Here’s an entirely unsurprising story out of Brazil, where a pastor has been arrested and charged with rape after telling women in his church that his penis was filled with divine semen and that they holy ghost could enter them if they’d just give him a blowjob.
Category Archive: Religious Frauds
Jan 10 2013
New Book Praises Billy Graham
All the living presidents, including Clinton and Obama, contributed to a new book that showers Billy Graham with praise from more than 100 prominent Americans. Bill Clinton also heaps accolades on the nation’s most famous evangelist:
Jan 09 2013
Farah: The End is Near
In the old days, fringe cranks who wanted to declare the coming judgment had to walk the sidewalks with a sandwich board saying “The end is near!” These days, they do it on popular websites like the Worldnutdaily. Here’s Joseph Farah’s version of that ridiculous old claim.
Jan 02 2013
Pat Robertson’s 2012 Predictions
It’s always fun to go through Pat Robertson’s annual predictions, which he says God gives to him directly the first week of every year while he’s praying (how convenient that God schedules around Pat). His 2012 predictions were for chaos and economic collapse in the country.
Jan 02 2013
Wouldn’t You Like to Be a Prophet, Too?
Here’s a perfect example of an obvious religious con game, a school in Israel that will teach you how to be a true prophet of God for one low, low prices. To be fair, it does seem to have upset many religious authorities. To be accurate, of course, their views are just as absurd as …
Dec 13 2012
Canada Cracking Down on ‘Fraudulent’ Witchcraft
The National Post has an article about an old Canadian law being used to prosecute con artists preying on people’s credulity in a number of different supernatural scams. The law prohibits “fraudulently…pretend[ing] to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration.”
Dec 10 2012
Harold Camping 2: Electric Bugaloo
Remember Hal Lindsay? Before Harold Camping made himself an international laughing stock with an inaccurate prediction of the end of the world, Lindsay was doing it. He once predicted that Jesus would return by 1988, and now another “scholar” has refined his prediction for another round of selling false promises to true believers.
Nov 28 2012
Christian Fraud to Address Pentagon Prayer Breakfast (Update: Not Anymore)
The Pentagon is hosting a prayer breakfast on Wednesday and the keynote speaker will be Ray Giunta, a man with a rather sordid past and another in a long line of Christian frauds who bought a worthless degree and then went around calling himself a doctor. Amanda Terkel reports:
Oct 17 2012
One Cult Leads to Another
Cue up The Fixx on the iPod. Here’s an example of where belonging to one cult can lead to another. I had no idea Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam was involved with the “Church” of Scientology, but it appears that there are some significant connections between the two.
Sep 07 2012
Joyner: Prayer Restores Limbs
Cindy Jacobs isn’t the only one claiming astonishing powers to heal people. Her fellow loony Rick Joyner claims that prayer actually regrew a limb — until those praying apparently got “distracted” and it didn’t grow all the way back. All of this is offered with no evidence whatsoever, of course, but one has to ask: …
Sep 02 2012
Jacobs Can Pray Away Terrorism
I think the makers of the Batman movies have to do one about Cindy Jacobs. I mean, the woman is a superhero! She can reverse hysterectomies; she can stop Native American cannibalism; she can raise children from the dead; and now, she can even stop terrorists! She claims to have done it “time and time …
Aug 19 2012
Get Your Blood of Jesus Oil
I used to be on the mailing list of Peter Popoff, the faith-healing con man exposed by James Randi in the mid-80s. One of his gimmicks, which he still uses, is to send you a vial of holy water, allegedly from the Jordan river. Here’s a very similar scam — blood of Jesus oil.
Aug 18 2012
A Cloud of Witnesses
This came up in conversation the other day and I thought I’d link to it again. It’s a document put out by Rev. Moon’s Unification Church called A Cloud of Witnesses and it’s one of the funniest things you’ll ever read. It was actually published in full page ads in newspapers all over the world …
Aug 16 2012
Barton Loves PhDs. Except When He Doesn’t.
After his book about Thomas Jefferson was pulled by Thomas Nelson, one of the most prominent Christian publishing companies in the world, David Barton offered a very predictable response. He says he’s got lots of smart people who think he’s right, so all the people who have pointed out his lies don’t matter.
Aug 15 2012
‘Faith Healer’ Brags About Violent Tendencies
Here’s a video of Todd Bentley, a “faith healer” (read: complete fraud), bragging to a congregation about how the holy spirit often tells him to become violent in order to heal people, including kicking a woman with cancer in the face. He claims he healed her, of course, but like all faith healers he can’t …
About the Author
Recent Comments