More than 2,000 dead in Indonesian religious riots

Indonesian religious violence claims at least 2,000 with no end in sight

The violence is spreading to other islands, reports the Associated Press, as Muslim mobs torched seven more churches over the weekend. And calls for a jihad (holy war) are gaining momentum among Muslim groups.

Southern Baptist leader opposes Vatican honoring King as martyr

Martyr title “should be reserved for those who die for the cause of the gospel itself,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the Washington Post. He’s careful to note that he really likes King and that the school has a student fellowship named after him, but he doesn’t see “theological significance” in the Vatican’s reported plans.

Spirituality more dangerous than political subversives to Chinese government, says AP

“A religious and spiritual upsurge in China … threatens to surpass political dissent as a corrosive force on Communist Party authority,” says the Associated Press, noting that the Dalai Lama’s autobiography is more popular than Mao’s little red book and that unauthorized house churches are springing up faster than authorities can shut them down.

Orthodox Church ‘ reacquiring its position as the state religion,’ says Baltimore Sun

“With communism gone, Russia’s leaders see the church as an instrument of validation. In most cases, faith has little to do with it. In the absence of many other viable institutions or deeply held beliefs, ceremonial Russian Orthodoxy lends legitimacy to the government of the day,” the paper says in an unsigned editorial.

Congress’s newest intern is head of country’s largest Episcopal diocese

M. Thomas Shaw, bishop of Massachusetts, will serve as intern for a month to “discover something of what the role of the church should be in public life.” Most other interns are college students, but have included Bill Gates and Carolina Panthers kicker John Kasay, reports a Boston Globe front-page story. Still, no one can remember a member of the clergy serving as intern before.

Church down, Spirituality Up

“Although church attendance is declining in nearly all advanced industrial societies, spiritual concerns more broadly defined are not,” says a new study from the University of Michigan international study on faith and values. Is there an echo in here, or am I just experiencing déjà; vu? It seems another study says this every week.

One-man church project finally done—after 17 years

Dragisa Radivojevic designed, built, and decorated an Orthodox church in Grcac (a town 45 miles from Belgrade) by himself. It would have taken less time, he says, but Communism got in the way.

Galloping Gourmet continues life quietly, spiritually

“I’ve done enough for the body. It’s the soul I’m more interested in these days,” Graham Kerr tells the Toronto Star. The paper reports that the star of Canada’s most successful television show has traded the rich foods and “fast lane” for Christianity and a slower, healthier lifestyle.