Praying for the Apocalypse
Members of the radical Christian End Times movement are being taught to believe that America is ruled by evil, clandestine organizations disguised as liberal groups. As a result, the fearful are hoping for the end. The plagues of alcoholism, divorce, drug abuse, poverty and domestic violence make the internal life here as depressing as the external one. And those gathering today in this church wait for the final, welcome relief of the purgative of violence, the vast, bloody cleansing that will lift them up into the heavens and leave the world they despise -- the one that was devastated by corporatism -- to be racked by plagues and flood and fire until it and all those whom they blame for the debacle of their lives are consumed and destroyed by God. It is a theology of despair. And for many, it can't happen soon enough.

‘Jesus Rode a Donkey’
Author Linda Seger explains why Jesus had more in common with Democrats than Republicans, how Christians have been manipulated into compromising their values and what the bible really says.

An Army of Christian Right Lawyers Is Waging War on the Constitution
A look at the Christian Right's legal muscle leading the fight to end the separation of church and state. Last year, ADF received over $21 million in individual and foundation funding. Some of the major donors include the Covenant Foundation, financed by the "Granddaddy" of the Texas Christian Right, business mogul James Leininger; various members of the Amway-Prince Automotive empire, including the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, whose vice president, Erik Prince (Edgar and Elsa's son, and brother of Betsy DeVos, wife of the Amway magnate, right-wing financier, and unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard DeVos), founded the Blackwater USA military-security firm; and the Bolthouse Foundation, which is underwritten chiefly with profits from Bolthouse Farms, a family-run California company whose products are often seen at organic markets and Whole Foods. Bolthouse requires recipients of its grants to pledge adherence to a statement of faith that includes the declaration that "man was created by a direct act of God in His image, not from previously existing creatures" and a belief in "the everlasting blessedness of the saved and the everlasting punishment of the lost."

For the Christian Right, Gay-Hating Is Just the Start [Nazi Germany Anyone?]
As the Christian right works hard to make gays and lesbians second-class citizens, society needs to make a stand -- or else the same tactics will soon be used against other "social deviants." These attacks mask a sinister agenda that has nothing to do with sexuality. It has to do with power. The radical Christian right -- the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- has built a binary worldview of command and submission wherein male leaders, who cannot be questioned and claim to speak for God, are in control and all others must follow.

Creation "Science" Is the Christian Right's Trojan Horse Against Reason
From California to Florida, a string of Creation "Science" museums are springing up across the country as part of the Christian Right's attempt to rewrite the past and make it conform to the Bible. The danger of creationism is that, like the pseudo-science of Nazi eugenics, it allows facts to be accepted or discarded according to the dictates of a preordained ideology. Creationism removes the follower from the rational, reality-based world. Signs, miracles and wonders occur not only in the daily life of Christians but in history, science, medicine and logic. The belief system becomes the basis to understand the world. Random facts and data are collected and made to fit into this belief system or discarded. When facts are treated as if they were opinions, when there is no universal standard to determine truth, in law, in science, in scholarship, or in the reporting of the events of the day, the world becomes a place where people can believe what they want to believe, where there is no possibility of reaching any conclusion not predetermined by those who interpret the official, divinely inspired text. This is the goal of creationists.

Former Christian Right Homophobe Sees the Error of His Ways
Religious right-wing activist Joe Murray was drawn to the American Family Association because of its "prolife" positions -- and soon he started bashing gays without giving it "much thought." Joe Murray, a columnist and a former staff attorney for the (American Family Association) AFA, which is based in Tupelo, Miss. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists it among "A Mighty Army" of religious right organizations that promotes homophobia through its direct mail appeals, email action alerts and columns. In an October 2004 article, the AFA Journal suggests that the Homosexual Agenda is leading to a "grotesque culture" that will include "quick encounters in the middle school boys' restroom," and SPLC notes that one of its fundraising letters included this gem -- "Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! While in the environment of the AFA, however, he noticed troubling signs that the efforts of the organization often didn't resemble compassion, concern or principles of Christianity that he believes in. The hypocrisy that he saw there opened his eyes. How could groups like AFA even hint that gays were doomed to hell? This smacked of the politics of man, not the divine mercy of God. Then there was the fact that the gay issue had become over simplified -- a sure sign that some facts were missing. Where was the Biblical authority for the condemnation that all homosexuals were to bury in the fires of Hell?

'Christian' Game Leaves Behind A Pile of Corpses
The Left Behind video game encourages you to celebrate the birth of Jesus by wasting dozens of people at a time, using a variety of Christ-sanctioned weapons. For those of you who are not familiar with Left Behind, it is an enormously popular Christian book series which depicts an Armageddon scenario in which the true believers are whisked up to heaven at the Second Coming, literally vanishing out of thin air even as they do things like pilot commercial jet-liners, leaving the rest of us amoral nihilists on earth to bathe in our own blood and generally massacre each other. In the video game, the Believers roam a desecrated New York City landscape (it is highly amusing that both al-Qaeda and the makers of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" chose to make their masterpiece against a canvas of a burning Manhattan) wasting the forces of the antichrist, leaving huge piles of bodies everywhere they go. It is hard to imagine a product that better encapsulates, in one package, the spirit of both modern American capitalism and modern American Christianity.

Less than 10% of the the Christian Right Comprehend What the Bible Has to Teach Us
Biblical ignorance explains a lot of the trouble we in the U. S. of A have been having from the whacked out Christian Right (who are wrong most of the time). It's been a rough season for the Christian right. Even for an eschatological movement, these are dark days. First came former Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives David Kuo's public admission that evangelicals were often derided as "nuts" and "goofy" within the inner sanctums of the Bush administration. Then, weeks before losing their shotgun seat in the 109th Congress, the booming voice of the National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, was silenced in a scandal involving a gay hooker, massage oils, methamphetamine, and a string of Denver hotel rooms booked under false names. But even before all that hit the fundamentalist fan, the movement was contending with a quieter, more systemic crisis: functional Biblical illiteracy among the flock. That's right, religious conservatives aren't so religious, after all. Toward this end, Focus on the Family has developed what is essentially a two-day multi-media Bible boot camp, with more than a whiff of a Holiday Inn get-rich-quick seminar. Held in churches instead of hotels, the seminars explain how to attain "Truth", not financial independence. This Truth comes in the form of a neatly packaged immutable Christian worldview to be taken home and shared with your neighbors. Attendees also receive a 12-DVD set of the lectures; meals are not provided.

Happy Holidays: a Scholarly guide to the Origin of the Christmas Celebration
On December 25 we celebrate Christ's birth. This date coincides with a Pagan holiday the Christian Church co-opted. Jesus was most likely born September 29, 5 B.C. Want the details? Read more. Biblical scholars readily tell us that it was most likely NOT on December 25th, A.D. Why? When were shepherds in the fields? Israeli meteorologists tracked December weather patterns for many years and concluded that the climate in Israel has been essentially constant for at least the last 2,000 years. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible states that, "broadly speaking, weather phenomena and climatic conditions as pictured in the Bible correspond with conditions as observed today" (R.B.Y. Scott, Vol. 3, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962, p. 625). The temperature in the area of Bethlehem in December averages around 44 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) but can drop to well below freezing, especially at night. Describing the weather there, Sara Ruhin, chief of the Israeli weather service, noted in a 1990 press release that the area has three months of frost: December with 29 F. [minus 1.6 C.]; January with 30 F. [minus 1.1 C.] and February with 32 F. [0 C.]. Snow is common for two or three days in Jerusalem and nearby Bethlehem in December and January. These were the winter months of increased precipitation in Christ's time, when the roads became practically unusable and people stayed mostly indoors. This is important evidence to disprove a December date for Christ's birth. Note that, at the time of Christ's birth, the shepherds tended their flocks in the fields at night. "Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields," wrote one Gospel writer, "keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). A common practice of shepherds was keeping their flocks in the field from April to October, but in the cold and rainy winter months they took their flocks back home and sheltered them. One commentary admits that, "as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this disputed point" (Adam Clarke's Commentary, Abingdon Press, Nashville, note on Luke 2:8). As the Encyclopedia Americana explains, "Christmas... was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth..." (1944 edition, "Christmas").

Who Owns Christianity?
Christianity is about forgiveness, and for the past two decades, as fundamentalism swept through every Protestant denomination, moderates and liberals have been driven out, and were roundly condemned as they left. Along with them went tolerance and forgiveness, not to mention love. Did Christ teach love or is that just a liberal bias? In the current climate, it's hard to remember, but one thing is certain: Once a tight cabal of fundamentalists takes over any denomination, Christ's teachings go out the window. The reversal of Christianity from a religion of love to a religion of hate is the greatest religious tragedy of our time.

Darwin on the Right Why Christians and conservatives should accept evolution
According to a 2005 Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of evangelical Christians believe that living beings have always existed in their present form, compared with 32 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics. Politically, 60 percent of Republicans are creationists, whereas only 11 percent accept evolution, compared with 29 percent of Democrats who are creationists and 44 percent who accept evolution. A 2005 Harris Poll found that 63 percent of liberals but only 37 percent of conservatives believe that humans and apes have a common ancestry. What these figures confirm for us is that there are religious and political reasons for rejecting evolution. Can one be a conservative Christian and a Darwinian? Yes. Here's how.

The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right
A hilarious new book provides instructions on how to argue the big issues with ultra-conservative fundamentalists.

America's Moral Decline and the Rise of False Christianity
“This is the year God wants to make you a millionaire.” The visiting evangelist stomped back and forth on the stage of the rented school building. His “hallelujahs” and “praise God” crescendos were followed by jumping up and down. Sweat ran down his face as he proclaimed that the church members would not need to be afraid if the economy collapses and their neighbors houses are foreclosed upon because they are blessed and will have all of their needs met. The service ended with the explanation that the first step to becoming a millionaire is to pledge $200 of “seed faith money” to the church .

Choosing between Family Values or Pat Robertson's Values
In May, 16-year old Zach told his fundamentalist Christian parents that he is gay. Horrified by the news, they vowed to fix him by sending him to an "ex-gay" boot camp in Memphis to be reprogrammed. Like a modern day message in a bottle, Zach used his Internet blog to send an SOS. Miraculously, his desperate plea for help washed up on the shores of sanity and circulated in cyberspace at warp speed. By now, Zach's plight has received worldwide attention and the spotlight has shone brightly on the debatably abusive and coercive tactics used by Love in Action, the cult that runs the ex-gay boot camp for youth called "Refuge". The Stark family enrolled their son in a failed program where the co-founder, John Evans, dropped out after his friend Jack McIntyre, also in the program, committed suicide because he couldn't change. I photographed Love in Action's poster boy, John Paulk, in a seedy gay bar. The group's youngest graduate and spokesperson, Wade Richards, is now a gay activist. Needless to say, the group has credibility problems, especially when one explores their bizarre techniques. Click here for Zach's Blog

Republicans: The Anti-Christian, Christian Party
The Republicans calling themselves Christian are promoting an essentially anti-Christian agenda. While these so-called “Christian Right” political leaders claim to speak for the Christians of America, I think they are actually speaking only for a small minority of Christians who are placing Bush Republicanism above the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Soldiers of Christ II
The mood of the convention is set. All Christians, everywhere, are under attack. Perkins, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, climbs the stairs onto the stage. He promises to halt “the cultural decline” and to end “misguided” judicial decisions. Before long, Frank Wright, the new president of NRB, takes the stage. Wright, who has white hair and a cold demeanor, lauds the recent transformation in Washington and says that 130 members of the House of Representatives are now “born-again.” He tells a story about a late-night private tour of the Capitol in which he and a group of other pastors stopped and prayed over Hillary Clinton’s Senate floor desk. The crowd roars its approval.

Pastor Loves Jews to Death
Pastor Joe Van Koevering speaks reverently of the "precious Jewish people," whom "God loves," but a principal mission of his Gateway Christian Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., is to speed up the end of the world (and, thus, the deaths of nonbelievers) by financially helping to send as many Jews as possible "back home" to Israel. According to the Bible's Book of Revelation, the holy war that will bring the apocalypse will start only after Jews (of an indeterminate number) return to the holy land. According to a May St. Petersburg Times story, Van Koevering became tearful when speaking of the Jews that will be left behind to fight, and die, so that "true believers" can be taken away in the rapture. [St. Petersburg Times, 5-15-05]

Where Are The Good Christians?
The fanatics and nutjobs now running the show sure give honest believers a bad name.

A Question of Faith
If there's one thing we have in common when it comes to God, it's that we all have a story. When I was 20 I was engaged to marry a soon-to-be-ordained Lutheran minister. While he was preparing to devote his life to being a spiritual leader in one church, I was in college and just beginning to study world religions, large and small.

The Evangleical Evolution
One rap against evangelical Christians is that they're all heart and no head, strong on team spirit but weak when it comes to thinking about what spirit might actually be. Mark Noll, a history professor at Wheaton College, made that case in his 1994 book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Revisiting the issue a decade later in the conservative religious journal First Things (Oct. 2004), Noll finds that many of his criticisms still apply, but there are signs of change.

God is not a Republican (or a Democrat)
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others on the Religious Right claim that God has taken a side in this election, and that Christians should only vote for George W. Bush. The Bush-Cheney campaign even told volunteers it was their “duty” to make church directories available to the campaign. How has the love of Jesus, the Prince of Peace — and his good news to the poor — been distorted by the pro-war, pro-rich political agenda of the Religious Right? Our faith has been hijacked, and it’s time to take it back!

These rolls called by the wrong `yonder'
Republicans make power play to grab church membership lists, but the plan rightly backfires.Try to guess who wrote these words: "Be wary, be on your guard, regarding the government because it does not come near to a person except for its own needs. The government appears like a friend when it is to its advantage, but it does not stand by persons in their hour of need."

Pastor faces criminal charge
The Rev. Joshua Combs, 23, a children’s and family minister at Faith Baptist Church, is expected to be arraigned this week on a charge of filing false documentation ... a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison

Peter, Paul, Mary . . . and God
A lost proto-feminist text, "Gospel of Mary of Magdala," offers a more provocative look at early Christianity.

The Presidential Prayer Team
As many communities prepare to go to the polls on November 4, pray for godly people to speak up and vote their conscience and values. Pray that all citizens in communities where elections are being held will exercise their responsibility as citizens by voting.

Religious Leaders in Dialogue
This is a letter of lamentations. Where are the religious voices opposed to the war? Where is the outrage over a murderous war, a bogus war, an unnecessary war, sold to the American people by deceit and falsehoods?

Faith leaders back archbishop with attack on extremism
Muslim religious leaders have joined Christian and Jewish leaders for the first time in issuing a joint plea for tolerance for gay people. In an open letter written in support of Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the group, which includes two bishops, has criticised incitement to religious hatred and aggressive proselytisation as practised by some fundamentalist evangelical Christians. The joint letter, issued today to coincide with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, calls on believers of all religions to unite in opposition to extremism.

Straight, gay could both lose
In the gay and straight debate over the legal definition of marriage, both sides actually could lose.

Christians Under Attack
" Leaders" of the Christian evangelical movement have agreed to give up spreading the Gospel of Christ in the Holy Land in order to avoid being jailed under a proposed Israeli law aimed at stamping out Christian missionary work in Israel.

Jesus didn't talk about sexuality
The only way to ground myself, as a Christian and as a priest, was to remember the essentials of my faith: I am a beloved child of God. God loves me. And I love God. Since when did sexuality become a core doctrine of our faith? I truly am confused, and simply cannot understand why ANYone would come to communion with issues of sexuality on their mind. I truly am confused and simply cannot understand why ANYone would use issues of sexuality as THE litmus test for faithfulness.

An open letter to the religious right
You'd think that in the midst of horrifying cuts in the social services sector, it’s a great idea to spend $300 million trying to talk people into getting married. Although you don’t believe it’s Uncle Sam’s job to feed us, ensure our employment, or provide us with health care, apparently it is his job to improve our love lives.

Is Bush getting apocalyptic advice?
Is the Bush administration turning to a televangelist doomsayer for political predictions and foreign policy?

Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican
For decades, priests in this country abused children in parish after parish while their superiors covered it all up. Now it turns out the orders for this cover up were written in Rome at the highest levels of the Vatican.

Nuns statements on day of sentencing
For many months I have pondered what to say, if anything at all. St. Francis once said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words." It seems that today a few words are necessary. For the past ten months we have tried to cooperate with these courts. We have been asking since day one - what are the charges?

Judge orders nuns to prison
A federal judge on Friday sent three nuns to prison for an October 2002 act of civil disobedience at a Weld County missile silo - but for lesser sentences than government prosecutors had requested. Sentences: Ardeth Platte, 67, to 41 months in prison; Carol Gilbert, 55, to 33 months; and Jackie Marie Hudson, 68, to 30 months.

Prosecutor was taught by nuns
The man in charge of prosecuting three nuns for protesting at a nuclear missile silo is a lifelong devout Catholic who spent most of his school years being taught by nuns.

Reason needed to interpret Bible today
"Back to Bible ideals aren't always consistent with rest of Good Book". I agree with the point that the Bible alone should not be the basis for morality. Reason and understanding should play an integral role in interpreting the Bible's basis for morality.

Battle looms as Episcopalians pick gay bishop
Episcopalians in the diocese of New Hampshire on Saturday elected as their leader the first openly gay bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a step likely to roil the church in America and England and deepen the disaffection of the more conservative Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope.

Mythical Garden of Eden now a wasteland
It is believed to be the Garden of Eden, the mythic place where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join, the cradle of mankind where Adam came to pray to God. Today it is a desolate wasteland of excrement, cracked paving stones and bullet holes. The eucalyptus known as Adam's tree, a place of holy pilgrimage for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike, stands bleached and dead.

Are Christian evangelists eyeing Iraq?
In its war against Iraq, the United States-led axis has purportedly been aiming to win over the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people. But some US-based Christian evangelists are readying themselves to take it a step further.

Pope Endorses Antiwar Movement
The vast antiwar movement in the world shows that a "large part of humanity" has rejected the idea of war as a means of resolving conflicts between nations, Pope John Paul II said in a message released Tuesday.

Pope says war 'threatens humanity'
Pope John Paul has denounced the war against Iraq in his first public comments since the start of hostilities. He said the military action was a threat against the "fate of humanity".

The Power of Prayer
Remember, there is power in millions of people praying or meditating at the same moment, to intend that there be peace on earth.

During W.W.II, an advisor to Churchill organized a group of people who dropped whatever they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and for peace.

A group of Americans has now organized the same thing. To participate, every evening stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying, meditating or just thinking positively for the safety of the United States, its citizens, and for peace in our world. The time to do this is 9:00 pm Eastern Time, which is

• 8:00 pm Central Time, which is
• 7:00 pm Mountain Time, which is
• 6:00 pm Pacific Time, which is
• 5:00 pm Alaska Time

Together, we WILL make a difference!!

War in Iraq a crime, says Vatican
Military intervention against Iraq would be a crime against peace demanding vengeance before God ... "War is a crime against peace which cries for vengeance before God," said Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino, speaking on Vatican Radio.

Have Christians Become Bloodthirsty?
With President Bush on the verge of launching a preemptive military strike against Iraq, most Christians seem willing, even anxious, to join him in shedding blood. Have today's Christians become bloodthirsty?

Pliable Bush puppet of hawks
In an apparent attempt to come up with a guise other than warmonger, George W. Bush is being hastily repackaged as "deeply religious."

An Alternative to War for Defeating Saddam Hussein
A Religious Initiative — It is the eleventh hour, and the world is poised on the edge of war. Church leaders have consistently warned of the unpredictable and potentially disastrous consequences of war: massive civilian casualties, a precedent for preemptive war, further destabilization of the Middle East, and the fueling of more terrorism.

Some Thoughts on Iraq
By Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF (ret.) — This was the war the first Bush administration wanted, the war they planned for, the war they instigated, the war they salivated over, the war that Saddam's unconditional withdrawal wasn't going to deny them, the war that would show off our smart bombs better than a hundred trade shows, the war that would prove George wasn't a wimp, the war that would make billions for the future president George W. Bush, who had exclusive rights to offshore oil in the Gulf, the war that would kill the "loser" image from Vietnam once and for all.

Our War Against Iraq: Causes & Cure
"In August, 1990, the new Hitler, Saddam Hussein, invaded innocent, democratic Kuwait. The United States, protector of peace, democracy, freedom, and human rights responded, along with the United Nations, to drive the Iraqis out and rescue the people of Kuwait. Ever since, we have been patiently using sanctions and a minimum of force in an attempt to see that the evil Saddam never again threatens his neighbors or the world with weapons of mass destruction." This much everybody knows — and it’s total B.S.! That’s right, you can say it. I’m a clergyman. I love God and I serve God; and my God (and yours too, whether you’re Jewish or Christian or Moslem) is not offended to hear somebody say B.S. You know what offends my God? — the war against Iraq! That’s what offends our God. Dying children — that’s what offends our God!

The "Bush & God" Scam: Don't Buy It
" Bush & God," the cover of Newsweek announces, as if the two were business partners. That's what the White House wants us to think. It is mounting a massive campaign to paint the president as a man on a divine mission, a man who sees himself as an agent of God. There is a risk in this strategy. It makes Bush look like a fanatic. That could easily drive some of the undecided into the antiwar camp.

International Church Leaders, in Washington, D.C., Plead for Peaceful Solution to Iraq Crisis
Congressional legislative staff and media representatives crowded a room in a Senate office building to hear top-level ecumenical representatives from Europe express solidarity with the people of America and call for a peaceful solution to the conflict with Iraq.

Church, State and Children
Church leaders compound their malfeasance by bending constitutional freedoms and sidestepping their true obligation to protect children.

Pope Steps Up Anti-War Crusade with Call for Christians to Fast
Pope John Paul II stepped up his crusade against a looming war in Iraq, urging the world's Christians to stage a fast for peace on the same day as his envoy is to meet US President George W. Bush. The pope said the day of fasting on Wednesday would remind people of the long years of suffering endured by Iraqi citizens as a result of the international embargo against the country.

The Sin of Pride
A scholar wonders if Bush has the humility to see the nuance of this conflict

Focus on homophobia
James Dobson's group recently has been huffing and puffing against Big Brothers-Big Sisters, a longstanding non-profit group that pairs adult mentors with children living in single-parent homes.

Oldest Human History Is at Risk
Iraq has hundreds of thousands of archaeological sites. Some 10,000 have been identified, but only a fraction have been explored. Any of them could change what we know about human history, as past excavations have done. Some have already revealed the world's earliest known villages and cities and the first examples of writing.

Pope Calls for Fast Against War in Iraq
Pope John Paul II called on Catholics to fast on Ash Wednesday in the name of peace and said again on Sunday he worried a U.S.-led war against Iraq could unsettle the entire Middle East.

The Pope's disapproval worries Blair more than marchers
It used to be the solemn practice of medieval crusaders to seek the indulgence of the Pope before they rode off on their steeds to the Holy Land. Some wrote impassioned letters to the Pontiff for the good of their souls, but many made the pilgrimage to Rome in person. Yesterday, on the eve of another mighty conflict in the sands of the Middle East, the Prime Minister was granted a private audience by John Paul II. But there was to be no indulgence - no papal imprimatur - for this Christian soldier. Mr Blair may believe that he is embarking on a "just war": the Holy Father does not.

Problems We Should Ponder!
An article carefully clipped from a British newspaper in 1944 about another war, in another time, in another place. "There have been turncoats in the past, but never as many as those in this war. There are more to come, great, fat, political and industrial Caesars, fawning, creeping and scheming for power and dividends." [Editor: How many facts of life are still the same today. How sad.]

When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy
George Bush's apocalyptic rhetoric echoes the belief of evangelists that the destruction of Iraq is part of a divine plan.

Many Moderate Churches Take Up Anti-War Cause
Borrowing a theme from the old black spiritual, "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" ministers who oppose going to war with Iraq think that America is experiencing difficult times that call for extraordinary action. There is a movement, we are taking a stand.

America is not now, and never was, a legally 'Christian' nation
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, which is not a governing document. Its stated purpose was to "dissolve the political bands"--not to set up a religious nation. It deals with laws, taxation, representation, war, immigration, etc. Contrary to the biblical concept of "rule by divine authority," it bases its authority on the idea that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Its use of terms like "Nature's God," "Creator," and "Divine Providence" does not endorse Christianity.

Egypt Makes Christmas a National Holiday
A presidential decree making Christmas - which falls on Tuesday on Egypt's Coptic Christian calendar - a national holiday is focusing attention on relations between Christians and Muslims in this overwhelmingly Islamic country.

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem
A solidarity action of civil disobedience breached the curfew for a few hours. It was reported on Arab TV stations, but ignored by the American, English, and Israeli press

Peace Partners Keeping Hope Alive
Three women—a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim -- ended a seven-city tour here last week.

When faith isn't official, freedom can take root
It is one of history's ironies that the Pilgrims, who came to what they called the New World seeking freedom of religion, were themselves famously intolerant. They left their homeland for the Netherlands after failing to reform the Church of England to their standards, and they left the Netherlands because they worried that their children would grow up more Dutch than English.

A New Crusade?
"Adolph Hitler was bad, but what the Muslims want to do to the Jews is worse," the 700 Club'sPat Robertson said recently. "I think Mohammed was a terrorist," said conservative preacher Jerry Falwell in a televised interview. The nation's leading evangelical Christians have been thundering against Islam, both from the pulpit and on television

Religious Conviction
In a world where media fixations come and go (corporate corruption, child snatching, sniper profiling) one story just keeps on giving: the Catholic Church's unfortunate pedophilia problem.

Meet the new Zionists
The members of the Christian Coalition of America are some of the most passionate defenders of Israel in the United States. There's just one catch: they want to convert all Jews to Christianity.

Family Fundamentals
What happens when three conservative Christian families have children who "become homosexual?" Armed with a digital camera, filmmaker Arthur Dong takes viewers into the private -- and sometimes very public lives -- of families where parents actively oppose homosexuality, despite having gay kids themselves. Family Fundamentals is a deeply personal look at the "cultural wars" that are being fought in families, communities, and the social/political public spheres of our nation. An official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Rev. Wildmon's AFA Attacks A Dove
The dovish Barbara Lee was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives on April 7, 1998.

Antichrist politics
For many fervent Christians, support for Israel has less to do with Ariel Sharon than preparing for Armageddon.

From preyer to prayer
In the religious wing of Ayalon jail, the rabbi wants to turn prisoners - many of them sex offenders - into future rabbis. Baruch Kra talks to the sexual predators who have turned to religion

Strange Bedfellows: The Jewish Establishment and the Christian Right
There was a time, not too long ago, when Jewish organizations viewed the Christian Coalition, the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and others on the Christian Right as potential adversaries, if not narrow-minded bigots—and even anti-Semites.

If church creeps into Caesar's bed, it's not for a nap
Don't be surprised if the preacher isn't the only person passing the plate in your church this fall. The President wants to turn churches into "faith-based" government subcontractors.

Don't fund religion-based discrimination
Freedom of religion is a sacred pillar of our democracy: Our government isn't supposed to tell anyone what to believe. And it isn't supposed to favor one faith over another.
So children who are wards of the state because their families can't care for them ought not be force-fed any church's beliefs. And a state government ought not be subsidizing a youth home that refuses to hire Jewish counselors and fires staffers whose lives don't conform with its brand of Christianity.

One nation indivisible
A brief history of the pledge is instructive. The first organized use of it was 110 years ago, when millions of American schoolchildren recited these words to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' historic voyage: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands -- One nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In the most religiously diverse country in the world, why should God get the only plug?
Forget the Pledge of Allegiance and "under God" and all this bipartisan puling about prayer in schools. Maybe we've had it wrong all along. Maybe God and Vishnu and Kali and Astarte and Dionysus and Allah and Zarathushtra and Lao-Tzu have not only a vital place in the educational system, but also a fervent need to be heard and felt.

'One Nation Under God'
A court's ruling that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violate the First Amendment trivializes the critical constitutional issue of separation of church and state.

Judges Ban Pledge of Allegiance From Schools, Citing 'Under God'
A federal appeals court declared the pledge unconstitutional because it violates the separation of church and state.

At least the Rev. Jimmie Hicks is no hypocrite
Is it possible to keep religion out of one's public life? Should we try? "He's an elected official," the reader huffed. "He shouldn't let his religion interfere with his votes on council. He should keep religion out of it." Whoa there. Do we want leaders who leave their values at the door? The record of leaders who did — presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton pop into view — suggests otherwise.

For Experts on Abuse, Priests' Orientation Isn't the Issue
Behavioral scientists are virtually unanimous in their emphatic rejection of a linkage between homosexuality and child sexual abuse by priests or any other group."Most men who molest boys are disgusted at the thought of having sex with adult males ... most sex crimes against minors are committed by heterosexual married men.

That's Life
I feel compelled to say a word in defense of the loonies--specifically, the religious conservatives termed "the most alarmist and paranoid" among us.

The Church Falls to Earth
As the weeks and months of the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal wear on, with bishops falling by the wayside and ever more damning documents coming to light, I think of the words, "The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) Then I recall the poet Shelley's "Ozymandias," whose monument lies in ruins and whose inscription boasting of his greatness is surrounded by endless desert sands.

Priest abuse problem isn't a gay issue
Contrary to comments by some church leaders, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't have a "homosexual" problem. It has a problem with adults in positions of authority who breach the public's trust by abusing the very people they are supposed to be protecting. If gay priests truly were the "problem," perpetrators of sexual abuse within the institution would be confined to that population.

Politics, actions skewer true meaning of Christian
''Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart'' - Negro spiritual Lord, help me. I'm about to do what smart people never do -- talk religion in public.

A Cleric Gets It All Wrong
Just when America's Catholic bishops are sending strong signals that they are taking the pedophilia crisis seriously, along comes a senior church official to suggest that the primary problem is not that priests abused children but that someone dared to put the story in the media.

Reconciling old-time religion and gay sexuality
Arthur Dong conceived his newest documentary while conducted jailhouse interviews with nine convicted killers of gay men. Dong became absorbed by a painful irony: Many of these murderers were raised in conservative Christian homes, and espoused strong fundamentalist religious beliefs.

Bishops unveil plan to remove abusive clerics
A priest who sexually abuses a child — or any priest who has abused more than one minor in the past — would be subject to removal from the ministry, under a policy proposed Tuesday by Roman Catholic bishops.

The Law of Guns and Canon
They function as entities unto themselves. They have their own standards, their own morals, their own values and their own set of laws that govern their conduct. Deference is given to them by both courts and constitutions globally. Both have been beset by scandal, time and time again. Most often, it's about sex.

Congress Should Not Open The Door To Church-Based Partisan Politicking
Changing federal tax law to allow houses of worship to engage in partisan politicking would threaten the integrity of churches and create a dangerous loophole in campaign finance laws.

Insidious Design
Disguising dogma as science, Religious Right activists are trying to wedge religion into public schools. For the Religious Right, the fight is incredibly important. They see themselves in a holy war against forces that undermine their interpretation of Christianity.

You won't find God by mistreating gays
Now that I'm grown, I am still a misfit in some ways. I have no kids, which is one strike against normalcy; I am married to a younger man; and rather than having a cat or a dog, I have a pet gerbil.

Is Anybody in There Listening?
I say that both as a lifelong Catholic and as a clinical psychologist. The scandal is not the problem of a few errant priests but a symptom of widespread dysfunction. The Catholic church is out of touch with its people, its flock.

Accused priest hangs self
A Catholic priest committed suicide at a Catholic psychiatric hospital yesterday

County loses fight over Ten Commandments displays
A federal judge late last week ordered the removal of Ten Commandments plaques from two courthouses, ruling that their display violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

A Guide to Ethnic and Religious Strife Through All Human History
Why the _______s Hate the _______s

Former Priest Shot
I'm in shock. Spousal unit woke me this morning with some awful news: A former colleague, someone I had once admired greatly (and, in some ways, still do) was gunned down May 13 in front of his Baltimore home. Though certainly it's upsetting news in the City that Bleeds. This time, though, the situation is different: When the victim is a former Roman Catholic priest, it's hard not to think something is terribly wrong.

Church errs in blaming gays
The Vatican might ponder in its current travails why hairdressers, interior designers and florists are not busy purging their ranks of gay men in an effort to clear themselves of scandals...

Kissing Jesus
The Catholic Church is soaked in sexual imagery. Mary is never without her virginal moniker, everyone's on their knees, wine flows freely and Jesus Christ is tongued and swallowed on a weekly basis.

Jesus Was a Feminist
According to the New Testament, women disciples followed Jesus and listened to his teachings, shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Jesus raised one woman from the dead and saved another -- a woman dragged out of her lover's bed

Homosexuality and the Church
The crisis in the Catholic Church is not about sex. It's about violence. To equate criminal sexual abuse of children with homosexuality is absurd. It's about violence perpetrated against children by sick men, gay and straight. It's about bishops shielding serial child molesters from prosecution to protect the reputation of their church.

Blame Church Arrogance, Not Oversexed Society
The Catholic clergy might be best served by reciting the wisdom of Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and he is us.'

The arrogance of the Catholic Church
The pope's refusal to seriously address the current sex scandal -- and his attempt to blame homosexuals for the problem -- follows in a grand tradition of church coverups.

They Know Not What They Do
I had to read the sentence twice to make sure I wasn't imagining it. In the text of the American Cardinals' statement issued last week in Rome, the hierarchs specified which statutory rapists among their clergy would be subject to being defrocked. Such a punishment would be meted out to "a priest who has become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors."

Local group pushes mandatory reporting
A new northern Michigan-based grassroots group is calling for mandatory reporting of suspected child sexual abuse by clergy, saying priests and other religious leaders should not be a "protected" class of professionals.

Get It Straight
The one thing everybody knows about the Roman Catholic Church is that you're supposed to confess your sins. Everybody, that is, except the church's leaders. First they failed to come clean about sexual abuse by priests. Then they failed to come clean about having covered up the abuse.

Religion for Dummies
What has been most shocking about the church scandal so far is not the revelation that some priests prey on minors but that their bosses are looking out for No. 1 (and I don't mean Him) rather than their victims.

Church officials don't get it: A child molester is a child molester, regardless of victim's gender
I wanted to avoid commenting on the child-molesting scandal that's gripping the U.S. Catholic Church.

Some Catholics fear church may be blaming gay clergy
"Churches, broadly speaking, do not do well with issues of sexuality," said Anne Underwood, an attorney who converted to Catholicism. "This is not about homosexuality. That's a red herring. The majority of pedophiles are (heterosexual) men."

Bishop's words anger gays, abuse victims
"Church leaders seem preoccupied with pointing fingers of blame, whether it's at abuse victims themselves or their lawyers or the media," he said. "On that list include gay priests. If there's blame to be assessed, the bishops need to look squarely in the mirror."

The Catholic Pedophile Factory
Is there something unique to Catholicism that makes it so prodigious at producing pedophiles? The Catholic leadership, frantically meeting in Rome this week in an effort to cut its losses after four decades of knowingly aiding and abetting the ongoing molestation of hundreds if not thousands of its parishioners' children, has struck upon a not-so-novel answer: the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood.

New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition
Students, professors and general readers alike have relied upon The Oxford Annotated Bible for essential scholarship and guidance to the world of the Bible for nearly four decades. Now a new editorial board and team of contributors have completely updated this classic work. The result is a volume which maintains and extends the excellence the Annotated's users have come to expect, bringing new insights, information, and approaches to bear upon the understanding of the text of the Bible.

Anti Violence Project Slams Priest for Scapegoating Gays in Pedophile Flap
It is fascinating that in what may be the American Catholic Church's darkest hour in recent memory, Msgr. Clark has chosen to so cavalierly scapegoat gays," said Clarence Patton, AVP's Director of Community Organizing and Public Advocacy. It is unclear whether or not Msgr. Clark said this out of ignorance or malevolence, or both...

Priests must 'be perfect'
Two days before a crisis meeting with U.S. Catholic leaders on the sexual abuse scandal rocking the church, Pope John Paul II made clear his vision of the priesthood...

Resources and facts leading to understanding in the Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Crisis
Over the past two months, revelations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests have become front-page news across the country. Unfortunately some media coverage of the sex abuse scandal has become increasingly sensationalistic.

News Coverage of the Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Crisis
For your convenience, the We Are Traverse City staff has compiled a useful compendium of stories about the Sex-Abuse Crises in the Catholic Church

Secrets, Celibacy and the Church
Conservatives and liberals alike should acknowledge that sexual secrecy is destroying the church, and one way to save it would be to make celibacy optional.

An Unlikely Marriage Broker
At this Easter-Passover season, it comes as no surprise that the American people are worried about what they see as the decline in the moral ...

The gay purge
By scapegoating homosexual priests, the Catholic Church seeks to avoid a tougher look at its secret history of abuse.

Choosing Celibacy
At the heart of many of these misreadings, perhaps, is a fundamental misunderstanding of celibacy. In general, many Americans — many American Catholics for that matter — view celibacy as at best misguided and, at worst, masochistic. The unspoken question is: What kind of sick person would willingly give up sex? This is not a surprising reaction in a culture that prizes sex and sexuality and places such an emphasis on sexual expression.

As Scandal Keeps Growing, Church and Its Faithful Reel
The sexual abuse scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church, far from being nearly over, has only begun. Across the country, in an effort to restore credibility, many dioceses after another is volunteering to turn over its records to prosecutors. The publicity is emboldening more people to step forward with accusations of of sexual abuse. The news media daily are exposing new cases of priests accused as pedophiles and new reports of cover-ups.

House of Hope Seeks Your Help
We are currently trying to expand our facility to be able to better help the youth in our community. We are having our first "Garage Sale" fundraiser to accomplish this and we are accepting donations for the sale as well as recruiting volunteers to help pick up donations, work the day of the sale etc.

A Fallen Hero
Father Mychal Judge gave his life as a hero of September 11. But if the Pope has his way, the late New York Fire Department Chaplain could be judged a fraud.

As Rabbis Face Facts, Bible Tales Are Wilting
Were Abraham and Moses fantasies? Was Exodus a fiction? Jewish experts publish their doubts

Italian statue 'weeps blood'
Thousands of believers have flocked to the Sicilian city of Messina after a statue of the revered Padre Pio began shedding tears some think are blood.