Category: Religious Fanaticism

ISTANBUL, September 3 (Compass Direct News) — An Israeli man accused of planting a homemade bomb that almost killed the son of a Messianic Jewish pastor in Ariel, Israel has been declared competent to stand trial.

Jack Teitel, 37, who in November was indicted on two charges of pre-meditated murder, three charges of attempted murder and numerous weapons charges, is expected to enter a plea on Sunday (Sept. 5).

Israel has charged Jack Teitel, a Jewish-American extremist, with shooting to death two Palestinians and trying to kill others, including a Messianic Jewish family, who received a booby-trapped package in March 2008 that left their son critically injured.

Conservative Christian groups in the United States have found a new sinner to rage against: SpongeBob SquarePants, a children’s cartoon character. To his young fans and Nickelodeon, the television channel that broadcasts his escapades, SpongeBob is a sea sponge who lives with his pet snail, Gary, at the bottom of the sea. According to Nickelodeon, his “enthusiasm about just about everything makes him downright irresistible”. But not to organisations such as Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, which insist that the character is spearheading an insidious campaign to spread homosexuality among children. “Does anybody here know SpongeBob?,”

Deseret News, Mar. 16, 2003 http://deseretnews.com/ By Carrie A. Moore, Deseret News religion editor With the arrest this week of a couple who allegedly believe God told them to abduct Elizabeth Smart, many Utahns are wondering again what moves people of seemingly deep religious faith into fanaticism. Proclaiming himself a prophet chosen by God may not have been Brian David Mitchell’s first act of delusion, but it was likely among those that set the stage for the increasingly bizarre behavior that would follow. Such grandiose notions of “chosen-ness” — while not unique to Utah’s own brand of religious fundamentalists —

Deseret News, Mar. 16, 2003 http://deseretnews.com/ By Jerry D. Spangler and Bob Bernick Jr., Deseret News staff writers       Many homegrown zealots have turned the national media spotlight on Utah over the past 30 years, usually because of horrific murders. Among the most notorious incidents that resulted in national attention:       1972 — Followers of polygamous cult leader Ervil LeBaron killed Joel LeBaron as part of a plot for Ervil to wrest control of the dominant polygamous church of the time, based in Mexico but with followers in Utah. Ervil renamed the church the Church of