[via technorati, via talkingpointsmemo]
Who do these wee Christians reckon "the Deity Supreme" is? What do they reckon that is? What do they reckon that the Supreme Being their Hindoo brother prays to is if He isn't God? There is no God but God. God is One, there is just He: fundamental theological principle, of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, yes, and Hinduism, yes? This is such an entry level concept.
Re-virgin-ization breaking into news again:
Across the country, "revirginization" appears to be gaining steam. Spiritual efforts to reclaim virginity emerged back in the early 1990s and now, prompted by abstinence-only school courses taught to thousands of girls nationwide, and by religious teachers, there are reports of more and more young women like Watts attempting a sexual do-over. Other women are opting for a more radical route to reclaim their virginity: surgical replacement of the hymen, the small membrane that stretches from the walls of the vagina and that typically breaks when a woman first has intercourse — or for many other reasons, from tampon use to vigorous exercise.
In the last few years, say doctors who perform the surgery, a steady stream of patients, many motivated by the conflict between mores in this country versus their country of birth, or the country of their parents' birth, are interested. "The rate of inquiries is increasing," says Dr. Denise Baker, a Bradenton, Fla., surgeon who performs the procedure on about 100 women a year.
[via MSNBC]
Amazing -- the right traditionally eschews 'feel good' and relativistic 'feels good to me' theology for hardline fundamentalist, literalist readings of the Good Book. But here we have grown women, many times deflowered, claiming that they're prayer makes them "feel" like virgins again. And the megachurches are buying it wholesale... which opens the way for repairing the once-opened hymen with surgical technology.
Is that cosmetic surgery? Would be morbidly curious to see a meme map showing connections and overlays between this technologically accomplished (but thoroughly prayer-powered) re-writing of biological history & that most gruesome, disempowering (and also religiously motivated) act in sub-Saharan Africa -- female "circumcision".
Go read some Alice Walker, please.
Bishop Nazir-Ali, who remains under police protection with his family, went on to warn that unless Christianity fills the current "spiritual and moral vacuum" that has grown in Britian over the last 50 years Islam could its place.
"Do the British people really want to lose that rooting in the Christian faith that has given them everything they cherish - art, literature, architecture, institutions, the monarchy, their value system, their laws?" he asked.
{via ChristianToday}
That vacuum? That may be a spiritual vacuum, but it's not a moral one. And it's the fault of the Church that people don't play Church anymore. Somebody said 'the future of Christianity is contemplative -- or there will be no Christianity.' The rote and rule and empty rite has created the vacuum.
Women 'reclaiming Islam'
American Muslims' determination to grasp the basic principles of their religion - rather than the sometimes harsh rules contributed by other cultures during its long history - grew out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers.
Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy stands on Brooklyn Heights and surveys the southern tip of Manhattan. She recalls the events of 11 September 2001, and the moment she made it her mission to reclaim the Islam of her childhood.
We've been working with a variety of organisations on really taking the teachings of Islam and delivering them without the baggage of tradition
Lena Alhusseini
"I was bombarded by questions from friends," she says. "They kept saying, 'why does Islam suppress women? Why does Islam condone violence?' I was flabbergasted at the Islam of the hijackers which was so disconnected with the Islam of my youth - which was not extremist at all."
Turkey is intent on sweeping away that "cultural baggage" and returning to a form of Islam it claims accords with its original values and those of the Prophet.
Women are re-examining their portrayal in the scripturesBut this is where the revolutionary nature of the work becomes apparent. Even some sayings accepted as being genuinely spoken by Muhammad have been altered and reinterpreted.
Prof Mehmet Gormez, a senior official in the Department of Religious Affairs and an expert on the Hadith, gives a telling example.
"There are some messages that ban women from travelling for three days or more without their husband's permission and they are genuine.
"But this isn't a religious ban. It came about because in the Prophet's time it simply wasn't safe for a woman to travel alone like that. But as time has passed, people have made permanent what was only supposed to be a temporary ban for safety reasons."
The project justifies such bold interference in the 1,400-year-old content of the Hadith by rigorous academic research.
Prof Gormez points out that in another speech, the Prophet said "he longed for the day when a woman might travel long distances alone".
So, he argues, it is clear what the Prophet's goal was.
A leading retailer in Singapore has withdrawn a cosmetics range with a Jesus theme after complaints from local Roman Catholics, local media report.The range, named Lookin' Good for Jesus, was on sale at three Topshop outlets in the Asian city state.
Catholics complained the cosmetics' marketing was disrespectful, full of sexual innuendo and trivialised Christianity. [BBC NEWS]
This is a courageous talk for a Church of England vicar to have given. It concludes that certain traditional concepts of God just won't do ... and calls for believers and nonbelievers alike to dig deeper in their quest for truth.
1. Mary Magdalene and the Mighty Mix-up
Speaks of the historical conflation of three women and of several stories; and the deliberate or accidental agenda around sex and sexism in the development of Christianity.
2. The Evolution of the Notion of Sin
Speaks of the development of the idea of sin from taboo-breaking to covenant-breaking to law-breaking to being asleep.
3. The Evolution of the Notion of Forgiveness
Speaks the development of the idea of forgiveness from tribal reintegration to rededication to covenant to priest-mediated reconciliation to Self-realization.
Myspace is all about pride, selfish desires , lust of the flesh and outright evil. It amazes me how many people are blind to the devises of the enemy as they have not changed since the Garden of Eden.
Under English law, people may devise their own way to settle a dispute in front of an agreed third party as long as both sides agree to the process.
Muslim Sharia courts and the Jewish Beth Din which already exist in the UK come into this category.
Dr Williams' comments are likely to fuel the debate over multiculturalism in the UK.
Last month, one of Dr William's colleagues, the Bishop of Rochester, said that non-Muslims may find it hard to live or work in some areas of the UK.
The Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said there was "hostility" in some areas and described the government's multicultural policies as divisive.
He said there had been a worldwide resurgence of Islamic extremism, leading to young people growing up alienated from the country they lived in.
He has since received death threats and has been placed under police protection.
Not until we know the Self as one can we overcome our addictive attachments to worldly things and truly enjoy what we possess on earth. Those who put on this light of Self-knowledge will pass by the archons while in the world and make their mystical ascent into the light. According to the Gospel of Philip:"Not only will the archons be unable to detain the perfect ones, but they will not be able to see them, for if they see them, they will detain them. There is no other way for a person to acquire this quality except by putting on the perfect light and becoming perfect oneself. Everyone who has put this on will enter the Kingdom. This is the perfect light, and it is necessary that we by all means become perfect ones before we leave the world."In the Lenten purification with the ashes we can take on this perfect light, not in another world after death, but here in this flesh. In this manner, we return our dust to dust, and find beneath it the fiery being and incorruptible light of our true Self—the Christ within.
The Revealer was created first and foremost as a resource for journalists and media makers. To that end, we seek to bridge the divide between media makers and academe. Following is a guide to scholars from around the world who work with New York University's Center for Religion and Media and would like to work with journalists and media makers. They're among the big thinkers in their respective fields, but they're not "authorities"; by their involvement with the Center for Religion and Media, they signal their commitment to the idea of media as an ongoing conversation, one in which the expertises of scholars, media makers, and ordinary people complement one another rather than competing for the last word.
That our Christian friend in the orange cap meant well isn’t in question. Of course he only wanted what was best for Catherine and me. But he failed to interest us in Christianity because his evangelizing effort was grounded in what all such efforts are necessarily grounded in: A lack of respect on the part of the evangelizer. He didn’t respect us, or our belief system.
By disrespecting us, the evangelizer proved to my wife and me that he did not love us, because love without respect is no love at all. And by not loving us, that brother was breaking what Jesus himself called the greatest law of all: To love your neighbor as you love yourself.
I’m a Christian, and proud of it. But unless I’m missing something so huge it’d be like a car parked in my living room, that Christian was violating Christ’s most important and explict directive to all Christians. I’d like that not to be true, but I just can’t see how it isn’t.
Evangelicals are killing Christianity, y'all... at least it looks like they're trying their damndest to.
Anybody ever heard of Kennedy Roshi? Or Habito Roshi?
(And look at good old Deshimaru here, making fun of Bodhidharma... Can your Oklahoma City evangelical make fun of Moses or Paul?)
I don't care what the name of your religion is.
I care that your religion has made you a kinder, more compassionate person.
The essential task for the Christian is to understand poverty as the condition of spiritual development, to see prayer as the deepening of our conversion -- of our turning from 'self' to God in faith.
... the mantra is the sacrament of our poverty in prayer.
How would you describe Gnosticism to someone who's never heard of it before?
I think we could describe it as a very early form of Christianity, very different in many respects from what Christianity became later on. It is much more individualistic. It is much more orientated toward the personal, spiritual advancement and transformation of the individual, regarding figures such as Jesus as being helpers rather than sacrificial saviors. It is a form of religion that has a much more ecumenical and universal scope in terms of its relationship to spiritual, religious traditions other than the Christian.
