"Dozens of priests' mistresses" call for abolition of celibacy

How did dozens of priests' mistresses "happen to meet?" asked @ebertchicago [Roger Ebert].

Stefania Salomone, an Italian woman who signed the widely publicized open letter [English] [Italian] to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an end to the Roman Catholic Church's priestly celibacy, is part of a Web discussion for women who are in relationships with priests. Yet she remains the only public signatory to the letter, which she says has been endorsed by more than 40 women.

Although it is oxymoronic to give presumptive credence to an unverified number of anonymous women, Salomone's assertions apparently ring true to Cristina Odone. A Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, a former editor of the Catholic Herald and deputy editor of the New Statesman, she wrote:

But I think the women have a point when they speak out against the hypocrisy of the status quo. I came across, when editor of The Catholic Herald, hundreds of priests. Many of them had “housekeepers” who adored them and … well, who knows what goes on behind net curtains in the priest’s house? Tongues wagged, but only mildly: the priest looked happy, worked hard, and his parishioners looked away. This was so routine an arrangement, that for centuries canon law specified that the priest’s housekeeper should be past child-bearing age, so that the Church would not be embarrassed by the fruit of a carnal relationship.

. . .

For too many priests, loneliness is their lot. Once, they had parishioners vying with one another to see who could wine and dine him; now they are derided and worse. When this was a less secular society, priests always knew they held a certain status in our community; now they are in the habit of being treated like pariahs. One brilliant and witty priest I know is taking a year’s sabbatical. Free of his dog collar, he has found himself in many situations where strangers heap scorn upon the priesthood and talk of priests as synonymous with kiddie-fiddlers. “There is so much hostility out there,” he told me, sadly.

The British/Scottish group Sonflowers is an organization of who have affairs with Catholic priests. It was founded by Adrianna Alsworth. She has addressed the desire for anonymity and the need for mutual support:

I know of many older priests who have been in long-term relationships which are an open secret in their parishes.

Sadly, all the stress and responsibility is placed on the women and it’s a heavy burden to bear. If the relationship becomes public, it’s the woman, the Church’s silent mistresses, who get the blame.

She sees celibacy as doing harm to both the community and the priests. For example, she has observed:

Young men spend six years in a male environment at seminary then are thrust into parishes where they feel isolated. They are often sexually immature but have enormous power over people.

Salomone's letter further argues that celibacy is not only destructive but also unscriptural:

We are trying to reaffirm -- although many Christians already know it -- that this discipline has nothing to do either with the Scriptures in general, or with the Gospels in particular, or with Jesus, who never spoke about it.

Quite the contrary. As far as we know, He liked to surround Himself with disciples, almost all married, and women. You would say to us that Jesus also lived as a bachelor and the priest is simply matching Him with his choice. A choice is good. But a rule can never be a choice, if not forcing its meaning. If, moreover, it is defined as a charism, it can not therefore be imposed or required, much less by the Lord, who wants us to be free, because love is freedom, always.

Her goals are simple and realistic. She told CNN she has not heard from and does not expect to hear from the Vatican:

I don’t really care, to be honest. The important thing is to call attention to this problem.

Part of the DADT debate's impact

Neither misleading headlines nor contrived statistics nor false appeals to religious liberty could stop legislative progress toward repeal of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell. [Update: CNN]

Equally important in the long run, even the most cunning attempts to mislead -- like those to which Tony Cartledge, Nick at Bold Faith Type and Mark Silk responded -- have a cumulative self-discrediting quality.

'Sheriff: Former camp director facing sex charges kills himself '

Former director of a Southern Baptist summer youth camp, the Cale Retreat and Conference Center in Hertford, N.C., Stephen Wayne Carter, apparently committed suicide Monday night. Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley said Carter was found in Virginia Beach, Va., where he owned property.

Facing felony sex offense charges with regard to three different victims, Carter was free on "$80,000 bond on two counts each of engaging in sexual activities with a child, felony first-degree sex offense of a child and felony indecent liberties with a child. If convicted of the most serious offense he could have faced life in prison."

Suicide is not a confession and his family and friends deserve our support. Even so, reasonable institutional determinations should still be made about whether the alleged victims are indeed that, so that anyone who has a resulting need for therapeutic support can receive it.

As Christa Brown told the Associated Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention "should conduct a professional assessment of the allegations and should pro-actively reach out to provide assistance to any who may have been wounded, whether here in the United States or in Belize, where Carter previously worked for the International Mission Board."

Media coverage heightens pressure on Liberty's Ergun Caner

Accusations that Ergun Caner fabricated parts of his background hit newspapers across the country this week increasing the likelihood that the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary will have to resign.

For months, Liberty University administrators stood by Caner as bloggers questioned statements he made about his background. Then newspaper reporters started calling, and last week school officials decided to investigate.

If questions from reporters prompted an investigation, one would think the recent articles would force the school to show Caner the door.

GetReligion highlights stories about Caner by Associated Press, The Tennessean and The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va., where Liberty is located.

The AP story was picked up by papers ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle to the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

The GetReligion post correctly notes the importance of a paragraph in The Tennessean story that says several Southern Baptist leaders who have supported Caner in the past declined to comment. One of those who wouldn't talk is former Southern Baptist Convention president Paige Patterson.

Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has close ties to Caner and his brother, Emir.

Any chance Southwestern will have an opening for Caner on its staff?

WWJD for a declining denomination?

A Southern Baptist researcher asks the right questions, but not enough of them.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, looks at the "ongoing decline" in Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) membership. He says a loss of 68,350 members in 2009 and statistics from other recent years shows that SBC membership has peaked, and suggests that Southern Baptists react with questions like the one posed in Charles Sheldon's novel "In His Steps:"

"What Would Jesus Do?"

Stetzer, who previously showed the downward trend of SBC membership, says, "We are a denomination in decline. Some don’t like to admit it.  But, the decline of SBC membership is not a matter of debate.  It is a matter of math."

Worse, Southern Baptists already face a shrinking demographic pool from which to draw. Furthermore, the SBC's membership numbers are clearly inflated.

Stetzer rhetorically suggests four ways the SBC can fail to handle the decline:

• Option #1: Act as if nothing negative is really happening.
• Option #2: Acknowledge that the decline is real and blame some “other” segment of the convention for the decline. “It’s those contemporary pastors who have colluded with worldliness.” Or “It’s those old dusty pastors who have confused tradition with the power of the gospel.”
• Option #3: Blame lost people for being lost. Perhaps complaining about the state of the country will make lost people want to be saved.
• Option #4: Wish for something else. We can dream of a different future or pine away for a preferred past but without action in the present context of our churches, nothing with change.

Then Stetzer suggests a fifth option, which he says is the only way to impact the world: "a serious self-examination as to whether how we make disciples is rooted in Scripture and delivering the gospel effectively to our mission field. We can scarcely hope to impact the world if we do not approach the gospel and kingdom of God in the same way that Christ did."

Stetzer goes on to list four questions Southern Baptists should ask themselves.

• Do we value the kingdom as He did?
• Do we love sinners as He loved them?
• Do we serve as He served?
• Do we remind our neighbors of Jesus and tell them of His gospel?

Good questions, to which well-known SBC realities suggest that we add:

• What would Jesus do about pastors who use titles they haven't earned?
• What would Jesus do about a large majority of trustees coming from a small minority of churches?
• What would Jesus do about actions toward women that "fall short of biblical standards"?
• What would Jesus do about a former convention officer praying for the deaths of the president and members of Congress?
• What would Jesus do about executives who won't reveal their salaries?
• What would Jesus do about inflated mission numbers?
• What would Jesus do about a denomination closely aligning itself with a political party?
• What would Jesus do about church autonomy protecting predators?
• What would Jesus do about Batholics and Cathists?

To reverse the slide, the SBC must broadly consider what ails it. Not frame WWJD narrowly in an attempt to reduce the number of hard questions.

Laura Silsby convicted/sentenced to time served/released

Idaho Southern Baptist Laura Silsby was released after being found guilty of child smuggling by a Haitian court on May 17. BBC news reported:

A US missionary has been convicted of trying to illegally take 33 children out of Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in January.

The judge sentenced Laura Silsby, 40, to the time she had already spent in jail on remand, and said she was free to leave the country.

Her case was linked to that of Jean Sainvil, who was tried en absentia. She was the last of the ten originally arrested to be released.

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

"Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's"

Comic Lewis Black comes to us via Cathleen Kaveny at dotCommonweal, who calls this one "Glenn Beck’s Nazi Tourette’s:"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Former Southern Baptist youth pastor gets 17 years for assault

The former Southern Baptist youth pastor at Seaford Baptist Church, Jeremy "Jack" Duffer, 40, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls. The Virginia Gazette reported:

The charges stem from incidents in 2008 and 2009 involving two 15-year-old girls. Duffer was arrested last August after the parents of one of the girls contacted the Sheriff's Office after discovering an inappropriate text message from Duffer to their teenage daughter.

In February, when the conviction was handed down and the March 13 sentencing date set, the York County, Va., Daily Press, wrote:

Jeremy "Jack" Ryan Duffer, a 40-year-old former youth pastor at Seaford Baptist Church, pleaded guilty in York-Poquoson Circuit Court to eight charges of aggravated sexual battery with a child between the ages of 13 and 17 and a single count of taking indecent liberties with a child. In return, nine additional charges of aggravated sexual battery were dropped by the prosecution.

“For the First Time in My Environmental Career, I’m Using the Word ‘Hopeless’”

Melissa Lafsky writes:

This video was taken by John Wathen, an environmentalist from Alabama also known as the Hurricane Creekkeeper. The images, and his informative yet devastating narration, give some visual sense of just how bad the situation in the Gulf has become. For more of Wathen’s coverage, check out his blog, BPoilslick.blogspot.com.

[H/T: A Blog Around the Clock]

Underwater video footage of the Gulf oil leak

Ugly and "considerable pressure" was required to persuade BP to release even this brief video:

Britain's 'Christian' political parties

. . . are marginalized by political incompetence.

Pastors smeared for telling the First Amendment truth

There is a price in smear to taking a stand against revisionist history, as a group of moderate to liberal clergy - members of the Texas Faith Network - did recently.

Jonathan Saenz, , a lawyer/lobbyist for Liberty Institute (the Texas affiliate of the far-right Focus on the Family), quickly accused the group had used their press conference "to personally attack the Christian faith of some State Board of Education members." Although he didn't explain how that occurred, he did correctly report that they support separation of church and state. They said, for example:

“Our Founding Fathers understood that the best way to protect religious liberty in America is to keep government out of matters of faith,” said the Rev. Roger Paynter, pastor of Austin’s First Baptist Church. “But this state board appears hostile to teaching students about the importance of keeping religion and state separate, a principle long supported in my own Baptist tradition and in other faiths.”

False history is typically cited to support the Texas board's hostility, Saenz's and that of his allies. To wit, Dave Welch of the arch conservative Pastor Council issued a press release which, among other things, said:

“The Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1787 by the same Congress which presented the Bill of Rights for ratification, declared that ‘Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.’”

He's just wrong.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was passed by the Congress seated under the Articles of Confederation.

More than two years later, first federal Congress under the Constitution sent the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification. And of course included the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights -- the one which forbids government from either promoting or disfavoring religion.

That anti-poor people lottery feedback loop: Addendum

Some truths do endure. Since 1890, the Southern Baptist Convention has formally expressed its opposition to legalized gambling, and there is experimental evidence that the SBC position is the right and fair one. Jonah Lehrer writes at The Frontal Cortext:

A new study by Emily Haisley, Romel Mostafa and George Loewenstein explored some of the reasons why low-income people spend so much money on a product that only returns fifty three cents on the dollar. (Lotteries are such a bad deal that they make slot machines look good.) Here's the abstract:

In two experiments conducted with low-income participants, we examine how implicit comparisons with other income classes increase low-income individuals' desire to play the lottery. In Experiment 1, participants were more likely to purchase lottery tickets when they were primed to perceive that their own income was low relative to an implicit standard. In Experiment 2, participants purchased more tickets when they considered situations in which rich people or poor people receive advantages, implicitly highlighting the fact that everyone has an equal chance of winning the lottery.

The study neatly illuminates the sad positive feedback loop of lotteries. The games naturally appeal to poor people, which causes them to spend disproportionate amounts of their income on lotteries, which helps keep them poor, which keeps them buying tickets.

Addendum

Henry Chase and Luke Clark of the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute have data which indicates that near misses also fuel the gambling addiction. NeuroPhilosophy explains that gambling game designers know and take advantage of that to grow their market (foster addiction):

Manufacturers of gambling games have apparently known the rewarding effects of near misses all along, and design slot machines in such a way as to exploit the cognitive distortions of gamblers. Using a technique called clustering, they create a high number of failures that are close to wins, so that what the player sees is a misrepresentation of the probabilities and randomness that the game involves. This affects the perception of the game, making the gambler who nearly hits the jackpot want to continue playing.

The Southern Baptist Convention of 'liars and embellishers'

Wade Burleson writes in blistering assessment of Southern Baptist Convention pastors' fake doctorates. The key passage:

Southern Baptist pastors seem infatuated with the title "Dr," even to the extent of asking others to use it of them before they've earned it. Take a gander at the Pastors' Conference line-up. Does every single speaker really have an earned doctorate? It would be inappropriate for some to single out one man for questioning without the rest of us demanding that all be held accountable.

Ted Haggard incorporates (again)

Ted Haggard actually started his new church in November. Last week's incorporation was just another step for the man who left his last big church amid scandal and left behind a hush money agreement.

Why incorporate now? He told the Colorado Springs Gazette that it's about the money. That is:

. . . St. James was incorporated “to keep the accounting in order” of the paid talks they’ve given for about a year and a half at evangelical churches across the country. The Haggards incur out-of-pocket expenses while on the road, so St. James is a way to be reimbursed for those costs in an orderly manner, he said.

Exactly.

ClimateGate swings back (flog whom?)

ClimateGate debunked? Over and over again:

Laura Bush vs Pope Benedict XVI on gay marriage

Former First Lady Laura Bush said "yes" to gay marriage:

Pope Benedict XVI in his visit to a famous Portuguese shrine to the Virgin Mary denounced gay marriage:

In a speech here to Catholic social service groups, Benedict called for initiatives aimed at protecting “the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good.”

Jail for Laura Silsby

USA Today reports that on the first day of trial, the Haitian prosecutor recommends six months in jail:

Prosecutor Sonel Jean-Francois told a Port-au-Prince court today that Silsby knew she had broken Haitian law. She and nine other Baptist missionaries were charged initially with kidnapping after being stopped on their way to the Dominican Republic, where she planned to open an orphanage. The nine have been freed, and kidnapping charges against all 10 were dropped last month.

Fleeing Rekers is no substitute for honest reassessment

George A. Rekers' ongoing RentBoy uproar has called renewed attention to his role as a source of validation for Southern Baptist Convention positions on the family.

Without actually disavowing his pseudoscience or explaining themselves, several other institutions and organizations which have formerly cited him as an authority or honored ally, have turned and run:

• The Campus Crusade for Christ has deleted his page from its Leadership University.
• The University of South Carolina has erased him from the faculty listings.
• The Family Research Council, which with James Dobson he helped found, had difficulty remembering him.
• After he resigned from the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), the NARTH site began purging references to him and documents authored by him.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum may wish he could magically purge the $120,000 political liability Rekers has become to his bid for the Florida Republican gubernatorial nomination. McCollum is having a difficult time explaining how Rekers, previously unmasked in an Arkansas legal conflict, could qualify as an expert witness.

In December, 2004, Pulaski County [Ark.] Circuit Court judge Timothy Fox described Rekers' testimony as "extremely suspect," and said that Rekers "was there primarily to promote his own personal ideology."

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cindy S. Lederman carefully disassembled Rekers' testimony. For example, she wrote [.pdf]:

During Dr. Rekers’ testimony, attention was drawn to his authorship of a St. Thomas Law Review article entitled “An Empirically Supported Rational Basis for Prohibiting Adoption, Foster Parenting, and Contested Child Custody by Any Person in a Household that Includes a Homosexually-Behaving Member” wherein the doctor heavily cited to the conclusions of a colleague who is sharply criticized as distorting data and was censured and ousted by the American Psychological Association for misreporting evidence regarding homosexual households. Although the American Psychological Association, has concluded that there is no difference between heterosexual and homosexual parenting, Dr. Rekers believes the Association’s stance is political and not based on science. Dr. Rekers’ much contested and hardly empirical article also cited to journals from authors who were neither psychotherapists nor social scientists.

Judge Lederman's general conclusion about Rekers was [.pdf]:

Dr. Rekers’ testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers’ beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court cannot consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.

Immersed in controversy now, McCollum moans that when they hired Rekers, "There wasn't a whole lot of choice."

There was an abundance of credible choices. As there were for the institutions which are fleeing Rekers now. Although a scientifically defensible choice of experts would have militated for a position unlike the one McCollum took in court.

Neither McCollum's excuse nor institutional flight substitute for an honest assessment the quality of Rekers' work and, where required, change in the positions which gave it credence.

Media inquiries prompt Liberty to investigate Caner

Liberty University officials will investigate allegations that the president of the school's seminary fabricated much of his life history, a decision they say they made only after members of the "mainstream media" inquired (not, alas, Wade Burleson, FBC Jax Watchdog and/or other bloggers).

Ergun Caner, the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, faces questions regarding discrepancies in statements he has made about his background. A resolution being circulated would ask the Southern Baptist Convention to distance itself from him.

The investigation signals a change for Liberty, which had previously stood by Caner, saying he had done nothing "theologically inappropriate" and the issue was neither ethical nor moral.

University Provost Ron Godwin is forming the committee to conduct a "official inquiry" into the allegations with plans to finish by the end of next month, according to a statement on the university web site.

“Liberty does not initiate personnel evaluations based upon accusations from Internet blogs,” Liberty chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said. “However, In light of the fact that several newspapers have raised questions, we felt it necessary to initiate a formal inquiry.”

The announcement did not identify the newspapers. The statement was released a short while after Alternet, a news magazine and online journalism site, posted a story about Caner.

After the Caner investigation is complete, Liberty officials might want to launch a "formal inquiry" into how many people get their news from online sources. They might start with this study that found that the internet is now the third most popular news platform, behind local television news and national television news. Or merely confess that in dissing bloggers, Liberty "doth protest too much."

Megachurch starter kit

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

[H/T: Andrew Yeager-Buckley]

Stupak reflects on the misuse of abortion against health reform

Rep. Bart Stupak explains in Newsweek his disappointment over the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' reaction when he asked their support for "an executive order confirming that no federal money would support abortion:"

No, no, no, no, they said. We need statutory law. But an executive order can have the full force of law, I said. Lincoln used one to free the slaves. George W. Bush used one to block stem-cell research using human embryos. And President Obama assures me that this is "ironclad." Besides, I said, it's time to negotiate or lose our chance to shape the bill. Help me with it? No, they said. Won't you at least look at it? No.

That call changed my relationship with the pro-life movement. In the 18 years I've been in Congress, pro-life Democrats like me have delivered, working out compromises that protect human life. Now we had the most important piece of legislation for our movement yet—with pregnancy prevention, prenatal and postnatal care, and care for kids—and we couldn't get support.

That, from his time in "health care hell,' is ultimately what hurt the most. He said:

It's that people tried to use abortion as a tool to stop health-care reform, even after protections were added.

Addendum

Mark Silk, commenting on the same piece, certainly gets it right:

Stupak accuses bishops ... of using abortion to oppose health care reform.

Stolen 'Mojave Cross' was subject of Supreme Court case

Less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it could stay, "the 8-foot-high cross at Mojave National Preserve" was torn down and hauled away.

Leo Shane III of Stars and Stripes wrote:

The cross, which has stood in various forms for the last 76 years as a memorial to World War I soldiers, was stolen late Sunday night or early Monday morning, according to officials from the Liberty Institute, a conservative advocacy group that deals with church-state issues.

In a statement Kelly Shackelford, the group’s president, called the actions “disgusting.”

Vandals cut through a series of metal bolts to remove the cross — still covered by a wooden box — from its concrete foundation.

The cross had been covered with plywood for 10 years as the legal fight surrounding the memorial wound through the courts. Officials from the Liberty Institute argued in favor of allowing the memorial to stand, saying that censoring the cross violated veterans’ freedom of speech and religion.

On April 28, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the memorial did not warrant removal as an overtly religious symbol, and did not represent government endorsement of a specific religion.

How we spend our time

Corpus Callosum's Joseph j7uy5 observes:

I just noticed this: the average workweek in the USA has declined to 34.1 hours (see the BLS report: Employment Situation Summary). Last year, the average television viewing time increased to 151 hours per month, or 5.03 hours per day in a 30-day month, which comes out to 35.23 hours per week. We now spend more time watching TV than we spend working.

Randall Terry daily TV premiers May 10

Randall Terry television speaks for itself:

National Day of Prayer

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty says of the National Day of Prayer:

In 1952, Congress passed a joint resolution, signed by President Harry Truman, setting aside one day a year for prayer. Since then, presidents have proclaimed a day for prayer observed each year on the first Thursday of May. On April 30, President Barack Obama issued the proclamation of a National Day of Prayer to be held on May 6.

"Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the Nation," the proclamation states.

The Obama Administration has announced it intends to appeal a federal judge's ruling in April that the statute establishing the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.

"There is nothing wrong with the American people getting together to pray on a designated day, even public officials," Hollman said. "In fact every day should be a day of national prayer.

"The problem with the National Day of Prayer is that it is an official act of the government urging citizens to engage in a religious exercise," Hollman said.

Family Research Council distances itself from Rekers

Family Research Council (FRC) first reaction to the Rent Boy news about former FRC board memeber George A. Rekers was, they "had never heard of Dr. Rekers."

The corporate attorney was asked to research the matter:

We did verify that Dr. Rekers was a member of the original Family Research Council Board prior to its merger with Focus on the Family in 1987. FRC has had no contact with Dr. Rekers or knowledge of his activities in over a decade, so I can't speak to what he may or may not have done. However, I can say that while it's extremely disappointing when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they "preach" against, it's not surprising. The Scriptures clearly teach the fallen nature of all people.

The Family Research Council founder and the Rent Boy

Prof. George Alan Rekers, who helped found the Family Research Council, was caught returning from a time abroad with a male prostitute (Rent Boy).

Of course he had an explanation, which was greeted with derision.

He is, after all, a longtime anti-gay activist with a Ph.D and cannot reasonably expect to strike a convincing pose of naive ignorance.

Repentance, anyone?

Not in fashion this season?

Video on behalf of stronger laws to protect U.S. child farmworkers

Protect child farmworkers by supporting the CARE Act, recommends Human Rights Watch:

Liberty sticks by embattled seminary president: Update

Officials at Liberty University say accusations of dishonesty against the president of the school's seminary are neither an ethical nor a moral issue.

Ergun Caner, the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, is under fire regarding his biographical information, including his Muslim background. The discrepancies have led some to call for the Southern Baptist Convention to distance itself from Caner and others to ask pointed questions of the seminary president.

But Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University and dean of the School of Religion, told Christianity Today that the university's board of directors held an inquiry and determined that Caner had done nothing theologically inappropriate. He said there will be no official reprimand or demotion of Caner.

"It's not an ethical issue, it's not a moral issue," Towns told the magazine. "We give faculty a certain amount of theological leverage. The arguments of the bloggers would not stand up in court."

Christianity Today highlights what Caner's critics call exaggerations and lies, including:

• Growing up in Turkey, when he actually grew up in Ohio.
• Being raised in a devout Muslim home, rather than a nominal one.
• Having been involved in Islamic jihad.
• Having debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith, although there is no video or audio evidence.

Caner must have a ton of "theological leverage" for school officials to consider such issues neither ethical nor moral. The arguments against Caner might not stand up in a government courtroom, but public opinion is another matter.

Towns affects a lack of concern. He said:

We don't see any way that bloggers will damage Liberty.

Can school officials not see that highlighted publication of Towns' statement in a national Christian magazine is evidence that damage has already been done? The article's real subject was how much damage has been done, not whether any will occur.

Liberty officials can expect more, unless they're willing to deal with the issue more directly.

Some sign of repentance from Caner would be a start.

Update: More damage

Oklahoma Baptist pastor Wade Burleson blogs that after reading the article we commented on above, he can "no longer recommend Liberty University to students or seminarians."

FBC Jax Watchdog throws up his hands in despair at Christianity Today's timidity.

Attack rather than repent: Fake Ex Muslims YouTube channel terminated via complaints, thus eliminating a much-linked-to body of evidence from ready access.

At AO, home of links to Ergun Caner Materials, James White is dismayed by the CT piece.

NASA satellite image/NOAA map of Deepwater Horizon spill

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracks and projects the oil slick's day-by-day spread [.pdf] as it creeps closer to the Mississippi River Delta, Breton Island and Chandeleur Islands.

The oil slick on May 1 captured by NASA's Terra satellite.

Legionaries' acceptance

The Legionaries of Christ said on their Web site that they "embrance" Pope Benedict XVI's May 1 plan for their future "with faith and obedience." In addition they said:

The Legion of Christ today, May 1, received the statement of the Holy See regarding the apostolic visitation. The Legionaries thank the Holy Father and embrace his provisions with faith and obedience. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the apostolic visitators. And we are grateful for the prayers of so many people of good will who have supported us at this time.

Spill baby, spill: BP oil blowout creeps toward Mississippi Delta: Updated

Tiny, nonprofit SkyTruth has been analyzing the satellite data and forcing changes in official underestimates of the catastrophe's magnitude. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Saturday, the group updated its analysis to estimate that the slick contained more than 11.1 million gallons of oil, which would make it the largest oil spill in American history. John Amos, the group's president, also revised the estimate of the rate of oil leaking to 25,000 barrels a day, saying it was a "rock bottom" figure. There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil.

NASA's Earth Observatory reported on April 29:

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. The top image shows a wide-area view, and the bottom image shows a close-up view of the oil slick (outlined in white in the top image). The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta. Sunglint—the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water—enchances the oil slick’s visibility.

Update: BP advertising vs current reality

Death worship takes hold amid Mexican despair

D.E. Campbell writes in Foreign Policy:

Mictlantecuhtli in the Codex Borgia

The barrio of Tepito, where it's said that everything is for sale except dignity, has been one of Mexico City's roughest neighborhoods since Aztec times. Famous for its black market and its boxing champions, Tepito is a place where residents learn to fight early and fight hard. These days it has also become the epicenter of Mexico's fastest-growing faith: Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, a hybrid religion that merges Catholic symbolism with pre-Hispanic worship of the skeletal Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl, Lord and Lady of the Dead.

I recently went there for an outdoor mass at one of Santa Muerte's first public shrines, founded eight years ago by a great-grandmother named Enriqueta Romero. When I visited in November, Romero placed a necklace with skull pendant around my neck as some 5,000 worshippers surged toward the glass-encased skeleton outside her house. Clad in a faded housedress, she told me that Mexico's Catholic churches stand empty while thousands of Holy Death shrines have spread across the country because "the church reprimands," but Santa Muerte never does. "She accepts everyone, with faults and without."

Catholic Bishops Conference of India gets it right: Accused priests would face criminal investigation

Catholic priests accused of sexual predation in India will face the police like everyone else if a Conference of Catholic Bishops in India (CCBI) proposal is approved by the Pope:

India’s Roman Catholic bishops are planning to institute a policy of reporting all abuse allegations against priests to the police for criminal investigations, rather than just handling the cases internally, a church spokesman said.

The Times of India reports:

With the clergy facing horrible child sex abuse charges in several countries, Catholic bishops of India have drafted guidelines for the clergymen across the world. From spelling out a general behavioural code for bishops and other priests to defrocking as the ultimate punishment for such crime, the guidelines focus on "wholesome safety of children in and outside our institutions".

Bold face, ours.

'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' trailer

The third Chronicles of Narnia film, based on the C. S. Lewis story for young people and rich in Christian themes, it is to be released in December:

Legionaries of Christ unilluminated path

Pope Benedict XVI will appoint an apostolic delegate to govern and reform the Legionaries of Christ (LC), the Vatican announced on May 1, and "a commission of study of the order’s constitution." It will in addition appoint a "Visitor" to guide the consecrated members of Regnum Christi (RC).

The actions result from a year-long Apostolic Visitation [investigation] which was provoked not only by reports that LC founder Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado fathered perhaps six children, his cult-like leadership and sexual abuse of subordinates and others. But also by the Legion leadership's history of aggressive cover-up, including legal actions to silence former members and suppress documents.

The Vatican said:

The extremely grave and objectively immoral behavior of Fr. Maciel, which has been confirmed by irrefutable testimony, takes the form of true crimes and demonstrates a private life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment. That life was hidden from the great majority of Legionaries, above all because of a system of relationships constructed by Fr. Maciel, who was adept at creating alibis for himself and winning the trust, confidence and silence of those around him, reinforcing his role as a charismatic founder.

By discrediting and pushing away those who doubted the correctness of his behavior, as well as through a mistaken desire not to undercut the good the Legion was doing, they created a mechanism of defense around [Maciel] that made him immune to attack for a long time, consequently making an awareness of his real life extremely difficult.

Yet the "sincere zeal of the majority of the Legionaries" survives and is to be preserved -- a goal which echoes through three key points of clarity:"

a) The necessity to redefine the charism of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, preserving the true nucleus, that of being a “Militia Christi,” which distinguishes the apostolic and missionary action of the Church, and which is not identified with efficiency at any cost;

b) The necessity to review the exercise of authority, which must be connected to truth, in order to respect conscience and to develop it in light of the Gospel as authentic ecclesial service;

c) The necessity to preserve the enthusiasm of the faith of the young, the missionary zeal, the apostolic dynamism, through an adequate formation. In fact, delusion about the founder could call into question the vocation, and that nucleus of a charism, which belongs to the Legionaries of Christ and is rightfully theirs.

All of this requires, the Vatican said, that the order embark on "a path of profound revision."

Whose substance remains profoundly unclear.