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Church zoning:

• Easton zoners deny variance to convert closed bar into a church | With a 2-2 vote, the Easton Zoning Board on Monday denied a parking variance to a couple seeking to convert the former Berwick Street Bar and Grill into a church. (The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.)
• Permit rule brings lawsuit | A religious group running a rehab center in Calimesa says a $3,600 fee violates its rights. (The Press-Enterprise, Calif.)

Other religions:

• Preserving modesty, in the pool | Because Islam requires Muslim women to fully cover themselves in public, swimming in pools or the ocean is largely off-limits for many. But across the Puget Sound area, that's starting to change as public and private pools at times are sending home their male staff members, covering up their windows and allowing women of faith to swim alone and in private. (Seattle Times)
• Muslim Taj Mahal claim rejected | The Indian government has dismissed claims by a Muslim trust, the Sunni Waqf Board, that it owns the Taj Mahal. (BBC)
• India's yuppies flock to gurus for stress relief | When business gets stressful some managers call in the consultants. In India, however, the stressed-out consultants are calling in the gurus. (Times, London)

Books:

• Religion in America: A Christian thorn speaks out | As the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, Jack Spong ordained the first openly gay Episcopal priest in 1989. He has claimed that over 50 percent of Roman Catholic priests are gay and that even the Apostle Paul was homosexual. For these and other opinions, his opponents have called Spong a heretic. His latest book, Sins of the Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love (HarperSanFrancisco), brings a new round of criticism. (U.S. News & World Report)
• Author says Potter can teach Biblical messages | Pastor has wizard book club, Bible study (Associated Press)

Television:

• A warning from the past that the BBC does not want us to hear | A small news item this week announced that BBC Radio 4 had dropped its dramatisation of John Buchan's Greenmantle from the schedule. It contained "unsuitable and insensitive material" at this difficult time. A different reaction, you may remember, from the one the BBC displayed to another of its programmes: Jerry Springer - the Opera. Then the BBC said that it would not be dictated to. Faced with potential Muslim anger, its courage is less visible. (Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph)
• The silliness and brilliance of religion on the box | TV has opened up a whole new kind of ministry (Times, London)

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More articles of interest:

• Another rap at Darwin | Many scientists simply have given up any efforts to debate with ardent proponents of creationism, which in its newest guise is called "intelligent design." (Editorial, Toledo Blade)
• 'Evangelists will create jobs' | Christian Evangelical tourist center to be built in north will solve region's jobless woes, Bibi says (Jewish.com)
• Moses' top ten | The Israelites Moses himself led out of Egypt apparently witnessed the rather unprecedented parting of a sea by their deity to save their lives. Yet about 10 minutes go by and the ungrateful sinners start melting their earrings to make a cow they can pray to. That's what I find so reassuring about the Ten Commandments: the fact that they were necessary in the first place. (Sarah Vowell, The New York Times)

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49