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Sit Down and Shut Up: Pulling Mindfulness Up By Its (Buddhist) Roots

…st cultures. Buddhism absorbed Chinese religion when it spread to China, Tibetan religion in Tibet, and so on. But mindfulness—what we think of as “meditation,” as opposed to prayer or ceremonial observance, for example—does have deep roots in the tradition. The Pali word sati, which can be translated as mindfulness, is frequently used in Buddhist scripture. (The noun comes from the verb sarati, meaning “to remember,” and alternative translations…

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Condemnation, Condolences in Wake of Orlando Massacre and More

…groups regarded Istanbul’s gay pride event as immoral. “Religion is always used as an excuse to start riots on freedom,” he said. “The LGBT community in Turkey is a little divided about whether people should march or not,” said Mr Akpinar. “It’s not only about this latest threat of ultra-nationalists who might attack people, but if you look at the recent history of Turkey, we’ve had so many bombings and attacks. “So people are afraid it might be a…

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Why Conservative Evangelicals Won’t Let Us Pee in Peace

…but that view hasn’t been shared even within their own communion. The SBC used to be marked by diversity in belief and practice, but now it marches ever closer to a rigid, centralized orthodoxy that would have been anathema to its founders. Mohler was and is part of the movement that created that situation. So likewise, this business of Southern Baptist conservatives being a threatened minority just trying to maintain its way of life is baloney….

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On the 20th Anniversary of Waco

…never be discovered embezzling money, enjoying kinky sex, or (The Da Vinci Code notwithstanding) fathering surprise children. It’s not necessary to label something a “cult” to understand the potential peril involved in looking to a living guru. However honest and virtuous that guru might be, she—like the rest of us—is susceptible to tripping and falling right up until the day she dies. What makes some folks willing and able to trust in a charismat…

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Nike’s Token Equality: New Campaign Masks the Truth About Workers’ Rights

…eplorable plight of Nike factory workers, who were beaten for fighting for better conditions. The list of times and places where workers in Nike’s global supply chain have been enslaved (forced labor is enslavement), robbed of their wages, or verbally and physically abused since then goes on and on. Fast forward to 2017. While Nike has made some progress in the area of corporate social responsibility, the company still fails to “just do it” when i…

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Gay Men Detained and Killed in Chechnya, and More in the Global LGBT Recap

…red to marriage.’ Fidelsberger argues the civil partnership law is the far better one, because it is written in modern language. But, more importantly, she says it does better than the antiquated and often-amended marriage laws when it comes to fulfilling the demands of a modern relationship where both partners have equal rights. ‘Because of this we don’t want to swap civil partnerships for marriage in its current form,’ she said. ‘It would be dow…

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On Pi Day, Puzzling Over the Most Famous Transcendental Number

…as partly because of Cantor’s effort to grasp the infinite, and partly because he was ridiculed by so many mathematicians who refused to try. Supercomputers might let researchers expand our understanding of pi. But even then, the task is endless. When people search for pi, they search for the infinite. They’ll never reach it, as long as they’re finite beings with finite imaginations. But there’s some wonder that comes with trying. Some satisfactio…

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Religious and Political Silence on India’s LGBTQ Decision Speaks Volumes

…ally sick people.” Did religious voices largely drop out of the debate because they knew it was a lost cause? The Supreme Court’s decision to end the use of Section 377 to discriminate, harass, and threaten LGBTQ Indians after nearly 160 years is no doubt worthy of attention. Modi’s silence and that of his religious allies, therefore, could be interpreted as progress when contrasted with the vocal homophobic and transphobic pushback that the initi…

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Whistleblower Alleges $100B Hoarding Scandal by LDS Church; But There’s An Easy Fix

…ements as well. In short, we knew nothing about this shady arrangement because Congress has refused to ask. Churches are financial and informational black holes. They file no financial information with the government. Nothing. The same is true for many church auxiliary organizations, like Ensign. Other charities, those that are not church-affiliated, file annual disclosures (a Form 990 or the like) with the IRS that track every penny in and out of…

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Catholic Anti-Nuke Activists Looking at 20 Years in Prison a True Test for Religious Freedom

…should be dismissed became they impinge upon the Plowshares 7’s religious freedom. This claim rested on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a 1993 law that requires the federal government not to “substantially burden” someone’s practice of religion unless a “compelling government interest” is involved and the rule the government is enforcing is the “least restrictive means” of achieving its goal. The judge in the Plowshares trial denied…

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