TODAY IN GOD:
RELIGION NEWS BITES FOR YOUR SNACKING PLEASURE
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Why The Germans Hate Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise may suit up nicely as an American flying ace or an acrobatic crime buster, but when it comes to portraying Germany’s most beloved anti-Nazi, Germans would prefer a different actor, bitte. Cruise is due to play German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, celebrated for trying to kill Hitler in 1944, but the German Defense Ministry has warned that if Cruise gets the role, Ministry sites will be off-limits to the filmmakers. The reason? Because Cruise, as the Defense Ministry puts it, “has publically professed to being a member of the Scientology cult.”

“Stauffenberg played an imporant role in the military resistance against the Nazi regime,” a Ministry of Defense spokesman explained Wednesday , adding that “a sincere and respectful depiction of the events of July 20 [the failed plot to assassinate Hitler] is therefore very much in our interest. Tom Cruise, with his Scientology background, is not the right person for this.” Ursula Cabreta, director of a government-sponsored group that monitors Scientologist activities in Germany was more blunt. She called the selection of Cruise to play the role of von Stauffenberg a “scandal.”

The furor says more about Germany’s struggle with Scientology than it does about the actor, who does, it’s worth noting, bear a passing resemblance to the square-jawed German national hero. Cruise was offered the role, says United Artists CEO Paula Wagner, “because [director Bryan Singer] thought he was perfect for the part. Aside from his obvious admiration of the man he is portraying, Mr. Cruise’s personal beliefs have absolutely no bearing on the movie’s plot, themes, or content.”

The German authorities have had a long history of run-ins with the Church of Scientology, which they accuse of masquerading as a church in order to make money — a charge the group vehemently rejects. Germany, along with several other European countries, has aggressive laws targeting groups that they deem to be cults. Their hostility to Scientology is also based, Cabreta told TIME, on a perception that the writings of the church’s founder , L. Ron Hubbard, split the world into “social ” and “anti social” personalities, and also that the group “propagates the idea that Germany is controlled by Nazis.”

The German government recently tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the Church of Scientology from opening a new 43,000-square-foot headquarters in the upscale Berlin district of Charlottenburg. The facility opened in January, and Cruise and his wife, Katie Holmes, dropped by earlier this month during a visit that also took in the Von Stauffenberg memorial.

The memory of von Stauffenberg is close to German hearts. His plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, while unsuccessful, has come to symbolize German resistance to the Nazis. Repelled by Hitler’s racist policies and military bungling, Von Stauffenberg tried to blow him up with a suitcase bomb at the field headquarters known as Wolf’s Lair, but the blast was partially obstructed and failed to find its target. Von Stauffenberg was executed in a purge shortly afterwards.

Casting Cruise in the role has drawn fire from a range of sources. “He should keep his hands off my father,” Von Stauffenberg’s son Berthold told the Suddeutsche Zeitung. “He should go climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean. I don’t care as long as he stays out of this.”
FOR THE FULL STORY (TIME MAGAZINE) CLICK HERE

Philippine Catholic church says no skimpy shorts at mass

MANILA – The Roman Catholic Church in Manila has laid down a dress code after parishioners complained they were being distracted by women wearing skimpy shorts, plunging necklines and men wearing sports jerseys during Mass.

The Manila archdiocese in this predominantly Roman Catholic country issued guidelines recently to all churches in Manila.

Among the clothing items declared inappropriate for men are baseball caps, sports jerseys, undershirts and shorts.

For women, tank tops, spaghetti straps, skimpy shorts, sleeveless shirts or blouses with plunging necklines are out.

Assistant minister of the archdiocese Father Godwin Tatlonghari said Tuesday it was the parishioners themselves who complained about people in inappropriate clothing.

“They usually cite the increasing number of people who come to church to attend Mass or other liturgical functions garbed in a way that disrespects the sanctity of the house of God and the sacredness of the liturgical celebration,” Tatlonghari said.

He acknowledged that the dress code was just a guideline and that the church was not planning to punish violators.

More than 80 percent of the country’s 86 million people are Catholic.
SOURCE: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE VIA YAHOO NEWS

Religion under wraps: Santeria finds following among Latin American MLB players
CHICAGO — On a shelf in the office of Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, mixed in among the family photos, the Roberto Clemente bobblehead and the Napoleon Dynamite figurine, are four small but intimidating religious icons.

“If you see my saints, you’ll be like ‘Golly, they’re ugly,’ ” Guillen had said before inviting a visitor to come in. “They’ve got blood. They’ve got feathers. You go to the Catholic church, the [saints] have got real nice clothes.

“My religion, you see a lot of different things you never see.”

Guillen’s religion is Santeria, a largely misunderstood Afro-Cuba spiritual tradition that incorporates the worship of orisha — multidimensional beings who represent the forces of nature — with beliefs of the Yoruba and Bantu people of Africa and elements of Roman Catholicism. And Guillen, born in Venezuela, is one of a growing number of Latin American players, managers and coaches who are followers of the faith.

How many major leaguers have converted to Santeria is impossible to say because most, aware of the stigma the religion has in the United States, refuse to talk about their faith.

“It’s like the forbidden fruit,” said one player. “It’s something personal. It’s something you don’t talk about.”

But among those who have acknowledged their devotion are Angels pitcher Francisco Rodriguez and Florida Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera — both Venezuelan — and the White Sox’s Cuban-born pitcher Jose Contreras, all of whom have been All-Stars and won World Series rings. Others, such as Cincinnati Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez and Chicago Cubs infielder Ronny Cedeno, have experimented with it.

“It’s something beautiful,” said Contreras, who became a babalao, or Santeria high priest, before defecting from Cuba in 2002. “And it helps me a lot. It gives me peace and tranquillity, but more than that.”
FOR THE FULL STORY (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) CLICK HERE

Pentecostals Buckle Up Africa’s Bible Belt
KAMPALA, Uganda – As the miracle-healer descended from the sky in an immaculate white helicopter, his disciples cheered with joy: “Hallelujah! Praise Jesus.”

Gospel songs thundered through the speakers as televangelist Benny Hinn landed outside Uganda’s national stadium last month, before addressing 40,000 enraptured faithful.

His white suit picked out by floodlights, the U.S.-based preacher promised a “miracle crusade” to heal the sick, make the blind see and the lame walk. “In Jesus’ name, lift your hands and sing,” he cried, almost drowned out by cheering.

Pentecostal religion is mushrooming in Africa.

Promising prosperity, miracle cures and life-changing spiritual experiences, the “born again” faiths that are the staple of America’s multi-millionaire televangelists are fast taking over the world’s poorest continent.

For many, they offer hope. In Hinn’s front seats, ringed with collection buckets, sat people in wheelchairs, AIDS patients, children with deformities.

“I want the power of the Lord to descend on me and lift me out of this chair. I want to be like you,” said John Wilson, a 58-year-old Ugandan who broke his spine in a car accident.

The U.S. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says Pentecostalism is growing globally, with a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians thought to be members of these faiths that emphasize speaking in tongues, divine healing, prophesy and a strongly literal interpretation of Bible stories.

In Africa all churches are booming, but Pentecostalism is overtaking traditional Catholic and Anglican faiths brought by European colonizers over a century ago.

Pentecostals and charismatics now account for 147 million Africans, 17 percent of the continent’s people, compared with 5 percent in 1970, the World Christian Database says.

South Africa’s Apostolic Faith Mission is its biggest church. A third of urban South Africans are Pentecostals.

Last year, one million Kenyans — nearly one in 30 — attended a service by American preacher T. D. Jakes in Nairobi.

Nigeria, with 130 million people, is full of barn-like buildings with names like the “Mountain of Fire and Miracles,” drawing a million or more worshippers for all-day prayer.

A camp along Lagos-Ibadan expressway advertises “fervent prayer, 24 hours.”
FOR THE FULL STORY (REUTERS IN THE WASHINGTON POST) CLICK HERE

Sacred cow with bovine TB ‘to be put down’
A “sacred” Welsh bullock who tested positive for bovine tuberculosis is to be slaughtered despite wide-ranging protests from the Hindu temple where he is kept, which established a MooTube webcam so that the animal’s supporters could follow his every move.

The Welsh Assembly today said that it had provisionally decided to give vets the go-ahead to slaughter Shambo, at the Skanda Vale community in Llanpumsiant, in west Wales, in order to “protect animal and human health”.

In addition, Jane Davidson, the assembly’s Sustainability Minister, said that further tests at the start of this month had revealed that at least two other cattle in the Skanda Vale community may also have the disease. Tests are continuing, but if found to be infected these cattle are also likely to be slaughtered.

The verdict appears close to ending an extraordinary campaign by Skanda Vale to save Shambo, who tested positive for the disease in a routine skin test in late April.

Monks at the temple say that there is no possibility of Shambo entering the human food chain and have isolated him from the rest of their herd of 55 cattle. They claim that the test shows only that there is a “statistical possibility” he could develop TB and their own vet has declared Shambo “thoroughly healthy”.
FOR THE FULL STORY (UK TIMES ONLINE) CLICK HERE

ATHEIST SUMMER CAMP: A camp they can believe in
CLARKSVILLE, Ohio — At the same time youngsters at Bible camps across the nation are reciting, “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep,” kids at Camp Quest are climbing into their bunks, confident there is no one out there to hear those prayers.

Proudly proclaiming the motto “Beyond Belief,” Camp Quest bills itself as the nation’s first sleep-away summer camp for atheists. Founded in 1996, it has inspired four similar camps across the nation for children whose parents are either opposed or indifferent to religion.

Much of what goes on here, amid the cornfields of southwestern Ohio, is little different from any other camp. Campers canoe on the Little Miami River, practice archery skills and go on nature hikes.

To be sure, they also engage in some unusual rainy-day discussions of philosophical issues. Children who barely come up to an adult’s waist toss around terms such as “circular logic.” And those nature hikes focus on the beauty of evolution, unaided by any unseen hand.

Atheism has been experiencing a revival, as it were. Some national surveys show the numbers of non-believers growing. Books hyper-critical of religion are best-sellers. The biologist Richard Dawkins argued in “The God Delusion” that religion is just that. Faith as the source of all evil was explored with burning passion by Christopher Hitchens in “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

But more than a training ground for a movement, Camp Quest is a place to set down the burden of being different.

Children who grow up in Christian households have the emotional security of being in the nation’s majority. Members of religious minorities have similarly minded friends and relatives. But coming from a family that does not believe in God often sets a child on a lonely road.

Frieda Lindroth, a first-year camper, recognized that her first day at Camp Quest.

“‘Wow!’ I said to myself, ‘I’m not alone,'” said Frieda, 12. She recalls being an atheist since the 2nd grade.

For its inaugural season, Camp Quest drew 20 campers. This year, it enrolled 47 young people, ranging from 8 to 17 years old, for its weeklong session at a campground rented from a 4-H group. About 100 others will attend Quest’s daughter camps in Michigan, Minnesota, California and Ontario, Canada.
FOR THE FULL STORY (Ron Grossman IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE) CLICK HERE

Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Theology’: The Beliefnet Interview

Long before Britney Spears shaved her head, there was Sinead O’Connor. Like Spears, the Irish-born O’Connor has generated her share of controversy. A Grammy Award-winning singer best known for her hugely popular 1990 hit “Nothing Compares 2 U,” O’Connor created a furor when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live” in October 1992. Although she is herself a Catholic, O’Connor declared that John Paul, who died in 2005, was “the real enemy.” Since then, although O’Connor has put out a number of records since her breakthrough 1990 album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” she has not had enjoyed continued success in the United States. All that may change, however, with her new release, “Theology,” a two-CD set consisting of an acoustic and full-band version of 11 songs, most written by O’Connor herself, and based on passages from the Old Testament.

O’Connor recently spoke to Beliefnet about her fascination with the Rastafari movement, the other religions that appeal to her, and the problems she has with Catholicism.

You’ve had a very interesting faith journey. How do you define your spiritual life now?

Well, I would consider myself Catholic, by birth and by culture and by blood. But I’m extremely inspired by a number of other religious traditions and also extremely inspired by the Rastafari movement.

What do you identify so closely with Rasta?

What I admire and love the idea of is that they see themselves almost as soldiers for God. They have this concept of the idea of rescuing God—from all kinds of situations–and they have a tremendous excitement about God. They use music as a priesthood, and that’s very appealing to me. I was interested in them because they were the first people I learned from that God and religion are two different things. I admire them and the idea of God needing to be rescued, from religion, for example.

Are you more of a God person or a religion person?

Well, I would say much more of a God person, but I love religion. I’ve been studying all kinds of religions since I was a child, literally all my life. I adore religion and love it. Obviously, like anything, it has all sorts of negatives sometimes, as we all do. But, I’m much more of a God person.

Are there any other religions or religious traditions that you embrace?

I wouldn’t necessarily say I embrace, but I’m inspired by Hinduism, and Judaism.

What do you like about those traditions?

Well, in the Hindu tradition I love a couple of things. They have a completely different way of thinking than we do on this side of the world. They turn your head upside down when you get into their way of thinking. They have the tradition of yogis— these guys who, through meditation, can transport. That’s kind of incredible. Another thing I love about them is that they often portray God as a female energy, and that’s obviously interesting to any woman—the idea of the symbols for God’s being allowed to be female. Also, the Vedas, their main scriptures, are just so colorful and so dramatic. They’re kind of like the Old Testament, but it’s all love and peace.

And I love the Sufis for the same reason, because I think they’re pretty much the esoteric side of Islam. And the whirling dervishes. They are Sufis, and they have this thing that they call “God the Beloved,” and this tradition of the most incredible kind of religious poetry, this kind of ecstatic poetry. My favorite is Hafiz. He writes this poetry about how he’s so excited about God that he keeps chucking himself out the window and breaking his nose. They’re crazy, ecstatic kinds of guys who are just completely in love with God.

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW (AND IT’S A GOOD ONE) AND TO ALSO LISTEN TO A CUT FROM O’CONNOR’S “THEOLOGY” ALBUM, CLICK HERE

Papua New Guinea apologises for eating Fiji missionaries
PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The descendants of cannibals who killed and ate four Fijian missionaries in 1878 have apologised for their forefathers’ actions, the Australian Associated Press reported Thursday.

Fiji’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ratu Isoa Tikoca, accepted the apologies at a reconciliation ceremony attended by thousands of people near Rabaul in East New Britain province on Wednesday.

“We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement,” Tikoca said.

PNG’s Governor-General Paulias Matane told the crowd he appreciated the work of the early Fijian missionaries in spreading Christianity, AAP said.

The ceremony marked 132 years since Methodist ministers and teachers from Fiji arrived in the New Guinea islands region in 1875 headed by Englishman George Brown.

In April 1878, a Fijian minister and three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribespeople on the Gazelle Peninsula.
FOR THE FULL STORY (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE VIA YAHOO NEWS) CLICK HERE