The cathedral has been forced to shut over health and safety grounds. While some of the clergy considered using legal powers to force an eviction of the protesters – sending in the police – others, like Dr Giles Fraser were appalled at the idea. Was this anyway for for the cathedral to act? He threatened to resign.

Sadly, today, Dr Giles Fraser felt it necessary to resign in order to support the humane treatment of the protesters outside and St Paul’s Cathedral accepted the resigionation.

The dean of St Paul’s, the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles told press;

Giles has brought a unique contribution to the life and ministry of St Paul’s and we will be very sorry to see him go.

“He has developed the work of the St Paul’s Institute and has raised the profile of our work in the City.

“We are obviously disappointed that he is not able to continue to his work with Chapter during these challenging days.

“We will miss his humour and humanity and wish Giles and his family every good wish into the future.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you think Dr Giles Fraser has done the right thing? Has the cathedral authorties acted correctly and fairly during the protest?

What do you think about the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest? Do you agree with their message or their means?

Picture credit: Peter Morgan

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What do you think?

Twitch asks whether she’s the greatest troll of all time. Back in 2008 she asked whether her children should be allowed to dress up for Halloween or whether that was a Satanic pagan ritual. Satanic and pagan? Good one Muriel.

In Pure Spirit

Is Muriel a real mother who’s really worried about this? Do you you know a real life Muriel?

AJ has stepped forward to announce that he is Jesus, the son of god, Yeshua ben Yosef. His partner, Mary, is Mary Magdalene. AJ says that the Divine Truths he taught during the 1st century have been lost to error.

The video suggests that Neighbours star Kim Valentine’s ex-husband is in the cult and that she worries this will impair her ability to stay in contact with her daughter.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is this a fair and balanced news piece? Is there a difference between a cult and a religion?

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Camping teaches that the Bible is in its entirety is the Word of God and absolute. The Bible, however, needs to be interpreted rather than taken sentence by sentence. He left the Christian Reformed Church in 1988 and now teaches a doctrine with some key differences. Some of these key differences are:

1. Humans are not totally depraved and have a relative amount of free will.
2. Salvation can not be earned through good deeds or prayer, it is simply an act of God’s good grace.
3. Rather than teaching of Hell, Camping preaches annihilationism; that life will simply cease for the unsaved.
4. Churches have become apostate and should be abandoned.

The First Day of Judgement is on May 21st, according to Harold Camping, which makes the end of the world due on October 21st, 2011. According to Camping some 200m people will be saved in the Rapture.

This is the second time Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world. His first prediction suggested the world would end in September 1994.

One of Harold Camping’s followers, Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, spent his entire lifetime savings on an advert campaign to warn New Yorkers of the coming end of the world.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think Camping is right? Why do you think his sect believe him?

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Ēostre also gives her name to Eosturmonath, one of the months in the Anglo-Saxon calendar, and is believed to have been either a goddess of light or fertility. Experts who have debated the role of Ēostre in Anglo-Saxon culture include Jacob Grimm, one half of the Brothers Grimm, and co-author of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

As pilgrims converted Anglo-Saxon cultures to Christianity they were aware that the Ēostre worship festival occurred around the same time as the resurrection of Jesus. In order to help blend Christianity into the pagan cultures the two festivals were actively merged. The event became known as Easter and became Christian in focus.

However, some modern churches, looking to distance themselves from the pagan origins of Easter, have started to use the phrase “Resurrection Day” instead.

The origins of Easter eggs begin in the region of Alsace. References to the Easter bunny itself are included in the writings of Georg Franck von Franckenau, a German botanist, who lived from 1643 to 1704. It was German settlers who introduced the concept to the States in the 18th century.

Pagan symbology includes the rabbit as an emblem of fertility. This ties in strongly with Ēostre as a goddess of fertility. Some suggest that the Easter bunny may be the avatar of Ēostre on earth.

The Easter bunny is the product of two religions; Christianity and some forms of Anglo-Saxon paganism. It has been adopted into modern culture easily as it is also readily available for the commercialisation of Easter.

In Pure Spirit

What have you been told about the origins of the Easter bunny? What does the Easter bunny mean to you?

Or also long as tasty Easter eggs are forthcoming – does it matter at all?

Picture credit: Iain Watson, released under Creative Commons.

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Local legend says that Joseph of Arimathea travelled to Wearyall Hill after the Crucifixion, tired after this journey, he stuck his staff in the ground and went to sleep. It is said that the staff once belonged to Jesus and that when Joseph woke from his rest the staff had grown into a thorn tree.

The site became a popular destination for Christian travellers.

Despite the Christian mythology around the tree it was a pagan wizard who saved it. The local council turned to Peter Frearson, who runs a horticultural business, and who has the nickname “Garden Wizard”.

Talking to press, Frearson outlined the recovery technique he applied to the tree.

“We applied a dressing of pine resin and beeswax to stop further moisture and rain getting in, keep out bacteria and fungus, and applied nutrients.

“We covered it in horticultural fleece, then bubble wrap, then more fleece.

“Soon after we replaced the bubble wrap with hessian.

“We mulched around the base of the tree with well-rotted wood chips to keep the moisture off the ground, and we’ve also driven spikes into the ground and filled the holes with compost and bonemeal, and we’ll do it again soon.”

In Pure Spirit

Is the tree actually 2,000 years old? No. In fact, the “Glastonbury Thorn” is a form of Common Hawthorn. It’s recorded that the first famous Glastonbury Thorn was cut down during the English Civil War circa ~1640/1650. However, cuttings from the trees have allowed the species to live on.

If the “current” Glastonbury Thorn had not recovered then the backup plan was to use another cutting to replace the vandalised tree. This is easier said that done as most attempts to grow a Glastonbury Holy Thorn from a direct cutting tends to revert to the normal hawthorn tree.

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Most Creationists automatically translate “outside influence” as the Christian God. In fact, it was that movement who successfully pushed Creationism into American education systems and who developed the argument. However, Creationism at it’s core does not pitch the Christian god angle and nor could it because then it would be religious doctrine rather than a theory.

As a result there are other versions of Creationism. The suggestion that aliens started and helped steer life on Earth is a Creationist concept.

In fact, you could argue that a Flying Spaghetti Monster started and steered life on Earth and still be a Creationist. In fact, a growing number of people are followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In 2006, somewhere in Germany, a flying spaghetti monster was filmed looming over some office buildings.

In Pure Spirit

Why do you think interest in the Flying Spaghetti Monster is growing? Is it a growing push back against the core Christian Creationism or simply people mucking around with a funny concept?

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“God makes it clear in Scripture that deaths of people and livestock at the hands of savage beasts is a sign that the land is under a curse. The tragic thing here is that we are bringing this curse upon ourselves,”

In a blog post titled “A hot dog on two legs – time for open season on Yellowstone grizzlies” Fischer pushes for the extermination of all the Grizzly bears at Yellowstone Park.

He is upset at the number of deaths the bears have been blamed with this year and cites an LA Times as evidence. Fischer doesn’t subscribe to the view that wild animals in the wild will be wild – and humans visiting the bear’s natural habitat aught to keep that in mind.

He notes,

“One human being is worth more than an infinite number of grizzly bears,”

“Another way to put it is that there is no number of live grizzlies worth one dead human being. If it’s a choice between grizzlies and humans, the grizzlies have to go. And it’s time.”

Fischer then goes on to use religion as additional reason why the bears should be exterminated.

“God makes it clear in Scripture that deaths of people and livestock at the hands of savage beasts is a sign that the land is under a curse. The tragic thing here is that we are bringing this curse upon ourselves,”

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is Bryan Fischer and the American Family Association right? Should all the Yellowstone bears be culled in order to protect human life? Or should we close Yellowstone to visitors instead?

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The YouTube profile hints at previous trouble. It says;

This is “IloveJesus420.” The Devil got a hold of Youtube and had my account suspended. Jesus will always win though and I am back!

His argument for the use of the word “fag” is that he wants people’s attention. That much is horribly evident.

Much of his awful video is used to suggest that homosexuality leads with bestiality. He predicts that unless homosexuality is banned that bestiality will be common five years time.

It’s unfortunate that the world sees videos like this coming from America. It does nothing favourable to the image of Christianity in the USA.

In Pure Spirit

How awful is this? Do you think YouTube should step in or does promote YouTube as a religious censor and therefore a step in the wrong direction?

Do you think this Tea Party member might be gay?

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The content previously published here has been withdrawn. We apologise for any inconvenience.

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