2 of 3

• Iraq peace through divine intervention | Sojourners' strong suits are neither geopolitics nor, in fact, reality. (Glenn Craven, Daily Dispatch, Henderson, N.C.)
  
  
• Worshippers pray for area troops, peace | Different congregations are reacting to the imminent war in different ways (Orlando Sentinel)
  
  
• 'Human shields,' armed with prayers | Perhaps 100 human shields still remain inside Iraq (The Washington Post)

The Pope and war:

• French MP urges Pope to become Iraq human shield | Didier Julia is a maverick conservative who has visited Iraq twice in the past six months (Reuters)
  
  
• War in Iraq a crime, says Vatican | "War is a crime against peace which cries for vengeance before God," said Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino on Vatican Radio (The Australian)
  
  
• Also: Anti-war priest calls war 'unjust'  (UPI)
  
  
• Pope's position makes him Saddam enabler  | His opposition to military action is understandable in theory but troubling in practice. (Bill O'Reilly, New York Daily News)

• Catholic doctrine and Saddam Hussein | While we have great respect for the pope and his teachings, we believe that Messrs. Weigel and Novak make a much more cogent and compelling case that U.S.-led international action to disarm Saddam Hussein would constitute a just war in every way (Editorial, The Washington Times)
  
  
• Torn between church and country? | While consistently warning against the war, Pope John Paul II has consistently sounded more nuanced than many mainline Protestant church leaders critical of Bush's policies (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)

Interfaith relations:

• Relations among American Jews, Muslims, Christians at low point | So claims Interfaith Alliance (Associated Press)
  
  
• Boldly goes the dean | What has caused most of the fuss is Mr Jensen's uncompromising declaration that if Christianity is right, then other religions, inconsistent with it, must be wrong. His logic may be uncomfortable but it is faultless. (Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald, second item)
  
  
• Also: How the dean raised the devil | The Dean needs to be careful that in his enthusiasm for his own cause, he does not give offence to believers as genuine about their different faith (Editorial, The Australian, second item)
  
  
• Also: Groping at shadows in a darkened room | To say that my religion is the one true religion can only ever be a claim based on faith (Chris McGillion, The Sydney Morning Herald)

Persecution and violence:

• Indian movie about missionary draws threats | Ignoring repeated threats from Hindu fundamentalists, a voluntary group working among the poor and lepers in India is going ahead with a film on the life of Australian missionary Graham Staines, who was killed by Hindu extremists in 1999 (South China Morning Post)
  
  
• Extremism rising in Pakistan, unprecedented violence: report | But government says it is doing all it can (Associated Press)

Crime:

• Police arrest clergyman over demolished church structures | The leader of the trouble-ridden Church of God in East Africa spent the night in the cells after a dramatic arrest on Friday evening (The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya)
  
  
• Fighting in church leaves man dead | Joseph Okech, 26, died after being hit in the nape with a wooden plank yanked off a huge cross standing on the church compound, by a worshipper (The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya)
  
  
• FBI arrests 8 men in scheme that used religion to bilk investors of $50 million | John Franklin Harrell claimed to be in charge of a $1.6-trillion trust created by a descendant of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church (Los Angeles Times)
  
  

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

March (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47