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Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

…en book of the Bible in its digital form as simply one of many files to be perused, considered, copy-pasted, and integrated into the reader’s ever-changing interpretive worldview. For the Buddhists who follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, the problem is not the availability of religious texts online, but rather the spiritual temptations that new media poses in its ability to distract monks from meditation and study. This concern has prompted t…

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Despite Reversal on Hillary and Hellen Keller, ‘Christian Americanist’ Bias Remains in Texas Curriculum

…ions, fostering an uncritically positive version of Christian history, and promoting the idea that the United States is an essentially Christian nation. This year’s streamlining process—officially described as an effort to “produce fewer and clearer standards that are teachable in the time allotted without diluting the rigor of the standards”—constitutes the first revision of the social studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, often pro…

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Abuse in the Name of God? Children and Faith Healing

…arged under it, they are likely to claim that its presence in the criminal code raises a question of “due process of law” (a right guaranteed by the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The couple might argue that, in effect, Wisconsin’s laws are too confusing for the average layperson to understand because one part of the criminal code (the child abuse statute) appears to explicitly protect spiritual healing practices while another…

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Will Ralph Reed’s New Venture Wed Religious Right to Tea Partiers?

…d went on to claim that not running the country on a Judeo-Christian moral code is actually contrary to democracy. “So really, when you really get right down to it, James,” he said, “democracy doesn’t really work at all unless there is a citizenry animated by a moral code that derives from their faith in God. That’s what makes the whole thing work because otherwise, the government has to tell everybody what to do.” After offering his view on taxes…

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Spiritual Envy: Michael Krasny’s Agnostic Quest

…with breaking away from what I was anchored in, and trying to find my own code. But it was a code that was birthed from parents who were strong believers in a higher set of ways of living your life. And that’s what they bequeathed to me. So precious. Do you think that some people are just better at religion than others? Christopher Isherwood talks about the idea of the “religious genius.” Do you think that’s possible? Why not? It makes sense. I t…

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Televangelist Watchdog May Be Forced to Close Its Doors

…ssisted the Senate Finance Committee with an investigation of possible tax code violations by televangelists, Trinity has seen less media coverage, and hence fewer donations from the public, according to the letter. Trinity’s investigations for the Senate Finance Committee led the Committee to launch an investigation, in 2007, based on revelations that televangelists had used tax-exempt funds for luxury cars, private jets, mansions, and even plast…

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Police Violence is Baked in: Academy Training Encourages Racial Profiling and Emphasizes the Use of Violence

…. I spent long days learning about the code of criminal procedure, traffic code, and arrest procedures. I also had a first-row seat to the cadets’ physical, ideological, and emotional transformations as, over a period of six to eight months, they became police officers. What I saw in that year directly conflicted with the “bad apple” arguments that existed then and that would continue to offer a popular explanation for police violence just a few y…

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“I Had No Intention to Write Atheistically”: Darwin, God, and the 2500-Year History of the Debate

…not the mere animal nature advanced through survival of the fittest.” Novelist Leo Tolstoy proclaimed this viewpoint in Russia, for example, and prominent Congregationalist cleric Henry Ward Beecher did so in the United States. Both embraced evolutionism to a point, but maintained belief in a spiritual essence ennobling humanity as opposed to a materialist view of morals and human behavior then associated with a wide range of European social thin…

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Burma’s Spirit Festival, and More in This Week’s Global LGBT Roundup

…ng reproduction, education and more could take longer to pass than a civil code change. It might seek to reduce the rights of same-sex married couples, LGBT activists fear. The Nationalist Party might even use violence to block the podium as it did earlier in the month over an infrastructure budget item. Eventually the ruling Democratic Progressive Party can out-vote opponents but would risk losing support among naysayers in the public without an…

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Will International Criminal Court Bring Charges Against ISIS For Gender-Based Persecution?; And More in Global LGBT Recap

…gal equality: The government continues to retain Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes sex between men. The law is sandwiched between codes that ban sex with corpses (Section 377) and sex with animals (Section 377B) in the Penal Code, indication of official attitudes towards homosexuality in the wealthy city-state. Convictions under 377A allow for two-year prison terms. In a bid to placate both liberals and conservatives, the governme…

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