Piper worshipping at his Minneapolis church in 2008.

John Piper, the recently retired pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, has made a cottage industry out of attributing natural disasters to God's vindictive will.

SEE ALSO: Glenn Beck comes to Lizz Winstead's defense over Oklahoma tornado jokes

For instance, in response to the 2004 Asian tsunami, Piper wrote, "The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent" and "Pain says: 'What sin deserves is this, only worse.'" Piper also said the 2009 tornado that struck downtown Minneapolis was sent to punish the Lutherans, who decided earlier that day to allow homosexuals to become ministers, and said the 2007 I-35W bridge collapse happened to instill the fear of God in people.

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Pastor McAfee: Concerned what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, but not as much about nonviolence, apparently.

Rep. Tony Cornish thinks Jesus would pack heat if he were alive today. Jerry McAfee, pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in north Minneapolis, says he doesn't teach nonviolence and is willing to wage war with gay marriage advocates critical of his church.

SEE ALSO: Mike Frey, outrageous anti-gay testifier, is pastor at Baptist church in Waconia

Maybe we're mistaken, but isn't Christianity supposed to be a religion of peace?

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Pastor McAfee (pictured at left): "I abhor closet bigots that conceal their bigotry in their sexuality."

A Facebook thread posted yesterday about church accessibility at north Minneapolis's New Salem Missionary Baptist Church turned into a controversial discussion about gay marriage, with plenty of input from New Salem Pastor Jerry McAfee.

:::: UPDATE :::: Pastor Jerry McAfee says he doesn't believe in nonviolence, threatens "war" over gay tiff

At one point, McAfee, who last year said he supported a same-sex marriage ban because "that is the Bible way," told an interlocutor that "The most hateful and bigoted people I know are gay."

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Earlier this week, Justin Tribble (right) tried to fool the internet into believing Joel Osteen (left) had abandoned his Christian faith.

Earlier this week, Texas megachurch pastror Joel Osteen was the target of an elaborate internet hoax.

SEE ALSO: BirthOrNot.com: Anatomy of an Internet Hoax

Using the web address joelostenministies.com (note the small typo -- the site has since been taken down) somebody pretending to be Osteen published a "special announcement" in which Osteen seemed to announce he was abandoning his Christian faith.

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A post on Pastor Mac Hammond's blog is headlined, "URGENT."

Pastor Mac Hammond -- the Brooklyn Park mega-church leader, Michele Bachmann-supporter, private plane-flyer, and IRS facer-offer -- is worried about how same-sex marriage will affect his followers. And he wants them to worry, too.

See Also:
- Gay marriage bill passes House, Senate committees. What's next?
- Mac Hammond joins Michele Bachmann campaign
- Mac Hammond's prosperity gospel church going broke
- Mac Hammond's Living Word church faces off with the IRS
- [COVER]: Get Rich with God: Pastor Mac Hammond's suburban megachurch preaches heavenly financial rewards in the here and now -- if you've got the faith to give till it hurts

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Flickr screengrab

Video of Frey's anti-gay marriage testimony went viral and was picked up by a number of national publications, including Talking Points Memo, the Huffington Post, and Gawker, among others.

Curious to hear more of what Mike Frey has to say after watching the video of him talking about "ejaculation inside of a colon" during yesterday's marriage equality hearing at the Capitol? Head to Northern Lights Baptist Church in Waconia, where he serves as pastor.

THE BACKSTORY: Marriage equality opponent's testimony about "ejaculation inside of a colon" is LOL-worthy [VIDEO]

Let's hope, for his congregation's sake, that Frey discusses Jesus and God more coherently than he talks about the public health implications of anal sex.

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Religious non-profits are exempt from Obamacare's preventative services mandate, but for-profit companies like the one owned by Hall (pictured) aren't.

Greg Hall is a Roman Catholic deacon in Houston. He's also the owner of the St. Joseph, Minnesota-based American Manufacturing Company.

SEE ALSO:
-- Republicans sound the trumpet as Obamacare contributes to St. Jude's Minnesota layoffs
-- Supreme Court upholds Obamacare: Top 10 Twin Cities tweets
-- Bachmann: Contraception mandate step toward one-child policy [VIDEO]

But Hall might not own his 42-employee company for too much longer. Yesterday, he filed suit against the federal government over Obamacare's "preventative services" mandate. If he can't get an exception from the requirement that employee-offered health care plans must include contraceptive coverage, he says he'll have no choice but to consider shutting down his business.


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instinct

Kearns is the face of the North American Old Catholic Church's expansion into Minneapolis.

During the run up to the November election, some Minnesota Catholics openly expressed displeasure with their church's gay unfriendliness. Soon, they'll have have an alternative.

SEE ALSO: Lennon Cihak has "to change his mind" about gay marriage to be confirmed, priest says

On Saturday, January 19, the North American Old Catholic Church will ordain a transgender man named Shannon Kearns to lead the church's new Minneapolis parish.

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It seems Ron Paul was on to something here...

Constituents of the 6th District who voted for Michele Bachmann instead of Jim Graves last month can't be happy to hear their Congresswoman say she spent a "whole year" fretting about Obama administration's alleged efforts to implement Sharia law here in the United States.

SEE ALSO:
-- Bachmann doesn't back down from Muslim Brotherhood "deep penetration" accusation
-- Michele Bachmann suggests Islam is America's enemy
-- Michele Bachmann's reelection: She's as resilient as a cockroach during a carpet bombing

But that's what Bachmann said during an interview on the radio show of Jan Markell, a right-wing radio host who discusses "current events in light of biblical end-time prophecy." And there was plenty more looniness where that came from.


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Dols (right), the self-proclaimed "Boy from Minnesota" in Milk and an ex-gay therapy supporter, says he's "disturbed" to hear about the allegations facing Pastor Muehlhauser (left).

Last month, we told you about the felony criminal sexual conduct charges facing Ryan Muehlhauser, the senior pastor at Lakeside Christian Church in Cambridge. Muehlhauser, 55, is accused of coercing young men who were seeking his services as an ex-gay therapy counselor into sexual relationships with him.

SEE ALSO:
-- Senate rejects effort to block tax dollars from being used for ex-gay therapy
-- Marcus Bachmann's clinics still practicing ex-gay therapy, says new undercover report
-- Anoka-Hennepin school board says 'no' to ex-gay therapy

The allegations prompted Chaplain Gerard Dols -- an ex-gay man perhaps best known for making the controversial claim that he's the "Boy from Minnesota" in Milk -- to write a letter to the Isanti County News' editor entitled, "We need to focus on restoration and healing."


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