c. 2005 Religion News Service
Progressive Religious Groups to Go on Tour Against Bush Policies
(RNS) Progressive religious leaders and lay people will embark next month on a 27-city bus tour to spread a message of what they call “beloved community” in opposition to President Bush’s policies.
A coalition of 30 religious organizations said they are launching a national campaign, “The Beloved Community: Building a Responsible Society,” to build awareness on Social Security reform, health care, judicial nominees, the Iraq war and education.
The 15-day bus tour will take off April 4 with a service at Riverside Church in New York, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon on “beloved community,” a nation upholding human dignity, on April 4, 1967.
During that speech, King expressed opposition to the Vietnam War, a message that can be applied to Iraq, said the Washington-based Clergy and Laity Network, which is coordinating the bus tour.
Coordinators said in a statement that White House policies undermine a “beloved community” and American values by scaling back services for the poor, ill and retired.
The campaign is demanding secure retirement, high quality education and health care for citizens of all incomes, as well as the selection of “judges who are not bound by special interests,” the statement said.
Progressive citizens of faith need to make their views on these issues known, said the Rev. Albert Pennybacker, chair of the Clergy and Laity Network national committee. “We will no longer allow our nation to be misled and manipulated into moral mediocrity,” Pennybacker said in a statement.
Among the organizations involved in the tour are Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace organization headquartered in Erie, Pa.; the Shalom Center, a Philadelphia-based progressive Jewish group; and the World Sikh Council, America Region, the representative body for U.S. Sikh institutions, based in Columbus, Ohio.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
`Passion’ Images, Ringtones Available for Cell Phones
(RNS) The next time your cell phone rings, it could be Mel Gibson _ or at least the soundtrack from his “The Passion of the Christ” _ calling.
Los Angeles-based AG Interactive is making three snippets of the movie’s soundtrack available to download as ringtones for cell phones, as well as 12 “premium images” from the film.
The images include several of Jim Caviezel playing Jesus and Maia Morgenstern playing Mary. One scene features Jesus carrying his cross, but none of them shows the brutal flogging or crucifixion scenes.
On March 11, Gibson released a “recut” version of his controversial film about Jesus’ last hours that cut six minutes from the most violent scenes. Gibson said he wants to re-release it every year for Lent and Easter.
Bryan Biniak, senior vice president of AG Interactive, predicted a strong demand, noting that images of the Virgin Mary are among the top five most popular images available through Univision Mobile, a partner company that targets the Hispanic market.
Biniak said his firm worked closely with Gibson’s Icon Productions to select images from the film that would be the “most appropriate.”
“If somebody’s going to be looking at something every time they’re picking up their phone, what kinds of images are they going to want to see?” he said. “Images of pain of suffering, or images that evoke the spirit of the movie? We weighed more heavily on the spiritual side.”
The ringtones _ alongside the company’s other offerings of everything from “7th Ave. Carjack” to the “SpongeBob SquarePants” theme song _ are drawn from the score composed by John Debney.
The downloads are available for 13 cellular service providers, including Cingular Wireless/AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Each download costs $1.95. They are available at http://www.midiringtones.com.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Lutheran Radio Ministry Takes on New Name, Host, Format
(RNS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s radio ministry is undergoing major transformation this Easter season.
The weekly radio show, now hosted by the Rev. Peter Marty, 46, senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, will feature a new “magazine” format with a guest interview after Easter Sunday (March 27).
Known since it began in 1947 as “Lutheran Vespers,” the show became “Grace Matters” on Feb. 13, when Marty joined as host.
Marty said he will reflect on the role of faith for ordinary people in a variety of occupations. His guests in coming months will include a surgeon, a wetlands naturalist and a violin maker.
“I will work to draw the extraordinary grace of God out of their lives that might seem quite ordinary,” Marty said.
“I want to draw on the insights of Scripture, tradition, contemporary culture and everyday life,” Marty said. “In contrast to Christian talk radio, where someone will preach at you for half an hour, this is really an attempt to help people who don’t quite know how to articulate their faith and the grace of God in their lives. I think there’s a market for it.”
Marty will also offer a biblically based meditation on the ideas raised during the interview and share his experiences as a parish pastor.
The host of “Lutheran Vespers” for the past decade, the Rev. Walt Wangerin Jr., an author and speaker, left in January to pursue his writing and teaching.
Already airing on 175 radio stations in the United States, Tanzania, Denmark and Australia, the program added four new U.S. stations Feb. 13.
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Nun Named Publisher of National Catholic Reporter
(RNS) Sister Rita Larivee, a computer-savvy nun with an eye for new technology, has been named the new publisher of the National Catholic Reporter newspaper, the first woman to hold the post.
Larivee was named publisher and CEO of the 40-year-old independent newspaper March 12. She succeeds Tom Fox, who stepped down in January after leading the paper for eight years.
“Professional journalism holds all of us accountable, and provides information so people can make informed decisions,” she said. “That’s absolutely the primary purpose of the paper.”
The Kansas City, Mo.-based newspaper is considered one of the most respected and authoritative independent voices on news in the Roman Catholic Church.
Larivee has served as associate publisher since she joined NCR in 1997. She was responsible for creating the newspaper’s Web site, as well as producing the company’s newsletters.
Larivee, a member of the Sisters of St. Anne, is the first member of a religious order to head the paper. She is the former president of Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass., and holds degrees from Weston Jesuit School of Theology and Loyola University of Chicago.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Columbine school shooting survivor Holly Chieko Pardue
(RNS) “(I) felt God telling me to come. I believe the experience I had back in 1999 was a bad experience that God is now using as good.”
_ Holly Chieko Pardue, a survivor of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., on why she went to the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota to comfort students and their families after the fatal shootings at Red Lake High School on Monday (March 21). She was quoted by USA Today.
KRE/PH END RNS
