Bringing God into the workplace creates calm, not controversy for Signature Healthcare

December 26, 2013 by Veronica Combs Read more: http://medcitynews.com

ESSENCE OF CHRISTMAS by Mike Ghouse

Extract:

Should Christmas be an exclusive Christian event?
This Muslims' answer is no. We cannot limit Jesus to be exclusively owned by any group of people, nor can anyone monopolize his message. Jesus and his message belong to the whole of humanity.

continue reading : Festivals of the World: the Essence of Christmas

A Native American Christmas + Religious and Cultural news headlines of the day

• A Native American Christmas  The Topeka Capital-Journal 



	Circle of Wonder: A Native American Christmas Story N. Scott Momaday
	Native American Night Before Christmas Gary Robinson
	American Indian Christmas Jana Mashonee
	Native American Flute for Christmas (For Massage, New Age, Spa & Relaxation) Various Artists
	5.75" Native American Style Beaded Dreamcatcher Christmas Ornament with Gray Feathers Kurt Adler
	Pueblo Christmas Robert Mirabal
	Christmas Moccasins Ray Buckley




• Contemporary Pagans celebrate very familiar Yule traditions

• Twitter sheikhs of Saudi Arabia

• Should Muslims celebrate Christmas? Your leader has the answer.. link
• ABOUT DUCK DYNASTY | HOW ABOUT A REALITY SHOW ON PLURALISM? by  Mike Ghouse

• Drawn to the virtues, but not the vows

• Megan Quinn: Faith groups hope to help ease holiday stress 

• Expert on aging says boomers will return to church 
• 3 Muslim restaurant workers awarded $100,000 in discrimination case Toronto Star
• Maps of Seven Deadly Sins in America
• Religion and Human Rights: An Interview with Father Nabil Haddad
• A compendium of antidotes to Mandela blandiloquence:  Peter Hitchens thinks there is a Mandela cult
• Saudi Interfaith Forum: 'The world has never looked more malleable', Jewish Chronicle
• Man gets 28-year sentence in Ohio in $100M charity scam

• GOOD HUMOR IS GOOD

• DOES A WHITE CHRISTMAS MEAN SANTA AND JESUS HAVE TO BE WHITE? 

• Challenging Authority in Cyberspace: Evaluating Al Jazeera Arabic Writers, M Lo, A Frkovich - Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2013 -- info courtesy: Gary R. Bunt

• New and noted - A.L. Stanton, 'Islamic Emoticons', in Internet and Emotions, Tova Benski, Eran Fisher (eds.), Routledge, 2013 --  Citizen Khan [Regions 2 & 4] Adil Ray / Citizen Khan [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2.4 Import - United Kingdom ] Adil Ray -- info courtesy: Gary R. Bunt

Faith-based food issues in the news headlines

Here is some information about many faiths, and includes Buddhist, Jain, Hindu (Vegetarian), Muslim (Halal), Jewish (Kosher), food (meals, diet, snacks) etc.

Meals for followers of certain religions (info courtesy: aeroflot.com)

Lenten meals
including vegetables, fruits, nuts, porridges, mushrooms, excluding meat, fish and dairy products
Islamic meals
without pork, gelatin and alcohol
Hindu meals
without beef, veal and pork, prepared very spicy
Kosher meals meals
prepared according to strict Jewish rules

Vegetarian meals

Vegetarian meals
purely vegetarian meals, excluding meat, fish, milk and eggs
Asia/Vegetarian meals
excluding meat and fish, limited use of dairy products

General news (included Vegetarian):

• Brookvale Union addresses criticism with new design invitation -- FOOD Magazine - Australia
• Temple cuisine: Food for the body and soul The Malay Mail Online
• City Buddha's Larry Collins talks great global flavors in local dining  Plain Dealer  
• Annual Katina Ceremony at Heathrow Athula Dassana International ... Sri Express  
• Clergy put together event in support of food pantries Boston.com 
• Want to become thin? start cutting down on stress -- Free Press Journal -- This the mantra given by Namita Jain, fitness expert to several Bollywood personalities.  
• Christmas Morning Recipe For Raspberry And Cream Cheese ... -- With 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
• WATCH: Right Wing Swoons Over Antigay Colo. Baker Ready to Go to Jail for Jesus
• Hindu activist: Christian, Jewish and Buddhist leaders condemn Asheville Brewing's Shiva beer -- In a remarkable interfaith gesture, Christian-Buddhist-Jewish leaders have backed Hindus upset over Indian Pale Ale beer brewed in Asheville (North Carolina) carrying the name-image of Hindu deity Lord Shiva.
• ‘Stop the Brahmins-first practice at Madae Snana' By Chetan R, Bangalore Mirror Bureau -- The stage is set for yet another tug-of-war between rationalists and the religious in the state. The former have knocked on chief minister Siddaramaiah's doors, seeking a ban on the annual 3-day Madae Snana ritual in December. At the ritual, Brahmins are offered food on plantain leaves. Devotees, generally of the lower castes, roll over the left-over food as fulfillment of a prayer-vow, at the Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Dakshina Kannada district. 
 

Muslim (Halal) 

• UAE: 125 exhibitors for Sharjah halal expo  Ahlul Bayt News Agency - abna.ir-Dec 11, 2013 
• McDonald's UAE Reaffirms Commitment to Food Safety & Halal ...  
• New Norms to Set the Standards for Global Halal Trade Zawya (registration)-Dec 11, 2013 
• Halal Reindeer Meat to Bring Christmas Tradition to Muslim Houses ... The Nordic Page-Dec 10, 2013 
• Halal Certification Bodies Convention, A Platfrom For M'sia To ... Bernama-  
• Halal-nomics — Need for standardisation, integration  The Malaysian Reserve 
• Aussie Halal burger chain plans to conquer the world MuslimVillage.com-Dec 7, 2013 
• Australian meat: “As Halal as it gets” Saudi Gazette-Dec 6, 2013

Kosher (Jewish)

•  At Jewish conferences, it's food glorious food. Jewish Telegraphic Agency  
• The cuisine connection The Hindu  -- Essie Sassoon remembers her early Sabbaths as a child in Kochi's JewTown. The women of Mattancherry's Jewish community spent the day before Sabbath... 
• Filmmaker of When Jews Were Funny gets comfort from diner food ... Toronto Star
• January 7th Webinar Addresses Kosher Foods and HACCP Food Safety Compliance  
• Celebrating Jewish Food in the Sunshine State  
• Jewish group accused of raising children in squalor amassed $6M OurWindsor.ca 
• Richmond Station's Carl Heinrich Gets Grilled On Menu Crafting ...  -- Kosher salt.
• Judge Orders FL Corrections Dept. to Offer Kosher Diet

On the same shelf:

• My sweet Lord: Top ten religious treats

Pope Francis is Time's Person of the Year + Religious and Cultural news headlines of the day

• Pope Francis is Time's Person of the Year 
• Pope Francis Credits Nun With Saving His Life  
• Satanic Temple Monument in Okla. May Include 'Interactive Display' for Kids 
• Mormon church explains defunct ban on blacks in priesthood 
• Leap From Faith: Warren Jeffs’ Nephews Helping Young Women Leave Polygamist Group
• Obama says Mandela 'moved a nation toward justice' 
• Police: Archbishop Desmond Tutu's home robbed same day he attended a memorial honouring Nelson Mandela. 
• Photo gallery: Mandela memorial honours 'a giant of history' 
• Special Report: World says goodbye to Nelson Mandela … 
• UK Woman Wins Right to Marry in Scientology Chapel 
• Women’s Voices Go Unheard Within Walls of Ahmedabad Ghetto nytimes.com
• BJP comes out of the closet, continues to persecute minorities #Sec377 Truth Of Gujarat

While speaking to Telegraph, Party Chief Rajnath Singh said:
We will state that we support Section 377 because we believe that homosexuality is an unnatural act and cannot be supported.

• Indian top court says gay sex is an offence

Supreme Court upholds law criminalising gay sex, setting aside lower court decision legalising homosexuality.Extract: 

Gay activists reacted with dismay and anger at the apex court verdict. Anand Grover, the counsel for Naz Foundation which was the original petitioner in the high court, was quoted as saying they were disappointed with the verdict. Stating it was not correct in law, he said they would appeal for a review of the judgment. 

Popular historian Ramachandra Guha tweeted that the verdict was a step backward towards "barbarism and medievalism".

On the same shelf:

• Rome: Sex & Freedom, by Peter Brown, Review in NYTimes. From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity (Revealing Antiquity) Kyle Harper, Harvard University Press, 304 pp., $33.95

Nelson Mandela tributes, Plus News of the Week

• Shaped by Methodists, Mandela paid tribute to the role of religion, The Christian Century-by Fredrick Nzwili
•  Nelson Mandela's Religions: Nobel Of Dialogue Eurasia Review
• Mike Ghouse: A Muslim's Prayer for Nelson Mandela
• Cape Town mourns Madiba at interfaith ceremony Mail & Guardian Online
• Thousands Attend Interfaith Service To Remember Mandela New Tang Dynasty Television
• Nelson Mandela’s Speech to 1999 Parliament Still Soars (FULL TEXT) Worldwide Faith News
• COMMENT : The Jinnah-Mandela connection — Yasser Latif Hamdani
• Nelson Mandela, Madiba, Tata - what's in a name?Telegraph.co.uk-Dec 6, 2013  
• Interfaith Alliance Mourns the Passing of Nelson Mandela

• Saudis hail champion of freedom

• CAIR: U.S. Muslim Group Calls Nelson Mandela's Death a Loss for All Humanity

• The passing of a global icon - Africa - Al Jazeera English

• John, Jani, Janardhan in Canadian Job Market - what's in a name?

• Embarrassed by Spirituality, White Hindu, Patheos (blog)
• Golden Rule Rapper Challenges Bullying, Dru Vocals performs the Golden Rule Rap (Video) 
• Religious Democracy and Civilizational Politics: 
• Comparing Political Islam and Political Catholicism by Michael Driessen
• Some Donations in Anti-Gay Tipping Scandal Refunded Via Paypal By LIZ FIELDS | Good Morning America
• Exhibit mixes First Nations, Western spirituality, Cowichan Valley Citizen
• Self Improvement: Ways to follow Spirituality,  tele-management.ca
• Professors' study links reproductive morals to religiosity, The Daily Pennsylvanian
• Remember patience and humility, New Times SLO
• Rick Scott Celebrates Festivus with the Rest of Us Coral Springs Talk
• Colorado judge: 'Baker must serve gay couple' despite Christian faith, Examiner.com-by Bruce Baker
• Solution of sectarian problems, Frontier Post
• 'Make Sunni Islam official religion' New Straits Times
• Wash. Times Misleads On ACLU Lawsuit Against United States ... Media Matters for America (blog)
• 'Unequal India' by Harsh Mander - YouTube
• VIEWPOINT: War on Christmas? Oh, please! Circleville Herald
• Marois used to support diversity in schools, CTV News
• Public school board scraps interfaith advisory committee, Hamilton Spectator 
• Rabbi, Imam Tackle Muslim-Jewish Relations at Upcoming Talk in ... The Forum Newsgroup
• Interfaith hits the Jackpot! MyMotherLode.com
• What Is the Future of Priestly Celibacy? NYTimes

Religious Tolerance in World Religions

Religious Tolerance in World Religions  by Jacob Neusner and  Bruce Chilton -- West Conshohocken, Pa. : Templeton Foundation Press, 2008. ISBN: 9781599471365

Book Description

Today, and historically, religions often seem to be intolerant, narrow-minded, and zealous. But the record is not so one-sided. In Religious Tolerance in World Religions, numerous scholars offer perspectives on the "what" and "why" traditions of tolerance in world religions, beginning with the pre-Christian West, Greco-Roman paganism, and ancient Israelite Monotheism and moving into modern religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. By tolerance the authors mean "the capacity to live with religious difference, and by toleration, the theory that permits a majority religion to accommodate the presence of a minority religion."
The volume is introduced with a summary of a recent survey that sought to identify the capacity of religions to tolerate one another in theory and in practice. Eleven religious communities in seven nations were polled on questions that ranged from equality of religious practitioners to consequences of disobedience. The essays frame the provocative analysis of how a religious system in its political statement produces categories of tolerance that can be explained in that system’s logical context. Past and present beliefs, practices, and definitions of social order are examined in terms of how they support tolerance for other religious groups as a matter of public policy.
Religious Tolerance in World Religions focuses attention on the attitude "that the ’infidel’ or non-believer may be accorded an honorable position within the social order defined by Islam or Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism, and so on." It is a timely reference for colleges and universities and for makers of public policy.

Book reviews are in:

• Motley, Sarah. "Religious Tolerance In World Religions By Jacob Neusner & Bruce Chilton (Eds)." Ecumenical Review 61.4 (2009): 434-436.
• Erlewine, R. (2011), Religious Tolerance in World Religions – Edited by Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton. Religious Studies Review, 37: 10
• Motley, Sarah. "Jacob Neusner & Bruce Chilton (eds), Religious Tolerance in World Religions." The Ecumenical Review 61.4 (2009): 434+.

On the same shelf:

• Monotheism and Tolerance: Recovering a Religion of Reason (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion)  Robert Erlewine
• East West - Sword and Word  Anwar a. Abdullah
• Secular Hope: What the Religious Right Really Wants and Why Liberal Democrats Should Support Them  Andrea L. Parliament
• Secular Hope: What the Religious Right Really Wants and Why Liberal Democrats Should Support Them  Andrea L. Parliament 
• Exclusiveness and Tolerance: Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times (Scripta Judaica, 3)  Jacob Katz

Steps in Dealing With Grief, United Church of God

   Steps in Dealing With Grief   : We all have to cope with the loss caused by death. How can we deal with our grief and help others who are grieving?                                                 

• Stages of grief: denial
• Stages of grief: anger
• Stages of grief: bargaining
• Stages of grief: depression
• Stages of grief: acceptance

This, too, shall pass away

Time is a great healer. This is especially true in the case of the loss of a loved one.

In a speech before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in 1859, Abraham Lincoln commented: “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate at all times and situations. They presented him with the words, ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses. How chastening in the hour of pride. How consoling in the depths of affliction.” [speech also quoted in Lincoln on America's Future]
Continue reading  Steps in Dealing With Grief

On the same shelf:

• Finding Angels In Boulders: An Interfaith Discussion On Dying And Death   Bruce Gordon Epperly
• Lessons from the Dying   Rodney Smith
• Two of a Kind   V'victoria
• Two of a Kind   M'margaret
• Surprised by Grief: A Journey into Hope   Janine Fair
• Gateway to Life: Death and Bereavement - Help and Hope Along the Journey
  Anthony M. Smith
• A Gift for the Bereaved Parent: A Remedy for Grief from the Islamic Perspective Using Quotes from the Quran and Hadith
• Grief & Depression From an Islamic Perspective   DR ABDULLAH AL-KHATER
• Discourses on Aging and Dying   Suhita Chopra Chatterjee
• Dying, Death and Bereavement in a British Hindu Community (New Religious Identities in the Western World)   S Firth
• Grief on the Ganges   Daphne Delaine
• Healing Mantras: Using Sound Affirmations for Personal Power, Creativity, and Healing   Thomas Ashley-Farrand
• In Amma's Healing Room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in South India   Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
• No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life   Thich Nhat Hanh
• Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition   Andrew Holecek
• The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace: Core Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism (Joy of Living & Dying in Peace)   Dalai Lama
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller
  Sogyal Rinpoche

LIBRARY AS SANCTUARY - A Resource List •

"THE LIBRARY AS SANCTUARY: NPR film critic Bob Mondello takes a look at the role libraries have played in popular culture in this report for All Things Considered. “In songs and books and movies and art,” Mondello remarks, “libraries are sanctuaries, places of bustling quiet, storehouses of ideas that fuel the imagination.” Any library essay that includes quotes from August Wilson, Germaine Greer, and Keith Richards (yes, that Keith Richards) is worth listening to!" source: Libraries' Leading Roles: On Stage, On Screen And In Song, by BOB MONDELLO

• Sanctuary through Technology, By Joseph Janes American Libraries Column for December 2002
• Library as Sanctuary - Veronica's Blog - Pleasant Hill, CA
• Sylvia Leigh Lambert. The Library as Sanctuary for Inner-City Youth: Protections, Implications, Cohesions, Tensions, Recommendations, and Inspirations.
• ATN-reading-lists - Library as Sanctuary
• HBPL Director's Blog: Library as Sanctuary
• Library as Sanctuary, by jwinkelstein November 9, 2007
• Library serves as sanctuary for Sunday service - Orleans Hub
• Here there be sanctuary: The public library as refuge and retreat
• School library no sanctuary | Humber Et Cetera -- Laptops, iPods and cellphones are ruining the serenity, by Kyle Rindenella 
• Crime and incivilities in libraries: Situational crime prevention strategies for thwarting biblio-bandits and problem patrons

Thanksgiving, Plus : Review of the Week

Thanksgiving

• Smackdown!: Thanksgiving show stuffed with Tag Team action, CANOE
• Black Friday: Why Canada should not copy the U.S. MetroNews Canada
• NFL Picks: The Detroit Lions deserve a happy Thanksgivin, National Post
• Here's your definitive Thanksgiving weekend marathon guide, Entertainment Weekly
• Dozens of US retailers opened on Thanksgiving through Black Friday CTV News
• A Thanksgiving that forgets nobody, Sentinel and Enterprise
• Buddhism and Sikhism - a Thanksgiving Day Reflection by Prof. Amritjit Singh:

This is part of what I wrote this morning to a friend – some of it may interest you.  Happy Thanksgiving,  Amrit 

__________________________________________________________




Happy Thanksgiving to you and to so many of God's creatures (humans not excluded) that you share your love with.  [Take my reference to God with a grain of salt. I am an agnostic by choice – I don't say "agnostic by faith or conviction" becos that would be a contradiction.] 




BTW, I am one of those agnostics, those Lefties if you like, who as a non-believer, recognizes that billions of humans around the world get their moral sustenance from their distinct faiths and that when the Marxists dismiss all religions as specimens of false consciousness and refuse to engage with faith communities, they make a big mistake.  The Lefties also allow the fanatics within each faith tradition to go unchallenged.  All of us then face the consequences.  




Am reading an interesting book on Buddhism – Pankaj Mishra's An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World.  He argues that Buddhism nudges us in the direction of meditation and mindfulness in order to resolve our individual personal struggles with human suffering (indeed the focus of Buddha's thought and meditations) and has little to say on issues of social justice in larger circles of society and politics.  I have been thinking at the same time of Sikhism, the faith in which I nominally grew up – my Dad was also a skeptic of sorts although not an agnostic.  Sikhism, in contrast, is a project in social engineering – an unending struggle for social justice and for First Amendment rights in their largest connotations.  Meditation at the personal, individual level is not forgotten in Sikhism – but living fully and actively with an awareness of issues that affect family and community is at the heart of the Sikh way of life.  And in some of those ways, I am a Sikh all right.  




That is the burden of my song on Thanksgiving Day (also Hanukah today! - a rare coincidence).  Sorry to insist on making you my captive audience for a few minutes!!

Miscellany:

•  US Sikhs launch smartphone app to report abuse at airports NDTV
• Gap's Ad With Sikh Model Waris Ahluwalia Defaced With Racist Graffiti, Drawing Incredible Response From Company... huffingtonpost.com
• LETTER: Full-time spiritual care practitioner needed at ARHCC
• I Can Only Hope God Has Mercy on Sex-Offending Clergy, by  Diane Weber Bederman, huffingtonpost.ca
• Meditation an effective way to improve performance South China Morning Post
• “Philosophy-to-Go!”: Meditation on a Green Bean Casserole
• Can Mindfulness Meditation Really Reduce Pain and Suffering by 90%
• I meditate on food to curb my rages, says Heston AFL.com.au
• Conservationists connect with faith community The Tribune
• Outreach groups reconsidering approach to dual-faith families, Heritage Florida Jewish News

Judge invokes Bible, Quran on ‘sacred’ life

TNN | Nov 26, 2013, 07.25 AM ISTIn his 204-page order, the judge leaned heavily on holy books and edicts to disapprove of the parents' actions. "They have extirpated their own daughterwho had hardly seen 14 summers of her life and the servant... in the breach of the commandment 'thou shall not kill' and injunction of Holy Quran'take not life which God has made sacred'," he observed. 
... "Dharmo rakshati rakshitaha (If we protect dharma, dharma will protect us). If we protect the law, the law will protect us. Both the accused have flouted the penal law of the land and therefore are liable to be convicted for murder, destruction of evidence and having common intention to commit the crime," the judge added.  Continue reading

Faithwise/Culturewise Review of the Week

• Saturday Thought: Interfaith Week By Plymouth Herald  
• Jewish-Muslim Outreach In Vienna, Courtesy Of New York Interfaith Activists Rabbi Marc  Schneier And Imam Shamsi Ali Huffington Post
• Holy Gosh: We Interviewed/ Tried To Seduce @RobDelaney @ 10 Thought Catalog Posts You Should Have Read This Week
• 10 Popular Myths About Bartenders @ 10 Thought Catalog Posts You Should Have Read This Week
• 27 Bizarre Things That All Women Have Done At Least Once @ 10 Thought Catalog Posts You Should Have Read This Week   
• Thought for the Week: Leadership Includes Morality - Leadership ...
• Thought for the week - A good work ethic is a must in home business ...
• Faith Core Series - Week 6 - Transformation of Thought - YouTube 
• Parashat Haazinu – Liberal Judaism Thought for the Week |
• FW: 'Thought for the Week' - Swami Tejomayananda.
• Thought of the Week Archive, Office of the Chaplain
• David Hartman's Legacy To Jewish Life, Religious Thought 
• Belief: Leadership Thought of the Week | Veterinary Team Brief 
• Resource of the Week: Black Thought and Culture | OHIO University ...  
• Islamic Thought of the Week: Islam and Kids (Part 2) - YouTube 
• Week of thought-provoking, entertaining shows... Cinema - The Hindu 
• Jew Tube Thought For the Week, Passover - Matzah - YouTube  
• A week late, but still thought I'd... - Confessions of a Pagan Soccer ...  
• Opera Singer Explains Tattoo Thought to Be Swastika - NYTimes.com 
• Interfaith Thanksgiving service planned
• Interfaith creche exhibits to be held this Christmas season   
• What Is God Doing in Philippines? Huffington Post (blog)-by Mike Ghouse-