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Millions of Women Throng Kerala Festival Attendance at the festival has grown year after year By John Mary Trivandrum, Kerala India's southern state of Kerala may have hosted the largest gathering of women ever seen on the planet. Clad in traditional Kerala saris and bearing offerings of food, more than two million women - perhaps more - thronged the state capital Trivandrum on Sunday. The women braved searing heat to offer a special meal at the Attukal temple to Hindu goddess Bhagavathy - one incarnation of the potent goddesses Kali and Saraswati. Women howled shrilly, as is the custom at...

Hello! My name is Father Jay Kythe. I am the pastor of the Church of St. Pius V in Cannon Falls and St. Joseph’s in Miesville. I wanted to tell you a little about myself. I was born in 1969 in New Orleans to parents from India. They arrived two years before I was born, desiring a better life for their family. My father came to become a professor of mathematics at the University of New Orleans, and my mother is a stay-at-home mom. I have one older brother, who is now married and lives near Los Angeles. They wanted...

Way, way back in Econ 101 you might remember hearing about a guy named Adam Smith. He described what nowadays would be called an "emergent event of a complex system" that he named "the invisible hand of the free market." Simply put, it means that the economic market is too complex for conscious control, but is self-correcting (the invisible hand) if everyone pursues their own interests on a level playing field (equal rules). After Smith, some historical stuff happened for awhile, and then a writer appeared named Ayn Rand. People read her books, and immediately started arguing whether she is...

In the current conflict in Afghanistan, India does not have a single soldier operating under NATO command. India is not part of the coalition the United States and its allies have put together to aid the Afghan government’s efforts to defeat the Taliban. In fact, India has turned down proposals within India and in the U.S. that it should participate in peacekeeping efforts in Iraq or Afghanistan. And yet, suicide bombers have struck the Indian Embassy in Kabul once again. In 2008, nearly 58 people died, including three Indians. On Friday, the toll was smaller, though the device used was...

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each...

Those who argue that all religions are essentially the same reveal the fact that they know little about these very different belief systems. The worldview of Christianity is, for example, radically different from the belief structure of Buddhism (some forms of which may actually claim to resist the very idea of beliefs). These differences in belief systems are apparent in Lisa Miller's recent article for Newsweek. As she explains, "A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more...

Perspectives of an Indian Convert July 31, 1993 Bobby Jindal Editors’ note: On October 20 36-year-old Republican Bobby Jindal was elected governor of Louisiana. In the early 1990s, Mr. Jindal wrote two articles for America recounting his conversion from the Hindu faith of his parents to Catholicism. The following excerpt is taken from "Has Ecumenism Made Evangelism Irrelevant?" which was published on July 31, 1993: I was born in the United States immediately after my parents arrived here from India. I was raised in a strong Hindu culture, attended weekly pujas, or ceremonial rites, and read the Vedic scriptures. Though...

Festivities in a new temple dedicated to the Indian monkey god Hanuman  in Frisco, Texas, earlier this month remind us that a minority of religions exists within the shores of the United States that is relatively silent. The faith that is the subject here, of course, is Hinduism, which in that North Texas town, at least, is enjoying an "expanding population," according to the Dallas Morning News. Despite the fact that Indians have been quietly enriching the American melting pot for decades to centuries, few non-Indians know much about the colorful religion of Hinduism. In actuality, the term "Hinduism" represents...

A new document entitled “How can we answer questions about creation and origins?” recommends teaching both creationism and atheism as part of Religious Education in state schools. There are some benefits to this controversial new document, but there are also some concerns. The UK government has released a controversial new document on the teaching of Religious Education (RE) in state schools.[1] The document is entitled “How can we answer questions about creation and origins?” If schools follow these guidelines, it will be the first time that both creationism and atheism have been specifically recommended for teaching in any subject in...

In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''. The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers. Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the...

In 1988, 16-year-old Piyush Jindal totaled his father's new car a few weeks before graduating from Baton Rouge High School. Piyush -- who then and now prefers the nickname "Bobby" he adopted from "The Brady Brunch" sitcom -- had to assess more than fender damage with his parents. "Which God do you have to thank for your safety?" Mr. Jindal, now governor of Louisiana, remembers his mother, Raj, a practicing Hindu, inquiring after he escaped from the wreck. For the child of Punjabi immigrants who had announced his Christian beliefs the previous summer, the question was difficult. Twenty years later,...

Five armed men burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel. They punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend "Jassa", 22-year-old Jasbir Singh, witnesses said. When he woke, both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder. A week later, the village of Balla, just a couple of hours...

Address during Meeting with Representatives of Other Religions     My dear friends, I am pleased to have this occasion to meet with you today. I thank Bishop Sklba for his words of welcome, and I cordially greet all those in attendance representing various religions in the United States of America. Several of you kindly accepted the invitation to compose the reflections contained in today's program. For your thoughtful words on how each of your traditions bears witness to peace, I am particularly grateful. Thank you all. This country has a long history of cooperation between different religions in many spheres...

By Bryan Roth, staff writer Brighton-Pittsford Post Thu Jan 17, 2008, 01:05 PM EST Brighton, N.Y. - To Pittsford resident Judy Braiman, remembering the Holocaust has always been an important part of her Jewish heritage. Despite the atrocities related with it, she believes it’s something nobody — Jewish or not — should ever forget. “Why should you give that up?” asked Braiman, who had family relatives who were killed in Germany during the Holcaust. “If we don’t remember the terrible things that happen, it will happen again. Everybody should remember terrible things to learn by it.” So, when she saw...

PATNA , India (UPI) -- A judge in India has put out a call for two Hindu gods to "appear before the court personally" to help find an answer to a property dispute. Judge Sunil Kumar Singh has taken out advertisements in newspapers ordering the gods Ram and Hanuman to testify before the court, the BBC reported Friday. The 20-year-old dispute revolves around 1.4 acres of land that host two temples, one dedicated to each of the two gods referred to by Singh. Temple priest Manmohan Pathak claims to own the land that houses the holy buildings, but locals claim...

Vedic Recitations in a Christian Church on Thanksgiving http://newsblaze.com/story/20071101085222tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html http://tinyurl.com/2kmxfe Nov 1, 2007 Judyth Piazza, News Blaze Recitations from ancient Sanskrit scriptures will reverberate in a Christian church in Nevada on the occasion of coming Thanksgiving eve service. Rajan Zed, the prominent Hindu chaplain, will read from Rig-Veda (oldest existing scripture of the world dated from around 1,500 BCE), Upanishads (Hindu scriptures containing mystical teachings), and Bhagavad-Gita (famous philosophical and spiritual poem) in Trinity Episcopal Church in Reno (Nevada) during Twenty-second Annual Thanksgiving Service of Northwestern Nevada to be held on November 21 evening. Despite conflicts around the world, various...

Quebec Mandates Relativistic Ethical and Religious Education For All Students in Province Program includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires children to question their own religious upbringing By John-Henry Westen QUEBEC CITY, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As of the beginning of the 2008 school year, all students in the province of Quebec whether in public school, private school or even homeschooled will be mandated to take a program on "Ethics and Religious Culture" which runs from grade one till the end of high school.  The program is completely relativistic and includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires...

Nepal airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god Tue 4 Sep 2007, 13:37 GMT   KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said on Tuesday.Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft on Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said. "The snag in the plane...

Hinduism pertains to Hindus but the word Hindu itself is actually a Persian word coined by Cyrus the great in the 6th century B.C. to describe people who lived beyond the river Indus which was the eastern boundary of the ancient Persian empire. The Persians had a phonetic problem with the letter ‘S’ hence, Sindhu became Hindu just as Rigveda’s Soma came from Zend Avesta’s Hoama. Such fascinating phonetic affinities! Even the word Shudra in Hinduism’s caste-system came from the Persian word Hatoksha. Originally, there were only three castes but the camp followers collected by Persians on their travels were...

America, America, God shed His grace on thee. Why? It wasn't because we were His favorites. Nor because we were the richest. But there was something about America that wasn't found in other Western nations. Blessed more than Mexico, Canada or any nation in South America that came looking for gold, as you can see at the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, America came looking for God. Why has God blessed us so richly? Get a glimpse into Western Hemisphere history from a 1789 snapshot: * In 1789, our first president, George Washington, was sworn in. He immediately kissed his Bible...