By Ashley RogersSpecial to The Courier-JournalI have always been fond of the St. Francis's quote, "Preach the Gospel to all the world. If necessary, use words." I recently watched the movie "Jesus Camp," and as a Christian believer myself, was absolutely appalled.

By Peter Smithpsmith@courier-journal.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view itThe Courier-JournalChildren in a state-funded Baptist social-services program claimed in dozens of exit interviews that they were forced into Christian or specifically Baptist practices or were discouraged from practicing their own religion, according to court records.The interviews came to light as part of a lawsuit filed by a fired employee and four other taxpayers who are challenging state funding for Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children.Representatives of the state and Baptist Homes say that the agency's policy is not to proselytize and that violations, if any, are rare.They also say that in annual reviews, the agency's programs often scored higher than the state average on respecting children's cultural and religious backgrounds and that the complaints are a handful, compared with the estimated 1,500 children the agency serves each year.Several of the complaints came from children who said they were Catholics, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses or atheists."They tried to more (or) less force me to become a Christian," said a child who had stayed at the Baptist Youth Ranch in Elizabethtown.

The Central Kerala, particularly, the Kottayam district is the highest Christian populated [8, 95,000 or 45.83%] area and is the Vatican of India. It is the bastion of Christian vested interests also.A sizable number of priests and nuns works all over India are haling from this particular area.

Fundamentalist Indian Christian Leader attacks genuine Hindu Protest in Chicago USNewyork: Indian Fundamentalist Christian leader Sajan George, National President of Global Council of Indian Christians GCIC http://www.gcic.us/aboutus.htm in his recent outbursts has warned the Indian Hindus in USA of dire consequence reminiscent of the first crusaders who ravaged non-Christian people in Jerusalem, if they go ahead with their proposed peaceful protest march against the visit of the Radical Andhra Pradesh Christian Chief Minister Samuel Rajashekara to the TANA meeting in Chicago, USA.As the world wide Hindu community is already aware of the atrocities committed by the Samuel Rajashekara and his cronies on the silent Hindus majority in his home state of Andhra Pradesh from the past 3 years.

KOCHI: It seems divinity is beating a hasty retreat at the Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor.For, tumbling out of its cupboards are allegations of sexual harassment, missing persons, mysterious deaths, financial irregularities and illegally running a hospital!The Special Investigation team headed by Vinson M Paul, Inspector-General of Police, after preliminary inquiry into the allegations against the centre, on Monday registered a criminal case at Koratty police station against 10 persons, including Fr George Panackal, director of the centre, and also filed an FIR before the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Chalakkudy.While Fr George Panackal is implicated as the first accused, the other accused are procurator Fr Mathew Thadathil, homoeo doctor Thankamma, Sr Teresa and six employees.The case is registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 342 (wrongful confinement) 324 voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 328 (causing hurt by poison etc with intent to commit an offence, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.The other offences alleged include the conducting of a psychiatric institution without licence, administration of psychiatric drugs on several persons (15 persons are still at the centre).The FIR also said the institution collected money by conducting religious functions and mentally hurt those who are opposed to the functioning of the institution.During 1996-2006, as many as 974 premature deaths occurred at the centre, and bodies were cremated without providing information to the police.The documents were allegedly forged to make it appear that the deaths were natural.Several persons are locked in cells.

EPW carries an interesting article-cum-report on the plight of Dalit Christians (Downloadable PDF). It appears to be well-researched and replete with historical, contemporary, and statistical data. Prakash Louis, the author, argues that Dalit Christians have been betrayed on all counts and from everybody including the Church.I argue that his premise is flawed for a most fundamental reason: you cannot be a Dalit and a Christian at the same time.

This letter was written by three sixth grade students -- two of my friends and myself -- as a sixth-grade history class assignment, while learning about the Buddha and his teachings. The assignment was to send a letter to someone who you think is not obeying the Buddha's teachings of the Four Noble Truths, and the Twelve Step Path.

The Andhra Pradesh government Friday decided to promulgate an ordinance prohibiting propagation of other religions in certain notified places of worship belonging to any particular religion. The move is mainly aimed at banning propagation of any religion other than Hinduism at the Lord Venkateshwara temple on Tirumala Hills near TirupatiTirupati Temple - January 2006 - © 2006 Simon GeorgetHyderabad, April 27 (IANS) -- Taking a strong note of evangelical activities around the famous hill shrine, the state cabinet decided to promulgate the ordinance.In an attempt to balance the move, the government brought certain places of worship of other religions under the ordinance.Anybody found violating the provisions of the ordinance will be sentenced to three years' imprisonment or imposed a fine of Rs.5,000 or both.The decision to promulgate the ordinance was taken at the state cabinet, which met here a day after 17 new ministers were inducted by Chief Minister Y.S.

We are cheering! Steve Jobs has decided to bring us closer to the greener apple that Mac users all over the world have been asking for.

In a one-two punch against Kimberly-Clark, the Kleercut campaign made important progress last week at KC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). A significant portion of KC shareholders voted in favor of a proposal submitted by Domini Social Investments. This proposal, which addresses many of the Kleercut campaign's concerns, asks the company to: “…prepare a report…assessing the feasibility of phasing out our company’s use of non-FSC certified fiber within 10 years” with an emphasis on increasing the use of recycled fiber and avoiding fiber sourced from certification schemes other than FSC. The resolution earned the support of 7.4% of voting shares – or a whopping $2 billion worth of KC stock. By voting in favor of the resolution, KC shareholders have sent a strong message to KC executives that the company’s environmentally irresponsible behavior will not be tolerated.