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Joel Osteen, superstar
"Tickets to see the Rev. Joel Osteen this weekend in Dallas are going for as much as 10 times their face value," the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reports. Dallas' American Airlines Center has only about half the seats of Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, and now the $10 tickets—long since sold out—are selling for more than $100. (seems like it would be cheaper to make the four-hour drive to Houston).

"Joel Osteen is now to the Christian religion what Michael Jordan was to the NBA," Perfectseats.com's Gary McBride told the newspaper. "When Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls, game tickets sold out months in advance. In Christianity, Joel Osteen is that much of a superstar."

Religion & politics:

• Democrats for life? | Political parties may change, but principles don't. Pro-life voters just might follow their conscience wherever it leads, even into the Democratic Party (Paul Greenberg, The Washington Times)
• Gotta have faith | It may be time for the religious left to adjust the volume on its moral broadcast (Salt Lake City Weekly)
• Lib Dem stance on religious hatred law could lose votes | Charles Kennedy has been given warning that the surge in Liberal Democrat support among Muslim voters after the Iraq war is being put at risk by his party's failure to back planned laws against religious hatred (The Times, London)

Bush tapes:

• From psst to oops: Secret taper of Bush says history can wait | Doug Wead pledged to turn over to President Bush the tapes on which he secretly recorded some of their phone calls (The New York Times)
• Friend regrets tapes of Bush | The friend of President Bush's who secretly recorded private conversations with him before his first bid for the White House says he will surrender the tapes and donate proceeds from a book based partly on them to charity (The Washington Times)

Middle East:

• Lebanon's religious red lines | While the assassination of Rafik Hariri has raised fears that a new period of violence may engulf Lebanon, the grief uniting the country's different sects shows there is little appetite for another conflict (BBC)
• Putting faith in people | On the desert sweeps of Morocco, a cross-cultural conversation is well under way. Evangelical Christians, long viewed as hostile to Islam and its followers, actively are participating in conversations with the Moroccan government, businesses and community leaders (The Washington Times)

Churches & foreign policy:

• Church council seeks pressure on Israel | The governing body of the World Council of Churches has asked its members to consider bringing economic pressure on companies that benefit from Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories. American Jewish leaders have condemned the recommendation as biased (Associated Press)
• Listen to the Presbyterians | The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan on Tuesday issued a "Statement on Justice and Peace," advocating that Taiwanese sovereignty and independence should be the basis for interparty cooperation and negotiation (Editorial, Taipei Times)

Gays in the military:

• Gays' ouster seen leaving gap in military | More than 300 foreign language specialists considered critical in the war on terrorism have been forced out of the military in the past decade because of their sexual orientation, according to the first government study to assess both the warfighting and financial impact of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits openly gay servicemen (The Boston Globe)
• Rules on gays exact a cost in recruiting, a study finds | The military has spent more than $200 million to recruit and train personnel to replace troops discharged in the last decade for being openly gay, a new Congressional study has found (The New York Times)

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February (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49