This time we'll start off with a lady who just recently found out about Bad Religion. One thing is for sure: she wasn't amused... at all. The lady in question has a blog called "Life as a Christian Woman". I could be wrong here but I think it's about her life as a Christian woman.
What happened is, she was walking through a mall with her family when she passed a Hot Topic store and...

Part 1 (click here for her blog)

"Then I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks… A t-shirt with a cross on it, with the internationally known “circle slash” through it. I couldn’t believe it. Surely, I thought, here in the midst of the Bible belt I was not looking at something so blatantly sacrilegious. But I was.
I looked around. There must be a Christian protest going on somewhere. No way this mall, with huge “mega” churches all around it, could have something like this on display without some sort of outcry."

She then writes about being ashamed for not doing anything. But apparently she did learn a lesson:

"I’m not there now. It’s too late for me to recapture that moment. But I have learned a lesson, and it’s a lesson that I hope I can pass on. Be ready, folks. The battle ground is everywhere. It is open season on our faith. If we don’t defend it, if we stand by meekly and let our freedom of religion be taken from us, it will be. We each have to fight the fight.
Don’t be like me, don’t wait for someone else to take the battle to Satan. He is knocking on every Christian’s door. Don’t be afraid to answer the door… And punch his lights out!"

In a response to this blog someone else says she emailed Hot Topic telling them that she wouldn’t be shopping there until the shirt and any other items with this logo on them are removed.

Part 2 (click here for her blog)

Now, in a second blog just 2 days later...

"I did a little more research, and found that the shirt is the logo for a band called Bad Religion.
I don’t care. Personally, I feel like it is an attack on my faith, and the t-shirt has no place in the mall, or anywhere else for that matter. Again, if the shirt were racist, or attacked Muslims, Hindu, or any other religion, it would not be permitted. But Christians are fair game."

She's then calling upon her fellow Christians to support the campaign to flood Hot Topic with emails regarding BR merchandize.

The best part of this second blog is in a response.
"I didn’t know hot topic was the retailer. I know they sale gothic clothes. Most young people that wear that type of clothing don’t believe in God and they need prayer and to know the truth."

Enjoy reading the whole story and let us know what you think of this by leaving a comment!

Now for something entirely different.... On December 11 an anual (actually it was the first) charity event called Chrismess took place @ Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, Ca.

According to the flyer all proceeds of this event went to aid the families who lost their homes in the southern California fires.
Members from the following bands were jamming their favorite punk covers: Atreyu, Bad Religion, As I Lay Dying, Every Time I Die, Saosin, Ignite, Throwdown, 18Visions, Uniform Choice and many more.

Apart from the flyer and a couple of MySpace blogs/bulletins we haven't heard anything else about this event. But according to Greg Hetson's MySpace bulletin he supposedly was there. So it sounds like it was some sort of Punk Rock Karaoke on steroids or something. If you read this and you were there, please let us know what exactly happened that night. Thanks!!

Of course, if we knew about it we would have mentioned this event before December 11. But we didn't. So we couldn't.

Steven Festa (a.k.a. badrelgnsf) has uploaded a number of pretty good quality videos of Etnies GvR skate bash (10/4/2008) to youtube. He added the links to the GvR topic in our forum. High quality pics of this event will come soon.
Don't forget to click the "watch in high quality" links on youtube!

And last but definitely not least I (Jesse) have completed writing two (ex-)new band member profiles for the 'The band' section on this site. Bobby Schayer's and Greg Graffin's stories have been completely rewritten and a lot of (new) information has been added, making them pretty comprehensive.