The Outcast System occurs in Africa and India. In Nigeria, outcasts are called Osu. As freeborn, myself, I was brought up to see the outcast as lower class humans. Our culture made it an abomination to have any relationships with them. I was forbidden from marrying from their stock. They could not hold some traditional titles and were never appointed Traditional Rulers. These fell apart when I saw blood donation by an outcast. The thoughts as to who would use the blood he donated bordered me. After some reflections and applying Scientific, Religious and Sociological knowledge, I concluded that the Outcast System is baseless, instituted in ignorance and being perpetuated in ignorance. To illustrate, I told the pitiable story of what would happen if a freeborn tries to marry an outcast. This book will make the readers worldwide abandon the System without coercion or force of law.

From the IX Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected to the episcopate and the world’s leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage—a groundbreaking book that persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage using a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument. Robinson holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred and the ensuing two millennia of church history to be relevant to the discussion. He is equally familiar with the secular and political debate about gay marriage going on in America today, and is someone for whom same-sex marriage is a personal issue; Robinson was married to a woman for fourteen years and is a father of two children and has been married to a man for the last four years of a twenty-five-year relationship. Robinson has a knack for taking complex and controversial issues and addressing them in plain direct language, without using polemics or ideology, putting forth his argument for gay marriage, and bringing together sacred and secular points of view.

Leading researchers and people with lived experience explain the stigma of substance use disorders, and develop solutions for overcoming it.

This book analyses the cultural and social subordination of women in American society as represented in the American novelistic tradition in the context of sociological, psychological, and historical perspectives peculiar to the period. The selection of the novels has been based on a wide range of different cultural and historical periods, which enables the reader to witness the general outcast position of woman as depicted in the American novel and her subordination in this society by way of some historical and cultural forces. The endeavor has been to illustrate how, from the earliest examples of the American novel depicting colonial life to the contemporary ethnic and minority novels, the persistent negative image as social stereotypes are imposed on women as an unavoidable and unalterable destiny.

How can we achieve and sustain a "decent" liberal society, one that aspires to justice and equal opportunity for all and inspires individuals to sacrifice for the common good? In this book, a continuation of her explorations of emotions and the nature of social justice, Martha Nussbaum makes the case for love. Amid the fears, resentments, and competitive concerns that are endemic even to good societies, public emotions rooted in love—in intense attachments to things outside our control—can foster commitment to shared goals and keep at bay the forces of disgust and envy. Great democratic leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., have understood the importance of cultivating emotions. But people attached to liberalism sometimes assume that a theory of public sentiments would run afoul of commitments to freedom and autonomy. Calling into question this perspective, Nussbaum investigates historical proposals for a public "civil religion" or "religion of humanity" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, and Rabindranath Tagore. She offers an account of how a decent society can use resources inherent in human psychology, while limiting the damage done by the darker side of our personalities. And finally she explores the cultivation of emotions that support justice in examples drawn from literature, song, political rhetoric, festivals, memorials, and even the design of public parks. "Love is what gives respect for humanity its life," Nussbaum writes, "making it more than a shell." Political Emotionsis a challenging and ambitious contribution to political philosophy.

The study of association football has recently emerged as vibrant field of inquiry, attracting scholars worldwide from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. "Soccer As the Beautiful Game: Football’s Artistry, Identity and Politics," held at Hofstra University in April 2014, gathered together scholars, media, management, and fans in the largest ever conference dedicated to the game in North America. This collection of essays provides a comprehensive view of the academic perspectives on offer at the conference, itself a snapshot of the state of this increasingly rich scholarly terrain. The diversity of approaches range from theory to pedagogy to historical and sociological engagements with the game at all levels, from the grassroots to the grand spectacle of the World Cup, while the international roster of authors is testimony to the game’s global reach. This collection of essays therefore offers a state of the field for soccer studies and a road map for further exploration. The chapters originally published as a special issue in Soccer & Society.

A moving collection of firsthand accounts of the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. Tremendous strides have been made in the prevention and treatment of HIV since the disease first appeared in the 1980s. But because many of those who studied and battled the virus in its early days are now gone, firsthand accounts are at risk of being lost. In HIV Pioneers, Wendee M. Wechsberg collects 29 “first stories” from the outset of the AIDS epidemic. These personal narratives and historical essays not only shed light on the experiences of global health pioneers, prominent scientists, and HIV survivors, but also preserve valuable lessons for managing the risk and impact of future epidemics. With unprecedented access to many key actors in the fight against AIDS and HIV, Wechsberg brings to life the harrowing reality in the beginning of the epidemic. The book captures the experiences of those still working diligently and innovatively in the field, elevating the voices of doctors, scientists, and government bureaucrats alongside those of survivors and their loved ones. Focusing on the impact that the epidemic had on careers, pieces also show how governments responded to HIV, how research agendas were developed, and how AIDS service agencies and case management evolved. Illuminating the multiple facets of the HIV epidemic, both in the United States and across the globe, HIV Pioneers is a touching and inspirational look into the ongoing fight against HIV. “Anyone interested in science, social history, communicable diseases or epidemiology would benefit from reading this topical, fascinating and inspirational book.” —Fay Hartley, British Society for the History of Medicine

We are caught up in the cycle of so-called "holy wars." In The Jihad of Jesus, Dave Andrews argues that while this inter-communal conflict is endemic, it is not inevitable. Depending on our understanding, our religions can be either a source of escalating conflict or a resource for overcoming inter-communal conflict; and for our religions to be a resource for overcoming conflict, we need to understand the heart of all true religion as open-hearted compassionate spirituality. In the light of an open-hearted compassionate spirituality, we can reclaim the word "jihad" from extremists who have (mis)appropriated it as a call to "holy war," and reframe it, in truly Qur'anic terms, as a "sacred nonviolent struggle for justice"; and we can reconsider Jesus, as he is in the Gospels, not as a poster boy for Christians fighting crusades against Muslims, but as "a strong-but-gentle Messianic figure" who can bring Christians and Muslims together. As this book shows, many Christians and Muslims have found Isa (Jesus) and the Bismillah (celebrating the mercy, grace, and compassion of God) as common ground upon which they can stand and work for the common good. The Jihad of Jesus is a handbook for reconciliation and action: a do-it-yourself guide for all Christians and Muslims who want to move beyond the "clash of civilizations," join the jihad of Jesus, and struggle for justice and peace nonviolently side by side.

TRUE LOVE IS ATTAINABLE! When you accept the premise that true love is essentially intimacy, you can begin learning and applying basic principles for creating intimate relationships. When it comes to attainability and sustainability, gaining some basic relationship knowledge and wisdom can be the difference between the search and discovery. "Never before has the process of developing a healthy relationship from the point of initial contact been detailed, a map provided for one of the most important journeys of our lives: the intimacy journey. Linder packs a huge amount of 'back to basics' information into relatively little space." Neil Kobrin, PhD.

If Christianity offers believers hope, freedom, and victory over darkness, why are Christians depressed? This book explores this question using the author's experiences with depression both as a non-believer and later as a Christian. Self-harm, suicidal behavior, and alcohol typified his non-Christian life until an encounter with Christ healed him from depression and delivered him from his self-destructive lifestyle. Unfortunately, the depression returned within a few years of becoming a Christian. He looked to the church for help but found none. This led him on a spiritual journey with God to find healing from depression. Join him as he unmasks the problem of depression in the church and explains how the church can lead sufferers to wholeness. He also shares his own struggles and describes how he found freedom from depression through Christ.