This is our collection of religion-related news stories about some of the dumbest, silliest, or evil acts committed in the name of religion.
You may prefer to read the light-hearted fare in our offbeat religion news section.
It appears that imprisoned cult leader Warren Jeffs is using his life sentence to sharpen his creative writing skills.
For the fourth time this year he has issued a set of revelations which he represents as coming directly from Jesus Christ.
Imprisoned cult leader Warren Jeffs is once again sharing his messages from God.
One revelation promises “a storm of great destructive power” in the US that will “paralyze many parts of thy nation for a time” and calls for the release of the release of both Jeffs and the his other followers in prison.
According to cult leader Harold Camping earthquakes would today already have obliterated various locations at the international date line, with the destruction rolling east time zone by time zone.
None of that has happened. The false prophet had earlier scheduled the earth’s destruction in 1994.
A couple who claim they are Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene have set up base in Queensland’s Bible Belt and are drawing in disciples from across Australia.
The pair, real names Alan John Miller and Mary Suzanne Luck, operate from rural Wilkesdale, near Kingaroy, where they claim to have been joined by 30-40 followers.
Florida Pastor Terry Jones, whose threat to burn Islam’s holy book on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year provoked widespread condemnation, has been banned from visiting Britain, Reuters reports.
The radical Westboro Baptist Church, famous both for their virulent homophobia and for picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers, had indicated on their website they planned to rally outside a play in Old Strathcona, Canada on Saturday night.
The hate group — which masquerades as a Baptist Christian church, but is neither Baptist nor Christian –failed to show up. Instead, hundreds of gay rights supporters met outside the play, a production of The Laramie Project, to wave signs and speak out against the American church.
The US Supreme Court weighed whether the Westboro Baptist Church — anti-gay religious group that pickets military funerals with signs that read “Thank God for dead soldiers” — is exercising its right to free speech or invading a grieving family’s privacy.
The Supreme Court seemed to have trouble putting aside the ugliness of the message to focus on the rights of the messenger Wednesday, as justices tried to balance free speech against the privacy owed a grieving family burying a son.
Saudi Arabia’s most senior religious leader has ordered a conservative cleric to stop giving unauthorized edicts after his call for boycotting a supermarket chain that employs women as cashiers.
Sheik Youssef al-Ahmed had urged people not to shop at Panda Supermarket because women there work in jobs that allow for the mingling of the sexes. Al-Ahmed says this is a violation of Islamic law.
RNB: Can you believe that story is datelined August, 2010…?
From our Religious Insanity file: An armed Christian organization, Right Wing Extreme, will protect a church that is planning to host an “International Burn a Quran Day” on the ninth anniversary of September 11, the church’s pastor said on Tuesday.
The Dove World Outreach Center, in Gainesville, Florida, says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and to take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, the nondenominational church invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book.
Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones has accepted the support of Right Wing Extreme, which he said offered to come to the church with between 500 and 2,000 men on September 11. He described the organization as an armed civilian militia group.
“There is a need for this protection. It is absolutely necessary in light of the death and terror threats we have received,” Jones said in an e-mail to CNN.
Muslims and many other Christians, including some evangelicals, are fighting the church’s plan to burn the Quran.
We can be sure of this: ‘Pastor’ Terry Jones might as well burn his Bible — since he either has not read it or does not intent to obey its teachings.
A Florida church says it will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, despite the city refusing to issue a burn permit, Orlando’s Fox35 TV reports.
We think this kind of behavior is so ill-advised that we feel comfortable slapping this news item with the ‘religious insanity‘ tag.