While I Was "Gone"

Well, since I was on my ten-day recounting of our trip to the Black Hills, I didn't post on some of the interesting things that happened. Here are a few that struck my fancy....

Southwestern Baptist Seminary to Offer Women-Only Program in Homemaking

According to an Associated Press story, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth will, this fall, introduce a new, women-only academic program in homemaking. The 23-hour concentration will count toward a B.A. in humanities. The program is aimed at helping establish what Southwestern's presiden Paige Patterson calls biblical family and gender roles. The 23 hours of coursework consists of: seven hours of nutrition/meal preparation, seven hours of textile design/"clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family." Women will be taught with an eye toward hospitality as well as children's spiritual, physical and emotional development.
--Crosswalk.com News

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Addiction can be cured in 24 hours: Expert

Express News Service (India)

Pune, August 13: SOON, addicts will be able to overcome their weaknesses within 24 hours, according to de-addiction expert Narendra Chitte who plans to start around 1,000 centres all over the State as part of his ‘Tobacco, alcohol chale jao’ campaign. The centres will offer free de-addiction programmes for the poor, while others will be required to pay a nominal fee.

Chitte runs a de-addiction programme for alcohol, gutkha, nicotine and drug addicts in Pradhikaran, Nigdi. He describes a four-step process for tackling addiction. “Lack of self-confidence and motivation push an addict towards substance abuse. These centres will provide counselling, psychological techniques, a herbal programme and detox consultation that relieve a person of his substance abuse within a day,” he said.

While Chitte agreed that those who undergo de-addiction programmes always have a risk of relapse, he argued, “Around 76 per cent males and 64 per cent of females in the state are substance abusers. The right kind of counselling is to strengthen the addict’s mind against the urge to consume addictive substances. There are no such things as withdrawal symptoms. They are ‘recovery symptoms’ which an addict faces once he stops consuming the substances and is beginning to overcome his addiction.”

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Well, This One Is New... and Unique...

By Matthew Philips
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.