Religion | Ain't Complicated

Sharia in Florida?

Is this a legitimate use of Islamic law in a US civil court?

Is this anything to be alarmed about?

Is this precedent setting?

The question of what law applies in any Florida courtroom usually comes down to two choices: federal or state.

But Hillsborough Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen is being attacked by conservative bloggers after he ruled in a lawsuit March 3 that, to resolve one crucial issue in the case, he will consult a different source.

“This case,” the judge wrote, “will proceed under Ecclesiastical Islamic Law.” Read it all

Jew

It is very difficult to hate babies.

It takes a special person.

[…]

But the human being does have to learn to hate children and babies, and to regard the torture and murder of them as morally desirable acts. It takes years of work to undo normal protective human attitudes toward children.

That is precisely what the Nazis did and what significant parts of the Muslim world have done to the word “Jew.”

[…]

Yet, when Pakistan was yanked from India and established as a Muslim state at the very same time Israel was established, that act engendered 12.5 million Muslim refugees and about a million dead Muslims (and similar numbers of Hindu refugees and deaths). Why then doesn’t “Hindu” equal “Jew” in the Muslim lexicon of hate?

Here are some answers in brief:

You can read the full article here: The Other Tsunami.

Know this, though: Matters will get worse. Much worse. And it will seem even more normal. And nothing by which to get unduly exercised. As has abortion. Which also takes “a special person” to perform, accept, tolerate, and/or ignore.

The Fogel Family

Christians, don’t forget this: Americans, Arabs, Hindus, Japanese, Jews — we all need Jesus to the exact same degree.

Driven by What Purpose, This?

…The physicians who crafted the program apparently don’t share the church’s professed evangelical beliefs, espousing instead various forms of Eastern mysticism and the tenets of a Christian cult, Swedenborgism.

Vowing to lose 90 pounds, Warren said he placed himself under the care of Drs. Mehmet Oz, Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman last fall and worked with each to develop “The Daniel Plan.”

Oz, host of the Emmy-winning “Dr. Oz Show” and professor of surgery at Columbia University, says he is inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th century cult founder who taught that all religions lead to God and denied orthodox Christian beliefs such at the atonement of Christ for sin, the trinity and the deity of the Holy Spirit.

Best-selling author Amen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine, teaches Eastern religious meditation and the New Age energy-based practice of Reiki.

Hyman, a four-time New York Times best-selling author, promotes mystical meditation based on Buddhist principles.

More of the story: Rick Warren Hosts Cult Celebrity Doctors

Deceived on Purpose

Whose Is Jerusalem?

I have a bias.

Is it wrong to be biased?

Well, here’s part of the story referenced in the title:

The demolition of an east Jerusalem hotel to make way for Jewish homes in a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood is sparking concerns from Europe to Egypt, which suggests a new intifada could break out as a result.

The Shepherd Hotel project will bring only 20 Jewish homes to Sheikh Jarrah, but it is at the forefront of a broader, intensely controversial Jewish campaign to establish a foothold in Arab neighborhoods circling the heart of Jerusalem.

Proponents see the efforts as a way to secure Jews’ rightful claims to the city as their “undivided and eternal capital.” Opponents, including much of the international community, say such efforts will preclude the possibility of creating a Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem, thus rendering the two-state solution null and void.

“If current trends are not stopped as a matter of urgency, the prospect of east Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state becomes increasingly unlikely and unworkable,” wrote 25 consuls-general from European Union member states in Jerusalem in a new confidential report obtained by the Independent. “This, in turn, seriously endangers the chances of a sustainable peace on the basis of two states, with Jerusalem as their future capital.”

[…]

After the 1967 war and its annexation of east Jerusalem, Israel took possession of the hotel under its absentee property laws, which apply to buildings whose owners are absent or considered members of an enemy state.

Source: Shrewd development deal likely to preclude possibility of creating Palestinian state

Regarding Jerusalem and the “West Bank” (How much more time must pass before it becomes the “East Bank”?!) and the 1967 war, surely there’s a parallel to this not-so-long-ago perspective in American domestic politics:

“Elections have consequences.”

“I won.”

But I don’t expect anything I say to make a difference, so I’ll just not say more.

I’ll just quote somebody else, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

If You Can’t Trust the Doctor or the Preacher…

This evening I came across and rapidly scanned two pieces of commentary and/or news.

Scandal of Evangelical Dishonesty

No matter how we rationalize it, all deception within the evangelical community dishonors Christ, and serves the devil’s agenda. We need to identify deception, repent of it, and embrace the truth of Christ which will set us free to represent Him accurately to a world sick of being lied to John 8:32.

[…]

I take no pleasure in addressing these issues. I hope it will serve Christ’s body by initiating some much-needed self-examination and dialogue.

Which Christian colleges, missions organizations, speakers, musicians, publishers, and authors will come forward and confess past misleading practices and commit themselves to the highest ethical standards before the Audience of One, even if it means forgoing financial gain? Who will, in the name of Christ, raise the bar of honesty, integrity, and truth?

Only when Christian leaders establish new and higher standards will others feel the positive peer pressure and accountability to do the same. Only then will reform be widespread, with direct unspun truth-telling becoming the established norm.

Only then will we gain the trust of both the Christian public and a skeptical secular culture accustomed to deception, but desperately needing the truth.

That one is a very lengthy exposé. See what you think of it.

Well, that was the preacher part of the title. Next, the doctor part:

Retracted autism study an ‘elaborate fraud,’ British journal finds

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an “elaborate fraud” that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

[…]

The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.

In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.

And there you are.

😳 Oooops! I didn’t mean it that way! I’m not suggesting the deception highlighted above is a shoe that fits your foot.

While we can point fingers and wag tongues against others’ deception, who can discern and discard the guile lurking in his own heart?

Asking vs Demanding

Which will get you farther in life?

The American Center for Law and Justice has sent a letter to Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., demanding that it rehire Barry Sommer and reinstate his course “What is Islam?” or face legal action.

The noncredit course was cleared by LCC officials and had been posted for registration on Dec. 1. Using the Quran as one of its textbooks, the course was designed to help students better understand the Islamic doctrine so they could be better informed to grasp the issues in news on Islam, Muslims and the Middle East.

But shortly after Sommer appeared on a local news broadcast promoting the course, CAIR Council on American-Islamic Relations e-mailed LCC and asked for the course to be cut. The group questioned Sommer’s qualifications to teach the course, saying he is president of the local chapter of Act! for America, which it has accused of being anti-Islamic.

Source: Legal Group Demands Community College Reinstate Canceled Islam Class

ACLJ “demanded” (I count four uses of the term or derivatives in the entire piece).

CAIR “asked.”

Lesson: You get farther by asking than by demanding.

Disclaimer: The lesson has plenty of exceptions and exemptions.

Inspiration in Ixchel

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also “the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.”

[…]

“Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads,” said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. “I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel.”

Source: Cancun talks start with a call to the gods

Maybe you should bone up a little more on Ixchel as well as Hero for the Planet, Christiana Figueres.

Beyond that, I have no comment, so don’t ask. 🙄