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The Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch is the new Official heading the Vatican Office for Ecumenism. A discussion about Christian in the Holy Land, Minarets in Europe and the current Islam-Debate. Rome (kath.net/DieWelt) As the successor of the Curial Cardinal, Walter Kasper, the former Basel Archbishop Kurt Koch will become the next President for the Papal Adviser for the Promotion of the Unity of Christians -- a kind of "ecumenical minister" of the Vatican. Koch was born in 1950 in Emmenbrucke in the Canton of Luzern. As his first challenge was a two week Synod in the Vatican on the situation...

The American Sikh community has said that President Barack Obama is not visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar because he harbours fears of negative image fallout with him being partially Muslim by birth. Refusing to buy the White House explanation that India is a huge country and that it would not be possible for the president to take on too many events during his four-day visit from November 6 to 9, American Sikhs said they could not accept such a view. "I'm not really buying it. I think the administration has been struggling with the false accusation that the president...

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says yoga is not a Christian practice. In an online essay, Dr. Mohler wrote that he's surprised at the number of Christians who embrace it and is asking Christians to avoid it. He says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God. Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine." "That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press. CBN News spoke with psychologist and author Dr. Linda Mintle about yoga and whether its emphasis...

My Spirit IS The Fruit ! Let Me Flow ~ ~ ~ Do you see my children I have come to bring you my love ; In Correction , Guidance , Promises , Blessings and more but in all these things I bring , as I look down upon some I see a talent hidden or buried not bearing fruit ?! So let My spirit as your eternal gift move and flow Freely for it is The Fruit I Bear through you my children ~ ~ ~ So Do My will and do not fear the enemy for I AM...

Wednesday August 25, 2010 Archbishop Chaput: "Systematic Discrimination Against Church Now Seems Inevitable" SPISSKE, PODHRADIE, Slovakia, August 25, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - MUST READ Excerpts from Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's address to the 15th symposium for the Canon Law Association of Slovakia on Tuesday:Today's secularizers have learned from the past.  They are more adroit in their bigotry; more elegant in their public relations; more intelligent in their work to exclude the Church and individual believers from influencing the moral life of society. Over the next several decades, Christianity will become a faith that can speak in the public square less...

I had always been taught to believe in the homogeneity of the pious. But a year after September 11, as I snuck into a Thursday afternoon zikr at the Masjid al-Farah twelve blocks from the still smoldering Ground Zero, I was not so sure. It was Ramadan and the tradition of breaking of the fast, the iftar was going to happen after the zikr, or Sufi chanting. Looking around, I felt this was hippie for the Muslims. It was like the Muslim Woodstock or Burning Man. Clearly the congregants would prefer granola bars to kebabs. They wore all manner of...

Last week, the media, White House and nation were in a hullabaloo over a Pew Research Center poll which revealed that one in five Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. The poll received so much attention and response that the White House released a rebuttal reiterating that Obama is "a committed Christian." The fact is, Americans are more baffled now by Obama's personal religion than they were when he first came into office. John Green, University of Akron politics professor and senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, concluded, "I haven't seen any example, and...

I know President Obama is not Muslim, but I am tempted nevertheless to think that he is, as are most Muslims I know. In a very unscientific oral poll, ranging from family members to Muslim acquaintances, many of us feel, just as African-Americans did for the non-black but culturally leaning African-American President Bill Clinton, that we have our first American Muslim president in Barack Hussein Obama. I know it's odd to say this. At first, I thought I was the only Muslim engaging in this folly, and I am reluctant to express it lest right-wing zealots try to use "Muslim"...

The New York City community board endorsed the Cordoba House, a community center and mosque planned for construction near Ground Zero. Significant opposition has emerged against the project. Sarah Palin even weighed in this weekend, tweeting, "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing." Should there be a mosque near Ground Zero? Building a mosque near the hallowed land of Ground Zero is not illegal. There are no zoning ordinances to preclude construction of any house of worship in that area. The New York City community board endorsed...

The Dalai Lama has sent a message of support for Armed Forces Day, which is next Saturday. In it, he writes of his admiration for the military. That is perhaps not so surprising. As he explains, there are many parallels between being a monk and being a soldier – the need for discipline, companionship, and inner strength. But his support will take some of his western admirers by surprise, not least when it comes to his thoughts on non-violence. Attitudes towards violence in Buddhism are enormously complex. There are some traditions that argue aggression, and killing in particular, is always...

KIRPAN (THE SIKH SWORD) Author : Unknown The sword has a special place in the history of various religious, cultures and nations. For a Sikh, "Kirpan" is an article of faith. For an initiated Sikh, wearing of a Kirpan is obligatory. An initiated Sikh, not wearing a Kirpan, would be in breach of his faith. Although its form has undergone several changes, sword has been part of the history of the world since pre-historic periods. References pertaining to sword can be found in the history of the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Japanese, and other national and...

Great video by an independent theist, who has researched Christianity for many years. From the video desciption: "Christians insist that Jesus was nailed to a cross and that after his resurrection, that he showed his disciples the wounds on his hands and his feet. There is not one verse in the Bible that says Jesus was nailed to a cross or that says he showed his wounded hands and feet to anyone. The Bible does say that he was hung on a tree or from a timber. These four verses claim that the two thieves received the same punishment that...

DHARMSALA, India (AP) — The question looms over this raggedy hillside town, a place where ancient mysticism constantly brushes against the realities of modern geopolitics. The monks who fled across the Himalayas ask it quietly, as do the exile politicians. Even the angry young activists are careful how they raise the issue. But as the man at the center of the Tibetan exile movement approaches his 75th birthday, the question has become impossible to escape: What happens after the Dalai Lama dies?

The Catholic Teaching on Predestination ISSUE: How does the Catholic Church understand predestination? RESPONSE: Predestination is a term used to identify God’s plan of salvation, in which according to His own decree, He “accomplishes all things according to his will” (Eph. 1:11). God gives us the gift of salvation through grace and faith. In turn, we must use our free will to persevere in good works “prepared beforehand” by God Himself (Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Phil. 2:12, 13). DISCUSSION: There are two opposite and equally erroneous positions about predestination that have always been rejected in authentic Catholic teaching. The first is...

What's a "nice" religion like Buddhism doing in a rotten place like Canada? Very well, thank you. And that's despite the many suggestions from a new book that self-satisfied "Western" people stereotype and act condescendingly toward Buddhists from Asia. I'm exaggerating the extent of Canada-bashing that occurs in the new book, Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press), edited by Canadian-based scholars John Harding, Victor Sogen Hori and Alexander Soucy. But there is a streak of political correctness running through Wild Geese, which tends to paint Canadian "Westerners" as haughty colonialists and Asian immigrants as virtuous victims of European-rooted...

According to this email [unknown origin], a Federal judge in Florida was hearing a complaint from an atheist. The filing by the atheist stated: "Christians and Jews have their Holidays - Easter/Christmas/Passover. We atheists do not have a holiday. This is unfair." The atheist was demanding a holiday for atheists. The judge responded [in responding to the suit]: "But you have a holiday. April 1 is the Holiday for fools. For it is written in the book of Psalms [14:1] that The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. [KJV]. You have April 1 as your holiday."...

Guwahiti, India, Feb 26, 2010 / 11:40 am (CNA).- Bishops in India have responded to the publication an image of Christ in a children's textbook that shows Jesus holding a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and the word "Idol" beneath. Although "deeply offended," the bishops said they are against seeking an "anti-blasphemy law" in the country.A statement from the Indian bishops, who holding a bishops' conference meeting in Guwahiti until March 3, was issued on Thursday. "We are deeply offended by the blasphemous image of Christ used on school books and on posters," they said in...

Robertson redux?Folks, this according to the Moscow Times: Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill said crime, drugs and corruption caused last week's massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in Haiti.Kirill, speaking during a weekend visit to Kazakhstan, said the Haitian people bore responsibility for the calamity because they had turned away from God, the Ferghana.ru news agency reported late Monday."Haiti is a country of poverty and crime, famine, drugs and corruption, where people have lost their moral face," Kirill was quoted as saying. He compared Haiti with the Dominican Republic, which are located on the same Caribbean island."I've visited...

Hello! My name is Father Jay Kythe. I am the pastor of the Church of St. Pius V in Cannon Falls and St. Joseph’s in Miesville. I wanted to tell you a little about myself. I was born in 1969 in New Orleans to parents from India. They arrived two years before I was born, desiring a better life for their family. My father came to become a professor of mathematics at the University of New Orleans, and my mother is a stay-at-home mom. I have one older brother, who is now married and lives near Los Angeles. They wanted...

Journalist Brit Hume who urged Tiger Woods to “turn to the Christian faith” was right when he drew distinction between Buddhism and Christianity in terms of the concept of forgiveness and redemption, said a prominent evangelical theologian. “I admire Brit Hume for saying something that was at the risk of bringing on this controversy because it really puts on the table the fundamental distinction of worldview: worldview A being Buddhism, worldview B being Christianity,” said Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., on his eponymous radio program last week. Mohler, a sought-after commentator who...