Labels: David C. Price

"During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was purportedly asked if God was on his side.
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side,” said the President, “my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”

Ironically, though Lincoln is often praised for this remark, it contains three of the most controversial ideas in American politics: that God should be invoked in the political sphere; that God’s existence matters, much less that he is always right; and that since He takes sides on certain issues, some people will be divinely justified while others will be in opposition not only to their political opponents but to the very Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

If you find these ideas absurd and repugnant, you are most likely a secularist. If you find them to be embarrassing truths, then you may be on the religious left. If you find them so obvious that they hardly need stating, then you are probably a member of the so-called “religious right.”"

Labels: David C. Price

Prince Charles could be crowned king in a multifaith ceremony, a senior church official recently has revealed.

Canon John Hall, the dean-elect of London's Westminster Abbey where the ceremony would take place, claims the traditional Christian ceremony should be altered to incorporate the country's multicultural population.

He says, "It must be different in some ways because of the nature of society and how things have changed.

Labels: David C. Price

A sexually-explicit guide written in a way that condemns traditional North American values and promotes homosexuality and abortion to young girls learning about sex is being considered for use in public schools, and leaders at a family-values think tank are horrified.

The project is called, "The Little Black Book – A Book on Healthy Sexuality Written by Grrrls (sic) for Grrrls" and was assembled by a group including the St. Stephen's House community service organization.

The Toronto project, now online after earlier published versions, is, according to Ben-Ami [executive director of the Institute for Canadian Values], "a thinly veiled propaganda piece that undermines healthy parent-child relationships, substitutes voodoo myths for actual science, and provides advice that, if followed, will certainly result in real and serious harm to those who follow it."

For example, the guide states that "only 10% of the population is heterosexual – the rest being 'mixed' or bi-sexual," but mentions no evidence. It also promotes homosexuality and labels parents "homophobes."

"So are children until they get minds of other own," it said.

But wait, there's more...

"One section devoted to lesbian sex is entitled, 'My First Time F***ing a Girl!" This in a book intended for young girls, Ben-Ami noted.

And in a swipe at anyone with a religious background or beliefs, the book includes the comment that, if "you need someone to represent God The Holiness, then for me, it's a fat black dyke."

Labels: David C. Price

I hope that in several occasions during the visit ... my deep respect for great religions, in particular for Muslims - who worship the one God and with whom we are engaged in defending and promoting together social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for all men - has emerged clearly,' Benedict said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.

Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as 'evil and inhuman,' particularly 'his command to spread by the sword the faith.'

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.

Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshiper of the cross," saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (being killed by) the sword."

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay the "jizya" tax, though those who convert are exempt. The tax, sometimes called a head tax, has not been imposed in Muslim nations in about 100 years, though Islamic militant groups have tried to force non-Muslims to pay it on a local level in some countries.

Certainly Christians have gotten it wrong over the centuries, sometimes acting like Muslim extremists by "winning" converts through violence and forcing them to claim Christianity against their wills. The Crusades during the Middle ages is a clear example. The difference is that those actions were clearly contrary to the actual teachings of Christ in Scripture. Those people were not living according to their written doctrines. The heart of Christianity does not seek to win converts this way (regardless of what Rosy O'Donnell might think). It is the exact opposite with Islam. The following quote by some of the Muslim militants sums up my point perfectly:

'You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations,' said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Labels: David C. Price

As I travel the globe, I keep looking for evidence that Islam is the religion of peace and Judaism and Christianity are using violence to advance their faiths. Strangely, I have yet to discover Christian converts filling a truck with dynamite and destroying a mosque. Or congregants at a Jewish temple torching a Muslim madrassah. I'm looking for cases of Mormons hijacking a plane to crash into downtown Islamabad, Hare Krishnas kidnapping and beheading Muslim aid workers, and Bahais taking over a cruise ship and tossing overboard a handicapped, elderly Muslim.

I'm still waiting.

In fact, the worst religious persecution comes in Islamic nations. In Indonesia I saw churches and a Bible school that had been destroyed by Muslim mobs. In March I met a Christian pastor whose wife lost a leg in a bombing at their church; their home was burned down the following year. A few years ago I walked through Christian neighborhoods in the town of Ambon burned down by Muslim mobs.

Islamic protests against the slightest Western criticism of or doubt about the religion of Mohammed ring hollow. It is sad that many Muslims appear unable to defend their faith through anything but intimidation. Moreover, so long as their religion is noted for its willingness to persecute and employ violence around the globe, they have little credibility to complain of offenses by others.

Does what we say in the West bother Muslims in the Mideast and elsewhere? I have trouble feeling guilty so long as Islamic states fail to recognize that people created by God in his image should be left free to decide whether and how to follow him. A coerced conversion yields no glory to God, even if his name is Allah.

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

"MINNEAPOLIS - State lawmaker Keith Ellison didn't let questions about his past slow down his campaign to become the first Muslim in Congress.

On Tuesday, voters responded to his liberal message calling for peace, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and universal health care. He beat three contenders in the Democratic primary in a Minneapolis-area district long dominated by his party."

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Venezuela's president said it's 'not absurd' to think that Washington had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The South American leader who claims the United States launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq only to solidify political power now contends a building like one of the World Trade Center towers 'never collapses like that' and 'could have been dynamited.'

Labels: David C. Price

Imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni also stressed repeatedly that all people must show respect for one another. 'If everyone respected one another as people, we wouldn't have any problems. But it seems everyone wants to show what great power they have.'

Labels: David C. Price

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Labels: David C. Price

Religions will continue to thrive despite the rise of science and rationality because we are all born with a tendency to believe in the supernatural, according to research published yesterday.

"Magical thinking" is hard-wired into our brains, according to Prof Bruce Hood, of the University of Bristol, speaking at the British Association's annual festival in Norwich. Prof Hood challenged the assumption of Prof Richard Dawkins and other "ultra rationalists" that belief in the supernatural was spread by religions in gullible minds.

"Rather, religions may simply capitalise on a natural bias to assume the existence of supernatural forces," he said.

"It is pointless to get people to abandon their belief systems because they operate at such a fundamental level that no amount of rational evidence or counter evidence is going to be taken on board to get people to abandon these ideas." [Full article]

Labels: David C. Price

CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44. Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement. Crew members aboard Irwin’s boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead a short time later.

Labels: David C. Price