Religion Here and Now: July 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pope calls food price speculation immoral

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New monastics share community, offer hope

They aren't a commune, but they live in community. They are motivated by faith, but they attend different churches. They want to help the homeless, so they bought an apartment complex.

By Sanford Myers, The (Nashville) Tennessean

Castanea members do the dishes after a meeting in Nashville last week.

By Sanford Myers, The (Nashville) Tennessean

Castanea members do the dishes after a meeting in Nashville last week.

They are new monastics, dedicated to helping the poor, sharing resources and caring for creation. Known as Castanea, meaning chestnut tree in Latin, these young Christians are working to transform a run-down apartment complex into a place of reconciliation.

Castanea's members moved to Chestnut Hill, Tenn., in South Nashville two years ago, planning to live in close proximity to one another, fulfilling their vision of Christian community and helping others.

But when they found an apartment complex condemned by the city, they decided to buy it. Castanea has since completed the initial cleanup, and the group hopes to begin construction in the next few months, installing new windows, doors and a roof. It still needs $600,000 to complete renovations on the building.

The apartments will enable all of the members to live under one roof — a family of seven, another married couple and the six single adults in the group can fit in four apartments. There, they can easily share meals, prayer, work, study, play and possessions. The remaining 10 units they plan to lease out to the homeless and refugees by coordinating with other organizations fighting homelessness in the city.

By Sanford Myers, The (Nashville) Tennessean

Before Castanea bought it, the Chestnut Hill complex was "one of the worst complexes in South Nashville for crime, drugs, etc.," one neighbor said.

"The product of this age is for people to choose their own way and be independent, but whenever I go to Haiti to do work down there, people are living in these families in a tribal idea of community, and you realize that our Western idea of self-reliance and independence is a pretty new thing," said Daniel Burt, a member of Castanea.

Amanda Burt, Daniel's wife, said she wants to live up to biblical commandments such as loving her neighbors and giving to the poor, and a shared community makes it easier because members are accountable to one another.

Movement takes off

The new monasticism movement has been around for a century but really started to take off in the 1990s, said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of Durham, N.C., a leader in the movement. New monasticism focuses on leading a communal life of Christian fellowship and engagement with the "other America" — the homeless, immigrants, prisoners and the poor.

While new monasticism does not demand personal poverty, it does typically mean sharing resources. It also attempts to break away from consumerism.

These communities are located all over the country, normally in poor areas of a city, with an intention to engage the community in revitalization.

Wilson-Hartgrove said people are drawn to the movement in part because they are put off by the self-centered and political culture of many churches today. He said people are looking for a Christianity that is more about a way of life.

"It makes you part of an alternative community, almost a contrast culture that is in a society that I think a lot of people, Christian and not, are unsatisfied with," he said.

Wilson-Hartgrove spoke at a conference on intentional communities two years ago in Nashville, the same conference where Daniel and Amanda Burt met Jason Adkins, adjunct professor of environmental justice at Trevecca Nazarene University, and his wife, Stephani, who also were searching for an intentional community.

The Adkinses were already looking to move to Chestnut Hill, originally to institute urban farming and live in community. Other members, many of them students and alumni from Trevecca, also joined. And so Castanea was born.

The members of the group are diverse in many ways. Ages range from 2 to 35. Some have been hit by the hard economic times and are unemployed, dedicating most of their time to volunteering. Others are civil engineers, full-time moms or dance teachers. The members represent different Christian denominations and socio-economic backgrounds.

Sustainability focus

Daniel and Amanda Burt bought the apartment complex for $115,000 and plan to transfer ownership to Castanea when it is approved as a nonprofit. Currently, the members live within blocks of one another in Chestnut Hill, until they make the apartments livable, and pay bills based on income instead of an equal division of rent.

They plan to make the apartments sustainable in their attempt to care for creation.

The apartments will have a green roof, with a layer of soil and plants to insulate the building, decrease water runoff and give residents the opportunity to grow their own food. The building will have natural walls made of clay, sand and lime, with straw bale walls for insulation.

Outside will feature "growing walls," or trellises, allowing for vertically growing plants, such as grapes, to snake up the side of the apartments. The grounds will have an orchard and an aquatic farming system for food. A water catchment system will collect excess rainwater for gardening.

Inside the apartments will be a common area for residents to share life and a large kitchen, perhaps to help local catering businesses thrive.

As part of their mission, Castanea members are working with the residents of Chestnut Hill to promote urban gardening and entrepreneurship. Their primary mission, however, is just to be good neighbors.

"I think they bring something that our community really needs, which is hope," said John Munn, resident of Chestnut Hill.

Munn said the residents of Chestnut Hill haven't seen the light at the end of a long tunnel of unemployment, poverty, poor housing options and a high crime rate. But community activism is starting to see a change in the neighborhood, as residents take back their community.

"Everyone is thrilled that knows the property they bought, because it has been one of the worst apartment complexes in South Nashville when it comes to crime, drugs, etc.," he said.

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Muslim charity CAIR scrutinized over missing IRS filings

NASHVILLE — The Council on American-Islamic Relations has earned a fierce reputation for defending Muslim civil rights.

But the Washington, D.C.,-based group's work is being threatened as it faces scrutiny for failing to file tax returns.

CAIR was among 275,000 nonprofits nationwide that the Internal Revenue Service stripped of tax-exempt status this month. None of the groups filed required tax returns, known as Form 990s, for three years, and any donations to them can be taxed, the IRS reported.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said his group filed accurate, on-time returns but lost its tax-exempt status over an incorrect filing from several years ago.

But employees couldn't produce CAIR's latest Form 990 this week, and critics suggest the charity avoided filing to hide financial dealings from the public.

Muslim leaders here said they were surprised to hear the news about CAIR's problems with the IRS. CAIR lawyers helped oppose two companion bills in the state legislature that targeted some practices outlined in Shariah law, Islam's code of conduct.

The legislation — described by sponsors as anti-terrorist, not anti-Islam — passed in May after being revised to remove all mention of religion.

Imam Mohamed Ahmed of the Islamic Center of Nashville said he's taking a wait-and-see approach to the latest news about CAIR. He hopes that the national nonprofit can clear up the matter quickly.

"We don't want to jump to a conclusion," he said.

The IRS problem comes at a time when other Muslim groups are urging transparency to win Americans' trust.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, Muslim Advocates in San Francisco and the American Islamic Forum for Democracy in Phoenix have filed their 990s on time. So have local chapters of CAIR in California, Florida, Minnesot a, Texas and other states. Their forms are available online at Guidestar.org, a clearinghouse for information on nonprofits.

Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, said her organization, partnering with the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, has trained more than 400 Muslim charities and mosques around the United States on good governance practices. Because of the current political climate, in which fears of terrorism run high, Muslim groups have to uphold high standards, she said.

"Charitable giving and charitable activities are not only a core Islamic value, but it's also a core of who we are as Americans," she said. "We also recognize that in a post-9/11 world, our charities — perhaps more than other faith groups' charities — are under the microscope by the public and the government."

Part of that scrutiny stems from the troubles of the Holy Land Foundation, a Dallas-based Muslim charity. In 2008, five of the charity's leaders were convicted of channeling money to the terrorist group Hamas. A number of Muslim groups, including CAIR, were labeled as unindicted co-conspirators during the Holy Land Foundation trial.

Khera said that federal prosecutors erred when releasing the list of unindicted co-conspirators. Because they weren't charged with a crime, they can't defend themselves, she said.

"They don't have the opportunity to address the allegations in the court of law. It's in the court of public opinion," she said.

Zudhi Jasser, executive director of the Islamic Forum for Democracy, has been critical of CAIR, which he says too often claims to speak for all Muslims in America.

"If there is one way we can build a trusting relationship and be part of the solution, it's through transparency," he said.

Hooper, CAIR's spokesman, has insisted the group's recent Form 990s exist.

"CAIR, along with 275,000 other nonprofit organizations nationwide, had a technical pape rwork issue related to past IRS filings — and like many other organizations, we were not notified in advance of the IRS' action," he said. "This issue is currently being dealt with in cooperation with the IRS and should be resolved shortly. It shouldn't affect our work or the donations of our supporters."

When asked to send copies of the charity's most recent Form 990, Hooper said he did not have access to it.

A Gannett Washington bureau reporter visited CAIR's offices Tuesday and requested the tax returns. According to the IRS, nonprofits must make their tax returns available to the public upon request, but the reporter was told that CAIR's executive director was in a meeting, and she should come back the next day.

An IRS spokesman declined to comment on CAIR and pointed to a website that explains all on the list of 275,000 lost their tax-exempt status over failure to file returns for three consecutive years. Any charity on the list must reapply for tax-e xempt status.

Joseph Farah, editor-in-chief of WorldNetDaily, a conservative website, is a longtime critic of CAIR. He said the charity is hiding financial data from the public, and he is not surprised that CAIR's tax-exempt status was revoked.

"We know that they hadn't filed tax returns," Farah said. "This is the IRS you are dealing with. Eventually, they are going to get you."

Farah's organization and CAIR are locked in a legal feud over the book "Muslim Mafia," which Farah's organization published. The book is based on internal CAIR documents, copied from their files by Chris Gaubatz, who posed as a Muslim convert to gain an internship at CAIR.

Gaubatz has ties to the Center for Security Policy, an anti-Islam group whose leader, Frank Gaffney, testified in the lawsuit against a new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tenn., seeking to halt its construction.

CAIR sued Gaubatz and his father, David Gaubatz, over the book. Farah's gro up is paying their legal bills. They've used the recent news about CAIR's issues with the IRS to promote the book.

Contributing: Elizabeth Bewley, Gannett Washington Bureau

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Pope is a click away from Vatican leap to new media

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican, whose communications problems are no secret, is taking a leap into the world of new media with the launch next week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a papal click.

By Pier Paolo Cito, AP

Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli shows to journalists the new Vatican news portal, www.news.va, during a press conference at the Vatican,

By Pier Paolo Cito, AP

Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli shows to journalists the new Vatican news portal, www.news.va, during a press conference at the Vatican,

Vatican officials said Saturday that Benedict has been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican's various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop-shop for Holy See news.

The portal —http://www.news.va— is being launched Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of Benedict's ordination as a priest and a feast day in the church.

Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, who heads the Vatican office that developed the portal and will maintain it, said Benedict may put the site online himself with a click from the Apostolic Palace.

"This is a new way of communicating," Celli said during a preview of the site at the offices of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

It's the latest effort by the Vatican to bring its evangelizing message to a greater, Internet-savvy audience and follows its forays into Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It's also a significant step for the 84-year-old Benedict, who has been bedeviled by communications woes during much of his six-year papacy, much of it the fault of a large Vatican bureaucracy that doesn't always communicate well internally.

There was his 2005 speech about Islam and violence, his recent comments about condoms and HIV that required no less than three official Vatican clarifications, and his rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop, among others.

While the portal is designed mostly to provide Vatican news in an easy-to-use setting for the outside world, Celli said he hoped it would also improve the Vatican's own internal communications by letting various departments know what one another are up to and help provide a more coherent message.

"I think that we must educate the Roman Curia of what is the real meaning of communication," Celli said. "Little by little they will perceive that this is the real meaning to be present, to have a relevance."

Previously, popes have been very much involved in the Vatican's communications efforts: Pope Pius XI personally inaugurated Vatican Radio in 1931, and Pope John Paul II oversaw the 1995 launch of http://www.vatican.va— the Vatican's website.

That site will remain as the Holy See's main home page and documentation warehouse. And each of the Vatican media that are represented on the news portal will retain their independent sites as well: Vatican Radio, the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican Television Center, the Vatican press office and information service and the Fides missionary news agency.

The portal, though, will aggregate their main news, initially in English and Italian then other languages, and be updated three times a day, Celli said. The portal is outfitted for live-streaming of papal events, audio feeds from Vatican Radio, photographs from L'Osservatore Romano and printed texts of papal homilies, statements and speeches.

It's also designed to be social-media friendly, with Twitter feeds and Facebook links — part of the Vatican's recent realization that it can reach a wide new audience by interacting with the outside world rather than merely preaching from afar.

There are no search functions on the portal or an obvious link to the Vatican's main home page, but that may come in an update of the site, officials said.

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Mormon church bars senior leaders from politics

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Francis J. Beckwith's religion.

By J Pat Carter, AP

Republican presidential hopeful and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is one of two Mormons running for the GOP nomination of president.Tthe Mormon Church has reminded its full time workers to steer clear of endorsements and donations in the election.

By J Pat Carter, AP

The Mormon church is reminding its senior leaders that they should steer clear of politics as a campaign season ramps up and two of the faith's own compete for the GOP presidential nomination.

In a letter sent June 16, church president Thomas S. Monson and his senior counselors said lay leaders with full-time church responsibilities and their spouses should not participate in political campaigns, including "promoting candidates, fundraising, speaking on behalf of or otherwise endorsing candidates and making financial contributions."

The letter was sent to the highest officers of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including general authorities, general auxiliary leaders, mission presidents and temple presidents — those whose positions are visible highly visible both in and out of the church and who could be seen as acting on behalf of the church.

Full-time church employees and part-time leaders, such as those who hold local or regional congregational duties are exempt from the policy.

Excerpts of the letter are included in a lengthy explanation of the church's political neutrality policy posted on a church website. The letter is described as a "restatement and further clarification" of existing policy "at the start of another political season."

Under the political neutrality policy, the institutional church does not endorse individual political candidates or parties. It also bans the use of church buildings or church-generated information for political purposes and asks candidates to refrain from making statements or inferences that suggest they have the church's support.

The Mormon church does, however, engage in political activism or campaigns when its leaders believe an issue of moral importance is at stake.

That would include the faith's involvement in the 2006 ballot initiative Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California and its efforts to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.

Political experts say the timing of the letter and a restatement of church policy should come as no surprise.

Two Mormons — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman— have jumped into the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

"It's not unusual for the LDS church to do this and I think given the fact that you've got two very high profile candidates in the presidential race, that's a circumstance where they're saying, 'Oh, we'd better remind people what the rules are,'" University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank said.

The letter reminds the faith's lay leaders that when they do choose to engage in political activity they are acting "solely as individual citizens in the democratic process" and should not "imply, or otherwise allow others to infer, that their actions or support in any way represent the church."

It's not clear whether the statement is also a response to criticisms of the church's involvement in Prop. 8, but regardless, Burbank said it's in the faith's best interest to draw a bright line so its members and leaders understand the rules.

It also helps candidates Huntsman and Romney who likely don't want their campaigns to appear to be driven solely by Mormons, he said.

But some political experts say no one should read too much into the church statement — although it may not have previously publicly stated in this way.

"I do not think there is anything new about this statement in terms of its substance. It is consistent with an LDS understanding of politics and the common good as well as the limitations of engaging in partisan politics placed on religious organizations by (Internal Revenue Service) regulations," said Francis J. Beckwith, a professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University. "What I think the LDS church is doing here is articulating in greater specificity what it's always held in more general terms."

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Tech tools tackle Biblical scholarship

JERUSALEM (AP) — Software developed by an Israeli team is giving intriguing new hints about what researchers believe to be the multiple hands that wrote the Bible.

Eds: Adds photo links.

By Anonymous, AP

Software developed by Israeli scholars details what researchers believe to be multiple writers behind the Bible, using an algorithm to examine texts drawn from ancient manuscripts such as this parchment believed to be part of the most authoritative manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, the Aleppo Codex.

By Anonymous, AP

The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book.

The program, part of a sub-field of artificial intelligence studies known as authorship attribution, has a range of potential applications — from helping law enforcement to developing new computer programs for writers. But the Bible provided a tempting test case for the algorithm's creators.

For millions of Jews and Christians, it's a tenet of their faith that God is the author of the core text of the Hebrew Bible— the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. But since the advent of modern biblical scholarship, academic researchers have believed the text was written by a number of different authors whose work could be identified by seemingly different ideological agendas and linguistic styles and the different names they used for God.

Today, scholars generally split the text into two main strands. One is believed to have been written by a figure or group known as the "priestly" author, because of apparent connections to the temple priests in Jerusalem. The rest is "non-priestly." Scholars have meticulously gone over the text to ascertain which parts belong to which strand.

When the new software was run on the Pentateuch, it found the same division, separating the "priestly" and "non-priestly." It matched up with the traditional academic division at a rate of 90% — effectively recreating years of work by multiple scholars in minutes, said Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the computer science professor who headed the research team.

"We have thus been able to largely recapitulate several centuries of painstaking manual labor with our automated method," the Israeli team announced in a paper presented last week in Portland, Oregon, at the annual conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics. The team includes a computer science doctoral student, Navot Akiva, and a father-son duo: Nachum Dershowitz, a Tel Aviv University computer scientist, and his son, Idan Dershowitz, a Bible scholar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The places in which the program disagreed with accepted scholarship might prove interesting leads for scholars. The first chapter of Genesis, for example, is usually thought to have been written by the "priestly" author, but the software indicated it was not.

Similarly, the book of Isaiah is largely thought to have been written by two distinct authors, with the second author taking over after Chapter 39. The software's results agreed that the book might have two authors, but suggested the second author's section actually began six chapters earlier, in Chapter 33.

The differences "have the potential to generate fruitful discussion among scholars," said Michael Segal of Hebrew University's Bible Department, who was not involved in the project.

Over the past decade, computer programs have increasingly been assisting Bible scholars in searching and comparing texts, but the novelty of the new software seems to be in its ability to take criteria developed by scholars and apply them through a technological tool more powerful in many respects than the human mind, Segal said.

Before applying the software to the Pentateuch and other books of the Bible, the researchers first needed a more objective test to prove the algorithm could correctly distinguish one author from another.

So they randomly jumbled the Hebrew Bible's books of Ezekiel and Jeremiah into one text and ran the software. It sorted the mixed-up text into its component parts "almost perfectly," the researchers announced.

The program recognizes repeated word selections, like uses of the Hebrew equivalents of "if," "and" and "but," and notices synonyms: In some places, for example, the Bible gives the word for "staff" as "makel," while in others it uses "mateh" for the same object. The program then separates the text into strands it believes to be the work of different people.

Other researchers have looked at linguistic fingerprints in less sacred texts as a way of identifying unknown writers. In the 1990s, the Vassar English professor Donald Foster famously identified the journalist Joe Klein as the anonymous author of the book "Primary Colors" by looking at minor details like punctuation.

In 2003, Koppel was part of a research team that developed software that could successfully tell, four times out of five, if the author of a text was male or female. Women, the researchers found, are far more likely to use personal pronouns like "she" and "he," while men prefer determiners like "that" and "this" — women, in other words, talk about people, while men prefer to talk about things. That success sparked debate about how gender shapes the way we think and communicate.

Research of this kind has potential applications for law enforcement, allowing authorities to catch imposters or to match anonymous texts with possible authors by identifying linguistic tics. Because the analysis can also help identify gender and age, it might also allow advertisers to better target customers.

The new software might be used to investigate Shakespeare's plays and settle lingering questions of authorship or co-authorship, mused Graeme Hirst, a professor of computational linguistics at the University of Toronto. Or it could be applied to modern texts: "It would be interesting to see if in more cases we can tease apart who wrote what," Hirst said.

The algorithm might also lead to the creation of a style checker for documents prepared by multiple authors or committees, helping iron out awkward style variations and creating a uniform text, Hirst suggested.

What the algorithm won't answer, say the researchers who created it, is the question of whether the Bible is human or divine. Three of the four scholars, including Koppel, are religious Jews who subscribe in some form to the belief that the Torah was dictated to Moses in its entirety by a single author: God.

For academic scholars, the existence of different stylistic threads in the Bible indicates human authorship.

But the research team says in their paper they aren't addressing "how or why such distinct threads exist."

"Those for whom it is a matter of faith that the Pentateuch is not a composition of multiple writers can view the distinction investigated here as that of multiple styles," they said.

In other words, there's no reason why God could not write a book in different voices.

"No amount of research is going to resolve that issue," said Koppel.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

AP: Miracle claimed for World War II-era pope

CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, Italy (AP) — Maria Esposito was ready to give up. Wasted away at 42 kilos (92 pounds), she couldn't bear another dose of chemotherapy to fight the Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma that had invaded her body while she was pregnant with her second child.

By Gregorio Borgia, AP

In this photo taken in Rome on May 31, sister Margherita Marchione smiles near portraits of Pope Pius XII, right, Paul VI, center, and Pope Benedict XVI, left, during an interview with the Associated Press.

By Gregorio Borgia, AP

But as she and her family had done since she was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of cancer in July 2005, Esposito prayed to the man who had appeared to her husband in a dream as the only person who could save her: Pope Pius XII.

Esposito survived, cured after a single, six-week cycle of chemotherapy — a recovery that, she says, stunned her doctors and convinced her that the World War II-era pope had intervened with God to save her.

Esposito's case, which the 42-year-old teacher recounted to The Associated Press in her first media interview, has been proposed to the Vatican as the possible miracle needed to beatify Pius, one of the most controversial sainthood causes under way, given that many Jews say he failed to speak out enough to stop the Holocaust.

Pius' main biographer, American Sister Margherita Marchione, has championed Esposito's miracle case and personally presented it to the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Pope Benedict XVI moved Pius one step closer to possible sainthood in December 2009 when he confirmed that Pius lived a life of "heroic" Christian virtue. All that is needed now is for the Vatican to determine a "miracle" occurred.

"I'm certain that inside of me there was the hand of God operating, thanks to the intercession of Pope Pius XII," Esposito said during a recent interview in her cheery dining room in the seaside town of Castellammare di Stabia on the Amalfi coast. "I'm convinced of it."

Doctors and church officials aren't so sure.

Esposito's local bishop, Monsignor Felice Cece, summoned Esposito earlier this year to testify about her recovery to determine if indeed it was medically inexplicable, one of the key thresholds required by the Vatican to determine if a miracle occurred.

After consulting two outside doctors, Cece determined that Esposito could have been cured by even a single cycle of chemo and essentially closed the case.

But Esposito's supporters, led by Marchione, have gone over the bishop's head and are sending her full medical file directly to the Vatican's saint-making office for review.

"I was saved. I thank the Lord," said Esposito. "If he did something for me, then I now want to do something for him."

The Rev. Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit historian who has spearheaded Pius' saint-making cause for some two decades, said the case was under consideration but was noncommittal.

"We are at the very first preliminary stages of pre-investigation, and we are not even sure whether it will go ahead," he said, stressing that regardless the process is still years away from fruition.

The Vatican's saint-making process has long been subject to skeptics' doubts.

Some question, for example, whether the original diagnosis was correct for the French nun whose inexplicable cure of Parkinson's disease paved the way for Pope John Paul II's beatification. Others have questioned whether the Jewish convert Edith Stein should have been canonized based on the survival of a 2-year-old girl who overdosed on Tylenol.

As such, the questions surrounding Pius' possible miracle are just further evidence of the obstacles and deep theological, historical and political divisions that his cause has run into ever since it was launched in 1965.

Pius was pope in 1939-1958. Before his election he served as the Vatican's No. 2 and before that as papal nuncio to Germany. Given his deep involvement in the Vatican's diplomatic affairs with the Nazis, what Pius did or didn't do during the war has become the single most divisive issue in the Vatican's relations with Jews.

More recently, his beatification case has become the symbolic battleground in the debate over the future of the Catholic Church. Progressives are opposed to it because to them, Pius represents the church before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Traditionalists and conservatives are in favor of it for precisely the same reasons.

The Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives and that speaking out more forcefully against the Nazis would have resulted in more deaths. Critics argue he could have and should have said and done more.

"To talk about the pope as anything other than a moral coward as far as the murder of Jews of Rome is concerned is difficult for any of us who study what actually happened to take," said Brown University anthropologist and historian David Kertzer, author of a forthcoming book on Pius' predecessor, Pope Pius XI.

Despite opposition, Pius' cause is progressing at an impressive clip amid an increasingly concerted effort by Benedict and Pius' supporters to highlight his virtues and discredit his naysayers. A museum is planned in his honor, as are conferences and exhibits.

The Vatican's newspaper, Pius' chief cheerleader, recently ran an article about how Pius had Jews sheltered in convents around Rome during the Nazi occupation. A Vatican-sponsored film festival in May screened three glowing films about his papacy. Benedict himself recently extolled Pius as a hero during the war, saying he'd earned the "everlasting gratitude" of its victims.

Jewish groups and historians have argued for years that the Vatican had no business moving forward with Pius' beatification cause until the Vatican's full secret archive of his papacy is opened to scholars for independent research. That process is expected to take several more years.

"My position has always been to say — and I've said it to Pope Benedict XVI — that this is a matter that should be deferred until at least the generation of Holocaust survivors is no longer with us, so it's not as if rubbing the salt into their wounds," said Rabbi David Rosen, head of interfaith relations at the American Jewish Committee.

Last year, 19 Catholic scholars appealed to the academic in Benedict to give researchers more time to study the full archives. "The question isn't 'Did he do anything?' but whether he might have done more or sooner," said the Rev. John Pawlikowski, ethics professor at the Catholic Theologcial Union who co-wrote the letter.

Pius' supporters, however, are getting impatient. They charge that few scholars ever consult the 11 volumes of World War II archives that have already been released and put online, along with thousands of other documents, by a foundation headed by a Long Island Jew who admires Pius.

"It annoys me terribly that such an injustice is being done to such a great man, that he should be treated the way he is," said Marchione, the Pius biographer who is promoting Esposito's miracle case.

Sitting in her order's convent a stone's throw from the Vatican, Marchione said her religious congregation alone, on orders from Pius, sheltered 114 Jewish women at three separate convents during the Nazi occupation.

"I'm just tired of the whole thing that people can't go back to the documents that prove it and accept it as historical truth," she said in a recent interview.

Marchione flips through one of her nine books on Pius to prove her point: a photo of Jewish women and children sheltered in the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo; a photo of a pro-pope rally after Rome was liberated in 1944; a shot of the pope with members of the Israeli Philharmonic who in 1955 performed a concert for Pius in the Vatican in gratitude for having saved Jews.

Marchione has been unflagging in her support for Esposito's case, presenting it first to Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, in 2009 and recently sending her secretary to Castellammare di Stabia to gather Esposito's testimony and medical file to send directly to the Vatican's saint-making office.

For Pius' supporters, the hunt for a miracle is all the more urgent because he isn't a household name like Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II. Where he is known, it's most often in the context of his controversial record, not necessarily because people would think to pray to him for a medical cure.

Esposito, in fact, said she had never heard of Pius until she fell ill.

Her husband, Umberto di Maio, said the family had been praying to John Paul II, who had died just a few months before, when Esposito was diagnosed in July 2005. But as di Maio recounts it, John Paul appeared to him in a dream one night and said he couldn't help Esposito but showed a photo of a slim, bespecled prelate who could.

Di Maio said he wasn't able to identify the priest until he saw Pius on the cover of a Catholic magazine a week later. As soon as he did, the family began fervently praying to Pius.

The family became convinced of Pius' intervention when Esposito's case was referred to a cancer specialist in Rome, an atheist who, after reviewing her charts, asked the family if they believed in God.

When di Maio replied they did, the doctor said: "Then pray, because she needs it," di Maio recounted.

Esposito, who still keeps the same dog-eared photocopy of Pius in her book of prayers, says she and her doctors were stunned when her PET scan, which detects lingering traces of cancer, came out clean after her six-week chemo cycle at the Umberto I hospital in the southern city of Nocera, near Salerno.

Her doctor, she said, was flabbergasted: "'Do you see this? It's clean! How is it possible?'" Esposito recalled Dr. Alfonso Maria D'Arco, head of oncology and hematology at Umberto I, as saying.

"And spontaneously I said to him, 'Doctor, doctor, isn't it possible that it came from above?" she said, pointing heavenward.

"No, no, no. Don't say shocking things," she said he responded.

"But for me it was a miracle, because it wasn't possible," she said, fighting back tears. "It wasn't possible. Not even they believed it in that moment."

D'Arco didn't respond to email requests for comment and couldn't be reached by telephone.

Dr. Ann S. LaCasce, an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School's lymphoma program and affiliated Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said Esposito's speedy recovery wasn't all that remarkable.

"Not surprising at all," LaCasce said after reviewing the protocol Esposito received. "The key is this aggressive, multi-agent chemotherapy regimen that she got. It doesn't sound like a miracle at all. She did great, as expected."

LaCasce, who said she treats four to five cases of Burkitt's a year, said the prognosis for the rare subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is usually very good, particularly for children and young adults who can tolerate the high toxicity that the aggressive chemo entails.

"Burkitt's is a disease we like to treat because they do really well, they feel better so quickly," LaCasce said. "She was cured of her disease with the appropriate chemotherapy."

Esposito and her supporters, however, are undeterred. Just last week, she traveled to Rome to take part in a ceremony outside St. Peter's Square marking the anniversary of the day the city of Rome dedicated a piazza to Pius to thank him for having defended Rome from the Nazis.

Esposito says she wants people to know Pius not just for what he did for Rome but for her.

"I am here. I want to say I'm alive. I know what I went through and I assure you, it was really serious, something awful. Death was very close. And I am here."

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Southern Baptist leader: Would accept DREAM Act

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Southern Baptist Convention leader says the group's policy arm supports a version of the DREAM Act— the proposed law that would allow illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to earn legal status, either by going to college or serving in the military.

By Paul Sakuma, AP

Ruben Bernal, a recent San Jose State University graduate, rallies for the DREAM Act in downtown San Jose, on Wednesday.

By Paul Sakuma, AP

Ruben Bernal, a recent San Jose State University graduate, rallies for the DREAM Act in downtown San Jose, on Wednesday.

Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, made the statement in a Monday letter to Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, who are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security.

Land wrote that his commission could support the DREAM Act, with conditions. One condition would be making sure the bill does not allow young adults who gain legal status to help their relatives gain legal status or enter the country. He called such a measure "back-door amnesty."

In explaining the commission's position to the subcommittee, Land wrote: "The children of undocumented immigrants who were brought here by their parents should not be forced to bear the full penalty of their presence in the nation illegally. To consign them to lives often-times bordering on poverty levels for actions in which they had no part is too severe a penalty."

In an interview on Thursday, Land said he was asked by a member of the subcommittee, whom he would not name, to provide the panel with a letter outlining what provisions the commission could support.

Even if a DREAM act passed without the stipulation Land called for, Illegal immigrants who qualify for the DREAM Act would have to wait six years to become a legal permanent resident and then begin the lengthy process of becoming a full-fledged citizen. Only then would they would be able sponsor their relatives for residency.

The Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

The often politically conservative group earlier this month passed a resolution at its annual meeting in Phoenix advocating a path to legalization for non-criminal illegal immigrants, but it did not mention the DREAM Act specifically.

That resolution also called on the government to prioritize border security and hold businesses accountable for their hiring. And it called on Southern Baptists to minister to all people and to reject bigotry and harassment toward all people, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status.

Contributing: Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

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US bishop embroiled in abuse cases resigns

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Catholic bishop in Northern California whose diocese has recently been embroiled in priest sex abuse cases resigned Thursday from his post after 11 years.

2006 photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Daniel Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., which has been emroiled in clergy sexual abuse cases. Walsh was a year short of the mandatory retirement age of 75.

2006 photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP

The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Daniel Walsh of Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa.

Diocese spokeswoman Deirdre Frontczak said Walsh is "very tired" and has been seeking to hand over his responsibilities for about two years. His resignation, effective Thursday, comes a year short of his mandatory retirement at age 75, Frontczak said.

"It's been a difficult decade," she said. "He walked into miserable situation and has done a heroic job of restoring the diocese financially and restoring the dignity of the priesthood."

The sexual abuse scandal exploded in the USA in 2002 and drove Cardinal Bernard Law to resign his post at Archbishop of Boston. Less than one in three of nearly 200 U.S. bishops leading dioceses in 2002 are still in place, according to Matthew Bunson, editor of The Catholic Almanac. Most have resigned for ill health, retired at age 75 or died.

The Santa Rosa diocese has been hit with several lawsuits under Walsh's tenure involving alleged child sex abuse by former priests.

In 2006, Walsh was threatened with criminal charges for failing to report accusations of misconduct against the Rev. Xavier Ochoa for five days after the priest admitted the abuses to Walsh. Authorities said the delay allowed Ochoa time to flee to Mexico before he could be arrested.

California law requires clergymen to immediately report suspicion of child sex abuse and to follow up by fax or email within 36 hours. Walsh agreed to participate in a four-month counseling program and was not charged.

The Vatican announcement of Walsh's resignation said he was stepping down under the code of canon law that says bishops are asked to offer their resignation for some serious issue that makes them unfit for office. Often it is used for bishops who are ill or have been dogged by scandal.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he had no information on why Walsh was resigning a year ahead of schedule, but he noted that a co-adjutor bishop was already in place in Santa Rosa, Monsignor Robert Vasa.

Co-adjutor bishops are appointed by the pope to automatically succeed bishops when they retire. Frontczak said Vasa, 59, will take over as Santa Rosa bishop Friday.

Vasa's presence in the diocese was a signal that Wash's resignation wasn't a sudden decision but had rather been in the works for some time, Lombardi said.

Vasa was appointed in January and arrived in March.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that after 30 years as a bishop in several dioceses, Walsh felt that the timing was right to step down. He had brought the diocese through hard times and Vasa was in place and could immediately take over, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, who is not related to the departing bishop.

Frontczak did not respond to a query about whether Walsh's resignation was tied to the lawsuits or the accusations surrounding his handling of the Ochoa case. She said the diocese staff was saddened by his departure.

"We'll really miss him. For all the difficulties he's encountered, we love him as a person and think he's made contribution," she said of Walsh, who has led the diocese since 2000.

The diocese in 2007 settled a sex abuse lawsuit involving Ochoa by agreeing to pay more than $5 million to 10 alleged victims. The former priest still has not been found.

Last year, the diocese was named in lawsuits filed by four men who said another former priest, Patrick Joseph McCabe, molested them during his two years at St. Bernard's Parish in Eureka from 1983 to 1985. The men said the diocese knew McCabe already faced child sex abuse charges in his native Ireland but failed to warn parishioners.

Walsh was not bishop during the time in question. The lawsuits were withdrawn earlier this year.

The Diocese of Santa Rosa includes a Catholic population of 150,000 and encompasses more than 11,700 square miles in the counties of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt and Del Norte.

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Mennonite Pastor Backs College Ban of 'Star Spangled Banner'

A Mennonite pastor from Waynesboro, Va., is catching the media’s attention this week by reviving his religion’s belief to ban the “Star Spangled Banner” from athletic events – or anywhere else for that matter.

Mark Schloneger , pastor of Springdale Mennonite Church, wrote a letter this week voicing his objections to America’s national anthem and to explain why a college in Indiana has banned the song.

Mennonites firmly believe the lyrics in the Star Spangled Banner violate their pacifist ideals. They firmly believe that an individual’s allegiance should be to Christ rather than country.

Schloneger was interviewed by CNN on Thursday, just as our nation is gearing up to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, parades, barbecues, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and of course, the Star Spangled Banner.

After much debate, Goshen College, a Mennonite college in Indiana and Schloneger’s alma mater, banned the national anthem from all sporting events for a second time this week. Like us on Facebook

Schloneger writes about the fact that Goshen College began playing the Star-Spangled Banner only last year, but after a “thoughtful, thorough, prayerful period of listening, learning and discerning."

The college board said this week that playing the song “compromises our ability” to pursue the school’s vision, according to the order issued by the college board.

Goshen, which is operated as a ministry of Mennonite Church USA, had banned the anthem for decades, but in February 2010 approved the playing of an instrumental version.

“The decision not to play the national anthem reversed last year’s decision to play it for the first time in Goshen College’s 116-year history,” Schloneger wrote in his letter.

“We continue to advocate for the strict separation of church and state. Most Mennonite churches do not have flags inside them, and many Mennonites are uncomfortable with the ritual embedded in the singing of the national anthem," the letter states.

Schloneger basically goes on to explain and promote the college’s decision because “we recognize only one Christian nation, the church, the holy nation that is bound together by a living faith in Jesus rather than by man-made, blood-soaked borders.”

Mennonites are a branch of the Christian church, with roots going back to the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

The Mennonite church emphasizes service to others as an important way of expressing one's faith. A large number of Mennonites spend part of their lives working as missionaries or volunteers helping those in need.

John Roth, a Goshen College history professor, said in a recent interview that Mennonites have historically avoided the song because its lyrics describe using war and military might to defend the country.

"The link between the national anthem and the military identity of the nation is made very explicit," Roth said.

Schloneger’s comments in the letter about the national anthem are rather straight forward, according to analysts and others who have listened to his beliefs.

“I am not sure why this pastor or the Mennonites in general would continue to object to a historical song that promotes celebration and freedom,” said Dr. Landry Nichols, a retired pastor from New Orleans, La.

“It is that freedom we are blessed with that allows us to worship in the way we believe. The song, to me, is about inspiration.”

Schloneger is specific about the actual lyrics in the song as he comments that, “We testify with our lives that freedom is not a right that is granted or defended with rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air. True freedom is given by God, and it is indeed not free. It comes with a cost, and it looks like a cross.”

The pastor admits in the letter that the Mennonites or “tribe” is “strange and sometimes it’s hard to be strange.”

His commentary ends with some convictions about the country. “…we have no ingratitude or hatred for our country. Rather, they reflect a deep love for the church and a passionate desire for the church to be the church.”

“Mennonite beliefs and practices seem bizarre to some and offensive to others. But it’s life in this strange tribe that keeps me faithful to what I believe. I love my country, but I sing my loyalty and pledge my allegiance to Jesus alone," he wrote.

Today large Mennonite populations can be found in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas, although Mennonites live in all parts of the United States and the world.

Did you know?

At 7 a.m. on September 13, 1814, the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry began. The bombardment continued for 25 hours, with the British firing rockets across the sky.

Francis Scott Key, Col. Skinner, and Dr. Beanes watched the battle with apprehension. They knew that as long as the shelling continued, Fort McHenry had not surrendered. But, long before daylight there came a sudden and mysterious silence. Judging Baltimore as being too costly a prize, the British officers ordered a retreat.

In the predawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety: the joyous sight of Gen. Armistead's great flag blowing in the breeze. When daylight came, Key spotted the huge flag waving above the Ft. McHenry.

Thrilled by the sight of the flag and the knowledge that the fort had not fallen, Key took a letter from his pocket, and began to write some verses on the back of it. Later, after the British fleet had withdrawn, Key checked into a Baltimore hotel, and completed his poem on the defense of Fort McHenry. He then sent it to a printer for duplication on handbills, and within a few days the poem was put to the music of an old English song. Both the new song and the flag became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner."

In October of that year, a Baltimore actor sang Key's new song in a public performance and called it "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Although the song was immediately popular, it remained just one of several patriotic airs until it was officially named our national anthem by Congress in 1931.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Here are the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner:

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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1 Million Americans Pledge to Pray for U.S. on July 3

The third annual “Call2Fall” event, founded by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, claims nearly 1.1 million people and churches will pray for the United States this July 3, according to the Call2Fall website. Participants represent all 50 states.

“One thing about this passage (2 Chronicles 7:14) that really struck me is that it is a recipe. It is a recipe for revival. It is a recipe for awakening,” said Pastor Gary Simons of High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, on Washington Watch Weekly radio with host Tony Perkins this week.

Simons and his church have participated in Call2Fall since its inception in 2009. But instead of asking congregants to pray for only five minutes on their knees like other participating churches, High Point will spend the entire one-and-a-half hour service on Sunday in prayer.

“We (High Point Church) are not just praying for a great awakening, we are praying for the greatest awakening,” said Simons.

Last year, more than 600,000 people joined the FRC prayer event on the first Sunday of July. The event is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Like us on Facebook

“Our nation’s journey back to God begins on our knees in humility and repentant prayer,” said Perkins in a statement Friday. “America is at a crossroads no less critical than when our nation’s founders bowed together in humble prayer before Almighty God.

“Like our great Founding Fathers, we will declare our dependence on God, even as we celebrate our independence.”

Call2Fall is different from another prayer event for the nation this Sunday. Pastor Steven Andrew, author of “Making a Strong Christian Nation,” is also calling on churches to include a prayer for the nation during their Sunday service.

"As the USA draws near to God, God will draw near to the USA,” declared Andrew.

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Monday, July 4, 2011

Give Thanks ... In Everything

As we approach God to ask for new blessings, we should never forget to offer thanks for the blessings He has already given. We must be just as quick in returning thanks as we are in requesting help; but many times, we are not. We are quick to ask for help, but we are slow in giving thanks.

Sometimes, giving thanks can be difficult, because we feel like we have been dealt a bad hand in life or things have happened to us that we do not fully understand. But here is something we need to remember: "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This verse does not say to give thanks in some things, or in what you believe are good things; it says to give thanks in all things.

Now, it is easy for me to give thanks when something wonderful happens to me. However, when something bad takes place, I think, "I won't give thanks for that." I don't know that we will ever fully comprehend what was good or bad in our lives until much later. I would even suggest that what you think is a bad thing today might in turn be a good thing for tomorrow or down the road. And what you have thought of as a good thing may, in time, turn out to be a bad thing. I believe that when you look back years from now, you will be able to say that the Lord knew what He was doing.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000

Used with Permission

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Texas Megachurch to Attract Thousands to Fourth of July Celebration

Billed as the “Freedom Experience,” the evening event that is free to the public includes food, bounce houses, live music, and a “world-class” fireworks display. However, for Young it’s all about community outreach.

“Everything we do for every weekend and every event we do [is] for the people who haven’t shown up yet, for those who may never have even been to a church,” Young told The Christian Post. “When it comes to this event, it doesn’t matter what someone’s church background is, everyone can celebrate and take part in it.”

But the commemoration of U.S. independence is a significant one, for Christians especially.

“As Christians living in the United States, the freedom that we celebrate this weekend is twofold. We have freedom on earth because of the men and women of our armed forces; and we have eternal freedom found in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Young said. “This outreach simply highlights those truths, while at the same time introducing people to our church and giving them a picture of what we do every weekend."

Although exact attendance numbers for this free event from past celebrations are not kept by the church, a Fellowship Church spokesperson said that thousands of people are expected. It takes hundreds of church volunteers to put on Freedom Experience, which has been heavily promoted on the church’s website, and through Facebook and Twitter. Like us on Facebook

Young said he is looking forward to seeing the variety of backgrounds, cultures, and communities converge at his megachurch.

“Our biggest prayer going into a weekend like this is the same prayer that we have every weekend: that people will be exposed to the message of hope that the Church champions. Each weekend, we communicate the reality that God, through Jesus, has a plan and a purpose for all of our lives,” he said.

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Study: Cohabitation More Prevalent Among Less Educated

In 2009, 58 percent of those aged 30-44 were married while 7 percent were living with their partner but not married. Thirty-five percent were neither married nor a cohabitant. The rate of cohabitation for this age group has doubled since 1995 when it was 3 percent. The study, authored by Richard Fry and D'Vera Cohn, also noted that rates of cohabitation before marriage have risen sharply. In 2010, 58 percent of all women aged 19-44 had lived with a partner outside of marriage, up from 33 percent in 1987.

The increased rate of cohabitation came mostly from those with lower levels of education, however. Cohabitation was twice as high among those without a college degree (8 percent) than among college graduates (4 percent).

Cohabitation also showed opposite effects on the income levels of non-college graduates versus college graduates. Among those without a college degree, cohabitating couples had less income on average ($46,540) than married couples ($56,800). Among those with a college degree, however, cohabitating couples had more income on average ($106,400) than married couples ($101,160), though the difference is not as great as for those without a college degree.

“The presence of children detracts from economic well-being because children require time and care; they likely lead to a reduction in hours devoted to paid work on the part of the parent or the partner of the parent,” Fry and Cohn write. The study concludes, therefore, that the income differences found between less educated cohabitating couples versus married couples, as opposed to those differences among college educated couples, can be explained by the presence of children.

Among the college-educated, married couples are much more likely to have children in the home (81 percent) than cohabitating couples (33 percent). Among couples without a college degree, however, a large portion of cohabiters (67 percent) have children. By comparison, 85 percent of married adults without a college degree have children. Like us on Facebook

Therefore, concludes the study, the fact that, among the less educated, cohabitating couples have lower levels of income than married couples can be explained by the fact that two-thirds of less educated cohabiters have children and, “children tend to reduce measured economic well-being.”

The study notes that, “a voluminous body of social science research shows that marriage is associated with a variety of benefits for adults.” A declining number of those without a college degree and with lower levels of income are taking advantage of those benefits, however.

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, made note of this in an email to The Christian Post: “The decline of marriage is having its worst effect on the people who can least afford it – those who are underprivileged in terms of education and income. The security of marriage is associated with economic as well as psychological benefits for the spouses, yet too many young people are forsaking those benefits for cohabitation instead.”

Sprigg also believes that the study points to an “irony” in the sexual revolution and Feminist Movement of the 1960s in that “the decline of the belief that sex should be confined to marriage has worked to the disadvantage of women (especially poor women), who are unable to hold out for the marital commitment that most of them truly desire.”

Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said in an interview with The Christian Post that the study points to the importance of understanding the economic impact of child rearing. Land also believes the study presents a good argument for increasing the child and dependent care tax credit.

“For people who make a lot of money, it's no big deal,” said Land, but it has a greater impact on those with less income. Land suggests increasing the child and dependent care tax credit to $800, or even $1,000 per child.

Galen Carey, vice president of government afairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, agrees that there is a “societal interest” served by marriage and child rearing.

“Public policy should recognize that child rearing serves a public good,” Carey said, and there are a number of things the government can do to help parents, such as removing the marriage penalty in the tax code.

Carey also pointed out that while income is one way to measure well being, there are many other factors that contribute to one's well-being, such as “strong relationships” and “stable families,” and these are available to all income levels.

In a related story, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday that the number of children living with at least one grandparent has risen 64 percent since 1991. Land suspects this trend is related to an increase in children without fathers, as grandparents move in to help care for children. Fatherless homes are the “single greatest cause of poverty in this country,” said Land.

The Pew Research study did not include same-sex couples, but noted that same-sex couples have higher median income than opposite-sex cohabiters, married couples, and adults without partners, and were more likely to graduate from college (48 percent) than others in the study.

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Indiana's Sweeping Pro-life Provisions Take Effect

“These are monumental advances in state policy that place Indiana on the leading edge of national efforts to curb abortion,” said Indiana Right to Life president and CEO Mike Fichter.

One of the new provisions will require abortionists to inform women that human physical life begins at fertilization.

“This is a huge win,” Cathie Humbarger, communications director for Indiana Right to Life, told The Christian Post. “We have fought hard for several years for women to be informed that human physical life begins at fertilization – a term that we coined to distinguish it from mental life, spiritual life, etc. It is a biological fact that women need to know as they consider having an abortion.”

Other provisions going into effect today include the requirement of abortionists to inform women that abortion may increase the risk of infertility, infection, or hemorrhaging and that Indiana’s safe haven law allows for mothers who decide to carry their children to term but are unable to care for their children to leave them with providers such as local police, without criminal repercussions.

Also, all abortions performed on girls under the age of 14 must be reported to child protective services within three days of the abortion in order to facilitate prompt investigation into child sexual abuse. And doctors who do abortions in Indiana must have local hospital admitting privileges, provide medical licensing numbers and provide emergency contact information to women having abortions. Like us on Facebook

Two provisions have been put on hold by a federal judge, including the removal of all state-directed funds for abortion clinics and a requirement that women be informed about an unborn child’s ability to feel pain. Indiana Right to Life is confident both of these provisions will be upheld by the courts and will eventually go into effect.

Humbarger says even though abortionists are not required to inform women about an unborn child’s ability to feel pain, protections were passed into law that will protect pain-capable children, beginning at 20-weeks gestational.

“Medical evidence is replete with information supporting the fact that a baby in the womb can feel pain at 20 weeks and many studies show sooner,” Humbarger said. “The new law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks establishes the state’s responsibility to protect those persons.”

“This is also significant because a late term abortion provider has announced publicly that he is opening an abortion facility in Indiana,” she added. “This provision will eliminate that possibility.”

Indiana will opt-out of abortion coverage in any state health exchange required under the new federal health law passed by Congress in 2010. Humbarger said Indiana Right to Life won’t be surprised if there is a legal challenge regarding the state choosing to opt-out.

“However, we are confident that the will of the citizens of Indiana will prevail if challenged,” she said. “This legislation was drafted to include research and the opinions of the best legal minds in the country to make certain it would withstand a court challenge.”

Indiana Right to Life plans to monitor abortionists across the state to make certain they are in compliance with the new laws.

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Assemblies of God Growing Faster than U.S. Population

AG reported that its U.S. adherents increased four percent in 2010, which is several times higher than the U.S. population growth rate, which is about one percent a year. Adherents of the Assemblies of God USA have surpassed three million followers, 3,030,944 to be exact, in 2010.

This is the largest annual percentage increase since 1983, according to AG records.

In terms of official membership, AG reported a 2.5 percent increase, to 1.75 million members. Attendance at major worship service, water baptism, spirit baptism, and conversions were also up, according to statistics.

The largest decline was seen in the Sunday evening service, where attendance drastically fell 4.1 percent, to 399,728.

“This is a unique moment in the history of our movement,” said Assemblies of God General Superintendent George Wood in a video promoting the denomination’s annual General Council meeting next month in Phoenix. Like us on Facebook

The Assemblies of God in the U.S. was founded in 1914 after an early 20th century Pentecostal movement. While expanding outreach work and establishing relationships with other Pentecostal churches, Assemblies of God became a worldwide movement. The church believes in baptism in the Holy Spirit and present-day speaking in tongues.

Wood has previously attributed the higher statistical numbers to diversity. More than 38 percent of the U.S. Assemblies of God members are ethnic minorities.

The latest report backs up Wood’s claim, showing that ethnic communities defined by language have the largest percentage net gains. The national Slavic group was up 113.7 percent and the Southern Pacific community was up 25.2 percent, according to the report. The West Spanish language region was up 9.7 percent and the language regions classified as "other" was up 9.4 percent.

Part of the reason for the fellowship’s growth may be the result of Wood’s leadership. Wood was elected to lead the U.S. Assemblies of God in 2007. He quickly established initiatives to emphasize church multiplication, training young leaders and resourcing churches and individuals for more effective ministry, officials stated.

Wood previously served as general secretary for 14 years and has more than 40 years of ministry experience. He was assistant superintendent of the Southern California District from 1988-1993, after pastoring Newport-Mesa Christian Center in Costa Mesa, Calif. for 17 years. Wood was elected chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship in May 2008.

In 2009, officials reported having more than 63 million Assemblies of God followers worldwide. At the U.S. General Council meeting in the same year, Wood encouraged struggling leaders not to be weary in their ministry work, even if the harvest may not come in their lifetime.

"The breakthrough will come," Wood told thousands of Pentecostals in Orlando, Fla., at the 2009 meeting. "God will not forget your work."

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Dept. of Education's New Rule a 'Complete Intrusion,' Say Christian Colleges

The government's actions came after public concerns that some of these for-profit colleges were selling students a shoddy product, as their credentials showed little worth in the job market. An unintended consequence of the DOE ruling, however, is that it also could lead to greater regulation of Christian colleges and universities by state governments.

Christian colleges are concerned that the licensing process would provide an avenue through which states could regulate the content of their education. Christian colleges integrate faith and learning into their curriculum, according to Shapri LoMaglio, government relations and executive programs officer for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). CCCU is concerned, therefore, that state governments could use the licensing procedure to interfere with their faith-based curriculum.

For-profit colleges, including Christian ones, receive much of their income from federal education grants and student loans backed by the federal government.

In a September 20, 2010 editorial for The Denver Post, Colorado Christian University President Bill Armstrong and Hank Brown, former president of the University of Northern Colorado, wrote, “As a practical matter, the department's power grab carries with it an implicit invitation for various pressure groups to seek legal mandates requiring colleges and universities to implement their pet theories about curriculum, degree requirements, faculty qualifications, teaching methods, textbooks, evolution, phonics, ROTC, climate change, family policy, abortion, race, sexual orientation, economic theory, etc.”

The DOE's ruling provides a religious exemption, but for a Christian college to receive the exemption, it must only provide religious classes. Since Christian colleges and universities provide a full range of courses in social sciences, languages, humanities, and physical sciences, for instance, none would qualify for the exemption, according to LoMaglio. If states would want to provide a broader religious exemption, they would not be allowed under the DOE ruling. Like us on Facebook

The DOE's ruling is a “complete intrusion into the institutional autonomy” of Christian colleges and universities, added LoMaglio. CCCU has contacted the DOE several times, and many Christian college presidents have personally contacted their representatives in Congress and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to express their concerns about the issue.

In response to the DOE ruling, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-Va.) introduced a bill, H.R. 2117, that would prevent the DOE from implementing its state mandated licensing requirements. LoMaglio noted that the bill passed out of committee with bipartisan support and has a good chance of passage on the House floor. Senate passage will be more difficult, admits LoMaglio, but she remains optimistic.

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Reformed Church Leader Welcomes News of Demilitarized Zone for Sudan

Nyomi said in a statement released from the WCRC this week: “We are heartened by news of positive developments. It is urgent that terms for sustainable peace be found.”

News emerged earlier this week from the African Union (AU) that an agreement was being made to create a demilitarized zone between the conflicting north and south regions of Sudan.

Tensions have been increasing as the official date of the declaration of independence of Southern Sudan draws near on June 9. Over the past few weeks reports of civilian deaths and property destructions have been common. Especially in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile border states escalating clashes and violence has been reported.

In light of the recent news from the AU, Nyomi has encouraged WCRC’s member churches to pray for Sudan ahead of the key date. He said, “We call on all WCRC member churches and area councils to pray for the people of Sudan between Sunday July 3 and Sunday July 10.”

The WCRC is a body formed from a merger between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in 2010. Like us on Facebook

He added: “We ask especially that worship services on Sunday, July 3 and Sunday July 10 include times of prayer for a peaceful transition into nationhood for Southern Sudan and peace for all the people in both Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan.”

Nyomi also encouraged any leaders with influence in the region to do whatever it takes to help the peace process. In particular he asked for government officials to be contacted to “expose the forces of death and destruction and to support all efforts that bring life, peace and justice.”

The WCRC has 230 member churches representing 80 million Christians worldwide.

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A Clean Heart

Salvation changed our hearts and lives. Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and broke its power over us. By receiving Christ as Savior, we each became a new creation-with a heart sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and a mind that strongly desires to know the Father better. We also received the Spirit’s power to deny our selfish desires and obey God. With clean hearts, we can begin to realize the capabilities our loving Lord has given us.

The best way to maintain a clean heart is by meditating on Scripture. It acts like a mirror in which we see ourselves as God does. Through it, we discover the areas where we have been faithful and also the places where we’ve veered from His path. Expressing genuine repentance brings God’s forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).

The heart represents the seat of our mind, will, and emotions. When we strive to keep it pure, we will more easily discern the Lord’s plan, submit our will to His, and follow Him obediently.

Becoming the person God planned for each of us to be requires an intimate relationship with Him and a desire to obey His Word. Apart from Jesus, we can’t achieve anything of lasting value (John 15:5). Cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s transforming work will help us keep our hearts clean.

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Robert Albrighton Joins The Global Community Of Stanford Who's Who

Robert Albrighton has been accepted among the prestigious ranks of Stanford Who's Who as a result of his outstanding professional career.

ELIZABETH VALE, SA, AUSTRALIA, July 2, 2011 /Stanford Who's Who/ -- Robert Albrighton has been accepted among the prestigious ranks of Stanford Who's Who as a result of his outstanding professional career. As Founder and Owner of Robert Albrighton Ministries, Robert has routinely displayed the passion, vision and dedication necessary to be considered among the best.

Robert Albrighton Ministries is a Pentecostal church and an international word of faith evangelical and teaching ministry. Robert is involved in offering counseling services and community development programs. Mr. Albrighton is also the author of books entitled, God's Will Is to Do it for You, The Connection Series, and Understanding the New Birth.

Robert studied Charismatic Ministry at Tabor Theological College as well as Music and Art at the University of South Australia. His success stems from his perseverance and faith in the fact that God's Word promises us that our sufficiency is of Him. When something is beyond his ability or confidence level, Robert understands that he has the Power of God to make up for his shortcomings. He is also extremely thankful to people like Ken and Gloria Copeland for they teaching they have inspired him with over the years.

To view more information on Robert Albrighton click here

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BibleWorks New Version Offers Unequalled Capabilities: Blending High-Tech with Ancient Manuscripts Will Benefit Pastors and Academics Worldwide

Julia Wells to be Featured in Exclusive Registry

Julia Wells is the published author of an autobiography inspired by her faith and trying life experiences

SILVER SPRINGS, NV, June 27, 2011 /Religion PR News/ --Julia Wells, Author and Christian Speaker, has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in writing.

Two years ago, Ms. Wells felt it was her calling to write a book on forgiveness. The result was her publication of "Blessed Be," an autobiography and Christian testimonial. Written around her husband's struggle with cancer, the book imparts to readers messages of hope and aims to help them find comfort through the blessings of God. Wells feels that her success is due in large part to her own faith in God, and she is a regular church speaker on Christian topics.

Ms. Wells and her husband have been married for 33 years and together, they have spent 35 years as the co-owners of J & R Electronics, located in Carson City. They also managed a dog kennel for pure-bred American Eskimo show dogs. Ms. Wells has trained two grand champions and has been featured in Bloodlines magazine, which is distributed by the United Kennel Club, Inc. She has also written articles for this publication.

Wells has been honored by Nevada Magazine as a Notable Nevadan, and she is a supporter of The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., and the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. She is a former affiliate of Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., serving this organization as Carson City's Alateen sponsor.

For more information about Ms. Wells and her book, visit http://www.blessedbejulia.com.

About Cambridge Who's Who
With over 400,000 members representing every major industry, Cambridge Who's Who is a powerful networking resource that enables professionals to outshine their competition, in part through effective branding and marketing. Cambridge Who's Who employs similar public relations techniques to those utilized by Fortune 500 companies and makes them cost-effective for members who seek to take advantage of its career enhancement and business advancement services. Cambridge is pleased to welcome its new Executive Director of Global Branding and Networking, Donald Trump Jr., who is eager to share his extensive experience in this arena with members.

Cambridge Who's Who membership provides individuals with a valuable third party endorsement of their accomplishments and gives them the tools needed to brand themselves and their businesses effectively. In addition to publishing biographies in print and electronic form, it offers an online networking platform where members can establish new professional relationships.

For more information, please visit http://www.cambridgeregistry.com.

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Friday, July 1, 2011

Left-Leaning ‘Wild Goose’ Festival Draws Ire of Evangelicals

“Most Religious Left groups that advocated leftist policies in past generations are now in severe decline, and their activists are now targeting evangelical youth,” said Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which works to reaffirm the church’s biblical and historical teachings.

The Wild Goose, a Celtic metaphor for the Holy Spirit, is a “festival of justice, spirituality, music and the arts” to discover where justice and spirituality intersect, according to organizers, mostly from the Emerging Church Movement, who inaugurated the event on Shakori Hills in North Carolina’s Piedmont region Thursday.

But it is influenced by “gnostic beliefs that Christianity has repeatedly rejected,” the head of the Washington, D.C.-based institute said in a statement Friday. “Many ‘Wild Goose’ voices flatter themselves with fanciful dreams of sophistication and praise from secular elites. Their 1960s-style hoopla is supposedly updated for the 21st century. But ultimately this featherless old Wild Goose won’t fly.”

Modeled on a British Christian rock festival, Greenbelt, and nearly 10 years in the making, The Wild Goose Festival is an attempt to reimagine Christianity for the 21st century under a bigger, wider, more inclusive tent “to establish the premier venue for 20-somethings who love God but aren’t thrilled with institutional Christianity, particularly the religious right,” Washington, D.C.-based Religion News Service said.

Ken Silva, a Southern Baptist blogger from New Hampshire-based Apprising Ministries, agrees with Tooley. “The wise Christian will have nothing to do with these neo-Gnostic fools who’ve unbuckled themselves from the Word of God and have embarked upon their Wild Goose Chase of subjective experience,” he said on his blog. Like us on Facebook

Those attending the conference are young tattooed evangelicals, musicians with instruments slung over their shoulders, gay Christians of all stripes and seasoned members of the Christian Left, most carrying backpacks, water bottles and sleeping bags, according to National Catholic Reporter.

The festival is open to all regardless of belief, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, denomination or religious affiliation, say members of the organizing committee, which includes: Mike King, CEO of the Youthfront ministry and executive editor of Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry; Ian Cron, a speaker, retreat leader, Episcopal priest and author; and Joy Wallis, first women to be ordained as a priest in England.

Festival speakers include emergent Church leader Brian McLaren, pacifist activist Shane Claiborne, and author Jay Bakker, the pastor son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. And the musicians invited to perform at Wild Goose are mainstream secular musicians who are Christian.

“Combining ‘justice’ issues with a vague ‘spirituality,’ the festival is also showcasing ‘evangelical progressives’ like Tony Campolo, a spiritual advisor to former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment scandal, and Sojourners chief Jim Wallis,” Tooley mentioned.

“In a melding of spirituality, music, story-telling and fellowship, Wild Goose began with a request that those gathered sprinkle water on each other as a form of baptismal renewal, and smear mud on each other as a reminder that all come from dust and to dust they shall return – and as a reminder that ‘we are all connected to the earth, and we are connected to one another,’ Wild Goose founder Gareth Higgins was quoted as saying.

Originating in the late 20th and early 21st century, the Emerging Church Movement has invited criticism from mainstream Christians.

In "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church," theologian D.A. Carson says the movement, which arose as a protest against the institutional church, modernism and seeker-sensitive churches, comprises those who believe the modes of expressing the Gospel should appeal to a postmodern mindset.

Many of the movement’s thinkers take a reductionistic view of modernism, are dismissive of confessional Christianity, and are reluctant to assert that Christianity is true and authoritative, the Carson says.

While evangelicals say the attempt to revive the Emerging Church Movement is doomed to yet another failure, Wild Goose proponents think it is “unstoppable.”

“In the spirit of vibrant, category-defying Celtic Christianity, we saw our desire embodied in the Celtic Church’s way of speaking about the enigmatic Holy Spirit: The Wild Goose, who wanders where she will. Who can tame her? No one. Far better it is to embark on a Wild Goose Chase, and see the terrain of our faith be transformed,” the organizers say on the festival’s website.

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