Seven Muslim factory workers fired, 14 resign over prayer break policy at Wisconsin plant

 

Seven Muslim factory workers were fired and 14 others resigned over a Wisconsin company’s new prayer guidelines, executives said Wednesday.

Hollywood: Actor Samuel L. Jackson says he 'really wanted' San Bernardino shooter to be white

Samuel L. Jackson

Outspoken Actor Samuel L. Jackson admits he had "really hoped" the shooter in the San Bernardino attack was white because he didn't want Muslim-Americans to get any more backlash than they already have.

The "Hateful Eight" star told the Hollywood Reporter he empathizes with Muslim-Americans, whom he believes are becoming the "new young black men" in the United States due to the wave of scrutiny they are receiving.

‘Orange is the New Black’ by Laura Prepon, opens up about Scientology and how the religion keeps her calm

"Orange Is the New Black" star Laura Prepon says she is able to handle the pressures of showbiz without breaking a sweat because she is a "thetan" -- a spiritual being attached to her own body that may be an outer space alien.

 

Which is to say, Prepon is big into Scientology.

So much so that she was on the cover of the recent issue of "Celebrity Magazine," a magazine made by and for members of America's most controversial religion.

PILGRIMS 2015 :Kano Commencement on Hajj Screening for July 6

The Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board will commence the screening of its pilgrims for the 2015 Hajj on Monday, July 6.

 

The Public Relations Officer of the board, Alhaji Nuhu Badamasi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Saturday, that the screening would be conducted at the headquarters of the 44 local government areas of the state.

My Dress Sense Isn't Affected By My Religion--Nollywood Actress, Moyinoluwa Olutayo

Nollywood act, Moyinoluwa Olutayo, is the actress whose face is seen in many soap operas, which ardent followers of the Nigerian film industry love to see on their silver screens.

Natural Birth Control

Fertility awareness or Natural Family Planning is a method of birth control that does not use any hormone drugs or devices. It combines the calendar/rhythm method, the basal body temperature method, and the cervical mucus method.

These natural methods of contraception are mostly encouraged by Christians/Churches e.g the Catholic church which considers other methods of birth control as unchristian. Certain groups also tend to assume that sexual activity is restricted to married couples only and that the sole purpose of sex is for procreation. This of course is not the case in reality.

I won't sign discriminatory 'religious freedom’ bill unless changes are made- Gov. Asa Hutchinson

Another Republican governor is backing off his support for a controversial “religious freedom” bill that could legalize discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that he would not sign his state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” unless it was changed so it wouldn’t permit discrimination against the gay community.

“My responsibility is to speak out for my own convictions and do what I can to make sure this bill reflects the values of the people of Arkansas, protects those of religious conscience, but also minimizes the chances of discrimination in the workplace and in the public environment,” Hutchinson said.

“It’s been my intention all along … that the bill be crafted in a way that mirrors the federal legislation,” he added. “The bill that is on my desk does not precisely mirror the federal law.”

“Therefore, I ask that changes be made in the legislation,” Hutchinson said, requesting that his state’s general assembly either recall the current bill and put forth an amended replacement or propose additional legislation that would include the necessary changes.

Hutchinson was referring to a 1993 federal law, signed by President Bill Clinton, that aimed “to maximize the religious freedom of individuals, provided there's no compelling government interest against it,” New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who sponsored the bill then, explained this week.

The federal bill was written in a response to a Supreme Court ruling denying unemployment benefits to two Native Americans fired for testing positive for a hallucinogenic drug they used in religious ceremonies and included absolutely no language that could be used to justify discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in Arkansas and Indiana, on the other hand, broadly bar statutes that "substantially burden" a person's ability to follow their religious beliefs, leading critics to say that they would effectively legalize the refusal of services by business to gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

Hutchinson attributed the growing controversy over the bills to a national “split on how to balance the diversity of our culture with the convictions of our closely held beliefs.”

The freshman governor, who took office four months ago, said there was a “generational gap” among supporters and detractors of the law and that his own son had asked him to veto the bill.

Previously, he had repeatedly vowed to sign it when it reached his desk.

Hutchinson’s backtracking comes just a day after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence himself reversed course on his state’s law, and as the CEO of Walmart — the world’s largest retailer and one of Arkansas’ biggest employers — implored Hutchinson to veto the bill.

“Every day in our stores, we see firsthand the benefits diversity and inclusion have on our associates, customers and communities we serve,” Doug McMillan, the president and CEO of Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart said in a statement issued late Tuesday. “It all starts with our core basic belief of respect for the individual. Today’s passage of HB1228 threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold.”

Pence faced even more resistance to his own bill, which he signed into law last week, than Hutchinson did, and on Tuesday, ordered the bill rewritten so it wouldn’t permit discrimination.

His request, however, came only after a growing number of powerful companies, including Apple, Angie’s List and the NCAA, called on him to clarify or repeal the law.

In addition, lawmakers across the country blasted Pence’s defense of the legislation, with several Democratic governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy, signing bans on official state business travel to Indiana.

Pope Francis faces Greatest Challenge Yet in Asia

Exactly 17 months after his election in Rome as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis is shifting gear and turning his attention to Asia.

This week, he begins the first of three - and perhaps four - long-distance trips to encourage his flock in the continent that presents the Catholic Church with its greatest missionary challenge in the 21st century. 

Although only 3% of the world's Catholics live in the planet's most populous continent, more have been baptised in Asia this year than in Europe, according to Vatican statistics.

Pope Francis is spending five days in South Korea, where the number of Catholics has grown at a giddy rate over the past four decades. 

Their number has risen from 2% to an astonishing 11% of the population in a country where Buddhism is still strong and most young people profess no religion at all. Korean Catholics tend to be well educated and form a significant part of their country's political elite. 

 

Pope Francis will beatify and pay homage to the memory of a group of Korean martyrs who died for their faith in the 18th Century. 

The Pope is due to visit South Korea's Catholic martyrs at Solmoe Shrine in Dangjin

What distinguishes Catholicism in Korea from other Asian cultures is that Koreans did not wait for foreign missionaries to arrive before they began to convert. 

They formed their own church after learning of the foreign faith brought to China at the beginning of the 17th Century by the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci. 

He introduced Western cartography and mathematics to China and his gilded statue still stands proudly today in the compound of the Catholic cathedral in Beijing.

Pope Francis is the first ever Jesuit to have been elected to the papacy, and he has always regretted that health reasons prevented him fulfilling his ambition to travel to Asia as a missionary after completing his priestly training in Argentina. 

After South Korea, he plans to visit Sri Lanka in January, and then to fly on to the Philippines, which has a Catholic majority, due to it once having been a Spanish colony. And I understand that a further trip to Japan is on the cards, even though only a minuscule 0.5% of Japanese are members of his church.

In Seoul, the Pope will be meeting several thousand young Catholics from 23 different Asian countries gathered for a Catholic Youth festival. 

The numbers will be far, far fewer than the millions who attended his triumphal visit to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in July 2013, his first foreign trip. But the significance of the South Korean event could transcend that mega-meeting. 

An invitation to North Korean Catholics (if indeed any exist today) to send a delegation to Seoul was rebuffed by Pyongyang, but members of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church are expected to turn up in force.

Pope Francis took over his high office in the same week that the Chinese leader Xi Jinping took over as president in Beijing. 

The Pope sent Mr Xi a personal message of congratulations and in return received a polite reply, despite the (for the Vatican) worrisome gap in official relations between the Catholic Church and China since the Communist takeover in 1950.

On his way to Seoul, Pope Francis will fly over the airspace of Russia and China - and he is expected to send a courtesy telegram to both the Russian and the Chinese leaderships while over their territory, as has long been the custom during papal charter flights. 

Pope John Paul visited South Korea twice during the 1980s, but each time his plane avoided Chinese air space.

No plans exist for a papal visit to the demilitarised zone which still separates the two Koreas 61 years after the stalemated end of the Korea War. 

But just as during his visit to the Holy Land earlier this year, Pope Francis will make a powerful appeal for peace and reconciliation at his final mass in Seoul Cathedral before he returns to Rome.