Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Sightings
A major new manifesto on the Family is being released tomorrow by the World Congress of Families. The Natural Family: A Manifesto, a new document written by Allan C. Carlson (President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and International Secretary of The World Congress of Families) and Paul T. Mero (President of the Sutherland Institute). A copy can be downloaded from www.worldcongress.org (not available as at 4.00pm Tuesday NZ time.)
Has Helen Clark got religion? The visiting Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has inspired the New Zealand Government to consider holding inter-faith peace conferences and to lift its role as an international peace negotiator. Norway has played a key mediating role in the Middle East peace process and in negotiations in numerous countries including Sri Lanka, Sudan, Guatemala and the Balkans. Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was looking at helping to host or facilitate a regional meeting of religious leaders.
Colin James says that State income assistance can be a double-edged sword. What the state gives the state can take away - that is a message we usually learn too late.
Religiously involved families of early adolescents, those ages 12 to14, living in the United States appear more likely to have significantly stronger family relationships than do families that are not religiously active. This report examines associations between three dimensions of family religious involvement (the number of days per week the family does something religious, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and the quality of family relationships.
A War Memorial Cross in San Diego, USA, appears to be the latest victim in the nation's debate over religion in the public square. Even though Congress passed a law which could have made the mountaintop site a national monument, an atheist who has been on a 15-year crusade against the cross at the site, is presently winning. The San Diego City Council last week decided to remove the cross - a veterans memorial - that has stood on a La Jolla mountain top for 50 years.
A judge ruled today that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote. The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.
A shocking new report out of the Netherlands finds that for every newborn reported to be euthanized there, another five are killed off the record. Dutch doctors, in a New England Journal of Medicine report, acknowledge giving lethal injections to newborns - babies they say would have spent years in medical care. Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said special attention should be paid when those newborns are described as having "serious, incurable deformities." "Those words are chosen to strike a chord with the listener, to say, 'Oh, my gosh, this child would probably have been better off if it died,' " she explained. "But, in fact, we don't really know what the condition is in some of these (cases)." Besides, she added, no doctor can accurately predict how long someone will live.
Classic hymns have been ditched in favour of songs by Robbie Williams and Led Zeppelin as the preferred choice at funerals. A survey of Europe’s favourite funeral music has revealed that the most likely song to be played at a British crem is not "Abide with me" but Robbie Williams’ "Angels". Eric Idle’s Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" appears to be the choice of the optimistically inclined and REM’s "Everybody Hurts" the choice of the gloomy. Across Europe, Queen’s "The Show Must Go On" topped the funeral pops and the Germans showed a special weakness for heavy metal acts Metallica, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Alan Slater of the National Association of Funeral Directors said the reason that only Italians and the Spanish are opting for classical music was that "We live in a much more secular society". The Times editorial, however, expressed the hope that Muzak would be "completely absent from the afterlife".
Just discovered: The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press (a religious version of Arts & Letters Daily). Some gutsy stuff.
Humanoids with attitude are here. "Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots."
Finally, did you know that the Lord of the Rings has spawned a major research unit at Waikato University?
A major new manifesto on the Family is being released tomorrow by the World Congress of Families. The Natural Family: A Manifesto, a new document written by Allan C. Carlson (President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and International Secretary of The World Congress of Families) and Paul T. Mero (President of the Sutherland Institute). A copy can be downloaded from www.worldcongress.org (not available as at 4.00pm Tuesday NZ time.)
Has Helen Clark got religion? The visiting Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has inspired the New Zealand Government to consider holding inter-faith peace conferences and to lift its role as an international peace negotiator. Norway has played a key mediating role in the Middle East peace process and in negotiations in numerous countries including Sri Lanka, Sudan, Guatemala and the Balkans. Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was looking at helping to host or facilitate a regional meeting of religious leaders.
Colin James says that State income assistance can be a double-edged sword. What the state gives the state can take away - that is a message we usually learn too late.
Religiously involved families of early adolescents, those ages 12 to14, living in the United States appear more likely to have significantly stronger family relationships than do families that are not religiously active. This report examines associations between three dimensions of family religious involvement (the number of days per week the family does something religious, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and the quality of family relationships.
A War Memorial Cross in San Diego, USA, appears to be the latest victim in the nation's debate over religion in the public square. Even though Congress passed a law which could have made the mountaintop site a national monument, an atheist who has been on a 15-year crusade against the cross at the site, is presently winning. The San Diego City Council last week decided to remove the cross - a veterans memorial - that has stood on a La Jolla mountain top for 50 years.
A judge ruled today that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote. The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.
A shocking new report out of the Netherlands finds that for every newborn reported to be euthanized there, another five are killed off the record. Dutch doctors, in a New England Journal of Medicine report, acknowledge giving lethal injections to newborns - babies they say would have spent years in medical care. Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said special attention should be paid when those newborns are described as having "serious, incurable deformities." "Those words are chosen to strike a chord with the listener, to say, 'Oh, my gosh, this child would probably have been better off if it died,' " she explained. "But, in fact, we don't really know what the condition is in some of these (cases)." Besides, she added, no doctor can accurately predict how long someone will live.
Classic hymns have been ditched in favour of songs by Robbie Williams and Led Zeppelin as the preferred choice at funerals. A survey of Europe’s favourite funeral music has revealed that the most likely song to be played at a British crem is not "Abide with me" but Robbie Williams’ "Angels". Eric Idle’s Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" appears to be the choice of the optimistically inclined and REM’s "Everybody Hurts" the choice of the gloomy. Across Europe, Queen’s "The Show Must Go On" topped the funeral pops and the Germans showed a special weakness for heavy metal acts Metallica, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Alan Slater of the National Association of Funeral Directors said the reason that only Italians and the Spanish are opting for classical music was that "We live in a much more secular society". The Times editorial, however, expressed the hope that Muzak would be "completely absent from the afterlife".
Just discovered: The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press (a religious version of Arts & Letters Daily). Some gutsy stuff.
Humanoids with attitude are here. "Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots."
Finally, did you know that the Lord of the Rings has spawned a major research unit at Waikato University?
