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FROM AP: Tavis Smiley marks 10th year on PBS
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The ambitions of the Office of Religious Freedom tap into a growing global challenge -- one that some in the general public seem intent on dismissing by caricaturing religious devotees as inherently fanatical whose weak acquiescence to a ragbag of delusional self-therapy fables is intellectually offensive.
The sheer existence of a perspective different than our own is hardly adequate evidence to label someone a narrow-minded dogmatist regardless of which side of the fence they sit on.
We spent some time defining nonviolence, then I spoke about its three dimensions: being nonviolent toward ourselves; being nonviolent toward everyone we meet and know; and being part of the global grassroots movement of nonviolence.
Let the new church be an example of God's love. Let's share more forgiveness and preach less about guilt. Let us share the light as the answer to the world's darkness.
Truth, at least as the Catholic Church understands it, is best demonstrated, not by carefully reasoned arguments (though those are important) and certainly not by violence, but by self-giving love. There is nothing more compelling, nothing more true, than sacrificial love.
How did evangelical Christians, who have been dedicated to the care of all people and at the forefront of social reform in America, come to be broadly identified with intolerance and a lack of compassion?
I beseech you, my Pakistani Muslim family: Sectarian killings are neither a Shiite nor an Ahmadi issue; they are a human rights issue. Instead of resorting to conspiracy theories, take individual responsibility to #RemoveHate from your streets.
Sikhs have a rich history of military service across the globe. Meanwhile, U.S. policies still bar turbaned Sikhs from serving in the military.
We have scarcely skimmed the surface of violence and intolerance to Christians in Muslims worlds. If it should continue at its present rate, Christianity will very soon be completely eradicated in its homeland.
The Western Wall is a good place to launch a re-commitment to the Torah's vision of "one law," of unity without uniformity, and to Israel's imperfect but vigorous expression of democracy in action.
Vatican officials admit the pope won't actually be doing the hunt and peck to type messages and instead someone in the Vatican's secretariat of state will actually compose the tweets on his behalf. But they promise it will be his words and only his words.
The more specific you get, the less likely you are to be correct. This is certainly manifest in the inconvenient truth that so many religions describe what God wants from us in such different terms.
While I am an unwavering proponent of equal rights for consenting adults of any sexual orientation, I agree with the National Organization for Marriage in one respect: The government has no business entangling itself with religious conceptions of marriage.
The essence of the Vedic culture, today known as Hinduism, teaches that none of us are white, black, brown, red or yellow. We are spiritual beings, eternally lovers and servants of God, who have forgotten our spiritual nature.
Some of our neighbors are grateful just to be alive -- not because of natural disasters but because of members of their community. Two incidents of violence, one extreme, were perpetrated at houses of worship in recent days.
"What is that sucking sound?" I asked a classroom of seniors at San Pedro High School in California. I had been invited to speak for their Career Day, Making a Difference In Our Youth. Upon the wall I showed a picture of a vacuum cleaner. A few giggles erupted through the room.
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