Other articles on theology:
- A proof that won’t quite quit | Few agree with the ontological argument for God’s existence. Even fewer agree on just what’s wrong with it. (The National Post)
- Is traditional African religion compatible with Christianity? | On the question of how to get to God, Christ is unequivocal (Tendai Chopamba, Zimbabwe Standard)
- Christ was wrongly convicted, rules Spanish judge | But Jesus could have faced other charges (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Third of Britons believe Jesus rose from dead (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Eugene Rivers: Still in the spotlight As noted in Weblog last week, The Boston Globe reported that Eugene Rivers was planning on “disappearing” from the public eye. “I am not interested in being local news,” Rivers said. “All I want to do is reduce my negatives and … wherever it is possible, promote good will.” Well, maybe he’s not local news right now, but he’s still national news. Saturday’s New York Times also profiled Rivers, saying that “White House … efforts to have the government work more closely with religious organizations to tackle social problems may place him in a more influential position than he ever achieved with his small social services center here [in Boston].” Rivers says he wants to be the new black religious movement’s—in his words, “an intellectual Phil Jackson.” But writer Gustav Niebuhr noted Rivers’s desire to disappear as well: “To be either coach or adviser, he will need to attract less attention—not an easy task, given his record for being both insightful and provocative, which has made him a magnet for reporters.”
Bush meets with religious broadcasters The National Association of Evangelicals got John DiIulio. The National Religious Broadcasters Association—which just split from the NAE—got DiIulio, Ashcroft, and Bush himself. Well the NRB executive board, anyway. “We expressed our gratitude that righteousness—which is just rightness—has returned to this office,” said David W. Clark, president of Family Net TV Networks, told the Associated Press. “He, in turn, assured us that his role really is not to change government but to change culture.”
More articles
Faith-based initiatives:
- Battle lines grow on plan to assist religious groups | The battle over the White House initiative to channel more government financing to religious social service programs heated up yesterday, as several major labor unions joined the opposition and a coalition of conservative groups assured President Bush of their support. (The New York Times)
- Conservatives rally around Bush plan | Coalition for Compassion hopes to counter criticism from liberal groups, as well as darts thrown by Christian conservatives who fear that government money will corrupt churches who take it (Associated Press)
- Promise and pitfalls in taking religion to prison | The InnerChange Freedom Initiative illustrates both the promise and the challenges of collaboration between government and religious organizations. It works under contract with the state to rehabilitate felons, and inmates say they have been changed. But it is an open question whether the program could qualify for federal financing, given the religious message at its core. (The New York Times)
Religion and politics:
- Ashcroft to Christian crowd: Use government to sell Jesus | The gospel according to the A.G. (The Village Voice)
- The marriage of politics and compassion | The rhetoric of ”compassionate conservatism,” whether actually realized or not, marks a reversal of the ”rugged individualism” that has so long undergirded one pole of American discourse. (James Carroll, The Boston Globe)
- ‘Scribe’ is a man of Bush’s words | West Wing job isn’t as glam as on TV (USA Today)
Church and state:
- For heaven’s sake, why do they ban Christian radio? | The legislation involved is a classic product of the British liberal mind, with all its lust to nanny and to interdict, not to mention a fastidious distaste for anyone who exhibits religious zeal. (Boris Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Firing upheld for trooper who refused riverboat duty | State Police officials say Ben Endres’ firing was necessary to maintain discipline and authority, but his pastor says it’s an example of the corruptive influence of gambling. (The Indianapolis Star)
- Complaint ends public prayer at New Mexico high school | The Alamogordo, N.M., school district has stopped allowing prayers at school-sponsored events after the American Civil Liberties Union complained about a prayer by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at a high school football game. (Associated Press/Freedom Forum)
- Churches line up to decry rural land-use proposal | Suggested remedies for urban sprawl issues worsen, say religious leaders (The Seattle Times)
- Georgia preacher puts out Word at high school football | While promoting prayers at games, Curtis Turner has gathered tens of thousands of signatures on a petition in support of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing public prayer. (The Washington Times)
- Catholic bishop denied final say in B.C. Teachers’ behavior | Catholic Civil Rights League says B.C. Labor Relations Board wants to decide what is and is not Roman Catholic (The Vancouver Sun)
- High court rejects challenge to federal aid for religious health center (Associated Press/Freedom Forum)
Education:
- Muslim student sues Louisiana school over Bible distribution | 11-year-old says she was forced to play a “Jesus game” in school and was told by classmates that she would “burn in hell.” (Associated Press/Freedom Forum)
- N.D. Legislature approves religious-documents bill | What began as a proposal to display the Ten Commandments in North Dakota’s public schools has become a new requirement for school boards to draft policies for the display of religious documents. (Associated Press/Freedom Forum)
- Schools have no right to tell kids what to think | Both school and civil authorities are punishing children not for actual crimes, but for thought crimes – and doing so by claiming a responsibility to create a “safe” environment for kids. (Rod Dreher, New York Post)
- Seminary mulls its fiscal pinch | Union Theological Seminary, which has turned out leading theologians for 170 years, is grappling with the high cost of maintaining its historic Manhattan campus, and with an increasingly demanding academic environment (New York Daily News)
- Court challenge threatens Scotland’s Catholic schools | Legal challenge to school’s refusal to admit a non-Catholic pupil could mean the end of Scotland’s system of denominational schooling after 83 years of state-financed separate education. (The Independent, London)
- Drinking violations bench team’s season | After eight of 17 players busted for violating Eastern Nazarene College’s conduct code, team’s season is prematurely ended. (Boston Herald, also Associated Press)
- Schools put Virginia chapel off-limits | Board cites rejection of interfaith ceremony (The Washington Post)
- Students survive airplane trauma | Returning from a mission to Barbados, campus Christians say God helped them home (The Daily Northwestern)
- Effort to ban book splits public opinion | Parents say The Giver shows a disregard for human life. (The Denver Post)
- First Amendment protects student ‘God-talk’ in public schools | What is it about student religious speech that causes some school officials to react with fear and trembling? (Charles Haynes, Freedom Forum)
Science:
- Evolutionists battle new theory on creation | Evolutionists find themselves arrayed not against traditional creationism, with its roots in biblical literalism, but against a more sophisticated idea: the intelligent design theory. (The New York Times)
- Biology text illustrations more fiction than fact | The intelligent design movement has helped its cause by publicizing some embarrassing mistakes in leading biology textbooks. Biologists attribute them to inattention, but design proponents say the errors show that Darwinists are more than willing to accept shoddy evidence if it supports evolution. (The New York Times)
Persecution:
- Demonstrations continue to protest Mass cancellation | Sudanese government cancelled Reinhard Bonnke service (Panafrican News Agency)
- Also: Sudan police tear gas cathedral meeting | Church was meeting to plan protest of Bonnke cancellation (BBC)
- Pakistani Christian teacher jailed for ‘blasphemy’ | Christians say Parvez Masih was jailed because his private classes were attracting more students than a nearby Muslim school (South Nexus, Manipal, India)
- Defrocked priest leads war against evangelicals | A fiery Georgian cleric on a mission to rid his country of evangelical groups has damaged its reputation for religious tolerance and drawn criticism from abroad. (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
- Staines murder case: Witness fails to identify cousin (The Indian Express)
- Also: Witness fails to identify accused in Staines case (The Times of India)
- Preacher puts his life at risk to convert British Muslims | 43-year-old evangelist was forced to leave Teheran because of threats to his life after he began preaching to Muslims about Jesus Christ (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Homosexuality and public life:
- ‘God will destroy you’ | Florida lawmaker bashes gay rights visitors (Associated Press)
- Wrath of the right | Conservatives pan appointment of gay man (ABCNews.com)
- Also: James Dobson critical of Bush appointee (Press release)
- Also: Conservatives mobilize against gay appointee | “We don’t want this to become the leak in the dike” says Louis Sheldon. (The Washington Post)
- Activist faced sex charge | The leader of a group trying to repeal Broward County’s gay-rights law and restore public funding to the Boy Scouts was charged in 1999 with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl in Maryland. (The Miami Herald)
Homosexuality and the church:
- Crusade to ‘cure’ gays was wrong, says founder | Evangelical Alliance likely to expel Courage Trust (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- At St. Paul church, quiet `warrior’ prepares to defy ELCA policy | Lesbian in committed relationship to be ordained by congregation (Saint Paul Pioneer Press)
- Resolute church awaits reaction to ordination | Possible sanctions range from censure to ELCA expulsion (Saint Paul Pioneer Press)
- Marriage by gays is not acceptable, says Carey (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Also: Archbishop George Carey stands firm on gay marriage | “Marriage is a relationship between man and a woman. I don’t think it actually helps to confuse terms.” (BBC)
- Gay pastor seeks Seattle post | Lesbian basing her request on another Methodist law that guarantees ordained elders in good standing the right to an appointment. (The Seattle Times)
- Separation of Church & Gay | Conservative religious groups and gay-rights supporters square off over Bush’s faith-based initiatives. (Michael Kress, Beliefnet)
- Hospital chaplain resigned over gay colleague | “As an Anglican clergyman, Stephen is clearly breaking our professional and priestly codes of conduct,” chaplain protests. (The Times, London)
- Chaplain resigns after ‘harassing’ homosexual cleric | Gay colleague had complained that chaplain’s opposition to homosexual clergy “made me feel anxious, depressed and intensely frustrated” (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Namibia:
- Church defends gay rights | Council of Churches in Namibia affirms anti-homosexual position of the Bible, but says gays and lesbians have rights (UN Integrated Regional Information Network)
- Homosexuals ‘to be barred from entering Namibia’ (The Namibian)
- Nujoma accuses Americans of creating HIV-Aids (The Namibian)
- US invented’ HIV, says Nujoma (Business Day, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Sexual ethics:
- God’s wounded love on the city streets | As a volunteer working with women in prostitution, I often find myself challenged by the suffering wisdom of women on the streets. (Tina Beattie, The Dallas Morning News)
- Church of Scotland warns government over sex education report | Church’s education committee said there should be clear guidelines on how to identify and deal with sexual abuse (BBC)
Not a movie: The spy who evangelized a stripper
- ‘Spy who didn’t love me’ | Friend says Hanssen sincerely hoped to save stripper (ABCNews.com)
- Hanssen took stripper to church, sources say | Accused spy said to have been proselytizing (The Washington Post)
Church life:
- God save the priests, lost souls in a world of confusion | A new study has found modern men and women of God must battle with the same problems that bother their flocks. (What a shocker!) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Woman ordered to stay away from minister | Joyce Henderson was warned she faced jail if she flouted the order after Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard she had plagued the Reverend Harvey Grainger with dozens of nuisance phone calls and had damaged his residence. (The Scotsman, Edinburgh)
- Link to popular hymn saves old rustic building | Methodists hope to restore 139-year-old church where “The Old Rugged Cross” was first performed (Religion News Service/The Washington Post)
- Illinois woman sues priest, church for $3 million | Claims she was physically injured by the priest and emotionally harmed by libelous and slanderous attacks by church leaders. (Chicago Tribune)
- Dean of Westminster blasts his critics in fresh Abbey feuding | Controversy over firing of church organist continues (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Taking a cue from barmen | Ever since Karl Barth and Martin Niemoeller, Confessing Church movements have sprung up in diverse denominations all over the world. The latest example is the venerable Presbyterian Church USA. (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
- Poor state of religious properties in city is decried | It’s part of a national problem with no easy solution. A Bush aide spoke about it here. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
- 59-year-old woman interrupts church service—by walking in naked | Peggy Hill has been jailed more than 30 times (The Albuquerque Journal)
- Burglars hit church for second straight night | Two nights in a row, someone broke a basement window glass, entered the Indianapolis church and ransacked offices on the main floor. Church officials don’t think the burglary was particularly malicious. (The Indianapolis Star)
Activism:
- Cincinnati clergy try to keep peace | 50 people roaming city, breaking windows in a protest over the police shooting of an unarmed black man (Associated Press)
- Pentecostals say park’s policy unfair | 35 members of First Pentecostal Church of Orlando picketed Holy Land on Saturday (The Orlando Sentinel)
- Christian activist extends reach | William T. Devlin urges traditional values. He’s branching into the ‘burbs. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Catholicism:
- Fans have faith in this hero | Italian comic book tells life story of John Paul II (USA Today)
- Pope to curtail Good Friday activity, Vatican says | For the first time in his 22-year papacy, Pope John Paul will not walk around the Colosseum during Good Friday Stations of the Cross (Reuters)
- Vatican’s selection of Archbishop of Sydney broke church law, says priest | Process “corrupted” by a lack of consultation and by undue influence from the conservative Opus Dei group, complains Father Les Cashen (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Vatican Radio’s continuing battles:
- In radio feud, a higher kind of superpower irks Italy | Neighbors fear that Vatican Radio’s antennas are generating cancer-causing radiation along with radio signals. (The New York Times)
- Italy backs off radio shutdown | Vatican has until the end of the month to negotiate a reduction in its electromagnetic emissions. (Associated Press)
- Vatican Radio given ultimatum | Italian government calls offer to reduce emissions “absolutely insufficient” (CNN)
- Italy renews Vatican Radio threat | Transmitters may be shut down this week (BBC)
- Higher power is invoked in Vatican dispute | A Roman prosecutor wants radio transmitters shut down because of the electromagnetic radiation they produce. The Holy See denies levels are illegal. (Los Angeles Times)
- Vatican Radio agrees to cut back (Associated Press)
- Radiation laws bring cut in Vatican Radio (Reuters)
- Vatican radio bows to pressure (BBC)
Ecumenism:
- Interfaith agencies going beyond religion | In perhaps a telling sign of the times, the National Conference of Christians and Jews has changed its name to the National Conference for Community and Justice. (Charles W. Bell, New York Daily News)
- Churches agree on date for Easter (Associated Press)
Other stories of interest:
- Maybe it’s time for us to preach about our faith | I’ve spent a lot of time in churches, Roman Catholic and Protestant, the past 33 years. What I found there replaced the booze and then some. (Bill Reel, Newsday)
- Court orders re-opening of closed church | But judge mandates that cleansing ceremony be conducted before reopening (The Nation, Nairobi)
- Earlier Nairobi church calls for government intervention in split (Christianity Today Weblog, last item, July 10, 2000)
- Easter ‘B.C.’ sparks controversy among Jews | Anti-Defamation League claims comic strip anti-Jewish. (The Washington Times)
- Also: Official B.C. site
- Imprisoned minister Lyons, wife divorcing (Associated Press)
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