Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Lashes Out Against Gays: “Spit on Them, Beat them Up, They Are Not Human” - The Pappas Post

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Lashes Out Against Gays: “Spit on Them, Beat them Up, They Are Not Human” - The Pappas Post:

Ambrosios is the Metropolitan of Kalavryta and Aigialeia— a region in north central Peloponnese and ranks as the 8th in order of hierarchy and influence in the Church’s synod, or governing body. Numerous politicians, media and public figures have called for condemnation of the bishop’s comments.

His vitriolic blog post (in Greek) followed legislation set forth by the ruling government to extend domestic partnership status to same-sex couples, granting them similar rights to those who are married.

Entertainment News - Magufuli’s ‘Pombe’ is intoxicating the world

Entertainment News - Magufuli’s ‘Pombe’ is intoxicating the world: The 5th president of Tanzania knows this all too well. Barely months into his first term, John Pombe Magufuli continues to win every one over with his anti-graft messages and actions. He storms hospitals and government offices to see if everyone is pulling their weight. Those who don’t are sacked, or threatened with the sack.

But the perception among Tanzanians is that finally, someone high up the leadership ladder is walking the talk. The raft of austerity measures the president has so far instituted have saved the East African nation trillions of Tanzanian shillings and for once, the country of some 50 million people seems to outclass her egotistic neighbour Kenya, while hogging the international limelight for all the right reasons.

Habetis Papam by David Bentley Hart | Articles | First Things

Habetis Papam by David Bentley Hart | Articles | First Things: F

ar be it from me—not being a Roman Catholic—to tell Catholics what they should think of their pontiff. But, just as a brief amicus curiae (so to speak), I want to note that I feel a wholly unqualified admiration for Francis; and nothing he has done, said, or written since assuming office has had any effect on me but to deepen that esteem. I have to say also that I am utterly baffled by the anxiety, disappointment, or hostility he clearly inspires in certain American Catholics of a conservative bent (using “conservative” in its distinctly American acceptation). And frankly I find it no more inexplicable in its most extreme expressions—which at their worst verge on sheer �hysteria—than in its mildest—an almost morbid oversensitivity to every faint hint of hidden meanings in every word, however innocuous, that escapes the pope’s lips or pen.

Christians, Capitalism, and Culture: A Response to David Bentley Hart | Public Discourse

Christians, Capitalism, and Culture: A Response to David Bentley Hart | Public Discourse: In an article praising Pope Francis in the December 2015 edition of First Things, the Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart confesses his bafflement at “the anxiety, disappointment, or hostility he clearly inspires in certain American Catholics of a conservative bent.” Referring to Francis’s environmental encyclical, Hart states that “I can quite literally find not a single sentence or sentiment in Laudato Si’ to which it seems to me possible for any Christian coherently to object.” Hart adds that he “simply cannot find an assertion anywhere in its pages that strikes me as anything other than either a plain statement of fact or a reasonable statement of Christian principle.”

Such comments are audacious but untenable. Close examination of some of Laudato Si’s arguments does raise questions about their coherence.

Warning: Actual Bible Reading Likely To Turn You Into A Liberal, Study Shows �

Warning: Actual Bible Reading Likely To Turn You Into A Liberal, Study Shows �:

Christian researchers have discovered the existence of a book that is so dangerous to conservative ideology, Republicans may soon decide to ban it altogether. Strangely enough, that book is the Christian Bible.

According to a study published in Christianity Today, people who say they read the Christian Bible frequently are far more likely to support liberal policies, when compared to those who read the Bible less often.

Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke

Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke:

This line of thought has led to some scientists claiming that “atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think,” says Graham Lawton, an avowed atheist himself, writing in the New Scientist. “They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since we are born believers, not atheists, scientists say. Humans are pattern-seekers from birth, with a belief in karma, or cosmic justice, as our default setting. “A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith,” writes Pascal Boyer in Nature, the science journal, adding that people “are only aware of some of their religious ideas”.

Book Maven: Williams goes mainstream

Book Maven: Williams goes mainstream: There could not be a more appropriate venue to launch a book about a man less known than his two fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.R. Tolkien, but who had a powerful presence at their meetings at the Eagle and Child. Lindop describes him as the "missing piece of the jigsaw" - a novelist, publisher, lecturer, poet, critic and, yes, magician.

Book Maven

Book Maven: There could not be a more appropriate venue to launch a book about a man less known than his two fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.R. Tolkien, but who had a powerful presence at their meetings at the Eagle and Child. Lindop describes him as the "missing piece of the jigsaw" - a novelist, publisher, lecturer, poet, critic and, yes, magician.

Things Done In Secret - Anglican Pastor

Things Done In Secret - Anglican Pastor:

As a priest, I live at the intersection of two worlds: at the corner of seen and unseen, at the juncture of things in heaven and things on earth. So do you; so do we all. Yet, even this language is fraught with difficulty; it doesn’t get it quite right. It is too conditioned by Enlightenment dualism. There is, after all, only one world, not two – a single world containing both that which we see with our eyes and touch with our hands and that which we know only through revelation and perceive only by faith.

Things done in secret matter insofar as they reveal and partake of this unified world in which God is everywhere present and filling all things, a world in which water can actually become holy, a world in which bread and wine are actually consecrated by word and Holy Spirit and by prayer and touch, a world in which a bow is worship and the sign of the cross banishes demons. If this is, in fact, the kind of world we live in, then yes, things done in secret matter as much as things done in plain sight. I believe this is the kind of world we live in. If I am wrong about this, then seen or unseen, none of this matters.