Posts for 'Religion' Category

We have seen that people of this world are belonging to one religion or the other and there could be very few people who do not belong to a religion. They enter into a religion when they are born because we take up the religion which is the religion of our parents or one of such parents. We are brought with those beliefs and hence these beliefs become part and parcel of our life. And we all know that very few of us change or convert to another religion. We have to live and continue in that religion and we die in that religion  and ultimately our body is consigned to the end as per customs of that religion. and as per our beliefs we shall be getting Hell or Heaven as per our own deeds.

We have noted that all the religions are telling us the same principles and in spite of this fact, we could not unite in one religion. We have given names to religions and we are trying to establish that each religion is separate unit and does not match the other. We the people of this world are trying to establish that one religion is better than the other and that is the reason we had started converting people from one religion to the other only to increase the number and here we have a belief that who is converting more people to his religion is doing something in service of his own religion.

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Religions do not unite the people Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate. It must be accepted that religions could not unite the people of the world. It must be accepted that this world has been divided on the basis of religions and on the administrative side this world is divided on the basis of countries. All these divisions had been wasting the time of the people and it must be on record that most of the wars and conflicts had been there because of establishment of different religions and because of establishment of different countries. Had there been one world and had there been one religion or no religion at all the people of this world could have avoided all these wars and all these conflicts and more time and energy could have been utilized for the welfare of this man and there were chances that more inventions and discoveries could have been made by this man. And had we traveled on the right direction for these centuries, this world would become Heaven we could have seen God with naked eyes.

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Testing the foundations of faith," Letters, April 6. In the 21st century, it is stunning to see pedophilia justified as a side-effect of priestly celibacy. There are actually married men who routinely molest children, men in relationships who molest children, and it's not related to needing a sexual outlet.

Many priests are faithful to their vows and never molest children.The Catholic Church has appeared to be a production line of child victims for predatory priests in schools and orphanages for many years now.

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The memo—titled "The Problem of the Sexual Abuse of African Religious in Africa and in Rome" was concise. "Sexual harassment and even rape of sisters by priests and bishops is allegedly common," it said. Sisters, financially dependent on priests, occasionally have to perform sexual favors in exchange for money. McDonald analyzed the causes of this widespread violation of chastity vows and then made this plea:

"The time has come for some concerted action." According to the National Catholic Reporter, which made McDonald's memo public in 2001, Vatican officials did take steps to rectify the problem, but publicly, their stance was chillingly familiar. "The problem is known and is restricted to a limited geographical area," said Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman at the time. This is an isolated incident, in other words; we've got it under control.

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After getting in my car the other night, this writer turned on a radio show hosted by a man renowned as a rare moderate in talk radio, although he’s most notable for only moderately deep thinking. He was talking about the Catholic Church sex scandal, and he fielded a caller proposing a unique solution: allow priests to have concubines.

This prompted the host to chime in and opine that perhaps the discipline of celibacy should be revisited. After all, said he, it’s only the Catholic Church that has “these problems.” It’s the kind of shallow analysis that passes for social commentary today.

First, the notion that only the Catholic Church “has these problems” is a media-generated fiction. In fact, a recent AP investigation found that sexual misconduct  and cover-ups to avoid scandal  are rampant.

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Again and again at key points in the story of salvation, the Holy Spirit, the power of God, comes revealed in a cloud. In the cloud, God's presence is revealed while the full glory of his transcendence is shrouded.

The Fathers of the Church were clear about what this cloud represented. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit. The first, perhaps most dramatic, appearance of the cloud was in the desert as a pillar of cloud led the people out of Egypt by day and a pillar of fire led them by night (Exodus 13.21-22).

When the people began to grumble about the lack of food in the desert, God sent them the bread from heaven. When Aaron announced the promise of manna to the people, "they looked toward the wilderness and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud" (Exodus 16.10).

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Have you ever had an experience with God that exceeds your most wild and fulfilling sexual moment?

If the answer is no, you are not alone. This book is a mysterious and arresting look at how the culture of religion turns love and desire into something you want to control.

You will discover how to:Enjoy Guilt-Free Sexual Pleasure  Unlearn Sexual Lies Know.

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For the past 20 years, Samuel Cordes has made his living representing clients alleging discrimination from their employers for reasons such as age, race or gender. But in the last few years, his mix of cases has changed: an increasing proportion is now coming from religious discrimination.

"It's coming up a lot more," said the Downtown-based employment lawyer. "Until 2001, I bet I didn't have more than one a year."

Right now, Mr. Cordes is working on five religious discrimination cases. Nationally, religious discrimination charges by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission rose from 1,939 in 2000 to 2,572 in 2002 and have remained roughly at that level ever since. In 2006, the EEOC reported 2,541 charges of religious discrimination.

"There are far more of them than you read about," said John Myers, chair of the labor and employment department at Downtown-based law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. "In 25 years, I never had a case involving an Islamic employee and in the last couple of years, I've observed more decisions and personally picked up a handful of cases."

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I won't presume to tell the Roman Catholic Church what to do about its priest problem, which is actually a series of problems, including the hypocrisy problem (priests who say they are celibate but aren't), the abuse problem (priests who are insufficiently in touch with their own sexuality to know how to channel it toward adults) and the shortage problem (not enough priests because of all of these other problems).

I am intrigued by the broader question, however, which as I see it is this: To what extent is sexual expression at odds with the religious life? Early Christians were influenced by the Greek philosophers, who famously sided with the mind in what they saw as a mind/body battle for supremacy over the person. So Paul's strong preference for celibacy over marriage has made its way into today's Roman Catholic rules for the priesthood.

But Catholic prudery has never made any sense to Jews, or to Protestants, whose clerical ranks are both peopled by people who have sex. And that prudery has long been an embarrassment to Muslims, too. Muhammad liked marriage so much he did it many times, and all the other prophets in the Islamic tradition were married, too. Except Jesus, of course. Which for Muslims is a huge problem. In fact, many Muslims believe that when Jesus returns to Earth he will marry and have a family before helping to usher in the end of times.

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As President Obama and his new administration seek to redirect U.S. foreign policy back toward more emphasis on diplomacy and less on the use of force, they should not overlook Orthodox Christianity as a resource.

That was the message, implicit and explicit, that Elizabeth Prodromou, assistant professor of international relations at Boston University, carried to the Belfer Center Library Monday (May 11). “It’s impossible to ignore the Orthodox churches,” with their 350 million adherents, she said. They are relevant in three parts of the world where the Obama administration seeks to hit the “reset” button — Russia, the Middle East, and Europe.

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