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1. Church: "We want people to enjoy the movie, no strings attached"
When The Last Temptation of Christ was due out, Campus Crusade for Christ head Bill Bright offered to buy the movie so he could destroy it. When The Passion of the Christ came out, churches rented theaters and gobbled up tickets and offered free admission to any who wanted to see it.

Tonight, Discovery Christian Church in Cranberry, Pa., is taking the latter action for the release of The Da Vinci Code. Spending about $4,500, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, the church bought all the seats for two evening shows at the local theater. Those interested in going will get a card saying the church already paid for their ticket. And that's it. "We want people to enjoy the movie, no strings attached," pastor Toney Salva explained.

Meanwhile, as India, Thailand, and other countries have rejected possible bans on the movie, Canada's largest theater chain, Cineplex, has banned a Code-related ad it had earlier approved from Campus Crusade. After hearing that there could be some Campus Crusade missionaries outside some theaters, the chain issued a press release: "With the knowledge that this organization plans to 'stalk' our moviegoers outside of our theatres handing out unapproved material concerning a film we are presenting, we cannot lend support to this activity by running this campaign."

Interesting view of free speech up north.

2. Vatican and WCC offices say evangelism is fine, but don't "obsess"
Remember the evangelism document from the World Council of Churches and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue we previewed last week? They're out, and they're opaque. On one hand, the guidelines reaffirm freedom of religion—including the "freedom to propagate the teachings of one's faith to people of one's own and other faiths" as a "fundamental, inviolable and non-negotiable right of every human being." But "freedom of religion enjoins upon all of us the equally non-negotiable responsibility to respect faiths other than our own, and never to denigrate, vilify, or misrepresent them for the purpose of affirming superiority of our faith," the document says. Denigration isn't defined—is "affirming superiority of our faith" itself denigrating?

Religious freedom, the document says, "should not be exercised by violating others' rights and religious sensibilities." Particularly notable: "All should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others." (The Great Commission as All Well and Good Commission). While we're at it, let's heal ourselves from the obsession of converting others through reams and reams of documents. This document also calls for "a 'code of conduct' on conversion, which all faiths should follow." Oh joy.

3. Religious Left still has no agenda
The New York Times reports from the latest conference designed to coalesce a movement against the Religious Right: "Turnout at the Spiritual Activism Conference is high, but if the gathering is any indication, the biggest barrier for liberals may be their regard for pluralism: for letting people say what they want, how they want to, and for trying to include everyone's priorities, rather than choosing two or three issues that could inspire a movement." Sounds tiresomely familiar.

4. The difference between a vaccine and mandatory vaccinations
Religious conservatives are happy to see the FDA approve a new vaccine against human papilloma virus strains, which are responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases. What's that? You thought religious conservatives oppose the vaccine? No. What groups like Focus on the Family and Family Research Council oppose are mandatory HPV vaccinations and making the vaccination a requisite to attending public schools. But Focus on the Family is happy to see the vaccine itself. "It's a huge medical breakthrough," Focus's Linda Klepacki told the Chicago Tribune.

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May (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50