Hot Topics, Cool Heads B

The Demonic Doorway?

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

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WorldNetDaily
Is Harry Potter in cahoots with hell?
Hit movie renews concerns that children are being lured to Satan

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Posted: November 29, 2010
9:45 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn

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For the second weekend in a row, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 " – the seventh film in author J.K. Rowling's fantastically successful series about young wizards – sits atop the box office charts, smashing ticket-sale records as the franchise only gains steam en route to its finale.

But the wild success of "Pottermania" has also brought back critics of the franchise who question – or even outright condemn – the movies' spiritual ramifications.

"Harry Potter and these 'Twilight' vampires glamorize the power of evil," argues author and Roman Catholic Priest Thomas J. Euteneuers.

A practicing exorcist, Euteneuers told Deal W. Hudson of InsideCatholic that he intended his new book, "Exorcism and the Church Militant," as a warning on how the Harry Potter series and Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" movies about teenage vampires, for example, desensitize children to "the dark world" of witchcraft.

Girls — maybe you should just stay at home . . .

Creepy Christian Patriarchy Movement Shackles Daughters to Their Fathers and Homes By Gina McGalliard, Bitch Magazine Posted on November 29, 2010, Printed on November 30, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/story/149022/   “Daughters aren’t to be independent. They’re not to act outside the scope of their father. As long as they’re under the authority of their fathers, fathers have the ability to nullify or not the oaths and the vows. Daughters can’t just go out independently and say, ‘I’m going to marry whoever I want.’ No. The father has the ability to say, ‘No, I’m sorry, that has to be approved by me.’” . There’s a lot of talk in American mainstream media lately about the diminishing role of men -- fathers, in particular. Have feminism and reproductive technology made them obsolete? Are breadwinning wives and career-oriented mothers emasculating them?

Don't Ask???

DADT Study: Pentagon Report Says Gays Could Serve In Military With No Harm

ANNE FLAHERTY | 11/30/10 06:22 AM | 

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon study that argues that gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military's ability to fight is expected to re-ignite debate this month on Capitol Hill over repealing the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Officials familiar with the 10-month study's results have said a clear majority of respondents don't care if gays serve openly, with 70 percent predicting that lifting the ban would have positive, mixed or no results. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings hadn't been released.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, who have both said they support repealing the law, were scheduled to discuss the findings with Congress Tuesday morning and with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Miracle?

Turn your critical eye to this story. What do you think? 

Controversial Mary Statue Weeps Because We're Killing This World

by Joseph Laylock

Joseph Laycock is a doctoral candidate studying religion and society at Boston University. He is also the author of Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampires.

For three months, the city of Windsor, Ontario was abuzz with the story of a Virgin Mary statue that wept tears of oil. Ensconced in a small shrine built on Fadia Ibrahim’s front lawn, the statue attracted hundreds of pilgrims, though it caused havoc for neighbors, city officials, and church authorities.

Miraculous images of the Virgin Mary, part of a tradition commonly known as “folk piety,” exist independently of any religious authority and the fervor generated is sometimes too much for the church—or anyone—to control. In this most recent case the attention eventually overwhelmed the statue’s owner, such that, on November 5th, in order to protect the privacy of her family, she had the statue relocated to St. Charbel Maronite Catholic Church. In fact, the Virgin told her she would prefer pilgrims visit her in church rather than on Ibrahim’s front lawn.

No Critical Thinking Here . . . In the USA, That Is

16 of the Dumbest Things Americans Believe -- And the Right-Wing Lies Behind Them

By Sarah Seltzer, AlterNet
Posted on November 13, 2010, Printed on November 13, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148826/

Americans are often misinformed, occasionally downright dumb, and easily is led by juicy-sounding rumors. But while the right wing is taking full advantage of this reality, the left worries that calling out lies is "rude."

Remember when Congressman Joe Wilson stood up during Obama’s State of the Union address to falsely shout “you lie?” He was chastised soundly by the pundit class. But mostly he drew heat for being impolite, and was compared to Kanye West and other famous “interrupters.”

Fair and Balanced (1)

 

Halloweening . . .

ESSAY from Religion Dispatches (link)

October 28, 2010

Halloween, Evangelicals, and the Macabre

Reflections on our Monstrous Creations

 By JOHN W. MOREHEAD

It’s October and the telltale signs of Halloween are everywhere; everything from candy to breakfast cereal marketed in orange and black, doors and windows festooned with fake cobwebs and, on a slightly less positive note, evangelicals intensify their critique of all things macabre and “occultic.”

American evangelicalism has always had a strong sense of evil which it battles in various manifestations—frequently in the form of popular culture. This sense of the presence of and confrontation with evil, however, is intensified during the Halloween season whether the focus is the holiday itself or those minority religions associated with it.

More Teabagging

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rand Paul Supporter Stomps on Liberal Activist's Head
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

 

Should we ban yoga from PE classes at Erskine?

ESSAY

October 27, 2010

Is Downward Dog The Path to Hell?

by Andrea R. Jain

link to original article

Evangelicals and fundamentalist Hindus come together in their denunciation of yoga’s popularity in the U.S.

World's largest yoga class, NYC, June 2010

 

Be afraid. Yoga isn’t just about physical fitness and reduced stress. 

Evangelical leaders are increasingly warning that yoga is religious, though not in a good way, and that Christians must choose between Christianity and yoga. This view shot to mainstream attention recently when Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned Christians against the sin of yoga in a blog post that made headlines. But his comments were far from an isolated incident of evangelical Christian leaders inciting fear of yoga; Mohler simply took his place among the growing ranks of twenty-first century conservative Christian leaders with “yogaphobia.”

Assumptions: Our History of Religious Freedoms

Our assumptions chapter discusses what happens when we run across — and recognize — incongruities. Remember, an incongruity "is something that does not meet our expectations about what is correct, appropriate, logical, or standard."

Read the brief section on incongruities in the text (p. 152) and then read this article. What incongruities do you find here?

 

 

Philadelphia's Bible Riots of 1844 reflected a strain of anti-Catholic bias and hostility that coursed through 19th-century America

America's True History of Religious Tolerance

The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record

By Kenneth C. Davis Smithsonian magazine, October 2010

Wading into the controversy surrounding an Islamic center planned for a site near New York City’s Ground Zero memorial this past August, President Obama declared: “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.” In doing so, he paid homage to a vision that politicians and preachers have extolled for more than two centuries—that America historically has been a place of religious tolerance. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

But is it so?