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The Supreme Court decided yesterday to review the case of a 33-year-old religious organization that wants to have its tenets posted in a Utah municipal park near a monument of the Ten Commandments.The American Humanist Association, which has been critical of Ten Commandments monuments on public grounds, said conservative groups who support such monuments "must reap what they have sown."
Catholics account for 17.4 percent of the world population while Muslims are at 19.2 percent -- making Islam the world's largest religion, according to reports. I wonder if numbers will bring about more respect for a religion that's also in the Abrahamic fold?
A popular new book, "Human Smoke," concludes World War II might have been a mistake.
Columnist Richard Cohen responds:
"If you throw in the atrocities committed by the Japanese --- everything from massacres to the conscription of local women in conquered territories as sex slaves -- then World War II not only seemed right and urgent at the time but right and a bit too late now. Hitler could have been stopped earlier."
Why would anyone think otherwise?
"The facts are powerful," according to the review, "Baker shows, step by step, how an alliance dominated by leaders who were bigoted, far more opposed to communism than to fascism, obsessed with arms sales and itching for a fight coerced the world into war."
April Fool?
Another priest arrested on sex charges.
A sculpture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the goofball deity cooked up by The Church of the Non-Believers to protest a Kansaas legal battle over evolution, went on display outside a courthouse in Cumberland County, Tennessee, late last month.
Service for the Blessing of Animals at Glenwood United Methodist Church
When: Noon, April 5
Where: Glenwood United Methodist Church, 1417 Glenwood Avenue, Greensboro NC 27403
(The service will be held outside on the church lawn.)
Who: You and your pet! All are invited! Please bring your well behaved pet on a leash or in a carrier.
Why: Our pets are much loved creatures of God and we celebrate the bond between pets and their humans.
For more information, please call the church office (336)274-7086
A humane option for those who want to die?
Bible stops bullet.
Presidential contender Barack Obama didn't leave his church over remarks made by a pastor who has since "YouTubed" to notoriety. In sermon sound bites, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of God in Chicago uses language that others have taken to condemn his patriotism and question Obama's.
Those words, some in the clergy say, must be taken in context of the traditional black church as a social ministry, dealing materially and spiritually with issues people face every day, such as hunger and academic gaps -- whose messages include love and bitterness and bias that reflects the black experience. (See my Saturday religion column in the News & Record or on the paper's Web site).
But church rheteoric isn't limited to the so-called "black church."
What have you heard in a house of worship that might be considered controversial? How did you respond?
WASHINGTON ---Bishop S.C. Madison, who led the United House of Prayer for All People, an affluent black denomination with several churches in North Carolina, including one on East Market Street in Greensboro, has died. He was 86.
Madison was the third leader of the denomination, which is based in the District of Columbia and has 1.5 million members and 150 branches in 25 states. During his tenure, he erected more than 100 sanctuaries throughout the country, as well as multi-family housing, retail establishments and assisted living facilities.
"We will continue in his legacy," said Apostle H.L. Whitner, pastor of God's White House, the D.C. headquarters of the church. "We will continue to do what we have been doing: that is, giving God the praise."
She won, but what about the child?
Weren't people at one time shameful of such a lifestyle. Yes, pray for these children.
I would be at the 100 percent ability to forgive, rather than idling at 80 percent. I would just let things go. Here's a primer on 'spring cleaning your spirit.' Could it help you?
Is it irreverent to juxtapose the Gospel with rock'n'roll?
I got this email from a friend:
The Constitution says that Americans have a right to free exercise of their religion. The FLDS people in Texas and around the Utah/Arizona border apparently have a religion that includes statutory rape:
Go here.
So who will win out on this conflict of values?
Rep. Monique Davis to atheist Rob Sherman: "It's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!"
Joel Osteen is television's most popular preacher. What religious leader are you most inspired by and for what reasons?
I'm especially intrigued by those going without any tickets to any of the events.
Again, no one is above the law.
Despite the demographic.
Second? Gone with the Wind.
Empty churches breed concerns.
President Bush is pulling out all the stops: driving out to a suburban military base to meet Pope Benedict XVI's plane, bringing a giant audience to the South Lawn and hosting a fancy East Room dinner.
These are all firsts.
Do you think the pope still speaks for the majority of American Catholics?
Former President Jimmy Carter has been shunned by Israel this week, and the White House has criticized him for his willingness to meet with Hamas leaders. Carter says the U.S. and Israel should stop isolating the group, whose control of the Gaza Strip threatens to undermine Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
"Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they have to be involved in discussions that lead to final peace," Carter said.
Update from Teresa Merner:
8:18 p.m.You could see the Popemobile coming out of the tunnel on camera before you could actually see him in the stadium. People started cheering. Pope Benedict slowly went around the edge of the stadium, all around, and people were cheering. It was almost like you were watching it on TV -- it took a few minutes for it to sink in that he was really there. Everybody started singing -- and I love this song because we sing it at mass sometimes -- "Holy God we praise Thy Name." By the time he got down in front of us I was crying. I just felt so emotional.
Dalai Lama calls for US help to resolve conflict with China.
And while no one would accuse the women of making a fashion statement, the pioneer-style outfits are a rare example of how in an age of overexposure, modesty, too, can give pause.
Greensboro Urban Ministry has been given two additional tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert (Upper Level, 232, A-9-10) to be auctioned to support the nonprofit.
"The Boss gave us 4 VIP tickets that are being auctioned only through www.charityfolks.com," said Mike Aiken, exec. director. "One pair of these tickets now has a price of $1,000. These additional two upper level tickets are certainly not as valuable and will not be auctioned through charity folks. They have a face value of $95 each.
Urban Ministry will take the highest bid for both tickets (Upper Level, 232, A-9-10) as of 4:30 p.m. this Thursday, April 24. Bids will only be taken by e-mail to adminrecept@guministry.org. These tickets will only be auctioned as a pair.
Being a hospice chaplain really isn't about religion -- although it can be -- but about all those things that give life meaning.
Check out 'Ministers to the soul' under related links to go inside their world.
I'm sure some people thought they'd never see the day you could grab a beer and your Bible and the preacher wouldn't blink an eye.
Administrators at the middle school where he works asked a teacher to take down all religious symbols in his classroom. So he agreed to take down the Ten Commandments from the door of his classroom, posters with Bible verses and Bibles on a shelf. But he refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk when students are in the room.
"That Bible is me. I want my Bible on my desk because that is me," he said.
One of his attorneys, R. Kelly Hamilton, said that Bible is "something he draws personal inspiration from. It just so happens that it's a Bible. For some people it's a personal photograph or a coffee mug."
Does he make a good argument?
"On Yom Kippur, Jews recite a prayer that begins, "For the sin that we have sinned against You ...," says Rabbi Fred Guttman of Temple Emanuel. "I left New Orleans thinking that as Americans, we should be reciting a prayer which says, "For the sin that we have sinned against you by forgetting New Orleans and our brothers and sisters who live there."
Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate's sponsor, said people who "believe in their college or university" or "believe in their football team" already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for (Christians) to put a tag on their cars with "something they believe in," he said.
Kinda makes sense, until you get to the last graph, cause this most definitely would raise legal red flags:
Bullard, the plate's sponsor, isn't sure all groups should be able to express their preference. If atheists came up with an "I Don't Believe" plate, for example, he would probably oppose it.
The 437 children taken from the polygamist compound in West Texas are being scattered to group homes and boys' and girls' ranches across the state, plunged into a culture radically different from the community where they and their families shunned the outside world as a hostile, contaminating influence on their godly way of life.
Total membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped nearly 40,000 last year, prompting one official to declare America's second-largest faith group officially a "denomination in decline."
I'm not sure if "evangelistic passion" is the reason. But some of you know better than me.
The idea, the educator said, was to groom ambassadors of peace -- Arabs, Jews and Muslims learning Arabic and each other. The reality is that that Debbie Almontaser has been recast as something of a terrorist.
"It was also the work of a growing and organized movement to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life."
Whatever your faith or nonfaith, this is a worthy cause: First Baptist Church of Greensboro is inviting the public to enjoy a free afternoon of music and song (John Rutter's Mass of the Children) while thanking those who work with special needs and at-risk children. You might also walk away with information to help a child in your family.
Four organizations in particular will be featured through video and three-minute testimonial presentations: Children's Home Society of North Carolina, McIver and Gateway education centers, Tristan's Quest and Kid's Path of Hospice.
Whatever you think about Barack Obama's former pastor, his supporters make a good point. In general, the church may be the last place organized people can have honest dialogue -- and this latest controversy could threaten that. For example, will any church be able to be vocal about anything, even what members consider sin, if it might land them in the spotlight?
The annual book sale turns 50 at St. Francis Episcopal Church. Here's how you can stock up.
A Fayetteville lawmaker wants to put an end to a state law restricting sex education to teaching only abstinence in most North Carolina public schools.
He says children are needlessly exposed to cervical cancer and other diseases because some abstinence-only programs dispense inaccurate data. These discussions usually lead to heated discussion and debate with the faith community most solidly on the abstinence-only side. I wonder if anything has changed.
In India, the gods are going hungry.
Likely not coming to a theater near you: The film paints a postive picture of Jesus, but implies that Christianity, a faith of 2 billion people and the core of much Western philosophy, is based on a falsehood.
Woman says she sees image of Jesus on her ultra sound. See it for yourself.
The former Dominican priest says evolution "is more consistent with belief in a personal god than intelligent design."