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• Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on Sudan
• Commission Issues New Recommendations on Sudan (USCIRF press release)

Eugene Rivers says he's taking a break
Boston pastor EugeneRivers says he's going to "disappear" from the public eye, reports The Boston Globe. "I don't need any additional psychodrama," he says. "I am not interested in being local news. … All I want to do is reduce my negatives and … wherever it is possible, promote good will." Rivers caused a big stir a few weeks ago when he claimed white evangelicals were opposing Bush's faith-based initiative because the beneficiaries would be "poor, black, and brown." Will he really take himself out of the public eye? Weblog will believe it when it doesn't see it.

Church and state:

• 'In God We Trust' stays off state flag | Proposal will be studied (The Tennessean)
• Blessing brings protest at VMI | Group of cadets, ACLU join forces (The Washington Post)
• Also: VMI ready to defend tradition of prayers (The Washington Times)

Popular culture:

• Believe it or not, it's a Bible course 'Castaway' | British television program will show nonbelievers in Alpha Course (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Exorcist banned for Good Friday in Victoria, Australia (The Age)
• Also: Church welcomes 'Exorcist' ban (The Age)
• Catholic women's college silences 'Vagina Monologues' | Play "raised questions of appropriateness," says administrator (Chicago Tribune)
• Christian salsa stars are making a joyful noise (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Carman: Garden Crowd Boos the Devil | Despite his Satan shtick, Carman comes off as an everyday, television- ready character, equal parts Ted Danson, Tom Jones and Al Martino. His singing is proficient but never spectacular and, despite all the pyrotechnics, the show is still not nearly as exciting as an hour in, say, Al Green's rickety little Baptist church in Memphis. But that said, if music fans go to concerts to feel part of something, to belong, then there are few concerts that accomplish this better than the arena Christian rock that Carman specializes in.
• Bible thumpers | Rap-metal pounders P.O.D. wrap their messages of faith in an unholy racket (The Winnipeg Sun)
• Think tank: As definitions change, the moral turns trivial | A new little book called The Dictionary of Dangerous Words, compiled by Digby Anderson, contends a decline in the old virtues, identified in this book as "honesty, especially frankness of speech, loyalty, trust, self-sacrifice and permanence of character." (The New York Times)

Christians in the media:

• Anchor finds way to keep the faith while reporting the news | Ken Rosato of Miami's CBS affiliate, WFOR, becomes a priest in the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (The Miami Herald)
• A mogul broadcasts his morals | John Rigas has stuck to his beliefs as head of Adelphia, helping residents in the cable company's rural hometown. But his refusal to carry adult channels in L.A. has sparked controversy (Los Angeles Times)

Politics and law:

• Court throws out harassment award against AME church | But $1 million judgment upheld against elder who reportedly harassed and groped pastor (The Kansas City Star)
• Copyright infringement charges dismissed against 'Bible Code' author | Software maker claimed use of matrix was unauthorized (New York Law Journal)
• Kid porn act gets buffed up | House holds hearings in anticipation of legal challenges (Wired News)

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45