No Sunscreen for God
Sunday, July 15, 2007

First it was driving, now vacationing. Is the pope trying too hard?

Vacation should be a time for Christians not only to relax but to get closer to God, Pope Benedict said on Sunday from his mountain retreat in the Italian Dolomites.

"Every good Christian knows that vacation is the time to rest the body but also to nurture the spirit through more time for prayer and meditation, to grow in one's personal relationship with Christ and follow his teachings ever more closely," he said.

The 80-year-old Pope was speaking at his regular Sunday blessing amid the tall pines surrounding a church-owned estate in the Dolomite mountains north of Venice where he is on a three-week private retreat.

"Amid this sight of fields, woods, and peaks pointing to the sky, the desire to praise God for the wonders of his works rises spontaneously in the soul and our admiration for this natural beauty is easily transformed into prayer," he said.

Benedict is only the second pope in modern history to take private holidays outside the Vatican or the papal summer residence south of Rome, a tradition started by his predecessor John Paul 20 years ago.

Benedict has been taking short evening walks and spending much of his time reading, listening to music, playing the piano and is believed to be in the initial stages of writing a new encyclical, the highest form of papal writing.

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The Other Baptists
Monday, July 9, 2007

Don't look now, but the breakdown of the so-called Religious Right gets another step closer.

On Friday in Washington, two of the larger groups – the American Baptist Churches and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship – are worshipping together for the first time. They are commissioning two missionary couples who will represent both groups, and are organizing a national Islamic-Baptist dialogue to improve relations with Muslims.

“It is an effort to celebrate our common heritages as Baptist Christians and to affirm our commitment to work together more collaboratively,” said the Rev. Daniel Vestal, national coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “The Baptist witness is much richer and more nuanced than is characterized so often in the public square now.”

In January, an even broader group of Baptists will host an Atlanta meeting “to speak and work together to create an authentic and genuine prophetic Baptist voice in these complex times,” according to a joint document they issued called a “North American Baptist Covenant.”

The covenant grew out of meetings of Baptist leaders organized by Carter, a longtime Bible teacher who severed ties in 2000 with the Southern Baptist Convention because of what he called its “increasingly rigid” creed.

At 16.3 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. However, millions of other Baptists have churches nationwide that are either independent or affiliated with smaller groups.

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The Return of Latin
Thursday, June 28, 2007

I'm hardly an expert in Catholic liturgical practices, but I have to wonder if what the Catholic Church needs at this moment is to bring back more Latin to church. Is this way to grow the faith? I don't have to wonder at all, as a supporter of Interfaith relations, if dialing back on Vatican II is good for religious dialogue today. It would be a disaster.

Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s, the Vatican said Thursday.

Benedict discussed the decision with top officials in a meeting on Wednesday and the document will be published in the next few days, the statement said. The meeting was called to ''illustrate the content and the spirit'' of the document, which will be sent to all bishops accompanied by a personal letter from the pope.

The decision comes after months of debate. Some cardinals, bishops and Jewish leaders have opposed any change, voicing complaints about everything from the text of the old Mass to concerns that the move will lead to further changes to the reforms approved by 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.

The 16th century Tridentine Mass was sidelined by the New Mass that followed the council. The reforms called for Mass to be said in local languages, for the priest to face the congregation and not the altar with his back to worshippers and for the use of lay readers.

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Tony Blair to Become Catholic
Friday, June 22, 2007

Paul Bremer. Sam Brownback. Tony Blair. Fascinating: late-in-life, high-powered politicians converting to Catholicism. The Guardian has a report on the secret, back-stage maneuverings.

According to informed sources, Mr Blair has been readied for this milestone in his spiritual life by a Royal Air Force chaplain, Father John Walsh, who for the past four years has been quietly slipping into Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, to say mass for the Blair family on Saturday evenings.

Mr Blair has been attending Catholic services for many years, and regularly worshipped at the 5.30pm Saturday evening service at Westminster cathedral until security considerations persuaded him to seek a private arrangement.

And more.

Mr Blair's attendances at Catholic services over the years has not been without controversy. In 1996 he was upbraided by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, for taking communion at his wife's church in Islington.

The couple have also worshipped at a Roman Catholic church in Great Missenden, near Chequers.

Britain has never had a Catholic prime minister, and Mr Blair's lengthy road to conversion is almost certainly as a result of his desire to leave office before taking the final steps. Religion is a sensitive issue in British politics, particularly in connection with issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality and faith schools.

Cherie Blair and the couple's four children are Roman Catholic. Her husband is thought to have attended a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in the papal private apartments in the Vatican in 2003 following an official audience.

There have been persistent rumours that he received communion from the Polish pontiff on that occasion.

Mr Blair's visit to Rome was confirmed by Vatican sources more than a week ago. A spokesman for the Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales yesterday said that the environment and Middle East would be among the topics discussed by Mr Blair and the Pope. But their meeting has not been announced by No 10 and last night Mr Blair's spokespeople were still insisting that reports of it were "pure speculation".

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.

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Baptists Afraid of Tongues
Friday, June 15, 2007

The conservative pendulum stopped in the Baptist convention this week.

Southern Baptists concerned about a rightward shift in the denomination claimed a significant victory Wednesday with the passage of a motion centered on Baptist identity. Some conservatives downplayed the vote's importance and called the measure confusing.

In results announced Wednesday morning, delegates at the denomination's annual meeting voted 58 percent to 42 percent to support a statement calling the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 the sufficient standard for establishing what makes a good Southern Baptist.

"I do think that what is happening is an attempt by many people, and I don't know if it's a majority, to say that the pendulum has swung far enough," Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page told reporters Wednesday. The SBC, which has more than 16 million members across the country, has its headquarters in Nashville.

"There was a day and time when that was an extreme document to some, and now it's almost like it's being seen as more moderating, a moderating influence and that many want to go beyond it. … I do believe we've gone far enough and that the Baptist Faith and Message is enough, and I encourage entities not to go beyond that in their doctrinal parameters."

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The Pope Joins the Party
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

In praise of flip-floppping.

In a surprising about-face, Pope Benedict has decided to restore power and prestige to the Vatican department that oversees dialogue with Islam a year after he controversially downgraded it.

The department's return to its former status occurred as Catholic-Muslim dialogue is still suffering the negative effects of Benedict's Regensburg speech last September in which he appeared to equate Islam with violence.

Catholic and Muslim officials on Monday hailed the decision as a positive step that could help improve relations.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in Italy's La Stampa newspaper at the weekend that the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue would again become "a separate department".

Benedict downgraded the office in March 2006 by putting it under joint presidency with the Vatican's culture ministry and removing its president, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a Briton.

"This would be a very positive thing for Muslims," said a senior Muslim official active in inter-faith dialogue who asked not to be named. He said Muslims had seen the council's downgrading as a sign Benedict was not very interested in Islam.

"I think it's a great idea," said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center and a world-renowned Vatican expert.

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The New New Evangelicals
Monday, May 21, 2007

Don't miss the thoughtful piece in the NYT about the changing face of evangelical America. As we've chronicled here at FeilerFaster, the new it topics include AIDS and Darfur. If you still think all evangelicals are like Jerry Falwell, time to update your opinion:

The evangelical Christian movement, which has been pivotal in reshaping the country’s political landscape since the 1980s, has shifted in potentially momentous ways in recent years, broadening its agenda and exposing new fissures.

The death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell last week highlighted the fact that many of the movement’s fiery old guard who helped lead conservative Christians into the embrace of the Republican Party are aging and slowly receding from the scene. In their stead, a new generation of leaders who have mostly avoided the openly partisan and confrontational approach of their forebears have become increasingly influential.

Typified by megachurch pastors like the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, the new breed of evangelical leaders — often to the dismay of those who came before them — are more likely to speak out about more liberal causes like AIDS, Darfur, poverty and global warming than controversial social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

But the conservative legacy of the religious right persists, and abortion continues to be a defining issue, even a litmus test, for most evangelicals, including younger ones, according to interviews and survey data.

“The abortion issue is going to continue to be a unifying factor among evangelicals and Catholics,” said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is often held up as an example of the new model of conservative Christian leaders. “That’s not going to go away.”

The persistence of abortion as a core concern for evangelical voters, who continue to represent a broad swath of the Republican base, could complicate efforts by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has been leading the Republican presidential field in nationwide polls, to get primary voters to move past the issue and accept his support for abortion rights. The broader impact that the changing evangelical leadership may have on politics appears to be just beginning. Many evangelicals remain uneasy about the other leading Republican contenders, Mitt Romney, because of his Mormon faith and his past support for abortion rights, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has long had a tenuous relationship with conservative Christians.

The evangelical movement, however, is clearly evolving. Members of the baby boomer generation are taking over the reins, said D. G. Hart, a historian of religion. The boomers, he said, are markedly different in style and temperament from their predecessors and much more animated by social justice and humanitarianism. Most of them are pastors, as opposed to the heads of advocacy groups, making them more reluctant to plunge into politics to avoid alienating diverse congregations.

“I just don’t see in the next generation of so-called evangelical leaders anyone as politically activist-minded” as Mr. Falwell, the Rev. Pat Robertson or James C. Dobson, he said.

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Knocking
Thursday, May 10, 2007

I'm living in Brooklyn these days, as many of you know, the worldwide headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses. We had our first door knockers a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon. I kind of wanted to hear their pitch but I was in the middle of doing something. I noticed their Bibles and explained that I write books about the Bible and wished them well.

Then I got this press release about an upcoming PBS documentary about them. I haven't seen it, but here's the info. Mormons this week and Jehovah's Witnesses after that. PBS is spreading its wings wide these days. Good for them.

PBS EXPLORES THE OFTEN-MISUNDERSTOOD JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
'Knocking' Puts Fundamentalism and the Culture War in a New Light
TV Premiere: May 22 on Independent Lens

“Riveting and illuminating. Knocking takes us inside the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a way that is utterly surprising and moving.” -- Anderson Cooper, CNN

“Knocking affirms the principle that in a free society, the protection of religious liberty and the advancement of personal freedoms need not be competing values." -- Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union

As religion creeps more and more into political affairs and fuels both the Culture War and holy wars, the moving new documentary Knocking enters the national dialogue with a welcomingly fresh perspective. The festival-winning film, airing May 22 on the PBS series Independent Lens, opens the door on Jehovah's Witnesses and takes the discussion of fundamentalism to an entirely new place.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian group that has ministered door-to-door for 130 years and counts 7 million members worldwide. Though often dismissed as an odd or irrelevant sect, Knocking takes an empathetic and objective look at how the unlikely religion became such a surprisingly vital thread in the fabric of American life. Among other things, Knocking presents the group's unique brand of fundamentalism as an example of how to calm the divisive Culture War. Jehovah’s Witnesses adhere to a strict separation of church and state.

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The Pope of Protestantism
Monday, May 7, 2007

I happened to be at the magisterial Riverside Church a few days ago doing research for my new book. I had never been to what's sometimes viewed as the Vatican of liberal Protestantism and I was blown away by the beauty and quirkiness of the building. It may be modeled on Chartres, but only Riverside has Einstein carved above the front door. And Darwin!

Coincidentally, my friend Sam Freedman has an outstanding article in the NYT about the challenges the church is having finding a new minister. I recommend this piece highly, though my own visit this week suggests the problems may be even deeper than Sam is able to get on the record, including that the 2,700 member figure quoted here is greatly exaggerated.

Since being founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1930, Riverside has often and justifiably been likened to the Vatican for America’s mainstream Protestants, the theologically and politically liberal segment of the faith. The church’s first minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick, and successors like William Sloane Coffin, used Riverside as a national pulpit from which to preach social justice, civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War, among other causes.

Yet now, as Riverside prepares to search for a new senior minister for only the sixth time in its history, mainstream Protestants are struggling to reverse a decades-long pattern of losing numbers, vitality and influence to their evangelical Protestant competitors. Between 1990 and 2000 alone, mainstream denominations like the Episcopal, Presbyterian and United Methodist Churches and the United Church of Christ lost 5 percent to 15 percent of their members, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. Riverside is interdenominational but is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Baptist Church

The confluence of challenge, opportunity and visibility, then, makes Riverside’s selection of a new leader important not only for the 26 million adherents of mainline Protestantism but also for the shape of American religion as a whole.

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Reverend McGreevey
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

This will go over well in some circles:

The nation's first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report.

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at the church.

McGreevey has entered the church's "discernment" phase, which usually precedes seminary work, Bean told The Star-Ledger of Newark in a report posted Wednesday on its Web site.

It's unclear whether McGreevey hopes to become a priest.

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Babies Not in Limbo
Friday, April 27, 2007

Speaking of Catholicism, the Vatican announced on Friday that unbaptized babies who dies can still go to heaven instead of being trapped in limbo. This leads Slate to ask, what about the babies who already went to limbo?

They've probably been in heaven all this time, but no one knows for sure. Until the recent announcement, the limbo crowd was thought to include anyone who hadn't been baptized but would otherwise deserve to go to heaven—like infants (including aborted fetuses), virtuous pagans, and pre-Christian Jews. Those who had been baptized, on the other hand, either joined God in heaven, made up for their sins in purgatory, or suffered forever in hell....

The fate of unbaptized babies has confounded Catholic scholars for centuries. According to church catechisms, or teachings, babies that haven't been splashed with holy water bear the original sin, which makes them ineligible for joining God in heaven. At the same time, as innocent beings, they surely don't deserve eternal torment. St. Augustine concluded in the fourth century that the babies must be punished in the fire of hell, but only with the "mildest condemnation." Eight centuries later, Thomas Aquinas thought infant souls wouldn't go to heaven, but they wouldn't suffer in the afterlife, either (and they wouldn't even know what they were missing). Theologians eventually settled on limbo as a hypothetical compromise—a state of natural, though incomplete, happiness.

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"Dog-Bites-Man" Pope

David Gibson, author of a book about Pope Benedict, offers a modest, even downcast review of the pope's first two year's in office:

Benedict restricted the role of lay people at Mass in order to reinforce the separate, Christ-like action of the priest, and he is expected to announce soon that he will allow widespread use of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, in which the priest faces away from the congregation. That would come despite the strong opposition of many bishops in Europe, the United States, even inside the Roman curia — and even though there are hardly any priests who can celebrate the old rite or worshipers who would understand what is happening.

Predictably, Benedict has also renewed church stands against married clergy and the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving communion. Changes in the role of women in the church or teachings on sexual behavior are of course out of the question. And Benedict has reinforced the primacy of the pope — an issue his predecessor had opened for debate.

He ends with this downbeat note:

Benedict is a “dog-bites-man” pope, notable largely for what he was not expected to do, or for actions that produce unnerving reactions, like his speech critiquing Islam last September that enraged many Muslims. The pope actually devoted the bulk of that lecture to questioning non-Catholic Christians and secular Westerners who he said were in thrall to modern rationalism.

Certainly, Benedict has in two years preached many striking and even lyrical meditations on the beauty of the faith that is at the heart of Christianity. But in the United States, as elsewhere, the challenge is not so much a crisis of faith as a “crisis of church.” It is not a question of why believe as much as why be Catholic. People are convinced by deeds that match rhetoric, and a closer look at the actions behind Benedict’s words shows that the two are still far apart.

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Habla Espanol, Benedict?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Catholic Church in America is changing. Quickly. The NYT:

The influx of Hispanic immigrants to the United States is transforming the Roman Catholic Church as well as the nation’s religious landscape, according to a major study of Hispanics and faith released today.

The study, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found that many Hispanics practice a “distinctive form” of charismatic Catholicism that includes speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and prophesying — practices more often associated with Pentecostalism. Among non-Hispanic Catholics, these traditions are practiced by some but are not so widespread.

The study also found that most Hispanics are clustering in “ethnic congregations” with Hispanic clergy, Spanish-language services and where the majority of congregants are Hispanic. These ethnic congregations are cropping up throughout the country — not just in neighborhoods with a concentration of Hispanics, but even in areas where Hispanics are sparse.

According to the survey, 68 percent of Hispanics are Roman Catholic, 15 percent are born-again or evangelical Protestants, 5 percent are mainline Protestants, 3 percent are identified as “other Christian,” and 8 percent are secular (1 percent refused to answer). This is a very different picture than that of non-Hispanic Americans, where the largest groupings are 20 percent Catholic, 35 percent evangelical and 24 percent mainline Protestant.

About one-third of Catholics in the United States are now Hispanic.

To read the full report, click here.

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The Pope Admits He's Human
Sunday, April 15, 2007

Speaking of birthdays, Pope Benedict turns 80 on Monday. His new book, Jesus of Nazareth, was released on Friday, and in an extraordinary announcement, he has pointed out that it was begun before he was pope and expresses his personal views, not church doctrine. "Everyone is free, then, to contradict me," he says.

Love this. Nothing like an author inviting reviewers to disagree with him and pointing out that he's only human.

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Forget Coke Versus Pepsi, Now It's Coke Versus Jesus
Friday, April 6, 2007

This has Stephen Colbert written all over it.

Drinks giant Coca-Cola doesn't mind paying millions of pounds to movie stars and sportspersons to endorse their soft-drink. However, they draw the line at having Jesus Christ do so.

The company has made sure that an Italian film 'Seven Kilometres from Jerusalem', which shows Christ drinking from a bottle of Coke, will miss its Easter release date after complaining that the films bosses hadn't asked for their permission for using their trademark.

Coca-Cola, in a statement, insisted that given the religious angle of the movie, they did not feel that it was appropriate for the bosses to use their product.

"We don't think it's appropriate to use the subject of this film to create publicity for our brands," the BBC quoted the cola giant, as stating.

"We advised the producer of this in writing, and are very disappointed that our request was not respected," it said.

The movie revolves around the story of an advertising executive suffering a mid-life crisis when he meets a man who appears to be Jesus.

In one scene, Jesus drinks a can of Coke, leading the ad executive to exclaim: "God, what a great endorsement!"

And though the scene seems funny, Coca-Cola was not amused and asked for it to be cut.

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Spamming for God: The New E-vangelicals
Thursday, April 5, 2007

The next wave of proselytizing: Internet ministry.

While an evangelism trip to a foreign country may be impractical or impossible, technology is enabling Christians to reach even closed countries through the media, especially the Internet. Residents of restricted-access countries can study the Bible in their own language via the World Wide Web. Those without a computer at home may experience religious freedom at an Internet café.

Peggie Bohanon of Springfield, Missouri, knows that it's possible for Christians to share the gospel on the Internet once they establish rapport with non-believers. Bohanon has operated a "fun 'n' faith" Christian Web site (http://www.peggiesplace.com) for a decade in an effort to both encourage Christians and to witness to non-Christians.

Her site, with more than 500 original devotionals and thousands of Christian and family-friendly links, has received in excess of 13 million page views from 190 countries and has the plan of salvation in a multitude of languages. People around the world, including Internet users from restricted countries, visit Peggie's Place regularly, and she responds to e-mails with discretion and discernment.

Defending Christianity online to those from American Samoa to Zimbabwe is quite a stretch for a stay-at-home mom and writer who had no idea how to operate a computer until 1994.

"If God calls you to Internet ministry you need to respond in faith and with Pentecostal anointing so you can reach out effectively to a needy world," says Bohanon, a member of Springfield's Central Assembly of God. "With a little creativity and ingenuity you can share the gospel with people around the world any time of the day or night."

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No Church, Please, We're British
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

How low can church attendance go? Really low. I wonder when this God gap between the U.S. and Britain will begin to affect our "special relationship?"

One in 10 people in the UK attends church every week and one in seven goes once a month, according to research.

Christian charity Tearfund's survey of 7,000 people puts the UK among Europe's four least observant countries. Two-thirds of those polled had not been to church in the last year, except for baptisms, weddings or funerals - but 53% identified themselves as Christian.

Tearfund said nearly three million more people would attend regularly if given the "right invitation".

It said churches could do more to offer encouragement to potential worshippers. The poll, conducted last year among people aged 16 and over, suggests that one in four UK adults attends church at least once a year.

Tearfund said 53% of people identified themselves as Christian, compared with almost three-quarters who had in the last census in 2001.

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Wiki-Faithful
Tuesday, April 3, 2007

I received an interesting press release about Catholic lay people recruiting fellow congregants to be their eyes and ears on abuse and other issues of concern to Catholics in a sort of Catholic Drudge Report. Any other faiths doing this?

Pewsitter.com, a unique recently launched Catholic web site combines the concept of a news aggregator site, like DrudgeReport.com with that of a user-driven content site, like Yahoo’s You Witness News web site, to give the lay Catholic faithful a powerful, new voice within the Church.

Pewsitter represents a new paradigm within the Church. It provides a mouthpiece for faithful Catholics to report news of positive developments as well as abuses within their local parishes and communities. Once submitted and verified, Pewsitter will promulgate this information to the universal Church, with the objective of bringing about positive change within the Church and the culture at large

“The concept behind the site is to enlist an army of “pewsitters” to be the eyes and ears for this new site”, stated Pewsitter’s founder, James Todd. “For far too long, faithful Catholics have witnessed abuse after abuse within the Church and have been powerless to do anything about it. No more! By submitting newsworthy items to Pewsitter, the laity can help shape and influence the Church and be a powerful force for positive change.”

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Chocolate Jesus
Friday, March 30, 2007

In the past, I have been critical of those Jews and Jewish groups who drop the "anti-Semitism" label at the drop of a hat. But the Catholic League has taken this practice to an absurd length with its preposterous habit of saying that every depiction of Jesus it did not personally approve is a threat and affront to Christianity. Earlier it was the "War on Easter;" now it's war on a depiction of Jesus made in chocolate.

A New York gallery has angered a US Catholic group with its decision to exhibit a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ.

The six-foot (1.8m) sculpture, entitled "My Sweet Lord", depicts Jesus Christ naked on the cross.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue called it "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever".

The sculpture, by artist Cosimo Cavallaro, will be displayed from Monday at Manhattan's Lab Gallery.

The Catholic League, which describes itself as the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organisation, also criticised the timing of the exhibition.

"The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate," Mr Donohue said.

Oh, please. "One of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever"? Eat a Hershey bar and chill out.

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The War on Easter?

Those organizations that live on the oxygen of publicity are at it again. Now there's a war on Easter!

Public schools in Tiverton in the US state of Rhode Island have banned the word "Easter" at all school events and children will now have their photos taken with Peter Rabbit instead of the Easter Bunny.

The US Catholic League reports that William Rearick, Schools Superintendent of the Tiverton Public Schools in Rhode Island, has banned the Easter Bunny from appearing at a fundraising event tomorrow at the Tiverton Middle School.

He has also banned the word "Easter" from all school events. He told the Providence Journal

Taking the place of the Easter Bunny will be Peter Rabbit, the Catholic League says, and children will be able to get their picture taken with him.

But League president Bill Donohue described it as "unconscionable that in this day and age Superintendent Rearick would choose to honour a thief".

"As every schoolchild knows, Peter Rabbit stole from Mr McGregor's garden," Donohue said.
The image on the right is from a Fox News segment on this story.

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You Can Love the Pope and Bob Dylan
Thursday, March 22, 2007

The news that Pope Benedict tried to prevent his predecessor from meeting Bob Dylan has generated a big pushback from Dylan-loving-Catholics. Here's one example:

Being the "voice of a generation" can't be an easy job. It is a position that the troubadour of modern culture - born Robert Zimmerman to a middle-class Jewish family from Hibbing, Minnesota - won very early on in his career and one he has always rejected. But I suspect it is this same antiquated notion of Bob Dylan that Pope Benedict XVI had in mind when he recently revealed that he had opposed plans for Dylan to perform at a 1997 concert for Pope John Paul II. "There was reason to be sceptical," Benedict says in his new book John Paul II, My Beloved Predecessor, "to doubt if it was really right to let these types of prophets intervene."

For Catholics like me - and, trust me, there are millions of us - who have been profoundly moved, nourished and simply entertained by Dylan's music and countless other elements of pop culture, the pope’s comments felt like a betrayal of sorts as well. Fortunately, the then Cardinal Ratzinger's arguments did not win the day back in 1997 and Dylan appeared as scheduled. Of course John Paul II used the event to his advantage (as he so often did), engaging people by preaching about the movement of the Holy Spirit using Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" as his metaphor.

It is a strange feeling today to be part of a faith community whose leadership does not seem to value the cultural sensibilities of a considerable portion of its flock. For a Pope who has such a deep devotion to the works of such a classical giant as Mozart to have so little appreciation for one of the most important figures in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music is troubling and points to a lack of understanding of the scores of spiritual seekers - of which Dylan is a charter member - whose faith journeys might be somewhat messy. Benedict's apparent suspicion of popular culture is a sad reminder that the Church sometimes has a tin ear with regard to the endless ways that the Holy Spirit continually operates within culture to help us recognise the sacred in the most unexpected places.

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Day of Discovery
Thursday, February 15, 2007

A reader sends this tip:

I am writing because I found a very interesting TV program that you might try to catch sometime. It is called Day of Discovery and I found it on a cable channel. Most of its programs are shot in Israel and they consider both religious and political issues very warmly and fairly. The presenters are evangelical Christians and yet they treat their subjects very fairly. There is none of the fanaticism and hoopla that one finds on TBN, for instance. I think their website is www.rbc.org. When I checked it last, they had a listing of local cities. The program is lighthearted and yet handles heavy themes such as the Israeli/Arab conflict well and even handedly. The photography, too, is done very professionally.

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Obama Mentions His Middle Name
Monday, February 12, 2007

Breaking News: Obama knows his middle name may freak out many Americans. The AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday he does not think voters have a litmus test on religion, whether evangelical Christianity or his childhood years in a largely Muslim country.

"If your name is Barack Hussein Obama, you can expect it, some of that. I think the majority of voters know that I'm a member of the United Church of Christ, and that I take my faith seriously," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Ultimately what I think voters will be looking for is not so much a litmus test on faith as an assurance that a candidate has a value system and that is appreciative of the role that religious faith can play in helping shape people's lives," he said.

For more the background of Obama's name at Feiler Faster, click any of the links below:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA:
Bibles of Blogging -- Fox v CNN v Chicago Tribune
Madrassah-gate -- Was Obama schooled as a terrorist?
Muslim Blood in the White House? -- Was Obama's father a terrorist?
Can a Muslim-Atheist-Christian Be Elected President? -- Bloggers react to Feiler Faster.
It Worked So Well For Mike Tyson -- Now Michael Jackson wants to be Muslim

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM 0 comments

"Don't Christian Beliefs Matter to Christians?"
Monday, February 5, 2007

A reader writes in response to my post "Does Jesus Love Osama?"

If the critics of the "Jesus Loves Osama" signs actually did concede that this is probably true according to Christian beliefs, that's the clincher. End of argument, right? Or, don't Christian beliefs really matter to Christians? Well, some of us have been noticing that for some centuries, what was central for Jesus has been marginalized at best and anathematized at worst by Christendom--I speak of his teaching, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." It really is time for Christians to embrace what Jesus embraced, or quite dragging his name around in their violence and hate compromised wake. When Jesus said he came not to bring peace but a sword, he meant that his teachings were going to present truths which pierce the soul and divide those who accept his truths from those who do not. That's a division which can always be crossed in either direction, but it is a very meaningful division.


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Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM 2 comments

The God Gene
Saturday, February 3, 2007

The National Prayer Breakfast was this week in Washington and the guest speaker was Francis Collins, former head of the genome project and recent born-again Christian. His entire talk is posted here. An excerpt:

As I explored the evidence more deeply, all around me I began to see signposts to something outside of nature that could only be called God. I realized that the scientific method can really only answer questions about HOW things work. It can’t answer questions about WHY – and those are in fact the most important ones. Why is there something instead of nothing? Why does mathematics work so beautifully to describe nature? Why is the universe so precisely tuned to make life possible? Why do we humans have a universal sense of right and wrong, and an urge to do right – even though we disagree on how to interpret that calling?

Confronted with these revelations, I realized that my own assumption -- that faith was the opposite of reason -- was incorrect. I should have known better: Scripture defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Evidence! Simultaneously, I realized that atheism was in fact the least rational of all choices. As Chesterton wrote, “Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas … for it is the assertion of a universal negative.” How could I have had the arrogance to make such an assertion?

So I had to accept the plausibility of a powerful force, a creative Mind, that existed outside of Nature. But was God only to be found in the abstract, or did he also care about me? I felt an increasing hunger to answer that question.

After searching for two years more, I ultimately found my own answer -- in the loving person of Jesus Christ. Here was a man unlike any other. He was humble and kindhearted. He reached out to those considered lowest in society. He made astounding statements about loving your enemies. And he promised something that no ordinary man should be able to promise – to forgive sins. On top of all that, having assumed all my life that Jesus was just a myth, I was astounded to learn that the evidence for his historical existence was actually overwhelming.

Update. A reader writes: "Perhaps you could also link this article to the February 2007 National Geographic. Collins is interviewed by John Horgan in this issue." A good idea: Done.

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:30 PM 0 comments

Does Jesus Love Osama?
Friday, February 2, 2007

The AP: A sign saying "Jesus Loves Osama" outside some churches in Australia drew criticism from the prime minister and religious leaders on Thursday, though they conceded it was probably true according to Christian beliefs.

One sign outside the Central Baptist Church in downtown Sydney also had a smaller footnote saying "Jesus said: `Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."' Several other churches in the city had similar signs urging prayers for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda terrorist leader, according to local media.

A photograph of the sign was published in The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday, prompting debate about whether it was a suitable message.

Prime Minister John Howard said something else would have been better.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:44 AM 1 comments

Heschel at 100: Be Kind Not Smart
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Surely the last article I expected to see in USA Today on the way home last night was an homage to the beloved and, at times, abstruse Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. (Shown at right with MLK; Heschel is the one on the right with the Mosaic beard.) I quote from his book, The Prophets, quite a bit in WHERE GOD WAS BORN but probably the idea of his I must appreciate is the notion that God is looking for man as much as we are looking for him (see God in Search of Man).

"Heschel's central idea … was a God of pathos, a God of emotions, a God who cares about human history and what human beings do, even individuals," says biographer Edward Kaplan of Brandeis. "It's a kind of astounding doctrine."

Beyond academia, Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Berkeley-based Network of Spiritual Progressives and author of 2006 best seller The Left Hand of God, calls himself a Heschel "disciple."

"We are following in his footsteps," Lerner says. "We're manifestations of his legacy."

Richard John Neuhaus joined with Heschel and peace activist Daniel Berrigan in 1965 to establish the influential anti-war group Clergy Concerned About Vietnam. But today Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and editor of the religion journal First Things, says Heschel's influence on him and society is most clearly felt in Jewish-Christian relations, which Heschel shaped through his role as Judaic consultant to Vatican II at a time when Heschel's Hasidic community forbade theological dialogue with Christians.

Here's a classic Heschel quote: "When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people."


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Posted by B Feiler at 7:58 AM 0 comments

U2-charist
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

That's hip hop for the new age of Christianity: U2-charist replaces the Eucharist.

Rock stars with the messiah complex are nothing new. During my time in Nashville, I watched Garth Brooks transform himself from a humble country singer into his vision of a sacrificial lamb. Dreaming Out Loud, my book about the two years I spent with him and other stars, ends with Garth having himself photographed in the shape of the crucifixion. He sacrificed himself and was reborn as Chris Gaines, a weird, rock singer with a full head of dyed hair. That persona bombed.

Bono doesn't have to perform such a transfiguration: The Church has done it for him! U2's music is suddenly all the rage in churches in a vain attempt to draw in younger worshipers. (Is this a good idea?! Don't U2 fans know how to illegally download their music and don't need to go to church to hear it!) Here's a report:

BEFORE he became the pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI once said that rock music was an 'instrument of the Devil'.

But chances are, he might give Irish supergroup U2 the benefit of the doubt.

That's because traditional churches all over the world are starting to replace hymns with the songs by the rock band in a bid to attract younger worshippers.

Informally dubbed the 'U2-charist', after the rite of eucharist, it is an adapted version of the Holy Communion service where worshippers sing along to U2 hits like Beautiful Day and Mysterious Ways instead of traditional hymns.

The idea for U2-charists was started by Reverend Paige Blair, an Episcopal priest in York Harbor, Maine, in 2005.

Since then, she has advised about 150 churches on U2-charists in 15 states and seven countries, with churches even in New Zealand and Hong Kong embracing U2's songs.

The Church of England is the latest church to join the trend. It will be staging its first U2-charist in the town of Lincoln in May. 'Rock music can be a vehicle of immense spirituality,' Bishop of Grantham Timothy Ellis told Reuters.

This seems like a pretty silly idea to me. After all, don't U2 fans know how to illegally download their music and don't need to go to church to hear it?

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:15 AM 0 comments

Jesus Saves, Moses Invests
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I'm just learning about this phrase for the first time, though it seems to have an active life as a racial slur, point of pride, evangelical recruiting tool, and bathroom stall graffiti haiku. Anybody know the origin?

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Posted by B Feiler at 2:47 PM 0 comments

Get Your Hand Out of the Collection Plate
Friday, January 5, 2007

Yesterday I was talking about how bracing it is for anyone who spends any time reading about the history of religion in America to learn that a whopping 155 members of Congress are Catholic. As recently as a few generations ago, this news would have caused deep concern in large portions of the Protestant majority in America. Today, the opposite news rises to the surface: the Catholic Church is sagging under the weight of its moral weakness. The NYT flags the following story on Page 1 today: A study at Villanova has found that a stunning 85% of churches experience embezzlement of their funds. EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT.

“As a faith-based organization, we place a lot of trust in our folks,” said Chuck Zech, a co-author of the study and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova.

“We think if you work for a church — you’re a volunteer or a priest — the last thing on your mind is to do something dishonest,” Mr. Zech said. “But people are people, and there’s a lot of temptation there, and with the cash-based aspect of how churches operate, it’s pretty easy.”

There will be no need to ask "Where's the outrage?" over this story, it's going to be loud -- and not just in Catholic churches. And as an outsider to the Catholic Church, I can only conclude that this is another piece of drip-drip information that's going to deeply undermine the authority of the institution. Pull back just for a second and look at the wallops: gay priest cover up, huge financial settlements, The DaVinci Code, financial scandals. Put this in the context of the power the Church has had over Western Civilization for the last seventeen centuries and it's hard not to think we are entering a new era when religion is going to be less and less defined from above and more and more defined as an individual creation.

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Posted by B Feiler at 9:18 AM 0 comments

Married Priests?

At first glance this appears to be a bigger deal than it is: A meeting at the Vatican to discuss the readmission of married priests. The news is from a meeting in Nov., 2006 that Catholic News re-ran this week as part of its most popular series from 2006:

A Vatican meeting presided over by Pope Benedict yesterday discussed the possible readmission of "priests who at present meet the conditions foreseen by the Church", while reaffirming "the value" of celibacy. A Vatican statement said "the value of the choice of celibacy according to Catholic tradition was reaffirmed as was the need for a solid human and Christian formation, be it for seminarians as well as priests who have already been ordained," Reuters reports.

The meeting had been called to debate a strategy to deal with the schism threatened by controversial Zambian Archbishop Emanuel Milingo's plan to create a personal prelature for married priests following his recent ordination of four married men in Washington DC.

At second glance it may be downright odd: "Milingo, a charismatic faith healer and exorcist, is not just a keen proponent of marriage, but tried it himself in 2001 at a mass ceremony held by the Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church."

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:54 AM 0 comments

Cradle in the Sun
Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Last fall I gave a speech in Cleveland at the closing of a wonderful exhibition, "Cradle of Christianity." The exhibit has now been relocated to Ft. Lauderdale for the winter, and it later travels on to Emory. The photo at right, at the quote below, come from an article in the Sun-Sentinel:

The exhibit, drawn from a show at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, has some of the greatest treasures of biblical archaeology: the burial box of Caiaphas, the high priest who condemned Jesus; the only known inscription with the name of Pontius Pilate, the governor who sentenced Jesus to be crucified; pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the astonishing cache of ancient texts found in the Judean desert more than a generation ago.

"Cradle of Christianity" deals with the formation of the new faith over seven centuries, from its birth as a Judaic sect in the first century to its triumph as the state religion of the Byzantine Empire.
And a heads up: I'll be giving a speech on January 30th at the closing of the exhibition, and I''ll be at the exhibition yet again, when it moves to Emory this spring and summer.

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Posted by B Feiler at 10:53 AM 0 comments

"Moses Was Once a Basket Case"
Friday, December 29, 2006

I'm often asked where the idea for Walking the Bible came from. Sometimes I joke: Living across the street from three churches in Nashville for two years. Here's why! The AP profiles Donald Seitz who spent three years driving 20,000 miles across 40 states to photograph 100 church signs for a new self-published book, which features other catchy lines like "Life is fragile. Handle with prayer" and "Don't Give Up. Moses Was Once A Basket Case."

Some of the highlights: "Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death," from Church of Christ at Brookhill in Killen, Ala.; "Love God with all your heart, then do whatever you want," from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City; and "Tithe if you love Jesus. Anyone can honk," from Southern Heights Baptist Church in Russellville, Ky.

The book is featured at www.thisisyoursign.com. (Hat tip: GalleyCat.)

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Posted by B Feiler at 1:52 PM 0 comments

St. Paul's Tomb Found in Rome
Wednesday, December 27, 2006

As someone well-traveled in biblical archaeology, I am usually skeptical about claims of great, breakthrough "discoveries." "We've found the Flood!" "We've found David's sword!" "We've found Jesus' shroud!" History is littered with such false finds, and the tourist trinkets sold on their backs.


But a friend tipped me off this morning about the recent "discovery" of St. Paul's tomb in Rome. On the down side, the evidence only dates back to the 4th century C.E., to the Byzantine era when grand prounouncements about the location of biblical events was very much in vogue. It's the time period that produced the linkage with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Mt. Nebo, and the burning bush. But on the (mild) upside, as pointed out in this helpful blog entry, is the fact that the "actual" site is located in the same spot as traditional location.

Either way, sell long on St. Paul's Church outside of Rome. Trinket sales are likely to surge.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:46 AM 0 comments

As Go the Episcopalians, So Go the Jews
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

In the 19th century, denomination after denomination of Christianity in America splintered over the issue of slavery. Now we're seeing almost exactly the same thing over homosexual rights. First, the Episcopalians. Now, the Jews.

Today, Conservative Judaism made the long-expected decision to allow gay rabbis and unions. And just as quickly, the splintering began. The NYT reports on the early skirmishes, soon to play out in every Conservative shul in the country.

But in a reflection of the divisions in the movement, the 25 rabbis on the law committee passed three conflicting legal opinions — one in favor of gay rabbis and unions, and two against.

In doing so, the committee left it up to individual synagogues to decide whether to accept or reject gay rabbis and commitment ceremonies, saying that either course is justified according to Jewish law.

“We believe in pluralism,” said Rabbi Kassel Abelson, chairman of the panel, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, at a news conference after the meeting at the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.

“We recognized from the very beginnings of the movement that no single position could speak for all members” on the law committee or in the Conservative movement.

In protest, four conservative rabbis resigned from the law committee, saying that the decision to allow gay ordination violated Jewish law, or halacha. Among them were the authors of the two legal opinions the committee adopted that opposed gay rabbis and same-sex unions.

Another step in what I have long believed will be the end of tripartite Judaism in my lifetime.

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Posted by B Feiler at 11:33 PM 0 comments

Clash of Civilizations?
Thursday, November 30, 2006

With the pope in Turkey, lots of reporters are looking for evidence of a rise in Muslim extremism. But looking for a clash of civilizations in Turkey? Look again. Turks are becoming more Muslim in private but decidedly less so in public. Since 1999, public wearing of head scarves has dropped from 16 percent to 11 percent. Mosque attendance has also dropped sharply. All this while more people describe themselves as Muslim. The headline: Keep religion private and out of public life.

Here's the key graf from the Globe and Mail:

More important, according to a study of 1,500 Turks over a seven-year period by the respected Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, people here are far less interested in seeing their religious beliefs reflected in politics, a secularizing trend that is almost unique among Muslims, not just in the Islamic world but also in the West.

Islamic sharia law is now supported by only 9 per cent of Turks, down from 21 per cent in 1999. Only a quarter of Turks now believe there should be political parties based on religion, down from 41 per cent seven years ago. (The ruling AK Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a history of Islamism.) And the number of Turks who do not want to live in an Islamic state now stands at 76 per cent, up from 58 per cent in the previous decade.

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Posted by B Feiler at 9:05 AM 0 comments

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