Give thanks that freedom of speech is still valued on this side of the pond (at least outside college campuses):
A teenager is facing prosecution for using the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.
The unnamed 15-year-old was served the summons by City of London police when he took part in a peaceful demonstration opposite the London headquarters of the controversial religion.
[. . .]
Now you know. Every time you turn on a light, you're helping kill the polar bears. It's your fault:
Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
The march of progress in the Mideast:
The ulema in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province have declared that use of mobile phones by women is haram, or forbidden in Islam. The Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain reported that the imam of Jama Masjid Hazrat Umar Farooq made the announcement during his Friday sermon.
Aren't allies wonderful?
There are two church-state issues that can be in conflict: 1. Freedom of religion requires government to keep its distance and let people worship the way their conscienses dictate. 2. But religion can't give cover to practices that are clearly against the law of the land. It can be tricky to determine when the behavior is so unacceptable that the state is justified in stepping in. Remember the Santeria members who got in trouble for killing chickens because it violated laws against "animal sacrifices"?
A lot of bloggers are writing about a CNSNews.com story from a couple of days ago to the effect that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "made up" a Bible verse:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fond of quoting a particular passage of Scripture. The quote, however, does not appear in the Bible and is "fictional," according to biblical scholars.
Happy Earth Day!
What a nifty new concept -- ninja buddhists! I can see the TV series now, perhaps starring Jet Li or Jackie Chan, and, of course, Steven Segall and David Carradine have to be technical consultants:
State media, meanwhile, labeled a group linked to the Dalai Lama's India-based government-in-exile a "terrorist organization" — building on claims that recent anti-Chinese protests were part of a violent campaign to overthrow Chinese rule and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August.
Happy first day of spring -- I knew you could make it without leaving town. Now go hunt up your Easter outfits:
Easter always comes on the Sunday after the first, or Paschal, full moon following the first day of spring.
As a strong believer in individual rights and responsibilities, I've watched with dismay as collectivism of one sort or another has made inroad after inroad. Now, even sin is no longer a personal matter:
He said that priests must take account of “new sins which have appeared on the horizon of humanity as a corollary of the unstoppable process of globalisation”. Whereas sin in the past was thought of as being an invididual matter, it now had “social resonance”.
