by Monica Benderman
Christmas comes but once a year. Why?
Maybe it is a reminder.
Churches are full on Christmas Eve. So many pay homage - listening to the story of Christmas. Year after year, children memorize the Christmas story, learn to point in the direction of the Star of Bethlehem, and surround a cradle full of hay to sing “Away in a Manger,” with hands folded sweetly to their chins.
The children grow and remember Christmas past as they watch their own child’s hands wrapped (…)
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What Have We Learned?
4 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
1 comment -
FAR FROM NARNIA : Philip Pullman’s secular fantasy for children
2 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
by LAURA MILLER
Every year at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England, a guest is invited to speak on the subject of religion and education. Sometimes, a prominent bishop is asked to deliver a lecture, but, as a rule, the event isn’t exactly a big draw. This year, the auditorium was filled, and another room, with a video feed, had to be set up for those who couldn’t fit into the main hall. The speaker, Philip Pullman, is fervently admired for his sophisticated trilogy of (…) -
Interfaith leaders invoke morality in healthcare debate
1 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff
Let the politicians and lobbyists argue about copayments and premiums. The Rev. Hurmon Hamilton and Rabbi Jonah Pesner are waging their fight to expand healthcare coverage on a different, higher plane.
’’We don’t have anything in the game but the people we represent," Hamilton said on a windswept corner outside his Roxbury Presbyterian Church. ’’When we’re out there, we really are concerned about the 750,000 people without healthcare, and a large (…) -
“Peace on Earth” Means “No More War”
27 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentby John Dear
The story goes that when the nonviolent Jesus was born into abject poverty to homeless refugees on the outskirts of a brutal empire, angels appeared in the sky to impoverished shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth!” That child grew up to become, in Gandhi’s words, “the greatest nonviolent resister in the history of the world,” and was subsequently executed by the empire for his insistence on justice.
This weekend, as tens of millions of (…) -
Christmas message: If you have faith in God ... how would He expect you to react?
24 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
30 commentsby Mary MacElveen
To all of our readers around this planet I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Happy Hannukah and a Happy Kwanza ... no matter how we express ourselves during this season, it is far more important to do so with love in our hearts.
The other day, taking a cab to the market, in conversation with a Jewish cab driver, I asked him his take on how we should express what is in our hearts during this season. He said: "If someone wishes me a Merry (…) -
From Sir Henry Neville AKA Shakespeare Bush Lies
22 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
To my kind and gentle reader, please be patient while I conjure the spirit of Shakespeare, to call Bush a liar.
It was a dark and stormy afternoon as I went to my computer and googled, Shakespeare, in the news option. It was the beginning of November and a new book was just released titled ’The Truth Will Out’ claiming that Shakespeare was Sir Henry Neville . One of the authors is named Rubinstein and a search of his background associates him with the Intelligent design movement. This (…) -
Female, Agnostic and the Next Presidente? Heavy Favorite in Chilean Vote Cuts Against Grain
22 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
By Monte Reel
SANTIAGO, Chile — Everyone in the audience was dressed in dark blue or black. Some wore clerical collars, and most had heavy silver crosses dangling around their necks. But Michelle Bachelet wore an electric pink jacket that sent a clear message: She was a candidate for president, not sainthood.
"I’m agnostic. . . . I believe in the state," Bachelet told several groups of evangelical ministers last week. "I believe the state has an important role in guaranteeing the (…) -
A Religious Protest Largely From the Left
21 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
Conservative Christians Say Fighting Cuts in Poverty Programs Is Not a Priority
By Jonathan Weisman and Alan Cooperman
When hundreds of religious activists try to get arrested today to protest cutting programs for the poor, prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will not be among them.
That is a great relief to Republican leaders, who have dismissed the burgeoning protests as the work of liberals. But it raises the question: Why in recent years (…) -
The Age of Autism: ’A pretty big secret’
9 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
2 commentsCHICAGO, Dec. 7 (UPI) — It’s a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill.
But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don’t have autism.
"We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we’ve taken care of over the years, (…) -
By God, another awful Bush appointment
3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentBy William Fisher
Washington is a town where the best and the brightest usually coexist with well-connected political hacks. However, the Bush administration has taken promotion of the latter to embarrassing extremes, selecting unqualified people for posts because of their political loyalty and ideological persuasion. The most recent example of this was the appointment of Paul Bonicelli to be deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is in (…)