The Pope's View on U.S. Politics

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120309/eu-vatican-gay-marriage/

Pope Benedict XVI grows concerned about the seemingly disappearing ideal of chastity when he sees the "'powerful' gay marriage lobby" in America. He is encouraging bishops to continue fighting against same-sex marriage and the birth control legislation despite how "counter-cultural" it seems in this day and age. In addition to being awakened to the idea of chastity, Benedict sees a need for instruction "in core church teachings on human sexuality" to help with the problem of couples too frequently living together outside of/before marriage, and others. In speaking of gay marriage Benedict states, "Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage."

Unfair, Incomplete Exemptions of the Birth Control Legislation (i.e. The Amish)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sister-mary-ann-walsh/amish-ok-catholics-no_b_1334773.html

The issue of the birth control administration has been discussed on our blogs before, but this article has an interesting angle: the Amish are exempt from such legalization, yet the Catholics are not. Another group that is exempt are members of Medi-Share, a program of Christian Care Ministry. How is the reconcilable with the first amendment of the constitution, the right to one's beliefs?

Sister Mary Ann Walsh writes, "The Amish do not believe in insurance, and the government understands. Christian Care Ministry believes people should form a religious community and pay medical bills for one another, and the government says OK. Yet when the Catholic Church opposes being forced to pay for services that violate its beliefs, the Administration says 'tough.'"

The "Problem" With Christian Sororities/Fraternities

Here's something that hits close to home! (At least for me). I just joined CU Boulder's Christian sorority, alpha delta chi (adx).  And for the chapter at San Diego State University, it has just recenetly been decided that the sorority will no longer be affiliated with the school on the grounds that it is exclusive/discriminatory because it only lets Christians in: the members and officers to accept a statement of faith, which, among other things, requires that members have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The Christian sorority and fraternity at Hastings College became unaffiliated too, last year, and this trend could have an effect on other adx chapters. However, if it does eventually affect our school, the Christian fraternity will not see any affect since all fraternities here are not affiliated with CU already.
The adx chapter tried to get this case reviewed by the Supreme Court, but were denied. The problem for adx chapters is how one-way this decision is: since "the student vegetarian club can exclude those who advocate for meat eating and animal hunting, but Christian groups cannot exclude those advocating atheism or Buddhism, etc" (see link below).

http://blog.speakupmovement.org/university/religious-freedom/supreme-court-should-announce-monday-whether-it-will-hear-san-diego-state-case/

Burning of the Quran: Should We Have Apolgized?

We were talking about this issue in class today so I thought I'd post this relevant youtube video. It is a response to Obama's apology after the Qurans were burned; While many see this as an injustice and social wrong, Kira Davis criticizes Obama's apology because of the wrongs happening between America and Afghanistan and the wrongs done to the nation's own people by those in power. I haven't researched all of the claims she makes and verify them, but many of them are things we all know or have heard. She brings up a lot of current events that have religious associations and she faces a lot of reality by not only criticizes their political leaders and actions, but also our own, in a very intriguing/provocative way.

Issues [paraphrased] with Afghanistan:
- I'm sorry that you have harbored terrorists, and we can't just "quickly level the bad guys there and get out"
- I'm sorry that you have "no problem whatsoever with sewing a twelve-year-old girl's vagina shut so she can't sin" and that you persecute homosexuals
- I'm sorry that you "imprison and even execute" those who leave the Islamic faith
- I'm sorry that the detainees use your sacred text to send covert, coded messages back in faith and that we have to destroy them just to keep our personnel safe.
etc, etc, etc. Watch it, it's super interesting.

Twitter Faves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/joyce-meyer-ministries-joel-osteen-ministries-most-retweeted-brands-twitter_n_1326725.html

This article just shows that "Joyce Meyers Ministries" and "Joel Osteen Ministries," are on the list of twitter users with the highest numbers of retweets per day. It is interesting just to see how popular Christianity is, with the list being 1. Meyers 2. ESPN and 3. Osteen ...
This illustrates and justifies that statistic which states that the majority of Americans identify themselves as "Christian."

I guess America loves God as much as we love our sports!

Anberlin

I hope no one has done Anberlin yet:
This song is called "*Fin":




Some Lyrics:
Feels like you're miles from here,
in other towns with lesser names.
Where the unholy ghost doesn't tell
Mary or William exactly what they want to hear.
You remember the house on Ridge Road
told you and the Devil to both just leave me alone.
If this is salvation, I can show you the trembling.
You'll just have to trust me. I'm scared.

I am the patron saint of lost causes.
Aren't we all to you just near lost causes?
Aren't we all to you just lost A lot of their music is not classified as "Christian" but many of their songs have Christian references or underlying themes.

Mormons

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/12/are_mormons_christians.html
http://www.seafox.com/mormons.html
http://mmoutreachinc.com/mormons/morchristjesus.html

These articles intend to answer the question, "Are Mormons Christians?" They basically assert that most Mormons feel that they belong to the Christian sect of religions, even though they think that Christianity is off in its doctrines surrounding the trinity and the biblical canon. However, some people (mainly Christians) believe that the Mormon doctrines and practices founded on such doctrines are so different that they can not be labelled a "Christian" religion. They have a different view on Jesus and God. For example, according to these articles, they believe in Jesus as a son of God and as someone who existed, who was a divine human and who atoned for all sins. But their view of Jesus is that he was simply a son of God, not part of God (like the trinity says). They feel they should be called Christian because they believe in Jesus as a martyr and (the only) redeemer, while Christians feel otherwise because their view on Jesus (and many other aspects of religion) are greatly different views from their own.