In honor of Sister Carol

Sr. Carol Keehan, Daughter of Charity and leader of the Catholic Health Association, earned in many ways her place among those named in the 2010 Time 100.

Her vow to serve the poor brought her to the support of health reform at a critical juncture, writing, “The time is now for health reform.” And answering the tide of false claims that health reform was a path to publicly funded abortion:

The insurance reforms will make the lives of millions more secure, and their coverage more affordable. The reforms will eventually make affordable health insurance available to 31 million of the 47 million Americans currently without coverage.

CHA has a major concern on life issues. We said there could not be any federal funding for abortions and there had to be strong funding for maternity care, especially for vulnerable women. The bill now being considered allows people buying insurance through an exchange to use federal dollars in the form of tax credits and their own dollars to buy a policy that covers their health care. If they choose a policy with abortion coverage, then they must write a separate personal check for the cost of that coverage.

Among the true things Time proclaimed:

Undeterred by her critics, she refused to back down as she fought for reforms that would include prenatal and maternity care and coverage for uninsured children. She fought for those who couldn't fight for themselves.

We turn to the Jesuit magazine America for a practical glimpse of the modesty with which she lives her vows of poverty. Michael Sean Winters writes of the president of the nation's largest not-for-profit network of health care facilities:

Sister Carol then showed me the sisters’ living quarters. She, like all the other nuns, had a small room, like a dorm room, with a small bed, a small desk and one comfortable chair, a devotional book on the table beside it. There was a closet holding half a dozen habits and blouses. This was certainly not how most hospital executives lived. Sister Carol's supreme confidence in discussing any and all aspects of health care management was matched by a complete absence of pride or protocol. You only had to watch her for five minutes as she interacted with the hospital staff to realize that she was as down-to-earth as she was competent, as solicitous of others as she was unafraid to make a decision on her own.

She was also one of some 60 leaders of women religious, representing 59,000 Catholic Sisters, who broke with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to support passage of the Senate health reform bill.

Her clear voice remains an unwavering, truthful answer to those who seek continuously to smear the law as an inroad for immorality, rather than the triumph of Christian charity that it is.

Warning: Civil religious symbols robbed of evangelical force

Regarding the Supreme Court decision about the Sunrise Rock Cross in the Mojave Preserve memorial to those killed in World War I, University of Missouri professor of law and religious liberty expert Carl H. Esbeck cautioned:

I’m not a big fan of religious symbols on government property. I believe there is a detriment because it dilutes the real purpose of the symbol. They’ve taken a symbol of the church and turned it into civil religion. This can be bad for evangelicals because when people look at a nativity scene or a Roman cross, we want people to think of the God of the Bible. If these too become simply civil religion to Americans, it makes the task of evangelism harder for Christians.

Aloha civil unions

Hawaii House of Representatives has approved civil unions and the measure goes to Republican Gov. Linda Lingle for her signature. The Honolulu Advertiser reports:

She has not said whether she would sign or veto the bill. Lingle has 45 days to decide. If she vetoes the bill, the House and Senate can come back in a one-day override session in July.

[H/T: Keori]

Faith healers and mind stealers

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was the window Uffe Schjødt used to peer into the brains of 20 Pentecostalists and 20 non-believers listening to 18 different recorded prayers.

Andy Coghlan of New Scientist writes:

The volunteers were told that six of the prayers were read by a non-Christian, six by an ordinary Christian and six by a healer. In fact, all were read by ordinary Christians.

Among the devout, parts of the brain which play important roles in vigilance and skepticism tended to be markedly less active when they were listening to prayers by someone identified as [but who was not] a Christian with healing powers.

Asked about the speakers, Pentacostalists verified the fMRI findings by giving their highest rankings to speakers identified as Christians with healing powers [note the graph at right]. Thus suggesting, as Schjødt observed, that Pentacostalists effectively handed themselves over to those merely identified as Christian healers.

Schjoedt is not suggesting, and it is unreasonable to apply this and related research to suggest, that the apparent phenomenon is somehow confined to people of faith:

These observations point to an important mechanism of authority that may facilitate charismatic influence, a mechanism which is likely to be present in other interpersonal interactions as well.

Simply that we imperil ourselves and others when we allow our protective vigilance and skepticism to be turned off.

Noah's Ark refound again

Chester Duggit, "retired panel beater from Castle Bromwich," rocked the archeological community on its heels with the discovery of Noah's Ark at Langley Hill [aerial view]:

Duggit informed us that he'd found a load of old rotting wood on Langley Hill, which when strategically placed, appear to form the outline of Noah's Ark, complete with animal cages, water feeders, a broken tropical fish tank, and a rusty supermarket trolley, which Duggit assumes was used by Noah to ferry supplies of animal feed from a local Tesco store to the Ark.

When we pointed out that Langley Hill is a long way from Mount Ararat, Duggit explained that Noah was probably an economic refugee, who set sail in the Ark in search of agency work at the nearby BSA motorcycle factory.

Langley Hill is of course in England [read the entire spoof].

More seriously and similarly credible, an evangelical Christian Hong Kong filmmaker and Turkish scientists say, ABC News reports, that they have found Noah's Ark encased in ice on Mount Ararat.

Crayola thanks tea partyites

From The Full Ginsburg we have a vision of bright, patriotic colors with which to misspell and deface:

Crayola Thanks the Tea Partiers - watch more funny videos

[H/T: Crooks and Liars]

Silsby to be tried; charges dropped agains the other 9: Updated

Southern Baptist Laura Silsby faces up to three years in Haitian prison if convicted of the remaining charge of "organization of irregular trips" under a 1980 statute. That charge was brought to bear against her in mid-March.

Other charges against her and all charges against the remaining nine Baptists have been dropped by Judge Bernard Saint-Vil, according to the Associated Press.

According to MSNBC, Judge Saint-Vil concluded that Silsby "knew she had no right to take the 33 children out of earthquake-ravaged Haiti" and she deceived the other nine by telling them she had the documents required to take the children out of Haiti.

The initial charges resulted from their attempt to take 33 children out of Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Silsby faces trial as a result of evidence of a Jan. 26 attempt by her to bus child earthquake survivors to the Dominican Republic.

As we reported earlier, Silsby was warned repeatedly prior to the arrests that her plan was illegal and would be regarded as child trafficking.

The Haitian law under which Silsby is charged restricts travel out of Haiti and was signed in 1980 by then-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. It carries a penalty of 3-6 years.

Brainquake rather than Boobquake?

Brainquake is a Facebook call for Islamic women to use a demonstration of their intellectual firepower to fight the oppression visited upon them by Iranian clerics.

Brainquake creators Negar Mottahedeh and Golbarg Bashi wrote:

Let’s create a “Brainquake” and show off our resumes, CVs, honors, prizes, accomplishments (photo evidence) because the Hojatoleslam and the Islamic Republic of Iran are afraid of women’s abilities to push for change, to thrive despite gender apartheid (Did you know that over 64% of students studying at universities in Iran are women?) Let’s honor the accomplishments of Iranian women by showing off our abilities, our creativity, our ingenuity, and our smarts on our blogs, on Wikipedia, on Twitter, on Youtube, on Flickr and all over Facebook. Remember to use hashtag #brainquake on Twitter.

They were unimpressed by the satiric efforts of Jen McCreight's Boobquake to counter the supernatural thinking of Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, who said last week:

Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes

Those following McCreight's call today are "testing" cleric's assertion by dressing less modestly than usual. Satiric and scientifically slightly silly, Boobquake has inescapable sexuality implications. As Mottahedeh and Bashi argue:

Everyday women and young girls are forced to “show off cleavage” and more in order simply to be heard, to be seen, or to advance professionally. The web is already filled with images of naked women; the porn industry thrives online and many young girls are already vulnerable to predatory abuse. Violence against women and girls has a direct correlation to the sexualisation of women and girls. The extent of their sexualisation is evident in the hundreds of replies that pour into the “Boobquake” Facebook page where women write, apologetically: "I don’t have boobs, not fair" or "Hey, I only have a C cup… ” and “what about those of us who no longer have a cleavage? they sag too low.”

World-wide, the sexualisation of women and younger girls, as young as pre-schoolers is a genuine problem and as mothers, feminists, and young women ourselves we believe that it is time to move away from this “bare it all” mentality.

You may follow the Brainquake at @negarpontifiles, and you may join it by addressing a tweet to that account.

Tangled web tightens on Ergun Caner

A plan is in the works to call for the Southern Baptist Convention to distance itself from embattled seminary president Ergun Caner.

Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, is under fire for discrepancies in his biographical information, including whether his Muslim background.

Without mentioning Caner, Wade Burleson wrote about similar issues faced by Mike Warnke, a Christian comedian whose claims about a Satanic background were disputed by the Christian magazine Cornerstone. Burleson concludes with a quote from a "wise man" who said, "A people unfamiliar with their own history are destined to repeat the mistakes of their fathers."

Fred Butler is not so subtle. He comes right out and asks if Caner is "the Mike Warnke of this generation" and sees similarities.

Both Warnke and Caner are Christian celebrities, Butler notes. While Warnke passed himself off as an "expert" in Satanism, Caner is seen as an expert on Islam. And they were both popular as speakers.

But more disturbing, Butler says, is the way their actions reflect on Christ.

Gene Clyatt says the Caner situation is "like watching a train wreck." He tells of plans for a resolution that would call for the SBC to disfellowship Caner and the seminary until he repents.

Clyatt posted a draft resolution in the comments section of his post, which he concludes by asking Caner to repent and resign.

Meanwhile, questions asked of Caner go unanswered.

A delaying tactic for GCR

A state Baptist convention executive is proposing that action on the Southern Baptist Convention's Great Commission Resurgence be delayed for a year.

David Tolliver, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, plans to ask messengers at the SBC annual meeting in June to receive the GCR Task Force report, but put off action until until 2011 so all SBC entities can do a "spiritual/financial impact study," Baptist Press reported. The Missouri convention's executive board unanimously passed a resolution favoring the delay.

Tolliver had earlier said the proposals in the task force's preliminary report would devastate the Missiouri convention. That report has also been debated by others (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10).

The task force is scheduled to release its final report May 3.

It remains to be seen how GCR supporters will respond to the suggestion that action be put off for a year. They will fear another year of scrutiny could kill the effort, but must also realize that a nasty fight on the convention floor will make a GCR practically impossible, even if the proposals pass.

Oh no, Rubio! From outLandish to uh-oh

Promoted by SBC ethics czar Richard Land as a credible 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mario Rubio is under Internal Revenue Service investigation.

The Miami Herald reports that Rubio is one of three former Florida Republican Party credit card holders being scrutinized for their alleged use of party credit cards to pay personal expenses.

Whether a full-fledged criminal investigation is merited has not been decided, and Rubio adviser Todd Harris told the Miami Herland, "There is absolutely nothing to this."

The principal effect, as Talking Points Memo suggests, is likely to be on the dynamics of Rubio's fight with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican senatorial nomination, without which Rubio becomes another Land loser.

Family Research Council Action PAC falsehoods

The Family Research Council PAC's political blitz attacks without proper regard for the facts:

FRC issued a press release yesterday announcing their "20 in 10" campaign targeting "the districts of 20 Democratic incumbents who voted for President Obama's abortion-funding health care bill." However, two of the Members FRC is targeting- Reps. Glenn Nye and Walter Minnick -- voted against health care reform. They both happen to be in very tight races for re-election, though. The Cook Political Report rates both contests as tossups.

Charges, reports, upside-down leadership and belated promises

Brazilian Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa was detained Sunday after a congressional hearing provoked by television broadcast of a video which was secretly filmed in January, 2009, by a 21-year-old man who charges Barbosa had abused him since age 12.

In Chile, the Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday said 20 confirmed or alleged cases of child abuse by priests:

Monsignor Alejandro Goic, head of Chile's bishops' conference, said that in five of the cases sentences had been imposed, in another five trials were still under way, and in 10 others priests had been absolved or results were pending.

A Mexican citizen has filed suit against US cardinal Roger Mahony and Mexican cardinal Norberto Rivera for intentionally covering up a pattern of child sex abuse by former priest Nicolas Aguilar. AFP reports:

The case claims that Aguilar demonstrated a pattern of sexual abuse of minors that was known to Rivera, who nonetheless authorized his transfer to the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1987. The suit alleges Rivera sent Mahony a letter detailing Aguilar's "homosexual problems," including information about alleged child sex abuse, but the Mexican priest was allowed to remain in his office.

Canon lawyer and a civil lawyer Thomas J. Paprocki, who the Associated Press reports once blamed the devil for sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church and proposed shielding the church from legal damages, was appointed the new bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Rome at his weekly audience, promised "action" on abuse by priests.

Papal fall guy

Archbishop of Munich Joseph Ratzinge, now Pope Benedict XVI, was it seems not blameless in the case of pedophile priest Peter H. Conny Neumann of Der Spiegel wrote on Monday:

Catholic Church officials assigned full responsibility for the reassignment of a known pedophilic priest to retired vicar general Gerhard Gruber who served as deputy to Joseph Ratzinger when he was archbishop. Gruber is now challenging a Church statement that he "acted on his own authority," a claim he says was never discussed with him.

Paddy Agnew, Derek Scally and Patsy McGarry of the Irish Times wrote:

A former vicar-general in the archdiocese of Munich has claimed that he was pressurised last month into taking the blame for a mistake made 30 years ago by the then Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), concerning the case of a paedophile priest.

According to Der Speigel:

Peter H., a vicar from the western German city of Essen who had molested boys on several occasions, was sent to Munich in 1980, where he was assigned to work as a pastor again. As a result, he was able to abuse even more boys. The archbishop and chairman of the diocesan council, which approved H.'s appointment, was Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Ratzinger also chaired a meeting on Jan. 15, 1980, in which the pedophile priest's living arrangements and therapy were discussed. He must have been familiar with H.'s criminal past. Because of this, the diocese has, in recent weeks, left no stone unturned in its effort to explain why the current pope could not be held accountable for H.'s continued service in his diocese.

Indeed.

Haiti has not dropped charges against 9 Baptists or Silsby

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said today that the legal fate of Laura Silsby, who is still in jail, and that of the nine who have been freeded has not been decided, the Associated Press reported a short time ago.

Haitian Attorney General Joseph Manes said earlier that all of the charges stand, CNN reporte, "until the examining judge rendered his final decision on whether to proceed to trial."

U.S. Sen Jim Risch, R-Idaho, whose staff said Thursday that charges had been dropped, responded:

We are standing by what we were orginally told by the State Department. We did, however, ask the State Department to reconfirm for us, and we are waiting that response.

Clearly, the senator's staff has been overruled.

Is Rubio for president outLandish?

After making a scandal of himself in opposition to health reform, Southern Baptist Convention ethics czar Richard Land has in an interview with Politico promoted former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio as a credible 2012 Republican presidential nominee who has "more experience than Obama had."

The gimlet-eyed journalists at PolitiFact poured that outLandish claim through their fact-filter and emerged with a "barely true." Even that conclusion is a stretch. It assumes, for example, Rubio is elected to the U.S. Senate and serves two years -- although he has yet to win the Aug. 24 Fla. Republican primary.

Sarah Palin benefitted from Land's dubious blessings. In 2008 he sang her praises as a potential vice presidential nominee in an interview with Brian Goldsmith of CBS, mentioning Southern Baptist Mike Huckabee only as an afterthought.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential nominee and after a brief popularity bubble, she helped sink his candidacy. Then, Palin the public servant went home to abandon the governorship of Alaska.

Palin's former prospective son-in-law Levi Johnson said at the time that she left in pursuit of cash. The dollar figures have since born Johnson out. Matthew Mosk of ABC News reported:

Since leaving office at the end of July 2009, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has brought in at least 100 times her old salary – a haul now estimated at more than $12 million -- through television and book deals and a heavy schedule of speaking appearances worth five and six figures.

Along the way health reform, in which Land and Palin both invested so much vilifying energy and who contributed to the "death panels" howler which copped a "lie of the year" award, passed.

When Land comes to anoint you, candidate Rubio, if you're really interested in public service, then for heaven's sake outrun him.

Mohammad Kahn's request for answers re Ergun Caner

Mohammad Kahn, whose mocking videos have done a great deal to expose the hypocrisy of Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, has a few questions. Well-known Southern Baptist pastor Wade Burleson of Enid, Oklahoma, offered a forum in which to answer them. We perked our coffee here today using heat radiated by the resulting exchanges.

You may wish to watch one of the videos before visiting the steaming stream of comments:

National Day of Prayer declared unconstitutional (as expected)

It was as inevitable as sunrise that a federal judge would declare the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. Undeterred by theocratic pleas, U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin applied clear logic. As Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:

In her ruling, Crabb acknowledged the deep divide over the role of religion in America and the complex and often contradictory jurisprudence on the separation of church and state.

She said the federal statute ordering the president to make the annual proclamation serves no secular purpose, casts nonbelievers as outsiders and goes beyond the mere acknowledgment of religion to encouraging a practice best left to individual conscience.

Cobb said her ruling was not an attack on prayer but an effort to ensure religious liberty.

"The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy," she said in the decision.

Judge Crabb said:

Recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge, or practice rune magic.

Haiti drops all charges against nine of the 10 Baptist volunteers

Charges have been dropped against nine of the 10 Baptist missionaries who were arrested while trying to bus 33 child earthquake survivors from Haiti to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29, a spokesman for Idaho Sen. Jim Risch told CNN, although the expedition's leader, Laura Silsby, is still in Haitian jail.

Eight of the original 10 were released in mid-February and Charisa Coulter was released on March 8.

The Risch spokesman said examining Judge Bernard Saint-Vil has completed his investigation of Silsby and it has been submitted to the prosecutor, who is expected to return his recommendation with regard to Silsby within a week.

In mid-March when bail for Silsby was rejected, Saint-Vil's investigation turned upon whether there had been a Jan. 26 attempt by Silsby to bus child earthquake survivors out of Haiti. At that time, Saint-Vil brought the additional charge of "organization of irregular trips" against all 10 Americans, The Laredo Sun reported, "who were arrested in January, even though nine of them have been released on bail and have left the country."

The prosecutor is now expected to return a recommendation within a week. He may recommend additional investigation or a finding of "guilty" or "not guilty," U.S. State Department officials said.

Paul Thompson, one of those originally charged and pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, told Baptist Press last week that Silsby "has been a consistent minister to the other inmates" during her time in jail, sharing Creole Bibles. He also said, "The church in Haiti continues to visit Laura on a regular basis, bringing her food, water and other necessary items," Thompson said, adding she has had enough water and food to share with fellow inmates. Haitian law requires that prisoners be fed by outsiders, he explained.

It is a cautionary case. Silsby was warned repeatedly during the days preceding arrest of the 10 that she was headed for legal difficulty. There was not one orphan, the Associated Press determined, among the 33 children the group was attempting to transport to the Dominican Republic.

The children have apparently all been restored to their families. UNICEF and others agree that an approach which keeps families together when that is possible, reduces the likelihood of inadvertent harm and helps make it more difficult for child traffickers to take advantage of a natural catastrophe to prey on children.

Was he or wasn't he a Muslim?

The president of a Baptist seminary is under fire for discrepancies in his biographical information, including his Muslim background.

Baptist blogger Wade Burleson called attention Wednesday (April 14) to the dispute over Ergun Caner's bio, citing posts in other blogs, especially FBC Jax Watchdog, who has called for Caner to resign as president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

On Monday (April 12), Burleson wondered why Southern Baptist leaders were quiet about Caner's troubles and also wrote about the issue in a post about the need to question leadership.

Caner and his brother, Emir, have close ties to Paige Patterson, former SBC president and now president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Caner previously apologized for calling the head of the International Mission Board a liar.

Jason Smathers says Caner is a "real ex-Muslim" in a post on the SBC Voices blog, but still calls on Caner to explain contradictions in his testimony, speeches and biography.

Matt Svovoda sums up the Caner situation in a separate post on the SBC Voices blog, listing several specific areas of concern.

The Watchdog doesn't think much of Caner's contention in February that he "never intentionally misled anyone." The statement Caner released then can be found on the SBC Today web site, but the link that web site uses to the original statement is broken.

Clearly, a full explanation of the Caner discrepancies is needed.

Top British Catholic rejects Cardinal Bertone's homosexual/pedophilia claim

Father Marcus Stock, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, in a remarkable departure from church protocol, rebutted Cardinal Tarcisio Berton's claims, saying Thursday that research shows child sex abuse is "not a question" of sexual orientation.

Skeptical cautions for the faithful

British skeptic David Flint cautions the faithful that some religious explanations are not benign. No one's faith need be shaken by contemplating the points he raises. For example:

I accept that such words may bring comfort to some people and seem to do no harm. There are other religious "meanings" that certainly do, however. It's little more than 150 years since Dr Robert Brown declared in the Lancet that women should suffer in childbirth; painless delivery was, he thought, an invention of the devil. It's only nine years since prominent American evangelicals blamed "the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" for 9/11 [The Rev. Jerry Falwell apologized]. And it's only four years since Australia's leading Muslim cleric blamed rape victims for rape – on the grounds that they wouldn't have been raped had they stayed home. These stories (Karen Armstrong's word) try to reconcile us to evil. They matter.

Smoke enough around Pope Benedict, but a gun?

The case of Stephen Kiesle raises questions about whether and if so why then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger delayed for years the action requested to protect young Catholics from a predator.

Michael Sean Winters, writing for the Jesuit magazine American, excoriates the secular press and defends Vatican handling of the case in which "the priest who tied up young boys and molested them sexually and whose request to be defrocked came before" Ratzinger.

Grant Gallicho at dotCommonweal strips Winters' defense to the bone today. At the heart of the scandal, Gallicho finds damning questions:

So, why shouldn’t we raise questions about Rome’s role in the Kiesle case? Because the local bishop didn’t do enough, and besides Ratzinger didn’t receive a sufficiently detailed description of the priest’s crimes, and besides the process didn’t engage the proper canonical technicality? But we don’t have to choose to be troubled either by the local bishop or Ratzinger. We need not view the [Ratziner-headed Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith] CDF’s shortcomings in indirect proportion to the local bishop’s, so that the CDF is absolved to the extent that the local bishop failed. The same pattern of argument emerged in the Murphy case. “What about Weakland’s responsibility?” Benedict’s defenders asked, as though that swept away the questions that remained about the pope’s role in the case. Yes, why didn’t Weakland restrict Murphy sooner? Why did he wait three years after learning of Murphy’s egregious sins before sending the case to Rome? Why didn’t Kiesle’s bishop restrict him sooner? But they appealed to Rome, so: why did the CDF wait three years after receiving all the information it requested from Cummins to reply? Why was a Vatican official unable to grasp what the Kiesle’s superiors meant when they gently referred to his abuse of minors, even going so far as mentioning his criminal conviction? Why wasn’t the conviction determinative?

And then there are the larger questions: Why was Ratzinger on this case? Benedict’s defenders have claimed that he shouldn’t be blamed for Rome’s failure to address abuse claims promptly because he wasn’t officially responsible for such cases until 2001. Obviously that isn’t the whole story. Why not? Why was Ratzinger not really engaged in the Murphy case, which involved the abuse of as many as 200 deaf boys, but he was directly responsible for the decision not to release Kiesle from the full obligations of the clerical state? When Kiesle was finally fully laicized at age forty, whose decision was that? Ratzinger’s?

Certainly smoke enough to imply a gun as we struggle with questions Benedict could answer but does not.

Hardball Religion's sequel

Pastor Wade Burleson turned a slimy anonymous email into a touching open letter on balancing faithful forgiveness and resolve.

Should Cardinal Sodano resign for entanglement with Marcial Maciel?

Austen Invereigh argues in America, the Jesuit Catholic weekly, that corruption by Marcial Maciel Degollado requires the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, "the all-powerful secretary of state under John Paul II and now Dean of the College of Cardinals."

Analyzing Jason Berry's two-part [1, 2] investigation of Maciel - the womanizing, drug-abusing pedophile founder of the Legionaries of Christ (LC) - Invereigh concludes that Sodano's sponsorship and protection were bought by Maciel.

Berry's investigation certainly supports that conclusion. A key passage from Berry's longer, darkly fascinating account of Sodano's entanglement with Maciel:

Back to Rome in 1989, Sodano, in preparing to become secretary of state, took English lessons at a Legion center in Dublin, Ireland. He vacationed at a Legion villa in Southern Italy. An honored guest at Legion dinners and banquets, Sodano became Maciel's biggest supporter. Glenn Favreau, a Washington, D.C., attorney and former Legionary in Rome, said: "Sodano intervened with Italian officials to get zoning variances to build the university" on a wooded plateau of western Rome. Maciel hired Sodano's nephew, Andrea Sodano, as a building consultant. Pontificial Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum is the name of the complex.

But Legionaries overseeing the project complained to Maciel that Andrea Sodano's work was late and poorly done; they were reluctant to pay his invoices. To them, Maciel yelled: "Pay him! You pay him!"

Andrea Sodano was paid.

With the Apostolic Visitation of LC at an end, Invereigh argues, Sodano's "resignation would be the best way of repudiating the sordid manner in which Maciel was protected in Rome for so many years."

Cardinal Bertone's homosexuality/pedophilia myth

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, had it exactly wrong when he asserted Monday that psychologists have shown "that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia."

Joe Kort, a psychotherapist and gay and lesbian studies adjunct professor at Wayne State University wrote in Psychology Today:

One frequently quoted researchers on the topic of homosexuality and child molestation, Gregory Herek, a research psychologist at the University of California, defines pedophilia as "a psychosexual disorder characterized by a preference for prepubescent children as sexual partners, which may or may not be acted upon." He defines child sexual abuse as "actual sexual contact between an adult and someone who has not reached the legal age of consent." Not all pedophiles actually molest children, he points out. A pedophile may be attracted to children, but never actually engage in sexual contact with them. Quite often, pedophiles never develop a sexual orientation toward other adults.

Herek points out that child molestation and child sexual abuse refer to "actions," without implying any "particular psychological makeup or motive on the part of the perpetrator." In other words, not all incidents of child sexual abuse are perpetrated by pedophiles. Pedophilia can be viewed as a kind of sexual fetish, wherein the person requires the mental image of a child--not necessarily a flesh-and-blood child--to achieve sexual gratification. Rarely does a pedophile experience sexual desire for adults of either gender. They usually don't identify as homosexual - the majority identify as heterosexual, even those who abuse children of the same gender.

Herek has addressed the issue directly writing in Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation:

In recent years, antigay activists have routinely asserted that gay people are child molesters. This argument was often made in debates about the Boy Scouts of America's policy to exclude gay scouts and scoutmasters. More recently, in the wake of Rep. Mark Foley's resignation from the US House of Representatives in 2006, antigay activists and their supporters seized on the scandal to revive this canard.

It has also been raised in connection with scandals about the Catholic church's attempts to cover up the abuse of young males by priests. Indeed, the Vatican's early response to the 2002 revelations of widespread Church cover-ups of sexual abuse by priests was to declare that gay men should not be ordained.

Cardinal Bertone is not only wrong but also fostering an invidious myth which in testament to the wisdom of the average American, has fallen into disfavor in this countryl. As Herek explained:

The number of Americans who believe the myth that gay people are child molesters has declined substantially. In a 1970 national survey, more than 70% of respondents agreed with the assertions that "Homosexuals are dangerous as teachers or youth leaders because they try to get sexually involved with children" or that "Homosexuals try to play sexually with children if they cannot get an adult partner."

By contrast, in a 1999 national poll, the belief that most gay men are likely to molest or abuse children was endorsed by only 19% of heterosexual men and 10% of heterosexual women. Even fewer – 9% of men and 6% of women – regarded most lesbians as child molesters.

Consistent with these findings, Gallup polls have found that an increasing number of Americans would allow gay people to be elementary school teachers. For example, the proportion was 54% in 2005, compared to 27% in 1977.

The degree to which the church's problems and the victims' pain are made worse by celibacy is at worst unclear.

It is clear that by peddling an invidious myth in an attempt to somehow defuse the sexual scandal in which the Roman Catholic Church is awash, Cardinal Bertone has brought additional dishonor on all involved.

Arrest the pope? Not exactly

That Richard Dawkins/Christopher Hitchens arrest-the-pope campaign we referred to earler was, Dawkins suggestes, not altogether as advertised. Dawkins writes:

Needless to say, I did NOT say "I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI" or anything so personally grandiloquent. You have to remember that The Sunday Times is a Murdoch newspaper, and that all newspapers follow the odd custom of entrusting headlines to a sub-editor, not the author of the article itself.

What I DID say to Marc Horne when he telephoned me out of the blue, and I repeat it here, is that I am whole-heartedly behind the initiative by Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens to mount a legal challenge to the Pope's proposed visit to Britain. Beyond that, I declined to comment to Marc Horme, other than to refer him to my 'Ratzinger is the Perfect Pope' article.

[H/T: Andrew Sullivan]

Statute of limitations on child sex abuse (the pain doesn't stop)?

Vatican guidelines of clerical sex abuse at last clearly require church-wide obedience to civil law, the New York Times reported today, while Connecticut bishops fight to limit the coverage of that civil law.

In Canada, there is no statute of limitations after which civil or criminal liability expires. As Child Abuse Effects explains:

When it comes to child abuse, there is no statute of limitations in Canada. Whether the child abuse occurred 5 minutes ago, 5 weeks ago, 5 or 50 years ago, an offender can still be charged. Nowhere is the latter more evident than with our Aboriginal people: more than 7,000 lawsuits have been filed against the Canadian Federal Government claiming sexual, physical and cultural abuse suffered at Residential Schools.

Connecticut bishops don't want their state to emulate Canada, out of concern for the church as a financial entity. As NBC Connecticut reported, "Church officials say it could have devastating financial effects and could result in claims that are more than 50-years old which would be impossible to defend in court. Currently, victims have until their 48th birthday to file lawsuits."

Impossible to defend? No. The burden of proof cuts both ways. So as Mark Silk observed with considerable irony, we're left with the money bishops still don't want to spend healing victims.

Hear one victim

Arthur Budzinski, one of the victims of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, describes the pain of having been abused as a youth at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin:

Fired for acknowledging evolutionary science: Bruce Waltke

Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) Professor Bruce Waltke was forced to resign because he observed that faith and evolutionary science are compatible in a video in which he said, according to a reconstruction of his remarks by USA Today:

If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult ... some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God's Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness.

His remarks had to be reconstructed because Waltke was apparently driven by the "culture of fear" which pervades the evangelical community to ask the BioLogos Foundation, which had posted the video as part of their advocacy of science's compatibility with faith, to take it down. And they did, yet Waltke was still compelled to resign.

Neither the video nor its contents should have come as a surprise. It wasn't Waltke's first run at the subject [1, 2]

The reaction is a surprise in part because Waltke isn't otherwise a liberal, as Tony Cartledge explains:

Waltke is by most measures a very conservative scholar. Though he accepts a theistic version of evolution (acknowledging the reality of evolution while trusting that God guided the process), he also believes in an inerrant Bible and a literal Adam and Eve. But even that is too big a stretch for the most ardent inerrantists, leading to RTS's over-the-top response.

Perhaps Waltke's use of the word "cult" was the step too far.

If so, the reaction to his comments gives it legs.

[H/T: Tony Cartledge]

Deist and cradle Catholic welcomes 'arrest the pope' campaign

Deist and cradle Catholic Libby Purves welcomes the Richard Dawkins/Christopher Hitchens arrest-the-pope campaign. "Not just because of what bad priests did and bad bishops hid," Purves writes:

What troubles me even more is that in doing this, church authorities repeatedly dragged other people into collusion and thus into what — in more convenient circumstances — they themselves would call sin. Young victims, particularly of sexual crimes, badly need to know that they are absolutely accepted as innocents betrayed: the crime is not their burden and does not define them. One of the ways in which societies achieve this is by openly punishing the perpetrator. Too often, that didn’t happen. In some of the most infamous Irish cases the children who suffered were sworn to secrecy, with all the dusty, incense-smelling, habit-rustling impressiveness of canonical process. They were made to collaborate in the shame, by men round whose necks hung the cross they had been taught to revere.

Read the entire piece here.

The majority (wants new) rules

Les Puryear, a pastor who has championed the cause of small churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, has initiated a move to give those churches a louder voice in convention matters.

Puryear, who ran for SBC president two years ago, started a web site called "the SBC Majority Initiative."

"Prior to the SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL, we will be announcing SBC Majority Initiative candidates for all major offices," the web site says. "Also, we will be unveiling a motion which will be made in Orlando for a bylaw change which will effect greater representation of the SBC Majority on SBC entities boards."

Puryear, who has previously questioned the wisdom of of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force emphasis church planting at the expense of existing churches, is pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church in North Carolina. Figures on the web site demonstrate the difficulty his movement faces.

The web site says SBC presidents come from churches with attendance in the top 1.4 percent, while 76 percent of trustees are from churches with attendance in the top 16.6 percent.

Clearly, the SBC rewards large churches. That's not surprising in an organization that compiles its statistics in an "annual church profile" like last year's showing a drop in membership. Perhaps, however, with signs pointing to denominational decline Southern Baptists will realize that higher numbers don't necessarily equal God's blessing.

If so, Puryear's efforts might not be wasted.

What did the Rev. Kiesle do while Cardinal Ratzinger delayed?

The Rev. Stephen Kiesle remained a priest for years while then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger "bucked pleas from the Oakland, Calif., diocese to defrock him." The Associated press has obtained a copy of 1985 letter signed by Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), delaying a decision for "the good of the Universal Church."

The Contra Costa Times reports:

The letter came five years after Kiesle himself requested removal from the priesthood, and the diocese recommended it to the Vatican, following Kiesle's no-contest plea in 1978 on a misdemeanor charge for tying up and molesting two preteen boys in the rectory of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Union City.

Kiesle, now 63 and recently released from prison, lives in the Rossmoor senior community in Walnut Creek and wears a Global Positioning System anklet. He is on parole for a different sex crime against a child. A self-described "Pied Piper of the neighborhood," he is perhaps the most notorious among dozens of East Bay clergy accused of sex abuse over decades.

Numerous accusers have claimed he abused them as children at Our Lady of the Rosary, Santa Paula (now Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Fremont and Saint Joseph in Pinole, where he served in the mid-1970s, then returned in 1985 to volunteer as a youth minister.

What comprehensible "good" was there in delay of a decision on this?

[H/T: Eric Bugyis]

About that 'smear' campaign directed at the Pope

Mary Kate Cary, former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, writes in U.S. News & World Report:

For the hierarchy of the church to imply that the controversy is a "challenge" coming from outside the community of believers is just wrong. The people who are most worked up about the charges of sexual abuse are not the so-called enemies of the church, but the young Catholic victims and their families, the lay parishioners and parents of children being raised in the church, and the good priests whose reputations are being tarred by this. At another Easter Mass in my neighborhood, at a parish so full of young families they have overflow seating in the gym every Sunday, the monsignor got a standing ovation after saying he thought the children would have been better protected if women had been in the leadership of the church in the first place, and that the bishops involved should resign. I've never seen a standing ovation in church in my life. It's the community of believers who are as mad as hell. Really, it's heartbreaking.

'Once a rising star in denominational life' Dwight McKissic

Ouch? Regarding African-American Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic's April 7 excoriation of the Southern Baptist Convention for failure to live up to its 1995 renunciation of racism and slavery, Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press wrote:

McKissic, once a rising star in denominational life until he disagreed publicly with influential leaders over a decision to stop appointing missionaries that use a "private prayer language," said most systemic, institutional and individual racism in SBC life is "passive, not intentional."

Well, he didn't call McKissic a "has been," even if the summation was lame. That disagreement was a full-bore, denominational uproar in which McKissic's stand played an important role. Most spectacularly, in August of 2006, McKissic gave a sermon at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel in which he discussed his use of private prayer languages. Seminary president Paige Patterson did not have the sermon posted on the school website. Debate & turmoil. In June of 2007, McKissic resigned from the seminary board of trustees.

Ok. Was Enid, Oklahoma, pastor Wade Burleson also "once a rising star" until he disagreed publicly with influential leaders over private prayer languages (and other matters)? Specifically associated with his role as a member of the International Mission Board, from which he resigned in 2008 -- an experience he documents in "Hardball Religion: Feeling the Fury of Fundamentalism."

Maybe not the right characterization, but the official SBC reaction to McKissic is still dismissive. Allen writes that "Sing Oldham, vice president for convention relations at the SBC Executive Committee" said that "a motion referred by the convention in 2009 to study ways to more actively involve ethnic churches and ethnic leaders in serving the needs of the SBC." And McKissic's blog post "will certainly be a resource."

We'll see.

Sexual abuse added to child porn allegations against former Bishop Lahey

Former prominent Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey, who last August brokered a $15-million settlement for victims of sexual abuse by priests of the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia and who was already facing child porn charges, is being accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual abuse by a former resident of the infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's.

Lahey was arrested in September for possessing and importing child pornography. At the time, Ronald Martin, who launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others who were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish and who saw Lahey frequently while negotiating the settlement, said the incident “was the ultimate revictimization for every single one of us.”

Lawyer John McKiggan explains that a core goal of the Antigonish settlement was to compensate abuse survivors while avoiding the revictimization which inevitably occurs in a public trial.

The Roman Catholic Church in Canada sought last year to minimize the issue, but Halifax Archbishop Anthony Mancini has set a somewhat different tone, saying last week:

We have been hit by a violent wind of protest and criticism, and not without cause.

The most recent claim against Lahey involves abuse which is alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s, "before Lahey rose through the ranks in the Roman Catholic Church, eventually becoming a bishop," CBC reported.

[H/T: Andrew Sullivan]

Court allows FBC Jax Watchdog case against Assistant State Attorney to proceed

A Florida federal district court refused this week to dismiss the claim by blogger Tom Rich (FBC Jax Watchdog) that Assistant Fla. State Attorney Stephen Siegel violated Rich's right to speak anonymously, and trampled on the Establishment Clause because defendants had no secular purpose for their actions.

The lawsuit alleges Siegel issued subpoenas that helped Jacksonville police officer Robert Hinson -- who was a member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonvilla, Fla. -- identify Rich when there was no evidence of criminal activity.

Dismissed in the same action were civil claims against State Attorney Angela Corey for her office’s role.

Rich’s claims against the police officer and against First Baptist were unaffected because they weren’t involved in this motion to dismiss.

Emerging standards for unmasking anonymous bloggers were certainly not met in Rich's case.

To prevail in this instance, Rich must now prove the violations he alleges. But even at this juncture, the case is a caution for those who would twist legal authority to unmask an anonymous blogger without compelling legal justification. Abuse of power has a price.

[H/T: Religion Clause]

SBC racism, sexism and repentance

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) actions toward women "fall short of Biblical standards (Acts 2:17-18)" and require public apology, prominent Southern Baptist and African-American pastor Dwight McKissic argues on April 1 -- an apology like the SBC's 1995 renunciation of racism and slavery.

There are good historic and modern reasons for such an apology:

The SBC was formed in 1845 when women were not allowed to vote in the vast majority of SBC churches. Consequently, women by and large did not attempt to register as delegates/messengers to the annual SBC meetings. In 1885 women were excluded by the vote of the convention from being seated as delegates. The convention voted to only accept “brethren” as representatives from churches to the annual meetings. Josiah Lawrence made a motion to seat women as “messengers” in 1917 and the vote actually occurred in 1918 with overwhelming approval.

McKissic

McKissic also cites well-known examples of modern Southern Baptist mistreatment of women [1, 2, 3], finally weaving mistreatment of Southern Baptist women, SBC racism and the sexual abuse of SBC women together around the case of now-imprisoned former pastor Daryl Gilyard.

Results of the earlier renunciation suggest that apology to SBC women, while clearly merited, would accomplish little of measurable value. For as McKissic demonstrates via damning examples in his April 7 blog, there are still serious problems:

• There was no black representation on the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. McKissic brought that to the attention of Frank Page at the Louisville Airport in June ’09. Page called SBC President Johnny Hunt, who corrected the oversight, which McKissic calls "symptomatic of the problem."
• "Ten years after the ’95 racial reconciliation and apology statement, there has not been one African American appointed to a position as the Chief Executive Officer of a SBC entity," although there are three vacant spots.
• At the Southern Baptists of Texas Evangelism Conference in February, SBC Evangelist Jimmy Davis "communicated that President Obama was not a Christian" and "encouraged the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention to 'pray that God providentially remove President Obama from office.'" Yes, something about the image of all of those Anglo Southern Baptists kneeling in prayer against Obama does seem racist.
• Baptist Deacon Bill Fortner in a blog entry described President Obama as "the Tragic Negro," a characterization which McKissic accurately characterized as "clearly racist and beyond the pale."
• An Anglo SBC church in Louisiana refused to let Anglo missionaries who had adopted children of color speak in their church because of the color of their children.
• "A Black Baptist Arkansas Pastor who disassociated himself from the SBC in recent years" explained to McKissic that during a missions trip to Mexico with an Anglo Southern Baptist congregation, "one of the Anglo mission team members use racial slurs" for which, when confronted, he did not apologize.
• Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, preached a sermon at First Baptist of Jacksonville, FL., in which he said to "approving laughter" that Black churches take up “twelve offerings.” Caner went on to relate:

  "… you go to a Black church gentlemen, you are not going to have on a blue suit, you are going to have blue shoes to match, and your handkerchief is going to match your tie, and your whole outfit is going to match your car. It’s BEAUTIFUL. And ladies: when we talk about black church, we’re talkin’ about hats. And I’m not just talkin’ Easter hats as some of you may wear, I’m talkin’ ’bout satellite dish hats. [laughter]. Big enough to receive a signal, with a curtain rod goin’ down the front that you can just pull the curtain across."

How the SBC can accomplish a resurgence while driving away people of color and, woman by woman as well as church by church, spiritually inspired women, is unclear. Thus McKissic suggests changing the name of the organization to "The International Baptist Convention" to create the opportunity for "a new start in a new millennium." Which might work almost as well as the 1995 renunciation of racism and slavery (the one he dissects by recent example).

EC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori re Glasspool

Episcopal Church U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has written her fellow Anglican primates worldwide regarding the planned May 15 consecration of bishop-elect Mary Glasspool, an openly gay partnered priest.

She encourages further dialog, explains that related issues will be further considered and, apparently responding indirectly to objections from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Primate of Ireland Archbishop Alan Harper, conservative British Anglicans and others, says:

Know that this is not the decision of one person, or a small group of people. It represents the mind of a majority of elected leaders in The Episcopal Church, lay, clergy, and bishops, who have carefully considered the opinions and feelings of other members of the Anglican Communion as well as the decades-long conversations within this Church. It represents a prayerful and thoughtful decision, made in good faith that this Church is ‘working out its salvation in fear and trembling, believing that God is at work in us’ (Philippians 2:12-13).

[HT: The Lead]

Here they went again

Accused of molesting two girls in the United States, Father Joseph Jeyapaul, has for the last five years worked for Catholic schools in India:

Bishop Victor Balke of Minnesota first reported the allegations to the Vatican and the priest's Indian bishop in 2005, according to a letter released by a lawyer representing the victim in a civil lawsuit.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson "presented documents from the Crookston, Minnesota, diocese and from local police that accuse Father Joseph Jeyapaul of molesting two teenage girls starting six years ago:"

A girl who was considering becoming a nun was threatened by Jeyapaul if she did not accept his advances, according to the documents. They say he arranged to be with his victims alone -- usually at his rectory.

Anderson says the bishop and the Vatican kept the problem a secret, permitting the priest to flee to India, to protect the reputation of the church.

Remind you of anything?

Great Repentance Resurgence (GRR) hits a wall

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) repentance of “systemic, institutionalized, and historic negative attitudes toward women, races, and dissenters” called for by prominent African-American pastor SBC pastor Dwight McKissic was to involve electing a black SBC president this summer. That was to be Fred Luter, senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who doesn't plan to run [Associated Baptist Press]:

Luter

Luter said in an e-mail April 3 that McKissic isn't the only person who has suggested that he seek office, but he has not agreed to be nominated. "There are a lot of guys throughout the convention who would like to see that happen," Luter said. "I truly appreciate their trust and confidence in me, however that will not happen this year."

GRR plan B? Or maybe move right on to debate over the Great Commission Resurgence?

The Guardian gets Williams, even if the Catholic hierarchy doesn't

Skipping the polling data we reviewed the Guardian in an editorial agrees with us [our bold face]:

This morning the BBC will broadcast [Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams] recorded remarks on the Irish Catholic crisis, in which he says, quite in passing, that the church there has "lost all credibility". This perception is so widely shared, and so close to the truth, that to say it out loud has provoked an enormous row. After the interview was made public, Williams produced an uncharacteristically political apology – which is to say that he regrets the offence he has caused, but not the offending remark; the Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, could be heard on Radio 4 yesterday biting back the word "insult" when he was asked about it.

The Lead tipped us off about how understandable William's remark was. As the Guardian observed:

No one can blame Williams for pointing this out, nor indeed for getting his own back for years of patronising comments and aggressive behaviour from the Roman church. The official Vatican observer at the last Lambeth conference appeared to say that the Anglican communion was suffering from Parkinson's disease. Pope Benedict has personally encouraged the schism in the Anglican churches over homosexuality and most recently announced, to the consternation of even his own church here, a scheme to allow the Anglican opponents of women priests to convert in groups.

Both the conflict, and absent clear-eyed Catholic confrontation with the real circumstances, the decline to which Williams correctly alluded will almost inevitably continue.

The 'New Atheists' shovel sand against the tide

Madeleine Bunting writes:

But perhaps New Atheism's publishing success is a case of winning a battle and losing the war. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge point out in God is Back that the main religions are currently experiencing massive expansion across most of the world. One of the biggest drivers of growth is China; by 2050 it could be the biggest Muslim nation, and the biggest Christian one. What numerous countries are now demonstrating from the US to Asia, from Africa to the Middle East and Latin America, is that modernisation, far from entailing secularisation, is actually leading to increased and intensified forms of religiosity. According to Micklethwait and Wooldridge, the future across most of the globe is going to be very religious.

To the sceptical European, this is a lonely and unintelligible prospect. So, scanning my stuffed bookshelf, which of these defences of God are going to help explain this enduring appeal? Start with Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth: "we are meaning-seeking creatures" who "invent stories to place our lives in a larger setting … and give us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life has meaning and value". That helps explain why the bestselling religious book in the US is The Purpose Driven Life (the first chapters of which are published on the net as What on Earth Am I Here For?). The faithful are not mugging up on critiques of reason for an argument with New Atheism, but turning to religion to offer meaning and purpose.

Read the entire piece here.

‘They want to make it look like we are dumb morons'

Don McLeroy, the well-known dentist and member of the Texas Board of Education was asked by the London Globe and Mail:

Speaking of Biblical principles, didn't your committee delete reference to Thomas Jefferson, who actually talked about the separation of church and state?

McLeroy answered:

That's not true. Look, down here there are these groups from the far left. Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons. They're very effective, dadgummit. Jefferson's name was taken out of a list of Enlightenment philosophers in world history because he didn't fit the period of the Enlightenment.

We've added a few links to his comment just to suggest that it may not be "they."

McLeroy has been pushing back, as well as admitting the Jefferson/Enlightenment decision was rash.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano's cautionary speech and history

Mark Silk offers a cautionary analysis of "the unprecedented speech by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, prior to Pope Benedict's Easter address."

It was to Sodano that George W. Bush went in 2004 seeking more enthusiastic polical support from Catholic bishops in the U.S. Bush reportedly complained that, "Not all the American bishops are with me."

Silk neatly summarizes Sodano's extraordinary career, observing that he is "known as the key Vatican defender of the Church's most exalted sex abusers: Marcial Maciel Delgollado (founder of the Legionaries of Christ) and Cardinal Hans Hermann Wilhelm Groër, the archbishop of Vienna." And now he's taking a lead role in dealing with the pope's handling of sex-abuse allegations against priests?

Read the entire piece here.

Those children ...

Paddy Doyle led us to this victim's view of the historic lack of Roman Catholic clergy concern for the afflicted children:

The reason why the church covered up the abuse and moved priests about is because they did not blame the priests, they blamed the children. With this knowledge observe the reaction of church authorities. They look as if they would like to say it, but can’t.

And that is it. They can’t because they believe society is now over-sentimental about children and they would not be understood. This was confirmed to me when I met an old priest tucked away in a nursing home despite the fact he was not unwell.

At one point he suggested Cardinal Ó Fiaich should be canonised, I rejected the idea, pointing out he was involved in the cover-up of abuse.

The old priest said: “People should forgive him, after all we are prepared to forgive the children.” I asked: “Forgive the children what?”

He replied: “Their share of the blame.” Of course in that moment I realised he was himself an abuser, hidden away there.

The complete piece was originally published in the Irish Times under the headline, "Church blames Devil-inspired children."

Rise up ...

Why is she still stubbornly a Catholic?

Donna Freitas has scars, which she tells us:

But as with other victims I know what it is like to have my faith in the priesthood terribly violated, and for that violation to nearly destroy me. My experience felt like it went on forever. I became a master-avoider to this priest's never-ending, ever-more-creative advances and attentions because I didn't know what else to do or how to handle them. I became ever more isolated in my silence, confusion, and shame, in the utter revulsion and horror I felt. And, like other victims, when out of desperation I finally told on him, the Catholic officials' response (or lack of one) to my begging and pleading to make his behavior stop was to prioritize only my silence. I know what it is like to sit in a room with powerful people who want nothing more than for you to disappear, to shut up, who could care less for your safety, your sanity, your well-being. I also know the fear of speaking up to my very core. I still feel that shame and fear. I feel it right now as I type these words. I know the exhaustion of living in the aftermath of this experience and trying to move forward from it without any place to put all that feeling, all that anger. I know what it is like to never have anyone say, "I'm sorry about what happened to you."

There is however so much more to it for her than that, as she explains.

Happy holidays, or they can be, unless you're depressed

George Frink reminds us that it is important to reach out to those for whom the holidays are buried in grief. Life may through no fault of theirs have cast them into that pit. To reach out effectively, we must overcome the reflexive and altogether misguided stigma our culture attaches to mental illness, and help them up. Lest we lose another friend.

Not a word about the children in Pope Benedict XVI's Easter Message

What of the children? No mention. Silence to the "petty gossip." Seek to still truthful critics. The reputation of the church (and of the Pope) comes first. Always.

Reuters terse, "Factbox" roundup is for those not comfortable studiously looking the other way.

The full, English text of the Pope's message.