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The article appears to have run within the last 24 hours, which is problematic: Ray Hemphill, the minister who oversaw this service was charged with felony abuseon Tuesday. But what's with that headline: Death of a sacrificial lamb? Folks are welcome to disagree over whether 8-year-old autistic boy Terrance Cottrell Jr. should have been the subject of a two-hour deliverance service. And certainly something went wrong during that service. (Not much is known about what happened. The Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith says the boy's mother didn't tell anyone that the boy had just taken medication. Hemphill reportedly sat on the boy's chest for much of the service.) This is clearly a very sad story.

But a headline suggesting that Cottrell was sacrificed is inexcusable. It's pure bigotry. And, unfortunately, it puts many of us who want to discuss the dangers of these deliverance services in the position of defending this church's beliefs and practices.

Sigh.
Yeah, as you can see, Weblog is a bit more on edge today. That's probably less because of the news than because today is the last day that Todd Hertz, Christianity Today's online assistant editor, will be working for us. Regular visitors to the site will remember his many, many articles, including his popular evangelistic interview with the Austin Powers IM bot.

Todd is leaving CT, but he's staying in the company: Starting Tuesday, he'll be the new associate editor for sister publication Campus Life, a magazine for teens. We wish him all the best, and are glad he'll still be around the building, and his byline will appear on the Campus Life channel of ChristianityToday.com (which, it should be noted, is the corporate website of Christianity Today International, which includes Christianity Today's website and that of our 10 other magazines.)

And for you journalists reading this, it means there's an opening. Apply here—quickly.

Ten Commandments:

• Ten Commandments monument stirs debate over religious freedom in U.S. | Some see the display of the Biblical symbol in a public courthouse as a violation of American law. The monument's defenders view the struggle to remove it as a rejection of God (Voice of America)
  
  
• Monument now rallying point | Christians use controversy in Alabama to push agenda (Chicago Tribune)
  
  
• I bring you ten—no, five—Commandments | If the ACLU et al. won't accept Ten Commandments, how about five? (Jonah Goldberg)
  
  
• Mississippi covets neighbor's monument | Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove volunteered Thursday to join neighboring Alabama in the fight over the Ten Commandments monument by offering to display it in his state's capitol building for a week starting September 7 (CNN)
  
  
• An offensive work of art | Civil-liberties groups defend other controversial public art, so why not the Ten Commandments? (Gene Edward Veith, World)
  
  
• U.S. wrestles with role of God in public life (Reuters)
  
  

Alabama tax reform:

• Poor in spirit? | If Riley loses, we'll have pretty convincing proof that for all the moral high ground Christians claim, in a showdown they open themselves to criticism that they hate taxes more than they love Jesus (Neal Peirce, Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
  
  
• What would Jesus tax? | We're not sure where the Bible comes down on tax-and-spend politicians, but we have a pretty good idea of what it says about people who break their word (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
  
  

Aftermath of Episcopal gay bishop vote:

• Episcopalians revolt with their pocketbooks | Offerings withheld after gay-bishop vote (The Denver Post)
  
  

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August (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47