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An earlier ChristianityToday.com Weblog item noted that the church, which worships using the jazz great's music, was facing a doubling rent and would have to close. It is, in fact, moving. It needs $20,000 to find a permanent home, but will share space with another church in the meantime.

After the Chicago White Sox got into a brawl with the Detroit Tigers when both teams' pitchers repeatedly took aim at batters, White Sox manager Jerry Manuel was ejected. Manuel, known for his Christian beliefs (though sometimes misidentified as a Buddhist—that's former Bulls coach Phil Jackson, folks), sees no inconsistency between his faith and his team's rules-breaking pitching. "In biblical times there was war, bloodshed, anger at injustices," he told the Chicago Tribune after his ejection. "I aim to stay within the rules as much as possible, but sometimes the arena you're in dictates what's going on." He earlier told the paper, "The Christian lifestyle I pursue is competitiveness to the utmost. I can't be small in the game because of my beliefs. I must be the most competitive warrior out there because I'm representing something I think is higher than what someone else is bringing into battle."

The evangelistic campaign to present the gospel to all U.S. prisoners over a five-year period got underway Easter Sunday, greeted by an Associated Press article on the effort. Operation Starting Line is backed by Prison Fellowship, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, National Black Evangelical Association, Campus Crusade, the Navigators, Walk Thru the Bible, the American Bible Society, Promise Keepers, and several other Christian organizations. See our September 6, 1999, editorial " Go Directly to Jail" for more information.

The skull of Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1423)—actually one of the antipopes who ruled from Avingnon, France, during the Great Schism of the Western Church—has been stolen from a Spanish museum. Benedict was deposed by the Council of Constance on July 26, 1417, which eventually concluded the schism, but he still claimed to be pope until his death. Roman Catholics still don't consider him a true successor to Peter, so there's actually two historical figures with the title Pope Benedict XIII (the latter lived from 1649 to 1730). Anyway, the schismatic Benedict's skull was the only part of his remains left. The Associated Press article doesn't mention any motive for the robbery.

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44