Forcing Emergency Contraception Pills Down Throats of Opponents

•

Catholic hospitals no exempt on law requiring morning-after pill distribution:

• Romney says no hospitals are exempt from pill law | He reverses stand on Plan B (The Boston Globe)
• Mass. changes hospital contraception rules | Gov. Mitt Romney abandoned plans Thursday to exempt Roman Catholic and other private hospitals from a new law requiring them to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims (Associated Press)
• Healey raps loophole on Plan B pill | Lieutenant governor backs wider access to contraceptive (The Boston Globe)
• Also: Critics say Romney undermining emergency contraception law (Associated Press)
• A Plan B mistake | There should be no exceptions for Catholic hospitals that oppose emergency contraception (Editorial, The Boston Globe)
• Private hospitals exempt on pill law | State accepts objections to morning-after drug (The Boston Globe)
• Mass. to exempt some from contraception law | The state's health commissioner plans to allow Roman Catholic and other private hospitals to be exempt from a new law making the "morning-after" pill available to rape victims, a decision likely to trigger a legal challenge (Associated Press)

Pharmacists file complaint over firing:

• Walgreens workers claim religious bias | Pharmacists file complaint with EEOC (Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.)
• Discipline of pharmacists spark complaint | Walgreen Co. engaged in religious discrimination by "effectively firing" three Illinois pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, a public-interest group alleged Wednesday (Associated Press)
• Plan B: Women's rights and pharmacists' scruples | A woman who needs the Plan B emergency contraceptive should be able to get the drug without a lecture or a snide look from a disapproving pharmacist (Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Life ethics:

• Damages claim for abortion twin | A mother is hoping to win £250,000 in compensation after her twin daughter survived an abortion four years ago (BBC)
• Court hears "right to die" case of battered girl | A man facing a possible murder charge for beating his stepdaughter so badly she is in a permanent vegetative state asked Massachussetts' top court on Tuesday to keep her alive in a case that highlights the divisive "right to die" issue in America (Reuters)
• Severely ill girl defies doctors for first visit home | Charlotte Wyatt, the two-year-old girl doctors said they would not resuscitate in a life-threatening situation, has been allowed home for the first time (The Telegraph, London)

Michael Schiavo:

• Michael Schiavo takes on the religious right | Terri Schiavo's husband starts a PAC devoted to defeating the Bible-thumping politicians who turned his comatose wife into a football (Salon.com)
• Terri Schiavo's widower takes aim at politicians | Michael Schiavo said in a news release that the group, TerriPAC, would raise money to campaign against members of Congress, mostly Republicans, who drafted and voted for legislation to intervene in the case (Reuters)

Samuel Alito:

• Alito ads stirring little interest | Opponents and supporters of the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. have bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of TV and radio ads, but senators in battleground states say their constituents aren't listening (The Washington Times)
• Muddy waters | Alito vs. Alito on abortion (Ryan Lizza, The New Republic)
• Democratic doublespeak | In Washington, Democrats are challenging the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court because he opposes abortion. In Pennsylvania, those same Democrats are working to help Robert P. Casey Jr. topple Republican Senator Rick Santorum—because Casey opposes abortion (Joan Vennochi, The Boston Globe)
• The Alito memos | Today, Republican judicial nominees must engage in a distasteful cat-and-mouse charade whereby they are badgered to repent from any past blasphemies in which they contradicted liberal church doctrine on abortion (David Limbaugh, The Washington Times)

Religion & politics:

• Angst on right over Frist | Frustration is mounting among social conservatives over the Senate's and Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) failure this year to schedule votes on legislation important to the movement (The Hill, D.C.)
• Former presidents announce first storm grants | Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton announced $90 million in grants from the charity they established after Hurricane Katrina (The New York Times)
• Keeping the faith on social issues | The AIM coalition brings power to the grass roots (The Washington Post)
• The cardinal's virtues | Camillo Cardinal Ruini is not shy about pushing Church doctrine onto the Italian political agenda (Time Europe)

Christmas wars:

• Happy holidays? Not if the Christian right has its way | To believe a growing band of Christian conservatives, Christmas is far from alive and well in the US (The Independent, London)
• Bah, humbug | Duking it out over baby Jesus on Bay Harbor Islands (Miami New Times)
• Pulling plug on Christmas | An interview with John Gibson (The Washington Times)

• The festive season, US-style | Nativity scenes are out, carols are banned, and don't dare wish anyone merry Christmas (Lionel Shriver, The Guardian, London)

Can't we all get along?

• Putting the holy in holiday | Politically correct, respectful, cheery - what's the right way to greet each other this time of year? (The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, Ca.)
• Ho, ho, huff and puff: Let's all get stirred up | Clearly political correctness is over-reaching and many Americans are over-reacting. It is also odd that so many Christians are outraged at this "secular attack" on Jesus' birthday (Editorial, The Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Mi.)
• Cookies and milk by the chimney | Why can't we just leave Christmas alone? It's fine as it is, with its mix of commercialism and gift-giving, "Jingle Bells" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." (Marianne Means, Hearst)

Tree wars:

• Harris requests new label for tree | Roanoke's mayor has moved that the city's holiday tree once again be called "Christmas" (The Roanoke Times, Va.)
• Christian legal group sees tree's name change as a victory | A controversy over what to call a Christmas tree thrusts Newport News into the spotlight (Daily Press, Hampton Roads, Va.)
• Base tree-lighting event pulls no punches on Christmas references | In a decidedly Christian ceremony, Robins Air Force Base officials lit a 40-foot Christmas tree Wednesday evening and formally ushered in the holiday season (The Macon Telegraph, Ga.)
• Oh, holiday tree? | The attack on all things Christmas has gone too far (Mark Davis, The Dallas Morning News)

"Merry Christmas":

• Shopping's been merry, merry good to me | When department store clerks say (OK, I'll say it) "Merry Christmas," it may sound like they're just offering a friendly seasonal greeting. But what they actually mean is, "May this underwear go with you in Christ," or "May this underwear fill you with the blessed glory of His undying love." Or maybe more to the point, "May these be the underwear in which you burn in hellfire if you don't embrace the one true Lord." They're crafty, these department store zealots (Peter Chianca, Marlborough Enterprise, MA.)
• Happy go-out-and-trample-a-pagan day! | What difference does it make if retailers refer to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or holidays? Merchants are not in the business of spiritual uplift (Cynthia Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Is 'Merry Christmas' threatened? | It's all just a rumor (Byron Crawford, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)

Christmas wars—Actual news:

• Nativity causes noise at Bartlett library | Religious figures banned, but will return today (Commercial Appeal, Memphis)
• Outcry puts Nativity scene back on Wellington agenda | Following dozens of phone calls and e-mails, the village will revisit the debate on whether to allow a Nativity scene on a public holiday display (Palm Beach Post, Fla.)
• Council members stand up for Christmas, not 'holiday' | Frustrated that Mayor Bill Purcell called the lighted tree in Riverfront Park a "holiday tree" rather than a "Christmas tree" last week, Councilman Eric Crafton has drafted legislation declaring that Metro "affirms and supports the use of the words 'Christmas' or 'Merry Christmas,' instead of non-descript, generic terms such as 'Happy Holidays,' 'Winter Festival' and the like, when referring to Metro Government entities or activities traditionally associated with Christmas … " (The City Paper, Nashville)
• Campaign targets neutral references to Christian season | In Missouri and Illinois, government officials cautiously consider what type of holiday displays to put up on public property with taxpayer money (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Shopping & the real reason for Christmas:

• Polish priest offers absolution in mall of shopping heaven | Poles are being given the chance to reconcile their devotion to Mammon with their duties as Catholics after a confessional booth was installed at a new shopping centre in the southern Polish city of Katowice (The Independent, London)
• Bracelets a Christmas hit | Local shop's "Just say 'Merry Christmas " bracelets have gained national attention—and big sales (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Falwell's holiday shopping | There are two holidays that share a name this time of year: the secular holiday involving Santa Claus, mistletoe and Bing Crosby music, and the religious celebration marking the birth of Jesus Christ (Editorial, The Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, Vt.)
• Grrr! Merry Christmas and happy holidays | I don't think Jesus Christ would be worried about whether or not Wal-Mart or Kohl's or Macy's is spelling the Dec. 25 holiday "Christmas" or "Xmas" (Mike Straka, Fox News)
• Commerce will quell 'Christmas war' | If there's a war over Christmas, as some argue, the anti-Christmas warriors are going to lose. But the Christmas that emerges victorious will inevitably be different from the exclusively Christian Christmas that supporters yearn for (James P. Pinkerton, Newsday)

Christmas:

• Crucifixion float stirs passions | Writhing in mock agony and dressed in what looked like blood-stained robes, the Rev. Simon Franklin made a vivid impression Saturday along the DeLand Jaycees Christmas Parade route. So much so that by Monday morning, parade chairwoman Rhonda Levesque was apologizing to callers for the float operated by Spirit Life Worship Center. Levesque didn't know the DeLand church planned such a display until the parade began (The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fla.)

• O, holy Scrooge! | Bangor church plays up religion in its version of Dickens' classic 'A Christmas Carol' (Bangor Daily News, Me.)
• Can you pick the star in nativity scene? | How about a Nativity picture instead of a Santa one? (Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia)
• Christmas and Hanukkah shouldn't be watered down | What should interfaith families who want this December experience to be a religious one do? They should emphasize the religious meaning of the holidays and separate the Christmas and Hanukkah rituals as much as possible (Gerald L. Zelizer, USA Today)

No church for Christmas:

• Some megachurches closing for Christmas | It is almost unheard of for a Christian church to cancel services on a Sunday, and opponents of the closures are accusing these congregations of bowing to secular culture (Associated Press)
• No church today; it's Christmas | Sunday schedule change (The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
• Closed on Christmas | Some churches offering only eve services, leaving day for families (Austin American Statesman, Tex.)
• Churches scale back on Christmas services | Some cite attendees' traditions with family for shutting down. Others will open to honor those who worship each Sunday (The Denver Post)
• Some churches will skip Christmas Day services | Holiday falls on Sunday, but some prefer to have family time (The Tennessean, Nashville)
• Churches close for Christmas | Move by few concerns traditional Christians (The News-Press, Ft. Myers, Fla.)
• Sunday is not a church holiday | The church should be open just in case one searching soul comes looking for a means to salvation (Merlene Davis, Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.)

Bush's holidays:

• 'Holiday' cards ring hollow for some on Bushes' list | What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas (The Washington Post)
• Bush observes Hanukkah early | Hanukkah does not start until Dec. 25 this year but it was observed early at the White House on Tuesday evening. (Associated Press)

Business and boycotts:

• Gay advocates demand answers on Ford ad move| Homosexual activist groups are demanding that Ford Motor Co. explain its decision to pull advertising from publications targeted to homosexuals after the American Family Association threatened to boycott the nation's second-largest automaker (The Washington Times)

• Christian conservatives test boardroom clout | The truce between Ford and the AFA is another sign of how vulnerable big corporations have become to activist groups (The Wall Street Journal)
• Advocacy groups try to influence shoppers | Advocacy groups campaign to steer shoppers away from certain retailers, products (Associated Press)
• Tyson puts prayer into co. recipe | The Springdale, Ark.-based meat packaging company is distributing a free multifaith prayer book through mail and on its Web site (Boston Herald)
• Sirius adds FamilyNet programming | The North American Mission Board-owned FamilyNet radio and television programming can now be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio (Billboard Radio Monitor)

Church & state:

• Rehab violated rights, suit says | Outreach center in Flint at heart of ACLU case (Detroit Free Press)
• Also: Convict, ACLU sue over sentence | Man claims residential outreach facility he was sent to violated his right to practice his religion (The Detroit News)
• It's traditional. It's religious. It's poison. | City officials are trying to figure out how to get the word out about some toxic products being used in some immigrant enclaves (The New York Times)
• Purpose of Bible display debated | Judge questions whether memorial at courthouse was erected with religion in mind (Houston Chronicle)
• Town lifts cross bar | A crucifix removed from a crematorium in case it offended non-Christians has been put back (The Mirror, U.K.)
• Atheists, butt out on crosses | Here is a case where the atheists botched it. Pick your battles, people, save your energy. (Holly Mullen, The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Freedom of religion, not from | The "no religion anywhere, anytime, for any reason" crowd has singled out Christian religious symbols and references (George Ott, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Education:

• Are students losing their religion on campus? | Many young people turn away from god in college, but it doesn't have to be that way (Good Morning America, ABC)
• Monkey business | For students who doubt the validity of evolution, college science class can be daunting. What happens when beliefs and schoolwork collide? (Current/Newsweek)

Intelligent Design:

• Dover ruling could be its own genesis | Legal observers say the judge can take one of three paths in the intelligent design case (Chicago Tribune)

• District in new hands | New Dover Area board members took their posts, but one seat remains open (York Daily Record, Pa.)
• Good night, and good God | As darkness descends over the state of Kansas (The Pitch, Kansas City)

Anti-creationism professor resigns, won't talk about beating:

• Mirecki mum on details of beating | "I can; I just don't want to," he says of discrepancy in stories (Lawrence Journal-World, Kan.)
• Pastors condemn attack | A statement prepared by various religious leaders of the Lawrence community (Lawrence Journal-World, Kan.)
• Mirecki resigns leadership position | Colleagues urge professor to give up chairmanship (Lawrence Journal-World, Kan.)
• Students censure those who beat professor | Christian and atheist students agree that the reported beating of KU religious studies professor Paul Mirecki was out of line (The Wichita Eagle, Kan.)
• Professor cedes leadership post | Department chairman at KU stirred furor with class plan and e-mails (The Kansas City Star, Mo.)
• Atheists benefit believers | I would urge all of us to consider how tolerant we truly are of dissenters like Mirecki (Nicolas Shump, The Capital-Journal, Topeka, Kan.)
• Also: Prof. critical of creationism resigns post (Associated Press)

Crime:

• Haitian captors free local evangelist | The north Tampa man was bringing supplies to an orphanage north of Port-au-Prince, the capital city. (The Tampa Tribune, Fla.)
• Gay activist is charged with assaulting police officer | Jason Robbins, 26, was resisting arrest outside the home of an evangelical group's member, police say (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Ex-pastor of church in Hainesport pleads guilty | The former pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Hainesport pleaded guilty yesterday to failing to pay federal income taxes on more than $131,000 he earned over four years from church-sponsored trips (Burlington County Times, Pa.)
• Son arrested in 1980 triple killing | Police: New evidence links man to deaths of mom, dad, sister in Berkeley (The Oakland Tribune, Ca.)

Mayor charged with defrauding church:

• Lynchburg Mayor Carl Hutcherson indicted | Hutcherson was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts that allege he stole money from two disabled Social Security recipients and a Trinity United Methodist Church organization he directed. He is pastor of that church (The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.)
• Update: Mayor will fight federal indictments (The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.)
• Mayor charged with defrauding charity | The mayor of the south-central Virginia city of Lynchburg was indicted over allegations that he looted a church charity of more than $30,000 and defrauded two people of their Social Security disability benefits (Associated Press)

Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnapping:

• Iraqi kidnappers extend deadline two days | Kidnappers extended a deadline until Saturday in their threat to kill four captive peace activists and posted a video of two of the hostages wearing orange jumpsuits and shackled with chains (Associated Press)
• More time for Va. hostage | The group holding Tom Fox of Virginia and three other Western peace activists hostage in Baghdad announced yesterday that it had extended the deadline for killing the captives until Saturday, even as Fox's friends and supporters gathered at a candlelight vigil last evening in Arlington (The Washington Post)
• Straw appeals to Iraq hostage takers | U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw appealed on Thursday to the kidnappers of four Westerners in Iraq to get in contact, and called again for their release (Reuters)
• Qaeda-linked cleric wants aid workers in Iraq freed | A Jordanian cleric jailed in Britain for links to al Qaeda urged Iraqi militants to free four Western aid workers kidnapped last month, saying they should not be punished for the policies of their governments (Reuters)
• Britain says cannot meet Iraq kidnappers' demands | An Iraqi group calling itself the "Swords of Truth" has threatened to kill the hostages unless Iraqi detainees are released by Thursday (Reuters)
• Hostages urge U.S., Britain to leave Iraq | A group of Christian peace activists kidnapped in Iraq urged Britain and the United States to pull out of the violence-torn country in a video excerpt aired Tuesday by the British Broadcasting Corp (Associated Press)
• Terror suspect's Iraq kidnap plea | A terror suspect held in a British jail has made a video appeal for the release of Briton Norman Kember, taken hostage with three others in Iraq last month (BBC)
• Back to Iraq | Christian Peacemaker Team: A Duluth peace activist plans to return to the war-torn nation this month despite another team's abduction (Duluth News Tribune, Minn.)
• Also: A plea for peacemakers in Iraq | Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq have no political agenda (Michele Naar-Obed, Duluth News Tribune, Minn.)

Torture:

• How common is US abuse of detainees? | The military has not been subject to such intense public scrutiny before (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Rice fails to clarify U.S. view on torture | Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that an international ban on torture applies to U.S. personnel overseas, in a statement that was apparently meant to ease growing concerns but that sowed new confusion about controversial American policies on treatment of terrorism suspects (Los Angeles Times)

War & terrorism:

• Forgiveness is bitter pill for some in N. Ireland | Victims of violence upset by bill that would offer amnesty to their attackers (The Washington Post)
• American anti-war activists march in Cuba | American anti-war activists marched Wednesday from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago toward the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay to protest treatment of terror suspects there (Associated Press)

Human rights:

• U.N. hits housing for evicted Zimbabweans | The U.N. emergency relief coordinator said Tuesday that Zimbabwe's efforts to rehouse hundreds of thousands of people displaced in a massive slum-clearance drive have been inadequate (Associated Press)
• Eritrean government rejects religious report | In an Amnesty International report released on Wednesday entitled, "Eritrea: Religious Persecution," the agency accuses the Horn of Africa nation of denying people their right to freedom of religion (Reuters/IRIN)
• Report: Eritrea: Religious Persecution | Basic human rights denied (Amnesty International)

Jews & Christians:

• Jewish leaders meet on Christianization | A summit of Jewish leaders meeting to ascertain whether the religious right plans to "Christianize" the nation drew about a dozen participants yesterday but no consensus was reached (The Washington Times)
• Two groups divided, but both feel under attack | A search for common ground between Jewish groups and conservative evangelical Christians (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Officials strategize over religious right | At a meeting called to strategize about the political and cultural challenges posed by Christian conservative activists, Jewish communal officials disagreed about the extent of the problem. They left with no concrete plans or strategy (Forward, Jewish newspaper)
• Attack on right reveals fault lines | Jewish groups differ on Evangelical 'threat' as they try to hash out consensus going forward (The Jewish Week, New York)
• Religion Today: Evangelicals and Jews: Friends or enemies? | The prestigious Jewish Theological Seminary has sponsored dialogues with all sorts of American religious and ethnic groups over the past 67 years, but never with evangelical Protestants — until last week (Associated Press)

Other religions:

• Conservative Jews set a conversion campaign | Aim at offspring of intermarriage (The Boston Globe)
• Hindus, too, want parking suspended on holiday | In a city where the holy days of Christians, Jews and Muslims are honored by letting people of all faiths park on either side of the street, Gotham's fast-growing Hindu community wants such a day to celebrate its contributions to civic life (Newsday)

Same-sex marriage:

• Wal-Mart unit hears gay wedding bells | Wal-Mart's British subsidiary has introduced a line of wedding cards and "commitment rings" just in time for the country's legalization of gay civil partnerships (The New York Times)
• Gay marriage opponents collect 170,000 signatures for petition | Supporters of a ballot initiative to ban same-sex unions delivered boxes of petitions to the secretary of state on Wednesday, the next step in their quest to overturn the 2003 court ruling that legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts (Associated Press)

Church life:

• Preachers serve God and communities | Church/state separation requires balancing act, they say (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Study: Drivers living near church safest | Living by a church does wonders for a person's driving record, but motorists who reside near a restaurant might want to say an extra prayer before hitting the road, according to the findings of an insurance industry study (Associated Press)

Catholicism:

• Pope says a virtuous life is not 'boring' | Pope Benedict XVI decried what he called the mistaken idea that leading a virtuous life was "boring" as he marked Thursday's 40th anniversary of the end of Vatican Council II, which sparked modernizing reforms in the 2,000-year-old Roman Catholic Church (Associated Press)
• Also: Being good is not boring, says Pope | "We think that bargaining with evil, reserving ourselves a little freedom against God, is, after all, good or even necessary. But looking at the world around us we can see that this is not so," he said (Reuters)
• Pope Benedict XVI blesses Olympic flame | Pope Benedict XVI blessed the Olympic flame Thursday, helping start the torch relay for the Turin Winter Games (Associated Press)
• 4th plaintiff says priest abused him | Man says absolution was refused for not cooperating (Anchorage Daily News)
• From the bowery to Guantánamo with Dorothy Day | The Catholic Worker movement has now officially lasted 25 years beyond the death of its founder, Dorothy Day, and looks sturdy enough to last another 25 (Lawrence Downes, The New York Times)

• Toward a holy order | Homosexuality and the priesthood (Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Review Online)

Narnia (news):

• C.S. Lewis artifacts housed at Taylor | Even the Oxford pub where the "Narnia" writer raised a pint is re-created at the Upland campus (The News-Sentinel, Ft. Wayne, Ind.)
• Faith in 'Narnia' | Disney put $150 million into the C.S. Lewis fantasy classic, knowing it already had a spiritual base (San Bernardino Sun, Ca.)
• The roar over C.S. Lewis's otherworldly lion | For 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' buzz of biblical proportions (The Washington Post)
• Christians battle over 'Narnia' | Conservative and liberal theologians try to lay claim to author C.S. Lewis's towering legacy as a Christian thinker (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Narnia film premieres, aims to match Potter, Rings | A second film, based on "Prince Caspian," is expected to hit theatres as early as the summer of 2008 (Reuters)
• The keeper of Narnia's flame | He was just eight years old, an all-American boy about to meet his hero CS Lewis, creator of fantastical Narnia, face to face for the first time. But for the young Douglas Gresham that initial encounter with his mother Joy's friend—later her husband—proved a crushing disappointment (The Belfast Telegraph)

Narnia (opinion):

• What's Christian about Narnia? | There's that death and resurrection of Aslan, for one thing. But that's only the beginning (Lauren Winner, Beliefnet)
• Evangelicals, beware the seductions of idolatry | It seems to me that the evangelicals slip dangerously close to Catholic idolatry when they embrace a wondrous allegory as a summary of the biblical story (Andrew M. Greeley, The Arizona Star, Tucson)
• The Jesus symbol, the witch and the wardrobe | The religious right is hyping "The Chronicles of Narnia." But just how Christian is C.S. Lewis' masterpiece? (Laura Miller, Salon.com)
• The Battle for Narnia | Lewis and his work are being exploited (Adam Kirsch, The New York Sun)
• Narnia comes from another academic world | The millions of children who see the new Disney movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," will no doubt let the film's religious symbolism pass unheeded - and that's as it should be (Bill Wineke, Wisconsin State Journal)
• Keeper of the magic | The Christian allegory embedded at Narnia's chewy center serves less as evangelical cudgel than a primer on morality and the myths we create to explain it (Los Angeles Times)
• All aboard for a nightmare trip to the hereafter | I can scarcely remember a more cringe-making two hours in the cinema (Financial Times)

Entertainment:

• Christian TV hits Egypt's airwaves | Aghapy TV, owned by the Coptic Christian church, says it wants to promote unity. Critics worry it will do the opposite (The Christian Science Monitor)
• Mel Gibson's Holocaust project raises eyebrows | Gibson's production company Con Artist Productions and two others are developing a miniseries for ABC television based on a memoir by Dutch Jew Flory van Beek, whose Catholic boyfriend hid her from the Nazis (Reuters)
• Mewithoutyou: Not your average Christian, vegetable-oil-fueled, flower-flinging rockers | Philadelphia band's eccentricity has worked in its favor (MTV)
• All quiet on the gay western front | Not wanting to give their foes free publicity, right-wing Christian groups say they won't boycott or picket "Brokeback Mountain" (Salon.com)
• TV a la Carte | The FCC wants pay-TV operators to let you choose your own channels instead of offering packages. Would that raise your bills? (Anush Yegyazarian, PC World)

Other stories of interest:

• Counting down to eternity | The power of a supreme promise transcends time to negate fear of death (Peter Jensen, The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Anything but straight | Rick Warren is not part of the AIDS solution, but part of the problem (Wayne Besen, Falls Church News-Press, Va.)
• Religion news in brief | 'Merry Christmas' school lunch menus recalled and other stories (Associated Press)

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