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HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT RELIGION?
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, gave Americans of various religions (including none) a quiz of 32 questions on religious knowledge. Catholics performed worst averaging 14.7 correct answers, better were Protestants at 16, Mormons at 20.3, and Jews at 20.5. Atheists and agnostics were best at 20.9.
Draw your own conclusions.
(If you want to take the test click here)
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RELIGION AND POLITICS
To win the Republican nomination, the prevailing wisdom suggests that candidates prostrate themselves before the altar of evangelicalism. But much as surveys show that religion is declining in importance in American life, surveys also show a growing dissatisfaction with the admixture of religion and politics.
A majority, 54%, say that the church should stay out of politics, up from 43% in 1996. And 38% of respondents, including 26% of Republicans say that our political leaders are overdoing it with their protestations of faith and prayer.
However, as long as 2 of the first 3 primaries are in Iowa and South Carolina we are going to continue to witness holier-than-thou contests, certainly as long as the very religious get out and vote.
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MAGGIE GALLAGHER’S GUIDELINES ON BOYCOTTS – STARBUCKS DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD
Maggie Gallagher is co-founder of the ‘National Organization for Marriage’ a group committed to denying gays the right to marriage. So she is understandably upset with corporations that support gay marriage. She takes issue with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, declaring that gay marriage is “core to the Starbucks brand”. So what is her advice to her fellow travelers? She advises that: “I generally don’t support boycotts, especially not the kind gay marriage advocates have launched…”. But she goes on to say: “We are asking customers who oppose gay marriage…. to switch to another brand of coffee”. So your side should boycott, but the other side should just sit there and take it.
Gallagher also highlights a stockholder who asks how it can possibly be in the shareholders interest for Starbucks to take the position it does on gay marriage. The answer is in the numbers. Over the last 3 years the stock market is up 68%, Starbucks is up 369%. Tolerance is a good for business. Just ask the ‘Susan B. Komen Fund’ – after it cut off ’Planned Parenthood’ its revenue declined while Planned Parenthood’s went up.
The island that Gallagher and her fellow bigots find themselves on is getting smaller every day.
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BLACK AND WHITE IN SANFORD FLORIDA
By now the killing of the black adolescent Trayvon Martin by half Hispanic George Zimmerman is national news. The role of Florida’s “Stand your ground” law in the death of the unarmed, skittle and ice tea carrying, 17 year-old is being debated. Whether Zimmerman’s choice to follow Martin in his car, despite being told not to, or getting out of it to confront him negates a claim of self defense is up in the air.
But ask yourself this – what you think the reaction to the shooting would have been if the boy shot had been white and the shooter black?
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