Free Republic

Survey finds spirituality influencing many students' political and social views By the time Laura Conrad arrived at Carnegie Mellon University for her freshman year, she had lost interest "in all that religious stuff" from her Jewish day school background in Newton, Mass. But a funny thing happened to Conrad on her way through college: She became more religious. And she discovered that her self-described "liberal" views on politics and morals were strengthened by her spirituality. "I don't think you can separate those things because they're part of who you are," said Conrad, 22, who graduated this past spring. "If anything,...

Esther, the pop artist formerly known as 'Madonna'Following in the footsteps of Hollywood divas Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore and Winona Ryder, pop-star Madonna has remade herself at London's Kabbalah Centre, home of the trendy crash course in ancient Jewish gnosticism. In fact, the Queen of Pop has changed her name to Esther, she says, in order to rid herself of any 'negative energy.' Carrie Tomko examines what's behind this New Age sucker-religion--and what's not.Kabbalah, cabala, quabala, qabalah--those are some, but not necessarily all of the possible spellings of the new old religion that America pop-artist formerly known as Madonna has...

One on One: Matter of chemistry By RUTHIE BLUMFor Sarah Strikovsky, what began as a career move became a journey to Judaism "You know you're not allowed to ask me about my conversion," says Sarah (Olga) Strikovsky, smiling sweetly. "But I guess I'm allowed to volunteer the information." This, she explains, is because a convert is not supposed to be reminded of his or her past. Advertisement Strikovsky, 36, a chemist at a pharmaceutical company in Rehovot, made aliya from Nizhny Novgorod in the former Soviet Union 12 years ago with her husband and daughter. Since then, her life has...

Judging by most of what you read, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is the most dangerous, disgusting movie of all time. Even if you haven't seen it, you know that it's a gore-filled splatterfest with anti-Semitic overtones, that Mel Gibson's father is a flat-out Holocaust-denier, and that Mel himself is a sinister marketing genius. The movie has been condemned by most reviewers. This paper's Rick Groen said it "comes perilously close to the pornography of violence." Frank Rich, The New York Times cultural writer, has been flaying Mr. Gibson's movie for weeks. "A joy ride for sadomasochists" was...

John Debney is used to writing movie scores for comedies like "Liar, Liar" and "Bruce Almighty," but he admits that composing the score for Mel Gibson's powerful movie "The Passion of the Christ" was the most difficult assignment of his life. For it turned out to be a battle between good and evil that he had never experienced before in some 20 years in Hollywood. "I don't think I will ever be given the opportunity to write again for a movie as powerful as this one," he said during a recent media interview in Beverly Hills. "I was stretched every...

From American Airlines

FORT WORTH - The chief executive of American Airlines has apologized after a pilot suggested that non-Christian passengers on a recent flight discuss the faith with Christians. Gerard Arpey said the airline has grounded the pilot with pay while executives investigate the incident. Arpey said he apologized to anyone who was offended by the pilot's comments on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. "Let me assure you that we take this very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation," Arpey wrote in a letter to Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that monitors...

Pilots learn to speak with care, but still be themselves By KIRSTEN TAGAMI The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/11/04 When he was hired as a Delta Air Lines pilot 18 years ago, Bob Morus got some basic advice about talking on the intercom: speak slowly and avoid jargon or words that might upset passengers, such as "thunderstorm." No one told him not to talk about Jesus. They didn't have to. "That's just common sense," said the 47-year-old Morus. Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York were alarmed last weekend when the pilot asked all passengers...

Guess who scored the interview with the Christian airline pilot? On his first flight after a short-term missions trip to Costa Rica, American Airlines captain Roger Findiesen flipped on the Public Address system in the cabin and explained that flight 34 was second in line for takeoff. Then he continued on a personal note. "I just got back from a mission," he said. "You know, they say about half of Americans are Christians. I'd just like the Christians on board to raise their hands." After a pause, he went on. "I want everyone else on board to look around at...

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- A pilot asked passengers on an American Airlines flight to raise their hands if they were Christians, telling them they were "crazy" if they weren't, some of the passengers said Monday. Passenger Jen Dorsey told CNN, "We were just at the beginning of our flight. The pilot came on to greet everyone and give his comments for the morning, and he said he'd recently been on a mission trip, and he'd like all the Christians to please raise their hands." Also speaking on CNN, passenger Karla Austin said the pilot commented, "'If you are a...

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is investigating an unorthodox speech to passengers by an on-duty pilot over the weekend. Many passengers felt the pilot crossed a line when asking Christians on board the flight to identify themselves before the plane took off. Passengers on the cross-country flight from Los Angeles to New York certainly got more than a movie and meal. The pilot, who had just returned from a mission trip to Central America, asked Christians to raise their hands. "I thought (it) was very bizarre," passenger Jen Dorsey said. "And then he said, 'look around and everyone who doesn't have...

<p>NEW YORK — An American Airlines (search) pilot asked Christians on his flight to identify themselves and suggested the non-Christians discuss the faith with them, the airline said.</p> <p>The case was handed over to the airline's personnel department for an investigation, spokesman Tim Wagner (search) said Sunday.</p>

New York-AP -- American Airlines says one of its pilots asked Christians on his flight to identify themselves and discuss their faith with non-Christian passengers. Airline Spokesman Tim Wagner says American Flight 34 was headed from Los Angeles to New York on Friday when the pilot asked Christians on board to raise their hands. The pilot told the airline that he then suggested that other passengers use the flight time to talk to the Christians about their faith, and added that he'd be available for discussion at the end of the flight. While the pilot had just returned to work...

George W. Bush was born into an Episcopal family and raised as a Presbyterian, but he is now a Methodist. Howard Dean was baptized Catholic, and raised as an Episcopalian. He left the church after it opposed a bike trail he was championing, and now he is a Congregationalist, though his kids consider themselves Jewish. Wesley Clark's father was Jewish. As a boy he was Methodist, then decided to become a Baptist. In adulthood he converted to Catholicism, but he recently told Beliefnet .com, "I'm a Catholic, but I go to a Presbyterian church." What other country on earth would...

I read with interest Gregory Korgeski's Dec. 13 counterpoint decrying creationism and fundamentalism. After learning that no "reputable" scientists endorse creationism, I learned that fundamentalists who take their sacred texts literally are dangerous to the well-being of society. These arguments are self-serving in that they admit no evidence to the contrary. In Korgeski's thought, being a creationist makes you disreputable and being a fundamentalist makes you a likely menace to society. I was raised in a church that taught that the Bible was mostly mythology, that there were no miracles, and that evolution was true. Seeing no need for religion,...

After analyzing more than 10,000 personal interviews conducted during 2003, researcher George Barna identified four critical outcomes that emerged from those interactions regarding faith and lifestyle. Millions of Americans Are Spiritually Satisfied – and Confused Contradictions and confusion permeate the spiritual condition of the nation. Studies conducted during 2003 indicate, for instance, that while 84% of adults say their religious faith is very important in their own life, 66% also say that religion is losing influence in the nation. While people are clearly spending less time involved in religious practices such as Bible reading, prayer, and participating in church activities,...

WASHINGTON Forty years ago today, as the world mourned the assassination of an American president, the passing of the 20th century's most influential Christian writer was hardly noticed: Clive Staples Lewis, professor of English literature at Oxford and Cambridge, died on Nov. 22, 1963. In his ability to nurture the faithful, as well as seduce the skeptic, C. S. Lewis had no peer. Lewis was an atheist for much of his adult life, an experience that may have helped immunize him from the religious cliché, the reluctance to ask hard questions, the self-righteousness of the zealot. "Mr. Lewis possesses the...

<p>Our nation's self-anointed arbiters of public morality love to point their fingers at San Francisco and "the '60s." And many of us have gotten all too comfortable in this role as the hedonists and heretics of an otherwise God- fearing nation. OK, we're not perfect, and neither were those wild times, but can't the pundits of piety find another decade to bash and a new city to trash?</p>

It started 4,000 years ago, and only advanced religious scholars of a certain age, marital status and gender were privy to its mysteries. Then a former insurance agent from Brooklyn named Feivel Gruberger saw the light (and the opportunities) and turned the kabbala, an archaic, mystical branch of Judaism, into a global movement with 25 study centers and countless famous disciples who chug expensive water in the name of enlightenment. Gruberger, who renamed himself Philip Berg and is known as Rav Berg, founded the Kabbalah Centre in the U.S. more than 30 years ago. Converts emerge almost daily. From Mick...

TAMPA - It's been on Mary Norris Vincent's mind for quite some time. ``What is the purpose of my life?'' she wonders. ``I'm like a lot of people. We try this, we try that, and we're still not happy.'' The 65-year-old Sun City Center grandmother figures it's never too late to seek the answer to that timeless question. So last weekend, she joined tens of thousands of Americans beginning a 40-day program of group discussion, worship, study and service to find her purpose and put it to work. Nationwide, members of some 5,000 churches - including nearly 40 in this...