By Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg (WSJ) KABUL—The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort. Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes,...
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Religion
Petraeus condemns Florida church’s plan to burn Korans
U.S. soldiers punished for not attending Christian concert
By Chris Rodda (Talk To Action) On May 13, 2010, about eighty soldiers, stationed at Fort Eustis while attending a training course, were punished for opting out of attending one of these Christian concerts. The headliner at this concert was a Christian rock band called BarlowGirl, a band that describes itself as taking “an...
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GOP law guarantees right to build Moslem center at 9/11
By David Weigel (Slate) One reason that opponents are going to have trouble legally preventing Park51 from building its Muslim cultural center is that, in 2000, a Republican Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The goal of the legislation, supported by a coalition of religious groups, was to respond to...
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Illinois professor fired for stating Catholic view of homosexuality
(CNA/EWTN News) The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor for teaching in a class on Catholicism that homosexual acts violate natural moral law. Dr. Kenneth Howell was informed that he could no longer teach in the university’s department of religion. The decision came after a student complained that Howell’s statements were “hate speech.”...
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Racists use ‘demographic winter’ to stoke fear of homosexuality, feminism and abortion
By Bill Berkowitz (Alternet) If you’ve been following the debate over population growth, you’re probably familiar with the argument that it is economically unfeasible for the earth to sustain an unlimited population. You might subscribe to that argument, or you might believe that it isn’t so much a problem of population growth but rather...
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Lightning bolt destroys Jesus statue in Ohio
(AP) A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said. The “King of Kings” statue, at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati, was 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base....
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Happy Bloomsday! Apple censors ‘Ulysses’ webcomic on iPad/iPhone
On, 'Bloomsday', June 16th, the day that the events in James Joyce's book 'Ulysses' takes place, (a book that was once banned in the United States for being deemed 'obscene'), Apple users will be able to read a censored version of it on their iPads.
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Teacher is fired for having premarital sex with her fiancé
Fourth-grade teacher Jarretta Hamilton was newly married and expecting a baby when she went to speak with her supervisors in April of last year. After Hamilton admitted that her child had been conceived about three weeks before her February 20, 2009, wedding, Southland Christian School in St. Cloud fired her. A July 20, 2009, letter signed...
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12 children die during good luck ceremony
(ABC) Twelve Indonesian children died after a suspension bridge collapsed as they were taking part in a traditional ceremony to dispel bad luck, a local official said. The accident took place in a remote village in Aceh. ” There were about 37 kids gathered together on a wire-cable suspension bridge when it collapsed and...
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Christian indoctrination prisons proposed with born-again staff
Americans United for Separation of Church and State today warned corrections officials in three states not to use public funds to send inmates to a proposed “Christians-only” prison in Oklahoma. Corrections Concepts, Inc., has proposed building a private prison in Wakita, Okla., that will indoctrinate prisoners in fundamentalist Christianity and will be staffed solely...
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