Smashing iconoclasm “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” That commandment has caused an awful lot of trouble over the centuries. Around 726, Byzantine Emperor Leo III started ordering his soldiers to smash icons of Christ. This caused bloody riots and protests, but didn’t end the controversy. The Seventh Ecumenical Council tried to settle the issue, but debate continued. Protestants were particularly against images in church. “Not a statue has been left, in the churches … or in the monasteries; all the frescoes have been whitewashed over,” wrote Erasmus of the Protestant purging. “Neither value nor artistry prevailed to save anything.” Perhaps the tide is turning. At the request of Salvadoran immigrant members of the church, Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles is housing a lifesize statue of the Divine Savior of the World. (The original statue, which depicts Jesus on top of a globe, stands in San Salvador’s Plaza of the Americas and is El Salvador’s national symbol.) “We are receiving the symbol not as an image of the Roman Catholic faith but in solidarity with the Salvadoran people and all immigrants of the world,” pastor Frank Alton tells the Los Angeles Times. Most Protestants can embrace that, Weblog believes, but they’ll still be disturbed by the response of one Salvadoran congregant, 10-year-old Byron Alerrera. “This figure makes God real,” he said. “We can’t see him, but we want to see him: what he looks like, what he does.” Yeah, that’s pretty much what the iconoclasts were afraid of.
Life ethics:
- Abortion clinic murder | Armed security guard shot at Australia’s first legal abortion clinic in Melbourne. (The Australian)
- Also: Australian abortion doctors fear attacks (BBC)
- Funding ban for abortion upheld | State doesn’t have to pay, justices say (The Miami Herald)
- A decade later, abortion foes again gather in Wichita | City has changed since protests of ’91. (The Washington Post)
- Also: Abortion opponents begin protests (Associated Press)
- France upholds ‘right not to be born’ | France’s highest court of appeal has ruled that disabled children are entitled to compensation if their mothers were not given the chance of an abortion. (BBC)
- Also: French abort law does Nazis proud | This is not about the rights of the handicapped. This is about society wishing to establish a right—by any means necessary—not to be burdened with caring for them. (Rod Dreher, New York Post)
- Changing conceptions | You’d be amazed at who thought what about life ethics and when and why. (The Washington Post)
- Bush ‘agonizing’ over funding of embryo research | President has become so absorbed in the subject that he has become almost preoccupied with it, say lawmakers and aides. (The Washington Post)
Family:
- Hard-hitting debate | Two parents think teachers need more disciplinary authority — something paddling would provide. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Also: Research shows that corporal punishment has undesirable effects on kids. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Constitutional marriage proposal | A coalition seeks a federal amendment defining wedlock as between a man and a woman only. (Los Angeles Times)
- Also: No way to save broken marriages (Editorial, The Seattle Times)
- Missouri governor signs ban on same-sex marriages | 35th state to adopt a “defense of marriage” law (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Crime:
- In court, a priest reveals a secret he carried for 12 years | A Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Joseph Towle, testified that in 1989 a man, now dead, confessed to him that he had killed a man whom two friends were convicted of murdering. (The New York Times)
- Church bombing figure found to be incompetent | Bobby Frank Cherry won’t stand trial for 1963 Birmingham murders. (The New York Times)
- Archbishop of Naples faces trial for fraud | Prosecutors recommend tax fraud and false accounting charges against Catholic leader. (The Times, London)
Church and state:
- Connecticut town officials irked by traffic to home prayer meeting | New Milford may challenge Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act as unconstitutionally restricting towns’ zoning decisions. (Associated Press)
- U.S. servicewomen question Muslim dress requirement | Republican senators call for review of policy after complaint (Scripps Howard)
- A faith-based dilemma | Who’s discriminating now? (Chuck Colson, Breakpoint)
Politics:
- Democrats criticize their own—and Bush | Centrists say party must welcome religious belief; president accused of lurching right (The Washington Post)
- Attendance, not affiliation, key to religious voters | Huge gaps separate the voting behavior of the more and less observant (Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times)
- Texas Christian Coalition seen as a stronghold | Clout of national organization dwindles, but Texas seen as strongest of state organizations (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Persecution:
- U.S. aid chief arrives in Sudan | Andrew Natsios is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Khartoum since 1995. (Associated Press)
- Also: U.S. official begins talks with warring sides in Sudan (Knight Ridder)
- Group returns after buys Sudan freedom | American Anti-Slavery Group reportedly redeems 54,000. (Associated Press)
- Vatican appoints three bishops to Vietnam | Dealings have been tense over Hanoi’s insistence that it have final say over religious appointments. (Radio Australia)
- Christians in Laos are forced to drink blood and renounce faith | Part of a widening crackdown on Church (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Church life:
- Being a wallflower at the religious dance | In Paonia, Colorado, 26 churches for 1,600 people means that competition for members is fierce—but the closest synagogue is 100 miles away. (Rebecca Clarren, The Denver Post)
- Soccer-crazy vicar changes focus | Hymn book rewritten to sing praises of Newcastle United. (The Sun, London)
- Crystal Cathedral to cut staff | $50 million ministry, which has about 600 staffers, has frozen or eliminated about 37 positions. (Associated Press)
- Eager preachers waiting in wings | Ah, summer, those lazy, hazy, crazy days of blueberries, fireflies, and guest preachers in the pulpit. (Charles W. Bell, New York Daily News)
- ‘Narrow’ pastor, wide audience | Colorado Community Church’s Mark Brewer has brought many churches together without compromising his beliefs. (The Denver Post)
Denominations:
- Ecclesiastical charges filed against bishop | She’d filed federal suit to oust the rector of church in Accokeek; ‘Violations of canon law’ (The Sun, Baltimore)
- Also: Bishop faces church charges (The Washington Times)
- Sydney Anglicans at odds with liberalizing world church on gays, women | Man tipped as a likely next Archbishop of Canterbury has signaled moves toward greater liberalism in the church. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Presbytery takes back invitation | PCUSA moderator Jack Rogers was to speak at a meeting when commissioners will vote on whether to allow gay ordination. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Presbyterian group: Gay clergy will hurt church | Presbyterian Coalition says hundreds of congregations will leave denomination if ban is lifted. (The Denver Post)
- Lutheran leader urges growth ideas | Many see Kieschnick’s three-year term as an opening for more experimentation in the doctrinally oriented synod. (The Washington Times)
- Earlier: Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod elects new president | Gerald Kieschnick replaces Alvin L. Barry, who died in March. (Associated Press)
Eastern Orthodox:
- Putin wants better church relations | Russian president praises Pope John Paul II and expressed hope that Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches can heal divisions. (Associated Press)
- Israel’s unorthodox move challenges Christian church | Greek Orthodox candidates rejected. (The Sun, Baltimore)
- An immigrant church comes of age | The Antiochian Orthodox faith came to the U.S. in 1895 as a small Syrian mission. Now it is poised to seek autonomy, and other Orthodox groups may follow suit. (Los Angeles Times)
- American enthroned as Greek Orthodox leader | Appointment seen as a step by church leaders to maintain ties between Greek Orthodox communities in North and South America. (Associated Press)
Catholicism:
- ‘Loyalty oath’ divides Catholic theologians | As the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops prepare to implement the mandatum after more than a decade of debate and their recent approval of procedural guidelines, Catholic theologians are wrestling with how to respond. (Los Angeles Times)
- Vatican ‘saves priest’ from genocide trial | Rwanda’s Athanase Seromba reportedly ordered his own church to be bulldozed, crushing and killing up to 2,500 parishioners. (The Sunday Times, London)
- Nuns stand up to Vatican on obedience issue | Benedictine nun was forbidden to attend a conference on the ordination of women. (The Washington Post)
Deadly bus crash:
- Warnings don’t get risky vans off roads | Many schools, groups still use the vehicles. (The Denver Post)
- Details of crash pieced together | 17-year-old driver apparently fell asleep at wheel. (The Denver Post)
- Also: Pain spurs ‘lucky’ surgery for survivor (The Denver Post)
Missions & ministry:
- Prison clergy to seek support | Catholic leaders from U.S., Mexico will ask bishops to boost efforts for inmates. (Los Angeles Times)
- Churches help Edison aid the poor | With an assist from the pulpit, a program to provide discounted electricity to those in need flourishes. (Los Angeles Times)
Money and business:
- Sorting the saints from the sinners | First U.K. attempt at a measure for ethical investors hits controversy over what is included and excluded. (Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh)
- Parent cons U.S. cleric | Aid fraud reportedly bilked American Christians out of thousands of dollars. (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda)
Theology:
- Speak of the devil | Is Satan alive and well and roaming the suburbs? If so, does he look like your neighbor? (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Southern hospitals building baptistries | Baptizing critically ill patients is a delicate process, but many don’t believe in sprinkling. (Associated Press)
Bible:
- A unique portrait of Jesus by Jefferson | The Jefferson Bible‘s Jesus was a figure fitted for the Enlightenment, rational but not divine. (The New York Times)
- Catholic women challenge idea Mary Magdalene was a prostitute | Group that promotes women’s ordination says disciple is the victim of centuries of male-dominated biblical scholarship. (The Seattle Times)
- How the creation of a monumental work came to pass | A review of Alister McGrath’s The Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture (Los Angeles Times)
Other stories of interest:
- Over 600 to attend Christian conference in Malaysia | Asia-Pacific Consultation on Discipleship quickly follows World Evangelical Fellowship general assembly in Islamic country. (The Star)
- The biology of belief | You’d think a high-tech snapshot of God would answer a lot of questions about the convergence of science and religion. You’d be wrong. (Los Angeles Times)
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