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Associated Press reports drop in American missions since 9/11
While saying they're not forsaking [Jesus Christ's command to "go and make disciples of all nations,"] some Christian universities and churches are canceling international mission trips out of concern that Americans could become targets," a widely circulating Associated Press report says.

The Southern Baptist International Mission Board has reported a drop of more than 20 percent in volunteers for overseas mission trips, the AP says, but Bill Cashion, the IMB's director of volunteers in missions, says the economy may be as much to blame as fears of terror. "Many of our volunteers are telling us they just do not have the funds," he said.

Still, most of the AP's examples are apparently reductions in short-term missions trips. It's hard to tell to what extent long-term/career missionaries are coming off the field. All the service reports is that "Some have come back to the United States, while others have moved to countries in their regions where they would be less at risk. Still other have said they will not leave, whatever the danger." Statistics would have been very difficult to come by, but it's still unclear if there really is a notable drop in missions. If there's a more detailed study, we'll let you know.

Dutch woman will marry herself
Opponents of same-sex marriage say that once you remove the traditional definition of marriage, any union is up for grabs. They'll love the story of Jennifer Hoes, a Dutch student who will marry herself on May 28. "We live in a 'Me' society. Hence it is logical that one promises to be faithful to oneself," she told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

She told the Dagblad newspaper of the Dutch city of Haarlem, "I want to celebrate with others how much I'm in love with myself."

"Seen from the monotheistic perspective, Jennifer's 'marriage' is the quintessence of idolatry," lamented UPI religion editor Uwe Siemon-Netto.

One note: her wedding dress will be studded with 200 latex copies of her own nipples. Ah, holy matrimony.

War with Iraq:

• Warring with church, too? | The president has reached out to Catholic voters in America and presumably has reason to worry about the political effects of a breach with the Vatican. (The Christian Science Monitor)
  
  
• Direst of predictions for war in Iraq | End-time interpreters see biblical prophecies being fulfilled (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Onward Bush's soldiers | War with Iraq is 'dress rehearsal for Armageddon' says head of Evangelical Israel Broadcasting Network (Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com)
  
  
• Ideals & facts | Weighing morality and the facts of the pending war (Joseph Loconte & Nile Gardiner, National Review Online)
  
  
• Religious leaders take over peace campaign | Leaders of Indonesia's five officially recognized religions have taken over the country's peace campaigns after the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri appeared reluctant to condemn the planned attack on Iraq by the United States and its allies. (Asia Times)
  
  
• Churches offer plan against Iraqi war | Four mainline Protestant churches released a six-point plan for neutralizing the Iraqi dictator Friday. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• There is a third way | This is the moral dilemma: a decision between the terrible nature of that threat and the terrible nature of war as a solution (Jim Wallis and John Bryson Chane, The Washington Post)
  
  
• The Pope's legions | John Paul was wrong about the Gulf War too (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
  
  
• Babylon revisisted | Much biblical history, not all of it good, came from the lands of present-day Iraq (The Wall Street Journal)
  
  

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March (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47