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Lee Isaías 9:2–7

Después de las horas de calor, el atardecer nos llama con su suave luz y su agradable frescura. Las últimas horas rompen el día como un huevo para revelar la yema dorada del sol poniente. Sería enrevesado tratar de explicar la oscuridad sin describir la luz; probablemente sea imposible, ya que la luz se vislumbra en el horizonte incluso en los momentos más oscuros.

Sin embargo, el profeta Isaías se había despertado con el alba. Era un profeta de Judá que ejerció su ministerio durante el reinado de cuatro reyes; descendiente de una familia de rango y estatus; un hombre de familia; alguien que tenía un espíritu dispuesto a hacer aquello para lo que el Señor lo había llamado. Encargado de ser portavoz de Dios, hablaba con fuerza profética aunque sus palabras cayeran en oídos sordos y se le irritara la garganta.

Su obra y sus escritos contienen algunas de las palabras más profundas de todas las Escrituras, que se hacen eco de temas como la santidad, la justicia, la lealtad, la confianza, la rectitud y la esperanza. Las palabras que leímos hoy en Isaías 9:2–7 revelan destellos de esta verdad, reflejando el contraste entre la luz y la oscuridad, la esperanza y el desaliento, el honor y la afrenta.

Este contraste está prefigurado incluso en los nombres que Isaías da a sus hijos: el primero se llama Sear Yasub, o «un remanente volverá», y el segundo Maher Salal Jasbaz a manera de advertencia, «pronto al saqueo, presto al botín». Se trata de un juego de equilibrios que no se contradicen ni se anulan entre sí, sino que dan cuerpo al tema hacia el que nos dirige esta historia unificada a lo largo de la temporada de Adviento (7:3, 8:1).

En palabras simples, no es posible explicar las tinieblas sin describir la luz. «El pueblo que andaba en la oscuridad ha visto una gran luz; sobre los que vivían en tierra de sombra de muerte una luz ha resplandecido» (v. 2).

Cuando nos alejamos de Dios, hay una oscuridad espiritual que nos persigue y nos sobresalta. Cuando Dios obra de una forma asombrosa en nuestros corazones, empezamos a redirigirnos, a redireccionarnos, a reorientarnos hacia la luz, y la encontramos tan real, tan sustentadora, que la noble tripulación del Viajero del Alba de C. S. Lewis la llamó «potable». Comenzamos a experimentar la bondad de lo que está por venir como «luz potable», y esa brecha en las nubes, la luz del sol en nuestra espalda, alimenta el tamborileo hacia la libertad, una libertad que viene de alinear nuestros valores, lealtad, obediencia, deleite y esperanza con un Dios de amor inquebrantable.

Isaías sabía que Belén sería el lugar donde Dios haría el dobladillo de las vestiduras de la eternidad. Este «Príncipe de Paz» experimentaría un día la forma más verdadera de oscuridad imaginable —una oscuridad que nadie más podría soportar— para que nosotros pudiéramos caminar en la luz.

Isaías previó una luz futura y dio la bienvenida al amanecer que un día rompería tras una larga y oscura noche, arrojando rayos de esperanza 700 años en el futuro. Vio a un heredero radiante que vendría como un campesino, aunque fuera el Mesías. Jesús hace brillar una luz más allá de la noche, despierta al alba y marca el rumbo de una historia de redención: un bebé que crece para convertirse en un hombre que experimentaría la verdadera oscuridad, para que nosotros, con los ojos adormecidos, podamos contemplar la luz eterna.

Morgan Mitchell sirve como pastor en San Diego, y se especializa en grupos pequeños, discipulado y predicación.

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Lecturas devocionales de Adviento 2024 de Christianity Today

Conor Sweetman

The post La gran luz del futuro appeared first on Christianity Today en español | Cristianismo hoy.

AFTER THE HOURS of heat, the early evening beckons with a soft light and its pleasant coolness. The late hours crack the egg of the day to reveal the golden yolk of the setting sun. It would be a mind-bending exercise to try to explain darkness without describing light—it’s likely impossible to do so. Light beckons on the horizon of even the darkest moments. 

The prophet Isaiah, however, had awakened with the dawn. He was a prophet of Judah who ministered during the reign of four kings; the progeny of a family of rank and status; a family man; one who had a willing spirit to do what the Lord had called him to do. Commissioned to be a mouthpiece of God, he spoke with prophetic force even though his words would fall on deaf ears, and his throat would grow scratchy. 

His work and writing bears some of the most profound words in all of Scripture, echoing themes of holiness, justice, allegiance, trust, righteousness, and hope. The words read today in Isaiah 9:2–7 reveal sparks of this truth, reflecting the contrast between light and dark, hope and heaviness, honor and gloom. 

This contrast is foreshadowed even in the names that Isaiah gives his sons: the first named ShearJashub, or, “a remnant will return” and the second named Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz as a warning, “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil,” a balancing act that neither contradict nor cancel each other out, but fleshes out the theme that this unified story directs us toward throughout the Advent season (7:3, 8:1). 

We simply cannot explain the darkness without describing the light. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (v. 2). 

When we turn away from God, there is a spiritual darkness that will haunt and startle us. After an amazing work of God in our hearts we begin to redirect, reroute, reorient ourselves toward light, and find it so real, so sustaining, that the noble crew of C. S. Lewis’s Dawn Treader called it “drinkable”. We begin to experience the goodness of things to come like “drinkable light” and that break in the clouds and sunlight on our back fuels the drumbeat to freedom—a freedom that comes from aligning our values, allegiance, obedience, delight, and hope with our God of unfailing love. 

Isaiah knew that Bethlehem would be the place that God would hem the garments of eternity. This “Prince of Peace” would one day be acquainted with the truest form of darkness imaginable—a darkness no one else could endure—so that we may walk in the light. 

Isaiah foresaw a future light and was welcoming the dawn that would one day break after a long, dark night, casting beams of hope 700 years into the future. He saw a radiant heir that would come as a peasant even as he was the Messiah. Jesus shines a light past the evening, awakens the dawn, and sets the course for redemptive history—a baby growing to be a man who would experience true darkness, so that we, with sleepy eyes, may gaze upon eternal light. 

Morgan Mitchell serves as a pastor in San Diego, specializing in church small groups, discipleship, and preaching. 

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 Future’s Great Light appeared first on Christianity Today.

Given Madeira’s reputation, both as a songwriter and as a musician, it’s not surprising that he had little trouble rounding up an impressive lineup for his new album, Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us. The 12-track album (our review) includes guest appearances by Harris, the Civil Wars, Buddy Miller, Mat Kearney, Cindy Morgan, jazz guitarist John Scofield, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and more.

“This is a beautiful record,” says Miller, who sings “I Believe in You,” and indeed, it is. But what it is not is a Christian record, though many of the songs could certainly fit well into the genre. But Madeira pushes back against such a label not just because it’s too narrow, but also because of his own spiritual journey.

He’s a graduate of the fairly conservative Taylor University, but he wouldn’t call himself a conservative—or likely even an “evangelical,” for that matter. “My faith in Christ has moved me away from the organization we call ‘the Church,’ and into what feels like a more intimate and even mystical ‘relationship’ with the Spirit,” Madeira says. He adds that he wouldn’t disagree with universalism.

It’s this “inclusive” theology, combined with the angry shouting of the 2008 presidential primaries, that prompted Madeira to want to do an album of “hymns for the rest of us,” and thus the seeds for Mercyland were planted. Four years later, we now have a stirring collection of songs in the Americana tradition, much of it quite “Christian,” with a bit of vague spirituality mixed in.

We interviewed Madeira via e-mail.

Tell me a bit about your own spiritual journey.

Raised by people of deep beliefs, I was surrounded by the notion of a personal God. My parents’ faith was gracious and as inclusive as possible for Evangelicals in the 60s. They were devout Christians with a social conscience, something rare these days, in my opinion.

Jesus appealed to me, but church culture did not, with the exception of several writers (C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Madeleine L’Engle) who made me feel that spirituality and creativity were twin sisters.

And you went to Taylor University?

Yes. I don’t regret my college days at all; I learned a great deal and had a good time, and was at once drawn to faith while never feeling quite at home with the faithful. Yet I still have many good friends from those days, who perhaps felt the same way.

When I attend services, I go to the Episcopal Church. I like the creeds and prayers, and the fact that they truly mean it when they say all are welcome. Yet, my faith in Christ has moved me away from the organization we call “the Church,” and into what feels like a more intimate and even mystical “relationship” with the Spirit. I think there’s something to the biblical notion of “where two or three are gathered”—and more often than not, two seems to be the winning number.

How did this album come about?

My parents were very supportive of the civil rights movement of the ’60s, and my mother’s great affection for Mahalia Jackson was rooted in the sheer passion of the woman’s voice, which embodied the struggle of African Americans to be seen as equals in white America. So, that tidbit of my childhood is essential to my making Mercyland. I’m just carrying the same torch, one that hopefully illuminates the idea that faith is a journey that isn’t exclusive, a pilgrimage everyone is on which requires openness and dialogue. Giving voice to “the rest of us” was a calling, if you will.

The spark for this album caught fire during the 2008 elections. I was on a tour bus with Emmylou Harris and the whole crew watching a Pentecostal preacher named John Hagee on CNN, cringing as he talked about Catholics and Jews going to hell. That was the spark, listening to someone who supposedly shares my faith, and wanting to say, “No, this isn’t Christianity; this is fear.” That’s when my wheels started turning. Add to Hagee the Westboro Baptist people, and you get a good idea of the madness that people mistake for faith. So, in the same spirit of my parents standing for integration, I felt a need to at least put forth the idea that God is all-inclusive.

Why not just do the album yourself, rather than bring in all of these other artists?

A solo Phil Madeira record would just get lost in the shuffle, and I knew this idea was bigger than me. I saw the potential for a diverse community, both musically and philosophically.

How did you “recruit” all these folks?

I initially approached Emmylou with the idea of a project that focused on the idea that God loves everyone, that God is inclusive and merciful. She immediately responded with enthusiasm, which made asking everyone else much easier. I invited folks to co-write, including the great singer Cindy Morgan. A few people brought tunes to the party, and a few asked if I had suggestions. It was pretty easy from that standpoint.

Any interesting stories behind any of these songs?

“I Believe in You” was written about 25 years ago. It is one of the most personal songs I’ve ever composed, yet I never released it on my own projects; it was ironically too spiritual for either of the two solo projects I released in the ’90s. I asked Buddy Miller if he’d sing it, and I love his performance of it.

How about in the studio, during the making of the album?

Writing “From This Valley” with The Civil Wars is a great memory. I wanted to write about caged birds, outcasts, and the longing that comes with the territory of being an outsider. John Paul White and Joy Williams caught the idea instantly, and we just let the song write itself. It was the first song recorded, apart from the title cut, and I don’t think John Paul thought I’d keep his rebel yell in the final cut. The second I heard that whoop, I knew I’d be keeping it, and I knew the track would open the record, even though they were unknowns at the time. With the exception of Emmylou adding her voice to the song, it’s a live recording, as are most of the tracks.

What do the words “Christian music” mean to you, and is this album that?

One night in 1988, I was at a club listening to a Nashville blues singer named Mike Henderson when God Almighty reminded me who I was before I got involved with religious music. I don’t think “Christian” is a word that should be ascribed to music. A lot of enthusiasm for this project is coming from Christians, but this is not a Christian record. It’s not “theirs”; it’s everyone’s who might care to listen. Given that the word “gospel” means good news, Mercyland might qualify as gospel music, but I think Thelonius Monk is good news, too. All good music could qualify as “gospel,” given that parameter.

The press release that came with Mercyland includes some phrases that would make some Christians raise their eyebrows—like “Stroup seeks her own personal higher power” and “no matter what creed, faith, sexual preference, race, political bias—everyone is a child of God.” Is that what you believe?

I know that I would die for my child if it meant I could ensure her eternal well being, even if my child denied me the pleasure of a relationship. If I have the imagination for that kind of love, it’s hard to believe that Jesus is any less imaginative. The Atonement wasn’t half-hearted; I don’t think God would settle for less than 100 percent.

Rob Bell stirred up some controversy with his book Love Wins, implying a belief in universalism, that ultimately, everybody gets into heaven, regardless of creed or faith. Do you believe that?

I haven’t read Rob Bell’s book, so I can’t comment on it other than to say that I agree with the sentiment you’ve presented.

What’s your favorite song on this album, and why?

I truly can’t say, but I’ll acknowledge two special songs. My partner Merrill Farnsworth and I wrote the title track and “Light of Your Love,” so those two songs reflect on a beautiful facet of my life. “Mercyland” embodies the spirit of the project, and “Light of Your Love” was my favorite to record because of John Scofield’s presence. He is among my favorite guitarists and such a great human being. I’m still pinching myself.

You’ve got quite a history of writing and performing with some really big names. Rattle off a favorite memory or two …

As it happens, yesterday I produced a Bruce Cockburn track, and spent the day with him and his family in San Francisco. I am amazed that I have worked with so many artists who have made an impression on my work. It still thrills me to get on stage with Emmylou, and I cannot say enough good about Buddy Miller, whom I admire as a person and as a musician. Having Alison Krauss sing “Maybe,” which Gordon Kennedy and I wrote, was the thrill of a lifetime.

Who do you think is making really good music these days?

Right now, I am listening to The Wood Brothers, Mumford & Sons, Ketch Secor, Lana Del Ray, The Punch Brothers, Jack White, and lots of old stuff like Buck Owens, Blind Willie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Kenny Burrell.

Who are some of your own musical influences?

The Byrds, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Garth Hudson, Dylan, Randy Newman, Procol Harum, Joni Mitchell, Aretha, and of course, Mahalia Jackson.

Who would you love to work with in the future?

I would love to produce a John Scofield recording; actually, I could easily jump at the chance to work again with the entire cast of Mercyland. I’m wide open. Dylan would be a wonderful challenge.

I assume there’s no chance of a Mercyland tour?

It would be difficult, but we’re trying to see about an event at the Americana Music Association conference in the Fall. I’m doing a set at The Wild Goose Festival this summer with some ringers like Jennifer Knapp and Cindy Morgan.

What’s next for you? Anything else we missed?

A solo record is forthcoming, and I am wrapping production on a collection of Sir Paul McCartney covers with Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Sam Bush, Cockburn, Matraca Berg, The Wood Bros., Ketch, Holly Williams, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Teddy Thompson, The McCrarys, Ollabelle, and Ed Snodderly. Oh, and Mindy Smith and I wrote her latest single “Closer.”

Thanks for taking the time to talk about Mercyland!

Photos on homepage and at top by Jimmy Abegg.

Copyright © 2012 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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Last week, the bioethics thriller The Island became the first of the half-dozen films directed by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Bad Boys) to flop at the box office. And this week, Stealth—a movie directed by Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, XXX), about a military plane that gets hit by lightning, starts thinking for itself, and becomes a bigger threat than the terrorists it’s supposed to be killing—crashed and burned at theatres, too.

Critics seem to agree that the film—which shamelessly cribs elements of War Games, Colossus: The Forbin Project, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Short Circuit, with an unexpected side trip into Behind Enemy Lines territory—is more artificial than intelligent.

Russ Breimeier (Christianity Today Movies) writes, “The greatest flaw with Stealth—and there are many—is that it doesn’t stay true to its premise … Bad acting and dialogue also keep these characters from becoming engaging or believable … Suffice to say, this is yet another perfect example of a bad Hollywood blockbuster, incapable of offering a sensible script or a well-staged action sequence. Neither entertaining nor exciting, the dumb and noisy Stealth will hopefully live up to its name by fading quietly from movie theaters.”

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says the film is so busy it’s boring: “Part of Einstein’s theory of relativity states that the faster an object moves the more time slows down. Want proof? Go see Stealth (Columbia), a high-speed but vacuous exercise in adrenalin overdrive that packs a lot of G-force, as in ‘Gee, when is this film going to be over?'” He adds that the movie “makes you pine for the emotional subtlety and character depth of a Jerry Bruckheimer film … Like EDI’s cockpit, Stealth is empty.”

Jeffrey Huston (Crosswalk) says the film fails even on its own superficial terms: “Visually it’s horrible; the ships are poorly designed, the flight action is obviously fake … and only one shot (a mid-air ring of fire) makes you think ‘wow.’ Director Rob Cohen was so busy trying to make his aerial sequences look impressive that he forgot to make them feel authentic … The film’s only boast is that it’s loud, thus making it stealth in name only. But hey—at least when the robot jet goes renegade it cranks hard-driving rock tunes as it unleashes its heartless destruction. Sure it may be evil, but man, its iPod playlists are the coolest!”

Mainstream critics seem divided into two camps: those who think it’s so bad it’s good, and those who think it’s so bad it’s bad.

Sky High Is Looking Up

What if the X-Men went to a school that was kind of like Hogwarts, only American instead of British? And what if the school was stationed up in the air, kind of like that hangar where Angelina Jolie was stationed in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? You might get something like Sky High, a fun Disney flick about a high school for superheroes that seems to have left most Christian critics reasonably happy.

My own review is at Christianity Today Movies.

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) writes, “Director Mike Mitchell strikes the perfect blend of campy humor, visual finesse and honest emotion. The movie has a goofy comic-book charm that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Yet though lighthearted in tone the film explores coming-of-age themes of self-esteem, peer pressure and parental expectations, and is suitable for all but the youngest viewers. Like The Incredibles, at its heart Sky High is about family and those everyday superpowers we all possess: love and friendship.”

Christopher Lyon (Plugged In) says the film has “some super messages” for tweens: “For one, Will has two strong (really strong), committed parents who are married and genuinely like each other—unusual for kids in most Disney flicks. They’re not perfect. Dad’s expectations put lots of pressure on Will, and Will gives into some normal teen temptations including lying, disobedience and reluctantly hosting a party while the ‘rents are away. But all his wrong choices have clear, negative consequences. And Mom and Dad are Will’s first stop when looking for support and guidance.” Lyon goes on to call it “a generally kid-friendly, low stress, sometimes funny little adventure that’s easy to watch and easy to forget. In a summer crowded with dark, brooding and complex celluloid superheroes, though, Sky High‘s light tone, bright colors, chuckles and easy lessons may provide a welcome relief to families looking to satiate their youngsters’ hero-hunger.”

Kenneth R. Morefield (Christian Answers) compares the film to other depictions of high school life: “After ten years of Beverly Hills 90210, it is refreshing to see a high school depicted with actors who look like they could actually be in high school and characters who still feel awkward over that first kiss and whether or not mom and dad will give them a scornful look. I have no doubt that teens like those depicted in Mean Girls and Thirteen exist, but I also have no doubt that there are still a few places on the globe where harassment from the school bully is a bigger fear than not being able to score your next fix.”

Mainstream critics seem mildly pleased by the film.

Must Love Dogs a Mixed Breed

The studios’ one significant bit of counter-programming last week was Must Love Dogs, a romantic comedy—starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, with fine supporting work from Stockard Channing and Christopher Plummer—about newly divorced people in their 40s (and an even older widower) who try their hand at online dating.

The film has all the sitcom-style humor you would expect from writer-director Gary David Goldberg (the creator of Family Ties and Spin City), and while some Christian critics seem to wish they could have liked it more, their responses are more mixed.

Camerin Courtney (Christianity Today Movies) doesn’t mind the fact that the romance was predictable and escapist, but wishes it had been done with a higher degree of quality. She also objects to the film’s consistently negative portrayal of heterosexual men. “Enough already. We’re all fallen human beings. We all hurt each other. Men and women. Let’s stop highlighting worst-case specimens of the male of the species and get back to our regularly scheduled programming already … Overall, I wouldn’t call the movie a dog, but I didn’t love it either. And I wanted to. Our search for the next Great Romantic Comedy, like so many Hollywood singletons’ quest for love, continues.”

Andrew Coffin (World) concurs: “You’ve seen all of this before. But perhaps it’s been a while since you’ve seen it all strung together so ineptly. That’s about the sum of Must Love Dogs … a romantic comedy that survives, if at all, solely on the charm of its performers.” He adds that the film is surprisingly “disjointed,” despite its predictability. “Although only a single screenwriter is credited (the director), one would almost expect to discover that a dozen or more participated, each asked to contribute a single scene utilizing the same cast of vaguely defined characters.”

Harry Forbes (Catholic News Service) likes co-stars Lane and Cusack, but says the screenplay “meanders, and some of the plot turns are implausible, even in the context of a romantic bauble like this. And, frankly, it’s just not funny enough.” He also takes issue with the film’s acceptance of casual sex, including an implausible scene in which two characters drive all over town looking for an open store that has condoms in stock. “It’s clear to the viewer that each of them is looking for true love. Though they’re going through the motions of dating, their hearts aren’t really in it, and there’s the implicit notion that picking up men … and sex before marriage are par for the course.”

Mainstream critics are having trouble loving this particular mutt.

Penguins Waddle into Box Office Top 10

Audiences tired of badly-made, overly-budgeted and utterly formulaic Hollywood movies have started looking elsewhere for their entertainment—and one of the beneficiaries has been a National Geographic documentary about the mating cycle of Emperor Penguins in the Antarctic!

March of the Penguins, narrated by Morgan Freeman, has cracked the box office top ten for two weeks running, and it seems destined to become the second-highest-grossing documentary of all time, after Fahrenheit 9/11.

Steven Isaac (Plugged In) writes, “I won’t try too hard to overlay human meaning onto the lives of these penguins, but Freeman goes out of his way to do so in a couple of places (‘They’re not that different from us, really’), so it’s worth noting the great level of personal sacrifice penguin parents exhibit hatching and protecting their young. Survival mandates the involvement of both parents. To thrive, hard work is required. And great physical affection and selfless love are demonstrated along the way.”

Andrew Coffin (World) has some problems with the script, but says the story “easily stands on its own two very short legs … That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat—and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design. It’s sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it’s also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film.”

Murderball ‘Humanizes’ Disabled Athletes

Other documentaries are winning accolades, too. Murderball is a remarkably empowering look at “quadriplegic rugby”—a sport in which people who have lost the use of their legs and at least part of their arms race about a basketball court in specially modified wheelchairs, trash-talking each other and knocking each other over. The film covers the rivalry between an American team and the former player who left them to coach the Canadian team.

My own review is at CanadianChristianity.com.

Darrel Manson (Hollywood Jesus) writes, “The highlight of the film is how it manages to humanize these athletes for us. One of the players, when speaking about meeting girls, says that you’re never sure whether they see you or the chair. For the most part, at the beginning of the film, we see the chair. That is, we note how disabled they all are … Slowly, the filmmakers reveal to us the people who are sitting in the chairs … By the time we watch them in Athens, we are no longer watching the chairs running up and down the court; we are watching our team. We do not see disabled athletes; we see athletes.”

Krumping on the Rize

Another documentary getting some attention is Rize, music-video director Dave LaChapelle’s look at “krumping,” a new form of street dancing in South Central Los Angeles that has political, historical, sexual, and even spiritual overtones.

Maurice Broaddus (Hollywood Jesus) writes, “The movie makes the case that this radical dance form plays an enormous (potential) role in the black communities in South Central Los Angeles. The dancing is important as a serious form of spiritual and artistic expression—and as an alternative to gang participation … . I don’t have to make spiritual connections with this movie because it does it for me. There is a natural connectedness between worship and dance, worship and spirit. This exploration of dance took the dancers back to their roots as they danced from their spirit. ‘I get my Krump from Jesus,’ Miss Prissy says plainly. ‘God started me on this way,’ and she uses the gift that she’s been given.”

The Beautiful Country Is Beautiful Indeed

Another film making the rounds off the beaten path is The Beautiful Country, about a young Vietnamese man who searches for his birth parents—a Vietnamese woman and a former American G.I. This search takes him through a maze of cultural tensions.

Camerin Courtney (Christianity Today Movies) says the film offers a thoughtful examination of our notions of beauty—and ugliness. “Additionally, throughout Binh’s travels we see stunning portraits of loss and perseverance, the plight of refugees, the longing to belong, the intoxicating nature of hope, the ripple effects of tragedy and war, the redemption of a father’s love. Thankfully, none of these portraits or questions are in-your-face, but are offered with nuanced performances and sparse dialogue. The ending isn’t a typical Hollywood father-son reunion, but is much more subtle, realistic, and meaningful.”

Mainstream critics seem to think the film is beautiful indeed.

More reviews of recent releases:

The Island: Gene Edward Veith (World) says, “Whether its message comes from the views of the filmmakers—the action-movie director Michael Bay and writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen—or whether it just emerges logically from the movie’s premise, The Island packs a powerful pro-life punch … [and] makes an important imaginative contribution to the current debates, reminding us that clones are not monsters. The monsters are the people who do the cloning and those who are willing to destroy life just to enhance their own.”

Peter Suderman (Relevant) says “the plot, such as it is, is ancillary to Bay’s destructive impulses; story points exist only to move the characters from one rollicking set piece to another. You get the feeling that if the film could inject action scenes intravenously, it would. It’s not so much a movie as an action-scene delivery system.”

Denny Wayman and Hal Conklin (Cinema in Focus) compare the scientists of this film to King Herod, who killed infants to protect his throne; and they conclude, “Whether terminating the lives of cloned women who give birth for adoptive parents or placing in gas chambers those clones whose curiosity makes them impossible to manipulate, this film presents the reality that such control over others’ is murder.”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Josh Hurst (Reveal) says, “The most startling thing about Burton’s film is that, unlike many of his other movies about misunderstood geniuses, this one gives no excuses for self-indulgence and irresponsibility. Like the central character in Burton’s Big Fish, Willy Wonka is a man who has retreated to his own created world of fantasy, and with his seclusion he has forgotten how to show others compassion and love. His life is fractured because of his tormented childhood, and he carries with him a cold disdain for any and all grown-ups—particularly parents. But rather than make a hero of this man, as he did in Big Fish, Burton instead shows us what a lonely road Wonka walks, pointing us to the more excellent path of love, forgiveness, and family.”

Peter T. Chattaway is filling in this week and next for Jeffrey Overstreet, our regular Film Forum writer. Overstreet will return on August 18.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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What’s the difference between the lists? The “redeeming” list speaks for itself—films that included a redemptive element, sometimes blatant, sometimes more subtle, but always there.

Our Critics’ Choice list, on the other hand, consists of the 10 films that our panel believes were the most excellent films of 2007, whether they carried a redeeming message or not—though five of our top 10 choices also appeared on our Most Redeeming list. But all of the movies here are films of excellence, and many are up for various honors at the upcoming Academy Awards.

We also let each of our voters choose “One That Got Away”—a single film they wish had made our Top Ten list. Think of those extra films as sort of our “honorable mentions.”

For each of the top 10 films, we have simply included random comments from our team of critics. To learn more about the film’s synopsis, click “Our review” at the end of each summary.

1. Juno

“Smartest script of the year, heartwarming and life-affirming.” “Not only does this film have a surprisingly pro-life element, it is also remarkably mature for a high school comedy.” “Layers of unexpected complexity and depth.” “Wacky and off the wall, but what makes it more than zany Napoleon Dynamite is heart; it’s grounded in character and a core of sweet, heartfelt love.” “Bitingly droll, tactless yet tender, and infinitely quotable.” “Avoids crowdpleasing crassness and sophomoric indulgence (and yes, I’m talking to you, Knocked Up.” “Easily the biggest crowd pleaser among this year’s most acclaimed films.” (Our review.)

2. There Will Be Blood

“An utterly astonishing cinematic experience, rippling with muscle and sinew, assured and ambitious, a majestic, audacious work.” “A fascinating character study about a truly evil man who cares for nothing but his own accumulation of wealth.” “This masterfully filmed story of two vampiric charlatans at war is horrifying, revealing how both business and the church can become corrupted by ego and hatred.” “Riveting performances all around. Stunning use of sights and sounds.” “Engrossing in every way, from the camerawork and cinematography to the haunting score.” “It’s a film that pulls us into a character and forces us to fester within him like no other film has done in years.” (Our review.)

3. Atonement

“This isn’t a feel-good romance, but expertly tells a story of mistakes and remorse in an all-too-true and heartbreaking way.” “Emotionally devastating and intellectually stimulating.” “Joe Wright’s direction is astonishing, particularly the seamless camera work capturing the evacuation of Dunkirk.” “A reflective, cautionary tale about bearing false witness, forgiveness, and yes, atonement.” “Stylish and artistically superior.” “Lustrous and painterly, it can and will coax tears, but never by relying on maudlin sentimentality or cheap emotional theatrics.” (Our review.)

4. Lars and the Real Girl

“If Frank Capra made a film about a man, his sex doll, and the nostalgically caricatured community in which they live, this would be it.” “Don’t let the premise scare you off. This delicate tale is a tender-hearted, beautifully acted movie about compassion, grace, and true love.” “Sweet, offbeat, charming.” “An extraordinary balancing act, a move that could easily have gone wrong a hundred different ways, but somehow doesn’t.” “A note-perfect performance from Ryan Gosling.” “An incontestable delight.” “Everything about this movie is handled just right, striking the right tone.” (Our review.)

5. Ratatouille

“Delightful tale of a culinarily gifted rat that builds to an emotional climax as sublime as it is subtle.” “The year’s most entertaining film from every angle—writing, directing, music, voicework, animation … the whole package.” “Reminds us that we should all exercise critical discernment in our diet and beyond—humbly celebrating what is truly excellent.” “A delicious, delightful stew of a film.” “Totally original and surprising.” “This is less a kids’ movie that adults can appreciate too, but rather an animated movie for adults that kids can also enjoy.” “Another triumph for Pixar and director Brad Bird.” (Our review.)

6. No Country for Old Men

“A gripping cat-and-mouse battle between a tracker and the assassin tracking him to recover his blood money. The Coen brothers have never been better in their storytelling.” “The silence of God may have been the mystery foremost on Cormac McCarthy’s mind as he wrote this tale of evil men who escape judgment.” “What is perhaps most amazing is that a film this terrifying, this violent, and this relentlessly nihilistic should also be this enthralling.” “Tense, amusing, challenging. An interesting tension in this film between absurdism and fatalism.” “A film that intentionally refuses satisfaction or answers to its audience, leaving us, like the older characters in the film, to stand stumped and disillusioned by the mundane nightmare of the modern world.” (Our review.)

7. Hairspray

“Infectiously joyous celebration of the positive side of the ’60s, diversity, and positive thinking. “Though there are great messages concerning racial equality and self-sacrifice during the civil rights movement, it never takes itself too seriously—and that’s what makes it one of the year’s sweetest and most charming movies.” “Very fun, exuberant musical with some great performances from young actors.” “Newcomer Nikki Blonsky is terrific, a star in the making.” “The most fun in a theater this year … Great songs and art direction, hammered home by the top-notch acting.” (Our review.)

8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“A sort of antithesis to recent pro-euthanasia films like The Sea Inside and Million Dollar Baby. An affirmation of the value of life even under the most excruciatingly debilitating conditions.” “Mesmerizing filmmaking; a visually brilliant immersion into a world of unimaginable limitations that turns out to be an extraordinarily liberating experience.” “Schnabel helps us rediscover some of the more delicate joys of living, and provokes us to reflect on the gravity of our own decisions.” “Fluidly weaves the worlds of imagination, memory, and dreams into a tapestry of one man’s point of view on a world both tragic and hopeful.” “A great character study of a dynamic man’s journey out of the cocoon.” “A gorgeous piece of filmmaking, pulsating with life and energy.” (Our review.)

9. Zodiac

“One of the most intriguing, taut thrillers of the year.” “A gripping tale about one of the most famous unsolved mysteries. A fascinating procedural reminiscent of All the President’s Men or JFK.” “Fincher reminds us that reason, information, the mass media, and technology—while helpful in bringing criminals to justice—are not enough to help humankind resolve the problem of evil.” “A wonderful crime story because of its unique nature—it’s not about the killer but about the man obsessed with finding the killer.” “Touches on some interesting themes regarding the changes wrought by time, the relationship between reality and pop culture, and the obsessive lengths some people will go to find order and meaning in the seeming chaos and indifference of the world.” (Our review.)

10. Into Great Silence

“A transformational theatrical experience, a spiritual encounter, an exercise in contemplation and introspection, a profound meditation on what it means to give oneself totally and completely to God.” “Gets you into the otherworldly rhythm of life in a secluded monastery.” “The movie shows rather than tells, and makes it all the more reverent, prayerful, and tranquil because of it.” “Pure cinema at its purest and most exalted. Sublimely beautiful; precise compositions and stunning lighting.” “The film demands patience—three hours of it—and if it were any shorter, it would not achieve what it achieves. It is meant to test us; to cause us to ponder the sacrifice, restraint and stillness required to find true silence; to include us toward the ‘still small voice’ of God.” (Our review.)

The Ones That Got Away

We asked each of our voters to describe one movie they wish had made our top 10 list:

Amazing Grace

One of the best—if not the best—historical films of the year. Stirring, inspiring and weighty, the movie tells the story of William Wilberforce, a longtime member of the British Parliament who used his career to doggedly fight the slave trade. By depicting the vibrant Christian faith that drives Wilberforce’s crusade, the movie is a good model for Christian filmmakers to follow. With a captivating screenplay, revered cast, acclaimed director and true heart, Amazing Grace shows how films proclaiming Christ can best work: by focusing on story, delivering authenticity and embracing artistry. (Our review.)— Todd Hertz

Cave of the Yellow Dog

From the same director who brought us the hauntingly beautiful Story of the Weeping Camel in 2004, Yellow Dog takes us back to the vast and stunning Mongolian landscape. Here, we follow the adventures of another nomadic family; like Weeping Camel, it’s a combination documentary/drama (the nonprofessional actors are a real family going about their everyday lives). When daughter Nansal (about 5 years old), brings home a stray dog, her father, thinking the dog killed some of his sheep, refuses to let her keep it. Will the persistent Nansal, arguably the most adorable young girl on the big screen all year, get her way? A breathtaking look at a surreal place, its culture, and its people. (Official website.)— Mark Moring

Gone Baby Gone

Amazingly enough, Gone Baby Gone establishes Ben Affleck as one of the most promising new directors of 2007. As with Dennis Lehane’s book Mystic River (also an excellent film), this too is set in Boston and begins with a missing child case. But what initially seems a cut-and-dry thriller evolves unexpectedly into a gripping morality play. Like The Departed, Gone Baby Gone is overflowing with knockout acting (Casey Affleck, Amy Ryan, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman) as well as profanity (something about crime films set in Boston, perhaps?). Expect to ponder over the choices we make about right and wrong well past the final scene of this criminally overlooked drama. (Our review.)— Russ Breimeier

In the Shadow of the Moon

Award-winning documentaries are often chronicles of human failure. David Sington’sIn the Shadow of the Moon, which revisits the bumpy but triumphant course of the United States’ Apollo space program, is not only a testament to human achievement, it’s also an eloquent witness to the grandeur of creation and man’s unique place in it. Though the archival NASA footage, some never before seen, is transporting, the movie’s heart is supplied by the memories and perspective of ten surviving Apollo astronauts including Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Jim Lovell. (Our review.)— Steven D. Greydanus

Into the Wild

Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book is a strikingly well-composed portrait of American ambition, disillusionment, and natural beauty. Though set in the early ’90s, the film feels like a ’70s-era rebel road movie (with touches of existentialism and hippie fanfare). Featuring some of the year’s best performances (from Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener, and Hal Holbrook), gorgeous on-location photography, and a perfectly somber soundtrack by grunge pioneer Eddie Vedder, Into the Wild is visceral cinema at its best.It’s a film about the extremes of life and landscape—of being emotionally, physically, and spiritually on the brink of something big. (Our review.)— Brett McCracken

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Billy Mitchell is a flamboyant, egotistical champion with a sexy wife and a thriving business, while Steve Wiebe is a quiet, unassuming family man who spends all his spare time in the garage. But one thing these two men have in common is Donkey Kong—and a desire to set, and keep, the world record for highest score on this vintage video game. This documentary is a remarkable study of these two characters and the bizarre society they inhabit: Billy as an insider who has known all the right people for decades, and Steve as an outsider who gradually overcomes the suspicions of other people. Steve Taylor once sang about people “carving [their] name on a video game” in a quest for immortality, and this film shows how intense that quest can get. (Official website.)— Peter T. Chattaway

The Lives of Others

The Academy Winner for Best Foreign Film in 2006 (it got a 2007 release in the U.S.), The Lives of Others—about an East German secret police officer who discovers his lost humanity while spying on a subversive writer—is a profoundly beautiful story of paranoia and privation, of cowardice and heroism, of persuasion and resolve, of scrutiny and freedom, and of the secrets we keep even from ourselves. The Lives of Others is an overwhelmingly redemptive thriller and an undisputed masterpiece. (Official website.)— Brandon Fibbs

Once

It’s a simple plot, really. An Irish street musician meets a Czech immigrant and together they make beautiful music. The main characters don’t even get names; they’re simply listed as Guy and Girl in the credits. They’re both broken-hearted, poor, and capable of more musically than their current circumstances allow. Together, with the help of songs full of raw and beautiful longing, they experience the ability of music to elevate us above both the mundane and heart-breaking details of life—and to connect us to one another in ways both temporary and profound. (Official site.)— Camerin Courtney

Paprika

Walt Disney Pictures helped Americans discover master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, distributing Spirited Away in 2001 (which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature). If Satoshi Kon’s Paprika had also received widespread distribution, we might have seen a similar sensation. It’s the most imaginative movie of 2007, and the best science fiction adventure too. It’s about a Japanese psychotherapist with a secret identity—”Paprika.” By night, she plunges into patients’ dreams using a high-tech device: a DC Mini. When terrorists steal several Minis and terrify people in dreams, Paprika must infiltrate sub-conscious wonderlands to catch the crooks. But make no mistake: This is no cartoon for kids; it’s rated R for violence and sexual images. (Official site.)— Jeffrey Overstreet

Sweeney Todd

Okay, it’s not for everyone, this movie about a vengeful barber who beheads his patrons and bakes them into meat pies. And it’s a musical. But there’s no denying that Tim Burton’s latest is also one of his greatest. Equal parts macabre comedy, grisly horror story, and extravagant musical, Todd plays to all of Burton’s strengths; his films often boast a style that isn’t matched by substance, but Todd is full of enough humor and humanity that it’s much more than just a feast for the senses. Though the humor is as dark and as bloody as it gets, it’s also surprisingly potent in sinking its teeth into our emotions—and it has some surprising things to say about the relationship between revenge and justice, and the destructive effects that a blind, misguided love can have. (Our review.)— Josh Hurst

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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Like in a buffet, the film offers up plenty of sensuous pleasures, and its characters dwell in the hedonistic mode implied in the title: live for the moment, seize upon desire, and feast on all pleasures while you can. For a film so devoted to a “live in the moment” ethic of pleasure, however, Feast is not a very enjoyable experience. In fact, it’s downright dreary.

The film’s menu of bite-size characters in half-baked melodramatic scenarios is far less appetizing than it should be. Morgan Freeman anchors the cast, as the friendly neighborhood sage who everyone goes to for advice. As a wine-drinking professor in a happy marriage with Esther (a very weepy Jane Alexander), Freeman is easily the most likable character. Still, it is unfortunate to see a great actor like Freeman in yet another clone role as the wise elder black man who is both the moral compass, narrator, and God-like observer of the troubled lives all around him.

Chief among Freeman’s advice-hungry friends is Bradley (Greg Kinnear), a relationship-troubled schmuck who runs a coffeehouse (which conveniently serves as the intersection point of many of the characters and storylines—similar to “Central Perk” in Friends). Early in the film, Bradley’s wife (Selma Blair) suddenly falls for an attractive woman on her softball team, decides she’s a lesbian, and divorces him. On the rebound, Bradley meets and starts dating a foxy real estate agent, Diana (Radha Mitchell), who is having an affair with a married man (Billy Burke)—a fact which eventually destroys their relationship and leaves Bradley alone once again, this time suicidal.

The other main storyline follows a pretty conventional romance between two young lovers, Chloe (Alexa Davalos) and Oscar (Toby Hemingway)—baristas who work at Bradley’s coffeehouse. They fall into a blissful romance built upon “love” at first sight, though Oscar’s drunken father (Fred Ward in a comically stereotypical performance) tries to break them up. Eventually their romance ends in tragedy—an event that is bizarrely predicted by a palm reader midway through the film.

If all of the above sounds stark, convoluted, and clichéd, it is because it is. Feast of Love is a film that tries so hard to be something of substance that it fails to be anything but superficial and annoying. Benton, whose last film (The Human Stain) was also a failure that plunged good actors into flat roles, seems to have aimed for a Robert Altman level of slice-of-life profundity, but falls short of Altman-esque excellence.

There are many things wrong with Feast, but perhaps its most common flaw is in its failure to sell us on any of the relationships. From the get-go, we see couples pair off with little to no explanation as to why or how they developed their relationship. A pair of women share a sexy stare-off, and the next minute we see them in bed together. The same story with Chloe and Oscar. Before we hear them exchange five sentences, we jump to a scene of them having sex. The film has an urgent obsession with capturing characters in the act of love-making, but it unfortunately ignores the deeper layers and processes of love.

Stylistically, Feast is similarly incoherent. Handheld cameras are used intermittently and inexplicably, and the editing style is baffling. Scenes are chopped off abruptly and transitions are sloppy, and the overall structure of the film is rather discombobulating. Some early storylines/characters disappear for long periods of time or go away completely. Even the film’s music seems haphazardly thrown together—an assortment of Starbucks alt-pop (Travis, Jeff Buckley, even a song from the Once soundtrack) that tries to convey an emotional depth that the film never really earns.

Amid the mess of sketchy relationships, voyeuristic bedroom romps, and lightweight philosophizing that crowds this film, there does emerge some semblance of a coherent, albeit vacuous, theme: Love is all we have. One character wonders whether “love is just a cruel trick that nature plays on us,” but Bradley—who is perhaps the most love-deprived of anyone in the film—comes to the realization that “love is everything—the only thing there is.” It is clear, however, that the film’s definition of love is severely skewed, to the point that it is downright depressing to think that this is all we have.

The love feasted upon in this film is not about commitment or selflessness. In many ways it is a the polar opposite of the love described in 1 Corinthians 13—the love that is patient, kind, free of envy or pride, the love that “does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” and “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

No, the love in Feast is very fickle and selfish. It is not patient (as demonstrated in the constant divorces in Bradley’s life, or the speed with which every character seems to go from first date to cohabitation or marriage) and makes no effort to persevere. When Bradley’s first wife gets an inkling that she might have a thing for women, her marriage is history. When Diana re-ignites her illicit hotel room fling just days after her marriage to Bradley, she decides marriage is not her cup of tea. Time for a quickie divorce.

Oddly, the film’s cavalier attitude toward infidelity and broken relationships is displayed like a badge of honor. One of the last lines uttered in Freeman’s narration is this gem: “You can’t hold someone’s love against them.” Translation: if your spouse feels the urge to have a lesbian affair, you can’t hold that against them. Love goes where it goes. Unfortunately, this is exactly why love is so very elusive in today’s culture. If we treat it like an indulgent feast that is good for a while but then easily disposed of come full stomach or change of taste, we’ll never experience any of its long-term benefits or nutritional value.

Talk About It

1. Compare the film with the detailed description of love in 1 Corinthians 13. Is there anything in the film’s “love” that matches the biblical definition?
2. At one point Morgan Freeman says that “God is either dead or he despises us,” to which Greg Kinnear replies, “God doesn’t hate us … If he did he wouldn’t have made us so brave.” What do you think is meant by this? Do you agree?
3. Are there any examples of selfless love in the film? Which of the characters do you think has the most mature understanding of love?

The Family Corner

Feast of Love is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language. There is an extreme amount of sex and nudity, more than is necessary or tasteful. While the scenes of sex are ubiquitous, most are just a few seconds long, in extreme or blurry closeup, or seen from a distance. That said, the sex is everywhere, of every type (including one lesbian bedroom scene), and the film more than deserves its R rating. Add a little bit of offensive language and an odd fascination with astrology/tarot reading, and Feast is clearly inappropriate for younger audiences—and likely for many older ones too.

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What other Christian critics are saying:

• Plugged In
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• Catholic News Service
• Past the Popcorn

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Yesterday’s Supreme Court vote to block blocking the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was awfully close, but religious activist groups are wholly united in decrying the decision.

The 5-4 decision did not reject the law entirely, but told a lower court to decide whether the law is the least restrictive way of limiting minors’ access to online pornography. “This opinion does not hold that Congress is incapable of enacting any regulation of the Internet designed to prevent minors from gaining access to harmful materials,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. But the majority all but said the lower courts must find COPA—which requires porn sites to require visitors to verify their age—unconstitutional, since it’s not the least restrictive way to block minors’ access. While the lower court decides the case, the justices said, the law can’t be enforced.

“Content-based prohibitions, enforced by severe criminal penalties, have the constant potential to be a repressive force in the lives and thoughts of a free people,” Kennedy wrote.

“It is unclear how the government can win the case after yesterday’s ruling,” writes The Washington Post.

That’s Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s take, too. “What else was Congress supposed to do?” he asked in his dissent, joined by justices Rehnquist and O’Connor (Scalia wrote a separate dissent). “It is always less restrictive to do nothing than to do something. But ‘doing nothing’ does not address the problem Congress sought to address—namely that, despite the availability of filtering software, children were still being exposed to harmful material on the Internet.”

Well, said Kennedy, “By enacting programs to promote use of filtering software, Congress could give parents that ability without subjecting protected speech to severe penalties.”

Give us a break, says the American Family Association, which offers a fine filter of its own. “In the last Internet porn case (over CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act), the ACLU attacked filtering software as clumsy and overprotective,” said Stephen Crampton, chief counsel for the AFA Center for Law & Policy. “This time, the ACLU argued that filtering software was much better able to protect children than the mechanism required by COPA. By siding with the ACLU, the Supreme Court has again affirmed that those bent on destroying the family are entitled to more First Amendment protection than those seeking to protect it, such as pro-lifers and street preachers.” (The Supreme Court rejected the ACLU’s arguments against filters in 2003.)

“Apparently, the majority of justices are unaware that 9 in 10 children between the ages of 8-16 have been exposed to pornography online by aggressive and malicious pornographers,” says Focus on the Family analyst Daniel Weiss says the decision.

And that’s only going to get worse, says Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. “With spam emails and pop-up ads littering the internet, it is easy to see how a child could unwittingly end up on a pornographic web site. It is not too much to ask that web users who want to access commercial pornographic content prove they are adults.”

Perkins added, “It is especially troubling that Justice Clarence Thomas was on the wrong side of this decision.”

“This is a devastating defeat for kids, parents and the Constitution,” said Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America. “Minors have no First Amendment right to view this kind of porn and smut-peddlers have no right to expose them to it. If COPA involved cigarettes and kids, the law would have been enforced without the threat of any legal challenges. And anybody who opposed it would have been an ash heap. Remember ‘Joe Camel’?”

More articles

God back in North Carolina courtroom:

• Court favors petition for God | Judge must restore references to deity in his courtroom (Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.)
• N.C. judge must restore God reference | The state Supreme Court ordered a judge Tuesday to restore references to God in the words used when he enters the courtroom and when witnesses swear to tell the truth (Associated Press)
• Earlier: Judge’s Bible Ban Backfires | Complaint filed against judge who banned religious references from court (Weblog, June 24)

Abortion in the UK:

• UK’s abortion rates ‘vary widely’ | Nearly half of pregnant girls aged 15 to 17 opt to have an abortion, but the rate varies widely across the UK, a report says (BBC)
• Class pressures are decisive | Abortion rates among 15- to 17-year-olds vary dramatically around the country, with young women from socially disadvantaged areas far more likely than those in affluent parts to keep the baby, a study reveals today (The Guardian, London)
• Nearly half of pregnant teens opt for abortion | 44 percent of pregnancies among young women aged between 15 and 17 were terminated between 1999 and 2001 (The Telegraph, London)
• Pregnant teenagers live in different worlds | The affluent have an abortion. The poor have a baby (The Times, London)
• Worrying look in the womb | After more than a generation of abortion on demand, Britain has an ageing population and a queasy conscience (Editorial, The Telegraph, London)
• Mother knows best | Teenagers’ attitudes to abortion depend on the social and economic context of their lives, not abstract notions of morality (Angela Phillips, The Guardian, London)
• C4 exonerated over abortion film | Complaints against a Channel 4 abortion documentary were dismissed by the UK’s media watchdog Ofcom on Monday (BBC)
• Watchdog rejects protests over hoax TV séance | Ofcom also ruled that a Channel 4 programme which featured images of an aborted foetus did not breach broadcasting rules (The Times, London)

Abortion:

• The empty cradle will rock | How abortion is costing the Democrats voters—literally (Larry L. Eastland, The Wall Street Journal)
• Abortion foe to be reappointed to FDA panel | Four lawmakers tell Bush that doctor has ‘allowed his personal views to overshadow his duty’ (The Washington Post)
• Students hold walk to fight abortion | Protesters head to Washington (The Boston Globe)
• Curves patrons exercise their right to choose | Readers who responded after Monday’s column need to know that reports in the San Francisco Chronicle have been retracted with apologies to Curves Founder CEO Gary Heavin. He did not give millions to extreme anti-abortion groups (Susan Paynter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• A matter of choice | A simple, black metal fence separates the two factions in this city’s ongoing struggle over abortion rights (Lufkin Daily News, Tex.)

Life ethics:

• Kerry’s zealotry | Extremism in defense of science is no virtue (Eric Cohen, The Weekly Standard)
• Calif. ballot measure set to ignite stem cell research debate | Nancy Reagan’s advocacy could sway voters (The Boston Globe)
• Multiple embryo births ‘put babies at risk’ | Fertility doctors who transfer two embryos during each round of IVF treatment are unnecessarily putting mothers and babies at risk, a study suggests (The Telegraph, London)
• Ala. morning-after pill policy stirs debate | Alabama recently began requiring all of its state-funded public health clinics to hand out “morning-after pills” to women who are worried they may be pregnant and inform patients of their availability (Fox News)
• Stem-cell hard sell | After Reagan’s death, the campaign for embryo research grows even more dishonest (Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review)

Ten Commandments questioned in death row trial:

• Clemency denied for Ga. death row inmate | Georgia’s parole board denied clemency Monday for a death row inmate who argued that the prosecutor improperly suggested at trial that the Ten Commandments do not recognize insanity as a defense for murder (Associated Press)
• Georgia death row inmate seeks clemency | Lawyers for a man on death row argued Monday that his life should be spared because the prosecutor suggested at trial that the Ten Commandments do not recognize insanity as a defense for murder (Associated Press)

Catholicism & birth control:

• EU criticizes Vatican’s condom ‘bigotry’ | The European Union has condemned Catholic Church “bigotry” over the use of condoms to fight HIV (BBC)
• Catholics, condoms and Africa | By its refusal to deal with human realities, the church has muffled its own prophetic voice on Aids, and encouraged the conclusion that Christian teaching that can only be upheld at the cost of African lives does not deserve that name (Austen Ivereigh, The Guardian, London)
• Vatican birth control policy spurned | The Vatican’s conservative policies on birth control have received a blow from one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most loyal regions after opinion polls showed overwhelming support in Latin America for measures of contraception (The Guardian, London)

Political ads featuring Franklin Graham pulled:

• N.C. GOP candidate agrees to pull ads | A Republican congressional candidate agreed Tuesday to pull television ads and campaign materials showing him with evangelist Franklin Graham (Associated Press)
• No permission | Graham requests ads by Broyhill campaign be stopped (Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.)
• Earlier: Graham sets record straight about appearance in ad | Despite the way it looks, he says he is not endorsing Broyhill or any other political candidate (Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.)

Marijuana:

• Blessing marijuana for mercy’s sake | Support for permitting medical use is growing among major religious denominations (The Washington Post)
• Pot bust gets prayers from Rev. Grandpa | Graham Tchividjian, grandson of famed evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham, pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor marijuana possession in federal court in West Palm Beach (The Miami Herald)

War & terrorism:

• Thousands attend funeral for S. Korean slain in Iraq | A 33-year-old Arabic interpreter and devout Christian who dreamed of missionary work in the Arab world, Kim was killed after Seoul rejected demands to pull 670 military medics and engineers out of Iraq and drop plans to send 3,000 troops there (Reuters)
• Pope sends Iraqi interim leader message | Pope John Paul II sent to a message to Iraq (news – web sites)’s interim president Wednesday, saying he was praying that the hopes of the Iraqi people for “peace, freedom and prosperity” will soon be fulfilled (Associated Press)
• A Christian Arab-American searches for identity in the post-Sept. 11 world | I am an Arab with American citizenship, and a Christian with Arab ethnicity (Michael Sukkarieh, The Daily Star, Lebanon)

Church of England leaders blast Blair on War:

• Archbishops accuse Blair of double standards | Treatment of Iraqi prisoners ‘putting Britain’s integrity at risk’ (The Times, London)
• Archbishops condemn Iraq jail abuse | The archbishops and bishops of the Church of England have delivered a strongly-worded protest to Tony Blair over the behaviour of coalition security forces in Iraq (The Telegraph, London)
• Archbishops slam Iraq jail abuse | The archbishops of Canterbury and York have written to Tony Blair criticising coalition troops’ conduct in Iraq (BBC, video)
• Archbishops condemn Iraq jail abuse (PA. U.K.)
• Blair floored by right and left from Church | Archbishops’ letter to Prime Minister reflects widespread unease with the conduct of war (The Times, London)
• ‘Appearance of duplicity diminishes us’ | Full text of the letter (The Times, London)

Evangelicals & politics:

• The influence of the Christian Right on U.S. Middle East policy | Right-wing Christian Zionists are, at this point, more significant in the formulation of U.S. policy toward Israel than are Jewish Zionists (Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus)
• Religion and the presidency | Those among the religious who find Bush a kindred spirit are not fools who will wreck the country (Jay Ambrose)
• Aide is Bush’s eyes and ears on the right | When Karl Rove cannot make certain calls, Timothy Goeglein steps in as the official White House liaison to conservatives and Christian groups (The New York Times)
• How shall we then vote? | Evangelicals tweak the language of their political manifesto after news media reports characterize it as a call for retreat (World)
• State asks judge to dismiss prison program lawsuit | State lawyers have asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that challenges a Christian program for prison inmates and could derail President Bush’s faith-based initiative (Associated Press)
• Re-branding revolution | Are media misconceptions of evangelicals about to start working in their political favor? (Kathryn Joyce, The Revealer)

Religion & politics:

• 10 Questions for Kenneth Starr | Though he stepped down from his independent-counsel post nearly five years ago, the partisan rancor created by his investigation of President Bill Clinton has never fully subsided (Time)
• Christians have a duty to be involved politically | Our civic responsibility is to discern the best candidate and vote (Michael Eudy, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Trying for more voters | Special-interest groups are working to register people sympathetic to their causes (The Wichita Eagle, Kan.)
• Governor urges Christians to pray for peace | Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa State has again called on Christians to pray for peace and stability of the state and the country at large (This Day, Nigeria)

When the voters go marching on:

• Pickets prompt Christian pondering | Looking back on two days of public protests aimed in part at his planned sex change, city Alderman Tom Murphy said Monday that he was proud of Rapid City (Rapid City Journal, S.D.)
• Protestants show power with huge march | Hundreds of thousands of evangelical Protestants marched Saturday in South America’s largest city, illustrating their growing power in the world’s largest Roman Catholic country (Associated Press)
• Peninsula celebrates God, country at annual rally | Northwest University president Don Argue speaks (Peninsula Clarion, Alaska)

Campaigns & religion:

• A founder of modern Alabama GOP loses to Roy Moore supporter | Former Chief Justice Perry Hooper Sr. is one of the founders of the modern-day Republican Party in Alabama and has been a delegate to every Republican National Convention since 1960. But not this year (Associated Press)
• Pilgrim’s progress? | John Kerry’s dubious approach to religion (Steven Waldman, Slate)
• Religion and Politics | Discussions of religious belief and personal faith are staples of the campaign trail. Politicians talk about prayer, belief in God and the role of religion in their lives. How does personal belief influence public policy? (Talk of the Nation, NPR)

Catholicism & politics:

• The bishops vs. the Bible | Bishops have no special mandate from their office to supplant the individual conscience with some divine imperative. For them to say that abortion is a matter of theology is, simply, bad theological reasoning (Garry Wills, The New York Times)
• Documents add to abortion debate | Documents posted this week on the Web site of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provide fresh light on the struggle of the bishops to address the question of politicians who publicly identify themselves as Roman Catholics but consistently disagree with church teaching concerning abortion (Peter Steinfels, The New York Times)
• Related: Interim Reflections of the Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)
• Church and state: How gray thou art? | The archbishop says there are no gray areas regarding faith. The Catholic lawmaker says otherwise. A crisis of biblical proportions is taking shape (Kevin Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Only God can judge pro-choice politicians | When religious leaders are sure everyone else taking Communion — and giving it — is adhering to all church rules, they should bar pro-choice politicians. Until then, let God decide. His laws should reign supreme (Merlene Davis, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.)
• Bishops take a stand on Catholics in politics | Compromise may deepen, rather than abate, controversy (Editorial, The Miami Herald)
• Church pressure to push politicians risky | The sudden appearance of religious influence of all colors in the process is a dangerous trend that leads to the kind of theocratic dynamite handed out daily by radical clergy to young men and women who translate those teachings into the real thing (Dan Thomasson, Abilene Reporter-News, Tex.)

Catholicism:

• The second coming | The Bishop of Galway won’t organize the Pope’s visit this time (Henry McDonald, The Observer, London)
• Catholic Church running out of candidates for priesthood | Leaders searching for ways to find replacements in an age when young people are reluctant to make commitments (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany)
• Hail Marys not needed: Vatican mail will deliver | More letters are sent each year, per inhabitant, from the Vatican’s postcode than from anywhere else in the world (The New York Times)
• Bishop set to be honored by pope | Symbolic band notes his authority (The Boston Globe)
• Be saintly, Mahony advises Opus Dei | Cardinal celebrates his first memorial Mass for the group on the feast day of its founder (Los Angeles Times)
• Keeping God in the election | Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has called on Catholics in public life to practise what they preach (The Sun-Herald, Australia)
• Critical Mass | Swimming in a sea of relativism, Bishop Morlino holds an eternal rope (Madison Magazine, Wis.)
• Pope welcomes Orthodox leader at Vatican | Sitting side by side, Pope John Paul II and the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians made passionate appeals Tuesday for unity among their faithful, while acknowledging serious obstacles remain (Associated Press)
• Vatican pace on abuse worries O’Malley | Archbishop wants cases expedited (The Boston Globe)
• On 60th birthday, archbishop gets special honor from pope (The Boston Globe)
• Pope says sorry for crusaders’ rampage in 1204 | The Pope delivered an emotional apology to Orthodox Christians yesterday for the Catholic plundering of Constantinople eight centuries ago, saying it caused him “pain and disgust” (The Telegraph, London)
• Pope sorrow over Constantinople (BBC)
• Vatican releases WW2 letter on helping Jews | The Vatican Monday released a 1943 letter from a bishop complaining the Church was helping too many Jews — its latest move against charges it did too little to stop Nazi persecution of Jews in World War II (Reuters)

Closing Catholic churches:

• St. Alphonsus plans long-distance legacy | The tiny church built in the shape of an octagon — a design that earned it the nickname “The Church in the Round” because the altar is visible from every pew — is planning its final Mass for Aug. 29 (The Boston Globe)
• Parish: Where will the children go? | Youth Mass a highlight of church set to close (The Boston Globe)

“Celibacy” film:

• Clerical errors | A new documentary questions the Catholic Church’s views on celibacy (Slate)
• Film asks: Should these vows be kept? | A strong plea for rethinking abstinence (The Boston Globe)
• “Celibacy” sexes up debate | An intriguing – maybe even kinky – documentary-style film airing tonight is billed as a tour of the socio-religious roots of the practice of sexual abstinence (The Denver Post)
• Film attacking celibacy riles Catholic Church | A documentary linking the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. Catholic Church to mandatory celibacy among its clergy airs on HBO on Monday and has drawn fire from church officials (Reuters)

Church buildings:

• Crumbling churches, towering costs | Across eastern Germany, the decay of time is eating away at hundreds of houses of worship (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany)
• Parishioners dig deep to restore church’s glory | Gifts big and small help finance $1.2 million repair at St. Joseph in Joliet (Chicago Tribune)
• Abandoned church finds new calling | Sovereign Grace Chapel in Lakewood used to be Trinity Apostolic Church. New owners turned it into a nondenominational chapel available for weddings, baptisms and funerals (The Denver Post)

Vicar bans small donations:

• Vicar bans collection plate coins | A vicar says he will only accept notes in his collection plates during wedding ceremonies (BBC)
• Wedding joy turns to horror | Rachel Harrigan was at the hairdressers, preparing for what should have been the most exciting day of her life, when her world came crashing down around her (The Daily Telegraph, Australia)
• Holy tip: no small change | A vicar has been accused of ruining a wedding after banning coins from collections and declaring anything less than pound stg. 5 notes an insult to God (Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia)

Church life:

• In churches, a mosaic of cultures | From Congolese to Filipino to Eritrean, immigrant congregations enrich Roman Sundays (The New York Times)
• Black churches to meet | Leaders of four historically black denominations plan a joint meeting in Nashville in January, marking the first time such a gathering has taken place since they formed separate organizations decades ago (The Washington Post)
• Worshipers find the perfect spot | Week after week, many regular churchgoers return to the pew they call their own (Chicago Tribune)
• Pastor stirred but not shaken | It’s tough to keep Rev. Michael Pfleger down (Chicago Tribune)
• Remembering the ‘restoration’ | Members of the Churches of Christ, independent Christian churches, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will meet in the church building where Barton Stone once preached to mark two centuries of history and celebrate the completion of the first reference book on the movement, edited by one man from each group (Tennessean)
• Ackerman tries to keep focus on Gospel | Bishop weathers female priests, dwindling diocese (Peoria Journal Star)
• Like father, like son? Two Ed Youngs, two Texas megachurches | While their approaches differ, father and son share a passion for ministry and influence how generations of faithful worship at the Texas-sized megachurches they built from small congregations (Associated Press)
• Churches plan reconciliation | The Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji is taking the efforts of national reconciliation further with another Reihnard Bonnke-like evangelistic crusade this September (Fiji Times)
• Presbyterians’ membership drops | Louisville-based group meets this week in Virginia (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• It’s Saturday Night, and the church is hopping | With busy lives growing ever more full and Sunday no longer the customary day off, houses of worship such as the Universal Truth Center in Northwest Miami-Dade have begun experimenting with some unorthodox measures to recruit a new group of worshipers (The Miami Herald)
• Vote set on non-Christians | Ministerial group to decide if membership should be limited to those who profess allegiance to Christ (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
• Lawmakers loosen potluck dinner rules | People can keep sharing their fried chicken and green bean casserole if Illinois lawmakers get their way. The Illinois Senate voted 51-1 Monday in favor of loosening health regulations for traditional potluck dinners (Associated Press)

Church & state:

• God of our fathers | Jefferson’s spiritual beliefs were vague, but one thing is clear: he wanted to keep religion and politics separate (Time)
• The bishops and me | How I squared church and state (Joseph A. Califano Jr., The Washington Post)
• Army won’t help distribute group’s medals | Since 1995, Bob Parker has sent nearly 2,000 honorary medallions to survivors of soldiers, police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. But the Army recently told Parker that it won’t help him distribute the medals any more because they include a reference to a Bible verse (Associated Press)
• Another victory for the ACLU and its war on Christianity | Take a good look at the county seal in Los Angeles, because it’s about to change (Bill O’Reilly, Fox News)
• Atheist plans new lawsuit over phrase ‘under God’ | Undeterred by the U.S. Supreme Court throwing out his legal challenge to the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, atheist Michael Newdow said on Saturday he would file another federal lawsuit to remove the words from the pledge (Reuters)
• Date set for Commandments to go on display in Cherokee | The Cherokee County commission will put the Ten Commandments on public display Thursday, eight months after receiving a stone copy of the biblical laws from a local preacher (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

EU & Christianity:

• Is Europe’s ‘Godless constitution’ good for religion? | Government appropriations of God, whether in pledges or constitutions, are no favor to religious faith (Charles Haynes, First Amendment Center)
• The Eurobabble of the post-Christian era | A European constitution that discards its Christian heritage is discarding the one thing that could transform the superstate it has created from being simply an unwieldy union of resentful taxpayers and clamouring subsidy seekers to something rather greater than the sum of its discordant parts (Katie Grant, The Scotsman)

Muslim headscarf ban okayed:

• European Court backs ban on Muslim scarves | Banning Muslim headscarves in state schools does not violate the freedom of religion and is a valid way to counter Islamic fundamentalism, the European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday (Reuters)
• Muslim scarves oft-misunderstood signs of faith | For Lubna Hussein, wearing traditional Muslim garb is a statement of faith. But in the Western world, where the fashion of the day calls for bare midriffs, and the culture doesn’t always understand Muslim tradition, it also can be a statement of courage (Omaha World-Herald, Neb.)
• European court backs ban on Muslim scarves | Banning Muslim headscarves in state schools does not violate the freedom of religion and is a valid way to counter Islamic fundamentalism, the European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday (Reuters)
• Human rights court upholds headscarf ban | State schools which ban Muslim headscarves do not violate the freedom of religion, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled (The Independent, London)
• Court backs Turkish headscarf ban | Turkey’s government had argued that headscarves violated the secular nature of the state (BBC)

Religious freedom (U.S.):

• UCI controversy may call for a more uniform solution | At UCI this week, the debate about free speech and the 1st Amendment raged as some 30 graduating Muslim students decided last week to add a stole to their caps and gowns that bore the shahada, words that they say are a testament to, and symbol of, their Islamic faith (Editorial, Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)
• The price of free speech | Do you think campus officials were right in allowing the students to wear the symbols, citing free-speech rights? Religious leaders respond (Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)
• Christian group sues PSU over student club | University has since recognized organization (Centre Daily Times, State College, Penn.)
• Janesville City Council reverses field, OKs housing | Earlier banned Salvation Army from initiating religious activity (The Janesville Gazette, Wis.)
• Survey: Support for First Amendment up | Americans’ support for First Amendment freedoms has returned to levels not seen since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an annual survey on the subject shows (Associated Press)

Persecution:

• Venice puzzled by hammer attacks | The authorities in Venice are investigating a series of attacks on religious statues at some of the city’s most famous landmarks (BBC, video)
• Wary China cracks down on Christians | Underground Christians in China are increasingly mobilizing for political change, reportedly translating their personal faith with a fight for political justice. The Communist Party is cracking down hard on the groups, fearing that a charismatic leader might emerge to lead the group (All Things Considered, NPR)

Religious freedom in Sri Lanka:

• Catholic and Christian leaders protest against proposed anti-conversion bill | Issuing a joint statement, Catholic and Christian leaders in Sri Lanka today expressed their dissatisfaction over the anti-conversion bill that will be presented by the Freedom Alliance government shortly in parliament (ColomboPage, Sri Lanka)
• Earlier: Anti-Conversion bill to be tabled in Sri Lanka Parliament |(TamilNet)
• Sri Lanka’s Christians denounce new religious laws | Christian leaders in Sri Lanka say plans by the government to introduce a new law restricting religious conversions will violate personal freedoms and oppress minority religions (Radio Australia)

India’s anti-conversion party regroups:

• We are contemplating a Hindu political platform: VHP | Taking a swipe at BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday said that abandoning the Hindutva agenda was responsible for NDA’s electoral debacle in the Lok Sabha polls and said it was contemplating launching a Hindu political platform (PTI, India)
• BJP lost as it betrayed the Hindu cause: VHP | Blaming the BJP squarely for betraying the cause of Hindutva, Viswa Hindu Parishad working president Ashok Singhal said in Kolkata on Tuesday that an alternative political platform was necessary that would take care of the interest of the Hindus (The Times of India)

Sudan:

• Living and the dead | Famine images mean it’s already too late for thousands (Newsweek)
• Nowhere to hide | How the ethnic cleansing of western Sudan has created a humanitarian crisis that threatens 500,000 lives (Time)
• Sudanese government, rebels begin talks | Sudanese government and rebel officials have begun negotiating cease-fire details as part of a comprehensive agreement to end a 21-year war in Africa’s largest nation, the chief mediator said Monday (Associated Press)
• In Sudan, death and denial | Officials accused of concealing crisis as thousands starve (The Washington Post)
• Sudanese refugees told to stay silent on government, militia abuses | U.S., U.N. leaders expected to press for aid during visits (The Washington Post)
• Never again? | The bloodbath in Sudan (Rich Lowry, National Review Online)
• ‘Final’ Sudan peace talks begin | The Sudanese government and southern rebel group SPLA have begun a final round of peace talks aimed at ending more than 20 years of civil war (BBC)
• Sudan under pressure over Darfur | The US and the EU have expressed “grave concern” about Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region, saying the government in Khartoum must rein in Arab militias (BBC)
• Screams of Sudan’s starving refugees | It is very disturbing to be a me or a you and to see what is happening in Darfur (BBC)
• Call it genocide | Every day that Kofi Annan and the governments represented in the Security Council refuse to call the Khartoum regime’s attempt to destroy the non-Arab peoples of Darfur by its true name, more of those people perish (Editorial, The Boston Globe)
• ‘We want to make a light baby’ | Arab militiamen in Sudan said to use rape as weapon of ethnic cleansing (The Washington Post)
• General Bashir’s genocide, again | We’ve seen this before (Nina Shea, National Review Online)
• Powell tells Sudan to end its support for Darfur militias | Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, warning that thousands of people are condemned to die in the strife-torn Darfur region even with an immediate influx of aid, met Tuesday night with Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir, Sudan’s president, to deliver the blunt message that the situation has become intolerable (The Washington Post)
• Powell to press Sudan to ease the way for aid in Darfur | Secretary of State Colin L. Powell traveled to Sudan and said he would press for faster delivery of aid to the Darfur region (The New York Times)
• Powell warns Sudan to end attacks | US Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned Sudan to end attacks by Arab militia in Darfur which are accused of creating a humanitarian crisis (BBC, video)
• Eyewitnesses to atrocities along frontier of Chad and Sudan | The organization Physicians for Human Rights is calling for international intervention “to save lives and reverse injustices” on the border of Chad and Sudan (Nora Boustany, The Washington Post)

NPR series on religion and business:

• Firms turn to religion to keep workers happy | Some companies are embracing the belief that a faith-friendly workplace will create higher profits — or at least happier workers. At Atlanta-based HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., employees can take part in prayer groups or speak with corporate chaplains (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Religious initiatives make workplace hostile for some | As corporate America becomes more religious, some employees say they feel excluded or coerced into sharing in their company’s religion. Employers’ emphasis on religion can create a hostile work environment for those who consider themselves non-believers (Morning Edition, NPR)
• When faith clashes with corporate policy | For years, courts have refereed disputes over accommodating religion in the workplace. But what happens when an employee’s religious beliefs collide with the company’s secular vision? NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports in the conclusion to a three-part series on religion in the workplace (Morning Edition, NPR)

Business:

• U-M economist explores morals of the market | Rebecca Blank co-authors book in religion series (The Ann Arbor News, Mi.)
• Good book | Best known as a Bible publisher, two-century-old Thomas Nelson is branching out from its Christian roots to secular titles, ranging from gardening to business. Nelson has struck a three-cookbook deal with famed chef Wolfgang Puck, for instance (Forbes)
• It’s cool to be a Christian girl | Teen believers represent a big market, and retailers are responding with everything from T-shirts to tunes (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Minister spreads good word about Linux to nonprofits | Ordained minister Don Parris has plenty of experience spreading the good word — about Linux (SearchEnterpriseLinux.com)

Culture:

• With God on their side | Higher powers guide a new generation (Exclaim!)
• Faith inspires new JM | |Faith of Shannon Essenpreis was evident even just before she was named America’s Junior Miss 2004 on Saturday night (Mobile Register, Ala.)
• Bush notes US cultural excesses | President says adopting democratic reforms in the Mideast does not mean embracing the cultural excesses of American society (The Boston Globe)

Video games:

• Preparing to smite secular gaming crowd | Christian video games offer alternative to violence, gore (Associated Press)
• Digital Praise makes faith-based games for Mac, PC | A new Christian-themed game developer called Digital Praise Inc. has announced its first two titles, and they’re both coming to the Mac and PC: Adventures in Odyssey and the Treasure of the Incas, a mystery-style game, and Adventures in Odyssey and the Sword of the Spirit, an arcade-style adventure game (MacCentral)

Spider Man:

• Spider-Man’s balancing act resonates with religious leaders | The theme that responsibility and power are webbed together is also found in many religious and ethical traditions (The Dallas Morning News)
• A hero for our times | From the wartime heroics of Superman to the ambiguous do-gooding of Spider-Man, superheroes are part of the social critique (Jay Stone, The Ottawa Citizen)

Film:

• ‘A kid with a lot of questions’ searches for answers in his films | The latest documentary by South Florida’s Chaille Stovall — 15 years old and a veteran filmmaker — will air Sunday on HBO Family (The Miami Herald)
• Hollywood success finds Benson grad | Joel David Moore muses on his role in “Dodgeball,” making it in movies, and pleasing God (The Oregonian)
• Noah’s Ark hoaxer to save Bush | Is David Balsiger the right guy to counter Michael Moore? (Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion)

Television:

• Family friendly television group growing | Family Friendly Programming Forum can claim a real impact on the kind of shows that the major broadcast networks are airing (Associated Press)
• Trinity Broadcasting Network retains PR agency to affirm brand identity | TBN is now reaching every major continent via 43 satellites and over 10,000 television and cable affiliates worldwide. In the United States, TBN is available to 90 million broadcast, cable and satellite households, and its website receives over 25 million visitors per month (Press release)
• Media maverick | On at least two recent occasions, local TV stations have used God in their Kiswahili news bulletins to explain events (Kodi Barth, The East African Standard, Kenya)

Sports:

• For a medal, they’ll need lots of prayer | The Chinese Olympic basketball team has found a home far from home—Prestonwood Baptist Church (The Dallas Morning News)
• God-fearing Lewis bans Sunday swims | ‘Wee Frees’ threatened with human rights lawsuit (The Observer, London)
• Do nice guys finish … blessed? | Does God really care who wins or who loses? (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Conference explores links between sport and spirit | In the first conference of its kind in the United States, 50 coaches, clergy and scholars discussed the links between sport and spirit at St. Olaf College here over the weekend (Associated Press)

Art:

• Echoes of a Christian symbol | Photo reverberates with raw power of Christ on cross (W.J.T. Mitchell, Chicago Tribune)
• My local Jesus mural | Author and essayist Marcos McPeek Villatoro offers an appreciation of a religious mural in his neighborhood of Van Nuys, Calif. (Day to Day, NPR)

Books:

• When it rains, it pours | Biblical characters are fiction’s hot heroes. Now a first-time novelist takes us onto the ark with Noah (Time)
• Blithe spirits | Lloyd Rose reviews Barbara Weisberg’s Talking to the Dead (The Washington Post)
• ‘Shadowmancer’ mines the shady side of sorcery | G.P. Taylor will take the edge off your appetite if you’ve already devoured a shelf-full of books by J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman (The Oregonian)
• Christian books successful in move to mainstream market | Small sellers looking for way to protect profits from big retailers (Associated Press)
• Literary but literal | Willis Barnstone brings the eyes of a scholar and the heart of a poet to ancient religious texts (Chicago Tribune)
• Devil incarnate | Reviewing Glen Duncan’s “I, Lucifer” (Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
• Book club bullies | Fundamentalists want to intimidate into silence all those who don’t share their interpretation of a text (Giles Fraser, The Guardian, London)
• ECPA announces Gold Medallion Winners at its 27th anniversary banquet | Full list of book awards (Press release, ECPA)

Health:

• Spirituality taking root in health care settings | While critics say it’s an attempt to promote religion in a setting where it doesn’t belong, supporters contend that spiritual care can be helpful if it is used the right way (Associated Press)
• Diets of milk and honey | New wave of diets offer faith-based advice (The Daily Camera, Boulder, Co.)

Abuse:

• Nun settles sexual abuse allegations | A woman who was abused by a Catholic nun 50 years ago at a boarding school will receive about $120,000 in a settlement, as well as an apology from the nun (Associated Press)
• Victims of sex abuse leaflet churches | Forty-six-year-old Carlos Lopez has talked about the clergy sex abuse scandal countless times with other lifelong Catholics. But before Sunday, he had never discussed the controversy with an abuse victim (Los Angeles Times)
• Foster parents charged with abuse, neglect | A little more than a year after Tom and Debbie Schmitz were profiled in heartwarming news stories as religious, caring foster parents, 18 children have been removed from their home amid charges of abuse and neglect (Associated Press)
• Samoa considers deporting priests | Samoan authorities will decide within 48 hours whether to deport two more Salesian priests to Australia following the deportation last week of convicted pedophile Father Frank Klep (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
• Church leader: Abuse case being used to attack her | The leader of the Remnant Fellowship Church says her critics and police are using a child abuse investigation into an 8-year-old’s death to bring down her ministry (Associated Press)

Crime:

• Chicago priest foils theft, tackles suspect | Recalling his 20 years playing rugby, a Little Village priest Wednesday chased down a man who allegedly tried to rob the church’s donation box and held him until police arrived (Chicago Tribune)
• Also: Priest beats up would-be robbers | A tough Chicago priest foiled two would-be robbers who tried to steal money from the church collection box, keeping one of them in a headlock until the cops came (Fox News)
• Murders haunt killer’s pastor | Anniversary of children’s murders stirs sadness, anger at church (Eagle-Tribune, Lawrence, Mass.)
• Priest faces multiple-murder raps | A Roman Catholic priest in a southern Philippine diocese has reportedly been slapped with charges of multiple murder in connection with the death of four people last month (Today, ABS-CBN, Philippines)
• Paroled killer lives to serve | ‘God had mercy on me,’ ex-inmate Charlie Young says (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Focus on Family finds Son of Sam | It’s a shame that David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz couldn’t find Jesus before a dog ordered him to murder six people in cold blood three decades ago (David Harsanyi, Denver Post)
• Mormon official arrested | The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Butte Stake, was arrested this week in Boise after allegedly soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet (The Montana Standard)
• Amish brothers who fled are arrested | When leaders in southwestern Wisconsin’s Amish community heard allegations months ago about the sexual assaults, they had their own way of handling things (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Christian school accuse of voucher fraud:

• Florida school accused of voucher fraud | Faith Christian Academy took state voucher money for 23 disabled children who did not attend classes, leading to the arrest of seven people, including the school’s director and five of her relatives, authorities said Tuesday (Associated Press)
• Christian school accused in $200K scam | State officials sent more than $200,000 in education vouchers and federal lunch reimbursement checks to a sham Christian day school headed by a “principal” with three bad check arrests and a series of civil suits, according to a criminal complaint filed by the State Attorney’s Office (The News Chief, Winter Haven, Fla.)

Education:

• State high court nullifies vouchers | The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the state’s voucher program unconstitutionally strips school boards of local control (The Denver Post)
• Colo. court rules against school vouchers | The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state’s school voucher program is unconstitutional because it strips local school boards of control over education (Associated Press)
• The wrong choice for Colorado | A Republican torpedoes school choice (Stephen Spruiell, National Review Online)
• School expels student for refusing prayer service | A Christian high school in Seoul is under fire for allegedly forcing a non-Christian student to move to another school due to his refusal to attend religious services (The Korea Times)
• Also: Student wages one-man protest in Seoul | A South Korean Christian high school student has been staging a demonstration since June 16 against a school rule requiring him to attend religious services (UPI)
• Resurgence of campus cults | The resurgence of secret cult activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions has again brought to the fore the authorities’ inability to tame the monster (Editorial, Daily Times, Nigeria)

Higher education:

• Bethel College & Seminary to Become Bethel University | Although there are no official criteria for becoming a “university,” the term reflects more accurately what Bethel has already become: an academically rich, internationally known institution (Press release)
• Ave Maria College receives censure | Education Dept. orders it to repay financial aid (The Ann Arbor News, Mi.)
• Ave Maria College officials make no plans to stay open beyond 2007 | Ave Maria College officials haven’t wavered from their decision to close the Michigan campus in 2007, despite dissent from faculty and parents who want the school to remain open (Naples Daily News, Fla.)
• The contradictions of cultural conservatism in the assault on American colleges | I have little doubt that, beneath the pious avowals by conservatives of David Horowitz’s ilk that they are concerned to preserve academic freedom for liberals and conservatives alike, lies the cynical intent to unleash the most ignorant forces of the right in hounding liberal academics to death (Donald Lazere, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Missions & ministry:

• Churches are often forced to cope with disaster | Congregations find their way into violent headlines with alarming frequency (The Dallas Morning News)
• In search of the Lord and a match | Christian singles flock to D.C. ball to share faith, meet new faces (The Washington Post)
• A pastor with a drive to convert | McLean sanctuary opens with grander plans (The Washington Post)
• Menu of Christian cafe includes pastry, poetry | Four years after Reality Tuesday Cafe was born out of a Bible study group Bill and Traci Gregg hosted in their home, the Greggs’ coffeehouse has become a neighborhood center for family values (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Mennonite pair concerned with Somalia plight | Somalia hasn’t weighed on American minds for more than a decade, but after seven years of helping the Somali people, a pair of missionaries from Schaumburg say there is reason to keep abreast of the situation in Somalia (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
• Church-based credit unions help members | Around the country, about 500 church-associated credit unions with a combined $2.9 billion in deposits make loans and teach financial literacy to members, some of whom might otherwise use predatory payday lenders or pawn shops to get by (Associated Press)

Charities:

• Bill in offing to clamp down on NGOs, churches | The Bill proposes a code of conduct for all churches involved in humanitarian aid. The monitoring of NGOs, especially those involved in food aid, “will ensure they do not mix humanitarian work with politics” (Zimbabwe Independent)
• Institute formed to certify charities | Group to set standards, accredit U.S. nonprofits; Md. organization expands (The Baltimore Sun)

Homosexuality:

• Lesbians seek country club privileges | Couple hopes the California Supreme Court will rule that the state’s civil rights laws require the club to offer state-registered domestic partners the same benefits afforded to spouses (Associated Press)
• Revealed: how the police encouraged lesbian love | Lesbianism in the armed forces and the police in the 1940s and 1950s was tacitly encouraged by the authorities because it was regarded as preferable to seeing trained women become pregnant and leave the job (The Observer, London)
• Gays divided over support for Kerry | Activism and protest eyed for convention (The Boston Globe)
• City council affirms domestic partner benefits | The New York City Council voted to require that companies doing business with the city offer equal benefits to the domestic partners of their employees (The New York Times)
• Rape new weapon against South African lesbians | Keba Sebetoane’s distress is evident as she describes her rape by a man she had considered a friend simply because, as a lesbian, she challenged traditional sexual roles (Reuters)

Homosexuality & Presbyterians:

• Presbyterians to wrangle over gay clergy | The 2.4 million-member church’s weeklong national legislative assembly begins Saturday in Richmond, Va., where liberals will take up new attacks against the church’s strict law barring actively gay clergy and lay officers (Associated Press)
• Peace activist to lead Presbyterians | A peace activist who supports the inclusion of gays in the ministry was elected to lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) for the next two years (Associated Press)
• ‘Interpretation’ on gay ordination challenged | Panel will ask Assembly to declare ’78 ruling no longer binding (Presbyterian News Service)
• Committee recommends overturning authoritative interpretations, but leaves ‘fidelity and chastity’ intact | It would not remove the constitutional provision that church officers be faithful in heterosexual marriage or chaste in singleness — thus not officially opening ordination to sexually active homosexuals — but an Assembly committee late Tuesday afternoon approved a recommendation that the PC(USA) no longer use two 1970s authoritative statements to back up that law (The Presbyterian Outlook)
• Committee won’t endorse Declaration on Marriage, doesn’t want to affiliate with Catholics, Baptists | During the committee’s debate on the overture, the main objections to the Declaration of Marriage seemed to be who else had endorsed it—namely Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics, and that the document was not Reformed (The Layman)
• Committee wants General Assembly to nullify Authoritative Interpretation behind ordination law (The Layman)
• Presbyterians closer to ordination of gays | Panel recommends church strike down one of two barriers (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
• Presbyterian parley split | Debates over whether the nation’s most liberal Presbyterian denomination should evangelize Jews and ordain homosexuals, plus a last-minute accusation against the outgoing church moderator, are the major issues this week at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly (The Washington Times)
• Presbyterian panel okays gays’ ordination | The proposal will go before the national legislative assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for a full vote later this week (Associated Press)

More news from Presbyterian Church (USA) Assembly:

• Support for Messianic congregation affirmed | But debate over Jewish-Presbyterian relations continues (The Presbyterian Outlook)
• Panel urges mission initiative in Iraq | Condemns U.S. torture of prisoners ‘in strongest possible terms’ (Presbyterian News Service)

Homosexuality & religion:

• Methodists and marriage | A mainline denomination holds out against same-sex unions (Mark D. Tooley, The Weekly Standard)
• Gays, preachers collide at Pride | Under the brindled sky, street preachers yelled and dozens of Pride attendees stopped to argue, wave a middle finger or make out in protest at the main entrance to the park at Piedmont and 14th Street (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• United to smite homosexuality | A Raleigh church is devoted to an anti-gay mission, but some question congregants’ tactics (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)

Episcopal gay bishop fallout:

• N.H. church splits over gay bishop | Hymns were raised to the heavens from two parts of town Sunday after a church split apart over the election of the first openly gay bishop to head an Episcopal diocese (Associated Press)
• Split on gay bishop, parish seeks healing | Unable to bridge the differences among its members over the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church USA, Church of the Redeemer split in two last week and left this working-class city of 29,000 on New Hampshire’s seacoast straddling a global religious divide (The Boston Globe)
• Episcopalians find clergy, Wolf at odds | The diocese seeks reconciliation after a consultant finds “tensions” between the bishop and many priests and deacons (The Providence Journal, R.I.)

Federal Marriage Amendment:

• Bishop backs amendment on gay marriage ban | The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops on Friday endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. He urged all Roman Catholics to lobby for its passage (Associated Press)
• A gay-marriage dance | Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to call a vote the week of July 12 on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The measure is almost certain to fail (Time)
• Mayors set aside opposing gay-marriage ban | A deeply divided gathering of the nation’s mayors could not reach consensus Monday on a proposed resolution opposing a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage (Associated Press)
• Nebraska senators react to ad opposing gay marriage | Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson, the U.S. senators from Nebraska, are taking issue with a half-page ad run in the state’s largest newspaper calling for them to support a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (Advocate)
• Gay marriage places church and state in historic clash | Many senators prefer to delay voting rather than make their position public before the November election. But advocates for the amendment predict that November may be too late, that if President George W. Bush loses re-election, the amendment will be dead and marriage as we know it will be history (Kathleen Parker, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.)

Same-sex marriage:

• More than a ‘lifestyle choice’ | The public campaign for legal recognition of same-sex unions may try to tug at America’s heartstrings. But as every dad tells his daughter, you don’t accept a marriage proposal on feelings alone (Jennifer Marshall, The Washington Times)
• Gay ‘marriage’ seen as latest antifamily decision | Allowing homosexual “marriage” is just the latest in a long line of public-policy decisions that have undermined traditional family values, said James Dobson, a psychologist and longtime commentator on issues facing families (The Washington Times)
• Defying the elites, Romney stands tall | Whatever else might be said about same-sex marriage, elites in Massachusetts have clearly accepted it (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe)
• Same-sex marriages test shaky family ties | Unresolved issues between siblings arise at weddings (The Boston Globe)
• Massachusetts court upheld | A federal appeals court yesterday rejected arguments that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court usurped power from other branches of government when it ruled that homosexual couples must be allowed to “marry” in that state (The Washington Times)
• New ban on gay unions to begin | A ban on civil unions will become law in Virginia tomorrow, and homosexual- rights activists are planning statewide protests as well as a legal challenge (The Washington Times)
• Bid to stop Mass. gay marriages rejected | The plaintiffs had argued that Massachusetts’ high court usurped the power of the Legislature — and thereby violated the U.S. Constitution — when it ruled last year that gay couples are entitled to wed (Associated Press)
• Gay marriage bans simply acts of bias | The seduction of people of color into the anti-gay-marriage assault is a covert act of racism (Robert C. Fyrst, The Capital Times, Madison, Wis.)

Marriage & family:

• Till death do us part, or whatever | Historically most marriages – for better or for worse – ended in death. Not any more (The New York Times)
• Church ‘Protect Marriage’ Day is urged | Groups backing amendment seek focus on Sunday before senate vote (The Washington Post)
• Helping young single mothers — and the babies they’ll raise | Through counseling and training, Black Infant Health Program battles some sobering trends (Los Angeles Times)
• Dutch decline | Losing interest in matrimony (Joshua Livestro, National Review Online)
• Split decision | In a time when divorce has become a common experience, when research has shown that amicable break-ups are best for children, more people are marking divorce with ceremonies, albeit often nonreligious, to represent their sorrow at the past and hope for the future (Newark Star-Ledger, N.J.)

Sexual ethics:

• Beyond ‘ABC’: Helping women fight AIDS | It’s time to design programs targeted to the risks that women and girls face in a world of AIDS (Janet Fleischman, The Washington Post)
• Cleric flays homosexuality in the church | Ify S Okupevi also critical of Iraq War (This Day, Nigeria)
• When those Puritans weren’t so very pure | By the dawn of the Revolutionary era, according to Edmund S. Morgan’s The Genuine Article, on average some 30 to 40 percent of New England brides were “with child” on the day they wed (San Francisco Chronicle)

Abstinence:

• ‘Life without sex is hard but you can do it. I’m living proof,’ says John, aged 14 | Silver Ring Thing “seems a bit like a cult” (The Telegraph, London)
• No sex, please: we’re British (teenagers). It’s a Silver Ring Thing | The Silver Ring Thing has arrived in the UK, with a six-date roadshow which kicked off last night at the Holy Trinity Church in Claygate (The Independent, London)
• How effective are abstinence pledges? | A US pastor supported by a clutch of young virgins is in the UK to promote the Silver Ring Thing. Can the “just say no” message cut rates of teen pregnancy and STDs? (BBC)
• Young, free, and infectious | Rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising alarmingly; overworked clinics are turning patients away; and still young people aren’t getting the message about unprotected sex (The Guardian, London)
• Pledge of chastity that puts our young people at risk | I used to be part of the abstinence movement (Melanie Reid, The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland)
• Virgins deliver celibacy message | Thirty virgins from the American Silver Ring Thing will urge young Scots to abstain from sex before marriage (BBC)
• Even better than sex? | What hope for The Silver Ring Thing? (Scotland on Sunday)
• Group preaches no-sex message | There was an exchange of rings and solemn vows, but in every other way the ceremony held at Partick South Parish Church last night was unlike any other you could expect to see there (The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland)

More articles:

• D.C. slots proponents win ruling | Judge allows petition drive to put issue on November ballot (The Washington Post)
• Can a bigot be a good person? | He pursued me, but then rejected me because my religion was “wrong” (Cary Tennis, Salon.com)
• Pelican has ancient ties to Christianity | The mystery of the pelicans at North Dakota’s Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge might have caused a crisis of faith (Mike Jacobs, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.)
• When faith and duty collide | As someone who believes Jesus Christ can be seen even in the grimy faces of those living in the city’s shadows and crawl spaces, Police Officer Eduardo Delacruz says he obeyed a higher authority when he refused to arrest a homeless man in November 2002. On the beat, however, the police commissioner trumps the Almighty, as Officer Delacruz learned when he was suspended for his action (The New York Times)
• 25 years later, fear and loathing give way to acceptance | When the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church followers arrived in Gloucester more than 25 years ago and started purchasing real estate, some city officials and residents thought that the city was going to be taken over by the church (The Boston Globe)
• Pilgrims flock to ‘healing’ well | About 1,000 pilgrims are expected at a Christian shrine in north Wales which has been attracting visitors since the 7th Century (BBC)
• Church garden honors family pets | St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church offers a special area for families to sprinkle a pet’s ashes (The Dallas Morning News)
• Ministry gives teens mentors and support | One Sunday at worship services at Central Dallas Ministries, J.R. Newton noticed the teen girls wearing revealing clothes. She realized that likely no one had ever taught them any differently (The Dallas Morning News)
• Fundamentalism: Be indignant at righteousness | The core ideals of most of the world’s great religions are very similar — forgiveness, compassion and love. But as wonderful as those principles are, when you start introducing the human element, they begin their drift away from universal truths towards righteousness, judgment and negativity (Jamie Turner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Compass’s main source was quoted by Nigerian newspapers, but their articles do not include most of the staggering figures. However, on at least one figure, the Nigerian media’s numbers are higher than those of Compass. The Daily Times of Nigeria says that at least 60,000 people were displaced by the violence; Compass puts the number at “about 50,000.” Still, Weblog hasn’t found any media references to 1,500 Christian deaths. Any help from readers who monitor Nigeria?

In any case, while The Daily Times hopefully wrote, “60,000 displaced as Plateau clashes end,” violence continues. Accusing a Christian youth (“suspected to be insane,” says the Vanguard newspaper of Lagos) of desecrating a copy of the Qur’an, a Muslim mob on Saturday went on a fresh rampage. They destroyed 10 churches.

Sam Kujiyat, vice chairman of the Kaduna branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Reuters that “foreign-funded Islamic extremism” was behind the attack. “We want to alert both the federal and state government that terrorists, hiding under religion, have invaded Kaduna state,” he said at a press briefing. “Unless something urgent is done to identify and fish them out, what is happening in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Spain may be lurking around the corner.”

“There is nothing to worry about,” Kaduna State Commissioner of Police Muhammed Yesufu told Vanguard. “No life was lost.”

Right. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

More articles

More religious violence:

• Iraqi Christians fear Muslim wrath | Some Iraqi Chaldean Christians say they fear that militants will attack churches in Baghdad on Easter Sunday (The Washington Times)
• Treasured churches in a cycle of revenge | “Kishe kaput; very good,” said the smiling boy, using an incongruous mix of Albanian, German and English to describe the remains of St. Nicholas, Pristina’s only working Serbian Orthodox church. Next to him the four walls of the church were smoldering (The New York Times)
• You’re joking if you think this is satire | One can be pro-war or anti-war, but the notion that the fundamentalism that’s threatening the world is Bush-Blair Christianity is so far off the mark as to be pathological (Mark Steyn, The Telegraph, London)
• Monks’ murders cast shadow over Algeria election | A 1996 massacre by an Islamic terrorist group has become a taboo subject (The Telegraph, London)
• Priest ‘in coma’ after NATO raid | A Serbian Orthodox priest and his son, injured in a Nato hunt for war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, were reported to be in a coma on Friday (BBC)

Genocide:

• Remember Rwanda, but take action in Sudan | The genocide in Sudan is getting the same treatment that Rwanda’s did 10 years ago: inaction. (Samantha Power, The New York Times)
• Remember the blood frenzy of Rwanda | Genocide prevention must become a foreign policy priority to avoid a repetition of those hideous crimes (Samantha Power, Los Angeles Times)
• As genocide occurs, we sit on our hands | Once again, we have found an opportunity to practice hypocrisy, and we have wholeheartedly embraced (Frida Ghitis, The Miami Herald)
• Since ’94 horror, Rwandans turn toward Islam | When 800,000 of their Tutsi countrymen were killed 10 years ago, many Rwandans lost faith not only in their government but in their religion as well (The New York Times)
• Rwanda: peace but no reconciliation | Tolerance between mistrustful neighbours reflects not a miracle of forgiveness but the will of an authoritarian regime (The Guardian, London)

Religious anti-violence:

• Detroit holds anti-violence prayer session | The city held a day of prayer Monday in response to a wave of violence that has killed more than 100 people this year, with the mayor asking “the greatest power we all know” to help end the bloodshed (Associated Press)
• Looking for strength | Faced with a deadly rash of violence, Detroit officers join in day of prayer (Detroit Free Press)

Crime:

• Minister injured church robbery in Japan | Three masked burglars broke into a Christian church in Osaka, Japan, this weekend, injured a minister with acid, but left empty-handed (UPI)
• Also: Devilish bandits attack Christian churches | Masked bandits raided and robbed two Christian churches in Osaka Prefecture on the weekend, leaving a reverend injured after they hurled acid onto his face, police said (Mainichi Daily News, Japan)
• Vandals damage churches and school in south St. Louis | Vandals broke altar candles, smashed computer monitors and set several small fires in a pre-dawn rampage Tuesday through a Catholic parish, a Lutheran church and school and a community center in far south St. Louis (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Priest gets probation in drug scandal | Return to priesthood unlikely, lawyer says (Akron Beacon Journal, Oh.)
• Also: Ohio priest gets probation for growing pot | Richard Arko said it’s unlikely he will be able to continue as a priest, but hopes he can “move on in my life and continue to serve others” (Associated Press)
• Calif. man held liable for killing unborn victim | A man who killed a pregnant woman is liable for the murder of an unborn victim even if he did not know she was pregnant, California’s top court ruled on Monday (Reuters)
• Worshippers pray for Texas mother, family | At the church where Deanna Laney once ministered to youth, sang in the choir and spoke in tongues, worshippers Sunday prayed for her and her family a day after she was acquitted by reason of insanity of bludgeoning two of her young sons to death (Associated Press)
• Teen charged in church robberies identified | Linked to credit card taken in attack, police say (Houston Chronicle)
• Pair cleared of killing Australian missionary in Solomon Islands | Solomons High Court Justice John Brown said although the evidence established that West Australian Lance Gersbach was murdered, it did not successfully establish who was responsible (New Zealand Herald)
• Missionary killer Dara Singh to contest election | Prisoners in Indian jails can contest polls but cannot exercise their franchise (Indo-Asian News Service)
• Pope’s security tight for Easter | Security around Pope John Paul II has been tightened in the run-up to Easter amid fears he could become a terrorists target (AFP)

Minister suicide:

• Minister lets teen go, then kills self | An associate minister apparently despondent over the breakup of his marriage held his teen-age stepdaughter hostage Sunday night, then later shot himself in the head after releasing the girl unharmed, police said (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)
• Man kills self after standoff | He set fire to FW home after releasing ex-wife’s teenage daughter (The Dallas Morning News)
• FW woman: Ex-husband told her ‘it’s never over’ before standoff (WFAA, Dallas)

Abuse:

• Snag in Atlanta church reforms | Women who held posts key to compliance say their criticism got them the ax (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Church said to settle with 4 in Shanley suit | Four alleged sexual abuse victims of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, a priest at the center of the national scandal in the Catholic church, reached financial settlements with the Boston Archdiocese Sunday for an undisclosed amount, their attorneys said yesterday (The Boston Globe)
• 4 men settle with Boston archdiocese | Lawyer says one to get record payment (The Washington Post)
• Former Orange County priest gets 6-month sentence for molestation | Ex-cleric, who spent 17 years in local diocese, admitted to groping teen while in her family’s car (Los Angeles Times)
• Victims oppose release of Porter | Testimony is heard in state bid to keep ex-priest locked up (The Boston Globe)
• Deal claim disputed in Lutheran sex case | As a jury was picked Monday, a dispute arose outside the courtroom over whether a settlement had been reached with two of the three major defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by 14 victims of a former Lutheran pastor (San Antonio Express-News, Tex.)
• Lutheran officials under fire | Jurors took less than 15 minutes last year to convict former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. of sexually assaulting boys, then sentenced him to 397 years behind bars. Now the question is whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its agencies should have done more to stop him (Associated Press)
• Selection of jury starts in Lutheran sexual abuse case | Jury selection began Monday in a civil case involving 14 victims of a Lutheran pastor who allege Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agencies gave a known molester what amounted to a license to prey on young boys (Associated Press)
• Abuse counselors reach out to Arab women | The goal is to aid victims by providing therapists who speak Arabic and people who understand a culture in which the family’s honor depends on the chastity of the women and sexual crime is spoken of in whispers, if at all (Chicago Tribune)

Louisville Courier-Journal series on dwindling churches:

• Empty pulpits | A special section (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Ranks of pastors dwindling | Many Protestant churches are struggling to find and keep pastors … The number of clergy under age 35 has dropped … Smaller churches are turning to lay pastors and other new models of leadership (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• The changing face of the clergy | Today, the average ordination age for an Episcopal priest is 44, with an influx of midlife career changers entering the ministry (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• New focus put on recruiting, retention (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Role of spouses reshaped | As dual-income families become more common in society, the role of the pastor’s spouse has been changing as well (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Catholics turn more to lay ministry | A critical shortage of priests leads parishes to find other resources, but they’re only a partial answer (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)

Religion and politics:

• Not liberal and not conservative, just Christian | The Church is stupid and morally slack if we ever let ourselves get co-opted by liberals or conservatives. We have our own story to tell. (James C. Howell, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Apocalyptic president? | How the left’s fear of a right-wing Christian conspiracy gets George W. Bush—and today’s evangelical Christians—all wrong (Alan Jacobs, The Boston Globe)
• Study gauges 9/11 effect on U.S. Muslims | Interest in religion, politics deepens (Chicago Tribune)
• Who knows hearts, minds of voters? | Who are you? It’s a question worth asking in a week that saw the Legislature give the first of two required approvals to a “compromise” constitutional amendment that would establish civil unions for gays but ban them from marrying (Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe)
• ACDP: DA policy not Christian | The African Christian Democratic Party has accused the Democratic Alliance of pushing policies that are “not in line with Christian principles”, or at least those espoused by the ACDP (News24, South Africa)
• Ryan: ‘I’m better if I’m in a church’ | Every day, at some point, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Jack Ryan can be found in one of the back pews of a church, praying (Chicago Sun-Times)
• ‘I have a deep faith’ | Senate candidate Barack Obama doesn’t believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he’s not sure if he’ll be going to heaven, either (Chicago Sun-Times)
• ‘We’re sent here to help others’ | Sen. Dick Durbin, 59, is not a pious man. While he’s been a Roman Catholic all his life, he’s doesn’t express himself in religious language with any ease. It’s not his way (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Rival ministers group counters Nagin opponents | Clergy should fight killings, they say (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
• The Democrats’ new ally in Alabama | Say it loud and say it proud: Roy Moore for president (Diane Roberts, St. Petersburg Times, Ala.)
• Columnist, News off on a tour de farce | Sometimes Mike Littwin exhibits his sparkling talent for prose. Other times, he just spills a mean streak, as in “Politicos tuned into far right issues” March 20, 2004 (Shawn Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News, Co.)
• Hispanics’ varying views yield surprises | A poll commissioned by The Herald shows that Hispanic Americans differ widely on views and values and are not a monolithic target for political parties (The Miami Herald)

John Kerry and the Roman Catholic Church:

• Catholic Church ‘will refuse Kerry Communion’ | Senior traditionalists in the Catholic Church are backing a campaign over the Democrat’s stance on abortion (The Telegraph, London)
• On the mend, Kerry goes to church in Boston | Kerry did not speak to the congregation at Charles Street AME Church, but the Rev. Gregory G. Groover recognized him from the pulpit as “the next president of the United States” (Associated Press)
• Thou shalt not flub thy photo op, Sen. Kerry | Photo ops are the saving grace of many political campaigns, but Bay State Sen. John F. Kerry gaffed one recent opportunity – flouting Catholic doctrine by taking communion at a non-Catholic church (David R. Guarino, Boston Herald)
• Politics cloud Kerry’s Easter plans | If the Roman Catholic senator sticks to his home Boston Archdiocese, he faces the implied threat from Archbishop Sean O’Malley of being refused Communion (The Washington Times)
• Blame the bishops | If they can’t tell the difference between Catholic and Protestant communion, why shouldn’t Kerry flout canon law? (George Neumayr, The American Spectator)
• Kerry’s communion controversy | It is unclear where Sen. John Kerry will take communion this Easter Sunday, amid questions of how enthusiastically Catholic leadership will respond to the pro-choice Democratic nominee (CBS News)
• Kerry invokes God | Kerry’s brave move to sink to Bush’s level may still backfire (Marina Hyde, The Guardian, London)
• Kerry dismisses critics of time that he took off campaigning | Kerry became combative when told that some conservatives were criticizing him for being a Roman Catholic who supported policies, like abortion rights and same-sex unions, that are at odds with Catholic teaching (The New York Times)
• Holy, holy fisking | John Kerry’s errant preaching (Scott Belliveau, National Review Online)
• Begging for rebuke | John Kerry’s dubious Catholicism (Carson Holloway, National Review Online)

Church and state:

• Government-sponsored theology | So it would seem, thanks to a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (Francis J. Beckwith, The American Spectator)
• Cincinnati can’t block religious displays at downtown plaza | 6th Circuit affirms lower court decision allowing Jewish group to display large, lighted menorah during Hanukkah (Associated Press)
• Pledge pleadings | If we are not “one nation under God,” what are we? (Tom Bray, The Washington Times)
• Reference to Christianity gaining support, says Poland | According to Jan Truszczynski, Polish deputy minister for foreign affairs, around 10 countries from the future 25, support a reference to Christian values and tradition in the preamble of the Constitution (EU Observer)
• Monument parts congregations | Duluth’s faith community is at odds over the City Hall Ten Commandments monument as some residents feel extreme views have dominated the issue (Duluth News Tribune, Minn.)
• City accepts ‘peace pole’ | Huntington Beach rejects concerns that gift would violate separation of church and state (Los Angeles Times)

Church and state ruling in Japan:

• Japan PM’s shrine visit illegal | Government officials have argued that Mr Koizumi’s visits were made as a private citizen and therefore did not breach the constitutional separation of church and state (BBC)
• Koizumi shrine visit said unconstitutional | Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi violated the constitution when he visited a religious shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, a court ruled Wednesday, but the Japanese leader vowed to keep going (Associated Press)
• Koizumi vows to continue visits to war shrine in face of court ruling (AFP)

Abortion:

• Abortion doctors wary of new law | Some say wording taxes their nerves (The Boston Globe)
• California city must allow antiabortion signs | Federal judge issues preliminary injunction, saying protesters have First Amendment right to place large, stationary signs on sidewalk outside Riverside clinic (Associated Press)
• Doctor: Fetuses feel pain after 20 weeks | type of abortion banned under a new federal law would cause “severe and excruciating” pain to 20-week-old fetuses, a medical expert on pain testified Tuesday (Associated Press)
• Unsafe abortions’ toll | Abortion is legal in at least some circumstances in every country in the world but two: Chile and El Salvador. And yet 70,000 women die of unsafe abortions every year, according to the World Health Organization (Editorial, The Boston Globe)
• Feds open defense in abortion lawsuit | The U.S. government began defending a federal ban on a certain type of abortion by calling doctors who testified that the procedure has not been studied enough to determine whether it is safe or medically justified (Associated Press)
• Judge quizzes doctor on abortion details | A doctor testifying at a trial to decide if a new abortion law is constitutional said abortion procedures in the United States are so safe that a woman faces more danger continuing a pregnancy than ending it (Associated Press)
• The abortion question | Portugal offers sobering lessons for Americans who, like President Bush, aim to overturn Roe v. Wade (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times)

Abortion in the U.K.:

• My abortion and my baby | Julia Black had a termination at 21, and never questioned her pro-choice beliefs … until she fell pregnant at 34. In this frank dispatch from both sides of the debate, she asks if it is possible to disentangle facts from emotions (The Observer, London)
• Is this what we meant by women’s right to choose? | Women should have the right to choose, but it ought to be an informed choice, and too often it is not. The easy provision of abortion, like the provision of condoms to teenagers, with the underlying message that there is no great issue at stake here, anything goes, is wrong (Alice Miles, The Times, London)
• Yes, I am pro-abortion | We don’t need more sympathy or understanding – we need to be tougher-minded and more rigorous, both on ourselves, and with each other (Zoe Williams, The Guardian, London)
• Channel 4 to screen graphic film of abortion | Program to show banned images of dead fetuses (The Observer, London)
• Too many abortions | We have not seen the film, but we welcome it on the grounds that it is likely to highlight something that should now be evident to all shades of opinion in this debate: there are too many abortions in this country (Editorial, The Telegraph, London)

Life ethics:

• It’s life, but not as God planned it | Attempts to create synthetic life in a laboratory are no longer science fiction (The Guardian, London)
• Boost for banks of stem cells | Many hospitals in Massachusetts and other states have been neglecting an easily accessible source of stem cells with minimal ethical issues—umbilical cords of newborn babies—which have already proven their therapeutic value (Robert Pozen and Robert Langer, The Boston Globe)
• Calif. court rules on fetal-murder law | The state Supreme Court strengthened California’s fetal-murder law Monday, declaring that the killing of a pregnant woman counts as two homicides even if the perpetrator was unaware the victim was pregnant (Associated Press)
• States are wrestling with stem-cell issues | Legislators debate whether to fund, prohibit research (Chicago Tribune)

Holy Week:

• Passover, Easter mark week | Messianic Jews will celebrate both holidays (Arizona Daily Star)
• Missionaries will find pain precedes unity | During this Holy Week and beyond, expect more death (Ruth Ann Dailey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Christians spread unity message | As Easter approaches Sunday, believers ranging from Methodists to Episcopalians will gather all week as part of the Jackson Area Ministerial Association’s inter-denominational observance of one of the holiest weeks in Christianity (Jackson Sun, Tenn.)
• Palm Sunday parade saved by aptly named stand-in | For the second consecutive year, congregants from cathedrals and storefront churches of the South Bronx gathered in McKinley Square to hand out palm fronds and parade through the neighborhood, re-enacting the biblical passage in which Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem and is met by throngs of followers bearing palms (The New York Times)
• City pastor shares a vision of gospels | “Jesus in the City” is the Rev. Chris Emerson’s kinder, gentler take on Christ’s Passion. No blood, no gore, no live animals. No one gets beaten with a strap, nailed to a cross, crucified or buried (The Union Leader, Manchester, N.H.)
• Events mark holiest of weeks | Week between Palm Sunday and Easter full of local services and events (The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.)
• Worshipping as one | Though hundreds of parishioners walked in a long line down Third Street in Geneva Sunday morning, they worshipped as one (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
• Call to pilgrimage | Egan urges unity on Palm Sunday (New York Daily News)
• The true meaning of Lent |There is an inextricable link between suffering and transfiguration (Rob Marshall, The Guardian, London)

Maundy Thursday:

• Bishop refuses to throw in the towels | A bishop says he will ignore health concerns among cathedral officials and use the same towel to wash the feet of 12 worshippers in the traditional Maundy Thursday ritual (The Telegraph, London)
• Women excluded from Atlanta foot washing | In a letter to the archdiocese’s priests, Archbishop John Donoghue said only 12 men at each parish should be selected for the ritual, which represents Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper (Associated Press)
• Foot-washing edict divides local Catholics | Priests, parishioners and theologians said they were puzzled and angry over the decision to exclude women and children (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Catholics to protest exclusion | Women can’t officially have their feet washed at Holy Thursday services in Roman Catholic churches in Atlanta, but several plan to air their voices at a protest instead (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Easter:

• Bugs Bunny and the meaning of Easter | Every Easter morning, at first light, my mother would wake up the kids and commence the difficult task of getting us ready for church (David Silva, News-Press, Glendale, Ca.)
• Resident offended by dumb blonde Christian joke | Elizabeth Cook was not amused last week by a dumb blonde joke about the meaning of Easter that she found in a senior citizen’s newsletter at the local library (The Providence Journal, R.I.)

Passover:

• Parents are using ingenuity to bring seders alive for the young | On the table on Monday and Tuesday nights at the home of Nathaniel Sasson, along with the seder plate filled with traditional foods symbolizing aspects of the Exodus, will be a couple of live Madagascar cockroaches (The New York Times)
• More Christians marking Passover | Embracing the Jewish tradition of Passover, about 400 Christians will partake in a seder meal at a North Texas church this week (Associated Press)
• A nontraditional way to observe a tradition | Community Seders a growing area trend (The Boston Globe)
• Why is this night different? | At Passover, the Four Questions illuminate the Jewish spirit (USA Today)

Passion plays:

• Participants put soul, passion into play | The Purcellville Passion Play was first staged at Franklin Park by youths from the community center on Palm Sunday 1987 (The Washington Post)
• A passion play draws crowds—and no blood | Despite an approach opposite Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” — or maybe because of it — the gore-free “The Glory of Easter” at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove is experiencing the most popular season in its 21-year history. (Los Angeles Times)

Jewish/Christian relations:

• The road to understanding for Christians, Jews | As we Christians and Jews celebrate Passover and Easter this year we might take a moment to pray that understanding among Christians and Jews continues to grow, so that generations to come shall not be enslaved by hostility and ignorance and instead find new life in friendship and understanding (Robert Leikind and Philip A. Cunningham, The Boston Globe)
• Christians and Jews united in prayer on Good Friday | We have never received so much mail over anything. The movie The Passion of The Christ has had every Jewish defense agency and rabbinical organization on overload for weeks (Donna Schaper and Mitchell Chefitz, The Miami Herald)
• For Jews and Christians, a season of faith | The week we’ve all been waiting for is finally here (Ken Garfield, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Jewish official starts Christian outreach | It was another tough conversation for David Elcott, whose job is full of them these days. Speaking to a group of Christian clergy over a chicken dinner, he tried to explain why many of his fellow Jews don’t trust them (Associated Press)
• Poll: More now believe Jews killed Jesus | The percentage of Americans who believe Jews were responsible for killing Jesus has grown in recent years, although it remains a view held by a minority of people, according to a poll released Friday (Associated Press)

Holy Land:

• Archbishop: Christian pilgrimages to Holy Land vital for peace | The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Archbishop Michel Sabbah, has urged Christian pilgrims to continue coming to the Holy Land (Voice of America)
• Pilgrims in Jerusalem follow Jesus’ steps | About 3,000 local Christians and foreign pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem for the traditional Palm Sunday march, which believers say retraces the path Jesus took when he entered the city before his arrest, trial and crucifixion (Associated Press)
• Top clergyman calls for Mideast ‘reason’ | The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land on Monday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders “to come back to reason,” saying the area has plunged into bloody madness (Associated Press)

The Passion:

• The gospel according to Mel | An interview with Benedict Fitzgerald, co-writer with Gibson of the script for The Passion of The Christ (Variety)
• ‘Passion’ film changes church services, plays | Both could be more realistic, graphic here this season (Ventura County Star, Ca.)
• ‘Passion’ draws worldwide praise, outrage | An Islamic leader says it reveals Jewish “crimes.” European Jewish leaders are troubled by it. Israeli theaters don’t plan to show it. “The Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson’s crucifixion epic, is moving into cinemas around the world, and into the international tempests whipped up by terrorism, war and clashing religions (Associated Press)
• Easter focuses ‘Passion’ message | Go see “The Passion of the Christ.” That’s the message that churches in the District, Maryland and Virginia are sending their parishioners and others this Easter to increase focus on Christ’s death and Resurrection (The Washington Times)
• Mel Gibson’s movie inspires more passion in church plays | The film is helping local actors infuse their roles with more passion. And local directors are hoping that the film’s success will translate into larger crowds at their productions (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Mel Gibson: Arab world messiah | “The Passion” sells out theaters, spreads through $1 bootlegs, and fuels more claims of Jewish villainy (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com)
• What discussions has ‘The Passion of the Christ’ sparked in your faith community? | Readers respond (The Washington Post)
• ‘Passion’ flouts Islamic taboos to rapt Arab viewers | Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ” is flouting Islamic taboos and making history in the Arab world, largely thanks to a Jewish uproar that heightened interest in the controversial movie (Reuters)
• Bellucci says ‘Passion’ is ‘honest’ work | Monica Bellucci, who plays Mary Magdalene in “The Passion of the Christ,” says Mel Gibson’s film is an “honest” work, but it’s not for children (Associated Press)
• Foreign filmgoers still passionate for Mel’s film | As the Easter holidays approach, the faithful and the curious bought about $27 million worth of tickets for “The Passion of the Christ” at the foreign box office last weekend (Hollywood Reporter/Reuters)
• Gibson’s ‘The Passion’ a hit among Arabs | Hanan Nsour, a veiled, 21-year-old Muslim in Jordan, came out of “The Passion of the Christ” in tears and pronounced her verdict: Mel Gibson’s crucifixion epic “unmasked the Jews’ lies and I hope that everybody, everywhere, turns against the Jews” (Associated Press)
• Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” breaks UAE box office records: report | In the three days since it opened here, 66,321 tickets were purchased to see the film, shattering the mark set by the “Matrix Reloaded” of 59,000, the Gulf News daily said (AFP)
• ‘Passion’ draws worldwide praise, outrage | An Islamic leader says it reveals Jewish “crimes.” European Jewish leaders are troubled by it. Israeli theaters don’t plan to show it (Associated Press)
• Movie watchers view Holy Week somberly | Mel Gibson’s blockbuster hit “The Passion of the Christ” is prompting Christians to consider Jesus’ suffering as they recall his entry into Jerusalem at Palm Sunday services, mark the Crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrate Easter a week from Sunday (Associated Press)
• Film rating sets ‘new benchmark’ for violence | Chief censor Bill Hastings said today lowering the rating of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ would set a “new benchmark” for acceptable levels of violence in films (NZPA, New Zealand)
• Review board lowers Passion of the Christ film rating | The Film and Literature Board of Review said today the film, which opened seven weeks ago, did not promote or support “torture or infliction of extreme violence or extreme cruelty” and 15-year-olds were mature enough to see it (NZPA, New Zealand)
• Foiled in my bid to see The Passion | Having been turned away from Mel Gibson’s religious epic, Peaches Geldof is bemused by the classification of films (The Telegraph, London)
• Modern Romans await ‘The Passion’ | Violence stirs debate as Gibson’s blockbuster movie opens in Italy (NBC News)

Jesus:

• Divergent visions of the Christ | For many Protestants, this year’s visual focus on suffering is a very different aesthetic for Easter (USA Today)
• The return of the warrior Jesus | Some scholars who study religion say the image of a pacifist Jesus is sharing the spotlight with a more muscular Jesus of the Second Coming (The New York Times)
• Question celebrity | Which group is ascendant: the followers of Jesus or Howard Stern? (The Washington Post)
• Ideas about Christ’s death surveyed | Growing minority: Jews responsible (The Washington Post)

Film:

• DeMille’s commandment: Honor thy dancing girls | No one challenges “The Passion of the Christ” by advocating a return to the old days, when a Mary Magdalene clothed in little more than a headdress would set off in a chariot to meet her savior, having first ordered her servants to “Harness my zebras” (The New York Times)
• New testament to genius: Turner’s ‘Cecil B. DeMille’ | In his early years he actually made intimate, artful comedies and dramas, but after the success of “The King of Kings,” DeMille became best known for grandiose religious epics—stories taken from the Bible yet filmed according to a formula DeMille perfected: “sex, sadism and lurid melodrama” (The Washington Post)
• ‘Gospel’ aims for that old-time religion, but where’s the passion? | “The Gospel of John” is to “The Passion of the Christ” as tap water is to parboiled sacramental wine (The Boston Globe)

Television:

• Study finds more religion coverage on TV | The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts did 303 stories on religion during the 12 months that ended March 1, compared with 121 stories during a one-year period in 1993, the Media Research Center said (Associated Press)
• Dispassionate documentaries seek truth of Jesus | ABC, Fox News and the History Channel, among others, have planned documentaries about Jesus that seek to capitalize on the extraordinary popularity of Mr. Gibson’s polemical film, while setting the record straight on who killed Jesus (The New York Times)
• ABC gives religious saga prime time | Bringing a reporter’s eye to biblical stories is Peter Jennings’ passion. ABC is taking the extraordinary step of devoting all three hours of prime time Monday to Jennings’ latest religious saga, “Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness” (Associated Press)
• Reverend uses ‘Simpsons’ to teach gospel | Churchgoers at All Saints Church in Kesgrave, northeast of London, have been invited to attend four classes from the end of April on each of the four main family members — Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa (Associated Press)
• TV linked to kids’ attention problems | Researchers have found that every hour preschoolers watch television each day boosts their chances — by about 10 percent — of developing attention deficit problems later in life (Associated Press)
• A good ‘Word’ for Peter | Jennings’ special is a testament to fine documentary-making (David Bianculli, New York Daily News)
• Priests condemn sex on reality TV | Romanian priests are campaigning across the Balkan country to convince believers not to watch a popular reality TV show that has broadcast live sex, Romanian media said on Thursday (Reuters)

Theater:

• Choreography as a joyful communal prayer | The Creative Outlet Dance Theater presented a program that was as exhilarating as a church revival service at the BAM Harvey Theater on Friday (The New York Times)
• ‘Children of Eden’: Adam and Eve’s musical family | Earnest and untaxing, “Children of Eden” is the story of Genesis set to rousing if unremarkable music and recast as a case study out of Psychology Today (The Washington Post)

Music:

• Bach recycles a ‘Passion’ in a memorial fit for a prince | Andrew Parrott’s reconstruction of Bach’s piece did justice to the exalted material as seen at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on Friday (The New York Times)
• Rock’s enigmatic poet opens a long-private door | Dylan learned from the Kingston Trio and Edgar Allan Poe, he confides. And he wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in 10 minutes (Los Angeles Times)
• The gospel according to an old rocker | Why is a rock legend, who has lived a life of such excess that he suffered three heart attacks by the age of 26, on the look-out for Jesus in a secular society? For some never the twain shall meet – but not for Rick Wakeman (BBC)

Art:

• Beholding Byzantium | We are so used to the word ‘iconic” that we forget how forceful the stylization of actual icons can be (Editorial, The New York Times)
• Cathedral fury over topless model | A webpage photograph featuring a topless model being “crucified” outside Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral has been criticized (BBC)

Books:

• Taking religious liberties | Karen Armstrong, former nun turned religious scholar and author, is big on compassion, but she isn’t interested in lazy theology — or the afterlife (The New York Times Magazine)
• She’s found her calling | Former nun Karen Armstrong has achieved success as a popular theology writer and commentator. (Los Angeles Times)
• Countering the counterculture | Michael Shermer reviews Mark Oppenheimer’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture (Los Angeles Times)
• Return of Christ novel seen as next Jesus blockbuster | Seen the movie about Jesus’ death? Now read the book about his return (Reuters)
• The Holy Beach-Towel hypothesis | Diarmaid MacCulloch finds the shabby reality of the Crusades in accounts from Thomas Asbridge and Jonathan Phillips (The Guardian, London)

Missions & ministry:

• County homeless shelters can’t find homes | Plan to extend a winter program through the summer months results in a frustrating search (Los Angeles Times)
• The ultimate forgiveness | To err is human, to forgive divine—to befriend someone who took the life of a loved one is another matter. What motivates people whose empathy seems to know no bounds? (Vince Beiser, Los Angeles Times Magazine)
• Surfer shares story of life after shark attack | Tom Hamilton was waiting for knee surgery when doctors burst in to say they would need the room to operate on a young girl who had just been bitten by a shark. He knew they were talking about his daughter(Contra Costa Times, Ca.)
• Christian group launches major evangelism thrust | The Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association is working with over 500 churches to stage six citywide crusades and a number of conferences and special events throughout Jamaica (The Jamaica Observer)
• Harrison woman ministers to Iraqis | Norma Newman of Harrison recently returned from a dangerous Christian medical mission trip to war-torn Iraq with a message of hope and promise (Ozarks Newsstand)
• 60,000 attend Franklin Graham festival | 260 area churches sponsor Bakersfield event (KERO, Bakersfield, Ca.)
• Minister preaches hope amid turmoil | A turning point in Freddy Tuyizere’s life came several years ago when he was working as a teacher in his native Burundi. Eight of his students were killed by a grenade lobbed into their boarding school (The Columbian, Wa.)
• Straight by choice | Thousands use ‘reparative therapy’ in an effort to change their lives (Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
• Evangelism catches up with the times | A gaggle of ministries have taken their biblical messages down unconventional paths to appeal to 20- and 30-somethings (Fox News)

Teen Reach:

• Teen Reach probe continues | State officials seeking legal action against the organization (The Arizona Republic)
• Earlier: Group defends treatment of teens in recovery | Members of a controversial evangelical Christian group rallied around their pastor Friday as he accused state officials of abducting eight young church members and depriving them of their religious liberties (The Arizona Daily Star)

Education:

• Secular schools are switching to Anglicanism to fulfil parental demand for ‘Christian values’ | Record numbers of secondary schools are “converting” and becoming Church of England schools to fulfil parental demand for Christian values and better discipline. Since 2002, eight previously secular schools have become Church schools and three more will convert this year (The Telegraph, London)
• Learning to practice what we preach | Before we insist on the rule of law in Baghdad, how about Westminster? (Dana Parsons, Los Angeles Times)
• Milwaukee voucher program hit by scandal | One school that received millions of dollars through the nation’s oldest and largest voucher program was founded by a convicted rapist. Another school reportedly entertained kids with Monopoly while cashing $330,000 in tuition checks for hundreds of no-show students (Associated Press)
• Who is Catholic? | New conservative colleges say existing institutions lead students away from the true faith (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Secular college victory for atheist schoolgirl | Pupil’s policeman father fights human rights case over cost of transport (The Observer, London)
• Judge sends Cobb evolution issue to trial | Suit says stickers in text promote a religious view (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Ga. school-evolution debate goes to trial | A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against a school district’s practice of posting disclaimers inside science textbooks saying evolution is “a theory, not a fact” (Associated Press)
• Earlier: Evolution flap aided education, state official says | Georgia teachers are in a stronger position to explain evolution as a result of the public furor over the attempt to remove it from the state’s proposed science standards, the state science coordinator said (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

School dean firing upsets parents:

• Rants make ND ‘faithful’ seem weak | As for the heart of the hullabaloo at Notre Dame High School, I’m as befuddled as most of you (Phil Luciano, Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
• Ex-dean’s supporters protest outside church | Demonstrators say threats kept others from expressing concerns about N.D. firing (Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
• Diocese defends decision to fire dean | Vigil attendees chant, ‘We won’t go until we know’ the rationale (Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
• Clark asks protests to stop | ”You have all made your point. We must all rise above these recent events” (WEEK, Peoria, Ill.)
• Bishop: Stop ‘blasphemy’ at protests | Jenky upset at crowd’s behavior during rally for fired coach, says diocese has final say in schools (Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
• Palm Sunday protest (WEEK, Peoria, Ill.)
• Clark supporters take case to bishop (WEEK, Peoria, Ill.)
• Notre Dame fires longtime girls coach | The only volleyball coach and girls basketball coach the Peoria Catholic school has had since its 1988 opening was fired Friday, sources said (Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
• Diocese should explain firing to Clark, students, parents | One can’t say whether the Diocese’s judgment was correct without knowing why she was fired (Editorial, Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)

Catholicism:

• Pope to ping the faithful | Verizon Wireless is launching a new cell phone service in the United States on Wednesday that will allow subscribers to receive messages from the Pope (CNet News.com)
• Vatican: number of priests up slightly | The Congregation for the Clergy said the number of priests dropped significantly in North America and Europe between 1961 and 2001, but that decline was offset by an even larger increase in Asia, Africa and Central America during that period (Associated Press)
• Sex abuse audits on hold | Leaders of Catholic bishops defer decision on 2nd round (The Washington Post)
• Roman Catholic bishop detained in northern China | Chinese state security police have arrested a 69-year-old Roman Catholic bishop in northern China, only weeks after the state constitution was amended to protect human rights, a US-based rights group said (AFP)
• Why I love apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary | Celebrities make appearances, but the Blessed Virgin Mary does apparitions (Paul May, The Guardian, London)
• Exhibit features crucifixion relics | A number of documented relics from Christ’s crucifixion, including small pieces of Christ’s cross, the crown of thorns and the burial shroud, are on display at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center (WTOP, D.C.)
• Pope talks with U.S. bishops on scandal | Pope John Paul II told U.S. bishops Friday that the clergy sex abuse scandal can be a renewing “moment of hope” for the church in the United States despite “outspoken hostility” from many of the faithful (Associated Press)
• Archbishop says American society hostile for Catholics | Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley said American culture is inhospitable to Roman Catholic teaching, and likened preaching to Americans to a form of martyrdom (Associated Press)

Church life:

• Africa’s top Anglican warns U.S. church | The spokesman for bishops who claim leadership of a majority of the world’s Anglican Christians denounced the gay-rights policies of America’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, following a two-day caucus in Atlanta with U.S. conservatives (Associated Press)
• Church advocates financial empowerment of members | the General Overseer of Sceptre Christian Congregation, Evangelist Emeka Ohia, says this was not the time to experience poverty, but the age to embrace the wisdom of God, which has the blessing of wealth in it (This Day, Lagos, Nigeria)
• Minority pastors preach diversity | Clergy of color help expand horizons of white churches (The Washington Post)
• Church givers vs. church goers | Here’s one way that God-fearing politicians in Congress can increase church attendance: eliminate or sharply reduce tax breaks for charitable contributions (Richard Morin, The Washington Post)
• Pastor won’t be silent on war | The Rev. Frederick Boyle, who sparked deep discord among his congregants at two churches following his outspoken criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said he won’t silence his social and political voice to accommodate parishioners who don’t share his views (The Times, Trenton, N.J.)
• The peacemaker and Sunday School teacher of Plains | “We had 12,739 visitors last year,” confirms Maranatha Baptist Church pastor, Dr. Daniel Ariail. “In addition to our 131 church members.” (The Tullahoma News, Tenn.)
• Baptists look to refocus congregations during conference at Union | Is there a future for Baptist identity? (Jackson Sun, Tenn.)
• Fury as churchyards bar the dead | Families face extra bills as some vicars are accused of saying they’re full to save money (The Observer, London)
• Queen’s Royal Deeside chaplain quits for new role | The Rev Bob Sloan, the Queen’s chaplain on Royal Deeside, is to quit one of the most prestigious Kirk appointments in a surprise move to take on a new role within the Church of Scotland (The Scotsman)
• Church risks being ‘boring’: Carnley | The church risked becoming irrelevant and boring to many people and needed to modernize the Christian message, the leader of Australia’s Anglicans said in his Easter message today (The Australian)

11th Commandment:

• This is positively the new commandment | “Thou shalt not be negative” might seem a contradiction in terms, but the Methodist Church hath decreed that, henceforth, this shall be the Eleventh Commandment (The Times, London)
• Eleventh commandment brought down – from pub | The first 10 were said to be carved out on tablets of stone before Moses—but a new eleventh commandment was simply sent by text message from a pub, the Methodist Church revealed today (PA, U.K.)

Church buildings:

• Cottonwood deal is headed back to court | Los Alamitos sues Cypress over traffic fears if Costco, church build off Katella Avenue (Los Angeles Times)
• Churches popping up in unusual places | Hotels, theaters, storefronts, and other sites become houses of worship (The Enterprise, Brockton, Mass.)
• Houses could replace Clayton seminary | The seminary has been the focus of 30 years of failed plans to convert it to a military boarding school, a college, an international boarding school, an Eastern meditation center, a drug rehabilitation center and an evangelical temple (Contra Costa Times, Ca.)
• The soul of colonial Quito | Grandeur—magnificent churches, striking architecture—and gritty reality coexist in the heart of the Ecuadorian capital (Los Angeles Times)

Mormonism:

• Mormon leader: Church gaining respect | The Mormon church is gaining respect and converts, its president said Saturday at the semiannual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Associated Press)
• Civil spring | The presence of 50 uniformed and plainclothes officers enforcing the city’s new demonstration zones outside the LDS Church’s Conference Center kept the protesters and conference-goers apart and peaceful. And the stoic tolerance of the thousands of attendees in the face of vitriolic harangues helped (Editorial, The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Conferencegoers greeted by some friendly demonstrators | About 80 evangelical Christians from the group Standing Together took up posts at this weekend’s LDS Conference in Salt Lake City, offering a different, more gentle approach to proselytizing than the sign-wielding, scorn-spouting street preachers who chastised Latter-day Saints for their beliefs and proclaimed that they would be cast into hell (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• LDS protesters out in force | Evangelical street preachers managed to skirt Salt Lake City’s new speech regulations Saturday, sermonizing and taunting LDS Church conferencegoers from just outside reserved protest zones (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• 160 years later, Illinois ready to offer Mormons an apology | Providing further evidence that this is an apologetic age, an odd delegation of local politicians—a Chicago alderman, a state representative, an Appellate Court judge and the lieutenant governor—traveled Tuesday to Utah to deliver official regret for the 1840s persecution of Mormons in Illinois (Chicago Tribune)

Atheism:

• Under God and over | What America can learn from its atheists (Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic)
• Among the non-believers | The strange career of atheism in America (Alan Wolfe, The New Republic, sub. req’d.)
• ‘God bless atheism’ | It is only in dialogue with others that our faith is tested, our ideas made explicit, our errors corrected (E. J. Dionne Jr, The Washington Post)

Discrimination:

• Diversity suit loss for cable titan | Judge backs AT&T Broadband worker fired for refusal to value others’ beliefs (The Denver Post)
• Worker opposed to gays wins suit | An AT&T Broadband employee who was fired after refusing to abide by company rules that he said violated his religious beliefs about homosexuality has won a federal court case (The Washington Times)
• Man wins discrimination suit against AT&T | A federal judge has awarded nearly $150,000 to a Denver-area man fired by AT&T Broadband for refusing to sign a diversity policy requiring him to “value” the beliefs of others, including gays (Associated Press)

Marriage:

• The return of the ring | Welfare-reform should include marriage promotion (Melissa Pardue & Robert Rector, National Review Online)
• Amending Maggie Gallagher | She’s still wrong about Orrin Hatch’s proposal (Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review Online)
• Marriage Savers’ counties speed divorce rate dip | Divorce rates are falling faster in U.S. counties that have a program in which clergy offer premarital counseling and other marital-support services than those without the program, says a study released yesterday (The Washington Times)
• Priests pour holy oil on town | Evangelicals and Catholics unite in Jundiai against hate and divorces (Ananova)
• Anyone can marry: just don’t ask me | What is it about the institution of marriage that makes heterosexuals guard it so jealously? (Zoe Heller, The Telegraph, London)

Gay marriage:

• Bill aims to put marriage solely in hands of church | Heterosexuals would be banned from civil marriage, just like their gay counterparts, under a long-shot Beacon Hill bill that seeks to impose civil unions for all (Boston Herald)
• Speaking out against gay marriage | Two bishops lead Catholics marching in North Beach (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Agencies prepare for gay spouses | State agencies have launched preparations for the likelihood that gay couples will marry in Massachusetts, reviewing rules on insurance, retirement benefits, tax filings, and even lottery winnings to determine what must be changed if the Supreme Judicial Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage goes into effect May 17 (The Boston Globe)
• Poll: Massachusetts split on gay marriage | The University of Massachusetts survey found that 47 percent of those asked backed the state constitutional proposal, while 47 percent opposed it (Associated Press)
• 2,000 evangelicals rally against gay marriages | Evangelical Christians convened at a church in San Jose Sunday to rally against city leaders’ recent decision to support same-sex marriages, while outside, gay and lesbian activists gathered in a small counter-protest (Mercury News, San Jose, Ca.)
• Wanting more | With their Vermont civil unions unrecognized here, local couples support the push for gay marriage (Newsday)
• Minnesota poll: 58% say they’d ban gay marriage | They are split, though, on whether gay and lesbian couples should be allowed so-called “civil unions” to give them some of the legal rights of married couples (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Evangelist rallies Oregon pastors to fight against same-sex marriage | In a talk at a Clackamas church, James Dobson says the debate is a key battle in a war of values (The Oregonian)
• Gay marriage as a domino | Do you think sanctioning gay marriage could lead to legalizing polygamy as well? Religious leaders respond (Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)
• Inventing a marriage—and a divorce | Gay pair who wed in ’70s recall journey uncharted by law (The Washington Post)
• The ‘pros’ have it on gay marriage | Thus far in 2004 readers have complained relatively little about the Globe‘s news coverage of the same-sex marriage debate (Christine Chinlund, The Boston Globe)
• Poll finds split over marriage amendment | In the first test of public opinion since the lawmakers’ historic vote on March 29, the proposed amendment to the state constitution fell short of getting majority support in the poll, with 47 percent backing the measure and 47 opposing it (The Boston Globe)
• Same-sex union battles on hold | After much activity in recent weeks, the issue of same-sex “marriage” has moved to the sidelines in many states, although only temporarily (The Washington Times)
• In Calif., Catholics protest gay marriage | Catholic opponents of same-sex marriage held a prayer march Saturday, criticizing city officials who have licensed thousands of weddings for gay couples and calling for a federal amendment banning the unions (Associated Press)
• Straight-out truth on gay parents | Children are not harmed when raised by same-sex couples, studies confirm (Brad Sears and Alan Hirsch, Los Angeles Times)
• Father, son clash on gay marriage issue | These are precarious times for the gay son of state Sen. William J. “Pete” Knight, the arch-conservative architect of California’s Defense of Marriage Act (Associated Press)
• Churches wondering how to approach gay marriage vote | With a question about gay marriage certain to appear on Georgia ballots this fall, clergy are braced for a lot more queries than they get during a typical election (Associated Press)

Blacks and same-sex marriage:

• Religious right plays the race card | Conservatives courting African Americans for battle against same-sex marriage (Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com)
• Preaching bigotry | A knee-jerk antipathy toward gays and lesbians is rampant in black America, nowhere more evident than in the black church (Cynthia Tucker, The Baltimore Sun)

Spirituality:

• Bedeviled | Modern life is filled with temptations, but the urge to indulge—please put that doughnut down and listen—can be tamed (Roy Rivenburg, Los Angeles Times)
• Speaker examines ‘spiritual violence’ | Homosexuality is boring, Rev. Mel White told Monday the near-capacity crowd in the lecture hall of Denison University’s Burton D. Morgan Center (Newark Advocate, Oh.)
• What can never be explained keeps us in relationship with the divine | We hope for what can never be explained because it keeps us in relationship with the divine (Jeanette Leardi, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• How can I fill this void in my life? | In an age where the spiritual path is not always clear, philosophy may offer a workable alternative to faith – or be the gateway to faith itself (Anna Smyth, The Scotsman)
• A spiritual oasis | Dedicated to Jesus, Mary and a multitude of Catholic saints, shrines are common sites in some Denver-area neighborhoods, a heartfelt public display of religious devotion (The Denver Post)

Other stories of interest:

• Couple exposing slavery trade | Milton and Kimberly Smith have devoted several years of their lives, massive energy and put their family’s personal safety at risk as they have worked to make a difference in the problem of present-day, worldwide trafficking in sex-driven slavery that involves children (The Clanton Advertiser, Ala.)
• Action on teenage sex ‘backfiring’ | Government attempts to reduce high-risk sexual behaviour among teenagers have had exactly the opposite effect, according to a new study (Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland)
• Anti-slots blitz targets Montgomery delegates | It’s almost Easter, but the marquee outside Millian Memorial United Methodist Church in Rockville bears a political message. “Stop Slots!” it reads. “Call Del. Heller” (The Washington Post)
• Greenbelt will be the biggest yet | Prestbury residents fear rowdy Christian revellers will create noise and litter hell this summer (Gloucestershire Echo, England)
• High court won’t hear from boy who tried to distribute religious gifts | Lower courts agreed with decision by New Jersey school officials to prevent then 5-year-old from giving pencils, candy canes to classmates (Associated Press)
• Faithful from many creeds join to honor King, protest Iraq war | About 50 Christians, Buddhists and Jews gathered along the harbor yesterday to commemorate the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and speak out against the war in Iraq (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Christian-based fitness business starts in Urbana | Faithfully Fit offers an eight-week program covering healthy lifestyle habits, weight management, exercise and nutrition, combined with Bible study to provide support and encouragement (The News-Gazette, Champaign, Ill.)

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Council executive director Beth Vivio said the relationship was severed because it was perceived as an endorsement of abortion.

“Our policies basically state that we do not take a position on issues like abortion,” she told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “We feel these are private matters that need to be discussed or determined by each family.”

John Pisciotta, director of Pro-Life Waco and an associate professor of economics at Baylor University, is pleased, but is concerned with other areas of partnership between the council and Planned Parenthood.

Pisciotta is no wild-eyed fanatic, and, fortunately, the media hasn’t been able to portray him as such. The Ft. Worth Star.-Telegram quoted him saying, “I don’t take pleasure in upsetting families and upsetting little girls. That is a downside of this. But it did get the conversation going.”

Even more interesting a quote in an earlier Tribune-Herald story.

“I’m hearing that Girl Scout cookie sales may hit an all-time high,” he said before the council made its decision to withdraw its sponsorship. “I’m happy about that. I hope they double it from last year. … In our boycott, the financial impact is nil. Our whole goal is education. We want everyone to know about this multifaceted entanglement between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood. Many people are mad about this.”

And now Planned Parenthood is mad. “I’m sick to think that an organization as illustrious as the Girl Scouts would make a decision based on one person’s political agenda,” said Pam Smallwood, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas.

Planned Parenthood’s education director, Pat Stone, had perhaps the most revealing comment. “This foisted an adult conversation on a bunch of little innocent girls,” she told the Star-Telegram. “It’s making them think of things they shouldn’t have to worry about.”

What was it again that the Girl Scouts had partnered with Planned Parenthood on in the first place? Oh yeah: sex education—which for Planned Parenthood includes discussion of abortion.

Speaking of “things they shouldn’t have to worry about” On a related scouting note, today and next Friday the Supreme Court will discuss whether to review Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman, and address the issue of whether states can deny the Boy Scouts access to facilities or other benefits simply because of its stance on homosexuality.

“This case is really the tip of the iceberg—a relentless attack on the Boy Scouts for the sin of teaching virtues to boys,” lawyer George Davidson, who represents the Boy Scouts, is quoted as saying in a Legal Times article.

Indeed, Boy Scouts faced financial pressure from United Way branches in two states to repudiate its policy on homosexual behavior. The United Way of Ulster County, New York, said it would pull its funds. The United Way of Central Ohio adopted a policy that will probably mean the end of funds next year.

Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts are accusing San Diego city officials of harassment. “Boy Scouts volunteers have been singled out for ‘thousands of dollars of parking tickets’ and videotaped by city rangers, and Scouts have been prevented from using adjacent parkland to eat lunch or work on projects,” a spokeswoman told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Scouts are in the midst of a lawsuit against the city, which was launched when city officials caved to the ACLU and canceled its park lease to the Scouts.

More articles

More on life ethics:

• For abortion foes, a South Dakota strategy | Abortion opponents are trying to use this state as a national platform to challenge the US Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, as the Legislature moves toward passage of a state law that would outlaw virtually all abortions (The Boston Globe)
• Anti-abortion protesters not cited for violating city ordinance | For the second week in a row, abortion opponents who have vowed to disregard a new city ordinance regulating protests were not cited when they broke the law by holding a worship service in front of a local abortion clinic (Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
• Abortion is illegal in Lebanon, but available | Secrecy means that medical standards are low and uneven (The Daily Star, Lebanon)
• DOJ seeks Planned Parenthood Abortion records | The Justice Department subpoenas medical records for hundreds of women who had abortions at Planned Parenthood offices in six cities. The government’s move is part of its effort to defend the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Patient disputes doctors’ right to end his life | A man with a degenerative brain condition who is challenging guidance he claims would allow doctors to let him die took an unprecedented “right to life” case to the high court yesterday (The Guardian, London)

Unborn Victims of Violence Act:

• House passes unborn victims legislation | The House voted Thursday to treat attacks on a pregnant woman as separate crimes against both her and the fetus she is carrying. Critics say it would undermine abortion rights by giving fetuses new federal legal status (Associated Press)
• House confers legal protection on fetuses | The House approved a measure on Thursday that would make it a separate offense to harm the fetus while committing a violent crime against a pregnant woman, overcoming objections that the legislation was intended to undermine abortion rights (The New York Times)
• House passes bill for unborn victims | The House yesterday approved for the third time legislation legally recognizing two victims when a pregnant woman and her unborn child are injured or killed in a crime — a bill that has notable public support and that is now in the hands of the Senate this election year (The Washington Times)

Catholic church abuse report:

• Two studies cite child sex abuse by 4 percent of priests | The studies found that 10,667 children allegedly were victimized from 1950 to 2002, but even these numbers may represent an undercount (The New York Times)
• 4 percent of priests are linked to sex-abuse crisis | Four percent of the about 110,000 men who served as priests from 1950 to 2003 were involved in the sexual-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church — three percentage points higher than originally cited by church officials (The Washington Times)
• Board calls priest abuse ‘shameful’ | A panel of prominent Roman Catholics rebuked U.S. bishops Friday for failing to stop widespread clerical sex abuse over the last half-century, calling the leaders’ performance “shameful to the church.” (Associated Press)
• Report: 10,667 children reported priest abuse | More than 10,600 children have reported being molested by priests since 1950, according to two studies that found the U.S. Roman Catholic Church suffered an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4 percent of priests (Reuters)
• Boston sexual abuse report breaks down accusations | Seven percent of the priests serving since 1950 in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, where the sexual abuse scandal erupted two years ago, have been accused of molesting children (The New York Times)
• 162 Boston priests faced abuse claims | On the eve of the release of a nationwide study of sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, the Boston archdiocese said yesterday that 162 of its priests—7 percent of all who have served since 1950—have been accused of molesting minors, and that it has spent $120 million to settle related lawsuits (The Washington Post)
• Statistics from priest sex abuse survey | Key statistics from a survey on U.S. Roman Catholic priest sex abuse being issued Friday by the church, as reported by the Yakima (Wash.) Diocese (Associated Press)

More on clergy abuse:

• Protestant clergy sex abuse issue murky | Quantifying the Protestants’ problem may be even more difficult than it has been with Catholic priests, though for somewhat different reasons (Associated Press)
• Wis. jury finds priest guilty of abuse | John Patrick Feeney, a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing two brothers at their home in 1978, was convicted Thursday (Associated Press)
• Priest called negligent in rape case | An organizer of a Roman Catholic priests’ group on Long Island was accused yesterday of ignoring an indecent exposure complaint against a parochial school music director, who later raped another child. (The New York Times)
• Showtime wants Catholic sex scandal film | The movie, “Our Fathers,” will be based on a book about the church scandal written by Newsweek‘s David France (Associated Press)

Baylor sports:

• A program marred by murder and scandal finds inspiration and hope | With hard work and the energy and optimism of a camp counselor, Coach Scott Drew, 33, has turned Baylor’s ugly summer into a feel-good story (The New York Times)
• Baylor: ‘Additional serious or major infractions’ | Baylor University’s men’s basketball program under former head coach Dave Bliss committed “additional serious or major infractions,” President Robert Sloan said in a news conference this morning (Waco Tribune Herald)
• Report details Baylor basketball infractions | Baylor president Robert B. Sloan Jr. on Thursday morning announced further penalties self-imposed on the men’s basketball program after the confirmation of more major NCAA rule violations (The Dallas Morning News)
• Study: Baylor’s ex-coach broke NCAA rules (Associated Press)
• Document: Statement from Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. regarding men’s basketball investigation (Press release, Baylor University)
• Video: Basketball investigation news conference (Baylor University)

Sloan controversy:

• Regents decline to discuss findings from investigations of faculty, economic issues | Baylor University regents heard from committees assigned to investigate faculty and economic issues Thursday, but were tight-lipped about any findings (Waco Tribune-Herald)
• Regents wrap up 11 hours of meetings | Leaving the meeting, a hurried Regents Chairman Drayton McLane said, “We began the discussion today and then we’re going to continue [tomorrow] and then we’ll have a statement after the board meeting tomorrow. [It] should be around noon” (KWTX, Waco, Tex.)
• Religion professor sues Baylor over job contract breach | A religion historian who formerly taught in New Zealand has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Baylor University, alleging school officials withdrew a job offer because they thought he was too controversial (Waco Tribune-Herald)
• Baylor regents to weigh faculty, financial concerns | The two-day meeting is expected to conclude more than five months of scrutiny and research by the committees, which have investigated faculty and economic issues as well as pending litigation (Waco Tribune-Herald)
• Baylor regents to revisit earlier controversies | Board will hear reports about the financial and academic health of the private Baptist school, but regent chairman doubts any action (Houston Chronicle)
• The great Baylor debate | Regents are expected to hear the reports from the three committees formed at their September meeting to look at issues raised over president Robert Sloan’s leadership, including his dealings with the faculty and the rising cost of tuition (KWTX, Waco, Tex.)
• Earlier: Scathing Baylor report calls for Sloan’s termination | Baylor University Regents received a report Thursday that says the university faces a rocky future without a change in administration (KWTX, Waco, Tex., Feb. 19)

More education:

• Baptist power struggle lands on campus of WNC college | A battle over who will lead Mars Hill College reflects a larger fight waged for more than two decades between the Baptist denomination’s moderate and fundamentalist factions (The Citizen-Times, Asheville, N.C.)
• Woman’s scarf a college issue | Trustees of a Lancaster school are to rule on the future of an instructor who ordered a Muslim student to take off head covering. She refused (Los Angeles Times)
• Bible club denied school display | District officials said they felt the display gave the impression that the school was endorsing Christianity (Fox News)
• Clergy help fight prayer lawsuit | Defense fund set for Manatee School Board (The Bradenton Herald, Fla.)
• U.S. students still getting the paddle | Corporal punishment laws often reflect regional chasms (The Washington Post)

Locke v. Davey:

• Supreme Court ruling keeps religion confined | It’s official. States may treat religious believers as second-class citizens. Those of us with strong religious beliefs have suspected it for some time (Deborah Ausburn, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Open door to religious discrimination | The Supreme’s Locke ruling (Susanna Dokupil, National Review Online)
• The evolution of conservatism | Should the Supreme Court clear the way for school choice? (Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review Online)
• Faith accompli | Turns out Americans make surprisingly lousy libertarians (Michelle Cottle, The New Republic)
• Public money for private worship | The high court was right to say that a government denial of funding for such teaching does not hurt religion. Rather, it sustains the independence of religion by preventing government from controlling the flow of money to particular faiths. (Editorial, The Christian Science Monitor)

Other religious discrimination lawsuits:

• Salvation Army may get discrimination suit | The New York Civil Liberties Union is expected to file a federal lawsuit in Manhattan today accusing the Salvation Army of religious discrimination (Newsday, New York)
• Suit claims group’s staff is pressured on religion | Eighteen former and current employees from the social services arm of the Salvation Army sued the organization in federal court yesterday, accusing it of imposing a religious veil over secular, publicly financed activities like caring for foster children and counseling young people with AIDS (The New York Times)
• U. of Oklahoma sued for religious discrimination | Two students claim school’s refusal to fund Christian newspaper restricts their First Amendment rights (Associated Press)

Religious freedom:

• Tula Baptist & Orthodox churches under attack in Russia? | Pastors of one of the largest unregistered Baptist churches in Russia believe their prayer house was the victim of a deliberate attack in January, when two powerful explosions ripped through the building’s interior (Forum 18)
• Urgent report from the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church of Tula, Russia (Letter)
• US points fingers, India looks the other way | Choosing to be dismissive of findings of the US State Department’s country reports on human rights practices, India today said this was an “exercise internal to the US” and it would not take any cognizance of it (PTI, India)
• Setting sights higher on religious freedom | Washington is bureaucratizing the cause of human rights—for both good and ill, as one can see in the U.S. State Department’s latest annual report on worldwide religious freedom (Lawrence A. Uzzell, St. Petersburg Times, Russia)
• Lawsuit against City Mission dismissed | The lawsuit, filed in October 2003, stems from the investigation into allegations that the City Mission pushed Christian beliefs on its tenants (The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W.V.)

Missionary found dead in Botswana, reportedly murdered

• Brazilian missionary found dead in Mozambique | Doraci Edinger, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, had been in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, since 1998 (SAPA, South Africa)
• Missionary ‘murdered’ in Moz | A Brazilian missionary has been found dead in a town in northern Mozambique where four Roman Catholic nuns have received death threats after alleging an organ trafficking network was operating in the area, Portuguese state radio reported on Thursday (AFP)

Radical Hindus scamming Brits?

• UK charities scam linked to Sangh Parivar | A report to be released in the House of Lords in London today provides alarming evidence linking UK-based charities to Sangh Parivar groups in India (The Tribune, India)
• RSS hits out at charges of misusing donations | The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Friday termed as a sinister conspiracy an allegation that it had misused charity funds collected for the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and threatened legal action (IANS, India)

‘Anti-Muslim’ trial in Australia:

• Muslim ‘pulled no punches’ at seminar | A Christian seminar Muslims say vilified them was just typical of religious debate in which Islamic thinkers also pull no punches, a tribunal heard yesterday (The Age, Melbourne, Australia, also in The Sydney Morning Herald)

Crime:

• ‘Financial pastor’ swindled investors | William T. Warren, a self-proclaimed “financial pastor” preyed on Christian investors and cheated them out of as much as $20 million since 1986, federal authorities said Thursday (Associated Press)
• Man pleads innocent in ex-priest’s death | A man charged with killing a retired Roman Catholic priest who was a convicted sex offender pleaded innocent Thursday in county court (Associated Press)
• Also: Man indicted in priest’s death | Charges to include murder, burglary (Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.)
• When relativism becomes theology | The demise of Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien (Andrew Peyton Thomas, National Review Online)
• God ate my homework | … And other excuses not to try in traffic court (Gene Weingarten, The Washington Post)

Religion and politics:

• Judge Pryor | Appointment gives appeals court a principled voice (Editorial, The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Religion in presidential politics | An active religious faith seems to have become a pre-requisite for running for president. Candidates who are not publicly religious will have little chance of being elected (Cathy Young, Morning Edition, NPR)
• Cross as memorial transcends the cross as religious symbol | The principle of separation of church and state was the justification for removing a cross from public property, but I don’t think any thoughtful person, however liberal his view of the First Amendment, will appreciate being backed into a corner on this issue (Don Shaw, The Sacramento Bee, Ca.)
• National Park Service embraces creationism | Creationist book re-ordered & offered as “natural history”; Geologists rebuffed (Press release, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
• Clerics seek Vatican expertise on Zim crisis | Church leaders involved in efforts to revive dialogue between Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were in Italy last week to seek international expertise on how to resolve Zimbabwe’s political stalemate (The Independent, Zimbabwe)
• Christian parties form election pact | The Christian Democratic Party (CDP), the National Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Protestant Party entered into a co-operation agreement on Wednesday to contest the upcoming elections. This follows a coalition between the CDP and Peter Marais’s New Labour Party in the Western Cape (SAPA, South Africa)

Ten Commandments and Roy Moore:

• ‘Ten Commandments’ judge appeals removal | A special, stand-in State Supreme Court will rule on Moore’s appeal (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Commissioners find support for keeping Commandments | Though not universally popular, the county commissioners’ stance against removing a Ten Commandments monument at the Flathead County Courthouse has drawn praise and promises of support from county residents and at least one gubernatorial candidate (The Daily Inter Lake, Mont.)
• Lawyer asks court to return Moore | Says ousted chief justice seeks job, not Commandments monument, back (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Ousted chief justice tries to regain job | Roy Moore’s attorneys denounced on Wednesday the federal court system as a “judicial oligarchy,” and argued the ousted Alabama chief justice’s refusal to follow a U.S. District judge’s order wasn’t an ethical violation (Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.)

Cash for prayer:

• Kenya acts on ‘cash for prayers’ | A Kenyan bishop embroiled in a row over money with Nairobi city council has been ordered to refund the money by the Anglican church (BBC)
• Njonjo calls for Njoka’s defrocking | A former Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo yesterday called for the defrocking of cash-for-prayers bishop Peter Njoka over the Sh1.7 million payment saga (The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya)
• It’s not enough for Njoka to repay cash | Because Bishop Njoka has been tainted, Archbishop Nzimbi must do something to assure members of St Stephen’s church that their bishop still has the moral authority to minister (Francis Ayieko, The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya)

Missionaries flee Haiti:

• Human rights workers and missionaries flee | An array of foreigners, from bearded human rights workers in T-shirts to spotlessly dressed U.S. missionaries, crowded the capital’s chaotic international airport on Wednesday to catch a flight out of a country torn by a three-week insurgency by armed rebels, many of them former soldiers from Haiti’s disbanded army (Reuters)
• Missionaries anguished about Haiti | Haitians and visitors alike have been caught in the middle of fighting between supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and rebels who seek to oust Aristide (The News-Press, Ft. Myers, Fla.)
• Haiti in prayers of many area churches | Haitian rebels moved closer to the capital city of Port-au-Prince Thursday, many Rochester-area people tracked the safety of religious missionaries and others in the Caribbean nation (Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.)
• Missionaries transported from Haiti to Florida | Empty plane arrived in Haiti thursday (WPBF, Palm Beach, Fla)

Pastor killed in Iraq:

• Fellow pastors remember Kelley’s missionary spirit | “Brother John cared,” says the Rev. Robert Lewis, of Cumberland, who helped organize the Baghdad trip. “He wasn’t there on a vacation.” (The Providence Journal, R.I.)
• Pastor Kelley: ‘Victorious in death’ | More than 600 people attend funeral (Narragansett Times, R.I.)
• Pastor killed in Iraq remembered as loving father, devoted to church (Associated Press)

Missions & ministry:

• Pentagon to probe anti-malaria drug | Pentagon health officials also said they no longer would use Lariam in Iraq because the risk of malaria was slight compared with the risk of the drug (UPI)
• Group brings together all Christians | Noble Crawford, director of a Fort Worth youth mentoring program called Hope Farm, has lunch once a month with Tarrant Net, a diverse community of Christians who, like himself, are committed to unity (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)
• 1,800 Christian collegians gather Downtown today for Jubilee | Three-day event stresses cultural diversity in evangelical forum (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Fundamentalism spreading in Nunavut | New Arctic church to combine old-time religion, Inuit cultural pride (Canadian Press)
• He shoots! He scores! And he saves! | Mission combines hockey, Christianity. For Hockey Ministries International founder all you need is gloves – and love, of course (The Montreal Gazette)
• Hell is here and now | “Hell houses,” which Evangelistic churches throughout the United States organize every fall, are an expanding phenomenon in recent years (Ha’aretz, Tel Aviv)

How many believers?

• Nigeria leads in religious belief | A survey of people’s religious beliefs carried out in 10 countries this year suggests that Nigeria is the most religious nation in the world (BBC)
• How religion defines America | Unlike some other Western countries, the United States remains an overwhelmingly religious society (Richard Land, BBC)
• More Lutherans in world count | The world total of Lutherans reached just under 66 million at the end of 2003, a net increase of 570,000 since 2001, the Lutheran World Federation reported (Chicago Tribune)

Lent:

• Lent a time of prayer and sacrifice | The party’s over. Now that another Carnival season has passed, many Christians in the River Parishes have turned their thoughts to Lent, a time of prayer, sacrifice, penance and charity (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
• Religion news in brief | Evangelicals and Lent, “Middle way” Episcopalians, Southern Baptist name change, Robert Johnson’s grave, and other stories (Associated Press)
• Lent begins for Christians | Masses ring in season of reflection amid ongoing sex abuse scandal plaguing Catholic Church (Claremont-Upland Voice, Ca.)
• More Protestants observing Lent | The 40-day season of Lent, which began Ash Wednesday, was once observed only by Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox and “high church” Protestants, but more evangelicals are noting the season with rituals and symbolism (Chicago Tribune)
• Lent can be trying time for some dieters | Low-carb adherents who have been on a bacon- and-eggs regimen have to get a bit more creative (Chicago Tribune)
• Ash Wednesday | Walking around all day with ashes on your head is a form of evangelism. This commentary is (Lauren Winner, All Things Considered, NPR)

Church life:

• In ‘season of struggle,’ fire ravages Md. church | Cross survives Ash Wednesday blaze (The Washington Post)
• Young flock to new churches | Catholic church attendance in Australia has declined dramatically over the past five years, but Pentecostal and evangelical churches have grown strongly. (The Age, Melbourne, Australia, also in The Sydney Morning Herald)
• ‘Urban consultation’ seeks collaboration by churches, other Christian groups | “Christians are all supposed to be on the same team, but we sure don’t act like it sometimes,” said the Rev. Jimmy Dorrell, pastor of a homeless urban congregation called Church Under the Bridge (Waco Tribune-Herald)

Anglicanism:

• ‘Anglicanism is going to tip into the sea’ | Canon Edward Norman has written a scathing attack on the Church of England and is converting to Catholicism (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Women could become ‘second class’ bishops | Women could be barred from becoming Archbishops, and may not even be allowed to run dioceses, under official plans to consecrate them as bishops (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Separation with US Episcopal Church inevitable | Episcopal synod of the Anglican province of central Africa comprising bishops from Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe feels separation with Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) is inevitable (Daily News, Botswana)
• Outcry over gay bishop shook Church of England leaders | The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, admitted yesterday that Church leaders had been “taken aback” by the force of the opposition to the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Catholicism:

• Swiss bishop tends desert flock | Pope John Paul has named a Swiss Capuchin monk as the new Roman Catholic bishop of Arabia (NZZ Online, Switzerland)
• Milingo returns to Vatican | The Vatican noted that it was the first time he had been seen in public in the Vatican in nearly three years (The Post, Zambia)
• Beyond the trappings | Traditionalist Catholic churches can look just like their mainstream counterparts. But the breakaway faction rejects the Vatican (Los Angeles Times Magazine)
• Cherishing an older Catholicism | Controversy highlights belief of traditionalists like those in Richmond, N.H. (The Boston Globe)

History:

• Church’s ancient Lambeth library faces cuts | One of the country’s oldest libraries, which has on display the gloves Charles I wore to his execution, faces cuts as part of Church of England reforms (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Call for Gospels island return | The fight to give the Lindisfarne Gospels a permanent home in the North East of England will be debated in the House of Commons next week (BBC)
• ‘There is no running away in here’ | The attraction of monastic life for 21st-century men and women suggests to me something age-old and archetypal at work in the human psyche (Meaghan Delahunt, Scotland on Sunday)
• Why one world was not enough for the missionary zealots of Rome | Loved or loathed, the Jesuits have, since their founding in 1540, needled “the certainties and hierarchies of the Catholic Church”. Jonathan Wright’s ambitious account spans the whole five-and-a-half centuries of their history (Scotland on Sunday)

Art:

• Where the angels of a secular era can materialize and multiply | The rise of religious extremism all over the world might explain the newfound ubiquity for angels in our serious and popular art (John Rockwell, The New York Times)
• With an ear for God and an eye for art | Sister Gertrude Morgan’s painted epiphanies as seen at the American Folk Art Museum may warn of hellfire and brimstone, but they are hugely endearing (The New York Times)
• Sculpture called anti-Catholic survives test in court | A federal judge ruled Thursday that Washburn University in Topeka did not have to remove a sculpture that critics called anti-Catholic (The Kansas City Star)
• Balancing art, the state and religion without calling the police | A mature society, whether it’s Russia or Giuliani’s New York, should be able to cope with offensive art without the police (Serge Schmemann, The New York Times)

Books:

• Reagan scribe highlights faith | “Ronald Reagan’s faith has been woefully neglected,” said Paul Kengor at a Heritage Foundation conference yesterday (The Washington Times)
• Onwards Christian soldiers | John Adamson reviews The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Da Vinci Code:

• ‘Da Vinci Code’ leads to Nashville federal court | Random House targets Thomas Nelson for Darrell Bock’s “Breaking the Da Vinci Code” (The Tennessean)
• Da Vinci Code spurs debate: Who was Mary Magdalene? | The runaway best seller The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, resurrects a 2,000-year-old secret it says has been concealed by the Catholic Church (National Geographic News)

Culture:

• Reflected virtue | Materialism has dulled our senses to anything that does not produce pleasure (Cal Thomas, The Washington Times)
• It’s a sin | Pop’s greats are expected to behave badly – but not all of them survive the scandal (The Guardian, London)

Religion and journalism:

• Blessed by the Times | Inside one of the newsroom deals to go soft on the man in the red robe (LA Weekly)
• When Miller met Root | Jonathan Miller felt “appalled” by the BBC’s approach to religion and ashamed of having played a part in it (The Guardian, London)
• Beyond belief | Travel the world asking people about God? Jeremy Vine thought the BBC was joking – until he got 10,000 answers (The Guardian, London)

Christian media:

• Religion in the News: Christian television’s moment? | Evangelical Protestant broadcasters see something more in Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flash than exposed flesh and bad taste — namely, the opportunity to market themselves as a wholesome alternative to mainstream television (Associated Press)
• Indecency overshadows growing abuse of God’s name | Even the church groups worried about four-letter words have said surprisingly little about a three-letter word, once allowed only in carefully reverent contexts but now regularly exploited: “God” (Associated Press)

Music:

• EMI Christian lays off 27 staffers in restructure | EMI Christian Music Group, home to such artists as Steven Curtis Chapman, Stacie Orrico and Newsboys, is laying off almost 10% of its staff as part of a company-wide restructuring, Billboard has learned (Billboard/Reuters)
• Sixpence calls it quits | No news for what’s next for lead singer Leigh Nash and guitarist/principal songwriter Matt Slocum (Christian Music Today)
• Forgive and forgive | Amy Grant knows it’s the simple things that count (The Kansas City Star)

Christian TV station bid:

• Colleges may keep TV station | O.C. district may take KOCE off the market because of a possible lawsuit and the winning bidder’s financial difficulties (Los Angeles Times)
• Jesus, meet Michael Powell | Christian broadcaster suing for KOCE control likes to violate FCC regulations (OC Weekly, Ca.)
• Lawsuit filed over sale of KOCE-TV | Christian broadcaster alleges it had higher bid but was discriminated against by O.C. colleges (Los Angeles Times)
• Daystar files suit against Coast district | The Christian network claims it, and not the KOCE-TV Foundation, was the highest bidder for the station and that the district has a legal obligation to sell to them (Independent, Huntington Beach, Ca.)

Other stories of interest:

• Body of Macedonian president recovered | Searchers on Friday located the wreckage of a plane crash that killed Macedonia’s president and eight other people and were clearing a path through a mine field to reach the bodies, the Macedonian government said (Associated Press)
• Report: Slavery alive and well in Florida | Modern-day slavery is alive and well in Florida, the head of a human rights center said Tuesday as it released a report on people forced to work as prostitutes, farmworkers and maids across the state (Associated Press)
• Ask the pilot | Would you like a little Old Testament with your coffee? How Alaska Airlines has been pushing the Bible for 20 years, and other tales of the religious skies (Salon.com)
• Jews and Israelis can start to turn the tide of hatred | Better policies are no panacea but will help change minds (Michael Paley, Los Angeles Times)

Passion reviews:

• Hideous, stupid and barbaric | I have never before wanted to enjoy a movie so much. But I was wrong. Oh, how wrong I was. (Michael Coren, The Toronto Sun)
• ‘Passion’ critics retract reviews | Early detractors of Mel Gibson’s hit film, “The Passion of the Christ,” are backing away from their critical remarks after the movie grossed a record-setting $26.6 million on its opening day (The Washington Times)
• Some exercises in fantasy | Why I won’t see The Passion of the Christ (R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., The Washington Times)
• Religion writers praise, pan Gibson’s ‘Passion’ | Religion writers who finally got a chance to see the movie are offering reactions that span the spectrum (Editor & Publisher)
• Mel Gibson’s deeply cynical accomplishment | The Passion of the Christ seems to urge its audience to turn away from the universal spiritual message of Jesus and toward base political anger (Gregg Easterbrook, The New Republic)

Passion theologians:

• ‘The Passion’: What’s not in the Bible—and why? | Gibson drew from extrabiblical sources to create his version of the Passion. A look at how those sources influenced his film (Beliefnet)
• Why is The Passion of the Christ so controversial? | The film is bad for Jews, worse for Christians (Robert Alter and Elaine Pagels, Slate)
• ‘The Passion of the Christ’ may change hearts and history | If millions of hearts are changed, the direction of history may be altered. But only in retrospect will we know (Rod Thomson, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
• Gibson’s ‘Passion’ a powerful film that misses point | It emphasizes each believer’s sin and subsequent responsibility for Christ’s death while virtually ignoring his teaching and his promise of redemption (Steve Gushee, Palm Beach Post)
• Bloody death seems to miss life of Christ | Years after my Catholic childhood I discovered that the real message in Jesus’ life was how he lived and what he taught—not how he died (Mike Thomas, The Orlando Sentinel)

Popular Jesus:

• All that blood | How Mel Gibson’s depiction of Christ differs from others (Stephen Prothero, The Wall Street Journal)
• Christ not almighty | Gibson rehumanizes Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (OC Weekly, Ca.)
• Ecce Homo? | The new celluloid Jesus doesn’t seem real (Sian Gibby, Slate)

Passion marketing:

• Media are patsies for ‘Passion’ promotion | Helping Hollywood sell tickets should not be a role journalists play so willingly and so agreeably (Brian Lambert, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.)
• Jewelry maker sells out ‘Passion’ wares | Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” not only has people debating the last hours of Jesus’ life, but also running out to buy such souvenirs as crucifixes, lapel pins and cards tied to the film’s promotion (Associated Press)
• Pain principle | How Mel Gibson sold late-medieval Catholicism to Sun Belt Protestants (Paula Fredriksen, The New Republic)

Anti-Semitism:

• Gibson film ignores vow to remove blood libel | Director keeps in infamous line – but in Aramaic only (The Guardian, London)
• A misguided Passion | Film fails to make complex translation that must accompany a retelling of the gospel stories in the post-Holocaust world (John W. Marshall, Toronto Star)
• Elite hypocrisy | ‘Passion’ hysteria proves Christians will always be targeted (Betsy Hart, Scripps Howard News Service)
• Christians the most eager to cast stones | With good characters outnumbering bad, the charge of anti-Semitism doesn’t wash (Miranda Devine, The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Box office success is overshadowed by racist outbursts | Despite the director’s insistence that the film was not intended to fuel hatred of Jews, not all its audience saw it that way (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Robertson dismisses criticism over ‘Passion of the Christ’ | “Without question, the ADL went over the line on the thing,” broadcaster said Thursday (Palm Beach Post)
• Rabbi urges Pope to speak out against ‘The Passion’ | Israel’s Chief Rabbi urged Pope John Paul to speak out against Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” to prevent Christian-Jewish relations from being undermined by the movie, his office said Friday (Reuters)

Israel and The Passion:

• Israel’s chief rabbi mulls ‘The Passion’ | chief Israeli rabbi urged the Pope to restate a key church decision from the 1960s that reversed the doctrine that Jews were behind the crucifixion of Jesus, saying he fears Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” could revive such beliefs (Associated Press)
• ‘Passion’ absent from Israeli theaters | In the land where the events dramatized in “The Passion of the Christ” were played out 2 millennia ago, it is unlikely that the controversial film will attract mass audiences of Israelis, local film observers say (The Washington Times)

Passion violence:

• The worship of blood | The many outrages of The Passion of the Christ (Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic)
• ‘Passion’ and the sacralization of violence | Rendering cruelty as God-ordained gives no excuse to salivate sanctimoniously over its bloody misery (Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, Los Angeles Times)
• Violence to Scripture? | Viewing The Passion (S. T. Karnick, National Review Online)
• Christodoulos finds fault with Christ film | “Excessive” violence contrasts with Christian holy writings, says head of the Church of Greece (Kathimerini, Athens)

Passion profit:

• A box-office bonanza of $23.5 million for ‘Passion’ on opening day | The figure was the fifth-largest Wednesday opening in Hollywood history (The New York Times)
• ‘Passion’ fills movie theaters on blockbuster opening day | The movie has confounded Hollywood’s traditional belief that religious movies don’t make money (The Washington Post)
• ‘Passion’ nails $26.6 million on first day (Box Office Mojo)
• ‘Passion’ ka-ching | And on the first day, “The Passion of the Christ” became a blockbuster. (Variety)

More on The Passion:

• Democrat Kerry urges caution on ‘Passion’ | Doesn’t know if he plans to see it or not (Reuters)
• The Passion inflames the Web | It’s not often that filmgoers feel so protective of a $30 million movie that they buy advertising for it (Wired News)
• ‘The Passion of the Christ’: convergence of first freedoms | Controversial new film renews debate over artistic expression, religious liberty and censorship (Claire Mullally, First Amendment Center)
• Top ten things heard outside the new Mel Gibson movie (The Late Show the David Letterman, via Holy Weblog)
• ‘Passion’ painfully intense | Is Mel Gibson an Arian? (Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post)
• The importance of the Passion | Some critics just don’t get it (Kevin M. Cherry, National Review Online)
• Passion for intolerance | Why is it always the right-wing Christians who ring talkback programs and denounce the rights of minorities? (Susan Mitchell, The Australian)

Gay marriage:

• Gay couples can be as stable as straights, evidence suggests | Bush quote makes longevity an issue (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Bliss and bigotry | No one is waging war on marriage. It’s just the opposite; there are people who are longing to embrace it (Bob Herbert, The New York Times)
• Wedding shots deepen gay-marriage divide | Marriage ceremonies have put a human face on an abstract issue, bolstering support and opposition (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Gay marriage | One doesn’t suddenly become “gay” because same-sex marriages become legal everywhere ( Sean Turner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Gay marriage | Western history has long taught that heterosexual monogamous marriage is good and does good (John Witte Jr., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Let states decide | Gay marriage doesn’t have to be a federal issue. (John Yoo, The Wall Street Journal, subscription required)

Marriage:

• People have a right to change the laws | The clergy do not make marriages. They conduct weddings (Edward Frost, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Marriage and democracy | Bush didn’t start this “culture war,” and voters should be the ones to settle it (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
• New fuel for the culture wars | The proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage adds thorny legal and political questions to a troublesome moral debate (The Economist)

Religion and gay marriage:

• Pastor sees God in middle of gay marriage debate | Gregory Dell was found guilty in a United Methodist court for violating church law by performing a same-sex “holy union” ceremony at his Chicago church (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Several religious leaders back gay marriage | Unitarian Universalists joined by leaders of Methodist, Episcopal and Reform Jewish congregations (Associated Press)
• Moral absolutes not open to negotiation | There’s no inoffensive way of saying this—I wish there were—but at its core the gay marriage debate is about whether there are still moral absolutes for society, and whether we can continue to encourage moral choices (such as traditional, lifetime marriage) and discourage immoral ones (Shaunti Feldhahn, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Local clergy split on gay marriages | While religious right continues to oppose same-sex marriage, growing group of leaders supports it (News-Press, Glendale, Ca.)

Gay marriage and politics:

• GOP activists launch recall campaign of California attorney general over gay marriage issue | A pair of conservative Republicans who helped organize last year’s gubernatorial recall election said Tuesday that they will try to remove California Attorney General Bill Lockyer from office for failing to enforce the state’s ban on same-sex marriage (Associated Press)
• Candidates attack gay marriage amendment | The leading Democratic presidential contenders grappled with the hot-button issue of gay marriage tonight during the early part of a debate held only a few days before voters in California and nine other states cast their ballots in Super Tuesday primaries (Los Angeles Times)
• Edwards backs state rights on homosexual ‘marriage’ | Democratic hopeful John Edwards said in a debate last night that he opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows the federal government and other states to ignore homosexual “marriages” granted by states (The Washington Times)
• Leading evangelicals down the aisle | George Bush is using the gay marriage issue to energize his conservative base (The Guardian, London)

Gay marriage and law:

• Legal confusion over gay marriage | Who is, and who isn’t, wed is subject of great debate (The Washington Post)
• Gay marriage issue heads to court | California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is planning to ask the court Friday whether San Francisco’s issuing of same-sex marriage licenses violates state law, which designates marriage as only between heterosexual couples (Associated Press)
• Lesbian ex-couple fight for custody | Egg donor contends genes, nurture trump waiver of rights (San Francisco Chronicle)

Sexual ethics:

• Carnival guru fired after condom-themed parade | A Rio de Janeiro samba school on Wednesday sacked its Carnival artistic director whose pro-condom parade had upset the Catholic church and whose Kama Sutra float had been censored as too steamy even for Rio’s annual Bacchanalia (Reuters)
• Wedding virgins on verge of extinction | Only 3 percent of people are virgins on their wedding night, according to a survey that reveals modern couples are adopting a pragmatic approach to marriage (The Times, London, subscription required)

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The post A Boycott That Worked appeared first on Christianity Today.

Noah's Curse : The Biblical Justification of American Slavery (Religion in America Series)

Stephen R. Haynes (Author)

OUP USA

322 pages

$54.00

In Genesis 9:20-27, Noah’s youngest son, Ham, “the father of Canaan,” sees his father drunk and asleep in his tent. Ham tells his older brothers, Shem and Japheth, about their father’s state, and these two brothers cover Noah’s “nakedness” without looking directly at him. When Noah awakes from his stupor and realizes “what his youngest son had done to him,” Noah utters the famous curse: “Cursed be Canaan, lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” In contrast, Ham’s older brothers receive a blessing for their discretion.

These verses have been the source of centuries of debate. What exactly did Ham observe that infuriated Noah? And if Noah were angry with Ham, why did he curse Ham’s son Canaan rather than Ham himself? What was the nature and extent of Noah’s curse? Was only Canaan to be a slave, or did the curse extend to perpetuity?

The last major work to tackle Genesis 9 was Thomas Peterson’s Ham and Japheth in America: The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South. Haynes builds on Peterson’s valuable study. In the early chapters of Noah’s Curse, he surveys a wide variety of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish responses to the text from a more than 500-year period and shows how extrabiblical assumptions have shaped interpretations of the text. Sometimes Ham receives the curse; sometimes Canaan is the recipient of Noah’s malediction. Sometimes Noah hurls the curse because he feels he has been mocked, and sometimes the curse is attributed to sexual misconduct. Indeed, by the time of the Reformation, Haynes shows, many Christian theologians had concluded that the curse was the result of a sexual transgression (according to one theory, Ham had raped his mother).

At the same time, the curse became strongly associated with Africa. “Although Hamites had long been linked with southern regions of the inhabited world,” Haynes notes, “Ham himself was rarely racialized before Europeans explored West Africa in the fifteenth century.” With the beginnings of European involvement in the slave trade, Noah’s curse began to be reinterpreted. While Haynes acknowledges that “the fateful conjunction of slavery and race in Western readings of Noah’s prophecy” cannot be precisely dated, he writes that “by the early colonial period a racialized version of Noah’s curse had arrived in America,” founded on the conviction that Africans were the descendants of Ham.

Haynes’ central argument is that Genesis 9 must be seen as working within the Southern mind as a text about honor and only honor. Of all the interpretations of Noah’s curse available in Christian theology by the mid-19th century, Haynes contends that Southern divines settled on the one in which Noah invoked the curse because Ham had “mocked” Noah or “laughed at” him, thus dishonoring him as the family’s patriarch.

Nowhere in the biblical record does Ham or Canaan explicitly make fun of Noah, but this interpretive motif had a long history, appearing in the midrashic tradition before the time of Christ and given currency by Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Why did it assume such importance in Southern eyes? To an honor-bound society, as Haynes explains, the sin worthy of the curse of slavery was disrespect to the paterfamilias. Reinforcing this approach to the curse was the image of Nimrod, the grandson of the cursed Ham. Nimrod, who is best known as the builder of the Tower of Babel, was viewed as one who mocked God by attempting to build a tower that could reach into heaven. Haynes insightfully sees Nimrod, who was often depicted as dark-skinned, as a model for the “uppity slave” whose self-image is an affront to the master. The result of Nimrod’s impudence is a curse on all of humanity: to punish the tower’s builders, God fractures human communication into numerous languages.

For Southerners, Haynes argues, the lessons of Ham and Nimrod were clear: disrespect for one’s superiors created social disorder and deserved punishment, even in the form of slavery. Just as Adam and Eve’s primal rebellion against God meant that humanity ever after would labor under the curse of Original Sin, so Ham’s sin condemned his descendants to slavery. Noah’s curse was an appropriate punishment for promoting dishonor and disorder: “The obsession with Negro rebellion that made laughter a compelling theme among proslavery advocates also gave rise to a variety of depictions of Ham that accentuated his disorderly character.”

Haynes’ reading of the curse as what he calls an “honor” text is convincing, especially within the larger historiography of the South as an honor-bound society. What is not persuasive, however, is Haynes’ repeated insistence that Genesis 9 be read as an honor text to the exclusion of all other interpretations. Haynes himself documents a long tradition of interpreting the curse as the result of sexual impropriety, only to conclude that Southerners were either unaware of or unpersuaded by these interpretations. Even if they believed that Noah or Ham were guilty of sexual misconduct, Haynes argues, Southerners were concerned only with insolent children. Given that notions of honor and beliefs about sexual propriety are often closely linked, Haynes’ insistence that Southerners were worried about honor but not about sexual mores deprives his argument of an important nuance. One could, for instance, consider the connections between “honor” and “order” and characterizations of black slave sexuality or the prevalence of sexual liaisons between white masters and slaves.

Haynes’ analysis in this central section of the book is also narrow in that it focuses largely on one man: the Reverend Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902) of New Orleans. To be sure, the Presbyterian Palmer was an enormously influential figure. He loomed large in Southern society by the time of the Civil War, and not only among Protestants; his post-Civil War career as a pastor, writer, and editor was also illustrious. Haynes sees Palmer’s sermons and other writings as representative of the South and draws on the works of other Southern ministers and educators for reinforcement. For the 20th century, Haynes relies on a variety of primary and secondary sources to take the pulse of Southern Christianity.

Haynes’ final chapters take up what he calls “counterreadings” of the text, from the early rabbinical tradition to the present. In that spirit, he offers his own revisionist reading, based on René Girard’s theory of “mimetic rivalry,” scapegoating, and collective violence in which “disorder is transferred from the community to the victim.” Seen thus, Noah becomes the articulator of a limited and perhaps even unjustified curse that is the product of his own human frailty, not the righteous invocation of divine wrath.

In offering a new interpretive lens, Haynes speaks mainly to an audience of practicing Christians trying to make sense of a troubling text with an even more troubling history. And in turning our eyes toward the “victim,” Haynes reminds us yet again that biblical interpretation always occurs within a cultural context that has a profound yet often unacknowledged influence.

Laura L. Mitchell works for the Luther Institute in Washington, D.C., and is writing a book about the role of religion in the coming of the Civil War.

1. Thomas V. Peterson, Ham and Japheth in America: The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South (American Theological Library Association, 1978).

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine. Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

The post Original Sin appeared first on Christianity Today.