Commenting on the Gizmodo post where this seminal image first appeared, a self-labeled “radical libertarian” has outlined why Net Neutrality is actually, beneath its freedom-promoting veneer, an affront to the rights, sacred honor, and quiet dignity of all the world’s freedom-loving peoples. Mind you, to see this, one must don libertarian goggles, which are to idiotic arguments what beer goggles are to regrettable one-night-stands: Here’s how it would likely play out: First, we should acknowledge that the cheaper service options will probably appeal to some people
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Net Neutrality and Why "Radical Libertarians" Are Hilarious
The number of Christians in the country has hit a record 23.05 million in 2010, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the institute of world religions at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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Survey: Over 23 million Christians in China
http://www.WatchMojo.com video guide on the most popular religions of the world.
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Guide to Religions – Buddhism
http://www.WatchMojo.com video guide on the most popular religions of the world.
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Guide to Religions – Judaism
Long ago, when I was the religion-beat reporter and columnist for the Rocky Mountain News (please pause for a moment of silence), I thought that one of the most interesting stories in town was the growth of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church. This was the 1980s and AIDS was a topic that dominated the news and bled over into all kinds of different subjects, including — obviously — religion
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Chip off the old mainline?
Actress Julia Roberts would like to set the record straight on rumors that she’s had Botox, and on her connection to Hinduism. “Extra’s” AJ Calloway caught up with Roberts, who looked stunning in a black Stella McCartney mini at the…
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Julia Roberts on Botox and Hinduism
Extra TV Julia Roberts on Botox and Hinduism Extra TV Actress Julia Roberts would like to set the record straight on rumors that she's had Botox, and on her connection to Hinduism .
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Julia Roberts on Botox and Hinduism – Extra TV
It’s a tough category, to be sure, but Lona O’Connor wins the prize for the worst story I’ve ever seen about female, non-Roman Catholic priests. It ran in the Palm Beach Post and it’s just absolutely embarrassing from top to bottom. Here’s the lede, which I do not believe is satire: Like the first Christians, they are outcasts
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Serving outrage soup for female priests
Many people believe in old myths that contradict other beliefs and scientific evidence, and this causes division. Religious dogmas and myths were created before people had the benefit of modern science. Science attempts to objectively discover how life works, and religion attempts to subjectively find a way to live in harmony with life, so they both have pieces to the same puzzle.
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The certainty of truth
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert early this evening signed an extradition warrant that will send polygamous church leader Warren S
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Utah governor signs extradition request for cult leader Warren Jeffs
Someone has said that you know it was a good sermon when you find yourself asking how the preacher knew all about you. That’s a nice sentiment that points to the importance of applicational relevance in preaching. Now allow me to give you my statement. This is not a complete statement, or a forever statement. It’s a today statement. I heard a great sermon this morning. (This post was written a couple of weeks back at Keswick, in case you’re wondering!) So I heard a great sermon. Here’s my statement, “you know it was a good sermon when twelve hours later you find yourself still pondering the powerful but simple take home truth, reminiscing over the clear images used to drive home the main points, reflecting on how engaged you felt by the message and the messenger, how excited you were, and still are, to look at the text, to pray through all that hit home, to take stock of your life in light of the text, to respond and be transformed by the message.” That’s my sentiment tonight that points to the importance of so knowing your text that you can take listeners by the hand and enter into it fully, of so thinking through your presentation that you have clear and concise main thoughts, an overwhelming master idea, an engaging manner of delivery, a contagious energy in presentation, a reliance on the Lord to move in peoples’ lives, and a targeted relevance to the listeners before you. Simple really, pull those things together and you’ll probably preach a decent message!
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Simply Good Preaching
Saving another battlefield from the Walmarts of the world.
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Central Virginia Battlefields Trust
SUMMERVILLE — Supporters say the request was benign enough: Open a town meeting room for an hour each week so a group can pray for the community, its government and its churches.
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Request for prayer site stirs debate
By Victoria Boutenko Published in Green Smoothie Revolution For decades dietitians have been educating the public about the multiple benefits of greens, but it was not clear how to incorporate fresh greens into everyone’s daily diet. The only option for eating greens seemed to be the salad.
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The First Green Smoothie
image source , fetched 10 Aug 2010 Good news! The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad moratorium on deep oil drilling in coastal waters will soon be lifted : The head of the government agency that regulates offshore drilling said Tuesday that it is “unlikely” a six-month moratorium on the practice will be extended.
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Gold in the Molars
Matthew 18:15-20 Ez 9:1-7,10:18-22 / Ps 113 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20) Resolve conflicts without enmity, More than justice employ charity; Look for ways where we can all agree For the sake of our community. (Jesus said), “If your
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The Role of Servant Leaders
Aren’t Christians fun? On the one hand, god drops unassailable moral truths from the sky, so that the rejection of god involves an “anything goes” moral chaos in which Adam and Steve get married, wiener dogs roam the parks and streets unleashed, and children mix breakfast cereals in ways their manufacturers never authorized or intended
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Morality – Binding, Eternal, and Totally Optional
Paul Harvey Don’t miss our contributor Christopher Jones’s piece over at Juvenile Instructor : ” ‘ Owned by the White People’: America and Native Americans in Church History Sunday School Lessons, 1934. ” Going through some boxes of old material while packing and moving, Chris reflects on Mormon providentialist interpretations, as communicated in Sunday School lessons, on the founding of America, and on relations with Native peoples. Some of it is kind of standard-issue stuff for that period: heroic and virtuous Pilgrims, God preparing the way for the coming of our Christian civilization, and so on.
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Owned by the White People
Camden, SC’s Richard Kirkland of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. The Angel of Marye’s Heights.
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Angel of Marye’s Heights
We’re taking a break from polemics for a real treat. Here is a true story from a new friend of ours here at ABD, who is going by the name of “Ray.” He wants to share his story with you in the hopes that you will find something to relate to, that you might be strengthened and come to share in his hope in the love of Jesus Christ
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Reader Testimonies — Ray
In today’s Gospel from St. John, Jesus tells his disciples that “unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it does, it produces much fruit.” The first thing that comes to mind when one hears that passage is Jesus’ own death and resurrection.
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Letting the Grains of Wheat Fall to the Ground
I suspect somewhere in more than a thousand posts on here, I have mentioned once or twice about the importance of unity in a message. Order is often present, if only by virtue of the progression of the text. Progress is sort of present, inasmuch as the number of verses are running out, as is the available time. But all too often, in preaching in some circles, the sense of unity is negligible or just plain vague. Too many messages are essentially a series of points united by a common textual source and a title. This is not the inherent unity that is there in the text. Often messages are essentially a vague-subject completed. Three things about our title. Four aspects of such and such. This is not really reflecting the unity that is present in a unit of thought. Sometimes I wonder if we might be forcing texts into sermonic structures, rather than structuring sermons in such a way as to effectively communicate the texts
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Have I Mentioned This Before?
Amritsar, Punjab: To prevent eruption of controversies over books and films based on the Sikh religion, gurbani, history and culture, the five Sikh high priests have directed the SGPC to constitute a “censor board” comprising Sikh scholars to examine and clear books and films before their formal release.
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Sri Akal Takht Sahib directs SGPC to form ‘censor board’
Marriage as exactly one woman and one man is an “ideal,” writes Ross Douthat , trying his best to frame up a coherent, non-shrieking, last-gasp defense of legalized inequality. Fair enough — let’s suppose it is an ideal
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The Proof from Diorama
Examiner.com Julia Roberts practising Hinduism Examiner.com It appears that her conversion to Hinduism makes Ms Roberts the 'most famous convert since the late George Harrison, a member of the Beatles who embraced …
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Julia Roberts practising Hinduism – Examiner.com
Paul Harvey We’ve had a number of posts here in the past where folks have reflected on their experiences researching in various archives. One of my most enjoyable was a couple of weeks years ago at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane, where I dipped a bit into the massive archives of the American Missionary Association, the Congregationalist enterprise which after the Civil War was heavily involved in education for the freedpeople. At the time of this research, I was thinking of a good deal of the literature on postwar black education, leading to “industrial” schools; that literature focused on missionary paternalism.
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Education for Liberation: The American Missionary Association from Reconstruction through Civil Rights
Dan Terry, 64, had been in Afghanistan for 40 years, 30 of them under appointment by the United Methodist Church’s national board, the General Board of Global Missions. Apparently, on at least one occasion, Terry and his wife were here in Lakeland at the Florida Conference’s annual meeting.
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Slain Aid Worker in Afghanistan Had Florida, Methodist Connections