Monthly Archives: September 2008

Do A Good Thing, And Send A Message To Sarah

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Instead of us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let’s
all make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin’s name.

And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name,
they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in
her honor.

Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

 

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the ‘in Sarah Palin’s honor’ card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

c/o McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202

PS: make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate–Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular ‘Donate Online’
 
[Thanks to Steve Waskow and Steve Bass.]

Drill, Drill, Drill

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Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, is a well-known feminist.  She does not approve of Gov. Palin.

I don’t like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
Eve Ensler: Drill, Drill, Drill

Pastors to Protest IRS Rules on Political Advocacy

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On Sept. 28, pastors from 20 states will give politically based sermons from the pulpit as part of a protest organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal-advocacy group. The protest will challenge an Internal Revenue Code restriction that limits the political activities of charitable organizations – including churches and other religious groups – that are exempt from taxation. According to the Internal Revenue Code, religious groups may lose their tax-exempt status if they officially endorse a political candidate. The ADF says that if its protest leads the Internal Revenue Service to penalize houses of worship for their pastors’ political advocacy, ADF will bring a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of these penalties.

Pastors to Protest IRS Rules on Political Advocacy

They figure they’d better nail it now before Obama gets a chance to appoint the next Supreme.

Christians, Torture, and the Golden Rule

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Although Jesus was tortured and murdered, a majority of white Southern evangelical Christians believe that torture is often or sometimes justified when pursuing terrorists, according to a new poll by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University. Christians, Torture, and the Golden Rule


But the important question is, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

What are Afghani lives worth?

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I find myself wondering what the going rate for Afghani lives might be.  The last I heard Iraqis were valued at a few thousand dollars, based on the payoffs to the families.

Gates expresses regret for civilian deaths – Yahoo! News

KABUL, Afghanistan – Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday expressed “personal regret” for recent U.S. airstrikes that killed Afghan civilians, and pledged more accurate targeting in future.

Buddhism in the Classroom

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Kahane hopes his lessons will connect with his audience in a very personal way.

That’s why he brought principles adapted from Zen Buddhism into the lecture hall. Large undergraduate sessions in particular can be alienating for students, he says. In the age of the iPod, a professor has to find creative strategies for engaging his audience.

Kahane’s class may begin with meditation, transition to a discussion about fair-trade coffee and end with a period of free writing.

Although not every student feels comfortable with the unorthodox approach, there’s always a waiting list to get into one of Kahane’s courses.

Great teachers deserve — and get — recognition

Palin V.P. Nomination Puts Pentecostalism in the Spotlight

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From the time she was a teenager until 2002, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin attended a church affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal Christian denomination in the U.S.

Pentecostalism emphasizes such practices as speaking in tongues, prophesying, divine healing and other miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit, which it believes are as valid today as they were in the early Christian church. Prominent Democrats, including CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee Leah Daughtry and Director of Religious Affairs for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign Joshua Dubois, also are associated with Pentecostal Christianity.

The Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in the summer of 2007, makes it possible to examine the demographic, religious and political characteristics of Pentecostals in the U.S.

Pew Forum: Palin V.P. Nomination Puts Pentecostalism in the Spotlight

9/11: A Personal Reflection — Barbara O’Brien, About: Buddhism

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I was in lower Manhattan on 9/11. I didn’t do anything brave. I was out of the danger zone, in a high-rise office building just over a mile north of the World Trade Center. My co-workers and I had a clear, panoramic view. We watched the towers burn and collapse into mammoth plumes of dust.

For New Yorkers, the planes that destroyed the towers also ripped the fabric of ordinary life and showed us how vulnerable we were.

9/11: A Personal Reflection

Eldest brother of Dalai Lama, dies

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Thubten J. Norbu, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama and himself regarded as a reincarnated saint, died Friday in Bloomington, Indiana. He had split with his pacifist brother to demand complete independence of Tibet from China, going so far as to help the U.S. government in covert guerrilla warfare.

He was 86 by the Western reckoning and 87 in Tibet, where he was born, said Terry Norbu, his daughter-in-law, who confirmed the death.

After being recognized at age 3 as the reincarnation of a high lama, a revered priest in Tibetan Buddhism, Norbu became a leader in his small country’s political battles …
Thubten Norbu, eldest brother of Dalai Lama, dies – International Herald Tribune

Transcript: Obama Sits Down With Letterman, Discusses Pigs

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Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama appeared on the “Late Show” with David Letterman in New York on Wednesday, a day after heated debate ignited over a “pig” remark some took as a slam against Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The following is a transcript of the “Late Show” interview.

Dave: “Let me ask you a question here.  Have you ever actually put lipstick on a pig?”
…….

Transcript: Obama Sits Down With Letterman, Discusses Pigs – FOX News

Jesus Is Magic

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…as the annual convention of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians kicks off on a hot July afternoon, the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University is awash in displays of irreverent reverence. Ventriloquists converse with Scripture-quoting puppets, unicyclists pedal through the halls, and a man plays “Amazing Grace” on a turkey baster. In the gym, vendors sell mysteriously materializing Communion cups, paper that dissolves in water (perfect for making sins “disappear”), and fire-spouting Bibles…

Jesus Is Magic