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1. Post-hurricane Gulf Coast has become the real Jesusland
"With government agencies stretched thin by the massive scope of the Gulf Coast recovery effort, groups from every conceivable religious denomination are shouldering a heavy share of the workload," the Associated Press reports today. "Tens of thousands of volunteers from hundreds of faith-based groups have poured into the region. That virtually bottomless well of labor makes them a valuable resource for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps coordinate their efforts to avoid duplication." There's a bit here about "the uneasy intersection of church and state," but the story seems pretty clear that these busloads of believers aren't coming to the Gulf Coast for government funds. One wonders what the longterm spiritual effects will be, both in the areas hit by Katrina and in the towns where dozens, hundreds, or thousands of these volunteers will return to.

2. IMB executive committee will rescind motion for member's ouster
In January, trustees for the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board asked the full convention to fire Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson from the board for what they called "broken trust and resistance to accountability." After a fair bit of media attention, they're reconsidering that call. Now Baptist media outlets say that the trustees will rescind that call at their March 20-21 meeting. "It's mainly [that] we discovered more options for handling trustee relationships than we thought we had," IMB chairman Tom Hatley told Associated Baptist Press. Burleson has extensive commentary about the development on his own weblog.

3. As the deer passeth
Nancy Trejos turned in a classic for yesterday's The Washington Post. (Sorry we missed it earlier.) A church that's so environmentalist that it has an "earth minister" decided to allow a group of local hunters to thin out the deer herd on the church's 206-acre property. "Some church members and neighbors" said it was not only "unpalatable," but inconsistent with the church's pacifist stance. The story ends with the fawning church administrator apparently praying to the deerly departed to "thank the deer for their life among us." That's red meat for those who see lefty churches as bucking good theology.

4. Court lets Christian school fire pregnant teacher
Three days after Covenant Classical School in Hoover, Alabama, hired Tessana Lewis, the school fired her. She sued for $600 in back pay and $15,000 for mental anguish, saying she was fired because she was unwed and pregnant. The school says it didn't care whether she was pregnant—they just cared that she said she couldn't assure the school that she'd stop having sex outside of marriage. Maybe so, Senior U.S. District Judge William Acker Jr. ruled in a decision made public yesterday, but "it was clearly the pregnancy that alerted Covenant to the fact that Lewis had engaged in sexual activity outside of marriage." That doesn't mean Lewis gets any money, though. As a religious school, Covenant can hire and fire based on its beliefs, Acker wrote. (The decision is not yet online.)

5. Alcoholism common among stressed pastors: AP
Gene Robinson may be the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, but he's not the only openly alcoholic church leader, the Associated Press reports today. Not by a long shot. Clergy face some unique temptations and barriers to rehabilitation, sources told the news service. Dale Wolery of the Clergy Recovery Network says alcoholism is more common among clergy in "religious denominations that accept social drinking," but that in denominations that frown upon alcohol, it's harder to get help.

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50