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NEWS VOLUME
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noose
coverage √ < YOU ARE HERE |
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VOLUME
I ~ 2009GO √
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DIRECT.
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PRESS,
ESSAYS AND EDITORIALS Click √ on Images at LEFT for full texts |
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 DAVID BROOKS |
The
Hanukkah Story Rabbis later added the lamp miracle to give God at least a bit part in the proceedings. |
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Swiss
Ban Building of Minarets on Mosques By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and STEVEN ERLANGER The New York Times: November 29, 2009 GENEVA — In a vote that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam and undermined the country’s reputation for religious tolerance, the Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques, |
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 GODDESS GADHIMAI |
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 SHLOMO SAND |
Book
Calls Jewish People an ‘Invention’ |
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The
Church and the Capital Editorial New York Times: November 22, 2009 Gay people will eventually win full civil rights — including the right to marry — throughout the United States. Between now and then, there will be many more disputes like the one unfolding between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the District of Columbia City Council over a bill recognizing same-sex marriages that could be voted on as soon as next week. |
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 CHARLES COLSON 
ROBERT P. GEORGE 
TIMOTHY GEORGE |
Christian
Leaders Unite on Political Issues "A Call of Christian Conscience" By LAURIE GOODSTEIN The New York Times: November 20, 2009 Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples. “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says. |
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 CATHOLIC BUDDHIST VOODOO |
The
Evolution of the God Gene By NICHOLAS WADE The New York Times: November 14, 2009 IN the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, the archaeologists Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery have gained a remarkable insight into the origin of religion. During 15 years of excavation they have uncovered not some monumental temple but evidence of a critical transition in religious behavior. The record begins with a simple dancing floor, the arena for the communal religious dances held by hunter-gatherers in about 7,000 B.C. It moves to the ancestor-cult shrines that appeared after the beginning of corn-based agriculture around 1,500 B.C., and ends in A.D. 30 with the sophisticated, astronomically oriented temples of an early archaic state. This and other research is pointing to a new perspective on religion, one that seeks to explain why religious behavior has occurred in societies at every stage of development and in every region of the world. Religion has the hallmarks of an evolved behavior, meaning that it exists because it was favored by natural selection. For atheists , it is not a particularly welcome thought that religion evolved because it conferred essential benefits on early human societies and their successors. If religion is a lifebelt, it is hard to portray it as useless. For believers, it may seem threatening to think that the mind has been shaped to believe in gods, since the actual existence of the divine may then seem less likely. |
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French
Branch of Scientology Convicted of Fraud The verdict was among the most important in several years to involve the group, which is regarded by the Internal Revenue Service as a religion in the United States but has no similar legal protection in France. |
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 A MEMBER OF BANDA ACEH'S ALL-FEMALE SHARIAH POLICE SQUAD reprimanded Acehnese men for eating during the time for Friday prayer |
Extremism
Spreads Across Indonesian Penal Code
Most of Indonesia still lives up to its reputation for a moderate, easygoing brand of Islam, and Islamist parties suffered heavy losses in this year’s national elections. But how Aceh went from basic Islamic law to endorsing stoning in a few short years shows how a small, radical minority has successfully pushed its agenda, locally and nationally, by cowing political and religious moderates. |
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 MARÍA LIONZA MEN IN TRANCE ASKING FOR HELP |
In
Venezuela, Adoration Meets Blend of Traditions By SIMON ROMERO The New York Times: October 27, 2009 SORTE MOUNTAIN, Venezuela — A medium lit the candles around him. The pounding of drums filled the air. A crowd of pilgrims repeatedly shouted “fuerza” — strength — with such fervor that beads of sweat dropped from their brows. Even his tipple was ready: a helper poured Johnnie Walker Swing whisky into a hollowed bull’s horn. |
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 LAKEVIEW - FORT OGLETHORPE HIGH SCHOOL |
Barred
From Field, Religious Signs Move to Stands
That eight-year-old tradition ended last month after a parent expressed
concern that it could prompt a First Amendment lawsuit. Church and
state were not sufficiently separate, the school district agreed,
and the banners came down. |
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The
Nuns’ Story |
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 MAZEN ABDUL JAWAD |
60
Lashes Ordered for Saudi Woman THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: October 24, 2009 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A Saudi court sentenced a journalist on Saturday to 60 lashes after she was charged with involvement in a television show in which a Saudi man talked about sex. The journalist, Rozanna al-Yami, 22, is believed to be the first female Saudi journalist to be given such a punishment. |
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For
Some Seeking Rebirth, Sweat Lodge Was End By JOHN DOUGHERTY The New York Times: October 21, 2009 SEDONA, Ariz. — Midway through a two-hour sweat lodge ceremony intended to be a rebirthing experience, participants say, some people began to fall desperately ill from the heat, even as their leader, James Arthur Ray, a nationally known New Age guru, urged them to press on. But by the end of the ordeal on Oct. 8, emergency crews had taken 21 people to hospitals. Three have since died. Mr. Ray’s company, James Ray International, made $9.4 million in 2008 from events including weekend seminars with titles like “World Wealth Summit,” videos and books, including the 2008 best-seller “Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want.” On a conference call Mr. Ray held last week for sweat lodge participants, Dr. Bunn was shocked to hear one recount the comments of a self-described “channeler” who visited Angel Valley after the retreat. Claiming to have communicated with the dead, the channeler said they had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because “they were having so much fun.” Dr. Bunn had a less charitable view: “They couldn’t re-enter their bodies because they were dead.” Photo: Yana Paskova for The New York Times |
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Rowan
Williams |
Vatican
Bidding to Get Anglicans to Join Its Fold |
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Faith-Based
Discrimination Editorial The New York Times: October 14, 2009 President Obama promised in his campaign to preserve President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative aimed at helping social service programs sponsored by religious organizations win federal grants and contracts. He also promised a vitally important change: groups receiving federal money would no longer be allowed to hire employees on the basis of their religion. The idea was to prevent discrimination and preserve the boundary between church and state. But Mr. Obama has not made good on the promise. |
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 CROSS at MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE |
The
Constitution and the Cross EDITORIAL The New York Times: October 6, 2009 When the Supreme Court takes up a religion case, it often prompts overheated charges: There is a war against Christianity under way; or civil liberties groups are trying to turn this into a secular nation. The court is scheduled to hear arguments on Wednesday in a case that raises none of these issues — even though Americans may well be treated to another round of scare stories. The narrow question is whether a large cross that has been placed on federal land violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, the founders’ direction that there must be a wall of separation between church and state. The court should rule that it does. |
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 BENEDICT XVI |
Pope
Ends Czech Visit With Warning About Power Max Rossi/Reuters The New York Times: September 28, 2009 PRAGUE — Ending a three-day trip here aimed at fighting secularism, Pope Benedict XVI told about 40,000 of the faithful on Monday that the collapse of the Communist system had shown the price paid by those who chase power and deny God. The pope came to this decidedly skeptical nation as part of a Continentwide mission to urge the unbelieving out of their collective apathy. But while Benedict’s visit has been warmly received by the country’s Roman Catholics, the pope has been faced with the overwhelming indifference of a nation unmoved by religion. During his visit to the Czech Republic, where civil unions between gay men and lesbians have been legal since 2006 and abortion has been permissible for decades, the pope avoided delicate social issues. Yet many Czechs said his mission here had been futile. “Catholicism is not going to catch on here where cynicism and ‘What’s the point?’ are the national ideology,” said Dominik Jun, 31, a filmmaker. “More Czechs believe in infomercials on television than they do in religion.” Max Rossi/Reuters |
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 PASTOR MAZOLA MAFFE |
Fight
Nights and Reggae Pack Brazilian Churches By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO The New York Times: September 14, 2009 SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The atmosphere was electric at Reborn in Christ Church on “Extreme Fight” night. Churchgoers dressed in jeans and sneakers, many with ball caps turned backward, lined a makeshift boxing ring to cheer on bare-chested jujitsu fighters. They screamed when a fan favorite, Fabio Buca, outlasted his opponent after several minutes. They went wild when Pastor Dogão Meira, 26, took his man down, pinning him with an armlock just 10 seconds into the fight. With the crowd still buzzing, Pastor Mazola Maffei, dressed in army pants and a T-shirt, grabbed a microphone. Pastor Maffei, who is also Pastor Meira’s fight trainer, then held the crowd rapt with a sermon about the connection between sports and spirituality. 
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 PAUL R. SHANLEY |
Ex-Priest
Challenges Abuse Conviction on Repressed Memories By KATIE ZEZIMA and BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times: September 10, 2009 BOSTON — Paul R. Shanley, 78, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the clergy abuse crisis here, was convicted in 2005 of raping and assaulting a 6-year-old boy while serving as a priest in suburban Boston, in a case that hinged on memories of abuse the accuser said he had repressed and recovered decades later. Mr. Shanley, a controversial street priest who worked with runaways, troubled youth and denounced the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality, was accused of abuse by about 24 people. But only the case of the accuser, now a 32-year-old suburban Boston firefighter, made it to trial. |
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 HIJACKED OVER MEXICO |
Mexican
Police Secure Hijacked Plane ...
there was only a single hijacker, José Mar Flores Pereira,
44, a Bolivian citizen who has lived in Mexico for 17 years and identified
himself as a Christian pastor who had spoken to God. Mr. Flores, who initially told the authorities that he had had three accomplices, later explained that he had been helped by the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. |
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 SISTER LAUREN HANLEY |
L.I.
Nun Charged with DWI after nearly Running over Kids Mona Rivera reports 1010WINS: 03 September 2009 Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, of the St. Frances de Chantal Church in Wantagh, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with misdemeanor drunken driving after she allegedly drank a half a bottle of gin at church, got behind the wheel, and crashed into a tree, authorities said. A bottle of liquor was found in the car and she had a blood alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit, prosecutors said. The "spiritual development director" reportedly told investigators that she began drinking earlier in the afternoon. |
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 KARTIKA SARI DEWI SHUKARNO |
Malaysian
Court Puts Caning of Woman Who Drank Beer on Hold Kartika
Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old nurse who confessed to violating
Islamic laws by drinking beer in a hotel lobby last year, was detained
by prison authorities on Monday but was then quickly released. The
authorities said Ms. Kartika’s punishment — which would
be the first whipping for a woman under the country’s Islamic
laws — would be carried out in September, after the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan was over. “We’ve
allowed this huge Islamic bureaucracy to grow over the last three
decades,” Amir Muhammad, an author and filmmaker, said in a
telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur, the capital. “The laws
were there to show that this is something we disapprove of. But people
did not expect them to be enforced that rigidly. FOLLOWUP |
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 CENTRAL ASIA |
Central
Asia Sounds Alarm on Islamic Radicalism By CLIFFORD J. LEVY The New York Times: August 17, 2009 KOSH-KORGON, Kyrgyzstan — The three men were locals who were said to have once crossed into nearby Afghanistan to wage war alongside the Taliban. They then returned, militant wayfarers apparently bent on inciting an Afghan-style insurgency in this tinderbox of a valley in Central Asia. By late June, they were holed up in a house here, stockpiling Kalashnikov rifles and watching pirated DVDs of martial arts movies.... The fervency of some in the Fergana Valley (Afghanistan) was evident in Friday Prayer in a recent visit to a nearby mosque, whose imam was killed in 2006 by security forces after being accused of extremism. The mosque is a meeting place for followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a worldwide Islamist group that wants to establish a pan-national Muslim state, called a caliphate, albeit nonviolently. “The people in Afghanistan who are helping the Americans have sold out their faith, sold out their consciences,” said Noomanjan Turgunov, 60, one of the worshipers. “We support the Taliban because they are upholding and fighting for our faith — it is for Islam,” he said. “Only God knows for sure whether the Taliban will come here or not. But if you ask me, I think that they will come. Our president has sold out our faith for a little money from the Americans.” |
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Believers
Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich
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 MUHAMMED CARTOON by KURT WESTERGAARD |
Yale
Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book By PATRICIA COHEN The New York Times: August 12, 2009 Reza Aslan, a religion scholar and the author of “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,” ... decided to withdraw his supportive blurb that was to appear in the book after Yale University Press dropped the pictures. The book is “a definitive account of the entire controversy,” he said, “but to not include the actual cartoons is to me, frankly, idiotic.” |
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 GOLD TEETH FORCIBLY EXTRACTED |
Somalia:
Teeth Are Removed by Force on Religious Grounds “I am afraid they want to make money from taking all this precious metal,” said one victim. |
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 LUBNA AHMED AL-HUSSEIN |
Woman
Threatened With Lashes for Wearing Pants |
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 DR. FRANCIS COLLINS with GEORGE W. BUSH |
Science
Is in the Details By SAM HARRIS The New York Times: July 26, 2009 There is an epidemic of scientific ignorance in the United States. This isn’t surprising, as very few scientific truths are self-evident, and many are counterintuitive. It is by no means obvious that empty space has structure or that we share a common ancestor with both the housefly and the banana. It can be difficult to think like a scientist. But few things make thinking like a scientist more difficult than religion. Dr. Collins has written that “science offers no answers to the most pressing questions of human existence” and that “the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly resisted.” ...Francis Collins is an accomplished scientist and a man who is sincere in his beliefs. And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible? |
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 MOTHER MARY CLARE MILLEA |
U.S.
Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny “Next
time, let’s have our women religious study the quality of life
of our male clerics.” |
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 PASTOR KEN PAGANO |
Pastor
Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE The New York Times: June 25, 2009 LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it. “God and guns were part of the foundation of this country. I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.” |
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 HOMOSEXUAL EXORCISM |
Video
of 'Gay Exorcism' at Conn. Church Sparks Outrage 1010WINS/AP: June 23, 2009 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a "homosexual demon'' from his body. "Rip it from his throat!'' a woman yells. "Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!'' |
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 SEEKING ISLAM'S BANNER IN IRAN |
In
Iran, Both Sides Seek to Carry Islam’s Banner By NEIL MacFARQUHAR The New York Times: June 21, 2009 In the battle to control Iran’s streets, both the government and the opposition are deploying religious symbols and parables to portray themselves as pursing the ideal of a just Islamic state. “If either the reformists or the conservatives can make reference to Islamic values in a way that the majority of citizens understand, they will win,” said Mohsen Kadivar, a senior Iranian religious scholar teaching Islamic studies at Duke University . Perhaps most important, the outcome may determine the support the government enjoys among the ideological zealots who form the backbone of the security forces. Some Iran experts see the level of violence in the week ahead as crucial in the tug of war over Islam. |
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 DANOK PAGODA in Yangon Myanmar |
An
Ancient Pagoda’s Collapse Turns Myanmar’s Gaze to the Stars
By SETH MYDANS The New York Times: June 17, 2009 BANGKOK — It cannot have pleased Myanmar’s ruling family: the collapse of a 2,300-year-old gold-domed pagoda into a pile of timbers just three weeks after the wife of the junta’s top general helped rededicate it. There is no country in Asia more superstitious than Myanmar, and the crumbling of the temple was seen widely as something more portentous than shoddy construction work. |
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 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM |
Religious
Freedom
vs. Sanitation Rules By SEAN D. HAMILL The New York Times: June 13, 2009 NICKTOWN, Pa. — In 29 years of enforcing sewage laws in Pennsylvania, Jack E. Crislip has never faced violators more adamant...than members of the ultraconservative Swartzentruber Amish sect. ...“If you don’t do the correct sewage things,” Mr. Dumm added, “we all get sick.” Told of his neighbor’s feelings, Mr. Yoder, 54, was polite but resolute. “You hear people say that we have to live the way they do, but we can’t do that,” he said. “Our forefathers, that’s why they came across the sea, for religious freedom.” |
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 DOCTOR GEORGE TILLER 
SCOTT ROEDER |
CHRISTIAN
KILLS CHRISTIAN OVER CHRISTIAN VALUES IN CHURCH “God
Sent the Shooter” |
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 BISHOP NICHOLAS DiMARZIO |
Bishop
Avidly Opposes Bill Extending Time to File Child-Abuse Suits By PAUL VITELLO The New York Times: June 4, 2009 Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn repeated a warning this week that he has leveled at lawmakers for months: If the statute of limitations on child sex-abuse lawsuits is temporarily lifted, as pending state legislation proposes, a cascade of very bad things will happen. His Roman Catholic diocese and others will go bankrupt. Bishops like him will be forced to close churches and schools. And wrathful constituents will punish the politicians who, in his view, will have made this all happen. |
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 HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT PROFESSOR DR. AL-HAJI YAHYA JAMMEH |
Witch
Hunts and Foul Potions Heighten Fear of Leader in Gambia By ADAM NOSSITER The New York Times: May 21, 2009 JAMBUR, Gambia — This tiny West African nation’s citizens have grown familiar with the unpredictable exploits of its absolute ruler, who insists on being called His Excellency President Professor Dr. Al-Haji Yahya Jammeh: his herbs-and-banana cure for AIDS, his threat to behead gays.... But then came a campaign so confounding and strange that the citizens are still reeling and sickened from it.... The president, it seems, had become concerned about witches in this country.... To the accompaniment of drums, and directed by men in red tunics bedecked with mirrors and cowrie shells, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Gambians were taken from their villages and driven by bus to secret locations. There they were forced to drink a foul-smelling concoction that made them hallucinate ... and in some cases killed them.... The objective was to root out witches, evil sorcerers who were harming the country.... |
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 ARCHBISHOP VINCENT NICHOLS |
Catholic
Archbishop Explains Remarks on ‘Courage’
of Abusers By Robert Mackey The New York Times: May 21, 2009 The new head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols — who said on Wednesday that it “TAKES COURAGE” for members of the clergy in Ireland who abused children “to face these facts from their past, which instinctively and quite naturally they’d rather not look at.” |
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Report
Details Abuses in Irish Reformatories FOLLOW-UP
/ OP-ED |
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 DONALD RUMSFELD |
Biblical
Quotes Said to Adorn Pentagon Reports ...photographs of soldiers praying or in action on the sands of Iraq were overlaid with quotations like this one from Isaiah: ”Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.” Another, showing a tank at sunset, had this quotation from Ephesians: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” |
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 CHILD WITCHES OF NIGERIA |
Abuse
of child 'witches' on rise By Faith Karimi CNN: May 18, 2009 Nigerian boy called a witch: "They would take my clothes off, tie me up and beat me" Children with unusual markings, stubbornness or epilepsy make frequent targets Director of nonprofit says accused often incarcerated in churches for weeks on end Pastors have been accused of worsening the problem, aid workers say. "I beat him severely with canes until they broke, yet he never shed a tear," said Eshiett Nelson Eshiett, 76. "One day, I took a broom to hit him and he started crying. Then I knew he was possessed by demons. ... Nigerian witches are terrified of brooms." From that day two years ago, Christian, now 14, was branded a witch. The abuse intensified. |
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 REMBERT G. WEAKLAND |
Ex-Archbishop
Speaks About Catholic Church and Homosexuality The New York Times: May 15, 2009 In spring 2002, as the scandal over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests was escalating, the long career of Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee, one of the church’s most venerable voices for change, went up in flames one May morning. |
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 CHARLES M. BLOW |
Defecting
to Faith By CHARLES M. BLOW The New York Times: May 1, 2009 “Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.” So goes the rationale of my nonreligious friends. ... While science, logic and reason are on the side of the nonreligious, the cold, hard facts are just so cold and hard. Yes, the evidence for evolution is irrefutable. Yes, there is a plethora of Biblical contradictions. Yes, there is mounting evidence from neuroscientists that suggests that God may be a product of the mind. Yes, yes, yes. But when is the choir going to sing? And when is the picnic? And is my child going to get a part in the holiday play? |
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More
Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops By LAURIE GOODSTEIN The New York Times: April 26, 2009 CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout. The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. |
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 Bo |
One
Obama Search Ends With a Puppy Named Bo By HELENE COOPER The New York Times: April 12, 2009 In spite of its title, what is this article about, Dog or God? |
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 SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN |
A
Man’s Existentialism, Construed as Blasphemy By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN The New York Times: On Religion, March 20, 2009 |
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 FRANK RICH |
The
Culture Warriors Get Laid Off By FRANK RICH The New York Times: March 14, 2009 |
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Suddenly,
Sand Bags and Potshots at Post 1 "What
do I hunt? Whatever is in season: deer, squirrel, turkey, dove. I
love to hunt. If could have a job where money didn't matter, I'd be
a hunter." "I'm a Christian. East Vernon Baptist Church."
Corporal Hamlin is silent for a time. "I
asked other people before what it was like to kill somebody. I wasn't
sure I could kill somebody. I didn't know what it would be like. Now,
I don't know if I feel that much...." The corporal picks up his rifle and walks downstairs. |
government
center in this rubble-strewn town, and Lance
Cpl. Joseph Hamlin is talking about his life.
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THE
ANASAGASTI LIST UNEQUAL TIME |
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| ROBERT
COANE 2010 © All rights reserved |