When I was living in London 20 years ago, I was touched one Halloween when a British friend surprised me with a card to mark the holiday.

It was the first and only Halloween card I've ever received. Obviously, I didn't tell her that. She thought she was helping me to feel at home in her country by remembering a tradition from mine; why tell her that it isn't really a holiday for exchanging cards?

Since then, however, Europeans have become more familiar with Halloween. Which is why the Vatican has grown more vocal in its condemnation of the annual observance.

In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See says Halloween is a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death." The official Vatican paper warns parents against allowing children to dress up as ghosts and ghouls.

(We're getting this from British newspapers, because we haven't been able to find the original story at the L'Osservatore Romano Web site.)

The article, headlined “The Dangerous Messages of Halloween,” quotes liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying 'Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian” and urging parents “'to be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.'

Last year, Nick Pisa writes in the Daily Mail, the newspaper Avvenire, published by the Italian bishops, appealed for a full-blown boycott, describing Halloween as a “dangerous celebration of horror and the macabre.” Aldo Bonaiuto, head of the Catholic Church's anti-occult and sect unit, said the event “promotes the culture of death,” could spur 'pitiless (Satanic) sects without scruples,” “pushes new generations towards a mentality of esoteric magic and … attacks sacred and spiritual values through a devious initiation to the art and images of the occult.

"At best," Bonaiuto concludes, "it gives a big helping hand to consumerism and materialism.”

The Catholic Church in Spain has also condemned the growing popularity of Halloween, saying it threatened to overshadow the Christian festival of All Saints' Day, Nick Squires writes in the Telegraph.

The Bishop of Sigüenza-Guadalajara, José Sanchez, said there was a risk that Halloween could "replace Christian customs like devotion to saints and praying for the dead,” Squires writes.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Catholicism, Culture, Holidays, International, Wicca
        

We're trying something new this morning. We were invited to sit down this week with the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, the 14th bishop of the 228-year-old Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, to hear his thoughts on plans announced by the Vatican last week to make it easier for Anglicans (called Epsicopalians in the United States) to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The surprise announcement comes amid a growing divide between conservatives and liberals in the worldwide Anglican Communion over the ordination of women, acceptance of gay clergy and the celebration of same-sex relationships.

As attention has focused on disaffected Anglican conservatives "crossing the Tiber" -- slang for joining the Roman Catholic Church -- Sutton, who is firmly on the side favoring greater acceptance of women and homosexuals, wanted to make clear that Roman Catholics also are joining the Episcopal Church.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore has declined to comment on the Vatican announcement until hearing more details.

The interview with Sutton yielded a story in Friday's paper. But because we found the entire discussion interesting, we're posting the complete transcript here, after the jump.

The Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, 14th Episcopal Bishop of Maryland:

The Vatican statement last week was to set up church structures that make it easier for groups of Anglicans – in America, Episcopalians – to become Roman Catholic. So we’re just monitoring that very closely, but with some concern. What is the impetus for this? To put the best possible light on it, if there are some disaffected Anglicans who come knocking at your door, you’ve got to find a way to do it. Those who are more distrustful, and I’m not one of them, would say, well this is just an attempt to poach, or to kind of open up the door.

There are some internal difficulties that they will have to work out in the Roman Catholic Church. You know: married clergy when you don’t allow married clergy in your own, why in this case? Even divorced and remarried clergy, what do you do about them? And obviously, this of course means only male clergy. And we, they’re not there.

So that’s internal with them. But with us, we just want to remind people that this switching from Anglicans becoming Roman Catholics goes both ways. Roman Catholics become Anglicans and Episcopalians. Many, many lay people in our churches came from the Roman Catholic Church. We get many clergy. Just in the last month in a half, we received three Roman Catholic clergy. They were former Roman Catholic priests who have come into the diocese, including one who was received into the Episcopal Church some years earlier but now just a month ago we installed him as the dean of this cathedral.

He was received as a Roman Catholic. He was a Dominican priest. When we say receive, that’s actually a technical term. We don’t re-ordain them. Now, they have to learn about us. But we receive them. So he was received into the Episcopal Church.

I’m sure when he partook of the sacrament of marriage, that he had to be released from his vows. So here’s part of the problem. The statement last week did not abrogate the papal ruling from 1896 that Anglican orders – that is, ordination – were null and void. So we still have that on the books. So we recognize Roman Catholics and the validity of their orders, but they don’t recognize the validity of ours.

We have an excellent relationship with the Archdiocese of Baltimore here. And that’s very important, because we actually get several inquiries a year from Roman Catholics. But we know that we can call up the archbishop or Bishop Madden and say, give us the lowdown on that person. Now, we have a few from our side who go there, and they’ll call on us. We don’t want to give each other bad apples. Making sure that they’re upstanding, that they’re not running away from lawsuits and potential lawsuits and all of that.

And then in our process, the bishop and the standing committee interviews them and deems if they’re worthy. And also, we expect, and we have ways of doing this, that they learn the Anglican tradition, and the differences. Learn our liturgy, which is very similar to Roman Catholic, but different. So that process isn’t that difficult. It’s just that we need to take care that they do know the differences.

And the differences, although they may be small, are significant. The biggest differences in ecumenical relationships used to be around theological issues like the incarnation, salvation. What we’re seeing increasingly is that the issues are not essentially theological, but they are more and more social issues. What is the place of women in the church? That’s a big issue. And what about marriage among clergy? And increasingly, what about those who are ordered toward the same gender? What do you do?

In each case, the Episcopal Church and most Anglicans, not all, in each case, the Episcopal church is looking to the future, not to the past. We hold onto the traditions of the past as a ground, but we aren’t bound by teachings on these wedge issues that have always changed over time. So we’re looking to the future. We welcome women in leadership. Not all churches do. We welcome married clergy. Not all churches do. We welcome people oriented to the same gender. If they profess Jesus Christ, lord and savior, we say, welcome. We think that’s right. We think that’s the way of Jesus. We feel that we are faithful to traditional Christianity. We are faithful to the command of Jesus to not make distinctions among us in terms of class and where you are.

Now, they disagree. Well, we need to make sure that people know that our church is more open in that way. For instance, I’ve been bishop for a year and three months. How did I get to be bishop? It wasn’t a small group of people, men, who said ‘Okay, we like him. He’s your bishop.’ We have several nominees. How did we get nominees? Groups of women, men, lay, clergy, say, ‘what are our needs?’ and they go out and find someone and we elect them.
This is actually a big theological point. We believe that the Holy Spirit speaks not only through bishops and popes. We believe the Holy Spirit speaks through lay people, clergy, youth, young and old, black, white, and all sorts of conditions of people. And if we don’t listen to their voices, then what validity is the leadership among people who say, ‘Ah, he may be my leader in name, but I had no say?’

And so, it’s just a difference. I’m not really slamming that way. I’m just saying the Episcopal Church is an open church.

Except there is certainly a segment of the church, and you have a better sense than I do of how large it is, that is bound to those traditional ways and those traditional teachings, and over the last several decades, and particularly over the last several years, feels beleaguered by some of the changes and some of the ‘openness’ that you’re talking about. How is that playing out in the diocese as you see it?

We’re a broad church. Most of the diocese goes along with these changes. A minority do not. But they are loyal, faithful Episcopalians. We are traditionalists, progressives, liberals, conservatives, all down the line there. But in our diocese while they know they are a minority, they recognize that they’re in a church where they choose to fellowship with those with whom they even disagree theologically, but the higher calling is to express our unity as followers of Jesus. And that is a big essential thing, that we can hold our opinions very dearly, but not at the cost of disunity.

And unity does not mean uniformity. When Jesus wanted his disciples to be in unity – and he’s looking at that group of 12, and we also know there were larger numbers of women – he didn’t look at them thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, they’re all going to agree. No, he knew there would be disagreements. But he said, ‘I pray that you may be one as I and the father are one, that the world may believe that you sent me.’ This is key. Why would the world want to follow one, or follow Jesus, if they believe that to be a follower of Christ means disunity, name-calling, sheep-stealing, casting people into hell who disagree with you? No.

So, that minority in my diocese, none are threatening to leave. We don’t know how many Anglicans are going to go over to the Roman Catholic Church on this. There probably aren’t going to be any more than there would have been a month ago. And the percentages are very small. Around the world, and particularly in the U.S., we have 110 dioceses in the Episcopal Church. Majorities of four dioceses voted to leave. Now I say majorities, but not all.

We don’t reconstitute a diocese in the Episcopal Church unless there are conservatives and progressives working together. So some may say, ‘Oh, they’re kicking out traditionalists or conservatives.’ No, it’s just that in many of our dioceses, not all – there are many dioceses that are more conservative than Maryland, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is fairly moderate, we’re right in the middle – but in most dioceses, they know that we – and it’s true to the Anglican spirit – we try to hold a lot of people together. And we think that’s the biggest witness. And that’s what the world needs.

I rejoice in the fact that there are many denominations. I know some don’t. I think that’s a good thing. I’m glad there are Baptists. I used to be one. I’m glad there are Methodists and Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Because it just shows there are diverse ways of coming at this thing. The only problem is when one group says, we are it, and all other are wrong and in error. We won’t do that. And we won’t say that the marks of the church, the marks of Christ are not with our Baptist and Methodist brothers and sisters. We just say we’re different. And the biggest difference that we can say right now with the Episcopal Church is we always look for a way to hold onto the old while still embracing the new. We try to keep that tension.

Understanding what you’re stating as the goal and the power of that witness – to show the diversity of opinion within the single, unified body – in a landscape in which you have more socially conservative Evangelical churches, you have other denominations that tend in those directions socially, you now have the Roman Catholic Church making what they say is a response to the people who have come to them, but other people – perhaps, people who are more suspicious than you – see it as an overture, do you run the risk of losing that ability to have that broad base within the Episcopal Church, given that you’ll have these conservative members who suddenly have all of these people reaching out to them saying, ‘Come join us and you won’t have to have those arguments any more?’

Well, one thing, find me that church and any institution that doesn’t have those arguments. And if they aren’t, it’s because leadership is trying to suppress the argument. The arguments are everywhere. That’s one.

Two, there are always those people who, whenever a significant change happens, they just can’t get on board with it. In the church, we’ve seen this constantly. We lost – rather, several, many Episcopalians left – when we ordained women. But it was the right thing to do. There are many Episcopalians who left when African-Americans started going to their church. But it was the right thing to do.

Right now, there are some who are leaving because we say that gay and lesbian Christians who didn’t choose their orientation any more than I chose mine – I didn’t wake up one day and say, which way should I go – they’re going to leave, because they say, ‘We can’t have them, and we don’t want them leading us. But it’s the right thing to do.

I firmly believe we’re doing the right thing because we’re not locking people out in the way that the church has always done it. We’re trying to open this thing up. So there is that.

Last thing: Even though it may be difficult to hold everybody together, and it is, when some people leave, or feel they have to leave, they go with my blessings. They’re my brother and sister in Christ. But it’s not as difficult as you’d think. It’s not as difficult when we focus on what Jesus wants us to do in this day. We have pressing issues of poverty, injustice, inequity. We are killing ourselves and killing a good number of people around the world by our habits which contribute to climate change. We have people who are dying in the streets of violence. We have conflicts and wars everywhere. We have people who are crying out for some kind of spiritual nurture and community.

While all this is going on, you can focus on, is my priest married or not? Is it a he or a she? And how they are oriented? I say, if that’s your focus, your priorities are seriously skewed, and it’s not biblical Christianity. Jesus spoke only very little about issues of what we would say are sexuality. Jesus had very little to say about marriage, sexual ethics, that kind of thing. Jesus had a lot to say about justice, mercy, healing especially those who differ from you.

But look at us today. A lot of the media attention – because we church people, we give you the stories – a lot of the media attention is on that one area. But where is the focus on justice, mercy, healing? So it’s not as hard to keep people together as you think as long as we do what Christians have always done at their best. They built schools. The Christian church began hospitals. We run the only residential hospice in the City of Baltimore. The Joseph Richey House. We’re going to be getting another one for children. We’re trying to do something for poor kids in their education. Trying to stop violence in the street. I was in Washington advocating for health care.

We believe this is what Jesus wants us to do. And we can sit around and talk to each other all day about who is leading us. Those aren’t the big questions. Who is leading us isn’t the central question of the day. It’s that we are led to something. And so maybe that’s why we don’t have many who are trying to leave. Because we focus on the mission and the message, not on who. Whenever the church is focused on who, it has always been wrong. It leaves somebody out. And we’re just not going to do it anymore.

Have you had any communication with the archdiocese since this has come out?

No, and don’t take that as a negative. I think one of the main reasons is we actually have a lot of respect for each other. We know they didn’t issue this statement and I made a gracious statement saying we have friendly and collegial relationships with them and we work together on a number of different things. So no, there haven’t been frantic phone calls. We’re going to get together – in fact, I’m going to see them within a couple of weeks because the archdiocese and we are in the ecumenical leaders group, I’m the head of that now as of this next meeting, the ecumenical leaders group getting denominational leaders around Maryland, and we want to expand the group. And I’m sure there will be all sorts of smiles knowing that there are going to be difficulties with this. But it really won’t affect us much locally because we don’t have a group that’s trying to break away to Rome.

You know, we’re family. When I say we are all family, I mean the human family. This is Jesus’ message. Whether you’re Roman Catholic, Episcopal, or Hindu, Muslim, Jewish or no faith, we are all part of the Human family. And Jesus wanted to call some people to say, ‘You be a model for the human family ought to be. Be a model for the world of what it means to be family.’

If we show the world how much we’re not family, and taking pot shots at each other and lobbing grenades across, then that’s not going to help anybody. You and I are in families. We’ve probably had disagreements with spouses, parents, kids. But we don’t kick them out. one of my sons went through a little period where he wasn’t speaking to me much. And I knew he’d come back. He wasn’t going to go, ‘Gosh, I’m going to have look into being a Martin, not a Sutton.’

We know how to do this in families. Let’s figure out how to do this as churches. So if I have a disagreement with the archbishop, I’ll call him up and say so. But I’m not going to issue a statement saying he’s a bad person or something like that anymore than my son would. We’ve got to start acting like family.

Is there a commonality in terms of the motivations that people tend to have, are there reasons that seem to come up repeatedly among Roman Catholics who join the Episcopal Church?

I’ll answer it in both ways. For those going into the Roman Catholic Church, it’s because they don’t like the changes that we’ve done. They don’t like the church opening up to women, gay and lesbian people, they just don’t like it. that, by the way, is causing some concern with Catholic moderates and liberals. It’s like, you get your most disaffected people, who want to turn the clock back.

Now, commonalities of those who want to come our way. A big one, and this is a big issue, a big one is they fall in love. Among the clergy, it’s what do I do when I still feel I’m called to the priesthood, but I’ve fallen in love. And for the first thousand years of Christianity, that was no problem. It was only then that the church for various reasons said, no, our clergy will be celibate.

For lay people, it tends to be more other issues. And that is, they found themselves on the other side of a situation that the church condemns. Their marriages broke up, or they want to be in a church where on moral issues, and especially on moral issues around the body, they want the church to initiate a conversation, start the conversation and bring biblical and theological resources to the conversation, but it is a conversation, and they find that they don’t want to be in a church where a smaller group say, ‘This is what you believe.’

I can put it a little more strong than that in terms of human development. When you’re head of a family, when the children are at a young age, it’s very important to dictate, for their own safety. Do this, don’t do that. Why? I don’t have to explain it to you. And in fact, I don’t even expect you to buy my explanation. Just don’t do this or don’t do that, if you’re going to be in this house.

You do that when they’re two years old. Three years old. But as they get older and mature, every successful parent, head of household, knows that you have to do a lot less of that. As they mature, they have to make their own decisions, and you actually are in a more conversational mode. If your child is 17 and you say do this, do this, don’t do that, you’ve got a lot more trouble. What if they’re 37? What if they’re 57?

One of the reasons why I actually chose the Episcopal Church is the attempt by the leadership to treat people as if they’re mature adults. In the maturation process, another doesn’t dictate to a true adult. The other convinces. You say, here are the resources, how would you decide, and let’s be in community.

That’s behind a lot of the switching right now. There are some who want more authority. And so they tend to go to the Tiber. For those who say, ‘You know, I don’t want to be dictated to,’ they come here.

Now on our side it means it’s messy. You’ve got to get in the fray. The Episcopal Church is a beautiful church. We have beautiful churches, a beautiful liturgy and all that. But we’re a mess. We’re a holy, glorious mess. I think it’s like Heaven. For all we know Heaven may look more like Rome’s traffic. It’s a mess.

But that is a big issue, and that’s what I’m trying to do as a spiritual leader for these almost 50,000 Episcopalians in the State of Maryland. I’m trying to be a spiritual leader that says, ‘I’m going to treat you as an adult, and all of you get to have a voice around this table.’

To the extent that I’m successful in doing that, they will respect me as a leader. But the more I try to dictate, the less respect I’ll have, and they’ll listen respectful and all of that, but in their hearts and minds, they’ll go, ‘I don’t believe that. No way. No way.’ And that’s what happens in authoritarian systems. People widely disobey in whatever ways they can.

In Vatican II, 1965, the big statement in Vatican II, that statement was entitled The Church in the World. James Carroll picked this thing up in this article, he made a big thing, that title suggests that the church is trying to engage the world as it is now. That was a time of great ecumenical fervor. And I recall times and many of our clergy when the Episcopal and Roman Catholic clergy did more things together. You could even participate in the Mass together. There was a sense that the old authoritarian structures are going to loosen up and allow more participation and we’re going to bind more with these other communities.

Here’s my lament: where are those days? What it ends up being is the statement from last week. You want to switch? So my lament is that we seem to have lost in the worldwide scene that sense of we really are together. We really are brothers and sisters no matter what our stripes may be. What can we do to bring it back?

So there’s been a kind of coarsening of the religious language. More and more fundamentalists – you know what fundamentalists are. Fundamentalists in any religion is, ‘Yeah, my way or the highway.’ We’ve seen a rise in fundamentalism in this country, and it’s coarsened the religious language.

But guess what? We’ve also seen the rise of political fundamentalism. And a lot of people think our public and political discourse is coarsened. And we are more polarized as a populace. I think we’re seeing the same in the religious scene, where people are just, ‘Ugh, I can’t stand it, you disagree with me? You’re anathema.’

So it’s a lament that we have to get there. So, if anything let this interview be a call for let’s ratchet down the volume. Let’s stop with the name-calling. Let’s get back to a spirit a generation ago that we’re going to get beyond these differences. We’re going to live together. Some people would be Roman Catholics, some would be Anglicans, some would be Methodists, and we don’t think that’s a terrible thing. But they’re doing it because they’re more comfortable with that liturgy, and not because they’re trying to run away from abuse, or abuses in the old system.

I come from a long line of protesters, of course. But when I was growing up, I wouldn’t be happy in most of the Episcopal churches I’m now bishop of. I wouldn’t have been welcomed. In most of the churches in my diocese, ‘50s, early ‘60s, I wouldn’t have been welcomed.

So this whole thing about women, gay and lesbian clergy, I see that through the lens of the old civil rights thing: ‘Oh, these are people who just don’t want to give up power.’ So those who can’t go along with the change, sorry, goodbye, but the door’s always open. Because we think that one day, they’ll come back.

The church was wrong in slavery – many parts of the church. The church was wrong in the Crusades. The church was wrong with Galileo. The church was wrong with women. The church was wrong with people of different so-called race. The church increasingly we find it was wrong with people who are oriented to the same gender.

In every case, the church was saying, ‘That’s a change that leaves the faith.’

No. it may be that the Holy Spirit is leading us into the change. I think so.

But the church moves slowly. It took 1900 years to come for the church universally to say that enslaving other human beings is wrong. So I’m under no illusion that it’s going to take some time for them to come around here. But they will come. They will come, because I think it’s led by the Holy Spirit.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

We noted yesterday that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was condemning a shooting at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles. Now the most vocal of the Muslim advocacy groups is demanding that HBO apologize for an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which the main character inadvertently splatters urine on a painting of Jesus.

That puts CAIR in the unusual position of seconding Bill Donohue’s Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned the episode earlier in the week. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, but do not believe, as Christians do, that he was the incarnation of God.

“It is beyond tasteless to insult the religious sensibilities of billions of people in America and around the world with such a cheap and vulgar publicity stunt,” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote in a letter to HBO CEO Bill Nelson. “Jesus, peace be upon him, is loved and revered by both Christians and Muslims. Muslims view him as one of God's greatest messengers to mankind.

“The Quran, Islam’s revealed text, states: ‘Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.’’ (The Holy Quran, 3:45)

“The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Both in this world and in the hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.’

“We understand the drive for ratings, but no one benefits from such a crude attempt to boost the network’s bottom line by manufacturing a religious controversy. HBO should apologize.”

Awad said that CAIR was contacted by American Muslim television viewers concerned about the episode.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an outfit best known for calling attention to attacks on Muslims in the United States, has condemned the shooting of two worshippers Thursday morning at a North Hollywood synagogue.

“We condemn this attack near the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in the strongest possible terms and offer our prayers for the victims and their families,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement.

“No worshiper -- whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, or other -- should be made to feel unsafe or intimidated at a house of worship. We also appreciate the LAPD’s investigation and enhanced security in response to the attack.”

The two victims, each of whom was shot in the leg, were in good condition at local hospitals, according to Baltimore Sun sister The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

The Times describes Adat Yeshurun as “the heart of the San Fernando Valley's Orthodox Jewish community,” within walking distance of kosher markets and other synagogues. Los Angeles police have alerted area synagogues about the shooting and stepped up patrols outside Jewish institutions, The Times reports.

Read more on the shooting at latimes.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Over at Religion News Service, Greg Warner has an interesting story on the rare but real problem of clergy suicide.

According to Warner, the September death of the Rev. David Treadway, pastor of Sandy Ridge Baptist Church in Hickory, N.C., was at least the fourth suicide among clergy in the Carolinas in the last four years. He writes:

Those who counsel pastors say Christian culture, especially Southern evangelicalism, creates the perfect environment for depression. Pastors suffer in silence, unwilling or unable to seek help or even talk about it. Sometimes they leave the ministry. Occasionally the result is the unthinkable. ...

Being a pastor—a high-profile, high-stress job with nearly impossible expectations for success—can send one down the road to depression, according to pastoral counselors.

“We set the bar so high that most pastors can’t achieve that,” said H.B. London, vice president for pastoral ministries at Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. “And because most pastors are people-pleasers, they get frustrated and feel they can’t live up to that.”

When pastors fail to live up to demands imposed by themselves or others they often “turn their frustration back on themselves,” leading to self-doubt and to feelings of failure and hopelessness, said Fred Smoot, executive director of Emory Clergy Care in Duluth, Ga., which provides pastoral care to 1,200 United Methodist ministers in Georgia.

Warner quotes Matthew Stanford, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, as saying it's likely that a quarter of all pastors are depressed.

Read the rest of the story at religionnews.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Online retailer eBay said Tuesday that it will block an auction planned to raise money for the man charged with killing Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, the Associated Press is reporting.

Supporters of Scott Roeder wanted to raise money for his defense by auctioning off items including an Army of God manual, an underground publication for anti-abortion militants that describes ways to shut down clinics, including bombing.

Also to be auctioned was a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, the Oregon woman who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993 and was later convicted in a series of abortion clinic arsons and bombings.

"Based on the details we know about the anticipated listings, we believe these would violate our policy regarding offensive material," eBay said in a statement.

If the items were posted, eBay said it would remove them from the online marketplace site because the company "does not allow listings that promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance.

Read the rest of the Associated Press story.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue founder who has alienated even some fellow abortion opponents with his confrontational tactics, is calling on people to burn effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this Halloween as part of a "Burn in Hell" video contest to protest the health care legislation in Congress, the Associated Press is reporting.

Terry said Tuesday that the contest serves as a political and spiritual statement that "gives people a chance to peacefully vent their rage."

"If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this," Terry told the AP.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the contest "unfortunate."

"I don't think appealing to people's anger and in effect inciting them to acts which either display or in any way project violent acts is consistent with rational discussion of very critical issues," the Southern Maryland Democrat told reporters at his weekly pen-and-pad session on Tuesday.

As the AP explains, federal law currently bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except in cases of rape and incest or if the mother's life would be endangered. But the Democrats' health overhaul bill would create a new stream of federal funds not covered by the restrictions.

House Democrats are trying to address anti-abortion lawmakers' concerns by specifying that people receiving government subsidies to buy health insurance couldn't use that money for abortions.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A Paris court has convicted the Church of Scientology's French branch of fraud and fined it 400,000 Euros -- about $600,000 -- but stopped short of the ban on the group that prosecutors had sought, the Associated Press is reporting.

The court on Tuesday convicted four of six leaders of the group of organized fraud for pressuring members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain, the AP reports. It handed them suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of 1,000 Euros and 2,000 Euros.

The court did not order the group to shut down, ruling that it would be likely to continue its activities anyway, "outside any legal framework," according to the AP. Prosecutors had requested that the group be dissolved in France and be fined 2 million Euros.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

As a Pakistani American, I feel obligated to serve the United States in fighting terrorism through development and institution building. Allow me to offer my suggestions on controlling the Taliban/Extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban Background: Who are the Taliban?

They are a byproduct of the Soviet war thirty years ago and received their training in Pakistani madrassas. The Taliban are igniting nationalist passions amongst the uneducated citizens of Afghanistan to stand up and fight outsiders -- read the United States, NATO and the Pakistani and Afghan governments.

The Taliban and Muslim extremists share their ideology with the orthodox brand of Islam practiced today in Saudi Arabia. Sharia/Hadood laws are the backbone of Taliban Ideology. The enforcement of these laws and setting up a government with a spiritual head/Caliph/Khomeni is the goal of these mad zealots. They would like to go back 1400 years and eat “Manna” for dinner.

Supported by drug-money and thugs, the Taliban are not as simple and ordinary as they appear. They have taken a leaf from the Inquisition in Christianity and use fear and public humiliation at the end of a gun to enforce their brand of made-up Islam.

While controlling Swat, these crooks used Robin Hood tactics by seizing land from wealthy owners and giving it away to poor tenants. Of course, the land was never theirs to give away in the first place, but through this fraudulent move they were able to convince some locals.

Pakistan’s involvement in the Soviet war allowed Pakistan’s military dictator Zia-ul-Haq the room to Islamicize Pakistan through fake referendums and, in the process, destroyed Pakistan’s secular character. This Islamicization process has been allowed to continue to this day, notwithstanding General Musharaf’s fake enlightened moderation slogan.

Please note: A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan cannot survive without support from extremist sympathizers in Pakistan.

How do we counter this?

• President Barack Obama is in a unique position, owing to his ancestral connection with the Muslim faith and belonging to a minority, to appeal to the people of Afghanistan to make a choice between progress or the anarchy and madness of the Taliban. This can be his second address to the Muslim world. The people of Afghanistan are owed an apology for 30 years of war that has brought down the Berlin Wall but sustained dictatorships in neighboring Pakistan while destroying the lives of Afghanis. Mr. Obama has the political capital needed to win their trust. He must promise continued engagement that benefits each party.

• The United States can play a major role. Saudi Arabia, whose model of orthodox Islam the Taliban and Islamic parties in Pakistan follow, must be convinced to publicly condemn the Taliban and declare them as non-Muslim, throat-slitting thugs. This will have the immediate effect of Taliban/Muslim extremists being forced to explain their ridiculous views on education, women, et cetera.

• Saudi Arabia and its rich private citizens must stop funding religious parties and madrassas in Pakistan. These organizations provide the infrastructure for training terrorists, thus making it almost impossible for the government of Pakistan to control these institutions.

• The Organization of the Islamic Conference must pass a resolution condemning the Taliban brand of made-up Islam by declaring them as non-Muslim, throat-slitting thugs.

• Pakistan’s democratically elected government must confront opposition political and relgious parties to openly condemn relgious extremists committing atrocities every day in Pakistan. The Pakistan Peoples Party and opposition leadership must come out of their Foxholes and be seen by the average Pakistani. It seems that political parties are sitting on the fence when it comes to openly condemning the Taliban in a public rally. Maybe the lawyers’ movement should be mobilized to counter the extremists in Pakistan. Moderate Islam along Turkish lines must be adopted and religious extremists should be shunned.

• Pakistan’s madrassas must be evaluated for conversion to regular schools with the help of USAID. Some Madrassas are providing logistical support to suicide bombers and terrorists and must be identified and monitored by Pakistan government.

• We must support the infant democracy in Pakistan, notwithstanding its inexperienced leaders. USAID under the Kerry-Lugar bill will go a long way towards helping Pakistan become a stable democracy along Turkish lines. I would add one more condition to the bill: “Any military takeover of the Pakistan government will result in immediate cancellation of all aid under this bill. A military government invariably creates a political void that is filled by extremists."

• The United States must convince India to solve the Kashmir problem and stop supporting separatist insurgents in Baluchistan region of Pakistan. A stable Pakistan is a must for India and the region.

• The second round of Afghanistan’s elections must be followed by an invitation to all warlords and Taliban willing to negotiate and work with the new administration. Mr. Karzai must be willing to share power with fellow Afghanis or resign.

• After the second round of elections in Afghanistan, we must hold elections at the district level to devolve power from the center, and empower local populations.

• Drug mafia operating in Afghanistan must be identified and dismantled to control drug production and distribution. A market must be developed to encourage farmers to produce crops other than opium.

• There can be no negotiation with the Taliban if they insist on their mad brand of made-up Islam that is out of step with human civilization. You cannot negotiate with madness. They must be dealt with militarily and eliminated.

Today’s war effort is very different from that of the 1990s. Today, we have drones and satellite technology and can easily target and isolate clusters of Taliban hiding in the mountains of the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Guest Posts, International, Islam, Politics
        

The Vatican began talks on Monday with the Society of St. Pius X, the traditionalist faction whose leaders were excommunicated 20 years ago after consecrating their own bishops without the consent of Pope John Paul II.

The effort got off to a rough start earlier this year when one of the four bishops whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI turned out to be a Holocaust denier. There have been conflicting reports about whether the Vatican was aware of comments by British Bishop Richard Williamson, who told Swedish television last year that the evidence was “hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” by the Nazis during World War II.

In any event, negotiations are expected to take years, the Associated Press reports.

"In the best case, humanly speaking, we have several years of discussions ahead of us," the society's delegation leader, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, said in a recent interview posted on the society's Web site. De Galarreta is one of the other bishops whose excommunication was rescinded in January.

The AP has a useful summary of the split between the church and the Society of St. Puis X, also known as Lefebvrists, after founding Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre:

Lefebvre founded the society in 1969, opposed to Vatican II's reforms, which included outreach to Jews and other Christians and the celebration of Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin.

The society's opposition to Vatican II, particularly its teachings on ecumenism and religious freedom, remains at the heart of the dispute with Rome and is the focus of the talks beginning Monday with officials from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Benedict has for two decades tried to bring the society back into the Vatican's fold, first as head of the doctrine office and later as pope — part of his aim of uniting the church and putting a highly conservative stamp on it. ...

In the case of the society, Benedict has risked relations with Jews and liberal Catholic alike to reintegrate Lefebvre's followers even after it emerged that one of the society's four bishops denied the full extent of the Holocaust.

Read the rest of the AP story.

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Over at Catholic News Service, John Thavis says the appointment of Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, late of St. Louis, to the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, is “a small but significant appointment that could have an impact on the worldwide church for years to come.”

Thavis may be understating that impact. The Congregation for Bishops, which has about 30 members, is the body that vets and recommends candidates for bishop, and at 61, Burke could participate in that process for nearly two full decades before he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 80.

As Thavis notes, Burke has been among the church’s most vocal opponents of abortion, insisting that the Eucharist be denied to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, saying the Democratic Party "risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death' " and warning that nothing can justify voting for a candidate who supports "anti-life" and "anti-family" legislation.

After Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston presided over the funeral of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Burke said “one sees the hand of the Father of Lies at work in the disregard for the situation of scandal or in the ridicule and even censure of those who experience scandal."

And as the church attempts to reconcile with a traditionalist faction whose leaders were excommunicated 20 years ago for consecrating their own bishops – an effort that became controversial earlier this year when Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of a holocaust denier – Burke celebrated a Mass in the pre-Vatican II Tridentine rite this month in St. Peter’s Basilica, probably the first such Mass there in 40 years.

As David Gibson writes, the news of Burke’s appointment “may elicit celebration or anxiety, depending on one’s view of life in the church these days.” Rocco Palmo (scroll down to “The Judge of Bishops”) says: “Though it can only be gauged with time, the emergence of a potential – and potentially significant – "Burke effect" on Stateside appointments bears watching.”

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Catholicism, People, Politics
        

American Jews who have participated in a 10-year-old program that provides a free trip to Israel have a strengthened connection to the Jewish state, a greater sense of belonging to the Jewish people and an increased interest in building Jewish families, according to a study at Brandeis University.

The study released on Monday by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis sought to document the impact on participants of the Taglit-Birthright Israel experience, which has granted a free, 10-day trip to 220,000 Jews aged 18 to 26 since 2000. It was co-sponsored by Taglit-Birthright Israel.

“In ten short years, Taglit-Birthright Israel has inspired a generation of young Jews to reconnect with Israel and the Jewish community,” said Gidi Mark, CEO of Taglit-Birthright Israel. “With tens of thousands on our waiting list, we are well on our way to establishing an educational trip to Israel as a rite of passage in the Jewish life cycle. That’s going to be the story of our second decade.”

Among key findings:

● Forty-five percent of participants felt the trip was “very much” and 28 percent "somewhat" a life-changing experience

● Participants were 23 percent more likely than non-participants to report feeling “very much” connected to Israel.

● Participants were 24 percent more likely than non-participants to “strongly agree” with the statement, “I have a strong sense of connection to the Jewish people.”

● Married, non-Orthodox participants were 57 percent more likely to be married to a Jew than non-Orthodox non-participants.

● Participants were 30 percent more likely than non-participants to view raising Jewish children as “very important.”

Read the study at brandeis.edu.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

More interesting, perhaps, then the fact that Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo is the first Jewish ambassador from the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain is that the 45-year-old diplomat rose to her post despite being one of only three dozen Jews in the Arab nation.

The Baltimore Jewish Times has a story about Nonoo’s visit this month with a group of Baltimoreans visiting Washington as part of the Jewish Muslim Dialogue coordinated by the Baltimore Jewish Council.

“We have a visible Jewish community in that we have 36 people and we are all related,” said the British-educated Nonoo, the Bahraini ambassador to the United States.

She says her family’s history in Bahrain goes back more than a century, when her grandfather arrived from Iraqi to start a financial business. She described a climate of relative harmony among Jews and Muslims.

“During the festivals, we go to each others houses and our non-Jewish friends come to wish l’shanah tova,” she said. “We wish them well and visit their houses on the Muslim Eid Festival, too.”

Bahrain does not recognize the State of Israel. Nonoo says her country’s role in resolving the conflict is limited.

“We are inviting Israeli journalists to Bahrain, but being a small country we can’t take that first step of making peace,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time.”

Read the rest of the story at jewishtimes.com.

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Over at Read Street, the Baltimore Sun books blog, they're giving away a copy of The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb.

The jacket copy describes the anatomically comprehensive work by the underground comic artist as "THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE GRAPHICALLY DEPICTED! NOTHING LEFT OUT!" And there's a warning on the cover: "ADULT SUPERVISION RECOMMENDED FOR MINORS."

Sun colleague Nancy Johnston says: "It's gorgeous, graphic and much more seriously handled than you might expect from the irreverent Crumb." Details on how to win are at Read Street.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Christianity, Culture, Interfaith, Islam, Judaism, People
        

Over at Alternet, Joanna Brooks is crediting the rise and persona of Fox News personality Glenn Beck to the Mormonism to which the former Catholic converted in 1999. She begins the critical piece with Beck’s own description of the experience:

"I was friendless, working in the smallest radio market I had ever worked in... a hopeless alcoholic, abusing drugs every day," Beck said in an interview taped last fall. "I was trying to find a job and nobody would hire me … couldn’t get an agent to represent me. …"

"I was baptized on a Sunday, and on Monday" -- Beck’s throat tightens again; he wipes tears from his eyes with his index fingers -- "an agent called me out of the blue." Three days later, Beck was offered his own political talk radio show at WFLA-AM in Tampa, Florida, the job that put him on the road from "morning zoo" radio prankster to conservative media heavyweight.

Brooks says Beck’s reverence for the founders, his devotion to the writings of Freeman Society founder Cleon Skousen, even what she calls his “oft-ridiculed penchant for punctuating his tirades with tears” all derive from his Mormonism:

As sociologist David Knowlton has written, "Mormonism praises the man who is able to shed tears as a manifestation of spirituality." Crying and choking up are understood by Mormons as manifestations of the Holy Spirit. For men at every rank of Mormon culture and visibility, appropriately-timed displays of tender emotion are displays of power.

Not typical of Mormon masculinity, Brooks writes, are “Beck’s high-decibel swings between bombast and self-deprecation.”

Such demonstrative excesses are socialized out of most Mormon men during a regimented process of masculine formation that begins with entry into the lowest ranks of Mormonism’s lay priesthood at age 12, intensifies during compulsory missionary service from age 19 through 21, and continues throughout a lifetime of service within hierarchical priesthood quorums. A textbook example of the traditional Mormon “man of steel and velvet” whose inability to connect with the Republican base may have as much to do with his lack of familiar jocularity and chest-thumping outrage as it does with the perceived weirdness of his Mormon beliefs. As a convert, Beck missed out on crucial early years of Mormon male socialization. Consequently, his renegade persona may endear him even more to his Mormon male fans who might like to comport themselves as he does, but feel they cannot.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Sharon Sheridan at the Episcopal News Service has produced a useful roundup of reactions within that church to news this week that the Vatican would make it easier for Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church.

"We appreciate the welcome the pope extended to those in the Anglican Communion who are disaffected," New York Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam tells Sheridan. "We for our part continue to welcome our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, both lay and ordained, conservative and liberal, who wish to belong to a church that treasures diversity of thought."

"I watch with bemusement as Episcopalians leave our church to go to one that's much more rigid and exclusive," says Katie Sherrod, a former Roman Catholic who is a member of the executive council of the Diocese of Fort Worth. "I hope they find what they're looking for there, but I have a feeling that some of the people who might think this arrangement will be different are going to be in for a surprise."

Read the rest of the story at episcopal-life.org.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The New York Times has convened an august panel of Vatican watchers to comment on the moves this week to make it easier for Episcopalians to cross the Tiber.

“ 'Cafeteria Catholic' is about the worst epithet that conservative Catholics can hurl at liberals, with its implications of a pick-and-choose faith rather than a consistent fidelity to every jot and tittle of the catechism," writes David Gibson, author of "The Rule of Benedict." "But after the news that the Vatican is effectively carving out a special church-within-a-church to shelter traditionalist Anglicans upset at gay priests and women bishops in their own church, one has to wonder if the cafeteria line isn’t forming to the right.

"While both Pope John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI have been known as staunch conservatives, they have in fact shown a remarkably liberal willingness to bend the rules when it comes to certain groups."

"The news that the Vatican will create special structures for disaffected Anglicans will likely be criticized in some quarters as 'anti-ecumenical,' meaning a blow to good relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church," writes John L. Allen Jr., author of "The Rise of Benedict XVI." "That’s because Anglicans already seem on the brink of schism over issues like women priests (and bishops), gay marriage and the ordination of gay clergy, and now the conservative opposition has a Vatican-sanctioned exit strategy.

"Such criticism, however, tends to presume that the Vatican’s choice was between accepting these Anglicans and keeping them at arm’s length. In truth, the latter was never a serious option, because Catholicism is in the business of encouraging converts, not spurning them."

Read more at nytimes.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (64)
        

Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore has issued a statement on the Chapter 11 petition filed this week by the Diocese of Wilmington. The Diocese of Wilmington includes the Eastern Shore of Maryland and it is headed by Bishop W. Francis Malooly, a Baltimore native who was an auxiliary bishop in the Baltimore archdiocese until being tapped for Wilmington last year. The diocese joins with the archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington in the Maryland Catholic Conference.

O’Brien’s statement:

Troubled and saddened by the news of the Diocese of Wilmington's filing for Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, I extend the sympathy and support of the people of the Archdiocese of Baltimore to Bishop Malooly, to our Catholic sisters and brothers in the Diocese of Wilmington, and to all who are impacted by this painful and unfortunate decision.

In recognizing the pain and sadness accompanying this action for all involved, I also wish to acknowledge our own Archdiocese's long-standing and ongoing efforts to bring healing to victims of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of priests and others representing our Church.

We must and will continue this necessary outreach as long as there are victims suffering, just as we also must continue to meet the needs of countless people in cities and towns throughout the Archdiocese—Catholic and non-Catholic alike-- who rely on us to serve them in our parishes, schools, and charitable institutions. Both are important and both require the fullness of our commitment, our hearts and our prayers.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

A multi-year study hosted by the University of Maryland and including several area groups concludes that faith-based organizations can better weather an economic downturn by building stronger ties with the ministries the congregations that support them.

From a release issued on Thursday:

Particularly during an economic downturn, faith-based organizations tied only to one or two congregations, especially if those were not thriving congregations, had the most trouble raising resources and some shut down. While single-congregation support of a program might be considered more authentic, faith-based organizations supported by a wider umbrella or an interfaith base fared better.

“We compared everything from small food pantries directly connected to a congregation to national hospital systems and their local affiliated hospitals,” said Maryland Associate Professor Jo Anne Schneider, who led the project. “Congregation-focused models work well for mainline Protestants, Quakers and African American churches, but only if several congregations provide support or the sponsoring congregation is sufficiently active with enough resources to support the nonprofit. Jewish and Catholic systems rely on their communities as a whole with the Jewish Federation, Archdiocese, or Order providing centralized support. Some thriving evangelical organizations rely on networks with no formal connections to congregations.”

Other key findings of the report, entitled “Faith and Organization Project: Maintaining Vital Between Faith Communities and their Organizations:”

* A new breed of evangelical organizations has emerged with a different understanding about how to develop an organization to do a specific mission that is firmly based in a particular set of beliefs but that focuses on personal relationships to provide services rather than sharing their faith as a means to improve the lives of those served.

* Faith groups are most likely to support organizations that most closely reflect their current values rather than organizations simply with historic ties to the faith.

* Informal mechanisms to maintain relationships, such as social networks between the faith community and the faith-based organization, were often more important than formal mechanisms -- such as requiring that a percentage of board members be from the founding faith -- in fostering vital, ongoing connections between faith communities and organizations.

* Faith communities founded most of the nonprofits in the United States and play a key role in social welfare, health, education and community development today. Clarifying specifically religious aspects of the relationship between founding communities and their organizations and effective best practices are key concerns for faith-based organizations and the religions that created them. The Faith and Organization project was created to provide communities, organizations and policy-makers with concrete information and targeted materials to address this issue.

Area organizations participating in the study included Catonsville Disciples of Christ church and its arts program, Kaleidoscope; Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity; Caroline Center; St. Ambrose Housing; St. Agnes Hospital; Union Baptist church and its programs; The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and its member organizations JCC of Baltimore and Chai; Chizuk Amuno synagogue and its Kreiger Schecter Day School.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Muslim leaders in the Philippines are condemning the kidnapping of a Catholic priest, saying the act is contrary to the religious values of both Islam and Christianity, zenit.org is reporting.

The Rev. Michael Sinnott, a 79-year-old Columban father who moved from Ireland to the Philippines four decades ago, was abducted Oct. 11 from his home in Pagadian City, zenit.org reports. Sinnott has been frail and in need of medication since an open heart surgery he underwent in July.

The National Ulema Conference of the Philippines, a body of Muslim leaders, issued an appeal for the release of the priest, according to AsiaNews, stating that the act "contrary to the principles of Islam, Christianity and other religions.”

The Filipino government, meanwhile, has appealed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group, for help in finding the kidnapped priest, zenit.org reports. Although there has been violent conflict between the two forces that resulted in hundreds of deaths only months ago, they agreed last week to work together to rescue Sinnott.

The Inquirer Mindanao has reported that the Moro Islamic forces are closing in on the location and identities of the kidnappers, zenit.org reports. The Muslim forces plan to surround the captors and cut off escape while allowing the government authorities to take the lead on the final confrontation.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Plans by the Church of Scientology to build a new state headquarters in Georgia continue to brew controversy.

The city council of the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs delayed a vote this week on a rezoning request following what the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes as “a packed house of several dozen opponents wearing ‘STOP’ stickers on their lapels and several dozen supporters on hand with a court reporter, taking down all comments.”

Neighbors have insisted their opposition has nothing to do with the controversies that dog Scientology, but the impacts the development would have on the community. According to the Journal Constitution, the church has hinted that it will file a federal lawsuit against Sandy Springs if the rezoning request is denied.

“We are trying to do everything we can to address every issue raised by the community,” said W. Woodson Galloway, who is representing the church. “We feel we’ve addressed every legitimate issue. … No other church in Sandy Springs has made these kind of concessions, or been asked to.”

Galloway said the court reporter – typically an indicator that an attorney is preparing a court case – was his normal procedure for a final hearing in case the council did take a vote, according to the Journal Constitution.

Read the rest of the story at ajc.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Bill Donohue says he’s okay with “gentle fun” being poked at his faith. But the Catholic watchdog says The Simpsons went too far on Sunday when they cracked wise about the Eucharist.

At issue is this year’s installment of the annual Halloween episode. One of the three stories – and we’re taking Donohue’s word for it, because we didn’t catch the show – involved people in Springfield becoming zombies after eating hamburgers infected with tainted meat.

Bart tries one of the infected hamburgers, but proves immune to the virus, and so becomes the “Chosen One.” When the Simpsons reach a safe zone with other uninfected people, a guard says, “Welcome, son. To survive, all we must do is eat your flesh.” Which leads Marge to ask: “What kind of civilized people eat the body and blood of their savior?”

“What kind of uncivilized people work at Fox?” asked Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the author of “Secular Sabatoge: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America.”

“Last year, when they poked some gentle fun at the Apostle’s Creed on the Halloween episode, we said nothing,” Donohue said. ”That’s because it didn’t cross the line. This year is different: mocking the heart of any religion always crosses the line, and mocking the Eucharist does it for Catholics. They know this at Fox, which is precisely why they did it.”

His statement includes the name and e-mail address of Fox Broadcasting's chairman of entertainment.

John Gehring of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, meanwhile, is decrying the media reliance on Donohue as a spokesman for the faith on the Washington Post’s On Faith blog.

"While Donohue's bluster makes for sensational television," Gehring writes, "he rarely raises his voice to speak about issues at the heart of Catholic social teaching. While the U.S. Catholic bishops' 2008 election-year statement on political responsibility emphasized a consistent ethic of life tradition that recognizes torture, unjust war, the death penalty, genocide, racism and poverty as 'direct assaults on innocent human life,' Donohue is uncharacteristically mute on these points. Abortion is not the only 'life issue' for Catholics."

Back to The Simpsons: It isn’t the first time the long-running animated comedy has drawn Donohue’s ire. A decade ago, he complained about a couple of episodes in the same season. In the first, aired in November 1998, a hungry Bart asks Marge, "Mom, can we go Catholic so we can get Communion wafers and booze?" She replies: "No one is going Catholic. Three children is enough, thank you."

The second episode aired on Super Bowl Sunday 1999, and included a scene in which Marge and Lisa were watching a television advertisement during the iconic sporting event. As Los Angeles Times columnist Howard Rosenberg described it:

Inspired by an old ZZ Top video, the commercial spoof showed a dusty service station where a car pulled up to the pumps and the nerdy driver got out, looked around and hit the horn. Gyrating to rock music, three scantily clad babes emerged from the station seductively, and as the driver's eyes widened, they suggestively flipped open the hood, shook off the squeegee and plunged the gas nozzle into the tank. The driver was even more excited when spotting a glittering cross hanging in one of the wiggling female's ample cleavage.

Voice-over: "The Catholic Church: We've made a few . . . changes."

Rosenberg was writing about Donohue’s apparent effectiveness. His 1999 column described the decision of Fox to change “The Catholic Church” to “The Church” for subsequent broadcasts, under pressure from the Catholic League.

Simpsons executive producer Mike Scully told Rosenberg that he was asked to make the change by Fox’s vice president of broadcast standards. When Scully balked, he said, the Fox executive suggested changing it to "Methodists, Presbyterians or Baptists" – anything but Catholic.

"When I asked what would be the difference changing it to another religion, and wouldn't that just be offending a different group of people,” Scully told Rosenberg, “he explained that Fox had already had trouble with Catholics earlier this season."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (62)
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

I am honored that Professor David Neipert, one of the faculty members who initiated the EEOC complaint against Belmont Abbey College, saw fit to respond to my earlier article on this topic. Given his personal involvement in this case, it is obvious that he begins with a far greater knowledge of its particulars, and I appreciate his sharing his perspective of the facts.

Here are the key points that he has made, to the best of my understanding:

1. The status of Belmont Abbey College as a religious institution is questionable. This is buttressed by the fact that the college "advertised itself as an equal opportunity employer and freely accepted funding that was not available to religious institutions." Additionally, the majority of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni are not Catholic.

2. The college offered coverage for these services for 26 years, "indicating that this was a change of a deliberate policy." It was then done immediately, unilaterally, and without discussion, and the college refused to negotiate.

3. It is not the eight faculty members, but the school, that is attacking religious freedom. "Forcing us to abide by a Catholic approved health plan makes no more sense than prohibiting a Catholic plumber from eating a Pork sandwich for lunch if he works at a Jewish hospital." Professor Neipert was assured that he would "not be expected to adopt Catholic practices and that not being Catholic would not affect my career in any way."

Let us address each of these in turn.

In order to question Belmont Abbey's status as a religious institution, Professor Neipert conflates two entirely different standards, from two vastly different sections of the law. He writes that "the college actually went to the federal court of appeals arguing that it was not religious in order to obtain state funding." The decision in that case, however, states that "in the charter of the college, the fourth stated purpose speaks of Christian inspiration, fidelity to the Christian message and of reflection upon the growing treasury of human knowledge in the light of the Catholic faith." [These four purposes are apparently drawn directly from Pope John Paul II's definition of a Catholic college.] The decision further quotes from the faculty handbook to the effect that BAC is a "Catholic institution."

On the contrary, in that case the question was whether the state could legally provide tuition grants and scholarships to students attending Christian colleges in order to receive an education in the liberal arts. "A three-judge court held that the two colleges in question, although they had religious ties, were not so pervasively religious that their secular activities could not be separated from their sectarian ones; and that the program did not involve excessive entanglement on the part of the state with the religiously affiliated colleges, so that application of the scholarship program to the colleges did not violate First Amendment rights." Under the law, the state cannot provide tuition grants to young monks joining the Belmont Abbey, but can provide them to their peers, whether Catholic or otherwise, attending Belmont Abbey College. That hardly means the college isn't "religious."

Even the claim that "the majority of the faculty and students are not Catholic" is problematic at best. According to the Office of the President at BAC, the majority of the administration, the Board of Trustees, the faculty, and the resident students are all understood to be Catholic (the college does not formally survey faculty). In the same legal decision mentioned above, the court states that "Catholics predominate on the Board of Trustees, the offices of administration, faculty and staff of the college," and comprise roughly 70% of the students. While I hesitate to take an anonymous comment on a blog as having any credibility, someone claiming to be a junior at the college writes on catholic.org that "the student body overwhelmingly supports Dr. Thierfelder and the Abbot in this decision." So I would say the jury is still out on that claim.

Sadly, the fact that this coverage sat on the books for 26 years, if true, is no proof that it was there intentionally. It is clear that neither the president nor the Abbot knew that their insurance coverage provided for services that violated Catholic teachings. They took action not to discriminate against any party, but to remove the college from paying for activities which violate their religion, and did so as soon as they became aware of the issue. They didn't discuss, negotiate, or delay, because following the tenets of the Catholic church is part of the charter of the school, and not something that can be discussed, negotiated, or delayed.

Professor Neipert is unable to understand why the monks of Belmont Abbey might go so far as to close the college rather than pay for the violation of their religious beliefs. This is because he is only considering the importance of earthly things such as degrees, donors and college credits. While he claims to be fighting for religious principle, he fails to demonstrate an understanding of the overriding importance of religious law to those truly sincere in their faith.

Which brings us to the final, and surely the most crucial point of Professor Neipert's rebuttal of my earlier post: his claim that it is he and the other seven faculty members that are fighting for religious freedom, rather than Belmont Abbey College. While he attempts to draw a parallel to "prohibiting a Catholic plumber from eating a Pork sandwich for lunch if he works at a Jewish hospital," a more accurate analogy would be if the plumber were to demand use of the hospital microwave to heat his sandwich, rendering that microwave unusable for the preparation of Kosher food afterward. The college is not prohibiting an employee from undergoing voluntary sterilization or taking prescription contraceptives; it is only excluding itself from assisting financially in that effort.

There can be no confusion on this point. The college, by not paying for something which violates Catholic religious tenets, is not imposing its faith upon Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or atheist faculty or staff. It is merely observing its own faith.

While Professor Neipert and his seven colleagues may be confused about this, the EEOC is not. The EEOC already dealt with the claim of religious discrimination, and rejected it because "benefits were not changed based on each individual employee's religious beliefs; contraception benefits were removed from the health plan for all employees, regardless of their religion."

So Professor Neipert's response is enlightening but also perplexing. He tells us that their cause is one of noble principle, that they went to court "to protect our religious freedom not to have religious practices imposed upon us by our employer." If that is true, one wonders why they continue to pursue a case that they have already lost.

In his essay of over 1,200 words, Professor Neipert does not so much as mention the word "gender" -- the sole basis upon which the EEOC rests its case. Perhaps he recognizes that the charge of gender discrimination is logically vacuous, considering that Catholic teachings are equally relevant to any form of interference with reproduction, whether by man or woman. Perhaps he understands how incomprehensible it is for six men to continue to claim personal standing under Title VII, when all that remains is a charge of discrimination against women. Perhaps he also recognizes that if the EEOC position were to be sustained, the same tenuous logic ("Respondent is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral contraceptives") would immediately require employers to pay for abortion on demand as well. Instead, he attempts to wave a banner that the EEOC has already discarded.

Regardless of the outcome in this particular case, the "freedom" to compel your employer to help you violate his or her own religious tenets will not be granted. As long as a condition is imposed upon all employees and does not require a religious observance, the EEOC will not call that "discrimination." An employer affiliated with the Je-ovah's Witness might not provide for blood transfusions, or health care at all. A Muslim employer can tell you to stand facing Mecca in respect of those praying, he just can't order you to pray. A Hindu employer, just like a vegetarian employer, can prohibit beef consumption on the premises of his or her business. And, of course, a Jewish hospital can insist that anything placed in the microwave is certified Kosher.

Prof. Neipert claims this is all a matter of principle, the EEOC has discarded that principle, and the case is lumbering forward. Perplexing, indeed.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Speaking to an Italian-American law group in Philadelphia on Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito voiced frustration over what he called persistent questions about the court's Roman Catholic majority, the Associated Press is reporting.

"There has been so much talk lately about the number of Catholics serving on the Supreme Court," Alito, one of six Catholics on the high court, said in a speech to the Justinian Society. "This is one of those questions that does not die."

Alito complained about "respectable people who have seriously raised the questions in serious publications about whether these individuals could be trusted to do their jobs." He said he thought the Constitution settled the question long ago with its guarantee of religious freedom.

The confirmation of Sonya Sotomayor has created a two-thirds majority of Catholics on the high court, an unprecedented concentration for a bench that has had only a dozen Catholic justices in its history. The other Catholics now serving are Chief Justice John Roberts, Antthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

As the AP notes, the Catholic Church endorses positions on several high-profile legal issues, including abortion, gay marriage and the death penalty (it opposes the first two, and effectively opposes the third).

Notre Dame law professor Richard W. Garnett said the religion of qualified justices will not determine their views of pending cases, even if their experiences might shade it.

"It's not the calling of a Catholic judge to enforce the teachings of the faith,” he told the AP. “It's the calling of a Catholic judge, as well as he or she can, to interpret and apply the laws of the political community.”

Read the Associated Press story.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the global head of the 300 million-member Orthodox Christian Church, arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday to begin his sixth visit to the United States.

Archbishop Demetrios of America welcomed him at Louis Armstrong Airport with Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, members of the local clergy, local officials, local Orthodox faithful and children dressed in traditional costume.

Bartholomew blessed the gathering and issued greetings:

From the Mother Church of Constantinople and the Holy and Great Church of Christ, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we bring you greetings and blessings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

We give thanks to Almighty God for granting us a safe arrival here in New Orleans, a place to which we return with much hope and expectation. We return after nearly four years, when we came in the Winter of 2006 to share in the loss and pain of the courageous citizens of New Orleans and to witness the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

We return to the place where the mighty Mississippi River nears its course into the Gulf of Mexico, and where the waves of the sea and the banks of the river overflowed. We return so that we might bear witness to the hope that is in you, the hope you have manifested through the rebuilding your lives and your community. We return in order to pray with you and to intercede with the Lord of creation, that the ‘flood of many waters shall not come nigh unto you again.'

We return to this historic and famed city, and call on your fellow citizens around the country to return here for themselves; whether to live or enjoy the unique offerings of New Orleans.

Finally, we return to New Orleans with the same conviction and concern that has taken us around the globe, to oceans and seas and mighty rivers: from the Aegean to the Arctic, from the Black to the Baltic Seas, from the Danube to Amazon – and now, to the mighty Mississippi River. Throughout the previous seven Religion, Science and Environment Symposia, we have brought together academics and policy makers, scientists and theologians; so that we might pose questions and find solutions for the ecological perils of our time.

Here in New Orleans, for the next five days, we shall gather again, and we thank the RSE Committee for their extraordinary efforts in bringing this conference to fruition. Our prayer is that during these days, we shall heighten awareness, strengthen resolve, raise expectations and explore new hopes.

We stand in solidarity with the people of New Orleans and all people who seek a better life. And we are present with you to call for a renewed consciousness for environmental responsibility, and an awareness of what such a consciousness entails.

We pray that our days among you will be a blessing for you and a blessing for us, for we come with only words of peace, love and benediction upon our lips and in our hearts. May God bless the people here present, and bestow upon all his infinite mercy.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Local Catholic leaders are opposing a Baltimore City Council proposal that they say unfairly harrasses pro-life pregnancy support centers, the Catholic Review reports.

The bill, sponsored by council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and 10 other council members, would require clinics that don't provide contraception or abortion to post signs saying so, or be fined $500 per day.

The Catholic Review quotes from a letter by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien saying that the proroposal targets non-profit organizations whose mission is to help women carry pregnancies to term.

"To fine a center $500 for not posting a sign that states as much is nothing short of harassment,” Archbishop O’Brien said, “especially when nothing in a pregnancy support center’s yellow page advertisements or Web pages would lead a woman to believe these centers provide abortions or abortion-related services.”

The Catholic Review also quotes from a letter from Rawlings-Blake: “I believe this measure is needed to secure women’s access to accurate and safe medical information. ... Of course, I support efforts by nonprofit organizations to assist future mothers. This ordinance does nothing to hamper those efforts.”

Read the rest of the story at catholicreview.org.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

Which religious denomination has the best slogan? According to a vote of nonprofit professionals, it's the United Methodist Church.

The United Methodists took home the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award in the category of Religion & Spiritual Development with an eight-year-old slogan: "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors."

From the award citation:

The work of religious organizations often operates on several planes at once — a challenge for any organization and its messaging. Here, The United Methodist Church delivers a tagline trinity that supports its applied faith mission and is warm, enthusiastic and embracing.

“Our tagline embodies who we are as United Methodists,” the Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive of the communications agency responsible for overseeing the advertising ministry for the 11.5 million-member denomination, said in a statement. “The characteristics it celebrates are perceived positively by the people we are trying to reach.”

Among the other winners were "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste®," the 38-year-old slogan of the United Negro College Fund, and "Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job," the tagline for Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the global leader of the 300 million-member Orthodox Christian Church, will visit Sts. Constantine and Helen Church in Annapolis next month as part of his sixth visit to the United States.

Styled "The Green Patriarch," the ecologically aware Bartholomew has come to preside over the eighth Religion, Science and the Environment Symposium, to be convenved on Tuesday in New Orleans around the subject of "Restoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River." While in the country, he will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the enthronement of Archbishop Demetrios of America as the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

In Annapolis on Nov. 2, Batholomew will mark his 18th year as ecumenical patriarch in a Doxology service at Sts. Constantine and Helen.

"Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's visit comes at a time of spiritual rejuvenation for our Holy Metropolis and his presence among us will inspire us to continue serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength," Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey, whose Metropolis includes Maryland, said in statement. "I am confident that all of our pious Orthodox faithful appreciate and realize the great honor that His All Holiness bestows upon us once again by visiting us during the his visit to the United States."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: International, Orthodox Christianity, People
        

Pope Benedict XVI has created a new church structure for Anglicans who want to join the Catholic Church, responding to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the ordination of women and the election of openly gay bishops, the Associated Press is reporting.

The new provision will allow Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while maintaining their Anglican identity and many of their liturgical traditions, Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, told a news conference in Vatican City.

The move comes weeks after 10 of 12 Episcopalian nuns and their chaplain at a Catonsville convent left their church en masse to become Roman Catholic, citing the stability of church teaching and the unananimity of its leaders on social issues as factors.

From the Associated Press:

The new church structure, called Personal Ordinariates, will be units of faithful within the local Catholic Church headed by former Anglican prelates who will provide spiritual care for Anglicans who wish to become Catholic.

"Those Anglicans who have approached the Holy See have made clear their desire for full, visible unity in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church," Levada said. "At the same time, they have told us of the importance of their Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey."

Levada said the new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans who have become increasingly disillusioned with the ordination of women, the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions in the 77-million strong Anglican Communion. He declined to give figures on the number of requests that have come to the Vatican, or on the anticipated number of Anglicans who might take advantage of the new structure.

The new canonical provision allows married Anglican priests to become ordained Catholic priests — much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. However, married Anglicans couldn't become Catholic bishops.

The AP also quotes from a joint statement by the Catholic archbishop of Westminster and the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, who said the decision "brings an end to a period of uncertainty" for Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church. The statement said the decision in fact could not have happened had there not been fruitful dialogue between the two.

"The ongoing official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion provides the basis for our continuing cooperation," the joint statement said.

Read the rest of the Associated Press story.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The atheists are on the move in New York.

Beginning next week, The New York Times reports, a coalition of local groups will run a monthlong advertising campaign in a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan “A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?”

The campaign, funded with $25,000 from an anonymous donor, follows a similar but unrelated monthlong campaign on buses by New York City Atheists in July, The Times reports. Jane Everhart, a spokeswoman for the New York City Atheists, told The Times that that campaign brought in many new members, and the group is trying to raise money to do it again.

Read more at nytimes.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (70)
        

On the eve of an event honoring local veterans of the Israel Defense Forces, the Baltimore Jewish Times has an interesting feature profiling five local men who served.

Shlomo Cohen, 58, speaks of capturing mountaintops in Syria during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Uzi Merles, 32, recalls the absurdity of stopping respectful older Palestinains at checkpoints while watching others in the distance using trails to slip into the towns.

Michael Field, 48, concluded from his service that Israel has no choice but to find a way to make peace with the Palestinians, because the only way to win the conflict would be to commit genocide.

The Maryland Chapter of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces will honor local veterans at 6 p.m. Thursday at Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Stevenson. Former Ambassador John Bolton will speak; tickets are required. More information is available by calling 410-486-0004 or e-mailing Charlie.levine@israelsoldiers.org.

Read more at jewishtimes.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Del., which includes Maryland's Eastern Shore, filed for federal bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, on the eve of a civil trial in a high-profile sex abuse case against the diocese and a former priest, the Associated Press is reporting.

The bankruptcy filing automatically delays the case in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware, according to the AP. The diocese becomes the seventh in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of abuse claims.

"This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make," Bishop W. Francis Maloody said in a statement on the diocesan Web site. "However, after careful consideration and after consultation with my close advisors and counselors, I believe we have no other choice, and that filing for Chapter 11 offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our Diocese. Our hope is that Chapter 11 proceedings will enable us to fairly compensate all victims through a single process established by the Bankruptcy Court."

Malooly said the moved was "in no way intended to dodge responsibility for past criminal misconduct by clergy – or for mistakes made by Diocesan authorities. Nor does the bankruptcy process enable the Diocese to avoid or minimize its responsibility to victims of abuse. ... The Diocese of Wilmington is committed to pursuing the truth because truth heals."

Thomas Neuberger, an attorney representing 88 alleged victims, described the bankruptcy filing as a "desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal the thousands of pages of scandalous documents" from being made public in court, according to the AP.

"This filing is the latest, sad chapter in the diocese's decades long 'cover-up' of these despicable crimes, to maintain the secrecy surrounding its responsibility and complicity in the sexual abuse of hundreds of Catholic children," Neuberger said in a statement. He said he would make court filings in Delaware to "meet this fraudulent tactic with the full and immediate force of the law," and vowed to seek out all assets of the diocese and its parishes.

Maloody described the move as necessary to safeguard the work of the church.

"It is our moral obligation to make reparations and otherwise see to the healing of legitimate abuse victims and to try to restore the faith that in many cases has tragically been lost," he said. "But our moral obligations do not end there. We also are obliged to continue our charitable, educational and spiritual missions and the ministries associated with them. In order to do that, this Diocese must survive."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the Notre Dame president who sparked controversy last spring when he invited President Barack Obama to speak and receive an honorary degree last spring during commencement, has been re-elected to a second five-year term as president of the nation’s most prominent Catholic university.

Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore was among the first of dozens of American bishops to criticize Jenkins’ decision to honor Obama, who supports abortion rights.

But the trustees of Notre Dame passed a resolution last week expressing their “respect and full confidence” in Jenkins, saying he has nurtured an environment in which “the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived,” the Associated Press reports.

Jenkins has announced plans to travel to Washington in January to take part in an annual anti-abortion march.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Attorney, author and professor David Neipert, a senior Fulbright scholar in law, is a former associate professor of international business at Belmont Abbey College.

I am one of the faculty members who asked the EEOC to review Belmont Abbey College’s policy on contraception. I write in response to the guest post of Oct. 15 by Rabbi Yaakov Menken ("Watch this case").

In the first paragraph Rabbi Menken states that Belmont Abbey College "is, without question, a religious institution, guided by the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church." In fact Belmont Abbey College has never been a particularly religious institution. The majority of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni are not Catholic. When I was hired I was assured by the then president, division head, and department chair that I would not be expected to adopt Catholic practices and that not being Catholic would not affect my career in any way. Without this assurance I would not have taken the job. The college then advertised itself as an equal opportunity employer and freely accepted funding that was not available to religious institutions. In fact the college actually went to the federal court of appeals arguing that it was not religious in order to obtain state funding. You can read the case yourself in any law library or lawyer’s office at 429 F. Supp 871. Does a truly religious institution deny that it is religious to obtain money?

Before the event made the subject of Rabbi Menken’s column the college had offered prescription contraceptives as part of its health plan for 26 years indicating that this was a change of a deliberate policy, not the correction of a casual mistake.

In the second paragraph Rabbi Menken states that, upon discovering that the college health plan covered abortion, sterilization, and contraception "William Thierfelder, immediately altered the plan." This is true and the plan was altered even though the faculty had already been through its benefits enrollment process and the college was contractually obligated to fulfill its written agreement to provide the benefits it promised for the rest of the school year. The proper time to make changes would have been at the next annual enrollment but the college chose not to provide the benefits. College procedure was for any change in employee benefits to be made in consultation with the staff and faculty welfare committees. This was not done. However, there was no move among the faculty and staff to restore the abortion or sterilization benefits. Many, however, wanted the college to reconsider the decision with regard to contraceptives. The overwhelming majority of employees, including the Catholics had no problem with them and had signed up to receive them at the invitation of the college only a few weeks earlier.

The appropriate committees formed ideas regarding how the benefits could be restored without offending Catholic sensibilities but found that the administration would not discuss the matter with them. In the exact words of the college president: "consultation was not an option." The college's position was basically that they would not ever change their mind but you could come at any time so they could tell you why you were wrong.

Rabbi Menken said that we went "running to the EEOC." Actually we went there as a last resort when the college refused to fulfill its contract, refused to follow its published procedures, and refused to discuss our many problems in a spirit of working things out amicably. Before we went to EEOC I even wrote a polite letter to the administration pointing out the possible legal pitfalls in their actions. The letter went unanswered. We had no choice but to request help from EEOC.

Note that nobody questions the right of the college to promote its religious beliefs, only its practices which affect others. The law makes a distinction between religious beliefs which are absolutely protected and religious practices which are often regulated when they affect others, as the college’s practice does here. The regulation of practices is necessary; (there are people who believe in human sacrifice or ritual child abuse).

Despite the Rabbi’s inference, we had absolutely no intention to launch a government attack on religious freedom. Instead our intent was and is to protect our religious freedom not to have religious practices imposed upon us by our employer. Forcing us to abide by a Catholic approved health plan makes no more sense than prohibiting a Catholic plumber from eating a Pork sandwich for lunch if he works at a Jewish hospital. As I said in the comment section of Rabbi Menken’s post it would be an ugly world if an employer is allowed to impose religious practices on employees who do not share the employer’s views. A business owned by a Jehovah's witness might not allow blood transfusions in the health plan. A business owned by a Muslim might require the employees to face Mecca at prayer time. A business owned by a Hindu might fire an employee seen eating beef on company premises. I could go on and on but you can see that it is best to let each employee decide for himself or herself, freely without coercion, how to practice religion. If the law requires that an employer offer contraception benefits that law should apply to all employers. Of course Orthodox Catholics may decline to use the contraception benefit, but that is the true application of religious freedom.

Rabbie Menken suggests that this action is a conspiracy of the Obama administration. Baloney. As a Senior Fulbright scholar who has worked to repair the damage in a number of former socialist countries I can assure the reader that I am no fan of silver tongued orators with glittering talk of how the government is going to assemble a paradise for the working man. I speak only for myself, not all eight of us. Some of us are liberal, some conservative, some Catholic and some not. We are doing what we are doing for the principle involved, not Obama's political agenda. George Bush was president when we complained to EEOC.

Finally, I would like to focus on the statement by the president of Belmont Abbey College that he would rather shut down the school than offer contraceptive benefits. Rabbi Menken seems to applaud this stand. I do not agree. In making these comments please note that I no longer work at Belmont Abbey so I am not directly affected by what happens there. I no longer have a direct interest in this matter and have no reason to be self-serving. I am, however, concerned for those still involved at the college.

A college president should consider the whole picture at the college including the faculty and staff who have devoted a working lifetime to the place, the alumni whose degrees have more value if the college remains ongoing and accredited, the donors who might not feel their gift would be put to good use at a college that might soon close, and the students who have invested their time, money, and hard work to earn credits that may not transfer if the college goes under. I hope for the sake of all the aforementioned that the college president considers his responsibilities as a college president as seriously as he seems to take his role as a Catholic layman. Such statements are counterproductive whether he is bluffing or not.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Abortion rights groups are fighting a proposal to build a new Catholic hospital in Montgomery county, the Associated Press is reporting:

Holy Cross, a Catholic hospital in Silver Spring, has submitted a bid to state officials to build a new campus in Germantown. The Maryland Health Care Commission is expected to pick between that bid and one from Adventist HealthCare of Takoma Park in the spring. Adventist wants to build its facility in Clarksburg.

A coalition of abortion rights group, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, is lobbying the state and the county's elected officials against Holy Cross' proposal. Holy Cross has restrictions on elective abortions and sterilizations, and the groups say that whatever hospital is built should offer a full range of reproductive health services.

(Disclosure: Mrs. Brown works at Holy Cross.)

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

We wrote several weeks ago about plans by a Korean-American congregation in Silver Spring to build a large new church straddling the Frederick and Montgomery county line, as a way of discussing the opposition that seems always to rise up against such projects.

The Frederick County Planning Commisison now has rejected the proposal by the Global Mission Church, a 30-year-old Baptist congregation. From the Associated Press:

Panel members denied the project on a 6-1 vote Wednesday after questioning whether a planned well and septic system were enough for the nearly 1,200-seat Global Mission Church, its 60 meeting rooms and 500-seat dining hall.

An attorney for the Silver Spring-based church is calling the decision unreasonable. The church could appeal to the county's zoning appeals board.

Attorney David Severn also says he's concerned about commission chairwoman Catherine Forrence's comment that the county should consider limiting the size and scope of places of worship on agricultural land.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Mary Ellen Heibel, the Annapolis woman whose apparent cure from cancer is being investigated by the Catholic Church as a possible miracle, has died from pneumonia. She was 71.

Mrs. Heibel had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2004. A member of St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Annapolis, she began praying for the intercession of Blessed Francis X. Seelos, a 19th century Maryland priest.

Her metastic cancer vanished. The church has opened an investigation to determine whether it was the miracle that could seal the canonization of Seelos as a saint.

Mrs. Heibel leaves her husband of 53 years, Dr. John Heibel, four children and 11 grandchildren. We extend our deepest condolences to her family.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

We were going to post the video in which Sarah Silverman proposes that the pope solve world hunger by selling the Vatican. Then we watched it.

There's a question of taste.

Still, the video is interesting in part for the thoughtful reaction it has provoked from the Rev. James Martin over at America magazine. We can excerpt from an Associated Press story that summarizes both the video and the response:

In a new profanity-laced monologue making the rounds on YouTube in time for U.N. World Food Day on Friday, Silverman suggests that it's time for the pope to "move out of your house that is a city" and use the proceeds to feed the world's poor.

"On an ego level alone you will be the biggest hero in the history of ever!" she exclaimed. "Sell the Vatican. Feed the world."

The Vatican clearly has no plans to follow suit. On Thursday, a spokesman declined to comment. But the Catholic League, the U.S. Catholic civil rights organization, denounced Silverman and cable broadcaster HBO for her "obscene" and "filthy diatribe."

In a statement, it noted that such an attack would never have been leveled against, say, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem or the state of Israel and added that the "Catholic Church operates more hospitals and feeds more of the poor than any private institution in the world."

Yet the Rev. James Martin, culture editor of the Jesuit magazine America, says Silverman may be onto something. In an online article, Martin noted that Jesus himself told his followers to sell what they had and give it to the poor.

"Of course Pope Benedict XVI could not 'sell' any of the treasures of the Vatican, the same way that your local archbishop couldn't sell off the cathedral at a whim; they are not his, they are the church's," Martin wrote. "And the church is not simply the hierarchy but the entire people of God."

But he added: "Still, perhaps Ms. Silverman, in her postmodern, potty-mouthed way is on to something. Like Jesus was. Sell the Vatican? Well, maybe not everything but perhaps a statue or two?"

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

Belmont Abbey College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in North Carolina, serving nearly 1500 students. It was founded in 1876 by the monks of the Belmont Abbey, a monastery of the Benedictine Order. The school mission is "to educate students in the liberal arts and sciences so that in all things G-d may be glorified." It is, without question, a religious institution, guided by the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2007, the College discovered that its employee health benefits plan inadvertently included coverage for abortion, contraception, and voluntary sterilization. The college president, William Thierfelder, immediately altered the plan, declaring that the school "is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church." And at that point, several members of the faculty went running to the EEOC, charging "discrimination."

If you think that government agencies take the First Amendment seriously, you should pay close attention to this case. In March, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed the charge, stating that it was "unable to conclude" that the statutes had been violated. But then, in July, the District Director of the EEOC reversed course, and claimed that Belmont Abbey is discriminating against its employees. Why? The following is an unaltered quote: "By denying prescription contraceptive drugs, Respondent is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral contraceptives. By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women."

It is somewhat bizarre that the EEOC did not similarly refer to the lack of abortion coverage as "discrimination," since it is equally true that only females obtain abortions. But this is the least of the evidence that this is little more than an attack on religious freedom, using whatever spurious reasons might be found.

I use the word "attack" advisedly. I do not think this can be characterized merely as a callous disregard for the religious values of the institution in question, as if that would not be sufficiently problematic. No. I think it is obvious to anyone that were there prescription contraceptives for men, Belmont Abbey would not cover them either, and for precisely the same reason. So the EEOC's decision essentially blames the College for the current state of medical science, a position even the most entrenched bureaucrat would admit is patently ridiculous.

In the words of the EEOC, it does not matter why Belmont Abbey will not cover contraceptives, nor whether the situation would be different were male contraceptives approved for use by the FDA. The religious justification -- the First Amendment -- is cast aside, because prescription oral contraceptives are currently only available for women.

There are many reasons why this decision's timing is especially problematic, as well. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Patrick Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society, calls this "a bad omen for people of faith."

The fact that the EEOC decided in favor of the College in March, and reversed its position in July, leads many to conclude, as did the Becket Fund, that this was "presumably at the direction of the new administration in Washington." The National Catholic Register, under the headline "When ‘Rights’ to the Pill Trump the First Amendment," highlighted President Obama's promises of “robust” conscience protection in health care, belied by the EEOC's actions. Kevin Hasson, president of the Becket Fund, said “When President Obama is at Notre Dame or the Vatican, he talks a good game about protecting conscience. But when his administration goes to Belmont Abbey College and the rubber meets the road, it’s a different story.”

It is easy to imagine that the same reasoning will, in fact, be used to require coverage for abortions. Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, former Sen. Rick Santorum said "Since only women get abortions, it's not hard to see what's coming for faith-based groups with moral objections to the Obama-Planned Parenthood agenda." Patrick Reilly explains that the requirement to cover contraceptives comes from the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, "(even though the law concerns pregnant women and does not, by strict interpretation, consider discrimination against all women of childbearing potential)." He then asks: "When will a federal court argue that if insurance coverage to prevent pregnancy is, by inference, mandated by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, then why not abortion to end a pregnancy?"

The biggest threat to our religious freedom, today, is not coming from any church. On the contrary, it comes from a government which considers religious values irrelevant. The ramifications of this case extend far beyond the 1500 students of Belmont Abbey College, whose president says will close rather than provide contraception.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Rabbi Jon Konheim will step down as spiritual leader of Beth Am Synagogue next year after eight years with the Conservative Jewish congregation and 41 years as a pulpit rabbi, he announced in a letter on Wednesday.

Beth Am will launch a nationwide search to find a successor. Below is Konheim's letter, followed by another from executive board member Julian L. Lapides to the congregation.

October 14, 2009

Dear friends,

You and I will be undergoing a transition and transitions are filled with challenges. As of July 1, 2010 I will become Rabbi Emeritus of Beth Am.

I have been continuously in the pulpit since my first student position 1969. Forty-one years as a pulpit rabbi are a long time. They have been rewarding, and fulfilling, but time and the profession have taken their toll. I have been slowing down and there are medical issues that concern me. I have worked out the transition with Beth Am’s leadership and they have been supportive and more than generous. Should this year’s search not produce a successor who fits your needs I will try to do whatever is asked of me. It is important that your new Rabbi find a fully functioning congregation.

I cannot imagine a better congregation from which to retire than Beth Am. The eight years have been stimulating, entertaining, and deeply rewarding. I have been privileged to share your moments of joy and your moments of sadness. I have had the opportunity to remain young by teaching seventh graders. Because of the close relationships I have had with the students b’nai mitzvah celebrations have never been a chore. Working with BAYITT has taught me that friendships can transcend generations. Saturday mornings in the Chapel have permitted me to be challenged by some of the finest minds in America and to challenge them in turn. Rena and I have been enriched by our moving to Reservoir Hill. I have benefited from a highly committed and efficient staff, none of whom take themselves too seriously. We have had laughter when we needed it most.

No rabbi leaves the job completed, and there are many things I will miss; the life cycle moments of my students, the fun of Chapel Saturdays, and unexpected moments of transcendence. I will have many, many wonderful memories and new opportunities made possible by my time with you.

Jon Konheim

October 14, 2009

Dear Congregant:

As we begin the New Year, I write to wish you health and happiness in the months ahead. I am also writing to let you know of upcoming changes in Beth Am's senior staff. Rabbi Jon Konheim has asked to conclude his term as Rabbi and take on a new role as Rabbi Emeritus. Rabbi Konheim, who joined us more than seven years ago, will complete his full-time rabbinic duties next year in June 2010, and will then take on his new role as Rabbi Emeritus. Concurrently, the Board of Trustees, with the assistance of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, will launch a nationwide search for the next generation of rabbinic leadership, with our new rabbi to assume full-time responsibility for all rabbinical duties on July 1, 2010.

Rabbi Konheim joined us in July 2002. His depth of Jewish knowledge and his love for teaching have continued to build on Beth Am's traditional strengths. His warm, informal services in the chapel have become a crucial part of the Beth Am experience. And he has provided much-needed leadership and stability to our senior staff. At the request of the President, Rabbi Konheim may be available to assist congregants with life-cycle events. His new role at Beth Am will begin on July 1, 2010 and continue through June 2012.

Rabbi Konheim's decision to take on an emeritus role, which was approved by the Board at its October 13 meeting, leaves us with an important choice going forward about the next rabbi to lead this community so beloved to all of us. Fortunately, his decision also leaves us with the time and the calendar necessary to make a considered decision that will point to Beth Am's future. USCJ has advised us that rabbinic candidates generally make themselves available for interview and hiring in the fall following the High Holidays. We believe that this year offers a particularly rich pool of choices for our next rabbi.

Beth Am has always been a participatory, "do it yourself" synagogue. And so in closing I make two requests. The first is that you join me in thanking Rabbi Konheim for his work and leadership over the past seven years, and in wishing him success and much nachas in his new role. The second is that you feel free to contact me, or any other member of the Executive Committee (see below) if you have any questions, or to offer any suggestions regarding the upcoming rabbinic search process. We fully expect to have that process underway by the end of this month.

L'shana tovah to you and your family.

Julian L. Lapides

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

President Barack Obama and his family attended a worship service Sunday at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, their third visit to the historic congregation across Lafayette Square from the White House.

According to the Associated Press, Obama, first lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia listened to a sermon about how Christianity has consequences.

During the sermon, seminarian Mike Angell told the parishioners that the consequences vary, whether it's making a hard decision at work or deciding to give more time to God. But he added that they don't face these consequences alone. "We are given each other as a source of boldness," he said.

Obama also worshipped at the church on Inauguration Day and Easter. St. John's has been a popular choice among presidents, including George W. Bush, because it is close to the White House and familiar to the Secret Service.

Washington churches have competed for Obama's attention since his election. He quit his last church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, during the presidential campaign last year after the circulation of controversial sermons by its former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Photo by Getty Images

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

Like everyone else, I was surprised to wake up to the news this morning that President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize -- particularly because he had been president less than two weeks before nominations were due.

It may be a sign of how polarized the country is -- or, at least, how polarized I imagine it to be -- that my first thoughts went to the reaction of political opponents who have long ridiculed the hype that they say surrounds the Obama.

Next, I thought of the protests I covered at Yale in 2001 when the university awarded an honorary degree to President George W. Bush, just months into his administration. Students and alumni said it was too soon to honor the first-term president.

And then, I thought that this may have been the third peace prize awarded at least partially in reaction to Bush, following those given in 2002 to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter for his mediation in international conflicts and in 2007 to Al Gore, Bush's opponent in the 2000 presidential election, for raising awareness about climate change.

Reading the comments of the Nobel Committee, this year's peace prize appears to have been awarded at least partially in prospect.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations."

Added Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg: "The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given to someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The National Association of Evangelicals is urging Congress to approve reforms to immigration laws, the Associated Press is reporting.

The NAE, seen as representing younger and more politically moderate faith leaders, ignited a controversy within the Evangelical community a couple of years back when its chief lobbyist said it would endorse a statement calling for action on climate change.

Now the group, which represents 40 Christian denominations, passed a resolution Thursday recommending changes to the law that would help undocumented immigrants eventually gain legal status.

The resolution was passed unanimously by the group's board of directors, which called on lawmakers to place a high priority on reuniting families. Association president Leith Anderson said the process for legal immigration to the U.S. is antiquated, bureaucratic and needs to change.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, who was spiritual leader of Beth El Congregation in Pikesville for 28 years until his retirement last year, died suddenly Wednesday evening in Milan, Italy, where he was serving a congregation as an interim rabbi. Further details were not available. He was 65.

Known both within and beyond the local Jewish community for a powerful and wide-ranging intellect, Loeb was deeply engaged in public affairs, from activism for civil rights in the 1960s to service on the gubernatorial commission last year that recommended the abolition of the death penalty. He was national president of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, chaired the board of Baltimore Hebrew University and promoted interfaith dialogue as a co-founder of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies.

"Rabbi Loeb's life and good works were an inspiration both to his own congregation, and to our entire state," Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday. "He spent his time on this earth living the timeless Talmudic notion that 'the highest form of wisdom is kindness,' always standing up for our most vulnerable citizens, always fighting for social justice, always pursuing Tikkun Olam, repair of the world."

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Israel's foreign minister declared Thursday that there is no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, and suggested instead that the two sides come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability, the Associated Press is reporting.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended leaving the toughest issues — such as the status of disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees who lost homes amid war — "to a much later stage." He did not elaborate or give a timeline.

"Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict ... simply doesn't understand the situation and spreads delusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here," Lieberman told Israel Radio.

Other conflicts have been defused with the sides making a "dramatic decision" to renounce violence and enter into a period of calm that would allow an accord, Lieberman said.

"People have learned to live with it," he said.

Read the Associated Press report here.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien has issued a statement on the death of Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, who succumbed to cancer early Thursday at age 77.

As bishop of Wilmington for 12 years until his retirement last year, Saltarelli was spiritual leader of Eastern Shore Catholics. O'Brien and Saltarelli served together on the board of governors of the Maryland Catholic Conference.

On behalf of the faithful of the entire Metropolitan See of Baltimore, I express my great sadness to God’s people in the Diocese of Wilmington at the loss of their beloved Bishop, Michael Saltarelli, who, having reached the mandatory retirement age, resigned last year.

With a love for his priestly ministry always in his heart, Bishop Saltarelli led the Church in Wilmington through a period of tremendous growth and through times of pain and difficulty. Indefatigable throughout his battle with cancer, Bishop Saltarelli continued to serve God with great love for His people and with the selfless witness that were hallmarks of his priestly ministry.

At the time of his retirement, he told a reporter with the local Wilmington paper, “My strength is that I love being with people...When you die the Lord wants to know ‘were you good, were you kind, were you compassionate.’” Those who knew Bishop Saltarelli best are responding with a resounding ‘yes’ today on behalf of this good and holy priest of Jesus Christ.

Read more at baltimoresun.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Jewish?

If he is not, The Telegraph reports, the bitter critic of Israel clearly has Jewish roots. So the British newspaper has concluded from a photograph taken last year of Ahmadinejad holding up an identity document that shows that his surname was once Sabourjian, identified as a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver:

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.

Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust and threatened Israel. On his alleged Jewish heritage, the Telegraph quotes Ali Nourizadeh of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies as saying "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him.

"Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith," Nourizadeh said.

"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."

Nonsense, Meir Javedanfar writes in The Guardian. He quotes two sources as saying that Ahmadinejad's father was in fact a religious Shia who taught the Quran before and after the future president's birth and their move to Tehran, and that Ahmadinejad's mother is a Seyyede, a title given to women who are believed to be direct bloodline descendants of Muhammad.

Javedanfar disputes the Telegraph etymology of Sabourjian, saying that it actually derives from the Farsi for thread painter, a formerly common occupation in Ahmadinihad's native province.

According to the Telegraph, Ahmadinejad has not denied that his family changed their name when they moved to Tehran in the 1950s, but he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.

Relatives have said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four, the Telegraph reports.

During a televised presidential debate this year he was goaded to admit that his name had changed but he ignored the jibe, the Telegraph reports. An Iranian blogger who called for an investigation of Mr Ahmadinejad's roots was arrested this summer.

The Telegraph does not appear to have sought comment from the Iranian government. But The Teheran Times has a story Wednesday saying that the Telegraph and other British newspapers "are taking their cue from Israeli leaders."

"These reports are undoubtedly published in line with Israeli interests," an unnamed media analyst tells the Iranian newspaper, and adds that the report was "obviously designed to divert world attention from Israeli crimes against Palestinians and the use of weapons of mass destruction in the three-week attack on the Gaza Strip."

Read the orginal story at telegraph.co.uk.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: International, Islam, Judaism, People, Politics
        

The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Over 2,500 years ago Isaiah raised the question. Today we have an answer.

“Who can fathom the mind of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor” (Is. 40:13)? The Conservative Bible Project, that’s who. Led by Andy Schlafly, this intrepid band is on a quest to correct the “liberal bias” inherent in the Bible.

I am not making this up.

To be fair, the CBP claims that they are not seeking to correct the Bible itself, only the “liberal distortions” introduced by every English translation since the 1611 King James Version. Thus they are seeking to produce a “fully conservative translation” that will satisfy the following ten principles:

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias

2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity

3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level

4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".

5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots"; using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census

6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.

7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story

9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels

10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

Again, I am not making this up. As one blogger titled his post on this, “Not an Onion headline.”

Truth is, I have very little concern that this enterprise will get very far. For one thing, conservatives tend to want to conserve things that are ancient and revered; Edmund Burke wouldn’t recognize the impulse behind the CBP. For another, there already exist several translations that are quite conservative — most notably the English Standard Version and the Holman Christian Standard Bible — and are, along with the King James , used with great satisfaction in conservative congregations. And there has been in the works for some time a modified open-source Bible translation, the NET Bible, which is the product of collaborative work among some frighteningly talented and knowledgeable translators.

What’s the difference? Simply this: The translators of the NET, the ESV, the HCSB — as well as the NIV and the KJV — postured themselves as translators whose mission was to render the ancient languages of the biblical text in the English of their day, and to do so with an eye toward bringing out the meaning of the text rather than imposing their own preferences upon it. As the translators of the King James put it so eloquently, “Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water.”

The CPB, on the other hand, has already determined what it expects to find in the text. And I have no doubt that it will manage to find it.

In this they are not alone. Frankly, the temptation for every one of us is to look into the text of sacred Scripture and find there what we want to find. It’s because of this danger that students of the Bible learn to posture themselves precisely as students, as those who have something to learn from the text rather than something to teach it. Whether in a seminary classroom or in a home Bible study, the first principle is to do exegesis rather than eisegesis, to draw meaning out of the text (Greek exe) rather than to put meaning into it (Greek eis). As the great pastoral theologian (and former Bel Air pastor) Eugene Peterson put it, “Exegesis doesn’t take charge of the text and impose superior knowledge on it; it enters the world of the text and lets the text ‘read’ us. Exegesis is an act of sustained humility.”

Whatever the good folks at the Conservative Bible Project are sustaining, it’s not humility.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Jason Poling
        

I've been away the last couple of days, and will be back to posting full-time on Thursday. In the meantime, we did have a couple of stories in the newspaper on Sunday that you might have missed.

In the first, a Muslim scholar told a Baltimore conference on Saturday that the use of Islam to justify killing is "an innovation" in the religion, and added: "Most innovations lead to hellfire."

"The Satan always has people that he will be able to deceive," Dr. Waleed Basyouni told hundreds at Ilm Fest 2009, an Islamic education conference making its first appearance in Baltimore. "The good news," he said during a presentation he called "Reclaiming Islam from the Jihadists," is that "the nature of the Muslim community is to fight terrorism. The nature of the Muslim community is to reject extremism."

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

In the second, we reviewed preparations for H1N1 among different faith congregations. We were interested in the comments of the Rev. John Kingsbury, pastor of St. Mary's in Annapolis. He had taken precautions against the spread of the virus during Mass, but worried that the spiritual impact of the pandemic "has yet to be faced,"

"There will be less, probably, Communions to hospitals," he said. "I'm guessing the hospitals will begin to become stricter with people visiting if things become more serious.

"People dealing with mass suffering -- by which I mean, a lot of people sick -- are going to want spiritual comfort at the very time that it's going to be the most difficult to give it."

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The United Nations' refugee agency is planning to include the Holocaust in a new human-rights curriculum for pupils in its Gaza secondary schools despite strident opposition to the idea from within Hamas, The Independent reports.

The director of operations in Gaza for The U.N. Relief and Works Agency told the British newspaper that he was "confident and determined" that the Holocaust would feature for the first time in a wide-ranging curriculum now being drafted.

"No human-rights curriculum is complete without the inclusion of the facts of the Holocaust, and its lessons," said John Ging, described as a "passionate advocate" for Palestinian civilians. More from the story:

The draft, to be completed within weeks and then put out for consultation with parents and the public, is built on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was agreed by the UN General Assembly in 1948 in the shadow of what it called the "barbarous acts" committed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The one-time Irish Army officer has long been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy towards Gaza, including the conduct of last winter's lethal military offensive and what he described more than once in his interview as the "illegal siege".

Mr Ging said the curriculum would explain the genesis, and "inculcate the values" of the Universal Declaration which stipulates that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person". He pointed out that the UN General Assembly in 2005 unanimously urged "all countries to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to children so that we learn from history, so that we don't repeat history".

The Independent quotes religious leader Yunis al Astal, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, as saying that including the Holocaust in the curriculum would be "marketing a lie" and a "war crime."

Read the rest of the story at independent.co.uk.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Note to In Good Faith commenters: I have inadvertantly deleted four comments I intended to publish. I've been able to recover one of them, but the others appear to be beyond my ability to restore. According to the blog utility, they are:

Comment by 'anonymous' from entry 'Sarah Palin's Christian co-author'

Comment by 'anonymous' from entry 'America called 'Judeo-Christian-Muslim society''

Comment by 'Therese' from entry 'Is God Dead? writer dead'

I apologize to the commenters, and welcome you to try again. I will make every effort not to delete your comments a second time.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Sun colleague Nick Madigan reveals new allegations against Rabbi Jacob A. Max in Sunday's newspaper. The allegations come from five women who spoke to Madigan after Max was convicted earlier this year of sexually molesting a younger woman at a Reisterstown funeral home.

As Madigan describes it:

The hushed accusations of Max's penchant for groping and fondling - which some women say he accompanied with a smirk and an excuse about his being a "bad rabbi" - appear to have been tolerated without inquiry for decades because of his standing and authority in the tightly knit religious community. Girls who complained to their mothers about his conduct say they were ignored. ...

News of the conviction prompted five other women to share with The Baltimore Sun their own allegations of improper advances by the rabbi. Three contacted a reporter and the remaining two were referred by others. The women said news of the conviction impelled them to come forward because they believe their charges about Max's behavior deserve to be disclosed, no matter how long ago the events occurred. ...

None of the five women had spoken publicly before the criminal case, because, they say, it was understood that members of the modern Orthodox Jewish community - especially young ones - did not divulge errors by its leaders, let alone accuse them of impropriety.

Max's attorney did not make his client available to comment. Attorney David B. Irwin denied any wrongdoing by Max:

"If anyone took a friendly gesture the wrong way, as far as he's concerned, he's sorry," Irwin said. "But he never intentionally molested or inappropriately touched anyone."

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Hundreds of Muslims are expected Saturday and Sunday at the Baltimore Convention Center for Ilm Fest, an educational conference organized by the AlMaghrib Institute.

"Ilm" is Arabic for knowledge, and "Al Maghrib" is Arabic for the West. Organizers say the event has been set up to help young American Muslims live their faith in the United States.

We have a story in Saturday's Baltimore Sun.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours, an international Catholic order founded in Paris 185 years ago, is moving its world headquarters to Maryland, congregation officials said Friday.

“This is an exciting time in the history of our congregation as we strive to work as one international community, carrying our message of ‘Good Help to Those in Need’ around the world,” Sister Patricia A. Eck, elected to lead the congregation, said in a statement. “I … will build on the rich tradition of those very strong women who have come before me while helping the Congregation evolve to meet today’s needs.”

The sisters are scheduled to move their world headquarters from Paris to Marriottsville, currently home to the Sisters of Bon Secours, U.S.A., Bon Secours Health System Inc. and Bon Secours Spiritual Center, on Dec. 1. At the same time, they plan to consolidate their provinces in the United States, France, Britain, Ireland and Peru into a single international congregation, under Eck’s leadership.

“Her vision and commitment to be a prophetic voice throughout the organization, combined with her strong governance and sponsorship capabilities, are models for all of Catholic health care today,” Sister Alice M. Talone, president of the Sisters of Bon Secours, U.S.A., said in a statement. “To Sr. Pat, ‘the struggle for a more humane world is not an option; but, an integral part of spreading the gospel.”

A nurse and health administrator, Eck has chaired the board of Bon Secours Health System Inc. since 1997. She has served as chairwoman of the Catholic Health Association and of the Corporate Members of Mercy Housing.

The congregation elected Sister Rose Marie Jasinski, senior vice president of sponsorship for Bon Secours Health System, to serve as country leader for the United States. Also a nurse, Jasinski has served as vice president of the U.S. province, candidacy program director, formation director and director of the associate ministry program.

"She has demonstrated through the years her compassion, caring and leadership to sisters and all others," Sister Alice Talone, current president of the Sisters of Bon Secours, U.S.A., said in a statement.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The number of Americans expressing support for abortion is clearly declining, leaving the nation now evenly divided on the issue, according to results from a Pew survey released on Thursday.

The survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that finds that the abortion debate has receded in importance among liberals while opposition to abortion has grown more firm among conservatives.

From the Pew release:

In Pew Research Center polls in 2007 and 2008, supporters of legal abortion clearly outnumbered opponents. Now Americans are evenly divided on the question, and there have been modest increases in the numbers who favor reducing abortions or making them harder to obtain.

Other notable findings from the survey, which was conducted from Aug. 11 to 27 among a total of 4,013 adults:

• One of the largest declines in support for legal abortion has occurred among white, non-Hispanic Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly. Substantial change has also occurred among Democratic men (with support for legal abortion down nine points) but not among Democratic women.

• Even as the public expresses support for finding a middle ground on abortion, most Americans are quite certain that their own position on abortion is the right one, with only one-quarter saying they ever wonder about their views on the issue.

• Furthermore, many people on both sides of the issue say that the opposite point of view on abortion is not a “respectable” opinion for someone to hold.

• Overall, roughly three in ten Americans think that President Barack Obama will handle the abortion issue about right, while four in ten are unaware of his position on the issue. About two in ten worry that Obama will go too far in supporting abortion rights.

Read more about the survey at pewforum.org.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Adherents of the world's major religions are urging political leaders, businessmen and individuals to renounce short-term gains and greed, telling a U.N. climate conference in Bangkok that reversing global warming is a moral duty, the Associated Press reports.

"Stewardship and reverence for creation are central tenants of all faiths on Earth," said the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, endorsed by prominent adherents of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism and handed to U.N.Climate Chief Yvo de Boer on Wednesday.

The declaration came as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned that global waming could cut food production in poor countries by 21 per cent by 2050, and the Asian Development Bank said it could lead to a surge of migration into the region's already crowded cities.

"The food and energy security of every Asian is threatened by climate change, but it's the poor - and especially poor women - who are most vulnerable and most likely to migrate as a consequence," Asian Developlment Bank Vice Pesident Ursula Schaefer Preuss said in a statement.

Negotiators from around the world at the two-week conference are working on a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. They are working on an agreement for a major climate forum in Copenhagen in December.

Religious leaders chastised governments for placing national advantage ahead of preserving the human species and negotiators for lacking a sense of urgency.

"We are one humanity with a single fate," said Stuart Scott, director of the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change project.

"Shame on us. We are creating a hell on earth for our children," said Myint Thein, a senior Muslim cleric from Myanmar. "We must tell our leaders that life is more important than wealth."

Read the Associated Press story at thefreepress.ca.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)