Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

2. 

   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

3. 

   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

4. 

   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

5. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

FOLLOWING the closure last year of Good News International Ministries by authorites in the wake of more than 400 deaths from starvation by followers, church leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, above, a former taxi driver-turned-televangelist, now faces trial for the murder of 191 children.

Mackenzie is currently serving a separate one-year prison sentence after being found guilty of operating a film studio and producing films without a valid licence.

The New York Times reports that the charges relate to the discovery last April of mass graves in the Shakahola Forest of southeastern Kenya, where hundreds of people had come to follow the teachings of the cult leade.

Mackenzie had promoted Shakahola to his followers as an evangelical Christian sanctuary that would keep them safe from a fast-approaching apocalypse. The Kenyan authorities say that he told members of his church to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus; more than 400 bodies were exhumed from the forest.

Yesterday (Wednesday) a Kenyan judge said Mackenzie must undergo a mental health evaluation before prosecutors formally charge him with the murders.

The prosecutor’s office shared with journalists a list of charges that it intends to bring against Mackenzie and 30 of his followers, including 191 counts of child murder.

The office said in a separate statement on Tuesday that 95 people in total would be charged with crimes in connection with the case, which it called the “Shakahola Massacre.”

Rights groups have protested previous efforts to prosecute Mackenzie’s followers, arguing that the accused should instead be helped.

The Kenyan government’s pathologists have said that many of the bodies exhumed from Shakahola indicated death by starvation, but some also showed signs of strangulation.

One former member of the cult told The New York Times that Mackenzie had preached that children should be the first to die—made “to fast in the sun so they would die faster”—so their parents could ensure that the children would reach heaven.

The case, which on Wednesday again dominated news coverage in Kenya, has also raised questions about whether the Kenyan authorities should regulate religious institutions and about how to address religious extremism in the country.

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