News & Public Affairs

Tarpon Springs celebrates 105th Epiphany listen

01/06/11 Andrea Lypka
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Tags: epiphany 2011, tarpon springs, religion, Greek, Greek culture

Once a year the fishing village of Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County becomes an important religious and cultural center. Tarpon Springs hosts what some consider the largest Greek Orthodox celebration outside of Greece, organizers say. This year, hundreds of Greeks and spectators celebrated the Epiphany, the baptism of Jesus with folk dances, music, prayer, and a procession to Spring Bayou ending with a plunge to retrieve a cross on January 6.

The Epiphany has been more than a celebration ...

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Dr. Robert Putnam talks about religion in America listen

12/06/10 Zack Baddorf
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Tags: Robert Putnam, religion, Islam, Christianity

The United States is religiously devout yet also religiously tolerant. That's according to Professor Robert Putnam. He wrote a book on how religion units and divides Americans and he spoke last Thursday about the topic at Forum Truth in Sarasota.

Putnam told about 200 Bay Area residents about the results of research he conducted for his new book, “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.” After surveying 3,000 Americans in 2006 and 2007, he found that since the 1950s, Americans...

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Interview With Sean Faircloth Executive Director Of The Secular Coalition For America

11/10/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: religion, secularism, history

Our guest today is Sean Faircloth, executive director of the Secular Coalition for America.

Faircloth will be speaking this Saturday morning in Clearwater about church-state issues, the Founding Fathers and the rise in the number of people who consider themselves "non-religious" in the U.S.

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Atheists Not Happy With Council Prayer Vote listen

03/18/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: atheists, John Dingfelder, Tampa City Council, Religion, forced prayer, Atheists of Florida

The question over whether the Tampa City Council should stop praying before each meeting came to a head this morning. The council unanimously adopted an informal resolution to continue reciting prayer at the beginning of each meeting.

The debate that has raged at 315 East Kennedy Blvd. for countless meetings brought out preachers and atheists, who would have their say during public comment. At times the debate morphed into a theological discussion, with Christian leaders insisting on God’s...

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Consumerism as Religion

02/10/10 Robert Lorei
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Tags: consumerism, Del DeChant, Religion, The Bridge

COMING UP WE’LL TALK WITH A RELIGION INSTRUCTOR WHO SAYS THAT CONSUMERISM HAS IN ESSENCE BECOME THE MAIN RELIGION IN THE US.

DELL DECHANT IS AN INSTRUCTOR AT USF AND ASSISTANT CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES. HE’S THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK- THE SACRED SANTA. HE SAYS THAT CONSUMERISM HAS BECOME A RELIGION IN THE US-- RIVALLING OR SUPPLANTING TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS.

IS THAT RIGHT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? WHAT IS RELIGIOUS ABOUT SHOPPING?

HE’LL BE GIVING A TALK LATER THIS WE...

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A look inside Islam listen

01/19/10 Joshua Lee Holton
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Tags: islam, islamic radicalism, Religion, Polls, film, CAIR, USF

A new civil rights group for Muslims sponsored a showing of the new film “Inside Islam: What a billion Muslims really think.” The film was at USF in Tampa last Saturday night, and was designed to challenge the notion that Islam and the West are on a collision course.

Muslims in 40 countries participated in a Gallup public opinion poll that showed what Muslims think about the most controversial issues surrounding their religion. Last Saturday hundreds of people attended the film at USF, wh...

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Tampa joins 3000 candle light vigils for Copenhagen Climate Conference listen

12/14/09 Joshua Lee Holton
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Tags: Copenhagen, Climate Conference, vigil, climate change, Greenpeace, Religion

With one week left in the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, religious groups across the globe are congregating with fellow secular advocates to demand a binding climate agreement from world leaders. With about 500 events in the US, local faith based organizations in Tampa also held a vigil on Friday.

Cold and windy weather didn’t deter more than a dozen climate change advocates who huddled in front of Senator Bill Nelson’s Tampa office last Friday night. Faiths Unit...

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Religious minority persecuted in Iran listen

03/23/09 Jamie Kidder
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Tags: Clearwater, Iran, Religion, civil rights

The Bahá'í faith focuses on peace, justice and unity. But in Iran, Bahá'ís are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Bahá'ís are barred from higher education, unable to find work, and sometimes arrested and executed.

In Clearwater yesterday afternoon, a local Bahá'í center held a conference to raise awareness of this persecution.

The Bahá'í religion was founded in Persia in 1844, and it has more than 5 million followers all over the world. Since its origins, Bahá'ís have faced ...

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Do non-believers need a lobbyist in D.C.?

11/25/08 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Religion, atheists, secularists, lobbying, discrimination against non-believers

Good afternoon, welcome to WMNF’s Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. On the first part of today’s program, we’ll hear from Lori Lipman Brown, the director and first Congressional lobbyist with a new group called the Secular Coalition For America. It’s a group that advocates on behalf of America’s atheists, humanists, agnostics and others who want to see a separation between religious doctrine and civil law.

Brown is a former Nevada legislator, she’s an attorney and has taught Constitutional la...

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Keith Ellison interview - Part 2 listen

11/19/08 Seán Kinane
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Tags: Religion, Muslim, Arab issues, CAIR

In 2006, Minnesota’s Keith Ellison became the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congress. WMNF’s Seán Kinane spoke with him on Saturday, before the Council on American-Islamic Relations banquet in Tampa. The second half of the interview begins with Rep. Ellison responding to Barack Obama’s first move as president-elect. Obama chose Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff. Emanuel is strongly pro-Israel.

“[I've met with Dr. Al-Arian's family] and I’ll be happy to meet with them again in the futu...

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