Current Events in International Religious
News
Religion News Service
AP International
News at Newsday.com
Islam News
War on Terror (my page dedicated to
commentary, links and information about Afghanistan, the Middle
East, the war on terror and the 9/11 attacks)
News Stories to watch for:
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Jews need
to be perfected?? Ann Coulter, October 2007, remarked that
her ideal world and Heaven would look like New York City
during the Republican Convention. When pressed on this,
she stated that everyone should convert to Christianity,
including the Jews, who she said need to be perfected.
According to her, Christians have a fast track through Christ,
and Jews have to obey laws. If all the Jews converted,
things would be better. Her statements raise interesting
questions about the
relationship between the conservative Evangelical Christians
and their Apocalyptic beliefs regarding the nation of Israel and the Jewish
people. I recommend investigation of the concept of
"dispensationalism" [article
fromTheological Studies web site, and
Wikipedia ] |
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Father Christian Von Wernich, Argentinian Catholic priest has
been sentenced to life in prison [alternative
link] for his involvement with
the "dirty war" (1976-1983 during the rule of
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo whose military junta overthrew
the government of
Isabelita Perón, the widow & 2nd wife
of
Juan Perón,
widow of Eva
Duarte de Perón.)
Von Wernich has been found guilty of
betraying the trust of parishioners whose confessions were
handed over to the military.
According to testimony at the trial he even used his religious
authority as part of the torture process. Perhaps the most
important dimension of this verdict is that the Catholic
Church of Argentina has been implicated in collaboration with
the military in the brutal torture
and murder of between 9,000 and 30,000
people. Following this trial will surely come an
expanded investigation of the Church. This follows the
recent apology of Pope John Paul for the silence and inaction
of Pope
Pius XII during Hitler's
rule in Nazi Germany,
and current
Pope Benedict's participation in Hitler Youth.
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Pope Benedict's latest book raises the usual questions
about Darwin, but clearly states that science and reason are
interdependent, suggesting that the Church accepts the general
notion of evolution, but that the philosophical questions that
underlie this cannot be answered by science. In other
words, his remarks cut both directions--blocking the more
radical anti-evolution position of many Christians, and
rejecting the absolute authority of science promoted by many
in the scientific community.
Vatican
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn praises Darwin and says that
his theory of evolution and religious teachings on creationism
are not incompatible. What this seems to mean is
that a major authority in the Catholic hierarchy is saying
that when it comes to scientific investigation, the theory of
evolution is persuasive and does not necessarily contradict
the book of Genesis. Obviously, he is not suggesting
that evolution happens without "intelligent design," but he is
also making it clear that, when understood within the domain
of science that evolution does not prove that there was no
Creator. Another less obvious implication of this is
that the Catholic Church appears to be distancing itself from
the more radical anti-evolutionists within the Protestant,
Evangelical movement, without alienating themselves too much
from those who wish to maintain their religious beliefs.
This gesture appears to manifest some of the wisdom from their
experience with Galileo--to wit: it's best not to stand in the
way of science...some gentle advice from a more experienced
elder. It could also be interpreted as a "shot across
the bow" for Evangelicals. It also means that
Evangelical litigants in anti-evolution battles over school
curriculum won't be able to count on support from the Vatican. |
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Iraq: The Hidden Story -- [other sites showing this video:
Google Video,
Hardliner Blog], a British documentary on what is
happening on the ground in Iraq. It shows the images and
information that our media in America is suppressing.
Warning: There is considerable graphic content here, but
the quality of the information is very high. Jon Snow
remarks at the beginning that his is the least covered war of
the modern age, and then examines the public relations issues
involved in suppressing this horrifying information.
"Prod/ Dir: Christian Trumble; Exec Prod: Stephen Phelps; Prod
Co: Zenith Entertainment Ltd - 2006 Images of Iraq
dominate our TV news bulletins every night but in this film,
Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow, questions whether these
reports are sugar-coating the bloody reality of war under the
US-led occupation." |
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A little humor--the small Serbian village of Zitiste has
decided to
erect a statue of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) that they
believe will ward off bad luck in the town. |
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This Guardian UK article is interesting. It
describes an important shift in the Iraqi insurgency.
Apparently, the Jihad against Americans is shifting to a Jihad
against Shi'ites (since it is clear that the Shi'ites have
been engaged in a Jihad against the Sunnis). |
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Bad news from Afghanistan... Recent news about
escalating violence and the resurgence of the Taliban has not
included an even more
unsettling increase in the number of women and girls who are
setting themselves on fire to escape domestic violence.
Various international NGO's have reported increases, and the
estimated 36 cases this year represent a doubling of the
number from last year.
Afghan News update on Taliban.
More news from 2005 on the resurgent Taleban. |
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Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his wife are crowned as the King
and Queen of Peace in a peculiar celebration in the United
States Senate, attended by Republican legislators and representatives of conservative
Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The obvious implication
is that this cadre of power players is promoting Moon as the
Messiah and King of Peace who will unite the world into a new
world order--one world, under one God, and funded by the very
deep pockets of Rev. Moon.
Click here to view a video documentary of the event produced
by the Unification Church, and accompanied with photos of
our legislators crowning and robing Moon in royal garments in
a strange ceremony. This video is on a blog site "I
Approve This Messiah" dedicated to disseminating
information about Rev. Moon's influence on conservative
politicians in Washington D.C. Scroll down the page to
the 9/26/2006 entry entitled "Pat Boone, Ralph Reed and.. [Sun
Myung Moon]" for another interesting video that includes a
clip of George H.W. Bush praising Reverend Moon's American
newspaper "The Washington Times", an important conservative
mouthpiece. There is also video of Moon events attended
by Gerald Ford, Gary Bauer, Ralph Reed and other conservative
political and religious figures. The Family
Federation for Peace and Unification--is an organization
sponsored by Moon to further this agenda, and is the new
incarnation of the former Unification Church, known also as
"the Moonies." If all this isn't enough to
make you wonder what's happening, even Louis Farrakahn of the
Nation of Islam is clinging to the ermine robes of Moon.
[Salon
article] The
Freedom of Mind website provides resources and information
about Moon and the various incarnations of his Unification
movement. |
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David Kuo, former 2nd in command of George W. Bush's
program for Faith Based Initiatives (FBI?) has
published a book in which he severely criticizes the Bush
administration, and accuses them of using Christian
Conservatives and the Faith Based Initiatives program to
score political points, while returning nothing of substance
in return.
MSNBC article
(Order
book at Amazon) While I find it heartening to see
that Christians are questioning the piety of the Bush
administration, it is also (for me) a bit unsettling to think
that these people believe that Bush hasn't done enough to
force the Christian agenda, or, as some of us might describe
it, "American Theocracy." It's worth noting the
similarity of their rhetoric to that of Iranian clerics who
rail against liberals and wish to purge their country of
secular humanists and liberal voices. |
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Wiccan soldiers fighting for the right to have their religious
symbol, the pentagram, engraved on their tombstones in
Arlington Cemetery. Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart's case
received considerable media attention, and on Sept. 13. 2006
(almost exactly 1 year after his helicopter was shot down by
an RPG in Afghanistan), they relented, but apparently they are
still resisting actually putting in the tombstone bearing the
symbol of his religion, so a lawsuit was filed by the family
in Nov 2006. Wicca is an officially recognized
religion, and
is
discussed in the official US Army Chaplain's Handbook, and
the status "Wiccan" is engraved on soldiers' dogtags.
Scholars estimate that there are approximately 1,800 Wiccans
currently serving in the military, and 134,000 Wiccans
nationwide. |
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East Indian family accused of witchcraft beheaded by villagers
after unofficial trial. Apparently the 60 year-old father
of the family was a traditional healer, and a mysterious
epidemic spread among the workers on a tea plantation.
He was beheaded along with two of his sons and two daughters.
This took place in Assam, an isolated, poor, rural province of
extreme Northeast India that extends between Bangladesh and
Bhutan. [click
for more info ] During the past two years 70 people have
been killed in a zealous campaign to end witchcraft. The
local indigenous faith is called Bathow, and it involves tree
worship, as well as the potential for black magic. For
more information on this culture and its religion,
click here
also contains photos, and more
historical background on this little known area. |
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Images of Mohammed controversy. This rather interesting
conflict has raised a lot of questions for non-Muslims and
Muslims. Many Muslims assert that all
representative art which portrays humans or animals is forbidden.
Representations of Mohammed are doubly problematic because
they could potentially become objects of idolatrous worship. In
most Islamic illustrations where Mohammed is shown,
his face is veiled. Nevertheless, there
are many examples of Muslim art representing animals and
humans. Furthermore, there were even some few examples
of images of Mohammed where his face is not veiled, and a lot
of images of Mohammed with his face veiled. (If it is
forbidden, does a mere veil over his face really
prevent Muslims from worshipping his image?)
Also, there are quite a few examples of Christian images
of Mohammed that have been much less flattering than the
series of Danish cartoons. In the interest of
scholarship, and freedom of speech, I am posting links here to
the
cartoon images in question, and to
a
large and fascinating collection of images of Mohammed from
various historical sources--some Muslim, some Christian.
The reason I have decided to place a link here to the
offensive cartoons is to encourage you to make your own
decisions about them (since our media seems to be afraid to
publish them). Note that I have not actually posted the
images here. I have only provided you a link to them
that you can view if you wish.
I think that most viewers would agree that the images are
not terribly interesting, thoughtful, or even outrageous--certainly
not more outrageous than some Muslim cartoons I have seen that mock
Christians and Jews.
In contrast, the collection of assorted historical images of
Mohammed is intensely interesting, and in comparison, shows
both negative and positive portrayals. Given that Arab
newspapers have long printed offensive representations of Jews
and Americans, the current controversy seems rather odd.
How exactly do these protesters think that they can suppress
the free speech of democratic nations that are not Muslim?
By calling our attention to the cartoons, the protesters have
evoked a strong democratic reaction in favor of freedom of
speech in the face of sectarian efforts to squelch it.
The angrier the protesters get, the more they solidify Western
opposition to their pleas, and further alienate more liberal
voices in the West that might be sympathetic to the cause of
helping Muslims. Personally, I find the context of this
problem to be much more interesting than the
rather
stupid cartoons themselves. Why now? Why these
Danish cartoons and not other offensive images?
Why cartoons? What power does a cartoon have that other
means of communication do not? Why are Western authorities so apologetic about this?
Why do the protesters draw more attention to the images by
protesting them so loudly? Who exactly are these
protesters? What exactly do they want the West to do in
response to their anger? Do these cartoons really go
beyond the hate and intolerance expressed by previous images,
such as those that show Mohammed in Dante's Hell? Do the
numerous, extremely offensive cartoons of Jews in Arabic
papers undermine the argument made by Muslims? |
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3rd Century Christian Church unearthed in Israel while
excavating for a prison expansion at Megiddo, the scriptural
location of the battle of Armageddon, or the Apocalypse.
The presence of fish imagery in the mosaics rather than
crosses suggests that it predates Constantine, who promoted
the Cross as the primary symbol of Christianity.
Ironically, the site is within the current walls of a prison,
which means that tourism and even research will be difficult.
The 1,200 inmates are being held under a rather "Patriot
Act-like" administrative detention, and many have never been
officially charged with a crime. Inmates were doing the
actual digging, and one of the inmates was the first to
discover the mosaics. Given the controversial
information that has issued from the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls
research regarding early Jewish Christianity, this find could
raise yet more tough questions for orthodox Christology.
Since the find is within the walls of a prison, it will be
easier to control access. More links:
Guardian UK,
ABC, |
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After a long court battle, a Wiccan priestess in Virginia
loses her case before the Supreme Court.
Click here for more info on the case known as "Simpson v.
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors."
Meanwhile,
in the Netherlands, Wiccans win the right to deduct occult
educational expenses from their taxes just like any other
educational expense because the training was necessary to
become a witch, and being a witch can be seen as a profession
in which you can earn money. |
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Hurricane Katrina will very likely open up a long simmering
debate over the role of government. Right wing religious
ideologues have long been complaining that reliance on the
government is a form of idolatry. That is why they
dislike welfare, public schools and FEMA. Their goal is
clearly to dismantle such public sector agencies and convert
them into faith-based (religious) and private (corporate)
agencies with no government oversight. There are already
a bunch of accusations and stories going around about the Bush
administration's connections to
Pat Robertson and his Operation Blessing, which has been
receiving federal tax dollars through Bush's executive
mandated, but congressionally unapproved dept.
of Faith-Based Initiatives. FEMA is in fact endorsing
O.B. for contributions, and the current Republican leadership
has in fact been dismantling FEMA and absorbing it into the
Department of Homeland Security. The more paranoid among us might
wonder if perhaps the poor response of FEMA was an intentional
ploy to further undermine the public image of this federal
program, thus paving the way for a private sector disaster
relief program. Imagine radical cleric Pat Robertson
with a squadron of helicopters. Imagine WalMart with a
quasi-military subdivision aimed at disaster response.
Anyway, whatever your opinion is on this matter, expect to see
a heated debate about the role of government in this area.
Should we pay tax dollars to a public sector, secular agency
or should we rely on charitable contributions and presidential
executive order tax dollars funneled into religious
organizations for disaster relief? This of course begs
the question as to how a minimally incentivized private
corporation, or a protestant, faith-based FEMA would respond to a
disaster in a predominantly Democratic (78%
voted for Kerry in 2004) & French Catholic (and we all
know how Evangelical Republicans feel about Catholics and the
French) city like....New
Orleans, for example. [from
the Left, an
excellent article spells out the controversy from the Left,
from the
Right,
more from the right, and the conservative CATO Institute
has three interesting articles criticizing the Bush
administration's policies on FEMA
Federal Failure in New Orleans,
A
Government Spread Too Thin,
Storms of Stupidity. ] |
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It would seem that radical cleric Pat Robertson is never long
out of the news spotlight when it comes to the nexus of
current events, politics and religion. In late
August 2005 he used his own TV station to issue a fattwa for
the assassination of the elected leader of Venezuela.
This is an act of terror by definition, and it is
especially problematic in that Robertson was a former GOP
presidential candidate, a close associate of the current
president, and currently the recipient of huge amounts of both
tax dollars and charitable contributions intended for aiding
the victims of hurricane Katrina. It is even more
problematic that he owns a TV network that he can use at his
whim to promote his terrorist agenda.
The White House dismissed his call, but they still have a
problem in that
Bush previously tried to oust Chavez in a US sponsored failed
coup in 2002. |
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Jim Wallis of Sojourner
Magazine spoke at Westminster Presbyterian Church,
Nicollet and 12th Street, Minneapolis. on Thursday April 7,
2005. His dynamic and moving speech on "Why the Right
Gets It Wrong and Why the Left Doesn't Get It" opens a doorway
into the growing movement of liberal Christianity. You
can
hear the speech on the Minnesota Public Radio archive.
You really need to hear it to understand what a revolutionary
thing it is. |
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Speaking of Faith: Violence and Crisis in Islam This
weekly radio show examines the current crisis in Islam under
the critical scrutiny of the world. Vincent Cornell, a
Muslim convert and Professor of History and Director of the
King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the
University of Arkansas, is the center of the discussion.
He presents some very interesting criticisms of the modern
trend toward violence and "radical superficiality" in Islam.
Listen to the entire show. On this page are also
links to other shows dedicated to examining current issues in
Islam. |
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Genocide Warning: Sudan--Resources and background
information from the Holocaust Memorial Museum on the
horrifying situation in Darfur, Sudan. For those who may
have missed this story in the news, nomadic Arab Muslim
immigrants to the area are slaughtering black Christian
farmers. The Arab government in Sudan is protecting
their own as the black Christians are fleeing to refugee
camps. Guess what? There's oil in Sudan! "Why
Islam" hosts a discussion page on this topic. |
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Secular Conservatives, Richard Mellon-Scaife, Pseudoreligion,
Genocide in Sudan and Right Wing takeover of the United
Methodist Church: A truly important and fascinating
article on the PR/cointelpro style activities of secular
conservatives masking themselves as Christians to shape
international and national political policies. In short,
this article demonstrates how the debate over the separation
of church and state has transformed into a veritable plot to
impose corporate interests onto the church AND the state.
One of the primary sources of these activities is, according
to the article, the
Institute on Religion and Democracy. Probably the
most significant enemy of this organization is the
National Council of Churches,
representing the Christian "left." |
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Pakistan: Bloody Sectarian Legacies interesting article
from the Kashmir Telegraph on the history of Shi'a vs Sunni
conflicts in the region. The author provides a narrative
of the history which explains the anti Shi'a violence in Iraq
and Pakistan. The paper and the author are Indian,
making them partisans in the war over Kashmir, but separating
them from the Sunni-Shi'a conflict. Hence, I'm not sure
how reliable the information is, but it certainly provides
more details than we have gotten in the Western media. |
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The Passion of the Christ (movie reviews and my opinions)
off-site: Note--I am deeply bothered by this movie, so don't
go here if you don't want to read my rather angry criticisms.
Perhaps you might prefer to
read the official B'nai Brith response to get the
perspective of American Jews who are offended by the film.
Krista Tippett's April 1, 2004 show deals with the Jewish
roots of Christianity, and the questions raised by this film.
I thought that Joel Marcus' interview was outstanding.
As a Jew who converted to Christianity, he has a really
interesting outlook on the whole issue of the relationship
between Jews and Christians. The
Marc Chagall painting "White Crucifixion" framed one of
the most profound commentaries on this history I have heard in
a while.
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The Despoiling of America--This disturbing article,
supported by exhaustive, annotated research, gives a very dark
picture of the Neoconservative/Reconstructionist Christian
movement. [for more on this topic,
click
here] |
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244 Killed during Hajj February
1, 2004 : Articles from--
Muslim News,
BBC News,
Virtual Hajj at PBS
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Deciphering The DaVinci Code: Krista
Tippett's NPR show "Speaking of Faith" scrutinizes the
historical issues behind the ultra-popular novel, revealing a
number of important errors and problems. Although the
critiques presented in this show are very strong, they didn't
examine the possibility that even if Jesus was not actually
married to Mary Magdelene that European royal families might
still have slyly promoted this idea for several reasons.
If you like esoteric conspiracy theories, my favorite book is
Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. It's
similar in form, but the secret is quite different in nature.
Although Eco is clearly poking some fun at these ideas, there
is also much higher quality research behind it, and the author
is masterful in his mixing of fact, irony and humor.
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Anti-Islamic Underbelly of the
Bush Administration: Although Bush
has been outwardly making statements in support of Islam, his
choices for important offices have left few observers in doubt
as to his real intentions. Aside from Attorney General
John Ashcroft's fanatical devotion to Christianity, which is
manifesting in the anti-Constitutional "Patriot Act", two
other personages figure high on the list of evidence that
there is an institutionalized effort to to secretly destroy
and discredit Islam: Franklin Graham of
Samaritan's
Purse [critical articles:
1,
2,
3,
4 ] and General William Boykin's inexcusable,
overtly religious, offensive remarks [ critical articles:
1,
2 ] Remember that the First Amendment
prohibits any law from being made that interferes with the
free exercise of religion. There is no suggestion that
such oppression can't occur as hate speech, or covert
behaviors, though. Whether or not the Bush
administration really is actively pursuing a secret agenda to
destroy Islam or not, the fact remains that the majority of
Muslims believe strongly that he is--especially in Iraq.
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Homosexuality and Christianity:
This is a broad theme that is heating up dramatically under
the leadership of the openly Evangelical George W. Bush.
The ordination of a gay bishop in the Episcopal Church
threatens to divide the Church in two. Conservative
commentator
Mark Tooley asserts that this is not a trend, but an
aberration of a minority of liberal protestant sects.
Others suggest that this could bring about a radical schism
that will spread throughout the Christian churches in the
world--liberals vs conservatives. The really challenging
issue within this is the political jockeying to tie together
the pro-life and anti-gay positions of Christians with the
anti-socialist, pro-business agenda of the corporate right
wing. If Christians are split over these personal
ethical issues, then the corporate forces will have that much
more free reign over the hearts and minds of those who choose
the conservative path. Also, dialogue between the two
factions will evaporate, such that the people who support the
moral conservatism will no longer be exposed to the voices of
those who support the political and economic criticisms made
by
Christians on the left of the spectrum. It is evident
that Bush intends to add fuel to the fires of divisive
politics here. He chose October 12th 2003 as the first
day of an Executive Ordered "Marriage Protection Week."
There isn't a single gay activist who believes that the
anniversary of Matthew Shepard's beating coincidentally
falls on that same date. This has been interpreted as a
shot across the bow by those who do not believe that
homosexuals are any more inclined to sexual crimes than
heterosexuals. |
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Faith-Based Initiatives - failing to authorize his program
through the appropriate legislative channels, President Bush
has taken over 65 billion dollars and created his program by
presidential fiat. Perhaps most disturbingly, the
White
House office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives
doesn't keep any records of where this money is going.
Bill Moyers and crew have tracked it down for you:
Click here, and then scroll about 1/3 of the way down the
page to the text "From politics and media to politics and
God". (It's a full transcript of a 1 hour show) |
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Separation of Church & State in the Constitution |
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A
depressing bit of news from "nearly post-war" Iraq:
April 10, 2003, NAJAF, Iraq --
A crowd rushed and hacked to death two Shiite Muslim clerics
-- one a Saddam Hussein loyalist [Haider al-Kadar], the other
a returning exile who had urged support for U.S. troops [Abdul
Majid al-Khoei, a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of one
of the religion's most prominent ayatollahs] -- during a meeting
meant to forge reconciliation at one of Shiite Islam's holiest
shrines, witnesses said. An unknown number of people
were injured in the melee at the shrine of Imam Ali, one of
the holiest sites of Shiite Islam, practiced by the majority
of Iraqis. ... Apparently feeling threatened, and wanting
to defend his fellow cleric, al-Khoei pulled a gun and fired
one or two shots. There were conflicting accounts over whether
he fired the bullets into the air, or in the crowd.
Al-Khoei was among the prominent returned exiles. Arriving
in Najaf April 3, he said local clerics were attempting to
negotiate a deal whereby Iraqi loyalists would leave the mosque
in return for safe passage out of the city. [Source: Newsday.com/Associated
Press] August 27, 2004: The accused assassin in this
case turned out to be the now famous Muqtada al Sadr.
The outcome and more background are given in this CNN article.
] |
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Jerry
Falwell is still working hard to give Christianity a bad name.
After placing metaphysical blame on gays,
feminists, pagans and pro-choicers for the 9-11 attacks
(claiming that all this sin made God forsake America), he
stated publicly on 60 Minutes that he believes Mohammed
was a terrorist, and therefore that Islam is essentially a
terroristic religion. After enduring a couple of weeks
of criticism, he offered a half-hearted
apology, blaming the interviewer for giving him a loaded
question.
God, [Falwell] told Robertson, had protected
America "wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this
is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by
far the worst results.
"Throwing God out successfully with the
help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public
square, out of the schools," he said. "The abortionists
have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be
mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies,
we make God mad.
"[T]he pagans and the abortionists
and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians
who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle,
the ACLU, People for the American Way — all
of them who have tried to secularize America," Falwell
continued, "I point the finger in their face and say 'you
helped this happen.'" [emphasis added]
"Well, I totally concur," responded
Robertson.
The story is all over the media. ABC News has the story
[click
here].
Later, Robertson defended Falwell, denying that the remarks were
intended to blame any group, but followed it up with this telling
remark:
``But I'd say this is a wake up call from God,''
he told The Associated Press. ``I feel our spiritual defenses
are down. If we don't repent, then more events might happen
in the future.''
If you look closely at the apology, you will notice that he used
the defense of religious faith--that he believes this is
the case, and that more Divine retributions are awaiting us unless
we "repent." One can only speculate as to what
he means in that regard, but the 700 Club offers this prayer of
repentance that reflects the same concerns and targets most of
those groups, but omits mention of homosexuals and pages.
[click
here for full text] The prayer ends with this peculiar
and interesting statement.
And Lord, it's not them [i.e. these liberals,]
it's me. It's all of us -- we're guilty before you.
And we pray, God, that you would forgive our
sins, that you would cleanse us of sin as a nation that you
would cleanse us of sin that we might be the planting of the
Lord, that we might be that city on a hill, that shining light
of freedom.
[Click
here to read Robertson's Sept. 13th prayer]
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In
Bob
Simon's story from 60 Minutes (Sunday, Oct 6, 2002) ,
where Falwell made his controversial remarks, he reveals the
fascinating and disturbing connection between Evangelical,
Protestant Christianity and pro-Israel politics. According
to modern and popular interpretations of the apocalyptic scriptures,
the return of the Jews to Israel is an important condition
for the second coming of Christ. While Ariel Sharon
and other Jews (especially those occupying the West Bank settlements)
are glad to have this fervent, even fanatical support from
Christians who also strongly support Bush and the Iraq war,
there are Israeli Jews who resent the fact that the actual
doctrine of the Christian teaching is that these Jews in Israel
will either convert to Evangelical Christianity, or be destroyed
in the coming Apocalypse. They believe that these Christians
are using the Jews to achieve their End--in the most literal
sense of the Word. Gershom Golenberg says: “They don’t
love real Jewish people. They love us as characters in their
story, in their play, and that’s not who we are, and we never
auditioned for that part, and the play is not one that ends
up good for us.” Consequently, the hardline position
of these Evangelicals is that the Palestinians must be relocated
out of the land of Israel, which belongs to the Jews. |
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After
attacking liberals and American greed, we discover that there
are highly questionable ties between Pat Robertson's
for-profit business ventures and various oppressive dictators
in Western Africa.
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Alan
Dershowitz, civil libertarian, defense attorney and ethics
scholar, is arguing for the need to use torture on arrested
terrorists. “If anybody has any doubt that our CIA,
over time, has taught people to torture, has encouraged torture,
has probably itself tortured in extreme cases, I have a bridge
to sell you in Brooklyn.” |
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Various
conservative pundits are making remarks that many Muslims
construe as racist. There are heated and controversial
arguments from both sides on this issue. Since most
Americans are aware of the discourse of tolerance, it is perhaps
useful to examine these anti-muslim arguments that are indeed
circulating among the more hawkish citizens and government
officials. I personally deplore such remarks, and I
present these several links to Ann Coulter's vitriolic tirades
to give an example of the sort of arguments that are being
made to justify racial profiling in America. [ Sept
18th, 2002 ],
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Pope
John Paul has canonized more saints (450) than any pope in
history. He has also increased the number of cardinals
in order to pack the church leadership with staunch religious
conservatives. His most recent canonization is rather
controversial: Jose
Maria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of the controversial
lay organisation Opus Dei. This semi-secret organization
is powerful in Spain and Latin America where its intellectual
and upper class membership helps control public policy--aimed
at eliminating communism and promoting Catholic morality.
Members work in the secular world, but live the lives of celibate,
self-flagellating monks, donating their salaries to the church.
Some Catholics dislike the organization and its founder.
The brevity of the period between his death and canonization
makes this a new record for the sainthood fast track.
Consequently, the Church and
Opus Dei are engaged in a large PR campaign to change
the image of the group. |
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The
American Family Association
Center for Law Policy is suing the University of North
Carolina for using Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations,
translated and introduced by Michael Sells, a religion professor
at Haverford University. The basic gist of the suit
is that this conservative Christian group resents the fact
that the selection of the most popular chapters (similar to
the emphasis placed on the New Testament by Christians) ignores
the less popular and rather more aggressive and intolerant
chapters (somewhat similar to the Old Testament, which Christians
tend to de-emphasize). In other words, they believe
that the book unfairly represents Islam in a positive light.
Although the web site for the AFA is not promoting this crusade,
the Family
Policy Network has an article describing their position.
The author and instructor Prof.
Michael Sells' responds to it. In my opinion, this
argument is ironic, since a similar suit could be filed against
a class which teaches the New Testament without examining
the more violent and intolerant chapters of the Old Testament,
which is certainly not less intolerant and violent than the
Qur'an.
For example--the
Bible and Slavery at Ontario Consultants for Religious
Tolerance. An article on Biblical
support for the use and possession of firearms.
Tim
Maroney has a very interesting and controversial article
in which he criticizes the vision of God as presented in the
Bible. It compiles a number of issues and supports them
with quotations from the Bible. This does not indicate
that the Bible is evil, but rather that there is little difference
between the Qur'an and the Bible in regards to expressed intolerance
of "infidels." |
Noosphere Global Consciousness Project:
Princeton University developed a network of
Random Event Generators that they call "eggs".
[Global Consciousness
Project web site]
38 REG devices called "eggs" placed
around the world as they responded during various periods of
time surrounding September 11. These eggs generate random data
continuously and send it for archiving and analysis to a dedicated
server at Princeton University. We analyse the data to determine
whether the normally random array of values shows structure
correlated with global events. The underlying motivation for
this work is to discover whether there is evidence for an anomalous
interaction driving the eggs to non-random behaviour. In a metaphoric
sense, we are looking for evidence of a developing global consciousness
that might perceive and react to events with deep meaning.
According to the people at this Noosphere Project, the data collected
for Sept 11, 2001 provides overwhelming evidence that something
mysterious occurred on a global scale that was statistically detectable
by studying the output of these 38 independent REG's. According
to the researchers, this is evidence for some sort of global consciousness,
which obviously has interesting implications for religions, and
therefore for this class. [click
here for more information on the Sept. 11 results]
[click
here for more information on the technology and procedures.]
[click
here for explanation of how it works.]
The information here is difficult to understand for those not
versed in statistical analysis. That would include me.
Comments from those more able to understand the mathematics behind
GCP would be greatly appreciated. This could be a giant
farce, but it is receiving a lot of funding.
This discovery may have profound implications for society.
HOWEVER, there is very little attention to it in the media, in
spite of the fact that this project is being carried out with
what appears to be rigorous scientific method, and the
data is available for all to analyze for themselves.
One other fact seems to bear mentioning in this regard: think
about the way in which the experience of Sept. 11 was communicated
across the world via television and visual images, which clearly
add a great deal of emotional impact to the news. Synchronized,
global emotional reactions to events were not possible before
the advent of satellite and internet transmission of information.
This suggests that this global consciousness could be something
that has evolved out of the information technology itself.
In other words, two hundred years ago, it was practically impossible
to have a synchronized, worldwide emotional reaction to anything.
If the conclusion of the Princeton research is correct, that there
is a sort of "mental energy field," then it is also
quite possible that it has not been a significant factor until
recently, or that it might not even have existed in the past.
The research has only been going on since 1998, well into the
age of the Internet and satellite transmission of television images.
In fact, the project itself depends upon this Internet infrastructure
to work, so it may be that the whole phenomenon is a product of
that technology.
Therefore, we have four important questions: What are the implications
of this discovery? Why is Princeton researching this in the
first place? (i.e. what possible applications does this have,
and who is interested in it?) Why is it being ignored by the press?
What is the relationship of these phenomena to the information
technology that both caused and measured the reaction
on a global level?
As a sign that this so-called "New-Agey" type of research
is becoming more mainstream, the University of Minnesota has obtained
considerable grant money to fund their graduate program in Complementary
Therapies and Healing Practices. Some of the faculty
in that program are involved in research very similar to the Global
Consciousness Project.
If you are interested in learning more about Islam and the Koran,
I already have an extensive links collection on the Monotheism
page of this site. Click
here.
There is an interesting multimedia interview/class with Robert
J Lifton, the author of Destroying the World to Save It: Aum
Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism.
Monday, Sept. 17th he spoke with Bill Moyers about the attack.
This web site provides an excellent look into the psychology of
evil and the effects of terrorism. Berkeley
University "Conversations with History" series.
Falun Gong protests in China: Persecuted religious movement based
on the teachings of Chi Kung (ji gung), Taoism
and Chinese physical practices.
China also recently executed several Muslim activists.
Japan is seeing the resurgence of the Aum
Shinri Kyo doomsday cult formerly led by Shoko Asahara.
They were responsible for the deadly nerve gas attack on a Tokyo
subway six years ago. The cult is described as "Christian-Buddhist."
The cult is also anti-semitic.
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