pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
AP: School yoga tries to avoid religious controversy
Public school yoga instructor Katie Campbell proudly looks out at 23 first graders as they contain their squirming in a kid-friendly version of the lotus position.
AP: Israel's Women of the Wall pray for equality
Israeli security guards at the Western Wall on Friday searched women worshippers arriving at the holiest place where Jews can pray for a seemingly inoffensive object — the Jewish prayer shawl, which under the Orthodox tradition can be worn only by men.
Times of India: Turban pride restored as Sikhs win school turban ban case against France in UN
The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has ruled that France's ban on the wearing of "conspicuous" religious symbols in schools - introduced in a law adopted in March 2004 - violated a Sikh student's right to manifest his religion, protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
NYT: German lawmakers vote to protect right to circumcision
German lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation ensuring parents the right to have their boys circumcised, bringing a close to months of legal uncertainty set off by a regional court’s ruling that equated the practice with bodily harm.
Post-Dispatch: Fate of Baptist pastor accused of abuse is in the hands of his flock
Last Sunday, the Rev. Travis Smith paced First Baptist Church’s sanctuary, decorated for the holidays with poinsettias and a Christmas tree.
WSJ: When an idol divided India
This week, India marked the 20th anniversary of one of the most virulent acts of religious aggression in its history as an independent nation: The destruction of a mosque, the Babri Masjid, by thousands of Hindu activists in the northern town of Ayodhya.
CS Monitor: Watch your tongue: Prejudiced comments illegal in Brazil.
In an amateur online video, Afonso Henrique Alves Lobato describes how he and fellow members of his Evangelical church snuck into a spiritual center of Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian faith that venerates deities originating from Africa in services led by a religious figure called a pai de santo.
Newsweek: Rick Warren's Resurrection
“Have you hugged a pastor today!?”
Guardian: Religion spreads the word
'My reverend told me that he had prayed for me and that I had been healed," Mary Jere says, her wide eyes glazing. "So I stopped taking the HIV medication."
Wash. Post: Afghan’s Shiite minority fears a return to old ostracism
For the past week, the Afghan capital has been draped with black cloth arches and festooned with huge colored banners. Mournful, pounding chants pour from loudspeakers across the city, filling the air with slow martial intensity.
Post-Gazette: Hanukkah or Christmas? Some local families celebrate both holidays
To be sure, southwestern Pennsylvanians love their traditions, and none more so than those surrounding the Christmas season, complete with Santa Claus, carols, and of course, presents.
LA Times: Parents view yoga in elementary school as religious indoctrination
Parents in this seaside town are in a twist over yoga, saying that adding the ancient practice of meditative exercise to the school curriculum is tantamount to religious indoctrination into Hinduism.
Reuters: Germany Catholics wary about major Luther festivities
It's rare to be invited to an event five years off and even rarer to bicker about its details, but Germany's Catholic Church finds itself in that delicate situation thanks to an overture from its Protestant neighbors.
Reuters: Catholicism and sex shops: the struggle for Poland’s soul
At the sound of a bell from the altar, relayed over loud-speakers, about 50,000 people at an open-air mass last month in the Polish capital dropped down to kneel in the street.
Reuters: Germany resumes ritual circumcisions after bitter dispute
Shopkeeper Nevzat Cavan is rushing to meet orders for the white, fur-trimmed costumes worn by Muslim boys for their circumcision, relieved that Berlin's city government has allowed the operations to resume.
McClatchy: Outrage over anti-Islam video threatens to reignite blasphemy debate at U.N.
The divide in world opinion over what constitutes free speech will be on display again next week at the United Nations, where heated arguments over a proposed blasphemy law were an annual feature for the past decade.
Boston Globe: Massachusetts religious communities divided over doctor-assisted suicide measure
The state’s religious communities are divided over what is perhaps the most profound question on this year’s ballot: Should people nearing the end of terminal illnesses be allowed to obtain a prescription drug to end their lives?
NYT: 400 years later, still revered in Cuba (and Miami)
As the statue of La Virgen de la Caridad, Our Lady of Charity, completed its 30-minute journey across a stretch of the Biscayne Bay for her 400th anniversary celebration here on Saturday, a rainbow burst into view to frame her arrival.
Reuters: Euro imams, rabbis pledge zero tolerance for hate preachers
Seventy European Muslim and Jewish leaders pledged on Wednesday to show "zero tolerance" to hate preachers of any faith including their own ranks, citing what they called rising religious intolerance on the continent.
AP: Culture clash emerges in Iraq as conservative clerics battle sassy Western styles
For much of Iraq's youth, sporting blingy makeup, slicked-up hair and skintight jeans is just part of living the teenage dream. But for their elders, it's a nightmare.
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