Search for "cheap airline tickets to hong kong from san francisco phone number 1-800-299-7264"

A Debate Rages in India Over Conversion, Secularism, and “Spiritual Violence”

By Murali Balaji

…a central component of the Goan Inquisition, a nearly two-century campaign sanctioned by the Catholic Church to convert non-believers—often violently—into Christianity. But the violence of the Portuguese era did not manage to “win hearts and minds.” British missionaries, schooled in the ways of catering to native populations, would have the most success in converting Indians through education and other incentives. Over time, India’s social fabric…

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…administration and the mandate. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of white Catholics who said the Obama administration was “unfriendly to religion” more than doubled from 17 percent to 36 percent between 2009 and 2014. And starting around 2012, white Catholics broke for the GOP by historic margins. It’s also worth noting, as Michael Sean Winters has, that this occurred around the time the administrative staff of the bishops’ confer…

Are You There God? It’s Us, Googling

By Michael Schulson

…ion in “Google searches for churches,” yet more evidence of the increasing number of “nones,” or that “searches related to the Bible, God, Jesus Christ, church and prayer are all highly concentrated in the Bible Belt. They rise on Sunday everywhere.” Other patterns are more jarring: “Relative to the rest of the country, for every search I looked at, retirement communities search more about hell,” he writes. Each month, on average, 422 people in th…

Indonesian Court Rejects Religious Conservatives’ Bid To Criminalize Gay Sex; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…conflict and politics in a Muslim majority nation.” The abstract: While a number of investigations have examined how gay Muslim men view homosexuality in relation to religious Western homophobia, this research constitutes the first account of the experiences of self-identified gay men living in an African, Muslim nation, where same-sex sex is both illegal and actively persecuted. We interviewed 28 gay men living in Tunisia in order to understand…

First U.S. Visit of the Virgin Mary Confirmed in Wisconsin

By Lewis Wallace

…e United States, and immigrants from Catholic countries may be pushing the numbers up. As a symbol of Catholic catechesis, and as a representative of a seemingly humbler, more educated past, Adele may have a chance to make her mark. If she does, the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help will need some visitor accommodations—like a parking lot. It might look to Lourdes to improve its website: on the official site for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes,…

Welcome to the Shari’ah Conspiracy Theory Industry

By Sarah Posner

…d Public Policy Center’s Program to Promote and Protect America’s Freedom. Santorum, who is considering a presidential run, depicts an American battle against radical Islam as a civilizational war against “Christendom.” The theological warriors include Jewish groups as well. “Shari’ah is an Arabic term referring to a legal framework to regulate public and private aspects of life based upon specific Islamic teachings,” maintains www.radicalislam.or…

Not a ‘Weenie-A** Lodge’: James Ray Trial Begins

By Johnny P. Flynn

…” near Sedona, Arizona. Participants in the retreat paid more than ten thousand dollars each to fast, sweat, listen to lectures and watch films under Ray’s guidance. In the days leading up to the sweat lodge, more than fifty people were set out in remote locations to fast for thirty-six hours with no food or water. Then, on the afternoon of October 8, 2009, Ray gathered all the people at the Angel Valley Retreat for a Warrior Sweat which was sched…

Yet Another Survey Shows ‘Nones’ Growth at Record Levels

By Elizabeth Drescher

…spirituality, meaning-making, and self-realization in my Nones Beyond the Numbers narrative survey.* *The survey results will contribute to three intertwined research projects I am currently conducting on the meaning-making practices of Nones. The first, sponsored in part through the Social Science Research Council’s “New Directions in the Study of Prayer” initiative, will explore the plurality of Nones who say they regularly engage in prayer….

Sovereign Grace Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Just Got More Complicated

By T.F. Charlton

A number of developments in the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) have taken place since I first covered it for RD back in early March. On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit: [The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotiona…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…es making up a quarter of the country’s population. “We know hundreds, thousands of LGBT refugees are coming across, but if we start counting, it could be used against them and us. It’s better they slip unnoticed into Lebanon. Prejudice against gay men and women doesn’t stop at the border. The trouble is, they are being arrested and abused here in Lebanon, too.” Anglican Communion: Archbishop of Canterbury calls special gathering to prevent schism…