Spiritual Articles

Here you'll find a number of spiritual articles for spiritual growth. Why not stay awhile and take a spiritual journey through our spiritual articles. Please bookmark this page and check back often as we'll be constantly adding new articles as we come across them.

Spiritual Articles

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Free Spiritual Tools Ebook

Now you can quickly download this free spiritual tools ebook. It is filled with links and resources to a variety of the newest tools you can use to grow spiritually. Enliven your spiritual journey with some powerful resources that will keep you positive and motivated and accomplishing what you want in life.

Within this free spiritual ebook you'll also find links to free downloads of software and ebooks. If you have a website feel free to give this ebook away to your visitors.

Download your free copy of the Spiritual Tools Ebook by right clicking here. The ebook is in PDF format so can be enjoyed by both PC and Mac users.

For more spiritual tools you can use for spiritual growth click here. Be sure to bookmark that page as I'll be updating it often with the best spiritual tools you can benefit with.

Free Brandable Motivational E Book 50 Spiritual Movies - How Many Have You Seen?

50 Spiritual Movies is a free spiritual e book freely brandable with your money-making affiliate links. The spiritual book is in PDF format so can be enjoyed by both PC and Mac users.

This ebook reviews spiritual movies, motivational movies and inspirational movies. You may also find reviews on metaphysical movies and even a reincarnation movie review. The ebook also reviews the Spiritual Cinema Circle a unique spiritual movies club that finds the best in spiritual cinema to share with its members.

Started by Stephen Simon, the Spiritual Cinema Circle, is a dvd movie club that is unique in the respect that it highlights films of a spiritual nature. If you've ever seen a Stephen Simon movie (like Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve or What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams) then you know what to expect. Although the films aren't primarily G-rated fare like you'd get with the very popular Disney Movie Club, they will often tug at your heart like the Disney movies.

There are no movie downloads with this spiritual cinema club. It is better than an ordinary online movie rental club in the respect that you never have to return the movies - they're yours to keep. Each month you'll receive a steady supply of spiritual cinema in the form of foreign films, short films or shorts, independent films, documentaries and feature length spiritual movies.

After joining the club, many have started a spiritual circle where they gather once a month to share these spiritual dvds.

What the online movie rental clubs have is lots of variety. If you are interested in more than just spiritual films try the industry leader Netflix.

The last time I looked the Spiritual Cinema site even had some inspirational and motivational movie clips. Click below to visit:

Spiritual Cinema Site

Now you can combine a fun-time at the movies with an opportunity for spiritual growth and enlightenment. Take a spiritual journey over to the 50 Spiritual Movies site now to check it out or if you need to contact us:

Click Here to go to the Spiritual Movies site.

While there you may want to read some of the great inspirational articles. Out of the hundreds of spiritual articles you'll find at this spiritual site, below are links to some of my favorites.

• Retreat and Surrender...Your Stress
• What two secrets allow you to turn any movie you watch into a spiritual experience? Click here to have the secrets revealed.
• Creating a Prosperity Mindset by Randy Gage. Randy can be "a bit blunt." However it is that tell it like it is quality that has won him many adherents. And, the veracity of his message doesn't hurt either.
• Evaluating Your Associations - Part 1 by Jim Rohn
• Evaluating Your Associations - Part 2 by Jim Rohn

For more great spiritual articles Click here.

Now You Can Make Money and Help Others with Your Own Branded Copy of 50 Spiritual Movies - and it's Free!

Click here to get it now.

News
Current News On Beliefnet

Religious Leaders Hail Cocaine-sentencing Bill

WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S. religious leaders are applauding Congress'
approval of legislation that reduces the disparity of jail time between crack and powder cocaine offenses.

After passing the Senate in March, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was approved by the House on Wednesday (July 28). The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature.

The bill amends the original 1986 law that was passed at a time of high crack use in the U.S. Under that law, individuals received the same sentence for possessing crack cocaine as someone with 100 times the same amount in powder form. The revamped law raises the minimum quantity of crack cocaine that triggers a mandatory minimum sentence.

The five-year minimum mandatory sentence is now applied to possession of 28 grams of crack rather than 5 grams; 280 grams, instead of 50 grams, triggers a minimum 10-year conviction.

Gone as well is the mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine.

According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the bill could lead to a prison population reduction of about 3,800 within 10 years. The bill will not, however, retroactively affect people currently incarcerated for low-level offenses.

"It makes significant progress toward parity in criminal penalties for possession and use of crack and powder cocaine," said Galen Carey, director of government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals.

Carey and others said the new law will mitigate a ballooning prison population and reduce injustices to African-Americans. Crack used to be more prevalent in the inner cities, with blacks receiving longer sentences than whites, who preferred the powder.

The uneven treatment of racial communities "increases the cynicism with which many view the criminal justice system," said the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, chief executive of the National Council of Churches.

The inequity left churches and other faith communities to contend with children who were left parentless for long periods of time. Instead of targeting high-level drug kingpins, church leaders say tax dollars were spent pursuing low-level offenders, many of whom attend their churches.

"Today we have stepped closer to realizing fairness in our criminal justice system," said United Methodist Bishop Peggy Johnson of Eastern Pennsylvania.

-- Alfredo Garcia

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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News Feature: Mormons See Potential in Online Proselytizing

By Peggy Fletcher Stack
c. 2010 Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Not so long ago, Mormon missionaries were prohibited from using the Internet, even to contact their families. The system then loosened a bit to allow weekly e-mails home and some occasional viewing of church materials.

Now the nearly 14 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is attempting to revolutionize the way Mormons find converts -- and it's all online.

The move involves experimenting with blogging missionaries, self-produced member profiles and stereotype-busting videos. The American-born church, which has been harnessing technology to promote the faith since the 1920 radio days, sees great potential in fast-paced storytelling.

The Internet is the new "town square," said Ron Wilson, manager of Internet and marketing for the church. "And Mormons are taking to it like never before."

The electronic universe, however, also is uncontrollable, an aspect that has traditionally been tough for the hierarchical church but one that organizers readily acknowledge.

"We relinquish a lot of control to members on this site ... and every one (of the authorities) is on board with it," said Scott Swofford, director of media for the church's Missionary Department. "(The Internet) is where we've got to be."

The online missionary effort began in 2001, with the launch of www.mormon.org, a site aimed at telling outsiders what Mormons believe.

The church created it just before the world descended on Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics, when people everywhere were asking about the church.

Two years ago, the church expanded the site to add a chat function and called its first online-only missionaries, who would discuss church doctrines with inquiring seekers from computer screens in cubicles at the Provo Missionary Training Center.

Then in May, LDS leaders asked a dozen full-time missionaries in Rochester, N.Y., to spend their mornings or downtime blogging, commenting on various sites that mention Mormonism and describing their experiences on Facebook.

The president of the Rochester mission is one of the "Facebook friends," Wilson said, so he will know what missionaries write. Also, missionaries work in pairs and the church expects them to "police" each other -- no inappropriate information shared and no accessing naughty sites, for example.

"It's a test," Wilson said. "We'll learn if it's appropriate to give missionaries hand-held devices."

To top it off, the church has rolled out additions to www.mormon.org, which currently showcases 15 video portraits and 2,000 written profiles of Mormons across the globe; there are another 75 videos and 13,000 more profiles ready to be posted.

The subjects, drawn from diverse occupations, ethnicities, ages and genders, were allowed wide license to share their lives and faith.

The site features testimonials from Joy Monahan, of Honolulu, who won the 2008 Longboard Surfing World Championship; professionals Aaron and Emily Sherinian in Arlington, Va., who describe their family's frenetic pace; Jeff Tucker, with a goatee, who talks about his love for sculpting motorcycles; and Valetin Marcero, who spent time in jail on drug charges before joining the church.

Each segment ends with the subject repeating his or her name, a detail about their lives and the words, "And I am a Mormon."

The personal approach is the result of two findings from focus groups and public opinion surveys: Most Americans have either false or hostile impressions of the Utah-based church but typically change or soften those views after meeting a real-life member.

The idea, officials said, was to help everyone "know a Mormon."

"Our leaders were struggling for years to find a more effective, less annoying way to get our message across than knocking on doors,"
Swofford said. "Our mission is to deliver teaching opportunities."

The online missionaries already have proven the program's success.
They routinely participate in about 10,000 chats a week, with 3,500 people asking for in-person visits and 1,200 going on to hear the missionary lessons.

"It's a lot more effective than (door-to-door) tracting in many places," Wilson said.

But what if the church authorities or its doctrinal office don't agree with how a missionary or member describes a particular doctrine?
That's the only aspect that the site's monitors edit, and only in certain cases.

If a Mormon writes, "the church teaches that...," the doctrinal statements have to be correct, Swofford said. Monitors will ask them to revise any wording that misrepresents the faith.

If the person writes, however, "I believe that ...," monitors leave it, he said. A person's belief is his or her own.

"There is no way you can read 10 profiles and think we are controlling what they are saying," he said. "We want to show people how Mormons live their faith. We want them to be authentic and transparent.
That is the way misperceptions disappear."

(Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.)

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Gospel Singer Doug Oldham Dead at Age 79

(RNS) Doug Oldham, a prolific gospel singer and ministry partner of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, died July 21 at the age of 79.

Oldham, who was a soloist at Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church and helped the evangelist raise money to start Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., died at a Virginia hospital while awaiting back surgery.

"My father and Doug Oldham were an evangelistic team who brought the gospel to nearly every home in America every Sunday morning on the `Old Time Gospel Hour,"' said Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. in a statement.

"The names Jerry Falwell and Doug Oldham were synonymous as Billy Graham and George Beverly Shea. ... His passing represents the end of an era at Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University."

Oldham recorded more than 60 albums and sang on Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Praise the Lord (PTL) ministry's television show. He was the first to perform "He Touched Me," a song written by colleague Bill Gaither.

"Doug's resonant voice and vibrant spirit moved people at a very personal level," Gaither recalled in a tribute on his Web site, Gaither.com. "He possessed that rare balance between polished professionalism and authenticity."

Oldham, a Dove Award-winning artist, was inducted in the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

-- Adelle M. Banks

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Senate Democrats Plead for Religious Support on Key Bills

WASHINGTON (RNS) Top Senate Democrats said Wednesday (July 28) that Democrats need the help of religious groups in overcoming Republican opposition to key pieces of legislation.

In a media roundtable hosted by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Democrats' Steering and Outreach Committee, senators said the majority of "the faith community" is fully on board with Democratic policies on immigration, health care and clean energy.

Senate Democrats said the progress they've made on economic recovery and job growth is due to the continued support of faith communities.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, cited a common thread of "economic and social justice" between Democratic lawmakers and religious groups.

"We would not have passed (any of the bills) ... without the strong voice and commitment from the faith community to keep us on track,"
Stabenow said.

But as the Democratic majority faces stiff resistance from the GOP on other legislation -- "a battle on every bill we have put forward,"
Stabenow said -- religious groups need to play a larger role in supporting those bills.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., highlighted the "strength in numbers"
that faith communities have, and urged them to continue "pushing back"
against Republican opposition.

"When we were saying we don't have any Republican support, did they (faith groups) go to rally?" Klobuchar asked. "That's what I think that the religious groups have to (do)."

Senators conceded, however, that there is a limit in how far faith leaders can go in their advocacy without alienating some of their own flocks.

"I think this is a question of comfort level," Stabenow said. "Some in the faith community ... will feel comfortable in a bipartisan arena and others won't."

Many religious groups do not feel that they have to "deal with that stuff," because they are not political organizations, Klobuchar added.

"I'm not being critical, I'm just being honest," she said.

-- Alfredo Garcia

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Muslims, ACLU Seek Data on FBI Profiling

WASHINGTON (RNS) Muslim American groups and the American Civil Liberties Union are demanding the FBI turn over records relating to agency guidelines they say permit the FBI to collect and use racial and ethnic data.

The groups allege that the Domestic Intelligence and Operations Guide, an FBI policy manual published in 2008, gives FBI agents the authority to map and investigate communities based on ethnic behaviors and lifestyles, cultural traditions, and "ethnic-oriented" businesses, even when there is no evidence of criminal activity.

While the guidelines don't mention Muslims specifically, opponents say they are used almost exclusively against Islamic followers. Critics say such policies are not only unconstitutional, but ineffective, and often counter-productive.

"It drives a wedge between the police and the communities they are sworn to serve," said Michael German, an ACLU lawyer and former FBI agent. "The FBI should be focusing its efforts on people it has a factual basis for suspecting of wrongdoing, not targeting communities with race-based investigations."

Rather than profiling, the FBI would be better off establishing cooperative and open relationships with Muslims, since they are in the best position to detect radicals, critics say.

Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based civil liberties group, agreed.

"Law enforcement has an important job to protect us and should do so by focusing on legitimate leads and credible intelligence of actual criminal activity and threats," said Khera.

On Wednesday (July 28), FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee the current guidelines are "effective," adding that membership in a particular religious or ethnic group was not "in and of itself" enough to justify FBI surveillance.

"There are segments in the Muslim community who do not necessarily want the relationship (with the FBI) to work out, but ever since Sept.
12, 2001, we've reached out to the Muslim community, and if you talk to leaders in that community, you will find that relationships are very good," Mueller said.

-- Omar Sacirbey and Alfredo Garcia

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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N.J. Supreme Court Declines to Take Gay Marriage Case

TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) Supporters of gay marriage said they would press on with their fight despite the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision not to hear a case in which six same-sex couples asked for the right to marry.

"We ... will never give up -- not until our dying breath," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the state's largest gay rights organization.

Goldstein said Monday's (July 26) announcement by the state's highest court maintains the unequal legal status of same-sex couples.

"Same-sex couples will continue to be denied the consistent right to visit one another in the hospital, to make medical decisions for one another and to receive equal health benefits from employers, all because of the deprivation of the equality and dignity that uniquely comes with the word marriage," Goldstein said in a statement.

Though the court said it won't consider the case now, it left open the possibility it could hear it in the future. The justices said the case needs to be filed anew in Superior Court -- where it originated eight years ago -- and wind its way back up.

"This matter cannot be decided without the development of an appropriate trial-like record," the court said.

The seven-member court currently has one vacancy, and the remaining six justices were split down the middle, one vote short of the four votes needed to grant a motion.

In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples were due the full rights and benefits of heterosexual married couples, but left it up to the Legislature to provide those rights, leading to the 2006 civil-union law.

Armed with a legislative commission report saying civil unions had failed to achieve equal status for gay couples, same-sex marriage advocates pushed for full marriage rights. But after the state Senate rejected the gay marriage bill, the case made its way back to the state's highest court.

Hayley Gorenberg, an attorney for Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group, said her clients are ready to restart the legal battle, but the delay means more than just extra paperwork.

"Every day, people are being denied their rights in medical situations, in school situations, at work," she said.

John Tomicki, president of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, said he wants voters to decide if marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman.

"I have no doubt the plaintiffs and Garden State Equality will continue their march on the courts because they do not have natural law and the public's interests on their side," he said.

-- Matt Friedman / The Star-Ledger

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Report: Anti-Jewish Incidents Remain `Sustained and Troubling'

WASHINGTON (RNS): A Jewish group that tracks anti-Semitism has published its annual report of more than 1,200 incidents of assaults, vandalism and harassment against Jews in 2009, saying the level of incidents remained "sustained and troubling."

"America is not immune to anti-Semitism, and 2009 was no different in this regard than in any other year," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, in a news release.

In total, ADL reported 29 incidents of physical assaults on Jewish individuals, 760 cases of anti-Semitic harassments and threats, and 422 reports of anti-Semitic vandalism in 2009.

This number of cases comes to about three incidents per day, said Deborah Lauter, the ADL's director of civil rights, in an interview.

"Generally, these things are very underreported," she said.

Most of the cases took place in states with large Jewish populations. The top four states included California (23 percent of total cases), New York (17 percent), New Jersey (10 percent), and Florida (7 percent).

The 2009 audit employed new methodology and evaluation criteria, the first makeover ADL has made in the more than three decades of reporting on the topic.

When analyzed using the old criteria, Lauter said that the 2009 numbers represent an approximate 10 percent increase in incidents from 2008.

Overall, however, there has been no general trend to the data. "It goes up and down year to year," she said.

Part of the new method includes a more conservative approach to categorizing incidents. The swastika, for instance, "is no longer exclusively used as a hate symbol against Jews," the ADL report said, so it is included only if accompanied with clearly anti-Jewish markings.

Also omitted from the report were the more than 2,000 anti-Semitic faxes sent to Jewish centers nationwide by the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church.

"These faxes caused great distress among recipients and, had they been counted, the 2009 Audit's harassment totals would have significantly increased," the ADL report said.

The report also doesn't contain statistics on anti-Semitism in cyberspace. Although Lauter said there has been "an explosion" of anti-Semitic sites, postings and comments, ADL is "not yet capable of quantifying the amount."

"We try to keep track of them, but it's just a huge number of people reporting it."

-- Alfredo Garcia

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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