Search for "Alaska Airlines 800-299-7264 Customer Service Toll-Free Number"

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…octrine of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin, is not a doctrine shared between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. In fact, it’s only been an official part of Catholic teaching since 1854. While the Eastern churches agree with Catholics that Mary was free from personal sin, the fact that the Eastern church has never accepted Augustine’s teaching on Original Sin means that the doctrine is superfl…

Everything Was Better When We Had God In Our Schools

By Hollis Phelps

…s not going to be found where they think it is, in some imagined, violence-free religious past. Our schools have regrettably always been violent, whether God has been “allowed in our schools” or not. In fact, below is a list of school shootings from K12 Academics, all of which took place prior to “the removal of God” from our schools: 1700s • The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac’s Rebellion school…

“Even the Rich Suffer”: An Interview with Google’s Jolly Good Fellow Chade-Meng Tan

By Max Zahn

…in saying that because I’ve seen both sides. Not that American Buddhism is free of problems, but it’s the purest Buddhism. Of course, if you go to a real Zen master in Japan, that’s even purer. It is absolutely essential to remember the source of the teachings. You’re saying that modern mindfulness has lost contact with the source teachings? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Didn’t you help to bring that about? I hope not. The part that doesn’t conce…

Even After an Obama Victory Reports of the Death of the Religious Right are Greatly Exaggerated

By Bill Berkowitz

…t to rebuild and reinvigorate a wounded movement, leading to the US Postal Service and direct-mail companies experiencing a surge in business as urgent fundraising appeals pepper the mailboxes and inboxes of religious right supporters. At its worst—as was done during the Clinton Administration—forums will be convened to discuss whether the Obama presidency is legitimate. An Obama presidency will force the religious right to rethink its strategy an…

What Do You Think?: “Padre Oprah” Scandal Has Many Asking Whether Priests Should Be Allowed to Marry

By Frances Kissling

…from sex. Celibacy remained mandatory. God went relatively silent and the number of men hearing the call to the priesthood declined. Only 480 new priests were ordained in 2008. The number of graduate level seminarians declined from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,286 in 2008. There is little cachet in the Catholic family these days in having a son become a priest. While no figures are available, anecdotal reports and expressed Vatican concern indicates that G…

Crisis in Sudan: ‘If the World Stands Idly By This Time, They Will Bring Genocide’

By Frederick Clarkson

…rific details. Rev. Eberhard Hitzler, Director of the Department for World Service, the humanitarian and development arm of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland provided RD with a brief, reporting that there has been “serious aerial bombardment” by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) inside Kadugli town, and that “SAF is distributing guns to non Nuba tribes (Arabs) in the town.” “Nuba people are being arrested from every point now,” he…

Religious Right in a Froth Over Hate Crimes Legislation

By Bill Berkowitz

…e American Family Association, Donald Wildmon states: America’s most basic freedoms of speech, conscience and the free exercise of religion are under attack and the time to act is now. If President Obama succeeds with his priority of passing the Hate Crimes law, H.R. 1913 – the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, it could lead to the criminalization of the Biblical view of homosexuality in sermons and elsewhere. An offended homosexua…

Virginia High School Says Students May Post Ten Commandments on Lockers

By Lauri Lebo

…including the Giles County students, misunderstand the difference between free expression of one’s religious views and the endorsement by one’s government. Unfortunately, too many people misunderstand them as the same thing. In a yet another classic example from Giles County, members of the ministry All 10 Commandments were handing out yard signs of the Ten Commandments last week in opposition to the removal from the schools. For some reason, the…

A Hidden Amy Coney Barrett Answer on COVID That Should Scare Every American

By Andrew L. Seidel

…public health restrictions on places of worship. Do states infringe on the free exercise of religion when they selectively restrict a religious gathering as a matter of enforcement discretion? RESPONSE: The Supreme Court has explained that “[o]fficial action that targets religious conduct for distinctive treatment cannot be shielded by mere compliance with the requirement of facial neutrality” and that “[t]he Free Exercise Clause protects against…

Gun Ownership as Sin—A Strategic, Secular Proposal for Gun Reform

By Ira Chernus

…d own” but “keep and bear”) arms. Guns are “necessary to the security of a free State,” the Amendment tell us. Indeed we first won our national freedom and security with guns. Our Revolution began, Emerson’s myth-making poem tells us, when “embattled farmers” collectively fired a single “shot heard round the world.” We had no need of professional soldiers; just ordinary folks like you and me who were brave enough to demand freedom at the point of…