Vatican: The Internet Sparks Surge in Satanism; Satan Attacking Church Via Sex Abuse

There are times I wonder what mind altering drugs the bitter old queens at the Vatican are imbibing. The sheer lunacy of official statements and commentary suggests that either the folks at the Vatican are just batshit crazy or in some seriously altered mental state. They clearly do not stop to think how bizarre their pronouncements will sound to normal, rational people. As the Telegraph is reporting, the loons in dresses are now blaming the Internet for a surge in Satanism and a corresponding increase in demand for exorcisms. Oh, and the worldwide sex abuse scandal and the criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice orchestrated from the Vatican, that's all Satan's fault. Funny, I always though Benedict XVI looked a lot like Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars movies. I did not realize that it was really Satan that he resembled. I'm glad the Vatican has clarified this point. Here are some details from the Telegraph's coverage:

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Exorcism is the subject of a six-day conference being held this week at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, which is under the Vatican's authority.
"The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism," said Carlo Climati, a member of the university who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism.
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"In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism. The conference is not about how to become an exorcist. It's to share information about exorcism, Satanism and sects.
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Organizers say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years. "There's been a revival," said Gabriele Nanni, a former exorcist and another speaker at the course.
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The Vatican's chief exorcist claimed last year that the Devil lurked in the Vatican, the very heart of the Catholic Church. Father Gabriele Amorth said people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron, scream, dribble and slobber, utter blasphemies and have to be physically restrained.
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He claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See. He said Pope Benedict XVI believed "wholeheartedly" in the practice of exorcism.
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Remind me again, why does anyone take these bitter old men seriously in a modern world?

Wingnut Excuses for Adultery

I swear at times you could not make up some of the wackiness of the fruit loops Christianist set if you tried. Now Mark "I like to Cheat on My Wife" Sanford's "spiritual advisor" is blaming Sanford's apparent multiple cases of adultery on "the power of darkness." I guess this new "Satan made me do it" excuse will sweep like wildfire through the "family values" GOP as an explanation as to why they seem to have a more difficult time keeping their pants up that the supposedly godless liberals or all those heterosexual couples in Massachusetts site of the first gay marriages in the USA. The truth is that Sanford - like so many of his "family values" brethren (think multiple times divorced Newt Gingrich and thrice divorced Rush Limbaugh - is a hypocritical dirt bag who was fortunately exposed. Here are highlights from USA Today:

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Each Sunday afternoon in May, Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife hosted five other couples at the executive mansion for a spiritual "boot camp." Topics discussed during the hour-and-a-half-long sessions included forgiveness and "not loving your wife as Christ loved the church." Group leader Warren "Cubby" Culbertson did not tell the other four couples what he and his wife, Susan, had known for months: The governor was having an affair with a woman in Argentina.

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For nearly six months, Culbertson has been the first couple's spiritual counselor — and their secret keeper. The Sanfords "passed" the Culbertsons' course with flying colors. A week later, Jenny Sanford asked her husband to leave their home.

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In an interview with The Associated Press this weekend at his Columbia office, just blocks from the State House, Culbertson said he believed his friend when he said that this was his only marital transgression. He thinks Sanford was simply caught off guard by "the power of darkness."

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Culbertson helped found the Round Table, a Bible study that, according to a paper posted on the Web, offers men "a safe place to pose their questions, test their assumptions, and know that they will not be alone or stand out as a spiritual seeker." Sanford sought that spiritual refuge on at least a couple of occasions.

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Some who watched Sanford's news conference felt he was insincere, playing to the Palmetto State's religious base to salvage his political future. Janine Driver, a Washington, D.C.-based body language and deception detection expert, said Sanford showed more emotion when apologizing to Culbertson and longtime political aide Tom Davis than he did when speaking of his wife and four sons. She also believes he lied when a reporter asked if this was the first time he had been unfaithful.

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These folk like Sanford and Culbertson make me gag and for the life of me I do not understand why people fall for this manure. They might as well be selling snake oil.