a representative of the group Consumer Watchdog saying: "Given the complete inertia and silence of this White House on a crisis that has people feeling just hopeless, prayer is probably as good as anything. Frankly, I wish them luck."

[Thanks Christina]

Now you can make your home smell like Jesus

Regular readers will know we're big fans of novelty religious tat, supported by the efforts of stand-up comedian Christina Martin, New Humanist's tat-finder extraordinaire. And now Christina has discovered what could be the best piece of tat so far – Jesus-scented candles.

Bob and Karen Tosterud, of South Dakota, USA, concocted the "His Essence" candle from a list of ingredients provided by God/someone who wrote a bit of the Bible (delete as appropriate to your religious views) in Psalms 45. "It's a Messianic Psalm," explained Karen, "referring to when Christ returns and his garments will have the scent of myrrh, aloe and cassia."

So, inspired by this heavenly recipe, the couple did what any other sensible person would have done and produced a scented candle that apparently produces "a flowery, cinnamon aroma". For anyone wondering what the point of any of this is, allow Karen's husband Bob to explain: "You can't see him and you can't touch him. This is a situation where you may be able to sense him by smelling. And it provides a really new dimension to one's experience with Jesus."

This may bring a smile to the faces of us rationalists, but when you bear in mind that the Tosterud's have flogged over 10,000 of these candles at $18 a pop, it's hard not to feel that they're the ones who should be laughing, preferably en route to their local bank.

Parents charged with manslaughter after choosing to let faith heal their baby daughter

Here's another grim faith healing story, following on from last week's news that an 11-year-old girl from Wisconsin had died from a treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray rather than take her to a doctor.

Now, the Telegraph reports that a couple from Oregon are to be prosecuted for manslaughter after they allowed their baby daughter to die from a condition that doctors say could have been treated with antibiotics.

Carl and Raylene Worthington chose faith healing over medicine for their 15-month-old daughter Ava, who was suffering from bacterial bronchial pneumonia. Following her death they were arrested and charged, and face up to six years in prison if convicted.

The couple are members of the fundamentalist church Followers of Christ, which according to the Telegraph has been involved in controversies in the past over children who died in similar circumstances.

Archbishop admits Christianity is just a story

In a speech seemingly confirming what we've long suspected, that is, representatives of the Church of England probably don't really believe half the things they're supposed to, Rowan Williams this week stated that Christianity is just a story and admitted the religion is "vulnerable".

He was delivering a Holy Week lecture ominously named "Faith and Science" and while he took time to criticise Creationism ("slightly questionable science pretending to be theology") it sounds like he spent much of his time attacking the likes of Richard Dawkins, who he seems to have named "neo-Darwinists": "Science can be seduced into making exaggerated claims. Neo Darwinism of Dawkins' kind carries with it a rather subjective agenda ... It is as vulnerable as Christianity"

Still, at least he admitted his own position is pretty tenuous. And in the week when Christians recall a monumental event which may or may not have actually happened, but which shaped the following 2,000 years of human history, this seems somewhat appropriate. According to The Times, which unfortunately lacks a direct quote for this bit, Williams said that "Both Neo Darwinism and Christianity are telling stories ... Christianity acknowledges that fact, Neo Darwinism doesn't."

Well, just a couple of issues with that statement. The Times kindly explain that "Neo Darwinists argue that culture is subject to evolutionary forces which will eventually weed out religion", which presumably means Dawkins and his memes theory. Whether it's tenuous or not, I'm not sure advancing a theory is quite the same as telling a story. Saying someone rose from the dead, walked on water and turned some other water into wine is telling a story. But it's okay, because apparently Christians "acknowledge that fact". Try telling that to a lot of the Christians celebrating (is celebrate the right word?) Easter this coming weekend – like these sensible people, for example.

What's worse? 'Jesus' or 'Christ'?

Just a short blog on something I read today in ShortList, a free magazine you can pick up outside tube stations in London on Thursday mornings.

In today's edition they had an interview with comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb (the guys from Peep Show), in which they discussed what you can get away with saying in BBC programmes. In addition to informing ShortList that you "can only get away with saying 'fuck' two or three times in a sketch show", Webb added that "with blasphemy you are allowed to say 'God' but you can't say 'Christ'. 'Jesus', but not 'Christ'."

Now, the reason I blog this is that, if it's true, it's an interesting little fact and I'd like to know why it's the case. In that wonderful arsenal of blasphemous terms, what's so bad about "Christ" compared to "Jesus"? Mitchell suggests it's because "Christ is his surname", though somehow I doubt this is the reason.

So, I'm putting two questions out there. Firstly, is this true? I had a go at finding out myself, but Googling "blasphemy" and the "BBC" together mostly just throws up loads of stuff about Jerry Springer the Opera and those delightful folks at Christian Voice. Secondly, is it worse to say "Christ" than "Jesus", and if so, why?

Answers on a postcard (or preferably in comments to this post)

Hair straighteners advert offends Christians

Now, this is really starting to get silly. A TV advertisement for hair straighteners (yes, hair straighteners) has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority because it risks offending Christians.

The ad for GHD straighteners featured "eroticised female imagery and an extract from the Lord's Prayer", and was deemed by the ASA to be in danger of causing "serious offence" to Christians.

A massive total of 23 people, including the Archdeacon of Liverpool, complained about the ad, which amazingly seems to be a sufficient percentage of the UK population to have something banned for the rest. Apparently they were particularly offended by a stylised cross-shaped letter 't' that appears in the end strapline "Thy will be done".

Fortunately for readers, the NH Blog is backing GHD Straighteners to bounce back from this setback and in a show of defiance we've tracked down a clip of the ad on YouTube for your perusal. Enjoy.

Scottish Christians fear pagan summer camp

In yet another clash between Christianity and Paganism, Ekklesia reports on the reservations held by some Christians towards a three-day pagan gathering to be held in north-east Scotland this summer.

The Pagan Federation plans to hold its first ever summer camp this July in Inchberry near Fochabers, an event which will be open to "all witches, druids, shaman and other pagans of good". It will feature an "opening ritual", workshops, talks and, according to organiser Joanne Campbell, opportunities for pagans "to get together and socialise with friends and like-minded people".

All sounds pretty harmless, you might think? Not so, says Rev Graham Swanson of nearby Elgin Baptist Church: "I have grave concerns and reservations about this event taking place. As a Christian I believe the Bible warns us about dabbling in such things as witchcraft."

Oooh, scary.

Beauty pageant judge rejected for being a witch

A prospective judge for a Canadian beauty pageant has been rejected because of her interest in tarot cards and reiki, which organisers view as witchcraft.

Stephanie Conover, who is the reigning Miss Canada Plus ("Celebrating Women with Real Curves") was invited to be a judge for the upcoming Miss Toronto Tourism pageant on 2 February, only to find herself rejected after submitting her biography to the organisers.

Speaking to the Toronto Star Karen Murray, the pageant's director, explained her reason's for rejecting Conover: "We just got her bio a week ago and we don't agree with it. We want someone down to earth, not someone into the dark side or the occult".

Not that Murray objects to these practices on rational grounds. Rather, it seems that Conover was rejected because her beliefs don't fit the God-fearing stance of the pageant organisers. In a letter to the Miss Canada Plus group last week, Murray and another organiser outlined their objections to Conover appearing as a judge: "We need a judge who has an upright reputation and we would be proud to introduce to the audience ... Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world ... We hope that Stephanie Conover will turn from these belief systems and will repent from her practice of them."

Conover, who is now considering challenging the pageant organisers under human rights laws, was keen to defend her practices from accusations of evil, telling the Toronto Star "I was fuming. They said tarot cards are the occult and that I use them to commune with dark forces. They're completely benign. I use them for healing, to give guidance."

Sounds like nonsense v nonsense to us...

Dating advice Christian-style

Here's a little gem that was sent to me by Christina Martin this afternoon – Dating Tips for the Christian Man and Woman. Admittedly it's from the more evangelical, hardcore end of the Christian spectrum, but there's some great stuff in there for us humanists to chuckle at.

To get us started, there's some good news and bad news. You see, for anyone out there seeking love, "the battle rages on in our flesh to remain pure and holy while we are dating". That's the bad news. "The good news is that we have help through the Holy Spirit who guides us and we know that Jesus has overcome the world! We don't have to face the battle alone."

Just in case the Holy Spirit fails to deliver its guidance to you directly, it also seems to have provided it to the good people at ChristianLifeAdvisor.com in the form of some handy tips. In addition to such helpful points as "Brush your teeth" and "Wear deodorant", these include the following:

• "Choose to keep your relationship on a friendship level. The longer you can remain 'just friends', the better your relationship will be if you decide to get married at some point." (So basically don't have a relationship at all?)

• "Don't pray together alone as a couple too early in your relationship. Prayer is so very important in any relationship so please don't misunderstand this point. When you pray with someone of the opposite sex that you care about you begin to build a level of intimacy that can often lead to trouble." (So prayer leads directly to sex, then?)

Next they advise you not to kiss, "at least until you are engaged to be married ... even kissing once you are engaged can be very dangerous". And with good reason (the squeamish should look away now): "When men become sexually aroused a large amount of blood flows to the genitals. If ejaculation does not occur; the build up of blood can become painful. That just can't be a good thing for anyone! Ouch!"

Indeed. So to help deliver you from temptation, they advise you to "include another couple" in your relationship, which almost sounds like an evangelical, sexless version of swinging.

And finally, they advise you to "ask yourself 'what would Jesus do?' and then do it!" In which case don't believe what you read in The Da Vinci Code, presumably.

[Thanks Christina]

Back from holiday, but what did we miss?

So, the holiday is over and most people are returning to work. As the New Humanist Blog storms back into action, it's worth asking ourselves what we missed over the festive break.

Well, no one stole Christmas, for a start. This seemed to worry many people in the run up to the big day (including such luminaries as Vanessa Feltz and Stephen Green), but I checked on the 25th and everything seemed to be in place. Not that this prevented outbreaks of seasonal bad will, least of all in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where rival broom-wielding Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests brawled over Christmas cleaning rights inside one of Christianity's holiest shrines.

Back on these shores, Rationalist Association honorary associate David Starkey "angered royalists" (i.e., the Sunday Express) when he suggested that the Queen is poorly educated and uninterested in culture, telling the Guardian: "I think she's got elements a bit like Goebbels in her attitude to culture. You remember: 'Every time I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver.' " Naturally these comments angered the right-wing press, the Express, which devoted its leader to a dismissal of the historian that in earlier times would surely have involved a call for his head. Unfortunately it seems they don't publish their leader's online, but here's the accompanying article, unsensationally entitled "Historian Nazi Slur on Queen".

Meanwhile, the NH blog has continued to be overrun by members of the Strong City cult, after we ran a post about Ben Anthony's documentary The End of the World Cult. The cult's leader Wayne Bent, AKA Michael Travesser, AKA The Messiah is unhappy with the way Ben represented him in the documentary, and has subsequently dispatched his followers to flood message boards where the cult is being discussed. You can see what has been left on our blog by reading the comments on this earlier post. Some seem to be from Bent's young followers, which is a little disturbing to say the least.

Finally, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto seems to have further confirmed the grim forecast for Pakistan's future made by Maruf Khwaja in our September/October issue. With January elections looking increasingly unlikely and violence continuing across the country, we can only hope that Maruf was wrong in his prediction for the nuclear-armed state: "If the slide continues, Pakistan hasn't much mileage left".

And with that I wish all our readers a sincere, if slightly unfortunately positioned, happy new year.

Robin Ince takes on Vanessa Feltz and Stephen Green

Our latest web exclusive offering comes from stand-up comedian Robin Ince, who recounts the infuriating experience of "debating" the "de-Christianisation" of Christmas with Vanessa Feltz, Nick Ferarri and Stephen Green (he of the delightful Christian Voice) on an ITV talk show.

Personally I could think of few things worse than debating with Vanessa Feltz (if anyone out there wishes to torture me, you could do worse than force me to listen to her radio show), so full credit to Robin for even managing to get through it. As you'll see from his piece, he's slightly annoyed with himself for losing his temper with these people, but you can hardly blame him when he was faced with the likes of Feltz and Green spouting unsubstantiated nonsense about secularists and PC liberals ruining Christmas.

With that in mind, I'm off to protest against the indoctrination of children through use of the traditional school nativity...

A nativity scene for modern Britain

We all know the various Christian churches spend much of Advent moaning about how people are "forgetting the true message of Christmas", and how we secular types are devaluing their flagship festival in our desire to take time off work, eat, drink, and be merry. We also know they like to complain about depictions of Christmas scenes that don't fit the church-approved image of Jesus et al, such as the "sacriligious" Red Bull ad we featured on this blog last week.

Considering this, it's probably fair to say that many Christians won't approve of the "Chavtivity" scene featured in this morning's Metro newspaper. The image, entitled "A Glasgow Nativity Scene", is being used widely on online Christmas cards and depicts Mary and Joseph as tracksuited "chavs" sitting in a smashed-up bus shelter while the baby Jesus lies in a Burberry-patterned pram. Mary sits smoking a cigarrette, while Joseph holds a pitbull terrier on a gold lead. The Three Wise Men are also depicted as chavs, and they come bearing gifts of booze, cigarettes and a stolen satellite box. Joseph also seems to appear on a "wanted" poster on the bus shelter notice board.

Elsewhere in the Metro, one reader, an E Mathieson of North Yorkshire, is displeased with secular encroachments on the festive season: "In these times of heightened religious inspection and introspection, I find myself faced with several issues of intellectual clarity and integrity. Is it not fair to ask all atheists to refrain from participating in all aspects of Christmas? Equally, given that December 25 is of no significance within the atheist calendar, should they not ask for the restoration of their denied right to work on that date?"

I'll throw that one out to readers of this blog...

Mitt Romney: give religion a greater role in US public life

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday suggested he would give evangelical Christians a greater role in US public life if elected president, the Guardian reports.

In a speech aimed at winning over Christians suspicious of his Mormon beliefs, Romney attacked secular Americans who fight to defend the constitutional separation of church and state: "In recent years the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. . . [secularists] seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgement of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong."

Romney went on to advocate placing greater emphasis on religion in history lessons, and expressed support for the display of nativity scenes in public places. He also took time criticise low church attendance in Europe, lamenting the fact that "so many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer".

Romney has been leading the Republican polls for the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary – which both take place in early January – but has recently been losing ground to Mike Huckabee, who has marketed himself as a "Christian leader" to contrast with the Mormon Romney. As a result Romney has emphasised the fact that he believes in Jesus.

Just to dispel concerns that either of these men might end up becoming US president, it's worth remembering that national polls show Rudy Giuliani and John McCain to be the frontrunners for the Republican nomination.

So does Jesus love porn stars?

XXXChurch.com, a California-based ministry that aims to discourage people from watching and participating in pornography, has had an order refused for 10,000 Bibles emblazoned with the words "Jesus loves porn stars" after the publisher, the American Bible Society, deemed the words "misleading and inappropriate for the New Testament".

The ministry, which goes under the misleading slogan "#1 Christian Porn Site", hands out Bibles to those attending adult film conventions (they're due in London for one in 2 weeks, apparently) and had hoped the message would remind porn stars that "Jesus loves you regardless of your profession".