No dwelling on St Paul's; South Park v Scientology; iPad commandments; environmental Assisi; Diwali days out
Hello, hello, slightly less crotchety than last week. I promise to be more upbeat this week. Welcome to Divine Dispatches! With extra exclamation marks!!!!!!!!
? OK, there is so much being written about St Paul's Cathedral that I don't propose to dwell on it (unlike the Occupy London movement ? ha!) but I am happy to engage below the line with your thoughts on closure, Jesus and the money lenders, etc. Feel free to post biblical references to loving your neighbour, camels and needles, planks and eyes.
? Assisi, it's so hot right now. Not content with hosting an interfaith meeting, it's hosting the first ever green pilgrimage network. This initiative will help faiths to make their holy cities and sacred sites as "environmentally sustainable as possible according to their own theologies and understanding". What's the carbon footprint for this international event in Italy, eh?
? This happened several weeks ago. It hardly registered in the mainstream media, including ours. A human rights group in Bangladesh has condemned the public execution of eight Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International, executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an "alarming rate" since the end of Ramadan, when there was a reprieve. The total number of executions in the country this year is 58, more than twice the figure for the whole of 2010.
? Reports have emerged from across the pond that the Church of Scientology may have launched a probe into South Park duo Trey Parker and Matt Stone (for it is they) in order to smear them. With chocolate salty balls. Former church member Marty Rathbun has said that the CoS was so incensed by Matt and Trey poking fun at them, they wanted revenge. Village Voice has the full story here. Whatever happened to turning the other cheek?
? Zionnghaka Chana has 39 wives and 94 children ? and he wants more. "I can travel beyond the borders of Mizoram or even India to marry as that would help me to expand my family, he told the Indo-Asian News Service. All the 181 people living in the village of Baktawang belong to a single family ? 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren. He is the head of a Christian cult. You don't say.
? Almost literally unbelievable. Someone has designed an iPad picture book app showing the ten commandments. What, even the ones about adultery and killing? Designer Phuong Nguyen says: "When the PM from Apps Cyclone team called and told me his idea, I said 'Yes' immediately. With more than five years experience of teaching kids in the church, I know how amazingly a nice picture can bring God's words close to the kids. With this app, I have not only created the pictures but have also drawn the pictures with all my love for God and for kids." Here's the link if you want to buy it for your nearest and dearest.
Read of the week
Habibi by Craig Thompson. An astonishing, sometimes challenging, graphic novel but so much more than that. It fuses stories from the Abrahamic faiths with contemporary politics of the Middle East region. Here's what the Guardian made of it.
Out and about
Leicester has a fairly chunky schedule of events for the festival of light that goes through to Sunday.
Birmingham has also got some parties you can pop along to.
Day of the Dead ? Oaxaca, Mexico, from 1 November. If you really want to get stuck in, why not make a holiday of it?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/27/divine-dispatches-religion-roundup
China Music TV Blackpool Rihanna US constitution and civil liberties Bradford Bulls
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