American Buddhist Net

Nopporn Wong-Anan , Reuters
Published: Tuesday, July 08, 2008

BANGKOK - Thailand's top court questioned on Tuesday the legality of Bangkok's support for a Cambodian bid to list a disputed Hindu temple as a World Heritage site, giving the opposition another weapon to attack the government.

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8 July 2008

Bangalore, India (ENI). A joint forum of Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh is lobbying quietly for the restoration of a secular constitution that was abolished 20 years ago making Islam the state religion in the Muslim-majority nation.

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8 Jul 2008

After hundreds of years without them, prayer rooms are suddenly regarded as an essential requirement for the workplace. A guide produced by St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, in the City of London, says that employers should to take into account the “needs” of their religious employees. It says that that “the business case for providing prayer rooms and best practice on creating and managing effective space” makes good business sense by “helping to attract, motivate and retain staff, and building a reputation for diversity.”

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By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Seoul Plaza, the Mecca for candlelit rallies over the last two months, is struggling to get back to normal. Under sweltering heat at noon Tuesday, dozens of workers were toiling to re-turf the round plaza and decorate it with flowers in front of City Hall.

The plaza is regaining its green, peaceful appearance as candlelit vigils are apparently waning, with civic groups and religious leaders positioned not to hold anti-American beef protests, at least not on weekdays.

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Monday, Jul. 07, 2008 By MADHUR SINGH

The Tirumala temple, in the south Indian city of Tirupathi, is one of Hinduism's holiest shrines. Over 5,000 pilgrims a day visit this city of seven hills, filling Tirumala's coffers with donations and making it India's richest temple. But since 2002, Tirumala has also been generating revenue from a less likely source: carbon credits. For decades, the temple's community kitchen has fed nearly 15,000 people, cooking 30,000 meals a day. Five years ago, Tirumala adopted solar cooking technology, allowing it to dramatically cut down on the amount of diesel fuel it uses. The temple now sells the emission reduction credits it earns to a Swiss green-technology investor, Good Energies Inc.

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LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community's religious environment – that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale – affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner. These results were published in the June issue of Social Forces, a leading journal in the field of sociology.

July 03, 2008

"Although there is a great deal of research on religion and health, previous studies have tended to focus on the individual aspects of religion, such as how often an individual prays or attends worship services," said Blanchard.

Along with co-author John Bartkowski from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other researchers from the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Blanchard found that people live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and Mainline Protestant churches. He offers two key reasons for these findings.

"First, these types of churches have what's known as a 'worldly perspective.' Instead of solely focusing on the afterlife, they place a significant emphasis on the current needs of their communities," he said.

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July 7, 2008

Leaders of the separatist insurgency in southern Thailand must end the targeting of civilians in their effort to establish an independent state, Human Rights Watch said today.

...On July 4, insurgents beheaded Khan Sangthong, a 55-year-old Buddhist, in Bannang Sta district, Yala province. He was shot, burned, had nails hammered through his hands, and was beheaded. His severed head was placed on a bridge about 60 meters from his body. Over the past four years, more than 20 Buddhist Thais have been beheaded by insurgents across the southern border provinces.

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July 7, 2008
By MATTI FRIEDMAN

JERUSALEM - In a stuffy basement off an Old City alleyway in Jerusalem, tailors using ancient texts as a blueprint have begun making a curious line of clothing they hope will be worn by priests in a reconstructed Jewish Temple.

The project, run by a Jerusalem group called the Temple Institute, is part of an ideology that advocates making practical preparations for the rebuilding of the ancient temple on a disputed rectangle in Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

...If you are a descendant of the Jewish priestly class, a full outfit, including an embroidered belt 32 cubits (48 feet) long, can be yours for about $800.

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Sunday, July 6, 2008
By Evan Osnos

In the 26 years she has risen through the ranks of China's religious-affairs bureaucracy, Ma Yuhong has watched a radical shift in the way an officially atheist Communist Party talks about the faithful.

"There was a saying: 'One more Christian is one less Chinese,'" Ma recalled. "Nobody says that anymore."

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July 6, 2008
By Ching-Ching Ni

NANJING, China - The factory could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers near and far.

But what they're making might surprise you: Bibles.

As Tibetan monks grab headlines protesting the lack of religious freedom under Chinese rule, a booming Bible industry is turning the world's biggest atheist nation into the world's largest supplier of the Good Book.

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By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: July 6, 2008

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

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By ROBERT TURNBULL
Published: July 6, 2008

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — There is no question that Angkor and its famed temples are among the world’s archaeological treasures, providing a window into the Cambodian dynasty that flourished there from the ninth century to the 15th century. But tourists who flock to the site in northwestern Cambodia say something is missing; few artifacts remain to help them imagine the customs and rituals of the ancient empire.

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07/05/2008

Tokyo (AsiaNews) - About 50 visitors and 100 Japanese participated at the "summit of religious leaders for the G8", the meeting that for three years has been gathering representatives of the various faiths in view of the summit of political leaders from the major powers, and has become one of the main assemblies on the calendar of interreligious dialogue. The stated aim is that of giving a spiritual face to a summit that, although it is political, deals with topics fundamentally concerning the human heart.

From June 27-29, representatives and leaders from the main religions of the world met in Osaka and Kyoto, in view of the summit of the Group of Eight, which will be held at Lake Toyako (Hokkaido) from July 7-9, in order to send it a joint declaration.

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July 4, 2008

Kashmiri separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were placed under house arrest in Srinagar on Friday to prevent them from organising a rally to celebrate the cancellation of land allotment to the Amarnath shrine board.

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Friday, 27 June 2008
Written by Tracey Shelton and Nguon Sovan

Passing motorists who glance at the building beside a quiet stretch of National Road 5 in Kampong Chhnang province are likely to assume it's just another farm house.

But a closer look reveals something eerie about the house, known according to local legend as "the house the ghost bought."

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Among the greatest minds in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit literary traditions was Prof. G.N. Chakravarthy. This scholar, who constantly renewed his understanding of the ancient knowledge systems to tackle the problems of the present, passed away last Friday.

Friday, Jul 04, 2008

...While the West scoffed at the Indian approach of seeking solutions for individual and civilizational issues in the spiritual realm, dogmatic Oriental scholars who nurture a standpoint that is as one-sided as this, seek all answers in the transcendental and mystical, refusing to see its historical basis in the material world. It was for these reasons, that towards the end of his life, he was interested in studying Buddhism and its relationship with the Vaidika tradition.

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Palanpur (Gujarat), July 3(IANS) The police arrested 44 activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in north Gujarat Thursday during a nationwide shutdown announced by the Hindu group protesting revocation of land allotment to the Amarnath shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. According to District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Raju Bhargava, 21 people were held in Mehsana, 16 in Kadi and 7 in Sabarkantha.

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07/03/08

NEW DELHI: Claiming that their day-long nation-wide bandh was a "success", Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday said it will continue its protests until the Jammu and Kashmir government withdraws its decision to revoke the land transfer to Shree Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).

"We will continue our protest against the anti-Hindu move of the state government until it withdraws its decision," VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia told reporters here.

He also said his organisation will not hesitate to adopt a violent path if the government fails to accept their demand.

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SRINAGAR (AFP) — Two people were killed Thursday in central India in protests over the revocation of an order to transfer land in Indian Kashmir to a Hindu pilgrims' body, the Press Trust of India agency reported.

The protests were part of a nationwide action called by the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and an ally, angered that officials had rescinded the transfer after bitter opposition in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

"Two persons have been killed in violence," Rakesh Shrivastava, an official in Indore city in central Madhya Pradesh state, told the agency.

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Twelve die in two-day Kashmir clash, says Indian army

Kashmir Valley explodes over land-for-mandir

Jonathan Adams
Published: July 3, 2008

TAIPEI: Outside a popular tourist site in Taipei on a baking-hot morning recently, Gao Mingzhu, 56, a visitor from Beijing, took a break in the shade and posed as his tour group companion took a picture.

Six meters, or 20 feet away, 10 members of Falun Gong, the spiritual group outlawed as an "evil cult" in China, were greeting the newly arrived Chinese tourists and trying to pass out promotional flyers and newspaper articles.

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Thursday, July 3, 2008
By TOM MORTON

BIG SANDY -- They pray, enjoy and discipline their kids, walk their dogs, eat together, do art, fall in and out of love, work day jobs, volunteer, disagree, agree to disagree, play, grow older and usually wiser, behave imperfectly, love the land, and believe America's vision as a home of the free and land of the brave.

Sort of like your family.

"Welcome home" to the Rainbow Family of Living Light, which is conducting its annual international Gathering of the Tribes this year at this site southeast of Pinedale in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

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July 2, 2008
Written by Alisa Harris

Women from the busted polygamist sect in Texas are turning their publicity to profit. They’ve started a website selling “quality, handmade, modest, affordable” clothing in their own Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) style. They report “a flood of interest.”

Their clothing choices —- pompadour hair, long dresses in pastel colors, capacious sleeves — attracted fascination earlier this year. Project Runway’s Tim Gunn demanded, “Who’s talking about their crimes against fashion?” The Associated Press called their clothes a fashion statement for modesty, conformity, unity and femininity.

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Be sure to see short video on linked page. ABN
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By David Edwards

They preach the “Prosperity Doctrine” - that God can make you healthy and wealthy - and they live what they preach.

Every year America’s best known TV evangelists bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors all over the world. But as BBC’s Jonathan Beale reports, some of the evangelists’ own lifestyles have begun to ring alarm bells and have prompted a Senate investigation into their activities.

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Jul 1, 2008

DENVER (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver will pay $5.5 million to settle 16 lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse by priests, both sides said on Tuesday.

"I've expressed an apology on behalf of myself, our clergy, and the whole Catholic community," Archbishop Charles Chaput said in a statement announcing the settlement.

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008
By Bae Ji-sook

Seoul City is under heavy stress because of the huge number of tents pitched by religious groups supporting candlelit protests against the resumption of U.S. beef imports.

Christian groups Tuesday installed outdoor tents at Seoul Plaza, in front of Seoul City Hall building.

Protestant groups installed three tents next to those of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice where priests are conducting a fast, causing a congestion of tents.

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