Search for "cheap airline ticket from ict to europe phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Updated: G-O-D Plays a Bit Part in First GOP Debate

By Daniel Schultz

…it to my family and my friends and the people around me.” This drew a fair number of cheers from the audience. Even most Republicans support same-sex marriage these days. At the end of the event, Megyn Kelly directly invited the participants to discuss whether or not they’d “had a word from God” about their candidacy. Some viewers might question the appropriateness of such a question, but I thought it was okay. It is the sort of thing that Republi…

What Do You Think?: “Padre Oprah” Scandal Has Many Asking Whether Priests Should Be Allowed to Marry

By Frances Kissling

…from sex. Celibacy remained mandatory. God went relatively silent and the number of men hearing the call to the priesthood declined. Only 480 new priests were ordained in 2008. The number of graduate level seminarians declined from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,286 in 2008. There is little cachet in the Catholic family these days in having a son become a priest. While no figures are available, anecdotal reports and expressed Vatican concern indicates that G…

Who Would the Buddha Bomb?

By Danny Fisher

…conditions, it could include killing a terrorist.” Indeed, the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism’s co-authors, Donald S. Lopez, Jr., and Robert E. Buswell, Jr., have it right when they label the notion that “all Buddhists are pacifists” a misconception. The religion’s first ethical precept may be “do not kill,” but a whole host of scholars (including Sallie B. King, Michael Jerryson, Mark Juergensmeyer, Tessa Bartholomeusz, Damien Keown, Brian Dai…

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory

By Ann Gleig

…er it echoes some of the white Buddhist backlash to racial justice work. A number of white Buddhists* have adopted the language of “invasion” and “infection” in an attempt to discredit long overdue racial justice initiatives in their communities. Popular Zen teacher Brad Warner, for instance, has declared that racial justice work has nothing to do with Buddhism but is merely a tool of identity politics designed to shame white men. Secular mindfuln…

“Can You Tell Me Who The Villains Are?”: Rock and Religion, Irish-Style

By Lisa Bitel

…us band like U2, the Saw Doctors are stealthy but incisive critics of restrictive religion. They’re humble, good-humored, musicians from down the pub of any small town: lads that anyone can chat with about things that hardly matter, which are actually the things that matter the most. For the Irish, that means religion. “A victim’s asking for the road to Knock,” begins another great Saw Doctors’ song, referring to the famous pilgrimage site where v…

Is Obama the Antichrist? Why Armageddon Stands Between the President and the Evangelical Vote

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…uccess of Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth, the best-selling nonfiction book of the 1970s. At the same time evangelicals, although scorning Hollywood, turned to modern technology to preach Armageddon. The result was the cult phenomenon A Thief in the Night, an Armageddon-themed film that popularized one of the first pop Christian hits, Larry Norman’s “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” The movie scared countless teenagers (and probably an equa…

The “Mormon Moment” Yields… Not So Much

By Joanna Brooks

…lves: down from 65% of Americans surveyed to 61%. Some measurable gains have been made among mainline Protestants: 28% surveyed in 2011 said they have “a lot in common” with Mormons; now, that proportion is 42%. And when asked to give a one asked to give a one-word descriptor of Mormonism, the number of respondents offering a positive word like “good,” or “honest,” increased from 18% in 2011 to 24% in 2012. All of these gains were concentrated a…

For Conservatives, the Future Looks Dim… and Gay

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ble.” But those “moral objections” seem to be of less concern to a growing number of Americans: Just under half of Americans (45%) say they think engaging in homosexual behavior is a sin, while an equal number says it is not. Those who believe homosexual behavior is a sin overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage. Similarly, those who say they personally feel there is a lot of conflict between their religious beliefs and homosexuality (35% of the public)…

By The Numbers: Jeb Opposes Francis on Climate Change at His Peril

By Daniel Schultz

…happening, or if it is, it’s natural causes, or they’re just not sure. The numbers attributing warming to human activity rise among moderates and liberals, of course, but they’re not going to vote for Jeb anyway. There is one number Bush might want to worry about, though: 85. That’s the percent of Hispanic Catholics who think climate change is a real problem: For a guy who’s been touting his potential to draw Spanish-speaking voters into the Repub…

How to Make Nones and Lose Money: Study Shows Cost of Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals

By Kaya Oakes

…al, leaving the American church with a massive money problem and shrinking numbers of parishioners on the eve of Pope Francis’ arrival. A recent study by Nicholas Bottan and Ricardo Perez-Trugila in the Journal of Public Economics revealed that, unsurprisingly, “a scandal causes a persistent decline in the local Catholic affiliation and church attendance.” “Some Catholics join other religious denominations during the first three years after a scan…