a collection of thoughts and memories from friends of The Media Project
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Since the beginning of the Internet, traditional media has tried to adapt to new technologies and business models. Newspaper sales are declining and online media adds pressure as they compete for reader’s attention. Journalism in Argentina is now facing economic crisis. Our biggest newspapers, La Nación and Clarín, are reducing their staff while others close their doors. This is not only a newspaper problem, it is known that radio & TV stations are firing journalists, as well.
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(COMMENTARY) It's an often quoted fact: The number of men ordained each year is about a third of what's needed to replace priests who are retiring, dying or simply leaving. Two decades ago it was common to see between 800 and 900 ordinations a year.
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If Jesus were to suddenly appear at one of the Israeli checkpoints that separates this Palestinian area from Israel, what would He think? That is a question that bedeviled the Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian who is the academic dean at Bethlehem Bible College.
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There’s a ladder in the Old City of Jerusalem that’s perched on a stone ledge beneath the second floor window at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Known as the “immovable ladder”, it symbolizes the complications that arise when six different Christian denominations occupy one of the holiest sites in their theology. No one knows who left it there in the mid-19th century but it sits there, on a ledge above the sturdy wooden doors, a reminder of the contested ground beneath it.
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(COMMENTARY) The “trial of the century” of Cardinal George Pell - the Vatican’s “number 3” man and head of its finances - on sexual abuse charges has been passed by a Melbourne Magistrate to the Victoria County Court for adjudication. Magistrate Belinda Wallington found sufficient evidence to justify a trial for the 76-year old former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, who has been placed on leave by Pope Francis to respond to the charges.
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When Larry Norman died in 2008 there was one thing the critics – secular and religious – agreed on: The controversial singer and music maven helped create the "Contemporary Christian Music" industry. For Norman, that was not good news.
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Megan Kelly discusses her family, career, and Catholic upbringing at the event, “TV Bares Soul: An Intimate Evening of Conversation with Megyn Kelly” hosted by Father Edward L. Beck, religion commentator for CNN.
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Tall, built and gangly, Mazen Kenan, a 46-year-old Palestinian, towers above everyone in just about any setting. But his height is particularly commanding in the tightly packed streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, where he maneuvers easily despite the five foot-long, 50-pound wooden cross he bears on his shoulder.
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(COMMENTARY) In part two of her look at the UK Government’s new integration strategy, Dr. Jenny Taylor examines how the ground is set in Britain for a showdown between the secular state’s need to govern its disparate peoples but without a religion to bind it together. Religio means ‘to bind’ but in the UK, despite historical precedent, the majority do not believe and the religions that there are have their own versions of transcendent accountability.
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Massive protests have rocked India over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in the remote Rasana village near the Indo-Pak border in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It appears the motive was to dislodge Muslim nomads from a Hindu-dominated area. Two ministers who backed supporters of the accused have since resigned.
(COMMENTARY) The British Government’s Green Paper, published on March 14, outlines a strategy that signifies a 180-degree U-turn in the direction of nearly 70 years of public policy since the Second World War. The final report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration’s own inquiry into the integration of immigrants (2017) declared last year that ‘multiculturalism ... is defunct’.
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Guy Consolmagno has a profound love for studying space, reading and watching science-fiction as well as Jesus and the Gospels. As director of the Vatican Observatory, he is embraced by both the scientific and the religious communities, and is in the business of shattering myths about the compatibility between science and religion.
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The Ottoman empire is gone, and Turkey is now a secular state with official freedom of religion. Bells are hardly heard these days at all, though in smaller numbers the ancient Christian communities remain.
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(OPINION) Hours before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week, Lt. Col. Beltrame died in a sacrificial act that caused mourning across France. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said Beltrame was a civil servant doing his job and a "man who deliberately shaped and disciplined his own life to place the well-being of others before his own."
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The remains of 39 Indians kidnapped and killed by the terror group ISIS are finally returned back home. The individuals remained out of government sight while they were working in the war-torn city of Mosul after they were sent there by unauthorized travel agents.
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An Australian Anglican pastor, academic, and human rights activist, Mark Durie is also very critical of Islam – especially on the issue of religious liberty. He speaks of ‘moderate’ governments whose economic openness and political cooperation is lauded by the West, which turns a blind eye to their blatant restrictions on religious liberty. But Durie's concern goes beyond just the victims, to include those who let it slide.
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After decades of fighting about sex and marriage, the world's 12.5 million United Methodists are still waiting for a final shoe to drop. It's less than a year until a special General Conference that has been empowered to choose a model for United Methodist life after the Sexual Revolution – some path to unity, rather than schism.
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In a rare and dramatic display of opposition to a “lifestyle-altering” legislation in recent history, hundreds of Filipino Bible-believing Christians trooped to the Senate recently and held a peaceful rally against the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression (SOGIE), also referred to as the Anti-Discrimination Bill.
Read MoreAn Anglican priest is to be honored by the Queen for his public service. Fr Francis Gardom, 84, founded a charity to provide products to poor schoolgirls in Kenya who would otherwise miss school. His work has been brought to the attention of the Queen who will bestow on him the traditional gift of ‘Maundy money’ reserved for distinguished service by pensioners.
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