New Kids on the Blog

Revenge of the bloggersSeveral Christian bloggers took issue with the initial entry of Weblog in Print, Christianity Today‘s effort to put the spirit of blogging on paper. No big surprise there: as the column noted, the blogging community likes nothing more than critiquing articles about blogging. The main critique of the column was that it didn’t mention this or that blog.

Let’s try to remedy that by recommending a few Christian weblogs that are just getting started. Get in on the ground floor; say you were there when it all began; be a charter subscriber. The first, The Paris Project, includes a heaping dose of cat entries, but those uninterested in feline exploits will keep coming back for the writer: Jenell Williams Paris, associate professor of anthropology at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, author of the books Urban Disciples and Birth Control for Christians, and author of two Christianity Today articles. As one might expect from her past writings, a number of Paris’s postings are on sex. “I’m looking for a way of life, a quality of dialogue, and an intimacy of relationship in the church that can help us live together with sexuality as an acknowledged part of our lives,” she wrote in one post.

I also think that we won’t all agree—we can’t just start an educational campaign to tell everyone what’s what. We need a strong grounding in orthodoxy and a strong engagement with community … and then we need to just live with each other, honestly talking and respectfully disagreeing, and being part of each other’s decision-making, even in the most intimate parts of life. And when people make sexual choices that have bad consequences, we need to share our own similar stories and remind ourselves that God’s grace is sufficient for us all.

Paris’s blog isn’t all about sex, of course, but one imagines that the subject matter may draw in more readers than updates on her cat’s digestive tract.

Another CT writer, Bob Smietana, is the voice of god-of-small-things, whose blog is broadly on religion news. His first entry was picked up by the new religion megablog The Revealer, since it contained a light criticism of the NYU-sponsored site. More recent posts have focused on a homeless man who froze to death and media coverage of The Body (a religious sect Smietana wrote about for CT). Smietana writes that he sees the sect’s members “not [as] ‘nut cases,’ not cold blooded cultists, but as people who have suffered the greatest loss of all—the death of their children. And they have to live with that the rest of their lives. May God have mercy on them.”

If Smietana’s nascent efforts at critiquing religion reporting interest you, be sure to make GetReligion.org one of your most prominent bookmarks. It’s the work of two men, one of whom CT readers will be very familiar: associate editor Douglas LeBlanc. The other voice is that of syndicated religion columnist Terry Mattingly, and it’s amazing that he hasn’t been publicly blogging for years. The main focus is on news reports that miss or misconstrue the religious dimension to the story. “Our main goal here is to raise questions about the religion coverage in the mainstream press,” Mattingly recently summarized.

Weblog doesn’t know about Mattingly, but LeBlanc does have a wonderful cat named Spot. Still, don’t expect many Spot updates on GetReligion—this is a blog with a focus and a mission (and, reportedly, funding). May these sites and many others like them gain in readership and influence, and may their authors grow in wisdom and understanding.

Back to the Weblog in Print column for one moment: There was one significant error in the piece. Tim Bednar of e-church.com is no longer an Assemblies of God pastor. “I used to be, but have not been for almost 3 years,” he responded on his site. “I am involved with an Assemblies of God church plant—but have made a purposeful decision not to be A/G for the time being, however I am not burning any bridges.”

The other critique of the piece is that it supposedly criticized Blogs4God.com. It actually didn’t do the latter, and only noted that many good Christian blogs aren’t listed there (the site only lists those blogs that have requested it). Dean Peters, Blogs4God site administrator, has logged a few of his complaints in the comment areas of several Christian blogs.

In his e-church comment, Peters wrote, “It is important that we not dismiss the ‘look at my cat’ blogs. They too represent the Body, as described in 1 Corinthans 12. I mean, not everyone can be the head.” Indeed, but blogs like The Paris Project demonstrate that one can use one’s head while still talking about one’s cat.

And while religion blogging seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, there’s still plenty of room for more—even in the media criticism category. There are so many religion stories in the mainstream media that no one can possibly evaluate it all. It was hard enough for Weblog to find and list the hundreds of articles listed below, and it’s regrettable that there’s no time to personally comment on many of these stories. May a million thoughtful bloggers bloom to pick up the slack.

More articles

Gay marriage | Homosexuality and religion | Anglicans and Episcopalians | Marriage | Sexual ethics | Human cloning | Life ethics | Evolution | Education | Boy scouts | Ten Commandments | Church and state | Invocations | Public religion | Politics | War on terror and immigration | Uganda bishop deportation | Persecution | Slavery | Headscarf bans | Prisons | Missions & Ministry | Haiti | India | Valentine’s Day | Museums and history | Catholicism | Clergy | Church life | Bishop hit-and-run | Crime | Abuse | Israel Earthquake | Interfaith relations | The Passion of The Christ | Film | Television | Media | Books | Music | Art | Sports | Christian pilot | Business ethics | Spirituality | Deaths | Other articles of interest

Gay marriage in Massachusetts (news):

• Gridlock in marriage debate | Deeply split Mass. Legislature to reconvene in March session (The Boston Globe)
• Massachusetts lawmakers, after heated debate, put off vote on gay marriage | After a marathon of impassioned speeches, behind-the-scenes political maneuvering and an 11th-hour filibuster, Massachusetts legislators were unable Thursday to reach an agreement on gay marriage and shelved the issue for a month (The New York Times)
• Emotions running high | Legislators, church leaders weigh in on same sex marriage (Norwell Mariner, Mass.)
• Romney out front; Bush aides in touch | As Governor Mitt Romney navigates the volatile issue of gay marriage, his staff is in “regular contact” with the staffs of the Bush White House and the national Republican Party, a top Romney aide said yesterday (The Boston Globe)
• Gay marriages in Mass. survive vote | Lawmakers narrowly defeat a constitutional amendment to restrict matrimony to a man and woman. Emotions run high at statehouse (Los Angeles Times)
• Massachusetts rejects 2 marriage bills | Massachusetts lawmakers yesterday rejected two of three proposed state constitutional amendments to prevent homosexual “marriage” (The Washington Times)
• Two marriage amendments fail; lawmakers to reconvene today | Debate exposes deep divisions (The Boston Globe)
• Dueling chants of passion, venom marked scene outside | Civility quickly fell away (The Boston Globe)
• Mass. lawmakers defeat moves to define marriage | Two attempts to amend state constitution fail (The Washington Post)
• Document: Text of compromise offered by Travaglini | The text of an amendment supported by Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and Senate Republican leader Brian P. Lees was under consideration by lawmakers (The Boston Globe)
• Document: Text of Finneran’s amendment | The text of an amendment proposed by House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, which was rejected by a 100-98 vote (The Boston Globe)

Gay marriage in Massachusetts (analysis):

• A troubled ‘marriage’ | The dispute over gay marriage is not just about the rights that should accompany a lasting partnership, but also about the symbolic meaning of a word (Adam Liptak, The New York Times)
• At the end, discord rules a divided body | After two very long, draining days of eloquent speeches and moving personal stories in the House Chamber, the debate over a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage produced only drama, legislative maneuvers, and nonstop yelling late last night (The Boston Globe)
• Vote on Travis measure shows split on gay marriage | Though the Legislature took several key votes during two days of debate, an amendment offered yesterday by a Democratic state representative from Rehoboth offered the clearest picture of where Massachusetts lawmakers stand on gay marriage, undiluted by the issue of civil unions (The Boston Globe)
• A gay-marriage foe feels stuck in middle | This Jill LeGere knows: Marriage should mean the union of one man and one woman, nothing more (The Boston Globe)
• For lesbian couple, fight is ‘not over yet’ | When they realized that the Legislature’s debate on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage would extend well into the night, Mary M. McCarthy and Bonnie Winokar made an emergency call asking the dog sitter to visit Oliver, the giant mutt whose picture they frequently show off to people they meet (The Boston Globe)
• Romney tried to play role in debate | The governor has no formal role in the constitutional convention, and his sort of involvement in legislative matters can be tricky territory (The Boston Globe)
• Discussion is charged with tears, appeals | The 6 1/2 hours of historic debate yesterday over whether to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage featured a range of emotions and oratory, from lofty references to the founding fathers to personal memories of discrimination (The Boston Globe)
• House speaker’s gambit sparked anger, furious maneuvering | The two most powerful Democrats in the Legislature saw their attempts at brokering gay marriage compromises thwarted in yesterday’s constitutional convention, with strange alliances and shifting loyalties bringing their proposals just short of the required majority votes (The Boston Globe)
• O’Malley watches from afar | Roman Catholic Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, one of the key figures in the state’s debate over same-sex marriage, is out of the country for about two weeks for church-related meetings (The Boston Globe)

Gay marriage in Massachusetts (opinion):

• ‘Equal’ does not mean ‘same’ | Having assumed that any relationship to procreativeness would have to mean actual child bearing in every instance of marriage, and having recognized how contrary to fact this position is, the court then freed itself to define marriage without any reference or relationship whatsoever to procreativeness (J. Donald Monan, The Boston Globe)
• Wedding distractions | Imagine, for one brief but glorious moment, if we devoted this kind of attention, this kind of activism, this kind of ambition to something that might matter a little bit more to the everyday lives of regular people? (Brian McGrory, The Boston Globe)
• So far, so good | The legislature narrowly defeated two proposed constitutional amendments yesterday, courageously standing against proposals from each presiding officer that would have taken away the gay marriage rights granted in November by the Supreme Judicial Court (Editorial, The Boston Globe)

Gay marriage in San Francisco:

• More than 50 gay couples are married in San Francisco | Two lesbians who have been living together for more than 50 years were the first to marry at city hall on Thursday under a new city directive (The New York Times)
• Same-sex couples ‘married’ by city | City officials in San Francisco, at their mayor’s request, yesterday officiated at 87 “marriages” of homosexual couples and issued licenses to 95 more, marking the first time that government officials in the United States have allowed same-sex couples to “marry.” (The Washington Times)
• To the threshold of equal rights | The hour has arrived to decide whether there is any rationale—in a nation guided by a constitution assuring “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”—for government to deprive some Americans from the rights and responsibilities of marriage (Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle)
• San Francisco officials marry gay couples | In an open challenge to California law, city authorities performed scores of same-sex weddings Thursday and issued a stack of marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples (Associated Press)
• S.F. defies law, marries gays | Legal battle looms: City Hall ceremonies spur constitutional showdown, injunction threat (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Emotions run high as gay couples say, ‘I do’ | Hugs, cheers and tears at City Hall ceremonies (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Gay couples line up for chance to wed | In San Francisco, city officials issue first licenses in US (The Boston Globe)
• Earlier: Five years of futility may soon end for lesbian couple | S.F. moving fast to legalize gay marriage (San Francisco Chronicle)

More on gay marriage (news):

• Ruling may alter benefits nationwide | As the gay marriage debate rages, employers are going to have to start thinking about how same-sex marriages could potentially change the way they administer employee benefits (Chicago Tribune)
• Also: Gay-lifestyle laws could backfire | Business groups say appearance of intolerance hurts economically (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Gays want the right, but not necessarily the marriage | The gay community itself is divided on whether marriage is the right priority (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Britain okays new-gender transsexual unions | Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament on Tuesday approved legislation allowing transsexuals to obtain new birth certificates and marry in their adopted gender (Associated Press)
• Conservatives push Bush on gay marriage | Social conservatives are pressing President Bush to take an active role to ban gay marriage, not only by endorsing a constitutional amendment but also by putting the issue atop his re-election agenda (The Dallas Morning News)
• Gay marriage ban progresses | The Georgia Senate Rules Committee listened Wednesday to 20 people testify during an impassioned two-hour debate on the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages. Then, the committee took just 30 seconds to vote 11-1 to send the resolution to the full Senate (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Also: Senate committee passes constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages | Opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment that would forbid same-sex marriages told lawmakers Wednesday the measure would harm Georgia’s tourism industry and result in higher health-care costs for the state (Macon Telegraph, Ga.)
• Mayor: Don’t ban gay marriage | Hickenlooper to join rally decrying effort to alter Constitution (The Denver Post)
• Gay marriage sparks heated testimony | State panel hears debate on church’s role, economic impact of proposed amendment (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

More on gay marriage (opinion):

• Should there be a gay-marriage constitutional amendment? | Pastors respond (Los Angeles Times)
• Word play | How to protect the sanctity of marriage (Jacob Sullum, Reason)
• Just a love story | When you’re Tom and Terrence instead of Dick and Jane, the ‘I do’s’ lie on the other side of a swamp of bigotry (Terrence McNally, Los Angeles Times)
• Civil marriage is about civil rights | Civil unions place gays and lesbians in a secondary class and will not provide equal protections (Dawnetta Miller, The Dallas Morning News)
• Full faith and credulous | The president heads down the path of the bigots (Dahlia Lithwick, Slate)
• Clergy forget their history | It’s sad that the black clergy, such a powerful voice in the civil rights movements, cannot view gay marriage as part of that movement (Adrian Walker, The Boston Globe)

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Homosexuality and religion:

• Outing the Bible | The new queer theologians don’t need your approval (The East Bay Express, Emeryville, Calif., via The Revealer)
• Attempts to make gays straight called misguided at Vanderbilt discussion | Persecuted by their families, churches and society, many homosexuals would do anything to become heterosexuals and end their shame and isolation, several speakers said yesterday during a panel discussion at Vanderbilt University (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Treat homosexuals compassionately, Christians told at Two Rivers | Sometimes churches end up adding to the hurt of people they’re trying to help.That was part of the message from several speakers at a Focus on the Family conference called Love Won Out yesterday at Two Rivers Baptist Church (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Easing the pain of ‘clobber’ verses | Local church classes offer alternative view of Bible and homosexuality (The Toledo Blade, Oh.)
• From captives to captors | Two centuries ago, black Christians split off from abusive mainstream churches, and now black gay Christians are doing the same (Herndon L. Davis, The Washington Blade, gay newspaper)
• Youngsters speak up, loud and clear | Alternative Family Matters opposes ad by Focus on the Family (The Boston Globe)
• Don’t bar me from church—Ssenyonjo | The retired bishop of West Buganda diocese, Dr. Christopher Ssenyonjo, has said he should not be thrown out of the Church for his stand on homosexuality (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda)
• Bible and homosexuality — the debate rages | Christian scholars disagree on whether the Bible condemns homosexuality or gay marriage. Much of the argument rests on whether Scripture should be interpreted literally (The State, Columbia, S.C.)

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Church of England opens door to blessing same-sex unions:

• Church softens line on gay couples | Way opens for blessing of same sex unions as top clergy seek to adopt a more inclusive tone (The Guardian, London)
• New mood in Church opens door to gay ‘marriages’ | There’s a mood of liberalization over homosexual issues (The Times, London, subscription required)
• Church of England leaders seek harmony | The church’s governing General Synod endorsed a report by bishops calling for “interpretive charity” between reformers and conservatives — and a balancing of biblical teaching with social reality — in the debate that is threatening to split the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion (Associated Press)
• Church policy on sexuality must reflect real world, says clergy | The Church of England came under renewed pressure from its own clergy yesterday to update its stance on homosexuality and gay priests (The Independent, London)
• Church debates gay clergy issue | The Church of England’s governing body has heard a series of speeches in favor of a more liberal stance over homosexuality (BBC)
• Sex, the bishop and the important range of positions | In the intimacy of the bedroom, the words “hermeneutical” and “Trinitarian” can be whispered but rarely across the pillow between lovers of whatever orientation. But when the General Synod debates sex, it obfuscates the mechanics and raises the topic to a strictly above-the-waist matter (Alan Hamilton, The Times, London, subscription required)

More on Anglicanism’s homosexuality woes:

• Williams supports Americans who oppose gay bishop | The Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Rowan Williams, has offered his support to a network of traditionalist churches being set up in America to oppose the gay Bishop Gene Robinson (The Times of London)
• Anglican leaders back gay clergy protest | Leaders of Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America joined to endorse a new protest group that is trying to unite Episcopalians in the United States who oppose gay clergy (Associated Press)
• Anglican archbishops reaffirm moral stand | Thirteen Anglican archbishops from Africa and Asia have renewed their condemnation of the US bishops for consecrating the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda)
• Difficult role lies ahead, warns archbishop | Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Robin Eames spoke today of the ‘immense difficulties’ ahead as he chairs a special commission established in the wake of the ordination of a gay bishop in the United States (The Belfast Telegraph)
• Gay priests commission faces “unprecedented difficult challenges” | Rowan Williams, speaking at the opening of the General Synod in central London, said a commission set up to examine future options for the Anglican communion over gay clergy had a “difficult and delicate task” (PA, U.K.)
• Njoka pulls back from fete linked to U.S. gays | Cash-for-prayers bishop Peter Njoka has narrowly escaped a new storm – he was stopped at the last minute from attending the ordination of a Kenyan deacon by clergymen allied to the controversial American gay bishop (The Nation, Nairobi)
• Gays spoil party for priest | The move by the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) to block the ordination of one of their own by a bishop from the pro-homosexual church in the US has again brought to the fore the sharp split in the church (The East African Standard, Nairobi)
• Gay bishop encourages faithful ‘to stretch love’ | Episcopal leader draws parallel to blacks’ struggles in the church (Chicago Tribune)
• Also: Gay bishop: ‘It is about God’s love’ | The roiling controversy threatening to split the Episcopal Church may be a blessing in disguise, Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and the man at the center of the controversy, told parishioners Sunday in Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
• Diocese struggles to move past gay bishop | Local Episcopalians voted Saturday to create a “reconciliation commission” that will recommend how the 33,000 members of the Diocese of Southern Virginia can surmount their disagreements over the denomination’s endorsement of a non-celibate gay man as a bishop (The Virginian-Pilot)
• Central Gulf Episcopalians adopt anti-gay resolution | The convention of the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast on Friday adopted a resolution opposing the ordination of non-celibate gay clergy and any rites that bless same-sex marriages (Associated Press)
• Theologians spar over gay role in Episcopal Church | The Rev. Paul Zahl opened an Anglican theology conference Thursday by addressing the Episcopal Church’s support for same-sex unions, comparing it to Janet Jackson’s apology for baring her breast during the Super Bowl halftime show (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Episcopal clergyman resigns | The Rev. Dennis Ackerson forming new congregation (Tallahassee Democrat, Fla.)
• Local diocese to hear proposal to formally denounce gay bishop | Local Episcopalians upset by their denomination’s endorsement of a gay man as a bishop will urge the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia to formally repudiate that approval Saturday during the diocese’s annual council at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott (The Virginian-Pilot)
• Gay row bishop to speak at debate | Gene Robinson will be one of the speakers at a debate on gay bishops at the Oxford Union next month (PA, U.K.)
• Unity, not division | Mississippi bishop comforts Episcopalians (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.)
• Also: Bishop says gay issue has divided congregation | Bishop Duncan Gray III says Mississippi Episcopalians will likely be dealing with sexuality issues for years to come (Associated Press)
• Local Episcopalians respond to summertime vote | While some may be protesting with their wallets, others are joining new national groups (Savannah Morning News, Ga.)
• Episcopal ‘civil war’ tests old friendships | The confirmation of an openly gay bishop has members debating across the aisles (The Baltimore Sun)
• After gay row, Anglicans question Vatican ties | At the General Synod of the Church of England opening on Monday, Anglican-Catholic relations could take a turn for the worse as clerics broach the sensitive issue of whether the pontiff could be some kind of head of all Christians (Reuters)
• Homosexuality sparks Anglican flashpoint | The event created seismic shock among Anglicans here and abroad, though the membership should have seen it coming. Tacit acceptance of homosexuality has been a not-very-well-kept secret for many years, as in the Roman Catholic Church (T.R. Fehrenbach, San Antonio Express-News)

Episcopal Church finances:

• Episcopal protest hits collection plate | Episcopal Church officials yesterday announced a $3 million shortfall in the church’s 2004 budget, caused chiefly by parishes and dioceses withholding funds to protest the ordination of a homosexual bishop (The Washington Times)
• Episcopal Church: Gay backlash ‘insignificant’ | For months, analysts have been watching to see if Episcopalians would punish their national church financially for the move. The church’s executive council says donations are down slightly (All Things Considered, NPR)
• State Episcopalians cut money to national church | The 177th annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi was marked by difficulties and disagreements caused by the national Episcopal Church’s recent confirmation of an openly gay bishop (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.)
• Mississippi Episcopalian conference rejects proposal to withhold money | Episcopalians in two states debated how to respond this weekend to the consecration of New Hampshire’s gay bishop (Associated Press)
• Diocese rejects split | Episcopalians will pay dues to national church (Hattiesburg American, Miss.)

More on Anglicanism:

• Sydney extremism may lead to split: archbishop | The Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop Peter Carnley, has made a stinging attack on the leadership of the Sydney diocese (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Synod welcomes new ways of reaching non-believers | The Church of England today gave its backing to a report urging Anglicans to find new ways of reaching non-believers (PA, U.K.)
• Senior clergy reject £5m cut to funding | Bishops, clergy, and laity rose in rebellion yesterday, seeing off plans for a radical reform in the funding of bishops and cathedrals (The Times, London)
• Also: Church postpones £5.5M mission plans | Plans to divert £5.5 million from Church of England cathedrals and bishops into mission work were postponed indefinitely today by the General Synod after a series of attacks by senior clergymen (PA, U.K.)
• Anglican bishop blames poverty of Nigerians on leadership | Rev. Idowu-Fearon, spoke at the 50th Anniversary of the Kaduna Diocese of the church, just as the Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, blasted the white missionaries, who brought the Gospel to Africa only for them now to practice something else (Daily Times, Nigeria)
• Njoka’s fate in the balance | The fate of Anglican Bishop Peter Njoka will be decided on February 24, two days before his arrival from America (The East African Standard, Nairobi)
• Kenyans put faith in old teachings on homosexuality | Anglicans in Kenya are ready for split in the church over gay priests (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Anglicans consider changing day of worship | Modern church-goers too busy on Sunday, churches must adapt, cleric says (Vancouver Sun, B.C.)
• Cafe society meets gospel in church revival | The Church of England yesterday supported changes in its traditional parish structure in its latest effort to counter a perennial problem: how to attract more of the country’s increasingly indifferent citizens to its services (The Guardian, London)

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Marriage:

• Michigan hopes to curb divorce | Premarital counseling is key part of legislation (The Detroit News, Mich.)
• Premarital guidelines revived | Kuipers, Vander Veen introduce package that offers tax break and quicker license approvals (The Holland Sentinel, Mich.)

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Sexual ethics:

• Billboards target Christian porn addicts | “Her gift for Valentines? Stop looking at porn,” proclaim billboards put up by NetAccountability (Associated Press)
• Teens nationwide promote abstinence | Students across the nation plan to wear white T-shirts to school Friday, the day before Valentine’s Day, to publicly show their commitment to not having sex outside marriage. They’re calling their effort the “Day of Purity,” and they will distribute pro-abstinence pamphlets to their peers (Associated Press)
• Campus Crusaders organize abstinence march | Just when the debate as to who is responsible for the ‘A’ of the ABC adage adopted by the whole world in the war against HIV/AIDS, was beginning to feature in most HIV/AIDS crusades, the Campus Crusade for Christ has sprung up to provide an answer (Mmegi, Gaborone, Botswana)
• Super-sized floats to promote condom use go too far, church says | School’s 80-minute parade on Feb. 22 will feature a giant float of Adam and Eve caught in the act of original sin, as well as same-sex kissing, couple-swapping and spinning older female dancers with extra legs attached to their waists to simulate fornication (Knight Ridder)
• Yes, polygamy is everybody’s business | It’s no ‘private matter’ when children are raped and intellectually starved in isolated settings (Naomi Schaefer, Los Angeles Times)
• Also: Is a prohibition on polygamy constitutional? | Was Scalia right? After Lawrence, must Utah bless this three-party marriage? Not necessarily (Marci Hamilton, Findlaw.com)

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Human cloning:

• Mature human embryos cloned | South Koreans’ work has medical promise but raises concerns (The Washington Post)
• South Korea, with renowned scientists, revives debate | As in the United States, human cloning is a subject of heated debate here (The New York Times)
• Split on clones: research vs. reproduction | Many, if not most, scientists support cloning to make embryonic stem cells (The New York Times)
• Medical and ethical issues cloud plans to clone for therapy | Therapeutic uses for the cloning of human embryos and extraction of stem cells face significant scientific barriers (The New York Times)
• US researchers losing edge in stem cell work | For American biologists, accustomed to being research leaders in so many areas, the announcement this week that South Koreans were the first to successfully clone a human embryo was humbling—and a call to arms (The Boston Globe)
• U.S. losing edge in stem cell research | It’s official: The United States has fallen significantly behind in mining the promising field of stem cell research to treat disease (Associated Press)
• Therapeutic cloning ignites call for ban | The cloning announcement by South Korean scientists on Thursday prompted members of Congress and church leaders to ask for immediate legislation (Associated Press)
• Brownback pushes his anticloning bill | Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, says the Senate has to act now on his bill to ban all human cloning in the United States, because South Korean researchers have successfully cloned a human embryo and extracted master stem cells for potential use in medical treatments (The Washington Times)
• Science won’t wait | The announcement demonstrates that policy-makers need to step into the debate before ethics loses the footrace against scientific advancement (Editorial, The Washington Times)
• The cloning success in Korea | Cloning for reproduction ought to be banned, but an all-out ban on cloning will only ensure that the cutting edge of biomedicine migrates to other shores (Editorial, The New York Times)
• Cloning’s new frontier | Congress should ban reproductive but not therapeutic cloning and should liberalize stem cell research by permitting US funding for it both on embryos left over at fertility clinics and on cloned embryos (Editorial, The Boston Globe)

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Partial-birth abortion subpoenas:

• Doctors, hospitals challenge U.S. subpoenas | Justice department seeks confidential medical records on banned late-term abortion procedure (The Washington Post)
• Justice Dept. demands abortion records | Under fire from abortion-rights groups, Attorney General John Ashcroft insisted Thursday that doctor-patient privacy is not threatened by a government attempt to subpoena medical records in a lawsuit over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (Associated Press)
• Attorney General defends abortion subpoenas | Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday defended the decision to seek medical records of women who have undergone a type of late-term abortion and said it would not violate their privacy rights (Reuters)
• U.S. lawyers seek abortion records, stir privacy debate | Lawyers for the U.S. government are trying to obtain detailed medical records of dozens of women who had abortions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and in several other cities, in what some legal experts say is a potentially unprecedented breach of medical privacy (Chicago Tribune)

Life ethics:

• South Dakota lawmakers okay abortion ban | The House passed a bill Tuesday that would outlaw most abortions in South Dakota, but opponents said it would do nothing but cost taxpayers money if it becomes law (Associated Press)
• Texas pharmacists fired over prescription | Eckerd Corp. has fired three pharmacists who declined to fill an emergency contraception prescription for a woman who had been raped, one of the pharmacists said Wednesday (Associated Press)
• Pharmacists should be allowed to follow consciences | Imagine if you were asked to help another person do something legal but still intended to take the life of an innocent person. Would you do it? (Rod Dreher, The Dallas Morning News)
• Debate intensifies over ‘morning after’ pill | As FDA deadline nears, conservatives urge president to keep drug a prescription (The Washington Post)
• Call to let women buy abortion pill in advance | Women should be able to receive advance supplies of the “morning-after pill”, according to charities and the Royal College of Nursing (The Independent, London)
• Morning-after pill shouldn’t be on shelves | The whole approval process looks more political than medical. No study has demonstrated that the pill is actually safe (Shaunti Feldhahn, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Italy okays tough fertility treatment law | Italy’s parliament gave final approval Tuesday to tough new rules restricting fertility treatments to heterosexual couples who live together and are of childbearing age (Associated Press)

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Evolution:

• Evolution: Board wants to use national standards | Without using the word “evolution,” the state Board of Education made it clear Wednesday it thinks the scientific theory should be taught to Georgia’s students in its entirety (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Left out of state’s proposed curriculum | Georgia copied almost all the biology standards developed by the American Association for the Advancement for Science. These sections related to evolution were left out of the state’s proposed curriculum (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Document: Board of Education’s statement (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• A passion for evolution | Despite his breadth, Richard Dawkins is surely best known for three things: his defense of the selfish gene view of biological evolution, his invention of the selfish meme view of cultural evolution, and his animosity toward religion. A Devil’s Chaplain takes up each of these themes, some more convincingly than others (H. Allen Orr, The New York Review of Books)
• Compatability test | How the five major religions do and don’t open their doors to Darwin’s theory (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Campaigners push for ‘Darwin Day’ | Atheist, agnostic and humanist organisations in the Americas, Europe and Asia are gearing up for a five-year campaign aimed at achieving international recognition of February 12 as “Darwin Day” (Reuters)
• Also: Darwin Day: Mark your calendar! | (Edna DeVore and Diane Richards, Space.com)

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Religious expression in schools:

• Religious jellybeans lead to lawsuit | Parents sue after kindergarten teacher stops girl from distributing candy bags with a prayer attached (Associated Press)
• Parent alleges boy’s free speech violated | Julie Cortez is suing Gresham-Barlow for not letting her son, 6, hand out a religious Christmas card (The Oregonian)
• Church protesting end to school visits | Little Flock ministers no longer allowed lunchtime meetings with Bullitt students (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Also: Ky. church, schools clash over meetings | For 17 years, Baptist ministers have been meeting with Bullitt County public school students during their lunch breaks. But school officials in this county south of Louisville now say those meetings are no longer allowed during the school day, a decision that has prompted protests from church members and a call to pack next week’s school board meeting (Associated Press)
• Also: Church protests outside of Bullitt County board of education (WHAS, Louisville, Ky.)
• Superintendent to BOE: Christian omission okay | Oconee County Elementary School holiday play left out nativity scene but included songs about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa (Athens Banner-Herald, Ga.)
• Metro schools’ Bible clubs thriving with spirited teens | Students try to practice what they preach with support from schools, judicial system (The Detroit News)

Religious expression in school boards:

• School meeting opens in prayer | Although the school board has opened its meetings with a prayer for at least two decades, Monday night marked the first invocation offered since a lawsuit was filed in federal court last week to ban school board prayers (The Bradenton Herald)
• Prayer issue heats up in Manatee | The members of the School Board agree that some ministers who gave invocations at their meetings in recent months delivered essentially Christian prayers. But the board members say they shouldn’t be held responsible for that. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
• Also: Manatee School Board too close to Christian-government movement | Those urging the Manatee County School Board to make its prayers more inclusive aren’t preaching to the choir (Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)
• Board seeking prayer-suit help | The School Board’s attorney has asked Christian conservative Pat Robertson’s legal organization for guidance on a lawsuit claiming the board is forcing Christianity on its constituents (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.)

More on education:

• Churches recruiting for Baptist colleges | Need for Christian influence cited (The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, Miss.)
• Cal Grants program faces $30-million cut | Students from low- and middle-income families would see aid to attend private colleges slashed (Los Angeles Times)
• Seminary rules out Haverhill campus | After more than a year of negotiations and a tentative proposal to buy several buildings on the 72.5-acre former campus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s board of trustees voted against the idea (The Boston Globe)
• Gay teen can sue his school over expulsion, judge rules | A state court judge has cleared the way for a gay teenager to try to prove in court that the Christian school he attended expelled him for admitting his sexual orientation to a teacher (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
• Anti-gay teacher can’t claim charter protection: B.C. court | A high school teacher in British Columbia, punished for writing publicly against homosexuality, is not protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the province’s Supreme Court has ruled (CBC, Canada)
• Cardinal ‘saddened’ at mixed-faith campus ceremony | Cardinal Keith O’Brien is saddened that Scotland’s first mixed-faith campus opened with no prayer or blessing (The Scotsman)
• Don’t let your kids’ sports outpace the rigors of spiritual training | Sometimes I get the feeling that the parents of my students don’t really believe that the skills we work on in religious school have much relevance to their children’s future (Dana Mack Prinz, The Christian Science Monitor)
• Glendale unified may add Armenian holiday | Glendale Unified is the latest California school district to consider setting its academic calendar around ethnic and religious holidays (Los Angeles Times)
• Network of Christian schools proposed | Kingdom Life Christian Church Bishop Jay Ramirez said Monday he is ready to put his congregation’s money where its morals are in response to the Massachusetts gay marriage debate (New Haven Register, Conn.)

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Boy scouts v ACLU:

• Scouts sue city over lease dispute | Settling with ACLU called discrimination (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Boy Scouts sue San Diego over lease dispute | The organization seeks to block its ouster from Balboa Park, alleging discrimination by the city in its settlement of a lawsuit by the ACLU (Los Angeles Times)

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Ten Commandments:

• Moore: Court failed to weigh order’s legality | Lawyers for Roy Moore filed court papers Thursday reiterating his contention that the special state Supreme Court that ousted him from office should have considered whether the federal court order Moore disobeyed was lawful (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Also: Moore asks review of lawfulness of order to remove monument (Associated Press)
• Decalogue on display | The Commandments are back, and Roy Moore’s not happy (The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
• Commandments displays all over the place | Are Roy Moore and the ACLU on the same side? (David Prather, The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
• A telling display | Commandments return to public view at state court building (Editorial, The Birmingham News, Ala.)
• Bill: Let state control monument | Bieter says local officials are best suited to decide (The Idaho Statesman)
• Letters to the Editor: Ten Commandments (The Idaho Statesman)
• Do we really need this dispute over the Ten Commandments? | Some of us in the Christian community do not understand the passion of some of our other brothers and sisters in Christ with respect to the Ten Commandments monument in Julia Davis Park (Jim Grunow, The Idaho Statesman)
• Judge: Commandments can go | Councilman Shealy calls move ‘imminent’ (Idaho Statesman, Boise)
• Habersham County drops appeal to keep Ten Commandments display | “It was basically a financial decision,” County Manager Bill Shanahan said Wednesday (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Commandments case still is active | Habersham County appeal in the Ten Commandments lawsuit still is active in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, even though commissioners voted this week to drop it. (The Gainesville Times)
• Habersham drops appeal in display suit | News Wednesday that Habersham County has dropped its appeal in its lawsuit over Ten Commandments display will not affect a similar suit in Barrow, officials said (Gwinnett Daily Post, Ga.)
• Commandments beget lawsuit | A civil liberties group prepares to sue Duluth to have a Ten Commandments monument removed from outside City Hall (Duluth News Tribune, Minn.)
• Also: Duluth monument target of Ten Commandments debate | The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union wants a 7-foot-tall granite monument listing the Ten Commandments outside City Hall removed on claims it’s unconstitutional (Associated Press)
• S.C. House passes resolution on Ten Commandments | House members passed a resolution asking Congress to amend the US Constitution to allow for the display of the Ten Commandments in public places (Associated Press)

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Church and state:

• Lawmakers want ban on court denial of God | Federal courts could not curb state court rulings that allow an “acknowledgment of God,” according to a measure two senators introduced Thursday as a response to the dispute over a Ten Commandments display in Alabama (Associated Press)
• Drop ‘Christian’ from Vermont’s constitution? | Ninth-graders Sylvie Daley and Dosia Sanford from the Twinfield Union School in Marshfield went before the Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday and said it’s time to amend the founding document to remove the reference to a specific religion (Associated Press)
• Salt Lake City issues free-speech guidelines | ‘Fighting words’ doctrine examined in effort to encourage civility among street preachers in controversial Mormon temple plaza (Associated Press)
• Also: Downtown ‘fighting words’ are spelled out | Calling a woman a “harlot” after she exits the Salt Lake LDS Temple—especially in the presence of her husband or children—may not be constitutionally protected, says Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Roil renewed: Politics and religion in Palm Beach | The Palm Beach veneer of civility, stretched tight as a face-lift, split asunder in December when town residents Maureen Donnell and Fern deNarvaez sued the town to force it to consider placing a Nativity scene near the town-sponsored menorah and Christmas tree (Palm Beach Post)
• 50 years ago, sermon spurred putting ‘under God’ in pledge | When the Rev. George M. Docherty wrote a sermon saying that the Pledge of Allegiance should acknowledge God, he hoped that it would influence the nation’s leaders to amend the pledge (Associated Press)
• Compromise would satisfy all in faith-based debate | There’s a middle ground in the debate over Georgia’s Blaine Amendment (Michael Broyde, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Making an end-run around church-state separation | How I found myself trying to find a way around the concept I have defended my whole life (Sue Clark, Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Calif.)

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Invocations:

• Preachers mustn’t preach | Legislative issues to be off-limits (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Pray, preach. Don’t reach. Amen | All of us have opinions about issues before the General Assembly. But like the passengers on the airplane, legislators are, during the morning observance, a captive audience at the mercy of a person asked to perform a specific role. In that circumstance, the faith of the passengers is not the pilot’s business—nor is legislation the preacher’s (Editorial, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Censorship particularly out of place in Capitol | If an unabridged right to free speech is to exist anywhere in Georgia, it must be in the hallowed halls of our state Capitol (Mike Stone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• New restrictions on official invocations won’t fool anybody | If a Jewish rabbi or a Christian minister or a Buddhist monk or an Islamic imam say a prayer and makes a reference to God, is there going to be any confusion as to which God he or she is referring? (Editorial, Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)

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Public religion:

• Archbishop urges West to renew faith | The West must allow religious faith back on the public stage, Australia’s Anglican leader told an international Muslim-Christian conference in Melbourne last night (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
• Also: We need religious education more than ever | Surely September 11 showed us religious issues cannot be pushed into the background (Peter Carnley, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)

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Electoral politics:

• Christian group to ask judicial candidates about faith | The League of Christian Voters – hoping to capitalize on momentum seized during last summer’s protests of a Ten Commandments monument’s removal from the state judicial building – has proposed the 10-question list for the three seats up for election this fall (Associated Press)
• Document: The 10 questions the League of Christian Voters plans to ask candidates (via Associated Press)
• Candidates strive to hit the right note on religion | Democrats focus on public issues, not personal faith (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• A ‘Southern strategy’ for Democrats | Winning without the religious right (Curtis Wilkie, The Boston Globe)
• Misusing the name of the Lord thy God | It’s risky business to invoke God on the campaign trail (Michael Barrick, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Intensity of religious commitment seen as key voting predictor | There’s a new “religion gap” in American politics, and it’s one in which religious commitment, not just identity, is playing a crucial role (Voice of America)
• The ‘religion gap’ and party politics | Commitment may be more significant than affiliation in how religion influences elective politics in America (Leo Sandon, Tallahassee Democrat, Fla.)

Presidential candidates:

• Sharpton faces questions on matching funds | For months, Al Sharpton’s presidential campaign has been supported indirectly by “love offerings” — donations by churchgoers to minister Sharpton, who then lends money to candidate Sharpton (Associated Press)
• Sen. Edwards preaches for votes from the pulpit | Presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, spent much of Sunday reaching out to African-American voters, preaching from church pulpits on reducing poverty and improving race relations (Reuters)
• Kerry opposed gay marriage ban in letter | John Kerry tells voters he opposes gay marriages, but when 85 of his Senate colleagues voted to write that opposition into law he compared the effort to 1960s Southerners trying to outlaw interracial marriages (Associated Press)
• Freedom rider | No more souls to the polls (Margaret Kimberley, The Black Commentator, via Beliefnet)
• Gay media outlets rap Kerry’s silence in marriage debate | Two years ago Kerry urged state legislators to reject a proposed amendment banning gay marriages and civil unions (The Boston Globe)
• Sharpton dazzles churchgoers in Virginia | The Rev. Al Sharpton dazzled hundreds of Baptist churchgoers Sunday morning when he took the pulpit, pledging to stay in the race for president and promising that good things happen “in God’s time” (Associated Press)
• Bush has edge on ‘religious’ vote, but bloc up for grabs | Although Bush by all accounts has a leg up when it comes to harvesting the votes of many evangelicals, past election results and polls show that evangelical voters are far from monolithic (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Elections abroad:

• Vicar condemns ‘racist’ voting | Churchgoers voting for parties such as the British National Party (BNP) are sinners, a Lancashire vicar has said (BBC)
• Howard rules out return as MP by disgraced Aitken | Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, yesterday ruled out any prospect of a political return by the disgraced former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken (The Scotsman)
• S Africans pray for peaceful poll | Religious and political leaders in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province have held a prayer breakfast meeting to ease political tensions (BBC, audio)

More politics:

• Commander-in-church | A president in the pews can cause a stir (The Dallas Morning News)
• Pastor to Clintons recalls stormy years | J. Philip Wogaman examines Mr. Clinton’s scandal-tainted presidency from a pastor’s perspective in An Unexpected Journey (The Dallas Morning News)
• Roman Catholic church raises some eyebrows by warning politicians | Growing calls by church leaders about the duty of Catholic politicians to oppose issues ranging from abortion to euthanasia to gay marriage or face sanction is reviving questions among some political scientists and others about the church’s role in politics (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

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War on terror and immigration:

• Cross-border church visit costs U.S. man $10,000 | Crossing the U.S.-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a U.S. citizen $10,000 for breaching Washington’s tough new security rules (Reuters)
• American dream for Afghan family | The Mir family’s problems began when they converted from Islam to Christianity in the 1980s (BBC)
• Also: Afghan family which embraced Christianity leaves for US | An Afghan family that converted to Christianity left for the United States on Wednesday after waiting more than two years in Pakistan (Hi Pakistan)
• Seized paper reveals al-Qaeda plans to provoke religious war in Iraq | Al-Qaeda wants to provoke a religious war in Iraq to further destabilise the country, according to a document seized by the coalition in a raid on a safe-house in Baghdad (The Scotsman)
• U.S. denies visa to Cuban minister | officials blocked a Cuban minister from coming to America to speak at several Alabama churches for Black History Month, denying the pastor a visa to travel (Associated Press)
• Speakers attest to power of reconciliation | The root of terrorism is a clash between religions, and racial and religious reconciliation can stop it, a former British official told 300 people last night (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)

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Uganda bishop deportation:

• Do not deport Fr Rodriguez | The army’s indefensible wish to have Fr Carlos Rodriguez deported on spurious claims that he “spreads false information prejudicial to national security” must be resisted by all human rights defenders (Editorial, The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda)
• I’m not shaken, says Fr Carlos | Fr. Carlos Rodriguez, a Spanish missionary and prominent campaigner for peace in northern Uganda, has said he is not shaken by threats of deportation (The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda)
• Ugandan army seeks priest’s exit | A Roman Catholic priest has been accused of “making false allegations” against the security forces and may have to leave war-torn northern Uganda (BBC)

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Persecution:

• Arsonists torch charity office | Arsonists including Buddhist monks firebombed the offices of World Vision amid increasing religious tensions in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka (The Advertiser, Australia)
• Persecutions of Muslim converts to Christianity continue | Disturbing signs of limited religious freedom among Christian minority communities are increasing in the country. Of the 22 converts from Islam to Christianity arrested last October, then released on bail (as reported by AsiaNews), two were placed under arrest again on the night of last Dec. 16 (AsiaNews, Italy)
• Kazakhstan: Report finds religious freedom improving | A new report finds that religious freedom in Kazakhstan has improved after restrictive amendments to the religion law were thrown out in 2002 (Radio Free Europe)
• Reject religious intolerance | Some principles are worth upsetting apple carts over even when it would be easier to just let the cart roll along. As Americans, these principles would very much include protesting religious intolerance wherever it raises its head (Editorial, Pasadena Star News, Calif.)

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Slavery:

• Herdsman’s plight raises concerns | Anti-slavery activists in Mauritania are waging a rare public campaign to rescue Matalla, a 20-year-old camel herder they say fled into the protection of troops to escape a life of bondage (Associated Press)
• ‘A bold gesture’ | Quaker minister joins the cause as slaves battle for emancipation (The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.)
• Pastor raises furor with his portrayal of slavery | A conference featuring a pastor who has portrayed slavery as a benevolent and positive experience for blacks in the South has raised the ire of protesters at the University of Idaho (Idaho Statesman, Boise)
• Kristof to the rescue? | You can see the narrative in the process of creation: Third World women are victims; American men are saviors. Right-wing Christians care about Third World women; feminists only care about themselves. (Katha Pollitt, The Nation)

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Headscarf bans:

• British criticism of headscarf ban | British Muslims and the government have joined ranks in condemning the French for trying to ban religious headwear and symbols in state schools (BBC)
• French headscarf ban opens rifts | After months of public debate, the vote in parliament was a brief affair (BBC)
• French focus on head-covering is wrong-headed | I well understand the cultural and religious significance of a headscarf as, indeed, my own grandmother wore a mantilla her entire life. But I hate the idea of it, whether worn for modesty or out of piety (Rosie Dimanno, Toronto Star)
• German state proposes new headscarf ban | The dominant party in the western German state of Hesse on Tuesday proposed legislation that would ban Muslim civil servants from wearing headscarves, a measure that goes further than three other states’ proposals to outlaw the veil for public school teachers (Associated Press)

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Prisons:

• Ministry reaches out to state’s prisoners | The odds seem daunting: 5,000 prison inmates and only seven chaplains (Associated Press)
• Faith gets a test in turning Florida prisoners away from the criminal life | Legal and constitutional issues about this institution might swirl for years, but it is clear that life in America’s first faith-based prison is different from that in other prisons, where inmates mostly pass time, smoke cigarettes and pump iron (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
• State puts faith, money in religion-based prison | Advocates say Bible-centered learning will keep inmates out of trouble later. Some critics, though, call it unconstitutional (The Orlando Sentinel)
• Helping inmates find their way home | Program pairs ex-convicts with houses of worship (The Washington Post)
• Two inmates nailed to crosses in Bolivia | Two inmates were voluntarily nailed to crosses Wednesday by their fellow prisoners as part of a protest for better conditions and shorter sentences that was broadcast on Bolivian television (Associated Press)
• Also: Inmates crucified to demand faster justice | Two prisoners had themselves crucified by fellow inmates at a jail in southeast Bolivia on Wednesday while others sewed their lips together in protests to demand swifter justice and benefits for prisoners (Reuters)

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Missions & Ministry

• Billy Graham announces California crusade | Fresh out of the hospital after breaking his hip, the Rev. Billy Graham on Monday announced plans for a summer crusade in Southern California (Associated Press)
• Local faith-based groups may get help tapping U.S. funds | Governor wants to create state office to assist (The Arizona Republic)
• Young Life still meets challenge | Evangelicals in action (The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.)
• Grant boosts gleaning revival | Farmer Roger Hatton recalls a time when volunteers swarmed over his sweet corn fields, harvesting food not for the market but to fill the plates of thousands of hungry people from Jupiter to the Keys. He preferred letting them “glean” his crop to writing checks to charities. (Palm Beach Post)
• Financial ministry helps manage money with faith | About a third of those attending the intensive 13-week Financial Peace University program have been from outside the church (Clovis News Journal, N.M.)
• Pensacola revival leader departs to minister to clergy | The nation’s longest-running Pentecostal revival already has seen the throngs of crying, singing and shaking believers decline from its evangelical heyday. It now will have to go on without the preacher who led it from the beginning (Associated Press)
• On a mission to ‘unburden’ | Foley couple prepares to relocate to Haifa, Israel, to lend their lives to volunteer work (Mobile Register, Ala.)
• Church mixes Bible study, basketball | UofL games shown on Wednesday nights after the prayers (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
• Religious group promises thousands of visitors for Nassau | Promise Keepers, a Colorado-based group dedicated to holding men to high, Christian standards, will bring one of its well-known men’s conferences to The Bahamas in 2005 (The Nassau Guardian)
• Doing God’s work: We can serve as missionaries in our own hometowns | I have never had the experience of going on a mission trip to a foreign land or to another part of our own nation, but I have learned that there is more than enough to do for the Lord right here in our own community (Billy Edwards, The Gleaner, Evansville, Ind.)
• Missionary daughter | Local parents visit teacher in Sri Lanka (The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, Tenn.)
• Churches are in the world, of the world | Here’s an interesting approach to evangelism (David Waters, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.)
• Christian missionary work among Muslims of the Thailand’s South | According to testimony given by local priests, there are often reports of problems caused for Christians and there is an urgent need to educate the region’s youth (AsiaNews)

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Haiti:

• Missionaries dodge hot spots in Haiti to fly home | After an exhausting dayslong escape from a tumultuous Haiti, more than 50 missionaries arrived at Lambert Field on Monday night and were greeted by relieved friends and relatives (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Local Christians target Haiti’s root problems | As violence spread across the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday, a couple in a nearly empty house on Edisto Beach monitored the situation from news reports, anxious to jump on a plane and help out (The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.)

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Benny Hinn in India:

• Record crowd expected for rally by controversial evangelist | Over a million people are expected to attend a prayer rally here this weekend to be addressed by American evangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn, but the Catholic church is opposed to the event (IANS)
• In feel-good times, Mumbai is waiting for Texas faith-healer | Governor, high society, million more get ready for America’s miracle worker; organiser promises all lives will change (The Indian Express)
• The man behind the miracle man | Seafood tycoon Gul Kripalani is the point man for the largest event in Mumbai’s recent memory (The Indian Express, Mumbai, India)

Religious freedom in India:

• India violator of religious freedom: USCIRF | The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that the State Department designate 11 countries, including India and Pakistan, as ‘countries of particular concern (CPCs)’ for violations of religious freedoms (UNI, India)
• India ‘country of particular concern’ for religious freedom | Despite dissent from its prominent members, a leading US body has clubbed India with 10 other nations that it recommends should be listed as “countries of particular concern” for violations of religious freedom (IANS)
• US religion watchdog in Delhi dilemma | America’s watchdog body for international religious freedom is split over censuring India (The Telegraph, Calcutta, India)
• Tribals not to lose ‘scheduled tribe’ status merely because of conversion: Supreme Court | “A member of a tribe despite his change in religion may remain a member of the tribe if he continues to follow the tribal traits and customs,” judges say (PTI)

Hindus who hate Valentine’s Day:

• Hardline Hindus vow protests on Valentine’s Day | Hardline Hindu groups threatened on Tuesday to blacken the faces of couples celebrating Valentine’s Day, saying the Christian saint’s day was a violation of Indian culture (Reuters)
• Hindu group issues Valentine’s warning | Hindu nationalists who claim they are fighting against Western cultural influence have threatened to shave young lovers’ heads and beat them if they exchange Valentine’s Day cards and
• gifts (Associated Press)

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Valentine’s Day history:

• In search of St. Valentine | Who is the man named Valentine who gave us the biggest heart day of the year? Good luck finding the correct answer (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.)
• Lovers’ cards evolved from religious themes | Hearts and arrows, staples of romantic symbolism at Valentine’s Day, once had a higher aim (Blairsville Dispatch, Pa.)

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Museums and history:

• Christian sites to link up on the tourist trail | Scottish delegates came to the St Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick yesterday to explore the vision of creating “an early Christian super highway for tourism” (News Letter, Belfast, N. Ireland)
• Akron to see ancient artifacts | Dead Sea Scroll fragments among items in traveling exhibit of biblical history (The Beacon Journal, Akron, Oh.)
• Christ is back on cross at British Museum after ‘poetic’ donation | It was broken apart more than a century ago to satisfy 19th century art collectors, a medieval altar-cross stripped of its central element – an enamelled plaque depicting Christ (The Independent, London)

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Catholicism:

• Laying hope for change at the next pontiff’s feet | John Paul’s successor may face Catholics’ calls for greater lay responsibility (The Washington Post)
• A glimpse of archdiocese future | In an archdiocese of 357 churches, many of which are small, struggling, and bracing for possible closure, St. Michael Parish is giant, thriving, and growing (The Boston Globe)
• Hey, bishop, don’t call my city immoral | Since I have been living in this morally bankrupt city for more than four decades now, I may be too awash in sin to address the argument made by Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino in his column last week in the Catholic Herald (Doug Moe, The Capital Times, Madison, Wis.)
• ‘It’s like a wake’ | Catholic parishes begin assessing which should close (The Boston Globe)
• Also: Survival of the chosen churches | Quietly, parish members meet to face closing choices (The Boston Globe)
• Possible successors | The following Roman Catholic leaders head the list of likely candidates to succeed Pope John Paul II, who was elected in 1978 and next month will become the third longest-serving pontiff in history (The Washington Post)
• Filipino American bishop is the first | Oscar Azarcon Solis is ordained in Los Angeles. His job in the archdiocese will be to unify various Catholic ethnic groups (Los Angeles Times)

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Clergy:

• Call him ‘Pastor police officer’ | Sgt. Rod Brooks, who works internal affairs for Glendale Police, is also a minister at a Gardena church (News-Press, Glendale, Calif.)
• Preacher sports hairdo from . . . heaven | Standing before his flock, poised to perform one of the most sacred rituals of the church, the Rev. Ron Shrum was the picture of solemnity – if you looked past the red and blue spikes of hair surrounding his head like a halo dunked in Kool-Aid (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Clergy to get more job security | Clergy sacked by the Church of England should soon be able to take their bishops to employment tribunals after the General Synod endorsed a report recommending new rights yesterday (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Bishop from Lutheran church in Russia visits | Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin visited the U.S. to share the work the Lutheran ministry has done in the central Russian region and to foster support in the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod (Papillion Times, Neb.)
• Serbian bishop here on a mission from Kosovo | The diminutive man in black monastic garb is in the United States on a mission: to warn about the dangerous aftermath of the seemingly forgotten war in Kosovo (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• In Christian Jerusalem | For three years Irineos I has waited for Israel to officially recognize him as the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem – perhaps the most important Christian position in Israel (The Jerusalem Post)

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Megachurches:

• Super-sized religion: Megachurches growing trend in Shreveport, Bossier City | Before their car is even shifted to park, visitors to First Baptist Bossier can expect a greeter at their door to welcome them to the church (The Shreveport Times, La.)
• Think small | Intimate groups are heartbeat of big churches (The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.)
• Building faith and charity | How Trinity Church got so big, and helps so many (The Miami Herald)

Church life:

• Lights, camera and … worship | You’d be hard-pressed to find a choir and hymnals in any Sunday morning worship service (The News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo.)
• Controversial Messianic groups seek to mix Jewish style, Christian belief | At a time when the state of Israel fights to maintain its existence in the Middle East, a messianic movement among evangelical Christians is looking for ways to support Jewish heritage and religious practices (Religion News Service)
• Merger may save ailing churches | The congregations of Westminster and Second Presbyterian will ultimately decide their fates with help from the Heartland Presbytery (The News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo.)
• Small churches searching for answers as congregations dwindle | Many small and rural churches in the area share similar dilemmas of dwindling membership and fickle finances — causing some modest church homes to struggle to survive or close down (The News-Press, St. Joseph, Mo.)
• Lutheran parishes challenged | An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America team has assessed 10 San Antonio parishes and issued challenges to improve growth by reaching out to Hispanic neighbors (San Antonio Express-News, Tex.)
• Spirits fall with church hit by fire | As firefighters doused smoldering ashes, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. John braved a bitter wind Tuesday, reflecting on the burned-out structure where they had worshiped just two days earlier (Chicago Tribune)
• Also: Church’s history survives blaze | Records found in Sycamore rubble (Chicago Tribune)
• Church fights city permit | Praise Christian Center on Tuesday filed a motion asking the courts to declare the city’s conditional use permit for its building unconstitutional (The Independent, Huntington Beach, Calif.)
• Church project recommended | The Naperville Plan Commission has unanimously recommended plans to demolish Our Saviour’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Naperville to make way for a new 37,500-square-foot chapel with a gymnasium, day-care center and separate garage (Chicago Tribune)
• Churches urging clergy, congregants to lead healthy lives | With almost 65 percent of Americans overweight, the nation’s churches are working to get clergy and their congregants to lose weight and take better care of themselves (Religion News Service)

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Arizona bishop hit-and-run trial:

• Jury deliberates on fate of Ariz. bishop | Jurors must decide whether Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas O’Brien fled the scene of an accident knowing his car struck and killed a pedestrian (Associated Press)
• O’Brien takes the stand, contradicts statements | Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien swore under oath on Monday that he would have stopped if he had known he hit a pedestrian on a Phoenix street last June but that “the thought never occurred” to him (The Arizona Republic)
• Bishop: No need to talk to police | Prosecutor grills cleric on actions after fatal hit-and-run (The Washington Post)
• Ariz. bishop speaks at hit-and-run trial | Bishop Thomas O’Brien admitted on the stand that he didn’t call police after learning officers were investigating a fatal accident in the same area where he hit something that left his car’s windshield smashed (Associated Press)
• Bishop testifies in hit-and-run trial | Bishop Thomas O’Brien conceded during his hit-and-run trial Tuesday that he asked about getting his windshield fixed even though he knew police were investigating whether the car had been involved in a deadly accident (Associated Press)
• Lawyer tries to explain bishop’s thinking | In the days after he was involved in a deadly hit-and-run accident, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas O’Brien demonstrated wishful thinking — not criminal intent, his attorney said (Associated Press)

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Crime:

• Hostage: Prayer helped me through ordeal | A female prison guard who was held hostage for 15 days by two armed inmates tried to keep her wits by praying and thinking of her daughter, according to statements she gave authorities (Associated Press)
• Man charged with bilking church-goers is denied bail | The ties that bind former Torrington resident John Eseppi to the community were severed when he allegedly scammed 16 residents out of their life savings, a judge told Eseppi on Tuesday (Register Citizen, Torrington, Ct.)
• Van Nuys faith healer is sentenced to 9 years in prison | Reina Chavarria injected drugs into an Orange County handyman who died a short time later (Los Angeles Times)
• Homeless man’s pastor told police of assault | Hours after police say he attacked an 8-year-old girl, Brian McCutcheon called his minister for guidance (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• France opens probe into monks’ ’96 murder | French prosecutors opened an investigation Tuesday into the kidnapping and murder of seven French monks in Algeria in 1996, saying new testimony cast doubt on the official account of the slayings (Associated Press)
• Parish priest of Githurai, Nairobi, badly wounded by robbers | Just before the morning mass, Fr. Lawrence Cometto was attacked (Catholic Information Service for Africa)
• Kaiser died after memo, inquest told | One hundred and seven Trans Mara women petitioned former President Moi to sack Cabinet Minister Julius Sunkuli two weeks before Catholic priest Antony Kaiser was found dead, an inquest was told yesterday (The East African Standard, Nairobi)

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Abuse:

• Bishop resigns following claims | Springfield prelate had faced abuse allegations (The Boston Globe)
• Sex abuse case halts service at prayer stop | Man in Md. ministry was convicted in 1999 (The Washington Post)
• Abuse lawyer asks AG to act | Review sought in Springfield diocese (The Boston Globe)
• Fla. diocese pays millions to sex victims | The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando has paid $4.2 million to three dozen victims who accused 12 priests of sexual misconduct with children (Associated Press)
• Salvation Army case goes to jury | Jurors deliberate on organization’s responsibility in case of minister molesting girls (Anchorage Daily News)
• 1,341 priests accused since 1950 | The scope of sex abuse accusations against Roman Catholic clergy since 1950 appears to be much greater than previously estimated by victims’ groups and the media, an Associated Press review of reports from dioceses has found (Associated Press)
• Religion in the News: Lazarus Fund | About 30 active and retired priests in the Rapid City Diocese are donating 5 percent of their monthly salaries to the fund, which picks up therapy costs for victims of sexual abuse and for abusers (Associated Press)
• Diocese loses expert in abuse prevention | Director resigns from Arlington program (The Washington Post)
• L.I. bishop is accused of shielding sex abusers | Despite his denials, the Roman Catholic bishop of Long Island shielded priests accused of child sex abuse when he served as the second-highest prelate in the Boston diocese, a child-protection advocate against abuse contended on Wednesday (The New York Times)
• Lutheran cleric resigns in sex abuse case | A longtime Lutheran minister in Marilla has resigned from ministry after admitting to church officials that he had inappropriate sexual contact with two boys in his congregation (Buffalo News, N.Y.)

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Earthquake in Israel:

• Earth tremor shakes Holy Land | An earth tremor shook the Holy Land Wednesday, scattering Israelis and Arabs in panic and sending a reminder of the potential for a destructive quake foreseen by seismologists and biblical prophets (Reuters)
• Small earthquake hits Israel; no injuries (Associated Press)
• Quake rocks Israel, neighbor countries | A moderate earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale rattled Israel and its Middle East neighbors at 10:20 A.M. Wednesday, sparking panic in many areas, but causing no injuries and only limited damage (Ha’aretz, Tel Aviv)
• Also: IRIS Seismic Monitor
• Effect of Jerusalem quake is political, but not biblical | A 5.1 temblor that rattles the Holy Land stirs fears of an air attack or car bombing (Los Angeles Times)

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Interfaith relations:

• Elon urges Christians to convert Muslims | Israel Tourism Minister Benny Elon (National Union) asked Christian missionary groups last week to work to convert Muslims to Christianity in order “to show them the light” (The Jerusalem Post)
• Also: Israeli official urges Muslim conversions | A hawkish Israeli Cabinet minister has asked Christian missionaries to try to convert Islamic militants, an aide to the minister confirmed Sunday (Associated Press)
• Also: Israeli minister who urged Muslim conversions criticized (Islam Online)
• Israeli award for Pat Robertson irks Muslims | Groups: He incites opposition to Islam (Chicago Tribune)
• Austrian cardinal says Islam, Christianity have common ground | Both books teach their followers to spread the word of their respective teachings to the whole world, and both teach that their followers have responsibilities, such as defending life and sharing concern for the poor — and both teach about peace, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn said (Naples Daily News, Fla.)
• Cardinal urges faiths to get along | Schonborn preaches unity in Naples (The News-Press, Ft. Meyers, Fla.)
• Monks’ performance disrupted by protesting Catholics | The group was upset that Tibetan monks were allowed to perform inside a Catholic basilica (WOOD, Grand Rapids, Mich.)
• Also: Protests greet Buddhist visit to Catholic church | Those who came to hear harmonious chants and prayers of Buddhist monks at the Basilica of St. Adalbert instead found themselves ousted from the sanctuary by a conservative Catholic splinter group bent on disrupting the performance (Grand Rapids Press, Mich.)
• Communal confusion | If Judaism isn’t the ADL’s religion, what is? Here’s a hint: comfort. (David Klinghoffer, Forward)
• Boca might be good home for tolerance museum | Call me unimaginative, but I was having a hard time picturing a museum devoted to religious and racial intolerance fitting in with Mizner Park (Howard Goodman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

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The Passion of The Christ:

• Gibson’s polarizing ‘Passion’ | The real concern is that the movie pits Jesus and his immediate followers against everyone else, perfect goodness against satanic evil. In so doing, “The Passion” has the potential to challenge the core values of democratic pluralism and mutual religious respect that undergird our country (David Elcott, The Boston Globe)
• The Passion of Christ is grim nightmare | Mel Gibson’s controversial story of the last hours of Jesus Christ is a sickening bloodbath and, in my opinion, suitable viewing only for sadists (John Hiscock, The Mirror, London)
• Passion’s pilgrim | As the debate about a major new movie intensifies, here’s a story (Janie B. Cheaney, World)
• Furor rising over ‘Passion‘ | Advance group ticket sales at national offices for both AMC and the Regal-United Artists-Edwards chain are so clogged with inquiries about bookings for the film that 48-hour waits for responses are currently the norm (The Times, Newark, N.J.)
• Religious film gets cool reception | If reaction following a private screening of Mel Gibson’s provocative film, The Passion, is any indication, the movie could be a tough box-office sell when it opens here on Feb. 25 – even to those who are practicing Christians (The Montreal Gazette)
• Scholarly smackdown on The Passion | A liberal professor and a conservative professor debate the movie, the Bible, theology and more (John Dominic Crossan and Ben Witherington III, Beliefnet)
• Area clergy eager to see Jesus film, judge for selves (Stevens Point Journal, Wis.)
• Ahead of Gibson’s film, bishops ready own release | Booklet to restate Catholic Church’s teaching on death of Jesus (The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.)
• Three expected to face charges of illegally copying movie prints | Federal authorities are expected to seek criminal charges against three employees of a Los Angeles motion picture postproduction facility, alleging that they illegally copied prints of movies such as “The Passion of the Christ” and “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” that eventually ended up on the Internet (Los Angeles Times)
• Movie evokes passion | Local church leaders are embracing Gibson’s film about Christ’s final hours as evangelizing tool (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
• There’s an unmistakable object of passion in Gibson movie | Whatever the debates and discussions that ensue from “The Passion of The Christ,’ the unmistakable object of passion in those events was us: you and me (Kevin W. Mannoia, Pasadena Star News, Ca.)
• Gibson forges allies for controversial film | But anti-Semitism talk clouds the epic’s debut (Detroit Free Press)
• Will Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ help save Christianity? | The Passion succeeds in encouraging Christians to read the Gospels, wrestle with them, and ultimately attain a deeper insight into their faith, then Mel Gibson’s crusade will not have been a wasted effort (Daniel Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, London)
• Who’s directing whom? | Hollywood and missionaries have an equal interest in Mel Gibson’s The Passion (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
• American evangelical groups block-book cinemas | More than 2,000 cinemas are expected to show The Passion of the Christ when it is released on Ash Wednesday (The Daily Telegraph, London)
• ‘Passion’ movie raises religious fervor, fears | Mel Gibson’s new film about the crucifixion of Christ is arousing the passions of Northeast Ohio faithful more than two weeks before its Ash Wednesday release (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
• Church groups are buying up ‘Passion’ seats | Many evangelicals who have seen the movie say it does not promote anti-Semitism (The Sacramento Bee)
• Gibson beams in to market ‘Passion’ | Area churches will be part of a satellite broadcast to promote the film about Jesus (The Orlando Sentinel)
• Passionate responses | More than two weeks before Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” is slated to be released, it has drawn criticism from Jewish leaders and praise from Christians (The Courier & Press, Evansville, Ind.)
• “The Passion” as a peg: Good stories lie beneath | Mel Gibson’s new movie is provoking debate and dialogue that can yield unexpected stories (Kelly McBride, Poynter Ethics Journal)

Anti-Semitism and The Passion:

• Whodunit? Rabbi, messianic Jew debate the blame for Jesus’ death | Unlike two years ago, when Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Michael Brown, a messianic Jew, argued over Jesus’ messianic claims, this time the two panelists kept their tone passionate but amiable, joking and often agreeing with each other (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
• ADL gains 2 backers in Gibson movie flap | The son of evangelist Billy Graham and a former Republican presidential candidate have offered support to the Anti-Defamation League’s concerns that Mel Gibson’s upcoming film, The Passion of The Christ, may spark a wave of anti-Semitism (Palm Beach Post)
• ‘Passion’: Christians join the call | With the release of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” just two weeks away, an influential group of evangelical Christians has launched an Internet-based campaign they hope will prompt the filmmaker to append a repudiation of anti-Semitism to the movie’s final cut (Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times)
• Gibson urged to add ‘Passion’ coda | An influential evangelical leader has asked fellow Christians to join him in urging director Mel Gibson to remove any taint of anti-Semitism from his controversial film, The Passion of the Christ (The Jerusalem Post)
• ‘Passion’ Response Dos and Don’ts | Our success depends on our willingness to rethink our existing strategies of engagement and to use creative approaches that will encourage our conversation partners to listen to what we have to say (The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles)
• Why Mel owes one to the Jews | Those Jewish organizations that have squandered both time and money futilely protesting Passion, ostensibly in order to prevent pogroms in Pittsburgh, can hardly be proud of their performance. They failed at everything they attempted (Daniel Lapin, Toward Tradition)
• Protesting ‘Passion’ | I believe those who publicly protest Mr. Gibson’s film lack moral legitimacy. What is more, I believe their actions are not only wrong but even recklessly ill-advised and shockingly imprudent (Daniel Lapin, The Washington Times)
• Christians, Jews discuss Gibson film | Local Christians and Jews are talking about how to prevent any problems in Charleston when Mel Gibson’s controversial film on the death of Jesus hits screens Feb. 25 (The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.)
• ‘Passion’ stirs Jewish debate | A Manhattan debate over “Who Really Killed Jesus” drew an intense crowd of 1,000 as traditional Jews — those awaiting the Messiah — and Messianic Jews — those who believe the Messiah already has arrived in the person of Jesus — appraised Mr. Gibson’s film (The Washington Times)
• ‘Passion’ debate risks alienating Christian allies | Abraham Foxman may seem like an unlikely candidate to stick up for Gibson’s allies. But Foxman’s rush to quash any talk of a wider break with evangelicals highlights an awkward development facing Jewish leaders as they speak out against the film: The conservative Christian leaders and pundits hailing the movie are also among the loudest voices in defense of Israel and an aggressive war against Islamic fundamentalism (Forward)
• The Passion of the Christ | From church productions on Good Friday to the infamous “Oberammergau” in Europe, passion plays have served not just as testimonies to one man’s suffering, but also as incitements for anti-semitic violence (The Connection, WBUR, audio)
• Canadian Jewish Congress ‘still hoping’ for advance look at The Passion | Film publicist says there will be no public screenings of the movie for any organizations, but advance promotional screenings for the media would be organized in eight major markets (The Canadian Jewish News)

Passion NASCAR ad:

• Controversy doesn’t resonate with NASCAR | Traditionally, stock car racing’s sanctioning body considers proposals on a case-by-case basis, with products that are detrimental to the sport or that contain inflammatory statements of a sexist, political, or religious nature not allowed (ESPN)
• A paint job with a purpose | Mel Gibson’s controversial ‘Passion’ gets valuable promotion, as an ad for the film appears on the hood of Bobby Labonte’s car (Los Angeles Times)
• Bobby Labonte plans to ride with ‘Passion’ for the 500 | Bobby Labonte won’t need God as his co-pilot this weekend. He will have Jesus on his hood. (The Orlando Sentinel)

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Film:

• Spiritual screenwriters | Barbara Nicolosi was once a nun who found her niche in life by entertaining her sisters in the Daughters of St. Paul convent. Now she is a screenwriter living in Hollywood and the founder of Act One: Writing for Hollywood, a nonprofit organization devoted to recruiting and mentoring screenwriters who are Christians (The Washington Times)
• Earlier: Reel School for Real Christians | Act One prepares Christian screenwriters to write Hollywood blockbusters (Sept. 11, 2001)
• For believers, ‘John’ is gospel truth | If you’re a believer, this beautifully acted and photographed movie probably will seem to you the best dramatic version of a Bible book you’ve ever seen.If you are not, it’s a long sit-down: three unrelenting hours of watching people wander through the desert. (The Arizona Republic)
• Amid the hoo-ha, some weighty issues | There is, however, a more subtle question about whether all this public thrashing-about may begin to engender a quiet self-censorship, a reluctance among writers, artists and producers to be identified as the sort of “controversial” personality that attracts public protest. Of course, one person’s self-censorship is another’s restraint (Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times)
• Film on Martin Luther inspires program at Valparaiso | The life of religious leader Martin Luther will be explored in a special program this week at Valparaiso University (Post-Tribune, Merrillville, Ind.)
• Also: ‘Luther’ movie, producers coming to Valparaiso | The producers and script consultant for the new movie “Luther” will speak at Valparaiso University Feb. 19, following a one-week special engagement of the movie at a Valparaiso theater (The Times, Munster, Ind.)
• Samaritan Girl | Kim Ki-duk’s film delves into Christianity, sin, and guilt in a perplexing and ultimately unsatisfactory story about teenage prostitutes and one father’s unbalanced reaction to his daughter’s prostitution (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Join the clubbed: Catholics know pain of being bashed | Just from the last four years, I could easily put together a Catholic Film Festival—but I don’t think too many Catholics would be pleased with the entries (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times)

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Television:

• BBC cartoon ignites Catholic fury | The BBC has received “thousands” of complaints about controversial cartoon Popetown from viewers angry at the portrayal of a “corrupt” Roman Catholic church (The Guardian, London)
• Also: Catholic backlash over Pope on a pogo-stick (Reuters)
• Christian broadcaster demands reversal of KOCE-TV sale | A Christian broadcaster, rebuffed in its bid to buy Orange County’s public broadcasting station, is demanding that Coast Community College District reverse its decision to sell KOCE-TV to a group that promised to preserve it as a PBS affiliate (Los Angeles Times)
• Also: Christian broadcaster threatens suit over KOCE sale | Daystar Television Network says it was the highest responsible bidder for the station (Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Calif.)
• America debates decency | As media crassness abounds, what’s it say about society? (The Kansas City Star)
• Super Bowl stunt has county mulling ‘morality clause’ | Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack said Tuesday that he wants a “morality clause” added to the contracts of all entertainers who perform in such venues, including Reliant Stadium, Reliant Center and the Astrodome (Houston Chronicle)
• Compass: The Street Preacher | Compass consistently provides the best – that is, thought-provoking, intellectually rigorous but very human – documentaries on the ABC, though many people avoid it because of its religious context. Pity. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

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Media:

• ‘Republic’ scribe says criticizing Mormons led to suspension | Local columnist Dary Matera claims he was suspended from The Arizona Republic in Phoenix because of an opinion piece he wrote criticizing the Mormon Church (Editor & Publisher)
• God is certainly on the minds of many letter writers | We print letters containing Bible verses if they relate to the topic the letter writer is addressing (Dave Russell, Asheville Citizen-Times, N.C.)
• Family group calls for protest against Sun Times columnist | Illinois Family Institute is calling for calls and letters to go into the Chicago Sun-Times for publishing a column written by Neil Steinberg considered to be “mean-spirited” by the Illinois affiliates of James Dobson’s Family Council network (The Illinois Leader)
• Anger: Enemy of persuasion | Debate between radio stations, Dobson involves tone, not substance (Tom Bowers, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Read Web site’s religious ‘news’ with salt shaker in hand | Don’t believe anything you read on Lark News, except for the disclaimer (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Local activists spread the word online | EvangelicalOutpost.com is one of the many blogs—frequently very conservative or very liberal—filling cyberspace without the filters of TV, newspaper or radio reporters and editors (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
• Anti-gay billboards outrage some | Bobby Soule, vice president of Lamar Advertising of Asheville, said the employee, who no longer works for the company, tried to use the space on the six billboards to pay off a personal debt (Asheville Citizen-Times, N.C.)
• Christian broadcasters coming to Charlotte | The folks who fill the airwaves with Christian fare are coming to town, newly determined to win back the hearts and minds of America from the people who gave us Janet Jackson (Charlotte Observer)
• Also: Religious broadcasters flock to N.C. | Their convention, starting today in Charlotte, will seek ways to counter indecency on the airwaves (Associated Press)

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Books:

• Heavenly reading | A book on the wonders of the Christian hope breaks through into the “spirituality” market (World)
• Scholars find a unique and varied ‘American’ Jesus | Readers looking for the one true Jesus won’t find him in two new books about Jesus in America. Instead, they will discover the extraordinary range of identities Jesus has assumed in American history and culture——in art, music, literature and more——over the past four centuries (Associated Press)
• The rejected gospels | Bible left out some powerful material, scholar says (The Mercury News, San Jose, Calif.)
• The purpose of life revealed | The 40 Days Of Purpose – Purpose Driven Life book, journal, church campaign and simulcast teach Warren’s theory that God created individuals (and churches) with five specific purposes (Marco Island Sun-Times, Fla.)

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Music:

• Britney Spears rediscovers religion | The pop star’s people are furious that the press was at church (Jeannette Walls, MSNBC)
• Al Green inducted into Gospel Hall of Fame | Also inducted were Vestal Goodman, who died in December of flu complications, and BMI President Frances W. Preston (Associated Press)
• Chapman leads Dove Award nominations | Gospel singer Steven Curtis Chapman led the Dove Award nominations with seven on Tuesday, even though he wasn’t named in the best artist category he has won six times (Associated Press)
• Heavenly messengers | The Christian pop/rock trio ZOEgirl wants to win people over with its music and its message (The Wichita Eagle, Kan.)
• Artists play to a higher calling | Christian rock musicians The Newsboys and Rebecca St. James, perform for another “higher purpose” (The Express-Times, Easton, Pa.)
• A tradition on the line | Generations of African-Americans have raised their voices in a singing style called hymn lining. Troy Demps has made it his mission to make sure that history is never silenced (The Orlando Sentinel)
• Columbus helps make Christian music soar | Ohio’s capital is one of top 10 U.S. markets in sales of genre (Zanesville Times-Recorder, Oh.)
• Baptists want to give Latvians gift of music | Richardson church is raising money for a recording studio (The Dallas Morning News)
• Artists cover U2 in support of African village | The convergence of a Christian record company seeking to help with a health crisis halfway around the world and an appearance by a singer who came only to talk resulted in one of the new year’s most arresting releases, In the Name of Love by Artists United for Africa (The Dallas Morning News)
• Pat Boone celebrates remarkable 50-year career | He will be in town this week to host the Gospel Music Association’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at Trinity Music City in Hendersonville (The City Paper, Nashville)
• Message music | South Africans know you might not grasp all the words, but sing and dance so you still get the point (The Beacon Journal, Akron, Oh.)

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Art:

• The Roman plays? | On PBS, Michael Wood goes in search of Shakespeare, the crypto-Roman Catholic (Peter W. Dickson, The Weekly Standard)
• Rockhurst gets bold with ‘Born Again’ art show | Are avant garde art and traditional religion inherent adversaries? (The Kansas City Star)

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Sports:

• Bringing Baylor back | Coach Scott Drew has instilled hope and enthusiasm in a team torn apart by a killing, an arrest, a coach’s lies and player departures (Los Angeles Times)
• Mo seeks to save Yanks | Mariano Rivera puts off pulpit, will pitch for pact & crown (New York Daily News)
• Does God really care who wins? | Does God care who wins the Super Bowl? Does God play a hand in the outcome? (Don Hudson, The Charlotte Observer)

Kurt Warner:

• Martz has no problems with Warner remarks | Mike Martz says he holds no grudge against Kurt Warner for his remarks that his ardent religious beliefs might have been a factor in his benching (Associated Press)
• ‘Less inspired to win’? Not Warner | The sports world is heavily populated with men and women that possess a strong faith AND the burning will to win (Jeff Gordon, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Believe this, Kurt: Faith isn’t the issue | After all of this time, Kurt Warner still doesn’t get it. To Warner, losing the starting job has never been about on-field performance (Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Was Kurt Warner’s religion a factor in his benching? Whose side is God on? | Sports and religion have always been uneasy bedfellows (ESPN)
• Does God belong in the NFL? Does Kurt Warner? | In Part II of the Writers’ Bloc look at the intersection of sport and religion, several members of the WB—including guest writer Bruce Deckert—consider where religion fits in sports, if anywhere (ESPN)
• Warner’s spat over religion another sad chapter | Kurt Warner’s story was nice while it lasted, but it’s time to close the book (Andy Kent, Naples Daily News)

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Christian pilot:

• AA chief apologizes for pilot’s proselytizing | Gerard Arpey, chief executive of American Airlines, apologized Thursday for the remarks of a pilot who urged non-Christian passengers to discuss their religious beliefs with Christian travelers on his Los Angeles-based flight (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
• Fasten your seat belts for cultural turbulence | The American Airlines incident is symbolic of an ever more brazen approach to public devotion that will be manifest in the fall election, with strategic intent (Lance Dickie, Seattle Times)
• Please put your faith in an upright position | While the pilot of American Airlines Flight 34 may seem a bit out of the ordinary, he demonstrated extraordinary character by standing up to the societal pressure to keep his mouth shut in matters of faith (Chris Kiser, The Cavalier Daily, U.Va.)
• This is your pilot speaking, and I’m flying high on Christianity | An axiom of psychiatric lore which I imbibed in my youth was that psychotic illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia were often accompanied by an obsession with religion (Margaret Cook, The Scotsman)
• Gay magazine gets scoop on Christian pilot | The praise for his story on the ultra-Christian Web site ChristianityToday.com made him smile (Susan Ager, Detroit Free Press, Mi.)

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Business ethics:

• Businesses are buying the ethics they want | While most bioethicists are no doubt well-intentioned, their work is sometimes being used as cover, allowing corporate conundrums to masquerade as ethical problems, often with solutions that serve corporate interests (The Washington Post)
• A quick history of values-based investing | The idea of basing investment decisions on social values dates back at least as far as the 1600s, when Quakers shunned companies that profited from slavery or war (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Good works | The economics of altruism (John J. DiIulio Jr, The Weekly Standard)

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Spirituality:

• Reality bites | The pre-Raphaelites worshipped nature – until their obsessive attention to rocks and leaves brought on a crisis of faith (The Guardian, London)
• The more diverse we are, the more we will find God | Believers should not just sit through a violent movie, but use Lent (and Passover) to renew their understanding of the life-affirming messages conveyed by Scripture and the Gospels (Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Devil in the detail of Sicily’s mysterious village fires | Is Lucifer loose on Sicily? No lesser figure than the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists believes he may be (The Guardian, London)
• Like sand through the hourglass, so go the morals of our lives | Our grandchildren are making day-to-day moral and ethical choices based on watered-down religious beliefs and ever-strengthening secular influences from a variety of sources. Is this a problem? (Jack Shackelford, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tex.)
• Views on aging and spirituality | What are followers of your faith doing to cater to America’s 76-million baby boomers who will represent the largest group of senior citizens this country has seen? (Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)

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Deaths:

• ‘A true priest’ | Monsignor Thomas P. Craven, the recently retired pastor of St. Agnes Catholic Church who died Monday, is being remembered by friends as a charismatic leader and “true priest” who devoted special attention to Spanish-speaking immigrants and other community groups in need of service (Daily Local, West Chester, Pa.)
• Jimmy Waters, longtime Middle Georgia religious figure, dies at 83 | Waters served from 1974-76 as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention and in 1977-78 was chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Radio and Television Commission, a service that reflected his longtime love for broadcasting (Macon Telegraph, Ga.)

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Other articles of interest:

• Sudan’s ethnic cleansing | A tidal wave of human suffering looms ahead (Editorial, The Boston Globe)
• Dissecting miracles | Scientists try to explain Red Sea parting and other miracles (ABCNews.com)
• Religion news in brief | Ups and downs for Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a decade of women priests in Church of England, Christian Science church considering cuts, Students want to drop ‘Christian’ from Vermont constitution, and other stories (Associated Press)
• Jesus moved on; so must we | Rather than engage in dueling Scriptures and dueling traditions, he said what he had to say and moved on (Tom Ehrich, The Indianapolis Star)
• More than just a handshake | People are suspicious of Freemasons with the connotations of secret membership and handshakes, and habits dating back to the Middle Ages, but the Galway Lodge are changing their approach and adopting a more open policy in a bid to expand their membership (Galway Advertiser, Ireland)
• Fasting can make a difference, say pastors of area churches | As Lent draws near, many Christians will practice fasting, and several area youth groups are preparing to participate in a 40-hour fast, supplementing service work for food (Clarksburg Exponent Telegram, W.V.)

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