Muslim children study Sanskrit and Hindu ones read Quran in UP madrassas

Article by NAMRATA JOSHI in Outlook India
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Archbishop Rowan Williams: Repentance means getting a new perspective

Questioned on whether increased spending was the right way to tackle the downturn, he said: "It seems a little bit like the addict returning to the drug.

"When the Bible uses the word 'repentance', it doesn't just mean beating your breast , it means getting a new perspective, and that is perhaps what we are shrinking away from."

The archbishop added: "It is about what is sustainable in the long term and if this is going to drive us back into the same spin, I do not think that is going to help us."

He said people should not "spend to save the economy", but instead spend for "human reasons" - to provide for their own needs. read it all
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Civil Society Ushers a New Hope in Kandhamal, Orissa

On the 17th December 2008, nearly 3000 teachers from all parts of Kandhamal and even from other parts of Orissa went in a procession and gathered at Coronation Grounds in Phulbani town. The public gathering started with the performance of a street theatre group on the reasons for the conflicts and the ways in which common citizens and people’s movements can drive away those evil forces, which create conflict and hatred among people. The public gathering was addressed by a galaxy of dignitaries, social activists and teacher’s federation leaders. Mr. Sandeep Pandey, the International Magsaysay Award winner was one among those who addressed the gathering and called on the teachers present to implant peace education among their students and also requested the teachers’ community to explain & analyse the contextual realities to their students and nurture them with values of justice, secularism and democracy. He also explained the evils of the nuclear power, to which our Indian government is so enthusiastically inclined to implement in India. read it all

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SC slams Orissa HC for acquitting a rape convict on absurd reasons

New Delhi, Dec. 16: The Supreme Court today slammed the Orissa High Court for acquitting a rape convict on the absurd reasoning that the victim was a healthy tribal woman capable of resisting the alleged rape and that there was only one eye witness to the alleged crime.

“The conclusions are not only confusing but border on absurdity. It baffles us as to why the High Court says that 'law is well settled that it is not possible for a single man to commit sexual intercourse with a healthy adult female in full possession of her senses against her will'. There is not even a single decision which says so,” the apex court observed while quashing the acquittal order passed by the High Court more

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A Time for Confessing

by Robert W. Bertram Eerdmans, 240 pp., $30.00 paperback reviewed by Frederick Niedner

Academic circles sometimes include a giant who publishes relatively little despite the pleading of students and colleagues. Such a figure was Robert Bertram, whom longtime colleague Edward Schroeder calls, in his grateful foreword, "the most unpublished Lutheran theologian of the twentieth century."

Bertram taught theology for 50 years in Lutheran institutions, including Valparaiso University, Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), Christ Seminary-Seminex and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He published dozens of articles and prepared even more public lectures. However, when he died in 2003, Bertram left only one "book," a dissertation that engaged Karl Barth's critique of Luther, and a handful of larger projects with which he never quit tinkering.

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Dialogue between Barth and Luther also emerges as crucial. Barth criticized Luther for fixing theology on God's relationship to humankind, as though God cannot be understood apart from involvement with and even vulnerability to creatures. Alternatively, Barth worked to understand God "in himself," without regard to flesh-and-blood entanglements. To Barth, therefore, Christ functions as a revelation of God's eternal election, and his death becomes less a saving event than a sign that humans have always been saved but simply did not know it. This "revelationist half-truth," Bertram suggests, permeates a goodly share of current theology.

For Bertram as for Luther, God is deeply involved in both judging and romancing the world and humankind. Drawing strongly on Romans and the reconciliation imagery of 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Bertram probes the gospel of Christ's entry into the plight and place of those whom God has abandoned to their sins and perversions, paying little mind to the strongholds of the righteous who need no physician, so that the former, when they come to the end of their rope and breathe their last in utter abandonment, find themselves, to the surprise of everyone, in the company of the crucified Word of God. In this company there is hope—and plenty of work to do. 

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Christmas at UTC with Widows Of Orissa Violence

 A Christian group in Bangalore organized an advance Christmas celebration for some women widowed during anti-Christian violence in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

Asmitha Digal is among 24 widows who lost husbands in the anti-Christian Orissa violence in India, taking part in Christmas celebration in Bangalore on Dec. 8.

"We have lost our husbands to a hate campaign, yet we believe that only love and forgiveness can bring peace in society," asserted Kadamphul Nayak, widow of Pastor Samuel Nayak.

She was among 24 widows and two children who traveled 1,400 kilometers from Orissa to the southern Indian city of Bangalore to attend the Dec. 8 celebration. The ecumenical Global Council of Indian Christians, which is based in the city and organized the event, is involved in rehabilitation work for the Orissa victims.

About 150 people from various Churches joined the celebrations held at Protestant-run United Theological College in Bangalore, 2,060 kilometers south of New Delhi. They sang together hymns of praise and joy.

The Churches and their institutions gave the guests pots and other household items, clothes and sweets. They also shared a Christmas cake, and sang Christmas carols. Some of the Orissa visitors performed a tribal dance depicting the birth of Jesus.

Retired Methodist Bishop Sampath Kumar told UCA News the faith of the simple women amazed him and made the event the most meaningful celebration in his life. "We celebrate Christmas in our fullness, but they celebrated it in an utter hopeless situation," he remarked.  more

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Campaign for a peaceful Christmas in Orissa

Even as Sangh Parivar calls for a bandh in Orissa on December 25, a group of organisations comprising students, farmers, workers, teachers and social activists has initiated 'Christmas for Orissa' campaign for peaceful celebration of the festival.

Over 700 campaigners, representing seven citizens' groups of Orissa-based organisations, are seeking to make "peace and justice" the theme for this Christmas in the state. 

"We will organise a special Christmas for Orissa by organising vigils and prayer meets," convener of the Christmas for Orissa Campaign, Joe Athialy, said.  more

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Vatican bans stemcell research

The Vatican issued its most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research.The Vatican says these techniques violate the principles that every human life — even an embryo — is sacred, and that babies should be conceived only through intercourse by a married couple.

The 32-page instruction, titled “Dignitas Personae,” or “The Dignity of the Person,” was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and carries the approval and the authority of Pope Benedict XVI.  more

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Vicar bans Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem

Rev. Stephen Coulter told the congregation at North Dorset District Council's civic carol service that he had visited the city in a recent pilgrimage to Israel and the West Bank and was shocked by the devastation he witnessed.

He said the Arab-Israeli conflict had destroyed its population and tourism and that he would not join in the singing of the carol.

He told them the words 'How still we see thee lie' were too far removed from life in Bethlehem. 

And he highlighted reports that the Israeli government was prohibiting the movement of communion wine from Bethlehem this Christmas because it was deemed a security risk. read it all 

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Avery Dulles passes away

Cardinal Dulles, a professor of religion at Fordham University for the last 20 years, was a prolific author and lecturer and an elder statesman of Catholic theology in America. He was also the son of John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the nephew of Allen Dulles, who guided European espionage during World War II and later directed the Central Intelligence Agency.

A conservative theologian in an era of liturgical reforms and rising secularism, Cardinal Dulles wrote 27 books and 800 articles, mostly on theology; advised the Vatican and America’s bishops, and staunchly defended the pope and his church against demands for change on abortion, artificial birth control, priestly celibacy, the ordination of women and other issues.

 He died  on 12 December ,2008 morning at Fordham University in the Bronx. He was 90.

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Arundhati Roy on Terrorism in India

Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don't figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

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The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose.  

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Editor of Nishan arrested for publishing book on Orissa Violence

Lenin, the editor of the quarterly magazine Nishan, was arrested Monday for his book 'Dharma Nare Kandhamalare Raktara Banya' (Flood of blood in Kandhamal in the name of religion). Two others who helped him print and circulate the book are also under arrest and jailed in Bhubaneswar after their bail pleas were rejected.

'Police have tortured my husband, violating all basic human rights,' his wife Rumita Kundu said as protests were organised in Bhabanipatna town in Kalahandi district Tuesday.

On Thursday, eminent citizens in the state capital are planning a protest outside the governor's residence Raj Bhavan.

'Everybody has the right to express his thoughts. It is an attempt by the government to suppress writers who have independent voices,' eminent writer and columnist Bibhuti Patnaik said.

Added civil rights activist Sudhir Patnaik: 'It is a move to curb free, frank and fearless speech of writers and journalists.'

The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), journalist associations and writers associations across the state have also issued a statement condemning the arrest of Lenin. more

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Bush gets Foot in Mouth award for his abuse of English language!

 United States President George Bush's long, rambling sentences and grammatically incorrect speeches have finally been acknowledged by a British language watchdog group.

Bush's famous gaffes have won him this year's not-so-coveted Foot in Mouth Lifetime Achievement Award, reports the New York Daily News.

The Plain English Campaign (PEC) gave the award to mark the departure of Bush from the White House.

While handing out the title, PEC (The Plain English Campaign)  praised Bush for "capturing the spirit of every true gobbledegooker" by using his unique way with words to address a wide range of subjects.

Bush said: "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right."

Bush has joined the list of celebrities and politicians who have also received the title, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and supermodel Naomi Campbell. (ANI) read it all

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V.P. Singh remembered by Kanchan Ialaiah

The upper caste media had taken its revenge against a man who initiated a mini civil war in order to establish an  egalitarian India.
VP Singh was the one who deployed a serious discourse of social justice and and worked out a method to make India caste free from the position of Prime Minister. In one sense he was comparable to Abraham Lincoln who initiated a major civil war to abolish slavery in America, in late nineteenth century. He was a white man who stood for the rights of the black people. VP Singh initiated a similar battle of social justice in a country of castes and brazen inequality in 20th century India while holding the position of Prime Minister.

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The media and the UPA leaders, by treating him like dirt, even in his death, forgot a basic fact of human life. If someone, who stood by the oppressed, is ignored and humiliated, even in death, the oppressed will treat that as their own humiliation. If this is the attitude of the elite towards a man who sacrificed his Chief Ministership (Uttar Pradesh) on moral grounds, his Defence Ministerial position on the grounds of opposing corruption (Bofors case) and became Prime Minister of the nation on his own political movement's strength (transforming Jan Morcha into Janatha Dal) people know how to read the signs. Therefore such media cannot protect the nation from even the terrorists, as the oppressed majority do not believe in it at all.
 
VP Singh was a philosopher in his own right, a poet and painter. The media behaved as if he was nobody to this nation. He implemented the Mandal Commission Report, to which suicide attempts by upper caste youth were made. This was subsequently followed with a Kamadal Yatra of Advani, who then became a hero of the upper castes. 

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More than any other prime minister, VP Singh made Indian democracy transformative. But for his intervention from the position of Prime Minister even the survival of politicians like Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad, Kanshiram, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati would have been difficult. Ironically, these leaders from backward communities also did not bother about him. But he was an icon who had a dream for social equality. Ever since he implemented 27 per cent reservation forCentral government jobs he never compromised on the philosophy of social justice and equality. 

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Cardinal Cormac Murphy O' Connor's book on Multiculturalism in Britain

London, Dec.7 (ANI): The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O' Connor, has said that while Britain has become an "unfriendly" place for religious people to live in, immigrant groups still have an obligation to understand, respect and adjust to "the ethos of the society they are opting to join."

He blames  the rise of secularism as the key factor behind a British society that is liberal and is hostile to Christian morals and values.

Religious belief is viewed as "a private eccentricity" and the voice of faith groups is marginalized, he says.

Britain, the cardinal adds, is now showing signs of degenerating into a country free of morals, because of its rejection of traditional values and its new emphasis on the rights of the individual.

The book, called Faith in the Nation, is published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), with the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. more

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William C. Placher dies at 60

Bill Placher, Wabash College professor and noted theologian in the “Yale theology” tradition,  just died at the age of 60.

In 2002, the American Academy of Religion named him the best teacher in theUS, honoring him with the Excellence in Teaching Award.

He was the author of 13 books, including A History of Christian Theology, Unapologetic Theology, Narratives of a Vulnerable God, The Domestication of Transcendence, Jesus the Savior, and the Triune God. He also edited the textbook, Essentials of Christian Theology, which was honored by both Christian Century and Christianity Today. He gave more than 40 invited lectures and was the author of literally dozens of essays, articles, and reviews.  read it all 

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Episcopal Church in US Splits

“We’re going through Reformation times, and in Reformation times things aren’t neat and clean,” Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, a conservative who led his diocese out of the Episcopal Church in October, said in an interview. “In Reformation times, new structures are emerging.”

Bishop Duncan will be named the archbishop and primate of the North American church, which says it would have 100,000 members, compared with 2.3 million in the Episcopal Church.

The conservatives contend that the American and Canadian churches have broken with traditional Christianity in many ways, but their resolve to form a unified breakaway church was precipitated by the decision to ordain an openly gay bishop and to bless gay unions.  read it all

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Enough is Enough - Says who to whom? asks Badri Raina

Today, thanks to the exemplary courage and discipline of India's security forces, the Taj may have been disfigured and damaged, however brutally, but not demolished—something that seemed to have been the intent of the terrorist attack.

But, alas, some sixteen years ago a four-hundred year old iconic mosque was axed and hatcheted out of existence while the forces stood and watched, as did the whole nation on television.

Neither that fateful day, nor once in the last sixteen years, has the cry gone up "enough is enough" on behalf of those that are now so outraged. Educated noises have been made, which is not the same thing as saying never again should this country countenance social forces that brought that watershed calamity about.

Only conscientious citizens have struggled since to bring succour and justice to the victims, often suffering opprobrium from elite India that sees them as busybodies.

Indeed, the worthies that were visibly culpable in inflicting that blood-thirsty catastrophe on the nation continue to remain in good favour with influential sections of the corporate media which may have carried on a debate on the issue but never admonished "enough is enough."

Some two hundred lives have been lost to the terrorist attack in Mumbai. Yet when, following the demolition of the Babri mosque, our own people killed a thousand or so of our own people in the very same Mumbai, the debate never ceased, and has not to this day.

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Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ? by Gnani Sankaran

Terror in Mumbai: The Unseen and Forgotten Victims

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers and industrialists.

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Celebrity terrorism.

The character of modern terrorism is widely understood to have been shaped by a mid-19th-Century idea known as the "propaganda of the deed" - a strategy for political change in which the message or cause is contained within, and expressed by the violent act.

In a novel twist, the Mumbai terrorists might have embarked on propaganda of the deed without the propaganda in the confident expectation that the rationalisation for the attack - the narrative - would be provided by politicians, the media and terrorism analysts.

If so, then Mumbai could represent something rather different in the history of terrorism, and possibly something far more disturbing even than global jihad.

Perhaps we have come to the point where casually self-radicalised, sociopathic individuals can form a loose organisation, acquire sufficient weapons and equipment for a few thousand dollars, make a basic plan of action and indulge in a violent expression of their generalised disaffection and anomie.

These individuals indulge in terrorism simply because they can, while their audience concocts a rationale on their behalf.

Welcome to the age of celebrity terrorism.  

read it all from BBC

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