Religion

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    altmuslim

  • Gaza Freedom March: Looking for the human aspect

    editor@altmuslim.com
    8 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am
    December 27th, 2009, marked the one-year anniversary since Israel began attacking and invading the Gaza strip. The invasion of Gaza lasted 23 days and killed over 1,400 Palestinians. The Gaza Freedom March, organized by the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza, aimed to mark the anniversary by mobilizing hundreds to enter Gaza from Egypt to end the blockade of Gaza, and was part of a broader strategy to end the illegal Israeli occupation. Over 1,400 activists gathered in Cairo in late December from 43 countries to participate in the peaceful march. However, in…

  • Book "Memories of Muhammad": What would Muhammad do?

    editor@altmuslim.com
    5 Feb 2010 | 10:30 am
    Omid Safi is best known to many of us as being at the forefront of the Progressive Muslims movement, a movement that finds in Islamic spirituality a powerful voice for social justice and pluralism. In his latest book, Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters (Harper Collins), Safi explores the origins of that spirituality: the character and being of the Prophet Muhammad. For Muslims, the book is a refreshing call to return to our spiritual roots, an element of faith that these days seems to be lost in the constant social commentary we are forced to engage in about Islam. For non-Muslims,…

  • Homegrown radicals: Complacency is not an option

    editor@altmuslim.com
    3 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am
    An army major at Fort Hood guns down fellow soldiers, five young men arrested after traveling to Pakistan to join radical elements, a coffee vendor charged in a New York terror plot and a terrorism suspect in North Carolina is arrested. Such headlines involving American Muslims ought to be a source of concern for the community. A recent scholarly report by researchers at Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asserts that the number of American Muslims vulnerable to radicalization is small but not negligible. Since 9-11, 139 American Muslims have committed terrorist…

  • British Muslims: The politics of Islamic governance

    editor@altmuslim.com
    1 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am
    The next 10 years does not seem to bode well for the British electorate. At the European elections this year, only 22% of eligible British voters bothered to cast a ballot. Parliamentary expense scandals have generated widespread disillusionment. The European Commission predicts that in just two years, Britain’s national debt will increase to 88.2 percent of GDP, and that by 2020 could rise to 140 percent. Meanwhile, the politics of the far-right are becoming increasingly mainstream, even prompting the governing Labour Party and opposition Conservative Party spokespeople to co-opt their…

  • Haiti earthquake: The Muslim response to Haiti

    editor@altmuslim.com
    29 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am
    Haiti is experiencing unimaginable suffering from its devastating earthquake, with more than 150,000 dead and one to three million individuals displaced. Individuals, groups and governments from around the world have stepped in to do what they can. United by their religious tradition of charity, Muslims have emerged as effective partners in aid and relief work. The international effort to aid Haiti by individuals, Islamic relief organizations and the governments of Muslim-majority countries reflects a proactive generosity and empathy espoused by the Prophet Muhammad and the teachings of the…
 
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    American Buddhist Net

  • CNN source: Medical error may be to blame for Murtha’s death

    ABN
    9 Feb 2010 | 10:24 am
    Update: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette confirms report of surgical error LINK TO ORIGINAL

  • Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff

    ABN
    9 Feb 2010 | 10:18 am
    Paul Joseph Watson Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London. LINK TO ORIGINAL

  • Kazakhstan: China looking to lease land for agricultural purposes

    Robyn
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:39 am
    Kazakhstan’s government is mulling a plan that would enable China to lease a large swath of Kazakhstani land for agricultural use. The proposed deal is stirring passionate opposition in the Central Asian state, with critics expressing concern about the country’s sovereignty. Controversy has been brewing since December, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that China had expressed a desire to lease a million hectares of Kazakhstani land. Under the proposal, Chinese growers would cultivate soybeans and rapeseed, which is used to produce vegetable oil, on the leased land. The…

  • Woman seeks "Jessica Alba" makeover to win back lover

    Robyn
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:26 am
    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese woman is seeking extensive plastic surgery to look like U.S. actress Jessica Alba, mainly because she hopes to win back her boyfriend who she said always wished she looked more like the Hollywood star. LINK TO ORIGINAL ABN...Can we add a "Samsara" tag for stories like this? Robyn

  • Orissa offers to organise 3rd International Buddhist Conclave

    Robyn
    9 Feb 2010 | 4:16 am
    Known for its Buddhist relic sites, Orissa has offered to organise the third international Buddhist Conclave in the state. LINK TO ORIGINAL
 
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    Big News Network.com - Religious News

  • Pro-Christian remarks bring condemnation

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:46 am
    See earlier article )   Reports indicated the two local officials faced possible citations for "hate incidents" over their comments.   But shortly before last night's meeting, Parris -- who prev...

  • Can same-sex attraction be changed

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:46 am
    Thanks to a mainstream media that values political correctness more than truth, some subjects are virtually off-limits.  You'll rarely hear, for example, about the psychological and emotional sufferi...

  • ATF blames serial arsonist for East Texas church fires

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:45 am
    TYLER — Federal officials believe a serial arsonist is to blame for the rash of East Texas church fires. Clay Alexander, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...

  • Fire consumes 2 Texas churches amid spate of arson

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:37 am
    (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes, File)FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2010 file photo, investigators talk in front of the burned Russell Memorial United Methodist Church in Wills Point, Texas. The seventh church fire t...

  • Fire consumes 2 Texas churches amid spate of arson

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am
    Recent fires that destroyed or damaged several churches in eastern Texas were likely set by one person or group of people, federal authorities said Tuesday.
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    Big News Network.com - Buddhist News

  • Singapore's Internal Secutiry calls up Christian pastor for insensitive comments

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am
    -- The Government called up a Christian church leader yesterday after receiving complaints about online video clips that show him making insensitive comments about Buddhism.

  • The happiest men in the world

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am
    The contrast is striking. Lord Layard is white-haired, well-dressed and unobtrusive; the Venerable Matthieu Ricard is larger than life in flowing, burgundy robes. Yet despite their differences, these ...

  • Buddhist monks march for world peace in India

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am
    The monks offered special prayers at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya before leaving on the march to another holy town, over 43 miles away. Monks from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea and even th...

  • Indian state proposes global Buddhist conclave

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am
    Mishra attended the two-day international Buddhist conclave at Nalanda from February 6, organised by the Union Tourism Ministry in association with the Bihar Government, as the chief guest. The minist...

  • A gift of books to Bhutan

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:12 am
    The books, most of them on Buddhism and related to Buddhist philosophy, were handed over by the Indian ambassador to Bhutan, Pavan K Verma. At a simple handing over ceremony, the home minister, Lyonpo...
 
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    Catholic News Service

  • Hitching a REALLY first-class ride

    When you’re preparing for a visit by the pope, sometimes even mundane tasks like checking the logistics at an airport take on larger-than-life aspects.For Msgr. David Malloy, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that meant hitching a ride on Air Force One from Washington to New York ...

  • Souvenirs at the ready for pope’s visit

    When Pope Benedict XVI comes to town April 15, very few people will get the chance to be up close and personal with him. But that has not stopped hundreds of snapshots from circulating around Washington that show people posing happily alongside the pope before he even sets foot in this country. At closer ...

  • Papal parties and more details about his visit to the U.S.

    VATICAN CITY -- Yes, at least one rendition of "Happy Birthday" and a formal celebration of Pope Benedict XVI's 81st birthday April 16 are part of the program for the pope's trip to the United States. More solemnly, but still personally, the schedule also includes a public acknowledgement April 19 of the ...

  • Prayers for the papal trip from across the ocean

    ROME -- Pope Benedict XVI joined members of the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community for an afternoon prayer service today. Although the visit marked the 40th anniversary of the community -- committed to serving the poor, to dialogue and to peacemaking -- it also focused on the example of Christians who gave ...

  • Charlton Heston’s other ‘holy’ roles

    Just about everyone familiar with cinema knows that Charlton Heston, who died April 5 at age 84, played Moses in the 1956 Hollywood classic "The Ten Commandments." But it would take a real film buff to remember the other "holy" roles Heston played, including St. Thomas More in a 1988 TV ...
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    Catholic Exchange

  • Welcome to Heaven

    Nancy Jo Sullivan
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:03 pm
    When I was growing up, our family life often revolved around the game of hockey.    Every winter, my father would make a skating rink in our back yard.   My sisters and brothers, all nine of us, learned to skate, twirl and shoot a puck on that bumpy make-shift ice. My Dad loved watching our winter performances.  He was always a constant presence, keeping vigil by the snow banks that framed the rink.    Now that my siblings and I are all hockey parents ourselves, we often reminisce about my father and his love of the game. In today’s column, I’d like to share one of my…

  • Women and Order, Justice and Peace

    Genevieve S. Kineke
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:02 pm
    Pope Benedict has appointed a lay woman, Flaminia Giovanelli, as a superior in one of its dicasteries, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Each dicastery is headed by a prefect (usually a cardinal or archbishop), assisted by a secretary (usually an archbishop or bishop) and an under-secretary (usually a monsignor or cleric). The only other woman serving as an under-secretary is a Salesian sister, thus making the latest assignment another precedent. When asked by reporter John Allen about what her appointment says about the Church’s recognition of the talents of women, she…

  • Be Not Afraid

    Todd Lemieux
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm
    There is that moment when we have to make a decision to either go for it, or sit back. That moment when we allow ourselves to rest comfortably in what we know or strike out into the unknown. John Paul II was fond of saying “be not afraid.” So was the Bible. Why is it so difficult to live that phrase? What are we missing in our lives that leaves us paralyzed whenever fear enters the picture? Usually it is some type of trust. I don’t know that the great martyrs did not experience fear when they were facing certain death and torture. I don’t know that their heart…

  • Pro-Aborts Clash over Short, Sweet Tebow Ad

    Kathleen Gilbert
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Considering the abortion lobby’s deluge of pre-emptive protest against the Tim Tebow Super Bowl advertisement, sponsored by Focus on the Family, few might have guessed its actual form, first unveiled last night: a clean, simple, family-oriented message that never mentioned abortion. The brief spot, garnished with light humor, left pro-abortion forces so scattered in their effort to respond that one group even called another’s harsh criticism of the ad “absurd.” The ad took two forms - one that showed during the pre-game show, and an extended version that played during…

  • A Blessing or a Curse?

    Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30 / Mk 7:1-13 Habits can be real blessings.  They can get us through the most boring parts of life, like our early morning routines, with barely a thought or a strain.  With their help we just plow forward.  Habits can carry us along when we’re tired, and they can keep us going in the right direction when we could easily wander off.  Good habits of living and thinking can do us the favor of setting off alarm bells when we’re tempted to do something stupid.  Habits can be real blessings — but only some of them are in fact. The other side of habits is…
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    About Catholicism

  • Kids, Condoms, Sex, and Abstinence

    9 Feb 2010 | 2:54 am
    What is the best way to prevent teenagers from engaging in early sexual activity? According to a new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the answer may be as simple as "Just say no." The study, conducted over the course of 24 months, divided 662 African-American students in the sixth and seventh grades into four groups, along with a control group. The article abstract describes the four "Interventions" that the authors used (the control group received no instruction): An 8-hour abstinence-only intervention targeted reduced sexual intercourse; an 8-hour safer…

  • Novena of the Week: To the Holy Family

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:33 pm
    February is the Month of the Holy Family, so what better way to mark the month than with a Novena to the Holy Family? This novena is also particularly appropriate as our novena this week, as we make our final preparations for the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday (or, for Eastern Catholics, on Clean Monday). The Holy Family should always be the model for our own family life, and the primary classroom of the Faith for our children. And there is no better time than Lent, when we strip away the distractions of life through fasting and concentrate on prayer and Christian charity, to strengthen our…

  • Forum Friday: Catholic Book List for Children

    5 Feb 2010 | 2:44 am
    In the Catholicism Forum, forum member "librarystitcher" is looking for "a list of books or authors which is Catholic in content." Our forum moderator, Steven Hepburn, and forum member Michael Ezzo have offered some ideas, but do you have any others? If so, please post them in the forum thread, and help "librarystitcher" help the Catholic patrons at her library! Hottest Threads in the Catholicism Forum: A Latino-Looking Church U.K. to Outlaw Priestly Celibacy? Do We Know Who Goes to Hell? Is Jesus White? Same-Sex Marriage and the Law Is Atheism the New Fundamentalism? Forum Friday: Catholic…

  • Reader Question: More on Mortal and Venial Sin

    5 Feb 2010 | 2:23 am
    In response to last week's Reader Question, a reader writes: I've had people—both non-Catholics and some Catholics—tell me that the distinction between mortal sin and venial sin is made up. Some (most often the Catholics) think that the Church makes this distinction in order to scare people away from certain actions (usually sexual); others (primarily evangelicals) say that all sin is sin, and that the distinction encourages people to commit venial sins. Where does the distinction come from? This is a great question. And the answer, I think, will surprise a lot of readers: The…

  • Wordless Wednesday: The Presentation of Our Lord

    3 Feb 2010 | 3:28 am
    (Photo © Slava Gallery, LLC; used with permission.) Gallery of Previous Wordless Wednesday Images Wordless Wednesday on About.com More Wordless WednesdayWordless Wednesday: The Presentation of Our Lord originally appeared on About.com Catholicism on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 11:28:13.Permalink | Comment | Email this
 
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    The Change Revolution

  • Why a Distinctive Culture Matters

    Phil
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pm
    In a "multicultural" world, it's not politically correct to actually stand up for your own culture - unless of course you're a 3rd world country, or perhaps Muslim. The ascendency of the West fell out of fashion long ago, and it's tough to find many who would actually defend a "Christian" culture. However, in the January Issue of "Books & Culture" Leah Seppanen Anderson reviews Christopher Caldwell's book: "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West" and takes a different view. In her review she points out a fascinating assessment of Europe's immigration…

  • Bill "Dusty" Cooke, 1922-2010

    Phil
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:58 am
    I wanted to thank everyone for all the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes following my dad's passing Saturday in North Carolina. As many of our friends knew, he'd been ill for a long time. In fact, the running joke in our family is that "Cooke's don't die." My grandmother - his mom - was 98 years old when she died, and in spite of multiple heart attacks, two open heart surgeries, a hip replacement and two strokes, he refused to give up. Apparently his training as a Golden Gloves boxing champion, a Marine during WWII, and a career as a pastor taught him a lot about fighting. But we did get the…

  • Proactivity Linked to Early Risers

    Phil
    4 Feb 2010 | 7:18 pm
    The website HR Management reports that productivity could be linked to those who are "up with the lark", while those who define themselves as "evening people" are likely to be less proactive in the workplace. The report continues: "The research, which surveyed 367 student participants, found a correlation between their self-reported 'morningness' (measured by their answers to questions about how easy they find it to get up in the morning and how alert they feel) and their self-reported proactivity (measure by their agreement to the questions), was statistically significant. This is because,…

  • The Secret of Getting on the Cover of People Magazine

    Phil
    3 Feb 2010 | 11:45 pm
    In A Faith & Culture Devotional, Lael Arrington writes that, "When Princess Diana died suddenly and violently, the outpouring of grief dumfounded the royal family but confirmed People magazine editor Richard Stoley's set of rules for a successful cover." Those rules are: Young is better than old. Pretty is better than ugly. Rich is better than poor. TV is better than music. Music is better than movies. Movies are better than sports. Anything is better than politics. And nothing is better than a celebrity who just died. What do you think? Good rules? Bad?

  • Kaiser Study Shows the First Real Drop For TV Viewing Among Youth

    Phil
    2 Feb 2010 | 7:09 pm
    In a report that's no surprise, Broadcasting and Cable reports that for the first time, the amount of time youth (ages 8-18) spent watching "regularly-scheduled TV" dropped by 25 minutes, from 2004 to 2009 - according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The story goes on: "But traditional TV remains the major screen for most young people. According to the study, 59% of media time is still devoted to live TV programming, with the rest a mix of time-shifted TV, plus DVDs, online, and mobile. TV remains the dominant medium at 4 hours and 29 minutes per day; followed by music/audio…
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    Christ and Pop Culture

  • ‘Lost’ Patience

    CAPC Writers
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:26 am
    With the final season of Lost just around the corner, a lot of the writers at Christ and Pop Culture have finally found a television show they can agree on. From it’s beginning, it’s dealt head on with issues of morality, spirituality and faith. Most importantly, it’s a show that is thoughtfully and artfully produced, presenting us with a unique plot and real, empathetic characters. Naturally, it’s a perfect show for CaPC writers to discuss in our Water Cooler series. Leading up to the season premier, we’ll discuss the show so far, and what we might expect in the coming weeks and…

  • The History of Facebook

    Drew Dixon
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:06 am
    In reviewing a pair of books on Facebook and the landscape of social networking, Charles Peterson of New York Review of Books has written a fascinating history of Facebook and social networking.  He talks about how the site was essentially stolen and has now evolved into the most widely used social networking site on the web.  He also explains Facebook Connect and its potential to forever change the way that we use the web.  As one who has been on Facebook since 2005, I think this account is accurate and the social commentary Peterson shares concerning Facebook is apropos. In the end,…

  • Is Rapture Worth Visiting Again? Bioshock 2

    Drew Dixon
    8 Feb 2010 | 2:58 pm
    Bioshock 2 comes out tomorrow, the first game was one of the most haunting, intriguing, and memorable games I have ever played.  Lauded for its art deco style but remembered for its presentation and haunting humanistic speeches from Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, Bioshock remains a game whose story and message will always loom large in my mind. Is Rapture worth visiting again?  Much of the allure of the original lies in its unique underwater world which celebrates human acheivment and consequently human moral failure.  The shock of this world is what made the game such a powerful piece of…

  • Tebow VS Man Crunch

    David Dunham
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am
    The Economist is furious that the Tebow ad got air time and Man Crunch didn’t…what do you think, was this justifiable discrimination? Posts like this one:Making Heisman History The real meaning of Tim Tebow’s pro-life Super Bowl ad. Not what we’ve been led to think…

  • Dave’s Idea

    Richard Clark
    8 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am
    Here’s the story behind that Leno-Letterman-Oprah Super Bowl promo. Posts like this one:If Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl The real meaning of Tim Tebow’s pro-life Super Bowl ad. Hey Look, An Adulterer…Let’s Throw Rocks!
 
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    Christian Newswire: All Releases

  • Big On Chills and Thrills - Cloud Ten Pictures to Release DANGEROUS CALLING

    9 Feb 2010 | 12:40 pm
    Contact: Cloud Ten Pictures, 888-684-5561 MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- Well-reviewed and with a passionate fan base, Cloud Ten Pictures' latest release, DANGEROUS CALLING, is bound to stir up controversy. "DANGEROUS CALLING is going to shake things up," declares Cloud Ten's CEO, André van Heerden. Cloud Ten Pictures Inc., has made a name for itself with its end-times dramas, the Left Behind movies and the Apocalypse Series. DANGEROUS CALLING, debuting on February 8, Source: Cloud Ten Pictures

  • World Congress of Families Applauds 'Day of Purity'

    9 Feb 2010 | 11:35 am
    Contact: Don Feder, Communications Director, World Congress of Families, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; The Howard Center For Family, Religion & Society, 815-964-5819 MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families enthusiastically endorses the upcoming "Day of Purity" (February 12). WCF Managing Director Larry Jacobs comments: "With the culture -- including the news and entertainment media, public education, and government -- constan Source: World Congress of Families

  • While Judge Considers Same-Sex Marriage Case, House Church Leader says the Verdict Doesn't Matter

    9 Feb 2010 | 9:22 am
    Contact: Jon Hirst, The Well, 719-362-5235, jhirst@dotheword.org ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- While a San Francisco judge considers the evidence in the Prop 8 federal trial in California, many American Christians are concerned about the possibility of an outcome in favor of same-sex marriage. House church leader Ken Eastburn responded to Christians following the trial by challenging them to focus on their ultimate goal during this time, "Creating a moral America is Source: Seoul USA

  • Zondervan to Release Next Book by Kate Gosselin

    9 Feb 2010 | 8:30 am
    I Just Want You to Know scheduled to release April 2010 Contact: Karen Campbell, 616-698-3246 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- Zondervan, a world leader in Christian communications, will release the next book by Kate Gosselin. I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith and Family continues Kate's story of faith and family, picking up where her first book and New York Times bestseller, Multiple Blessings, ended. I Just Want You to Know will contain e Source: Lambert, Edwards & Associates

  • The Gospel is Not About Rule Keeping

    9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am
    The Gospel is not about Performance, it is about Freedom Book is a primer on Christ's original mission--to set captives free Contact: W. Todd Pedersen, 704-576-6191, tpedersen31@gmail.com MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- For far too long the message of the gospel has been used as a yardstick by which to gauge the degree of sin rampant in our culture and our lives. The modern church has gone to great lengths to teach obedience to rules but has done very little to teach Source: Pedersen
 
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    Crosswalk.com - Religion Today

  • Religion Today Summaries - Feb. 9, 2010

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:58 pm
    Lao Officials Force Christians from Worship at GunpointBaptist Groups Respond to Missionaries' Kidnapping ChargesFemale Pastor, Daughter Murdered in the PhilippinesChurches Warned to Prepare for Another Lean Year

  • Outside Haiti's Capital, Haitians Welcome the Suffering

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:40 pm
    The earthquake survivors have left Port-au-Prince knowing they still will be cared for, because a spirit of help hovers over Haiti.

  • Two Churches Forced to Close in Indonesia

    7 Feb 2010 | 10:21 pm
    Local governments have ordered the closure of two churches on Indonesia's Java island, caving to pressure from Islamist groups.

  • Religion Today Summaries - Feb. 8, 2010

    7 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    Clinton Bemoans U.S. Missions Mishap in HaitiEuropean Court Rules against Turkey's Religion IDNorth Korea to Free American MissionaryAttacks on Christians in India’s Karnataka Frequent, Furious

  • Religion Today Summaries - Feb. 5, 2010

    4 Feb 2010 | 10:30 pm
    10 Americans in Haiti Charged With Child KidnappingPastors File Challenge to Hate-Crimes LawSurvey: Church, Ministers Not the Friendliest in TownEgypt Christians Call for Right to Build Churches
 
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    RELIGION

  • Faith Community Leadership Summit takes on end-of-life care

    Sam Hodges/Reporter
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:22 pm
    The 4th Annual Faith Community Leadership Summit, sponsored by Texas Health Resources, will be held Feb. 16th, in Fort Worth. The theme is end-of-life care and ministry. For details, click here. Details below:

  • Christian author Mary DeMuth to do signing and give workshop on memoir writing

    Sam Hodges/Reporter
    8 Feb 2010 | 10:15 am
    Mary DeMuth of Rockwall is a veteran author of Christian books, and her latest is a memoir. She'll be at Legacy Books in Plano on Feb. 18th, at 7 p.m. to talk about that book, "Thin Places," and about the craft of memoir writing. Details below: Inspirational Texas Author Mary DeMuth hosts "How to Write a Memoir" Workshop and Signs Copies of her New Memoir, Thin Places. Legacy Books, Plano, Texas; Thursday, Feb. 18; 7 p.m. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Dec. 14, 2009 - Storyteller Mary E. DeMuth will be holding a free "How to Write a Memoir" instructional class and book signing on Thursday, February…

  • John L. Allen Jr., on the University of Dallas, Bishop Kevin Farrell and `Taliban Catholicism'

    Sam Hodges/Reporter
    5 Feb 2010 | 10:19 am
    John L. Allen, Jr., writes for the National Catholic Reporter, and did a long, interesting story for that publication about the growth of Catholicism in Texas. Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas was part of that story. Allen spoke earlier this week at the University of Dallas, a Catholic school known for its conservativism. Now Allen has blogged about the experience of visiting UD, and in his post comments on the school, on Farrell's challenge to it in a commencement address, and on tensions more broadly among Catholics. Allen also reports that he got some heat at UD for using the…

  • Donald Wiseman was key figure at Tyndale House

    Sam Hodges/Reporter
    5 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am
    The Rev. Drake Torp-Pedersen of Terrell Bible Church brought to my attention the death of Bible scholar Donald Wiseman, a key figure with Tyndale House, a biblical research center in England. A UK blog site reports the death, quoting a statement from Tyndale. Below is a remembrance: Professor Donald Wiseman (1918-2010) The passing of Donald Wiseman on 2nd February, 2010, marks the end of an era in the story of Tyndale House and the Tyndale Fellowship. After a year reading history at King's College, London, W. J. Martin persuaded him that study of the biblical world and its languages would be…

  • SBC leaders bear responsibility for Baptists' trouble in Haiti

    Sam Hodges/Reporter
    5 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am
    Louis Moore covered religion for the Houston Chronicle for many years, then moved into book writing and publishing. He does a blog, and his latest entry draws on his reporting experience to note that the trouble the Southern Baptists are in in Haiti is not without precedent. Very interest tale, so keep reading: The news media is riveted to the story about the 10 Idaho Southern Baptists who are engulfed in the legal melodrama in Haiti. And well they should be. The issues involved in this case are fascinating, complex, and illustrative of the difficulties people wanting to do good sometimes…
 
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    Frederica Here and Now

  • The Lost Gospel of Mary

    20 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am
    Frederica speaks at Truro Anglican Church in Fairfax, Virginia, about her book The Lost Gospel of Mary.

  • Studio Mathewes

    14 Jan 2010 | 3:31 pm
    Frederica interviews her daughter-in-law Jocelyn about her work as a wedding photographer. Click HERE to view Jocelyn's work.

  • The Jesus Prayer - From Mind to Heart

    6 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am
    This is part two of a pair of special episodes of Frederica Here and Now. It features Frederica Mathewes-Green speaking at the Mother of God Orthodox Church in Princeton, New Jersey, about her new book The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer That Tunes the Heart to God.

  • The Jesus Prayer Basics

    31 Dec 2009 | 3:44 pm
    This is part one of a pair of special episodes of Frederica Here and Now. It features Frederica Mathewes-Green speaking at the Mother of God Orthodox Church in Princeton, New Jersey, about her new book The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer That Tunes the Heart to God.

  • From Pentecostal to Orthodox

    24 Dec 2009 | 3:21 pm
    Frederica interviews Dn. Barnabas Powell, the former pastor of a Pentecostal church, about his conversion to Orthodoxy.
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    World news: Religion | guardian.co.uk

  • Double standards on human rights | Rahila Gupta

    Rahila Gupta
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:39 am
    Where does Amnesty International stand on women's rights after suspending Gita Sahgal for criticising links with Moazzam Begg?The Sunday Times last week carried an article in which the head of Amnesty International's gender unit, Gita Sahgal, was quoted criticising the organisation for its close association with Moazzam Begg. At issue, she says, are his alleged sympathies with the Taliban in Afghanistan and, through the Guantánamo prisoners campaign Cageprisoners, his work on behalf of detained al-Qaida activists.In his defence, a copy of a letter sent to the Sunday Times posted on the…

  • Archbishop of Canterbury appeals for unity over gay clergy and women bishops

    Stephen Bates
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:15 am
    Rowan Williams uses presidential address to General Synod to call for tolerance among warring Church of England factionsRowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, attempted today to bind together the warring factions of the Church of England by appealing for both conservatives and liberals to show mutual tolerance and understanding over issues of gay equality and women bishops.He also placed the church firmly against any liberalisation of the law on assisted dying, describing the granting of a right to die as a moral mistake and an upsetting of the balance of freedoms.However, his warning…

  • Full text: Archbishop of Canterbury's presidential speech

    9 Feb 2010 | 9:06 am
    Rowan Williams's address to the General SynodIn the last few weeks we've seen a number of topics coming up in public discussion, all centring on one set of questions – a set of questions which I think reflects painfully accurately some of the problems we face in our church, locally and internationally.The heated debates around the Equality Bill brought this out in one way, some of the renewed flurries of pressure and anxiety about euthanasia and assisted dying in other ways. And as we look forward to our own debates later in the year on women bishops and on the Anglican Covenant, we may see…

  • An address to the General Synod | Rowan Williams

    Rowan Williams
    9 Feb 2010 | 7:30 am
    In the last few weeks we've seen a number of topics coming up in public discussion, all centring on one set of questions – a set of questions which I think reflects painfully accurately some of the problems we face in our church, locally and internationally. The heated debates around the equality bill brought this out in one way, some of the renewed flurries of pressure and anxiety about euthanasia and assisted dying in other ways. And as we look forward to our own debates later in the year on women bishops and on the Anglican Covenant, we may see the parallels. And in the middle of all the…

  • The chilling effect of 'lawfare' litigation | Alan Dershowitz and Elizabeth Samson

    Alan Dershowitz, Elizabeth Samson
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:30 am
    Radical Islamic groups in the US are intimidating the media with the cost of defending defamation suits in order to stifle criticismRecognising that British courts have become a prime destination for "libel tourists", the House of Lords has recently established a government panel to look into the possibility of amending its laws to make it tougher for foreigners to bring defamation suits in Britain. The UK is notorious for its plaintiff-friendly libel laws which have been accused of being "contemptuous of free speech" and making a "mockery of British justice" and because they silence writers…
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    Iconia

  • Iconia has moved

    Menachem Wecker
    13 Jan 2010 | 6:34 pm
    I may come back to visit, but for now, Iconia has moved to the Houston Chronicle. Check it out at http://blogs.chron.com/iconia/.

  • Link on About.com

    Menachem Wecker
    9 Jan 2010 | 1:40 pm
    I’m delighted to see that my article on David Levine is linked on About.com’s art history blog.

  • Interview: Kate Shellnutt, web producer, religion blogger, Houston Chronicle

    Menachem Wecker
    9 Jan 2010 | 1:36 pm
    I first connected with Kate Shellnutt on Twitter (where she has two handles). I was very excited to be a part of her article “This Muslim-American life: Allah and the Arts,” which she wrote as a journalism student at Medill. Shellnutt has since graduated and now works on the Houston Chronicle’s religion page, where she continues to write on many of the topics which are most important to me. It was obvious that I had to formally interview here, and I think readers might find particular relevance and insight in her view of the role of religion reporters. MW: Was there a…

  • Peter Krausz’s “(No) Man’s Land” at Forum Gallery

    Menachem Wecker
    6 Jan 2010 | 10:05 pm
    My review of the Canadian, Jewish artist appears in The Jewish Press.

  • Mesorah D.C.: Parshat “Vayechi”

    Menachem Wecker
    4 Jan 2010 | 3:41 pm
    This post is part of a feature of critical responses to sermons by religious leaders. I wanted to share an interesting sermon that the rabbi at Mesorah D.C. delivered this past Friday night. The rabbi doesn’t seem to post his sermons, so I am keeping him anonymous. The rabbi began by noting that the weekly portion, which begins at Genesis 47: 28, features a peculiar layout. Most portions start off with one of two different sorts of indentations, but this portion is not immediately accessible when one scans the Torah scroll. (More info here.) The rabbi connected the unusual layout with…
 
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    Irshad Manji blog and official website

  • (Dis)honoring the 1979 Iranian Revolution

    irshad
    8 Feb 2010 | 12:43 pm
    February 11 marks the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Ten years after the revolution, its leader — the Ayatollah Khomeini — issued a death warrant against the novelist, Salman Rushdie. I’m keeping both of these facts in mind as I begin to write a new chapter of my next book. A bit of background: Recently, I announced an experiment called “Notes From My Next Book.” With this experiment, I’m giving you a sneak peak at ideas being explored in my next book and inviting you to comment on them. Click here to learn more. This week, I’m…

  • Are we ready to laugh about terrorism?

    irshad
    1 Feb 2010 | 5:32 am
    After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab grilled his groin on Christmas Day, amateur satirists wasted no time in assigning him nicknames: the Jockstrap Jihadi, the Undie-Bomber and my personal favorite, Fruit of Ka-Boom. Does all the giggling, chuckling and outright satirizing mean that we, as a society, are ready to laugh about terrorism? Before you answer, watch this video clip from “Four Lions,” a new British movie about radicalized Muslims plotting an attack: When BBC Radio asked for my thoughts about the video clip, I replied, “Hilarious. But the brilliance of comedy, like…

  • Debating race in “Obama’s America,” part one

    irshad
    24 Jan 2010 | 8:34 am
    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  • Debating race in “Obama’s America,” part two

    irshad
    24 Jan 2010 | 8:30 am
    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  • Thumb-suckers or truth-tellers? Racial politics in Obama’s America

    irshad
    24 Jan 2010 | 7:38 am
    Frederick Douglass (Wikimedia Commons) Frederick Douglass, the 19th-century African-American visionary, had a warning: “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without the thunder and lightening; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.”  In the 21st century, those who seek equality without the honest and painful discussion that goes with it might well fall into this category. On Martin Luther King’s birthday, MSNBC aired “Obama’s America,”a two-hour…
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    L.A. Times - Religious News

  • For Koreatown mosque congregants, parking is a challenge

    8 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    Friday prayers at midday find hundreds scrambling, many hiking in from blocks away. Those who've worked out special arrangements at nearby establishments guard the information closely. Omar Haroon guards the secret of his Friday prayers parking spot even from close friends. People ask, but he refuses to spill.

  • Army Sgt. Chris Cooper, 28, casualty of Iraq war

    7 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    The infantry team leader was killed in a noncombat-related incident. In late 2004, Chris Cooper left the Marine Corps after four years of service, deciding to give civilian life a chance.

  • France denies citizenship to Moroccan man over burka

    5 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    The man reportedly admitted forcing his wife to wear the all-covering garment. The prime minister says the immigrant failed to 'respect the values' of France. A Moroccan immigrant has been denied French citizenship after admitting that he forced his wife to wear a burka, French officials announced this week.

  • Cross found at Air Force Academy's Wicca center

    3 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    The opening of the worship area at the Colorado Springs academy had been hailed as a step for religious tolerance. The Air Force Academy , stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.

  • San Bernardino loses its Jewish congregation

    25 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am
    After more than a century, Congregation Emanu El moves to Redlands. At first, it's hard to tell what's got Rabbi Doug Kohn so jazzed.
 
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    LDS News/Around the Church

  • New Orleans Ward Is Back on the Map

    7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm
    President Scott N. Conlin stood at the pulpit of the small uptown chapel December 6. The president of the New Orleans Louisiana Stake informed attendees that effective immediately, the New Orleans 1st Branch would become the New Orleans 1st Ward.

  • "Helping Hand" Should Reach Out

    7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm
    Each time President Thomas S. Monson watches the news or picks up a newspaper and learns of terrible human suffering as a result of tornadoes, floods, fires, drought, hurricanes, earthquakes, or conflicts of war, he asks a moving question: "Do we have a responsibility to do something about such suffering?" The answer, he says, is always the same: "Yes! We are our brother's keeper."

  • Saints Celebrate First Stake Formed in Uganda

    7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm
    Smiles on the faces of the Saints in Kampala, Uganda, rivaled the bright colorful gomesi (traditional dresses) the sisters were wearing as they gathered on Sunday, January 17, to witness the organization of the first stake in Uganda. Almost 1,000 members met at the Kololo meetinghouse to sustain Jimmy Carter Okot as the new stake president, with Charles Ssekirangi and Jackson Isiko as his counselors.

  • Local Women Tie Quilts and Blankets for Haiti Victims

    7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm
    In four hours the annual Relief Society Humanitarian Open House in Rocklin turned out 111 quilts and blankets, joining 100 more done previously this year. The annual event has always drawn an eager crowd of quilters, but this year the haunting images of destruction in Haiti gave it a very real sense of urgency.

  • LDS Aid to Peru after Quake "Beautiful Thing"

    7 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm
    Not a day passes that Rosa Maurtua doesn't lay her hand across the solid brick and mortar of her new house, relishing the security it provides. A "well built home" are three sweet words for Maurtua. On August 15, 2007, a massive magnitude 8.0 quake struck her city of Pisco and other regions of western Peru. Hundreds were killed and thousands more lost their homes.
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    Monergism

  • Is Jesus God & Did Jesus Claim to be God?

    8 Feb 2010 | 7:41 am
    In eight Scriptural passages, Jesus is described by the Greek word Theos (God): John 1:1-3; 1:18; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:1; 1 John 5:20. The New Testament also affirms the deity of Jesus in calling him Yahweh. Old Testament prophecies concerning Yahweh are quoted in the New Testament as being references to Jesus (compare Mal. 3:1 and Luke 1:76; Joel 2:32 and Rom. 10:13; Isa. 45:23 and Rom. 14:10; Psalm 45:6 and Heb 1:8,9). Angels Worship him (Heb. 1:6) while at the same time refuse to receive worship (Rev. 19:10) yet Jesus willingly receives worship (Matthew 2:11,…

  • Book Review: Small Things, Big Things,by Michael A. Milton

    8 Feb 2010 | 6:07 am
    Book Review: Small Things, Big Things, by Michael A. Milton Reviewed by Nathan Pitchford new!

  • Declared Righteous: Rome vs. the Reformation

    3 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am
    Declared Righteous: Rome vs. the Reformation by R.C. Sproul, with comments Must read!

  • Book Review: Our Secure Salvation, by Robert A. Peterson

    1 Feb 2010 | 7:41 am
    BOOK REVIEW: Our Secure Salvation, by Robert A. PetersonReviewed by Nathan Pitchford New!

  • The Problem of Evangelical Biblical Illiteracy

    31 Jan 2010 | 2:02 pm
    The Problem of Evangelical Biblical Illiteracy: A View from the ClassroomBy David R. Nienhuis New!
 
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    NPR Topics: Religion

  • Excerpt: 'Why I Stayed'

    5 Feb 2010 | 12:23 pm
    » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Ted Haggard's Wife: Marriage Stronger After Scandal

    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am
    Gayle Haggard was living the life of her dreams. She was married to the senior pastor of a thriving megachurch, a mother of five, and a faith leader in her own right. But it all came crashing down when she — along with the rest of the nation — learned her husband was involved in a years-long sexual relationship with another man. Host Michel Martin speaks with Gayle Haggard, author of the book Why I Stayed, about her marriage, her husband's fall from grace and his sexuality.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • New Documentary Explores History Of Jews and Basketball

    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am
    Long before Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal dominated men’s professional basketball, Jewish basketball teams were all the rage in the early 20th century. A new documentary called “First Basket” takes a look at this piece of basketball history, and how it shaped the start of the NBA. Host Michel Martin speaks with the film's director David Vyorst.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Baptists In Haiti Could Face U.S. Kidnapping Charges

    1 Feb 2010 | 1:43 pm
    Ten members of a church group tried to take 33 children out of the quake-ravaged nation without permission Friday. The Americans insisted they were only trying to rescue the children, but Haiti's prime minister said it was up to the legal system to decide whether they were acting in good faith or are child traffickers.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Female Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 54 In Iraq

    1 Feb 2010 | 3:03 am
    A suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt on Monday, killing dozens of people, officials said. The bombing was the first major strike this year against pilgrims making their way to the southern holy city of Karbala to mark a revered day on the Shiite calendar.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
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    Front Page Stories

  • India rebuffs IPCC, goes solo

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    India is establishing its own body to monitor the effects of climate change, claiming it "cannot rely" on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  • Pastor comments on his 'hate crimes' lawsuit

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    A black pastor in Michigan is offended by comparisons to the civil rights struggles of African-Americans with those who engage in homosexual behavior.

  • Perspective: Can same-sex attraction be changed?

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    Thanks to a mainstream media that values political correctness more than truth, some subjects are virtually off-limits.

  • DoD reflects Obama's view on abortion

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    Conservative military watchdog Elaine Donnelly is personally troubled about a recent Defense Department decision to allow military health facilities to stock the "morning-after pill."

  • Baptist missionaries get new attorney

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm
    The new attorney for ten Baptist missionaries charged with kidnapping in Haiti insists they had correct papers allowing the children to be taken into the Dominican Republic.
 
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    proverbs31-woman.com

  • Remembering Roger

    proverbs31
    20 Jan 2010 | 6:07 pm
    Do you remember my devotional about Roger? http://proverbs31-woman.com/2008/12/10/you-bless-him/ Today I went back to our old house to do a final inspection after the cleaners had gone through to make sure all was in order before handing the keys over to the selling agent for the new owner. After that I popped into the local shopping centre to buy some new summery frocks. I live in jeans but now I’m in the country I have this urge to once again wear long flowing loose summer frocks. While wandering around the centre I saw a familiar man stooped over and walking.  It was Roger.

  • Looking forward…

    proverbs31
    28 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pm
    Proverbs 31:31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. My husband and I have been house hunting for most of this year.  We wanted to buy a place in the country with some land – not too much but not too little. We didn’t want to be close up against neighbours and wanted some peace and quiet.  Our children have left the nest and we are empty-nesters now, enjoying our pre-retirement stage.  We’re free to do what we want in the evenings and weekends and just do nothing if that suits us. Not that either of us are the type to…

  • Permission for time out

    proverbs31
    7 Sep 2009 | 3:44 pm
    This year has been very different to the past years of our lives.  We’ve gone through tremendous upheaval and change which began almost 12 months ago when we lost our darling Miriam. If anyone had told us at the beginning of September last year that nearly every member of our immediate family would be moving house this year and that we would be missing a member of our family too, we just would not have believed them. It’s been a long slow year – one where I’ve been anxious to get back to some sort of normality and yet when opportunities arise, particularly through my…

  • Growth and Healing

    proverbs31
    9 Jul 2009 | 11:53 pm
    I manage a forum for women interested in being Proverbs 31 women and I had shared with them there about the loss of our daughter some months ago.  One of the women had commented she didn’t know how she’d cope with something like that. My response to her astounded me even – it was like God was speaking to us through my fingers.  I hope what I share below will help you too. It hasn’t been easy by any means and we’re only 9 months down the track.  Two weeks ago (almost) my cousin lost his son in a car accident.  My cousin is not a Christian and now I feel that…

  • Mothers and the Proverbs 31 Woman

    proverbs31
    30 Apr 2009 | 12:48 am
    The Proverbs 31 woman was a wife, mother and business woman. It’s important to remember those three aspects – all knitted into one. Today women struggle to manage all their various roles and the many hats they wear, daughter, sister, auntie, wife, mother, friend, lover, worker, nurse, house duties and so on. Just where do we become ‘me’? I believe as we grow older we begin to learn more about ourselves but in our younger adult years while coping with a family and work, and being a good wife we can often feel lost from who we really are. Don’t despair, others have…
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    Reasoning with the Critics

  • Nehemiah, Katrina, Indonesia, Haiti, and Rebuilding Our Lives

    Timothy Berman
    6 Feb 2010 | 1:55 am
    On January 12, 2010, and at 4:53 pm (Haitian Local Time), a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the nation of Haiti. A region being referred to as the poorest country in the Northern Hemisphere. The response to this catastrophe is phenomenal. Prior to this, on December 26, 2004, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused a Tsunami that [...]

  • When the Critics Ask – how one can respond.

    Timothy Berman
    3 Feb 2010 | 6:44 am
    A definite question to ask any Critic who love to use Galatians 1:8 as a proof text against Mormonism. This is definite youtube video that is put together to respond to the misuse of the passage in Galatians, and how it is placed in its proper perspective. Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Angel of Light, Christianity, [...]

  • Biblical Doctrine or False Mormon Doctrine?

    Timothy Berman
    1 Feb 2010 | 3:33 am
    The following is a question for anyone to discuss. Whether you are a Born Again Christian, a Mormon, or a person of another religious faith, this question is simple. Is the following statement a False Mormon Doctrine or a True Biblical Doctrine? This is not a “yes or no” question. The purpose of this is [...]

  • Baptists say they were trying to do good in Haiti | US National Headlines | Comcast.net

    Timothy Berman
    31 Jan 2010 | 9:33 pm
      Baptists say they were trying to do good in Haiti | US National Headlines | Comcast.net   According to the AP article, written by Frank Bajak and Paisley Dodds, an Idaho Baptist Church group decided that it is in their best interest to go into the earthquake devastation of Haiti and rescue children who are “supposedly” orphaned, [...]

  • A Letter of Urgency to Modern Evangelical Christian’s

    Timothy Berman
    28 Jan 2010 | 11:08 am
    Responding to an Ex-Mormon’s Letter of Urgency posted on Truth in Love Ministries Website “Letter of Urgency The following letter is written to all Christians by an ex-Mormon member of the Truth in Love Ministry team.” INTRODUCTION Dear Christian; If you saw a house on fire with someone trapped inside, what would you do? Would you drive by without doing [...]
 
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    Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly » Podcast

  • February 5, 2010: Listen Now

    janice henderson
    5 Feb 2010 | 11:20 am
    Listen to this episode now: Download this episode as an MP3. Files can be saved to your computer or opened online with your favorite MP3 player. Listen to this week’s show. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2009/10/ListenNow.jpg

  • January 29, 2010: Listen Now

    fred yi
    29 Jan 2010 | 8:50 am
    Listen to this episode now: Download this episode as an MP3. Files can be saved to your computer or opened online with your favorite MP3 player. Listen to this week’s show. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2009/10/ListenNow.jpg

  • January 22, 2010: Listen Now

    fred yi
    22 Jan 2010 | 11:25 am
    Listen to this episode now: Download this episode as an MP3. Files can be saved to your computer or opened online with your favorite MP3 player. Listen to this week’s show. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2009/10/ListenNow.jpg

  • January 15, 2010: Listen Now

    fred yi
    15 Jan 2010 | 7:25 am
    Listen to this episode now: Download this episode as an MP3. Files can be saved to your computer or opened online with your favorite MP3 player. Listen to this week’s show. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2009/10/ListenNow.jpg

  • January 8, 2010: Listen Now

    fred yi
    8 Jan 2010 | 8:46 am
    Listen to this episode now: Download this episode as an MP3. Files can be saved to your computer or opened online with your favorite MP3 player. Listen to this week’s show. /wnet/religionandethics/files/2009/10/ListenNow.jpg
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    Religion News Blog

  • Judge cancels hearing in case against Warren Jeffs

    Religion News Blog
    9 Feb 2010 | 1:50 am
    An Arizona judge has canceled a two-day hearing in the state's case against polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs after granting a defense motion barring use of any evidence found at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Texas ranch in 2008.

  • Wanda Barzee pleads guilty to charge in Elizabeth Smart case

    Religion News Blog
    9 Feb 2010 | 1:34 am
    Prosecutors on Monday dropped state charges against a woman in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart in exchange for a guilty plea related to the attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin. Doctors at the Utah State Hospital said last fall that Barzee had responded to the treatment and was competent. Atherton accepted that determination Monday but said Barzee remains mentally ill.

  • Atheists ‘just as ethical as churchgoers’ research shows

    Religion News Blog
    9 Feb 2010 | 1:14 am
    Atheists are just as ethical and have as strong a moral compass as churchgoers, new research shows. People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to the study. The team behind the research found that most religions were similar and had a moral code which helped to organise society. But people who did not have a religious background still appeared to have intuitive judgments of right and wrong in common with believers, according to the findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

  • NewsChannel 10 allowed inside self proclaimed messiah’s compound

    Religion News Blog
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:08 am
    Nearly two years after the arrest of self proclaimed messiah Wayne Bent, a New Mexico TV news station became the first media allowed inside his cult's compound. If you spend a day walking around the remote property of the Lord Our Righteousness Church you wouldn't believe you were amongst what State Police call an apocalyptic cult. [video]

  • FLDS has new president, but is Warren Jeffs still their prophet?

    Religion News Blog
    6 Feb 2010 | 10:11 pm
    A new president has been called to lead a controversial polygamous sect, replacing jailed leader Warren S. Jeffs in that post.Wendell Nielsen, 69, is now president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and of the corporate entity that handles the faith's business dealings, according to a document filed with the state of Utah.
 
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    Irtiqa

  • Capricology: Week 3 - Apotheosis, Anyone?

    9 Feb 2010 | 7:40 am
    Here is the continuation of the dialogue over science, technology, and the sacred in the television series, Caprica at ReligionDispatches. Check out earlier discussions over the pilot here and week 2 here.Below is a teaser for the Week 3 discussion. You can find the full discussion here (warning: yes, yes, there are lots of plot spoilers).Capricology: Apotheosis, Anyone?More on the sci-fi TV show

  • An unwilling deity

    8 Feb 2010 | 7:25 pm
    This is the thing: One has to be prepared for any role in life. But it seems that Raj Patel is resisting assuming his obvious role as the deity for a New Age religious sect, Share International (may be Raj anticipates some stiff competition from Mr. Deity):“It is absurd to be put in this position, when I’m just some bloke,” Mr. Patel said.A native of London now living on Potrero Hill in San

  • Death, the Dead, and the Afterlife

    7 Feb 2010 | 6:51 am
    Here is a suggestion: Pour a cup of coffee or tea at breakfast, kick back, relax, and enjoy this fascinating and highly entertaining episode of Radiolab, called Afterlife. Topics here range from what is death all the way to the ultimate fate (death?) of the universe. Far from being a downer, this is a thought-provoking (to say the least) look at various aspects of death. The full episode is about

  • The last of the Moors

    5 Feb 2010 | 1:57 pm
    While growing up, I was fascinated by Urdu stories set in Al-Andalus and the the Moorish Spain. Many, in fact, focused on the last decades of Muslim Granada - a ready-made nostalgic premise. For those familiar with Urdu literature, a number of these historical fictions were written by Naseem Hijazi (his Shaheen, about the fall of Granada, was also made into a television series in the 80s). While

  • Science, tissue-ethics, and faith-healers

    4 Feb 2010 | 12:19 pm
    Here is a fascinating Fresh Air interview with Rebecca Skloot. Her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is getting glowing reviews and touches on issues of science, ethics, race, and religion. Here is some background:In 1951, an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. She was treated at Johns Hopkins University, where a doctor named George
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    Share Your Story Now

  • Happiness in the Psalms

    Natasha
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Greg turns to the Psalms when he is unhappy and it brightens his day.

  • Christ gives victory over addictions

    Natasha
    24 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Nick overcame a 10 year drug addiction because of Christ.

  • I stumble, but God has not left me

    Natasha
    21 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Jody was sexually abused as a child and has since led a life of destructive behavior. She wants to be closer to God and has hope in Him.

  • Volunteer with the American Bible Society!

    Natasha
    21 Jan 2010 | 7:45 am
    If you have a passion for engaging and sharing God’s Word, then volunteering for the American Bible Society is the perfect place for you. As a volunteer, you can help us bring hope to people in the United States and throughout 200 countries around the world. If you’re interested in this great opportunity, [...]

  • After rape, assurance from the Bible

    Natasha
    19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    After Donna was raped, she needed assurance from God that visiting a counselor would be safe.
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    Small Group Help Blog

  • The Summit: A Convergence of Small Group Experts

    23 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm
    If you can be near a PC on February 18th you wont want to miss this event.  It is not often that you can participate in something like this with group leaders around the country and the best part is that its FREE.Greg Bowman (co-author of Coaching Life-Changing Small Group Leaders), Lyman Coleman (the father of the small group movement as we know it toda [...]

  • Keeping Teens Engaged In Small Groups

    10 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm
    I'm not sure if you are aware but our website has numerous articles available that can help small group leaders and pastors handle the challenges we face in group ministry.  Here is an example of a great article by one of our authors, John Noonan:Students get bored easily.  They sit in classes all day long and the last thing they want is another lecture.  So how does a small group leader grab the attention of their students while teaching them about the bible?  [...]

  • How Do You Promo Your Group?

    7 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm
    I've always had fun helping group leaders  get started with thier small group at our church. However, some young adults I've worked with recently have had a blast jumping head first into group minsitry.  Take a look at how they chose to promo their group with their friends on the web...Step one - organize a core teamStep two - start a facebook groupStep three - Invite friends on facebook to join Step four - create a really strange p [...]

  • Strategic Small Group Ministry Training

    6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    December 10 & 11, 2009Ebenezers Coffeehouse (National Community Church)Washington, DCLeading a single small group is a challenge, but running "point" on a church full of small groups can expose a whole new set of obstacles and opportunities. Discipleship, spiritual formation, missional outreach, and Biblical literacy happen best in small groups, and small groups happen best where organic growth is supported by strategic vision and purpose. If you are responsible for leadin [...]

  • Five Reasons To Be In A Small Group For Life

    25 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm
    At the Group Life Conference this year Andy Stanley shared five reasons that he will be in a small group for life. Here they are: 1. It’s the easiest place to invite un-churched people to, especially if they are not ready for the whole Sunday morning experience. 2. It’s often one of the only contexts for pastors or church staff to enga [...]
 
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    The Christian Pulse

  • Artist Spotlight: Evan Wickham

    Mark Bowyer
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:11 am
    By Mark Bowyer With most people thinking of chocolates and falling in love with each other this time of year, one artist takes his music a step further and discusses the ultimate love—that love that is demonstrated by God toward man.  Evan Wickham, worship leader and artist, brings his sensitivity and doctrinal maturity to the music [...]

  • Turn Evil To Live – Live To Love

    Julie Cosgrove
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:09 am
    By Julie Cosgrove The English language can be amazing. Take for example the words  EVIL and LIVE and VILE. They all have the same letters, yet such different  meanings. What if each letter stood for another word?  Could there be a message in that? E – everyone V- vessel I- instinct L- live/life E-V-I-L.  Everyone becomes a vessel to be used, [...]

  • The Real Thing

    Cheri Cowell
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:06 am
    By Cheri Cowell My mother’s favorite dessert is banana pudding. Now if the only banana pudding you’ve had is the kind made with vanilla pudding, you have not had real banana pudding. For my mother’s birthday I made the real kind of banana pudding: scalded milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla over a double broiler, layered [...]

  • A Grandmother’s Heart

    Caro Jackson
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:16 am
    By Caroline T. Jackson So much has changed in my life over the past few months. I became a grandmother. Or maybe I should say that we became grandparents. I was always told that there was nothing like it in the world and that your life would never be the same. I laughed inwardly at that [...]

  • When Peace Eludes You

    Gina Stinson
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:14 am
    By Gina Stinson Do you know someone who has been through a devastating circumstance and yet, through it all, they have had a peaceful countenance? I’ve heard it said that the depth of your true relationship with Christ is revealed by how you handle things when they fall apart. I’ve known some real peace-filled people who [...]
 
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    Global Sikh News

  • Sikh in shortchanged by Karachi Minister

    A Kaur
    8 Feb 2010 | 5:51 pm
    Karachi, Pakistan: Sikhs in Pakistan are concerned that they have not received any of the moneys allocated for the Sikh community in Karachi. Sikh Naujawan Sabha Pakistan Chairman Sardar Ramesh Singh corroborated the accounts of other minorities’ leaders. “As a representative of 3,000 Sikhs in Karachi, I assure you that no Sikh has been offered [...]

  • Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committe’s head Sarna did it again

    A Kaur
    7 Feb 2010 | 4:20 am
    Delhi, India: Lakhi Shah Vanjara Hall has become a playground of Sarna where he engages in blasphemy, sometimes by violating the Maryada of Anand Karaj, sometimes giving stage to Darshan and sometimes letting people hold dinner parties as shown in the pictures and videos. A Sikh of Guru Recite a shabad everyday at Gurudwara sahib [...]

  • Now online donations to Golden Temple

    A Kaur
    7 Feb 2010 | 4:18 am
    Amritsar, Punjab: It’s good news for those wanting to make a donation to the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, at Amritsar but unable to do so by physically coming here. They can now donate online. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has tied up with the HDFC bank to facilitate online donation to the shrine, [...]

  • US President Praises United Sikhs Relief Efforts in Haiti

    A Kaur
    7 Feb 2010 | 4:15 am
    Washington DC, USA: “God’s grace is….expressed through multiple faith-based efforts. By evangelicals at World Relief.  By the American Jewish World Service. By Hindu temples, and mainline Protestants, Catholic Relief Services, African American churches, the UNITED SIKHS.” President Barack Obama praised yesterday the relief efforts in Haiti of faith and non faith based NGOs, at the [...]

  • 10 Ravidassi leaders held

    A Kaur
    7 Feb 2010 | 4:11 am
    Jalandhar, Punjab: Amid reports of placing shortly at some religious places, the holy book “Amritbani Satguru Ravidass Maharajji” of the newly declared religion “Ravidass Dharam” by Dera Sachkhand Ballan a few days back, the district police arrested 10 leaders belonging to the Ravidass community from their houses in the wee hours today. Confirming the arrests, DC [...]
 
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    WorldWide Religious News

  • Second Baptist Church at forefront of education values

    Darren A. Nichols ("The Detroit News," February 9, 2010) Detroit, USA - At 78, William Washington is a living reminder of Second Baptist Church's rich educational history. Washington, who has been a member of the downtown Detroit church since 1956, is a former principal at Cleveland Middle School on the city's east side.

  • Church bells may return to Chile

    ("BBC," February 8, 2010) Mumbles, UK - A set of church bells which have been kept in a church in Mumbles near Swansea for almost 150 years could return to Chile to form a memorial. Before arriving at All Saints Church they were shipped from Santiago after a cathedral they were initially housed in burned down, killing 2,500 people. Now the Chilean government has asked if they could return to South America.

  • Egypt detains Muslim Brotherhood leaders

    ("BBC," February 8, 2010) Cairo, Egypt - Thirteen senior members of the Islamist opposition movement in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, have been detained. They include its deputy leader, Mahmoud Ezzat, the organisation says. The Brotherhood is officially outlawed in Egypt but its members have many seats in parliament, sitting as independents.

  • Ceremonial dagger 'part of the body' say devout Sikhs

    Caroline McClatchey ("BBC," February 8, 2010) London, UK - Britain's first Asian judge has said Sikhs should be allowed to wear their ceremonial daggers - known as Kirpans - to school and other public venues. It follows a number of high-profile cases where Sikhs have been asked to remove the item, required by their faith, in the workplace or in the classroom. But what exactly is a Kirpan and just how many Sikhs wear one?

  • Should religion be an excuse for carrying daggers?

    ("BBC," February 9, 2010) London, UK - The idea of children being allowed to carry knives while at school sounds like a red rag to a bull. But that is what Sir Mota Singh QC, Britain's first Asian judge, who is now retired, says should be allowed. Not any old knife - but the ceremonial dagger known as the Kirpan.
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    UNIQUE MUSLIMAH

  • Simba’s Photo-Story

    Unique Muslimah
    3 Feb 2010 | 3:02 pm
    My neighbour got kittens last year and a month later let them live in the garden and started neglecting them. That’s when Caramella, the white Calico cat above started to visit my garden. Because of my love for cats, I noticed how hungry she was. I fed her and gave her something to drink and [...]

  • Monday Muffins

    Unique Muslimah
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:46 am
    Well, I just had to take one, large bite.
 
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    The Christian Pulse

  • Artist Spotlight: Evan Wickham

    Mark Bowyer
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:11 am
    By Mark Bowyer With most people thinking of chocolates and falling in love with each other this time of year, one artist takes his music a step further and discusses the ultimate love—that love that is demonstrated by God toward man.  Evan Wickham, worship leader and artist, brings his sensitivity and doctrinal maturity to the music [...]

  • Turn Evil To Live – Live To Love

    Julie Cosgrove
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:09 am
    By Julie Cosgrove The English language can be amazing. Take for example the words  EVIL and LIVE and VILE. They all have the same letters, yet such different  meanings. What if each letter stood for another word?  Could there be a message in that? E – everyone V- vessel I- instinct L- live/life E-V-I-L.  Everyone becomes a vessel to be used, [...]

  • The Real Thing

    Cheri Cowell
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:06 am
    By Cheri Cowell My mother’s favorite dessert is banana pudding. Now if the only banana pudding you’ve had is the kind made with vanilla pudding, you have not had real banana pudding. For my mother’s birthday I made the real kind of banana pudding: scalded milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla over a double broiler, layered [...]

  • A Grandmother’s Heart

    Caro Jackson
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:16 am
    By Caroline T. Jackson So much has changed in my life over the past few months. I became a grandmother. Or maybe I should say that we became grandparents. I was always told that there was nothing like it in the world and that your life would never be the same. I laughed inwardly at that [...]

  • When Peace Eludes You

    Gina Stinson
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:14 am
    By Gina Stinson Do you know someone who has been through a devastating circumstance and yet, through it all, they have had a peaceful countenance? I’ve heard it said that the depth of your true relationship with Christ is revealed by how you handle things when they fall apart. I’ve known some real peace-filled people who [...]
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    SoMA Review

  • Who'll Feed Fido During the Final Judgment?

    27 Jan 2010 | 8:00 pm
    "You've committed your life to Jesus," the site announced. "You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes, what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind."

  • Wheaton Weighs Its Future

    12 Jan 2010 | 8:00 pm
    This year, Wheaton College celebrates its 150th birthday, making it a time to look back and look forward at the "evangelical Harvard," particularly as the school prepares to name a new president this spring.

  • Favorite Christmas Flicks

    20 Dec 2009 | 8:00 pm
    One of the things I most look forward to at the holiday season is settling down with a big bowl of chips, salsa and kosher pickles and watching my favorite Christmas movies.

  • Palin and Prejean: Dumb and Dumber

    13 Dec 2009 | 8:00 pm
    As long as there are die-hard Christian rightists, there will always be a home for the Carries and Sarahs of the world.

  • Mark Sanford's Morality Lessons

    15 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm
    God knows things are tough these days down here in South Carolina.
 
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    Faith Central - Times Online - WBLG

  • Is it ever legitimate to stop work for prayer?

    Bess Twiston-Davies
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:19 am
    Bess writes: What do you think of this? Transport for London (Tfl) has apologised to bus passengers in North London after a Muslim driver pulled his bus over last week without warning and pulled out a makeshift mat  to say his prayers on. According to Yahoo News "TfL apologises to passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused them. We have asked London General to remind drivers who have a requirement to pray, to do so during their rest periods." What would you do if this happened on a bus? Should the drivers’ right to worship be respected at all cost? My view is that…

  • Wine - the secret to cracking terrorism?

    Bess Twiston-Davies
    5 Feb 2010 | 7:11 am
    Bess writes: So now we know: a glass of wine – that’s  the secret to stopping Islamic fundamentalists. All the 9/11 bombers would have needed to stop them was a stiff drink. Or at least that’s basically the theory espoused by the philosopher Roger Scruton who is research professor for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Washington and Oxford. Scruton, wine critic of The New Statesman suggests in next month's Decanter magazine that  “lunatic” fundamentalists “who have set their heart on giving Islam a bad name” should learn to drink wine.

  • Australia, home to the world's biggest sinners?

    Bess Twiston-Davies
    26 Jan 2010 | 5:24 am
      Bess writes: Hats off to Archbishop Cranmer for picking up on this scintillating story from Focus, the BBC “magazine of  science, technology and the future.” The February edition, the Archbishop informs us, contains an article on entitled “Born to sin. Why nature wants you to be bad”. It asks whether nature has programmed humanity to sin – something which personally strikes me as a highly convenient theory if you want to avoid taking personal responsibility for your actions. Anyway, the article comes with arguments linking specific parts of the brain to each of the…

  • Yes, faith schools are a good thing

    Bess Twiston-Davies
    20 Jan 2010 | 5:08 am
    Bess writes: Following on from last week's Schoolgate debate on whether Faith Schools are good or bad for education, Sajda Khan, our Muslim guest blogger and teacher puts the case below for faith-based education.. Sajda writes: One of the main criticisms levied at faith schools is that they undermine community cohesion and encourage the indoctrination of a particular faith. Their opponents argue that Britain is becoming a more culturally diverse society; ‘How can faith schools, which are aimed at one community, contribute to diversity?’ they ask.  Accord Coalition – which…

  • Bono and... the Bible

    Bess Twiston-Davies
    11 Jan 2010 | 10:01 am
    Bess writes: U2 are obsessed with… the Bible. At least according to L’Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper. In a piece published January 4, it reveals Bono’s early fascination with the Old Testament King and prophet David. At the age of 12, Bono  “adored” David: “For me he was like a pop star and the words of the psalms, poetry…” He explains: "Before becoming a prophet and king of Israel, David had gone through a lot: he went into exile and in the end went into a cavern where he came to terms with God. And that is where the soap opera gets…
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    www.markdroberts.com

  • Proof That Even Brilliant Professors Can Lack Common Sense?!?

    Mark D. Roberts
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Last week I visited one of the leading universities in the United States. It is especially famous for its outstanding research faculty. Academic brilliance flourishes in this place. I was meeting with a member of that faculty, and spent a few hours in his office. On his floor were a couple dozen colleagues in his field. When I went to use the men’s restroom, I was impressed by a sign that had been carefully taped above a toilet’s flushing mechanism. It read: PLEASE FLUSH AFTER USE! I had to wonder why this sign was there. Surely the professors knew that they’re supposed to…

  • NY Times: “Microsoft’s Creative Destruction”

    Mark D. Roberts
    8 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Last Thursday I read a striking op-ed piece in the New York Times.  It was written by Dick Brass, a former VP for Microsoft. Brass argues that Microsoft has become a place where genuine innovation is discouraged. Here are a few excerpts: . . . Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest. . . . What happened? Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation. Despite having one of the…

  • Sunday Inspiration from The High Calling

    Mark D. Roberts
    7 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    A Time to Be Quiet and a Time to Speak READ Mark 14:41-65 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Mark 14:60-61 After Jesus was arrested, he was taken to the home of the high priest, where he was interrogated by Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. Many witnesses offered testimony against Jesus, but their stories were not sufficient to condemn him. As he…

  • Rereading a Classic: Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott, Part 3

    Mark D. Roberts
    5 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Today I finish sharing some quotations from John Stott’s classic book Christian Mission in the Modern World. Toward the end of his chapter on mission, Stott focuses on the question of vocation or calling. I begin with vocation, by which I mean a Christian’s lifework. We often given the impression that if a young Christian man is really keen for Christ he will undoubtedly become a foreign missionary, that if he is not quite as keen as that he will stay at home and become a pastor, that if he lacks the dedication to he a pastor, he will no doubt serve as a doctor or a teacher, while…

  • Rereading a Classic: Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott, Part 2

    Mark D. Roberts
    4 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Yesterday I began sharing some quotations from John Stott’s classic book Christian Mission in the Modern World. Today I’ll add a few more: Let me return now to the Great Commission. I have tried to argue that its Johannine form, according to which the church’s mission is to be modeled on the Son’s, implies that we are sent into the world to serve, and that the humble service we are to render will include for us as it did for Christ both words and works, a concern for the hunger and for the sickness of both body and soul, in other words, both evangelistic and social…
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    Real Live Preacher

  • Three dreams before Sunday

    rlp
    6 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am
    I had three dreams early Saturday morning before my last Sunday as the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church. Salting the Edwards Aquifer In the first of three dreams I had this night, there was a big controversy in San Antonio regarding the Edwards Aquifer, our city’s source of water. Some, mostly conservatives, wanted to add massive amounts of salt to the aquifer. They claimed the salt would create a “salt pan” and preserve the aquifer in some way, insuring us of a supply of water in the future. I tried to make a guess at what this meant. I asked their expert if the salt would sink to the…

  • One last Sunday

    rlp
    5 Feb 2010 | 1:57 pm
    I used to wonder how my time at Covenant would end. Back in the middle of it all, back when I couldn’t imagine any other life for myself, I would wonder what my last Sunday would be like. I knew my time at Covenant was not preparing me for ministry in another church. For better and for worse, Covenant Baptist Church is a unique kind of community that doesn’t follow the rules. I am not by nature good at organizational and managerial issues. I wonder, did my personality help create this strange little church that has always been somewhat unorganized and lightly managed? I don’t know, but…

  • 5 Sermons

    rlp
    3 Feb 2010 | 5:59 am
    Although I am leaving Covenant, I'm still the youth pastor for the Southwest Baptist Youth Camping Association, of which my church is a part. Our camp is in June. The ministers rotate through this, and this is my year. It's a challenge, preaching to teenagers. One that I relish! I'm pumped about this. Our theme is "Heroes." My goal: find the hardest, most heroic things about being a Christian and push the life instead of the dogma. Today I disappear into my office at the church to get ready for our big planning meeting tomorrow in Fort Worth. I have 5 sermons planned. Going to work on them…

  • Sometimes you have to choose

    rlp
    1 Feb 2010 | 12:56 pm
    On Thursday I said that I became a minister after feeling a “calling” when I was seventeen. It was a very natural thing for me, having grown up in the the culture of southern, evangelical Christianity. My father was a Baptist minister. Our lives revolved around the church. We were there whenever the doors were open, and if the doors were locked, my dad had the key. Virtually all of our family friends were Christian insiders, many of them ministers. My best friends were in the youth group at the church. I was aware that many people did not go to church as often as we did and were not…

  • Processing... Processing...

    rlp
    28 Jan 2010 | 2:31 pm
    Say there was this guy who was the pastor of a church. He was a nice enough guy. He tried to be a good Christian and tried to be a good pastor. Twelve years into it, he suddenly finds himself writing fictional stories about a pastor who walks away from the church. He also finds himself fantasizing about leaving the church himself. He doesn’t know why. He likes what he’s doing. He loves his church, which is the coolest kind of easy-going church you could imagine. The administrative and other burdens of this church are probably lighter than any church on the planet, so he can’t complain.
 
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    Hindu Press International » Hindu Press International

  • A Real Balinese Temple Inside the Rothenbaum Museum

    Satyanatha
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:05 pm
    Source: www.abendblatt.deHAMBURG, GERMANY, February 7, 2010: Hamburg’s Museum fur Volkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology) has been home to an authentic Balinese temple since November 2009. Carved out of volcanic stone, the temple was shipped from Bali to Germany and assembled according to tradition by the Balinese architect Artana and two assistants. Construction was funded by Juli Biesterfeld, a Balinese woman who lives in Hamburg. The temple, which stands in front of the Museum, will be both an exhibit and an authentic place of worship. The official consecration of the temple will be done…

  • Latest Issue of Hinduism Today for Sale on Scribd.com

    Satyanatha
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:04 pm
    Source: www.scribd.comKAPAA, HI, USA, February 8, 2010: Kindle, Nook, Apple iPad — it seems that digital editions of books and magazines are destined to seize the spotlight from venerable paper, which has been the choice of readers for centuries. Or maybe not: how can you reproduce the ease and comfort of having a printed edition in your hands, one you can fold, skim, drop, lend and archive?Either way the magazine world goes, Hinduism Today will be there. Today’s innovation is that you can buy and read the latest edition of Hinduism Today (January/February/March, 2010) on Scribd,…

  • Last Speaker of Ancient Language of Bo Dies in India

    Satyanatha
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:03 pm
    Source: news.bbc.co.ukANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA, February 4, 2010: The last speaker of an ancient language in India’s Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85, a leading linguist has told the BBC. Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world’s oldest languages - Bo - had come to an end. She said that India had lost an irreplaceable part of its heritage. Languages in the Andamans are thought to originate from Africa. Some may be 70,000 years old. The islands are often called an “anthropologist’s dream” and…

  • Hydropower Projects On Ganga Questioned

    Satyanatha
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:02 pm
    Source: www.poten.comINDIA, February 2010: The revelation that the Ganga could disappear in the Gangotri valley if a series of hydropower projects are completed should prompt a rethink on what is clearly a case of mindless development, according to this article. Twelve hydro power projects, some functioning and others proposed, are located in a fragile ecological zone.Environmentalists have warned that there will be no free-flowing Ganga all the way to Haridwar once the dams on the river start functioning. Not only is the river sacred to hundreds of millions of Indians, but also a major…

  • European Delegation to Visit Orissa

    Satyanatha
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:01 pm
    Source: news.bbc.co.ukORISSA, INDIA, February, 7, 2010: A delegation of the European Union is due to visit a region which was hit by religious riots in the eastern Indian state of Orissa last year. Kandhamal district witnessed weeks of anti-Christian violence after a Hindu leader was shot dead. The clashes erupted after hard line Hindu groups blamed Christians for the killing. The government set up two fast-track courts to deal speedily with cases relating to the riots.Hindus have protested against the visit saying it was a violation of the sovereignty of the country. The violence in…
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    Iskcon Universe

  • GBC Report #1

    admin
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:08 am
    By Praghosa das The 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON commenced Saturday morning in Sri Mayapur Dham with Bhakti Caru Maharaja offering the traditional guru-puja ceremony to ISKCON's Founder-Acarya, Srila Prabhupada, while Ekalavya Prabhu led an enthusiastic and inspirational kirtan. This year's GBC Chairman, Romapada Maharaja, welcomed everyone in attendance and delivered a reading from the tenth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam
 
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    Velveteen Rabbi

  • Returning to rabbinic school

    Rachel Barenblat
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:06 pm
    This week I return to rabbinic school...a little bit. I'm taking one class this spring, called Integral Halacha, which is functionally ALEPH's senior seminar; I'm taking it with the other six rabbinic students who are, like me, aiming for ordination next January. Integral halacha: transcending and including is the title of one of Reb Zalman's recent books, co-written with Reb Daniel Siegel, who'll be teaching the class I'm about to take. Ideally, integral halakha aims to maintain continuity with the past and also to provide flexibility for the present. Reb Zalman…

  • Read Write Prompt #112: the narrative wallpaper

    Rachel Barenblat
    4 Feb 2010 | 7:08 am
    2AM FEEDING Moonlight slants across the floor as I scuff down the stairs to your yellow room you've thrashed loose from your swaddling and scooted halfway down the mattress fists clenched and mouth open in a caricature of fury the moment you attach your face goes slack and unconcerned, eyes shut, one brow raised: tiny Vulcan, commenting with a silent gesture on humanity's quirks and misconceptions what will you recall of these long nights when I watched the moon cast shadows on snow? This week's prompt at ReadWritePoem is #112: the narrative wallpaper. The poem I wound up…

  • Tu BiShvat is on the way

    Rachel Barenblat
    29 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am
    A big beautiful conifer outside our house, flanked by birch trees. Tu BiShvat, the New Year of the Trees, begins tonight at sundown. Maybe not surprisingly, I haven't had time to collect any new resources for the holiday or to write any new holiday reflections or prayers this year. So I'll point you to the Tu BiShvat category on this blog -- feel free to look there for previous years' posts, including the Haggadah for Tu BiShvat I posted a few years ago. My own celebration will probably be simple: eating some of the etrog marmalade I made last Sukkot, and maybe treating myself…

  • Legless (Read Write Prompt #111: broken chair)

    Rachel Barenblat
    28 Jan 2010 | 4:24 am
    LEGLESS The sadness arises again and cuts my legs out from under me the monotony of trying to soothe screams as frequent as the waves... I'm tethered, my body is harnessed my own desires pushed aside sometimes he stares up at my eyes as though he sees me but then his chin crumples resolute and furious and I disappear This week's ReadWritePoem prompt is the following photo by sepulture: The image of the chair which is missing a leg but is still standing sparked this poem obliquely. I resonated with the broken chair -- I've been feeling a little bit that way lately. But the man…

  • Another mother poem: Power

    Rachel Barenblat
    27 Jan 2010 | 11:21 am
    POWER most of all parenthood requires endless batteries for the vibrating chair with its bright medley of earworm nursery rhymes for the mobile, Mozart sparking synapses while the baby sleeps for the baby monitors like walkie-talkies which brook no reply but when the gadgets run down or fail all we have are hands voices, shoulders, breasts running on power we didn't know we had Another in my ongoing series of mother poems. A bit lighter than the last one I posted (also lighter than the next one I'm working on) -- which is part of why I wanted to share this one.I do find that…
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    Jade Mountains - Practice Within the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives

  • Testing the Buoyancy Of The Air

    Rev. Mugo
    7 Feb 2010 | 1:32 pm
    Near Nateby, Cumbria. 2010. Light drops like honey from branch to branch Elders balance their dishes of cream While fledglings try small quavery leaps Testing the buoyancy of the air. Out walking in the sunshine. First sun I've seen. This poem carved in a hunk of rock beside the path. Hum. Are we not testing the buoyancy of the air, literally? Then later, the din of collective goose. I look up, eventually, to see them flying over head. Catch them in flight. All is well as I settle to new circumstances. Life is much the same, although the details are changed.

  • Boundless Sky

    Rev. Mugo
    30 Jan 2010 | 2:34 pm
    Wells-by-the-sea, Norfolk, 2008. I have the blessing verse in my mind, the one that starts - The Universe is as the boundless sky...just seems to be there for me this evening. No edges, boundless, complete boundlessness...how else could 'this' be? Sit well, sleep well, rise well, walk-on well. For the next six weeks I'll be away from the monastery - renewing, resting, reflecting and retreating. And walking and taking photographs and probably posting here too.

  • ....Of The Spotless Mind

    Rev. Mugo
    28 Jan 2010 | 3:53 pm
    Last years snowdrops. How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned. By Alexander Pope from the poem, Eloisa to Abelard. The film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took its title from this poem. This morning, and I am not sure why, the dissolving of the snow had Sunshine of the spotless mind playing in my head. The poem by Pope and the film are about love and loss and forgetting. About the pain of letting go. We would be foolish to imagine there would be no pain…

  • Enlightened Together WITH.....

    Rev. Mugo
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:16 am
    Bodhi leaf with the Morning Star - Badge offer. Sometimes it is said that the Buddha (the Awakened One) sits in the palm of ones hand. Or that we sit in the palm of the Buddhas hand. Either way the message is that Awakening IS and ever present, even now. If you would like to have one of these badges please do drop me a line. The badge is free and freely given. If however you would like to contribute to the costs you can do so through Everyclick - with most currencies, as I understand it. Contributions are offerings in the spirit of Dana, not payment. The following is from The Denkoroku - The…

  • Guest Post - The Tale Of A Dog

    Rev. Mugo
    23 Jan 2010 | 12:05 pm
    Here is a tribute to Bailey. She is/was a very special dog who I met at least once, in Edmonton Canada. Tom Wharton is pretty special too, as is his whole family. Not only is he a writer, he is a successful one too and I bow to that a million times. He is also a practicing Buddhist in our tradition. And best of all - he rides a bike to work - sometimes in sub SUB zero temperatures! Let's hear more from you Tom. And thanks for this. Bailey came into our family when she was almost two years old. Her family in Airdire wasn’t able to look after her anymore, and the long-term care hospital where…
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    On Faith

  • Super Bowl an appropriate venue for pro-life ad?

    Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
    The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is sponsoring a pro-life ad, featuring football star Tim Tebow, during Sunday's Super Bowl. Should CBS show the ad? Should CBS allow other faith-based groups to buy Super Bowl ads promoting their beliefs on social issues? Is a major sporting event, or a TV ad campaign, an appropriate venue for discussing such vital and divisive culture-war issues like abortion? The League: Who cares if Tim Tebow is...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

  • Presidents as saviors

    Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
    Do we expect our presidents to be spiritual leaders as well as political leaders? Can they be? Should they be?...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

  • Does God allow Haiti to suffer?

    Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
    Many have criticized Pat Robertson for suggesting that the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was the work of the devil or a form of divine punishment. But if one believes God is good and intervenes in the world, why does God allow innocents to suffer? What is the best scriptural text or explanation of that problem you've ever read?...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

  • Media biased against Christians?

    Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
    Fox News analyst Brit Hume said "widespread media bias against Christianity" was to blame for criticism of his suggestion that Tiger Woods should embrace Christianity to find redemption. "Instead of urging that Tiger Woods turn to Christianity, if I had said what he needed to do was to strengthen his Buddhist commitment or turn to Hinduism, I don't think anybody would have said a word," Hume told Christianity Today. "It's Christ and Christianity that get...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

  • Is blasphemy a crime?

    Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
    Atheists and others are protesting a new law in Ireland, under which a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if "he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion." The penalty is a fine of up to about $35,000. Should Ireland or any nation have a law against...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.
 
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    Sufi News and Sufism World Report

  • Exam success: Map out strategies, Kano Islamic scholars urge government during Annual Celebration of the Birthday of Shaykh Ahmad Tijani

    Dr. Alan Godlas
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:32 am
    SAFAR 25 1431 A.H., TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2010 published in the Daily Triumph (Kano, Nigeria) ISLAMIC scholars in Kano state have advised government to map out strategies aimed at ensuring the success of school examinations among students, most of whom fail at the O level stage. This observation was made by Sheikh Isma’ila Khalipha during the celebration of the 52nd anniversary of the birthday of Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani, held at Jakara quarters in Dala local government area.According to Sheikh Khalipha, students are always committed to their studies but at the end, they end up failing the final…

  • Classical musicians bring Dalrymple's ‘Nine Lives’ to life

    Dr. Alan Godlas
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:14 am
    February 08, 2010, published in the Daily Times (Pakistan).http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\02\08\story_8-2-2010_pg7_40LAHORE: A concert “Nine Lives: Sacred Music in Modern India-Pakistan” was organised at the Peeru’s Café on Friday by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW).The main focus of the event was to celebrate the success of acclaimed travel writer, William Dalrymple’s latest book, ‘Nine Lives’. The book is about music of the subcontinent and has been well received and much appreciated in music circles. A large number of people showed up for the event…

  • Prince Charles wowed by whirling dervishes at celebration sponsored by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

    Dr. Alan Godlas
    9 Feb 2010 | 8:58 am
    February 08, 2010, published in The Asian News, UKPrince Charles was guest of honour at a celebration of Sufi Muslim culture at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground where he was entertained by whirlers in traditional dress.Greeted by artists, religious leaders and musicians, he made his way into a hushed hall at the stadium where he enjoyed a musical recitation of the Holy Quran accompanied by a whirling dervishes dressed in traditional costumes.The Spirituality in Action event celebrated the contributions of Sufi culture and heritage to 21st Century British life.It shows how Sufism has…

  • Healing Notes

    Dr. Alan Godlas
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:20 am
    by Prabhjot Sohal on IndianExpress.com, Sunday , Feb 07, 2010, Arms rose gracefully, bodies twirled in soulful trance and lips chanted hymns of love and peace, as a crowded gathering danced to the solitary notes of one man’s guitar. Thursday evening resonated with spiritual incantations and vibes, as Pir Shabda Khan of Sufi Ruhaniat International led his listeners into a zikar — dance of universal peace.The dargarh of Sufi saint Hazrat Sufi Inayat Khan in Nizamuddin [i.e., the area around the shrine of the great Chishti saint, Hz. Nizamudding Awliya] is witnessing the 100-year anniversary…

  • Promotion of Sufism can help eliminate terror: Declares Pakistan's Minister of State for Information, Sumsam Bukhari

    Dr. Alan Godlas
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:30 am
    LAHORE, Feb 7 (APP- Associated Press of Pakistan): Minister of State for Information Syed Sumsam Bukhari has said the promotion of Sufism is vital to eliminate extremism, terrorism and other ills from society.Addressing a ceremony here at Alhamra Hall on Sunday, he said Sufis had played an active role in spreading the message of love, brotherhood and humanity.He said Islam is a religion of peace and its main focus is to protect human rights and guide humanity to goodness.‘Sahab-e-Karam’ and ‘Ulema-e-Karam’ focused on promotion of teachings of the Qurran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad…
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    Inspirations and Creative Thoughts

  • Visit to Rumi's Tomb in Konya, Turkey

    8 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am
    The minute I heard my first love story, ... I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other .... all along. - Rumi Visiting the tomb of elect souls, those who have attained the Nearness is a living source of blessings. In Sufi tradition particularly, the final resting place of the great masters and guides have always been

  • Vehrhe aa varh mere | Come to my courtyard

    7 Feb 2010 | 7:57 am
    Whether you know me or not Come into my courtyard To you I am sacrificed Come into my courtyard Other than you there is none for me I have searched the jungles and the wilderness The whole world I have searched Come into my courtyard To you I am sacrificed Come into my courtyard People take Ranjha to be goatherd In truth, Ranjha is amongst them Saying, such is my belief and my faith Come into

  • God Maker and Prophet's Ascension | From Omid Safi's Speech

    6 Feb 2010 | 7:47 pm
    1. Omid Safi, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he specializes on Islamic mysticism (Sufism), contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic history, gave an interesting introduction speech on the theme of Revelation at Seven Pillars' Inauguration' Opening Ceremony. It carries special inspiration and also beauty of mysticism. Thanks

  • We Appear One Day and Disappear the Next

    4 Feb 2010 | 9:46 pm
    1. Look at the birds flying in the sky, soaring above the trees and over the rooftops. They are searching for food. All day long they fly about in order to satisfy the hunger of their stomachs, but at twilight they must return to their nests. Man also searches for food to satisfy his one-span stomach. Even the ant has a one-span stomach which he must fill with food. Our life lasts for but one day

  • Returning, Going Back and The Journey Home

    4 Feb 2010 | 7:55 am
    Travel one way. The return to God. Single-minded pursuit of divine truth. This means banishing and dispelling every thought, good or bad, that comes to mind involuntarily during the dhikr. When performing the remembrance the heart is required to attain the calm contentment of: “Oh Allah, my goal is You and Your good pleasure; it is nothing else!” So long as there is any space left in the
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    La Shawn Barber's Corner

  • Pro-Abort WashPost Columnist On Tim Tebow’s Side

    La Shawn
    5 Feb 2010 | 11:29 am
    Update: A second Tim Tebow/Focus on the Family ad will air before the game starts. So ad #2 will air before the big game, and ad #1 will air during. *** I know we pro-lifers keep talking and talking and blogging and writing about Tim Tebow. We can’t help it!!! A high-profile, abstinent young Christian is set to appear on the air during the hottest commercial slot in the country to tell the world his mother valued his life so much, she chose to keep rather than kill him, against her doctor’s advice. Yeah, we’re talking about him, and we’ll keep talking about him. Like…

  • Tim Tebow Prays at National Prayer Breakfast

    La Shawn
    4 Feb 2010 | 8:59 am
    Check out this 22-year-old giving the closing prayer at today’s National Prayer Breakfast: When I was his age, I was a fornicating, unambitious drunk (sounds really bad when I put it that way; wait a second…it was!) who wouldn’t have spoken about anything in front of anybody, no matter how much you paid me. What a contrast, eh? Super Bowl predictions: New Orleans loses, Tim Tebow shines, and pro-aborts hyperventilate. Good day for football. And for life.

  • NYT: Pro-Aborts on ‘Wrong Track’ on Tim Tebow Ad

    La Shawn
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am
    Update: The pro-life message is wonderful, but I’m hoping the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad somehow smuggles in the Gospel. CBS wouldn’t allow it, of course, but perhaps some of his testimony comes through. *** Great day in the morning! I can hardly believe my eyes. The New York Times calls pro-abortion groups’ shrieking about a pro-life ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother “puzzling and dismaying.” Last week I blogged about Heisman trophy-winning QB Tim Tebow (lives!), whose mother chose to give him a chance to live, despite her doctor’s advice to abort him.

  • Republicans in Hollywood

    La Shawn
    27 Jan 2010 | 5:29 am
    I rarely blog about celebrities because it seems so, you know, shallow. I make an exception for right-leaning celebrities. In 2008, I put up a post about Republican-registered Hollywood folks like Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Pat Sajak, Angie Harmon and her husband Jason Sehorn, former cornerback for the New York Giants, and Gary “The Book of Eli” Oldman. Patricia Heaton, Stephen Baldwin (brother of Alec), and Kirk Cameron also are conservative Christians. It appears that WCBSTV updated the list. Danny Aiello is conservative. Johnny Ramone of The Ramones…

  • Tim Tebow Lives

    La Shawn
    26 Jan 2010 | 5:33 am
    Update: Captain Ed says: “Expect to see this kind of hysterical criticism reach a crescendo when the ad airs, and then a quick deflation afterward. It’s just another form of advertising, after all, but instead of a new beer or bar of soap, it advertises faith in a personal and indisputable manner. Personal witness is the most powerful form of testimony that there is, and the most effective … which, again, is why we see the reaction that just the idea of it generates.” By now, most readers know my “radical” views on abortion. I believe an unborn baby should live,…
 
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    Evangelical Outpost

  • Our Avatars

    Amy Cannon
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:48 pm
    I have not seen Avatar. I don’t plan on seeing it, either. Before the film fanatics stone me, know that I watch very few movies at all — much less movies that cost over 10 dollars to see. I don’t have much of a soft spot for SciFi, and — I have heard — though the visual affects are heavenly, the story line holds about as much water as a swiss cheese. I’m more interested in stories than effects, and, though I may be predetermining things, am fairly confident Avatar would prove a disappointment to me.So why blog about something I haven’t seen? In the…

  • 33 Things: The Week’s Amusing & Intriguing Links

    Robin Dembroff
    4 Feb 2010 | 11:05 pm
    Superbowl Fail Cakes, Free Office 2010 Beta, and thoughtful reflections on Lent…all in the same place. Welcome to 33 Things–33 ways to spend around 33 minutes of your lunch break.1. Bees will do almost anything for sweet food, even recognize human faces.2. A handy flow-chart for getting your picture featured on thesartorialist.blogspot.com.3. A list of the ten least translatable words.4. Everyone Matters, No Matter What “If we believe moral worthiness is solely a byproduct of some measurable attribute or capacity—rather than being intrinsic—we will naturally disdain our…

  • The Funny, the Serious and the Social: A Reflection from the Leno/Conan Controversy

    Jennifer D Gaertner
    4 Feb 2010 | 1:00 am
    It’s been an odd couple of weeks in the news recently, with a number of articles and video segments frantically reporting on the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno fiasco. “I’m with Coco” fans’ dreams for the future of The Tonight Show were laid to rest when NBC executives officially announced a little over a week ago that they planned to send him and his crew packing. In short: there has been much hype surrounding the Late Night controversy. And not only in the media. The public itself tuned its attention to entertainment’s greatest foible with much fervor.During his last week on The…

  • Classics for the Contemporary Christian: Digging into Darwin

    Robin Dembroff
    2 Feb 2010 | 11:05 pm
    Darwin’s Dead and He Ain’t Coming Back…or so the Christian bumper sticker says. Personally, my favorite is the one of the Jesus fish eating the upside-down mutant fish with legs labeled ‘Darwin’. In the Jesus vs Darwin showdown, apparently survival of the fittest is true after all.For many Christians, the instinctive reaction to Darwin, author of the theory natural selection—not, as commonly thought, the author of theory of evolution—is defensive and even hostile. Darwin, some think, is the guy who tried to kill God in the 19th century. He’s the main cause of modern…

  • Heartbreak for Haiti

    Dustin R. Steeve
    2 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    It has now been a couple of weeks since a 7.0 magnitude quake devastated the island nation of Haiti.  Since the quake I’ve read and seen a great deal of analysis and reporting from the scene, but these sterile dissections, with their emphasis on data and statistics, are not sufficient for helping me fully wrestle with such an overwhelming situation.  Then a reader pointed me to this video, made by a Haitian, which helped me to understand the situation on a much deeper level – a level to which music uniquely speaks.If you’ve not yet donated to help the relief efforts in…
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    www.markdroberts.com

  • Proof That Even Brilliant Professors Can Lack Common Sense?!?

    Mark D. Roberts
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Last week I visited one of the leading universities in the United States. It is especially famous for its outstanding research faculty. Academic brilliance flourishes in this place. I was meeting with a member of that faculty, and spent a few hours in his office. On his floor were a couple dozen colleagues in his field. When I went to use the men’s restroom, I was impressed by a sign that had been carefully taped above a toilet’s flushing mechanism. It read: PLEASE FLUSH AFTER USE! I had to wonder why this sign was there. Surely the professors knew that they’re supposed to…

  • NY Times: “Microsoft’s Creative Destruction”

    Mark D. Roberts
    8 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Last Thursday I read a striking op-ed piece in the New York Times.  It was written by Dick Brass, a former VP for Microsoft. Brass argues that Microsoft has become a place where genuine innovation is discouraged. Here are a few excerpts: . . . Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest. . . . What happened? Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation. Despite having one of the…

  • Sunday Inspiration from The High Calling

    Mark D. Roberts
    7 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    A Time to Be Quiet and a Time to Speak READ Mark 14:41-65 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Mark 14:60-61 After Jesus was arrested, he was taken to the home of the high priest, where he was interrogated by Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. Many witnesses offered testimony against Jesus, but their stories were not sufficient to condemn him. As he…

  • Rereading a Classic: Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott, Part 3

    Mark D. Roberts
    5 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Today I finish sharing some quotations from John Stott’s classic book Christian Mission in the Modern World. Toward the end of his chapter on mission, Stott focuses on the question of vocation or calling. I begin with vocation, by which I mean a Christian’s lifework. We often given the impression that if a young Christian man is really keen for Christ he will undoubtedly become a foreign missionary, that if he is not quite as keen as that he will stay at home and become a pastor, that if he lacks the dedication to he a pastor, he will no doubt serve as a doctor or a teacher, while…

  • Rereading a Classic: Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott, Part 2

    Mark D. Roberts
    4 Feb 2010 | 12:01 am
    Yesterday I began sharing some quotations from John Stott’s classic book Christian Mission in the Modern World. Today I’ll add a few more: Let me return now to the Great Commission. I have tried to argue that its Johannine form, according to which the church’s mission is to be modeled on the Son’s, implies that we are sent into the world to serve, and that the humble service we are to render will include for us as it did for Christ both words and works, a concern for the hunger and for the sickness of both body and soul, in other words, both evangelistic and social…
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    bendaniel.org

  • The Problem with the Tim Tebow/Focus on the Family Comercial

    Ben
    8 Feb 2010 | 8:23 am
    OK. So I know that a lot of people were making a big deal about the fact that Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam, were going to be featured on a pro-life commercial during the Suberbowl. I was less worried by the politics than I was by the fact that the video showed Tim Tebow tackling his mother. I know they were trying to be funny, but domestic violence doesn’t really seem like something about which we should be laughing.

  • Frank Schaeffer Takes On the Fellowship

    Ben
    5 Feb 2010 | 6:09 pm
    Frank Schaeffer is saying what needs to be said: I’m proud to say that Frank has written the foreword of my forthcoming book. To be fair, the President did take on the proposed Ugandan law that would make homosexuality a capital offense. Here is his speech It is a very good speech, but I do wish he’d been more forceful on the Ugandan issue.

  • Pray for Obama

    Ben
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:15 pm
    Here’s a new rule: you may not criticize radical Muslims if you will not also call out crazy, violent Christians. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

  • David Brooks, Nidal Hasan, and the Separation of Religion and Violence

    Ben
    11 Nov 2009 | 11:02 pm
    We are on dangerous ground. In an op/ed piece published in The New York Times on November 11, 2009, David Brooks takes the American media to task for their initial reticence to portray Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as a radical Muslim terrorist. Maj. Hasan, in case you haven’t been following the news, is the man who murdered thirteen of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas last week. According to witnesses, he shouted “God is great” in Arabic before pulling out his pistol and killing people. Naturally, folks want to know about this murderous madman, and the first details to emerge painted a…

  • Book Review: “Patience with God: Faith for Those who Don’t like Religion (or Atheism)” by Frank Schaeffer.

    Ben
    19 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm
    I should begin my review of Frank Schaeffer’s latest book, Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism)(Da Capo Press, $25.00, hardcover), with a disclaimer: I have an indirect financial interest in Mr. Schaeffer’s success as a writer. Frank Schaeffer wrote a beautifully-crafted, thoughtful, and gracious foreword for my forthcoming, yet-to-be-named book on American Christianity’s response to undocumented (or “illegal”) immigration. His name will appear next to mine on the cover of my book because my publisher, Westminster John Knox Press, hopes Frank…
 
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    Evolving Beings

  • Moving Beyond the Holy Day to Holiness and Wholeness Now

    Guest Author
    7 Feb 2010 | 4:18 pm
    This article is written for Evolving Beings by guest author Bernie Krausse of Walking in Stillness and Natural Moments. “Pollinate All the Hearts within the Environment of your Making.” – Bernie Krausse Every special event, every holiday, and therefore...

  • Essential Energy With Cyndi Dale: The Shopping List of Opposite Sexes – Significance versus Security

    Cyndi Dale
    4 Feb 2010 | 3:51 pm
    Have you noticed how different most men and women are when shopping? My two sons’ idea of shopping involves cruising a store, grabbing the bare necessities, and then pulling out the plastic (my plastic, in this case) with a quick...

  • Evolving Being In Action: Megan Bord

    Evita Ochel
    31 Jan 2010 | 9:11 pm
    February is upon us and it is my pleasure to announce to you this month’s featured “Evolving Being in Action“. This month our submission comes from Megan Bord – also known as “the Joy Girl!” I first got to know...

  • Book Review: The Harvard Psychedelic Club

    Evita Ochel
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:09 pm
    The latest book that I had a chance to read not only brought me even more out of my comfort zone, but allowed me to learn about and explore a world that I had little knowledge of. Thanks to the...

  • Awaken Through Entertainment – 5 Great Sites For Free Documentaries

    Evita Ochel
    25 Jan 2010 | 8:23 pm
    These days I am not one for television or Hollywood movies for that matter, unless they involve love and laughter. Where my media preferences shifted in the past few years was to documentaries, and not just any documentaries, but enlightening...
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    Next Age

  • His-Story Of All That Is – The Story Of ONE

    Seth Garrison
    7 Feb 2010 | 1:49 am
    Once upon a time there was nothing. No light. No life. VOID of anything. Well almost anything. There were these little atom guys randomly running around in the dark bumping into each other. It was chaotic! This story is about four of these little guys: Hydro aka Hydrogen aka “Boss” Nitro aka Nitrogen Oxy aka Oxygen Carb aka Carbon One day these four were going about their routine when they all came together at exactly the same point. BANG … “Huh … WTH … What happened??” said Hydro. “Whoa, Where am I?” said Nitro,  “And who are you…

  • Welcome Back America – 3 Changes Obama Will Bring

    Seth Garrison
    7 Nov 2008 | 7:45 pm
    November 4th 2008 was a historic day but not just for the obvious reasons. It was important, not only for the US, but for the world and especially as a turning point for our journey to the next age of our evolution. I’m from Canada and this blog isn’t about politics but I wrote a couple of posts about Obama. One about the possibility that Obama is a lightworker and the other that the universe was lining up for an Obama win. They weren’t political but were about how the presidential campaign and changes happening in the US both politically and economically fit into our…

  • Five Basics For The Next Age Human

    Seth Garrison
    21 Oct 2008 | 6:12 pm
    My passion and purpose in this lifetime is to help others experience the joy, inner peace and complete feeling of freedom that I have been feeling since my awakening in 2000. Since then I have been engrossed in new age spirituality by going to seminars, reading books and listening to channels. I have also learned that the new age movement has some baggage that prohibits it from gaining mass acceptance. My intention with this section and with the entire site is to condense the concepts of awakening into simple terms in an attempt to encompass people that may be turned off by the words…

  • Science Looking For Proof Of The Soul

    Seth Garrison
    21 Oct 2008 | 5:55 pm
    An article came out last week about science looking to uncover the truth of the reality of  out of body experiences. I wrote a post called Transition Of The Soul which was about an experience I had with a bus driver telling me about her brother’s death and his actions and words as he neared death. Seems like science is looking for spirit. We humans love scientific proof. The article explains that at the University of Southampton in England a team of scientists will examine some 1500 people over a three year period. The people will be classified as clinically dead but then brought back…

  • Is The Universe Helping Obama Be President?

    Seth Garrison
    21 Oct 2008 | 5:32 pm
    I always look at world events from the perspective that we are shifting into the next age and completely changing how we, as humans, act and react to the world around us. With that in mind I want to offer my perspective of what’s happening in the U.S. right now. I am from Canada and realize that US politics is not my business but I want to show you how I see the latest events in the bigger sphere of the awakening world. It sure looks to me that the universe is aligning for two things to happen. One is the downgrading of American economic power in the world. The other is that it seems…
 
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    Episcopal Cafe

  • Bishop Suffragan for Federal Ministries nominees announced

    Ann Fontaine
    9 Feb 2010 | 10:30 am
    Six persons, including one woman, have been nominated for Bishop Suffragan for Federal Ministries according to Episcopal Life Online: Pending successful completion of background checks, the nominees include: The Rev. Carl Andrews, 61, a U.S. Air Force colonel and chaplain stationed at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. The Rev James "Jay" Magness, 63, canon for mission and diocesan administration in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. The Rev. Babs Meairs, 59, field coordinator in the Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Federal Ministries. The Rev. C. Christopher…

  • ABC Williams speaks to General Synod

    Ann Fontaine
    9 Feb 2010 | 7:30 am
    The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke to the Church of England General Synod today. He tried to set out a way to think about issues facing the church regarding appointment of women as bishops, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender clergy who are married or have civil unions, how much the state can determine the life of religions, and of end of life decisions. His main theme was that Christians must be more concerned with the sanctification of the neighbor and the stranger than individual freedom. While not denying the hope of those who seek more liberty in the church, he called all to see one…

  • Presiding Bishop visits Haiti

    Ann Fontaine
    9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am
    Episcopal News Service reports on the Presiding Bishop's pastoral visit to Haiti: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori paid a poignant visit to Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey with Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin the devastation wrought by the Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake. After climbing over the ruins of the diocese's Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the presiding bishop turned to Duracin and said "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday." "Yes, we can all sing Alleluias together," Duracin replied, according…

  • Remember to pray

    Vicki K. Black
    9 Feb 2010 | 1:00 am
    Daily Reading for February 9 Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education. Remember too every day, and whenever you can, repeat to yourself: “Lord, have mercy on all who appear before Thee today.” For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth, and their souls appear before God. And how many of them depart in solitude, unknown, sad, dejected; no one mourns for them or even knows whether they have…

  • The Prayer of Manasseh: a little gem of devotion

    Jim Naughton
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:53 am
    By Derek Olsen Candlemass has passed us now, devotions to Our Lady have shifted from the Alma Redemptoris Mater to the Ave Regina Caelorum, and—for those who keep them and for those who don’t but remember—the ‘gesimas are upon us. The signs of the seasons begin to turn our eyes toward Lent. I’m ready for it. Lent is one of the seasons I look forward to each year. It’s a time of preparation and introspection that sets time aside for us to take stock of who and what we are. When we look closely, honestly, we find that—among other things—we are mortal, fallible, and frail. Our…
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    Emergent Village

  • speaking out for one another [7]

    Amy Moffitt
    27 Jan 2010 | 6:30 am
    By Patrick Green LifeBridge Church/ YASO Lockport, IL, USA LifeBridge Church was started in November of 2008 looking like most church plants with some nice missional language thrown into the website, literature, and sermons. Our growth started very healthy for a plant. We had middle aged couples with kids coming, we had great music, we had tithes that more than covered our bills and we were, in return, giving a good consumer experience. But the messages showed my heart and the heart of some other people in our community who knew that there was more and knew we could be more. In February of…

  • Meet the Village Council

    Amy Moffitt
    27 Jan 2010 | 6:27 am
    “Institutionalization… is the collective equivalent of embodying –we know we’ve learned something when it becomes a part of how we do things.” From Presence by Otto Scharmer To paraphrase Scharmer, cherishing a network of conversations with the same holistic seriousness that you do the cells of your body means intuitively forming structures. If you trace the history of Emergent Village, it is similar to your church, or a family, or even an online open source project. At first there are just a few people, and those who know each other are within two degrees of separation. As the…

  • destructive theology [23]

    Amy Moffitt
    27 Jan 2010 | 6:15 am
    by Drew Tatusko As I watched the swirl Pat Robertson recently created in the wake of the horrific images of death and destruction in Haiti, I could not help but recall how others have used the tea leaves of destruction to divine the will of God and God’s self-revelation. It is a refashioned image of the God of the plagues and of Sodom and Gomorrah; the same God of judgment in Revelation who uses nature and people to destroy things in order to re-assert Lordship over everything. Clearly, this kind of claim has precedent. We may remember all too well how Robertson and Jerry Falwell blamed…

  • Church is here [26]

    Amy Moffitt
    13 Jan 2010 | 9:14 pm
    By Joy Schroeder Emerging Desert Cohort Mesa, AZ My deal is that I am a 40-something ‘recovering’ charismatic evangelical. I grew up in the church and spent 23 years completely sold out specifically to the Mega church experience and LOVED every minute of it, eventually finding myself in leadership roles etc. Because of a few very ugly experiences with the ‘powers that be’ I started to have questions about leadership, how money seems to be misappropriated in the church in general, the role of women, the inability for the church to truly promote reconciliation, the place of gays in the…

  • Amahoro Gathering 2010

    Amy Moffitt
    13 Jan 2010 | 9:13 pm
    We at Emergent Village are excited to announce the Fourth Annual Amahoro Gathering to be held in Mombasa, Kenya on May 3-10, 2010. This gathering promises to build upon the relationships built between leaders around the globe in previous years through conversation, prayer and fellowship. The conversation this year will center on the topic of Christ, Creation and Community. The following is an excerpt from the topic summary at the Amahoro Gathering 2010 Website: Across Africa, we are blessed with many of God’s most extravagant creatures, landscapes and cultures. We also suffer piercing…
 
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    Search the Scriptures

  • Leviticus - Part Eight

    31 Jan 2010 | 11:58 pm
    Dr. Constantinou answers more questions from listeners and then discusses chapter 16 of Leviticus, focusing on the Feast of Yom Kippur.

  • Leviticus - Part Seven

    16 Jan 2010 | 4:41 pm
    Dr. Constantinou takes a moment to answer listener questions about Leviticus.

  • Leviticus - Part Six

    29 Dec 2009 | 5:33 pm
    Dr. Constantinou continues her discussion of ritual impurity and its connection (or lack thereof) to Orthodox women.

  • Leviticus - Part Five

    14 Dec 2009 | 12:51 pm
    Dr. Constantinou discusses the Jewish laws of ritual purification in connection with some of the Orthodox customs associated with women.

  • Leviticus - Part Four

    10 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm
    Dr. Constantinou continues her discussion of the Temple at Jerusalem.
 
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    Jewish Treats

  • Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:03 am
    The Mussar movement, the formal study and program of ethical improvement, was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883, his family name was Lipkin but he is known as Salanter in honor of the many years he studied in Salant, Lithuania).Throughout his years of study, Rabbi Salanter felt that there was far too much cold intellectualism in the Jewish community and too little emphasis on ethics and self-improvement. While some Mussar texts already existed, such as the writings of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, Rabbi Salanter developed the study and practice of ethics…

  • Mussar Move

    9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am
    Write a list of 8 things you thing you can improve about yourself. (And at the same time, write a short list of things that you appreciate about yourself.)

  • Twilight (Sorry No Vampires)

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:03 am
    In Judaism, the day begins and ends at sunset. But defining sunset can be complicated. However, for many aspects of Jewish life, such as the observance of Shabbat/holidays, prayer times and even the day on which a baby boy has his brit milah (circumcision), knowing the exact moment when one day turns into the next is essential. There is, therefore, much discussion among the sages as to when day becomes twilight and twilight becomes night. This time period is known in Hebrew as bein ha'shma'shoat, between the suns. As long as there is any trace of sunlight left, it is still twilight. According…

  • Good Giving

    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am
    Donate your gently used books or toys to the local hospital.

  • The Haftarah

    5 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am
    Every week, on Shabbat, a portion of the Five Books of Moses is read in synagogue. This portion is known as the parasha. In addition to the parasha, a section from the Prophets (Neviim) is also read each Shabbat, immediately after the conclusion of the Torah Reading Service. This reading is known as the Haftarah. While there is no definitive source that confirms when this custom actually began, it is speculated that it commenced during the Syrian-Greek occupation of Judea ( the Chanukah story). King Antiochus prohibited the study of the Torah. Because the prohibition was specific to the five…
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    Missionary Confidential

  • Hard Truths in 1 Minute 17 Seconds

    C. Holland
    1 Feb 2010 | 8:13 am
    Hard Truths in 1 Minute 17 SecondsNew Post from: Missionary Confidential Sometimes hard truths about mission realities just have to be stated, and this video does just that under a minute and a half.  Though the speaker is from a Native American tribe, his words could easily be from the mouths of our nationals who have shared similar stories; they have experience both the issues of pictures and charity.  Best quote: “Very few people come for the sake of getting to know us and building relationship. And of those who do come for that, even less ever come back.” By the way, as…

  • From the Missionary Blogosphere

    C. Holland
    28 Jan 2010 | 10:10 am
    From the Missionary BlogosphereNew Post from: Missionary Confidential Author Ann Dunagan asks, “Is Your Family Mission Minded?” (HT: Life.Outpoured) How to avoid five pitfalls of Short-Term Mission trips An MK learns about sacrifice and the value of protecting your health NonModern explains why Evangelical Christians may be the worst witnesses in their own culture An example of the church being a missionary to Russia Related posts:From the Missionary Blogosphere

  • In the Culture of Now

    C. Holland
    13 Jan 2010 | 2:59 am
    In the Culture of NowNew Post from: Missionary Confidential The turn of the new year always gives us pause for reflection on the past and contemplation of the future, so the start of 2010 appears to be no different.  As I remember lessons learned over the past few years as a missionary, one theme keeps recurring: we are shaped by the environment in which we find ourselves, no matter how much we may resist.  And I have been very much influenced by my mission field’s culture which is an “in the moment” people group, something I like to call “The Culture of Now”. Of course, the title…

  • Around the Missionary Blogosphere

    C. Holland
    7 Jan 2010 | 4:24 am
    Around the Missionary BlogosphereNew Post from: Missionary Confidential MissioMishMash gives the answer to the question, “Is it safe to be a missionary?” Life.Outpoured revisits Speaking Missionese. The video on Christianese is hilarious, yet true. Missionaries already know they’re outsiders when entering a foreign field, but what if the church saw itself in the same way? The Scriptorium Daily reports on the Urbana 09 student missions conference and includes some great missions quotes; they’re all good but my favourites are the first two. Want to learn more about…

  • Favourite Posts of 2009

    C. Holland
    30 Dec 2009 | 2:03 pm
    Favourite Posts of 2009New Post from: Missionary Confidential While 2009 has been a year (and part of a decade) of ups and downs, both personally and collectively, the past 12 months have been possibly the most fruitful time in my writing since leaving school many, many years ago.  I believe the 72 posts on this blog for 2009 are representative of my creative faucet finally allowing my thoughts to flow.  It’s been quite a journey, and I’m humbled how many have joined me along the year. A quick look at stats shows that individual visitors to Missionary Confidential more than…
 
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    Mormanity - A Mormon Blog (But Not Just for Mormons)

  • Love the International Aspects of the Church: China and More

    Mormanity
    8 Feb 2010 | 7:42 pm
    I was asked today if I could help the missionaries visit somebody in Appleton, so I asked them to join us for dinner first and then we'd go. What an international event this evening was! Based on the name, can you guess where Elder Lokboj is from? At first glance I thought it was a Hmong name, but "k" is not a tone marker at the end of syllables, so that wasn't right. Got your guess? Hint: When properly pronounced, his name sounds almost Serbian or Russian to my ears. Well, that wasn't a helpful hint. Answer: He's from the Marshall Islands and speaks Marshallese, English, and Hmong. Yes, he's…

  • Popular Science: Not Always an Ultimate Authority

    Mormanity
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:50 am
    In science or in any field of study, things are not always tidy. Roughly a century ago, as some scientists were feeling that the laws of physics were well understood and tidy, along came quantum mechanics with the complex and initially disturbing model of particles having dual natures, sometimes like waves and other times like particles, further compounded by numerous puzzling characteristics, apparent contradictions, and even mathematical absurdities. While the smallest aspects of matter began throwing science for a loop, larger-scale aspects were doing the same as relativity came into play…

  • Dealing with Noah's Flood: Useful Resource

    Mormanity
    7 Feb 2010 | 6:50 am
    "Mormonism and Science/Global or Local Flood" is a useful page provided by FAIRLDS.org that might help some of you better grapple with some of the issues around Noah's Flood. I also have a few things to say on my LDSFAQ page about science and religion.Update: A thoughtful piece on the challenges of understanding the scriptural accounts of the Flood comes from a BYU professor, Duane E. Jeffery, in "Noah's Flood: Modern Scholarship and Mormon Traditions," Sunstone, Oct. 2004, pp. 27-45. The link is to a 3-MB PDF file for the whole Sunstone issue, in which the article on Noah's Flood begins on…

  • Celebrating a Mother's Decision to Not Abort Her Baby: Is It Really That Controversial?

    Mormanity
    7 Feb 2010 | 6:17 am
    I'm marveling at the anger and angst created by an upcoming Superbowl ad that will celebrate Pam Tebow's courageous CHOICE to have her baby, Tim Tebow. I've heard some genuine outrage from the pro-abortion camp over this. Does the word "choice" only mean "abortion"? Is the brave decision to not have an abortion somehow an anti-choice that needs to be downplayed? Is the existence of a vibrant human being who lives in spite of pressure on his mother to have an abortion stand as a threat to something? Indeed it does. Not to choice, but to those who see abortion as a good in itself. Matt Evans at…

  • Surprise Finding: Some Vegetative Patients May Still Have Consciousness

    Mormanity
    5 Feb 2010 | 4:59 am
    The debate on what to do with comatose patients becomes slightly more complex, perhaps, with intriguing new findings from the New England Journal of Medicine showing that a minority of completely vegetative patients may be able to hear and respond mentally when spoken to, and may even be able to answer questions. Stories in the press include:"Brain Scan May Foster Communication With Vegetative Patients" from ABC News"Vegetative Patient Answers Yes and No Questions With His Brain" from Gizmodo.com"Brain Waves Allow Vegetative Patients to 'Talk'" from Discover.com"Some Vegetative Patients Show…
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    About.com: Alternative Religions

  • Rumors of Haitian Satanism Can Mix Politics, Religion

    1 Feb 2010 | 12:09 pm
    Pat Robertson's ludicrous accusation last month of Satanic pacts causing the earthquake in Haiti is by far the most well known statement on the matter. In fact, however, such connections between Vodou and Satanism have been made repeatedly in the past by a variety of people for a variety of reasons, including political ones. Religion and politics have always been intertwined in Haiti. Vodou was the religion of the slaves who made up the vast majority of Haiti's population and thus tended to be the religion of slaves who revolted, often extremely violently. Catholicism, on the other hand, has…

  • Finding the Light in Others

    1 Feb 2010 | 11:43 am
    The Namaste Project is challenging people to find the divine light in the people they interact with in their everyday lives. Participants are welcome to then share their experiences on their website. Sound easy? Consider this: the Namaste Project is challenging people to consider those we have only fleeting contact with... and not always positive contact at that. "To attempt, from your end, to make a human connection with that guy who just cut you off (other than flipping him the bird). To see the humanity, and all that goes into it, of the nasty person in line in front of you at Walmart. To…

  • 5 Ways of Dealing with a Child Interested in Religion

    1 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am
    I have repeatedly been asked "My child is reading books about X. What should I do?" 1. Encourage learning. There is a difference between learning about and following. Information is never evil. 2. Find age-appropriate material. Just because you encourage learning doesn't mean you can't still be an appropriate parent. If a book is discussing topics that you don't think are appropriate for the person's age, help them find more appropriate sources. 3. Ask them what interests them about the religion of interest. You may discover they aren't really interested in that religion, but instead just one…

  • Political Asylum for Homeschoolers?

    27 Jan 2010 | 7:04 am
    A US immigration judge has granted asylum to an evangelical Christian German family who wants to homeschool their children rather than enrolling them in public or private school. The family feels such schools teach things contrary to Christian values. I can't help but look at least a little askance at such a ruling considering the number of people refused asylum in this country every year that are fleeing little things like genocide and political persecution. I understand that we cannot accommodate everyone, but is this German family really the most deserving among them? Would the judge have…

  • Diverse Beliefs Under One Roof

    25 Jan 2010 | 7:51 am
    Interfaith marriages can work. I'm a prime example. But this story of a Christian/Satanic couple by far takes the cake as far as interfaith marriages go. The article makes several points on how the couple keeps peace in the house, which ultimately boils down to respect for each other's beliefs. The comments are an interesting read, ranging everywhere from people interested in what Satanism actually is and support for the couple to uninformed slander. One person, for example, felt compelled to tell is "Satanists do in fact, torture animals!! One cannot be a part of Satan without being…
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    Daily Word of God

  • Daily Word for Tues 2/9/10 "Before I Formed You In The Womb I Knew You"

    Pastor Jeff
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:43 am
    You should Click Below to get Updates:by RSS Feed or by E-mailToday's Message: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."  Jer. 1:5I have a tool in my toolbox that has only one purpose. It is a highly specialized tool; one that I bought to do a single job. That job was completed several years ago, but I keep the tool. On occasion I have tried to use the tool for other purposes, I did that last week, but the tool refuses to cooperate with my ineptness. It is as though that tool shouts…

  • Links for 2010-02-08 [del.icio.us]

    9 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    Daily Word for Mon 2/8/10 "Do You Have Branches In Need Of removal?" Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16 Bible Study - Book of Daniel - Daniel 9:15-19 A verse by verse bible study to better understand the Apocalypse views of…

  • Links for 2010-02-07 [del.icio.us]

    8 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    Daily Word for Sun 02/07/10 "Jesus Paid the Price" Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16 How to Study the Bible - The Temple - Willful Profanity This study is designed to be an Interactive Introduction of the basic facts about the…

  • Links for 2010-02-06 [del.icio.us]

    7 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    How to Study the Bible - The Temple - Rules of the Rabbis This study is designed to be an Interactive Introduction of the basic facts about the Bible and also to Introduce some basic Standards that should be used as We search the Holy Scriptures. We are told in 2 Timothy 2:15 to "Handle accurately the word of truth" and in Hebrews 10:25 "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." So, with that in mind lets study together.

  • Links for 2010-02-05 [del.icio.us]

    6 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
    Daily Word for Fri 2/5/10 "Our God Is The God Of The Impossible" Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16 Bible Study - Book of Daniel - Daniel 9:4-14 A verse by verse bible study to better understand the Apocalypse views of Revelation…
 
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    Blogging Theologically

  • Learning to Get Over Myself: A Review of Crave by Chris Tomlinson

    Aaron Armstrong
    9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    Title: Crave: Wanting So Much More of God Author: Chris Tomlinson Publisher: Harvest House  Chris Tomlinson hates being a comfortable Christian—one who believes in God and wants to do his will, but isn’t fully committed to being a disciple of Jesus and all this entails. And that’s why he wrote Crave, to explore the deeper longings of his heart that being comfortable simply can’t satisfy. He wants to be a passionate follower of Jesus.  And he wants you to be one, too.  Getting over himself…  Over 16 short chapters, Tomlinson gives readers a glimpse into his…

  • Craving More of Jesus: A Q&A with Chris Tomlinson

    Aaron Armstrong
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    Chris Tomlinson is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Acadamy and the UCLA Anderson School of Business. He lives in North Virginia with his wife, Anna, and is the author of the newly-released Crave: Wanting So Much More of God. But if there’s one thing you need to know about him, it’s that he really loves Jesus and wants you to love Him, too. (Okay, maybe that’s two things.) Chris and his publisher, Harvest House, were kind enough to include me in the blog tour in support of the book, and he has graciously agreed to take part in a short Q&A. Enjoy the interview and…

  • Around the Interweb (02/07)

    Aaron Armstrong
    7 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    Preacher-Idolatry and the Promise of “All Things” From David Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan: What do you do if people start idolizing you or your preaching? “I wouldn’t mind some of that!” you retort. Well, okay, maybe it won’t happen to many of us on a large scale. And most of us have the opposite problem. But, if even one person starts to “follow” you or your sermons excessively (and that can happen in the smallest of congregations), how should you respond? The Apostle Paul’s…

  • Charles Haddon Spurgeon: The Wretchedness of Pride

    Aaron Armstrong
    6 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    …Pride is a protean thing; it changes its shape; it is all forms in the world; you may find it in any fashion you may choose, you may see it in the beggar’s rags as well as in the rich man’s garment. It dwells with the rich, and with the poor. The man without a shoe to his foot may be as proud as if he were riding in a chariot. Pride can be found in every rank of society—among all classes of men. Sometimes it is an Arminian, and talks about the power of the creature; then it turns Calvinist, and boasts of its fancied security—forgetful of the Maker, who alone can keep…

  • Fear the Boom and Bust: A Lesson in Hip Hop Economics

    Aaron Armstrong
    5 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    Z shared this video on his blog the other day. Who says learning can’t be fun? Sing along with the lyrics below: We’ve been going back and forth for a century [Keynes] I want to steer markets, [Hayek] I want them set free There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it [Hayek] Blame low interest rates. [Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits [Keynes Sings:] John Maynard Keynes, wrote the book on modern macro The man you need when the economy’s off track, [whoa] Depression, recession now your question’s in session Have a seat and I’ll school you in one simple lesson…
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    Killing the Buddha

  • KtB: Giving you a Reason to Wake Up Each Day

    KtBniks
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:06 pm
    Accolades continue to come in for Fluent in Silence by KtB contributor Stephen Prothero. Nancy from San Antonio writes: Stephen Prothero’s piece about the death of J.D. Salinger, Fluent in Silence, is some of the best writing I’ve ever seen on paper.  (Well, online, but you get the point). I especially loved “Though I flirt with silence, [...]

  • You Call That God?

    Tibor Krausz
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
    Why Karen Armstrong’s Case for God isn’t one.

  • Head-First into the Holy Ground

    KtBniks
    7 Feb 2010 | 2:44 pm
    We just got a letter from Sandy in California, who via some unexpected path, found us and read The Hole World, by Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet, one of the outtakes from the first eponymous Killing the Buddha book, Heretic’s Bible. And way back when, Jeff also wrote the piece I Ate Dirt. She writes: Amazing, [...]

  • ISO Holy Spirit Aid

    KtBniks
    5 Feb 2010 | 4:57 pm
    Tibor Krausz’s piece, “Adam’s Family Jewels,” Killing the Buddha’s latest sleeper hit, keeps circulating the cybersphere, and has now shown up over on Christian News Analysis. Their tag line, in case you don’t know, is, “The daily news analyzed through biblical scriptures, prophecies, and common sense.” OK, well with that as a starting point, here [...]

  • Breakfast with The Family

    Garrett Baer
    5 Feb 2010 | 1:45 pm
    As I watch Obama’s speech at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast, I find that many of his words ring true, though not for the reasons he intended. The elephant in that room—and it was, quite literally, in that room—was The Family, the self-described “invisible” organization forced into visibility by KtB’s own Jeff [...]
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    creativecommons.org

  • How to use social media for greater ministry effectiveness

    Mike Holmes
    9 Feb 2010 | 8:53 am
    In my last post  we discussed the necessity of social media for ministry growth; not just leading people to a building but to a relationship or greater relationship with Christ and greater fellowship with each other. Social media is not the ONLY way to do that but it offers the tools to help. In this post I want to follow up with SPECIFIC ways to do that. But before I go into “specifics” let me lay some groundwork: It starts with the top: Ultimately, it is leadership that sets the culture of an organization (or ministry)–whether that culture be progressive or not it starts…

  • Why Leaders Should Never be Comfortable with “Comfortable”

    Mike Holmes
    8 Feb 2010 | 5:10 pm
    I’m not a morning person. I have to set my alarm earlier than necessary because I know I’ll hit the snooze button several times each morning. Why? Because the bed’s comfortable. I’m more comfortable staying in bed than getting up, taking a shower, and beginning my day. A lot of leaders are stuck in the bed. They’re comfortable with past progress, the people around them, and drawing a pay check. They’re comfortable with the life they’ve made and have no aspirations for getting out and continuing their journey. Quite possibly, comfort is a…

  • How important are E-books for Christian Writers

    Mike Holmes
    7 Feb 2010 | 7:40 am
    TV has gone digital.  Music has gone digital.  Movies have gone digital.  What are you waiting for to make your book digital?  Do you have a book you wrote in the 90’s?  Well, let’s re-release it.  This time let’s try something different.  Offer it digitally.  The results will increase more than your pockets. E-books are great as a marketing tool.  But it is a marketing tool that too needs to be marketed.  E-books are very flexible.  Rather than carrying a big box of heavy books, just bring your laptop, PDA or, even, your mobile phone.  Email it or text in seconds. Would you…

  • How important is listening in your ministry

    Mike Holmes
    6 Feb 2010 | 3:56 pm
    …or business? I went to the doctor yesterday for my annual check up. One thing I could never understand about going to the doctor is waiting for a few hours to be seen for a few minutes!! Nevertheless, I went. When I finally got to the see the doctor I saw about three times (I don’t call him “my doctor” because I doubt I’ve ever had “a doctor”–one to call my own that is) we went through pleasantries and he got around to the fact-finding: “So Mr. Holmes, how are you?” the doctor asked. “I’m great doc, how are you?” I…

  • What does the Bible say about salesmanship?

    Mike Holmes
    4 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am
    With all the strategies and techniques available to the Christian Entrepreneur (offline and online)…it all means NOTHING if not translated into sales. Sales is vital; not just to business but everyday life: A prospect doesn’t become a happy client without a sale The unsaved don’t realize their need for Christ without a sale An interview doesn’t become a job offer without a sale The single become involved when there is a sale…in fact, it moves to marriage through another sale Sales is so important that the Bible goes into great details about it. The Bible? Sales? Huh?! Yup. You heard…
 
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    Michael Sullivant & Radius

  • The Romance of Romans-Part 96

    7 Feb 2010 | 4:35 am
    Romans Chapter 14 cont'dSo how can we condemn or disregard our fellow believers? For we shall all have our individual turn before the judgment seat of Christ. The scripture says, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, and every person will verbally acknowledge what is true to God." Every one of us will give an account of ourselves to God. So let's not get sidetracked by critically evaluating each other, but zero in on evaluating what is critical- how we can avoid causing another believer to get tripped up by any insensitive attitudes or actions on our part.I know…

  • The Romance of Romans-Part 95

    31 Jan 2010 | 5:33 am
    Romans Chapter 14 cont'dFor we ourselves aren't the central focus of our lives or our deaths, loving and worshiping the Lord is. So if we're alive, Jesus is our reference point. And if we die, we’ll be face to face with our reference point! We are owned and wanted by him, "dead or alive!" It was for this very goal that Christ died and rose again, that he might rightfully exercise his claim of lordship over both the dead and the living.Comments:In the midst of his essay in chapter 14 on surmounting unrighteous judgmentalism in our lives, the apostle holds out a vital key for our success. If…

  • The Romance of Romans-Part 94

    23 Jan 2010 | 7:28 am
    Romans Chapter 14 cont'dOne believer regards one day as more sacred than another. Another believer views each day as equally sacred. Things like this should be seen as a matter of personal conscience that allows for individual liberty. The one who celebrates a certain day as special, does so as an expression of love for the Lord. The one who equally celebrates every day also does so as an expression of love for the Lord. Just like the one who eats freely worships the Lord in his eating, and the one who abstains from meat worships the Lord by not eating. Can't you see that the truly important…

  • The Romance of Romans-Part 93

    16 Jan 2010 | 7:52 am
    Romans Chapter 14Don't refuse to recognize or fellowship with believers who disagree with you over non-essential matters- even if they're unenlightened about the truth. One believer has a clear conscience about eating anything. Another, who may be hypersensitive, is a vegetarian. The one who eats freely shouldn't get down on the one who doesn't, and the one who doesn't shouldn't get down on the one who does. God has accepted them both. Who are we to condemn another's servant? Before his own master he will stand or fall. And stand he will, for God himself is holding up his own!Let's take…

  • The Romance of Romans-Part 92

    10 Jan 2010 | 5:36 am
    Romans Chapter 13 cont'dSince we all know that precious time is ticking away, we need to rise up from our spiritual slumber- the end of the age has never been closer! The sun rose some time ago leaving the night far behind. So let us cast off our old sinful "night life"- outrageous behavior, drunkenness, lustfulness, infidelity, contentiousness and envying. Rather, let us put on the shining armor of the daylight- honesty, integrity, sincerity and transparency. Constantly welcome the Lord Jesus Christ to live in you and through you and don't be on the lookout for any loopholes for the…
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    creativecommons.org

  • How to use social media for greater ministry effectiveness

    Mike Holmes
    9 Feb 2010 | 8:53 am
    In my last post  we discussed the necessity of social media for ministry growth; not just leading people to a building but to a relationship or greater relationship with Christ and greater fellowship with each other. Social media is not the ONLY way to do that but it offers the tools to help. In this post I want to follow up with SPECIFIC ways to do that. But before I go into “specifics” let me lay some groundwork: It starts with the top: Ultimately, it is leadership that sets the culture of an organization (or ministry)–whether that culture be progressive or not it starts…

  • Why Leaders Should Never be Comfortable with “Comfortable”

    Mike Holmes
    8 Feb 2010 | 5:10 pm
    I’m not a morning person. I have to set my alarm earlier than necessary because I know I’ll hit the snooze button several times each morning. Why? Because the bed’s comfortable. I’m more comfortable staying in bed than getting up, taking a shower, and beginning my day. A lot of leaders are stuck in the bed. They’re comfortable with past progress, the people around them, and drawing a pay check. They’re comfortable with the life they’ve made and have no aspirations for getting out and continuing their journey. Quite possibly, comfort is a…

  • How important are E-books for Christian Writers

    Mike Holmes
    7 Feb 2010 | 7:40 am
    TV has gone digital.  Music has gone digital.  Movies have gone digital.  What are you waiting for to make your book digital?  Do you have a book you wrote in the 90’s?  Well, let’s re-release it.  This time let’s try something different.  Offer it digitally.  The results will increase more than your pockets. E-books are great as a marketing tool.  But it is a marketing tool that too needs to be marketed.  E-books are very flexible.  Rather than carrying a big box of heavy books, just bring your laptop, PDA or, even, your mobile phone.  Email it or text in seconds. Would you…

  • How important is listening in your ministry

    Mike Holmes
    6 Feb 2010 | 3:56 pm
    …or business? I went to the doctor yesterday for my annual check up. One thing I could never understand about going to the doctor is waiting for a few hours to be seen for a few minutes!! Nevertheless, I went. When I finally got to the see the doctor I saw about three times (I don’t call him “my doctor” because I doubt I’ve ever had “a doctor”–one to call my own that is) we went through pleasantries and he got around to the fact-finding: “So Mr. Holmes, how are you?” the doctor asked. “I’m great doc, how are you?” I…

  • What does the Bible say about salesmanship?

    Mike Holmes
    4 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am
    With all the strategies and techniques available to the Christian Entrepreneur (offline and online)…it all means NOTHING if not translated into sales. Sales is vital; not just to business but everyday life: A prospect doesn’t become a happy client without a sale The unsaved don’t realize their need for Christ without a sale An interview doesn’t become a job offer without a sale The single become involved when there is a sale…in fact, it moves to marriage through another sale Sales is so important that the Bible goes into great details about it. The Bible? Sales? Huh?! Yup. You heard…
 
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    On Being Both

  • Interfaith Community: Why it Matters

    Susan Katz Miller
    5 Feb 2010 | 12:19 pm
    For the second week in a row, it looks like our interfaith community is going to be snowed out on Sunday. While getting up on Sunday mornings sometimes feels like a sacrifice, now I find myself pining to return, and frustrated about the cancellations. I often describe myself as an interfaith zealot. Why? I grew up on the margins of Jewish life: always a little different, a little suspect, because of my Christian mother. But in our interfaith community, all families are on equal footing, all parents have equal standing, all children are equally welcome. Everyone takes part in our rituals.

  • Salinger, and Zinn: Interfaith Connections

    Susan Katz Miller
    30 Jan 2010 | 10:09 am
    Two American cultural icons died this week–author J.D. Salinger and historian and social activist Howard Zinn–and both of them had interfaith connections. Salinger perches near the top of any list of prominent “half-Jewish” writers–along with Marcel Proust, Gabriela Mistral, Dorothy Parker, Adrienne Rich and Mary Gordon. The fictional Glass family depicted in many of Salinger’s works, including Franny and Zooey, mirrored his own family: a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. Salinger created what may have been the first important fictional…

  • Fela: On Being Yoruba, Christian, Muslim

    Susan Katz Miller
    27 Jan 2010 | 4:31 pm
    Our family saw “Fela” on Broadway last weekend: a remarkable musical that depicts the life of Nigerian political dissident and Afro-Beat musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. With ears acutely tuned to interfaith themes by now, my 15 and 12-year-old children remarked on a climactic scene in which Fela evokes many gods, or God by many names, including Allah, and the Yoruba spirits such as Shango. “It was interesting, Mom, because he wasn’t just being politically correct by naming them all, he lived with them all,” one of the kids remarked. The idea of “being both” has a long tradition in…

  • Haitian Spirits

    Susan Katz Miller
    20 Jan 2010 | 11:10 am
     My mother-in-law has a sequined Vodou flag hanging above her fireplace in Connecticut. When people inquire, she explains that it depicts the ship Imamou transporting the Haitian dead to the land of the spirits. Visitors tend to go quiet as she delves into the belief system of Vodou, the national religion of Haiti. This week, Imamou groans through the waves, tragically overloaded with tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of passengers–Haitian earthquake victims. As the horrific news and images swirl around us, I wait to hear whether my husband’s skills as a…

  • Five Quirky Picks: Interfaith Religion Books of 2009

    Susan Katz Miller
    16 Jan 2010 | 3:01 pm
    My touchstone topics on this blog:  interfaith identity, spirituality, ritual, music, nature, culture, family, community. Two topics I don’t mention very often: God, and the Bible. I am not very comfortable with either one. I am open to the idea that some sort of energy infuses the world, and that human brains subconsciously tap into this energy or spirit, but I don’t refer to it as a “higher power” or believe that this spirit listens or responds to us. My problem with calling this energy “God” is that the word has been so abused by fanatical, narrow-minded, exclusivist clergy…
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    Scientology Today Latest News

  • Scientology Volunteer Ministers Commended by Georgia Senate Resolution 998

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:26 pm
    The Scientology Volunteer Ministers were recognized for their Haiti disaster response by Georgia  Senate Resolution 998, passed on February 8, 2010, which states: “WHEREAS, the Volunteer Ministers’ selfless service to the nation of Haiti and the survivors of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the history of the Western World stands as a true [...]

  • New 40,000‐Square‐Foot Church of Scientology Opens in Las Vegas Responding to Growth of 40‐year‐old Congregation

    8 Feb 2010 | 3:35 pm
    LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Fifteen hundred Scientologists and their guests from across Nevada and the Western United States gathered Saturday for the grand opening celebration of the new Church of Scientology of Las Vegas. The 40,000-square-foot Church, located at 2761 Emerson Avenue, will serve parishioners from throughout Nevada and represents significant growth for the congregation formed in [...]

  • Scientologist Plans Cross-Country Ultra Marathon to Promote Moral Values

    3 Feb 2010 | 11:47 pm
    Fifty-four-year-old Scientologist from Monrovia, California, runs to combat violence and help youth make the right moral choices. Ultra-marathoner John Radich is already training for the May 2010 launch of a 3,700-mile run to promote moral values.  His Trans USA Run will follow historic Route 66 from Santa Monica  to Chicago, and will carry on from there [...]

  • Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill Tour Leader Interviewed—Part II

    3 Feb 2010 | 11:26 pm
    Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill tour has trained tens of thousands of people in technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard Since arriving in India in September 2005, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill Tour has delivered training to professionals in many fields.  Tour leader, Ms. Marion Whitta, describes the work they have done. Scientology Newsroom: [...]

  • Haiti through the Eyes of a Scientology Volunteer Minister

    3 Feb 2010 | 8:48 pm
    Scientology Volunteer Minister, Nicole, tells of her first day in Haiti Nearly three weeks after the 7.0 earthquake destroyed the city of Port-au-Prince, doctors, nurses and other medical workers continue the battle to save lives of the victims of the disaster.  Teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers are providing support to the medical teams at the [...]
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    Is it really Love? Spiritual Way of the Six Loves

  • Eps 20 Happiness & Love Pt 1

    Craig Owen
    24 Jan 2010 | 1:16 pm
         In this Episode we will begin looking at the relationship between love and happiness.  We will look in particular at one of the two questions we ended with last time:  How do you know when you are in the flow of the Plan or Process of my suggested definition of happiness?  What is the everyday evidence we look to in holding onto the hope of this approach to happiness?  Several episodes back, I was looking for an explanation of happiness that would meet several demands.  One was that this would be accessible to all people. Two, that it would be…

  • Eps 19 What is Happiness, pt 2

    Craig Owen
    6 Jan 2010 | 8:45 pm
       We continue to explore my suggested definition of happiness.  Happiness has been notoriously hard to capture.  One famous saying suggests you never catch happiness when you seek it directly, it only comes to you when you are busy doing other things, like a butterfly gently landing on your shoulder. I borrow a phrase from another writer who describes this slippery aspect  of happiness as "transcending anticipation." Transcending means something that rises above the present moment, that stands beyond time.  Anticipation is the feeling or desire…

  • Eps 18 What is Happiness, pt 1

    Craig Owen
    15 Dec 2009 | 7:43 pm
    In this episode, we will take a look at my proposed definition of happiness and see how it applies to Jill's situation.  What I suggest is a religious definition of happiness.  While I am writing from a specific religious tradition, I have tried to make my definition of happiness as broad as possible.  It is my hope that my definition of happiness might be a source of interfaith dialogue between the different religions.  Finally,  I cannot claim with certainty that my definition of happiness is completely original with me.  I have not seen this definition…

  • Eps 17 What Happiness is Not

    Craig Owen
    24 Nov 2009 | 5:29 pm
         In Episode 17, I take a look at an ancient definition of happiness.  This view of happiness goes back at least 2,500 years to the time of Aristotle in ancient Greece. The story of Jill from the last episode is a good illustration of Aristotle's view on happiness, good and bad.  While it is a familiar idea, I do not think it measures up to what people are really seeking.  Looking over an approach to happiness that does not work will get us closer to an understanding of happiness that will work.       In the next episode, I…

  • Eps 16 Jill Has It all, Except Happiness

    Craig Owen
    2 Nov 2009 | 1:19 pm
         In this episode 16, we begin several installments on the question What is Happiness?  In previous episodes we have come across this question before.  Is love enough to make us happy?  I have suggested that the answer is no, love by itself cannot make us happy.  I avoided any further details about this question, until now.      We begin with the story of Jill.  At first glance, it would seem that Jill has it all-- financial stability, family, friends, romantic love.  Jill feels she should be happy, but she is not. …
 
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    LIFE, LOVE & TRUTH

  • Haiti – Shock, Awe & Burning Questions

    Jeff Courter
    17 Jan 2010 | 8:36 am
    In the aftermath of Haiti's horrifying earthquake, let's talk about tough questions that trouble many of us when disasters strike. But let's not overlook what we can do to help Haiti find hope for the future.

  • 1984 Redux – Lessons for Terrorists

    Jeff Courter
    14 Jan 2010 | 8:49 am
    What's ahead for Afghanistan - and other oppressed people of the world? History gives us some clues. So does a haunting message from classic literature...

  • The Promise of 2010 – Is Enough Finally ENOUGH?

    Jeff Courter
    1 Jan 2010 | 10:09 am
    As we enter a new year and a new decade, it's the perfect time to rethink our priorities. It's time to demonstrate that we love people more than things. It's time to simplify.

  • A Very Muslim Christmas – Why Not?

    Jeff Courter
    29 Dec 2009 | 10:34 am
    The Christmas holiday may be behind us. But that doesn't mean the spirit can't live on. And it doesn't mean we can't share it with Muslims - or anyone else who seeks a more peaceful, loving world!

  • The Gift of Christmas – Way Beyond a Birthday

    Jeff Courter
    25 Dec 2009 | 8:26 am
    In Christian theology, what concept makes the most difference in our lives (or ought to)? One word: Incarnation. Let's discuss.
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