Atheists, Agnostics Hold Festival for First Time on Military Base By Anugrah Kumar
01 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in The Christian Post Tags: American Atheists, Associated Press, Baba Brinkman, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Fort Bragg, Justin Griffith, Richard Dawkins, SurveyGizmo
The U.S. military hosted an event meant specifically for atheist and agnostic soldiers for the first time Saturday on the grounds of a large Army base in North Carolina.
“Rock Beyond Belief,” an event featuring secular speakers and musicians, was held on the main parade ground at the Fort Bragg military base. It was modeled after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association‘s “Rock the Fort” evangelistic event that was held at the same venue in 2010.
“I love the military,” The Associated Press quoted Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists, as saying. “This is not meant to be a black eye.”
The organizers claim on the event’s website that they are not interested in being a counter-event to the “offensive” “Rock the Fort” concert, or in putting on an anti-Christian, anti-religious event. “Rock Beyond Belief” is a day of fun and entertainment, they say.
Griffith had invited Christian soldiers to the event, and had said a free barbecue meal would be provided to the first 1,000 Department of Defense cardholders.
Atheist and agnostic soldiers at Fort Bragg have been pushing for gaining recognition as a faith group that would have the right to hold meetings inside the facilities. And Saturday’s concert, attended by a few hundred people, was also aimed at making a case for that demand.
Prominent British atheist Richard Dawkins was a speaker. “We’re never antagonistic toward religious believers, we’re antagonistic toward religious belief,” he claimed. “There is no good, honest reason to believe in a god or gods of any kind, or indeed in anything supernatural. The only reason to believe something is that you have evidence for it.
“We got any Darwin fans in the house?” asked Baba Brinkman, a rapper, before launching into a song about evolutionary biology.
The Delaware-based Stiefel Freethought Foundation, which promotes and supports the free thought movement, had donated $70,000 for the event. Its founder Todd Stiefel was quoted as saying that the Army should not host events like Saturday’s concert and the BGEA-sponsored event that prompted it. “I would like this to be the last one of these events.”
Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski at Fort Bragg said the hosting of “Rock the Fort” was a non-issue. “We don’t treat soldiers who are atheists as atheists, we treat them as soldiers,” he said. “They’re soldiers first.”
The post commander had earlier refused to allow the festival to be held on the main parade field. Griffith had to cancel the event scheduled for April 2 last year. However, with the backing of groups working for church-state separation, Griffith complained to the Secretary of the Army that the fort was discriminating against certain religious groups. Cooperation was pledged as a result.
“This just might be the turning point in the foxhole atheist community’s struggle for acceptance, tolerance and respect,” Griffith said after the permission to hold the event was granted last August. “It’s an amazing time to be a nonbeliever in the U.S. military on the cusp of a major breakthrough.”
Jason Torpy, president of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that it’s important to understand the background of how the atheist event came about. The festival was conceived as reaction to the Billy Graham’s event, which received some manpower and financial support from the base command at the request of some chaplains.
Griffith and atheist groups objected to it, alleging it was an army-sponsored platform to seek converts.
Retired Navy Chaplain James Klingenschmitt earlier told The Christian Post that when the Billy Graham event was held atheists threatened lawsuits, wrongly arguing that an “evangelistic rally” jointly sponsored by U.S. military personnel and evangelical Christian churches and ministries violates the U.S. Constitution and must be canceled.
Facebook ‘friend’ offer exposes man’s other wife By MANUEL VALDES
10 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in What?! Tags: Associated Press, Facebook, Mark Lindquist, O'Neill, Pierce County Washington, Prison officer, SEATTLE, Washington
SEATTLE (AP) — A corrections officer is facing bigamy charges after authorities said a Washington woman using Facebook discovered that she and a potential “friend” were married to him at the same time.
According to charging documents filed Thursday, Alan L. O’Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O’Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the “People You May Know” feature.
“Wife No. 1 went to wife No. 2′s page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake,” Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The Associated Press.
Wife No. 1 then called the defendant‘s mother.
“An hour later the defendant arrived at (Wife No. 1′s) apartment, and she asked him several times if they were divorced,” court records show. “The defendant said, `No, we are still married.’”
Neither O’Neill nor his first wife had filed for divorce, according to charging documents. The name change came in December, and later that month he married his second wife.
O’Neill allegedly told wife No. 1 not to tell anybody about his dual marriages, that he would fix it, the documents state. But wife No. 1 alerted authorities.
“Facebook is now a place where people discover things about each other they end up reporting to law enforcement,” Lindquist said.
Athima Chansanchai, a freelance journalist who writes about social media, said Facebook over the years has played a role in both creating relationships and destroying them.
“It’s just the latest vessel by which people can stray if they want to,” she said.
O’Neill, 41, was previously known as Alan Fulk. He has worked as a Pierce County corrections officer for five years, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.
He was placed on administrative leave after prosecutors charged him Thursday. He could face up to a year in jail if convicted.
O’Neill and his first wife had issues that went back to 2009. In 2010, his first wife was arrested after an altercation with the woman who later became the second wife.
A Facebook message to wife No. 1 was not immediately returned. There was no immediate phone number available for O’Neill and his second wife.
Lindquist said it’s unclear why O’Neill and wife No. 1 didn’t go through the divorce.
“Every few years we see one of these (bigamy) cases,” he added.
O’Neill is free, but due in court later this month, which is standard procedure for non-violent crimes, Lindquist said.
“About the only danger he would pose is marrying a third woman,” he said.
http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9TD89O00%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1011
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2 charged in death of Ala girl forced to run By JAY REEVES
23 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in What?! Tags: Alabama, Associated Press, Birmingham, Etowah County Alabama, Garrard, Savannah, Savannah Hardin, Sheriff
ATTALLA, Ala. (AP) — Roger Simpson said he looked down the road and saw a little girl running outside her home but didn’t give it another thought. Police, however, said the man witnessed a murder in progress.
Authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. Severely dehydrated, the girl had a seizure and died days later. Now, her grandmother and stepmother who police say meted out the punishment were taken to jail Wednesday and face murder charges.
Witnesses told deputies Savannah was told to run and not allowed to stop for three hours on Friday, an Etowah County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said. The girl’s stepmother, 27-year-old Jessica Mae Hardin, called police at 6:45 p.m., telling them Savannah was having a seizure and was unresponsive.
Simpson said he saw a little girl running at around 4 p.m., but didn’t see anybody chasing or coercing her.
“I saw her running down there, that’s what I told the detectives,” Simpson said from his home on a hill overlooking the Hardins. “But I don’t see how that would kill her.”
Authorities are still trying to determine whether Savannah was forced to run by physical coercion or by verbal commands. Deputies were told the girl was made to run after lying to her grandmother, 46-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, about having eaten the candy, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Natalie Barton said.
Savannah Hardin died Monday at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s release said an autopsy report showed the girl was extremely dehydrated and had a very low sodium level. A state pathologist ruled it a homicide.
The sheriff’s office received calls from concerned citizens who witnessed the girl running. No other details were released, but an official with the local volunteer fire department said rescuers thought something seemed odd when they responded to a call about the child.
“One of the ones who were down there said he didn’t feel like everything was right,” said Ruby Ward, vice president of the Mountainboro Volunteer Fire Department.
Gail Denny and her husband Phil, live just up a dirt road from the home. They’ve known the family since they moved to the area in northeastern Alabama seven years ago.
The couple said they were used to seeing Savannah and other neighborhood children out waiting on the school bus in the morning. Gail Denny said her grandson had a crush on Savannah.
“My grandson asked her to be his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, and she said ‘yes,’” she said before dissolving into tears. She left a candle and stuffed animal outside the girl’s home Wednesday night, saying a prayer as she paused beside the road.
The trailer where Savannah lived was surrounded by a wooden fence, playground equipment and toys. Neighbors say they never saw children playing in the yard.
They told The Associated Press that Garrard owned a lot of property along the road and much of her family lived in homes on that property.
“It seems like a very happy extended family around here,” Denny said. “There are mothers, grandmothers, kids. It sounds like a punishment that got out of hand.”
Garrard and Jessica Mae Hardin are being held in the Etowah County Detention Center, each on a $500,000 cash bond.
Court records show that Robert Hardin filed for divorce in August of 2010. In his complaint, he asserted his wife was bi-polar and had alcoholic tendencies. He accused her previously of having run off with the couple’s own child. In her response, Jessica denied all of Robert’s allegations.
Five months after filing for divorce, the two asked a judge to dismiss their case.
Savannah Hardin was a third-grader at Carlisle Elementary School. Superintendent Alan Cosby said her desk had been turned into a makeshift memorial where her classmates could leave notes and mementos. He said counselors and social workers were made available for students.
“This is obviously a very tragic, devastating, heartbreaking situation,” Cosby said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
http://news.yahoo.com/2-charged-death-ala-girl-forced-run-082216169.html
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‘Disgusted beyond belief’: Parents shaken by ex-Calif. teacher’s molestation charges By msnbc.com staff and news services
02 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in TownHall.com, What?! Tags: Associated Press, Berndt, Deborah Harmon, Elementary school, Gloria Polanco, john deasy, knbc tv, law enforcement authorities, LOS ANGELES, Los Angeles Unified School District, mark berndt, patrick healy, school district superintendent
KNBC-TV‘s Patrick Healy reports.
LOS ANGELES — There was never any outward indication that anything was wrong in Mark Berndt’s classroom at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles. School officials and law enforcement authorities say they never received any complaints about the third-grade teacher, who is accused of blindfolding students, putting tape on their mouths and taking photos of them with live cockroaches or a spoon full of semen.
The photographs, brought to the attention of authorities last January by a film processor, eventually led to Berndt’s arrest on Monday on charges that he committed lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010.
The 61-year-old made his first court appearance on Wednesday. His bail was raised to $23 million from $2.3 million. His arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 21.
“If it wasn’t for the film processor, this could still be continuing today,” sheriff’s Lt. Carlos Marquez told the Associated Press.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
Students are escorted to a waiting bus as they leave Miramonte Elementary school after classes Tuesday.
Five more children have contacted sheriff’s investigators since Berndt’s arrest, which could lead to additional charges, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy told msnbc.com on Tuesday that there was nothing in Berndt’s 30-year record with the school district to indicate a problem. “Not so much as a single complaint,” he said.
“I am disgusted beyond belief,” Deasy said. “I’m a dad as well as a superintendent and it’s horrifying.”
Some parents picking up their students at the school on Tuesday complained that school officials should have notified them when the photos were discovered last year. Berndt was fired immediately after the investigation began, and placed under surveillance, but parents didn’t learn why until this week.
“My concern is why, if the principal knew this in advance, why didn’t he inform us?” Gloria Polanco, the mother of a second- and a third-grader, said to the Associated Press. “How long has he been doing this?”
Deborah Harmon, whose 7-year-old granddaughter goes to the elementary, was also upset about the length of time it took school administrators to notify parents of the allegations.
“It’s a sense of violation and betrayal because you think that your children are safe when you send them to school but they’re not safe,” Harmon told NBCLosAngeles.com.
The photographs uncovered reveal disturbing images. Some allegedly show Berndt with his arm around the children or with his hand over their mouths, according to a statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In addition, authorities say the images depict girls with a blue plastic spoon filled with a substance, later determined to be semen. There were also photos of children with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths.
Early in the investigation, Special Victims Bureau detectives say they recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash in Bernd’t classroom. The recovered items tested positive for semen, authorities said, and the suspect’s DNA matched the DNA profile found on the spoon and container.
“We ended up finding out through DNA that the white substance was bodily fluids from our suspect,” Marquez told NBCLosAngeles.com.
A search warrant served by detectives on Berndt’s home also led to the discovery of more than 100 similar photographs depicting children, authorities aid. Also found was a DVD depicting adult sexual “bondage” activity. The adults in that DVD are not identified, according to detectives.
Investigators are still working to identify 10 of the child victims in the 390 photos uncovered.
Authorities are recommending the children be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press contribued to this story.
