PID News

(WND) — Despite terrorist attacks against the United States recurring with the Fort Hood shooting and the December underwear bomber, President Obama has tasked the Central Intelligence Agency with investigating global warming.

Obama has resurrected a program formerly cancelled by President Bush that shares information from the CIA’s spy satellites and other classified sensors with environmental scientists. The program, called Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, or MEDEA, has already been used by a group of government-chosen scientists to measure Arctic sea ice.

via Obama diverts CIA to spy on … polar bears!.

PID COMMENT:  Aside from the inherent craziness of diverting CIA activities to look for global warming, the name of the program is intriguing–MEDEA. She was the granddaughter of Helios and wife of Jason. Once again, our government seems to work hard to find pagan acronyms.

(TELEGRAPH) — Witch doctors in Uganda have admitted their part in human sacrifice amid concerns that the practice is spreading in the African country.

One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son.

via Human sacrifices ‘on the rise in Uganda’ as witch doctors admit to rituals – Telegraph.

(USA TODAY) — Going to church this Sunday? Look around. The chances are that one in five of the people there find “spiritual energy” in mountains or trees, and one in six believe in the “evil eye,” that certain people can cast curses with a look — beliefs your Christian pastor doesn’t preach.

In a Catholic church? Chances are that one in five members believe in reincarnation in a way never taught in catechism class — that you’ll be reborn in this world again and again.

Elements of Eastern faiths and New Age thinking have been widely adopted by 65% of U.S. adults, including many who call themselves Protestants and Catholics, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released Wednesday.

via More U.S. Christians mix in ‘Eastern,’ New Age beliefs – USATODAY.com.

(GUARDIAN) — The world’s biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.

The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.

via Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins | World news | guardian.co.uk.

PID COMMENT: What an interesting confluence of events. The Indian PM Singh is visiting the White House today. As the ‘first official’ state visitor since Obama’s inauguration, Singh is being feted with a fancy state dinner. On the other side of the world in neighboring Nepal, blood runs in honor of a Hindu goddess. Curious. Don’t forget this story from November 2008:

New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS) — Lal Baba was one of the priests who performed here in June elaborate prayers of a Hanuman idol, later sent to Barack Obama for good luck in the elections. On Wednesday, as Obama became the first African American president of the US, Baba was one of the many who hailed his historic win.”It’s his good luck. The gods have blessed him,” a smiling Baba told IANS at the famed Hanuman temple on Baba Kharak Singh Marg in the heart of the capital.

After photographs of Obama’s good luck charm of a “tiny monkey god”, apparently representing Hanuman, were splashed across the media, Hanuman devotees were so impressed that they decided to present him a 15-kg, gold-plated Hanuman idol. It was presented to Carolyn Sauvage-Mar, chairwoman of the group, Democrats Abroad-India.

Brij Mohan Bhama, the leader of the group, had then said: “Obama’s victory will be good for India. He seems to be a devotee of Hanuman.” [Emphasis PID]

Some have speculated that if Obama holds to any religion, it could be Hinduism.  We’re not making a claim one way or the other, just pointing out a curious coincidence.

Mar 12, 2008 (BBC NEWS) — It sounds like an absurd idea. The plan is to build a massive pyramid, filled with human remains, on a windswept field near the city of Dessau, eastern Germany. Full Report

Mar 5, 2008 (THE REGISTER) — A Malaysian woman has been jailed for two years for hooking up with the “teapot worshipping” Sky Kingdom cult, contrary to Sharia law which prohibits born Muslims converting to other religions. Former teacher Kamariah Ali, 57, was cuffed in 2005 when the powers that be clamped down on the cult and demolished its two-storey sacred teapot symbolising the “purity of water” and “love pouring from heaven”. Full Report

Feb 29, 2008 (CHRISTIAN POST) — Cutting-edge leaders of the emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic streams are convening Thursday evening in Washington state to re-imagine ways to express the Christian faith. Under the banner of “The New Conspirators Conference,” attendees will contemplate what “God is conspiring” through the new generation of Christian leaders to make His kingdom relevant in a rapidly changing world. Full Report