I Am Is God. I Am Not.

David Beckham is not God.The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C., spots a troubling trend: literally idolizing pop stars.

“Fans of European soccer star David Beckham show their appreciation by filling the Internet with ‘Becks is God’ posts,” writes Matt Ehlers.

Some replica jerseys have replaced the name “Beckham” on the back with “God.” St. Louis Cardinals phenom Albert Pujols has been praised with an “Albert is God” sign at the ballpark. A check of recent news stories finds similar references to Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, with “Lance is God” signs held aloft along the race route; a connoisseur who described a particular Belgian beer as “God in a bottle”; and an article from South Africa in which Nelson Mandela is referred to by a supporter as “the second Jesus.”

Russell Bush, academic vice president at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, disapproves. “It’s not something to play around with,” he tells the paper. “The Bible says we shouldn’t take God’s name in vain. People should be cautious about using the name of God for something that’s purely secular.”

Kristine L. Fitch, an associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, suggests that the trend is, in Ehlers’s words, “a form of subtle resistance to the increasing fundamentalism” in American culture.

Or, of course, it may be a sign that the Judeo-Christian ethic that says you don’t go around blaspheming at the drop of a hat is diminishing in American culture.

Fight over Roy Moore’s Ten Commandment monument:

Judge Roy Moore’s lawless battle | The Alabama chief justice can spare the nation a divisive constitutional showdown by announcing that he will stop ignoring the separation of church and state (Editorial, The New York Times)
No place for religion | The issue here is religious freedom, not voting rights or school desegregation, but the principle is the same: If Alabama Chief Justice Moore can decide which federal court opinions he likes, nobody’s rights are safe from state officials who don’t believe in them (Editorial, The Washington Post)
Moore’s motives | Why didn’t chief justice ask 11th Circuit for stay? (Editorial, The Birmingham News)
Justice Moore should obey federal court | The time has come for Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to obey the lawful order of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson that he remove the Ten Commandments monument from the State Judicial Building rotunda (Editorial, Mobile Register, Ala.)
A briar patch for Pryor? | Alabama attorney General Bill Pryor should have little problem meeting a noisy challenge from longtime liberal activist Barry Lynn (Editorial, Mobile Register, Ala.)
Alabama monument mocks Supreme Court’s authority | Moore’s actions test whether the Supreme Court is the ultimate authority for interpreting the U.S. Constitution (Editorial, USA Today)

Other Ten Commandments battles:

U.S. answers to higher law | No matter how many laws we have against murder, how many police we have to catch the culprits, how many courts we have to prosecute and punish them and how many prisons we have to lock them up, only a conscience informed by a law greater than a human law can stop a murder before it happens (Rob Schenck, USA Today)
Commandments battles proliferate (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
La Crosse mayor vetoes monument appeal | La Crosse Mayor John Medinger on Wednesday vetoed the Common Council’s decision to appeal a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from Cameron Park. An override is likely (LaCrosse Tribune, Wisc.)
Where’s Moses? | The ACLU searches for the Ten Commandments in Utah (The Wall Street Journal)
City Council votes to appeal Ten Commandments ruling | LaCrosse, Wis., council moves to pursue appeal in 7th Circuit after federal court orders monument’s removal from public park (Associated Press)
New front in religious battle | Commandments to be protected in spending measure (The Hill, D.C.)

Church and state:

Federal court upholds its ban on VMI prayers | An evenly split federal appeals court yesterday upheld its decision striking down the Virginia Military Institute’s suppertime prayers as unconstitutional, refusing to reconsider an earlier ruling that said the 50-year tradition violates the First Amendment rights of cadets (The Washington Post)
Also: Court won’t review VMI prayer ruling (Associated Press)
Gladstone revises solicitation ordinance | New ordinance specifies that no city permit is required for political or religious canvassing. The old ordinance required a permit for most door-to-door activities (The Kansas City Star)
Christian tutors don’t cross line | Even though critics charge it pushes the boundaries of church and state, it’s hard to argue with the anecdotal evidence provided by teachers (Editorial, The Denver Post)
Courts weighing rights of states to curb aid for religion majors | Eleven states prohibit aid for the study of theology (The New York Times)
Also: Flunking tolerance | States shouldn’t exclude theology from student aid (Editorial, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Department of Children & Families urges spread of character program | The Character First! program has sparked controversy on grounds that it breaches the wall dividing church and state (The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.)
County’s ‘approved religions’ for official prayer: dangerous and wrong | Prediction: Once government promotes or funds an unpopular religion, support for church-state separation will suddenly soar (Charles Haynes, First Amendment Center)
Board’s not hired to evangelize | I am not, by any stretch of either conscience or imagination, an expert on anything concerning religion. Except for two things: It starts an awful lot of cruel, bloody wars, and it doesn’t belong in government (John Hamner, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
Street preacher files federal lawsuit | Escambia, arresting deputies named as defendants (Pensacola News Journal, Fla.)

Advertising:

Drop image of Christ on the cross, advertisers tell churches | Instead, advertisers say churches should highlight community life, the chance to sing, hear a good sermon and have a heart-to-heart chat (The Scotsman)
Also: ‘Designer’ ad campaign for church | Churches are being urged to launch an advertising campaign stressing the social side of services to attract successful people in their thirties and forties (BBC)
Also: Church must stop preaching to the converted, say ad agencies | Traditional images of Christ on the cross and biblical quotations in bill-board adverts are a turn-off for church goers, advertisers have proclaimed today (The Guardian, London)
Jesus in the passing lane | Maybe “How Would Jesus Drive?” is a better question (Marshall Essig, The Denver Post)

Missionaries murdered in Solomon Islands:

Solomons warlord in court | Harold Keke surrendered to the Australian-led peacekeeping force (BBC, video)
Also: Solomons’ PM embroiled in deaths of captured missionaries | There are growing calls within the Anglican Church of Melanesia for an independent inquiry into the deaths of six missionaries held hostage by the Solomon Islands warlord Harold Keke (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Also: Murdered Anglican brothers in Solomons knew the risks, chaplain says | “Their sacrifice seems too great, hard to believe,” Brother Richard Carter said from the Solomons capital Honiara in an email to supporters (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)

Schwarzenegger:

Right wing fears being terminated | The Schwarzenegger phenomenon is so disturbing for those who have staked their careers on their unwavering conservative credentials (Diane Carman, The Denver Post)
Antiabortion activists don’t jump on actor’s bandwagon | Schwarzenegger’s prochoice stand anathema to some (San Francisco Chronicle)
George Bush’s Terminator problem | Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the GOP’s best shot yet at a California comeback. But his playboy ways and pro-choice politics make him anathema to the president’s allies on the Christian right (Tim Grieve, Salon.com)

The Passion:

Passions collide over movie about Jesus’ last day | So far, 300 religious leaders, scholars and cultural critics — Catholic, Jewish and Protestant — have screened the film since mid-June (USA Today)
Gibson film ‘fuels hate mail’ | Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the center had already received dozens of hate letters and calls he said were prompted by advance screening of the Gibson-directed film The Passion (BBC)
Jesus film ignites passions months before it opens | It has spawned a ruckus of religious intensity (The Kansas City Star)
ADL doesn’t share in Gibson’s ‘Passion’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
Mel’s film stirs more “Passion” (E!)
Don’t crucify ‘Mad Mel’ | These busybodies tried to edit Mr. Gibson’s film. Now they want to rewrite the Bible itself (Ezra Levant, The National Post, Canada)
Gibson says he has ‘softened’crucifixion story in new Jesus movie | Paul Lauer, marketing director for Gibson’s Icon Productions company, said Gibson has edited the film to show more “sympathetic” Jewish characters who were not calling for Jesus to be crucified (Religion News Service)
Mel Gibson vs. “The Jews” | The “Mad Max” and “Braveheart” star says his new Jesus biopic “The Passion” could never be anti-Semitic because it’s historically correct—a dumb, and dangerous, claim to make (Christopher Orlet, Salon.com)

Church land use debates:

Protect our right to worship | Several metro and outlying jurisdictions have tried assorted subterfuges, from impossible zoning to draconian parking rules, to keep modern “megachurches” from disturbing their bucolic tranquility (Editorial, The Denver Post)
Church plan splitting Pullman | Two sides battle over a proposal for a massive church-sports complex in the historic area, and race becomes an issue (Chicago Tribune)
Weathering a storm of controversy | Plan to change steeple from wood to fiberglass roils town (The Washington Post)

Alabama tax plan:

Our better angels | Riley’s tax-and-accountability plan uses faith in the right way (Editorial, The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
Why the Coalition’s stance is import | There’s a good reason why the national Christian Coalition’s endorsement of Alabama’s tax reform proposition was on the front page of newspapers around the state (Editorial, Mobile Register, Ala.)
Seeking a moral majority | We felt compelled to bring our message of support to Alabama because nowhere in the country has the issue of taxation and its effect on families been so clearly framed as a moral question for people of faith as it has been in Alabama (Roberta Combs, Mobile Register, Ala.)
Moral focus or political? Views vary | The Christian Coalition of Alabama’s strong anti-tax stance has sparked questions about the chapter and its leaders (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
Also: Tax is right, smart, says plan backer | Proposal aids most residents, pushes jobs, GOP is told (The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
Conservative groups align against tax rise in Alabama | Family Research Council, Eagle Forum, and other national conservative organizations have condemned Alabama Gov. Bob Riley’s proposal for sharp tax increases (The Washington Times)
Also: Anti-tax ‘tea party’ overflows (The Birmingham News, Ala.)

Church life:

Ministers weigh in on paying for church diversity | Not everyone agrees with Fred Caldwell’s strategy of paying whites to attend his church (The Shreveport Times, La.)
Also: Integration comes one church pew, and $5, at a time | About a dozen white folks came, most of them forgoing the controversial $5 that Bishop Fred Caldwell offers—from his own pocket—just for coming to Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church (The Christian Science Monitor)
New clerics seek ways to reach aging flocks | More than 60 percent of those 65 and older go to religious services other than weddings and funerals at least once a week, according to a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (The New York Times)
Privacy law keeps clergy from flock | Hospital patients’ names off-limits (Chicago Tribune)
Also: Law hinders clergy’s access to patients (UPI)
Church serves two generations of immigrants | The loss of a church that served four and five generations is being eased by its future as the house of worship for the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship (Associated Press)
Van operators to have new safety rules | But church vans are exempt (Associated Press)
Next generation of churches is alive in Vineyard | If college kids got together to build their own church, what would it look like? (Peter Bronson, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Church goes onward as Christian soldiers | Salvation Army is first and foremost a church (San Antonio Express-News)
Like other Christians, ministers are human | (David Waters, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis)

Church leaders:

Derided, ignored, and unstoppable | Sydney’s most prominent evangelicals, the Jensen brothers (Paul Sheehan, The Sydney Morning Herald)
‘I just want everyone to be godly’ | Meeting His Holiness Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews II, the supreme head of the Indian Orthodox Church (Indian Express)
New bishop turns down a big house | Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, the new leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, has chosen to live in a small rectory behind the Cathedral of the Holy Cross instead of the large residence that has housed Boston’s archbishops for 75 years (The New York Times)

Youth ministry:

Some kids just have a mission | For at least a week this summer, hundreds of area teens took a break from their summertime leisure in search of something life-changing (Palm Beach Post, Fla.)
In their footsteps | Teens find path to spiritual renewal (Erie Times-News)
Back to school | Local church service provides inspiration, along with backpacks and school supplies for needy children (Chronicle-Tribune, Grant County, Ind.)
Churches seek new ways to attract young people | Concerts, dance keep teens involved and off streets (The Washington Post)

Bible:

An ageless comfort in times of pain | The 23rd Psalm, one of the most beloved passages in the Bible, offers solace to many people confronted by life’s problems (Los Angeles Times)
Debate exists about whether the Bible is entirely error-free | Nowadays, inerrancy is championed almost exclusively by conservative Protestants (Associated Press)
Earlier: Text Criticism and Inerrancy | How can I reconcile my belief in the inerrancy of Scripture with comments in Bible translations that state that a particular verse is not ‘in better manuscripts’? (J.I. Packer, Oct. 22, 2002)

Internet and technology:

Beatified by e-mail: the lives of a new collection of saints | Josh Gosfield has turned all sorts of friends and strangers into holy apparitions, as well as vehicles for his cultural obsessions, political gripes, and artistic experiments (The New York Times)
Cyber-mom’s creed: Make her daily weblog a spiritual boost | Lee Anne Millinger has been working nearly every day on her own spiritual blog full of the ups and downs, laughter and anger that’s part of religious life (David Crumm, Detroit Free Press)
White House urges high court to reinstate Net porn law | 3rd Circuit has twice ruled that Child Online Protection Act unconstitutionally restricts speech (Associated Press)

History and artifacts:

Believers in the lost Ark | Treating myth as fact misunderstands the meaning of religion (Karen Armstrong, The Guardian, London)
Rare bell shrine found in Ireland | “This is among the most important archaeological objects ever found in the course of an excavation in Ireland.” (The Guardian, London)
12th century holy shrine found at ‘dig’ (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Vestments have history, meaning | With some of them dating to the 18th Century, the 24 religious garments from the Catholic Church displayed at the Cuneo Museum and Gardens in Vernon Hills are an inspiring sight of ornate embroidery and intricate designs (Chicago Tribune)
1,400 celebrate sight of holy Catholic relic | Catholics say fragment, no more than a half-inch in size, bears the image of Mary, the Mother of God (The Washington Post)

Vatican examines genetically modified food:

Vatican to weigh in on biotech food issue | Alarms over global hunger abut fears of modified crops (Chicago Tribune)
Vatican backing sparks GM row | Report set to anger Catholics in developing world (The Guardian, London)

Crime:

Austin, Minn., police link six youths to church break-ins | Investigators recovered checks from parishioners made out to several churches, bank bags, a computer and software that was stolen from one of the churches (Associated Press)
Church divided in wake of scam | As treasurer of Dupont Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southeast Washington, secretly invested and then lost $1.3 million of church money (The Washington Post)
Three charged with rape to be tried as juveniles | Two factors that played a major role in the decision were that none of the Eastside teens has a criminal history and none was living “an adultlike lifestyle” before the arrests at a Christian youth conference, the judge said (The Seattle Times)
Bishop held hostage | The controversial head of the Anglican Church, Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, was yesterday briefly held hostage by parishioners of St Philip’s Anglican Church in Harare’s New Tafara suburb, who accused him of snubbing them and protecting church leaders who are alleged to be abusing funds (The Daily News, Harare, Zimbabwe)
Inquest into U.S. priest’s death | An inquest into the death of a controversial American priest opened on Monday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, two years after the FBI said he had died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound (BBC)
Argentine priest held on ‘dirty war’ rights case | Argentine authorities detained a Roman Catholic priest on Wednesday and accused him of helping police and army torturers extract information from leftists during a 1976-1983 dictatorship (Reuters)
DeKalb pastor may be deported if he gets parole | Liberian national pleaded guilty to financial data theft (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)