Sen. Barack Obama strongly denounced Jeremiah Wright Tuesday after his former pastor made more controversial statements on Monday.

"His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church," Obama said. "They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs."

Obama also wanted to clarify the relationship details. "He was never my 'spiritual mentor.' He was -- he was my pastor. And so to some extent, how, you know, the -- the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, wasn't accurate." It's interesting that he makes this distinction for someone who guided him through his marriage, his children's baptism, and prayer for the campaign.

Wright has caused a lot of chaos for the Obama campaign for the last several weeks. On Monday, Wright appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and fueled the fire.

Obama responded to some of Wright's remarks: "[W]hen he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."

On Monday, Wright said he hopes the controversy "just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible. It is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright - it's an attack on the black church."

But Obama denounced those remarks as well. "I did not view the initial round of soundbites, that triggered this controversy, as an attack on the black church," Obama said. "I viewed it as a simplification of who he was, a caricature of who he was and, you know, more than anything, something that piqued a lot of political interest."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Wright said in a sermon, "America's chickens are coming home to roost" after the United States. A reporter asked him what he meant and Wright replied, "Have you heard the whole sermon? No. You haven't heard the whole sermon. That nullifies that question."

When asked if he was apologetic for suggesting the U.S. should be damned, he said, "God doesn't bless everything, God condemns something - and d-e-m-n, ?demn,' is where we get the word ?damn.' God damns some practices." He also said that American soldiers in Iraq died "over a lie" and the war is "unjust."

Obama made it clear Tuesday that he wants nothing to do with the remarks. "But the insensitivity and the outrageousness, of his statements and his performance in the question-and-answer period yesterday, I think, shocked me," he said.

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 29, 2008 8:16PM | Comments (20)

After refusing to discuss the details of his divorce, tenured professor Kent Gramm resigned from his English position at Wheaton College.

Wheaton's faculty handbook states that the college will consider employee retention "when there is reasonable evidence that the circumstances that led to the final dissolution of the marriage related to desertion or adultery on the part of the other partner."

But Gramm declined to discuss details. "None of Your Business" headlined Monday's Chicago Sun-Times front-page story.

"I think it's wrong to have to discuss your personal life with your employer," Gramm told the Chicago Tribune, "and I also don't want to be in a position of accusing my spouse, so I declined to appeal or discuss the matter in any way with my employer."

Provost Stan Jones told Inside Higher Ed, "The policy calls for us to try to make a compassionate, thoughtful evaluation of the circumstances, and we are then in a real bind if a person for whatever reason chooses not to discuss those circumstances."

Cathleen Falsani writes in the Chicago Sun-Times that her alma mater needed to employ grace.

"? [O]nce again an evangelical Christian institution earns a reputation, deserved or not, for siding with legalism over grace. And for an institution dedicated, as Wheaton is, to ?Christ and his kingdom,' communicating grace in a world that so desperately needs it should always be the most important part of its mission."

The provost told Wheaton's student newspaper, The Record, that the administration considers one or two employee divorce cases each year on a case-by-case basis, and the specifics of who initiated the divorce are not as important as the reason for divorce.

"Many churches are responding to divorce by saying that it's too messy, this is not our business, we'll just be redemptive," Jones told The Record. "This response is problematic because you're basically declaring divorce not to be a moral issue. It doesn't seem that Scripture gives us that latitude."

Officials told the Chicago Tribune that they were willing to allow Gramm to remain at the college for another year as he sought work, but he declined. He is still looking for work.

"I plan to live happily ever after," he told The Record. "The next time someone says to you, 'Hello, welcome to Walmart,' be nice to him. I already have clothing with a W on it."

Gramm's story poses questions for many religious institutions of whether divorce should be a criterion in professional standards.

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 29, 2008 12:44PM | Comments (59)

Florida's news outlets are abuzz again with the latest developments in the state's attempt to pinpoint guidelines for science education in public classrooms. This morning the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill 71?43 that requires public school teachers to offer "a thorough presentation and scientific critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution," more obtuse wording than that approved by Florida's Senate last Wednesday.

The Senate's bill, called the "Evolution Academic Freedom Act," was spearheaded by Sen. Ronda Storms and aimed at granting educators the right to present scientifically grounded alternatives to evolution, along with protecting them from disciplinary action for doing so. The bill borrows largely from an academic freedom bill drafted by the Discovery Institute, the leading research center on intelligent design, and focuses on teachers' First Amendment rights.

Proponents of both bills repeatedly stated that the legislation does not allow creationism or intelligent design to be taught in classrooms, and that neither bill includes religious language.

Florida legislators have until this Friday to come to agreement on the bill's wording. Considering the House's agreed-upon wording was already rejected by the Senate in earlier hearings, it remains dubious whether the legislators will be able to pass a bill at all.

Florida's debate over evolution began last October, when the State Board of Education adopted new science education standards that identified evolution as the "fundamental concept" underlying biology. Before the new standards, the Board of Education's statewide curriculum did not include the word evolution.

See CT Newsfeed's prior coverage of evolution and science education.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty at April 28, 2008 3:52PM | Comments (0)

A weekend e-mail from John Stott Ministries called attention to the April 27 birthday of "Uncle John." The senior evangelical statesman turned 87 on Sunday.

Stott retired from all active public ministry just one year ago and moved into a retirement facility for Anglican clergy. JSM president Ken Perez reports that Stott is happy and doing well in his new surroundings:

I asked how he was finding his living situation, which has been his home for about a year now. Uncle John shared that he has a number of evangelical friends in the retirement community, including one man whose friendship with John goes back 70 years when they were students at Rugby School! Uncle John related that he is often asked whether he is happy. His response is that while he would not say that he is happy (I would imagine that he misses many people, the activity of his ministry, his home in London, and the ability to travel abroad), he is content, citing Philippians 4:11, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

Read Perez's full account of his visit on the JSM website.

In 2006, Christianity Today marked Stott's 85th birthday by publishing "Evangelism Plus," an interview by Tim Stafford.

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Posted by David Neff at April 27, 2008 3:41PM | Comments (4)

This might seem like a good idea, but ...

Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe."

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate's sponsor, said people who "believe in their college or university" or "believe in their football team" already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with "something they believe in," he said.

If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that's not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

This story from the AP is what I like to call religious-controversy in a can. There is an exact formula to reporting these kneejerkers out. Introduce the "major news" (these are CNN standards), followed by a supportive quote about how Christians just want equal rights and then the contrarion view from Americans United, the ACLU or Michael Newdow. My vote's for contestant No. 2:

The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it "sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state" and, second, gives the "appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Personally, I think the license plate is completely camp but have no constitutional qualms with it ... if the Florida DMV offers other religious variants. As my colleague pointed out with this satirical plate, I don't think Christians would be too thrilled if Satanists got their own design.

This article was cross-posted, with art, at The God Blog.

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Posted by Brad Greenberg at April 25, 2008 3:57PM | Comments (3)

The nation-state of Israel will have its 60th birthday celebration on Thursday, May 8. This will be a milestone event in Middle East history. It comes at a time when Israel faces near-daily rocket attacks from northern Gaza.

While lovers of Israel from around the world will celebrate, there are others who will observe the anniversary and also maintain a deep commitment to justice for Palestinians.

Two individual Christians Ben White and Philip Rizk recently composed:

A Joint Declaration by Christians on Israel's 60th Anniversary This statement says in part: "...We recognise that today, millions of Israelis and Jews around the world will joyfully mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel (Yom Ha'atzmaut). For many, this landmark powerfully symbolises the Jewish people's ability to defy the power of hatred so destructively embodied in the Nazi Holocaust. Additionally, it is an opportunity to celebrate the wealth of cultural, economic and scientific achievements of Israeli society, in all its vitality and diversity.

We also recognise that this same day, millions of Palestinians living inside Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the worldwide diaspora, will mourn 60 years since over 700,000 of them were uprooted from their homes and forbidden from returning, while more than 400 villages were destroyed (al-Nakba). For them, this day is not just about the remembrance of a past catastrophic dispossession, dispersal, and loss; it is also a reminder that their struggle for self-determination and restitution is ongoing.

To hold both of these responses together in balanced tension is not easy. But it is vital if a peaceful way forward is to be forged, and is central to the Biblical call to "seek peace and pursue it" (Ps. 34:14). We acknowledge with sorrow that for the last 60 years, while extending empathy and support to the Israeli narrative of independence and struggle, many of us in the church worldwide have denied the same solidarity to the Palestinians, deaf to their cries of pain and distress.
To acknowledge and respect these dual histories is not, by itself, sufficient, but does offer a paradigm for building a peaceful future. Many lives have been lost, and there has been much suffering. The weak are exploited by the strong, while fear and bitterness stunt the imagination and cripple the capacity for forgiveness."

A number of influential evangelicals have signed this declaration, including:

Brian McLaren, author/pastor
Bob Roberts, NorthWood Church
George Brushaber, Bethel University
Brother Andrew, author of Light Force and God's Smuggler
Joel Edwards, EAUK

The full list is here.

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Posted by Tim Morgan at April 22, 2008 4:59PM | Comments (8)

For decades, Israel has made it next to impossible for immigrant Messianic Jews, who affirm belief in Jesus as Messiah, to become citizens of Israel. Often, if Messianic believers disclosed their faith in 'Yeshua,' the name they use for Jesus, government authorities would reject their citizenship application.

But last week, the Supreme Court of Israel, ruled on a case involved 12 Messianic Jews who sued the government Ministry of the Interior for their legal 'right of return' (and then to become citizens of Israel).
The court in its ruling said:

The parties have submitted to us the following notification:
"In their notification dated 13.04.08 the Respondents declared, that the fact that a person is a "Messianic Jew" has no bearing on an application according to Sec. 7 of the Law of Citizenship, as well as an application according to Sec. 4(A)(a) of the Law of Return (as long as the person applying according the abovementioned section of the Law of Return is not considered to be Jewish, as described in section 4B of the Law of Return).
The Respondents declare that in accordance with their notification they will process the applications of all Petitioners as soon as possible, as well as the application of Alvetina Zibareva, and Valentina Zibareva who requested to join the petition on 01.04.08 to the extent that their request is similar.
Due to these circumstances the representatives of the Petitioners requested to remove the petition without a ruling regarding court costs.
The Petition is removed by consent as aforesaid.

One blogger explains the ruling this way:

I received a communication today that clarifies the settlement reached yesterday in Israel...
The ruling would not cover all Messianic Jews, but would cover many of them: If a person was not a Jew previously (religious definition) but is a descendant of Jews, then they can make aliyah (citizenship) without discrimination for their current faith in Yeshua.

According to CBN:

"This is yet another battle won in our war to establish equality in Israel for the Messianic Jewish community just like every other legitimate stream of faith within the Jewish world," said Calev Myers, founder and chief counsel of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice.

Messianic belivers in Israel were wondering whether the recent bomb attack on Ami Ortiz, the son of Messianic pastor, had any influence on the court's ruling. Ortiz was severely injured in the incident and is expected to be in recovery for months to come.

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Posted by Tim Morgan at April 21, 2008 5:32PM | Comments (13)

With gasoline flowing toward $4 a gallon in the U.S., some Americans are trying to figure out what they can cut from their budget to remain behind the wheel. In other parts of the world, high prices for basic items are causing more trouble.

The prices of wheat and rice this year will have doubled since 2004, according to World Bank projections. Soybeans, sugar, soybean oil and corn are expected to be 56% to 79% costlier than in 2004. The bulk of the increases have come in the past year and can be attributed to the West's push to turn these crops into fossil-fuel replacements like ethanol. Food prices will likely remain overinflated until at least 2015, the Bank says.

The result of these rising prices is that 100 million people could slip back into poverty, erasing seven years' worth of gains, Bank President Robert Zoellick warned earlier this month. Food inflation and shortages have sparked riots from Egypt to the Philippines, and six people were killed in Haiti alone during nine days of related unrest there this month.

Soaring oil prices have made it more expensive to transport food products, though the World Bank estimates this and costlier fertilizer account for only 15% of the rise in food prices. Improved eating habits in developing nations are also increasing demand for grains – both for human consumption and to feed livestock, since rapid economic growth in places like China means more people have enough money to buy meat. But the Bank notes that "almost all" of the increased growing of one of the key crops, corn, "went for biofuels production in the U.S."

For a look at what the World Bank says about the food crisis, click here.

While the science of whether ethanol is an efficient use of corn, given its proportional removal from the world's food supply, is beyond me, the current world food crisis points out the fact that there are economic costs and drawbacks with every government mandate and subsidy. There is no such thing as a free lunch. When corn is turned into fuel, it cannot be used for food, and some who would eat that corn will have to buy other food (presumably at a higher price) or go hungry.

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Posted by Stan Guthrie at April 21, 2008 9:36AM | Comments (9)

News reports of the recent tragic plane crash in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, are just beginning to trickle out. One story getting much attention is focused on the heroic action of 14-year-old April Mosier.

In this Mosier family photo, April Mosier is on the far left.

Adventist Review news editor, Mark A. Kellner, reports:

The young woman, was traveling with her mother, father, and 3-year-old brother from Goma to Kisangani, Congo, where her older brother Keith, 24, has begun a mission project. The Mosiers are all serving with Outpost Centers International, a lay ministry that supports the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The flight did not clear the runway ? media reports indicate a tire may have blown out ? and the plane crashed into a nearby open-air market. At least 40 people were reported killed; more than 100 survived, reports indicate. April "probably was one of the first ones to get to the opening," Barry Mosier, her father, said in a telephone interview from Goma two days after the crash. "She was right there, knowing what to do; none of the exit doors were open. She told a man, in Swahili, that ?We've got to get out of there or we'll die,'" he added. Young April pushed at a panel until a passage large enough for her to get through was found; she then made a run for it. Her father said that April had feared her family had died in the crash; they were later reunited at a local hospital.

Click here for the CNN version.
The Mosier family, originally from Minnesota, has been focused on missions work in southwestern Tanzania. For the full story from Adventist news, click here.

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Posted by Tim Morgan at April 17, 2008 11:33AM | Comments (1)

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) today tackled one case on the death penalty and is on to the next.

The biggest news from SCOTUS was the 7 ? 2 ruling that Kentucky's method of lethal injection was a constitutional form of capital punishment and not cruel and unusual.

"The case before the court came from Kentucky, where two death row inmates wanted the court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate, that causes no pain and can be given in a large enough dose to cause death," NPR reports.

In executions by lethal injection, a team of doctors administers a barbituate to numb, a paralytic, and then sodium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest, through an IV. One of the main objections to lethal injection is that any of the drugs is ineffectively administered, the execution would be painful, undignified, or drawn-out.

That risk, however, isn't enough to make the method illegal, said Chief Justice John Roberts.

American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) guidelines say use of the method to put down animals is unacceptable.

Our earlier report on the case discussed whether there was a significant shift toward disapproval of the death penalty in America.

A Pew Forum poll taken last August found that public support for capital punishment has dropped to 62 percent from a high of 80 percent in 1994. White evangelicals are still the death penalty's strongest supporters, with 74 percent approval, but that is down from 82 percent in 1996.

"There's been a pause in capital punishment since last September: a good opportunity to reflect on what life would be like without it and to take the public temperature on the death penalty in general." Slate says.

While that question may still trouble many a judge and many a Christian, yesterday's ruling has set the death penalty back in motion in many of the states.

* * *

In another significant case, the Supreme Court began hearings on whether child rape (i.e., the worst thing people can think of that isn't murder) merits the death penalty. Capital punishment for a crime that didn't result in the victim's death is uncertain ground.

"Nobody in this country has actually been executed for anything other than murder since 1964, although five states, including Louisiana, have laws permitting capital punishment for the rape of young children," Slate's Dahlia Lithwick explains in her analysis of the "inscrutable social consensus the death penalty for rapists."

For the high court, it's a monumental challenge: distilling all of these trends and counter-trends into some broad, workable constitutional rule, a rule that somehow reflects the emerging "national consensus" that we may like the idea of capital punishment far more than the reality of it.

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Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 16, 2008 7:57PM | Comments (0)

Clyde Cook, the recently retired president of Biola University, died April 11. He was 73.

Known for several years as "Mr. Biola," Cook served as one of the nation’s longest-serving university presidents, leading the California university from 1982 to 2007.

Cook faced enormous challenges when he took the helm. A budget shortfall of 37 percent forced him to cut $1.3 million. And just two years into his presidency, he had a major heart attack at the age of 49. Also, Biola’s enrollment dropped from 3,181 in 1980 to 2,566 in 1989.

However, Biola’s enrollment has nearly doubled to 5,752, and the university added 20 acres to the campus and nine extension sites. Cook handed the reins to Barry H. Corey last summer. The university celebrated its centennial in February, and the Los Angeles Times wrote about how Biola has both evolved and stayed the same.

"When Ken Bascom arrived at Biola College in 1967 to work on his master's degree in history, his fellow students, almost all white, stuck to a strict dress code and had a 10 p.m. curfew on weeknights," wrote reporter Tiffany Hsu. "Last weekend, a multicultural throng of students, several with dyed hair, piercings or tattoos, celebrated the centennial of the private evangelical school -- a university since 1981 -- at a rock concert that extended into the early morning."

The New York Times featured Biola in 2004, when Samantha M. Shapiro wrote, "Evangelical Christianity's dance with secular culture has always been a complicated one." In the early 20th century, Biola sponsored a series of pamphlets called "The Fundamentals," which laid out the principles of the fundamentalist movement. The pamphlets opposed biblical and theological modernism, naturalism, Darwinism, and democratic socialism.

"When I spoke with Clyde Cook, Biola's genial president, he explained that the university is as committed as ever to the principles articulated in 'The Fundamentals,' although, he said, 'we've found different and more effective ways to deliver those truths.' ... [T]he school thinks it is preferable to have students internalize Christian truths through a process of questioning."

The Chimes, Biola's student newspaper, created a blog for people to share their memories of Cook.

"If it's possible for a man who towered over most people physically to walk gracefully and humbly, Clyde Cook had mastered it," wrote Chimes Features Editor Mitchell Young. "If there's one image I will always remember, it's a man whose list of accomplishments could fill books (and probably has) sitting at a crooked Caf table and eating with plastic silverware on one of the days that the Caf decided to give its dishwashers a day off."

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 14, 2008 4:34PM | Comments (8)

As media outlets zoom in on Pope Benedict's U.S. visit and its implications for the Catholic church's future in America, a more sobering story is unfolding regarding the state of Catholic education. Last Thursday the Fordham Foundation released the statistic that the shuttering of 1,300 Catholic elementary and high schools has displaced more than 300,000 children and adolescents since 1990. The National Catholic Educators Association reports downward trends as well: About 1,267 Catholic schools have closed since 2000 and enrollment nationwide has dropped by 14 percent. In 1960 there were 13,000 Catholic schools in America; now there are 7,500.

Leaders at the Fordham Foundation, an education-reform think tank, hope that this downward trend will be one of the topics touched on in Pope Benedict XVI's speech at the Catholic University of America this Thursday, though the meeting will center on higher education. It will also be a topic addressed at the White House's summit on religious schools and inner cities on April 24.

Schools facing the harshest financial realities are in urban locations. As many Catholic families have left cities for the suburbs over the last 30 years, inner-city schools have lost their primary financial support. And as fewer people are interested in the priesthood - which traditionally comprised schools' teaching staff - schools have been forced to hire outside the fold, requiring higher teachers' salaries and thus higher tuition costs. Low-income families simply cannot afford tuition, and opt to send children to more affordable public schools. The financial bind keeps the Catholic church from realizing one of its longstanding missions: to provide quality education to those who can't afford it and to those outside the church's walls.

As the AP story rightly notes, as many of these Catholic schools either close or convert to publicly funded charter schools, they lose their chance to provide children an education in the faith. Some have suggested that Catholic parishioners help foot the bill to keep distinctly Christian teaching and practices in the classroom. Only time will tell if laypeople are able and willing to provide the $19.8 billion that Catholic schools end up saving the federal government each year.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty at April 14, 2008 12:34PM | Comments (4)

This is now available on our website as an article.

Posted by Ted Olsen at April 14, 2008 1:25AM | Comments (0)

A political storm is brewing over Sen. Barack Obama's recent statements. Last Sunday, Obama was explaining his difficulty with winning over working-class voters in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:

"And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Obama said.

The comments were posted Friday on The Huffington Post, creating a wave of criticism from Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John McCain, and other politicians as the April 22 Pennsylvania primary draws near.

"The people of faith I know don't ?cling to' religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich," Clinton said at a rally in Indianapolis.

Now, Obama is spending time explaining his remarks.

"Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in a phone interview on Saturday with the Winston-Salem Journal. "But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so."

He continued, "People feel like Washington's not listening to them, and as a consequence, they find that they can only rely on the traditions and the things that have been important to them for generation after generation. Faith. Family. Traditions like hunting. And they get frustrated."

For a candidate who has been outspoken about faith, religion has created hurdles for his campaign. Just a few months ago, he was squelching rumors about whether he was a Muslim and in March, he was defending his pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It'll be interesting to see whether he addresses these recent remarks at Sunday's Compassion Forum at Messiah College.

The audio of his Sunday statement is available below:

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 13, 2008 12:25AM | Comments (40)

The Resurgence Greek Project
Free
Look no further if you need only to scan the Greek text, double-check parsing, or look up a quick definition. Zack Hubert’s program has only recently been linked up with Mark Driscoll’s Resurgence movement, and exposes this Internet-only resource to church planters and lay leaders who might not otherwise have the time to learn the biblical languages. (More at Zhubert.com)

Logos Bible Software 3
$629.95 for Scholar’s Library
This standard package puts an entire library at your fingertips. The passage and exegetical guides employ a host of resources to dissect Bible verses and help you discern the meaning of original-language texts. Charts and graphs help visual learners. Entire commentary sets can be added for additional cost. (More at Logos.com/scholars)

BibleWorks 7
$349
The popular BibleWorks program focuses more tightly on powerful exegesis tools. New to this version, a three-window interface fills the computer screen with a bounty of information. Sentence diagrams for the Greek New Testament will help advanced users visualize an author’s inspired intent. (More at BibleWorks.com)

Zondervan’s Greek & Hebrew Library 6.0
$149.99
If you want digital access to many indispensable Zondervan resources, you'll want to stick with this software. This publisher has not made some resources available to Logos and Bibleworks. This library doesn’t boast all the powerful tools featured in other programs, but that makes it easier to master in less time. (More at Zondervan.com/software)

Accordance
$249 for Scholar’s Collection
Mac users swear by this program, available for Windows only with an emulator. Accordance runs quickly and presents a clear interface. Offered for separate purchase, customizable 3-D Bible maps take you into Scripture’s stories. (More at AccordanceBible.com)

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 11, 2008 9:20AM | Comments (9)

The eight American Idol finalists sang "Shout to the Lord" Wednesday night to end its charity event "Idol Gives Back." The song included one alteration: "My Jesus" was changed to "My shepherd" to begin the song. The show averaged 17.6 million viewers, featuring celebrities like Brad Pitt, Bono, and Eli and Peyton Manning.

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 10, 2008 4:05PM | Comments (29)

Five months after 138 Muslim clerics and scholars penned a plea for inter-religious and world peace, "A Common Word Between Us and You" - and four months after the Yale Center for Faith and Culture responded with "Loving God and Neighbor Together" - the World Evangelical Alliance has released its own response to the Muslim document. Presumably the umbrella group wanted to survey its global constituency before taking a stance.

Entitled "We Too Want to Live in Love, Peace, Freedom and Justice," the WEA statement is somewhat pricklier than the Yale document. As Christianity Today's earlier reporting noted, some evangelicals took issue with the Yale statement's willingness to sidestep theological differences between Christians and Muslims. The WEA statement can be accused of no such thing. Immediately after affirming the Muslim letter's stated desire for peace, it launches into doctrinal fisticuffs.

In your opening summary, you commence with what is obviously a "call to Christians" to become Muslims by worshipping God without ascribing to him a partner. May we, in return, invite you to put your faith in God, who forgives our opposition to him and sin through what his son Jesus Christ did for us at the cross?

While the statement goes on to affirm much of what is in the Muslim letter, it also questions the letter's statement that Christians are waging war against Muslims and driving them from their homes. Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance, writes: "We ask ourselves, ?Where do Christians wage war against Muslims? Who of the many Christian leaders, you have addressed your letter to, is involved in such a sin as waging war against you or driving Muslims out of their homes? Has any Christian leader publicly urged that such actions be taken against Muslims?'"

The statement ends with a call for religious freedom for Christians in Muslim countries, stating that there is "evidence of many cases where Christians cannot practice their Christian faith without restriction in Muslim countries."

So why the difference in tone between the Yale document and the WEA response? Perhaps the WEA was responding to some of the criticism that the Yale document generated, or perhaps it simply sought to represent the view of its members, many of whom live near much more sizable Muslim communities than do Christians in the U.S. Either way, the statement is a noteworthy, if belated, addition to this Muslim-Christian dialogue.

Posted by Madison Trammel at April 10, 2008 3:32PM | Comments (6)

He played roles that were larger than life - calling down plagues upon Egypt and parting the Red Sea in one film, surviving slavery and an electrifying chariot race in another, and even making contact with an advanced civilization of talking apes in still another.

Charlton Heston, star of The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and Planet of the Apes, died Saturday night in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 84.

The actor was "known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."

Heston was also known for his conservative politics and served as president of the National Rifle Association, an outspoken advocate of gun rights.

President Bush hailed him as a "strong advocate for liberty," while John McCain called Heston a devotee for civil and constitutional rights. Heston was one of Hollywood's first actors to speak out against racism and was actively involved in the civil rights movement.

As an actor, Heston was perhaps best known for his role as Moses in The Ten Commandments, the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic that is better known for its Technicolor spectacle than for its biblical accuracy. (The real Moses had a stuttering problem, but in the '56 film, Heston's marvelous voice is as eloquent as it comes.) Heston also played John the Baptist in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told.

But his best role came in 1959's Ben-Hur, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor in the role of a fictional Jewish slave who would - after a face-to-face meeting with Christ - eventually rise above his circumstances and win a legendary chariot race that still ranks as one of the most incredible scenes in movie history.

In 1968's Planet of the Apes, Heston played an astronaut who crash-lands on a planet in the distant future - a planet where humans are the lesser race and apes have learned speech and technology. (Three years later, Heston would play another sci-fi role in The Omega Man, as one of few survivors of a biological holocaust; the film, based on a novel by Richard Matheson, was remade last year into I Am Legend with Will Smith.)

In 1997, Heston returned to a "biblical role" as host of Charlton Heston Presents the Bible, a video series shot in the Middle East which also comes with a companion coffee table book. (Peter T. Chattaway, a critic for CT Movies, wrote about the projects here.)

Variety magazine has a comprehensive obit/bio, while Entertainment Weekly put together a photo montage of Heston's best movie roles.

Posted by Mark Moring at April 7, 2008 1:14AM | Comments (6)

Evangelizing persons of other faiths, or even committed atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers, is tricky business in our pluralistic and increasingly politicized religious landscape. In Western cultures where tolerance is preeminent among public virtues, such efforts are generally met with scorn, chastisement, and much journalistic gnashing of teeth. In other parts of the world, interfaith gospelers are subject to far worse than a tongue-lashing from the cultural gatekeepers. Such activity may win them spots in jail, or cost them and their families their livelihood, if not their lives.

Recently we have dipped our editorial toes into the chaotic waters of interfaith relations, whether they take the form of a dialog, as touched on in Richard Mouw's piece, or conversion-seeking proclamation, as argued for in Stan Guthrie's recent editorial on evangelizing the Jews. Having read both pieces, it's clear that Mouw shares the evangelistic imperative born of love highlighted by Guthrie, and that Guthrie shares Mouw's firm belief that whatever the form of interfaith communication, it should be marked by "convicted civility," a term Mouw borrows from venerable church historian and cultural commentator Martin Marty.

With regard to the issue of evangelizing the Jews, I'm also pleased that in response to the World Evangelical Alliance's recent statement that ran in The New York Times, "The Gospel and the Jewish People: An Evangelical Statement," we've decided to host an exchange between Stan Guthrie and Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko, Judaic Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, on the very topic of Christian Evangelism and Judaism. Outside of this exchange, WEA's ad has generated very little public comment, except for this critical response from the Anti-Defamation League, and an angry article in The Jerusalem Post.

Yet the kerfuffle surrounding a recent public statement on Christian-Jewish relations from Christianity's largest global communion, namely Pope Benedict's revision of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews, has not abated. For those who have not followed the story, here's the portion of the prayer judged offensive by some:

Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men...Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved.

Several weeks on from Good Friday, the news is still abuzz today with reports of:

1) Continuing critique from those who thought the revision offensive: Agenzia Italia, AFP, Anti-Defamation League.
2) Vatican response and attempts to mend relations with Jews: Catholic World News, United Press International, Catholic News Agency, JTA, AFP, The Times, Reuters, Catholic News Service.
3) Indications of how this situation is shaping the Pope's upcoming visit to the U.S.: New York Times, Zenit, Catholic News Service.

As the world gets smaller, the challenge of interfaith relations only gets bigger, and the need of wisdom greater still...especially for those who are, by definition, gospel people.

Posted by Derek Keefe at April 4, 2008 5:05PM | Comments (6)

There have been long histories of discrimination in the United States against gays and Jews and other non-heterosexual WASPs, and I don't think it is too difficult for Americans to imagine gays in Iraq and Jews in Baghdad living under the hammer. But Christians?

Just like in the Palestinian territories, Christians in Iraq continue to see their situation get worse. The LA Times touches on their plight in a Column One about Robert DeKelaita, an Iraqi-born attorney handling asylum cases in American immigration court.

Repressed under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian population has been decimated since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Muslim extremists have murdered priests and burned churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. Priests in Iraq estimate that fewer than 500,000 Christians remain, about a third of the number as before 2003.

On March 13, the body of the archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was recovered, two weeks after he was kidnapped while leaving Mass. The slaying prompted Iraqi Christians to consider worshiping in secret; church services have also been attacked. Christian leaders say some Christians have been abducted and killed after refusing to convert to Islam.

"No group was happier than Christians when Saddam fell," DeKelaita said. "But no group is more disappointed with the way things played out."

Anguished over mistreatment of Iraqi Christian family members and strangers, DeKelaita long ago decided to dedicate his law practice to defending them. He is among a handful of immigration lawyers nationwide who specialize in representing Iraqi Christians, though he represents other clients.

"I know their pain; I feel it," he said of Iraqi Christians. "These are my people. I don't even have to ask them what they've been through."

Each Christian released from federal custody is a blessing, he said. But for the most part, "I deal in misery, unfortunately."

Frankly, I've never understood why we don't take more Iraqi refugees in. I mean, we unleashed this hornet's nest when we deposed that despot Saddam. Seems like we should take care of those endangered by the aftermath, whether because they are ethnic minorities or because they've decided to work for the U.S. military or contractors. An assistant secretary of State gave this explanation to USA Today:

The United States has been unable to accept more Iraqis in part because of the time needed for background checks, which have become more stringent since 9/11.

To me it seems like a moral imperative that 10 years from now we will look back on critically, just like our response to Saddam while he was cleansing the Kurds.

Last fall, I put the question of what the U.S. should do to Bruce Einhorn, a recently retired immigration judge who is the "house Bolshevik" at Pepperdine, handled the L.A. 8 case and wrote an article about the refugees called "Freed to Flee."

"I find it appalling that having perhaps inadvertantly caused the refugee crisis in Iraq we have essentially pretended it doesn't exist. Clearly we overthrew a vicious, genocidal brute in Saddam Hussein. On the other hand, our occupation of Iraq after his overthrow has been a complete fiasco. Whatever terrorist organizations that didn't exist in Iraq do now, largely in resistance to us. And ordinary citizens are running for their lives," Einhorn told me.

"If the United States intervenes in a nation's affairs, ostensibly to restore or create human rights for the population, then it seems to me our government has assumed the burden of protecting those who become the targets of persecution as an inadvertent result of our involvement."

This article was cross-posted at The God Blog.

Posted by Brad Greenberg at April 4, 2008 4:58PM | Comments (6)

James Dobson said in February that he would not cast a presidential vote if John McCain, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama were the presidential candidates.

However, he sent an e-mail alert this week that was titled "Dr. Dobson: 'I Will Certainly Vote'."

Dan Gilgoff provides the text of the alert on his Beliefnet blog.

Dr. James Dobson told Sean Hannity on Sunday night he is going to vote in the November election ? ending weeks of speculation that he would sit on the sidelines over his policy disagreements with the two major parties' candidates for the White House.

On Hannity's America on the Fox News Channel, Dr. Dobson told his longtime friend he definitely plans to cast a ballot this year.

"Let me just say that I will certainly vote, Sean," he said. "I think we have a God-given responsibility to vote, and there are all of the candidates and the issues down the ballot that we have an obligation to weigh in on and let our voices be heard."

With Colorado's proposed ballots, it's no surprise Dobson will want to weigh in on ballots like the proposed Colorado Human Life Amendment that would define personhood as a fertilized egg. What he didn't say was whether he would vote for a presidential candidate.

Dobson's recent statement isn't drawing the same media attention that it did on Feb. 4. What he did say then included, "I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience."

"I certainly can't vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life."

Ralph Nader has been added to the ballot since his comments.

Interestingly, the original website link to the Citizen Link about his February statements now contains an error and is no longer listed on the news archives.

Dobson also sent a statement to the Wall Street Journal criticizing McCain.

"... [McCain] reiterated his support for governmental intervention in the global warming debate, proposed shutting down Guantanamo, blamed the U.S military for torturing prisoners of war and promised to pander to our European allies before defending America's interests around the world. These policies frustrated conservatives, whom McCain seems to have written off."

Dobson has received a lot of criticism for his February statement. He is particularly concerned with McCain's pro-embryonic stem-cell stance.

As for John McCain, Dr. Dobson responded with a question of his own when Hannity said he had received assurances from the Arizona senator that he would keep the pro-life and pro-marriage planks in the GOP's party platform.

"Did he give you a commitment about embryonic stem-cell research?" Dr. Dobson asked.
"We did not get that," Hannity replied.

"But that's an important one for me," Dr. Dobson explained. "And you can't really call yourself pro-life if you're in favor of killing those babies."

50 Percent of CT readers supported McCain in a CT poll released Tuesday, asking readers for whom they plan to vote. This compares to the 26 percent he received in a poll on March 3, when Mike Huckabee led with 31 percent. In the latest poll, he leads Obama (31 percent), Clinton (7 percent), and Ron Paul (4 percent).

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at April 3, 2008 4:32PM | Comments (19)

The answer, apparently, is no.

Everybody has been a bit overeager about Zimbabwe's future - but there truly are some hopeful signs as Zimbabweans wait for the results of last Saturday's elections. The opposition party claims its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Robert Mugabe. They've also won a majority in parliament. And no one is contradicting them yet.

Rumor has it Mugabe may concede that he has not won. Some are suggesting his party's not declaring victory may lead to an actual handing over of power - and that Zimbabwe, in which church-state intrigue is practically an art form, might fare better with the democratic process than Kenya did this winter. "The mere possibility of a transfer of power is a stunning development in Zimbabwe," Greg Winter says in a New York Times video on the election.

The Zimbabwean pre-reported Mugabe's declaration of victory, which now seems very unlikely.

IWPR could not get the exact percentage by which Mugabe will be said to have won but the sources said there would not be a run-off, as ZANU-PF will claim Mugabe has clinched more than 50 per cent of the total number of voters cast.

Sources within the ZEC centre - newly christened the National Collation Centre - say Mugabe clearly lost the election to his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai, polling only 20 per cent of the vote. He is also said to trail Simba Makoni who garnered 28 per cent.

But commentators say it would be something of a miracle if Mugabe and his party had secured the victory, given more than 85 per cent unemployment, serious food shortages and a collapsed health delivery system.

Not to mention the 100,000% inflation rate.

However, Mugabe hasn't declared defeat, either. Although polling stations post results on their doors, the government has not released official results, "heightening fears that it is trying to massage the vote in the face of a crushing defeat," The Guardian reports. Churches are going public with concerns about rigging.

A runoff vote may be the next step.

NPR aired what was practically a post-mortem of Mugabe, detailing his shyness and resentment of Mandela. Mugabe's life is one of the saddest examples of heroism degraded.

Christianity Today's past coverage of Zimbabwe includes articles on Mugabe tampering with churches and accusing Pius Ncube.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 2, 2008 9:57AM | Comments (0)

David Brooks writes in his column today about a book called The Mental ABC's of Pitching by H.A. Dorfman, a sports psychologist. Dorfman, Brooks says, attempts to teach pitchers to focus, "to liberate people from what you might call the tyranny of the scattered mind."

While some advocate free expression and limitless "creativity", Dorfman believes:

Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear - and doubt.

Discipline, however doesn't just come from trying. It comes from building structures that build behaviors. Practice forms routines, which form habits. And habit shapes the mind. "If a player disciplines his behavior, then he will also discipline his mind." For a pitcher, this means practice, obviously, but it also means paying attention only to the job of throwing a baseball. "A pitcher shouldn't judge himself by how the batters hit his pitches, but instead by whether he threw the pitch he wanted to throw."

Brooks writes, "By putting the task at the center, Dorfman illuminates the way the body and the mind communicate with each other. Once there were intellectuals who thought the mind existed above the body, but that's been blown away by evidence. In fact, it's easiest to change the mind by changing behavior."

And here, finally, we find our spiritual analogue. Faith, belief, and trust in a God who is invisible to our senses is tough work, kind of like striking out an all-star hitter. With the noise of the fans, the signs from the catcher, the lessons from the coach playing through the mind, it's too much. For me, with the daily commute, the constant deadlines, the needs of a family, I'm shackled by the tyranny of the scattered mind. God is there, oh yes, but there are so many more pressing things. Life is hyperlinked, and I never complete one thing before moving to the next.

But then there is church. Those two hours once a week. Mine is by no means liturgical, but the routine is there, the faces are there, the words are there. And those actions shape my mind, my spirit.

Posted by Rob Moll at April 1, 2008 8:46PM | Comments (0)

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is said to be the only unforgivable sin. I've never understood exactly what that looks like, or met anyone who could explain it to me, but I'm fairly certain that if you were the unfortunate, you wouldn't pay the price until death.

Sadly, the same can't be said for those who blaspheme Islam in the Muslim world. Just ask Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, the 23-year-old Afghan journalist, sentenced to death for his words, of which the exact nature I can't find online. He's appealing, and Reporters Without Borders said he caught a break yesterday when his case was moved to Kabul.

"His request for transfer to Kabul has finally succeeded, allowing Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh to be separated from other detainees in the vast Pul-i-Charki jail, in the east of the capital. His transfer to Kabul has given rise to hopes that his appeal will not be influenced by religious fundamentalists, as was the case when he was sentenced to death for "blasphemy" by a court in Mazar-i-Sharif, on 22 January 2008."

This article was cross-posted at The God Blog.

Posted by Brad Greenberg at April 1, 2008 2:42PM | Comments (2)