British Columbia Allows Same-Sex Marriages

Links, links, linksNo commentary today. Just links. Enjoy.

British Columbia allows same-sex marriages:

Court rejects same-sex marriage ban | B.C. appeal decision: Judges give lawmakers until 2004 to revise law (The National Post, Canada)
Also: Same-sex marriages to be allowed in B.C.| Society’s notion of marriage has changed and governments need to recognize that, the B.C. Court of Appeal declared yesterday as it strongly endorsed the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry (The Globe & Mail, Toronto)
Also: Canadian court slams same-sex marriage bans (Reuters)
Also: Canada’s same-sex marriage ban challenged (Associated Press)

National Day of Prayer:

President delivers remarks on the National Day of Prayer (White House, audio | video)
Bush: Iraq war a time of testing, prayer | Somber, patriotic National Day of Prayer service contrasted with last year’s event, which had the air of a Christian revival (Associated Press)
Bush joins in prayer for the nation (UPI)
Bush hosts National Day of Prayer (The Washington Post)
Day of Prayer celebrations draw debate | When Congress, at the behest of Harry Truman, approved a National Day of Prayer, the intent was to be inclusive of all religious beliefs. But some critics contend the event has become co-opted in recent years by evangelical Christians (Contra Costa [Calif.] Times)
Christian bent in day of prayer events makes some feel left out | Some religious leaders said the day of prayer is, in everything but name, a national event for Christians (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
Groups give separate prayers for unity | Christian event in Muncie draws smaller crowd than interfaith one (The Indianapolis Star)
A little child shall lead them | Lauren Cutshall, a fifth-grader, organized a group of students, teachers and parents before school yesterday in observance of President Bush’s National Day of Prayer (Lexington Herald-Leader)
‘God, bless America’ | On Day of Prayer, many sought guidance for nation (The Charlotte Observer)
President Bush cites area woman for Bible charity (Winona [Wis.] Daily News)

Church and state:

National Clergy Council: Supreme Court allows prayer on its property for first time | Group is conducting a nationwide petition drive asking court officials to end its “No Prayer Zone” policy (Press release)
Lawsuit alleges Independence teacher pushed Christianity on class | ACLU says school district knew about the teacher’s actions but did nothing to change the situation (The Kansas City Star)
Pledge girl still saying ‘under God’ | School official confirms Newdow’s daughter takes part in ritual (WorldNetDaily)

Life ethics:

An embryo by any other name | A bill that claims to be against cloning isn’t (Jim Tonkowich, The Weekly Standard)
Laci Peterson’s unborn child becomes pawn in abortion debate | The Peterson case, as with many in the past, has nothing to do with abortion (Susan Estrich, USA Today)
New artificial egg technique eases fears on cloning | Scientists have succeeded in coaxing embryonic stem cells to develop into eggs (The Times, London)
Also: Two men and a cradle? | Scientific discovery might allow two men to produce children with both partners’ genetic code (The Washington Post)
Genetic test blunders risk needless abortions | Warning is being issued by medical geneticists who have assessed the outcomes of some of the tens of thousands of DNA tests carried out every month in the US as part of the world’s largest screening program for cystic fibrosis (New Scientist)
Texas House passes abortion bill requiring 24-hour wait | The vote on House Bill 15 was 96-41. It is expected to be finally passed later this week and go to the Senate, where Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, will try to win approval (Houston Chronicle)
Partial-birth abortions: Michigan bill legally defines birth | According to the bill, a person is considered legally born when any part of a fetus is expelled from a woman’s body (Traverse City Record-Eagle)
After some debate, Florida House backs limited ban on cloning | But it made an exception for some medical stem cell research (The Miami Herald)

Birth control:

Anti-birth control bill vetoed | Catholic Church sought exclusion for employees (Arizona Daily Star)
Women on the pill ‘still fall pregnant’ | Two thirds of France’s unplanned pregnancies were among women using contraceptives (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Sexual ethics:

Neb. same-sex marriage ban challenged | Federal court lawsuit says the measure violates the rights of gay couples (Associated Press)
Equality law must bind church, say gay Christians | Lobby British government against attempts by the Church of England to obtain exemption from planned anti-discrimination employment regulations (The Guardian, London)
Campaign targets city’s gay-rights vote | Ohio conservatives wage an all-out crusade in Kentucky to stop a proposed law to protect homosexuals from discrimination (Los Angeles Times)

Education:

D.C. mayor endorses vouchers for schools | Program pushed by Education Secretary Rod Paige, who has met resistance on the issue from D.C. officials (The Washington Times)
Also: D.C. mayor backs vouchers | Williams reverses his position on a key GOP initiative after talks (The Washington Post)
Christian group places anti-religious discrimination ads | Ads in college newspapers offer discrimination victims legal help (Associated Press)
Also: Legal alliance advertising to quell anti-Christian discrimination | Alliance Defense Fund is urging students to report incidents of “anti-Christian bigotry” on their campus (The Crimson White, University of Alabama)
Shifting sand? | Calvin College offers a top-notch liberal arts education, but is it slipping its biblical moorings? (World)
Church history scholar to lead Brite Divinity School | D. Newell Williams was professor of church history at Christian Theological Seminary (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)

Missions and ministries:

Missionaries bring aid, controversy to Kashmir | The influx of Christian evangelists complicates an already volatile religious equation, critics say (The Christian Science Monitor)
Faith & works | Christians aid Muslims outside the glare of Western journalists bent on uncovering a new crusade. In Jordan, Red Crescent officials clearly don’t want Christians credited for helping those displaced by the war in Iraq. That’s just fine by the relief workers. The idea is for someone else to get the credit, anyway (World)
Enduring mercy at The Med | Thirty years ago, 11 Presbyterian women set out to follow Jesus on a Great Commission (David Waters, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis)
Benny Hinn encourages Christian tourism to Israel | “Anyone who doesn’t support Israel is not a true Christian,” says faith healer (The Jerusalem Post)

Money and business:

God at the office | More businesses make room for religion (Times Union, Albany, NY)
Shopping mad: Why the ban enrages the rationalists | The secularist objection to the Easter trading ban was only a smokescreen (Ray Cassin, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
Ex-sex shop faces woes as Christian store | A man who converted his sex toy shop to a Christian bookstore said sales are so slow he was able to stock his shelves only after receiving $80,000 worth of donated religious goods (Associated Press)
‘Corporate vulture’ | Philip Anschutz tries to thread his way into heaven (Orange County Weekly)

Crime:

Arsenic poisoning ruled a homicide | Someone put the deadly heavy metal into the coffee that was served to parishioners following Sunday’s service (Portland Press Herald, Maine)
Also: Poisoned coffee mystery | Arsenic death stuns Maine church (ABCNews.com)
Earlier: Arsenic poisonings at a church mystify a small town in Maine | Investigators are still trying to determine whether the poisoning of churchgoers after a Sunday service was an accident or done on purpose (The New York Times)
Also: Arsenic-tainted container found at New Sweden church | Neighbors maintain trust in each other after Sunday’s fatal poisoning. (Portland [Me.] Press Herald)
Pedophile was ‘sincere Christian’ | A Baptist church missionary who sexually interfered with young boys in the Philippines was a sincere Christian dedicated to helping the less fortunate, a court was told today (The Australian)
Priest to die for child sacrifice | A court has sentenced a priest to death for sacrificing a 9-year-old child to appease a deity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand (Herald Sun, Australia)
Ex-SEAL trainee says he alone killed woman in 1995 | Billy Joe Brown says in a sworn statement that his new-found religious faith wouldn’t let him stay silent while his co-defendant, Dustin Turner, does time for a crime he didn’t commit (The Virginian-Pilot)
Also: Ex-Navy SEAL trainee confesses to murder | Says he has found Christianity (Associated Press)
Priest’s dirty habit exposed | A priest who wanted hookers to dress as nuns was exposed in a police raid on a brothel (The Daily Record, Scotland)
Accused killer cites Bible in stabbing of his wife and child | Described the slayings as a test of faith similar to the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Another church sex scandal | From the time she was 10, until she turned 13, Heidi Meyer, a Jehovah’s Witness, says she was molested by a member of her congregation. Finally, she turned to the leaders of her faith (CBS News)
Diocese at fault, it admits | The case of accused priest who resurfaced was ‘mishandled’ (The Sacramento Bee)

Church life:

Church converts | As more churches in Britain fall silent, their empty edifices are finding new life as nightclubs, bagpipe training centers, theaters, pubs, and museums (The Christian Science Monitor)
Church of Scotland too poor to build churches or hire clergy | Cash crisis as traditional funding sources dry up (The Herald, Glasgow)
Religion Today: Just what the Vatican feared | Altar serving has become so popular with girls that they outnumber the boys in many parishes (Associated Press)
Wholly Communion? | Christian denominations differ over who can and cannot partake of Eucharist (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Concord church put out of Baptist group | Cabarrus association objects to congregation that baptized gay men (The Charlotte Observer)

Politics and law:

Texas conservatives find room on issues | For the first time in 130 years, Republicans are in control of the Texas House and conservatives are finding fertile ground for social issues like restrictions on abortion and bans on same-sex unions (Associated Press)
Coming out of the conservative closet | Coming out as Christian or conservative is terrifying, as is, I’m certain, coming out as gay (Elizabeth Nickson, National Post, Canada)
Hare Krishna airport solicitors win judge’s support | Court issues preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of Los Angeles ordinance allowing airport staff to limit movements of Krishnas seeking donations (Associated Press)

Media:

Stories they don’t want told | Since the end of March, Christian evangelism has been making ever-widening ripples in the American press (Varsha Bhosle, Rediff.com, India)
Journalists meet to discuss religion coverage | Reporting on faith has grown but needs work, says report (Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY)
U.S. hires Christian extremists to produce Arabic News | Grace Digital Media is controlled by a fundamentalist Christian millionaire, Cheryl Reagan (AlterNet.org)

Prayer and spirituality:

The brain at prayer | Why do humans pray? What happens in our brains when we meditate? Are we genetically programmed to look for the spiritual experience? (Radio Nederland)
One pilgrim’s progress up a spiritual mountain | Visiting Mount Athos, the exclusive domain of monks and other holy men, the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church, and a place shrouded in tradition and legend (The Boston Globe)
40,000 Christians gather to pray for Africa’s healing | The Cape Town gathering at “The Day of Prayer for Africa” confessed to being part of the problem (Cape Argus, South Africa)

Interfaith relations and other religions:

‘Interfaith summit’ to discuss role of religion in postwar Iraq | Summit members hope to release a joint statement, similar to one released shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, calling on Americans to respect differences of religion, race and worship (Chicago Sun-Times)
U.S. troops, religion a fiery mix in Iraq | When they arrived, the Americans brought irritants petty and large (Associated Press)

Persecution:

Debate rages over normalizing trade with religious freedom violator | Amid continuing reports of religious persecution in Laos, a lobbying battle is under way over whether the United States should grant normal trade relations status to the impoverished communist nation (CNSNews.com)
Eritrea government denies religious persecution | “All religions are equal and no religion is more equal than others,” government says (IRIN)

Books:

Pope’s childhood friend recalls his youth | An 81-year-old actress who grew up with Pope John Paul II has published a book of memoirs, recalling performing alongside the future pontiff in clandestine theaters in Nazi-occupied Poland (Associated Press)
United Church of Christ book says Jesus was gay | Author Theodore W. Jennings is ordained minister in The United Methodist Church and professor of biblical and constructive theology at United Church of Christ-related Chicago Theological Seminary (Press release)
A hundred years of Muggery | The life and times of Malcolm Muggeridge (Christopher Hitchens, The Weekly Standard)

Bible:

In praise of imprecision | Stop reading the Bible as history (Robert Nowell, The Guardian, London)
Restoring Mary Magdalene | Scholars are trying to set the record straight about the saint, who traditionally is seen as a floozy (The Baltimore Sun)
Thou shalt not place Bibles in our rooms, Borgata says | The $1.1 billion resort opening this summer will break rank from every other casino and not allow the Gideons to place a Bible in any of its 2,002 hotel rooms (The Press of Atlantic City, NJ)

Paganism:

Clifton pagans celebrate | Yep, there’s a church and a Sunday school (The Cincinnati Post)
Heavenly bodies worship a ‘Goddess’ | “All women are goddesses,” says Nicole Kidman (New York Daily News)

Art:

Art interprets duality of Jesus, Mary | Debates over human and divine natures have played out in Western art for centuries, as a Getty exhibition illustrates (Los Angeles Times)
Bishop and mayor to fight in court for Madonna painting | It is said to be the only religious representation of a pregnant Virgin Mary in existence and is the pride and chief tourist attraction of Monterchi, where it was created in 1460 (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Not a prayer | Anitra Blayton helps raise awareness for a troubled church but forgets about art (Ft. Worth Weekly)
Arts show: Dylan Mortimer’s “Museum of Faith Analysis” | Complete with its own logo (a pair of praying hands as seen through a targeting scope), laminated signage, X-ray photographs, colorful diagrams and computer terminals, the “Museum” proclaims its mission is “to make faith as easy as 1-2-3!” (Kansas City Star)

Other stories of interest:

Virgin Mary ‘weeps’ once more | Was the center of world attention last year when it appeared to be “weeping” rose-scented tears (Herald Sun, Australia)
Also: Perth statue weeps again (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
Religion news in brief | Easter in Moscow, Jesus Hawaii Project defended, religions debate Kenya’s constitution, and other stories (Associated Press)
Christians, Jews, and blasphemers | Culture has led otherwise moral-minded people into believing that “Jesus Christ!” is an acceptable swear word (Alex A. Garcia, Chicago Tribune)
Trial by fear | Chaotic world events have spurred an increased interest in prophecy, but critics say such teachings, when proved wrong, harm credibility (Ft. Worth [Tex.] Star-Telegram)
St Chad in new patron saint battle | St Chad, the first Bishop of Lichfield, has been put forward as a replacement for St George as the new patron saint of England (Express & Star, Lichfield, England)
Templeton’s turn | An award that tries to reconcile science and religion (John J. Miller, The Wall Street Journal)
Borderline slavery: child trafficking in West Africa | A Q&A with human rights expert Jonathan Cohen (The Christian Science Monitor)
Privacy vs. whose morals? | Are we repulsed in extreme areas because we confront objective truth, or is it a matter of social conditioning? (Cal Thomas)