Media coverage
Christianity Today · 2007-06-18
Plus: Ruth Graham laid to rest, an Episcopal priest converts to Islam (but stays an Episcopal priest), and other stories from online sources around the world.
1. “We all hope it will be better, but it will never ever be good with Hamas” “Masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church,” Roman Catholic priest Manuel Musalam (alt. spelling: Mussalem) told The Jerusalem Post. “Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment.” Every cross inside the church and school was destroyed, he said.
Musalam said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called him to condemn the attack and to promise he’d work against future attacks on Christians. In a separate story, Abbas told the Post, “The torching of the church is one of the fruits of the bloody coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip.”
## Sign up for The Daily Briefing
Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Thanks for signing up.
Explore more newsletters—don’t forget to start your free 60-day trial of CT to get full access to all articles in every newsletter.
Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.
Hamas spokesmen told the Post and the Associated Press that Hamas had nothing to do with the attack and promised to “punish anyone who targets churches.” But Christians in Gaza are still very worried about their future under Hamas.
“I can’t predict what will happen, but one thing is for certain: There is a group within Hamas which is starting to talk of the Islamization of society. Right now they are a small group, but the more pressure is put on, the more extreme they will become,” Omar Shaban, Catholic Relief Services project manager for Gaza, told Catholic News Service. “With Fatah as a secular organization we had no problems, but with Hamas I am not sure how they will perceive us.”
One Christian teenager in Gaza told Catholic News Service, “We all hope it will be better, but it will never ever be good with Hamas.”
The Jerusalem Post notes:
Several Christian institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been targeted by masked gunmen over the past few months.
Last April, a bookstore run by the Bible Society in the Gaza Strip was bombed, but no one was hurt.
A group calling itself the Huda (Guidance) Army Organization threatened to target all Christians living in the Gaza Strip following remarks against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that were made last year by Pope Benedict XVI.
“We will target all Crusaders in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a leaflet, “until the pope issues an official apology.”
The group also threatened to attack churches and Christian-owned institutions and homes.
“All centers belonging to Crusaders, including churches and institutions, will from now on be targeted,” it said. “We will even attack the Crusaders as they sit intoxicated in their homes.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that two of Abbas’s cabinet members in his new emergency government are Christians.
The Christianity Today Liveblog has more updates on Christians in Gaza, including some relatively good news from Gaza Baptist Church.
2. Ruth Graham honored in Montreat, buried in Charlotte “I wish you could look into the casket because she’s so beautiful,” Billy Graham told mourners at Saturday’s public funeral. “I sat there for a long time just looking at her and praying because I know she had a great reception in heaven.”
3. Brownback campaign staffer busted for Mormon questions The religion-and-politics nom du jour is Emma Nemecek, the southeastern Iowa field director for Sam Brownback’s presidential campaign. She forwarded an e-mail message from a separate interest group (she says it was from “an organization of conservative Asian Americans”) to Iowa Republican leaders. She asked them to fact-check several statements in the e-mail, including, “Theologically, the only thing Christianity and the LDS church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith,” and, “The LDS church has never been accepted by the Christian Council of Churches.”
“The e-mail appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to push negative talking points on Mormonism to influence power brokers in Iowa,” The Washington Post reported. When asked about it, the Brownback campaign disavowed the e-mail message, said Nemecek was reprimanded, and said it wouldn’t happen again.
“Although the forwarded e-mail did not originate from campaign staff and was not sent from a campaign account or on behalf of the campaign, it is unfortunate and regrettable that this e-mail was forwarded by someone working for the campaign, even if for fact-checking purposes on behalf of a publication,” Brownback’s Iowa communications director John Rankin told the Post. (Unanswered: What Brownback-related publication is/was looking at Mormon beliefs?)
The Los Angeles Times Saturday reported that some evangelicals are wary enough of Mormonism not to vote for Romney. Stephanie Simon writes, “This is not an arcane theological dispute; to some born-again Christians, it’s at the very core of presidential leadership. If Romney does not understand what they take to be God’s true nature, can he still receive divine guidance? If he doesn’t accept the Trinity as they conceptualize it, can he still be filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit?”
Nemecek says she’s actually not critical of Romney’s faith. “I didn’t intend to smear anyone,” she told blogger John Deeth. “I don’t think people should choose [a president] based on how a person worships — I have six Mormon family members myself.” She says she forwarded the e-mail “with no opinion of my own or anything.”
Or apparently any knowledge that the “Christian Council of Churches” doesn’t even exist. (If the e-mail meant the National Council of Churches, it could add almost every evangelical church to the list of non-members.)
4. The face of Regent University “What is the real face of Regent’s law school?” asks its hometown paper, The Virginian-Pilot. The newspaper juxtaposes a local billboard for Regent Law, featuring two students who had just won the American Bar Association’s national negotiation competition, with coverage of Monica Goodling, the Regent grad at the center of the Justice Department firing scandal. Though writer Steven G. Vegh never directly spells it out, the underlying message is that to outsiders, the real face of Regent is its founder, Pat Robertson. But Robertson isn’t a big factor inside the school itself — or even a big draw for students. “There are a number of people attending that school who do so strictly because of what Pat Robertson represents to them,” 1994 graduate Joe Migliozzi Jr. told the paper. “I don’t think that is a majority anymore.” Stephen Pfeiffer, one of the two faces on that billboard, says he hadn’t even heard of Robertson before he enrolled at the school.
5. Wine, wine, wine Public schools renting space out to churches is controversial in several parts of the country, but in Wake County, North Carolina, it’s not for the usual reason. The school board policy absolutely forbids all alcohol on school premises at all times — which means that Roman Catholic churches renting space in one of the schools can’t use sacramental wine. (Another church says it has been using wine at services in another school without any complaints.) A board member is seeking to change the policy.
Quote of the day “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both. … At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need.” — Ann Holmes Redding, an Episcopal priest in the Episcopal Church’s Olympia diocese. Bishop Vincent Warner says he “finds the interfaith possibilities exciting” with a priest who is Christian and Muslim. In the diocesan newspaper, Redding explained a key step in her “becoming a human being” and embracing Islam was in rejecting the traditional doctrines of her church:
The affirmations [that Christians make at their baptism] are tough for any Christian who is at all progressive because there are certain of us [Christians] who have taken these and made them in to something like fraternity hazing—you have to say these words in order to be part of the club. I see them as taking Jesus as the human example to follow toward God. Most Muslims see Mohammed rather than Jesus as the pattern of life to follow, and I do not see him as the only example. I just am not willing to put ‘onlys’ in front of all those affirmations about Jesus.
I think she’s just trying to provoke Peter Akinola.
Note If you’re using an RSS reader to monitor new Weblog postings, you probably missed Friday’s Weblog. Sorry about that.
Gaza | Philippines | Crime | Abuse | Catholicism | Church life | United Church of Christ | Episcopalians and Anglicans | Sexual ethics | Immigration | 2008 election | Politics | New Zealand | Australia | Life ethics | Church and state | Education | U.K. Religious Education | Missions and ministry | Books | Entertainment and media | Music | Ruth Graham | Fatherhood | People | Money and business | Other stories of interest
Gaza’s Christians fear for their lives | Christians living in Gaza City on Monday appealed to the international community to protect them against increased attacks by Muslim extremists. Many Christians said they were prepared to leave the Gaza Strip as soon as the border crossings are reopened (The Jerusalem Post)
Catholic compound ransacked in Gaza | A school and convent belonging to the Gaza Strip’s tiny Roman Catholic community were ransacked, burned and looted during clashes around a major security headquarters, the head of the community said Monday (Associated Press)
As divide deepens, Gaza’s fate uncertain | U.S., Israel back new regime in West Bank. Funding likely to follow (Los Angeles Times)
Philippine rebels criticize new government negotiator | Muslim rebels negotiating to end rebellion in the southern Philippines criticized the government on Sunday for naming a Roman Catholic priest to head its peace panel, saying the decision would downgrade the talks (Reuters)
MILF establishes contact with priest’s abductors—military | Bossi ‘physically okay’ (The Philippine Inquirer)
Gunmen demand ransom for release of Italian priest (AFP)
Chaldean priest abducted in Baghdad is free and in good health | Fr Hani Abdel Ahad is released after 12 days. “He is very tired but was not mistreated,” says someone who met him. Persecution of Christians now moves to the al-Amariya and Hai al-Jamiya neighbourhoods with bombs placed in a home garden and threats of beheading (AsiaNews.it)
Kaiser inquest concludes after more than three years of hearing | An inquest into the death of Catholic Priest John Anthony Kaiser finally concluded after a three year hearing. A Magistrate’s Court that was conducting the inquest is now expected to rule on the 18th of July whether Father Kaiser committed suicide or was murdered (Capital FM, Kenya)
Six arrested after Egypt sectarian clash | Thirteen people were injured and six arrested in southern Egypt on Saturday when a land dispute sparked a clash between Muslims and Christians, a security source said, in a sign of growing tensions between both communities (AFP)
Wife takes bishop to court for adultery | The wife of a Ugandan bishop has filed for divorce in the High Court. Citing adultery, cruelty and attempted murder, Catherine Oboketch wants court to dissolve her marriage to John Oboketch, a bishop of the Charismatic Church of Uganda (The Monitor, Uganda)
Woman shot, killed in Oconto church | Husband charged with wife’s murder (Green Bay Press Gazette, Wis.)
Also: Alleged shooter of Oconto woman in critical condition | A man who allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife in an Oconto church was in critical condition Saturday at a Milwaukee-area hospital (Green Bay Press Gazette, Wis.)
Police still searching for male who held up store and church | Several people were held up at First Apostolic Church. The robbers got away with about four wallets and some cell phones (The News Star, Monroe, La.)
Cops: Man pushed wife in church | A man was arrested Sunday at church after police officers say he accosted his common-law wife and their 17-day-old child inside a church (The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
LA clergy abuse trials loom | After years of legal wrangling, the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese may finally move to settle hundreds of clergy sex abuse claims against it following several legal setbacks and the prospect of jury trials in the months ahead (Associated Press)
Victims of priest’s abuse seek accountability from church | Tim Evans is behind bars, but his victims want more. (The Coloradoan, Ft. Collins)
Limits on sex abuse suits set for debate | Del. House to consider proposal on Tuesday (The News Journal, Wilmington, Del.)
Protest at church is called off as controversial plaque is removed | Members of the Balboa Island community planned to distribute fliers Saturday at the church to protest the plaque and naming of St. Vianney Plaza after alleged child molester Msgr. Joseph F. Sharpe, but their efforts weren’t needed (Daily Pilot, Newport Beach, Ca.)
Pope hopeful on Catholic-Orthodox unity | Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting Cypriot Orthodox leader Saturday that he holds hope that the Catholic and Orthodox churches can be united, despite centuries of painful division (Associated Press)
Pope, Orthodox leader to work for Middle East peace | Pope Benedict and the leader of the Cypriot Orthodox Church pledged on Saturday to work for peace in the Middle East, saying they feared a widening crisis with “disastrous consequences” (Reuters)
Pope Benedict makes pilgrimage to Assisi | Pope Benedict XVI began a pilgrimage to this hill town Sunday to mark the 800th anniversary of the conversion of St. Francis from the life of a medieval playboy into a man who stripped away his worldly wealth to serve God (Associated Press)
Also: Pope urges end to Mideast wars, terror | Pope Benedict made one of his strongest peace appeals on Sunday, calling for an end to all wars and saying the people of the Middle East have had enough of “the horrors of combat, terrorism and blind violence” (Reuters)
A return to the Latin Mass | Clashes with congregants may erupt as a growing number of young priests push for a revival of pre-Vatican II customs (U.S. News & World Report)
Catholic bishops resist advance of Latin Mass | The Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales are resisting the Pope’s plans to liberalise the use of the traditional Latin Mass (The Telegraph, London)
Nun resigns, rather than prove she is in ‘good standing’ | Sister Regina Werntz was offended, she said, by a requirement by the diocese that all teachers, including nuns, furnish a letter from a pastor attesting to being Catholics in good standing (The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.)
Also: Nun leaves teaching post over pastoral endorsement | Sister Regina Werntz agonized over the words for days (Citizens Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
Document: Long-standing sisters should not have to prove their faith (Regina Werntz, Citizens Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
Catholic ‘witch-hunt’ to expose gay clergy | A newsletter , Catholic Truth, has so far confronted up to a dozen priests about their alleged homosexuality and has named at least four as being gay or allegedly associating with gay men (The Times, London)
Wuerl paves own path | Almost a year into his job as the spiritual leader of the Washington area’s 560,000 Catholics, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl has set a personal agenda and style that are worlds apart from those of his more flamboyant predecessor (The Washington Times)
Groundbreaking female Waco pastor moving on to job in Georgia | An interview with Julie Pennington-Russell, the first woman to have served as senior pastor at a Baptist General Convention of Texas church (Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
9/11 attacks begot a different kind of church | The September 11 terrorist attacks hit just 10 days after the Rev. Bill Shuler and his family moved from Oklahoma to the D.C. area, prompting him to start a ministry that eventually would blossom into Capital Life Church (The Washington Times)
First Presbyterian, others view changing affiliation | “Around the world God is working and the church of Jesus Christ is growing, but the American church is kind of stuck in our infighting over theology, in our inward focus, in our accommodation of culture,” said Garrett Dawson, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association (The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.)
No protests at church with blackface skit | Protesters on Sunday apparently stayed away from a Gastonia church that had been publicly criticized for a blackface performance (The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
Church planting cultivates Christians | Restoration House Ministries is trying to do for Christianity what Johnny Appleseed did for horticulture (Rich Barlow, The Boston Globe)
Police evict worshippers from church | Police lobbed teargas canisters to disperse worshippers from the Full Gospel Church in Mogotio. The officers in full riot gear battled with the worshippers before forcefully evicting them as the national officials of Full Gospel Churches of Kenya moved to take over the church’s management (East African Standard, Kenya)
United Church of Christ:
Church struggles for unity | Topics for synod show UCC tensions (Hartford Courant, Ct.)
Jewish groups rebuke United Church of Christ | Eight Jewish groups rebuked the United Church of Christ for what they said was an imbalanced statement on Israel (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
God still speaks | This week, for many in Connecticut, the UCC will be synonymous with “Barack Obama.” But the Democratic presidential candidate’s appearance Saturday is not the main reason twice as many people as usual have signed up for the UCC’s General Synod, its national biennial conference, being held Friday through June 26 in Hartford (New Haven Register, Ct.)
Episcopalians and Anglicans:
“I am both Muslim and Christian” | Ann Holmes Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been an Episcopal priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved (The Seattle Times)
More U.S. Episcopalians look abroad amid rift | Overseas prelates lead 200 to 250 congregations (The Washington Post)
Anglican Kenyans name U.S. bishop | The Anglican Province of Kenya has appointed its own bishop to oversee about 30 churches in the United States — the third such effort by conservative African bishops to carve out pieces of the U.S. Episcopal Church (The Washington Times)
Navigating challenges | Episcopal Church’s 1st female leader has faced objections to female priests and gay bishops (The Indianapolis Star)
Anglicans to vote this week on priests blessing same-sex unions | Church leaders came up with a clever compromise for gay couple’s wedding: Before they were legally married by a Federal Court judge at the end of a regular Sunday mass, they were prayed for by the entire congregation of St. John the Evangelist in Ottawa – instead of just the priest (Canadian Press)
Divided Anglicans to vote on issue of same-sex union | The religious world will be watching Winnipeg as Canada’s oldest Protestant church struggles to avoid a schism in the church (The Ottawa Citizen)
Some Anglican gays switching churches, as same-sex vote looms | The Anglican church’s longtime indecision over the issue has served to alienate supporters on both sides, some say ) CanWest News Service/Edmonton Journal)
Don’t tear apart our church | As the Canadian Anglican bishops gather to decide whether to bless homosexual unions, I hope and pray that our discussion will be civil and kind, and that their decision will leave the church intact. (Michael Fleming, Ottawa Citizen)
Church of England ‘institutionally racist’ | The Church of England is “institutionally racist”, a damning internal report has concluded (The Telegraph, London)
Also: Report: Church of England is racist | Black and Asian clergy members are unlikely to reach high office in the Church of England and minorities are sometimes marginalized in parish churches, an internal review will show (Associated Press)
New ground in debate on ‘curing’ gays | Christian ministries who see homosexuality as a treatable disorder are starting to think that choice may not be a factor (Los Angeles Times)
S.F. ELCA church to ordain noncelibate lesbian | Ordination of Dawn Roginski will mark the third such challenge to the policy in eight months (The Advocate, gay magazine)
Colombia to recognize gay unions with extension of health, other benefits | The measure would make Colombia the first country in Latin America to extend such rights to gay couples (The Washington Post)
Waves of change swept away bid vs. gay nuptials | Until last week, gay marriage advocates never once believed they could defeat a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on its merits (The Boston Globe)
Gays aim to expand Massachusetts ‘marriages’ | The defeat of a Massachusetts marriage amendment last week may re-energize efforts to repeal a law blocking same-sex couples from out of state from “marrying” there, warns the leader of a group that seeks to protect marriage in the U.S. Constitution (The Washington Times)
Impounded fathers | Are children left orphaned by U.S. immigration laws? (Edwidge Danticat, The New York Times)
Employers, not family, drive area immigration | D.C. could offer glimpse of life under Senate bill (The Washington Post)
Broad effort to resurrect immigration bill | Various groups had complained about provisions of a comprehensive immigration bill, but when it appeared to be dying, they were flummoxed (The New York Times)
Obama says religion has place in politics | Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama insisted Saturday that religious faith can play a central role in politics, but only if it’s used to tackle moral issues and not to divide the nation (Sioux City Journal, S.D.)
Evangelicals uneasy with Romney’s faith | The candidate’s Mormonism worries a key GOP voting bloc (Los Angeles Times)
Brownback aide chided on anti-Mormon bid | An aide to GOP presidential candidate Sam Brownback has been reprimanded for sending e-mail to Iowa Republican leaders in an apparent attempt to draw unfavorable scrutiny to rival Mitt Romney’s Mormonism (Associated Press)
Romney’s Mormonism attracts more scrutiny … and a whisper campaign | Mitt Romney’s Mormonism isn’t something his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination talk much about in public, but his faith appears to have stoked a whisper campaign, engineered by an Iowa staffer for Sen. Sam Brownback (The Washington Post)
Romney: Anti-abortion activists won him over | U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney sought to turn his shifting views on abortion to his advantage on Friday, bringing social conservatives to their feet in a speech in which he said they helped convert him to their cause (Reuters)
Mitt’s recent double speak presidential | On close inspection, it appears Romney was just employing a good bit of double speak — and what could be more presidential? — when he answered that LDS Second Coming doctrine corresponds with other Christian tradition (Lee Benson, Deseret Morning News, Ut.)
Southern Baptist split over politics | A small but vocal number of pastors believe the denomination is too cozy with Republicans and too political in general (Associated Press)
An advocate lends a hand as social justice goals unify faiths | United Power for Action and Justice puts Muslims within an array of Roman Cathol…
Text © Christianity Today — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source