Start your week with a smile! ~The SBNR Team
Today’s Meditation:
“Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.â€
– Blaise Pascal
A relaxation meditation of nature sounds.
Spirituality News & Posts:
1. Jason Boyett: Conversions: Fundamentalist Christian to Non-Religious Spirituality
“Christy transitioned from a fundamentalist Christian childhood to a socially active, progressive evangelical faith during the college years…and then to a current category she describes as “spiritual but not religious.” … I still find the Bible alternately fascinating, horrifying and wise, but I don’t think it’s inerrant, infallible or inspired any more than any other sacred text.”
2. Cathy Lynn Grossman: Japan’s Suffering Raises Eternal Question: Where’s God?
“After every natural and man-made catastrophe the same questions always arise, the theodicy questions. Why do the innocent suffer? Where is a just God in the good world believers say he created? You can Google “Where was God in fill-in-the-blank-horrible-event?” for a raft of answers although none can ever put the question to rest.”
3. The New York Times: Interfaith Initiative Formed for Colleges
“The White House on Thursday announced a new initiative to encourage college students of different religions to collaborate on yearlong community service projects, like building homes or tutoring children. President Obama will send a letter to thousands of college presidents urging them to undertake what he calls “The President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge†during the 2011-12 academic year.”
4. TIME: French Artist Gives the Virgin Mary a (Big-Time) Makeover
“Religious symbols are, next to fast-food logos, generally regarded as the most universal symbols we have — which means that poking fun at them opens artists up to a potential world of feedback and backlash. One such artist is sculptor Soasig Chamaillard, who recently got French blogs buzzing with an exhibition of her Virgin Mary sculptures — which come in astronaut, My Little Pony, and geisha renditions, among others.”
