A councillor is facing a disciplinary hearing after calling the Church of Scientology “stupid” in a post on the Twitter website. Wales’ public standards watchdog said John Dixon is likely to have breached the code of conduct for local authority members with his short message last year. Religion News Blog, whose publishers consider Scientology to be a destructive cult, often files news about the organization under the header ‘hate group’ — in light of the cult’s lengthy history of hate- and harassment activities.
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Councillor faces inquiry over ‘stupid’ Scientologists tweet
A RLUIPA lawsuit was filed last week against the Borough of Pemberton, New Jersey by the Apostolic Church of Deliverance that applied for a zoning variance over six months ago. According to a press release yesterday from Mauck & Baker, the law firm which filed the suit, Borough officials have clearly indicated that they will deny the application from the largely African-American church.
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RLUIPA Lawsuit Challenges Delay In Formal Zoning Variance Denial
I’m cleaning out the great mass of books on my shelves in the vain hope of getting some order in my life. Of course I got stuck early on by re-reading well treasured books that have been gathering too much dust on the shelves.
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Samuel Wilberforce and the first General Convention on the Episcopal Church beginnings.
Editor’s Note: A previous reference and post on the Pilgrims provoked a flurry of emails from scholars and others quite passionate on the subject.
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Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners
List of 14 updates to canon law of the Roman Catholic Church labels pedophilia, ordaining women as “grave delicts.”
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Revised Vatican law labels sex abuse, female priests as crimes
OK, so this comes from the Rev. Dusty Ray, pastor of Heartland Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he is one of the leaders of a movement opposing the construction of a new 52,000-square-foot, “megachurch”-style Islamic center, including a mosque. (Who knew Murfreesboro, Tenn., had such a thriving Muslim community?)
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Unintended Ironic Quote of the Year
Last Sunday I was preaching in a church and had to ask if the message would be going online. Every now and then you have to be aware of such things. But unless you’re sharing information that is sensitive, does it really matter? I suppose the myth of online exposure is alluring for all egos.
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Does It Matter If It’s Going Online?
VATICAN CITY — The Roman Catholic Church has brokered a historic deal to release 52 political prisoners in Cuba, following three-way talks between Cuban President Raul Castro, Spanish Foreign Secretary Miguel Angel Moratinos and Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
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Catholic Church helps free 52 Cuban dissidents
Editor’s note from Paul: After reading this, also check out the companion piece reflecting further on this post, over at Tenured Radical . Janine Giordano Drake It all started this past May with an email composed by an undergraduate student in “Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought,” a course offered in the Religious Studies department at the University of Illinois. The student forwarded to the department chair an email about utilitarianism and Natural Law that his instructor, Catholic theologian Kenneth Howell, sent to the class during the term
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Teaching Sexuality and Religion
I recently enjoyed reading The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. In the book they suggest that the role of the pastor has shifted from religious service provider to CEO in many churches. But they also suggest there needs to be a further shift, to trainer (i.e.
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Job Description?