India has never been short of religions: although 80 per cent Hindu, it also incorporates Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism as well as hundreds of lesser known faiths.
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Ravidassia sect sends shockwaves across world’s Sikh community (Times Online)
Randall Stephens The latest issue of National Geographic arrived in my mailbox yesterday. And, behold, it doth have this story on “The Polygamists: A sect that split from the Mormons allows multiple wives, expels ‘lost boys,’ and heeds a jailed prophet.” It’s a well-written, thoughtful piece
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FLDS Cover Story in February National Geographic
According to KGW News8 Portland , yesterday in Oregon City, Oregon, a state court jury by a 10-2 vote convicted Jeff and Marci Beagley of criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year old son. The Beagleys are members of the Followers of Christ Church which avoids doctors.
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Oregon Jury Convicts Parents In Faith Healing Death
In “The Jihadist Next Door,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Andrea Elliott’s Sunday cover story in The New York Times Magazine , Elliott turns her laser focus on the journey of one American youngster who decides to join a Somali terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. By going deep into one particular story, this long-form feature sheds light on bigger issues.
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From Baptist kid to jihadist fighter
The opening of the worship area at the Colorado Springs academy had been hailed as a step for religious tolerance. The Air Force Academy , stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.
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Cross found at Air Force Academy’s Wicca center
I was just reading a synopsis of a book on the effect of technology on faith. For example: Reading and writing are individual activities. The technology of writing favors individualism over community, leading us to spiritual disciplines of “quiet time” and “journaling” and a gospel that is primarily oriented to the individual. Printing erodes the communal nature of faith.
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Extent of Application
The Beagleys could face a maximum of 10 years in prison. Because the two have no prior convictions, the normal sentencing range under state sentencing guidelines would be 16 to 18 months in prison.
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Parents found guilty in Oregon City faith-healing trial
Earlier today, we looked at a couple of media treatments of that abstinence study . Both the Washington Post and Associated Press coverage we looked at were much better than this Los Angeles Times story. It’s awful
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Oh No! Abstinence works? (revisited)
We have a very complex and ugly story developing right now down in Haiti, one than calls up the demons of all the tensions that exist in that nation between Americans and Haitians and, it must be stressed, between competing religious groups inside Haiti.
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Chaos surrounding Haitian orphans
OREGON CITY, Ore. — A jury has resumed deliberations in the faith healing trial of an Oregon City couple charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year-old son. The two-week trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley ended Friday with closing arguments.
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Ore. faith healing case: Jury deliberations resume
I went on a trip with a friend this weekend and during our time together we each shared our favorite modern versions of the hymn “It Is Well.” (Mine is from Kutless’ new worship album by the same title, and hers is by Jars of Clay. Both are awesome!) Now I’ll be honest, this is not one of my favorite hymns to begin with, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found something very worshipful in these old songs
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It Is Well
Six years ago today, Douglas LeBlanc clicked his Mac mouse and GetReligion was born as a small website on TypePad. We had a simple goal, but one that was a bit hard to explain to folks on the outside. GetReligion was not and is not a site about religion news.
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GetReligion turns 6, believe it or not
Mark 5: 1-20 2 Sm 15: 13-14,30;16:5-13/Ps 3 “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” (Mark 5:7) Avoid any form of obsession It will lead us away from the Lord; From the evil spirits’ possession, Be freed by the power of God’s Word. They went across the lake to
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The Demoniac of Gerasene
Hashivenu Messianic Judaism is open-minded, but faithful; contemporary, but traditional;…Hashivenu is a renewal movement within Messianic Judaism (see hashivenu. org)….I think if many of our critics from within Messianic Judaism and related groups came, they would be surprised to find a great deal of agreement with the ideas we d iscuss….If you care about Jewish-Christian relations, what’s going on in the future of Jewish Yeshua-faith, and the observant, traditional side of Messianic Judaism, w e are a large part of it….
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Live-blogging Hashivenu 2010
Randall Stephens John Cotton was one of the most ambitious and bedeviled Puritan ministers of late-17th century New England. He was pastor of the Wethersfield, Conn., church in his early twenties. He lost the pulpit as the result of a sex scandal and subsequently worked as an Indian missionary on Martha’s Vineyard
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Misunderstood Puritans, John Cotton, and Scandal in 17th-Century New England: An Interview with Sheila McIntyre and Len Travers
I don’t mean by the title, choosing which product to buy (although when I first moved back to the US after two years of living in Nepal, India and Thailand, I found that to be no easy task). Rather, I’m talking about making choices for where we devote our energy, choosing among options that are good. If we are on a spiritual path, our choice for where to devote our energies is generally not between a good and a bad choice
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Choosing Among Goods
I constantly tell my students that one of the hardest tasks in journalism is to write a balanced, insightful profile of a controversial person. This is especially hard to do here inside the Beltway, but that is not the topic of the day
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Nailing the Anglican timeline!
Americans hold a hodgepodge of religious beliefs and practices. Most (82 percent) of American adults believe in God, according to a recent Harris Poll. And large numbers believe in miracles (76 percent); heaven (75 percent); that Jesus is God or the Son of God (73 percent); in angels (72 percent); the survival of the soul after death (71 percent); and that Jesus was resurrected (70 percent).
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Americans often blend faiths
About 100 clergy and community members, teachers, administrators, board members and candidates gathered Saturday to reflect and pray about the future of the Kansas City School District. The prayer breakfast, at Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church with the Concerned Clergy Coalition as host, did not feature political talk, but rather appeals for reconciliation and understanding.
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Prayer breakfast focuses on KC schools
In your spare time this weekend, consider taking a few minutes to read Devin Friedman’s lengthy GQ piece that gives the background leading up to the shooting of abortion doctor George Tiller. Scott Roeder was found guilty yesterday of first-degree murder for shooting Tiller. Tiller was an usher at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Kansas where he was handing out bulletins to people before he was shot on May 31, 2009.
Excerpt from:
Before the abortion doctor’s killing
A month ago, the United States Postal Service announced the commemorative postage stamps it plans to issue during 2010. One of the stamps will honor 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mother Teresa, a nun who worked among the impoverished in Calcutta, India
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FFRF Objects To Planned Mother Teresa Postage Stamp
A press release from the Department of Homeland Security reports that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano met yesterday with leaders from Muslim, Sikh, South Asian and Arab communities. The meeting focused on ways that DHS can increase engagement, dialogue and coordination with, and enhance information sharing between, the Department and faith- and community-based groups.
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DHS Secretary Meets With Faith and Ethnic Leaders
This is a case where I know, in a few days, GetReligion readers are going to send me URLs for this Orthodox story when the mainstream media in America get around to covering it. Thus, I think I’ll go ahead and try to get ahead of the curve
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Who will quote the Moscow patriarch?
(Jan 28, 2010) – Whether it’s to offer support or to ask questions about the Muslim faith, the Muslim Association of Hamilton will welcome the public to an open house at the Hamilton Mosque this weekend.
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Learn about Islam at Muslim group’s open house (Hamilton Spectator)
In Britain today the House of Lords will debate a series of amendments proposed by Baroness Turner of Camden to limit the extent to which voluntary-aided faith schools can hire teachers on the basis of religion. ( Ekklesia , Accord Coalition )
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House of Lords Today Debates Religious Hiring By Faith Schools
Pig heads were found at two Malaysian mosques, the latest incident of desecration and vandalism following an inter-faith dispute over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
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Pig Heads Thrown Into Malaysian Mosques After Church Attacks (BusinessWeek)
Which is more important — interfaith (sometimes called interreligious) dialogue or intercultural conversation? Interfaith dialogue focuses on understanding the differences in theological doctrines. Intercultural dialogue focuses more broadly on the ways those doctrines, once internalized, cause us to live in…
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Talking faith or culture? 1-27-10