In the March 1959 issue of Scientific American, H. B. D. Kettlewell published a popular description of his famous “peppered moths.” According to Wikipedia:
The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested upon. However, because of widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-coloured moths, or typica, to die off from predation. At the same time, the dark-coloured, or melanic, moths, carbonaria, flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees.[1]
Since then, with improved environmental standards, light-coloured peppered moths have again become common, but the dramatic change in the peppered moth’s population has remained a subject of much interest and study, and has led to the coining of the term industrial melanism to refer to the genetic darkening of species in response to pollutants. As a result of the relatively simple and easy-to-understand circumstances of the adaptation, the peppered moth has become a common example used in explaining or demonstrating natural selection to laypeople and classroom students.
Scientific American has published the full text of Kettlewell’s 1959 article online. Here is the first page:
In his time certain species of moths were light in color. Today in many areas these species are largely dark. If he had noticed the change occurring, he would have observed evolution in action
By H. B. D. Kettlewell
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, the centenary of which we celebrate in 1959, was the fruit of 26 years of laborious accumulation of facts from nature. Others before Darwin had believed in evolution, but he alone produced a cataclysm of data in support of it. Yet there were two fundamental gaps in his chain of evidence. First, Darwin had no knowledge of the mechanism of heredity. Second, he had no visible example of evolution at work in nature.
It is a curious fact that both of these gaps could have been filled during Darwin’s lifetime. Although Gregor Mendel’s laws of inheritance were not discovered by the community of biologists until 1900, they had first been published in 1866. And before Darwin died in 1882, the most striking evolutionary change ever witnessed by man was taking place around him in his own country.
The change was simply this. Less than a century ago moths of certain species were characterized by their light coloration, which matched such backgrounds as light tree trunks and lichen-covered rocks, on which the moths passed the daylight hours sitting motionless. Today in many areas the same species are predominantly dark! We now call this reversal “industrial melanism.”
It happens that Darwin’s lifetime coincided with the first great man-made change of environment on earth. Ever since the Industrial Revolution commenced in the latter half of the 18th century, large areas of the earth’s surface have been contaminated by an insidious and largely unrecognized fallout of smoke particles. In and around industrial areas the fallout is measured in tons per square mile per month; in places like Sheffield in England it may reach 50 tons or more. It is only recently that we have begun to realize how widely the lighter smoke particles are dispersed, and to what extent they affect the flora and fauna of the countryside.
In the case of the flora the smoke particles not only pollute foliage but also kill vegetative lichens on the trunks and boughs of trees. Rain washes the pollutants down the boughs and trunks until they are bare and black. In heavily polluted districts rocks and the very ground itself are darkened.
Now in England there are some 760 species of larger moths. Of these more than 70 have exchanged their light color and pattern for dark or even all-black coloration. Similar changes have ocCUlTed in the moths of industrial areas of other countries: France Germany Poland, Czechoslovakia, Canada and the U.S. So far, however, such changes have not been observed anywhere in the tropics. It is important to note here that industrial melanism has occurred only among those moths that fly at night and spend the day resting against a background such as a tree trunk.
These, then, are the facts. A profound change of color has occurred among hundreds of species of moths in industrial areas in different parts of the world. How has the change come about? What underlying laws of nature have produced it? Has it any connection with one of the normal mechanisms by which one species evolves into another?
In 1926 the British biologist Heslop Harrison reported that the industrial melanism of moths was caused by a special substance which he alleged was present in polluted air. He called this substance a “melanogen,” and suggested that it was manganous sulfate or lead nitrate. Harrison claimed that when he fed foliage impregnated with these salts to the larvae of certain species of lightcolored moths, a proportion of their offspring were black. He also stated that this “induced melanism” was inherited according to the laws of Mendel.
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Just in case you couldn’t tell.
Here are the details:
—– End Of The World That Never Was (Ouma Wanzala/Daily Nation; March 1)
BUSIA DISTRICT, Kenya: On February 13 members of a religious sect at Siduhumi village in Butula division of Busia district converged at the home of Margaret Okumu, one of its members, expecting the world to end in five days.
The sect, whose followers include 14 families, said God told them that Jesus Christ would be coming on February 18. In anticipation of the event, many sold most of their assets.
Neighbours watched the goings-on in disbelief as sect members donned ceremonial sack cloth and prayed as they waited for the arrival of Jesus Christ.
However, February 18 came and went, and the world did not end. Even as the sect members took off their sackcloth in resignation, the area assistant chief Pius Opate went to Mrs Okumu’s house and ordered the members to return to their homes or face arrest.
“We fear that the sect members could do something harmful to themselves. They are good people, but we must take precautions,” Mr Opate said.
In March 2000 more than 500 members of a sect burnt alive in a church in Kanugu in southwestern Uganda after their leaders ordered them to sell their possessions and await the end of the world.
The Butula sect members believe God speaks to them through Linet Mubusu. When interviewed, Mrs Musubu said God told her Christ did not come and the world did not end because some sect members were sinful. All questions sect members might have about religious issues are directed to her.
To prepare for the five days of prayer as they waited for the end of the world, Mrs Mubusu said God revealed the sinfful members to her, and she fined them so they could be cleansed.
The money, Mrs Mubusu said, was used to buy food and other items to sustain the group during the five days of waiting.
Mrs Mubusu, whose husband was also a member of the sect, said their religious group has no name because after the mention of the seven churches in the New Testament Book of Revelation, there was no need for churches to have a name.
She added that the religious sect had no leadership structure and anyone could lead the service of the sect at any given time.
The sect has no central place of worship and holds prayers in the homes of members.
“We have been praying for the end of the world and arrival of Jesus Christ since 1982, and we had hoped that he would come this week. And though he has failed to, we will continue to pray,” she said.
She said that the sect began in Bumula division in Bungoma South district and was started by William Brahman before it was taken over by Julius Teng’o. The founders of the church have since died.
Her sister in-law, Francisca Atsieno who is a Catholic, said their beliefs could cause more damage to society than good.
In 2007 in Naivasha members of The House of Yahweh dug caves in which they awaited the end of the world. But it did not and eventually they left the caves.
For other relatively recent examples of Doomsday Postponed, see the entry I posted on Nov 9, 2008.
For more evidence that a kind of Doomsday that�s ardently denied by many Christians is actually picking up speed as it heads our way, see Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster Than We Thought (The Associated Press; Feb 26).
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- Image via Wikipedia
A few weeks ago, at about the same time that I first posted my Test Your Faith entry, it occurred to me that Christians (among other theists) never seem to try to change the past with their prayers. I’ve come across an awful lot of “Let us pray to end the drought!” type stories, but few, if any, stories about theists praying to erase last year’s drought from the history books. Why?
Matthew 17:20
is about as clear as anything is in the Bible when it quotes Jesus as saying “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Now, if nothing is impossible to those with faith, then nothing is impossible – right? So why do few, if any, Christians ever even attempt to use their miraculous powers to correct any of the horrible events of the past?
A web search for more information on this odd state of affairs took me to an essay by John Loftus entitled “Can Prayer Change The Past?” It was a very good essay, but… it now seems to have disappeared. That’s one big reason why so much of this diary is devoted to reposting the many interesting things I find in their entirety. I *hate* the way online information can disappear in the blink of an eye.
Oh, well…. As it happens, the Christian reaction to Loftus’s essay remains and might be even more interesting.
Here, for example, is how the blogger known as Swordbearer responded at the Christian Skepticism: A Reasonable Faith website:
While I’ve ceased being amazed at how often unbelievers argue against a gospel which is not the true gospel (which displays how great their fear and enmity against God is since they go to the extent of arguing against God through the fabrication and argument against their own strawmen), I’m still not amazed at how many different ways unbelievers will come up with in misunderstanding or misapplying the text of Scripture to try to argue against God.For example, John Loftus, in his recent post on “Debunking Christianity” entitled “Can Prayer Change the Past? One More Time” sets a challenge before Christians to “pick any event in the past, announce that they are praying to change it, and then watch what happens.” His argument is that if God lies outside of time, but hears the prayers of believers, then God can change the past, events like “the Holocaust, the terrorist 9/11 attacks, or any tragic event reported in the daily newspaper.”
Besides the obvious question of how one would determine that God changed the past (given that the change would then be our past), Loftus’ challenge is an example of either poor exegesis or faulty logic when it comes to the Scripture. Does not Loftus understand that God does not change and that the prayers that God honors are those in keeping with his will? In effect, what Loftus seeks to accomplish through his challenge is to put the burden on believers to prove the existence of God by having God answer a believer’s prayer which is contrary to his will (something contrary to Scripture). This is no different than the logic used by those who in arguing against freedom of the will in light of predesitination [sic] are willing to suppose that God predestines the end but then fail to recognize that God ALSO presdestines the means to that end as well. Or better put, it can be likened to someone challenging another to prove a spouse’s love for their mate by presenting evidence (or seeking to show evidence) that is contrary to love.
Let readers beware, that often what may appear to be fine sounding arguments at first by unbelievers (even those who set themselves up as previous believers or pastors), are easily untangled and found faulty when one takes the whole truth into account. Scripture shows that one of the tactics often used by those who oppose Christ is to try to set forth a half-truth as the whole truth. Those who want to avoid deception and become mature must learn to discern and then they will not fall to those arguments which are falsely set forth as high-minded wisdom and knowledge.
Yes, well… ignoring the harsh ad hominem attack on the honesty and motives of Loftus and others who dare challenge Christian dogmas, let’s look at a few of the claims that are being made here that simply don’t seem to make sense.
1) “Does not Loftus understand that God does not change and that the prayers that God honors are those in keeping with his will?” That sure sounds to me like another way of saying that prayers have no impact on gOd. They may coincide with what he did, does, or is going to do, but that’s like saying that the sun coincides with my prayers for it to rise in the east and ignores those that request that it rise in the west. In other words, prayer is pretty much irrelevant. This seems to me to be a very strange thing for a Christian to claim (especially in light of the – “Ask and it shall be given” Bible passages we find in Matthew 7:7-8 and Luke 11:9-10), but I don’t know how else to interpret Swordbearer’s words. (Do you?)
2) “In effect, what Loftus seeks to accomplish through his challenge is to put the burden on believers to prove the existence of God by having God answer a believer’s prayer which is contrary to his will (something contrary to Scripture).” I think what Loftus is really trying to do is nothing more than quite rightly asking Christians to bear the burden of proving the existence of their gOd, and, oh, by the way, here’s a dandy way of doing so if they’re up to the task. Obviously they aren’t, but instead of graciously acknowledging that fact and retreating back into a Tertullian-like “I believe BECAUSE it is absurd!” stance, some apparently prefer to blast people like Loftus for daring to ask for something more.
3) “[T]he obvious question of how one would determine that God changed the past (given that the change would then be our past)….” Hey, TV shows in which a character changes the past don’t seem to have much of a problem with this. I’m sure an omnipotent gOd capable of anything could present us with evidence that Christian prayers actually changed the past if he wanted to. Apparently those prayers can’t or he doesn’t want to. If prayers CAN change the past, well, why is it still acknowledged by virtually everyone to have been a bloody mess? Because gOd wants it that why? What a beast!
Bottom Line: However a Christian may choose to answer Loftus’s questions (and my own), they and their gOd don’t seem to end up looking very admirable – or even passingly moral.
Something called The Puritan Board also addressed Loftus’s challenge. If anything, the comments there strike me as even ruder and sillier than those offered by Swordbearer.
Here are some samples:
For my part, I refuse to get into absurd arguments with infidels. When they throw things out like our prayers and our God’s response to them, they are not asking a real question they want to tread on that which is Holy! They want to blaspheme not have rational discussion. Never should we give people like that the satisfaction. Pearls to swine. They shall find their answers in Hell. – etexas/Puritan Board Professor[Methinks the good Professor might have benefitted from reading those How Not To Win An Argument entries I posted back in May 2002.]
Loftus, like many, has to have a god who measures up to his own satisfaction. Sad. – puritan lad/Puritan Board freshman
[Ummm, doesn't virtually every theist embrace a gOd that measures up to his or her satisfaction? I can't recall ever meeting a Christian who said "Jesus really dissatisfies me - but I love him anyway!" Now, some seem to have very low standards ("Sure, my gOd committed genocide in the Old Testament, and Jesus will someday be throwing pagans babies into eternal hellfire, but ya gotta understand - they have their reasons even if I don't know what they are!") but it seems pretty self-evident that IF X believes in gOd, X does so because that gOd has satisfied whatever standards the person requires beliefs to meet before he or she makes that belief their own. Even Tertullian had his standards (as goofy as they seem to have been). A theist who proclaims "gOd doesn't satisfy my standards for believing in him - but I believe in him regardless" would seem to necessarily be either a liar, a fool, a jokester, or mad.]
Why would an unbeliever challenge Christians to pray a past event out of existence? It is absurd. As the WCF says, God foreordains all things whatsoever comes to pass. The reason these things happened is because God ordained them in His infinite wisdom. – Jane Chavez/Covenant of Grace, OPC
[So, again, virtually ALL prayer seems to be reduced to meaninglessness - not merely prayers that try to change the past. And if whatever happens is necessarily ordained by gOd, if I successfully slap people who say things like this, well... even *I* must just be doing gOd's will, right? So who are theists to complain if I *do* slap them? Or if a mad dictator executes them by the millions? It's ALL their good gOd's will - right? Seems to me Jane is on pretty dangerous ground here....]
Just because God exists outside of time and space does not mean we as Christians can pray to undo the past. This is a ridiculous idea because we, as human beings, exist in the realm of time and space. Therefore we exist in the present. We can no more undo the events of the 1940s or any other era than we can undo the Crucifixion of Jesus. – Jane Chavez/Covenant of Grace, OPC
[Erm, I'm sorry.... I just don't see how a series of unsupported assertions adds up to a sound response to Loftus, let alone a reasonable life philosophy. If prayers can change the future, why can't they change the past? If prayers can heal grandma of her cancer even though we're obviously NOT part of her cancer, why can't they undo the crucifixion of Jesus even if we're stuck in the present? Remember: With God, ALL things are possible. If they aren't, Christians ought to be honest about it and reject and/or condemn the Jesus of the Bible as being a terrible liar.]
These atheists expect Christians to perform the impossible in order to prove that God exists. It doesn’t matter what we do, it will never be enough. They don’t believe because they are hardened in unbelief among many other reasons. They are just setting up hoops for us to jump through. It’s a fool’s errand to take them up on these challenges because God is not going to answer prayers like these that are obviously a violation of His will and are for the sole purpose of “proving” to the unbeliever that He exists. The very creation proclaims His existence every day! – Jane Chavez/Covenant of Grace, OPC
[Ooooo, nice little rant there at the end. Of course it's perfectly reasonable for atheists to ask Christians to do the impossible when their holy book says that nothing is impossible for them. We're merely holding them to the standards they themselves allegedly embrace! And while Christians like Jane seem to think that it's terribly improper to expect gOd and/or Jesus to demonstrate their divine powers, neither seem to have had much of a problem doing so in the Bible. Jesus may have bitched about it at times - and even failed at times - but he allegedly came through more often that not. Why is it suddenly wrong for people to expect at least as much proof as was given to the people of long ago? Finally, if Jane is content to embrace Jesus and her gOd on the basis of so little proof, why did she embrace Jesus and that gOd rather than Muhammad and his gOd, or the Aztecs and their gOds? If theists don't have evidence that distinguishes one deity from another, what DO they have? Whim? Upbringing? Pretty hard to put yourself forward as a defender of absolute truth if that's what you're basing your beliefs on!]
[As for the claim that "The very creation proclaims His existence".... Does anyone really need me to explain what's wrong with that? I hope not! But if so... please check out the entry I posted on the subject way back on Oct 24, 2000 as well as the four related entries it links to. (Maybe we should set a goal of stamping out this particular bit of nonsense in our lifetime?)]
If it were possible that we should pray and a notable event like 9/11 did not take place, then how would we then know that it ever happened? There would be no news articles about it, no one would know of anyone that died because of it, we wouldn’t have gone over to chase after Osama bin Laden because of it. We might just as well say that the asteroid didn’t hit us yesterday. What? You say that there was no asteroid near enough? That’s because someone 2 years in the future prayed that the asteroid that was on a collision course with the earth would move out of its normal orbit and crash into the sun on the other side so we would never know what happened. It all seems absurd to even think such things. – Gerry Winebrenner
[Remember: We mere humans might not be able to imagine how prayers might change the past in a way that's obvious and verifiable, but with gOd, ALL things are possible. And the fact remains that the past seems to continue to be universally acknowledged to have been a bloody mess. I bet we ALL can imagine some personal past tragedy or unpleasantness we'd love to be able to erase with a prayer. Well, the Bible tells us that if we ask, it shall be given to us - that all things are possible if we have even just a tiny bit of faith. The fact that the consequences of a bloody and tragic past remain with even the most devout of Christians no matter how hard they pray for that to change is proof that the Bible lies.]
The Christians I’ve just quoted reminded me that theists tend not to have a very good conception of the nature of time.
It seems to me that there are three main possibilities.
First, time can be thought of as a kind of phonograph record or CD or movie. It exists in its entirety, unchanging and eternal, but we perceive it bit by bit as we travel along like a needle in a record groove or a laser beam across a CD. The present moment is, basically, an illusion akin to the illusion that we’re at the center of physical reality. If you happen to be a Christian who embraces this point of view, there’s basically no difference between past, present, and future. If prayer can change the future, why can’t it change the past? If prayer can’t change either, why bother praying? (Because gOd the puppeteer wills it?)
A second possibility is that only the present moment exists. The past only exists to the extent it exists within the present moment. Future events are coiled up within it. Changing the past or future basically means changing elements of the Now moment. If praying to gOd can change those parts of the Now moment that we recognize as being now, why can’t they change those other aspects of the Now moment that we rather arbitrarily call past and future? Why do so many Christians insist that the power of prayer – and of gOd – is so limited? (Is it because that power is really non-existent?)
A third possibility is that the course of time splits and follows every possible course. When presented with option A and option B, we actually choose BOTH – but it seems as if we only chose one or the other as time splits and pursues EVERY possibility. The megaverse consists of an infinite number of alternate temporal pathways in which ALL possibilities are realized. If this is the case, prayer is pointless. Whatever we pray for DOES come true – but only because EVERYTHING comes true somewhere regardless of whether we pray or not. It’s hard to see what role exists for gOd in this sort of megaverse or how he might be influenced by prayer. (It seems gOd is reduced to being a mad voyeur who arranged it so that every horror and perversion plays out as an actual fact.)
Are there other possibilities? Quite likely. But – as near as I can tell – none of them do a very good job of supporting Christian dogmas (and conceits).
And of course just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s true. Even if a Christian could come up with some conception of time and gOd (and some interpretation of the Bible) in which it makes sense to say “Praying to change the future can work but praying to change the past never can,” they’d also have to provide evidence showing that such a conception is actually likely to be true.
Good luck with that!
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1648-58 – New, gruesome tortures invented and employed against thousands of Jews as Eastern Orthodox Cossacks ravage Poland. Swedish invaders compound the terror. An estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Jews lost their lives, and some 700 of their communities destroyed.
Hamburg expels its Jews.
1744 – Jews expelled from Moravia.
1753 – 35,000 Jews expelled from Russia.
1768 – Russian territorial expansion brings many Jewish communities under Russian jurisdiction. The infamous “Pale of Settlement” established in the new western provinces to segregate the Jews and keep them from “contaminating” rest of Russian society.
1814-20 – Jews attacked and expelled from many German cities.
1821 – Anti-Jewish riots in Greece.
1851 – Constitutions of Prussia and Austria incorporate anti-Jew provisions.
1858 – Pope Pius IX kidnaps Edgardo Mortara, a 6-year-old Jewish boy who was allegedly baptized by a female servant. Fearing that such a “Christian” child cannot be entrusted to Jewish parents, Pius decides to raise the boy himself.
1878 – 100,000 Jews flee Romania for the U.S. to escape oppression.
1881 – A petition demanding that severe restrictions be re-imposed on the Jews is signed by over 200,000 people and presented to the first chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck.
Czar Alexander III and his advisers mark Easter by launching major pogroms against the Jews as the Russians embark upon a policy intended to evict a third, kill a third, and convert a third of the Jews within Russia.
“In Russia the conflict of the Jews and the Orthodox Church released the most open and virulent manisfestation of religious anti-Semitism. To the church, the Jews were the enemy seeking to undermine Russian Orthodoxy and the tsar, the very foundations of Russian tradition. The church and the tsarist authorities went so far as to condone, and even encourage, the violent progroms that were perpetuated against the Jews in 1881-82 and again in 1905…. From Russian Orthodox circles, too, arose the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fraudulent documentation of an alleged international Jewish conspiracy to conquer the world by subverting the social order through Liberalism, Freemasonry, and other modern movements….” – The Encyclopedia Britannica, “History of Judaism”
1890+ – Four million Jews flee to America from Eastern Europe to avoid persecution.
1894 – French Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus falsely accused of treason. Bitterly anti-Semitic press delays his vindication and sparks anti-Jewish riots. Tensions from “The Dreyfus Affair” will roil French politics for more than a generation.
1900-10 – Hundreds of anti-Jewish pogroms launched by Russian Czar Nicholas II.
1915 – Grand Duke Sergei, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, orders the relocation of all Jews from the Pale for fear they will side with the Germans during WWI. Out of 600,000 forcibly transported to the interior of Russia, about 100,000 of them die from exposure and starvation.
1918-20 – Some 200,000 Jews slaughtered during the Russian Civil War (mainly by those who thought them Communists even though the Communists tended to attack them as capitalists).
1920s – Ku Klux Klan revived in the U.S.; many restrictions placed on people of “Hebrew descent.” Immigration rules tightened to keep Jews and other “undesirables” out.
1926-1933 – Pogroms against Jews in Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Greece, and Mexico.
1934 – Anti-Jewish groups formed across Canada. Anti-Semitism widespread in Canadian newspapers and magazines.
*
Just a few things to keep in mind the next time someone mentions the approximately 2500 Christians executed by the evil Romans, suggests that the beliefs and actions of Hitler and the Nazis were utterly unique or “un-Christian,” or claims atheists are the ones incapable of acting morally.
[Enjoy this post? Go to Atheist Under Ur Bed's Journal for more Sane Wailings!]
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—– Tough Sell At White House Of Atlanta (CNN; Jan 28)
ATLANTA, Georgia: It’s the palm trees and the cross on the front lawn that throw you off. They seem out of place at the White House. But then again, this isn’t 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This White House sits in a quiet residential neighborhood in Atlanta.
Owner Fred Milani is an Iranian-born real estate developer who came to the United States in 1979, the year the shah left Iran.
His replica of the White House has become a landmark, loved or reviled by those who live in the area.
Milani, 57, builds and sells large single-family homes, commonly referred to as McMansions. Dozens dot the landscape of tidy brick ranch homes near the North Druid Hills area. He tears down many of the homes he buys, leaving McMansions in their place.
Neighborhood residents who have fought the trend consider them monuments to conspicuous consumption.
Milani built the White House in 2002, when Atlanta’s real estate market was booming. He says the idea took only moments to decide. His wife, Yvonne, told him she wanted a house with columns, and, according to Milani, his architect suggested replicating the White House.
“I believe it was Jesus’ plan. Five minutes later, we decided to build the White House.”
Asked what it’s like to live there, he’s nonchalant: “You get used to it after a while. … It’s good.”
But when the housing market crashed in 2008, Atlanta was hit hard. Foreclosures soared to some of the highest levels in the nation, and Milani was not immune to the downturn. Twice, his bank has tried to foreclose on the White House, and twice he has found a way to avert it.
In December, he sold five of the 10 homes he had on the market; one closed last week, and another is set to close Friday, Milani said. The developer said he also was able to work with his bank to restructure a $1.75 million delinquent loan.
But that hasn’t stopped Milani from putting the house up for sale.
“The economy is doing bad,” the developer says. “Everyone in construction is suffering, and I am one of them.”
[Gee, do you suppose that maybe Jesus is punishing Milani for building this ostentatious mansion in his name? As an atheist, I certainly don't - but I find it more than a little curious that the question isn't even raised in this story.]
On the market for a month and a half, the White House, with its $9.8 million price tag, has garnered only a few inquiries: one from a potential buyer in California and one from Dubai, Milani says.
Although it is only one-third the size of the actual White House, the home still has six bedrooms, seven full baths, six half baths, a banquet room, an outdoor pool and a soaring entryway with a domed ceiling. It also has its own Oval Office and Lincoln Bedroom.
Milani’s Oval Office has a copy of the desk that George W. Bush used during his tenure as president. Sitting open on the desk are two Bibles, one in English and one in Farsi. It’s flanked by U.S. and Iranian flags. There’s even a presidential seal on the ceiling.
The Lincoln bedroom has a mural of President Lincoln painted on the wall, as well as copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Bill of Rights.
“A lot of people who come here, they want to stay in this room,” Milani says. “Bill Clinton charged $50,000 a night.” When asked how much he charges, Milani replied, “free.”
Next door is a 7,500-square-foot “guest house,” built in the same style. It has a chapel in the basement. Milani, who was born a Muslim, converted to Christianity in 1995, and services are held in the chapel for fellow Muslims converting to Christianity.
Like many converts, he proudly displays the symbols of his new country and faith.
There is a cross in the front yard, illuminated at night by a red light, surrounded by topiary that spells out “God (heart symbol) you.” A pole on top of the house displays the American flag. Inside, it’s a curious mix of traditional Persian decor, Christian symbols and Americana.
In the entranceway, the domed ceiling is painted with the image of Christ ministering to a host of people from around the world. There is a Mexican in a sombrero, a woman in traditional Thai dress and an American Indian wearing a full headdress.
Just below Christ is Milani himself. He says he was not originally supposed to be in the mural, but the painter put him in the scene as a surprise….
Although Milani is intensely proud of his home, many neighbors aren’t.
Greta Allen, who lives down the street, calls it an eyesore….
A few houses down, Chris Madden agrees….
Madden’s neighbor Steve Mobley says that if they had left out the palm trees and the shrubbery, it may not have been so bad. But Mobley, who says he is a Christian, says what really bothers him is that “he said that God told him to build it.”
“I do have a problem with that. I don’t think God would want you to put millions of dollars into a White House for yourself when there might be some better uses for that money.”…
Milani is optimistic. He no longer thinks he financially needs to sell the house and seems unfazed his neighbors’ criticism.
“If someone comes and gives me a good price, I will build a congressional building across the street. A new thing. I like a challenge. Always, I am in the building business.”
At least gOd didn’t tell him to become a suicide bomber or kill his kids….
Praise the lOrd?
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—– Gospel Singer’s Wife Accused Of Trying To Set Fire To Church (Newsweek/The Associated Press; Feb 19)
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee: Investigators charged a traveling gospel singer’s wife with attempting to set fire to a church where she got upset with the pastor after her husband had performed there, Chattanooga fire officials said. Court records show that the woman was charged Wednesday with attempted arson at the Harmony Baptist Church. There was no fire and no damage to the building after firefighters responded to an automated alarm at the church, authorities said.
Fire officials said the alarm went off after a church service Feb. 11 in which the woman’s husband performed.
Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner said in a statement that arriving firefighters smelled propane and discovered 10 burners on a commercial stove in the fellowship hall all turned up high and a roll of paper towels placed nearby.
Fire officials said the woman told them she is her husband’s agent for performances at local churches and fast food restaurants that schedule gospel entertainment. She denied any wrongdoing and was freed on bond late Wednesday.
Fire officials said the woman got upset after the pastor, who had offered them overnight accommodations, noticed they were not wearing wedding bands and asked if they were married.
—– Michigan Police Taser Nude Man Headed To Church (Boston.com/The Bay City Times; Feb 20)
BAY CITY, Michigan: Going to church brought no peace to a man Tasered by police as he stood in the nude in 27-degree weather. A funeral Mass was being held inside St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church when police received 911 calls about a naked man Friday morning. Sgt. Gordon Cameron said the man told officers he was having problems with his parents and wanted to go to church.
Cameron told The Bay City Times that the man cursed and verbally abused police before Officer Troy Sierras immobilized him with a Taser, an electronic device that fires barbs causing temporary paralysis.
The man was draped in a blanket and taken to Bay Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Cameron said the man, whose name was withheld, likely wouldn’t be charged with any crime.
—– Police Say Man Stabbed Son In Left Buttock After He Refused To Take Off His Hat In Church (The Baltimore Sun/The Associated Press; Feb 24)
BALTIMORE, Maryland: Police said a 58-year-old man stabbed his teenage son after he refused to take off his hat at church earlier in the day. The father and his 19-year-old son got into an argument on Sunday afternoon. That’s when police said the father went to a car, got a knife and stabbed his son in the left buttock and fled.
The son was taken to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. The father’s name was withheld pending his arrest.
—– Self-Proclaimed Priest Opens Fire At War Vet’s Funeral (Interfax; Feb 27)
KIEV: “Cleric” of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate tried “to reason” Communists with the help of a pistol.
Unpleasant incident happened before the New Year at a Dneprodzerzhinsk cemetery, the Ukrainian official website has reported with the reference to Gorozhanin and Dnepr Vecherny papers.
Funerals of World War II veteran Zinaida Misyura resulted in a scandal. Mutual insults between local Communists and schismatic priest Sergy Okunev made the latter take out a pistol and start firing.
Later it turned out that it was starter’s pistol.
Both sides in the conflict told that participants in the funerals brought a red flag with them. The late woman was a veteran and Communist Party member since 1944 and wanted to be laid to rest with a Soviet flag.
“When a priest came out and saw us, he cried out ‘You are devils, fascists, invaders!’ The priest was very aggressive in the cemetery: he insulted and cursed. When I made a remark about it, he smashed a fit [fist?] in my chest. Then he pushed MP assistant Grigory Duzhka so heavily that he fell down. Everyone was so depressed with the priest’s behavior. When they tried to detain Fr. Sergy, he took out a pistol and started firing,” MP of the Dneprodzerzhinsk city committee and secretary of Communist city committee Valentina Kapinus said.
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1261-1264 – Christian mobs sack Jewish sections of London and Canterbury.
1267 – St. Thomas Aquinas declares that Jews cannot be treated as neighbors and must live in perpetual servitude to Christians.
1270 – Jews massacred across Germany.
1280 – Spanish Jews forced to listen to conversion sermons from monks preaching in their own synagogues.
1290 – King Edward I orders all Jews out of England.
1298 – A German nobleman named Rindfleisch gathers a small army and leads it against the Jews (who were accused of desecrating the sacred elements used in Holy Communion [the Host] in an alleged attempt to crucify Christ all over again). More than 100,000 Jews are slaughtered and some 140 of their communities wiped out.
1306 – King Philip IV of France gives the Jews one month to get out of the country. They may only take the clothes on their back and provisions for one day. Philip confiscates what they leave behind for his own use. In 1315, King Louis X generously allows them to come back provided that they agree to wear badges.
1320 – 120 Jewish communities in southern France and northern Spain wiped out during the so-called “Crusade of the Shepherds” as 40,000 peasants rage over the countryside, demanding that Jews convert or die.
1348-49 – Thousands of Jews blamed for the Black Death across Europe and massacred: 2000 in Strasburg, 6000 in Mainz, 3000 in Breslau, 500 in Brussels, 10,000 in Poland. Jewish communities in Augsburg, Wurzburg, Munich and over 200 other places utterly destroyed.
1354 – 12,000 Jews slaughtered in Toledo, Spain.
1389 – 3000 Jews slaughtered in Prague after children accidentally spray sand on a priest carrying a holy wafer host.
1391 – 50,000 Jews die in riots instigated by the preaching of Archdeacon Ferrand Martinez of Seville; another 150,000 are forcibly baptized, including many rabbis.
1407 – Vincent Ferrer, a monk, leads mobs against the Jews in Spain.
1422 – Crusade against the Hussites destroys Jewish communities along the Rhine.
1434 – Council of Basle, led by Pope Eugenius IV, bans Jews from the universities, orders them to live apart from others, and mandates their attendance at sermons aimed at their conversion.
1480-81 – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain establish a tribunal to purge the Church of those who clandestinely practice Judaism. Massive arrests follow. An estimated 30,000 are burned at the stake.
1492 – All Jews expelled from Catholic Spain. Many flee to Portugal where King John II enslaves them. After John’s death in 1495, his successor, Manuel I, agrees to “purify” Portugal of their presence as a condition of his marriage to Isabella, daughter of Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella. Some Jews are thrown out of the country; many are forced to undergo brutal baptisms. In 1506, many of these “new Christians” are massacred during anti-Jewish riots in Lisbon.
“During a single night in 1506 nearly four thousand Lisbon Jews were put to the sword.” – William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, p. 35.
1509 – Dominican monk Johannes Pfefferkorn publishes Judenspiegel (“Mirror of the Jews”), an anti-Semitic book urging that all works in Hebrew be burned. Those who disagree with Pfefferkorn are accused of being on the payroll of the Jews.
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian orders everything hostile to Christianity destroyed. Some 1500 manuscripts are taken from Jews in Frankfort alone.
1543 – Martin Luther vehemently attacks the Jews in a series of tracts known as “On the Jews and Their Lies.” He urges that their cash and jewels be seized, their synagogues burned, and their homes broken down.
1553 – Pope Julius III condemns the Talmud. One month later – on Rosh Hashanah – a mountain of Jewish books is burned in Rome. Talmud burning spreads across Italy.
1555 – Pope Paul IV issues the papal bull known as Cum nimis absurdum (“Since it is absurd and improper that Jews…”). All old anti-Jewish regulations are reaffirmed and new ones are added: Jews in the papal states are confined to ghettos, and their commercial activities with Christians are limited to the sale of second-hand clothes. These rules will remain in force for more than 300 years.
“Attacks and expulsions of Jews were a staple of medieval history, so extensive that by the mid-1500s Christians had forcibly emptied most of western Europe of Jews.” – Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
, p. 53
“In the measure to which Christianity lost much of its hold on Western society the Jews’ lot improved markedly. Intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment such as Lessing [1729-1781] and Montesquieu [1689-1755] were sympathetically disposed towards Jews, stressing their dignity ad humanity, even making them the embodiment of their own humanitarian ideals.” – Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, p. 41
“There were periodic persecutions, massacres, and expulsions of Jews until the 18th century, when the Enlightenment brought Europe a new religious freedom.” – The Encyclopedia Britannica, “Anti-Semitism”
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—– Gov. Sanford Offers Unemployed South Carolina Resident “Prayers” Instead Of Stimulus Funds (Ben Armbruster/ThinkProgress.org; Feb 23)
Following the lead of a number of his fellow Republican governors, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has given some indication that he will not accept some of the money slated for South Carolina in the $787 billion economic recovery bill President Obama signed into law last week. “At times it sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time,” Sanford said yesterday on Fox News.
On C-SPAN’ Washington Journal this morning, Sanford received a call from a Charleston resident who said he lost his job because he has been taking care of mother and sister, both of whom have serious illnesses. The caller told Sanford he is “wrong” to decline the money. “A lot of people in South Carolina are hurting. And if this money can come and help us out we need it.” In response, Sanford could offer him only his prayers:
CALLER: I hope you all are not playing politics with this. People in South Carolina are hurting. You know how unemployment rates are high right now and going up higher. We are running out of money in the unemployment bank – we need money for that, the people that need help. And I’m one of them, I can’t get no help.(…)
SANFORD: Well I’d say hello to Charleston because its home and I’d say hello to this fellow this morning and say that my prayers are going to be with him and his family because it sounds like he is in an awfully tough spot.
[The video version is included with the original article.]
Sanford offered no other alternative solution for his constituent and instead argued that the state could not accept money to extend unemployment benefits because “increasing the tax on unemployment insurance” would negatively “impact the caller’s family” (although he didn’t say how).
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) – who sponsored an amendment to the stimulus bill that would allow state legislatures to “accept stimulus funding over the objections of conservative governors” – chastised Sanford on MSNBC this morning. “This program is an opportunity for Governor Sanford to target” the “chronically unemployed” and “chronically sick” communities in South Carolina. “I have got to believe that he is willing…to help these communities,” Clyburn said, asking, “Why won’t he?”
As near as I can tell, Sanford hasn’t changed his mind much since this story first appeared.
Wikipedia identifies Sanford as an Episcopalian and provides this additional background information:
While in Congress, Sanford was a staunch conservative (he garnered a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union), but displayed an occasional independent streak. He often would be one of two members of Congress, along with Ron Paul, voting against bills that otherwise got unanimous support. For example, he voted against a bill that preserved sites linked to the Underground Railroad…. Sanford has sometimes had a contentious relationship with the South Carolina General Assembly, even though it is controlled by his party. The Republican-led SC House of Representatives overrode 105 of Sanford’s 106 budget vetoes on May 26, 2004. The following day, Sanford brought live pigs into the House chamber as a visual protest against “pork projects”. Sanford rejected the Assembly’s entire budget on June 13, 2006. Had this veto stood, the state government would have shut down on July 1…. A Time Magazine article critical of Sanford, cited that some “fear his thrift has brought the state’s economy to a standstill.”… After the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Governor Sanford strongly opposed and publicly criticized before and after its passage by Congress and presidential signing, Sanford initially indicated he might not accept all of the funds allotted by the spending law to South Carolina. He was criticized by many Democrats and some moderate Republicans both in his state and outside who noted South Carolina’s 9.5% unemployment rate (one of the highest in the country) and complained that Sanford wasn’t doing enough to improve economic conditions in his state…. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, suggested that if Sanford or other governors rejected their portion of stimulus funds, he would be “happy” to take them instead…. As early as January 2008, there has been anticipation that Mark Sanford would run for President in 2012, and online support groups have sprung up voluntarily on virtual social networks like Facebook in support of a Sanford ticket. Many supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul have also began to accept the notion of supporting Sanford, if Paul (who would be 77 by election day) does not run in 2012. Further boosting Sanford’s profile in advance of a potential candidacy, which the governor has neither ruled out nor expressly hinted at, he was elected as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in November 2008 and was cited by Michael S. Steele, the Chairman of the Republican Party as one of four “rising stars” in the GOP (alongside Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska, and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota) in February 2009.
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506 – The Christians of Daphne torch the synagogue and murder its congregation.
519 – The Christians of Ravenna attack the Jews and burn their synagogue.
528 – The Emperor Justinian makes Church law and doctrine state policy. Jews may not testify against Christians. The Scripture used in Jewish services must be state-approved; prayers that cast doubt on the trinity are banned.
535 – The church Synod of Claremont decrees that Jews cannot hold public office or otherwise have authority over Christians.
538 – The Third and Fourth Councils of Orleans forbid the Jews to appear in public during the Passion and Easter periods. Christians prohibited from converting to Judaism.
582 – King Chilperic of Merovingia demands that all Jews in his realm convert to Christianity or have their eyes torn out.
Circa 615 – King Sisebut severely restricts the rights of Jews in Spain. Jewish children are taken from parents and given a Christian education. Sisebut ends up ordering all Jews to convert or get out of his land.
628 – Emperor Heraclius orders all Jews to convert.
722 – Byzantine Emperor Leo III outlaws Judaism and has Jews forcibly baptized.
829 – The Archbishop of Lyon, St. Agobard, writes that Jews were born slaves and accuses them of stealing Christian children and selling them to the Arabs.
855 – King Louis II expels the Jews from Italy.
1009-1012 – Muslims destroy Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Christian mobs take their anger out on Jews in Orleans, Rouen, Limoges and Rome. Jews forced to convert or get out in Mainz – the first serious persecution in Germany.
1021 – Rome struck by an earthquake and a hurricane on Good Friday. Jews are arrested and accused of having put a nail through a host the day before, thereby causing the natural disaster. They confess under torture and are executed on Pope Benedict VIII’s orders.
1096 – A quarter to one-third of the entire Jewish population in Germany and northern France is murdered during the First Crusade.
1099 – Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon conquer Jerusalem and massacre the Jews along with the Muslims.
1100 – First pogroms against Jews in Kiev.
Circa 1130 – St. Bernard of Clairvaux, inspired by John 8:44, declares the Jews ‘a race who had not God for their father, but were of the devil.’ (Nazi leader Julius Streicher would eventually quote him.)
1140s – The Cistercian monk Rudolf repeatedly enrages people against the Jews in France and Germany. Massacres occur in Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Strasbourg, among other places.
1144 – Jewish leaders killed in Norwich, England.
1171 – Entire Jewish community in Blois, France, tortured and burned.
1190 – Over 1500 Jews slaughtered in York, Norwich, and Stanford.
1195 – The priest known as Fulk of Neuilly preaches across France, inspiring mobs to attack Jews and prompting the barons to expel Jews and confiscate their property.
1209 – Jews slaughtered during the Albigensian Crusade in France.
1215 – The Fourth Lateran Council under Pope Innocent III orders Jews to wear special clothing to segregate them from everybody else.
1218 – Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, orders Jews to wear badges to distinguish them from Christians.
1222 – English bishops threaten to excommunicate any Christian caught selling provisions to Jews.
1232 – Pope Gregory IX complains to the German bishops that the Jews are being treated too well. He forbids friendly relations with them.
1236 – 3000 Jews slaughtered in Anjou, Poitou, Bordeaux, and Angouleme by Christian Crusaders.
1239-42 – Pope Gregory IX orders all copies of the Talmud confiscated. Talmud burned in England and Paris.
“Medieval iconography typically depicts Jews with tails and horns and a variety of repulsive features, some of which were to reappear in the Nazi era.” – Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, “Anti-Semitism,” p. 40-41
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