For those who thought that there is an absence of spirituality in Hollywood, I suggest seeing “Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”
“Help me Allah … Help me Tom Cruise, … Help me Opray Winfrey …”
and the prayer to Baby Jesus at the dinner table is something too funny to be sacreligious.
Some told me that this isn’t as funny as “Anchorman” but whatever, it’s in the same league. Go see it if you need to laugh.
Snakes on a Plane. Wow, what can I say? It’s terrible, but not so bad.
Snakes on a Plane Review by Kurt Lorder (linked to title)
An interview with the always controversial Pedro the Lion frontman.
“Death does not win,” David Crowder writes. “It is only the beginning.” In his second and highly personal book, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die: Or (The Eschatology of Bluegrass) the groundbreaking musician explores the relationship between death, life, grief and community—a quest that was compounded by the sudden, accidental death of his friend and pastor, Kyle Lake. Co-written by band-mate Mike Hogan and following Crowder’s critically acclaimed first book, Praise Habit, the book is a journey of embracing the importance of living fully, grieving deeply, all while focusing on the future hopes of God’s promises.
“And it is getting hotter, and the ice caps are melting, and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air. And I think we really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of this planet, we need to do something about it.”
– Pat Robertson, admitting on his television show, The 700 Club, that recent heat waves have convinced him of the reality of global warming.
The rumor (that I just started) is that Robertson will make a cameo in Al Gore’s upcoming sequel, “False Actualities”.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is unhappy with plans for a memorial to be located in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, honoring the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The memorial would be a well-lit 13-foot by 7-foot stainless-steel cross strategically mounted near the shoreline of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet at Shell Beach. The cross and accompanying stone monument, listing the names of the 129 parish residents who died in the hurricane, are earmarked for what the parish says is private land and are to be financed with donations, according to parish president Henry “Junior” Rodriguez.
A letter was sent in July by the Louisiana ACLU executive director Joe Cook explaining that the government promotion of a patently religious symbol on a public waterway is a violation of the Constitution’s call for the separation of church and state, reports the Associated Press.
Rodriguez said, however, that he sees nothing improper about the memorial. “The memorial is being coordinated by a group of volunteers on their own time, and no public money is going to the project that will be on private land,” stated Charlie Reppel, Rodriguez’s chief of staff. “The committee members are all volunteers, including me. We are putting in a lot of unpaid overtime.”
While the ACLU thinks a memorial to the storm and its victims is “clearly appropriate,” said Cook, St. Bernard’s is “still all very questionable. I think there is official government involvement with the endorsement and advancement of this clearly religious symbol.”
Teens Coping With Unwanted Pregnancies
Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist at Bowling Green State University, led a study which found that adolescent girls who have an abortion are five times more likely to seek help for psychological and emotional problems than those who keep their baby, reports LifeNews.com.
A 2004 survey found that 64 percent of American women reported that they felt pressured into abortion. “When women feel forced into abortion by others or by life circumstances, negative post-abortion outcomes become more common,” Coleman wrote. “Adolescents are generally much less prepared to assume the responsibility of parenthood and are logically the recipients of pressure to abort.”
Coleman feels that the scientific evidence is strong and compelling that abortion poses more risks to women than giving birth.
A long but interesting read.
The Dangers of Being Christian
Religious Freedom in the Islamic World
August 17, 2006
Earlier this year on Good Friday, a man entered Mar Girgis Church in Alexandria, Egypt, and stabbed one worshipper to death and wounded two others. He then went to another church and stabbed three other Christians.
The events in Alexandria were a reminder of the, at best, tenuous status of Christians in the Islamic world.
The Egyptian government immediately dismissed the possibility that animus toward Christians played a role in the attacks. Egypt’s Interior Ministry said that the attacker suffered from “psychological disturbances.” How convenient.
Egyptian Christians, known as Copts, did not buy it, and for good reason: Police officials had a different version, announcing that “three men had been arrested in four simultaneous church assaults.” According to the police, these assaults had killed one and injured another seventeen.
That sure sounds like a coordinated attack to me. CBS News put it this way: The Egyptian government has a history of “[playing] down incidents that can be perceived as sectarian in nature.” By “sectarian,” it means violence against Christians.
This isn’t the only manifestation of the Copts’ second-class status. Copts, who constitute at least 10 percent of Egypt’s population, are discriminated against in employment, especially in government. And to add insult to injury, they face “severe restrictions” when it comes to building or repairing their churches.
The Copts aren’t the only besieged ancient Christian community in the Islamic world. Iraq’s Christian community, often called Assyrians or Chaldeans, dates back to at least the second century. If any group has an historical claim to their part of Iraq, they do.
Yet sadly, an increasing number of Iraqi Christians have concluded that “there is no future” for them in Iraq. According to Lawrence Kaplan of the New Republic, “Sunni, Shia, and Kurd may agree on little else, but all have made sport of brutalizing their Christian neighbors.” Christians “routinely disappear from the sidewalks of Baghdad;” others are kidnapped and held for ransom. They are, as Kaplan puts it, “today’s victims of choice.”
Since, as one Christian put it, “we have no militia to defend us,” and neither Iraqi nor Americans officials are willing to protect them, Christians are leaving their ancestral home.
Christians in other Islamic countries are treated even worse. In countries like Saudi Arabia, Christians must practice their faith in secret. While being a Christian, in and of itself, isn’t illegal, saying or doing something that lets others know it is. And, as we witnessed with Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, conversion from Islam to Christianity is a crime punishable by death, as it is in many parts of the Islamic world.
The Islamic world’s treatment of its Christian minority raises crucial questions for our effort to export democracy as a way to combat terrorism�an effort I support. But if democracy means anything, it means the protection of fundamental human rights like freedom of religion. So long as Christians remain targets of religious persecution in the Islamic world, not only will there be no future for Christians; there will be no future for true democracy, either. Our government and Christians must keep up the pressure.
Appreciated this essay. I have intentionally neglected to comment on Israel-Lebanaon because I am frustrated by it. Both sides proclaim they want to destory the other and I find the reasons to be arbritrary. They are fighting not over detained soliders or of principle or out of self-defense but because they have always hated each other. In the meantime, I am praying for the safety of the innocents, the mutual-destruction of the malice-filled, and for God’s will to prevail.
Hey there, welcome and thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Really, I appreciate it. - Tim Ghali
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