News from the Nest
FIDA Expresses Concern About Activities Of Witch Doctors (Ghana)
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 9:46pmThe International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has expressed concern about the emerging witchcraft centres in some parts of the Upper East Region. The Federation, cited a recent incident involving one Mrs Comfort Aseka, a 57- year- old woman, who was accused of witchcraft by her family, who sent her to a witch doctor at Zaare in the Bolgatanga Municipality, where she was stripped nak
Religious Freedom In America Includes Everyone
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 9:46pmOne of the fundamental freedoms we enjoy as citizens is to worship in whatever manner we want to and wherever we want to. There are virtually no restrictions on this freedom, even when a particular exercise of a belief might be illegal for the general public. Within the scope of religious expression, even the use of drugs can be legitimate. For example, the use of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactu
Rise In African Children Acccused Of Witchcraft
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 9:46pmAn increasing number of children are being accused of witchcraft in parts of Africa, the UN children's agency says. Orphans, street children, albinos and the disabled are most at risk. A new Unicef report warns that children accused of being witches - some as young as eight - have been been burned, beaten and even killed as punishment. The belief that a child could be a witch is a relativ
Relic Of Harpocrates, The God Of Secrecy And Silence, Found At Silchester
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 9:19pmA battered and corroded thumb-sized piece of bronze has turned out to be a unique find, the earliest representation of an Egyptian deity from any site in Britain and appropriately, after almost 2,000 years hidden in the ground, it is Harpocrates, the god of secrecy and silence. The little figure was found at Silchester, site of an abandoned Roman city in Hampshire, in last summer's excavation
Pagan Music Festival Coming To Unity
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 9:19pmChristians have gospel and praise music festivals. Jews gather for battles of klezmer bands. Maines pagan community now has a celebration devoted to its own religious music. The Eastern Maine Pagan Pride Association will sponsor the states first pagan music festival Saturday at Unity Colleges Center for the Performing Arts. The event, which will include local pagan vendors, was orga
Cameroon: Six Women Jailed For Witchcraft
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 9:19pmSix elderly women all from the Bangwa ethnic group of Lebialem Division in the Southwest Region of Cameroon but settled in the municipality of Muyuka, Fako Division, have been jailed for two to six years, for killing through witchcraft. The women had been accused of killing their relatives and other inhabitants of Makanga neighbourhood in Muyuka, Southwest Region. Sitting at the Muyuka Magis
Vatican: Ordination Of Women Is A Crime Against The Faith
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmThe ordination of women as Catholic priests is a "crime against the faith," the Vatican has said while it issued a raft of new disciplinary rules. Cases of "attempted ordination of women" will now be handled by the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a Vatican statement said on Thursday. The new rules put attempts at the ordination of women amo
Argentina Gives Gay Couples Right To Marry
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmArgentina today became the first Latin American country to legalise gay marriage. Supporters of same-sex unions, led by President Cristina Fernandez, got over opposition from the Roman Catholic church and evangelical groups which led a 60,000-strong protest outside the country's parliament in Buenos Aires on the eve of the vote. Senators debated the bill in a 14-hour session that went on lat
Planned Tenn. Mosque Draws Protesters, Backers
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmA demonstration against a planned mosque and Islamic community center in Murfreesboro saw protesters and counter protesters, each claiming to be true defenders of the Constitution amid competing chants of USA! USA! Yesterdays march to the Rutherford County courthouse brought out about 400 people opposed to a planned 52,000-square-foot compound with athletic facilities, meeting rooms and a ho
Rosicrucian Conference
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmIf any one slogan describes the Rosicrucian Research Library, it would be "Hidden in plain sight." The library occupies an 80-year-old building at the back of Rosicrucian Park and provides the most comprehensive collection of esoteric readings anywhere in San Jose. Anyone from the public is allowed to hang outit isn't restricted to Rosicruciansbut everything in Rosicrucian Park seems to exist
Prayers For The Planet Energize This Years Pagan Spirit Gathering
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmEight hundred hands, reaching up. Four hundred people, focused on one illuminated orb. One tall, slim man moving among us in the twilight, carrying the representation of Gaia, our Mother Earth. That was the focus of the main religious service, or ritual, at the 30th anniversary Pagan Spirit Gathering in the Missouri Ozarks. In my perception, it was the greenest Pagan festival I have attended.
Penny Leggs Hampshire Folklore Book
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmWhen author Penny Legg was asked to write a book about Hampshire folklore her first thought was, what is folklore? And she soon discovered that it was a far bigger subject than shed imagined. Penny says, Folklore is all about the people, the places, the names, the music that are part of Hampshire, its history and life here today. The book is full of traditional customs and practices.
Vatican Issues Revised Sex Abuse Guidelines
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 10:29pmThe Vatican issued a revised set of in-house rules Thursday to respond to clerical sex abuse, targeting priests who molest the mentally disabled as well as children and priests who use child pornography, but making few substantive changes to existing practice. The new rules make no mention of the need for bishops to report clerical sex abuse to police, provide no canonical sanctions for bishops
Santeria Healer Charged In Ritual Burning Accident
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 3:29pmA spiritual healer who allegedly dropped a candle into an alcohol bath where a woman was undergoing a Santeria ritual has been charged with negligent homicide in her death. Police consider 28-year-old Stephanie Rodriguez Pizarro's death in July 2009 in a San Juan housing project to be an accident, and say she sought the treatment to help with marital and financial troubles. She died of second-d
Atheists Claim Lakeland Prayers Discriminate Against Non-Christians
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 3:29pmIf you want to pray before a Lakeland city commission meeting, the Atheists of Florida prefer you do it silently. The organization has even filed a federal lawsuit to prevent vocal prayer at the start of each of the commission's meeting. Ellen Beth Wachs is the president of the Lakeland chapter of the Atheists of Florida. She's also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city of Lak
People Who Choose The Land Despite The Odds
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 3:29pmThe award winning novelist John Sandford was a journalist before he started writing fiction. Won a Pulitzer Prize for a feature series called, Life on the Land, which he posts on his Web site. The five-part series tells about a farm family in southern Minnesota during an entire growing season in 1985, a particularly difficult time for small farms. I read it in one sitting. A week after readin
Museum In Search For Superstitions
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 3:29pmFrom fending off witches by planting trees to the perception of the curlew as the Judas Bird, a museum has launched a search for Scotlands rural superstitions and beliefs. The National Museum of Rural Life at Kittochside, East Kilbride, is to create a new log of country customs highlighting those that are still alive. In some parts of Scotland, for example, farmers and crofters often left p
Darn, I Knew I Was Missing Something
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 3:29pmSchools often block access to parts of the internet, which is fine, if only to focus students' attention a little bit. It is not fine when they discriminate, like Indianapolis public schools, which block on religious views other than the Abrahamic religions. Their rules, though, mention something I did not know. Sites that promote and provide information on religions such as Wicca, Witchcraft o
Restraining Order Sought For Nev. Horse Roundup
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 6:55pmA new lawsuit and request for a temporary restraining order have been filed to stop a wild horse roundup in northeast Nevada, where seven horses died of dehydration after being herded by a helicopter. The case was filed Friday in federal court in Reno. A temporary restraining order request followed Monday afternoon.
Appeals Court Strikes Down Indecency Rule
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 6:55pmA United States appeals court tossed out the indecency policy of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. An appeals panel said the F.C.C. policy was unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here. The ruling was immediately characterized as a victory for big broadcaster
