Spring Quarter

Hello!

So, I will be getting back on here with firm things of firmness, such as dates and times and names, etc., but not until Saturday, when we're meeting to decide just what those firm things are.

Things in the works include:

A week devoted to exploring issues surrounding intelligent design, possibly getting a speaker and a panel for a forum together, with a movie that highlights the theme of intelligent design.

A week devoted to examining poverty. This includes a movie focusing on poverty, a panel-led discussion on religious outlooks on Appalachian poverty, and a group of us volunteering at the Hannah House, Athens' homeless transition home, to make dinner on a Friday.

This is what I have! Movie nights will continue, as will Passport events. More to come in the following weeks!

I'm so sorry, I had to. Camels.

Pope Uses Google as Scapegoat

This story is...amazing. I can just see all of the Pope's PR people sitting around a giant wooden table going, "Well, damn. The Pope lifted the excommunication on a Nazi-crazed Holocaust-denier. That doesn't look too good. It's bad. Very bad. How can we fix it? Who can we blame!?"

The little dude in the back who never speaks: "Google!"

Vatican encourages excommunication

This is a really upsetting story about how the Vatican is encouraging and supporting the excommunication of a 9 year-old, her mother, and her doctors, after the little girl received an abortion after being raped. The little girl was pregnant with twins. First of all, how do 9 year-olds get pregnant? Second, there's a loud four letter word I would like to say, but will refrain from, at the Vatican's inability to accept gray areas. Thanks to Em for the article.

Water Buffalo

Because I just couldn't avoid it. I swear I will put up things with substance soon. :D

Bologna

This is so horrendously disgusting, I have to share it with all of you.

Possible ingredients in bologna:

• chicken feet
• tripe (cow stomach lining)
• sweetbreads (cow pancreas)
• frog's still-beating heart
• snake blood
• cow's lung
• turkey and chicken butts
• cabeza (cow's head with eyes)
• rabbit kidneys
• menudo (cow stomach lining soup)
• kangaroo organs
• rat and duck embryos
• cow lips
• chicken necks
• offal (mixed internal organs such as heart, liver, or intestines)
• haslet (pig offal meatloaf)
• haggis (a cow stomach filled with its offal)

MESSAGE: NEVER EAT BOLOGNA.

Whoa. I love lickle organisms.

District ban employees joining student-led prayer

I don't quite understand how this can happen. How is it possibly legitimate to ban prayer? I understand disallowing an employee to force students to pray, but to ban it for the employee entirely? Just because it makes people uncomfortable? I don't know. I wouldn't do it for Judaism, or Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, or Druidism; so why for Christianity? It's upsetting.

I've heard a lot of stories about people getting unnecessarily accosted by some of the campus crusade people on campus. I understand why that it isn't right, why it's uncomfortable, and why you would like to see more restrictions on what they're allowed to do. However, I think it is a basic right of any faithful person to be able to pray - does this right need to be curtailed in the public sphere? This is something I simply am not equipped to answer at the moment. What do you think?

Vatican can be sued for abuse

The Vatican is considered a sovereign nation, which has pretty much made it immune to judicial review in the past. This is an interesting caveat to a long and bitter story. Thanks, once again, to Emily, for providing me with the things I am far too sleepy to procure myself in the morning. :)

Events, Role of Religion in the Military

Hello!

So, this week, we're going to be having a nice, sit-down-type chat with our fellow Islamic students and community members to discuss their lives in relation to their faith. It's going to be somewhat informal, circle-style, where we will start off by asking some really broad questions about how they feel their faith is expressed and challenged in their day-to-day lives, and then we'll open it up to free discussion. This is a really good chance to see from the eyes of someone who has a unique and interesting perspective on life that you may not have thought about before. It is being held on Wednesday, March 4th (this Wednesday) from 7-9 PM in Bentley 129. I'll be moderating, so, I mean, technically you could just come to see my lovely face. But really, you'll get so much more out of it, that I'm just like, candy. On the side. Which actually, there will be. Because every good discussion is fueled by food. Nom.

(P.S. To everyone who takes this blog uber-seriously. Iz okay. I was like that once too. Then I found lolcats.)

Also! Ya scurvy pups. Leesten oop. My dearest friend Emily gave me this nifty article from the New York Times that you should take a look at. It's all about the role of religion in the armed forces - an age-old debate, and something that is most definitely a difficult dialogue. Check it out, me laddehs. Oh, and is it just me, or does that man look rully, rully angry? Whew.

Secular Bible Study

This is really interesting - an article about a Methodist church joining forces with an Atheist group to promote a bible study. Here's the link to the article.