Religion News Service UNITED STATES, June 18, 2011 (RNS): Southern Baptists on Wednesday (June 14) called hell an “eternal, conscious punishment” for those who do not accept Jesus, rebutting a controversial book from Michigan pastor Rob Bell that questions traditional views of hell. Citing Bell’s book “Love Wins,” the resolution urges Southern Baptists “to proclaim faithfully the depth and gravity…
Source GUADELOUPE, June 2, 2011 (The Guardian of Trinidad): People of Indian Origin living on the island of Guadeloupe, which is part of the Republic of France, celebrated the arrival of Indian indentured workers to that country last weekend. Vayalar Ravi, the Indian minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and minister of Civil Aviation, opened a memorial dedicated to the Indian…
Source INDIA, June 2, 2011 (The Hindu): “There is actually no difference between a temple and a house in terms of vaasthu,” begins R. Selvanathan, Chief Executive Sthapati, Sri Vaidyanatha Sthapati Associates and Panchami Associates. The architect of many well-known temples in India and abroad, Selvanathan is the nephew of veteran V. Ganapathy Sthapati, with whom he worked for over…
Source When culture is flooding out of the temple, our actions are productive and our minds are creative, our speech is pure, our hearts rejoice and we become good citizens. Religion makes us good citizens, because we are peaceful inside and want peace in our land. Peace comes first from the individual. It is unrealistic to expect peace from our…
Source UNITED STATES, June 7, 2011 (usnews): For college students who choose to limit their diet–whether vegetarian, gluten free, Kosher, or vegan–finding a wide selection of food that both meets their needs and tastes good can be difficult, given the typically meager options in dining halls that often include little more than self-serve cereal stations and salad bars. For many,…
Source SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, June 9, 2011 (parramattasun): Holroyd council approved a request last week from the directors of the Sydney Murugan Temple on the Great Western Highway to rezone the residential religious property for commercial purposes. Disaffected members believe this will turn the temple precinct into a ghetto. They are concerned that temple managers may have forgotten the sacred purpose…
Source INDIA, May 20, 2011 (India Today): In March, Poonam, a 13-year-old Hindu girl kidnapped last year, was forced to convert in the Lyari area of Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Her parents were stunned by the influence the Islamic scholars had over their daughter. Poonam is now Mariam. No one protested against Poonam’s conversion because almost every Hindu family…
Source SOUTH AFRICA, June 4, 2011 (timeslive.co.za): Eleven couples, some of whom have been living together for as long as 17 years, tied the knot last Sunday at the Shree Veeraboga Emperumal Temple in Tongaat, north of Durban. The idea was initiated by Swami Saradaprabhananda of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, who found that there were many couples living…
Source INDIA, June 3, 2011: (by Chelsea Cooley, greenanswers.com) Those in the Chipko Movement are commonly referred to as “tree-huggers.” “Chipko” means literally “to embrace,” and these activists, a group made up mostly of village women, practice Gandhi’s method of non-violent resistance, satyagraha, by standing between trees and loggers, often literally embracing the trees. Chipko began in northern India’s Uttar…
Press Release THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS, June 16, 2011: The Woodlands area Hindus will open their newest temple, the only one on the north side of the city, on an 8-acre lot along tree-lined Woodlands Parkway this weekend. The 10,000-square-foot building has an unadorned stone exterior — to adhere to building codes – but will be home to the tradition’s colorful,…