The Other Islam

Muslims and Christians together constitute over 50 percent of the world. If they lived in peace, we would be half way to world peace. One small step we can take towards fostering Muslim-Christian harmony is to tell and retell positive stories and abstain from mutual demonization.

In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety.

Read the rest: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/12/prophet_muhammads_promise_to_christians.html

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The Truth About Luddites

 

The word “Luddite,” handed down from a British industrial protest that began 200 years ago this month, turns up in our daily language in ways that suggest we’re confused not just about technology, but also about who the original Luddites were and what being a modern one actually means.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/What-the-Luddites-Really-Fought-Against.html#ixzz1JBAC7Nzj

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Russian Cleric Calls West “Godless”

“The Christian social model has no relation to the modern Western world. The West is now that same godless system which has collapsed as communism, it has collapsed as Nazism and it will collapse as capitalism,” Father Vsevolod said.

More here: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=8354

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Why Matter Matters

What, then, does our Catholic Tradition teach us about our relationship with the rest of Creation?  It is quite common for modern environmentalists to bash paleo-Christian theologians for a harsh dualism that left the earth (and women) to be subjugated by land-owning men.  Augustine, whose name inevitably comes up, is said to have infused a semi-Manichean or neo-Platonist ideology into Christian theology.  The result, they argue, is a too-tidy differentiation between the forces of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness in which things physical and “sensual” are dangerous lures of the trap of materialism, while Christian asceticism–including celibacy and virginity–is the One sure way to salvation from this world.  It isn’t hard to recognize in this caricature faux-Christian misogyny, suspicion of sex, and environmental anthropocentrism.

It is easier to reduce a complex reality to bumper sticker brevity than to tease out the nuances.  But we should try.

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From the National Catholic Rural Life Conference ; read the rest :

http://www.ncrlc.com/news.aspx?ID=153

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Not So Great News For The Great Lakes

Spent fuel pools of highly radioactive wastes sit dangerously on the shores of lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Ontario. Aging and dysfunctional reactors continue to operate as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy and their Canadian counterparts push to allow these dangerous behemoths to function for decades more, prioritizing corporate profits ahead of public health and safety and the protection of the natural environment. This series of articles will detail this Nuclear Nightmare on the Great Lakes of North America as it has transpired and continues to unfold.

Read the rest here: http://www.counterpunch.org/kamps04082011.html

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