Monday, December 31, 2012
The Core Deficient Self and Relationship | Undivided
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Blogs.timesofisrael.com: A Muslim Perspective on Radicalism
All too frequently in the post 9/11 era, the religion of Islam is often associated with violence, attacks, suicide bombers or despotic practices especially by people in the West who are unfamiliar with the religion of Islam and the way of life that it entails. Given this picture, concepts like liberty, democracy, freedom of speech are considered to be wholly inconsistent with Islam. This is surely a misrepresentation of Islam, since like all of the three Abrahamic religions, it is based on the concepts of love and peace. The word Islam itself is derived from the Arabic word "slm" which means peace.
While some schools of Islam are said to represent the so-called radical Islam, as a matter of fact, there is no such concept. Radicalism, whether it belongs to a religious group, a political party or an entire ideology is the regrettable extreme of any school of thought or philosophy while Islam is a compassionate religion that embraces all humankind with love and affection.
Any group or organization which expresses extreme notions or concepts in fact is not acting in compliance with the spirit of Islam. Consequently, these groups or organizations suffer from erroneous misconceptions. God commands us to treat People of the Book (Christians and Jews) with compassion. In the Koran God says;
"Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way..."[Koran; 29:46]
The erroneous approaches of radical groups mainly stem from ignorance. Thus, it is important to reach out to them since whether in Islam or in any other religion or even in matters of political ideology, radicalism can never bring any good to people. Using this precise information, it is then possible to discern between what is normal and deviant. There is only Islam and there are Muslims. The source of Islam is solely the Koran. Thus, being a Muslim means to abide by the teaching of the Koran. Yes, there is the concept of jihad in Islam. But the word "jihad" means "to strive, to make effort". It is to approach people with love and compassion and to convince them with scientific and intellectual evidence, it is to communicate the love of God, the magnificence of the Koran and its righteous aspects. That is the "jihad" as defined in the Koran, in Islam; it does not entail beating someone about the head or sending forth suicide bombers to massacre people during their afternoon commute or to pour bombs upon innocent people, women and children. Islam definitely forbids such attempts. The only fighting permitted in the Koran is an intellectual struggle and the only time Islam permits war is when it is purely a last resort left as a self-defense mechanism...
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-muslim-perspective-on-radicalism/
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Doesn't suck: Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin - Kennedy Center Honors - YouTube
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
New York Times: Why, God?
When my friend Robin was dying, she asked me if I knew a priest she could talk to who would not be, as she put it, “too judgmental...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/dowd-why-god.html
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Stunning wildlife drawings
Sunday, December 23, 2012
To a saint, her daughters, and a man I admire and love.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
100 Riffs (A Brief History of Rock N' Roll) | Soundslice
The Illusion of Choice | Best Infographics
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
My feelings, somewhat vindicated: A Defense of Social Media : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/12/a-defense-of-social-media.htmlSent via Flipboard
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
RIP Dave Brubeck
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Examiner.com: We should place "devotion to the truth" higher than "devotion to God"
Recently there was a Christian/atheist debate held at Portland State University. Today, a video excerpt was posted in which Dehler (an atheist and former Christian) explains one major reason why he was able to leave behind the Christian...
http://www.examiner.com/article/we-should-place-devotion-to-the-truth-higher-than-devotion-to-god
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Bucket list: India's Kumbh Festival in photos
TO India, for the Kumbh Festival.
Amar Bharti, 58, a Naga sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man, who claims to have left uncut his nails for 28 years, speaks on his mobile phone near the land allotted for setting camps for the upcoming over-a-month-long Mahakumbh fair in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take part in the largest religious congregation on the banks of Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, amuna and mythical Saraswati, during the festival in January 2013, which falls every twelfth year.
Sadhus, or Hindu holy men, led by Swami Madhav Das mark the area of land allotted to them for setting up tents for the upcoming over-a-month-long Mahakumbh fair in Allahabad, India, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take part in the largest religious congregation on the banks of Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, amuna and mythical Saraswati, during the festival in January, 2013, which falls every twelfth year.
The hair of a Sadhu, or Hindu holy man, is decorated with marigold flowers
Indians hold hands to form a human chain on the banks of the Ganges Rives urging authorities to clean up the river for the upcoming over-a-month-long Mahakumbh fair in Allahabad, India
http://www.anorak.co.uk/341394/news/indias-kumbh-festival-in-photos.html/
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Saturday, December 1, 2012
The checkout lady said calling out 'code red' on the escalator if I wanted a bigger buggy would not be meaningful.
Friday, November 30, 2012
You think I'm bad on FB, you should try working with me. Actual IM session I just had:
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Pleasant and happy making: Cover Tune Grab Bag - "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - YouTube
Monday, November 26, 2012
When the English stormed the Emerald Isle in the 17th century, they took everything that was worth taking and burned everything else. Thereafter, the Irish had no land, no money, no future. That left them with words, and words became books, and books, ing
When the English stormed the Emerald Isle in the 17th century, they took everything that was worth taking and burned everything else. Thereafter, the Irish had no land, no money, no future. That left them with words, and words became books, and books, ingeniously coupled with music and alcohol, enabled the Irish to transcend reality.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Cool: Tulsi Gabbard, First Hindu Elected To Congress, Will Swear In On Bhagavad Gita, Sacred Hindu Text
When Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii resident who made history this month at the first Hindu elected to Congress, attends her swearing in ceremony in January, she's poised to mark another first in American politics: Gabbard will take her oath over the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text.
While no religious ceremony is legally required for those elected to Congress and the Senate, many choose to take oaths of office over Christian and Jewish texts, and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim, took his oath over a Quran. But Gabbard's use of a non-Abrahamic text will be unique and is symbolic of the growing religious diversity of Congress.
"For the Hindu Americans it is a historic moment ... It is a matter of pride that finally someone not only from our own faith, but someone who is a practicing Hindu, will be sworn in the Congress on one of our most sacred books," said Anju Bhargava, founder of Hindu American Seva Charities and a former member of the White House's Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
"It is my hope is that this swearing in will be another learning opportunity for our country about Hindus and Gita. Another step towards bringing the knowledge and values of Gita even more prominently to the American political landscape so that it becomes part of the everyday vocabulary in applying the moral principles in our political arena," said Bhargava, whose organization works to promote Hindu participation in civic life.
The Bhagavad Gita, which is often referred to as the Gita, is one of several Hindu texts, but Gabbard has said it's her primary sacred text. It is comprised of 700 verses and 18 chapters of the famed Mahabharata epic and is told in the form of a dialogue between Arjuna, a warrior-prince, and Krishna (God), in which they discuss his role and philosophical concepts in the Sanatana Dharma (Universal Order), which is popularly known as Hinduism.
...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/tulsi-gabbard-first-hindu-congress-bhagavad-gita_n_2159249.html
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Barefoot run up and down Mt Doug in a storm yesterday.
So windy at the top had to take my glasses and hat off or sacrifice them to mother nature's whims.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
This appears to be briliant: Youtube duet: Miles Davis improvising on LCD Soundsystem - YouTube
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Bingo: amherststudent.amherst.edu: A Marriage Between Buddhism and Science
B. Alan Wallace "87 is not the typical Amherst alumnus. Author of more than 20 books on Buddhism and science and a practicing Buddhist monk for the entirety of his time at the College, he now goes on meditative retreats for months on end, performing psychological experiments in a lucid dream state to attempt to discover the true nature of reality, happiness and suffering.
Finding His Own Path
Wallace was born to a devoutly Christian family and spent his youth travelling the world with his Protestant theologian father. However, he was strongly interested in science from a young age and struggled to reconcile his passion for science with his deeply spiritual upbringing.
"I was looking for an integration of truth and meaning. Christianity offered meaning, but I couldn't tell whether it was true; science offered truth, but I couldn't see any meaning in it. I was looking for a true and meaningful life, and I didn't see any real options or promising avenues," Wallace said.
When he went to the Univ. of California-San Diego in 1968 to study ecology, he soon became disillusioned with both his classes and America in the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Seeking a change of scenery, he spent his junior year abroad, studying at the Univ. of Göttingen in Germany, where he first discovered Tibetan Buddhism. He quickly became engrossed by Tibetan culture and religion, discontinuing his university education and spending months in a local Buddhist monastery studying under the guidance of German monks. At last, he had found a belief system that united his love of science with his search for meaning.
"I found what I was looking for in Tibetan Buddhism. It's very deeply experiential; it's very sharp, very rational and intelligent - and it's also profoundly meaningful. To my mind, it's a true, comprehensive science of the mind that I haven't found anywhere else. It's both scientific and also deeply spiritual," Wallace said.
During his time at the German monastery, a flier arrived announcing a year-long class on Tibetan Buddhism for Westerners taught in Dharamsala, India under the supervision of the Dalai Lama in exile. After meditating on the opportunity and seeking guidance from his lama at the monastery, Wallace decided to enroll in the course and traveled to India to begin perhaps the most transformative period of his life.
Staying in the home of the Dalai Lama's personal physician, Wallace fell in love with the freedom and intellectual fulfillment offered by his studies. After three months in the program, at the age of 21, Wallace had his first personal meeting with the Dalai Lama, and instantly knew he had found his mentor.
"I knew I found my spiritual guide or guru or lama if you'd like. He's been my teacher ever since," Wallace said...
http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2012/11/12/marriage-between-buddhism-and-science
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Opednews.com: The Community Organizer versus the Bain Capital Manager
Recently on Morning Joe David Frum, lamenting Mitt Romney's presidential bid fiasco, said, "Mitt Romney could have been a really good president . . ." but he was "twisted into pretzels . . . the people that put cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking." There are lots of recriminations to go around, and blaming Mitt Romney for the loss in his second-time bid for the presidency is just one. Yet this does not compute. It defies simple logic. They twisted him in pretzels but he "would be a really good president." Ironically, this would-be-really-good president, Mitt Romney, allowed himself to be twisted in pretzels and had cement shoes put on his feet without resistance. Mr. Romney did not push back against this but if he did it's clear he did not succeed.
Romney as president would not have had to do much. On this point Grover Norquist said, "All we have to do is replace Obama. We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We just need a president to sign this stuff. Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared." The would-be-really-good president never shared anything about his time at Bain Capital, his taxes over 10 years, his signature legislative achievement, Romney Care, or his governorship of Massachusetts. This would-be-really-good president/manager's raison d'être for being president is repealing Obama Care and privatizing Social Security and Medicare to funnel more money to rich people like himself as tax breaks, because he has said rich people create jobs and 47 percent of Americans are takers. This would-be-really good president went abroad and insulted the Brits and pissed off the Palestinians. He accused the president of leading from behind, and of bowing down to foreign leaders. Gov. Romney thinks Russia is the greatest threat to the United States. And he seems to have been rattling the sabers against Iran (and maybe China, too)...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Community-Organizer-ve-by-Seymour-Patterson-121112-324.html
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Sunday, November 11, 2012
Suntan lotion is so overrated
My equator, near the Costa Rican-ish border, several years ago. #impeccablechoices #KenHeganforsomereason
Suntan lotion is so overrated
My equator, near the Costa Rican-ish border, several years ago. #impeccablechoices #KenHeganforsomereason
Fast Company: The Leadership Genius Of Abraham Lincoln
The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight to the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last a thousand years.... He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together... and as a great character, he will live as long as the world lives. - Leo Tolstoy, 1909
Move over, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. With the 2012 election finally decided, our thoughts now move to Abraham Lincoln, widely regarded as the greatest president in American history.
Lincoln resurfaces this month thanks to the release of Steven Spielberg's new movie depicting our sixteenth President's final days in office - as he seeks to abolish slavery, end the Civil War, and save the Republic. Of course, even before seeing the film, we already know that, just six days before being assassinated, Lincoln succeeded at all these stunning ambitions.
That Lincoln was one of the most effective leaders in world history is a notion fully supported by his extraordinary accomplishments. But I've long wondered whether workplace leadership could be substantially improved were we to better understand - and adopt - the fundamental character traits that made him so remarkably influential with people.
In search of this insight, I recently mustered up the resolve to read all of the nearly 800 pages of in Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning Lincoln biography, Team Of Rivals. My many hours of reading proved well spent.
The profound lesson to be drawn from this book is that Lincoln led brilliantly, not just from his mind, but also his heart. General William Tecumseh Sherman called it his "greatness and goodness."
While Lincoln's exceptional intellectual skills were readily apparent at an extremely early age, his deeply humanitarian instincts very well may be the reason he'll be revered by all future generations. At a time when employee happiness and engagement has reached an all-time low in the U.S., the example of Abraham Lincoln may just be what we need to re-inspire workers everywhere.
Molded By Loss
Born in a log cabin in rural Kentucky, Lincoln grew up in abject poverty. His father never learned to read or write, working as a hired hand with little ambition. While his bright, caring mother taught him to read and spell, she contracted "milk sickness" and died when he was just nine. Routinely lent out to farmers needing workers, Lincoln had virtually no formal schooling. While still a boy, he witnessed the death of his infant younger brother and, later, his beloved older sister.
According to Kearns Goodwin, throughout his entire adult life, "Lincoln neither romanticized nor sentimentalized the difficult circumstances of his childhood." Instead, his acutely painful experiences became the source of life-long compassion and concern for others...
http://www.fastcompany.com/3002803/leadership-genius-abraham-lincoln
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Thursday, November 8, 2012
OM Times Magazine: Seduction of the Mind
By Nita Goyal
Written in visionary fiction , Seduction of the Mind encompasses vast and complex subjects in the realm of mind-body-spirit genre and mysticism. The book, targeting people interested in exploring meditation and non-dual teaching of Vedanta shows how to live a life of abundance, joy and compassion by the power of right perception and awareness.
All of us have at one time or another wondered: Who am I? What is the purpose of Life? How to connect to the indwelling source of Reality? Seduction of the Mind takes us deeper into the structure and dynamics of being individual in relation to the Universe. It shows us how our understanding is veiled by the principle of egoism; thereby we are forced to create a distorted perception of people, things, and events. It is deeply influenced by the teachings of ancient eastern Vedanta text. At times abstract and highly metaphysical, this book takes readers on an incredible journey through the conversations between three characters — Radha, the monk, and the woman in white. As the journey of Radha progresses readers are also gently led into the deeper parts of their mind and soul. Profound concepts such as the mystery of success and failure, illusion of joys and sorrows, principle of ego, fallacy of our perceptions, mystery of physical and subtle world, and the secret of meditation are explored. If you are aspiring to delve deeper into the subject of meditation and mysticism then this book may be your answer.
To learn more, or to purchase Nita Goyal's book Seduction of the Mind, visit: nitagoyal.com
Nita Goyal currently lives in California with her family. When she is not hanging out with her family she is meditating, reading, or writing. Seven years ago Nita Goyal started to go through a spiritual transformation through meditation practices. As her spiritual experiences and insights began to intensify she started writing about them. Soon thereafter she felt a calling to organize her writings into a book. It took her five years to do so. Since then she has a deep desire to share the knowledge with the world and feels honored to be doing so. In the process she wishes to evolve as well. Her spiritual insights have continued to grow and deepen with time. At present she is working on her second book.
http://omtimes.com/2012/11/seduction-of-the-mind/
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WBUR: Golden Age: Mary O'Malley's Dazzling Drawings
Mary O'Malley's untitled drawing.
BEVERLY, Mass. - Mary O'Malley"s dazzling designs have often seemed part jellyfish, part flower, part chandelier - all built from shimmering veils of silvery dots and dashes that glow against black paper. Her new abstract patterns add a new inspiration: "I like to think of them," the Beverly artist writes, "as organically growing architecture."
"I started becoming really interested in architecture, specifically Buddhist and Hindu temples, and that led me to the discovery that the structure of many Hindu temples is based on fractal geometry, which relates to my other work with its connection to patterns in nature," she says in an email...
http://www.wbur.org/2012/11/08/mary-omalley-drawings
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The Christian Science Monitor: Election 2012: Has Nate Silver destroyed punditry?
Some pundits were woefully inaccurate in their Election 2012 predictions, but those who relied on data - like Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog - did well. "Moneyball" has come to punditry.
Has Nate Silver destroyed punditry? This question arises due to New York Times poll analyst Mr. Silver's accuracy in predicting the 2012 election results and the media context in which that occurred.
For weeks now, some in the traditional punditocracy - the folks who look at a poll, call a campaign official, then consult their gut feelings over lunch - have hammered Silver for his statistics-heavy approach. He gave a false appearance of certainty, they said. He was way too bullish on President Obama's chances, they said. His numbers were skewed, they said...
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/1107/Election-2012-Has-Nate-Silver-destroyed-punditry
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The Huffington Post: Robert J. Elisberg: Who Is Most Pissed Off After This Election
I never expected to ever say, "Poor Ann Coulter." But - poor Ann Coulter. I really feel badly for her, in a manner of speaking. But not for the reason you think. Not because Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States. Rather, I feel bad for her because of her responsibility in that victory.
Remember the famous video where Ms. Coulter says, "If Chris Christie doesn't run we'll nominate Mitt Romney and we will lose"?
Now, I'm sure that many people, Ann Coulter included, think that this statement was prescient and shows her to be oh-so wise in her election prediction. Except that it doesn't. It shows her culpability.
Mitt Romney probably came closer to winning the presidency than any Republican could have this election. If Chris Christie ran, he could never have gotten the Republican nomination in this Republican atmosphere - compared to today's radical far right, Chris Christie is a moderate. That wasn't going to fly with today's Republican electorate. So, Chris Christie wasn't getting the GOP nomination if he ran, despite whatever the weeping Ann Coulter postured.
However, what Ann Coulter did do was help build up the pedestal of Chris Christie among Republicans who didn't really know him. She helped make Chris Christie seem to Republicans that he was The Republican Savior. She helped make Chris Christie's voice so deeply important to Republicans that he became the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention.
So, when it turned out that Chris Christie wasn't exactly what Ann Coulter suggested he was, nor what she tried to get Republicans to believe, and Chris Christie then publicly and repeatedly and powerfully embraced the strong leadership of President Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it made Gov. Christie's actions all the more significant to voters...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/election-results-2012_b_2086123.html
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Religion Dispatches: Obama and the Death of Normal
I was on an airplane last night as the election was decided. As the plane landed after midnight on the East Coast, I confess that my hand was shaking as I turned on my phone for the news. I did not want to see dishonesty and divisiveness and raw political hackery rewarded. It is hard enough for anyone to actually address the problems, to move this country forward, to make the intransigent American ruling class yield even a yard of the past to the inevitable future. But going backwards last night would have been devastating. I read the returns in silent elation; a business trip had me traveling in business class and the gnashing of corporate teeth all around precluded a full-throated huzzah on my part. I abhor a gloat.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/wire/6601/obama_and_the_death_of_normal/
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Lucid:The Huffington Post: Jim Wallis: God Is Still Not a Republican, Or a Democrat
Co-authored by Jim Wallis and Wes Granberg-Michaelson
During the 2004 presidential election season, Sojourners put out a bumper sticker with these words: "God Is Not a Republican, or a Democrat." The number of orders was overwhelming and we kept running out. The simple message struck a chord among many Christians who were tired of the assumptions and claims by the religious right that God was indeed a Republican, or at least voted a straight-party ticket for the GOP. They also absurdly implied - and sometimes explicitly stated - that faithful Christians couldn't support Democratic candidates. We said that voting was always an imperfect choice in a fallen world, based on prudential judgments about how to best vote our values, that people of faith would always vote in different ways - and that was a good thing for a democracy and the common good.
Our efforts appeared to inject some common sense into our nation's political discourse, but given recent electoral statements and newspaper ads from some conservative Christian leaders, it appears the message bears repeating - God is still not a Republican or Democrat.
Politics always desires to make a handmaiden of religion. And the voice of prophetic faith witnessing to God's intentions for the world's present and future always seems difficult to hear amid the noisy clamor of political rhetoric. We've watched these dynamics, and participated in them, for four decades. During this presidential campaign, we lament the way in which religious faith has been abused, manipulated and neglected in the heated, focus-group-tested sound bites that fill our airwaves and pass for "substantive" policy debates.
...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/god-is-still-not-a-republ_b_2076849.html
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
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Friday, November 2, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
BINGO~CNN Belief Blog: My Take: Billy Graham and Ralph Reed are putting politics before God
Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN
(CNN)–Why are evangelicals like Billy Graham and Ralph Reed stumping for Mitt Romney? And why are roughly three-quarters of white evangelicals inclined to vote for him?
Because politics matters more to them than religion.
Last year, in a talk at a conference on Mormonism and Islam at Utah Valley University, I asked my Mormon listeners why they had not rushed to the defense of Muslims in controversies such as the one that raged over the Park51 project near ground zero. After all, they have been the victims of religious prejudice. Their founder, Joseph Smith, was killed by a mob of vigilantes.
Given this history, I expected that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, would feel the sting of anti-Muslim prejudice and speak out against it. But neither Mitt Romney of the GOP nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the Democratic Party did anything of the sort. In fact, Romney issued a statement opposing the construction of the Islamic center.
Why? Because they were thinking and acting as Republicans or Democrats first and Mormons second.
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I see a parallel story playing out this election season with the religious right.
Until quite recently, many evangelicals saw Mormonism as a dangerous cult spreading false theology and dooming its followers to hell. In fact, only after Romney showed up for a meet and greet with Billy Graham in North Carolina earlier this month did the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association erase a reference to Mormonism as a "cult."
Did Mormons all of a sudden change their theology? Did Graham change his definition of a "cult"? Of course not. It just became politically expedient for Graham to declassify Mormonism, given the fact that Romney, a Mormon, was the presidential nominee of his beloved GOP.
Ralph Reed, too, is forsaking his theology for his politics, mobilizing his Atlanta-based Faith and Freedom Coalition to place voter guides in Ohio churches in the run-up to election day.
I am old enough to remember when the main purpose of Reed's Christian Coalition and other groups on the religious right was to put born-again Christians in the Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. And for decades those who were running those groups saw Mormons as non-Christians.
And don't get me started on Mike Huckabee, who in a recent ad says that a vote for Obama is a vote for your own damnation.
Have LDS Church members repudiated the Book of Mormon as "another testament of Jesus Christ" or their view that the Bible is the word of God only "as far as it is correctly translated"? Have they accepted the Trinity? Rejected their teaching that there are many gods?
As Ben Witherington, Albert Mohler, and many other evangelical thinkers continue to insist: no, no, and no.
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
I used to believe that the purpose of the religious right was to infuse American politics with Christian politicians and Christian politics. I no longer believe that. The purpose of the religious right is to use the Christian God for political purposes. Why any Christian, conservative or liberal, can say "Amen" to that is beyond me.
I am perfectly happy to see Reed stump for Romney in Ohio and Graham plump for Romney in an ad in The Wall Street Journal. Just don't tell me they are doing so as Christians. They are doing so as shills for the GOP.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/01/my-take-billy-graham-and-ralph-reed-are-putting-politics-before-god/
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012
I really *don't* know what she's selling now, but good on Fox news for giving her front page coverage
It was just a matter of time: 1800 homophobia:Rightwingwatch.org: Religious Right Rabbi Blames Hurricane Sandy on Gays, Marriage Equality
Rabbi Noson Leiter of Torah Jews for Decency is blaming Hurricane Sandy on gays and lesbians, calling it “divine justice” for New York’s new marriage equality law. Torah Jews for Decency campaigned against marriage equality in New York and New Jersey, worked with Liberty Counsel and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms in an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn New York’s marriage law, and has joined with various other Religious Right groups on anti-gay campaigns.
Yesterday, Leiter appeared on Crosstalk, the flagship program of Vic Eliason’s Voice of Christian Youth America, alongside Neil DiCarlo, a candidate for New York State Senate, to discuss New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage.
Leiter asserted that the “the Great Flood in the time of Noah was triggered by the recognition of same-gender marriages,” adding that there are similar “messages in this particular storm for us.” “The Lord will not bring another flood to destroy the entire world but He could punish particular areas with a flood, and if we look at the same-gender marriage recognition movement that’s occurring, that certainly is a message for us to learn,” he said. “We have to learn that the Lord does watch what we do and if we don’t shape up He will deliver divine justice.” Leiter also suggested that God flooded Lower Manhattan because it is “one of the national centers of homosexuality.”
Listen:
Later in the program, Leiter argued that the “LGBT radical homosexualist movement” threatens the survival of society and religious freedom and will even increase child abuse by giving molesters a “license to victimize” children and even “a certain degree of diplomatic immunity.”
Eliason: Rabbi Leiter, you have been passionately involved in the fight for biblical, moral values, why?
Leiter: I think that’s what the Lord wants us to do and if we do not we face an existential threat. There is an issue of the survival of morality being necessary for the survival of society, and that’s not just an issue that’s specific to marriage. In addition there’s an issue of religious liberty. The LGBT radical homosexualist movement is really the Avant-guard of Bible-haters of all different types, not just limited to the left. The advance towards homosexual rights and so-called marriage is not predicated on getting rights, and just thereby stepping on the rights of Bible believers. The purpose is to bash Bible-believers using their so-called rights as a pretext do so and that’s why it is so critical to oppose them because they’re not after something that they think is theirs, they’re after us.
…
Leiter: There are so many things that people could point out about the negatives aspects of the homosexual life that is being touted as being this wonderful idea that the media doesn’t talk about. We’re talking about victimization that goes on under the rubric of protecting people’s rights; they’re not interested in protecting people’s rights, they’re interested in giving people a license to victimize, particularly to victimize children, and we pick up the pieces on some of that. We know how hard this is hitting society. The crisis of child molestation is not independent of the intentional proliferation of unfettered homosexuality, they are definitely connected, it doesn’t meant that every molester is homosexual but many of them are, there is a disproportionate number that are homosexual males. They are in some cases being given a certain degree of diplomatic immunity because of their favored status centered around a common vice. That’s something that no state has a right to do.
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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-rabbi-blames-hurricane-sandy-gays-marriage-equality
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012
If I could afford this , it would be a helluva gift for Hoto (15k) : A 'real' Myst book
Monday, October 29, 2012
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