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)
Protestant Christians in Pakistan’s Punjab province were searching for a place of worship Wednesday, February 3, after angry Muslims apparently attacked their partly constructed church, injuring scores of worshippers. Christians are a minority in Islamic Pakistan and rights investigators say there has been an increase in anti-Christian violence, with at least 130 Christians killed last year.
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Muslim Mob Storms Pakistan Church; 65 Injured
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
Recently Latina Role Model was featured on TikiTiki Blog: stories with cultura, color and sabor, in a post by Carrie Ferguson Weir called Smart Latina vs. Sexy Latina . Carrie asked readers: So, has your Smart Latina run up against the Sexy Latina? What do you see when you watch Maya’s video?
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Latina Women Respond
The late Indonesian president and ulama Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur, was a great protector of minorities who taught his followers to respect and accept others, regardless of race and religion, writes AMY CHEW
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AMY CHEW Gus Dur’s pluralist Islam takes root (The New Straits Times)
Ten Southern Baptists, mostly from two churches in Idaho, have been arrested in Haiti for attempting to illegally take 33 children out of the country that has been severely damaged by the recent earthquake. Yesterday’s Canadian Press reported that a hearing is scheduled for the Americans today
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Ten U.S. Sourthern Baptists Arrested In Haiti For Attempting To Take Children For Adoption
I recently picked up a copy of ” target=”_blank”> A Witch Alone: The Essential Guide for the Solo Practitioner of the Magical Arts by Marian Green. The book contains 13 chapters, one for each of the 13 moons in a year. I plan to work through one chapter per lunar cycle beginning just after the new moon, as Green recommends
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A Witch Alone by Marian Green: Introduction
Once again this year, churches are looking carefully at copyright rules as they plan their annual Super Bowl Parties for next Sunday. (See prior related posting .) Yesterday’s Christian Post reports that the NFL adopted new Guidelines last year to ease limitations on churches showing the copyrighted Super Bowl Game. Churches are no longer limited to projecting the game on screens of 55 inches or less
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Churches Have Some Greater Copyright Leeway This Year for Super Bowl Parties
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
I’ve only actually known one Blaise in my life, my Uncle Blaise, who I loved dearly and who died twelve years ago of pancreatic cancer (the same disease the killed my father and that my aunt now suffers from). However, there is one other Blaise I remember from my youth, and that is St
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St. Blaise
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
Head to Seminyak for Pager Wesi PR-inside.com (press release) The belief in spirits forms an important part of Balinese religion, which combines animist folk beliefs with Hinduism from other parts of south-east Asia. …
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Head to Seminyak for Pager Wesi – PR-inside.com (press release)
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
AMRITSAR: The already sour relations between followers of Guru Ravidass and Sikhs could turn more bitter following Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh’s warning that no one would be allowed to take the bani (voice of Gurus) of Sri Guru Granth Sahib for scripting a separate religious book. Talking to TOI on the issue of formation of separate religion, Ravidassia Dharm, by the followers of Guru Ravidass and release of separate granth (book), Amrit Bani Guru Ravidass, the jathedar said contemplation was still on for extending invitations to the Ravidass sect leaders to sink differences, if any. For the detailed news, plz click the headline above, with thanks to the Source Times of India
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None can take ‘bani’ from Granth Sahib: Jathedar
excerpt from article in The Jewish Chronicle by Justin Jacobs Walk into the Saint Vincent College art gallery in Latrobe and the first thing you’ll see is a wall covered in brightly colored women’s panties. Not the most common item on display at this small, staunchly Catholic institution, but peek a little closer — each pair is adorned with Hebrew text: shomer negia (don’t touch).
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Just For Jewish Girls
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)
Sat Sri Akal, In the history of Sikhs, this seems to be the first instance, when a person, that too, of the calibure of Ex Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, has been EX COMMUNICATED from Sikh panth. Yeah, we viewed the CD, learned versions from both the sides
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Your comments plz : Prof. Darshan singh ragi Excommunicated from Sikh Panth.
From Spencer Fluhman, on behalf of the Mormon History Association: MORMON HISTORY ASSOCIATION STUDENT AWARDS The Mormon History Association (MHA) is pleased to announce two award competitions for exceptional student work exploring the history of those religious traditions originating with Joseph Smith, Jr. The Juanita Brooks Undergraduate and Graduate Paper Awards will be given to the best unpublished papers written in 2009 by an undergraduate and graduate student, respectively. Students are eligible to submit one paper for consideration
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Mormon History Association Awards
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
Merry Imbolc all! May the flame upon your candle burn unwavering as light returns to the world. As I begin to emerge from the dark womb of winter, I realize my rest was fitful and filled with dreams borne of the unresolved anger I harbor for organized religion and those who seek to harm others with it.
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Imbolc: reflections, gratitude, and inspiration
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
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — An Ohio judge has set bond at $3 million for a teenager accused of fatally shooting an 80-year-old woman in the head during a robbery as she left church. Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich set the bond Monday for 18-year-old Jamar Houser of Youngstown on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. He faces another hearing in a week
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$3M bond set in Ohio church parking lot slaying
When the Word of God is preached, something happens. God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit, pointing toward God’s Son, spoken by a person empowered by the Spirit of God for their calling from God’s Son, to people prepared by the Spirit of God – it’s a recipe for response! At times we can see that response. We get to see the people moved, the individuals gripped, the lives changed. Sometimes we see something at the moment of preaching, or soon afterwards. Sometimes we only see the response over months and years of ministry. At other times we don’t see the response. We preach our hearts out and are devastated by polite niceties. Or perhaps we don’t see the response we long for. Perhaps we get the response of criticism, or argument, or outright attack. Not quite what we had in mind when we prayed for lives to be changed! Nevertheless, let’s be committed to preach for response, even an apparently negative one, rather than playing safe and settling for nothing other than polite platitudes. Obviously any one of us could abuse this post. We could take it as an excuse to wind people up, to create tensions, to lack sensitivity. We must all answer for our own motivations, and of course, we will answer as preachers for how we have taken the opportunity to present God’s Word (2Tim.4:1-2). Let’s not settle for smooth, let’s rather preach the Word with sensitivity to God and to His people, with a prayer-fuelled passion to see Him prompting response rather than apathy, transformation rather than safety.
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Preaching and Response
A couple that was arrested in Malta should be extradited to France, a magistrate ruled on Monday morning. 49-year-old Frenchman Alain Schmitt, the leader of a religious sect, and his fiancée, 42-year-old Belgian national Laurence Liegeois, were arrested in their Naxxar home on January 7, after a European arrest warrant was issued against them.
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Malta court orders cult leader’s extradition
So a new study on the effectiveness of abstinence education came out and it’s interesting to look at how it’s being covered. First, let’s look at a story from the past about a study that showed that there was no difference in the effectiveness of abstinence programs and their counterparts that instruct teens in how to use birth control: Study Casts Doubt on Abstinence-Only Programs A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex
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Oh no! Abstinence works?