The countdown to Judgment Day is on (as I showed you via this billboard). Wha? You don't believe the seal saying "the Bible guarantees it"? Then maybe you'll believe Family Church president Harold Camping. He's the guy behind the billboards, and former Pitch writer and current SF Weekly managing editor Alan Scherstuhl interviewed him.
Camping says God has provided proof in the form of "the gay-pride movement and the extraordinary amount of wickedness in the
world." Oh, there's a whole lot more fun, too.
The Bible (supposedly) and this billboard at Charlotte and Truman are guaranteeing Judgment Day on May 21. That's only 16 days away, so you better sleep in your best suit or dress on May 20. The time of the Rapture is clearly to be determined.
One of these things is not like the others. ... This random photo is from blogger Sara with Camera. She had a run-in with Verizon's customer service. A bad one. So bad that she needed some catharsis. So she made a "God hates Verizon" sign and decided to picket at 17th and Gage in Topeka -- the same spot the Westboro Baptist Church pickets every day. The photo's funny and random and worth sharing (and do check out Sara's full post).
Police responded to a 911 call at 8231 Oak on Tuesday to find "TR," an 8-year-old boy, suffering from stab wounds on his hands and wrists. TR's grandmother told police that she was in bed with the boy, and woke to see his mother, Peggy A. Ross, stabbing the boy with a knife. When the grandmother grabbed Ross and told her to stop, Ross allegedly said, "I'm going to finish it," and, "God made me do it."
The 8-year-old was taken to the hospital, and Ross has been charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. No word on whether police plan on questioning God.
The Bible warns against pride. But that hasn't stopped Robert Ulrich, the chief apologist of beleaguered pastor Jerry Johnston, from allowing First Family Church to post a version of his résumé that's nearly 1,000 words long.
The Overland Park megachurch has been weakened by public defections and a potential foreclosure. Ulrich, the chairman of the church's board of directors, has stood by Johnston amid criticism of the evangelist's empire building and comfortable lifestyle. And in case anyone's wondering, Ulrich's an accomplished guy. Very accomplished.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen are falling.
Megachurch leader Jerry Johnston's First Family Church in Johnson County is being foreclosed upon. On January 25, Regions Bank ordered the church to pay up on two loans worth $14.4 million, plus $82,000 in interest, within 30 days.
With those 30 days up, the bank has now petitioned a judge, asking that a receiver be appointed to sort through First Family's finances, The Kansas City Star's Judy L. Thomas reported.
A gay man who fled Uganda attended services at the International House of Prayer on Sunday in an effort to pressure Lou Engle, a member of the church's leadership and a frothy-mouthed opponent of homosexuality.
Being gay is a crime in Uganda. Engle traveled to the country last year and appeared at a prayer rally as lawmakers weighed even harsher provisions against homosexuality. In January, the country's most outspoken gay-rights activist, David Kato, was beaten to death.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about. In Missouri, February is the designated month in which state agencies want us to be preparing for a seismic event that, depending on whom you ask, is inevitable or impossible: a damaging earthquake along the New Madrid fault. The last "big one" happened in 1812.
In a recent study, scientists monitored movements along the fault for eight years, using GPS technology sensitive enough to detect a flinch no thicker than a fishing line. They found nothing shakin', which means either that (a) the fault has shut off or (b) the Earth's plates are squeezed together so tightly, they can't move but will eventually explode with unimaginable, Book of Revelation-style violence.
The Rev. Jerry Johnston's First Family Church is facing foreclosure. The Kansas City Star reported today that Regions Bank wants the Overland Park megachurch to pay more than $14 million in mortgage and other costs or the bank will foreclose on the property, sell it and use the proceeds to pay off the church's debt.
The church issued a statement on its website blaming the foreclosure on the economy and citing a Wall Street Journal report about similar instances at churches across the country.
Lou Engle is odious and possibly deranged. But is the homophobic evangelist also a bad marketing strategist?
Engle is the Kansas City-based co-founder of TheCall, a youth-oriented "radical prayer" movement. A fierce opponent of abortion rights and homosexuality, Engle raised his profile last year when he traveled to Uganda and endorsed the efforts of lawmakers there to lengthen jail terms and expand the death penalty for gay "crimes." Engle, however, may find that hating on Ellen DeGeneres is the wrong way to run a thriving youth ministry.
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