Skip to main content

Nathan Rein's Library tagged news →  View Popular

25 Nov 09

From ChristianToday, a note on the release of the Poverty and Justice Bible (from the American Bible Society)

The headline, oddly, is "Americans more likely to credit Obama for verse on justice than Bible," which suggests a kind of conservative-Christian disdain for the supposed popular tendency to lionize Obama as a populist champion. The piece highlights a Harris Interactive survey that presented respondents with the quotation, "You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless," and asked its source. The answers given were Obama (16%), the Bible (13%), the Dalai Lama (9%), MLK (8%), Oprah (4%) and Bono (3%). (It's Proverbs 31.8f.) I have to wonder about methodology. I assume this was a multiple choice question, and without a list of choices I'm sure 95% of respondents would have answered "I don't know." The choices listed by the article only add up to 53%. Anyhow, it's interesting.

www.christiantoday.com/...24717.htm - Preview

religion christianity bible possible_blog_post obama social_justice news

24 Nov 09

Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins | World news | guardian.co.uk

  • The event, which happens every five years, began with decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.
  • The festivities included a ferris wheel, fortune-telling robots and stalls blaring music and offering tea and sugary snacks.
  • 2 more annotations...
19 Nov 09

Report: Homosexuality no factor in abusive priests - Yahoo! News

  • But the authors said that their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.
15 Nov 09

In hand sanitizer we trust - The Globe and Mail

A roundup of some changes made to ritual and liturgy in Montréal, Toronto, and elsewhere in Canada as strategies of counteracting the spread of the flu. The piece has a slightly puffy, amused tone, but I think this is pretty interesting, especially for what it implies about the value of ritual and community as opposed to discourse and information (e.g., if the epidemic gets worse, expect churches to tell everyone to stay home and get their sermons via podcast).

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article1360312 - Preview

religion canada h1n1 health public_health medicine news

Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question - NYTimes.com

Fascinating article -- a UK court has declared that any definition of Judaism based on descent -- i.e., on whether an individual's mother is Jewish -- is ipso facto discriminatory and thus illegal. The context was an admissions policy for a publicly-funded Jewish school, which had excluded a student applicant because the school's Orthodox policy did not recognize the mother's conversion, conducted in a liberal setting, as valid and thus did not accept the applicant's claim to be Jewish. Archived: http://sqrl.it/?l3q8t and http://www.webcitation.org/5lBnaZcq8

www.nytimes.com/...08britain.html - Preview

uk judaism religion news rels328 identity belief theory post:facebook(source) webcite iterasi

03 Nov 09

Halloween 'devil' claim overstated, says Bishop of Leicester

More on the Leicestershire Halloween controversy. Saving this one for some good quotations.

www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/...article.html - Preview

halloween holidays uk news religion christianity anglicanism evangelicalism possible_blog_post

  • Today, the Reverend Barry Hill, the diocese of Leicester's head of mission, said: "I think Halloween is an unhelpful time, for religious, spiritual and practical reasons. A lot of churches are organising light parties instead. They would prefer to celebrate something that comes from goodness. The problem people have with Halloween is its roots and origins."
    • sounds very evangelical in tone, to me - on 2009-11-03
    Add Sticky Note

Children 'will go to hell if they celebrate Halloween', says church leaflet - Telegraph

I don't have a good feel for what things are like in the UK, but if this were a US news story -- and I can easily imagine that it would be -- I would think that the subtext was a developing split between evangelicals and traditionalists in this particular community (part of the Church of England, I assume). Some evangelical-leaning activists put together an article condemning Halloween, it gets into the local church newsletter, and traditionalists are more or less blindsided by the controversy that results.

www.telegraph.co.uk/...oween-says-church-leaflet.html - Preview

halloween holidays uk news religion christianity possible_blog_post evangelicalism anglicanism post:facebook(source)

  • Christians do not celebrate Halloween - an American festival - because it has
    links to witchcraft and ghosts.
    • Really, now! - on 2009-11-03
    Add Sticky Note
02 Nov 09

Breitbart.tv » Planned Parenthood Leader Resigns After Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure

A remarkable story -- the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic evidently undergoes a kind of conversion experience and joins a local anti-abortion organization. In this two-minute interview, she explains her decision in religious terms. Planned Parenthood, fearing the disclosure of confidential information, has initiated some kind of legal action against her, including (I think) a restraining order.

www.breitbart.tv/trasound-of-abortion-procedure - Preview

religion abortion christianity evangelicalism news video interview law possible_blog_post

Christian registrar should not be disciplined over same-sex marriage refusal - Telegraph

From the UK: a clerk who refused to solemnize a same-sex marriage is claiming that her refusal to do so -- which she says stems from her religious beliefs -- is protected under freedom-of-conscience laws. She is suing her employer, the Islington Council, for religious discrimination, and she "claims she suffered ridicule and bullying as a result of her stance and said she had been harassed ... by the council."

www.telegraph.co.uk/...same-sex-marriage-refusal.html - Preview

same-sex marriage religion christianity uk law news controversy glbt possible_blog_post post:facebook(source)

  • James Dingemans QC, representing her, told a panel of three appeal judges that
    Ms Ladele had never wanted to undermine the human rights or respect due to
    members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender communities.



    But human rights laws must also be there to protect people with committed
    views about marriage, he said.

  • 'Modern human rights jurisprudence was not intended to obliterate religious
    beliefs held for millennia.''



    Mr Dingemans said she could not go against her faith and take an active part
    to enable same-sex unions.

  • 1 more annotations...
1 - 20 of 754 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page

Selected Tags

Related Tags

Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information. Learn more »

Join Diigo