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Latest Articles: Religion
Were "The Chosen People" Picked For Their Virtues Or Vices?
Post Date: 2010-10-31 19:26:36 by Brian S
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The recent Vatican synod on the deteriorating situation in Palestine-Israel did the right thing by pointing out that Israel ought to discontinue the use of the controversial concept of "the chosen people" to torment and dispossess the Palestinians. Perhaps the Roman Catholic hierarchy has woken up to the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinian Arab Christians are forced to leave their ancestral homeland as a result of the brutality and oppression stemming from the ongoing Israeli occupation. In its conclusions and recommendations, the synod repudiated the fact that Israel never stops misusing the Bible to justify oppressive and repressive policies against virtually helpless ...
Exodus. The Changing Map Of The Middle East; From Israel To Iraq, A Christian Flight Of Biblical Proportions Has Begun
Post Date: 2010-10-25 20:56:37 by Brian S
20 Comments
In the centre of the rebuilt Beirut, the massive old Maronite Cathedral of St George stands beside the even larger mass of the new Mohammad al-Amin mosque. The mosque's minarets tower over the cathedral, but the Maronites were built a spanking new archbishop's house between the two buildings as compensation. Yet every day, the two calls to prayer – the clanging of church bells and the wailing of the muezzin – beat an infernal percussion across the city. Both bells and wails are tape recordings, but they have been turned up to the highest decibel pitch to outdo each other, louder than an aircraft's roar, almost as crazed as the nightclub music from Gemmayzeh across the ...
A Meeting Of Mideast Bishops Declared That Israel Cannot Use The Bible To Justify Territorial Claims To Land In Israel.
Post Date: 2010-10-25 17:22:15 by Brian S
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Israel can’t use Bible to justify claims, Mideast synod says October 24, 2010 (JTA) -- A meeting of Mideast bishops declared that Israel cannot use the Bible to justify territorial claims to land in Israel. The final statement of the two-week Synod of Bishops of the Middle East in Rome that ended Saturday blamed Israel for the conflict between the Jewish state and the Palestinians. It rejected the use of the biblical position of the Promised Land to justify Jewish settlement of the West Bank. "Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the bishops said. The statement called for a ...
Crystal Cathedral Founder Asks For Help
Post Date: 2010-10-24 23:35:43 by Brian S
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GARDEN GROVE – Speaking to Crystal Cathedral congregants for the first time Sunday after the megachurch filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, founder Robert H. Schuller sent out an emotional plea for help. Schuller, 84, talked about a tornado that flattened his father's cornfield and home in Iowa when he was a teenager. He said his father was the only farmer who rebuilt. "I learned from my father that tough times never last," Schuller bellowed, his voice echoing across the glass house. "Tough people do." Schuller's voice choked up with emotion as he told worshippers that his church has faced several challenges over the last 60 years. "I need ...
Rev. Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral teeters on the edge; once an innovator, he failed to keep up
Post Date: 2010-10-20 18:14:01 by Brian S
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GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Capitalizing on the emerging car culture of Southern California in the 1950s, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller started a drive-in church and built it into an international televangelist empire, symbolized by the soaring glass Crystal Cathedral and its weekly "Hour of Power" show. Now Schuller's life's work is crumbling. The organization declared bankruptcy this week in a collapse blamed by some on its inability to keep up with the times and a disastrous attempt to hand the church over to Schuller's son. The church's failure to adapt to a changing landscape is ironic, considering that Schuller, now 84, was considered a theological radical ...
ADL Slams Shas Spiritual Leader For Saying Non-Jews 'Were Born To Serve Jews'
Post Date: 2010-10-20 18:04:09 by Brian S
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Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says in Saturday sermon that 'Goyim have no place in the world - only to serve the People of Israel'; ADL chief calls Yosef's words 'hateful' and 'divisive'. By Natasha Mozgovaya and Haaretz Service The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday condemned comments about non-Jews made this past weekend by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In a sermon given on Saturday on laws concerning what non-Jews are permitted to do on Shabbat, Yosef said: "Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel." "Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they ...
Homer Simpson is Catholic, Vatican paper declares
Post Date: 2010-10-19 19:14:27 by Skip Intro
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "The Simpsons" just got a blessing from the Vatican. The official Vatican newspaper has declared that beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer Simpson and son Bart are Catholics -- and what's more, it says that parents should not be afraid to let their children watch "the adventures of the little guys in yellow." "Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it's true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic", the Osservatore Romano newspaper said in an article on Sunday headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics." The newspaper cited a study by a Jesuit priest of a 2005 episode of the show called "The ...
No Scout Leadership Post In NC For Mormon Parents
Post Date: 2010-10-19 18:57:31 by Brian S
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A Presbyterian church was happy to have Jeremy and Jodi Stokes as Cub Scout leaders, at least until officials there found out they are Mormons and told them they would have to step down because the church does not consider them real Christians. The Stokeses enrolled their sons as Scouts at Christ Covenant Church, a Presbyterian congregation about 10 miles from Charlotte, then expressed interest in volunteering as leaders. Church officials were initially thrilled earlier this month, the Stokeses said, until they saw on the couple's application forms that they belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After two Scout meetings, the Stokeses were ...
Crystal Cathedral files for bankruptcy amid mounting debts
Post Date: 2010-10-18 18:19:17 by Ferret Mike
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Faced with mounting debts and decreasing donations, the Crystal Cathedral announced today it was filing for bankruptcy protection. The move came as the Garden Grove church was struggling to pay its bills. “Budgets could not be cut fast enough to keep up with the unprecedented rapid decline in revenue due to the recession,” Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said in a statement released by the church. The church plans a press conference at 3 p.m., according to church spokesman John Charles. The famed mega-church has suffered from financial troubles in the last year. In January, the Crystal Cathedral announced it was laying off 50 workers and selling surplus property because ...
Nun whose order fought abuse becomes Australia's first saint
Post Date: 2010-10-18 17:51:07 by Ferret Mike
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(CNN) -- Australia got its first Catholic saint Sunday, a feisty 19th-century nun who was briefly excommunicated when her colleagues exposed an abusive priest. Mary MacKillop co-founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1867, and gained a reputation as the first Australian nun to leave the cities and minister to the rural poor. Nuns in her order got evidence that a priest was engaged in "scandalous behavior," according to the Rev. Paul Gardiner, who has spent decades researching MacKillop's life. The nuns reported it to the Rev. Julian Woods, MacKillop's first spiritual mentor who co-founded the Sisters of St. Joseph. Woods in turn reported the abuse to ...
Expanding The Pagan Tent Of Worshippers; Wicca 'Gaining Acceptance' In US
Post Date: 2010-10-18 14:58:42 by Brian S
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Paul Larson doesn't celebrate Halloween. Instead, he spends Oct. 31 in a worship service that's a ritual feast with offerings of sweet cakes and ale to the ancestors. For many pagans such as Larson, Oct. 31 is the autumnal new year called Samhain, a time when the veil between the spiritual world and the world as we know it is the thinnest and it's possible to contact those who have passed away. "We honor the ancestors by casting a magical circle of protection and invoking the divine powers in the form of a god and goddess," said Larson, a white-haired 63-year-old with a professorial air. "And there's chanting to create and build energy within the group, and ...
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Gentiles Exist Only To Serve Jews
Post Date: 2010-10-18 13:03:53 by Brian S
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The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator. “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat. According to Yosef, the lives of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews. “In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine ...
Belgian Archbishop sparks controversy with AIDS remark [ Wrote- AIDS epidemic is a form of immanent justice ]
Post Date: 2010-10-15 16:14:04 by WhiteSands
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Brussels - The head of the Roman Catholic church in Belgium was forced on the retreat Friday, after his remarks about the causes of the AIDS virus sparked controversy. In a book of interviews due to be published over the weekend, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard is quoted as saying that 'the AIDS epidemic is a form of immanent justice,' according to extracts published by Belgian media. The remark referred to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget's concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out immediately. A complaint about the comment was filed before Belgium's equal opportunities and anti-racism committee, which had previously acquitted Leonard for comparing ...
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Lauds Vladimir Putin’s Leadership
Post Date: 2010-10-13 15:39:39 by Brian S
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The head of the Russian Orthodox Church lauded Vladimir Putin on the occasion of the Russian prime minister’s 58th birthday. The former KGB agent served as the nation’s president from 1999 to 2008. “Assuming such heavy burden of responsibility which may seem unbearable to other people, you successfully tackle many complicated challenges faced by this country with your inherent skills and your ability in strategic thinking and critical assessment of the current situation,” said Patriarch Kirill in his birthday greetings. The patriarch expressed gratitude to Putin for the “full assistance rendered by the government to recover the cultural heritage of Orthodox Russia ...
Bacon Strips Spelling Out 'Pig' Left Outside SC Islamic Center [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-10-13 12:28:29 by Happy Quanzaa
54 Comments
Slices of bacon were laid down on a brink walkway to the Florence Islamic Center in Florence, S.C. on Sunday in a manner that spelled out "PIG CHOPS." The incident -- evidently aimed the center because of the Islamic dietary restrictions against pork -- is just the latest in a string of anti-Muslim episodes around the country. In fact this isn't the first time even this particular mosque has been hit -- earlier this year vandals broke windows in the facility, according to local news station ABC 15. A conflicting Associated Press report said the bacon slices were arranged to spell out "PIG CHUMP." The bacon slices were placed on the sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 2 ...
Poll: Protestant Support for Gay Marriage Rises
Post Date: 2010-10-08 19:50:36 by Ferret Mike
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A new poll on Wednesday revealed that support for same-sex marriage is growing among Americans. Forty-two percent favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, up from 37 percent last year, according to the Pew Research Center's latest survey. Meanwhile, for the first time in 15 years, fewer than half oppose same-sex marriage. Forty-eight percent of Americans are now against same-sex couples marrying, a dip from 54 percent the previous year. Notably, pluralities of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics now favor allowing same-sex marriage – another first for the Pew Research Center. According to the poll, white mainline Protestants are more likely to support gay ...
Italy to become next European country to ban burka after government report recommends forbidding it in public
Post Date: 2010-10-07 19:02:40 by WhiteSands
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taly is set to become the next European country to ban the burka after a government report ruled in favour of the proposed legislation. MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill. It comes just weeks after France banned the wearing of burkas and other forms of face veils - a decision which prompted al Qaeda terrorists to vow revenge. An Interior Ministry report now being considered by the Constitutional Affairs Commission says that if introduced the law should make clear burkas and other face coverings were being banned not for 'religious reasons but for ...
Southern Baptist Seminary Leader Says Seeking Spirituality Through Yoga Is Not Christian way
Post Date: 2010-10-07 18:58:47 by Brian S
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A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice. Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God. Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine." "That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press. Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard ...
Survey: America failing God 101
Post Date: 2010-10-03 14:18:58 by lucysmom
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Religion experts in New Hampshire say they are saddened, but not surprised, by the results of a recent survey that show Americans don't know basic facts about their faith. In fact, if Americans were to be graded on their knowledge about religion, a failing test score would most likely be appropriate, according to the results of the new U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey. ... Only 2 percent of the 3,412 adults surveyed correctly answered at least 29 of 32 questions on the Bible, religious beliefs, practices and figures. ... Highly educated people scored the best on the survey, and atheists, Jews and Mormons correctly answered more questions than Catholics and Protestants. Click for ...
Obama: I'm a "Christian by Choice" (we achieve salvation through the grace of God)
Post Date: 2010-09-28 23:12:50 by Hondo68
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President Obama's four-state tour this week, intended to rally voters and promote his economic agenda, turned personal today when an Albuquerque resident asked the president if he is a Christian. "I'm a Christian by choice," Mr. Obama said, the New York Times reports. "My family, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn't raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. "Being my brothers and sisters' keeper, treating others as ...
Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says
Post Date: 2010-09-28 20:50:03 by Skip Intro
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Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says Report says nonbelievers know more, on average, about religion than most faithful. Jews and Mormons also score high on the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey. If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist. Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith." A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the ...
Survey: Americans have gaps in religious knowledge (say Pew heathens)
Post Date: 2010-09-28 00:55:25 by Hondo68
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Americans are clear on God but foggy on facts about faiths. The new U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that although 86% of us believe in God or a higher power, we don't know our own traditions or those of neighbors across the street or across the globe. Among 3,412 adults surveyed, only 2% correctly answered at least 29 of 32 questions on the Bible, major religious figures, beliefs and practices. The average score was 16 correct (50%). Key findings: •Doctrines don't grab us. Only 55% of Catholic respondents knew the core teaching that the bread and wine in the Mass become the body and blood of Christ, and ...
Texas Education Board Adopts Resolution Limiting Islam
Post Date: 2010-09-24 15:44:26 by Murron
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Texas Education Board Adopts Resolution Limiting Islam By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas State Board of Education has adopted a resolution seeking to curtail references to Islam in textbooks. Social conservatives on the board had asked that the resolution be put on Friday's agenda. It was approved by a 7-6 vote. The one-page resolution calls on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books and says the board "will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions." The resolution is nonbinding on future boards, which will choose the state's next generation of social studies texts. ...
Attorney: [Anti-gay] Atlanta pastor groomed young men for sex
Post Date: 2010-09-22 11:46:27 by Ferret Mike
4 Comments
-- Anti-Gay Bishop Eddie Long Sex Scandal With 2 Boys - Pt. 1 Anti-Gay Bishop Eddie Long Sex Scandal With 2 Boys - Pt. 2 Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Allegations that a prominent Atlanta pastor coerced two young male church members and employees into sex are "a case of retaliation and a shakedown for money by men with some serious credibility issues," the pastor's spokesman told CNN Wednesday. Pastor Eddie Long "categorically and adamantly denies these allegations," said spokesman Art Franklin. "There's been a lot of chatter since yesterday, but these complaints that have been filed are definitely without merit." Lawsuits filed Tuesday in DeKalb ...
‘Sinner’ Singer Given 39 Lashes By Rabbis
Post Date: 2010-09-19 19:22:38 by Brian S
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A singer who performed in front of a “mixed audience” of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him “repent,” after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday. Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews “back to religion” (hazara betshuva), has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women. His “judicial panel,” with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to “rid him of his sins.” In a video clip of the court posted on the Shofar Web site, Ben Zion said that those who make others sin (mahtiei ...
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