On Wed, 23 Feb 2000, Kelly Lynn Martin wrote:
> ULC does have a "doctrine" but it's only there because the states
> require one. Their doctrine is contentless. :)
talk to brother Daniel, I think he'd disagree ;->
> Well, I think the state should get out of the marriage business
> altogether. That would take away a large part of the desire of
> religious organizations to be recognized by the state in the first
> place. (The other reason is probably priest-penitent privilege.)
I agree, the ULC is a rather extreme solution to a bad system, one that
institutionalizes religion through traditional accredidation (that if I'm
not mistaken started with the Church)
i think that Canada or Germany have some good ideas, afaik in Canada you
have to have a sizable congregation before you can be considered a
"church", and Germany is kinda restrictive of what they consider a church
(no idea about wicca etc, but they've not accepted Scientology as a
religion)...
as it's kind of related what does anyone think about Falun Gong and them
being banned in China? A few "practitioners" showed up on campus the other
day so I did a few quick searches.
I'm not sure, but I'm theorizing that 98% of what you see and hear is
colored by the U.S.'s characterization of "RED CHINA" and their "evil
oppression" of Falun Gong...
I do agree that China's actions in this matter are extreme and oppressive,
however there are quite a few reports (allthough perhaps
unsubstantiated) that this group forbids their members from using modern
medicine (certainly an issue the US has dealth with in Christian
Science groups)
I initially looked at some articles at rickross.com which appeared
somewhat negative... I haven't seen many 3rd party reports that talk
about falun gong itself (and not its persecution) positively, but i'm not
convinced that any of this is conclusive untill I talk with one of their
members... the have a national number, but it's just a machine that asks
for your name, state, city, and phone number... (not going there)
i think this article might present the issue in a fair light:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fa_lun_gong/falun149.html
strangely the first 100 of a google search didn't turn up any articles
like those at ross's site...
-andross
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