There’s an interesting group that was recently formed, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. Other European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavian countries) also have such councils, formed by and appealing to secular people from Muslim backgrounds.

This short speech by Maryam Namazie is particularly interesting:

Such groups appear to defend an aggressive, affirmative sense of secularism. I am very sympathetic to such a view, but it perhaps works better in the context of countries such as France rather than Anglo-American political traditions. And it’s too bad that this sort of secularism is on a sharp decline in the few Muslim-majority countries that had been inclined toward secularism.

How’s your sense of direction?

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that my sense of direction isn’t all that well developed; I tend to lose my way easily– thank goodness for Google Maps.

But just as I find myself lost geographically on occasions, the same can be said about one’s spiritual life. Sometimes we stray in life down a path and we wander, like a sheep, so far that we find ourselves lost. Other times, like the woman who dropped a valuable coin, we find ourselves lost through no real fault of our own– life just happens– sometimes we are simply dropped.

It seems that when we are most lost that we often slap the panic button and take oursleves even deeper into the dark forest. We do it through work, relationships, addictive substances, and anything else that we think will help us be found.

But in our search for our true home we discover a God who is searching for us. A God who created us in God’s image; the image of Divine Love. It’s difficult to accept that God sees us as valuable and of great worth, especially when everything in culture says our worth and value is based on what we can do and accomplish.

As I Read Jesus, I find the face of God who claims that it is when we are most lost, that God is most eagerly seeking to find us. If you fdiscover yourslef seeking God or to deepen your spiritual life, the reality is, God is seeking you. Jesus, the Face of God, came to seek and make whole the lost, but sometimes we have to come to a place where we are willing to admit we are lost and are willing to stop the insanity and ask for directions.

If you are feeling lost for any reason– perhaps you have wandered off and strayed from yourself and God; perhaps you have been dropped by someone you love or who is supposed to love you. Wherever you are– the mansion of the hill or in the deep mine of darkness– if you are feeling lost, plase know that God is looking for you. In Jesus, God has come looking for us all–and God will never be a rest until we are all found.

One more blog: The Esperanto Club of Hampton Roads.

The News of the Week piece in the latest issue of Science has the encouraging news that the state of Texas is gearing up to launch a war against cancer. Here is an excerpt from the article entitled “CANCER RESEARCH: Texas Voters Asked to Approve $3 Billion Cancer Initiative” (by Jocelyn Kaiser):

Texas is planning a biomedical research initiative fit for a state where everything is bigger: a $3 billion pot of money for its scientists to wage war against cancer. Legislation signed by Governor Rick Perry in June would create a cancer institute to manage the 10-year program, funded through state bonds. If voters approve the November ballot measure, the amount of money awarded annually will easily top the $226 million in grants that the state received last year from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

…A friend of former governor Ann Richards, Austin business executive Cathy Bonner, came up with the idea of a cancer research initiative after the popular Democrat died last year from esophageal cancer. Bonner says she was aware of California’s stem cell initiative and thought “now’s the time” to do something similar for cancer research, which she felt needed a “big vision” in a time of flat federal funding. She joined with Armstrong’s foundation and other groups and pitched it to Perry. By May, the legislature had voted to convert the state’s cancer-prevention agency into the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and to give it authority to fund scientific research on “all types of cancer in humans.” Voters are being asked on 6 November to approve the sale of $3 billion in bonds to fund the institute, which would give priority to matching grants, those promising economic benefits, and collaborations. Up to 10% of the funds can be spent on prevention and 5% on facilities; the first grants would be awarded in 2010.

Cheers,
Colin