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Salem stock takes major hit
For Christian radio giant Salem Communications, bad news breeds bad news. Yesterday the company's fourth-quarter results fell short of most analysts' estimates, and it said the first quarter would be even worse—it will lose 20 to 22 cents a share.

There's the economic uncertainty created by the possibility of war, of course, but the radio network also faces increasingly intense competition from conservative talk stations. Salem has shifted much of its programming from religious shows to news-talk formats.

Wall Street didn't like the news, and the price of Salem stock dropped by 22 percent (or 24 percent, or "as much as 27 percent," depending on who's counting) yesterday. As Weblog is being posted, it's sinking even lower.

Ash Wednesday and Lent:

• Protestants revive Ash Wednesday | Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians and even some charismatic Christians with personal roots in those denominations were among worshippers who attended Ash Wednesday services (The Virginian-Pilot)
  
  
• Message of healing for Ash Wednesday | The Diocese of San Bernardino asks parishioners to discuss the sex scandal during Lent (The Press-Enterprise, Inland California)
  
  
• Washington Catholics join Pope's fast | While his envoy, Cardinal Pio Laghi, met with President Bush at the White House, rank-and-file Catholics in churches all over the city were having their foreheads daubed with ashes to signify penitence for their sins (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Bishop calls Lent a 'time for healing' | But few attend Mass to foster reconciliation (The Boston Globe)

War with Iraq:

• Catholics Debating: Back President or Pope on Iraq? | Conservative Roman Catholics are torn: as Catholics, they follow the pope, who opposes a war with Iraq, but as conservatives, they back the president (The New York Times)
  
  
• Diverse denominations oppose the call to arms | A broad spectrum of religious leaders are loudly urging President Bush to pull back from the brink of a war on Iraq (The New York Times)
  
  
• No holy wars in Christianity | Judging by the escalating religious chatter on television, you would think President George W. Bush was planning a war on Iraq as a faith-based initiative. If this were the case, it would indeed be indefensible. No major Christian theology supports the idea of a holy war (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
  
  
• Church leaders mobilize for peace | Opposition to invasion of Iraq often not shared by parish members (The Baltimore Sun)
  
  
• Islam and us | Europe has most to fear from a Muslim backlash after America's crusade against Iraq  (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Pontiff's envoy urges president to avoid war | The president told the cardinal that if force is required, "it will make the world better," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (Sacramento Bee)
  
  
• Pope intensifies plea to avert a US-led war (Financial Times)
  
  
• Crucifixion offered in peace plea | New Zealand woman has offered to be crucified by U.S. President George W. Bush if he pledges not to attack Iraq (Reuters)
  
  
• Of God, and Man, in the Oval Office | It may confound people that some mainline Protestant churches continue to resist the president's call to arms (Fritz Ritsch, The Washington Post)
  
  
• Blair: My Christian conscience is clear over war | The Prime Minister answers questions over his beliefs and motives (The Independent, London)

Church and state:

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March (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47