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Raw Material Holy Week Overload Edition

Compiled by CT staff

The week’s religion news, not yet entirely organized.

Christianity Today April 5, 2007

Holy Week is always a busy religion week. And it’s a particularly busy week over here with us both closing our May issue and taking Good Friday off. So while we’ve had a chance to grab the week’s religion news, we couldn’t put everything into our usual neat categories by the time the bell rang. But since you’re enough of a news junkie to be reading this over your weekend, we hope you won’t mind this inconvenience. (Take a page from Alan Jacobs and enjoy the serendipity that a less-categorized list like this can encourage.)

We’ll clean this list up early next week. And then offer another heaping helping of hot linky goodness.

Index | Easter | Lent & Holy Week | Theology & the Resurrection | New gospels | Church life | AIDS | Zimbabwe | Abuse | Crime | Lawsuits | Grace Church | Anglicanism | Mormonism | Catholicism | John Paul II | People | Politics and politicians | Education | Homosexuality & same-sex marriage | Life ethics | Stem cells | Morality & psychology | Entertainment | Chocolate Jesus | Best of luck

Easter:

  • Easter’s meaning split is between the sacred and the secular | For some, it’s all about the bunny (Houston Chronicle)
  • Church sues state | The Relevant Church filed lawsuit after being denied use to the State Office Building for Easter Services (News10, Syracuse, N.Y.)
  • Once the butcher for the world, now a quarter-acre lot | At one of the last of Chicago’s classic slaughterhouses, Passover and Easter mean the lambs’ days are numbered (The New York Times)
  • Passover and the Passion | Why is this week different from all other weeks? It begins with Passover and ends with Easter. (James Carroll, The Boston Globe)
  • Faithful build a Second Life for religion online | This week, Second Life will feature Easter events and Passover celebrations, as well as the usual meditation meet-ups, Muslim prayers and legions of gatherings for spiritual freelancers (USA Today)
  • Keeping Passover, Easter and a space to park | A confluence of religious holidays has created an unusually long stretch when some drivers can take a break from worrying about alternate parking rules (The New York Times)
  • It must be Easter | It never fails, as Church-bashers remember to take the holy out of Holy Week. (Lisa Fabrizio, The American Spectator)
  • Easter prime marketing time for skeptics | It’s a predictable part of the Easter season: The period of reflection on the Crucifixion and Resurrection has become a popular time for marketers to roll out works — from the scholarly to the sensational — that challenge Christianity’s core beliefs (Associated Press)

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Lent & Holy Week:

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Theology & the Resurrection:

  • Jesus lives or Christianity dies | Take Easter away, and we are at best like the first-century Jews, still hoping for redemption to happen but with no sign that it has just yet. And at worst we are back with some kind of paganism — which is where, ultimately, the denial of resurrection will leave you (N.T. Wright, On Faith)
  • And on the third day … ? | A Somerfield PR officer wanted to tell everyone the true meaning of Easter, until it became clear that she didn’t have a clue either (Theo Hobson, The Guardian, London)
  • Store gets egg on its face over Christ’s Easter ‘birth’ | Press release claims that the tradition of giving Easter eggs was to celebrate the “birth” of Christ. An amended version changed this to the “rebirth” of Christ. Finally a third press release accepted Church teaching that Easter celebrated the resurrection of Christ (The Times, London)
  • A debate for the millennia: Did Jesus rise from the dead? | The resurrection of Jesus still draws a crowd, even when it’s not Easter Sunday (The Washington Post)
  • Easter message: Christ did not die for sin | Jeffrey John attacks penal substitution (The Telegraph, London)
  • Crucifixion makes God seem like a psychopath, says cleric | One of the country’s most controversial clerics was at the centre of a new controversy yesterday after saying that traditional teaching about the Crucifixion was “repulsive” and made God seem like a “psychopath” (The Telegraph, London)
  • Cross purposes | Penal substitution, the idea that God murdered his son for the salvation of the world, is unbiblical, barbaric and morally indefensible (Giles Fraser, The Guardian, London)
  • Rediscovering Mary | Holy Week holy reading. An interview with Frederica Mathewes-Green (National Review Online)
  • Religion news in brief | Romero anniversary; Bishops condemn work of Marquette University theologian; Lutheran leader condemns prosperity gospel; and other stories (Associated Press)
  • Missouri’s most powerful Baptist takes on the ’emerging church’ | Moran decides to escalate his decade-long battle against “moderate” Baptists. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
  • Untangling biblical tales | The Bible is full of smashing stories of derring-do, but how much of it is true? While some believers answer, “Everything, of course,” scholars have long been poking around in the historical and archaeological record to determine fact from fiction. Three new paperbacks continue that exploration (The Washington Post)
  • Religion without truth | The truth claims of a religion are not incidental to its identity; they are its identity (Stanley Fish, The New York Times)

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New Gospels:

  • Embracing Judas | A recently translated gospel argues that betraying Jesus was the right thing to do. John Dominic Crossan reviews Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity by Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King (The Washington Post)
  • Pagels and Judas | Religious scholar Elaine Pagels on how the newly discovered Gospel of Judas sheds new light on the dawn of Christianity (San Francisco Chronicle)
  • Was it a hoax? Debate on a ‘Secret Mark’ gospel resumes | Two books claim that the discovery of a previously unknown Gospel of Mark by Morton Smith was a hoax (Peter Steinfels, The New York Times)

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Church life:

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AIDS:

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Zimbabwe:

  • Zimbabwe bishops condemn “overtly corrupt” regime | Catholic bishops condemn their country’s “overtly corrupt leadership” in a strongly worded statement (Catholic World News)
  • The religious left’s monster | Finally, a Western church official is condemning the increasingly brutal regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. (Mark Tooley, FrontPageMag)
  • Bishops warn of people’s anger | The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference has criticised practising Christians who do nothing while State agents, policemen and soldiers assault and beat up peaceful, unarmed demonstrators and torture detainees (Zimbabwe Standard)
  • Danger ahead: Missing will | Mugabe has become an extreme caricature of a despotic African dictator (Editorial, USA Today)

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Abuse:

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Crime:

  • 4 teens arrested in church vandalism | Epithets on Stafford County buildings lead to hate-crime charges (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.)
  • Vandalized | Vandalism at churches is a sordid and vile crime (Editorial, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.)
  • Boys face hate crime charges in church vandalism | Four teens were arrested after a Baptist church was painted with racial and religious slurs (Roanoke Times, Va.)
  • Church sticks by convicted parents | Remnant Fellowship Church in suburban Nashville, where Joseph and Sonya Smith are members, is soliciting donations for them through a Web site, TheSmithsAreInnocent.com (Associated Press)
  • Glenham man sentenced for church damage | In January, Sanderson and others stole three four-wheelers, kicked in the doors of Savo Lutheran Church, drove the vehicles through the church and damaged pews, a baptismal font, an organ, the pulpit and a 50-year-old Bible (Aberdeen American News, S.D.)
  • Confessions reported after cross-burning | Lassen County men face federal charges over action aimed at an African priest (The Sacramento Bee, Ca.)
  • Priest: I had a second lover | Father Nugent today denied he was jealous or “consumed with rage” over Angelika’s sexual relationship with married man Martin Macaskill (Glasgow Evening Times)
  • Priest is questioned over body in church | A Roman Catholic priest refused yesterday to tell a court how he knew the exact whereabouts of the body of a murdered student found under the floorboards of his church (The Times, London)
  • QC: Is there anything you want to tell us about the death of Angelika? | Priest: I know nothing (The Scotsman)
  • Priest confesses on sex and sin | Catholic priest confesses to affair and to alcoholism (The Scotsman)
  • Ex-church bookkeeper gets five years for payroll thefts | A woman who admitted stealing over $800,000 from St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church, Holmdel, was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday. As part of her sentence, she must also pay back the money (Independent, Holmdel, N.J.)
  • Winkler hires custody lawyer | Accused killer may be trying to get her kids back (Jackson Sun, Tenn.)
  • Convicted pastor denied leadership post | The Rev. Henry Lyons, 65, was wildly popular before his conviction and is still highly regarded by many church members, but his support apparently was not enough to fend off the Rev. James Sampson of Jacksonville, who was announced the new head of the Florida General Baptist Convention by a wide margin (Associated Press)
  • “We love our pastor, and we love our church” | The seriousness of the criminal sexual conduct charge against Reverend Dicks doesn’t change how they feel about him (WLTX, Columbia, S.C.)
  • Scam uses popular church as front | FBI investigates identity theft and check forgery targeting a well-known Nashville church (WTVF, Nashville)
  • Pastor, church member charged with theft | A pastor and a church member were yesterday brought before an Abuja magistrates’ court for allegedly selling a plot of land worth millions of naira (Daily Trust, Nigeria)
  • Child charged with vandalizing church | 12-year-old used a candle and matches to start a fire at the Concord Street church on March 18 and another fire at the church on Sunday during a Palm Sunday Mass, police said (The Boston Globe)
  • Town settles $6 million suit with church | The town of Atlantic Beach has settled a lawsuit with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in the town. The church filed the lawsuit in 2004, alleging that the town violated its right to freedom of religion when it denied the church a building permit (The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
  • We’re not to blame, pastor says | First Baptist Church of Mandarin is offering a reward to find out who gave a toddler cocaine (The Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.)
  • Fury at Angelika priest sex claim | A priest’s reported claims that he had sex with a student whose body was found at his church have been branded “outrageous” by the dead girl’s sister (BBC)
  • Former area pastor charged with exploiting elderly | The former pastor of the Ridgewood Avenue Community Church was charged Wednesday with bilking an elderly woman out of more than $80,000 (Daytona Beach News Journal, Fla.)
  • Pastor led church into a financial hell | Trustees lost houses; congregation lost home (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
  • Former Geneva pastor charged with theft | Adams said that while McQueen served as the church’s pastor, the church borrowed about $150,000 to build a bigger church on Highway 52 near Geneva. The church awarded McQueen the contract for the church construction. (Dothan Eagle, Ala.)
  • Missionary murder case begins | The case of two Catholic missionaries who were murdered in northwest Mozambique last year will be heard in the courts this week (Sunday Times, South Africa)

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Lawsuits:

  • Trooper didn’t hear God’s call, sues state | Injured worker claims religious discrimination, says state tried to force him into chaplain job (The Detroit News)
  • County, groups settle lawsuit | Bradford County recently agreed to refrain from using public funds to support religious activities in the settlement of a federal lawsuit over a jailhouse program that allegedly mixed religion with vocational training (The Daily Review, Towanda, Pa.)
  • Pa. county, civil libertarians settle suit over faith-based jail program | Americans United, ACLU had filed federal lawsuit, claiming employees at work-release program proselytized inmates and pressured them to pray (Associated Press)
  • Church’s bankruptcy plan nears approval | Federal judge sets the stage for approval next month of a bankruptcy reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of Portland (The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.)
  • Man claims he was fired for not attending church | Plumber says he volunteered to take a drug test, but owner refused to have him tested. Instead, he required him to attend either an Assembly of God, Baptist or Seventh-Day Adventist church, the complaint states (The Morning News, Springdale, Ark.)
  • Battling Baptists await judge | Two congregations that have been battling for control of the historic First Baptist Church of Whitman are expecting a Superior Court judge to decide today which side will temporarily prevail in the unusual fight (The Boston Globe)

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Grace Church:

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Anglicanism:

  • The joyless fate of St. James Anglican church | Yesterday, before a crowd of 17, the Anglican church in downtown Hull was deconsecrated in a 20-minute ceremony that, despite the 23rd Psalm and a stirring organ, had a dry, judicial tone. The “whereases” did not help (Ottawa Citizen)
  • Church divide? | The looming divide between Anglicans and the United States Episcopal Church may force Bajan and other West Indian priests to choose between the two churches by the end of the year (Nation, Barbados)
  • Row over Schori’s primates statement | US Presiding Bishop has qualified her support for the Primates’ Dar es Salaam communiqué. (Latimer Fellowship)
  • Bishop faces uncertain future | Episcopal leader fears split may be unavoidable. (Lakeland Ledger, Fla.)
  • Retired Episcopal bishop joins Catholics | Herzog’s move comes after turmoil from gay bishop ordination. (Albany Times Union, N.Y.)

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Mormonism:

  • Anti-Mormon DVD triggers a strong LDS Church rebuke | Retired preacher says he’s trying to save LDS members (Deseret Morning News, Ut.)
  • Mormon head says he’s still healthy | The 96-year-old leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Sunday he is still in good health despite “rumors to the contrary.” (Associated Press)
  • Mormon leaders at home in Holy Land | Though many Orthodox Jews remain wary of the 20 year Mormon presence here, others say the church has made good on its promise not to use Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center — recently reopened after a six-year security shutdown — to proselytize (Associated Press)
  • ‘I am not the Prophet,’ says note by Jeffs | Warren Jeffs apparently abdicated his position as president of the Fundamentalist LDS Church in a note he wanted to give to the judge handling the criminal case against him (Deseret News)
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Catholicism:

  • Italian named to oversee papal rites | Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday named Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to be the church’s new camerlengo, the prelate who takes care of matters dealing with a papal death and runs the Vatican until a new pontiff is elected (Associated Press)
  • Keeping the faith | Pope Benedict XVI says he believes that the Catholic Church in Europe faces a dire threat in secularism and that re-Christianizing the Continent is critical not only to the fate of the church but to the fate of Europe itself (Russell Shorto, The New York Times Magazine, TimesSelect sub. req’d.)
  • Pope, on Holy Thursday, reminds priests to be pure | “When we approach the liturgy to act in the person of Christ, we realize how far we are from Him and how much filth exists in our own lives,” the Pope said in his homily (Reuters)
  • Benedict puts conservative stamp on his papacy | After sliding smoothly into his job as pastor of his flock, reaching out to dissidents, other faiths and countries long hostile to the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has started drawing the line (Associated Press)
  • Pope celebrates Palm Sunday Mass | Pope Benedict XVI, in his Palm Sunday Mass, opened the Roman Catholic Church’s most solemn week by urging young people to live pure, innocent lives (Associated Press)
  • Also: Pope marks Palm Sunday, asks people to seek God (Reuters)
  • Pope’s aide blasts media coverage of church | A top aide to Pope Benedict has blasted the media for highlighting the Vatican’s views on sex while maintaining a “deafening silence” about charity work done by thousands of Catholic organizations around the world (Reuters)
  • Pope says rich nations “plundered” Third World | Rich countries bent on power and profit have mercilessly “plundered and sacked” Africa and other poor regions and exported to them the “cynicism of a world without God,” Pope Benedict writes in his first book (Reuters)
  • Disposable workers | Christianity provided more than a basis for criticism of capitalism—it helped forge an alternative that kept what John Paul II called “the circle of exchange” going (Chuck Colson, Breakpoint)

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John Paul II:

  • Nun says Pope John Paul cured her | Smiling broadly, the French nun whose claims could be accepted as the miracle that the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II said Friday that she was inexplicably and suddenly “cured” of Parkinson’s disease — thanks to him (Associated Press)
  • French nun says church to rule on cure by John Paul II | The Vatican’s decision on the veracity of a French nun’s story of being cured of Parkinson’s disease is crucial to making Pope John Paul II a saint (The New York Times)
  • John Paul II sainthood process advances | Roman Catholic Church officials passed a key milestone in the drive to make Pope John Paul II a saint Monday, closing an investigation into his life during a ceremony on the second anniversary of the beloved pontiff’s death (Associated Press)
  • Sainthood process usually long | At Pope John Paul II’s 2005 funeral, people held up signs calling for “Santo Subito” — meaning “Sainthood Now” — but things don’t work that fast in the Roman Catholic Church (Associated Press)
  • Pope John Paul II on path to beatification | The Vatican is to begin considering the step toward sainthood two years after his death (Los Angeles Times)
  • A healing worthy of a saint | Nun Says Parkinson’s Was Cured Following Prayers to Late Pope (The Washington Post)
  • All aboard the John Paul II pilgrim train | Two years after the death of Pope John Paul II, pilgrims are flocking to retrace his life from the comfort of a special train which takes them right to his Polish birthplace (AFP)
  • John Paul II: How fast to sainthood? | The Catholic Church’s process for turning mere mortals into saints is a mix of popular enthusiasm and rigorous bureaucratic guidelines. You don’t need a Vaticanologist to predict which of these two factors will ultimately carry more weight in Pope John Paul II’s cause for sainthood (Time)
  • Did John Paul II perform a miracle? Am I Mother Teresa? | Do intelligent Christians really believe that John Paul II may have cured this nun from beyond the grave? (Matthew Parris, The Times, London)

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People:

  • To know Tony Snow … | Cancer returns to the authenticly Christian White House press secretary (Cal Thomas, The Washington Times)
  • María Julia Hernández, 68, rights advocate in El Salvador, dies | She was the founding director of the human rights office of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador and had worked closely with Archbishop Óscar Romero (The New York Times)
  • New Orleans archbishop suffers stroke | Archbishop Philip Hannan suffered a stroke and was hospitalized Friday but was expected to make a full recovery, the Archdiocese of New Orleans said (Associated Press)
  • Founder of contraceptive method dies | Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname “Vatican Roulette.” (Associated Press)
  • Another Dr. King auction, and his heirs are unhappy | The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s heirs say the papers belong to his estate, and they want the auction stopped (The New York Times)
  • John Billings, 89, creator of contraception method, dies | An Australian physician, Mr. Billings developed a natural contraception method endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church (The New York Times)
  • Methodists for Jimmy Carter | They’re the ones who would never host George W. Bush (Mark Tooley, The American Spectator)
  • Sister Aimee, Christian radio pioneer | In the early decades of the 20th century, a charismatic preacher named Aimee Semple McPherson used the new medium of radio to spread the gospel to millions of loyal followers (Morning Edition, NPR)
  • Celebrity preacher in need of spin control | The story of the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson feels like the career trajectory of practically everyone who has become even moderately famous in the last hundred years. A review of PBS’s ‘Sister Aimee’ (The New York Times)
  • Britney still welcome in church after gun incident | Located on Mulholland Drive, the Bel Air Presbyterian Church is apparently a popular spot for celebrities looking to score a little face time with the Almighty: It has a full-time “designated pastor to the entertainment community” on staff (Radar)
  • Remains are not those of Joan of Arc | A rib bone supposedly found at the site where French heroine Joan of Arc was burned at the stake is actually that of an Egyptian mummy, according to researchers who used high-tech science to expose the fake (Associated Press)

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Politics and politicians:

  • Giuliani stands by support of publicly-funded abortions | “Ultimately, it’s a constitutional right, and therefore if it’s a constitutional right, ultimately, even if you do it on a state by state basis, you have to make sure people are protected,” Giuliani said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash in Florida’s capital city (CNN)
  • Giuliani defends abortion stance in S.C. | Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Thursday defended his record favoring the use of public money for abortions, saying he wouldn’t try to undo a Supreme Court ruling allowing the procedures (Associated Press)
  • An uneasy marriage of necessity | After years on the periphery of democratic politics, religion, to the astonishment of many, is well and truly back in the centre (Tony Coady, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
  • Ingraham: Religion being exploited for political gain | The Free National Movement (FNM) squeezed in one final national event Saturday before taking a brief break from the campaign trail during Holy Week (The Bahama Journal)
  • Mormon base a mixed blessing for Romney | Mormons are fueling his strong fundraising operation and are laying the foundation for a potent grass-roots network — including a cadre of young church members experienced in door-to-door missions who say they are looking forward to hitting the streets for him (The Washington Post)
  • Romney in Iowa: A call to faith | Mitt Romney, conducting a telephone conference call with potential Iowa caucus-goers tonight, told them he considered Jesus Christ to be his “personal savior.” (The New York Times)
  • Pelosi visits market, mosque in Syria | She stopped at an elaborate tomb, said to contain the head of John the Baptist, and made the sign of the cross. About 10 percent of Syria’s 18 million people are Christian (Associated Press)
  • Rep. Pelosi tours Jerusalem holy sites | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi toured Jerusalem holy sites Saturday alongside a congressional delegation that included the first Muslim elected to Congress (Associated Press)
  • GOP presidential hopefuls fight for attention | Candidates such as Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback hope a conservative message will trump money and fame (Los Angeles Times)
  • Religious conservatives hold on in Iowa | As the 2008 race takes shape, these conservatives are no longer the unassailable force they once were, although they remain a powerhouse in Iowa’s GOP (Associated Press)
  • Policy aide’s departure continues transformation of Bush’s staff | Pete Wehner’s departure is part of a quiet, slow-motion transition at the White House as it plows through its seventh year (The Washington Post)
  • Bush loyalist rose quickly at Justice | “She is very motivated by her faith,” A friend and former department co-worker, Susan Richmond Johnson, said of Monica M. Goodling. “She doesn’t wear her faith on her sleeve, but she lives a very faithful life.” (The Washington Post)
  • More evangelicals embracing McCain immigration stance | Richard Land, Joel Osteen, and Rick Warren, Land among them (McClatchy)
  • Giuliani, McCain lead among evangelical Republicans | 23% still undecided (John Green, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)
  • Evangelical leader warms to a run by Thompson in ’08 | “Fred Thompson reminds me of a Southern-fried Reagan,” says Richard Land (The Hill)
  • Senator boycotts imam’s prayer | Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said while he had no problem with Imam Yusuf Kavakci delivering the invocation, he didn’t want to be on the Senate floor during the prayer (The Dallas Morning News)

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Education:

  • Hostage drill prepares school for crisis | Police, faculty and staff lived out a make-believe hostage crisis at Burlington Township High School (Burlington County Times, Willingboro, N.J.)
  • Conservatives angry over terror drill scenario | A police and emergency drill last month at Burlington Township High School has garnered national attention from conservatives angry about a scenario that involved fictional members of an armed “right-wing fundamentalist group.” (Burlington County Times, Willingboro, N.J.)
  • Whitewashing jihad in the schools | When “real as possible” means Christian terrorists instead of Islamic ones (Michelle Malkin, Statesman Journal, Salem, Ore.)
  • Falwell goes NASCAR | Falwell’s Liberty University decides to sponsor “one of its own students on the late model stock car circuit of NASCAR.” (Bill Berkowitz, Talk to Action)
  • Christian college to move to Everett | Trinity Lutheran College will move its campus to the former Henry Cogswell site. (The Herald, Everett, Wa.)
  • Let’s talk about sex | A pushback against federally-funded abstinence-only sex ed finally gathers steam. (Ann Friedman, The American Prospect)
  • School: Pirates are not welcome | Principal suspends student for wearing an eye patch (Asheville Citizen-Times, N.C.)
  • Asbury Seminary facing financial strain, other woes | “This is kind of a correction period,” said Jim Smith, chairman of Asbury’s board of trustees. “It is not a crisis. The seminary is not about to close or go through major problems.” (Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.)
  • Cullman Christian adds to Southeast’s growing evangelical schools | A growing number of conservative Christian schools are being opened around the Southeast by churches or parents who don’t want God left out of the classroom (The Birmingham News, Ala.)

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Homosexuality & same-sex marriage:

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Life ethics:

  • S.C. ultrasound bill causes questions | Requiring doctors to show women seeking an abortion an ultrasound image of their fetus could be declared unconstitutional if it is interpreted as forcing an unwilling patient, the state attorney general told legislators Wednesday in a letter (Associated Press)
  • Mexican bishop threatens excommunication | The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico said Wednesday that legislators who vote in favor of a proposed bill to legalize abortion in Mexico City would automatically be excommunicated when the first procedure was performed under the law (Associated Press)
  • Mexicans march to support abortion law | Several thousand women marched through the Mexican capital in support of a bill to legalize abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, a proposal that has drawn harsh criticism from the Roman Catholic Church (Associated Press)
  • Bill to legalize abortion set to pass in Mexico City | The bill has stirred a vicious debate in recent days and shaken the heavily Roman Catholic country to its roots (The New York Times)
  • DA declines to seek murder charges in abortion case | Woman accused of using pills to end pregnancy (The Boston Globe)
  • Church to lobby MPs over cloning Bill | Catholic Church vows to fight legislation to overturn the ban on therapeutic cloning in Western Australia. (ABC, Australia)
  • Childless couples to face new IVF hurdle | IVF clinics that produce twins and triplets in more than one in ten pregnancies will face disciplinary action under plans to cut multiple births announced yesterday. (The Times, London)
  • IVF clinics may face multi-birth restrictions | Fertility clinics may be forced to restrict the number of women implanting more than one embryo at a time during IVF, under proposals unveiled yesterday (The Telegraph, London)

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Stem cells:

  • Heart valve grown from stem cells | Team extracted stem cells from bone marrow and cultivated them into heart valve cells (BBC)
  • Mass. gov. seeks stem cell rule reversal | Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday he will push to reverse stem cell research restrictions imposed by his predecessor, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (Associated Press)
  • Senate plans stem cell vote in April | Senators will vote on two bills — one similar to the version that passed last Congress, inspiring the lone veto of President Bush’s tenure in office. It would lift Bush’s 2001 ban on taxpayer-funded research using stem cells developed after that point in time. To win the consent of all senators for a floor vote on that bill, negotiators agreed to a vote on a second bill more palatable to abortion opponents and other critics of embryonic stem cell research. (Associated Press)
  • Governor wants end to curb on stem cells | Patrick seeks to reverse Romney rules, aide says. (The Boston Globe)
  • More govs boost stem cell research | As Congress and the Bush administration remain deadlocked over funding for stem cell research, three new Democratic governors have joined other state leaders in supporting the controversial science. (Stateline.org, via Pew Forum)

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Morality & psychology:

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Entertainment:

  • Revelations of the last battle as US Bible thriller series comes to end | The final installment of an evangelical Christian publishing phenomenon which has spawned 16 novels and sold 64 million copies arrived in shops across the United States yesterday (The Times, London)
  • The most hated family in America | What did Louis Theroux make of the Phelpses after three weeks? (BBC)
  • Holy Moses! | Moses’ storied tablets get the sketch-comedy treatment in The Ten, a hit-and-miss omnibus inspired by the Ten Commandments and brought to blasphemous, surreal life by a game troupe (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  • Sligh fox returns to his Christian-pop roots | The 28-year-old South Carolinian’s sudden celebrity fueled interest in a CD he recorded last year with a Christian-focused pop band called Half Past Forever (Boston Herald)
  • One hell of a religious read | Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great is a merciless attack on every faith (New York Post)
  • Religious zeal, a cautionary tale | In James Robertson’s latest novel, a Church of Scotland minister goes missing for three days in a gorge, only to miraculously emerge alive. The trouble begins when Gideon Mack claims the devil saved him (The Washington Times)
  • Christian producer prays for funds | Albion seeks coin from religious community (Variety)
  • Christian film-makers pray investors see the light | Albion Productions, founded by the Christians David Fairman and Jon-Paul Gates, has received messages of support from the Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and the Anglican bishops of Bristol, Bath and Wells, and Ripon and Leeds (The Independent, London)
  • Connecting theater to sexuality and faith | A “comic” musical links Christ’s passion with that of the hate-crime victim Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was beaten and left for dead in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 (The New York Times)
  • Film examines Amish, others in forgiveness | Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, who set out to explore the nature of forgiveness, was almost finished when the news broke about the West Nickel Mines Amish School shooting (The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa.)
  • Christian band Newsboys returns to alternative roots | Newsboys aren’t focused solely on music. They’re also working to shed light on social issues across the world (The Bryan-College Station Eagle, Tex.)
  • Sligh OK with ‘Idol’ exit | Greenville resident says it’s ‘not the competition for me.’ (The Greenville News, S.C.)

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Chocolate Jesus:

  • Chocolate Jesus show canceled | Matt Semler, the gallery’s creative director, resigned in protest (Associated Press)
  • My sweet Lord! Christians need to lighten up | A chocolate sculpture of the Son of God has got humourless US Catholics riled (Catherine Deveny, The Age, Australia)
  • Religious expression | Lessons from the chocolate Jesus controversy (James Lileks, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  • Religious protests draw attention, bucks | What religious protesters should remember is that when they raise their voices about any artistic endeavor, they bring more attention to — and inevitably make more money for — the very endeavor they find offensive (Editorial, Delco Times, Pa.)

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Other:

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Weblog: Launched in 1999, Christianity Today’s Weblog was not just one of the first religion-oriented weblogs, but one of the first published by a media organization. (Hence its rather bland title.) Mostly compiled by then-online editor Ted Olsen, Weblog rounded up religion news and opinion pieces from publications around the world. As Christianity Today’s website grew, it launched other blogs. Olsen took on management responsibilities, and the Weblog feature as such was mothballed. But CT’s efforts to round up important news and opinion from around the web continues, especially on our Gleanings feature.

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The Still Small Voice in the Deer Stand

Brian Reisinger

Since childhood, each hunting season out in God’s creation has healed wounds and deepened my faith.

Rend Collective standing with instruments in the forest

Play Those Chocolate Sprinkles, Rend Collective!

Haley Byrd Wilt

The Irish band’s new album “FOLK!” proclaims joy after suffering.

Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos Capital Management, arrives at federal court in New York, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. He is a grey-haired man wearing thick glasses and a suit with a purple tie.

News

Wall Street’s Most Famous Evangelical Sentenced in Unprecedented Fraud Case

Emily Belz in New York

Judge gives former billionaire Bill Hwang 18 years in prison for crimes that outweigh his “lifetime” of “charitable works.”

A skeleton holding hands with a man

Public Theology Project

How a Dark Sense of Humor Can Save You from Cynicism

Russell Moore

A bit of gallows humor can remind us that death does not have the final word.

Rina Seixas

News

Died: Rina Seixas, Iconic Surfer Pastor Who Faced Domestic Violence Charges

Franco Iacomini

The Brazilian founder of Bola de Neve Church, which attracted celebrities and catalyzed 500 congregations on six continents, faced accusations from family members and a former colleague.

Laura Ingalls Wilder in front of coverd wagons and a church door

Review

The Quiet Faith Behind Little House on the Prairie

Monika B. Hilder

How a sincere but reserved Christianity influenced the life and literature of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

A still from the movie depicting Bonhoeffer sitting and thinking at his desk.

‘Bonhoeffer’ Bears Little Resemblance to Reality

Myles Werntz

The new biopic from Angel Studios twists the theologian’s life and thought to make a political point.

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