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

By Johnny P. Flynn

…Valley Retreat for a Warrior Sweat which was scheduled to last for two or more hours. More than fifty “grandfather stones” were brought into the sweat lodge and by the end of the ordeal two were dead, one more would die without recovering consciousness, and fifteen were reported to be suffering ill effects. In spite of the number of people who experienced difficulties during each of the eight fifteen-minute rounds, Ray contends he did not know th…

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

By Lewis Wallace

…en studied, and at least 12 were formally approved as of 2008—according to most numbers (although even a simple count of “official” sites is hard to obtain), Our Lady of Good Help is the 13th. Pope Benedict XVI recently called for more moderation in approving such sites, but any new regulations did not fall into place in time to stop Bishop Ricken from pushing Adele Brise into the international spotlight. Benedict probably doesn’t have to worry ab…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…gious fundamentalism, intolerance and hate that places this country as the most homophobic one of the region,” Somos Gay, a Paraguayan gay rights group, said in a statement. It added that “this situation has an impact on human lives. Hate crimes, bullying and violence are the disastrous consequences of this encouragement of homophobia.” Servin notes that President Horacio Cartes, months before his 2013 election, “compared gay people to monkeys and…

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…oo closely identified with a specific party. And, as political scientist Timothy Byrnes writes in the journal OMG!, no religious institution is in more peril of losing its soul to politics than the U.S. Catholic Church. (Unlike many evangelicals, who at this point appear to have little soul left to loose given their die-hard support of Trump). The culprit, of course, is abortion. The U.S. bishops’ long-term insistence that “all other moral evils p…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…Wyler’s stated reason for wanting to change was to fit in better with his Mormon faith (Spiegel and Schumacher-Matos incorrectly identifies Wyler as “evangelical Christian”). However, the “identity therapy” (more completely sexual identity therapy) does not promote change of orientation and is largely consistent with the APA and other professional groups on the matter of the durability of sexual orientation. For the most part, this is a religious…

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

By Murali Balaji

…an water, and healthcare. Even during the Mughal era, violence was not the most common means of converting Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains to Islam. Instead, it was the jizya, the tax levied on non-Muslims, that over time won the most converts, and those conversions happened across caste lines. The re-introduction of Christianity by the Portuguese to India’s west coast (where Syrian Christians had lived since the time of St. Thomas) in the 15th centu…

False Saviors: Trump, Cruz, and the Gospel of the Quick Fix

By Marcia Pally

…avior appeal. Of the idolatrous kind. The two front-runners differ is some ways—among likely caucus voters in Iowa, Bloomberg News reports, Trump is considered stronger on managing the economy, illegal immigration, and the deficit while Cruz is stronger on leadership and persuasiveness to conservative evangelicals. But their common savior appeal tells us a great deal about the state of the nation. Regardless of the final choice of candidate, that…

And What of the Non-Jewish Jews?

By Shaul Magid

…nderstanding of the complex make-up and nature of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state—including its many internal challenges. What I found most fascinating, however, were the categories “People of Jewish background” and “People with a Jewish affinity.” The first includes those “who have a Jewish parent or were raised Jewish but identify with a religion other than Judaism.” In contrast, “People with a Jewish affinity” are those with no Jewish p…

There’s Something Rotten in Ireland

By Haroon Moghul

…oblems.” Seriously. Setting that kind of tone will probably only encourage more and more absurd statements. The recent post on Jesus seems especially insensitive, considering who it is being directed to and where it is apparently originating. A number of Palestinians are Christians, and that Christianity is of course traced back to the time of Jesus himself. The Palestinian weekend is Friday and Sunday. In addition to being the world’s most annoyi…

Size Matters According to New Study

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…a small brain then you’re more likely to be born again, and if you have a more active brain then you’re more likely to be a Buddhist. Those are pretty strange claims, too. They echo claims made by the now-suspect 19th century science of Phrenology. The idea there was that by studying the human head—its size, shape, and general morphology—you could tell a lot about the intelligence and even the moral character of the person under consideration….