Archive Category: Religion
Church Blesses Men With Beer
Rather be flyflishing, golfing or sleeping than going to church? Concerned with the lack of men attending services, the Church of England is now offering new incentives: free beer, bacon rolls and chocolate bars!
Men at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, will be handed bottles of beer by children during the service. A prayer will be said for the fathers before the gifts are distributed.
The Ven Roger Morris, archdeacon of Worcester, who will be leading the service at St Stephen’s today, said that it was a practical way of sending a message to fathers.
“I don’t see any other time that we can stop and remember fathers, and this is a gesture saying ‘Here’s something that will bless you,’” he said.
“Posies of flowers are given to mums on Mothering Sunday and we wanted to give a laddish, blokeish gift to the men. A bottle of beer hits the mark. The whole of life is to be celebrated in church.”
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4 Holy Women Transformed by Cheese
1. The Visionary: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
And yet, as soon as he left, the nuns started leaning on poor Margaret Mary. Like self-flagellation and celibacy, they believed eating cheese was a way of mortifying the flesh - giving up earthly pleasures to be closer to God. Margaret Mary struggled for days to overcome her fear. She wept; she writhed; she wished for death. Then, at last, she decided she had to "conquer or die." So, Margaret Mary prayed for strength and ate some cheese. Unfortunately, her experience with the dairy was as horrendous as she'd feared. Margaret Mary later recalled, "I have never felt such repugnance to anything." Still, for eight years after that first trial, she ingested cheese every single day as an ascetic ritual. And as the years passed, her visions intensified. Today, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is known for her vision of the Sacred Heart - the image of Christ's heart pierced, aflame, and crowned with thorns. Such momentous revelations don't come easy, and she couldn't have done it without the vile cheese. 2. The Intellectual: Sor Juana Inés De la Cruz
Unencumbered by butterfat and lactose, her intellect flourished. By the time she was 8 years old, Juana had taught herself to read Plato, Aristophanes, and Erasmus in Latin. At age 13, she was paraded around the Spanish courts as a child prodigy. She wrote volumes of prose and poetry, from religious verse to scientific treatises, and earned the moniker "The Tenth Muse." And though she had many suitors, Juana took the veil at age 18, giving up men in addition to her favorite food. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is revered today as a proto-feminist and the first female theologian of the Americas. Although she never regretted the sacrifices she made for her studies, a certain longing always remained in Sor Juana. As an old woman, she wrote, "I envoy those who say that the urge to study has cost them nothing," and perhaps heaving a sigh for the lost cheese of her youth, she added, "The desire to know has cost me dearly." 3. The Martyr: St. Perpetua
While she stewed in prison before her execution, she experienced a vision of a white-bearded shepherd who offered her some sheep's milk cheese. In the dream, Perpetua ate the cheese. Then, just as she heard the word "Amen," she awoke to the taste of overwhelming sweetness. The vision of heavenly curd reassured her of God's purpose and prepared Perpetua to die for her faith, which she soon did. Perpetua was publicly flogged, trounced by a cow, and then hacked to death in a botched decapitation. But the account of her vision - believed to be the first Christian text written by a woman - inspired millions and secured her legacy as one of the most influential martyrs in history. 4. The Gambler: Diana Duyser of Florida
Although initially frightened by the image, Duyser composed herself and stashed the holy leftover in a plastic box filled with cotton balls. Then she placed the box at her bedside table and left it there for a decade. According to Duyser, those 10 years were filled with good luck as she won regularly at local casinos. More impressively, her grilled sandwich didn't mold. In 2004, Duyser decided to share her miracle with the world and posted the sandwich on eBay. To the bewilderment of many, it sold for $28,000. The buyer, Golden Palace online casino, appreciated its pop-culture significance and showcased the grilled cheese until 2006. Today, the holy sandwich resides in a safe deposit box in Austin, Texas. Golden Palace proudly claims it still hasn't decayed. Although Duyser has been ridiculed for her devotion to a grilled cheese sandwich, her faith has never wavered. "I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother of God," she insists. And while money and fame have faded with Duyser, she still carries with her a timeless memento of her little cheese miracle - a tattoo of the sandwich inscribed near her heart, paid for by GoldenPalace.com (Photo: AP via BBC News) |
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The article above, written by David Clark, is reprinted with permission from Scatterbrained section of the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of mental_floss magazine. Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!
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Margaret
Mary Alacoque grew up in a family of fervid cheese-haters, which wasn't
exactly unusual for the time. Cheese had a bad reputation in 17th-century
Europe. People all across the continent were horrified by its stench and
denounced it as indigestible. They blamed the fermented curd for everything
from sickness to moral corruption. So, when Margaret Mary's brother took
her to join a convent in Burgundy, France, in 1671, he secured one key
condition for her stay - that under no circumstances should she be compelled
to eat cheese.
Meanwhile,
across the ocean in the 1650s, a Mexican girl named Juana was struggling
with the opposite problem. Little Juana was an aspiring scholar and, like
most children, loved eating cheese. But when she heard it would make her
stupid - a superstition of the time - she was forced to choose between
her appetite and her intellect. Juana renounced the delicious dairy, proving
that her "desire to know was stronger than the desire to eat."
In
the the early 3rd century, Vivia Perpetua converted to Christianity, even
though the Roman emperor Severus had outlawed the fledgling religion.
Perpetua was arrested, and she faced a grim decision - either renounce
Christ or meet a gruesome death. Perpetua chose the latter. 
Even
in our jaded and secular age, cheese hasn't quite lost its religious relevance.
In 1994, a humble Floridian named Diana Duyser bit into her grilled cheese
sandwich and was shocked to see the face of the Virgin Mary staring back
at her. 
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Rainbow Frog is Worshipped as God
In India, a newly discovered color-changing frog has been worshipped as a god. Reji Kumar, the person who found it, keeps the frog in a glass jar at his home where hundreds of people come to see it every day.
Apart from the obvious biological findings this hopping lava lamp can provide, it also gives an additional insight as to how religions and spiritual groups can emerge. I don’t blame them either. Who needs color-saturating hallucinogens for spiritual transcendence when you have a kaleidoscopic animal?
I say this new rainbow frog will become the new symbol for racial equality, just as long as it doesn’t croak (which is actually a concern).
The frog was a dazzling white colour when Reji, who is from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, in south India, first spotted it.
Then it changed to yellow and had gone grey by the time he got it home.
“By night the frog was dark yellow, and then it became transparent so you could see its internal organs,” Reji, a life worker, reportedly said.
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Koogle: The Kosher Search Engine
Orthodox jews are restricted from surfing the web in case they run across religiously questionable and sexually explicit materials. But Koogle, a search engine launched by Yossi Altman, may change all that:
Yossi Altman said Koogle, a play on the names of a Jewish noodle pudding and the ubiquitous Google, appears to meet the standards of Orthodox rabbis, who restrict use of the Web to ensure followers avoid viewing sexually explicit material.
The site, at www.koogle.co.il, omits religiously objectionable material, such as most photographs of women which Orthodox rabbis view as immodest, Altman said.
Its links to Israeli news and shopping sites also filter out items most ultra-Orthodox Israelis are forbidden by rabbis to have in their homes, such a television sets.
"This is a kosher alternative for ultra-Orthodox Jews so that they may surf the Internet," Altman said by telephone.
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Raining Tadpoles in Japan: A Modern Biblical Plague in the Making?
Is it a prank or is it a modern-version of the Biblical Plagues? You decide:
About 70 more dead tadpoles have been found in Ishikawa Prefecture, local officials said Friday, as the mystery over how they came to be in areas with no paddy fields or other habitats continues.
The latest findings, Thursday afternoon, were in the cities of Nanao and Wajima. More than 100 dead tadpoles were found in Nanao and Hakusan last week and tiny dead fish were found Tuesday in the town of Nakanoto. [...]
Masafumi Matsui, a professor at Kyoto University’s graduate school of human and environmental studies who specializes in amphibians, said: "It is hard to comment without actually seeing these tadpoles . . . but considering the circumstances reported by the media, someone could be pulling a prank."
People have speculated the tadpoles might have fallen from the sky after being sucked up by waterspouts or carried by birds. But there have been no reports of strong winds, and ornithologists dispute the bird theory.
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The Jewish Origin of the Vulcan Salute
Here’s a trivia for all you Trekkers to talk about during the previews of the new Star Trek movie. Did you know that the Vulcan salute - you know, the "live long and prosper" hand signal invented by Leonard Nimoy:
Nimoy felt that there should be some kind of distinctive greeting among Vulcans, analogous to a handshake or a bow. Alan Dean Foster’s novelization, based on an early script, has Spock kneeling before the Vulcan matriarch, T’Pau, who places her hands on his shoulders, like royalty dubbing a knight. But Nimoy didn’t care for this. Previous episodes had already established that Vulcans are touch telepaths. Therefore, a touch on the shoulders would be an invasion of privacy. Instead, Nimoy drew upon his own Jewish background to suggest the now-familiar salute. Back in the 1960s, hippies who watched "Amok Time" thought the salute was a variation of the two-fingered peace sign. But we Jews knew better. The Vulcan salute came not from protest marches, but from the pulpit of Nimoy’s childhood synagogue.
The Vulcan greeting is based upon a blessing gesture used by the kohanim (koe-hah-NEEM) during the worship service. The kohanim are the genealogical descendants of the Jewish priests who served in the Jerusalem Temple. Modern Jews no longer have priests leading services as in ancient times, nor do we have animal sacrifices anymore. (Yes, people really do ask about that!) The sacrificial system ended with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the year 70. C.E. However, a remnant of the Temple service lives on in the "kohane blessing" ritual (duchenen in Yiddish) that is performed on certain holy days.
Link - via grow-a-brain
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God’s Debt Cancellation Plan
Morris Cerullo in a poster advertising for his "Mission to London" (Photo: LoopZilla)
Loan modification and debt cancellation are hot businesses right now. So hot that God himself apparently decided to get in on the action.
Here’s a story of how one man built himself a surging evangelistic ministry, complete with "God’s debt cancellation" program - yours for the unbelievably low payment of a mere few hundred bucks:
Emotional on-air pitches generate much of the money used to pay network salaries. In March, Morris Cerullo appeared on Inspiration’s “camp meeting” with a message to fire up prospective donors.
“Is anybody ready for the greatest financial breakthrough you’ve ever experienced in your life?” he asked.
The elder Cerullo, a Pentecostal minister, at times appeared to speak in tongues. His gravelly voice periodically rising to a shout, he urged members of the audience to fill envelopes with $900 donations.
“When you sow for your financial anointing, the windows of heaven are going to open for you,” he said. “ … In the next nine months, you are going to experience more financial blessings than you’ve ever experienced in your life! 100 fold! Debt cancellation!”
Soon, these words appeared on the screen: “Call now with your $900 offering and receive God’s debt cancellation.”
Ames Alexander and Tim Funk of Charlotte Observer have the investigative report: Link - via Raw Story
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A Heavenly Message in Fried Salami
Nancy Simoes of Southwest Miami-Dade County, Florida, was in the kitchen cooking her family’s favorite dish of fried salami when she got a heavenly message:
"I had only three pieces in my skillet, and then as I was flipping it. The first letter was a G, a perfect G; and then I got the O, and I thought to myself, how cool will it be if the third letter was a D," said Simoes.
That third letter was a D, and everyone was in shock in her house.
Link - spotted by Neatoramanaut Gauldar over at the Forum
Previously on Neatorama: August: A Busy Month for Religious Sightings!
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Living Rock: Massive Monuments Sculpted In Situ
We all know about Mount Rushmore and the Great Sphinx of Giza, both carved in situ without the intention of ever being moved. Such sculptures are often referred to as living rock. Others, like these, are not so well known. From places you may expect to find them, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia to the far flung reaches of Ethiopia and Bangladesh, most were carved in ancient times. In almost all cases there are no extant records which explain how they were built without the aid of modern technology. Yet here they are.
Quazen blog has a list of 9 incredible architectures sculpted out of rocks:
China has many a Buddha dotted throughout its extraordinary landscapes but the Giant Buddha of Leshan is unique in that it was carved directly out of the cliff face - just look at the people at the feet of the statue. The sculpture, which is seventy one meters (or over three hundred feet) tall dwarfs the tourists that flock to see it. It is positioned so that it faces Mount Emei and stands at the meeting place of three rivers. Although the Government of China has promised a restoration program, the statue has suffered from the effects of pollution, particularly over the last twenty years. Fortunately, the statue was not damaged in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.
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Churchgoers Are More Likely to Support Torture
The Pew Research Center conducts a lot of surveys - but this one yielded a very surprising result: churchgoers, especially Evangelicals, are more likely to support torture than those unaffiliated with any religious organization.
The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.
(Photo: sduffy [Flickr])
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Saudi Arabia: Cheeky License Plates Banned, Child Marriages Still OK
To protect public propriety, Saudi Arabia has recently banned license plates whose Arabic characters spell out lewd words:
Saudi plates normally have three Arabic characters and three numbers, but the growing fashion is for auto owners also to display a version using the Latin alphabet and some buyers of personalised "vanity plates" deliberately choose Arabic letters which turn into words like "SEX", "ASS" and "NUT".
The authorities in charge of issuing vanity plates have released a list of nine prohibited three-letter combinations, and ordered all branches to stop renewing plates that include them, according to Watan.
Link (Photo from The Geekiest License Plates at Geek24 - lots of fun stuff there!)
In other news, a Saudi judge reiterated his decision that the marriage of an 8-year-old to a 47-year-old man is valid and refused to annul the marriage:
The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom recently. While rights groups have been petitioning the government to enact laws that would protect children from this type of marriage, the kingdom’s top cleric has said that it’s OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.
"It is incorrect to say that it’s not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in remarks last January quoted in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her."
Al-Sheikh reportedly made the remarks when he was asked during a lecture about parents forcing their underage daughters to marry.
"We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls," he said, according to the newspaper. "We should know that Sharia law has not brought injustice to women."
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Japan’s Marathon Monk
A 44-year-old Japanese monk named Genshin Fujinami has just completed what probably is the most grueling race in history: a 7-year 24,800 mile (~40,000 km) journey - an equivalent of a trip around the world!
Since 1885, only 46 other so-called “marathon monks” of the Tendai sect have survived the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.
A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, any monk, or gyoja, who can’t continue to the end must take his own live, either by hanging or disembowelment.
A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey’s first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along an 18-mile trail around Mount Hiei — stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food. [...]
His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called “doiri,” or “entering the temple.”
In the sixth year, he walks 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 52.5 miles for 100 days and then 18 miles for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 234 miles southwest of Tokyo.
Link (Photo: Kyodo/AP) - via martialdevelopment
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101 Last Suppers
Jeremy Barker at Popped Culture has compiled 101 satirical versions of da Vinci’s The Last Supper, covering everything from Popeye to Mario Brothers to Gordon Ramsay.
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Find the Ladies (the Israeli Cabinet Version)
Take a close look at the two photos above. Notice anything different?
Well, the original photo (top) is of Israel’s new cabinet. Problem is, it contains two female ministers. Since publishing pictures of women are considered a no-no for many ultra-orthodox Jews as a violation of female modesty, the Yated Neeman newspaper decided to do a little photoshoppin’: Link
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Beheaded Teen Witch Gets Proper Funeral…700 Years Later
The remains of a 14th century teenager, believed to have been beheaded on charges of witchcraft and buried in unconsecrated ground, has been laid to rest in a proper funeral…700 years after her death.
The girl, named Holly by archaeologists because her remains were found beneath a holly bush, had had her head laid at her side, a sign that she might have been suspected of witchcraft.
Dr Paul Wilkinson, director of the Kent Archaeological Field School, said the decapitation - which it was believed would deny eternal life - meant Holly was ’shamed’ and was either a teenage witch, a criminal or had committed suicide.
A crowd of more than 200 mourners - who had responded to an appeal to give the suspected witch a respectable funeral - gathered to pay their respects to a teenager whose identity remains a mystery.
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Holi: The Festival of Colors
Early March saw the annual spring Festival of Color, or Holi, in the Hindu world. If you are a clean freak, then Holi may not be for you. As part of the festival it is people’s religious duty to splatter, smatter and smother as many others as possible with colored paint and water. As religious festivals go, this is one of the messier.
If you live in a large, multi-ethnic city virtually anywhere in the world it is a possibility that in the last week you have seen groups of people in parks merrily spattering each other with paint. While you might be excused for thinking that it is a new form of corporate team building - and what a great one that would be - you would be wrong. The throwing of multi-colored water and powder is in fact the popular Hindu spring Festival of Colors, also known as Holi.
Link - via webphemera
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Semana Santa in Seville
They may look like a lineup from the Ku Klux Klan, but these white-robed, pointy hatted Nazarenos are commemorating Holy Week in Seville, the same way their predecessors have been marking the somber occasion for the past 400 years.
From Palm Sunday to Easter morning, groups of these Nazarenos from various churches in Seville walk in solemn processions through the city, carrying the baroque statues of Christ and the Virgin, sometimes singing sad songs, sometimes accompanied by brass bands.
If you want to watch these processions in Seville, which take place the week before Easter, you should wear comfy shoes, bring a good map and a printed schedule, and arrive at your spot at least an hour ahead of time. If you want to sleep, don’t book a hotel room in the center of the city, because the processions take place around the clock.
Photo by Willem Kuijpers
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Rocks From Heaven
A trip to the Smithsonian Institution inspired a post on the history of meteorite veneration at Curious Expeditions. In a tomb in Mexico, a 2.5 ton iron meteorite was buried with its owner as a treasured possession. Ancient civilizations made statues of the gods from them. Even Abraham kept a meteorite in his home! Link
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How the Amish Hack Technology to Meet Their Needs and Beliefs
The Amish are often portrayed as anti-technology Luddites, but in fact they often accept non-electrical forms of technology, as long as they can remain "off the grid" and independent.
The photo shows a home-crafted gas-powered ice cutter used to harvest lake ice for non-electric iceboxes.
The diesel engine burns fuel to drive the compressor that fills the reservoir with pressure. From the tank a series of high-pressure pipes snake off toward every corner of the factory. A hard rubber flexible hose connects each tool to a pipe. The entire shop runs on compressed air. Every piece of machine is running on pneumatic power. Amos even shows me a pneumatic switch, which you can flick like a light switch, to turn on some paint-drying fans.
The Amish call this pneumatic system “Amish electricity.”
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Praying for Patient May Cost Nurse Her Job
Caroline Petrie is a nurse who carry out home visits to sick and elderly patients. One day, she offered to pray for the recovery of a sick woman … and now she may lose her job because of it!
Mrs Petrie, 45, is a community nurse employed by North Somerset Primary Care Trust to carry out home visits to sick and elderly patients.
The incident which led to her suspension took place at the home of a woman patient in Winscombe, North Somerset. "It was around lunchtime and I had spent about 20 to 25 minutes with her. I had applied dressings to her legs and shortly before I left I said to her: ‘Would you like me to pray for you?’.
"She said ‘No, thank you.’ And I said: ‘OK.’ I only offered to pray for her because I was concerned about her welfare and wanted her to get better."
However, after the incident on December 15, she was contacted by the trust and asked to explain her actions.
Andrew Alderson of The Daily Telegraph has the story: Link
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Supernatural Dyslexia? An image of DOG appears…
The image looks like the head of a dog, and, in fact, remarkably like the profile of Fletcher. The image was created by water dripping down from the patio cover onto the dirt on the grill cover. It's just a coincidence that it looks like a dog.
And the smaller image to the right of the dog - it looks like a fish jumping out of the water. Fletcher used to love to go fly fishing with the family.
There's a video of a local news report at the link.
Link - via j-walkblog
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Instruction Manual for Life
TheraminTrees and his brother QualiaSoup collaborated to make this interesting animation called Instruction Manual for Life. There’s an unmistakeable (truthful/heavy-handed/blasphemous? Take your pick) message in there - which you don’t have to agree with - but all I could think of when watching the clip was all those IKEA cabinets I built over the years!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Bruce!
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Sock Monkey Goddess Sarasvati
Every year, this crafter makes a new sock monkey. I love this one, it’s the Hindu goddess of the arts, Sarasvati.
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Could You Live Like Jesus for a Year?
Reverend Ed Dobson did just that, and the retired megachurch pastor found out that living like Jesus is tough. Really tough:
The retired megachurch pastor and one-time architect of the religious right has spent the last year trying to eat, pray, talk and even vote as Jesus would. His revelation: Being Jesus is tough.
"I’ve concluded that I am a follower, but I’m not a very good one," Dobson said. "If you get serious about the Bible, it will really mess you up."
But a year of living like Jesus has affected Dobson in deeply spiritual and unexpected ways. He has witnessed for Jesus in bars, picked up strangers needing rides and voted for a Democrat who he believes best reflects Christ’s teachings. During recent Christmas celebrations, as Christians worshipped the Christ child born in a manger, Dobson appreciated more than ever the man who preached love, only to die on a cross.
Charles Honey of the Religion News Service has more on the fascinating story: Link
(Photo: Emily Zoladz/The Grand Rapid Press)
Note: A.J. Jacobs also did this and wrote a book about it: The Year of Living Biblically
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How to Profit From the Coming Rapture
At first I thought this was a tongue-in-cheek photoshopped book cover, but How to Profit From the Coming Rapture: Getting Ahead When You’re Left Behind is actually a real book.
Well, actually make that a fake real book. It’s a made up, satirical how-to book by Steve and Evie Levy, who wrote:
Are the end times near? Is the Rapture really just around the corner? Could Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson possibly be right? About 1 billion people among us believe, yes, absolutely.
And that means one thing: investment opportunities!
For those who are not as expertly versed in the Book of Revelation, Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman, authors of the bestselling Yiddish with Dick and Jane, helpfully offer both illumination and advice: What exactly is the Rapture, anyway? How is it different from the Tribulation? Who are the Antichrist, the Four Horsemen, and the 144,000 male virgins, and what do they want? And, most important, how can I make money during the 7 years of societal breakdown before Armaggedon?
Taking the familiar form of a how-to investment guide, HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE COMING RAPTURE instructs those readers who will certainly be left behind (Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, less ardent Protestants, and many more) on how to exploit the inevitable demise of the world in order to make a tidy profit. Sure, the rivers and seas will run with blood, locusts will swarm, mountains will move all over the place, and famine will strike. But for the five billion of us left behind, the post-Rapture world will be a time of even more unique investment opportunities.
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If the Book of Genesis Was a Facebook Page
College Humor presents the Book of Genesis, if it had originally been written as a Facebook page. The image above is the first page.
Link via Geekologie
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Saint Death
Death is looked upon differently by many cultures. One of the stranger and more macabre (at least to look at) is the Mexican tradition of Santa Muerte - or Saint Death if you are an English speaker. She is also known as Dona Sebastiana and is a religious figure that is the result of a mish-mash of several cultures. Paganism and Catholicism come head on to produce a remarkable hybrid of contemporary religiosity and supernaturalism.
Take a look at several incarnations of Santa Muerte at socyberty. Link -Thanks, RJ Evans!
(image credit: volante)
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The Bible, If It Were Written by Bloggers
What would the Bible look like if it had been written like a blog? Here’s an entry from Noah’s Blog, chronicling the Deluge:
Day 1
Rain.Day 2
Rain.Day 3
Rain.Day 4
Rain.Day 5
Rain.Day 6
So I was loading up the last of the animals last week when I walk past my neighbor Roger, the Molech-worshipper. He looks up and says "Hey, looks like rain."True story.
Link - via Locusts & Honey
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Church Brawl in Jerusalem
“Church” and “brawl” are not words you’d normally think of in the same sentence. However, confrontations between Christian sects are fairly common at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre {wiki} in Jerusalem, where six different denominations claim rights. One confrontation turned to violence this weekend.
Shocked pilgrims looked on as decorations and tapestries were toppled during Sunday’s clash.
Dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, rival monks threw punches and anything they could lay their hands on.
The Greeks blamed the Armenians for not recognising their rights inside the holy site, while the Armenians said the Greeks had violated one of their traditional ceremonies.
Israeli policemen scuffle with an Armenian altar boy during a fight at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on 9 November2008
Clashes between Christian sects in the ancient church are not uncommonAn Armenian clergyman said the Greek clergy had tried to place one of their monks inside the Edicule, an ancient structure which is said to encase the tomb of Jesus.
“What is happening here is a violation of status quo. The Greeks have tried so many times to put their monk inside the tomb but they don’t have the right to when the Armenians are celebrating the feast,” he said.
Link (with video of actual monk violence) -Thanks, JeffFsS!
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Public Prayer Booth
Kansas City-based artist Dylan Mortimer combined a telephone booth and a prayer station into this art piece titled Public Prayer Booth. If you ever came across one, you can pull down the kneeler and pray on the spot. Link - via Locust & Honey
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