The Associated Press reports:

Colorado Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck has questioned the separation of government and religion, drawing criticism from Democrats who last week chided another tea party candidate for the same view.

Buck's opponents have been circulating a clip of him from a 2009 GOP forum in which he won applause from a conservative crowd at Colorado Christian University when he said the Constitution doesn't require church and state to be separate.

"I disagree strongly with the concept of separation of church and state. It was not written into the Constitution," Buck said on the video. "While we have a Constitution that is very strong in the sense that we are not gonna have a religion that's sanctioned by the government, it doesn't mean that we need to have a separation between government and religion."

Democrats spread the Buck video after Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell was panned for questioning in a debate last week whether the separation of church and state is in the Constitution.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee this week called Buck's remark "extreme" and "egregious."

Democratic allies also spread a clip from Buck earlier this year in which he repeated his opposition to abortion rights. Buck said he believes the Supreme Court wrongly cited privacy rights in its Roe v. Wade abortion decision.

Buck clarified his church-and-state position Tuesday on CNN.

"I agree with the idea that there is a separation of church and state. That teachers should not be leading prayer, a particular kind of prayer in classrooms.

"What I have said is that I think the federal government and we as a society have come too far in trying to separate good organizations that perform good functions for people just based on the fact one has a religious association and one doesn't," Buck said.

Buck's opponent, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, has defended his campaign's reliance use of old Buck remarks, saying it's fair to highlight Buck positions that are outside the mainstream.

Republicans are digging into Bennet's past, too.

The GOP this week passed to reporters financial disclosure reports showing that Bennet, a former Denver Public Schools superintendent, owned stock in JP Morgan Chase, a firm involved in a 2008 financing deal to cover a $400 million gap in the school system's pension fund.

Bennet supported the proposed deal to the Denver school board, which unanimously backed it in hopes of saving tens of millions of dollars in annual debt costs. A Bennet spokesman said Wednesday that the senator's financial stake in JP Morgan Chase came in a fund Bennet didn't control.

Bennet sold stock in JP Morgan Chase in January 2009.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

The Associated Press reports:

Pope Benedict XVI says all countries have the right to regulate immigration flows and protect their borders, and immigrants must respect the laws and national identity of their host nations.

The pontiff said in a message that every person has a right to migrate in search of better living conditions.

The Vatican on Tuesday issued the pope's message for the church's World Day for Migrants and Refugees, which is celebrated Jan. 16.

Benedict said that, as the word's societies become more multiethnic and intercultural, people should seek dialogue and respect each other's differences. States must respect the dignity of all migrants and share their resources, while immigrants "have the duty to integrate into the host country."

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

Associated Press writer Ben Evans reports:

Delaware Republican Christine O'Donnell says prayer could be boosting support for her Senate campaign.

In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network that aired online Monday, O'Donnell also said that God is the reason she is running for Senate.

"The day that we saw a spike in the polls was a day that some people had a prayer meeting for me, that morning, for this campaign, so I believe that prayer plays a direct role in this campaign," O'Donnell said. "I always ask, please pray for the campaign, please pray for our staff, please pray specifically that the eyes of the voters be opened."

O'Donnell has been criticized for her conservative commentary over the years — she once voiced opposition to masturbation in a campaign against premarital sex — and has been ridiculed for saying that she once dabbled in witchcraft.

She told CBN that she's being held to a different standard because she is a conservative woman.

"There's no doubt that they wouldn't say the things they're saying about me, they wouldn't do the things that they're doing, if I weren't a woman," she said. "I'm not whining, but there certainly is a double standard, especially when it comes to conservative women."

Most polls show O'Donnell trailing Democrat Chris Coons by double digits. The two are vying for the Senate seat long held by Vice President Joe Biden.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (65)
        

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

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers might be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate … specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Gifts

• Inviting us to use your beach house for vacation is a kind and generous gesture. But if your family is there it isn’t vacation for us. And it isn’t a gift. We love you, and we like you (well, most of you), but you’re our job. That doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate being asked, but please appreciate that when we’re with you, we’re on the job.

• We do not need any more ties, paperweights, plaques or bookmarks with the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer or the Beatitudes printed on them. If we don’t know them by now we’re all in trouble.

• Please don’t give us a book, movie or CD as a gift — we’ll feel like we have to read/watch/listen to it and tell you what we thought of it, and maybe figure out something nice to say if we didn’t like it. A gift card to Amazon works a lot better; then we can tell you what we got and how much we enjoyed it.

• Gifts to charity in our name are also welcome; gifts to political causes with which we disagree are not.

• A thoughtful note or card is always appreciated — even more than a gift, if it’s clear more time and care went into it.

• Fruit cake, peanut brittle, candy — we can tell they’ve been regifted. (Bottles, not so much.) We’re less offended by you not giving us anything.

• There’s some disagreement on this last point: Some of my colleagues think a gift of cookies or candy would be unwelcome given the high rate of obesity in our profession. Others would be offended by a “healthy” gift.

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

Pope Benedict XVI is elevating Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington to cardinal, the Vatican announced Wednesday.

Wuerl, 69, was one of 24 men named by Benedict to the College of Cardinals at the conclusion of his weekly general audience. Following the ceremony, known as a consistory, next month at the Vatican to elevate the new cardinals, Wuerl will serve as an advisor to the pope and be eligible to vote in papal elections until his 80th birthday.

The Archdiocese of Washington includes the capital and five Maryland counties: Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s.

“This truly is an honor for the Archdiocese of Washington, the Church in the nation’s capital, and for all of the clergy, religious and parishioners of this local Church who every day live out their faith in commitment and deep love for Christ,” Wuehrl said in a statement. “I am humbled by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI’s trust in me as shepherd of this flock and pledge to him my renewed fidelity, affection and loyalty."

Wuerl is the fifth Archbishop of Washington elevated to cardinal since the archdiocese was created out of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The others were Patrick A. O’Boyle, William W. Baum, James A. Hickey and Theodore E. McCarrick.

Wuerl joined the archdiocese in 2006 after 18 years as bishop of Pittsburgh. In 2008, he hosted Benedict during the pope’s visit to Washington. Last month, he released Disciples of the Lord: Sharing the Vision, a pastoral letter calling upon Catholics to renew their faith as part of a new evangelization. Earlier this week, he announced the archdiocese will open a new seminary next fall to accommodate an increase in the number of seminarians in college and pre-theology studies.

A native of Pittsburgh, he received graduate degrees from The Catholic University of America, Gregorian University in Rome and the University of St. Thomas in Rome, where he received a doctorate in theology in 1974. Ordained to the priesthood in 1966, he was ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and will celebrate his 25th anniversary as a bishop in January.

Wuerl is chancellor of The Catholic University of America, where I teach an undergraduate journalism course as a part-time lecturer.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (52)
        

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

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate…specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Work
• Just because I’m not physically at my desk doesn’t mean I’m not working. If I’m meeting a congregant for coffee, that’s work. If I’m meeting a colleague for lunch, that’s work. If I’m at the library researching a sermon (sermons usually take 10 to 20 hours to prepare, by the way), that’s work. If I’m at a conference, that’s work, even if the conference is someplace you’d like to go on vacation. If I’m at a denominational meeting, that really is work.

• If you see me out somewhere during the week, it’s nice for you to say hello. But don’t get into a 20 minute conversation; just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m not doing something worthwhile that requires my attention. This goes for dropping by my office during the week too. When we run into you at the grocery store, please remember we went there to buy milk and we have to get it home; we might not be able to have a long conversation about your grandson right then and there.

• We want you to talk to us about our sermons. Call us, email us, invite us to talk about them over coffee. Ask questions, listen, tell us what you heard. Read the text beforehand and let us know the questions it raises for you. Challenge us if you think we missed something. Give us your honest feedback, both positive and negative. But please be sensitive about the timing. Directly before we preach is not a good time to tell us what you want us to talk about. And directly after is not a good time to offer negative feedback. Apart from that, please bear in mind that sermons are designed to start conversations, not end them.

• “Well, you only work one day a week: ”Not funny. Never was, never will be.

• If our tradition allows you to do things like offer a blessing or a prayer, we are not offended when you do that rather than turning to the “professional.” We are grateful for your acts of spiritual service. We are seldom the recipients of spiritual service; in almost every setting we’re the one providing it. This may be why we like restaurants so much — it’s somebody’s job to take care of us, rather than the other way around.

• If you’re involved with deciding our compensation, treat us the way you’d like to be treated rather than the way somebody once treated you. We didn’t go into this line of work to get rich. But most of us didn’t take a vow of poverty, either. We have the same kinds of goals for our families that you have for yours.

• Generally speaking, we receive honoraria for performing weddings because they involve work above and beyond our normal duties. This work, in fact, usually takes place during times we would otherwise be spending with our families — time that can be in short supply. Dinner at the reception does not constitute an honorarium. A stingy or absent honorarium check is especially galling when you’ve sprung for a lavish country club wedding for 300 guests.

Coming Thursday: Gifts

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

Associated Press writer Ben Evans reports:

Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.

"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution.

Erin Daly, a Widener professor who specializes in constitutional law, said that while there are questions about what counts as government promotion of religion, there is little debate over whether the First Amendment prohibits the federal government from making laws establishing religion.

"She seemed genuinely surprised that the principle of separation of church and state derives from the First Amendment, and I think to many of us in the law school that was a surprise," Daly said. "It's one thing to not know the 17th Amendment or some of the others, but most Americans do know the basics of the First Amendment."

O'Donnell didn't respond to reporters who asked her to clarify her views after the debate. Her campaign manager, Matt Moran, later issued a statement saying that O'Donnell wasn't questioning the concept of separation of church and state.

"She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution," Moran said.

During the exchange, she said Coons' views on creationism showed that he believes in big-government mandates.

"Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local schools," she said. "You've just proved how little you know not just about constitutional law but about the theory of evolution."

Coons said her comments show a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the Constitution.

The debate, their third in the past week, was more testy than earlier ones.

O'Donnell began by defending herself for not being able to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees at a debate last week. She said she was stumped because she largely agrees with the court's recent decisions under conservative chief justices John Roberts and William Rehnquist.

"I would say this court is on the right track," she said.

The two candidates repeatedly talked over each other, with O'Donnell accusing Coons of caving at one point when he asked the moderator to move on to a new question after a lengthy argument.

"I guess he can't handle it," she said.

O'Donnell, a tea party favorite who stunned the state by winning the GOP primary last month in her third Senate bid in five years, called Coons a liberal "addicted to a culture of waste, fraud and abuse."

Coons, who has held a double-digit lead in recent polls, urged voters to support him as the candidate of substance, with a track record over six years as executive of the state's most populous county. He said O'Donnell's only experience is in "sharpening the partisan divide but not at bridging it."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The Associated Press reports:

The Vatican on Monday released a letter from the pope to seminarians again expressing "profound shame and regret" for the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the global Roman Catholic church.

He said that "thank God, all of us know exemplary priests" who have chosen a life of celibacy.

Some have questioned whether celibacy is in part to blame, but the Vatican insists celibacy isn't responsible.

Recently two bishops from the scandal-hit Belgian church openly questioned the celibacy requirement.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A Church of England assistant bishop and a parish church have announced that they intend to become Roman Catholics within a new structure set up by Pope Benedict XVI.

John Broadhurst, the bishop of Fulham in London, and St. Peter's Church in Folkestone, southeastern England, both oppose moves in the Church of England to allow women to serve as bishops.

Broadhurst, the first serving Church of England bishop to say he will accept the pope's invitation, is leader of Forward in Faith, a group representing traditionalists within the Church of England. He announced his decision on Friday at the group's national assembly.

St. Peter's Church, which is affiliated with Forward in Faith, announced its decision on Saturday.

Benedict has created a structure called an ordinariate, in which Church of England defectors could continue to use some of their traditional liturgy and be served by their married priests.

"I intend to resign as bishop of Fulham before the end of the year," Broadhurst told the Forward in Faith meeting.

"I am not retiring, I am resigning," he added. "Secondly, I expect that I will enter the ordinariate when it is established."

The parochial church council of St. Peter's said it had resolved to join the ordinariate and "is anxious that this should be made as easy as possible."

St. Peter's is in the diocese of Canterbury, the base for the Church of England's leader, Archbishop Rowan Williams. The Daily Telegraph reported that St. Peter's attracts about 40 worshippers each Sunday.

The church council did not say whether it hoped to remain in its Victorian building, and it would be a matter for each member to decide whether to go or to stay in the Church of England.

Ownership of churches is a complex issue. The simple answer, a Church of England commission reported in 2005, is that "nobody" owns a church.

Traditionalists are unhappy with the General Synod vote in July which rejected a legal structure to protect their rejection of female priests and bishops. Instead, the synod voted for a code of practice which provides for traditionalist parishes to request supervision by male priests and bishops.

Legislation which would finally permit women to serve as bishops still needs to be approved by a two-thirds majority next year in each of the synod's three chambers: bishops, clergy and laity.

A crucial question is whether traditionalists won enough seats in recent elections to block approval of the legislation. Results are still being tabulated.

When the church decided in 1993 to ordain women as priests, it also appointed three traditionalist bishops to serve as "provincial episcopal visitors," supervising traditionalist parishes which refused women's ministry.

One of these so-called "flying bishops," Bishop of Ebbsfleet Andrew Burnham, hinted in a pastoral letter this month that he too would be joining the ordinariate in a "caravan" of like-minded Anglicans.

"The beginning of the caravan is somewhere ahead of us, over the horizon," he wrote.

Another "flying bishop," Martin Jarrett of Beverley, has given his support to a different initiative, announced in September, to form a Society of St. Wilfrid and St. Hilda to serve traditionalists.

The society, which says it cannot accept the ministry of the pope, has yet to announce any details of how it would function.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

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

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate … specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Congregational Life

· Buy life insurance. Funerals and bereavement are difficult enough for everyone involved without having to figure out who’s paying for the burial, and where a family can relocate now that there’s nobody to pay the mortgage.

· Our congregation cannot get involved in every worthwhile project our members are involved in. Don’t commit our congregation to your pet cause without asking, or you may end up putting everybody involved in a very awkward position. Instead, ask our leadership what can be done, but be prepared to hear that money and energy are already fully committed.

· Sentences that begin with the following never end well:

o Some people are upset about…

o In our old congregation, we…

o We’ve always…

o I can’t imagine why anyone would…

o You should…

o Why don’t we ever…

o The men of the church can…

o It would be so cute if we had the children…

· The congregation is our community, and has a sacred quality to it. That sacred quality is profaned when you use it as a customer base for your multi-level marketing business.

· Perish the thought that I can make somebody else do something, however worthy. I can not, for example, convince your granddaughter to come to church. If you’re having a problem with someone else in the congregation, take your concern directly to that person; do not bring me into the dispute unless you’ve done that first. (And if I’m that person, take your concern directly to me.)

· Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on anybody else’s. Especially mine. Don’t keep me in your back pocket as a last-minute speaker for your Rotary meeting, etc.

· We’ve heard 4-letter words before. (Still, they’re out of place in the nursery, no matter how badly a diaper needs to be changed.) At this point, we’re difficult to shock. So please put away the euphemisms and speak directly to us.

Coming Wednesday: Work

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

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

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate … specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Part I: Boundaries

· Respect the reasonable boundaries we need to place around our own home and family life. Don’t call our cell late at night, or our home phone any time, unless it’s an absolute pastoral emergency. If you aren’t sure if it’s an emergency, it isn’t.

· Don’t tell us we “absolutely have to” read a certain book/see a certain movie/visit a certain museum. If we did everything we were told we had to do, we’d never get anything else done. Tell us what you experienced and what you liked about it, and let us decide whether it’s a must-see.

· If we inquire after somebody’s health, please don’t feel the need to provide exhaustive detail. We have not yet encountered the scenario where we have a pastoral need to know how many centimeters an expectant mother is dilated, or the percentage she is effaced.

· We have also not yet encountered the scenario where we have a pastoral need to view a surgical scar.

· We appreciate being invited over “so we can get to know each other better.” We do not appreciate being invited over on that pretense in order to be recruited to sell Amway.

· If you provide a parsonage for us to live in, please recognize that it is our family’s home. Unless you want your guests to feel free to root through the closets, drawers, cabinets and refrigerator in your house, don’t do that in ours.

· Do not include us on the list of people to whom you send inspirational emails. Please, please, please.

Coming Tuesday: Congregational Life

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Associated Press writer Ben Evans reports:

Suddenly, Christine O'Donnell doesn't want to talk about values and religion. The Republican Senate nominee from Delaware, who said four years ago that she heard the "audible voice of God" encouraging her to run for office, is shying away from publicly stating the evangelical views that built her career as a television pundit and conservative activist.

Trailing badly in the polls, O'Donnell has bobbed and weaved recently on previously bold and provocative positions that risk alienating the all-important centrist voting bloc in politically moderate Delaware.

"What I believe is irrelevant," she said under the bright lights of a nationally televised debate Wednesday when asked if she still believes evolution is a myth and schools should be teaching creationism as science.

The tea party favorite is walking a delicate line, trying to avoid a third straight losing Senate campaign by maintaining the enthusiasm of her evangelical base while not scaring off the centrists who could see such views as extreme.

On gays in the military, she said Wednesday that the decision should be left to the Pentagon — declining to state her personal view but making clear that "I don't think that Congress should be forcing a social agenda onto our military."

Similarly, she characterized her opposition to embryonic stem cell research as more of a scientific objection than a religious one, arguing that adult stem cells are more valuable for research, a view not held by the many scientists who say embryonic stem cells are the most versatile and promising. She also gave an indirect answer about her opposition to abortion even in the case of rape or incest, calling it a "scare tactic" and saying rape and incest account for less than 1 percent of abortions.

O'Donnell hasn't always been so quiet.

Over two decades as a cable news commentator and evangelical activist, she has characterized homosexuality as a psychological disorder and called evolution a myth. She once said her opposition to using human embryos in stem cell research was the reason she ran for Senate the first time in 2006.

She told The News Journal of Wilmington during that campaign that she was initially reluctant to get into politics because she knew it would require diluting her views.

"But as someone who prays about every decision I make," she said, "I felt like God was leading me in the other direction."

She added: "During the primary, I heard the audible voice of God."

As recently as February, she emphasized the importance of values issues as she rallied conservatives to back her upstart primary campaign against moderate Republican Rep. Mike Castle, a former governor who was heavily favored to win the GOP nomination.

"He's got a horrible voting record when it comes to social issues," she said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in an interview with the conservative blog Liberty Pundits. "And many of those social issues — whether it's marriage, whether it's life — (President Barack) Obama has been very aggressive with his very liberal agenda. We need people who are not going to be wishy-washy about that."

O'Donnell's stunning upset over Castle has drawn strong national interest because it is seen as a key test of tea party strength in a general election. Like other tea party-backed candidates, O'Donnell has softened her rhetoric, and not just on social issues.

Asked Wednesday about comments in a 2006 debate that China has a "carefully thought out and strategic plan to take over America," she backtracked and said she believed she was misquoted, ignoring the existence of a recording of the debate in which she is clearly heard making the remarks. On education, she now says she wouldn't go so far as to eliminate the Education Department, despite saying last month that the country should "begin to repeal the role of the federal government" in education.

The 41-year-old Republican says her beliefs on some of her most unusual positions — such as opposing masturbation — have matured and that her religion doesn't drive her politics.

"Regardless of my personal faith," she said Wednesday, "it is by the Constitution that I will make all of my decisions."

Her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, said that does little to clear up her views.

"Making sure that we've got on the record Ms. O'Donnell's views on things like prayer, abortion and evolution is important," Coons said. "These aren't just random statements on some late-night TV show. These are relevant to her service in the United States Senate, what sort of judges she would confirm, what sort of issues she would take up."

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

Associated Press writer Samantha Gross reports:

An Orthodox rabbi says he's withdrawing his endorsement of New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino because the Republican apologized for comments he made about gays.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, who represents an umbrella organization of ultra-Orthodox clerics, accused Paladino on Wednesday of bowing to political pressure when he apologized for a speech in which he said children shouldn't be "brainwashed" into thinking homosexuality is acceptable.

Levin — speaking in New York City in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral — says he can't support Paladino's campaign "until such time as he straightens out."

Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo said in an e-mail that the rabbi and Paladino "agree on many things and disagree on some, too. He's entitled to his opinion."

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

Associated Press correspondent Jennifer Dobner reports:

The Mormon Church urged its members Tuesday to consider whether their attitudes toward all people — including gays — followed Christian principles, responding to activists' demand that a church leader withdraw anti-gay statements.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights organization, delivered a petition letter carrying 150,000 signatures to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' headquarters, asking leader Boyd K. Packer to retract his statements in an Oct. 3 sermon that same-sex relationships are unnatural and can be overcome.

Packer, 86, is the second-highest ranking Mormon church leader and the next in line for the presidency of the 13.5 million-member faith.

Activists said such rhetoric is harmful, factually inaccurate and can result in the kind of bullying that leads some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth to attempt suicide. At least four gay teens killed themselves last month across the country after reportedly experiencing anti-gay bullying and harassment.

In an official church statement about an hour after the activists delivered their petition, spokesman Michael Otterson called those deaths tragic.

"We join our voice with others in unreserved condemnation of acts of cruelty, or attempts to belittle or mock any group or individual that is different — whether those difference arise from race, religion, mental challenge, social status, sexual orientation, or for any other reason," Otterson said. "Such actions simply have no place in our society."

Otterson said church history is replete with examples of discrimination against Mormons and that members should be "especially sensitive to the vulnerable in society," including gays.

The statement also reiterated the faith's belief that all sexual relations outside of marriage are wrong and said the church defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman. Since the 1990s, the church has worked to prevent the passage of laws legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide and helped generate millions to fund California's Proposition 8 in 2008.

The three-page statement fell short for activists seeking a reversal and an acknowledgment that same-sex attraction is an immutable human characteristic that cannot be changed.

"Unfortunately, the church did not use this golden opportunity to correct the record about their inaccurate and dangerous statements," HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Every human being deserves the God given right to love and be loved. It's simply not reasonable to say 'don't act on temptations.'"

In his sermon, Packer initially said: "Some suppose that they were born preset and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father."

In a transcript of the sermon on the church's website, the word "temptations" has replaced "tendencies" and the question about God's motives has been removed entirely.

Church public relations officials said the changed wording was part of a routine practice that allows conference speakers to edit their speeches to clarify their meaning.

While Packer's remarks have drawn the ire of activists, faithful Latter-day Saints have flooded the social networking site Facebook with messages of support. On Tuesday the "I support Boyd K. Packer" page had nearly 10,000 fans and more than 17,000 Mormon youth had pledged to write Packer a support letter on a second site.

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Associated Press correspondent Nicole Winfield reports:

Pope Benedict XVI formally created a new Vatican office Tuesday to revive Christianity in Europe, his latest attempt to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries.

In a decree, Benedict said the new office would promote church doctrine, use the media to get the church's message out and mobilize missionary-type activities.

But even on its first day of existence, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization ran into an all-too-typical Vatican snag: The four-page decree instituting the office was issued in only Latin and Italian.

Asked how the pope expected to bring the church's message to the world in such relatively unknown languages, the head of the new office, Monsignor Rino Fisichella said he hadn't been in charge until Tuesday and wasn't responsible for how the decree was issued.

He stressed that he planned to have language sections in his department to deal with the faithful in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Slavic languages.

Fisichella denied the creation of the office was a mere bureaucratic attempt to fix a complex cultural phenomenon, saying Benedict had made an astute, pastoral decision to focus attention on a growing problem that had preoccupied popes for decades.

Benedict has made reviving Europe's Christian roots a priority. While the decree listed no specific geographical areas of concentration, the evangelization office is expected to also pay attention to Latin America, where evangelical movements are making inroads in traditionally Catholic countries such as Brazil.

In the decree, Benedict lamented that with tremendous scientific, social and cultural progress over the past century, parts of the world that once had strong Christian roots had grown to believe that they can exist without God.

"While some greeted this as a freedom, they soon realized the interior desert that is born when man — thinking himself the architect of his own nature and destiny — finds himself lacking that which is fundamental to everything," Benedict wrote.

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The Associated Press reports:

New York City police say four Staten Island teenagers accused of bullying a Muslim classmate are now facing hate crime charges.

The Staten Island Advance says the incidents occurred from October 2009 to June 2010. Authorities say the bullies called the boy a "terrorist," frequently punched him in the groin and spit in his face.

The boy said he hoped the bullying would end when he left intermediate school. He finally told his family after learning that two of the alleged tormentors were in his high school class.

NYPD Lt. John Grimpel says three 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old are charged with assault and aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

The Muslim family immigrated from Trinidad in the 1980s.

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The Associated Press reports:

Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas acknowledges she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But in a radio interview, she says the comments were "exactly what I thought," even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.

"I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive," Thomas told Ohio station WMRN-AM in a sometimes emotional 35-minute interview that aired Tuesday. It was recorded a week earlier by WMRN reporter Scott Spears at Thomas' Washington, D.C., condominium.

Thomas, 90, stepped down from her job as a columnist for Hearst News Service in June after a rabbi and independent filmmaker videotaped her outside the White House calling on Israelis to get "out of Palestine." She gave up her front row seat in the White House press room, where she had aimed often pointed questions at 10 presidents, going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

She has kept a low profile since then.

It was "very hard for the first two weeks," Thomas said. "After that, I came out of my coma."

Rabbi David Nesenoff, who runs the website rabbilive.com, said he approached Thomas after he'd been at the White House for Jewish Heritage Day on May 27. He asked whether she had any comments on Israel.

"Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," she replied.

"Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland," she continued. Asked where they should go, she answered, "They should go home."

"Where's home?" Nesenoff asked.

"Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else," Thomas replied.

"I told him exactly what I thought," she told Spears.

Spears said during the interview that some accounts left off her reference to America and gave the wrong impression that Thomas was referring to World War II.

"I was not talking about Auschwitz or anything else," she said.

"They distorted my remarks, which they obviously have to do for their own propaganda purposes, otherwise people might wonder why they continue to take Palestinian land," said Thomas, a daughter of Lebanese immigrants who over the years did little to hide her pro-Arab views. There was no explanation of whom "they" referred to.

When she soon began getting calls about her remark, "I said this is the end of my job."

She issued an apology, she told the radio interviewer, because people were upset and she thought she had hurt people. "At the same time, I had the same feelings about Israel's aggression and brutality," Thomas said.

Asked whether she's anti-Semitic, she responded "Baloney!" She said she wants to be remembered for "integrity and my honesty and my belief in good journalism" and would like to work again.

Spears said Thomas granted him the interview because the two had developed a friendship during previous interviews she had done with the station in Marion, 42 miles north of Columbus in central Ohio.

Their discussion also touched on current politics, particularly on women.

Thomas described Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as "a hawk." "I thought women in politics would have more compassion, be more liberal," Thomas said.

As for Sarah Palin, Thomas said she believed the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate was ambitious enough to run for president.

"That would be a tragedy, a national tragedy," she said, describing Palin as "very conservative, reactionary, unbelievable."

Asked about tea party-backed Republican Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, Thomas responded with one word: "Frightening."

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Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan reports:

A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.

Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."

"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.

Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard for years.

"I'm really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians," Mohler said.

Yoga fans say their numbers have been growing in the U.S. A 2008 study by the Yoga Journal put the number at 15.8 million, or nearly 7 percent of adults. About 6.7 percent of American adults are Southern Baptists, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Mohler argued in his online essay last month that Christians who practice yoga "must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."

He said his view is "not an eccentric Christian position."

Other Christian leaders have said practicing yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Pat Robertson has called the chanting and other spiritual components that go along with yoga "really spooky." California megachurch pastor John MacArthur called yoga a "false religion." Muslim clerics have banned Muslims from practicing yoga in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, citing similar concerns.

Yoga proponents say the wide-ranging discipline, which originated in India, offers physical and mental healing through stretching poses and concentration.

"Lots of people come to yoga because they are often in chronic pain. Others come because they think it's a nice workout," said Allison Terracio, who runs the Infinite Bliss studio in Louisville.

And some yoga studios have made the techniques more palatable for Christians by removing the chanting and associations to eastern religions, namely Hinduism and its multiple deities.

Stephanie Dillon, who has injected Christian themes into her studio in Louisville, said yoga brought her closer to her Christian faith, which had faded after college and service in the Army.

"What I found is that it opened my spirit, it renewed my spirituality," Dillon said. "That happened first and then I went back to church." Dillon attends Southeast Christian Church in Louisville and says many evangelical Christians from the church attend her yoga classes.

She said she prayed on the question of whether to mix yoga and Christianity before opening her studio, PM Yoga, where she discusses her relationship with Jesus during classes.

"My objection (to Mohler's view) personally is that I feel that yoga enhances a person's spirituality," Dillon said. "I don't like to look at religion from a law standpoint but a relationship standpoint, a relationship with Jesus Christ specifically."

Mohler wrote the essay after reading "The Subtle Body," where author Stefanie Syman traces the history of yoga in America. Syman noted the growing popularity of yoga in the U.S. by pointing out that first lady Michelle Obama has added it to the festivities at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the front lawn.

Mohler said many people have written him to say they're simply doing exercises and forgoing yoga's eastern mysticism and meditation.

"My response to that would be simple and straightforward: You're just not doing yoga," Mohler said.

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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman reports:

Supreme Court justices on Wednesday pondered the vexing question of whether the father of a dead Marine should win his lawsuit against a fundamentalist church group that picketed his son's funeral.

The complexity and weightiness of the First Amendment issue were palpable in the courtroom as justices heard arguments in the case of Albert Snyder. His son died in Iraq in 2006, and members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral to make their point that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for Americans' immorality, including tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the question is whether the First Amendment must tolerate "exploiting this bereaved family."

There was no clear answer from the court.

Snyder is asking the court to reinstate a $5 million verdict against the Westboro members who held signs outside the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, including ones that read "Thank God for Dead Soldiers, "You're Going to Hell" and "God Hates the USA." The Marine was killed in a Humvee accident in 2006.

The church also posted a poem on its website that attacked Snyder and his ex-wife for the way they brought up Matthew.

Justice Stephen Breyer said the Internet aspect of the case troubled him because the church was saying something "very obnoxious" about private individuals.

"To what extent can they put that on the Internet?" Breyer asked. "I don't know what the rules ought to be."

The case pits Snyder's right to grieve privately against the church members' right to say what they want, no matter how offensive.

Westboro members, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, have picketed many military funerals.

They welcome the attention the protests have brought, mocking their critics and vowing not to change their ways whatever the outcome at the Supreme Court.

"No American should ever be required to apologize for following his or her conscience," said Margie Phelps, a daughter of Fred Phelps and the lawyer who argued the case for the church.

Fundamentalist church members turned out in advance of the argument Wednesday morning, to march in front of the court with placards of the type they've been carrying to military funerals. One young boy held up a sign that reads, "God Hates You."

A line of people trying to get into the court stretched around the corner of the majestic building perched atop Capitol Hill.

Snyder won an $11 million verdict against the church for intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims. A judge reduced the award to $5 million before the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., threw out the verdict altogether, citing the church's First Amendment rights.

For Snyder, the case is not about free speech but harassment. "I had one chance to bury my son and it was taken from me," Snyder said.

Forty-eight states, 42 U.S. senators and veterans groups have sided with Snyder, asking the court to shield funerals from the Phelpses' "psychological terrorism."

While distancing themselves from the church's message, media organizations, including The Associated Press, have called on the court to side with the Phelpses because of concerns that a victory for Snyder could erode speech rights.

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Six rabbis from West Bank settlements have taken a step to defuse tension over the burning of a West Bank mosque, apparently by extremist settlers — they presented 20 new Quran books to replace those damaged in the blaze, the Associated Press reports.

During their visit to the mosque in the village of Beit Fajjar, Palestinian residents held charred pages of the burned Quran books.

Israeli politicians rushed to condemn the attack. It came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators try to salvage peace talks by working out a deal over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.

Rabbi Menachem Froman, who led Tuesday's reconciliatory visit, said those who committed the attack "oppose peace."

The attackers left Hebrew slogans on the mosque walls. Israeli police are investigating.

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The Associated Press reports:

Officials in a rural upstate New York town are trying to force a group of Muslims to dig up two bodies in their cemetery, saying the burials were illegal.

But the Sufi group, which has documents that appear to support the cemetery's legality, says the town board's actions were motivated by a wave of anti-Islamic sentiment fueled by the uproar over a planned mosque near ground zero.

Hans Hass of the Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani community, 130 miles northwest of New York City, said last week that the Sufi community learned only recently about the Sidney Town Board's vote in August to pursue legal action to shut down the community's cemetery.

"They knew we had the cemetery," Hass said. "I filed burial permits with the town. It wasn't an issue until the ground zero mosque came up."

Town Supervisor Bob McCarthy said the cemetery is illegal and bigotry had nothing to do with the board decision. He said no legal action has been taken yet and referred questions about the potential action to town attorney Joseph Ermeti, who didn't return a call seeking comment.

"These people just came up and buried bodies on the land," McCarthy said. "You have to have permits. They didn't have them. You can't just bury Grandma in the backyard under the picnic table."

But Hass said he has a 2005 document from the town zoning board saying the cemetery is legal and burial permits showing the burials were handled by licensed funeral directors.

New York law explicitly says the state does not regulate private or religious cemeteries. The Town of Sidney zoning ordinance states that cemeteries are permitted on private land with a single contiguous area of at least 15 acres.

"If they're within their rights they shouldn't worry about us doing anything," McCarthy said. "They're trying to push this through and I believe they're wrong."

The Sufi community was established in 2002 on a 50-acre sheep farm to be "a small intentional community devoted to contemplation and prayer, to lead the spiritual life of Islam, to lead a simple, quiet life close to the earth," Hass said in a statement. The community has about 30 members.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader behind the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero, is a Sufi but is not affiliated with the group in Sidney Center.

McCarthy said his concern is that the town might get stuck taking care of the cemetery some day if it's abandoned.

"The person that's most discriminated against is the real property taxpayer," McCarthy said. "The cost of taking care of this falls back on the taxpayer."

He said the town already has a number of old, abandoned burial sites it must maintain.

But Hass noted that the town board wasn't proposing to disinter bodies from any of those graveyards.

When asked about allegations of anti-Islamic sentiment, McCarthy said: "That's ludicrous. The only reason they received any attention is they illegally buried bodies. Other than that, I didn't even know they were here."

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

Her tragic death notwithstanding, the career of Anna Nicole Smith delighted plastic surgeons, dieters and reality TV fans, not to mention readers of Playboy magazine and patrons of strip clubs. It was one of these last, J. Howard Marshall II, who became Mr. Anna Nicole Smith in the waning years of his life.

The facts are well-known to most readers: Ms. Smith, then 26, married Mr. Marshall, then 89, in 1994. Upon Marshall’s death 13 months later, his son E. Pierce Marshall contested Ms. Smith’s claim to half of his estate; the case ultimately wound up in the Supreme Court, which decided in Ms. Smith’s favor in 2006. Although both Ms. Smith and Mr. Marshall are now deceased, Mr. Marshall’s estate continued to pursue the matter, and the Supreme Court has announced that it will once again hear the case.

Oddly enough, this turn of events presents us once again with the reality that for a brief, shining moment, Ms. Smith replaced Michael Schiavo as the poster child for family values.

Obviously the disposition of a will can involve complicated decisions, and family tension is by no mean unknown in this sort of situation. Probate lawyers can explain all of the variables to anyone who’s interested in them, but the basic principle of law and the clear message of the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling is this: If the choice is between a spouse and another family member, the spouse wins.

Much the same conflict was operative in the Schiavo case: Ultimately the courts decided that when Terry Schiavo’s husband and parents disagreed over her medical care, it was her husband’s right as her spouse to make decisions for her despite her parents’ disagreement with his choices.

Oddly enough, in the Schiavo case it was my colleagues who share my convictions about marriage who concluded that the importance of preserving life confers the right to meddle in decisions that rightly belong to spouses.

But our nation’s understanding of marriage is firmly rooted in the Judeo-Christian heritage of our society: We read in Genesis that “The man will leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Christians put further weight on this concept by virtue of Jesus’ citation of this text, followed by the clear declaration that “They are no longer two, but one” (Matthew 19:6).

In a very real sense, then, people who get married adopt the new identity of their marital union, an identity which replaces those of their families of origin. This principle of “leaving and cleaving” is among the most important to teach in premarital counseling, and the most difficult to work out, especially when two (or more) sets of parents demand a couple’s presence on the same holiday. The concept is simple, though: In temporal perspective, a man is his mother’s son before he is his wife’s husband, but from a legal (and moral) perspective precisely the reverse is true.

Autopsy results confirmed that Terry Schiavo’s parents — understandably, and like many who grieve harm caused to a loved one — had adopted an unrealistic appraisal of their daughter’s mental presence. Yet even if the autopsy had confirmed their hopes, it would still have been unjust to grant them the right to trump their son-in-law’s right to made difficult medical decisions under the circumstances people face so often — those where medical information is incomplete and certainty is impossible, yet some decision must be made.

In the same way, one might argue that Mr. Marshall chose a deeply unwise, selfish and irresponsible path by devoting his time and resources to a piece of eye candy rather than investing in his family, or charitable causes, or even his golf swing. But “unwise” and “illegal” are two radically different concepts. Which of us would want each of our life’s judgment calls submitted to scrutiny in a court of law by anyone who could claim an interest?

As the father of two beautiful daughters, I fully expect that my children will make decisions with their future husbands with which I will disagree, some even that will cause me deep pain and difficulty. But in a free society, we have the right to make decisions both bad and good, and without needing to secure the permission of our parents or children. According to a traditional Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage, the husband-wife “unit” makes these decision together, and our court system does this remarkable notion the honor of upholding it in cases such as those of Terry Schiavo and Anna Nicole Smith.

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