Topic: Religion

Fasting: A rewarding challenge

By Rev. Charles Moreland | June 1, 2008 |

Fasting is a ritual practice common to the major religions of the world. In the Christian faith, we hear more about the custom during the holy season of Lent, when we practice self-sacrifice to regain a renewed spiritual perspective for daily living.

fasting is a sacrifice where a person voluntarily abstains from consuming food or drinking liquids. I grew up in an evangelical church environment that suggested and encouraged regular fasting as a means of spiritual growth.

As a teenager in St. Louis, I accepted the challenge of abstaining from one meal a week, a challenge for a 16-year-old boy with a typical appetite. For me, I purposely opted to abstain from the Friday school lunch. To heighten my appreciation for this weekly event, I retreated to a quiet place in the high school for an hour of meditation and reflection. This discipline became a spiritual growth hormone for me. This sacrifice aided my efforts to a good teen and to say no to the temptations of being a junior in high school. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Spirituality | No Comments

The influence of faith on public policy; where do the candidates stand?

By Rev. Charles Moreland | May 25, 2008 |

In this year with its presidential race, we continually seek information on the views of the candidates. We search for understanding of their positions.

The Iraq War, the environment, education, and taxes. It is also appropriate to look at their views on religion, especially at how it will affect their decisions is elected because religious views do influence political decisions. I still believe that a religious viewpoint is one reason behind America’s invasion of Iraq. A personal understanding of eschotology contributed to the quagmire and the deaths of thousands of our soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens.

Religion is an item discussed by the current crop of candidates on television, radio and in their speeches. We know where they go to church, how they interpret the Bible, what they pray for and other spiritual matters. It’s a major item to manipulate a portion of our religious society called the evangelicals (whom I think should be identified as fundamentalists). «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics, Spirituality | No Comments

An esteemed pastor’s politics; holding to separation of church and state

By Rev. Charles Moreland | April 27, 2008 |

The Reverend Joel Osteen is highly admired by his colleagues in the ministry. This popular preacher/pastor is a best-selling author as well as the spiritual minister to hundreds upon hundreds of people. In addition to the phenomenal growth and development of this spiritual organization, Pastor Osteen earns respect for his political views. He quietly lives his principles on politics and the church and clergy, and it is policy worth emulating by all churches. His policy on religion and politics is a dignified example.

Though he is concerned about out society, he doesn’t use the pulpit to endorse candidates for political office. Of Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and Senator McCain visited his congregation, they would be introduced but not given the opportunity to speak, and it would the same for any other dignitary or social leader. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News, Opinion, Politics, Spirituality | No Comments

Barack Obama’s blueprint for change

By Terry McMoore | March 14, 2008 |

Barack Obama has me fired up. If you are still not a Obama believer, consider the following. To date Obama has won 30 of 44 primary races and caucuses has raised the most money of any candidate in the history of the primaries. The ability to out raise his competition alone is a great feat considering most of the 1.5 million individual donations have come from ordinary everyday citizens and since the Obama campaign has a strict rule of not accepting money from big business or corporations.

The power of this campaign however rest in his ability to use technology to attract younger and otherwise disinterested voters. When you visit his website, you can’t help but to notice how it grabs you and invites you to explore the various options. How it allows you to become directly involved in the campaign. Everything about this campaign empowers you and helps you feel like “Yes we can” make a change! People are catching Obama fever and his opponents can’t seem to find any way to stop it. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics | No Comments

In the Name of God: Immersion in Eastern culture, Islam and suicide bombings

By Christine Anne Piesyk | February 18, 2008 |

In the Name of God came across my desk by request from the author, Paula Jolin, who asked me to take a look at it. I did, in part because the setting and the emotion behind the story is something I wanted to know more about; fiction mirrors life, and I hoped this story would provide that for a difficult subject: suicide bombers.

In the Name of God delves into an Eastern world and a culture relatively alien to me, yet it is a culture with probing fingers touching and testing and tasting the culture of a freedom that is uniquely Western.

In this book, 17-year-old Nadia lives in Damascus, Syria, locked into a straight and narrow path of traditional Islam. She has enough exposure to Western ideas to tempt her and rouse her curiosity, and is also bitterly aware of the politics, economy and culture that envelops her own country and neighboring Iraq. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Opinion | No Comments

Iowa court ruling: No tax dollars to be spent on prison rehab rooted in religion

By Rev. Charles Moreland | January 27, 2008 |

The State of Iowa captured the attention of the nation recently with the vigorous political campaigns within their borders.

Day after exhausting day this mid-western state was daily on TV and in the news. It overshadowed and neglected a recent but equally newsworthy event, yet this eclipsed event deserves an equally careful hearing and analysis.

The issue: a judgment by the 8th Circuit Court.

Americans United [for Separation of Church and State] won a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Iowa Corrections Department’s support for Charles Colson’s InnerChange, a prison program that trains inmates in evangelical Christianity.

“Faith-based” initiatives, which propose turning the provision of social services over to religious groups, threaten individual rights and could lead to taxpayer support of religious ministries. In those cases where religious groups want to take tax aid to provide relief, they should first agree to run secular programs and drop all forms of religiously based discrimination from their hiring policies.” – Americans United for Separation of Church and State

This Iowa court rendered a profound, sharp and ringing endorsement on on religion and the use of tax-dollars to support and subsidize the “Inner Change Freedom Initiative” [ICFI] in Iowa prisons. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion | 1 Comment »

Insecure God wants love or he’ll kill us

By Debbie Boen | September 10, 2007 |

“I hope that we don’t forget spirituality just to spite the religious fanaticism that resides in our country. “

The world has been pummeled by natural disasters and many regions have been devastated by terrorism and war in the past few years, a pattern that only seems to escalate with each passing week. It is frightening, this power of the earth, the horror of war and the inhumanity.

A recent letter to the editor published locally attributed everything from the regional drought in Tennessee to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the earthquakes and tsunamis in the region of Sumatra to the wrath of a God seeking our attention.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Spirituality | 5 Comments

Should the Bible be taught in schools?

By David W. Shelton | July 31, 2007 |

This is a question that has polarized the secular and religious community since the early 1960’s. A casual glance at most Christian websites that offer political commentary will reveal a very popular assumption, that our national moral decline is a direct result of the Bible being removed from schools. Therefore, they say, the Bible should once again be taught in public schools.

Some youth pastors have encouraged their youth groups to take their Bibles to schools and to even do reports on Bible stories. I won’t comment on prayer in school, since there’s serious prayer every time a hard test is scheduled for the day.

According to School Board director Mike Harris, there are currently no Bible classes in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School systems. As we prepare to start another school year, it might be interesting to entertain this question. Should elective Bible classes be considered as an option for our schools? «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Politics, Spirituality | 5 Comments