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As If There Weren’t Enough Problems in Jerusalem—Tensions have reached a boiling THE -BASED point over increasing reports of Jews spit- ting on Christian clerics. Yeshiva students studying in the Old City are the main culprits, say observers, and most incidents occur in INITIATIVE: the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the city and near the Jaffa Gate. In October, a brawl broke out near the Church of the Holy A CASE STUDY Sepulcher when a yeshiva student spat at a seventeenth-century cross being carried in a procession by an Armenian bishop. During the fight, the cross was broken and the yeshiva student slapped. Although the student has been banned from the Old City The service: Marriage counseling. which is owned by the Moon-affiliated for seventy-five days and may receive further punishment after a trial, clerics are hoping for The providers: Graduates of the Professors Academy. Its a stronger reaction from the Israeli govern- “Certified Marriage Education Training president, Neil Salonen, is a former ment. (Note: The fight at the Holy Sepulcher Seminar.” president of the in follows a fracas in September that involved The ultimate source: The Unification America. Greek Orthodox and Franciscan priests who Church. The is also “disagreed” over whether a door in the In October in an Oakland, , the former employer of one of the three basilica should be open or closed during a Holiday Inn, dozens of pastors and presenters at the Certified Marriage procession.) social workers attended a three-day, Education Training Seminar. Newly What Kind of Sign Is This?—A ten-foot cross sixteen-hour course on how to help hired by the U.S. Department of Health that had stood in the main square of the married couples in crisis. Upon their and Human Services as a “marriage small southern Italian town of Sant’Onofrio for decades fell on a sixty-seven-year-old graduation, they received a “Certified specialist,” Josephine Hauer had been woman and killed her. Workers were setting Marriage Education Professional Doc- director of marriage education at the up lights for an annual religious festival at ument of Completion” issued by the school; she is also a graduate of the the time. University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Unification Theological in Prophecy Progress—“Scripture predicts that The story behind the course offers a . The other person involved the great Russian bear will rise in the last revealing glimpse of the new world of in running the seminar, the Reverend days to mount a furious invasion of . social services under George W. Bush’s Bento Leal, also graduated from the And with recent catastrophic events, terror- Faith-based Initiative. seminary. He is the associate minister ism, and a frightening Islamic presence in Tracing the course back to its origins at a Unification church in the Bay Area. —it’s hard to ignore the signs. Ezekiel predicted that in the latter times, Israel would leads right to the door of the Reverend Attempting to fix marriages in trou- be invaded by a people ‘from remote parts ’s Unification Church, ble isn’t the only way the Unification of the north’ (38:6, 15). What is the nation which is widely viewed as being as much Church has found to access Faith-based most distantly north from Israel? Russia. The a as it is a and whose lead- Initiative money. Free Teens USA, an fullfilment of ’s prophecies concerning er has done time in federal prison for abstinence-promoting after-school pro- Russia seem closer than ever before.” (Taken income-tax evasion. If that wasn’t bad gram in New Jersey, received a $475,000 from the Left Behind Prophecy Club’s Web enough, the quality of the course leaves Department of Health and Human site on September 20, 2004, following the deadly school siege in Breslan and two plane much to be desired. Ser vices grant. Free Teens is run by crashes in Russia.) There are many side paths on the Richard Panzer, another graduate of the trail. The Certified Marriage Education Unification Theological Seminary and a Tit for Tat—When an Italian civil servant in the central city of L’Aquila told both a Training Seminar was sponsored by leader of the American Constitution Catholic nun and a Muslim woman that the California State Healthy Marriage Committee, a political organization affil- they could not wear head coverings when Initiative, an organization founded by iated with the Reverend Moon. they sat for photographs for their national the Reverend Dion Evans that received It comes as no surprise to some identity cards, Catholic clerics complained a $133,179 grant from the Bush admin- observers that such organizations as that too close a comparison was being drawn istration’s Compassion Capital Fund the Unification Church are benefiting between the . Officials are tempo- rarily allowing identity card photographs of ($45 million in social-service contracts from the Faith-based Initiative. “Moon people with head coverings as long as faces to churches and community groups has been a big backer of the Faith-based are clearly shown. have been distributed from this fund Initiative,” Americans United for the this year). For legitimacy, Evans part- Separation of Church and State exec- nered with the University of Bridgeport, utive director Barry Lynn told the San

17 http://www.secularhumanism.org Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 FRONTLINES

Francisco Chronicle. “But it’s beyond and equal time for ID in the SIDE LINES belief that you can have the University classroom. The release cited a recent of Bridgeport issuing marriage edu- paper on by Stephen cation certificates and claim that it is C. Meyer, director and senior fellow of secular.” the Center for Science and Culture at Religious Fanatic Ruins Olympic Dream— Lynn said that the Oakland marriage the in —the runner Vanderlei de Lima was in the lead seminar also reveals another problem nation’s leading ID proponent—in which five kilometers from the finish of the Olympic with the federal faith-based program. he argues that “no current materialistic men’s marathon in Athens in August when he “Money goes out and nobody knows theory of evolution can account for the was pushed off course by spectator Cornelius how it’s used and nobody knows what origin of the information necessary to Horan. Horan, who has disrupted numerous it’s for.” build novel animal forms.” com petitive events in other countries over Even Pat Robertson was right on The Raelians put a naturalistic—and several years, said his act was in preparation for the of Christ. Horan’s this one. In 2001, he warned that the kooky—twist on ID that Meyer and his credits include the British Formula One Grand faith-based initiative “could be a real Discovery Institute brethren might not Prix, Wimble don, and various soccer and Pandora’s box” and that religious , have anticipated. An excerpt from the rugby matches. For his Olympic antics, Horan including “the Moonies,” could benefit. September press release explains: wore long socks, a kilt, a beret, and a shirt As for the newly certified “marriage One of the major arguments against identifying him as the “Grand Prix Priest” and education professionals,” they might warning that “The Second Coming Is Near.” The Theory of Intelligent Design has Horan was arrested; Vanderlei finished third work out if their clients don’t expect too been that it went against the “natu- ralism philosophy.” . . . The Raelian and was awarded the Bronze medal and the much. “Sixteen hours of training won’t make you the best marriage educator,” Movement would like to underscore Pierre de Coubertin medal for demonstrating that The Theory of Intelligent Design fair play and finishing the race. Hauer told her students during the sem- does not lead to a supernatural South Carolina to Secede Again?— inar. “But it takes all kinds of work to designer but to an extraterrestrial ChristianExodus.org is fed up. The conservative save marriage—people to run the sound human civilization designer, which Christian group is giving up on a Republican- system, write the press releases.” is in line with “naturalism philoso- controlled White House and Congress and phy.” One day, maybe sooner than urging its followers to move to South Carolina in you might imagine possible, we will groups of twelve thousand or more. The goal? go to other planets and scientifically engineer life on them. Then, proba- To establish a government based on the Ten Atheists for Intelligent bly, these worlds will create deistic Commandments and conservative Christian Design? religions from the interactions we values. ChristianExodus.org hopes to have fifty will have with them. After this, they to seventy thousand supporters in the state by will develop an evolutionary theory 2016 and said it may seek South Carolina’s The Raelian Movement is an inter- to escape from the supernaturalistic secession from the . As sources national UFO cult based near view of their ancestors, and finally, for frustration with the current state of affairs, Montreal, Quebec, which gained they will discover that life on their one group founder cited the continuing legal- worldwide notoriety in 2002 for pro- planet was indeed designed—but by ity of abortion, ex panded funding for public us, human beings who came from schools to implement the No Child Left Behind moting the Clonaid human cloning another world, the Earth. . . . Act, the removal of the Ten Commandments hoax. The Raelians are also well monument from the Supreme Court known for their belief in open sex- The Raelians have plans to launch building and Judge Roy Moore from the Court, ual expression. On their Web site a series of ongoing debates throughout and the lack of a constitutional amendment (www.rael.org), the Raelians describe schools and universities on intelligent banning same-sex marriage. themselves as “The Raelian Revo lution, design. The release states that the “whole Graphic Reminders—From 1603 until 1782, the world’s largest Atheist, nonprofit world” will benefit from a “healthy” edu- the Palazzo Steri in Sicily housed “heretics” UFO related organization—over 60,000 cational system where both evolution and ordered to be imprisoned and tortured during members in 90 countries—working ID are taught, arguing that students have the . In 1906 during restoration “the right to know.” of the site, an historian discovered graffiti towards the first embassy to welcome I suggest to all FREE INQUIRY readers completely covering the cell walls left by people from space . . . destroying the prisoners. With the support of the site’s new myth of god and sweeping the world that, the next time Discovery Institute owner, the University of Palermo, and the with the most politically incorrect and representatives come to a school-board Euro pean Union, Palazzo Steri is now being fearlessly individualistic philosophy of hearing in their state arguing for the turned into a museum. “When the Inqui si- non-conformism.” teaching of intelligent design, they make tion was abolished in late 1700, all archives The group has recently taken up a a point of attending and reminding and documentation were destroyed,” said Christian board members and parents Domenico Policarpo, the architect in charge new cause—intelligent design (ID)— of the restoration. “This graffiti is the only evi- and is now actively advocating equal in the audience that ID is the “theory” dence we have. It does not have great artistic time for ID theory in classrooms around of choice for the largest atheist free-love value, but it has human value, being the only the world. On September 21, 2004, the UFO cult in the world. evidence of a horrible demise.” U.S. Raelian Movement’s press office issued a press release announcing — Kevin Christopher, that the Raelians support “academic Director, debates” about intelligent design and Center for Inquiry

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