Mark's Notebook

Keyword : Christian

Merry!, uh, ... Happy! Oh, just have a nice day

Wisconsin State Journal

by SUSAN LAMPERT SMITH

When Tom Flynn hears "Merry Christmas!," he hears an implied insult coming from conservative Christians reasserting their dominance at a time when America is growing more diverse. Flynn is waging "war on Christmas," and he says his side, the "Happy holidays!" crowd, is winning.

The right says we wreck the holiday when we don't acknowledge its Christian roots. Flynn says "Merry Christmas" has become "hate speech."

Flynn says demands that retailers such as Wal-Mart and Macy's include the word "Christmas" in their advertising are an affront to Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and everyone who doesn't spend December anticipating the birthday of Jesus Christ: "Merry Christmas is code for 'All you non-Christians get to the back of the bus.' This is a Christian country. We own the last two (months) of the calendar. We're No. 1! By the way, you're all going to hell!"

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/column/index.php?ntid=109902&ntpid=1

Mark sez: As a Christian I'm not supposed to use foul language. Let's just say this whole idea makes me want to hurl.

Christian charity bans Christmas themed children's gifts

Daily Mail

By Sam Greenhill

Christian charity Samaritan's Purse fears anything relating to Jesus may offend Muslims

Mark says: We have been putting together these shoeboxes for years. We are very surprised to hear this. We were never given such instructions; actually, we were asked to include tracts and Bibles in the boxes. Perhaps things are different in the UK than they are here in the US. Perhaps the boxes shipped from the UK go to different countries than those shipped from the US. More likely, some of the statements from Samaritan's Purse have been misinterpreted.

It is a Christian charity bringing Christmas cheer to needy children abroad.

So its decision to ban Jesus, God and anything else connected with its own faith has been greeted with little short of puzzlement.

Operation Christmas Child, run by the charity Samaritan's Purse, sends festive packages to deprived youngsters in countries ravaged by war and famine.

Donors are asked to pack shoeboxes with a cuddly toy, a toothbrush and toothpaste, soap and flannel, notepads, colouring books and crayons - but nothing to do with Christmas.

Stories from the Bible, images of Jesus and any other Christian literature are expressely forbidden - in case Muslims are offended.

Last Christmas, Britons filled 1.13 million shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse to send to children abroad.

But Barbara Hill, who works at the worldwide charity's UK headquarters in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, said: "Anything we find in the boxes which has a religious nature will be removed.

"If a box was opened by a Muslim child in a Muslim country they may be offended so we try to avoid religious images."

Yesterday the policy was condemned as "bizarre". John Midgley, cofounder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: "It seems extraordinary that a Christian charity is so concerned about political correctness that it is banning itself from its own core values.

The appeal sends shoe boxes from Britain to children in countries including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Romania, Serbia, Sudan and Mozambique.

Although no Christian literature is included in the boxes, the charity does separately distribute Christmas stories from the Bible and encourages Bible study in areas where it gives toys out.

A spokesman for Samaritan's Purse, which was introduced to Britain by evangelist Billy Graham and is run internationally by his son Franklin, said: "Christianity motivates many of our supporters to help children in need. We are a Christian charity and that's about helping people.

"But it's our policy not to put religious, political or military items in boxes which go to areas of different cultures.

"All shoeboxes are checked in the UK warehouses in case someone has ignored the instruction and put such an item into a shoebox and, if found, any such item is removed."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=4155
51&in_page_id=1770

Bible Saves Man's Life

First Coast News

By Ryan Duffy

A tiny Bible is being credited with saving a man's life.

A lot of people feel God's word will save their lives. And for Bill Henry it did.

He was taking trash to the dumpster when two men stepped out and fired two bullets in his direction.

Bill figured they missed him, but one round actually hit him square in the chest.

"We got to looking and that's when we noticed the two bibles in my shirt pocket were hit with a single round," says Henry.

The other bullet passed right through his hat.

The thing is, Henry doesn't usually carry a bible. But on this day, at this particular time, he was returning them to a friend.

"I know it was divine protection, can't think of any other reason for it."

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=68592

Church challenges festive stamps

BBC News

The Church of England has challenged the Royal Mail's move to issue festive stamps without a Christian theme.

Santa, a snowman and a reindeer are among the festive images on the Royal Mail's 40th set of Christmas stamps.

The church "regretted" Royal Mail's decision not to launch "Christian themed designs reminding people of the true meaning of Christmas".

The Royal Mail said it alternated its designs between religious and non-religious cards each year.

http:news.bbc.co.uk2hibusiness6120858.stm

Wal-Mart brings Christmas back into stores

Los Angeles Times

By Alana Semuels, Times Staff Writer; November 10, 2006

The holiday season may not yet have arrived, but Christmas is back at Wal-Mart.

After being vilified by conservative critics last year for switching its holiday message from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays," the world's largest retailer changed its mind again.

The chain said Thursday that 60% more of its merchandise will be labeled "Christmas" compared with last year. And customers will hear Christmas carols as they shop.

"We certainly got some feedback last year," spokesman Nick Agarwal said. "We're hoping this will be more in tune with what customers want."

Last year, activists lambasted Wal-Mart. The American Family Assn. and Liberty Counsel organized boycotts of stores with "holiday" campaigns. More than 700,000 supporters signed a petition asking Wal-Mart to use the word "Christmas."

"Wal-Mart has seen the light," said Mathew Staver, founder of Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel. "The American people are tired of having Christmas censored or secularized."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart10nov10,1,763467.story

The Christmas Wars Begin

USA Today

Wal-Mart wishes you a Merry Christmas

By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY

Wal-Mart will put "Christmas" back into the holidays this year, the retailer plans to announce Thursday.

A year after religious and other groups boycotted retailers, including Wal-Mart, for downplaying Christmas, the world's largest retail chain will have an in-your-face Christmas theme this year.

"We, quite frankly, have learned a lesson from last year," says Wal-Mart spokeswoman Linda Blakley. "We're not afraid to use the term 'Merry Christmas.' We'll use it early, and we'll use it often."

John Fleming, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of marketing, says the retailer, which recently lowered prices on toys and electronics, will be pitching Christmas almost as much as "value" to holiday shoppers.

A TV ad trumpeting Christmas will air for the first time next week.

The name of the department with Christmas decorating needs will change from The Holiday Shop, which it was for the past several years, to The Christmas Shop.

Store signs will count down the days until Christmas, and Christmas carols will be piped throughout the season.

About 60% more merchandise will be labeled "Christmas" rather than "holiday" this year over last.

The Christmas spirit is spreading. Macy's, the largest U.S. department store chain, plans to have "Merry Christmas" signs in all departments. All of Macy's window displays will have Christmas themes. At New York's Herald Square, the theme will be "Oh, Christmas Tree."

"Our intention is to make every customer feel welcomed and appreciated, whether they celebrate Christmas or other holidays," spokesman Jim Sluzewski says.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2006-11-08-christmas-usat_x.htm

Harvest Crusade

We were in North Carolina last weekend visiting our son Matthew, who just returned from a seven-month tour in Iraq with the Marines. While we were away, Greg Laurie held the first-ever Harvest Crusade here in San Jose. The San Jose Mercury apparently did not run any articles after the fact, but I did find these other articles about the crusade.

Greg Laurie Embarks on Greater Silicon Valley Harvest Crusade

by Logan Mitchell, Christian Today, Saturday, October 14, 2006

Last night's crusade drew some 10,000 people, with 1,033 people making decisions to give their lives to Christ. 2,751 people joined the crusade via webcast.

This is the first time Harvest is hitting San Jose and only the second time the ministry held a crusade in northern California. Some 220 churches are working together to help bring Laurie's signature straightforward message of faith to the community.

Nearly ten years ago, “America’s pastor,” the Rev. Billy Graham, had visited the Bay Area at the invitation of local pastors. He held crusades in September and October of 1997 in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, where thousands committed themselves to Christ.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/greg.laurie.embarks.on.greater.silicon.val
ley.harvest.crusade/7977.htm

Greg Laurie Opens Crusade in a 'Pretty Secular Environment'

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter, Sat, Oct. 14 2006

Preaching his well-known Harvest message for the first time in San Jose, Calif., Greg Laurie opened the way for 10,000 people Friday night in Silicon Valley - a region he had called a "pretty secular environment."

Laurie called them the "most responsive Friday night group" that he's ever had in any crusade with applause following the message of the gospel and laughter following his jokes. With a concerted effort of more than 270 churches, this is the first time the Harvest Crusade came to Silicon Valley where only 7 percent of the people attend church on a Sunday morning, which is far below the 25 percent seen in other communities, Laurie had noted. But he enjoys speaking to people who have no background in Christianity, he said in an interview with U.K.-based Christian Today.

The Harvest Crusades have visited 35 cities, 16 states and four different countries in the past 17 years. To date, the evangelistic events have seen more than 3.4 million people in attendance and over 276,000 public decisions for Christ.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061014/25230.htm

Missouri church ministers to skaters

Lawrence Journal World

By Lisa Horn - St. Joseph News-Press

Calvary Chapel is the only place in Maryville where skaters can ride their boards legally. It provides an option for young people who otherwise would face a summer of boredom in the small northwest Missouri town.

Of the 20 to 30 skaters who show up every night between 4 and 8 p.m., the majority of them don’t go to church.

Chance Allen, 11, started coming to the skate park when it opened about a year and a half ago. He and his family attended their first Bible study at the church, and have since found it a home. “We liked it a lot better than our own church,” he said, adding there’s no reason that skateboarders can’t be good Christians.

“When we first opened (the kids) wouldn’t even look at me,” the Rev. Dirks said. “But every once in a while, they’d land a good move, I’d catch them glancing at me, like ‘Did you see that? Did you catch that?’ And I’d look at them and smile and say, ‘Good.”’

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/aug/13/missouri_church_ministers_skaters/

Anaheim Harvest Crusade

Orange County Register

by Scott Martindale

Increasing turmoil in the Middle East is just one sign that the world could be coming to an end, evangelical Pastor Greg Laurie told a crowd of 35,000 packed into the stands of Angel Stadium on Sunday night.

Other signs include disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Southeast Asian tsunami, earthquakes and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Those disasters and their frequency were the topic of the last day of Laurie's three-day Harvest Crusade sermon, sponsored by the nondenominational Harvest Christian Fellowship church.

Laurie, who delivered the keynote address all three days, stressed that God gave meaning and purpose to people's lives. On Friday, he discussed the biblical reasons for human existence in a sermon called "What's your question?" The following day, Laurie discussed the meaning of life, a talk aimed at young people, whom he called upon to turn to God for direction.

Each night of the event, Laurie estimated that he converted about 10 percent of his audience.

Laurie, 53, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle rider and an occasional surfer, is known for his straight-talk sermons that resonate with 21st-century audiences. He sprinkles his messages with pop-culture references, and his sermons can be downloaded onto MP3 players.

The Harvest Crusades began during the summer of 1990, when Laurie teamed up with Pastor Chuck Smith of Costa Mesa's Calvary Chapel for a series of sermons inside Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa.

Laurie, who was raised without religion, dabbled in drugs as a teenager. At age 17, he stumbled across a high school Bible study group, transforming his life. Two years later, he founded Harvest Christian Fellowship, a Riverside-based ministry that has become one of the 15 largest churches in the United States.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1242615.php

In a Ruined Copper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale

New York Times

by John Noble Wilford

Exactly when did the nomadic tribes of Edom become an organized society with the might to threaten Israel? Were David and Solomon really kings of a state with growing power in the 10th century B.C.? Had writers of the Bible magnified the stature of the two societies at such an early time in history?

An international team of archaeologists has recorded radiocarbon dates that they say show the tribes of Edom may have indeed come together in a cohesive society as early as the 12th century B.C., certainly by the 10th. The evidence was found in the ruins of a large copper-processing center and fortress at Khirbat en-Nahas, in the lowlands of what was Edom and is now part of Jordan.

The findings, Dr. Levy and Dr. Najjar added, lend credence to biblical accounts of the rivalry between Edom and the Israelites in what was then known as Judah. By extension, they said, this supported the tradition that Judah itself had by the time of David and Solomon, in the early 10th century, emerged as a kingdom with ambition and the means of fighting off the Edomites.

Historians and archaeologists who generally endorse the new findings welcomed the more precise dating of ruins in the under-explored region and the attention focused on copper production in Edomite history. But they cautioned against interpretations that might encourage uncritical reliance on the Bible as a source of early history.

Most criticism has come from advocates of a "low chronology" or "minimalist" school of early biblical history. They contend that in David's time Edom was a pastoral society, and Judah not much more advanced. In this view, ancient Israel did not develop into a true state until the eighth century B.C., a century and a half after David.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/science/13edom.html?ex=1307851200&en=a794499e2
337492c&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

Men welcome here: Churches tackle persistent problem of low male attendance

Kansas City Star

by Helen T. Gray, The Kansas City Star

In his book, Why Men Hate Going to Church, author David Murrow says the one place you won’t find the majority of Christian men on Sunday morning is church.

“Women comprise more than 60 percent of the typical adult congregation on any given Sunday,” he says. “At least one-fifth of married women regularly attend worship without their husbands.”

Among Murrow’s conclusions:

• Many men see the church as “a ladies club.”

• Sermons, volunteer opportunities and ministries are geared more toward women. Many churches operate on a feminine model, such as nurturing, verbal expression and gentleness, which is a lot harder for most men to achieve.

• Churches are not challenging men to live out their faith.

• Churches need to recover the masculinity of Jesus, who was bold and aggressive, “but we have turned him into a wimp, and men don’t follow wimps. They follow leaders.”

Men don’t share very well, so it’s important to ask the right questions that focus on putting into action the things they have heard, said Deacon Monte Giddings, head of St. Michael’s men’s ministry. Then there are activities like a river trip that includes camping, being out in nature, a male-oriented way to create a band of brothers. Men also volunteer to take food and clothing to the homeless.

“Some churches are not challenging men to live out their faith boldly,” Giddings said. “Men need that call to action; that appeals to men. Most of us are not called to be contemplatives.”

If men believe Christianity is too submissive, he said, that’s because no one has explained it to them.

Some men may have a misconception of what a Christian man is supposed to be, said Chuck Wolfe. “They think, ‘If I come to church on a regular basis, I’m more apt to be more passive and less aggressive in what I do. I’m going to sit in church and behave and be a good boy.’?”

Men also want to be empowered to do something, such as teaching, working in the multimedia ministry, going on mission trips, evangelizing and working in the prison ministry and the street ministry.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/religion/14179176.htm

Listening for God in the silence

Cincinnati Post

by Kevin Eigelbach

When Quakers get together for worship, you hear something you don't hear in most contemporary worship services.

Silence.

Members of the Society of Friends, the formal name for the Quakers, spend at least some worship time just listening for "the inward light" of God.

Imagine between 20 and 30 people in a sanctuary, all of them silent. Once in a while, you might hear someone say a few words or request a hymn.

Initially, it's an odd feeling, but it quickly becomes very comforting, said Jeff Mays, a White Oak resident who's attended the congregation's weekly services for about a year.

Perhaps it's a sign of our entertainment-oriented times, but I rarely hear extended periods of silence in worship services. In the Presbyterian Church I grew up in, the minister sometimes gave us a few moments to reflect on our sins, but not for long.

No one wants to spend too much time reflecting on his sins. If you think about that sort of thing too long, you might feel the need to do something about it.

I like silence, but I think it terrifies many of us. Perhaps it's the thought that we might actually hear God speaking, or have to confront issues within ourselves that we'd rather not face.

"The teachings of Jesus are not difficult to understand," Mays said. "Too many people are spending so much energy trying to avoid what those teachings say.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/LIFE/607060356/100
5

Mark says: We visited a Quaker church in Philadelphia, the Arch Street House. The attendant was a member of another Quaker church in another city. He told us how things function in a Quaker church. It was fascinating talking to him.

A First Communion dream in doubt

The Boston Globe

By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff

As Victoria Coyne, 7, prepares for her first Holy Communion, there has been a major snag: As a child suffering from both celiac disease and diabetes, she can neither eat the wheat wafer that represents the body of Christ nor drink the wine that signifies his blood.

"I already got the stuff ready," said Victoria, who hopes to make her First Communion in June at St. Marguerite D'Youville Church in Dracut. "My mom is trying to talk to the priest, and so is my dad."

Her parents thought they found a solution in a rice Communion wafer -- free of gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains that makes her ill -- but official church policy forbids its use. The ritual of Communion is tied to the Last Supper, when Jesus is believed to have eaten wheat bread and drunk grape wine with his disciples. Canon law requires that both wheat and grapes be part of the Communion service. Worshippers who receive Communion consume at least one: Children usually eat only the wafer, and adult Catholics sometimes receive both wafer and wine.

Church officials have grappled repeatedly in recent years with the collision between longstanding church teachings and modern medicine. In his previous job leading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the issue of worshippers suffering from celiac disease and alcoholism, allowing for the substitution of low-gluten wafers and a slightly fermented grape juice.

About 1 out of 133 people suffers from celiac disease, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. For those with the disease, which is genetic, ingesting gluten damages the small intestine, impairing the ability to absorb nutrients from food. If the disease goes untreated, it can cause other conditions, including anemia and osteoporosis.

Some of the conflicts have been bruising. In 2001, the Boston Archdiocese told the family of a 5-year-old girl with celiac disease that when she took her First Communion, she could not substitute rice wafers for traditional communion wafers. Her family left the church and began practicing as Methodists.

In New Jersey, a bishop declared invalid the First Communion of a girl with celiac disease who took rice wafers instead of those containing gluten. Her mother unsuccessfully petitioned the Vatican to reverse the decision.

Victoria's multiple health issues complicate her case. Her body cannot tolerate even the low-gluten wafers, her mother said. The solution for Victoria may lie in a low-alcohol grape juice, often offered to priests who are alcoholics; her parents are investigating whether it is safe for their daughter.

Although the Coynes are grateful for the support of their priest, the Rev. Paul Clifford, they are discouraged by the church's rules on Communion, which they believe are overly rigid.

"Right now we're frustrated, because it just doesn't seem right that she would be expected to ingest something that would be harmful to her body in order to make her First Communion," said Stephanie Coyne, Victoria's mother. "She's sad. She's been at Sunday school for two years, practicing what she needs to do to make her First Communion."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/12/a_first_communion_dream_in_
doubt/

Da Vinci Code of Gnosticism

The Australian

by Jill Rowbotham

One of the Church of England's heaviest hitters, the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, has plenty to say about the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas.

Wright has been dealing with da Vinci-style phenomena for years and is matter-of-fact about the anti-theology in Brown's book, which is, he says, a variation on the gnostic heresy that flourished in the early centuries after Jesus lived.

Gnosticism was a rival version of Christianity that was suppressed in the early church by what became the orthodox view. The recently published Gospel of Judas, translated from Coptic, for example, is a gnostic text that claims history's great betrayer was acting on the orders of Jesus.

"The really interesting thing about The Da Vinci Code is why, granted it's such manifest rubbish, do people want to take it seriously?" Wright asks. "Why has it been such a runaway bestseller? It's not because it's a page-turner, because there are millions of page-turners out there."

He theorises that it says what modern Westerners want to hear.

"The mythology about Christian origins that so many people in the Western world want today is a form of gnosticism in which self-discovery, particularly discovery of gender-based aspects of 'myself', whether it's the sacred feminine or whatever, is hugely important.

"Learning that in fact the heart and centre of genuine spirituality is not about my insides but about God coming in love and grace to do something fresh for me is not what people want to hear.

(emphasis mine - Mark)

"In other words, people don't want what Christianity authentically offers: they want this substitute called gnosticism in one of its many forms; and The Da Vinci Code plays right in," Wright says.

"Jesus was going around 'doing the kingdom', healing the sick, cleansing lepers, feeding the hungry, he was celebrating at a party with all the wrong people, transforming people's lives and saying cryptic things such as: 'Let me tell you what the kingdom of God is like'," Wright says.

"The church has it the other way around. It has tended to say: 'We must say it, say it, say it as clearly as possible and if there is any energy left over, we'll do a bit of it as well."'

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20876,18798068-28737,00.html

Church a way of life in Dixie

Washington Times

By Jennifer Harper

Southern folks seem to have a monopoly on that good old time religion.

The South contains eight of the top 10 states with the most frequent churchgoers in the nation, according to a Gallup Poll analysis of more than 68,000 interviews conducted in the past two years.

With 58 percent saying they attend religious services once a week or almost every week, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina residents are tied in first place -- followed by Mississippi at 57 percent, Arkansas and Utah tied at 55 percent, North Carolina and Nebraska tied at 53 percent and Tennessee and Georgia tied at 52 percent.

The national average is 42 percent. There is a wide range between the highest and lowest numbers, however -- a difference of 34 percentage points between the top three and bottom two states.

Of the Southern states, Virginia has the second lowest reported church attendance rate (44 percent), which is still above the national average, according to Gallup analyst Frank Newport.

"Sunday mornings are for going to church, not mowing the lawn, going shopping (the stores won't be open anyway), or buying liquor or beer ... If someone in the grocery line finds out you're new in town and asks you to his/her church, go ahead and say yes, and enjoy the experience. Southern hospitality surely shows itself best in the willingness of the people to share what is most important to them: their faith," the site notes.

"At the other end of the spectrum, the data makes it clear that reported church attendance is lowest in New England states -- New Hampshire (24 percent), Vermont (24 percent), Rhode Island (28 percent), Massachusetts (31 percent) and Maine (31 percent.) The only slight exception is the New England state of Connecticut (37 percent)," Mr. Newport added.

Nebraska led the Midwestern states in weekly or almost weekly church attendance (53 percent). Among the most populous states, Texas led at 49 percent, followed by Illinois (42 percent), Florida (39 percent), New York (33 percent) and California (32 percent).

The District of Columbia stood at 33 percent.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060428-120137-9526r.htm

Heavy Metal Church

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Salvation Army monthly concert gives kids a safe outlet to rock

It's an "At the Loaf" Friday night, the monthly transformation of the Salvation Army center in Lawrenceville into a hard-core rock venue. The 250 or so young people who came Friday night knew in advance there would be no drinking, no drugs, no profanity. Aside from that, they knew they could dress as they please, jump with reckless abandon, and crank up the volume beyond all industrial safety standards.

For their part, the adults agree: (1) Not to proselytize and (2) Not to complain about the music.

The kids are cool with that.

The young people who come are typically not the ones trying out for cheerleading, the football team, or much of anything at school, she said.

"To a lot of people, we're the heathens," Jessica said.

However, the "heathens" find a Christian welcome and a judgment-free place to enjoy their generation's music. "These people are my friends and family; this is where I belong," Jessica said.

So, does heavy metal fit the mission of the Salvation Army? It's not so much of a stretch, said Ken Chapman, Salvation Army community liaison for the Lawrenceville Center.

"This is what the Salvation Army does, it takes in the people that society casts out," Chapman said.

Each month, four or five rock bands perform. About 100 people attended the first shows, but recent crowds have reached about 400, Salvation Army officials said. For the May 19 show, a popular band called Cool Hand Luke will play. A capacity crowd of 700 is expected.

Though these young people might look edgy, he said, the atmosphere "At the Loaf" is wholesome. "Parents can trust that they can drop their kids off here, and when they come to pick them up, they'll be here and be safe," Jay said.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/0504metpunk.html

Bible Reading Plan Progress

I've posted a couple times before about my new plan for reading through the New American Standard Bible in one year.

I'm happy to say that after five months, I have almost finished reading the Bible. I am just over 90 percent done.

Here is a summary of my progress up until now:

I have only 94 chapters left to read. At the average rate I've been reading over five months, I should finish in 13 more days, or around May 13. At the average rate I've been reading more recently, over the last one month, I should finish in 13 more days. At the nominal plan rate of four chapters per day, I should finish in 24 more days, or around May 24. In any case, I should finish before the end of May, which puts me on track to finish the entire Bible in less than six months.

I've already been shopping for a new Bible to read after finishing this one. I'd like to read a more modern translation like the Good News Bible (Today's English Version) or even the New Living Translation, a very recent version. One thing we're keeping in mind (we're both shopping for new Bibles) is that we'll be traveling through Europe later this year and we'd like to take the smallest and lightest Bible possible. Mary is thinking about taking the New Testament only. I'm thinking about taking something on my Palm Tungsten. Don't know about charging it in Europe, though.

Previous posts on this topic:

• March 1, 2006
• Feb. 1, 2006
• Dec. 19, 2005

An Affront to Civilization

National Review Editorial

The trial of Abdul Rahman, who faces a potential death sentence for converting to Christianity some 15 years ago, is an affront to civilization. Killing or jailing someone for his religious beliefs is always wrong, and is especially galling in a country so dependent on American military forces and aid.

Conservatives in this country have been admirably willing to accept the compromises and frustrations that come with President Bush's attempts to reform recalcitrant parts of the world. The judicial murder of a Christian convert by a government that exists only on the basis of American power and good will, however, would be intolerable.

http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200603220953.asp

Free Abdul Rahman

Washington Times Editorial

Washington Times Editorial

The case of Abdul Rahman, who faces execution in Afghanistan for having become a Christian 15 years ago, is about as clear-cut as it could be. A democracy founded on the principles of freedom and tolerance does not kill religious dissenters. This was why Afghanistan under the Taliban was considered one of the most oppressive countries in the world. What have American soldiers achieved if they have not eliminated this barbaric medieval legacy?

We expect the administration to use all the leverage it can, which is considerable, to set Mr. Rahman free -- and not only for Mr. Rahman's sake. American soldiers and their families, not to mention taxpayers, have sacrificed much to free Afghanistan. The execution of Christians simply because they are Christians is not what they had in mind.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060322-090715-8777r.htm

Congratulating ourselves

Los Angeles Times

Conservatives have questioned the administration's support for democratic governments in Islamic countries.

"How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical Islamists who kill Christians?" wrote Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a lobbying group, in a letter this week to Bush and congressional leaders.

Afghanistan's new constitution calls for religious freedom of expression, but the document has an unresolved conflict with Sharia, which does not permit conversions out of Islam.

Mawlawi Ghulam Haider, 75, a mullah in a Kabul mosque, said: "If somebody becomes a Christian or converts to any other religion than Islam, he must be given a chance over three days to think and return to Islam. If he returns to Islam, he can live happily ever after. But if he doesn't turn back … he will be punished by death."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usafghan24mar24,0,3398976.st
ory?track=tottext

Spring Ache

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Thousands of college students who might have spent spring break sunning in Acapulco or on Florida beaches this year are pouring into New Orleans to sleep in dormitory tents or on classroom floors, eat off paper plates and spend a week of vacation hauling foul muck out of homes ruined by floodwaters.

-- Campus Crusade for Christ, a network of campus ministries, has sent 4,400 students to New Orleans this week, the peak of the spring break season, spokesman Tony Arnold said.

-- The Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board has more than 1,500 students here this week, spokesman Steve Manfredi said.

-- Common Ground Collective, a secular grassroots organization of young social progressives, has about 1,000 students on the ground doing demolition, health care, day care, after-school tutoring and other tasks, said Lisa Fithian, a veteran activist from Austin who has been in New Orleans since September.

-- Opportunity Rocks 2006: Rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a network led by former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has nearly 700 college students from 27 states working in Chalmette.

-- United Methodist churches around New Orleans are housing and dispatching more than 1,000 students to work sites daily during this week, said the Rev. Yvonne Dayries, a coordinator at the denomination's headquarters in Baton Rouge.

-- Lutheran encampments in Metairie, Kenner and St. Tammany house 300 volunteers working around the region.

Four major encampments in Chalmette, Algiers, at City Park and in the Lower 9th Ward house more than 5,000 students. Many more are bedded down in independent churches or private homes. The students are scattered around the area, but most are concentrated in the flood zones of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

In shorts and rubber boots, bandannas and face masks, they immerse themselves in the wreckage. Often a boom box pumps out music to relieve the work. But the experience remains sobering.

http://www.nola.com/archives/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1142582050218460.xml&col
l=1

Democratic Apostasy

Prison Fellowship - Chuck Colson

by Chuck Colson

The irony is inescapable: This is the country that we rid of the Taliban because of its religious oppression. This is the country in which we have spent at least $70 billion to establish a free democratic government. This is the country whose freedom cost us three hundred American lives and eight hundred casualties. And this is the country that is preparing to execute a man for becoming a Christian after he witnessed other Christians caring for his countrymen.

Is this the fruit of democracy? Is this why we have shed American blood and invested American treasure to set a people free? What have we accomplished for overthrowing the Taliban? This is the kind of thing we would expect from the Taliban, not from President Karzai and his freely elected democratic government.

I have supported the Bush administration’s foreign policy because I came to believe that the best way to stop Islamo-fascism was by promoting democracy. But if we can’t guarantee fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms, then the whole credibility of our foreign policy is thrown into serious question. I hope the president and the administration can recognize what a devastating setback Rahman’s execution would be to the cause of democracy and freedom.

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=BreakPoint1&Template=/CM/ContentDispl
ay.cfm&ContentID=18289

Satellite May Have Found Noah's Ark

ABC News

This article reads like something from the National Enquirer, but ...

Satellite May Have Found Noah's Ark

March 15, 2006— A satellite image may launch a scientific expedition to search for Noah's Ark. The snapshot captures a mysterious object on Turkey's Mount Ararat.

"I see for a 1,015 feet in length a shiplike object that has almost unbroken symmetry," said Porcher Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Richmond.

He calculated that the object in the photo had the same length-to-width ratio — 300 cubits by 500 cubits — of the ark described in the Bible. That is about the size of an aircraft carrier.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1727536&gma=true

Southern Baptist mission to rebuild Big Easy houses

The Southern Baptist Convention, in conjunction with Promise Keepers, plan to rebuild 1,000 homes in New Orleans. They hope to find 52,000 volunteers.

Samaritan's Purse has contributed $25 million and over 5,000 volunteers to rebuild 7,000 homes.

The Lutheran Church is sending 1,000 college students who will spend their spring break helping the area rebuild.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060315-105857-6895r.htm

God by the Numbers

Christianity Today

Three numbers in particular suggest evidence for God's existence. They are 1/10¹⁰¹²³, 10¹⁶², and e^πi.

The fine-tuning of the four physical forces and the presence of one habitable planet are just two of the components that would go into a formula to predict the probability of a life-supporting universe. Oxford professor Roger Penrose discusses it in his book The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind. Penrose says the number is 1 in 10 to the 10 to the 123.

The second number that points to God comes from the field of biology. William Dembski, in The Creation Hypothesis, suggests the following argument. The odds against getting 1,000 beneficial mutations in the proper order is 2¹⁰⁰⁰. Expressed in decimal form, this number is about 10³⁰¹. 10³⁰¹ mutations is a number far beyond the capacity of the universe to generate. The chance of getting 1,000 beneficial mutations out of all the mutations the universe can generate is 10¹³⁹ divided by 10³⁰¹, or 1 chance in 10¹⁶².

A mathematics professor at MIT, an atheist, once wrote this formula on the blackboard, saying, "There is no God, but if there were, this formula would be proof of his existence."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/003/26.44.html

What is an evangelical?

My good friend Bill M is helping contact pastors regarding the Harvest Crusade that will take place in San Jose later this year.

He said he is contacting pastors of "evangelical" churches. I asked him what is an "evangelical" church. We tossed it back and forth for a while, but we didn't really come to a firm decision. In the end, we decided that pastors of non-evangelical chuches would probably "self-select out" of involvement in the Harvest Crusade. That is, pastors that choose to be involved are probably evangelical, and pastors that choose not to be involved are probably not evangelical.

It can be confusing. "Evangelical" is not the same as "fundamentalist" is not the same as "right-wing" is not the same as "moral majority" (or whatever they like to call themselves these days). And some churches that call themselves evangelical, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, might have their evangelical credentials questioned others in the movement.

The term fundamentalist refers to churches who believe the Bible is totally without error. These include most pentecostal and baptist churches.

The term moral majority refers to churches who oppose abortion and homosexuality. It includes some non-evanglical Christian churches, for example Catholics, and some non-Christian groups, for example Mormons.

The term right-wing refers to churches who align themsevles with right-wing political ideals. This goes beyond "moral majority" politics because it includes support for defense and war, support for the death penalty, opposition to immigration, and other right-wing political ideals.

But the term evanglical does not allow such a simple definition. Some would try to say that any church that believes in the gospel is evangelical. But many non-evangelical churches, like Episcopal, Methodist, and Catholic, believe in the gospel. And they believe in preaching the gospel. And they would like to think of themselves as evangelical, even if they are excluded by other churches that call themselves evangelical.

Historians David Bebbington, Mark Noll, and George Rawlyk have identified four characteristic marks of "evangelicalism":

• a stress on conversion,
• a focus on Christ's redeeming work as the core of biblical Christianity,
• an acknowledgment of the Bible as the supreme authority, and
• an energetic and personal approach to social engagement and evangelism.

I'd say that overall this is a reasonable starting point for a definition. But it does seem to work by principle of exclusion. In other words, it defines evangelicalism by contrasting it to what it is not.

The focus on Christ's redeeming work excludes some groups that would like to call themselves Christian, such as Unitarians, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The acknowledgement of the Bible as supreme authority is a device that goes back to the reformation of the 1500's, designed specifically to exclude Catholics.

The stress on conversion is the requirement that is most germane to the upcoming Harvest Crusade. Why would a group that doesn't believe in conversion support an outreach that attempts to convert people? It may surprise you that some Christian groups do not overtly believe in conversion. Many groups believe in catechism ... that is, if you teach the gospel to children and young adults, they will "grow into" a relationship with God, without the need for any conversion experience. Gerberding, in The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church, (Lutheran Publication Society, 1887) says exactly this. (The book is available online through Project Gutenberg.) In general, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican/Episcopal churches do not believe in conversion. Reformed and Presbyterian churches claim to believe in conversion but many do not act like it ... and some extreme Calvinist churches say that "choosing Christ" is impossible because predestination requires that Christ choose you instead.

Personal social engagement and evangelism seems to exclude just about everyone. Most Christians believe in personal engagement but do not practice it. Most conservative Christians (those who belive in a personal relationship with Jesus) claim to believe in evangelism but few practice it. Most liberal Christians (those who believe in living like Jesus did) believe in social engagement but not evangelism. Only missionaries get even close to doing this.

But maybe that's the point. It's not enough to just have a personal relationship with Jesus, one must also "be Jesus" to the world without. And it's not enough to want to live according to the ethical ideals of Jesus, one must also have the personal relationship with Jesus that makes that kind of lifestyle possible.

(The Christianity Today article is about Richard Baxter; it is worthwhile in and of itself, and it describes these four characteristics of evangelicalism as they were displayed in Baxter's life.)

Bible Reading Progress

I've posted a couple times before about my new plan for reading through the New American Standard Bible in one year.

One month ago I was quite far ahead of plan, way far ahead on two tracks, and a little behind on the two other tracks. At that time I had completed 30 percent of the Bible, enough to finish in only seven months if I were to keep up that pace.

Here's my cumulative progress to date, through three months:

I've read a total of 615 chapters, which is just over half the Bible. At this pace, I should finish in six months, or around the end of May.

Because I'll finish Track 1 shortly, I can start doubling up on Track 3, where I'm a little behind. But I'm worried that even if I tack Job and Proverbs onto the end of Track 1, I may not finish even the Psalms at the end of six months, because I'm not even half way through that one book. I don't really like to read more than one Psalm per day; but the later ones are shorter.

Churches vs. Starbucks

London News-Telegraph

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

More than 1,000 new Christian churches have been created over the last seven years, double the number of Starbucks coffee shops, new research has found.

All the major denominations opened new churches but the biggest growth was among the black Pentecostal churches. The remaining new churches were scattered among the mainstream denominations.

About 450 branches of Starbucks were opened over the same period.

(Mark says: NOTE this was in England)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/27/nchur27.xml&sShe
et=/news/2006/02/27/ixhome.html

Learning to Listen to God

Christianity Today

by Philip Yancey

I've become more convinced than ever that God finds ways to communicate with those who truly seek him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static. I remember reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. "I hope your stay is a blessed one," said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. "If you need anything, let us know, and we'll teach you how to live without it."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/003/21.112.html

Deaf Church Wins Land Value Battle

Los Angeles Times

By Dan Weikel, Times Staff Writer

A small church that has served the deaf community in Riverside County for decades will receive more than $4.5 million to settle allegations that Caltrans grossly undervalued the congregation's property when it was condemned to make way for new ramps on Interstate 215.

Calvary Deaf Church and Caltrans resolved their dispute Tuesday shortly after Superior Court Judge Gloria Trask tentatively ruled that Caltrans' original appraisal of $1.65 million was flawed and outdated. A trial had been scheduled for Monday.

Calvary Deaf Church, which has about 45 members, was founded in 1956 by Beatrice and John Berry, two Assemblies of God ministers. It is one of a handful of congregations in the region that specifically serve hearing-impaired people.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-caltrans22feb22,1,2015589.story

Billy Graham the Pastor

USA Today

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

The Journey: How to Live By Faith in an Uncertain World, by Billy Graham, will be in bookstores March 7.

"The book begins where a crusade leaves off. It's about being a Christian, not becoming one," says Graham's spokesman, A. Larry Ross. "It's his legacy, encapsulating the essence of his sermons, writings and recordings on what it means to be a follower of Christ."

There's no news in The Journey but the Good News, the translation of "Gospel." There are no bloggable bits where he slams people or pounds political views. He writes about, but never names, a "well-known Christian leader" with an impressive "zeal for truth" who was missing "a love for others (especially those who disagreed with him)."

The book's four parts focus on the basic elements of the Christian life: discovering God's love, building strength, facing challenges and finally, family life, aging and death.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-02-20-graham-book_x.htm

Wrapped in Prayer, Marines Leave for Iraq Duty

Los Angeles Times

By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON — Navy Lt. Jim Peugh, a Protestant chaplain, led the 100-plus Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 5 in a prayer asking God to "be with us" as the battalion returns to Iraq and also to protect the families left behind.

"You need to be strong and you need to pray that they're all coming back, all of them," said Bev Singleton, the mother of Staff Sgt. Mikel Travis, 30. "These are all my sons and my daughters, every one of them."

It was a morning for spouses to trade secrets on how to endure the uncertainty of the deployment.

"Don't watch the news, be hopeful when he calls and don't bother him with problems. Just give him positives," suggested Carrie Strickland, 21, whose husband, Sgt. Chris Strickland, 23, is an explosive ordnance technician.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-troops20feb20,1,7023863.story

Does God love gays?

This cover story in the latest Metro Silicon Valley discusses a new documentary "God and Gays."

What God thinks about gay people is something that Christians and gay people need to think soberly and deeply about, not something where blanket pronouncements serve any purpose.

When some gay people say they can be Christians, they need to think about why their Christianity might give them some sense of being loved, but not some power to change. A real relationship with a loving Savior ought to impart some power to change some things in your life that you don't even necessarily think are wrong, but which God wants to change anyway.

On the other hand, when some Christians say that gay people cannot be Christians, they ignore the fact that the Bible has only half dozen passages that mention homosexuality, but four whole Gospels that show Jesus embracing those whom the religious community would not. Jesus did not condemn the outcasts, but he loved them back into the fold. Jesus condemned only the religious establishment that would exclude some from the spiritual life.

I personally like to think that the Bible can be summed up in these verses from Psalm 62:

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.

Gay people have a religion where God is loving but not very powerful. God wants to exercise his power in your life to change your life. And this means more than just the power to let you learn to love your mate better. Any old non-Christian person can do that, and divorce statistics indicate that they might do so better than self-labeled Christians do. God wants to change your life in ways you won't expect, and perhaps won't even want at first. But he also wants the power to change your attitude and desires. The irony is that by refusing to give full rein to God's power, they lose the most powerful demonstration of God's love. When you see God at work in your life in ways that are beyond human ability and comprehension, it validates your knowledge of his love in a powerful way.

Some Christians have a religion where God is powerful but not very loving. They remind me a lot of the Pharisees of Jesus's time. The Pharisees could quote lots of Bible passages, but they had a hard time showing the love of God to others. The irony is that by denying God's love, they cut themselves off from the full demonstration of God's power. God cannot reach others through a hateful person, although the story of Nebuchadnezzar shows that he can use even a hateful person to achieve his purposes through circumstances. I don't want to be a "circumstancial" Christian through whom God does things only by accident ... but someone whose love reaches out to others in a purposeful way.

Ministries mentioned in the article and the movie include Exodus International. This is not a hateful organization, as some would try to paint it. They do not try to "change" homosexuals into straight people. They do try to expose gay people to the love of God, and then let God exercise his power in his own unexpected ways. As Christians, we often hope that God will change a person in a certain specific way: free them from homosexuality, from substance abuse, or from pornography. But we forget that God's agenda might be to free them from cigarettes, from lying, from adultery, or from hatred of parents first. It's when we try to steer people away from God's agenda and toward our own that we get into trouble.

Each of us who calls himself or herself a Christian has our own "history" with Jesus. He has changed each of us in a unique way and a unique pattern. He doesn't fix everything all at once. Each of us still has ways we are being changed. Some of us may still be struggling with vices we've known about for many years. But God will fixes those things in the order that works best for him and his kingdom, and in the way that best indicates our awareness of his love and power.

TV Theology

USA Today

Watch for reincarnation Hindu-esque style if an Ashton Kutcher-produced sitcom lands on TV in the fall. For Pete's Sake is actually an interfaith goof: St. Peter plays bouncer at the Pearly Gates, sending five main characters off to rebirth instead of hell, garbling both Christian and Hindu theology.

After all, there's no law that TV or movies must teach correct doctrine, says Dick Staub, a writer on faith and culture for Christianity Today online.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-02-15-hindu-lite_x.htm

Mark sez: You mean the Jesus on South Park isn't the real Jesus?

Fred Phelps Confronted

KAKE TV, Wichita

by Jeff Golimowski

KAKE's chief investigative reporter Jeff Golimowski went inside Fred Phelp's world looking for answers.

"God hates america," said Phelps. He offers no apologies. "Tthis country is hellbound, it's hopeless."

Phelps' church isn't a big place. About 60 people were there the Sunday we visited, 30 of them children. His sermon often rambles, he repeats himself, jumps from one topic to the next and is often tough to follow. He includes conspiracy theories and a lot of fire and brimstone.

Phelps views himself as an instrument of God's will, but what drives him to be so outlandish, so hateful?

"Those old baptist preachers delivered me a charge from Isiah 58:1," said Phelps. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show thy people their transgressions."

We asked Phelps, "Do you preach hate?"

"Not in the perjorative sense I don't," said Phelps. "The truth of the matter is I'm the only one who loves these fags."

Phelps believes by pointing out what he calls the sin of homosexuality, he's fulfilling the Bible's commandment to love thy neighbor, but not letting his sin go unrebuked. "These kissypoo preachers that are telling them they are all right like they are, they don't love them, they hate them," said Phelps.

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/2252792.html

Habits of Highly Effective Justice Workers

Christianity Today

by Rodolpho Carrasco

Not so long ago, evangelical Christians who served the poor often found themselves on the defensive among fellow believers. Now it's the rare church that doesn't engage in works of mercy and justice. Watching this evangelical wave of concern and action, I've been greatly encouraged. Yet as I listen to my fellow justice-impassioned Christ-followers, whether they are newbies or grizzled veterans, I often hear only part of the message of justice.

There is no shortage of protest across the political spectrum. But while I celebrate this development, I worry that we are perilously weak at walking alongside the poor, at investing directly into the lives of individuals to give them what they truly need—not what we believe they need or what our policy statements tell us they need. I've found that it's relatively easy to raise a voice in protest, but unfathomably hard to invest in a life.

Take money skills. While some urban youth have a good grasp of personal finance, many don't. How to manage a credit card, why to avoid check-cashing shops, why a good credit report is a critical tool in America—most youth on my street know almost nothing about these topics.

Those who lack knowledge and experience managing money must be taught. But money management must be practiced in order to be truly learned. Is this young man getting the training he needs? More often than not, the answer is no, especially among fatherless young men. The older he is, the more bad habits he is likely to have accrued over the years. While he painstakingly unlearns those habits, he still has to make ends meet.

After seeing this pattern repeatedly in northwest Pasadena, I began to wonder where I learned about money. After all, at age 6 I was the at-risk poster child. I was "the poor." But my sister was a math major—and that fact alone made a difference.

But there came a day, as a young adult, when the problem was not understanding, but confidence. Deep down, I didn't believe I could really hold on to money, that this particular Mexican would ever rise above his circumstances. I went through a severe crisis of self-doubt.

I had a lot of support from family and friends, yet it took a long time to learn what I know now about finances. Now add issues like education, employment, and marriage. There is no way around these basic life skills if a person is ever to escape poverty. The investment needed is long, sacrificial, and, frankly, tedious. Doing justice by walking alongside people as they develop critical life skills is not exciting. Protesting on Wall Street against globalization is exciting. Getting arrested at the courthouse is exciting. Filling the National Mall with hundreds of thousands of people is exciting. But staying proximate to people as they learn lessons they should have learned years ago? When's the last time you saw that on cnn?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/002/31.46.html

One reporter's futile attempt to see the Shroud of Turin

Canada.com

by Howard Fendrich, Canadian Press

TURIN, Italy (AP) - A bit of advice for English-speaking visitors to this city who want to find the Shroud of Turin: Don't try asking locals, "Where can I find the Shroud of Turin?"

The reason, of course, that Italians aren't familiar with the word "shroud" is that it's, well, English. Italians call it "La Santa Sindone."

And then, I hit upon the secret formula, using these words in English: "Jesus" and "religious." Perhaps because those are pronounced quite similarly in Italian - "Gesu" and "religioso" - she understood.

"Aaah, La Santa Sindone," a newspaper vendor said, nodding excitedly, and pulled out a map to show me the way.

Here's some more advice: Don't expect to actually see the Sindone. About 4 1/2 metres long and one metre wide, the linen has an image that believers say was left by Jesus' body when he was wrapped in it after being taken down from the cross.

When you enter the cathedral, to the left of the pews, there's a photographic replica of the Shroud, about two-thirds the size of the original. There are pamphlets in several languages, and helpful guides who aim their red laser pens at the copy as they describe it.

The Shroud itself? It's in its own chapel in the back left corner of the cathedral, enclosed in a box behind bulletproof glass. It was last brought out for public viewing in 2000, and is not scheduled to go on display again until 2025.

There was speculation the Shroud might be open to viewing during the Olympics. But Turin Cardinal Severino Poletto, the Shroud's custodian, announced in December it would remain closed.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/oddities/story.html?id=31ed185b-58b6-4ad6-aa44
-963e1a40a184&k=20927

Bible Reading Plan Progress

A while back I mentioned that I've started a plan for reading the Bible through in about ten months.

I started reading the New American Standard Bible around the first of December. So far, I should be 62 chapters (2 months) into each "track." (You have to look at the Bible reading plan page to understand about the "tracks.")

On Track 1, I've read 149 chapters, from Genesis 1 through Numbers 32. This puts me about 87 chapters ahead on Track 1.

On Track 2, I've read 116 chapters, from 1 Chronicles through Esther, then moved on to read Isaiah chapters 1 through 18. This puts me about 54 chapters ahead on Track 2.

On Track 3, I've read Psalms 1 through 49. These 49 chapters put me about 13 chapters behind the 62 chapters I should have read. One reason why I'm behind is that if I miss a day, I like to make it up the next day. But the Psalms are so personal and intense that I prefer not to read more than one per day. Also, I'm not too worried about falling a little behind here because Tracks 3 and 4 are shorter than the other tracks.

On Track 4, I've read all of Matthew and Romans, and the first nine chapters of 1 Corinthians. This is 53 chapters and it puts me nine chapters behind on this track. The reason I've fallen behind on this track is I usually read this track last, and if I'm too tired I might not get to it at all. Again, I'm not too worried about falling behind on this track because it is a shorter track. Also, I can read the Gospels more quickly than the epistles, because the Gospels have a little more action. I should start making up lost time when I get to the book of Mark.

Overall, I've read 367 chapters, or about 30 percent of the entire Bible (which is 1189 chapters total). This is about six chapters per day. If I continue at this pace, I should finish the Bible in about seven months, or at the end of June.

I've usually been reading late at night, before I go to sleep, and sometimes after my wife has gone to sleep. I haven't yet decided whether that's a good strategy, because I'm often very tired. But I think I'm learning a lot. And I'm noticing lots of things that I missed the last time I read the Bible through.

Holy Hip-Hop, Batman!

San Francisco Chronicle

by Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

DJ Born Again has the crowd rocking at Changed Life Church in Pittsburg on a recent Friday night, where young worshipers wear casual outfits and baggy pants in place of dress suits and skirts.

Changed Life is one of about six churches in the Bay Area -- and about 2,000 nationwide -- that lace their youth ministries with holy hip-hop to attract new, young believers.

"Youngsters have to have something done in a way they can understand," said DJ Born Again, whose real name is Ramon Jackson. "I deliver the message, but I still keep it raw."

The gospel rap movement, which features Christianity instead of profanity, dates to the early 1990s in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., but it has begun to catch on in the Bay Area only recently.

Gospel rap has drawn in young people who didn't come to church before, and some of them have also brought their parents into the church, Tindsley said.

"My dad was surprised when I started coming," said Emily Thornton, 14, of Antioch, who began attending Changed Life's hip-hop services last month with her older brother. "I think he was thinking 'why would you want to come to church when you could be at home doing something else?' "

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/31/HOLYRAP.TMP&nl=top

States Consider Bans On Protests at Funerals

Washington Post

By Kari Lydersen

At least five Midwestern states are considering legislation to ban protests at funerals in response to demonstrations by the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, who have been protesting at funerals of Iraq war casualties because they say the deaths are God's punishment for U.S. tolerance toward gays.

Though the soldiers were not gay, the protesters say the deaths, as well as Hurricane Katrina, recent mining disasters and other tragedies are God's signs of displeasure. They also protested at the memorial service for the 12 West Virginia miners who died in the Sago Mine.

Indiana State Sen. Anita Bowser said she thinks the demonstrators are hoping to provoke a physical attack so they can file a lawsuit. "These people are not gainfully employed, so they're waiting for someone to do battle with them so they can go to court and win. They want a big liability case to pursue. I don't think they actually give a diddly wink about the arguments they're making, but they're clever individuals trying to make a fast buck."

Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps's daughter and an attorney for the church, said if legislation passes, the group will challenge it in court. "Whatever they do would be unconstitutional," she said. "These aren't private funerals; these are patriotic pep rallies. Our goal is to call America an abomination, to help the nation connect the dots. You turn this nation over to the fags and our soldiers come home in body bags."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900927.
html

Right to a Christian Scotland

The Scotsman - Opinion

By Helen Martin

What's wrong with Scotland being a Christian country and why shouldn't we say it is?

India is a Hindu country. Pakistan is a Muslim country. Italy is a Catholic country. There! Lock me up for being politically incorrect and throw away the key.

BMI is the only British airline to fly to Saudi Arabia. When BMI's female cabin crew disembark and spend stopover time in Saudi, they have been told to wear long robes and headscarves. The company says it is an obligation to respect the customs of the host country.

We put no such obligation on visitors from Saudi or anywhere else. Perhaps we should. Perhaps it is the fact that we don't impose our customs which leads them to believe we have no customs worth saving.

Or perhaps, as Cardinal Keith O'Brien suggests, we should begin by simply reminding ourselves and others that this is a Christian country with perfectly valid and respectable Christian values which are every bit as treasured as those of other cultures and faiths.

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=72312006

First lady says abstinence is a choice

Washington Times

By Bill Sammon

First lady Laura Bush yesterday said she was "irritated" by outside criticism of her husband's anti-AIDS programs in Africa as being focused too heavily on abstinence and not enough on condoms.

"I'm always a little bit irritated when I hear the criticism of abstinence, because abstinence is absolutely 100 percent effective in eradicating a sexually transmitted disease," Mrs. Bush said.

"In a country or a part of the world where one in three people have a sexually transmitted deadly disease, you have to talk about abstinence, you really have to," she said. "In many countries where girls feel obligated to comply with the wishes of men, girls need to know that abstinence is a choice."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060116-124016-1477r.htm

Go to jail or go to church

Cincinnati Enquirer

By Dan Horn, Enquirer staff writer

A judge gave Brett Haines a choice Friday: Go to jail or go to church.

The Anderson Township man, convicted of disorderly conduct, immediately chose six weeks of Sunday worship over 30 days in the Hamilton County Justice Center. But there's a catch.

Haines, who was accused of using racial slurs and threatening a black cab driver, must attend services at a predominantly black church. "If you want to get out of jail, you're going to have to raise your black consciousness," the judge said.

Mallory said he was concerned about maintaining a separation between church and state, so he asked Haines whether the option would offend his beliefs. Haines said he was not a church-goer, but would like to give it a try.

The cab driver said he hoped the sentence would work, but he would have preferred Haines serve his 30 days. "Church don't change everybody," he said.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060114/NEWS01/601140399/10
77

State of the Pews

Newsweek Commentary

by Rabbi Marc Gellman

The Barna Group (barna.org), a consulting and religious research firm in Ventura, Calif., discovered these trends in their research into particularly Christian religious life in America in the past year:

1. Pathetic prayer. Churches are more concerned with programming than with prayer. Most church attendees say that they do not experience the presence of God in the service and fewer than one out of 10 spent any time worshipping God outside of their church service.

2. The continuing demise of the black church. Using the measures of church attendance, Bible knowledge, the priority of faith in a person's life, and the reliance on the religious community for support and relationships, Barna concludes that things are not looking good for black churches. Barna surprisingly concludes that the main reason for this decline is the increasing wealth of the black community.

3. The energizing of the evangelicals. Although only 7 percent of adults are evangelicals, their voice is the loudest and their energy, charity, Bible study, and prayer life is the greatest. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it was the evangelical volunteers who came in the greatest numbers and stayed for the longest time.

4. Biblical illiteracy. The Barna Group has discovered that most Christians (and I would add most Jews) are in increasing numbers biblically illiterate. Churches have demoted and de-emphasized Bible study. The Sunday-TV preachers I regularly monitor for good jokes use biblical verses as mere decorations for their psycho-babble sermons, not the driving reason for their sermons. Most of the baby rabbis I mentor still preach sermons (if they preach at all) that sound more like Dr. Phil than Rabbi Phil.

5. Revolutionaries. Barna labels as “Christian revolutionaries” the more than 20 million people who are pursuing their Christian faith outside the box. They meet in homes or at work. These revolutionaries, as Barna labels them, are really passionate Christians who have no patience for the moribund bureaucracy of organized church life.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10696190/site/newsweek/

What did I tell you!

In the Goncourt journals, Flaubert is reported as telling the tale of a man taken fishing by an atheist friend. The atheist casts the net and draws up a stone on which is carved: "I do not exist. Signed: God." And the atheist exclaims: "What did I tell you!"

Indiana lawmakers pray illegally

Indianapolis Star, Washington Post

A judge's ruling barred the Indiana House of Representatives from invoking the name of Jesus or any other specific deity in official prayers.

That didn't prevent the lawmakers for holding their own prayer, nor did it keep about 30 people from gathering in the Statehouse rotunda this morning to pray.

In fact, the ruling motivated them. Sitting in blue chairs in the marble rotunda, people began the prayer session at 10 a.m. by chanting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060104/NEWS01/601040484

House Speaker Brian C. Bosma on Tuesday left open the possibility that today's opening-day invocation for the 2006 General Assembly might not comply with recent court orders barring references specific to Christianity.

In a Nov. 30 decision, U.S. District Judge David Hamilton found that the House violated the U.S. Constitution's clause prohibiting a government-established religion when at least 29 invocations last year were offered in the name of Jesus, the Savior or the Son.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060104/NEWS02/601040435

The Indiana General Assembly will begin its 2006 session this week. Speaking from a federal bench, Judge David Hamilton ruled recently on a lawsuit brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union that any prayers offered at the Indiana House of Representatives must be nonsectarian and respectful of the diversity of religion of our state. Prayers should not seek to proselytize nor exclude members of other faiths. House Speaker Brian Bosma is challenging that ruling, suggesting that restricting clergy from praying in the name of Jesus Christ is an intrusion on their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and religion.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060103/OPINION/601030355/10
02

A federal court judge on Wednesday denied a request to amend his ruling banning sectarian prayer in the Indiana House of Representatives, clearing the way for an appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

U.S. District Judge David Hamilton rejected arguments by House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, that Hamilton's ruling was too vague to enforce.

"If the speaker or those offering prayers seek to evade the injunction through indirect but well understood expressions of specifically Christian beliefs, the audience, the public, and the court will be able to see what is happening. In that unlikely event, the court will be able to take appropriate measures to enforce" the injunction.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051229/NEWS02/512290459/100
6/NEWS01

In a spirited duel over prayer, members of the Indiana state House are at odds with a federal judge who ruled that the daily invocation appeals too often to Jesus Christ and a Christian god.

The "systematically sectarian" prayers, U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton concluded, are barred by the Constitution, which forbids the government to show preference for any religious denomination. He ordered the House to avoid mentioning Christ in the formal benedictions.

A number of politicians have vowed to defy Hamilton, whom they accuse of undermining a 188-year Indiana tradition and interfering in legislative branch affairs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123100723.
html

You don't get arrested unless you break the law

Christianity Today

by Sheryl Henderson Blunt

Evangelist Luis Palau says he did not mean to "create problems" for Chinese house church members when he urged them to officially register their churches in order to "receive greater freedom and blessings from the government."

"Rev. Palau is either unaware of the problems that registration can cause, or perhaps he is aware that if he makes remarks too critical of China's government, it could severely restrict his ministry there," said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom. "Registration can require revealing all the church's members to the government and exposing all of the church's activities. If the government then wants to crack down, it has all the information it needs."

At a November press conference in Beijing, Palau said, "You don't get arrested unless you break the law." Palau has since said he regrets making the remarks. More recently he conceded, "It's not my role as an evangelist to suggest that churches in China should register."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/002/4.22.html

Walking The Bible Again

"Walking the Bible" played tonight on PBS. The next two installments play next Wednesday, January 11, and the following Wednesday, January 18. In our area, that would be on KQED (Channel 9) at 8:00 pm.

The show was pretty good. I thought it was interesting how he argued with his guide about going up Mount Ararat. Not that I particularly believe all the stories about Jimmy Carter having seen Noah's Ark up there and all that.

The PBS site has a link to your nearest station with their schedule.

http://www.pbs.org/previews/bible/

There is a transcript of Ray Suarez interviewing Bruce Felier about his book. The interview took place in 2001.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/conversation/jan-june01/feiler_04-13.html

Here is another more recent interview of Mr. Felier by Tavis Smiley.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200510/20051025_transcript.html

You can search the PBS web site to find more such stuff.

Walking The Bible

Bruce Feiler, author of the book "Walking the Bible", hosts three-part documentary on PBS. The first installment of the "Walking the Bible" documentary airs tonight at 8 pm on PBS.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/04/arts/television/04heff.html

The book "Walking the Bible" on Amazon

Paradoxical Resolutions

Found while looking for other things ...

"The Paradoxical Commandments were written by Kent M. Keith in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders. For more than thirty years, the Paradoxical Commandments have circled the globe. They have been put on walls and refrigerator doors, featured in speeches and articles, preached from pulpits, and shared extensively on the web. They have been used by business leaders, military commanders, government officials, religious leaders, university presidents, social workers, teachers, rock stars, parents, coaches, and students. Mother Teresa thought the Paradoxical Commandments were important enough to put up on the wall of her children's home in Calcutta."

At a time when we make New Year's resolutions, these might form a useful template.

http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/

The Lord's Resistance Army

Christianity Today

by J. Carter Johnson in Kitgum, Uganda

Why the children of Uganda are killing one another in the name of the Lord.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is one of the larger terrorist organizations in the world. It has killed more people than many other violent groups, yet few Westerners have ever heard of it, since nearly all its violence is perpetrated in the border region between Uganda and Sudan in East Africa.

On a continent plagued with endless guerilla warfare, where war crimes are standard fighting fare, the LRA stands apart as an especially odious group. LRA crimes against humanity are so repulsive that its only former ally, the Islamic government of Sudan, jettisoned its relationship with the LRA to improve Sudan's international relations.

What began in 1986 as a rebellion against the Ugandan government has metamorphosed into a military millenarian cult. Its reason for existence is to perpetuate the power of its leader, a ruthless witchcraft practitioner named Joseph Kony, who envisions an Acholiland ruled by a warped interpretation of the Ten Commandments. He uses passages from the Pentateuch to justify mutilation and murder. He promotes a demonic spirituality crafted from an eclectic mix of Christianity, Islam, and African witchcraft.

Any resemblance to these religions is superficial: While the army observes rituals such as praying the rosary and bowing toward Mecca, there is no prescribed theology in the conventional sense. Kony's beliefs are a haphazard mix from the Bible and the Qur'an, tailored around his wishful thinking, personal desires, and practical needs of the moment. Jesus is the Son of God. But instead of saving the world from sin through his sacrificial love on the Cross, he is a source of power employed for killing those who oppose Kony. The Holy Spirit is not the Divine Comforter, but one who directs Kony's tactical military decisions.

Despite dabbling in the Bible and the Qur'an, Kony's real spiritual obsession is witchcraft. He burns toy military vehicles and figurines to predict the course of battles from their burn patterns. He uses reptiles in magic rituals to sicken those who anger him or to detect traitors in his midst. He claims to receive military direction from spirits of dead men from different countries, including Americans.

The rest of the article contains graphic descriptions of brutality, mostly descriptions of children required to kill other children, or be killed themselves.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/18.30.html

How to Help

Here are key Christian and charitable organizations that work with the victims of the lra conflict in northern Uganda.

Far Reaching Ministries
www.farreachingministries.org
951-677-4474

World Vision
www.worldvision.org
www.seekjustice.org
888-511-6548

Save the Children
www.savethechildren.org
800-SAVETHECHILDREN

Oxfam
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.oxfamamerica.org
800-77-OXFAM

Jesuit Refugee Service
www.jesref.org
202-462-0400

Write your congressman: www.house.gov/writerep

Here is another article about what American Christians can do to help resolve the LRA conflict.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/20.36.html

Mix and match churches

This article by Neela Banerjee in the New York Times indicates that a number of Christians, particularly youth, are comfortable participating in multiple churches.

As examples, it tells about teenagers who attend a traditional church with their parents, then another more contemporary church service or youth group with their friends.

Particularly in the case of youth, but also more generally, it is my opinion that it is healthy for believers to expose themsevles to more than one Christian tradition. I grew up in the Lutheran church, but while in high school, I started attending a Pentecostal church that was part of the Charismatic movement. In later life, I believe I am now more informed by having participated in both traditions. I can see the validity of both points of view. I can understand why people can become comfortable with a church or tradition that they've been associated with for a long time. And, most importantly, it's easy now for me to allow others to enjoy their own tradition, without having to consider them suspect in order to bolster my own beliefs.

Of course, as I read the article, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The other shoe, of course, being that religious leaders don't like for people to attend more than one church. And why would that be? Well, of course, they don't want to risk your money going to another church. Anyone who tries to say it's any more than that is fooling himself.

"Some critics, particularly conservative evangelicals and the ministers of various denominations, decry such practices as a consumerist approach to faith." OK, so I should keep going to a church, perhaps my parent's church, even if it puts me to sleep, if I disagree with what is being taught or how, or if I disagree with how the church is being run. Not.

"If families spread their loyalties around, it's been my experience that they don't benefit as well as they could," said Peter Beringer, a youth pastor at Pulpit Rock Church, which has about 1,000 adults in attendance every Sunday. "They don't seem to have relationships in the church that are as deep. From what I have seen of students who have done this, they find it easier to disengage and be the kid on the fringes."

I couldn't disagree more. The kids who are on the fringes are the ones who attend only one church, and that just barely. Why would someone who wants to stay on the fringe attend two different churches? Perhaps if they are dragged to both by their parents. But even in that case, the kids are getting double the exposure to the message, and they are likely getting that message in two different ways ... perhaps one of those ways will be effective at reaching to them.

Even the terminology Mr. Beringer uses, "families spreading their loyalty," confirms that each church wants to keep you close by to retain your loyalty, that is, for the well-being of the church, not to further your spiritual well-being. A church that is concerned about your spiritual condition will want you to be exposed to the gospel in as many settings as possible, so that perhaps the message might take root.

And when families attend multiple churches, it is usually the case that one is the "primary" church where strong relationships are formed, and the other is a church where other spiritual needs are met. In time, perhaps the roles of the different churches in one's life might reverse, and the formerly "primarly" church will take on a more secondary role. But this doesn't necessarily mean that personal relationships are being sacrificed. It simply means that new relationships are being formed.

Americans concerned about commercialization of Christmas

Yahoo News

More Americans are concerned about the commercialization of Christmas than about restrictions on public displays of religious symbols, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they were troubled by the commercialization of the holiday, while just 35 percent expressed concern about opposition to public religious displays.

In fact, 56 percent of respondents said they were not concerned at all about the controversies surrounding the displays, according to the poll.

If given the choice, a majority of those surveyed said they would prefer being greeted with "Merry Christmas" rather than "Season's Greetings" when they entered stores over the holidays. However, 45 percent said the greetings were of little consequence to them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051222/ap_on_re/religion_briefs \

Condom-covered Madonna embarrasses Catholic weekly

Yahoo News

"Another issue may be Catholic priests' unfamiliarity with what condoms look like."

LOL!

'Santa Pope' woos Vatican crowds

BBC News

At a chilly St Peter's Square, the Pope draped a red cloak over his shoulders and covered his head with a red velvet hat lined with white fur.

Vatican officials said the hat, known as a camauro, has been part of the papal wardrobe since the 12th century. But it has not been worn in public since the death of John XXIII in 1963.

Although missing Father Christmas' trademark white furry bobble, the pope's timely discovery of the long-forgotten camauro seemed as much a nod to the season as to the chilly weather.

http:news.bbc.co.uk2hieurope4551348.stm

South Dakota Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws And Stigma

Washington Post

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls has one clinic day, the one day a week when the only facility in South Dakota that provides abortions could take in patients. The day changes depending on the schedules of four doctors from Minnesota who fly here on a rotating basis to perform abortions, something no doctor in South Dakota will do. The last doctor in South Dakota to perform abortions stopped about eight years ago; the consensus in the medical community is that offering the procedure is not worth the stigma of being branded a baby killer.

South Dakota, those on both sides of the abortion debate agree, has become one of the hardest states in the country in which to obtain an abortion. One of three states in the country to have only one abortion provider -- North Dakota and Mississippi are the others -- South Dakota, largely because of a strong antiabortion lobby, is also becoming a leading national laboratory for testing the limits of state laws restricting abortion, both opponents and advocates of abortion rights say.

In 2005, the South Dakota legislature passed five laws restricting abortion, after a bill to ban abortion outright had failed by one vote in 2004.

A 17-member abortion task force, made up largely of staunch abortion opponents, issued recommendations to the legislature earlier this month that included some of the most restrictive requirements for abortion in the country. The report states that science defines life as beginning at conception and recommends a law that gives fetuses the same protection that children get after birth, thus banning abortion.

State law forbids any public funding for the $450 procedure, even in the case of rape or incest. Beyond cost, there is the distance. It's a long slog here from places like Rapid City, about 350 miles away in the western part of the state. For some women, the only way to do it -- and not pay for a hotel room -- is to make the 700-mile trip in one day.

Many doctors in South Dakota say they have no personal objection to performing abortions but cannot risk their careers and community standing by offering the procedure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/26/AR2005122600747.
html

God the refugee

The Guardian

by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor

In generation after generation, in an un-newsworthy way, people sit up straight and realise God was born to a refugee family, modelled pure love, and was killed by a violent society so we all might enter a relationship of intimacy with Him. And in generation after generation, that astonishing discovery leads to a turnaround in the way people live and think.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1670073,00.html

Banning Christmas - For Real

Slate

By Andrew Santella

Liberal plots notwithstanding, the Americans who succeeded in banning the holiday were the Puritans of 17th-century Massachusetts. Between 1659 and 1681, Christmas celebrations were outlawed in the colony, and the law declared that anyone caught "observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting or any other way any such days as Christmas day, shall pay for every such offense five shillings." The Puritan disdain for the holiday endured: As late as 1869, public-school kids in Boston could be expelled for skipping class on Christmas Day.

Quakers, too, took a pass, reasoning that, in the words of 17th-century Quaker apologist Robert Barclay, "All days are alike holy in the sight of God." As late as 1810, the Philadelphia Democratic Press reported that few Pennsylvanians celebrated the holiday.

Observance of Christmas, or the lack thereof, was one way to differentiate among the Christian sects of Colonial and 19th-century America. Anglicans, Moravians, Dutch Reformed, and Lutherans, to name just a few, did; Quakers, Puritans, Separatists, Baptists, and some Presbyterians did not. In 1867, Reformed Church minister Henry Harbaugh protested that Presbyterians in his Pennsylvania neighborhood "spend the day working as on any other day. Their children grow up knowing nothing of brightly lit Christmas trees, nor Christmas presents. God have mercy on these Presbyterians, these pagans."

http://www.slate.com/id/2132387/

The Christmas He Dreamed

Washington Post Op-Ed

By Harold Meyerson

The white Christmases that Irving Berlin dreamed of weren't the earliest ones he used to know. He spent his first five Christmases in czarist Russia, and his only recollection of that time, at least the only one he'd acknowledge as an adult, was that of watching his neighbors burn his family's house to the ground in a good old-fashioned, Jew-hating pogrom.

So it's no surprise that when Berlin got around to writing his great Christmas song in 1941, nearly half a century after his family had fled the shtetl of Mohilev for New York's Lower East Side, it was flatly devoid of Christian imagery. It is, for all that, a religious song. It's just that Berlin's religion was America.

The success of "White Christmas" paved the way for a whole new genre of Christmas songs. Two years after Berlin's ballad first appeared, came "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Two years later came "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire"), and a year after that, "Let It Snow." By then the American Christmas song was about staying warm in winter, about staying connected to loved ones and traditions. It also practiced separation of church and song.

Many of those Christmas songwriters, of course, were Jewish and the children of immigrants; their deepest drive was to demonstrate beyond all doubt that they were assimilated, cosmopolitan, American. A Jew married to an Irish Catholic, Berlin raised his three daughters as nominal Protestants. Who better to write a non-Christian Christmas song? (Berlin's may have been an extreme case, but in the middle of the 20th century, Jewish assimilationism was so pervasive that it gave rise to the following crack: What's the difference between Reform Jews and Unitarians? Unitarians don't have Christmas trees.)

Berlin kept Christmas in the public square and, more than anyone before or since, sent it out over the public airwaves. But it was an American, not a Christian, Christmas. And by the crass index of number of recordings sold, and the not-so-crass index of number of spirits touched, Berlin's nonsectarian holiday has been the predominant version of Christmas in this country for the past 60 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001011.
html

Student allowed to share Christian message (after threat of lawsuit)

Dallas Fort-Worth Star-Telegram

by Eva-Marie Ayala, Start-Telegram Staff Writer

MANSFIELD - A fourth-grader who was initially told he could not share candy canes with religious messages did so at his class party Thursday morning.

Jaren Burch, a student at Tipps Elementary School, intended to bring the sweets with a story that told how they related to Jesus. Campus officials said he couldn't bring them with religious stories attached and a First Amendment discussion began.

On Wednesday, the Liberty Legal Institute, which was called by the Burches, sent the district a demand letter to comply with the student's First Amendment right to religious expression.

"Schools need to stop acting irrational and being overly paranoid," said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of the Plano-based nonprofit organization. "The law itself is that schools cannot push religion but students themselves can be free in their religious expression."

"It was not a district policy but had been a practice, or guidelines for principals, to try and be sensitive to students from all different backgrounds and religions at this time of year," he said. "In this particular case, we determined that we've gone a little too far with those guidelines."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/13422219.htm

Battles rages over celebrating holidays

Yahoo News

By Ellen Wulfhorst

Fox News anchor John Gibson wrote a book "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse than You Thought."

Bah humbug, said radio talk show host Bill Press, author of "How the Republicans Stole Christmas." "People have been saying 'Happy Holidays' for a hundred years at least," he said. "This is nothing new. It just celebrates the diversity of America."

He blames politics. "It is all by design," he said. "The more people are talking about who's saying 'Happy Holidays' and who's saying 'Merry Christmas,' the less people are talking about Karl Rove, torture, Tom DeLay, the war in Iraq and other hot issues.

The debate has become comic grist. "Every time you say 'Happy Holidays,' an angel gets AIDS," warned television comedian Jon Stewart.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051218/us_nm/holidays_america_dc

Most Americans like Christmas cheer

Washington Times

By Jennifer Harper

It's nearly unanimous: 97 percent of Americans say they are not bothered by public references to Christmas according to a new Gallup poll released yesterday.

The practice also doesn't offend those of other faiths -- or no faith. The poll revealed that only 8 percent of non-Christians and 5 percent of those with no faith were perturbed by displays or advertisements which mention "Christmas" rather than a generic or secular equivalent.

The finding was "surprising, and perhaps counter to the inclusive rationale for saying 'happy holidays,'" the survey stated.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051216-125643-4064r.htm

City Bars Christian Hip-Hop Dancers from Performing

San Diego Union-Tribune

By Shannon McMahon, Union-Tribune Staff Writer

CHULA VISTA – At the city's annual holiday celebration, a rabbi lighted a menorah. A dance troupe performed a traditional prayer to the gods. But six young girls were told they they couldn't perform because they were wearing shirts emblazoned with a silver cross and the words "Jesus Christ" on the front.

The "Jesus Christ Dancers," a group of 8-to 12-year-olds who describe themselves as Christian hip-hop dancers, were scheduled to make their citywide debut at the Dec. 3 holiday festival. Moments before the group was to take the stage, employees from the city's Parks and Recreation Department barred them from performing, saying they did not want to convey a religious message in the show.

In a council meeting Tuesday night, Mayor Steve Padilla said city staff members turned the dancers away "out of an overabundance of caution." "We sent the wrong message to a very important segment of our community," he said. Padilla then apologized on behalf of the city.

Dance instructor Lita Ramirez said that she described the group as a Christian hip-hop dance troupe when she sought permission to enter the festival. "There was a Hawaiian prayer dance that was allowed to perform," Ramirez said. "There was seductive belly dancing and songs saying 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' and 'Little Drummer Boy' and 'Feliz Navidad.'" A tree-lighting ceremony, sponsored by the mayor's office, followed the event. During that ceremony, the mayor introduced a rabbi, who lighted a menorah.

"The city created a holiday event and then they turned around and the only person who wasn't invited was Jesus," said Dean Broyles, an attorney.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051217-9999-2m17jesus.html

Teach, Don't Preach, the Bible

New York Times Op-Ed

by Bruce Feiler

In the landmark 1963 Abington case (which also involved Pennsylvania public schools), the Supreme Court outlawed reading the Bible as part of morning prayers but left the door open for studying the Bible. Writing for the 8-1 majority, Justice Thomas Clark stated that the Bible is "worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities," and added, "Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistent with the First Amendment."

Though the far right may complain that this academic approach to teaching the Bible locks God out of the classroom, and the far left may complain that it sneaks God in, the vast majority of Americans would embrace it.

The Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics, completed in 2004 by the University of Akron, shows that only 12.6 percent of Americans consider themselves "traditionalist evangelical Protestants," which the survey equates with the term "religious right." A mere 10.7 percent of Americans define themselves as "secular" or "atheist, agnostic." The vast majority of Americans are what survey-takers term centrist or modernist in their religious views.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/opinion/21feiler.html?th&emc=th

Mark says: I think these figures are suspect. The problem may be terminology. "Evangelicals" don't always consider themselves "mainstream" or "traditionalist." The combination of "traditionalist evangelical" may be unfamiliar to the poll respondents. Also, may traditional Catholics consider themselves part of the "religious right."

ACLU Objects to Wellington's Nativity Scene

Palm Beach Post

By Dwayne Robinson, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wellington has added a Nativity scene -- along with a Santa Claus, reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and dreidels -- to its holiday display. The crèche was donated, while the other items cost about $5,000.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, while acknowledging that the display probably meets the "silly standards the U.S. Supreme Court may have set 20 years ago" of having nonreligious components accompanying religious ones, has objections.

For one, Wellington opened up its Community Center as a public forum when it included the religious symbols of Christianity and Judaism and now must allow other religious groups, ranging from Wiccans or Buddhists, to also place emblems, the organization argues.

"It is one of the loveliest Nativity scenes I've ever seen," Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said. "What the city ought to do is donate it to a church."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcwest/content/local_news/epaper/2005/12/15/w1b_na
tivity_1215.html

Activist Judge Cancels Christmas

The Onion

In a sudden and unexpected blow to the Americans working to protect the holiday, liberal U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt ruled the private celebration of Christmas unconstitutional Monday.

In addition to forbidding the celebration of Christmas in any form, Judge Reinhardt has made it illegal to say "Merry Christmas." Instead, he has ruled that Americans must say "Happy Holidays" or "Vacaciones Felices" if they wish to extend good tidings.

Within an hour of the judge's verdict, National Guard troops were mobilized to enforce the controversial ruling. Said Pvt. Stanley Cope: "We're fighting an unpopular war on Christmas, but what can we do? The military has no choice but to take orders from a lone activist judge."

"Why did the bad man take away Christmas?" 5-year-old Danny Dover said. "I made a card for my mommy out of paper and glue, and now I can't give it to her." Shortly after Dover issued his statement, police kicked down his door, removed his holiday tree, confiscated his presents, and crushed his homemade card underfoot.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43438

'Happy Holidays' also has religious meaning

Chicago Tribune

By Nathan Bierma

While the White House, along with other government officials and retailers this year, opts to use the word "holiday" as its generic, non-religious alternative to "Christmas," linguists point out that the word "holiday" itself has religious etymological roots. In fact, religious references are buried in the histories of many words we now use without thinking about their history.

It's less than obvious that the word "holiday" has the word "holy" in it, as in "holy-day." It began in Old English as two words, "halig daeg" ("holy day") that were combined into one as early as 1,000 years ago, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

"The names of the days of the week commemorate the sun (Sunday) and the moon (Monday), and then five pagan gods: Tiw [Tuesday], Odin [or Woden, "Wednesday"], Thor [Thursday], Freya [Friday], and Saturn [Saturday]," Geoffrey Pullum writes. "If we were to start obsessively analyzing all of these names for religious links to object to, we would have our work cut out forever."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0512130331dec14,1,3690365.story?ctrac
k=1&cset=true

In Iran, religious freedom means keeping your mouth shut

National Review

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

A few weeks ago in Iran, an Iranian convert to Christianity was kidnapped from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to death. The vigilantes who took him tossed his bleeding body in front of his home a few hours later, a stark warning against any who would follow his example.

Ghorban Tori is the fifth Protestant pastor assassinated in Iran in the past eleven years. Three of the five were former Muslims, making them subject under Iranian law to the death penalty for having committed apostasy.

Tori's murder came just days after Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called an open meeting with the nation's 30 provincial governors, and vowed to crack down on the burgeoning movement of house churches across Iran.

"I will stop Christianity in this country," Ahmadinejad reportedly said.

http://www.nationalreview.com/voices/timmerman200512150838.asp

Christmas Quotations

Christianity Today

From the human perspective, when you compare God to the other gods of the other religions in the world, you have to say our God is really sort of odd. He uses the most common of people, people that aren't any different from any of us here; he comes in the most common of ways, when by his Spirit an anonymous young woman is found to be with child. And the strangest thing is that he comes at all—he's not the Above-Us-God, too holy to come down. This God's love is so immense that he wants to come down. And he has proven his love by the fact that he did come down and touch our ground.

James R. Van Tholen, Where All Hope Lies

We do not believe that the virgin mother gave birth to a son and that he is the Lord and Savior unless, added to this, I believe the second thing, namely, that he is my Savior and Lord.

Martin Luther, Sermon on the Afternoon of Christmas Day 1530

Do you want to see the humility of God? Look in the manger and see him lying there. Surely this is our God. Seeing an infant, I wonder how this could be the one who says, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" I see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Is this the one who is clothed in the beautiful glory of unapproachable light?

Listen! He is crying. Is this the one who thunders in the heaven making the angels lower their wings? Yes, but he has emptied himself in order to fill us.

Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons

Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."

Peter Larson, Prism (Jan-Feb 2001)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/012/22.62.html

Jar-Jar's Bible

Christianity Today

I'm not sure if this is a joke or what, but this article by Nate Anderson in Christianity Today claims that the American Bible Society has translated "De Nyew Testament" into Gullah, an English Creole language spoken by 250,000 Americans in Georgia and the Carolinas.

THE LORD'S PRAYER in Gullah
We Fada wa dey een heaben,
leh ebrybody hona ya nyame.
We pray dat soon ya gwine
rule oba de wol.
Wasoneba ting ya wahn,
leh um be so een dis wol
same like dey een heaben.
Gii we de food wa we need
dis day yah an ebry day.
Fagib we fa we sin,
same like we da fagib dem people
wa do bad ta we.
Leh we dohn hab haad test
wen Satan try we.
Keep we fom ebil.

Is this for real?

The Christmas Kerfuffle

San Francisco Chronicle

(The most coherent discussion I've seen yet.)

By Cinnamon Stillwell

Upon leaving a San Francisco shop last week, I wished the clerk a cheery "Merry Christmas," only to be met with a surly "Happy Holidays" in return. With that simple exchange, our positions at opposite ends of the political spectrum were revealed.

The celebration of Christmas has indeed been overshadowed by politics in recent years, to the point where every greeting is pregnant with meaning. And even non-Christians are swept up in the Christmas kerfuffle.

As a member of the Jewish faith, I've never once felt intimidated, bothered or offended by Christmas. In fact, I grew up celebrating Christmas and still do to this day. Not the religious aspects, but rather the festive trappings of the holiday. I also light the menorah candles each year to mark Hanukkah. While this might earn me the disapproval of traditionalists on both sides of the fence, I confess it simply to illustrate that one holiday need not endanger another.

Yet the political battle over Christmas rages on. Conservatives are upset over what has been dubbed the "war on Christmas," while liberals accuse them of overreacting to what is essentially a non-event. But who's right?

All across the country, city halls, chain stores, and public squares are erecting "holiday trees" in lieu of Christmas trees. Nativity scenes are being banned in town squares, public buildings and even some malls. The singing of Christmas carols such as "Silent Night" in public schools and caroling in public parks and public housing are becoming rarities. Court cases brought by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State have taken the clause that never appeared in the constitution to ridiculous levels -- and chipping away at Christmas is just one of the results.

Why is it that Christmas is the only holiday that must be downplayed so that other religions feel more "included"? We don't insist on calling the Muslim holiday of Ramadan by any other name, nor do we impose such restrictions on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. In all fairness, we would have to label all religious and cultural occasions "holidays," not just Christmas. I wonder how long it would take for members of other religions to express their outrage? Yet when Christians fight back, as they are now with a concerted campaign to stem the anti-Christmas tide, they are ridiculed or vilified by their opponents.

This double standard when it comes to Christians can be seen in many spheres. A friend was shopping recently in one of those cute little neighborhood stores San Francisco prides itself on when she noticed that the man ringing her up was wearing a T-shirt that read, "So Many Rightwing Christians, So Few Lions." No doubt this was intended to be humorous, but the message has serious implications. Simply substitute the words "Jews," "blacks" or "gays" and the outrage would be immediate. But when it comes to Christians, such offensive rhetoric is somehow acceptable. There's even a term for it -- Christianophobia.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/12/20/cstillwell.D
TL

Read the Bible in a Year

Recently I finished reading the Bible that I've had for about 2-1/2 years. I bought a new Bible so that I can read it again in a different translation. (I just finished the New International Version/NIV, and I'm starting the New American Standard Bible/NASB.)

Anyway, I've used this as an opportunity to put together a more coherent reading strategy than I used the first time. Also, having been exposed to several different such strategies lately helps me appreciate how different people might find different strategies useful.

So ... here's the Bible reading schedule that I'm now starting. The page includes links to other Bible reading schedules and links to sites that discuss different English Bible translations.

I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.mixed-up.com/faith/plan.html

This Year, the Meaning of Dec. 25 Is Twofold

Washington Post

By Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post Staff Writer

The first night of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, falls on Christmas Day for the first time since 1959 and for only the fourth time in 100 years.

For kids and retailers, there should be no argument with the dual fete because it means a bonanza in some cases: double the presents.

But in some households, there may be a few debates: Will it be mashed potatoes with that big meal or potato latkes?

Perhaps the best thing about the holiday coincidence is the obvious point: fewer people left out of festivities that day.

Interfaith families appreciate what the two holidays share: Both are happy social occasions, they say, and both emphasize the beauty of lights. The central story of Hanukkah is the miracle of the lights, when oil that seemed sufficient to light a temple menorah for one night managed to last for eight.

"Both Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrations of joy. In fact, having them together, except for the fact that people might have to race around from one table to another, might be a way of underscoring our common ground: 'Let's bring everybody closer together.' "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/11/AR2005121101163.
html

If you don’t want to be merry, then to hell with you.

The Call (Woonsocket. RI)

By Jim Baron

I celebrate Christmas. I am happy at this time of the year and I wish you merriment as well. That’s all. What’s to be bothered about there? I’m not saying that you have to celebrate Christmas, too. I am not insisting that you recognize Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior, and mark this as the time of His birth.

I’m just saying be merry. If you don’t want to be merry, then to hell with you. Just don’t blame me because you’re miserable. This is Christmastime and I wished you a merry one. You can wish me a merry whatever holiday you are celebrating and I will accept that sentiment in the spirit in which you offered it. Even if I don’t personally celebrate Chanukah or Kwanzaa or whatever, I am not going to get insulted if you wish me a happy one. I’m going to consider it a token of brotherhood and good cheer and say something nice back to you.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15737162&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=2435
8&rfi=6

Happy A'Phabet Day

Dayton Daily News

By Jeff Bruce

"No L Day." Get it?

If nothing else, all this fuss about how to greet one another, address our Christmas, er, holiday cards or name the, uh, national illuminated pine tree should remind us what a great thing it is to live in America.

You take your life in your hands in some corners of this planet should you question the accepted theological norms. Try out a cheery "Merry Christmas" in Tehran or a hearty "Happy Hanukkah" in Damascus and see how long it takes before you discover the validity of your personal beliefs in the afterlife.

We're spoiled. You have to enjoy a highly elevated quality of life for something this silly to rise as a serious topic of conversation.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/content/opinion/daily/1211jeff.html

It's OK to say Merry Christmas

Order Your "Merry Christmas" Bumper Sticker Today!

http://www.visionamerica.us/site/PageServer?pagename=MerryChristmasSplash

Retailers and governments heed the wrath of Christians

Los Angeles Times Commentary

By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer

For the third year in a row, Christians nationwide have mobilized to put the holy back in the holiday. And they are winning battle after battle.

Their most publicized victories have come in the retail realm, where they have urged stores to acknowledge that the December shopping frenzy is not just about scoring a cheap DVD player, but also about celebrating Christ's birth.

But they haven't stopped at the mall door.

At least 1,500 attorneys have volunteered to sue any town that tries to keep Nativity scenes out of its holiday displays. About 8,000 public school teachers stand ready to report any principal who removes "Silent Night" from the choir program.

The volunteers are armed with a seven-page memo that lays out the case for Jesus in public school concerts, for creches in the classroom and for mangers in city parks (as long as the religious references are balanced with secular songs and decorations).

That message has even made its way into politics. After a decade as a generic holiday tree, the twinkling conifer at the Capitol is a Christmas tree once more, thanks to a request by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-na-christmas9dec09,1,6794257.story?c
oll=la-news-religion&ctrack=1&cset=true

The (Urban) Legend of the Candy Cane

Claim: Candy canes were created to symbolize Jesus, their shape representing the letter "J" and their colors standing for the purity and blood of Christ.

Status: False.

Example:

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols from the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

In fact, the strongest connection one can make between the origins of the candy cane and intentional Christian symbolism is to note that legend says someone took an existing form of candy which was already being used as a Christmas decoration (i.e., straight white sticks of sugar candy) and produced bent versions which represented a shepherd's crook and were handed out to children at church to ensure their good behavior.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/candycane.asp

Some retailers give the word 'Christmas' a nod

USA Today

The American Family Association cited 10 retailers (Kroger, Dell, Target, OfficeMax, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe's, J.C. Penney and Best Buy) for omitting Christmas in ads. It urges shoppers to go where Christmas is recognized.

Chains that are giving Christmas a nod:

• The Catholic League says it scored a victory when it pushed Wal-Mart to have a Christmas category on its website, which had Kwanzaa and Hanukkah gift sections.

• Federated Department Stores — owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's — is making sure its Christmas message is heard after consumer backlash last year over a supposed policy forbidding employees to wish shoppers "Merry Christmas."

• Ads for Dillard's department stores say: "Discover Christmas. Discover Dillard's."

• Christmas songs and trees are two of the things Victoria's Secret won't be bashful about in its lingerie show airing Tuesday on CBS.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-12-01-acknowledging-christm
as_x.htm

And now it's Christmas

Salt Lake Tribune

By Robert Kirby, Tribune Columnist

And now it's Christmas, celebrated throughout America by maxing out credit cards and brawling over parking spaces at the mall.

Let's not kid ourselves. Giving gifts is what Christmas is all about. Without this blatant materialism, Christmas would be just another Thanksgiving where everyone sat around and ate and pretended to be grateful.

The most expensive Christmas gift I typically give goes to my wife. Not because she demands it, but because she deserves it. No one, not even God, has put up with more crap from me than she has.

The coolest gifts are the ones that you don't have to budget for. You can always afford them.

• Forgiveness: We all have someone in our lives who could do with a nice box of this under the tree. Whatever it is, let it go.

• Apology: It can be painful, but maybe it's time to start budgeting for it.

• Kindness: How about being a little nicer to people you have to be around, people you might previously ignore because they're on the periphery of your life?

• Empathy: Here's where you start giving gifts to people you don't even know - a street bum, some kid in Iraq, even criminals. Just once try seeing them as your brothers and sisters.

http://sltrib.com/lifestyle/ci_3253191

Turning to Bibles for Divine Returns

Yahoo News

More people are turning to the Bible as a safe refuge from a struggling stock market and rising inflation, pouring large sums of cash into rare 1611 King James Bibles, centuries-old Matthew-Tyndale Bible leaves, Hebrew scrolls, prayer books and other ancient liturgical texts.

At Sotheby's Western Manuscripts sale in London in June, a three-volume, 13th century Bible in Latin with prologues attributed to Saint Jerome sold for $1.8 million, while an 11th century Bible sold for $164,081, well above the estimate.

Rare biblical work "is like California coastline real estate — there's a finite quantity of it," says John L. Jeffcoat, Greatsite's owner, who estimates that the value of most rare Bibles appreciates by 15 percent each year, and first editions sometimes rise 25 percent.

"The biggest concern could be the hassle of protecting it," said Mark Ferris, an Old Saybrook, Conn., financial planner. "If you really had a Gutenberg Bible — could you keep it in your house on a stand?"

But as collectibles go, some people swear on the Bible for its steady and stable returns. "There is probably nothing out there that has done better as an investment than rare Bibles," said Tom Cloud, founder of Turamali Inc., a Duluth, Ga., tangible-asset investment manager.

A popular investment — the rare 1611 King James Bible — sold five years ago for $50,000. Now, the same Bible would sell for between $250,000 and $400,000, according to Cloud. Meanwhile, pages from an original Gutenberg Bible are selling for $100,000 to $150,000 a page, almost double what they sold for five years ago, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051121/ap_on_bi_co_ne/managing_money_bibles_1

Meet Arthur Blessitt: The man who helped George W. find Jesus.

Mother Jones

By Tim Dickinson

There's more than a touch of irony in a story that has George W. Bush being converted by a self-described liberal fundamentalist who in the 1960s was known as the "Minister of Sunset Strip," preaching to Hollywood's hookers and hippies from a free coffeehouse called His Place. In footage from the era, Arthur Blessitt possesses all the gawky grace and comic overearnest intensity of a Will Ferrell character. Then, on Christmas Day in 1969, Blessitt says, he answered a call from Jesus. He lifted the 90-pound cross off of the coffeehouse wall and began his trek across the United States.

Blessitt says he's been turned away from more than half the churches where he's asked to spend the night (though he claims he has never been denied lodging in a bar or nightclub anywhere in the world). Seeing him walk with his giant cross, he says, "people always roll down their windows and say, 'You're a nut!' And I say, 'But at least I'm screwed on the right bolt. How 'bout you!?' "

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/12/prayer_for_w.html

'Tis the season to be cautious

San Francisco Chronicle

By David Lazarus

Tim Kasser isn't surprised that Americans are once more turning out in droves to spend money they don't have for products they or their loved ones don't need.

Kasser is an associate professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois who focuses on consumer behavior. Economic conditions might be uncertain, he told me, but most people will be unable to resist the impulse to shop that's cultivated by corporate and political interests.

"We think we're all individualists," he said. "But we're actually being manipulated by the largest and most expensive propaganda system ever developed."

Americans are constantly bombarded with messages promoting a sense that materialism will foster feelings of satisfaction and contentment. "It's always the same: Buy stuff and you'll be happy, buy stuff and you'll be complete," he said. "And it works. People are buying stuff. But studies show that it doesn't really make them feel happy."

Kasser likens our culture's powerful materialism to a drug addiction. Momentary euphoria gives way to feelings of emptiness, and then to a burning need to go out and buy something else.

"Christmas is a time when we're supposed to be celebrating the birth of one of the greatest anti-materialists who ever lived," he observed. "Instead, it's become a time to go out and spend a lot."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/25/BUG08FS
09G47.DTL

U.S., Darfur Have Shouting Match

Yahoo News, AP

By Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press Writer

SHEK EN NIL, Sudan - A senior U.S. envoy got into a shouting match with a Darfur government official Thursday over peacemaking in the restive region of western Sudan.

Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick had just listened to African Union military observers describe a recent outbreak of violence that had turned southern Darfur's Shek en Nil into a ghost village of burned out homes, and heard local leaders profess their commitment to peace.

Regional commissioner Sadiek Abdel Nabi followed as Zoellick stepped away for what was to have been a private additional African Union briefing in the remnants of a village home.

An angry Zoellick ordered Nabi out, saying: "I want to hear a straight story ... and I can't trust your government."

When Nabi refused, Zoellick said he would protest to President Omar el-Bashir.

"I am Bashir here!" Nabi shouted three times in English, standing inches from Zoellick. Nabi previously had relied on an Arab translator.

An AU officer persuaded Nabi to back off, and Zoellick heard details of three attacks on Shek en Nil in late September — all violations of a tattered cease-fire.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/sudan_us

Wrist Slap

World Magazine

SAUDI ARABIA: The Bush administration grants diplomatic waivers to its kingpin Arab ally while evidence of religious oppression grows

by Priya Abraham

In 2004—and again on Nov. 8 this year—the United States named Saudi Arabia one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world, in an exclusive band of just eight countries. By law, the United States must take action to pressure such "countries of particular concern," which can include sanctions.

Saudi Arabia, however, so far has won a free pass, receiving a six-month waiver on Sept. 30. In the meantime, abuses against minorities remain. The question is whether the Saudis will make systemic reforms in the coming months—and whether the United States will penalize them if they do not.

After the Trafficking in Persons office succeeded in ranking Saudi Arabia as a country doing little to combat rampant slavery, U.S. sanctions or suspended aid could have followed. Instead, the kingdom received a "national interest" waiver.

John Hanford, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, emphasizes that the Saudis' extension is only 180 days. "We feel like our discussions are productive, unlike discussions with some other countries," he said. "We feel like the government of Saudi Arabia is moving in the right direction. . . . My heart and passion in this is to advance religious freedom as far as we can. And if I feel like some additional time to discuss some important issues may yield some meaningful change, I want to give that a try."

http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=11273

Relief Update

We leave for Mississippi on Thursday November 17, but we're far from ready!

Mary and I got shots on Tuesday October 18. We had to get Hepatitis A and B and Tetanus TD. We were able to get the shots at our doctor's office. We are supposed to get booster shots after 30 days ... we're told we can do that on Monday November 14, a few days early. We want to make sure that if we have any reaction, it will be before we leave.

We went to what they call "training" on October 25. It was really just an orientation. They talked about what we need to bring (and not bring), what kinds of things we might be doing, what kind of people we might meet (and their problems), and how we can easily talk to people about Jesus.

We have to pack some odd things like "shower shoes" (flip flops to wear while using a grungy shower), our own toilet paper, just one flat sheet, and strong work gloves. On the other hand, we probably don't want to bring expensive cameras or electronics, since there is no way to lock them up.

Don Schottman says that he spent part of his stay in a tent, but for the most part they are housing the relief workers in churches. These are not the same locations where they housing the homeless.

BTW, Don also says we should have computer and internet access, so I hope to continue posting to the blog while there.

Since the orientation, we have not heard much from CityTeam. We did hear a week ago that they were buying our airplane tickets and we would hear from them soon. I think they are really swamped but we have confidence that everything will come together this week.

Flu Shots

Don Schottman suggested we get flu shots before going to Mississippi. He said he came home with the flu. He was in Mississippi only three weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

We had been thinking about getting flu shots for a while. CityTeam said we needed only Hepatitis A and B and Tetanus TD. But they said some others were also getting Typhoid shots. We could not find a source for Typhoid shots. Web sites were mixed ... some relief agencies say Typhoid shots are not necessary, while others refuse to send you unless you have taken them. We have chosen not to because there is no time to find them.

Anyway, by snooping around on the Longs Drugs web site, I found these links:

Centers For Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

American Lung Association Flu Clinic Locator: http://www.flucliniclocator.org/

We found that in the San Jose area, flu shots are being offered at Valley Fair mall and Oakridge mall on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

We went to Valley Fair but the line was quite long ... 40 people or more. Mary timed them at about 2-1/2 minutes per person. This was on Friday November 11, and we had forgotten that this would be a school holiday. Valley Fair was packed.

We left and went to Oakridge instead. There were only about 12 people in line there, and the line went much more quickly, only about one minute per person. We easily made up whatever time we had lost by driving from one mall to the other.

We met a nice woman named Marge. (I forgot her last name.) Marge goes to Los Gatos Christian Church and she knows my Aunt Katie and Uncle Phil, who is an usher at the church. She was happy to get information about CityTeam's relief efforts. CityTeam had made an appearance at her church also, but she hadn't got all the information.

You can find more information about CityTeam here: http://www.cityteam.org

God, politics and taxes

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Guest Commentary

ON OCT. 31 LAST YEAR, the Sunday before the 2004 presidential election, former Texas legislator Rick Green spoke before 3,500 congregants at the Calvary Chapel, an evangelical church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “Vote for righteousness,” Mr. Green urged, and directed people to voters guides published by the conservative Christian Coalition that were on display in the hallway of the church.

Meanwhile, in St. Paul, Minn., at the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, the Rev. Christopher Wenthe simply declared that love of humanity “must begin with the protection of life, from conception to natural birth.”

Across the country in Pasadena, Calif., at All Saints Episcopal Church, former Rector George F. Regas delivered a guest sermon. He said that “good people of profound faith” could vote for either candidate, but then proceeded to blast Mr. Bush’s policies on Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Three churches, three sermons. Now one of these churches has been notified by the Internal Revenue Service that it may have its tax-exempt status revoked for intervening in political campaigns and elections.

Guess which one?

Those with suspicious minds will guess that the IRS has political motivations for singling out All Saints, one of Southern California’s largest and most liberal congregations. “It seems ludicrous to suggest that a pastor cannot preach about the value of promoting peace simply because the nation happens to be at war during an election season,” the church’s tax attorney told the L.A. Times.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/AABF
7A49EAF2C636862570B400532383?OpenDocument

Zondervan Launches New iPod Bible

Publishers Weekly

by Lori Smith, Religion BookLine

In a move being billed as "twenty-first century technology meets a 2,000-year-old book," Zondervan will release a TNIV Bible designed specifically for the iPod in February. The TNIV Audio Bible for iPod will be the first audio Bible available in Apple retail stores. It will also be sold through Christian and general market bookstores and other retail outlets.

The new format will allow users to listen to the audio version, view Bible text on their iPod screen, and link to study notes from the bestselling TNIV Student Bible.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6282442.html

U.S. Cites Top Violators of Religious Liberties

Washington Post

By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named eight countries yesterday as the world's worst violators of religious liberty and denied that there has been any wavering in the U.S. commitment to global human rights, despite disclosures of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe.

The State Department's seventh annual report on religious freedom listed the same eight countries that it did last year as the most egregious violators, or "countries of particular concern." They are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan panel established by Congress, had recommended adding Uzbekistan to the category of worst abusers because of its mistreatment of Muslims, including the brutal suppression of a demonstration in the city of Andijan in May.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801584.
html

Be the one!

Christianity Today

by Ellen Vaughn

In America, we tend to tell our neighbors how thankful we are if we get a great deal on deck furniture or find a big sale on gas grills. We would do well to strip off our sophistication, remember in thanks our own rescue, and get back to the really good news like our brother in Cuba—or that first-century leper whom Jesus healed.

One day about two thousand years ago, Jesus is on the road when ten tattered lepers call to him from afar. They dare not draw nearer.

"Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

Jesus' heart moves for them. He tells them to go show themselves to the local priest.

Off they go. Faltering but hopeful.

And as they are going, the Scriptures say, they are healed.

Piling to a stop, slamming into one another like clowns at the circus, they stare at each other's faces, mouths wide open. They unwind the rags from their hands, shouting because they have fingers again. They leap into the air; they land, sure-footed. They strip off their bonds and clap their arms around each other's shoulders, laughing with joy. They can't wait to find their families. They sprint toward town.

But one whirls and turns in the other direction, back toward Jesus. He runs fast with his new feet. Weeping, he falls and kisses Jesus' perfect ones.

"Thank you!" he sobs.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ten were rescued, cleansed, given a brand-new beginning. Yet nine ran the wrong way. Only one ran for home base, where Jesus was.

Friends of ours have a family mantra. "Be the one!" they tell their kids and each other. "Be the one who thanks Jesus. Let others go where they may. You be the one who is grateful."

Be the one!

Some believers seem to be looking for life principles that are just a little more spiritually sexy. Be thankful? Oh, of course. But give me something more exciting, more dramatic, something remarkable that I can do to change my life.

Developing the meditative habit of constantly whispering thanks to him—no matter the situation—is, in fact, a mustard seed of life-changing power. Radical, for it goes to the root of who we are. Small, seemingly insignificant, yet it has the power to change our lives and blow our socks off, right in the midst of the everyday. When we really give God thanks in everything, we are acknowledging that he is sovereign and that we trust him. And we find that it changes us.

Truly grateful people can't be stopped. They bubble and overflow, refreshing others. Their habitual gratitude serves as a springboard to give a reason for the buoyant hope bouncing within them. They attract those who are stuck in the cares of this world and woo them to the eternal good.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/011/26.46.html

Upon the cross, an iPod cleaves

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Scott Wilson invented the iBelieve --- an attachment that turns an iPod Shuffle into a cross that can be worn around your neck --- as a comment on how we worship consumer products. The iBelieve, he felt, was "a social commentary on the fastest growing religion on the planet" --- meaning iPod-mania.

Rather than take offense, however, Christians have embraced the new gizmo. He says he has been deluged with orders from people who wanted to buy one ($12.95, 10 percent of which goes to charity, at www.devoted1.com), as well as e-mails from churches and media.

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/epaper/editions/saturday/faith_values_34c602ea
801f60100092.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild103=DvvTfr68lr4BxkInRJ86vuOBb9zyBqePuiwjRcEnghRYgyezpsye!-1120072298&UrAuth=aN%60NUOcN%5BUbTTUWUXUTUZTZU%60UWUbUWUZUbU%5EUcTYWVVZV&u

In Quiet Protest

San Francisco Chronicle

By Tom Lanham

For fans of this composer's typically vitriolic invective, a nonvocal set might come as a shock. As far back as 1984's Central America-themed "If I Had a Rocket Launcher," Canadian folk firebrand Bruce Cockburn has railed against social and political injustices, often visiting the foreign lands he sings about to more fully empathize with their problems. It's difficult for anyone to keep this Canuck quiet.

Within five minutes of discussing his new instrumental anthology "Speechless," Cockburn's muzzle unstraps, and his powder keg of leftist opinions explodes.

"I've seen reviews of my albums that say, 'Too much political bull -- . What does this guy know? He's just an artist.' Like somehow journalists are the only people who are qualified to write about politics."

Years ago, Cockburn growls, he was trying to warn listeners via songs like "Gospel of Bondage" about the encroachment of evangelical Christianity. "It was totally clear to me then, even though Pat Robertson had not yet said, 'Go out and kill that Venezuelan head of state because he's an annoyance.' But he had said equally ludicrous and equally un-Christian things over and over again, and people were still respecting him as this Christian leader."

Cockburn used to deem himself a devout Christian, too -- much of his earlier work is suffused with spirituality. He's no longer affiliated with any one church, he says, thanks to "my understanding of spirituality being added to that, a lot of things that didn't come from Christian sources."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/06/PKGTNFEMBQ1.DTL&type=mus
ic

Evolution Slate Outpolls Rivals

New York Times

By Laurie Goodstein

All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.

The election results were a repudiation of the first school district in the nation to order the introduction of intelligent design in a science class curriculum. The policy was the subject of a trial in Federal District Court that ended last Friday. A verdict by Judge John E. Jones III is expected by early January.

"I think voters were tired of the trial, they were tired of intelligent design, they were tired of everything that this school board brought about," said Bernadette Reinking, who was among the winners.

The school board voted in October 2004 to require ninth grade biology students to hear a brief statement at the start of the semester saying that there were "gaps" in the theory of evolution, [and] that intelligent design was an alternative.

The board was sued by 11 Dover parents who contended that intelligent design was religious creationism in new packaging, and that the board was trying to impose its religion on students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09dover.html

Copernicus' Grave Found in Polish Church

Yahoo News

WARSAW, Poland - Polish archeologists believe they have located the grave of 16th-century astronomer and solar-system proponent Nicolaus Copernicus in a Polish church, one of the scientists announced Thursday.

Copernicus, who died in 1543 at 70 after challenging the ancient belief that the sun revolved around the earth, was buried at the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Frombork, 180 miles north of the capital, Warsaw.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051103/ap_on_re_eu/poland_copernicus

Also:

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051107/full/051107-3.html

Church Agrees to Ban Swallowing Goldfish

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

Florence, Ala. (AP)

The First Assembly of God Church has agreed to discontinue its practice of swallowing live goldfish as part of its Fear Factor ministry.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked for a ban on the practice.

As part of the Fear Factor ministry at the church, teenage participants were asked to swallow live goldfish. No one reportedly became ill during the goldfish phase of the program that concludes this week.

Youth minister Anthony Martin said earlier the goal of the exercise was to teach teens about fear.

PETA thanked the church for the ban by sending a gift basket of vegan Swedish fish, a gummy candy, as an alternative to live fish.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/26/national/a173637D29.DTL

Are religious societies better than secular ones?

AlterNet

By George Monbiot, AlterNet

Christian fundamentalists claim religion is associated with lower rates of violence, teen pregnancy and divorce. A new study says they couldn't be more wrong.

We know that the most dangerous human trait is an absence of self-doubt, and that self-doubt is more likely to be absent from the mind of the believer than the non-religious infidel.

But it is hard to dismiss Dostoyevsky's suspicion that "If God does not exist, then everything is permissible." If our lives have no purpose, why should we care about other people's?

In the current edition of the Journal of Religion and Society, a researcher called Gregory Paul tests the hypothesis propounded by evangelists in the Bush administration, that religion is associated with lower rates of "lethal violence, suicide, non-monogamous sexual activity and abortion." He compared data from 18 developed democracies, and discovered that the Christian fundamentalists couldn't have got it more wrong.

"In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion ... None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction."

Within the United States "the strongly theistic, anti-evolution South and Midwest" have "markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the Northeast where ... secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms."

Strangest of all for those who believe that Christian societies are "pro-life" is the finding that "increasing adolescent abortion rates show positive correlation with increasing belief and worship of a creator ... Claims that secular cultures aggravate abortion rates (John Paul II) are therefore contradicted by the quantitative data."

The rich countries in which sexual abstinence campaigns, generally inspired by religious belief, are strongest have the highest early pregnancy rates. The U.S. is the only rich nation with teenage pregnancy levels comparable to those of developing nations: it has a worse record than India, the Philippines and Rwanda. Because they're poorly educated about sex and in denial about what they're doing (and so less likely to use contraceptives), boys who participate in abstinence programmes are more likely to get their partners pregnant than those who don't.

If we are to accept the findings of this one -- and so far only -- wide survey of belief and human welfare, the message to those who claim in any sense to be pro-life is unequivocal. If you want people to behave as Christians advocate, you should tell them that God does not exist.

http://www.alternet.org/story/26721/

Hip-hop ministry

San Jose Mercury News

By Glenn Lovell, Mercury News

A popular fixture on the local scene since February, The Firehouse has become a safe haven for "all young people at risk," explains San Jose pastor-activist Sonny Lara. "We're an alternative to the thug life, man. When they come here, they don't need to stand with their guard up; they can relax . . . be themselves."

The free, non-denominational nightspot meets the last Friday of each month at the old Oasis disco or, if that's taken, the St. James Community Center down the street. The club has been hailed by San Jose Recreation Superintendent Angel Rios Jr. as "cutting edge" and "a positive alternative" for kids who are confused or have lost their way.

Pastor Lara rents the St. James Street club from downtown developer Barry Swenson for a token $375 or "as close to that as we can come." He calls The Firehouse "neutral ground," a place where different religions and ethnicities can mingle without fear of the kind of gun violence that erupted Saturday morning outside the Ambassador Lounge on San Pedro Street.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/12990615.htm

Cowboy church rounds 'em up

Orlando Sentinel

by Mark I. Pinsky, Sentinel Staff Writer

The Rev. Gene Blankenship Jr. pulls up to the Kissimmee Valley Livestock Show building in Osceola Heritage Park every first and third Thursday evening of the month to preside at the Cowboy Church of Central Florida.

The cowboy ministry, which is supported by New Hope Southern Baptist Church in St. Cloud, began six weeks ago, after several years of planning. Blankenship says he feels called to "outside evangelism" -- nontraditional approaches to saving souls. He heard about cowboy churches in the West and Midwest, and thought the concept might work in Central Florida, with its long tradition of "cracker cowboys."

"Our goal is to reach those who enjoy the Western culture with the gospel of Christ, whether they're a working cowboy or a cowboy at heart," says Blankenship, 43, whose day job is running an audio-production company.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-view1705oct17,0,4749708.story?c
oll=orl-home-entlife

Theology On Tap

San Francisco Chronicle

A priest walks into a bar -- and serves up some theology

by Marianne Costantinou

Not all is typical on this Tuesday night at Ireland's 32, one of the city's most popular bars, on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District. On one side of the bar, about two dozen folks are gathered round, and while most are nursing beers, they're wearing name tags and speaking softly when they're speaking at all. But mostly they're just listening to two speakers. The crowd is made up of young people in their 20s and 30s. The speakers are old enough to be their mothers -- if they didn't happen to be nuns.

This is "Theology on Tap," a national series of seminars run in bars and restaurants by the Catholic Church. The program began 25 years ago in the Archdiocese of Chicago as a way to reach out to young people who either didn't attend church regularly or had questions that they didn't feel comfortable discussing on church grounds. Today, parishes in at least 30 cities host the seminars. In San Francisco, they're run by the archdiocese's Office of Young Adult Ministry and the University of San Francisco's Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought.

"This is where Jesus would be, with the people," said Mary Criscione, a lecturer at St. Patrick's Seminary and at Santa Clara University.

"You always get in debates in a pub. Heck, this pub would traditionally have political discussions," Eileen Salinas added, pointing to the bar's ceiling, covered with protest signs championing the Irish Republican Army. "Why not have a theological discussion?"

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/20/THEOLOGY.TMP&nl=top

Obituary

Died: Oswald C.J. Hoffmann, voice of "The Lutheran Hour" radio show from 1955 to 1988, on September 8 in St. Louis after a brief illness. He was 91. Hoffmann represented the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod at the Second Vatican Council and served as North American chairman for the 1974 World Congress on Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. He served on the board of Christianity Today International from 1981 to 2000.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/011/7.22.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/national/18hoffmann.html

http://www.lhm.org/lhmint/estorypreview.asp?articleid=4146

(He was the father of Paul Hoffmann, who serves at Holy Cross Lutheran Church of Los Gatos, California, the church where I grew up in the late 60's and early 70's. -- Mark)

Silence on Suffering

Christianity Today guest opinion

Where are the voices from the Christian community on cruel and degrading treatment of detainees?

by Gary A. Haugen

President Bush faces a defining question of morality on which he has yet to receive any discernible guidance from the faith-based coalition that helped put him in office. The question: whether it is ever right for Americans to inflict cruel and degrading treatment on suspected terrorist detainees.

We read credible reports—some from FBI agents—that prisoners have been stripped naked, sexually humiliated, chained to the floor, and left to defecate on themselves. These and other practices like "waterboarding" (in which a detainee is made to feel as if he is being drowned) may or may not meet the technical definition of torture, but no one denies that these practices are cruel, inhuman, and degrading.

Today, the practical application of that question is whether the President should fight the efforts of a group of Republican senators, led by John McCain, who has introduced amendments to a defense bill that would outlaw such abuse. Two weeks ago, the Senate passed the McCain amendment, but whether it is put into place will be determined by the conference committee charged with resolving differences between the Senate and House defense bills.

Recent survey results from the Pew Research Center indicated that, in rating the importance of Supreme Court issues, the treatment of terrorist detainees is a close second only to abortion on the list of concerns of evangelical and Catholic voters. Where, then, are the robust voices of theological reflection and moral reasoning that we have come to expect in these debates?

While the President may have ruled out torture, the administration is currently reserving the right to treat some of its detainees with "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." The U.S. government is a signatory to an international treaty that bars such treatment, but the administration has maintained that such standards only apply to detainees held on U.S. soil. In fact, since April 16, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has explicitly authorized interrogation techniques that constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

How ought the President, as a man of faith and moral conviction, think through the ethical questions posed by these practices? In shaping practical answers, the President should be able to draw upon the serious theological reflections of leaders from his religious base.

Gary A. Haugen is President of International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights agency that rescues victims of illegal detention, sexual exploitation, slavery, and oppression around the world.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/142/12.0.html

What A Relief

CityTeam came to our church, Calvary Chapel of San Jose, to talk about opportunities for volunteers to do relief work on the Gulf coast. One of our members, Don Schottman, had already been to Mississippi even before CityTeam gave their presentation. Mary said she wanted to go. Now that she is no longer working, we both have the free time to do this. We had considered spending this autumn in New England, the winter in Arizona, and the spring in Italy, but God has other plans for us, for the autumn, anyway.

Debra Reyes of CityTeam was happy to talk to us this afternoon. In addition to Don, CCSJ members Joe Smith and his wife have also gone to Mississippi. CityTeam has ongoing relief efforts in both Mississippi and Louisiana, but right now they are mostly sending people to Mississippi.

They put Don to work putting on a roof, but I think that building has been finished and most of the "heavy lifting" is done. Right now it seems they are working mostly on light construction, fixing the building interiors, cleaning up, feeding the homeless, and helping people find their families, which requires some computer skills. But we're willing to help out however we can.

Because of other activities, we were trying to position our window between November 16 and January 20, hopefully not right at Christmas. (Mary's brother Robert Boston is a missionary to Paraguay but home on furlough until February, and we want to spend as much time with his family as possible.)

But because of conflicts trying to get all our families together at Thanksgiving, we told Debra that we would be available then. She was very happy because it is apparently difficult to find volunteers during that period.

We will attend a training meeting for two hours the evening of Tuesday, October 25. These training meetings are open to all, and if you're thinking you might like to be involved in this work, you are welcome to come by the meeting as a drop-in. It's the best way to get the whole scoop about everything that's happening. In fact, Mary and I still know very little about what we're getting ourselves in for, and we'll remain ignorant until the Tuesday meeting.

Debra advised us to get shots, Hepatitis A/B and Tetanus TD. She says some also get Typhoid, but we don't know why. We have already called our doctor and we can get these shots as walk-ins at his clinic. We plan to do that right away tomorrow morning.

It costs CityTeam $1500 to send one person to Mississippi for two weeks. We are not required to pay the $3000 for our own passage. But the money does come from donations. We can probably afford to make a donation to help pay our expenses, but not everyone can. We don't need your money since this isn't costing us anything. But your donation might make it possible for some other volunteer to go.

We really appreciate your prayers!

CityTeam has a web page about their hurricane relief efforts:
http://www.cityteam.org/katrina/

CityTeam San jose has a powerful ministry to the homeless:
http://www.cityteam.org/sanjose/

Calvary Chapel San Jose is sending help to hurricane victims through Calvary Chapel Stone Mountain in Georgia which is coordinating relief efforts on behalf of Calvary Chapels.
http://www.calvarysj.org/index.php?action=view&id=18&module=newsmodule&src=%40ra
ndom42bc3386510ee

New SMS Translation of the Bible

The world's most famous book, which has been translated into more languages than any other publication, is now available in the world's most modern form of communication, SMS or text.

The idea, believed to be a world first, has come from the Bible Society in Australia which translated all 31,173 verses of the Bible into text.

It took just one person about four weeks to convert the entire new and old testaments to text.

The society used the Contemporary English Version and remained faithful to the grammar, changing just the spelling of the words.

Examples

In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth. (Genesis 1)

God luvd da ppl of dis wrld so much dat he gave his only Son, so dat evry1 who has faith in him will have eternal life & neva really die. (John 3:16)

U, Lord, r my shepherd. I will neva be in need. U let me rest in fields of green grass. U lead me 2 streams of peaceful water. (Psalm 23)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bible-cre8td-for-nu-wrl/2005/10/06/112856292
7820.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1586871,00.html

Christian rockers risk wrath of DMCA with DRM tips

The Register

By Team Register

The bassist of Switchfoot is teaching fans how to disable the copy protection measures in the San Diego rock band's own CDs, presumably upsetting Sony and perhaps unwittingly testing the anti-circumvention rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Tim Foreman, brother of lead singer Jon, has taken exception to the Digital Rights Management software that appears on the platinum-selling Christian band's latest release, Nothing Is Sound.

"My heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing," he wrote on the band's website last week after it came to his attention that fans were having problems importing the band's latest songs from CD to iTunes. So he posted full instructions for disabling the DRM that accompanies the CD, including a link to an open source program that helps to rip CDs.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/21/christian_rockers_drm_tips/

http://www.switchfoot.com/

Mark's advice for newlyweds

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Two are better than one;
because they have a good reward for their labor.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him that is alone when he falls;
and there is not another to help him up.

Also, if two lie together, then they have warmth;
but how can one be warm alone?

And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him;
and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Two are better together if they lift one another up when they fall. But if they do not help each other, but pick at each other instead of lifting each other up, then their lives will be bitter.

Even better than a marriage of two is a marriage of three. A marriage in today's world will be constantly under attack by the media and the so-called norms of society. Don't be deceived by false views of marriage, romance, manhood, or womanhood as presented by Playboy, HBO, movies, the New York Times op-ed page, or radical feminism. When your marriage is under attack, it needs to hold together like a rope made of three strands braided together. The third strand is Jesus. When Jesus remains an integral part of your marriage, it cannot fail.

The only way for a marriage to work is if the husband lives to serve his wife and if the wife lives to serve her husband. Ephesians 5 is the "marriage submission passage" we all love to hate. In most basic terms, the scripture simply means that the wife should love and serve her husband the same way the church loves and serves Jesus, and the husband should love and serve his wife the same way Jesus loves and serves the church. There is no difference. Jesus gave everything, his very life, to save the world. In response, the faithful give everything to serve Jesus. In the same way, the husband and wife must give up everything in order for their marriage to work over the long run.

Religious scholar Huston Smith talks about Christianity and why religion matters today

San Francisco Chronicle

You grew up in China, where your parents were Methodist missionaries. How did that affect your spiritual life?

Well, you know, I grew up in a functional nuclear family. We were the only Americans in our area. So, I absorbed [my faith], as the Romans used to say, cum lacte, with the mother's milk.

William James makes an important distinction between "the once-born" and "the twice-born." And I'm the once-born, because I just grew up with this religion. I can't say it was in my genes. No. But it was in my nurturance from the very beginning, so it's hard to target a moment when I first became aware of it.

One of the many hot-button issues dividing scientists and religious people is the debate over evolution and so-called intelligent design. What's your take on this controversy?

Science has given us the fossil record, which shows that it took three and a half billion years for life to evolve to our level. The writer George Will -- I don't agree with his politics, but he said something that was right on. He said that six-day creationism is not only nonsense -- it's nonsense on stilts!

However, you are never going to explain in a laboratory what it is we call the divine spark, which every religion has described. You will never get a sense of our divinity, of the image of God. These things cannot be explained by natural selection or chance mutations. For that you need to turn to religion.

You've written that politicians, particularly those on the far right, have hijacked Christianity for their own means. Why do you think that's happening now?

Honestly, I think it has something to do with greed. You can cushion it any way you want, but the present administration is guilty of rewarding greed with all of its tax rebates and so on.

Genuine religion is about generosity. And greed, when it takes over -- and I speak metaphorically here -- is an indication that we have fallen into the temptation of the devil. The devil wants us to be greedy.

Many people today feel disconnected from organized religion. So they're going their own way, blazing their own spiritual paths. What do you think about that trend?

It's probably better than nothing, but not much. Another phrase for it is "cafeteria-style spirituality." You go to the cafeteria, and normally most people choose what they like.

Do they choose what is good for them? Do they put that above what they like? Well, most people do not. There is also a problem that often we don't know what is good for us.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2005/09/19/findrelig.DTL

God Behind Barbed Wire

Christianity Today

by Philip Yancey

Jürgen Moltmann was planning on a career in quantum physics until he was drafted at age 18 at the height of the Second World War. Assigned to anti-aircraft batteries in Hamburg, he saw compatriots incinerated in the fire-bombings there. The question "Why did I survive?" haunted him.

Moltmann felt an inconsolable grief about life, "weighed down by the somber burden of a guilt which could never be paid off."

After surrendering to the British, the young soldier spent the next three years in prison camps in Belgium, Scotland, and England. An American chaplain gave him an Army-issue New Testament and Psalms. "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there." As he read on, Moltmann found words that perfectly captured his feelings of desolation. He became convinced that God "was present even behind the barbed wire — no, most of all behind the barbed wire."

Upon release, Moltmann began to articulate his theology of hope. Through all of Moltmann's dense theological works run two themes: God's presence with us in our suffering and God's promise of a perfected future. If Jesus had lived in Europe during the Third Reich, Moltmann noted, he likely would have been branded like other Jews and shipped to the gas chambers. In Jesus, we have definitive proof that God suffers with us, as Moltmann explains in The Crucified God.

"God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/009/20.120.html

Mother Teresa: The joy of serving God

Christianity Today

by Ruth A. Tucker

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Albania in 1910. Her father was a businessman whose death when she was 9 years old left the family in difficult financial circumstances. But their faith sustained them. With her mother and brother and sister, Agnes attended church every day, and she sang in the church choir. Her widowed mother, though nearly destitute herself, volunteered in the neighborhood, caring for an invalid alcoholic woman and later taking six orphaned children into her own home. It was a model of servanthood that did not go unnoticed by young Agnes.

At age 12, Agnes sensed God calling her to his service, but she struggled with how she could know for certain. She prayed and talked with her mother and sister, but she had no real peace. Then she talked with her Father confessor. "How can I be sure?" she asked. He answered, "Through your joy. If you feel really happy by the idea that God might call you to serve him, then this is the evidence that you have a call. The deep inner joy that you feel is the compass that indicates your direction in life."

"By blood and origin, I am all Albanian.
My citizenship is Indian. I am a Catholic nun.
As to my calling, I belong to the whole world.
As to my heart, I belong entirely to Jesus." — Mother Teresa

http://www.ctlibrary.com/4397

Why Men Hate Going to Church

Mississippi Clarion-Ledger

By Jean Gordon

Men lead most Christian churches, but observers agree it's the women who dominate the flocks. Though theories about the church gender gap have longed blamed men for their spiritual apathy, a new book finds another force driving men away from church: the church itself.

"The church is like a white cake with chocolate frosting," said David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nelson Books, $13.99). "If you look at the icing, it's male dominated. But if you plunge below, it's feminine all the way."

With its easy listening music, pastel-hued decor and an emphasis on comfort and nurturing, Murrow said modern church culture fails men craving a challenge.

A man's project-oriented, outdoorsy nature is not conducive to passively sitting through a worship service or volunteering to lead a children's ministry.

And beyond excuses ranging from boredom to lack of time to an aversion to being asked for money, Murrow said men stay away from church because their skeptical natures resist taking a leap of faith.

"Men like to question and answer and give and take," he said. "The church's style of lecturing is not as conducive to spiritual growth."

Churches that do the best job of attracting men, Murrow said, are mission-focused evangelical congregations.

"There's an element of risk there," he said. "It's more risky to go on a foreign mission trip than to volunteer at a soup kitchen."

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050821/FEAT05/50821031
1/1023

Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science

New York Times

Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?

Disdain for religion is far from universal among scientists. And today, as religious groups challenge scientists in arenas as various as evolution in the classroom, AIDS prevention and stem cell research, scientists who embrace religion are beginning to speak out about their faith.

"It should not be a taboo subject, but frankly it often is in scientific circles," said Francis S. Collins, who directs the National Human Genome Research Institute and who speaks freely about his Christian faith.

According to a much-discussed survey reported in the journal Nature in 1997, 40 percent of biologists, physicists and mathematicians said they believed in God - and not just a nonspecific transcendental presence but, as the survey put it, a God to whom one may pray "in expectation of receiving an answer."

The survey, by Edward J. Larson of the University of Georgia, was intended to replicate one conducted in 1914, and the results were virtually unchanged. In both cases, participants were drawn from a directory of American scientists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/national/23believers.html

Wheaton College lifts 143-year dance ban (2003)

CNN

Wheaton College is a Christian school that had not allowed social dancing since the war.

The Civil War.

For generations, students were barred from dancing -- on campus or off -- unless it was with members of the same sex or a square dance. It was not until the 1990s that students and faculty were permitted to dance with spouses or relatives at family events such as weddings.

Nine months ago, the school lifted the ban altogether, freeing students to cut the rug on campus or off, at Chicago clubs or other places. Under the new set of rules, called the Community Covenant, students may dance, but should avoid behavior "which may be immodest, sinfully erotic or harmfully violent."

Judging by what happened at a recent dance in the gym, meeting those criteria will not be a problem. There was no slithering going on, only students, some about as rigid as rakes, watching their feet as they tried to master some basic steps.

"They had a lot of fun, but they kind of approached it from almost an academic standpoint," said Rich Nickel, a local dance instructor who helped get the students ready for the Rhythm Rockets' lineup, which will feature such standards as "Sentimental Journey" and "Sunny Side of the Street."

All of which led one parent to remark: "They MAY dance at Wheaton. Whether they CAN dance is another question."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/11/14/wheaton.dance.ap/

Meet Evangelist Tony Campolo

The Progressive

By John Oliver Mason, From the August 2005 Issue

An ordained Baptist minister, Tony Campolo overcame a heresy trial to preach social justice in the United States. Along with Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Ron Sider, the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, Campolo is trying to counter the forces of the religious right from within a church-based tradition.

"To be a Christian in today's world is to be opposed to America," he says. "Why? America believes in capital punishment, and Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’ America says, ‘Blessed are the rich.’ Jesus said, ‘Woe unto you who are rich, blessed are the poor.’ America says, ‘Blessed are the powerful.’ Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ "

"It's about time we realized that Christianity is a call not to conservatism but to change," he says. "Jesus came to the world not to conserve the system as it was, but to change the world into what it ought to be. That's where I am, and that's where I want to be."

http://progressive.org/?q=mag_camp0805

iGod

London News-Telegraph

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

The podcast is becoming the Godcast. In a phenomenon which has amazed the clergy, thousands of worshippers are using their iPods to listen to sermons.

While most people use their fashionable portable music players to download their favourite pop tunes from the internet, many are adding a spiritual element to their playlists.

Even the Vatican is catching up with the new trend. Its official radio station in Rome is now offering its own podcasts, and the latest features Pope Benedict XIV issuing a far from fashionable message - a critique of feminism.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/05/nigod05.xml&sShe
et=/news/2005/08/05/ixhome_fri.html

A new church for gay believers

Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader

By Frank E. Lockwood, Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Jubilee Fellowship describes itself as Christ-centered, spirit-filled, Bible-based and open and affirming.

In other words, it's a Pentecostal-style, gay-friendly church, and it's coming to Lexington.

The Rev. Cori Wood, the new congregation's pastor, is a fervent, tongues-speaking, Scripture-quoting preacher.

She's also a lesbian.

Across America, small, predominantly gay Pentecostal and Charismatic churches are forming in Tampa, Fla.; Little Rock, Ark.; and San Jose, Calif.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/living/religion/12308061.htm

Bostons in Paraguay

(My brother in law and his family are missionaries in Paraguay. This is their latest newsletter.)

July 2005     

Actually, the Bostons are now in Sacramento, California. We arrived in Sacramento June 2 after leaving Paraguay on May 13.  We made a detour to Quito, Ecuador where Rebecca joined us to celebrate Pauls high school graduation, then we spent a week in Florida with Brenda’s mother.

Our goodbyes in Paraguay were bittersweet. For the two weeks prior to our leaving we had meals out every single day with our Paraguayan friends who we were saying goodbye to.  The highlight was a special 3 hour long service with participation from nearly every department in the church.   We left Paraguay feeling loved and honored. Our plan is to stay in California until March 15th of 2006 and then return to Paraguay to resume our ministries.  During our stay in California we will be speaking in churches, participating in Missions conferences, womens events and other activities where we have the opportunity to speak about Paraguay.  

Bob continues as Field director in Paraguay, doing the work long distance. Dan and Becky Klassen are interim pastors of the San Lorenzo church and Bob stays in touch with them and keeps up with news of all the CMA churches in Paraguay.  The Lambare church is experiencing great growth under the leadership of Jorge Bernardini accompanied by Chilean missionaries Edwin and Octavia Sotomayor and Debora Parada.  The Lambare church is quickly outgrowing its rented property and is looking to buy a place that will be permanent for them.  They are running over 150 on Sundays and recently hosted their first ladies tea with more than 100 ladies present. Join us in prayer for the future of this church.  

News from San Lorenzo is good.  The church recently participated in a city wide Franklin Graham campaign and followed up on the campaign with a dinner for new comers and a ladies tea at which 80 women were present and there were 10 decisions for Christ.  Dan and Becky Klassen are doing a good leading the church along with a leadership team.  Pray for Dan and Becky and daughter Emily, they were in Paraguay less than 4 months when we left them alone.  Pray also for Jorge, Nancy and Ignacio, our seminary students.

One of the highlights of being in the United States is that we have been able to speak on the phone with our new missionaries preparing to depart for Paraguay. Forest and Sarah Schell will be working with us to plant a new church on Mariscal Lopez near Asuncion, and J and Karen Spurling will work in the Asuncion church. We are encouraged that God is sending dynamic, talented people willing to work hard with us in Paraguay.   Currently they are participating in a language acquisition course and both couples, accompanied by Melanie Bagamary will depart for Costa Rica in August. They will spend a year in Costa Rica learning Spanish and then join us in Paraguay. Pray for all the transition and cultural and language learning these couples will experience.

On a more personal note, we are happy to be back in California and to be reunited with our children and extended family.  Rebecca graduated from Sacramento State University in May and has a full time at a public relations firm and a part time job doing public relations at the Mexican Cultural Center.   Paul has a part time summer job and is preparing to go to Azusa Pacific University in the fall.  When we are not out speaking at other churches, we attend Church of the Foothills in Cameron Park, California.  Many thanks to the folks from COTF and Trinity Alliance in Redding who helped us get settled in our home here in Sacramento.   

We would love to hear from you.  You can call us at (916) 362-3606.

Thank you for giving to the Great Commission Fund from which we receive our support.  

Blessings,

Bob and Brenda Boston
Missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
PO Box 35000
Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500

The Alliance has a web site here: http://www.cmalliance.org/

And the Paraguay missionaries have information here:
http://www.cmalliance.org/im/mlocator/results.jsp?name=&country=paraguay

Bono gives an explicit confession of being saved by Grace, not Karma

World Magazine

by Gene Edward Veith

Is Bono, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group U2, a Christian? He says he is and writes about Christianity in his lyrics. Yet many people question whether Bono is "really" a Christian, due to his notoriously bad language, liberal politics, and rock star antics (though he has been faithfully married for 23 years).

"It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma."

http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10892

Feminists for Life

Christianity Today

Feminists for Life sees itself as an extension of the first wave of American feminists who sought voting rights for women to, among other things, protect their children and pass anti-abortion legislation. "Without known exception, the early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms," president Serrin Foster says in her anthologized speech, "The Feminist Case Against Abortion."

"The early feminists understood that, much like today, women resorted to abortion because they were abandoned or pressured by boyfriends, husbands, and parents and lacked financial resources to have a baby on their own.

"Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that early feminists worked so hard to enact to protect women and children were the very ones destroyed by the Roe v. Wade decision 100 years later—a decision hailed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the 'emancipation of women.'"

Feminists for Life builds upon the work of the early American feminists who found their feminist moorings in the Bible, says Mimi Haddad, president of Christians for Biblical Equality. "Secular feminists often place their feminist convictions above the authority of Scripture. The early feminists were suffragists because they believed their Christian voice had an important place in the public square."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/130/52.0.html

Billy Graham on politics

The Guardian

While religion and politics are mixing, making evangelicals a crucial base of the Republican right, Billy Graham, who is credited with converting George Bush to Christianity, has moved away from politics, claiming it impedes his ability to unite his flock around the Bible.

Asked where he locates himself politically today, he said: "I'm not even sure now where the middle is. One of the things I find very helpful is if I stay away from politics and just preach the Gospel."

In his autobiography, Just As I Am, he says: "Becoming involved in strictly political issues or partisan politics inevitably dilutes the evangelist's impact and compromises his message. It is a lesson I wish I had learned sooner."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1512377,00.html

An Avowed Virgin-Until-Marriage Turns Sex Ed Activist

New York Times

By Virginia Heffernan

An avowed virgin-until-marriage, she does not go libertine. In fact, all she does is turn from a graduate of True Love Waits, the popular virginity-preservation program, to an activist in behalf of sex education and the separation of church and school. But to make this change, she must defy her parents, her pastor and the school board. All of this civil disobedience is as hard as it ever was.

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: one is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell; the other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on Earth and you should save it for someone you love."

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/arts/television/21heff.html

Worship as Higher Politics

Christianity Today editorial

Political priorities for citizens of the kingdom.

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.

Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it's less and less obvious.

In the heat of partisan politics (out of which many overstatements and misunderstandings arise), we are tempted to forget that the most potent political act—the one act that deeply manifests and really empowers a "kind and noble society"—is the worship of Jesus Christ.

In worship we signal who is the Sovereign, not of just this nation, but of heaven and Earth. In worship we gather to be formed into an alternate polis, the people of God. It is here that we proclaim that a new political order—the kingdom of heaven—has been preached and incarnated by the King of Kings.

Richard John Neuhaus put it this way: "Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final assertion Christians make about all of reality, including politics."

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas said in a recent interview: "Christians' first political responsibility is to be the church, and by being the church they should understand that their first political loyalty is to God ... we are not first and foremost about making democracy work, but about the truthful worship of the true God."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/007/16.22.html

Michelle Shocked rises again

Los Angeles City Beat

By NATALIE NICHOLS

Michelle Shocked is a rare bird in this day and age: a left-wing evangelical Christian. Dunno if she’d put it that way, or want me to, but it’s clear that the veteran singer-songwriter’s dedication to the antiwar movement, human rights, and freedom of expression equals her devotion to the Lord. The Texas-born L.A. resident, who attends an African-American church, speaks freely about being “saved” but doesn’t accept the typical Pentecostal notions that homosexuality is wrong and women are inferior beings. At a time when a persistent cultural meme, however false, holds that “liberal” and “Christian” are far apart, her convictions might make both sides uncomfortable in turn. But all she’s doing is living her life, her way.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=2218&IssueNum=106

Christian denounces conservative beliefs

Boston Globe Book Review

By Rich Barlow, Globe Correspondent

The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, By John Shelby Spong, HarperSanFrancisco, 315pp, $24.95

John Shelby Spong, the former Episcopal bishop of Newark, is a well-known author of popular books on biblical scholarship. But he's made his name plugging radical rethinking of his religion, a campaign on full view in "The Sins of Scripture."

"There is no theistic God who exists to take care of you or me. There is no God who stands ready to set aside the laws by which this universe operates to come to our aid in time of need."

Spong's greatest ire is reserved for Bible texts and Bible text-quoters who justify sexism, homophobia, and other injustices.

But he contends that there are voices in the Bible that offer a corrective and authentic vision of God, one imbued with nobility and love missing from the traditionalists' take. He cites passages that envision God as something other than a robed divinity directing history from heaven, and others that speak of equality rather than prejudice.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/06/14/in_sins_a_christian_denounces
_conservative_beliefs/

On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009CUW34/qid=1118779050/sr=1-1/r
ef=sr_1_1/102-9400351-7800135?v=glance&s=books

Traveling preacher bears cross, delivers message

"I originally began carrying the cross in 1986 in the town of Milpitas, California."

Mr. Johnson fashioned his first cross from 86 pounds of oak. At first, he carried it around San Jose, Calif., and the Bay Area on the weekends, off Friday through Sunday from his job.

In 1999, Mr. Johnson sold his belongings, gave up a home and decided to take the cross cross-country.

"I'm reminding people they need God in their lives," said Mr. Johnson, who stopped relying on maps a while ago. "I've got a story for every state and every city. It's whatever God provides every day."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14620929&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=4160
46&rfi=6

http://www.crosscarrierchuck.com/

The Wi-Fi Church

"The church has to move with the times, and I wanted to make St John's a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles."

-- Rev. Keith Kimber of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cardiff explains his decision to add a wireless node to the Stations of the Cross

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/31/wi_fi_church/

For months I've been suggesting that we install Wi-Fi in our sanctuary, so that if the sermon gets boring, I can surf the net. Sorry, Pastor Mike! (There is flaky Wi-Fi in the café. I'm told there is also wireless in the sanctuary, used by the sound crew. But I've not been brave enough to pull out the Palm Pilot with Mary sitting next to me. She can pack a mean wallop.) -- Mark

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/4594989.stm

Bible Illiteracy in America

The Weekly Standard

by David Gelernter

A report just issued by the Bible Literacy Project suggests that young Americans know very little about the Bible. The report is important, but first things first: A fair number of Americans don't see why teenagers should know anything at all about the Bible.

America's earliest settlers came in search of religious freedom, to escape religious persecution--vitally important facts that Americans tend increasingly to forget.

Most historians look to the British and Continental philosophers of the Enlightenment, Locke especially, as the major intellectual influence on America's Founding Fathers and revolutionary generation. Yet the Bible itself, straight up, was the most important revolutionary text of all. Consider the seal of the United States designed by a committee of the Continental Congress consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Their proposed seal shows Israel crossing the Red Sea, with the motto "Rebellion to kings is obedience to God."

Teachers don't necessarily believe that Bible literacy has declined in recent decades. They describe a complex picture; naturally, individuals differ. (One teacher said that "Pentecostal kids or religious Muslim kids" seem better-informed than the others.)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/606lxblg.asp

This article also has an excellent summary of American history, and the history of the English bible.

Vote 'Wrong,' Go to Hell?

Los Angeles Times Commentary

By Amy Sullivan

It's possible that my scriptural education was not quite comprehensive. Even so, I'm fairly certain that there is no verse that reads, "Thou shalt not vote Democratic."

Conservative leaders use the phrase "practical secularists" to describe believers who they feel are inadequately observant.

You don't have to be liberal or conservative to be offended by the idea that a political or religious leader can decide whether your faith is good enough.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-sullivan13may13,1,4879942
.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

But ... but ...

Godcasting may be portable players' first 'killer app'

The Baptist Standard

By Kathleen Murphy, Religion News Service

Godcasting is the latest advancement in online religion, in which preachers convert their sermons to audio to be heard on portable digital audio devices.

There's lots more God on iPod than jazz, theater or movie reviews. Pod preachers, including Christians, Buddhists and Wiccans, are among the most prolific users of the new technology. Just as sermons were among the first type of broadcasts when radio caught on in America in the 1920s, podcasting is creating a new form of wireless parson.

http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&
pid=3120

Mark says: Godcasting is lots more popular than I realized, as an Altavista search revealed:
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?name=mfrm&q=Godcasting&pg=q&kl=en

Church and politics part 2

Church Members Ousted in Dispute Over Politics

New York Times, Associated Press

WAYNESVILLE, N.C., May 10 (AP) - A Baptist preacher who was accused of forcing nine members to leave his church because they refused to support President Bush said on Tuesday that he was stepping down.

Congregants of the 100-member church have said that Mr. Chandler endorsed Mr. Bush from the pulpit during last year's presidential campaign and said that anyone who planned to vote for the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, needed to "repent or resign."

The church members said that he continued to preach about politics after Mr. Bush won re-election, culminating in a church gathering last week in which the nine members said they were ousted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/national/11baptist.html

Lay Pastor May Face Martyrdom

Christianity Today

Convert from Islam accused of evangelizing Muslims

by Compass Direct

Iranian Christian Hamid Pourmand, a former Muslim, faces possible execution, the first religiously motivated death sentence in Iran since 1990.

Arrested last September when security police raided a church conference he was attending, the Assemblies of God lay pastor faces charges of apostasy from Islam and of proselytizing Muslims. Both "crimes" are punishable by death.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/006/3.22.html

If Moses had only asked for directions ...

God's Housing Crisis

by Howard A. Snyder

Interestingly, church history shows an inverse ratio between dynamic church multiplication and preoccupation with buildings. Emphasis on buildings is generally linked with relatively slow growth or even decline.

The earliest church thrived as a network of house churches, without church buildings. None of the New Testament writers complained about this lack.

Some churches have found that the most faithful option is to sell their real estate and invest the money in missions and ministry to the poor, where the long-term dividends are much higher.

It is generally a sign of church renewal when a congregation rediscovers real Christian community and Jesus-like ministry in the world—and as a result, begins either to de-emphasize church buildings or turns "God's house" into a genuine resource for multiplied ministry to those in need.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/005/24.54.html

Theological illiteracy is rampant

Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Kansas City Star

By Bill Tammeus

"He's so theologically ignorant he thinks Joan of Arc was Noah's wife."

Michael J. Vlach, president of TheologicalStudies.org, a Web site devoted to providing Christian theological information, has reported that the most widely known Bible verse among adults and teens is this: "God helps those who help themselves."

The problem is that the verse isn't even in the Bible and its message is in serious tension with the Good Book's word of grace.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/11491962.htm

The true meaning of a fundamentalist Christian

In Working For Change, Byron Williams poses these typical criticisms of the fundamentalist church:

It seems quite paradoxical for fundamentalists to periodically invoke the name of Jesus in their rhetoric while advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, militarism and authoritarianism, along with the exclusion of certain Americans from the public conversation.

Such beliefs do not play well, however, with a Jesus who emphasized love, justice, hope and opportunity. The very idea of something called a "fundamentalist Christian" as currently practiced is by definition oxymoronic.

It is impossible to be a fundamentalist Christian and not apply a strict adherence to the belief of "love your neighbor as yourself," a concept Jesus placed as a high priority. In short, a fundamentalist Christian must be a fundamentalist to love.

Such fundamentalism is possible universally, even if one is not Christian.

However, Mr. Williams misses the point that what he suggests is actually impossible. The message of Christ is that it is impossible to "love your neighbor as yourself." It is impossible to emulate Jesus.

A main difference between liberal and fundamentalist Christians is that liberals continue to believe that it is possible to change their world through love apart from Christ, but fundamentalists have discovered that true love is impossible to create apart from Christ. This drives fundamentalists back to the cross out of sheer desperation, while liberals push Christ into the back seat while they doggedly make "love" the true center of their lives.

If Jesus Christ is not the true center of your life, you are not a Christian at all. Jesus Christ is a real person with whom you can have a relationship. To subscribe to the "philosophy" of Jesus without having a relationship with him is just another of the non-Christian world's deceptions.

Religious Man Wants to Rename Mt. Diablo

Yahoo News, Associated Press

OAKLEY, Calif. - An Oakley man has asked the federal government to rename Mount Diablo, saying the current name, which means devil in Spanish, is offensive to his religious sensibilities.

"Words have power, and when you start mentioning words that come from the dark side, evil thrives," Art Mijares told the Contra Costa Times. "When I take boys camping on the mountain, I don't even like to say its name. I have to explain what the name means. Why should we have a main feature of our community that celebrates the devil?"

In 1866, a church group tried to change Mount Diablo's name for reasons nearly identical to Mijares', according to San Francisco Bay area researcher Bev Ortiz.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/mount_diablo

One sinner's repentance

San Jose Mercury News

Santa Cruz church embraces confessed sex offender, now assistant pastor

By Ken McLaughlin, Mercury News

During his morning sermon last Sunday, Senior Pastor Dave Johnston of the Calvary Chapel in Santa Cruz preached redemption. He mentioned Mary Magdalene, the prostitute chosen by Christ to be the first witness to his resurrection, as a powerful example of faith changing someone's life.

But when he began to talk about someone "closer to home," Johnston choked back tears.

One of his own assistant pastors, Johnston disclosed to 250 members of the congregation, is a registered sex offender who has spent time in prison.

Church members know him as an ordained pastor for the past three years for a congregation that is part of a worldwide network of more than 2,000 non-denominational churches founded by Chuck Smith. Smith is the originator of "the Jesus Movement," which more than three decades ago in Southern California began ministering to flower children, gang-bangers, heroin addicts and many of society's rejects.

Everyone from religious leaders to prison guards understands that true change comes from deep within. Whether it is through Jesus or hours of intense clinical therapy, sex offenders learn to understand and control the forces that led them to commit their sordid crimes. Still, powerful questions remain -- religious as well as secular.

Do those with troubled pasts -- like Mary Magdalene -- become especially vigilant Christians because they remain aware of past sins? And where does all of this leave victims?

"It is a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow," said Michelle, who heads the women's ministry.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/central_
coast/11359232.htm

Compliant but Confused

Christianity Today Opinion

Unpacking some myths about today's teens.

by Andy Crouch

Book: "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," by Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/019518095X/qid=1113332422/sr=1-1/r
ef=sr_1_1/002-7269310-8141636?v=glance&s=books

No book in recent memory has as much potential to transform the practice of youth ministry as Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton's account of the findings of their National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Smith, a committed Christian who may be his generation's most significant sociologist of religion, carefully designed not only an in-depth phone survey of 3,290 teenagers and their parents, but also crafted 267 in-person interviews. The results overturn nearly every piece of conventional wisdom about teens and faith.

• There is no generation gap.
• Teens like church.
• Teens are not "spiritual seekers."

When the researchers asked them about pop culture or sexually transmitted diseases, they could give sophisticated answers. They could talk about Will & Grace, but not grace. Of the 267 teens interviewed, only 12 mentioned "repentance" in connection with their faith; 7 mentioned the Resurrection; and 4 mentioned "discipleship." On the other hand, 112 mentioned "personally feeling, being, getting, or being made happy."

So what is the religion that teens hold in such high regard? Smith and Denton sum it up as "moralistic therapeutic deism" — the belief that religion is about doing good and being happy, watched over by a distant and benign Creator whose purpose is largely to help us feel better about ourselves.

And where do teenagers learn this faith that so closely reflects the American therapeutic culture, and so poorly reflects the Christian gospel? The evidence is overwhelming: There is no generation gap, and they love church. So they learned it from their parents—they learned it from their churches. Even their conservative Protestant churches. The fundamental axiom of youth ministry, Smith and Denton say, is, "We'll get what we are."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/25.98.html

Colorado Court Bars Execution Because Jurors Consulted Bible

New York Times

DENVER, March 28 - In a sharply divided ruling, Colorado's highest court on Monday upheld a lower court's decision throwing out the sentence of a man who was given the death penalty after jurors consulted the Bible in reaching a verdict. The Bible, the court said, constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on what the court called a "higher authority."

The ruling involved the conviction of Robert Harlan, who was found guilty in 1995 of raping and murdering a cocktail waitress near Denver. After Mr. Harlan's conviction, the judge in the case - as Colorado law requires - sent the jury off to deliberate about the death penalty with an instruction to think beyond the narrow confines of the law. Each juror, the judge told the panel, must make an "individual moral assessment," in deciding whether Mr. Harlan should live.

In the decision on Monday, the dissenting judges said the majority had confused the internal codes of right and wrong that juries are expected to possess in such weighty moral matters with the outside influences that are always to be avoided, like newspaper articles or television programs about the case. The jurors consulted Bibles, the minority said, not to look for facts or alternative legal interpretations, but for wisdom.

"The biblical passages the jurors discussed constituted either a part of the jurors' moral and religious precepts or their general knowledge, and thus were relevant to their court-sanctioned moral assessment," the minority wrote.

Legal experts said that Colorado was unusual in its language requiring jurors in capital felony cases to explicitly consult a moral compass. Most states that have restored the death penalty weave in a discussion of moral factors, lawyers said, along with the burden that jurors must decide whether aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors in voting on execution.

"The court says we're asking you to be moral men and women, to make a moral judgment of the right thing to do," said Thane Rosenbaum, a professor of law at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, and author of the book "The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right" (HarperCollins, 2004). "But then we say the juror cheated because he brought in a book that forms the basis of his moral universe," Professor Rosenbaum said. "The thing is, he would have done it anyway, in his head."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/national/29bible.html?ei=5090&en=49f9ed0a28323
aaf&ex=1269752400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&adxnnlx=1112810080-QUAn/vnHY0Mm0XfIziIFqg

It's dangerous and lonely to be an Iraqi Christian

Christianity Today

"Sunday comes after Saturday." To Iraqi Christians, it means they may face the same fate as the 100,000 Iraqi Jews forced out of the country in 1951.

But several Christian congregations in Iraq are growing, especially ones that worship in buildings without traditional steeples and crosses. Some Pentecostal Christians report five-fold church growth, topping several hundred new worshipers since the end of the war.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/14.84.html

The First Jesus Freak

OC Weekly

A pot-smokin’, LSD-droppin’ seeker turned Calvary Chapel into a household name. So why is Lonnie Frisbee missing from church history?

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/26/cover-coker.php

What do you do when the Jesus freak who started your church dies from AIDS?

Simple. Erase him from history.

http://lonniefrisbee.com/

My Radio, My God

The Revealer

NPR's gifts of the spirit and the Bible's strange demands

By Lisa Anderson

Mario was curious to see if his community could sustain a strange element like me. "We're an inclusive environment, a diverse community." If I was interested in being part of that community, I was welcome. "But you know who won't like this?" he asked rhetorically, "The cool people. I can't wait." Click.

Great, I thought, I'm going to be the token Christian. I imagined Mario's cool people. People with smooth voices, expansive vocabularies, mad technical skills and an automatic dislike for me.

Station lore has it that a local church has commissioned several of its members to monitor the station around the clock and complain to our archenemy, the FCC, whenever we inadvertently curse on air or play music with lyrics they don't like. I'm thinking that it is this Christian who comes most immediately to their mind. That I would call myself by this name must seem unbelievable.

http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_001727.php

Global Suspense

Christianity Today

The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse.

by Philip Yancey

In a German prison camp in World War II, unbeknownst to the guards, the Americans built a makeshift radio. One day news came that the German high command had surrendered, ending the war—a fact that, because of a communications breakdown, the German guards did not yet know. As word spread, a loud celebration broke out.

For three days, the prisoners were hardly recognizable. They sang, waved at guards, laughed at the German shepherd dogs, and shared jokes over meals. On the fourth day, they awoke to find that all the Germans had fled, leaving the gates unlocked. The time of waiting had come to an end.

And here is the question I ask myself: As we Christians face contemporary crises, why do we respond with such fear and anxiety? Why don't we, like the Allied prisoners, act on the Good News we say we believe? What is faith, after all, but believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/003/22.120.html

If a woman sees her child, she'll keep it

The Ottawa Citizen

By Joanne Laucius

A new weapon has entered the war over abortion in the U.S., and Canadian anti-abortion groups would like to see it introduced here, too.

The weapon? The ultrasound.

American church groups that operate pregnancy crisis centres are equipping themselves with the machines at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000 U.S. each, according to a recent report in the New York Times. They hope that by showing a pregnant woman images of her unborn child, she won't abort it.

An ultrasound image makes a far more effective case against abortion than any legal or bioethical argument, anti-abortion advocates say.

In the U.S., the issue has sparked an ethical debate over whether presenting images of her fetus to a woman contemplating abortion is pushing an agenda or merely offering her useful information.

http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=e65211d4-d06a-4072-9cf5-f6fdd6b11
534

Ten things that could land your vicar in trouble

BBC News

The prospect of heresy trials for Church of England vicars who don't believe key doctrines has been raised this week, following a vote in the church's House of Laity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4273377.stm

Mark says:

The real problem is that only three of the ten topics raised are agreed on by most orthodox Christians: the existence of God, the Virgin Birth, and the Ressurection. Only those truly apostate deny these articles.

But the remaining topics, theological issues like predestination, baptismal regeneration, and purgatory, form the traditional fault lines between Catholics and Protestants, Calvinists and Arminians, Lutherans and Reformed. While the Church of England might stipulate a particular stance for their clergy, opinion within the wider Christian community allows for variation and disagreement. Even the feedback appended to this article notes that the Church of England's 39 articles are are imposed only on their clergy, not on their laity, who are apparently free to believe whatever they'd like.

Cheated by the Affirming Church

Christianity Today

By Anonymous

Contrary to what some churches teach, it is homosexuality—and not its suppression—that enslaves people like me.

I feel cheated. Cheated by those who say that they love me and are trying to help me. Yet, if things were left up to them, I would still be in a prison of my own making—enslaved by homosexuality and without hope.

Like many other Christians, I have struggled for years with same-sex attraction. By God's grace I know freedom from a way of life that still holds too many others captive. Yet many within the so-called affirming church would deny us that freedom. They say homosexuality is God's plan for our lives, even though the Bible clearly says that homosexual behavior is a sin.

My pastor likens affirming Christians to the doctor who examines her patient and discovers life-threatening, but treatable, cancer. However, knowing that the patient cannot bear the thought of the painful treatment, she sends the man home with the "good news" that there is nothing wrong with him. Instead, the good doctor tells her patient that the symptoms of cancer are something "quite natural" that he should "accept."

In the same way, I've had Christians tell me that homosexuality is "natural," that I was "born this way," and I should "accept" the way I am. They have said that my marriage was a mistake; I should divorce my wife and affirm my gay identity. But I have heard countless stories of men and women who came out from affirming churches because they realized that they were not being who God wants them to be.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/012/36.50.html

The Gay Child Left Behind

New York Times Opinion

By Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly

For gays and lesbians there's something particularly satisfying about watching a prominent antigay conservative learn that his or her own child is homosexual. It smacks of cosmic retribution: Mr. Keyes now has to choose between his antigay "pro-family" rhetoric and a member of his own family.

Sadly for Maya Keyes, her father apparently has more affection for his ideology than for his daughter. Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Cheney could find the time to call Mr. and Mrs. Keyes and explain how parents who actually value their families react when they learn one of their children is gay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17savage.html?th

e-fession

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http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/e-fession.htm

Why Some Feasts Are Movable

How come Lent moves around while Christmas stays put?

In 325, church officials at the First Council of Nicaea formalized the date of Easter in an effort to get everyone to celebrate on the same day. From then on, the holiday was celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after March 21, the start of spring.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2113321/

God and Evolution

New York Times Book Review

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Modern science is turning up a possible reason why the religious right is flourishing and secular liberals aren't: instinct. It turns out that our DNA may predispose humans toward religious faith.

Granted, that's not very encouraging news for the secular left. Imagine if many of us are hard-wired to be religious. Imagine if, as a cosmic joke, humans have gradually evolved to leave many of us doubting evolution.

In recent years evidence has mounted that there may be something to this, and the evidence is explored in "The God Gene," a fascinating book published recently by Dean Hamer, a prominent American geneticist. Dr. Hamer even identifies a particular gene, VMAT2, that he says may be involved. People with one variant of that gene tend to be more spiritual, he found, and those with another variant to be less so.

There's still plenty of reason to be skeptical because Dr. Hamer's work hasn't been replicated, and much of his analysis is speculative. Moreover, any genetic predisposition isn't for becoming an evangelical, but for an openness to spirituality at a much broader level. In Alabama, it may express itself in Pentecostalism; in California, in astrology or pyramids.

One bit of evidence supporting a genetic basis for spirituality is that twins separated at birth tend to have similar levels of spirituality, despite their different upbringings. And identical twins, who have the same DNA, are about twice as likely to share similar levels of spirituality as fraternal twins.

It's not surprising that nature would favor genes that promote an inclination to faith. Many recent studies suggest that religious people may live longer than the less religious.

Partly that's because the religious seem to adopt healthier lifestyles - they are less likely to smoke, for example. And faith may give people strength to overcome illness - after all, if faith in placebo sugar pills works, why not faith in God?

Of course, none of that answers the question of whether God exists. The faithful can believe that God wired us to appreciate divinity. And atheists can argue that God may simply be a figment of our VMAT2 gene.

But what the research does suggest is that postindustrial society will not easily leave religion behind. A propensity to faith in some form appears to be embedded within us as a profound part of human existence, as inextricable and perhaps inexplicable as the way we love and laugh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/12/opinion/12kristor.html?th

All You Need Is Unconditional Love

Christianity Today Book Review

A judgmental assessment of judgmentalism is, predictably, full of contradictions.

Reviewed by John Wilson

It must have sounded like a suitably edgy title: Repenting of Religion. Why on earth, the slightly shocked reader is supposed to ask, of all the things to be repentant about, should we repent of religion?

Because, Gregory Boyd explains, springing the trap, religion is all about "getting life from the rightness of our behavior," a fatally delusive sense of self-satisfaction sustained by perpetually judging others and finding them wanting.

Such judgment, Boyd argues—based on his Bonhoeffer-influenced reading of Genesis—is in fact the primal sin from which all other sins derive.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/002/33.87.html

Mark says: This reminds me of Rick Ritchie's assessment of Martin Luther:

"Luther found true life when he repented of his youthful repentance. It was in abandoning the manufacture of a new life within himself (Yes, even with the help of the Holy Spirit--medieval Christians were quite familiar with that!) that Luther discovered the Gospel."

http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti17110.html

In the end, Wilson finds much to criticize in Boyd's book, "a book riven by self-contradictions and flawed by a hermeneutic so naïve it beggars belief." Of course, the main contradiction is that it is impossible to point out the flaws of repentance-based religion without passing judgement on it, which is the one thing we must not do.

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

The Telegraph

By Clare Chapman

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml

New Bible Troubles. How Interesting.

Magic City Morning Star

By J. Grant Swank

Zondervan has come out with a new Bible take that’s geared to get the attention of ages 18 through 34. It’s called Today’s New International Version (TNIV).

So, according to FOX News, which interestingly enough now owns Zondervan Publishing, such passages as Genesis 1:27 have been changed from "man" to "human being." That is, ". . .so God created man in his own image" now reads ". . .so God created human beings in his own image."

Of course, what we need more than a rewrite of the Bible is simply to have all who profess "Christian" to obey the Bible-already-in-hand. That would help immensely, especially with widespread apostasy throughout various denominations.

http://magic-city-news.com/article_2971.shtml

Gatecrashing for Jesus

Christianity Today

Brother Andrew discusses ministry in the Middle East.

Interview by Stan Guthrie

Brother Andrew, author of the book God's Smuggler and a former missionary to the Soviet Union, now focuses on ministry in the Muslim world via Open Doors. Stan Guthrie, senior associate news editor for Christianity Today, interviewed Andrew about his new book, Light Force (Revell, 2004, with Al Janssen). The book details the struggles of churches trying to survive in the Middle East and Andrew's attempts to reach out to militant Islamic groups.

The reaction of the West to September 11 was one of panic and overreaction. There was an exodus of thousands of Arabs and Muslims from [the United States]. We want to take fear away. We deal with people. I object personally to the term terrorism, because I want to give [the terrorists] a face. Hamas is not terrorist. Hamas is people who lose all hope in the future and in life. When they decide to blow themselves up and die, it's not because they're politically motivated or want to attack the West. It's because they have not found a reason for living.

We, as Christians, are the only ones in the world that, on the basis of the Book, can offer everybody in the world a reason for living. If that reason for living is not there, do not blame them to find a reason for dying, because that's the only alternative—living or dying. We want to dive right into the very center of the conflict. That's why we go to those groups.

I see Muslims as God-seekers. I almost feel like Paul in Athens. We should have that boldness to go to them and say, "What you seek, I have." It's our attitude, politically, and often theologically, that keeps us away from them. If we view them simply as members of an evil religion, and Allah as a demon, they'll never get there, that's for sure. That [attitude] blocks the door for us.

But you need to be sure that Jesus lives in you, and then you can go to anyplace and approach any single Muslim, because they want to know God. And it's our attitude, politically, and often theologically, that keeps us away from them.

I go gatecrashing all the time. Evangelism, by nature, always has to be aggressive. We have deviated from that whole concept of Acts 1:8, and we've reversed the roles and say, "Well, they've got to invite us." No way. Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers. Where do peacemakers go? Where there's a war. That's aggressiveness. That is taking risks. That's meeting the enemy, looking into his eyes.

They say, "Andrew, you are wrong, because you make friends with Israel's enemies." To which I reply, "This is the greatest service I can do to Israel, to turn their enemies around." This is a definite attempt to turn them around. Because once they become brothers, they're not enemies anymore.

They're studying the life of Jesus because Islam does not and can never satisfy. It doesn't satisfy any Muslim. There's no forgiveness, no love, no eternal life. And they want to go to heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven. But we live now in a time when Islam has been radicalized. And they now [think they] know the way to heaven—die in the jihad.

That's why I've been predicting that America will get another dose of terrorism, violence, because Muslims want to go to heaven. And we don't show them the way to heaven. Why don't we do that? That's the only way. They have no reason for living, for they found a reason for dying.

They want a messiah; they expect a messiah. But the Messiah has holes in his hands and he came riding on a donkey, not in a cockpit of an F-16. And they want to see that Messiah. So when we are vulnerable enough to go to them, and this being the only weapon, the Word of God, they accept us and see our message as the alternative, which, deep in their hearts, they fear.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/105/12.0.html

Today's anti-war clergy should ponder their predecessors

Boston Globe

By Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press

Joseph Loconte of the conservative Heritage Foundation sees a parallel between clergy who denounce military action against today's Islamic terrorists or tyrants, and their predecessors who opposed America's entry into World War II.

Loconte collects writings by clergy doves and hawks from 1938-1941 in "The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm" (Rowman & Littlefield).

Loconte's heroes include the "neo-orthodox" Karl Barth (1886-1968), a refugee from Nazi Germany who was generally considered Europe's leading Protestant theologian, and "Christian realist" Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), widely seen as America's top Protestant theologian.

Barth opposed pacifism because the New Testament depicts the state as God's instrument to control evil and promote social peace (Romans 13:1-5, 1 Timothy 2:1-3). Since appeasement had failed, he wrote, Christians shouldn't just fight Hitler as a "necessary evil" but "approve it as a righteous war, which God does not simply allow but which he commands us to wage."

Niebuhr was especially interesting because he was a one-time pacifist and had to quit his longtime political home, the Socialist Party, after it decided American "imperialism" was so bad that no important principle was involved in challenging Hitler.

To Niebuhr, naive liberals saw no right or duty to defend their own civilization which he acknowledged was morally flawed to prevent "worse alternatives." In the Bible, he wrote, "human evil is recognized as a much more stubborn fact than is realized in some modern versions of the Christian faith" that obscure what Scripture says about fostering justice.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/024/living/Today_s_anti_war_clergy_should:.shtml

Serving notice: View from the religious left

Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Sam Harrison

The religious right, validated by their perception of Biblical support and buoyed by a message that plays to a deep-seated sense of pious entitlement, have assumed a self-imagined moral higher ground, from which all manner of social, environmental and ethical damage can be justified.

Even a casual reading of the New Testament Gospels, which narratively describe the ministry and message of Jesus, paint a clear picture of a radical teacher who intentionally turned the religious and social thinking of his day upside down, a teacher whose primary advocacy was for the poor, the marginalized and the cast aside, and, as a result, was executed by religious conservatives. His disciples and followers were told to give away their possessions; their community was, by definition, socialistic.

Acts describes the early Christians, after the death of Jesus, as deeply concerned with social welfare, pooling their belongings, supporting widows and orphans with their gifts. The revolutionary nature of the movement permeates the Pauline letters, as a vibrant but often persecuted church fought to spread a message of love, hope and forgiveness. The remaining epistles echo this same insistence as, throughout, what the great liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez has called "the preferential treatment of the poor," is espoused.

Many of us of the religious left believe Jesus would find little in common with today's religious conservative movement. We see a great disconnect between scripture and policies that advocate decimation of the natural world in the name of profit; between opposition to abortion and literally applauding death sentences; between sitting in church and supporting a pre-emptive, trumped-up war in which thousands of civilians have been killed. Love your enemy indeed.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN24
012205.htm

Driver sues state for rejecting religious license plate

Rutland Herland

By Alan J. Keays

WHAT IT SAYS: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

A challenge to the state policy on restricting vanity license plates has reached biblical proportions.

Shawn Byrne of West Rutland filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Rutland after the state Department of Motor Vehicles rejected his request for a vanity license plate, "JOHN316," because of its religious reference.

The lawsuit against the DMV comes on the heels of another legal battle over a license plate waged by a Wallingford woman two years ago when she wanted her vanity plate to read "Irish."

The woman's request was initially rejected because the department considered the word ethnically offensive. She eventually took her case all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court, where she prevailed.

Now, Byrne, 43, is taking his case to court. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that states it defends religious liberty, has taken up his case.

"This is a violation of his free expression rights," Joshua Carden, an ADF attorney, said Wednesday. "We'll be happy when Vermont's license plates are open to all citizens regardless of their religious beliefs, or lack thereof. That's what we're aiming for."

A month after applying for the plate Byrne received notice from the state DMV stating that all three requests had been turned down. "It has been deemed to be a combination that refers to deity and has been denied based on that reason," the letter read.

The law allows DMV to reject a word or phrase considered offensive or confusing to the general public.

The regulations state that license plates are not be allowed to have a combination of letters or numbers that refer to any language to race, religion, color, deity, ethnic heritage, gender, sexual orientation, disability status or political affiliation.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050120/NEWS/501200367/
1002

Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives

Boston Globe

By Michael Jonas

In a speech at a fund-raising dinner for a Boston-based organization that promotes faith-based solutions to social problems, Clinton said there has been a "false division" between faith-based approaches to social problems and respect for the separation of church of state.

"There is no contradiction between support for faith-based initiatives and upholding our constitutional principles," said Clinton, a New York Democrat who often is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008.

Addressing a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza, Clinton invoked God more than half a dozen times, at one point declaring, "I've always been a praying person."

She said there must be room for religious people to "live out their faith in the public square."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/20/sen_clinton_urges_use_of_fa
ith_based_initiatives/

The Punk-Christian Son of a Preacher Man

New York Times Magazine

By John Leland

At 29, Jay Bakker still faintly recalls the cherubic kid who appeared almost from birth with his parents, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, on their syndicated television show, "The PTL Club," then disappeared during the family's sexual and legal scandals in the 1980's. "We're just trying to love people with no agenda," he told the group. "That's hard, to be a Christian and have no agenda, and it's hard for people to think of a Christian with no agenda."

This was an important night for the ministry, he announced. The Masquerade, a multistory rock club, had invited them to hold their weekly services there, with cocktail waitresses and a full bar. Though the club is secular, its three levels are called Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. "Maybe this is what the postmodern church is supposed to look like," he said. "For the first time I feel we're having some peace in this, we're starting a church where there is no church. We're not the first to do this, but for Revolution, it's a big step."

Bethra Szumski, 33, a tattoo artist, said she came to Revolution in 2002 with a low opinion of Christians, whom she found judgmental. She told me she believed in God, not in church or religion. But she was drawn to Bakker because he was wrestling with his own problems and because he did not judge her. "Under my own resources, I'm incredibly ineffective to do anything except self-destruct," she said. "He said salvation wasn't anything I could find on my own. Jesus had atoned for me." At Revolution, she said, the teaching never strayed far from this core idea of grace. "We hear that a lot, it's really repetitive, but I need to hear that every single week."

Revolution is one of several thousand alternative ministries that have emerged in the last decade, meeting in warehouses, bars, skate parks, punk clubs, private homes or other spaces, in a generational rumble to rebrand the faith outside of what we think of as church. To travel among them is to feel returned to the alternative-rock scene of 15 years ago, just before Nirvana and Lollapalooza put it on the map. Instead of criticizing major record labels, these ministries criticize megachurches; instead of flattening the status of the rock star, they flatten the status of the pastor. They cluster in cells rather than in denominations or arenas, and connect through D.I.Y. zines online. They are a counterculture on two fronts: at odds with both their secular peers and conventional churches.

"We've all been damaged by fundamentalism or the traditional church," said Bakker's assistant pastor, Matt DeBenedictis, who came to Revolution after being a roadie for various rock bands, Christian and secular. "I know so many people who won't call themselves Christians but are following God and Jesus -- who walked away from seminary or Christian rock bands, and who feel completely outcast."

"We're not about issues," Bakker said. "We don't get on bandwagons. In the church today, the only two things that matter are abortion and homosexuality." He shied away from taking a position on either of these issues. "I'm not saying something's right, something's wrong," he said. "I don't have a right to judge. God's called us to love people no matter who they are or what they've done. ... You can't change people. You can for a little while, but eventually they'll rebel or be hurt or realize what's going on. I'm not in that rat race. I'm just in the game to say, 'This is who Jesus is, he loves you for who you are and hopefully you see that in my life and you see the positive things that are coming from it.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/magazine/23BAKKER.html

Seven Myths of Disaster Relief

Christianity Today

What's really needed after a catastrophe.

by Rich Moseanko

News of the December 26 tsunami was almost immediately followed by news of donation scams, inefficient relief efforts, and good intentions gone awry. Longtime World Vision relief director Rich Moseanko sent out a list, condensed here, to help donors understand what's really needed after a major catastrophe.

1. Americans can help by collecting blankets, shoes, and clothing. The cost of shipping these items—let alone the time it takes to sort, pack, and ship them—is prohibitive. Since they are often manufactured for export to the U.S. in the very countries that need relief, it is far more efficient to purchase them locally. Cash is better.

2. Food and medicines must be airlifted to the disaster site. Food and medicine is virtually always available within a day's drive of the disaster site. Purchasing it locally is more cost-efficient.

3. If I send cash, my help won't get there. Reputable agencies send the vast majority of cash donations to the disaster site.

4. Developing countries depend on foreign expertise. Most relief and recovery efforts are carried out by local aid groups, police, firefighters, and neighbors before international teams ever arrive.

5. Relief needs are so intense that almost anyone can fly to the scene to help. Volunteers without skills necessary in disaster relief can do more harm than good.

6. Insurance and governments can cover losses. The vast majority of the world's population has never heard of an insurance policy.

7. People are helpless in the face of natural disasters. The United States and Canada are proof that tougher building codes, early warning systems, and disaster preparedness can save lives.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/002/8.37.html

Lutherans Recommend Tolerance on Gay Policy

New York Times

By Neela Banerjee

A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recommended yesterday that it retain its policy against blessing same-sex unions and ordaining gays, but suggested that sanctions could be avoided for pastors and congregations that chose to do so.

Those who defy church policies now face a range of disciplinary actions. The approach would allow those who agree and disagree with the policy to stay within the church, the group said.

Some clergy members said that by giving local churches and synods wiggle room, the task force had found a way to preserve the unity of the church.

But Word Alone, a biblically orthodox Lutheran group, sharply criticized the recommendations as an attempt to hoodwink parishioners into believing that policies remained unchanging despite the fact that sanctions may not be enforced.

Lutherans Concerned, a group that seeks greater acceptance of gays in the church, contended that the recommendations did not go far enough to dispel the punitive atmosphere around issues of homosexuality.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/national/14lutheran.html

A Nation of Faith and Religious Illiterates

Los Angeles Times Commentary

By Stephen Prothero

The Dutch are four times less likely than Americans to believe in miracles, hell and biblical inerrancy. The euro does not trust in God. But here is the paradox: Although Americans are far more religious than Europeans, they know far less about religion.

In Europe, religious education is the rule from the elementary grades on. So Austrians, Norwegians and the Irish can tell you about the Seven Deadly Sins or the Five Pillars of Islam. But, according to a 1997 poll, only one out of three U.S. citizens is able to name the most basic of Christian texts, the four Gospels.

U.S. Catholics, evangelicals and Jews have been lamenting for some time a crisis of religious literacy in their ranks.

When Americans debated slavery, almost exclusively on the basis of the Bible, people of all races and classes could follow the debate. They could make sense of its references to the runaway slave in the New Testament book of Philemon and to the year of jubilee, when slaves could be freed, in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. Today it is a rare American who can engage with any sophistication in biblically inflected arguments about gay marriage, abortion or stem cell research.

Since 9/11, President Bush has been telling us that "Islam is a religion of peace," while evangelist Franklin Graham (Billy's son) has insisted otherwise. Who is right? Americans have no way to tell because they know virtually nothing about Islam. Such ignorance imperils our public life, putting citizens in the thrall of talking heads.

How did this happen? How did one of the most religious countries in the world become a nation of religious illiterates? Religious congregations are surely at fault. Churches and synagogues that once inculcated the "fourth R" are now telling the faithful stories "ripped from the headlines" rather than teaching them the Ten Commandments or parsing the Sermon on the Mount (which was delivered, as only one in three Americans can tell you, by Jesus).

Americans — of both the religious and the secular variety — need to understand religion. Resolving in 2005 to read for yourself either the Bible or the Koran (or both) might not be a bad place to start.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-prothero12jan12,1,3110459
.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

Seeing God's mystery in the tsunami's wake

Newsday

By Raymond J. Keating

Rabbi Perry Raphael Rank, from the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, saw God's hand in the response to the tragedy. He told me last week: "I always shudder when I hear the tsunami referred to as an act of God. I don't see it as such. But I see the outpouring of relief aid and the rescue efforts and the kindness of people from all different walks of life as an act of God."

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vpkea104109992jan10,0,2531790.column?c
oll=ny-news-columnists

Don't Waste Your Life

Christianity Today Book Review

Reviewed by Cindy Crosby

"Only one life, 'Twill soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last." This verse on a plaque above the kitchen sink where Piper grew up made a lasting impression on him. "You get one pass at life," he exhorts. "That's all. Only one."

But what does it mean to live well? "The opposite of wasting your life is living life by a single God-exalting, soul-satisfying passion," he writes. For Piper, that means living totally for the glory of Christ crucified.

He urges readers to shun illusions of security, turn off the television, make the most of secular work, and practice forgiveness. And he challenges them to embrace God as their highest priority. The book will have most appeal for those in search of significance and direction.

Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, Crossway Books, 192 pp.; $12.99

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/001/33.71.html

Faith goes wobbling on

Daily Telegraph

By Tom Utley

Priests of every denomination have been telling us since Boxing Day that great natural disasters tend to shake believers' faith in the existence of God.

I hesitate to argue with so many priests, but I feel that somebody ought to point out that what they are saying is simply not true. Certainly, a great many people who did not believe in God in the first place have seized on the tsunami as further evidence that He does not exist. But I have yet to come across anybody who has said: "I used to believe in God until the tsunami struck, but I don't any more." From the earliest days of the Church, believers have had to get used to the fact that terrible things happen in this world, for which theological explanations are very hard to find.

Only a very fragile and dimwitted faith would be shaken by an event that was just the latest in a series of natural disasters - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and tsunamis - stretching back to the dawn of time.

I reckon that all those priests are just plain wrong when they say that the tsunami has shaken people's belief in God. If anything, it has had the opposite effect. Like so many natural disasters before it, it has made people more, rather than less receptive to the idea that a supreme being may exist.

When something as terrible as this happens, people look for an explanation of human life that transcends the basic biological facts of birth, reproduction and death. Most of us give barely a thought to God when the car is running nicely, the children are doing well at school and there is food on the table.

Churches tend to be fuller, rather than emptier, when natural disasters are in the news.

The tsunami has not affected my belief in God at all, one way or the other. That goes wobbling on - sometimes strong, sometimes weak.

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/01/07/do
0702.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/01/07/ixopinion.html

At Risk In the Universe ... Always

Tech Central Station

By Ralph Kinney Bennett

Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me if you know all this.
-- Job 38:16-18

In Holland, on April 27, 1421, the sea submerged 72 Dutch counties, killing 100,000 people. On November 1, 1530, sea dikes burst in Holland, submerging much of the country and killing 400,000 people. In 1642 floods in China killed 300,000.

On December 30, 1703 a massive earthquake hit Tokyo, killing an estimated 200,000 people. On December 30, 1730, a quake hit Hokkaido, Japan, killing 137,000.

Between 1851 and 1866, the low area between Beijing, Shanghai and Hankow flooded repeatedly during a disastrous 15 years of storms. It is estimated that 40 to 50 million Chinese perished in these floods.

In 1887, spring rains in China caused the Yellow River to overflow, covering 50,000 square miles and killing an estimated 1.5 million people.

A drought in India in the years 1876-78 is estimated to have killed 5 million people. A drought in China over the same time period is believed to have killed between 9 and 13 million. In 1896-97 a combination of drought and plague killed 5 million in India.

In 1970, a cyclone-driven tidal wave overwhelmed the Ganges Delta in what is now Bangladesh, killing somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people.

"How could a merciful and loving God…?" Once again the old question springs to the lips of people trying to come to grips with some cataclysmic act of nature.

Pundits and preachers, the wise and the unwise, try to "explain" what has happened. They see the hand of God or the absence of God; the justice of God or the indifference of God.

I am saddened by the ignorance of those who say such calamities "prove there is no God." I am astonished at those who would confidently "see" God's hand in a natural disaster.

I only know that what is, is. Droughts and earthquakes and floods are physical realities of this earth, this imperfect way station for our souls on their journey into eternity. And when we react to these events with love and sacrifice and selflessness, we become gauges of God's glory, instruments of His love.

http://www.techcentralstation.com/010705A.html

Reality TV finds God

ABC Australia

In the world of bug-eating, bungee-jumping reality television, here's a twist: Christian missionaries living a travelogue life while viewers watch their aches, pains and trials trying to spread the Gospel.

The show, Travel the Road, is now in its third season, reaching 250,000 to 300,000 US households per show on cable's Trinity Broadcasting Network, which bills itself as the world's largest Christian network.

Tim Scott, 27, and 30-year-old William Decker are the two missionaries, doing their own filming to record an odyssey that has put them in dozens of countries from Tibet to Rwanda.

The pair has been cursed at and threatened with death in Ethiopia, betrayed in India by a thieving convert, attacked by leeches in Laos and bone-rattled for hours on end in the cargo holds of third-world transports.

The pair has just finished filming their missionary work in Rwanda and Congo and at last report was headed for a return trip to Darfur in Sudan where a 22-month rebellion has killed 70,000 people and driven 1.6 million from their homes.

They were also recently in Afghanistan and plan to visit Somalia which along with the previously mentioned African stops will comprise a package of new shows airing next autumn, Scott said in an interview.

At times the pair seems to stumble into situations, looking for converts or even an interpreter to help carry their message. At one point they and some colleagues got flat-out lost.

But the resulting travelogue overlay and the human focus on the two travellers, along with highly professional editing and musical backgrounds, moves the show beyond religion alone.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1277942.htm

Where Was God?

New York Times Opinion

By William Safire

In the aftermath of a cataclysm, with pictures of parents sobbing over dead infants driven into human consciousness around the globe, faith-shaking questions arise: Where was God? Why does a good and all-powerful deity permit such evil and grief to fall on so many thousands of innocents? What did these people do to deserve such suffering?

Turn to the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. It was written some 2,500 years ago during what must have been a crisis of faith. The covenant with Abraham - worship the one God, and his people would be protected - didn't seem to be working. The good died young, the wicked prospered; where was the promised justice?

The first point the Book of Job made was that suffering is not evidence of sin. Victims of this cataclysm in no way "deserved" a fate inflicted by the Leviathanic force of nature.

Job's gutsy defiance of God's injustice shows that it is not blasphemous to challenge the highest authority when it inflicts a moral wrong. Questioning God's inscrutable ways has its exemplar in the Bible and need not undermine faith.

Job's moral outrage caused God to appear, thereby demonstrating that the sufferer who believes is never alone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10safire.html?th

Compassionate Conservatives? The right turns tight

The Boston Phoenix

By Adam Reilly

As of Sunday — one week after massive flooding killed more than 100,000 people, and left countless more injured and homeless — Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson had said nothing about tsunami relief on his site ( PatRobertson.com ). Ditto for religious-right pillars such as Jerry Falwell ( JerryFalwell.com ); the National Association of Evangelicals ( www.nae.net ); the Family Research Council ( www.frc.org ); and Concerned Women for America ( www.cwfa.org ).

In contrast, the progressive ecumenical group Interfaith Alliance ( www.interfaithalliance.org ) topped its home page with an appeal for tsunami-related donations. So, for that matter, did the liberal United Church of Christ ( www.ucc.org ) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism ( rac.org ).

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/this_just_in/documents/0438330
8.asp

Angry with God

Boston Globe

By Jeff Jacoby

AN ONLINE poll at Beliefnet.com, the popular website on religion and spirituality, is asking what role God plays in natural disasters like the Indian Ocean tsunami that has devastated much of Asia. The poll offers five options:

(1) God is punishing us.

(2) God is testing us.

(3) The earthquake and tsunami were sent by God, but we don't know what the purpose was.

(4) I believe in God, but the supernatural had nothing to do with this tragedy.

(5) God doesn't exist; disasters like this are just forces of nature.

As one who believes in a God of both creation and history -- a God involved in the lives of individuals and nations and without whose existence our own existence would ultimately have no purpose -- I voted for number 3. So did 29 percent of all who have voted so far.

But the runaway winner, at 51 percent, is number 4 -- God exists, but he had no connection to the tsunami. Insurers may call such catastrophes "acts of God," but to a majority of Beliefnet's respondents, that is only a figure of speech.

How an all-powerful and benevolent God can permit innocents to be massacred or suffer undeserved agonies is a question as old as monotheism itself. Rabbi Harold Kushner's answer is that God isn't all-powerful. Tsunamis happen, and for no reason at all. There is no divine calculus at work; there is simply bad luck. And so there is no reason to think hard thoughts about God when tragedy strikes. In Kushner's words, "We can be angry at what has happened to us without feeling that we are angry at God." 

But what is so bad about being angry with God? Why shouldn't we challenge him to make sense of the injustice and cruelty that he himself has taught us to hate? Isn't it better to angrily question a God in whose universe we are sure nothing happens without a reason than to resign ourselves to a God who can do nothing about a world that kills and lays waste at random?

Calling God to account, arguing with him when He seems to be acting unjustly, has deep roots in Judeo-Christian faith. When Abraham learns of the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, he heatedly confronts God: "Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there should be 50 innocents within the city; will you then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent 50 who are in it? ... Far be it from you! Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?"

Elie Wiesel tells the haunting story of three rabbis in Auschwitz who convened a court of law and put God on trial for allowing his children to be slaughtered. At the end of the trial, which stretched over several days, they pronounced him guilty of crimes against humanity. Then one of the rabbis glanced at the darkening sky. Now, he said, it is time for our evening prayers.

To wrestle with God is not to abandon him. To protest against unearned suffering is not to reject his message -- quite the opposite. But having protested a seeming lack of compassion and justice from heaven, we are obliged to reach out to the victims and work even harder to establish justice and compassion on earth.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/01/06/angr
y_with_god/

Evangelism: Go Tell It on the Subway

Newsweek

By Lisa Helem

Jan. 10 issue - You're riding on the New York City D train when Frank Meyer, 41, boards. He's quiet until Darnell Harris, 48, a self-described former burglar turned born-again Christian, starts preaching: "Jesus was a special person for a special mission..." Meyer yells for Harris to "shush!" Onlookers are poised for an argument, only the two soon reveal that it's all an attention-getting skit: they just want to spread the Word.

Meyer is part of a growing city Christian movement that uses unique ways to reach straphangers. Recently he launched a ministry that teaches people from New York and, currently, 15 other states to share the Gospel on city trains. (Those who don't want to quote scripture can be "shushers.") So far, Meyer, who works with Mission NYC, a nonprofit Christian group, has led more than 1,000 churchgoers in subway-evangelism training.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6777517/site/newsweek/

Pope Offers Plea for Peace in Christmas Message

New York Times

By Ian Fisher

"I think of Africa, of the tragedy of Darfur in Sudan, of the Ivory Coast and of the Great Lakes region," which includes Congo and Rwanda, the pope, who is 84, told thousands of people on the chilly, rain-drenched cobblestones of St. Peter's Square. "With great apprehension I follow the situation in Iraq."

He also referred to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The issue is always important to the Vatican since the region is revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

In a square decorated by a huge Christmas tree and life-size Nativity scene, he called on help from Jesus for "an end to the spread of violence in its many forms."

"You, prince of true peace, help us to understand that the only way to build peace is to flee in horror from evil, and to pursue goodness with courage and perseverance," he said. "Men and women of good will, of every people on the earth, come with trust to the crib of the Savior."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/international/europe/26pope.html?th

The Meaning Of Christmas

So what is the practical meaning of Christmas? Anyone can say it is a celebration of the birth of Christ, but who actually gives gifts to him and not to family members on that day?

When I was a child, Christmas meant getting up very early to open gifts from the folks and then be rushed off reluctantly to an early church serivce. There was always a big dinner with lots of aunts and uncles in attendance. Food consisted of turkey with all the trimmings, jello salads, and pies.

As we grew older, we wanted to share in giving gifts as well as receiving them. This probably didn't happen until we were into high school or even out of school, because until we had jobs there wasn't much money to spend on others.

When we became adults, we made concerted efforts to take some of the load off our parents, and to find suitable gifts for them. We seldom had success on either front. The aunties were never willing to concede their jello-making monopoly. And my parents were often notoriously difficult to shop for (or even create things for).

When I was in high school I met Jesus and honoring his birth made more sense to me. But the hectic ready-making for Christmas morning turned all other priorities upside down, and it was always with bleary eyes that we went to church to do that honor, irrespective of any desire to do so. And often with irritation grown of frustrations or disappointments with shopping or crafting.

For many years Christmas was a difficult time for all of us. They became most difficult of all in 1998 when my mother went into the hospital on Christmas day, and passed away the next day. As much as we tried to pull together as a family, Christmas was always a strain after that. Now we are lucky to get all of my brothers and sisters together in the same room on any occasion, even Christmas. Perhaps we discovered that the glue that held our family together was not Jesus, but my mother.

Fortunately I was introduced to Mary's family in 1997, and that gave me a glimpse of a different kind of Christmas. Mary's nephews and nieces ranged in age from 6 to 11 (at that time), and it was a joy to buy, or preferably make, gifts for them.

Every year since 1999, Mary and I have had a "tradition" of making special craft projects for everyone in close family, about 18 people in all. One year it was cardboard boxes in the shape of stockings, covered with cloth, with goodies inside. Another time it was small wooden boxes, painted with different designs, filled with little treasures. Mary has taken to making sets of rubber-stamped all-occasion greeting cards, which everyone loves. Last year I made binders with covers laden with family photographs, tailored to each family member. (I'm not yet divulging this year's project because not all have been distributed yet!)

But where is Christ in all of this? Jesus loved the little children, but eventually they all grow up and become difficult adults, much harder to love. Jesus loved to give to others, but would he stay up late nights doing art projects while neglecting his relationship with his Father, as we do in order to meet our self-imposed deadlines? And of course the artists always wants to draw attention to himself and his effort; this is part of the artist personality. Did Jesus have this neurosis? God forbid!

I like to think that in my mother I saw something of what Jesus was like. She baked the turkey, she baked the pies, but she desired to see us eat them; she did not desire to brag about them. She reluctantly let us wash the dishes, her fine china and silver that she never quite felt comfortable trusting us with.

So this year, Mary and I missed going to church with the rest of the family because we were still working on craft projects at the last minute. We did not get home until 4:00 am, which meant that we were not up early enough to go to any church today (and which also means that after sleeping in, now at 2:00 am I'm not too tired to be typing up all this). So Jesus escaped us completely. I don't even recall saying grace when we ate last night.

We can say with certainty that we did not become caught up in the consumerism of the season, although without a doubt we did spend money. But honoring Jesus must mean more than rejecting the consumer mentality. It must mean more than just spending time with family. Anyone of any religion, or even no religion, can do those things as well or better than we did.

Reading some of the articles I've posted recently, one might be tempted to think that honoring Jesus means saying "Merry CHRISTmas" to everyone in earshot, and suing those who don't respond in kind. Or perhaps it means refusing to put up a "pagan" decorated tree. Perhaps it means eating turkey instead of chinese food. Perhaps it means shopping at Wal-Mart instead of at Target. Would complaining about how the country is going to hell in a bucket suffice? No, everyone does that, whether they are attempting to honor Jesus or not.

My stepson (and Mary's son) is serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. We chat with him on the computer almost every day. He has been telling us about near-misses and fallen friends. We have been praying for him every day. Perhaps the way we can most honor Jesus is to acknowledge the role he plays in our lives. He sustains us while our son is in a dangerous situation. He sustains our son as well. We can do nothing but pray. God has put us in this situation against our will. We can do nothing but look to him for comfort, safety, and encouragement. So now God has us right where he wants us. We have no choice but to honor him with lips and lives. We can do nothing for our son. But we can expect our God to do miracles.

"And we have such confidence through Christ toward God;  not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being out of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." - 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

When we have failed in every other way, we can look to God, the source of our lives, our sustainer, and our only comfort. No matter what else we might do on this Christmas day, if we do that, we honor Jesus in the way that he wants to be honored.

Jesus, thank you for continuing to take care of us, our son, and our families. Thank you for remembering our friends who are ill, relatives who have been in the hospital recently, and nieces whose mothers have died and left no one to take care of them. Help us to be your hands, mouth and eyes to those who need you as acutely as we do. Amen.

I want my faith back

Arkansas Times

Getting personal about the political hijacking of religion.

By Jennifer Barnett Reed

“These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.”

— Matthew 15:8-9

With all the millions of children in our country who don’t have enough food, clothing, or love, how can right-wing Christians possibly still cling to the delusion that God thinks gay people are the biggest threat to Christian values? Times Jesus mentions the poor in the gospels: I lost count halfway through Matthew. Times he mentions homosexuality: Zero.

The hypocrisy hasn’t gone unnoticed outside our borders. The Rev. Randy Hyde, pastor of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, spent three months in Europe earlier this year. He said Europeans are suspicious of Americans “because we talk so much about religious values but don’t live them.”

Someone who signed himself matthew0724 said, “As an evangelical Christian, I feel the most important job I have been given is to be a witness to non-believers. Much of this witnessing is simply trying to live a Christ-like life so others will see the character of Jesus through me. My ability to be any kind of a witness, active or passive, has been drastically harmed by the religious right — specifically the Bush administration. By acting as if they own the franchise on Christianity, and then acting as un-Christlike as possible, many more people are inclined to dismiss my beliefs out of hand.”

“Traditional Democratic values are Christian values,” Cole Wakefield said. “But somehow ‘help the poor’ doesn’t matter, war doesn’t matter, because there are gay people around.”

Howard Gordon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, blames Democrats for selling out — abandoning their historic positions on social programs and economic justice to cater to centrist voters. That’s allowed Republicans to push religious differences to the fore of what distinguishes the two parties, he said.

“What issues are left then?” Gordon asked. “ ‘They’re complicated heathens, we’re simple Christians.’ ”

But we also have black-and-white beliefs, just like conservatives do: Greed is wrong. Poverty is unjust. Compassion is commanded. If it’s certainty people want, we can give it to them in spades.

But there is hope to be had in a post-election poll that found that 33 percent of voters cited “greed and materialism” as the country’s greatest moral problem. Another 31 percent said “poverty and economic justice.” Only 16 percent rated abortion the most urgent, and 12 percent chose same-sex marriage.

The poll also asked voters what was the most important “moral issue” that affected their vote. Almost twice as many said the war in Iraq as chose abortion and same-sex marriage combined.

When we take back our faith, we will discover that faith challenges the powers that be to do justice for the poor instead of preaching a ‘prosperity gospel’ and supporting politicians who further enrich the wealthy. We will remember that faith hates violence and tries to reduce it, and exerts a fundamental presumption against war instead of justifying it in God’s name.

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=cd3a8b03-56d6-495b
-b40b-46330316a2fc

US Retailers Say Christmas Not Just for Christians

New York Times

Reuters

Not all Christians think it is such a bad thing for Christ to be evicted from Christmas, with many youngsters too focused on Santa and his goodies to think of Jesus.

Commentator and author John Boykin, a Christian, argued on National Public Radio that celebrating Jesus' birth was not as important as his life and teachings, suggesting Easter was the proper holiday for Christians and Christmas should become a gift-giving secular holiday.

Espousing the motto "Keep Christ from Christmas," Boykin said Jesus "was not born to be the patron saint of fourth-quarter earnings."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-retail-christmas.html

Mark says:

• "US Christians Say Christmas Not Just for Retailers"
• "US Christmas-shoppers Say Retailers Not Just for Christians"
• "Retailers Say Christmas Not Just for US Christians"

Praise for a secular Santa who delivers the goods

The Australian

By Irshad Manji

When I was growing up in Canada, Ho-Ho-Ho was a No-No-No - not because my parents deemed it so, but because I did. My defiance sprang from the Mennonite kid who incurred my second-grade teacher's wrath by refusing to make Christmas ornaments with the rest of our class. The moment she condemned him to stand in the hall, I felt my own rumblings of resistance.

A week later, I challenged my family's decision to put up a Christmas tree. The twinkle and tingle of tinsel made my sisters positively giddy. They laughed and decorated. I frowned and demonstrated. "We're supposed to be Muslims!" I protested to my mother. "Santa is for everybody," she calmly assured me.

I'd like to believe it's maturity that turned me around. Truth is, though, it's strategy as much as maturity: as a Muslim, I can claim religious immunity to the routine demands of Christmas while taking advantage of the occasion's small pleasures. I don't feel culturally compelled to buy expensive gifts -- or even cheap ones -- for people who get on my nerves most of the year.

Yet I appreciate that many of my friends choose to. Indulging in the rituals of Christmas, however exhausting, infuriating and impoverishing by turns, makes serious souls unusually human again. I love watching folks get excited the way they don't on any other holiday.

Relaxed conversation in front of a crackling fire -- we'd never squeeze that combination out of each other were it not for Christmas Day, when every monument to profit-making has resolutely shut down.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11762488%255E7583,
00.html

French pretzel logic and pagan Christmas trees

Carolina Morning News

By Jennifer Royse

Recently France has passed legislation designed to create a sharp distinction between church and state. In a bold, well-planned move to prevent young Muslim women from wearing headscarves in school, the French government passed a law banning all conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

Just what exactly is a "conspicuous religious symbol"? To be fair, along with the aforementioned scarves, the ban does include the use of Jewish skullcaps and the wearing of obviously large crucifixes. So the law does manage to smack three of the world's major religions square in the face.

Lagny-Sur-Marne, near Paris, boasts a high school where students were apparently aware of the law banning conspicuous religious symbols. They complained that the school's Christmas tree was certainly a conspicuous Christian image and therefore should be removed. Officials momentarily stymied by the students' impeccable logic had the offensive pine (or fir) removed last week.

The Christmas tree is back, and apparently is not in violation of French law. Turns out that a Christmas tree isn't really a conspicuous symbol of Christianity. It's pagan, therefore appropriate for placement in French schools. Pascal Pagny, mayor of Lagny-Sur-Marne, told Radio Europe 1 that "The tree was a symbol of year-end festivities long before Christianity existed. It is completely secular and pagan."

http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/122204/LOCvecinos.shtml

Twas the night before Jesus came

Not a poem about Christmas

'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be The Day!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "It's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and this sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

http://www.mymessiah.net/poem.htm

School Yuletide Observances Shift Into Neutral

KTLA Television Los Angeles

By Erika Hayasaki and Joel Rubin

In many parts of the country over the last month, conservative Christian groups have lashed out against what they say are practices that dilute Christmas from a profound religious celebration to a bland "holiday season."

But across Southern California, school officials say the combination of ever-more-diverse student populations and the threat of lawsuits by all sides leaves them little choice.

"We try to keep it pretty generic and just leave it at 'winter' and 'Santa Claus,' " Matassarin said. "We have Jehovah's Witnesses, who don't celebrate any of the holidays, we have Jewish students, students who celebrate Kwanzaa — the whole gamut."

This month, the Anti-Defamation League sent letters to school administrators throughout Southern California asking them to "be cautious in how they choose to employ religious symbols and teach about the holidays," and to include religious information in holiday activities only if it is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education."

On the other side, Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal group based in Sacramento, objected that "teachers are sometimes unlawfully prohibited from acknowledging holidays such as Christmas."

The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal group, wrote more than 5,000 school districts nationwide to explain that the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that public schools must ban the singing of religious Christmas carols or prohibit the distribution of candy canes or Christmas cards.

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/la-me-xmas22dec22,0,2602873.story?coll=ktla-news-
1

Skipping the holy season of Christmas

Get Religion

By Terry Mattingly

The Christmas wars seem extra, extra nasty this year -- or are being covered that way by the mainstream media. Perhaps this is all part of the values-based bitterness that followed 11/2. Are there really more angry Christians on the march these days or are there simply more upset reporters out there searching for angry Christians on the march, inspired by nightmare visions of dancing theocrats?

I can't right now take the time to post the URLs for even a 10th of the Christmas madness stories I have seen in the past few days. As always, this means we should happily turn to the tireless cybercrats at the Christianity Today weblog. Wear yourselves out, people. Click away.

http://getreligion.typepad.com/getreligion/2004/12/now_that_you_th.html

Confronting Caesar

Christianity Today Interview

Interview by Stan Guthrie

Sunday Adelajah, a Nigerian who came to the former Soviet bloc 18 years ago to study journalism, became a pastor instead. Now Adelajah leads a 26,000-member Pentecostal church called the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, in Kiev. In the wake of the presidential election controversy, Adelajah and the church have taken a stand in support of opposition candidate Victor Yuschenko, who was poisoned during the campaign.

How did you start your church?

The first four years, I couldn't get any Russians saved. But God directed me that if I really wanted to be effective, I must go to the down and out people, and I should not expect the "regular people" to come.

So I began to reach out to the alcoholic, because that was a national problem at that point. And we began to have some results. And I think the reason for that might be because the people who are alcoholic are already down and out, and they're already blind to any color.

But God helped me with the rehabilitation of these people. In the process, their relatives and parents would see that these people are becoming normal, and they don't smoke, they don't drink, they are tidy, and they wear clean clothes. They began to have their parents come and they now began to see me as their savior. And the parents, who never used to regard or have any respect for a black man, they began to rejoice and say, "Thank you for my son."

What is your role in the crisis as a leading pastor?

Putin has said, "You Ukrainians don't have authority, because this 'sect' and these 'cult groups' are mushrooming in your country." The candidate, the [current] prime minister, who has been supported by Putin, Viktor Yanukovych, said that one of the first things he's going to deal with if he becomes the president is these "cult" and "sectarian" groups. So this actually is a threat, not just to democracy, [but] to everything we've gained during all the years of independence.

The most important thing is that 80 percent of the nation is supporting Victor Yuschenko, who is an opposition candidate, and is a godly man. He shares God, and he respects all the churches, all the pastors. This is the time God has given to the [people of] Ukraine to have a free choice of where they want to go. The people want to go democratic.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/151/42.0.html

Don't get your knickers twisted, morality isn't just about sex

St.Petersburg Times Opinion

By Diane Roberts

When did sexual morality become equated with morality in total? What about the morality of tax cuts for the rich and extra burdens for the poor? The morality of insisting that children be born then refusing them health care and a decent education? Capital punishment? Colonialism? Torture? Lying about reasons to send young men and women to their deaths in war?

Morality isn't just about reproductive organs.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/12/18/Opinion/Don_t_get_your_knicke.shtml

The politics of the Christmas story

The Boston Globe

By James Carroll

The single most important fact about the birth of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospels, is one that receives almost no emphasis in the American festival of Christmas. The child who was born in Bethlehem represented a drastic political challenge to the imperial power of Rome. The nativity story is told to make the point that Rome is the enemy of God, and in Jesus, Rome's day is over.

The Gospel of Luke puts a political cast on the story. The narrative begins with the decree of Caesar Augustus calling for a world census -- a creation of tax rolls that will tighten the empire's grip on its subject peoples. It was Caesar Augustus who turned the Roman republic into a dictatorship, a power-grab he reinforced by proclaiming himself divine. When the angel announces to shepherds that a "savior has been born," as scholars like Richard Horsley point out, those hearing the story would immediately understand that the blasphemous claim by Caesar Augustus to be "savior of the world" was being repudiated.

In modern times, the nativity story became spiritualized and sentimentalized, losing its political edge altogether. "Peace" replaced resistance as the main motif. The baby Jesus was universalized, removed from his decidedly Jewish context, and the narrative's explicit critiques of imperial dominance and of wealth were blunted.

This is how it came to be that Christmas in America has turned the nativity of Jesus on its head. No surprise there, for if the story were told today with Roman imperialism at its center, questions might arise about America's new self-understanding as an imperial power. A story of Jesus born into a land oppressed by a hated military occupation might prompt an examination of the American occupation of Iraq. A story of Jesus come decidedly to the poor might cast a pall over the festival of consumption.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/12/21/the_
politics_of_the_christmas_story/

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

• Celebrated: December 23rd

• Meal: Whatever you Want

• The Festivus Pole: Not a tree, a pole. No decorations. Tinsel is very distracting from the true meaning of the holiday. The pole is tall, silver, hollow, long, skinny, and heavy.

• The Airing Of Grievences: Over the dinner table, tell your family and friends all the ways they have disappointed you during the year.

• Feats Of Strength: The head of the family tests his strength against another friend or family member. The great honor is given out to a different person each year. Festivus is not over until the head of the family is pinned.

http://www.kwillis.com/festivus.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/fashion/19FEST.html?pagewanted=2

http://www.crazygrrl.com/cards/index.php

Judge allows religious theme

Washington Times

By Julia Duin

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order this week that allows students in Plano, Texas, schools to hand out religious messages during classroom holiday parties, decorate in Christmas colors and use religious-themed holiday decorations.

A Dec. 6 letter to fourth-grade parents at Thomas Elementary from six teachers asks for Hershey's kisses, sugar cookies and white napkins and plates for a Winter Break party yesterday. It says parents were instructed to avoid red- and green-colored decorations, candy and icing on the cookies because of the colors' association with the holiday.

"Last year, parents were instructed to not bring any religious symbols to decorate the classroom with," attorney Kelly Shackelford said, "but they were asked to bring snowflakes, sleds and 'snowpeople.' They couldn't say 'snowmen.' People who sink to that level of [political correctness] I can't understand."

District officials said, "[The district] fosters acceptance of all cultures and welcomes the celebration of our diversity during the Winter Break parties."

A student attempting to pass out pencils with "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" had them confiscated. The student's mother went to the school to complain, and when she left upset, she was overheard saying, "Satan is sure in this building," which prompted the principal to call police. Officers confronted the mother on school property, he said.

"They asked her what sort of threat she had made and when she told them, they started laughing," he added.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041217-114549-6147r.htm

Nativity Scene Causes A Stir

The Lakeland Ledger

By Diane Lacey Allen

Commissioner Randy Wilkinson repeatedly attempted to put a Christmas display on government property. Those efforts have consistently failed to gain support from his fellow commissioners.

Wilkinson's most recent attempt came just hours before grandparents at the First Baptist Church of Bartow erected a manger scene in front of the county building without the commission's permission.

Ever since Mary and Joseph showed up, wearing blue eye shadow, on the county's grass, people have been taking sides.

Richard Krumm suggested in an e-mail that Commissioner Bob English, who said Thursday that the display didn't belong on the county's lawn, "grow a backbone before opining about the First Baptist-made Nativity scene. What a girly-man!"

Friday, county employees continued to spruce up the administration building with secular greens and lights.

The holy family, a plastic lamb and a snowman remained on the knoll across from the courthouse, their fate on hold until next week's public meeting.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041218/NEWS/412180378/1134

Mark says: ROTFL!

It's a double dose of the Nativity

Boroughs Daily News

By Charles W. Bell

The Church of the Epiphany, the historic Episcopal parish on the upper East Side, will present its Nativity Pageant tomorrow, but with a production twist so unusual that even the Rev. Andrew Mullins is shaking his head.

The tradition at Epiphany is to cast the youngest baby in the starring Nativity role. The problem is that this year, the youngest babies are twins, David and Eva Kim, who were born about four months ago.

Both will appear in the pageant - at the same time. This will require a little rewrite of the script, something Mullins is considering.

There is nothing new about improvising the church's pageant. Some dogs are dusted lightly with talcum powder to serve as sheep. Other dogs have toy horns attached to their heads and, voilà, reindeer! There also is a camel - two church members dressed in a two-hump outfit.

As for the babies, he said he is still working out some of the problems.

One is what to do when the Angel Gabriel presents the Baby Jesus to Mary. Another is whether the three Magi should present two sets of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Mullins is not overly worried. "I know we'll have a pageant," he said. "Beyond that, I think we better leave a little room for a miracle."

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/263035p-225222c.html

What is Christmas all about?

The Independent

London's Oxford Street is the scene of an annual Christmas shopping frenzy. Can spirituality have any place here? Surprisingly, Clare Dwyer Hogg and Andy Sewell find God is alive and well in the thronging heart of consumerism.

• I think Christmas has totally and utterly lost its way. Jesus' message was, "Feed the needy, don't be greedy." I don't really believe in giving presents, I think we should look after the needs of the world first, instead of buying someone a gift for £200, say, who doesn't need it. Let's think about the kids who are starving.

• Christmas for me is about magic, snow, happiness, peace and family. The commercialisation is part of it too, to be honest. I like to give and receive presents. It's part of the occasion.

• I'm not sure why Christmas is celebrated in Christianity, but anything to do with religion is good because all religions want to be peaceful. God is all-forgiving, merciful, all-compassionate. Christianity and Islam are different only because we believe Jesus was a prophet and they believe he was the Son of God. Politicians don't understand this.

• People are always thinking about what they're going to buy and what they're going to do, but that's not my idea of Christmas at all. For me, it's just about being a normal everyday Christian.

• Christmas is a marketing strategy to sell useless products. I'm allergic to it.

• Every day should be Christmas, if you want to surprise your friends, why not?

• Christmas is a time to be around your family. And to get presents as well, which is good.

• I always really, really look forward to Christmas because it's a great family occasion. We have four children, three of them are very young and they get really excited about it. I think consumerism can get out of hand, though, so we try to be pretty careful about that. In fact, sometimes we even keep presents back from the children - we have very indulgent relatives. We don't want the children to develop acquisitive personalities. Two or three nice presents is more than enough, I think.

• Christmas is a big, money-spinning idea. The flavour has gone.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=593107

Suspended: putting peace in Christmas

Cincinnati Enquirer

By Peter Bronson

Eric Bast was suspended from Oak Hills High School for five days, because he distributed personal letters to 3,000 students telling them about the original Christmas gift, the love of Christ.

Eric's mother, Denise Bast, did something totally unexpected - she actually complimented Principal David Vannasdall. "He's one of the nicest people I've ever seen give someone a five-day suspension," she said.

Eric said he volunteered to be suspended so his friends who helped him would not be punished.

A senior with a cross shaved into his hair, Eric has been on the honor roll since 7th grade, but says, "I would spend the rest of my life on suspension to get the outcome of even one person committing his life to Christ."

The letter, at www.lettertomyfriends.com, is well written. But it quotes a tough Bible verse, John 14:6, and mentions heaven and hell. Some people were offended.

"He's not afraid to stand up and tell people what he believes," said Scott Duber, Eric's youth music pastor at Impact, an evangelical church.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041219/COL05/412190407/108
0/news01

Christians, atheists face off on town green

Middletown Press

By Randall Beach

MILFORD -- Hundreds of counter protesters who say they want to "keep Christ in Christmas," dwarfed a handful of atheists who gathered on the Green Sunday to protest a Nativity display.

The display is a wooden structure with a glass case showing a Nativity scene. At its base is a baby Jesus in a cradle. Next to the cradle is a sign: "This display is provided by the Hyatt family and not erected, maintained or sponsored by the city of Milford."

The counter-protesters sang Christmas carols and "God Bless America," then recited "The Pledge of Allegiance." Their signs ranged from "Keep Christ in Christmas" to "This is a Christian nation - majority rules."

The Rev. Jim Loomer, pastor of the Berean Christian Center, tried to make peace. "Would anybody care to hear what they have to say?" Loomer asked the crowd. The response was a chorus of "No!" and "Go home!" "They should let these guys speak," Loomer said. "It’s America. Free speech."

When Dennis Paul Himes, Connecticut state director of American Atheists tried to read a statement explaining his position, he was drowned out by the shouting opposition. Himes later said he was surprised by the size of the crowd. Six atheists and about 250 others showed up.

Counter-protesters wished the atheists "Merry Christmas" and sang "Jesus Loves You."

http://www.middletownpress.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13589484&BRD=1645&PAG=461&de
pt_id=10856&rfi=6

Mark says: "Majority rules"? I thought that's exactly what "separation of church of state" was intended to prevent!

Away with the manger

Lawrence Journal-World

By Jim Baker

As Dec. 25 approaches, many Americans find themselves amidst the annual, frenzied season of marathon shopping, endless gift giving and compulsive overeating -- in other words, overindulgence in all things Christmas.

Except, it would seem, for one thing: Jesus Christ.

Which raises an important question: Is the inherent religious message of this holiday -- the birth of a savior, the Prince of Peace -- drowned out more than ever in the swirl of marketing hype, commercialization and supporting the fourth-quarter profits of big business?

"We need some time to be reminded of what we actually are celebrating: the birth of Jesus Christ, the gift of God to mankind. Many people forget that and get lost in the parties and the gift giving."

And the drumbeat of consumption seems to pick up the pace every year, agree some members of the clergy in Lawrence and other Christians. "There seems to be just a gargantuan need to spend money and buy gifts, and that agenda is set by Alan Greenspan (chairman of the Federal Reserve) and the Wal-Mart specials more than by a spiritual aspect," says the Rev. Marcus McFaul, senior pastor of First Baptist Church. "As a result, we max out the credit card, and when we open our credit-card statement we ask, ‘Now, why did we do this?'"

Bill Browning, a student at the Washburn University School of Law and a Lawrence resident, sees much the same trend. "I would say that our contact with the holiday, as Americans, is necessarily commercial. You're reminded by commercials on TV that it's Christmas and that we're supposed to buy things. They've been marketing Christmas in October since long before I was born," says Browning, 39.

McFaul urges Christians to let their religious convictions and deepest beliefs guide their choice of gifts to others, such as donating money in a person's name to a charity that works to provide for basic human needs. "That's a gift that's a little bit more meaningful than a Salad Shooter or another Jessica Simpson CD," he says.

http://www.ljworld.com/section/satliving/story/190755

Non-Christians in winter: Don't be rigid about greetings

Tallahassee Democrat

By June Wiaz

Christians may wonder what non-Christians do on Christmas Day. We go to the movies and eat Chinese food. Sometimes Indian. You wouldn't believe how crowded Asian restaurants and theaters are in South Florida and New York on Christmas.

When a TV reporter for a local station asked my 10-year-old at the Winter Festival parade downtown a couple of weeks ago what was at the top of her list for Santa, she really didn't know how to answer. The reporter asked her three times before giving up and going to the next kid. When I talked to her about it later, Lily said she didn't want to make the interviewer feel bad so she didn't mention that she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Pretty thoughtful, I think.

I will not pretend that this is an easy time of year for American Jews, Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists, especially children who are constantly reminded of how they don't fit in. Some grow to wear their difference as a badge of honor; others conform to the majority later in life. Here in the South it's especially challenging since, as the unthinking reporter showed, some people just don't even stop to consider that there could be a few fig leaves mixed in with the mistletoe. Truth be told, often there are not. But when there might be, what harm is there in issuing a hearty and more encompassing seasonal greeting?

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/10433597.htm

Mark says: I don't know whether I'm more dismayed that a TV reporter might not be aware of disturbing a 10-year old, or endeartened that a 10-year old would be concerned about making a "grown up" feel bad.

'Happy Holidays' protesters overlooking the real problem

Republican-American

Do you have the slightest belief that that 80-hour-a-week automaton ringing up your DVD at the local mall actually cares whether you have a Merry Christmas, happy holiday, or Rockin' Ramadan? Next year, they'll be replacing him with a self-service machine, and you'll probably be able to plug in your tailor-made greeting. "For Episcopalians, press 1. For Zoroastrians, press 6."

But Christians are offended. They're getting the shaft, no matter what the soothsayers scrutinizing the presidential election results say. It's not just Macy's. It's Target, which has given the Salvation Army the boot, insisting that the groups' euphonious pleas make shoppers feel guilty and open the doors for any other bleating mendicant to plead his case on Target's sectarian steps.

The problem is not the de-Christianization of Christmas. It's the commercialization of it. The celebration of the most humble and sacred of events has been commodified and exploited to the execrable point that we are actually boycotting stores that don't commercialize our holiday enough.

Christian groups do themselves a disservice taking on canards that make them look like sanctimonious ninnies. With so much in the world at stake, castigating the mall clerks seems about as useful as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=14087

The Grinch who saved Christmas

Salon.com

The Grinch who saved Christmas

Battling the homosexuals, liberals and Jews, Bill O'Reilly and friends are making America safe for Christmas.

Christmas in Hell

The Pitch

By Nadia Pflaum

The Sheffield Family Life Center’s annual pageant is a heartwarming little tale starring machine guns and the Antichrist.

If it's crazy to stage a Christmas play about the apocalyptic end times, complete with plastic-machine-gun-toting soldiers, the arrival of the Antichrist, the second coming of Jesus and fiery scenes of H-E-double-hockey sticks, then Sheffield pastors Felicito Bagunu and Roger Horne don't want to be sane.

Each year, Sheffield spends around $60,000 to produce six performances of Tribulation Christmas, the congregation's largest outreach event of the year. On average, church officials say, 1,400 souls come forward to devote their lives to Christ after watching it.

Sheffield's drama revolves around the plight of a couple, Dave and Lisa, who are running from the Antichrist's soldiers near the end of the Tribulation. They hide out in the cave of another refugee, a survivalist type who doesn't believe in God. There, they reflect on their predicament, flashing back to a scene before the rapture in which Lisa's mom, her wheelchair-bound grandfather and their local pastor all begged Lisa and Dave to become believers before it was too late. Lisa sings a song: "I Wish We'd All Been Ready." Another flashback recalls how the Antichrist came to power, seducing the masses, ascending to the head of the United Nations and decreeing that everyone allow an electronic chip -- UPC code No. 666 -- to be implanted in their hands or foreheads and used to track individuals and their purchased goods. The Antichrist is assassinated at a press conference but comes back to life with Satan's help and declares himself God. Lisa and Dave are captured by soldiers, but Jesus intervenes and banishes Satan, the Antichrist and the cave-dwelling nonbeliever to the Lake of Fire.

The original Tribulation Christmas was written in 1974 by Mike Brown, an evangelist at a church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He and Sheffield's Horne were friends then. When Horne took over as Sheffield's youth pastor in 1980, he remembered Brown's old script. Horne reworked some parts, and his youth groups began performing it in the early '80s.

"I can't talk right now. I'm at church. I'm getting a bullet hole put on my head," Craig A. Hampton says into his cell phone as he waits for his turn onstage at rehearsal. His deep baritone makes his voice audible from every corner of the massive sanctuary as he lounges in one of the folding church seats, cherry-flavored blood flowing from a volcanic wound above his right eye.

"Has anyone seen Jesus?" calls a stagehand. "Yo, son of God."

Jimmy Shrader, in Carhartt overalls over a white undershirt, is wearing his crotch-vise of a harness and taking flight pointers from Rebmann. "If everything's not in the right place [when the lines start lifting], it's too late," Rebmann tells him, motioning around Shrader's pelvis.

Shrader rises off his feet, then about 3 feet in the air. "How does it feel?" a crew member asks. "OK," he replies weakly. He cups both hands around his mouth, hiding his words from the flight technicians, and mouths, "It hurts!"

"I'm going to be singing soprano," he says. "I've just gotta think positive."

http://www.pitch.com/issues/2004-12-16/news/feature.html

Bethlehem bound again

The Weekend Australian Opinion

By James Murray

Many Christian prayers address God as "Almighty", which many would think a misnomer. Despite concerted pleas to end wars, heal people or achieve worthy ambitions, it is the experience of many that there is nobody there.

The psalms of the Old Testament are full of astonishment at God's failure to act against the wicked and his habit of rewarding goodness with tribulation. And in the controversies about putting Christ back into Christmas, or being politically correct and keeping him out, the raw facts might act as a corrective.

When the baby Yeshua, which we have romanised into Jesus, was born, he was deposited in a feed bin for warmth and safety. It was a Third World facsimile and, if the child was God incarnate, which is dogmatic Christian belief, he was utterly helpless - not a bad image if human experience of God is anything to go on.

Of course, the celebration of Christmas is a retail bonanza, the credit card an entree to often profligate spending. Not that this is inappropriate, considering that December 25, which the church chose as Christ's birthday, was the pagan festival of the Saturnalia, when orgiastic shenanigans were the order of the day. It has done a full circle, as celebrating Christmas did not happen for the first four centuries, and the Puritans refused to observe it.

As for the wild spending of Christmas, the Bethlehem fact file could again prove a corrective, if only because frugality - but not meanness - is good economic policy.

The little family in Nazareth was of no significance in the scheme of things but as modern movements show only too well, there can be significant power in the determination of even just one person. That Jesus was such a character, later events clearly proved.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11719519%255E7583,
00.html

Puritans disdained holiday

The Exeter News-Letter

By Barbara Rimkunas

In the 1870s, Exeter native Elizabeth Dow Leonard wrote her memories of a childhood in Exeter. Born in 1806, she has a great deal to tell us about Exeter in the decades after the American Revolution. Of Christmas she had this comment:

"Christmas was ignored as savoring too much of Popery, and when I was a little girl, only one family celebrated it even by a better dinner than usual. Our schools were kept open, and we lost all the sweet and holy influences ... the blessed season will bring to our children. Thanksgiving and the 4th of July were our only legitimate holidays."

The founders of Exeter, it seems, were strict Puritans who believed, quite rightly, that the birth date of Jesus was unknown and the Christmas date of Dec. 25 was derived from pagan celebrations surrounding the winter solstice and the Roman god, Mithra. In England, the holiday had become a riotous drunken festival very secular in nature.

The Anglican Church still observed the holiday, having inherited it from the Catholic Church. Exeter’s Puritan founders, however, were highly suspicious of anything connected to the Catholic Church, and as there were few Anglicans and fewer Catholics in the town, the holiday produced the same level of discomfort one might experience today when an uncle tells racist jokes at Thanksgiving. A true Christian wouldn’t think of celebrating a debauched holiday like Christmas.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/12172004/news/54421.htm

Blinkered by the 'Christian' in Christmas?

Christian Science Monitor

By Rondi Adamson

I read this month that some Macy's stores are removing their traditional "Merry Christmas" signs and replacing them with supposedly more inclusive greetings such as "Happy Holidays." The goal is noble, if not the methods. The idea that there is something exclusive about saying "Merry Christmas," is, of course, nonsense. I am an atheist, and it doesn't make me feel excluded.

The reason we have a Dec. 25 holiday is because of Christmas. It is not because of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Eid (when the latter falls close to Christmas).

My Jewish sister-in-law finds it amusing that Hanukkah, a relatively small Jewish holiday, is better known to Christians than the more significant Passover and Yom Kippur, largely due to our quest for inclusivity.

We celebrate Christmas because modern North America has Christian foundations, regardless of the changing demographics. Denying history is condescending to non-Christians and assumes a fragility and a lack of understanding on their part.

You don't need to be a believer to enjoy it. But there is no reason believers shouldn't feel free to call it Christmas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1217/p09s01-coop.html

Why I Return to the Pews

Christianity Today

John Koessler

The church has often left me bemused, bored, or mystified, but I can no more abandon it than I can myself.

Down through the years I have made a surprising discovery. Most of the Christians I know are disappointed with their churches, finding them either too traditional or too modern. Their sermons are too theological or not theological enough. The people are cliquish. In the end, the root problem is always the same. It's the people.

Yet Sunday after Sunday these believers return to their pews, expecting God to meet them there once again. Some might view such attendance as an act of futility or an exercise in wishful thinking. I believe it is a work of grace.

The author of The Message and veteran pastor Eugene Peterson has written that when we get serious about the Christian life, we usually find ourselves in a place and among people that we find incompatible. "That place and people," Peterson explains, "is often called a church. It's hard to get over the disappointment that God, having made an exception in my case, doesn't call nice people to repentance."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/012/33.52.html

Thou shalt not miss church on vacation

Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Many tourists find a way to worship, no matter where in the world they might be

A recent poll by the Travel Industry Association of America reported that 28 percent of travelers in the United States went to a church, temple, mosque or other house of worship. Residents in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas ranked among the most faithful, with 37 percent attendance. New Englanders are the biggest Sunday morning sleep-ins: only about 21 percent go to church on vacation.

The faithful, it seems, are called to worship wherever they are. "We have never considered vacations an opportunity to vacate church," says Dale Smith, pastor of Colleyville Presbyterian Church. "So when we're on vacation, we're almost always looking for a church in which to worship."

That quest has taken Smith and his wife to a small evangelical church in Colorado -- guitar, no organ, "much like a college campus fellowship meeting" -- and historic Lutheran churches in Dresden, Germany. "The liturgy was familiar and comfortable to us Presbyterians," Smith says of the latter.

When looking for a place to worship, most travelers stick within their own denomination. Smith looks for a church that serves weekly Communion. If there's no noteworthy church, synagogue or mosque nearby, Ayers opts for a church that's close to the hotel or maybe one with a good organ.

Finding a place to worship is as simple as doing an Internet search on a a denomination and destination city. Type in "Catholic" and "San Diego," for example, and you'll get St. Joseph's Cathedral on Third Avenue. "Muslim" and "Providence" calls up the Muslim American Da'wah Center in Rhode Island.

On a trip to Yellowstone National Park this fall, Bob and Martha Gamblin of Arlington found themselves surprised by a worship service. On Sunday morning, they returned to their room at the Old Faithful Inn and heard hymns coming from the inn's balcony. It turned out to be a nondenominational church service led by a volunteer from A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. The ministry is a 50-year-old organization that holds services in 35 national parks, including in Alaska and the West Indies. The service ended -- a little early -- when Old Faithful erupted.

"It was such a beautiful setting, and it was wonderful to think we were there with other Christians, worshipping together," says Martha Gamblin.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/10375101.htm?1c

Mark says:

When we were on vacation, I took a list of churches on my Palm.

We visited:

• Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City
• Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Gillette, Wyoming
• Calvary Chapel in Lakeview, Oregon

In the case of Vineyard, we found the church in the phone book but their street was not listed on any map. We prayed and just drove around until we found it. A miracle!

One Christian feeling hijacked by politics

Christian Science Monitor

By Gena Caponi Tabery

I live in a country that is increasingly eager to challenge its citizens' loyalty, among people of faith increasingly determined to dispute the faith of others. Some people who call themselves Christians - and some church leaders - are beginning to redefine Christianity in such a way as to exclude worshipers with whom they disagree. I fear a religion in which ideology is more important than theology.

If I question political decisions, am I un-American? If I don't agree with a fundamentalist, am I un-Christian?

There used to be two things that you didn't talk about for fear of causing offense: politics and religion. Today the two are so intertwined, you can't talk of one without the other. And when you do, them's fightin' words, pardner. Nowadays, so many people are looking for a fight.

I'm not. Neither am I afraid to pray in public. But I am afraid of my faith being hijacked to promote someone else's political agenda. I am afraid of my faith being used as a weapon in a crusade against anyone who dares to think or believe differently.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1213/p09s02-coop.html

Cupertino schools sued over ban on founding father excerpts invoking religion

Oakland Tribune

A Cupertino public school teacher is suing his district and his principal, who banned him from using excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and other historical documents in his classroom because they contain references to God and Christianity.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary School in the Cupertino Union School District, filed the suit in U.S. District Court on Monday, arguing a First Amendment right to teach the history of our country and its founding fathers, which includes religious, and specifically Christian, references.

"I've never even tried to hint the kids need to believe this or this is the right religion to believe," Williams told the Oakland Tribune on Wednesday. "I'm just trying to teach history."

Williams' attorney said the principal's policy is a violation of the teacher's First Amendment rights and is blatant censorship of the writings of great men because they mention God or Christianity.

Speaking from his home Wednesday, a school holiday, Williams said the problems started last year after he responded to a student who asked why the Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase under God.

Eventually a parent complained, and the principal started requesting his lesson plans and handouts.

The lawsuit does say Williams, who has been teaching eight years, is an orthodox Christian.

The state's fifth-grade social studies standards include learning about the religious, economic, social and cultural origins of the United States.

Williams said he thinks society has become hypersensitive to any reference of Christianity in the public arena, especially schools. He said he has taught students about Ramadan and Kwanzaa and been applauded for those lessons.

People are like, Oh good, that's diversity,' he said. As soon as Christianity is involved, it's separation of church and state.

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2558339,00.html

If you read the Gospels, the Religious Right is most often wrong

Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

By Rick Mercier

All this hype about the God talk swirling around in our culture prompted me to do a little research (a big departure from how I usually prepare for writing a column). I cracked open my Bible and started rereading the Gospels.

And you know what? I can't see what all this sanctimonious values rhetoric has to do with Jesus. I've compared what I read in Gospels with what I've been hearing from the Religious Right, and I've concluded that the holier-than-thous must have traded in their red-letter editions of the Good Book for red-state versions that omit most of Jesus' teachings.

Jesus was quite a troublemaker. In fact, I'm thinking the Bush administration would have a special place for Jesus were the swarthy Nazarene to take up his ministry today in the U.S. of A.--in a cell with other Middle Eastern men awaiting deportation.

"How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Holy class warfare! No wonder Republicans have switched out the Jesus of the Gospels for a low-rent moralizer preoccupied with what other people are doing with their bodies.

Where in America is the Jesus who sides with the poor and the outcasts? Where in America is the Jesus who disdains those who wear their piousness on their sleeves? Where in America is the the Jesus with the prophetic voice, the radical who dares to tell the powerful what they don't want to hear?

Is he in the pews that fill every Sunday morning with the smug and complacent? Is he in a political party that fights for tax cuts for the rich while neglecting the needs of decent, hard-working Americans? Is he among the "God-and-country" demagogues who push an idolatrous nationalism and who see military service as the supreme form of sacrifice?

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/112004/11282004/1577602

Evangelicals can still be saved

Houston Chronicle

Mainline Protestantism underwent a crisis in the early 20th century with the introduction of a liberal theology at odds with many points of traditional Christian belief. The disagreements erupted in what is known as the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy. Fundamentalists were evangelicals with an attitude. They opposed biblical criticism, all strains of liberal theology and the secularizing impulses of their age.

In the 1940s and 1950s, evangelicalism began to undergo a renewal. Prominent evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham rejected the negative fundamentalist mind-set. Evangelicals increasingly realized that they no longer stood in complete opposition to all strains of liberal theology or every idea articulated by secularists.

Evangelicalism became more at home in the world. It sent its sons and daughters to elite schools such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. It rediscovered common areas of agreement with mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics.

In short, it became more and more diverse, less and less easy to characterize. Evangelicalism now covers a broad spectrum of religious belief and practice from the fundamentalist fringe to socially (though not theologically) liberal activists.

Democrats like to regard themselves as more cosmopolitan than Republicans. But they have been woefully unsophisticated in their analysis of evangelicals, whom they tend to paint in monochromatic hues.

In point of fact there always have been, and still are, evangelicals in the Democratic Party, including former President Jimmy Carter, who once caused distress in the media by announcing he was "born again."

At least 22 percent of self-identified evangelicals voted for John Kerry, a number buoyed by black evangelicals, who vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.

However, this electoral setback is no reason for Democrats to walk away from a tough debate over values. People who love the Bible know that it has hard things to say about anyone who fails to take care of the poor and powerless.

Democrats believe that at their best they are a party that does precisely that — protects people who cannot protect themselves. It is certainly a starting point for a values conversation with evangelicals.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2920482

Martin Luther on Faith and Works

From "The Babylonian Captivity Of The Church:"

"For where there is the Word of the promising God, there must necessarily be the faith of the accepting man. It is plain, therefore, that the beginning of our salvation is a faith which clings to the Word of the promising God, who, without any effort on our part, in free and unmerited mercy takes the initiative and offers us the word of his promise. 'He sent forth his word, and thus healed them,', not: 'He accepted our work, and thus healed us.' First of all there is God's Word. After it follows faith; after faith, love; then love does every good work, for it does no wrong, indeed, it is the fulfilling of the law [Rom. 13:10]. In no other way can man come to God or deal with him than through faith. That is to say, that the author of salvation is not man, by any works of his own, but God, through his promise; and that all things depend on, and are upheld and preserved by, the word of his power [Heb. 1:3], through which he brought us forth, to be a kind of first fruits of his creatures [Jas. 1:18].

Nothing else is needed ... than a faith that relies confidently on this promise, believes Christ to be true in these words of his, and does not doubt that these infinite blessings have been bestowed upon it. Hard on this faith there follows, of itself, a most sweet stirring of the heart, whereby the spirit of man is enlarged and enriched (that is love, given by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ), so that he is drawn to Christ, that gracious and bounteous testator, and made a thoroughly new and different man. Who would not shed tears of gladness, indeed, almost faint for joy in Christ, if he believed with unshaken faith that this inestimable promise of Christ belonged to him? How could he help loving so great a benefactor, who of his own accord offers, promises, and grants such great riches and this eternal inheritance to one who is unworthy and deserving of something far different?

For God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a word of promise. We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise. He does not desire works, nor has he need of them; rather we deal with men and with ourselves on the basis of works. But God has need of this: that we consider him faithful in his promises [Heb. 10:23], and patiently persist in this belief, and thus worship him with faith, hope, and love. It is in this way that he obtains his glory among us, since it is not of ourselves who run, but of him who shows mercy [Rom. 9:16], promises, and gives, that we have and hold all good things.

These two, promise and faith, must necessarily go together. For without the promise there is nothing to be believed; while without faith the promise is useless, since it is established and fulfilled through faith. [The promise] can be approached and observed only in faith. Without this faith, whatever else is brought by way of prayers, preparations, works, signs, or gestures are incitements to impiety rather than exercises of piety. It usually happens that those who are thus prepared imagine themselves legitimately entitled to approach the altar, when in reality they are less prepared than at any other time or by any other work, by reason of the unbelief which they bring with them. O worthless religion of this age of ours, the most godless and thankless of all ages!

The safest course [is to be] prepared not to do or contribute much yourself, but to believe and accept all that is promised you.

From Three Treatises, by Martin Luther

Who Is John Stott?

New York Times

By David Brooks

Many people are misinformed about evangelical Christians. There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.

If evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.

His is a voice that is friendly, courteous and natural. It is humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic. Stott's mission is to pierce through all the encrustations and share direct contact with Jesus. Stott says that the central message of the gospel is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human/divine figure. He is always bringing people back to the concrete reality of Jesus' life and sacrifice.

There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/opinion/30brooks.html?th

Many Who Voted for 'Values' Still Like Their Television Sin

New York Times

By Bill Carter

In interviews, representatives of the four big broadcast networks as well as Hollywood production studios said the nightly television ratings bore little relation to the message apparently sent by a significant percentage of voters.

With "Desperate Housewives" and "C.S.I." leading the ratings, television shows are far more likely to keep pumping from the deep well of murder, mayhem and sexual transgression than seek diversion along the straight and narrow path.

"Desperate Housewives" on ABC is the big new hit of the television season, ranked second over all in the country, behind only "C.S.I." on CBS. This satire of suburbia and modern relationships features, among other morally challenged characters, a married woman in her 30's having an affair with a high-school-age gardener, and has prompted several advertisers, including Lowe's, to pull their advertisements.

In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than two million households, "Desperate Housewives" is the top-rated show. Nearly 58 percent of the voters in those counties voted for President Bush.

The divide between what people accept as proper in public and what they choose to enjoy in their private lives is, unsurprisingly, nothing new in the history of the world or this country.

"When the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock left behind writing, it was William Bradford's, and you can clearly see what they believed in and what their values were," said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, referring to the colony's first governor. "Then you look at the court records and you see all kinds of fornication, adultery and bestiality."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/business/media/22tube.html?th

Some Hard-Liners in Turkey See Diversity as Divisive

New York Times

By Susan Sachs

Under pressure from the European Union and civil rights advocates, Turkey has started to reassess the way it has treated religious minorities.

Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan's government has prepared legislation that would give Christian and Jewish foundations more freedom to manage their own assets and elect their board members. Parliament is expected to vote on the bill before Dec. 17, when European Union leaders are to decide whether to open accession talks with Turkey.

For many Turks, even a discussion of religious or ethnic minorities raises fears of separatism. Some have argued that lifting government controls on religious institutions, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would undermine Turkey's secular foundations. And Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, recently warned that drawing attention to Turkey's sectarian or cultural diversity harmed the state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/international/europe/21turkey.html?th

Books I'm Reading Now

Since starting to spend more time on the computer, I've been reading less. But I've started some new books (and finished a few) over the last month:

• What on Earth Are We Doing?: Finding Our Place As Christians in the World, by John Fischer.

  I always like to be reading a book by John Fischer. His kind of Christianity, inherited from the late Ray Stedman of Peninsula Bible Church, is the most genuine. This book is about being Christian instruments of healing in a decaying society, instead of remaining isolated from the very society that needs us so much and where Jesus sent us to save individuals.

• Azusa Street Till Now: Eyewitness Accounts of the Move of God, by Clara Davis.

  An ultimately disappointing book about the history of the 20th-century American Pentecostal movement, with a tip of the hat to the Charismatic movement of the 1950's and 1960's.

• The Power of a Praying Husband, by Stormie Omartian.

  I read this book about a year ago with the object of understanding my wife better. Now I've read it again with the object of actually praying.

• Protestantism in America: A Narrative History, by Jerald C. Brauer.

  I always like to be reading a history book, and this one is a good follow-up to the last one I read, American Faith. Its outlook is more evangelical than American Faith, but its conclusions are much the same: that the 17th-century movements that have had the most effect on American society were the Quaker and Baptist; and that the influence of the middle colonies, where religious freedom was paramount, far outweighed the influence of Puritan New England and the Methodist South.

• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, by Mark Allan Powell.

  An exhaustive encyclopedia of all CCM acts, including 1970's icons like Love Song and Marsha Stevens, and their 1960's precursors like Ralph Carmichael.

• The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music, by Barry Alfonso.

  Not nearly as exhaustive as Powell's book, and quite disappointing. One would have expected a Billboard volume to have more breadth.

• Mostly Harmless, by Douglas Adams.

  Mostly boring. Inferior to the previous installments in his "trilogy".

• Constructing Accessible Web Sites, by Jim Thatcher et al.

  Just a little something I grabbed to read while fixing up my crashed computer. I've finished about 25% of it, and it's pretty pedantic so far, and not very useful. But the remainder of the book promises to be more practical.

• Danny Goodman's Javascript Handbook, by Danny Goodman.

  A quick read, covers lots of interesting topics.

• Essential CSS and DHTML for Web Professionals (2nd Edition), by Dan Livingston.

  Another quick read. Really just a quick introduction to CSS, then an examination of menus with a little animation.

In Time of Turmoil, Graham Offers Soothing Words

New York Times

The Rev. Billy Graham spoke on Thursday at the 92,000-seat Rose Bowl, the beginning of a four-day crusade that organizers say is his 416th worldwide and his next-to-last.

It was 55 years ago that a young preacher drew thousands to his tent revival in the streets of Los Angeles.

Dr. Graham returned to Southern California this week an old man, shuffling along on a walker, having suffered a broken hip and a leg in the last year. He spoke for 30 minutes on Thursday evening at the 92,000-seat Rose Bowl, the beginning of a four-day crusade here that organizers say is his 416th worldwide and his next-to-last. Dr. Graham's final evangelical crusade, health permitting, is scheduled for June in New York City.

Dr. Graham's testimony was free of incendiary topics of the day like gay marriage, Islamic fundamentalism or the presidential election. He told The Los Angeles Times this week that though he phoned President Bush to congratulate him on his victory, he has not told anyone who he voted for.

People at the crusade said they were pleased that the idea of moral values had bubbled into the national debate, but they also said it was a mistake to think that Mr. Bush enjoyed their support simply because he is an anti-abortion Christian. Their concerns, they say, are like other Americans' and range from the economy to Iraq to self-sufficiency to sizing up a man who they believe means what he says.

The state of the American culture is alarming, many of the faithful said. The litany included the explosion of pornography and gambling, half-naked starlets on television, the dissolution of the traditional family, drugs, violence.

It is not so much that conservative Christians want to push their moral values on others, they said, as it is that they feel others are pushing their values upon them. The debate, to them, is whose values will be the voice in the public square.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/national/20graham.html?th

Under the Cover of Islam

New York Times Op-Ed

By Irshad Manji

Secular Europe can't quite grasp the life of a liberal Muslim.

From Amsterdam to Barcelona to Paris to Berlin, people incredulously ask me one type of question that I'm never asked in the United States and Canada: Why does an independent-minded woman care about God? Why do you need religion at all?

To a lot of Europeans, still steeped in memories of the Catholic Church's intellectual repression, religion is an irrational force.

Not so in North America. Because it has long been a society of immigrants seeking religious tolerance, religion itself is not seen as irrational.

The mass immigration of Muslims is bringing faith back into the public realm and creating a post-Enlightenment modernity for Western Europe. This return of religion threatens secular humanism, the orthodoxy that has prevailed since the French Revolution. Paradoxically, because many Western Europeans feel that they're losing Enlightenment values amid the flood of "people of faith," they wind up sympathizing with those in the Muslim world who resent imported values that challenge their own.

Why do I, an independent-minded woman, bother with Islam? Religion supplies a set of values, including discipline, that serve as a counterweight to the materialism of life in the West. I could have become a runaway materialist, a robotic mall rat who resorts to retail therapy in pursuit of fulfillment. I didn't. That's because religion introduces competing claims. It injects a tension that compels me to think and allows me to avoid fundamentalisms of my own.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/opinion/18manji.html?th

Liberal Christians Challenge 'Values Vote'

Washington Post

By Alan Cooperman

Liberal Christian leaders argued yesterday that the moral values held by most Americans are much broader than the handful of issues emphasized by religious conservatives in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Battling the notion that "values voters" swept President Bush to victory because of opposition to gay marriage and abortion, three liberal groups released a post-election poll in which 33 percent of voters said the nation's most urgent moral problem was "greed and materialism" and 31 percent said it was "poverty and economic justice." Sixteen percent cited abortion, and 12 percent named same-sex marriage.

Tom Perriello, an organizer at Res Publica, said the poll shows that "while there may be a solid 20 percent who are very focused on abortion and gay marriage, for most Americans of faith, there are other moral issues of greater urgency, and that's where the religious middle is."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38001-2004Nov9.html

Time to Get Religion

New York Times Op-Ed

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Democrats need to give a more prominent voice to Middle American, gun-shooting, Spanish-speaking, Bible-toting centrists.

"Don't be afraid of religion. Offer government support for faith-based programs to aid the homeless, prisoners and AIDS victims. And argue theology with Republicans: there's much more biblical ammunition to support liberals than conservatives."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06kristof.html?th

The Values-Vote Myth

By David Brooks

It was not throngs of homophobic, Red America values-voters that put George Bush over the top.

"But the same insularity that caused many liberals to lose touch with the rest of the country now causes them to simplify, misunderstand and condescend to the people who voted for Bush. If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06brooks.html?th

On a Word and a Prayer

By Steven Waldman

Religious voters love President Bush for reasons broader and more vague than merely his positions on specific issues.

"Christians feel misunderstood and persecuted and believe Mr. Bush's victory and presence in the White House is their vindication. The materials circulated in churches repeatedly made the point that Mr. Bush's open discussion of his faith had been mocked by elites, yet he persevered in defending his faith and, by extension, theirs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06waldman.html?th

Two Nations Under God

New York Times Op-Ed

By Thomas L. Friedman

In this election it seemed as though people voted not on President Bush's performance, but for what team they were on.

"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?th

Related:

The Red Zone

By Maureen Dowd

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule.

"Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on 'moral issues.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?th

The Day the Enlightenment Went Out

By Garry Wills

George W. Bush's victory signals the triumph of belief over fact.

"Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th

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Martin Luther on Good Works

This from today's devotions in Martin Luther's book. It is next to impossible to fully learn this about good works. This is why we have to remind ourselves every day to abide in Christ and not "do it ourselves."

Whoever doesn't live in me is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Branches like this are gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned. -- John 15:6

When I was a monk, I read the mass daily. I weakened myself with prayer and fasting so much that I couldn't have kept it up for much longer. Yet all of my efforts couldn't help me in the smallest temptation. I could never say to God, "I have done all this. Look at it, and be merciful to me." What did I achieve with all this striving? Nothing. I merely tormented myself, ruined my health, and wasted my time. Now I'm forced to listen to Christ's judgement on my works. He says, "You did all this without me. That's why it amounts to nothing. Your works don't belong in my kingdom. They can't help you or anyone else obtain eternal life."

So in this passage, Christ has passed a terrifying judgement over all works -- no matter how great, glorious, and beautiful they might appear. If these works are performed apart from Christ, they amount to nothing. They may appear to be great in the eyes of the world, for the world considers them excellent and precious. But in Christ's kingdom and before God, they are truly nothing. They don't grow out of him, nor do they remain in him. They won't pass God's test. As Christ says, they will be tossed into the fire as if they were rotten, withered branches -- branches without any sap or strength. So let others carve from these branches and see what they can create apart from Christ. Let them try to create a tree from its fruit. No matter what they do, all of their works will add up to a big zero.

Older NY Times Articles

Leading Muslim Clerics in Iraq Condemn Bombing of Churches
Tuesday, August 3, 2004

By Ian Fisher

Still, some Christians said they feared that the attacks were a frightening signal of a rise of fundamentalist Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/international/middleeast/03iraq.html?th

Bombs Explode Near Churches in 2 Iraqi Cities
Monday, August 2, 2004

By Somini Sengupta and Ian Fisher

In the first significant attacks against Iraq's Christian minority, at least 12 people were killed and 27 wounded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/international/middleeast/02iraq.html?th

Hug an Evangelical
Saturday, April 24, 2004

By Nicholas D. Kristof

If liberals demand more tolerance for gays and lesbians, then liberals need to be more respectful of conservative Christians.

"It's always easy to point out the intolerance of others. What's harder is to practice inclusiveness oneself. And bigotry toward people based on their faith is just as repugnant as bigotry toward people based on their sexuality."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/opinion/24KRIS.html?th

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Faith at Work

New York Times

By Russell Shorto

With the rise of office ministries and job-site prayer groups, will religion be the next workplace issue?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/magazine/31FAITH.html

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Korean Missionaries Carrying Word to Hard-to-Sway Places

New York Times

By Norimitsu Onishi

South Korean Christian missionaries have become known for aggressively going to the hardest-to-evangelize corners of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/international/asia/01missionaries.html?th

Related story:

South Korean Is Killed in Iraq by His Captors
Wednesday, June 23, 2004

By Edward Wong and James Glanz

An interpreter who dreamed of becoming a Christian missionary in the Arab world was beheaded by insurgents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/international/middleeast/23IRAQ.html?th

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