Religion Dispatches
…e used by the plotters of the 9/11 attack has been closed down in Hamburg, Germany. Muslims in Britain held al-Hidayah 2010, a three-day anti-terrorism camp for young people. A New Jersey school district will observe Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of the month of fasting, along with Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice and the Hindu new year holiday, Diwali. Some parents fear that kids are getting too many days off. More atheist billbo…
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…nd Counter-Reformation. Or the fact that in 1589, Stubbe Peeter of Bedpur, Germany, confessed (under torture and threat of imminent execution) to being the serial rapist of his own sister and daughter, a child murderer, a cannibal, and a werewolf who had sold his soul in a sort of Satanic contract. This was widely reported in all the new-print European tabloids of the day. And then there’s the fact that the Brothers Grimm were not the original sou…
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…with him, in his glove compartment, on his nightstand, and when he went to Germany as a soldier. Reportedly it gave him comfort after his mother’s death. He would underline and annotate copies and give them away to friends. Sample annotation: “A singer can sing his songs, but they must have a ear to receive the songs.” We don’t know when John Lennon got his copy, but by the time of the Beatles’ infamous visit to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi…
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…to reignite the culture wars in the name of religious liberty. In a video promoting the Declaration, Colson likened contemporary America to Nazi Germany, and “elites” and “intellectuals” to Hitler. For decades, PFM has placed its volunteers inside prison walls to minister directly to inmates. In addition to questions about the programs’ effectiveness, such partnerships with state institutions have drawn legal challenges. InnerChange, a PFM progra…
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…ho compared the advancement of gay rights to the rise of Nazism in pre-war Germany.” The event that weekend featured American religious right figures Eric Metaxas and Jeffery Ventrella, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom. Gay rights leaders have called for the Treasurer to pull out of the event and have warned that the Australian Christian Lobby’s alignment with the US group is a sign it plans to step up its campaign against the LGBTI…
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…cism as a cultural given is coming to an end. The Roman Catholic Church of Germany is on the skids. Revelations of abuses in Catholic institutions are coming thick and fast. Ironically, one of the actors who plays Jesus in the once-a-decade Passion Play at Oberammergau this year has “researched the bureaucratic steps needed to leave the church officially last year.” ‘Jesus’ leaving the Church; a Saturday Night Live moment for sure! In developing c…
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…ference. Mormon women travelled from as far away as New York, Florida, and Germany to take part in the collective action organized by the group Ordain Women as a gentle and symbolic demonstration against pervasive gender segregation in LDS Church administration and leadership. All observant men and boys over the age of 12 are eligible for ordination to the Mormon lay priesthood, and the Church’s theological, liturgical, financial, and administrati…
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…rdain Women effort. Julia Murphy, who flew in from her home in Heidelberg, Germany, said, “I know it’s a long way. It’s worth it!” Heather Olson Beal of Nacogdoches, Texas, said, “This wasn’t easy for me to do. I’ve lived with a lot of fear and I can’t say publicly a lot of the things I feel about gender inequality in the church. This is a way to say it.” “I hope that the leaders of the church would see that we are ready to contribute more,” s…
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…le Americans celebrate Labor Day with picnics, BBQs, and weekend getaways, Germany-based FIAA GmbH is releasing the beta version of The Bible Online: Heroes, the first installment of a projected series of MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real-time strategy) “games” based on the Bible. MMORTS games take place in a world that continues to exist and evolve even while any given player isn’t playing. According to the press release, there is an RPG…
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…My answer was that this habit is common to all European intellectuals, in Germany, France, Spain, and, naturally, Italy: all countries where a scholar or scientist often feels required to speak out in the papers, to comment, if only from the point of view of his own interests and special field, on events that concern all citizens. And I added, somewhat maliciously, that if there was any problem with this it was not my problem as a European intell…
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