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South Korean hostages | Crime | Religious freedom | Middle East | Church and state | Education | Life ethics | 2008 campaign | Democrats’ gay debate | Australian politics | Internet obscenity | ELCA synod | Anglicanism | Church life | 20/20 on Billy Graham | Art, entertainment, and media | People | Michael Gerson | Red Cross | Other stories of interest
- Talks begin for hostage release | Face-to-face negotiation likely to break ice in 3-week-long crisis (The Korea Times)
- Taliban, Koreans negotiate on hostages | Two top Taliban leaders and four South Korean officials met face-to-face for the first time Friday to negotiate the fate of 21 members of a church group held hostage for three weeks, an Afghan official said (Associated Press)
- Taliban and Korean team begin talks over hostages | Afghanistan’s Taliban began the first round of face-to-face talks with a South Korean team on Friday over the 21 hostages the group is holding, an Afghan official said (Reuters)
- Taliban demand $1million for each hostage | A high-ranking Afghan source said earlier that the kidnappers have demanded $1 million as ransom for each Korean national. But now it seems that kidnappers are likely to reduce the demand for ransom (The Korea Times)
- 3 charged for misinformation on hostages | The file explained the hostages went to Afghanistan for missionary purpose, not as medical volunteers as they had said. The file contained photographs of them singing hymns inside a Mosque. It instantly spread to not only domestic Web sites but also foreign media’s sites. However, the pictures were taken in 2005, long before this trip, which was actually to provide medical service (The Korea Times)
- God is not responsible | My earnest hope is to see you Korean hostages in Afghanistan come back home safe. I hope you will come back and make your hard-earned lessons known. I hope you will graduate from your naivety with the help of Bertrand Russell and Richard Dawkins (Kim Heung-sook, The Korea Times)
- Honduran police investigate killing of US missionary | A 79-year-old U.S. evangelical missionary was beaten to death in his home in western Honduras by two men he had hired to do construction work, police said Thursday (Associated Press)
- Mexican priest kills secret son to save career, receives 55 years in prison | A Mexican priest has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for killing a son he did not want his superiors to discover, prosecutors said Thursday (Associated Press)
- Church feels betrayed by manager | More than $50,000 was allegedly taken in a series of thefts (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
- More young victims could emerge in sex case | HIV-positive man faces 61 counts (The Tennesean, Nashville)
- Also: Church leader faces child sex abuse charges (WTVF, Nashville)
- Lawsuit filed against Rapid City diocese | A deceased Roman Catholic priest from Philip is accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a female parishioner in 1987 (Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D.)
- Arrest wasn’t first run-in for nude jogging priest | A Catholic priest who was arrested for jogging in the buff nearly two months ago in Frederick was investigated by the Archdiocese of Denver more than eight years ago for “inappropriate personal behavior,” a church official acknowledged Thursday (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
- Also: Nude jogging priest gets under residents’ skin | Priest would have to register as sex offender if convicted (KETV, Omaha)
- Christians who helped convert held in Egypt | Police have detained two Egyptian Christians who helped a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, one of their colleagues said on Thursday. The two men, named as Adel Fawzi and Peter Ezzat, also offered legal help to the family of a man who died during a police raid on his house this week, said Nader Fawzy, the president of the Middle East Christian Association (Reuters)
- Also: Egypt arrests three members of Toronto-based Copt group | Trio allegedly accused of insulting Islam, converting Muslims to Christianity (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
- Muslim convert who wants to renounce Islam to undergo counseling | A Muslim convert who wants to renounce Islam after her Iranian husband left her will be referred to the State Islamic Religious Affairs Department for counseling (The Star, Malaysia)
- World Evangelical Alliance head unveils plans for Iraq | Tuncliffe “committed” to opening a branch in 2008 (Christian Post)
- Private charity pledges welfare assistance to Arab local councils | The president of the National Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, approved this week the expansion of the group’s operations in 20 Bedouin and Druze municipalities by NIS 1.7 million, in addition to the NIS 9 million it already supplies to other Arab municipalities (Haaretz, Tel Aviv)
- U.S. promotes free elections, only to see allies lose | The paradox of American policy in the Middle East is that almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose (The New York Times)
- Sonora officially trusts a deity | Council votes to display ‘In God we trust’ on wall at City Hall; critics steam (Modesto Bee, Ca.)
- Judge reverses conviction for distributing religious tracts | Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley threw out Baumann’s conviction for violating a Cumming city ordinance by demonstrating without a parade permit (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- Lawmaker wants legal opinion on faith-based prison program | A law giving rights to faith-based groups within the prison system is unconsitititonal, a lawmaker said Wednesday (Tulsa World, Okla.)
- Romanian Orthodox Church protests allegations it had ties to communist secret police | Mircea Dinescu, a poet who is now a board member of the state council for studying the Securitate archives, had claimed the late Metropolitan and Archbishop Antonie Plamadeala, who died in 2005, had been an undercover Securitate officer. (Associated Press)
- Wren cross case closed? | The cross’s display in the chapel may finally settle the controversy at William and Mary (Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Va.)
- Parent sues district over school prayer | The Crofts argue that the Texas Education Code’s minute of silence, passed in September 2003, is a form of state-sanctioned prayer in schools (Carrollton Leader Star, Tex.)
- Also: Intent of school day’s moment of silence debated | In court, state argues law has secular intent; dad sees religious aim (The Dallas Morning News)
- God and class | God was never expelled. Prayer was never expelled. “Put God back in schools?” He never left (Editorial, Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
- Abortion under siege in Latin America | Though leftist parties hold power in countries like Bolivia, pro-choice activists are finding themselves on the defensive (Time)
- Amnesty faces Catholic church boycott over abortion policy | Amnesty International’s policy on abortion has become the subject of renewed controversy on the eve of the organisation’s international council meeting (The Guardian, London)
- For Missouri, stem cell amendment changes little | A voter-approved expansion of stem cell research in the state has run into political and financial roadblocks, putting the future of the research in doubt (The New York Times)
- Group sues over stem cell petition on Granholm site | A Christian activist organization charges in a federal lawsuit that Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s online petition to promote embryonic stem cell research discriminates against those opposed to it (Detroit Free Press)
- Robinson speaks for himself | Bishop’s Obama endorsement doesn’t sway congregations (Concord Monitor, N.H.)
- Giuliani’s faith both public and private | Rudy Giuliani evokes his Catholic upbringing as he campaigns for president, yet he refuses to say whether he is a practicing Catholic (Associated Press)
- Romney pushed on conservative credentials | Mitt Romney is undergoing the stiffest test yet of his effort to win over conservatives wary of his ideological credentials in the days leading up to the Iowa Straw Poll (The New York Times)
- Mitt ‘no shrinking violet’ about faith | He vows to defend his religion but isn’t ready for ‘JFK speech’ (Deseret Morning News, Ut.)
- Mitt’s a Mormon. Deal with it, America | It’s hard to see how Romney’s faith helps him. My point is it shouldn’t hurt him (John Baer, Philadelphia Daily News)
- A non-believer – say it isn’t so | You can be gay, black or even a woman, but America will not tolerate a president who has no religion (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Sharp questions for Dems on gay issues | Six of the eight Democratic candidates answered questions Thursday on gay rights at the two-hour forum co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group, and Logo, a gay-oriented cable TV channel. (Associated Press)
- Democrats voice support of gay rights in TV forum | The three leading Democratic candidates for president stopped short of supporting same-sex marriage (The New York Times)
- Democratic candidates address gay rights issues | First-ever televised presidential forum underlines increasing importance of community in elections (The Washington Post)
- Democrats quizzed at LA gay-rights forum | Six candidates, including the front-runners, come to Hollywood to voice support for an influential voting bloc in cable event (Los Angeles Times)
- ‘Too many Christians’ in parliament | There are too many Christians in parliament and they don’t reflect the make-up of modern Australia, Democrats leader Lyn Allison said (The Australian)
- Arch-rivals spread own kind of Word | God may be neither Liberal nor Labor, as John Howard conceded, but that did not stop the Prime Minister or his opponent Kevin Rudd from invoking Christian values as they made their election-year pitches directly to Christian voters in a webcast beamed live last night to hundreds of church gatherings around the nation (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- PM adds to Catholic collection plate | Prime Minister John Howard has responded to the Catholic calling, a day after addressing Australia’s Christians, by pitching an extra $15 million into World Youth Day’s collection plate (AAP, Australia)
- Federal effort on web obscenity shows few results | A program that has monitored sexual Web sites for illegal material over the last several years has not resulted in a single prosecution (The New York Times)
- PM’s net porn war | Porn websites and chat rooms used by child-sex predators will be blocked from home computers under radical moves to protect young internet users. Australian families will have access to free internet filter systems under a $190 million Howard Government crackdown (Herald Sun, Australia)
- ISP-level filters ‘unworkable’ | Internet service providers have labelled the Federal Government’s radical plan to force them to filter web content at the request of their users as unworkable (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Veto for parents on web content | Internet service providers will be forced to filter web content at the request of parents, under a $189 million Federal Government crackdown on online bad language, pornography and child sex predators (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Howard pitch for family vote with internet filter | Prime Minister John Howard has made a strong pitch for the Christian and family vote with a $189 million package to provide a free internet filter for every Australian family in a bid to fight pornography and foul language online (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
- Gay clergy debate survives | ELCA assembly to continue discussions today (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
- Lutherans deferring debate on same-sex unions | Lutherans meeting at Navy Pier on Thursday voted to defer discussion on whether to bless same-sex unions to a task force preparing a social statement on human sexuality for the next churchwide assembly in 2009 (Chicago Sun-Times)
- Lutheran gay-clergy issue on hold | The stalled debate disappointed gay-rights advocates who had readied themselves on the eve of the debate by transforming a nearby hotel ballroom into a sanctuary for 650 worshipers, including half a dozen bishops (Chicago Tribune)
- Lutheran church out to tackle biblical illiteracy | The five-year Book of Faith initiative is intended to boost study of the Bible throughout the 4.8 million-member church (Chicago Tribune)
- Rebel Atlanta church avoids repercussions over gay pastor | Synod Bishop Ronald Warren says he won’t pursue disciplinary action against the congregation for retaining the defrocked pastor (Southern Voice, gay newspaper)
- Sydney bishops snub Anglican chief in gay row | Sydney’s Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen, and his five assistant bishops have delayed responding to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation to the Lambeth Conference , saying they hesitated to sit at the same table as those who supported the consecration of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Why All Saints’ split | Carl Barringer, of St. Patrick’s Anglican Church, said he has seen new commitment among the people at the church since it was organized in late 2006 (The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
- Orthodox priest found guilty of financial misconduct | Rev. Don Armstrong says charges are bogus (Virtue Online)
- Wynnbrook pastor resigns unexpectedly | The Rev. Brad Hicks announced his resignation Wednesday night as senior pastor of Wynnbrook Baptist Church, which has more than 4,000 members (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)
- Church won’t hold funeral for gay man | Kin scramble to find new site after Arlington clerics renege on offer (The Dallas Morning News)
- Gay pastor sparks uproar | A controversy has erupted among the Christian community over what they claim is an attempt by a self-confessed gay pastor to set up a church here. For the past week, protest e-mail and SMSes have been sent to Rev Ou Yang Wen Feng, a Malaysian pastor who serves at the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in New York. He has been back here for about a week (The Star, Malaysia)
- Sides feud over ‘God’s land’ in Seoul | The battle for control of the Yanghwajin Foreigners Cemetery, the most sacred site for Protestants in South Korea, escalated after a Korean church took over the cemetery chapel from a mostly foreign congregation and claimed it as its own (International Herald Tribune)
- Moravian Church celebrates 550 years | Decades before Martin Luther took a stand against the Catholic Church, a man named John Hus was burned at the stake after he railed against practices of Roman Catholic clergy (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Court approves diocese’s payments for legal expenses | U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler Thursday approved payment of $421,000 to a San Diego law firm and an accounting agency assisting the Catholic diocese in its Chapter 11 reorganization case (San Diego Union-Tribune)
- The pastor in chief | A new book reveals what Billy Graham learned–and what he regretted–in his 50-year ministry to every U.S. President since Truman (Time)
- Praying with presidents | The history of Graham and Time (Richard Stengel, Time)
- Podcast: Billy Graham (Time)
- TV show, book see Graham in political pulpit | Charlotte’s native son ministered to, but also for, the powerful (The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
- ‘Billy Graham,’ in the presence of the Prez | David Bianculli reviews 20/20‘s special on Billy Graham (New York Daily News)
Art, entertainment, and media:
- Divine inspiration leads to ‘Grace’ | Playwright focuses storytelling on moral questions (The Boston Globe)
- Leading ladies of the Bible on center stage | Actress’s one-woman play takes a look at the lives of five prominent figures in Scripture (The Dallas Morning News)
- Methodist publisher cuts staff | The United Methodist Publishing House has announced the layoffs of 30 of its 1,000 employees in response to declining sales and rising costs (Religion BookLine, Publishers Weekly)
- A fair, fabulous collection of Bibles | Chennai International Christian Book Fair is on till August 18 (The Hindu, India)
- Plans for sale of FamilyNet announced | North American Mission Board of Southern Baptist Convention to sell to Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries (Baptist Press)
- Multifaith farewell for French cardinal | Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, a convert from Judaism who sought to bring the faiths closer during his extraordinary life, is carrying on the mission in death — with a funeral rich in symbolism that includes a Jewish prayer read by a Nazi death camp survivor (Associated Press)
- The conservative revolutionary | Brilliant, blunt and bold, French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger was the quintessential John Paul II bishop, an evangelical Catholic who saw conversion of culture as the order of the day (John L. Allen Jr, The Wall Street Journal)
- Vatican plays down meeting that angered Jewish groups | The Vatican worked Thursday to minimize the significance of a brief meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and a Polish priest accused of making anti-Semitic statements (The New York Times)
- The world according to Matthew Scully | Not the Mike Gerson I know (Peter Wehner, National Review Online)
- Present at the creation | The only person the speechwriter Michael Gerson made look better than President Bush was Michael Gerson. The birth of a Washington reputation, as witnessed by a White House colleague (Matthew Scully, The Atlantic)
- A date certain on Darfur | There are two benchmarks that will help answer whether the momentum is real. (Michael Gerson, The Washington Post)
- Drug company sues Red Cross over trademark use | Johnson & Johnson has filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross, alleging the charity is violating a long-held trademark by selling products such as humidifiers, toothbrushes, and combs under its own brand (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
- Johnson & Johnson sues Red Cross over symbol | The red cross symbol is an icon of relief from disaster. For months, it has also been the subject of a festering disagreement between major American institutions: the health care company Johnson & Johnson and the American Red Cross (The New York Times)
- Red Cross sued for use of cross emblem | Johnson & Johnson, the health-products giant that uses a red cross as its trademark, sued the American Red Cross on Wednesday, demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products it sells to the public (Associated Press)
- Preaching to the choir | Evangelicals worry about the behavior of their brethren (W. Bradford Wilcox, The Wall Street Journal)
- Christianity in China | There is a natural “ceiling” for Christianity among Chinese people (John Derbyshire, National Review Online)
- The face of God | What Benedict’s Jesus offers (Peter Steinfels, Commonweal)
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South Korea Orders All Aid Groups Out of Afghanistan | Plus: Military ministry video faulted, all eyes on Christian voters (in Lebanon), and other stories (August 9)
Afghanistan Kidnappers Kill Hostage as South Korea Debates Mission Work | Plus: Malaysia changes course on Shari’ah courts, remembering Tammy Faye, a church is attacked by Christian terrorists, and other stories from online sources around the world (July 26)
Taliban Kidnaps South Korean Christians | Plus: Priest freed in Philippines, Israeli cable to drop Christian network Daystar, and more (July 20)
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Accuses Priest Critic of Adultery | Plus: Whether evangelicals can recover from a Catholic’s fall, the escalating cost of abuse, and many other stories from online sources around the world (July 19)
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