“It is no use celebrating Swamiji’s life, paying our respects to his ideas and teachings and honouring his memory if we do not imbibe the values that he advocated,” he said while paying homage to Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth anniversary.
— The Hindu

Muslims in Bihar better off than Dalits, finds survey
“Muslims are better placed in comparison to Dalits in 31 of 37 districts of Bihar, but Muslims are at the bottom at the national level,” Abusaleh Shariff, chairperson of the New Delhi-based Centre for Research and Debates in Development Policy said on the basis of a survey conducted by his centre in collaboration with the US-India Policy Institute based in Washington DC.
— First Post

Sushil Modi says Muslims will not vote for us in Bihar due to negative campaign against Narendra Modi
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to ride on the Modi wave in the Lok Sabha elections, it may be counterproductive for the party in Bihar. Former chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi says Muslims will not vote for the BJP because of the constant negative campaign against the party’s prime ministerial nominee. “Muslims will not vote for us in Bihar, partly because of the negative campaign against Narendra Modi by our opponents and also because Lalu Prasad is back in the political arena. They’re comfortable with Lalu and this will give some jitters to Nitish Kumar,” he said.
— India Today

The Holy Land’s Endangered Christians
“Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other areas of the Holy Land sometimes overflow with tears,” Pope Francis said at a meeting last November at the Vatican with leaders from Eastern rite churches that have links with the Roman Catholic Church. In May, the Pontiff will have a chance to witness those tears firsthand in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank when he becomes the fourth pope since Biblical times to visit the Holy Land.
— The Daily Beast

Struggle between Islamic extremists and forces of moderation trying to reclaim religion
This year’s uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and beyond have rocked the Islamic world, but the rebellions against geriatric despots reflect only a small part of the story, obscuring a broader trend that has emerged in recent years. For the majority of Muslims today, the central issue is not a clash with other civilizations but rather a struggle to reclaim Islam’s central values from a small but virulent minority. The new confrontation is effectively a jihad against The Jihad—in other words, a counter-jihad. “We can no longer continuously talk about the most violent minority within Islam and allow them to dictate the tenets of a religion that is 1,400 years old,” Sharma told me after the release of A Jihad for Love, his groundbreaking documentary on homosexuality within Islam.
— Smithsonian

What Is Progressive Christianity? What Do They Believe? Is It Biblical?
What are the core beliefs of those who believe in “progressive Christianity?”  What does it mean to be progressive?  Progressive Christianity seeks to change the world for the better.  Many, but not all, are trying to effectually change the world through social justice programs and ministries and a large part of this is a staunchly aggressive environmentalism mission.   Of course Christians are to be good stewards and when God told Adam to “keep the Garden” God wanted the planet to be taken care of because he was responsible for his own environment.   Progressive Christianity is not as much like traditional Christianity where believers are “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27) and to do what Jesus indicated by His saying that “I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matt 25:36).
— Patheos

The Rise of Fundamentalism
The first task is to define the word “fundamentalism”. The term is commonly used in newspapers, television newscasts, backyard arguments, and above all in churches, both in negative and positive ways. The word means different things to different persons. I suggest that it is best to distinguish small “f” from capital “F” usages: fundamentalism as a generic or worldwide phenomenon versus Fundamentalism as a religious movement specific to Protestant culture in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
— National Humanities Center

When The Right To Religion Conflicts With A Changing Society
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has granted a temporary injunction while she considers a challenge to the contraception requirement by a group of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Catholic organization serves the poor elderly. But the case raises questions that reverberate beyond health coverage: How do you protect religious freedom when the beliefs of individuals come into conflict with those of churches or businesses?
— NPR

Death, religion and sexuality: Experts help us answer children’s trickiest questions
On the way to school recently, my six-year-old suddenly stopped his scooter and asked, “Why did God create the world? What’s the point of us living?” I replied that even Mummy hadn’t worked that one out, but we could always practise his five-times table while we thought about it. According to the experts, that is exactly the wrong way to deal with the startlingly profound questions that children often ask.
— Express

Software to keep track of Guru Granth Sahib
Persons violating Maryada (Sikh code of religious conduct) in taking care, maintenance and transportation of Guru Granth Sahib (holy book of Sikhs) could now be traced and action may be initiated against them after development of a new software by Sikh groups of Australia, Canada and UK.
— The Times of India