Religious Tolerance on Huffington Post

Tom Krattenmaker: When Will Boy Scouts Accept The Non-Religious?

2013-05-21T17:00:59Z

It's the right thing to do. And here's the bonus: Once the Boy Scouts open up to non-believers, they're going to discover they have a lot to contribute -- just as they've been contributing all along.

Read more: Secular Humanism, Atheists, Boy Scouts, Religious Tolerance, Secular Student Alliance, Freethought Society, Atheism, Religion and Boy Scouts, Atheist Boy Scouts, Religion News

Anthony Vance: Five Years Too Many -- The Renewed Assault on Baha'i Leaders in Iran

2013-05-17T13:50:29Z

Since the inception of the Baha'i Faith in Iran in the middle of the 19th century, Baha'is had been subjected to continuous discrimination, and, at times, brutal persecution. Though I was familiar with this history, in early 1980 I considered it to be largely a thing of the past.

Read more: Baha'i, Religion, Islamic Republic of Iran, Baha'u'llah, Bahai Faith, Human Rights, Middle East, Baha'is in Iran, Religious Freedom, Iran Baha'i, Religious Persecution, Iran, Religious Tolerance, World News

Nicholas Marlin: Can Religion And Gay Dating Ever Coexist?

2013-05-13T15:33:35Z

I am a huge evangelist when it comes to being happy, so it is hard for me to watch close friends and others struggle with the issue of religion and gay dating. When your religious beliefs say that you are sinning simply because of whom you love, it can be a crushing blow to your self-esteem.

Read more: Religion, Gay Rights, Gay Dating Advice, Religion and Sexuality, Religious Tolerance, Gay Marriage, Gay Dating, Gay Issues, Gay Dating Tips, Bible Homosexuality, Religion Homosexuality, Gay Voices News

Tom Carpenter: The First Casualty Of Religious Wars Is Truth

2013-05-06T12:38:41Z

Over the past decades, conservative Christians have had almost full reign within the military, and they disproportionally make up most of the Chaplaincy. In the last several years, though, there has been closer scrutiny of the conduct of certain chaplains and commanders who have used their positions to advance their own religious beliefs.

Read more: Freedom of Speech, First Amendment, US Military, Military Chaplains, Evangelical Christians, Conservative Christians, Separation of Church and State, Freedom of Religion, Establishment Clause, Religion in the Army, Religious Tolerance, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Religion in the Military, Religion News

Joshua Eaton: Terror, Torture And Resistance

2013-05-06T11:52:06Z

In the figures of completely normal American college students turned terrorists and of torture done at the hands of American soldiers, we are forced to come face-to-face with our own capacity for destruction -- a capacity that is playing itself out in our economy, in our foreign policy and in our very chances for a future on this planet.

Read more: Terrorism, Boston Marathon Bombing, Guantanamo, Albert Camus, Hannah Arendt, Barack Obama, Torture, Islam, Religion and Politics, Guantanamo Hunger Strike, Religious Tolerance, Religion News

Derek Penwell: Why Christians Need To Quit Whining About 'Freedom of Religion'

2013-04-24T17:42:26Z

The cry that "my freedoms are in jeopardy" just sounds like whining to the rest of the world when it comes from people who've historically occupied the cultural driver's seat.

Read more: Christianity in America, Christianity, Freedom of Religion, Religion and Politics, Teachings of Jesus, Religious Persecution, Religious Tolerance, Christian Social Justice, Religion News

Rabbi Ben Greenberg: 'Kumare' And The Allure Of Otherness

2013-04-23T18:10:34Z

A man with a long beard, exotic accent, flowing robes and a staff enters the mainstream American culture of Phoenix and becomes a beacon for the most assimilated people in the city. It is as if his otherness transmits an aura of authenticity, spiritual profundity and religious truth.

Read more: Religion in America, Judaism, Kumare, Otherness, Religious Differences, Religious Pluralism, Religious Tolerance, Religion News

Vlad Chituc: Even If It Was A Muslim, So What?

2013-04-17T14:52:03Z

There have always been fringes in every group that will kill for their cause, but we rarely extrapolate beyond their group membership to make generalizations based on religion, ideology or color. But if we find out tomorrow that the bomber was a Muslim, then I don't think we can say the same. And that's a problem.

Read more: New Atheism, Muslims, Islam, Islamophobia, Boston Marathon Bombing, Atheism, Sam Harris, Religion and Politics, Religious Tolerance, Muslim Americans, Racial Profiling, Islam in America, Religion News

Kari Gremore: Anachronistic Jesus

2013-04-10T13:00:43Z

Jesus Christ bit into his Chick fil-A sandwich, giving thanks for the time travel machine that the Father Almighty had invented -- or rather the one Noah had unknowingly invented.

Read more: Religion and Politics, Gay, God, Religious Tolerance, Chicken, Larry King, Kari Gremore, Chick-Fil-A, Conservative, Liberal, Rush Limbaugh, Obama Same Sex Marriage, Comedy News

Chip Berlet: Make April 8, 2013 International Friendship Day

2013-04-04T10:49:14Z

We can help build a peaceful, prosperous, and diverse nation. On April 8 our family will mark the day as a day for building friendship among nations and peoples. It is especially important that we do this as residents in a nation of immigrants.

Read more: Friendship, Human Relations, Immigrant Rights, Immigrants, Immigration, Peace, Religious Tolerance, Bigotry, Impact News

Human Rights Watch: Burma: Before & After Satellite Images Detail Destruction

2013-04-01T11:37:20Z

(Bangkok) – An estimated 40 people were killed and 61 wounded in clashes between Muslims and majority Buddhists in central Burma from March 20...

Read more: Religious Freedom, Asia, Burma, Religious Tolerance, World News

Richard Brodsky: 'An Open System of Closed Enclaves': Tolerance, Past and Present, in America

2013-03-28T11:13:40Z

There's a growing national consensus that fighting to the death doesn't meet the needs of modern America. Only a president can instruct the nation on the need for a re-thinking of our political values.

Read more: Herbert Marcuse, Hegel, John Roche, Karl Marx, Bill Keller, Bipartisanship, Tolerance, Religious Tolerance, Partisanship, Politics News

Craig S. Keener: When Secularists/Evangelicals Took Over America: Stereotyping And Denigrating Other' Beliefs

2013-03-18T11:31:35Z

If all of us who have experienced others' insensitivity to our beliefs could sympathize with those marginalized for beliefs different from our own, we could make the world a more tolerant place.

Read more: Religious Freedom, Religious Persecution, Atheism, Religious Tolerance, Evangelicals, Spiritual but Not Religious, Religion in America, Religious Intolerance, Belief in God, Religion News

Ethan Casey: Muslims In America, Christians In Pakistan

2013-03-11T13:19:04Z

As an American, I feel shamed by the ways that my society mistreats Muslims here. By exactly the same token, Pakistan and all Pakistanis are shamed by mistreatment of Christians in Pakistan.

Read more: Islam, Pakistani Christians, Pakistan, Christianity, Religious Violence, Blasphemy Laws, Christians in Pakistan, Religious Freedom, Religious Tolerance, Freedom of Religion, Religion News

Human Rights Watch: Indonesia: Religious Minorities Targets of Rising Violence

2013-02-27T22:32:58Z

The Indonesian government is failing to protect the country's religious minorities from growing religious intolerance and violence, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

Read more: Religious Freedom, Indonesia, Religious Tolerance, Video, World News

Andrew P. Klager, Ph.D.: 3 Questions About Canada's New Office Of Religious Freedom

2013-02-25T17:28:46Z

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.

Read more: Interreligious Peacebuilding, Restorative Justice, Office of Religious Freedom, Religious Freedom, Religion and Politics, Peace, Religious Tolerance, Conflict Resolution, Religious Diversity, Religion in Canada, Religion News

Rev. James Ellis, III: Agreeing To Disagree About Homosexuality And Same-Sex Marriage

2013-02-23T02:18:19Z

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.

Read more: Lgbt, Marriage, Christianity, Religion and Sexuality, Religious Tolerance, Same-Sex Marriage, Ethics, Religion News

'Pastafarian' Refuses To Remove Pasta Strainer For License Photo

2013-02-21T16:27:20Z

Employees at a Motor Vehicle Commission office in New Jersey called the police on Feb. 2, when a man claiming to be a "Pastafarian" -- a follower of ...

Read more: Religious-Tolerance, Religion, Video, Pasta Strainer DMV, Atheism, Pastafarianism, MVC Aaron Williams, Niko Alm, Pasta Strainer, Aaron Williams Pastafarianism, Aaron William DMV, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Religion News

John Dear: Buddhists and Christians Talking Nonviolence

2013-02-19T18:10:33Z

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.

Read more: Religious Freedom, Nonviolence, Peace and Nonviolence, Buddhism, Religious Tolerance, Peace, Religion News

Bruce Davis, Ph.D.: A Letter To The New Pope

2013-02-17T19:45:42Z

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.

Read more: Catholic Church, Religious Freedom, Religion, New Pope, Religious Tolerance, Gps-Soul, Religion News

Stephen White: What Popes Are For

2013-02-12T10:40:43Z

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.

Read more: Pope Resignation, Pope Benedict, Catholic Church, Organized Religion, Catholicism, Pope Benedict Resignation, Religious Tolerance, Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, Truth, Pope Resigns, World News

PHOTOS: Controversial Ad Campaign Makes Its D.C. Debut

2013-01-29T16:03:06Z

WASHINGTON –- Ready to see more ads about jihad during your morning commute?

Just months after controversial anti-Muslim ads went on display, the...

Read more: American Islamophobia, Islam, Islamaphobia, American-Freedom-Defense-Initiative, #MyJihad, Pamela Geller, Washington DC, Pamela Geller Bus Ads, Myjihad, Religious Tolerance, Religion, Dc Metro, Jihad, Chicago, American Muslims, Muslims, San Francisco, DC News

American Pastor Sentenced To 8 Years In Iran

2013-01-28T11:13:26Z

BOISE, Idaho -- An American pastor who has been jailed in Iran since September has been sentenced to eight years in prison, the U.S. State Department ...

Read more: Religious-Tolerance, Video, American Pastor Iran, Religion in Iran, Christianity in Iran, Religious Freedom, Saeed Abedini, Christianity, American Center for Law and Justice, Iran, Freedom of Religion, Religion News

Georgette Bennett, Ph.D.: Evangelical Christians: The First American Liberals

2013-01-24T14:28:25Z

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?

Read more: Religious Understanding, Social Justice, Religious Right, Christianity, Religion and Politics, Tanenbaum Center, Religious Persecution, Religious Tolerance, Evangelicals, Judaism, Religion News

Dr. Faheem Younus: Muslims: #RemoveHate Or Pakistan Will Disintegrate

2013-01-23T12:15:25Z

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.

Read more: Hate Crimes, Ahmadiyya Sect, Pakistan, Christianity, Hate Speech, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Shiites, Islam, Sufism, Islam in Pakistan, Religious Tolerance, Religion News