What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?
Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion — Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

“Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs,” High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged. The makers of “Penitents Compete” are unrepentant and reject claims that the show, scheduled to begin broadcasting in September, will cheapen religion.

“We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God,” Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.
“We don’t approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn’t matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe,” Soylu said.

Read more here.

[From me]

The first line sounds like a joke as does this program. I wonder if the Christian contestant can convert the Muslim and Buddhist too?

What do you think?

This is from an article by Sandra Tsing Loh

Sadly, and to my horror, I am divorcing. This was a 20-year partnership. My husband is a good man, though he did travel 20 weeks a year for work. I am a 47-year-old woman whose commitment to monogamy, at the very end, came unglued. This turn of events was a surprise. I don’t generally even enjoy men; I had an entirely manageable life and planned to go to my grave taking with me, as I do most nights to my bed, a glass of merlot and a good book. Cataclysmically changed, I disclosed everything. We cried, we bewailed the fate of our children.

Read the article here.

Watch the video below too:

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[From me]

First, I’ve been blessed to be married 21 years so my answer is no. But as I read the article by Sandra Tsing Loh, I was struck by a few things. First it is obvious that both she and her husband care about their careers more than their marriage. Two, she is saying marriage doesn’t work after she had an affair. Is that her husbands’ fault? She claims that we don’t need marriage because it was for women before they got equal rights. That sounds like a business decision.

I didn’t get married to have someone take care of my children and put food on the table. I got married because I wanted to spend my life with a person I love. I know people who have been through divorces for many reasons. Most of them get remarried because they do believe in marriage and they never wanted a divorce. Marriage is hard work and some people don’t want to work at being married. If one partner says I’m done there isn’t much the other can do. Is marriage obsolete? Only if you want it to be.

What do you think?

Newtown Square mom brings church to kindergarten class in an activity called “All About Me Week.” One of the options for the lesson was for the child’s parent to come in and read from the child’s favorite book. Little Wesley’s mom, Donna Kay Busch, chose to read from the Bible. The school principle asked her not to read from the Bible on grounds of the risk to separation of Church and State.

Donna Kay Busch has sued and has lost her case twice. Now it may be heading to the Supreme Court. This case it not as black and white as one might normally think. On the one hand, this was not a teacher reading to the class which would be akin to endorsement, but it is a kindergarten class and clearly little Wesley could not find the Bible to be his favorite book. He would be a super genius if at kindergarten age he had actually read the entire Bible, understood it, and believed it to be his favorite book.

Read more here.

[From me]

This is a hard one. The Bible is what her life is about so is it wrong for her to read from it? But what would Christians have said had it been the Koran?

What do you think?

Holy Land Experience doesn’t want you to know when it schedules its required free day each year out of concern over a possible “uncontrollable situation.”

At least that’s the conclusion to be drawn by a letter the religion-based theme park sent to the office of Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan. Donegan asked the park for documentation of its free days after I reported earlier this month that the park gave out conflicting information about the day.

Holy Land, owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network, is required to drop its normal $35 ticket price and offer free admission one day each year in exchange for a property-tax exemption that saves it about $300,000 annually, according to a 2006 state law designed to guarantee the exemption.

Read more here.

[From me]

The park looks interesting despite who owns it. What does $35 a ticket go for? I saw on their website they take donations. Can you imagine Disney World asking for donations? Why would a theme park be tax exempt? I hope it doesn’t go to furnish the TBN studios.

What do you think?

JERRY SPRINGER is baffled his U.S. TV show has stayed on air so long – because it is “awful”.
The 65 year old has hosted The Jerry Springer Show since its debut in 1991 – but he’s mystified as to why viewers are so hooked.

He says, “We’ve been doing this show for 19 years now and I’m really sorry for that. No one had any idea that it would last all these years.”
And Springer can’t help but cringe when he watches back his very first episode: “That was pretty pathetic but it’s not as if it’s got any better, it’s still awful.”

Read article here.

[From me]

We’ve all known this for years. I wonder what took Jerry so long to realize it.

he Pride Festival kicked off in Loring Park Saturday. There were live bands, food and thousands of people. It’s now the third-largest gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender celebration in the country.

But there was some trouble there Saturday night.

Minneapolis Police arrested three people from Hayward, Wis. for trespassing. An amateur photographer named Aaron Bogle gave WCCO-TV video of a father, mother and son being arrested.

For 11 years, Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the festival.

This year, they were not allowed to have a booth. Pride paid to rent the whole park and that gave them the right to choose which vendors they allowed in.

The Johnsons said they are born-again Christians and they believe homosexuality is a sin.

Read more here.

[From me]

They did break the law. I sure they knew something like this would happen if they showed up. Isn’t breaking the law a sin? Does protesting a something a person believes is a sin by sinning themselves make it right? Just wondering.

What do you think?

GIVE Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life.

The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine.

The five-day camp in Somerset (motto: “It’s beyond belief”) is for children aged eight to 17 and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups.

Budding atheists will be given lessons to arm themselves in the ways of rational scepticism. There will be sessions in moral philosophy and evolutionary biology along with more conventional pursuits such as trekking and tug-of-war. There will also be a £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn.

Instead of singing Kumbiya and other campfire favourites, they will sit around the embers belting out “Imagine there’s no heaven . . . and no religion too”.

Read more here.

[From me]

Camp? Isn’t that what TV is for?

What do you think?

Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress on Thursday to expand federal protections to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals, a move conservatives say would criminalize those who simply speak against homosexuality. Addressing the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder argued for the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, saying “the time is now” to protect communities from violence based on bigotry and prejudice.

Named after a gay man killed in 1998, the bill would add violence against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability to the list of federal hate crimes.

Opponents of the bill say expanding the federal hate crime law is unnecessary considering state and local governments already prosecute violent crimes. But Holder argued that there are instances where the federal government needs to come in.

He also insisted that the bill would be used only to prosecute violent acts and not speech.

“It is the person who commits the actual act of violence, who would be subject to this legislation, not the person who is simply expressing an opinion,” he said, responding to concerns from clergy and other religious leaders who say they could face prosecution just for expressing their religious views on homosexuality because their teachings could be blamed for inciting violence.

Holder’s assertion, however, does not convince Christians that the bill will not lead to an abridgment of free speech.

Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, points out that the explicit mention of “the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment” was removed from the version that was passed by the House in April.

“There is nothing in this bill that explicitly prevents any homosexualist-activist judge, of which there are many, from ruling that calling homosexual acts a grave ‘abomination’ by appeal to Levitical prohibitions constitutes an inducement to violence,” Gagnon states in an article series arguing against the hate crimes legislation.

The Pittsburgh Seminary professor views the bill as “the Trojan horse of an aggressive gay/transgender lobby.”

He argues that it offers “to the public the ’sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ law least likely to meet with massive public resistance.” And once the horse is within the city walls, then passing other laws on sexual orientation and gender identity will be relatively easy.

Moreover, he contends that placing “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” alongside “race,” “color” or “national origin” “ensconces in federal law the principle that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality are as benign as race, gender, and disability – an aspect of human diversity that must be affirmed and celebrated.”

“Those who refuse to go along with this principle then become encoded in law as hateful, discriminatory bigots,” he notes.

On that note, Gagnon says the hate crimes bill is not primarily about protecting homosexual and transgendered persons from violence, as they are already protected by existing state laws. Instead, the bill is really a hate-promotion bill, he argues.

Read more here.

[From me

If someone is murdered isn’t that enough to prosecute them? What difference does it make if they are killed for their faith, beliefs, color or sexual orientation? Is this bill an attempt to bypass the 1st Amendment? Murder and violent crime are horrible and should be prosecuted to the highest. But what difference does it make if someone called them a name? I wish the Westboro Group would go away. But I do recognize their 1st Amendment rights to speak. I don’t like it but understand it. Is this new law going to attempt to stop Bible believing churches from speaking truthfulness about lifestyles that Bible says are sinful? How is it hate to tell someone the truth? What am I missing?

What do you think?

A Louisville pastor is welcoming gun owners into his church’s sanctuary Saturday for what he says is a show of support for the right to bear arms.

Ken Pagano is asking visitors to bring their unloaded handguns in a holster at a late afternoon event at New Bethel Church in southwest Louisville.

Pagano says he got the idea after some members at the Pentecostal church expressed concern over the Obama administration’s views on gun control. He says the gathering is meant to promote safe gun ownership.

Read more here.

[From me]

Gives new meaning to “what’s in your wallet?” Somehow I don’t see Jesus packing a gun. If a church decides to have a security guard, I can see that for their protection. But what kind of message does it send when followers of Jesus are carrying weapons?

What do you think?

We picked this up at Paul and Jan’s garage sale at TBN.

[HT] Steve Thompson