Saturday, December 11, 2010

Religulous, the conversation continued

Going off of the previous post, here is an interview with a Catholic priest on his view of the movie Religulous.

Religulous


Religulous is a movie that came out in 2008. I have never seen it, but I know a few people who have seen it and they say it's very interesting and brings up a lot of different questions about religion. 

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Westboro Church Update

SUPER ironic. So here's the short story broken down.

Just a refresher...Westboro Church is the church who crashes soldiers funerals and hoots and hollers with signs saying, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "God hates America," etc. etc.

So here's the scene:

Ryan Newell is a retired Sgt. War Veteran who served in Afghanistan.
Ryan Newell apparently started following some Westboro Church members after they held a protest at a local high school.
Ryan Newell gets arrested for stalking.
Ryan Newell was in jail on $500,000 bond.
Ryan Newell spent a WEEK in jail.

Westboro Church members go along with their daily, hate-spreading messages.


?

Read the full story here.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The War on Christmas Continues

In the United States, we are lucky to be able to debate and communicate freely about religious issues. The Atheist billboard that we've mentioned in a few posts has been counter-attacked: The Catholic League has put up a billboard on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel to promote the message of their beliefs.


This is actually a very witty article about the battle. Besides the sarcastic humor, it tells a good chronology of the billboard war.

What is religious freedom?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Touching on an age-old issue...

Muslim Orphans in America?

Not so much. Check out this full article explaining the complicated system still in place for Muslim orphans to be adopted in the U.S. Although many Americans want to adopt from Iraq and other Islamic countries, the process is at a standstill. There are laws in place that complicate the transfer of orphans from the Middle East to the Western world.

From what I understand, the reason for this lack of cooperation stems back to a time in history involving slaves.

Just a short excerpt:
"Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said adoption in that period had more in common with slavery. Men would take in boys, then erase any tie between the child and his biological family. The goal was to gather as many fighters as possible as protection for the tribe. Orphans' property was often stolen in the process."


Interesting that these laws are still in place...but for what?