House's Faith-Based Initiatives Bill May Not Be Dead Yet

Rep. J.C. Watts pushes for better faith-based initiative bill in Senate “The armies of compassion are waiting for the Senate to follow the House’s lead and pass a solid faith-based bill,” Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) told Connecticut Republicans yesterday while campaigning for candidates there. Watts wants the Senate to pass its bill and have the differences between it and H.R. 7, the House’s faith-based initiatives bill, worked out in a House-Senate conference meeting. But many Democratic senators, including Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who is sponsoring the Senate bill, want H.R. 7 to die. They would rather have the full House vote on the Senate bill once it is passed to avoid any compromise between the two bills. Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein tells The Washington Times a conference would “reopen old wounds,” “inject some political controversy back into the debate,” and perhaps result in nothing getting to the President’s desk.

There are significant differences between the two bills. The House bill expands charitable choice and allows faith-based organizations to compete for federal funds without compromising their character. The Senate bill avoids charitable choice altogether.

Is the Southern Baptist Convention’s Holman Christian Standard Bible gender-inclusive, too? As the Today’s New International Version (TNIV) of the Bible gets ready for retail sale, Associated Baptist Press claims a scoop: the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), published by the Southern Baptist Convention’s official publisher, Lifeway, is gender-inclusive, too. David Stratton, pastor of Brunswick Islands Baptist Church in Supply, N.C., chose a sample of seven books in the New Testament (Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, James and Revelation), and found 194 verses in which the HCSB is more gender-neutral than the NIV. It’s also much more gender-inclusive than the King James Version. In fact, reports the news service, “the HCSB is actually more likely than the TNIV to translate masculine participles that refer to God in a gender-neutral manner. For example, Rev. 1:4 speaks of ‘him which is, and which was, and which is to come’ (KJV). The NIV translates ‘him who is, and who was, and who is to come,’ and the TNIV keeps the same reading. The HCSB, however, has ‘the One who is, who was, and who is coming.'” Keep in mind that Associated Baptist Press often highlights stories critical of the conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention.

More on the TNIV:

Bible changes leads to a holy war of words | A new “gender accurate” translation of the New Testament is creating a furor among believers who see every sacred word as a cobblestone on the path to Jesus and salvation. (USA Today)
Bible controversy is as old as Methuselah | From scholars burned at the stake centuries ago to current translators excoriated by their peers, bringing the Bible to the people is risky business (USA Today)
The evolution of the Christian Bible (USA Today)

Holy Week:

Reconstructing the tomb of Christ | Science, scholarship shed new light on religious epicenter (MSNBC)
Bush’s Easter message | Easter’s message of renewal is especially meaningful now during this challenging time in our Nation’s history (White House)
Egged on by a faith deliciously foiled | The newspaper is guaranteed to get letters about this column. (Danny Katz, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
Major changes in how holy days are celebrated | On-the-go faithful have it their way on holy days (San Francisco Chronicle)
Christians gather with Jews to taste the traditions of Seder (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)

Politics:

Hastert returns to alma mater | Wrestling, football coaches at Wheaton College made lasting impact, says Speaker of the House (The Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
When private words go public | The gap between the public and private Grahams is a shock, but there is also a less obvious lesson. The distinction between public and private speech is essential to both private freedom and the quality of public life. (Leonard Garment, The New York Times)
Christian right vote targeted | Evangelical, conservative Christian voters are key to victory in Alabama’s June 4 GOP primary (The Birmingham [Ala.] News)
Keeping the faith | Area Mormons welcome the attention Mitt Romney’s gubernatorial campaign will bring to their church (Boston Herald)
Helms’s reversal on U.S. aid reverberates | Senator seeks $500m to help stamp out AIDS transmission in Africa (The Boston Globe)
Russian Orthodox Church emissary visits Iraq (The Moscow Times)
A devilish problem in Florida | Will the devil leave Inglis for Tampa? (Editorial, Chicago Tribune)

Church & State:

Judge to rule on Salvation Army center | Denial of center by township may have been illegal (The Flint [Mich.] Journal)
Christian Association of Nigeria hails acquittal of Safiya | Group strongly opposes implementation of Islamic Shari’ah law (This Day, Lagos, Nigeria)
Words can bring death sentence in Pakistan | Blasphemy laws used ‘like a sword’ (USA Today)

Crime:

Pakistan believes church attacker blew himself up | “We are not sure whether he was a suicide bomber or whether somebody had trapped him, without his knowing it,” says Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider (Reuters)
Also: Sketch of church attacker released (BBC)
Man arrested in archbishop slaying | John Jairo Maturana is head of a Cali-based gang that allegedly trains young assassins (Associated Press)
‘I shared Jesus with them’ | Evangelist says he tried to save the Yates family (Good Morning America/ABCNews.com)
Hoaxer to serve 2 years—in church | A serial bomb hoaxer with a history of mental problems has been remanded into the custody of the Jesus Fellowship Church for two years in a bid to break her habit (The Daily Record, U.K.)

Education:

Charter school faces funding loss | Religious promotion alleged (The Arizona Republic)
Home-schooled away from home | Parents form academies to support one another (The Washington Post)
In seminaries, new ways for a new generation | The talk at Roman Catholic seminaries is about the need to produce a new breed of priest: spiritually prepared and psychologically mature. (The New York Times)
Baylor’s heritage, Baptist focus attract students from throughout world | School wants 5 percent of its enrollment to be from outside U.S. (The Waco [Tex.] Tribune-Herald)
Gay-straight clubs posing challenges for schools | About 1,000 of America’s 26,000 high schools now have them (Associated Press)
Aid plan launched for urban Christian schools | Christian Schools International hopes that by developing a model to guide the creation of self- sustaining schools in urban centers, newly founded Christian schools can remain open (Education Week)
Britain’s chief inspector of schools checks ‘creation college’ | School asked to “clarify” its position on science teaching. (The Guardian, London)
Teachers oppose expansion of ‘divisive’ faith schools | Teachers want the Government to abandon its policy of allowing an increase of state-funded faith schools (Ananova)

Sex & marriage:

Moore defends remarks on homosexuality | “A person is never biased by abiding by the law,” says Alabama chief justice. (The Birmingham [Ala.] News)
Ministry that tries to convert gays moves to Orlando | Exodus International-North America moved its headquarters from Seattle to the Orlando suburb of Winter Park earlier this month (The Daytona Beach [Fla.] News-Journal)
Europeans opting against marriage | In a profound shift that has changed the notion of what constitutes a family in many countries, more and more European children are being born out of wedlock into a new social order in which, it seems, few of the old stigmas apply. (The New York Times)
Church weddings ‘dying out’ in Britain | Three out of every five are performed at civil ceremonies (BBC)

Life ethics:

Church’s graphic photos draw fire | A Jewish community leader is criticizing a Catholic bishop for backing a graphic photo display that links abortion with the Holocaust and racial violence. (Associated Press)
California race shapes up as economy vs. abortion | Democrats plan to demonize Simon as an anti-abortion zealot (The Washington Times)

Missions & ministry:

Heather Mercer asked God to take her life | Former prisoners of Taliban say they trusted in God (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
IRS easing charity documentation | It won’t require as much immediate documentation as usual for people who made donations last fall, making it simpler for taxpayers to claim deductions and lifting a paperwork burden for hundreds of nonprofit organizations. (Associated Press)
Netting surfers for Christ | The virtual world of Christian evangelism (The New Zealand Herald)

Denominations:

Southern Baptists: A 30-year war? | Although the major battles between conservatives and moderates that began in the late 1970s are past, skirmishes and rear-guard actions continue with no end in sight (Cary McMullen, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.)
Episcopal divide | The Rev. David Moyer will not be presiding at the altar this Easter Sunday because his bishop, the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, has banished him from the sanctuary as of March 4. (The Washington Times)

Church life:

Church fund missing $800,000 | Nearly a third of projects had to be cut (The Miami Herald)
Sermon sharing: Timesaver or sin? | Preaching is the inspiration of God channeled through the human mind and mouth. While some pastors may be able to verbalize that divine message clearer than others, the ultimate plagiarism is from God (Gerald L. Zelizer, USA Today)
Pastors say they borrow ideas, not swipe sermons | It’s important to credit sources, say ministers (The Flint [Mich.] Journal)
Clergy found satisfied with chosen profession | 70 percent have never considered leaving the profession (The Washington Times)
Spanish priest installs electronic jammer in church to banish cellular ringing (Associated Press)
Church grapples with hi-tech dilemma | The Archbishop of the Italian city of Salerno, Gerrardo Pierro, is asking his congregation to abstain from text messaging on Good Friday and concentrate on meditation instead. (BBC)
At Irving church, glass ceilings are for breaking | Pastor, associate form rare all-female ministerial team (The Dallas Morning News)
Churches try different worship styles | Butterflies, bicycles, and movie clips enter Sunday sermons (Detroit Free Press)
Building in ruins, but church still strong | Hundreds attend St. Michael Palm Sunday mass after arson (Chicago Tribune)
Church mourns lost friends | Assistant minister and three sons killed in Saturday crash (The Washington Post)
Also: Church mourns deaths of pastor, 3 sons (Associated Press)
Early medieval paintings discovered during church renovation | The artworks are thought to date from the 13th century making them some of the oldest in England (Ananova)

The growing unchurched:

14% of Americans losing their religion, or perhaps never had it | The number of people who say they don’t belong to a religion has doubled over the last decade, two major studies show. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Poll: Roughly equal proportions of americans ‘unchurched,’ ‘churched’ | Young males less likely to attend, says Gallup (Religion News Service)

Catholicism:

The Church and the Holocaust | Attempts to paint Pius XII as a coward who turned a blind eye to the Holocaust are wrong. (Ronald J. Rychlak, The Wall Street Journal)
Pope lets cardinal celebrate Mass | Sits out for second time during Holy Week (Associated Press)
Earlier: Pope shows signs of improving after latest health problem (Associated Press)
This Pope is not the type to ‘renounce’ see of Peter | Forget about his retirement. It’s not going to happen. (Paddy Agnew, The Irish Times)

Business & money:

Employers may challenge sincerity of employee’s religious beliefs, practices | When asserting a religious accommodation claim, an employee must demonstrate that: he has a bona fide religious practice that conflicts with an employment requirement (The Albany [N.Y] Business Review)
Employees pray for guidance | Praying alone or with others can help reduce job stress, an expert said. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Mennonites seek insurance exemption | Some conservative Mennonite tradespeople say relying on insurance companies violates a key principle of helping brethren in times of need (Associated Press)

Science & health:

The most seductive equation in science: beauty equals truth | Math is the language of physics, but is it the language of God? (The New York Times)
Earlier: The True, the Good, and the Beautiful Christian | Beauty is making a comeback in science and theology. Will it find its place in the lives of believers? (Christianity Today, Jan. 7, 2002)
Science bedeviled in the ER | Possession was a new experience for me. (Steve Edelstein, Los Angeles Times)
The good word on healthy eating | Two diet books take their cues from Jesus and Adam and Eve (The National Post, Canada)
Scientists sound alarm over advance of creationists | Scientists yesterday warned that “young earth” creationists who dismiss evolution as a lie are gaining strength in the UK and are trying to give themselves credibility by establishing dialogue with British academics. (The Guardian, London)

Peru plane shooting:

US offers $8M to Peru plane victims (Associated Press)
U.S. wants to restart drug flights over Peru | Flights have been halted in year since missionary plane shooting (Reuters)
Congress must OK settlement in Peru deaths (The Muskegon Chronicle)

Interfaith relations:

Clergy OK Jewish congregation | Clergy association decides to become interfaith rather than ecumenical (The Boston Globe)
Focus on similarities instead of differences | Hindus, Christians and Muslims all believe in common teachings (Yasmeen Qadri, The Orlando Sentinel)

Abuse news:

Church suspends top black priest | Monsignor Russell Dillard accused of sexual misconduct (BET.com)
Palm Beach, Fla., diocese reels after losing two tainted bishops | No other diocese has lost even one bishop because of sexual abuses (The New York Times)
Polish archbishop quits after sex abuse charges (Reuters)
Earlier: Polish priests press Vatican on case against bishop | In western Poland, it was the priests who got the Vatican to take some action against the local archbishop who was accused of sexual molestation (The New York Times)
For priests, days of hope in time of trouble | Roman Catholic priests are filled with a mingling of emotions as the scandal over the sexual abuse of children roils the church during its most sacred season. (The New York Times)
For the faithful, trying to reconcile morality and scandal | The fashion in which the Roman Catholic Church dealt with pedophilia was one in which it was looked at as a treatable psychological illness. (The New York Times)
Abuse scandal angers conservative Catholics | Self-described orthodox Catholics are denouncing the church’s bishops. (The Boston Globe)
Scandal puts new focus on celibacy | Cardinal Mahony’s remarks add to growing debate on marriage and priesthood. (Los Angeles Times)
Far from the turbulence of scandal, but tied into it | In one small Iowa parish, few dwell on the stories of pedophile priests. But like many Catholics in the U.S., they’re appalled. (Los Angeles Times)
Accused priest held key post | Former chancellor handled sex abuse cases for church (Chicago Tribune)
Clergy in crisis: Priest twice called abuser | The cleric, who denied the allegations, again works in the diocese. (The Sacramento [Calif.] Bee)
Chaput again discusses scandal | Catholics are facing ‘contempt,’ he says (The Denver Post)
Church leader offers apology | Hartford archbishop also appeals to priests’ pride (The Hartford [Conn.] Courant)

Abuse opinion and analysis:

Catholic scandals: a crisis for celibacy? | The real story behind clerical “pedophilia” & what it really means (Leon J. Podles, Touchstone)
Rome fiddles, we burn | Will Catholics continue to pick and choose privately among the Vatican’s antiquated dictums on divorce, birth control and homosexuality, and suppress doubts about a celibate, all-male priesthood? (Maureen Dowd, The New York Times)
Church’s scandal starts with celibacy | The church does not discuss sexuality in any way other than to regurgitate its own outdated policies (Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times)
Priests feel tainted by rotten eggs | There are 47,000 priests nationwide. The vast majority of them are innocent and are struggling with the same questions. (Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times)

Publishing:

The Door at 30 | Religious humor magazine is still seriously irreverent (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Studying children’s books about Passover | Why do children’s Passover books explain the religious meaning of the feast — how it commemorates God’s liberation of the Jewish people from slavery—while children’s Easter books dwell on flowers, stealthy bunnies and the search for colored eggs? (Peter Steinfels, The New York Times)
LaHaye’s fiction leaves competition behind | For the first time since 1994, John Grisham does not hold the year’s lead fiction spot (The Washington Times)
The good books | When a congregation wants to raise money, where better to turn than to recipes from the heart? Sample community cookbooks from Honolulu to Harlem. (The New York Times)

Christian cheese gets major play:

Hero’s visit fulfills wish | Christian video star Bibleman comes to spend day with boy with spinal muscular atrophy (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
U.S. troops around the world will be treated to Carman in concert on Easter Sunday (Press release)

Other stories of interest:

Golgotha, yesterday and today | To the many divisions of the Holy Land, add the one among Christian Churches. (Joseph P. Duggan, The Wall Street Journal)
Great performances in cynicism | Don’t trust Charles Colson, Billy Graham, or the Catholic hierarchy (Paul Vitello, Newsday)
U.S.-Philippine effort begins to net results | Americans hear growing comparisons to military campaign in Afghanistan (The Washington Post)