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Top Five Stories of the Day

1. Evangelicals generally pleased with new Air Force religion guidelines
The new religion guidelines are only one page, about a third the length of the earlier interim guidelines. What was taken out was largely the specifics that had troubled groups like Focus on the Family. Stars and Stripes sums up the response this way: "Civil libertarians say the document goes too far — shifting its focus from protecting airmen from religious persecution to protecting chaplains' rights." Apart from saying it's "too far," that's pretty much what the evangelical groups are saying, too. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., who has been pushing for more religious freedom for military chaplains, says he still wants more explicit recognition that chaplains can pray in Jesus' name.

2. Another priest attacked in Turkey
Days after priest Andrea Santoro was shot to death in Turkey, apparently by a 16-year-old Muslim angry over the Muhammad caricatures, priest Martin Kmetec was also attacked in the country by Muslim youths. A group of seven or eight men came to his home, and one "took me by the throat and pulled me inside and said 'we're going to finish you off','" Kmetec told Reuters. As with Santoro's attacker, Kmetec's shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is great"). Pope Benedict XVI today announced that he will visit the country in November. Meanwhile, Catholic officials said it's likely that Santoro will be canonized as a martyr.

3. Italian judge throws out case over existence of Jesus
But the controversy may not be over: In his ruling, Judge Gaetano Mautone suggests prosecutors should charge atheist Luigi Cascioli, who brought the case against Catholic priest Enrico Righi, with slander.

4. Anne Lamott says abortion may be "moral necessity"
The Los Angeles Times has an odd op-ed today from "Jesusy" writer Anne Lamott. As cute as her writing is, one wonders how many pro-life op-ed pieces like this the Times would publish, especially with lines like, "I wanted to wave a gun around, to show what a real murder looks like." But it'll be her call to see abortion as a moral good that strikes most readers as troubling. "It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present," she writes. "We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society." Being against "inflicting life" is creepy in itself, but extrapolate that line of thinking—that death is better than resentment, that society must not be burdened by the unwanted—and you'll probably need to go lie down.

5. John Piper on the Muhammad caricature controversy
While most Christian commentary on the anti-cartoon riots has focused on how the media feel more free to insult Christians than to insult Muslims, John Piper has a different perspective over at his Desiring God site. "A deep lesson remains: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored, and the work of Christ is based on being insulted," he writes. "This produces two very different reactions to mockery. If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. … For Christ, enduring the mockery of the Cross was the essence of his mission. And for a true follower of Christ, enduring suffering patiently for the glory of Christ is the essence of obedience." Muslims, it's worth noting, don't believe that Jesus suffered the mockery of crucifixion. The implications for what to do when you face religious insult are worth pondering.

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50