The Center for Arizona Policy has offered a response to the Internal Revenue Service complaint filed against it -- claiming the organization doesn't meet tax-exemption requirements -- and that response includes the exact three things we expected: they're atheists, homosexuals, and wrong.

The Secular Coalition for Arizona and No Longer Silent, Clergy for Justice, announced their complaint to the IRS, asking Uncle Sam to look into a few things related to Center for Arizona Policy's lobbying.

The groups contend Center for Arizona Policy is a straight-up lobbying organization, not the tax-exempt charity organization it tells the IRS it is.

More >>

There's a source to the religulous bills in the Arizona Legislature every year, and that source is called the Center for Arizona Policy.

The atheists over at the Secular Coalition for Arizona have a problem with that, but it -- and other groups -- want Uncle Sam to see if there's a problem with their books.

Secular Coalition for Arizona filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service this week, claiming the Center for Arizona Policy is a lobbying organization, not the tax-exempt charity organization it tells the IRS it is.

More >>

Attorney General Tom Horne's efforts to replace the police force in Colorado City with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office was killed in the state House last week, as the legislative session ended.

Colorado City, for those joining late, is the city on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home, and remains home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Horne pushed the bill to legislators, contending that the cops there -- often referred to as the "Marshals" -- were way too sympathetic to polygamists and friends of Jeffs.

"Numerous cases have been documented where the 'Marshals' refuse to investigate serious crimes against the property and persons of 'apostates' or other non followers of Warren Jeffs, when the perpetrators were followers of Mr. Jeffs," the AG's Office said in February.

More >>

Attorney General Tom Horne's efforts to replace the police force in Colorado City with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office was killed in the state House yesterday, which turned out to be the last day of the legislative session.

Colorado City, for those joining late, is the city on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home, and remains the home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Horne pushed the bill to legislators, contending that the cops there -- often referred to as the "Marshalls" -- were way too sympathetic to polygamists and friends of Jeffs.

"Numerous cases have been documented where the 'Marshalls' refuse to investigate serious crimes against the property and persons of 'apostates' or other non followers of Warren Jeffs, when the perpetrators were followers of Mr. Jeffs," the AG's office said in February. "The 'Marshalls' have also prevented enforcement of court orders with respect who can occupy land. When a court appointed official came to Colorado City to enforce court orders, the Chief of Police pulled him over and threatened to arrest him for criminal trespass if he attempted to enforce court orders, as opposed to the desires of the FLDS Church."

More >>

peterfaur.com

It's a big day on Governor Jan Brewer's holy front, as she's pulling out all the stops today for the annual National Day of Prayer.

Brewer's office announced today that the governor signed a declaration calling today the "Arizona Day of Prayer." She also said she's filing a motion with the Arizona Superior Court in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit against her over her penchant for calling prayer days, and she issued a reminder of why the governor believes prayer is important.

Sometimes Brewer proclaims prayers should be said so that God can help out with the economy or the state budget, but today's just the regular ol' prayer day -- no specific needs for Arizona are mentioned in Brewer's proclamation today.

After past years, groups have attempted to sue over the constitutionality of Brewer's prayer days, but they've been unsuccessful.

Don't worry, Arizonans -- Brewer says she's going to keep fighting for her prayer days just for you.

More >>

funnychurchsigns.org

If Warren Jeffs -- pedophile/leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- had any marbles left when he was sent to prison, he just lost the rest of them.

Jeffs, who's in prison for sexually assaulting two underage "brides," wrote a petition to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- allegedly co-authored by "Lord Jesus Christ" -- saying it's time for Jeffs to be released.

According to "Jesus Christ," he's going to be really pissed if Jeffs doesn't get out of prison "soon."

The FLDS headquarters of yore was based in Colorado City, along the Arizona/Utah border, but Jeffs moved the Church's headquarters to Texas after he faced criminal charges in Arizona.

After having a rape-related charge overturned in Utah, Jeffs was extradited to Texas to face charges for (you guessed it) raping kids, which he was convicted on and sentenced to life in prison.

More >>

blog.jayparkinsonmd.com

No, because Jesus said so.

Amid heavy dissent from the public over Arizona's bill allowing employers to drop coverage for contraception in their health care plans if they have "religious objections," House Bill 2625 was voted down by the Senate late last month.

Thanks to those gems of procedure in the Arizona Legislature, Senators moved to reconsider the bill, in which a major overhaul of the bill's language was promised.

If you ask Arizona's branch of the ACLU, those big changes didn't happen, and the bill's now a couple steps away from Governor Jan Brewer's desk.

"For ten years, the law has allowed Arizona's women and families to rely on contraception coverage in their health care plans," Arizona ACLU executive director Alessandra Soler Meetze says. "And actual religious employers have always been able to opt out of coverage if their religious beliefs called on them to do so. HB 2625 represents a dramatic change to the law and basically allows any employer to drop coverage for vital health care needs."

More >>

Tumblr

Governor Jan Brewer signed House Bill 2563, which allows high schools to offer classes on "how the Bible has influenced Western culture," although nothing requires youngsters to take the class.

It also creates and exemption for the Bible from a law that says "all books, publications, papers and audiovisual materials of a sectarian, partisan or denominational character" are prohibited from public schools and their libraries.

Since Christianity isn't the only religion people subscribe to, there are dissenters to this grand idea.

A group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote a letter to the House Education Committee about the bill in January, suggesting a "comparative religions course, which would be less likely to endorse a specific religion or attempt to indoctrinate students."

More >>

via DeviantArt user Religulous

Under Arizona law, "all books, publications, papers and audiovisual materials of a sectarian, partisan or denominational character" are prohibited from public schools and their libraries.

Thanks to Governor Jan Brewer's signature on House Bill 2563, that law now excludes the Bible.

The Bible's been declared OK, as the bill also allows high schools to offer classes on "how the Bible has influenced Western culture," although nothing requires youngsters to take the class.

As you can imagine, not everyone's on board with the idea.

A group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote a letter to the House Education Committee about the bill in January, suggesting a "comparative religions course, which would be less likely to endorse a specific religion or attempt to indoctrinate students."

More >>

MCSO

Richard Hess, who claims he was acting upon instructions of God to kill his "terrorist" neighbors.

Sometimes God allegedly tells people to run for public office, and sometimes He'll allegedly tell a Mesa man that his neighbors are "terrorists" trying to murder him with chemical weapons, so it's probably best to kill them first.

For some reason, the cops weren't buying the terrorist-neighbor story allegedly proposed yesterday by 42-year-old Richard Hess.

According to court documents obtained by New Times, police responded to a call on the 3400 block of University Drive in Mesa yesterday evening, where an officer found Hess -- who had allegedly threatened his neighbors with a knife.

Hess first told police that he was going to kill "them," adding that "God told me to do it," according to the documents.

Turns out, "them" was a reference to Hess' neighbors, who "have been trying to poison and kill him with such things as Serin (sic) gas," the documents state.

More >>