This year’s crop of Halloween candy is demon-possessed, according to Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network.

Apparently, witches curse the sugar-filled confections before they’re shipped to grocery stores across America.

These witches, I’m guessing, are part of a Prince of Darkness job-retraining program. Thanks to the rise of compact discs and MP3 players, the devils who specialized in placing subliminal recordings on vinyl-records have been demonically down-sized. Candy-cursing pays less than record wizardry and it’s seasonal work, and much of it is farmed out to demons in Third-World countries. …

My wife and I went and watched “The Invention of Lying,” which is billed as the “first ever completely atheistic movie with no concessions.”

And I wasn’t looking forward to it one bit. I don’t like paying $8 per ticket to be preached at. But it turned out to be a fascinating film. Funny, not fanatical. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

A laugh is worth a thousand lectures, and this film was a comedy. A sad comedy, if there is such a creature.

Ricky Gervais’ alternative universe has no God and no lying, and it is a miserable, hopeless, soulless place.

Critics are split on the film, according to RottenTomatoes.com.

Movie trailers are available here.

Click here for the story.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s time to ditch the word “famously” (and perhaps jettison the word “famous”, as well.) After all, if the subjective of an article is truly famous, the reader presumably already knows that. And if an incident “famously” occurred, sophisticated readers of the New York Times presumably after already heard about it.

My rule of thumb: If the press release declares that a speaker, singer, athlete or artist is “world-famous”, the world-famous personality is probably somebody I’ve never heard of.

The woman in the ad is grinning — grinning a lot — as she models a t-shirt that reads: “I Can’t…I’m Mormon.”

This Mormon Mona Lisa with a mythic smile never reveals precisely what she can’t do. Perhaps she can’t smoke or drink or vote for Democrats. Perhaps she can’t sip a Starbucks or buy a Megabucks ticket or sneak out during Family Home Evening.

But the woman is young and pretty. Real pretty. So students at Brigham Young University are convinced the woman would be doing something really, really inappropriate. If she weren’t a Mormon, of course.

So after protests, BYU’s campus newspaper has decided to stop running advertisements for the “I Can’t, I’m Mormon” apparel.

To read a well-written story by the church-owned (Salt Lake) Deseret News, click here.

I suppose one man’s “one true faith” is another man’s “organized fraud.” …

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group’s activities.

The group’s French branch said it would appeal the verdict.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits.
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The Axis of Evil is discriminating against people of faith, as are several other nations, according to this annual report from the U.S. State Department.

The report is a great source of information on religious freedom around the world.

The paragraph below was included in an Associated Press story about a controversial rabbinical ruling that bars the use of so-called Shabbat elevators — elevators pre-programmed to automatically stop on every floor on the Sabbath, so that Sabbath-observing Jews can use them without doing the “work” of pushing elevator buttons on the holiest day of the week:

“A debate a decade ago by another leading rabbi concluded that nose-picking was allowed on the Sabbath. It was under discussion because nose hairs may be plucked out in the process, and cutting hair on the Sabbath is outlawed.”

Maybe it’s fact. Maybe it’s fiction. I don’t know. But there are a few things about the paragraph that set off my BS detector.

1.) It’s a really, really preposterous idea. Sometimes religious leaders have really, really preposterous ideas, so the sheer weirdness of the paragraph doesn’t make it unbelievable. But it should raise red flags.

2.) The time-frame is vague. A decade ago. Not July 7, 1999. Or July 1999. Or even 1999. A decade, which can mean ten years or ten-nish years…

3.) The place is vague. Was it in Israel? Jerusalem? Brooklyn? Brookline?

4.) The rabbi is unnamed.

5.) I’m not finding a lot about this topic by Googling it.

AGAIN, the report may be completely accurate. It may be 100 percent fact and 0 percent fiction. But the vagueness, combined with the outrageousness of the paragraph, set off my BS detector — and that’s not a bad thing. Anybody reading anything, including blogs, newspapers and wire services, should read with a healthy dose of skepticism…

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Jewish day of rest has become a bit more labor-intensive for Yosef Ball.

The Orthodox Jew and his wife are no longer using elevators custom-built for the Jewish Sabbath, ever since a rabbinical ruling last month outlawed them. Instead, they have been hiking up seven flights of stairs to get home each Saturday, lugging with them their five young children and a double stroller.

“It’s been very hard, but we’re walking up the stairs slowly and with a lot of patience,” said Ball, 29, while pushing a baby carriage with two toddlers in tow on a recent day.
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Faith healer Benny Hinn, a native of Jaffa, Israel, recently wrote a book about his native land. Blood In the Sand: Understanding the Middle East Conflict — the Stakes, the Dangers, and What the Bible Says About the Future is part memoir, part prophecy. The televangelist recently visited with Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Religion Editor Frank Lockwood about Jesus, Jerusalem, healing the sick and raising the dead. This interview was edited for space and clarity.
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I’m not a bit surprised by this new Rasmussen poll, which shows Mike Huckabee moving ahead of the pack.

With a strong organization and a decent fundraising apparatus, Mike Huckabee could definitely win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

But money and organization are crucial. And it’s unclear whether he’s willing to do what it takes to build a campaign team capable of winning.

ALEX DANIELS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
OCTOBER 11, 2009
WASHINGTON — A multimillionaire televangelist who is fighting a federal investigation will preach at Little Rock’s Agape Church today [October 11, 2009].

For the past two years, Senate Finance Committee investigators have tried to determine whether Believer’s Voice of Victory television star Kenneth Copeland has used his ministry to finance a jet-setter’s life of fancy cars, boats and planes — bankrolled by his followers’ donations.
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Membership — Down.
Attendance — Down.
Giving — Down.

Membership and attendance have been dropping for most of this decade, but the drop in giving is something new.

For a whole bunch of newly released statistics, click here.
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The child drew a picture of Jesus, complete with beard and flowing robe. And it caused an uproar. A court will decide whether the censorship was appropriate, ChristianPost.com reports.

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer
ROME (AP) — Comedian Sarah Silverman has a new proposal for ending world hunger: Sell the Vatican.

In a new profanity-laced monologue making the rounds on YouTube in time for U.N. World Food Day on Friday, Silverman suggests that it’s time for the pope to “move out of your house that is a city” and use the proceeds to feed the world’s poor.
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Frank Lockwood
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Bible is full of jaw-dropping dreams, visions and divine visitations, but none quite like this one, shared by televangelist Kenneth Copeland during a sermon at Little Rock’s Agape Church.

“The Lord woke me up in the middle of the night,” Copeland told worshippers on Sunday. “There stood Jesus with a huge tray and the tray was heaped with cookies, and he said, ‘Kenneth, have a cookie.’”
Grabbing for one of the bedtime snacks, Copeland says he replied: “I believe I will.”

If you have enough faith to move mountains, Copeland suggested, God can give you the desires of your heart: vigorous health, limitless wealth, unending happiness and eternal life — plus new airplanes and fresh-baked goods.

You believe. You receive.

“Have faith in God,” Copeland said over and over. “That’s God’s plan. Increase. Increase. Growth all the time. Better and better and better.”

As the national unemployment rate creeps toward double digits, Copeland argued that Christians should be exempt from economic downturns. “Big brother” Jesus “bore the curse of poverty” so that the rest of us wouldn’t have to scrape together nickels and dimes, Copeland argued. “We are family — joint heirs — with the wealthiest man that exists.”

Copeland, 72, who has his own airport, knows a thing or two about material abundance. The Fort Worth-area multimillionaire flies around the world in a ministry-owned $20 million Cessna Citation X jet. He relaxes in an 18,000-square-foot lakeside parsonage. He drives luxury cars and owns a fleet of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

His family has its own Texas-sized cattle ranch and his church has its own natural gas wells.

Many of Copeland’s followers are committed “tithers” — giving at least 10 percent of their earnings to religious organizations. Some give substantially more.

For his 70th birthday, Copeland and his wife, Gloria, reportedly received personal gifts totaling more than $2 million. (The ministry, while refusing to reveal the exact dollar total, says the gift was actually less than $2 million.)

Copeland, whose lavish spending is under investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, showed up roughly 15 minutes late for Agape Church’s morning worship service, entering just in time to pray for the sick and to recite the Agape Church donors’ creed.

The words, chanted in unison, echoed throughout the cavernous hall:
“The tithe guarantees financial favor.
“The tithe guarantees your covenant partnership with God.
“The tithe is proof of honor.
“The tithe is proof of obedience.
“The tithe silences the devourer in your life.
“The tithe guarantees consistent harvest on your seed.
“The tithe opens the windows of heaven …”

Agape Church pastor Happy Caldwell urged everyone — including those facing poverty and hunger — to dig deep, promising God would supernaturally reward them.

During his sermon, Copeland mentioned the economy roughly 10 times, and said the federal government had triggered an “economic mess” by “departing from God.”

But Copeland said his ministry has escaped the ravages of recession. “Our income in the ministry has been going up,” he said.

The crowd peppered Copeland’s message with shouts of “Amen” and “Hallelujah.”

As Copeland wrapped up his sermon, he led worshippers in a chant: “I’m not cursed. I’m blessed. I’m not cursed. I’m blessed.”

Instead of an altar call, the service climaxed with a final financial solicitation — this one aimed at enriching the morning speaker.

The collection “plates” — plastic buckets adorned with the Agape Church logo — made an encore appearance.

“All the offerings,” Caldwell promised, “will go to Brother Copeland.”