Lebanese Christians Outraged at Hezbollah

Just links today. Not too many, so you can find the interesting stuff on your own.

Israel-Hezbollah war | Politics | Church and state | Life ethics | Media and entertainment | Missions & ministry | Church life | Catholicism | Other stories of interest

Israel-Hezbollah war:

1. Christians fleeing Lebanon denounce Hezbollah | Many Christians from southern Lebanon considered Hezbollah’s fighting methods as much of an outrage as the Israeli strikes (The New York Times)
2. Church leaders on the Middle East Crisis | Wenski, Lajolo, Sadano,  the pope, and others (National Catholic Reporter)
3. Christians to journey into Israel | 15 from Charleston area plan to show support for Jewish state at war (The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.)
4. Liberal churches slam Israel | As Israel presses for more time to pursue its military campaigns against Hezbollah and Hamas, liberal American churches are pushing hard for a cease-fire and are criticizing Israeli actions in Lebanon and in Gaza (Forward, Jewish newspaper)
5. The religious Left’s “cycle of violence” schtick | The anti-Israel divestment campaign among U.S. churches has been largely defeated. But in the midst of the terrorists’ war on Israel, the Religious Left’s hostility to Israel continues (Mark Tooley, Front Page)
6. It’s the end of the world as they know it, do you feel fine? | Critics are taking aim at CNN for its habit of discussing the ongoing Middle East unrest in apocalyptic terms—literally (CBS)

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Politics:

1. Governor hopefuls try to make religion an issue | One of the last places a Democratic candidate for governor wants to be associated with Christian conservatives is in the voter-rich liberal Jewish condominiums of South Florida (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
2. Christians call for equality in workplace, labor fairness | Organizers of a local conference championing racial and social justice called upon religious leaders Thursday to push for equality, beginning in the workplace (Commercial Appeal, Memphis)
3. Senate votes to extend statute of limitations | Bill adds 12 years to child sex abuse reporting period (The Boston Globe)
4. Judges in check — for now | Is the balance back? (Rich Lowry, National Review Online)
5. Reed’s defeat shows evangelicals getting wise | If the Christian right becomes less vocal about its disgust with Senator Edward Kennedy, gay lifestyles, and the “war on Christmas,” there’s a chance the public will hear their voices on urgent issues such as poverty in Africa, genocide in Darfur and world health. Who knows, they may even save a few souls (Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg)
6. Reading the Reed rout | Two Republican primaries in the Deep South expose potentially serious cracks in the party’s religious-right foundation (Bob Moser, The Nation)
7. Clergy too quiet about Bush, war | WWJD about a war initiated on deception in which, every day, men and women — American, Iraqi, Afghani and others — are dying? (Kenneth C. Daniel, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Church and state:

1. Democrats oppose bill denying attorneys’ fees in church-state suits | Democratic lawmakers in the House are expressing strong opposition to legislation that would deny attorneys’ fees to individuals and groups who win cases challenging government actions as a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on the establishment of religion (The New York Sun)
2. School Bible club dispute becomes a federal case | Court fight centers on ‘Christians only’ membership limit (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
3. In government in-boxes, all e-mail must be equal | In the fall, during the fight over religious holidays in the public school calendar, the Hillsborough County School Board temporarily blocked e-mails coming from the Florida Family Association (Howard Troxler, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)
4. Nun with honorary aboriginal membership loses deportation fight | The Roman Catholic nun claimed refugee status, saying she would suffer religious persecution if she were sent back to Nigeria (Canadian Press)

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Life ethics:

1. Abortion-consent stall riles GOP, pro-lifers | Republicans and pro-life groups are outraged that Senate Democrats are, at least for now, blocking a newly approved bipartisan Senate bill aimed at protecting parents’ right to be involved in an underage daughter’s abortion decision (The Washington Times)
2. Cloning team’s IVF deal for eggs | A UK fertility centre is being allowed to ask women undergoing IVF to donate eggs to therapeutic cloning research for cheap treatment for the first time (BBC)
3. Democrats seek gains in stem-cell issue | After Bush’s veto last week, it could be a tipping point that favors Democrats in key races, experts say (The Christian Science Monitor)
4. Va. man executed for killing inmate | Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in which Lenz’s attorney argued that the jury in his trial was not impartial because jurors consulted a Bible during sentencing deliberations (The Washington Post)
5. Also: Virginia executes man for slaying inmate | A man who stabbed a fellow inmate to death during a pagan religious ceremony was executed Thursday night (Associated Press)
6. Stem cell research is pro-life | If we are to believe Bush when he equates the use of these frozen embryos for research to murder, then his only moral course of action is to stop the destruction of frozen embryos and put them up for adoption by loving families.  (Kirk Florence, Austin American-Statesman, Tex.)
7. Fighting abortion with false ‘facts’ | The girls and women who show up at federally financed “pregnancy resource centers” seek compassion, but often get condemnation. They seek options, but are ostracized. Most harmful, they seek facts, but they get lies (Elisa Cramer, Palm Beach Post, Fla.)

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Media and entertainment:

1. Religious radio is reborn … as ‘porn’ | New FM format dumps spirituality, sermons for sensual sounds (Fresno Bee, Ca.)
2. Update: Porn Radio gets lots of attention | Format is off for now; Kingsburg official is not amused (Fresno Bee, Ca.)
3. Is the new Superman meant to be Jesus? | Is the Superman Returns movie meant to remind us of the Bible? And if so, is it blasphemy? (BBC)
4. Guidebooks help Christians find services | Hampton Roads has four Christian business directories plus at least two organizations bringing together Christian business owners (The Virginian Pilot)
5. New wave of country singers find religion can inspire, sell | While popular culture – from television to books – has seen a resurgence in all-things-spiritual since 9/11, country music’s upsurge is more Christian-specific (The Paramus Post, N.J.)
6. Braves open doors to faith | Event is first such promotion in big leagues (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Missions & ministry:

1. Religion in the news: Putting church into Churchill Downs | Churchill Downs has donated land and the Kentucky chapter of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America helped raise $630,000, mostly in private donations, to build a chapel for workers (Associated Press)
2. School district seeks refuge for homeless | Brian Q. Newcomb, a pastor in Maplewood, is part of the faith community that has responded to the school’s proposal and has met with other leaders recently to make the project a reality (Associated Press)
3. On the road to Jesus | Born-again bikers organize to share God’s love (The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboron, Tenn.)
4. Honduras’s mission possible: Integrating the church With HIV/AIDS efforts | In Honduras especially, church leaders are now trying to become part of the solution with stepped-up efforts that aim to slow HIV’s spread and help the infected (Science)

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Church life:

1. A pastor who plagiarized finds a congregation willing to forgive | A disgraced former preacher who used sermons from other ministers and passed them off as his own is getting a second chance (The New York Times)
2. Demolition starts at historic Catholic church in East Village | Word spread quickly Thursday morning on Manhattan’s Lower East Side: “They are demolishing St. Brigid’s” (The New York Times)
3. Loophole blues | Divided Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) prepares for splits and property disputes (World)
4. Spreading the Word—fast | A new system makes church membership grow exponentially (Andrea Tunarosa, The Wall Street Journal)

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Catholicism:

1. Catholics face crisis over retired nuns | With tens of thousands of U.S. nuns over age 70, the Roman Catholic Church is facing a massive financial shortfall for the care of retirees in religious orders — a gap that over the long term dwarfs costs from the clergy abuse crisis (Associated Press)
2. Making a stand for women priests | Archdiocesan official quits, saying she was ordained (The Boston Globe)
3. Archbishop follows in St Patrick’s steps | Ireland’s leading Catholic clergyman is to become the first Archbishop of Armagh since the time of St Patrick to climb Croagh Patrick (BBC)

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Other stories of interest:

1. Congo’s militia groups agree to disarm | The last two main militia groups in Congo’s most troubled province agreed to disarm in exchange for amnesty and army positions, officials said Thursday as violence erupted in the capital reportedly killing seven people ahead of historic weekend elections (Associated Press)
2. Woman in doghouse over Jehovah’s Witness sign | A British woman has been ordered by police to take down a sign on her garden gate which read “Our dogs are fed on Jehovah’s Witnesses.”(Reuters)
3. Prof: Science helps, not zealots | Lee M. Silver takes belief in nature, religion to task (The Capital Times, Madison, Wi.)
4. Falwell speaks mind | ‘I don’t believe we should herd them onto buses and take them to Mexico City’ (The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.)
5. Rod rules | Anti-spanking crusades have triggered bans around the globe and are taking aim at the U.S.—but some defenders of spanking say that many parents do it unbiblically (World)

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