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1. Frank Page is new, nicer SBC president

"I'm just a normal pastor of a somewhat normal church," said Frank Page upon being elected as president of the country's largest Protestant denomination. It was the first contested election in years, writes the Associated Press.

Johnny Hunt, a pastor from Woodstock, Ga., was the leadership's choice for president but unexpectedly dropped out of the race in late April. He was replaced by [Ronnie] Floyd, head of the First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., and the nearby Church at Pinnacle Hills.

Then Page entered the race, leading a group that criticized the low levels of cooperative program giving at Floyd's churches. Page's church, by contrast, gives 12 percent of its undesignated offerings to the program.

Page says he'll show a gentler face of Southern Baptists. "I believe in the Word of God," he said. "I am just not mad about it. Too long Baptists have been known for what we are against. Please let us tell you what we are for," he told The New York Times.

2. Ohio considers abortion ban

"By the time it gets to the Supreme Court, we may have a friendly court," John Willke, president of the Cincinnati-based Life Issues Institute and past president of the National Right to Life, told lawmakers at a hearing on a bill that would ban all abortions in Ohio. "The time has come."

Ohio's pro-life community hopes to join South Dakota in its effort to overturn Roe v. Wade. But it looks like they'll have to wait until after the November elections. The Dayton Daily News reports:

The bill has little chance of passing any time soon since House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has said it would get only one hearing for now. State Rep. Chris Redfern, who is also Ohio Democratic Party Chairman, said the GOP doesn't want to vote on it now because a total ban would cost it votes in November.

3. Narnia really is about Jesus

When Anne Jenkins wrote C. S. Lewis asking for an explanation to a passage in The Silver Chair, she wasn't expecting a reply. The BBC reports that Lewis did reply, telling Jenkins what he told no one else—that Narnia was about Christ.

In the letter Lewis simply states that the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of the "crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection".

He also explains that the story of Prince Caspian "tells the restoration of the true religion after the corruption".

"If you read the letters he wrote to other children, none of them are like this at all," Anne said.

Now who's going to publish the gift book and daily devotional spin off?

4. Chinese restaurant ministry

The LA Times profiles a woman who has made it her ministry to help Chinese immigrants working in restaurant kitchens:

Many, here illegally, have no access to labor unions or social service networks. They live in cramped restaurant-owned dormitories or in rented garages without cooking facilities, bathrooms or running water.

To cope with their harsh living conditions and mind-numbingly mundane work, many fall prey to gambling, drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

Among the worn wooden chopping boards and flashing meat cleavers, hissing deep-fryers and walk-in freezers, the desire for a higher calling is fierce.

5. Where's Waldo?

Evangelicals seem to be perennially eager to find God in popular culture artifacts. The Associated Press reports Superman Returns is no exception:

Many … see the story of a hero sent to Earth by his father to serve mankind as having clear enough New Testament overtones. Others have taken the comparison even further, reading the "El" in Superman's original name "Kal-El" and that of his father "Jor-El" as the Hebrew word for "God," among other theological interpretations.

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June (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50