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• For snake handlers, going to church can prove deadly | When the Rev. Dwayne Long picked up a rattlesnake in church last Sunday to show his faith in God, he was breaking a Virginia law that makes it a misdemeanor to handle dangerous snakes (The Roanoke Times, Va.)
  
  

Church bells:

• New church rules may sound the death knell for bell-makers | Plans to change the way church bells are listed could sound the death knell for Britain's two remaining bell foundries, it was claimed (The Independent, London)
  
  
• Church blesses giant Tsar Bell | A giant bell that will be the biggest to chime in Russia has been blessed and placed in a monastery bell tower (BBC)
  
  

Music:

• The organ as extreme sport | Playing all the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach or Olivier Messiaen is like hiking the Appalachian Trail. Usually, people take weeks or even months to do it. Paul Jacobs likes to do it more like a marathon (The New York Times)
  
  
• Christian music's new wave | Two decades after Christian rock bands began to fill theaters, the popularity of the Passion Experience tour, billed not as a concert but as a "worship gathering" for college students, reflects a groundswell both within churches and in the Christian music marketplace (The New York Times)
  
  
• Piracy no stranger to Christian tunes | Christian teens are stealing Jesus music (The Dallas Morning News)
  
  

Books:

• Signs and wonders | In The Miracle Detective, a journalist goes on the trail of mystic apparitions (The Washington Post)
  
  
• All for one | God Against the Gods shows the trouble with the triumph of a single divinity (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Marketing the Messiah | Two books examine the popular appeal and agendas of evangelical Christians (The Washington Post)
  
  

Art & film:

• Portraying the divine | In a show at a Jewish museum, 100 artists share their visions of God. Many of the works are devoid of religiosity (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• God in the aisles | It was probably inevitable, given the growing profile of evangelicals around the country and their open disdain for Hollywood hedonism. The first Independent Christian Film Festival & Jubilee Awards has been set to run in San Antonio Nov. 11-13 (Variety)
  
  
• Coverage of `The Passion' | According to the initial findings of a study by the College of Communications at Marquette University, a Jesuit institution, most articles that it categorized as straight news reports were either neutral or positive. Reaction to the film, about the last hours of Jesus, became more negative in editorials, reviews, critiques and feature articles (The New York Times)
  
  

More articles:

• African Anglicans shun US money over gay policies | Bishops last week said they will not sacrifice conscience (The Christian Science Monitor)
  
  
• Taking the sin out of sex | Why has the church been so prudishly anti-sexual, giving grudging tolerance only to the marriage bed? (David Bryant, The Guardian)
  
  
• Nigeria's 'respectable' slave trade | "Trafficking in human beings" is a phrase guaranteed to cause a sharp intake of breath among listeners from the liberal and affluent and concerned West. The view of trafficking in Nigeria is somewhat different. In fact, it is seen as an everyday part of West African life (BBC)
  
  
• Cathedral may see return of Muslims | Centuries after Christian building was put at the centre of Córdoba's mosque, Vatican hears Spanish appeal to allow Islamic worship there (The Guardian, London)
  
  

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April (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48