Religion News & Religious Videos: Religion News // Current

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Not in the "NEWS": Martial Law Declared In Ukraine Over Mystery Epidemic: Pneumonic Plague

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has all but declared martial law in the country as he announced yesterday that the National... more

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Where do you fall on 'The Spectrum of Theistic Probability'?

Richard Dawkins posits that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other." He goes on to propose a... more

retro_Syl
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Church of Scientology accused of torture and forced abortions

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, has voiced “concerns” over the Church of Scientology after a senator... more

WakeUpPeople
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The Banana is the Atheist's Worst Nightmare

New Zealand born evangelical Christian Ray Comfort, aka "the banana man", has published a new 150th anniversary edition... more

pjacobs51
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The invisibility of the black atheist

It can be argued that in most African American communities it is more acceptable to be a criminal who believes in God and goes to... more

retro_Syl
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The Top One Reason Religion Is Harmful

So what is it about religion -- exactly -- that's so harmful? I've argued many times that religion is not only... more

WakeUpPeople
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Death Threats force removal of Atheist Billboard

"'Don't believe in God? You're not alone' was the message on a billboard put up by the Cincinnati... more

DeliaTheArtist
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Minnesota Catholics fund fight against gay marriage in Maine

Though the Maine Legislature passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, residents voted against the bill in a ballot measure... more

hpseaton
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Who is a Jew? Court case in Britian looks at the question.

The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism itself.

Who is a Jew? And who gets to decide?

On the surface, the court was considering a straightforward challenge to the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London. But the case, in which arguments concluded Oct. 30, has potential repercussions for thousands of other parochial schools across Britain. And in addressing issues at the heart of Jewish identity, it has exposed bitter divisions in Britain’s community of 300,000 or so Jews, pitting members of various Jewish denominations against one another.

“This is potentially the biggest case in the British Jewish community’s modern history,” said Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper here. “It speaks directly to the right of the state to intervene in how a religion operates.”

The case began when a 12-year-old boy, an observant Jew whose father is Jewish and whose mother is a Jewish convert, applied to the school, JFS. Founded in 1732 as the Jews’ Free School, it is a centerpiece of North London’s Jewish community. It has around 1,900 students, but it gets far more applicants than it accepts.

Britain has nearly 7,000 publicly financed religious schools, representing Judaism as well as the Church of England, Catholicism and Islam, among others. Under a 2006 law, the schools can in busy years give preference to applicants within their own faiths, using criteria laid down by a designated religious authority.

By many standards, the JFS applicant, identified in court papers as “M,” is Jewish. But not in the eyes of the school, which defines Judaism under the Orthodox definition set out by Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Because M’s mother converted in a progressive, not an Orthodox, synagogue, the school said, she was not a Jew — nor was her son. It turned down his application.

That would have been the end of it. But M’s family sued, saying that the school had discriminated against him. They lost, but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal this summer.

In an explosive decision, the court concluded that basing school admissions on a classic test of Judaism — whether one’s mother is Jewish — was by definition discriminatory. Whether the rationale was “benign or malignant, theological or supremacist,” the court wrote, “makes it no less and no more unlawful.”

The case rested on whether the school’s test of Jewishness was based on religion, which would be legal, or on race or ethnicity, which would not. The court ruled that it was an ethnic test because it concerned the status of M’s mother rather than whether M considered himself Jewish and practiced Judaism.

“The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act,” the court said. It added that while it was fair that Jewish schools should give preference to Jewish children, the admissions criteria must depend not on family ties, but “on faith, however defined.”

The case’s importance was driven home by the sheer number of lawyers in the courtroom last week, representing not just M’s family and the school, but also the British government, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the United Synagogue, the British Humanist Association and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

More at link.The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism... more

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2 months ago

Our Founding Fathers Were NOT Christians

Just a history lesson for those interested in the subject.

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95 comments

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12 days ago

Church Works Hard to Keep Sex Abuse Documents Sealed Away

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has been trying its hardest to keep sealed thousands of pages of documents related to... more

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2 comments

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16 days ago

Stephen Colbert takes on the Mormon Church's Anti-Gay Ways

Nailed 'Em - Mormon Church Trespassing The Mormon Church arrested Derek Jones and Matt Aune for criminal trespassing, not... more

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16 days ago

Fallen pastor Ted Haggard to again lead worship

Ted Haggard, who was dismissed from the megachurch he founded after a man alleged a cash-for-sex relationship with him, plans to... more

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17 days ago

10 Common Misunderstandings of the Catholic Church EXPLAINED!

why are there so many misunderstandings regarding the Catholic Church and the areas that involve it? We have decided to try and... more

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17 days ago

The War On Christmas Has Begun!

Catholic League President Bill Donohue has made the declaration. For almost three decades, there has been a Christmas parade... more

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19 days ago

Muslim unrest hits US homes...wife attempts to kill husband for not being pious

In what may be the first recorded instance of a Muslim wife attempting to murder her husband for not being pious enough, a Staten... more

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15 comments

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19 days ago

Dutch mark 5th anniversary of filmmaker's murder by Muslim fanatic

The Dutch marked the fifth anniversary Monday of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic, a brutal killing that... more

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7 comments

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19 days ago

Jesus Goes to the Dark Carnival: Hell House Gets a Makeover?

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1976/jesus_goes_to_the_dark_carnival%3A_hell_house_gets_a_makeover

A demon guides you through the shadows. The bodies of teenagers are strewn about like broken dolls in the mangled remains of a car, bottles of Jim Beam tellingly scattered about the wreckage. A young woman sits steeped in her own blood, surrounded by what looks like modern medical equipment in a women’s clinic but dying from a “botched abortion” anyway. Finally, an angry voice from a glowing figure shrouded in white orders you off into hell, a basement room where scenes, the likes of which Clive Barker dared not dream, swirl out of the dry ice. Male S&M Demons whip teenage girls who cry out in pain and despair.

These are maybe not the kinds of things you’d expect to see on a crisp fall evening at your local evangelical church. Still, in the 1990s, tens of thousands witnessed these scenes at church sponsored attractions known as “Hell Houses.” Born out of anxiety over the allegedly satanic meanings of Halloween and the desire to convert souls, evangelical churches created these “Christian Haunted Houses” to convince children and adolescents of the reality of the last judgment and damnation. Instead of unquiet spirits, vampires, and chainsaw-wielding madmen, the vengeful ghosts of the culture wars haunted these Houses.

Abundant Life Christian Center in Colorado created one of the first, most successful, and most controversial Hell Houses. Attempting to be as edgy as possible, Abundant Life actually used animal intestines to represent an aborted fetus in the stock “women’s clinic” scene. Gruesome effects such as these proved successful enough to allow Abundant Life to package and franchise their effort, creating a 280-page guide explaining how other evangelical churches could create their own Christian horror show. Hell houses spread throughout the Southern and Western United States garnering lots of attention and claiming plenty of converts. In 2001, filmmaker George Ratliff took notice of the phenomenon in his wonderfully rendered documentary Hell House.

In the last decade, a new version of the Hell House, a softer and gentler version, has appeared known as “Judgement House” (yes, always judgement with two ‘e’s). Judgement House, which specifically presents itself as a remodeled Hell House, points out that Hell Houses tend to deal with “socially controversial issues such as homosexuality, date rape, and suicide.” In contrast, Judgement House claims to avoid such topics preferring, according to its FAQ section, to “show participants the consequences of choosing the gift of eternal salvation… as well as experiencing a small part of the separation from God in hell that is the consequence of rejecting that same gift.”

Although the Judgement House scripts do make a conscious effort to avoid the language of the culture wars, the symbols are still present and powerful. One of their scripts entitled “Home of the Brave, Land of the Free” tells a story of conversion against the backdrop of the Iraq War. An online preview of the script suggests that the narrative marries jingoism with true piety, portraying the heroes of the script, Corey and Kevin, as “living their dream of defending the country they love,” having gone to Iraq to “love and serve Jesus Christ, the Hero of all mankind.”http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1976/jesus_goes_to_the_dark_carnival%3A_hell_house_gets_a_makeover A... more

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19 days ago

Abortion Foe Urged Faithful to Burn Pelosi and Reid

article by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, from BeyondChron

Right-wing, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she spoke outside the Capitol building last Thursday on the new Democratic healthcare reform bill. Terry yelled, “Nancy Pelosi, you will burn in hell for this!”

Pelosi responded by thanking the “insurance companies of America.” Terry and his small crew of right-wing Christian militants staged a street theatre protest earlier that day as Congressional workers were arriving at their jobs. The handful of protesters were dressed for the upcoming pagan holiday as demons, with one wearing a Pelosi face mask, and another the likeness of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Terry, who founded the notorious Operation Rescue, is on a crusade against healthcare reform that includes a government option because he says it will provide abortions, even though President Obama has stated that it will not. Since August, Terry has been running around the country disrupting town hall meetings and threatening violence to government officials who support abortion.

Terry used the upcoming Halloween holiday to announce a scary contest for the conservative Christian set. The kind who run around with “fags burn in hell” signs at funerals.

Terry called on his comrades to participate in “Burn in Hell,” anti-healthcare reform protests by lighting up effigies of Pelosi and Reid. There’s even a youtube video showing the faithful how to build the effigies and set them ablaze.

Participants in these demonstrations were encouraged to send in their photos and videos from their Halloween burnings for a chance at prizes, including a Washington trip during Roe v. Wade anniversary week in January. Roe v. Wade was the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America.

Explained Terry, “We are giving people a way to peacefully vent their anger at the murder that Pelosi and Reid are trying to ram down our throats.”

Of course, by “murder” he’s not referring to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the countless poor folks who die because they cannot afford to pay for healthcare.

“If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this,” Terry told the Huffington Post. But not for allowing more children to die in the wars or because their parents can’t afford healthcare.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, was not thrilled with the contest: "I don't think appealing to people's anger and in effect inciting them to acts which either display or in any way project violent acts is consistent with rational discussion of very critical issues."

But it is consistent with the way right-wing Christians have always dealt with those they don’t like. When they weren’t burning witches and faggots in ages past, they were inciting violence against Jews and others.

Terry can say that the intention of his burnings was a peaceful venting of anger, but those of us who have been victims of his brand of Christianity don’t find his words very reassuring.article by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, from BeyondChron Right-wing, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry interrupted House Speaker... more

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19 days ago

Bob McDonnell's Christian vision for Viginia...including regulating sex lives of citizens?

Politician Bob McDonnell is the front runner in Virginia's gubernatorial race. Reuters reports that he's opened up a 17 point lead over his opponent, Creigh Deeds.

Based on McDonnell's thesis which he wrote for his masters degree from televangelist Pat Robertson's law school, McDonnell thinks it's a good idea for the state to regulate the sex lives of its citizens.

On pages seven and eight of his thesis McDonnell wrote complaining about "radical individualism" of Americans and lamented the fact that the court case of Griswold v. Connecticut "postulated a new view of marriage by asserting that the 'preservation of marital privacy' precludes state interference with the right to use contraceptives, even though the state had long been empowered to regulate the legal and sexual relationships of marriage."

It's common knowledge that politicians from both political parties say what they think you want to hear. Once in office they do what their handlers with the cash want, not what the voters want or what America needs. Following this rule of politicians, McDonnell is trying to distance himself from his thesis and the anti-freedom/anti-individualism dogma his thesis promotes, knowing full well that Americans don't want the government regulating their sex lives.

The Washington Post reports that when McDonnell was in the Virginia General Assembly he tried to push through 10 of his policy goals that are in his thesis. This is in line with the goal of the Christian Reconstructionists which is to subvert the American government and change it from a Constitutional government to a theocracy based on the Bible.

Many people who believe the Bible to be the word of God have never actually read it for themselves. If they did, they would know that there are many unAmerican and unnatural teachings in the Bible. For example, how do you feel about slavery? The Bible does not condemn nor outlaw slavery. One restriction it does put on Hebrews who own slaves is that it requires them to free their Hebrew slaves after six years of bondage. However, the Hebrews are permitted to keep Gentile slaves “for ever” and to pass them on to their children. (Leviticus 25:39-46) If the Christian Reconstructionists do succeed in turning America and the world into a giant Bible-based theocracy, will they allow the Jews to keep Christians and other Gentiles as slaves “for ever”?Politician Bob McDonnell is the front runner in Virginia's gubernatorial race. Reuters reports that he's opened up a 17... more