EVEN though the Home Ministry recently approved the publication permit for the Herald – the Catholic Weekly, only publication in English, Tamil, and Chinese is allowed. Publication of the weekly’s Malay language version has been held back, pending a court decision on the use of the word “Allah”. While my Christian friends applaud the decision […]
Christianity
Reinterpreting Christmas
Advent is represented by lighting four candles, before a fifth is lit on Christmas day (© Traute Klasser / sxc.hu) CHRISTMAS is celebration. Shopping. Decorations. Parties. Carols. But very few of us are aware that in the Christian calendar there are four Sundays that build up to the climax of Christmas day. These Sundays are […]
Wishing for compassion
WHAT would you do if you were granted one wish to change the world? Many of us associate wishes with the imaginary world of fairy tales or fiction. For religious scholar Karen Armstrong, her wish stems from a relentless imagination for a less violent and more compassionate world. With the help of Technology, Entertainment, Design […]
Prejudice in religious finery
IN his Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell writes that he once told Johnson, “I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I had heard a woman preach.” To which Johnson replied, “Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done […]
Missing the point
IN the torrent of articles on the Internet offering analysis, protest, justification, or mere prurience in the wake of the recent allegations of sexual misdemeanours in high places, I was fascinated to find one article namechecking the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. It is from the deeds of the men of Sodom that […]
