Latest Church Stories:
This story here is an "oldie but goodie."
This guide to overcoming masturbation was attributed to Mark E. Petersen,
Council of the 12 Apostles
(of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). It has been passed around the World Wide Web many times, and I thought I would bring it to attention again, mostly for its hilarious value.
In this list, many remedies are suggested, such as breaking off friendships with offenders, tying one's arm to the bed during sleep, and leaving the bathroom door open during showering.
I personally find this entertaining, but am also slightly shocked to find that they actually took this approach seriously.
Posted on: 2008-01-19 21:08:38
Hindu priests and religious groups had slammed the website, cafepress.com, for selling undergarments embellished with faces of several gods and goddesses, including the presiding deities of Jagannath temple, considered among the most sacred Hindu temples in India.
Besides writing to the US embassy in New Delhi, the state authorities also wrote to the federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil urging him to take up the issue with the US government, the Times of India daily reported.
"I, on the behalf of the government of Orissa, request you to take up the issue with the American governemnt for taking action against the website owner to refrain the company from such unholy activities," Orissa's law minister BB Harichandan said in his letter.
Posted on: 2007-12-22 11:31:36
The girl's friends, meanwhile, told local media she was having trouble at home because she did not conform to the family's religious beliefs and refused to wear a traditional Islamic head scarf, or hijab.
"She wanted to go different ways than her family wanted to go, and she wanted to make her own path, but he (her father) wouldn't let her," one of her classmates told public broadcaster CBC.
"She loved clothes," another of her friends, Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, told the daily Toronto Star. "She just wanted to show her beauty ... She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person."
Posted on: 2007-12-11 12:52:39
When some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.
The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school sciences classes.
"We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it," Henderson wrote. As for scientific evidence to the contrary, "what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage."
Posted on: 2007-11-17 00:25:02
The death of a woman during an exorcism ceremony to lift a "makutu", or traditional curse, is being investigated by police.
Janet Moses, 22, a mother of two, died at her grandmother’s home in Wainuiomata, a working-class suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, while 40 of her relatives looked on, police said.
She is believed to have drowned in an "extensive amount" of water poured from plastic containers during the ceremony in the living room. Officers said when they arrived the house was ankle-deep in water.
Posted on: 2007-11-14 15:19:21
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of mil lions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.
"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.
The report, which was based on a review of research into teenager sexual behavior, was being released Wednesday by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."
Posted on: 2007-11-07 17:31:19
