Religion Dispatches
…religious charities. It remains to be seen how happy folks will be about “International Blasphemy Rights Day.” The September 30th event is being organized by the Center for Inquiry, a New York based atheist group. Got a problem? No time for church? Try drive-thru prayer . A 24-foot cross in Vermont pits local land-use law against claims of First Amendment Rights. And a bomb threat on Sunday at the shrine in Lourdes, France evacuated some 30,000 p…
Read More…Anglican traditionalists, the Church of England is moving one step closer to the ordination of women bishops; a move that some fear will further fracture an Anglican Communion already split along international faultlines over the ordination of gay clergy. Will diverging perspectives on gender and sexuality determine the shape of the 21st-century Christian world?…
Read More
…had gained the respect of the Israeli public (both Jewish and Arab) and of international disaster relief organizations. These have either used Zaka’s direct services of have emulated their techniques in their own relief teams. The Israeli police force now teats the Zaka volunteers and staffers as colleagues. And the Israeli government has recognized a year of service to Zaka as a form of Shnat Sherut—national service. This all sounds very positive…
Read More…t, no one would’ve cared about this anniversary, so they shouldn’t make an international situation out of it. Second, even if they felt they needed to be alert, but not alarmed, empowering the people most likely to lash out is not constructive. Third, if you create an environment where Danish Muslims feel engaged and part of the society, it’s a lot harder for false indignation to gain traction overseas. This is an unfortunate decision by the Danis…
Read More…s greater than the need of a non-Muslim. This is like the tendency in some international circles to consider the blood of non-Muslim combatants more important than Muslim civilians and combatants with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have a very different sense of the shared human community now, and we need to adjust accordingly. This year, I face a dilemma because it seems the most pressing needs are actually in my own family. Some jurists sa…
Read More…ent, $400 million from Marsh & McLennan and $725 million from the American International Group. Last week, he filed suit against GMAC Mortgage, accusing the loan servicer of filing fraudulent affidavits in hundreds of Ohio foreclosures. His office has returned money to investors, pension funds, schools and cities. And he has directed millions to agencies fighting foreclosure. “We see what Washington doesn’t: the houses lying vacant, the eyesore st…
Read More…t the priest was forbidden from revealing the confession to administrators. Pope Benedict denounced the mafia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter thanking the Pope for denouncing the planned Qur’an burnings in Florida. In the wake of recent teen bullying, Christian group Exodus International has decided to pull its support of the “Day of Truth,” an event that encourages school students to “counter the promotion of homosexual beha…
Read More…ther they agree with them or not,” said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the group that sponsored the event this year. Called the Day of Truth, the annual April event has been pushed by influential conservative Christian groups as a way to counter the annual Day of Silence, an event promoted by gay rights advocates to highlight threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Perhaps Exodus is beginning to come to…
Read More
…Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its affiliated Advance Training Institute International (ATI). He claims to pray for IBLP founder Bill Gothard “every day,” has traveled with Gothard, has spoken at Gothard’s conferences (2009 and 2010 programs are online), and has contributed to “Wisdom Booklets” training materials that include David Barton and his Christian American history. These include The Light and the Glory, a Christian American history text…
Read More…really do it for the good of the thing alone? That is where those larger “numbers” would come in. That is what I would consider good for Allah. Still the basic principle is that the good is more powerful than the not so good, so why not go with the winning formula? In 2004 I participated in the international forum on HIV/AIDS and Islam. Well it was one of the worst experiences of my public life as a Muslim but from it came with lots of good, by w…
Read More