The image, which is being called a “hate filled post targeted at Muslims,” features an older man in a cowboy hat aiming down the sights of a long-barreled shotgun. “HOW TO WINK AT A MUSLIM,” says the caption. Here’s a screencap of the post, courtesy of The Daily Dot. West has since deleted the post:

West says that he didn’t actually create the image, but he did share it. He also said that it was meant to be humorous.

“Why am I being singled out?” he asked.

“I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody,” he told The Tullahoma News. “If you come into this country illegally or harm us or take away benefits, I’m against it”

“I just showed it to somebody else,” he continued. “If you’re going to harm this country, I’m not in favor of you…I don’t appreciate people trying to tear down this country.”

Concerned with a recent string of anti-Muslim acts in Middle Tennessee, The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro had this to say:

“This does not only incite hatred but also violence against law-abiding citizens of our great country. Mr. West obviously lacks in wisdom and judgment and, therefore, cannot be trusted as commissioner. I wonder what would Mr. West’s response would be if the same photo was posted by someone with a caption that says: ‘How to Wink at Mr. West, a Coffee County Commissioner?’”

West is also drawing criticism from groups on Facebook, like the Christian Left.

“Coffee County, TN Commissioner Barry West (D) posted this on his facebook page on Saturday. This is a hate filled post targeted at Muslims and is not acceptable from anyone, let alone someone holding a public office!
Tell Commissioner Barry West this is NOT acceptable and that he needs to apologize to the Muslim community immediately,” they say in a post.

Coffee County Mayor David Pennington has released a statement distancing himself from West:

“As the Mayor of Coffee County I apologize to the Muslim people. I have no control over what the commissioners do outside of public meetings. I personally wouldn’t have done it, I have a great relationship with the Muslim community.”

Space reports that Hawking was giving a free lecture titled, “The Origin of the Universe” at the California Institute of Technology. The lecture was mostly about prevailing theories on how the universe was formed, but he first examined how religion frames the creation of the universe. At one point, he even questioned what a divine being would be doing before the creation of the universe:

What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

Hawking avoided a debate on religion versus science for most of the night, but he did recall a moment earlier in his life when Pope John Paul II called him out in the 80s for trying to explain the origins of the universe. The Pope said that science shouldn’t study the moment of creation. Hawking said that he was just glad that he wasn’t “thrown into an inquisition.”

At the end of the lecture, Hawking reiterated a previous point he made in saying that humanity needs to leave earth sooner rather than later. He predicts that the human race won’t be able to survie another 1,000 years on “our fragile planet.”

Though the performance seems to have gone over well with the audience and viewers, some Hindu organizations are now objecting to it. The main complaint seems to be that Gomez’s makeup included a bindi – a mark worn on the forehead near the eyebrows.

Though a bindi is now often worn as decoration, the symbol has religious significance to Hindus. According to a report from The Hollywood Gossip, the Universal Society of Hinduism has called the performance insensitive and is looking for an apology.

Gomez has not addressed the criticism of her performance, though she has announced a new world tour that kicks off in August. The star spoke about her experiences at the MTV Movie Awards on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today:

According to an Associated Press report, the Jackson City School district has agreed to take the picture down amid first amendment concerns.

The picture was hung in Jackson Middle School in 1947. It is owned by the school’s Christian Hi-Y Club, which took the picture down on Wednesday.

The decision to take the picture down came after a student and two parents, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, had sued the school district. The lawsuit claimed the picture was unconstitutional, as it promoted a particular set of religious beliefs.

Superintendent Phil Howard told the AP that the decision was based on the high cost that battling the lawsuit would cost. The school board had initially voted to keep the picture up, arguing that removing it would violate the Hi-Y Club students’ free speech rights.

Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, has asked that its pastors refrain from signing any marriage licenses issued by the state of North Carolina (or any other same-sex marriage-restricting state) until “full privilege is offered to same sex couples.” Pastors are being directed to conduct “relationship blessings” instead.

Here’s how the church explains their position:

As an Anti-Racist, Reconciling Congregation, Green Street United Methodist Church seeks to be in faithful ministry with all people in the brokenness of our world. This statement is being adopted as a sign of our commitment to love and justice for all people.

The Marriage Covenant between two people is a ministry of the church. Couples making a commitment to one another need a supportive community of faith to sustain and uphold them so as to grow in faith and love. Weddings are the occasion for covenant making, a time to seek God’s blessing on their commitment to one another. When a couple chooses to be married in the church, they should also be conscious that they are making a declaration of their relationship as a new ministry for the congregation and the world. At Green Street Church, we claim the committed same-sex relationships as no less sacred in their ministry to us and the community.

But sadly, at this time in the United Methodist Church, marriages, weddings and holy unions are limited to heterosexual couples. As our nation struggles to provide legal recognition to people in same-sex relationships and provide them the privileges allotted to opposite-sex married couples, our denomination struggles to overcome the sin of reserving these sacramental privileges for straight people only. We, the leaders of Green Street Church, see people in same-sex relationships as completely worthy of the Sacrament of Marriage. We reject any notion that they are second class citizens in the Kingdom of God.

The move looks to pressure the Methodist denomination, who currently bans the performance of same-sex marriages, into allowing such ceremonies.

The church is receiving both positive and negative feedback over the decision on their Facebook page, as would be expected. This post announcing the move has become a verbal battleground:

Green Street United Methodist Church3 days ago

From Equality NC!

Timeline Photos

Powered by socialditto  159 likes ·  193 comments

“This so called church…must not read the book they preach…What a mess…” says one commenter.

“How sad. The last days…right is wrong, and wrong is right. Just throw your bibles away,” says another.

“So you must believe that all things are moral. Adultery, beastiality, and the like. Is this what being a Christian means?”

The back-and-forth is fairly equal:

“You folks are awesome! Thank you very much for your support and compassion,” says one supporter.

“Thank you, Green Street. I hope your courage will inspire other churches to follow suit,” says another.

Angry Facebook users are also taking to the page’s recommendations, using the Timeline widget to sound off at the church.

“Some people see this as unfair to straight couples, but the Leadership Council of GSUMC sees this as an invitation to stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people. Straight couples have many more options to get married than same-sex couples,” says the church.

“The scattered verses of Scripture that refer to homosexual behavior and desire have sparked many debates in the faith community. It is clear from a reading of all such passages that long-term, committed, monogamous relationships between people of the same gender was not a concept at the time of the writing of Scripture.”

Shortly after, Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio addressed the crowd as Pope Francis, the 266th pontiff of the church. At that time, the previously hibernating @Pontifex Twitter account sent out a simple tweet: HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM – roughly translating to “we have Pope Francis.”

A few days later, Pope Francis has sent out his first tweet.

The new Pope’s first official tweet was simple, asking his followers to continue to pray for him and thanking them for their support:

Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me.Pope Francis.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 17, 2013

The @Pontifex Twitter account was created late last year as the official Twitter account of the papacy, then held by Pope Benedict. Upon his resignation, the account went “sede vacante,” and all of Bendict’s 39 tweets were archived on Vatican website.

At the time, the Vatican made it clear that the Twitter account was not being shut down, only deactivated temporarily as the new pope was chosen. They said that the decision to continue to tweet or not would rest solely with the new pope.

“Obviously we leave all decisions to the new man. But we would hope that he might continue to use @pontifex, which would maintain continuity,” said Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Paul Tighe.

And it looks like Pope Francis has decided to continue the social media outreach.

As of the writing of this article, the @Pontifex account has just topped 2 million followers.

And the Vatican wasted no time in reviving the dormant @Pontifex Twitter account, which served as the official account for Pope Benedict during his final months in the papacy.

On March 1st, the @Pontifex Twitter account went “sede vacante,” or “vacant seat” upon the official resignation of Benedict. All of his 39 tweets were archived and the Twitter account was put into hibernation – not deleted like some speculated would be the case.

The last tweet ever sent out by pope Benedict read “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”

And here’s the first tweet from the Vatican as they welcome a new leader:

HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM

— Pontifex (@Pontifex) March 13, 2013

According to the Vatican’s social communication head, it’ll be up to Pope Francis to determine whether he wants to continue to tweet his message to the account’s nearly 1.7 million followers.

“Obviously we leave all decisions to the new man. But we would hope that he might continue to use @pontifex, which would maintain continuity,” said Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Paul Tighe.

67-year-old William Albaugh was arrested and released on $75,000 bond after police found underage porn images and videos on his Verizon cloud backup as well as on numerous thumb drives in his home. Police confiscated two storage units, a laptop, and an iPad as well.

According to police, there is no evidence that any children at St. Joseph’s church were victims.

Albaugh reportedly told police that he has been viewing child pornography since the 1970s, but was in no way involved with any of the porn’s creation.

Albaugh had been a deacon at the church since 1996, but the archdiocese has confirmed that he has been suspended.

The police were first tipped to Albaugh’s child pornography collection when Verizon notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Verizon said that they had detected the images and videos stored on his Verizon Online Backup and Sharing account.

[Baltimore Sun via Ars Technica]

The series is being produced by Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey. Burnett is best-known for network reality TV shows such as Survivor, and Downey found fame in the 90s for playing an Angel in the series Touched by an Angel.

According to The Bible‘s website, the show will depict dramatizations of some of the best-known stories from the bible, including Noah’s ark, the Israelites’ exodus, and the birth of Jesus. The role of adult Jesus in the series will be played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado.

Despite being on the History Channel, The Bible will not be an examination of the historicity of the Christian bible. Instead, the series is a docu-drama based on various popular stories from the book. Also, some of the stories depicted have been altered to “create a moving story” within the series’ time constraints.

Rather than historical documentaries and research, the History Channel in recent years has been characterized by its pseudoscientific programming, such as Ancient Aliens, and reality TV shows such as Ax Men and Pawn Stars.

As such, all of the former pope’s 39 tweets that he made since joining Twitter on December 12th, 2012 are gone. In the world of Twitter, @Pontifex hasn’t tweeted yet.

Yes, all of pope Benedict XVI’s tweets have been removed from Twitter – but they aren’t completely wiped out. The Vatican has archived all 39 on their news site and you can read all of them in nine different languages there.

The last tweet ever sent out by pope Benedict read “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”

Reports from last week based on Vatican radio claimed that the @Pontifex account would be shuttered following Benedict’s resignation. Yesterday, we learned that that wasn’t entirely accurate. Rather than be deleted, the account will lie dormant while the Conclave selects a new pope. At that time, it’ll be up to the new pope to decide whether or not he/she wants to continue the social media outreach.

“Obviously we leave all decisions to the new man. But we would hope that he might continue to use @pontifex, which would maintain continuity,” said Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Paul Tighe.