On Friday evening the setting sun glistened through the windows of the Center for Spiritual Living, casting shades of blues, reds and yellows onto a dozen people’s folded hands and closed eyes.
“Brazil. May peace prevail in Brazil,” a woman prayed.
Religious believers throughout the world face a rising tide of restrictions, according to a study released Thursday (Sept. 20). In the one-year period ending in mid-2010, 75 percent of the world’s population lived in a nation with high or very high restrictions on religious beliefs or practices, according to the study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew tracked religious freedoms denied by government and cultural authorities.
Today, International Day of Peace, is a day that I don’t believe is honored enough. There are people that will not support peace unless it comes on their terms. This I don’t understand.
In the chaos that was last week, I didn’t get a chance to write a religion wrap-up and I really wanted to give a shout-out to The Spovangelist. Editor-in-Chief Alayna Becker gave us an outstanding review on Sept. 10 and you should all go read it. The Spovangelist gets what we’re all about and we can’t wait to work with them further.
U.S. Sikhs are taking heart in a widely publicized Senate hearing on hate crimes and a pledge by the Justice Department to consider tracking hate crimes directed at their community. The hearing, on Wednesday (Sept. 19), featured Harpreet Singh Saini,18, whose mother was one of six Sikh worshippers killed Aug. 5 when a gunman opened fire in their Wisconsin temple.