My new Twitter handle is now live - check me out at @jackiewgibson!
CNN has posted a history of bias against Sikhs - more reason for people to learn about religions before they attack anyone:...
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/A0ltLLIm
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/l3KrAJZf
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
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Ethics & Religion
If you haven’t seen a preview, you soon will.
Bill Maher, former host of Comedy Central’s Politically Incorrect, has a new movie out: Religulous.
In theaters October 3, the documentary is more of a satire of religious belief. Maher is known for satire and going after right-wingers. And the director is Larry Charles who worked on Borat. So it’s bound to be…um…not so serious.
The Huffington Post published this interesting comment from Maher:
It has been my pleasure over the last decade and a half to make organized religion one of my favorite targets. I often explained to people, “I don’t need to make fun of religion, it makes fun of itself.” And, then I go ahead and make fun of it too, just for laughs.
With religious fanatics like George Bush and Osama bin Laden now taking over the world, it seemed to me in recent years that this issue — this cause of debunking the man behind the curtain — needed to have a larger, more insistent and focused forum than late night television. I wanted to make a documentary, and I wanted it to be funny. In fact, since there is nothing more ridiculous than the ancient mythological stories that live on as today’s religions, this movie would try to be a real knee slapper. Unless, of course, you’re religious, then you might not like it.
If you visit the movie’s Web site, you’ll find Disbeliefnet.com. The tagline for the Web site? You won’t believe what people believe. The site contains articles about strange religious beliefs as well as obviously-fake advertisements (or are they?) for “hermetically sealed sacrament” and “singlemuslim.com.”
Watch the trailer and decide for yourself. Will you see Religulous? Do you expect it to be a “knee slapper” satire or an offensive documentary? Is this kind of dialogue necessary or hurtful?
PETA is asking for a New York state investigation into kapparot, a ritual performed by some Jews before Yom Kippur.
It involves swinging a live chicken over one’s head, then slaughtering it.
The idea is that, since the Hebrew word “gever” means both “man” and “bird,” a bird can substitute for a man. Thus, during the ceremony, some Jews believe they can transfer their sins to the bird, which is then slaughtered. The meat is then given to the poor.
Some Jews oppose the ritual, claiming there would be no need for a Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) if a bird could take your sins away.
But animal rights group PETA is opposed for another reason.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) charges that thousands of chickens were thrown away in the trash last year following the ritual in Brooklyn. Such dumping is a violation of Jewish law and animal rights, and puts a burden on sanitation workers, PETA says.
Learn more about PETA’s letter and the rabbis response.
Do you practice kapparot? What do you think of PETA’s response? Leave your comments.
You probably remember the controversy surrounding Mike Myers’ The Love Guru a few months ago. No doubt due in large part to Hindus’ protests and distaste for the film, it tanked at the box office.
So what will happen with Hollywood’s upcoming comedy Hamlet 2?
The film, set to release on August 27, is about a drama teacher who tries to save the high school drama program by producing Hamlet 2. But this Hamlet isn’t really a sequel to Shakespeare’s masterpiece. Instead, it contains a “Sexy Jesus” and a song surrounding the figure (“Rock Me Sexy Jesus”). Aside from obvious issues with the title of the song, the lyrics, and so forth, many Christians are upset about the film’s depiction of Jesus. We’d describe it, but you can see for yourself in this YouTube video.
So what do you think? Should Christians be upset at the depiction of their religion, its founder, and their God? Or is this just satire? Should Christians react the way Hindus reacted to Love Guru? Or is this an entirely different situation?
Chad Hardy created a calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries.
On July 13, he was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the LDS church of Mormons), according to Religion News Service.
Hardy had sought to show people that there were many sides to Mormons by showing actual shirtless Mormon missionaries. He himself was once a missionary. But the church felt his actions needed the severest reprimand in order to bring about his repentance.
Though Hardy could appeal the decision, he doesn’t plan to.
Visit Hardy’s Web site to find the calendar that sold 10,000 copies in one year and for news about the upcoming 2009 calendar.
Then find out more about excommunication in the Mormon church.
Knowing what you now know about excommunication and Hardy, do you think the local church’s decision was a good one?