Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Pope Benedict XVI held meetings today over the fate of the Legionaries of Christ (photo, left), the conservative order that was devastated by abuse and out-of-wedlock children involving founder Marcial Maciel. The NYT says the abuse scandal spreading around the world is producing "nothing less than an epochal shift" for the Catholic Church. Washington state priest was found stabbed to death in Venezuela.
NPR's legal correspondent Nina Totenberg parses the Supreme Court's church-state jurisprudence after Wednesday's ruling that the Mojave Cross can stay; the LA Times calls the ruling "a blow to the First Amendment." A church-state watchdog group says a cross on the motto of a Colorado Army hospital needs to go.
Hawaii, which sparked the gay marriage discussion waaaaay back in 1993, may or may not (depending on the governor's signature) approve same-sex unions for gay couples. Prosecutors backed off a life-sentence request for former kosher slaughterhouse chief Shalom Rubashkin, instead recommending 25 years (much to the relief of Jewish groups). Students at (predominantly Jewish) Brandeis University are all verklempt over the choice of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren as graduation speaker.
Gotham's last remaining Catholic hospital, St. Vincent's in Greenwich Village, has closed. A wannabe nun is running in the Pittsburgh marathon to raise funds to retire her student loan debt so she can enter her order debt-free.
A bill to (sort of) allow prayer in Florida schools is now headed to newly independent Gov. Charlie Crist. The new head of (historically Baptist) Wake Forest Divinity School is a UCC-ordained woman; Southern Baptist Al Mohler calls it a "unambiguous signal and sign of the future," and I'm guessing not in a good way. The Christian music industry is confronting its gay stars (or maybe it's the other way around?).
Catholic bishops in India have adopted a "zero tolerance" approach to sexually abusive priests and sent it to the Vatican for approval. A church dispute over abortion threatens to derail Kenya's new constitution.The WSJ rediscovers the story about the lack of vultures in India to consume the bodies of dead Zoroastrians. A British judge said religious beliefs have no place in civil law when he threw out the case of a Christian marriage counselor who refused to work with same-sex couples.
Belgium moved toward becoming the first European country to ban the full-face veil for Muslim women (a federal judge also ruled that a Michigan judge did not violate a Muslim woman's rights when he ordered her to remove her veil). And Iraq would like the haggadahs and Torah scrolls seized by U.S. troops by in 2003 returned, please.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:21 am
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named 13 countries - including Saudi Arabia and China - as serious violators of religious freedom. The congressionally mandated panel also included as "countries of particular concern": Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
President Obama is among the hundreds of mourners at Washington National Cathedral for the memorial service of Dorothy Height, a matriarch of the civil rights movement. Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy.
Forty retired military chaplains sent a letter to Obama asking him not to repeal Don't Ask/Don't Tell.
Reaction to the Supreme Court's Mojave cross/war memorial continues to pour in, with some incredulity about Justice Kennedy's assertion (stated earlier by Justice Scalia during oral arguments) that a "Latin cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs." Though evangelicals are generally pleased with the result of the SCOTUS decision - more piety on public land - they are not necessarily happy about its reasoning. One scholar, speaking to Christianity Today, called it a "detriment." because "they've taken a symbol of the church and turned it into a civil religion."
The Vatican has (finally) approved a new translation of the Mass, which should be headed to pews on these shores any decade now. Actually, pencil in Advent 2011 for its roll out, says a key cardinal behind the translation.
The Catholic sex abuse crisis in Latin America continues to spread, as a Brazilian priest has been charged with abusing eight boys since 1995. In happier news, Catholic schools in Massachusetts are taking in Haitian refugees.
The AP says three clergymen are in the running to be the Southern Baptist Convention's next president. The election will be in June. The president of Liberty University's seminary is under fire for allegedly falsifying details about his Muslim past that made him seem more devout and militant than he was. Martin Marty, the redoubtable religion scholar, says "it's not honest" to assert that the Founding Fathers set out to establish a Christian nation.
Mormon temples are going green. A Pennsylvania judge must decide between a family's request to disinter a relative and Jewish law that prohibits exhumation.
Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansan funeral protesters, is appealing a ruling that upheld Nebraska's law against flag mutilation. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has reversed a policy that banned state troopers from uttering sectarian prayers on the job. A motorist in the Old Dominion says the numbers on his license plate refer to his favorite Nascar drivers, not neo-Nazi propaganda (photo at top left courtesy of CAIR.)
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:54 am
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the disputed Mojave Cross in California should be allowed to stay, and that the government went too far in ordering it taken down.
The top American at the Vatican, Cardinal William Levada, said he "wouldn't be surprised" if Pope Benedict XVI issues a more formal apology for sex abuse in June, when the church concludes its Year of the Priest. Our guy at the Vatican, Frank Rocca, says that's equivalent to "all but confirmed." (Full transcript here). The abuse scandal spreading through Chile has now resulted, apparently, in a bombing at a church. An accused Italian priest denounced the "mud" being thrown at both him and the pope.
The NYT profiles victims' lawyer Jeffrey Anderson (we compared Anderson and Vatican lawyer Jeff Lena yesterday). U.S. Catholic bishops call Arizona's new get-tough immigration law "draconian." (In a delicious bit of irony, Mexico has issued a travel advisory for its citizens to avoid Arizona). A New York lawmaker wants to make his the first state to have a "presumed consent" law on organ donations unless people opt out.
The only man to ever admit involvement in the shooting death of Malcolm X is free on parole. The Haitian judge who dropped charges against nine U.S. missionaries said the children they allegedly tried to smuggle out of Haiti were freely given by their parents, but ringleader Laura Silsby will still face charges because she knew the operation was illegal. Six former U.S. attorneys general say the life sentence threatened for former kosher slaughterhouse chief Shalom Rubashkin is too harsh.The Florida Supreme Court has been asked to decide if state aid to religious groups violates the state's constitution.
Former first lady Laura Bush said she lost her faith for "many, many years" after the 1963 car crash in which she killed a fellow student. Mormon officials have rolled out a prototype for a "green" meeting house design that includes, among other things, parking spaces for electric cars. Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham, England (a favorite of evangelicals) is retiring early to take a teaching spot at St. Andrews.
Just when you thought things couldn't get more tense between Israel and the U.S., Israeli forces dismantled several illegal structures in the West Bank, including one named "Obama's Shack." Republicans, meanwhile, see an opening to drive a wedge between Obama and his strongly Democratic Jewish supporters. Nepal's on-again off-again status as an official secular (or officially Hindu) kingdom is feeling pressure from Hindu nationalists in neighboring India. Controversy over who's actually buried in the "Jesus Shrine" in India's disputed Kashmir region has led caretakers to close off access to tourists.
The Seattle artist who unintentionally sparked a national campaign with her idea for "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" on May 20 has apparently backed out, saying in a statement, "I did not intend to be the focus of any 'group'. This particular cartoon has struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for."
And finally this, from WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker, reminding everyone that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, especially when it comes to free speech rights to mock religion: "The degree to which one can tolerate ribbing about one's most deeply held convictions is the degree to which a society can remain free. We honor that notion through our laws and our sense of humor. We may not all laugh at the same things, but most understand that it ain't personal."
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:43 am
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
President Obama, who is hosting a summit in Washington devoted to building economic ties with international Muslim entrepreneurs, announced a new exchange program with Muslim countries.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants evangelist Franklin Graham booted from the National Day of Prayer event on Capitol Hill because he has called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion." Graham, Billy's outspoken son, was earlier dis-invited from the Pentagon's prayer day shindig. Speaking of Congress, the House Chaplain just celebrated his tenth anniversary at the job.
A video has emerged of the Underwear Bomber training with al-Qaida in Yemen. A Muslim Frenchman says that his multiple wives are really mistresses, and aren't mistresses a French birthright?
The AP has obtained court papers documenting that an Italian bishop knew of allegations against a politically connected priest but allowed him to continue working with children for two years. A NYT op-ed wants the Catholic Church to stop fighting state bills that would lift the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse of children. The Dutch Catholic Church says it was "shocked" that a volunteer in a Rotterdam church turned out to be Oliver O'Grady, an Irish priest who molested 25 children, mainly in California, and was the subject of a 2006 documentary "Deliver Us From Evil."
Religious leaders -- including the Catholic bishop of Tucson, are considering suing to stop Arizona's new immigration law. A Haitian judge dismissed kidnapping charges against 10 American missionaries, but one still faces charges of organizing "irregular trips."
USA Today says the newest church-state battleground could be over whether high-school graduations should be held in churches. If they are, many students may appear confused by their surroundings - according to a new survey most young adults don't pray, worship, or read the Bible. Another poll of American adults has 46 percent saying the Supreme Court has been too hostile toward religion.
A Christian stock index based on Christian values and screened by Vatican reps launched in London. The former director of the science program for Texas public schools says she was fired for opposing creationism and would like to sue, please. Oklahoma's House overrode vetoes of two bills that restrict abortions. California's House modified a law that classifies gays as sexual deviants and calls for research into the causes of homosexuality.
The WSJ asks whether Buddhism can make you a better golfer. A Purdue University student has unleashed an, um, campaign, to, ah, poke fun at the Islamic clerics who blamed earthquakes on women who wear revealing clothes. A team of archaeologists say they found evidence of Noah's ark in Turkey.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:54 am
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thank God it’s Friday
Michael Jackson's former rabbi (and the author of "Kosher Sex") has a big agenda for his upcoming rope-line handshake with Pope Benedict XVI: pitching his plan for a jointly sponsored "global family dinner night."
Rabbi Smuley Boteach writes that the Catholic church, with its image suffering from the clerical sex abuse scandal, "must return to its previous posture as a champion of family and what better way than to mandate that all Catholic families worldwide do as Jesus did. Put the worldly stuff away on Friday nights and consecrate it as an evening of holiness and togetherness."
Posted by Francis X. Rocca at 12:39 pm
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday’s roundup
President Obama paid a call on ailing evangelist Billy Graham on Sunday --- son Franklin Graham described the visit as "very friendly, very cordial." In a statement marking the 1915 slaughter of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks, Obama again refuses to use the word "genocide."
Arizona's harsh new immigration law is creating political headaches for Obama; the Rev. Al Sharpton compares the bill to apartheid and Nazi Germany.
The NYT's Ross Douthat takes a dim view after South Park's "knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force" and refuses to include an image of the Prophet Muhammad. Obama will host an entrepreneurship summit for Muslim leaders in DC today.
NPR takes a close look at how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles handled (or mishandled) abuse cases, and also gives a helpful timeline on how the scandal unfolded. There's also a look at abuse cases in the Netherlands. A Chilean cardinal is promising a full investigation into abuse allegations that are spreading through the Catholic heartland in South America. The Vatican is mulling the future of the Legion of Christ after a high-level probe into abuse allegations involving founder Marcial Maciel; the AP looks at the tough road ahead for a Wisconsin lawsuit that seeks to hold the Vatican responsible for abuse. Catholic bishops in India are considering ways to standardize how abuse allegations are processed.
The queen is not amused, meanwhile, about a document from the British government that suggested the pope could preside at a gay wedding, and sing with the queen, during his upcoming visit to the UK in September. The Catholic Church in France is trying to improve its image and recruit new clergy for a church in crisis. The BBC takes a look at celibacy, or as they put it, "a life without sex."
In a story that proves all these abuse reports don't involve some quaint old institution, a study in Chicago found that the Catholic Church in the Windy City is responsible for some 75,000 jobs in the region. Graduation season will soon be upon us, and with it the perennial debate over whether to hold public graduations in religious facilities. A Utah man is fighting a court order not to discuss his fundamentalist beliefs about polygamy with his children. Christianity Today looks at the growth of online seminary education.
Fox News' own Glenn Beck is this year's pick to give the commencement address at Liberty University, although it might be his faith (Beck's a Mormon) more than his politics that raises eyebrows in Lynchburg. Nadia Bloom, the Florida girl who was lost in a swamp for four days, went to church to thank the man who found her; he said God led him to the spot where the girl was located. AOL profiles Jim Daly, the new head of Focus on the Family, and Guideposts profiles the mother who gave the world the Jonas Brothers. Supporters in Idaho rallied for Laura Silsby, the last remaining Baptist missionary who's still being held in a Haitian jail on charges of trying to illegally smuggle children into the Dominican Republic.
Tibetan writer Zhogs Dung has been detained after criticizing China's response to the earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in rural China (government officials say they plan to rebuild all 87 monasteries that were damaged in the quake). Iranian gays find an uneasy refuge in Turkey (but the swimsuits, not so much). And Mac geeks in Israel breathed a sigh of relief when the government lifted its ban on the iPad.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 7:39 am
Monday, April 26, 2010
Obama, Graham: mountaintop meeting
While he was in the neighborhood, President Obama met with evangelist Billy Graham Sunday, marking the first time a sitting president has met in Graham's North Carolina home, said A. Larry Ross, spokesman for the evangelist.
"I am pleased to have had President Obama in my home this afternoon," Graham said in a statement issued Sunday. "He requested a meeting since he was spending the weekend nearby in Asheville. My son Franklin and I enjoyed a brief visit with the president, followed by a time of prayer together."
The evangelist added that he encourages "Christians everywhere to pray for our president.''
The White House issued a brief statement about the meeting in the mountains of western North Carolina.
"The president had a private prayer meeting and conversation with Rev. Graham. He is extraordinarily gratified that he took the time to meet with him."
(Photo credit: http://www.billygraham.org)
Posted by Adelle M. Banks at 7:35 am
Friday, April 23, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Evangelist Franklin Graham won't be speaking at the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer observances on May 6 because Army officials described his remarks against Islam (a "wicked and evil religion," he said) as "not appropriate."
Also in the category of not speaking, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker bleeped out all references to the Prophet Muhammad in Thursday's show after a radical Muslim group threatened violence if they depicted the prophet. The LA Times looks at the show's proud history of skewering the preachy and pompous.
Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium -- the nation's longest-serving bishop -- has resigned after he admitted molesting a young boy 25 years ago. He said he was "enormously sorry." A German bishop who admitted beating children years ago also resigned yesterday.
The AP dissects a suit filed Thursday that seeks to hold the Vatican accountable for abuse suffered by a Wisconsin man. There's some soul-searching happening in Chile as a respected "living saint" of a priest faces abuse allegations, as the scandal spreads through the heart of Catholic South America.
Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who was yanked from celebrating Mass at the National Shrine in Washington because he had praised a French bishop for not turning in an abusive priest to the police, is now defending the larger practice of sheltering problem priests. I'll let him speak for himself on this one: "The law in nations with a well-developed judiciary does not force anyone to testify against a child, a father, against other people close to the suspect," Castrillon told RCN radio. "Why would they ask that of the church? That's the injustice. It's not about defending a pedophile, it's about defending the dignity and the human rights of a person, even the worst of criminals." (Tulsa Bishop Edward Slattery has agreed to sub for Castrillon Hoyos at the Shrine).
Kentucky's Supreme Court struck down an $11 million earmark to a Baptist university to build a pharmacy school; the state constitution prohibits direct state funding of sectarian institutions. In North Dakota, a proposed state constitutional amendment would protect people's "sincerely held religious beliefs" from government intrusion unless a compelling case can be made.
God-on-the-Gridiron football phenom Tim Tebow was drafted by the Denver Broncos -- Gary Stern thinks it's a good pick, considering that Colorado is God's Country for evangelicals. There are now 2 candidates to become the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention. There's a trademark dispute brewing in Atlanta over who gets to claim the labels "Handmade by God" and "Made by God."
As France considers a ban on full-body veils, police fined a Muslim woman who was driving in a face-covering veil, saying she didn't have a full field of vision. In Ontario, a Sikh man refused to testify about a stabbing at a Sikh temple because the judge wouldn't allow him to wear his kirpan, or ceremonial dagger, in the courtroom.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:42 am
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Christian band crowned Artist of the Year
The Christian band Casting Crowns was named artist of the year at the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards Wednesday. It was a first-time win in that category for the group that is known for its members' roles in youth ministries at Atlanta-area churhes.
Other winners:
Female Vocalist of the Year: Francesca Battistelli
Male Vocalist of the Year: Brandon Heath
Group of the Year: NEEDTOBREATHE
New Artist of the Year: Sidewalk Prophets
Songwriter of the Year: Jennie Lee Riddle
Song of the Year: "By Your Side," performed by Tenth Avenue North
Producer of the Year: Jason Ingram and Rusty Varenkamp
Posted by Adelle M. Banks at 3:24 pm
Thursday, April 22, 2010
A shady kind of green
Back in 2007, we reported on the Vatican's plan to become the world's first "carbon neutral" sovereign state, by planting
trees in a Hungarian national park to offset the carbon-dioxide
emissions and energy use of Vatican City.
Last year, we noted reports that the project was more than a little behind schedule.
Now it turns out that the whole scheme was practically nothing more than one Hungarian salesman's fast talk.
At least this is one mess Pope Benedict doesn't have to worry about taking the blame for.
Posted by Francis X. Rocca at 11:10 am
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
In a big PR win for victims' advocates, the retired Colombian cardinal who praised a French bishop for not reporting an abusive priest to police has withdrawn from a big Mass at the National Shrine in DC to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's installation. Organizers say they'll find someone other than Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos (left) to lead the Mass.
Also in DC, members of a tight-knit German Catholic community are trying to make sense of what happened to their pastor, the Rev. Michael Schapfel, who has returned to Germany to face abuse allegations. Speaking of Germany, a bishop in Augsburg has offered to resign after allegations of physical abuse and financial misdeeds.
The Arizona lawmaker who drafted that get-tough immigration bill says Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has no business comparing his bill to Nazi techniques because Mahony is a "guy who's been protecting child molesters and predators all of his life." Prominent victims' attorney Jeff Anderson says he's suing the Vatican and the pope for failing to defrock Lawrence Murphy, the Wisconsin priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys.
From the WSJ (because they say it better than I ever could): "Employees and retirees of Minneapolis publisher Augsburg Fortress are suing their employer, alleging in their complaint that it allowed their pension plan to fail, and used its connection to the Lutheran church as a legal shield to avoid paying them all their pensions."
The Washington Times says President Obama won't be able to avoid a "full-scale eruption of abortion politics" when he finally names his second Supreme Court nominee. Virginia officials have recalled a license plate that read "14CV88" because of alleged links to Hitler and white supremacy. A Texas man has been indicted for vowing to use "deadly force" to stop abortions. Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist who was convicted of murdering Kansas abortionist George Tiller, wants to be released because of alleged mistreatment in prison.
A Miami lawyer says he's successfully pressured Miami-Dade transit officials to keep displaying "Fatwa on Your Head?" bus ads that some Muslims considered offensive. The lawyer, David Yerushalmi, says his client's 10 ads will be back up, along with 20 additional ads for free as part of the agreement. A BU professor who testified in the ongoing Canadian case of two men charged with smoking pot as part of their religion says cannabis may have been used to anoint Jesus' body.
Pentagon officials are mulling whether to rescind evangelist Franklin Graham's invite for the National Day of Prayer (May 6) because of his description of Islam as an "evil and wicked" religion. Mennonites in Georgia (who knew?) are close to getting the right to self-insure their cars rather than buy coverage through state-mandated plans like everyone else. Young Muslims are looking at post-9/11 political involvement.
Civil rights crusader Benjamin Hooks was laid to rest yesterday in Memphis. The Baltimore woman who starved her infant son to death on the orders of a charismatic cult leader won't have to serve jail time, but must report to a residential treatment facility for troubled women. The 83-year-old Catholic priest in Brazil who was caught on tape molesting young boys was moved to house arrest.
The Lebanese man who was scheduled to be beheaded by Saudi officials on charges of sorcery will be able to keep his life, his lawyer says. Two Chinese lawyers who represented the banned Falun Gong sect now face the loss of their legal licenses. And Tibetan monks who were among the first to respond to the recent earthquake that killed more than 2,000 are now being ushered off the scene, courtesy of Beijing. Indonesia's constitutional court has upheld a blasphemy law.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:18 am
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
CNN is reporting that a radical Islamist website has put a ransom on the heads of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad ... in a bear costume.
Pope Benedict XVI is promising "church action" against predatory priests in his first comments since that teary meet-and-greet with abuse victims in Malta over the weekend. Benedict also accepted the resignation of an Irish bishop who says he failed to confront the nation's abuse scandal. A suit filed Tuesday accuses outgoing LA Cardinal Roger Mahony and Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of covering up abuse.
The Miami Herald profiles the city's new archbishop, Thomas Wenski (lately of Orlando). Outgoing Archbishop John Favalora is exiting, stage right, a little early, but says it's because of age, not some kind of scandal. NPR asks whether the sins of Legionaries of Christ founder Marcial Maciel were overlooked because of his ability to bring in cash. The Archdiocese of Washington has identified a priest wanted in Germany on abuse allegations.
Speaking of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Archbishop Donald Wuerl says he won't intervene in a Mass scheduled for Saturday at the National Shrine featuring Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, the retired Colombian cardinal who's under fire for praising a French bishop for not turning over an abusive priest to the police.
GOP lawmakers in Florida are trying to find ways to expand religion's role in the education system, including student-led prayers or other "inspirational messages." The Episcopal Church's flagship seminary may have to sell off some property to help pay the bills. From the Dept. of Irony, some students at Trinity University in San Antonio don't want the phrase "in the year of our Lord" printed on their diplomas.
WaPo pays tribute to Dorothy Height, the "founding matriarch" of the civil rights movement, who died yesterday at 98. The Charlotte Observer's Tim Funk says Billy Graham might be ready to come out of retirement -- sort of -- as his namesake library was reopened Tuesday. Sarah Palin is back in the news for saying it's "mind-boggling" to think the U.S. is anything other than a Christian nation.
Flags are flying at half-staff across China as the country mourns the 2,000+ victims of an earthquake in a remote area near Tibet. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants legislation to ban the full-body burqa in France (neighboring Belgium will probably beat him to the punch). Time magazine says Christianity is booming in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Those on-again, off-again radio stations in Somalia that were ordered off the air for broadcasting music is, well, on again. And a member of the Mecca division of Saudi Arabia's religious police got canned for apparently suggesting that men and women should be allowed to mingle freely.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:27 am
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Pope Benedict XVI told cardinals yesterday, on the fifth anniversary of his papacy, that he doesn't feel alone atop the "wounded and sinner" church he leads. Church watchers wonder if the pope's meeting with abuse victims in Malta could be a turning point in his pontificate.
The abuse crisis continues to spread through Latin America, however. Ireland's prime minister says religious orders should pay $200 million euros to a fund for abuse victims.
Abuse survivors are protesting the celebration of a Mass this Sunday at Washington's National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by a former top cardinal who praised a French bishop for protecting a pedophile priest from the police. The Bishop of Aberdeen, Scotland, said it's "stupid" to blame the sex abuse crisis on homosexuality in the priesthood. The head of the Vatican's office in charge of clergy invited all priests to gather in Rome to conclude the Year for Priests and said "it is absolutely unacceptable to use the crimes of a few in order to sully the entire ecclesial body of priests."
Speaking of priests, the annual survey on American ordinands was released this week. Among the highlights: More than 90 percent of men being ordained to the priesthood held down a full-time job before entering the seminary. Three in five completed college before seminary school. The median age is 33; 11 men are 65 or older. Nearly one-third was born outside the U.S.
Schismatic Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson says he will appeal the fine a German court levied for his Holocaust denial. Miami has a new Catholic archbishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said the Episcopal Church has "deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family" by confirming a second openly gay bishop. He also said he is "in discussion" with a number of people about "what consequences might follow that decision."
The Supreme Court seemed sharply split during oral arguments Monday in a case concerning a college group that wants to receive university funding and exclude gays. Tennessee's attorney general says the state's "Jesus is Lord" license plates violate the establishment clause of the Constitution. President Obama called the late Dorothy Height "the godmother of the civil rights movement." Obama will deliver a eulogy on Sunday for the 29 West Virginia miners killed in the explosion earlier this month.
A bipartisan group of 18 members of Congress wrote to the State Department expressing concern over abductions, forced marriages, and exploitation of Coptic women and girls in Egypt. A Christian techie at a jet propulsion lab is suing, saying he was demoted after he distributed DVDs on the job promoting intelligent design.
Tibetan Buddhist monks are cremating the nearly 1,400 dead in last week's earthquake, which, according to a senior Islamic cleric in Iran, was probably caused by women who wear immodest clothing. A Detroit church included test drives in its Sunday service.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:17 am
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Today is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy. The pontiff, back from a short trip to Malta, is celebrating by hosting a small lunch with cardinals.
A tearful Benedict met with eight abuse victims in Malta, telling them the church will do everything possible to protect children and bring abusers to justice. "Everybody was crying," one of the victims, Joseph Magro, 38, told Associated Press Television News after the meeting. "I told him my name was Joseph, and he had tears in his eyes." A U.S.-based victims group disputes Benedict's assertion that he is doing everything he can to protect children.
Apparently exhausted from a busy day, the 83-year-old pope briefly nodded off during Mass in Malta on Sunday. The powerful cardinal who praised a French bishop for shielding a pedophile priest from the police says former Pope John Paul II saw the letter and authorized him to send it to bishops worldwide. The AP profiles the pope's unlikely American lawyer, and WaPo looks at his opposing counsel.
Speaking of lawyers, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, which pits a Christian campus group against the University of California in a potentially landmark decision between religious freedom and sexual-identity discrimination. WaPo looks at the role abortion may play in President Obama's nomination to succeed Justice Stevens.
The NYT says the White House is "quietly courting" U.S. Muslims. Obama's former Harvard mentor says Rev. Al Sharpton is Obama's link to the streets. A provocative essay pronouncing the death of the black church has a lot of people talking.
Haiti's top prosecutor denies that charges have been dropped against the American missionaries accused of child trafficking. Tibetan Buddhists are reluctant to take Beijing's help after last week's earthquake, which killed 1,400 in a remote province.
Tony Alamo wants a new trial because the judge said the convicted minister "one day ... will face a higher and a greater judge than me." A top officer of a nonprofit Christian missionary group has been arrested on charges of embezzling more than $700,000 from the Virginia group and using it to support a "lavish lifestyle." They're teaching Zen meditation to inmates in Los Angeles (pic at top left).
Posted by Daniel Burke at 8:55 am
Friday, April 16, 2010
You know things are bad when…
...the Raelians start calling you out.
Most people probably know the Raelians from their claim in 2002 to have cloned a human baby, named, of course, Eve. Raelians believe that humans were created in a laboratory far, far away by aliens. Hopefully, they were nice ones, like E.T., and not nasty, like that fatty Jabba the Hutt.
On Thursday, the Raelians said they've been doing other things, too, like "exposing the crimes of the Catholic clergy." Now Ricky Roehr, the Raelian Movement's North American leader, says the Vatican should no longer be recognized as a sovereign state.
"It's disturbing to realize that although my country didn't hesitate to occupy a sovereign state like Iraq for a crime it didn't commit, it still recognizes the sovereignty of a piece of land in the middle of Rome led by a man who has repeatedly denied assistance to abused children," Roehr said.
Roehr also said, according to the press release, that "Raelians have always suggested that members of any religion apostatize (officially depart) from that religion if it doesn't respect the right to be gay, use birth control, be pro-abortion or make any other lifestyle choice."
In response, the Catholic Church said: What's a Raelian?*
---
*I made that up.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 3:56 pm
Friday, April 16, 2010
Friday’s roundup
In a move sure to please social conservatives, President Obama has directed that any hospital that receives Medicaid or Medicare funding (basically, all of them) must allow all patients -- including gays and lesbians -- to decide who has visitation and decision-making rights. The full order can be read here.
Obama said he still plans to issue a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer (May 6) even though a federal judge in Wisconsin on Thursday found the law mandating the annual observance is unconstitutional.
Speaking of public prayer, the NCAA has ruled that college football players will no longer be allowed to use they black eye paint to spread messages, Christian or otherwise, as Florida phenom Tim Tebow was so famous for.
A psychologist at a Connecticut treatment center that worked with Catholic priests said he observed a revolving-door approach to therapy as troubled priests cycled in and right back out into ministry with kids. WaPo says US Catholic leaders are now trying to track abuse claims filed against overseas priests where, in WaPo's words, "abuse might be less likely to be reported and background checks less coordinated."
Rogue Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson, who was welcomed back into the church by Pope Benedict XVI, was found guilty of breaking Germany's law against Holocaust denial, and fined about $14,500.
Father Michael Pfleger, the incendiary Chicago Catholic priest who briefly caused troubles for President Obama, now says he's sorry for voicing support for women's ordination the Sunday after Easter. In case you missed, the NYT assesses Archbishop Timothy Dolan's first year in office. USA Today profiles Oprahesque guru Eckhart Tolle.
Veteran Christian singer Jennifer Knapp has confirmed what was long rumored to be true: she's a lesbian. The Obamas and Bidens released their tax returns, and as the Washington Times put it, the vice president is a bit "tight-fisted when it came to digging in his own pocket for donations." Ouch.
Newt Gingrich looks at the case on campus religious groups that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday. An Arkansas appeals court said a father's religious right to live in a Tony Alamo compound did not trump his children's rights to live without fear of abuse and neglect. A NASA employee is claiming discrimination after he was allegedly demoted for trying to hand off Intelligent Design materials to his coworkers. Two polygamists pleaded no contest to bigamy charges and were sentenced in Texas yesterday -- the first legal action for a polygamous sect that had mostly avoided legal charges.
Beverly Hills SWAT teams (who knew they needed them in 90210?) arrested a man who allegedly shot 2 worshippers at a North Hollywood synagogue last October. A New York imam who got wrapped up in a plot to bomb the city's subway system has escaped jail time, but was ordered out of the country and told never to come back. Transit officials in Miami say they'll pull ads that encourage Muslims to leave Islam with the phrase "Fatwa on your head?"
Belgium appears poised to become the first European nation to ban the burqa or other Islamic garb that fully conceals a woman's body or face. Speaking of female garb, the BYU women's rugby team says it will forfeit a quarterfinals game on Sunday because all the girls are practicing Mormons and need to be in church. A school in Somalia has been told they can't ring their bells because, well, they sound too much like church bells, which are apparently un-Islamic.
A Catholic church in Warr Acres, Okla., is at war with itself over an icon/crucifix that appears to show Jesus in an, um, aroused state. The artist says viewers have gotten it all wrong, but others say it's hard to miss. Full disclosure: the image is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
And finally this, just because it's Friday: A British video game maker says it now owns the souls of thousands of online customers after it inserted language into those "Terms and Conditions" forms that people click without ever actually reading. From the contract, which you may or may not have read before you agreed to it:
"By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions."
Let that be a lesson to ya.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 7:48 am
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Jetting Jesus?
If Jesus were on Earth today, would he use a corporate jet?
"He might today, they weren't available then,'' author and Bible teacher Joyce Meyer told ABC News' "Nightline'' on Tuesday.
The wide-ranging interview of Meyer, who flies a 22-seat jet for her Joyce Meyer Ministries, delved into her history as a sexual abuse victim at the hands of her father and how she overcame that to lead a $100 million ministry in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Mo.
She defended her decision to get a facelift, saying she wanted to look her best for God:
"So many people have the attitude that if you're a Christian you've got to dress bad, wear an old color, not do anything to your hair, have nothing. It's no wonder that Christianity is not very attractive. I mean, how many people do you know in a Western culture that's going to go, 'Yeah, give me some of that'?"
Posted by Adelle M. Banks at 3:09 pm
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Happy Tax Day, fellow citizens. Tea Partiers, about as happy today as Scrooge McDuck, are
descending on their least favorite city and holding rallies across the country to protest (fill in the blank).
Speaking at one such rally, Sarah Palin said "we'll keep clinging to our ... guns and religion - and you can keep the change." You betcha. A few churches are holding anti-Tea Party rallies, and religion scholar Diana Butler Bass writes about why she likes Tax Day here.
The AP moved a massive, multi-part investigative piece that found 30 Roman Catholic priests accused of abuse who had been transferred or moved abroad. Pope Benedict XVI reportedly said at a private Mass on Thursday that Catholics are "under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins ... (and) we realize that it's necessary to repent..."
Benedict heads to Malta this weekend in his first foreign trip since the clergy sex scandal erupted. Theologian and former friend/foe of Benedict Hans Kung said the pope's traditionalist approach has failed and urged bishops to push for reforms in the church. A top Muslim cleric in Europe said damage to the Catholic Church's moral credibility impacts other religions as well.
A Chilean priest has been charged with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including his own daughter - yes, daughter. Schismatic Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson will not attend his German trial on charges of questioning the Holocaust. The NYT profiles Archbishop Dolan, one year into his reign in the Big Apple.
The Alliance Defense Fund announced yet another project designed to "protect" churches from "excessive and unconstitutional government intrusion." Voters in Lancaster, Calif., approved a measure encouraging its city council to pray before meetings. They should probably pray for a lawyer, says the ACLU. Speaking of the ACLU, they're on the case in Baltimore after a Muslim woman who wanted foster children was denied because she doesn't allow pork in the house.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants Milwaukee to stop making Good Friday a legal holiday. Muslim-American women are filing discrimination complaints over their veils. Israel is ticked off that England banned an Israeli advertisement listing holy sites in the disputed territory of East Jerusalem.
The United Methodist Church is redrawing its map of regional conferences and will lose some bishops in the process.
Pew and Templeton released a huge study on religion in sub-Saharan Africa that found most are deeply committed to Christianity and Islam but continue to practice elements of traditional African religions. Sounds like someone's been shopping at the Divine Deli. Human rights groups are calling on Senegal to clamp down on Islamic schools where students are beaten daily and forced to beg.
In a battle of the beards, Brooklyn hipsters are jostling for space with Hasidic Jews. Oy.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:22 am
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Naysayer no-show
The Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson, whose readmission to the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI last January aroused heated controversy (which now seems almost mild, compared to the current scandal over clerical sex abuse) was expected to miss his court date in Germany today, by order of his superiors in the ultraditionalist Society of Saint Pius X.
Williamson is contesting a fine for breaking German law against Holocaust denial.
Posted by Francis X. Rocca at 5:59 am
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
The AP is reporting that the Vatican has "revved up" into full-scale "damage control mode" ahead of the pope's first foreign trip (to Malta) since the sex abuse scandal erupted. Here at home, the AP is reporting that church justice against suspected abusers is swift and severe.
Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, under pressure to resign for his role in handling abuse cases, collapsed during a confirmation Mass but appears to be on the mend. A Minnesota prosecutor is seeking the Vatican's help in forcing an accused abusive priest to return to the U.S. from India to face his accusers in court.
The Vatican meanwhile, seems to be defending its No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who said the abuse scandal was basically caused by homosexuality. The Vatican says only 10 percent of cases involve classic pedophilia (children), while 90% involved ephebophilia (adolescents and teens), and more than half of them involved male priests molesting male adolescents -- ergo, a gay scandal, I guess, at least in their minds.
A divorced Chicago father has won the right to take his daughter to church, against the wishes of his Jewish ex-wife.The Florida man who found missing 11-year-old Nadia Bloom in a Florida swamp says God told him where to go. An Oregon man won a $1.4 million verdict in a sexual abuse case against the Boy Scouts; the case made headlines when it was shown the Scouts keep so-called "perversion files" on people barred from volunteering, including gays, atheists and known pedophiles.
A federal judge has thrown out a challenge to a development project that involved a church, low-income housing and condos; NIMBY neighbors had claimed the Baptist church just outside Washington DC had gotten a sweetheart deal that violated the separation of church and state.
Census workers are urging U.S. Muslims to fill out and return the forms. CNN is about to launch a new Belief Blog, co-edited by our pal Dan Gilgoff. A Michigan court has ruled for a woman who claimed she was injured when she was "slain in the spirit" at a church and no one was there to catch her fall. The parents of one of the five Virginia men charged with supporting terrorism in Pakistan is searching for answers on where their son went astray.
Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee is (again) embracing conservative social stands against gay marriage, gay civil unions and gay adoption, but is also going after the NJ student reporters who did the story, saying he hopes they "find a career other than journalism." Not so fast, the student newspaper says.
WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak looks at the suburban pharmacy that was built on Catholic ideals, not business sense: " The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly proudly and purposefully limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up to one thing: No customers." Give that woman a Pulitzer for best lede I've seen in a long time.
The Anglican bishop of Mauritius (and head of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa) says he'll have no contact with either the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada over the North American churches' tolerance for homosexuality. Christian Today says the Episcopal Church now "shows no sign of turning back." Breakaway parishes are squaring off against the Diocese of Virginia at the Virginia Supreme Court in what could (or couldn't) be a landmark case.
Protesters and police clashed in Indonesia at the tomb of an 18th-century Muslim cleric who helped spread Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Some 400 people are reported dead in an earthquake that struck China near Tibet. At least three Hindu pilgrims drowned in the River Ganges.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:25 am
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Reacting to widespread questions about how it manages clergy sex abuse cases, the Vatican on Monday added a sentence to its guidelines making it clear for the first time that bishops and clerics should report sex crimes to the police. The Vatican's No. 2, meanwhile, said homosexuality, not celibacy, is to blame for the scandal. Guess he hasn't read John Jay's report on clergy sex abuse in the U.S.
Children were "sadistically tormented" and sexually abused at a Catholic monastery in Pope Benedict XVI's native Bavaria, according to a report commissioned by the Church. The Bavarian house where Benedict was born was vandalized by obscene graffiti, and Benedict's private secretary (aka "Gorgeous George") defended his boss, saying it is not "helpful" for the pontiff to comment on every allegation. The AP's Rachel Zoll has the obligatory "No, the pope won't resign, and here's why" story. The Vatican scoffed at suggestions that Benedict could be arrested when he travels to England in September.
The Vatican finally got around to forgiving the Beatles for doing drugs and calling themselves "more famous than Jesus," but Ringo Starr said the Vatican has "got more to talk about than the Beatles." A Hard Day's Night indeed. Incidentally, you won't hear that song, or any other, on Somali radio.
A Vatican investigation of the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ may end with the appointment of a special commissioner to lead to order, which, by the way, put its Connecticut headquarters up for sale. National Catholic Reporter has Part II of its fascinating look at the rise of Legionary founder Marcial Maciel here.
President Obama released a statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying "we must never tolerate the hateful stereotypes and prejudice against Jewish people that tragically continues to this day." A number of evangelicals are backing Obama's push to reduce nuclear weapons, as the president convenes the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
The Salt Lake Tribune has a story on the gay Episcopal priest who's in the running for bishop. Nebraska passed an anti-abortion law and is poised to pass another. Gay rights activists in California failed to gather the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to repeal the gay marriage ban.
A Brazilian rancher was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison for the slaying of an American nun. A Muslim woman is breaking the stained-glass ceiling by running a mosque in Amsterdam. An evangelical pastor in Florida randomly gave away $1,000 at each of three Sunday services. Thousands of Hindus are bathing in the River Ganges, an ancient ritual.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:30 am
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Amid discussion that the Supreme Court will be bereft of a Protestant when John Paul Stevens steps down, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said religion should not be a factor in selecting his replacement.
The AP says Pope Benedict XVI's ivory tower background may explain his "troubled" handling of the sex abuse crisis, including a six-year delay in defrocking a California priest despite pleas from the Oakland bishop to act swiftly.
The pope on Sunday offered condolences to Poles mourning the loss of their president and other high-ranking government officials, and did not mention sex abuse. Questions are now being raised about former Pope John Paul II's role in covering up for pedophile priests. Connecticut's Catholic bishops are urging parishioners to oppose a bill that would lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases.
U.S. Catholics are baffled at the Vatican's media strategy -- or lack thereof. A Massachusetts priest has called on Benedict to resign. The Archbishop of Oregon cancelled his subscription to The Oregonian newspaper and encouraged his priests to follow suit. A former Norwegian bishop who admitted molesting an altar boy is hiding out in a convent in Rome.
Catholics are flocking to the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Western Massachusetts for Divine Mercy Sunday. Other pilgrims are headed to Italy to see the Shroud of Turin.
West Virginia churches held memorial services for the 29 miners killed in last week's blast (photo at top left). The ELCA adopted "historic and sweeping" revisions to its ministry policies allowing noncelibate gays and lesbians to serve as clergy. A gay priest is a finalist to be elected Episcopal bishop of Utah.
An Alabama minister was convicted of killing his wife and sexually abusing his step-daughter.
Israel marks the Holocaust and its 6 million Jewish victims today. Catholics and Protestants in Ireland are condemning a bombing by IRA dissidents.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:05 am
Friday, April 09, 2010
Colson to Tea Party: Still Need Government
Prison Fellowship Founder Chuck Colson seems ready to pass on having tea with the tea partiers.
Writing in Christianity Today, he said:
"The tea party movement may have a lot of traction in America today, but it makes no attempt to present a governing philosophy. It simply seeks an outlet -- an understandable one -- for the brooding frustrations of many Americans. But anti-government attitudes are not the substitute for good government.''
As Tea Party members and other grass-roots groups prepare to head to Washington on Tax Day, Colson said "a massive wave of anti-government sentiment'' should "deeply trouble'' Christians.
"We should be instructing people enraged at the excesses of Washington and the growing ethical malaise in the Capitol to focus their rage at fixing government, not throwing the baby out with the bath water. We Christians are to be the best citizens, praying for our leaders and holding them in high regard, even as we push for the reforms desperately needed to keep representative government flourishing.''
Posted by Adelle M. Banks at 2:51 pm
Friday, April 09, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Supreme Court Justice John Stevens, for decades a fixture of the
court's liberal block, will retire this summer. (That's him in the Cubs jersey at top left.) Joining him in
retirement will be Rep. Bart Stupak, the anti-abortion Dem and ardent
Catholic who is under fire for his vote for the health care bill last
month.
Pope Benedict XVI's spokesman said the pontiff is willing to meet with more victims of clergy sexual abuse. Norway's Catholic Church has received new allegations of clergy sex abuse.
The U.S. Catholic Church, particularly the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the epicenter for accusations of sexual abuse cover-ups, is facing a "crisis of empty pews and empty coffers," Reuters reports. The Diocese of Fargo will close its seminary at the end of the 2010-2011 school year because of finances, and a small college in Georgia run by the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative order under Vatican investigation, is closing a month early for similar reasons.
Extraditing a Catholic priest from India accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota may take several years, a prosecutor said. New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled that conversations between a man accused of sexual abuse and his priest are protected by the clergy-penitent privilege.
Tariq Ramadan, the Muslim scholar banned the U.S. since 2004, spoke in NYC last night, and says he looks forward to entering the country without having to tell authorities what he plans to talk about. A man entered a Sikh temple in Cleveland and raised a meat cleaver near two men before being shot and killed by police. Several dozen Sikhs in NYC protested a speech by an Indian official who they say instigated a 1984 riot that left 3,000 Sikhs dead.
Environmental regulators in New Jersey don't know what to do with 2,000 trash bags full of Jewish texts and clothing that Orthodox Jews say their faith forbids them to discard. Westboro Baptist Church is protesting at the site of the West Virginia mine explosion. A prominent Baptist pastor says the SBC has not kept its promise to eradicate racism.
A Catholic school President Obama attended as a youth wants him to visit when he travels to Indonesia later this year. A Methodist bishop who was the first black prime minister of the white-dominated government before Zimbabwe's independence, died Thursday.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:16 am
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
A Catholic bishop in Norway who resigned last year admitted that he had molested a child about 20 years ago, church officials said Wednesday. New Zealand's Catholic Church said it's investigating five new claims from decades ago. A leading African archbishop said clergy sex abuse is a problem on his continent as well. Abuse survivors' groups are proliferating throughout Europe, CNN says.
All the revelations are resurrecting painful members for abuse survivors here, says the AP. The Vatican's former secretary of state has taken a lead role in defending Pope Benedict XVI from "unjust attacks" in the media. The current No. 2 says "basta, basta" (enough!) on the subject of sex abuse. The crisis engulfing the church probably means more rigorous background checks before picking another pope or cardinals. Costa Rica's president, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, says the church should stop demanding that its priests be celibate.
President Obama has shifted the focus of America's relationship with Muslims from fighting "Islamic radicalism" to forging common ground on issues like health care, science, and education, the AP reports. The decision to issue a visa to Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, who will be in the U.S. this week after being barred since 2004 by the Bush administration, may be part of that effort.
Obama named 10 members of a Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, including a Franciscan friar from the University of Chicago.
The appointment of a Mexican-born archbishop in Los Angeles shows the direction Benedict wants American Catholicism to take, says Rocco Palma in a LA Times editorial. ELCA Presiding Bishop Hanson hopes to have a candid conversation with the Presiding Bishop of Tanzania, who on Easter criticized the ELCA's decision to allow noncelibate gay and lesbian pastors.
A federal judge has dismissed part of a labor lawsuit brought by a former Scientologist who says she worked 100-hour weeks for almost no pay. A Baylor study sees links between religion and racism. A Jewish group unleashed a "Twitterstorm" on Glen Beck. A theologian says his belief in evolution got him booted from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla. A controversial Pentecostal preacher (pic at top left) who makes his followers panhandle in the name of abused children is trying to build a school for troubled teens.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:27 am
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
The Vatican "heatedly defended" Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, according to the AP, saying that charges that the pope mishandled cases of predatory priest are part of anti-Catholic "hate" campaign motivated by Catholic opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
"The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted," said the Vatican's dean of the College of Cardinals, "and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church." In Germany, nearly 2,700 people have called a church-run sexual abuse hotline in its first three days in operation; most were victims.
NPR says a big question lies at the heart of two sex-abuse lawsuits wending their way through federal court: Does the Vatican control its priests? Vatican observers say the sex abuse scandal lays bare the Vatican's central flaw: its outmoded and inept management.
President Obama spoke in deeply personal terms of his faith in redemption through Christ's resurrection at an Easter breakfast at the White House on Tuesday. Before breakfast, he met privately with about 20 prominent black clergy, amid grumbling that African Americans are low on his agenda.
White House advisers plan to remove terms like "Islamic radicalism" from a national security report to emphasize that the U.S. does not view Muslims through the lens of terrorism, the AP reports. The administration has authorized the assasination of an American-born Muslim cleric with ties to the accused Fort Hood shooter and Underwear Bomber.
Los Angeles, the nation's largest Roman Catholic diocese, has a new archbishop, Jose Gomez, who will become the highest ranking Latino Catholic in the country. The Archdiocese of Chicago is bestowing a lifetime achievement award the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who was suspended from ministry briefly during the 2008 presidential campaign for mocking Hillary Clinton.
When Supreme Court Justice John Stevens retires there will be no more Protestants on the high court, NPR reports, unless of course he's replaced by one.
Government officials in two FLDS communities misused government funds, according to Utah officials. The ACLU wants a Louisiana politician to stop washing employees' feet during Holy Week. A man arrested in Texas claims that his religious beliefs justify his use of "deadly force" to stop abortions.
California lawmakers are working to repeal a state law that classifies homosexuals as "sexual deviants" and looks for the "causes and cures" of homosexuality. Students in Mississippi held a private prom to avoid inviting a lesbian.
The WaPo traces the journey of a young Russian to Islamic radical. Morocco expelled about 50 Christians for proselytizing last month. Australian cops stopped a graphic reenactment of the Crucifixion (pic at top left). Nepal's "living goddess" wants to be a banker when she grows up.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:18 am
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
The pope has named San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez as coadjutor
archbishop (designated successor) of Los Angeles; he is expected to
succeed longtime LA Cardinal Roger Mahony when he reaches the
mandatory retirement age of 75 next year. The move also places Gomez in
line to be the first Hispanic cardinal in the U.S. church, and one of
the most prominent Hispanic leaders in the Catholic Church worldwide.
The NYT continues to push the Catholic sex abuse story, this time with a story about a known abusive priest who worked in Minnesota and is now assigning teachers at Catholic schools in India. A county attorney in Minnesota is trying to have the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul extradited to face charges. A Vatican attorney said officials there wanted him defrocked, but the local bishop instead ordered him to a year of prayer in a monastery.
President Obama is breakfasting with Christian leaders this morning over at 1600. Our own Dan Burke, who's on the scene, said Obama held a private meet-and-greet with black church leaders prior to the main breakfast in the White House East Room.
The Washington Times is starting a new series on efforts to bridge interfaith differences. The (London) Guardian reports that angel-themed teen books are giving vampire novels a run for the money. A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she wasn't paid enough while working for the Church of Scientology's elite inner circle.
A trial is scheduled to start today in Mobile, Ala., for an traveling evangelist accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer. A Texas man has threatened to use "deadly force" at abortion clinics if the US Supreme Court doesn't immediately outlaw abortion. The Ohio teenager who left her Muslim family for a Florida evangelist she met on Facebook now faces deportation to her native Sri Lanka.
In Egypt, Muslims are tussling over whether women have the appropriate emotional wherewithal to hold top judgeships. Some 88 gay couples have tied the knot in Mexico City since same-sex marriage became legal last month (and gay couples in the US are being encouraged to check the "married" box on Census forms). A second Jihad Jane wannabe (she's also pregnant) is expected to plead not guilty to terrorism charges, lawyers said.
An ordinarily quiet Christian art museum in the Netherlands is drawing crowds -- and raising eyebrows -- with its exhibit of 122 artistic representations of the lingam, the phallus-shaped representation of the Hindu god Shiva.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:38 am
Monday, April 05, 2010
Obama cancels church search?
As you may well know, the first family attended an Easter service at an AME church in a poor and violent DC neighborhood on Sunday. WaPo has a nice story about the service. For you church nerds/politicos, the pool report is below.
But don't expect President Obama and the first family to grace the pews at Allen Chapel AME Church every Sunday. Obama told Matt Lauer last week that:
"We've decided for now not to join a single church. The reason is because Michelle and I have realized we are very disruptive to services," Obama replied. "We occasionally go across the street to St. John's, which is a church that a lot of presidents traditionally have gone to. We love the chapel up in Camp David. It's probably our favorite place to worship because it's just family up at Camp David."
This seems to indubitably confirm Time's Amy Sullivan's reporting from last July. The questions now seem to be: How often will Obama attend church in DC? Will he essentially become a Chreaster?
It doesn't seem that way: The administration told me last month that Obama has attended services at Camp David about a half-dozen times. He's also been to St. Johns, an Episcopal Church, as the president told Lauer, and to Vermont Ave. Baptist Church, in January.
So, what if the Obamas don't join a church? Does it matter politically or theologically? Should anybody care?
Here's the (unedited) pool report, provided by Chuck Lewis of Hearst Newspapers: President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha and Mrs. Marian Robinson, mother of Mrs. Obama, attended 11 a.m. Easter services at the Allen Chapel, African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Southeast Washington's Ward 8.
The motorcade left the North Portico at 10:45 a.m. (The South Lawn was set up for the Monday Easter Egg Roll), rolled down 15th Street , past the Tidal Basis where throngs were examining the faded cherry blossoms, to the church at 2498 Alabama Av. SE. The Church's subtitle is ``The Cathedral of Southeast.''
The overflow crowd of congregants was standing, clapping and singing ``Halleilua'' when the first family entered via a side door at 11:05 a.m. and walked along the edge of the sanctuary to sit far stage right in the second pew, setting off applause, cheers and cell-phone cameras. The altar was flanked by the American flag, in front of the Obamas' pew, and the Episcopal Church's flag on stage left.
The pool was positioned at the back of the church, 20 pews behind the Obama family. Ten badged ushers in dark suits and bowties and white gloves lined the two aisles.
A 50-person choir arrayed on three rows in the sanctuary facing the congregation sang several gospel songs, clapping and waving to the beat of a key-board ensemble. The president swayed gently to the strong beat and the amped-up sound system.
A number of speakers referred to the president's attendance. ``The president of the United States and his family,'' ``our black president,'' ``the commander in chief.''
The Rev. Dr . Michael E. Bell Sr., pastor of the church, referred to the president as the ``most intelligent, most anointed, most charismatic president of America.'' He called Mrs. Obama ``his beautiful wife - TV cameras don't do her justice.''
``God has His hand all over you,'' Pastor Bell said, referring to the president. ``Anyone would be foolish to come up against him.''
Pastor Bell called Mrs. Robinson ``a true AMEer'' who was ``born an AMEer.''
Pastor Bell said it ``was no accident that he (Obama) is here in light of what happened here last Tuesday,'' referring to the drive-by shooting deaths of four people in the African American community in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in recent Washington history. The president's presence was ``helping our community heal,'' Pastor Bell said.
Pastor Bell announced that the Obama family would leave after they receive communion. The first family knelt at the communion rail, far stage right, as the Rt. Rev. Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr., presiding bishop, recited the Lord's Prayer and then distributed communion, starting far stage left and working his way to the first family. Communion consisted of wafers and individual thimble-size glasses of grape juice.
Mortorcade departed church at 12:50 p.m., back to the White House at 1:04 p.m.
The photo at top left, by White House photog Pete Souza, is the first family at Allen Chapel AME Church on Sunday.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 2:01 pm
Monday, April 05, 2010
Monday’s roundup
President Obama and the first family spent Easter at an AME church in D.C.'s poorest neighborhood.
The two-hour service included a lot of singing, shouting and foot-stomping. "If you came in here to sit and be still, I'm sorry. Move down the street," said one associate minister, drawing a loud cheer, according to WaPo. "Excuse me, first family, but we like to get crazy up in here. You might see shoes flying, hair flying. But we are praising the Lord."
The mood was a little more subdued at the Vatican, where a top cardinal again defended Pope Benedict XVI against charges that he mishandled cases of predatory priests before he became pontiff. "Holy Father, the people of God are with you, and do not let themselves be impressed by the gossip of the moment, by the challenges that sometimes strike at the community of believers," said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, according to NYT.
The cardinal referred to the apostle Peter's account of Jesus during the passion: "When he was reviled, reviled not again." Benedict then hugged Sodano, but didn't mention the scandal in his Urbi et Orbi address.
A number of other Catholic bishops forcefully defended the pope from the pulpit yesterday. Anti-Benedict protests are growing in Britain, according to the AP, where the pope is scheduled to visit in September, and some lawyers are seeking to remove his head-of-state immunity from sex abuse lawsuits. Speaking of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Catholic Church in Ireland had lost "all credibility" then apologized. The bishop of Muenster, Germany, was attacked by a guy with a broomhandle.
Meanwhile, accusations against top Catholic officials, including Benedict and the highest-ranking American at the Vatican, continue to emerge. B16 waited 14 years to defrock an Arizona priest his own bishop described as "satanic," and Cardinal William Levada, while he was archbishop of Portland, Ore., removed a priest then let him return to limited ministry without telling local Catholics.
A Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl is working in his home diocese in India and has no plans to return stateside, sex abuse victims in Malta want the pope to apologize when he visits next week, and NPR explores how National Catholic Reporter has covered the scandal. The AP's Rachel Zoll says it's like 2002 all over again for the church.
In non-sex abuse news, houses of worship in the U.S. are facing foreclosures at an unprecedented rate, says Reuters. Churches in Rhode Island are just glad that it stopped raining, and an Alabama evangelist is facing life in prison for killing his wife and sticking her in a freezer.
Photo of the first family at prayer courtesy of the White House.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:08 am
Friday, April 02, 2010
Friday’s roundup
There's a strange silence at the Vatican during Holy Week on the clergy sex abuse crisis as European bishops push for more transparency. Others are just ticked off. Meanwhile, the scandal is opening up old wounds in Boston. Filipino Catholics nailed themselves to crosses in an annual display that the Catholic Church frowns upon (left, AP photo).
Catholic priests, meanwhile, struggle with how to address (or not) the scandal. Jim Martin reminds the church not to shoot the (media) messenger, while others think the abuse scandal could overwhelm Benedict XVI's legacy as pope. The Anglican bishop of London says racy "adverts" (gotta love that word) rob children of innocence in the same way predatory priests do.
The apple-cheeked nun in charge of the Vatican investigation of U.S. Catholic nuns has named 19 primary targets for the three-year probe, asking her hosts to receive investigators with grace, patience and courage.
The Times of London, meanwhile, takes a look at what's involved in making millions and millions of hot cross buns for Easter. And the Salt Lake Tribune looks at what's involved in all those meetings Mormons love to have (though not as many as they used to).
A Rhode Island man is accused of duping a group of Massachusetts nuns with a $3 million donation for a school that turned out to be fake. And actor John Malkovich is trying to recover $2.3 million from a fund managed by Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff; a trustee said he probably won't see more than the $670,000 he deposited. A defiant Scott Roeder, convicted of killing Kansas abortionist George Tiller in the foyer of his church, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison; he'll be eligible for parole in 50 years.
The National Association of Evangelicals' relief arm, World Relief, is under fire for a new policy that says it will only hire Christians. The EEOC is going after Lowe's after a Baptist employee complained he was forced to work on Sundays. A federal court has ruled that Homeland Security officials violated the rights of a Texas evangelical ministry when they seized the group's "$1 million" gospel tracts (the government doesn't print $1 million notes, so it wasn't forgery). Contractors have filed suits against the Crystal Cathedral, saying they're owed $2 million in outstanding payments.
Muslim groups say travellers are having a hard time re-entering the United States when they return from overseas. The ACLU, meanwhile, is hoping to help protect Muslims from aggressive questioning by the FBI.
A Russian newspaper is reporting that one of the female suicide bombers in the Moscow subway attacks was a 17-year-old widow of an Islamic extremist who was killed last December. Spanish police scuffled with a group of Muslims who were trying to pray inside a Cordoba cathedral that was once the Great Mosque. A Muslim woman in Malaysia will perform community service instead of being caned six times for drinking beer. A Lebanese man charged with sorcery by Saudi officials was scheduled to be beheaded today.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:21 am
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Psssst … a liberal blog is actually liberal!
The folks over at HuffPo made a big splash a few weeks ago with their new religion section that so far has been a mix of religion stories around the web and left-of-center commentary. Here's how HuffPo foundress Arianna Huffington described what she envisioned at the start:
"It will also be home to an open and fearless dialogue about all the ways religion affects both our personal and our public lives. And it will do so in a way that moves beyond the pigeonhole depictions of both the faithful and the agnostic we see so frequently -- and also beyond the tired assumption that God is a card-carrying member of one political party or another."
Now the right-of-center Culture and Media Institute has some news: HuffPo is liberal, and "hates religion." From their analysis (based on "the first two weeks of stories and columns from HuffPost Religion from its start date, Feb. 24, through March 10."):
-- 81 percent of the stories and columns (13 out of 16) that focused on Christianity either criticized certain Christian denominations, leaders or beliefs.
-- Nearly 50 percent (36 out of 78) of the articles focused on atheists, agnostics, opponents to organized religion or non-Christian religions, despite the fact that nearly 80 percent of Americans claim the Christian religion
-- Over 20 percent (17 out of 78) of the articles exploited religion to promote a liberal agenda, focusing on topics such as homosexuality, global warming and universal health care.
Here's the natural follow-up question: So what? Did anyone really think HuffPo wasn't a liberal-oriented site? The CMI's Dan Gainor told our own Kimberlee Hauss that HuffPo masks itself as a legitimate mainstream news source, but is anything but:
"There's a big difference between liberal and what the Huffington Post is publishing. In many cases, its anti-religious. I think most of the liberal people I know would be stunned by that. Roughly half the stuff caters to atheism or anti-religious material. We wanted to see how the left views religion. Even we were surprised how bad it is."
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 2:00 pm
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Cancel that check
This just in, from the Dept. of Things You Don't See Everyday:
Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, a former GOP lawmaker in Louisiana and one-time GOP candidate for a Senate seat, is telling supporters not to give money to the Republican National Committee. The reason? That $2,000 bar tab at a lesbian bondage-theme nightclub in WeHo. He's also not crazy that the RNC has hired pro-gay marriage legal eagle Ted Olson in a campaign finance court case.
Says Perkins:
This latest incident is another indication to me that the RNC is completely tone-deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people from whom they seek financial support.
And this:
I've hinted at this before, but now I am saying it--don't give money to the RNC. If you want to put money into the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values. Better yet, become a member of FRC Action and learn about the benefits it offers, including participating in the FRC Action PAC which can support candidates who will advance faith, family and freedom!
Note that last part: Perkins says the RNC doesn't know how to spend donors' money wisely, but he does.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 12:00 pm
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
The Vatican, including the highest-ranking American in the curia, is defending Pope Benedict XVI against implications that he failed to remove predatory priests from ministry.
Cardinal William Levada, the church's chief doctrine enforcer, slammed the NYT for its coverage of an abuse case in Wisconsin in which the church trial of a serial molester was halted. Levada is just one of a number of bishops issuing increasingly strident condemnations of the media in general and The Times in particular. That didn't stop him from talking to the Old Gray Lady on Thursday, though.
The Times has responded by posting the Wisconsin documents online and publishing a story today on the document trail in which the priest in charge of the Wisconsin trial now admits that The Times did not misquote him.
WaPo says the Catholic hierarchy is mounting a PR blitz in the U.S. and Europe to "ease Catholic anger and bolster the pope's image." The papal spokesman says Benedict sees the sex scandal as a "test for him and the church." Swiss bishops urged clergy sex abuse victims to file criminal complaints, Danish bishops are launching an investigation, and Austria's senior bishop is celebrating a Mass of repentance.
The pope himself celebrated Holy Thursday Mass today but did not mention the scandal. Florida lawyers say the Vatican office headed by Benedict failed to remove a pedophile priest, even when the priest himself asked to be defrocked. The AP has documents that seem to show that Pope Paul VI was told about the problem of pedophile priests 50 years ago.
NPR reports that some priests credibly accused of abuse are being quietly returned to ministry, and has a story by a Catholic historian on papal resignations.
A Muslim man says he dropped a dime on the Hutarees. A second South Carolina parish has left the Episcopal Church. The AP moved the umpteenth story on circuit-riding rabbis. Tony Alamo lost his phone privileges in jail, and a Louisiana prison can't block an inmate from receiving the Nation of Islam's newspaper. Christians are using online ratings to find a church.
Russian President Medvedev told police to be "more cruel" in fighting Muslim terrorists. A Malaysian judge has commuted the caning sentence of a woman who drank beer. Belgium wants to ban burqas. Muslims and Hindus attacked each other in southern India.
Catholic bishops in England are telling voters to consider candidates' positions on gay marriage before voting. Queen Elizabeth II handed out "Maundy money" to her subjects. Somebody has ordained Barbie. I don't probably don't need to tell you she's an Episcopalian. If you thought the row over Bishop Robinson was bad, wait til Ken gets a collar.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:36 am