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Anyone working on or know of research into the emergence of New Religious Movements in NORTHERN Ireland ?

I am trying to find major religious texts that specifically mention suicide.  I know there are a lot of commentary texts that interpret religious texts as referring to suicide, but this is not what I'm attempting to find.  I need to find primary texts that specifically mention suicide. 

My preference is for texts from new religious movements that were originally written in English and / or translated into English with the help of the text's author.  However, I suspect I will need to widen my search to the text for any faith.

Thanks for the help!

I’m interested in quantitative and qualitative research on social and cultural aspects of vegetarianism and responses to it. Recently I conducted an empirical study of vegetarianism and its perceptions on a representative sample of adult residents of the two largest cities in Slovenia, Ljubljana and Maribor. As I can see the historical studies of vegetarianism are not uncommon anymore and the analyses of the ethical dimension of modern mass production of meat have been similarly multiplying in recent years - but there has been surprisingly little published about broader social and cultural contexts of vegetarianism. I really have difficulties understanding the fact that among numerous international survey projects, which continuously measure almost each and every aspect of contemporary societies and cultures (like for example International Social Survey Programme, World Values Survey, European Values Study and European Social Survey), there has not been a single one devoted to vegetarianism. Among existent surveys measuring different dimensions of vegetarianism (many of them are conducted or ordered by vegetarian organisations) I am not able to find one that would allow competent comparisons among more than two national samples.

I am currently researching on how new religious movements position themselves in the religious landscape of Africa. As such, I need readings relating to positioning theory, particularly contested religious positioning. I would greatly appreciate your suggestions.

Today is disturbing to note the increase in IRBs built mostly by non-scientists members and with an obscene tendency to base its decisions on religious concepts mainly in the Judeo-Christian tradition (there is a paucity in biology, physics, medicine, sociology, mathematics and philosophy experts) . The curriculum of education as bioethicists do not contemplate quantum physics, physiology or evolution, but creationism is on the table. Then, how these professionals can review and offer an opinion about issues that they don’t really know? and more importantly, their "philosophical" considerations are so innocuous that cannot being published in a serious Journal of Philosophy. We must demand reforms to incorporate real science in the curriculum of training in bioethics. Finally, the religious vision must be out of debate or incorporate all mystic versions of life in equal proportions.

Is there any valid research or reliable investigative journalism about the ideological, moral, or economic connections between new religious movements (such as new age religions, Buddhist or Hindu-based cults, late trends in Evangelicalism) and free market and neoliberal ideologies?

Thanks.

In this conference presentation, I talk about Swedes leaving The Church of Sweden; i.e., opting out of an ascribed identity as Evangelical Lutherans MAINLY FOR FINANCIAL GAIN (to save on Church membership fees). In other words, this is rational decision-making utilizing a cost-benefits approach. I seriously doubt that the choice to opt out of membership in the Church of Sweden has much to do with religious choice. I could be wrong, but for those leaving “The Church,” I think it is purely an economic choice based on money, not on religious conviction, or lack thereof. By contrast, I do think what has happened with secular Jews in Israel is a matter of conviction. Like Sweden, Israel has a mandatory Burial Tax and a large segment of its population consists of secular Jews (i.e., those who consider being Jewish an ethnicity and not a profession of religious faith). In Israel, these secular Jews became politically active to demand that civil (non-religious) burials be made available; and they succeeded: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/secular-burial-site-approved-in-jerusalem-1.74744

Burial is a significant rite of passage and most people have strong feelings about the burial rituals to be observed upon their passing. I can state this unequivocally as an attorney who specializes in Wills, Estates, and Trusts. I have prepared hundreds of end-of-life decision making documents (Wills, Living Wills, Powers of Attorney, inter vivos burial expense trusts, Donation of Body Parts documents, etc.) and know that clients give considerable thought to the contents of these death-planning documents. In Sweden, the inability to vote in The Church elections results in an inability to elect the leadership of The Church – the 250 odd “national officers” of The Church who determine how The Church’s obligation to provide for non-Lutheran burials in Sweden will be fulfilled. (For more on this, see “The Lives of Different Believers,” pp 62-70 of my dissertation—LEGISLATIVE TERRORISM, uploaded on RG.) It is The Church that administers all of the public graveyards in Sweden (except in Stockholm and the small town of Tranås); in this connection, it also establishes the amount of the Burial Tax, which is imposed on all taxpayers. Since there are practically no private graveyards in Sweden, The Church has a virtual monopoly on burial sites in the country.

Given this state of affairs, would it be unethical to make the rational choice to join The Church so that one has some say in which persons become the elected officials who dole out non-Lutheran burial space? Would it be more or less unethical if the person performing this costs-benefits analysis and joining The Church is a Catholic, Muslim, or Secular Humanist?

The need to rethink the conditions of health in our society leads to assess the impact of lifestyle, highlighting a model in which persons have a certain control over health and therefore a self-healing potential. In this perspective, the adoption of holistic low risk therapies is deemed as qualified form of prevention.

Different cultures and conceptions of body-mind can find balance and synthesis within scientific research and then in educational practices?

Over the last roughly 100 years, there have been several attempts to create 'new cultures'. Admittedly, most of these borrowed extensively from other systems that they knew had elements that 'worked'. My point is that most of these attempts, failed. Particularly in the face of what happened to the Occupy movement, must we not consider that the status quo and its agents may be too entrenched and intimidating for the vast majority of humans? What, and Who, would it take to actually break-out and start a 'new' culture?

Parafilm works fine for short to medium term Petri dish cultures. However, on plates that require incubation for ~3 weeks at 37 deg C, the paradigm tends to get very small cracks that can slowly dry out the media. Does anyone have recommendations for a parafilm-like tape or seal that retains moisture while also allowing some gas exchange?