Religion Dispatches
…there is the promise of Heaven. In Dentistry there is only Hell.” 7.) BOOKLIST’S TOP TEN RELIGION BOOKS FOR YOUTH Booklist, a magazine published by the American Library Association, has posted their top picks in a category that includes a book by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, God’s Dream—and one that sounds particularly good to our inner teenager, by RD contributor Donna Freitas, called The Possibilities of Sainthood. (“Antonia wants to be kissed,” th…
Read More…ederal funding of abortion, in a proposed billboard ad, was false. The SBA List sought to put a halt to the state proceeding — which would in all likelihood investigate whether SBA List and other allies knew that the final health care law did not, in fact, expand federal funding for abortion — by claiming that the Ohio law chilled its free speech. In an order denying the group’s request for a temporary restraining order, federal district judge Tim…
Read More…eek, the Commission ruled there was probable cause that billboards the SBA List planned to put up in Driehaus’s district violated the law, triggering a full hearing in front of the Commission. After the Commission’s ruling, the SBA List’s president Marjorie Dannenfelser defended her organization on the grounds that that National Right to Life, Americans United for Life, Focus on the Family, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops all…
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…ene, as the Egyptian authorities did in 2007 when they banned The Da Vinci Code. The Coptic community—which accounts for roughly 10 percent of the nation’s 80 million citizens—had raised alarm and demanded that both the book and movie be banned. Now, three years on, Zeidan’s bestselling novel is is prompting angry demands from that same community. In early May a group of Coptic lawyers demanded that the government imprison the author for five year…
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…ke away that free will, except for those who have the capacity to hack the code and reprogram the car. We normally think of robots as almost pure code, yet the scene last week when Graystone orders the Zoebot to rip off her arm raises some interesting stakes in this. It seems to me that people may be treating the Cylons differently depending on what mix of code and law they believe governs their behavior. And of course, those of you who study reli…
Read More…we find an investment advisor named Sean Hyman pushing “The Biblical Money Code,” which claims that advice “woven” into Scripture has helped him go from earning $15,000 to giving away up to $50,000 a year. Unlike Hovind, Hyman is giving away his system for free. All you have to do is sit through an hour-long video, during which Hyman explains how “to unlock vast amounts of wealth safely and ethically.” Fancy explanations are provided, but it’s act…
Read More…nal, Catholic protesters on to the streets of France.” Sarkozy admitted that while he would not repeal the law, he “detested” the way it was introduced by Hollande’s Socialist government, and accused the Socialists of “humiliating families and humiliating people who love the family”. …
Read More…be a priority in its election manifesto – to be released later this week. Ethiopia: Politicians Push to Make Homosexuality Non-Pardonable Pink News reported this week that legislation to add homosexuality to a list of offences considered non-pardonable under the country’s amnesty law, a measure endorsed last week by the country’s Council of Ministers. A vote is scheduled for next week. Same-sex sexual activity is already punishable by up to 15 ye…
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…mages of children under fourteen. What is the worldview implicit in such a list of crimes, and listed in this order? Is it the Church’s earnest attempt to meet the world on its own terms? Or is an attempt by a Pope who is suspicious of any such accommodation to the world’s standards to turn the current public outcry to his own anti-modern purposes by strengthening the punitive internal administrative structure of the Church, all in the name of som…
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…frica, who were among 13 human rights activists detained and charged with “promoting homosexuality,” were deported: Local police chief Lazaro Mambosasa said they had been “promoting homosexuality”. “Tanzanian law forbids this act between people of the same sex, it is a violation of our country’s laws,” said Mambosasa. Just days later an NGO, the Community Health Education Services and Advocacy (CHESA) centre, was suspended on the same charge and a…
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