All Videos Tagged church (Atheist Nexus) - Atheist Nexus

Filthy Habits

2013-05-21T13:10:19.612Z

Filthy Habits is an art film edited by Napoleon Bonaparte. It asks the questions, Can censorship be art in itself and What are the consequences of the censorship of art?
The film is highly critical of double standards and the moral stance of the Roman Catholic church. Set behind convent walls it is the story of two nuns and a priest who face personal challenges in the light of church dogma and is in five parts;

1. Self abuse
2. Lust
3. Unnatural acts
4. Confession
5. Punishment
6. Absolution

Finally, this film is not recommended for members under 18 years of age.

South Africa stunned by fatal circumcisions

2013-05-19T20:40:49.880Z

Botched circumcisions seen as cause of many deaths during coming-of-age ritual among tribal groups.

More than 20 boys in South Africa have died during coming-of-age rituals in the past week.

Police say botched circumcisions are the probable cause.

Every year in South Africa, boys from several of the country's tribal groups undergo these traditional "initiation rituals".

Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports from Mpumalanga province.

NewsUndies - 20130503 (NU1317)

2013-05-03T10:50:51.070Z

All the news that shouldn't be news, including - HEADLINES - Hold On To Your Butts - Mach-ity-do-dah!

The unholy conspiracy

2013-04-25T23:13:34.829Z

Will an Australian inquiry into decades of child sex abuse and alleged cover-ups by the Catholic Church serve justice?

In late 2012, Australia was rocked by fresh allegations of Catholic clergy child sex abuse by whistleblower, New South Wales Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Fox has pursued allegations of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy for more than a decade, and he claims that as his investigations continued, a frightening picture emerged of a widespread cover-up by the Catholic Church of the child sex crimes committed by its clergy.

Fox repeated those claims publicly, and also accused the Catholic Church of deliberately obstructing police investigations, destroying evidence, and protecting paedophile priests, sparking calls for a national inquiry.

At the same time as Fox’s investigation, The Newcastle Herald’s senior journalist Joanne McCarthy, had also picked up the scent of a wider conspiracy by senior church officials to conceal sex abuse by its clergy.

Searching for clues - Joanne delved into the case of Father Vincent Ryan - a paedophile priest convicted in 1996.

Her first discovery was a police record of interview with Monsignor Patrick Cotter, who was Maitland’s acting Bishop in the 1970s.

She was stunned to learn Cotter had known for 20 years that Ryan was a paedophile, and that when it was first reported to him by parents of a victim - he had simply shunted the priest interstate - concealing the issue, rather than reporting it to the police.

She then discovered another bishop’s letter, outlining a plan to cover-up the crimes of one of the most dangerous paedophile priests in the Maitland-Newcastle area, Father Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Leo Clarke wrote to McAlinden with an offer - if he agreed to be laicised or, defrocked as a priest, the church would protect him: "Your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process."

At the end of his letter, Bishop Clark urged McAlinden to agree to be defrocked because “some people are threatening seriously to take this whole matter to the police”.

The offer to conceal McAlinden’s crimes was proof of the church’s veil of secrecy and soon Joanne ascertained that the clergy members involved were amongst the most senior in the Australian Catholic church.

Now, a special commission of inquiry has been set-up by the New South Wales state government to determine whether their actions amounted to criminal conduct. The special government-appointed inquiry, known in Australia as a Royal Commission, has also been charged with investigating how the NSW police force handled the complaints.

The trigger for the Royal Commission came in July last year, when John Pirona, a 45-year-old firefighter in the city of Newcastle, ended his life after years of mental torment stemming from the sex abuse that he suffered as a child at teh hands of a paedophile priest.

The abuse occurred at St Pius X High School, a Catholic boys’ school in Newcastle. Pirona's suicide followed about a dozen suicides and many more attempted suicides by former students at the school. Shockingly, many people reported the abuse to the school principal who kept silent, punishing children who dared to complain.

As the impact of John Pirona’s suicide reverberated throughout the community, demands for a Royal Commission gained new impetus and in Newcastle, a public rally was held to boost the campaign.

Detective Peter Fox was at the rally and felt inspired to speak out about his struggle to expose crimes Although the commission itself cannot prosecute, the early establishment of these units means this important work in bringing about accountability can commence quite soon.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2013/04/2013410101055913509.html

The Secrets of Scientology - Panorama

2013-04-19T05:48:34.620Z

Published on 31 Jan 2013

In 2007, while making a documentary about the Church of Scientology, reporter John Sweeney had been confronted by a church spokesman Tommy Davis. Three years later, John Sweeney revisits the Church of Scientology and meets the former spokesman named Mike Rinder and other ex-members (including two American actors) of the Church of Scientology to reveal the truth behind it.

The Secrets of Scientology is a documentary which was broadcast on 28 September 2010 as part of the BBC's Panorama documentary strand. Presented by John Sweeney it is a follow up of his 2007 investigation into the Church of Scientology and features interviews with former high-ranking members of the organisation.
This is a very disturbing video documentary for the BBC programme Panorama, by reporter John Sweeney.
BBC reporter John Sweeney's last investigation into the Church of Scientology resulted in an explosive confrontation with church officials.
This time, in a Panorama Special, one of those officials has turned whistle blower to help him reveal the dark secrets of the church, which boasts Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its devotees.
There were no histrionics from John Sweeney this time but a second look at Scientology underlined the insidious aspects of the controversial organization.
As Sweeney delved into L Ron Hubbard's mysterious pseudo religion and found himself hounded and harassed, the group's continued denial that it is a cult seemed laughable.
This is a so-called church, yet so much of its treatment of non-believers smacks of paranoia, notably the revelation that Sweeney's 2007 'exploding tomato' impression was encouraged.
Flashbacks to his previous investigation were overused and there was no scene capable of reaching the infamy of his red-faced screaming fit.
But with former 'church' spokesman Mike Rinder at Sweeney's side, the lengths to which the religion of the stars will go to discredit its critics -- including dividing families -- became horribly clear.