Who Pays the Price for the First Amendment?
Source: The Atlantic The late Irving Feiner would have made a hell of a lawyer. After he spoke to my First Amendment class twenty years ago, a few students suggested […]
Author Archives
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A lone Muslim campaigns in Myanmar’s stronghold of radical Buddhism
Source: Reuters The city of Mandalay in northern Myanmar is a Buddhist religious centre so crowded with temples, monasteries and monks that they can sometimes seem innumerable. Much easier to […]
NYPD officer ‘converted’ to Islam to spy on Muslim Brooklyn College students
Source: Tribune A New York Police Department (NYPD) officer pretended to convert to Islam and assumed the role of a Brooklyn College student at the Islamic Society in New York […]
Why Do The British Drink So Much?
Source: BBC News I first met alcohol in the late 1980s. It was the morning after one of my parents’ parties. My sister and I, aged nine or 10, were […]
U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious
Source: Pew Research Center Modest Drop in Overall Rates of Belief and Practice, but Religiously Affiliated Americans Are as Observant as Before Is the American public becoming less religious? Yes, […]
Religious Landscape Study
Source: Pew Research Center Religions Explore religious groups in the U.S. by tradition, family and denomination Christian70.6% Evangelical Protestant25.4% Mainline Protestant14.7% Historically Black Protestant6.5% Catholic20.8% Mormon1.6% Orthodox Christian0.5% Jehovah’s Witness0.8% […]
Washington high school coach placed on leave for praying on field
Source: CNN A Seattle-area assistant high school football coach has been placed on paid leave for continuing to pray on the field after games, weeks after his school district warned […]
Indian imams issue joint fatwa against IS, call it un-Islamic
Source: Islamic News Daily Describing the acts and actions of Islamic State as against the basic tenets of Islam, over 1,050 Islamic scholars in India have issued a fatwa against […]
These Technologies Will Shift the Global Balance of Power in the Next 20 Years
Source: Singularity University Governments, businesses, and economists have all been caught off guard by the geopolitical shifts that happened with the crash of oil prices and the slowdown of China’s economy. Most believe that the price of oil will recover and that China will continue its rise. They are mistaken. […]
Libya warns it could flood Europe with migrants if EU does not recognise new Islamist government
Source: The Telegraph Libya has issued a veiled threat to send “hundreds of thousands” of extra migrants to Europe if Brussels does not give official recognition to its self-declared Islamist […]
Rabbinical Council of America officially bans ordination and hiring of women rabbis
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Rabbinical Council of America, the main modern Orthodox rabbinical group, formally adopted a policy prohibiting the ordination or hiring of women rabbis. The policy announced Friday by the RCA came after a direct vote of its membership, according to the organization. The resolution states: “RCA members […]
With new chief rabbi, black Hebrew-Israelites make bid to enter the Jewish mainstream
Source: The Washington Post The Israelites walked slowly, chanting in Hebrew and wrapped in loose white robes. A reverential silence spread across the crowd as one figure emerged above the […]
F.B.I. Tool to Identify Extremists Is Criticized
Source: The New York Times The F.B.I. is about to introduce an interactive program it developed for teachers and students, aimed at training them to prevent young people from being drawn into violent extremism. But Muslim, Arab and other religious and civil rights leaders who were invited to preview the […]
Episcopal Church installs its first African-American leader
Source: The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Episcopal Church, whose history is entwined with the founding of the United States, is installing its first black national leader this weekend. […]
Ice Age engravings found at Jersey archaeological site
Source: BBC News A dig in Jersey has yielded a stash of hunter-gatherer artefacts from the end of the last Ice Age, including stone pieces criss-crossed by carved lines. They […]
Why don’t people see the yeti any more?
Source: BBC News Until recently it was common for people in Bhutan to share stories of their encounters with the Himalayan yeti. But with the arrival of modernity, villagers no […]
Sinai plane crash: ‘External influence’ caused crash
Source: BBC News The Russian airline Kogalymavia has blamed “external influence” for Saturday’s Sinai plane crash which killed 224 people. A senior airline official said: “The only reasonable explanation is […]
How Can God Be Real If the World Is So Broken?
Source: Huffington Post There is a lot of bad news. I often hear people lament, how can you possibly believe in God when bad things happen? I look at it […]
Turkish faith movement secretly funded 200 trips for lawmakers and staff
Source: Religious News Service WASHINGTON — A Turkish religious movement has secretly funded as many as 200 trips to Turkey for members of Congress and staff since 2008, apparently repeatedly […]
German Protestant church’s scandalous idea rocks evangelical community
Source: Religious News Service One of Germany’s largest Protestant regional churches has come under fire from other Christians for speaking out against efforts to convert Muslims just as tens of […]