Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/religion/page/5/)
Events this week led me to several questions about Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha. Many readers are familiar with the first two, but some may not know much about the last two holy days. Continue Reading
Zeam Porter just wants to play basketball. A trans youth who is a junior in high school, Porter played for the women’s team last year, and was constantly misgendered and called the wrong name. Porter won Most Improved Player, but today feels the trophy was a lie.“My love for basketball last year made me believe I could handle being on the wrong team,” Porter said. “I love basketball. Do not take basketball away from me. Continue Reading
St. Maron Maronite Church parishioners and their priest, Reverend Monsignor Sharbel Maroun, recently enjoyed a very hectic September at their church, 602 University Ave. NE. On Sept. 13 and 14, they hosted Beshara Peter Rahi, the much-loved Lebanese Patriarch who is one of the Maronite Catholic Church’s highest officials. Celebrations included a Saturday night banquet, Sunday liturgy and brunch in his honor; each event drew more than 400 people.
Every year on the High Holidays, police officers sit outside our synagogue to protect our community and building from harm. Continue Reading
The Minnesota Child Protection League, an anti-LGBT group that opposes LGBT inclusion in the state’s public schools, bought an ad in the Sunday Star Tribune. The ad says, “A male wants to shower beside your 14 year old daughter. Are you okay with that?”The ad is part of a push by MNCPL to stop the Minnesota State High School League from passing a policy that would provide inclusion for transgender athletes. The Catholic Church and the religious right have mounted a campaign to block it. In the process, they’ve perpetuated false stereotypes about transgender people, including the myth that transgender students will prey on fellow students in locker rooms, showers, restrooms and hotel rooms. According to many law enforcement, civil rights and sexual assault prevention organizations, the idea that transgender inclusion will put anyone at risk is unfounded.Related article: State athletics league mulls transgender inclusion in sportsThe Minnesota State High School League is “a voluntary, nonprofit association of public and private schools with a history of service to Minnesota’s high school youth since 1916.” The MSHSL oversees much of the athletics in the state.According to the proposed policy, transgender high school students can play on the team of their choice (male or female) but must have a physician’s documentation and in some cases must have begun hormone therapy to “preserve competitive equity.” The MSHSL policy also provides transgender students avenues for corrective action if a school district does not comply.The MSHSL will meet on Wednesday, Oct. 1, and Thursday, Oct. Continue Reading
When it comes to food shelves in Minneapolis, halal food is hard to come by. But a group of Somali women want to change that. Isuroon, a local nonprofit that works to develop the health and empowerment of Somali women, is asking the city to help develop a new food shelf that provides healthy, ethnic food to the Muslim community living in South Minneapolis. The nonprofit, along with dozens of community members, are asking the city to allocate $150,000 to fund the new food shelf as a start-up. “As a Somali community, we cannot use some food shelves,” said Isuroon member Waris Mohamud. Continue Reading
Khoua Vang carefully tiptoed Saturday in a vegetable-covered garden outside Hope Lutheran Church in St. Paul and went down on her knees to reap dozens of Japanese sweet potatoes.
After reading about Chris Lollie’s arrest in St. Paul and the terrible treatment he received, I was inspired to come forward with my own bad experience with local law enforcement.In August 2013, I had a court date that I had missed. I had a $300 ticket for driving with a suspended license for not having insurance. The ticket was almost three years old, and I know driving a car without insurance was wrong. But poverty was something continuous in my life and so insurance was just something I couldn’t afford.I decided to try to negotiate and so I had made arrangements with the court to appear in front of the judge to speak about the price of my ticket. Continue Reading
St. Peter African Methodist Episcopal Church celebrates its 135th anniversary this year. In recognition, the church will present a benefit concert by Cuban pianist, Nachito Herrera, on Saturday, September 13th, 2014. For more information, visit the church’s website. KFAI’s Allison Herrera reports on the south Minneapolis church’s beginnings, and what drives the congregation. [Audio below]
In February, Columbia Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox released The Monuments Men, which was written and directed by George Clooney.Clooney also starred in the film as Frank Stokes, a member of a military unit during World War II that was tasked with protecting artistic masterpieces from damage during battle, as well as finding and rescuing pieces looted by the Nazis.“You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they’ll still find their way back,” Stokes says in the film. “But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it’s as if they never existed. That’s what Hitler wants and that’s exactly what we are fighting for.”Robert Edsel: Sept. 12 at Temple IsraelThe film was based on Robert Edsel’s book titled The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. Edsel will be the featured speaker for Temple Israel’s seventh annual Holocaust Remembrance Program on Sept. Continue Reading