Hackers group Anonymous takes down Vatican website: http://t.co/B6lbGAVp
WGN-TV calls doomsday prophecies "an illusion": http://t.co/mv8Gzyw7
RT @graceishuman: Really,? Asking people JUST LEAVING the service how they felt about it? Tacky, tacky, inappropriate
Whitney Houston's funeral service really took the world to church. Love Pastor Winans' honesty, very moving.
#teacher ? Here are appropriate responses to situations with your Jehovah's Witness student: http://t.co/A6UfqcgH
#Teachers: Want to know why your Jehovah's Witness student won't say the pledge and how to respond? http://t.co/EIdlgDwW
3 common questions teachers ask about their Jehovah's Witness students: http://t.co/kPTygb8r
3 common questions teachers ask about their Jehovah's Witness students: http://t.co/0y3R4WZV
Hey @BlackArtistNews check out this sculptor, this will blow your mind. My mind seriously can't take this in. http://t.co/I4VgB8ni
What do reporters have to say about balance in religion? Watch the video from last night's panel: http://t.co/jutu8oJ9
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Archive for June 2008
Religion book sales are down, according to a Christian Retailing report of Association of American Publishers (AAP) figures. AAP saw religion book sales decline by 25.5% in March – that’s a $47.6 million decrease. That’s just one month, but the year-long prospect isn’t so sunny either: so far religion book sales are down 12.1% for the year.
An initial reaction may be to attribute the decline to a general decrease in the purchasing of entertainment, as a result of a groaning economy. But don’t be so quick to judge. AAP reports a 23.1% sales increase for the year in adult paperback sales and a 58.9% increase for the month in e-book sales.
Perhaps religion book publishers just need to start putting their books online? After all, you’re getting your religion news here.
Once again, Turkish women can no longer wear headscarves at their universities, after a new ruling from Turkish courts yesterday.
In the 1990s, the judicial elites in Turkey banned women from wearing their traditional headscarves on Turkish campuses. The idea was that the veil was too far outside the lines of secularism (or outside the lines of a government where religion was kept separate from government). Then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won the election and subsequent popularity last year, tried to implement a legal rule that would allow women to make their own individual choices about whether to wear a headscarf in public. According to The New York Times, Erdogan is a Muslim himself and wanted women attending colleges to be able to decide for themselves what to wear and what to believe.
But today, the court ruled his legal change unconstitutional. And once again, Muslim women in Turkey will not be allowed to wear headscarves on campus. It will be illegal.
The headscarf, called a hijrab in Arabic, is a veil typically worn by Muslim women. It covers the head, hair, and/or face and serves as a sign of modesty.
According to an article in the New York Times, Lord’s Gym is expanding across the country as a franchise. These Christian-focused fitness centers are meant to provide a space for Christians to work out — for purposes of staying healthy, not for vanity or for looking at members of the opposite sex.
As the article put it, “the gym offers classes including’Yogod,’ its take on yoga, and ‘Chariots of Fire,’ a spinning class. Spaghetti-strap tank tops and short shorts are not allowed, and women’s tops must cover their bottoms.”
The concept brings to mind another religion and gyms incident in which Muslim women at Harvard University asked school officials to let them have gym time and not allow men in. Seeking to remain modest, the women did not want to exercise in front of the opposite sex. Plus, they wanted to be able to work out without wearing clothing that fits the dress code (covering the hair and skin), and removing such clothing requires removing the men from the sightline. Officials agreed. But many on campus have voiced complaints, women claiming it’s sexist, men claiming it’s unnecessary.
What do you think? Is there enough temptation at the gym to warrant separate times for religious folk who wish to remain modest? Is creating a separate time or separate gym the answer?
If you ask God to lower gas prices, will we start paying $3 instead of $4? I guess we’ll see.
Rocky Twyman, a community organizer from the D.C. area, recently held a prayer meeting at the gas pumps, asking God to lower gas prices. The idea itself, fueled by the National Day of Prayer on May 1, led Twyman’s movement to pull in loads of press, from Fox News to the Washington Post. People seem to be fascinated with the idea that groups would petition God for help with gas money. Bloggers have run wild with it. Some say Christians should certainly give all concerns to God, including money and gas prices. Others suggest God is trying to tell us something: In other words, gas prices have been raised so we’ll stop using gas. Still others are saying we should be more focused on those who don’t have food to eat than on filling up our SUVs.
While Jesus did say, “Knock and the door shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9), he also urged followers to store their treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). So what do you think? Will the prayers work? Should Christians be praying for lower gas prices at all? Leave your comments.