As always, for any slow people out there, we are not encouraging people not to help the needy.  We are encouraging people to give their money to a more worthy organization than this group of prudish fundamentalists.  You already knew that they are quite willing to screw the poor if it involves being nice to gay people in any way, shape or form.  Now we find out that they throw brand new, donated toys in the trash when they conflict with their inane “beliefs”:

The Salvation Army says it refuses to distribute Harry Potter and Twilight toys collected for needy children because they’re incompatible with the charity’s Christian beliefs.

The policy has alarmed a Calgarian who volunteered to sift through a southeast warehouse full of unused, donated items and was alarmed when he was told by Salvation Army officials that the two kinds of toys are “disposed of” and not given to other charities.

“I asked if these toys went to another charitable organizations but was told no, that by passing these toys on to another agency for distribution would be supporting these toys,” said the man, who wouldn’t give his name due to his occupation.

[...]

“I was told to withhold a six-inch Harry Potter figure, but when I picked up a plastic M-16, I was told, ‘That’s for the 10-year-olds,’” he said.

“I was shocked…war-themed toys and toys from TV shows and movies with far more violence than Harry Potter and these were considered appropriate toys?”

The Sally Ann refuses to distribute the Twilight and Harry Potter toys because of their wizardry, vampire and werewolf content, said Capt. Pam Goodyear.

Un-frickin-believable.

PZ Myers adds: “I feel so dumb for having ever given that organization anything. I should have been clued in by the frickin’ name that it was run by a gang of puffed-up sanctimonious looneys.”

It’s sort of like the word “family.”  When an organization uses that word in their name, nine out of ten times it’s a hate group which works only for the health of a certain, narrowly-defined concept of “family,” while actively seeking to hurt other families.

Wait, Twilight? The vapid crap written by the Mormon lady with the misspelled name about how women should pine over men who mistreat them, who are unwilling/unable to commit to them? Isn’t that kind of a Catholic message anyway?

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. This is insane:

THE appointment of a new exorcist by Sydney’s Catholic Church precedes a warning by a senior clergyman that generation Y risks a dangerous fascination with the occult fuelled by the Twilight and Harry Potter series.

Julian Porteous, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, warns that pursuing such ”alternative” relaxation techniques as yoga, reiki massages and tai chi may encourage experimentation with ”deep and dark spiritual ideas and traditions”.

Bishop Porteous, who is second to Cardinal George Pell in the Australian Catholic hierarchy, told The Sun-Herald the Twilight and Harry Potter books and films ”are attractive to adolescents and can be innocent enough.

”However, they can open up a fascination with this mysterious world and invite exploration of various phenomena through the use of occult practices like seances.”

(…)

Bishop Porteous – who has stood in as exorcist for the Sydney archdiocese over the past five years – warns that yoga, reiki massages and tai chi can lead to people being in the grip of ”demonic forces”.

Uh huh. And people who believe that demonic spirits can inhabit people’s bodies are somehow not dangerous?

Come clean, guys: isn’t the problem more that if kids are off reading Twilight and Harry Potter instead of coming to church, then they run the risk of noticing how similar those fantasy worlds are to the utter fantasy world that is the Catholic Church? Wizards! Demon spirits! Hotty totty vampires! A multi-tiered spiritual world we can communicate with! Transsubstantiation! Using a priest as a medium to curry favor with a deity!

Etc.

As to the weird comment about yoga leading people into the grip of “demonic forces,” I’d rather my child be in the grip of a “demonic force” than in the grip of a Catholic priest, ifyouknowwhatImean&Ithinkyoudo.

(h/t Pharyngula)