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1. Gunman kills three, wounds four in attack during church service
"Liars, liars, you're all liars," Eiken Elam Saimon said, according to police, as he shot the pastor of First Congregational Church's Micronesian congregation in Neosho, Missouri. By the time police entered the church and got Saimon to drop his weapons, two other church members were dead and four were wounded.

A few hours before the shooting during Sunday afternoon services, police say, a 14-year-old female relative of Saimon had reported that he had sexually assaulted her. But police are not saying whether the abuse and the shooting are related.

"The truth is, the motive is still being developed," Newton County Prosecutor Scott Watson told The Neosho Daily News. "We're finding a different motive in the case, but it's not something that we're able to talk about at this time. … We decided talking about it would jeopardize the case."

Rural Newton County is also in the middle of a church abuse scandal involving Grandview Valley Baptist Church North, less than ten miles away from First Congregational. The pastor of that church faces multiple charges of child molestation and statutory sodomy, and is accused of being part of a child abuse ring in another nearby church.

2. Taliban: We released two hostages (and killed two others), now release 19 prisoners
"We've already released two sick female hostages," Taliban commander Abdullah Jan, who is holding the remaining 19 Christian aid workers, told the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. "Now the ball is in Korea's court. They have to exchange Taliban prisoners for Korean hostages." Korean officials and the Taliban continue to hold telephone talks but have no further plans to meet face-to-face.

Another kidnapper told The Korea Times that "one of the hostages they were going to set free due to her ill health opted to stay in captivity for the sake of another colleague whose condition was worse." The spokesman could not name the hostage, however. "Their names are very difficult to remember," he explained. "We can't even speak those difficult names."

I blogged yesterday about some other disturbing developments in the hostage story over on our Liveblog. (Please do make sure you're checking both the CT Liveblog and the CT Weblog. They're quite different.)

3. Catholic bishop in Netherlands: Call God Allah
In a televised interview, the Roman Catholic bishop of Breda, Netherlands, says his Dutch parishioners should start praying to Allah. Eventually, says Bishop Tiny Muskens, Dutch churches will use the Arabic word for God anyway, so why not start now? Muskens says the Dutch church should take a page from the church in Indonesia, where he earlier served as a priest. "Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," he said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"

Breda apparently argued that Christians using Allah as the name for God would help resolve growing tensions between Christians and Muslims in the Netherlands. Because, you know, Indonesia is a model for Christian-Muslim relations.

The diocesan website emphasizes that Muskens was speaking personally, that he's soon to retire, and that "the idea of calling God Allah within the Catholic liturgy in the Netherlands has not been discussed as a component of diocesan policy, or as policy of the Dutch church."

Radio Netherlands notes that Breda made the same suggestion several years ago. "He also suggested abolishing Whit Monday as a national holiday in favor of an Islamic religious day. In the past, Bishop Muskens has offended many Muslims. In 2005, he said Islam was a religion without a future because it had too many violent aspects."

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August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51