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	<title>Provoketive Magazine</title>
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	<link>http://provoketive.com</link>
	<description>Provoking The Imagination With Conversation</description>
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		<title>Three Free Sins: A Review of Sorts</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/17/three-free-sins-a-review-of-sorts/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=three-free-sins-a-review-of-sorts</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/17/three-free-sins-a-review-of-sorts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 15:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Merry Monk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik Guzman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jesus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Merry Monk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TheMerryMonk.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Three Free Sins: God's Not Mad at You]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What would you do with three free sins? Now, you may say, &#8220;Hold on a second: That question presupposes that I believe there is such a thing as sin and that under normal circumstances I have to pay someone for them.&#8221; Agreed. So let&#8217;s suppose you believe those things. What do you think? Three free ones, what would you do? Before you answer, let me be clear. You may still have to suffer consequences for the three nasty things on your list, but you won&#8217;t owe God jack. When it comes to these three sins, the slate is clean. They never show up on Santa&#8217;s list. I&#8217;ll go first. I&#8217;m a pretty simple guy with common vices. I&#8217;d get drunk, masturbate to porn and smoke a joint&#8230; not necessarily in that order. Now, you may say, &#8220;Hold on a second! That&#8217;s just not right! Masturbation and viewing pornography count as two sins.&#8221; I understand where you&#8217;re coming from, but I don&#8217;t buy it. One without the other just isn&#8217;t worth it. Press me on this and I&#8217;ll use my second free sin on another joint, or maybe give you a purple nurple. I&#8217;m sorry, that was harsh, but I&#8217;m trying... ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/17/three-free-sins-a-review-of-sorts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Faith Interview Series: Neopagan Druid</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/16/faith-interview-series-neopagan-druid/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=faith-interview-series-neopagan-druid</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/16/faith-interview-series-neopagan-druid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Deanna Ogle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interfaith Dialogue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[acenstors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beltaine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Druidism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Druids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kindreds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[land spirits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maypole]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Neopagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Neopagan Druidism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Norse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[offerings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plymouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[polytheism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Samhain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shining Lakes Grove ADF]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sun was out in Downtown Plymouth. The town was full of people bearing possibility and happiness. It was late Saturday afternoon the day before the Christian holiday, Easter. The park in the center of town was full of dogs, families, and people climbing in trees and the restaurants had their sidewalk tables out. The sun warmed the skin on my face as I walked down the street to Starbucks. I found Rev. Rob Henderson, Senior Druid of Shining Lakes Grove, ADF sitting to one side of the store on his laptop. He has lived in Michigan as long as he can remember. He grew up in the Ann Arbor area and studied Computer Science at the University of Michigan. Shining Lakes Grove was founded in 1993 and it was well established by the time Rob joined the group in 1996. They currently have about fifteen members spread across lower Michigan. He was raised Catholic but his family “had pretty much exited the faith by the time I was ten or eleven, and then I wandered around aimlessly for a bit,” he told me. Rob first became interested in Druidism when he met some pagans in his teen years. They... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>F*** Apathy</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/15/f-apathy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=f-apathy</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/15/f-apathy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 15:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Travis Klassen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spirituality]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6626</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently, a close friend of mine was talking to a coworker about religion. During the course of the conversation, his coworker asserted “You know I’m a Catholic, don’t you? Well, not a practicing one.” My friend couldn’t shake that comment. He said it gripped him, in a good way. His only response was this: “Fuck apathy.” After he relayed this story to me, I asked him, “What would happen if we did?” “Nothing bad.” Exactly. What are we so afraid of? What if we rejected our indifferent, apathetic attitudes and actively pursued a life of purpose? What if we actually lived the Great Commission? Forget the hot mess that is church as we know it, with its hierarchical structure, contrived relationships, systems, programs and the like, and pursue only what Jesus called us to do: “Go into the world and make disciples, and obey everything I (Jesus) have commanded you.” Jonathan Fokker at Simple Church puts it this way: Jesus told us to make disciples by teaching them to obey His commands (Matt. 28:18-20). He also said, “If you love me, obey my commands” (John 14:15). We need to teach disciples to obey the commands of Jesus out of love. You cannot obey without... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Faith Interview Series: Jew</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/14/faith-interview-series-jew/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=faith-interview-series-jew</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/14/faith-interview-series-jew/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 15:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Deanna Ogle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interfaith Dialogue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10 Commandments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Access Computer Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chesed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hebrew]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jew]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Judaism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kosher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kosher Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Passover]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rabbi Jason Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sabbath]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Star of David]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Huffington Post]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rabbi Jason Miller grew up in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He attended James Madison College at Michigan State University where he graduated with a degree in International Relations. He then went to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he became an ordained Rabbi and earned a master’s degree in Education. I asked Rabbi Jason how he came to the Jewish faith. “I was raised in the Jewish faith,” he told me. When he was in college he became involved in the Jewish community on campus. “That led me to make the decision that after I graduated I would attend rabbinical school instead of law school.” How does one practice the Jewish faith on a daily basis? Rabbi Jason replied: “I’m an observant Jew. I have daily prayer, I keep kosher, Sabbath and all the Jewish holidays.” A misconception that people have about him when he talks about being a Rabbi is that people automatically think he must be in charge of a large congregation. He is not, but is instead a businessman and social media guru. “I’m a teacher, entrepreneur, businessman, visiting Rabbi at several congregations, and I perform ceremonies for life cycle events,” Rabbi Jason said. The Huffington... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Aberrance and Coherence, Giraffes and God</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/13/aberrance-and-coherence-giraffes-and-god/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=aberrance-and-coherence-giraffes-and-god</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/13/aberrance-and-coherence-giraffes-and-god/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 15:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>jeremystephens</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Now]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6610</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a kid, I used to spend vast amounts of time watching movies that were inappropriate. I have a fear of clowns to this day from watching the movie “It” when I was eight. I have a fear of birds to this day from watching the movie “The Birds” when I was ten. I have a fear of giraffes to this day for no particular reason…I wish I could say it was also due to a movie. The point is this: many of the fears that I still hold on to are due to my premature exposure to things that I did not really understand, and that I was not prepared to handle. I saw a movie presenting something typically seen as harmless, i.e. birds and clowns, in a way that made them terrifying; and because I was not knowledgeable enough to know the difference, my association with those things from then on was the scary version rather than the harmless one. Because these feelings were so deeply implanted into my little kid mind, they still determine how I react to those things instinctively even now, as an adult. Have a bird fly in front of me too close while... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Queer and Beloved</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/12/queer-and-beloved/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=queer-and-beloved</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/12/queer-and-beloved/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 May 2012 15:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Travis Mamone</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bisexuality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LGBT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6475</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a scene in the movie The Exorcist where the two priests talk about why the devil would choose to possess Linda Blair&#8217;s character out of all the other people in the world. Max Von Sydow&#8217;s character responds, &#8220;I think the point is to make us despair. To see ourselves as&#8230; animal and ugly. To make us reject the possibility that God could love us.&#8221; And that&#8217;s the basis for all of my anguish and despair. All of my questions, my doubts, and my fears all boil down to this one fear: that God might not love me. It happened in high school and college when I would cut myself on a regular basis. It happened when I was engaged to Amy and couldn&#8217;t be the man her family wanted me to be. And it&#8217;s been happening lately with my bisexuality. I always knew I was somehow different from all the other little boys and girls, but I could never put my finger on it. It wasn&#8217;t until I reached middle school that I finally found a name for it: bisexuality. But even after I found a name for it, I was hesitant to identify myself as that. Even though... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Faith Interview Series: Sikhism</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/11/faith-interview-series-sikhism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=faith-interview-series-sikhism</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/11/faith-interview-series-sikhism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 15:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Deanna Ogle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interfaith Dialogue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beastie Boys]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[equality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Granthi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gurdwara]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guru Granth Sahib]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gurus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hulk Hogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kaur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Led Zeppelin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ohio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rochester Hills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Run DMC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sikh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sikhism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Singh]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=5851</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I pulled up to the Gurdwara in Rochester Hills, a small white and brick building. “Gurdwara” is the term for a place of worship for those of the Sikh faith. “God is One” was printed prominently on their sign near the road. Two boys playing in the parking lot pointed me to the right door and I entered the gurdwara. I was greeted by Mandheer Singh, a tall gentleman with electric brown eyes and a warm smile. Mandheer Singh is a real estate agent, is married and has two children. (Singh is the last name adopted by Sikh men to signify brotherhood and it means “lion&#8221;. Women use “Kaur” which means “Princess”.) “Now, the first thing we do is we take off our shoes and cover our hair.” I removed my shoes and he handed me a cream-colored scarf to wear, which I place over the top of my hair and wrapped the excess around each shoulder. Mandheer Singh was wearing a black turban. “The reason we take off our shoes is because we believe God is everywhere and so this is a holy place. And the reason we cover our hair is to show modesty and respect.” About the... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Eating Animals</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/10/eating-animals/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=eating-animals</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/10/eating-animals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Melody Harrison Hanson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Book Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eating Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Factor Farmed Meat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Safran Foer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Melody Harrison Hanson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6476</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“99% of the meat sold in the United States today comes from a factory farm.” In the 1970s, my missionary parents uprooted us from the barefoot paradise of Papua New Guinea and planted us in Southern California.  My mother, suffering a bizarre set of health issues, began looking for answers in healthy eating practices.  While other kids ate Twinkies and Ding Dongs, Mother read Adelle Davis books on nutrition and force-fed us cod liver oil. Perhaps because of this, my need to fit in urged me to become a steak-loving “normal&#8221; person. Food, for me, was always more than mere sustenance; it was a visceral, beautiful, even creative thing. But as far as being a political statement or a critical health issue, well that was strictly for the weirdoes. Reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals was the first time that I seriously considered that the Chicken Parmesan in front of me, or the meat neatly stacked in my refrigerator was once a living thing.  And confronted by the horrors of modern animal farming, as recounted in shocking detail by Foer, I had to face certain facts: factory farms are disgusting and dangerous for our health. Foer made a three-year investigation... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Faith Interview Series: The Bahá&#8217;í Faith</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/09/faith-interview-series-the-bahai-faith/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=faith-interview-series-the-bahai-faith</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/09/faith-interview-series-the-bahai-faith/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 15:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Deanna Ogle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interfaith Dialogue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[baha'i]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bahá'u'lláh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Detroit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Progressive Revelation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reverend C.L. Franklin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[temple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6068</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About Carl Carl Marshall, a Bahá’í gentleman from Detroit, Michigan, moved his coffee across the table. “We are in the middle of a fasting month—or actually at the very end of it—so I should probably stop eating. I think the sun rises at 7:35 today.” The Bahá&#8217;í calendar has nineteen months with nineteen days in each month. During the last month of the year, which falls between March 2nd and March 21st, members participate in a fast very similar to Ramadan. My first encounter with the Baha’i faith was with a gentleman that sat next to me on a plane from Orlando to Detroit. We first started talking about the book I was reading, but once I learned what religion he was a part of (how this happened, I have no idea) I asked him all sorts of questions and we talked for the remainder of the flight. It was one of the most wonderful and fascinating conversations I’ve ever had. Carl grew up as a Christian in Detroit his mother attending Reverend C.L. Franklin’s church. He eventually moved to the Hawaiian Islands, where he became a Baha&#8217;i in 1973. About Progressive Revelation Carl was reading a book about comparative religion,... ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/09/faith-interview-series-the-bahai-faith/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Friendship Between the Genders: Sacred Friendship Gathering (Part 3)</title>
		<link>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/08/friendship-between-the-genders-sacred-friendship-gathering-part-3/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=friendship-between-the-genders-sacred-friendship-gathering-part-3</link>
		<comments>http://provoketive.com/2012/05/08/friendship-between-the-genders-sacred-friendship-gathering-part-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 18:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AliseWrite</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://provoketive.com/?p=6480</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Click here to read part 1 and part 2) Before we broke for lunch, Forrest and Vanessa Horn spoke to us about their journey as a married couple dealing with a cross-gender friendship. Often we hear from the people who are in the friendship, but it is more rare to hear from the spouse of the person friend. This courageous couple shared not only the beauty of a close friendship between a man and woman, but also some of the struggles that can happen between a husband and wife as a result of that friendship. Forrest had to deal with his feelings of being not enough for his wife. In one of the most touching parts of their presentation, he talked about receiving a call from Vanessa&#8217;s friend and spending an hour on the phone with him. They are still working through learning how to have a cross-gender friendship in their marriage, but their contribution to the weekend was a powerful reminder that we can learn, even through difficulty, how to make this happen. After lunch, Jim Henderson, author of The Resignation of Eve, gave his presentation. The title of his piece was &#8220;The Only Reason Jesus Gives Us Power... ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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