Religion Dispatches
…“Biblical Money Code” appears as a fake news article, or “advertorial,” on Newsmax, the semi-fake news website. Hyman in fact seems to work for the website, although his actual role is unclear—a recent bio says that he is part of its “Financial Brain Trust.” “A wise man looks well into a matter,” Proverbs, and Hyman, reminds us. While I wouldn’t make any claims to wisdom, I will say that I have looked into it and conclude that it would be foolish…
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…ene, as the Egyptian authorities did in 2007 when they banned The Da Vinci Code. The Coptic community—which accounts for roughly 10 percent of the nation’s 80 million citizens—had raised alarm and demanded that both the book and movie be banned. Now, three years on, Zeidan’s bestselling novel is is prompting angry demands from that same community. In early May a group of Coptic lawyers demanded that the government imprison the author for five year…
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…ke away that free will, except for those who have the capacity to hack the code and reprogram the car. We normally think of robots as almost pure code, yet the scene last week when Graystone orders the Zoebot to rip off her arm raises some interesting stakes in this. It seems to me that people may be treating the Cylons differently depending on what mix of code and law they believe governs their behavior. And of course, those of you who study reli…
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…editor-in-chief. Horowitz specifically situates Neville—and himself—in the New Thought movement. When I told him that Neville’s book had seemed kind of fascist to me, he said that “New Thought philosophy has always faced that ethical dilemma. If you take it as a given that the mind can shape reality, what are the implications of that?” And further, “I don’t think New Thought has ever properly come to terms with the ethical implications of what it…
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…hts issues with Bruneian officials at a November 30 meeting in London. The new penal code includes a death penalty for those convicted of sodomy. Northern Ireland: Legal challenge to marriage ban moves forward Two gay couples were granted permission for a judicial review of their challenge to laws that do not permit same-sex couples to marry. Northern Ireland was the first region of the United Kingdom to recognized same-sex couples with civil part…
Read More…economic woes plaguing the state and the country if elected president,” OneNewsNow, a news service sponsored by the American Family Association, recently reported. Matthew 25 Network founder Mara Vanderslice “says her group is hoping to run its latest pro-Obama ad in Cleveland, Youngstown, Cincinnati, and Columbus, as well as in smaller locales such as Findlay and Mount Vernon. Salem Radio affiliate WFHM 95.5 ‘The Fish’ in Cleveland is already run…
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…onscreen. In 1930, the Association of Motion Picture Producers approved a new production code that would support “the maintenance of social and community values in pictures.” For the next 38 years, that code shaped Hollywood’s output. The Production Code insisted that movies were primarily “to be regarded as entertainment” that would “improve the race.” As such, movies should avoid explicit images that would be upsetting or play to “the lower and…
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…ment approved the Principles of the Islamic Bylaw and the Islamic criminal code, which created new discriminatory offenses that do not exist in the Indonesian national criminal code. The bylaws extend Sharia to non-Muslims and criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts as well as all zina (sexual relations outside of marriage). The criminal code permits as punishment up to 100 lashes and up to 100 months in prison for consensual same-sex sexual a…
Read More…i Irsa said the petitioners were in effect asking the court to formulate a new criminal code because they feared parliament would took take too long to enact changes wanted by the Family Love Alliance. But, in a sign of the challenges that continue to face LGBT people, Associated Press reported on December 15 that a court “has sentenced 10 men arrested in a raid at a gay club and sauna to between two and three years in prison, an activist and a re…
Read More…ay. Omri Lanzet, one of the many new parents who landed in Israel with his newborn son Sunday night told Ynet news that “We had a baby just days old with us, and had no heat. The food and the diapers ran out.” “The babies are the most vulnerable, and some of them were born prematurely. It’s neither the place nor the proper environment for a baby only a few days old.” …The Justice Ministry ruled on Sunday that four Nepalese surrogate mothers carryi…
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