mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: "The Only and Universal Smokers Church of God" |
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Church set up as a haven for smokers
Michiel Eijsbouts, founder and "Smokelighter" of the church he founded in 2001, has insisted that the Dutch smoking ban in place does not apply to members of his church under national and European human rights legislation.
"We think we have all the marks of a religion," he said.
"We will have to find out what the secular powers-that-be think. For us the constitution and European rules say we have the right to express our religion and we express our religion through smoking."
Church members receive a card, for a fee of �3, to prove their religious denomination as a "Holy Smoker" to the authorities.
Believers sign up to a creed asserting a trinity of smoke, fire and ash. In terms of holy rites their god is honoured by smoking.
The Smokers Church or Rokerskerk has over 2000 members including a "missionary" in Britain, Mr Eijsbouts told The Daily Telegraph.
"For a smoker with a small s it is just a bodily need. For a smoker with a capital S it is a spiritual need, you have to have a religious experience. When you are lighting up you have to think of God," he said.
"Converting people was not easy until the smoking ban started but now people are flocking to the church."
Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1 and over 100 caf�s have applied to the Church so as to be counted as religious institutions.
"We stand firmly behind the church's teachings and that is smoking," said Cor Busch, owner of the Lindeboom bar in the northern Dutch town of Alkmaar.
"Smokers are being discriminated against, a beer and a cigarette belong together."
A spokeswoman for the Dutch health ministry said: "Whether they call it church or not, it is still a bar or caf� and smoking is still prohibited."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/2305837/Church-set-up-as-a-haven-for-smokers.html
Finally, a church for me. |
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