Daily Archives: January 11, 2021

CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- What if God showed up at your garage sale to teach you about life and prove His existence? Author Dr. Marni Hill Foderaro explores this very scenario in her spiritual fiction, God Came to My Garage Sale, the story of how spiritually transformative encounters challenged an atheist womans long-held beliefs against the existence of God and life after death.

Janet finds her comfortable Midwestern suburban life uprooted by financial troubles and as a result, she must now hold a garage sale. Throughout the weekend, she experiences one divine encounter after another: she notices numerous signs that connect to major events in her own life and receives messages from loved ones whove passed on. These spiritual encounters lead Janet to wonder if God sent those signs to teach her that her beliefs about life and death are misguidedthat every human has the power to manifest their realities into a deeper understanding of God and that it is possible to traverse beyond our plane of human existence.

God Came to My Garage SaleBy Dr. Marni Hill Foderaro ISBN: 9781982234751 (softcover); 9781982234768 (electronic)Available at Balboa Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

PRAISE FOR GOD CAME TO MY GARAGE SALE:

About the authorDr. Marni Hill Foderaro is an award-winning educator and celebrated author. She earned her doctorate in education and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard after a very successful and rewarding 35-year career as a high school special education teacher with 12 years as a university adjunct professor. God Came to My Garage Sale is an award-winning finalist in the Spirituality: Inspirational category of the 2020 Best Book Awards sponsored by the American Book Fest, and Foderaro has been interviewed on Wellness Radio with Dr. Jeanette Gallagher, Motherella, and Passion Harvest, among others. Foderaro is a lover of animals, nature, music and world travel. Foderaro handles lifes challenges with love and compassion. She values honesty, integrity, equality and goodness and prays for peace on earth. She was born in the South, raised her children in the Midwest and has made the Caribbean her home. In addition to her speaking engagements (including gracing the bLU Talks stage in 2021 at Columbia University in New York) and various writing endeavors on embracing Spirituality after surviving Domestic Violence, Narcissistic Abuse and Parental Alienation, Foderaro is a contributing author to numerous anthology books, including: The Last Breath, The Evolution of Echo, The Ulti-MUTT Book for Dog Lovers and bLU Talks Presents (Business, Life and the Universe). To learn more, please visit her website, http://www.godcametomygaragesale.com.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 877-407-4847 today.

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Critically Acclaimed Spiritual Fiction Vividly Details an Atheist Woman's Transformative Encounters at an Ordinary Garage Sale, Challenging Her...

Mandisa Thomas was never made to go to church or believe in God. She learned about various gods through literature and history.

Daryl Bloodsaw grew up beneath the shadow of white supremacy in Monroe, Georgia, the site of the 1946 Georgia lynching of four black sharecroppers by an unmasked, white mob.

Thomas, founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, with 300 members in the Atlanta area and 5,000 Facebook subscribers nationwide, is an atheist and humanist activist based in Atlanta. Bloodsaw is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church West in Athens, home to about 600 members, and a Ph.D. candidate in the religion department at the University of Georgia. They represent two opposite views of faith in the Black community.

Black Americans are more likely to be Christian than any other racial or ethnic group, with 79% of Black Americans self-identifying as Christian, according to Pew Research Center. Only 18% of Black Americans are unaffiliated. Christianity has been pervasive in the Black community for centuries. But for some Black Americans, this isnt a positive.

Black Nonbelievers started in 2011 when Thomas saw the need for connection between Black atheists and agnostics in an overwhelmingly religious environment in Atlanta. For her, it was sometimes difficult to connect to the Black community because of the prevalent spirituality.

Thomas claims that Christianity has been a catalyst for white supremacy, which has fueled institutional oppression.

There are still so many people who arent connecting those dots, she said. We see more Christians speaking out on white supremacy, but ultimately, Christianity is white supremacy.

Historically, the church has been the apex of both condemning and perpetuating racism. Christianity in many cases was forced on enslaved people.The existence of traditionally Black churches is a result of segregated services. The largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., Southern Baptists, split during the Civil War over slavery. The Southern Baptist Convention has since issued an apology and denounced white supremacy.

Some of the strands of this can be found in post-civil war Christianity. Sometimes its called in scholarly circles, southern civil religion, Bloodsaw said. They call it southern civil religion because it was the Christianity that morphed to fit southern culture versus southern culture being reflective of Christianity.

Bloodsaw said that this unique brand of Christianity is defined by a sense of nationalism.

What happened after the Civil War is that the South refused to acknowledge defeat, he said. They believed it was only a matter of time until slavery was reinstated. Bloodsaw said southern white Christianity was shaped by this hurt.

In Thomas view, there hasnt been enough criticism of the God concept.

People are getting tired of hearing when someone dies at the hands of the police, Oh, we need to pray on it, said Thomas. Just sitting and praying on it has never worked.

Bloodsaw shares in Thomas criticism, particularly the white church.

I see white Christianity and Black Christianity very differently, he said. There are strands of white Christian understanding and practice that are not consistent with what is preached in the Black church.

It is possible to give the Christianity credit for white supremacy and the Civil Rights movement in the same breath. To Thomas, this is a hijacking of the progress of the Black community.

They want to have their cake and eat it too, she said.

But, to Bloodsaw, true Christianity pushes against white supremacy.

Those who associate the church with the institution of white supremacy, are looking through a Eurocentric lens, Bloodsaw said. I cant tell you Im going to church every Sunday and praying and kneeling down to a white Jesus.

Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the U.S. has erupted into racial justice protests and marches. Thomas said shes seen more criticism of the church, and Bloodsaw commented that many white pastors made statements.

I say they made statements, because you know, its only a statement, Bloodsaw said, adding that a statement without action is meaningless.

Bloodsaw does not shy away from addressing issues of racial reconciliation from the pulpit. Over the course of the summer he addressed reparations, the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and urged his congregants to vote their conscience.

Matthew Harrison, a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychology at UGA, observed the impact that these events had on both the white and Black church. He saw more interest in white people attending predominantly Black churches. On the other side, he saw white churches struggle with how open they would be to talking about race relations.

As a person of Christ, have you always illustrated true love for all your brothers and sisters regardless of what race they are? he said.

Bloodsaw sees the primary difference in responses to racial injustice today in the Black and white church as peacemaking versus peacekeeping.

Peacemakers dont keep the status quo, he said.

Both Bloodsaw and Thomas have different ideas of the path forward. Thomas believes letting go of faith could be a source of liberation.

We dont go around proselytizing that people should let it go, but ultimately, they should let it go, she said, laughing.

She believes the way forward for the church is very, very difficult. For her, ideally it would guide people to become more self-sufficient and community minded without requiring conformity.

Do I think the church is ready to truly do that? she asked. No. But its possible.

Bloodsaw affirms that the church has work to do, but his racial justice work is intricately connected to his faith.

The church has to rediscover its revolutionary spirit, he said.

Harrison, who self identifies as spiritual, sees God in how far the Black community has progressed.

I look at how far we were able to come and I see that as an indicator of what God is capable of, he said.

For Harrison, the answer is in recognizing that religion is up to the individual to some degree.

Religion is truly rooted out of faith in what you choose to believe for yourself, he said.

Whats good about religion, Harrison said, is that its up to interpretation.

Meg Hansen is a senior majoring in religion and journalism in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

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White Supremacy in the Church: Black Leaders Discuss the Way Forward - University of Georgia

A new study shows that, when it comes to religion, the Senate and House of Representatives are less than representative of America.

While the religious makeup of the 117th Congress is similar to the one that preceded it, the breakdown by faith reveals a Congress that is both markedly more religious there isnt a single self-described atheist among the elected officials and differently religious than the country it serves. Some faith groups are underrepresented while others have an outsize presence, Pew Research Center reported.

The study also illuminates religious differences between the Republican and Democratic parties, which can add to partisan tensions.

Here are the key takeaways from Pews study:

While the number of Christians in America has continued to decline in recent years, the number of Christians in Congress has increased since Pew began tracking the religious affiliation of elected officials in 2009.

Almost 90% of the 117th Congress is Christian, according to Pew, in comparison with 65% of the American public.

The upper and lower houses of Congress have a strong Protestant majority, with Catholics coming in a distant second. The House is 54.5% Protestant and 30.9% Catholic. The gap between the two Christian denominations is bigger in the Senate, where 59.2% of seats are held by Protestants and 24.5% are held by Catholics.

Both Protestants and Catholics are more heavily represented in Congress than they are in the general population, Pew reported. However, nondenominational Protestants, Baptists, and Pentecostals are all underrepresented.

As to why Congress is more religious than America, some clues, perhaps, lie in the incoming or reelected officials who were or remain pastors, including Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who sparked controversy on Sunday when he closed a congressional prayer with Amen and a-woman.

Speaking to the Deseret News earlier this year, Cleaver explained that he was called to run for political office as another means of serving the public.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) a freshman representative who is a nurse by training and who got her start in politics as an activist with the Black Lives Matter movement and Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) also previously led congregations.

If elected in the hotly contested Georgia Senate runoff, the Rev. Raphael Warnock will be another pastor joining the congressional ranks.

There is a much higher proportion of Jewish people in Congress than in the country as a whole. Although they make up only 2% of Americas population, Jews constitute 6.2% of the two legislative bodies.

When the House of Representatives and Senate are considered separately, Jewish overrepresentation in Congress becomes even more dramatic: With eight Senate seats, Jews comprise 8% of the upper house.

Similarly, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are represented in the Senate at a higher rate than they are in the House of Representatives. But, when the two houses are taken together, Latter-day Saints come in at 1.7% of Congress, which is roughly the same share of Americans who identify with the faith group.

Muslims, who comprise 1% of the country, are slightly underrepresented in Congress. The three Muslim representatives, who were all reelected after serving in the 116th Congress make up 0.6% of the 117th Congress.

While 26% of Americans identify as atheist, agnostic or none of the above, only one member of the 117th Congress describes herself as unaffiliated Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona.

Sinema doesnt consider herself an atheist, according to Pew.

A whopping 98.9% of Republicans in the House and Senate identify as Christian. While 77.8% of Congress Democrats are Christian, as well, that 21 percentage point difference points to the fact that the Democratic Party is more generally more diverse than the GOP.

All but two of the non-Christians who have a religious affiliation are Democrats. Among them are three Muslim representatives, two Hindus and a Buddhist.

Republican members of Congress are more likely to be Protestant (68.2%) than Catholic (25.7%). Democrats in Congress are more evenly split between the two denominations with 43% being Protestant and and 33.7% being Catholic.

Of the 33 Jewish elected officials in Congress, only two are Republican. The other 31 are Democrats, which reflects the Jewish peoples long-standing, historical affiliation with the Democratic Party.

The nine members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints sitting in the 117th Congress are all Republicans, Pew reported, highlighting the retirement of Democratic Senator Tom Udall from New Mexico.

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How many Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Mormons and Hindus are in Congress? - Deseret News

In our latest podcast, Jessica and I discussed the past week in politics and atheism.

We talked about:

Order Elle the Humanist and get a 10% discount with the promo code friendlyatheist!

Former PA Christian Nationalist lawmaker Rick Saccone lost his job after taking part in the Capitol Coup. (10:42)

A Catholic news outlet called out anti-democratic MAGA Catholics by name in an epic smackdown. (25:20)

There are a few surprises when it comes to the religious makeup of the new Congress. (29:30)

The Georgia Senate elections were a bright spot in an otherwise awful week. (35:00)

Meghan McCain finally realized parental leave is a good idea because she had a baby and for no other reason. (40:27)

Republicans flipped out after a House chaplain said A-woman when ending a prayer. (46:22)

This short documentary about Ark Encounter is more of a free ad. (48:51)

A Pakistani court banned used of the awful virginity test for sexual assault cases. (56:08)

The CEO of Whole Foods doesnt think you need affordable health care. (58:35)

Wed love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. If you have any suggestions for people we should chat with, please leave them in the comments, too.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play, stream all the episodes on SoundCloud or Stitcher, or just listen to the whole thing below. Our RSS feed is here. And if you like what youre hearing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon and leaving us a positive rating!

(Image via Shutterstock)

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Podcast Ep. 356: Jesus and the Capitol Coup | Hemant Mehta - Friendly Atheist - Patheos

JAMES 'JIM' G. RICE Iowa City

James "Jim" G. Rice, died at 74 years old, in his home on Jan. 2, 2021, by planned self-administered euthanasia. He was born on June 18, 1946, in Columbia Mo. Jim had a B.A. degree from Macalester College, a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. degree in Education from the University of Missouri. During his life, he worked in a variety of Jobs, but especially as a social worker, a librarian, and a teacher. During the bulk of his career, he was on the faculty of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of lowa. He published two books and numerous journal articles in his field. He retired in 1997 and did a variety of volunteer work in several agencies. Jim was a pacifist and voluntarily worked for two years as a government social worker during the Vietnam war, earning conscientious objection status. He was an atheist. He held a deep commitment to the belief that extremely fortunate people such as himself should atone for their random and largely unearned preferential place in the universe by living minimally and giving generously to the vast majority of people in the world who are undeservedly far less advantaged. He was proud of his achievements, but he knew that they were almost entirely attributable to the completely accidental good fortune of being a white male born here with fine parents. His pastimes were lifelong learning, reflecting, people watching, avid reading and taking long walks, especially in the woods. He was survived by a sister, Robin Rice; a son, Craig Stephen Rice; and a daughter, Laura Elaine Rice. Jim's body has been donated to The University of lowa Hospitals and Clinics. At Jim's request, there will be no memorial services. To share a thought, memory or condolence with Jim's family, please visit the funeral home website at http://www.gayandciha.com.

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James "Jim" G. Rice All Obituaries - The Gazette

I am one of many people who have found both wisdom and wit from the writings of C.S. Lewis. Clive Staples Lewis known always as Jack to his friends was born in Northern Ireland in 1898 and grew up in a house overflowing with books. He was sent to England to be educated where he left his familys formal Christianity to become a professing atheist. After a time on the frontline during the First World War, he began an academic career in English Language at Oxford University which was in effect to last all his life. Even when he was made a Professor at Cambridge, Lewis still returned to Oxford for weekends.

As a young man Lewis found himself increasingly unhappy with his atheism. With a vivid imagination enriched by extensive reading, he found himself longing for something more satisfying than anything atheism could offer. Conversations about God with many Christian friends, including J.R.R. Tolkien, gradually convinced him that religion could be true and, in 1929, Lewis became a reluctant believer in God, moving within months to a full acceptance of Christianity.

Without neglecting his increasingly acclaimed academic career, Lewis started defending and promoting his new-found faith. The result was a wide variety of books which were all brilliantly written, well-argued and thoroughly accessible. The Second World War brought him more attention when he became a popular radio speaker; his talks on the Christian faith were published as _Mere Christianity_, a book widely considered a spiritual classic. Lewis wrote many other books on subjects that he knew people found difficult: miracles, pain, prayer and other issues. He also wrote a range of fiction, all of which involved his

faith: _The Screwtape Letters_, a science fiction trilogy and the seven childrens books of _The Chronicles of Narnia_. Lewiss success came at a cost: his outspoken defence of the Christian faith was resented by his colleagues.

Lewiss social circle in Oxford was almost entirely masculine but, to everyones surprise (including his), in his late fifties he found himself in an unlikely romance with Joy Davidman, an American writer.

Their happy marriage lasted four years before her passing from cancer.

Lewis himself died in 1963 but his books continue to have an extraordinary influence within Christianity and beyond.

Many books have been written about Lewis as a theologian, a writer and a defender of Christianity. Here are some of my favourite C.S. Lewis quotes.

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves.

Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

From a devils point of view: The safest road to Hell is

the gradual one the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

As an evangelist, what I most appreciate about Lewis is the superb way in which he communicated Christian truth. Somehow, he was able to hold together a number of virtues.

First, Lewis communicated with _both depth and simplicity_. For a man who lived the cloistered life of an Oxford academic, Lewis was profoundly sensitive to the concerns and struggles of ordinary people.

At a time when theologians were discussing questions no one was asking in language no one could understand, Lewis spoke simply and directly to everybody. He had the gift of taking profound and complex theological ideas and, with memorable phrases and relevant illustrations, transforming them into truths that everybody could understand. With his extraordinary knowledge and profound intelligence Lewis could easily have talked down to his readers, yet he had the ability and the humility to put himself alongside them. Theres a lesson there.

Second, Lewis communicated to _both imagination and intellect_.

Lewiss personal road to faith had begun with his imagination. He never forgot that and even in his most reasoned works we find him using sparkling language and evocative imagery. That appeal to the imagination is even stronger in his fiction. Yet at the same time, Lewis knew that appeals to the emotions alone can be dishonest and unhelpful unless they are based on reason. Much of the power of Lewiss writing lies in this simultaneous appeal to head and heart: persuasive claims delivered in gripping prose. There is good sense here. A faith based only on emotions can fail in a time of testing, while one based only on reason can leave the heart barren. Another lesson.

Finally, Lewis communicated with _both focus and breadth_. Lewis was a bold defender of the Christian faith but he was selective in what he defended. So, he was outspoken on the fundamentals of the faith as the deity of Christ, the truth of the Gospels and certainty of heaven:

essentials that he famously termed Mere Christianity. Yet beyond such matters he refused to be drawn. There is no agreement on who originally said, In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity, but Lewis would have agreed with it. I find there is another lesson there.

Lewis speaks powerfully to those on the edge of faith. Yet he also speaks to us Christian believers who are in need of encouragement and direction. C.S. Lewis is a truly outstanding hero of the faith.

Revd Canon J.John

Director: http://www.canonjjohn.com

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Heroes of the Faith: C.S. Lewis - Keep the Faith

One of the more unpleasant aspects of contemporary life is the hyper-tribalisation of every disagreement into a binary choice . On the progressive side of the aisle, they even have a word for it: allyship. If you agree with us on subjects A, B and C, then youd better sign up wholeheartedly for cause D. If you dont, then youre either a traitor or a dupe. Deviation from this rule will not be tolerated.

So when it comes to the recent controversy over a woefully unfunny Waterford Whispers News sketch broadcast by RT on New Years Eve, criticism of the decision to broadcast the skit inevitably came almost exclusively from religious leaders and conservative commentators. And the (much quieter) defence inevitably derived from the secular left. In this instance, the conservatives are (mostly) right and the liberals are (mostly) wrong. So should I send my membership card back or just burn it at home?

If you missed it, the sketch, which took the form of a fake bulletin presented by former newsreader Aengus Mac Grianna, featured God being arrested. In another shocking revelation this year, Mac Grianna told viewers, God became the latest figure to be implicated in ongoing sexual harassment scandals. The five-billion-year-old stood accused of forcing himself on a young middle-eastern migrant and allegedly impregnating her against her will. He was sentenced to two years in prison with the last 24 months suspended.

Watched live, as part of a mainstream flagship entertainment programme in the context of a national lockdown which would have boosted audience numbers well above the norm, the item was crude, jarring and clearly offensive to many viewers. Buried somewhere within the bad writing was a hamfisted attempt to make a point about the Irish court systems treatment of sexual assault by making a rape joke about Christian belief. And a Happy New Year to you too.

In a hanging-out-to-dry process which will be familiar to freelance writers and entertainers everywhere, it was left to poor Mac Grianna to make the most heartfelt apology, even though hes unlikely to have had script approval. Truly I am deeply sorry for the offence, distress and hurt caused, he wrote on Twitter. It was wrong for me. It was wrong of me.

So far, so familiar. A more modern twist to the tale centredon the fact that the offending item was still available on the RT Player, giving rise to inevitable demands for its removal (although, given the shortcomings of the player, that wasprobably the best place to keep it safely hidden).

But when Atheist Ireland, whove never seen a bandwagon they didnt fancy jumping on, correctly pointed out that nobody has the right not to be offended, they also managed to miss the point in a particularly 21st century sort of a way by conflating censorship and editorial decision-making.

Yes, of course RT has the right to broadcast whatever it wants within the limits of the law of the land. It is also, like other media organisations, constrained by its own ethical and editorial guidelines. And it has an internal decision-making team of producers, editors and managers whose job it is to make sure those guidelines are observed, that quality thresholds are met and whatever material is being produced is appropriate for the timeslot and context in which it is being broadcast.

All of this complex machinery is designed, in theory at least, to ensure that media companies may aspire to the publishing equivalent of Tom Waitss definition of a gentleman as someone who can play the accordion but doesnt. Good editorial judgment is often about recognising when to put the bloody accordion down before its too late.

That process clearly failed here, a fact RT acknowledged on Thursday of this week, when it published the findings of its own Editorial Board that the sketch had failed to comply with its own standards as well as with a number of legislative and regulatory requirements. The processes which led to the piece being broadcast will be reviewed, it has been removed from the Player and an apology will be published. To be fair, it's a clear and comprehensive acknowledgment of a serious lapse in standards. But its also legitimate for critics to ask whether such a failure of judgment reflects a lack of respect for that part of the population in this case, presumably, practising Christians most likely to be offended.

There is, of course, a certain wearisome pattern to these things. Everyone has their part to play the TDs railing against godless media types, the calls for unspecified but serious penalties against RT, the outraged letters to the editor so that it feels properly like the relevant Reeling in the Years clip from the 1970. But its four decades now since Ireland banned The Life of Brian, the bishops crozier has long lost its power and, to this atheists eye, the decision to broadcast the sketch looks less like a fearless commitment to satire and more like a gross failure of imagination and empathy.

Note: the print version of this article went to press beforeRT published the findings of its Editorial Board and announced the actions it wouldtake as a result of those findings. Thisdigital version has been amended to reflect those developments.

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RTs Waterford Whispers News sketch was woefully unfunny, crude and offensive - The Irish Times