THE CHRISTMAS STORY is full of surprising celebration, even in the midst of challenging circumstances. Spending time with Mary’s Magnificat brings a unique event to mind: Imagine a small team from Nicaragua reaching the Little League World Series, only for most parents to be unable to attend due to immigration hurdles. Yet, across six states, the Nicaraguan American community rallied, traveling to the games and offering a chorus of support in place of absent parents. This heartwarming display of solidarity that occurred in the summer of 2022 captures for me the essence of Mary’s response to God’s invitation in Luke 1.

Advent, a season of anticipation for Jesus’ arrival, also compels us to examine the backdrop: a world of darkness, poverty, and desperation. Mary and Joseph find themselves on the run, seeking refuge for the birth of their child. Yet, amid the shadows, light arrives and beckons us to embrace its warmth. 

The core message? God’s promises often blossom in the most improbable circumstances. Luke 1 paints a vivid picture: The angel Gabriel announces Mary’s pregnancy, and instead of succumbing to fear, Mary bursts into song. Her song isn’t a plea, but a declaration of faith, a melody brimming with comfort for us. 

Mary’s song, particularly verse 48, reveals the cornerstone of her faith: “He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” The phrase “humble state” signifies poverty, insignificance, and captivity. Mary recognizes her reality as a marginalized woman in a society that often disregarded women and ostracized the poor. 

This scene plays out in the marginalized communities today—immigrants, people of color, those struggling on the fringes. Yet, Mary’s song transcends circumstance. It whispers hope, reminding us that God isn’t a distant god, but one who sees us right where we are. 

Mary’s song echoes another unlikely heroine—Hannah, an elderly, barren woman ostracized for her childlessness. Yet, God remembered her (1 Sam. 1:19). Hannah’s song, defying the social norms of her time, finds a new voice in Mary. This connection isn’t accidental. Luke draws the connection between these remarkable women, reminding us that God’s favor often rests on those deemed insignificant. 

Think of unlikely mothers throughout history—Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel—who birthed pivotal figures in God’s plan. God chooses the seemingly barren, the overlooked, to showcase his power. His promises flourish in the soil of impossibility. 

Mary concludes her Magnificat with a powerful declaration: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy to Abraham and his descendants forever” (Luke 1:54–55, CSB). This is a testament to God’s unwavering faithfulness. He keeps his promises, fulfilling the prophecy whispered in Genesis 3:15 and the covenant established with Abraham in Genesis 12:3. 

The celebration of Jesus’ birth isn’t just about God’s faithfulness, it’s about the fulfillment of our deepest yearning—a Savior who redeems us. 

Mary’s encounter with God compels us to action. True gospel enjoyment means solidarity with the margins from which it came. Jesus didn’t just offer salvation; he walked with the ostracized, the hurting. 

In moments of doubt, confusion, or despair, the most potent act of faith is to stand with someone else, witnessing the birth of their promise. Just as Mary journeyed to support Elizabeth, we are called to create a community of support, a chorus of encouragement for those on their own difficult journeys. May we, like Mary, find solace in God’s presence. May we seek him in the faces of loved ones and strangers alike. May our hearts burn with the warmth of his love, a beacon of hope in a world yearning for light. 

Rich Perez served as a pastor and public speaker for 20 years. Today, he is a filmmaker, crafting narratives for brands and organizations.

This article is part of A Time for Wonder, a 4-week devotional to help individuals, small groups, and families journey through the 2024 Advent season. Learn more about this special issue that can be used Advent, or any time of year at http://orderct.com/advent.

The post The Song of Mary Still Echoes Today appeared first on Christianity Today.

I sometimes enjoy the conveniences of our new Sunday morning routine, but there are pangs of sadness every week when my daughter hears music, turns to the screen, and almost immediately loses interest. I recall how engaged she was in the sounds, sights, and vibrations of congregational worship during the “before times.” I recall how much more engaged I was, too.

“Worship isn’t about you” is a cliché that sums up the idea that we sing as an act of worship and sacrifice for God alone. I’ve seen this sentiment newly animated over the past year as worship leaders seek to help their congregations learn to worship as part of a body that they can’t hear or see.

Brooke Ligertwood writes in a blog post for Hillsong, “Who is worship for? Spoiler alert: worship is not for people. It’s for the Lord.” Similarly, Justin Rizzo of International House of Prayer tells worship leaders, “God alone will be present at your worship times. You will have no choice but to actually minister before an audience of one . That one alone is worthy of your worship. Worship has always been about Him.”

It’s understandable that worship leaders would encourage us to focus on God over gathering at a time when we cannot be together. The emphasis on a personal form of worship—one on one with God—is in some ways beneficial for those who continue to attend remote services.

It is certainly not a new way of thinking about music for Christians. Augustine wrote about the personal faith-building and emotional experience of singing hymns and psalms. Luther praised the power of music to deepen theological understanding. There is a rich history in the church of using music to deepen individual faith.

Instructing a congregation to focus your personal devotion to your “audience of one” isn’t wrong . Doing so at this unique moment, though, can minimize the loss many of us are feeling. It’s now—when many churches have moved services online or cut back on in-person singing—that we can see how much worshiping together has meant for our shared faith.

Worship is about us too

Yes, musical worship is first a spiritual practice. Christians believe that corporate worship matters to God and that raised voices should not glorify anyone but him. However, to say that musical worship is not for people, to my musicologist’s sensibilities, overlooks the reality that congregational worship does benefit people, and it should. Acknowledging this may help us understand why, at times like this, worship without the congregation feels empty, dry, or forced.

Many Christians understand corporate worship partly as an imperative, something we practice out of obedience to Scripture. But there are also practical, social benefits to being together as a community around music.

“I’ve learned so much about embodied worship,” said Hannah Busse, director of worship arts at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin. Corporate singing “activates our brains differently than just speaking something or hearing something spoken to us … it has a unique function in our spiritual formation.”

Monique Ingalls, associate professor at Baylor University’s Center for Music Studies, notes that corporate worship is a central part of religious gathering in most Christian traditions “because participatory music-making powerfully imparts a sense of community” and helps foster social bonds.

Anyone who has led worship—and many of us who have experienced it and find ourselves longing for it during COVID times—know just what she’s talking about.

Socrates Perez, worship pastor at Saddleback Church, puts it this way: “When we’re singing these songs and these truths … it’s always an encouragement to me as a believer to hear my brother in Christ or my sister in Christ next to me declaring [those truths] at the top of their lungs.”

Congregational singing is immersive. Ethnomusicologist Nathan Myrick suggests that it represents a uniquely meaningful part of church gatherings because it engages three distinct realms of experience: the physical, the emotional, and the relational.

Corporate worship involves physical closeness and participation, whether through singing or some other movement. It often evokes emotion, whether in response to a lyric, series of sounds, memory, or association. It forms and reinforces relationships within the congregation and between leaders and the congregants. This relational dimension extends to our understanding of corporate singing as an act of communication with God.

Permission to be dissatisfied

The struggling worshiper at home may feel like something is spiritually or emotionally wrong when their hearts aren’t stirred by Zoom singalongs. Leaders are right to point out that our worship is no less valuable to God when we can’t gather as a congregation, but they can also give congregants permission to accept dissatisfaction with musical worship over a screen.

“We don’t fault anyone for that longing … we affirm that longing,” said John Cassetto, global worship director at Saddleback. “Next weekend is our 52nd week online … there’s a grief in that.”

Why does it matter so much that we acknowledge what we’ve lost? It doesn’t just feel different, it is different. No one should feel pressure to re-create the emotional and spiritual experience of corporate worship through an internal focus on the “audience of one.”

Freeing ourselves of unrealistic expectations may lead us to new worship practices and experiences that are wholly separate, even therapeutic, and unique to this difficult moment. Cassetto refers to these as “new streams in the desert” for worshipers and leaders, creative new ways to use music to facilitate worship.

It’s likely that many have discovered a new appreciation for meditative listening. Singing with the TV screen feels awkward, so I would expect that many of us have found solace and connection with God through listening, praying, and reflecting. If you feel free to enjoy that kind of musical worship without the guilt that comes with wondering if you should be singing, that could be your stream in this desert.

Holy days without hymns

Truthfully, I haven’t found many musical streams in this desert. It has been a year since I sang in a room filled with people who share my faith. Throughout that year, even though I was free to listen or sing with fellow worshipers online, I felt that I missed out on the contemplative hymns of Good Friday, the celebratory anthems of Easter, and (most difficult for me) the carols of the Advent season.

It was almost as if these holy days didn’t happen. If I didn’t sing “Silent Night” holding a candle on Christmas Eve and share cookies and hot cocoa in the atrium afterward, did I really observe Christmas? Of course, the answer is yes. My family did celebrate the important markers of the liturgical calendar. I don’t believe that our observances were less “real” or spiritual or sincere. They were more difficult. The did require more faith. They did, at times, feel more like a sacrifice of time and effort.

In the end, the losses we have experienced are our losses. Perhaps it’s worth reminding ourselves that this pandemic and its restrictions have not robbed God of the worship he is due. When we stop singing and making music together, we don’t lose the presence of God with us or our ability to worship in spirit and in truth. We lose the presence of each other.

I have never been more aware that my worship serves my community, and the worship of my community serves me. It’s one way that we strengthen our faith and move toward unity. In his sermon, “A Knock at Midnight,” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote of corporate worship, “Worship at its best is a social experience in which people from all levels of life come together to affirm their oneness and unity under God.”

For a year now, most of us have not been able to participate in worship “at its best.” We mourn that loss and look forward to hearing the voices of our neighbors around us again.

Kelsey Kramer McGinnis is a musicologist, educator, and writer. She holds a PhD from the University of Iowa and researches music in Christian communities and music as propaganda.

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The post Why It Feels So Disappointing to Sing to the Lord a Remote Song appeared first on Christianity Today.

My not-so-strategic delays with this spring training/opening day review have taken us almost six weeks into the season, a fair but fragile sampling. A number of things are certainly clear by this point: the Cubs are for real, maybe even better, and that despite the loss of Kyle Schwarber's Gehrig-like presence with the ACL tear. Bryce Harper is finally living up to his hype—wait a minute, he's still one of the youngest players in the league! Chris Sale can pitch, and his stuff is nasty enough to at least provoke a glance over the shoulder at Gibson's 1.12 ERA mark. A Chi-Town series with irresistible force meeting unhittable object? Wait, not so fast, Stevens! Will the Sox outrun the Royals in the AL Central? Will Baltimore run away with the AL East, buoyed by Manny Machado's charismatic swagger? Will the Mariners keep it up out west, sustaining their surprising start? Should the Cubs and Nats already start sharpening swords for a clash in the NLCS? And why can't I care about the NL West—wait, I just got a D'Backs ballcap at a garage sale for free—is it an augury?!

How to sort out all these imponderables? I can answer that with a single number: 1983. Yes, the pine tar incident is our talisman to understand where this present season is heading, and so I have dredged up the opening-day rosters from that fabled (or not-so-fabled) season now 33 years past, to use as palimpsest for predicting.

Let's start in the NL East, where the Nationals began in torrid fashion, with Bryce Harper offering an apocalyptic week of homeruns (including pinch hit shots) to buoy up the boys, though they've staggered a bit lately. I've always liked Dusty Baker as a skipper, so the Nats should stay solid, and the one-two punch of Max Scherzer (joining the 20 Strikeouts in Nine Innings Club) and Stephen Strasburg is formidable, but their solid #3 starter, Jordan Zimmerman, is now excelling on the Tigers, and the pressure of expectations can impinge. Still, when I look back at 1983, hope springs in lively fashion from the north country, as the Nationals' antecedent, the Montreal Expos, fielded a powerful lineup of perennial stars, with Gary Carter catching, Al Oliver playing the one-bag, and an outfield of prowess: Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and the later icon of Japanese baseball, Warren Cromartie. All but Cromartie played in the '83 All-Star game, and ace Steve Rogers pitched in it—the die is cast, the Nationals are formidable and Montreal is not forgotten (rumor has it that, along with Mexico City, the jewel of Quebec is at the top of MLB's list for expansion). The Mets are solid again this season after a surprise World Series run, with a stirring rotation that includes Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, and the savage bat of Yoenis Cespesdes. Once again, '83 looms large—we already know that Gary Carter, cog of the '86 world champs, was still with the Expos, but it's also clear that Daryl Strawberry hadn't yet been called up, since the big sluggers were the quixotic Dave Kingman and the fading George Foster. Sure, Tom Seaver started on opening day, but his battery mate was Ron Hodges, who had 12 extra base hits in 110 games. As it turns out, Seaver had a respectable 3.55 ERA, and still went 9-14. Sorry to my brothers-in-law on Long Island, but the Mets fade this year by August. The Phillies of 2016 are confounding expectations so far despite being a band of relative unknowns anchored by the now veteran Ryan Howard. On the mound, Vincent Velasquez and Aaron Nota have shined—could they be the John Denny and Steve Carlton one-two punch from '83? But something's disconcerting here—together Denny and Carlton totaled 25 losses, and the opening day lineup appears a bit like the re-heated Big Red Machine, with Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose all on the other side of the hill. I don't like the implications—I say the '83 effect has the Phillies stumbling in August. The Miami Marlins are hanging in there, though their sparkplug Dee Gordon is now suspended for PED's (was someone mentioning how much the game has changed?), and they didn't exist even in antecedent form pre-1995, so we need to let them go. Forgive me, beloved Don Mattingly, but what are you doing with the tropical color-scheme on your uni? The Atlanta Braves are off to a nightmarish start (they just won their second game at home in 18 tries), their current roster seems filled with players on their second or third or fourth time around (A.J. Pierzynski, Kelly Johnson, Nick Markakis)—and 1983 has an aging Chris Chambliss at first base and the bearded wonder Glenn Hubbard at second, a thin line of appeal. The great but dull MVP Dale Murphy did go .302/36/121 (what the heck, he also scored 131 runs and stole 30 bases!), but it won't be enough—this team will lose 95 games.

The NL Central did not exist in 1983, but all its teams did, and the Cubs were rising then as now. This is an example of a double whammy—Leon Durham, Ryne Sandberg, the productive bat of Bill Buckner (pre-trauma), the productive glove of Larry Bowa, Jody Davis behind the plate—wait, was this a super-productive lineup? Well, 2016 is, featuring not only Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant and Javier Baez but also newly acquired Ben Zobrist, not to mention role-players like Tommy La Stella (credit Joe Maddon for getting reps for everyone on the roster). Jake Arrieta has reached Bob Gibson's stratosphere: the no-hit stuff, the 6-0 record, the outlandish ERA, the supreme confidence. Despite questions about 1983 (an aging Fergie Jenkins was the opening day starter), and dark memories of 1984, the Cubs will be a factor to the very end. Meantime, the Pirates hover, hoping the Cubs will slow down.Their star Andrew McCutcheon not yet heated up, but other guys are wielding hot bats, and they have a lot of young pitching, led by Gerrit Cole and Juan Nicasio. There is much to like here (watch out for former Tiger lefty Kyle Lobstein working out of the bullpen), but a glance at the '83 Opening Day lineup sends a shiver, as this was clearly an interregnum between Willie Stargell's 'We are Family,' and the early '90's Barry Bonds-led teams. I see corner infielders Jason Thompson and Dale Berra at an underwhelming glance, and Lee Mazzilli in center doesn't change the prognosis for 2016: third place, hovering at 83 wins. Right now the Cardinals are only above .500 by a tick, but that means nothing—this team rises from the ashes on a regular basis to play in the World Series, and though the personnel changes, the ethos does not. By the way, could we have another Smokey Joe Wood or Rick Ankiel on our hands with Adam Wainwright? If his surgically repaired arm doesn't hold, the upper-deck mammoth shot he hit a couple of weeks ago indicates he could move into a power-hitter role and platoon in right. This team has other sources of pop, and with young guns like Michael Wacha complementing Wainwright, why the sluggish start? Weren't the '83 Cardinals a force to be reckoned with, defending World Champs? George Hendrick, twenty years ahead of his time in wearing his baseball pants all the way down to the shoe-top, was a force that year, going .318/18/97, with the hirsute Ken Oberkfell and the crazy-legged Willie McGee both hitting at a decent clip and scoring runs ahead of him. So where does the bad vibe come from? Aha! I note that the Opening Day first baseman was the non-pareil field general Keith Hernandez, and that the mustachioed one hit .297 with 42 extra base hits—but he was traded to the Mets mid-season, and took his mighty presence away. I think that will haunt the St. Louisians one last time this year—they'll fade in late September. The Brewers were in the AL back in '83 and had just played in their only World Series ever. Were I using the 1982 season as a measuring stick, this might all be different, but they're already more than 10 games back, and though Ryan Braun has returned to form, hitting .380 with seven HR's, and formidable first baseman Chris Carter is enjoying a power surge, there is a bit of anemia, a sagging will in Milwaukee, that will make for an arduous summer. The Cincinnati Reds have lost a considerable slugger in Todd Frazier (more on this later), and starting pitching is as tempestuous as Tim Melville's surname, but it's really the '83 lineup to blame—what was Johnny Bench doing at third base, and what hope springs from Ray Oester starting at second? Sure, Mario Soto went 17-13 with a 2.70 ERA (one shudders at the lack of run-support), but he also gave up 28 home runs. The last puffs of the Big Red Machine, causing the 2016 edition of the team to stall as well.

The NL West is wrapped in mediocrity this season (or competitive parity, perhaps?); at the moment, everyone in the division is at or below the .500 mark. The Dodgers seem the team to beat, with Clayton Kershaw off to another outlandlishly good season, complemented by Kenta Maeda. Is there a 1983 connection to boost this rotation into the post-season? Through the fog I see a connection emerging, an erstwhile but not insignificant nostalgia—the Dodgers current pitching coach, Rick Honeycutt, won the American League ERA crown in '83, junkballing his way to a 14-8 record with a 2.42 ERA (on only 56 strikeouts in 175 innings!)—that stalwart of bad Mariners and Rangers teams will now help the Dodgers compete for the NL West crown. Should we bring up Steve Sax? No, let's move on to San Francisco, where the Giants are neck-and-neck with their arch-rivals. Their rotation looks like an A-list of potentiality—the Series veteran Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jake Peavy, Jeff Samardzija—but they've struggled, and no wonder. The Opening Day starter in '83 was Dave Krukow—enough said. But wait, Atlee Hammaker won the NL ERA crown that year with a strong 2.25! Yet he finished 10-9, dogged by an inconsistent offense (though Jeffrey Leonard was fearsome and Darrell Evans serviceable). This year, Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, and Angel Pagan have all been cooking, but somehow Johnny LeMaster as starting shortstop in '83 gives me pause. It won't be the Giants 'every other year' World Series title this year. I want to think it could be the Rockies year, because of the outrageous fun of the Trevor Story arrival, as accidental starting shortstop, with 6 HR's in his first four games. There's a lot more to like on the mile-high team, starting with Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, and the Rockies have a fine young arm in Tyler Chatwood. Still, with no 1983 back story to go on, I'm worried about the long-term chances. Manager Walt Weiss came a bit too late to bolster the 1983 creds—I think the Rockies fade to 90 losses. The Diamondbacks are also plagued by a lack of history—batting instructors Mark Grace and Dave Magadan don't quite reach back to 1983—but also by a lack of production from their stars thus far. Zach Greinke, nearly unhittable last year, gave up two of Trevor Story's early HR's in the desert, and has struggled since. All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is well below his usual level of performance, which is dangerous. Maybe a .500 season, but not much more, I'd say. The Padres are struggling at five games below .500, but they're fresh off a day/night doubleheader sweep of the Cubs (the first time the Cubs have lost two consecutive games this season). On the mound, Drew Pomeranz is a bright spot, and there's plenty of theoretical punch in the lineup. Can 1983 help? If it were 1984, a World Series year for the Padres, I'd have hope, but '83 was still centered around Gary Templeton's glove and bat at SS (think Ozzie Smith trade … ), and though catcher Terry Kennedy came up with a respectable .284/17/98 for the squad, and Dave Dravecky battled to 14-10, I'm not feeling a strong gravitational pull for this year's team—the will finish in the cellar.

Now, to the American League, and the additional X-factor which I must add to the mix, namely, who were the starting DH's on Opening Day of 1983, the tenth anniversary of the DH, and at this time (and maybe always) the place for aging sluggers to extend their arms and their careers? In the AL East, the Orioles are off to a strong start, clearly fueled by the vapors of their 1983 World Championship—a youthful (was he ever really young?) Cal Ripken went .318/27/102 that year, while his fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Murray went .306/33/111. Whatever Rich Dauer and Gary Roenicke contributed was gravy at that point. Mike Boddicker and Scotty McGregor finished in the top five in ERA and won 16 and 18 games, respectively. Okay, there is a strong edge from the past, but what about the 2016 Birds? Manny Machado is hitting .350 with 7 HR's and stellar defense at third, and Mark Trumbo has come over from the Angels, switched to RF, and is currently .337/8/22—and this with sluggers Adam Jones and Chris Davis not heated up yet. If Chris Tillman emerges as a bona-fide ace, this is a team to reckon with. That being said, the Red Sox are right alongside, with old guys like Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz doing damage, and up-and-comers like Xander Bogaerts contributing as well. Former Tiger young-gun Rick Porcello has come into his own, while David Price, also late of the Tigers (and Rays and Blue Jays), has been inconsistent, suffering a couple of shellackings. The Bosox should compete with the Orioles, especially when I weigh in 1983 DH's Carl Yazstremski vs. Ken Singleton—I'll go with the Hall of Famer, and predict that the Red Sox will overtake Orioles in the last week. Last year's division champs, the Blue Jays, appear on the road to struggle, despite the powerful presence of Josh Donaldson with his MVP numbers in the middle of the order and an outfield of Jose Bautista, Kevin Pillar, and Michael Saunders, all solid offensive producers. Could the 1983 outfield of Terry Collins, Lloyd Moseby, and Jesse Barfield buoy this up? What about Dave Stieb's stalwart 17-12 campaign? Maybe. But the tipping point of Butch Johnson as the 1983 DH? Despite the formidable mustache, I don't think it's enough. Tampa wasn't around in '83, and they appear to be fading this year as well—sign of the times, another former Tigers lefty, Drew Smyly, had a 2.60 ERA after his first 5 starts but a win-loss record of 1-3. No pop. And the Yankees look worse. Even their invulnerable bullpen for 100+mph arms has been roughed up (though now Aroldis Chapman is back from his suspension), and the aging knees of A-Rod, Carlos Beltran, and Mark Texeira can be heard creaking throughout the Bronx. Starlin Castro has emerged as a top-of-the-order hitter and fleet second baseman, but darkness has begun to descend. Can 1983 help, despite the fiasco of the pine tar game and the implosion of the Steinbrenner-Martin 're-re-re-re-marriage'? Don Baylor was the opening day DH, so that's something—and Ken Griffey, Sr., and a peaking Dave Winfield were in the lineup on Opening Day—but Don Mattingly wasn't yet in the everyday mix, which has augury written all over it—it hurts to say it, but the Yankees feel George Brett's wrath once more, and cellar-dwell.

The AL Central has been my milieu for the past two decades, and here the 1983 vibe is heavy, though 2016 has absolutely belonged to the White Sox thus far. Were it not for Jake Arrieta across town, Chris Sale would seem superhuman, and Jose Quintana is off to a great start. Melky Cabrera, Brett Lawrie, and Adam Eaton are slapping it around, but Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier got off to slow starts—though Frazier just drove in a bushel of runs and may be heating up with the weather. Can 1983 help them? Tony LaRussa was at the helm in those days of yore, with Jim Leyland by his side, in the umpteenth hideous uniform style in a row. The offense was pretty ugly back then too—Carlton Fisk basically led the team in everything, going .289/26/86, with 85 runs—but their pitchers were horses, with Lamar Hoyt going 24-10, and Dotson and Bannister combining for 38 more wins and 450 more innings to match Hoyt's 260. Pitching then and pitching now—a solid combination. But is there a single lowering cloud in the sky? Greg 'Bull' Luzinski as Opening Day DH in '83 … hmmmm. The Tigers are muddling along, three games below .500 and seven behind the Sox. Even upbeat and unparalleled radio play-by-play man Dan Dickerson, whose voice in my car or kitchen is part of our familial summer fabric, has let slip tattered phrases of despair on the performance of Mike Pelfrey, the off-season acquisition to shore up the rotation. But the arrival of Jordan Zimmerman from the Nationals has been revelatory, as he has been superb, balancing out the inconsistency of Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez. In an odd twist of fate, Miguel Cabrera has struggled with sliders and strikeouts and making good contact, while 3B Nick Castellanos, who used to flail at sliders, has become Cabrera-like. (Will the foul ball my son retrieved from the bat of the 18-year-old Castellanos during his season here with the Low A West Michigan Whitecaps someday be a cog in our family financial plan?!) Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler are both experiencing veteran rejuvenation at the plate, and a glance back at 1983, the year before their World Championship, shows a Tigers team ready to bolster from the past. Whitaker and Trammell, purveyors of a million DP's together over the years, finished third and fourth in the batting race, at .320 and .319, while Lance Parrish and Larry Herndon provided some pop (Herndon was a strong .302/20/92 that year). Entering his peak moment, Jack Morris was 20-13, struck out 232, and shouldered a hair under 300 innings—a horse. But I have a concern, and his name is John Wockenfuss, DH on Opening Day of '83. Even if the 2016 bullpen stays strong, this blow from the past might be enough to take down the Tigers. I hope not, but I worry. Strangely, I'm not worried about Kansas City, World Champs but for the moment a mediocre team with pitching problems and, other than Eric Hosmer, sketchiness at the plate. Still, maybe I should worry. The 1983 factor, the 'ya gotta believe redux' factor in Kansas City, suggests that the ship will right itself. Willie Mays Aikens, Frank White, U.L. Washington, and George Brett—a solid infield, with Brett going .310/25/93, even with the pine tar HR stripped away, while the DH factor was strong, with Hal McRae hitting .311. The Royals will rise again. The Cleveland Indians will not rise, though they should—that rotation, with Carrasco, Kluber, and Salazar, is formidable, and the young DP combination of Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis can flat our field and flat out hit. But '83 revises me (to misquote Li Young-Lee)—Ron Hassey, Bake McBride, Manny Trillo—I'm not feeling it. Wait, Julio Franco opened the season at shortstop—isn't he still playing somewhere?! I like Rick Sutcliffe as the ace, but he ended up peaking for the Cubs. Toss in the DH factor, and you get a strong Christian force in MLB ranks in Andre Thornton—but is his big swing and high K total enough to carry the 2016 team. Not quite. The Twins are in deep, deep trouble, 17 games under .500 after an abysmal start. And no wonder—Kirby Puckett. The sparkplug of their '87 and '91 title runs had not yet been called up on Opening Day, and though several of the champion cogs were in place—Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky—the fact that Randy Bush was the starting DH bodes ill. Maybe Byron Buxton will get called back up to fulfill the destiny set for him as the next Puckett—but right now he's on a minor league bus, and the Twins will continue to struggle.

And hence we arrive in the AL West, with a great surprise in store, perhaps the ultimate surprise that 1983 holds (or would it be "held," or "will have held"—complexities of verb tense). This year's surprise is that the Mariners are leading the pack, though Robinson Cano's sweet swing is no surprise. With Nelson Cruz, the ageless free-agent, crushing 450 foot shots behind Cano in the lineup, the Mariners have discovered how to score. They already know how to pitch, with King Felix Hernandez and Taijuan Walker leading the way. There's bad news for the Pacific Northwest, though—1983 is not your friend. In a year when your twin pitching duo of Young and Beattie finished in the top 20 in ERA but were a collective 21-30, and when your best hitter might have been Al Cowens, things look slim. The DH factor is a non-factor—it was Richie Zisk (did anyone else of my age demographic seem to get three Richie Zisk cards in every pack?!). Seattle will fade in the long summer. The Rangers, well, I already stole their '83 magic by designating Rick Honeycutt's stats for assignment elsewhere, though they can keep Charlie Hough's 15-13 record with the league's fourth best ERA at 3.18. The issue of run support obviously surfaces, a point punctuated by Danny Darwin going 8-13 and Mike Smithson 10-14 that year, though both had ERA's under 4. The bats were 'led' by Buddy Bell and Larry Parrish—I think Jim Sundberg might have batted up in the order. The DH on Opening Day was one Hostetler—lost to history! This year they have a young RF, Nomar Mazara, hitting well, and the stellar Adrian Beltre joins Elvis Andrus around .300, but where's the power (Prince Fielder, I'm calling to you!)? Top-of-the-rotation excellence from A.J. Griffin and Derek Holland should keep them around, but not quite on top. And the reason for this is the LA Angels. This is my dark horse pick out of the West, though they are seven games below .500 right now. Why, you may ask? Is it the astronomical talent of Mike Trout or the Hall of Fame punch of Albert Pujols hitting behind him? Yes and Yes. The new table-setters in Yunel Escobar and Kole Calhoun? Double yes. The gritty rotation with Garret Richards anchoring? Yes. But it's really about '83. The California Angels didn't win it all that year, but they stacked the All-Star roster with no less than six personages (few of whom I primarily identify with the Angels, by the way): Bob Boone (defense first, clearly, since he hit .256 that year), Doug DeCinces, Rod Carew (a pedestrian, for him, .339 season), Fred Lynn, Brian Downing (re-inventing the open batting stance), Bruce Kison as the Opening Day pitcher and relative ace. And the DH on this squad? Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, a tad diminished, but still vicious on balls down and in. I like the 2016 Angels to finish the task their forebears could not—hurtling into the postseason as a juggernaut. Wait, I still have to deal with Oakland and Houston, two teams on the wrong side of .500. The Athletics are in a down phase; their best pitcher is Rich Hill, a thirtysomething journeyman who's barely pitched in the last 5 seasons, and their best hitter is Jed Lowrie. A glance at '83 shows a team in pre-'Bash Brothers' mode, with Davey Lopes, Carney Lansford, and Dave 'Hindu' Henderson as the lead-dogs. DH—big bopper Jeff Burroughs. Once hit four home runs in a game. But not a factor in this calculus. The A's take a plunge this year. But why has Houston flopped so far this year, after rising from squalor to the postseason last year, the darlings of developing young talent and putting it all together the 'right way'? Well, one thing is their swing-for-the-fences mentality. No one on the team is in the top 20 in the AL in batting average, and their best young players, George Springer and Carlos Correa (both five-tool phenoms), are struggling to make contact. Plus, the pitching, a strong suit last season, has slid a bit—Dallas Keuchel is a legitimate ace, but will Doug Fister work out, or the almost but not yet Collin McHugh? But let's be frank—the real problem is found when we cross the years and the leagues and locate the 1983 Houston Astros in the NL West. At first, the journey yields great promise—Jose Cruz was third in the NL in batting, with a stellar .318/14/92 line, and two notches down, the counterintuitive presence of Ray Knight (he was the Astro's first baseman?!) hitting .304 with 36 doubles seems to swell the possibilities. Don't forget Dickie Thon, before the brutal beaning that damaged his vision, hitting .284, scoring 81 runs and stealing 34 bases. There's a lot of energy here, so why can't Astros resurge in 2016? I will attribute my angst to the switch of leagues—with no DH, no matter how obscure, to infuse energy from afar, the wheels come off. Even a saving throw of Terry Puhl, with his perennial league-leading pinch hits, can't salvage the season for Houston.

So what do we have here? The postseason will begin in the AL with the hateful and confusing one-game wildcard between Baltimore and Detroit, and before Cal Ripken can be summoned to show his hoary, tonsured head to the crowd to summon the old championship magic, the Tigers will dispatch the Orioles, moving out west to take on the shocking Angels. Meantime, the two Sox will battle, with the Red Sox riding David Ortiz's wizened playoff wizardry to a seventh-game showdown with the White Sox in a frenzied Southside Chicago. Look for one of the three Tigers castaways—Alex Avila, Avisail Garcia, or most likely Austin Jackson—to play a crucial role in felling Boston. The White Sox have the vibe, and the pilgrim-collared uniforms of '83 might re-appear (but not the short pants, please!). The Angels will batter the Tigers faster than you can spell 'DeCinces,' as Detroit continues its long-term struggles in Southern California, and then the icy winds will descend on Chicago, as the Angels shiver and slip through sleet, slashing at Sale's sliders (Gerard Manley Hopkins finally makes it to the ballpark!). The White Sox will scratch and claw in the bad weather, then erupt on the Angels home field, but mighty Pujols and the leaping Trout will hold serve, and back at what was once Comiskey, in a Game Seven played in autumnal chill, with Bobby Grich present in the crowd, the Angels will earn the right to play for the World's Championship, with Jered Weaver matching Chris Sale pitch by gangly pitch, for ten innings, until Pujols quiets the crowd with a slider deposited deep in left-center. '83.

In the NL, the Cardinals surge, and no matter what I said before, they make the wildcard and clash with the Pittsburgh (Lee Mazilli, I've decided you did make the difference!)—the Cardinals emerge swinging bats and punches, ready for the rival Cubs, while the Nationals and the Dodgers cross the country to cross swords. The Cubs will be ready, emotionally and baseball-wise, to take down their longtime foe, as Arrieta provides a Bob Gibson-esque lesson in sustained postseason dominance, and Kyle Schwarber miraculously returns ahead of schedule from his ACL tear for one limping, Kirk Gibson-esque late home run. Wrigley will be electric, and twice Chicago will host games in the north and south sides on the same night—a vigor for the windy city not felt in the baseball world since a century ago. The Nationals will ride the Francophonic winds of Montreal mystique straight through the hearts of the Dodger fans, with an NLDS sweep that leaves an old refrain migrating west from Brooklyn to L.A.: 'Wait until next year'—and wait until $250 million on the payroll! Gio Gonzalez, Strasburg, Roark, Scherzer—this rotation is formidable and will be at its strongest when the Cubs come to town. Strength on strength, mano a mano, a Strasburg heater cutting in on Rizzo's hands, Arrieta 3-2 on Bryce Harper, an NLCS for the ages, with ghosts and echoes and tintinnabulations resounding through D.C. and the Northside. Back and forth, until Arrieta and Scherzer meet in Game Seven, in Wrigley, the World Series a few hours away. Steve Bartman in exile, the curse of the billy goat exorcised, the futility of the both sets of Washington Senators now rescinding, and then Jayson Werth twists all 6'5" into a fastball and the Cubs dreams must wait another year. The El-Series, the ChiTown Twinbill, the Cubs-White Sox miracle series, will have to wait for another year.

Washington vs. Anaheim—not phrasing to stir the hearts of the baseball faithful—but many of us should fault our younger selves, or our parents' generation, for stocking the ranks of the 1983 All-Star Game with Angels and Expos. I say the World Series is a denouement. Dusty Baker and Mike Scioscia shake off the nostalgic dust of Dodgers glory, of teammate bonding, and stare each other down from the dugout steps. Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, neither yet eligible to serve in the House of Representatives or, according to T. S. Eliot, to pursue the title of poet (in both cases, one must be 25 years old), will shine like blazing young stars. Speaking of blazing, Strasburg will bring all his vast heat to bear. Nationals in five. Two complete games for Strasburg. Bob Gibson in the stands, smiling. Tim McCarver on the radio, reminiscing. Chicago baseball fans, not watching, not listening, not caring. Until next season.

Michael R. Stevens is professor of English at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Copyright © 2016 Books & Culture. Click for reprint information.

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So, what will happen in 2015 in Major League Baseball, with a new commissioner, Rob Manfred, at the helm? (According to my coach’s e-newsletter from Little League Baseball International, Manfred himself played Little League ball in Rome, New York, a town over from where my nephews and nieces range on the diamonds of Utica.) Well, the season is already a month old, and I’ve been at the center of its most exciting story so far, the heated race for the AL Central—at the moment, the Tigers are at 15-7 and the Royals a half-game behind at 14-7. I listen to every Tiger game on radio (Dan Dickerson, your play-by-play is extraordinary, and we thank you—and Jim Price, color commentator, you’ve grown on us with time!), and I already feel a pennant race evolving. And if I start close to home, what happened to the predictions that the White Sox and Indians would rise up and slay last year’s big boys? Well, here’s the first case study in my new metrics for predicting winners this year—the Cuban connection.

Outlandish money has been spent the last few seasons in signing fresh talent from the diplomatically thawing Cuba, often signings leading to violations and fines and confusing communication from the league office. Rob Manfred admits the rules governing recruitment of international players, especially young players, have given way to anarchy (look for an international draft as soon as the new collective bargaining agreement is done in 2016). For now, there is madness afoot, presaged by the scramble to sign Yasiel Puig and Yoenis Cespedes (who’s already gone from the A’s to the Red Sox to the Tigers) and—last year’s big story—Jose Abreu (he looms in the middle of the ChiSox lineup). This past winter the Diamondbacks spent $68 million to win the sweepstakes for Yasmany Tomas (who didn’t make the opening day roster but was brought up quickly from Triple-A). What about the $31-million signing bonus by the Red Sox for teenaged infielder Yoan Moncada?! That on the heels of the BoSox signing Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo for 7 years at $70 million—and none of the above were sure things to play significant innings this year. On the horizon, Hector Olivera is the next big thing, courted by all the big money teams—with the already Cuban-rich Dodgers as frontrunners—and his signing (as a 29-year-old!) will likely eclipse $70 million as well. Has baseball gone Cuban-mad? Well, teams should, because this year, in honor of the détente effected between long-time Western Hemisphere nemeses (and with hopes that many, many more actual freedoms occur on the beautiful island that has long idolized baseball), Cuban players will be the key, and not just in the present tense (only 19 Cuban players are on big league rosters, compared to 83 Dominicans and 65 Venezuelans), but also Cuban players of past glory (or obscurity) who will still have psychic pull this year.

Back in the AL Central, the presence of Jose Abreu, backed by catcher Adrian Nieto and shortstop Alexei Ramirez, offers the White Sox organization a chance at pennant glory, but one spring elision may cost them such a run—the release of the fullback-built free-swinger Dayan Viciedo, who would have given the Sox enough of the Cuban magic to win 95 games. They will still compete, eventually, and the Minnie Minoso factor is not to be minimized (ah, the dangers of linguistic temptation!), but the Tigers combo of Cespedes in left field and, recently returned from a lost season of leg problems, shortstop Jose Iglesias will thrust them into contention for the long haul. When the x-factor of former Cuban rookie cog of the ’84 champs Barbaro Garbey is put in the mix, the Tigers look dangerous. The Twins and Royals will have to lean on past Cuban glory, with Tony Oliva and Zoilo Versalles offering the Twin Cities All-Star echoes, and Cookie Rojas holding together what I am forced to call a fragile venture out in KC (note: the emergence of Kendrys Morales as a new pick-up in KC may make me eat these words—we’ll see in October). The Indians, well, things have been rough there early, with brilliant young catcher Yann Gomes getting hurt, and promising hurler Carlos Carrasco getting hit with a line drive in the head. Plus, in my cursory search of the Cleveland-Cuba connection, I’ve only unearthed a 9-game stint by Camilo Pascual in 1971, at the end of a long and storied career with the Senators and Twins—it’s just not going to be enough. Detroit wins a fifth straight division title, and the White Sox get a wildcard chance. What the heck, I’ll eat my words right now (Kendrys Morales has 17 runs and 16 RBIs through the first 21 games!), and the Royals will get the other wildcard.

The AL East looks like it has a power-shift happening, with perennial contenders like the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox sloughing off a bit, and the Orioles and maybe Blue Jays rising up. But the Cuban considerations show a different story. The Yankees, surprisingly leading the division, may be drawing on the mojo of El Duque from their storied ’90s playoff runs, but how long will that last? The Blue Jays, alas, have made the same mistake as the White Sox, releasing Dayan Viciedo this spring (who knew that he would hold the key to the AL pennant?!). The Rays look bad on any number of levels, including the inability to sign players from the island only a few hundred miles south of their home field. So, are the Orioles ready to compete again? Well, another way of asking that question might be: is Miguel Gonzalez enough? His mere 6 games of service last year means that their Cuban connection is paper-thin, and I think they falter in the humidity of a Maryland August. That leaves the Red Sox, the team I most deplored growing up in New York as a Yankee fan, the team that has claim to the lion’s share of the Luis Tiant legacy (yes, he started his career in Cleveland just after the Castro takeover of his home country, and yes he finished up with the Yankees, most memorably for me doing the Ball Park Franks commercials in a Yankees cap, but his glory days were with the mid-’70s Red Sox, including starting the mythic Game 6 in 1975 that Pudge Fisk ended in the eleventh). When you add the Rusney Castillo factor, and the Yoan Moncando signing, you discover a team committed (to the tune of $130 million!) to the Cuban factor in the long term. I say short term it pays off, and the Red Sox win the division by 5 games.

The AL West is tough to call every year, especially now with Houston becoming competitive and, dare I say it, dangerous. But where are the Cuban players? The A’s are in worse shape—they have the fewest foreign-born players of any roster in the league, only two, and one of them, Brett Lawrie, is a Canadian! The Rangers have Leonys Martin and the Mariners have Roenis Elias as their Cuban representatives, sort of cancelling each other out—and then there’s the Angels franchise, suffering internal strife and even dissolution right now, a sad public tragedy in the wake of Josh Hamilton’s personal struggles. One hopes for better days there, and perhaps high-priced Cuban shortstop Roberto Baldoquin will be the answer down the road. For now, the deciding factor for this division rides unexpectedly (even to me) on the pitching career of Cuban hurler Connie Marrero, for the early 1950s Senators (all 5’5″, 158 lbs. of him, according to Total Baseball)—I know that that team became the Twins, and only the later Senators became the Rangers, but hey, it’s a fine line in this division—I say the Rangers win it on the last day of the season.

Since we started in the AL Central, let’s go to the Central Division of the National League—where the long awaited re-arrival of Spring Training phenom Kris Bryant has helped the Cubs to their first winning record in April since 2008. More subtle but more crucial, of course, is the presence of Jorge Soler as the young Cuban connection roaming the Wrigley outfield. And the Cubs will need this edge, not only because of their bitter overachieving rivals in St. Louis and the steady contenders in Pittsburgh but also, and especially, the Cincinnati Reds, who have the rare punch of two Cuban pitchers: the already legendary fireballing closer Aroldis Chapman and the intriguing addition Raisel Iglesias (who apparently has grown from 5’11”, 170 to 6’2″, 185 since the Reds signed him). (The Brewers? With a 5-17 start, things are looking grim—and I’m still adjusting to the loss of the Brewers from the AL East—Moose Haas, where are you now?!). My guess: the Reds and Cubs are deadlocked through September, and both see the postseason. The Reds sport in their annals the single (as far as I have discovered) Cuban Hall of Famer, the great Tony Perez, but I give the Cubs the edge to win the division, with Cincinnati claiming a wild-card spot.

The NL East is all askew right now, with the Mets off to an amazing start and the Nats struggling out of the gate. But the Nationals have a new Cuban shortstop in Yunel Escobar, and that will push them forward more than the powerhouse starting rotation. They’ll hang around as the New York and Atlanta franchises fade, but by August, the dark horse will arrive in the shape of the Miami Marlins, led by all-everything slugger Giancarlo Stanton, but buoyed further by the more-or-less neighborly connection between Cuba and Miami, with the double-force of Adeiny Hechevarria and Jose Fernandez! The Marlins take the division in an autumnal power-surge, and the Nationals disappoint down the stretch. The Phillies will be in last place for the foreseeable future.

So, we’ve waited for the NL West until last, as always, since to me the West Coast senior circuit competition is the most abstract and the least predictable. The Colorado Rockies early season success probably won’t last: without a Cuban player, they will experience a natural disintegration. For the same reason, the reigning world-champ Giants will stay in the cellar this year (and they thought it was because of the free-agent defection of the Kung-Fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval!). That leaves the Padres and the Dodgers as the true contenders (Arizona’s not ready, but wait a year or two), and not just for the NL West but for the whole National League. The seriously retooled Padres will push hard, not only because they coaxed Matt Kemp to come down the highway from LA to SD, but also because the link to Cuba has brought Yonder Alonso and the lyrically named Odrisamer Despaigne to the Padre fold. Ah, the possibilities of springtime, in the city where it is always summertime (can anyone trace the last rain-out in San Diego?). All well and good, but the Dodgers rule the roost for the entire league when it comes to Cuban players, with the dynamic and difficult Yasiel Puig leading a host that includes Alex Guerrero, the name-rich pair Erisbel Arruebarrena and Yasmani Grandal, and more likely than not the next-kid-from-the-island Hector Olivera. Lots of talent, lots of mojo, and the wildcard not from Havana, but from Evansville, Indiana, in the form of manager Don Mattingly, my baseball hero in the golden years of icy, swampy, occasionally glorious high school baseball in upstate New York. Despite Kemp’s valiant vengeance late in the season, the Dodgers will prevail in the West.

Indeed, the postseason will find the Padres and the Reds in the wild-card one-game tilt, with James Shields battling Johnny Cueto the full nine, until Yonder Alonso hits one yonder and the Reds head to Miami to play the Marlins. That means the Cubs will travel to Chavez Ravine to tilt with the juggernaut Dodgers, with the shades of Ernie Banks and Jackie Robinson held in living memory during a nail-biting series that will swing back and forth from the sunshine of LA to the bluster of Wrigley in October. Will the rookie wonderboy Kris Bryant be able to tip the scales away from the Dodger’s Cuban-fueled destiny? Can Jorge Soler strike a blow to the coterie of his countrymen wearing the Dodger blue? Will a late-season acquisition of Dayan Viciedo put the Cubs over the top?? I want to say yes, but for this one year, the Dodgers have chosen the path of victory (as well as to hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines to Major League Baseball and tens of millions of dollars in salaries—all for the services of these fine Cuban folk). Meanwhile, the Reds batter the Marlins in a sweep, fueled by the unexpected battery of Cuban rookie Raisel Iglesias and long-time back-up catcher and fellow-Cuban Brayan Pena (Pena also hits .750 in the series with 3 unlikely home-runs!). And so the NLCS will have the look of the 1970s to it, with the Reds and Dodgers returning to postseason prominence—but instead of Rawley Eastwick facing down Ron Cey at the key moment in Game 6, it will be Aroldis Chapman firing a triple-digit fastball to Yasiel Puig, in an all-Cuban finale, as Puig drives the right-center gap for a game-winning inside-the-park gallop! The Dodgers win the pennant, and all of Cuba rejoices!

In the American League, the White Sox will play the Royals in the wildcard, and these familiar foes will go scoreless to the edge of midnight, when Alexei Ramirez will offer the Cuban surge with a triple down the line, and his countryman Jose Abreu will score him, and win the game, on a sacrifice fly. No KC magic this fall—why did they let Brayan Pena go two years ago?! The White Sox will ride the surge into Boston, and the Sox vs. Sox battle will feature significant Cuban contributions—but will the known quantities of Abreu and Ramirez for Chicago trump the unproven youth movement of Rusney Castillo and Yoan Moncada in the Boston red and black? In honor of Minnie Minoso (and hopefully not as a slam to Luis Tiant), I see the Chicago team riding Abreu’s stellar bat to a seventh game win.

Meanwhile, the Tigers will dispatch the Rangers, as everything Texas hits to the left-side of the Tiger ‘D’ will be scooped up by SS Iglesias or run down by LF Cespedes—the Cuban emphasis on defense will serve the Motor City boys well (not to mention the inimitable power-swing of the great Miguel Cabrera) as Detroit sweeps. And hence, the AL Central battlers will meet in the ALCS. There was a prophetic moment in the first week of the season, in the opening Tigers-White Sox series: Jose Abreu struck a blow for Chicago (and Cuba) with an early grand slam, and the next day, Yoenis Cespedes struck a blow for Detroit (and Cuba) with a first-inning grand slam. In between, the voice of baseball in my life, Tiger radio man Dan Dickerson, gave an extended discourse on the impact of Cuban players in Major League Baseball this year—and to boot, the wonderful NPR weekly music show Folk Sampler featured songs about baseball. Metaphorically, the planets have aligned!

And so the World Series will match the Dodgers and the Tigers. Puig and Cespedes will cancel each other out with stellar outfield play and gap power at the plate, and the middle infield heroics of Jose Iglesias will be off-set by the Cuban combo of Alex Guerrero and Erisbel Arruebarrena for the Dodgers—a close match-up in all facets. From the mound, non-pareil lefties Clayton Kershaw and David Price will go head-to-head, and first base and the three-hole in the batting orders will be manned by the two best hitters in the majors, Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Gonzalez. I almost hesitate to look into the annals for Cuban players of yore who might tip this scale, and though my heart is for Detroit, my head sees the name of Sandy Amoros, who proved heroic at the apex of Jackie Robinson’s glorious push of the Dodgers past the hated Yankees, in the 1955 World Series—somehow it fits, as the Cuban of old pushes the balance ever so slightly, and then, why not, let’s give Hector Olivera the game- and series-winning hit, even though he’s not even signed yet! Such is the anticipatory power of the new Cuban connection in this 2015 season. And 60 years after Jackie saw the Dodgers finally win baseball’s crown (note: Roger Kahn’s outrage over the defection to California has remained virulent all those decades: “The idea that in the next decade a buccaneering lawyer would hijack the Dodgers and dump them into the Los Angeles Coliseum was beyond imagination and beyond nightmares”), well, if the Dodgers win it all in 2015, perhaps the link of joy can stretch from LA all the way back to Brooklyn, and then on to Havana, the site of Jackie’s first spring training with the Dodgers almost 70 years ago. Talk about closing the loop!

Michael R. Stevens is professor of English at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Copyright © 2015 Books & Culture. Click for reprint information.

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The Leader’s Outer World

The Reason for God

“Tim Keller models for pastors how to thoughtfully and winsomely respond to the most common questions that people ask.” –Rich Nathan

Also recommended:

Culture MakingRecovering our creative calling by Andy Crouch (IVP)

“This book transcends the twin perils of Christian cultural engagement, lament and mimicry, with a wise and bold call to fully live out our creational mandate and go make something.” –Mark Buchanan

AxiomPowerful leadership proverbs by Bill Hybels (Zondervan)

“This book truly helps Christians become more skilled leaders by offering practical wisdom that can be readily applied.” –Sarah Sumner

Consuming JesusBeyond race and class divisions in a consumer church by Paul Louis Metzger (Eerdmans)

“Consuming Jesus sounds the death knell for a paradigm of church growth driven by the homogeneous unit principle and that measures success by numbers, dollars, and buildings.” –Mark DeYmaz

Church UniqueHow missional leaders cast vision, capture culture, and create movement by Will Mancini (Jossey-Bass)

“Remissionalizing established churches can be rough going. If leaders are to successfully steer through the spiritual, cultural, and institutional challenges of the 21st century, they will need help. Will Mancini is a savvy navigator and Church Unique is an impressive blueprint for renewal.” –Alan Hirsch

THE LEADER’S INNER WORLD

Surprised by Hope

“Engaging the mind and soul, Surprised by Hope is an invigorating read that places the mission of the church within the massive context of God’s redeeming work through the resurrection of Christ.” -David Swanson

Also recommended:

The Jesus WayA conversation on the ways that Jesus is the Way by Eugene Peterson (Eerdmans)

“Eugene Peterson has a way of asking pointed questions but allowing the answers to surface conversationally, much like Jesus. Peterson lives what he writes, which means his tough questions come attached with redemptive motives.” –Clark Cothern

The Attentive LifeDiscerning God’s presence in all things by Leighton Ford (IVP)

“The school of spiritual formation is in session in the mundane rhythms of life, and Ford reveals how the Spirit intends to shape us through our attentiveness to God’s movements in our ordinary life.” –Matt Tebbe

Life with GodReading the Bible for spiritual transformation by Richard Foster (HarperOne)

“Foster helps us apply the Bible on a deeper level. He teaches us to read the Bible for transformation not just information. It should fill our lives and not just our brains.” –Benny Perez

Memoirs of an Ordinary PastorThe life and reflections of Tom Carson by D.A. Carson (Crossway)

“In an age when pastors are told that in order to be successful we must seek power, recognition, and status, Carson shows us that God defines success in terms of giving, not taking; self-sacrifice, not self-indulgence; going to the back, not getting to the front.” –Tullian Tchividjian

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

The post The Golden Canon appeared first on Christianity Today.

1. Lebanon gets worse as Christians targeted Two commuter buses were bombed Tuesday in the small Christian village of Ain Alak (photos). “Many residents simply shrugged over the culprit’s identity, a seeming gesture of weariness over a crisis that has brought Lebanon perilously close to civil war,” The Washington Post reports. But everyone agrees that the target was Lebanon’s Christian community, and the victims were among the poorer members of that community.

“The buses were packed with students, blue-collar workers, Sri Lankan maids and women making their way to Christian theology lessons,” the Los Angeles Times notes.

“The attacks, spaced 10 minutes apart … appeared to mark a new chapter in Lebanon’s months-old crisis, with the aim shorn of any apparent political objective beyond killing civilians,” says the Post.

If you haven’t read our recent coverage of the Lebanon crisis from the perspective of two Lebanese evangelicals, be sure to read Martin Accad’s “The ‘Jesus Manifesto’ for Lebanon” and Riad Kassis’ “The Colors of Lebanon.”

2. Coptic Christians attacked again in Egypt It seems not to take much for Muslims in southern Egypt to attack Christians in the area. Reuters reports that “rumors of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Coptic Christian man” set off a riot in Armant, with Muslims attacking Christian shops and a minivan. Eight Muslim men (who are permitted to marry Christian women, but whose daughters are not allowed to marry Christian men) were arrested.

3. Anglicans, Presbyterians face splits The big Anglican primates’ meeting is underway in Tanzania. Despite truckloads of predictions and analysis (the Anglicanblogosphere seems both ablaze and weary), there’s very little to report so far. We’ll let you know when something actually happens.

Meanwhile, it looks like 130 or so of the 151 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in the New Wineskins Association of Churches are taking steps to leave the denomination, likely for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The EPC may create a new, non-geographic presbytery for the New Wineskins group. Will it really happen? We’ll see. But we’ve learned to be cautious about these realignment / breakaway / exodus stories.

4. ELCA disciplinary committee criticizes but follows policy on gay pastor In another of these almost-a-real-decision stories, a disciplinary committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to remove Bradley Schmeling from the ministry because he engages in homosexual behavior. But the committee also said that the rules barring gay ministers “are at least bad policy, and may very well violate the constitution and bylaws of this church” and urged the denomination to “initiate a process” at its August assembly to remove the prohibitions against gay clergy. Hoping to see such changes made, the committee didn’t make Schmeling’s removal effective until after the assembly.

5. Is KDKA to blame in pastor’s suicide The story of the Rev. Brent Dugan, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon, Pennsylvania, is a tragic one. After a lifelong struggle with homosexual desires, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported last year, in 2002 Dugan “became close friends with a man who claimed to love him, and with whom he had occasional sexual encounters. That man cajoled him into leaving specific kinds of sexual fantasies on his answering machine, and then betrayed him by setting up a meeting at an adult bookstore, where KDKA-TV recorded him.”

In November, a sweeps month, KDKA repeatedly aired promotions for its expose of Dugan, but didn’t mention him by name. Reporter Marty Griffin said his investigation “uncovered illicit, possibly illegal, activity by a local minister, activities which, at the very least, violated the rules of his denomination.”

KDKA never aired the report. It canceled its broadcast plans when it heard that Dugan was “considering doing harm to himself.” The next day, Dugan committed suicide by overdosing on aspirin and alcohol. That set off a wave of criticism of the station.

“It’s the use of key words — possibly illegal, at the very least — that call into question whether the report was worth doing in the first place,” Post-Gazette TV columnist Rob Owen said. “If the best Griffin could dig up was a trip to an adult bookstore (not illegal) and violation of church rules, then there’s not much in it to serve the public interest. It comes off looking like another ‘gotcha’-style story designed for no benefit except the TV station’s ratings.”

“What kind of culture (individual+church+politics+press+commercialism) sets the stage for this sort of pain after a lifetime of service, sacrifice and silent struggling? What kind of people patiently plan and then wait for such a person’s failure?” Grove City College psychology professor Warren Throckmorton asked on his blog. “Brent Dugan apparently led an honorable, commendable and generous life. He deserved much better than treachery for the sake of commercialism.”

James Mead, pastor to Pittsburgh Presbytery, told members in December, “It is the view of many, including me, that KDKA may well be said to have crossed boundaries of acceptable journalistic practices in its development and treatment of this story, and its treatment of our pastor who was its subject.”

This week, Pittsburgh’s main ecumenical body filed an official complaint with the FCC as the station seeks renewal of its broadcast license. While Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania says it doesn’t want KDKA’s license revoked, it does want an apology “for the misleading promos and unfortunate lapse in journalistic reporting that led to the Rev. Brent Dugan’s unfortunate death.”

The Post-Gazette‘s Ann Rogers reports:

[The letter to the FCC] says the promos “sentenced” the Rev. Dugan before the presbytery had time to look into the situation, which could have produced a church process that “provided for repentance, rehabilitation and forgiveness.” It says that the promos violated the Code of Broadcast News Ethics, and the letter deplores “the exploitation of religious leaders and issues for increased ratings at the expense of journalistic integrity and the truth.” Mr. Mead said they were not asking to stop coverage of clergy who commit crimes, but to refrain from sensationalistic stories that would not be considered news if they were about someone in a different profession.

You might wonder why Weblog is covering this now, instead of on November 3, when Dugan committed suicide. We probably would have given this more attention, but we were busy. On November 2, Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals amid news reports that he had been involved with a male prostitute. So far, Weblog has seen no comparisons of media coverage of those two cases. But one wonders: What made the Haggard case such an acceptable story that we’re still seeing articles and commentaries about it (Haggards to leave Colorado Springs! Mike Jones to auction his massage table on eBay!), while the Dugan case is a sensationalistic “gotcha” story “with no benefit” that “would not be considered news if it was about someone in a different profession”?

Quote of the day “When you’re a Christian and a middle linebacker for the Colts, you still hit people when they come over the middle. You just make sure it isn’t a cheap shot.” —Political strategist Ralph Reed, on why he uses negative campaign ads. He added, “In politics, you try to make sure it’s not personal. I’ve never felt comfortable with a family situation, even a divorce. … You also have to make sure that the negative information is true. … We’re all going to make a mistake. I think about Peter and the ear of Malchus, how after he severs his ear Christ heals it. … If we’re willing to say, I went too far, I think we have to trust Christ to heal it.” He was speaking at a symposium at Yale Divinity School and quoted by Huffington Post blogger Chris Meserole.

Special note We had trouble getting the Weblog put together last week, but we’ve compiled stories under the “better late than never” principle. Unfortunately, some of the stories from last week are a bit outdated, and some of the links may be broken. To help you find the most recent and relevant stories, then, we’ve split the links below into two sections. The first are articles that have been published since last Friday. The second are older articles published last week. Sorry for the delay.

More articles

Anglican meeting in Tanzania | More Anglicanism | ELCA verdict | Ted Haggard and New Life Church | Homosexuality | Sexual ethics | Church life | Presbyterians | Catholicism | Abuse | Lebanon attacks | Crime | Remnant Fellowship murder trial | Funding prison ministry | Church and state | Politics | Mitt Romney | Other Republican candidates | Democratic candidates | Environment | Life ethics | Death penalty | Religious freedom | India | Fiji | Sudan | Israel and Judaism | Blood libel | History | Evolution | Education | Sexual education | Higher education | Research | Books | Media | Entertainment | People | Money and business | Missions & ministry | Islam | Other stories of interest

Last Week’s Articles

Ted Haggard | Homosexuality | Marriage | Spring Arbor’s transgender prof | Evolution | Education | University of Sydney | Life ethics | Parental notification | HPV | Healthcare | Adoption | Church and state | China | Malaysia | Religious freedom | Religious displays | Property disputes | Anglicanism | Baptists | Eastern Orthodox | Catholicism | Robert Drinan | People | Dungy and Smith | NFL vs. churches | More on Super Bowl and churches | Media, art, and entertainment | Books | John Edwards’s bloggers | Barack Obama | John McCain | Mitt Romney | Other 2008 candidates | Politics | Environment | Fiji | War and terrorism | Crime | Abuse | Remnant Fellowship murder case | Arson | Theft | Money and business | Church life | Florida tornadoes | Judaism | Islam | Other stories of interest

Anglican meeting in Tanzania:

• Anglican leaders under pressure to prevent schism | At Wednesday’s meeting, 38 church leaders will grapple with how to avoid a split between traditionalist and liberal factions (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Anglican conference opens in Tanzania | A conference of Anglican leaders opened Wednesday as the 77 million-member church struggles with a potentially disastrous fight over the Bible and sexuality (Associated Press)
• Williams faces fresh effort to stop Anglican split over gay clergy | Archbishop handed letter from church conservatives warning that Canterbury may lose central position (The Guardian, London)
• Archbishop faces Church split | The Archbishop of Canterbury arrived at a critical Anglican summit yesterday looking increasingly likely to back a “parallel” Church for conservatives, a move that will appall liberals (The Telegraph, London)
• Archbishop faces boycott at gay summit | The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, could find himself “excluded” from the meeting after protests from African and Asian archbishops representing the conservative Global South (The Times, London)
• Archbishop battles to ward off final Anglican split on homosexuality | Rival faction plots tactics before Tanzanian meeting; conservatives refuse to meet US pro-gay bishop (The Guardian, London)
• Archbishop’s peace talks threatened | The Archbishop of Canterbury flies into the biggest Anglican crisis since the Reformation today without even knowing whether his fellow Church leaders will sit in the same room together (The Telegraph, London)
• Last bid to stop Anglican split | Archbishop Williams enters ‘pivotal’ battle to find a compromise in homosexuality row (The Observer, London)
• Why is the Anglican Church facing a schism, and can it be prevented? | A Q&A on the meeting in Tanzania (The Independent, London)
• Tanzania bishop breaks ranks in gay Anglican row | Tanzanian Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo says it is with a clear conscience that his diocese of Central Tanganyika continues to accept money from its liberal counterpart in New York (Reuters)
• No pain, no gain | Worldwide Anglicans, facing split, prepare for key meeting that’s all about losing (World)
• New Episcopal leader braces for gay-rights test | Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori may face hostility at a meeting in Tanzania with Anglican bishops (The New York Times)
• Blunt bishop at the center of a schism | How Archbishop Peter Akinola’s rejection of liberal “sins” and the ordination of gay clergy could push the Anglican Church to split (Time)
• The real Mr Big? | The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is the nominal head of the world’s 78 million Anglican Christians. But he now faces a challenge from Nigerian archbishop Peter Akinola, whose fiercely anti-gay stance could tear the Communion apart (The Guardian, London)
• Njongonkulu Ndungane invites Africa’s Anglicans to gather under a bigger tent | A global meeting of Anglican leaders in Tanzania will focus on the issue of homosexuality, which currently threatens to break the church apart (The New York Times)
• The Episcopal Church’s struggles concern us all | If you care about the erosion of civility and general polarization going on in America, you might think of the Episcopal Church as a canary in the mine shaft (Barry L. Beisner, San Francisco Chronicle)
• Gays, marriage and Rowan Williams | Neither side sees homosexuality as the most important factor in a Christian life. It is just a focus for differences on Scripture and authority. Schisms have turned on lesser matters—the date of Easter, say. Fallen mankind tends to break up (Christopher Howse, The Telegraph, London)
• Blathering bishops | Some of them say the silliest things, at the worst possible moment (Stephen Bates, The Guardian, London)
• Church must confront this clash of convictions | We must be welcoming, but we cannot embrace indifference about doctrine and hope to survive. (Peter Jensen, The Sydney Morning Herald)
• It is time for the Anglican Luthers to divorce | An obsession with unity is blinding Anglican leaders from seeing the truth now facing them (Ruth Gledhill, The Times, London)

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More Anglicanism:

• Controversial priest weighing legal options | Diocese refuses to lift restrictions on parish contact (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• National church backs diocese vs. breakaways | The Episcopal Church on Friday filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County similar to ones filed last month by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia (The Washington Times)
• Judge says Episcopal Diocese can’t amend lawsuit | A Superior Court judge Wednesday denied a request from the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego to raise new legal claims in a lawsuit against a Fallbrook church that already had been decided in the church’s favor, an attorney for the church said (North County Times, San Diego, Ca.)
• Lodi church rejects Episcopal schism | Issue of whether gays can join the clergy splitting the world Anglican Communion (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Christians want Bishop Onono out | The continued row at the Gulu Anglican Church has taken another twist with Christians of Christ Church demanding that Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng, the northern Anglican bishop leave the diocese (The Monitor, Uganda)
• Earlier: Gulu church row deepens | The troubles in the Gulu municipality Church of Uganda seem to deepen by the day. On Sunday, Christians were treated to free drama when Ray Otim, a catechist, grabbed a microphone from Martin Okulluyere, a former parish council member (The Monitor, Uganda, Feb. 7)
• Cohabitation, church style | Two signs can be found outside a modern church building in Oak Harbor: One announces “St. Stephen’s Anglican Church,” the other “St. Stephen Episcopal Church.” (Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Episcopal Church will survive latest strife | As has happened before, the Episcopal Church will survive its passionate divisions (Ed Jones, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.)
• One holy catholic | Anglican dioceses should be more expressive of their catholic identity (Martyn Percy, The Guardian, London)

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ELCA verdict:

• Lutherans hedge in verdict on gay pastor | A detailed reading of the decision —- and even the timing of Schmeling’s removal —- convinces the 44-year-old pastor and his supporters that he eventually may be vindicated (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Lutheran panel votes to expel gay minister | A disciplinary committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ruled Thursday that a gay pastor in Atlanta must give up his pulpit, saying it was reluctantly enforcing a “bad policy.” (The Washington Post)
• Gay Lutheran pastor removed over partner | The delay in Schmeling’s removal gives the ELCA a chance to nullify it by changing the document at an August meeting (Associated Press)

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Ted Haggard and New Life Church:

• Board to lead ‘day of hope’ at New Life | An associate pastor of New Life Church says Feb. 18 will be “a day of hope” for the 14,000-member congregation, weary from three months of scrutiny and scandal (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Jones’ charitable side offers eBay bidders a piece of Haggard history | He’s auctioning off his purple massage table on eBay (The Denver Post)
• Know thyself | Mr. Haggard could find his master’s program a mind-opening experience (Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• The price of Ted Haggard’s silence | As in the past, the amorphous movement comprising the Christian right will move forward unscathed (Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post)

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Homosexuality:

• Gay churchgoers more likely to quit mainstream religion | “Christian religions by and large have done an excellent job in communicating that a Christian identity and a homosexual identity are incompatible, or at least difficult to reconcile,” says Massey University’s Mark Henrickson (The New Zealand Herald)
• Minister defies Kirk on ‘gay weddings’ | Church of Scotland minister Kim Cran will go ahead with the blessings, even though she risks disciplinary action if an official complaint is made (Scotland on Sunday)
• Some tormented by homosexuality look to a controversial therapy | Some people have been trying to eliminate their gay desires through therapy or religious ministries dedicated to that end (The New York Times)
• Where sexuality, religion meet | Local conference will address gay issues in context of church (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Evangelist’s therapy fuels “gay debate” | Religiously motivated men who say they have made the journey from gay to straight say it is a long one (Reuters)
• Drive for marriage amendment launched | Plan bans gay nuptials but not civil unions (The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.)
• Ending childless marriage as we know it | In their wisdom, gay marriage proponents in Washington state have come up with a drastic solution (Robert VerBruggen, The American Spectator)
• Uncivil unions | In Vermont, love makes a family — but motherhood doesn’t (W. James Antle III, The American Spectator)

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Sexual ethics:

• Church at logger-heads with priest | The Catholic Church is embroiled in a legal conflict with a priest who has been accused of fathering a child with a poor young woman, having several girlfriends and failing to account for church funds. (Cape Times, South Africa)
• Catholic Church slams free Brazil Carnival condoms | Catholic bishops criticized on Friday Brazil’s plan to hand out millions of free condoms in the world’s largest Catholic country when its famously bacchanalian Carnival begins next week (Reuters)
• After so many deaths, too many births | Though Rwanda is predominantly Catholic, the church’s leaders here are not expected to oppose a campaign for population control. A number of priests, nuns and lay workers participated in the 1994 genocide, which weakened the church’s moral authority, and has led it to avoid politics (The New York Times)
• Bill to require HPV vaccine stirs concern | Some believe making California schoolgirls get inoculated against the sexually transmitted virus would violate parental rights (Los Angeles Times)
• Also: HPV vaccine for girls promoted in Maine | Proposal sidesteps controversy by focusing on education and funding, leaving it up to families to decide whether their daughters should be vaccinated (Bangor Daily News, Me.)
• AIDS and abstinence | Governments starting to realize that promoting condoms has left things worse, not better (National Catholic Register)
• Abstinence saves lives | The Catholic Church is often pilloried, or worse, for opposing condoms (Editorial, National Catholic Register)

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Church life:

• Pastors’ wives move beyond the front pew | ‘First ladies’ of black churches take on more leadership roles (Religion News Service)
• Overlake Christian pastor resigns | The Rev. Rick Kingham, pastor of one of Washington’s largest congregations, will step down March 1 to move into what a church elder called a “season of change in life.” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Also: Senior pastor at Overlake announces he’s resigning (The Seattle Times)
• Southeast Christian to add site in Indiana | Clark County satellite seen as first of about 5 in area (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Church vows to fight on after verdict | Jury finds for county in case sparked by shelter (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
• City to church: What could be built on land if street is demapped? | Planning agency asking that Atonement Lutheran revise application for Oakwood site (Staten Island Advance, N.Y.)
• Remaking the black church | The pastor of New York’s largest church disavows the anti-corporate rhetoric of old-guard clergy—and embraces Malcolm X (The Christian Science Monitor)
• He stumped, he stumbled, now he’s suing | Inviting a personal injury attorney to your property can be risky. Just ask Bell Shoals Baptist Church of Brandon, target of a lawsuit by Carlos Pazos, a criminal defense attorney who dabbles in personal injury law (St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)
• Churches sing the gospel according to U2 | Services turn to Irish rock band’s Scripture-grounded music to help attract young (Chicago Tribune)
• Churches must ask why the English Hymnal is out of tune | Is the era of the congregational singing of hymns — and songs — ending as a fruitful part of Christian life and worship in Britain? (Stephen Plant, The Times, London)

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Presbyterians:

• Top Presbyterian tackles issues, decline | In Dallas visit, pastor acknowledges gay ordination is divisive (The Dallas Morning News)
• Evangelical Presbyterian Church woos PC(USA) congregations seeking to leave | EPC Assembly will consider creating ‘New Wineskins Presbytery’ (Presbyterian News Service)

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Catholicism:

• Hub groups resist closing of churches in 3 other states | Dissident Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston have joined parishioners in New York in struggling to keep open some of the 21 churches slated to be closed there and are working with groups in Ohio and Arizona to encourage resistance to parish closings nationwide (The Boston Globe)
• A church protest ends quickly, but the anger is likely to endure | A tense mood lingered a day after the arrests of parishioners who took part in a sit-in to protest the closing of a church in East Harlem (The New York Times)
• Tuesday: After vigil to protest church closing, six women are arrested | East Harlem parishioners declared that they would not leave their church until the archdiocese dropped plans to shut it (The New York Times)
• Monday: Protest vigil begins at church set to be closed by archdiocese | The protest at Our Lady Queen of Angels in East Harlem apparently took the church and the archdiocese by surprise (The New York Times)
• 6 arrested as church sit-in ends | Cops and Archdiocese security guards last night forcibly ended a sit-in to save Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in East Harlem, convincing more than a dozen protesters to leave voluntarily and arresting six women who wouldn’t (New York Daily News)
• Parishioners argue before high court | Seek assets, land of closed church (The Boston Globe)
• Bankruptcy sidesteps trial for diocese | For all the hardship the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport is undergoing as result of molestation claims, bankruptcy may be better than what the church in Iowa could have faced — the civil trial of a former bishop from a neighboring diocese. (Associated Press)

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Abuse:

• San Diego diocese wants abuse trials postponed | It has also asked that some of the pending claims be dismissed (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
• Too close for comfort | Former priest, sex offender living in building with day care (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Youth pastor accused of sex abuse | One of the teen boys a Katrina survivor (The News-Press, Ft. Meyers, Fla.)
• Church knew of abuse by priest | Archdiocese worked to protect Milwaukee cleric, records show (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
• Rector charged with sexual assault of teen | The Rev. Jim Carlton Wooldridge, is the longtime rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Lampasas (Lampasas Dispatch Record, Tex.)
• St. Joseph pastor out on bond, charged with having child sexual material | Randy Doyle is pastor of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ (South Bend Tribune, Ind.)

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Lebanon attacks:

• Lebanese Christians targeted by bus bombers | At least three people have been killed after bombs ripped apart two buses in a Christian area of Lebanon, on the eve of the second anniversary of the killing of Rafik Hariri, the country’s former prime minister (The Telegraph, London)
• Bombs kill 3 on Lebanese commuter buses | Attacks precede demonstration to mark 2005 slaying of ex-premier (The Washington Post)
• Bus bombings put Lebanon on edge | Three people are killed and 18 wounded in the latest violence to hit the destabilizing country (Los Angeles Times)

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Crime:

• Love rumour sparks Muslim attack on Christians in Egypt | Groups of Egyptian Muslims set fire to Christian-owned shops in southern Egypt after hearing rumours of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Coptic Christian man, security sources and a witness said on Tuesday (Reuters)
• Radic has a book, but betrayed flock left with questions | His book deal and website likely will disappoint those looking for an explanation for what prosecutors say was the 54-year-old pastor’s secret sale of the First Congregational Church of Ripon’s sanctuary, his sealed plea agreement or his upcoming testimony at the murder trial of a fellow jail inmate (The Modesto Bee, Ca.)
• Also: California pastor stole the whole church | But he won’t serve any more time behind bars (Associated Press)
• Accused priest appears in Nevada court | The 52-year-old priest answered just one question, telling Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith he could not afford to hire a lawyer. Diocese administrators said George Chaanine was responsible for his own defense. (Associated Press)
• Teen who robbed priest gets year in youth lock-up | The pistol was a BB gun, but the priest who felt the cold steel against his head didn’t know that (The Columbus Dispatch, Oh.)
• Monday: Church apology helps heal hurt | Priest intervenes, gives half brothers second chance after robbery, carjacking (The Columbus Dispatch, Oh.)
• Courthouse preaching a path to jail | Michaelene Cooney, who is homeless, has been arrested 18 times for trespassing (Palm Beach Post, Fla.)
• Arrest warrant issued for church leader | Prosecutors said Mark Mehner embezzled nearly $300,000 from Zion Lutheran Church starting in October 2004 (KETV, Omaha)
• Omaha priest accused in theft case surrenders | The Rev. Stephen J. Gutgsell will plead guilty to felony theft by deception, perhaps as soon as this week, his attorney said Monday (Omaha World-Herald, Neb.)
• Arson suspect denied bail | A judge yesterday ordered a woman accused of burning down a Belchertown house used as a church held without right to bail because she is dangerous (The Republican, Springfield, Mass.)
• Statue is desecrated | Toppled and head knocked off in WNY (The Jersey Journal, Jersey City, N.J.)
• Update: Volunteer to repair Jesus statue (The Jersey Journal, Jersey City, N.J.)

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Remnant Fellowship murder trial:

• Couple charged in son’s beating death won’t take stand | A couple accused in the beating death of their 8-year-old declined to testify in their own defense Tuesday, after a judge strongly advised them not to (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Older brother takes stand in child death trial | Mistrial denied after brother’s words stun court (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Doctors back parents on trial in child’s death | Key points disputed (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Experts tell jurors 8-year-old boy died from bacterial infection, not from parental abuse (Court TV)

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Funding prison ministry:

• Lawyers defend Christian prison program in Iowa | United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit hears Prison Fellowship Ministries case (The New York Times)
• Prison ministry case argued | Ex-justice O’Connor is on panel hearing case (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Redo prison ministry to uphold Constitution | Faith-based treatment can’t discriminate (Editorial, Des Moines Register, Ia.)
• Signs point to compromise | Notes on Prison Ministries trial (Rox Laird, Des Moines Register, Ia.)
• Case from Iowa is new battle front in church-state war | Both sides of the issue see prison case as a landmark First Amendment fight that could have a direct impact on future entanglements of government and religion (Rox Laird, Des Moines Register, Ia.)
• Elsewhere: State stops funding prison program | Christian group hasn’t charged all states equally (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.)

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Church and state:

• HK cardinal hits out at China over “acts of war” | The top Catholic official on Chinese soil has lashed out at Beijing, saying the ordinations last year of three bishops without Vatican approval were illegitimate and “acts of war” (Reuters)
• Baptist church will move | Town residents vote to accept ownership (Concord Monitor, N.H.)
• Camps’ tax tussle may ripple | Ruling on whether YMCA of the Rockies is exempt may affect other religious groups (The Denver Post)
• Pastors: Christian government not Jesus’ cause | Local ministers and religious experts are concerned about Christian Exodus (Independent Mail, Anderson, S.C.)
• Churches, signs clash with city | Mayor, planners look to ease sign ordinance (The Noblesville Enquirer, Ind., link via Religion Clause)
• Christian legal group enters debate over GJ library exhibit | Though no one is threatening a lawsuit, Carol Anderson, who created the religious anti-gay, anti-adultery and anti-divorce display in the library’s rear stairwell, has the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund going to bat for her against the American Civil Liberties Union (The Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, Co.)
• S.Africa expropriates first farm in reform drive | The farm in the Northern Cape province had belonged to the South African Evangelical Lutheran Church, which has been ordered to sell it for 35.5 million rand, the commission said (Reuters)
• Redmond church risks big fines as it hosts homeless camp | Defying an order from the city of Redmond, St. Jude Catholic Church welcomed Tent City 4, the Eastside’s traveling homeless encampment, to its grounds Saturday (The Seattle Times)
• God help needy Christian charities | It is perfectly reasonable for the public authorities to say that they do not want to spend taxpayers’ money on the work of conversion. But it is another matter to attack religious beliefs, and to try to keep the people who hold them away from all public money, and from the drunk and homeless and poor and handicapped and old, and from children, all of whom need so much more help than a society without belief can give them (Charles Moore, The Telegraph, London)

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Politics:

• Congressman’s imam is taking a lead in interfaith efforts | Makram El-Amin has become Representative Keith Ellison’s imam putting an Islamic imprint on the role of spiritual adviser in American politics (The New York Times)
• Baptist group fights Texas coal plants | Texas’ largest Baptist group is taking a rare step into environmental advocacy, working to block Gov. Rick Perry’s plan to speed the approval process for 18 new coal-fired power plants. (Associated Press)
• Policy on asylum-seekers faulted | Report criticizes detentions by U.S. immigration officials (The Washington Post)
• Punishing the persecuted | A twisted interpretation of U.S. law has turned thousands of victims of global oppression, who sympathize with America, into terrorists ineligible for asylum (Doug Bandow, The American Spectator)
• Keeping the faith | The House of Lords should not be subjected to a risky electoral process, nor should it lose its bishops (Anil Bhanot, The Guardian, London)
• Rudd a cafeteria Christian | If the Leader of the Opposition wants to pursue the Catholic vote — something the ALP has taken for granted far too long — he’s perfectly entitled to do so. However he can’t pretend that sometimes, when it suits him, deep down he’s still a member of the tribe (Christopher Pearson, The Australian)

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Mitt Romney:

• Will Mormon faith hurt bid for White House? | A national political race that conveys Romney’s focus on family life and traditional values could improve church’s image (USA Today)
• Romney affirms opposition to abortion | “I am firmly pro-life,” he said in South Carolina. “I was always for life.” (Associated Press)
• Romney’s stem cell view may upset the right | Use of excess embryos at issue (The Boston Globe)
• Poll: Romney’s Mormonism may be an issue | Americans have less favorable view of Mormon faith than of most other religions (CBS News)
• Poll recap: Mormon a better choice for president than Muslim, Atheist, Scientologist (Fox News)
• In 2008, Will it be Mormon in America? | Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney ponders a presidential bid (Terry Eastland, The Weekly Standard)
• Romney’s Mormon faith wouldn’t prevent me from voting for him | A candidate’s faith is of no consequence to me unless it harbors the possibility of guiding his or her actions in a way I would disapprove of. (Mark Davis, The Dallas Morning News)
• Embodying the contradictions of ‘a peculiar people’ | Can a Mormon ever become president? Yes, if he keeps quiet about it, and talks fast about his MBA-honed ability to fix the nation’s healthcare finances (Bronwen Maddox, The Times, London)
• American Mormon-bashing 2007 | Americans seemingly want their presidents to be church members, but not too religious (Mark Shields, syndicated columnist)

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Other Republican candidates:

• McCain, Romney vying for support of conservatives | But they both face hurdles with conservative Christians (The Washington Post)
• McCain courting Christian conservatives | To forgive is divine. To forget may be asking too much of religious conservatives when it comes to Sen. John McCain (Associated Press)
• Evangelical vote: down to two | But Huckabee still has the edge over Romney (U.S. News & World Report)
• The pastor populist | Southern governor + folksy flare + ability to connect = proven presidential prospect. Mike Huckabee puts a new twist on an old formula (World)
• Huckabee defends traditional marriages | “People have a right to decide how they live their lives. But they have to respect not changing the definition of marriage,” said Huckabee, who served as a pastor in Baptist churches before becoming governor in 1996 (Associated Press)
• Searching for Mr. Right | Wanted: A candidate who truly opposes abortion and gay marriage — and who can win (The New York Times)
• Litmus test for hypocrisy | Why is it that abortion, a subject on which political candidates often claim to be expressing their most deeply held moral convictions, is often the issue on which they seem especially opportunistic and unprincipled? (E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post)
• Giuliani’s faces uphill fight in GOP presidential race | He is pro-choice and in favor of civil unions for same-sex couples. He also has been married three times and was involved with his future third wife while still married to his second (The Journal News, White Plains, N.Y.)
• Giuliani shifts abortion speech gently to right | Rudolph W. Giuliani has directed questions on abortion toward discussion about judges, saying he would appoint “strict constructionist” jurists (The New York Times)
• Culture warrior | Don’t write off Giuliani’s appeal to social conservatives (Brendan Miniter, The Wall Street Journal)

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Democratic candidates:

• A blogger for Edwards resigns after complaints | Amanda Marcotte blasts “right wing shills” for driving her out of the campaign (The Washington Post)
• Edwards blogger flap discomforts Religious Left | “We’re completely invisible to this debate,” said Eduardo Penalver (Politico)
• Targeted blogger quits Edwards campaign | Amanda Marcotte posted on her personal blog, Pandagon, that the criticism “was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign.” (Associated Press)
• Update: Second blogger quits Edwards campaign | Melissa McEwan wrote on her personal blog, Shakespeare’s Sister, that she left the campaign because she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the level of attention focused on her and her family (Associated Press)
• Friday: Edwards keeps bloggers on staff amid controversy (The Washington Post)
• Presidential prejudices | Did John Edwards hurt his chance at the Catholic vote? (John Batchelor, The New York Sun)
• Obama stresses appreciation for faith | Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday he does not think voters have a litmus test on religion, whether evangelical Christianity or his childhood years in a largely Muslim country (Associated Press)
• Black power sermons test Democrats’ faith | In a country where a candidate’s spiritual beliefs are a make or break factor, the charismatic Democrat is coming under scrutiny about his church’s creed (The Telegraph, London)

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Environment

• Science and religion unite on climate | The active involvement of religion is necessary for wide-scale social change (Stephen H. Schneider and Sally G. Bingham, San Francisco Chronicle)
• Saving souls – and the planet | Religious conservatives could become a bulwark against environmental disaster. (Mark Vernon, The Guardian, London)

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Life ethics:

• Low turnout undercuts Portugal vote on abortion | A referendum to liberalize the abortion law was approved, but turnout was too low for the result to be deemed valid (The New York Times)
• Portugal fails to overturn abortion law | Portugal’s prime minister said he will enact more liberal abortion laws in the conservative Roman Catholic country even though his proposal to relax restrictions failed to win complete endorsement in a referendum (Associated Press)
• Analysis: Portugal’s abortion rethink | With abortion legal in all but three other European countries, Portugal can draw on experience elsewhere in dealing with this sensitive issue (BBC)
• Strict abortion bill revisited in S.D. | But none of the Legislature’s leaders, notably some sponsors of last year’s bill, are joining the effort this year because waging last year’s fight was so exhausting (Associated Press)
• States fund antiabortion advice | Public grants surge for the crisis centers. Some ban contraception talk (Los Angeles Times)
• Lynch backs notification repeal bill | House panel takes up abortion proposal (Concord Monitor, N.H.)
• Diocese, abortion foes are at odds | Who’s more pro-life, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington or Northern Kentucky Right to Life? (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Code of silence | Another source of useful stem cells has been found–and the media and the cloning crowd are trying keep it quiet (Michael Fumento, The Weekly Standard)
• Anything goes | The International Society for Stem Cell Research issues its “ethical guidelines.” (Wesley J. Smith, The Weekly Standard)

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Death penalty:

• Death penalty bears down on O’Malley, Kaine | Legislatures are preparing to debate bills on repealing or expanding executions (The Washington Post)
• The needle and the damage done | Lethal injections are often botched and sometimes painful. Doctors don’t want to administer them. Is it time to kill this form of execution? (The New York Times Magazine)
• Catholic lawmakers oppose death-penalty repeal | Key Catholic lawmakers in the General Assembly are splitting with major Catholic groups over an attempt to abolish the death penalty in Maryland (The Washington Times)

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Religious freedom:

• Uzbek authorities arrest Protestant pastor on illegal proselytizing charges | Dmitry Shestakov led an underground Charismatic Pentecostals church in the eastern city of Andijan and was converting Muslims to Christianity, the State Religious Affairs Committee said Tuesday, without specifying the date of his arrest (Associated Press)
• Residents demand local church closes | Dozens of residents of Warung Satangkal kampong in Majalaya, Bandung, rallied in front of a house belonging to a Christian family Sunday in reaction to the use of the house as a venue for religious rituals (The Jakarta Post, Indonesia)
• Religious freedom in America | If we value religious liberty, we should value the Christian faith as its guarantee. (Roger Scruton, The American Spectator)

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India:

• Police register case against Orthodox Church members | Nearly 3,000 people mentioned as accused in the case (The Hindu, India)
• Mob attacks family over conversion | The family has been facing social boycott for converting to Christianity, police sources in Kokrajhar PS said (The Assam Tribune, India)
• Priests expel Indian Catholics over child marriages | The Catholic Church in an eastern Indian state is excommunicating Christians under its fold who are found to be forcing minors into marriage, senior diocese officials said on Wednesday (Reuters)
• Law aims at dividing Church: Archbishop | Archbishop Susaipakiam, head of the Thiruvananthapuram Archdiocese of the Catholic Church (Latin rite), admitted that the issue of reservation vs. minority rights was an area of `friction,’ but held that the Church was not ready to give up one for the other (The Hindu, India)
• Activists chastise India on untouchables | Indians at the bottom of India’s Hindu caste system are attacked, raped and killed daily due to their status, even though the rigid social hierarchy has been outlawed for decades, an international human rights group said Tuesday (Associated Press)

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Fiji:

• Church stands by call for President, interim PM to quit | Fiji’s Methodist church is standing by its call for President Ratu Josefa Iloilo and interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, to resign (Fiji Times)
• Methodist leaders meet with military | The Methodist Church in Fiji has reaffirmed its stand raised in its official paper says president Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca (Fiji Times)

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Sudan:

• U.S. evangelist, a critic of Islam, reaches out to Sudan’s president | In a meeting between Franklin Graham and Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the semi-serious proselytizing continued (The Washington Post)
• Frist joins evangelist Graham on trip to south Sudan | A U.S.-backed peace agreement between the southern Sudanese and the government in Khartoum is faltering badly as world attention has shifted to Darfur, the western region of the country where the government is accused of waging a campaign of violence that the United States and others have labeled genocide (The Washington Post)
• Killing fields | It’s becoming obvious: No one is going to save Darfur (Editorial, The New Republic)

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Israel and Judaism:

• Conditional approval | Government’s precondition for Greek Orthodox patriarch’s appointment: ‘Sell church property only to Israelis’ (Haaretz, Tel Aviv)
• Ousted Republican senator criticizes Bush on Israel | “The religious thing is driving the foreign policy here,” Chafee said following a speech at Brown University (Associated Press)
• Some work delayed near Jerusalem holy site | Jerusalem’s mayor decided on Sunday night to postpone plans for the construction of a controversial new footbridge near the religious compound in the Old City (The New York Times)
• Monday: Israel approves work at religious site, scene of clashes | Despite Muslim protests, the Israeli government on Sunday approved the continuation of construction work near a sensitive religious compound (The New York Times)
• Lack of 2nd Temple period rabbinic control may have caused assimilation | Into the vacuum left by the lack of rabbinic oral tradition stepped the Christians, says a study in The Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha (The Jerusalem Post)
• Divided loyalties | Harry Bernstein grew up in a Lancashire street with Jews on one side and Christians on the other. Now, at the age of 96, he has written a memoir recalling the tensions that the split created (The Guardian, London)
• The danger of a ‘chosen’ nation | Israel holds a sacred place in the words of the Old Testament. But does Christian doctrine give that country a free pass at the expense of peace in the Middle East? (Oliver “Buzz” Thomas, USA Today)

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Blood libel:

• Bar-Ilan prof. defiant on blood libel book ‘even if crucified’ | Professor Ariel Toaff said he stood behind the contention of his book, “Pasque di Sangue,” just published in Italy, that there is a factual basis for some of the medieval blood libels against the Jews. However, he said he was sorry his arguments had been twisted (Haaretz, Tel Aviv)
• Bar-Ilan turning aside pressure to fire author of blood libel book | Bar-Ilan University is resisting pressure to fire history professor Ariel Toaff for writing a book arguing that there is a factual basis to some of the blood libels against the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, university president Moshe Kaveh’s media consultant said Monday (Haaretz, Tel Aviv)
• Author admits blood-libel claim was meant as provocation | Ariel Toaff, the author of Bloody Passovers: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders said Monday his previous statement that some ritual murders of Christian children by Jews “might have taken place” had been an ironic academic provocation (The Jerusalem Post)

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History:

• Polish bishop seeks special court probe | The former Warsaw archbishop who resigned after admitting he agreed to cooperate with the communist-era secret police has asked a special court to investigate the case against him, a court spokesman said (Associated Press)
• Also: Slovak church plans to review its past 50 years | The Roman Catholic Church in Slovakia said Tuesday that it would create a council to review its history over the last 50 years, including the period of fascist state rule during World War II and the subsequent Communist era (AFP)
• Revealed: secret of the lodger living inside St Peter’s | Michelangelo had a secret bedroom inside St Peter’s Basilica in Rome where he lived for the last 17 years of his life, it emerged yesterday (The Telegraph, London)
• Bill to honor Paine stalls in Arkansas | Legislation designating Jan. 29 as Thomas Paine Day failed after a member of the state House of Representatives protested Paine’s criticism of religion (The New York Times)
• Teacher’s dad exiled from church | Paula Barkley remembers being about 7 years old when her father was voted out as pastor of Louisville, Ky.’s Weaver Memorial Baptist Church in 1956 for wanting to open its doors to African-Americans (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• The hypocrisy hunter’s guide | Sex, politics and religion have been bedfellows since 1804 (Debby Applegate, The Wall Street Journal)

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Evolution:

• State Board of Education eliminates criticism of evolution | It’s the fourth time the board has changed the standards in eight years (The Wichita Eagle, Kan.)
• Also: Science standards evolve again (Associated Press)
• Memo: Stop teaching evolution | Georgia lawmaker’s plea comes to Texas through No. 2 in House (The Dallas Morning News)
• Believing Scripture but playing by science’s rules | As a paleontologist and a creationist, Marcus R. Ross has produced academic work that contradicts his own beliefs (The New York Times)
• Churches observe Evolution Sunday | Cultural war still simmers over Darwin (San Jose Mercury News, Ca.)
• Believers accepting evolution | Founded by a professor at Butler University, Evolution Sunday reconciles faith and science in churches in Indiana and across the country (The Indianapolis Star)
• Church makes evolutionary change over time | To Evolution Sunday-goers, notions of a grand designer threaten to undermine the science (Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Dumbing down evolution to kill it | On Darwin’s birthday, vocal opponents of his theory fundamentally misunderstand what they don’t believe in (Edward Humes, Los Angeles Times)
• The Gospel according to Darwin | There is scant reporting on the anti-religious zeal with which many atheists promote Darwinism (John G. West, National Review Online)
• Happy Darwin Day! | Celebrating mankind’s discovery of eugenics (David Klinghoffer, The Weekly Standard)

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Education:

• Guv quietly signs school voucher bill | The watershed program rolls out in the fall (The Salt Lake Tribune, Ut.)
• Judges to rehear school prayer case | Arguments set before full court May 21 (The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.)
• Cornerstone sues to play ball in UIL | A private school in San Antonio filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing the state’s largest extracurricular organization of unfairly excluding private schools from league competition, and the school is seeking a court order to halt the alleged practice (San Antonio Express-News, Tex.)
• National Council of Churches questions ‘No Child’ | Although the event will include secular participants, the involvement of the nation’s largest ecumenical religious organization signals a growing grass-roots concern about the 2002 law, which is scheduled for reauthorization by Congress this year (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
• Home schoolers find strength in numbers | More and more, parents are forming co-ops, where they meet to share teaching talents and advice, as well as socialize (The New York Times)
• Senator causes stir by reading profanity | Comments made at a high school (The Boston Globe)
• Religious land use trial against Alameda County begins | A long legal battle over a proposed Christian school near Castro Valley finally went to trial Monday, with a 10-person jury ready to decide whether the situation is a civil-rights violation or sound suburban planning. (San Mateo County Times, Ca.)
• School refuses to deny smacking | A Christian college is continuing to defy state agencies over its right to use corporal punishment, saying it is up to parents to decide (Dominion Post, New Zealand)
• Also: Greens urge action on corporal punishment (The New Zealand Herald)

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Sexual education:

• Abstinence-only sex ed finds few scientific fans | Birth control taught in shrinking number of schools, study says (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Students get lesson to chew on | Gum sharing disgusts Montgomery parents, officials (The Washington Post)
• Update: Md. ‘gum game’ used for 9 years | Barred group says sex-ed lesson was popular in schools (The Washington Post)
• Schools picked to pilot sex-ed lessons | Program will introduce the topics of sexual orientation to students, an effort three citizen groups are fighting (The Washington Post)

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Higher education:

• Rally backs transgender prof | Church says university fulfills duties (Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Mi.)
• Also: Professor’s plight heard worldwide | Nemecek getting lots of attention after story appeared in newspaper (Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Mi.)
• UGA lets religious groups restrict membership | Policy move may head off lawsuit by Beta Upsilon Chi (Athens Banner-Herald, Ga.)
• W&M grad sues for cross’ permanent return | A scholar said a First Amendment lawsuit against the College of William and Mary would be frivolous. (Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Va.)
• To fulfill a prophecy | Mount St. Mary’s Seminary has 38 seminarians. And a basketball team (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Who wants to be a priest these days? | The Roman Catholic Church in Germany is running out of vocations. Who wants to be a priest in this day and age? A visit to St. Georgen Seminary in Frankfurt (Der Spiegel, Germany)
• Polygamy page finds new home on an Internet site | Assistant college dean had addressed the topic as a ‘personal project’ (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Religion edition sends student newspaper editor into hiding | The editor of a Cambridge University college newspaper is in hiding after his attempt at religious satire backfired (The Guardian, London)
• Stem cell research affects education bill | The bitter fight over embryonic stem cell research in Missouri led to six university building projects being axed Wednesday from a higher education bill by the Senate Education Committee (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Ex-Baylor star walks away from basketball | Emily Nkosi said she also feared losing her Baylor scholarship because of her evolving relationship with Ashley Taylor, then a graduate student and roommate and now her partner. The administration at Baylor, a Baptist school, says it does not revoke scholarships, including athletic scholarships, for homosexuality (USA Today)
• Questions of faith | I find richer spiritual exploration teaching students at Piedmont College than I did leading congregations (Barbara Brown Taylor, The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• ‘To teach or exercise authority over a man’ | Southwestern scholar was badly served (Benjamin Cole, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)

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Research:

• Economist sees value in religiosity | In a 2005 paper subtitled “Is Religion Good for You?” Jonathan Gruber concluded that it is, and he believes it makes sense for public officials to encourage religiosity (as opposed to specific religions) (The Boston Globe)
• More spiritual help needed for the dying: study | Spiritual support appears to help improve the quality of life among people facing death, the research from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School found (Reutesr)
• Abstract: Religiousness and Spiritual Support Among Advanced Cancer Patients and Associations With End-of-Life Treatment Preferences and Quality of Life (Journal of Clinical Oncology)

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Books:

• Jurist passes positive judgment on radio host’s book | Pennsylvania judge sentences sex offender to read a volume about addiction written by Laguna Beach Christian broadcaster (Dana Parsons, Los Angeles Times)
• A familiar and prescient voice, brought to life | Carl Sagan has rejoined the cosmic debate from the grave, with “new” words on the boundary between science and religion (The New York Times)
• In the beginning was the Word, and it was so cool | Some pastors say “amen” to the so-called Biblezine, which wraps articles around a modern-text New Testament. It may put the Bible in the hands of youths who might otherwise not read it, they say. Others say the trendy mag trivializes the Good Book (Contra Costa Times, CA.)
• Trust them, it’s a hit | Unlike its movie and TV kin, the publishing industry keeps book sales figures to itself (Los Angeles Times)

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Media:

• Christian group chides KDKA over pastor’s suicide | Group says promos “sentenced” the Rev. Dugan before the presbytery had time to look into the situation (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Also: Complaint links TV promo, pastor suicide | A Christian group complained to the Federal Communications Commission about a TV station’s investigation of a minister who committed suicide after the station taped him entering an adult bookstore (Associated Press)
• Religious TV channel on carpet | A religious television channel that has encouraged viewers to liquidate their retirement savings and charge up credit cards to make donations in the name of God may learn on Monday whether it answers to Canada’s broadcast regulator as a higher power (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
• Also: Miracle Channel’s expansion questioned | A Christian television channel that was rebuked for encouraging viewers to donate their retirement savings is looking to expand its viewership in Alberta (CBC)
• Christian network, author Lindsey are back on the same side | TBN and the end-of-the-world series host had split over their attitudes toward Islam. But technology that allows blocking his shows to the Mideast has helped put the writer back on the air (Los Angeles Times)
• US tycoon to build religious broadcasting empire in Rwanda | Family Christian Network Decarol Williamson, promises a US$20m television and radio network (Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion)
• Churches angry over cuts to Praise Be program | Funding will be given for a new programme about religions other than Christianity (Radio New Zealand)
• Olympic champ Jonathan Edwards insists his marriage is intact despite his Christianity crisis | Jonathan Edwards, the Olympic champion who once refused to compete on a Sunday, has quit as presenter of the BBC’s long-running religious programme Songs Of Praise because he is no longer convinced of the existence of God (Evening Standard, London)
• Also: Olympian Jonathan Edwards has ‘crisis of faith’ | Jonathan Edwards, the Olympic triple jump champion and renowned Christian, refused to talk yesterday amid reports that he was questioning his faith and that his marriage was in trouble (The Telegraph, London)

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Entertainment:

• Was missing Grammy winner in bathroom? | “I wasn’t literally in the bathroom,” said Third Day guitarist Mark Lee. “It happens every year. There’s just somebody that gets caught. This year it happened to me.” (Associated Press)
• Relient K draws fans in Christian, mainstream markets | After toiling away for seven years and building a rabid fan base in the Christian market, Relient K broke through to mainstream success with the 2004 release “Mmhmm.” The band’s career illustrates that sometimes the least calculated of efforts reap the most rewards (Reuters)
• Bluegrass duo revisits gospel roots on new album | “Tell Someone,” the new Rebel Records release from the Kenny & Amanda Smith Band, is a musical feast not only for the group’s bluegrass base but for country and Southern gospel music fans as well (Reuters)
• Charles, Maher film to take potshots at religion | The prospects of an untitled movie from “Borat” director Larry Charles, narrated and presented by comedian Bill Maher, which takes potshots at major religions from Judaism and Islam to Christianity, has buyers salivating (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Eastern Nazarene College mounts play banned in China | It might seem a bit unusual for a Christian college in New England to put on a little-known avant-garde Chinese play with Buddhist themes (The Boston Globe)
• Irreverent? Oh, heavens! | Blend Christian pop and boy bands. The result: The cheeky stage musical ‘Altar Boyz,’ which draws its own congregation of faithful (Los Angeles Times)
• Who critiques the critics? | The makers of The Last Sin Eater seem to be a rather touchy lot. (Peter Chattaway, FilmChatBlog)

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People:

• Prayers for Nowak but few answers | For those who don’t know her, Lisa Nowak might be just the centerpiece of a salacious media scandal that makes for a great Saturday Night Live skit, but to her church, she’s a fellow parishioner who could really use some prayers right now (Houston Chronicle)
• Also: Nowak’s Houston church offers prayers of support | The astronaut’s parish priest describes his congregation as a ‘real tight NASA family.’ (The Orlando Sentinel)
• Bodybuilder says Robertson threatened to kill him and his family | Phillip Busch, in a federal lawsuit against Pat Robertson, says the televangelist threatened his life and that of his family at a legal proceeding Wednesday in the Norfolk federal courthouse (Reuters)
• Watchdog group: Church violated federal tax law | A complaint alleges that the Living Word Christian Center arranged sweetheart deals for its senior pastor, helping him buy a plane and home (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Also: The kingdom and power of Mac Hammond | The leader of a Brooklyn Park megachurch sees no conflict among his faith, wealth and politics. Others believe he crosses lines that should be more sharply drawn (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Pastor remaining quiet about life insurance plan | Lawyer maintains that everything is as it should be (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Also: A man with friends | Bishop Acen Phillips has a record of service to the underdog in Denver that goes back to the 1950s, but his reputation, while unquestioned by his supporters, has not gone unsullied (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Minister plans ’07 convention to fill MegaFest void | Bishop Paul Morton, one of the nation’s most popular preachers and gospel singers, announced Monday that he will bring a convention to Atlanta this summer that he claims will fill the void left by MegaFest (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Bishop Wanjiru bars media from her church | The Bishop’s wedding failed to take place Saturday as the court has issued a temporary injunction filed by one James Kamangu who claims to be Wanjiru’s customary husband (KBC, Kenya)
• Also: Bishop Wanjiru celebrates love without a wedding | The controversial preacher obeyed a court order barring any such celebration as her fiancé stayed away from the Jesus is Alive Ministries Church on Saturday (The East African Standard, Kenya)
• Bill Donohue vs. the world (especially women) | Frances Kissling, head of Catholics for a Free Choice, talks about the right-wing activist who forced the John Edwards campaign to part with one of its bloggers (Salon.com)
• Sports, religion strange bedfellows | There is a part of Dungy’s philosophy that troubles me — and, I believe, many others — and that is his insistence upon making proper coaching not just a matter of good heart but of religious zeal, even dogma (Rick Telander, Chicago Sun-Times)

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Money and business:

• Religious tension in workplace on the rise | Complaints alleging religious discrimination are up dramatically, with confrontations arising over how people publicly observe their faith, when and where they pray, how they dress, what hours they work — and generally what they believe (The Seattle Times)
• New tax laws alter face of donations | A new set of IRS rules that toughens the tax laws for charitable donations could change the way many Americans donate to houses of worship (The Gainesville Sun, Fla.)
• NHS ‘cutting chaplain services’ | Hundreds of hospital chaplains face the sack or a reduction in their hours as a result of the NHS cash crisis (The Telegraph, London)

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Missions & ministry:

• City proposing new law, fee for volunteer workers | Mayor of Lynch, Ky., says he’s worried about residents getting bad repair work and the city being liable for it. But local ministry leaders say the plan could drive volunteers who just want to help away (WYMT, Hazard, Ky.)
• A ministry in the cold, with a gospel of propane | In Ocean County, N.J., the homeless hunker down in scattered tent encampments. Connecting them is a minister who delivers the gift of survival (The New York Times)
• Churches grieve for members who died in Honduras | “They were doing the work of God when death came,” the Rev. Don Hattaway told the congregation at Tabernacle Baptist in Cartersville (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Mayor looks to churches to help end homelessness | Already 122 congregations have signed on, each pledging to raise $1,200 to help pay first month’s rent and deposit on an apartment and establishing a “mentor team” of two to six people who agree to work with the family or senior to help them leave homelessness behind (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Christian leaders commit to tackling poverty | Christian leaders from the country’s broadest-ever ecumenical group have issued a statement condemning the “scandal of widespread poverty” and calling for action by the public and private sectors to combat it (Religion News Service)

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Islam:

• A split after Muhammad’s death that still resonates | Who is Sunni, and who is Shiite, and what is the difference between the two? All this week NPR’s “Morning Edition” presents a five-part primer (The New York Times)
• The partisans of Ali | A history of Shia faith and politics (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Nigerian Muslim convicts in legal limbo | In Nigeria’s Muslim north, sentences of amputation and death by stoning are routinely imposed under Shariah, or Islamic law. But no stonings have ever been carried out, and no amputations since 2001 (Associated Press)

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Other stories of interest:

• Christianity in Africa: Jesus in the morning, voodoo in the evening | The old natural religions continue to thrive in Africa. While Christianity and Islam vie for supremacy in many countries, they have failed to banish the rain gods and spirits south of the Sahara. Frequently the pagan rites have fused with a faith in Jesus Christ (Der Speigel, Germany)
• Minority report | Christians in Jordan (Jason Byassee, The Christian Century)
• Pray for a special Valentine, says Church | Forget speed-dating and lonely-hearts columns. The Roman Catholic Church has come up with a more reliable way of finding love on Valentine’s Day: pray to St Raphael, the little-known patron saint of “happy meetings” (The Telegraph, London)
• Groovin with God | Many Jesus People still follow faith (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Thou shalt not bloat | Many Christians spurn nutrition and exercise (The Columbus Dispatch, Oh.)
• Darien church owns half of Fay’s condo | A Darien church and its former pastor’s boyfriend are now co-owners of a luxury condominium in Florida (Stamford Advocate, Ct.)
• Crowds flock to ‘miracle’ statue | A statue of Jesus Christ is causing a sensation at an art gallery after witnesses said they saw sparks shooting from its eyes (Metro, U.K.)
• Forgive us their trespass | Western evangelicals are plotting an apology to China for 150-year-old imperialist abuses. Critics wonder, how do you make up for the past? (World)
• Doctors who fail their patients | A new survey has revealed that a disturbing number of doctors feel no responsibility to inform patients of treatments that they deem immoral or to refer them to other doctors for care. (Editorial, The New York Times)
• Black churches must address HIV/AIDS | Of the more than 85,000 black churches in the United States, only a handful, primarily in major cities, are actively involved in this important work. The others have descended into denial, ignorance and homophobia, and they focus on the so-called Great Beyond (Bill Maxwell, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)

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Last Week’s Articles

Ted Haggard | Homosexuality | Marriage | Spring Arbor’s transgender prof | Evolution | Education | University of Sydney | Life ethics | Parental notification | HPV | Healthcare | Adoption | Church and state | China | Malaysia | Religious freedom | Religious displays | Property disputes | Anglicanism | Baptists | Eastern Orthodox | Catholicism | Robert Drinan | People | Dungy and Smith | NFL vs. churches | More on Super Bowl and churches | Media, art, and entertainment | Books | John Edwards’s bloggers | Barack Obama | John McCain | Mitt Romney | Other 2008 candidates | Politics | Environment | Fiji | War and terrorism | Crime | Abuse | Remnant Fellowship murder case | Arson | Theft | Money and business | Church life | Florida tornadoes | Judaism | Islam | Other stories of interest

Ted Haggard:

• Haggards will leave Colo. Springs | Three months after being ousted in a drugs and gay-sex scandal, the Rev. Ted Haggard is telling friends that counseling has given him hope, and he and his wife plan to leave Colorado Springs and pursue psychology degrees (The Denver Post)
• Haggard says he’s not gay | The Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur, part of Haggard’s team of overseers, also said the four-man oversight board strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work instead of Christian ministry if Haggard and his wife follow through on plans to earn master’s degrees in psychology (The Denver Post)
• Haggard, Colo. Springs church he founded reach a settlement | Ex-pastor agrees to financial deal, continued therapy (Rocky Mountain News. Denver)
• Ted Haggard says he’s leaving the Springs | Haggard’s family has been “offered two places” in the Midwestern states, Haggard wrote (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Ousted pastor ‘completely heterosexual’ | The Rev. Ted Haggard broke a three-month silence over the weekend when he contacted members of the New Life Church by e-mail to tell them that he was healing (The New York Times)
• Pastor: Haggard is heterosexual | Gay relationship was ‘acting out’ (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Jones doubts Haggard’s restoration | Was surprised by reports former pastor now straight (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)

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Homosexuality:

• Solution elusive as churches weary of gay clergy debate | Many members say they would like to move on to religious missions (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• He’s ‘out,’ he’s saved, what’s the problem? | Bruised in one encounter with evangelicals, gay actor Chad Allen gets a different reaction the second time around (Newsweek)
• About Isabella | Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller got hitched and had a baby together. Vermont says that’s a simple truth. Virginia said it was all null and void. The future of a little girl hangs in the balance (The Washington Post)
• Court bars government benefit for same-sex domestic partners | A three-judge panel found that an amendment banning same-sex marriage also prohibits government agencies from recognizing domestic partnerships (The New York Times)
• Brokeback Mutton | More on the gay sheep (William Saletan, The Washington Post)
• A pink reformation | Churches have always faced difficult moral issues and they have muddled through, but with homosexuality things are different. Why? (Theo Hobson, The Guardian, London)

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Marriage:

• University to ban gay marriages on campus | Academics and students are shocked by ruling at institution with close links to Anglican church (The Guardian, London)
• Ministers say ‘I do’ to policy | Fifteen area pastors affirm traditional marriage and sign the Greater Raymond Area Community Marriage Policy (Union Leader, Manchester, N.H.)
• Initiative ties marriage, procreation | A group of gay-marriage supporters could begin collecting signatures today for a November ballot initiative that would limit marriage in Washington to couples willing and able to have children. The measure would also dissolve the union of those who remain childless three years after marrying (The Seattle Times)
• And the bride and groom were smelly pigs | Two Musk hogs were married in a lavish ceremony in Taiwan, with the blessings of a Catholic priest (Reuters)
• Focusing on virginity also sexualizes girls | Something like a “purity ball” essentially minimizes a young woman’s very humanity (Betsy Hart, Chicago Sun-Times)

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Spring Arbor’s transgender prof:

• College dean John Nemecek decides to be true to his inner woman | Firing and lawsuit follow decision by Spring Arbor University’s associate dean of adult studies to become a woman (The Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Mi.)
• University firing transgender prof | Professor John Nemecek picked tough ground to make a stand in his journey to womanhood (The Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Mi.)
• Gender change costs dean a job | When a man started appearing as a woman, a religious college asserted its right to dismiss (Inside Higher Ed)

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Evolution:

• Debate rages in Kenya as evangelicals try to keep ancient skeleton in the closet | The display of the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found is at the heart of a growing storm—one pitting scientists against Kenya’s powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement (SAPA/AP)
• Christian faith in the other good book | Flocks of Christians in the US are to hold special services celebrating Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (New Scientist)
• Cardinal: Schools quiet evolution debate | An influential Roman Catholic cardinal whose comments on evolution are closely followed condemned a court decision Wednesday that barred a Pennsylvania school district from teaching “intelligent design” in biology class (Associated Press)
• Darwin Day puts spotlight on intelligent design | ‘Flock of Dodos’ sparks debate (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• The Bible vs. science | Some creationists have decided to pick a fight that is neither necessary nor wise. Let science be science, and let religion be religion. The two need not be reconciled. After all, shouldn’t faith be enough? (Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today)

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Education:

• Cross removal stirs Va. college campus | More than 10,000 supporters have signed an online petition since last fall asking for the cross to be placed back on the altar permanently (Associated Press)
• Also: W&M board to consider cross issue | But the Wren Chapel matter is not expected to come up for vote (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
• Public school students getting abstinence lessons from church | New Hope Baptist last fall received a federal grant of $3 million—$600,000 annually over five years—for its Outreach Ministries program to teach abstinence to students from middle school through high school in Birmingham city schools (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Seattle Pacific University embraces a new global awareness | Many students, faculty and administrators are taking seriously the spirit of president Philip Eaton’s motto — “engaging the culture, changing the world” — even if the ubiquitous slogan sometimes engenders good-natured eye-rolling (The Seattle Times)
• Real-world studies proposed at Harvard | The task force earlier jettisoned a preliminary recommendation that every student be required to take a religion class after some professors objected last fall. However, members of the task force said that religion is covered by several of the eight broad categories, including one called culture and belief (The Boston Globe)
• Atascadero school board to rethink religion class | The Atascadero school board voted Tuesday night to reconsider a controversial resolution allowing students to attend a church class during school hours (The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Ca.)
• Potter’s House faces expulsion | Basketball team is ousted from playoffs; school put on brink of severe penalty (The Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.)
• Public schools: Why we don’t fight more | Some say public schools create war zones of clashing values — but more and more they’re proving to be places where students learn to find common ground amid their differences. (Charles C. Haynes, First Amendment Center)
• Can we really let students skip drama classes on religious grounds? It’s time liberals fought back | A truce has been reached in some areas of US society, whereby the liberals can have their culture so long as anyone could opt out on the grounds of conscience or religious belief. It’s a truce I am uneasy with. (Mark Ravenhill, The Guardian, London)
• Taking kids spiritual hostage | Under the pretense of wanting kids to engage in healthy activities, religious youth groups are infiltrating schools and neighborhoods and working through churches in an attempt to convert children (Dennis & Sandy Sasso, The Indianapolis Star)

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University of Sydney:

• Uni caveat: no stem cell research | The University of Sydney has paid one if its residential colleges $600,000 for land to build a medical research centre, but only on the condition it is never used to carry out fetal stem cell research (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Academics disturbed by university’s deal to limit research | Academics at the University of Sydney are disturbed by its decision to restrict the research that can be conducted at a new medical institute and will meet today to discuss the decision (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Church land offer worries stem cell researchers | There are concerns about what the deal could mean for future medical work and academic freedom (PM, Australian Broadcasting Corp)
• Sydney university stem cell ban sparks academic row | An Australian university has agreed not to conduct stem cell research in a new medical center to be built on land bought from a Catholic college, sparking criticism the deal undermines the freedom of academic research (Reuters)

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Life ethics:

• Wider death penalty sought | At least a half-dozen states are considering broadening the death penalty, countering a national trend toward scaling back its use (USA Today)
• Miss. looks to restrict abortions | The Mississippi Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would ban most abortions and charge those who perform the procedures with a misdemeanor (Associated Press)
• Pope says compassion no excuse for euthanasia | Pope Benedict on Sunday renewed his appeal to Catholics to reject abortion and euthanasia, saying life was God-given and could not be cut short under “the guise of human compassion.” (Reuters)
• Portugal abortion vote to test modernity | Even though campaigners on both sides say the issue goes beyond a woman’s right to choose, almost half the Portuguese may ignore the referendum (Reuters)
• New law urged on assaults involving an unborn child | The Catholic Church and right-to-life advocates yesterday urged a House committee to pass a bill allowing murder charges to be filed in assault cases where a pregnant woman loses her unborn child (Union Leader, Manchester, N.H.)
• Va. House advances bill to punish forced miscarriages | But rejects a proposal to give fertilized eggs and fetuses the “right to enjoyment of life.” (The Washington Post)
• Man places abortion pills in girlfriend’s food | A 26-year-old man in western Sweden faces criminal charges after placing abortion pills in his girlfriend’s food (The Local, Sweden)
• Boozy festive parties led to high abortion rate | Alcohol-fuelled Christmas parties, which led to unprotected sex, are believed to be the reason behind a record number of abortions carried out by a charity last month (Reuters)
• Risky business | What does a woman’s weight have to do with birth control? According to FDA experts, a recent rise in pregnancies among women on the pill may be linked to obesity (Newsweek)
• Compassion for rape victims | Connecticut apparently needs a state law to force hospitals to provide rape victims with emergency contraception (Editorial, The New York Times)
• Are you sure enough to kill? | You may have thought that legislating for killing people under carefully controlled conditions was a long way away from anything to do with the political platform of the Greens. If so, your view is not shared by Greens Senator Bob Brown, who plans to introduce a private member’s bill in Federal Parliament entitled “Euthanasia for Death with Dignity” (Gordon Cheng, The Daily Telegraph, Australia)
• The biotech bubble | Why stem-cell research won’t make states rich (David Hamilton, Slate)
• Dissatisfaction on the marches | Several readers complained that the story on the Jan. 22 antiabortion march was underplayed and that the Jan. 27 antiwar march was overplayed (Deborah Howell, The Washington Post)
• Lucy is learning. Are the doctors? | People fear what they don’t know. And people, doctors included, don’t know enough about Down syndrome (Beverly Beckham, The Boston Globe)

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Parental notification:

• Parental abortion notice has new snag | A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Illinois officials must put proper courthouse procedures in place before he will consider their request to revive a much-debated abortion law. (Chicago Tribune)
• Notification law challenge halted | A federal judge has put a temporary halt to a legal challenge of the state’s parental notification law, giving New Hampshire lawmakers time to rewrite the law or gut it all together (Union Leader, Manchester, N.H.)
• Also: Abortion law repeal on table | Lawmakers weigh partial or full rollback (Concord Monitor, N.H.)
• Protecting the helpless: Not in NH anymore | Pro-life legislators in New Hampshire are in hostile territory in the State House this session. Yet they strive on, attempting in vain to protect the weakest and most defenseless among us (Editorial, Union Leader, Manchester, N.H.)
• Judge gives Legislature a graceful way out | Seize the opportunity the judge has given you, Representatives and Senators. Repeal this law (Editorial, Concord Monitor, N.H.)

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HPV:

• HPV vaccine: Who chooses? | Because immunization can prevent cervical cancer, bills seek to mandate shots. Some say such measures are ethically suspect (Los Angeles Times)
• Texas is first to require cancer shots for schoolgirls | The requirement was praised by health advocates but caught many by surprise in a largely conservative state where sexual politics is often a battleground (The New York Times)
• Opposition mounts, but Perry stands by HPV vaccine order | Despite growing pressure from lawmakers, Gov. Rick Perry firmly defended his order requiring anti-cancer vaccines for all Texas schoolgirls and said he’d rather “err on the side of protecting life” (Associated Press)
• Florida may require vaccine for girls | Some key state lawmakers want to require Florida girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer (The Miami Herald)
• Wash. state offers free HPV vaccine | There are no plans to make it mandatory (Associated Press)
• Va. House OKs measures boosting parental say in health matters | Parents would have more say in how their seriously ill children are medically treated and whether their daughters would be required to receive a vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer under legislation passed by a hurried House of Delegates yesterday (Associated Press)
• A vaccine to save women’s lives | Congratulations to Texas for becoming the first state to require vaccinating young schoolgirls against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts (Editorial, The New York Times)

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Healthcare:

• Values play into treatment recommendations, study finds | Many doctors believe they have the right not to tell patients about treatments that they object to on moral or religious grounds and to refuse to refer patients elsewhere for the care, according to the first study to examine physicians’ views on such situations (The Washington Post)
• Study: Moral beliefs may sway docs’ care | A disturbing number of doctors do not feel obligated to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally, such as abortion and teen birth control, and believe they have no duty to refer people elsewhere for such treatments, researchers say (Associated Press)
• Many doctors stay mum on controversial care: study (Reuters)

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Adoption:

• Keeping faith | As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the adoption fight will go on (Alice Wyllie, The Scotsman)
• Adopt change after 2,000 years? Never! | The dangers of taking on the Guards or the Church (William Rees-Mogg, The Times, London)

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Church and state:

• Ugandan govt to regulate churches | According to the draft concept paper on the proposed policy on religion that Daily Monitor has seen, the autonomous body would regulate all religious institutions in the country (The Monitor, Uganda)
• Oconee County to open meetings with silence | Council Chairman Marion Lyles said he hoped the moment of silence would end what he called Oconee County being used as a Ping-Pong ball by those wanting the council to keep its opening prayers in the name of Jesus and the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes sectarian prayers (Independent-Mail, Anderson, S.C.)
• Pastors, laymen discuss prayer in government, homosexuality | “We need to get Christians running (for government offices),” says Councilman Dwight Cornelison. “The unsaved will run the country different than a saved person.” (The Dispatch, Lexington, N.C.)
• Call for Texas flag pledge to include ‘one nation, under God’ | “Our nation and our state was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics, Judeo-Christian values and I think it’s a good thing to recognized that,” says Houston representative Debbie Riddle (WFAA, Dallas)
• Amish facing passport dilemma | Medical trips to Mexico, Canada in jeopardy (Lancaster New Era, Pa.)
• Inmate pushes to end ban on his prison preaching | A new warden prohibited Wesley Spratt from preaching in the fall of 2003, with prison officials saying it was dangerous to give an inmate such a position of authority (Associated Press)
• Appeals judge to rule on Christian prison program | A federal appeals court panel of three judges including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will hear arguments next week in the Prison Fellowship case (Associated Press)
• City to church: Turn away homeless | In a letter delivered by hand Wednesday afternoon, Redmond officials warned St. Jude Catholic Church that if the church welcomed a homeless encampment this weekend, it would be breaking city code and subject to code enforcement (The Seattle Times)
• Also: Orlando’s homeless laws spark debate | Advocates for the homeless feared it wouldn’t be long before other cities passed similar laws. As it happens, they were right (Associated Press)
• Church drop-in to stay open | All Saints will continue to receive funds from city, at least until end of summer (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
• At Regent, scholars discuss religion in democracy | Scholars at a Regent University symposium on Friday cited the Founding Fathers in asserting that American democracy and religion are indivisible, regardless of the public debate around mixing religion and politics (The Virginian-Pilot)
• Euless tries to block Santeria lawsuit | Judge asked to dismiss priest’s challenge to longtime ban on killing 1animals (The Dallas Morning News)
• Proposal to bar religion challenges is dangerous | Legislator’s plan shows disregard for basic principle of church-state separation (Editorial, Arizona Daily Star)
• A witches’ brew of religious discrimination | When he was alive, the U.S. government had no trouble finding a place for Patrick Stewart, never mind his unconventional beliefs. It was only later that Uncle Sam had second thoughts (Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune)

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China:

• Religious believers thrice the estimate | The number of people who describe themselves as religious is a startling three times more than the official estimate, according to the country’s first major survey on religious beliefs (China Daily, official govt. media outlet)
• Also: Survey finds 300m China believers | A poll of 4,500 people by Shanghai university professors found 31.4% of people above the age of 16 considered themselves as religious (BBC)
• Poll finds surge of religion among Chinese | “More Chinese feel unstable and harassed by the rootless lives they lead now,” Liu Zhongyu, a philosophy professor who helped organize the survey, said in a telephone interview (The Washington Post)

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Malaysia:

• Malaysian man seeks to renounce Islam | An ethnic Chinese Malaysian mistakenly given by doctors to a Malay Muslim couple at birth nearly three decades ago is bracing for a possible legal battle so he can renounce Islam, an action that can be considered a crime in parts of Malaysia (Associated Press)
• Also: Malaysian switched at birth wants to switch religion (Reuters)
• Going his own way since he was 13 | Zulhaidi Omar is hoping the authorities would allow him to state his religion as Buddhism on his MyKad (The Malaysian Star)
• Changeling baby finds family after 21 years. Now he is caught between faiths (The Times, London)

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Religious freedom:

• Myanmar’s military government denies suppressing Christians | The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper countered Wednesday that allegations of Christians facing severe restrictions, discrimination and persecution were intended “to tarnish the image of Myanmar internationally” (Associated Press)
• US downplays Montagnards threat | A senior US government official has said Vietnamese Montagnards no longer suffer significant persecution (BBC)

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Religious displays:

• Lauderdale condo bans religious symbol on doorposts | Wreaths were allowed on doors during Christmas, but condo board won’t allow mezuzah (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
• ACLU sues over Dixie monument | It took almost three months to find a resident upset with the display(The Gainesville Sun, Fla.)

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Property disputes:

• Parishioners look to SJC to set policy on use of church assets | Although the arguments made by St. James parishioners focus on the limited issues of the land sale and cash gift, the case is being closely watched by parishioners at other closed churches (Associated Press)
• St. Jeremiah parishioners await ruling | Framingham Catholics fighting the Boston Archdiocese’s closing of St. Jeremiah Church are closely watching a similar legal battle waged by Wellesley parishioners that the state’s highest court will hear Thursday (MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, Mass.)
• Church, neighbors at odds | Congregation faces choice: move, sue or alter expansion plan (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Historic Corinth church begins process to leave denomination | Some other PCUSA congregations in Mississippi are reportedly considering severing denominational ties (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
• Also: Presbyterian Church (USA) confident it will retain Corinth property | The presbytery will seek a declaratory judgment as to whether the Mississippi courts will recognize and uphold the PCUSA constitution’s property trust clause (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
• Remodeling the churches | As European worship steadily declines, many grand old buildings have fallen into disuse. What should become of them? (Newsweek)
• The end is nigh for most of our chapels | Paul Chambers has warned this stereotypical slice of religious Welsh life is now in near-terminal decline, with only 2% of chapels built a century ago likely to last another 20 years (Western Mail, Wales)
• Couple must pay £200k church bill | A couple have been ordered to pay more than £200,000 for repairs to a church, which falls within land they inherited after the death of an elderly relative (BBC)
• Right to build not an inviolate religious freedom | One of the most basic rights of cities and counties is the right to decide what types of buildings should go where within their borders to maintain some sort of order and to protect public health and safety (Editorial, The Californian, Temecula, Ca.)
• Federal law smites those in way of churches | Group will, quite literally, put the fear of God in anyone who dares stand in the way of anything a church wants. How Christian (Phil Strickland, The Californian, Temecula, Ca.)

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Anglicanism:

• Primates: Schismatics to be “pruned from the branch” | Tom Wright looks ahead to Tanzania meeting (The Times, London)
• Drive to bar liberal from Church’s crisis summit | The Archbishop of Canterbury’s efforts to defuse the bitter Anglican row over gays looked increasingly doomed last night after conservative leaders threatened to bar a leading liberal from a crisis meeting in Africa next week (The Telegraph, London)
• Episcopal church’s new dawn | Jefferts Schori herself stands for a new day in her church (USA Today)
• Episcopalians open reclaimed Attleboro church | Anglicans had left at diocese’s order (The Boston Globe)
• In search of a new house of worship | A long developing disagreement brings a schism to Episcopal church (The Providence Journal, R.I.)
• St. Anne’s Church votes to quit Episcopal Diocese | 2nd congregation in 2 months to leave (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Episcopalians spend 40 days praying about Hendersonville parish’s future | Split from mainline church is possible (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Local clergyman takes over Anglican diocese | All Saints’ Daren K. Williams is consecrated Saturday (Orange County Register, Ca.)
• Church names 1st female bishop in Cuba | The Episcopal Church has named a woman as bishop in Cuba, the first such appointment by the church in the developing world, church officials said Tuesday (Associated Press)
• Also: First woman bishop in Cuba won’t copy men | The Rev. Nerva Cot, the first woman bishop named by the Episcopal Church in a developing nation, said she will bring a feminine touch to leadership of her rapidly expanding congregation in Cuba (Reuters)
• Church of England to debate tighter controls on pornographic material | Diocese warns of eroding boundaries in the media; synod faces battle over attitude to homosexuals (The Guardian, London)
• Challenge for the Church | The Anglican Communion is one of several supra-national bodies (such as the Commonwealth) whose ambitions no longer correspond to reality. Dr Williams should let it fade away, and instead apply his intellect to holding together our national Church (Editorial, The Telegraph, London)
• Church’s hard line on gays hurts kids | Twenty Tanzanian teenagers who expected to start school in January did not, because the scholarship money we sent for them was not accepted (Ellen Painter Dollar, The Hartford Courant, Ct.)
• A new bishop for a troubled diocese | A pair of popular Seattle-area clergy, along with three priests serving urban parishes in Texas, Ohio and Maryland, have been nominated as finalists to become the new Episcopal Bishop of Olympia (Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

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Baptists:

• 2 Baptist churches leaving N.C. group | St. John’s, Park Road vote to exit convention rather than be tossed out (The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• New effort aims for Baptist unity | Coalition would take on social issues (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
• Baptist leader calls for unity | Southern Baptists must work collectively through the Cooperative Program, the denomination’s program for national and international missions and ministries, as well through their local churches, Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page told more than 700 people Tuesday at an evangelism luncheon (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)
• Ex-Rep. Bill Gray departs family pulpit | The pastor whose family has led the Bright Hope Baptist Church for three generations plans to give his last sermon on Sunday, when he will turn over his ministry to an outsider (Associated Press)
• Also: Passing along his Bright Hope | Rev. Gray gives farewell sermon at Baptist bastion of social good (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

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Eastern Orthodox:

• Church painting of Lenin sparks Greek row | A half-finished painting in a Greek Orthodox church of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin cutting off the beard of a Christian saint has offended traditionalists who want the revolutionary painted over (Reuters)
• ‘Holy relic’ ad angers Russians | The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed indignation at an attempt to sell a skull and bone allegedly belonging to Saint Philipp (BBC)

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Catholicism:

• Controversial bishop forced by church to cancel Arizona appearances | The Vatican has silenced Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, forcing him to cancel two planned talks in Arizona, organizers of the talks said Monday (The Arizona Republic)
• Also: Fans upset that retired bishop not given OK to talk here | Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit spoke by DVD instead (Tucson Citizen, Az.)
• Letter criticizes diocese’s treatment of retired bishop (The Arizona Star)
• Sabinal’s test of faith | The prospect of glimpsing God’s presence is drawing hundreds of believers to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church where it’s said that a small ceramic statue of Baby Jesus cried tears after local children used it in a Nativity play (San Antonio Express-News)
• The modern US nun is an ex-soldier, lawyer and has a blog | A growing number of women in their 20s and 30s across the United States have shed high-powered jobs, career ambitions and boyfriends for a nun’s veil and a life devoted to the church (AFP)
• Principal allowed to return to Catholic high | Principal Lawrence Monroe on Monday returned to Santa Margarita Catholic High School, after the Diocese of Orange found he hadn’t acted maliciously when he failed to respond appropriately to accusations of staff misconduct (The Orange County Register, Ca.)

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Robert Drinan:

• Former priest and congressmen remembered | The Rev. Robert Drinan’s career took him to the halls of Congress, but mourners on Saturday also remembered him for his dedication to human rights, commitment to the disadvantaged, and his humor (Associated Press)
• Hundreds remember Drinan at BC | Inspiring teacher, politician praised (The Boston Globe)
• Father Drinan was our unfailing champion | For me and countless others, it was his role as a mentor that distinguished Father Drinan (Mark D. Gearan, The Boston Globe)

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People:

• Roberta Semple Salter, daughter of L.A. evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, dies at 96 | Groomed from an early age to succeed her mother, Salter lost a dispute over church management and was removed from the organization’s leadership in 1937 (Los Angeles Times)
• Florida televangelist is God’s man for the multimedia age | He salvages souls one mouse-click at a time while thriving on the personal contact with callers to his unorthodox TV show, “Live Prayer With Bill Keller.” It airs now on the local CW network affiliate but is slated to go national and move to the afternoons in March (Associated Press)
• Rickie Lee Jones receives some divine inspiration | The singer Rickie Lee Jones talks about her new album, which derives much of its content from the life and words of Jesus (The New York Times)
• Briefs filed in E. Bruns. team prayer appeal | The latest in the saga of praying football coach Marcus Borden (The Home News Tribune, East Brunswick, NJ)
• Two queens visit historic church in Amsterdam | Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is on a visit to the Netherlands to meet her Dutch counterpart, Queen Beatrix (Radio Netherlands)
• God and mammon on her side | Sister Patricia Daly is a nun with a fund, a thorn in the side of corner cutters, child exploiters and polluters (The Guardian, London)
• Bill Donohue: The Catholic League’s attack dog | His ability to manufacture controversy has brought a moribund advocacy group firmly into the black and turned Donohue into catnip for the press (Women’s Wear Daily)
• Rebuilding churches ‘a restoration of hope’ | Bill Frist’s journal as he travels with Franklin Graham to Uganda, Sudan and other African nations (The Tennessean)
• The pope’s right hand man | Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone doesn’t have the guarded air of those who tend to rise to the heights of Vatican power (Time)
• Dalai Lama gets prof’s chair at Emory | He is expected to deliver his inaugural lecture during an Oct. 20-22 visit to the university, and to participate in a conference on science and spirituality and an interfaith session on religion (Associated Press)
• Earlier: Hollywood’s Idol | CT visits the Dalai Lama, spiritual hero to millions (Christianity Today, June 11, 2001)
• Jimmy Carter goes Episcopal | Still another way to move evangelicals to the left (Mark Tooley, The American Spectator)

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Dungy and Smith:

• Dungy looks ahead while savoring win | There had been conjecture he might step down, perhaps to pursue a Christian ministry, after reaching the NFL mountaintop (Los Angeles Times)
• All-class Dungy may heed greater calling | For Dungy, his faith is the impetus for trying to live a life with meaning. But you don’t need religion to grasp that this is bigger than anyone one person (USA Today)
• Christian values guide Dungy and the Colts | After Tony Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl victory on Sunday, he made it clear that his success had not affected his strong attachment to Christianity (The Jerusalem Post)
• Super Bowl coaches buoyed by shared faith | For all the hoopla about Smith and Dungy being the first African-American head coaches to reach the Super Bowl, there’s also a common bond in the friends’ spirituality (Religion News Service)
• At top of game, Dungy, Smith still feel higher calling | Not that other coaches who came before Dungy and Smith weren’t religious. But their coaching demeanors were fiery, steel-fisted and frequently profane (Bill Ordine, The Baltimore Sun)
• Dungy reaches summit without sacrificing values | He is a man who repeatedly talks about his Christian faith without seeming overly preachy, nor hypocritical (J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times)
• Dungy well aware of what he said | Dungy had to know when he told the biggest audience of his life that promoting his Christian identity meant more than achieving a racial milestone, he was poking a hornets’ nest (Kevin Modesti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Super Bowl is a super pulpit | Anyone who’s a fan of football, and many who aren’t, know that Dungy is a religious man. Amidst the celebration after winning the Super Bowl on Sunday, he never let anyone forget. Neither did his friend and losing Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith (Waveney Ann Moore, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)
• Coaches of faith | Public professions of faith by NFL coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith before and after Sunday’s Super Bowl surprised and pleased Inland clergy, who said the two men are the kind of role models American youth need (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)

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NFL vs. churches:

• Some of the faithful did not concede to NFL’s demands | Many churches canceled their party plans rather than try to cram a large crowd around a small set. Some scaled down their screens to comply. And some defied the NFL altogether (The Indianapolis Star)
• Church parties on despite ban | Despite an NFL ban against Super Bowl parties with giant screens, at least two churches have decided to go ahead (The Indianapolis Star)
• NFL not budging, even for churches | Despite anger over ban on giant TVs, ‘we’re not backing off anything,” league says (The Indianapolis Star)
• No sanctuary for Super Bowl flock | Churches scramble to cancel big-screen bashes after an NFL warning (Los Angeles Times)
• Parties pit NFL against pastors | The NFL’s warning to an Indianapolis church has raised concerns for local churches planning Super Bowl parties (The Miami Herald)
• Religious houses balk at NFL rule | Many local religious groups went ahead with their plans, not knowing – or, in some cases, not caring – that the NFL bars public venues from displaying games on big screens (Newsday)
• Super Bowl on a smaller screen | Church downsizes picture over rule (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Super Bowl Sunday on a slightly smaller screen | Church scales down to a 42-inch screen after hearing about restrictions (York Daily Record, Pa.)
• Pastor says the game must go on | “I don’t think they care about anything in Chico. They’re not going to show up here,” Pastor Ron Zimmer said Sunday. “The NFL has enough issues with their image. I really don’t think they’re going to sue me.” (Chico Enterprise-Record, Ca.)
• Church’s Super Bowl party could violate NFL rules | The Stealey Assembly of God church is taking on the National Football League – in its own small way (The State Journal, Charleston, WV)
• Church shrinks screen and shows the big game | But smaller size seems to have meant a smaller crowd at Southeast (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• NFL bristles as churches embrace Super Bowl | Among those not canceling: Ed Young, senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Dallas, which also has a ministry in Miami. Both locations have big Super Bowl parties planned, and are even giving away tickets to the game (Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR)
• NFL sacks church Super Bowl parties | Jonesville Baptist Church encouraged members to boycott the game and showed the movie “Facing the Giants” instead (The Gainesville Sun, Fla.)
• NFL stops church SB parties | River Hills Christian Church cancels (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• NFL calls foul on churches’ viewing parties | Some local churches that had planned big-screen Super Bowl parties have canceled them or opted to show the game on smaller televisions after learning at the last minute that the National Football League has strict rules on what they can do (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)
• NFL trying to bully pulpits | Won’t give Super TVs a screen pass (Mike Lupica, New York Daily News)
• NFL sacks church Super Bowl bash | Woodbury Lutheran cancels plans after learning of conflict with league rules (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.)
• Church reverses call on holding Super Bowl bash | At least one other suburban church, Poplar Creek Church in Bartlett, plans to go ahead with its Super Bowl showing (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
• Some churches ignoring NFL warning | At least two San Antonio churches plan to ignore an NFL warning that showing the Super Bowl to large audiences on big screens would violate federal copyright laws (San Antonio Express-News, Tex.)
• NFL’s ban on viewing Super Bowl at churches, but not bars, shows greed | Breaking up such gatherings is heartless and un-American (Editorial, The Morning Journal, Lorain, Oh.)
• Seeing the light from dark suits | Yea, verily, a state that prides itself on praying in public and legislating chastity got a revelatory taste last week of what America’s true religion is (Dan Carpenter, The Indianapolis Star)
• NFL doesn’t do church a service by nixing bash | Dungy used to wear a WWJD bracelet. Wonder what would Jesus do if he showed up at Fall Creek on Sunday night expecting to see the game? (David Whitley, The Orlando Sentinel)
• Parties cancelled at some churches, continued at others | There remains confusion over exactly what the NFL’s policy is (Baptist Press)

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More on Super Bowl and churches:

• Gimme that pigskin religion | Does modern-day America worship football? (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Wheaton College professor examines why we worship football | James Mathisen sees sports as America’s biggest folk religion — complete with record books that act as scripture and halls of fame where saints are enshrined (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
• It does pay to attend church | Fellowship Church on Saturday gave away a Super Bowl trip (The Dallas Morning News)
• Football and faith | Churches cater to fans during Super Bowl services, parties (Evansville Courier and Press, Ind.)
• Church shows ad-less Super Bowl | No beer, no Prince and no “malfunctions,” but coach shares taped testimonial (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
• Mixing gospel and gridiron on Super Bowl Sunday | Some churches either shift or cancel Sunday night service to accommodate Super Bowl fanatics (Corey Hodges, Salt Lake Tribune)
• Church prays to God and for the Bears | Sunday Services at Cross View Church were a little different than usual. There was praying, scripture reading and songs of praise and worship — to God and for the Chicago Bears (Lake County News-Sun, Ill.)
• Heaven help the Bears — or maybe not | A little prayer couldn’t hurt, could it? Depends on the benediction, area spiritual leaders say (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
• Super prayers could help us all | Is it OK to pray for the Colts to win? Would God choose a side? (Dan McFeely, The Indianapolis Star)
• Faith moves to forefront | God got a lot of media attention at this year’s Super Bowl (The Tampa Tribune, Fla.)

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Media, art, and entertainment:

• Jerusalem Post launches Christian edition | Why is Israel’s oldest English language daily courting American evangelicals? Tourism, along with that group’s strong support for the state of Israel, has a lot to do with it (Editor & Publisher)
• Take that, Pharaoh! Bible dolls all mighty | Don Levine, the man who created GI Joe, is now introducing “Almighty Heroes,” a collection of biblical action figures that includes Old Testament heroes such as Moses, Samson, David and Noah (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Five questions with Mr. Hymn | From an early age, Chris Tomlin says he set out to write songs people would want to sing along to. Now, at age 34, the Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter is among the most-sung artists in the world (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.)
• Also: Christian music star doesn’t crave praise | Scrutiny “can wear on you at times” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
• New York label launches Christian music division in Nashville | New York-based Koch Records has launched Kosmos Records, a Nashville-based Christian music division (Nashville Business Journal)
• Avant God | Troupe bases play on local religious climate (The Gazette, Colorado Springs)
• Believers and doubters, inspired by the Word | The omissions of works by blacks, Latinos and younger artists keep “Biblical Art in a Secular Century” from making a cogent case for the 20th century as either secular or religious (The New York Times)
• Saving a treasured trove, ever so slowly | Ancient manuscripts from Mt. Sinai move into the digital age with the help of a Bedouin camel driver’s son (Los Angeles Times)
• Subverting violent computer games with religious poetry | Unreal: The Baha’i version (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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Books:

• Prison for MySpace perv | He’s also sentenced to read Arterburn’s Every Man’s Battle (The Express-Times, Easton, Pa.)
• Blame Satan! | Chris Hedges sees hypocrisy, violence on Christian Right (Bloomberg)
• Hip puritan sex | In his latest book, Rob Bell gives a slick makeover to some old truisms and prejudices about sex (Astrid Storm, Soma Review)
• Whose God is it anyway? | The renewed debate about the role of religion in Australian political and cultural life turns on a series of untested assumptions. David Burchell reviews Australian Soul by Gary Bouma (The Australian)

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John Edwards’s bloggers:

• Unholy hire | The anti-Catholic rants of John Edwards’s blogospherically famous staffer (Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review Online)
• Catholics slam bloggers hired by Edwards | Catholic League cites posts that the women made on blogs in the past several months in which they criticized the pope and the church for its opposition to homosexuality, abortion and contraception, sometimes using profanity (Associated Press)
• Edwards’s bloggers cross the line, critic says | The Catholic League is demanding that John Edwards dismiss two bloggers for expressing anti-Catholic opinions (The New York Times)
• Edwards’ bloggers regret critical posts | “I’ve talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone’s faith, and I take them at their word,” Edwards said (Associated Press)

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Barack Obama:

• Race, religion sensitive subtext in presidential campaign | South Side church’s tenets spark criticism of Obama by some conservatives (Chicago Tribune)
• Indonesian school still smarts from Obama link | “I feel this school has become a victim of irresponsible American politics. These innocent children are now linked to a negative image,” said lawyer Andri Ismangun, whose two children sit in the first and fifth grades (Reuters)

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John McCain:

• McCain recruits social conservative operative | Guy Rodgers, a former national field director for the Christian Coalition, will serve as deputy director of McCain’s “Americans of Faith Coalition,” the Arizonan’s exploratory committee announced Monday (CNN)
• McCain touts ties with the right | In Dallas, senator says he’s reached out to many evangelicals (The Dallas Morning News)

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Mitt Romney:

• Romney’s go-to guy for conservatives | Peter G. Flaherty, a devout Roman Catholic with deeply held socially conservative views, says, “Obviously I’ve got to believe he’s for real, or I wouldn’t be wasting my time.” (The Boston Globe)
• Romney: It’s politics over pulpit | LDS member gives his vision for the nation and hears few questions about his religion (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Mitt Romney says he opposes abortion | Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has had an epiphany on abortion — not once, but twice (Associated Press)
• Mormon candidate braces for religion as issue | Mitt Romney expressed confidence that he could quell concerns about his faith as he runs for president (The New York Times)
• Faith could be hurdle in Romney’s White House bid | Faith an issue among evangelical voters (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Latter-day lifer | Mitt Romney ought to tell his political-conversion story (Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review Online)

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Other 2008 candidates:

• Hillary’s religious roots | At 13, she met a Methodist minister who became a lifelong friend (Newsweek)
• Giuliani: ‘Good chance’ I’ll run in ’08 | “The fact is I appeal to conservative Christians the way I appeal to everyone else,” Giuliani said at a news conference. “I don’t think you have separate appeals to people.” (Associated Press)
• Religion and politics in the 2008 race | What role is religion likely to play in the 2008 presidential election? How are the candidates dealing with the issue? An interview with John Green (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Huckabee bets on conservative base for 2008 | His evangelical and conservative credentials could make him a potent force in next year’s primary (All Things Considered, NPR)
• Tithe and spend Republicans | Can conservatives really trust a man who lost 100 pounds with the presidency? (W. James Antle III, The Wall Street Journal)
• Rightwing warrior Falwell has eyes on 2008 | Not that he’s running for anything (Reuters)
• Keeping the faith | Evangelicals remain wary of the Democrats’ overtures. (Patrick Hynes, The American Spectator)

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Politics:

• U.S. may be mishandling asylum seekers, panel says | A commission warned that the Bush administration may be leaving asylum seekers vulnerable to deportation and harsh treatment (The New York Times)
• Faith, politics cross in debate | When religious leaders address immigration, some take offense (The Dallas Morning News)
• President’s budget freezes faith-based programs, lowers domestic spending | The White House said the budget represents a continued commitment to the Faith-Based and Community Initiative (The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy)
• Are evangelicals in political thicket? | Evangelicals should be applauded for rethinking political orthodoxies. But in doing so they must avoid becoming ensnared in another secular political web (Doug Bandow, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

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Environment:

• World’s churches go green and rally to cause | Dire warnings from top scientists that mankind is to blame for global warming set off alarm bells everywhere — but many of the world’s churches have already “gone green” in the race to save the planet (Reuters)
• The greening of the world’s religions | Religious institutions have come to tackle daunting social issues like abolition and civil rights. Now a new, great challenge summons them: environmental crisis (Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, The Chronicle of Higher Education, sub. req’d.)
• Global warming report: a call for all to care for God’s creation | Faith and science can compliment each other to accomplish a common cause (Joel C. Hunter, The Christian Science Monitor)

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Fiji:

• Earlier: Church blasts ‘treasonous’ coup as police arrested | Fiji’s Methodist Church, the country’s largest religious denomination, issued a statement condemning the December 5 coup as illegal and “treasonous” (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
• Church silent on politics | The Methodist Church in Fiji does not want to comment on any issue concerning politics at the moment (Fiji Times)
• Earlier: Church backs statement | The president of the Methodist Church in Fiji, Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca, had sighted and approved a press statement before it was released to the media, says church spokesman Rev Iliesa Naivalu (Fiji Times)
• Fiji Methodists retract coup criticism | Fiji’s influential Methodist Church has withdrawn a statement issued in its name last week attacking the military takeover and President Iloilo (Radio New Zealand)
• Methodist Church withdraws 20 point resolution | The Methodist Church of Fiji has withdrawn the 20 point resolution released last week regarding the interim administration and the armed takeover on December 5th. Church General Secretary, Reverend Ame Tugawe said the decision was made yesterday after senior church executives said that the resolutions were not endorsed by the church standing committee (FijiVillage.com)

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War and terrorism:

• Bishop Sentamu slams UK over detention of terror suspects | In a twist of political and moral irony, a Ugandan-born priest has blamed Britain’s anti terror laws for turning the country into a “police state” not different from the dark days of the late dictator Idi Amin’s government (The Monitor, Uganda)
• Bali bomber taught Poso militants from jail — police | An Indonesian convicted of plotting the 2002 Bali bombings was able to give guidance from jail to Muslim militants in the troubled Poso region, a police statement submitted to parliament showed on Monday (Reuters)
• Jesus loves Bali victims | Theologically, the newly installed Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, is correct. As Christ proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount, Christians should pray for those who persecute them. But Dr Freier’s judgment in supporting churches who have put up signs saying, “Jesus Loves Osama”, is seriously flawed (Christopher Bantick, Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia)

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Crime:

• Brazilians’ arrest focuses scrutiny on evangelical groups | Estevam Hernandes-Filho and his wife, Sonia — who oversee more than 1,000 churches in Brazil and several in Florida–were under house arrest in Miami, accused of carrying more than $56,000 in undeclared cash (The Washington Post)
• Also: Brazil church leaders plead not guilty | A Brazilian couple accused of plundering millions of dollars from their evangelical church pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that they illegally smuggled $56,000 in cash into the United States (Associated Press)
• Also: Couple pleads not guilty to currency smuggling | Megachurch leaders’ supporters, including two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and jackets, linked arms around the couple as they hurried out of the courthouse. The group rushed the pair into a gold Chevrolet SUV that bore a sticker saying ”God is Faithful” across its dark tinted windows (The Miami Herald)
• In Kenya’s capital, a sense that danger is ever stronger | A missionary’s slaying illustrates that Nairobi, once a favorite playground for Westerners in Africa, is spinning out of control (The New York Times)
• Ruling: Man arrested for cursing at meeting should get day in court | The Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2005 U.S. District Court decision that held Montrose Township police officer Stephen Robinson had probable cause to arrest Thomas Leonard, who used the word “goddamn” while addressing the township board in 2002 (Associated Press)
• FBI agents go to Haiti in kidnapping | Nathan Jean-Dieudonne, 58, a U.S. citizen of Haitian descent, was abducted Sunday afternoon as he and three others drove home from church in Croix-de-Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince (Associated Press)
• Suicidal monk has wrestled with past | The Catholic monk who stepped in front of a train Tuesday in Elkhorn had joined the Benedictine order partly to atone for a dark past: He murdered his 3-year-old daughter in 1976 (Omaha World-Herald, Neb.)
• Church assault 911 call | The 911 call from the night Father George Chaanine allegedly attacked a choir singer (KVBC, Las Vegas)
• Church of convicted pastor owes thousands in tax bills | Agape could lose half of its land if debts aren’t paid (The Dallas Morning News)
• Cutting Edge: Godless in America | This part-detective story revolves around America’s No.1 atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Why my lovesick son shot his pastor | Mvusi Dondolo, 30, was so desperately in love with a woman at his church that when she spurned him he decided to kill himself. But after four failed attempts the tormented young man found a gun and went on the rampage, killing the very pastor he had earlier turned to for help (Helen Bamford, Cape Argus, South Africa)
• Ministers asks community to unite at shooting victim’s funeral | Boston ministers and family members of a youth slain in Dorchester today urged the city’s black community to embrace and support its young men (The Boston Globe)
• Sheriff enlists faith groups to help curb crime in Avery | Inmates in the 20-bed jail could get counseling from clergy or simply a promise of help for their families, as they wait for trial (Asheville Citizen-Times, N.C.)

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Abuse:

• Ex-pastor gets death | Jurors sentenced Adrian Estrada to die in what’s believed to be the first death penalty handed down under Texas’ 2003 fetal protection law (San Antonio Express-News, Tex.)
• Also: Texas man gets death for killing fetus | A former youth pastor was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a teenager and her fetus in what is believed to be the first such order in Texas, the nation’s busiest death penalty state (Associated Press)
• Legal legacy | There’s an unsung hero in the story of bringing clergy abuse to light: the plaintiff’s lawyer (The Boston Globe)
• Judge says priest files must be released | A judge Tuesday ordered the Roman Catholic Church to release insurance records and confidential files related to a priest who had been convicted of molestation before being transferred to California (Associated Press)
• Ex-Norwich pastor receives 10 years | Charles Johnson Jr., the former head of the Norwich Assembly of God, was convicted of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor for having inappropriate contact with a former church member who was 9 or 10 years old (Norwich Bulletin, Ct.)
• Man arrested here in Pennsylvania sex assault case | Gerald Klever was the assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, from 1977 to 1983 (Tucson Citizen, Az.)
• Also: Ex-Delco pastor arrested in Arizona | Gerald L. Klever, formerly of Springfield’s First Presbyterian, faces 1970s sex-abuse charges (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Defendant requests second DNA test | Pastor accused in girl’s pregnancy (Hartford Courant, Ct.)
• Ex-student accuses Jesuit of misconduct | Priest censured (The Washington Post)
• Judge orders release of church files on molester priest | Though agreeing to release material as part of a settlement with eight Orange County victims of Siegfried Widera, the Milwaukee archdiocese had sought to withhold some records (Los Angeles Times)
• Retreat facilitator’s past as sex abuser resurfaces | A victims’ advocacy group says the adult participants in an Episcopal center’s retreat should be told that the facilitator is registered with the Texas Department of Corrections. The former priest says he is reformed (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• More clergy abuse files turn up in Ft. Worth | Lawyer in civil case outraged over diocese’s failure to admit papers (The Dallas Morning News)
• Also: More allegations against priest (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)

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Remnant Fellowship murder case:

• Remnant Fellowship tape could be evidence | On the tape, Sonya Smith talks with Gwen Shamblin, the founder of Remnant Fellowship, about what she learned from church leaders about child discipline (WTVF, Nashville)
• Ga. couple on trial in son’s death | The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin’s Weigh Down Workshop (Associated Press)
• Child’s death renews scrutiny of local church | Members say accused Georgia parents innocent of murder (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Teen testifies she heard father hit son | Incident was at Brentwood-based church event (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Cobb cop testifies parents feared son, 8 | The father of Josef Smith said his family was “really scared” of the 8-year-old son he and his wife Sonya Smith are accused of murdering, according to testimony from a Cobb County police officer Wednesday (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Arson

• Church arson suspect held in jail | Evan Walgren, the woman charged with burning a Gulf Road house that has been serving as a pagan church, will be in jail until a Feb. 12 hearing on whether she is dangerous (The Republican, Springfield, Mass.)
• Christians’ tour bus set on fire | The caravan was parked by Franche Evangelical Church in Kidderminster at the time of the attack on Sunday. Luggage belonging to the Canadian Life-Force group was also destroyed (BBC)
• Pastor wants plea deal for arsonists | The Rev. Jim Parker doesn’t think the three former college students responsible for destroying his church a year ago should serve time in an Alabama state prison (Tuscaloosa News, Ala.)

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Theft:

• 4 years in prison for former Baptist Foundation treasurer | Donald Deardoff also ordered to pay $159 million to make up for money investors lost when the foundation collapsed in 1999 (Tucson Citizen)
• Also: 5 Baptist fund figures sentenced | Even a 6-year-old fraud case can hold surprises (The Arizona Republic)
• Also: The Baptist fraud | The sordid story of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona came to an ignominious end on Friday when five men were sentenced and ordered to pay restitution (Editorial, Tucson Citizen)
• Embezzling pastor cuts deal | He embezzled more than $500,000 out of the First Congregational Church in Ripon, but authorities want him to testify in court about the Mary Morino-Starkey murder case still being investigated (Manteca Bulletin, Ca.)
• Also: Ex-pastor likely to avoid prison | Ripon’s Radic agrees to testify in murder case (The Record, Stockton, Ca.)
• Also: Ex-pastor’s deal tied to Ripon slaying (Modesto Bee, Ca.)
• What’s a little religious artifact theft among allies? | Of callow youth, learning to respect other cultures, and a 40-year-old confession (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
• Priests remain parishes fiscal agents | The Catholic Diocese of Richmond may change little about its financial practices, at least immediately, in the wake of embezzlement scandals at three churches (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
• Also: Embezzlement case hits city church | A camera in the office of St. Peter Catholic Church recorded Bernadine Brown handling money from the church’s Sunday collection (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
• Fake church official jailed for forgeries | A man who bilked at least six area businesses out of thousands of dollars in merchandise last year by posing as an official of a nonexistent Naperville church has been sentenced to six months in DuPage County Jail in two of those crimes (The Beacon News, Aurora, Ill.)
• Seminary student led a double life | Once found out, he disappears with cash (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
• Suspect charged with swindling S.C. church | Police: Chester man posed as contractor to get money (Rock Hill Herald, S.C.)
• Charges surprise parishioners | St. Peter priest talks with congregation about news of collection-plate thefts (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)

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Money and business:

• Court dismisses church group’s suit against Weil Gotshal | A Texas bankruptcy judge has thrown out a suit against Weil, Gotshal & Manges by the social services arm of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who had accused the New York law firm of steering it into a “disastrous” Chapter 11 filing (New York Law Journal)
• Bishops say microcredit can save dying farmers | Bishops and priests from India’s biggest Catholic charity are formulating a microcredit plan for farmers whose mounting crop debts have led thousands of them to commit suicide (Reuters)
• Salvation Army unit seeks to gain more of a huge gift | The Salvation Army has gone to court in Seattle to challenge a trust dividing more than $260 million among eight charities, including Greenpeace (The New York Times)
• Archdiocese set to end ownership of hospitals | Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and a tight circle of archdiocese leaders have made a tentative deal to transfer ownership of the six hospitals in the Caritas Christi Health Care system (The Boston Globe)
• Also: In Caritas deal, fears for two city hospitals | Archdiocese says Ascension will strengthen local system, but Menino thinks cuts could loom (The Boston Globe)
• Church ‘will always do what’s right,’ embattled bishop vows | Embattled Bishop Acen Phillips thanked his church’s members for their support Sunday in the wake of an investigation into questionable life insurance policies (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Also: Embattled minister: Church will continue to do what’s right | Acen Phillips has no state license to sell insurance (The Denver Post)
• Beamer struggling with missions | The organization that rallied a nation after the September 11 terror attacks with the phrase “Let’s Roll” is looking for a rescue of its own (Nonprofit Times)

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Church life:

• A soaking for the spirit | A Pentecostal congregation draws many to a South L.A. street for a richly symbolic street baptism by fire hose, probably a first for California (Los Angeles Times)
• No altar, no pews, not even a roof, but very much a church | A small but growing number of congregations now go outdoors to bring church to the homeless and anyone else who happens along (The New York Times)
• Police probe church disruptions | Attendees at some of the churches are still trying to figure out how to describe what happened (The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Barriers to worship | Congregations increasingly seek ways to improve access for people with disabilities to participate in services (The Washington Post)
• New organization aims to unite five Christian ‘families’ | ‘Christian Churches Together in the USA’ launches Wednesday with 36 denominations and more than 100 million churchgoers represented (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Churches march to mark ‘regret’ over slavery | Churches organise event to symbolise nation’s guilt (Sunday Herald, Glasgow)
• Reaching out with the Word — and technology | As area congregations grow, churches build satellite sites, televise sermons (The Washington Post)
• Black communities consider modern role of the church | Some Christian leaders say even though the church still holds sway with black people, the level of influence it once had has lessened (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
• Bellevue megachurch welcomes new preacher after firing its old one | The Rev. David Perez will take over as pastor of the Bellevue Community Church, a West Nashville mega church whose charismatic pastor was fired last July in a bitter parting-of-the-ways (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Church carillon volume angers neighbor | Another bell fight (Connecticut Post)
• Revivals’ aim: To restore their flock | The revival, which is tied to the start of Black History Month, incorporates styles of worship that are common in Pentecostal and Protestant evangelical churches but remain rare among Catholics (The Miami Herald)
• Church’s billboard campaign isn’t subtle, but it is personal | More tales of church marketing (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• U.S. evangelicals eye renewed domestic drive | The number of southern U.S. evangelical Christians is not growing as fast as the wider population, leading to a renewed effort to win converts on the domestic front from key groups like the Hispanic community (Reuters)
• Land swap would allow a flock to go home | Free-standing church proposal a break from tradition in Columbia (The Washington Post)
• Christian cool vs. Christian too-cool | In the beginning, it wasn’t this much fun. While the American youth-group culture grows, some hope to make worship more modest (Associated Press)
• Faith leaps in to lead, raise funds, face tough issues | The six weeks since Christmas has been an eventful time for Southern California’s faith community (Los Angeles Times)

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Florida tornadoes:

• After the destruction, seeking a time to heal | A lyrical sermon resonated with those affected by the tornadoes that took 13 lives in the Paisley area of Central Florida (The New York Times)
• Tornado victims attend church in Florida | 100 people gathered at the wreckage of the Lady Lake Church of God for a Sunday service, three days after tornadoes killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes (Associated Press)
• Lady Lake church to get check to help with rebuilding | Florida’s leader of the Church of God is due to deliver a check today to get the rebuilding process under way at Lady Lake Church of God, which was destroyed by Friday’s killer tornadoes (The Orlando Sentinel)
• Church in Lady Lake pledges to persevere | The trash, the broken trees, the media and the other onlookers did not deter members of the church from praising the God they believe has bigger and better plans for them (Ocala Star-Banner, Fla.)
• Amid cleanup, a call to keep faith | Wrecked church meets outdoors (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

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Judaism:

• Anti-Semitism sermon title rankles Maine Jews | The title of the sermon, “The Only Way to Destroy the Jewish Race,” appeared in an advertisement for the First Baptist in the church announcements section of Saturday’s Portland Press Herald (The Boston Globe)
• Also: Pastor, newspaper apologize over ad | The minister of a Baptist church in South Portland asked for forgiveness Monday for frightening members of the Jewish community with a provocative newspaper advertisement that promoted his Sunday sermon about anti-Semitism (Portland Press Herald)
• Also: Preacher’s trick title a bad call (Bill Nemitz, Portland Press Herald)
• Why early Christians stopped observing Jewish codes | An interview with James G. Crossley, author of Why Christianity Happened: A Sociohistorical Account of Christian Origins (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Church rally supports Israel | Event organized by evangelicals, Jews (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)

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Islam:

• Iraq’s shadow widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S. | Sectarian tensions have been blamed for vandalism and student confrontations in American Muslim communities (The New York Times)
• Teacher sacked over religion row | Pupils at the predominantly Muslim school claimed he said most suicide bombers were Muslim (BBC)
• Ellis’ conversion to Islam gets a broad response | Ellis said as far as city property is concerned, his name change would mean only an alteration to his portrait in City Hall (Macon Telegraph, Ga.)
• Reporting on Muslims while Jewish | Differing reactions to the author of a book on American Islam show the religion is anything but monolithic (Paul M. Barrett, Los Angeles Times)
• Tolerating intolerance is still this country’s besetting sin | If the majority of Muslims truly want to integrate, they could start by kicking out the preachers of hatred from their mosques (Henry Porter, The Observer, London)

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Other stories of interest:

• Morality play | A Harvard researcher believes that humans have an innate sense of right and wrong, but others say morality is mostly learned (The Boston Globe)
• Religious billboards along I-65 pulled after protests | Catholic League protested signs about Sabbath (News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.)
• 3 on mission trip die in Honduras crash | About 10 other people were also hurt near the village of Mal Pais, seven hours from the capital city of Tegucigalpa, says Honduras Outreach (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Also: Missionaries killed in Honduras bound by passion to help | Honduras Outreach organized the trip that included 28 people from four churches in Newnan and Cartersville (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Will Pope Benedict become a Mormon after he dies? | The Church says it cannot stem the tide of dead baptized in its own temples (Reuters)
• In Damascus, religions, cultures, and worlds collide | The ‘Eternal City’ is the original crossroads of commerce, culture, and religion (Good Morning America, ABC)
• As church shows its age, bard is still the rage | It is a familiar story in England, where hundreds of centuries-old churches, left largely devoid of worshipers by a modern trend toward secularism, need hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of repairs (The Washington Post)
• Ugandan warrior priestess laid to rest | Alice Lakwena, a Ugandan warrior priestess who led an insurgency in the 1980s and claimed to have spiritual powers to protect her fighters from bullets by anointing them with oil, was laid to rest at a funeral attended by several hundred followers (Associated Press)
• Bless this church | Welcome to the Universal Life Church. You are to be ordained at our Modesto world headquarters. Congratulations. And remember: do only that which is right (Los Angeles Times)
• Shuttered windows to the soul | We can know what people are prepared to say as a result of their religious beliefs, but what they understand by their words is another question (Andrew Brown, The Guardian, London)
• The benefit of doubt | Doubt is not paralysis. Certainty is. Doubt keeps the doors and windows open. Belief is one room with no way out. Don’t look to have life explained to you, presented to you. Live the life that emanates from your interior greatness (John Patrick Shanley, The Boston Globe)
• With God on their team | A child growing up in 1940s Ireland soon learned that there were Catholic sports and Protestant sports. Play croquet and you were forever doomed (Frank McCourt, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)

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The post Lebanon Bus Bombs Target Christians appeared first on Christianity Today.

“National Catholic officials said they could recall no other killing of a priest in this country while he was celebrating Mass,” reported The New York Times, though “the killing of Father Penzes prompted some to compare the circumstances of his death to the killing of the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was shot while saying Mass in 1980. In 1985, a deranged man killed a priest in Onalaska, Wis., inside his church.”

“This appears to be a fatal mix of a grievance, mental illness and a firearm,” says an editorial in Long Island’s Newsday. “Penzes was known as a man with a large heart, who succeeded in drawing large numbers of people into active roles in the parish. At 50, he had many productive years ahead of him, but a spasm of violence, aided by the barrel of a rifle, has cut him down and broken the heart of his people.”

The editorial has an implied call for gun control, but a column in the paper calls for spiritual reflection. This sad event, writes Matthew Carolan, “reminds us of why we must pray. Because there is evil in the world. And because we do not know the day or the hour, but only that we must someday die. … For a time, fear of what happened yesterday may frighten some people away from their houses of worship. Security may be re-evaluated. These would be understandable reactions. But, at some point, faith in one’s community must be restored. Otherwise, worship will be impossible.”

That sentiment was also made by some of the church’s parishioners. “If we’re not safe in a church, that’s pretty bad,” Karen Aker told The New York Times. “This is where people get peace. It’s where they go to pray. This is awful.” Indeed it is.

Other stories on religion and murder:

• Prayer ground deaths: Nwodo calls on government to investigate | Poisonous gas alleged in deaths of 14 (This Day, Lagos, Nigeria)
• 1998 baptism ‘gave new life’ to struggling prostitute | Sereena Abotsway is alleged murder victim of Robert (Willy) Pickton (Vancouver Sun)
• A child’s death raises questions about faith | A couple who prayed instead of seeking medical care for their daughter face charges of involuntary manslaughter. (Los Angeles Times)

Eugene Rivers accused of discriminating against Muslim Ex-con Gerald Jones has filed a discrimination complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination against one of America’s best-known ministers, Eugene Rivers, reports The Boston Globe. Jones says he was kicked out of Rivers’s Ella J. Baker House, which includes rehabilitation for convicts among its programs, because he was a Muslim. Andre Norman, a Baker House worker also named in the complaint, says Jones left because of a drinking problem. “The charges are groundless, but it’s a free country and people can sue who they wish,” Rivers told the Globe. The Baker House, a frequentexample for supporters of Bush’s faith-based initative, has posted its nondiscrimination policy on its Web site. The Globe doesn’t note that Rivers’s father was personally recruited to the Nation of Islam by Malcolm X.

Young Asian churches are booming in America In the northwest, where Asian populations are growing quickly, The Seattle Times noticed that a lot of young Asian-Americans have formed their own churches. “Although experts don’t have exact numbers, they say that in this region, and nationwide, more pan-Asian-American Christian churches are being established, mainly by those in their 20s to 40s,” reports Janet I. Tiu. (Actually, Weblog would wager that someone out there has more exact numbers.) “Some are not just pan-Asian but intentionally multiracial. … The new congregations typically prefer casual worship styles. Denominational affiliations don’t particularly matter to them, but an egalitarian sense of brotherhood and sisterhood does. They are community- and social-justice-oriented, although not necessarily political, and they are open to diversity while retaining a thread of common experience.”

More articles

Sex & marriage:

• Openly gay rector first in Atlanta’s Episcopal Diocese | St. Bartholomew’s has had openly gay priests before, but not a rector (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Ruling dismays lesbian couple | Sheriff grants parental rights to the gay man who was sperm donor for their child (BBC)
• Government axes funds for pro-marriage groups | Funding for National Marriage Week has been cut off by the Government as part of a shift towards supporting non-marital relationships, including homosexual ones. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Church ousts Boy Scout troop | United Church of Christ at Dartmouth College upset because the national organization won’t admit homosexuals (Associated Press)
• Ties to Scouts stains group’s teachings | Learning for Life, part of Boy Scouts of America, shouldn’t be allowed in schools (Rob Perez, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

Missions & ministry:

• TV station ministers to Arab Christians | SAT-7 seeks to “put an Arabic face on Christianity” (The Washington Times)
• Church using matchbooks to heat up attendance | From matchbooks to movie previews to urinal screens, churches are aggressively reaching out to tap into a specific demographic group: men ages 18 to 34 (Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Virginia)
• Following a famous father’s footsteps | Billy Graham’s daughter prepares for Sept. revival at Pepsi Center (The Denver Post)
• Hospital pastors facing the chop | Government does not regard chaplains’ services as a public health priority (The New Zealand Herald)
• Vatican seeks to curb Mexico’s Indian deacons | The special brand of evangelism of Mexico’s Indian deacons has not escaped the notice of Rome. (The New York Times)
• ‘Buying and selling’ | Preacher calls adoption fees discriminatory against white babies (ABCNews.com)

Interfaith relations:

• Orthodox Patriarch: Most Muslims want peace | Bartholomew says he sees signs of increased openness toward religious tolerance in the Muslim world. (The Boston Globe)
• Michiana mosque educating Christians | Many students attend, not so much to worship God, or Allah, but to understand the Islam religion (South Bend [Ind.] Tribune)

Religious freedom:

• Court overturns ban on giving wine to inmates at Communion | Prohibition may violate the inmates’ constitutional rights, says U.S. Court of Appeals (The Washington Post)
• Fired bus driver who prayed with students sues Carroll school board | Officials maintain firing not related to prayer issue (Associated Press)
• Freedom of religion likened to garden | Constitutional scholar Stephen L. Carter says government’s role is to protect the right to worship, not regulate it. (The Tucson Citizen)
• Fight over banned Chinese group moves to U.S. | Falun Gong activists irk Beijing by filing human rights lawsuits in American courts (The Washington Post)
• In Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Amish serving meals in homes run into legal troubles | “Amish restaurants” must be inspected and licensed like any other dining establishment. (Associated Press)

Colorado Senate prayer:

• ‘I had to stand up and pray the word’ | The Rev. David Meek did not plan to pray for legislators to make abortion illegal when he spoke to the state Senate on Tuesday (Greeley [Colo.] Tribune)
• Pastor’s wife defends Statehouse prayer | What do folks expect Pentecostal minister to pray for? she asks (The Rocky Mountain News, Denver)

Education:

• Vouchers: Was a poll question ‘cooked’? | A Stanford professor has accused the influential Phi Delta Kappa education association of “cooking the questions” in its closely watched annual survey of attitudes toward school vouchers so it could produce an anti-voucher result (The Washington Post)
• Schools iffy on wall art | While politicians push for posting the Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” in classrooms, some educators question the value of simply tacking writings on walls (The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
• Britain’s first multifaith school could open in 5 years | Controversy continued over the government’s support for establishing more traditional church schools (The Times, London)

Evolution:

• Ohio board hears debate on an alternative to Darwinism (The New York Times)
• Also: Evolution challenged in US schools (BBC)
• Human origin debate hasn’t evolved much | Is anything that lacks a scientific explanation a miracle – or the direct handiwork of some “intelligent designer”? (Tom Feran, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
• Is science calling God back to center stage? | For Christians, science may raise the questions but Jesus is the surer path to God. (David Wilkinson, The Canberra Times, Australia)

Abuse:

• Faiths share misdeeds by clergy | The Roman Catholic church’s history of hushing up such scandals appears to be the norm, regardless of denomination. (Amy Pagnozzi, The Hartford Courant)
• Homosexuality is true plague on priesthood | Militant homosexuals and their timorous allies in the politically correct movement are hell-bent on perpetuating the disingenuous notion that the crisis engulfing the Catholic Church has its roots in pedophilia (Joe Fitzgerald, Boston Herald)
• Secrecy over abusive priests comes back to haunt church | The tough legal tactics that Roman Catholic dioceses employed for decades to keep incidents of sexual abuse by priests secret have now come back to haunt the church (The New York Times)
• Diocese, plaintiffs settle suit | 86 Geoghan cases to cost up to $30m (The Boston Globe)
• Also: Church OKs settlement | Geoghan victims get $20M in deal (Boston Herald)
• An overeager clergy watchdog | First, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly wanted to run the Boston Red Sox. Now, he wants to run the Archdiocese of Boston (Joan Vennochi, The Boston Globe)
• Church seeks exemption in suit | Says its records are protected in molestation case (The Boston Globe)
• Church worker is sentenced | Given 2 1/2 years for seeking sex with Woburn teen (The Boston Globe)
• Catholics hear message on sex abuse | L.A. Cardinal Mahony’s statement denounces ‘scandalous evil.’ Priests’ deliveries– and parishioners’ responses–vary widely. (Los Angeles Times)
• Predator and victim struggling to heal | Today, some 16 years after he was sent to a treatment center for abusive priests, Neil Conway says he shares the private hell he created for others. (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
• Woman forgives priest, not church | “It’s possible to recover from abuse and still love God” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)

Pop culture:

• Teens’ faith in fashion is their cross to wear | In recent months, sales of necklaces, earrings and other items bearing a cross or a crucifix have increased. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
• Miracle at the box office | Amateur moviemakers score blockbuster with drama about faith healing (The Courier News, Elgin, Illinois)
• Cockburn’s musical passion lives in new CD | Anonymity doesn’t stop ‘Greatest Hits’ collection (The Denver Post)

Books:

• W.W.J.E.? | To stay healthy, adopt the kind of diet Jesus would have followed—not the rich potluck fare of church socials, a doctor advises (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Drowning in the fountain of joy | A review of This Dark World (The Washington Post)

Other stories of interest:

• Bishop from Montreal drowns in Fla. | Sleiman Hajjar led Greek Melkite Catholics in Canada (Associated Press)
• The nuns’ story | Social Security finally does the right thing (Editorial, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Materialism, indifference threaten Christianity, say Protestant clergymen (Wapakoneta [Ohio] Daily News)
• Secular science vs. faith | Connecting the TNIV and cloning (Paul Chesser, The Charlotte Observer)
• At 13 he had an exorcism | The Anglican Church doesn’t call what it did to David Hicks an exorcism. But he certainly thought it was one. (Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia)

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The post Long Island Priest Shot During Mass appeared first on Christianity Today.

Instead, Victor takes part in Indian Christian festivals. These celebrations are like the old ones in form—but not in content: Participants worship God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Despite the tensions his new-found faith creates, Victor is careful to maintain good relationships with local friends and family. But he also has an entirely new set of relatives: brothers and sisters in villages throughout the region.

They are part of a rapidly growing community of faith in Latin America known as los evangélicos. This community includes rural Indians and affluent urbanites, poor and rich, young and old. And it is cutting across virtually all of Latin America’s ethnic and geographic lines.

The term most often used to describe these believers is evangelical and is often used interchangeably with the term Protestant. The movement encompasses a large, diverse group of non-Catholic Christians who range from Pentecostals to Protestants.

Evangelicalism has become even more diverse in recent years. While the movement made its first inroads among urban and rural poor, increasing numbers of middle-class families have begun to convert, particularly in the large urban centers, such as Mexico City, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. Evangelicals are planting churches even in wealthier neighborhoods.

Though each evangelical group has its own organizational and liturgical structure, all hold certain beliefs and practices in common: a high view of Scripture, a belief in salvation by faith, a desire to spread the gospel, a belief that all believers should participate in the mission of the church, and a growing conviction that Christians must act as the “salt and light” in the transformation of their societies. Like evangelicals in North America, the evangélicos emphasize the spiritual dimensions of the gospel. But unlike many of their North American counterparts, they place strong emphasis on the gospel’s social dimensions.

Evangelicals in Peru, for example, are using the church as a front line in a war against poverty. They convert church buildings into soup kitchens and prepare meals for hungry families. They tutor and care for orphans and other needy children, and combat human-rights violations.

The evangelical church’s reverence for Scripture has an unintended social benefit, creating a strong incentive for members to learn to read. Many evangelical families urge their children to complete their primary, high-school, and university educations.

The Pentecostal Communities

Three out of five evangelicals in Latin America are Pentecostal. Like non-Pentecostal evangelicals, they highly regard Scripture. But they also emphasize fasting, praise, and the power of the Holy Spirit; they believe in supernatural healing and in speaking in tongues. And for them, personal and public evangelism is a way of life.

In many areas, Pentecostal groups are more indigenous than other evangelical groups. They rely on native forms of worship and are less dependent on outside-help.

Some criticize Pentecostals for caring only for the soul and spirit, to the neglect of the region’s social and physical needs. Whether the criticism is justified or not, Pentecostalism has made deep inroads among the poorest sectors in the region. While society usually marginalizes the poor, the church has embraced them. It offers them not only a place for worship but a place of refuge.

That was the case for 16-year-old Maria. When she moved to Lima from the countryside, her father arranged for her to live with the Perezes, an urban Pentecostal family. He knew they would provide her a loving, Christian atmosphere. In exchange for room and board, Maria helps the family with chores. She attends church regularly and her faith is growing. Like many migrants, Maria hopes to complete high school through night classes.

For the typical Pentecostal family, the church becomes an extension of the home. The family attends meetings several times a week. During services, members actively participate through singing, praying, and sometimes offering personal testimonies. Services are usually freeform in structure and last several hours; on Sundays, the family spends most of the day in church.

Their song lyrics emphasize such themes as redemption through Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, joy and strength amid struggles, and the hope of the future.

Evangelism is a central part of their lives. On Sundays, the whole congregation participates in outreaches, in which members pass out tracts, invite passersby to church, and sometimes hold open-air services.

Since the family is usually poor, the healing ministry of the church is especially important. When one of its members gets sick, the family does not always go to a doctor or pharmacist first. Rather, they will ask their pastor to pray for healing.

Latin America’S Congregations

One of Brazil’s largest churches is the 40,000-member Pentecostal church pastored by Manoel de Mello, in São Paulo. Brasil para Cristo meets weekly in a large coliseum for worship, Bible study, and healing. People also meet during the week in homes throughout the city.

Medium-sized churches, such as those of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Lima, hold close to 2,000 members. In addition to the many weekly events at these churches, there are numerous home meetings in the surrounding area. There, smaller groups meet for prayer, Bible study, and evangelism.

Small churches usually have from 50 to 100 members and are scattered throughout the region—sometimes in the remotest areas. In Peru, Shining Path terrorism has forced Peruvian officials, the Catholic church, and other institutions out of many parts of the countryside. In many such places, the only group that remains is the evangelical church. In situations like these, the church remains faithful to the words of the Spanish chorus, la iglesia sigue caminando (the church perseveres).

The post The Many Faces of Los Evangélicos appeared first on Christianity Today.

Facing The Right Fears

For this purpose an outstanding array of speakers was gathered from the fields of religion, education, and business. The initial topic considered was “Facing the Fears of the Atomic Age.” Dean of the Federated Theological Faculty, Jerald C. Brauer, explained that it was felt best to build what should follow in the conference upon the “personality sciences.”

Delegates were told bluntly that one of America’s greatest failings today is that she lacks a proper fear of the right things. Dr. Gardiner Murphy, Director of Research of the Menninger Foundation, stated that the first psychological problem is “why apathy, hopelessness, irresponsibility, evasion, business-as-usual, or the most pathetic and trivial toying with momentary escapes or palliatives, should dominate the thought of the Western world.” He defended certain “rational fears” in an “age of potential devastation,” such as fears of smugness, hypocrisy, self-deception, and aimlessness.

Dr. Seward Hiltner, Professor of Pastoral Theology of the Federated Theological Faculty, pronounced our situation “unprecedentedly fearsome” and indicated paralysis in the face of enormity as one reason for our not facing up to the basic fear. “We are like Mickey Mouse—who finds some magic coming to his aid in disposing of the giant.” But if we continue this, “our civilization will perish—not as a society of brave men who tried their best and lost, but as mice, as Mickey Mice whose magic powers failed to appear on schedule.”

The Conflict Of Faiths

The conference next addressed itself to the problem of Communism—“Two Faiths in Conflict.” Dr. Alexander Miller, Associate Professor of Religion at Stanford University, warned against “the oratorical commonplace that the issue hinges on Communist atheism and materialism.… The trouble with Communism is not so much that it is godless, but that it … exalts a false god into the place of God.… Marxism is one modern form of the ancient natural religion … in which the natural powers and dynamisms on which man’s life depends are deified.…” Prof. Miller also cautioned against the “deadly danger” of identifying our enemy with antichrist, “partly because no human being and no human movement achieves such majesty of evil, and partly because it implies too much virtue in ourselves.”

Also speaking on the Christianity-Communism conflict was John Nuveen, president of a Chicago investment firm and former administrator of economic aid in Greece. The uncommitted nations will ultimately “tip the scales one way or the other” in the present world struggle, he said, by way of calling for an increase in economic aid to these countries. But at the same time he warned that foreign aid to a country is “interpreted as an endorsement of the government in power and helps to keep it in power. If it is a good government and bent upon the establishment of the free institutions which have been inspired by Christian principles, then our aid serves the cause of Christianity,” but if otherwise, we are building up explosive pressures that can be utilized by the Communists.

After a session on public education, Dean Brauer spoke of problems in educating ministers for the atomic age, noting that in this time of great need many men are leaving the ministry. He pleaded for a rigorous search “in the past and present resources of Christian faith for new goals, methods, and directions.”

Religion And Materialism

Next considered was religion’s role in the world of business. Edward C. Logelin, vice-president of United States Steel Corporation, spoke of ways in which religion can help the businessman, while Sears Roebuck Vice-President James C. Worthy pointed out dangers inherent in the secularization of business morality. Blame for this, said Worthy, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, is to be laid more at the feet of the preachers and theologians “who have failed to make explicit the relevance of religious faith to business practice.” One result is the concept of self-interest as the generally accepted theory of business motivation. “Communists and socialists play up the symbols of human welfare but neglect, and often violate, the reality! The American business system emphasizes the symbols of self-interest, but actually operates with substantial concern for human values.”

Rescuing Religious Values

The final session, at the Palmer House, addressed itself to the general theme of the conference, religion in the atomic age. Dean Brauer denounced the misuse of religion simply to guarantee our safety. Rather it should provide motivation for seeking out God’s will in this world. Lawrence A. Kimpton, Chancellor of the University of Chicago, confessed that “we are sore afraid, and we know not where to turn.… The purpose of the conference we are concluding this evening is to suggest that we turn to the great resources of our religion.”

Distinguished chemistry professor Harold C. Urey noted that the battle between science and religion saw the former the complete victor. This revolution of the past century is permanent, he averred, and past customs and beliefs will not return. Through science man today “possesses the most magnificent view of a marvelous universe that he has ever had. Religions have attempted to do this in the past and their success has been anything but equal to that of modern science in this field.” However, Prof. Urey confessed that science tends to lead to a purely materialistic view of life, offering little to support a belief in the dignity of man; in this field religion has always made its great contribution. Today religion is challenged to maintain the old values, i.e. “give us a sound moral life and noble aspirations.”

Giving the concluding address in stirring fashion was Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati mayor and former president of the National Council of Churches. Concerning the cold war, he urged the clergy “to utilize all the psychological insight expressed in our ideal of the democratic process to proceed in ways that may get our opponents to move.” Secondly, he continued, the same means are to be used to persuade our own people to move. Giving mankind a consciousness and belief in values will be a long struggle and we must exercise much patience. The problem, he concluded, is the application of religion in an evil world, and ministers must help through continued counsel and guidance in preaching and teaching.

Christian Ambiguity

The Federated Theological Faculty is to be commended for recognizing the danger of the hour and for seeking solution in the area of spiritual principles. Yet it would be a bold spirit who would claim that the solution or solutions had been found through this “comprehensive” consideration of “how the spiritual resources of this country must be mobilized to save us.” Indeed, it seemed that the spirit of tentativeness stalked the conference. Chancellor Kimpton declared, “We have not sought the moral and spiritual answers nor do we have them in our time of great need.” Dr. Murphy counseled an active program against the threats of today but did not suggest its content, leaving his listeners with hope in a slowly maturing psychology. But would it be too slow for this age? Courage to face the danger was Dr. Hiltner’s counsel, but others were left the task of charting a pathway of action. In the final session Prof. Urey simply presented the problem religion faces, as he sees it, and wished the delegates success in their search for a solution. Mr. Taft, who conceived the convention as being more in the nature of a tribute to the Federated Theological Faculty, counseled psychological insight and patience.

If one looked for a serving of theological issues in this conference on religion, barrenness was his main fare. Dr. Murphy seemed to be chiding Protestant liberalism when he referred to “Main Street Christianity being responsible for having blunted and shallowed the normal capacity for fear as well as righteous indignation against injustice.” He also set himself against those liberals and humanitarians who say that the control of the atom is the only problem, forgetting the more basic problem of human nature. But then we find him employing an easy grouping of Gautama, Socrates, and Jesus, all of whom in their supreme moments grasped a point of wisdom for which Dr. Murphy was contending. Dogma, he said, in answer to a question, can be useful in disarming fears and is workable in some periods for some people, but tends to become the more precarious the longer it is held. In a similar vein Prof. Urey called for a religion unencumbered with “illogical dogmas.”

Dr. Hiltner called for an inquiry into our faith, while Dean Brauer asked for a search into the Christian faith, past and present, for new goals. It is possible, he contended, for a concentration on the present to rob the student of his rich heritage and even “the very ground of faith itself.” What this ground is or what elements Dr. Brauer would take from the history of the faith, he did not say. Likewise, Mr. Taft, in calling for theology and not just ethics, offered no elaboration as to the kind of theology needed.

The old liberal optimism was, of course, by the nature of the occasion somewhat subdued. There was some disagreement as to whether this is actually the most dangerous period of our history. What pacifist element there was present seemed confined to the delegates. None of the speakers questioned appeared ready to propose massive resistance through nonviolent means, but rather seemed relieved that we still were able to manage a balance of power.

Neglect Of The Vertical

So often the thought seemed pitched upon a horizontal plane with only the occasional breakthrough to the vertical. For example, with all that was said about fear, no mention was made of the fear of God. Again, Dr. Hiltner’s proposed source for courage was in mutual understanding and acceptance, his reference to God coming almost as an afterthought.

The evolutionary hypothesis was generally accepted, Murphy and Urey assuming this, the latter, albeit, pointing out it was not proven. Dr. Urey asked for a religion “without the miraculous.” He tended to view science and religion competitively, and seemed now to be asking that religion put itself on a naturalist plane along with science.

However, Mr. Taft emphasized that man is more than a machine, and moreover, is possessed of evil and perversity. This note was struck on other occasions in the conference, but there was lacking a prophetic call for repentance and conversion. Dr. Theodore Gill, an editor of The Christian Century, spoke of the need for evangelism, but a different sort from that generally seen in this country today. Mr. Taft asked for less emphasis on personal salvation and more guidance toward the “city with foundations.” He did not deal with the imposing problem of making nations Christian apart from the individuals who compose them.

Most all of this would appear to reduce to one question: What place was given to Jesus Christ in this conference? So far as the writer observed, the cross was mentioned once, obliquely, the resurrection not at all, and the “second coming” once in a humorous vein. Of the living Word there was nothing. The divinity of Christ was not mentioned, but the divinity of man was more than once—perhaps not too surprising a turn in view of the fact that one of the Federated Schools is Unitarian.

Mr. Taft called for more conferences and the expression of all viewpoints for thought and discussion rather than a prepared pathway to a preconceived conclusion. Many viewpoints, indeed, never found voice at this conference. Dean Brauer directed his challenge to preach the faith to both churches and synagogues. Elsewhere he quoted Augustine’s exalted declaration that we are restless until we find our rest in God. Would to God the Dean had proclaimed Augustine’s entrance to this rest—through Jesus Christ the risen Lord!

This special report was prepared by CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S newest staff affiliate, Editorial Associate Frank Farrell. The Rev. Mr. Farrell, a Baptist clergyman, holds the B.A. degree from Wheaton College, B.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from New College, Edinburgh.

New Lutheran Center

A new half-million-dollar center, the largest Lutheran facility of its kind in America, has been opened in Minneapolis by the Lutheran Welfare Society of Minnesota.

The center houses the society’s staff of 51 social workers, chaplains and clerical workers and is believed to be the first office building erected by a private child welfare agency in Minnesota.

Lutheran Welfare is the official child welfare and chaplaincy agency of seven of the eight synods of the National Lutheran Council in Minnesota.

Latin America

Crusade Highlights

Highlights of Evangelist Billy Graham’s crusades in the Caribbean islands:

JAMAICA—Graham spoke at two evening rallies, climaxing two weeks of meetings led by associate evangelist Leighton Ford. Some 30,000 heard Graham the first night, another 20,000 were turned away, and thousands raised hands indicative of their desire to receive Christ as Saviour. It was the largest crowd ever assembled in Jamaican history. There were 1600 decisions the second night out of 25,000 in attendance.

PUERTO RICO—Even greater crowds turned out for the evangelist in San Juan. A Monday evening assembly of 40,000 withstood pelting rain to listen to Graham’s message. The response at the invitation was described as “overwhelming.”

BARBADOS—Attendances continued to skyrocket as 60,000, more than a fourth of the island’s population, jammed a crusade meeting held on the grounds of a race track. Decisions for Christ numbered 1180.

TRINIDAD—Crowds jammed another race track at Port of Spain to hear Graham say that mankind is engaged in suicide. He said that the H-bomb and earth satellites prove his point.

Junta Hailed

Venezuela’s five-man ruling junta received a standing ovation at their first joint public appearance in a Roman Catholic cathedral in Caracas.

They attended a solemn memorial Mass for victims of the January revolution which overthrew the government of Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez.

El Pueblo, Roman Catholic daily in Buenos Aires, praised the dictator’s downfall and the restoration of Venezuela “to the community of free nations.”

Worship In The Clouds

A 17-year-old son of Plymouth Brethren missionaries from Canada was one of a trio of Argentinian mountain climbers who reached the 22,539-foot top of Ojos del Salado, second highest peak in the hemisphere. (The tallest, according to the National Geographic Society, is South America’s Mount Aconcagua, 22,834 feet.)

Said young Daniel Powell:

“We felt very small up there, and realized as never before the greatness of God. I carried my New Testament with me, and God’s Word was certainly a source of comfort and strength in the very difficult days we had to face. During the last lap, when we had to sit down and rest after every eight or ten paces, I had wonderful times of prayer and felt the Lord was very close.”

The mountain lies on the Argentina-Chile border.

—A.C.

Europe

Cinema Parson

The “Cinema Parson of London” observed his 76th birthday with some advice about reconciling religion in the science age.

Said the Rev. Thomas Tiplady, who attracted crowds at his London mission by using moving pictures as “Christ used parables”:

“The scientists are revealing God to man today, the stars, the tiny atoms. Take a speck of dust and think of the immense bustling power in everything—in the ocean and the air. But ask a scientist about religion and he will say he is concerned with pure fact. People fear atomic power, are bewildered and do not know what lies ahead. But they ought to be reconciling the spiritual with the material—all truth is one.”

Cullman, Barth, Pius Xii

Dialogue between Professor Karl Barth and Dr. O. Cullman on Cullman’s return to Basel, France, from a visit to Pope Pius XII at the pontiff’s invitation:

“What did you tell the Pope?” asked Barth.

“The Pope told me that ‘I should be very happy to be the colleague of the greatest dogmatist since St. Thomas,” answered Cullman, who is professor of New Testament at the University of Basel.

To which Barth replied, “If this is the meaning of the Holy Father, I begin to believe the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope.”

Wharf Revival

In Norway, the herring arrived late. On the shore waited 30,000 fishermen with the largest fleet of fishing vessels ever assembled there.

The Home Seamen Mission saw its opportunity and arranged evening services for the idle fishermen. Evangelical workers fanned out over the dock area and made personal contacts.

The result was reported revival on at last two vessels, Eliezer IV and Eliezer V. Fishers of men had netted eternal gain for the Kingdom of God.

—T.B.

Africa

A First For Africa

Guarantees of human rights were the immediate concerns of 200 delegates in the first meeting of African Protestant minds, the All-Africa Church Conference. The National Christian Council of Nigeria sponsored the gathering at Ibadan.

Representatives of 21 African countries adopted a resolution urging that guarantees set forth in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights be written into “any new constitutions for existing and emergent states” on the continent.

Middle East

Israeli Anniversary

A series of cultural events starting in April will mark Israel’s tenth anniversary.

Among the highlights are a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah near the Cave of Elijah in Haifa on June 28 and the Sea of Galilee Festival on October 1.

The Israel Government Tourist Office says tourist traffic to the country was up about 25 per cent for the last half of 1957 as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

Alarm In Lebanon

A wave of anti-Christian sentiment in Egypt caused alarm in Lebanon. Authorities feared an outbreak of Christian-Moslem disturbances might result.

A debate in the Egyptian parliament described Lebanon as a “hotbed of Christian intrigue against the Arabs since the Crusades.” Deputies charged Christians in Lebanon with being “instruments of Western imperialism against Arab nationalism.”

The Lebanese government protested the criticism, labelling it an organized and officially-approved campaign backed by press and radio to provoke religious strife in Lebanon.

Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East which has a Christian majority. A little more than half of the nation’s 1,500,000 residents are Christians. The remainder are mostly Moslems and some Jews.

India

Indian Evangelicalism

Expanding vision characterizes evangelical life in India.

A concentration of evangelicals is found in Bombay State, Madhya Pradesh, and surrounding areas. The region lies geographically between the United Church of South India and the Church of North India. While groups of evangelicals exist in both these church unions, the stronger though smaller evangelistic bodies work out of the central region.

Bible schools spearhead the advance of conservative Christianity in India. Outstanding are the South India Bible Institute of World Gospel Mission at Bangarapet and the Oriental Missionary Society school at Allahabad.

Denominational missions maintain a number of other top evangelical educational institutions. Union Biblical Seminary at Yeotmal was founded 20 years ago by the Free Methodist Church. The seminary now represents a co-operative endeavor involving 16 organizations. Dr. and Mrs. Harold B. Kuhn of Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, recently completed a term there as guest professors at the seminary.

Said Dr. Kuhn, “The seminary is contributing to nearly all the evangelical bodies and agencies in India. It not only expresses the growing self-consciousness of mission which these agencies feel, but it is making an active contribution toward implementation of that vision through the training of young men and women of deep dedication to the cause of decisive evangelism.”

Evangelicals in India are well aware of the need for cooperation. The need is largely met within the Evangelical Fellowship of India, formed out of a number of active missionary groups. I. Ben Wati is executive secretary of the World Evangelical Fellowship affiliate.

Last month EFI held its seventh annual conference on the campus of Voorhees College at Vellore, where the organization’s vitality evoked this reaction from the Rev. Frederick Ferris, EFI’s Overseas Secretary:

“I did not realize that you were doing such a tremendous work here in India.… I did not realize you had anything like this here. I had not expected it.”

EFI has a membership of 979 individuals from 52 missions. Registered conference delegates numbered 271, while some meetings drew record attendance of more than a thousand. Dr. Akbar A. Haqq directed evening evangelistic services that drew 200 inquirers for salvation.

“The spirit of co-operation which I have seen in Vellore has impressed me more than anything,” said a representative from the north.

“I am going back with a new vision of what it means to witness,” said another.

And still another: “I woke up to the fact that the day for the church in India has come. It is our job, and we can do it, and we will.”

Not organization, but fellowship, characterizes and shapes EFI. Not separation, but permeation, is her goal, that the first and foremost avowed purpose of her existence, spiritual revival in the church, may become a reality throughout India.

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Christianity in the World Today

One of Latin America’s most beloved poets, Ruben Dario, finishes an ode to Christopher Columbus with this sideswipe at the dictatorships and violence which have all too often characterized the volcanic republics south of the Rio Grande:

While Christ walks the streets, feeble and frail,

Barabbas flaunts his slaves and chariots.

Christopher Columbus, unhappy admiral,

Pray to God for the land which you discovered!

Barabbas today has not only his slaves and his chariots, but his tanks and jet fighters as well. Carnage in Cienfuegos, assassination in Guatemala, kidnaping in Trujillo, bombs in Buenos Aires—these are the order of the day in lands where people still prefer Barabbas to Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself was once tempted to use the methods of Barabbas to establish his kingdom. He could have achieved sudden and universal popularity if he had chosen to espouse the political cause of rebellion against Rome. Satan said to him in the desert, “All this power will I give thee … if thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

But instead of violence, Jesus chose the path of humiliation, love and sacrifice. He refused to endorse the methods of political banditry.

Much of Latin America today is in the hands of Barabbas. Its dictatorships have ranged from the benevolence of Guatemala’s liberal Ubico to the conservative egotism of Colombia’s Rojas Pinilla; from the comic-opera grandiosity of Trujillo in the Dominican “republic” to the demagoguery of Peron in Argentina; from sugar-rich Batista in Cuba to oil-rich Perez Jimenez in Venezuela. All have had this in common—they have climbed to power over the dead bodies of their compatriots in revolutions of varying ferocity.

Possibly the most dangerous manifestation of Barabbas in Latin America is the existence of a strong and organized Communism in nearly all of the lands to the south of us. Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina—nowhere in Latin America can one escape contact with Red agents and Marxist doctrines. This is not surprising to those who are familiar with the dead authoritarianism of the official church and the economic feudalism still prevailing as an integral part of Latin America’s Spanish heritage.

Ex-president Galo Plaza of Ecuador, referring to this double legacy of religious authoritarianism and economic feudalism, recently stated that it is a short step from these factors to dictatorship. He could have added, “and to Communism,” for coincidentally present in Latin America are all the other factors which provide fertile soil for the Marxist agitators—a rising spirit of nationalism, a phenomenal industrial boom, the emergence of labor as a political factor, and a careful cultivation of Latin minds by social reformers of the left. Add to these ingredients the fact that Latin America has not found spiritual satisfaction in Roman Catholicism, and you have a perfect hothouse for communistic insemination.

Although Romanism opposes Communism with all its strength, it has at the same time created the very conditions upon which the Red cause thrives. By its accumulation of superstition and formalism in Latin America, as well as by its indifference to the economic and social welfare of the masses, the church of Rome has not only defaulted as a possible solution to the rule of Barabbas—it has cultivated the very factors which have opened the doors to communist activity.

For the moment, in one form or another, Barabbas is firmly entrenched.

At the other end of the political spectrum in Latin America can be discerned the shadowy, black-robed form of clericalism. This is Annas, the sinister, scheming religionist, whose interests are more political than spritual. Twice a high priest, and patriarch of a high priestly family, his were the money changers whose tables Jesus indignantly overturned. Fattened by a lucrative temple revenue, Annas is more interested in cultivating the favor of secular rulers than in ministering to the spiritual needs of a hungry people. Religion with him is a profitable career, not a faith. Cynically, he plays the game of power politics.

Nowhere in the world today has Annas had the opportunities afforded by long and uncontested tenure as in Latin America. Recognition of Roman Catholicism as the official religion, compulsory religious education in the schools, education in many instances controlled by the priests, concordats with Rome, government patronage of cathedrals, churches and mission territories—for the centuries that have passed since the conquistadores first brought the sword and the crucifix together to the Hispanic New World, Romanism has been the unchallenged (although, paradoxically, frequently neglected) religion of Latin America.

That this religion is superficial more often than not, cannot be denied. In many instances the Indian idol has become the Roman saint, and the crucifix has thinly disguised the indigenous paganism of the Aztecs and the Incas. Nor is the Romanism of European vintage much more profound. Possibly as low as 10 or 15 per cent of the Catholics in Latin America are truly practicing their religion. Theirs is a faith of outward convenience and of social propriety. It goes no deeper. I have been told of one country where the masses are said to be the briefest in the world—ordinarily one priest preaches the sermon while another says the mass in order to hurry things up for the parishioners!

Rome itself considers Latin America an unchurched mission field. Foreign priests are pouring in. The Spanish-speaking lands may be nominally Catholic, but the hold of Catholicism is tenuous. The hand of Annas is weakening, his grip failing. And as he sees his onetime power slip, he struggles frantically to maintain a degree of political, if not spiritual, control over the Latin American hemisphere. This explains the persecutions in Colombia—the ecclesiastical pressures in Mexico—the political maneuvers of Rome in so many of the republics. But, Annas is fighting a losing battle.

Still another important figure on the Latin American scene is that of Pilate, the cultured, worldly-wise, liberal-minded procurator who by his spinelessness sent Christ to the Cross. Pilate knew better, but he tried to pacify Annas and his crowd—he compromised his ideals on the altar of expediency. And in this he symbolized the political liberalism of Latin America.

Evangelical Christianity owes a large debt to the liberals of Latin America—the Masons and the free-thinkers, the men who stood up to the Jesuits a generation or two ago and by the sheer weight of their intellect and conviction turned the political charters of their lands into liberal channels. Latin American liberalism produced great leaders and great educators, and opened the doors to Protestant missions.

But in the last generation, political liberalism, lacking a spiritual core, has sold itself down the river. Being devoid of religious and ethical content, it has yielded to expediency. And the average Latin American liberal today is married in the church to a Catholic girl, has his children baptized in the church, educates them in church schools, and when the pressure is on he sells short his liberal ideals.

If Pilate at one time seemed to be the great white hope of Latin America, he is now simply the foolish little man who tried to wash his hands of responsibility.

Revolution, clericalism and liberalism. In none of these has Latin America found the solution to her moral, spiritual and political problems. Revolution breeds violence. Clericalism nurtures bigotry. Liberalism spawns indifference. Neither Barabbas, nor Annas, nor Pilate has provided what Latin America wants and needs.

But the three men have one thing in common—nothing much was heard from any of them after Good Friday. They are definitely pre-Resurrection figures in the Holy Week pageant of our Lord’s Passion. Up through Good Friday they each had their following. But on Easter mom they were eclipsed and condemned by the shining glory of the Risen Lord.

This Reformation Day of 1957 finds us in the Holy Week of Latin America. Barabbas, Annas and Pilate are struggling for the Hispanic soul, while off to one side, a crown of thorns on his brow, stands the Lord Christ, the Eternal Son of God. For the moment he is a minority. He stands in apparent defeat. But the day will come—very soon—when he shall break asunder the bonds of death.

Humanly speaking, it is unlikely that the Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries will repeat itself in Europe. Catholic Italy is overshadowed by the Vatican. Catholic France is vitiated with the inroads of secularism. Elsewhere, Moscow is in control, but Latin America is different. In a climate of relative liberty, the Gospel of Christ has made tremendous advances. Already like the brightness which precedes the dawn, there are signs of an evangelical awakening.

If it please God, a glorious Resurrection Day is just ahead. For Latin America, Jesus Christ is the answer!

• This special interpretive article was written for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by W. Payton Roberts, staff correspondent. See also Dr. Taylor’s article in this issue.

People: Words And Events

Active Laymen—One of the largest laymen’s gatherings in recent history was held this month at Miami when the Presbyterian Men’s Conference drew almost 10,000. Among the speakers were Dr. Theodore F. Adams, President of the Baptist World Alliance, Dr. Billy Graham, Mr. Howard Butt, Jr., and the Rev. J. Marcellus Kik, Associate Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

New Library—Princeton Theological Seminary in October dedicated its new Robert E. Speer Memorial Library, built at a cost of $1,700,000 and with a capacity of 400,000 books. It is said to house the largest and finest collection of theological books in the western hemisphere.

Lutheran Hour’s 25th—Lutherans celebrated the beginning of the 25th year of broadcasting the “Lutheran Hour” at a rally in Milwaukee recently, attended by 7,000 persons. The Lutheran Hour, of which the Rev. Oswald C. J. Hoffmann of New York is the speaker, is now heard over more than 1,250 network and independent stations around the world, and in 53 languages.

Leaving Gotham—Dr. John S. Wimbish will leave the pastorate of Calvary Baptist Church in New York at the end of the year, after seven and a half years of service there. A native of Georgia, Dr. Wimbish will return to the Southland to resume pastoral duties and evangelism within the Southern Baptist denomination.

Editorial Task—Emile Gabel, former editor of La Croix, Catholic daily published in Paris, told 400 delegates from 30 countries at the fifth World Congress of the Catholic Press at Vienna that Catholic journalists must not leave their readers in “editorial isolation.… to think out, in a vacuum, problems connected with current events,” but that they should discuss anything that concerns truth and justice and thus help to create informed Christians. “The Catholic press must propagate the teaching of the Gospels,” he said, “but this must not be done abstractly.”

Mission Milestone—The 80th anniversary of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago was celebrated recently. Known all over the world for its “Unshackled” radio program, the mission is a landmark in Chicago, and the second oldest city mission in America. It is currently engaged in an expansion program to cost $420,000.

Ethics in Public Office—A committee of 12, including 5 religious leaders, has been appointed by Governor Orville Freeman of Minnesota to study ethical and moral standards in state government. The governor said he would ask the committee—first of its kind in the country, according to one political scientist—to come up with recommendations to foster greater integrity in public office and better service to the people’s interests.

Publishing Progress—The nation’s largest denominational publisher, The Methodist Publishing House, founded in 1789, recently opened its new two-million-dollar headquarters building in Nashville. About 1,000 persons are employed in Methodist publishing activities in Nashville, and another 1,000 in the 14 branches of the organization.

Personality Stories—Two new books from the pen of George Burnham, News Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, are being released this month. Prison is My Parish, the story of Park Tucker, Atlanta Penitentiary chaplain, has been published by Revell, and Billy Graham and the New York Crusade, by Mr. Burnham and Lee Fisher, is scheduled for release October 30 from Zondervan.

Only a Nickel—According to the Southern Baptist Handbook, “Mr. Average American” spends only 5¢ a day for religious and welfare causes. In contrast to this nickel, each day he spends 9¢ for tobacco, 15¢ for alcoholic Beverages, 22¢ for recreation, 58¢ for transportation including foreign travel, 59¢ for taxes, $1.12 for food and $2.30 for other household expenses such as rent, clothing, savings, medical and miscellaneous expense.

Conferences Prepare Far East Pastors

TOKYO, JAPAN—It is now regarded as evident, among Christian leaders of both East and West, that Asia will never be reached for Christ unless native pastors in their own countries do the job of evangelizing.

The time of the white missionary as an important factor is rapidly drawing to a close. No matter how appealing the foreigner’s message may be, and no matter how attractive his personality, it is still something packaged in America. Asians are looking to Asians for leadership.

Fierce tides of nationalism are rising in all the nations of the Far East, coupled with superior initiative of Communism in exploiting situations. The day has passed when an American can command respect simply because he is an American, but hordes of tourists, workers, government officials and church leaders, failing to recognize this, have pushed the public relations barometer to the storm stage.

Fully aware of the approaching new day, based on many years of experience in the Orient, Dr. Bob Pierce and his World Vision organization have been holding pastors’ conferences for the last three years. The big aim is to arouse the evangelistic zeal of pastors in the various countries, in order to leave behind a commanding voice for Christianity when the welcome mat is pulled from beneath the white man.

Outstanding speakers from America have been greatly used of God in the conferences, but each year there has been increased use of “team” speakers from the Far East. And it seems that delegates sit a little straighter in their seats and listen with greater concentration when an Asian is speaking.

An example of this was seen at the conference in Japan, attended by 800 pastors ranging from liberals to fundamentalists. Bishop Enrique C. Sobrepena of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, who serves as chairman of the East Asia Christian Conference, went to the rostrum. He told the ministers the same things, in effect, that they had heard many times from Western speakers, but he was an Asian speaking to Asians. He hit hard, in uncompromising language, on the main points found in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

“This can only be done through Christ,” Bishop Sobrepena said, “and he is calling upon us as ministers in the great task of individual and world redemption. Those of us who would participate must be willing to bear our portion of the Cross like the great men of old—the Apostle Paul, Livingston and Carey. Sacrificial service is needed.”

In commenting on the significance of the pastors’ conferences, the Bishop said, “I think they have tremendous value. I don’t know of another agency in the Far East that could bring all the different factions together for fellowship, inspiration and instruction.”

Nothing should be detracted, however, from contributions made to the conferences by Dr. Pierce and his three principal associates from the United States and India. Their talented efforts were blessed of God, but they share the feeling that such unusual opportunities may not always be present.

Evaluations by three members of the team traveling with Dr. Pierce are as follows:

Dr. Paul S. Rees, pastor of First Covenant Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota:

“A ministry to ministers has an importance that may be described as geometric, since the effect of it runs so far and so rapidly. There is the sheer impressiveness of the number of ministers and church leaders who have attended the meetings. Not less than 3,500 in the first five! For another thing, there is the breadth of compass by which the conferences have been marked. In most cases, the whole gamut of Protestantism has been represented.

“Impressive also is the fact that these have been Asian leaders with whom we have been associated. Can anyone think of an area on this planet more strategically and crucially important for the Christian Church? From Indonesia on the south to Japan on the north, we have seen the breath of God blowing upon souls of his servants. And this has been as true when we were at grips with such preacher’s ‘shop’ as ‘How to Prepare a Sermon,’ as it has when we were seeking to define for ourselves as ministers that distinctive doctrine of ‘Grace’ that makes the Christian message ‘Gospel.’ ”

Dr. Richard C. Halverson, associate director of International Christian Leadership:

“The most significant aspect of the pastors’ conferences was what I would call ‘true ecumenity.’ Together in Christion fellowship were representatives of many divergent groups from the extremely informal, non-liturgical to the extremely formal and liturgical. There was a striking demonstration of unity and love in Christ among the delegates. In several instances, pastors were reconciled to those they had previously opposed and there was public admission of the reconciliation of groups.”

The Rt. Reverend Dr. Alexander Mar Theophilus, Bishop of the Mar Thoma Church, India:

“As Christian workers continue their work in their separate churches and congregations, they are liable to feel lonely and weak. Sometimes they may feel as Elijah felt—‘I alone am left.’ But in these conferences they come together in deep Christian fellowship around the Word, and realize the unity given in Jesus Christ. The deepening of their dedication and strengthening by the Holy Spirit has made them serve their congretions more effectively and be better pastors of their flocks. The need for evangelism in Asian countries, to be carried on by the Church in Asia, has been presented with greater force. Along with evangelism, the need was seen for witnessing to the love of Christ in acts of love in ministering to the needy in society by sacrificial service, and by the prophetic ministry in calling the nations to the will of God.”

Dr. Pierce: “The conferences have exceeded my greatest dream. We have seen men come together under the blood of Christ who had never before enjoyed fellowship. And we have seen them return to their cities, villages and jungle outposts with a new zeal for winning the lost. Entire tribes in mountain areas are being won for Christ by men of God who substitute action for programs. They have a simple belief—that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do. For all that is being accomplished, we must give God the credit. He is doing an unusual thing in Asia.”

A capsule review of the conferences, with the largest remaining to be held in Korea, is as follows:

Bandung, Java—597 registered. This was the first conference sponsored by World Vision in Indonesia, and marked the first time that various Protestant segments united for a common goal. In a church that evolved from a European background, there was a graciousness and drawing together by such groups as the Sundanese Church of Western Java, Christian Missionary Alliance Balanese, Assemblies of God and Chinese groups. Stiffness was broken down as the men ate, worshiped and prayed together. Now that the ministers have come to know one another, they will be offered more in the way of practical helps if a conference is held next year.

Cebu, Philippines—625 registered, representing an estimated 15 denominations. Since this was the third year of conferences in the Philippines, the format changed from the purely inspirational to practical counseling in particular problems—stewardship, homiletics and social responsibilities. Some ministers from remote islands journeyed as much as seven days to the conference.

Baguio, Philippines—811 registered, representing 33 denominations. Dr. Pierce felt this was the greatest and most fruitful conference he had ever held. The ministry of the Holy Spirit resulted in Bible-centered unity and love. A number of the leading clergymen in the Philippines came forward at a service in humble rededication of their lives. Twenty-five observers were present from the liturgical Philippine Catholic Church.

Poli, Formosa—600 registered. The largest group, by far, came from the Presbyterian Church, greatly in the majority in Formosa. An estimated 250 mountain pastors, many from aboriginal tribes, who were not Christians 12 years ago, were present. They received a larger view of the total church than they had known in their mountain areas. In the 12 years, more than 400 churches have opened in the mountains of Formosa as people go from tribe to tribe talking about Jesus Christ.

• The above report of religious conditions and perspectives in the Far East was written by George Burnham, News Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, on tour with Dr. Bob Pierce and other American Christian leaders who have been conducting pastors’ conferences and evangelistic meetings in the Philippines, Formosa, Japan and Korea. After a brief vacation, Mr. Burnham will resume his duties on the news desk of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, with the November 25 issue. In the interim, the news department is being handled by Peter deVisser, Editorial Associate.

Baptist Jubilee Advance

A five-year program of evangelization, starting in 1959, is being planned by the major Baptist conventions of the United States and Canada, to climax in a Third Jubilee Celebration in 1964, commemorating the first national organization of Baptists in America, the General Missionary Convention, formed in Philadelphia in 1814. This cooperative effort, called the Baptist Jubilee Advance, is being sponsored by the American Baptist Convention, the Baptist Federation of Canada, the Baptist General Conference of America, the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., the North American Baptist General Conference, and the Southern Baptist Convention, with cooperation of the Baptist World Alliance. Baptists in 101 countries around the world will participate in the six-year celebration. A two-year program of preparation is now in progress.

Crusade Aftermath

The General Assembly of the Protestant Council of the City of New York has approved an expanded one-million-dollar program of evangelism, establishment of a Protestant chapel at New York’s International Airport, and has announced plans for a Crusade for Church Attendance the first three months of 1958. In addition, representatives of 31 denominations projected establishment of Protestant information centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Disciples Plan For Future; Change Name

(This special report was prepared forCHRISTIANITY TODAYby Dr. James DeForest Murch, prominent author and editor, ordained minister of the Disciples of Christ and a member of the Convention’s restudy commission and a director of the Disciples Historical Society.)

Christian unity—the traditional concern of the Disciples of Christ—was at the forefront of the 1957 Convention of that communion in Cleveland, Ohio, October 11–16. The Convention moved toward merger with the United Church of Christ (Congregational and Evangelical and Reformed) consummated in the same Cleveland Public Auditorium last June. It further strengthened ties with the ecumenical effort of the National Council and World Council of Churches.

This does not mean, however, that the 2,000,000 Disciples of Christ listed in the Convention’s Year Book and reported in the religious statistics of the USA are moving this same direction. The International Convention is prone to think of itself as “the mainstream” of the religious movement begun by Barton W. Stone, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott and Benjamin Franklin early in the nineteenth century, but it is in fact only one of three groups tracing spiritual ancestry to that source. The Church of Christ (opposed to the use of instrumental music in worship) now numbers better than 1,000,000. The so-called “independent churches,” strictly biblical and evangelical in faith, number over 1,000,000. This leaves the Convention proper with a constituency of less than 1,000,000. The 2,000,000 “right wing” of the movement has no relationship with the National Council or World Council of Churches and is completely opposed to any union with the United Church of Christ.

The International Convention, however, is an organization of tremendous influence, headed by men capable in ecclesiastical diplomacy though mostly liberal in theology. The ICDC includes in its organizational framework educational, missionary, benevolent and other agencies significant in American Protestantism. Many ecumenical leaders in the NCC and the WCC were at one time prominent in Disciple leadership and “earned their spurs” in the efficiently-operated machinery of the Convention or its agencies.

The Cleveland Convention gave much time to reports and future plans of these agencies. Its announced theme was “His Love—We Share,” dealing with the 1957–58 agency emphases upon missionary education and benevolence.

The United Christian Missionary Society, largest of the agencies, in a 17,000-word report told of the work of 254 missionaries and 2,093 national leaders in 11 mission fields. Its budget last year was around $5,000,000 and it is building a capital fund of $3,000,000.

Especially through the women’s work in local churches, the UCMS exerts great influence in minister placement and in interchurch and agency relationships. Because of this fact, and its “open membership” and ecumenical policies, it has long been the chief “bone of contention” alienating “independent churches” from International Convention support. These churches now have a missionary program of their own, giving $2,000,000 annually to support over 400 missionaries in over 20 foreign fields.

International Convention agencies which tend to unify the churches are the National Benevolent Association, The Pension Fund and the Board of Church Extension. NBA, supporting 10 homes for the aged and 7 homes for children, reported assets of some $10,000,000 with revenues for the year of $3,000,000. Pension Funds for ministers reported assets of $23,354,136. Church Extension board has, since its beginnings, loaned some $35,000,000 to assist churches in building projects. These boards are wisely administered without discrimination.

The Board of Higher Education serves 32 colleges, universities and seminaries (enrollment, 25,000 students), including such well-known institutions as Texas Christian, Drake, Butler, and Phillips University. In this area the constant battle between conversatives and liberals has given rise to more than 20 strictly evangelical Bible schools and colleges—institutions not recognized by the Board—but training more than half of the young men studying for the ministry among Christian churches.

The Disciples of Christ Historical Society, serving all wings of the movement, reported progress in the erection of its $1,000,000 Thomas W. Phillips Memorial library and museum in Nashville.

Fringe agencies, representing varied interests, held meetings at Cleveland. On the “right” the National Evangelistic Association, sounded a strong evangelical note. Dean E. G. Homrighausen of Princeton gave three challenging addresses. On the “left” the controversial Disciples Peace Fellowship and the Campbell Institute promoted extremely liberal social and theological views. While meeting the needs of minority groups, such gatherings had little effect on the Convention.

Resolutions processed by the Committee on Recommendations had to do with social concerns such as farm incomes, minimum wages, economic assistance programs, foreign trade, social welfare, United Nations, disarmament, immigration and refugees, race relations and capital punishment. Pronouncements followed the usual pattern set by the National Council, but all were prefaced by a modifying statement to the effect that “human pronouncements must not be confused with the will of God.” Resolutions on Christian unity committed the Convention to complete cooperation with the WCC and NCC in its ecumenical objectives and programs.

Most significant was the approval of a projected $25,000,000 fund for establishing 1,500 new churches in the next few years. Inter-agency rivalry over administration of this project is being ironed out, and “independents” and “schismatics” will be excluded.

There is a marked tendency toward centralization of authority in the Convention with potentially larger control over the agencies and the churches. At Cleveland the name of the Convention was changed from the International Convention of Disciples of Christ (Christian Churches) to the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ). Most of the local congregations bear the name Christian Church, not Disciples of Christ, and the action will eliminate much confusion. While the move was said to have no significance as to ecclesiastical structure or function, nevertheless many advocates of strictly congregational polity see a shift from a Convention of individual Disciples with agency service features to an eventual delegate convention officially representative of the churches and with growing powers over churches and agencies.

Most of the 8,000 registrants at Cleveland will prefer to remember the great assembly by the “Ecumenical Communion Service” on the Lord’s Day. The Convention had invited all Protestants in Cleveland to join them in the observance of the Lord’s Supper. A throng variously estimated at 10,000 or 15,000 partook of the bread and the wine together. Four hundred deacons from Greater Cleveland Christian churches served the emblems of the Lord’s death and suffering in just eight minutes. It was an impressive and soul-lifting service.

Traditionally the mass Communion Service has been the high point of national gatherings of the Disciples for 100 years. As a people they have always maintained the Lord’s Supper as the center of their worship and observe it every Lord’s Day. Their open communion practice is based on the belief that the observance is an “ordinance of Christ” and is basically an experience of the individual Christian with his Lord.

The next Convention will be held in Saint Louis, Mo. Beginning in 1960 the gathering will be held biennially.

Dr. Granville T. Walker, minister of University Christian Church, Ft. Worth, Tex., was chosen president for 1958, succeeding Mr. John Rogers, a layman and outstanding business and civic leader of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Gaines M. Cook continues as Executive Secretary of the Convention.

Worth Quoting

“There is … something we can learn from Billy Graham. It is the profound importance of good public relations, competent publicity and efficient organization in conducting a religious campaign.… Billy Graham’s crusade was magnificently organized.… Crude commercialism? I don’t think so. The Graham office has conducted the campaign in dignified fashion. No blatant sensationalism. Public relations firms are tempted to sell religion as you might sell soap or toothpaste, but the Graham crusade was conducted in good taste.… It has often been said that if Saint Paul were living today, he would be a journalist. I rather think he would be a modern evangelist whose religious crusades would dwarf those of Billy Graham. He would employ the best modern techniques of publicity and promotion: direct mail, TV spots, doorbell ringing, etc. ‘Every scribe instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his stockroom things new and old’ (Matt. 13:52).”—The Rev. John B. Sheerin, C.S.P., editor of the Catholic World, in “What Can Be Learned From Billy Graham?”

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