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Church life:

• Don't blame Jesus | It should surprise nobody that a minister might invoke Jesus's name, given that Jesus plays a central role in Christianity's conception of God. The problem, rather, is official prayer, and the implausible notion that it can ever be truly ecumenical (Editorial, The Washington Post)
  
  
• Mass defection | As congregations shrink and followers ignore official teachings, Australia's Catholic Church continues to resist reform (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Clergy sex abuse:

• Diocese pays $800,000 in abuse cases against priests | The Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen has agreed to pay $800,000 to 10 people who said that diocesan priests had sexually abused them (The New York Times)
  
  
• Records on 10 clergy released | Documents reveal McCormack's role (The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Protestant leaders standing by bishop | News executives defend story on earlier resignation agreement (The Dallas Morning News)

Culture and entertainment:

• New Left Behind series books coming soon | Tekno Books will publish two spin-off series (Press release)
  
  
• Film finds audience in the pews | This year, one of the most talked-about documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival wasn't shown here (The Christian Science Monitor)
  
  
• Harlem Gospel Choir preaches faith first, entertainment second | Have performed with U2, the Chieftains, and other groups, but it's still foremost a ministry (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Interfaith and other religions:

• Can Christians and Jews work together for Israel? | The ongoing Mideast conflict has created an awkward partnership for American Jewish groups, which are finding some of the staunchest pro-Israel support in this nation comes from a vocal group of evangelical Christians (Associated Press)

• American magnates finance new Temple Mount campaign | Goal "is to restore the Temple Mount to the center of public debate" (Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv)

• A denomination for everyone | Americans are proud of their freedom of religion, and the work of J. Gordon Melton shows they have a whole lot of religions to choose from (Associated Press)
  
  
• Beware New Age, Vatican tells flock | The Vatican is to urge Catholics to resist experimenting in cranky "alternative" lifestyles, in an attempt to prevent its flock being led astray by the growing popularity of New Age spiritualism (The Guardian, London)

Other stories of interest:

• Religion news in brief (Associated Press)
  
  
• Vatican steps up defense of Pius XII ahead of release of pre-war archives | An influential Italian Jesuit magazine close to the Vatican has published an article describing Pius' willingness to help members of the German resistance to the Nazis, supported by newly discovered Vatican documents in its own archives. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Choose your leaders wisely or perish | I attend a Christian fellowship on campus, and I believe the University's mandate regarding leadership selection is "appropriate." (Andrew Chao, The Daily Targum, Rutgers University)

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January (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47