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Growing Up Cult: A Memoir of Life with Sri Chinmoy

…death, her use of the word “cult,” and what her spiritual life looks like today. ** Did it make a difference to his followers that Sri Chinmoy was from India? Did it give him extra authority? In the late 1960s, there was a trend to look to the East for alternatives to Western religions and philosophies. Many people felt that the ancient traditions of the East might hold the answers to their modern longings. As a result, there were many gurus, yog…

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Tea Party Needs a History Lesson on Islam in America

…ndustry were Muslims. On the other hand, during the trade of goods between India and New England, some of America’s trading partners were South Asian Muslims. These two economic factors helped keep the young country afloat in the first decades of the nineteenth century. (Check Kambiz GhaneaBassiri’s  A History of Islam in America for the whole story.) So, Mr. Dennis, yes the founding fathers were not Muslims, but they depended on Muslims — whether…

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Trump Considers Pulling USA Out Of Human Rights Council; Indonesian President Blames Democracy For Rise of Militant Islamism; Global LGBT Recap

…ators on health issues. The materials aim to dispel gender stereotypes and promote relationships based on respect, reports Abantika Ghosh in The Indian Express: The legality of homosexuality may still be an open question for the judiciary and the Government is yet to change the law but resource material prepared by the Health Ministry for adolescent peer educators has taken a step in the sensitive direction. It tells young people that it is all ri…

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In the Aftermath of the “Himalayan Tsunami”

…ors to the region.  Ravi Chopra has noted that for the careful observer of Indian weather patterns of the last two decades the intensity of the flooding should not have come as the utter surprise that it did.   These broader trajectories underlie what is happening now. From the safety of my office, as I read the news and engage with observers online, I am observing two opposite trends developing: gratitude and praise for countless examples of huma…

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No Sacred Cows on this Eid

…gesture. More than that, it’s part of a healing process that includes toning down eid celebrations; though India seemed hopelessly torn apart just a couple of weeks ago, Indian Muslims are pulling together with other Indians to help heal their country and the people they share it with….

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Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God

…for most of Western history “belief” has meant nothing like what it means today. Today, when someone asks me if I believe in God, for example, they are asking if I assent to the proposed verity or the factual existence of God—and usually it is in reference to a very specific understanding of that God. Similarly, if I’m asked if I have “faith in Christ”, the question is whether I agree with the proposition that Jesus of Nazareth was divine, died o…

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Creationism: Don’t Use the “C-Word”

…chool boards “to create and foster an environment” in public schools that “promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” In addition to state-approved textbooks, teachers “may use supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze,…

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Anti-Gay Violence Rages in Gambia; Conservative ‘Complementarity’ Confab; Coming Out in Iraq Can Be Death Sentence; Global LGBT Recap

…attacks. “I call on The Gambia to fulfil its international obligations to promote and protect the human rights of all persons without discrimination, to repeal all provisions of the Criminal Code that criminalize relations between consenting adults and to put in place an immediate moratorium on arrests on the basis of such laws,” the High Commissioner said. Amnesty International also sounded the alarm on Gambia this week, highlighting the detenti…

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Black Women and the Sacred: With “Lemonade,” Beyoncé Takes Us to Church

…om multiple sources. Christianity as it exists and is practiced in America today owes much of its theology, ritual, and doctrine to the experiences and beliefs of enslaved Africans. Within most of these traditional African-born religious practices, women served as powerful healers, conjurers and priests. To evoke these traditions in “Lemonade” contrasts with the skewed demographics of contemporary Christianity, where black women represent more tha…

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What American Flag-Worship Looks Like to a New Citizen

…for all when white supremacists were using the same symbols to profess and promote their hatred? Still today, he says, “For me, the words ring hollow. They do not speak to my experience as a Black man in this country, with two African American sons, and Black colleagues, and Black friends—it is a lie.” All of this preceded the realization, as his faith matured, that the flag and the Pledge and the Anthem were all idols, and that people seem often…

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