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• Preaching nonviolence in a too-violent world | It's enough to make you wonder if human beings have lost the thread of nonviolence, forgotten its precepts and abandoned its promise. This weekend, a man considered one of the principal architects of the civil rights movement visits Portland to talk about nonviolence. (Nancy Haught, The Oregonian)

Religion & politics:

• What abortion debate? | Talking about Alito's respect for precedent avoids the real questions. (Michael Kinsley, Washington Post)
• Catholics could control court | Is five Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court one Catholic too many? (George Mitrovich, Cincinnati Post)
• Dems distracted by wrong war | The culture wars—over homosexuality, abortion and public school prayer, for example—are not issues that trouble most Americans. Majorities tolerate the idea of civil unions for gays and legal abortion under some circumstances. Four out of five conservative Christians who believe in the literal inerrancy of the Bible think that abortion ought to be legal if a woman's health is in danger. Three of five Americans support prayer in public schools. (Andrew Greeley, Chicago Sun-Times)
• Preacher enters political arena | On one side of the street, a handful of liberal ministers pleaded for tolerance of gay rights and respect for Islam. On the other side, hundreds of people cheered as evangelist Rod Parsley called on the crowd to "lock and load" for "a Holy Ghost invasion." (Associated Press)
• Mass. GOP aiding drive for ban on gay marriage | Some in party voice objections (Boston Globe)

Human rights & religious freedom:

• North Korea crushing churches | U.S. report: Commission tells of Christians executed in front of schoolchildren (National Post, Canada)
• Vietnam jails six Montagnard men | A Vietnamese court has sentenced six ethnic minority Montagnards to between seven and 17 years jail for "threatening national security". (BBC)
• Leader blames attacks on terrorists | A top Pakistani Christian leader says "trained terrorists" were behind attacks on churches, a school and a student hostel. The attacks were in a village, sparked by rumors that a local Christian man had desecrated Islam's holy book. (Chicago Tribune)
• China detains Catholic priest | China recently detained an underground Roman Catholic priest and 10 seminarians, a rights group said in a statement seen by Reuters on Friday. (Reuters)
• China arrests priests, seminarians | Chinese authorities have arrested a priest and 10 seminarians from that nation's underground Roman Catholic Church, a Vatican-affiliated news agency said Friday. (Associated Press)
• Ex-Rwandan mayor pleads guilty to charges | A former Rwandan mayor accused of participating in the killing of several thousand people who had sought refuge in a church pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of murder and extermination related to the 1994 genocide of more than half a million Rwandans. (Associated Press)
• Turkmenistan: Activists flay US report on religious freedom | Human rights groups have strongly criticised a US government report for failing to designate Turkmenistan a country of particular concern (CPC) on the issue of religious freedom. (Reuters)
• Many women victim of 'gendercide,' study finds | There is a shortfall of some 200 million women in the world—"missing' due to what a three-year study on violence against women calls "gendercide." (Reuters)

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November (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49