Religion in the News.

[eyeshaveit]

Germany Bans ?True Religion? Muslim Group and Raids Mosques

BERLIN ? A German organization that calls itself the True Religion and that is known for distributing German-language copies of the Quran was outlawed on Tuesday, after the authorities accused it of recruiting jihadists to fight in Iraq and Syria.

Thomas de Maizi?re, the German interior minister, said the government had banned the True Religion organization, which is also known as Read (as in the instruction to read the Quran), because it acted as a ?collecting pool? for would-be Islamist fighters.

Starting on Tuesday morning, officers raided 190 premises in more than half of Germany?s 16 states. Materials were secured, but there were no detentions, Mr. de Maizi?re said.

?The organization brings Islamic jihadists together under the pretext of the harmless distribution of the Quran,? Mr. de Maizi?re told reporters in Berlin, stressing that the authorities were acting against the group because of its work to foster violence, not because of its faith. ?A systematic curtailment of our rule of law has nothing to do with the alleged freedom of religion,? he said.

The move comes after months of surveillance of the organization, whose bushy-bearded members have become a common sight in pedestrian shopping areas in major German cities. Mr. de Maizi?re said that 140 of the group?s supporters are known to have traveled to Syria or Iraq to fight on behalf of the Islamic State.

?The translations of the Quran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies,? Mr. de Maizi?re said. ?Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories.?

The move comes a week after the authorities arrested five men who were accused of aiding the Islamic State in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help.

The True Religion is the sixth Islamist organization to be banned in Germany since 2012, under an effort to ensure domestic security and to prevent radicalized young people from leaving the country to fight for extremists abroad."

By Melissa Eddy
For complete article, see New York Times - Europe - Nov 15, 2016 

[RegalSin]

Give me a break. Germany is has been annihilated for years since WW2. They are great people but the reality is that the US has been working hard alongside Zionist Israel to make the genocidal war look bad. Banning religious activities just makes things more and more stupid and makes Germanic a bigger target for such activities. They should leave these peasants alone and eventually nobody would care.

They are creating bigger problems by attacking religious people in general. Hiding behind racism is the case here and racism where that points to Zionist rule.
I have heard nothing but post WW2 pro-Jue propaganda with Germanic people for years to come.

All I know is that whole idea of recruitment is bs. This is stupid and is slowing down society while being racist towards the melting pot in general.

Racism, racism, racism is all that I see. I mean seriously the more they attack rights the bigger target they are trying to be. I guess it is Europe turn to look like the badguy since the USA had to look like the badguy for years.

[eyeshaveit]

Viet Nam National Assembly adopts law on belief and religion

"With 84.58 per cent of approval votes, the 14th National Assembly passed a Law on Belief and Religion in the second session?s November 18 sitting.

With 68 articles in 9 chapters, the freshly-adopted law stipulates that everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, following or not following any religions. Everybody has the right to exercise religious practices and attend religious festivals.

Authorised religious organisations are allowed to operate in line with their charters and regulations; hold religious activities; publish religion-related documents; build or upgrade religious establishments; and receive legal donations from individuals or organisations both in and outside the country.

In order to ensure the right to freedom of religion, the law clearly prescribes that the State respects and protects everyone?s right to freedom of belief and religion, and ensures that all religions are equal before the law.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front is responsible for uniting religious followers and non-followers to build the great national unity bloc for national construction and defence; and timely reporting the people?s opinions, aspirations and petitions on religious issues to competent State agencies;

The Vietnam Fatherland Front is assigned to participate in drafting legal documents on belief and religion, as well as monitoring activities of people-elected agencies, organisations, officials and civil servants in the implementation of religious laws and policies.

All discriminations for religious reasons; actions that force or hinder others from following or not following religion and belief; actions that offend belief and religion or taking advantage of religious activities to seek profit are prohibited.

The law also bans religious activities that infringe on national defence, security, sovereignty, and social order and safety; harm social ethics, personal lives and assets; offend other persons? honour and human dignity; prevent the performance of civil rights and obligations; and disunite the nation, religions and among belief and religion followers and non-followers."

Viet Nam News - November 19, 2016:
http://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/346545/national-assembly-adopts-law-on-belief-and-religion.html#DCOPh1ulblBVU47P.99

[Inertialmass]

You do realize, Eyes, that the mixing of church and state is even today the norm?

Even those few nations with explicit Constitutional injunctions against all government entanglements favoring or restricting religions rarely adhere to this ideal, including and especially the US.

[eyeshaveit]

The 'state church' has been the historic norm, in a fallen world, over the many centuries of written records. Sadly we often take for granted the blessings of a constituted wall, placed between church and state.

[eyeshaveit]

Israel's Attempt to Silence Muslim Prayer Call is Not Well received:

A bill aimed at banning mosques from broadcasting the Muslim prayer call over loudspeaker has been slammed as ?an attempt to erase the religion?. The draft law, proposed by the Israeli government, has sparked outrage among Muslims who claim they are being discriminated against.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the bill is not intended to suppress Islam, but aims to protect citizens from noise disturbance. Coalition parties are expected to back the legislation, which would ban the prayer call from being broadcast at night and early morning.

Moni Aloleimi, 44, a Muslim originally from Jordan now living in Jaffa, Israel, described the bill as ?an attempt to erase the religion?.
He added: ?People can?t accept this. If there is no call to prayer, there is no prayer. And if there is no prayer, there is no religion.?Mr Aloleimi, who runs a manpower company, said the prayer call, which is broadcast five times a day and dates back to the time of the prophet Muhammed, is required to ?rouse and remind people that there is a god and to not do evil deeds.?

He warned that if the law goes through, ?there will be an explosion and it will end very badly?. He added: ?You don?t infringe on the religion of an Arab. It starts with this and then they will take other steps like telling us we don?t need 20 mosques, that five is enough.?

Complete Sunday Express (UK) November 20, 2016 article:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/734258/islam-muslim-prayer-call-religion-jews-jewish-jaffa-israel-jerusalem-neanyahi

Similar reports:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=israel+religion&oq=israel+religion&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.12308.18365.0.18857.15.7.0.8.8.0.114.576.5j2.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.F0VvsEsc3X8#hl=en&gl=us&authuser=0&tbm=nws&q=israel+muslim+prayer+call+ban

[eyeshaveit]

"Poll after poll shows the majority of Australian people of faith are in favour of marriage equality. The old argument of gay versus God is bogus. It is not a choice of picking one or the other and the members of churches see that.

"Most of our faiths are built on the foundation stones of respect, human dignity, the sanctity of the person and social justice. These values do not contradict same-sex marriage, rather they lead us to supporting it. Across Ireland and Australia many of the leading advocates for marriage equality are people of faith. Australia is undoubtedly more religiously diverse than Ireland but since I came here I have been struck by the amazing voices from every faith who are making the case for marriage equality through the prism of their faith.

"Sadly, most of the time the loudest voices we hear from the hierarchy of our churches is one that is out of step with their flocks. It is a cold, strident and marginalising message about our lesbian and gay friends, family and neighbours that has done so much damage over the centuries. It is a tone that contradicts the values of love, compassion and dignity that most religious people adhere to in Australia today." - Tiernan Brady - The Guardian (US Edition) - November 20, 2016.

Complete article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/19/religious-faith-is-no-obstacle-to-support-for-marriage-equality

"Public support to legalise same-sex marriage is at its highest level in almost five years, the latest Fairfax/Ipsos poll reveals. The poll finds 68 per cent of voters support gay marriage whereas one quarter, or 25 per cent, are opposed." - Phillip Coorey - The Australian Financial Review - June 14, 2016.

Complete article: http://www.afr.com/news/politics/fairfaxipsos-poll-gay-marriage-support-at-record-20150614-ghnjhi#ixzz4QdiZ4skY

[eyeshaveit]

South Africa's new Hate Crimes Bill needs Tweaking.

"It is necessary to introduce legislation against hate speech, but in its current form, the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill fails in its purpose ... The Department of Justice and Correctional Services has extended the deadline for the public to comment on the bill from December 1 to January 31.... William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, said that, given South Africa?s history and recent developments ? such as the one currently before the Middelburg Magistrates? Court, in which two white men put a black man in a coffin ? it ?makes sense for government to act and introduce a bill of this nature?.

"?That said, the way it is formulated is too broad.? For instance, in terms of the bill in its current form, the definition of hate speech will make it impossible to make jokes of any occupations or trades. Satire will also be unlawful. Freedom of Religion South Africa (For SA) asked for the deadline to be extended until March 1 because the upcoming holiday period and the ?logistics for faith-based groups to consult their members? make it difficult to formulate a substantive response to the bill. The organisation, which acts on behalf of 69 denominations, says that the apparent intent of the bill is to combat racism and xenophobia, but the broad definition of hate speech could have a serious effect on freedom of speech and, in particular, on freedom of religion." - By Jan Gerber - Media 24 (SA) - November 22, 2916.

Complete article including a link to the hate crimes legislation:
http://city-press.news24.com/News/hate-crimes-bill-makes-sense-but-tweaks-and-contributions-are-needed-20161121

[eyeshaveit]

China Protests the Dalai Lama's Religious Visit to Mongolia

"Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia ? The Dalai Lama preached to thousands of Buddhists in Mongolia despite demands from China that the visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader be scrapped, at a time Mongolia seeks a critical aid package from its powerful neighbor. The Dalai Lama addressed followers at the Gandantegchenlin monastery on Saturday and spoke about materialism at the start of a four-day visit that Mongolia says is purely religious in nature and won?t include meetings with officials. On Sunday, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to chant special sutras at a large sports facility built by Chinese companies through Chinese aid.

"The trip could have repercussions for land-locked Mongolia?s relationship with China, which protested previous visits by the Dalai Lama by briefly closing its border in 2002 and temporarily canceling flights from Beijing in 2006. China?s Foreign Ministry had demanded that the Dalai Lama?s visit be canceled. Spokesman Geng Shuang said Friday that the Dalai Lama is a ?political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China. Geng appealed to Mongolia to maintain ?the general picture of a sound and steady development of bilateral ties (and) earnestly stick to its commitment on Tibet-related issues.?

"The Dalai Lama has been based in India since fleeing Tibet during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. His visit comes as Mongolian leaders are seeking a $4.2 billion loan from Beijing to pull the country out of a deep recession. With commodity prices slumping, Mongolia is running out of hard currency to repay foreign debts and is seeking help from a neighbor that accounts for roughly 90 percent of its exports. Mongolian Buddhism is closely tied to Tibet?s strain and many in the heavily Buddhist country revere the Dalai Lama, who made his first visit in 1979.

"Mongolian religious figures say the visit could be the last for the 81-year-old spiritual leader, and some of his followers traveled hundreds of miles to see him while braving the coldest November temperatures in a decade."

Ganbat Namjilsangarav?- Associated Press Asia - November 19, 2016.

[eyeshaveit]

Religion Can Make or Break Your Love

"No, he didn't cheat. He didn't lie to her. He was not abusive. In fact, on paper, he was practically perfect. He had a good job, was good looking and had a great personality. So why would Xoliswa break up with him? "He was a hardcore, Bible-hitting Christian and I couldn't take it any longer," she says. Xoliswa says that when they started dating in 2013, she knew that he was a churchgoer, but when he started preaching to her, she had to draw the line.

"I consider myself to be spiritual, meaning that I have my own relationship with God. I just choose not to go to church or belong to any kind of affiliation, for my own reasons. So when I met my ex, I knew that he was a member of a charismatic church, but I liked him regardless. "After a few dates, we discussed beliefs and that's when I explained my stance on religion to him. He told me that he understood."

"But Xoliswa says that as time went by, her ex would put her in uncomfortable situations, insisting on praying together, even before a meal in a restaurant. "I had made it clear that I only pray when I'm alone because I believe that a relationship with God is one of the most intimate ever. He would ignore that and would ask that we pray before we ate, even going to the extent of stopping me from taking a bite of my food before prayer. Then he started inviting me to church, constantly. I initially would politely remind him that I don't do church, but when he persisted I started getting irritated. When he started wanting to 'share the word' with me, that's when I had enough. I realised that he was trying to change me, that I was not good enough for him as I am. I had to end it ..."

"Can partners of different beliefs coexist in harmony within a relationship?"

SowetanLive - South Africa - [Dear Abby Column?] by Karabo Disetlhe-Mtshayelo - Nov 24, 2016
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/goodlife/2016/11/24/religion-can-make-or-break-your-love

[eyeshaveit]

China Closely Monitoring Uyghur Religious Activities in East Turkestan

"The Communist Party has decreed that Uyghurs will now be required to report to the local authorities any religious activities they perform. While the Chinese government falsely claims that this measure is intended to help curb ?religious extremism?, it is but part of a large-scale strategy of state-sponsored suppression of religious freedom in East Turkestan. For instance, this measure must be seen in the context of increased monitoring of mosques since late last month and it is, as pointed out by Turghunjan Alawudun of the World Uighur Congress, designed solely to ?exploit religion for socialism? ...

"In fact, Radio Free Asia reported late last month that Beijing has sent more than 350 officials to the Heitan prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for a three-year stint "monitoring mosques". A Communist Party school professor is quoted by Global Times as saying "reporting" on religious activities is to help local governments offer better "services to religious activities.""

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization - UNPO - November 24, 2016.
Complete article - http://unpo.org/article/19661

[eyeshaveit]

The Triple Talaq Heads To India's Supreme Court

"On 7 October, the government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the practice of triple talaq is not an ?essential religious practice? because it violates the fundamental right of equality and women?s dignity, which are safeguarded by Article 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

"From a legal perspective, the practice of triple talaq ? where under Sharia law, a man can divorce his spouse by saying the word talaq three times ? has been contested on the grounds of whether the practice qualifies as an ?essential religious practice? under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

"In this regard, the Indian Supreme Court will need to decide to what extent it is fair to interpret triple talaq as an ?essential religious practice? and if the practice contradicts the court?s aim to provide protection against the violation of other fundamental rights (Article 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution). How the Supreme Court rules on this issue may affect its institutional credibility and legitimacy within minority communities in India."

Deepanshu Mohan (Jindal Global University) - East Asia Forum - November 26, 2016.
Complete article: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/11/26/triple-talaq-a-test-case-for-religious-pluralism-in-india/

[eyeshaveit]

Looking for Harry Potter's religious side

"Vanessa Zoltan and Casper ter Kuile, graduates of the Harvard Divinity School, started a podcast in May that explored the religious side of ?Harry Potter.? The idea behind the podcast, called Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, was that the two wanted to practice their faith through their shared adoration of the beloved book series. Zoltan and ter Kuile are embarking on a 199 episode journey through J. K. Rowling?s novels to see what wisdom and meaning they can gain from the text.

"The pair releases another installment every week and so far there are 21 episodes. They have already finished the first book of the Harry Potter series, and have soared to the top of the religion and spirituality chart on iTunes. As of right now, the podcast brings in about 55,000 to 60,000 listeners each week.

"The hosts treat the books as ?Sacred Text,? meaning that they are taking the text seriously and acknowledging that the text is worth their attention as well as contemplation. They are also doing rigor and ritual, which means that they are repeatedly reading the text with concentrated attention and, in those efforts, they are making the text more sacred. Each episode covers another chapter in the series."

Julia Mach - Religion Editor - Lewis University Flyer - November 26, 2016:
http://thelewisflyer.com/finding-religion-through-harry-potter-and-the-sacred-text/

[Dexter]

Well here we go. Are they going to have a look or not?

http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/67612/20161031/jesus-tomb-uncovered-what-discoveries-lie-within.htm

[eyeshaveit]

The Lutheran Church Condemns Martin Luther?s Anti-Semitism

"The Church of Norway, the state?s Lutheran church, condemned church founder Martin Luther?s anti-Jewish legacy. The church made the statement ahead of the 500-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, started by the 16th century German theologian, The Associated Press reported.

"The Church of Norway?s General Synod acknowledged that Luther?s writings were used in Nazi propaganda and were spread through Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II.  Luther called for the persecution of Jews in his later writings. "In the Reformation anniversary year of 2017, we as a church must clearly distance ourselves from the anti-Judaism that Luther left behind,? read the statement, according to the AP."

Marcy Oster - Forward - November 27, 2016.

Was Luther Anti-Semitic?

"Set fire to their synagogues or schools,? Martin Luther recommended in On the Jews and Their Lies. Jewish houses should ?be razed and destroyed,? and Jewish ?prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, [should] be taken from them.? In addition, ?their rabbis [should] be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.? Still, this wasn?t enough.

"Luther also urged that ?safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews,? and that ?all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them.? What Jews could do was to have ?a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade? put into their hands so ?young, strong Jews and Jewesses? could ?earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.? ...

"Luther was but a frustrated biblical scholar who fell victim to what his friend Philipp Melanchthon called the ?rabies of theologians?: drawing conclusions based on speculations about the hidden will of God. Luther erred because he presumed to know God?s will."

Eric W. Gritsch - Christianity Today:
Complete article - http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/martin-luther.html

[eyeshaveit]

Is Halacha (Jewish Religious Law) Out of Control?

"Judaism is in trouble. More and more unacceptable things are being done and said in its name ... Many are repelled when they witness horrible scenes of Jews attacking each other in the name of Judaism. Media outlets around the world portray religious Jews in most distressing ways. While it cannot be denied that antisemitism plays a role in this, the unfortunate fact is that much of it is based on truth. .

"Twenty one years ago, Yigal Amir assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the name of halacha (Jewish law), claiming that the prime minister was a rodef (someone who is attempting or planning to murder), because he brought all of Israel?s citizens into mortal danger by participating in the 1993 Oslo accords. In 1994, Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Arabs in a mosque, because he believed that Judaism obligated him to create havoc in order to stop Arab terror attacks ? which had already killed thousands of Jews. Several years ago, the book Torat HaMelech was published. Its authors, learned rabbis, argued that it was permissible to kill non-Jews, even without proper trial, if they became a serious potential threat to Jewish lives ...

"Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Judaism is fully aware that nothing within genuine Jewish law would condone, or even suggest, such outlandish ideas and immoral acts. Why does this happen? Over the years, several rabbinical authorities have made the major and dangerous mistake of reducing Judaism to a matter of law alone ... The main reason for this terrible mistake is that these rabbis have failed to study the basic moral values of Judaism in the book of Bereish1t (Genesis). It is well known that, with a few exceptions, this book does not contain laws; it is mainly narrative. To appreciate this, one needs to consider the following.

"In this first biblical book, we encounter Abraham, Yitzhak [issac] and Yaakov [Jacob] as the foremost players. They are considered the first Jews in history. But this makes little sense. How could they have been Jews if the Torah was given only hundreds of years later to Moses at Mount Sinai? Although a Jew is a Jew even if they do not observe the laws of the Torah, it is still the Torah that defines them as such. How, then, could the Patriarchs be full-fledged Jews when the Torah was denied to them? Would it not have been logical to have given the Torah to Abraham, Yitzhak Yaakov, and their wives long before Moses? Only upon receiving the Torah could they have been real Jews! So why was it withheld from them?

"The answer is crucial. No law, including divine law, works if it is not preceded by a narrative of the human moral condition and an introduction of basic ethical and religious values. These values cannot be given; they must develop through life experiences. No academic instruction, not even when given by God, would be of any benefit. Such ethics need to develop gradually, on an existential level, and be predicated on innate values that God grants to each person at the moment he or she is born ? a kind of categorical imperative in the human soul. More than that, laws become impersonal and therefore dangerous because they cannot deal with emotions and the enormous moral paradoxes encountered by human beings. As a result, they run the risk of becoming inhuman and even cruel ... There is almost nothing worse than divine law operating on its own, without primary, innate moral values. It runs the risk of turning wild and causing great harm. It needs to be constrained.

"This is the purpose of Sefer Bereish1t. It is a biting critique of the halachic system when the latter is applied without acknowledging that these prior moral values are needed in order for society to function. The book of Bereish1t, then, keeps halacha under control. It restricts and regulates it, and ensures that it will not wreak havoc."

Nathan Lopes Cardozo - The Algemeiner [Jewish Newspaper] - 29 Heshvan 5777 (November 28, 2016):
https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/11/28/the-abuse-of-halacha-keeping-religious-law-under-control/

[eyeshaveit]

So This Is Christmas

"Those who want a new twist on the traditional cr?che can buy a 10-piece Hipster Nativity scene that features Joseph sporting a lumberjack beard taking a selfie; baby Jesus and a peace-flashing Mary, holding a Starbucks cup, are included. The three wise men show up on Segways holding Amazon boxes full of presents; there is also a cow draped in a sweater with a ?100% Organic? seal on it. This depiction is more trendy than it is offensive.

"A gun-rights activist in Columbia, South Carolina has hijacked Christmas to make his case defending the Second Amendment. It is the work of the Palmetto State Armory. Billboards are being displayed in several South Carolina cities, all of which feature assault weapons or shotguns, cribbing from Christmas themes and songs. ?Do you hear what I hear?? and ?All I want for Christmas is you? are two examples. This depiction is more offensive than it is trendy.

"Reality TV star Brandi Glanville posted a Facebook picture of herself squatting over baby Jesus, posing as if she were giving birth to him. It didn?t go over with the public, which is why she deleted it from her Facebook and Instagram accounts. However, Glanville refused to apologize. Instead, before she deleted the photo, she said, ?Why is everyone so butthurt? I guess cause I?m an Atheist this doesn?t bother me in the least bit. But seriously why should people need to ?respect? this religion while this religion is so disrespectful to everyone else? Get over yourselves. Seriously.? She then tweeted, ?People need to chill the f*** out and take a joke.? There is nothing trendy about this depiction, but it is egregiously offensive. It is also quite revealing. Glanville reasons that because she is an ?Atheist? [notice she capitalizes her master status], it doesn?t bother her that Christians are offended. Why would it? After all, that was exactly her point. Not all atheists, of course, are haters, but increasingly many are. Glanville?s stunt, and her response to critics, move her toward the top of the line"

By William Donohue - OP-Ed - Eurasia Review - November 26, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

First Ever Indigenous Freedom of Religion Case Heads to Canada's Supreme Court

"A precedent-setting case that could affect the ability of First Nations to protect their sacred sites and which has implications for indigenous rights worldwide, is heading to Canada?s top court Thursday.

"The Ktunaxa First Nation, based in Cranbrook, [British Columbia] in a lawsuit against the B.C. government and Glacier Resorts Ltd, is arguing the first Canadian case based on aboriginal spirituality and freedom of religion and the case has drawn interveners from faith groups, human rights organizations and business groups from across Canada. Lawyers acting for the Ktunaxa Nation and Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa Nation Council Chair, will argue that, in 2012, the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources violated the First Nation?s religious rights by approving the master plan for the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort in an area known as Qat'muk, the home of the grizzly bear spirit, where many key Ktunaxa spiritual beliefs and practices are centred.

"The argument, which also claims the B.C. government failed to adequately consult Ktunaxa on their constitutionally protected aboriginal rights, was previously rejected by B.C. Supreme Court and the B.C. Court of Appeal, but, in March the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal. Teneese said both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution Act provide for traditions to be practiced and it is unfortunate the lower courts failed to recognize those rights. ?But we are confident the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold the rights of all Canadians to practice their religions and traditions free from interference and the threat of destruction of sacred places,? she said.

"Qat?muk, the name of the land in the central part of the Purcell Mountains, where Glacier Resorts planned to build the massive ski resort, existed long before the Jumbo Glacier proposal and before Canada became a country, Teneese said. ?As a Nation we have spent too much money fighting in the court system to prove what we have always known. Qat?muk is vital to Ktunaxa ? as well as to local wildlife populations and biodiversity ? and must be protected,? she said. The Nation has fought the Jumbo Glacier proposal since it first surfaced in 1991, both on the belief that Ktunaxa spirituality depends on the fate of Qat?muk and on concerns for water quality and the effect of the resort on the grizzly bear population," she said ... "This is the first time that a freedom of religion argument will be heard in the Supreme Court on indigenous spiritual and cultural rights. The list of interveners is as long as it is diverse ? from Amnesty International to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to a number of other First Nations. The implications of this case will be far-reaching," she said.""

By Judith Lavoie - "Desmog Canada" - November 30, 2016.
Complete article - https://www.desmog.ca/2016/11/30/first-ever-indigenous-freedom-religion-case-heads-canada-s-supreme-court

[eyeshaveit]

"UK urged to protect Religious Freedom in new Bill of Rights - Report suggests a 'reasonable accommodation' clause to protect freedom

"A new report by think tank Respublica, several of whose past recommendations have influenced government policy, has suggested a ?reasonable accommodation? for religious beliefs in law. The report, Beyond Belief, written by James Orr, a philosophy fellow at Christ Church, Oxford, was launched this morning in Parliament. It follows a series of cases in which Christians have lost their jobs or businesses, or been otherwise penalised, for acting on their consciences, especially in disputes over LGBT rights.

"Most recently, Ashers bakery in Northern Ireland was fined for refusing to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. The decision was upheld on appeal, a widely criticised decision which gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell described as ?a defeat for freedom of expression?. It follows similar cases, such as that of Lillian Ladele, a registrar who lost her job after asking not to preside at same-sex civil partnerships. Beyond Belief warns that at the moment, ?rights accrue not to who is right, but to whoever is the most politically connected and can persuade the state to take their side?.

"It proposes a return to ?the original and more reasonable account of rights, where reasonable accommodation is made once more between different minorities and nobody is more equal than anyone else.? The report suggests that the British Bill of Rights, a piece of legislation which has been proposed by the Conservative government, could include a ?reasonable accommodation? clause. A draft Bill of Rights has not yet been published. Beyond Belief calls for the government to ?set the principle of reasonable accommodation of religious belief on a constitutional footing?. Employers and public sector bodies would have to accommodate religious practice. In a similar way, the law already grants ?reasonable adjustments? to some groups. For instance, Sikhs are allowed to wear a turban instead of a crashhelmet when riding a motorcycle.

"The ?reasonable accommodation? law would oblige public-sector employers to take steps so that religious employees were not placed in a difficult situation by their beliefs. What counted as ?reasonable accomodation? might include ?the degree to which an accommodation would be practical; the financial and/or other costs of implementing the accommodation; the availability of resources necessary to make an accommodation; and the degree of disruption that making an accommodation would entail.? It explains that the clause would mean that ?the employee would no longer bear the burden of proof ? he would not need to show that a rule or requirement puts him at a disadvantage.

?Instead, the employee need only make a request that his religious beliefs or practices be accommodated, and the burden of proof rests with the employer to assess whether reaching an accommodation would impose an unreasonable degree of hardship.? The report also recommends that the Equality and Human Rights Commission introduces a Religious Freedom Code of Practice, to help employers and service-providers work through difficulties over freedom of conscience. And it calls on universities to address their statutory duty to protect freedom of speech, after a series of cases in which .

"The report argues that failure to protect religious freedom will harm the economy, if believers cannot engage in commerce (like running a bakery), and will hurt civil society, by making religious people less likely to volunteer. The ?privatisation? of religion will also accelerate the decline in social trust, the report suggests."

Dan Hitchens - Catholic Herald (UK) - November 30, 2016:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/11/30/government-urged-to-protect-religious-freedom-in-new-bill-of-rights/

Beyond Belief report pdf - http://www.respublica.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Religious-Liberty.pdf

[eyeshaveit]

Lithuania: When Pagans Worshiped Dievas and Vaidilutes Guarded Holy Fires

"Before 1387, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was finally baptized into Roman Catholicism as a condition of the dynastic union with Poland, its people were pagans. The central characteristic of their religion was the veneration of the forces of nature held to be sacred, personified in the form of various deities. At the top of the pantheon was Dievas, who ruled the universe from his kingdom in the sky. Other gods included Perkunas, god of thunder, lightning and the atmosphere, and Patrimpas, protector of flowers and plants.

"These gods were worshiped in sacred groves and forests where priests called krivis expressed the will of the gods at stone altars, and holy fires were guarded by vaidilut?s, the Lithuanian equivalent of vestal virgins. Lithuanians offered regular sacrifices and held a strong belief in the afterlife, burying their dead with food and household goods. In 1382, just five years before conversion to Christianity, a grand duke called Kestusis was buried in the company of his horses, falcons and hounds.

"Even after conversion, paganism never fully died out and eventually enjoyed a small revival between the two world wars under the title of Romuva, a name taken from one of the last ancient pagan temples. It enjoyed another revival following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and today a small pagan community keeps the ancient traditions alive."

Dan Cossins - BBC History Magazine - December 2, 2016.

[eyeshaveit]

Atheists Panic - "Bring Your Bible to School Day" - Creates a Ruckus

A third-grade teacher in Alabama has come under fire by an atheist group for promoting a ?Bring Your Bible to School Day.? Patsy Smithe, a third-grade teacher at Vestavia Hill Elementary East in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, is being investigated after the Freedom From Religion Foundation notified the school on the behalf of a parent who complained about the promotion. Smith had told her students that if they wanted to voluntarily participate in the event, they could bring a Bible if they had received permission from their parents.

The FFRF contends that the promotion violated the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church, however, Pacific Justice Institute (which defends religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties) president Brad Dacus has argued that such announcements are legal as long teachers make them appropriately and don?t give overt preference to a particular religion. Dacus said that ?teachers need to make it clear that students who would like to bring something other than a Bible ? that?s reflective of their faith or that?s inspirational to them personally ? they should feel free to bring something to class as well.?

Dacus also said he thought the investigation is unnecessary, but that ?teachers in the future need to recognize that they need to go way our of their way in such situations to make it clear they are not showing explicit favoritism.?

Randolph County Herald Tribune.- December 1, 2016:
http://www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com/news/20161201/religion-news-teacher-comes-under-fire-for-bring-your-bible-to-school-day-promotion

[eyeshaveit]

Worship of Kim Il Sung's Family is the only Religion Permitted in North Korea

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), an organization investigating human rights in North Korea, published its 2016 White Paper on Religious Freedom in North Korea on November 10. NKDB has been publishing its annual white paper on the subject since 2008. According to a survey of 11,730 defectors, 298 (2.8%) of the 10,689 respondents in total answered that they received a sentence of forced labor for religious activities, considered the weakest form of punishment. In addition, 1,217 respondents (11.4%) reported that they were sent to a correctional camp (prison) for the same charge, while 5,539 (51.8%) answered that they were sent to a political prison camp, a more severe form of punishment in North Korea. An overwhelming 99.6% of the respondents (11,069 people) answered that they were not permitted to freely engage in religious activities in North Korea.

Religious persecution in North Korea is known to have begun before the Korean War. The regime began to classify organized religious groups including members of the Chondogyo religion, Christians, and Buddhists as ?hostile? from the late 1950s, and began a campaign of suppression and persecution. Religious activists were deported to farms or mines located deep in the mountains and sentenced to forced labor under harsh conditions. The United Nation?s Commission of Inquiry also sought to address religious persecution in North Korea, stating that in practice the regime permits no other religion except for worship of the Kim family.

Defectors have provided consistent testimony stating freedom of religion is likely impossible in North Korea as long as the ?Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System? exists. The Ten Principles represent an enforced ideology ruling over every aspect of life for the North Korean people. Kim Myung Hun (alias, aged 37), who defected in 2013, stated, "In North Korea, there are the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System. The fourth of which stipulates that ?We must make the Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung's revolutionary ideology our faith and make his instructions our creed.? This effectively means that in North Korea, no divine figure can be accepted other than Kim Il Sung."

NKDB has focused on conducting surveys and interviews with North Koreans who have defected after 2007, providing relatively recent insights into human rights violations and freedom of religion in North Korea

Kim Seong Hwan - Daily North Korea:
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=14187

[eyeshaveit]

Tough Questions - Does Integration Mean Government Control Of Religion in the UK?

"The [199 page] Casey Review into "opportunity and integration" in the UK makes sobering reading. It's a forensic look into how isolated and deprived communities actually work. Dame Louise Casey says in the foreword that she wanted to look at "what divides communities and gives rise to anxiety, prejudice, alienation and a sense of grievances." Well, she found plenty. Many parts of the country don't offer opportunities and aren't integrated. Black boys still don't get jobs, white working class kids on free school meals still do badly in the education system, Muslim girls do brilliantly at school but don't go on to get great jobs.

"More troublingly, there are "cultural and religious practices" in some communities ? particularly Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim ? that are "not only holding some of our citizens back but run contrary to British values and sometimes our laws". There are, Casey says, "too many religious leaders condoning or promoting intolerant and hateful teachings" and the peace-loving majority are "not being loud enough or bold enough to protect vulnerable individuals or to reduce the fear and suspicion of others". She goes into considerable detail about in the full report If you're pressed for time, the summary is here.

"The key section, though, is subtitled 'Leadership'. It says that for generations we've welcomed immigrants to our countries without really trying to integrate them. Now there are lots more of them and "leaders in public office" have failed to rise to the challenge. They don't want to be thought of as racists or Islamophobic. So abuse in particular communities might go unchallenged, like in the Rotherham child abuse case. Sharia courts can be badly run and leave women and children traumatised. "Accommodation" can go too far and "play into the hands of extremists". Casey also says: "As a nation we have lost sight of our expectations on integration and lacked confidence in promoting it or challenging behaviours that undermine it."

"The Casey Review explictly raises issues of huge importance. How far can communities be left to develop separately from the UK mainstream? Are we OK with supporting enclaves in our cities where people don't speak English and are still spiritually and mentally in rural Pakistan? How far should they be required to integrate? Much of it is timely and needs saying. It can't really be right that the Department for Communities and Local Government spent more on promoting the Cornish language than English. And communities that don't relate to the world outside their own few streets are inevitably ? and avoidably ? impoverished, and not just materially

"However, there are implicit questions that the report doesn't seem to acknowledge at all. It is severe, and rightly, on religious leaders who teach hateful or extremist ideology. But in a telling comment, it says: "Too often, these views appear to be based on warped theology, designed to sustain the power of particular individuals or groups and to excuse or even legitimise their transgressions." Earlier it cites approvingly the work of Dilwar Hussein, who promotes a "modern British understanding of Islam". What's happening here is that the state ? in the person of Dame Louise ? is attempting to do theology. It approves of certain kinds of religion and not of others. It wants religion to serve the purposes of the state. It has decided what "British values" are, and it is prepared to judge ? and potentially control ? anything that departs from them. There are serious implications here for religious liberty, a term that does not appear in the report (though "individual liberty" does).

"The Casey Review is obviously right to highlight the dangers from Saudi investment in mosques teaching ultra-conservative Salafi Islam. It's also right to worry about misogynistic and homophobic teaching. But another example of what it thinks is unacceptably divisive is a leaflet urging Muslims to boycott a community music festival in a local park. Now, to a non-religious person this might seem odd, but it is absolutely no business of government to tell religious communities whether they should listen to music or not

"It also refers to "the treatment of women in some strictly Jewish Orthodox communities (with children reportedly being taught that a woman's role is to look after children, clean the house and cook) and newer Christian churches (with activists seeking to 'cure' people of homosexuality). All such instances undermine integration and should be challenged." Let's be clear: women can do anything they want, and homosexuality can't be 'cured'. But when the state starts prescribing to faith communities what they should and shouldn't teach, it runs the risk of crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. Of course, one of the problems is that government does not understand religion ? as the Archbishop of Canterbury said recently, it has "no grip" on what it means to be religious. It cannot grasp that for anyone serious about their faith ? Muslim or Christian ? it is not the state that judges the faith, but the faith that judges the state. The Casey Review includes these words, which are correct: "For all those involved, faith is not something incidental to their actions. It is fundamental: the font, the origin, the thing that makes these people who they are and do what they do." It demonstrates its tone-deafness to faith, however, in the next sentence: "To them, their faith is realised in action: in commitment to others; in caring; in compassion; in an all-embracing feeling of solidarity." In other words, it's just about being nice. The civil service recoils from the idea that it might be about God. 

"No one with any sense believes that any of the abuses identified in the Casey Review ought to be unchecked. But where these arise from religion, any attempt by a liberal democracy to impose a solution is going to fail. If the government really wants genuine integration it needs to find a way of working with the grain of religion. There is little evidence as yet that it intends to try."

Above - Mark Woods - Christianity Today - December 5, 2016

Article by Losise Casey  of The Casey Review:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/04/tough-questions-social-integration-laws-values-every-person-britain

PDF Summary of The Casey Review:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/574566/The_Casey_Review_Exec_Summary.pdf

[eyeshaveit]

Roman Catholic Church in a ?Religious Civil War? says Famed Catholic Historian

"Italian Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei has stated that Pope Francis? refusal to answer questions by the four Cardinals about whether Amoris Laetitia* conforms to Catholic teaching is itself ?already an answer,? the implications of which, he says, indicates that the Catholic Church has entered into a ?religious civil war. This situation is so grave that a neutral position is no longer possible. Today we are in a war, a religious civil war,? de Mattei told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive interview in Rome last month.

?It is important to comprehend that today there is a clear choice between fidelity to the Church, to the perennial Magisterium, or infidelity, which means errors, heresy, and apostasy,? he said. De Mattei, a professor at the European University of Rome and the president of the Lepanto Foundation, stated that there is ?tremendous confusion inside the Church? caused by the pope?s ambiguous moral teaching, especially as found in his April exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which he said has caused ?division? and  ?fragmentation? among bishops, priests, and the faithful.

"The exhortation specifically has been criticized by faithful Catholics for undermining the indissolubility of marriage, opening a door for couples in adulterous relationships to receive Holy Communion, and for making conscience the final arbiter of morality. As some critics feared, the exhortation is already being used by some liberal bishops to welcome openly homosexual ?families? into parishes and for allowing adulterous couples to receive Holy Communion in certain cases.

"When the four Cardinals privately asked the pope in September ? following a standard procedure within the Church ? whether the exhortation conforms to Catholic teaching on marriage, the sacraments, and conscience, the pope failed to answer their questions. Specifically, they asked: 1) whether adulterers can receive Holy Communion; 2) whether there are absolute moral norms that must be followed ?without exceptions;? 3) if habitual adultery is an ?objective situation of grave habitual sin;? 4) whether an intrinsically evil act can be turned into a ??subjectively? good? act based on ?circumstances or intentions;? and 5) if, based on ?conscience,? one can act contrary to known ?absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts.?

"The cardinals then went public with their questions last month, only to receive harsh criticism from high-ranking prelates, including two who were recently made cardinals by Pope Francis. The four stand accused of being ?troublesome,? in need of ?conversion,? of committing ?apostasy? and ?scandal,? of giving the pope a ?slap in the face,? and of creating ?difficulty and division.? But de Mattei argued that it was not the four cardinals who created the problem, but the pope."

Pete Baklinski  -  LifeSite News - December 5, 2016.
Complete article -  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/watch-pope-francis-started-religious-civil-war-by-refusing-to-answer-4-card   

*Amoris Laetitia pdf - https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf

[eyeshaveit]

Rare Bibles and Manuscripts Auction Results

"On 5 December 2016, Sotheby?s had an auction of one of the world?s largest private collections of Bibles and manuscripts. The collection was Charles Ryrie?s, former professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Seminary. For many years I would take my students to visit his home and see the treasures in his collection. Every year he would bring out new marvels that astonished me. I never saw the whole collection, but he was always generous in bringing out scores of volumes.

"Ryrie died earlier this year. He was just a month shy of his 92nd birthday. I had been keeping a close eye on his collection and had discussed it with him many times over the years. Among other things, he owned three Greek New Testament manuscripts, one of only eleven vellum Luther Bibles in the world, and the finest copy of the 1611 King James Bible anywhere. He also owned several of Erasmus and Stephanus editions of the Greek New Testament, a couple of leaves of the Gutenberg Bible, and virtually every major English Bible from Wycliffe to the KJV. Altogether, nearly 200 items were auctioned.

"His Wycliffe Bible sold for $1.4 million, which was way over the anticipated price. The KJV sold way under its expectations?only $320,000. The Greek New Testament manuscripts were auctioned for $140,000 to $250,000. Codex 669, the Benton Gospels manuscript, was the most important (and most expensive) of these.

"Sotheby?s does not let one know who the bidders are. We?re all given a paddle number and we bid with that, protecting our identities. But clearly someone was buying up a lot of these treasures, and the desire to get them no matter the cost (or so it seemed) certainly brought the price up. I bid on two small items, which quickly escalated out of my price range.

"Ryrie did not own junk. His printed books were in excellent condition. The selling price reflected this. The very first published Greek New Testament, Erasmus?s Novum Testamentum (1516), sold for $24,000. The third edition (1522)?the first one to have the comma Johanneum in it?was a bargain at $5500.

"A second edition of Tyndale?s New Testament (Ryrie owned nearly a dozen of these!) sold for $75,000. There were also several copies of the Matthew?s Bible ($22,000), Coverdale Bible ($11,000?$21,000), Great Bible ($4,000?$28,000), Geneva New Testament ($30,000), Bishops Bible ($48,000), Douay-Rheims Bible ($18,000), a rare copy of the KJV ?Wicked Bible? (1631; so-called because the printer left out the ?not? in the seventh commandment; thus, ?Thou shalt commit adultery?!) for $38,000.

"The Luther vellum Bible sold for $260,000. It is probably the most beautiful book I?ve ever seen. This was more than double the expected sale price.

"A rare Complutensian Polyglot (only 600 were printed) came in under expectations at $70,000. This included actually the first printed Greek New Testament, though it was not published until six years after Erasmus?s work was out. The Textus Receptus?the Greek that stands behind the KJV?was essentially Erasmus?s Greek New Testament, with some wording from the CP as well as later editions of the Greek New Testament that were largely based on Erasmus.

"A very rare certificate of ordination signed by Luther brought $60,000. And the third edition of Pilgrim?s Progress netted $75,000?as much as three times the expected sale price. Finally, the Gutenberg leaves each garnered only $38,000, way under what was anticipated.

"The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts owns a 10th?11th century Greek copy of Luke?s Gospel that was appraised at a price that is significantly lower than any of these Greek New Testament manuscripts. Now we have more recent comparisons and the value of such a manuscript can be weighed in light of these other manuscripts. I think we need to up the insurance value!

"I hope that these books and manuscripts have found decent homes, and that the new owners will take the best possible care of them. And I also hope that the owners will reveal who they are and make known their remarkable volumes to others. I especially would like to see them digitally preserved and the images posted on the Internet?in particular, the Greek NT manuscripts. CSNTM would be more than happy to digitize these manuscripts. It?s a good time of year to express such hopes. This is more than my bucket list?it?s my Christmas list! Owners, please do not hide your light under a bushel, but let the world see these historical items that all of us may be enriched by Ryrie?s collection."

Daniel Wallace - December 6, 2016:
https://danielbwallace.com/2016/12/06/ryries-bibles-and-manuscripts-auctioned-off/

[eyeshaveit]

Controversy rages as Guam's patron saint is honored

"This year, there were: multiple sex abuse allegations against Guam's highest leader, Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, whose canonical trial is ongoing at the Vatican; a multimillion seminary property fight; the reassignment of priests; and Pope Francis? appointment of an Apuron successor, Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes ...

"Francis ?Ankie? Toves, a 53-year-old Mongmong resident, said this is a year of reconciling within the church, starting with the temporary leadership of Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai in June. ?Archbishop Hon started the changes necessary to heal the church. With Archbishop Byrnes? appointment, it basically cements the changes that started during Hon?s time. We are hoping for the best,? Toves said. He said the procession crowd this year looked larger than last year?s, and he is thankful for that.

"The Vatican sent Hon to Guam to temporarily administer the church while Apuron was placed on leave over multiple allegations that Apuron sexually abused and raped former altar boys in Agat in the 1970s. As of Wednesday, 12 former altar boys have filed lawsuits alleging that priests raped and/or sexually abused them. Named defendants in the dozen lawsuits are priests, including Apuron, the Archdiocese of Agana and up to 50 other unnamed individuals who may have helped, abetted, concealed or covered up the clergy abuses. For many, the challenges the Catholic Church has gone through has made them stronger in their faith ...

"Santa Marian Kamalen, or Our Lady of Camarin, is Guam?s patron saint. Legends and beliefs revolving around the patron saint abound, from the discovery of the statue floating in the waters off Merizo more than 300 years ago to why a strong typhoon hit Guam in 2002 just days after the Legislature removed Santa Marian Kamalen Day from the island?s list of government holidays.

Haidee V Eugenio - Pacific Daily News - Guam - USA Today Network - December 8, 2016.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/12/08/amid-church-controversy-thousands-honor-guams-patron-saint/95178530/

[eyeshaveit]

Anglican Bishop in Zimbabwe Censored for Burying His Wife in Church

"The Anglican Church has moved to sever ties with a retired bishop who last month pulled a shocker by digging a grave and burying his late wife in a chapel. The church said it was implementing a series of proposals to salvage "what is left of our dignity and integrity" after the saga, adding that "we cannot be insulted any worse than this". Controversial philanthropist and retired Anglican cleric Lazarus Muyambi buried wife, Neddie, inside a chapel on November 26 in a development that reportedly baffled the Gokwe community and divided the Anglican church. Despite retiring, Muyambi is reportedly engaged in a row over ownership and control of church facilities and properties that include a girls' high school. Relatives dismissed criticism of what was widely seen as a bizarre decision, saying the chapel is a private family facility and that what use it was put to is no business of the Anglican church.

"But church authorities disagree. In a December 5 letter to local clergy, the Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe indicated that a decision had been taken to server ties with Muyambi. The Diocese said it was moving from the "toxic environment" at St Agnes Mission which Muyambi controls and setting up a separate church at Gokwe Centre. "Burying a dead body in a chapel or private dwelling is not part of our tradition as the Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe or the Anglican council of Zimbabwe," said Diocese head, Bishop Ishmael Mukuwanda. Bishop Mukuwanda also responded to Muyambi family arguments that there was nothing unusual about their decision as church burials were common in the Anglican church of old. "We are neither the Church of England were this used to happen centuries ago, nor the colonial Anglican Church where this might have happened," said Mukuwamba."

Staff - AllAfrica.com - December 8, 2016:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201612100011.html

[eyeshaveit]

Nigerian Church Roof Collapses, 160 Dead

"Mortuaries overflowed with bodies Sunday from a church collapse in southern Nigeria that killed at least 160 people, and worshippers said construction of the building had been rushed. Hundreds had been inside the Reigners Bible Church International in the city of Uyo on Saturday for the consecration of founder Akan Weeks as its bishop when the metal girders fell and the corrugated iron roof caved in. Screaming survivors streamed out amid cries from the injured inside.

"Hundreds had been inside the Reigners Bible Church International in the city of Uyo on Saturday for the consecration of founder Akan Weeks as its bishop when the metal girders fell and the corrugated iron roof caved in. Screaming survivors streamed out amid cries from the injured inside.

"There were trapped bodies, parts of bodies, blood all over the place and people's handbags and shoes scattered," said computer analyst Ukeme Eyibio. Officials feared the death toll could rise. Weeks and Akwa Ibom state Gov. Udom Emmanuel were among the survivors. Eyibio had parked his car outside the complex to make a phone call when he heard a deafening crash and saw that the church had disappeared.

"He and three others dragged 10 injured people from an overflow area for worshippers just outside the collapsed church. They did not enter the main structure because a construction worker warned it was not safe. The worker called his boss at Julius Berger construction company, which sent a crane to help lift debris off bodies.

"While they waited for the crane, Eyibio helped a man whose legs were trapped under a girder. "I rushed to my car, got out the tire jack and used that to get the beam off his legs," the 27-year-old said by telephone. "We managed to get him out, but we saw others dying all around us," he added. "I'm so traumatized I could not sleep last night for the horrors repeating themselves in my mind."

"Mortuaries in Uyo were overwhelmed by the disaster, medical director Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital told The Associated Press.
Many of the dead were taken to private mortuaries scattered across the city, said youth leader Edikan Peters. Some people were taking the bodies of relatives to their homes because of the overcrowding. Peters said he counted 90 bodies removed from the church before he was stold to stop his tally Saturday night. Journalists also said that church officials sought to prevent them from documenting the tragedy, trying to seize cameras and forcing some to leave the area.

"The church had been still under construction and workers had been rushing to finish it in time for Saturday's ceremony, congregants said. The governor's spokesman, Ekerete Udoh, said the state government will investigate if any building standards were compromised.

"Buildings collapse often in Nigeria because of endemic corruption, with contractors using substandard materials and bribing inspectors to ignore shoddy work or a lack of permits. In 2014, 116 people died when a multistory guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. Most victims were visiting South African followers of the megachurch's influential founder T.B. Joshua. Two structural engineers, Joshua and church trustees were accused of criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter after a coroner found the building collapsed from structural failures caused by design and detailing errors. Efforts to bring them to court have been foiled by repeated legal challenges."

Associated Press - December 11, 2016.

[eyeshaveit]

Forgot the Ten Commandments? New app has a list for you and helps to find a nearby priest to take your confession

"Catholics seeking to confess their sins to a priest in Spain can now turn to a new app to find the nearest available cleric. Confesor GO detects a user's location and shows the location of priests around them who are ready to listen to their sins as well as the shortest route to get to him. It also provides basic information about the priest, including his name, date of birth and the year he was ordained as well as a list of the Ten Commandments. "The priest may be in a confessional in a church or some place down the street or at a park in your city," reads the description of the app on Apple's iTunes store.

"The app will be launched on Thursday. A beta version has been downloaded several thousand times since it was made available to the public in late September. The bishop of the northern city of San Sebastian, Jose Ignacio Munilla, is one of around 100 clerics across Spain who have so far signed up to use the app to signal when they are available to hear confession, which usually involves admitting sins to a priest in a confessional booth. Father Ricardo Latorre, who came up with the app, said he hopes the service will become available in other Spanish-speaking nations in Latin America next year. "It has generated a great deal of interest and there are many priests from these countries that ask to join. What happens is things take time and it is impossible to do it faster," he told Catholic news website Verdad en Libertad earlier this year.

"While Catholicism remains deeply embedded in Spanish culture, regular church attendance in Spain, like elsewhere in Europe, has steadily fallen. The majority of Spaniards, 59.3 percent, say they "almost never" attend mass, according to a survey published Monday by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS). Just 15 percent said they went every week."

Agence France-Presse - December 16, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

Fake News - Is Religious Liberty at Stake?

"As the world's largest web companies are being pressured to crackdown on websites that produce "fake news," there are growing concerns that efforts to censor what is deemed to be fake news could have a negative impact on religious news websites and sites that report from a conservative or biblical perspective. The term fake news has been circulated by the media and Hillary Clinton following her defeat to President-elect Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election, with many accusing so-called pro-Trump fake news sites of having a decisive impact on the outcome of the election. Just days after the election, Google and Facebook announced that they would take concrete action to cut off fake news websites from their ad networks and revenues.

"Google said it would ban websites that produce fake news from using its AdSense network, which is a vital source of revenue for many news organizations. Meanwhile, Facebook made changes to its Facebook Audience Network policy to ensure that no advertisements will be displayed on websites that produce fake or misleading news. Although most people would agree that steps need to be taken to curb the flow and influence of fake news on the internet, some are warning Google, Facebook and other tech giants to be cautious in how they go about censoring fake news.

"Jeff Hunt, the director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University and founder of one of Colorado's largest conservative advertising agencies, Avinova Media Group, told The Christian Post what the changes Google and Facebook made in their policies actually mean. "Any website that wants to host Google advertising has to be approved and go through an approval process to join what is called their AdSense network. You are typically banned from joining the AdSense network if the content on your website is pornographic or violent," Hunt, who is also CCU's vice president of public policy, said. "They won't allow banner ads to run on those types of websites. What they are now adding is this notion of fake news. So, you recognize that is a worthy cause and it is good that they are trying to do that," Hunt continued. "The challenge that they are going to run up against, especially when it comes to religious issues is what is fake news, especially within the religious community."

"Hunt explained that different people have different views about religion and the truth of God. "If we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, therefore is God Himself, and Google does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, are Christian blogs now fake news?" Hunt asked. "They don't really get into how they are going to determine what is fake news. We would look at other religions as having information that doesn't line up with our definition of truth. As they kind of embark on this effort to eliminate fake news, they have to be very careful about what they determine within religious communities would fall under categories of fake news." There are many different aspects within religion that are contested and debated. Even within Christianity, Christians argue back and forth about minor and major theological differences. Hunt wonders if websites that report on differing and controversial views of religion will be deemed to be websites that promote fake views.

"We believe things about the Bible, about the flood, about Noah, about the End Times and all that stuff. Somebody who is not a believer in that would deem that fake news or fake information," Hunt said. "They have got a mountain to climb when it comes to determining how they are going to deal with religious content. But for the content sites that are just purely propagating fake news to generate revenue, I think that is good that they are trying to figure out a way to stop those. But they have to be careful when it comes to religious websites."

"Hunt does not believe that Google algorithms will adequately censor fake news to ensure that religious content does not get censored. He believes that ultimately, it will have to fall to humans to determine what is and is not fake news. However, he warned that every person has his or her own biases. "They are going to have to have somebody that understands that just because you don't agree with someone's religious position, it doesn't make it OK to deem their website fake news and therefore, shut down ad revenue," he said. "I think this is a big problem that the Left makes. They kind of bet on this idea that religion is going away in the world."

"I grew up public educated, where religion was scoffed at. If that carries over into this area of fake news where they are going to ban advertising on religious websites because they deem it as fake news, they are missing out on how a majority of the world communicates, where religion is deeply important, debated and discussed," Hunt continued. "There is news within religions. There is news within the Catholic Church, evangelical, the Jewish community the Muslim community. They have got to be careful that they don't deem religion that they disagree with as fake news and therefore penalize the vast majority of the populations of the world." Rob Bluey, the vice president of publishing at The Heritage Foundation and editor in chief of The Daily Signal, told CP that liberals have in the past displayed a double standard in their attitude toward fake news. He explained how liberals claimed last year's undercover Planned Parenthood videos were doctored and faked, but never considered Dan Rather's false reporting in 2004 on President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard to be "fake news."

"The concern that you have, particularly in these tech companies, which are located in a very liberal area of Silicon Valley, is will you be able to get the diversity of opinion where you are catching fake news but you are not flagging other conservative sites or news about religion that somebody may not agree with," Bluey said. "The thing that concerns me most, as we saw in the case of Facebook, are concerns that surfaced about whether or not they were restricting conservative content, and I think Google has come under fire for this as well." Hunt warned that Google and Facebook must have an appeals process by which news organizations can prove that they are not a fake news website, adding that many on the Left have already shown that they will try and gang up against conservative organizations and pressure social media companies to censor them. He pointed to YouTube's censoring of videos produced by Prager University.

"Most recently, YouTube censored a video of a pro-Israel Muslim explaining that his visit to Israel de-radicalized him. The Google-owned video sharing site considered that to be "hate speech. Prager University has run into an algorithm problem and YouTube is owned by Google, where Google is getting a number of complaints by the Left about a particular video and they are automatically shutting it down without reviewing the content of it. Prager University is having to go through a pretty arduous appeals process," Hunt explained. "The Left is absolutely trying to shut down content and websites like Prager University, not because it is fake news or because it is actual hate speech or anything like that, but simply because they don't agree with the content of it."

Samuel Smith - Christian Post - December 13, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

VidAngel 'family friendly' streaming - shut down by the courts - vows to fight

"You can?t alter copyright materials, then stream those altered copies via the web to paying customers, while still claiming you?re within your legal rights. At least that?s what VidAngel has just been told. Warner Bros., Disney and Fox have won a preliminary injunction against VidAngel, a Utah-based company offering a family friendly streaming service that filters out adult language, nudity and violence from its films.

"VidAngel?s business model involved selling DVDs for $20, then buying them back for $19 after being viewed, effectively offering $1 rentals to its customers. But the studios argued that VidAngel was operating as an unlicensed video-on-demand streaming service. Plus, because some of the films on VidAngel, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, hadn?t yet reached legal streaming services like Netflix, VidAngel was also undercutting studios? windowing system, explains "The Hollywood Reporter" in its report detailing the judgement.

"There were actually several issues with VidAngel?s business model. For starters, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) says you can?t remove or circumvent the access-control protections on DVDs and Blu-rays. VidAngel tried to claim that the Family Home Movie Act of 2005, which allows the use of technology to censor DVDs, protected it. The judge disagreed, saying that it didn?t have the right to hack the DVDs. He said that the Family Movie Act requires that the filtered content comes from an ?authorized copy? of the film, and the digital content VidAngel streamed was not an authorized copy.

"Also called into question were public performance rights ? something that?s reminiscent of the Aereo case that made its way to the Supreme Court, where that earlier startup eventually lost. VidAngel said it was not infringing on public performance rights like Aereo did, because its service represented a private performance. This argument went back to the idea that the owners of the DVD ? the customers ? have a right to a private performance of that film. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. said this argument was unsupported because VidAngel was creating copies of copyrighted material, then publicly performing it via its streaming service.

"In addition, the judge said that even if VidAngel?s buy/sellback service created a valid ownership interest in the DVD, it would only apply to the physical disk, not the content streamed from VidAngel?s servers to customers. In fact, VidAngel was actually streaming from a master copy of the movie on the server, not the DVD the customer temporarily owned. Ownership of the DVD itself allows you only the right to view it, not decrypt it for viewing on another platform, the judge determined. That means the customers who ?bought? the DVD weren?t really the lawful owners of the digital content they were watching via the streaming service.

"Long story short, selling the customer a DVD in order to stream them a hacked, altered copy of that DVD via the internet isn?t legal. That should seem obvious, but many companies have tried to find loopholes in copyright law in order to offer new twists on streaming services. The judge ordered VidAngel to post a $250,000 bond and said it must temporarily stop circumventing copyright protections, copying the copyrighted materials from DVDs and Blu-rays and stop streaming or transmitting those works over the web or through apps and media streaming devices like Roku and Apple TV.

"VidAngel says it plans to continue fighting. The company raised funds from customers by touting the need for a family values-focused service like this, despite the looming lawsuit. ?We are grateful that you, our customers, have given the resources to fight this battle all the way to the Supreme Court and that is what we will do,? it said."

Sarah Perez - Tech Crunch News - December 13, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

Christianity Today's 2017 Book Awards

Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical
Timothy Keller (Viking)

?Making Sense of God is not a parade of logical evidence for God, but rather a profound reflection on the existential realities of being human. Keller asks, simply, ?Is the secular view of the world capable of making sense of the things secularists themselves properly value: freedom, individuality, justice, community, rationality, personal meaning, human rights?? His answer is a convincing no. Not only does Christianity make rational sense, Keller argues, but it also does justice to the totality of human experience. His points are gracefully presented and delivered without a hint of overstatement or triumphalism.?

Taking Pascal?s Wager: Faith, Evidence and the Abundant Life
Michael Rota (IVP Academic)

?Rota, a skilled analytic philosopher, provides an engaging and compelling case for taking Pascal?s wager. The precision of the points is manifest on every page. But what makes the book even more profitable is its accessible prose. Inviting, charitable, and provocative?this is the sort of book that one could heartily give to a believer, agnostic, or even an ardent atheist. A home-run for Christian apologetics.?

Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels
Richard Hays (Baylor University Press)

?Hays reveals how deeply the Old Testament shaped the Gospel writers, showing how each of them uniquely expresses the stories of Israel, Jesus, and the church. The academy often views the New Testament authors? use of the Old as misguided at best or manipulative at worst, but Hays effectively shows how the their readings were inspired, intelligent, and imaginative. He enables us to hear four distinct voices: the veiled Jesus of Mark, the prophesied Jesus of Matthew, the promised Jesus of Luke, and the incarnate Jesus of John.?

Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian: A Kingdom Corrective to the Evangelical Gender Debate
Michelle Lee-Barnewall (Baker Academic)

?Lee-Barnewell plows new ground by emphasizing the kingdom and counter-cultural values in biblical narratives about the relationship of men and women. Clearly, she doesn?t resolve this debate, but that was never her intention. Her different perspective on various passages helps us see them in a fresh way, and that refocused vision is helpful.?

Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt, and the Seas[/I]
Leslie Leyland Fields (NavPress)

?Drawing from a trip to Israel and from her family?s lives as salmon fishermen on a remote island in Alaska, Fields shows what it means to be a child of God in the world today. We get a clear picture of what Jesus was doing with his disciples, his followers, his critics, and his family in and around the Sea of Galilee. Fields helpfully intersperses her own family?s stories of adventure, risk, calm, and loss. Her command of language, allegory, and Scripture is impressive.?

Saving the Saved: How Jesus Saves Us from Try-Harder Christianity into Performance-Free Love
Bryan Loritts (Zondervan)

?Loritts teaches essential lessons about grace and the performance-free gospel, without minimizing the important work of sanctification. He urges us to abide in Christ and remember the Good News until we reach the day when we are free from sinning.?

How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth
Christopher J. H. Wright (Zondervan)

?Preaching from the Old Testament can intimidate the best of us. Wright?s excellent book combines a robust biblical framework with practical communication steps in an easy-to-read style. Each Old Testament genre is given ample teaching examples along with hands-on checklists that help the preacher toward faithful proclamation. Even more refreshing is the emphasis on exalting Jesus in ways that are true to the text and relevant to our culture. Seasoned pastors, seminary students, and lay leaders will all benefit from this fine work.?

75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Stories behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music, and Film
Terry Glaspey (Baker)

?The prevailing assumption is that evangelicals and art don?t really get along. Glaspey deftly undermines this idea by making the case for integrating a range of masterpieces into Christian tradition. He does this in the best way possible, not by offering conceptual reasons why Christians should care about art, but by getting down to business and revealing the work itself, piece by piece. Any book that attempts a survey of sorts, especially one covering hundreds of years and multiple genres, runs the risk of superficiality. Glaspey manages to avoid this with his concise, illuminating essays that accompany each piece.?

Joyful Witness in the Muslim World: Sharing the Gospel in Everyday Encounters
Evelyne Reisacher (Baker Academic)

?Perhaps understandably, much of our attention to the Muslim world?on the news, and in the church?revolves around war, terrorism, and other pervasive challenges. But Reisacher shows us the story we?re missing. From a lifetime of missionary service, she reflects on how God?s image is beautifully reflected in the Muslim men and women she?s befriended. And she calls us to share our faith not out of fear or anger, but out of joy rooted in the hope of Christ.?

Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis
Stephan Bauman, Matthew Soerens, and Issam Smeir (Moody)

?The authors of Seeking Refuge have managed quite an achievement in clearly explaining the complexity and importance of the global refugee crisis?and showing how the church should respond. Seeking Refuge informs without being pedantic, and calls us to action without browbeating. The approach is an outstanding example of what Karl Barth supposedly said about holding the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. While there are many worthy causes Christians should support, Seeking Refuge persuasively argues that God is especially calling his church in this moment to love mercy and act justly for the sake of our refugee neighbors near and far.?

Etc. - Complete list:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/january-february/christianity-todays-2017-book-awards.html

Christianity Today reviews in quotes.

[eyeshaveit]

Vatican says: "Religious freedom is the 'litmus test' of respect for all other fundamental human rights"

"While violent persecution against Christians assails swaths of territory the Middle East and Africa, one Vatican official says that Western nations face a different type of oppression, marked by the push to eliminate religion from public life. ?To act and speak out publicly as a committed Christian in one's professional life has never been more threatened,? Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Under-secretary for relations with the States, said on Dec. 14. ... "Religious freedom is the ?litmus test? of respect for all other fundamental human rights, since it is their ?synthesis and keystone,? he said, adding that safeguarding this freedom ensures that other rights will also be guaranteed to all people, regardless of belief, since it involves consciousness and dignity. Pointing to the ?barbaric persecution of Christians? happening in the Middle East, he said ?the atrocities committed against Christians in Syria and Iraq are so horrific that words cannot adequately respond, and their plight must not be forgotten.?

"He referred to the gruesome bombing of a Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo Sunday that killed at least 25, saying it offers proof of the ?shadow of violent extremism and terrorism? in the country. Yet, he also cautioned that such persecution is also taking place ?at the very doorstep? of the OSCE headquarters in Vienna. ?We must recognize that discrimination and intolerance, including hate crimes, impact many Christians and Christian communities, despite a frequently encountered notion that in this part of the world such discrimination or intolerance does not occur,? he said

"Simply belonging to the majority religion seems to exclude Christians from being considered victims of intolerance, Camilleri said, but stressed that such a view ?is not based on reality. The continuous attacks against Christian churches and religious buildings, time and time again...easily disprove the notion that Christians do not suffer intolerance,? he observed. He referred to the many cases of premeditated acts of destruction against churches and religious spaces and symbols, including crosses and other Christian artifacts, as well as the theft and ?sacrilegious misuse? who what Christians consider holy, as an example. All of these, the priest said, are examples ?of not only disrespectful, but intolerant, and in most cases criminal acts committed with a bias motive.?

"Camilleri then pointed to new forms of intolerance popping up in Western nations. Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, he said that religion ?is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere,? he said, noting that others argue ?that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.? A recent example is the case of a priest who serves as chaplain of the cemetery in the Italian city of Cremona, who refrained from setting up the traditional Nativity scene for fear of offending Muslims and those of other faiths.

"Still others ?paradoxically? argue with the intention of eliminating discrimination that Christians who have public profiles ?should be required at times to act against their conscience,? Camilleri said.  These examples are all part of ?what may rightly be called 'anti-Christian sentiment,'? and represent ?a new form of intolerance and discrimination against Christians...based on setting the freedom of religion or belief against some general notion of tolerance and nondiscrimination.? When it comes to tolerance and non-discrimination, these things should never be used or interpreted in a way that would restrict religious freedom or belief, he said. ?Every right entails obligations and duties,? he said. ?Therefore, a self-professed Christian cannot claim that freedom of religion or belief entitles him to call for violence against non-believers.?

"However, the same goes for the other side, Camilleri said, explaining that a Christian preacher ?who respectfully and faithfully teaches the religious or moral tenets of his Church? is still protected by freedom of religion, even if the majority of people are ?uncomfortable? with what he has to say. ?We must raise awareness of discrimination against Christians even in regions where international public opinion would normally not expect this to exist,? he said, adding that Christians, as well as others, must be allowed to express their religious identity publicly, ?free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.? Any discomfort or opposition the public role of religion, he said, is what Pope Francis has referred to as ?the polite persecution of Christians? in many countries. ?In the guise of 'political correctness,' Christian faith and morals are considered to be hostile and offensive, and therefore, something to be removed from public discourse,? the priest noted, stressing that this fear of Christianity playing its ?legitimate role? in society ?betrays a reductionist view or approach to the freedom of religion or belief, confining it merely to the freedom of worship.?

"Despite challenges intolerance brings, Camilleri stressed that religion, Christianity included, has an endless capacity for good, not only for individuals and communities, but for society as a whole. The Church, he said, ?does not pretend...to substitute for politics. Nor does the Church claim to offer technical solutions to the world?s problems since the responsibility of doing that belongs elsewhere.? What religion does, then, is offer specific guidelines to both the community of believers, and to society as a whole. Religion by its nature ?is open to a larger reality and thus it can lead people and institutions toward a more universal vision? and a ?horizon of fraternity? capable of enriching humanity, Camilleri said.

"The Holy See, then, ?is convinced that for both individuals and communities the dimension of belief can foster respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, support democracy and rule of law and contribute to the quest for truth and justice.? Dialogue and partnerships between religions and with religions, he said, ?are an important means to promote confidence, trust, reconciliation, mutual respect and understanding as well as to foster peace.?

Elise Harris - Catholic News Agency - December 15, 2016.

[eyeshaveit]

Burma's religious freedom in crisis

"Abuses against religious freedom have reached crisis proportions in Burma (aka Myanmar), where Rohingya Muslims and Christians are suffering terribly despite the country's small steps toward democracy.Since the end of the colonial period, the situation for Christians and Muslims has never been ideal because they were seen by many other Burmese as tools of the British colonial power, ignoring the fact that Catholicism had been in Burma for 500 years. Buddhism was thought by many as being essential to Burmese identity and culture. For these Burmese, the separation of church and state was considered a foreign imposition.

"Despite this, the post-colonial period started with the 1947 Panglong Agreement upholding the principles of equality and self-determination for not only Burma's Buddhist majority, but also diverse ethnic and religious minorities. Independence leader Gen. Aung San ? the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the current Burmese government leader ? was a principal author of this agreement. The situation for Christians and Muslims quickly deteriorated with the military coup in 1962, which tore up the Panglong Agreement. In the five brutal decades that followed the coup, the military exploited the country's diversity, ruling Burma through a divide-and-conquer strategy that pitted Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims against each other. Anyone opposing military rule, including Buddhist monks, were dealt with severely.

"The regime instituted a state Ministry of Religious Affairs and a Department for the Promotion and Propagation of Sasana (Buddhist teachings). Although "Ministry of Religious Affairs" is the official translation of the office's name, a more accurate translation of the Burmese is the "Buddhist Mission Ministry." Thus, while the regime made Buddhism a virtual state religion, it perpetrated discrimination and tolerated violence against Muslims and Christians by Ma Ba Tha and other ultra-nationalistic Buddhist monks. The situation has been so bad that ever since its creation in 1999, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that Myanmar be classified as a "country of particular concern," marking it as one of the world's worst religious freedom abusers. In every subsequent year, USCIRF made the same recommendation, and in each instance the U.S. State Department has concurred and designated Burma as a CPC.

"In recent years, Burma has been seeking to transition itself to a more democratic form of government. Nonetheless, religious and ethnic minorities still suffer grievously. The most well-known example is that of Burma's Rohingya Muslims. From the enactment of discriminatory "race-and-religion" laws to assaults by Buddhist extremists, Burma's government and society continue to persecute this beleaguered minority under the notion that Burma should be "one nation, one race, one religion." According to Mufford, "Rohingya Muslims, Rakhine Buddhists, and individuals of other ethnicities and beliefs throughout the state have suffered grievous deprivations of basic rights, including inadequate access to food, water, shelter, education, and health care; restrictions on freedom of movement; denial of needed humanitarian aid; limited opportunities to obtain an education or earn a living; egregious human rights abuses resulting in death, injury, and displacement; and, in the case of Rohingya Muslims, the denial of the right to a nationality and citizenship." Today, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are stateless, homeless and vulnerable.

"The plight of Christians ? harrowing but to a different degree ? concerns USCIRF as well. In a number of areas, restrictions on ownership for religious purposes are draconian and public worship nearly impossible. Coerced conversion to Buddhism continues, as well as violence against churches, often related to long-standing ethnic armed conflicts with Burma's military. "From the early 1990s onward, the military increased its occupation of predominantly Christian Chin, Kachin, and Naga areas, destroying churches and crosses while simultaneously expanding Buddhist infrastructure such as monasteries and pagodas, at times with the use of forced labor exacted from Christians," according to Fleming. "The military routinely occupies churches and summons entire congregations for interrogation." To date, approximately 150,000 people have been forced to flee.

"In short, the plight of both Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Christians results from the actions of successive governments that have both perpetrated and tolerated severe religious freedom violations. The situation is especially dire because food shortages are getting critical with the possibility of permanent harm, especially to children, on the immediate horizon. As long as these violations continue, Burma will not become a stable, secure and unified country.  It's time for Burma to defend religious freedom and embrace its brighter, earlier vision of a multi-religious, multi-ethnic society of unity and tolerance.  At a minimum, it must stop the persecution and violence against Christian and Muslim minorities."

Thomas Reese - National Catholic Reporter - December 15, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

Atheist's Church of the Sunday Assembly - Preaching goodwill just like real Christians

"Many Americans see atheists as earnest or combative, determined or misguided, quiet truth-seekers or militantly anti-religious. Few observers, however, view them as fun. Sunday Assembly, a hip new group of nonbelievers in Salt Lake City, hopes to change that perception ? and is using amateur art contests, talks about Quidditch or Animal Jam, pop music, storytelling and snacks to do it. It's kind of like the trendy K2 The Church (whose Christian pastor has been known to ride in on a motorcycle) ? minus God or scripture. Rather than fostering debate about the existence or nonexistence of deity, Sunday Assembly is building a new community by drawing on what its participants consider the best elements of age-old churches ? music, group singing, coffee hour, idealistic living, and service ? and want it to be radically inclusive. "We don't do supernatural, but we also won't tell you you're wrong if you do," Salt Lake City organizer Nichelle Reed said. "It's a place where you can find community that is not based on your religious beliefs, where you're from, your race, your orientation or your identity." The Assembly's three-pronged motto: Live better, help often, wonder more.

"The rhythm of a service is much like a Christian church with choreographed times for music, greeting one another, standing, sitting, readings and even "Funday school" for kids ages 3 to 11. It meets the second Sunday of every month at The Falls Event Center, a light-filled space on the southwest corner of Trolley Square in east Salt Lake City. Nearly 70 people ? mostly young Anglos and some kids ? joined last week's December gathering, a playful and unpredictable hour and a half. It opened with a four-member band playing the 1980s hit, "Walking on Sunshine," with lyrics projected on a big green screen at the front, while participants belted it out as they batted beach balls around the room. After a brief introduction, Laura Beck, an Assembly board member, directed the children to step into another room for a "Lego Challenge." That was followed by an icebreaker paper plate art game, a reading of a short story about sledding, and more singing and swaying to Donna Summer's "I Will Survive." Next came Reed, sharing a tale about trolls her family members traditionally read during Advent ? they were Lutherans; she is atheist. Then there was an explanation of the "science of snowflakes" by Brian Worley, co-founder and Reed's husband, using six volunteers to act out the three stages of water and slides showing various snowflake patterns. In a segment called "Life Happens," Beck mentioned one person had learned to play the ukulele and another couple had bought a home. Beck announced that the group had raised $775 for Primary Children's Hospital with its astronomy tree at the Festival of Trees and then did the proverbial "pass the plate," outlining the monthly expenses and asking for contributions to the nonprofit. The get-together ended with the group's signature theme song, "It's My Life," and moved on to the foyer for snacks from Trader Joe's.

"The growing Assembly community in the Beehive State delights Reed. It serves a need for those who don't fit either in Mormonism, Utah's dominant religion, or in any of the other faith-based traditions. "We share the same ideals; just take a different approach," Reed said. "Basically, we are here to celebrate and have fun." It also coincides with the rise of the so-called "nones" ? those religiously unaffiliated ? as the country becomes less and less churched. According to a 2012 Pew survey, a fifth of the U.S. public ? and a third of adults under 30 ? profess no religious brand, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling. In the past five years alone, the unaffiliated ranks "include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics," Pew reported, "as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation." That's a large pool for the Assembly to tap.

"On Jan. 6, 2013, London comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans launched Sunday Assembly as an alternative to institutional religion as well as to the isolation of secularism. Evans told The Washington Post that the idea came to her after trying to get her wedding guests to sing "When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles. "We realized," she said, "we'd never seen everyone we know sing together" ? except at church, which she had stopped attending as an adult. Jones and Evans came up with Sunday Assembly's broad purpose: Celebrate life without doctrine, dogma or deity, to see wisdom from all sources, to engage all who wish to attend. After the Assembly's founders took a tour of 40 countries, promoting its Sunday experience, critics mocked the movement as "church for atheists," a term the group rejects. "Jones and Evans are the anti-angry atheists," The Post reported. "In fact, they wiped from their initial publicity material the phrase 'atheist church' and have been busy since then trying to strike any language or labels that might seem negative." On that opening day, some 200 people converged on the meeting, according to the organization's website. Today, there are more than 70 officially designated Sunday Assemblies in the U.S. and across the globe. In Utah, the response likewise surprised its founders. "We just kept hosting it," said Beck, one of the Salt Lake City leaders, "and people kept showing up." The global headquarters provides "guidelines (though there is room for some regional variations) for the general format," Reed explained. "This is so that if people traveling, they can visit any Assembly and feel at home." But Sunday Assembly doesn't work for all secularists or nonbelievers.

"Well-known Utah atheist Gregory Arthur Clark understands the appeal of Sunday Assembly. Religions provide a strong social and emotional cocoon for people, offering help and support through human trials and tragedies, Clark said. Even when one no longer believes in the faith's teachings, it can be "psychologically wrenching to leave." In history, it was almost impossible to survive without the assistance of a religious community, he noted. "We are a social species. The worst thing you can do is put someone in social solitary confinement." Clark, a bioengineering professor at the University of Utah, affiliates with Atheists of Utah, which features weekly gatherings that include speakers, discussions and some community service. Humanists of Utah, the Free Thinkers Society and a relatively new group, the Oasis Network ? a "secular community ... empowered by reason, connected by compassion" ? also were created, among others, to fill the void left for those turning away from religion. Many people now want a sense of connectedness, Clark said, "without the magic, and in some cases, without bigotry." Sunday Assembly may serve many of the same needs, just with more beach balls."

Peggy Fletcher Stack - The Salt Lake Tribune - December 18, 2016.

[eyeshaveit]

Sabbath Worship in Bloomington, Indiana circa 1850

"While the building in which the congregation gathered for worship on the Sabbath was called the ?meeting house? ... The religious exercises in the ?meeting-house? were named from their principal part, ?preaching?... My mother might have said to us, ?It is time to get ready to go to ?preaching? ... or after our return one might have said, ?There were a good many at preaching.? ... ?Preaching? included all the public services on an ordinary Sabbath.

?Preaching? commenced at 11:00 A.M., and continued, with the exception of an ?interval? of fifteen or twenty minutes, till probably near 3:00 P.M. The older people spoke of the closing time as ?night?, whatever the hour might be ... A little before 11:00 o?clock people might be seen coming from different directions toward the house of worship ? some on foot, some on horseback (occasionally two or three on one horse), and some in two horse wagons ... The people left their wagons under the trees, to the branches of which they hitched their horses. There the women and children got out and walked to the door of the meeting-house. They went in at once and sat in their pews. The men, and the older boys, lingered about the sides of the house until the hour of service arrived. The horses had no shelter, summer or winter, except that afforded by the tree under which they stood.

"When it was about time for ?preaching? Father and Mother and Aunt Becky and the boys in quiet procession, walked to the meeting-house. Father went at once into the pulpit, and Mother into the front pew of the west side of the middle block. Soon after, the men and boys, one by one, came down the aisles ... When the hour had come the preacher would rise, and when he had said, ?Let us pray?, all the congregation would stand up until the close of the prayer ... After the opening prayer, the minister announced a psalm, and read it in meter ... Having read the verses he made comments on them for perhaps half an hour. This was done in order that all might understand the psalm and so sing intelligently. Thus the congregation heard the whole Book of Psalms explained. The minister having ?explained the psalm? and having called on the people to sing it, He then took his seat ...

"The clerk ... rose behind his desk on the low platform ... As soon as they had sung the two lines which the pastor had read they waited until the clerk read the next two, which they then sang. Then the clerk read out the next two. So there was alternate ?lining out? and singing to the end of the portion which had been explained. (Most of the people there could sing well. They had a good ear for music, and good voices, and were not afraid to ?sing loud to God?, but, like their leader, they had no training except what they got in the worship at home and in public). Singing the psalms without ?lining? would, at that time, have been regarded by some as very disorderly practice. Yet, when a few years later, ?continuous singing? was introduced, no one in that congregation, I think, took offense ...

"After the singing of the psalm that had been explained the minister again lead the people in prayer. This was sometimes known as ?the long prayer?. If anyone were dangerously sick in any of the families of the congregation it was customary to ask for the prayers of the people ... At the close of this prayer came what was called ?the lecture?. The minister would select some book of the Bible, Old Testament or New, and beginning at the first of the book would read a few verses and then expound them beginning the next Sabbath where he left off on this. Thus the people became familiar with a considerable part of the Scriptures ...

"Following the lecture was another short prayer. Then a psalm was sung. Sometimes a collection was taken up. The deacons passing along the aisles received the contributions in their hats. After the collection, the minister raising his hands, the people rose, while the apostolic benediction, as found in 2 Cor. 13:14, was pronounced. The women sat down again, but the men and boys, taking their hats, passed out of the house, to spend the ?interval?, and to eat the ?piece? they had brought in their pockets. The women took something ... for themselves and for the little children, and they ate it in their pews. One of the family would be sent sometimes to ?the spring? to bring water for the others. The men and boys generally went there for a drink before the ?interval? ended ...

"When the time was almost up we returned in single file, silently; and like the brethren of Joseph at his home in Egypt, ?the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth?, walked into the meeting-house and into our pews ... the people ... then ... began to come in and take their places. Some, however, waited till they heard the psalm being read, and a few stragglers were sometimes out until the singing called their attention to the fact that the ?interval? was ended. We had been taught that worldly conversation was not to be engaged in on the Sabbath, and as we were not able to carry on religious conversation, we were silent.

"After the opening psalm had been sung there was a prayer. Then the minister ?gave out? his ?text?. This was usually a single verse, or a part of a verse. The sermon after an introduction was divided into ?heads?, which were announced by number and in order; and, I think, that I remember that my father after having named the ?heads? would say, ?and then conclude?. Each ?head? was discussed in two or three ?particulars? which were announced by number. The conclusion was also divided into several ?particulars?, in which the preacher wished to impress upon the minds of the people the principal things that the sermon contained. The sermon being ended another prayer was offered, and then the minister ?gave out a psalm?. After the psalm was sung announcements were made.

"It was the law of our church ... that persons who intended to be married should be ?published?. This was attended to just before the final dismissal of the congregation. The publication was to be made ?on three several sabbath-days, in the congregation?, or if there was no public worship then they were to be published in the ?societies? in which they worshipped. I think it was the minister who did this in the meeting house ... Only once, that I can remember, was the community taken altogether by surprise in a case of this kind. This was when Madden Ervin and Margaret Elizabeth Faris were published. Their homes were only about a mile apart, and Madden had been able to walk across the fields and do his ?courting? without the help of outsiders.

"After all the announcements had been made the minister dismissed the congregation with the benediction. The people then, more or less quietly, according to their dispositions, and the nature of the previous announcements, returned to their homes, and ?preaching? was over for that day.

"Preaching" - By D. C. Faris - Taken from his diary entry, November 21, 1904.
Published by Gentle Reformation -  December 9, 2016:
http://gentlereformation.com/2016/12/17/a-day-in-gods-house-in-the-1850s/

[eyeshaveit]

The Force is not with 'Jedism' - The New ?Star Wars? Religion

"The commission, which oversees British organizations? applications for nonprofit or charity status doesn?t often wade into religious debates. It did so now because a group known as the Temple of the Jedi Order applied for charity status, citing its dedication to furthering ?the religion of Jediism, for the public benefit worldwide, in accordance with the Jedi Doctrine.? Religious organizations are among those that qualify for charity status in Britain.

"Jediism draws on ?the mythology of Star Wars,? and centers on a belief in the power of the Force,? according to a Temple document used by the Charity Commission to evaluate the application. It also draws on major world religions like Hinduism and Christianity, and on ?the existential phenomenology of Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Buber.? The group has about 177,000 practitioners in Britain, according to the BBC.

"But it does not ?promote moral or ethical improvement? and thus is not a religion, the commission said in explaining its ruling. ?The decisions which the commission makes on the extent of this meaning can be difficult and complex,? Kenneth Dibble, the chief legal adviser for the Charity Commission, said in a statement. He added that such decisions are crucial for ?maintaining clarity on what is, and is not, charitable.?

Chistopher Shea - New York Times - December 19, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/movies/star-wars-religion-jediism-charity-commission-for-england-and-wales.html

According to The Temple of the Jedi Order, Jediism is based on the observance of the Force, described as "the ubiquitous and metaphysical power" that a Jedi believes to be the underlying, fundamental nature of the universe:

*Jedi do not believe in a god, having faith instead "in the Force, and in the inherent worth of all life within it"
*They believe in eternal life through the Force and do not become "obsessed in mourning those who pass".
*Jedi may grieve but are content, knowing they will "forever be a part of the Force"
*The definition of Jediism states the religion is an "inspiration and a way of life" for people who take on "the mantle of Jedi"
*The Jedi Doctrine acknowledges there is some "scope for followers to simply view Jediism as a philosophy or way of life" and
*Some Jedi prefer to avoid the word religion
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38368526

The UK committee's decision:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications//the-temple-of-the-jedi-order

[eyeshaveit]

Twas the Night before Chrismukkah

"It happens every year. Interfaith families face the ?the December dilemma? over how they will handle Christmas and Hanukkah, which generally fall within the same month. It has become a common issue in a world in which 50 percent of American Jews are married to people who are not Jewish, and who are, most often, Christian, or of Christian heritage. This year, Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve, making the negotiation of these holidays potentially more complex. Many interfaith couples and families will try to decide how to include or exclude two traditions worth of memories, stories, theologies, rituals, and recipes. Like the holidays themselves, the solutions that couples have found have continued to evolve over time ...

?Chrismukkah? was coined by the character Seth Cohen on the hit Fox television show ?The OC.? The son of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother, Cohen defined Chrismukkah as ?eight days of presents and then one day of lots of presents.? It was a time to combine both holidays, at least commercially. They had a tree but ordered Chinese food ... But outside television, more often than not, families who negotiate both traditions have strived to keep the two celebrations separate and distinct. These families are largely trying to avoid accusations of creating a third, syncretic tradition ... There are now Hanukkah gifts, cards, and special foods. It is possible to decorate front yards with giant inflatable menorahs. Sometimes derided as inauthentic and assimilationist, these Hanukkah practices nevertheless became a way for American Jews to participate in seasonal festivities all their own ...

"Over time the hard line against Christmas celebrations began to soften, for a variety of reasons. In part, this flexibility comes from a numbers game. Like many other religious communities, liberal synagogues find themselves struggling to attract members and many are increasingly reluctant to put up barriers to membership. At the same time, attitudes have genuinely shifted. As one employee of the Jewish Federation of New York told me, ?I think we are coming to realize that we should honor the traditions of non-Jewish parents who agree to raise Jewish children, saying that we understand that they also have rich heritages.? ...

"Today, while many Jewish-identified interfaith families still avoid Christmas (and many congregations expect them to), others have found ways to include Christmas in their family lives. In these families, children attend Jewish religious schools and observe Jewish life-cycle events, and because they have a robust Jewish life, participating in the Christmas season does not seem to detract from the children?s Jewish identity. ?I think that if a family has a weekly Shabbat practice and really engaged Jewish life, then putting up a tree for three weeks can?t threaten the life being lived for 52 weeks of the year,? said an ... Atlanta rabbi in an interview ... the holiday is an American cultural Christmas, sometimes with whimsical juxtapositions. During my fieldwork, I visited one home with a Star of David Christmas tree topper and another where stockings always included both dreidels and Hanukkah gelt ...

"Generally speaking ... dual-religion families are intentional about including more than the consumerist aspects of the American holidays. Children know the story of Hanukkah, and its relatively minor status in the panoply of Jewish holidays. They know the blessings over the Hanukkah candles and enjoy good sufiganyot, or jelly doughnuts, just as the exclusively Jewish kids do. Similarly, rather than keeping Christ out of Christmas, these families make sure that their children know the story from the Gospel of Luke. They talk about Jesus as someone whom some in their community consider a savior ...

"These three kinds of families?the Jewishly affiliated family, who keeps Christmas out of their own homes but celebrates with family; the Jewishly affiliated family who celebrates some aspects of Christmas at home; and the dual-religion interfaith family?have an important characteristic in common: for all the cultural fuss about the blended (and invented) ?holiday? of Chrismukkah, these families are careful to keep their holidays separate. They might light a menorah in the shadow of a Christmas tree, but the holidays are not blended into a third set of practices"

Samira Mehta - Religion & Politics - December 20, 2016

Complete article - http://religionandpolitics.org/2016/12/20/christmas-and-hanukkah-together-again/

[eyeshaveit]

Distinguishing Between Religious Sentiment and Mental Illness - Seemingly Both Share Similar Characteristics

"Last year, a news column circulated the web, announcing the American Psychological Association had decided to classify strong religious beliefs as mental illness. According to the article, a five-year study by the APA concluded that devout belief in a deity could hinder ?one?s ability to make conscientious decisions about common sense matters.? Refusals by Jehovah?s Witnesses to accept life-saving treatments, such as blood transfusions, were given as an example.

"Of course, this turned out to be a fake news story. But it still drew legitimate media coverage and outrage from readers. Fact-checking websites like Snopes had to point out the column was satirical. To many, this was a ridiculous stunt. But for me, a physician specializing in mental health, the satire hits home in many ways. My colleagues and I often care for patients suffering from hallucinations, prophesying, and claiming to speak with God, among other symptoms?in mental health care, it?s sometimes very difficult to tell apart religious belief from mental illness. Part of this is because the classification of mental illness often relies on subjective criteria. We can?t diagnose many mental health conditions with brain scans or blood tests. Our conclusions frequently stem from the behaviors we see before us.

"Take an example of a man who walks into an emergency department, mumbling incoherently. He says he?s hearing voices in his head, but insists there?s nothing wrong with him. He hasn?t used any drugs or alcohol. If he were to be evaluated by mental health professionals, there?s a good chance he might be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia. But what if that same man were deeply religious? What if his incomprehensible language was speaking in tongues? If he could hear Jesus speaking to him? He might also insist nothing were wrong with him. After all, he?s practicing his faith..

"According to Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, Scientologists believe in alien spirits inhabiting human bodies. Many believe they have special powers, like telekinesis and telepathy. This puts mental health professionals in a tricky, cultural bind. Before 1993, should mental health professionals have treated patients expressing these beliefs as psychotic? After 1993, as faithful adherents? These distinctions carry profound medical and legal implications. In his book Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, journalist Jon Krakauer chronicled the case of Utah v. Lafferty, which addressed the 1984 killings of a woman and a child by two Mormon fundamentalists, Ron and Dan Lafferty. Over the last several decades, the question of Ron Lafferty?s mental health has played a key role in the case, as both sides have battled over his competency to stand trial.

"The defense has argued that Ron is mentally ill and therefore should not be put to death. In interviews, Ron has claimed to be a prophet, endorsed hearing the voice of Christ, and expressed fears about ?an evil homosexual spirit trying to invade his body through his anus.? Psychiatric experts have testified that Ron appeared to suffer from a psychotic illness, such as schizoaffective disorder. The prosecution has sought to uphold his competency to stand trial, relating his bizarre ideas to religious practices worldwide. In the words of Dr. Noel Gardner, a psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution, ?the majority of people in our country believe in God. Most people in our country say they pray to God. It?s a common experience. And while the labels that Mr. Lafferty uses are certainly unusual, the thought forms themselves are really very common?to all of us.? A local news column from 2013 summed up the complexities of this ongoing case??Where is the line between faith and delusion? Between malice and mental illness??

"These are tough questions. The practices of Scientology and Mormon fundamentalism are far from the only examples of this oft-blurred line between religion and mental health care. Virtually every religion has unusual beliefs and rituals, from consuming the flesh and blood of Christ in Catholicism to fasting as a way of atoning for sins in Judaism. Some have gone so far as to argue religion may actually be a form of mental illness. In 2006, biologist Richard Dawkins published his book The God Delusion, in which he characterizes belief in God as delusional. Dawkins cites the definition of a delusion as ?a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of a psychiatric disorder.? Dawkins? book has been wildly controversial, prompting academic rebuttals, hate mail, and even threats to jail his publishers. Still, as of 2014, The God Delusion has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

"As a mental health provider, I don?t believe it?s my job to cast judgment on patients? religious beliefs. It?s my job to use medical evidence to evaluate and treat mental illness so as to alleviate suffering among my patients. Today, we have some objective medical tests to diagnose mental illness, as in neurosyphilis or B12 deficiency. But we need more to help guide us through the difficult circumstances in which mental health care and religion collide. In time though, perhaps we will. I have faith."

Nathaniel Morris - Scientific American - December 22, 2016..

[Kiahanie]

Interesting post, eyes. +1.

[eyeshaveit]

The Nativity - Through Middle-Eastern Eyes

"Our perspectives of Christmas are hugely shaped by cultural assumptions. For those of us in the West, our traditions are largely a very recent creation, only a century or so old. Prior to this, things we think of as essential to Christmas (present giving, Santa Claus, Christmas trees) did not even exist, yet they are now so ingrained we couldn't imagine Christmas without them. So it is helpful to get other cultural perspectives, and this, from a friend in a Muslim majority nation, is excellent.     

"When we first moved to the Middle East we heard from our language helpers that on festival days everyone dresses in their best clothes and goes to visit their relatives and neighbors to celebrate. So, for our first Eid festival we very carefully cleaned our apartment, dressed up in our best clothes, got some sweets and chocolates which are traditional to hand out to visitors and waited in our house. But no-one came to visit.

"We asked our language helpers what we had done wrong. Laughing they explained ?On festival days, the small visit the big, and the big give out presents?, for example everyone in a family visit their eldest brother, or their parents or grandparents. When they arrive they would kiss the hand of the older person to show respect and honor. The host would then make sure that their guests are well looked after, feed them, serve them, give them gifts such as good quality chocolate or sometimes money or other presents. Being newly arrived foreigners who didn?t speak the language and thus having no social standing or relatives, naturally no-one came to visit us. We are considered ?small? by the culture so we are the ones who need to do the visiting.

"Reflecting on this over the Christmas season with some of my local believing friends I was struck again by the awesomeness of the incarnation we celebrate at this time. Whilst in every other religion, especially those prevalent in the Middle East, humans (the small) try to visit God by their own strength ? ritual, moral purity and good works; the Christian God knew that this was impossible for us due to the barrier and stench of our sin; as much as we try to dress up nicely we cannot be clean enough to enter his house without polluting and disrespecting it.

"In fact, another way of viewing the fall is that even if we were able to go to God?s house and honor him we would rather stay in our own house and not give away our honor - then we would have made ourselves ?big? and perhaps other people around would come and honor us. This is exactly what Satan does, stealing the honor and respect that is due to only the Creator God.

"In the incarnation God decided to play the role both of the ?small? and of the ?big?. As we couldn?t visit His house, and probably wouldn?t want to even if we could, He humbled himself totally to become ?small?, so that he could visit us in our squalid house. But also as the ?big? He played the role of host and gave gifts ? atonement, the Holy Spirit, and clean clothes ? which means that as believers we are now appropriately dressed and thus free to enter His house without disrespecting it.

"It is interesting to see that at His birth He was honored by both the ?big? (wise men) and the ?small? (shepherds). They realized that even though the child should kiss the hand of the elder and the poor should kiss the hand of the rich, actually compared to this baby born in poverty and out of wedlock, all humanity was ?small?. They counted it as an honor to be able to humble themselves and give honor to Him. We were far, unreachable, without even the standing in His sight to be counted ?small?. So knowing this and loving us in spite of it, He descended to visit us so that we may dwell with Him, enjoying His gifts and Presence."

Matthew Hosier - Think - December 22, 2016

http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/incarnation_through_middle_eastern_eyes#When:07:00:00Z

[eyeshaveit]

Nicholas Kristof Interviews Tim Keller

"Nicholas K - Tim, Since this is the Christmas season, let?s start with the virgin birth. Is that an essential belief?

"Tim K - If something is truly integral to a body of thought, you can?t remove it without destabilizing the whole thing. A religion can?t be whatever we desire it to be.

"NK - But the earliest accounts of Jesus? life, like the Gospel of Mark and Paul?s letter to the Galatians, don?t even mention the virgin birth. And the reference in Luke to the virgin birth was written in a different kind of Greek and was probably added later. So isn?t there room for skepticism?

"TK - If it were simply a legend that could be dismissed, it would damage the fabric of the Christian message. Luc Ferry, looking at the Gospel of John?s account of Jesus? birth into the world, said this taught that the power behind the whole universe was not just an impersonal cosmic principle but a real person who could be known and loved ... Jesus was not just a great human being, but the pre-existing Creator God, miraculously come to earth as a human being.

"NK - And the Resurrection? Must it really be taken literally?

"TK - Jesus? teaching was not the main point of his mission. He came to save people through his death for sin and his resurrection. So his important ethical teaching only makes sense when you don?t separate it from these historic doctrines. If the Resurrection is a genuine reality, it explains why Jesus can say that the poor and the meek will ?inherit the earth? (Matthew 5:5). St. Paul said without a real resurrection, Christianity is useless (1 Corinthians 15:19).

"NK - But let me push back ... the gospels are fuzzy about Jesus? literal presence ? especially Mark, the first gospel to be written. So if you take these passages as meaning that Jesus literally rose from the dead, why the fuzziness?

"TK - I wouldn?t characterize the New Testament descriptions of the risen Jesus as fuzzy. They are very concrete in their details. Yes, Mary doesn?t recognize Jesus at first, but then she does. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) also don?t recognize Jesus at first. Their experience was analogous to meeting someone you last saw as a child 20 years ago. Many historians have argued that this has the ring of eyewitness authenticity. If you were making up a story about the Resurrection, would you have imagined that Jesus was altered enough to not be identified immediately but not so much that he couldn?t be recognized after a few moments? As for Mark?s gospel, yes, it ends very abruptly without getting to the Resurrection, but most scholars believe that the last part of the book or scroll was lost to us.

"Skeptics should consider another surprising aspect of these accounts. Mary Magdalene is named as the first eyewitness of the risen Christ, and other women are mentioned as the earliest eyewitnesses in the other gospels, too. This was a time in which the testimony of women was not admissible evidence in courts because of their low social status. The early pagan critics of Christianity latched on to this and dismissed the Resurrection as the word of ?hysterical females.? If the gospel writers were inventing these narratives, they would never have put women in them. So they didn?t invent them.

"The Christian Church is pretty much inexplicable if we don?t believe in a physical resurrection. N.T. Wright has argued in ?The Resurrection of the Son of God? that it is difficult to come up with any historically plausible alternate explanation for the birth of the Christian movement. It is hard to account for thousands of Jews virtually overnight worshiping a human being as divine when everything about their religion and culture conditioned them to believe that was not only impossible, but deeply heretical. The best explanation for the change was that many hundreds of them had actually seen Jesus with their own eyes.

"NK - Tim, people sometimes say that the answer is faith. But, as a journalist, I?ve found skepticism useful ... so why suspend skepticism in our own faith tradition?

"TK - I agree. We should require evidence and good reasoning, and we should not write off other religions as ?superstitious? and then fail to question our more familiar Jewish or Christian faith tradition. But I don?t want to contrast faith with skepticism so sharply that they are seen to be opposites. They aren?t. I think we all base our lives on both reason and faith ... In the end, however, no one can demonstrably prove the primary things human beings base their lives on, whether we are talking about the existence of God or the importance of human rights and equality. Nietzsche argued that the humanistic values of most secular people, such as the importance of the individual, human rights and responsibility for the poor, have no place in a completely materialistic universe. He even accused people holding humanistic values as being ?covert Christians? because it required a leap of faith to hold to them. We must all live by faith.

"NK - I?ll grudgingly concede your point: My belief in human rights and morality may be more about faith than logic. But is it really analogous to believe in things that seem consistent with science and modernity, like human rights, and those that seem inconsistent, like a virgin birth or resurrection?

"TK - I don?t see why faith should be seen as inconsistent with science. There is nothing illogical about miracles if a Creator God exists. If a God exists who is big enough to create the universe in all its complexity and vastness, why should a mere miracle be such a mental stretch? To prove that miracles could not happen, you would have to know beyond a doubt that God does not exist. But that is not something anyone can prove.

"Science must always assume that an effect has a repeatable, natural cause. That is its methodology. Imagine, then, for the sake of argument that a miracle actually occurred. Science would have no way to confirm a nonrepeatable, supernatural cause. Alvin Plantinga argued that to say that there must be a scientific cause for any apparently miraculous phenomenon is like insisting that your lost keys must be under the streetlight because that?s the only place you can see.

"NK - What I admire most about Christianity is the amazing good work it inspires people to do around the world. But I?m troubled by the evangelical notion that people go to heaven only if they have a direct relationship with Jesus. Doesn?t that imply that billions of people ? Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus ? are consigned to hell because they grew up in non-Christian families around the world? That Gandhi is in hell?

"TK - The Bible makes categorical statements that you can?t be saved except through faith in Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12) ... You imply that really good people (e.g., Gandhi) should also be saved, not just Christians. The problem is that Christians do not believe anyone can be saved by being good. If you don?t come to God through faith in what Christ has done, you would be approaching on the basis of your own goodness. This would, ironically, actually be more exclusive and unfair, since so often those that we tend to think of as ?bad? ? the abusers, the haters, the feckless and selfish ? have themselves often had abusive and brutal backgrounds.

"Christians believe that it is those who admit their weakness and need for a savior who get salvation. If access to God is through the grace of Jesus, then anyone can receive eternal life instantly. This is why ?born again? Christianity will always give hope and spread among the ?wretched of the earth.? I can imagine someone saying, ?Well, why can?t God just accept everyone ? universal salvation?? Then you create a different problem with fairness. It means God wouldn?t really care about injustice and evil.

"There is still the question of fairness regarding people who have grown up away from any real exposure to Christianity. The Bible is clear about two things ? that salvation must be through grace and faith in Christ, and that God is always fair and just in all his dealings. What it doesn?t directly tell us is exactly how both of those things can be true together. I don?t think it is insurmountable. Just because I can?t see a way doesn?t prove there cannot be any such way. If we have a God big enough to deserve being called God, then we have a God big enough to reconcile both justice and love.

Nicholas Kristof - New York Times - December 12, 2016:

Condensed - Complete interview:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/sunday/pastor-am-i-a-christian.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2

[eyeshaveit]

Medicinal Herbs from the Bible

"Before the advent of synthetic compounds, expensive medications and injections, the human body was accustomed to natural herbs and spices. Our planet Earth has thousands of healing plants that grew during biblical times. Even though I am a pharmacist, I believe that we can heal with what grows on the planet.

"Today, I?m listing eight incredible herbs, all mentioned in the Bible, as well as their medicinal benefits:

Almonds ? Known as Prunus dulcis, almonds contain salicin, which go on to form ?salicylic acid.? This is the primary by-product of aspirin. Eating a handful of almonds each day is like consuming natural aspirin. A study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that almonds can decrease post-prandial (after eating) blood sugar, as well as insulin and free radical damage.

Black cumin ? Known as Nigella sativa, these jet black seeds can be used to flavor bread and other baked goods. You can buy black cumin seed oil as a dietary supplement, which I often recommend for people dealing with neurological problems. If your child had intractable seizures, please mention Nigella sativa supplementation to your pediatrician because the research is easy to find, and very positive.

Frankincense ? Known as Boswellia serrata, this is a gummy resin that contains compounds that might relieve joint pain by inhibiting the inflammatory cytokines that lead to discomfort. Research suggests that boswellia could improve ovarian and bladder health, and studies have already been conducted on people with those types of cancer producing positive results.

Garlic ? I love roasted garlic on my pizza! This herb can support healthy cholesterol ratios while decreasing platelet aggregation like a blood thinner. It can inhibit Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) acting similarly the drugs lisinopril and enalapril.

Myrrh ? Known as Commiphora myrrha; I keep this essential oil handy for cuts. It smells awful, but it?s worth using because it?s a strong antiseptic. It could help reduce infection by a parasite, bacteria or fungus.

Olive ? Known botanically as Olea europaea. The olive branch conveys a universal symbol of peace. Olive oil contains oleic acid, which is a fatty acid. This compound works in conjunction with vitamin D to support immune health.

Saffron ? Known as Crocus sativus, saffron acts like a natural antidepressant, anxiolytic and sedative. It contains many biologically active compounds including crocin and safranal, which protect your levels of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Because saffron provides cofactors for the SOD enzyme, it may be helpful if you have an SOD polymorphism.

Sage ? This herb was studied on patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer?s disease and researchers concluded that sage ?produced a significantly better outcome on cognitive function.? Interestingly, sage was shown in lab studies to help reduce flare-ups of herpes-related viruses such as cold sores and genital herpes.

Suzy Cohen, RPh - 'Dear Pharmacist' - December 24, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

Religious Intolerance Disguised as Freedom

"The American left has learned how to disguise its intolerance of religion as acts as freedom. Two personal experiences led me to understand this.

"Years ago, I went through customs at an airport in Saudi Arabia. I was shocked when the inspector, clad in his traditional Arabian garb, pulled an item of contraband from my luggage and accusingly showed it to me. It was a small paperback book that had on its cover an image of Buddha. I briefly objected as he confiscated it. Fortunately for me, a seasoned traveler nudged me and said, don?t quarrel, or he will have you arrested. Being arrested in Saudi Arabia is a profoundly miserable experience, I am told. So I then smiled diplomatically, and asked the inspector to toss it, which he did. He then allowed me to proceed on my way, a mercy not always offered to travelers. I cannot describe the dark resentment I still have about that incident. We take for granted a freedom that is routinely denied in many nations.

"When I was in Asia, I was on several occasions in close contact with Buddhists, and adherents of other Eastern religions. While walking along a public sidewalk, I came upon a young lady blocking my path. She was standing at the foot of what I regard as an idol. Her hands were folded in prayer, and she repeatedly bowed at the waist toward it. I waited a few moments, wondering whether I should cross the street to go around her. She then finished her brief ceremony and went on her way. Unlike my experience in Arabia, I felt no sense of being oppressed. I know that Koreans and Japanese tolerate many religions. My act was not one of accommodating a false god, but of being courteous to my host nationals, and perhaps building bridges of mutual respect and understanding. I find this not the least bit inconsistent with my evangelical Christian faith.

"Here in America, the American Civil Liberties Union brings lawsuits forcing the removal of displays of Christian (or in some cases, Jewish) religious symbols from the public square. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, no one?s freedom is restricted by these symbols. As in Asia, no one is forced to bow before them. The courts have developed a bizarre interpretation of the Constitution so as to rule against religious freedom on the pretense of protecting it.

"It is no coincidence that the very first item in the Bill of Rights concerns religious liberty. It says, ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..?

"Displaying a Nativity scene in a public park does not constitute making a law, nor does it require anyone to pay tithes to any such thing as a Church of America. Nor does the First Amendment say that we have freedom of religion ?except on public property.?

"Why should non-Christians be inconvenienced by such displays? They should, because it is a matter of history that our nation has very deep roots in its Christian heritage. These traditions should be respected by all. Our laws and traditions do not arise from Buddhism or Islam, but from millennia of Judeo-Christian worship and thought. Attempts to excise that vital component of our national character do not expand anyone?s freedom, but rather, they constitute religious oppression.

"Arguments to the contrary are specious. Complaints that, ?When I see a Christmas tree, I feel excluded,? have no more validity than would my demand for Koreans to stop inconveniencing me as I walk on their sidewalks. They are entitled to their traditions. Complaints from the left about such matters, are the product of years of absurd psychobabble that have infected leftist thinking. They resemble the sorts of complaint by illegal aliens who say that the display of the American flag (in America) is insulting to their heritage. Nonsense.

"Liberal thought police are no more interested in protecting religious liberties than was that customs inspector in Arabia. Unlike him, however, liberals insist that it is they, the liberals, who are the guardians of liberty, while they trample on ours."

Robert Arvay - American Thinker Op. Ed. - December 26, 2016

[Dexter]

Some more Dead Sea scrolls

http://www.inquisitr.com/3829170/excitement-as-archaeologists-discover-new-dead-sea-scrolls-in-judean-desert/

[eyeshaveit]

Freedom From Religion Foundation demands Kentucky Governor, 'stop Bible thumping'!

"Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has issued a proclamation declaring 2017 the ?Year of the Bible,? making it the second year that Bevin has issued such a decree. He noted that several prominent figures throughout American history have lauded the importance of the Scriptures.

?President Harry S. Truman said, ?The fundamental basis of this nation?s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul,'? Bevin?s proclamation reads in part

?In addition to encouraging Americans to rediscover the Bible?s ?priceless and timeless message,? President Ronald Reagan?s 1983 Year of the Bible Proclamation stated, ?Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible,'? it continues.

"The proclamation also notes that 2017 will be the second year that Kentucky has held its statewide Bible-reading marathon. It begins on Jan. 1 as participants take turns reading portions of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.

"As previously reported, the effort is organized by Mark Harrell, pastor of Victory Christian Fellowship in Somerset and founder of the Kentucky Pastor?s Prayer Focus. He hopes that all 120 counties throughout the state will become involved, but so far, has confirmation from over 70.

?At midnight Jan. 1, someone in a county will read from the Bible for 15 minutes and then someone else and then someone else and so on until the entire Bible is read aloud,? Harrell explained to the Lexington Herald Leader. ?It will take about three-and-a-half days to do this.?

"He said that Bevin, who signed the ?Year of the Bible? proclamation on Dec. 19, had encouraged him to carry on the marathon again this year. But some have expressed objection to Bevin?s decree, including the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).

?The proclamation excludes and alienates Kentuckians who are not Christian, not religious, or believe in the patriotic principle of upholding the First Amendment by keeping religion out of government. To use the secular gubernatorial office to propagandize a religious book is an unacceptable abuse of power,? FFRF writes on its website, calling upon its supporters to ask Bevin to ?stop Bible thumping.?

"As previously reported, throughout America?s early history, a number of the Founding Fathers issued proclamations calling inhabitants to look to God, including in 1798, when President John Adams proclaimed a national day of humiliation, prayer and fasting.

?As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him,? he wrote, ??this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty and of danger, when existing or threatening calamities?the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity?are a loud call to repentance and reformation.?

"President Abraham Lincoln also proclaimed a National Fast Day in 1863.

?It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord,? his proclamation read.

?Insomuch we know that by His Divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people,? Lincoln said".

Heather Clark - Christian News - December 26, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

'White Protestant America' and the unreal night of a 'woman-groping, dog-whistling ignoramus'!

"Like many Americans, I went to sleep in tears in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, November 9, after having drunk way too much bourbon. I had waited up, commiserating on social media all the while, in the impossible hope that a woman-groping, dog-whistling ignoramus would not be our next president. When I woke up a few hours later, the news was the same. The unreal had become real?or perhaps more accurately, the real had finally become real to me.

"Life had to go on, so I dressed in my best mourning clothes and went through the motions to get to my 8:30 a.m. World Religions class. (Yes, I know ?World Religions? is terribly out of fashion now, but cut me some slack. It?s still a topic worth exploring, and in a college full of pre-professional majors it is my best-selling general education course, so I will not apologize for trying to complicate the views of future business people, health care professionals and public school teachers.) I struggled, as I suppose most teachers did on that day, to figure out what I would say to my students?some of whom would be triumphant, others grieving, all of them sleep-deprived.

"In truth, I did not trust myself to broach the topic of the election in front of 30 undergraduates, because I wasn?t certain I (also grieving, sleep-deprived, and prone to shooting off at the mouth) could rise above it just then. I was certain, however, that none of these impressionable young people deserved to see their professor come undone. As it happened, World Religions came to my rescue that day: we were just beginning our Buddhism unit (because, you know, a week or two to cover a millennia-old tradition is totally sufficient). Being at a loss for timely words of wisdom, I decided just to teach as planned.

"The introductory lecture on Buddhism must include the story of Siddhartha Gautama?s coddled life and subsequent awakening; his rejection of extreme asceticism in favor of a middle way; his enlightenment under the bodhi tree; his four noble truths. It must also include an explanation of terms: suffering, emptiness, impermanence, no self, non-grasping, extinction, equanimity. It was equanimity?the quality of remaining balanced and composed, regardless of external conditions?that rang especially true that morning. I had anticipated feeling elation and relief when my candidate won the election, and yet given what we know of American (and human) history, would that really have been wise? Now I was feeling shocked and devastated by the election results, and yet what was the use of that? The reminder to see clearly whatever conditions one is facing and accept them without judgment as one?s task, if not one?s destiny, could not have been more timely. My grief or elation, my wanting or not wanting the election results, was not as important as clearly seeing the situation before me so as to discern what my role was.

"This was a strangely energizing moment. That day my role was simply to introduce Buddhism?the tradition that, in my experience, is the most difficult for American undergraduates to comprehend, because it is so ?weird? and ?depressing? and radically different from familiar monotheisms. The basic lesson that not everyone in the world thinks like white Protestant America is an important lesson indeed, with or without my personal political commentary. How different might this election cycle have been had more voters been willing to be curious about, understand, accept, or even embrace a pluralist nation, rather than panic in the face of ?the other?? (For the record, I do not see fear of the other distributed equally among the electorate, nor falsely equate liberal echo chambers with white supremacist rallies.)

"I want to be clear that it didn?t have to be Buddhism that day. Equanimity holds an important place in lots of traditions?think Perpetua upon her martyrdom, Zhuangzi at his wife?s grave, Arjuna on the battlefield. And meanwhile no human tradition, however apparently groovy, should be overly romanticized (thanks, Wirathu). I also want to acknowledge that equanimity is a luxury not everyone can afford. It?s much more difficult to stay calm when one is living in a war zone, or one?s child is starving, or one?s body is wracked with pain ... I imagine it is utterly terrifying to those who are facing imminent hate crimes, deportation, and serious medical conditions without health coverage.

"But to my fellow professors let me say this: our students do not need our hysteria. They do not need our self-righteousness. Even our just outrage won?t be constructive if it makes us hopeless and bitter. While it is unpopular in some religious studies circles to admit that one cares more about helping humankind than about debating definitions of ?religion,? I have always been clear that in my job I am on a mission to plant seeds that might eventually help a few young adults in the Midwest be a little more self-reflective about their assumptions, a little more critical of media messages, a little less credible about Western supremacy, a little less Islamophobic. In other words, yes, I do want to indoctrinate students.

"I certainly wouldn?t want to overplay the importance of religion in whatever ails humankind, nor do I have delusions of grandeur about the ability of a religion professor to change the course of history. But the way I see it, any reduction in fear (at least about anything other than climate change) is a net gain for the world. Maintaining some level of equanimity, inside the classroom and out, is the best way to be present for the students we actually have, for whatever short time we have them."

Kate Blanchard - Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Alma College, MI - Religion Dispatches - University of Southern California, Anneberg - December 26, 2016:

http://religiondispatches.org/teaching-world-religion-in-the-dumpster-fire/

[eyeshaveit]

Was Princess Leia Jewish?

"Isn?t it time for the Angel of Death to go on sabbatical or something? I felt as if I had grown up with Carrie Fisher. She was, of course, Hollywood royalty ? the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. We were almost the same age. I first fell in love with her acting, when she made her movie debut in several scenes of ?Shampoo,? playing opposite Warren Beatty. And, of course, she has already gone down in cinematic history as the iconic Princess Leia of ?Star Wars.?

"The large number of deaths of famous people this past year claimed a number of famous Jews as well: Elie Wiesel. Shimon Peres. The actors, Fyvush Finkel and Gene Wilder. The poet-songwriter, Leonard Cohen. And Carrie Fisher?

"In Jewhooing the Sixties, David E. Kaufman writes about the American Jewish predilection for finding celebrities who are Jewish, or imagining that certain celebrities are Jewish ? and what that game says about American Jewish identity. He calls that practice ?Jew-hooing,? as in, ?Guess who?s Jewish?? The best example of Jew-hooing is Adam Sandler?s ?Hanukkah Song,? * in which he enumerates ? and even ?outs? ? certain celebrities as Jewish.

"Was Carrie Fisher Jewish? Let?s start with ?Star Wars? itself.

"Fisher did, of course, play Princess Leia (= Leah?). And then, of course, there was the Force ? which, for many people, is as close as we get to a God concept in popular culture. The Force is defined as ?an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us.? It sounds like how the modern Jewish thinker, Mordecai Kaplan, imagined God ? as ?the Power that makes for salvation.? ?God is the sum of all the animating organizing forces and relationships which are forever making a cosmos out of chaos,? he wrote.

"In ?Shampoo,? she offers Beatty a snack of lox and chopped liver. That?s kind of Jewish.

"Remember that she was briefly married to singer-songwriter, Paul Simon. He sings about their relationship in ?Hearts and Bones? ?  ?one and one half wandering Jews, free to wander wherever they choose?.? Fisher was that ?one-half wandering Jew.? Fisher?s father was Jewish. Her mother was not. Theoretically, Fisher could have been considered Jewish by Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish streams in the United States ? had she been raised and educated as a Jew.

"In fact, Fisher was raised ?Protestant light? by her mother, but now identifies as Jewish. She and her daughter had attended Shabbat dinners in the homes of Orthodox Jewish friends, and sometimes they attended synagogue services. In other words, Fisher ?invented? herself as a Jew. She had a claim on that identity all along, and as an adult, exercised that claim. She is hardly alone in that ?invention? (or, rather, appropriation) of a Jewish identity. We might even say that the invention, appropriation, and ongoing improvisation of Jewish identity is the very hallmark of modern American Jewish identity. And no doubt, it had its own influence on her ? perhaps even more than the Force.

"There is one last thing about Fisher ? that makes her life heroic, and, at least in a metaphorical sense, Jewish.
Fisher was a passionate advocate for awareness about mental health issues. She candidly shared her own struggles with bi-polar disorder, depression, and substance abuse. In that sense, her life lesson is not yet fully on the American Jewish agenda, where so many who struggle with mental illness feel shunned? like the lepers of Leviticus. I would like to think that this, perhaps above and beyond her stellar acting career, might be her greatest legacy. Her ability to show her own vulnerabilities. Her desire to make others more whole in the process.

"Tikkun olam ? the healing of the world. Through tikkun atzmi ? the healing of oneself. Whatever or whoever the Force might be, I would think that He/She/It would certainly approve. May Carrie Fisher?s memory be a blessing."

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin - Religious News Service - Martini Judaism - for those who want to be shaken and stirred - December 27, 2016
Rabbi Salkin is the spiritual leader of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Fla

*"The Chanukah Song"

"Okay...
This is a song that uhh..
There's a lot of Christmas songs out there and uhh..
not too many Chanukah songs.
So uhh..
I wrote a song for all those nice little Jewish kids who don't get to hear
any Chanukah songs.
Here we go..."

Put on your yarmulke
Here comes Chanukah
So much funukah
To celebrate Chanukah
Chanukah is the festival of lights
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights

When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree
Here's a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me
David Lee Roth lights the menorah
So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah

Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli
Bowser from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzerelli
Paul Newman's half Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half too
Put them together, what a fine lookin' Jew

You don't need "Deck The Halls" or "Jingle Bell Rock"
'Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock- both Jewish

Put on your yarmulke
It's time for Chanukah
The owner of the Seattle Supersonicahs
Celebrates Chanukah

O.J. Simpson, not a Jew
But guess who is? Hall of famer Rod Carew- he converted
We got Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby
Harrison Ford's a quarter Jewish- not too shabby

Some people think that Ebenezer Scrooge is
Well he's not, but guess who is
All three Stooges
So many Jews are in showbiz
Tom Cruise isn't, but I heard his agent is

Tell your friend Veronica
It's time to celebrate Chanukah
I hope I get a harmonicah
Oh this lovely, lovely Chanukah
So drink your gin and tonicah
And smoke your marijuanikah
If you really, really wannakah
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Chanukah
Happy Chanukah"

[eyeshaveit]

The Preacher Who Stopped Believing

"One morning in the summer of 2011 Bart Campolo left his house in Cincinnati for a long bicycle ride ... Normally his bike rides were his time to think ? about his family, his ministry and his increasingly complex relationship with his Christian faith. But he has no memory of his thoughts that day. He left the house, and the next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital ... It seems he hit a patch of soft dirt and flew headfirst into a tree. A fellow cyclist found him wandering in the middle of the road.

"Campolo had gone from success to success. His father, Tony, was one of the most important evangelical Christian preachers of the last 50 years ... The younger Campolo had developed a reputation of his own, running successful inner-city missions ... and traveling widely as a guest preacher ... He was a role model for younger Christians looking to move beyond the culture wars over abortion or homosexuality and get back to Jesus? original teachings. Now, lying in a hospital bed, he wasn?t sure what he believed any more.

"When he finally healed, after about a month, he had a thought about life ? or, rather, the afterlife. The thought was: There is no afterlife ... Marty, his wife, had long entertained doubts about Christianity ... and he had been breaking up with God for a long time ... It had been years since he made God or Jesus or the resurrection the centerpiece of the frequent fellowship dinners he and Marty hosted. Talk instead was always about love and friendship. In 2004, he performed a wedding for two close lesbian friends, and in 2006, he began teaching that everybody could be saved, that nobody would go to hell.

"Now, after his near-death experience, his wife told him ... ?You know,? Marty said, ?I think you ought to stop being a professional Christian, since you don?t believe in God, and you don?t believe in heaven, and you don?t believe Jesus rose from the dead three days after dying, and neither do I.? ... Campolo ... loved everything about Christian ministry except the Christianity. Now that he had crossed the bridge to apostasy, he needed a new vocation.

"Campolo decided that ... he?d preach secular humanism, a kinder cousin of atheism. He?d help them accept that we?re all going to die, that this life is all there is and that therefore we have to make the most of our brief, glorious time on earth. And he would spread this message using the best evangelical techniques ? the same ones he had mastered as a Christian.

"Atheists and agnostics have long tried to rebottle religion: to get the community and the good works without the supernatural stuff ... In post-Revolution France ... philosopher Auguste Comte created the Religion of Humanity, which had three pillars (altruism, order and progress) ... In 1876 ... Felix Adler founded the New York Society of Ethical Culture, which taught Judaism as one of the many guides to secular ethics. In the United States, since World War II, atheist activism has been located mainly in local skeptics? clubs ...

"The clubs developed a culture of conferences ... these conferences have grown in tandem with the rise of the Christian right and megachurch evangelicalism, as atheists sought comfort in a parallel world. Best-selling authors like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens drew huge crowds at these ?cons. To this day, atheist gatherings remain overwhelmingly male, and public perception of the movement has been tainted by ... harassment of female attendees at the conventions; online trolling of those who have spoken out against the sexism; and the notorious tweets of Dawkins ... But quite recently...  both the Christian right and what we might call ?big atheism? have lost influence.

"The energy now is ... with start-up groups, many on college campuses, that have more gender balance and less strident rhetoric ... these nonbelievers identify as humanist rather than atheist. That is, they?ve sided with a more welcoming version of nonbelief, focused on the joy and potential inherent in being human rather than on gainsaying others? convictions. Their project is to talk about leading a good life without God. This was the world that the Campolos began to explore after Bart?s accident ...

"Campolo eventually came across a book called ?Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Believe,? by Greg M. Epstein ... Epstein has become a godfather to the movement, the anti-Dawkins. He doesn?t want to lecture people or talk them out of anything; he sits with them in circles, sips water from coffee mugs and listens ... In 2014 Campolo flew to Boston to talk with Epstein for three days about the future of humanism. I was sitting with Bart going over all of this, thinking about what the future needed to look like,? Epstein told me. ?I told him if I wasn?t at Harvard, L.A. would be where I wanted to be ...

"Campolo liked the idea of being on a campus ... He could relate to students. And while church attendance is collapsing among young people ? only 27 percent of millennials attend religious services weekly ? campuses have relatively vibrant religious scenes ... Epstein told Campolo about Varun Soni, the dean of religious life at U.S.C., and in 2014 Campolo began talking with Soni on the phone. After a few conversations, Campolo had been offered an office, an email account and a title: humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California. No salary, but it was a start. At U.S.C., Campolo?s Secular Student Fellowship now comprises between 75 and 100 students, although not all come to every meeting.

"Last year I attended one of their dinners ... Campolo began to talk ... The topic was friendship, and Campolo?s text was ?The Friendship Factor,? by Alan Loy McGinnis ... There was a reason he turned to it. When Campolo arrived on the U.S.C. campus, in the fall of 2014, he quickly discovered that the fundamental problem of many students was loneliness ... ?Kids who show up at college on the other end of that rat race are very good at networking,? he says. ?But they are not always very good at deeper connections.?... Campolo told his flock ... "that friendship, like eating well or getting fit, isn?t a matter of luck. Expecting fulfilling relationships to materialize magically was, he said, ?its own form of supernatural woo-woo.?

"Besides, while Campolo believes that life can be meaningful with or without a god, his work these days is less about grandiose metaphysical claims than about simple acts of hand-holding. To 100 or so students, Campolo is a confidant, a stand-in parent, but one who doesn?t expect anything of them. ?Over the last two weeks,? Campolo says, ?I got an email from a young woman saying, ?A friend told me I should talk to you because I am a senior, graduating, and have no idea what to do with my life.? Another student comes to me, ?I got sexually assaulted and don?t know what to do now.???

"His role became particularly clear to him after the presidential election. At U.S.C., many students were distraught ... So Campolo suspected that some students would want to talk to him. He emailed his list, offering office hours at a picnic table on campus. Over the next week, about 15 students sought him out. ?A lot of people went running to their pastors,? Campolo says. ?And my kids did the same.?"

Mark Oppenheimer - New York Times - December 29, 2016:

Condensed - complete article - http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/magazine/the-evangelical-scion-who-stopped-believing.html?_r=0

[eyeshaveit]

Camping in England's Abandoned Medieval Churches

"Throughout Southeast England, a small batch of modern pilgrims have been traveling to visit and sleep in ancient churches. They?re not necessarily seeking a religious experience?they are champing ... a portmanteau for church camping.

"Organized through the Churches Conservation Trust ... champing provides rural villages a way of offsetting the maintenance of these historic buildings, while offering travelers a very unusual place to stay. C.C.T. first piloted champing in 2014 at All Saints? Church in Aldwincle, Northamptonshire. The medieval church, which features limestone arches and a square tower ... Just under three hours from London, the church is conveniently located for city dwellers looking for a unique getaway.

"In 2016, nearly 650 champed in the seven available churches. These champers were mostly between 26 and 44 and from urban locations. Most were couples, but there were also many families with children ... The location of the champing churches might explain the appeal to these demographics ... All are located in small villages that have few tourist attractions, but are close to charming traditional English towns and areas of natural beauty.

"One of the more popular destinations is in Fordwich, England?s self-proclaimed smallest town. Located along the Stour River, it was in the Middle Ages a port for boats making their way to Canterbury, two miles upriver ... At the center of town sits the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The original structure was built in the Norman era and was expanded in the 1200s ... Some evidence suggests that Shakespeare may have performed inside during his exile from London during the plague ... On one wall is listed the names of the church?s rectors beginning in 1283. Tomb markers on the floor date back to the 17th century. .

"Proximity to nature is the primary draw of St Michael the Archangel Church in Booton ... The nearby Bure Valley Railway offers families the opportunity to ride a traditional steam engine train throughout the scenic countryside ... Local volunteers prepare the church for arriving guests, providing electric candles, light snacks, bottled water, and camping chairs, as well as sleeping bags and pillows
As these provisions suggest, champing is a true camping experience, not a hotel; the churches are all unheated and have no running water, and all but two lack traditional toilets. Instead, churches are equipped with dry-separating toilets.

"It remains to be seen whether champing will be enough to offset the expense required to upkeep these churches, though the modest growth seen between 2015 and 2016 was enough for the Trust to expand its offerings for the 2017 season. Starting in May, champers will have their choice of 12 new churches ... If recent trends continue, there will be no shortage of churches available for champing. In the past 15 years, the number of Britons identifying themselves as Christian has dropped from 75 percent to 25 percent, and only 1.4 percent of Britons attend weekly church services. The Church of England reports that nearly 20 additional churches are closed to worship each year.

"Some of these churches are offered for sale to be turned into private residences or commercial spaces, but others will join the 350 non-operational churches currently overseen by the Trust. Champing is perhaps the last chance for preservation of some of these ancient churches, which were central to English life for so long."

David Wilson - Atlas Obscura - December 30, 2016.

Complete article - http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-england-you-can-camp-in-abandoned-medieval-churches

[eyeshaveit]

St. Luke?s - Seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine - Just the priest and you on Sunday

"All of Portland seemed to be in a bad mood that Sunday afternoon ... Longfellow Square had become a knot of traffic .. I opened the church door. Inside, it was silent ... Had I gotten the time wrong? ... I stepped inside. The wide, empty nave was dark except for the light coming in through the stained-glass windows.... I walked toward the little octagonal chapel at the back, where the Rev. Anne Fowler sat alone by the altar. ?Oh,? she said. ?I guess it?ll just be us tonight.? I was the only one who?d shown up for the 5:15 service.

"Anne ... went to put on her vestments. I took a seat and looked up into the chapel?s spire ... I?d never been the only congregant. I wasn?t sure how it would work, but Anne was. ?I?ll start with these prayers, as usual,? she said, opening the program. ?Would you like to do the readings?? I told her I would, and we began. The service started just like any other, except that Anne?s voice was quieter than it would have been otherwise. Many of the prayers are fixed in the liturgy, so the words don?t change from week to week, but they sounded different this time. They weren?t just being recited into the ether. They were being spoken to me. They were being offered for me.

"Such a poor turnout for an evening service isn?t surprising given the national trends. Episcopal churches, like those of other mainline Protestant denominations, are far emptier than they used to be. The Episcopal Church in the United States says average Sunday worship attendance at its churches declined 26 percent between 2005 and 2015. The Diocese of Maine says it lost nearly 17 percent of its baptized members in that decade, although some congregations in southern Maine are growing.

"The evening I showed up alone, the readings were both beautiful and challenging, as they often are. The first turned out to be from one of my favorite parts of the Bible: the book of Ecclesiastes. It?s a musing on the ephemeral cycle of life and contains some of the more recognizable verses in Scripture ... But this was one of the book?s darker passages, focusing on the futility of life on Earth. The walls echoed my own voice back to me as I stood in the center of the chapel, reading: ?What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.? I was tired ...
.
"Normally the priest gives a sermon after the Gospel reading, but Anne sat down next to me. She didn?t preach. She wanted to know more about me, and asked what brought me to this church on this night. I told her I was feeling adrift. I?d recently moved across the continent and, as much as I was loving Portland, hadn?t had time to adjust or relax. My life was changing rapidly, and it seemed like the world was too. When I feel ungrounded, I gravitate to the firmest ground I know, which is the church. She asked how the readings made me feel. ?Confused,? I said. ?And a little afraid.? She nodded.

?These are some tough ones,? she said. ?This language of fear and uncertainty is troubling, especially when it comes from the mouth of Jesus. ?And yet,? she went on, ?he is speaking. He is there. He?s showing us a path so that when things do go wrong, we know where to go.? As we talked, I thought about the timeliness of this little scene. In an age when many Americans have abandoned the institutions they once turned to for solace and truth, there we were, a priest and a journalist huddled together in an empty church. With the light fading and our voices low, it felt almost subversive, as if even kindness were a political act.

"After we had shared communion and taken some time for silent prayer, she concluded the service and sent me on my way with the traditional blessing: ?Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.? ?Thanks be to God,? I responded, more sincerely than usual.

"She started putting out the candles as I walked out into the night."

Egan Millard - Portland Press Herald - January 1, 2017

Complete article - http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/01/what-happens-when-youre-the-only-one-who-shows-up-to-church/

[eyeshaveit]

Freedom of religion, not freedom from religion

"In his book, ?A History of Knowledge,? Charles Van Doren describes our American system of constitutional governance this way: ?The Constitution is a piece of paper. It cannot fight for itself. If Americans do not believe in it, it will become mere paper. Most Americans wholeheartedly accept the Constitution as the law of the land. They may disagree about everything else. But they know they must not intentionally and knowingly act unconstitutionally. ? Not to do so is to challenge the basis of American government: the Constitution has no protection except the people?s belief in it.?.

"Things have changed. I am shocked how little Americans today (especially our youth, and many liberals who are intolerant and very far from liberal) even understand the United States Constitution, let alone ?believe? in it. This document is our creed, yet we are abandoning ourselves, our history and culture, and our bulwark against tyranny ? we are losing our belief.

"I might use attacks on people who display the Confederate flag as an example of ignorance of the First Amendment; or blind calls to ban or regulate firearms with absolutely no regard for the Second Amendment. What is the difference between freedom ?of? religion and freedom ?from? religion, and why is it that our Constitution guaranteed the former and prohibits the latter?
.
"Contrary to modern secular mythology, spirituality has been perhaps the largest impetus for social justice throughout history. Buddhists oppose caste systems and support nationalist movements that liberate colonized people; Christians led the American effort for the abolition of slavery, as well as many other social movements; Jews were the first to maintain that man was responsible for how he treated others. Then there?s that Gandhi guy. As Mr. Van Doren concludes: ?it is a curious but undeniable fact that all of the great teachers and founders of religions whose doctrines come down to us were ? rebels, revolutionaries who fought against the interests and powers of their times.? Let?s add, for the Christians, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F Kennedy; and for the Muslims, Mohammed Ali and Malcolm X. All of their public expressions were infused with their faith ? would we silence them now?

"What we are being told is that multiculturalism is a failure: that people from different social, cultural and religious backgrounds cannot coexist unless they stifle that part of humanity ? Spirit ? which is the core of what most makes us human. And if we are to extinguish spirit, then why not Confederate flags, or moral views that differ, or political ideologies that vary? ? after all, Republicans and Democrats ought all to be stifled so that no one will be offended. It is obvious why Thomas Jefferson ensconced the freedoms of religion and speech when he penned the First Amendment.

"Russia has attempted a state-imposed atheism; China as well. If we abandon faith in the liberties assured by our Constitution, will we not continue to devolve into an Orwellian police state, necessary to ?keep the peace" ? The futility, and hypocrisy, of such efforts should be quite obvious in America: As we seek the zenith of self-affirmation and (supposed) self-expression, shall we really encourage the expression of self identity via pink hair, short skirts, transgender freedom, and ubiquitous piercings, even as we eclipse the burka, crucifix and yamaka? These latter ?expressions? of identity go to the very soul of what it means to be human, of how billions of people have expressed their identity, for thousands of years. Verboten in Amerika?

"How is our government to distinguish secular calls for feeding the poor, providing health care for all or combatting racism from those grounded in or inspired by religious teachings or spiritual belief? How is any society to sift out the spiritual/religious from the moral, or are all moral values to be prohibited in the name of harmony? If the prevailing moral view is Darwinian evolution, shall we all adhere to a dog-eat-dog determinism ? what does ?evolution? have to say as a moral value, unless it is that eugenics is acceptable, that racism and sexism are ?natural?? Aren?t men stronger physically and therefore superior ? what moral ground will argue differently, if survivalism is our measure? Are we but beasts, as we increasingly equate ourselves with animals?

Scientists themselves understand the limits of science. Science can tell us how fast the bullet was going when it struck JFK?s skull, but has very little to offer about why humans assassinate, wage war or orchestrate genocide ? or why they shouldn?t. In a January 1990 letter entitled ?Preserving and Cherishing the Earth,? Carl Sagan and other noted scientists asserted that ?The historical record makes clear that religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal conduct and commitment ?? Efforts to inhibit the free expression of these influences are efforts to lead us toward darkness, hopelessness and misunderstanding.

"Recent efforts to ban Halloween on the pretense that some people are offended only highlight the truth of my points ? is the school extinguishing a secular holiday to appease Christian zealots, so that later it can ban Christmas and Easter in the name of equality? Who are these nebulous ?people? who are offended by Halloween? It appears more citizens were offended by its elimination. But to remove religious or other observance because of others? religions is tautological and absurd. Our American ?creed? ? our erstwhile ?faith? ? has been that all are free to worship as they see fit. Satanists and Wiccans are everywhere, and they are free to seek those avenues in America. I have strongly argued in this column against screening Muslims for admission into the country as a dismal abandonment of our hard-won liberties.

"In the America that has lost (or forgotten) its faith, people who display a Confederate flag are attacked; people who burn the American flag are attacked; people who hold moral views are condemned hatefully; our freedoms to travel and assemble are under threat; the right to defend one?s home is denigrated as if the Constitution is just a pesky piece of paper that gets in the way. Everywhere we devolve into the visceral instead of the rational, even as we shrug off government intrusions into our privacy, aided by overly influential corporations and a burgeoning police state. We were once the world?s ?melting pot? of different peoples: Now we seem only to be melting down the principles that enabled that greatness."

John Klar - Vermont Digger - Op Ed - January 1, 2017.
Complete article - https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/01/john-klar-freedom-religion-not-freedom-religion/

[eyeshaveit]

Israel Threatened by Religion?

"I came to Israel two weeks ago to speak at the annual conference of the Open University?s Center for the Study of Relations Between Jews, Christians, Muslims. The theme this year had to do with ways of coping with modernization and secularization. Talk after talk suggested that in Israel the coping is going rather too well. Religious barriers to intermarriage are stronger than ever, even among the non-observant. When ultra-orthodox Jewish and Bedouin women obtain higher education, it?s in order to strengthen their families? religious traditionalism. As in the U.S., religious conservatives have had no trouble swallowing libertarian economics.

"Sure, Tel Aviv remains a secular world apart ? metal street menorahs and seasonal jelly donuts lost in the shuffle of natives surfing, concert-going, and hanging out in cafes as usual. In pluralist Haifa, Jews and Arabs crowd the downtown, under a canopy of lights stretching from the Christmas tree and the Dove-of-Peace menorah up towards the Bahai Temple. But meanwhile, tribes of haredim and religious Zionists populate the landscape in steadily growing proportions. Jerusalem?s secular enclaves grow smaller and smaller. Everywhere, there is a sense of secularism and pluralism in decline.

"Enter UN Security Council Resolution 2334 and John Kerry?s rationale for the Obama administration?s decision to let it pass. Never mind the claims of anti-Israel bias. Never mind how much the Israeli settlements are to blame for the lack of a peace agreement. The central issue is  the power of religious zealots to determine the character, if not the future, of the Jewish state. The crux of Kerry?s long speech was this:

"Today, there are a number ? there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state or they can separate into two states. But here is a fundamental reality: If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both."

"The leaders of the settler movement are committed to making (Orthodox) Judaism integral to Israeli identity and to continuing the disenfranchisement of the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza. The settler movement is not about national security or making the desert bloom. It?s about religious claims to the Land and a messianic vision of the future. It includes groups planning the rebuilding of the Temple and raising doves and livestock in anticipation of the resumption of animal sacrifice. Donald Trump is, they believe, the answer to their prayers. And why not? He has denounced Resolution 2334 and named as his ambassador to Israel a man who is a leading supporter of Beit El, of one of the more controversial West Bank settlements.

"The head of the Beit El yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, has urged that non-Jewish citizens of Israel considered subversive be stripped of their citizenship. In other words, the settler movement is to Israel what End Times evangelicals and religious right extremists are to the United States. Now, with an American president who is prepared to acquiesce in its agenda about to take office, the organized Jewish community is spending its time criticizing an outgoing administration that is adhering to longstanding American support of a two-state solution. It is to weep."

Mark Silk - Religious News Service - January 2, 2017

Complete article - http://religionnews.com/2017/01/02/israel-threatened-by-religion/

[eyeshaveit]

Texas Judge Gives Doctors "Religious Freedom" to Discriminate Against Trans Patients and Women Who Have Had Abortions

"A Texas judge this past weekend issued a nationwide injunction against a federal health rule, allowing doctors to openly discriminate against transgender patients and women who have had an abortion.

"U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor's Saturday ruling was in direct response to an August lawsuit filed against the feds by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton representing the Franciscan Alliance, a religious hospital organization, and four other states. The lawsuit claimed the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination clause violated doctors' religious freedoms by forcing them to perform gender transition procedures and abortions.

"That actual mandate, however, prohibited doctors from refusing to treat transgender patients and women who have had abortions in the past.

"Regardless, O'Connor echoed the lawsuit's complaints in his ruling, arguing that the ACA only forbids doctors from discriminating against patients based on their sex ? not their gender identity or past abortions. To extend the definition would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, he argued in his ruling, by thwarting the "sincerely held religious beliefs of medical facilities and their physicians."

"Simply put, the current federal mandate forces employees of religious hospitals to ?engage in material cooperation with evil," Judge O'Connor wrote.

"This isn't the first time Paxton has brought an anti-trans lawsuit to O'Connor's court. In August, O'Connor issued another nationwide injunction against the Obama Administration's guidelines to let trans students in public schools use the bathroom that aligned with their gender identity. This came directly from a Paxton-filed lawsuit.

"It's troubling to see how Paxton went straight to O'Connor, again," said Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas. "And it's troubling that O'Connor's decision may not even be factually accurate."

"Paxton's argument, now apparently backed by Judge O'Connor, remains rooted in the false notion that the ACA's nondiscrimination clause forces doctors to perform an abortion or a gender transition surgery. In reality, the clause simply barred doctors from discriminating against two specific populations ? trans people and women who have had an abortion in the past.

"In misinterpreting the federal law, O'Connor may have actually found a way to let doctors across the country discriminate against these two types of patients. But according to trans advocacy organizations, it's not that simple.

?The order does not change the fact that federal law bans gender-based discrimination,? Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality told the Washington Blade this week. ?Transgender people who are turned away when they are sick, injured, or otherwise need health care, or are denied insurance coverage they?ve earned or paid for can still seek legal redress in the courts.?

"Smith with Equality Texas noted that most ACA provider benefits for 2017 have already been finalized ? and he's doubtful if O'Connor's decision has any power to reverse them.

"We'll have to wait and see what real impact this has," he said. "But it's certainly a continuation of our Attorney General's assault against the very existence of trans people."

Alex Zielinkski - San Antonio Current - January 3, 2016

[eyeshaveit]

The War on Christianity in the Arab World

"As you celebrate with your loved ones the New Year, spare a thought for the Christians in the Middle East that have been targeted for genocide and extinction by ISIS, who have those have been raped, tortured and crucified simply because of their faith?writes Dvir Abramovich. "Close your eyes and think about the two Christian women who refused the demand by ISIS terrorists to convert, and were publicly raped and were then beheaded along with six Christian men.

"Or the  12 year-old boy that had his fingertips cut off and was later crucified together with his father for not renouncing his religious affiliation, or the 21 Christians who declared their faith in Jesus were beheaded, their death was broadcast in a video titled, ?A Message Signed in Blood to the Nations of the Cross.?

"Such heartbreaking stories of ?convert or die? and unspeakable barbarities, have come to personify the plight of indigenous Christians in the Mid-east, who have nowhere else to go. The alarming rate in which these ancient communities are being eradicated by the monstrous killing machine of ISIS has led the New York Times to ask, ?Is this the End of Christianity in the Middle-East??

"As the region spins out of control, ISIS has warned Christians, ?You will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam.? Victims of an evil campaign of ethnic cleansing, in the very region where Jesus walked,  Christians and the Yazidis have been sexually enslaved and tortured, have had their children abducted, and have had their houses of worship plundered and destroyed and  clergy assassinated.

"Ten years ago, Iraq?s Christian population was 1.5 million, but now it?s fewer than 300,000.
Jihadists have been signposting Christian homes with the Arabic letter ?N?, giving individuals less than 24 hours to flee, or face a certain death. This chilling practice visibly resembles the yellow Star of David that the Nazis forced Jews to wear so as to distinguish them from their neighbours.

"About 200,000 displaced Christians now languish in refugee camps. Yet, the media has not turned the spotlight on this crisis, rarely reporting on the mass slaughter and carnage, Worse, the world seems to have forgotten this tragedy, with very little international protests recorded. The Obama administration did not seize the high moral ground, for years stubbornly sidestepping the pleas to label the systematic annihilation and persecution of Christians in the Mid-east as genocide.

"For most observers, this was a no-brainer. The 1948 Genocide convention, to which Australia is a signatory, defines genocide as acts, ?committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.? It was only recently that it relented, after pressure from the US House of Congress, the European Parliament, world leaders, Hilary Clinton, and several Republican presidential nominees who agreed that genocide was the right term.

"In a watershed moment, John Kerry used the word genocide, the ?crime of crimes?, to describe the horrors visited on Christians and other religious communities at the hands of ISIS. Pope Francis has noted that, ?Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus. In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now ?experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.?

"Indeed, it?s not only in the Mid-east where Christians are suffering and dying. A Pew Research Center report noted that Christians are the world?s most persecuted and endangered religious group. In Yemen this year, four nuns in a Catholic retirement home established by Mother Theresa were among 16 people who were first handcuffed and then shot in the head The Holocaust and subsequent genocides have taught us that we must never be bystanders to injustice and never turn a blind eye to a culture of hate.

"While the Nazis concealed the diabolical agenda, ISIS delights and boasts of the pain it inflicts on YouTube and Twitter, seeking to instil fear in our hearts and recruit young people. This is a defining moment for humanity. Statements of concern and condemnations ring hollow if they are not followed by concrete actions. What is called for is an urgent global response to protect the weak, the voiceless and the vulnerable, and to preserve the heritage of 2.2 billion of the world?s inhabitants.

"Let?s hope the Trump administration spearheads an increased effort to physically destroy ISIS and creates safe havens for those facing extinction and who have nowhere else to go. The international community cannot abdicate its moral duty and turn its back on those standing alone. In addition to a resettlement program, countries can prioritize the absorption of desperate, homeless Christian refugees from the region by opening their doors even wider.

"Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal once said that in the world to come, when he would meet the millions of Jews who died in the concentration camps, they will ask ?What have you done?. ?I did not forget you?, he would reply.

"What will you say?"

Dr Dvir Abramovich - University of Melbourne, AU - J-Wire (Jewish News Daily - Australia & New Zealand) - January 5, 2017

http://www.jwire.com.au/the-war-on-christianity-in-the-arab-world-continues/

[Hemingway]

Well here we go. Are they going to have a look or not?

http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/67612/20161031/jesus-tomb-uncovered-what-discoveries-lie-within.htm

"The marble covering of the tomb has been pulled back, and we were surprised by the amount of fill material beneath it. It will be a long scientific analysis, but we will finally be able to see the original rock surface on which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was laid."

I think the bold bit says it all.

No one really knows. But I'm not sure it really matters to Christians where he was buried.

Sure wasn't he only in there for the weekend and popped back out on Sunday for his Easter egg!

[eyeshaveit]

Is Understanding Religion Required to Discuss Religious Freedom

"Today?s hot-button issues ? mandated insurance coverage of contraception, legalization of marijuana, assisted suicide, abortion, same-sex marriage ? have created a deep fissure between those who favor such socio-legal changes and those who oppose them on religious grounds.

"The resulting discussions in the public square and ensuing litigation have called into question the extent of religious freedom. Indeed, some ardent advocates of social change believe that religions must accommodate their beliefs to that change.

"In the ever-louder debate about religious freedom, it is of paramount importance for policymakers, judges, commentators and all other citizens to recognize the importance of religious belief and practice. We cannot assume religion?s place is generally understood, let alone accepted. To that end, this column seeks to describe the all-important role religion plays in my life and, to the degree I am able, in the lives of hundreds of millions of others.

"In discussing this sensitive topic, I do not intend to portray non-religious people as bad, nor imply that people who favor these societal changes act in bad faith, that my religion should be privileged above other religions, or that I speak for all who are religious. Although I believe my faith is true, I acknowledge others disagree. Finally, religious freedom must be somewhat tempered as it collides with the sacred rights of others.

"Religious practice is often caricatured as unique dietary restrictions, abstinence from alcohol, singular features of dress or appearance like Hassidic sidelocks or the Catholic bishop?s mitre, and other outward signs betokening faith. It is these things but also far more. Sacred worship and acts of faith that occur in the soul are invisible to others. Even the more mundane outward manifestations of worship and service sparked by religion, such as people attending church, acting as Scoutmasters and choir directors, and ministering to the poor, the troubled, the ill, the homebound, the lonely and the ?widow and orphan? are rarely deemed newsworthy. Consequently, even objective observers often miss religion?s full influence.

"This is what I want others to understand. Faith is not another facet of life like work or reading or belonging to a bowling league. A devoted person?s religion shapes one?s views of life itself. C.S. Lewis explained this, ?I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.?

"Traditional religions speak to four great topics: 1) God?s existence and character; 2) The purpose of life; 3) God?s laws governing personal conduct; and 4) God?s plan for his children. To believe you have found in your faith even partial answers to these central questions changes everything. Accepting that you and every other human lived before this life and will continue to live hereafter gives the soul unrivaled comfort and perspective. Receiving a rock-solid moral code couched not as philosophy but as God?s word is among the great treasures of life. Knowing that God loves you and will help you to be happy transforms what can be a dreary, painful, uncertain existence into an anchored, directed life.

"Being able to talk to the Supreme Being in prayer and hear his answers has changed my life profoundly. Knowing that God loves me and will help me empowers me to face the ups and downs of life. Billions on the earth believe that he will exert his unlimited power in behalf of those who pray to him, serve him and exercise faith in him ? in revealing wisdom, in guiding, blessing, healing, strengthening and comforting us.

"For C.S. Lewis and innumerable other believers, our faith is the light by which we ?see everything else.?

"Accordingly, may all who seek to limit the constitutional grant of religious freedom understand the pre-eminent importance religion has for a great proportion, if not a majority, of Americans. And may they further realize that many of us regard freedom of religion as the ?First Freedom,? the quintessential freedom of conscience, the freedom to think, worship, teach and act in accordance with the dictates of conscience, and, as the First Amendment states, government may not prohibit the ?free exercise thereof."

Greg Bell - Op Ed - Deseret News - January 6, 2017.

(Greg Bell, born 1948, is a family man, a Mormon, an attorney, and the former Lieutenant Governor of Utah) 

[eyeshaveit]

Should all Christians should go vegan?

"The Bible is clear, and early Christians understood it: Animals are meant to be our companions, not our food. Franklin Graham, the son of pastor Billy Graham and heir to his evangelical empire, has gone vegan.

"That?s right: Perhaps the US?s best-known evangelical leader has stopped consuming animal products ... What brought about such a change in the man who will lead a prayer at Donald Trump?s inauguration? Almost all of what he discussed in his original announcement, and his follow-up tweets, has to do with his health. And this is a very sound strategy: A plant-based diet is tremendous as a bulwark against everything from cancer to heart disease.

"Graham also invoked the Bible in his Facebook statement, pointing out that when ?Daniel went on a complete vegetable diet and after 10 days his appearance was better than the others who hadn?t.? But the Bible has even more interesting things to say about animal products and our eating habits ... I often tell my theology students that Genesis 1 and 2 are among the best pro-animal texts we could ever imagine there being. Nonhuman animals and humans are created on the same day of creation. Both share the breath of life.

"God commands humans to eat plants. Animals are brought to Adam, not to kill and eat, but ?because it is not good man should be alone.? The fact that Eve is latter found to be the ?suitable partner? does not change the fact that God brought the animals to Adam to be his companions.

"It is true that in the biblical narrative God gives Noah and his descendants (limited) permission to eat meat, though this notably occurs after sin enters the order of creation. Yet the clear standard of the Kingdom of God (that is, the world God intended for His creations) nevertheless remains one of nonviolence ? between humans and humans, yes, but also with all of creation. None ?will hurt or destroy? on God?s Holy Mountain, predicted the prophet Isaiah, and this means that lambs will lying down with lions and babies hanging out with poisonous snakes. And it is the intended order of creation that Christians should always seek to emulate ...

"Interestingly, traditional divine liturgies in the Eastern Orthodox church ? trying as best they can to witness to the Kingdom of God ? have refused to use animal products in the sanctuary, aside from wool and beeswax. The implications of the theological fact that nonhuman animals belong to God, and not to humans, were much more clear to the early Christians than it is to us today. Yet the animals we eat today are generally thought of as just another thing to be produced, bought, and consumed. Owners of monstrous factory farms think of little besides maximizing ?protein units per square foot? (and, by extension, profits for shareholders) with predictably horrible results for God?s hapless creatures ...

"Is Franklin Graham directing his life to reflect this traditionally-Christian concern for animals? Refusing to eat them for health reasons is a good start, but a recent tweet by Graham hints that more may be going on here. It displays the photo of a pig?s head and its half-eaten carcass with the line, ?Can you believe I used to eat this??

"Yes, I can. But I welcome the exponentially growing number of Christians who refuse to do so any longer."

Charles Camosy - January 5, 2017 - Washington Post.

Charles Camosy is an associate professor at Fordham University

Complete article - https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/05/why-all-christians-should-go-vegan/?utm_term=.1c2086700cc1

[eyeshaveit]

Studying the Crucifixion of Jesus Deemed Upsetting

"The Church's history can be horrifically distressing ? I've long warned my first-year theology students about it This morning, I was alerted ? thanks, Twitter ? to the Daily Mail?s political-correctness-gone-mad outcry du jour. Theology students at the University of Glasgow, it reports, are ?being warned in advance that they may see distressing images while studying the Crucifixion of Jesus, giving them a chance to leave if they fear being upset?.

"The wider context here, as you might know, is the (apparently) growing trend of students being issued ?trigger warnings? lest they encounter ideas, images, or now-offensive phrases which they might find disturbing. This bowdlerisation of literature and history, it is alleged, is creating a new generation of ?snowflake? students, unable to cope with reality outside an ivory tower which has been liberally (in both senses) provided with safe spaces and puppy rooms, where they need never fear someone presuming their preferred gender pronoun.

"Now, as I think my own students might assure you, I am not exactly the most ?right-on? of professors. My rare attempts at relevance ? an Adele-inspired ?Sometimes it lasts in East-West ecumenical relations, but sometimes it hurts instead? comment on the Great Schism, anyone? ? are met with pitying smirks. But when it comes to this particular topic? I was totes issuing theological trigger warnings before they were cool.

"First of all, a great deal of Christian history is genuinely, horrifically distressing. If colleagues at Glasgow are teaching Christ?s crucifixion in a way that makes that most familiar of images genuinely disturbing, then they must be doing something right. Not for nothing did Josephus call crucifixion ?the most pitiable of deaths?. Cicero, no snowflake he, even issued his own trigger warnings: ?The very name ?cross? should not only be far from the body of a Roman citizen, but also from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears.?

"Surely, it?s not unreasonable to think that, say, a graphically realistic depiction of it ? as, for example, from Mel Gibson?s Passion of the Christ flay-fest ? ought not to be thrust on a room of 18-year-olds with no prior warning at 9am on a Monday morning. Just so long, that is, that they?re also taught that the whole point of Christianity is that the Lord of Glory himself underwent all this for you and because of you.

"In my own lectures to first-year St Mary?s theologians, one of the topics is, naturally enough, persecution and martyrdom. Since the first time I taught it, in 2010, I have asked my charges to read and discuss The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, an account of the torture and murder-as-entertainment of two young women ? both newly mothers ? in Carthage around AD 208. The past two years, I?ve also had them read a similar account, from Lyons and Vienne in 168, focusing on the slave girl Blandina.

"I dare say that I?m not the most sensitively attuned of teachers. But even I, long before I ever heard the phrase ?trigger warning?, have felt it perfectly natural to alert my students to the kinds of things they will encounter therein. This is as much to do with my vulnerability and insecurities, as it is about any (patronising) presumption about their abilities to handle difficult material.

"Call me a snowflake, but I just don?t personally feel comfortable telling a group of people I haven?t yet gotten to know to ponder upon the gory details of brutal assaults (in some cases, with a clear sexual implication) and murders of people they might, for all I know, find themselves identifying with. In the case of Perpetua and Felicity, for instance, even the crowd who had gathered to see Christians killed for sport ?shuddered as they saw one young woman of delicate frame and another with breasts still dropping from her recent childbirth? entering the arena.

"So I let them know up front. I inform them that our chosen sources contain details that I find very hard to read and dwell upon. I tell them that, even though I?ve no doubt they are more mature and robust than me, it is possible that ? for a whole variety of perhaps very personal reasons ? they might prefer not to sit in a room of people openly discussing such things. And if that is the case, they are welcome either to talk to me in private or quietly absent themselves from that portion of the session.

"So far, no one has ever come to speak to me about it. And I am not aware (which is rather the point) of anyone who has chosen to miss that bit on such grounds. But as I?ve gotten to know the students better over their time at St Mary?s, I?ve occasionally come to hear certain things they have had to deal with, which have made me quite glad that I?d given them that option"

Stephen Bullivant - Catholic Herald -= January 5, 2017

Dr. Stephen Bullivant is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at St Mary's University (UK) and the Director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2017/01/05/call-me-a-snowflake-but-students-of-christianity-really-do-need-a-trigger-warning/

[eyeshaveit]

Jews Using the Word 'Christian' as a Slur

"There is a widespread but little-mentioned problem in Judaism today: namely, the derisive dismissal of Reform Jews by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox. This often takes the form of slurs and insults. One of the most noxious and oft-repeated of these is the assertion that Reform Jews are not really Jews, but Christians.

"As a Reform rabbi with a master?s degree in Christianity, I could argue for hours about why this is wrong, with basic, objective facts. Reform Jews do not, for example, subscribe to the basic tenets of Christianity: that Jesus was the incarnate son of God, come to save sinners from their innate sinfulness, resurrected after his death on the cross. We do not believe that Mary was a virgin, or that she gave birth to the Messiah in the form of Jesus Christ. In short, we do not subscribe to any of the basic tenets of Christian theology. Especially in Israel, where this insult is most prevalent, such facts don?t seem to stem the abuse.

"Given the vagaries of Jewish history, it?s not surprising that the term ?Christian? became an intra-faith Jewish slur; Jews have a fraught and painful history with Christianity and the church.

"The Catholic Church was behind the Inquisition and drove the Crusades; Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, was viciously anti-Semitic, and supersessionism (the belief that Christianity has fulfilled and replaced Judaism) along with anti-Judaism has been at the root of acts of anti-Semitic violence throughout ancient ? and modern ? history. In such contexts, calling other Jews ?Christians? became a melodramatic way of saying that they were traitors, had abandoned (in action, deed or thought) the Jewish community and had crossed a bright line. People called Spinoza a Christian, along with Isaac Mayer Wise and various Reform rabbis throughout history.

"But today, in a world where 50% of American Jews are married to non-Jews (many of whom were raised at least nominally Christian), a world where Vatican II has repudiated the theological bases for anti-Judaism and supersessionism, and a world in which honest (and often difficult) interfaith dialogue is increasingly dynamic and vibrant, calling another Jew a Christian to discredit or demean him is not just wrong ? it?s also disingenuous, intellectually irresponsible and theologically lazy. It?s a way of ignoring the beauty ? and diversity ? of America?s religious landscape (not to mention the whole world), and retreating into an insular, guarded and mean-spirited understanding of what it means to be a Jew, an American or a citizen of a multicultural world.

"In the Tosefta, (Sanhedrin 13:2) there?s a debate between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua on whether the World To Come is only for Jews or also for non-Jews. Ultimately, Rabbi Joshua argues that ?the righteous of all peoples have a share in the World To Come? ? a revolutionary statement that would come to inform how many Jews, regardless of level of observance, saw their non-Jewish neighbors.

"One thousand years later, in a world in which anti-Semitism is on the rise and the word ?Jew? is being used as a slur, it?s critical that we not fall prey to the old trope of Us vs. Them. When we use language, jokingly or not, about ?the goyim? or about ?shiksas,? or when we use the word ?Christian? as a slur, our language separates us from our friends and neighbors. None of us, as people of faith, can afford that."

Jordie Gerson - Forward - January 9, 2017.

Jordie Gerson is the Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego, California.

[eyeshaveit]

When Does an Embryo Become a Person?

"Embryo-based therapies include use of embryonic stem cells to grow new tissue to replace degenerated tissue, such as in neurodegenerative diseases. Embryos can come from donating parents, or they can be created by cloning the patient who is to receive the new tissue. The latter is called therapeutic cloning and it must be distinguished from reproductive cloning in which one creates a baby with her own genetic make up.

"Therapeutic cloning has the potential to treat a range of conditions, from type 1 diabetes, to degenerative conditions like Parkinson disease and various blood disorders. There are disagreements within the various religions over the use of this technology. But the major objection to anything involving human tissue comes from Christianity ? because of the belief that life begins at conception. The position was expressed in the 2015 letter of Pope Francis but also reflects views of various Eastern Orthodox and Protestant denominations:

"Concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo? There is a tendency to justify transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos."

"Certainly there are some liberal Protestant denominations that disagree. And there are those who believe other considerations ?finding cures for horrible diseases, for example? come into play.

"Hinduism is not fond of abortion, but India permits termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks of gestation based on a rationale of freedom of choice similar to that underlying the approach in the United States (characterized by complete freedom of choice for the mother during the first two thirds of pregnancy, but increasing restrictions during weeks when the fetus is viable).

"Both Judaism and Islam see human ontogeny (development from gametes through personhood) as a kind of graded progression. The Babylonian Talmud considers the early products of conception (what science now calls the zygote, morula, blastocyst, and early embryonic stages) k?mayim, meaning like water until 40 days into pregnancy (tractate Yevamot 69b). At 40 days gestation, many embryos demonstrate the beginnings of brainwave activity (although obviously Talmudic period rabbis didn?t know this). At this point, there also has been a heartbeat for about 3 weeks seen easily on ultrasound ?a fact that anti-abortion Christians use frequently in efforts to dissuade potential mothers from ending their pregnancies. But, being like water, a conceptus has no legal or moral status in Talmudic thinking.

"From 40 days through the rest of pregnancy, the embryo/fetus has a status as a kind of property in Jewish law. Thus, somebody who harms a pregnant woman in a way that triggers a spontaneous abortion can be charged for damages. But it is not considered murder, nor even killing, until the next stage, which begins when the fetal head crowns through the vaginal opening. And by the way, that?s not the final stage. In terms of religious ritual surrounding mourning, Judaism does not even see a newborn as completely alive until 31 days after birth. This illustrates a view that personhood develops gradually, and in stages, with development occurring both in utero and after birth. Similarly, in Islam there is a threshold during pregnancy, which the majority of people who think about this say is 120 days (roughly 17 weeks gestation), after which a fetus is considered enough like a person such that a physician who follows Islam would not want to terminate a pregnancy. Even beyond the threshold, however, for many Muslims (as with many Christians at any point in pregnancy), the need to save a mother?s life can supersede fetal needs.

"The mothers? life notwithstanding, the graded views of ontogeny put Jewish and Islamic thinking in line with US laws drafted to conform with the watershed 1973 Supreme Court case Roe versus Wade, establishing fetal viability. Legally, that?s 26 weeks gestation, but medically it has been pushed back somewhere around 23 weeks gestation in a minority of fetuses, but this could change (especially with a new technology called the artificial placenta now on deck to enter clinical trials). The way neonatology is going, along with genetic engineering and other technologies, within decades an artificial womb (to which the artificial placenta is a stepping stone) could become reality. This could turn the tables on abortion policy by altering the paradigm of pro-life versus pro-choice, since a woman?s choice to terminate pregnancy could be satisfied without actually killing the embryo or fetus. Rather, it could simply be transferred into an external life-support environment and developed to term.

"Buddhism is the perhaps hardest to categorize when it comes to cloning and related biotechnology. Technically, Buddhism considers a blastocyst a human life, but it also considers the well-being of non-human animals equal to that of humans. Buddhists tend to vary in their opinions on abortion unrelated to their religion, and many are fervently pro-choice. Overall, Buddhism is accepting of human embryonic stem cell research. Northwestern University Medical ethics and religious studies professor, Laurie Zoloth, points out that cloning could even support Buddhist beliefs: ?Buddhism can take account the pluripotential nature of the cells, their genomic and genetic possibilities, and understands a kind of reincarnation,? she said in commentaries appearing in ABC Science Online in 2004. ?To me it?s a good example of the possibility for even deeply held religious beliefs to achieve change from their own resources, texts, and traditions.?

"Professor Yong Moon of Seoul National University in South Korea, said almost the same thing, even more bluntly: ?Cloning is a different way of thinking about the recycling of life. It?s a Buddhist way of thinking.?

"Artificial wombs, viability thresholds, and reincarnation of cell notwithstanding, therapeutic cloning and human embryonic stem cell research really involves just the blastocyst stage of development. At this stage, for all intents and purposes, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and essentially all major religions are in agreement and in direct opposition to Christianity. Effectively, this makes the starting point for non-Christian religions essentially the same as the starting point for discussions on human embryonic stem cells in the secular world. So, there really are just two paradigms defining the territory for opinions on embryonic stem cells and things related."

David Warmflash - Genetic Literacy Project - January 9, 2017

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician and science writer.

Complete article (also discusses cloning / stem cells / GMOs):

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2017/01/09/cloning-stem-cells-gmos-religious-beliefs-shape-thinking/

[eyeshaveit]

Jehovah?s Witnesses sue for right to not stand for National Anthem

"Jehovah?s Witnesses in India are looking to overturn a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring movie theatres to play the country?s national anthem before every film, and audience members to stand for the anthem, according to the Indian Express.

"The sect?s members believe the singing of national anthems constitutes an act of unfaithfulness towards god, according to the official Jehovah?s Witnesses website. The Indian Express reports that a U.S.-based lawyer is working to help file an application seeking to overturn the apex court?s ruling.

"On Nov. 30, 2016, the Supreme Court of India ruled that audience members in movie theatres must stand for a rendition of the national anthem accompanied by images of the Indian flag, ?to show respect for the national anthem and the national flag.?

"The ruling was made after a petition by a 78-year-old citizen who said he was rebuked by moviegoers sitting behind him in a theatre 16 years ago, after he decided to stand when the national anthem was played as part of a scene in a Bollywood movie. It comes just over three months after a disabled man was allegedly harassed in a movie theatre in the Indian state of Goa because he didn?t stand up while the national anthem was being played, as reported by the Indian Express.

"The order appears to overturn a 1986 decision in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jehovah?s Witnesses? freedom to not partake in anthem singing. ?Jehovah?s Witnesses are happy to have had a part in contributing to the constitutional freedoms of all citizens in India,? reads an article on the evangelical group?s website detailing the 1986 ruling"

Rahul Kalvapalle - Global News - January 9, 2017   

[eyeshaveit]

Religion: Good for the soul but Hell for humanity                               

"Some 90,000 Christians around the world were killed last year for no other reason than they were Christians.
Judging from the pushback, however, not many seemed to care. It wasn?t even a footnote in 2016?s year in review, although it worked out to one Christian dying every six minutes, as Italy?s Centre for Studies on New Religions told Vatican Radio. But, alas, there was one death here, one death there, a few more in a more concentrated settings, but nothing that jumped out to demand the world?s attention.

"Some 70% of these deaths occurred during tribal conflicts in Africa, and were therefore out of sight and out of mind as far as the western world was concerned. And dare it be said that these were also ?less-civilized? lives in the greater scheme of things, and therefore easier to let go unnoticed when bombs were going off in Paris and in Brussels, and cafes were being riddled with machine gun fire? In the end, however, the Vatican was not bombed. The Pope was not the target of jihadists.

"Last Friday marked the feast of the Epiphany in the Christian faith, a celebration of the revelation of God first appearing in the human form of Jesus Christ. One has to wonder how many lives would not have perished if Christ were never born and the religion of Christianity never existed. Any religion, for that matter. While religion may be good for souls, it?s hell for humanity.

"How many millions have died in battles fought over religion? Religion, after all, is based on an entrenched faith in something that cannot possibly be proven. It demands an illogical blind adherence in return for spiritual comfort and the promise of a better hereafter in some form of non-dimensional paradise. But it also is so easily twisted. It was a year ago that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally met the first of 25,000  Syrian refugees coming to Canada, Muslims fleeing fanatical Muslim terrorists, by saying to them, ?Welcome home.? If only it were so easy or all-encompassing.

"According to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Aleppo, Syria?s Christian minority was reduced from 1.5 million to 500,000 during the five years of the Syrian conflict. They were ISIS?s main target. They were infidels, the enemy Crusaders, and therefore righteous killings. We saw, thanks to the magic of YouTube, what ISIS had done to those captured, and to others who attempted to fight them off. They burned them alive, drowned them in cages, stoned them to a pulp, tossed them off buildings, and slit their throats. Where did the survivors from that demographic go? Certainly not to Canada because the Syrian Christian minority were all but left behind in the bureaucratic processing of the Syrian refugee exodus.

"What, then, if Mohammad never existed? There would be no sharia law, of course, which is the corruption of a peaceful and tolerant Islam. And no Islamic jihadism, but there would be something just as evil. Humankind tends to create its own misery. It was Jesus of Nazareth who is attributed to coining the Golden Rule to summarize the Torah. ?Do to others what you want them to do to you.?

"He should have stopped there. If that philosophy alone had been universally embraced, then the world would have had no need for any organized religion. This would have been a true epiphany, a sudden realization that we are all in this together. But it never took hold."

Mark Bonokoski - Toronto Sun - January 12, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Defining Evangelicalism

Warren Cole Smith interviews Darrell Bock:

Smith - "The National Association of Evangelicals has a doctrinal statement that lays down eight or nine key points. In your view, What is the best definition of evangelicalism?"

Bock - "The key definition of evangelicalism comes from a British scholar named David Bebbington. He has four elements, but the most important element is a high regard for Scripture, orthodoxy, a piety that comes with it, and then a desire to share the gospel with people who don?t know Christ.

?Evangelical? goes back to the idea of a person who believes in the evangel, who believes in the declaration of the good news. In its most basic sense, that?s what it means. It?s come to mean all kinds of things today, and, as a result, the name and the term itself have become a little muddied. The core idea is someone who is a deeply committed, Bible-believing Christian who?s quite willing and desires to share Christ."

Smith - "If you read The Washington Post or The New York Times or any local paper, it will define evangelicalism almost culturally or sociologically rather than theologically. Is that tendency to identify a whole socioeconomic class as evangelical a problem for the church today?"

Bock - "To some degree it?s a problem. It?s difficult because the term ?evangelical? itself is somewhat difficult. For a lot of the media, ?evangelical? is an equal alternative to the term ?fundamentalist.? For others, it?s a simple moniker for anyone who is conservative theologically, without making distinctions about what they think about particular doctrines. It?s a term that?s used in a variety of ways and a variety of settings, sometimes sociological. Usually there is a theological dimension to it, but the understanding of what that theology is can be a little muddy.

"For some people, evangelicals may only exist in the Deep South. For others, it?s a broader term. You really have two kinds of people in the media: people who cover religion as part of a beat that they work, where they understand some of these distinctions, and other people who, when I interview with them, I?m explaining core theological terms and helping them get oriented to what it is that they are taking a look at. Some of them have very little theological background. Mostly in the media, when you hear the term ?evangelical,? you?re thinking of someone who?s very conservative theologically, someone who may or may not go to church.

"There are a lot of people who self-identify as evangelical because they think it just means theologically conservative. But actually, an evangelical is someone who has a committed faith and a sincere faith. Someone like Ed Stetzer, who looks at these statistics on a regular basis, will say that?s about between 15 and 20 percent of your population, while some people will say there are 35 to 40 percent evangelicals out there."

Smith - "The church was very divided during the presidential campaign. There was a lot of acrimony even between brothers and sisters in Christ. How should we behave now? Where should we go from here?"

Bock - "I think it?s important that the church pull together. I also think there?s a real chance the church can blow an opportunity to have gotten a reprieve on the culture war. I don?t think we need to repeat the mistakes of the older culture war. It?s really important we talk to one another about the nature of the acrimony we had. It was because of the peculiar characteristics of the candidate who led the ticket who we now have to live with as president.

"We don?t know what kind of presidency he?s actually going to bring. To me, the jury is out on whether we have done ourselves a service or not. I?m hopeful that we have. There are certain things he offers to bring that the country needs. There are certain things that also come with the package that have me deeply disturbed because the core of the gospel are themes of reconciliation, grace, the dignity of people, issues related to race. The church is multinational. It?s supposed to have a characteristic of compassion. There?s certain gospel values I struggle to see in some of the positions, in the way they?ve been taken.

"The church needs to have a good conversation with itself, and it also needs to have a better conversation with those who aren?t a part of the church because our goal is not to crush people in a political defeat. Our goal is actually to win them to the gospel. Ephesians 6 says that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It?s against spiritual forces. Those spiritual forces need to be challenged as we challenge people to have a change of heart so they can get the spiritual equipment needed to live the way that God desires them to live. Sometimes in our political rhetoric, I think we forget our mission. When we forget our mission, we don?t help the church, we actually work to undermine it."

Smith - "You said that you?re concerned that the church not repeat the same mistakes of the old Religious Right. What were those mistakes?"

Bock - "I think it was to see the current situation in terms of a strictly political, social, ideological battle. There are things that are attached to the arguments we make that have nothing to do with what the Bible argues that we treat with a passion almost equal to what things the Bible does teach. We?ve got to be able to distinguish those elements of civil concern, and what I might call civil religion, from Biblical religion. That means that certain issues get handled differently. Either in terms of tone, which can be very important, or in terms of substance."

Warren Cole Smith - World - January 12, 2017.

Warren Cole Smith is the Vice President of the Mission Advancement for the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

Darrell Bock is a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Podcast of the entire interview - https://world.wng.org/podcast/listeningin

[eyeshaveit]

Racial Divides - Black & White

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ?It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o?clock on Sunday morning.? Progress is slow on racial reconciliation in this country, particularly given recent events. But why do lingering divisions exist in the Church, the very communities built on the promise of forgiveness and reconciliation? ... Barna examined the divergent ways in which black and white Christians approach discipleship, individually and collectively, revealing insights that may contribute to the realization of King?s dream of an unsegregated hour of worship.

"The term ?spiritual progress? is open to interpretation ... Black Christian leaders are more likely to describe the process of spiritual progress as ?spiritual maturation? (31%), while white Christian leaders prefer the phrase ?spiritual growth? (21%). The language of ?maturation? implies more of an internal transformation and the development of wisdom through life experience, whereas the word ?growth? tends to suggest an approach that entails reaching key milestones.

"When both groups define ?discipleship,? white believers are more likely to refer to it as a ?process of learning to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, seeking to observe all that Jesus commanded, by the power of the Holy Spirit and to his glory.? ... For black Christians, spiritual progress tends to focus more on life experience rather than achieving goals, about maturing into a Christ-like character as they weather life?s storms.

"The greater emphasis on experience is also evident when looking at motivations for spiritual growth ... black Christians are more likely to say they have been through tough times in life, and that growing spiritually will help them ... but ... black pastors are more likely than white pastors to state that ?guilt about things in the past? pose a major obstacle for their congregation?s spiritual maturation ...

"A crucial part of fellowship for black Christians is mentorship. They are more likely to currently be mentored and discipled by another Christian ... and to be discipling others themselves ... White Christians are more likely than black Christians to prefer being discipled on their own ... whereas black Christians show a greater preference for group-based discipleship ... Black Christians are also more likely to list large group study or discussion groups ... and family members ... as ?very important? in aiding spiritual development.

"Black communities tend toward communal rhythms of spiritual development while white communities prefer a more individualistic setting. It is unsurprising therefore that white Christians are more likely to view their spiritual life as ?entirely private? ... Black Christians, on the other hand, are much more likely to believe their personal spiritual life has an impact on others?whether they are relatives, friends, community or society at large. This was a strong belief of Martin Luther King ... half of black Christians (50% compared to 34%) believe it is their responsibility to tell others about their religious beliefs, further reinforcing the public / private contrast between both groups.

"Another crucial form of spiritual growth is education, or more specifically, studying the Bible. Black Christians, generally demonstrate a higher regard for and deeper devotion to Scripture. They are more likely to believe that the Bible is ?totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches? ... a belief that translates into more consistent and frequent study of the Bible ... and memorization of Scriptures ...

"Black Christians also consistently rate the personal spiritual impact of many forms of biblical study?including memorizing or meditating on Scriptures, studying the Bible in a group or on one?s own or following Bible study curriculums?at higher levels than white Christians ...

"One of the more significant contrasts between the two groups is the role played by friendship in spiritual growth. Black Christians are more likely to rate their relationships with family members, mentors, church members, Christian communities outside of church and small group members as ?valuable? to their spiritual journey. Though both groups equally deem friendships as ?valuable to their spiritual journey? ...

"Black Christians are also slightly more likely to believe that when their friends aren?t as interested in spiritual things, it poses a major obstacle to their spiritual growth ... Black church leaders are also more likely to believe that ?negative peer relationships? pose a major obstacle for people?s growth as disciples ... This outlier of friendships for black Christians is an interesting shift in narrative. Black communities clearly appear to have robust formal relational networks for spiritual development (mentorship structures, family networks or small groups), but it appears their informal relational networks, specifically friendships, is more likely to be a source of spiritual hindrance.

"Three-quarters of Americans agree that ?Christian churches play an important role in racial reconciliation? ... This is good news for the Christian church-at-large. But as leaders and pastors we must learn to celebrate these differences rather than lament them ... Bridging the racial divides when it comes to spiritual practice is a complex task. But it begins by observing current approaches and recognizing ways in which they might be, however unintentionally, tailored toward a specific audience. Sticking to monolithic, cookie cutter approaches to discipleship and spiritual development without considering how to integrate other approaches will unlikely change the status quo.

"Approaches detached from experience that are privately practiced might struggle to appeal to the black Christian experience. Likewise, approaches that rely heavily on broader social mechanisms (such as mentorship structures or large groups) for discipleship will be met with a similar reluctance for a white Christian ...

?Missionaries often know they are going to ?cross a culture,? so they take time to understand the sociology and anthropology of the new people they will engage with. Pastors working domestically don?t often engage this same practice, so generally they don?t lead their church with strong cross-cultural intelligence. As a result, too many Christians jump into conversations about racial reconciliation without a firm foundation of cultural understanding.

As leaders, we have to ask ourselves, How are we forming people? Are we forming people in consumer spirituality? Are we forming people to prefer others before themselves? Are we creating a church for the least of these or for our big givers? When we ask ourselves these questions with honesty and transparency, we allow space for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through a diverse group of brothers and sisters and hear things we wouldn?t normally hear. When we don?t ask these questions, we leave ourselves open to malformation according to our own cultural blind spots.?

David M. Bailey - Barna Group - January 12, 2017.

Complete Q&A with David M. Bailey - https://www.barna.com/qa-david-bailey/

David M. Bailey is the Executive Director of Arrabon, a ministry that equips churches to engage in the ministry of reconciliation.

[eyeshaveit]

Fake News about Religion: Pew Continues to Confuse

"Pew and the media have a history of spinning Pew polls to attack people of faith.  One study by Pew falsely implied that atheists have more religious knowledge than do religious people.  Another appeared to show that Americans are abandoning belief in God by combining people who believe in God but who aren't part of an organized religion with atheists and agnostics.  Pew calls this hodgepodge group "nones," apparently to imply that they are lacking in faith, but the reality is that only a small part of this group actually lacks a belief in God ? which a close reading of the Pew reports shows that even Pew agrees with.

"Pew raises that old canard again in claiming that Americans have gotten less religious under Obama.  The reality is that while the percentages of atheists and agnostics have stayed low, many religious people are saying they're not affiliated with a particular faith. Basically, the "nones" are an example, in large part, of people either rejecting formal church structures or people for whom religion is not a major part of their lives, not people who deny the existence of God.

"Pew apparently tries to inflate the number of truly non-religious people in America by writing:

"When it comes to the nation's religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama's presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all. Those who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is "nothing in particular," now make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population, up from 16% in 2007. When it comes to the nation's religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama's presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all. Those who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is "nothing in particular," now make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population, up from 16% in 2007."

"Yet Pew has to admit, without highly publicizing it, that 89% of Americans believe in God and only 3.1% say God does not exist, while a further 4% say they don't know. Essentially, by adding people not affiliated with a particular denomination and those who don't think religion is an important part of their lives to the 3.1% of Americans who reject God, Pew seems to be trying to convince us that religion in America is rapidly dying.  After all, it would be pretty earth-shaking if 25% of Americans no longer believed in God.

"Clearly, if people were really rejecting God in great numbers, one would expect to see a far greater growth in the number of atheists.  Yet atheists are a minuscule portion of the American population. This is a standard liberal tactic of using fake news to convince people they don't agree with ? conservatives and Christians, for example ? that hardly anyone is like them, and everyone is like the liberals. By attempting to make it embarrassing to admit being Christian, liberals are trying to drive religions other than their own materialistic hedonism out of the public square.

"Just as liberals try to silence the voices pointing out the racism of Democrat policies by labeling all who don't toe the liberal line racists, they use Pew's results to make it uncool to profess one's faith. Of course, that tends to distort poll results, just as the polls missed the support for Trump because people didn't want to publicly admit supporting him. While Obama did work hard to persecute religious people during his eight years in office, there is no data to support any massive change in American's traditional deep-seated religious beliefs.  People of faith are not dodos, nor are they on the verge of extinction.  After all, Pew admits that 71% of Americans are Christians ? hardly a minority.

"To be fair, Pew's most extreme claims appear in their titles, and a close reading of the actual material reveals a number of hedging comments.  But given that it's the headlines that drive the narrative in many cases, the reality is that Pew certainly appears to be distorting the implications of its polls in a manner designed to normalize the liberal narrative and ostracize those who reject the bicoastal elites' beliefs.

"Pew's spinning is probably the result of its staff being trapped in the east-coast elite liberal bubble rather than any deliberate intent to mislead, just as the Washington Post's failure to cover a pro-life march in D.C., which featured hundreds of thousands of protesters, wasn't because of deliberate bias, but because no one on the Post's editorial team is pro-life, and none of them even knew anyone who is pro-life.  Because no one in the Post's bubble knew that the massive protest was going to occur, the Post didn't even know there was anything to cover until after the march had occurred.

"Irrespective of the cause, however, the key take away is that one should never trust any conclusions that Pew puts forth on any topic.  You need to dig down into the details to see what their data really says to ensure that you aren't getting fake news."

Tom Trinko - American Thinker - January 16, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Austria?s far-right party wants to ?ban? Islam

"The head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party called on Saturday for a total ban on ?fascistic Islam.?
Heinz Christian Strache told an audience in Salzburg that he wanted to see a ban of Muslim symbols, something like the Austrian law that bans Nazi symbols. And he warned that Islam posed an existential threat to Europe. ?Let us put an end to this policy of Islamization,? he said. ?Otherwise we Austrians, we Europeans will come to an abrupt end.?

"The Freedom Party is staunchly anti-immigrant. Stache said Saturday that ?we need zero and minus immigration.? The country has received 130,000 claims for asylum since the summer of 2015. Most are former residents of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.


"There are about 600,000 Muslims in Austria, and they're facing a growing chorus of detractors. Recently, an Austrian cardinal (and a top candidate for pope in previous conclaves) asked in a speech: ?Will there be an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims want that and say: Europe is at the end.? In December, a right-leaning Austrian trade union suggested that Muslims should be denied Christmas bonuses because ?they are against all Christian traditions.?

"This attitude has made it hard for young Muslims to feel accepted. One recent study of Muslim youth in Vienna found that many do not feel recognized as Austrians, which has increased the risk of radicalization. According to the survey, "85 percent of young people who are in contact with a youth worker have an immigration background,? and "27 percent of those teenagers who are Muslim show strong sympathy for jihadism, and violent and anti-Western thinking.?

"The Freedom Party's anti-Muslim message has been well-received by a nearly a majority of Austria's electorate. Its presidential candidate Norbert Hofer was defeated in a runoff vote last month, but gained 47 percent support.

"In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party is running on a platform of closing mosques and Islamic schools, banning the Koran and Muslim migrants. It also wants to prohibit women from wearing headscarves. The next election is March 2017, and the party is expected to pick up seats to become the most represented party in the Dutch parliament"

Amanda Erikson - Washington Post - January 14, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

President Trump and Religious Freedom

"Eighty-eight years ago, the famed African-American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. was born. Named for the monk who started the Reformation over four hundred years earlier, Dr. King would go on to become a Baptist minister and arguably the most important civil rights figure of the twentieth century.

"His religious beliefs and the freedom to exercise and speak out based on those beliefs were essential to his advocacy for nonviolence as means of achieving civil rights for African-Americans. As King reminded us, ?Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.? Yet without a public square that was open for religious conviction to work and speak, his efforts would not have met the success they did.

"Fast forward to today, Religious Freedom Day 2017, which is on January 16, we find that the religious freedom which enabled Dr. King to do his work is just as needed for the challenges of today. For as King also said, ?[t]here comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.?  Today, Americans need the same freedom in the workplace, in school, in the public square, in our homes, and in our churches. Everywhere there is air, there must be the freedom of conscience, the freedom of religion, and we must exercise it.

"The importance of retaining this religious voice in the public square, and the feeling that it is under attack, significantly impacted the results of this past November?s election. Fifty-nine percent of Trump voters, according to a WPA Opinion Research survey commissioned by Family Research Council, stated that how they cast their ballots was impacted by the Republican Party platform?s positions on life and religious liberty. This represents over 37 million voters, and these issues will no doubt continue to be a priority for voters as the new administration takes office in just days.

"What specifically can President-elect Trump do to demonstrate his commitment to the issue of religious liberty which motivated so many voters to turn out and vote? To start, religious liberty in the military needs to be addressed. Over the past several years we have witnessed chaplains being disciplined for their faith, and religious speech being censored. President-elect Trump can direct that religious liberty in the military be clarified and strengthened, and that appropriate training is conducted to ensure the law is followed.

"In addition, our foreign policy, contrary to the law, has not prioritized religious freedom like it should. President-elect Trump must direct that religious freedom be properly integrated into all foreign policy of the United States at every level.  As even the United Nations has recognized, religious freedom is not just an American right, it is a human right.  Defending that human right has been an American value until recent years.

"President-elect Trump should also follow through with his pledge to issue an executive order, reinstating government-wide protections for religious liberty. But executive orders halting attacks on religious freedom are just the start, there are many more anti-religious freedom policies of the Obama administration that must be reversed.  That?s why government nondiscrimination legislation is needed to protect supporters of marriage between one man and one woman.  People of faith should not be punished by the government for living in accordance with their beliefs.

"As we start a new year, Religious Freedom Day marks an era of new opportunity for our First Freedom. Let us look with hope to these advancements and beyond to increased protections for all Americans to live out their faith in the public square."

Tony Perkins - January 16, 2017 - Fox News.

Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council.

[eyeshaveit]

Murky Future for Religion in America

"If we Americans bother every once in a while to take a serious look at how our society is profoundly changing from what it used to be, we're often  surprised at what we find. Take religion, for example. The long-held stereotypes of religious people in this country simply don't apply any more.

"Daniel Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, wrote this last summer on the website FiveThirtyEight.com.:

?The U.S. was once a predominantly white Christian country, but fewer than half of Americans (45 percent) identify as white Christian today.?

"One of the reasons for this change is that there are more religions in America these days. Cox explains:

"The American religious landscape is transforming rapidly. At one time, religious diversity meant: Baptist, Methodist and Episcopalian. Today, it encompasses a multiplicity of religious traditions such as Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism, as well as an increasing variety of non-institutional belief systems such as humanism, skepticism, atheism and subjective spirituality. Racial and ethnic shifts have also changed the face of Christianity."

"There are numerous other factors, of course, contributing to changes in thoughts about religion among Americans. . Greater mobility and the rise of social media expose us to a greater variety of attitudes toward religion. Our grandparents and great-grandparents likely knew relatively few people who didn't share their religious beliefs. Diversity was not common among folks in those old days ? at least not in most locales. A funny thing about that is that diversity seems to militate against religious fervor. Here again, Daniel Cox explains:

"Geographically, states with greater religious variety tend to exhibit lower levels of overall religiosity.2The religious diversity for each state was calculated using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, one of the most commonly used measures of diversity. No state is more religiously uniform than Mississippi. It is a place where, as my colleague and native Mississippian Robert Jones once said: 'It's hard to swing a dead cat without hitting a Baptist.' And this is not far from the truth. Half of the state's population identifies as Baptist and 54 percent are evangelical Protestant. No other state is so singularly dominated by a single faith tradition. It's probably no coincidence that Mississippi is also one of the few states with constitutions that prohibit atheists from serving in elected office. According to Gallup's 2016 rankings  of the most and least religious states, Mississippi has the honor of being the most religious state in the country. A separate measure of religiosity computed by the Pew Research Center has Mississippi tied with Alabama as the most religious state in the U.S. See: Lipka, Michael and Benjamin Wormald. 'How religious is your state?' Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.: Feb. 29, 2016. In contrast, Oregon ranks high in terms of religious diversity " no one religious tradition makes up more than 20 percent of the state's population " and falls near the bottom in Gallup's ranking. Only four states are less religious."

"Does all of this mean that religion is dying out in America? Probably not. But it seems to indicate that profound changes are at hand. As Daniel Cox says:

"It does not signal the end of religion, but it may make it easier for Americans to abstain from religious involvement and encourage other types of spiritual and philosophical explorations. It may also make atheists more willing to 'come out,' something that can be exceedingly difficult in very religious communities. Organized religion has never been in jeopardy of dying out due to a single traumatic event. Instead, it is a cumulative series of unanswered challenges that pose the greatest risk. Religious diversity might not represent a dramatic threat to religion, but it may represent another small hole in an already sinking ship."

Pat Cunningham - Benton Evening News - January 18, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Colleges Offer Radical Religion Classes

"It seems that college campuses across the country treat references to God as an offense, unless of course, those references are blasphemous, heavily politicized with a Marxist skew, or simply meet the criteria of the PC police. Whether at a secular school or a divinity school, God is not safe from the unstoppable forces that are radical leftism and PC mania at institutes of higher education.

"For example, Pennsylvania?s Swarthmore College, originally founded by Quakers, is offering a religion class this semester entitled ?Is God a White Supremacist?? The school?s 2017 catalog explains that the class will explore the relationship between race and religion, with a focus on ?the interpretive practices that are foundational to the process of ?whiteness-making? and the construction of white identity.? In that course, students will learn about ?white supremacist ?Christian identity? churches,? the Nation of Islam, and ?religious theories justifying racial domination,? as well as ?the influence of religious thought both past and present on comparative global racisms and transnational whiteness,? according to the course description. Swarthmore College also offers a class called ?Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology,? in which students are asked to explore God?s sexuality. The course description reads, ?This course examines feminist and queer writings about God, explores the tensions between feminist and queer theology, and seeks to stretch the limits of gendering ? and sexing ? the divine.?

"And yet another course offered at Swarthmore is called "Queering the Bible," which asks students to approach the Bible ?with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches.? For just over $60,000 a year, students at Swarthmore College get to enjoy all the delights of a radical college education, including an annual symposium named for a gay alumnus that promotes homosexuality and defying gender standards, as well as an annual ?Crunkfest? that features the ?American Masturbatory Theater Company.? Swarthmore College has surely come a long way since its original humble Quaker beginnings. Sadly, even divinity schools have succumbed to the pressures of this increasingly secularized and radical culture, albeit not to the same extremity as Swarthmore. Still, officials at the divinity schools at Vanderbilt and Duke Universities have asked professors to use gender neutral pronouns in reference to God in order to ?mitigate sexism.?

"Vanderbilt?s course catalog is asking that any references to God use ?inclusive language.? The catalog states that the school ?commits continuously and explicitly to include gender as an analyzed category and to mitigate sexism?. This includes consistent attention to the use of inclusive language, especially in relation to the Divine.? That document recommends ?exploration of fresh language for God,? and states that ?masculine titles, pronouns, and imagery for God have served as a cornerstone for the patriarchy.?

"According to the associate dean for academic affairs at its divinity school, Melissa Snarr, the guidelines are derived from a policy dating back to 1999, but are merely suggestions and not mandates. ?It is up to the individual professor?s interpretation for their classes and is suggestive rather than mandatory,? she said.
Meanwhile, Duke University's divinity school released "Guidelines for Inclusive Language\," said to be ?the beginning point for developing a more inclusive language about God,? and encourages using the words ?God? and ?Godself? in lieu of gender-specific pronouns. 

"What?s more, professors are asked to consider avoiding gender specific metaphors for God, such as ?God the father,? preferring ?God is a parent to us all.? Combining gender metaphors is another option, such as ?God is the father who welcomes his son, but she is also the woman searching for the lost coin.?

?Referring to God in gender-neutral language can sound clumsy. But this is largely due to the fact that we are in a transitional period with our use of language,? Duke?s guidelines said. ?Imagination, patience, and diligence are required in order to use language that expands and enriches our understanding of God.?

"According to CNS News, other divinity schools have contemplated ?inclusive language? for references to God. For example, Harvard?s Theological Review issued a statement observing that ?it is not always appropriate to employ inclusive language when referring to God or divine beings.?

"Notre Dame?s Theology Department asked its departmental community to ?adopt respectful and gender-inclusive language in the conduct of their work and their social life both within and outside the Notre Dame community,? but ultimately left it to the discretion of the professors.

"The thing is that the Bible leaves very little room for debate on the subject of God?s gender, a point noted by CNS News:

In both the Old and New Testaments, God is referred to as male, the ?father.? Jesus Christ frequently spoke about God the Father. A few examples: ?Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?? ? 6:26. ?Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father?s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.? ? John 14:1-2
Then, when asked how to pray, Jesus told the apostles, ?When you pray, say ?Father, hallowed be thy name.'"

"Similarly, the National Review?s Katherine Timpf opined that when talking about the Christian God, ?It?s just plain inaccurate to refer to Him as anything but ?Him. There is a point where an obsession over political correctness can blind people from basic of facts, and call me archaic, but I really do feel like facts are still the way to go,? she continued. ?It would be like teaching Hamlet and calling Hamlet ?she.??

"Aye, there?s the rub. Facts are often the enemy of political correctness and radicalism. Unfortunately, college campuses have embraced the latter."

Raven Clabough - The New American - January 19, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Weird Day in America

"As a TCK (third culture kid) growing up overseas, I used to be anti-American.  A lot of TCKs are. They see their childhood home overseas as perfect, and America as full of a bunch of shallow, materialistic, boring, couch potatoes. Um, sorry about that.  I could make excuses for my teenage self, that it was all a part of finding my identity between two worlds, but really I was sometimes just an arrogant snob.

"I've grown up a lot since then.  I don't see things in black and white; I know better than to idealize any particular culture or country or ethnicity.  All have beauty; all have been ruined; all can be redeemed.  I've also realized that I am much more American than I would like to admit. And actually, living overseas as an adult has made me much more appreciative of America.  That's what I'm thinking about today, this very significant day in American history.

"I'm thinking about Zimbabwe, where the 92-year-old Mugabe is planning on running for president again--in another sham election--in a country he has held (and destroyed) in his iron fist for 36 years. 

"I am thankful I am from a country where I can have a strong degree of confidence that elections are fair and ethical, and where every citizen is allowed to vote.

"I read about Gambia today, where the president is refusing to step down in spite of losing a fair election, and violence is imminent. 

"I'm thankful I am from a country where despite the fact that the past administration and the new administration couldn't possibly be more different, that we can expect a peaceful transfer of power.  None of us are worried that Obama is going to change the Constitution so that he can retain power.  No one has given thought to a military coup taking over the country, which most recently was attempted in Burundi when the president insisted on running for a third term.

"I'm thinking about South Sudan, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Uganda, and Ethiopia where journalists are in constant danger, and some have lost their lives. 

"I am thankful I am from a country where journalists--and ordinary people--can vocally and aggressively speak, write, and publish their opposition to the government and not fear being arrested for it. I know there might be some of you out there who are protesting, But...but...but...!  Yes.  I know.  We have big problems, and some of them are huge.  Listen--I'm comparing America to the rest of the world.  We still have a lot of work to do.  But there is a reason we have an immigration problem in America:  Everyone wants what we have.  Those of us who do have it should be incredibly grateful.

"I know that this is a weird day in America.  Some are rejoicing; some are despairing.  As for myself, I am neither.  I am bracing myself for the worst and hoping for the best.  Our president is neither Jesus nor the anti-Christ.  America, in all it's greatness, is just one more blip on the screen of history.  After all, God doesn't owe me the American Dream.  Maybe our country as we know it will last only a few more years, maybe hundreds.  For those of us who claim citizenship in heaven, that is not what's most important."

Amy Medina - Everyone Needs a Little Grace in their Lives Blog - January 20, 2017.

Amy and her husband, Gil are Christian missionaries in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the coast of East Africa.

[eyeshaveit]

Ohio Prisons Now Open To Pagan, Wiccan, Satanist Ministries   

"Inmates in state prisons have a new choice to practice their religious convictions: Paganism. The Appalachian Pagan Ministry, a small volunteer group based in Huntington, West Virginia, has held services at two Ohio prisons and plans to expand to three others.

"The Rev. Donna Donovan, ordained as a Druid priestess and an interfaith minister through Universal Life Church, is the leader of the group working with inmates she describes as "pan pagan," referring to religious that are "non-Abrahamaic," which excludes Christians, Jews and Muslims. Her meetings have included believers in Asatru, Odinism, Heathenism, Wicca and Satanism. "The only way to eradicate hate and intolerance is through education," Donovan said. "I don't personally care what your higher power is as long as you believe there's a higher power than yourself." Donovan's group is visiting prisons in Ohio and West Virginia. She has been to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville and the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima. Her group will soon begin visiting prisons in Chillicothe and Lebanon.
Inmates must request visits by outside religious organizations rather than groups deciding to visit and hold services on their own.

"Jo Ellen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, has an approved list of about 50 religious groups that have permission to visit prisons, including a wide variety of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, plus Buddhists, Hindus, Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Native Americans, Sabbatarians and Wiccans. The organizations must submit applications, pass background checks and undergo training about prison procedures before visiting inmates.

"State records show Baptists (4,739), Roman Catholic (3,420) and Muslims (1,563) are among the highest religions self-identified by inmates. There are also Rastafarians (755), Amish (36) and Druids (21). Donovan said there is widespread public misunderstanding about Pagans and related non-Christian groups. Inmates, too, usually don't know about the religion, she said. "I've seen huge changes in behavior by inmates," she said. "It's helping. Instead of just just sitting there and stewing, they can be taking time to better themselves." She said she meets with 30 to 40 inmates at each Ohio prison. She funds the ministry out of her own pocket and through public donations.

"These inmates, male and female alike, know the mistakes they have made in their lives. They are paying for those mistakes. Yet instead of wallowing in self-pity or continuing to blame outside sources for their current situation, they are holding themselves accountable and doing what they can to grow in body, mind and spirit to ensure they do not make those same mistakes again."

"Ohio prisons opened the door to the expansion of religious groups because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court, ruled which found that state could not deny religious services to prisoners. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote the decision, said federal law "protects institutionalized persons who are unable freely to attend to their religious needs and are therefore dependent on the government's permission and accommodation for exercise of their religion."

Alan Johnson - Columbus Dispatch - January 21, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Queen's Chaplain Quits over Koran Readng, 'Jesus not the Son of God', in Cathedral

"A chaplain to the Queen has resigned after publicly criticising a church that allowed a Koran reading during its service as part of an interfaith project. The Rev Gavin Ashenden, said the reading was ?a fairly serious error? and one which he had a duty to speak out about. ?There are things we should not tolerate because they are destructive,? he told BBC Radio 4?s Sunday programme.?I don?t accept the rather feeble accusation that intolerance is a bad thing.?

"During a service at St Mary's Episcopal in Glasgow earlier this month to mark the feast of the Epiphany, there was a reading of a passage from the Koran which said that Jesus was not the son of God. The cathedral in Kelvinbridge had invited local Muslim worshippers to contribute to the service, which was aimed at improving relations between Christians and Muslims in Glasgow. But police were called after members of the church received "hate-filled messages" from far-right extremists after the service. The Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, said that the Scottish Episcopal Church would review the work of St Mary's. He said the church was "deeply distressed at the offence which has been caused".

"Dr Ashenden wrote a letter to The Times newspaper earlier this week, where he called on the church to apologise to Christians ?suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims? and added that the denigration of Jesus in Christian worship would be called "blasphemy" by some. He told BBC Radio 4 on
Sunday: "The problem with what happened in Glasgow was that although it was presented as a way of building bridges and a way of educating people it was done badly in the wrong way in the wrong place in the wrong context.

?It should not happen in the holy Eucharist and particularly a Eucharist whose main intention is to celebrate Christ the word made flesh come into the world. ?To have a reading from the Koran at that point was a fairly serious error for the Christian worshipping community, but to choose the reading they chose doubled the error. Of all passages you might have read likely to cause offence, that was one of the most problematic.? He said that he had to make a choice between the ?important honour? of continuing in the role of royal chaplain, and having the ability to speak out on matters he felt strongly about.

?I think it?s clear to me that accepting the role of chaplain to the Queen does not give one a platform where one can speak controversially in the public space,? he said. ?So in those circumstances I think one has to choose between whether one wants to accept an important honour or whether one chooses to continue a debate in the public space. ?I am fairly clear in my own mind that my duty to my conscience, to my order, to my understanding of Christianity and my vocation is that I am supposed to be speaking out in the public space on behalf of the Christ I serve.?

"A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: "Dr. Gavin Ashenden has tendered his resignation from the honorary position of Chaplain to The Queen. The Royal Household has accepted the resignation with immediate effect."

Camilla Turner - The Telegraph (UK) - January 22, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Reflecting on the Basics of his Faith

?Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles? doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.? Acts 2:41-42 records the initial events of the Christian faith as soon as Christ founded His church through the apostles. The Scriptures record what the basic marks of Christ?s church are, and in a world of competing ?Christian? faiths perhaps we should consider those early functions.

"Notice that baptism held a position of great importance, in fact it was the beginning of the entire Christian life. Numerous places demonstrate that baptism was an immediate occurrence when a person came to faith in response to the preaching of Christ. The Ethiopian Eunuch, upon seeing a body of water, asked what hindrance there was ? upon confession of faith he was baptized right then. (Acts 8:35-39) When the Philippian jailer learned about Jesus, he was baptized around 3 or 4 a.m. (Acts 16)  Apostolic and Christian faith does not delay or schedule baptism, but performs it at the point of convicting faith.

"What about the ?breaking of bread?? Most of Christian history recognizes this as parallel to Acts 20:7, which reads, ?And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.? Apostolic Christian faith always observed the Lord?s Supper, known as the Eucharist, Communion, or as in these verse ? the breaking of bread. Is the memorial of Jesus? death, burial, and resurrection foundational, or is it something done at leisure? The minimum observance was every first day of the week; that is the standard of a biblical church.

"The apostles? doctrine is the teaching of the apostles as given by Jesus during His earthly life, and as completed by the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-13) for the benefit of the church. What God gave to the apostles was for the guidance and maturity of the church (Eph 2:20, 3:5). Modern humanity thinks they can choose what they want of the New Testament, both in their personal lives and as churches. However, the moment a church adds to the apostles? teachings, they cease to be the church for which Christ died, and they are no longer in agreement with God?s Will. A church can preach the words of Jesus and feel spiritual, and at the same time not agree with the teaching of the apostles and fail to be Christ?s church.

"These are basics of the faith and church for which Jesus Christ died and rose again, it is not exhaustive. These basics can be done with minimal effort and suggest outright rebellion against God when they are not. Modern American Christianity thinks it does not matter to do what Jesus and the apostles taught, but instead thinks they can give God what makes them happy. While it may be American Christianity, it is not Jesus?. As you seek to serve God this year, compare what your faith teaches and does, with what the Bible teaches us all ? and seek to please God first"

Brian Reagan - Op Ed - Palestine (TX) Herald Press - January 22, 2017

Brian Reagan is pastor in Mineral Wells, Texas

[eyeshaveit]

America?s Irreligious Profile Explained

"Americans are increasingly choosing not to identify with a religious tradition. Between 2007 and 2014, this ?none of the above? category has increased from 16 to 23 percent. Among young adults, one-third say that they have no religious affiliation. Most of the public conversation about religious disaffiliation tends to emphasize the idea that with the rise of the religious ?nones,? a categorization that goes back to the 1960s, America is becoming more secular and less religious.

"Yet a closer look at who is actually included in the category of the nones suggests a more complex picture: It is an evolving religious landscape, which currently includes a variety of people who have different relationships to religion and religious institutions. For example, in the course of interviewing many nones for our current research project on innovative religious and irreligious groups, we are finding that, for some, religion has no place in their lives; others may be marginally interested in religion but rarely if ever attend services. This group claims that religion still has some relevance in their lives. In one of my interviews with a young woman, I asked whether religion had any relevance in her life, and she said, ?A little bit, maybe five percent.?

"What explains this increase in religious nones? Based on my research, I see five reasons:

"First, traditional authority structures, including religious ones, have been flattened through access to knowledge. As a result, everyone and no one is an authority, which reduces the need for traditional authorities of any sort. One pastor I interviewed told me that during Sunday services, her parishioners regularly fact-checked her sermons on their smartphones, rather than simply accepting what she said.

Second, fewer Americans view important social institutions ? such as religious organizations, corporations and government ? as having a positive impact in society. In the mid 1970s, 68 percent of Americans said they had ?a great deal? or ?a lot? of confidence in churches and other religious organizations. By 2016, this number had dropped to 41 percent.

"Third, religion has a bad brand. From sex scandals across different religious traditions to the increasing association between evangelical Christianity and the political right, religion per se has taken a beating.

"Fourth, increasing competition for people?s attention from work, family responsibilities, social media and other activities means that religion loses out to more pressing commitments. Several people we have interviewed for our current project have told us that religion is just not that important for them, suggesting that involvement with a religious group is yet another social obligation rather than a time of reflection, conversation and renewal.

"Finally, personal choice is a bedrock feature of American culture. Individuals choose professional affiliations, diets, club memberships and myriad other associations, with religion being one more affiliation that is ?chosen? by adherents. Many young adults have been raised by parents who have encouraged them to make up their own mind about religion, resulting in their choosing ?none of the above? as they think about whether they want to affiliate or be identified with any religious tradition.

"What might be the results of this rising indifference to traditional religion in American society? In my view, there are at least two areas in which the increase in the number of religious nones may have a significant social impact in the coming years ? volunteerism and politics.
There is a long-established positive correlation between religion and volunteerism in American society. While this can be partly explained by personal religious motivations, it is also true that religious organizations have long been involved in providing important services to those in need. As religious organizations lose members, we might expect that they will be less capable of providing the volunteers needed to make available the services they have long provided.

"The relationship between religion and politics is an important issue, as we saw with the 2016 election. Despite the rapid increase in the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, nones remain a relatively small group within the American electorate. Looking at the religious makeup of the electorate (those who actually vote in elections), the largest group is Protestants (52 percent), followed by white evangelicals (26 percent) and then Catholics (23 percent).

"In contrast, nones make up only 15 percent of the electorate. Although the proportion of the electorate made up by nones has increased from 9 percent in 2000 to its current 15 percent, each of the other groups has remained remarkably constant since 2000. Religious nones are also less likely to be registered to vote than, for example, white evangelicals. In the near term, this probably means that the relationship between religion and politics that has shaped our political scene since the 1980s will remain unchanged. But as the ranks of the nones continue to increase, the disconnect between our political institutions and the public they are supposed to represent may prompt some dramatic electoral realignments.

"However, in my view as a scholar of American religion, this misses the diversity within the nones. Who really are the nones? A diverse group Nones are typically analyzed as a category of individuals who identify themselves religiously as atheists, agnostics and having ?no religious preference,? or as ?nothing in particular.?

Richard Flory - Religious News Service - January 24, 2017.

Richard Flory is Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern California.

[Teaspoon Shallow]

I hope religion does not die out completely.  Some seem to need the promise of infinite reward or the threat of eternal torture to be decent human beings. Opiates for the masses.

These sheep are not going to fleece themselves you know.

[eyeshaveit]

Senate Confirms Dangerous Christian Extremist as CIA Director

"The new head of the CIA is a dangerous Christian extremist who believes the U.S. is at war with Islam. Earlier today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Representative Mike Pompeo as the new head of the powerful Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Pompeo, a Kansas Republican and prominent member of the House Intelligence Committee, is a radical Christian extremist and a sharp critic of Islam who endorsesthe notion of a ?Holy War? between Christians and Muslims, and believes the fight against terrorism is a war between Islam and Christianity.

"Speaking at a church group in Wichita, Kansas, in 2014, Pompeo claimed that Christianity was the ?only solution? to combat terrorism, arguing that the greatest ?threat to America? is caused by ?people who deeply believe that Islam is the way.? Pompeo told the church-goers:

"This threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer. These folks believe that it is religiously driven for them to wipe Christians from the face of the earth ... They abhor Christians, and will continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ our savior is truly the only solution for our world."

"In addition, at an event hosted by a Virginia-based think tank last year, Pompeo again invoked the notion of a Holy War, describing the wars in which the U.S. is involved in as being ?between the Christian West and the Islamic East.? Cosmopolitan reports that Pompeo?s past comments concerning Muslims have drawn sharp criticism. For example, in the months after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Pompeo took to the House floor to call on Muslim leaders to denounce acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam, declaring:

"It?s been just under two months since the attacks in Boston, and in those intervening weeks, the silence of Muslim leaders has been deafening."

"Pompeo went on to suggest that failing to condemn the terrorist attacks made Muslim leaders ?potentially complicit? in those attacks. In another anti-Muslim incident earlier this year, Pompeo, using veiled threats and intimidation tactics, forced a mosque located in Kansas to cancel an appearance by a prominent Muslim leader, in part because the speaker was scheduled to appear on the Christian holy day of Good Friday. Writing for Slate, Michelle Goldberg notes:

"Amid the fire hose of lunacy that is the Trump transition, however, Pompeo?s extremism has been overlooked. It?s worth pausing to appreciate the fact that America?s CIA will shortly be run by a man who appears to view American foreign policy as a vehicle for holy war."

"The Washington Post reports Pompeo ?is known as one of the more fanatical purveyors of conspiracy theories.? For example, previously Pompeo suggestedPresident Obama might have an ?affinity for? radical Islam. Bottom line: Pompeo is a dangerous Christian extremist. His Holy War mentality is alarming, and completely inappropriate for the Director of the CIA."

Michael Stone - Editorial - Global Research Canada - January 27, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Religion & Abortion

"What does the [pro-life] movement, seeking to save millions of babies from the dismemberment of the suction machine, or the acidy incineration of saline injection, make most people think of? "It's a religious thing." "It's Catholics and evangelicals, plus a few Hasidic Jews and Muslims."

"Abortion, the blood-drenched safety valve of the sixties' sexual revolution, is the great moral shame of our time. We have had world wars, and systematic genocides based on religion, ethnicity and class. But it is a chillingly different brand of evil to kill a child within the womb ? the most innocent and defenseless among us ? in the private comfort of a doctor's office and under the protection of law within a free country.

"Not all that many decades ago it was self-evident to the vast majority of Americans ? the agnostic, the lukewarm, elected officials in both parties ? that abortion was an unspeakable crime. The abortion lobby's bete noire wasn't the rosary but the stethoscope; abortion's most dedicated opposing force was once the American Medical Association. The AMA in 1859 unanimously condemned "the procuring of abortion, at every period of gestation, except as necessary for preserving the life of either mother or child ? and requests the zealous cooperation of the various state medical societies in pressing this subject upon the legislatures of the respective states." Nine decades later the AMA signed on to the World Medical Association's Declaration of Geneva, pledging to "maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of conception ? A doctor must always bear in mind the importance of preserving human life from the time of conception until death." Before the sixties, papal encyclicals weren't what you turned to for arguments against abortion; the Hippocratic Oath was.

"If Trump does what he promised, Roe may well be overturned within the next decade. After that happens the issue of abortion will dominate state politics for years, and right now the public is not nearly receptive enough to the powerful moral case against abortion. People simply don't see it as the objective evil it is. They see it largely as a faith issue, and that doesn't help win over the secular. For one thing, they see moral schizophrenia in the Catholic Church: hundreds of parishes have built shrines to the unborn, yet the Church has granted full funerals (contrary to canon law) and no public chastisement to the likes of Sen. Ted Kennedy and Supreme Court Justice William Brennan.

"In Kennedy's case, Cardinal Sean O'Malley said, "We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief and loss." The Church did turn away from murderous mobster John Gotti's family in their grief, however, forbidding a Requiem Mass, and very rightly so. If people are to be convinced, they have to witness consistency in the Church's treatment of Catholics who take innocent human life. Although he eventually became a Catholic, the former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson had his mind, as well as his heart, changed by science, not faith; the new technology of ultrasound allowed him to view abortion as it was happening. For many years, as an unashamed atheist, he was one of the most prominent and effective activists against abortion in America. His films "The Silent Scream" and "Eclipse of Reason" fought abortion by showing abortions.

"One of the most eloquent polemicists in the movement against abortion today is Kristine Kruszelnicki, the atheist president of Pro-Life Humanists. Too many pro-life politicians make an exception for rape, but listen to the courageous Kruszelnicki: "While the rape victim did not choose and is unfairly put into this position, her basic obligation to her dependent human offspring is no less real than that of the sailor with an unwanted stowaway." She quotes her fellow atheist Peter Singer, the notorious Princeton "bio-ethicist," who declares that a society accepting abortion must logically accept infanticide. But Kruszelnicki also warns pro-lifers that she and other non-religious activists against abortion are routinely rebuffed by pro-life organizations ? even when offering their skills as non-paid volunteers.

"These Dr. Nathansons of tomorrow should be brought to prominence in the pro-life movement. The most effective argumentation against abortion, even when the arguer has been religious, has always been when down-to-earth facts are served up straight. Pope Pius XI, for instance, wrote, "It is of no use to appeal to the right of taking away life for here it is a question of the innocent, whereas that right has regard only to the guilty; nor is there here question of defense by bloodshed against an unjust aggressor (for who would call an innocent child an unjust aggressor?)"

"When Congress made the public aware of partial-birth abortion, and more recently when the Center for Medical Progress published videos exposing Planned Parenthood's trafficking in aborted babies' body parts, this was exactly the kind of fact-based activism that changes minds and hearts ? fighting abortion by showing abortion to the people. It's powerful enough to turn atheists into pro-lifers. So let us pray to end abortion, and let a lot more of the non-faithful be the hand of God."

Thomas McArdle - Washington Examiner - January 26, 2017.

Thomas McArdle is a former Senior Writer for Investor's Business Daily, and White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

[eyeshaveit]

Jehovah's Witnesses charity drops attempts to block abuse inquiry

"The UK?s main Jehovah?s Witnesses charity has dropped efforts to block an investigation into how it handled allegations of sexual abuse, including of children, after a legal fight lasting more than two years.
The Charity Commission launched an inquiry into safeguarding at the religion?s main UK charity in May 2014 after receiving allegations that survivors of rape and sexual abuse, including people abused as children, were forced to face their attackers in ?judicial committees?. The Jehovah?s Witnesses, however, resisted the investigation into the Watch Tower Bible Tract Society of Great Britain (WTBTS), which oversees the UK?s 1,500 congregations and is believed to play a key role in deciding how claims of abuse are handled.

"The WTBTS, which had a turnover of more than ?80m [$100,392.000] last year, launched a series of legal challenges to the inquiry. These included an attempt to challenge in the supreme court the commission's decision to start an investigation. The charity also fought in the lower courts against production orders that would oblige it to give the commission access to records showing how it handled the allegations.

"The commission announced last week that, more than two and a half years after the investigation was launched, the WTBTS had shared some of the documents it had been seeking and the commission had since cancelled the production order. The charity had also dropped the last of its legal cases against the inquiry, the supreme court having refused to hear that particular case in July. Although charities do sometimes challenge the commission?s decisions in court, the extent and length of the Jehovah?s Witnesses litigation were unprecedented in recent times, a commission spokesman told the Guardian last year.

"A spokesman for the WTBTS said: ?In light of the progress of the inquiry and the information obtained by the commission from Watch Tower and other sources, the commission has agreed to revoke the production order. Watch Tower has therefore agreed to withdraw its application for judicial review of the production order and a consent order has been filed with the high court to conclude the proceedings.

?Watch Tower will now work with the commission to explore the issues that are the subject of the statutory inquiry and to address the commission?s regulatory concerns.? The commission is conducting a separate investigation into the Manchester New Moston congregation, where three adult survivors of child sex abuse were allegedly brought face-to-face with their abuser shortly after he was released from prison after being jailed for attacking them.

"He was later ?disfellowshipped?, or expelled, from the church. But two women in separate cases told the Guardian last year that although the church can disfellowship people from the tight-knit congregations for minor offences, such as gambling, their abusers had been allowed to remain in the church. One, who was raped as an adult, said she had been urged by senior congregation members, known as elders, to face her rapist at a private hearing, leaving her ?completely traumatised? and leading to the breakup of her marriage.

"A spokesman for the Jehovah?s Witnesses said last year: ?We are in no position to, and neither would we wish to, force any victim of abuse to confront their attacker.?

"Thomas Beale, of AO Advocates, who last year won a civil case that found the Jehovah?s Witnesses had failed to protect a woman from sexual abuse that began when she was four, said the commission?s decision to drop its production order could allow the charity to withhold further information.

?Of course we welcome the ongoing statutory inquiry into Jehovah?s Witnesses? safeguarding policies and look forward to reviewing its findings,? he said. ?However, given our experience with Jehovah?s Witnesses in litigation, we struggle to see how a thorough and robust investigation can occur now that the Charity Commission has decided to revoke its production order. We think the chance of full disclosure now by the Jehovah?s Witnesses is very small.?

Alice Ross - The (UK) Guardian - January 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Priest (sued by Atheist) must prove Jesus Christ is a historically real person

"In one of the most ominous legal cases in an era of ominous litigation, an Italian judge today heard arguments on whether or not a parish priest in that nation should stand trial for claiming Jesus of Nazareth actually existed. Viterbo, Italy, north of Rome, is the venue where Rev. Enrico Righi is being sued by his childhood friend, atheist Luigi Cascioli, for allegedly deceiving people into thinking Jesus was an actual historical figure.

?This complaint does not wish to contest the freedom of Christians to profess their faith, sanctioned by [article] 19 of the Italian Constitution,? says Cascioli, ?but wishes to denounce the abuse that the Catholic Church commits by availing itself of its prestige in order to inculcate ? as if being real and historical ? facts that are really just inventions.?

"Attorneys for Righi and Cascioli presented their arguments before Judge Gaetano Mautone in Viterbo in a short, closed hearing. ?The point is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud,? said Cascioli?s attorney, Mauro Fonzo, to reporters, according to the Associated Press.

"Although Cascioli and his attorney know their case has little chance of success in the home of the Roman Catholic Church, their strategy is to go through the necessary legal steps that will enable them, ultimately, to bring their anti-Jesus case before the European Court of Human Rights. There, says Fonzo, he will accuse the church of ?religious racism,? said the report.

"Cascioli, the author of The Fable of Christ, claims his childhood friend violated local laws against deception when he stated in a 2002 parish gazette ?that the historic figure of Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary (two totally imaginary characters and therefore historically non existing [claims Cascioli]); of having the same Jesus been born in the village of Bethlehem and of having grown up in Nazareth.?

"Specifically, Cascioli says Righi has broken two Italian laws: the ?abuse of popular belief? ? which amounts to intentionally deceiving someone ? and ?impersonation? ? meaning one gains by giving a false name to someone. On his website, Cascioli alleges the person known as Jesus is ?for the most part based on the figure of John of Gamala, son of Judas, downright descendant of the Asmoneian stock.?

"Rev. Righi says the existence of Jesus is ?unmistakable? due to a wealth of both pagan and Christian evidence pointing to his reality. ?Cascioli maintains that Christ never existed. If he doesn?t see the sun at midday, he can?t denounce me just because I do. He should denounce all believers!? Righi told the London Times recently.

"Among his examples are the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, thought by scholars to be the most important non-Christian source on the issue. One of his passages of Jewish Antiquities, a work completed in A.D. 93, mentions the execution in A.D. 62 of ?the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, James by name.? In a provocative analysis of the case in South Africa?s Mail & Guardian newspaper, columnist Colin Bower says Cascioli?s legal challenge may be daunting:

"He has thought out his grounds with wit and insight. He happily concedes that theological argument is rightfully the preserve of theologians ? and that theologians can believe whatever they want to. His case is based on history, not theological reasoning. The theology of the Roman Catholic Church ? indeed all Christian theology ? is based on a particular historical understanding. Cascioli examines Christian history minutely, and reaches the conclusion: ?It never happened like that, your history is false.? He will be helped by precedent set in litigation successfully brought against scholars who deny the existence of the Holocaust. ?"

"What grips the imagination is not so much the historical argument itself as the unprecedented courtroom drama that will unfold this week as Righi presents his case. He, and his long-dead witnesses, will be subject to cross questioning and to character and credibility audit. Under these circumstances he will have to think long and hard about who he calls. The Gospel writers ought to be a major concern. Imagine the kind of cross questioning that would take place in a ?normal? court proceeding: ?Is their existence attested by any non-Christian source?? Well, no. ?Can you prove that they existed?? Well, no. ?Do their accounts conflict?? Yes. ?In material considerations?? Yes. ?Is there evidence that their work was tampered with or edited by later writers??

"Yes. ?Do they provide any corroborating evidence of the miracles they report?? No. ?Are they eye witnesses to the events they describe?? No.
Clearly, if the issue before the court was a case against a person whose fate might be jail or the hangman, any self-respecting judge would have to disqualify the evidence of such unreliable witnesses.

"Cascioli declares he is not intent on having the matter be decided by a court of law, saying, ?I wrote to [Righi] an open letter, stating that I would withdraw the lawsuit if he were capable of supplying proof, just one proof, of the historical existence of Jesus.?

World Net Daily - January 27, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

The Historic Connection Between Eugenics and Abortion

"The ?eugenics? movement, which sought to protect and improve hereditary racial stock, was phenomenally popular in early 20th century America, and it has an important connection to today?s pro-abortion movement. Thomas C. Leonard explains eugenics in his 2016 book Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era: 

?Eugenics? derives from the Greek for ?well born? and describes the movement to improve human heredity by the social control of human breeding. The concept was ancient. Plato?s Republic asked why we breed cattle but not humans. The term was minted in 1883 by Francis Galton, a celebrated Victorian Era polymath and cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton advanced the three governing premises of any eugenic program. First, differences in human intelligence, character, and temperament were due to differences in heredity. Second, human heredity could be improved, and with reasonable dispatch. Human heredity, Galton said, was ?almost as plastic as clay, under the control of the breeder?s will.?

And third, the improvement of humankind, like any kind of breeding, could not be left to happenstance. It required scientific investigation and regulation of marriage, reproduction, immigration, and labor. In other words, eugenics proposed to replace random natural selection with purposeful social selection. As Galton encapsulated it, ?what nature does blindly, slowly and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly and kindly.?

"Eugenics was popular across a wide range of political and religious persuasions, including a disheartening number of advocates out of a traditional Christian background. The eugenics movement itself took on a religious tone as its popularizers tried to convince the American people at large of the threat of racial degeneracy. Leonard notes that

Evangelizers spread the eugenics gospel far beyond the eugenics institutes and laboratories. Eugenic thinking reached deep into American popular culture, traveling through women?s magazines, the religious press, movies, and comic strips. The idea of safeguarding American hereditary, with its concomitant fear of degeneracy from within and inundation from abroad, influenced ordinary Americans far removed from the eugenics movement?s professionals and publicists.

"Some Darwinian thinkers, including Charles Darwin himself, advocated more births by more people, believing that it would boost the beneficial effects of natural selection. But many believed that eugenics required the restriction of births by inferior people. This restriction could happen by sterilization (involuntary, in some cases) and birth control methods, which some like Margaret Sanger believed might include abortion in extreme cases. Most eugenicists publicly opposed abortion, however. Even Sanger regarded abortion for population control as ?dangerous and vicious.? Leonard says that

Eugenics also counted many supporters on the left, from Fabian socialists like George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb to birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, who convinced skeptical eugenicists that birth control could be a valuable tool of eugenics. This was no small feat of persuasion. Many eugenicists feared unregulated birth control was dysgenic in its effects, because, as progressive sociologist Charles Horton Cooley warned, the ?intelligent classes? used it, and the inferior classes did not. If the state delivered birth control to the inferior classes, Cooley noted, then contraception could indeed work eugenically.

"Sanger noted elsewhere that ?Those least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly. The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the overfertility of the mentally and physically defective.? Sanger went on to found the American Birth Control League (1921), which became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1946.

"American Christians largely accepted the validity of contraception, for whatever purposes, over the past five decades. A few groups, including conservative Catholics, still see contraception as an immoral interference with God?s providential plans for life.

"The big difference between the eugenics movement and today?s pro-abortion industry is that the latter now sees abortion-on-demand as the cornerstone of ?birth control.? Eugenicists largely focused on preventing conception in undesirable cases. Abortionists today still affirm pre-conception birth control, of course. But they also champion the post-conception termination of an unborn child?s life as an legally inviolable option in the repertoire of birth control methods."

Thomas S. Kidd - The Gospel Coalition - January 27, 2017.

Illiberal Reformers - Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments vii
Prologue ix
Part I The Progressive Ascendancy
1 Redeeming American Economic Life 3
2 Turning Illiberal 17
3 Becoming Experts 27
4 Efficiency in Business and Public Administration 55
Part II The Progressive Paradox
5 Valuing Labor: What Should Labor Get? 77
6 Darwinism in Economic Reform 89
7 Eugenics and Race in Economic Reform 109
8 Excluding the Unemployable 129
9 Excluding Immigrants and the Unproductive 141
10 Excluding Women 169
Epilogue 187
Notes 193
Index 233

[eyeshaveit]

Bible Quotes 'The Last Trump' Before Jesus Christ's Return

"Is Donald Trump specifically named in the New Testament prophecies about the end times? Some are speculating that the new U.S. president is "the last trump" that is mentioned in the Bible and that his geopolitical moves are heralding the end times. But one biblical expert says not so fast.

"Dr. Samuel Lamerson, professor of New Testament and president of Florida's Knox Theological Seminary, told The Christian Post that such analysis is "ridiculous." "First of all, it only works in the English language. The New Testament was written in Greek. Second of all, it only works in the King James Version and some other older translations. Many other translations will have 'trumpet' instead of 'trump,'" Lamerson explained.

"1 Thessalonians 4:16 reads: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

"I Corinthians 15:52 states: "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

"[Historian] David Montaigne noted that it is possible to look into such verses and explore what they might be saying about God's plans concerning Trump. "I am not suggesting that Donald Trump absolutely *IS* the last trump ? but since the LAST TRUMP is one of the most clear and final signs in end times prophecy, can we overlook the possibility that a presidential candidate named Trump is being used as a sign by God?" he posed.

"Rejecting the argument, Lamerson told CP that he doubts that any New Testament scholar with legitimate credentials would give weight to such reading of prophecy. "It's a textbook example of how not to read the text," Lamerson stressed. "It's what we would call an exegetical fallacy. "These ideas that somehow the current president is named in the New Testament is the sort of thing that I teach my students to avoid at all costs." Lamerson pointed out that this kind of discussion took place from Barack Obama's presidency all the way back to Abraham Lincoln.

"I think that often people forget that the book of Revelation was written 2,000 years ago," he said. The notion that what the Scripture says applies to the shape of the political world today "is to totally misunderstand what exactly is going on there," he added. Other end times prophets have focused on the wider impact of Trump's presidency so far, such as his criticism of the European Union, particularly when it comes to allowing millions of refugees to enter its territory.

"Author and commentator Erika Grey, who analyzes Israel, the U.S., Russia, and other major players in geopolitics today and their role in biblical prophecy, has linked Trump's opposition to the EU to factors that could bring about the end times. While previous U.S. administrations all embraced the EU, Trump has taken the opposite stance, Grey noted, and aligned himself with Britain's Nigel Farage of the UKIP party, who successfully oversaw Brexit, or Britain voting to leave the EU. "In end time Bible Prophecy we know that the EU is going to become the greatest most powerful world empire to have ever existed and it is going to be an economic powerhouse," she wrote on her website.

"Despite BREXIT and Donald Trump in Bible Prophecy the EU is still going to move forward despite taking these bumps. With Donald Trump as president there is a new sheriff in town and the era of EU, US relations has come to an end, but with the new president will come a geopolitical shift and the EU will continue to move forward even to the surprise of some EU officials."

"People have long been making predictions about U.S. presidents playing a part in end times prophecy, Lamerson noted, and they have all turned out to be wrong. "I suppose sooner or later, just by pure luck, somebody is going to be right," the Knox Theological Seminary president commented. "But it will not be because they have carefully understood the text. One of the things about biblical prophecy is that often, it needs to be fulfilled before we can really understand it. It's intentionally vague. And often the fulfillment is much better than what we could have ever expected."

Stoyan  Zainov - Christian Post UK - January 30, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Health Is The New Religion

"Can you describe health and fitness as a religion? The answer is Yes! Britta Pelters at Halmstad University, along with her research colleague Barbro Wijma from Link?ping University, concludes that today's health community meets all the criteria for being a religion. Something, which means greater risks for those who do not fit in to the healthy template

"The idea of the research project was sparked when Britta Pelters, who is a Senior Lecturer in Health Education, began to reflect on the amount of images, headlines and texts in the media about health and which also contain religious metaphors. Examples of wordings that aroused her interest were "that The Autumn 5:2 Diet* is not about a hymn but about a diet hardly needs to be written" and "in the quest for the perfect body a two-day self-starvation is the new salvation". The next step for Ms. Pelters was therefore to ask the question "is health a religion?".

"We referred to Vanderpool's sociology of religion, which includes a comprehensive list of ten religious characteristics, which we applied to the hallmarks of the institutionalised health religion in Western societies. During the study, we found that today's approach to health fits all ten features," says Britta Pelters.

The divine health

"In a religion there must be something sacred that is extraordinary and existentially meaningful. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being". This definition portrays the perfect health image and can be seen as a divine principle. Through health, people have control of something, or at least they think they do. Thus, health provides the need for reassurance in the same way a divine force does," says Ms. Pelters.

"At the same time, the feeling of control can go too far which leads to disappointment, and sometimes shame over one's own body, for example during disease. "Many are upset if they suffer from illness since they feel that they have fulfilled all their obligations to obtain a healthy body ? they have been training, eating right and sleeping well et cetera. It is not unusual that people think that their body has betrayed them."

Health priesthood

"There are also representatives of the ideal that can be interpreted as a form of priesthood. Examples include health bloggers and health scientist who love to share ? or preach ? about health tips, such as special diets and training methods. It may not always be that people want to be perceived as a 'health priest,' but the role can easily be given to you," says Ms. Pelters.

"Another characteristic religious factor is a comprehensive worldview. Ms. Pelters argues that in the western "health society", our genes are what connect everything that is health-related. "The idea that genes with their built-in opportunities and risks make it possible for people to find their place, purpose and destiny in our health promotion and disease prevention community. The implicit promise ? good health leads to a good life ? has become morally loaded and carries a sense of duty."

Increased risks

"To show that you have perfect health is also a way to introduce yourself to the world as a capable and valuable person. Ms. Pelters believes that health religion mainly prevails in the middle class. That's because this group is often dependent on presenting itself as high performance people. Making a health trip can therefore also mean making a class trip. "But when health also becomes a class issue, it involves a risk for those who do not fit into the healthy template. In a 'health religion society,' their personalities can be judged by their weight," Pelters says.

Symbols and rituals

"In the health religion, gyms are important iconic locations symbolising the mentioned values, expectations and obligations. The gyms can be seen as "fitness temples" and serve as places for worshipping the body by training. Rituals are also something that characterises a religion.

"The gym is filled with rituals, with everything from training schedules to be followed in detail to someone who always buys a certain kind of energy drink before their workout," says Ms. Pelters, who hopes that awareness of this religious view can both play down the health topic and provide new approaches for health scientist that work in different organisations.

The Vanderpool comprehensive list of religious characteristics:

The sacred
A comprehensive world view
Moral values
A protective screen
Salvation/liberation
Symbols
Rituals
Certain moods and emotions
A conviction that the content of one's religion is uniquely realistic and true
Community

Phys(dot)Org News - Janjuary 31, 2017

*"The 5:2 diet, or fast diet, is a fad diet which stipulates calorie restriction for two days a week and unconstrained eating the other five days." - Wikipedia.

[eyeshaveit]

Political Punditry in a Polarized World

"That?s what it feels like. Whether you voted for Trump or loathe him with every last bit of plasma in every drop of blood in your body, it seems like the promise of ?moving past this contentious election season,? is not going to materialize. No doubt, your Twitter feed and your Facebook page are as full as ever with political punditry?much of it well intentioned, only some of it well considered. What are we to do as Christians when there is so much we might want to say, and yet, we?d like to say it in a way that makes a difference instead of just making noise?

"Perhaps a look at the negative will point us in a positive direction. Let?s briefly consider seven ways to do political punditry wrong in a polarized world.

1. Always defend your side, no matter what. I have no problem with people who don?t feel the need to comment on every twist and turn of American politics (in fact, may your tribe increase!). But if you are in the habit of making your opinions known, and you never find yourself out of step with your party or your preferred President, then you likely aren?t looking closely enough at the issues?theirs and yours.
We have to be honest with ourselves and ask some hard questions: Is my passion to see the kingdom come and the church grow or is it mainly to see my side win elections? Do I think revival and spiritual renewal come mainly through political victories? Am I blinded by disgust for the bad guys (whether that?s Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, National Review, Hollywood, flyover country, or whatever) that I?ll defend to the death whatever they seem to be against?

2. Be quick to demonize opponents on the other side. We don?t have disagreements anymore; we only have devils. This means that nominee we oppose or that Senator standing in the way of our position is not simply mistaken (according to our principles) but some toxic combination of ignorant, conniving, and fiendish?a mortal threat to everything that is decent in this world.

3. Make no distinction between prudence and principle. Christians are not very good at this one. Let?s assume for a moment that most people reading this blog think abortion is wrong, racism is wrong, terrorism is wrong, hating Muslims is wrong, and being cold-hearted toward immigrants and refugees is wrong. Those are principles. The vast majority of conservative Christians will at least pay lip service to all of these things; most actually believe them with sincere earnestness. But what does this mean in terms of policies, executive orders, and legislation? Here there may be honest disagreement?not about what is good and true and beautiful for Christians to do and think, but about what is the best way forward, in light of these convictions, in a constitutional republic of 330 million people.

4. Never acknowledge real world trade-offs. In our virtual worlds, there are always clear-cut decisions with obvious goods and obvious evils. Hence, every political issue is a matter of absolute right and absolute wrong. In the real world?and especially in the real world of governing?there are always trade-offs. We have to judge between competing goods, which means we usually have to give something to gain something. It would go a long way toward a more civilized discourse?and we may actually convince a few people on the other side?if we acknowledged that our views are usually not without some difficulties, even if we consider our ?losses? superior to the ?losses? we would endure with a different policy or opinion.

5. Only speak and write in the highest rhetorical gear. At some point in the future, you may need the Hitler analogy. Don?t waste it on arcane procedures regarding cloture in the Senate. Not all errors are created equal. Break out the diabolical thesaurus only when the time is right.

6. Don?t bother reading up on complex issues. Most of the problems plaguing our country or our world will not be solved by 90 seconds of reflection. We don?t all have to be experts. Sometimes the knee jerk reaction comes from a place of seasoned wisdom and moral formation. But if there were an easy solution to every problem it would have been tried by now?not because we are all saints striving to love one another, but because we love to be first or would enjoy being famous. Go ahead and read a few articles before posting. Check out the actual statement or text of legislation. And when in doubt, let?s all feel free not to say anything at all (!) about a complicated issue that we?ve been thinking about in between Dude Perfect videos.

7. Go public with your thoughts when you are most hurt and most angry. Be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to get angry. That?s still in the Bible (James 1:19), and it still counts, even in the internet age. Waiting is often the better part of wisdom."

Kevin DeYoung - The Gospel Coalition - January 31, 2017.

Kevin DeYoung is Senior Pastor at the University Reformed Church (PCA) in Lansing Michigan.

[eyeshaveit]

Judge Gorsuch Thinks Your Boss?s Religious Beliefs Should Dictate Your Health Insurance Coverage

"One of the most popular components of the Affordable Care Act is the requirement that health insurance companies cover birth control without a co-pay.  Over 55 million women have benefitted from the coverage.  Nevertheless, over the last several years there has been an onslaught of court challenges to the birth control benefit by employers with religious objections to including the coverage in their employees? health plans.

Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump?s pick for the Supreme Court, has played a key role in these cases.  In each one he sided with the employers who claimed a right to use their religious beliefs to block their employees? contraception coverage.  In doing so, he showed little regard for the women affected by imposition of their bosses? religious beliefs, and failed to acknowledge how important contraception coverage is to women?s health and equality.

"Round one in the battle against the birth control benefit was brought by arts-and-crafts giant Hobby Lobby, and other for-profit companies, which had a religious objection to providing contraception coverage in their employees? health plan.  Before Hobby Lobby?s case reached the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby.  In that decision, Judge Gorsuch wrote a separate opinion to underscore that the family that owns Hobby Lobby would be complicit in sin if it allowed their employees? health insurance company to cover contraception.  Judge Gorsuch?s failure to give weight to the harms inflicted on women by these asserted religious exemptions is troubling.

"Although the Supreme Court narrowly sided with Hobby Lobby, even the five justices who ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby considered the impact on women employees.  The court noted that the government already had a system in place for religiously affiliated non-profit organizations that allowed those employers to opt-out of paying for contraception coverage by filling out a simple form, and instead the health insurance company would pay for the contraception coverage.  This opt-out system, the court reasoned, could just be extended to religiously affiliated for-profit companies, and the impact on the employees would be ?precisely zero.?

Round two in the battle against the birth control benefit was brought by a nursing home called Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, and other religiously affiliated non-profit organizations.  Those employers objected to the opt-out system itself, arguing that filling out the form to opt out of providing contraception violated their religious beliefs.  Eight of the nine courts of appeals to consider these challenges, including the Tenth Circuit, held that filling out a form did not substantially burden the employers? religious beliefs.  But Judge Gorsuch joined an opinion arguing that the Tenth Circuit should reconsider the decision in the Little Sisters of the Poor case siding, once again, with the employer.


"When the Litter Sisters case, and others, reached the Supreme Court, under the name Zubik v. Burwell, the court did not decide the legal question but instead sent the cases back down to the lower courts to see if there was a way to appease the employers while still ensuring that women received contraception coverage.  Again, the Supreme Court recognized the impact on female employees. Judge Gorsuch?s disregard for the effect on women in these cases is troubling.  If an employer blocks its employees? access to contraception coverage, that employer is discriminating based on sex.  Women already pay more for health care than men, and the contraception coverage requirement was designed to reduce that disparity.  Equally important, contraception is crucial for women?s equal participation in society.  Being able to decide whether and when to have children has a direct effect on women?s ability to make their own paths in terms of their schooling, their careers, and their families.

There is no question that religious liberty is a fundamental value, and one that we fight for here at the ACLU every day. But religious freedom shouldn?t give employers the right to discriminate against their female employees. So when the Senate considers whether to confirm Judge Gorsuch to the highest court in the land, senators should ask him whether he believes women have the right to decide when to have children, and whether he believes that women should be treated equally in society.

Brigitte Amiri - ACLU - ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project - February 2, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Tucker Carlson on being an Episcopalian

"How would you define yourself theologically?
Oh, I?m a Christian.

"What does that mean?
It means that I think this isn?t all there is. That there?s a God. That He sent Jesus to earth. I think He passes judgment on behavior. Some things are wrong not just because we find them distasteful, but because God is against them. I think there is order in the universe?things happen for a reason. I think we won?t know that reason until we die. I think there are always going to be some unresolved problems in this life, and real limits on wisdom and human decision-making. Basically, I think our world is truly imperfect, and always will be. I think I have a more realistic sense of what is possible in this world because of my faith in God.

"You grew up an Episcopalian?
I was baptized an Episcopalian. I grew up in California in basically a very secular family. In 10th grade, I went to boarding school in New England and started dating the daughter of the headmaster, who was an Episcopal priest. She was a very strong Christian, and still is. And I married her. She convinced me to take a look at the possibility of there being something beyond me, and I?m glad she did.

"What did that outlook lead to?
I became convinced of God?s existence. We still go to the Episcopal Church for all kinds of complicated reasons, but I truly despise the Episcopal Church in a lot of ways. They?re for gay marriage because it?s trendy. It?s another way to express how hip they are. They don?t care at all what God thinks of it, because they actually don?t believe in God. And then the fact that they sanction abortion. Are you joking? A church is for abortion? What?

"You said you and your family go to an Episcopal church for all kinds of complicated reasons. Could you un-complicate that for us?
Part of it?s inertia. Part is we really like the people. Part is that?s the world I grew up in. I love the liturgy. I can recite it without looking at it. Dumb stuff like that. Am I going to defend that? No. It?s totally indefensible. I?m a shallow guy! That?s why I still go to the Episcopal Church. But I like it! I just don?t want to think too hard about my money going to these pompous, blowhard, pagan creeps who run the church!

"And what do your kids think about those pompous folks?
When the chaplain is some twice-divorced, recovering alcoholic, 50-year-old woman who talks about Hinduism exclusively, my kids are like, ?You?re a loser.? And they?re right! So it?s sad.

Q&A with Tucker Carlson by Marvin Olasky in World Magazine.

[eyeshaveit]

Does Contemporary Japan Need Religion? 

"Gods, Buddha ? where are they?? asks Aera magazine.

"At the Cafe de Monku, is one answer. It?s a good name for an establishment set up by monks for the airing of monku (complaints). Its very existence (in Hanamaki) is suggestive of a populist turn traditional religion has taken over the past few years. It didn?t begin on March 11, 2011, but the cataclysms of that day ? the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown ? certainly gave it impetus. Do monks and priests, intermediaries between humanity and god, demean themselves and their office by taking daily life seriously? In settled times, maybe; in catastrophic times, maybe not. And so a woman in her 70s, for example, seeks and receives priestly consolation at the caf? for her broken-down washing machine ? not that it?s her only problem: She is one of 10,000-odd people in Hanamaki still stuck in temporary housing nearly six years after one of the most shattering days of modern times.

"Among Aera magazine's articles is one titled, ?Do today?s Japanese need religion?? Its author is the eminent novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki, who wrote in his 1998 nonfiction book Tariki: ?The troubles of daily life often attack in an uninterrupted flurry, one after another. ? Anxiety and restlessness, self-hate and unfocused anger, apathy and resignation, mark our days.? We see at a glance that his is not a buoyant outlook. Tariki means ?the strength of another.? His point is that our own merely human strength (jiriki) is inadequate, given what we have to cope with.

"Yes, he was saying then, we do need religion; and now, 19 years later, he?s still saying it, expressing his thought in the luminous image of moonlight seeping through clouds to light an otherwise pitch-black mountain path skirting an abyss, a fatal fall a single misstep away. The path is life; the moonlight, religion.

"Tariki has roots 1,000 years deep. Ancient priests roamed the land preaching, for the first time, to the common people, asking only one thing of them: not learning and arcane ritual but simple faith, to which Amida, the ?Buddha of boundless light,? would joyfully respond with salvation ? eternal life in the jeweled ?Western Paradise.? It?s a touching and naive vision, which faded in the pitiless glare of modern ?realism.? The Meiji Restoration of 1868 raised the state to religious status. Fighting and dying for the state became a religious practice, a form of prayer ? which the gods answered, in due course, with the carnage of World War II.

"When it ended at last, the Japanese, speaking generally, had had their fill of religion. Let materialism reign. Materialism was life; religion was death. Not to everyone, of course. To this day, top government leaders defy national and international public opinion to visit Yasukuni Shrine, the wartime heart and soul of divine militarism.

"That aside, postwar life was materialist, and it was good. At least it felt good. Its current twilight, says Aera, moves many to nostalgia. At its height, it was simple and (deceptively, perhaps) full. You worked hard at school, passed rote-learning tests, got into a respected university, made useful connections, joined a respected corporation and prospered. The corporation demanded a lot in return ? unquestioning, unwavering devotion ? but most people gave it willingly.

"Then things went wrong. The economic bubble burst in the early 1990s. A ?religion? called Aum Shinrikyo went on a terrorist rampage in 1995; two years later, the Great Hanshin Earthquake devastated Kobe; in 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake devastated Tohoku. You didn?t need to see the hand of God in all this to wonder whether forces other than economics, crackpot theology and geology weren?t at work. Religion ... can feed ... on unanswered, unanswerable questions.

"Is Japan on the cusp of a religious revival? If so, says Aera, there?s nothing feverishly revivalist about it; it?s more a quiet, humble reopening of old questions once deemed settled by science, mathematics, economics. Keep in mind, notes professor Yoshinori Hiroi of Kyoto University, notes that there are many more Shinto shrines in Japan (80,000) than convenience stores (50,000). Hiroi observes among his students a growing interest in ?matters related to life and death? ? what they are, how they should be confronted, what is meant by ?the good life? and ?a good death.? The theme recurs lately, he says, in graduate theses. They are religious questions, to the extent that they are not economic ones.

"Hollowness is a vacuum we must fill. ?Everything you can imagine is real,? said Pablo Picasso. Everything? Are there no illusions to lead us astray? There are, he might reply ? but they are real. He couldn?t have known ?virtual reality? as we know it, but intuitively he may have known a form of it. As with virtual reality, so with dementia, writes Hiroi in Aera. A technological revolution spawned and expands the former; a demographic revolution ? the developed world?s rapid aging, Japan?s in particular ? breeds the latter. Both, says Hiroi, blur reality and sharpen illusion, merging the two into one, creating a space where, if anime characters are real and the visions of dementia patients with a corroded sense of personal identity scarcely less so, so can gods be ? gods as our remote ancestors knew them, or gods as only 21st-century mankind can (but doesn?t yet) know them.

"Some futurists foresee human immortality ? in the flesh or as bits and bytes on software now in embryo. Be that as it may, its time is not yet. Itsuki, no futurist in that sense and looking much less far ahead, sees something that we can all see if we look: a ?big death? coming, a great dying off as postwar baby boomers, now entering their 70s, reach the end of their life spans. Children, fewer in number than ever but no less impressionable, will see it, and be jolted into questions, like, ?Where do we go when we die?? They won?t get answers because there are none ? but, says Itsuki, ?something may well sprout in their consciousness.? What? The next vision of (the) god(s)?"   

Michael Hoffman - The Japan Times - February 4, 2017.

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The Black Puritan

"Lemuel Haynes offers a remarkable example of African American ministerial modeling. Born at West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1753, of a white mother and a black father, Haynes lived his entire eighty years in Congregationalist New England. He completed his indenture in time to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Privately tutored, Haynes became the first African American to be ordained by any religious denomination. Upon ordination, Haynes then served white congregations for more than thirty years.

Middlebury College awarded him the master?s degree in 1804, another first for an African American. Among other accomplishments, he achieved notoriety for a sermon entitled Universal Salvation that defended orthodox Christianity against the threat of Universalism. For this work, he happily accepted the title ?the Black Puritan,? indicating his depth of gospel-centered, Reformation theology.

"Haynes personal epitaph (written by himself) tells much about how he lived his life and where he placed his focus. ?Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same foundation? The Rev. Lemuel Haynes pointed not to himself, but to Christ. He understood that, ?It?s all about Him!? His trust was solely in Christ and his focus was solely on the gospel of Christ?s grace.

"At age sixty-five, Haynes left his Rutland, Vermont, parish due to political friction that essentially forced him to choose to resign. His farewell sermon of 1818 emphasized, among other topics, his devotion to the work of gospel ministry and to the people of his congregation. Alluding to the words of the Apostle Paul, Haynes notes that: ?He that provided the motto of our discourse could say on his farewell, I have coveted no man?s silver or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessity.?

"It was important to Haynes with his white parishioners that they recognized his Christ-like, gospel-focused diligence. Few could legitimately question his work ethic given that he had preached 5,500 sermons, officiated at over 400 funerals, and solemnized more than 100 marriages.

"It was also vital to Rev. Haynes that they understood his gospel-centered motivations. ?The flower of my life has been devoted to your service:?while I lament a thousand imperfections which have attended my ministry; yet I am not deceived, it has been my hearty desire to do something for the salvation of your souls.?

"Haynes acknowledged and wanted his people to realize that the ultimate Judge of his motivations was Christ. ?I must give an account concerning the motives which influenced me to come among you, and how I have conducted during my thirty years residence in this place: the doctrines I have inculcated: whether I have designedly kept back any thing that might be profitable to you, or have, through fear of man, or any other criminal cause, shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. Also, as to the manner of my preaching, whether I have delivered my discourses in a cold, formal manner, and of my external deportment.?

Bob Kelleman - RPM Ministries - February 6, 2017.

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Ask the Rabbi

Q: "In the 20th century, human beings murdered by most estimates about 150 million other humans, and that?s just the death count. The religions of the planet have had thousands of years to create a moral order that people could follow, and produce that elusive ?peace on earth, good will to men.? Can you honestly imagine 150 million corpses of little children, young people in the prime of life, grandparents, mothers and fathers and deny that religions have failed miserably? Religious leaders like you bear an enormous burden of responsibility for the slaughters past, present and future. Perhaps it?s time for people like you to look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are doing more harm than good. If the answer is the former, than isn?t it time to sell people on the idea of leaving their religions behind and becoming humanists, and by doing so, lowering one more barrier between people that leads to mass graves? ? M from Lebanon, Pa.

A: "So, before I defend myself for every mass slaughter of the past, present and future here on planet earth; before I remind you that Hitler and Stalin and Mao were all anti-religious and that Ghandi, King, and Mother Teresa were not only religious but professionally religious, let me ask you if you have ever visited a soup kitchen either as a hungry person or as a volunteer to serve others who are hungry? My guess is that if you had made such a visit at any time in your life, and if you looked around, you would have immediately realized that the place housing the soup kitchen was a church or a mosque or a synagogue or a Sikh Temple. You also would have realized that most all the volunteers serving the soup and cleaning up afterwards were religious people from other churches or houses of worship where what you believe to be genocidal religion is taught.

"At some point, your preconceived anti-religious prejudices must shatter before the towering fact that most of the places producing mass healing in our world are the same places you have labeled as places producing mass slaughter. I sometimes think that the last acceptable prejudice in our world is the prejudice against people of faith. It is true that religion can be perverted and used to kill, but by any measure this is the exception and not the rule. The places where Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Muslims, Muslims and Christians live together in peace, has a far greater scope and a far longer history than places where religions are at war. Without the belief that we are all made in the image of God there is simply nothing that makes us the same. Faith alone rises above nationalism and tribalism (see Isaiah 40). Religion is not the source of the world?s limitations, but the source of the world?s fulfillment and redemption.

"Perhaps these stories will help you to see a different side of faith.

"Early one morning Father Tom Hartman and I visited the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province on 31st street near Madison Square Garden in New York City. We were there to help these holy men at the St. Francis Breadline that has served food and water and love to homeless people every morning outside on their front steps at 6:30 a.m. They have done this seven days a week, 12 months a year, in any weather, without a break for a single day for over 80 years! After service we were sitting on the steps of the church when a homeless woman sat down next to us. It was close to Thanksgiving and I asked her what she was thankful for. She was smiling and said, ?I am thankful that today I was given a bottle of water that did not come from the trash and that nobody drank from before me.?

"The Mary Brennan Inn on Long Island began in a church and now is run by the saintly Jean Kelly along with a host of mainly religious volunteers. One day a little girl named Maria, who was living in a car with her mother and brother, came to the Inn for their only food of the day. Even so, Maria passed up the chicken and the green beans, the rice and the salad and stood staring and crying in front of a cake decorated with the words ?Happy Birthday.? Emil at the Black Forest Bakery in Lindenhurst had donated the birthday cake because the person who ordered it never showed up. The servers asked Maria why she was crying and Maria said, ?How did you know that today was my birthday??

"The woman who lives on the street but that day got her very own water, and the little girl who lives in a car but that day got her very own birthday cake both received their gifts from religious people.

"May God soften your heart."

Rabbi Marc Gellman - GodSquadQuestions (Tribune Services) - The News & Observer (Raleigh NC) - February 6, 2017.

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Saint Joan is the perfect religious play for our ignorant era

"The chief appeal of Saint Joan, which I saw last night at the Donmar, is that it is a brilliant vehicle for a young actress. Gemma Arterton is great, if a little too mature and attractive to convey teenage innocence. Otherwise, I don?t quite see the point of George Bernard Shaw?s play, and wonder why it is regularly revived in our time. Does it have anything intelligent to say about religion? It romanticises a medieval mystic who took up arms ? which has rather little to do with contemporary Christianity. At one point it suggests that her stubborn individualism is the source of Protestantism, but this is muddled in various ways. It generally implies that she embodies true faith, which is at odds with the worldly authorities, but this is incoherent, as true Christian faith is not militaristic.

"I think it partly appeals to secular people because it collapses the difference between Christianity and Islam. She is basically a jihadi. At one point this is underlined: one character likens her to Muhammed. So the average liberal is confirmed in their view that all religions are the same; they may have attractive, charismatic, romantic aspects (they may be romantic as well as wrong), but dangerous violence is their essence. This is a message that flatters rather than challenges the playgoer."

Theo Hobson - The Spectator - February 7, 2017.

Among the Comments:

"Christianity is not militaristic like Islam is, in the sense that its sacred writings nowhere encourage or condone spreading the faith by the sword or by conquest. It is committed to religious freedom (even if that point was somewhat lost between the Edict of Thessalonica and the Reformation).
But it does subscribe to just war theory, and to the legitimate power of secular authorities to uphold justice and the moral law. As the 1646 Westminster Confession explained: 'God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, has ordained civil magistrates, to be, under Him, over the people, for His own glory, and the public good: and, to this end, has armed them with the power of the sword, for the defence and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil doers?
"It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate, when called thereunto: in the managing whereof, as they ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of each commonwealth; so, for that end, they may lawfully, now under the New Testament, wage war, upon just and necessary occasion.' Since Joan was part of defending France against English aggression, the comparison with jihadis is entirely misplaced, and from a Christian point of view there is no need to dismiss her actions as unduly militaristic. Liberals don't seem to like this, but defence of the homeland is a morally legitimate concern." - Will Jones

"If any comparisons with jihad were at all appropriate, they would concern the puritanically-minded English Catholics of the time, but it is common to mistake the crass nationalist jingoism surrounding St Joan since the 19th century for her actual sainthood, gained in martyrdom and suffering, not warfare nor aggression." - JabbaPapa

"Utterly convincing. The Old Testament reverberates with Jehovah's instructions to the Israelites to biff Canaanites, Amakelites &c, but perhaps these were 'just wars' although the victims might not have agreed. Joan was defending the claims of Charles VI to the French throne against those of Henry VI of England and her strength was her claim that God and variousa saints endorsed her. Like the jihadis, she claimed that God was on her side, and definitely not that of the English. Cardinal Beaufort would have said the contrary.
'Frenchmen' for each side and the canny managed to back both !
There were no 'liberals; in France in the 1420s." - Lawrence James

"You have never heard of the soldiers of Christ then? Strange that?" - Ottovbvs

"And have you ever heard Bob Dylan's line ( perhaps his best ) 'You don't count the dead when God's on your side' ?" - Lawrence James

"The late Christopher Hitchens wrote: "The brilliant Schiller was wrong in his Joan of Arc when he said against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. It is actually by means of the gods that we make our stupidity and gullibility into something ineffable."
"Shakespeare, who included her in a play only a century after she had lived and depicted her as anti woman was possibly nearer the truth because there would still be handed down word of mouth anecdotes in existence. Joan of Arc, a religious person who heard voices, is not a historical figure I can engage with and after reading Marina Warner's depiction I thought that her character had been wrung bone dry of any further interpretation." - Justinae

"Here's an idea, how about staging the best ever play about religion, it's called Fanaticism by Voltaire and in our vibrant, multicultural, free society there would be a massive audience for it. Oh, I see. No can do, well you can still read "Britain's Great Immigration Disaster" by G. Cooke for details, but maybe not for much longer." - David Kane

"I think the best dramatic production ever to have been centred on this misunderstood, maligned, and martyred Saint is Jacques Rivette's extraordinary diptych Jeanne la Pucelle - Les Batailles and Jeanne la Pucelle - Les Prisons" - JabbaPapa

"There is no essential difference between Christianity and Islam despite Hobson's effort to invent one. They're both religions involving a suspension of reality and belief in the supernatural. They're also similar in having deep internecine schisms (Shia v Sunni is no different than Catholic v Protestants and both have been quite willing to countenance violence against the other). In fact after nationalism religion has been the main source of divisiveness and war in human history. I'm a fan of GBS but Joan is not one of his better efforts. Like Man and Superman the arguments become tedious whereas they don't in say Major Barbara." - Ottovbvs

[eyeshaveit]

Moral Factors to Take into Account if You?re Considering IVF

"I can only imagine the struggles you might be facing as you try to conceive a child. Infertility is a reality for many and can be unimaginably painful. We need God?s grace to help us walk through such pain. In addition, we need God?s truth to help us navigate the possible road ahead. It?s true that modern technology has increased the number of reproductive technologies available to us, but we shouldn?t use them indiscriminately. As Christians, we need to think very carefully about the moral implications of these technologies, and there are several significant moral factors to take into account if you are seriously considering in vitro fertilization (IVF).

"In IVF, a woman is given fertility drugs that enable her to produce more eggs than normal in a given cycle. The eggs are extracted from her body and fertilized by the man?s sperm in a test tube or Petri dish, thereby producing embryos. Those embryos are then transferred into the woman?s uterus. First, you need to realize that IVF may produce additional embryos that will not be transferred to the woman. When you put sperm and egg together in a Petri dish, no one knows just how many embryos will actually be produced. Standard IVF practices call for the fertilization of all the eggs produced. Typically, they are transferred more than one at a time, and then leftover embryos are either disposed of or stored indefinitely.

"The first option, disposing of the embryos, is the moral equivalent of taking the life of an innocent human being. The embryo is a living, distinct, human organism in the embryonic stage. Those three characteristics of the embryo demonstrate that it is a member of the human family. Thus, the embryo is valuable because of the kind of thing it is, namely an innocent human being. Certainly the embryo undergoes developmental changes after conception, but it experiences no substantial change or change in nature. The human embryo grows into a human fetus, which grows into a human infant, and so forth. Through each stage of development, it remains a valuable member of the human family. Therefore, the embryo is not a potential human, but a human with great potential, and disposing of it is not an option open to us.

"The second option, storing the embryos indefinitely, also raises some concerns. Oftentimes, couples don?t realize their ambivalence toward their leftover embryos. Couples are probably ambivalent because they intuitively know that disposing of an embryo is not equivalent to the disposing of property that is owned. Their intuitions surface as they observe the continuity of personal identity between an embryo and a child they hold in their arms. As a result, many couples end up paying to store their leftover embryos indefinitely. And this is a problem.

"When an embryo is created through IVF, an intrinsically valuable human life comes into existence. Thus, every human embryo brought into existence acquires the right to life and is owed the chance to mature into a fully developed human person. Therefore, storing them indefinitely would prevent them from having the opportunity to develop and would constitute a sin of omission. The only viable option for leftover embryos once they?ve been created is to adopt them out to other infertile couples.

"As if that did not provide you with enough factors to consider, there is one more problem that may arise in IVF. Sometimes, implantation is very successful, resulting in multiple children. If the woman?s health is at risk, the doctor will recommend selective reduction, which would selectively terminate the lives of one or more of the unborn children. In order to avoid this scenario, a couple can limit the number of embryos transferred to the amount of children a woman can safely carry or the amount of children the couple can handle at once.

"If you consider IVF, please do so in light of the fact that the embryos created are part of your family from the beginning?they are your children from conception. Just because they are a small ?clump of cells? at this level of human development, that does not disqualify them from the right to life and an opportunity to fully develop."

Brett Kunkle - Bio-Ethics Blog Post - Stand To Reason - February 7, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Free pastors from the Johnson Amendment

"President Trump is doing something relatively rare in American politics ? he is fulfilling his campaign promises. One of the several promises made by candidate Trump was to eliminate the problems for churches and religious leaders caused by the Johnson Amendment. Exactly what is the Johnson Amendment? How has it been used? And how should it be fixed?

"In essence, the Johnson Amendment prohibits tax-exempt 501(c)3 organizations from engaging or speaking on matters related to political campaigns. In 1954, then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson wanted to weaken organizations politically opposed to him ? so he conditioned all such organizations? tax-exempt status on their remaining silent in political matters. Since that time, the amendment has been used to muzzle anything remotely perceived as political speech from tax-exempt organizations, religious and nonreligious, on both sides of the aisle. This overly broad muzzling has included comments of pastors speaking from the pulpit about candidates as well as policy matters. Simply put, the Johnson Amendment has been used to censor speech ? something that should never have occurred.

"To address these concerns, the Free Speech Fairness Act was introduced in the House of Representatives last year by Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. It has been reintroduced in the 115th Congress with a companion Senate version sponsored by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. The bill allows speech from the pulpit even if it touches on political matters. Indeed, it allows all tax-exempt organizations to engage in speech during their ordinary activities, as long as they don?t spend money on such speech. These provisions address the problematic censoring of speech, while leaving in place the restrictions on tax-exempt organizations from using their funds for political activities.

"Pastors will decide differently how and if they will engage on political issues. That is not the point of this legislation. The point is to ensure that those who wish to engage in such speech are free to do so. They would be under the Free Speech Fairness Act.

"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out forcefully from the pulpit on political matters that required change, and we are all glad he did so. It benefits us all to have such change agents speak freely from the pulpit.
Since the birth of our nation, pastors and churches have been at the forefront of shaping public debate and our choice of public servants. What would America look like today had King or the Rev. Lyman Beecher, a leading abolitionist, been muzzled by the IRS?

"King once wrote: ?The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.? The church should not have to gain its authority or approval to speak from the government because doing so reduces it to a servant of the state.

"More free speech for advocates in the public square should be something that everyone can get behind, whether Democrat or Republican. All pastors will be able to speak more freely, regardless of the party affiliation of the policies they are backing. And nonreligious nonprofits will have more freedom to speak, whether on political solutions to an environmental problem, a health care issue or anything else of concern to them. In addition to the practical reasons for change, the current IRS guidance restricting the speech of pastors and others is very likely unconstitutional.

"For all these reasons and more, we are hopeful that the Free Speech Fairness Act can find the broad and bipartisan support it deserves. All nonprofits stand to gain from this legislation. If we can find the support to pass this legislation, President Trump ? who wants to eliminate the problems with the Johnson Amendment ? will sign it. Please join me in supporting more free speech for all Americans and back the Free Speech Fairness Act."

Tony Perkins - Religious News Service - February 9, 2017.

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Thailand Officials Using Jehovah?s Witnesses Publications To Address Social Issues

"This year marks three years since Thai Government officials started using publications by Jehovah?s Witnesses as part of the national initiative to educate the public officials on how to address some key social issues. These issues include prevention of domestic violence, effective parenting, and improving physical and mental health.

"Jehovah?s Witnesses Publications Are Being Used To Address Social Issues in Thailand

"These government?s national education initiatives are orchestrated and implemented at over 8,700 regional Community Learning Centers that are spread across the country. The government has also set up 11 Community Development Learning Centers (CDLC), whose main focus is to train the community leaders.

"The director of CDLC in Nakhon Nayok province Chaiwat Saengsri, says the goal of the Jehovah?s Witnesses is very clear and aims at helping the people and communities get to know their Creator. This is the same goal that CDLC has; assisting the community in raising their standards in the quest for peace and better quality life.

"Mr. Chaiwat also requested the Jehovah?s Witnesses make their publications available during the SMART Leader seminar. This seminar seeks to bring together 20 instructors and 100 community leaders from 28 provinces, who will receive training on community building and leadership.

"The spokesperson for Jehovah?s Witnesses in Thailand Anthony Petratyotin says, ?We are happy to know that community leaders are making such good use of the Bible-based advice found in our publications. We will continue to make our literature available to officials, along with our primary means of distribution?our public ministry.?

"Some of the publications that have been used include the Awake! Magazine article, ?How to Avoid Hurtful Speech?. This article was used to teach the community leaders on how to handle conflict in marriage without unleashing a torrent of hurtful words whenever a conflict arises.

"The publication seeks to explain why conflict in a marriage happens, and what can be done to end it without necessarily using words that will end up hurting the spouse. Some of the suggested ways to avoid using hurtful words include showing empathy, being respectful, reviving the feeling the couple once shared, avoiding verbal attacks, postponing a discussion when tempers begin to flare.

"Another article, ?An End to Domestic Violence? helps the participants in dealing with domestic violence by understanding the prevalence of domestic violence cases, why this happens, and what can be done to stop it.

"The publication offers practical advice that can help violent spouses change their behavior. The education has helped many spouses replace violence with kindness and respect. Violent spouses learn how to treat their better half, and eventually become witnesses that domestic violence can stop. The publication teaches about honor, mildness, and self-control, and condemns abusive speech in marriage."

Alison Lesley - World Religious News - February 10, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Absurdity of Time and The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

"A few years ago, I was studying history at the University of Mississippi. I was in a class on Latin American history. As we discussed ancient history, I made the observation that we couldn?t prove any of this happened. ?Time is a relative construct.? Immediately, I took it a step further and further declared, ?I?m not even sure we can prove that we exist.? For historians, such observations are a declaration of war. Historians believe that the past can be proven with proper evidence. I believe that the past can be proven with proper belief. Since it is possible that there is no past, we construct our own past. After about ten minutes of arguing the benefits of such deconstruction with the entire room, my professor lost it and screamed out, ?Goddamn it! This is not the f**king Matrix Jeff!!!? After that, my professor cleared the room. Immediately, he turned to me and demanded, ?What the f**k was that?? ?The deconstruction of history.? ?Well, don?t do it again in my classroom.? ?Time is an absurd concept.? ?Not in my classroom.? Throughout the existence of humanity, there is no fundamentalism stronger than the idea of time. If we think deeply, we quickly realize that time is not real. Time is absurd. The only thing that is real is what we believe.

We have always assumed that time is real. I believe we have assumed wrongly. The clock keeps time because we believe it does. Maybe it doesn?t. Instead of the past, maybe we are going into the future. Instead of growing older, maybe we are growing younger. Perhaps, death is a rebirth. I could go on and on. The point is that we think we know much more than we do. Time exists because we believe it exists. If we didn?t believe in time, time would not exist. The absurdity of time is that it has tricked us into believing that time is real. Time doesn?t change the world. Our beliefs do.

One question frames Christian theology, ?Did Jesus rise from the dead?? If you answer in the affirmative, you are called conservative or orthodox. If you answer in the negative, you are called liberal or revisionist. The conservatives argue that there is much evidence to prove that Jesus rose from the dead.

I am skeptical of such evidence. The liberals are certain that people just don?t rise from the dead. I am skeptical of such certainty. While these descriptions are simplistic, I think they capture the often-dichotomous debate on a general level. The problem with these positions is that they?re too simplistic. I think they?re both wrong. Neither position takes into account the absurdity of time. If travel to different places in different dimensions became a possibility, what would we find at the tomb of Jesus? Would we find what is or what we believe is? I believe that belief shapes perception. Time is relative to belief. If we believe, our wildest thoughts will be true. Time is not truth. Our beliefs are. Then again? What is truth?"

Jeff Hood - Patheos - February 9, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

On Defining Religion

"Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said that President Donald Trump's 90-day ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries is "a religiously based ban," and "if they can ban Muslims, why can't they ban Mormons." This has become the position of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media, which has influenced not only the American public but has convinced the majority of the world that America is "bad." How can we blame the world, and even a good segment of American citizens, for hating America when such disingenuous and misleading claims are aired to the world from US officials and broadcast by American television channels?

"The majority of the world does not understand that much of the American media is in a propaganda war against the Trump Administration simply because he names Islamic jihad and would prefer to see a strong and prosperous America as a world leader, rather than to see a dictatorship -- secular or theocratic -- as a world leader. He ran as a Republican; meanwhile, Democrats and the mainstream media refuse to engage in respectful and legitimate debate on the most vital threat to Western civilization in the twenty-first century: Islam. Truth has become irrelevant; people seem to prefer a political game of tug-of-war to sway public opinion against the Trump Administration, and, presumably, to elect Democrats forever. That is how the system is set up.

"Political discussions on television have become extremely frustrating; they have turned into shouting matches and name-calling at the least informative levels. Television hosts often become instigators and participants in the shouting matches. The thinking is apparently that the louder they get, the more attractive the program will be. Meanwhile everyone is talking at once; the viewer cannot hear anyone, so the program could not be more boring.

"Under the US Constitution, freedom of religion is protected. and Islam has been welcomed inside the West on that basis as one of the three Abrahamic religions. According to Western values and the Western understanding of the word, "religion" is supposed to be a personal relationship with God, where free will is of utmost importance; the believer has authority only over himself or herself when it comes to religious laws or punishing sins (such as leaving the religion or committing adultery) -- quite different from criminal laws intended to protect society. Western values also allow followers of a religion the freedom to proselytize, but never by resorting to government enforcement.

"Bottom line, the Western definition of religion is in harmony with the Biblical values of the human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that all human beings are created equal under the law. It is considered a basic Western value to view God, family and country as a top priority.

"Now let us compare these values to Islamic values:

"1 - Muslim citizens have the right to punish other citizens with humiliating, severe, cruel and unusual punishments such as death, flogging and amputation, for sinning against Allah, the Quran or Islam. Those "crimes" include leaving Islam, being a homosexual, or committing adultery. And if the Islamic government does not enforce such punishments, any Muslim on the street has the right to apply the punishment against another Muslim and not be prosecuted. That is why apostates, such as myself, cannot visit any Muslim county; the fear is not only from Islamic governments but from anyone on the street.

"2 - Being a Muslim is not a personal relationship with God, as it is under the Bible, but is enforced by the state at birth. When a child is born in Egypt to a Muslim father, the birth certificate is stamped "Muslim" and all government-issued documents as well. A child must learn Islamic studies in school and practice Islam throughout his life. In Egypt, the twin sons of a Christian divorced mother were forced to take Islamic studies and become Muslim just because their originally-Christian father converted to Islam. Today, in Egypt, I am still considered Muslim and such a status could never change if I ever lived there again.

"3 - Islamic law and leaders rely on government enforcement -- under penalty of death -- to keep Muslims within Islam and to convert the minority Christian population into Islam. Islamic sharia law, obliges Islamic states to enforce religious law, and if the Muslim head of state refuses to follow religious law, sharia permits the public to use force to remove the head of state from office.

"4 - Islam claims to be an Abrahamic religion, but in fact Islam came to the world 600 years after Christ, not to affirm the Bible but to discredit it; not to co-exist with "the people of the book," Jews and Christians, but to replace them -- after accusing them of intentionally falsifying the Bible. Islam was created as a rebellion against the Bible and its values, and relies on government enforcement to do so.

"The tenets above are just a few of the differences in values between Islam, the Bible and the Western concept of religion. What the West does not understand is that Islam admits that government control is central to Islam, and Muslims must demand to live under an Islamic government sooner or later. That might explain the reason for the eternal violence in nearly all Muslim countries, between government being in the hands of a religious theocracy or of the military. Islam, as it is practiced today, has violated all Western definitions of religion and values."

Nonie Darwish - Galestone Institute -  February 12, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

What Makes Christianity Different

"Quick, name the practice that most sets Christianity apart from the non-Christian world. Respect for human life? Not really. Religions such as Jainism have, if anything, an even more uncompromising prohibition against harming any living things.

"Sexual morality? Again, there are religions?Orthodox Judaism and Islam immediately come to mind?that place an even higher premium on sexual purity than Christianity. If you doubt this, ask yourself when was the last time you saw a Christian woman in a burqa.

"The answer to this question is forgiveness. No other belief system has the equivalent of forgiving your brother seventy times seven, i.e., every time?much less commands you to love your enemies, and bless those who persecute you.

"The radical nature of Christian forgiveness is so startling, so overwhelming, that it made the CBS Evening News. The story began in 2005 in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan. On that day, Jameel McGee was, in his words, ?minding his own business,? when he was stopped by a policeman, Andrew Collins. The encounter did not go well for McGee. Collins accused him of selling drugs and arrested him. At the time, McGee insisted that the charges were ?all made up.? As CBS noted, ?Of course, a lot of accused men make that claim,? and the outcome in McGee?s case was pretty much the same as in other such cases: He wound up serving four years in prison. In McGee?s words, ?I lost everything.?

"Making matters infinitely worse was that McGee was telling the truth: He was in fact an innocent man. We know this because the policeman, Collins, was subsequently ?caught, and served a year and a half for falsifying many police reports, planting drugs and stealing.? Among the falsified police reports was the one concerning Jameel McGee.

"While exoneration is sweet, it doesn?t make up for the four years spent behind bars. As McGee told CBS, ?My only goal was to seek him when I got home and to hurt him.? He appeared to have gotten his chance when both McGee and Collins ended up working at a caf? run by Mosaic Christian Community Development Center. As CBS put it, the ?bad cop and the wrongfully accused man had no choice but to have it out.?

And that brings me back to what I said about Christianity?s unique emphasis on forgiveness. Collins told McGee ?Honestly, I have no explanation, all I can do is say I?m sorry.? McGee?s response, ?That was pretty much what I needed to hear.? But McGee did not stop there: He befriended the man who wronged him, so much so that he eventually told Collins that he loved him. As Collins tells the tale, ?I just started weeping because he doesn?t owe me that. I don?t deserve that.?

"Thankfully, forgiveness, and the healing it brings in its wake, has nothing to do with ?deserve.? As McGee, a Christian, understood, we forgive one another because, as Paul told both the Ephesians and the Colossians, God in Christ has forgiven us.

"The power of forgiveness transcends personal relationships. Think of the reaction to the Amish forgiving the man who killed ten young girls back in 2007. There was a power at work there that even the most hardened skeptic could not deny.

"Today, McGee and Collins share their story with others. At least one person seems to have taken its message to heart. The CBS reporter ended with the following question: ?If these two guys from the coffee shop can set aside their bitter grounds, what?s our excuse?? The answer, especially for the Christian, is ?none.?"

Eric Metaxas - Breakpoint - February 10, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

50 Biblical Proofs That Jesus is God

"Jesus is God the Son. He is the eternal, all-powerful, all-loving, self-existent Creator God. We apologists hear every fable, myth, and tall tale regarding theology that anyone could ever imagine. I've heard for over thirty years that ?the Bible never says that Jesus is God.? In fact, one of my first research projects in the early 80s, after I started taking up apologetics (back in my evangelical days), was to collect biblical passages that provide evidence for the Holy Trinity and deity, or divinity of Jesus Christ.

"I've compiled this information in one of my books, called Theology of God (if anyone is looking for a handy guide on the issue). Presently, I'd like to highlight a few of the more obvious, undeniable, plain passages, in order to counter those who make such negative claims.

"John 1:1, 14 (RSV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . [14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
This is one of the most well-known ?proof texts?. Jesus is eternal (here, ?beginning? means ?eternity past?). He was with God the Father, and is God the Son. To make sure that the reader has no misunderstanding, John (v. 14) reiterates that the ?Word? referred to is the Son, and notes that He ?became flesh? (the incarnation). Only the Son has a body. The Word = Jesus = God.

"John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Jesus' hearers, unbelieving Jews, certainly understood His intent in saying this, because they tried to stone Him, as the next verse informs us, since they didn't believe His claim, which, if indeed untrue, would be intolerable blasphemy. 10:33 informs us that they tried to stone Him because (in their words) ?you, being a man, make yourself God.?

"John 20:28 Thomas answered him, ?My Lord and my God!?
This had to do with the famous ?Doubting Thomas? incident. Thomas didn't believe Jesus had risen, so Jesus appeared for His sake and told him to touch the wound in His side. Then Thomas believed and said this. If it were untrue, Jesus would have corrected him, but He didn't; He commended Thomas because he ?believed.?

"Colossians 1:19 For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell,
In context, it is the Son Who is being described (1:13); He is eternal (1:15, 17-18), the Creator (1:16), and the unifying principle of the universe (1:17; cf. Heb 1:3): all attributes true only of God. Paul makes the notion even more explicit in the next chapter:

"Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

"2 Peter 1:1 . . . our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
St. Paul uses the same phrase in Titus 2:13 as well.

"Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son he says, ?Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom.?
This is a remarkable passage, in which God the Father calls His Son ?God.? It is a reference to the Old Testament passage, Psalms 45:6-7.

"In Hebrews 1:6, God the Father also says that all the angels should worship God the Son. Worship can only be rightly applied to God, as we know from Exodus 34:14 and Deuteronomy 8:19. Yet Jesus accepted worship of Himself on many occasions (e.g., Mt 14:33; 28:9) and stated that He should be honored equally with the Father (Jn 5:23). In Revelation 5:8, 12-13 and Colossians 2:6-7, we find that Jesus is worshiped in every way that the Bible specifically describes worship of God the Father, with all the same words used (see: Rev 4:9-11, 5:13; 7:11-12, and Rom 11:33).

"Jesus is omnipotent (possesses all power):
Philippians 3:20-21 . . . the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.

"He's omniscient (all-knowing):
Colossians 2:2-3 . . . Christ, [3] in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

"He's omnipresent (present everywhere):
Ephesians 1:22-23 the church, [23] which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all. (cf. Col 3:11)

"Another astonishing passage along these lines is one where Jesus speaks about historical events described as being done by God the Father in the Old Testament. He casually applies them to Himself (what might be called ?the Divine 'I'?):
Matthew 23: 34, 37 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, . . . [37] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

"Many attributes that are said to belong only to ?God? are applied to Jesus in Scripture. God the Father said, ?besides me there is no savior? (Is 43:11; cf. 1 Tim 4:10). Yet Jesus is called the ?savior? of mankind in passages like Luke 2:11 and many others.

"God the Father stated, ?To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear? (Is 45:23). The same exact description is also applied to Jesus (Phil 2:10-11).

"The Bible teaches that ?God? is judge (1 Sam 2:10; Ps 50:6; Ecc 12:14; many others). But so is Jesus (Jn 5:22, 27; 9:39; Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1). Therefore He is God.

"God the Father sits on His throne in heaven (1 Ki 22:19; Ps 11:4; 47:8). Jesus is on the same throne, too (Rev 7:17; 22:1, 3).

"At every turn in the Bible, only one conclusion is possible, to make sense of all these statements, taken together as a whole: Jesus is God the Son. He is the eternal, all-powerful, all-loving, self-existent Creator God."

Dave Armstrong - National Catholic Register - February 12, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Educate Religious Leaders & Circumcise the HIV AIDS Epidemic Away

"Educating the world's religious leaders could encourage millions more men to undergo circumcision and reduce the rate of new HIV infections, according to research printed in the Lancet medical journal. Circumcision can lower a man's risk of getting HIV by up to 60 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends it as an effective intervention in countries gripped by an HIV epidemic.

"In Tanzania alone, the education drive could lead to more than 1.4 million new circumcisions, which could in turn prevent 65,000 to 200,000 new HIV infections, the research showed. In 2011, the WHO set a target of 20.8 million new circumcisions across 14 sub-Saharan countries by 2016. By the end of 2015, just 10 million men had been circumcised, the study said. Previous research had suggested that a low uptake may be influenced by religious tradition and fears that circumcision could be an attempt to convert Christians to other religions.

"Circumcision is widely practiced by Jews and Muslims, and is carried out by some Christians. The practice predates Islam and Judaism and was depicted in ancient Egyptian tombs and wall paintings. Aside from religious reasons, it is often carried out for health reasons or as a rite of passage in childhood or puberty. When religious leaders are highly respected in their communities, they can use this influence to convince more men to get circumcised and therefore help to prevent new HIV infections, said the study, which was published late Tuesday.

"The researchers studied 16 villages in Tanzania where the country's health ministry carried out a circumcision campaign. In villages where religious leaders attended seminars about the procedure, 23 percent more men were circumcised compared to villages that only received information from the ministry. More than 30 percent of men cited discussions in church as the reason for their decision to undergo the procedure.

"We equipped religious leaders with information and education, and then they could teach their congregations as they saw fit," Jennifer Downs, of Cornell University and the lead author of the report, said in a statement. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of the virus that causes AIDS, accounting for about 70 percent of the 36.7 million people living with the virus worldwide, according to the WHO. Nearly 1.4 million people were newly infected with HIV in the region in 2015.

"The research said educating religious leaders about the role of circumcision in HIV prevention should be extended to other sub-Saharan countries. They could also be involved in promoting other healthy behaviors, it said. The study took place from June 2014 to December 2015.

Voice of America - February 15, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

ISIS Suicide Attack at Sufi Shrine Kills 72

"A suicide bomber attacked a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan, killing at least 72 people and wounding dozens more in the deadliest of a wave of bombings across the South Asian nation this week. A spokesman for medical charity Edhi said the attacker appeared to have targeted the women?s wing of the shrine, and around 30 children accompanying their mothers were died in the Thursday (Feb. 16) blast. Islamic State, the Middle East-based militant group which has a small but increasingly prominent presence in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group?s affiliated news agency AMAQ reported.

"Senior police officer Shabbir Sethar told Reuters from a local hospital that the death toll was likely to rise. ?At least 72 are dead and over 150 have been injured,? Sethar said by telephone. Television footage from the famous Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in the town of Sehwan Sharif showed army and paramilitary medical teams reaching the site and injured people being taken to nearby hospitals in ambulances and a military helicopter.

?We were there for the love of our saint, for the worship of Allah,? a wailing woman told the Dawn News television channel outside the shrine, her headscarf streaked in blood. ?Who would hurt us when we were there for devotion?? The attack comes as the Pakistani Taliban and rival Islamist militant groups carry out their threats of a new offensive. The violence has shattered a period of improving security, underscoring how militants still undermine stability in the nuclear-armed country of 190 million people.

"The high death toll at the shrine makes it one of the worst attacks in Pakistan in recent years. In August last year, at least 74 people, mostly lawyers, were killed in a suicide bombing of a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta. In November, an explosion claimed by Islamic State ripped through a Muslim shrine in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores. Sindh Sufis. At a crossroads of historic trade routes, religions and cultures, the southern province of Sindh where the shrine is located has always been a poor but religiously tolerant region, helping to shield it from much of the Islamist violence more common in other parts of Pakistan.

"The country?s powerful military, which has cracked down on insurgent groups in recent years leading to a sharp drop in militant violence, vowed a swift, decisive response. ?Each drop of nation?s blood shall be revenged, and revenged immediately. No more restraint for anyone,? Army Chief Qamar Bajwa said in a statement.

"Shortly after the blast, the army announced it was closing the border with Afghanistan with immediate effect for security reasons. Insurgents operate on either side of the neighbours? long and porous frontier. Different militant groups, often trying to outdo each other, say they are responsible for the bombings. In the case of the Quetta hospital blast, both a faction of the Pakistani Taliban ? Jamaat-ur-Ahrar ? and Islamic State claimed responsibility. Jamaat also said it was responsible for a bombing in the eastern city of Lahore earlier this week that killed 13 people.

"In a separate incident late on Thursday, gunmen on a motorbike killed three policemen and one civilian in the city of Dera Ismail Khan.

"The bomber entered the shrine as crowds massed on Thursday, a statement from the Sindh police spokesman said. Rescue officials said dozens of wounded people were being ferried in private cars to hospitals. The nearest major hospital was nearly an hour?s drive away in Dadu district.

"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif quickly condemned the bombing, decrying the assault on the Sufi religious minority. He vowed to fight Islamist militants, who target the government, judiciary and anyone who does not adhere to their strict interpretation of Sunni Islam. ?The past few days have been hard, and my heart is with the victims,? Sharif said. ?But we can?t let these events divide us, or scare us. We must stand united in this struggle for the Pakistani identity, and universal humanity.?

"An ancient mystic branch of Islam, Sufism has been practised in Pakistan for centuries. Lal Shahbaz Qalander is Pakistan?s most revered Sufi shrine, dedicated to a 13th-century ?saint? whose spirit is invoked by devotees in ecstatic daily dancing and singing rituals in Sehwan Sharif. Thursdays are an especially important day for local Sufis, meaning that the shrine was packed at the time of the blast.

"Most of Pakistan?s myriad radical Sunni militant groups ? including the Pakistani Taliban?s various factions and Islamic State loyalists ? despise Sufis, Shi?ite Muslims and other religious minorities as heretics."

Syed Raza Hassan - Religious News Service - February 16, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

 Scandinavia: The West's Cradle of anti-Semitism?

"On January 12, the Norwegian newspaper "Aftenposten" published an article about Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and his senior adviser: "The Jew Kushner reportedly pushed for David M. Friedman as the new ambassador to Israel", Aftenposten wrote. The newspaper had later to apologize for calling Kushner "the Jew".

"A few weeks earlier, the city council of Trondheim, Norway's third-largest city, passed a motion calling on its residents to boycott Israeli goods -- a city aspiring to be "Israel-free". Then it was the turn of another Norwegian city, Tromso, population 72,000, whose city council approved a similar motion. More than 40% of Norwegians are already boycotting Israeli products or are in favor of doing so, according to a poll.

"What hell is happening in Scandinavia, whose countries, Norway and Sweden, are bastions of political correctness, champions of multiculturalism and, according to the Global Peace Index, the most "peaceful" countries in the world? "The most successful society the world has ever known", however, as The Guardian labelled Sweden, has a dark side: Israel-slandering and anti-Semitism.

"Sweden and Norway are manipulating public opinion in the way immortalized by George Orwell in his novel "1984" as the "Two Minutes Hate". These countries have seen the creation of a public opinion according to which Israel is a merciless enemy of humanity that ought to be dismantled forthwith.

"A year ago, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, an updated map of Israel's friends and enemies. Only five countries are openly at war with the Jewish State: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea. Then there are the friendly countries, including many non-Muslim African countries that once had no diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. But the map also included a European country that for the first time moved into the "non-friends" camp: Sweden.

"Hate for Israel has become a real obsession in Scandinavia, which revived the glorious partnership between the liberal "useful idiots" -- the ones concerned about equality and minorities -- and Islamists, the ones concerned about submission and killing "infidels".

"Despite the fact that Jews in Norway are only 0.003 percent of the total population, Oslo is now world's capital of European anti-Semitism. Recently, the Norwegian National Theater opened its Festival in Oslo with a dramatic video clip. The video urged a boycott of the National Theater of Israel, Habima, in Tel Aviv.

"Funded by the government and aired at the festival, the clip shows an actress posing as a spokesman for the National Theater and calling for a boycott of the Israeli theater. Pia Maria Roll labelled Israel a state "based on ethnic cleansing, racism, occupation and apartheid". Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded saying that the seven-minute video recalls "the Norwegian collaborationist Vidkun Quisling and Knut Hamson" (a Nobel laureate for Literature who sympathized with Hitler).

"It is not the first time. A festival in Oslo also rejected a documentary, "The Other Dreamers," about the lives of disabled children, simply because it was Israeli. "We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel," wrote Ketil Magnussen, the founder of the festival.

?Norway is the European country most engaged in the campaigns against Israel. All Norwegian universities refused to host Alan Dershowitz for a speaking tour about the Middle East. A proposal for an official academic boycott against Israel was promoted by Norway's University of Trondheim. If approved, the boycott would have been the first of its kind in a European university since the Nazi boycott of Jewish professors.

"The Norwegian Ministry of Finance has excluded Israeli companies, such as Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus, from its Global Pension Fund, a fund that invests the national wealth in foreign stocks and bonds, and which holds more than one percent of all global stocks. The Norwegian trade union EL & IT, which represents workers from the energy and telecommunications sectors, has boycotted the Histadrut, Israel's national labor union.

"In Norway, anti-Semitism has affected many "intellectuals". One is Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist dubbed the "father of peace studies", a proud leftist who made anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements at the University of Oslo and who claimed (falsely) that there is a link between the perpetrators of the massacre at Utoya in Norway and the Mossad.

"Norwegian newspapers are full of classic anti-Semitic tropes. A cartoon in the largest newspaper, "Verdens Gang", showed the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's feet as those of an animal. In "Aftenposten", the second-largest newspaper, a rat eats the Star of David, the symbol in the Israeli flag. Another daily, "Dagbladet", a glory of the Norwegian Left, published a cartoon in which Palestinian terrorists leave an Israeli prison with the German motto of the Buchenwald concentration camp: "Jedem Das Sein".

"Evelyne Zeira, who works at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, asked a Norwegian researcher, Ingrid Harbitz, to send her material to develop treatments for Palestinian victims of thalessemia, a blood disease. Harbitz's answer was: "Due to the current situation in the Middle East, I will not deliver material to Israeli universities". To her, Israeli Jews and even Palestinians do not deserve Norwegian blood!

"During Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006, the daily "Aftenposten" published an article by Jostein Gaarder, Norway's most famous writer and a "thirdworldist", in which he imagined the destruction of Israel. Gaarder, whose novel "Sophie's World" has been translated into 53 languages ??and has sold millions of copies, justified the expulsion of Israeli Jews from their land. "We no longer recognize the State of Israel," Gaarder wrote, as if he were an Iranian imam.

"The same racism exists in Sweden. A few days ago, the Swedish Parliament discussed a deal between Volvo, the country's most important car maker, and the Israeli bus companies. Volvo provides, in fact, some buses which keep the Israelis alive in Judea and Samaria. Jewish schoolchildren in these areas have to use armored buses to avoid being shot and murdered by Palestinian terrorists. But according to the chairman of Sweden's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Kenneth G. Forslund, their right to life, granted by Volvo's buses, is "a violation of international law". Swedish dockworkers sponsored a week-long boycott of Israeli ships and goods. The old good days when Swedish ships saved the Jews from Nazis are gone.

"Sweden's former Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Mehmet Kaplan, a Muslim of Turkish origin, took part in the pro-Hamas assault against Israel by the "Freedom Flotilla" in 2010. He compared Israel to Nazism and called for the "liberation of Jerusalem". The education minister, Gustav Fridolin, has been arrested for protesting in front of the anti-terrorism fence built by Israel in Judea and Samaria to protect the lives of their citizens on the coastal plain, massacred by suicide bombers.

"Recently, Swedish public television broadcast "The Occupation of the American Mind", a conspiracy film about the "Israeli Lobby" supposedly controlling in the United States. During the Second Intifada, in a Stockholm Museum, a photograph was reprinted of a smiling Palestinian suicide bomber, who had killed dozens of Israelis at a restaurant in Haifa. In the photograph, he was on a white boat in a bathtub full of blood-red liquid. Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest daily newspaper, then ran an article by Donald Bostrom where, without any evidence, he charged the Israeli army of harvesting the organs of Palestinians.

""Dagens Nyheter", the most sophisticated Swedish newspaper, published a violently anti-Semitic op-ed entitled, "It is allowed to hate the Jews", in which the historian Jan Samuelson said that until Israel ceases to "occupy" the territories, hatred for the Jewish State will be justified. He totally disregards, however, that the Jordanians illegally seized the territories in the aggression they initiated against Israel in the War of 1948; in 1967, Israel, in fact liberated its own land from illegal Jordanian occupation.

"After Trump's election, the daily Dagens Nyheter ran an anti-Semitic cartoon, in which the Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect were being carried by an Orthodox Jew, a Ku Klux Klan member and a gun-carrying man branded with the Israeli flag. The Nazi daily "Der St?rmer" could not have drawn it better.

"After the massacres of November 13 in Paris, Sweden's minister of Foreign Affairs, Margot Wallstr?m, said that "to counter the radicalization we have to go back to the situation in the Middle East where the Palestinians see that there is no future for them and must accept a desperate situation and resort to violence".

"Does Wallstr?m really mean that to defeat Islamic aggression, Israel must surrender? The Palestinians' situation is indeed desperate, but as they have had full autonomy for decades, their desperate situation is caused by their own cynical and corrupt leaders who appear deliberately to keep their people in misery try to blame it on Israel, in the same way that people maim children to make them "better" beggars.

"Meanwhile, the Trondheim synagogue has become one of the best protected buildings in Norway, and Jews live under siege in the Swedish city of Malm?. Vidkun Quisling, the Nazi collaborationist, would have been proud of his heirs, even if now they are self-proclaimed "progressives".

Giulio Meotti - Galestone Institute - February 17, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Religious Right Must Lose

"Denny Burk, a Southern Baptist theologian and pastor, gave expert testimony in the Baronnelle Stutzman case. [Barronelle Stutzman, is a florist in Richland, Washington, who is involved in a same-sex discrimination lawsuit] Here he reflects on what it means. Excerpt:

"When I was first asked to give testimony, I thought my role as an SBC pastor and seminary professor would simply be to enter into the record what Southern Baptists believe about marriage. But that is not at all what it turned out to be.

"For an entire day, I sat across the table from attorneys representing the Washington Attorney General and the ACLU (two different attorneys because Ms. Stutzman is being sued by the state and by the gay couple that she was once friends with). These attorneys didn?t merely ask me what Southern Baptist believe. They tried to show that what Southern Baptists believe amounts to invidious discrimination.

"I had to defend not only our denomination?s statement of faith (The Baptist Faith and Message) but also resolutions passed by our denomination going back 30 and 40 years. It was hostile questioning intended to discredit what Southern Baptists believe about marriage. They wanted to discredit us so that they could discredit her. And make no mistake, once they succeed in punishing her, others will use this precedent to punish the rest of us?and not just Southern Baptists but any person who dares to act on their belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

"This is important for traditional Christians. It might be more important than you think it is. The ACLU, most of the media, the legal establishment, the Democratic Party ? they all hate us. I mean, hate us. If Barronelle Stutzman were a Muslim, we never would have heard of this story. She is a Southern Baptist, therefore she must be destroyed. To paraphrase Terry Mattingly, the Grand Unified Theory here is: The Religious Right Must Lose.

"This will never end. It will never, ever end. Best get that learned now. This case is going all the way to the US Supreme Court, which will either refuse to hear it (in which case the Washington court?s ruling stands), or it will hear it and render a judgment. I would not bet money on that judgment going in Stutzman?s favor.

"So, we have to fight where and how we can, but we also have to realize that we will probably lose. What then? If we have any courage at all, we are not going to compromise our consciences. What will we do? How will we pay the debts inflicted on us by our persecutors? How will we work again? How do you get along in a society in which the people who hold the greatest power think you are Public Enemy No. 1?

"From The Benedict Option:

"In the end, it comes down to what believers are willing to suffer for the faith. Are we ready to have our social capital devalued and lose professional status, including the possibility of accumulating wealth? Are we prepared to relocate to places far from the wealth and power of the cities of the empire, in search of a more religiously free way of life? It?s going to come to that for more and more of us. The time of testing is at hand. ?A lot of Christians see no difference between being faithfully Christian and being professionally and socially ambitious,? says a religious liberty activist. ?That is ending.?

"Like I keep saying: this may not be the end of the world, but it is the end of a world. When the might of the State of Washington and the American Civil Liberties Union comes down on the head of gentle, grandmotherly, small-town florist, and seeks her ruin for declining to arrange flowers for a gay wedding, you know that we are dealing with a bottomless well of hatred. You know exactly what we are dealing with here. So, prepare. We are all going to be asked to pay the cost of discipleship. When I interviewed her last summer, Stutzman said to me: ?If they can come after me, they can go after anybody.?

"True. Expect no justice, tolerance, mercy, or love in these matters. The Religious Right Must Lose. Alliance Defending Freedom, the religious liberty legal organization representing Barronnelle pro bono, is taking tax-free donations to help pay for her defense. If the US Supreme Court refuses to hear the case, or rules against her, the Christian community nationwide will need to step up to pay her fine, and to reward her for having stood in the crucible and held firm, despite the contempt heaped on her head. Today its Barronelle Stutzman; tomorrow it might be you. And one day, it probably will.

"I?ll say one more thing here. As regular readers know, I do not like Donald Trump and do not like the glee with which so many of my fellow conservatives view his trashing of longstanding rules and conventions of political behavior. Trump is tearing things down, but what will be left after he?s done that? Having said that, when I contemplate a system and a society that is willing to pour everything it has into crushing a little old Southern Baptist lady who arranges flowers for a living, I find that I have very little enthusiasm for defending that system. A society that would do this to a Barronnelle Stutzman is a corrupt and unjust society. At times like this, it is hard not to adopt a ?let the dead bury the dead? attitude toward the whole."

Rod Dreher - The American Conservative - February 17, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

N.T. Wright: The Cross Matters More Than We Know

"You can?t escape it. Whether it?s a tiny silver pendant or an enormous structure atop a hill (Rio de Janeiro, Montreal), the cross is both eye-catching and powerful. So powerful, in fact, that a British airline worker was suspended for refusing to remove her cross in case it offended passengers. Millions with little connection to organized Christianity instinctively recognise the cross as iconic. The theater producer Peter Sellars, introducing his staged version of Bach?s "St Matthew Passion" in 2014, explained that in this story people of all sorts glimpse truth, and often comfort, beyond what is available elsewhere.

"Why? Do we need to ask? You don?t need to know the science of cookery before enjoying a meal. Nor do you need to know music theory before you can be moved by Bach. But someone has to know how to cook; and the musicians need to know what they?re playing and how to play it. Those who teach in church, and those who commend the faith to outsiders, need to grapple with the meaning of Jesus? death. Then the puzzles begin. Some great mediaeval paintings of the crucifixion see Jesus as a battered, vulnerable man ? with God the Father behind him, a stern, forbidding presence.

"The message is clear. God is angry with us, but his anger is all poured out on the innocent Jesus. A caricature, of course, or worse. The famous John 3:16 doesn?t say ?God so hated the world that he killed his son?, but ?God so loved the world that he gave his son?. But that easily gets twisted the wrong way round. Perhaps that?s because many angry despots, in public or domestic life, have beaten up innocent victims. Sometimes they even claim that they do it out of love. We have learned to shudder at such claims. But isn?t that what the Bible says? ?He was bruised for our transgressions . . . the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all?? Yes, but what matters is getting the story right.

"Many Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, liberal or conservative, have imagined a story like this. (1) We messed up badly; (2) God had to punish us; (3) fortunately, his innocent son got in the way and took the rap. But the Bible tells a bigger, more subtle story. Paul?s summary of the Christian message begins, ?The Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures?. That doesn?t mean ?in accordance with the story we have in our heads, with a few biblical footnotes.? Paul is referring to the entire story of Israel?s ancient scriptures.

"That story is not about ?sin and what God does with it.? It?s about creation and covenant. First, creation: God made a wonderful creation, and put humans into it to sum up the praises of creation and to look after his world. This is what it means to be ?in God?s image?: angled mirrors, reflecting God?s love into the world and reflecting creation?s worship back to God. Some texts speak of this human vocation as ?the royal priesthood?. When humans mess it up, it isn?t just that they break some arbitrary rule (?don?t eat that apple!?). They are taking their orders from something within creation rather than from the creator himself. That is what the Bible calls ?idolatry?. And it ruins creation as well as humans.

"Here?s how it works: humans worship something other than the creator God, and so they think and act in less-than-fully-human ways, thereby failing to take forward God?s purposes for the world. That is ?sin?: missing the target of true humanness. The idols, meanwhile, gain power through our worship of them, and they use that to enslave us and corrupt the world.

"Think of the contemporary idols: money, sex or power. We worship these forces, and they tell us what to do. So we shrink as humans; not just because we break various commandments (though we do) but because we miss our true calling, and the world suffers in consequence. And if we try to grab that vocation back again ? if we try to run the world our way ? our sub-humanness shows up all too clearly. Every tyrant, every anarchist, started off by thinking they knew how the world ought to be. That?s why, when the New Testament talks of Jesus? death and what it accomplished, it doesn?t just talk about dealing with sin (though it does that too). It talks about God overthrowing the dark powers that have taken over the world. ?Now,? said Jesus, ?the ruler of this world is cast out.?

"?On the cross,? wrote Paul, ?Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers.? That is basic. All the early Christian teachers knew this. That was why they lived as a multi-ethnic, classless community. The ?powers? that had kept humans locked up in their sins and their distinct social groupings had been overthrown. The four Gospels explain the ?how?. Jesus announced that God was becoming ?king?, ruling the world as he always intended. This took Jesus to the cross, with ?King of the Jews? over his head. Throughout the story, Jesus is opposed by forces of evil, human and non-human. The lies, hatred and evil of all the world rushes together in one place and nails him to the cross.

"When he rose again three days later, his followers realised that this could only be because, on the cross, he had exhausted sin?s power. He had taken on himself the punishment of ?sin?, so that the grip of the ?powers? would be broken. New creation was now launched as a result ? with rescued humans at last reflecting God?s purposes into that new world. What does this mean today? Not just that believers have fellowship with God, now and hereafter, though it does mean that, too.

"It means that the door of our prison stands open and we are free to resume our vocation. To be image-bearers. To be the ?royal priesthood?. To worship the living God freely. To be his agents in the world ? not by the world?s normal bullying methods, but by following the royal way of Jesus.

"It?s all there in the Sermon on the Mount: blessed are the peacemakers, the hungry-for-justice people, those who care for the poor, who live without anger or lust: those who make the world a radically better place. That has been going on for two thousand years, though we often forget it. It stands at the root of our somewhat battered concept of ?human rights?. That wasn?t invented by secular modernity. It comes from Jesus ? from Jesus as the focal point of the ancient vision of Israel, of covenant renewed and creation restored. From his victory on the cross.

"That?s what it means when people place a cross around their neck, or on top of a hill. It means that the power of love has overcome the love of power. And that it always will."

N.T. Wright - Fox News - February 18, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Has Christianity Been Declared Illegal By Executive Action ?

"Christianity has been declared illegal in the United States of America. There?s no prohibition against professing one?s faith in Jesus. In fact, speaking the name of the Christian savior is in vogue with the current presidential administration as was evident in the multiple Christian-specific prayers offered at President Trump?s inauguration. Prominent religious figures even suggest the most recent election was guided by divine action. The Rev. Franklin Graham declared: ?I believe God?s hand was in [Trump?s election].? But is the hand of God visible in the fruits of this presidency?

"One of the central tenants of the Christian faith is the call to love the neighbor as oneself. The same teaching is also found in most of the world?s major religions. Life with God is not intended to be a means of escape from concern for others. An awareness of the Divine awakens the worshiper to the presence of a diversity of people, all dear to God. Jesus calls his followers to love their neighbors; he then defines neighbors as including those considered outsiders, even persons thought to be so questionable that they are best avoided.

"Life with God opens the believer to seeing the ?other? as ?neighbor.? This teaching led many early Christian communities to engage in ministries of compassion to persons dying from plagues, regardless of the religion or belief system of the ailing ones. Similar practices of self-giving are found in other religious traditions as faith is embodied not just in words that are spoken but in acts that are shared with neighbors.

"On Jan. 25, the President of the United States signed an Executive Order entitled, ?Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.? Known as the ?Sanctuary Cities Order,? the action seeks to penalize cities and towns that embrace the practice of ?sanctuary? for the undocumented. The term ?sanctuary? has historically been used to describe protection provided by faith communities for those under threat in times of trouble. A little-noticed provision in the executive order criminalizes the practice of loving one?s neighbor as oneself as understood in multiple faith traditions. In a section titled, ?Civil Fines and Penalties,? the order states, ?As soon as practicable, and by no later than one year after the date of this order, the Secretary [of Homeland Security] shall issue guidance and promulgate regulations...to ensure the assessment and collection of all fines and penalties...from aliens unlawfully present in the United States and from those who facilitate their presence in the United States.?

"What does it mean to ?facilitate? the presence of undocumented persons? If I give an undocumented person a ride while fully aware of their status, am I in violation of the law? If my neighbor, who is undocumented, gets sick with the flu and I prepare chicken soup and take care of her children while she recovers, am I in trouble? If my church prepares a gift box with food and clothing for an undocumented family, giving them basic foodstuffs in the name of Jesus, are we subject to fines and penalties?

"In a word, yes. Or so it seems. The Christian mandate to love our neighbor as ourselves makes no exemption for those without papers. Indeed, our sacred text tells stories of persons who fled oppression, violence, and hunger, migrating to places of safety and hope. Child Jesus, under threat of death, fled his land and went to Egypt. Migration is a part of human history from our beginning. Persons of faith, motivated by the love they have received in their encounters with the Divine, are compelled to extend that love to others, especially to strangers and refugees, regardless of papers or documentation.

"Church communities and other houses of worship will resist the executive order of the president by offering places of sanctuary for the beloved children of God who are subject to deportations. As they did in the 1980s as Central American citizens fled their countries in the midst of war, faith communities today will open their houses of worship to shelter the migrant, the stranger, and the undocumented, recognizing not only the broken immigration system as it currently exists in the United States but also the injustice that the current executive order inflicts upon the most vulnerable among us. People of faith have often participated in illegal activities for the sake of the marginalized: from Roman coliseums to lunch counters in the southern United States. Look for the stories of these communities throughout the country in the coming months. Join the sanctuary movement if your faith or good will compels you. Loving God and loving the neighbor often requires courage, especially in contexts where the very practice of faith is considered a violation of the law.

Pastor Keith D. Ray - Clemson, South Carolina United Methodist Church - Op-Ed - USA Today Network - Greenville Online

[eyeshaveit]

Church of England takes step towards gay marriage

"Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops? report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church. The report recommended that the bar on same-sex church marriages continue but that a more welcoming attitude towards homosexuals should be shown by congregations. However, the motion was rejected by clergy at the General Synod who voted 100 to 93 against. Sources said they believed the recommendation had been rejected by the more liberal members of the clergy who thought the Church should ultimately drop its opposition to gay marriage.

"Campaigners for gay marriage welcomed the decision as a ?victory for love and equality?. After the vote, Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich, who led the group that produced the report, said: ?We have listened to those who have spoken, and those others who have made contributions to us directly. ?Our ongoing discussions will be informed by what members of Synod and the wider Church have said as a result of this report.?

The vote exposes deep divisions in the Anglican Church over homosexuality and is embarrassing for the House of Bishops as authors of the report. In the vote, which was split between the Church?s three houses ? bishops, clergy, and laity ? the clergy were the only house not to ?take note? of, or accept, the report, which meant it was rejected.

"There were two abstentions within the clergy and one bishop voted not to take note. Laity voted to take note by 106 to 83 with four abstentions. The report was strongly criticised during a two-hour debate on Wednesday afternoon. Members said it was ?grudging and condescending?, ?divorced from reality? and made the Church look ?unkind? and homophobic. The report had recommended that the Church continue to consider marriage as ?a union, permanent and lifelong, of one man with one woman?.

"Before the vote, the Most Rev Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, urged members to ?take note? of the motion but promised that bishops would in future ?do better?, adding: ?We could hardly fail to do so, in the light of what has been said this afternoon?."

Olivia Rudgard - The Telegraph (UK) - February 16, 2017

Comments following are the typically fascinating English:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/15/church-england-votes-reject-controversial-gay-marriage-report/

[eyeshaveit]

The Making of 'Songs from Struck'

"Songs from "Struck" is a short EP inspired by the events described in my book "Struck: One Christian?s Reflections on Encountering Death". In the spring of 2013, I developed a blood-borne bacterial infection that destroyed my mitral valve and required urgent open-heart surgery. "Struck" (the book) chronicles that experience, from the onset of affliction through diagnosis, surgery, recovery, and re-entry.

"My story is the setting for the book, but it is not the subject. "Struck" is a book about what happens when affliction and faith collide. I wanted to explore the common experiences afflicted people share?the onset of a sense of frailty, the fear, the grief, the humor, the routines, the new ways of relating to people who love us and are afraid for us and for themselves.

"I committed myself to the work of paying as much attention as I could to the medical, spiritual, relational, emotional, pharmaceutical, and physical experiences of this journey my failing heart had set me on. I asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes and used them to write the chapters that make up the book. Along the way, some of those same themes became Songs from Struck.

"Dance with Me" (Track 1) is the song mentioned in Chapter 6: The Letters. My good friend Andy Osenga (who plays all the instruments you hear on the EP except drums, which were played by the amazing Paul Eckberg, and violin, played by the brilliant Daniel Fisher) offered to help me record this song for my wife to mark this season of our marriage. Due to the dangers involved in my surgery, we knew we needed to record my vocals before I went under. I?ll never forget when Andy said, ?Let?s get your vocals now, and I?ll take care of the rest.? That was the same day I gave him the letters I had written to my wife and children, and asked him to hold them for me. It was a holy moment, and a bold responsibility for him to assume on my behalf. I sang this vocal while I was still hooked up to an IV antibiotic pump. The shaker in the chorus is actually one of my many pill bottles.

"The Ballad of Andy Catlett" (Track 2) is inspired by Wendell Berry?s short novel Remembering, which explores themes of anger and forgiveness discussed in Chapter 11: Tornado in a Trailer Park. Berry?s novel powerfully unpacks what it is like to suffer an affliction that takes away a person?s ability or strength. In Remembering, Andy Catlett loses his right hand in a farming accident. Being right handed, Andy felt he lost his hold on the world. He couldn?t dress himself. He couldn?t even write his own name. He took out his frustrations on those who were trying to love him. Eventually, his wife sat him down and told him that if he wanted to get better, one thing he would have to do would be to ask her to forgive him for how he was treating her. All the anger and indignation of being a victim rose up inside of him and he thought about leaving her and starting over. But he came to realize that her love for him was an anchor that held him in the one place he belonged?broken as he was. Anger in affliction can be profoundly disorienting. Love is a true north.

"Both Alive" (Track 3 ? co-written with Andrew Osenga) tells a story based on themes discussed in Chapter 5: The Distance. When someone goes through some kind of suffering, affliction, or loss, those who are close to them go through it too, each in their own way. But even though they?re both struggling through the same thing, they experience it differently?which can create a strange and hard to understand feeling of distance. Often it is the things we share in common that make us feel most distant from one another. This song doesn?t attempt to solve this phenomenon (I don?t know if that?s possible). But it does try to recognize it, describe it, and shine some light on it because there is great power in naming."

Russ Ramsey - The Rabbit Room - Nashville, TN.

Use the discount code ?Struck? in the Rabbit Room Store to get the EP for free.

https://store.rabbitroom.com/

[eyeshaveit]

Pope Francis: 'better to be an Atheist than a bad Christian'

"If you're a Christian who exploits people, leads a double life or manages a "dirty" business, perhaps it's better not to call yourself a believer, Pope Francis suggested in a homily on Thursday in Rome. "So many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others," Francis said during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, according to Vatican Radio. "How many times have we heard -- all of us, around the neighborhood and elsewhere -- 'But to be a Catholic like that, it's better to be an atheist.' It is that: scandal." "But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another."  In the Catholic Church, causing scandal also a grave offense.

Examples of such sins abound, the Pope said, from money launderers to business owners who take beach vacations while stiffing their employees. Francis' sermon, as is customary, was an extended riff on Thursday's Mass readings, which include a passage from the Gospel on Mark. In it, Jesus says it is better to be drowned than to cause others to sin. Drawing on that passage, the Catholic Catechism says scandals include business leaders who encourage fraud, teachers who agitate students and manipulators who turn people away from moral values.

"In other words, anyone who leads others to do wrong, directly or indirectly, is responsible for the evil he has encouraged, the church says. So when Francis compares hypocritical Christians to atheists, he's not being flip; he's trying to protect his flock. In the United States, some Catholics have cited the church's teachings on scandal to argue that priests should not distribute Holy Communion to politicians who support abortion rights. Francis, a sharp critic of capitalist excesses, turned his scorn instead on greedy businesspeople.

"While many of this Pope's pronouncements are often assumed to be novel interpretations of Christian doctrines, Francis was also touching on an ancient debate: Is salvation open to all believers, or only those who do good while on earth? The Pope suggested the latter, in characteristically blunt language. He imagined a wealthy Christian knocking at the gates of heaven and saying, "Here I am, Lord! ... I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this... Don't you remember all the offerings I made?"

"To which Jesus may reply, according to the Pope: "Yes, I remember. The offerings, I remember them: All dirty. All stolen from the poor. I don't know you.' That will be Jesus' response to these scandalous people who live a double life." Thursday's sermon is far from the first time Francis has targeted Christian hypocrites. In a sermon last February, the outspoken Pope called out the "fakeness" of Christians who talk piously, but do little to help others.

"To be a Christian means to do: to do the will of God -- and on the last day -- because all of us we will have one -- that day what shall the Lord ask us? Will He say: 'What you have said about me?' No. He shall ask us about the things we did." It isn't the first time the Pope has mentioned atheists, either. In 2013, he raised questions for saying that heaven is open, potentially, to all people. "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone. "'Father, the atheists?' Even the atheists. Everyone!"

"Francis continued, "We must meet one another doing good. 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: we will meet one another there." The Vatican later issued a note clarifying that the Pope was simply saying that God's grace is free to all, even atheists, and urging Christians and non-believers to work together."

Daniel Burke - CNN Religion Reporter - February 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Don't Dump Religion

"I know I?m tilting at windmills here. The die has already been cast. The ship has already sailed. The train has already left the station. Pick your well-worn metaphor. But I have a modest proposal nonetheless: let?s not write and speak as if ?religion? is the thing that good Christians are always against.

"You know what I mean. Maybe you?ve spoken this way before. Maybe I have too. Religion is bad. Religion is about rules. Religion is about earning God?s favor. Religion is about trying; Christianity is about trusting. Religion is about reaching up to God; the gospel is about God reaching down to us. I understand the contrast. I agree with all that we want to affirm with such statements. But is throwing ?religion? under the bus the best way to make the point? Consider the following:

1. This is a relatively new way for Christians to speak. It?s not hard to find examples. Calvin wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Jonathan Edwards wrote on Religious Affections. I can tell you from studying the 18th century in depth that loads of good Christians wrote about ?religion? or ?true religion? or ?real religion.? Our forefathers were well aware of religious hypocrisy and false religious systems, but they didn?t equate ?religion? with works-righteousness. One could read, for example, John Witherspoon?s sermon on ?The Nature and Extent of Visible Religion? from Matthew 5:16 and see that religion was not used as an antithesis to gospel.

2. The Bible does not use ?religion? as an automatically pejorative term. ?In anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person?s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world? (James 1:26-27). According to Scripture, religion can please God. That?s not how many of us talk.

3. In castigating ?religion,? we may be unloading more baggage than we realize. I understand the apologetic reasons for contrasting religion with gospel. People may think Christianity is about a bunch of hypocrites pretending to be good enough so that God will like them. That?s positively not Christianity and not the gospel. So I get the impulse to throw off ?religion.? But people also equate commandments and doctrines and institutions and church leaders with religion. That?s why people want to be ?spiritual but religious.? And yet, Christianity is a religion in this sense; we do believe in commandments, doctrines, institutions, and church leaders. I fear we can give people the wrong impression, and affirm the unbiblical instincts, when we quickly join them in dismissing religion.

"I?m not trying to police every tweetable turn of the phrase or every bit of gospel contextualization. Plenty of people I love and respect have dumped ?religion? and dumped on ?religion.? I just wonder if speaking of ?true religion? or ?real religion? (as older writers did) is a better way to go. Why not use the word in a more neutral sense as the Bible does? Why not rail against man-made religion instead of all religion? Why not find another word besides ?religion? to be our anti-gospel boogeyman? You never know when we might be glad to have the old word around for a new day."

Kevin DeYoung - The Gospel Coalition - February 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Roman Catholic Church Cannot Teach Error, Because She Was Founded by Jesus Christ, Who is God Himself

"There are often strident demands, coming from both within and outside the Church, that she change her teachings to conform to modern notions. Given our era?s preoccupation with sex, many of the demands for change involve related issues: homosexual acts, same-sex ?marriage,? adultery (particularly divorce and ?remarriage?), premarital sex, contraception, and abortion.

"But such demands show a misunderstanding of both the nature and power of the Church. There are many mistaken ideas today regarding the theology of the Church (ecclesiology), even among the faithful. It is commonly thought that the Church (or at least her current leaders) can simply decide what we want to teach on any given topic; for example, if we want to simply change what we teach about abortion we can just do it. And modern critics assert that if we can do it, then we should do it. The same goes for any of our ?controversial? teachings such as contraception, the male-only priesthood, and so forth. This is mistaken ecclesiology and an exaggeration of the Church?s power.

"The Church has no authority whatsoever to overturn the teaching on abortion, contraception, the male-only priesthood, or divorce and ?remarriage? (that one who leaves a valid marriage and enters another is in a state of ongoing adultery). We have no authority to overthrow biblical doctrines, the doctrines of Sacred Tradition, or any of our defined dogmas and doctrines. Something cannot be morally or doctrinally true one day and untrue the next.

"Still others insist that the Church should read the surveys and change her teachings to conform to what the people in the pews think or want. Again, this is flawed ecclesiology. The Catholic Church, which is the Body of Christ and His visible presence on earth, does not exist to reflect the views of this era or even of her current members. The Catholic Church exists to proclaim the teachings of her head and founder, Jesus Christ. She is His living and active presence and voice in the world. Scripture says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings (Heb 13:8-9). Indeed, there are surely many ?strange teachings? in our time! But Jesus and His Body the Church, which are one, cannot and do not change in the proclamation of doctrinal and moral truth. Doctrine proclaims perennial truth.

"Once again, the Church has no authority whatsoever to overturn what God has definitely taught. No one?not even a pope?can change the truths of Scripture, Sacred Tradition, or the doctrines definitely put forth for our belief by the Magisterium.

"Those who demand that the Church change her teachings to reflect the views of our times or of her current members also err in a second way. They do this through a kind of temporal arrogance or forgetfulness, for there are many who have gone before us but are still part of the mystical Body of Christ, the Church; I am certain that they would hardly agree with many of the debased and erroneous notions of our time.

"The Church cannot simply reinvent herself to conform to current demands or preferences. She is in service of her Lord, Savior, Groom, and Head. She exists to proclaim His teachings and to hand on the sacred deposit of faith, which He died and rose to give to His Apostles. She is to reflect Him who is truth incarnate, not the changing mores of the world.

"So many modern problems and errors come down to faulty ecclesiology. Is the Church just a human ?club,? which exists to reflect the views of her members and can therefore adapt herself to their desires and demands? No. The Church is the Body of Christ, the living and active presence of Him who does not change, who is not ?Yes? and then ?No,? but only ?Yes.? To those in the world (and even within the Church) who would erroneously insist that the Church change her doctrine to suit their views, we can only say, with the Holy Spirit and St. Paul:

Having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, deceitful ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God?s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone?s conscience in the sight of God. And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus? sake. For God, who said, ?Let light shine out of darkness,? has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:1-6).

"Somebody say, ?Amen!?

Monsignor Charles Pope - National Catholic Register - February 21, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

If God is in control, why do I have a headache?

"The question ?Why?? is the one we long to answer. If God is in control, why do I have a headache? Why do I have cancer? Why are my teenagers causing so much trouble? Why am I still single? Why hasn?t he given us a child?

"After all, if we put all the Bible?s teaching together, we find that God controls each and every event, from the tiniest to the greatest, from the most predictable to the apparently random, visible and invisible, in every place, at all times, from the least complex to the most intricate, right up to human beings with all our wonderful capacity to think, to reason and to make decisions. This is the scope of God?s control.

"But then we look at our present circumstances and are left asking? WHY? Sometimes we can?t fully answer it. But we can say some things. Here are some of the main answers the Bible gives:

1. If you are a Christian, it is NOT God?s punishment for your sin. This is very important. The great mistake of Job?s so-called ?comforters? was to assume that Job?s sufferings must be a punishment for his sin. But if you are trusting in Jesus (as Job was, in anticipation), the punishment for all your sin has been paid by Jesus. So don?t beat yourself up and blame yourself. You and I have plenty of sins, for which we deserve far worse than we get; but our sufferings are not the punishment for these sins. Jesus paid it all.

2. It is not punishment, but it may be God?s fatherly discipline, given in order to fashion and shape you to become like Jesus. As Hebrews chapter 12 puts it, ?God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness? (Hebrews 12 v 10, see v 4-13). It is good to search your conscience afresh and ask yourself if there is any matter of which you ought to repent. Perhaps this suffering is God?s way of prompting you to a fresh repentance from some sin. Maybe, maybe not; only you can say. Read this chapter of Hebrews and take comfort from the assurance that you have a heavenly Father who is determined to make you like Jesus. We wish it didn?t hurt so much; but it will be worth it in the end.

3. It may also be a trial that is necessary in order to demonstrate your genuineness as a follower of Jesus. When you go on trusting God even when it?s really hard, glory will come to God (1 Peter 1 v 7). This may be hard to accept, but it is actually a wonderful truth, that God will be glorified precisely through your struggles in a way in which he might not be glorified if we had things easier.

4. Finally, many of our difficulties are simply because we are living life ?under the sun?, as the book of Ecclesiastes puts it. And life ?under the sun? in this age is life under God?s righteous judgment on a sinful world. While we are not punished for our individual sins?Jesus paid for those?we are still sinners in a world under judgement. We must expect things to be messy and difficult."

Christopher Ash - The Good Book dotcom - February 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Tim Keller's Four Kinds of People in the World

"It is helpful to see that there are four kinds of people in the world:

"1 - Law-obeying, law-relying. These people are under the law, and are usually very smug, self-righteous and superior. Externally, they are very sure they are right with God, but deep down, they have a lot of insecurity, since no one can truly be assured that they are living up to the standard. This makes them touchy, sensitive to criticism and devastated when their prayers aren?t answered. This includes members of other religions, but here I am thinking mainly of people who go to church. These people have much in common with the Pharisees of Jesus? day.

"2 - Law-disobeying, law-relying. These people have a religious conscience of strong works-righteousness, but they are not living consistently with it. As a result of this, they are more humble and more tolerant of others than the ?Pharisees? above, but they are also much more guilt-ridden, subject to mood swings and sometimes very afraid of religious topics. Some of these people may go to church, but they stay on the periphery because of their low spiritual self-esteem.

"3 - Law-disobeying, not law-relying. These are the people who have thrown off the concept of the law of God. They are intellectually secular or relativistic, or have a very vague spirituality. They largely choose their own moral standards and then insist that they are meeting them. But Paul, in Romans 1:18-20, says that at a sub-conscious level, they know there is a God who they should be obeying. Such people are usually happier and more tolerant than either of the above groups. But usually there is a strong, liberal self-righteousness. They are earning their own salvation by feeling superior to others. It is just that this is usually a less obvious kind of self-righteousness.

"4 - Law-obeying, not law-relying. These are Christians who understand the gospel and are living out of the freedom of it. They obey the law of God out of grateful joy that comes from the knowledge of their sonship, and out of freedom from the fear and selfishness that false idols had generated. They are more tolerant than number 3, more sympathetic than number 1, and more confident than number 2. But most Christians struggle to live out number 4, and tend to see the world as a #1, #2, or even #3 person. But to the degree that they do, they are impoverished spiritually."

From Tim Keller?s book, Galatians For You

Challies dotcom - February 27, 2017.

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Two Things About the Transgender Debate

"The challenge with the transgender debate is that Christians must say two very different things at the same time.

"To those pushing an agenda that says your bathroom is my bathroom and your gender is whatever you want it to be, we want to say: This is absurd. Patently absurd. There is no scientific reason, no justice reason, no internally consistent reason to think we can be boys or girls just by declaring it so. In our saner moments we know this to be true. No one would allow me to ?become? Asian or African American even if I thought that?s who I was deep down. There are facts about my biology that cannot be denied. Why is gender open to self-definition while race and ethnicity are not?

"As many others have pointed out, the logic of our transgender moment simply does not hold together. Are male and female distinct categories so that we should we be pushing ?equal work for equal pay? and celebrating every ?first woman to do X? achievement? Or are the categories completely malleable so that even the talk of binary gender norms is offensive? Two nights ago I watched a few minutes of the Oscars and then flipped to watch some of the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships on ESPN. It struck me that many of the people attending the Oscars and many of the universities represented on the track would fully applaud the transgender agenda. And yet, here they are with their antiquated categories of Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress and their old-fashioned ideas of men and women running the mile in totally separate races.

"I live in East Lansing, Michigan. I love my city. It?s a great place to live. It?s also a university town that tries to be at the cutting edge of progressive cultural trends. Which is why the local school board has pushed for students to be able to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. At the same time, when I go to the community center?operated by the city of East Lansing?there is a sign on the men?s locker room stating clearly that girls should not be brought into the locker room (but can accompany their parents in the family bathroom). So does biology matter or not? Is it a matter of safety to keep boys and girls separate, or is it matter of safe space to let boys use the girls facilities if they think they are girls? The idea that the whole world must accommodate my declared sense of self is soul-destroying, culture-poisoning folly and deserves to be treated as such.

"That?s what?s must be said about the arguments and the agenda.

"But that?s not all that must be said. There are people?men and women made in God?s image?who feel all sorts of confusion about who they are and what they want to be. To those struggling with feelings they don?t understand and a sense of self that feels horribly unsettled, we want to say:

"This happens. All the time. Not necessarily with gender, but human identity. We all struggle to figure out who we are, especially in our growing-up years. Sometimes that means we don?t know how to makes sense of our own bodies and our own sexuality. We don?t want anyone to feel unsafe in a bathroom. So let?s figure out how to have more unisex single stalls. Let?s provide well-trained, warmhearted counselors. Let?s make sure kids are not made fun of for being tomboys or for being sensitive or for being immigrants or for being Muslim or for being Christian or for being whatever.

"And let?s make sure we aren?t constantly in full-on culture warrior mode. We should empathize with those who genuinely feel threatened, scared, or all alone. Standing up for the truth doesn?t mean we have to say everything we think in every situation. It?s okay to be tactful, respectful, and even keep our mouths shut at times. Charging ahead with zeal is not an excuse for trampling over people.

"The Christian response to the transgender debate depends on whether we are talking about the debate or about a transgender person. I understand the two cannot be completely divorced, but they are not the same thing either. The ideas bandied about in the public square are often ridiculous. The people struggling with gender identity are not. This is what makes the controversy especially difficult for Christians. As a pastor, I need to shepherd a flock that faces pressures from a world that is trying every day to remake them in its image (Rom. 12:2). But I also need to shepherd a flock that likely has sheep in it who wonder how they can live a holy and acceptable life to God when they don?t feel like (or simply don?t like) the person they see in the mirror (Rom 12:1).

"That means while we do not have patience for secular agendas, we must have patience for struggling people. We may be quick with rebuttals in the public square, but we must be quick with a listening ear in the neighbor?s kitchen. It means we must show private care in a way that is not confused with public indifference, and make known our public concern in a way that is not confused with private disdain. We have two different things to say depending on the context?not contradictory things, but complementary things the world is eager to confuse.

"The agenda ought to be lampooned. The people ought to be loved.

Kevin DeYoung - The Gospel Coalition - February 28, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Religious suppression creates ?black market? for believers in China

"Under President Xi Jinping, followers of many faiths have been pushed ?to operate outside the law and to view the regime as unreasonable, unjust, or illegitimate,? says The Battle for China?s Spirit, a lengthy report released this week by Freedom House, a Washington-based NGO that advocates for civil liberties. The report documents Christians barred from gathering for Christmas, Muslims jailed for praying outdoors and Tibetan Buddhists forced into ?patriotic re-education.?

?Chinese officials have banned holiday celebrations, desecrated places of worship, and employed lethal violence,? the report finds. ?Security forces across the country detain, torture, or kill believers from various faiths on a daily basis.? In the last two weeks alone, authorities have required the installation of GPS monitoring devices on private cars in one prefecture of China?s heavily-Muslim western Xinjiang region, and then marshalled a huge display of military force in the capital, Urumqi, where more than 10,000 armed troops gathered for what local media called an anti-terror rally.

"A recent report by United Nations human rights investigators, meanwhile, called attention to ?severe restrictions of religious freedom? in Tibet, noting mass evictions from two monasteries, the demolition of monastic homes and mining at a holy mountain. The Freedom House report documents many other measures in China. ?Extensive surveillance, ?re-education? campaigns, and restrictions on private worship affect the spiritual lives of millions of people,? the report finds. ?And increasingly, economic reprisals and exploitation have become a source of tension and a catalyst for protests,? the report finds.

"Religion has, from the time of Mao Zedong, existed uncomfortably in a state run by the formally atheist Communist Party. But for much of the past two decades, authorities have taken a more lenient approach to religious observance, allowing underground places of worship into the open. Religion has flourished, with hundreds of millions of people flocking to beliefs of all stripes. Some of this has been encouraged under President Xi, too, whose administration favours Buddhism and Taoism, religions the Communist Party sees as domestic belief systems that can help to instill a common sense of moral value and purpose.

"At the same time, however, China has embarked on a broad effort to squeeze out foreign influence and civil society in order to reassert the authority of the state. In a landmark speech on religion last spring, Mr. Xi urged monks, imams and pastors to ?interpret religious doctrines in a way that is conducive to modern China?s progress,? and called on cadres to ?guide and educate the religious circle and their followers with the socialist core values.?

"Communist Party leadership sees ?religion as a kind of existential threat to the party state. It creates a counterideology that can mobilize people quite quickly and quite passionately to oppose the party state,? said James Leibold, an expert on Chinese ethnic policy at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Draconian repression of some beliefs, like Falun Gong, is long-standing. But under Mr. Xi, religious suppression has grown broader and deeper, Prof. Leibold said. ?As a result, we?re seeing increasing controls across the board, from Catholicism to Tibetan Buddhism to Islam.?

"China?s religious policies are not uniform, and deeply entangled with its treatment of ethnic groups. In Tibetan areas, for example, Buddhist monks face heavy restrictions on travel and religious instruction. Elsewhere in China, officials are erecting new Buddhist and Taoist temples. The treatment of Islam, too, is not uniform across the country. Muslims in Xinjiang live under restrictive rules on dress, facial hair and observance of important religious occasions, such as Ramadan. Hui Muslims observe their faith with more freedom, although Hui, too, are facing more severe treatment, Prof. Leibold said. The treatment of Tibetans and Uighurs offers a glimpse of the downward spirals that can emerge under harsh policies.

"In Xinjiang, what?s needed is de-escalation, ?some kind of a peace process like the British had in Northern Ireland,? said Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer-winning journalist and author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. But that?s difficult to do when strict government policies have largely eliminated moderate voices and civil society. ?It?s a tough hole for them to climb out of there,? he said. ?And this is going to be the largest conflict area for religion and state in China going forward.?

"Elsewhere, China has so far been more lenient. Though hundreds of crosses were removed from churches in Zhejiang province, such action has barely been seen elsewhere ? and virtually all Zhejiang churches remain open. There are signs, however, that China is preparing for stronger action. Draft rules released last fall threaten fines for those who rent space to unregistered religious organizations, and new restrictions on contact and financial transactions between Chinese believers and foreign groups Mr. Johnson warned that such a strategy could ?create a lot more problems for them than they think. They?re essentially picking a fight with people who are not likely to back down.? Under Mao, he noted, the Christian church roughly quadrupled in size despite the imprisonment and death of pastors and priests.

"The Chinese church enjoys far more freedom today than it did then. Still, some religious leaders, worried about the changes they are seeing, have begun to discuss how they might adapt. Authorities have refused to allow the commercial publication of Christian books and told philosophy professors to expunge discussion of Christianity, which poses problems to the teaching of Western thinking influenced by the church. ?We do see efforts to limit the influence of religion among youth, and in educational situations,? said Brent Fulton, president of ChinaSource, a resource site for Christianity in China, and author of several books on the Chinese church. ?There have been Christians who have been questioned extensively about their relationships with foreigners.?

"In response, some pastors have talked about rethinking their religious organizations, which might include splitting large congregations into smaller family churches. Others see no reason to change, Mr. Fulton said. ?They would say, ?We?re used to having our phones tapped. We?re used to having our meetings monitored. We?re used to being called in to drink tea with the police. So that?s normal. We just deal with that and we continue to do what we do.??

Nathan Vanderklippe - The Globe & Mail (Beijing) - March 1, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Muslims in Syria Cconverting to Christianity

Abu Radwan enters a church on the outskirts of Beirut with his wife and two kids. His wife removes the black headscarf covering her hair. It was here, a year and a half ago, that they converted to Christianity. ?Of course it was a difficult decision,? Abu Radwan says. ?I was born into a Muslim family.? The family is from the city of Homs in Syria. They sought refuge in Lebanon at the beginning of the war. Then two years ago, Abu Radwan says Jesus appeared to him in a dream.

?I started going to the church,? he says. ?I believed that Jesus was coming to help us, to save us.? Seven months later, he decided to become a Christian. ?We accepted him as a member of the church and baptized him, together with his wife and children," says Bishop George Saliba. ?And we take care of him.? Saliba says he has baptized around 100 Muslim Syrian refugees since the start of the war in Syria in 2011. ?Because [of] the constitution of Lebanon, they have the right to change their religion [here],? Saliba says. ?But in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, it is impossible.? It?s illegal, or at least dangerous, for Muslims to convert in those Muslim-majority countries.

"It?s hard to know how many Syrian refugees have converted to Christianity in Lebanon in the past few years, because Bishop Saliba isn?t the only one doing conversions here. At another church in Beirut, Syrian refugees gather in a circle around a pastor. They read Bible passages while sitting on plastic chairs under bright fluorescent lights. Some of the women still wear hijabs as they discuss the text. ?The Lord said go and teach them. I?m leading them in the Bible,? the pastor says. ?I?m teaching them Christian doctrines.? The pastor doesn?t want to be identified, and the church asked us not to mention its name. They fear reprisal from radical Islamist groups like ISIS.

"The pastor says his church doesn?t push anyone to convert or offer anything in exchange for becoming Christian, though, like many churches, they do provide food and assistance to those in need. The pastor won?t say how many refugees his evangelical church has converted, but he says there are dozens of Bible study groups for refugees in Lebanon. ?The ones that accept the Lord, we put them in groups,? he says. ?We teach them about the Bible and the Lord so they will grow in faith.?

"But others raise questions about that faith. Even some Christian leaders and other Syrian Christian refugees say they think the converts are just looking for assistance and help to immigrate to Western countries. Bishop Saliba denies this and insists that he questions potential converts to ensure their faith is genuine. ?When I see a person wishes to be Christian, I don?t stop him,? he says, ?but we try to test him.?
Abu Radwan, the convert, says he does get assistance from the church ? about $200 a month. And he believes that being Christian will help his family get resettled in a Western country.  ?Of course it will be easier,? he tells me.

"The United Nations does resettlement based on vulnerability criteria ? essentially, how much an individual or family is at risk. In the past, the US has used the same criteria. It hasn?t given preference to Christians, though President Donald Trump has said it?s a priority for his administration. Few Western countries do put Christians at the head of the line, though some have church sponsorship programs for refugees. In 2016 nearly all the Syrian refugees accepted by the US were Muslim; fewer than 1 percent were Christian. (Around 10 percent of the Syrian population is Christian.) Yet, many refugees like Abu Radwan believe that being Christian will give them a leg up.

?I want to get out of Lebanon,? he says. ?I want to emigrate. I?ve tried all ways.? In the meantime, the conversion has put Abu Radwan and his family at greater risk here in Lebanon. He pulls up his shirt to reveal a bandage on his torso. Last week, he says, he was stabbed on the street.
?I was coming from church,? he says. Abu Radwan says the attackers were Syrians from his tribe; they don?t accept his conversion. It?s why his wife still wears a hijab outside of church. It has also made going home to Syria almost impossible. His tribe, he says, has issued an order to kill him. But he doesn?t regret his conversion.

?I was relieved when I was baptized,? he says. ?If I die, now, here in front of the church, I will die in peace.?

Rebecca Cotland - PRI - March 2, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The church?s urban focus overlooks working-class whites

"Christians have a clear Scriptural mandate to love and serve those who are suffering wherever they find them (Deuteronomy 15:11, Ezekiel 16:49). In recent years, the church?s well-intentioned excitement about urban city centers has created a substantial blind spot, where the suffering of people living in working-class white communities, small towns, and rural areas?where the prince of this world is at work?are often overlooked.

"The church must do her best work outside the cities as well.

"When it comes to their vision of the 21st century church and church planting, many prominent Reformed and Calvinist church leaders cite the missionary work of the Apostle Paul and point to the teachings of Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

?Tim Keller is ? a big proponent of targeting cities with the gospel through church planting,? wrote Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. Amanda Adams of The Daily Beast observed, ?[M]ost likely, the rise in urban church planting is due to a guy named Tim Keller.?

"While Stetzer does caution about being too urban-focused, his warning may not go far enough.

"Keller and other leaders who focus on reaching urban professionals are free to promote their perspective using their particular interest, skill, and expertise. There?s nothing wrong or sinful about their preferences. In fact, Keller?s influence and work in New York City and around the world should be celebrated. But the definition of ?missional? has inadvertently been reduced to the pursuit of urban professionals in cities and has become the church?s default vision for a generation of young Christians.

"Earlier this year, Stetzer described ?missional? in light of Keller?s emphasis on Paul?s mission to target urban centers, evangelize the city, and plant churches. In this view, Christians target cities because cities have, according to Stetzer, ?the greatest potential for gospel impact and gospel multiplication.? After all, evangelization and multiplication were ?the missional model of the Early Church.?

"While the city church planting emphasis emerged as a needed corrective to the suburban focus of evangelicals in the 1980s and ?90s, today?s ?missional? efforts tend to neither encourage future leaders nor raise money to reach the white underclass, people from Rustbelt towns, and working-class white populations in metropolitan areas. Why? Because those people don?t live in urban centers, and there won?t be much ?multiplication? due to low population density. These communities, however, are the very communities where we get America?s white police officers, construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, teachers, and active voters.

"By overlooking the working class and small towns, we are inadvertently missing new opportunities to bring the gospel and holistic redemption to areas where the majority of America?s poor people live, where suicide rates are surging, where we find the new frontier for America?s worst HIV problems, where the mortality rates for middle-aged white women are at all-time highs, where manufacturing is dying out, where Americans are the most depressed and nihilistic about life, where America?s drug use is the highest.

"Do we need to revitalize and plant more churches in large cities in light of current international population shifts. Yes, absolutely. However, to move away from suffering people in rural or suburban areas for the purpose of reaching urban elites has no prescriptive basis in the Bible or the Christian tradition.

"I don?t believe that those who champion the planting of churches in cities think we shouldn?t go into white working-class areas. But these leaders don?t offer the same amount of enthusiasm, training, fund-raising, and sending outside of urban areas and inadvertently blind people to real needs beyond their city focus.

Working-class white communities, rural areas, and small towns must be included in the American Christian mission?not based on Paul?s travels but by looking for areas that are affected by brokenness of the Fall, where the Devil is busy, where God?s people are, and where there is a need for salt and light.

Anthony Bradley - Professor of Religious Studies, The Kings College (NY) - World News.

[eyeshaveit]

A Call to End Christian Persecution Abroad

"It seems that lost in the nonstop news coverage of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the war raging in Syria is the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. Before I spoke at a Knights of Malta fundraiser Thursday benefitting the Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem, those gathered were shown a video presentation highlighting how poorly Christians, especially children, are being treated in the region. The hospital, located steps from the birthplace of Christ, is a beacon of hope in a region of historic conflict and provides state-of-the-art maternity care to women and children regardless of their religion, nationality or ability to pay. Funding the hospital is the Knights? primary objective.

"During my address, I told the audience how I frequently heard Pope John Paul II talk about the critical need for the hospital, which had been shuttered before it was reopened in 1985. I recalled the devastation that had been dealt by genocides in Rwanda and Burundi and civil wars in Somalia, Bosnia, The Middle East and Northern Ireland. I told them about the times I spoke with President Clinton and Pope John Paul II about the need for a permanent high-ranking White House position aimed at raising awareness and pressuring world leaders and media members to help put an end to brutal religious persecution worldwide. And though Clinton told me he agreed with the need for creating a Permanent Envoy on Religious Concerns at the White House, the position was never created.

"After my remarks, event chairman Tom Driscoll said he found my comments ?remarkable, informative and timely, but also very disturbing.? ?I totally agree with you,? he said. ?Why is it that persecution against Christians in the Middle East and in parts of Africa receives such very little public attention?? A question that numerous other guests at the Seaport Hotel asked me, including Bob Shafer, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta?s permanent observer at the U.N.mI carried the message with me to the rededication of Southie?s Murphy Skating Rink yesterday, telling those gathered that I would call on Trump to create the much-needed position.

?In light of all the growing brutal violence and bigotry directed at Christians, especially Catholics in the world today, I urge President Trump to appoint a Special White House Envoy on Religious Persecution,? I said, ?whether it?s directed against Catholics, Protestants, Jews or any other religious persuasion.? Nothing short of liberty, freedom and human rights is in jeopardy and I urge all freedom-loving Americans to contact the White House and tell them they agree with me."

Raymond L. Flynn - Boston Herald - March 4, 2017.
Ray Flynn is a former mayor of Boston and a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

[eyeshaveit]

Christians Turn To Podcasts To Say Things They Can't Say in Church

"Toby Morrell curses and talks about sex on his podcast. Mike McHargue talks about evolution and LGBTQ issues on his. These things would be typical on most podcasts ? but McHargue and Morrell's audiences are almost entirely Christian.

"A study by the Pew Research Center, released in 2015, shows that millennials have been leaving Catholic and mainline Protestant churches in droves from at least 2007 but they don't necessarily lose their belief in God. In fact, more than half say they're still religious or spiritual.

"That's the type of audience that's tuning in to McHargue's podcast The Liturgists and Morrell's podcast Bad Christian.The Liturgists has about 1 million downloads a month for some episodes and according to its Website, 250,000 subscribers. Bad Christian is sponsored by a few corporations not generally known for their religious affiliations. Among them are Lyft, Casper, Stamps.com.

"These two podcasts aren't unique in their approach. Similar podcasts include The Robcast, hosted by ex-pastor Rob Bell, who left his church after saying God doesn't send people to hell, and Drunk Ex-Pastors, where the hosts take a shot of an alcoholic beverage before every show.

"McHargue and Morrell say they grew up as Christians who didn't feel like the institutional church allowed them to question and explore their faith. They spoke with NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered about why they left the church, how that changed their faith, and how podcasts like theirs could be affecting Christianity.

"Interview Highlights:

On why he left the church

"McHargue: A lot of people have a lot of anger toward their past, but I actually loved being a Baptist. But as I grew as a person, and started to face challenges in my own life ? in my particular case, my parents got a divorce after 30 years of marriage ? I started to look to the Bible for answers, and the way I was taught to read the Bible started to fall apart.

Morrell: My grandfather was a pastor, so I grew up in this church that was very conservative. They were so conservative, they split from other churches because they thought the other churches in the South were too liberal, and I was like "What in the world?" Christianity, in general, I would say, never represented me ? I always felt like I was on the outside. The only time I felt like I was represented was actually within the Scripture. Some terrible people were heroes in the Bible. You saw some really terrible things about people's lives and personalities within the Bible, but when I was growing up in church, everybody hid that. You don't do this, this, this and that makes you a Christian.

On why he turned to podcasting

"McHargue: As I explored this middle space between faith and skepticism, I found that there were a lot of people stuck in that gear too. People for whom the church was too dogmatic, but atheism was too dismissive of their need for mystery and, frankly, things spiritual.

"Morrell: As I got older, I realized there were people just like me. And so [Joey Svendsen, Matt Carter and I] ended up doing this podcast just because we wanted to represent, "What is it like for three friends to get together and just be as brutally honest as we can?"

On criticism from Christians

"Morrell: We get a lot of criticism and I think that is good. That's one of the biggest critiques we have of the church ? is that you can't critique it. That pastors would be hidden when they have moral failures. ... The church does a really poor job of respecting people's minds. They want to just give you everything in a pretty little package, and that is what your Christianity is. I think what we're doing is opening up a door where people go, "No, I own my faith. I'm wrestling with God."

On if the future of Christianity will be church services or podcasts

"McHargue: I think that the future is both. I think you'll continue to have institutional Christianity, and I think you'll continue to have sort of a church in exile. My work is about acknowledging the validity as both as ways to know and follow this historical figure Jesus, and figure out what that means. I think everywhere people gather together around a table, God can be present.

Michael Martin - National Public Radio - All Things Considered - March 5, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Religious participation may serve to strengthen social bonds

"Roughly 80 percent of people around the globe identify with some type of religion, and scientists have been seriously pursuing insight into the evolutionary benefit of religious practice since the early part of this century. In a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour, Eleanor Power of the Santa Fe Institute writes that active religious participation may benefit practitioners by strengthening social bonds

'While some anonymized, lab-based experiments have suggested that religious behavior may increase prosocial qualities like generosity and trustworthiness, few researchers have studied this question in the context of a real community. In her study, Power analyzes how the nature of peoples' religious practice correlates with the structure of their social support networks in two villages in South India.

"How people embody their religion in public can vary in difficulty and costliness. A single trip to attend a religious service doesn't require much effort or money, but regular visits require greater commitment. Sacrificial offerings may not be difficult, but they are expensive. Some activities, like making a long pilgrimage or piercing the body with hooks and spears, are both physically and financially demanding.

"Community members who invest more in religious activity are viewed as being more trustworthy and generous. Consequently, these people are often sought out by others who need support. While this can create a burden, it also helps to foster more mutually supportive relationships. "Providing support to others means that one is more able to draw on support oneself," writes Power in the new paper.

"These religious acts make a lot of sense when you look at the social benefit," says Power. In the South Indian communities in this study, most residents are poor, don't have access to bank accounts, and they rely on family and friends to help with farming, home-building and other crucial tasks. "So if your religious practice influences the likelihood and strength of those relationships, you'll be much better able to withstand the vagaries of life."

Eleanor Power - Santa Fe Institute - Science News - March 6, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Supreme Court announces it will not hear major transgender bathroom case

Sometimes history is made in just one sentence. That was the case yesterday when the United States Supreme Court handed down a one sentence statement saying that it was not going to continue the case that it had agreed to hear concerning the big question of transgender rights, specifically the rights of transgender students in the public schools. The announcement that came yesterday meant that the case that had been going forward on appeal from the Fourth Circuit?that?s the U.S. Appeals Court located in Richmond, Virginia?will now be sent back to that court. The reason why is quite simple. It was the administration of President Barack Obama who had ordered by means of the now-infamous Dear Colleague letter that all schools?that is all public schools all the way from kindergarten to universities?must allow persons to use facilities, including locker rooms, restrooms, and changing areas, corresponding with their current gender identity.

The school board in Gloucester County, Virginia passed a rule stating the students must use those facilities that would correspond with biological sex, the sex that was indicated on the students? birth certificates. This led one student, a transgender student originally born as biologically female but now claiming identity as a boy, to file suit that led to a federal district court case. Once that decision was handed down it was appealed to the Fourth US circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Once that decision was handed down, it was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court months ago had agreed to take the case. But the case as it was framed several months ago had everything to do with the interpretation of Title IX?that?s the 1970s legislation that bans sex discrimination in the schools?that was undertaken by the Obama Administration. Once again we?re back to that infamous Dear Colleague letter in which the Obama Administration enforced nationwide a transgender agenda when it came to these kinds of facilities: bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities.

Albert Mohler - The Briefing - March 8, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Vatican Calls For Respect For Religious Freedom

"Despite so many efforts to promote and reinforce the fundamental human right of religious freedom, we are actually witnessing a continued deterioration, we might even say, an assault, of this inalienable right in many parts of the world. Religion has always been the subject of great consideration. This is evident in its regulation by domestic or international legal systems as well as in the mixed and even controversial interest elicited within the institutions of the international community. The choice of faith and the consequent belonging to a religion impact every level of life, the social and political spheres. They play a formidable role in addressing the challenges our societies go through on a daily basis. Today, moreover, religion has taken on a renewed importance due to the complex relationship between the personal choice of faith and its public expression. Due to such implications, the choice and practice of one?s faith must be free of constraints and coercion.

"While the situation of religious freedom in the world is rather shocking, especially when one acknowledges the unprecedented number of cases of violence against Christians and other religious communities, there remains a strong effort to keep the spotlight on human rights violators and the perpetrators of these abuses. These efforts represent the hope that the international community will react, that it has not lost its conscience, that it has not become too cynical or, in the words of Pope Francis, succumbed to a ?global indifference?.

"Over the last years, millions of people have been either displaced or forced to leave their ancestral lands. Those who stay in conflict zones or areas controlled by terrorist groups live under the permanent threat of human rights violations, repression and abuses. Numerous Christian churches and ancient shrines of all religions have been destroyed. ?The situation of Christians in the Middle East, a land on which they are living for centuries and have the right to remain, raises deep concerns. There are more and more reasons to fear seriously for the future of the Christian communities that have more than two thousand years of existence in this region, where Christianity has its full place, and began its long history.? Persecution against Christians today is actually worse than in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era.

"Protection is one of the key elements surrounding any debate on religious freedom as a fundamental human right because it is intrinsic to the human person. In fact, they also serve a strategic role in evaluating and ensuring the proper attention and guarantee granted by public authorities. This interpretation reflects the process of affirmation of human rights that has characterized the history of the last few centuries, placing the human person and his/her rights at the center of legal, political, cultural and religious actions. Indeed, religious freedom raises the question of the indivisibility of human rights, which has become a guiding principle and fundamental assumption of the international law of human rights.

"Religious freedom is a fundamental human right which reflects the highest dimension of human dignity, the ability to seek the truth and conform to it, recognizing a condition which is indispensable to the ability to deploy all of one?s own potentiality. Religious freedom is not only that of private belief or worship. It is the liberty to live, both privately and publicly, according to the ethical principles resulting from religious principles. This is a great challenge in the globalized world, where weak convictions also lower the general ethical level and, in the name of a false concept of tolerance, those who defend their faith end up being persecuted.

"Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, alone and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious freedom by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of persons and families. Our various religious traditions serve society primarily by the message they proclaim. They call persons and communities to worship God, the source of all life, liberty and happiness. They remind us of the transcendent dimension of human existence and our irreducible freedom in the face of every claim to absolute power. Our rich religious traditions seek to offer meaning and direction, ?they have an enduring power to open new horizons, to stimulate thought, to expand the mind and heart.?

They call to conversion, reconciliation, concern for the future of society, self-sacrifice in the service of the common good, and compassion for those in need. At the heart of their spiritual mission is the proclamation of the truth and dignity of the human person and human rights. In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without a right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others.

"The tendency towards globalization is good, it unites us, it can be noble. But if it pretends to make us all the same, it destroys the uniqueness of each people and each person. We live in a world subject to the ?globalization of the technocratic paradigm,? which consciously aims at a one-dimensional uniformity and seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial quest for unity. Religions thus have the right and the duty to make clear that it is possible to build a society where ?a healthy pluralism which respects differences and values them as such? is a ?precious ally in the commitment to defending human dignity? and a path to peace in our troubled world.?

Religious freedom, acknowledged in constitutions and laws and expressed in consistent conduct, promotes the development of relationships of mutual respect among the diverse confessions and their healthy collaboration with the State and political society, without confusion of roles and without antagonism. In place of the global clash of values, it thus becomes possible to start from a nucleus of universally shared values, of global cooperation in view of the common good. It is incomprehensible and alarming that still today discrimination and restrictions of human rights continue for the single fact that one belongs to and publicly professes an unwavering faith. It is unacceptable that real persecution is actually sustained for reasons of religious affiliation! This distorts reason, attacks peace and abuses human dignity. In conclusion, If we intend to try to address incisively the many problematic issues and tragedies of our time, it is necessary to speak and act as brothers, in a way that all can easily recognize. This too is a way of confronting the globalization of indifference with the globalization of solidarity and fraternity.

Looking at the whole scenario, a possible way forward could be represented by the universal recognition of religious freedom as a fundamental human right for every person, in every country, and respected equally by everybody. The failure to apply and defend this right on a universal level affects the implementation of all other human rights, as experience shows. Such a failure has precisely precipitated the overwhelming situation that we face in our world today. The challenge facing the international community, the Human Rights Council and States is a renewed commitment to what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: ?Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.? Closing the gap between the ideal proposed by international instruments and the practice on the ground remains a daunting task, but there is no alternative other than to continue working in the direction of a more effective guarantee of religious freedom for all."

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovi? - Vatican Radio - March 7, 2017.

Archbishop Jurkovi? is the Permanent Observer of the Vatican to the United Nations.

[eyeshaveit]

New miniseries - CNN?s worst assault on religion yet

"CNN has long struggled to understand religion. But the host of an upcoming documentary takes that cluelessness to a whole new level. So picture this: You visit a restaurant known for serving the best cuisine from around the world. You?re about to sample the fare, when you discover that the chef was born without taste buds. He?s actually never experienced his own cooking, and couldn?t tell the difference between veal scallopini and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

"That?s sort of how I feel about a new documentary series on world religions hosted by a man who doesn?t seem to understand that different religions are, well?different. Reza Aslan?s ?Believer,? a ?spiritual adventure series? it?s called, which premiered Sunday on CNN, explores belief systems from around the world. But in a recent opinion piece at CNN, Aslan (who identifies himself as a Sufi Muslim) makes it clear that he doesn?t believe there are any essential differences between the world?s religions. As a matter of fact, he seems to think all religions are basically subjective nonsense.

?I know better than to take the truth claims of any religion (including my own) too seriously,? he writes. And considering the ?conflict? and ?bigotry? religion inspires and the way it clashes with reason, Aslan thinks it?s ?understandable why so many people view religious faith as the hallmark of an irrational mind.? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is your tour guide to the religions of the world.

"But he goes much further, contrasting these recently-evolved ?symbols and metaphors? we call religion with something more ?mysterious, ?ineffable,? and ?emotional?: faith. Quoting the Buddha, Aslan likens the religions of the world to different wells, which believers dig in order to drink the same water. In other words, all religions are equally true. All roads, so to speak, lead to Heaven, resurrection, enlightenment, Nirvana, or whatever else your endgame may be.

"But that very sentence is proof of how silly Aslan?s thesis is. Each religion has its own understanding not only of Who God is (or isn?t) and how we receive salvation, but of what salvation itself looks like. This reminds me of Steven Turner?s satirical observation of this sort of thinking in his poem ?Creed.? ?We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one that we read was. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation sin heaven hell God and salvation.?

"This is, as C. S. Lewis called it, ?patronizing nonsense.? And ?patronizing nonsense? perfectly describes Reza Aslan?s idea that all religions are really just different paths to the same nebulous, emotion-centric experience that he calls ?faith.? His fellow Muslims outside of the secular West certainly don?t see their religion as just one valid belief system among many. They confess, as part of their universal creed, that there?s no god but their god, and that Muhammad is his prophet. If you don?t believe these things, you?re not only not a Muslim, you?re an infidel. And guess what? Aslan?s more tolerant Sufi sect of Islam thinks their more militant brethren have it wrong too.

"But, someone might ask, if only one of the dozens of world religions is the path to God, how do we know which one it is? What gives us confidence the truth claims of Christ are valid, while those of the Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Richard Dawkins, or Reza Aslan are not? There are powerful answers to this question, which is why every Christian should have a basic knowledge of apologetics. For example, the claims of Christianity are public. They center on a Savior Who lived and performed miracles publicly, died publicly, rose from the dead publicly, and showed Himself to hundreds of witnesses publicly.

Religions like Islam and Buddhism started with private revelations or dreams given to a single person. When it comes to historical verifiability, there?s no comparison. But here?s the larger point to keep in mind when you hear this sort of talk about religion being pushed by CNN: There may be many wells, but there?s only one that offers Living Water"

John Stonestreet - Life Site News - March 9, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Is Intersectionality a Religion?

?Intersectionality? is the latest academic craze sweeping the American academy. On the surface, it?s a recent neo-Marxist theory that argues that social oppression does not simply apply to single categories of identity ? such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. ? but to all of them in an interlocking system of hierarchy and power. At least, that?s my best attempt to define briefly ... how an otherwise challenging social theory can often operate in practice.

"It is operating, in Orwell?s words, as a ?smelly little orthodoxy,? and it manifests itself, it seems to me, almost as a religion. It posits a classic orthodoxy through which all of human experience is explained ? and through which all speech must be filtered. Its version of original sin is the power of some identity groups over others. To overcome this sin, you need first to confess, i.e., ?check your privilege,? and subsequently live your life and order your thoughts in a way that keeps this sin at bay. The sin goes so deep into your psyche, especially if you are white or male or straight, that a profound conversion is required.

"Like the Puritanism once familiar in New England, intersectionality controls language and the very terms of discourse. It enforces manners. It has an idea of virtue ? and is obsessed with upholding it. The saints are the most oppressed who nonetheless resist. The sinners are categorized in various ascending categories of demographic damnation, like something out of Dante. The only thing this religion lacks, of course, is salvation. Life is simply an interlocking drama of oppression and power and resistance, ending only in death. It?s Marx without the final total liberation.

"It operates as a religion in one other critical dimension: If you happen to see the world in a different way, if you?re a liberal or libertarian or even, gasp, a conservative, if you believe that a university is a place where any idea, however loathsome, can be debated and refuted, you are not just wrong, you are immoral. If you think that arguments and ideas can have a life independent of ?white supremacy,? you are complicit in evil. And you are not just complicit, your heresy is a direct threat to others, and therefore needs to be extinguished. You can?t reason with heresy. You have to ban it. It will contaminate others? souls, and wound them irreparably."

Andrew Sullivan - New York Magazine - March 10, 2017.

Complete article:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/is-intersectionality-a-religion.html

[eyeshaveit]

Four Secrets to Quaker Business Success

"In 1987 ICI, one of the leading chemical conglomerates at the time, described its purpose as follows:

"ICI aims to be the world?s leading chemical company serving customers internationally through the innovative and responsible application of chemistry and related science. Through the achievement of our aim we will enhance the wealth and well-being of shareholders, employees, customers, and communities which we serve and in which we operate."

"In 1994 the company objective had changed to:

"Our objective is to maximise value for our shareholders by focussing on businesses where we have market leadership, a technological edge, and a world competitive cost base."

"So, what changed? What changed so that ICI no longer aimed to be the world?s leading chemical company? What changed such that ICI?s application of science was no longer to be the innovative and responsible application of chemistry and related science, but only that in which they had a technological edge? What happened to the employees, customers, and communities which we serve, to be replaced by to maximise value for our shareholders?

"The answer requires a book rather than a blog but the case of ICI is illustrative of the way in which business has become separated from ethics, values and a truly holistic purpose which historically served the economy and society well.

"The Quakers represented, in 1850, no more than one half a percent of the population. Thus it is even more extraordinary just how many of our household names had Quaker origins ? not least in financial services ? Barclays, Lloyds, Friends Provident, Cadbury, Rowntree, Clarks (as in shoes), Huntley and Palmer (biscuits). The successful iron smelting that formed the basis of the Industrial Revolution came from a Quaker family, the Darbys.

"I am not suggesting that the solution to the problems of business purpose and intent today is solved if we all became Quakers! However, what I am saying is that by understanding the key reasons why the Quakers were successful (mostly) in business can inform our contemporary debates in a helpful manner.

There were four key reasons behind Quaker business success, all of which have wider application today

Understanding the culture shapes purpose and identity

"Entrepreneurs do not flourish alone. Professor Mark Casson of Henley Business School has argued that the quality of entrepreneurship depends upon the quality of business culture. A strong culture is built upon trust, confidence integrity and quality. The strength of the Quaker culture had a direct impact upon their business success. The Quakers ? among others ? had by 1800 faced around 150 years of oppression, crucially including exclusion from the Universities. Hence many Quakers turned their minds to business. This persecution made them close-knit communities and it was within this setting that apprenticeships were developed, trust and confidence built as the major families all knew each other, with dishonesty and especially bankruptcy viewed in highly negative terms due to the impact on Quaker reputation. A strong culture which enhanced positive behaviour of honesty and integrity (quality products at fixed prices) and discouraged negative behaviour.

A willingness to talk and act morally

"A major complexity today is that we have become so individualistic that moral behaviour is reduced also to the behaviour of each individual. We need to recover not ?moralising? but ?moral character? and ?moral action.? The reality is that much of the Quakers integrity derived from their spiritual principles. Their moral codes included injunctions against overtrading, honesty, payment of debts, caution over indebtedness, transparent and accurate accounts and understanding of the business. These principles derive from the Quaker ?Advices? and ?Queries? on trade issued between 1675 and 1793. Many Quakers became wealthy, but often had to endure the long and patient wait of the entrepreneur for success. As a result, they were not ostentatious with their wealth and certainly exercised personal discipline and frugality in the wait for a return. There are clear lessons for us today and we must become more willing to talk about moral values.

The central role of the family business

"Generally speaking, negative views of business are aimed at the big corporates and more positive views of business related to smaller, local and family businesses (SMEs). All the successful Quaker businesses began as family businesses. Indeed, most involved the capital of the founders and owners being placed at risk. The opposite of limited liability. Growth inevitably led to a dilution of the family business and the need for capital ultimately led the leading Quaker businesses to adopt limited liability. However, the idea of the family business lay at the heart of the Quaker vision. The business was seen as part of the family and as a result concern for both quality products and the employees ? so, everything from sport, to societies, savings clubs but also pension funds, sick pay and even bonus schemes.

Understanding the wider responsibilities of business and capital

"The compartmentalisation of business from society is disastrous. The Quaker businesses had a much more holistic view of their purpose. Profitability was essential, but so were reputation, customers and the society of which they were part. The days of company?s building model villages providing housing ? not charitable, but commercial ? as well as ensuring community green space, fresh air and light may be over but the principles still provide lessons. Social purpose and commercial profitability and success are not mutually exclusive. Real relationships ? between owners and managers, managers and workers, companies and customers and so on ? are infinitely more purposeful than the remoteness and the contractual nature of so many business relationships.

"How far we have come. Without a sense of ethical responsibility, disciplined moral behaviour and character and a recognition that capital and its economic return carry responsibilities as well as rewards, we will continue to increase the divide of business and society. However, we must also recognise that all of this can only be achieved in the context of a free economy where wealth creation is celebrated rather than despised and where the limits of government are recognised to be as significant as its regulatory and redistributive roles. A concern for society and the responsibilities of wealth do not need to be separated from a wealth-creating, efficient business enterprise. Profit is virtuous, but does not need to be maximised at the expense of all other demands.

"Culture, ethics, family relationships, purpose, values, employees, responsibility ? for all these things we can thank, at least in part, the Quaker businesses. All of those things are essential in restoring confidence in business today."

Dr Richard Turnbull - Centre for Enterprise, Markets & Ethics (CEME).

Dr Turnbull is the Director of CEME.

[eyeshaveit]

China warns of global religious extremism threat to region

"Chinese officials are issuing new warnings about the specter of global religious extremism seeping into the country, following reports of fighters from China's Muslim minority fighting alongside militants in Syria and Iraq.

"Sharhat Ahan, a top political and legal affairs party official in Xinjiang, on Sunday became the latest official from a predominantly Muslim region to warn about China becoming destabilized by the "international anti-terror situation" and calling for a "people's war."

"Over the past year, regional leaders in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) ethnic minority, have ramped up surveillance measures and police patrols and staged massive rallies intended to showcase the power of the security forces.

"Those demonstrations are intended to "declare war against terrorists, to showcase the party and the government's resolve to fight terror, resolve to preserve public safety and (China's) mighty combat strength," Ahan told officials gathered in Beijing for this month's National People's Congress.

"Although some scholars question whether global jihadi networks are active in the country, top Chinese officials are increasingly echoing strands of international discourse to back up claims that Islamic extremism is growing worldwide and needs to be rolled back. In recent years, hundreds have died in violent incidents mainly in Xinjiang that officials blame on Uighur separatists inspired by the global Jihadi cause.

"While it has provided little evidence, the government, says Xinjiang faces a grave separatist threat from Uighur fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. IS released a video in late February purportedly showing Uighur fighters training in Iraq and vowing to strike China, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

"Officials from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region ? which has an ethnic Hui population that is predominantly Muslim but, unlike Xinjiang, rarely sees separatist or religious violence ? warned similarly this past week about the perils of Islamic extremism. Speaking at a regional meeting open to the media, Ningxia Communist Party secretary Li Jianhua drew comparisons to the policies of President Donald Trump's administration to make his point.

"What the Islamic State and extremists push is jihad, terror, violence," Li said. "This is why we see Trump targeting Muslims in a travel ban. It doesn't matter whether anti-Muslim policy is in the interests of the U.S. or it promotes stability, it's about preventing religious extremism from seeping into all of American culture."

"Wu Shimin, a former ethnic affairs official from Ningxia, said that ideological work must be strengthened in the region to promote a Chinese identity among its Hui population, the descendants of Muslim traders plying the Silk Road centuries ago.

"The roots of the Hui are in China," Wu said. "To discuss religious consciousness, we must first discuss Chinese consciousness. To discuss the feelings of minorities, we must first discuss the feelings of the Chinese people."

"The officially atheistic Communist Party has long viewed religion with suspicion but has generally granted a fair degree of religious freedom to its Hui minority, especially in their heartland of Ningxia, where mosques dot the skyline. The party has kept a far tighter grip over Xinjiang's Uighurs ? who have a language, culture and physical features that are more closely linked to Central Asia ? partly due to the existence of a decades-old separatist movement.

"But the comments by party officials in Ningxia, seen as traditionally more lax on ethnic and religious policy, reflected the top Chinese leadership's growing anxieties about Islam more broadly over the past year, analysts said.

"There's a strengthening trend of viewing Islam as a problem in Chinese society," a Mohammed al-Sudairi, a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. "Xi Jinping has been quite anxious about what he saw as the loss of party-state control over the religious sphere when he entered power, which necessitated this intervention. I don't think things will take a softer turn."

Gary Shih - Associated Press (ABC News) - March 13, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Epilepsy Linked to Intense Religious and Spiritual Experiences, Like Seeing God

"Nearly a year ago, scientists at Hadassah Hebrew Hospital in Jerusalem were carrying out tests on a 46-year-old man with temporal lobe epilepsy, when he began chanting prayers. He then got up and marched around the hospital, telling people, "God has sent me to you." Readings from an electroencephalogram revealed a spike in activity in his left prefrontal cortex, which has been linked to religious experiences, just prior to the incident.

"Indeed, epileptic patients have been known to report detailed religious experiences, and numerous studies on the topic suggest that spiritual processes can change with different neurological conditions. This notion inspired researchers at Missouri University to dive deeper into the connection between epilepsy and heightened religious experience.

"When a patient with epilepsy experiences increased electrical activity in the brain, or seizures, this could be associated with an increase in a range of behaviors, such as hyper-sexuality, hypergraphia (an intense desire to write), hyper-morality and hyper-religiosity, explained Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology at Missouri University and lead researcher on the study. These symptoms present the question: Are the hyper-religious experiences of epileptic patients related to specific religious experiences, or do they reflect increased emotionality observed with epilepsy?

"Our study sought to see if the religious experiences of persons with epilepsy reported on a measure of spirituality are related to measures of spirituality or philosophy on a measure of epilepsy-related behaviors or related to increased emotionality," Johnstone said.

"The researchers asked 19 individuals with epilepsy to take two surveys. The first survey assessed behavior characteristics specifically associated with epilepsy. The second survey measured religious activities and spiritual orientations.

"The average participant was 39 years old, and the group's religions varied. About 32 percent identified as Protestant, 10 percent as Catholic, 5 percent as Buddhist, 5 percent as atheist, 38 percent as other, and 10 percent did not indicate a religious affiliation.

"The study, which was just published in the journal Mental Health, Religion & Culture, suggests that a neurological relationship exists between religiosity and epilepsy. In particular, the researchers found a strong correlation with religious or philosophical thoughts and epilepsy, but no connection between emotional thinking and epilepsy.

"We found that spirituality is related to hyper-philosophy but not hyper-emotionality," Johnstone said. "This suggests that increased seizure activity stimulates parts of the brain that lead to increases in specific spiritually-based neuropsychological processes. In other words, there are certain parts of the brain associated with religious and spiritual processes."

"Johnstone and his team next plan to evaluate spirituality in persons with neurosurgery for brain tumors or intractable seizures and will compare spirituality before and after surgery.

Renee Morad - Seeker - March 13, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

CNN's New Religious Documentary - Hue & Cry When First Show Features Cannibalism

"Religion scholar Reza Aslan ate cooked human brain tissue with a group of cannibals in India during Sunday?s premiere of the new CNN show ?Believer,? a documentary series about spirituality around the globe. The outcry was immediate. Aslan, a Muslim who teaches creative writing at the University of California at Riverside, was accused of ?Hinduphobia? and of mischaracterizing Hindus.

?With multiple reports of hate-fueled attacks against people of Indian origin from across the U.S., the show characterizes Hinduism as cannibalistic, which is a bizarre way of looking at the third largest religion in the world,? lobbyist group U.S. India Political Action Committees said in a statement, according to the Times of India.

"In the episode, Aslan meets up with a sect of Indian religious nomads outside the city of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The Aghori, as they are known, reject the Hindu caste system and the notion of untouchables, and espouse that the distinction between purity and pollution is essentially meaningless. In the Aghori view, nothing can taint the human body, Aslan said. ?Kind of a profound thought. Also: A little bit gross,? said Aslan, whose bestselling books on religion include ?Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.?

"The Aghori persuade Aslan to bathe in the Ganges, a river that Hindus considers sacred. An Aghori guru smears the ashes of cremated humans on his face. And, at the Aghori?s invitation, Aslan drinks alcohol from a human skull and eats what was purported to be a bit of human brain. ?Want to know what a dead guy?s brain tastes like? Charcoal,? Aslan wrote on Facebook. ?It was burnt to a crisp!?

"At one point, the interview soured and one cannibal threatened Aslan: ?I will cut off your head if you keep talking so much.? Aslan, in turn, said to his director, ?I feel like this may have been a mistake.?

"And when the guru began to eat his own waste and hurl it at Aslan and his camera crew, the CNN host scurried away. ?Pretty sure that was not the Aghori I was looking for,? he said.

"Aslan also interviewed several non-cannibal Aghori practitioners, including those who ran an orphanage and a group of volunteers who cared for people with leprosy. Still, some critics thought the focus on the flesh-eating Aghori was inappropriate and done for the shock value.

?It is unbelievably callous and reckless of CNN to be pushing sensational and grotesque images of bearded brown men and their morbid and deathly religion at a time when the United States is living through a period of unprecedented concern and fear,? Vamsee Juluri, a media studies professor at the University of San Francisco, wrote in the Huffington Post. (Cannibalism, while not formally outlawed in the United States, may lead to charges related to the desecration of corpses. Eating human brains has been linked to prion disease.)

"Some viewers turned to Twitter to express their anger about the program. One of the loudest voices on the social media platform belonged to wealthy Indian American industrialist Shalabh Kumar, who made significant contributions to Donald Trump?s presidential campaign and has angled to become a U.S. ambassador to India. Kumar seemed to perceive the episode as an attack on Hindu Americans who voted for Trump, although Aslan didn?t mention Trump.

?Disgusting attack on Hindus for supporting @POTUS,? Kumar tweeted. Invoking the ?Clinton News Network? ? a label that Trump helped popularize ? Kumar wrote in a follow-up tweet that the network had no respect for members of the religion. He called for Hindus to boycott CNN."

Ben Guarino - Washington Post - March 6, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Author Says, CANDY-A$$ED CHRISTIANITY Must End

"In author Larry Alex Taunton?s opinion, evangelical Christians ?have confused Christ?s command to love others with being likable? as ?they endeavor to be, above all else, inoffensive and polite? toward a strident opposing culture that celebrates abortion, spreads a pro-LGBT agenda and calls ?evil good and good evil? (Isaiah 5:20).

"Taunton ? who penned The Faith of Christopher Hitchens in 2016 ? observed that such ?doctrinal malpractice has given us a generation of men who are what [C.S.] Lewis called ?men without chests,?? he noted in a Fox News op-ed Sunday.

"To flavor his point of view, Taunton shared a tidbit about his father, a career soldier. His dad ?had a phrase he liked to employ whenever he saw a man behave in a manner that was less than manly. He would say something like, ?That was candy-assed.? ? While Taunton acknowledged his father ?didn?t invent the idiom,? others ?knew exactly what he was talking about? when he employed the phrase.

?The term fits the kind of Christianity that has infected the church and sapped it of its vitality and strength,? Taunton continued. ?The expression might offend the sensibilities of some of my readers to which I can only say, it might fit you.?

More from Taunton:

"I urge you instead to be offended by the way our God?s name is blasphemed in our country every day; by the 54 million children murdered in the holocaust of abortion since 1973; by the sordid sexual agenda that is eroding the very fabric of Western civilization; by the fact that Christians are dying for their faith, largely at the hands of Muslims, at a rate of 100,000 per year; and, most of all, by the reality that these things are being ignored, trivialized, or celebrated. These are things that offend me deeply, and I hope they offend you, too. Righteous anger has a place within the Christian life. Tap into it. In the words of Ephesians 4:26, ?Be angry and do not sin.?

"Given that evangelicals ?comprise a hefty 26 percent of the U.S. population,? Taunton said that a ?Great Awakening in America? would occur ?if they were to find their voices, their courage, and were to dispense with candy-assed Christianity.? But he added that such a movement would require ?courage,? since ?the forces opposing us seem determined to burn this country to the ground.?

?When Jesus said to turn the other cheek, he did not mean to turn a blind eye,? Taunton concluded. ?The highest calling of a Christian is not to be civil; it is to be salt and light.?

Dave Urbanski - The Blaze - March 14, 2017.

L.A. Taunton's Complete Op-Ed Link Below:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/12/my-message-for-evangelicals-stop-being-candy-assed-christians.html

[eyeshaveit]

Mother Divine ... Cult Leader ... Dies at 91

"It came as a bolt from the blue. On Aug. 7, 1946, Father Divine, the charismatic leader of the International Peace Mission Movement, introduced his new wife as ?the Spotless Virgin Bride? to a gathering of stunned followers at a Philadelphia banquet.

"The Rev. Major Jealous Divine, regarded as God incarnate by his disciples, had further news. Sweet Angel, as his 21-year-old former stenographer was known to the movement, had taken into herself the spirit of Father Divine?s first wife, Peninnah, or Sister Penny, who had died in 1943. The two women were one and the same, he announced. Moreover, his union with the woman henceforth known as Mother Divine would be chaste ? a marriage in name only, he said ? because ?God is not married.?

?When Father married me, he symbolically married everyone else,? Mother Divine told Newsday in 2005. ?It?s not a personal marriage. It?s Christ married to his church.?

"Mother Divine, who led the movement after her husband?s death in 1965, died on March 4 at Woodmont, the Peace Mission?s estate and headquarters in Gladwyne, Pa., outside Philadelphia, the organization announced. She was 91.

"Mother Divine was a mysterious figure. Little is known about her early life. She was born Edna Rose Ritchings on April 4, 1925, in Vancouver, where her father, Charles, ran the Strathcona Floral Company, a nursery and flower shop. Her mother was the former Mabel Farr.

"At 15, she became fascinated by Father Divine and his religion, which preached a gospel of self-help, abstinence, economic independence and social equality. By providing cheap meals and social services during the Depression, he attracted a large following in Harlem, where he maintained his headquarters, and through his many missions, known as heavens, elsewhere in the United States.

"The revelation came to her, she wrote in Ebony magazine in 1950, ?that Father Divine is God Almighty personified in a beautiful, holy body.?

"According to Sara Harris, the author of ?Father Divine: Holy Husband? (1953), Edna Rose left home for Montreal, where she moved in with a family of Father Divine?s disciples, took the name Sweet Angel and found work as a stenographer at a costume jewelry business. She then made her way to Philadelphia to meet Father Divine and was hired as his personal stenographer. The marriage quickly followed.

?Unknown to the faithful who had assembled on Aug. 7, the marriage had taken place on April 29 in Washington, at the house of the Rev. Albert L. Shadd, a recent convert. For months, the news remained secret. ?We could not have released it,? Sister Mary, a member of Father Divine?s inner circle, told Ms. Harris. ?If we had, there would have been no telling what might have happened. The marriage was such a world-shaking event, it might have made followers vibrate strongly enough to destroy themselves.?

"The much-loved Sister Penny was black, for one thing, and her death had never been announced. The new Mother Divine was white, and although the Peace Mission regarded the idea of race as sinful, nearly three-quarters of the membership was black, and the sudden appearance of a white replacement came as a shock to the Peace Mission and to the black news media."

William Grimes - New York Times - March 14, 2017.

Complete obituary:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/us/mother-divine-dead-peace-mission-leader.html?_r=0

[eyeshaveit]

Forms of Religious Discrimination

"Jonathan A. Segal, an attorney with Duane Morris in Philadelphia and New York City ... warned HR professionals to be aware of, and steer clear of, these types of religious discrimination in the workplace:

"Disparate treatment. This means intentionally not hiring or not promoting someone because of the person's religious practices, beliefs or observances. It includes stereotyping, being intolerant about a person's religious attire or observance, and adhering to customers' preferences to avoid hiring people of a certain religion.

"Customer preference is often given as a reason for not hiring someone of a certain religion, Segal said, but "it's an illegal practice, and it's a bad practice."

"Adverse impact, such as a policy forbidding head coverings. If safety is the reason for not letting a worker wear a hijab, for example, find a compromise. Ask if the employee can tuck the garment up so it doesn't present a safety risk or explain "We cannot accommodate the scarf you are wearing with the safety precautions we have. Is there another scarf you have that would honor your religious beliefs that adheres to the safety policy?"

"Engaging in or tolerating harassment based on religion. "Make sure if you hear it and you see it, you say something [to HR]. If you say nothing on the spot, you are condoning [the harassment and intolerance] by your silence ... the same as if there was a racial, ethnic or other slur. ... The reticence is what causes liability" for the employer.

"Retaliating against someone receiving or requesting an accommodation or against someone who complains about or participates in an investigation of religious bias.

"Associational bias, such as discriminating against someone because of the religious beliefs of that person's spouse or significant other.

"This has become a big issue in New York, Segal said. In 2016, the New York State Division of Human Rights adopted a regulation that prohibits employment discrimination based on a person's relationship or association with a member of a protected category covered by the state's Human Rights Law.

"Religious harassment can take many forms?slurs; disparaging nicknames; comments or questions about religious garb or an accommodation that has been granted; and what Segal termed "quid pro quo," which he explained as requiring a person to convert to a different religion in exchange for job advancement."

Kathy Gurchiek - Society For Human Resource Management - March 17, 2017

Complete article including: What is religion; Reasonable accommodations; Recommendations for employers,

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/religion-and-work-a-hot-topic-and-getting-hotter-every-day.aspx

[eyeshaveit]

CNN's Strange Quiz

CNN is promoting a Sunday show (Finding Jesus) with a 10 question Quiz (follows), but strangely enough, only questions #3 and #5 have anything to do with God's word:

1 - Which South Asian country did Thomas reach?
2 - Which dish is prepared in massive amounts in Haux, France, on what?s known as Easter Monday?
3 - Methuselah is the longest-living person mentioned. How old was he when he died?
4 - Which common household item do Norwegians hide to keep evil spirits at bay on Christmas eve?
5 - Which body of water did Jesus walk on?
6 - How long was Pope Urban VII in power?
7 - In the Belgian town of Binche, which objects are thrown at revelers on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras)?
8 - Which European city is home to a relic purported to be the veil worn by the Virgin Mary at Jesus? birth?
9 - Which African nation has a church that purportedly houses the Ark of the Covenant?
10 - Which animal has become the symbol of immortality?

Test yourself - CNN Quiz:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/finding-jesus-christianity-quiz/index.html

[eyeshaveit]

Australia: Bible Society Marriage Ad Leads to Backlash Against Brewer of ?Bible Beer?

"A video produced by the Bible Society features two conservative members of parliament, one a supporter of marriage equality and one an opponent, debating the topic in a ?civil and respectful way? over bottles of beer from Coopers Brewery. Some LGBT activists and bar owners responded by launching a boycott of Coopers, even though the brewery said it does not oppose marriage equality and did not give permission to be included in the video.

"Coopers did recently launch a commemorative can honoring the Bible Society?s 200th birthday; the text on the can read, ?Happy 200th birthday to Australia?s longest-living charity, from Australia?s longest-living family brewery.? Coopers subsequently cancelled the release of the commemorative cans and announced that the company would join Australian Marriage Equality.

"Immigration Minister Peter Dutton criticized corporate executives who have supported LGBT activists? marriage equality campaign. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was among 20 business leaders who urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to move marriage equality legislation. Dutton?s remarks did not go over well with Joyce.

"His remarks prompted a swift reply from Qantas. In a statement, the company said it speaks out on marriage equality and other social issues because ?we believe these issues are about the fundamental Australian value of fairness and we?re the national carrier?."

Religious Dispatches - USC Annenberg - March 20, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Survey: 36% of Secular Jews Want to Leave Israel

"A whopping 27% of the Jewish population of Israel would leave the country if they could, according to a survey conducted for Masa Israeli ? Israeli Roots Odyssey on the eve of its fourth conference to be held at the Knesset Monday. The highest rate of those who wish to leave was among secular Jews, where 36% said they would have left. Among religious Jews only 7% expressed the same wish.

"The survey identified a profile of an Israeli Jew wishing to leave the country: a secular male who is not in a relationship (bachelor, divorced, or widower), ages 23 ? 29. Another notable issue in the survey was identity ? Israeli or Jewish. While 83% of respondents who said they were ?traditional? and 90% who said they were ?religious? said they define themselves first as Jews, only 53% of those who said they were ?secular? see themselves as Jews first, while 44% are Israelis first.

"The conference, headlined Masa Israeli as Agent of Change, hosts, among others, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Education Minister Naftali bennett (Habayit Hayehudi), and Opposition Head Isaac Herzog (Zionist Camp). Uri Cohen, CEO of Israeli Roots Odyssey, said in a statement that ?the very fact that so many say they would leave the country if they had the opportunity suggests that many Israeli citizens do not feel a sense of belonging to the country. It is an alarming news which obliges all of us to deal with this difficult issue.?

"Cohen added that the survey?s data attest to ?a problem in the sense of identity, connection and belonging to the nation, the land and the state in a growing group in the State of Israel, and it is a reality which is already creating a tear and a split in Israel?s society as a whole.?

JNI Media - March 20, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Opposing Tim Keller at Princeton Seminary

"There is some opposition to New York pastor Tim Keller speaking at Princeton Seminary on April 6 because his denomination doesn?t ordain women or LGBTQ people.  He belongs to the Presbyterian Church in America, a growing conservative denomination that dates to the 1970s. Keller is receiving The Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life, which honors contributors to the ?Neo-Calvinist vision of religious engagement.?

"Keller, a prolific author and popular speaker, is founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which has in turn planted many other new churches in New York.  This church network is notable for its success in attracting young urban professionals and for its racial diversity. The popularity of these churches rebuts some stereotypes about secular New York City and about young adults.  The model of these churches and Keller?s writing have inspired countless other new church plants especially successful with young people in cities across America. 

"Unfailingly thoughtful and cerebral, frequently appearing in secular media as a religious and cultural commentator, Keller is one of the most influential pastors and Christian thinkers in America today.  He is a guru of the rebirth of urban evangelical Protestant Christianity.  His theology like his denomination?s is orthodox and Reformed.  Keller typically avoids culture war issues and hot button debates.  He affirms traditional Christian sexual ethics and marriage teaching but rarely speaks about it.  His churches are full of New Yorkers who are socially liberal but drawn to his intellectually vibrant presentation of Christianity.

"One Princeton graduate, a minister in the liberal Presbyterian Church (USA), has been quoted in The Christian Post denouncing Keller?s scheduled appearance at her alma mater in her blog, which declares: 

"An institution designed to train men and women for ministry shouldn?t be awarding fancy prizes to someone who believes half the student body (or is it more than half?) has no business leading churches. It?s offensive and, as I have taught my four and five year olds to express, it hurts my feelings." She also complains that ?he (and the denomination he serves) is also very clear in its exclusion of LGBT people.?

"Similarly, a Christian Century column derides Keller as:

"one of the loudest, most read, and most adhered-to proponents of male headship in the home. I am literally shaking with grief as I write this. I have spent years with women who have tried to de-program themselves after growing up in this baptized abuse."

"This columnist associates Keller with sexual ?complimentarianism,? which ?means married women have no choice over their lives at all.? Parishioners at Keller?s Manhattan churches likely would be surprised by this assertion.  She concludes:

"I hoped that my denomination would stand up for women, loud and clear. Instead we are honoring and celebrating a man who has championed toxic theology for decades."

"Princeton Seminary President Craig Barnes, who formerly pastored a relatively conservative PCUSA congregation in Washington DC that doesn?t agree with its denomination on same sex marriage, has responded to criticism by explaining:

"Our seminary embraces full inclusion for ordained leadership of the church. We clearly stand in prophetic opposition to the PCA and many other Christian denominations that do not extend the full exercise of Spirit filled gifts for women or those of various sexual orientations."

"Barnes further explained:

"It is also a core conviction of our seminary to be a serious academic institution that will sometimes bring controversial speakers to campus because we refuse to exclude voices within the church. Diversity of theological thought and practice has long been a hallmark of our school. And so we have had a wide variety of featured speakers on campus including others who come from traditions that do not ordain women or LGBTQ+ individuals, such as many wings of the Protestant church, and bishops of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic communions.  So my hope is that we will receive Rev. Keller in a spirit of grace and academic freedom, realizing we can listen to someone with whom many, including me, strongly disagree about this critical issue of justice."

"So good for Barnes that he defends academic freedom.  But how sad that he apparently no longer affirms traditional Christian teaching on marriage.  He references ?many wings? of Protestantism that don?t share the PCUSA?s liberalism, plus Catholics and Orthodox.

"This latter point merits elaboration.  Nearly all of global Christianity disagrees with the PCUSA and Princeton Seminary on these issues and would align with Keller, who is not exotic or unusual in his stances. Half the world?s Christians are Roman Catholic. Another ten percent or more are Orthodox. Most of the rest are conservative evangelical or Pentecostal.

"The PCUSA?s liberal perspective is largely confined to a handful of declining denominations in North America, northwest Europe and Australia and New Zealand, collectively including not more than two or three percent of global Christianity.  Much of global Protestant Christianity, including Methodism and parts of Anglicanism, plus Pentecostalism, ordains women.  But almost none dissents from orthodox teaching on marriage and sexual ethics.

"The objectors to Keller speaking at Princeton would also, if consistent, have to object to the Pope and to the clerics of nearly every major Christian body.  They of course would also have to exclude,  by the same standards, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, and almost every major religion.

"Although its celebrants often don?t realize it, the universe of liberal Protestantism is very small and getting smaller.  Keller will speak at Princeton on church planting, and hopefully he will be heard."

Mark Tooley - THe Institute of Religion and Democracy - March 18, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Russia: Jehovah's Witnesses' Activity Halted

"Russia has summarily suspended most Jehovah's Witness activities. UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai told Forum 18: "The Russian government is claiming that the Jehovah's Witnesses are an extremist group, but in fact it's their move to ban them outright that appears to be extreme."

"As Jehovah's Witnesses await a Supreme Court ruling on whether to ban them across Russia and seize all their property, the Justice Ministry has summarily suspended most of their activities, including public meetings and financial transactions.

"With immediate effect, a March 15 Suspension Order forbids the Administrative Centre and all its local religious organisations from "using state and municipal news media, organising and conducting assemblies, rallies, demonstrations, processions, picketing, and other mass actions or public events, and using bank deposits, with the exception of use for making payments connected with their economic activity, compensating for losses (damages) caused by their actions, and paying taxes, fees, or fines, and making payments based on labour contracts".

"The Justice Ministry has not officially published the Order, but a mayor has posted a copy on his Facebook page, and it has been widely reproduced by other media.

"The Justice Ministry claimed to Forum 18 that its March 15 Suspension Order does not ban meetings for worship, "except in cases of a mass or public nature". It remains unclear, however, how local officials will interpret the Order. On March 16 Penza Region's Justice Ministry branch suspended the activities of the four local Jehovah's Witness organisations in its jurisdiction, and on March 20 a similar order was issued by the Justice Ministry of the Karachai-Cherkessiya Republic.

"Jehovah's Witnesses and others, such as readers of the works of Muslim theologian Said Nursi, are routinely prosecuted for possession of single copies of banned "extremist" tests ? even though the law only allows prosecution for "mass distribution".

"The first hearing of the Justice Ministry's suit to liquidate the Jehovah's Witness Administrative Centre as an "extremist" organisation is due to take place on April 5 at 10 AM Moscow time. A Supreme Court secretary told Forum 18 on March 20 that it is still undecided whether the hearing before Judge Nikolai Romanenkov will be held in open or closed court.

"The Justice Ministry is also currently preparing an order to have the Administrative Centre added to its list of public and religious organisations whose activity has been suspended on grounds of extremism, the Ministry's Press Service told Forum 18 on March 21"

Victoria Arnold - Forum 18 News Service - March 21, 2017

Lengthy article continues:
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2265

[Dexter]

New Evidence Reveals Christ Lounged In Tomb For Extra Hour Before Finally Rising From Grave

http://www.theonion.com/article/new-evidence-reveals-christ-lounged-tomb-extra-hou-55581

JERUSALEM?Saying they now understood the earliest moments of the Resurrection in greater detail than ever before, archaeologists from Cambridge University announced compelling new evidence Tuesday revealing that Jesus Christ lounged for an extra hour in his tomb before finally rising from the dead. ?It?s important to understand that Jesus had been deceased for three whole days?he didn?t just pop up from the grave, ready and raring to go,? said Dr. Marian Sullivan, adding that physical traces she and her colleagues had discovered suggested Christ had sat at the edge of his burial slab for several minutes staring at his own feet, his death shroud still half-covering his face. ?He took some much-needed time to just sort of zone out and shuffle around the tomb a little bit before having an extended bathroom break, stretching out, and finally ascending to heaven.? According to Sullivan, markings around the entrance of the crypt indicated that Christ at one point might have partly rolled back the stone sealing his tomb but then resealed the grave after deciding he wanted to lie back down just a little while longer.

[Mr. Blackwell]

Russia: Jehovah's Witnesses' Activity Halted
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2265

Interesting move by the Russians. I wonder which religious group will be targeted next?

[Inertialmass]

^^^^  You'd wanna check that with Paul Manafort.

[Mr. Blackwell]

You reckon he's still in the know?

[Mr. Blackwell]

Russia's justice ministry has called for a ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian movement that zealously seeks converts and rejects military service. The ministry has asked Russia's supreme court to close the group's headquarters and stop its 175,000 Russian members sharing "extremist" literature. A spokesman for the group called the proposed ban "persecuting worshippers just for manifesting their faith". Some Russian regions have already shut down branches of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to the justice ministry, the Jehovah's Witnesses' activities "violate Russia's law on combating extremism". The authorities object to pamphlets deemed to incite hatred against other religious groups, mainly for proclaiming Jehovah's Witnesses as followers of the only "true" faith. One quotes the novelist Leo Tolstoy, describing the doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church as superstition and sorcery, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Moscow.
The group was registered in Russia in 1991.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39304984

Can't have people bad mouthing the Russian Orthodox Church now can we?

The article goes on to summarize Russia's past history dealing with religion.

Thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses were deported to Siberia during Joseph Stalin's 30-year reign of terror. Other Christian groups were also persecuted at the time.

But, that is coming from the BBC so we know what Trump thinks about that.

[Goombah]

New Evidence Reveals Christ Lounged In Tomb For Extra Hour Before Finally Rising From Grave

http://www.theonion.com/article/new-evidence-reveals-christ-lounged-tomb-extra-hou-55581

JERUSALEM?Saying they now understood the earliest moments of the Resurrection in greater detail than ever before, archaeologists from Cambridge University announced compelling new evidence Tuesday revealing that Jesus Christ lounged for an extra hour in his tomb before finally rising from the dead. ?It?s important to understand that Jesus had been deceased for three whole days?he didn?t just pop up from the grave, ready and raring to go,? said Dr. Marian Sullivan, adding that physical traces she and her colleagues had discovered suggested Christ had sat at the edge of his burial slab for several minutes staring at his own feet, his death shroud still half-covering his face. ?He took some much-needed time to just sort of zone out and shuffle around the tomb a little bit before having an extended bathroom break, stretching out, and finally ascending to heaven.?

Haha-

of course 40 days is one heck of an extended bathroom break!

[eyeshaveit]

Buddhism In The Digital Age

"The web is changing the way people around the world experience religion. Dr. Gregory Grieve examines this realm with both thousand-mile journeys and the use of his smartphone. In 2014, the professor of religious studies attended a Buddhist festival at the foot of the Himalayas. Organizers were busily streaming the full two weeks of ceremonies to Buddhists far and wide. A sick research associate took in the festival from various angles via the web. Visitors snapped shots of their spiritual journey to share across the world on their Instagram accounts. Welcome to religion in the cyber age.

"This intersection of the web, social media and religion ? particularly Buddhism ? is Grieve?s research nexus. He also focuses on how religion plays out in gaming, a booming industry in the United States and across the world. In 2014, he co-edited the book ?Religion in Play: Finding Religion in Digital Gaming,? published by Indiana University Press.

"There is religion in video games, he stresses. Studying religion in gaming, he says, is essential to examining perceptions of religion in popular culture. He probes deeper in his most recent book, ?Cyber Zen,? ethnographically exploring Buddhist practices in the online virtual world of Second Life. Among the questions his book poses: Does typing at a keyboard and moving your avatar around the screen count as real Buddhism?

?Online Buddhist practices have at best only a family resemblance to canonical Asian traditions,? he explains. ?If, however, they are judged existentially ? by how they enable users to respond to the suffering generated by living in a highly mediated consumer society ? then Second Life Buddhism consists of authentic spiritual practices.?

"In his co-edited monograph ?Buddhism, the Internet, and Digital Media: The Pixel in the Lotus,? he more broadly explores Buddhist practices and teachings in our digital era. The internet is essential for many religious individuals; according to a Pew survey, 25 percent of Americans have searched the internet for religious purposes.

"Grieve?s next project will focus on online Buddhist rituals. At the center of his study is the current Dalai Lama. Many people know him and his teachings primarily through their smartphone or laptop. ?His widespread popularity has no doubt been enabled by the processes of global digital communication ? which have accelerated the international spread of Tibetan Buddhism,? Grieve says. What happened to going to a place of worship? Of standing shoulder to shoulder with other believers? ?People are looking in different places.?

"They?re looking for community, for a deeper meaning, for identity formation, he explains. But what earlier generations found through their jobs, their houses of worship, their civic clubs and close proximity to extended family, they?re now searching for through their video screens.

"For Grieve, it?s a rich, ever-evolving realm of research."

Mike Harris - UNCG Research Magazine - The University of North Carolina at Greensboro - March 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Israel police arrest Jewish man in threats on U.S. Jewish targets

"Israeli police on Thursday arrested a 19-year-old Israeli Jewish man as the primary suspect in a string of bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers and other institutions in the U.S., marking a potential breakthrough in the case. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld described the suspect as a hacker, but said his motives were still unclear. Israeli media identified him as an American-Israeli dual citizen and said he had been found unfit for compulsory service in the Israeli military.

"He's the guy who was behind the JCC threats," Rosenfeld said, referring to the dozens of anonymous threats phoned in to Jewish community centers in the U.S. over the past two months. The FBI, which had taken part in the investigation, confirmed the arrest but had no other comment. The Anti-Defamation League says there have been more than 150 bomb threats against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 states and two Canadian provinces since Jan. 9. Those threats led to evacuations of the buildings, upset Jewish communities and raised fears of rising anti-Semitism. The threats were accompanied by acts of vandalism on several Jewish cemeteries.

"The threats led to criticism of President Donald Trump's administration for not speaking out fast enough. Last month, the White House denounced the threats and rejected "anti-Semitic and hateful threats in the strongest terms." U.S. authorities have also arrested a former journalist from St. Louis for allegedly threatening Jewish organizations. Juan Thompson has been indicted in New York on one count of cyberstalking. But Israeli police described the local man as the primary suspect in the wave of threats.

"Israeli police said the suspect made dozens of calls claiming to have placed bombs in public places and private companies, causing panic and "significant economic damage," and disrupting public order, including by the hurried evacuations of a number of public venues around the world. The man is suspected of placing threatening phone calls to Australia, New Zealand and also within Israel. Rosenfeld said the man called Delta Airlines in February 2015 and made a false threat about explosives aboard a flight from JFK airport in New York. The threat allegedly led to an emergency landing.

"Rosenfeld said the man, from the south of Israel, used advanced technologies to mask the origin of his calls and communications to synagogues, community buildings and public venues. He said police searched his house Thursday morning and discovered antennas and satellite equipment. "He didn't use regular phone lines. He used different computer systems so he couldn't be backtracked," Rosenfeld said.

"After an intensive investigation in cooperation with FBI representatives who arrived in Israel, as well as other police organizations from various countries, technology was used to track down the suspect, Rosenfeld said."

Daniel Estrin - Associated Press - March 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Is religion an opportunity for human progress ?

"The real solution to willful and unconscious misunderstanding of religion will be a municipality.

"In our modern Western discourse institutional religion is often said to be an enemy of progress, keeping our societies stuck in archaic structures.

"Especially Islam is seen as an obstacle. In this view the current crises in countries like Syria or Iraq are the result of religion. The consequence of this interpretation is the requirement of developing a future society religion has no place in. It is impossible to even imagine religious institutions supporting peaceful human development.

"In fact a very high number of armed conflicts in history as well as in the present have been declared and justified because of religion. You can find lots of examples in Judaism, in Christianity and also in Islam. So, too, you can find several verses in the Torah, in the Christian New Testament and in the Koran which could be understood as requiring the faithful to fight against human beings of other faiths or even against those who practice the same religion in a different form.

"Real life, however, shows that non-religious societies are not more peaceful. The Nazis did not attempt to exterminate the Jews in the name of Christianity or Islam, but rather in the name of a secular ideology called ?Vorsehung,? according to which the ?Aryan race? was destined to rule over other peoples. Current Islamophobia as well as antisemitism in Western countries has the goal of excluding Muslims from society of course, but the most popular islamophobic activists are not religious people. They do not were a knight?s armor with crosses on their backs as in the crusades of the Middle Ages. Many of them, like the terrorist of Chapel Hill, South Carolina, in 2015 even call themselves ?atheists,? but show cruelty just as heartless as that of the Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Iraq or Syria. Their victims may be are religious individuals, but they are as unarmed, peaceful citizens, just as are the victims of Islamist suicide attacks in bustling shopping centers.

"If one reads the holy books of the three Abrahamic world religions one will also find a couple of verses especially requiring believers to throw away their arms and show mercy and empathy to all their fellow human beings. Knowing these backgrounds, that religions like these can serve as vehicle for war and inhumanity seems incomprehensible. If they are still used as instruments for suppressing and killing people the reason cannot lie in the religions themselves but in mankind. In human beings justifying violence to themselves as well as others as necessary for a greater goal, using religion as a convenient ideological framework. Religions promising reward in the hereafter are very suitable for this purpose, if there are any elements in them you can interpret as demanding this violence. That these elements are often filtered out of the context of a revelation text is only obvious to other believers who know this context on the whole and are not influenced by the same ideology.

"However, the fact that secular ideologies like communism, fascism or culturalism are used for totalitarianism, suppression and violence as often as religions can be seen an argument against the thesis that distance from the metaphysical would lead humankind to peaceful, progressive future.

"Moreover the ethics of human rights is founded in the religions, although it is defined as secular nowadays.

"The first ethical framework was given by the religions. Religions and the belief in a creator of the world and of mankind with body and soul is moreover a useful stimulus to follow this code of ethics.

"Religion builds a conscience in us, pushing us to ask ourselves how to pursue our interests without preventing the others from pursuing their own.

"Although there are several inhuman practices justified with religion, the belief in a god for whom all human beings are equally worthy is an important impulse for living peacefully together in a heterogeneous society. The most powerful opposition against inhumanity are religious people who understand their faith as requirement to serve the entire society and to treat members of other faiths with different worldviews as fellow humans, as fellow- believers.

"The real solution to willful and unconscious misunderstanding of religion will be a municipality, which by various means religion can develop to its full potential but which political authorities do not legitimate via any religion. In a society like this real conflicts cannot be justified by religion on the one hand, but religion can play a role in solving them on the other. In this case differences about holy places like Jerusalem can be solved politically, without the parties to the conflict feeling that their religion is under attack. As consequence different faiths can work together and respect each other as worthy as honorable, with their own rights and duties."

Mohammed Khallouk - Jerusalem Post (Israel) - March 25, 2017.

Mohammed Khallouk is the Second chairman of the Central Counsel of Muslims in Germany (ZMD).

[eyeshaveit]

Should learning about organized religion be a part of one's education

"First, the good news. The Groton-Dunstable Regional High School Chamber Chorus, a highly regarded Massachusetts high school group, will have the honor of singing at St. Anthony?s Basilica in Padua, Italy on Easter Sunday next month.

"The bad news? The chorus almost lost this opportunity due to overzealous First Amendment lawyers who seem to have lost track of their priorities in the age of Trump.

"This story begins last fall, when the chorus was slated to perform during an Easter Sunday Mass in the historic Basilica. One school board member found fault with this plan, arguing that having the kids actually participate in the Mass constituted a violation of the First Amendment?s Establishment Clause. She brought in the big guns: the legal advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Americans United wrote the school district a letter on November 16, demanding that the Easter performance be cancelled. The school district, fearing a legal fight, obliged. After general outcry from parents, the school was able to reach a compromise: The chorus would perform between the Basilica?s Easter services, but not during them. (Full disclosure: My mother was interviewed in her capacity as a constitutional law professor in one of the initial news stories about the cancellation of the performance. I am also a choral singer.)

"Two caveats deserve mention before delving into this strange episode. First, the exchange between the school and Americans United does not represent one of the great social justice issues of our time. Groton and Dunstable are affluent communities, and parents of the singers were more than capable of advocating on behalf of their views.

"Second, Americans United is usually a reasonable organization that does good work. In 2005, for example, it was part of a lawsuit that successfully challenged the teaching of intelligent design as science in a Pennsylvania school district.

"Given the group?s strong record, however, its priorities in the Groton-Dunstable case are puzzling. The technical, legal questions at stake require expert analysis than cannot be provided here, but this incident raises more fundamental issues. First, eight days after the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency, one would expect a group committed to the separation of church and state to have more pressing concerns than a high school chorus trip.

"More broadly, that Americans United even entertained the school board member?s complaint points to problems with how our education system addresses religion and the humanities.

"When we approach learning about a cultural tradition, its artistic productions deserve special attention. This idea is fairly uncontroversial. Further, great art?from the Renaissance polyphony the Groton-Dunstable chamber chorus will likely perform in Padua to the mosaics of the Great Mosque of Damascus to the masquerade dances of the Yoruba?has historically been created for specific contexts. Often, that context is explicitly religious, as in the case of many significant works of Western choral music.

"Denying these religious origins of much of humanity?s cultural heritage does little educational good. In the case of the Groton-Dunstable chorus, the students were already singing religiously inspired music.

"Experiencing these works in the context for which they were made?in this instance, a church service?fits comfortably with the educational goal of learning about a cultural and artistic tradition.

"When groups like Americans United interpret the First Amendment to prevent students from learning about religion as a cultural and historical phenomenon?as distinct from learning about a specific religion as representing some metaphysical or scientifically provable truth?they risk further decreasing our already-poor understanding of the global world in which we live. Would the Trump campaign?s rhetoric of religious divisiveness have been so successful had learning about different religious traditions and humanist philosophies, and visiting places of worship, been a more formal part of public school curriculums? Given the misconceptions that abound about so many religious traditions, including Christianity and Judaism, limiting the ability of our educational system to address religion fully seems a poor direction for public policy.

"Indeed, attending a religious service for the sake of improving understanding of the human experience need not clash with the principles of the Constitution and a secular education. The philosopher of history R.G. Collingwood defined the task of history as ?the re-enactment of past thought in the historian?s own mind.? This idea of re-enactment can perhaps be applied beyond history to most humanistic endeavors that call upon us to consider works, including artistic ones, made by historical actors. Collingwood?s concept of ?re-enactment? gains particular importance in the context of modern democracy, where considering how our fellow citizens live their traditions is part of developing civic consciousness. Experiencing religion in action helps broaden our understanding of how cultures in our communities have viewed and continue to view life?an essential goal of a humanities education.

"The Constitution guarantees that our schools do not impose religious beliefs on students. It ought not prevent them from learning about the great cultural productions of human history to the fullest extent possible. While the facts of specific cases matter, the Groton-Dunstable performance certainly did not rise to the level of a crisis of secular education. Maintaining the wall of separation between church and state remains vital. But when it comes to understanding our history and our present moment, perhaps we could all use a little more education in religion."

Nelson L. Barrette - Harvard Crimson - March 26, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Muslim Convert to Christianity Reveals 'Islamic Deception' to Fool Christians

"Some Muslims in the U.S. are spreading "Islamic deception" to fool Christians into believing that Christianity and Islam share common beliefs, a former imam from Egypt who converted to Christianity revealed.

"The subject was tackled by Dr. Mark Christian, the executive director at the Nebraska-based Christian nonprofit Global Faith Institute who was formerly a Sunni Muslim who converted to Christianity, The Christian Post reported.

"He became an imam when he was just 13 years old because of the influence exerted by his great uncle who was a co-founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. He began to question Islam around the age of 23, and eventually left the religion.

"Speaking at a webinar titled "Is Islam Luring the American Church Into Denying Jesus?" hosted by the American Pastors Network on Friday, Christian pointed out that some Muslims in the West are trying to distort the truth about Islam to make Christians believe that their faith is similar to Islam.

"He said one of the misconceptions being peddled by these Muslims is that Muslims also believe in the Bible.

"Christian said there is no truth to this, noting that that "there is no verse in the Quran that says they believe in the Bible."

"Another misconception, he said, is that Muslims also believe in Jesus Christ and the second coming of Christ.

"Christian said there is a big difference between Jesus according to Islam and Jesus according to Christians.

"First, he said Muslims "believe that Jesus was just a prophet and He did not die on the cross whatsoever but was replaced miraculously on the day of crucifixion by Judas, and Jesus was elevated up to Heaven."

"Christian said to Muslims, Jesus is not the son of God but just a prophet.

"He said many Muslims actually believe that Jesus will come back to destroy the Christian Church and "fight for the cause of Islam" before dying after He defeats the Antichrist.

"Nevertheless, despite the attempts by some Muslims to mislead Christians, he said, "Muslims are not the enemy, but Islam is."

"It is the sin that we are fighting and not the sinners. We are supposed to love the sinners," Christian said.

"Earlier this month, a former radical Islamist who became a Christian evangelist warned the West that Islamist extremists are waging jihad not just on the physical battlefield but also on other fronts such as education, population, media, and economical jihad.

"Isik Abla admitted that she herself was recruited to wage educational jihad by her first Muslim husband. She said wealthy fanatical Muslims are sending jihadist students to America and other Western countries to infiltrate the world's top universities as part of their group's ultimate objective to Islamize the West."

Hazel Torres - Christianity Today - March 27, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

A Most Brutal Obituary

Leslie Ray "Popeye" Charping was born in Galveston, Texas on November 20, 1942 and passed away January 30, 2017, which was 29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved.  Leslie battled with cancer in his latter years and lost his battle, ultimately due to being the horses ass he was known for.  He leaves behind 2 relieved children; a son Leslie Roy Charping and daughter, Shiela Smith along with six grandchildren and countless other victims including an ex wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses and random strangers. 

At a young age, Leslie quickly became a model example of bad parenting combined with mental illness and a complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing and being generally offensive.  Leslie enlisted to serve in the Navy, but not so much in a brave & patriotic way but more as part of a plea deal to escape sentencing on criminal charges.  While enlisted, Leslie was the Navy boxing champion and went on to sufficiently embarrass his family and country by spending the remainder of his service in the Balboa Mental Health Hospital receiving much needed mental healthcare services.

Leslie was surprisingly intelligent, however he lacked ambition and motivation to do anything more than being reckless, wasteful, squandering the family savings and fantasizing about get rich quick schemes.  Leslie's hobbies included being abusive to his family, expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets and fishing, which he was less skilled with than the previously mentioned.  Leslie's life served no other obvious purpose, he did not contribute to society or serve his community and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick whited sarcasm which was amusing during his sober days.

With Leslie's passing he will be missed only for what he never did; being a loving husband, father and good friend.  No services will be held, there will be no prayers for eternal peace and no apologizes to the family he tortured.  Leslie's remains will be cremated and kept in the barn until "Ray", the family donkey's wood shavings run out.  Leslie's passing proves that evil does in fact die and hopefully marks a time of healing and safety for all.

The 62 Tributes that follow Popeye's obit (one from Donald J Trump ?) :
http://obit.carnesfuneralhome.com/leslie-ray-charping/notes/

[GratefulApe]

Geez I wonder if his doctor had anything to say about him.

[eyeshaveit]

Army 'Targeting' Biblical Beliefs ?

"A military religious freedom group blasted an Army directive mandating diversity training, saying it targets biblical beliefs about sexual orientation, the group said Tuesday. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, which advocates for freedom of religious expression in uniform, sent a letter dated Feb. 24 to acting Army Secretary Robert Speer criticizing an Army directive titled ?Promoting Diversity and Inclusion.?

"The group zeroed in on a section calling for the Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Deputy Chief of Staff to ?develop a plan to expand training on implicit or unconscious bias? aimed at solders in senior leadership and management positions, recruitment and other areas.

"Ron Crews, a retired Army chaplain and executive director of the group, believes the training is meant to discourage troops with religious teachings from expressing their views, calling it an assault on soldiers who hold biblical beliefs that marriage and sexual relationships should only be between men and women.

?We believe it is code for those who hold orthodox beliefs about sexual matters,? Crews said. Those beliefs include that gay and lesbian relationships are ethically and morally wrong. ?The biblical word is sin,? he said, conceding that the directive does not specifically mention sexual orientation.

"The Army said Tuesday the memorandum is under review but declined to discuss policy implementation or training specifics.

"The directive, signed by then-Army Secretary Eric Fanning on Jan. 18 ahead of the inauguration of President Donald Trump, was created as a means to diversify the pool of potential recruits and to remove barriers of advancement for qualified soldiers, Fanning told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday. ?Everybody in the Army should believe there is a path forward for them. Readiness is getting the most out of the force,? he said.

"Fanning, the first openly gay Army Secretary, waved off concerns that the directive in general or the unconscious bias section in particular was created with only sexual orientation in mind. The training was meant to encompass everything: gender, race, ethnicity, education, skill sets and other backgrounds, he said.

"Implicit bias, often called unconscious bias, is judgment or behavior toward certain groups, like racism or sexism, that occurs below a conscious level, according to the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit that works on improving judicial administration.

"The White House mandated training to recognize and combat implicit bias in the national security workforce in an October memorandum, Fanning said. The Justice and Interior departments have already implemented those programs.

"A former senior official familiar with the directive?s creation said Wednesday that the Army looked at private sector companies and outside organizations, like Google, Uber and the National Football League, to evaluate diversity practices.

"The Rooney Rule, an NFL policy requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head-coaching positions, was imported by the Army and the Air Force to widen the scope of talent for leadership positions, the official said, after evaluating studies that showed diverse teams outperformed homogenous groups due to specific problem-solving abilities. ?Recognizing unconscious bias is how private sector companies get the best people to work for them,? the former official said.

"Crews acknowledged Fanning?s orientation, describing it as a potential vehicle for the directive. ?Fanning is who he is. He was very outward of wanting his view to be acceptable. I have nothing against him,? Crews said. ?What I do know is over last eight years our military has been used to push a political agenda.?

"Fanning said the accusation of setting political agendas was confusing. ?I don?t think opportunity and equality are political agendas. I think they?re important American values,? he said.

"The letter came just weeks after a draft of an executive order by the Trump administration was obtained by media. ?Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom? proposed that ?Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience,? according to the draft order, cited by several news organizations. If officially signed, it would be considered a win for conservative Christians who favor religious freedom exemptions. The Trump administration did not comment on the draft order in February.

"When Fanning visited troops and discussed diversity and inclusion initiatives as a means to recruit and retain a broader section of the country, he said he was met with a divergence of assessments up and down the chain of command.

?A [lieutenant general] would say, ?This can?t be done.? A colonel would say he could make it work,? Fanning said. ?But a captain would look at me like I?m crazy. They would say, ?Look around you. It?s already happening.?"

Alex Horton - Stars and Stripoes - March 20, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Israeli Law Would Squelch Mosque Calls

"Shortly before noon, the Muslim call to prayer rang out from the imposing al-Omari mosque across this mixed Jewish-Arab town, wafting over a crowded market. No one seemed to pay heed, aside from a small group of men who assembled for the noon prayer. But the call blaring from the loudspeakers is now on the front line of another culture conflict in Israel.

"Israel's parliament, the Knesset, is considering two bills that would silence mosque loudspeakers, at least during night hours, on the grounds that they cause an unnecessary noise disturbance. The issue has caused heated debate about the place of religion in the public space in Israel.
Sponsors of the bill say it is designed to prevent noise pollution.

"Motti Yogev, a rightist parliament member who has sponsored one of the bills, told the legislature that the proposed law expressed "the simple principle according to which freedom of religion should not harm the sleep and quality of life of citizens."

"Talal Abu Arar, a member of the Joint Arab List, the Arab party in parliament, calls the bill "anti-democratic and designed to harm Muslim freedom of religion. For hundreds of years the call to prayer did not bother anyone, and now suddenly it does? This is part of the incitement against Arabs and Muslims in general. We will not honor this law, and continue calling to prayer as usual," he says.

"During a stormy debate when the bills passed a preliminary vote, Ayman Odeh, the Joint List leader, tore up a copy of the bill as others Arab lawmakers shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). Palestinian Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, make up about 20 percent of Israel's citizens.

"The controversial bills have been backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel was trying to strike a balance. "Israel is committed to freedom for all religions, but is also responsible for protecting citizens from noise," he said recently.

"Yedidia Stern, vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent think-tank, says Israel already has noise regulations in place that could be enforced against unduly loud calls of the muezzin, the Arabic term for the caller to prayer. The new legislation, Mr. Stern says, was introduced by "some parliament members pushing a nationalist agenda, which is not necessarily anti-Islamic, but trying to establish that the public sphere in Israel is Jewish and not otherwise, and trying to minimize interference with its Jewish character."

"Stern compared the bill with a recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which decided that a private business in Belgium had the right to dismiss a Muslim woman because her hijab, or headscarf, violated the business's ban on religious garb at the workplace. The Luxembourg-based court ruled that the move was not discriminatory.

"In Israel, there are customary restrictions in force that show deference to observant Jews. Roads through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem are closed on the Sabbath, and on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, traffic across the country comes to a halt.

"The bill to silence the call to prayer has drawn condemnation from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, and still needs to pass three more votes in the Knesset to become law. But for the men gathered for mosque prayer in Ramla, it remains a threat to longstanding custom.

"The bill is unnecessary. We've been living in a mixed city for decades with everyone respecting the rites of the other," says the imam of the mosque, Suleiman Abu Swis. "This has been part of the prayer service for 1,400 years, five times a day all over the world." Mr. Abu Swis says that noise-level problems had been resolved quietly with city officials. "If there is a will, there can be coexistence," he adds, noting that Arabs in Ramla refrain from using their cars out of respect for Yom Kippur.

"Sitting in his grocery store nearby, Shlomo Houtta, a Jew of Moroccan origin, says he enjoys the melodies of the recitation of the Koran, but mosque speakers appear to have been turned up of late as a show of religious assertion. "There's religious extremism on both sides, and I think it's being done to annoy us," he says. "I don't mind if it's at a reasonable volume."

"Badri Yosfan, a Jewish immigrant from Iraq, says the pre-dawn call to prayer sometimes interrupts the sleep of his grandchildren, though it does not disturb him during the day."

Joel Greenberg - Christian Science Monitor - March 30, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Skeleton Folk Saint-of-Death for the Transgender Women in Mexico

"Betzy Ballesteros, a 26-year-old transgender sex worker, keeps a shrine to Santa Muerte, the skeleton folk saint, in her home. Surrounding the statue are candles, candy and the grainy photos of several friends who were murdered and abandoned ? people such as the transgender woman whose mutilated body was stuffed into a suitcase and dumped by the roadside on March 11. (A 43-year-old suspect has been detained, but authorities have still not released details of the victim?s name or occupation.)

"Violence against transgender women is common in Mexico, mostly because employment discrimination forces many to turn to sex work for money. The skeleton saint ? with her female form and association with death ? is particularly appealing to transgender sex workers, who face the persistent threat of violent clients and transphobic hatred.

"Unlike official church figures such as Our Lady of Guadalupe whose images are ethereal, Santa Muerte appeals to those with practical problems and passions living on the country?s margins. Devotees ask her for protection, even when sex work is their only occupation. ?The majority of us believe in Santa Muerte,? said Ballesteros. ?She?s a God to us. I ask her to shield me from danger and provide work and clients.?

"The cult of Santa Muerte is an example of religious syncretism, with roots in European Catholicism and Aztec beliefs. Condemned as satanic by the Catholic Church and frequently portrayed as a narco-cult in the media, worship of Santa Muerte is nevertheless a fast-growing new religious movement in the Americas, according to Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of ?Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint.?

?Mexican Catholics and evangelicals tend to view transgenderism as a lifestyle choice,? said Chesnut. ?But the fact that Santa Muerte is outside the orbit of both evangelical and Catholic Christianity makes her much more appealing. It?s much easier for followers to feel that she?s not going to be judgmental.?

"In contrast, many transgender women feel rejected by mainstream churches. ?I went with some transgender friends to Mass one time,? said Ballesteros. ?The priest stopped his sermon and told us to leave the house of God. After that, I decided I wouldn?t ever go back.? The Rev. Hugo Valdemar Romero, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, said the church does not abandon or excommunicate transgender people. But he does believe they suffer from pathology.

?Of course it is not acceptable for someone to violate their own biology,? he said. ?Nature is very clear. There are men and there are women.? As for Santa Muerte, Romero considers it a heretical cult. ?True religion looks for the devotee to fulfill the will of God, not the other way around. If they opt for another church or belief that justifies what they?re doing, they are looking for a god made to their own measure.?

"Despite the church?s condemnation, many Santa Muerte devotees describe themselves as Catholic. The civil rights organization Transgender Europe has documented 247 killings of transgender people in Mexico between January 2008 and April 2016, the second-highest number in the world, after Brazil. The life expectancy of transgender women in Latin America is 35, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

?Transgender people are more likely to become involved in substance and alcohol abuse and they are less likely to have strong networks of family and others on whom they can count,? said Cymene Howe, an anthropologist who has studied the importance of Santa Muerte among transgender sex workers who migrate between Guadalajara and San Francisco.

"Except as victims, transgender women are virtually invisible to the rest of Mexican society. Even the brutal murder on March 11 was relegated to the back pages of local newspapers. Transgender activist Ari Vera Morales was expelled from a teaching training college. ?The school said I was creating a negative image,? she said. ?The problem with being a transgender women in Mexico is that your identity, your existence is criminalized.?

"Yet Santa Muerte plays a vital role in helping to unify a community that lacks a voice and visibility. ?When I was 14 my mum kicked me out and I went to live in the house of a friend,? Ballesteros said. ?She had a big altar. I learned what a cult was, what death was, what everything was for.?

Stephen Woodman - Religious News Service (RNS) - March 31, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Mormon leader encourages more baptisms for the dead

"A top Mormon leader reminded church members Saturday about the importance of performing ceremonial baptisms on dead ancestors who didn't receive the ordinance while alive. Henry Eyring told a worldwide audience during a twice-yearly Mormon conference that God wants all his children to come "home again." He encouraged listeners to use the religion's massive genealogical database to trace their roots.

"Ceremonial baptisms occur when a member brings an ancestor's name to a temple. Mormons believe the ritual allows deceased people a way to the afterlife if they choose to accept it. The belief that families are sealed for eternity is one of the faith's core tenets. The practice is becoming more common than ever because of young church members who embrace it.

"They have learned that this work saves not just the dead; it saves all of us," said Eyring, a member of a top governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "There are now many people who have accepted baptism in the spirit world. ... This is the work of our generation."

"But ceremonial baptisms offend members of some other religions, especially Jews, who became upset years ago when they discovered attempts by Mormons to alter the religion of Holocaust victims. They included Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager forced into hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust and killed in a concentration camp.

"In the 1990s, after negotiations with Jewish leaders, the church agreed to end the ceremonial baptism of Holocaust victims. After it was revealed that they continued, Mormon leaders put up a virtual firewall in the database to block anyone who attempted to access the names of people who died in the Holocaust.

"Erying gave the opening speech of a two-day conference in which leaders speak about a range of topics aimed at providing guidance and inspiration to the faith's more than 15 million members worldwide. Nearly 100,000 church members are expected to attend five sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

"Thousands more around the world will listen to the conference or watch it on television, radio, satellite and internet broadcasts in 90 different languages."

Associated Press - April 1, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Religion Butt of Workplace Humor as Sexist Jokes have become Taboo in the UK

"Religion has become the butt of workplace jokes as workers who would never make sexist or racist comments mock belief instead, a survey has found.

"A study by ComRes [British Polling Group] found that up to a million workers may have faced harassment, discrimination or bullying because of their religion or belief.

"The report's authors suggested that this tended to be in the form of "lower level exclusion" which people did not bother to report because they did not feel it was serious enough

"Respondents said they had been made to feel uncomfortable  by colleagues making jokes about religious beliefs.

"Katie Harrison, director of ComRes Faith Research Centre, said: "Some people told us they felt uncomfortable about mentioning that they pray.

"Or we heard of people feeling upset that religion was the butt of jokes in a workplace where people have become much more aware about making disparaging comments about gender or disability."

"One survey respondent said: "In our office, everyone is very respectful of minorities and would never be disparaging about women or people with disabilities, but when it comes to religion it?s fair game. "People can be very insulting, especially when they express it through humor."

"Ms Harrison said many religious people felt unable to tell colleagues that they had been to a mosque or church at the weekend and could not talk freely about the religious parts of their lives.

"Employees also said that they did not think their managers knew how to deal with faith-related issues, such as prayer rooms or taking days off for festivals.

"Many HR managers say they make provision for employees to pray at work and observe holy days and religious festivals, but workers say that?s not happening," said Ms Harrison.

"One in three workers also said that people in their workplace never talk about religious beliefs or traditions.
Another respondent said that they had felt singled out and uncomfortable when colleagues laid out a separate halal platter for them and created a separate prayer room.

"He or she said: "I don?t actually eat halal or use prayer rooms and felt uncomfortable that they?d gone to so much unnecessary effort.

"Their well-intentioned efforts to try to include me in fact made me feel excluded and very different to everyone else."

Olivia Rudgard - The Telegraph (UK) - April 3,m 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Other Billy Graham (Mike Pence) Rules

"During his 20 years as a manager in the Christian music business, Darren Tyler followed a version of what?s known in evangelical circles as the ?Billy Graham Rule.?

"He?and members of the bands he managed?would never eat, travel, or otherwise spend time alone with someone of the opposite sex while on the road.

"It?s a boundary that just makes sense, says Tyler. And it?s one he follows while traveling for his current role as pastor of Conduit Church in Franklin, Tennessee. ?My wife never has to worry about what I am doing,? he says.

"The Billy Graham Rule has taken a bit of beating recently, after a Washington Postprofile revealed that Vice President Mike Pence follows a version of the rule. It?s set off a fierce debate over whether the rule safeguards marriages from adultery, harms women in the church, or is just plain sexist.

"But most reports have neglected to mention that there?s not just one Billy Graham rule. There are four. They deal with money, sex, power, and lies and were part of something known as the Modesto Manifesto. Set up in the 1940s, the rules were meant to keep Graham and his organization away from the pitfalls that have taken down American celebrity preachers since the days of Henry Ward Beecher and Aimee Semple McPherson."

Billy Graham?s Rules:

1. Operate with financial transparency.

2. Avoid even the appearance of sexual immorality.

3. Avoid criticizing other pastors and churches.

4. Be painstakingly honest in all publicity.

Bob Smietana - Christianity Today - March 31, 2017.

Complete lengthy article:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/march-web-only/other-billy-graham-rules.html

[eyeshaveit]

African Traditional Religion Keeps Them Poor

"Missionaries are generally disliked by the secular linguistics/anthropology community. Why? Because missionaries do not come to the field as neutral observers, but with a desire to see change. Missionary linguists do not come to merely preserve and describe languages, but to see the Bible translated and then confront the culture. And Dave and I desperately want to see the Bakoum culture confronted and changed.

"Do not get me wrong, there are aspects of Bakoum/Cameroonian culture that I love and miss. I love the brightly colored cloth custom made into form-fitting, eccentric dresses. I love walking down the street and seeing an individual, standing by himself dancing to music that no one else can hear. I love how everyone sits outside in the evenings and talks until the sun goes down while goats, chickens, and babies wander around freely.

Harmful Traditions

"But then there are some aspects of their culture that I cannot accept because they are harming the neighbors I have come to love. So much so, that they are actually ensuring that an already impoverished people remain in poverty. What I see around me in Cameroon is not a tribal religion that supports a rich culture among its people. Instead, I see a commitment to a system that enslaves its followers. The primary damaging belief comes from their perspective on the afterlife. The worldview of the Bakoum is dominated by a belief that when one?s relatives die, their bodies are buried but their spirits stay in the village. And generally speaking these spirits remain to torment the living -- unless they are appeased. They are a force that is behind almost all events in life and the job of the living is to manipulate them to ensure the safety of the individual and the community.

Wasted Food

"The ramifications of this core belief touch on almost every aspect of their lives. For instance, our neighbors will go out to their fields all day to work, and then they haul what they harvested on their backs, sometimes for miles, back to the village. The women then work to prepare the food and then the family sits down to eat. If some of this food falls off of someone?s plate, he assumes that one of his deceased relatives is hungry. So, out of obligation, he sets his plate of food on the ground for the ghost and walks away. The food is wasted and the true hunger is unabated.

Wasted Money

"And then there are funeral celebrations which need to be conducted in a very particular way, because if the deceased feels dishonored, he will torment the family. Therefore, there must be 6 days of weeping, sleeping by the grave, dancing, and so on. And for this to happen, it absolutely cannot rain. So in order to stop the rain, a family member follows the prescription of a local shaman and spends money that he does not have on kerosene. The shaman then tells him to pour out this expensive gift onto the ground. That formula supposedly stops the rain, even if that means their children will not have money to go to school for the year. Precious money that is so hard to come by is not used to start something like a small business, but instead is spilled on the ground to appease a ghost who is not even there.

Disunity

"And, in Bakoum culture, there is no such thing as an accidental death or a death that comes from natural causes. The reason for death is always due to a curse on the deceased or because a neighbor transformed themselves into an animal in order to kill him. At funeral ceremonies there is a time to determine, through casting lots, the person responsible for the death. As can be expected, this leads to extreme suspicion and strife between the members of the community. I have seen adults stand on either side of our street and scream at one another for hours upon hours, accusing one another of such evils. And then, when the time comes for the community to work together to fix the pump of the local well, there is such division that they refuse to work together and the pump never gets fixed, again leaving people in need."

Stacey Hare - Hare Translation Journey - April 4, 2017.

Complete article:
https://haretranslation.blogspot.ca/2017/04/african-traditional-religion-keeps-them.html

[eyeshaveit]

Mike Pence?s Marriage Rule - Anti-Women or Pro-Religion ?

"I get Vice President Mike Pence?s devotion to his wife, and the measures he takes in ?building a zone around [his] marriage,? as he once described it. But some of those measures haven?t been well-received, especially on the left. Twitter lit up last week when a profile of Pence in The Washington Post included a snippet from a 2002 interview saying he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife, nor attends events without her ?If there?s alcohol being served and people are being loose.?

"Critics accused Pence of objectifying women and wondered how he managed affairs of state if he couldn?t meet alone with, say, a female governor or Angela Merkel. Others just found it weird, as if someone who describes himself as ?a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order? had dropped in from a previous century.

"The more serious criticism noted that women have a hard enough time advancing in business or public service without powerful men treating them as objects of temptation. The conversation recalled a 2015 survey of female congressional staffers in National Journal, in which several female aides reported that they had been blocked from evening events or one-on-one meetings with their bosses out of fears of creating the wrong impression. National Journal quoted an Office of Compliance official saying that any such policy ? ?official or unofficial? ? could be viewed as discriminatory.

?A practice like this means that women can never become trusted advisers or rise to high positions within an office based solely upon their gender,? the official said.

"Conservatives, mostly, defended Pence as a family man who deeply respected his wife, and they accused liberals of not taking Pence?s faith seriously or acknowledging the realities of the workplace.

?One doesn?t have to approve of Pence?s personal guardrails to recognize that many Americans consider them admirable ? and far more so than the examples set by, say, Donald Trump or Bill Clinton,? opined the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"There were also some inevitable comparisons to the Jewish practice of yichud, in which observant men and women can?t be alone together unless they are married, siblings or parent and child. ?Our Sages, with their deep understanding of human nature, understood well that should people be left to decide on their own what they could or could not do ? especially with regard to the powerful issue of intimate relations ? men and women might easily put themselves in very problematic situations and might, without wanting to, commit capital transgressions,? Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski wrote in The Yeshiva World News. ?For these reasons our Sages constructed a number of ?barriers,? of steps to keep people from falling into such traps.?

"The laws of yichud are detailed; for example, a man and woman can?t share an office unless ?there is the realistic expectation that another office worker may enter at any moment? (in other words, there are no locks and plenty of people around). Rabbis are asked whether it is OK for a man and an unrelated woman to work in the same empty building, even if on different floors; whether it is OK to consult alone with a doctor of the opposite gender; whether a young man can be alone in a house with a maid.

"But nearly all of these cases are about seclusion, not about meeting with someone in a public place. If Pence didn?t want to be alone in his office after work hours with a women other than his wife, the rabbis would approve. They also wouldn?t have much of a problem if he dined with a female colleague in a restaurant.

"The discussion about Pence?s marriage ?zones? exposed a few societal gaps. Behavior that is considered perfectly reasonable among religious people can seem bizarre to outsiders, even insidious. A little respect is due. But labeling a behavior ?religious? doesn?t automatically make it OK either. Our republic has elaborate laws for the workplace meant to ensure that religious people don?t face discrimination ? but also to ensure that religion isn?t used as an excuse to discriminate. Respect in this case goes both ways.

"Others see a conservative-liberal gap. Liberals, with their essentially optimistic view of human nature, think individuals should be able to take responsibility for their own behavior and resist temptation. Pence, wrote Alexandra Petri in The Washington Post, ?is living life with the assumption that he lacks the modicum of self-control involved in eating dinner with another human being and not committing adultery.?

"Conservatives, on the other hand, who believe in sin and the general fallibility of humankind, think it only realistic to build fences around temptation. That was Damon Linker?s point in a Twitter thread The Weekly Standard contributor wrote on the subject: ?One morality-abiding, bodily transcending subject should be able to have dinner w another w/o incident. Right?? he asked, summarizing the liberal position, before providing the conservative response: ?Pence?s way of living denies all of this. It denies we?re able to restrain ourselves with any reliability. We need God?s help, and we need to keep ourselves away from situations in which we will be tempted to cheat.?

"That?s one way of invoking God. But there is another. In 1983, in an essay in the seminal collection ?On Being a Jewish Feminist,? Cynthia Ozick noted how the Jewish laws that end up suppressing women as scholars and communal leaders are predicated on the idea of male temptation.

?Much of the vast structure of Jewish segregation of the sexes rests on the fear of male temptation, on the so-called weakness of males in the face of ?distraction,'? she wrote. ?Yet all Jewish practice requires restraint, dedication, and concentration. ? Is an observant Jew, whose life is nearly defined by the practice of restraint, a more libidinous creature than other males??

"Pence?s secular critics may lack an appreciation for the religious point of view. But are they wrong to think that a religious person should be able ? all the more so, as the rabbis say ? to draw on his or her own faith to keep from committing ?capital transgressions?? If religion isn?t developing its adherents? sense of restraint and propriety, then what?s the point exactly?"

Andrew Silow-Carroll - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 5, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Pastor says ?Billy Graham Rule? Hinders Women in Ministry

"A female Baptist pastor and a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leader say the ?Billy Graham Rule? ? in the news since revelations that Vice President Mike Pence never eats alone with a woman other than his wife ? has serious implications for women in ministry.

"The buzz over the practice adopted in the 1940s to keep men in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association free from scandal as they traveled across the country began with a single sentence in a March 28 Washington Post profile on Second Lady Karen Pence: ?In 2002, Mike Pence told The Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won?t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.?

"Baptist reactions ranged from ?why would anyone have a problem with that?? to ridicule and outright scorn. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said the rule comes down to ?a very simple and irrefutable observation.?

?It is virtually impossible to have a sexual affair, to be engaged in infidelity, if one is not with a woman alone,? Mohler said. If the rule were applied to U.S. presidents, he said, Bill Clinton wouldn?t have been impeached. Karen Swallow Prior, an English professor at Liberty University and research fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the rule ?befits the world of Mad Men more than the modern-day work world where women are to be treated as equals.?

"She wrote for Vox that she remembers feeling slightly embarrassed the first time she realized a male colleague had turned down her offer to give him a ride back to the office after a meeting across campus because of her gender. The offer ?wasn?t sexual,? she recalled ?until it was,? along with her imaginary retort, ?Besides, I?m just not that into you.?

"Merianna Harrelson, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in West Columbia, S.C., said she first encountered the Billy Graham Rule in youth group, when she was encouraged to turn to female interns for counseling or advice instead of her male youth minister.

?I can remember thinking that there was something more going on in the interactions the male youth group members were getting that I wasn?t receiving because they had access to the youth minister,? she said. Harrelson said the idea that professional adults need chaperones ?perpetuates false notions of sexuality.?

?Men are not sexual beings who cannot control their sexual desires,? she said. ?Females are not sexual temptresses. When we operate in the adult, professional world with these false, negative ideas of sexuality, we only reinforce a culture of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and spiritual abuse.?

"Shauw Chin Capps, moderator-elect of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and CEO of Hopeful Horizons in Beaufort, S.C., said she has never knowingly encountered the Billy Graham Rule, but if a male colleague refused to meet with her because she is a woman she would ?probably think that he?s pulling my leg.?

?I do think there are healthy, common-sense boundaries that any minister, male or female, can and should implement,? she said, such as meeting with the door open, having glass in office doors or letting staff know the meeting can be interrupted. The reason may not always be about ?temptations,? she said, but the appearance of what is or is not appropriate ?often varies depending on the person.?

"Harrelson said it is unrealistic to expect a female pastor to minister to her flock without ever winding up alone with a church member of the opposite sex. ?Whether you are doing hospital visitations, counseling or worship preparation, there will always be times when you find yourself alone with a member of another gender,? she said. ?Rules like the Billy Graham rule only hinder women from stepping fully into the ministries God has called them to.?

"Capps said Pence?s rules for marriage are between him and his wife, but his personal values should not influence how he selects professionals to work with him or for him in public service. ?I can see how that could naturally lead to favoring men over women,? she said. ?That would be discrimination.?

Bob Allen - Baptist News Global - April 6, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Russia Continues Proceedings on Jehovah?s Witnesses

"Russia?s news agency is reporting the city court of Birobidzhan?s decision to ban Jehovah?s Witnesses will be upheld. A Justice Ministry suit is working to ban the Jehovah?s Witness religion entirely. Over 170,000 Jehovah?s Witnesses are located in Russia.

"The Justice Ministry alleges that their religious activities are in violation of Russian law and fighting extremism. The Russian government, under the authority of their extremism law, has harassed the religious group. The extremism law does not require the existence of violence for any activity to banned as extremist.

"The following is a statement from Office of Public Information for Jehovah?s Witnesses:

"In a second day of proceedings, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation continued to consider a claim from the Ministry of Justice to liquidate the Administrative Center of Jehovah?s Witnesses in Russia. The day concluded with a recess until Friday, April 7, 2017, at 10:00 a.m.

"During the session, the Supreme Court judge and lawyers for Jehovah?s Witnesses were able to question the representative for the Ministry of Justice, asking him to produce proof that Jehovah?s Witnesses are extremist?the basis of the claim. The Ministry of Justice was unable to provide evidence supporting their claims, such as that they fail to take effective measures against extremism. The Ministry of Justice also could not substantiate accusations regarding the Witness? literature. For example, it was established that the Witnesses? literature prohibited in Russia had not been distributed in the country for years, and among forensic experts, there was not a consensus that their literature should be considered extremist. The Ministry could not prove that offenses had ever been committed under the influence of the Witness? literature.

"At one point during the trial, the presiding judge asked the representative for the Ministry of Justice, ?If you are asking for Jehovah?s Witnesses to be banned, does this mean that the faithful who gather for prayer would be under the threat of criminal prosecution? The Ministry of Justice replied, ?Yes, if the court finds them guilty of violating Art. 282.2 of the Russian criminal code.?

"David A. Semonian, a spokesman at the Witnesses? world headquarters in New York, explains: ?It was clear by today?s proceedings that the Ministry of Justice has no basis for their claims against our organization.? He adds, ?But we also note the Ministry of Justice?s admission. We hope that the Supreme Court upholds justice and prevents this violation of our basic human rights.?"

World Religious News - April 6, 2017.

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Let the religious wars in Florida schools begin

"Devout students, rejoice. The Florida Legislature seems to have forgotten that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled long ago that public school officials cannot impose prayer or religion on students. But that?s not keeping the legislative body from pursuing a measure to bring religion full throttle to public school life.

"If they succeed, Muslim students, for example, would be able to bring to school their prayer rugs, unfurl them, and bow in prayer to Allah. Why not? Any religious practice in public schools would have to be inclusive. No religion could be exempted from being expressed on school grounds. Expand religious rights of one and school officials have to allow space for all. And atheists and agnostics can?t be punished for not engaging in religious activities. They too would have to be given space to express those points of views in equal measure to religious fervor.

"So let the 2017 religious wars in Florida schools begin. There?s no disruption to learning that?s big enough for the state?s ideologue lawmakers, whose aim is not to be inclusive but to expose other people?s children to their brand of evangelization ? as if students didn?t have enough learning issues on their plate and enough differences that divide them.

"This terrible idea, however, has widespread support. A bill passed by the House 114-3 this week mandates that religion return to campus life in an official capacity. A Senate bill approved two weeks ago, also with considerable support, requires schools to give students ?a limited public forum? to pray and express their beliefs in school at assemblies and other school-sponsored events.

"Students also could wear religious clothing, jewelry, and other accessories ? as if some weren?t already doing so. I haven?t heard of anyone being asked to take off the necklace with the virgencita medal or the Star of David. And I?ve visited classrooms where young Muslim women wear hijabs. It?s an organic part of the multicultural lifestyle, but maybe other parts of Florida need the force of law.

"Lawmakers also want prayer groups and religious events to be allowed in school in the same way secular clubs operate. So the new Muslim Student Club and the Christian Evangelical Club would share space with Key Club and Thespians. I can think of endless pairings: How about santer?a followers hanging with the French Club?

"I?m assuming activities directors will be asked to supervise religion as they do other clubs, so budget them a whopping raise. They?ll need the bigger paycheck to keep them from walking out the door as so many underpaid teachers have done, leaving Florida with a serious teacher shortage. Most incredibly misguided of all is the language that says religious and secular views must be given equal footing in curriculums.
.
"Religious indoctrination has no place in secular public schools. Religion, as a subject, is taught at the college level under the umbrella of humanities without proselytizing. Science is on another level. They?re not equal. Rights to religious expression are already protected by the U.S. and Florida constitutions. So why devote all this legislative energy to a non-issue now? People who want religious instruction along with the ABCs for their children can send them to a religious school. They?re plentiful throughout this state.

"But conservatives in Florida feel empowered by Donald Trump?s rise and the role evangelicals played in the presidential election. The House bill is the work of rookie Rep. Kim Daniels, a charismatic evangelical from Jacksonville. In her first move as a newly elected member of the Florida House, she filed House Bill 303, the ?Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act,? to mandate that school districts allow religious expression. Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, chimed in with ?stand for liberty,? SB 436.

"Both are catering to public confusion. Students can privately pray as long as they?re not coercing others. So the drum major who kneels in prayer before a performance with the school band is perfectly able to do so. He just can?t make the band join him. Before or after school, a student can ask others to meet and pray or discuss religion, the Miami-Dade Public Schools handbook says on page 64. But ?school officials cannot encourage or discourage participation in such an event.?

"If religious freedom is already guaranteed in public schools, what?s the point? The Florida Legislature wants to make religious devotion public school policy ? and that?s a constitutional no-no.

Fabiola Santiago - Miami Herald - April 7, 2017.

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Phil Gorski Wonders: Should Religious People Have To Speak Secular Language ?

Question: You contrast civil religion with two other narratives of American democracy: radical secularism and religious nationalism. Describe what those are.

Gorski: The radical-secular interpretation of American history is that American democracy is an Enlightenment project based solely on secular values. The religious-nationalist interpretation is that America was founded as a Christian nation, and our laws and Constitution are all grounded in Christian or Judeo-Christian scripture. One of the points of the book is to show that at the many junctures of our history, those two sources have been intertwined with each other.

One of my favorite examples of this is Benjamin Franklin?s draft seal for the United States. The image is of Moses parting the Red Sea and the Israelites crossing over behind him. Franklin can hardly be suspected of being a particularly orthodox Christian, yet he thought this narrative belied something fundamental about the American project.

Another example is Thomas Paine?s famous tract, Common Sense. Radical secularists often point to Paine when they?re arguing for the Enlightenment character of the American founding. Yet if you look at the first eight or 10 pages of Common Sense, Paine frames it entirely around an interpretation of 1 Samuel 8. The text was the basis of his argument about God preferring republican forms of government.

One can find this argument among arguably the least orthodox Christian figures in the founding generation. How much more influential must it have been among those for whom the Bible was a touchstone?

Question: You describe a tendency among some secular thinkers to cast America?s past leaders as non-religious. What?s up with that?

Gorski: People are trying to cook the books of moral accounting in American history. They want people whom they admire as important civic leaders to have the ?right? motivations?which is to say, secular motivations. They want to wave away any inspiration those people might have received from Christianity.

Christopher Hitchens was very dismissive of Barack Obama?s quite public professions of Christian faith, saying this was just a guy with political ambitions putting on a show and telling the audience what it wanted to hear. In God Is Not Great, he says the same thing about Martin Luther King, which to me is even more implausible.

I don?t think he is right, but it doesn?t really matter if he was. The point is that biblical narratives still provide an overarching framework for thinking about who we are, where we came from, and where we want to be going. Many secular people too easily forget that many of their most cherished values are partly our values because they merge with Christianity.

Question: What are the major blind spots of radical secularism?including ones you encounter in the academy?

Gorski: In general, academic analyses of history or contemporary society tend to give very short shrift to religion. I think there is a tendency to think of religion as secondary or epiphenomenal, and not to take it into consideration.

Not that it?s just religion. Another great example of this is sports, which is one of the most important things to many non-academics, yet is one of the least studied subjects in academia.

But I don?t want to paint a picture that?s misleading. There has been increasing recognition over the course of my career of the importance of religion to social and historical development.

Question: You write that radical secularism places unreasonable expectations on people of faith and on democracy because it asks people to translate their beliefs into secular language. Explain what you mean.

Gorski: The language of secular public discourse appeals passively to values like personal autonomy or maximizing utilities or institutional efficiency. The demand that religious people speak that language, on the grounds that it is a putatively neutral language, is incorrect and unfair. I think it would be just as reasonable to ask that secular people become more religiously literate and engage folks who are coming from a position of faith.

Emma Green - The Atlantic - April 9, 2017.

Phil Gorski is a professor of sociology and religious studies at Yale University.

Complete article and interview:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/gorski-civil-religion/521751/

[eyeshaveit]

President Trump & Vice President Pence Attacked as 'Arrogant Christians'

"A professor who specializes in religious studies at University of California, Los Angeles says President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence represent ?troubling trends in American Christianity.?

"Professor Carla Pestana of UCLA published ?Arrogant Christians In The White House? over the weekend for The Huffington Post, which warns of a future America shaped by the ?fundamentalist Christian? views of Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump?s ?self-indulgence.?

?Pence adheres to biblical literalism. Put simply, this view asserts that the Bible is a transparent document, one that prescribes specific behavioral guidelines,? Ms. Pestana wrote Saturday. ?Its arrogance lies in the hubris of those who believe that only their chosen answers are correct. Its potential to harm others comes when adherents gain political power and force their mandates on nonbelievers. One of the many dangers emanating out of the Trump White House is the power of Pence to impose not his religion but the behaviors his religion dictates onto the rest of us.?

"The professor, who currently teaches History of Religion in U.S., then analyzed Mr. Trump?s faith as something akin to the ?prosperity theology? adopted by some Christians.

?Trump?s religion, although very different, is similarly alarming,?  she wrote. ?Unsurprisingly Trump accepts a religious viewpoint that tells him he is uniquely awesome. Whatever he has ? however he acquired it ? God wants him to enjoy to the fullest. Although traditional Christian social practice mandates that believers exercise humility, charity and other virtues that put others before self, Trump?s faith rejects all curbs on self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement.?

Douglas Ernst - Washington Times - April 10, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Pornification of the World by the Numbers

"Numbers ... based on credible studies carried out in 2016 or 2017 :

4.6 Billion
"In 2016, people watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography at just one website (the biggest porn site in the world) ... people watched 92 billion videos (or an average of 12.5 for every person on earth) ... So many people are using so much porn today that it is really impossible to tabulate.

11
"At age 11, the average child has already been exposed to explicit pornographic content through the internet. 93% of boys and 62% of girls are exposed to internet-based pornography during their adolescent years and 22% of the vast quantities of porn consumed by people aged under 18 is consumed by those aged less than 10 ...

70%
"70% of teens and young adults define porn by its function [sexual arousal], not its form [nudity, etc.] ... Young adults do not consider things pornographic if they are not explicitly intended to cause arousal, so sex and nudity in movies or television is not considered pornographic, especially if it is an integral element to a story ...

57%
57% of young adults admit to seeking out porn at least once per month. 46% of men admit to the same ... Porn use is rampant across most age categories, but is particularly pronounced among young adults.

96%
96% of young adults are either encouraging, accepting, or neutral in their view toward pornography. (17% talk about porn in a positive way, 43% in an accepting way as if it?s just a reality of life in this world, while 36% don?t consider the morality of it at all.) ...

61%
"61% of pornography is watched on a mobile phone. In the United States that is as high as 70% ...

33%
Today, 33% of women aged 25 and under go searching for porn at least once per month. 56% of women in that age group have gone looking for it at least one time in the past ...

62%
"62% of teens and young adults have received a sexually explicit image. Meanwhile, 41% have sent one, usually to their boyfriend or girlfriend. Women are more likely to both send and receive these nude images ...

36%
"36% of young adults watch pornography to get tips or ideas that they can apply to their own sexual relationships ... among older people, pornography is more commonly used to ?set the mood? for sexual activity with a partner ... 

80%
"80% of porn users feel no sense of guilt when using porn ...

Conclusion
"These numbers prove statistically what we already known anecdotally?that pornography is a significant issue afflicting our society and our church. As Christians we can and must be prepared to help those who are struggling with it and to assure them that they can be forgiven and freed. As parents we can and must take action to protect and equip our children so we can help them overcome and avoid it."

Tim Challies' Blog - challiesdotcom - April 11, 2017.

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'The Souls Of China' Documents Country's Dramatic Return To Religion

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: When the writer Ian Johnson made his first trip to China in the mid-1980s, he says religious life seemed to be dead. There were few worshippers left in a country that once had a million temples. Now he says the country is experiencing a dramatic return to religion with roughly a quarter of the country embracing Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and other faiths. Johnson explores this resurgence in a new book called, "The Souls Of China: The Return Of Religion After Mao." I asked him if I would see signs of religious life if I traveled through China today.

IAN JOHNSON: I think you would, especially if you got outside of Beijing. Beijing is where the government's control is the strongest. But when you go out to the countryside or if you go to temples on certain holy days, the number of people are incredibly large. You can see in temples, they have these stone tablets called steles. And if you look at the stele, you can see the amount of money that people donate to these temples. It's amazing.

You can look at a temple and count up quickly a million U.S. dollars in donations. And you can also see churches being built and mosques being built depending on the part of the country that you go to.

SHAPIRO: Some of the people who practice these faiths are quick to tell you that what they are doing is culture. It's not religion. It's not politics. One guy says, as you write, culture - C-U-L-T-U-R-E. Why is this distinction so important to them?

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Well, religion is something that's very tightly controlled by the Communist Party. It has this political feel to it, something that's a little dangerous. So if you just say you're doing culture, then it's a lot easier to do what you want.

I've been to temples where people are praying, and the local officials say, see, this is traditional Chinese culture. And I say, well, it looks like religion to me. They're kowtowing in front of statues. They're lighting incense. And he's like, oh, no, no, no. It's not religion because if it's religion, it's got to be approved by the government et cetera, et cetera. If we just call it culture, then it's sort of something we can do on our own.

SHAPIRO: There is such an interesting relationship between these emerging religious practices or returning religious practices, I guess we should say, and the government. There are several instances where you talk about sort of local government observers sitting in the back of a religious ceremony, and the preacher trying to thread this needle where he can deliver a message that might be a little bit barbed but deliver it not so explicitly that the government agents will shut down the ceremony.

JOHNSON: Yeah, especially with Christianity. There's a suspicion of it from the government side. They see Christianity as foreign-influenced. So in that particular case, yeah, there were plainclothes police at the back of the hall - this was a big Christmas service that I attended - and they were listening in. And I think they were eager to find an excuse to shut it down, but they didn't.

On the other hand, the so-called traditional faiths are often really encouraged by the government. And we can see this under Xi Jinping, that he's given a lot of money and support to traditional religions like Buddhism and Taoism.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. You say that the government has decided to co-opt religious groups, at least the traditional ones, rather than crush them. What's behind that decision?

JOHNSON: Well, I think there's a couple of things. If you want to be cynical, you could say the Communist Party has always viewed religion as the opiate of the masses but now wants to use it for its own purposes to opiate the people to keep them docile and not thinking of politics.

But I think there's also in a more positive sense that the government recognizes that there is a lack of values in society - that people don't believe in anything and there's a great uncertainty in society, a national
malaise. And they also recognize that most people really don't believe in communism anymore. So they look at the traditional faiths as a way of instilling some kind of morality, basic principles for good living and that sort of thing.

SHAPIRO: There's one sermon you describe that, for me, really distilled part of the appeal of this, where the man delivering the sermon at a funeral uses the common phrase, long live so-and-so, which is usually applied to high-ranking Communist Party officials. And in this case, he was applying it to this typical working-class woman who had died.

JOHNSON: Yeah. This pastor, Wang Yi (ph), in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu was probably one of the best pastors I've ever heard. And this sermon was just a great sermon because he said, this woman deserves long life.

SHAPIRO: What is that phrase?

JOHNSON: Wansui. So they often say, you know, the Communist Party wansui, Chairman Mao wansui. And he was saying those people don't have wansui. It's this woman who has eternal life because she was a good person, and she believed in Christianity and so on. And people were sort of shocked when they listened to that. In the congregation, they were sitting there looking at him going, oh, my gosh, what's he talking about? Then they really got it, and the congregation bonded with him. You could see it happening right there.

SHAPIRO: Some of the religious leaders you spoke to seemed almost like social activists. In a society where many forms of civil society are not allowed, it often seemed that these churches and other religious groups kind of took the place of the unions, the civic organizations, the institutions that might hold local government officials to account or otherwise organize the populace. Is that the function that these groups are serving right now in China?

JOHNSON: Yeah. I think this is the double-edged sword of religion. On the one hand, you can say, well, it's something that will keep people in line maybe or keep them happy so they don't think about politics. But all religions have an appeal to higher senses of justice and righteousness, and it inspires people to social action.

SHAPIRO: Do you think that poses a threat to the government structure as it exists now?

JOHNSON: I don't think it's going to be like, say, in the Cold War in Poland where the Catholic Church was a separate force that helped undermine communist rule. It won't go that quickly. But I do think that it does create values that are higher than any government's values - ideas of righteousness and justice that people are inspired by and that will inspire them to action if they feel that they are unjustly treated by the government.

All Things Considered - Nation Public Radio (transcript) - April 12, 2017.

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Religion in Australia

"In the past 50 years, the nature and shape of religion in Australia has changed dramatically. While secularisation and religious decline was one way of telling this story, it has become increasingly unsatisfactory.

"Religion has not gone away, nor has it retreated into the private sphere as predicted, even though increasing numbers declare they have ?no religion?. These changes have major implications for social policy and research.

"Religion is constantly in the news. It seems to fuel global events, frightens politicians, and is claimed to influence the voting on moral issues.

"In the 2011 Census, Australia became at the same time both less religious and more religious. While a rising number declared they have ?no religion? (22%), the number declaring a religion also increased significantly. This was partly due to 17% fewer people taking the option of not responding.

"The declaration of ?no religion? is becoming particularly evident among young people ? the so-called millennials. In the 2011 Census, nearly 30% of Australians between 25 and 34 declared that they had no religion.

"Research in the UK reports many young people are turning their backs on formally organised religious communities that seem incapable of according women full dignity or recognising and celebrating love among LGBTIQ people.

"Increasing proportions of young people have been raised by parents who declare they have no religion. In the UK, the likelihood of children of religious parents being religious themselves is about 50%. But those raised in non-religious households are very unlikely to take up religion. Similar figures are likely for Australia.

"From recent research overseas and in Australia, there appears to be three broad types of orientation to religion, and not just the two predicted by secularisation theory, which is no religion or faith celebrated and practised in private.

"Also, there has been a tendency to essentialise the religious/secular divide and to ignore the diversity of ways in which people are religious.

"First, there are those who associate with formally organised religion because they find it informs their lives and motivates them to do service. They are public about this, and about their efforts to put faith into practice. Religion is important to them and informs the way they seek to shape and reshape society.

"Recent focus groups among millennials reveals some who are religious are exclusivist, believing they have ?the truth? and that everyone should have the same religious belief as they do. However, most are confident in practising their own religion while being comfortable to let others be themselves ? whether religious or not.

"While probably a smaller percentage of the population than 50 years ago, those taking their religion seriously cannot be ignored in any analysis of what is happening today. A recent National Church Life Survey (NCLS) revealed 14% of Australians said ?religion was very important? to them, and 11% attend worship weekly.

"However, this group is highly diverse. It includes many varieties of Christians along with those who are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindus, Sikh, Jewish, and others.

"Second, there are many ways of belonging to a particular faith. As one billboard declares: ?there are 1.6 billion ways of being a Muslim?. The internal diversity of religious groups is huge.

"Among the ?nones? there are at least two groups. First, there are those who fully reject or simply ignore religion. It is meaningless and pointless to them.

"While a few may be actively anti-religious, most simply do not care about religion, but do not mind if others follow one. The NCLS revealed 36% of Australians said ?religion was not important?, and another 25% said ?religion was of little importance?. Similarly, 68% said they never (or less than once a year) attend any kind of religious service.

"The second group among those who declare ?no religion? includes those who actively engage in spirituality, practise meditation, ask questions about the meaning of life, seek ethical ways to live their lives, and reshape society.

"According to the NCLS, 28% of Australians claim to ?have had (and another 25% believe it is possible to have) a mystical or supernatural experience about which they have no doubts about its reality?. Given that 11% claim to attend religious services once a week (and 7% once a month), supernatural experiences are not limited to religious organisations.

"This second group of ?nones?, sometimes referred to as SBNRs (spiritual but not religious), needs further research to understand the ways people are engaging with questions of meaning, seeking to promote personal and social wellbeing and improve their world.

"The fact they are not associated with existing organisations does not mean these activities have become privatised. They are simply differently organised and networked.

"The diversity of ways Australians are and aren?t religious or spiritual impacts on social policy, education, and interreligious relations.

"First, the diversity is not among just an increased number of monolithic blocks of identity. No-one speaks for all Christians, or Muslims, or Buddhists, or Hindus or Jews. Intrareligious relations are at times more difficult among people claiming the same religious identity. Alliances on issues will form between people from different religious groups, which are internally divided on the issue.

"Responses to census categories indicate one level of increased diversity but do not reveal the huge diversity within the categories. Nor do they reflect the fact that increasing numbers of Australians, given the chance, will claim more than one category.

"Overlooking diversity both within the ways of being religious and the ways of having no religion neglects the many forms of spirituality, wholeness, caring, sacred spaces and meaning found within and alongside formally organised religion."

Gary D. Bouma - The Conversation - April 13, 2017

Gary Bouma is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Monas University

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The 20 Most Religious Countries On Earth

1 - Ethiopia - 99% feel religious

2 - Malawi - 99%

3 - Niger - 99%

4 - Sri Lanka - 99%

5 - Yemen - 99%

6 - Burundi - 98%

7 - Djibouti - 98%

8 - Mauritania - 98%

9 - Somalia - 98%

10 - Afghanistan - 97%

11 - Comoros - 97%

12 - Egypt - 97%

13 - Guinea - 97%

14 - Laos - 97%

15 - Myanmar - 97%

16 - Cambodia - 96%

17 - Cameroon - 96%

18 - Jordan - 96%

19 - Senegal - 96%

20 - Chad, Ghana, Mali, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Zambia - (all) 95%

"The most religious regions are Africa and the Middle East, with south-east Asia and Latin America not far behind. Faith is important to many southern European countries too, with 74 per cent of Italians and 71 per cent of Greek claiming to feel religious."

Oliver Smith - The Telegraph (UK) - April 16, 2017.

Complete Article & World Map of Religious Countries:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/most-religious-countries-in-the-world/

[eyeshaveit]

How Easter Got The Egg

"What?s so Christian about an Easter egg anyway? Eggs have histories in many cultures as symbols of fertility and rebirth, but here are a few ways they?ve been linked to Easter and the Christian faith.

"As early as the fifth century, many Christians abstained from eating not only meat during Lent but also dairy products and eggs, according to a 2010 article in Christianity Today. In the days leading up to Easter, eggs were preserved by hard-boiling ? and would often be the first thing a person ate to break the Lenten fast on Easter Sunday.

"There are many legends about dyeing eggs, including one where either Mary Magdalene or Mary, the mother of Jesus, places a basket of eggs below the cross, Jesus? blood turning them red. Today, some Orthodox churches still dye Easter eggs red to represent the blood of Christ.

"An 1879 edition of The Reformed Church Publication Board?s magazine The Guardian compares an Easter egg to Jesus? tomb. An egg looks dead but has life inside, ?and also it is like Christ?s dead body, which was raised to life again,? the article says. ?This is the reason we use eggs on Easter.?

Katherine Burgess - The Wichita Eagle - April 14, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Christianity Being Driven Out of the Middle East

"Prospects of Christianity surviving in its birthplace, the Middle East, appear as grim this Holy Week as they have at any time in the last two millennia.

"Persecution of the world?s largest religion has intensified, especially in Muslim-dominated countries. Jihadists appear to have repeatedly carried out one of their oft-stated goals of erasing any trace of Christianity in some regions, while in others persecution against Christians and other religious minorities are being held at bay ? for now.

"The prospects facing Christianity in three of its longest-standing strongholds, Syria, Egypt and Iraq, vary significantly:

"Egypt

"Egypt?s Coptic Christians make up around 10 percent of the population and have long been a target not only of Islamic extremists but the majority Muslim population?s resentment.

"Coptic leaders have reported that since February 2011, after the election of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohammed Morsi, as president, persecution worsened. Since then, at least 200,000 Christians have fled the country.

"When a military coup ousted Morsi, many of his supporters blamed the Copts. As a result, violent incidents against Christians have steadily increased.

"And while current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has made concerted efforts to protect the Coptic community, this year has shown some of the most violent attacks against Christians.

"That is especially so in Egypt?s northern Sinai region, where the Islamic State is taking direct aim against Christians. Before 2011, that community numbered up to 5,000; it has now dwindled to fewer than 1,000.

?The Copts, like most Christians around the region, are victims of religious hatred. But they are also pawns in a larger game to destabilize ?apostate? Arab regimes and invite Western intervention,? Robert Nicholson, of the Philos Project, a US-based advocacy group for Christians in the Middle East, tells Fox News.

"Iraq

"In 2003, Iraq?s Christian population was an estimated 1.4 million. Christians enjoyed relatively many civil rights and were able to rise to high levels in private and public life.

"The Nineveh Plain region, also known as the Plain of Mosul, was a centuries-old homeland for the country?s "Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian Christians. Then the United States invaded Iraq, unleashing an orgy of sectarian violence that hammered churches. Christians fled the Nineveh Plain, and as of late last year the number of Christians in Iraq had fallen to an estimated 275,000.

"One reason was ISIS. The terror group launched a pogrom against the church, as well as other minority religions. But today, a US coalition has eliminated the Islamic State?s chokehold on much of northern Iraq, including the city of Mosul.

"Prospects for Christianity surviving in Iraq now turn on whether the Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian believers will be allowed to return to their ancestral homelands. A majority of the Assyrian towns have been decimated.

?Everything is damaged,? Jalal, an Assyrian from the village of Karamles, told Fox News in December. ?Houses have been burned by fire. There?s no water, no anything. People will only return if there is some sort of promise of protection.?

"One proposal is to create a safe zone for Christians, an area that could evolve into a semi-autonomous region. Some groups favor a go-slow approach:

?It?s a little early to jump to safe havens,? David Curry, CEO of Open Doors USA, which monitors incidents
of Christian persecution worldwide, tells Fox News. ?They often wind up creating a bigger target.? No matter if or how quickly Christians are able to return home, persecution of believers will remain a fact of life.

"Syria

"For a majority of the last century, this country has had a relatively sizable Christian presence, comprising at least 10 percent of the population.

"Many of Syria?s Christians, known as Eastern Orthodox, have historically seen their country as an oasis of religious freedom compared to neighboring countries. President Bashar al-Assad?s regime has long allowed churches to evangelize, publish religious materials and build sanctuaries.

"The Christian population has also had access to education and employment, and many are more financially well off than their Muslim counterparts.

"However, things may be growing worse. While many Syrian Christians do not want to become refugees, there is an underlying fear among the community that their country could have the same issues seen in Iraq if the regime is toppled.

"Prospects for Syrian Christians will turn on whether the Assad regime survives and, if it does not, whether a successor government maintains the current regime?s protection of the church."

Perry Chiaramonte - New York Post - April 14, 2017.

[Dexter]

?Less lethal? plastic pellets to be used in Kashmir

Home Ministry said on Monday that it would introduce less lethal ?plastic bullets? against protesters in Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen unprecedented violence since July 8 last year after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter.

An official said that MHA has revised the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the central police forces deployed in the Kashmir Valley and they have been instructed to use pellet guns sparingly.

The government is facing severe criticism for using pellet guns and several political parties have asked for its complete withdrawal. Due to injuries inflicted by pellet guns, 13 people were killed last year and more than 250 were injured.

During his two-day visit to Kashmir on August 24-25 last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said an alternative to pellet guns will be given to security forces in the coming days.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/less-lethal-plastic-pellets-to-be-used-in-kashmir/article18078364.ece?homepage=true

[Dexter]

Further confirmation that Noah's ark has been found

https://healthfoodsoul.com/noahs-ark-found-keeping-us-dark/

In 1959, Turkish army captain Llhan Durupinar discovered an unusual shape while examining aerial photographs of his country. The smooth shape, larger than a football field, stood out from the rough and rocky terrain at an altitude of 6,300 feet near the Turkish border with Iran.

apt. Durupinar was familiar with the biblical accounts of the Ark and its association with Mount Ararat in Turkey, but he was reluctant to jump to any conclusions. The region was very remote, yet it was inhabited with small villages. No previous reports of an object this odd had been made before. So he forwarded the photographic negative to a famous aerial photography expert named Dr. Brandenburger, at Ohio State University.

Brandenburger was responsible for discovering the Cuban missile bases during the Kennedy era from reconnaissance photos, and after carefully studying the photo, he concluded: ?I have no doubt at all, that this object is a ship. In my entire career, I have never seen an object like this on a stereo photo.?

In 1960 a group of Americans accompanied Capt. Durupinar to the site for a day and a half. They were expecting to find artifacts on the surface or something that would be unquestionably related to a ship of some kind. They did some digging in the area but found nothing conclusive and announced to the anxiously waiting world that it appeared to be a natural formation.

Most of the global media turned away from the find and it became a non-story.

In 1977 Ron Wyatt visited the site. Obtaining official permission, Ron and others conducted more thorough research over a period of several years. They used metal detection surveys, subsurface radar scans, and chemical analysis ? real science ? and their findings were startling. The evidence was undeniable. This was the Ark of Noah.

[eyeshaveit]

Nones, Dones and Religionless Christianity

"Religious nones and dones are some of the fastest growing groups in America. For those unfamiliar with the terms, ?nones? are those who self identify as having no religion, including atheists, agnostics, and those who believe in God but reject particular religious traditions. ?Dones? are formerly religious individuals, often people who were highly involved but became disillusioned and burned out.

"Articles and conversations about the nones and dones from a religious perspective often have an undercurrent of panic as people try to understand why so many are leaving organized religion. Anxiety is a normal human response to change (especially when those changes expose our own hidden doubts). But there?s a better way to think about the future of religion. It?s found in Dietrich Bonhoeffer?s Letters and Papers from Prison.

"Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran theologian, one of just a handful who took a stand against the Third Reich and spoke up for the Jewish people. Although he was offered sanctuary in the U.S., Bonhoeffer believed that he needed to be present in Germany during the war to have any role in healing and rebuilding the nation when it was over. He was eventually imprisoned by the Nazi regime for avoiding military service ?(his interpretation of the gospels led him to being a pacifist) and executed. His writing while in prison has been collected into book form. Put it on your reading list.

"In April, 1944, Bonhoeffer wrote:

We are moving toward a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as ?religious? do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by ?religious?.
Letters and Papers from Prison, page 279

"Bonhoeffer was writing about the German Christians who failed to speak up against Hitler, but his words apply equally to Christians today who are more concerned with a political or religious agenda than they are with imitating Jesus in his radical stand with the marginalized and oppressed.His letter continues:

Our whole nineteen-hundred-year-old Christian preaching and theology rest on the ?religious a priori? of mankind. ?Christianity? has always been a form ? perhaps the true form ? of ?religion?. But if one day it becomes clear that this a priori does not exist at all, but was a historically conditioned and transient form of human self-expression, and if therefore man becomes radically religionless ? and I think that that is already more or less the case (else how is it, for example, that this war, in contrast to all previous ones, is not calling forth any ?religious? reaction?) ? what does that mean for ?Christianity?? It means that the foundation is taken away from the whole of what has up to now been our ?Christianity?, and that there remain only a few ?last survivors of the age of chivalry?, or a few intellectually dishonest people, on whom we can descend as ?religious?. Are they to be the chosen few? Is it on this dubious group of people that we are to pounce in fervor, pique, or indignation, in order to sell them goods? Are we to fall upon a few unfortunate people in their hour of need and exercise a sort of religious compulsion on them? If we don?t want to do all that, if our final judgment must be that the western form of Christianity, too, was only a preliminary stage to a complete absence of religion, what kind of situation emerges for us, for the church? How can Christ become the Lord of the religionless as well? Are there religionless Christians? If religion is only a garment of Christianity ? and even this garment has looked very different at different times ? then what is a religionless Christianity?
Letters and Papers from Prison, page 280

?It?s a relationship, not a religion? wasn?t a slogan yet when Bonhoeffer wrote these letters. If it had been, I?m sure he would have protested against it as adding to the problem. What Bonhoeffer was referring to, and what many nones and dones experience, is a Christianity that carries so much emotional and psychological baggage that it has become meaningless as a frame of reference. The world has been disenchanted, and it turns out religious language is unnecessary, like a shaman?s explanation of why aspirin works. Although language plays a role in shaping our understanding, what?s more important than the language used is the reality underneath the terminology. For Bonhoeffer, this religionless world is not something to be lamented, but an opportunity to be explored:

How do we speak of God ? without religion, i.e. without the temporally conditioned presuppositions of metaphysics, inwardness, and so on? How do we speak (or perhaps we cannot now even ?speak? as we used to) in a ?secular? way about ?God?? In what way are we ?religionless-secular? Christians, in what way are we the ??-??????, those who are called forth, not regarding ourselves from a religious point of view as specially favoured, but rather as belonging wholly to the world? In that case Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, really the Lord of the world. But what does that mean? What is the place of worship and prayer in a religionless situation?
Letters and Papers from Prison, pages 280-281

"Is Bonhoeffer writing about the absurd, or is he on to something? How do you experience religion/religionlessness? What is the way forward?"

Russ Shumaker - Patheos - April 17, 2017.

Russ Shumaker has a MA in Theology and he is a writer / producer in Los Angeles, California.

[eyeshaveit]

Atheists should embrace the science of religion

"It is just over a decade since Richard Dawkins lit the blue touchpaper with his book The God Delusion. It introduced much of the world to the so-called new atheism ? a forceful rejection of religion based on the premise that scientific materialism offers a superior explanation of the universe, while religion is a corrosive influence on society: a pathological meme planted in the minds of defenceless children.

"Though a great read and a liberating influence for many closet atheists, The God Delusion largely omitted a new strand of scientific enquiry emerging around the time it was published. Those working on the ?science of religion? ? a motley crew of psychologists, anthropologists and neuroscientists ? explained it as a by-product of normal cognition. Thanks to evolution, they argued, our explanation-seeking minds find religious ideas intuitively appealing, gobbling them up as a hungry trout swallows a fishing fly.

"To many disciples of the new atheism, this was little more than, well, heresy. They decried it as ?accommodationism? ? an illogical and often harmful attempt to pretend religion can still serve a purpose now that science rules the roost. Never mind that the cognitive by-product theory does not imply that religious beliefs are true ? far from it. Nor does it claim religion and scientific materialism are compatible. It merely attempts to explore religious belief and disbelief using the tools of science, rather than rhetoric.

"The new atheists attacked it anyway. In terms of public debate around the appropriate role of religion in society, this was a mistake. It alienated as many people as it won over, leaving the new atheists preaching to the converted, polarising the debate and dissuading moderates of both secular and religious persuasions from getting involved at all.

"Perhaps most damagingly, it fostered an idea already doing the rounds: that atheism is a belief system whose adherents can be as blindly dogmatic as any other. In other words, that it is ?just another religion?. At first glance this has all the sophistication of a playground taunting match: you smell. No, you smell. But as a rhetorical device it is highly effective. Tarring militant atheists with their own brush undermines their claims to the intellectual high ground, and when it came to some of the new atheists, it had the ring of truth to it. But is it really true of all the godless?

"Once again, those practising actual science offer answers. The science of atheism, brought to you by the people who brought you the science of religion, says that atheism really isn?t just another religion but something altogether different ? although not for the reasons you may think (see ?Faith of the faithless: Is atheism just another religion??). No doubt militant atheists will say ?we knew it all along?; but perhaps they will also find some common ground with those they had dismissed as apologists.

"Or perhaps not. The science of religion challenges core elements of the new atheism: for example, the belief that religion leads on the whole to misery and suffering. Belief-ologists say religion was the ?social glue? that held early societies together. That doesn?t mean religion is required to play that role today. But simply ignoring or high-handedly dismissing its power will not abolish its sway or further the secularist cause. And given the rise of religiosity in global affairs, there is much more than a rhetorical joust at stake."

The New Scientist - Issue 3121 - April 15, 2017.

[Dexter]

Shinto trying to stay relevant in global, green era

The seminar, the first of its kind, was organized by the Association of Shinto Shrines, the umbrella organization for the 80,000 or so shrines scattered across Japan.

The seminar was one of several unrelated initiatives intended to promote the understanding of Shinto outside Japan and use it as a means of cultural exchange in an era of globalization.

In the ancient capital of Kyoto, Mitsutaka Inui, a priest at Kamigamo Shrine, a World Heritage site, is trying to get foreign tourists to become familiar with the religion.

?The thinking that we must not pollute water because a god resides in it helps to keep water and nature in pristine condition,? he said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/01/15/national/shinto-trying-to-stay-relevant-in-global-green-era/#.WPeCMtKGNQI

[eyeshaveit]

Pope Francis: Christianity is not an Ideology or Philosophical Belief

"Pope Francis on Wednesday offered a reflection on Christ?s Resurrection and the start of Christianity, saying it?s not about us and what we do, but what the Lord has done for us. In his weekly ?General Audience? before thousands of pilgrims Wednesday, the Pope underscored the interpersonal aspect of Christianity as faith in the person of Jesus Christ as savior and revealer of the Father. He emphasized that Christianity is not so much our search for God, but rather God's search for us.

"In his recent sermon Pope Francis has refuted the idea of Christianity as a philosophy or political ideology, proposing rather that it is a journey of faith with its roots in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The words directly confront any Easter season criticism suggesting that Christianity is anything else but real. Reflecting on the witness of Saint Paul, Francis noted that Christian faith is not the outcome of a reflection of some wise person, but a simple fact that intervened in the lives of some people.

?Paul sums it up this way: Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day he rose again and appeared to Peter and to the Twelve,? the Pope said. ?This is the fact: he died, was buried, is risen and has appeared. That is, Jesus is alive!?

?This is the core of the Christian message,? Francis said. The Pope insisted that Christ?s resurrection was central to the preaching of the early Christian community, because it highlighted the sense that death did not have the final word. If everything were over with Christ?s death, Francis reasoned, he would have given an example of supreme dedication, but he would not move us to faith in Him. He would have been one more hero to admire.

?No!? Francis said. ?He died but rose again.? To those calling themselves Christians but do not believe in the Jesus' resurrection,  Faith, he said, ?is born from the resurrection. To accept that Christ died on the cross is not an act of faith; it is a historical fact. Believing that he rose, on the other hand, is an act of faith.? The Christian faith ?was born on Easter morning,? Francis asserted."

Catholic News Agency - April 19, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

'John 3:16' Found Written on Aaron Hernandez?s Forehead

"Aaron J. Hernandez, who had the phrase ?God forgives? tattooed onto his arm, marked his forehead with a reference to a biblical passage before apparently taking his own life in his cell at the state?s maximum security prison Wednesday, according to records and a law enforcement official.

"The former New England Patriots star was found hanging from a bedsheet by a corrections officer around 3:05 a.m. in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, where the 27-year-old Hernandez was serving a life sentence for murder, officials said.

"Hernandez, who was convicted of shooting Odin L. Lloyd to death in North Attleborough in 2013, was rushed to UMass Memorial-HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster Wednesday, where he was pronounced dead at 4:07 a.m., officials said.

"The state medical examiner?s office is conducting an autopsy as part of the ongoing investigation into his death that is being overseen by Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.?s office and the Department of Correction, part of the state Executive Office of Public Safety.

"Spokesmen for both Early and EOPS said the investigation is active, but they declined comment because the inquiry is not yet complete. Hernandez?s apparent suicide came five days after he was acquitted for the murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were shot to death on a South End street in 2012.

"During that trial, Suffolk prosecutors said Hernandez tattooed a confession to the crime on his right arm by adding an image of the murder weapon next to the phrase ?God Forgives.?? ?God Forgives? was written backward so it could be read in a mirror, according to testimony during the Suffolk Superior Court murder trial.

"As part of his apparent suicide, Hernandez marked his forehead with a reference to a passage in the Bible. He wrote ?John 3:16? onto his forehead with red ink, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Thursday.

"According to the King James version of the Bible, the notation refers to the following phrase, ?God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.??

"The death of the convicted killer came the same day that many of his former teammates were honored at the White House for winning Super Bowl 51. At one time, Hernandez was a key piece of the team?s offense. He had been a football prodigy, selected by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2010 National Football League draft.

"Correction Department spokesman Christopher Fallon said Wednesday there was no suicide note found during the initial search of the two-man cell Hernandez occupied alone. He was not on a suicide watch because he had not signaled he was at risk, Fallon said.

"Hernandez is the 27th recorded suicide in Massachusetts state prisons since 2010 and the second this year, according to state records. Under state law, Hernandez?s conviction for the Lloyd murder could ultimately be voided because his trial was not reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court prior to his death. His appellate attorney said he will file the required paperwork when a death certificate is issued.

"That legal technicality may, in turn, require the Patriots to make a multi-million dollar payment to his estate, a payment the Patriots refused to make following his arrest for the Lloyd killing in 2013, according to lawyers representing relatives of the three murder victims."

John Ellement - Boston Globe - April 20, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Hipster Church

"C3 isn?t your typical church. Its pastor wears skinny jeans, it has billboards that say ?For God so loved the 6,? and there?s a noticeable lack of white hair in its congregation. Its fashion-savvy millennial followers have earned C3?part of a global Pentecostal movement called Christian City Church?a reputation as Toronto?s ?hipster church.? We stopped by its Easter mass, held at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, to ask these 20- and 30-somethings why they flock to its services:

Mark Bone
30, documentary filmmaker, Bloordale [Canada]
?I think I came to C3 as a really selfish person. The church pushed me and challenged me, in a good way. I?ve learned what it means to serve others and live selflessly. That?s been such a freeing thing. It?s made life so much lighter.?

Colin Weidelich
33, construction manager, Moore Park
?I?ve been to other churches in the city, and as soon as I walked into C3, I felt that God was alive. It?s a welcoming community of like-minded people. This past Christmas, we had a Distillery District?style market, and I built some huts with another member who owns a millwork shop. It was pretty cool.?

Alyssa Yuhas
33, graphic designer, Bloorcourt
?I?m here for the awesome community. C3 is super open and inclusive, and they don?t let you stay in the crap that you?re in. You?re always pushed to be better?a better leader, better mom, better employee. The church just launched an initiative to buy a house for refugees in the city.?

Erica Weidelich
26, executive assistant, Moore Park
?A lot of my friends have been attending C3 for a while, and they convinced me to come. The second I walked through the doors, I felt such a positive welcoming and warm community of people who really care about you.?

Greg Fry
29, construction engineer, St. Clair West
?My wife and I moved to Toronto from Calgary four and a half years ago to help get the church started. We believe in empowering people. Our community involves everybody and anybody, but it seems like it?s just the best people. Everyone who comes starts to realize it?s a group full of awesome people, and that they want to be a part of it.?

Naomi Cowan
29, singer, Queen West
?I was born and raised in Jamaica and grew up going to church, but when I saw C3 on Instagram and Facebook, it just looked a lot cooler and friendlier. There are a lot of creatives, which is cool. As a Christian, working in the creative industry is difficult, because there?s not a lot of faith in entertainment. Also, at other churches, people seem go to church, then go home and go back to their lives. When I started coming here, I noticed that people were really integrated with each other and legitimately liked each other. Everyone feels like family.?

Jimmy Devries
28, photographer, King West
?For people who come from broken homes or who don?t really understand family, it?s so obvious that people at C3 want to build family. That?s what brought me here. People come from all facets of life. It doesn?t really matter whether your opinions on sex, religion and politics differ.?

Roxy Kirshenbaum - Toronto Life - April 19, 2017

Complete article - http://torontolife.com/city/life/c3-church-easter-streeters/

"Our movement is committed to healthy relationships and connection between ministers and churches. As an international family our members are able to walk into any of our C3 Churches around the world and know they're home. We are united with Christ in His vision, and therefore our mission, to save the lost, make disciples and build His church." - C3 Church - http://www.c3churchglobal.com/

[eyeshaveit]

Study shows link between religion and health

"Johannah Williams tries to read her bible often. She relies on her faith to help to get through her health issues. Photo Illustration Photo credit: Alliciyia George

"For black women looking for ways to improve their mental health, some researchers say religion and spirituality bring health benefits such as a longer life and a decreased risk for heart disease.

"According to the Black Women?s Health Study, which was further analyzed in the April 2017 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, black women who said they were very involved in their church, mosque or another place of worship tended to report excellent or very good mental health.

"According to a 2011 nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, black women are one of the most religious demographics in America, with 74 percent of black women and 70 percent of black men saying that ?living a religious life? is very important, compared to 57 percent of white women and 43 percent of white men.

"Johannah Williams, political science junior, grew up Christian, and her parents are pastors. She has suffered from chronic migraines, pelvic and knee pain for several years, but she said she has a very positive outlook on life.

?There are several different kinds of illnesses that I have to overcome on a daily basis, and my faith definitely helps me get through hard times, especially dealing with chronic illnesses,? Williams said. ?It?s really important to me that I have this foundation that I can fall back on, whether it?s, you know, attending a church service or reading a particular passage of scripture or just knowing that somebody out there is praying for me.?

"The researchers behind the 2017 report said that it can be tricky to research health and spirituality.

?I think it is very well known that black women, compared to other people groups, are more religious. The question is if being religious is affecting their health,? Lynn Rosenberg, senior epidemologist at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University and a member of the research team that compiled the report, said.

"Although Rosenberg?s team limited their research to black women for this report, other studies looking at white women had similar findings, Rosenberg said.

"Rosenberg?s team?s research suggests that attending a place of worship weekly and praying at least two or three times a week is related to lower mortality rates.

"Women who prayed the most had the lowest mortality rate. Attending religious services was linked to lower mortality. Of course, you have to be healthy enough to attend church, but we did take that into account,? Rosenberg said.

"Rosenberg?s team is continuing its research on the impact of religion on health and will focus on specific issues like heart disease.

?Our study on religion began in 2005. Our grant from the National Health Institute is for five years, and we have to reapply after that. We were just approved for another five years. We hope to continue this study for a very long time,? Rosenberg said.

"Rosenberg believes the research done in this area could help religious and nonreligious black women alike.

?I think if we find out why participating in religious services is beneficial to health ? say, if having a support system is the biggest factor ? that could be helpful for people to know. If they don?t have one, they can find one,? Rosenberg said.

"Williams said she believes that praying contributes to better health.

?Whenever I need help with things like that, it?s important for me to pray so that I?m communicating and strengthening my relationship with God,? Williams said."

Alliciyia George - Loyola Maroon - April 22, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Green Religion

"This religion is Environmentalism, or what some are calling ?Greenism.? Its practitioners are sometimes referred to as ?Greens.? It is a ?stealth? religion in the sense that many Greens would not consider themselves religious. But they are.

"Fundamentals of the Faith

"God: Religions need a god or some object of worship. For Environmentalists, the Earth, or Nature, functions as that god. The Earth, sometimes referred to by her Greek goddess name ?Gaia,? is regarded as a living organism that should be, if not worshipped outright, at least highly revered and cherished. This goes beyond, say, a Judeo-Christian concept of the Earth as a part of creation, something that was made by the God who should be worshipped, and thus should be respected and cared for, but never seen as somehow ?divine.?

"Eden: The concept of ?Eden,? an unspoiled paradise where sinless humanity lived in harmony with God, is also present in Environmentalism. Since Nature, or Gaia, takes the place of ?god? for Greens, Eden would be a state of paradise in which humans lived in harmony with Nature. Just imagine a planet with no man-made CO2 emissions because there is no industry. Imagine, also, a world where there is no overpopulation, deforestation, overhunting, overfishing, air pollution, water pollution, desertification, habitat destruction, etc. To Greens, this represents a perfect idyllic world, a paradise, an Eden. The concept of ?Eden? for Greens is a pre-industrial Earth, where humans tread lightly on the face of Gaia.

"Sin: Sin is a concept found in many religions. Sin for Greens is anything that supposedly offends or harms Gaia. This could include industrial carbon emissions, overuse of resources, overpopulation, or owning private property. The whole idea of free-market capitalism, based as it is on a Judeo-Christian worldview, is considered sinful to environmentalists, with its belief that man has dominion over the Earth, and that, while man should be a good steward of God?s creation, the Earth?s resources are for man?s use.

"Salvation/Heaven: Traditionally, salvation was seen as a way to escape sin and damnation and achieve heaven or some form of paradise. For environmentalists, this means creating (or, perhaps, re-creating) an earthly paradise or Eden with humanity living in harmony with Nature (whatever that means) and no pollution, and no ugly industry ruining Gaia?s complexion. Sustainability is the new salvation.

"Atonement/Indulgences: So how can humanity make atonement for such sins as polluting the environment and using up too many resources? Paying a carbon tax or purchasing ?carbon offsets? is a good way to cleanse a guilty Green conscience. Donating time and money to environmental causes is another way Greens can make atonement for their sins against Gaia. Of course, doing personal penance by lowering one?s living standards and consumption is always a great thing to do, according to Environmentalists. And since the world is overpopulated and their aren?t enough resources to go around, having fewer (or no) children is smart. While how much one consumes is important, it is equally important to pay attention to exactly what one is consuming. High preference is given to locally raised, organic food. Certain foods should be avoided if they were not raised, harvested, processed, or shipped sustainably.

"Church: Religions typically have some form of gathering spot, be it a temple, church, mosque, etc. This can refer to the building where religious adherents gather to worship, receive instruction, and fellowship with like-minded individuals, but it often has more significance. In Christianity, for example, ?the Church? is often referred to as an official authority of the religion, one that sets doctrine and dogma for Christians. For Environmentalists, the United Nations would fit the bill as a sort of ?church? that serves as a seat of authority for the religion of Environmentalism, providing guidance on a global scale regarding environmental issues. The ?church? of the UN has published official doctrine and dogma for Greens to follow and preach throughout the world.

"Holy Days and Hymns: Religions typically have holy days, or days of special significance to that particular religion. Environmentalism is no different. Earth Days certainly function as ?holy days? for Greens. In 1969 at a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Conference in San Francisco, ?peace activist? John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to be celebrated on the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This was approved by the UN, and the official United Nations Earth Day has been celebrated on the March equinox ever since. Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist whose work helped spawn the American ?sexual revolution,? added her support for the UN equinox Earth Day, stating in 1978,

"Sacred Writings: Environmentalism, as you might have guessed, has sacred writings of its own: the Earth Charter and the Temenos Books.

"The Earth Charter is an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.?

"The Temenos Books are a collection of handmade, hand-illustrated books filled with pages of visual prayers/affirmations for global healing, peace, and gratitude. The word temenos, originating from the ancient Greek term for a special parcel of land set aside as a sacred space, refers in modern occult parlance to a circle demarcating a space where one can do spiritual ?work,? i.e., witchcraft, spells, etc."

Lenghty article includes: Priests and Prophets; Official Doctrine; Just Another False Religion; Etc.,
https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/25725-green-religion

John T. Larabell - New American - April 21, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

China, India, the Dalai Lama and the Politics of Reincarnation

"The Dalai Lama?s visit to Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh from April 7 to 11 garnered plenty of media attention. One of the most prominently discussed questions centered around the Dalai Lama?s reincarnation.
The Chinese side was unequivocal in not only objecting to the visit but also commenting on the reincarnation issue. The Chinese position, as encapsulated in remarks by scholars from important Chinese think tanks, is that the Dalai Lama?s reincarnation has to be approved by the Chinese government and selection has to be based on a combination of not just ?historical rules? but also current ?Chinese laws.?

"The reference to Chinese laws is with respect to the 2007 State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) regulation delineating procedures for the selection of reincarnated monks, including eligibility conditions, application procedures and the government and religious institutions to be approached for approval. The regulation basically excludes ?any foreign organization or individual? from the reincarnation selection process, obviously in an attempt to legitimize China?s authority and exclude the Tibetan Diaspora (and others) in the selection of the next Dalai Lama.

"The Chinese have consistently maintained that any reincarnation must be determined on the basis of the late 18th century procedure instituted by the Manchu Qing rulers of China. Under this ?golden urn system? of selecting reincarnations, the names of prospective candidates would be placed in an urn, from which lots would be drawn to pick the real incarnation. Therefore, any other method being suggested by the Dalai Lama is seen as contrary to established rules and illegitimate, for it denies the Chinese government?s authority in the process.

"Much of the recent interest in the issue was sparked by comments made by local officials in Tawang ? Deputy Commissioner Sang Phuntsok and Tsering Tashi, a local legislator ? who expressed their wish for the next Dalai Lama to be reincarnated in Tawang. Robert J. Barnett from Columbia University too saw the visit as significant in this context. According to Barnett, it may be an attempt by the Dalai Lama to replicate some of his predecessors? practice of visiting ?places where they would later be reincarnated as babies.? He also saw the visit as a way to nudge the Chinese and to tell them that they have no control over the reincarnation process. Jayadeva Ranade, formerly additional secretary in the Indian government?s Cabinet Secretariat, and currently, head of the Center for China Analysis and Strategy, too saw the visit to Tawang as ?a way of subtly sending the message on reincarnation.? An article on the topic by Wall Street Journal opines, ?Anticipating his own death, he [the Dalai Lama] may wish to signal that he could choose, as Tibetan tradition allows, to be reborn in Tawang.?

"The Dalai Lama himself commented on the subject at the press meeting that was scheduled on April 8, the second day of his stay in Tawang. The meeting lasted about one and half hours and was held following lunch after his religious sermon to about 50,000 devotees.

"Two sets of questions and comments were raised with respect to the issue of reincarnation. One set of questions pertained to the deep desire of the people of Tawang for the Dalai Lama to be reborn there and whether, as many have been conjecturing, the visit?s sole purpose was to decide on this issue. The Dalai Lama?s immediate response was, ?It is difficult to say.? Reminiscent of his earlier position according Buddhist Mongolians a role in deciding his rebirth, similarly, on this occasion, he added more stakeholders to the list ? Arunachalis, Ladakhis, and Chinese Buddhists as well as some Europeans. Without necessarily stating that they could have a say in his rebirth, he remarked that all of these followers have at various occasions expressed their desire for the Dalai Lama to be reborn in their respective home regions. He characteristically asked, ?Just one soul, how can I divide?? So, based on the Dalai Lama?s own comments, the question of where he will be reborn remains open.

"At the same time, he referred to his earlier statement that ?at the time of my death, some indication might come? and clarified that at present there have been no indications. In an attempt to put the discussion to rest, he jokingly recalled an previous encounter with the media in Newark, in the United States, when he was asked similar questions. ?I took out my glass and looked seriously and asked, ?Do you think my reincarnation quite urgent or not?? And they answered ?no? and so, I want to repeat it [here].? Belying the sense of urgency prevalent around him, the 81-year-old added that this question could come up in 15 to 20 years, but ?at this moment? the reincarnation issue was not ?relevant ...?

Tshering Chonzom Bhutia - The Diplomat - April 20, 2017.

Complete lengthy article:
http://thediplomat.com/2017/04/the-politics-of-reincarnation-india-china-and-tibet/

[eyeshaveit]

China Bans Religious Names for Muslim Children

"Many couples fret over choosing the perfect name for their newborn, but for Muslims in western China that decision has now become even more fraught: pick the wrong name and your child will be denied education and government benefits.

"Officials in the western region of Xinjiang, home to roughly half of China?s 23 million Muslims, have released a list of banned baby names amid an ongoing crackdown on religion, according to a report by US-funded Radio Free Asia.

"Names such as Islam, Quran, Saddam and Mecca, as well as references to the star and crescent moon symbol, are all unacceptable to the ruling Communist party and children with those names will be denied household registration, a crucial document that grants access to social services, healthcare and education.

"A full list of names has not yet been published and it is unclear exactly what qualifies as a religious name.

"China blames religious extremists for a slew of violent incidents in recent years that have left hundredsdead. It has launched a series of crackdowns in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority and one of the most militarised regions in the country.

"Uighur rights groups complain of severe restrictions on religion and freedom of expression, and say the attacks are isolated incidents caused by local grievances, not part of a wider coordinated campaign. Young men are banned from growing beards in Xinjiang and women are forbidden from wearing face veils.

"Rights groups were quick to condemn the name ban, which applies to dozens of names deemed by Communist party officials to carry religious overtones.

?This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering ?religious extremism,?? Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. ?These policies are blatant violations of domestic and international protections on the rights to freedom of belief and expression.

?If the government is serious about bringing stability and harmony to the region as it claims, it should roll back ? not double down on ? repressive policies.?

"Authorities in Xinjiang passed new legislation last month expanding a host of restrictions, including allowing staff at train stations and airports to deny entry to women wearing face veils and encouraging staff to report them to the police.

"The new law also prohibits ?abnormal beards? and ?naming of children to exaggerate religious fervour?. Various cities in Xinjiang previously had rules banned women wear face veils and men with long beard from public transportation, but the new law applies to the entire region.

'A Communist party village chief and ethnic Uighur was demoted last month for not having a ?resolute political stance? after he refused to smoke in front of Muslim elders. The state-run Global Times newspaper quote another local official as saying cadres should push against religious convention to demonstrate ?their commitment to secularisation?.

Benjamin Haas - The Guardian - April 24, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Ledell Lee's Last Supper

"On April 20, the State of Arkansas executed Ledell Lee for the gruesome 1993 murder of Debra Reese. Although he and others contested it, raising important evidential questions about blood and DNA, Lee was convicted of killing Ms. Reese, during a robbery, by striking her 36 times with a tire tool. Ledell Lee has joined Debra Reese in death. Two are now dead. The justice of the state cannot restore her to life.

"Arkansas didn?t execute Mr. Lee to make anyone else safer, which is probably the sole, and extremely rare, justification for capital punishment: when it?s the only way to insure the safety of others. No, Mr. Lee was executed because the State of Arkansas wanted to use up its toxin of choice, midazolam, before its right to do so had expired. What irony! We eat so that the body does not waste away. Arkansas kills before a poison expires.

"Instead of a last meal, Ledell Lee choose to receive Holy Communion. That is something to ponder. Rather than a final, animal forage, the prisoner chose the most parsimonious of meals. Almost no nourishment for the body about to die, but, like the last meal of Jesus, a great and final sustenance of the spirit. To take Holy Communion in the face of death is to say that it is fellowship, and not food, that matters most. Our fellowship with Christ and with his saints.

"Is it blasphemous to compare Ledell Lee to Christ? One was convicted for murder. The other was murdered. But Christ does not stop being Christ in the face of heinous sin any more than he did in the face of heinous death. Christ is still?Christ is simply?mercy. Mercy, who sets her feast and summons her faithful."

Terrance Klein - America (Jesuit Review) - April 26, 2017.

Complete article :
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/04/26/last-suppers-jesus-christ-and-ledell-lee

[eyeshaveit]

Women Face Religious Hate crime Over Giant Plastic Vagina

"Three Spanish women who carried a giant plastic vagina through the streets of Seville as part of a feminist protest reminiscent of Easter processions may face jail after lawyers claimed the action constitutes a ?religious hate crime?.

"On May 1, 2014, the women took to the streets of the Spanish city wearing hoods and carrying the giant vagina mock-up on a plinth "in the style of the Virgin Mary," according to court papers. They are now facing charges of "crimes against religious sentiment", the court papers said.

"The feminist group, which called themselves the "Sisterhood of the blessed rebellious vagina to the exploitation of precariousness" (Hermandad del Sagrado Co?o Insumiso a la Explotaci?n a la Precariedad), explained that they designed the protest to highlight issues of discrimination against women in the workplace.

"The women were protesting during a march organised by the Spanish union the General Workers' Confederation (CGT) on national Workers? Day.

"The case will be heard by a Seville magistrate after a previous ruling in favour of the protesters was overturned on appeal by the Association of Christian lawyers (AEAC).

"The AEAC said in a statement that the action was "vexatious". It claimed that the group shouted slogans such as "the Virgin Mary can abort too" and that it used prayers such as the Creed or the Hail Mary, replacing lines with "sexual, rude and abusive" expressions.

"Pastora Filigrana, lawyer of one of the accused, said that according to the law it needs to be proved that there was an intention to offend behind the act. The trio have denied any such intention.


"The objective was to reclaim the right to a choice [to have an abortion] as well as to workers' rights. There were no insults to churchgoers nor was the action directed at the Church. There were no crosses."

"In the original hearing a judge ruled that "not believing in the dogmas of a religion and manifesting it publicly falls under the freedom of expression".

"But that ruling has been overturned on appeal after a judge found this week that there was evidence the group had deliberately set out to insult the "religious sentiments of Catholics" by making "a mockery of the Easter procession" using "rude and offences slogans", said magistrate Luis Gonzaga de Oro-Pulido.

"According to the order, Europa Press reports, the court considers that the right to freedom of expression invoked by the accused "is not absolute, but has its limits on fundamental rights, including ideological and religious freedom."

"We accept criticism, and we believe it is necessary, but always as part of a dialogue, not in vexation, mockery or offence," said Poland Castellanos, president of the AEAC.

"If found guilty of "religious hate crime" the women could face a fine and a prison sentence of up to 18 months, although in Spain a jail sentence of up to two years for a first offender is likely to be suspended."

Chiara Palazzo - The Telegraph (UK) - 27 April 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Why Religion Is More Durable Than We Thought In Modern Society

"Here is a proposition that may seem self-evident to many people: As societies become more modern, religion loses its grip. People separate their religion from their institutions and from parts of their lives. Some may view that as superstition inevitably giving way to rationality or a belief in magic being replaced by a belief in science.

"Sociologists have a name for this idea. They call it the "secularization thesis." Now, research suggests the story is more complicated.

"In 1822, Thomas Jefferson suggested an early version of it, predicting that Unitarianism "will, ere long, be the religion of the majority from north to south."

"Some data from modern countries support the thesis. Fifty years ago, about 4 of 10 children in England attended Sunday school. Today, it's only about 10 percent. In the United States, just 5 percent of the population in 1972 reported no religious affiliation. By 2016, 1 out of 4 said they were unaffiliated.

"Recent research, however, has suggested that religion is more durable than was previously thought. While church attendance has declined sharply in western Europe, secularization has been less evident in the United States. The number of Americans who list their church affiliation as "none" has certainly increased, but more than 70 percent still identify generally as Christian.

"The new consensus of sociologists and demographers is that modernization and secularization are indeed related, but in complex ways.

"A study released this week by the Pew Research Center on the relation in the United States between religiosity and educational attainment (one component of modernization, along with technological change and others) at first glance appears to support the secularization thesis: The more education people have, the less religious they are.

"College graduates are less likely to say they believe in God with absolute certainty," noted the lead Pew researcher, Gregory Smith. "They are less likely to say that religion is very important in their lives. They are less likely to say they pray regularly, and college graduates are more likely than others to identify themselves as atheists and agnostics."

"A closer look at the data, however, offers a more nuanced picture. While highly educated Jews tend to be less observant than less educated Jews, the relation between education and religiosity is weaker among those Americans with a strong Christian identity.

"Highly educated [Christian] adherents are just as religious, in some cases more religious, than their fellow members who have might have less education," Smith said. Among mainline Protestants, for example, college graduates were actually found to be more likely than noncollege graduates to report weekly church attendance. Regardless of their educational attainment, these Christians find meaning in their church experience.

"The sharp rise in the number of Americans who report no religious affiliation may also have an explanation that is unrelated to secularization. Research by Philip Schwadel at the University of Nebraska suggests it may simply be that it was less acceptable 50 years ago to identify as religiously unaffiliated than it is today.

"Schwadel and others also argue there are significant differences between the United States and Europe when it comes to the process of secularization. In Europe, organized religion has generally been associated with governments to a far greater degree than in the United States. As a result, anti-government sentiment may have been more likely in Europe to produce antagonism toward the church. Government support for religion in many western European countries may also have weakened the vitality of those church communities.

"When a state creates a relationship with a religion, religious leaders no longer have the same impetus to go out and get people excited," said Schwadel. "They get money from the state through taxes, so they don't have to collect money from their congregants."

"In the United States, by contrast, religious leaders have to "hustle" more, Schwadel said. "They need to get more congregants if their church is going to survive." Perhaps as a result, Americans are more committed
than Europeans to their church congregations.

"The notion that religious belief and practice have evolved with modernization does remain broadly accepted. As literacy has increased and scientific knowledge has advanced, supernatural explanations for developments in the natural world have become less important. Religion has nevertheless survived, Schwadel argues, because it plays a variety of roles.

"Religion provides people with a lot more than just explanations for the natural world," Schwadel said. "It provides community. It provides them with friends. It provides them with psychological support and economic support. It provides a lot more than simply an understanding of where they are in the world in relation to the afterlife."

"A 2016 Pew study found that more Americans reported growing feelings of "spirituality," even while saying they were less attached to organized religion. To the extent that churches respond to that need, they will presumably have better prospects for survival.

"The question that religious leaders and sociologists of religion face is whether modernization will eventually lead to secularization in the United States and other countries, just as it has in western Europe. Some argue that a diminished emphasis on traditional doctrine about the meaning of salvation, for example, or the existence of heaven and hell, is merely an early sign of growing secularism.

"Among the pessimists about the future of religion is the writer Rod Dreher, whose new book The Benedict Option outlines a survival strategy for Christians "in a post-Christian nation."

"I've been going around to different colleges, Catholic and evangelical, giving speeches, and at every single one of these colleges, the professors tell me the same thing," Dreher said. "The kids are good kids, but they're coming out of families [and] local churches and youth ministries knowing almost nothing about the historic Christian faith."

Dreher is now convinced that the United States "is on the same downward path in terms of religious observance that Europe has been on for a long time."

"It's all about emotion," he said."

Tom Gjelten - National Public Radio - April 28, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Ohio governor, John Kasich, has a new book out, Two Paths: America Divided or United, and Kasich is blaming Donald Trump?s presidential electoral win on, among other things, the spiritual decline in America :

?I happen to believe that you can?t guide an entire society without a shared religious foundation ... I saw Trump?s reckless entreaties as a weakening of our shared American values ? even more so, a coarsening of our shared American values ? Donald Trump gave the impression of a man who would do or say anything to get attention, even incite a crowd to violence ... Trump gave millions of disenfranchised voters a voice. What the voters were telling us in this election was that they were angry, that they were feeling that their lives were out of control, that there was a sense of helplessness and hopelessness in the heartland? - John Kasich - Two Paths: America Divided or United

[eyeshaveit]

Ten reasons millennials are backing away from God and Christianity

"1. Mindset of ?digital natives? is very much separate from other generations. Millennials are eclectic on all fronts?economically, spiritually, artistically. There is little or no ?brand loyalty? in most areas of life.

"2. Breakdown of the family. It has long been recognized that experience with an earthly father deeply informs the perspective about the heavenly father. In ?How the West Really Lost God,? sociologist Mary Eberstadt correctly asserts, ?The fortunes of religion rise or fall with the state of the family.?

"3. Militant secularism: Embraced by media and enforced in schools, secular education approaches learning through the lens of ?methodological naturalism.? It is presupposed that all faith claims are merely expressions of subjective preference. The only ?true? truths are claims that are divorced from any supernatural context and impose no moral obligations on human behavior. People today are subjected to an enforced secularism.

"4. Lack of spiritual authenticity among adults. Many youth have had no -- or very limited -- exposure to adult role models who know what they believe, why they believe it, and are committed to consistently living it out.

"5. The church?s cultural influence has diminished. The little neighborhood church is often assumed to be irrelevant, and there is no cultural guilt anymore for those who abandon involvement.

"6. Pervasive cultural abandonment of morality. The idea of objective moral truth?ethical norms that really are binding on all people?is unknown to most and is rejected by the rest.

"7. Intellectual skepticism. College students are encouraged to accept platitudes like ?life is about asking questions, not about dogmatic answers.? Is that the answer? That there are no answers? Claiming to have answers is viewed as ?impolite.? On life?s ultimate questions, it is much more socially acceptable to ?suspend judgment.?

"8. The rise of a fad called ?atheism.? Full of self-congratulatory swagger and blasphemous bravado, pop-level atheists such as the late Christopher Hitchens (whom I interviewed twice) made it cool to be a non-believer. Many millennials, though mostly 20-something Caucasian males, are enamored by books and blogs run by God-hating ?thinkers.?

"9.  Our new God: Tolerance be Thy name. ?Tolerance? today essentially means, ?Because my truth is, well, my truth, no one may ever question any behavior or belief I hold.? This ?standard? has become so ingrained that it is now impossible to rationally critique any belief or behavior without a backlash of criticism.

"10. The commonly defiant posture of young adulthood. As we leave adolescence and morph into adulthood, we all can be susceptible to an inflated sense of our own intelligence and giftedness. During the late teens and early 20s, many young people feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof. I did. The cultural trend toward rejection of God?and other loci of authority?resonates strongly with the desire for autonomy felt in young adulthood.

Doctor Alex McFarland - Fox News - April 30, 2017 (Alex McFarland is an Atheist-turned-Christian apologist)

Complete article:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/04/30/ten-reasons-millennials-are-backing-away-from-god-and-christianity.html

[eyeshaveit]

Church twofer: Gun safety instruction plus Bible lesson

"Concealed weapons instructor Roy Jones with students on his shooting range in Oklahoma. Roy Jones? Facebook page says matter-of-factly that his concealed weapons training is ?not your typical gun class.? That is an understatement.

"Jones, 67, has taught most of his more than 5,000 students over the last decade in churches across Oklahoma. What?s more, he weaves biblical passages into his talks about how to handle a gun, and the legal fallout that can follow discharging a weapon in self-defense.

"Church values and self-defense, Jones says, are not contradictory. Jones says that being a church-goer and a person of strong spiritual values does not mean refusing to strike back when one?s life is threatened. He notes that Psalm 144 says: ?Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.?

?We will turn the other cheek,? Jones told Fox News. ?I?m the least likely guy to pull out a gun in a fight. But we will not turn the other cheek if you?re going to assault my family or cut off my head in the process.? Jones? certification course takes eight hours and includes lectures that cover handling a weapon, Oklahoma laws regarding gun ownership and shooting in self-defense, practice at the instructor?s private range and a 15-question exam.

"Jones says that while people should not go looking for trouble, they should be ready when it looks for them. He cites the case of a woman in his state who was killed by two pit bulls last month, and another woman who was fatally stabbed at a food distribution center in 2014 by a coworker who had been fired.

"If they had been armed, Jones says, they would likely be alive today.

?If they?d had a legal gun and been trained to use it,? Jones said, referring to the woman who was stabbed, ?can you imagine what went through her mind the last few minutes of her life??

"His former students, who have included lawmakers, lawyers and spouses of police officers, have praised his course.

"One student, Wendy Johnson, took Jones? course after a friend was mugged.

?One day, my co-worker did not show up for work,? Johnson told WQAD. ?Someone had attacked her in a parking lot and had literally beaten her face. I don?t want to see anyone else in the ER with a swollen face because someone hit them in the head for their purse.?

"Jones stresses that he is not a pastor, a misperception some have when they learn of his style of sprinkling biblical teachings in his lectures.

"But some students have actually grown interested in religion after listening to the verses, he said.

"One of the most important things he tries to teach his students is how to avoid being jailed after firing in self-defense.

"He tells his students not to consent to a police officer?s request to search their property.

?You show the officer respect,? he said, ?but you never consent. You have to articulate that you were the victim, but you say, ?With all due respect, you will have my full cooperation after I seek my legal counsel.?

Fox News - May 1, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Denmark gives two-year ban to six foreign religious 'hate preachers'

"On the list are six foreign religious authorities: five Islamic preachers who are nationals of Canada, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United States and US Evangelical Pastor Terry Jones, who burned copies of the Koran in 2011.

"I am also very pleased that it is now clear to everyone that these people are not welcome in Denmark," Inger Stoejberg, the country's immigration and integration minister said on Tuesday while announcing the newly-published sanctions list.

"The six religious leaders have been banned from entering Denmark for the next two years in order to prevent hate speech and protect public order.

"Stoejberg described the listed individuals as "hate preachers" and "traveling fanatical religious preachers who try to undermine our democracy and fundamental values of freedom and human rights." Violation of the ban could result in a fine or up to three years' imprisonment.

"It was unclear whether any of the preachers had traveled to Denmark in the recent years, although German agency dpa reported that US imam Kamal El-Mekki had visited the Scandinavian country in the past and Canadian Muslim cleric Bilal Philips had traveled to Denmark in 2011.

"The list of banned preachers was spurred by a February 2016 hidden-camera documentary that captured a radical imam in a Danish mosque preaching that adulterers should be stoned. The documentary's broadcast led to a debate in Danish society about how to stop the construction of parallel societies and prevent religious fanaticism.

"The law underpinning the creation of "the public national list" announced on Tuesday was passed in December 2016 with support from both the right-leaning government and the opposition Social Democrats.

"Denmark is not the first European nation to have such legislation. The United Kingdom can block individuals with criminal convictions or those whose presence is "not conducive to the public good"  from entering the country.

"The Danish ban is to be implemented by the country's Immigration Service."

Deutsche Welle - DW.com - May 1, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Latest Gallup Poll on worship and the public

"We were prompted to be surprised, even shocked, by headlines like this one from last week: ?Survey shocker: music dead last, sermons first, as worship draws.? It headed an article at Baptist News Global by Jeff Brumley, who was shocked?shocked!?as he presumed most of his readers, Baptist or non-Baptist, must have been. Instantly the subject of this ?survey shocker? appeared in many articles on the internet.

"Were we surprised? We don?t expect religion to make shocking news unless there are sex or financial scandals in the world of the church, synagogue, etc. Add to that theological controversies over the beginning of things (think of headlines about evolution) or the end of things (think apocalypse, be it nuclear or otherwise). Yet whoever consistently sights the religious scene knows that worship is a hotly contested phenomenon among those who ?practice? religion, or who are ?observant.?

?Public worship? is an at-least-weekly attraction for millions. So the Gallup Poll people wanted to learn what worshippers valued. Surveyors chopped up worship community activities into valuation of (1) sermon ?content,? (2) sermons as ?helpers? in ways of life, (3) spiritual programs for ?children and teenagers,? (4) ?community outreach and volunteer opportunities,? (5) dynamic leaders, (6) social activities, and finally (7) spiritual music, as in ?choir, praise band, cantors,? etc.

"No surprise about reactions to the surprise finding. Preachers Institute and its kin and kind shared Gallup?s story ?Sermon Content Is What Appeals Most to Churchgoers.? Reddit Reformed was one of many other organs that cheered.

"Some of our best friends are sermonizers and/or musicians, so we can picture a combination of responses. For instance, some will ask: Should we believe opinion polls? Is this one flawed? What bearing will findings like this have on church advertising, scheduling, education, and planning? How will they affect sermonizers and musicians who, more often than not, get along very well, and complement each other in divine service? (An aside: as the son and brother of sometime church musicians, and as a [weak] choral singer emeritus, plus a dweller in the courts of J. S. Bach and company as well as church jazz three times a year in our parish, I?ll never downgrade the role of music.)

"This week, though, shouldn?t this news alert seminaries, institutes, workshoppers, theologians, and the like to take a fresh look at the potential of the preached word in the midst of the chaos of signals which bombard the public in our ever-noisier post-verbal culture? In the Christian sphere, at least, ?faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God? (Romans 10:17). I could say more, but that would be sermonizing, which, we learn, does not need as much help as do the production and enjoyment of music in ?public worship.?

Martin E. Marty - Religious News Service - April 3, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Sorry, atheists ? churches are getting back political free speech

"President Donald Trump has a new executive order in the works, one to open the doors for churches to endorse political candidates without losing tax exempt status.

"Freedom From Religion Foundation ? exit, stage left. Don?t let the door hit you. And here, take a Bible for the long walk home

"The FFRF has been trying to use the Johnson Amendment to its advantage for far too long, siccing the IRS on churches that dared go political in the pulpit. The Johnson Amendment, named after its sponsor, former president Lyndon B. Johnson, amended IRS code to make clear that nonprofits couldn?t ?participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for political office,? the text states.

"In layman?s, that basically means churches are prohibited from endorsing political candidates. But they?re not prohibited from speaking about political issues, and even speaking in favor of certain sides of political issues ? about biblical truths of gay marriage, for example.

"The FFRF has been actively using the Johnson Amendment to chill church speech, however. Since 2006, the organization?s filed more than 50 complaints about churches to the IRS ? 28 in 2012 alone. And some of the targets of these complaints haven?t even come close to violating the amendment.

"It?s just that the FFRF has been such a pit bull. For instance, in 2012, FFRF accused Robert Morlino, a bishop in Madison, Wisconsin, of violating the tax code by speaking of the Catholic Church?s opposition to abortion and gay marriage in a letter he wrote to the Catholic Herald. Among the FFRF?s complaints to the IRS? That Morlino wrote that ?no Catholic may, in good conscience, vote for ?pro-choice? candidates.?
Umm ? duh, right?

"But Morlino?s letter came just days before an election. And the FFRF said that it ?inappropriately? intervened in a campaign ? and in so doing, violated IRS electioneering laws. As such, the FFRF demanded the IRS ?commence an immediate investigation? of Morlino and his diocese, and inflict punitive action.

"Yes, this happened in America, the country founded on a basic premise of freedom of religion. Did you know the church leaders of this nation used to be passionate about politics ? used to mix sermons with political goings-on frequently, and aggressively?

"Preachers during the American Revolution used to deliver fiery pleas from the pulpit about the need to fight for freedom, to battle the British for independence and the cause of righteousness. Those preachers weren?t afraid to get in the political fray; they regularly reminded their congregations about the greatest asset of being an American ? that rights come from God, not government.

"And they weren?t afraid to thunder at those in the pews to take that principle to the battlefield ? even casting off clerical gowns and picking up firearms themselves.

"Now? Churches are cowed. Atheists get to dictate what?s said from the pulpit. And the Johnson Amendment needs to go ? or at least receive massive watering and weakening.

"Trump?s order directs the IRS to exercise ?maximum enforcement discretion? with the Johnson Amendment. It?s about time. It?s a step in the right direction. But it?s a baby step. Let?s hope further weakening to this egregious clamp on religious freedom ? on religious speech and free speech ? is forthcoming from this administration. Our country?s ability to recapture its founding greatness ? the unwavering idea of individual rights coming from God, the ability of churches to apply moral truths to modern issues ? depends on it.

Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times - Thursday, May 4, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Atheists Sue President Trump Over His ?Religious Liberty? Executive Order

"An atheist group is suing President Donald Trump over his religious liberty executive order, which loosens restrictions on political activity by religious groups.

"The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit Thursday in federal court against Trump and the Internal Revenue Service, claiming the order is unconstitutional because it makes government favor religion over nonreligion. Although the executive order applies to all nonprofits, FFRF believes it will be selectively enforced so as to only benefit churches and religious organizations.

?We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore,? Trump said while announcing the order on Thursday. ?And we will never, ever stand for religious discrimination, never ever.? FFRF calls that and the order a ?message to Christians, and particularly evangelicals? that the government will no longer bar them from endorsing candidates, donating to campaigns, or otherwise engaging in politics.

?President Trump?s EO creates the appearance of government endorsement of churches and religious organizations and a preference for these religious organizations above similarly situated nonreligious organizations,? the suit reads.

"Andrew Seidel, staff attorney at the FFRF, told The Daily Beast the order?s language is vague enough to benefit religious organizations at the expense of non-religious groups. ?It?s very poorly worded. Trump and the White House have made it very clear that they intend for this order to ease restrictions on churches, especially on Evangelical churches,? Seidel said.

"Meanwhile, the lawsuit claims secular nonprofits will still be prohibited from endorsing candidates or otherwise participating in the upcoming 2018 elections if they want to keep their tax-exempt status. Those groups are classified as 501(c)(3).

?FFRF, for its part, would be seriously harmed by enforcement of the electioneering restrictions if it violated ? 501(c)(3), including by loss of tax-exempt status, which harm to FFRF would be devastating and irreparable,? the suit reads.

"FFRF cites Trump?s campaign pledge to overturn the Johnson Amendment, which his executive order ?prohibits religious leaders from speaking about politics and candidates from the pulpit,? as evidence the government will favor religion over nonreligion.

"When Trump announced Mike Pence as his vice presidential candidate in July, he once again spoke directly to Evangelicals.

?I said for the Evangelicals, that we?re going to do something that nobody?s even tried to do,? Trump said in July when he announced Mike Pence as his running mate. ?We put into the platform, we?re going to get rid of the horrible Johnson Amendment. And we?re going to let Evangelicals?we?re going to let Christians and Jews and people of religion?talk without being afraid to talk.?

"At the Values Voter Summit later, Trump said repealing the Johnson Amendment would boost Christianity
and other religions ?like a rocket ship.?

"Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, told The Daily Beast he thinks Trump is going out of his way to repeal the Johnson Amendment so Evangelical conservatives help him on issues where they otherwise wouldn?t want to get involved.

?He pays attention to issues that are important to them, to Evangelicals, because he wants them to be helpful on issues that are important to him,? Perkins said.

"But the IRS rarely enforces the Johnson Amendment. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit, has been endorsing ?Pulpit Freedom Sundays? for years. In 2014, the FFRF sued the IRS over its lax Johnson Amendment enforcement.

?They didn?t even have an individual to do the investigations necessary,? Seidel said. The FFRF dismissed its suit against the IRS after they hired an investigator, but only one pastor has been audited for violating the Johnson Amendment since 2008.

?If Trump?s lawyers want to march into that courtroom and tell the world and President Trump that this order doesn?t do anything, we would consider that a win,? Seidel said. ?But given his statements and the very clear message he communicated to churches, we don?t think that?s what?s going to happen.?

Gaby Del Valle - The Daily Beast - May 5, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Religion at Stanford University

"Michael Lu ?19, Mahayana Buddhism
Michael Lu ?19 found himself at a Buddhist monastery in Berkeley last winter, surrounded by curious Stanford peers.
Lu?s friends were not Buddhist, but they had often expressed interest in learning more about his beliefs and practices. In general, Lu has observed that many Stanford students are curious about religion. He believes that Buddhism, which promotes self-awareness and the study of the mind, may particularly appeal to students.
?I think that kind of instruction is really helpful for Stanford students,? Lu said.  ?That?s why I think that Buddhism might be practical.?
Lu emphasized that there is more to Buddhism than the classic image of meditation in isolation, citing 84,000 different practices that help followers ?unfold [their] own wisdom,? as he put it.
Beyond meditation, Lu maintains his faith individually through practices such as reciting mantras and applying mindfulness to breathing. One of the most fundamental ways he rejuvenates his spirituality, though, is by visiting his hometown.
In fourth grade, Lu moved to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a Buddhist community in Northern California that is one of a series of communities throughout California, Canada, Taiwan and other locales. Most of the 500-acre stretch of land in the Northern California hub is devoid of buildings, populated by vineyards and ranchland.
The central community includes a main Buddha hall, living quarters and gender-separated boarding schools, where Lu studied until college. The school curriculum integrates meditation studies and other elements that fortified Lu?s spirituality.
?The longer I am in my community, the more in touch with Buddhism I?ve been,? he said. ?After coming outside, I lose a little of that connection, so I have to go back. It?s kind of like recharging, trying to get back into the spirituality.?
During his transition to Stanford, maintaining some elements of his religion proved particularly challenging.
For instance, Lu has chosen to adopt precepts, ethical codes that prohibit actions such as becoming intoxicated and eating meat.
?In some ways, I can?t interact with other people in certain ways that most people can,? Lu said.  ?I try to avoid certain things that would cause me or help me break my morals ? for example, going to parties.?
At times, these restrictions lead to loneliness or feelings of estrangement. At home, too, Lu?s exposure to Stanford ? and the diversity of beliefs, especially the liberal ones, held here ? separate him from his peers.
Ultimately, though, he says he has gained a greater ability to navigate both worlds through his experiences. The serenity and stability he gains from his practice allow him to handle uncertainty, in any context, more effectively.
According to Lu, in the midst of hectic Stanford quarters, Buddhism allows him to ?attain more equanimity ? to not be moved so much by what is happening outside.?
In using his faith to navigate college, Lu exemplifies how many religious students combine Stanford and spirituality. To some of the Stanford student body, religious education might seem extraneous to intellectual life, pertaining to an unrelated understanding of the world. Yet for the three students who shared their stories in this piece, religion is inextricably linked to the college experience.
Lu achieves peace during finals week; Good reads scripture to try to become a more productive citizen; Churchill fasts to reflect on his position in the world. Simultaneously, each student encounters unfamiliar liberal perspectives and surprising conversations that spur constant reflection upon their motivations and beliefs."

Claudia Heymach - The Stanford Daily - May 6, 2017.

Complete article includes a Mormon student and the Bah??? faith:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/05/06/religion-at-stanford-three-students-stories/

[eyeshaveit]

Texas bill would let adoption agencies refuse parents on religious grounds

"Texas lawmakers are poised to vote on a bill that would allow adoption agencies to turn away potential parents they find objectionable on religious grounds.

"Opponents say the proposed law would allow faith-based agencies to discriminate against potential parents who are gay, single or of a religion that members of the adoption agency find objectionable.

"The bill's author insists it heads off any potential discrimination by mandating that alternatives be made available for potential parents who are rejected by faith-based providers.

"Called the "Freedom to Serve Children Act," Texas' House Bill 3859 extends religious liberty protections to providers within Texas' child welfare system, allowing them to decline services to individuals based on "the provider's sincerely held religious beliefs." The vote on the bill was originally planned for Saturday but has been rescheduled for Monday.

"The Texas bill also includes provisions that let adoption and foster care agencies refuse to provide or facilitate abortion services and contraception to teens under their care. Child welfare providers can also require children under their care to receive a religious education, including putting them in religious schools.

"HB 3859 would allow child welfare service providers that contract with the state to use taxpayer money to discriminate against LGBT individuals and families in foster care, adoption and other services," ACLU of Texas said in a statement on its website.

"It's about as limiting a bill as we have seen," Terri Burke, executive director for ACLU Texas, told CNN.

"You say you have a sincerely held religious belief and you are a private adoption agency or private entity that helps place foster children -- you can say you will not place that child with gay parents .... If I'm Catholic I can say I don't want any Baptists to raise the child," Burke said.

"But the bill's author, Rep. James Frank, says new protections are needed for the 25% of state child welfare providers that are faith based.

"A statement about the bill provided to CNN by Frank's office says that "HB 3859 protects the rights of the faith-based organizations to exercise their religious mission to serve others without fear of retaliation."

"Frank argues that, without legal protection, those organizations may shut down child welfare services entirely and thereby worsen the "critical shortage of foster homes" in Texas.

"The bill also includes a "secondary services" provision that "specifically requires the state to ensure that alternate providers are available to offer any services that a faith-based provider declines to provide due to religious conflicts," according to his office's statement.

"The ACLU said HB 3859 is one of 17 bills filed in Texas legislature this session that "would allow government officials, private individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBT people in virtually all aspects of their lives."

"Burke said proposed laws like HB 3859 show that Texas Republicans -- who control both the state legislature and the governor's mansion -- have "become more emboldened" since the election of President Trump.

"Last week, Trump signed an executive order meant to allow churches and other religious organizations to become more active politically, though the actual implications of his order appear to be limited.

"The executive order Trump signed had no teeth to it. But these bills working their way to the Texas legislature are real and they are going to do real damage to real people," Burke said.

"Several other states have passed religious liberty bills. South Dakota approved a sweeping bill last March that protects faith-based adotpion agencies that refuse to place children with couples on religious grounds.

Matt Rehbein - CNN - May 8, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Egypt: Isis Leader Vows to Shed More Christian Blood

"As if Christians in Egypt do not live day to day under the threat of death already, The Associated Press reports that the leader of the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt has vowed to escalate attacks against

"Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as they are targets of their group?s militants.

"Early May Pope Francis visited Egypt and spoke on the violence the area is experiencing. World Watch Monitor reports that Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, went to Cairo with a message of unity and peace. On his first day, speaking at an International Peace Conference held at the al-Azhar conference centre, he said that ?violence is the denial of every true religion? and called on religious leaders to not hesitate to expose the violence and its perpetrators. The recent announcement made by Isis leadership is far from peaceful talks.

?Targeting the churches is part of our war on infidels,? the unidentified leader said in a lengthy interview published by the group?s al-Nabaa newsletter on Thursday. He also called on Muslims who don?t join jihadists to carry out lone wolf attacks across Egypt, and complained that a large number of Egyptians were antagonistic to his group?s call and mission."

"The group claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings that struck two of the country?s Coptic Christian churches last month, killing over 45 worshippers and prompting the president to declare a three-month state of emergency."

TRUNEWS - May 8, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Israel could become an official Jewish State

"The prospect of Israel becoming an officially Jewish state has returned to the nation's agenda, in what Palestinians have described as an obstacle to peace. A 2011 bill that declared that 'State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people', was approved by the government cabinet in a revised form on Sunday.

"The bill's author, Avi Dichter, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, shared the news on Facebook. The bill still faces drafting by Israel's Justice Ministry and several parliamentary votes before it could become law.

"Dichter called the legislation 'an important step in entrenching our identity, not only in consciousness of the world but primarily in our own minds'.

"The move may help Netanyahu bolster support with more right-wing members of his administration, and complements his ambition to have Palestinians recognise Israel as the 'nation-state' of the Jewish people.

"Arab legislator Ayman Odeh responded to the cabinet decision on Twitter: 'The nation-state law is tyranny by the majority and "legally" turns us into second-class citizens.'

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that such 'nation-state' legislation puts 'obstacles in the way of peace'. Other critics have said that the move could impede Palestinian refugees who have fled wars in the region from returning. Israel's arab minority currently makes up about 20 per cent of its population.

"US president Donald Trump is scheduled to meet both Netanyahu and Abbas in his upcoming state visit to Israel, in an attempt to broker peace.

Joseph Hartropp - Christian Today / World - May 8, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Amusement park settles bias complaint over religious headwear

"Nearly four years after Noorah Abdo was denied from riding go-karts at a Livermore [CA] amusement park because she wore a hijab, the company has agreed to change their ?no headwear? policy and pay $32,000 to settle a discrimination complaint.

"A complaint against Palace Entertainment, an amusement park company and owner of the Boomers park in Livermore, was filed in August 2014 with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"The grievance was submitted on behalf of seven Muslim girls and women, and a Sikh man after they were denied access to the go-karts because they refused to remove their religious hijab or turbans.

?It was really upsetting for these individuals when they were denied access purely because of their religious beliefs,? said Brittney Rezaei, a civil rights attorney with CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area.

"In addition to awarding each of the plaintiffs $4,000, Palace Entertainment agreed to address safety concerns at its parks in Livermore and Irvine, and allow customers wearing securely wrapped religious head coverings to ride the go-karts.

?The law guarantees Californians of all faiths access to places of business and entertainment, and safety concerns must be founded on more than speculation or stereotype,? said Kevin Kish, director of the Fair Employment and Housing agency. ?We are pleased that Palace Entertainment worked with DFEH to achieve resolution of these cases without the need for litigation.?

"When Abdo and her family went to the Boomers park in August 2013, her father, Nasir Abdo, was told that his daughter, who was then 13 years old, could not ride the go-karts because her head scarf was against company policy.

?When I read the policy, I was shocked ? in disbelief ? about the material I was reading,? Nasir Abdo said in the complaint.

Sarah Ravani - San Francisco Gate - May 10, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Mormon church to cut ties to the Boy Scouts of America

"SALT LAKE CITY -- The Mormon church, the biggest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States, announced Thursday it is pulling as many as 185,000 older youths from the organization as part of an effort to start its own scouting-like program.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the move wasn't triggered by the Boy Scouts' decision in 2015 to allow gay troop leaders, since Mormon-sponsored troops have remained free to exclude such adults on religious grounds.

"But at least one leading Mormon scholar said that the Boy Scouts and the church have been diverging on values in recent years and that the policy on gays was probably a contributing factor in the split.

"CBS affiliate KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah, reports the LDS Church said it doesn't believe young men between 14 and 18 years old are not being "served well" by the Varsity or Venturing programs."

CBS News - May 11, 2017.

Lengthy article - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-church-boy-scouts-of-america-varsity-venturing-programs/

[eyeshaveit]

Detroit parents say teacher pushed her religion on students

"Some Dearborn parents are demanding action after they say a teacher tried to force her religion on students in a world religion class.
"Parents attended the Board of Education meeting on Monday. They say a seventh grade teacher from Woodworth Middle School gave bible lessons, told about her personal experience with baptism and showed the Passion of the Christ, an R-rated movie without the permission of parents.

"Parents say their children expressed that they weren?t comfortable, but she persisted. The movie shows the violence Jesus suffered while dying on the cross. One parent said her child came home throwing up after seeing it.

?As I watched it in anger and feel sorry that he had to be subjected to that,? one parent says. According to the district the teacher is new to Dearborn Public Schools. In the meeting a staff member for the district said she had worked a charter school for a year and a half prior. It?s unsure why she left.

?I am here to terminate her and I?m being honest because she went to the extremes. We are in an age where we?re trying to protect our children from social media, trying to make sure that they?re not seeing violence and things that they?re not supposed to be seeing and here I have to now worry about what?s being shown in the classroom,? another parent stated.

"The district says they?re investigating and that the teacher is not teaching and is not in the classroom.
A hearing is expected to happen soon."

Nia Harden - WXYZ Detroit - May 12, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Currently running on Ask Reddit: ?Theists of reddit, what are some of the questions you have for atheists??

Below v v v are some of the questions :

Do atheists get mad at other atheists who give them a bad reputation?

Do you ever have doubts, like we do?

Does your atheism affect how you view horror movies/stories/fiction?

Do you get your jollies by going around on social media and ousting religious people for no reason at all?

Why do you think anybody else cares?

Etc.

from r/AskReddit

The 13,000 and counting answers are a hoot; consider a few :

a lot of religious people get frustrated or angry because of bigoted or ignorant people in their own faith who give a bad reputation to everyone else. do atheists have similar reactions to the stereotypical kind of "reddit atheist"?

I very much do, it makes me upset because they set the precedent for the stereotypes people have for us. I'm generally pretty accepting of differing views, but people will automatically assume I hate all religious people

I'm so glad I'm not the edgy, loud atheist I was back in high school. No, I will not 'debate' people at random, and I don't find it that interesting to listen to some scholarly old guy talk about logic and science and godlessness, and I don't think theists are stupid or wrong.
I find it distasteful to make a trait's absence central to your identity. As someone said, "I don't collect stamps, but I don't make a big deal out of it and I don't join a non-stamp-collectors club."
atheism to me, is just what the word says - -"without theism". An absence of belief in god. That's all, lol. It's no big deal

My grandparents were Quakers. My Grandmother made my aunt break up with her boyfriend (who was not Quaker to begin with) after he converted to Judaism. I'd say that is pretty pushy. But that just might be my experience and my family. Perhaps it is different for others in the faith. Actually, you know what, Grandpa is pretty chill, so maybe you are right.

Church of England. It's hardly a religion at all, just an excuse to visit the vicar for sherry.

Day before I got married, chatting with the vicar. He said "I'm terribly sorry, I really should know but do you, um, you know, believe in God and all that sort of thing?"
Me "well, not really, not into the magic man in the sky idea, Jesus was an interesting historical figure, the bible has some pretty inspiring radical stuff and also a lot of guff..."
Vicar "oh gosh yes, it's all a bit much isn't it"
Me "I quite like some bits...just not the silly parts or the supernatural stuff like the miracles or the resurrection actually happening."
Vicar "yes of course, well that's lovely"!
(The books in his study were all about church art & architecture, vestments, and music.)

There's an old unitarian joke about a guy who dies and goes to heaven.
St Peter is showing him around- golf course, buffet, roller coaster, etc- when they come to a large brick wall.
Pete cautions the new guy to be quiet and they go quickly past the wall and on to the beach. As they stroll along the sand, the new guy asks about the wall.
St Peter replies "Oh, those are the Catholics. They think they are the only ones here."

Etc.

[eyeshaveit]

Do You Realize How Far Trump's Religion Speech Went?

"It?s no surprise that Donald Trump chose Liberty University?the evangelical Christian college founded by the fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell?as the venue for his first graduation commencement speech as president. White evangelicals were Trump?s strongest religious demographic last November, with more than four out of five voting for him, so it was perhaps predictable that he would repay the faithful with a visit on graduation day.

"But what was surprising?and more than a bit concerning for those who see conservative Christian political ideology as troublesome in the modern world?is the degree to which Trump?s speech threw red meat to his evangelical constituency. Some God-talk was to be expected, but Trump went much further?arguably further than any modern president has gone in defining American values in terms of Christian nationalism.

?America is a nation of true believers,? he declared, going on to remind the crowd of the religious language that has become common in American public life, such as ?under God? in the pledge of allegiance and the national motto of ?In God We Trust.? Conveniently omitting that most public God-references are relatively recent inventions (?under God? wasn?t added to the pledge until 1954, and ?In God We Trust? became the national motto two years later), Trump also neglected to mention that about one in five Americans claim no god belief at all. Instead, the speech was all about God and country, using language of unanimity: ?We all salute the same great American flag,? he proclaimed, ?and we are all made by the same almighty God.?

"With college grads as Trump?s audience, one might have expected that he would at least pay lip service to critical thinking, empiricism, or intellectual inquiry, but there was none of that. Instead, faith and nationalism stayed in the forefront. Trump even portrayed his presidency as an instrument of God?s plan, stating that many thought his election ?would require major help from God. . . And we got it?

"In speaking to his Christian audience, Trump was brazen in his you-scratch-my-back-I?ll-scratch-yours rhetoric, reminding evangelicals that their policy goals are his. ?I am so proud as your president to have helped you along over the past short period of time,? he said, referring to last week?s controversial executive order instructing the IRS to do everything possible to allow churches and religious groups to participate in politics. Turning to his host Jerry Falwell, Jr. (son of the college?s founder), he bragged, ?I said I was going to do it, and Jerry, I did it. And a lot of people are very happy with what's taken place. . . We did some very important signings.?

David Niose - Psychology Today - May 14, 2017,

Complete article:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201705/do-you-realize-how-far-trumps-religion-speech-went

[eyeshaveit]

Suspicious Migrant Conversions to Christianity

"The Swedish migration agency is handing out pop quizzes on the Bible to make sure migrants aren?t converting to Christianity to receive asylum.

"Risk of persecution because of one?s religious faith can boost a person?s chances of gaining asylum. The Swedish migration agency is making unannounced visits to asylum seekers to quiz them on the Bible and make sure their conversions are genuine.

?How many books are in the New Testament?? and ?What is the difference between Orthodox and Protestant churches?? are examples of questions converts have to answer.

"Immigration lawyers have criticized the measure, but the agency defends the questions as knowledge true Christians should know.

?There are reasonable demands that the [asylum] applicant should have certain knowledge based on what they?ve told us and how they?ve gained knowledge of the Bible,? Carl Bexelius of the Swedish migration agency told state broadcaster SVT in an article published Saturday. ?This knowledge should be there naturally, and it shouldn?t be something they need to read up on.?

"Migration attorneys are now urging converts to study up on the Bible so they can pass the tests. ?I think it?s horrible,? immigration lawyer Serpil G?ng?r told SVT. ?I have interrupted the person asking the questions several times because the questions aren?t relevant and far too complex.?

"Hundreds of migrants converted to Christianity in Germany last year. Pastor Albert Babajan, who converted 196 Muslims in mass baptisms in the city of Hamburg, frequently denies people when he suspects ulterior motives. ?If I have the impression that someone doesn?t believe it from the heart, then I won?t baptize him?

Jacob Bojesson - The Libertarian Republic - May 15, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Violent extremism: is religion the problem or the solution?

"Religion is widely blamed for much of the violence in our world, both today and in the past. Its defenders say that most so-called conflicts in the name of religion are in fact ethnic, nationalist and territorial, and they exploit religion for their own purposes. But, even if this is so, it still leaves the question of why religion is so easily exploited for violent ends.

"All religions declare that peace and reconciliation are their goals, yet all too often they appear to exacerbate conflicts. Why is this? There are many reasons, but the work of sociologist Douglas Marshall is particularly helpful. He described religion in terms of belief, behaviour and belonging. My view is that different religions combine different degrees or emphases of these.

"The abuse of religion has often been related to the first two: belief and behaviour. It cannot be denied that, to religion?s shame, arguments over doctrine and even ritual have led to violent clashes. Even today they are used as a pretext for violence towards those who do not share the same beliefs and practices.

"However, when it comes to violence in the name of religion ? especially in our modern world ? it usually has far more to do with belonging. Identity affirms who we are, and at the same time who we are not. Whether distinctions and differences are viewed positively or negatively depends overwhelmingly on the context in which we find ourselves.

"In a context of real or perceived threat, or out of a sense of historical or current injury, we turn to our identities for fortitude and reassurance. But, all too often, this leads to a sense of self-righteousness and a tendency to disparage ?the other?.

"In seeking to give meaning to who we are, religion is bound up with all the components of human identity. It thus plays a key role in providing a sense of value and purpose, especially where identities are threatened or disparaged. But, in doing so, religion can intensify that self-righteousness. The result is that opponents ? or those who are different ? are delegitimized and conflict is exacerbated, so betraying religions? most sublime universal values.

"This tendency generates a mindset in which people see themselves as part of a community of the elect in violent conflict with those who do not share their worldview. Such an ideology can be powerfully attractive to those alienated from wider society, especially younger people seeking a sense of self-worth, or even prestige.

"While there are clearly times when physical violence must be tackled head on, such a step alone cannot contain the mentality that leads to it. The utmost must be done to drain the "swamp of alienation" ? whether political, social or economic ? in which violence breeds. No less critical is to highlight the voices of the overwhelming majority of religious institutions and authorities that repudiate such abuses of religion. Regrettably, the international media has been far more diligent in publicizing the abuses rather than the condemnations.

"In particular, we need to highlight where religions show respect for other communities and traditions, and have repudiated the extremist mindset. A notable example was last year?s Marrakech Declaration, rallying support throughout the Muslim world for the historical Charter of Medina, as a commitment to the values of citizenship and the civil rights of other religious communities.

"Another example of inter-religious collaboration is the King Abdullah International Centre for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) established by Saudi Arabia, Spain and Austria, supported by the Holy See, on whose board of directors I am privileged to serve.

"KAICIID has brought together major Muslim leaders from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world, with heads of minority communities in those countries ? Christian, Kurd, Yazidi, Druze ? under the rubric ?combating violence in the name of religion?. It has developed networks of collaboration throughout the region, training religious leaders in dialogue and social media skills.

"The need to highlight inter-religious cooperation is of the greatest relevance in territorial conflicts that involve identities rooted in religious traditions. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a particular case in point. Those who have tried to resolve this conflict in the past have avoided religion and its representatives as much as possible. Perhaps this is understandable. But the idea that by avoiding religion one is more able to achieve a resolution is a fallacy.

"Failure to engage the peace-seeking religious mainstream only plays into the hands of extremists who wish precisely to transform this territorial conflict into a religious one. If we don?t want religion to be part of the problem, it must become part of the solution ? not least by highlighting religious support for peace and inter-religious cooperation that can promote this goal.

"When the Trump administration?s emissary to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, visited Jerusalem in March, hoping to initiate peace talks between Israel and Palestine, he made a point of seeking out Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders for advice.

"Amazingly, Greenblatt is the first personal emissary of any US president to meet the Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. The photo of this gathering was worth more than a thousand words, affirming a recognition that religion must be part of the solution to the conflict.

"In the words of Lutheran bishop Munib Younan to Greenblatt: ?Religious leaders alone are not able to make peace, but it will not be possible to make peace without them.?

David Rosen - World Economic Forum - May 16, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Creationist Sues the Grand Canyon for Religious Discrimination

?How did the Grand Canyon form?? is a question so commonly pondered that YouTube is rife with explanations. Go down into the long tail of Grand Canyon videos, and you?ll eventually find at a two-part, 35-minute lecture by Andrew Snelling. The first sign this isn?t a typical geology lecture comes comes about a minute in, when Snelling proclaims, ?The Grand Canyon does provide a testament to the biblical account of Earth?s history.?

"Snelling is a prominent young-Earth creationist. For years, he has given lectures, guided biblical-themed Grand Canyon rafting tours, and worked for the nonprofit Answers in Genesis. (The CEO of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, is also behind the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter theme park.) Young-Earth creationism, in contrast to other forms of creationism, specifically holds that the Earth is only thousands of years old. Snelling believes that the Grand Canyon formed after Noah?s flood?and he now claims the U.S. government is blocking his research in the canyon because of his religious views.

"Last week, Snelling sued park administrators and the Department of Interior, which administers the national parks program, because they would not grant him a permit to collect 50 to 60 fist-sized rocks. All research in the national park is restricted, especially if it requires removing material. But the Grand Canyon does host 80 research projects a year, ranging from archaeology digs to trout tracking.

"Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Snelling, alleged discrimination by the park. ?National Park Service: Research in Grand Canyon okay for geologists ? but not Christian ones,? read the headline on their press release. (Interior department and NPS spokespeople declined to comment because of the pending litigation.)

"If the permit application hit a nerve, it?s because young-Earth creationists have a bit of an obsession with the Grand Canyon. Where geologists see billions of years of rock layers carved out by a persistent flow of water, young-Earth creationists see sediments laid down in Noah?s flood. As the flood receded, they believe, water became trapped behind natural dams, until it finally broke through in a ?catastrophic erosion? that carved the Grand Canyon.

"This is the story told on religious rafting trips organized by companies like Canyon Ministries, for which Snelling also works as a guide. In 2004, a book by the Canyon Ministry founder Tom Vail caused a stir when it was sold at the national park?s bookstores.

"It?s all part of an uneasy relationship between the park and young-Earth creationists. The park does permit the rafting trips, and it has allowed creationists, including Snelling according to the lawsuit, to work in the park before. Another prominent young-Earth creationist, Steve Austin, took photos of nautiloid fossils in the park and used them to argue that the creatures died during the flood. ?I think the NPS has felt a bit stung by past creationist research in the Grand Canyon,? says Steven Newton, who teaches geology at College of Marin and serves as the programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit that opposes teaching creationism in public schools.

"Exactly why the park did not grant Snelling?s application is, of course, now the subject of a lawsuit. His project did involve collecting a sizable number of rocks, which can invite more scrutiny. In an email to Snelling filed as part of the lawsuit, a park officer said the project was not granted because the type of rock he wanted to study can also be found outside of the Grand Canyon. The park solicited peer reviews from three mainstream geologists. One mentioned the rocks could be found elsewhere; all three overwhelmingly denounced the work as not scientifically valid, a criterion the park also uses to evaluate proposals. Snelling, who holds a Ph.D. in geology, did not disclose his Answers in Genesis affiliation, nor did he explicitly say he wanted to prove the Grand Canyon is young in his initial permit application, but the reviewers became aware of his reputation

"Geology as a profession has struggled with what to do with young-Earth creationists, whose beliefs are contradicted by literal mountains of scientific evidence. Shut them down, and you get cries of censorship?like this lawsuit. ?This just so plays into their hands,? Newton says about the national park?s treatment of Snelling?s application. Newton favors letting creationists do their research and then arguing on the merits of their science. But allowing them to present at scientific conferences, others say, is lending creationists legitimacy.

?That?s really a tough question because in science we want to be the type of community where people can bring about ideas that are controversial,? says Stephen Moshier, a geologist at Wheaton, a Christian liberal arts college in Illinois, and a former president of the Affiliation of Christian Geologists. The problem, according to Moshier, who is not a young-Earth creationist, is that they want mainstream geologists to be open to new ideas, but it?s the young-Earth creationists themselves who have proved inflexible in the face of new evidence contradicting their ideas. ?Often I read things by young-Earth creationists where I think they really ought to know better. Many of them have excellent training in the geosciences,? he says. (Snelling declined to comment because of the lawsuit. Four other young-Earth creationists who study the Grand Canyon did not respond to requests for comment.)

"That the Grand Canyon is the stage where this conflict now plays out is no coincidence. The canyon is such a potent example of the power of small changes over time?of what?s possible on geological time scales. ?Look through any introductory geology textbook, any sedimentology textbook, and the Grand Canyon is going to be there in either full color or on the whole page,? says Moshier. 

"Last year, he and other Christian geologists published a book titled The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth, directly refuting young-Earth creationists who cite the canyon as evidence of Noah?s flood. ?It wouldn?t be of any use writing about the Appalachian Mountains?even though I think we can make a stronger case for an ancient Earth there because the geology is so complex,? says Moshier. ?Because they make a big deal out of the Grand Canyon and use it as a lab for young-Earth creationism and flood geology, that?s naturally where we had to focus the book.?

"When young-Earth creationists invoke God, they are tapping into a real sense of wonder about the Grand Canyon. It?s easy?in fact all too human?to wonder how so small a river could have carved so vast a chasm. One partial answer is that the the Glen Canyon dam has quelled the spring floods that originally bore through rock; the lazily winding Colorado River that you see today is not the river that formed the Grand Canyon. But also, humans are bad at intuiting the consequences of deep time. Once you add enough zeros to number of years they all start to sound the same.

"It?s hard to imagine how much can happen in geological time. About 1.7 billion years ago, a series of volcanoes crashed into what would become the continent of North America and created mountains taller than the Himalayas today. Those mountains eroded back down to hills to form the rock that now rests at the base of the canyon. Over countless millions of years, a shallow sea expanded and contracted over the area, laying down the sediment that would become the sandstone, shale, and limestone layers. Plate tectonics then pushed those rock layers up and up to became the Colorado Plateau. And finally, flowing water carved its way down 1.7 billion years of rock.

"It?s hard to imagine, but there is wonder and grandeur in this imagination, too."

Sarah Zhang - The Atlantic - May 17, 2017.

Gorgeous Grand Canyon time-lapse v v v

[eyeshaveit]

Consecration of gay bishop against church law, says United Methodist top court

"The United Methodist Church?s top court has ruled that the consecration of an openly gay pastor as bishop is against church law. But in a somewhat muddled ruling that could reflect the ongoing struggle to determine how great a role LGBTQ members can play in the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., the court also ruled that the Rev. Karen Oliveto, its first openly gay bishop, ?remains in good standing.? The Judicial Council decision was announced Friday evening (April 28) at the end of a four-day meeting in Newark, N.J.

"The Rev. Bruce Ough, president of the denomination?s Council of Bishops, released a written statement imploring United Methodists to honor the council?s decision. ?We acknowledge that the decision does not help to ease the disagreements, impatience and anxiety that permeates The United Methodist Church over the matter of human sexuality, and particularly this case,? Ough said.  ?Our compassion and prayers of intercession extend to all those who are hurt, relieved, confused or fearful.?

"The decision follows Oliveto?s consecration last July as bishop of the United Methodist Church?s Mountain Sky Area, which includes churches in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, as well as one church in Idaho. Oliveto was not named in the motion filed by Dixie Brewster, a lay delegate to last year?s regional South Central Jurisdictional Conference. Instead, Brewster  asked for a declaratory decision from the Judicial Council on whether the nomination, election, assignment or consecration of an openly gay or lesbian bishop is lawful under the Book of Discipline, the denomination?s law book. But the bishop was the focus of the council?s open hearing on Tuesday in Newark, the United Methodist News Service reported.

"A representative for Brewster had argued the regional Western Jurisdiction?s actions in making Oliveto a bishop ?negate, ignore and violate? the Book of Discipline. Meanwhile, the Western Jurisdiction representative maintained that Oliveto met all the requirements to become bishop and that the South Central Jurisdiction had no standing to challenge her election. The Judicial Council agreed to rule only on the question of consecration, saying it didn?t have jurisdiction over the appointment, election or nomination of a bishop. It decided 6-3 that it was not lawful for any regional church body to consecrate a ?self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop.?

"That language comes from the Book of Discipline, which says ?the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,? meaning ?self-avowed practicing homosexuals? cannot be ordained as ministers or appointed to serve.Additionally, the decision said that while ?self-avowal does not nullify the consecration and cause removal from episcopal office,? it is enough to subject the bishop?s office to review. It also raised the possibility an ?openly homosexual and partnered bishop,? as well as any clergy who participated in his or her consecration, could be charged with disobedience.

"Meanwhile, Oliveto will remain a bishop until an administrative or judicial process is finished. John Lomperis, a 2016 General Conference delegate and United Methodist director of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, a group that describes itself as a voice for ?Christian orthodoxy,? said in a written statement he was disappointed the council hadn?t removed the bishop from office. But, Lomperis said, ?I celebrate that these landmark rulings should now make it significantly easier to bring accountability for pastors who choose to violate biblical standards for sexual self-control. We are slowly but increasingly strengthening biblical accountability in our church.?

"To the Rev. Alex da Silva Souto, senior pastor of New Milford United Methodist Church in New Milford, Conn., and a member of the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus, it seemed like the Judicial Council was legislating from the bench, furthering divisions in the denomination and undermining the work of a commission already tasked with discussing questions of human sexuality. Still, as rumors of a looming schism continue to swirl, he told RNS the caucus was committed to the United Methodist Church. ?We?re out of the closet but not out of the church,? he said.

"Earlier this week, the United Methodist Church announced it would hold a special session in 2019 to make decisions about the ordination of LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. Its top legislative body had put off such decisions at its quadrennial meeting last year. Instead, the 2016 General Conference directed the denomination?s Council of Bishops to appoint a commission to discuss those questions. The special session in St. Louis will receive the bishops? report on the commission?s work and act on it. The commission?s moderators issued a statement before the Judicial Council reached its decision, saying that it would continue its work and that the outcome of Friday?s decision was not its focus. ?We urge the entire church to stay focused on the Commission?s work as our best opportunity to determine God?s leading for the church,? according to the statement.

"The Judicial Council had considered three cases this week that impact LGBTQ clergy. It also ruled the denomination?s regional New York and Northern Illinois annual conferences must consider all qualifications of a candidate for ministry, UMNS reported. Both previously had decided they would not consider sexuality when evaluating candidates.

"Ough, the president of the Council of Bishops, reinforced Friday that only the General Conference can change the Book of Discipline and that the Judicial Council?s decisions are case-specific. ?Where do we go from here?? he said. ?We put our trust in God to strengthen us even as we hold differing views about human sexuality. We must continue to love one another just as Christ instructed us to do.?

Emily McFarian Miller - Religious News Service - April 28, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Quakers gather on Pendle Hill in silent protest against fracking

"More than a hundred Quakers climbed windswept Pendle Hill on Saturday 6 May 2017. For half an hour, they held a Meeting for Worship to protest against fracking. Only the skylarks and one or two friendly dogs interrupted their stillness.

"It was in 1652, on top of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, that George Fox was inspired to build a movement of people. He had a vision of a "great many people to be gathered" and, with others, founded the Quaker church.

"Now Pendle Hill is in the midst of an area licensed for fracking. Quakers are calling for fracking to be banned ? globally, not just in Lancashire ? because the process damages the land, water and potentially food supplies.

"Quakers in Britain are motivated by faith to cherish the earth for future generations and to speak out against climate injustice that causes huge inequalities across the world.

"Stephen Lee, one of the organisers from Pendle Hill Area Meeting, said he felt heartened and empowered by people's efforts to be there. They had come from far afield: from Scotland, Wales, Devon, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Cambridge, Lancashire and London. They included 89 year old Brian, an environmental scientist from Chichester. Some were from Friends of the Earth. Some spoke of their concerns about the environmental impact of fracking and possible seismic activity.

"Stephen Lee said, "My faith led me to do this. We have been inspired to make a difference." One participant, moved by the experience said, "Silent protest is the ultimate in nonviolent direct action. Who can object to that?"

"In 2011 Quakers made a commitment to take action to become a low-carbon, sustainable community. Investing in companies who are engaged in fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with Quakers' commitment to become a low-carbon community.

"In 2013, Quakers in Britain became the first UK church to divest their centrally held funds from fossil fuel extraction. In doing so, they announced that '"Investing in companies who are engaged in fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with Quakers' commitment to become a low-carbon community."

Ekklesia Press Release - May 10th, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Indonesian Christian leader jailed under blasphemy law

"Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an Indo?ne?sian Protestant whose popularity as a politician in the world?s largest Muslim nation appeared to be a sign of inter?religious tolerance, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in jail.

"The head judge of the Jakarta court sentenced Purnama on May 9, according to news reports. Last year Purnama, who is appealing the conviction, had accused his political opponents of using a verse of the Qur?an deceptively ?to say Muslims should not be led by a non-Muslim,? Reuters reported. ?An incorrectly subtitled video of his comments later went viral, helping spark huge demonstrations that ultimately resulted in him being brought to trial.?

"Purnama, who is known by his nickname, Ahok, has been governor of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and its surrounding region since 2014, leading about 40 million people in the nation of 250 million. He lost the election for another term as governor in April. His current term ends in October.

"Philip Jenkins, a professor of history at Baylor University, who writes the Notes from the Global Church column for the Christian Century, wrote last year about Ahok?s rise from mining engineer to politician working alongside Muslim leaders, including a stint as a deputy governor to Joko Widodo, who is now Indonesia?s president.

"In building alliances with the large moderate Muslim groups Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, Purnama ?has been walking a delicate path the whole way,? Jenkins said the day after the court?s ruling. ?They have always been listed as being the great moderate forces. But they had been hearing a lot of discontent within their membership,? he said. ?And they felt that they couldn?t support Ahok.?

"Disagreements between moderate and hard-line Muslims tapped into fears about secularization, globalization, Western media, the role of women, and other concerns, Jenkins said, noting that it is crucial to clarify that Western categories of moderate and extremist, which focus on violence, do not apply to many Muslims.

?You can be a very, very conservative religious Muslim who is against violence, but you can still be very strict in these legal religious issues,? Jenkins said. ?NU and Muhammadiyah have worked very hard against some of the hard-line groups in Indonesia. But once you get into areas of blasphemy and apostasy?they?re very conservative.?

"Muslim moderates can?t ignore a charge of blasphemy or appear to be soft on it, he said. Merely being charged with blasphemy can destroy a person?s career.

?This is such a tragedy in so many ways,? Jenkins said. ?What the whole affair comes across to me as is a major warning to moderates in Islam that Indonesia is still a Muslim country and there are limits to how moderate they can feasibly be.?

Celeste Kennel-Shank - The Christian Century - May 18, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Religious Defense in Landmark Female Genital Mutilation Case

"On paper, the law seems clear: Cutting any part of a young girl's genitalia is illegal ? and no custom or ritual can be used to justify it.

"The law has been on the books for 21 years, unchallenged. But in a federal courtroom in Detroit, a landmark case involving the centuries-old taboo ritual is about to put that law to the test for the first time.

"And perhaps more historic, a question will be raised in the American legal system that has never been raised before: Does the U.S. Constitution allow for genital cutting, even if it's just a minor nick or scraping, in the name of religion?

"Defense lawyers plan to argue that religious freedom is at the core of the case in which two physicians and one of their wives are charged with subjecting young girls to genital cutting. All three are members of the Dawoodi Bohra, a small Indian-Muslim sect that has a mosque in Farmington Hills.

"The defense maintains that the doctors weren't engaged in any actual cutting ? just a scraping of the genitalia ? and that the three defendants are being persecuted for practicing their religion by a culture and society that doesn't understand their beliefs and is misinterpreting what they did.

"First Amendment scholars across the country ? liberal and conservative alike ? are closely following the case, noting that the fate of the accused will largely rest with scientific evidence.

"The key question for jurors to answer will be: Were children harmed physically? If they were, experts say, the religious freedom defense doesn't stand a chance.

"But if the defense can show that it was just a nick and caused no harm, some experts believe, the defendants could be acquitted on religious grounds.

"The Detroit case involves the genital cuttings of two 7-year-old Minnesota girls whose mothers brought them to a Livonia clinic for the procedure in February.

"Defense lawyers have argued that the defendants are good, hardworking people with deeply held religious convictions who were involved in only mild procedures that are part of their faith.

"But the government says the harm was much more severe than the defense is claiming and that there are multiple other victims. According to court documents, the two Minnesota girls had scarring and abnormalities on their clitorises and labia minora

"It is hard for me to imagine any court accepting the religious freedom defense given the harm that's being dealt in this case," said First Amendment expert Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the nation's leading constitutional law scholars who called the religious claim in the Detroit case a "losing argument."

"You don't have the right to impose harm on others in practicing your religion," said Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California at Irvine who in January was named the country's most influential person in legal education by National Jurist magazine.

"Chemerinsky, who has written a leading textbook on constitutional law, said there is "no absolute right" to religion in the U.S., noting many parents over the years have fought for the right to refuse their children medical care because of religious beliefs. But those parents, many of them Jehovah's Witnesses or Christian Scientists, have consistently lost those cases, he said.

"Chemerinsky believes the Detroit defendants will lose, too.

"I can't imagine any court that would say that the parents' right to practice their religion gives them the right to inflict this harm on their daughters," Chemerinsky said, adding what will ultimately decide this case is the science.

"It's going to come down to medicine, and if (the procedure) really inflicts great, lifelong harms on those who are subjected to it ? that's what is going to decide this case," he said.

"/First Amendment attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal defense group in California that defends religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties, agreed.

"He said while genital mutilation is a novel issue for the federal courts, the government's interest in protecting the safety and well-being of children will likely outweigh religious freedom.

"As far as case law goes, this is new territory," Dacus said. "But the courts have held in the past that religious freedom is not an absolute right. And it is subject to a state interest that is narrowly tailored."
In this case, the government's interest is in protecting children from what it has claimed is an illegal and harmful procedure.

"This issue involves the direct health, safety and welfare of minors, not just for the short term, but literally for the rest of their lives," Dacus said. "And it impacts not only their body, but also potentially their future spousal relations."

"As for the defense claims that the procedure was more mild than what the government claims, Dacus noted: "There are experts who contend that even the most mild procedure is still harmful."

"He continued: "The science is definitely going to come into play there. I think the procedure itself is highly suspect for surviving scrutiny."

"Michigan State University law professor Frank Ravitch, who specializes in law and religion, said the only way the doctors could win based on freedom of religion is to show that there is a "more narrowly tailored way" to meet the government?s "extremely strong interest" in protecting the young women.

"It is theoretically possible that if the procedure really was just a nick that does not cause lasting damage and does not harm sexual health or sensitivity for the young women, allowing the nick, but nothing more, could be more narrowly tailored than an outright ban," Ravitch said. "It would also keep the practice from going underground, which could lead to more serious mutilation."

"That philosophy ? preventing more serious mutilation ? was at the heart of a controversial stance taken years ago by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2010, the AAP came under fire for changing its policy on female genital cutting by recommending that doctors be allowed to ceremonially nick the clitoris of girls at the requests of parents. The goal was to prevent girls from being subjected to more harmful forms of genital mutilation either overseas or in secretive procedures in the U.S.

"In the statement, the AAP's Committee on Bioethics wrote: "It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual (clitoral) nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm."

"Within weeks of issuing the statement, after facing mounting pressure from advocacy groups, the AAP went back to its original position in banning all forms of genital cutting."

Tresa Baldas - Detroit Free Press - May 20, 2017

Complete article:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/05/21/female-genital-mutilation-religious-freedom/319911001/

[eyeshaveit]

France rejects a Third Gender - Neutral will not be an Official Category.

"France's highest court has rejected the notion of a "neutral" gender. The ruling upheld a lower court's decision denying a French citizen with a sex development disorder the right to use "neutral" as an official gender.

"The Cour de Cassation, France's supreme court, ruled that the distinction between male and female was "necessary to the social and legal organization, of which it is a cornerstone," and that the recognition of a neutral gender would have "profound repercussions on rules of French law" and necessitate legislative changes, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The plaintiff, a 65-year-old psychotherapist from eastern France known by the pseudonym Gaetan Schmitt, was assigned male at birth despite having intersex genitalia. Schmitt is married to a woman and has an adopted child but claims to be neither male nor female.

"In 2015, a family affairs judge in Tours ruled in Schmitt's favor, but an appeals court overturned the ruling last year. Schmitt's attorney, Bertrand P?rier, called the high court ruling a "missed opportunity," in an interview with The New York Times. "I don't see why France's social or legal organization would necessitate gender binarism." P?rier said Schmitt was raised as a boy because his mother wanted a son.

"Gaetan is neither a man nor a woman. They do not feel like a man or woman. They cannot become a man or woman. And they do not want to become a man or woman," P?rier said, referring to Schmitt with a plural pronoun.

"Only a few countries, including Australia, Nepal, India and New Zealand, have a legal third gender. Other countries allow parents to delay declaring a gender for babies born with a sex development disorder, but only for a limited time. Schmitt plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

"But even if that court reversed last week's ruling and affirmed the family affairs judge's declaration that Schmitt should have a right to use a "neutral" gender because of a sex development disorder, the ruling would still link gender to biology.

"Some activists say that is unacceptable and are pushing for laws like New Zealand's, which allow transgender and cross-dressing people, in addition to those with intersex genitalia, to also use a third category -- "gender diverse" -- as their legal gender.

"But gender is inherently biological, according to a scientific study released earlier this year that found more than 1,500 sex-specific genes throughout the body. The study by Moran Gershoni and Shmuel Pietrokovski at the Weizmann Institute of Science was looking for an explanation for the prevalence of certain diseases in men and women. They found many genes are expressed -- or copied out to make proteins -- differently in men and women in many more ways than previously imagined.

"Overall, sex-specific genes are mainly expressed in the reproductive system, emphasizing the notable physiological distinction between men and women," the report, published in BMC Biology, said. "However, scores of genes that are not known to directly associate with reproduction were also found to have sex-specific expression (e.g., the men-specific skin genes)."

"In addition to 1,559 sex-specific genes, Gershoni and Pietrokovski found more than 6,500 genes with significant sex-differential expression. These sex-linked genes were found not only in reproductive organs and the mammary (milk-producing) tissue, but also the skin, skeleton, heart, brain, lungs, and stomach, among other areas.

"For example, they found genes that were highly expressed in the skin of men related to the growth of body hair and genes highly expressed in women related to fat storage. They also found a gene mainly expressed in the brain of women that scientists think might protect the female neurons from Parkinson's, a disease with a higher prevalence and earlier onset in men, and a gene expressed in the liver of women regulating drug metabolism, providing molecular evidence for the known fact that men and women process drugs differently.

"The study said more research is needed to understand how the differences between men and women cause disease and change the way each sex responds to treatment.

Kiley Crossland - Baptist Press - May 16, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

California?s loyalty oath law snares Quakers more than communists

"The more Marianne Kearney-Brown learned about the loyalty oath she had to sign to work for California State University, East Bay, a decade ago, the less she wanted anything to do with it. To her, the oath was a McCarthy-era relic that disturbed her faith as a Quaker. When an administrator told her it was meaningless, she knew she wouldn?t put her name on it. Her stance cost her the job.

?As a Quaker, we?re reluctant to sign meaningless oaths,? said Kearney-Brown, who?s now a member of the Vallejo City Unified School District. She was the last Californian punished by a group of anti-communist state laws that remain on the books 28 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"They?re rarely enforced, and when they are, they tend to snag Quakers and Jehovah?s Witnesses instead of communists. They?ve also proved impossible to repeal. This week, a bill that would have struck a provision banning communists from working for the state failed when its author rescinded it out of respect for Vietnamese immigrants who took offense to it. It would not have addressed the loyalty oath requirement that snagged Kearney-Brown and another Quaker in 2008, but it reopened the same Cold War wounds.

"Until he pulled it, Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta?s bill had cleared the Assembly by a 41-30 vote and was moving to a Senate committee. His decision echoed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?s 2008 veto of a broader bill based on Kearney-Brown?s experience that would have killed the ban on communists working for the state, struck down the education codes that bar communists from teaching in schools and allowed a

?Many Californians have fled communist regimes, immigrated to the United States and sought freedom in our nation because of the human rights abuses perpetuated in other parts of the world. It is important particularly for those people that California maintains the protections of current law,? Schwarzenegger wrote.

"Until he retracted the bill, Bonta cast it as an uncontroversial attempt to delete a law that became obsolete in 1967, when the Supreme Court overturned a New York measure that required public university professors to sign loyalty oaths and allowed the state to fire employees if they were connected with seditious groups.

"In  fact, the language of the anti-communist law Bonta wants to strike is contradicted by state nondiscrimination policies that ban public agencies from firing employees because of their political leanings. Many folks believe that right now just looking at the state law that communists are barred from serving as government employees and by removing that law they would be allowed to serve,? Bonta said.

But, he found after reviewing the law, ?nothing would change whether it remains or not.? His argument that his bill simply aimed to ?clean up? an unenforceable law didn?t hold with Republicans. They lambasted Bonta?s proposal as ?blatantly offensive? and contrary to ?everything we stand for.? Sen. Janet Nguyen, a Republican lawmaker who is Vietnamese, found the bill ?insulting.?  She was escorted off the Senate floor in February when she criticized the late Sen. Tom Hayden?s opposition to the Vietnam War. Bonta?s bill struck the same nerve for her and others whose families escaped communist regimes in Vietnam and in Cambodia, where millions died in purges after the war.

?Many Californians bear the painful scars of having lived under a communist regime. It?s not like a second or third generation. We lived it,? she said. Bonta?s bill is ?quite offensive to all of us.? California?s anti-communist laws date back to a statewide version of the congressional investigations that famously sought to root out communists in the federal government, some under the leadership of the late Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy.

"The California Legislature?s un-American activities committee kicked off in 1941, launching investigations into Nazis, communists and Japanese citizens practicing what was then their home country?s state religion of Shintoism. After World War II, its focused narrowed to communists, looking for them in Hollywood and in academia. The committee?s work led to laws in the 1940s and early ?50s that allowed school districts to fire teachers with suspected ties to communists and compelled public employees to sign loyalty oaths specifically disavowing the Communist Party. Public schoolteachers in Los Angeles lost their jobs when they declined to answer questions about communists. A piano player employed by UCLA was fired in 1950 because of her suspected ties to communists.

"That year, University of California regents fired 31 academics who refused to sign loyalty oaths. They were reinstated in 1952 after the state Supreme Court struck down a part of the loyalty oath that addressed communism. One of the fired professors, David Saxon, went on to become president of the University of California system. ?I was perfectly willing to say that I was not going to go ahead and sign that oath. I thought it was wrong, and I was willing to explain why, and I did,? he said at a 1999 conference on the legacy of the loyalty oaths.

"After the McCarthy-era heyday, the state?s anti-communist laws occasionally led to flare-ups at college campuses, such as an effort to force UCLA to fire professor Angela Davis in 1969 because of her membership in the Communist Party. She kept her job that year. More recently, the laws snared academics with strong religious beliefs, like Kearney-Brown. Another Quaker, Wendy Gonaver, lost a job opportunity at CSU Fullerton in the same year that CSU East Bay retracted its offer to Kearney-Brown.

"Both women were later offered jobs at the universities, and they were allowed to slightly modify their loyalty oaths. Kearney-Brown added the word ?nonviolently? to hers.?If the intention is to ask: ?Will you support and defend the Constitution?? You should be able to say: ?Yes, I will, and I will do it in this manner,? ? Kearney-Brown said.

"The UC and CSU systems still require faculty to sign pledges that they?ll uphold California laws. Both systems also have policies saying they won?t consider political affiliations when they hire and promote staff. Professors sometimes are surprised when they?re presented with the oaths, said Jennifer Eagan, president of the California Faculty Association. ?It does seem like a relic of a bygone era that we can do without,? she said. ?It?s hard to imagine the provision being invoked now in a way that wouldn?t spur action? to defend the faculty member.

"Her union, along with the California Teachers Association, endorsed the 2008 bill that would have repealed anti-communist portions of the state?s education codes. The unions did not weigh in on Bonta?s bill. Neither did the Communist Party. It watched the legislation move forward, and quietly pulled for it. ?We believe it corrects a wrong,? said Rossana Cambron, 60, of Los Angeles, the vice chairwoman of Communist Party USA.

"Kearney-Brown, 59, taught at CSU East Bay as a math professor for a few years after reaching a compromise on the loyalty oath. In 2012, she launched a math academy in downtown Vallejo aiming to prepare younger students for college. In December, she raised her right hand and swore an oath to support the Constitution as a newly elected school board member. Again, she added the word ?nonviolently? to her pledge. She cheered when she heard a news report about Bonta introducing his bill and had been rooting for its success.

"The McCarthy-era laws were ?designed to discriminate against a class of people,? she said. ?This has such an ugly history; it seems like a no-brainer to get rid of it.?

Adam Ashton - Sacramento Bee - May 17, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Publisher's Weekly June Religious / Spirituality Releases

June 1
Martin Luther: Rebel in an Age of Upheaval by Heinz Schilling, trans. from the German by Rona Johnston Gordon - ISBN 978-0-19-872281-6. This biography of Martin Luther by the former professor of early modern history at Humboldt University depicts him as a difficult, contradictory individual who changed history.

Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse by Greg Garrett - ISBN 978-0-19-026045-3. Garrett, professor of English at Baylor University, explores life after death as portrayed in popular movies, television shows, comics, graphic novels, fiction, and games.

June 6
How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul - ISBN 978-0-8070-2074-6. Explores the realities of being a second-generation immigrant living between cultures while in a society that fears Muslims.

Israel Matters by Gerald R. McDermott - ISBN 978-1-58743-395-5. McDermott, the Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., examines the relationship between Christianity and the people and land of Israel.

Chasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile Has Taught Me about God and Life by Sanya Richards-Ross - ISBN 978-0-310-34940-2. Five-time Olympic medalist Richards-Ross tells her story of becoming a world-class runner from Jamaica.

June 13
China?s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future by James Miller - ISBN 978-0-231-17586-9. Miller, professor of Chinese studies at Queen?s University in Canada, makes a case for how Daoism leads to a holistic understanding of religion and nature.

June 20
The Koran in English: A Biography by Bruce B. Lawrence - ISBN 978-0-691-15558-6. Lawrence, professor of religion at Duke University, chronicles the history of translating the Qu?ran into English, looking at translations of the work since the twelfth century as well as the "ongoing struggle to render the Qur'an's lyrical verses into English," according to the publisher.

June 27
Katie Luther, First Lady of the Reformation by Ruth A. Tucker - ISBN 978-0-310-53215-6. Explores the life of Katharina von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther who had a career of her own as a farmer, brewer, and innkeeper.

A Fierce Love by Shauna Shanks - ISBN 978-0-3103-4753-8. Shanks tells the story of her husband?s affair and how 1 Corinthians 13 helped save their rocky marriage.

Poets of the Bible: From Solomon's Song of Songs to John's Revelation, translated by Willis Barnstone ISBN 978-0-3932-4389-5. Features works by Biblical poets such as David, Solomon, and Job translated in English from both the New and Old Testaments.

Fulfilled: How the Science of Spirituality Can Help You Live a Happier, More Meaningful Life by Anna Yusim ISBN 1-4555-9679-9. Psychiatrist Yusim uses scientific research to argue that fulfillment and happiness can come from spiritual practices ranging from Kabbalah to Buddhism.

[eyeshaveit]

Dear Abby: Friend talks about religion, nothing else

"DEAR ABBY: One of my longtime friends has become extremely religious. I have nothing against religion, but I am non-practicing, although I do believe in something greater.

My problem is, now whenever we talk, text, Facebook page and Skype (with our children), everything is about God, religion, how He has a plan for us, etc. I don?t want to offend her, but my son and I do not need to constantly hear about her religious beliefs.

My husband and I are raising our son to be a kind, honest person, but are letting him choose what religion (if any) he wants to be a part of when he grows up.

Although we now have only a long-distance friendship (I had to move away), this has put a strain on it because I haven?t said anything. What should I do? How should I handle it? ? NON-OBSERVANT IN ONTARIO, CANADA


DEAR NON-OBSERVANT: The woman means well, so don?t be defensive. But do speak up and tell her ? nicely ? that while you understand religion has become an important part of her life, you would prefer she leave the subject out of your conversations.

Unless trying to convert people is a part of her religion, she will respect your wishes. However, if she doesn?t, you will have to decide whether it?s worth the annoyance to continue this long-distance relationship."

May 25, 2017 - 'Dear Abby' syndicated column.

[eyeshaveit]

Ancient Nordic Religion Inspires White Supremacists

"The three men in Virginia wanted to start a race war. They planned to rob a jewelry store and use the money to stockpile guns, ammo and explosives. Then they would charge into churches and synagogues, slaughtering as many people as possible in the name of their religion.

"The man in Kansas wanted to kill as many Jewish people as possible. So he drove to two Jewish centers, where he shot and killed three people, all of them Christians. He told the court that sentenced him to death that he had mistaken his victims for Jews. ?I wanted to kill Jews, not people,? he said.

"Across the country in Spokane, Washington, another man plotted to kill President Barack Obama. Prosecutors say he planned a ?final solution,? a battle that would ultimately be won by stealing nuclear material for dirty bombs or flying hijacked airplanes into buildings.

"These men, and possibly thousands more like them across the United States, share a common religious ideology. They?re white supremacists who have turned to an ancient heathen religion known most commonly as Odinism. In at least six cases since 2001, professed racist Odinists have been convicted of plotting ? or pulling off ? domestic terrorism attacks, according to a review of terrorism cases by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

"And across the Atlantic, the man who carried out the 2011 mass murders at a summer camp in Oslo, Norway, Anders Breivik, has attracted new attention after telling a court he long has identified as an Odinist.

"Odinism is a perfect fit for a strain of white supremacists and neo-Nazis who think Christianity, like so many other institutions, has been corrupted by outsiders and weakened by passivity. Today?s racist Odinists say it is the only pure religion for white people, one not ?mongrelized? by the Jewish prophet Jesus. They see themselves as warriors, ready to reclaim America for the white race and fight against a white genocide, driven by Jews, that has left the greatest country on Earth in tatters.

?Odinism is undergoing a renaissance,? said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. ?Now is a great time for Odinism because it fits into this historical narrative about European cultural greatness and a connection between whiteness and nationality.?

"Odinists worship ancient Norse gods such as Thor and Odin. They typically wear pendants of Thor?s hammer around their necks and meet for rituals in the woods, where they drink mead from a communal horn, read ancient poetry and occasionally slaughter animals in sacrifice to the gods.

"For many white supremacists, Odinism?s motifs of revenge and action resonate far more than the values of Christianity, which was once their religion of choice. They believe they are fighting a battle against white genocide, and ?love thy neighbor? just seems weak next to a religion that rewards warriors for fighting and dying for their noble cause.

?Turning the other cheek and it?s all going to be OK, that isn?t the answer a lot of people who are turning to Odinism are looking for,? said Daniel Burnside, a white supremacist Odinist from Potter County, Pennsylvania, who is raising his seven children in the religion. ?They?re looking for the idea of, do you want to be the nail, or do you want to be the hammer??

"Odinism was spread in the U.S. throughout the ?70s and ?80s by devotees, including  Else Christensen, a Danish immigrant who traveled America setting up Odinist groups in prisons. She preached that America will never become strong again until it regains its national and racial pride, and that the only cure for America?s ?spiritual sickness? is Odinism.

"Just as the vast majority of the world?s 1.6 billion Muslims or 2.2 billion Christians reject hate, only a tiny sliver of adherents to heathen religions such as Odinism subscribe to a white supremacist worldview. Nonetheless, racist, far-right domestic terrorists have accounted for a significant portion of the terrorist attacks across America in the last few decades, and experts warn that these groups are flourishing in 2017?s divided America.

Will Carless - Reveal News - From the Center for Investigative Reporting - May 25, 2017.

It's a lengthy article:
https://www.revealnews.org/article/an-ancient-nordic-religion-is-inspiring-white-supremacist-jihad/

[eyeshaveit]

Gunmen Massacre Coptic Christians in Egypt, Killing at Least 26

"Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25, officials said.

"The attack happened while the bus was traveling on the road to the St. Samuel Monastery in the Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Cairo, the health ministry said.

The ministry said there were between eight and 10 attackers dressed in military uniforms, according to witnesses. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Egypt has been fighting Islamic State group-linked militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula but there have been also attacks on the mainland.

"Egypt has seen a wave of attacks on its Christians, including twin suicide bombings in April and another attack in December on a Cairo church that left over 75 people dead and scores wounded. The Islamic State group in Egypt claimed responsibility for them and vowed more attacks.

"Late last month Pope Francis visited Egypt in part to show his support for the Christians of this Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants. During the trip, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo?s St. Peter?s church, which is located in close proximity to the St. Mark?s cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

"Following the pope?s visit, the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as they are targets of their group?s militants.

"Egypt?s Copts, the Middle East?s largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of the country?s majority Muslim population. Over the past decades, they have been the immediate targets of Islamic extremists. They rallied behind general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in 2013 when he ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country?s south."

Breitbart Jerusalem - May 26, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Are Christians in the Military a Threat?

"On this Memorial Day, we honor those who have died serving our country. We thank God for their sacrifice. And we stand in solidarity with all those in the military. We?re grateful for their service to our country. Unfortunately, this is also a perfect time for the mainstream media to spew propaganda against Christian influence in the military. We?ve gotten used to this by now, because propaganda is vital to the health of today?s radical, anti-God, secular revolution.

"Hitler wrote in ?Mein Kampf,? ?By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be presented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise.? A few decades later, Saul Alinsky wrote in ?Rules for Radicals,? ?If you push a negative hard enough it will eventually push through to become a positive.? This is the power of propaganda.

"The problem is, when it?s left unchecked, propaganda sets the stage for radicals to ?create problems? that don?t truly exist in order to target and vilify groups of people so they can advance an agenda. It?s a page right out of Alinsky?s book. He wrote: ?In the beginning, the organizers? first job is to create the issues or problems. Doing this allows the people to feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future.?

"So last week, when Newsweek ran an article, titled, ?Trump effect inspires radical Christians in military,? it was as if the writer had just finished reading ?Rules for Radicals? ? because the entire article was nothing less than a targeted hit piece on Christianity. Check out the first sentence: ?Donald Trump?s election has led to such a steep rise in fundamentalist Christian evangelizing and religious bigotry in the U.S. armed forces that the matter is reaching the level of a ?national security threat,? according to complaints from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).?

"Are you kidding? Faithful Christians in the military a ?national security threat?? This should be laughable, except for the fact that ?clever and persevering use of propaganda,? as Hitler put it, will eventually flip things upside-down.

"Here?s more:

"Among the complaints: military family and marital therapy programs are being infused with Protestant Christianity, which would violate the U.S. Constitution; open anti-Semitism; anti-LGBT statements, posters, symbols and bullying; openly, anti-Muslim teachers and Islamophobic attacks; a rise in on-base evangelizing; and increased pressure on recruits or lower-level personnel and service members to convert to fundamentalist Christianity.? Army Major General Julie Bentz gave a speech at the 56th Annual Kansas Prayer Breakfast, during which she stated, ?But my greatest privilege is standing in front of my king and my God, carrying every member of my organization to his throne and asking for his protection, his mercy, his love on each of them and their families and whatever are their concerns and burdens of the day.?

"One of those who objected to her statement was a senior military officer who wrote to the foundation, saying, ?As someone who?s served more than 25 years in uniform, including one assignment at the very organization to which she is now assigned as the deputy, I just can?t imagine a much more inappropriate or disconcerting message.? ? They (Christians) believe they are establishing a ?Kingdom of God? on earth, starting with the United States, and are predictably anti-LGBT and unfriendly to females among their ranks. The article also quotes MRFF Founder Michael Weinstein, who said: ?The fundamentalist/Dominionist bullies have been emboldened by Trump?s own bigotry and that of his henchmen to such a profound degree that MRFF considers the dire situation to be nothing less than a full-fledged national security threat to our country.?

"Wow. Propaganda becomes truth only to those who don?t seek the truth. If someone reads this and doesn?t know the true nature of Christianity or our Christian heritage as a nation, they might think Christians truly are ?bullies? forcing their faith like spiritual jihad on our Armed Forces. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, it?s the complete opposite. The book upon which our elected leaders swear oaths of office says, ?Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom? (2 Corinthians 2:17).

"Christianity is not a forcing religion but a freeing relationship. Christian influence not only leads to freedom in the soul but also flourishing in society, as that same book says, ?Righteousness exalts a nation? (Proverbs 14:34). Our Founding Fathers understood this, which is why Daniel Webster, U.S. senator, secretary of state and statesman, said, ?What makes men good Christians makes them good citizens.?

"And military leaders, like George Washington, said, ?Of all the actions and dispositions that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable.? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us: ?We must keep God at the forefront. Let us be Christians in all our actions.?

"And Ronald Reagan said, ?Within the pages of the Bible are answers for all the problems men face.? Are these guys ?fundamentalist/Dominionist bullies,? too?mToday we?re told the Christian faith is a ?national security threat.? But to whom? Was Christianity a threat to George Washington? Daniel Webster? Martin Luther King and Ronald Reagan?

"To say faith in the military today is a national security threat is spitting in the face of these great leaders, and countless others who have helped shape our great nation because their Christian faith influenced them.

?Mein Kempf? and ?Rules for Radicals? will burn in the ash heap of history, but God?s Word, lived out through faithful believers, will stand forever. So we say God bless America. And may He forever keep His hand in the fabric of every institution of our nation, especially our military.
Happy Memorial Day!"

Jason & David  Benham - World News Daily - May 28, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Russian Police Raid Jehovah?s Witness Bible Study, Arrest Danish Citizen

"Russian police raided a Jehovah?s Witness Bible study Thursday in Oryol, Russia, and arrested a Danish citizen leading the service, according to the religious group?s global headquarters. The Danish man, identified as Dennis Christensen, is the first foreign Jehovah?s Witness arrested and jailed in Russia since their supreme court ruled that the group is an extremist organization.

"The authorities, which may have included Federal Security Service (FSB) agents, questioned the other attendees of the meeting and confiscated religious literature and electronics, according to a spokesman for the Jehovah?s Witness World Headquarters in New York.

"Christensen may have been arrested because he was a foreigner participating in the Bible study, ?or maybe because [the Russian authorities] considered he was the one taking the lead of the Bible study session that was being conducted at the time,? Robert Warren, spokesman for the Jehovah?s Witnesses, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

"The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs told TheDCNF that a Danish citizen has been detained in Russia, but would not confirm the name or provide any other information out of duty of secrecy. The Russian embassy has not returned TheDCNF?s requests for comment.

"Jehovah?s Witnesses in Russia have faced increasing persecution since the Russian supreme court classified the group as an extremist organization and banned its operation April 20, Warren said.

?The ruling has sparked actual violence against us,? Warren said. Jehovah?s Witnesses have reported that their homes have been set on fire, they have had rocks thrown at them, and they face harassment for their religion. ?All of this has been ignited by that negative ruling,? Warren said.

"The order banning Jehovah?s Witnesses came from one justice on the supreme court, meaning that the group can appeal later this month to a three-judge panel.

"The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended in May, the first time ever, that the Department of State name Russia an egregious violator of religious liberty for targeting Jehovah?s Witnesses.

"Most Russians are Orthodox Christian, but Jehovah?s Witnesses make up about 170,000 followers in the country of 8 million. As a pacifist and anti-violent organization, Jehovah?s Witnesses were confused that Russia would name them an extremist organization.

?The Russian government views independent religious activity as a major threat to social and political stability,? USCIRF said in the report. The state has gotten too comfortable with the Russian Orthodox Church, effectively creating a single state-sanctioned religion, and that ?favoritism has fostered a climate of hostility toward other religions.?

Thomas Phippen - Daily Caller - May 27, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Politics of Religion

"The Rev. Franklin Graham?s Decision America Tennessee Tour recently made a stop in Jackson and attracted approximately 7,000 people. I don?t know who the 7,000 were in attendance, but if you know Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, you know Franklin Graham.  He is part of a tradition of preachers who hide their right wing politics and white nationalism under the cloak of Jesus Christ.

"In May of 2015, Graham had this to say about police shootings:  ?If a police officer tells you to stop, you stop. If a police officer tells you to put your hands in the air, you put your hands in the air. If a police officer tells you to lay down face first with your hands behind your back, you lay down face first with your hands behind your back. It?s as simple as that.?  I wish it were as simple as that, and in a perfect world it would be.  But his comment shows a lack of understanding about the historical nature of race relations in this country and ignores the statistics that show African Americans are disproportionately pulled over by police at a higher rate, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics.  Graham?s statement shows plenty of support for the police.  And that?s a good thing.  We need good law enforcement.  But his statement shows no empathy for families whose loved ones have lost their lives at the hands of police.  I could fill this column with the names of unarmed black men who followed Graham?s suggestions, yet were killed by police. 


"Graham, in 2010, was quoted as saying about President Barack Obama:  "I think the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim; his father gave him an Islamic name.?  How ignorant can one preacher be?  Barack Obama has written in his own memoirs that his father was an avowed atheist when Barack was born.  When his father divorced his mother, Barack was two years old and rarely saw his father after that.  Graham?s statement reads as though it?s torn from the handbook of the Birther Movement and is another way of trying to delegitimize the citizenship and patriotism of the nation?s first African American president.

"Right after the presidential election in November 2016, Graham stated that God allowed Donald Trump to win. Unless God is a Russian, the right reverend is wrong. The Trump presidency is a bad experiment created in a KGB laboratory.  Who else in the Trump inner circle besides Jeff Sessions, Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner secretly help Vladimir Putin create this orange-haired monster?  But Rev. Graham could be right. 
In the Old Testament when Israel clamored for a king because other nations had one, God gave them Saul. The Israelites were soon crying for God to take him back.  Could Trump be America?s punishment?  Sure feels like it. 

"There is nothing new about God and religion being used to further a political or social agenda.  The Bible was used as a cudgel to beat the slaves into submission.  The Klan has long professed to be a Christian organization and missionaries have been used by governments and multi-million dollar corporations to exploit the world?s darker skinned population.  The Southern Baptists became Southern Baptists over the question of race. The point is that you can use God or religion to justify anything you want to do.  That includes strapping a bomb on you and entering a public space.

"Graham has vilified gays and lesbians and has excoriated Islam as an ?evil? religion; he supports President Trump?s Muslin ban.  How do you witness to and make disciples of these people when you refuse to acknowledge their basic humanity?  The last thing God needs is for anyone to defend him.  As an omnipotent being, He can handle that.  But what is needed is for someone to represent Him in the spirit of forgiveness found in John 8:7:  ?He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.?  Or the compassion found in Matthew 25:35-36: " For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

"If both of those are too much to handle, start with the basics from Mark 12:37-39:   ??Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.?  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ?Love your neighbor as yourself.'?

Jamers E. Cherry - USA Today - May 30, 2017.
James Cherry is an American novelist and social critic.

[eyeshaveit]

Schools and the Yoga Religious Controversy

"Despite a backlash by some parents against yoga in a Cobb County elementary school, the ancient Eastern practice has been quietly embraced as a teaching aid by other metro Atlanta school districts. A federal lawsuit says Christian parents pressured Cobb leaders to rid Bullard Elementary School of yoga, triggering an administrative sanction against the employee who introduced it to the school. Research about yoga?s effect on students is inconclusive, yet a growing number of principals and teachers are drawn to its promise for calming the mind, and are experimenting with it as a way to reduce classroom disruption and help students concentrate.

?They need a way, a trained way, to eliminate all that stress,? said Estella Cook, the principal of Sandtown Middle School in Fulton County. ?I see this as a way to help them.?

"Sandtown?s science teacher recently got certified as an instructor in the ancient art, which seeks presence of mind ? ?mindfulness? ? through physical poses, focused breathing and, typically, chanting. She has become a physical education teacher and next fall will teach yoga full-time at the school. She earned her yoga credential from Cheryl Crawford, a yoga instructor with a show about yoga on an Atlanta-based cable station, The AIB Network. Crawford, a founder of Grounded Kids Yoga, said she has introduced yoga into a couple of dozen schools without blowback from parents, despite the hullabaloo in Cobb.

"In Cobb,Bonnie Cole, a former assistant principal at Bullard Elementary, seeks monetary damages, maintaining she is a Christian, the yoga she brought to the school was not religious and her transfer to a lower-performing school farther from her house dimmed her career prospects. Her attorney, Edward Buckley, said in an interview that administrators put Cole ?out of circulation in her own community? and ?it is absolutely apparent that the religious attacks on Ms. Cole reached such a fever pitch that they felt they needed to do something.?

"Christian parents held a prayer rally on campus ?for Jesus to rid the school of Buddhism,? and laid hands on her office window, Cole?s federal lawsuit says. Crawford, a former elementary school teacher in Fulton County, said such opposition is rare, but she also insists that participation should always be voluntary. She left teaching while pregnant with triplets two decades ago, and got into yoga for back pain. She started teaching it to kids and eventually was invited into Fernbank Elementary School in DeKalb County. She?s documented her sessions at Fernbank and other schools for her AIB show, Yippee ki-yay Namaste (some episodes on YouTube).

"The Cobb County School District isn?t commenting about the lawsuit. The district?s answer to the lawsuit says no violation of Cole?s federal rights could have occurred since, by her own admission, she was not engaged in the protected activity of religious expression. Yoga has roots in Hinduism that go back thousands of years, but the practice in the United States is typically reduced to a physical and meditative activity. Jonathan R. Herman, who teaches about religion at Georgia State University, said it?s often seen as a spiritual but not a religious practice. ?It?s a way of being religious in modern America while being ostensibly anti-religion.? He also said it?s been characterized as religion ?flying under the radar.? That?s the trouble, in the view of some who worry about it in schools on religious grounds.

?The problem is that yoga is inseparable from its religious roots, both Hindu and Buddhist,? said Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, ?so the introduction of yoga in any context is actually the introduction of Hindu and Buddhist concepts.? If yoga has the desired effect of calming the mind, then it is having a spiritual effect with a ?theological consequence,? he said. ?If it?s spiritual, then it is religious.? He said the concern is that Christian practitioners are supplanting their faith with the religion embedded in yoga. And, he said, public schools are violating the constitutional wall between church and state by embracing yoga.

"Despite the theological debate and potential legal issues, some metro Atlanta school leaders have cautiously embraced yoga as a teaching tool and say they have met with little or no local objection.

"Steve Green, the superintendent of the DeKalb County School District, said teachers tell him it helps their students regulate mood and temperament. ?If it helps our children in some way, I?m very much in favor of it,? he said in an interview in early May. A couple weeks later, he appeared on Crawford?s show, doing yoga with students at Druid Hills Middle School and giving an on camera interview in which he said he knew little about yoga and was there to learn. ?I?ve heard about the benefits of it and I experienced it,? he said, adding that it could help students focus.

By Ty Tagami - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - May 26, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

See below, a link to a leaked draft copy of a rule from the Department of Health and Human Services, that would protect the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious groups from the mandate for contraception in Obamacare.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3761268-Preventive-Services-Final-Rule-0.html

[eyeshaveit]

Pastafarian with Spaghetti Strainer on Head in Driver's License Photo - In name of Religious Freedom

"After years of trying and getting turned away, an Arizona man has finally received his official state driver's license bearing a photo of him wearing a spaghetti strainer on his head. He appears to be the first Arizonan to successfully do so, though his victory is brief: State officials say they will void the license. And while some may say it's a joke, he says it's an act of religious freedom.

"Sean Corbett of Chandler has long believed in respecting and never judging others. Then, three years ago, he stumbled across the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as Pastafarianism. The church promotes a lighthearted view of religion. It was created in 2005 to criticize schools teaching intelligent design alongside evolution but has become a social movement for freedom of religion and expression.

"Some may view the religion as a satirical version of standard religion," Corbett said. "I think it really drives in the point that if you?re going to include one, you have to include all. You have to respect everybody?s beliefs if you?re going to respect one. Corbett, 36, said he first tried to take a license photo wearing a colander in 2014.

"I tried a couple different locations and was met with a lot of pushback and resistance,? he said. ?I was scorned at every location I went to, and they put out a memo about me, so by the time I got to (the) fourth and fifth MVD, they stopped me at the door. They got angry at me and treated me with such disrespect."

"He recently tried again and, after talking with the location's manager, was able to take the photo. He received his official ID in the mail Tuesday. "I was really excited," Corbett said. "I felt, in that moment, that I won my battle. It was a huge victory for me. Initially it may have started off as, 'Hey, wouldn?t it be cool if I could get a spaghetti strainer in my picture? That would be boss,' but if you look at what?s going on in the world today, people being persecuted for religious beliefs, maybe it?s time to take a step back and say, 'You know what? You shouldn?t be

"A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Transportation, which oversees the Motor Vehicle Division, released a statement on the matter. "MVD license and ID photos are meant to show a person?s typical daily appearance and allow for religious expression or medical needs. Photos are filtered through facial recognition technology and if an error occurs, the photo can be recalled," the statement said.

"Spokesman Doug Nick later added that "we will go through the process to pull this credential."

"I'm going to fight it," Corbett said. "They have no valid reason to void it."

Kaila White - The Arizona Republic - June 1, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Death of a Religious Minority Under Radical Islam

"How can a religion seize so much power in a country? Before Islamists come to power, they make sham promises to every faith and political party. Using charm, manipulation, and community infiltration, they give the impression that they will be defenders of minorities, the poor, and local politics. Once they are in power, when it is too late to stop them, anyone who does not comply with their narrow view of religion and politics will be eliminated under the name of God and Islam.

"The authorities engaged in hate speech and allowed hate crimes to be committed with impunity against Baha'is, and imprisoned scores of Baha'is on trumped-up national security charges, imposed for peacefully practicing their religious beliefs. Allegations of torture of 24 Baha'is in Golestan Province were not investigated. The authorities forcibly closed down dozens of Baha'i-owned businesses and detained Baha'i students.

"It is not an "Iran problem", it is an epidemic of hatred and violence that will continue to spread if something is not done to stop it. Why are the Baha'is targeted? Because of their faith. The Baha'i community, with barely 300,000 members in Iran, became one of most persecuted religious minorities, along with Christians, in Iran. Discrimination permeates every sector, and hate speech against the Baha'is is allowed under Iran's Islamist law. According to the 2016/2017 Iran report by Amnesty International, Baha'is face: "Discrimination in law and practice, including in education, employment and inheritance, and were persecuted for practising their faith."

"The authorities engaged in hate speech and allowed hate crimes to be committed with impunity against Baha'is, and imprisoned scores of Baha'is on trumped-up national security charges imposed for peacefully practising their religious beliefs. Allegations of torture of 24 Baha'is in Golestan Province were not investigated. The authorities forcibly closed down dozens of Baha'i-owned businesses and detained Baha'i students who publicly criticized the authorities for denying them access to higher education.

"The situation of the Baha'is has recently undergone an extreme deterioration, under the so-called moderate government of Iran. According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), the businesses of 17 Baha'is in the province of Kerman, and 25 Baha'is in the city of Rafsanjan, were sealed shut by the Iranian regime since the April 29, 2015. Why? Because the stores had "one day closure for a religious holiday."

"Last month, three Baha'i residents of Mashhad. Khashayar Taffazoli, Shayan Taffazoli, and Sina Aghdaszadeh were sentenced to one year of prison each, on charges of "acting against national security by teaching the Baha'i Faith." Their crime was their religion; there is no question that they will be tortured as they serve out their sentence.

"In addition, according to Bahai News, 18 Baha'i-owned businesses in Shaheen-Shahr, Isfahan Province, were sealed by Iranian officials on May 1, 2017. Although the owners complied with the law, their businesses were closed down without notice. According to a source for Bahai News: "The officers only targeted the Baha'i businesses and accused them of not complying with the labour law of their trade; but they have sealed the shops because of the Baha'i Holy Day festivities, a time when Baha'is close their businesses of their own volition. This sealing of the Baha'i shops happens systematically every year."

"To persecute further those of the Baha'i faith, many of their sacred places have been demolished. This act was carried out by men who are reportedly affiliated with the Iranian regime and its intelligence forces."

"The objectives of the Islamist law of the Iranian regime appear to be to eliminate the culture, history, faith, and community of the Baha'is. These oppressive acts of hostility go unchecked due to the stranglehold Iran's regime has on its people, created by fear. Families, like our neighbors, simply vanish."

Majid Rafizadeh - Galehouse Institute - June 4, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Bible App coming for 'LGBTQ Christians'

"Crystal Cheatham was 23 years old when she was told she couldn?t be gay and Christian. Cheatham, who had grown up attending and singing at a Seventh-day Adventist church, was about to graduate from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Hearing that her identities as a lesbian and a Christian could be in conflict, she said, was heartbreaking. ?When I came out, I was told by ministers so far above me that I couldn?t be an out lesbian and also be on the stage as a leader, and it crushed me. It crushed me so hard,? she said. ?I felt like I was at an impasse at the road in my life and I had to decide between this love for my God and my personal identity.?

"Now an activist and writer, Cheatham has set out to create a digital space for LGBTQ people to explore their own spiritual practice without having to surrender any part of their identity. She is leading the effort to create Our Bible, an app set to release this fall that plans to offer at least 20 Bibles and more than 300 devotional readings, meditation exercises, articles and podcasts for LGBTQ Christians and others who feel marginalized by mainstream Christianity.

"Christianity may be the most-practiced religion by lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the U.S. A 2014 Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research Center surveyed more than 35,000 people who identified as LGB and found that 48 percent of them identified as Christian, with the largest portions of that group identifying as Protestant (29 percent) and Catholic (17 percent).

"But their identities are often controversial among Christian faith leaders who point to Biblical passages that they say condemn homosexuality ? interpretations that are disputed by other members of their community. And while different denominations of Christianity have varying stances, major Christian groups, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with numerous evangelical groups, continue to condemn same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights.

"As a result, LGBTQ people tend to see major religions in the U.S. as ?unfriendly? toward their communities. Another Pew Research Center survey of about 1,200 LGBT adults in 2013 found that 79 percent of respondents said the Catholic Church was unfriendly to them, and 73 percent called evangelical churches unfriendly, while 29 percent said they have felt unwelcome in religious institutions."

Corinne Segal - PBS Newshour - June 4, 2017

Our Bible App = https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/our-bible-app-feminism#/

[eyeshaveit]

Is Islam a 'religion of peace' ?

"On Sunday, in the hours after the London Bridge attack, Christians celebrated Pentecost ? recalling when the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostles to come out of hiding and proclaim the Good News. In light of the terrorist atrocity, my parish priest spoke on the fruits of this Spirit ? love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ? as the correct response to such horror. It struck me that while we have become used to proclamations of Islam as the ?religion of peace?, it?s this message which sets Christianity apart in the face of persecution, and many of us forget the impact that the peaceful philosophy of Christianity has had on the world as we know it today.

"In the wake of the Manchester bombing, there was a row which showed clearly a key distinction between the Christian and Muslim faiths. Twitter came under fire for its perceived failure to quickly remove a tweet by an Isis supporter which read: ?Face the people of kufr [non-believers] wherever you are and show Allah what He loves from you. Kill them wherever you find them?. Yet in the clamour for these words to be censored, what wasn?t mentioned was where these words actually came from: the Quran ? or God?s word revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. Islamic scholars protest that this passage ? outlining the correct way in which to fight a defensive war ? is frequently taken out of context. As indeed it is, both by Islamophobes and Islamists, in that it does not condone the killing of innocents (though, in the modern world, that is sadly a very fluid concept).

"But even within the context in which it was written, it is a grotesque sentence. Nothing even approaching its nature features anywhere in the Gospels. The most violent act Christ is recorded as having committed was overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. Islam?s founding prophet, by contrast, conquered an empire. It is fair, too, for Islamic scholars to point out that Mohammed?s wars were ones of self-defence. Like Christ and the Apostles, Mohammed and his followers were persecuted by those around them, even when they established their own settlement in Medina. But here, too, the contrast is instructive. Christ and all ten of his remaining Apostles were murdered, inspiring through example a tradition of nonviolent resistance which over the proceeding three centuries would take over the very empire which had attempted to extinguish it. Two millennia later, it would also inspire Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela to affect real change in the world through peaceful means.

"Likewise jihadis, who feel their faith is threatened in the same way embryonic Islam was in Mohammed?s day, are following the example of their own founding prophet. Indeed, if Theresa May wants us to have ?difficult conversations?, we must also face up to the fact that Isis is faithfully recreating 7th century Islam. Mohammed did not only practice defensive war, for example, but also pre-emptive. In the final years of his life he conquered the remaining outposts of paganism in Arabia and forcibly converted their inhabitants to Islam before initiating a skirmish against the Eastern Roman Empire. His followers would continue this aggressive war until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

"This is a difficult conversation. But it is not one of condemnation. It is a call for Christians and secular humanists to extol the virtues of our faith and our society by example, through extending the Fruit of the Holy Spirit ? love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ? to all as explicitly Christian and proudly Western values."

Paul Nizinskyj - The Spectator - June 6, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Russian's Raid Church Of Scientology In St. Pete

"Russia's security service has told Russian news agencies that it raided the Church of Scientology's branch in St. Petersburg as part of a probe into illegal entrepreneurship, extremism, and incitement of hatred. The June 6 raid on the U.S.-based church comes after Russia's Supreme Court in April issued a ruling banning Jehovah's Witnesses and seizing their property, with the Justice Ministry calling the Christian evangelical movement an "extremist organization." An Federal Security Service (FSB) spokeswoman said it raided the church's buildings and also the homes of church members. The FSB said the probe was initially launched into the church's earnings from selling educational materials to new recruits.

"The Church of Scientology was first registered officially in Russia in 1994 but the authorities have pursued it through the courts in recent years. In 2016 the Russian Supreme Court ordered the closure of the Moscow branch of the Church of Scientology. The Justice Ministry has ruled that a number of the church's publications are extremist and calls the organization a sect.

"The Church of Scientology was founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and was accorded the status of a religion there in 1993. The European Court of Human Rights has twice ruled in favor of the church, saying that Russia violated its rights by refusing to register its churches in various regions."

Radio Free Europe - June 7, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Televangelist Found Liable for Covering Up Her Granddaughter?s Alleged Rape

"A jury in California has awarded $2 million to a woman who accused her grandmother, a powerful televangelist, of ignoring her sexual assault as a child by an employee. Carra Crouch says she was raped by a 30-year-old Trinity Broadcasting Network staffer when she was 13. When she told her grandmother, Jan Crouch, the network?s cofounder, the older woman allegedly blamed her for the incident and never reported it to police.

"The events Carra Crouch described in her civil suit are chilling. Crouch, who is now 24, said she was attending a fundraising telethon in Georgia with her grandmother when the attack took place. The employee, who has not been named, ?coerced himself? into her room and pressured her to drink alcohol and a glass of water she believes was laced with a sedative. When she woke up, she said, there was blood on the bed and she believed she had been raped. Soon afterward, she told her grandmother about the incident, but Jan Crouch only lashed out at the girl. ?Why would you have that man in your room?? she said, according to Carra Crouch?s testimony. ?Why would you let this happen??

"Crouch?s suit argues that Jan Crouch, who died in 2016, was legally obligated to report the accusation to police because she was a minister. The lawyer for Trinity Christian Center, TBN?s parent organization, countered by arguing that Jan was told about the incident in her capacity as a grandmother. The jury agreed with that distinction, but still faulted her for her callous response, and held Jan Crouch and Trinity responsible for $900,000 of the $2 million verdict. Trinity?s lawyer also said that Crouch only told Jan that the employee had made advances on her, but not that an assault had taken place. The employee was fired quickly and has never been charged with a crime.

"Jan Crouch may seem like a relic from the 1980s, with her enormous cloud of purple hair and Tammy Faye Bakker-style eye makeup. But her network, cofounded with her husband, Paul Crouch Sr., remains hugely influential. TBN, which claims to be the world?s largest Christian TV network, boasts a roster that includes big names like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, and?coming this fall!?Mike Huckabee. When then-candidate Donald Trump arranged a meeting with pastors at Trump Tower in 2015, Jan Crouch was among the televangelist-heavy group that assembled to pray for him."

Ruth Graham - Slate - June 7, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Shack (2017) Film:

"The film takes us on a father's uplifting spiritual journey. After suffering a family tragedy, Mack Phillips spirals into a deep depression causing him to question his innermost beliefs. Facing a crisis of faith, he receives a mysterious letter urging him to an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Despite his doubts, Mack journeys to the shack and encounters an enigmatic trio of strangers led by a woman named Papa. Through this meeting, Mack finds important truths that will transform his understanding of his tragedy and change his life forever." - Wikipedia.

Review of The Shack

"Not really a film. More an instructional video designed to be shown to teens at a Christian summer camp and earnestly discussed afterwards with a T-shirt-wearing group leader whose smiley tolerance for dissent is finite. (I incidentally imagine him resembling the church-going best buddy of the film?s hero.)

"The Shack is based on a self-published Christian bestseller from 2007 by Canadian author William P Young: literal, righteously pedagogic and unsubtle ? with some truly silly stuff about walking on water. Sam Worthington plays Mack, a Christian husband and father who is haunted by memories of a drunken, abusive dad whom he murdered as a kid by slipping strychnine (huge flashback closeup on the clearly labelled bottle) into his whisky. Did the police not, erm, suspect anything? Evidently not. Anyway, as a grownup he takes his family on a lakeside vacation where something terrible happens to his young daughter in a shack at the hands of a psycho killer. The cops seem as useless at detecting the culprit as they were in the days when Mack was bumping off his dad. In the depths of despair, he receives a mysterious summons to spend a redemptive crisis/visionary weekend in this very shack as the guest of God the father (Octavia Spencer), God the son (Avraham Aviv Alush) and God the Holy Spirit (Sumire Matsubara) and they all have the same kindly, enigmatic smile that in any other sort of film would mean they were playing Satan. (The Evil One is not represented.)

"The Trinity talk Mack through his issues, including his judgmental rage at his daughter?s killer: a figure denoting Wisdom has a bizarre and illogical scene challenging Mack to a make a Sophie?s Choice decision about which of his surviving kids he would wish to send to hell. Huh?

"The film could have been just crazy enough to be brilliant, but it winds up looking like a wet weekend at Christian Disneyland. Some potentially interesting material about forgiveness is swamped by the bad writing, cardboard characterisation and intelligence-insulting kiddiespeak theology.

Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian - June 8, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Hundreds of New Churches - Not Enough for Southern Baptists

"Southern Baptists gained almost 500 churches last year, while taking in more than $11 billion. Such statistics would have most US denominations praising the Lord. But because of declines in other metrics that matter more?including their namesake, baptisms?leaders say members should offer lament instead.

"Virtually everyone who sees these figures will react negatively and lament the poor state of our churches, our lack of evangelistic fervor, and our increasingly irrelevant programs,? Frank S. Page, president and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), told Baptist Press. ?Indeed, we all should.?

"There?s no denying the decline of America?s largest Protestant denomination any longer. The SBC lost almost 78,000 members in the past year, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) released ahead of its upcoming annual meeting. Southern Baptists have now lost a million members since their peak of 16.3 million in 2003.

"The denomination is down to its ?lowest baptisms since 1946; lowest membership since 1990; lowest worship attendance since 1996,? according to historical analysis from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

?The true bad news is that when you put last year in the context of all previous years, it indicates the SBC is in the midst of a decline that shows no signs of either slowing down or turning around,? said Chuck Kelly, the seminary?s president.

"The only measure where Southern Baptists are growing is their number of churches, adding 479 churches last year for a total of more than 47,000. But leaders are concerned that they have fewer people to fill those churches. Congregations reported an overall drop in Sunday service attendance (down 7%) and fewer new believers being added through baptism (down 5%). Denominational leaders blame the downward trajectory on their struggle for effective evangelism. ?It's clear that evangelism and discipleship are waning,? Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, an SBC affiliate which produces the ACP report, told BP. ?I don't believe it is due to the lack of opportunities, though. Instead, there is a lack of engagement.?

"For years, evangelicals watched their fellow Protestants in mainline denominations undergo widespread and much-talked-about decline, while hoping their more conservative theology would sustain them. Yet, as Ed Stetzer noted a year ago, ?Southern Baptists are shrinking faster than United Methodists.?

"The former LifeWay Research president dissuaded doubters from blaming declines on churches that do not report their numbers to the ACP?about 1 in 5 congregations in recent years?and challenges the denomination to examine its church-planting strategy, evangelism, and reputation. In the American Conservative last week, George Hawley, politics professor at the University of Alabama, suggested the Religious Right was to blame for the decline of evangelical denominations including Southern Baptists. During last year?s election, the SBC saw agency leaders split over support for President Donald Trump, with some congregations even temporarily withholding funding.

"In the year ending September 2016, SBC giving decreased slightly. While undesignated receipts were up almost $62 million, total church receipts and missions expenditures were each down about 1 percent, to $11.5 billion and $1.19 billion respectively. CT reported that Southern Baptists bore similar declines last year, while the Assemblies of God, America?s third-largest denomination, enjoyed domestic and global growth.

Kate Shellnutt - Christianity Today - June 8, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Senator Bernie Sanders Attacked the Christianity of the Nominee for Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget :

Senate Hearing Video - Senator Sander's attack begins at 44:20 :

https://www.budget.senate.gov/nomination-hearing-for-deputy-director_of-white-house-budget-office

[eyeshaveit]

Court Orders Jehovah's Witness Not to Show Son Religious Cartoons

"A Jehovah's Witness has agreed not to show his son religious cartoons and has been banned from taking the six-year-old to some church events because it could cause him "emotional damage". The man is embroiled in a family court dispute with his estranged wife and has been barred by a court from taking the little boy to Jehovah's Witness assemblies, annual conventions and memorials. District Judge Malcolm Dodds also said, that the father had agreed not to show his son "Jehovah's Witness cartoons", a decision he described as "wise".

"The judge said the boy had watched cartoons called Obey Jehovah, Pay Attention At Meetings and One Man One Woman. "In 'Obey Jehovah' a child is taught about the sinfulness of having a cartoon character toy with magical powers which the child had to put in a bin," he said. "While making sense to a child if both parents were Jehovah's Witnesses, such a cartoon would send a very confusing message to a child like [the boy] who has one foot in his mother's world and a wider world (in which magical characters are everywhere in books, television, DVDs, on the internet and in films) and his other foot in his father's world where such magical characters are sinful.

"The mother asserts that in her submissions that the objective of the cartoons and Bible stories is to condition and indoctrinate children into Jehovah's Witness beliefs through a mixture of fear, manipulation and a strict boundary between behaviour which is acceptable and pleasing and that which is not. "The father accepts that [the boy] should not be exposed to such religious based media until [he] is at least 12." The judge concluded that there was a risk of the youngster suffering "emotional damage" if he was taken to to Jehovah's Witness  assemblies, annual conventions and memorials. He heard that the couple had separated about a year after the man began to study the Jehovah's Witness faith.

"Judge Dodds said the man could spend time with the boy and could take him to Sunday services. But he said he took a different view about the boy attending "assemblies, annual conventions and memorials". The judge said the man had already agreed not to take the boy on "field service" - knocking on doors of people's homes, not to read Bible stories to him and not to show him "religious biased media", including the cartoons. "I ... do not wish to restrict him from taking [the boy] to the Kingdom Hall each Sunday for up to two hours," said Judge Dodds.

"I do not see that this practice of the father's faith for a limited period within a group service with child-friendly activities poses a risk of jeopardy to [the boy's] relationship with his mother." The judge added: "I take a different view of assemblies, annual conventions and memorials. These are much longer events." He went on: "There is a far greater risk that [the boy] will be influenced ... given his age and how impressionable he is and the risk of emotional damage due to confusing messages. "As a result I find it necessary and proportionate to prohibit the father from taking [the boy] to Jehovah's Witness  assemblies, annual conventions and memorials."

The UK Telegraph - June 11, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

South Korean Christians Recruit Chinese to Preach in Muslim Pakistan

"China?s official media today accused South Korean Christian groups of converting young Chinese and sending them for proselytising in Muslim countries, a day after Pakistan said the two Chinese nationals killed by ISIS were involved in ?preaching? in the country. The state-run Global Times mainly highlighted the comments by Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, that Lee Zingyang, 24, and Meng Lisi, 26, who were kidnapped from Jinnah Town, Quetta, in the restive Balochistan province on May 24, and killed allegedly by Islamic State militants had entered Pakistan on business visas. The minister was informed that the two were part of a group of Chinese citizens who obtained business visas from the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing and entered Pakistan.

"But instead of doing business, they had gone to Quetta, where they pretended to learn Urdu from a Korean business owner but ?were actually engaged in preaching forbidden proselytizing,? the Global Times reported.
?The tragedy has triggered a new wave of anger against Islamic terrorism among the Chinese public, who have already been victimised by terrorism and extremism in the country?s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,? the daily said. At the same time it quoted Chinese analysts warning of ?another dangerous trend that might see China become entangled in constant trouble with overseas terrorism as South Korean missionaries are allegedly recruiting Chinese people to preach in Muslim countries?. Experts spoke of increasing activities by South Korean Christian groups who have been active in converting people in China, an officially atheist country, and proselytizing in Muslim countries, where such activities are forbidden and may even result in death sentences, the report said.

"Analysts further warned that some illegal missionary activities by South Korean religious groups in China are even sponsored by Seoul?s secret services,? it said. ?South Korean missionaries have been conducting underground missionary activities in China since at least a decade ago. Many missionary organisations are even sponsored by the (South Korean) intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service,? Chu Yin, an associate professor at the University of International Relations was quoted as saying by the Global Times. Apart from recruiting young people in China, South Korean missionaries send teenagers to risk their lives to conduct missionary activities in Muslim countries, and compared to Chinese, more South Koreans have been killed abroad due to risky missionary activities in conservative Islamic regions, a university student who has participated in several South Korean underground missionary events told the daily.

?Normally these missionaries will try to attract young Chinese students who come to churches because these students want to know about Christianity. Some of them will offer free airfare tickets, accommodation and meals if Chinese teenagers go to South Korea, and as they (missionaries) normally have a legal cover, like being an exchange scholar or postgraduate student, many Chinese students decide to go with them,? the student said. ?Some Chinese voluntarily join in the dangerous missionary activities in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq after being converted by South Koreans,? he said. China has very strict rules on foreigners? religious activities in China. The country forbids foreigners from converting people. Meanwhile, an editorial in Global Times said, ?while the atrocity? by the Islamic State in killing the two Chinese is appalling, it cannot drive a wedge between China and Pakistan, nor will the construction of the CPEC be disrupted.

?The killings of the two Chinese citizens should serve as a lesson. It is necessary for China and Pakistan to understand the situation of South Korean missionaries and radical groups in Balochistan, so as to better protect the safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan,? it said. ?In fact, it?s doubtful whether the extremist organisation targeted the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) this time. The two hostages killed were not staff related to the project, but had allegedly been brought to Pakistan by a South Korean Christian organisation to conduct missionary work. This tragedy was more likely caused by the conflict between South Korean missionary agencies and local terrorists,? it added. ?The China?Pakistan bilateral relationship is regarded as a model of relations between countries with different social systems. The Chinese public considers Pakistan as China?s ?iron brother,? the editorial said.

?Pakistan has made great efforts in protecting the CPEC. It has dispatched approximately 15,000 Pakistani military personnel to protect the Chinese engineers, the number of the former exceeding that of the latter. This is known to the Chinese public,? it said. ?Pakistan is far from having a stable domestic situation, but as the China?Pakistan friendship is deeply rooted in Pakistani society and most political and sectarian forces don?t consider China as an enemy, the security dilemmas facing the country will not impact the bilateral relationship or the CPEC,? it added. ?So far, no political forces in Pakistan have openly boycotted the CPEC, instead, various regions compete to join the project. There is generally a favourable political and public opinion environment toward the project. The killings of the two hostages are not a signal of any change to the current situation?, it said. ?Some Indian and Western media intend to exaggerate the impacts of the incident. They aim at badmouthing and disrupting China?Pakistan economic cooperation by linking the terror act caused by religious conflict to the political and economic cooperation between the two countries,? it added

The Hindu International - June 13, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Christianity is Evolving - 20 Proofs

Sunday evening services - There are fewer and fewer churches meeting on Sunday evening.
Pastor's stand-and-greet time - It clearly was a practice falling out of favor.

Suit and ties - Casual dress is now the norm in most churches.
The organ - It is now unusual to see an organ still played in worship services.

Print newsletters - Most church members are receiving information digitally today.
Frequent business meetings - Business meetings became the 'monthly fist fight'.

Sunday school - It has been replaced with community groups, life groups, home groups, etc.
Choirs - Many churches have moved from choirs to praise teams and instrumentalists.

The parlor for receptions, bride?s dressing room, etc. - An unused sacred cow in the church.
Weekly visitation in homes - Home visitation program did more harm than good.

Hymnals - Replaced with projected words on a screen.
Weeknight fellowship meals - Many churches in the past had paid cooks.

Casual recruiting of children?s workers - Extensive background checks before hiring someone.
Denomination-driven philosophy of ministry- Local programs and schedule.

Large pulpits - Replaced with smaller pulpits or stands.
Special music and anthems - No longer a common response.

Food pantry - Instead, contribute to a community food bank.
King James Version - Replaced with 'modern' translations of the Bible.

Office hours for ministry staff - Appointments rather than drop bys.
Land phone lines - Replaced with cell-phones.

Thom Rainer's blog - June 14, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Religious Argument for Contraception

"When the Trump administration signaled its recent intention to cancel the federal requirement that many religious employers offer birth control coverage in health insurance plans, it was framed as a victory for religious freedom. Tom Price, who is the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and is (mystifyingly) a physician, said that this action ?the deeply held religious beliefs of Americans who provide health insurance to their employees.?

"Guess what, Dr. Price? Some of us have deeply held religious beliefs that support ensuring access to birth control. Many of the world?s largest religions accept birth control in one form or another. There is no ban in Hinduism. It?s allowed in Islam and Buddhism. The Sikhs offer no objection. Protestant movements vary widely in teaching and practice, and even many evangelical Christian leaders approve of using contraception within marriage.

"Catholic teaching, on the other hand, stipulates that the only birth control permitted is abstinence. But in 2015, Frank Bruni of The New York Times asked Gallup to break down its Values and Beliefs survey; he learned that 86% of American Catholics believe that birth control is ?morally acceptable? ? compared with 90% of the public as a whole.


"Judaism has a different view in this regard:

"First there is the fact that contraceptives are often used by women for health reasons that have nothing to do with sex and procreation. As the (Jewish) writer and director Lena Dunham revealed in the Sunday New York Times,, many women like her rely on contraceptives to control chronic and debilitating pain. ?More women in this country are prescribed oral contraception for medical reasons than for pregnancy prevention,? she wrote. ?If the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress succeed in? giving employers carte blanche to deny women necessary medication under murky notions of moral disdain, all paths to health and wellness will disappear for a huge swath of Americans.? My religion obliges me to care for the sick. Withholding legal medication violates that obligation.

"Second, there is the fact that rolling back this mandate could disproportionately affect hundreds of thousands of women who rely on health insurance from their employers for their often costly birth control. Many of these women have no other resources. My religion obliges me to care for the needy. This fits that description.

"Third, and more specifically, there is the fact that Judaism has no law preventing use of contraception, and ? even in Orthodox communities ? permits its use within marriage for couples who for financial, psychological or other reasons wish to delay having children, or having more children. Deny couples birth control, and you deny their religiously sanctioned autonomy to preserve their marriage.

"And since a man must sexually please his partner ? yes, it?s in the Talmud ? blocking access to birth control could mean that he can?t fulfill his obligations. So, Dr. Price, you have your religious arguments and I have mine. I acknowledge yours, and I wish you would acknowledge mine. Then we can decide that perhaps the religious arguments cancel each other out, and we are left where we should have been in the beginning: considering how a federal policy affects national well-being. In this case, the evidence is overwhelming: Access to free or low-cost birth control helps the sick and needy, lowers the abortion rate, improves women?s economic status and enhances family life. As Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, told the Forward by email, ?People from all walks of life ? religious and nonreligious ? use birth control for a host of health care reasons.?

"So if you don?t believe in contraception, don?t use it. That?s as far as the religious dictate should go.

Jane Eisner - Forward - June 14, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Top Religious Leaders Issue Rare Joint Appeal

"Religion is often viewed as a force that sows divisions between people. But the world?s most prominent religious leaders have come together to present a different vision of how faith can work in the world. In a rare move, major religious leaders ? from Pope Francis to the Dalai Lama ? issued a joint appeal Wednesday asking people to follow a simple bit of advice: Make friends with people of other faiths. ?Our advice is to make friends to followers of all religions,? Ayatollah Sayyid Fadhel Al-Milani, one of the U.K.?s most senior Shia Muslim clerics, said in a video recording.

?Personal contact, personal friendship, then we can exchange a deeper level of experience,? the Dalai Lama said.

"Pope Francis chose to speak about his long friendship with the Argentinian Rabbi Abraham Skorka, who also appeared in the video. ?My religious life became richer with his explanations, so much richer,? Francis said of Skorka. ?And I guess the same happened for him.?

?Make Friends? is an initiative of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, an interfaith organization with offices in Israel and the United States. In a press release, organizers said the project?s mission is to counter the idea that people view each others? religions with distrust or disdain ? and to potentially even reduce violence conducted in the name of religion.

"Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, the Elijah Interfaith Institute?s director, said that this project introduces a new theological perspective, one that affirms the need for friendship between faiths. We cannot deny that in the books of many religions you can find texts that are not very open, even hostile, to people of other faiths,? he said in a statement. ?Therefore, when the world?s most important leaders call for friendship, they are in fact affirming a particular way of practicing religion and rejecting another.?

"The 22 leaders involved in the appeal represent a wide spectrum of religious beliefs ? Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Each leader contributed a personal statement specifically for the purposes of this project. Many more videos from the leaders, with subtitles in different languages, are available on Make Friends? YouTube account.

?One of the wonderful things about spending time with people completely unlike you is you discover how much you have in common. The same fears, the same hopes, the same concerns,? Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the U.K.?s former chief rabbi."

Carol Kuruvilla - HuffPost - June 15, 2017.

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How the Southern Baptist Summer Convention Went Off the Rails

"At the center of the story is Arlington's Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, who several weeks ago submitted a resolution condemning the "alt-right and white nationalism." So far, so good. But the resolutions committee decided McKissic's proposal contained inflammatory and broad language "potentially implicating" conservatives who do not support the alt-right movement.

"Because the resolution did not get the required two-thirds committee vote, chair Barrett Duke didn't move it to the floor. But McKissic persuaded convention officials to ask all 5,000 people on hand if they wanted the resolution heard; that vote too fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. That's when all hell broke loose, starting with an online backlash, especially from African-American evangelicals, and spilling into the assembly hall Tuesday night.

"Southern Baptist leaders, although way too late, realized the enormity of their error and called attendees back to the gathering place late Tuesday night to say that, indeed, such a resolution would get a hearing today. It's also worth noting right about here that among the resolutions approved Tuesday was one that  called for moral character in public officials, similar to the one the convention passed  at the height of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"This very clear jab at President Trump, which passed with little discussion,  is unlikely to go over well with  two of Dallas' most prominent Southern Baptist churches ? First Baptist and Prestonwood Baptist. Both have threatened to withhold money from the policy arm of the national convention because they are unhappy with national leadership's criticism of Trump during the election campaign ?and of church leaders standing arm in arm with him.

"A procedural snafu line is hard to swallow given that it was a conscious decision by committee chair Duke to dump McKissic's work. And as best I can tell, convention leadership only decided to revive the effort ? and seek a middle ground ? after social media blew up. Sounds a bit too much like that old adage: "They aren't sorry for what they did, just sorry they got caught."

Sharon Grigsby - Dallas News - June 14, 2017

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There is a new blog for French-speaking Reformed Christian:

http://canada.thegospelcoalition.org/sola/

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Religion Shaping Diabetic Glucose Control in Marriages

"Religious beliefs can affect how diabetic patients and their spouses cope with the stress of diabetes, with positive attitudes resulting in good lifestyle habits that result in greater success with glycemic control for the diabetic spouse, new US research indicates in the "Journal of Marital and Family Therapy".

"This current study found that both partners' use of religion to cope with type 2 diabetes-related stress significantly predicted their involvement in shared glycemic control behaviors," write Frank Fincham, PhD, Florida State University, Tallahassee, and colleagues. But prior work has shown that only 10% of doctors report addressing the subject of religion with their patients, the researchers say.

"Physicians need to overcome their reluctance to discuss such issues, they add, because they could explain to couples who are religious how their faith could help them to handle the stress that diabetes places on a marriage, and in turn help them improve lifestyle behaviors and subsequent blood glucose control in the affected spouse.

"Religious coping was measured using a brief version of the RCOPE, a comprehensive measure of religious coping," the investigators note. Positive religious coping involves strategies such as people viewing God as a partner in their effort to control the stress of diabetes, while negative religious coping reflects a feeling that the diabetes means they have being abandoned by God, they explain.

"Glycemic control was assessed by rating the diabetic spouse's response to how well they kept their blood glucose in range, varying from never to always. Compared to their nondiabetic partners, the diabetic spouse engaged in significantly more positive religious coping"  Overall, both the diabetic and the nondiabetic spouse engaged in significantly more positive than negative religious coping strategies in their management of diabetes-related stress.

"As Gregory Seibert, doctoral candidate in marriage and family therapy at Florida State University and coauthor of the report, explained, the study indicates  differences in the way diabetic spouses and nondiabetic spouses cope. The more likely the diabetic patient was to engage in negative religious coping, the less likely they were to share good glycemic control behaviors with their partner. "In other words, religious coping that reflects tensions and spiritual struggle involving doubt about God's love and care, for example, was related to fewer shared activities with the spouse that focused on glycemic control," he added.

Pam Harrison - Medscape - June 19, 2017.

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10 reasons Mormons dominate multi-level marketing companies

1 - Insularity. Mormons tend to be trusting, especially of other Mormons. We tend to want to believe that other Mormons are good, because surely if they know and believe in the gospel then they want the best for other people and aren?t trying to cheat people out of money.

2 - Money as a blessing. Mormons may not know what the phrase ?prosperity gospel? means, but many believe in the principle that if someone has money then they must be blessed by God.

3 - An unusually high number of Stay-At-Home-Moms. Mormons encourage women to stay at home, but these days that leaves many families to struggle for any extra income. It also means that Mormon stay-at-home moms use their time to try to make money for extra things.

4 - Easy mobilization. Mormons have a built-in network, complete with phone numbers, physical addresses, and emails. They may not think twice about using this information to send out invitations to their ?parties? about a new product/brand that is also an MLM, even if using ward lists for business purposes is against the rules of the church.

5 - Door to door experience. Former Mormon missionaries are used to sales techniques. They?re not afraid of rejection and they are sometimes very aggressive.

6 - The personal touch. Mormons are used to hearing testimonials and connecting that to ?deeper? truth. Some might argue this means Mormons are particularly vulnerable to anecdotal evidence.

7 - Big claims. Mormons often hear people scoffing at our religious ideas, our founder, and our scripture. Because we?ve grown accustomed to that, we may be more likely to shrug off criticisms even when we shouldn?t.

8 - Top-down structure. Mormons are comfortable with a hierarchical institution where people at the top know more than people at the bottom, and to paying money ?up-stream.? I know this may sound like a crude way of describing tithing. But looking at it from the outside, there are certain similarities.

9 - Naivete. Mormons have a tendency to believe that they are ?chosen? or ?special,? and may be more easily led to believe that an opportunity has come to them from God rather than dismissing things that are ?too good to be true.?

10 - Skimming the surface. Sadly, Mormon church meetings do not lead Mormons to ask hard questions. Instead, we may be more vulnerable to being led to ask the questions that people want us to ask. If a question/answer format is offered, we may not think more deeply ...

"This is such a big problem that LDS apostle Dallin Oaks wrote a book about Mormons and Get-Rich-Quick Schemes and worried that members of the Church may be ?specially susceptible to materialism.?

Mette Harrison- Religious News Service - June 20, 2017

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A Review of A Quiet Passion - Christian Faith and EMILY D1CKINSON?s Doubt
   
Film About Life
"In this way, A Quiet Passion is, perhaps, as much about what life is like as it is about what d**kinson?s life was like. Life is filled with many quiet moments?alone or with family and friends, at the table, in the parlor, around the yard, in the midst of conversation. Life is filled with contradictions in our words, in our actions, in our inner thoughts and beliefs. The power of the film is in capturing the way these moments accumulate into life?s most meaningful things, just as d**kinson captured them in her poetry.

"With languishing camera pans across interior doors and walls, creative renderings of the passage of time, lush period settings, disjointed and stylized dialogue?all set against a backdrop of exquisite and eclectic musical selections (including a piano rendition of a number from Spamalot, which, oddly enough, works perfectly)?the film is more experimental than conventional. In fact, watching A Quiet Passion is less like watching a movie and more like walking through a museum to gaze at a well-curated but eccentric series of skillful paintings.

"Although the narrative arc covers the span of d**kinson?s life, it?s not a film for viewers desiring a complete and coherent picture of a life, or the conventional biographical emphases one might expect. As with d**kinson?s poems, much is left out, much is merely hinted, and much is lingered on that most of us would prefer to not even think about. Like death.

Film About Death
"The film captures powerfully why the poet most famous for the lines ?Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me? was so obsessed with death. Since death is much less a part of our lives than it was for those in d**kinson?s era, it?s easy for us to judge as morbid what was then closer to normal. A Quiet Passion dwells excruciatingly on scenes of death and suffering?not exploitatively, but humanly. The scene of d**kinson?s mother?s death is both painful and beautiful in its mere humanity. The intensity of the film?s physical suffering?that of Emily, her mother, and less so her sister-in-law?is superseded by its portrayal of the family?s deep love for one another through all their pains?physical, spiritual, and emotional.

Film About Love
"Similarly, the intensity of the love depicted in A Quiet Passion?of father for daughter, mother for children, sister for brother, friend for friend?is, I think, like none other I?ve ever seen on screen. It?s not your typical, Hollywood-style passion?glossy, melodramatic, self-indulgent, and predictable. It?s much more like that of real people living real lives that are messy and hard and yet filled with hope, hope less for oneself than for their beloved.

Film About Faith
"The film?s backdrop of the Civil War is a helpful reminder of the reasons behind the racial tensions and inequities that still reverberate today. That war is also emblematic of the spiritual war that seemed to rage within d**kinson for her entire life. She was the 19th-century prototype for the ?spiritual not religious? impulse that was shocking then, but standard today. As she quips in one poem quoted in the film"

Karen Swallow Prior  - Gospel Coalition - June 21, 2017.

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Should Churches Keep Their Civil War Landmarks?

"Since Dylann Roof, a rebel flag-waving white supremacist, opened fire at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal in Charleston two years ago, the debate over historical markers of the Civil War South has taken on more urgency and more widespread concern. The flags came down first, starting with the contentious one that flew on South Carolina?s capitol grounds. A year after the Mother Emanuel massacre, the Southern Baptist Convention called on Christians to stop displaying the Confederate flag. The Episcopal Church made a similar statement, and its National Cathedral in Washington, DC, opted to remove two images of the flag in its stained glass windows.

"Communities and institutions shifted their discussions around their own landmarks, namesakes, and long-ago history; most notably, New Orleans spent two years eliminating its Civil War monuments, the last of which?a statue of General Robert E. Lee?came down last month. Protestors with torches challenged plans to do the same in Charlottesville, Virginia. But despite the new pressure around Confederate history, these cases remain the exception.

?Few public Confederate monuments have been changed, moved, or razed since 2015,? USA Today reported, estimating 700 to 1,000 such monuments remain across 31 states. ?While flags can be lowered, songs censored, mascots switched, and schools renamed, monuments are the most tangible and least mutable memorial symbols.?

"The debate over such markers inevitably involves the church buildings that housed?and the many more that later memorialized?the history of the Confederate States of America. The most striking example may be St. Paul?s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, nicknamed the Cathedral of the Confederacy. Over the past two years, the historic church, where Jefferson Davis learned that the war was coming to an end, decided to remove plaques honoring Lee and Davis and place them in an exhibit. Gone are the kneelers with the Confederate flag in needlepoint. The church will retire its coat of arms. Leaders are now discussing how to move forward with presenting a history that acknowledges racism and slavery in its past.

?It shouldn?t take a tragedy to turn the tide against racism. Why did it take the murder of nine black people in a Bible study for some people to finally reject the racism associated with the Confederate emblem? Why do people have to literally be killed before we confront racial prejudice?? asked Jemar Tisby, president of the Reformed African American Network. ?Christian leaders should be able to challenge racism in the midst of the church without waiting for a public disaster as an entry point to conversation.?

Kate Shellnutt - Christianity Today - June 19, 2017.

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Conservative Evangelical Christian?s Deal with the Devil

"The classic tale of Doctor Faustus has been told and retold in many forms. It is one of those universal cautionary tropes which, when you think about it, appears all over the place in literature, movies and song (such as The Police?s 1983 hit Wrapped Around Your Finger). The Faustus tale centers on an ambitious man who is dissatisfied with his place in life. He believes he deserves more: more respect, more power, more influence. Spotting that the man is vulnerable to temptation, a demon appears and offers him a deal: he will be given all he desires in exchange for his soul. Faustus makes the deal and gets what he wants, though it never quite works out the way he anticipated. Eventually he realizes the foolishness of his pact with the devil, but alas it is too late.

"We see this tale writ large in current events here in the United States. Christianity has been on the decline. It has been losing not only adherents but also influence in the public sphere. The response of conservative evangelicals to this sociological trend has, sadly, often been to circle their wagons, curse the perceived darkness, and lash out (against gay couples ordering wedding cakes, against Muslims and the specter of ?Sharia Law?, against Starbucks, against immigrants, against those who say ?Happy Holidays? instead of ?Merry Christmas??). Like Doctor Faustus, they rage against their marginalization.

"The demon?s deal came this election season when?in exchange for a promised change in fortunes (such as a conservative Supreme Court justice who might help restrict abortion and provide legal protection to practice bigotry under the guise of ?religious freedom?)?81% of white conservative evangelical Christians voted to elect as U.S. President a crass congenital liar who not only lacked the experience, qualifications and temperament for the job, but who had a long track record as a serial adulterer, a sexual predator, a business fraud, a thin-skinned revenge-driven narcissist prone to casting petty insults (often very publicly via Twitter); and a promoter of greed, racism, torture, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, religious discrimination, mob violence and general crudeness.

"81% of white evangelical Christians chose a man who said it would be acceptable to take away people?s medical coverage, to punish women who have abortions, to cast out immigrants on a massive scale, to ban people entry into the U.S. based upon their religion, to force members of certain religions to register with the government, to take his critics to court, etc.

"81% percent of white conservative evangelical Christians decided to bind themselves to a man who?s words and deeds are not simply un-Christian, but are anti-Christian; antithetical to the teachings and values of Jesus. 81% of white evangelical Christians are irrevocably linked to the most unpopular president in U.S. history, a man whose presidency will likely end prematurely and ignominiously.

"For now, Trump is trying to deliver on some his promises to conservatives. Evangelicals feel they are getting some action. Time will tell to what degree their agenda goals will be satisfied. But the price has been paid nonetheless; the white conservative evangelical soul was sold, and in a very public transaction. They are winning some battles now, but in so doing have already lost their war. Any conservative Christian claims to moral high ground can now be dismissed in a single word: Trump.

"There is a growing defensiveness among white conservative evangelical Christians, as the true and inescapable cost of their deal with the demon begins to become apparent. They ask us to ?get over it? and to stop with the 24?7 news coverage and social media postings about the Trump administration?s continuous stream of blunders, kerfuffles, indiscretions, embarrassments and outright lies. They rail as a chorus against the ?mainstream media? and the ?deep state? and the leakers. They mock or try to ignore the unprecedented protests and civic actions and lawsuits and investigations and internal leaks against Trump. They defend the indefensible claims of Trump and Pence and Conway and Spicer and Huckabee about crowd sizes and illegal Hillary voters and climate change and the precarious state of million?s of people?s medical coverage and the meaningfulness of ?covfefe? and a bevy of other ?alternative facts.? And, of course, they cast themselves as the victims (?it?s such an easy part, and you know how to play it so well? sang the Eagles).

"The decline of Christianity in the U.S. will continue to accelerate, as those outside the church?particularly young people?watch and take note of the shenanigans. Conservative evangelical Christianity has, like a lump of leaven, tainted the whole.  It has been tried and found wanting; the living waters poisoned by lust for temporal power.  Its time has come to an end. Its public persona has become indistinguishable from the Pharisees of Jesus? day.  White conservative evangelical Christians got a Supreme Court seat and a few executive orders, but in the process they have trashed their credibility for generations to come?perhaps permanently.  The deal was struck. The die is cast. The devil will have his due."

Daniel P. Coleman - Patheos - June 20, 2017

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India?s dangerous trends on religious liberty

What is India's Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act ?

"In September 2010, India's parliament passed The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) to regulate international financial donations to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India. The first form of this type of regulation passed in 1976. The 2010 legislation was a major overhaul that gave the government broad authority to prohibit NGOs from working in country, ?for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.? FCRA has been used to target and force out thousands of foreign humanitarian and religious organizations from serving in India. In the past three years alone, Prime Minister Modi's administration has revoked the licenses of more than 10,000 organizations.

Why is religious liberty under threat in India ?

"The FRCA is overly broad and gives Indian government officials too much power to punish and discriminate against organizations they disagree with. This has huge implications for not just religious freedom but also freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and freedom of assembly. The over 10,000 organizations who lost their license in the last three years are effectively kicked out of India. For instance, Compassion International had its organizational license revoked, which eliminated its ability to care for the 145,000 children the organization served. Gopal Baglay, a spokesman for India?s Ministry of External Affairs, told the New York Times the decision to force Compassion International to end their Indian operations was, ?a matter of law enforcement.? The charity?s leadership believes the Indian government, ?misunderstands Compassion?s model, assuming our sole intent is converting children to Christianity, when in fact, our primary goal is to rescue children from poverty.?

"he New York Times also reported that Compassion executives, ?said they had been approached in the United States by a representative of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization associated with the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and had been offered leniency on the condition that they distribute donations through non-Christian service groups.? Unsurprisingly, Mr. Baglay dismissed this claim. Hundreds of other faith-based organizations have had their licenses revoked as well. Those who remain are often harassed and operate under the constant threat that one wrong move could mean the end of their operations and work in India."

Policy Committee - Ethics Religious Liberty Commission - June 22, 2017.

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Are Southern voters really different ?

"America?s cultural divide runs deep. While rural and urban Americans share some economic challenges, they frequently diverge on questions of culture and values. On few issues are they more at odds than immigration.

"Here is the overture for that deep-dive into new polling data:

"The political divide between rural and urban America is more cultural than it is economic, rooted in rural residents? deep misgivings about the nation?s rapidly changing demographics, their sense that Christianity is under siege and their perception that the federal government caters most to the needs of people in big cities, according to a wide-ranging poll that examines cultural attitudes across the United States.

"The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey of nearly 1,700 Americans ? including more than 1,000 adults living in rural areas and small towns ? finds deep-seated kinship in rural America, coupled with a stark sense of estrangement from people who live in urban areas. Nearly 7 in 10 rural residents say their values differ from those of people who live in big cities, including about 4 in 10 who say their values are ?very different.?

"So let's see, how was this massive feature structured? As you would imagine, there are large sections dedicated to politics (Trump!), money and jobs. Issues of race and immigration receive lots of attention. Oh, and under the section labeled, "Distrust and Estrangement," there is one paragraph that says this:

"That sense of division is closely connected to the belief among rural Americans that Christian values are under siege. Nearly 6 in 10 people in rural areas say Christian values are under attack, compared with just over half of suburbanites and fewer than half of urbanites. When personal politics is taken into account, the divide among rural residents is even larger: 78 percent of rural Republicans say Christian values are under attack, while 45 percent of rural Democrats do."

Terry Mattingly - Get Religion - June 22. 2017.

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Vatican Changes Tone on LGBT Catholics

"Something new is happening in the Catholic Church. Its relationship with LGBT people in some parts of the country is changing. Last month, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, welcomed a large group of LGBT people to his cathedral. ?I am Joseph, your brother,? he said, echoing words from the Old Testament. A Mass was then celebrated for the congregation of LGBT people. Under his predecessor, Archbishop John Meyers, such a Mass would have been close to unthinkable.

"A few months earlier, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, spoke before New Ways Ministry, a group that ministers to and advocates for LGBT Catholics. In 1999, New Ways was subject to a condemnation by the Vatican?s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and its two founders, the Rev. John Nugent (now deceased) and Sister Jeannine Gramick, were censured. That a sitting bishop would address the group is a sea change.

"And earlier this month, a book I?ve written on the need for the church to reach out to LGBT people more compassionately was endorsed by two cardinals ? Newark?s Cardinal Tobin and Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who heads the Vatican?s office on the laity, family and life. For good measure, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego also endorsed the book.

"How has this happened? As I see it, there are two answers.

"The first is obvious: Pope Francis. We cannot underestimate the impact of his response to a question about gay priests: ?Who am I to judge?? Later, when pressed, he said his comments referred to gay preists. "Who am I to judge?? Later, when pressed, he said his comments referred to gay people in general.

"The second reason why some in the church are taking a fresh look at its relationship with LGBT Catholics is happening in the grass roots"

James Martin  - Newsday - June 25, 2017

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UNESCO?s tricky balancing act between religious and secular forces

"As the would-be guardian of the world?s most precious places and patrimony, UNESCO can hardly avoid entering into the field of religion. But given the vast and quarrelsome diversity of its member states, the UN?s educational and cultural agency finds it hard to address this sensitive subject, as some recent news stories have shown.

"Among the 1,052 locations designated by UNESCO as world heritage sites?of universal value to humanity?perhaps 20% have some connection with worship. They range from cathedrals in France and Germany to mosques in Saudi Arabia. And religion (in the form of pilgrimages and processions, for example) also features among the hundreds of intangible cultural treasures that the organisation deems worthy of protection.

"Once a site, or even a tradition, has been recognised by the Paris-based agency, its experts step in to offer guidance on how to allow fair access to curious outsiders while protecting vulnerable bits of heritage. These pundits have lots to say about weighing the economic interests of a tourist area?s local population against the long-term future of the site. But things get trickier when it comes to balancing the interests of secular tourists and art historians against the various groups of believers who have used a location over the centuries, and who want to go on using it. Since 2010 UNESCO has been in dispute with the authorities in Georgia over an insensitive restoration plan backed by the church, at the Kutaisi cathedral and Gelati monastery, a magnificent complex of frescoed medieval buildings. Only in the past few weeks have UNESCO consultants and Georgian state and church authorities edged towards a compromise.

"Things get trickier still when several religions regard a site as holy. Perhaps the best that can be said that is that UNESCO?s rules and conventions offer the parties a language and an arena in which to have their arguments. Last October, for example, Israel was furious after UNESCO?s executive board approved a resolution that used mainly Islamic terminology to refer to Jerusalem?s holiest peak, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. The text contained two mentions of the Western Wall, in inverted commas, and otherwise used a Muslim term for that location, the Buraq Plaza. In contrast with a previous resolution, it did acknowledge that Jerusalem and the Old City were sacred to three religions. That was seen as a minimal concession to Jewish and Christian sentiment."

ERASMUS - The Economist - June 26, 2017.

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When is Eid al-Fitr, and why do Muslims celebrate it?

"Millions of Muslims across the globe are preparing to celebrate one of their biggest religious festivals, Eid Al Fitr, which could start this weekend. It begins with a greeting: either ?Eid Mubarak,? or ?Blessed Eid.? Here?s what you should know about the Islamic holy day.

What is Eid al-Fitr?
"Eid al-Fitr is Arabic for ?festival of the breaking of the fast.? The festival marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset during Ramadan.

When is Eid al-Fitr observed?
Because the timing of Eid al-Fitr is based on sighting of the moon as per the Islamic lunar calendar, it can be difficult to predict when the festival will happen in any given country. While some Muslims wait to see the moon themselves, many either use the calculated time of the new moon, or base it on the declaration made in Saudi Arabia. Most of the Muslims in the United States will celebrate Eid on Sunday.

How is Eid celebrated?
In the morning, Muslims gather at mosques and prayer areas to perform Eid Prayer and greet each other. The festival is celebrated by visiting friends and relatives, hosting food parties and sharing sweets. Children not only get new clothes and shoes, but also receive cash gifts called ?Eidi? from their elders and relatives. The occasion is seen as a time of forgiveness and of giving thanks to Allah for helping people to complete their spiritual fasting. Many Muslims display their thanks by giving donations and food to those less fortunate than themselves.

How long is the Eid festival?
In most Muslim countries, the three days of Eid are observed as public and school holidays. This is not the case in the U.S., but many employers and schools allow time off for Muslim workers and children ? particularly in areas with a high Muslim population.

How should you greet Muslims on Eid al-Fitr?
The most standard greetings on this occasion is ?Eid Mubarak? which means ?have a blessed Eid.?

Waseem Abbasi - Religious News Service - June 24, 2017.

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Jehovah's Witnesses' Iconic Watchtower Sign to be Removed

"Brooklyn?s skyline has undergone a lot of changes recently, but none perhaps more dramatic than this.
It?s time to say farewell to the Jehovah's Witnesses' famed "Watchtower" emblem that has stood perched over Brooklyn Heights for decades. The Witnesses filed a permit to remove the 15-foot-tall letters from the roof of its former headquarters earlier this month.

"The removal process will cost approximately $70,500, according to documents from the city's Department of Buildings. The frame of the sign will remain intact.

"Kushner Cos., CIM Group and LIVWRK bought the 733,000-square-foot world headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Heights and the religious group?s 1.1-million square-foot as-of-right development site at 85 Jay St. in August 2016, city Finance Department records indicate.

"The pricing for the two properties was about $700 million. The complex at 25-30 Columbia Heights was bought for $340 million. Jared Kushner headed Kushner Cos. before he stepped aside to serve as senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump"

Scott Enman - Brooklyn Daily Eagle - June 29, 2017.

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University in Oklahoma considers removing Bibles and crosses from chapel

"A university in Oklahoma said it will consider removing religious icons from its campus chapel after receiving a letter from a group advocating their removal. East Central University, which is southeast of Oklahoma City, said in a statement on Friday that the school had planned to remove the religious items, but its president said it would get feedback first from students, faculty and community members.

?We moved too quickly,? Katricia Pierson, president of the university, said in a statement. ?We regret not taking time to pause and thoughtfully consider the request and the results of our actions on all of the students, faculty and community members who we serve.?

"Pierson said the university had removed some items from the chapel, which is used for gatherings of various religious groups, student clubs and events, to show support for all cultures and religious beliefs. In a statement on Thursday, Pierson had said the school was ?looking at the feasibility? of removing the cross from the chapel?s steeple, according to the Associated Press. A spokeswoman said the university is closed, and no one was available to do interviews."

Sarah Pulliam Bailey - Washington Post - June 30, 2017.

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New Smithsonian Exhibit - How Religion Shaped America

"Religion has played an outsized role in U.S. history and politics, but it?s one that has often gone unrecognized in U.S. museums. ?As a focused subject area, it?s been neglected,? says Peter Manseau, a scholar and writer installed last year as the first full-time religion curator at the Smithsonian Institution?s National Museum of American History. America?s exceptional commitment to religious freedom stems from the diversity of its faith traditions. The rebellious attitudes prevalent in frontier settlements fostered the growth of evangelical movements. African slaves introduced Islam to America. The drive to abolish slavery was led largely by Christian preachers.

?We can?t tell the story of America without telling the story of religion,? Manseau says, ?and we can?t answer questions about the importance of religion today without going back to earlier generations.? Manseau?s appointment as curator and his inaugural Religion in Early America exhibit signal ?the beginning of a renewed engagement with the role of religion in American history,? according to John L. Gray, the museum director. Each of the objects in Manseau?s exhibit adds a special dimension to the larger narrative.

"The oldest item in the collection is the Bay Psalm Book, a translation of the Psalms assembled by a team of educated Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640. The Puritans split from the Church of England, determined to purify the practice of their faith. The only songs they allowed in their worship were the Psalms, but they needed a Psalm book for their services. ?It?s a great example of the do-it-yourself approach to American religion that you see again and again,? says Manseau. ?Separated from the cultures in which these traditions were born, there?s a need to improvise, a need to make things new, with the materials at hand.? The persecution that Puritans faced in England was a key factor driving them to the New World. So it also was with Quakers, Baptists, Shakers, Jews, and other religious minorities, all of whom saw America as a place they would finally be free to practice their faith.

?This country, somewhat uniquely, is a nation of transplanted religions,? Manseau says, ?interacting with the beliefs and practices that were here, but also with new traditions coming in, learning and needing to negotiate, to compromise, and finding ways to live together. The practical implication of this diversity was religious freedom and the disestablishment of any particular church.? The idea of rebelling against conventionally practiced religion is a big part of America?s faith history. George Whitefield, an Anglican minister from England, was such an outspoken and controversial preacher that he was not welcome in most churches, so he built his own pulpit and took it on the road, preaching outdoors to crowds that numbered in the thousands.

"Whitefield?s portable pulpit, about six feet tall, with hinged sides, is in the Smithsonian exhibit. ?You could fold it up and strap it to the side of a horse or throw it in the back of a cart,? Manseau notes. The itinerant preacher is believed to have used it about 2,000 times, thus pioneering the great revival meetings that became a key feature of evangelical Christianity in the United States. Whitefield?s popular appeal demonstrated the deep religiosity of many Americans in the colonial era, but some of their founding fathers weren?t so devout. As a man of reason, Thomas Jefferson struggled with Christianity, trying to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with the ideals of the Enlightenment. His idea was to edit the Bible, literally.

Working in the four languages familiar to him ? English, French, Greek, and Latin ? Jefferson went through several copies of the New Testament, following the scripture closely. ?With a pen knife, he would remove those sections that he agreed with and found useful, and then he glued them together in this four-column book,? Manseau says, pointing to a yellowing cut-and-pasted Bible in a display case, ?one column for each language.? Jefferson called his version of the New Testament ?The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.? The Smithsonian exhibit includes one of the Bibles that Jefferson cut apart, as well as the one he created from his pasted clippings.

"Though America is often portrayed as a Christian nation, its religious history is more complex, as the exhibit makes clear. Many of the African slaves brought to America were Muslims. Some were literate in Arabic, and did their best to maintain their faith. One, a man named Bilali Muhammed, wrote a thirteen page text in Arabic, which has been preserved and is displayed in the exhibit. ?It is a very simple document,? Manseau says. ?It contains some basics of Islamic practice, [such as] ?These are the times at which we pray. This is why we wash our hands. This is why we wash our feet before we pray.??

Religious faith was key to the abolition of slavery. The Religion in Early America exhibit tells that story in part through a pair of saddlebags, once belonging to a former slaveholder named Freeborn Garretson, a plantation owner and man of wealth in Maryland. Garretson was also a religious man, and one Sunday morning, while reading the Bible, he was suddenly struck by a thought from above, which he interpreted as the voice of God, commanding him to let his slaves go free.

"From that day on, Garretson was a committed abolitionist and spent the rest of his days as an itinerant minister, traveling on horseback from plantation to plantation, preaching the evils of slavery and trying to convince other slaveowners that they were violating God?s will. Garretson?s saddlebags are on display in the exhibit as, in Manseau?s words, ?the iconic objects of itinerant preachers throughout early America. ? He says Garretson carried Christian tracts in the bags, as well as pro-abolition writings which he shared with the people whose opinions he was hoping to change.

"The ?Religion in Early America? exhibits will continue at the Smithsonian?s National Museum of American History for a full year."

Tom Gjelten - National Public Radio

[eyeshaveit]

Gospel Sermons on Phonograph Records

"While the folk preachers may have perfected their preaching skills in Southern churches, they broadened their reach through phonograph records. From the mid-1920s well into the Depression, there were roughly 85 preachers whose hundreds of singing sermons were recorded and heard throughout the black community nationwide via 78-rpm records.

"On their records ? none longer than three minutes in duration ? the preachers, in ?call and response? with a handful of select ?sanctified? congregants, would sing and opine in rhythm and rhyme about everyday realities like ?always pay your furniture man? or ?is there harm in singing the blues??

"Their records were advertised in nationally distributed black newspapers, such as The Pittsburgh Courier and The Chicago Defender. Their names were famous within the African-American community and some of the better sellers included Rev. J. C. Burnett, Rev. T.N.T. Burton, Rev. A.W. Nix, and Rev. Sundown Jesse. The most prolific of all was Rev. J. M. Gates of Atlanta, Georgia. His more than a hundred sermons were released on a variety of labels ? Paramount, Columbia, Vocalion, Okeh and Victor ? that specialized in records that catered to ?race.?

What gave Rev. Gates prominence, besides his stellar performances, were his sensational titles, many drawn from biblical verse, others from African-American vernacular. The titles enticed people to buy the record to find out more.

?Dead Cat on the Line? was Rev. Gates taking on marriage infidelity. He opened the sermon by saying: ?If a child is no way like his father, there?s a dead cat on the line.? His reference was to a time when a cat might get up on the power lines and die from electrocution, cutting off telegraph signals so no messages could get through. The phrase meant ?we?re not communicating here.? But with the dead cat festering up there, Gates was also alluding to the problems of infidelity.

?Kinky Hair is No Disgrace? spoke to demoralization stemming from negative value placed on ?negro? features.? Gates preached: ?Skin and hair don?t make the inside of man or woman good?Remember that God looks on the inside and man looks on the outside?And a whole lot of this hair straightening is just strictly so men can see it?You needn?t worry about your hair?You straighten your heart or your brain?Get something straight on the inside. You know it!?

And his masterpiece was based on a line from the Gospel of Matthew, ?Straining at a Gnat and Swallowing a Camel.? ?Straining at a gnat,? implied getting worked up about small matters, and ?swallowing a camel? was a reminder to people about missing what was truly important right in front of them, in this case the incongruities of racism.

?You! You negro-haters. You that can?t sit with him on the street car. You that can?t eat at the same table with him. I?m talking about you who can?t sit in your own automobile with him. Aah, but I?ll tell you what you can do. You can eat what they cook. Sleep in their bed. You can let them drive your car while you sit in the rear and he handle your life in his hands. You?re straining at a gnat and swallowin? a camel.?

"The music of Rev. Gates and his fellow preachers provided the sonic moments for the religious seeds of the budding Civil Rights Movement."

Jerry Zolten - Religious News Service - July 2, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Pope Francis flexes his muscle

"There are two ways of looking at the Roman Catholic Church under the rule of Pope Francis: an increasingly tolerant, inclusive, mercy-based charity, or a spectator blood-sport between ideological rivals who will reconcile their differences. Under the second scenario, Francis just scored what might be a knockout punch.

"By removing Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig M?ller as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis neutralized one of the few princes of the church whose job it was to call out the pope for his seemingly endless appetite for doctrinal change. M?ller, who was installed in his job by Francis?s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, represented the conservative wing of the church that has looked askance at the current pontiff?s disregard for centuries-old tradition and restrictions.

"Making matters even worse, Francis replaced M?ller with Archbishop Luis Ladaria, who like Francis is a Jesuit. That reduces the likelihood that the pope will meet opposition from the one office in the church with the duty to interpret Catholic magisterium ? that is, spreading doctrinal teaching to the church?s billion plus adherents.

"Ever since Francis assumed the Throne of Peter in 2013, he and M?ller seemed to be on a collision course. Soon after becoming pope, Francis floated the idea of letting divorced Catholics who had remarried outside the church receive Holy Communion. In his role as chief interpreter of church doctrine, M?ller let the pope know that was a non-starter.   

"Nor was he pleased when Francis, answering a question about his feelings toward gay Catholics, shrugged and said, ?Who am I to judge?? When Francis announced that he wanted to create a commission to discuss allowing women to become deacons ? a job one step beneath the priesthood ? M?ller effectively quashed the idea. And when Francis was preparing his encyclical Amoris Laetitia, or the Joy of Family, M?ller?s proposed alterations were simply ignored.

"No chief executive can be expected to put up with insubordination for long, and Francis is within his rights to move M?ller out of his position. But the pope, despite his sweet smile and crowd-pleasing talk about making the Catholic Church more tolerant and focused on the poor, has created a serious division among the faithful.

"His suggestions that affluent Catholics give away their money, or that capitalism is a sin don?t wear well with some in the United States, which is by far the largest financial contributor to the Church?s coffers.

"If the pope intends to keep removing conservative thinkers from the Vatican?s inner ranks, he might find there is a price to pay for imposing his socialist agenda on an institution that has, after all, gotten along for more than 2,000 years without him"

John Moody - Fox News - July 2, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Atheism a Death Sentence in Saudi Arabia

"Despite constant warnings issued by Saudi religious authorities about ?the dangers of atheism?, which is, according to them, ?tantamount to not believing in God?, many citizens in the kingdom are turning their backs on Islam. Among other things, perhaps what is primarily driving Saudis to abandon their religion is the country?s strict and dehumanising codex of Islamic law coupled with easy access to information and mass communication. Unfortunately, those who are open about their atheism find themselves harshly punished or forced to live double lives.

"Just recently Saudi Arabia sentenced another atheist to death for uploading a video renouncing Islam.  The man was identified as Ahmad Al-Shamri, in his 20s, from the town of Hafar Al-Batin, a village located in Saudi Arabia?s eastern province. In the video, Al-Shamri renounces Islam and makes disparaging remarks about the prophet Muhammad.

"Saudi authorities first picked him up in 2014 after he uploaded a series of videos reflecting his views on social media, which led to him being charged with ?atheism and blasphemy?.With leaving Islam punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, the country?s Supreme Court, which ruled against Al-Shamri on 25 April 2017, has effectively already pronounced the death sentence. Although court proceedings dealing with blasphemy, atheism or homosexuality may last for months, the sentence is far more likely to be known in advance ...

"In 2014, Saudi Arabia introduced a series of new laws in the form of royal decrees, which define atheists as terrorists. The new royal provisions define terrorism as ?calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which Saudi Arabia is based?.

"Conflating atheism and terrorism has become official in Saudi Arabia, by which non-believers who commit ?thought crimes? are the same as violent terrorists."

Hakim Khatib - Qantara.- July 3, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

ABC Annoys Australian Church Leaders

"ABC is planning to dump its executive producer of religion in a move savaged by Christian and Islamic leaders angry that the broadcaster will elevate a non-specialist to the once prestigious post.

"Religious leaders have slam?med the ABC for the alleged ?systematic dismantling? of religious programming, with managing ?director Michelle Guthrie warned that she could breach her commitment to 30 of the nation?s ?religious leaders last year that the broadcaster would maintain the quality of its religious content.

"The Australian understands the ABC?s executive producer of religion, Jane Jeffes, a religious broadcasting specialist, has been told she is ?potentially redundant?, with the role expected to be filled by Joe Gelonesi, who has ?experience in science, the arts and philosophy. Jeffes?s redundancy is expected to be confirmed this month.

"Under changes to the structure of religious programming at the ABC, the service will also be blended with the topic of ethics and moved under the control of Radio National, where Gelonesi has worked for more than a decade. The religion editor will have less capacity to initiate programs and appoint staff, but the head of science will remain a specialist in that genre.

"Religious figures argue the change is part of a move in the past few years by the ABC to diminish its religious content, while the former head of ABC Religion Radio, Paul Collins, accused management of a ?complete failure to understand the essential cultural role that the ABC plays in Australian society?. Mr Collins, who left the ABC in 1996, said the religion department used to employ 18 people across four states. He said that was now closer to five, all in Sydney.

?From the last board and the present board and through senior management, there is a complete failure to understand the essential cultural role that the ABC plays in Australian society,? he said. ?They just don?t get it.? Prominent Anglican minister Lynn Arnold said the move would weaken the ABC?s religious programming. Dr Arnold, a former Labor premier of South Australia and a doctor of philosophy, said the restructure differed from Ms Guthrie?s assurance to religious leaders in November.

"He said the ABC?s looming decision to replace Jeffes with a non-specialist appointment did not honour the spirit of the meeting between religious leaders and Ms Guthrie: ?We had been led to believe that in their program res?tructuring, there would be new initiatives in the area of religious broadcasting that (would) see movement of people but the overall impact would be neither a ?reduction in overall airtime or content quality.? The restructure comes after religious groups were critical that the religious radio show Sunday Nights with John Cleary was axed last year.

"An ABC spokesman said the broadcaster was committed to a wide range of religious programming. ?ABC radio is currently in consultation with staff regarding proposed changes to the management of its specialist genre units,? he said. ?An announcement on the outcome of this process will be made in due course. There will be no impact on specialist content or programming.?

"Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier said the move was ?questionable? and slammed the broadcaster for giving ?vague? assurances. ?We were seeking to engage with the board but all the communications back to us have been triumphalism about the ABC?s performance when we know from other sources that the amount of content used is much less and the amount of resources being put into it is much less,? he said.

?I?m concerned about the blurring of religions and ethics as one topic. I think they are both important topics but putting them together obscures the distinctiveness of how religions are differently structured to ethics.? A spokesman for Forum on Australia?s Islamic Relations said it was surprising the ABC was considering replacing Jeffes. ?The direction the ABC is taking is the wrong direction. The person who is supposed to replace Jeffes does not have a strong religion background,? he said.

?They have culled a number of programs from the religious ?affairs unit and one of the best shows was Sunday Night with John Cleary. Those kinds of programs are needed more now than ever because the conflicts occurring around the world have rippling ?effects in Australia. If the ABC doesn?t talk about it, no one will.?? Uniting Church president Stuart McMillan said the ABC was not ?facing up? to its responsibilities as a public broadcaster.

?I think this is just another part of the systematic dismantling of quality religious programming by the public broadcaster and it denies their civic responsibility to the more than 60 per cent of the culturally and religiously diverse Australian community,? he said. Shane Healy, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne media ?director, called it ?disappointing?.

Greg Brown - The Australian - July 4, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Dear Prudence : Good Neighbors, Bad Religion ?

Question -
"I am guardian for my four grandchildren, as their father was killed in a car accident last year. They live with me and next to my very kind and often helpful neighbors who like to have the children over to visit (they are really cute, sweet kids), which is fine most of the time. The neighbors are younger than we are and have taught the children to Rollerblade and play piano, and they generally have a grand time together. However, they are extremely religious, and while I don?t mind them reading Bible stories or singing kids? hymns, they are starting to cross lines, such as telling the 5-year-old that Santa isn?t real (she still believed this last Christmas) and God doesn?t like Halloween because it is devil-worshipping. They also discourage the oldest one from dancing, telling her she?s ?too old??she?s 10. The kids visit one to two times a week, and it?s nice to have these wholesome folks take a real interest in them, but I don?t know how to tell them that the beliefs they hold, while fine for them, should not be discussed with the children. We don?t have a particular religion we practice?I was Catholic growing up but no longer observe?and I prefer the children not feel pressured this way. I don?t want the 5-year-old to feel bad because she wants to be a puppy on Halloween or the oldest to be told she isn?t behaving in a perfectly normal tween fashion. How can I express my concern without offending these folks and possibly ending our long-standing neighborly relationship?

Dear Prudence's Answer -
?I really appreciate the interest you?ve taken in the children, and they always love getting to play at your house. I?d like to ask you to refrain from talking to the kids about your religious beliefs, especially when it comes to normal childhood milestones like dancing to music or going trick-or-treating. I respect your religious views, and I?d like you to respect mine and how I?m raising my children.? If their response to being asked not to indoctrinate your children is anything other than ?Oh gosh, I?m so sorry, of course,? that?s regrettable but is not because what you asked was rude or out of line. If they bristle, and you think the long-standing positive relationship outweighs their occasional saying something like ?Halloween is for the devil,? then you can feel free to tell the children something like, ?The Howells are lovely people, but I don?t share their beliefs?I think Halloween/dancing/Santa Claus is a lot of fun. What do you think?

Mallory Ortberg (Dear Prudence) - Slate - July 5, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Proof that religion is not a part of the foundation of the United States of America

?If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.? George Washington, 1789, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia.

?Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.? Thomas Jefferson, 1787, letter to Peter Carr.

?Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.? Thomas Paine, 1791, ?The Rights of Man.?

?Congress has no power to make any religious establishments.? Roger Sherman, 1789, Congress.

?The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.? Benjamin Franklin, 1758, ?Poor Richard?s Almanack.?

?I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church & State.? Thomas Jefferson, 1802, letter to the Danbury Baptists.

?To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.? Thomas Paine, 1776, ?The American Crisis No. V.?

?Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.? Thomas Jefferson, 1779, ?A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.?

"The bottom line is that the Constitution was written by men who were dedicated to the concept of religious freedom and who were very concerned about the long history of members of one religious sect using their political power to coerce members of all other religious sects, as well as citizens who were agnostics or atheists. The more we allow religious beliefs to enter the public space, the less religious freedom we all will have.

Ed Birnbaum - Albuquerque Journal - July 7, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Vatican says, that the Eucharist cannot be 'Gluten-Free'

"The unleavened bread used to celebrate the Eucharist during Catholic masses can be made with genetically modified organisms, the Vatican said Saturday, but they cannot be entirely gluten-free. But low-gluten hosts are allowed as long as the wheat has enough gluten to obtain the bread without the use of additives or other "foreign materials". Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said the guidance was needed now that the Eucharistic bread and wine can be found in supermarkets and "even over the internet".

"In a letter issued last month, Sarah also reminded bishops that hosts should be made by people "distinguished by their integrity" -- and that adding fruit or sugar is a "grave abuse".

"It is altogether forbidden to use wine of doubtful authenticity or provenance," he added. But for people who cannot tolerate wine the use of mustum, or must, a thick non-fermented grape juice, is considered "valid matter" for the sacrament, which Catholics believe turns the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ."

France24 - July 8, 2017.

[Teaspoon Shallow]

George Pell to return to Australia to face historical sexual assault offences.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/cardinal-george-pell-charged-sexual-assault-offences/8547668

If he has protected sexual predators like so many in the RCC, Watch Tower, Mormons, Anglican and secular societies, I hope he justice is served to the best of their ability.

[eyeshaveit]

Presbyterian Church (USA) votes down marriage equality 

"The 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted against a marriage equality proposal. The civil union and marriage committee at the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had voted in favor of amending the church?s directory of worship to change the definition of marriage from a ?man and a woman? to ?two persons.? The directory of worship is part of the Book of Order, the Presbyterian Church (USA) constitution.

"The general assembly, however, rejected the committee?s recommendation and voted 308-338 against the proposal and will not change the church?s definition of marriage. The general assembly did, after about four hours of debate, vote for a proposal calling for two years of  ?serious study and discernment? regarding Christian marriage.

?While we are thrilled with yet another study, it doesn?t give any relief to those of us in states where same-sex marriage is legal,? said Karen Bartel, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of East Iowa.

"Also, earlier in the week, the committee narrowly voted down a proposal that would have allowed Presbyterians ministers to officiate gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies in states that have marriage equality.

"For now, reports the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, there is no official resolution of the pastoral crisis many affirming Presbyterian ministers are experiencing in states that recognize gay and lesbian couples? unions."

Wisconsin Gazette - July 7, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

news
South African religious practitioner must be registered                                   

"Every religious practitioner must be registered and fall under umbrella organizations. Every registered religious leader should have a location where he or she conducts religious ceremonies and this could be churches? homes? mosques? temples? mountains? open fields and tents.

"These are the recommendations made by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural? Religious and Linguistic Communities. The commission presented its report to Parliament last week following its investigation into the ?Commercialisation of Religion and Abuse of People?s Belief Systems?. The commission undertook this investigation following media reports about instances in places of religious worship which put the lives of congregants in danger.

"These included reports about religious leaders feeding congregants snakes and grass and giving them paraffin to drink.

"According to the recommendations? each worship centre would freely form their umbrella organisations and these umbrella organisations must be registered and known to peer-review committees. These committees will each cover a particular religion? for example? one for Christians and one for Muslims. These committees will ensure there is religious self-regulation and accountability. The peer-review committee will be the final mediator of disputes within their own religion.

"Some religious leaders have been opposed to the convening of this investigation? fearing that the commission would interfere with freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution. Briefing the media on Tuesday? commission chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said the Constitution also stated that everyone had the right to choose a trade? including being a religious leader? and that the practice of a trade or occupation may be regulated by law.

"She said the aim of the investigation was to protect the congregants. She said the investigation found that there was no comprehensive database of religious leaders and there were a high number of unregistered institutions.

"The commission also found that the death of worshippers using faith products and defaulting on their chronic medication was high. It also found that there were ?cult-like? religious organisations which engaged in controversial practices like asking congregants to eat grass or drink petrol. Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said she knew there were those religious leaders who would not want the current arrangement to be changed. ?We are convinced the majority of reasonable religious leaders will agree with us?? she said.

"However? Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA)? said it was not persuaded that licensing of practitioners was the way to go. Michael Swain? executive director of FOR SA? said the state had no business meddling with religion. Swain said the organisation represents six million people from 227 denominations? churches and other religious groups. ?We are not persuaded that licensing is the solution.? Swain said the organisation was waiting for an opportunity to make submissions to the portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs. Swain said although religion was a ?profession?? it cannot be compared to careers like law? medicine and financial services.

"Swain said the country had laws which dealt with every abuse that the commission had identified.
He said the proposal that peer-review committees should advise the commission was the clearest indication that the commission? an institution of the state? wanted to meddle in religious affairs."

Ernest Mabuza - South Africa Sunday Times - July 11, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Is Religion is a form of Mental Illness?

"A Stanford University professor has been teaching for years that religion is a form of mental illness, according to a Tuesday report from The Independent highlighting the lessons. Professor Robert Sapolsky teaches Stanford students that religion in all of its forms, regardless of benefits, is an irrationality and a kind of ?organized schizophrenia,? and has made these claims since at least 2009.

"Sapolsky said religious rituals were regarded as expressions of obsessive compulsive disorder, as opposed to a voluntary discipline, and claimed that fervently held religious belief and sustained interest in religion stemmed from damage to the brain and epilepsy. ?We are permeated by irrationality,? Sapolsky said in a recorded lecture from 2009. He continues to teach in Stanford University?s biology department."

Article includes 20 minute recorded lecture:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/11/atheist-stanford-professor-teaches-religion-is-mental-illness/

[eyeshaveit]

"I think the thing that?s most disturbing is the megachurch because megachurches are not churches. My feeling is that when you?re a pastor, you know the people?s names. When 5,000 people come into the church, you don?t know anybody?s name. I don?t think you can be a pastor with just a bunch of anonymous people out there. In the megachurch, well, there?s no relationship with anybody. I think the nature of the church is relational. If you don?t know these people that you?re praying with and talking with and listening to, what do you have? I feel pretty strongly about that.

"Now there?s a lot of innovation in the church, and overall, I can?t say I?m disheartened. I?m just upset by the fad-ism of the megachurch, but I just don?t think they?re churches. They?re entertainment places."

Eugene Peterson, commenting on the Christian megachurch in a recent interview.

[Inertialmass]

Is Religion is a form of Mental Illness?

Speaking of Orthodox Jew-turned-atheist Robert Sapolsky:


http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/professors-divestment-occupation/

Stanford professors call for divestment from Israeli occupation ahead of student govt vote

We, the undersigned faculty members, respectfully ask the ASSU to pass the bill currently before it.  The bill asks the university to stop investing in companies that profit from the occupation of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.  This is entirely consistent with, indeed required by, the University Code of Conduct, which requires that members of the Stanford community ?maintain the highest standards of integrity.?

The bill asks that Stanford divest from corporations that profit from maintaining the infrastructure of Israel?s 48-year long illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and of the Gaza Strip, and enabling the collective punishment of civilians in those territories, as well as acts of mass incarceration, repression of unarmed protesters, and the denial of rights to work and economic well-being.

To achieve this goal, it selectively targets multinational companies that violate international humanitarian law and human rights in the Occupied Palestine Territories and here in the United States.  Companies like Motorola Solutions, Veolia, Cement Roadstone Holdings, Elbit Systems profit from constructing the physical infrastructure of the occupation, including settlements of Israeli Jews implanted in the West Bank, which violates Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 465 of 1980 (among many others), and a separation barrier that effectively annexes 9.5% of the West Bank, which a 14-1 vote of the International Court of Justice ruled illegal in July 2004.  Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, G4S, Defense Technology Corporation, and Combined Tactical Systems provide hardware and military equipment used to enforce the occupation, confiscate Palestinian lands, demolish Palestinian homes, and carry out acts of mass incarceration (over 800,000 Palestinians since 1967), transfer Palestinians outside of the West Bank, and impose collective punishment, which violate Articles 33, 49 and 76 of the 4th Geneva Convention.

Some argue that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a problem of ?multiple narratives.?  But there is no question about the facts of the case at hand relating to Israel?s occupation of the territories seized in the June 1967 War ? they are verified by internationally recognized sources such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli Human Rights organizations like B?Tselem, and Israeli news sources.  These facts support the international consensus that the Occupation is illegal and the actions undertaken by the State of Israel to enforce it violate international law.

Therefore, Stanford must distance itself from them, as the Code of Conduct requires that, ?No unethical practice can be tolerated because it is ?customary? outside of Stanford or that it serves other worthy goals.  Expediency should never compromise integrity.?  We are asking Stanford to uphold its proclaimed values.

We reject the notion that divestment unfairly singles out one country for condemnation.  The enormous amount of US aid to Israel (at least $3 billion annually, more than any other country in the world receives) already makes us in the United States complicit with Israel?s actions.  We equally reject the claim that divestment is a form of anti-Semitism or in any way directed against Jewish students on campus.  Divestment is directed against the policies of the state of Israel.  By supporting divestment, we believe we are doing what we can locally, within the Stanford community.

We stand in the proud tradition of previous faculty actions, against the South African apartheid regime, against investments in fossil fuel, and others.  We believe it behooves us as educators to not only train our students to be world citizens and world leaders, but also to mode ourselves actions that embody the best aspects of world citizenship, beginning with upholding international law and opposing those who do not.

Respectfully,
1.Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History
2.Eamonn Callan, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Pigott Family School of Education Professor, and Professor, by courtesy, of Philosophy
3.Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor
4.David Como, Associate Professor of History
5.Robert Crews, Associate Professor of History
6.Mark Crimmins, Associate Professor of Philosophy
7.J.P. Daughton, Associate Professor of History and, by courtesy, of French and Italian
8.James Ferguson, Susan S. and William H. Hindle Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences
9.Kenneth Fields, Professor of English
10.Thomas Blom Hansen, Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor in South Asian Studies and Professor in Anthropology
11.Robert Finn, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus
12.Leslie Hill, Associate Professor (Teaching) of Theater and Performance Studies
13.Doug McAdam, Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor
14.Cherr?e L. Moraga, Artist in Residence, Department of Theater and Performance Studies, Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity
15.Andrea Nightingale, Professor of Classics
16.David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor
17.Mar?a Paz Haro, Professor Emerita, Iberian and Latin American Studies
18.Robert Proctor, Professor of History and, by courtesy, of Medicine
19.Rush Rehm, Professor of Theater and Performance Studies and Classics
20.Professor Joan Ramon Resina, Professor of Iberian and Latin Cultures, and of Comparative Literature
21.Paul Robinson, Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus
22.Robert Sapolsky, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and Professor of Neurology and of Neurosurgery
23.Priya Satia, Associate Professor of History
24.Paul Seaver, Professor of History Emeritus
25.Thomas Wasow, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, Emeritus
26.Sylvia Yanagisako, Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies
27.Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, Emerita
28.Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History
29.Khalil Barhoum, Senior Lecturer in Arabic
30.Todd Davies, Lecturer in Symbolic Systems
31.Linda Hess, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies

[eyeshaveit]

RIP, Anti-Mormon Literature

"What is going on with the disappearance of anti-Mormon literature? Here are four possible explanations. I?m sure even more will become apparent over time.

1 - Publishing is changing. Some topics are so comprehensively covered online now that only the oldest and least Internet-savvy readers might actually buy books about them. That?s true of a number of categories that used to generate strong book sales, like books about TV shows, heroic pets, or annual almanacs. When the same information is available for free at a user?s fingertips, it?s hard to justify the purchase price of a book.

2 - Mormons are boring. Mormons just aren?t that exotic anymore, darn our hides. Readers are still willing to pay for polygamists? memoirs because those stories remain quite different from the mainstream and have residual shock value. Mainstream Mormon families are pretty milquetoast by comparison. Who wants to read an expos? about their neighbor family?s adventures in a beige minivan? Where the littlest one poops in the car seat on the way to church? Yeah, I didn?t think so.

3 - Evangelicals care less about theology than they used to. Sociologists have noted a trend over the last few decades that suggests theology is not as important as it used to be in the minds of most American Christians. If Americans are fussed about religion at all (and a growing number aren?t), they are more concerned with behavior and political views than with orthodox belief. And many self-professed evangelicals don?t even know their own theological tenets, according to a LifeWay study released last year. More than half, for example, agreed that Jesus was the ?first and greatest being created by God??an Arian heresy that?s anathema to classically-defined evangelicalism. If evangelicals don?t care about (or even know about) their own theology, the whole raison d??tre of anti-Mormon lit has just gone up in smoke.

4 - Mormonism is no longer a threat, because it?s growing far more slowly. In the heady days of the 1960s through the 1980s, when Mormonism was adding to its membership at rates between three and nearly nine (!) percent a year, evangelicals were crapping their pants because of us. Now, with our growth rates slowly dipping to between 1.5 and 2 percent a year, we?re not nearly so scary. Mormonism is still growing, but the rate of that growth has significantly decelerated worldwide. Moreover, what growth does occur is largely happening in the global south. If Mormonism?s most promising areas of conversion are in West Africa rather than the western U.S., American evangelicals are not going to get terribly exercised about it."

Jane Reiss - Religious News Service - July 11, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

The Generosity Gap - Latest Barna Report

"Among the study?s key findings:

*Nineteen in 20 Christians surveyed (96%) said generosity is important to them.

*Just one in six Christians (16%) said they are most often generous to others through monetary support.

*One-third of Christians surveyed (32 percent) most strongly associated generosity with service or volunteering, and 30 percent associated it with emotional or relational support. About one in five Christians (22 percent) connected it with giving money, 12 percent associated it with hospitality, and five percent said it was giving non-monetary gifts. When segmented by generations, Millennials were least likely to associate generosity with monetary giving (13 percent).

*Just more than half of Christians surveyed (56 percent) said they gave less than $50 to church and charity last year. Eighty-four percent of Millennials reported that they gave less than $50 dollars, the highest percentage of all generational segments. Nearly four in five Millennials (78%) said they were satisfied with their level of giving.

*While strong majorities of pastors and Christians agreed that generosity is always or often a response to Christ?s love, pastors were more likely to hold this belief (91 percent vs. 73 percent).

*Nearly half (47 percent) of Christians surveyed agreed that it is okay for church members who volunteer extensively not to give financially; just nine percent of pastors surveyed agreed (and 85 percent disagree).

A Barna Report Produced in Partnership with Thrivent Financial
www.barna.com/generosity

[eyeshaveit]

Quaker group takes religious pilgrimage to protest coal power plant

"A group of mostly Quakers walked for seven days from Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Schiller power station to Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire [about 56 miles] to demonstrate against burning coal for energy. The station is the last coal-burning power plant in New England without a shutdown date.

"The group arrived at Merrimack Station at about 10 a.m. Saturday and held a prayer service. A portion of the group then split off to build a blockade on the train tracks to block more coal from arriving at the plant. "That's the path through which the coal enters. So the idea with the civil disobedience is to get in the way, to get between the place where the coal comes from and the place where it's burned,? said Katherine Fisher, part of the group.

?Merrimack Station does not operate that frequently but when it does, it's absolutely essential to keeping the lights on,? Eversource spokesperson, Martin Murray said. Eversource has a settlement agreement with the state to sell off all their plants, including Merrimack Station. It doesn't mean they're shutting down, but Eversource will no longer own them. Murray said other solutions are needed to power up the region.

"We have to as a region find new gas infrastructure because we're so dependent on that fuel, and also embrace projects like northern pass that will diversify the energy mix in the region,? he said. Murray added the Merrimack Station doesn't just receive coal via train, but also has a coal inventory on site and has the capability to receive it by truck as well.

"Meantime, the group said Saturday they're ready to stay on-site. ?If the truth about climate change is really true and if the truth about the power of god to heal the world is really true then this is the action that we're led to,? Fisher said.

Cam Tranchemontagne - WMUR OnDemand - July 16, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

We?re Headed Toward One of the Greatest Divisions in the History of the Jewish People?

"In late June, 19 rabbis gathered in New York City for an urgent meeting. It wasn?t secret, exactly, but it certainly wasn?t public. The Jewish leaders?all members of the Conservative movement?s Rabbinical Assembly, except for two?were there to decide what to do about intermarriage. Since the 1970s, the Conservative movement has banned its rabbis from officiating or even attending wedding ceremonies between Jews and non-Jews. The denomination is more traditional than the Reform and Reconstructionist movements, which both allow their rabbis to decide the intermarriage question for themselves. But over time, Conservative Judaism has also been more willing to make concessions to modern life than Orthodoxy, leaving it distinctly vulnerable to challenges from within on one of its most sensitive policies.

"A small, vocal resistance to the Conservative movement?s stance on intermarriage has been building in recent years. Some rabbis left: Adina Lewittes?once an assistant dean at the Conservative movement?s flagship school, the Jewish Theological Seminary?decided she couldn?t tolerate the lack of welcome for non-Jews anymore. Or they were kicked out: Seymour Rosenbloom, the recently retired rabbi of Philadelphia?s Congregation Adath Jeshurun, wrote an op-ed about marrying his stepdaughter and her non-Jewish husband last spring. Months later, the executive leaders of the Rabbinical Assembly expelled him unanimously after more than four decades in the organization.

"This summer, the dissent has gotten much louder. In June, the rabbis at a large Manhattan synagogue, B?nai Jeshurun, announced they would begin officiating at intermarriage ceremonies. Although the congregation isn?t technically associated with the Conservative movement, its longtime senior rabbi, Roly Matalon, is part of the Rabbinical Assembly. Another prominent rabbi, Amichai Lau-Lavie, released a 58-page study detailing why he had decided to start marrying interfaith couples at his ?artist-driven, everybody-friendly, God-optional, pop-up, experimental? congregation, Lab/Shul. ?These are two very important institutions,? said Rosenbloom. ?They?re very avant garde. They are the models that many Conservative synagogues look to as a vision for the future.? These rabbis? decision to break with their denomination about intermarriage is ?going to give other people encouragement to follow their conscience,? he added. ?It seems like we?re coming to a tipping point. ? Everyone is talking about this right now.?

Emma Green - The Atlantic - July 16, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice gaining status among criminals

"A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and devoted to "Holy Death" is growing in popularity among drug traffickers and violent criminals, prompting Texas officials and the Catholic Church to warn about honoring the so-called "Saint Death." Authorities are speaking out about the religion devoted to La Santa Muerte, which translates to ?Holy Death? and "Saint Death," that has gained popularity steadily since the late 1980s among Mexican-American Catholics.

?She?s not a saint. There is nothing good that can come out of praying to her,? Sante Fe Archbiship John Wester said in February. ?We have a lot of saints who represent the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is an aberration.? Clad in a black nun?s robe and holding a scythe in one hand, Santa Muerte appeals to people seeking all manner of otherworldly help, from fending off wrongdoing and carrying out vengeance to people seeking protection for their drug shipments against law enforcement. Devotees often use Catholic prayers and set up shrines in "her" honor.

"The Catholic Church in Mexico and the U.S. denounces the skeleton "saint," and warns that worship is spiritually dangerous. In February, Wester, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and San Angelo Bishop Michael Sis in Texas joined their counterparts in Mexico in urging Catholics to avoid honoring the folk saint and called her ?antithetical? to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

"Law enforcement officials in Austin, Texas told KVUE the religion has become prominent among drug traffickers and violent criminals. "We're seeing more and more criminals that are praying to Santa Muerte,? Robert Almonte, a former narcotics detective, told the television station.

KVUE (Austin, Texas) - Associated Press - July 17, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Why is the A.C.L.U. targeting Catholic hospitals?

"The campaign against Catholic health care affects the church and the communities that they serve. The importance of Catholic hospitals: In myriad ways, the church and Catholic women religious in particular had a hand in bringing about American health care as we know it.

"Today, one in six patients receives medical care at a Catholic institution. According to the Catholic Health Association, there are 649 Catholic-sponsored hospitals in the United States employing nearly 750,000 people. For leaders in Catholic health care, the growth of these hospitals at a time of economic uncertainty is to be celebrated. It is a sign that these institutions, many of which were founded by women religious to serve the most needy, continue to thrive in the 21st century.

?One of the things about Catholic hospitals is they tend to have a mission to help the poor?the preferential option, so to speak?and it?s not an accident that a lot of urban hospitals happen to be Catholic,? Eric Rassbach, an attorney with the public interest firm Becket Law, said. ?One of the main groups that would be impacted by having Catholic hospitals shoved out of health care in this country would be poor people.? The campaign against these health care institutions has high stakes not just for the church but also for underserved communities. If the American Civil Liberties Union is successful in pressing one or more of its suits, ?it very may well drive Catholic hospitals out of providing medical care,? said Kevin Theriot, senior counsel and vice president at the public interest law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.

"What is the A.C.L.U.?s attitude toward Catholic hospitals? ?The A.C.L.U. is trying to enforce its own orthodoxy on moral issues as they see them,? said Hillary Byrnes, assistant general counsel at the U.S.C.C.B. ?It?s really unfortunate, but they?re trying to essentially force Catholic hospitals to not be Catholic anymore.? For the A.C.L.U., the fact that faith-based hospitals are prevalent?providing the only source of hospital care in some locations?makes them more of a target for lawsuits. In its 2013 report ?Miscarriage of Medicine,? the organization wrote that the ?number of Catholic acute-care hospitals has been increasing rapidly? and that this is a problem: ?With the rise of Catholic hospitals has come the increasing danger that women?s reproductive health care will be compromised by religious restrictions.?

"Does the A.C.L.U.?s treatment of Catholic hospitals reflect a shift in its guiding principles? The A.C.L.U. website still says religious liberty is a ?fundamental freedom? that ?can?t be taken away, even by ?majority rule.?? So how is it that the same organization is now in the business of repeatedly suing Catholic hospitals to force them to perform procedures to which the church is morally opposed?

"The group has also been described as moving from broad-based civil libertarianism to an agenda more closely aligned with the Democratic Party. Mr. Glasser and the other dissenters ?saw [the new executive director] transforming the organization that once defended the right of Nazis to march on Skokie into just another liberal interest group, money-hungry and cowed by political correctness,? Michelle Goldberg explained in The American Prospect in 2009. The changes might be characterized as a shift in focus toward civil rights and away from civil liberties."

Religion News Service - July 19, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

After two drown in Tanzania, Christians re-examine safety of river baptisms

"It?s a rite that dates to the time of Jesus, who was dunked in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. But Christians in East Africa are now taking stock of their faith?s central rite after one such ritual turned tragic in northern Tanzania.

"Two Christian farmers, aged 30 and 47, died as their pastors attempted to baptize them in the fast-moving current of the Ungwasi River in Rombo District in the Kilimanjaro region. The ritual was organized by Shalom Church, a charismatic group in the country. ?Following the incident, we have agreed on some measures that will ensure the safety of our followers during baptism in the rivers,? Samuel Kamigwa, a pastor at the Victory Christian Center, a Pentecostal church in Tanzania, said in telephone interview.

"Kamigwa said churches were considering increasing the number of ministers at one baptism event. They would also baptize one person at a time, while others are kept at a safe distance, and will choose a time when the water is calm enough for the ritual. ?As churches, we have to be careful. Baptism is one of the core rites in our faith and it has to continue,? he said.

"Drowning during baptism is not uncommon in Africa, and Tanzanian police detained a pastor in connection with the deaths of the two. Local news reports say Kilimanjaro Regional Police Commander Hamis Selemani has warned against using the rivers for such activities unless the safety is confirmed. In Africa, river baptism is popular, particularly among Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

"Immersion is viewed as a way of cleansing one?s sins and being reborn into a new life. Affusion, where water is poured over the head, and aspersion, where water is sprinkled on the head, are more common in mainline churches."

Fredrick Nzwili - Religion News Service - July 19, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

China Will Now Punish Party Members Who Believe in a Religion

"The Communist Party of China (CPC) is reinforcing a point that keeps members from any external forces which may influence their moral values, with a big focus on religion. In a recent announcement, members and officials belonging to China?s ruling Party have been warned that those who refuse to let go of their religious beliefs will be punished.

"Aimed to prevent subversion, the Party?s ban on religion was announced earlier this week, reports the Global Times. The State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) director Wang Zuoan stressed the importance of atheism in keeping the Communist Party?s ?strength and integrity? intact.

?Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party?s faith? they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion,? he was quoted as saying. He also added how ?some foreign forces have used religion to infiltrate China, and extremism and illegal religious activities are spreading in some places, which have threatened national security and social stability.?

"Members of the CPC are no longer allowed to participate in any form of religious activity, regardless of the objective. Ethnic and Religious Committee of the Chinese People?s Political Consultative Conference chairman Zhu Weiqun pointed out that being religious may fundamentally jeopardize the CPC.

"Zhu told Global Times that Party officials who have supported religious practices have ?undermined the Party?s values based on dialectical materialism.? The announcement further validates the Chinese government?s stand how Party members are not supposed to enjoy some religious freedom it provides its citizens.

"A crackdown on religious behavior among members has actually been initiated by the atheist Party a couple of years ago. A CPC newsletter stated in 2015 that, ?Chinese citizens have the freedom of religious belief, but Communist Party members aren?t the same as regular citizens; they are fighters in the vanguard for a communist consciousness.?

Ryan General - NextShark - July 20, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Religion without humanity

"A mobile policeman shot and killed a truck driver on Creek Road in the port city of Apapa, Lagos on Wednesday. The unconfirmed story was that the policeman was angered by the truck driver?s refusal to give money demanded. Seeing the result of his uncontrolled anger, the policeman took refuge in a nearby bank.To avenge the death of their fellow, irate truck drivers, joined by ever-ready Lagos hoodlums, mobilised to the bank to demand that the trigger-happy policeman be handed over to them. When their request was turned down by security forces attached to the bank, they beset the bank, gathered disused tyres and set the bank building ablaze, specifically targeting air-conditioners and ATM counters. Not done, they also set ablaze another nearby bank and also attempted to molest bank staff and customers. It was only the arrival o f policemen from Area ?B? Police Command and soldiers that quelled the situation. Bank staff were promptly evacuated.

"The killer mobile policeman, the rioting tanker drivers and the hoodlums all certainly profess one form of religious belief or the other. Typically, since they are Nigerians, each of them would either be a Muslim, a Christian or an adherent of a traditional religion. As we got into Apapa that day, we heard several gunshots. The story was that the security forces fired shots into the air to scare away those angling to loot cash from the burning banks. Those would-be looters would be either Christians, traditional worshippers or Muslims. Every now and then a fully-loaded truck or tanker trips and falls while struggling through our dilapidated death-traps, spilling its contents ? say, bags of cement, cans of drinks, petroleum products, etc already paid for by someone like us ? and our compatriots, rather than offer help, descend on the spilled contents and begin to loot. Those looters profess one religious belief or the other. The other looters ? those in government who have ensured that these roads remain dilapidated by embezzling funds meant for road construction/repair ? also profess religious beliefs.

"Same scenario obtains in accident scenes, be they road or air. Human beings who should sympathise or work to save lives actually steal from the dead. Some take snapshots of these scenes and share on social media while fellow human beings writhe in agony. How can they play the Good Samaritan? Are they from Samaria?

"Hit-and-run drivers, pick-pockets, ritual killers, treasury looters in Abuja and state government houses, armed robbers and all other criminals adhere to some religion. Suicide bombers do it in the name of religion. Nigerians are a highly religious people. We pray at every event/meeting ? opening prayer, closing prayer. When there is economic or political crisis, as now, our politicians who brought the woes upon us in the first place ask us to pray. I?m sure no researcher has been able to document the number of churches in the entire country. Not even Christian Association of Nigeria can give you that number, reason being that new churches seem to spring up on an hourly basis.

"Christianity is today one of Nigeria?s major exports to the world. Mosques are springing up in the most unexpected places, even as the debate rages whether there are more Muslims than Christians in the country or vice-versa. The traditional shrines, despite decades of onslaught on them by invading foreign religions, have refused to die off. The only thing that uproots them these days are developmental projects in rural communities. But all of these to what effect?

"It is perhaps this religion without humanity that is fuelling the growing scepticism in the minds of many young Nigerians who are constantly questioning the relevance of religion and tending towards atheism. But religion can remain a positive force in society if only adherents of the various faiths could live by the tenets they profess."

Chuks Oluigbo - Business Day (Nigeria) - July 23, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Protestants Ditching Denominations

"Ask an American Christian what type of church they belong to, and you?re more likely than ever to hear the label nondenominational. The proportion of Protestants in the United States who don?t identify with a specific denomination doubled between 2000 and 2016, according to a Gallup poll released this week. Now, about 1 in 6 Americans are nondenominational Christians.

"The growing popularity of nondenominational identity is the result of two trends: the decline in the number of Protestants overall, as more Americans eschew any religious affiliation (becoming ?the nones?), and shrinking denominations themselves. Not only are the major mainline churches continuing to see their numbers fall, the country?s largest Protestant denomination?the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)?has lost a million members in the past 15 years.

Prior to 2000, half of all Americans belonged to a specific Protestant denomination. Now, just 30 percent do, Gallup reported. The shift toward nondenominational identity is so strong that even denominational churches downplay their affiliations to avoid the negative connotations now associated with religious hierarchy and structure, suggested Roger Olson, theology professor at Baylor University?s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

?Very few churches I know anything about are truly, totally, exclusively ?nondenominational? in the sense most people think,? he wrote in a blog post last month. ?In almost every case where I am asked about a church that declares itself ?nondenominational,? I can find some affiliation of that church with some network of similar churches.?

Kate Shellnutt - Christianity Today - July 20, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

Jehovah's Witnesses shunned by their families

"For some former Jehovah's Witnesses, leaving the faith is not just the mark of losing your religion - it can also mean losing your loved ones. In many cases, friends and family are told to cut all ties with ex-believers, leaving them isolated and sometimes suicidal.

"I don't speak to any of my family," Sarah - not her real name - tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program. "Because of being 'disfellowshipped', I can have no contact." Last year, Sarah - in her 20s - was excluded by the Jehovah's Witnesses in a process known as "disfellowshipping", she says sparked by her refusal to live in an abusive relationship. She claims her partner at the time had been violent towards her, at one stage leaving her with broken ribs.

"Going to the police - and involving those from outside the religion - is heavily discouraged by Jehovah's Witnesses, she says, claiming that elders within the faith refused to punish her ex-partner's behavior. It was only when work colleagues noticed the bruising, and convinced her not to put up with the abuse, that she says she fled the relationship. Sarah claims she was consequently disfellowshipped by the religion, and that her friends and family cut all ties with her.

"This is because Jehovah's Witnesses believe those outside the religion can be of detriment to their faith. In a statement the religious group told the BBC: "If a baptised Witness makes a practice of breaking the Bible's moral code, and does not given evidence of stopping the practice, he or she will be shunned or disfellowshipped.

"When it comes to shunning, Witnesses take their instructions from the Bible and on this subject the Bible clearly states, 'Remove the wicked man from amongst yourselves.'" The night she was disfellowshipped, Sarah says her mother refused to talk to her. Her father woke her up at 7AM to kick her out of their home. Responding to Sarah's claims, the Jehovah's Witnesses said that while it could not comment on individual cases, "violence, whether physical or emotional, is strongly condemned in the Bible and has no place in a Christian family".

"Sarah says the loss of her closest family ties has been "very, very difficult" to cope with. She is engaged, and aware she is "having to plan a wedding where your parents won't attend". "I would class myself as an orphan, which is quite sad," she says. Her support network comes from her friends at work. When she left the faith, she says, they "rallied around" her, in contrast to what she had expected. These people I'd been told [by the religion] were awful, were bad association, and God was going to smite them all at Armageddon.  "Yet these people opened up their homes."

"Sarah is still, however, complimentary about most of the people within her former faith. "There are good people in the religion, who believe they are saving people's lives [by spreading the faith's message]," she says. "I look back with some happy memories, because they were the last memories I have with my family and siblings. But then I do have to look back and feel a lot of heartbreak that I'm never going to be able to sit down with them for a Sunday meal again.

"When they die, I probably won't be invited to the funeral either."

Monica Soriano - BBC News - July 24, 2017.

[eyeshaveit]

I?m guilty of living my religion,? says former Mormon bishop found guilty of polygamy

"Winston Blackmore was making no apologies Monday after he and another former bishop of an isolated religious community in British Columbia were found guilty of practicing polygamy. ?I?m guilty of living my religion and that?s all I?m saying today because I?ve never denied that,? Blackmore told reporters after a judge announced a verdict against him. ?Twenty-seven years and tens of millions of dollars later, all we?ve proved is something we?ve never denied,? Blackmore said. ?I?ve never denied my faith. This is what we expected.?

"Blackmore, 60, was married to Jane Blackmore and then married 24 additional women as part of so-called ?celestial? marriages involving residents in the tiny community of Bountiful. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan said the ?collective force of the evidence? proved the guilt of Blackmore, who was a practicing member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that believes in plural marriage.

?His adherence to the practices and beliefs of the FLDS is not in dispute,? Donegan said, reading her written ruling in a courtroom in Cranbrook, B.C. "Mr. Blackmore ? would not deny his faith in his 2009 statement to police. He spoke openly about his practice of polygamy.? Blackmore was shown a list of his alleged wives and made two corrections to the details, Donegan said.

?Mr. Blackmore confirmed that all of his marriages were celestial marriages in accordance with FLDS rules and practices.? Blackmore?s lawyer Blair Suffredine told the court he would launch a constitutional challenge of Canada?s polygamy laws. A hearing date is expected to be set next Monday. Blackmore said it?s not religious persecution that bothers him, but that it?s political persecution and he hopes the challenge will bring about change.

?Twenty-seven years ago, adultery was a criminal act. Twenty-seven years ago when they started with us, same-sex marriage was criminal,? he said. ?Those people all successfully launched constitutional challenges on the basic right to freely associate. For us I imagine it will be (that) this is entrenched in our faith and I would have been hugely disappointed if I would have been found not guilty of living my religion.? A decades-long legal fight launched by the provincial government led to a 12-day trial earlier this year. It heard from mainstream Mormon experts, law enforcement officers who worked on the investigation, and Jane Blackmore, a former wife of Winston Blackmore who left the community in 2003."

Bill Graveland - Canadian Press - July 25, 2017

[eyeshaveit]

Is Justin Bieber Starting His Own Church?

"Bieber shocked millions of fans yesterday when he revealed he was calling off the Purpose Tour months before it was due to end as he was ?burned out.? He wrote on Facebook that he was was feeling exhausted after 18 long months on the road. However, sources claim Bieber may now be looking at starting up his own church as part of his plan to get closer to God.

?I am led to believe that the real reason he has come off the road is because he wants to reconnect with his faith and he may be even planning to start his own church,? veteran showbiz reporter Richard Wilkins told Today Extra. ?We know that he was in the country (Australia) a few weeks ago having meetings and attending the big Hillsong Church convention that they had here,? said Wilkins.

?[He?s] very close to a lot of the Hillsong people. Whether he?s looking at teaming up with them in something of a more permanent situation or doing some sort of religious activity on his own ? starting his own church ? we?re not quite sure, but that?s the word from an inside source.?

"A statement on the star?s Facebook site read: ?Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin Bieber will cancel the remainder of the Purpose World Tour concerts.

Jon Lockett and Holly Bancroft - The Sun - July 25, 2017.