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Last Updated: Oct 30th, 2006 - 02:18:15 |
Religion
Christian right steps up pro-Israel lobbying
By Bill Berkowitz
Over the past two
decades, as the Christian Right has grown in political power in the United
States, there has been parallel growth in support for Israel. A number of
organizations made up of conservative evangelical and Jewish leaders have been
founded, and millions of dollars have been raised and donated to charities in
Israel.
Aug 4, 2006, 00:09
Religion
Watergate�s Charles Colson and the �Goddess of Tolerance�
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Religion has its place. But like anything, it can be
abused and used for sinister purposes. In the Middle Ages, religion was used to
justify heinous acts of torture and murder. The Inquisition was anything but
�holy,� but it was political (and profitable for its perpetrators). Extremism
is the progeny of self-serving religion married to militant politics. Charles
�Chuck� Colson recently illustrated that.
Aug 4, 2006, 00:06
Religion
Honesty and God
By Keith Taylor
Last week I used one
of the two most opprobrious words in the English language to describe myself.
It's the one that does not start with "F." I said I was an atheist.
Folks have a terrible time with that word. An old friend expressed surprise
that I could be both an atheist and compassionate. Other letters haven't even
been that nice.
Aug 3, 2006, 01:25
Religion
From the Pledge to stem cells: Values Voters� vacuous values
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Let�s see. It�s more important to preserve the words
�under God� (added to The Pledge
of Allegiance in 1954) than to fund 21st century research that has the
potential to end enormous suffering and save countless human lives. Did I miss
something here?
Jul 27, 2006, 00:59
Religion
�The Statue of Liberation,� symbol of American theocracy
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
After acknowledging he didn�t get all �choked-up�
about yellow ribbons tied around trees or flag stickers pasted everywhere, comedian
George Carlin quipped, �They�re symbols, and I leave symbols to the
symbol-minded.�
Jul 21, 2006, 00:45
Religion
Charles Colson's faith-based prison program shut down
By Bill Berkowitz
After serving time in prison for Watergate-related
crimes, Charles W. Colson embraced Christianity, founded Prison Fellowship
Ministries (website) in 1976,
and has since become a high profile, well-respected and oft-quoted Christian
conservative leader. Over the past several years, Colson's InnerChange Freedom
Initiative (IFI) has partnered with prison authorities in several states,
including Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, to
provide prisoners with a Christ-centered rehabilitation program.
Jul 21, 2006, 00:29
Religion
When hurting or killing people is the goal of religious fanatics
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
The great Irish novelist James Joyce was no fan of
organized religion. His last enigmatic novel, Finnegans Wake, began where it ended. That approach seems
appropriate here too. �Organized religion and the self-serving, self-righteous
dogma it inevitably produces may be the
worst ideas humanity has ever
concocted: �Bounty� For Killing Gays At World Pride.
Jul 13, 2006, 00:37
Religion
The rendition of Christ: Winning the battle for their souls
By Jason Miller
America as the beacon of human rights and dignity is
but a dream yet to be realized. While the dream has lain dormant, amoral
opportunists have busily unleashed their nightmare on billions of human beings.
And all the while they have trumpeted the many virtues of the United States as
a Christian nation.
Jul 11, 2006, 00:55
Religion
Saving �traditional marriage�: The therapeutic next step
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
The
Christian Right say they want to save, protect and enhance �traditional
marriage.� If they really mean it, here�s something they should
wholeheartedly support in order to help promote understanding and unity in
those �one man, one woman� marriages.
Jul 11, 2006, 00:51
Religion
When did marriage become a Christian institution?
By Jeff Nall
Republicans are
reaching into the God, Guns and Country bag of tricks once again to molest the
most ignorant and prejudice of American minds. In an effort led by zealots on
the religious right along with Republicans desperate to survive President
Bush�s plunge at the polls, House Republicans, fueled by their love of freedom,
no doubt, are poised to push the amendment to ban gay marriage to a vote the
week of July 17.
Jul 10, 2006, 00:35
Religion
Teaching bigotry and hate: Lessons from the Christian Reich
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Like all �irrational fear of, aversion to, or
discrimination,� homophobia
is a learned behavior. It feeds on hate and the desire to do harm to fellow
citizens that have been reduced to abstractions or objects of disgust.
Jun 27, 2006, 00:59
Religion
Kicking open the gates of Hell
By Mike Whitney
The prospect
of an
American defeat in Iraq grows greater with every passing day. A memo
that was
leaked to the Washington Post depicts a situation on the ground that is
steadily deteriorating into chaos. The memo, which was written by US
Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, contrasts dramatically with the
confident �happy
talk� of high-ranking officials in the Bush administration. It offers a
bleak
�insider's view� of a society that is progressively crumbling from the
nonstop
violence and lack of security.
Jun 22, 2006, 00:43
Religion
Beware the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right�s fear of self-realization and spirituality
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
They�re still at it. Those paranoid Christian
fundamentalists are again attacking yoga.
Jun 22, 2006, 00:39
Religion
MPA: The Money Producing Amendment
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
For weeks the media had been filled with reports on
and arguments about the Marriage Protection Amendment, which was soundly
defeated in the Senate on June 7, as everyone knew it would be. But it served
its fund-raising purpose nevertheless.
Jun 19, 2006, 10:38
Religion
Training ultra-conservative theocrats: The mission of Patrick Henry College
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
David
Horowitz has been beating the conservative drum and fabricating
misinformation about all those supposedly sinister �liberal� professors in
American colleges and universities. His so-called �Academic Bill of Rights� is a
blueprint for the extermination of open discussion and true academic freedom.
As the American Association of University Professors put
it, �the Academic Bill of Rights undermines the very academic freedom it
claims to support.�
Jun 14, 2006, 01:06
Religion
The Christian Right yanks Bush�s chain: A �welcomed� presidential endorsement
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
For months now the Christian Right has been whining
about how Congress and the Bush administration have not fulfilled their agenda. In a May 25 article for
Focus on the Family�s Family News in
Focus newsletter, Kim Trobee moaned, �For the remainder of the [congressional] session
they�re working hard on ethics, energy and immigration, but family issues are
missing.�
Jun 2, 2006, 00:24
Religion
The �War on Christianity� and the �Risk Audit Project�: Victimizers playing victim, yet again
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Factions of the Christian Right are notorious for
playing victim as they hide behind �religious freedom� to victimize everyone
who doesn�t bow down to their political dogma. The faith-based politicians in
their pocket do the same. It�s a marriage made in hell. The new book by David
Limbaugh (Rush�s brother), Persecution:
How Liberals are Waging War Against Christians, makes that abundantly clear.
May 31, 2006, 00:41
Religion
Da Vinci: Cross with the code?
By Sandhya Jain
It must have come as a surprise to Information
& Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmushi that India�s supposedly small
Roman Catholic community can field 200 organizations to protest the screening
of the Hollywood blockbuster, The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown�s
best-selling novel by the same name. Certainly it would have mattered to him
that not only are these the UPA chairperson�s co-religionists, but belong to
the same majority Christian sect, headquartered in Vatican City.
May 29, 2006, 01:09
Religion
June 6, 2006: An appropriate date
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
The Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution is scheduled for a vote in the Senate on June 6, 2006. That�s
6-6-6, an appropriate date indeed.
May 26, 2006, 00:56
Religion
�Our Mother who art in Heaven� -- challenging dominant masculinity
By Wanjiru Kariuki
When I came across the The War Against Women
pamphlet, I was intrigued by its discussion of the androcentric attitudes that devalue
women in the Christian church. This pamphlet was produced by the gender issues
committee of the general assembly of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in South
Africa, and published in 2002.
May 26, 2006, 00:54
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