The sickest of sick

Technorati Tags: Proposition 8,Mormon,Bigotry

An ad targeting Mormons against Proposition 8 - I'm speechless and nauseated - which I'm sure this is what they wanted.

 

The gang over at MyManMitt has been keeping close tabs on this.

China Cracking Down on Christians In Preparation of the Olympics

My sister-in-law visited us a couple weeks ago. She is from Communist China. She is married to my brother who is American. For financial reasons she continues to live in China and visits on vacation.

When she came to visit our home, she didn't understand how our home was heated (with a forced air furnace) and we took her down to the basement to see how it all worked.  Another thing that was stunning to us was that she had never seen a picture of Jesus Christ before.

She told us how at her University, there was an American couple that Bible meetings at their apartment. The couple was there as a teachers at her University. My sister-in-law was able to go to these meetings for a couple of weeks before the government found out about what was happening. The government told the couple that they had to stop or they would have to go back to America.

Well here is a little taste of what is really going on over there:

Chinese stepping up religious crackdown ahead of Olympics

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 2/15/2008 2:00:00 PM

A new report shows that China's communist government has stepped up its crackdown on Christians.

According to the annual report released by the China Aid Association, there were 60 cases of known persecutions against house churches last year -- up from 46 cases in 2006. The report also found that 788 people were persecuted, a total up from 665 the year before.
Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association, says the crackdown on Christians and unregistered house churches is related to the upcoming summer Olympic games. And he says the crackdown is even extending to foreign Christians.
"But one surprising thing was the unprecedented campaign to kick out foreign Christians and missionaries -- and even businessmen -- from China," notes Fu.
Fu is encouraging Christians in the West to use their freedom to call for reforms in China. "We can write letters to President Bush, who has agreed to attend the China Olympics this summer, [asking] that he will continue to raise his voice," says Fu.
According to Fu, the campaign to deport foreign Christians is the most widespread of its kind since the communists took over more than 50 years ago.

I have to say that before they left, our family did present her with a King James Bible and bore our testimony of Christianity and Jesus Christ. We even gave her some pass along cards which showed the various important ministry of Christ (Easter, Christmas, preaching, etc)

Technorati Tags: Christianity,China,Bible

Universities Offering More and More Classes On Mormonism - Without the Bashing

Colleges Scramble to offer curriculum on Mormon religion (Boston Globe)

Ahhh, take a deep sigh of relief. Yes, folks, it's true! Colleges and Universities across the U.S. are adding classes on Mormonism to their semester schedules.

Melissa Proctor is one such professor at Harvard who not only is teaching a class - she is a member of the Church as well.

"The interest is growing in Mormon studies generally, and it's becoming something that other religious studies scholars have to take account of and pay greater attention to," said Melissa Proctor, a visiting lecturer teaching the new class at Harvard.

"Some people believe we have entered a golden age of sorts in Mormon studies," said Proctor, who grew up in the church and is working on a book about contemporary Mormon women.

Richard Bushman describes some reasons why this is happening:

"The study of religion in America is going away from the mainline Protestant establishment, to try to reconstruct a religious tradition that's much more variegated and filled with dissent, and Mormonism gets caught up in that new range of interests," he said.

Brian Birch of Utah Valley State college contributes:

"I think it's safe to say that some combination of academic elitism and religious bigotry has delayed the development of Mormon studies," said Brian D. Birch, the director of the religious studies program at Utah Valley State College, which offers four courses in Mormon studies. "Some of this is due to the categorization of Mormonism as a cult and hence not worthy of serious attention. This is not surprising given the historical connection between American religious studies and Christian divinity and theological schools."

It's nice to hear that tolerance might be extended to include my faith. Certainly, this is one great step in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: Education,Mormon,LDS