[Updated] Vatican team to investigate Legionaries

The Vatican has decided to end the foot-dragging of the Legionaries of Christ with its own investigation.

Announced in a letter by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Posted on the order's Web site, that letter said the pontiff had decided to intervene "so that with truth and transparency, in a climate of fraternal and constructive dialogue, you will overcome the present difficulties."

The investigation is unusual and results from events preceding and following the February disclosure by Legionaries of Christ officials in Rome that the order's founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered a child. Maciel had previously been credibly accused of sexually abusing young seminarians in the order. There are concerns about cult-like behavior, bolstered recently by publication of one of the order's manuals. And there are concerns about financial irregularities.

The investigation is an apostolic visitation. CNS explains:

Apostolic visitation is a form of internal church investigation ordered by a pope and undertaken by his delegate or delegates. The pope sets the jurisdiction and powers of the visitation, which usually ends with the submission of a report to the Holy See.

As Cath News argued some time ago, Vatican intervention is required because "the current Mexican leadership of the Legionaries is not up to the challenge of dissociating the organisation from the sexual and financial wrongdoings of the founder."

As we have suggested since February, Maciel's history of predation and cult leadership style inevitably shaped the order's culture. An outside investigation is required.

Update

The letter announcing the visitation to the Legionaires of Christ is here, on the order's web site.

Notre Dame/Obama uproar marginalizes bishops & right-wing activists

Uproar over President Obama's upcoming commencement address at Notre Dame is, Gallup Poll data suggests, a right-wing organizing ploy.

Most Catholics don't share the views of the angry Catholic bishops and right-wing activists who created and are sustaining this apparent confligration, as Gallup explains:

The argument of those who protest the extension of the invitation to Obama is that Catholics have a distinctly conservative position on these moral issues. That is certainly the case as far as official church doctrine is concerned, but not when it comes to average American Catholics. The new Gallup analysis, based on aggregated data from Gallup's 2006-2008 Values and Beliefs surveys, indicates that Catholics in the United States today are actually more liberal than the non-Catholic population on a number of moral issues, and on others, Catholics have generally the same attitudes.

Frequency of church attendance is an almost unerring predictor of American political conservatism. Yet even Catholics who regularly attend church are more liberal than non-Catholics who go to church regularly:

Regular churchgoers who are Catholic are significantly more liberal than churchgoing non-Catholics on gambling, sex before marriage, homosexual relations, having a baby out of wedlock, and divorce. Committed Catholics are at least slightly more likely than devout non-Catholics to say that abortion and embryonic stem-cell research -- the two key issues highlighted by those protesting Obama's appearance at Notre Dame -- are morally acceptable. Only on the death penalty are committed Catholics more conservative than regular churchgoers who are not Catholic.

Lacking sufficient support among those for whom they speak, Bishops who in the name of being prophetic seek to call down fire on Notre Dame's invitation to Obama, and right wing activists who seek to energize and add to the number of their followers, are both further dividing themselves from the majority of U.S. Catholics.

They can expect to see themselves less well-heeded after this conflict than before. The opposite of their intentions.

'A Divine Comedy'

From Herman Krieger's "Churches Ad Hoc: A Divine Comedy:"

Serioiusly, it's funny. Worth a visit.

Finland still refusing to extradite Baptist minister accused of genocide

The case of a Rwandan Baptist minister accused of genocide took a disturbing turn today when his defense argued that police tortured witnesses to extract evidence against him.

According to YLE:

The 57-year-old suspect sought political asylum in Finland in 2003. The man was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of planning, leading and implementing massacres. Suspicions were aroused in connection with a background study during the consideration of his asylum application.

Finland stands by its refusal to extradite the individual to Rwanda. He is in custody, however. Finland's National Bureau of Investigation expects to have its inquiry completed by summer. An extension of tomorrow's deadline for filing charges has been requested.

This earth is a human responsibility, the Archbishop of Canterbury warns

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams called for a "radical change of heart" to prevent runaway climate change that will otherwise afflict our children and grandchildren and whose early effects already punish the least among us.

Speaking at the Ebor Lecture, he said:

God's faithfulness stands, assuring us that even in the most appalling disaster love will not let us go - but it will not be a safety net that guarantees a happy ending in this world.

Listen to the lecture with questions and answers, here [.mp3]. Or read the entire lecture here.

Where the Wild Things Are sanity break

The first book I bought for my sons, and everything about it still lifts up my heart. I hope this preview of the movie lifts up yours as it did mine:

Who is burned now by the fire a bishop summons?

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels of dotCommonweal suggests a bishop other than D’Arcy say amid the Notre Dame/Obama uproar:

Brothers, once when bishops leveled penalties, the effect was to isolate the miscreant from society. Now the effect seems to be to isolate us. Before we take that as a sign of how close to perdition everyone else is, perhaps we should think about our own inadequacies in dealing with the world around us.

Read here entire piece here. Then consider the reflections of victims of clerical sexual abuse on the past silence of "bishops from Phoenix to Rome" on those issues.

Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today writes

"It's galling, really galling, that they are so eager to speak out now on things they have no influence at all, when they kept silent when they could have done some real good," says David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). . . . They are grandstanding to score points with with the Catholic right wing, just as Mahony and O'Malley were grandstanding to the left with their gratuitous denunciation of Bishop Williamson.

Does the contrast between past quiet and current political involvement begin to explain their collective loss of authority?

Palin prayer on the campaign trail

Sarah Palin said this week that the campaign trail was short of acceptable prayer partners, and former staff members feel cut. You can see why:

"So I'm looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra," she said. "And the McCain campaign, love 'em, you know, they're a lot of people around me, but nobody I could find that I wanted to hold hands with and pray." As the crowd laughed, Palin grinned and said she meant no disrespect to the McCain campaign. She said she ultimately prayed with her daughter Piper.

Sen. John McCain didn't clarify things when in answer to a question at the Heritage Foundation this week he said:

Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin—mostly for Sarah Palin.

Ok.

FBC Jax Watchdog warning about involvement with a Charlotte, N.C., Christian television network

Watchdog is unhappy that First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., broadcasts on the Inspiration Network.

Watch the WCNC investigative video to decide whether you agree with Watchdog that affiliation with this group is lamentable. Chances are good that you will be troubled by at least part of what you learn.

Watchdog notes that FBC pastor Mac Brunson asked for a special offering last Easter to raise $180,000 to purchase Inspiration Network air time.

Then, illustrating why his blog has received such a Byzantine reaction from the leadership of FBC Jax, says:

I, for one, could not donate money to any organization that gives money or is associated with these "Televangelist Gunslingers", as this report calls them. I can't believe any bible-believing church would need to affiliate with the likes of these folks to spread the gospel.

Why, indeed? Not the kind of question the powerful always field well.

Faith-based, educational condom distribution

The United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ have joined together in support of distribution of condoms and comprehensive sexual education by houses of worship and faith-based education institutions.

Their initiative contradicts recommendations which follow from Pope Benedict XVI's plane-board statement during his visit to Africa that “You can't resolve [AIDS] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem.

The Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, the UCC’s executive for health and wholeness advocacy, urges a more scientific and compassionate approach to the prevention of HIV. “The availability of condoms as part of a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention sends the right message and more importantly, it saves lives.”

Shuenemeyer said, “The message is rooted in the belief that loving carefully is a moral responsibility. The practice of safer sex behavior is a matter of life and death. People of faith make condoms available because we have chosen life so that we and our children may live.”

The United Church of Christ HIV and AIDS Network (UCAN) speaks directly to a key issue in the raging international debate over condoms and sex education, and is on sound behavioral ground, when it says:

There is no evidence that making condoms available promotes sexual activity. In fact, condoms, when distributed with educational materials and integrated into a broader, more comprehensive prevention package, have been shown to delay sexual debut among those who are not sexually active. Among sexually active youth, HIV prevention education programs have resulted in a reduced number of partners and increased condom use.

UCAN says making them available does provide "opportunities to open conversations that can save lives. In this context, condoms become educational tools."

They are in good faith striving to follow the best available science.

Condoms for the Pope

The 27 March Facebook group is protesting Pope Benedict XVI's condemnation of use of condoms by sending him a few (tens of thousands, even millions).

The group had close to 30,000 members as of this writing. The organizers expect to send 60,000 condoms to the Vatican on Friday. Der Speigel reports:

Similar social networking groups supporting the condom campaign have sprung up elsewhere on Facebook, triggering pledges of participation from across Europe and beyond. Some estimate that deliveries to the pontiff may total 5 million. One Web site calls on people to either send a real condom addressed to "His Holiness" at the Vatican or a photograph of the contraceptive to his email address.

It was founded by Francis Miles, who described the effort in the Italian newspaper La Voce as "a peaceful provocation ... a reaction to the pope's absurd words on condoms."

He went on to say of himself and other members of the group:

. . . none of this group believes that the condom is the "holy hands" to the eradication of HIV from Africa, but there is one thing that has never been emphasized: the Pope's words were not in Africa. The condom is used throughout the world . . . no one should make it possible to convey the message that the condoms do not drastically lower the risk of infection.
Try a thought experiment: There are two large groups of people of both sexes. Each group is half and half not HIV-positive. Members of one group have sex using condoms. The group other does not us condoms. What do you expect?

The ongoing criticism of the Pointiff's condom remarks has made some church officials unhappy. The London Telegraph reports:

Senior Catholics rallied to the Pope's defense this week, with the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, saying the depth of opprobrium directed towards the pontiff had "been prolonged beyond good reason."

What the critics seek, however, is the change of Vatican policy they believe reason requires. Thus the number of protest-participating Facebook groups is multiplying, along with the number of voices raised in disagreement with the Pope's unretracted remarks.

Does Satan exist?

The ABC News video of last night's debate at Mars Hill Church is online.

Catholic University of America student newspaper endorses Obama at Notre Dame

The Tower, the student newspaper at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., wrote Friday:

If Notre Dame has done their job right, students will already be sound in their Catholic beliefs. It should not be an issue where the President stands on his ideas of life. He is coming to speak to students about their role in the world, what they will face when they embark on the next chapter of their lives. More than anything, it is the students’ first test of maintaining a Catholic identity in light of someone who does not share some of their beliefs. There is a way to still maintain a Catholic identity, to reconcile faith, and still listen to the Commander-in-Chief of this great nation.

Read the entire piece here.

Sneaking Creationism into Florida classrooms

Creationism lost a march in Texas while it was trying to quietly steal one in Florida.

Florida state Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, introduced legislation which the Florida Academy of Science says "leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of nonscientific and covertly religious doctrines."

Standard Creationist strategy these days.

Science ambiguously prevails in Texas education

Creationism failed when social conservatives brought "strengths and weaknesses" back to the table today. A "compromise" prevailed in a 13-2 vote.

The adopted compromise says:

In all fields of science, analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing, including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations so as to encourage critical thinking by the student.

Although that language seems clear, this decades-long battle has a way of knotting itself back up into lawsuits.

Evens so, the "strengths and weaknesses" charade is at this level over. Everything appears to be about implementation now.

Pope's revised (not corrected) condom remarks

Commonweal tells us the Vatican has brought the written record of the Popes comments on condoms back into line with events.

It did so after spawning an international uproar over the original post-facto editing of the Papal words. The Pope told reporters that distribution of condoms to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic "even aggravates the problems.” The Vatican published an official record which said condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem.

The rollback to "aggravates" does not nullify The Lancet's suggestion that "the Vatican’s attempts to tweak the Pope’s words, further tampering with the truth, is not the way forward." It underlines the Vatican's credibility problem.

Surviving ink-stained wretches, creatures of newspaper newsrooms, know corrections must be published with attendant apologies, not circumvented. The Vatican has merely made another "tweak," lacking acknowledgment of and repentance for the original error. We all know that if we sweep enough things under the rug, our audience's faith in our integrity will go there as well.

The Lancet seeks ‘Redemption for the Pope’

The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, calls for Pope Benedict XVI to retract his science-distorting statement that condoms may "increase" the HIV/AIDS problem.

Concluding, it said [registration required]:

Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear. But the comment still stands and the Vatican's attempts to tweak the Pope's words, further tampering with the truth, is not the way forward. When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record. Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide.

The unusually strong position indicates how badly the post-facto attempt to rewrite the Pope's statement backfired, and how attempts to generate a scientific argument in his favor have failed.

Addendum

Dr. Kalpana Sabapathy, HIV advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) explains the medical value of condoms.

Pharyngula applauds, of course.

Texas school board anti-evolutionists lose (again)

Social conservatives failed Thursday to add key creationism-friendly requirements back into the Texas standards for public school science classes and textbooks.

The last-gasp effort died on a deadlocked 7-7 vote of the Texas State Board of Education. The lost motion would have restored a 20-year-old requirement that science classes discuss the so-called weaknesses in the theory of evolution.

Social conservatives did make less important amendments, but the basic teaching of evolution as accepted science will now be written into science textbooks.

This final decision is of overarching importance because the size of the Texas textbook market gives it sweeping, national impact on the way school science textbooks in general are written.

Fact-fixing CNN on Notre Dame

One myth-besotted CNN paragraph preoccupied Mollie at GetReligion.

She was addressing the story of South Bend, Indiana Roman Catholic Bishop John D’Arcy's boycott of the Notre Dame graduation ceremonies at which President Barack Obama will be honored.

Let her help you substitute legislative fact for fiction and filter spin out of science here.

Randall Terry has a bishop problem

Randall Terry got himself in trouble by using an interview (below) with the Vatican's Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, in an attempt to pressure U.S. Catholic bishops:

Burke rebuked Terry and apologized for the use of his comments to attack Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Arlington Diocese Bishop Paul S. Loverde. Terry was using the interview to push more U.S. Catholic bishops to deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights, and as a result of our national political geography, those two were in the cross hairs.

Catholic Online has Burke's entire statement about the matter.

Michael Sean Winters of America magazine writes that Burke’s failure to defend his brother bishops during the interview with Terry “was the Vatican equivalent of throwing them under the bus.”

The Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, told the Washington Post that Burke "violated the episcopal etiquette. You don't criticize other bishops in public and you don't tell other bishops how to run their diocese."

Terry shoots back that Burke has been "deceived" about how the videotape is being use. Uh huh.

Unspinning Lifeway/North American Mission Board survey

Spinning a survey which shows evangelism is surpassingly difficult, the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) LifeWay Research and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) both say "most people would attend [church] if invited in the right manner."

The sometimes credibility-challenged NAMB commissioned the survey in preparation for its national "God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS)" evangelism drive, to be launched in 2010.

Buried in the body of the "spun" NAMB summary is a plain statement that the survey of more than 15,000 adults in December 12-22, 2008, found that "personal invitations from family members or friends is the only method that a majority of Americans say would effectively draw them to church." And by ubstituting could for would and you get a straight, unspun lede for the story.

Your see, presentation data provided by Lifeway director Ed Stetzer shows that 34% of those surveyed are "somewhat willing" and 22% are "very willing" to receive information from a friend or neighbor about a local church or religious community. From family members, it's 37% and 26% respectively.

"Somewhat willing," the largest positive group in both cases, may include everyone who is willing to listen politely, rather than either change the subject or just get up and go home.

A little field experience with these conversations will teach almost anyone that it is a long step beyond persuading wayward family members and neighbors to (perhaps impatiently) receive information, and having them show up at church.

The friends (22%) and family members (26%) who are "very willing" to listen aren't necessarily willing to attend church in response either.

That may be why "Baptists like to talk more about evangelism than to actually do it," as Stetzer put it. A lot of Baptists are likely to have had had ample try-and-fail experience with unchurched family members, neighbors and others. Especially, as the survey suggests, others.

If GPS is a hard sell, the current difficulty of evangelism isn't the only reason. Years of controversy over SBC numbers -- not just the NAMB but also the International Mission Board and some state organizations -- make this a good time to be as transparent as possible.

Actions like Stetzer's provision of additional data [PowerPoint] are the best medicine for skepticism. As former North Carolina Biblical Recorder Editor R.G. Puckett often put it, "Tell the truth and trust the people."

Most Italians reject the Pope's dismissive view of condoms

A majority of Italians disagreed with the Pope's stand against using condoms to prevent AIDS, revealed a poll published in the newspaper La Repubblica:

The poll said that 52.3 per cent were "absolutely against" the Pope's view - which overshadowed his trip to Africa last week - that condoms are not the answer to the Aids epidemic and on the contrary only "aggravate" it by encouraging sexual promiscuity. A further 21.2 per cent in the poll, conducted by Demos & Pi, said they were "fairly" opposed to the Pope's position, making a total of 73.5 per cent.

News of this poll of nearly 1,700 Italians questioned in the six days immediately following the pope's airborne remarks comes on the heels of two polls finding that the French are losing confidence in the Pope, possibly for similar reasons.

Neither post-facto revision of the Pope's remarks nor any Italian equivalent of conservative pushback against scientific and medical criticism of the Pope's stand were enough to turn the tide of public opinion in his favor. Italians have no trouble balancing such practical concerns with their religion, according to the London Times:

Ilvo Diamanti, a leading sociologist, said that Italians generally looked to the Catholic Church as a "moral compass", especially in "difficult times." This was not the case however when positions taken by the Church or the Vatican were seen as "different from the common consensus or the practical experiences of daily life"

The Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire criticized the French government for "presuming" to lecture Pope Benedict XVI on AIDS and condoms, and the Archbishop of Genoa railed that the pontiff had been unjustly "mocked and insulted" on the same issue by critics. All without distracting most of the Italian people from applying sound, practical judgment to a life and death issue of daily life.

Legion of Christ manual seems revealing

The Legion of Christ has in the past filed lawsuits when copies of its various documents were published on the Web. Had them taken down.

ReasonWeekly says it knows, and offers for download "the leaked internal manual of the order [.pdf]."

ReasonWeekly says the "document reveals a totalitarian and intrusive outlook on the congregation by its leaders," and that seems fair, but read the manual yourself. And if one manual is not enough, you can supplement it by downloading the censored Legion of Christ sect personal exams from WikiLeaks.

We await your considered assessment.

'Where the Wild Things Are' Movie Trailer

First, leaked footage:

New, your link to the official trailer:

If you loved Where the Wild Things Are, you will not be disappointed by the movie trailer.

Evangelicalism's: 'Collapse' or long, rusting decline?

The Four Evangelists by Jakob Jordaens

Because evangelical Christianity is visibly breaking down, Internet Monk's widely discussed prediction of the movement's "collapse" a decade hence, resonates in the minds of all who are concerned.

The animating core of his prediction -- that identification of evangelicals with the culture wars and political conservatism at the expense of faith was a historic mistake -- is a long-simmering cause of general unhappiness (the New York Times wrote about it well last June.).

The political sellout by the Religious Right is especially important among evangelicals under 40, a Barna survey found, while other research says some "don't even want the label any more."

More broadly, in August 2008 a Pew Forum survey found that 52 percent of Americans agreed that houses of worship should keep out of politics.

Or when he predicts the money will dry up, whether you're a religious broadcaster or pastor of an average Southern Baptist Church, you're having that experience or probably fear it. Although catastrophic collapse of a going evangelical enterprise, is rare.

Each element he cites has some gut-level or analytical validity for those who are involved in or close to the movement.

Collapse is a powerful word. The concept of collapse may also sell well among people whose faith speaks of "the end times." Although we agree with, Tony Cartledge, associate professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School and contributing editor to Baptists Today, who isn't buying:

Spencer has clearly seen the spiritual hollowness that pervades much of evangelicalism, and I believe he is correct that elements of the movement will fade in influence as years go by. The idea that evangelicalism will collapse within ten years, however, appears clearly overstated. Methinks the monk has underestimated the power of inertia.

Like newspapers which are printed on paper, evangelicalism will persist and appear to be wonderfully influential during a long decline, while its eminent death is persistently forecast. And while saving reforms are persistently resisted.

Honesty is also a Catholic value

Richard Viguerie brings a refreshing clarity to the Notre Dame uproar refreshingly by combining high dudgeon with fiction:

Barack Obama is a pro-abortion extremist. He supports elective abortion at any point during pregnancy, and even afterward; he opposes protecting children who survive abortions. He supports using U.S. taxpayers' money to pay for elective abortions in our country and in other countries. He is working to strip medical professionals of their right not to perform abortions.

After the word "pro-abortion," everything he said was a distortion and calculated to inflame his audience.

Viguerie echoes arguments made elsewhere and closely examined by Beth Dahlman.

Update

Dan Gilgoff notes that Notre Dame's president is unwavering in his defense of the invitation.

As for the student body, Notre Dame campus newspaper, the Observer, reported "in an Oct. 8, 2008 article that Obama led the student body with 52.6 percent of the vote in a mock election held by student government, in which 2,692 undergraduates and graduate students voted."

'Coal' Land

Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is in the spotlight as the global-cooling coal man of the hour.

It all started when that Associated Baptist Press noticed that coal had gotten religion, after a fashion.

Frink has the details here.

Civil prayer on the North Carolina docket

Squared off since 2006 over civil prayer's wording in Forsyth County, N.C., are the Americal Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

The issue: Forsyth County local government meetings are often opened with prayers which are sectarian. They may, for example, enjoin Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Charlie Davis, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem. is one of the plaintiffs. He explains "that sectarian prayer excludes people, which isn't good. The government guarantees religious freedom and that applies to non-believers as well."

It didn't have to go to court. The county commissioners ignored the advice of their own attorney by refusing to ensure that invocations were non-sectarian.

A judge could rule on the lawsuit next month. Legally, the smart money is with the ACLU on this:

In 1983, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Marsh v. Chambers that if a legislative body chooses to open its meetings with a prayer, such prayer must not be "exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief." The prayers before the legislature that were upheld in the Marsh case were nonsectarian - in other words, the prayers were not specific to any particular religion. In addition, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes North Carolina, has repeatedly and recently upheld this principle of government neutrality in religious matters by insisting that legislative invocations be nonsectarian in nature.

More important is the message of pluralism in America sent by pursuit of this lawsuit others like it.

Protestant prayer of the sort being defended by the ADF was the standard, especially in the South, until late in the last century. No more. Objections to the informal establishment of this Protestant civil religion, where it persists, are being adjudicated.

Bill Leonard, the dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University told the Winston-Salem Journal:

This is the death rattle of implicit religious establishment in America that has been in existence since the Colonial period.

Is it constructive to adjudicate a cultural transition? As the Rev. Laura Spangler, the pastor of Winston-Salem's historic Lloyd Presbyterian Church, put it, ". . . prayer, the main way we communicate with God, is becoming a tool for conflict. And I don't feel good about that."

FBC Jax Watchdog as seen from Canada

FBC Jax Watchdog blogged the drive by First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla. to strip him of his anonymity and silence him. As Bene Diction Blogs On from Canada put it:

The blogger seems to have made some people who have more money than brains very nervous, because church leadership has not handled his questioning well at all from what we see in the public responses.

What has the church leadership wrought?

Some of the documents are online now; the church leadership claimed he was involved in criminal activity. Why? The overkill is stunning. Truth, humility, servant-hood took second place to power, as the mega celebrity bubble around the lead pastor tightened its grip on the minds and hearts of leadership. Most of us can’t comprehend the isolation mega-church celebrity ministers live in, nor can we comprehend the need of some to be so protective of perceived power they’ll harm in God’s name.

Avoidable harm. The entire piece is here.

Should we be bowling with Barack? Or let it go?

One from-the-beginning Obama supporter says the passing Tonight Show slight of Special Olympians requires a passing, personal apology.

Yes? Real repentance.

Or is he making too much about to little?

French Catholics want church abortion/contraception policy changed

More than 80% of French Catholics want church policy on abortion/contraception changed, according to a poll published Sunday by France's Le Journal du Dimanche

Conducted by telephone on Thursday and Friday, after Pope Benedict XVI set off a firestorm of protest by denying the usefulness of condoms in preventing AIDS infection, the poll also found that almost half consider Benedict does a bad job defending the values of Catholicism. A separate poll for Le Parisien found that 57 percent had a bad opinion of Benedict.

An after-the-fact rewrite of the Pope's condom comments for the official record did not add to his stature. Although the change did effectively concede that the weight of expert and general public opinion is not with him.

Your church, Nicholas Hughes and the mentally ill

Nicholas Hughes, son of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, is gone by his own hand.

What might your church have done for him? Churches are often a poor refuge for the mentally ill. What is your church doing for the mentally ill, whether suicidal or not, now?

Saving African children from witchcraft

Pope Benedict XVI's stand in Angola against witchcraft promises life to imperiled children on a content where belief that it is real and demonic frequently results in the torture of children.

The National Catholic Reporter said:

In Angola, children suffering from diseases such as malaria and AIDS, or street children, are sometimes accused of practicing witchcraft and subjected to abuse. In 2006, a three-year-old HIV-positive child was suspected of placing a curse on his parents, so neighbors abandoned the child in a coop, where chickens pecked out one of his eyes. Between 2001 and 2005, 423 children accused of witchcraft sought refuge at the Santa Child Centre run by the Catholic Church in M'banza Congo, the capital of Zaire Province, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The problem is pervasive, well-documented and horrific, as the New York Times reported:

In parts of Angola, Congo and the Congo Republic, thousands of children are accused of witchcraft and are cast out of their homes, blinded or killed . . . The latest human rights report for Angola by the United States State Department says that children accused of witchcraft suffer abuses such as “the denial of food and water, or ritualistic cuttings and the placing of various caustic oils or peppers on their eyes or ears.”

Speaking to 1,500 Angolan clergy and laypeople at Luanda's Sao Paulo church, Pope Benedict XVI placed the Catholic Church in peaceful but implacable opposition to the blight, urging all to "offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers."

If somewhat besieged for other reasons, the Pope struck exactly the right note on this one.

.

Austrian prisons (and ours)

The Quakers who first devised American penitentiaries tried (and failed) to create the conditions for criminal repentance, reform and restitution to society as good citizens.

Austria has similar goals and an entirely different approach, as the sentencing of Josef Fritzl revealed to us all this week.

The London Times reports:

“The Austrian penal system aims not only at enforcing punishment, but also attempts to bring the inmate back within the norms of society,” said a spokesman for Austrian prisons last week when asked whether it was right that Fritzl should enjoy such a lax regime.

The man who was jailed last week for murder, rape, enslavement, coercion and incest after locking his daughter in his cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by her (six of whom survived):

. . . will be able to improve his English or study other foreign languages, as well as singing in the choir or training in a gym that is better-equipped than those of many hotels. As an inmate, he will be offered a wide variety of hobbies and entertainment, including tennis, darts and art classes.

Your thoughts?

Holy Re-Seeing

Pope Benedict XVI

How did we miss the Vatican's Wednesday condom backtrack? The London Times reported:

On Tuesday he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Africa that Aids was a “tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the Pope’s remark yesterday to read that condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem.

This is not the first time the Vatican has put words in Pope Benedict XVI's mouth. Backtracking followed in 2007 when the pope suggested that Mexican officials who supported legalization of abortion had been excommunicated. Reinterpretations were offered and the final transcript was altered to make it appear that the Pope's comments were general and did not refer to a specific incident.

"Clarification" or apology following some provocation of public anger has become something of a pattern for Pope Benedict XVI, no doubt contributing to the Pope's decline in French public opinion poll numbers.

In this case, Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, found the Papal revisionism hopeful. He said:

The pope has admitted that he is unsure whether condoms can help alleviate the spread of HIV. Where there is doubt there is freedom and Catholics can make up their own minds whether they use condoms or not. . . . We call on the pope to revisit the teaching on condoms with a view to lifting the ban at the earliest possible moment. In his review, he should include experts who are unequivocal that condoms can help prevent the spread of HIV, like UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations around the world.

O'Brien also observed that the Catholic Church required "359 years to stop continuing the line taken by their predecessors on Galileo."

American blasphemy

Death or decades-long sentences attend violations of blasphemy law in Afghanistan and other Muslim-dominated countries -- penalties considerably more severe than those of surviving state laws in the U.S.

One state law is already in court. George Kalman is challenging the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania state law forbidding the use of blasphemous words in corporate names in that state.

Howard M. Friedman says:

Kalman wanted to name his production company "I Choose Hell Productions," to reflect the philosophical theme of his movies. In 2007, articles with that name were rejected because of the blasphemy and profanity prohibition, and he ultimately refiled under the name "ICH Productions LLC".

Similar statutes are still "on the books in Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming," reports the New York Times.

Expect more heat over this one, even though the U.S. Suprement Court in 1952 ruled that “It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine.”

French losing confidence in the Pope?

Le Parisien daily found 57 percent of respondents to a poll conducted Wednesday and Thursday in heavily Catholic France have a negative opinion of the Pope Benedict XVI, as opposed to last September, when it was 25 percent.

The same poll of 1,012 adults found that 23 percent have a positive opinion, according to the Associated Press, down from 53 percent six months ago (the rest expressed no opinion).

The cause of the Pope's rising negatives was not clear from poll reports, although the Pontiff has had some PR difficulties of late.

Stifle dissent = lose power

History's lesson about stifling dissent, from John Adams' loss of the presidency amid backlash from his Alien and Sedition Acts to current ecclesiastical conflicts, is the same writes Wade Burleson:

One of these days men and women with power, whether it be ecclesiastical, political or corporate will learn that attempts to stifle dissent and criticism will only ultimately result in the people you lead turning against you.

In the comments, First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., Watchdog compares the "sedition" part Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts to a passage from the FBC Jax deacon's resolution, which was directed at him in a "public flogging of a former member."

You may recall that Watchdog aggressively blogged FBC Jax's policies and repressive governance, especially the pastor's accumulation of power. After a period of self-muzzled silence, Thursday brought new Watchdog coverage of the drive to strip him of his anonymity and silence him.

We look to Adams' extinct Federalist Party for the price of repressive governance. The Federalists did much good but embodied sweeping distrust of and intolerance for dissenting views.

Sex education served up hot (as always)

Sex education is coming back to the Congressional table this spring, and Amy Sullivan of Time has this nugget in an interesting survey article:

We now have a pretty good sense of which sex-education approaches work. Substantial research--including a 2007 Bush Administration report--has concluded that comprehensive programs are most effective at changing teen sexual behaviors. They are also largely uncontroversial outside Washington. Vast majorities of parents favor teaching comprehensive sex education.

Rick Warren & the Pope disagree over condoms

From Steve Waldman we learned that the Saddleback Church Web site says, "We can't prevent many other diseases that plague mankind, but we know how abstinence, monogamy, and condoms can go a long way toward stopping HIV in its tracks."

Pope Benedict XVI and Pastor Rick Warren agree that AIDS requires abstinence, but Warren adds S.L.O.W.:

Supply condoms and eventually microbicides for everyone. The correct and consistent use of condoms may prevent HIV infection. But condoms will never stop the pandemic. In many places, getting condoms is nearly impossible. And even when a person has a condom and uses it properly, there still is a chance the condom will fail. Likewise, microbicides – which researchers hope will enable women to protect themselves – will only reduce risk, not eliminate it; the development of effective microbicides is still years away.

Limit the number of partners. The fewer sexual partners someone has, the less chance there is that a person will contract HIV. But limiting the number of partners will never stop the spread of HIV.

Offer needle exchange. Some people believe that giving new, clean needles to intravenous drug users reduces their risk of contracting HIV from a needle shared by someone who is HIV positive. While clean needles may reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the resulting impaired judgment can enable other high risk sexual behavior thus exposing the individual to HIV.

Wait for sexual debut. The longer a person waits to become sexually active, the longer he or she will stay free from the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

Saddleback doesn't propose that S.L.O.W. will bring the AIDS epidemic to a full halt.

"If AIDS can be stopped," strenuous efforts by and the full moral authority of the church will be required as well.

Aggressive blogger's defamation-law map

For a quick and cautionary-to-eye-popping review of defamation law across the globe, visit Article 19's interactive defamation map.

"Mouse over the color-coded world map to compare criminal and/or civil defamation penalties in different countries, and open windows that provide updates to new and pending legislation," explains First Amendment Law Prof Blog.

Gay marriage the New England way

Vermonters, more irreligious than most Americans, are going for a bill to permit gay couples to legally wed. So Mark Silk tells us, and explains this New England way's religious-attitudes roots.

Ok

Focus on the Family says there's Christian-leader disappointment over, well, mostly Obama doing things about abortion and stem cells that he talked of doing at campaign time. Surprise?

Marriage definition ‘adjustment’

Seriously. Are you upset because Merriam-Webster's lexicographers are doing their jobs?

Just askin'.

FBC Jax Watchdog unmuzzled

Thursday brought us Watchdog coverage of the drive to strip him of his anonymity.

You may recall that Watchdog aggressively blogged First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla.'s, policies and repressive governance, especially the pastor's accumulation of power. The deacons adopted a resolution directed at him and it was approved in a vote by the congregation [video] -- after he was no longer a member there. Etc.

BaptistLife.com site administrator William Thornton observed that FBC Jacksonville conducted a "public flogging of a former member" -- a process which sounds "less Biblical than it does medieval." [Amen to that.]

We did not celebrate the earlier caesura in self-expression about matters which at every step have appeared to be legitimate public concerns. It is good to see the hard questions asked now about privacy, conflict of interest and (still) church governance. Such public debate can be redemptive by revealing the truth.

We won’t watch Haggard ‘Divorce Court’

We'll miss Gayle & Ted Haggard's appearance to discuss how their marriage survived the predatory homosexuality/drugs blowup.

They want people to know that divorce is not the answer. Although this is not volunteer missionary work:

The couple will be paid an undisclosed amount for the interview, the latest in a series of public appearances that started in January when Ted Haggard began promoting an HBO documentary about his time in exile. He also has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live."

We sense a comeback. For Gayle told the Denver Post she believes his struggles have deepened his Christian walk: "I think he is better equipped to minister to people than ever before."

Declining Field Sparrow

Field sparrows are a childhood favorite in part because an adult with fledged young will step out ahead of any farmer's young son or daughter, faking a wing injury to lure you away away from its own young.

And they're on the long, long list of beloved birds we have driven into decline.

Habitat loss is the cause. Like farmer's sons and farmer's daughters, farm land suitable for them to thrive is growing scarce. They do not, however, require much.

We can save them so that future generations also learn the importance of parental sacrifice from their unfailing, natural example.

Asking hard questions about the collapse of FBC Jax Watchdog’s anonymity

Wade Burleson is asking important, hard questions about the collapse of FBC Jax Watchdog's anonymity. The legal circumstances do seem disturbing. The questions raised about the potential misapplication of power do require answers.

For those who say it's none of Burleson's business (or perhaps ours), on the World Wide Web, Enid, Ok., is right next door to Jacksonville, Fla.

Church blogging ain't beanbag there and could easily take similar twists on your computer desktop, in your sanctuary and perhaps in a courthouse nearby.

Watch and question. If you need anonymity in this country you have it, if you can keep it.

Will Texas authorize a BS MS for Creationists?

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) proposes to exempt private, non-profit educational institutions from the authority of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). All so the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) can grant Master of Science degrees.

Think of it as an economic development incentive intended to make Texas a world leader in the manufacture of academically worthless diplomas created by fly-by-night enterprises.

Because it would create a new class of institutions which don't have to meet THECB standards in order to issue a degree. Such degrees would be, one might argue, of dubious value, and might tend to reflect poorly on legitimate Texas college degrees.

Rushing up the score (Christian Right applaudes)

Ethics Daily's Robert Parham calls Christian Right endorsement of Rush Limbaugh's moral vision "a betrayal of the moral vision found in the biblical witness, " and not "an American value."

Limbaugh told the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference:

See, this is something liberals will never understand about the United States of America and it's right under their noses, right in front of their faces, we are a competitive people. . . . The liberals have made efforts to shut that aspect of our nature down. Wherever you live, I am certain that you, when you were a child or your kids today in youth sports are told not to keep score, because the losers, it's just not fair. They'd be humiliated, especially if one girl's basketball team can defeat another one 100 to nothing. And let's fire the coach who put that game together. It's so unfair. So let's not keep score. Well, here's the dirty little secret. The kids are keeping score. [Applause] . . . We're competitive people. Adults are doing the same thing.

He was referring to a 100-0 win by Dallas-based Covenant School over Dallas Academy: A member of “Council of Exceptional Children, International Dyslexia Association, Learning Disability Association of Texas, and Orton Dyslexia Society."

Specifically, Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News wrote:

Dallas Academy is known for its work with students who have learning problems, such as short attention spans and concentration. Dallas Academy headmaster Jim Richardson said those problems sometimes manifest themselves on the court.

Where we come from, running up the score is always bad sportsmanship. To offer it in this case as admirable reeks of Social Darwinism.

Anti-condom evangelicals had their political way with Bush

Christian evangelicals pushed the Bush administration to an anti-condom position like the one which has called down fire on Pope Benedict XVI's head. They even drove insufficiently anti-condom evangelicals out of the administration. Jamie Kirchick wrote at TNR:

Anne Peterson, an assistant administrator for global health in the U.S. Agency for International Development and an evangelical who had worked with Christian aid groups in Africa, incurred the wrath of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson during a 2004 meeting at his Colorado Springs headquarters. There, Dobson asked Peterson for her position on condoms, to which she replied that they were an essential feature in HIV prevention alongside the encouragement of abstinence and monogamy. Soon after, Focus on the Family issued a paper criticizing her, and she eventually resigned under pressure. Peterson was replaced by Kent Hill, an evangelical Christian activist with neither a medical degree nor public health experience, who is currently the acting administrator of USAID.

Recently controversial Southern Baptist 'heretic' gently returns

Miguel De La Torres returned heretically Wednesday to the Associated Baptist Press opinion section. He was there to amplify and clarify arguments which in February ignited a Southern Baptist blog firestorm.

De La Torres performance gave heretics a good name. He explained that he didn't call Jesus a sinner for His response to the Canaanite woman, who in Matthew 15:21-28 sought to have her daughter freed of a demon. Equally important in our view, De La Torres said:

Many also thought I was being heretical by implying that Jesus learned something from the Canaanite woman’s persistence in demanding aid from him. But do the Gospels themselves not tell us that the fully human Jesus, as he grew into his divinity, “increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God” (Luke 2:52)?

You may recall that passions ran high. The original piece was called “tripe,” “heretical trash” and so on. Which our "heretic" touched in good-humored passing. He reserved his time Wednesday for more serious considerations, closing with the suggestion that "Jesus is not afraid of our honest inquiry." And with humility asked "if you are willing to be the sister or brother in Christ of a heretic dog like me?"

Read it all here.

Impeach?

Some have wondered if the Pope should step down. Robert S. McElvaine, professor of arts & letters at Millsaps College, goes one long step or two farther today in his On Faith comment:

There are, of course, no provisions in the hierarchical institution set up, not by Jesus but by men who hijacked his name and in many cases perverted his teachings, for impeaching a pope and removing him from office. But there ought to be.

As I detail in my latest book, "Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America" (Crown), the cardinal sin of the Catholic Church -- a literally deadly sin, if ever there was one -- is its opposition to birth control. Far from being, as the Church contends, part of its moral doctrine, this policy is, plainly, the immoral doctrine of the Church. The use of condoms is a pro-life position.

He finally suggests replacing him "with a woman."

Death, condoms & abstinence in Uganda

Uganda is the false example offered in defense of Pope Benedict XVI's claim that condoms “can even increase the problem” of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

The two-decade ebb in Uganda's overall rate of AIDS was first of all the result of premature death of the previously infected. The AIDS incidence among living people fell primarily because so many of the infected died for lack of treatment. As the British Medical Journal reported:

"Death alone accounted for a six percentage point reduction in HIV prevalence in the one year," Maria Wawer, a public health researcher from Columbia University, New York city, said. "Overall, the HIV prevalence over the last decade declined 6.2 percentage points. We estimate that mortality alone contributed five percentage points of the decline."

Researchers found no scientific evidence that the remaining decline was due to abstinence.

Condom use, however, "increased dramatically" as AIDS incidence ebbed. Thus the most likely cause of fall in AIDS rate not due to death of the infected, was use of condoms.

Propaganda to the contrary via Fox News and other sources of obfuscation is a vote for death, in particular the death of the African women who now compose a majority of Africa's AIDS-infected population.

Those women are in no position to apply the Pope's homiletic advice about abstinence and responsibility. They lack power over their own lives. Michael Fleshman quotes UNAIDS Deputy Director Kathleen Cravero in the United Nations magazine, Africa Renewal:

"Across the globe," she notes, "women, particularly young women, are not in a position to abstain. They are not in a position to demand faithfulness of their partners. In many cases they are in fact faithful, but are being infected by unfaithful partners." . . . [They] are often unable to compel the use of condoms by their partners or are unwilling to even raise the issue for fear of rejection or physical assault.

"A woman who is a victim of violence or the fear of violence is not going to negotiate anything, let alone fidelity or condom use," Ms. Cravero continues. "Her main objective is to get through the day without being beaten up. Real-life prevention strategies for women include reducing the levels of violence against women, protecting their property and inheritance rights and ensuring their access to education."

It is no surprise then that on Wednesday when the Pope carried his anti-condom message into Cameroon, he was greeted with outrage. Alain Fogue, a spokesman for the Cameroon Advocacy Movement for Access to Treatment (MOCPAT), asked, "Is the Pope living in the 21st century? The people will not follow what the Pope is saying. He lives in Heaven and we are on Earth."

On earth, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sound scientific reasons for recommending use of condoms to prevent AIDS transmission.

On earth, Uganda's "True Love Awaits" program is a masque of death, misrepresented as a solution on behalf of Papal guidance for which sound earthly scientific rationalization appears to be absent.

Resolution to more than display Lincoln-Obama Bible at Capitol Visitor Center

Back to the Capitol Visitor Center, with Randy Forbes (R-Va.) attempting to use the Lincoln Bible to trample the Establishment Clause.

[Thanks for Mark Silk for pointing this out to us.]

Knights Out in Navy Times

Our Southern Baptist friends didn't tell us about this.

Knights Out indeed. Navy Times says there are similar support and education groups formed by graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy, known respectively as USNA Out and Blue Alliance. Not that this casts any light on disfellowshipping.

When anonybloggers are sued for defamation

Disclousure of defendant's identity is not somehow automatic in Maryland, and may require an overarching federal statute. So argues FindLaw columnist & First Amendment specialist Julie Hilden.

Pope aggravates epidemiologist re AIDS

Driven to sarcasm by Pope Benedict XVI's pronouncement that condoms “can even increase the problem” of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani wrote for the London Times:

I've worked with HIV prevention data for more than a decade, and I have found nothing to support this except a claim by William Bennett, a former Secretary of Education in the Reagan Administration, who once pointed out that condom use was higher in communities with higher HIV prevalence - clear evidence that condoms aggravate the epidemic. Similarly, more people use treated bed nets in Lagos than in London, and Nigeria has far more malaria than the UK - clear evidence that bed nets spread malaria.

She finds "great mystery" in what she sees as the Pope's focus on compassion for HIV victims at the expense of the uninfected, a view "shared by many evangelicals." Instead:

Why can't we also show compassion to uninfected people by helping them to stay that way, using every effective tool at our disposal? That includes abstinence, which works for many Catholic priests and some teenagers. And cutting down the number of people you have sex with. And condoms.

Use condoms to prevent AIDS? The Pope versus the Centers for Disease Control

Regarding the use of latex condoms to prevent Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS):

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to journalists aboard his flight to Cameroon March 17, said:

One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem.

The solution can only be a double one: first, a humanization of sexuality, that is, a spiritual human renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another; second, a true friendship even and especially with those who suffer, and a willingness to make personal sacrifices and to be with the suffering. And these are factors that help and that result in real and visible progress.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga., said:

Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In addition, consistent and correct use of latex condoms reduces the risk of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including diseases transmitted by genital secretions, and to a lesser degree, genital ulcer diseases. Condom use may reduce the risk for genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and HPV-associated diseases, e.g., genital warts and cervical cancer.

The CDC Web page on this subject included an overview of laboratory studies, medical/scientific theory and epidemiologic data. Regarding epidemiology, the CDC concluded:

Overall, the preponderance of available epidemiologic studies have found that when used consistently and correctly, condoms are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV infection and reduce the risk of other STDs.

The Pope offered no laboratory studies, medical/scientific theory or epidemiologic data.