Think the churches in your neighborhood don't get along? Then, this should put things in perspective: The pastor of Rubaga Miracle Centre in Kampala, Uganda, has accused the pastor of Omega Healing Centre of trying to destroy his reputation by 1) kidnapping and torturing his personal aide and 2) bribing the aide to accuse him of sexually abusing boys.

Omega Healing Centre's pastor, Michael Kyazze, denies he was involved in kidnapping:

I have never been engaged in as nefarious and criminal an act of kidnapping. My struggle has been and will continue to be the fight for the increasing number of victims of sodomy in our society. If it has been interpreted as an effort to discredit Pastor Kayanja, then it is both unfortunate and a dangerous insinuation.

This comes soon after an assistant pastor of Omega Healing Centre was arrested while trespassing at Rubaga Miracle Centre, allegedly while trying to investigate Kayanja .

The aide is currently recovering in a Kampala hospital.

Uganda’s New Vision reported the story and says it highlights growing tension among competing Pentecostal churches. The Daily Monitor says "Cases of alleged homosexuality in churches have now become common." New Vision says rival pastors also accuse each other of witchcraft.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 30, 2009 | Comments (4)

In four years, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed 1.7 million of their fellow Cambodians. In the first trial that addresses the horrors of the regime, the man known as Comrade Duch has asked forgiveness for crimes against humanity, war crimes, homicide, and torture.

Duch is the nom de guerre of Kaing Guek Eav. He ran Security Center 21, a prison where 17,000 people, including children were "smashed." As The Financial Times reports, that's "the Khmer Rouge's chilling euphemism for torturing and murdering victims as part of the regime's attempt to create a perfect agrarian society."

Duch is making the news for taking responsibility and apologizing - something none of the other accused have come close to. "At the beginning I only prayed to ask for forgiveness from my parents, but later I prayed to ask forgiveness from the whole nation."

Prayed? It's not a mistranslation. Duch was baptized under the pseudonym Hang Pin after his wife was murdered in 1996. Purpose Driven Connection published a story about his conversion and discovery by British journalist Nic Dunlop (Dunlop discovered Duch's identity; Mary Murphy wrote the Purpose Driven Connection article). Their reporter, Mary Murphy, spoke to his pastor the only one who has been let in to see him. He says Duch has been reading the Bible to prisoners and guards during his imprisonment.

However, Murphy reports,

Truth be told, it is hard to find many in Cambodia who believe in Duch's sincerity. [Chief investigator] Youk skirts around the spiritual implications of the question. He pauses for a while to collect his thoughts. "I think Duch was living with guilt and perhaps looking for something to reconcile with, within himself," he says. "Duch is looking for an exit strategy, an internal reconciliation with himself. But he dare not go to anybody here, because they are all his enemies. The only ones he can go to are Christians."

Buddhist monks I interview later at their temple are even more dismissive. "Duch has become a Christian to earn points," one monk scoffs. "In our belief, you take your sins with you to the next life. Duch will surely come back in a form befitting his crime."

What sort of form of life? The monk doesn't hesitate. "A bug."

Duch's defense is arguing that he shouldn't face the life sentence because he was following orders, trying to save his and his family's lives. He says he is a scapegoat for those who were higher up in the regime. The trial is expected to last a few months.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 2, 2009 | Comments (4)

Last week the Justice Department announced that drug company Eli Lilly had agreed to pay $1.42 billion to settle criminal and civil charges that it had illegally marketed its blockbuster antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. The case accused company sales reps of promoting the drug for conditions beyond its narrow FDA-approved use of treating schizophrenia and symptoms of bipolar disorder, and for populations (children and the elderly) for whom its known side effects are particularly risky. The New York Times report indicates that claims and evidence in the case were similar to a California state lawsuit which alleged that company studies of the drug circulated among its sales force were "Lilly's thinly veiled marketing of Zyprexa as an effective chemical restraint for demanding, vulnerable and needy patients."

While the settlement was the largest amount paid by a single defendant in the history of the US department of Justice, it is dwarfed by the $39 billion in sales Zyprexa has generated since its approval in 1996, and is less than half of its $3.5 billion in sales in the first nine months of 2008.

This most recent case adds to the already sordid backdrop to Marcia Angell's scathing indictment of drug companies and the physicians, medical schools, and professional organizations happy to collude with them published in the latest New York Review of Books. Angell, the Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School who served as editor-in-chief for the New England Journal of Medicine for two decades, believes these massive payouts are "just the cost of doing business" and "well worth it" for drug companies so long as the drug continues to rake in billions.

In Angell's telling, the particular offenses reported in the government Zyprexa case represent only a fraction of drug company improprieties, a discouraging litany she candidly rehearses. Yet without countenancing or minimizing their contributions to a corrupt system, she reserves her sharpest rebuke for her colluding peers.

It is easy to fault drug companies for this situation, and they certainly deserve a great deal of blame...Still, apologists might argue that the pharmaceutical industry is merely trying to do its primary job - further the interests of its investors - and sometimes it goes a little too far.

Physicians, medical schools, and professional organizations have no such excuse, since their only fiduciary responsibility is to patients. The mission of medical schools and teaching hospitals - and what justifies their tax-exempt status - is to educate the next generation of physicians, carry out scientifically important research, and care for the sickest members of society. It is not to enter into lucrative commercial alliances with the pharmaceutical industry.

Angell is concerned that unless the medical profession reasserts its independence by sharply breaking its improper financial dependence on the pharmaceutical industry, the integrity of its work will continue to decline, and with it, the trust of the public.

And no payout, however staggering, can buy that back.

Posted by Derek Keefe at January 21, 2009 | Comments (3)

Sunday Adelaja has been a controversial figure in Kyiv church life for some time. The senior pastor of Embassy of God megachurch has drawn criticism for allegedly overreporting attendance, preaching a prosperity gospel, exaggerating his role in the Orange Revolution, and for his church's relatively flamboyant cultural engagement.

But this time, he faces allegations of criminal misbehavior. Charisma ran a long article about accusations that Adelaja was at the center of a scam that bilked investors - many of them congregants - of $100 million.

Pentecostal leaders allege Adelaja encouraged church members to invest in King's Capital,

But last month, several church members went to authorities saying they were unable to recover the money they invested, which left many of them bankrupt. Police later arrested one of King's Capital leaders, Aleksandr Bandurchenko, on suspicion of fraud.

So far, it's unclear whether King's Capital was a legitimate venture that failed, as Adelaja claims, or a pyramid scheme.

The press release on Embassy of God's website sends some mixed messages, quoting Nehemiah 6:3 ("I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down"), John 8:7 ("If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her"), and Micah 7:8 (Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise). But Adelaja denies he had anything "to do with the King's Capital management, administration, and moreover finances."

Posted by Susan Wunderink at December 19, 2008 | Comments (5)

I'm always skeptical when people refer to fringe religious groups as "cults." You know, Christianity was a heretical Jewish cult in the first century, and look how that turned out.

The word cult was thrown around in Sunday papers this weekend following the raid of Tony Alamo Ministries, and again, I chose against using the word. The guy certainly seemed odd, and allegations of a child pornography ring at his religious compound didn't help. But those were allegations, and Fouke, Ark., wasn't Jonestown or Rancho Santa Fe.

I'm still not ready to call Alamo a cult leader, but I am willing to say he is absolutely bonkers, at least theologically. Last night he did exactly what no person in trouble should do: He opened his mouth, and to a reporter no less. And, boy, he's got some wild ideas.

An excerpt of the blog post from John C. Williams at the Arkansas Times, who interview Alamo, is after the jump:

Not surprisingly, Alamo categorically denied charges of child pornography and polygamy that have been reported in the past few days. "Anybody can accuse and spread it around town, and of course they want to kill you," he said of the allegations. "But there's no child abuse going on."

It's not that polygamy is wrong, he said: "If you can find anything in the Bible about fire and brimstone for the practice of polygamy, then I'll give you $250,000 in cash. Adultery is condemned, but not polygamy."

"Most of the world believes in polygamy," Alamo said. "The Africans, the Indians, the Chinese. The Jews ? the Jews can have at least four wives. Two-thirds of people in the world practice polygamy."

He added that polygamy is not for everyone ? just for "great men of God, if they can take care of their wives and children." He also repeated his typical complaint that if school-age girls can ?fornicate' and use birth control, then there's no reason it should be illegal for men to take young wives.

Yet Alamo denied that he had wives of any age, other reports to the contrary: "You can check all the marriage records in the world." He said his only two wives have been Susan Alamo and "the princess of Sweden," Birgitta Gyllenhammar, who left him and the church after two years.

He also denied that anyone in his church was practicing polygamy or marrying underage girls. "I don't believe that at all. Otherwise I would kick them out. And they don't want to be kicked out."

Alamo blamed a Fouke man named Tony Lane for the raid. He claimed Lane's wife lived at the complex and that he wanted her to leave against her will. He accused Lane of being an alcoholic and a bad guy in general, though he admitted that he had never met him. Alamo added that a number of Fouke residents ? whom he referred to as ?hillbillies' ? were being paid off by the government to give information about the complex. He claimed Fouke to be a main base for the KKK.

It's never been totally clear why Alamo chose the Miller County town of 800 for his headquarters after his release from prison for tax evasion in 1998. The answer is simple, Alamo said: Convenience. His followers were visiting him in the Texarkana federal pen, he said, so it made sense for them to set up shop nearby. "They didn't want to stay in hotels."

There's more here.

Cross-posted at The God Blog.

Posted by Brad Greenberg at September 24, 2008 | Comments (19)

Bolivian television stations are repeatedly playing a clip of a pastor being shot on September 12 by the country's military in the capital of Pando.

In the video (warning: very disturbing - it's 3 minutes of people being shot), it's unclear what is going on. A soldier is shouting into a crowd of civilians, women begin screaming, and then the shooting starts. Some soldiers fired into the air, but some shoot into the crowd. Several people fall to the ground. Some don't get up.

Christian World News (a Christian Broadcasting Network affiliate) reports that soldiers were re-taking the airport from a group of civilians in the terminal. EntreChristianios says evangelical pastor Luis Antonio Rivero Shiguekuni was one of those protesting the presence of troops in their city; CWN describes him as "a visiting Christian evangelist."

After most of the shooting ends, the cameraman focuses on Rivero, who seems to have been shot to death. Two men hold him in a sitting position. He is unresponsive. The clip cuts out as a jeep pulls up beside them.

Rivero's brother has appeared on television to explain the incident and demand justice. He praised the local media, saying they were the reason he knows as much as he does about this murder. A partially translated transcript by CT senior writer Deann Alford reads:

It took 20 hours to return the body of our brother. Now we want justice to be done. We are not political, militant people. Politics doesn't interest us. What we went is that the manner be clarified how our brother was murdered.

We received his body?.He was shot at 6:30 p.m., and the coroner said 8 hours later he was shot with the second bullet. [Rivero] lived 4 more hours after that. What happened to the body of my brother during this time? Why was there a 16-hour delay before the military returned his body?

We don't know why or the reason for the treatment/behavior of the military toward my brother. He was an evangelical pastor, a man of peace.

The only thing we want is justice.

Pando's governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, has been accused of overseeing the shootings, according to the The New York Times, and has been arrested by Pando's army. The Wall Street Journal says he "is being investigated on genocide accusations."

We will continue to update this story as new information comes in.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at September 23, 2008 | Comments (2)

The situation for Christians, their churches, and pastors has taken a turn for the worse as violence in Sri Lanka is on the rise. The cease-fire between the government and the main rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, is pretty much history

Compass Direct reports:

Late last Sunday (February 17) two men gunned down a Sri Lankan pastor, the Rev. Samson Neil Edirisinghe, 37, killing him instantly. They also shot his wife Shiromi, 31, leaving her in critical condition. The couple’s 2-year-old son received minor injuries and is still in shock after witnessing the shooting. Edirisinghe was buried today in Ampara, in eastern Sri Lanka, where he served as pastor of the House of the Lord Church. The church met in a local YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) hall where Edirisinghe taught English classes for the British Council. Shiromi was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Ampara Hospital at press time.

The Advocacy Desk of the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka has released an important statement, condemning the killings and calling for the national police to do more. In their statement, the NCEASL said:

Organized attempts by any individual or group to breed religious tension and incite religious hatred - be it in Ampara or anywhere else, must be condemned by all right thinking people irrespective of religious affiliation and calls for urgent action by the Government to put a stop to this ugly trend.

It is disturbing to see the widening gulf between the ethnic groups in our country confounded by
the erosion of trust between religious communities. Recent media reports on the arrest of a Pastor for alleged involvement in LTTE activity has seen a veil of suspicion drawn over Christians. It is the sacred duty of the Government and the law enforcement authorities to conduct impartial investigations and deal with any guilty party under the law and release without
prejudice those who are found innocent.

We strongly condemn the murder of Pastor Neil Edirisinghe and the attack on his family. We call upon the IGP and the Police force in Ampara for immediate and impartial investigation whereby those responsible for this crime will be dealt with under the law.

We pray for the restoration of peace and understanding between communities and individuals in
our nation.

Christians in Sri Lanka in recent years have seen surges of violence, sometimes targeting them, and sometimes just as the result of the unresolved conflicts at the national level.

The highly regarded International Crisis Group on Feb. 22, 2008, released an important update on how Sri Lanka has returned to a climate of conflict.

Look here for a 2004 article in The Weekly Standard.

Posted by Tim Morgan at February 22, 2008 | Comments (0)

Note: CleanFlicks has disputed much of the initial media reports cited here. See our update.

The co-founder of CleanFlicks, a video editing service once used by many Christians, has been arrested in Utah for allegedly paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Daniel Thompson, who ran CleanFlicks till the courts shut it down in 2006, had more recently operated Flix Club, a family-friendly edited-movie video business in Orem, Utah. He was arrested last Thursday on two charges of forcible sexual abuse and two charges of forcible sexual activity with a 14-year-old. Thompson is out on bail.

Thompson's business partner at Flix Club, Isaac Lifferth, was also arrested on similar charges.

Thompson reportedly told police that Flix Club, which carried videos in which objectionable content had been edited out, was only a front, and that he and Lifferth were also involved in making and distributing porn movies.

Flix Club was forced to close last year after a federal court ruled that movie-editing businesses violated U.S. copyright law when they "sanitized" films by removing nudity, sex, profanity, and other objectionable content.

According to police reports, Thompson and Lifferth allegedly paid two 14-year-old girls $20 each to perform oral sex, and Lifferth allegedly had intercourse with a 16-year-old girl multiple times, including in the offices at Flix Club.

"I would have never suspected there was other stuff going on," the father of the 16-year-old told the Daily Herald in Provo. "I guess I didn't know Daniel. He always seemed like a real decent guy."

Obviously not. USA Today blogged several news items about the story under the title, "Clean Flicks, dirty man?"

Ironically, and perhaps prophetically, Thompson's MySpace page includes the tagline, "Somewhere in the valley between Good and Evil." On that same page, for his "status" - where most people write something like "single" or "married" - Thompson wrote "Swinger."

Posted by Mark Moring at January 30, 2008 | Comments (11)

Leon Podles, senior editor at Touchstone, has a new book out: Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.

Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things, which is not unlike Touchstone, didn't like it. In the recent issue, he called Podles's book rambling and shrill. "Even righteous anger does not justify the author's suspension of caution and charity in attributing motives," Neuhaus wrote.

Today, on Touchstone's blog, senior editor S.M. Hutchens struck back on Podles's behalf. He callsFirst Things "the finest journal of its type" and Neuhaus "genuinely likeable and for whom I have the highest regard," but then comes a poem that begins:

Ah, good Father Richard, on hearing screaming boys,
Is just as right as ever in keeping out the noise.
No rambling rants like Podles’ should ever make one think
The faith is made of suffering more than stately rows of ink.

The poem goes on. As do the comments. Perhaps it's better if, on this item, you comment there rather than here.

Posted by Ted Olsen at January 3, 2008 | Comments (0)

Hindu nationalists began burning churches and Christian houses in the east Indian state of Orissa on Christmas Eve. The violence continues, although today it seems to have abated somewhat.

Dozens are injured, many buildings have been destroyed, and the death toll is at 4 (three Hindus killed by police as they burned down the police station, and one Christian killed in the riots).

Compass Direct is reporting higher numbers than those confirmed by the police:

Jacob Pradhan, a Christian leader in Kandhamal district, told Compass that at least four Christians have been killed and more than 50 churches and 200 houses razed or damaged.

Telephone outages and VHP roadblocks made confirming reports "extremely difficult."

The Associated Press reported that,

On Thursday a mob of Hindus defied a curfew and burned down the house of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India's upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area, Nayak told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Also, 11 churches were ransacked and burned in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, the Press Trust of India quoted unnamed police officials as saying.

Meanwhile, in the village of Brahmangaon, a group of Christians burned down several Hindu homes in an apparent retaliation for the attack on churches. Angry Hindus then burned down the village police station, complaining of a lack of protection, a local police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

At least 25 people - both Christian and Hindu - have been arrested so far, and the federal government has announced that it will send in paramilitary troops.

The perpetrators claim that they were defending a Hindu leader who heads an anti-conversion campaign; Christians in Orissa say the attacks were to prevent a Christmas Eve performance that could have led to conversions; AP says it boils down to controversy over thousands of conversions to Christianity in the past few years, "Hindu groups have long charged Christian missionaries with trying to lure the poor and those who occupy the lowest rungs of Hinduism's complex caste-system away with promises of money and jobs."

The Orissa government has ordered a judicial probe into the attacks, in response to claims that the violence was not spontaneous but sponsored by saffron activists.

Time warns against chalking it all up to religion:

As with most communal violence in India, this latest explosion of hatred is the result not only of religious differences but of a tangled intersection of political power, communal prejudice and the injustices of Hinduism's archaic caste system.

However, in a place where religion permeates everything, it's not helpful to try to separate religion from political power, prejudice, or the caste system - especially as the hard-line Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gaining power. Orissa is currently governed by a BJP ally.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at December 28, 2007 | Comments (8)

There's a lot of confusion about what happened this morning outside Cathedral Christian Center in Glendale, Arizona. Initial reports say a woman was shot in the head after "trading kids" with the suspect, who left the scene. The church houses a preschool.

"According to investigators, the woman's estranged husband may be the shooter," KPNX reports. "They believe he also took the woman's two children after the shooting. The 4-year-old child was later dropped off at John C. Lincoln Hospital. It's unclear if that child was injured. The 3-year-old has been left at a house in Surprise and is safe."

KTVK, KPHO, and KNXV also have reports.

Update: Daniel Parasca has reportedly committed suicide. The victim, Gabriela Parasca, was his wife, who had a restraining order against him. Their 4-year-old daughter was injured in the earlier shooting at Cathedral Christian Center.

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 12, 2007 | Comments (4)

The churches and ministry:

• Church prays for shooting victims | His Love Fellowship is a church regularly attended by Murray's parents, Ronald and Loretta. The two were not at the prayer service but issued a statement (The Denver Post)


• Missionaries reclaim site of shooting | Young people sing, pray and forgive in Arvada hallway (Rocky Mountain News)


• ‘Let the healing begin’ at New Life | ‘Family meeting’ planned for police and firefighters who responded, members, public (The Gazette)


• ‘The nation is watching’ pastor’s trial by fire | The Rev. Brady Boyd said when he was hired to lead New Life Church that he didn’t want to be in the spotlight (The Gazette)


• Weapons at church? For everything there is a time | Many large churches have taken up arms (The Denver Post)

The gunman:

• Gunman's family releases statement | Expresses grief over his murderous rampage, sympathy for his victims and love for the young man who killed four and wounded five others Sunday (The Denver Post)


• Also: Full statement from Ronald and Loretta Murray (Rocky Mountain News)


• Shooter's lessons strict, rule-driven | Few educators recommend the ultra-religious home-school curriculum, which forbids dating and rock music (The Denver Post)


• Gunman killed by his own bullet | After security guard’s wounds took him down, Murray shot himself with one of the two handguns he was carrying (The Gazette)


• Injured gunman shot self, autopsy shows | Boyd said he wishes he knew why Murray targeted New Life because it would give him some comfort. (The Denver Post)

The gunman’s internet posts:

• Gunman's postings blasted Christians, praised self-cutting (Rocky Mountain News)


• FBI may have been warned about rampage | Federal authorities were alerted to anti-Christian postings apparently written by Matthew Murray only hours after he opened fire on a missionary center and just before his deadly rampage at a Colorado megachurch, the Web site's administrator said (Associated Press, most recent AP story here)


• Gunman wrote of rejection as reason for revenge | At times he was DyingChild_65, at others nghtmrchld26. But regardless of Matthew Murray's alleged screen name, he was always angry when posting to various anti-religious websites (The Denver Post)


• Messages spurred search between shootings | Postings left on an Internet message board Sunday morning by a user referring to himself as "nghtmrchld26" were so alarming that a visitor called authorities (Rocky Mountain News)


• Killer posted Web links to Columbine videos (Rocky Mountain News)


• Debate renewed on Columbine writings | Chilling echoes of Columbine killer Eric Harris' angry manifesto heard in church gunman Matthew Murray's Web writings resonated with two families touched by tragedy (The Denver Post)

The security guard:

• Heroics are talk of guard's town | Her brother in South Dakota is "shocked" that she halted a rampage, but others hailed the ex-cop's shooting skills (The Denver Post)


• Guard walks police through heroic gunbattle at church | Assam met with detectives for most of Tuesday, going over her movements inside the church. She declined to speak with reporters. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Guard fired in ’97 for lying | Blemish on her record in no way diminishes her heroics, a spokesman for the department said (The Gazette)

The victims:

• Arvada victims praised for faith, leadership | Family, friends and grieving members of a "worldwide family" gathered today to celebrate two lost lives (The Denver Post)


• Hundreds mourn missionaries gunned down in Arvada (Rocky Mountain News)


• Arvada shooting victim turned life around | Being a skinhead and Goth in Washington, Penn., Philip Crouse had been the one others feared (The Denver Post)


• Sisters recalled as girls who were going to change world | Rachel and Stephanie Works were both home schooled and both were deeply religious. Their family is well-known in Denver (The Denver Post)

Opinion:

• Action, not reaction | New Life security an example to follow (Editorial, The Gazette)


• Background noise | Acts like Sunday’s can happen anywhere (Editorial, Craig Daily Press, Co.)


• Shooting attacks | There's more to protecting society than guns and armor (Editorial, Lufkin Daily News, Tex.)


• Tragic shootings serve as reminder to be vigilant | A bunker mentality won't help (The Pantagraph, Bloomington-Normal, Ill.)


• Weapons of war at the mall and church | Surely the presidential candidates can’t wait to address the latest gun rampages with a detailed plan of action at the very next televised debate (Editorial, The New York Times)


• Armed guards necessary in today’s world | New Life Church isn’t alone (Barry Noreen, The Gazette)

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 12, 2007 | Comments (0)

The churches:

• Church stunned by former member's deadly actions | Matthew Murray's mother is in charge of Love Fellowship's women's ministry. A prayer service is planned for tonight. (The Denver Post)


• New Life Church offering comfort (The Denver Post)


• Churches mixed over armed guards | Public reluctance, liability issues work against it, experts say (Rocky Mountain News)


• Americans might balk at vigorous strategies (Rocky Mountain News)


• Pastor decries 'moral detachment' | But failure to deal with guns, mental illness also cited (Rocky Mountain News)


• Unsafe at New Life Church | God bless that hallowed ground. Even if it can't be safe--because no place is--it can be a place of renewal and healing (Patton Dodd, Beliefnet)

The shooter:

• Police: Church gunman killed himself (Associated Press)


• Reports: Colorado gunman posted anti-Christian writings (CNN)


• Diatribe foretold horror | Shooter Matthew Murray posted reworked writing of Columbine killer between attacks (The Denver Post)


• Web posting replicates Columbine shooter's manifesto | A diatribe was posted at 11:03 a.m. Sunday on a website devoted to people who have left religion (The Denver Post)


• Murray's religious rants all the rage on the Internet (Rocky Mountain News)


• Gunman's hate boiled over | Shooter had failed to pass muster with missionary center (Rocky Mountain News)


• Roommate: Murray booted from center for bizarre behavior (Rocky Mountain News)


• Family friend calls gunman "loner" | A prayer service for all the families affected is scheduled for Tuesday night (The Denver Post)


• 2 Sisters Killed and the Reason: Revenge? (The Gazette)

The victims:

• Victims came from family of faith | Remembering Rachel and Stephanie Works (The Denver Post)


• As father recovers, Aurora family grieves loss of 2 girls | Gunman opened fire on teens, dad as they left church (Rocky Mountain News)


• In his own words: Larry Bourbonnais | Colorado Springs resident Larry Bourbonnais, 59, is a New Life parishioner and a Vietnam veteran who was slightly injured by a bullet fragment during the shooting at New Life Church (Rocky Mountain News)


• Service set for slain missionaries | ""We're inviting as many people as would like to be there" (Rocky Mountain News)

Other:

• Making sense of the senseless | The following days will yield more details about how this tragedy unfolded, but we may never fully understand why five people, including the gunman, are dead (Editorial, The Denver Post)


• Lethal rage | Another young man's murderous rampage (Editorial, Rocky Mountain News)


• Church guard gains hero status | Ex-cop 'was very focused' as she 'took him down' (Rocky Mountain News)


• Neighbors witnessed an 'unnerving' sight (Rocky Mountain News)


• Columbine stepfather: 'And nothing changes' (Rocky Mountain News)

For earlier links, see this blog entry.

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 11, 2007 | Comments (0)

When Matthew Murray came to New Life Church in Colorado Springs with a rifle, two handguns, and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, it was church member Jeanne Assam, who stopped his attack.

Assam, 42, volunteers as a security guard at the congregation, and shot and killed Murray after he fired several times in the church parking lot, killing two.

"It was me, the gunman and God," she said at a press conference.

"I give credit to God. I say that very humbly," the former Twin Cities patrol officer is quoted in the Denver Post. "God was with me, the whole time I was behind cover. Based on the firepower he had, compared to mine. I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me my hands weren't even shaking."

New Life Senior Pastor Brady Boyd credited Assam with stopping the shooting that killed two teenage sisters. She is one of about 12 armed security officers at New Life Church, according to Boyd.

"He never got more than 50 feet inside our building," Boyd said at the press conference. "There could have been a great loss of life yesterday, and she probably saved over 100 lives."

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 10, 2007 | Comments (2)

The uncle of Matthew Murray, the reported gunman in Sunday's shootings, spoke at a press conference today at the Youth With a Mission training center where Murray began his attacks.

"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy. On behalf of our family and our son, we ask for forgiveness," said Phil Abeyta, pastor at His Love Fellowship church in Denver, speaking for Murray's family. "We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief. We are cooperating fully with the police agencies involved in the investigation of the events that led to this tragedy." (The comments were published by The Denver Post and KUSA.)

At the press conference, YWAM director Peter Warren explained the organization's connection to both the shooter and to the victims at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The organization also released a similar statement on its website:

The victims at New Life Church, sisters Stephanie Works (18) and Rachel Works (16) were involved with a summer outreach organized by New Life Church and a ministry of YWAM which rents office space in the New Life campus. An older sister from the Works family participated in a YWAM Discipleship Training Program at a centre in Colorado Springs.

Murray was briefly a student at the YWAM Arvada training centre in 2002. He was enrolled in a Discipleship Training School (DTS) but did not complete the program. The DTS is a 12 week classroom course followed by a 12 week field assignment, usually to another culture. The goal of the program is to form Christian character and assist students in discovering their unique, God-given talents. Cross-cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout these courses, preparing the students to use their talents to obey the commands of Jesus. The program also involves local outreach with nearby churches and communities, and each student is involved in helping run the practical operations of the YWAM centre.

Not everyone completing a DTS necessarily joins YWAM. Many participate in a DTS to take time out to focus on their faith and consider whether God might be calling them to Christian ministry. For those who choose to go on into a career with YWAM, successful completion of the DTS qualifies them to apply for hundreds of staff opportunities or further training.

Murray did not complete the lecture phase of his Discipleship Training School, nor did he participate in the field assignment. The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to do so. Murray left the Arvada training centre and no one at the facility recalls that he has made any other visits or had any communication with the centre since that time.

YWAM would like to express its heartfelt condolences to the families of the other victims. Our hearts also go out to the Murray family, to whom we extend a spirit of forgiveness.

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 10, 2007 | Comments (1)

With megachurches come mega crowds, mega money, and increasingly, mega security concerns.

The crowds -- anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 worshippers each weekend -- can be an attractive target for a deranged shooter. Overflowing offering plates are tempting to thieves, and well-known preachers can become high-profile targets.

Sunday's shootings at New Life Church in Colorado Springs and a missionary training facility in Arvada, Colo. -- which left five people dead, including a gunman -- reflect the security nightmares facing some of the country's largest churches. Many of those churches now employ armed guards to protect human, financial and physical "assets."

The full article is available here.

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 10, 2007 | Comments (3)

Police identified the man who carried out two deadly rampages Sunday at a megachurch and a Youth With a Mission training center as Matthew J. Murray, a 24-year-old man who "hated Christians."

Five people were killed during two separate shootings that took place 12 hours apart and 70 miles away from each other. (See previous post)

Murray had recently sent "hate mail" to YWAM after being kicked out of the program three years ago, a search warrant affidavit says, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

"It appears that the suspect had been kicked out of that program approximately three years prior, and during the past few weeks, had sent different forms of hate mail to the program, and/or its director," Colorado Springs Detective Bradley Pratt wrote Sunday in a statement supporting of search warrant for Murray's family home.

Murray, armed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and four weapons killed two teenage sisters and wounded their father and two others.

He fired numerous rounds in the parking lot before entering the church, where he was killed by a security guard. The guard fired as many as six bullets into him, according to the Denver Post.

New Life Pastor Brady Boyd said the church's security guard who killed the Murray was a "hero." He said she is normally his personal security guard, but on Sunday was on the lookout for danger following reports of a shooting at a Christian ministry near Denver earlier in the day that left two dead. He said she has a background in law enforcement but is not currently a law enforcement officer.

According to the Gazette in Colorado Springs, Fourth Judicial District Attorney John Newsome, said in a statement released today that shots fired by the guard appeared to "not only be appropriate, but also justified under Colorado law." He said that his office is still reviewing the incident.

"Any New Testament church is under attack and duress. It's unique to us as westerners to think that when we come under attack there's something wrong with the church," which isn't true, Boyd said to the Rocky Mountain News.

Police are scheduled to hold a news conference at 5 p.m. (Central).

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 10, 2007 | Comments (0)

As details continue to come in about Sunday's shootings at two Colorado megachurches, connections are being drawn between the victims of the two shootings and their alleged killer.

Colorado media are reporting that Matthew Murray, 24, has been identified as the gunman in the shooting at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Police are investigating connections between that shooting and a similar shooting earlier Sunday at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) training facility in Arvada, on the campus of Faith Bible Chapel.

This afternoon, some new connections are emerging. The two sisters killed in the New Life Church parking lot had deep connections with the YWAM facility. The Gazette of Colorado Springs reports:

[The victims' uncle, Mark] Schaepe said family members suspect that the shooter could have targeted the girls because they were involved heavily with Youth With a Mission and had frequented the Arvada training center for the missionary group where two people were shot to death hours before the New Life attack.

The girls had gone on a mission trip to China with Youth With a Mission last year, Schaepe said.

Denver station KMGH reports that many people at the Colorado Springs church have similar connections: "There is a Youth With A Mission office on the New Life Church campus, and many members of New Life have completed the YWAM's school and discipleship programs. They have also worked together in local evangelical outreach programs."

Meanwhile, Denver station KUSA reports that Murray was homeschooled. The Denver Post, which is affiliated with KUSA, reports that sisters Stephanie and Rachael Works, had also been homeschooled.

New Life Church pastor Brady Boyd has told several news outlets that Murray was not affiliated with the congregation, and called the shooting "a senseless random attack."

"We don't know the shooter. He has no connection to our church," Boyd told The Gazette.

Cody Askeland, a neighbor of Murray, who lived with his parents, told KMGH the family is "really religious." The Denver Post reports, "An official at Colorado Christian University said the school's records show that Matthew Murray enrolled in one class last year but dropped out soon after."

CNN is running a report from an unnamed longtime member of New Life Church who said Murray "had a falling out with Youth With a Mission after working with the organization a couple of years ago and that he sent antagonistic and threatening correspondence afterward." Christianity Today reporters have not been able to confirm this report, but The Denver Post reports that YWAM "said that though Murray worked for YWAM at one time, reports that he was a member are incorrect."

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 10, 2007 | Comments (36)

Five people were left dead after shooting sprees at two Colorado megachurches Sunday. Five others were wounded.

Two people were killed and two wounded at the YWAM training center on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, a Denver suburb. A man walked into the center around midnight and after about 30 minutes of talking with staff members, he asked to spend the night there. The receptionist at the center told him no, that no unauthorized person were not allowed. The man reportedly said, "Then this is what I've got for you," pulled out a gun and began shooting.

About 70 miles away and 12 hours later, three people were killed after a man in similar dress opened fire at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, died from gunshot wounds. Their 51-year-old father, David Works, was shot twice in his abdomen and groin area and is in fair condition. Also wounded were Judy Purcell, 40, and Larry Bourbannais, 59. They were treated and released.

Witnesses told the Gazette in Colorado Springs that a man in a black trench coat opened fire in the parking lot setting off a smoke grenade before blasting cars and church members. Police said that the gunman was shot and killed by a plainclothes security guard with a law enforcement background and who is a member of the church.

New Life's senior pastor, Brady Boyd, said that after the YWAM shooting the church called in more than the usual number of security volunteers and "because of the extra precautions we saved many lives yesterday."

"They came to church with their families to worship, and what happened today was a tragedy," Boyd said at a press conference. "As a pastor, my heart is broken today for people that lost their lives."

Another Colorado Springs megachurch, Woodmen Valley Chapel, is providing grief counseling for New Life members, pastor-at-large Tim MacDonald told Christianity Today.

"We're in a sense of disbelief and surrealism that this would take place. We're still dealing with shock and after effects of what has taken place," he said. "We are so saddened by what's taken place, but we're helping in whatever way we can."

MacDonald said the shooting creates concerns for Woodmen's level of security.

"Our security plan is being scrutinized at this very moment," he said. "We're looking at what we need to do to have security without drawing away from the reason that people have come to church and that is to worship Christ."

The two dead victims at the YWAM center were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota and Philip Crouse, 24, of Alaska. Youth With a Mission leases property on Faith Bible Chapel's property.

George Morrison, the church's senior pastor, told Christianity Today that Crouse had put up Christmas lights at his house just two weeks ago. "It was tragic," Morrison said. "He was a young man that had a vision for his life and wanted to be involved in missions in Kazakhstan."

Morrison said church members were concerned and questioning, especially after hearing reports of the shooting at New Life. "These things happen in malls, in churches and in the world we live in, it's sad that we live with this. It's sobering that this could happen anytime, anywhere, to any person," he said. "We just have a sense that you have to move on."

The choir at Faith Bible Chapel had planned to kick off Sunday's service with "Joy to the World."

"We couldn't do it, Phil Waters, a member of the church choir, told The Denver Post. "There was no joy this morning."

The choir instead sang a piece about bringing offerings to God, he told the Post.

"We are really close to these kids," he said. "It was tough to be out there (singing) and not have tears running down your face."

More coverage includes:

• Colo. church gunman had been kicked out (Associated Press, most recent AP version)


• Shooter was seeking revenge, court papers say (The Gazette)


• A gunman's bloody trail: from hate mail to mass murder (Rocky Mountain News)


• Pastor tells of horrific day | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church members find comfort in groups, prayer (The Gazette)


• Church members await news, ask why (The Gazette)


• Gunman defied guard's order | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Gunman sent 'hate mail' to Arvada missionary center (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church gunman "hated Christians" (The Denver Post)


• Arvada investigators believe attacks linked | Gunman among 5 dead in assaults at center, church (Rocky Mountain News)


• Deadly attacks at mission, church may be linked | "Reason to believe" in connection (The Denver Post)


• 7,000 at church when shots fired | When bullets started flying, security officers locked the doors and people crowded into the basement (The Denver Post)


• Gunman fires on parishioners | Two members of New Life Church are killed and three are hurt. A security guard shoots and kills the attacker (The Denver Post)


• A commitment to overcome tragedy | First a wayward pastor, then a gunman in the parking lot. (The Gazette)


• 'Last place' for a deadly attack | Thousands were at one of state's largest churches (Rocky Mountain News)


• Danger and death in Arvada | Missionaries were training to serve in violent regions (Rocky Mountain News)


• Arvada missionary workers gunned down (The Denver Post)


• Group targeted in shooting has far reach | Begun in 1960 after a 20-year-old college student said he experienced a vision from God, Youth With a Mission has grown into one of the world's most formidable Christian missions groups (Associated Press)


• No general alert sent after center shootings | Deputy Chief Gary Creager said Sunday night that detectives had no indication the gunman was headed anywhere in particular and were given only a sketchy description that would have been useless to other law enforcement agencies (Rocky Mountain News)

On the victims:

• Slain Springs sisters were active in Arvada missionary group (Rocky Mountain News)


• Philip Crouse had undergone transformation (Rocky Mountain News)


• Tiffany Johnson was known for her smile, her love of children (Rocky Mountain News)


• Charlie Blanch involved with YWAM for 2 years (Rocky Mountain News)


• Dan Griebenow has group rooting for his recovery (Rocky Mountain News)


• Young missionaries caring, forgiving | One victim had turned away from gangs; one was called "an angel" (The Denver Post)


• Police ID teens killed in New Life shootings (The Gazette)


• Vietnam vet among Springs wounded | Larry Bourbannais, 59, was eating a hamburger in the cafeteria on the church campus when he heard gunfire, said his daughter(The Denver Post)


• Teen sisters killed in Springs (The Denver Post)

On church shootings and security:

• Attacks force churches to boost security | Some of the nation's estimated 1,200 megachurches have been quietly beefing up security in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful (Associated Press)


• Church security can be tricky | Some already employ armed, professional security officers, while others rely on volunteer church members (The Gazette)


• At a glance: violence at churches (The Denver Post)

From our sister publications:

• Leader's Insight: Security Against Shooters | A police officer's advice on how to prevent, or react to, a gunman at church. (Leadership, June 11, 2007)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 10, 2007 | Comments (28)

A church member and a gunman died after a man opened fire at New Life Church in Colorado Springs Sunday. Three people were wounded in the shooting that took place in the church parking lot after a morning service.

Police believe the shooting was related to another attack that happened just 12 hours earlier. Two people were killed and two wounded at a training center for Youth With a Mission in Arvada, a Denver suburb. A man walked in and asked to spend the night there. After a worker at the center said no and began to discuss alternative places he could stay, the man pulled out a gun and began shooting. (See previous post).

After the New Life shooting, witnesses told the Gazette in Colorado Springs that a man in a black trench coat opened fire in the parking lot. Police said that the gunman was shot and killed by a security guard, which authorities say probably saved many lives.

New Life Church has already gone through a major transition in the last year. Former senior pastor and former National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard stepped down in November 2006 after admitting to a long-term relationship with a male prostitute.

"Why would somebody walk into a church and do something like that?" New Life member Kim Ho-Sing-Loy told the Gazette. "Especially with what just happened with Pastor Ted, this church just doesn't need this any more."

New Life's website says Sunday night service was canceled and the church will be closed Monday.

"It's surreal," Mario Garcia told the Gazette. "It's a sad state of affairs in our country when we are not able to come to services and be safe. How do you reassure them that church is a safe place?"

Coverage includes:

Fatal church shootings may be linked (Rocky Mountain News)
Springs, Arvada attacks linked (Denver Post)
Gunman fires on parishioners (Denver Post)
4 die in Colo. church, mission attacks (Associated Press)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 10, 2007 | Comments (0)

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, a man went to the Arvada, Colorado, training center for Youth With a Mission and asked to spend the night there. Police say that when Tiffany Johnson, a worker at the center from Minnesota, said no and began to discuss alternative places he could stay, the man walked inside, pulled out a gun, and began shooting.

Johnson, 26, died, as did Alaskan Philip Crouse, 24. South Dakota resident Dan Griebenow, also 24, is in critical condition and was shot in the neck. Charlie Blanch, a 22-year-old from Minnesota, was shot in the legs and is in stable condition.

About 45 YWAM students were in the facility, which is on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel megachurch.

"The young man – I don't know who he is; I don't think [the victims] knew him – but he must be going through a lot personally in his own life to do something like this," Peter Warren, the Director of Youth with a Mission Denver, said in a press statement. "Our belief is that only God is the judge and our place is to forgive and that's a difficult thing to do, but really, I think it's the right thing to do."

The suspect is still at large.

Coverage includes:

• Gunman kills 2 in missionary center (Associated Press)
• Two killed in shooting at Arvada missionary dorm (The Denver Post)
• Police hunt for gunman who killed two at Arvada missionary dorm (The Rocky Mountain News)

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 9, 2007

A Finnish district court prosecutor today convicted a pastor with criminal discrimination for refusing to work with a female pastor. Two other church leaders were also fined for not preventing the violation.

The pastor was fined the equivalent of 20 days of his salary, according to a Finnish news report. Finland's laws prohibit discrimination in the workplace or in public based on factors like sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Pastors within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the country's state church, disagree on whether women should serve as pastors. However, this is the first time that a church disagreement was brought before law enforcement. Pastor Ari Norro and the two church members were tried November 16 and convicted today.

Johan Candelin, director of World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission and Finland resident, said it is unclear whether the pastor will attempt to bring the case to a higher court. Candelin said the fine is equivalent to the fine a burglar receives, and the three church members will have a criminal record.

As previously reported on Christianity Today's website, Norro's infringement came during a Communion service last March. Norro is a member of the Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland, a group that believes the Bible prohibits women from serving as pastors. He offered to leave when a woman pastor arrived 15 minutes before the service to help serve at the altar. The woman, Petra Pohjanraito, decided to leave instead.

"It's a very sad day for the Finnish church when people are taken to court for following their conscience," Candelin told CT today. "In the future, the court will surely follow this line that they now started." The case could set a precedent for similar cases concerning discrimination against homosexuals.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 30, 2007 | Comments (22)

The stakes and the rhetoric over last spring's murders of three missionaries in Turkey continue to get higher. While some are suggesting the victims have PKK connections, others are demanding the defendants be tried for genocide.

Five young plaintiffs are being tried for the killings of Tilman Ekkehart Geske, Necati Aydin, and Ugur Yuksel in Malatya, Turkey. Seven others are not in custody but have been charged with aiding in the murders.

The trial itself opened November 23 with quite a crowd in attendance and has already stalled. The Turkish Press reports that:

The prosecutor demanded life imprisonment for five suspects on charges of setting up an armed terrorist organization and killing people. The suspects and their lawyers said they are not ready to defend themselves. Then, the judge adjourned the court till January 14, 2008.

One of the major concerns about the defense is that, in an appeal to anti-missionary sentiments, it will portray Geske, Aydin, and Yuksel as apostates who had it coming to them. Orhan Kemal Cengiz, one of the attorneys for the complainants and a Turkish Daily News columnist, wrote:

There are 31 files in this case and just 15 of them comprise information about the murder and the perpetrators. What about the other 16 files?

The prosecutor retrieved all documents from the computers of the victims and put them in the case file as "evidence." If a prosecutor sees missionary activities as criminal then it is not difficult to understand how some people can become crazy and kill these missionaries!

Furthermore, these files, which are public now, may lead to new murders because they include many details on other Protestants who reside in different parts of Turkey. The addresses, emails, telephones of many other Turkish Protestants are in the files, which have already been in the hands of the murderers. The prosecutor failed to make a thorough investigation and he has also put many other lives in danger.

I would like to give you some specific information, but if I went into all details of the weirdness of the files, this article would turn into a small booklet.

It probably won't be difficult to convince the court that the victims were at least partly to blame, Cengiz says, "From the communications sent to the file we understand that Necati Aydin, one of the victims, had been under constant surveillance and in his police record he has recorded as a former criminal for the ?crime' of ?missionary activity.'"

There has been much hand-wringing in the Turkish press over these murders and what they mean about tolerance and teen violence in their society. But the country - or at least its press - continues to choke on the distinctiveness of people of faith.

Forum 18 published an op-ed that probes the source of the anti-Christian violence. In it, G?zide Ceyhan concludes it's a result of "disinformation about Christianity in statements by public figures and through the media, the rise of Turkish nationalism, and the implicit and explicit approval both of the marginalization of Christians from Turkish society and also of actions - including murders - against them."

Keep a lookout for our January cover story, "Jesus in Turkey."

Posted by Susan Wunderink at November 30, 2007 | Comments (5)

We've covered sermon stealing several times, as have our sister publications. But we haven't seen this before: The Valley Morning Star of Harlingen, Texas, reports, "Rev. Dori Zubizarreta had to improvise her sermon a few weeks ago after thieves took the written sermon from her office."

Zubizarreta told the paper, "I was going to use that sermon for the 8 o'clock morning Mass, but I had to wing it. By the 10:30 (a.m.) Mass, I had already worked it out."

A cynic might say the same thing happens every week in many Protestant and Catholic churches -- only without the stealing part.

Posted by Ted Olsen at September 19, 2007 | Comments (0)

The Reuters story referenced in my last post contained a wild misuse of a common word. Here's the citation:

While the prolific death chamber in the city of Huntsville, where 19 inmates have already been executed by lethal injection in 2007, makes Texas stand out, the state is also starting to follow national trends toward fewer death sentences.

"Prolific death chamber"? "Prolfiic" comes from a Latin word meaning "fruitful," which in turn is based on the Latin word for "offspring." The American Heritage Dictionary offers two definitions for the word:

1. Producing offspring or fruit in great abundance; fertile.
2. Producing abundant works or results: a prolific artist.

The Reuters writer has stood a pro-life word on its head, exchanging the idea of fruitfulness and fertility for sheer efficiency. Christian media critics have often criticized Reuters for uninformed handling of the religion factor in their reporting. But whatever they know or don't know about religion, Reuters editors should know their dictionaries.

Posted by David Neff at August 13, 2007 | Comments (3)

On Sunday, the Washington Post published a Reuters story about the number of executions in the state of Texas--now pushing a remarkable 400 since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. Texas has carried out 398 executions and it has 5 more planned for August. The closest runner up to the Texas numbers is Virginia with 96 executions--only one quarter of the Lone Star State's record.

What was puzzling about the story was the way writer Ed Stoddard tried to link the numbers to religion. Here's how he led off the story:

Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state's conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West.

The Washington Post repeated the emphasis by headlining the story, "Religion, Culture Behind Texas Execution Tally."

Whoa there, Podner!

What does religion have to do with it? All Stoddard could come up with was this:

Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian, highlighting one key factor in Texas' enthusiasm for the death penalty that many outsiders find puzzling -- the support it gets from conservative evangelical churches.

This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find justification in scripture.

"A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see sanction for that in the Old Testament especially," said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

That's it. Unless you also count the fact the Governor Rick Perry is "a devout Christian." Yup, that explains a lot.

Let's take a look at the factors cited by Stoddard:

First, a belief in individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation. Well, of course we evangelical Protestants don't teach that individuals "take responsibility for their own salvation." We teach that the grace of God comes to individuals in their pervasively sinful state and enables them to respond to his love by faith. But, yes, we do emphasize that individuals can have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus (as opposed to salvation necessarily being mediated through clerics and church ritual).

But neither Stoddard's version of evangelical belief nor the correct one has much to do with capital punishment. If anything, belief in the individual dimension of salvation drives evangelicals to engage in more extensive and more intense prison ministry than other Christians.

Second, evangelicals find justification for capital punishment in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament. Well, no and yes.

No, evangelicals who support capital punishment do not use the Old Testament as their primary source of justification. If you ask almost any evangelical in the pew if they think that Sabbath-breaking or homosexuality should be a capital crime, they would shudder in horror at the thought.

Yes, evangelicals do find support in Scripture--but as part of God's plan for the secular order. See Romans 13:1-7, where the Apostle Paul portrays "the sword" and taxes as legitimate functions of the state. But to consider this a legitimate function of the state is not to approve of the way any given state carries out its responsibility for retribution.

When studies show disproportionate application of the death penalty by race or economic status, Christians of any and every stripe should be challenging the system. And when DNA-testing and other death-row efforts repeatedly reveal the miscarriage of justice, Christians should be working to make sure justice is truly served.

Posted by David Neff at August 13, 2007 | Comments (14)

One of the most frequent reader responses to David Neff's article on Knocking, the PBS documentary on Jehovah's Witnesses, is that it did not address the allegations against church officials of abuse and coverups.

It really wasn't relevant to a discussion of this particular documentary, but yes, we are aware of the cases. In fact, we covered them before the rest of the media.

And now there's a big development: silentlambs, a Jehovah's Witness-focused victims rights organization similar to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), discovered that the Jehovah's Witnesses recently settled 16 abuse lawsuits. The organization says other abuse suits are still pending, but doesn't know how many.

One odd personal anecdote:

A couple of weeks ago, I answered a knock at the door and found two eager young evangelists. I was watching my young son at the time, and was unable to invite them in, but I let them ask their lead-in question: "Do you think that the scandals in the various churches have affected their ability to minister effectively?" (I'm paraphrasing here; knowing a bit of JW theology, it's possible--even likely--that their question may have ended in a slightly different phrase than "minister effectively" and they might have had another word for "churches".)

"I'm not sure what you mean by the scandals," I said, thinking at the time that they were from evangelical and evangelistic church down the street. (They were dressed too casually to be Mormons.)

"You know, like pedophile priests," said the woman evangelist, the only one who talked during our brief conversation.

"Well, if you mean those particular priests, then yes, of course it's going to affect their ability to minister," I said. "If you mean the churches' witness or the witness of the larger body of Christ, I guess my view is that God always works amid man's massive sinfulness, and that when Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, he was talking about the hell of sin in the church as much as he was talking about anything. There are always consequences for sin, and I think we're seeing a lot of that right now, but the church is the Body of Christ and he's bigger than these scandals."

She smiled. "Sounds like you know your Bible," she said, and handed me her literature. "Here are just some items to help you as you read your Bible and look for answers..."

It was then that I saw the Watchtower Society name on the material. I handed it back. "No thanks," I said. They smiled and thanked me for my time, and were starting to turn around when I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask my question. I was curious about whether they had actually planned to use the Jehovah's Witness abuse scandal as an evangelistic tool. If so, that would have made quite an article.

"Um, you do know that one of the biggest abuse scandals right now is in the Jehovah's Witnesses, right?" I asked. It was immediately clear from the woman's expression -- a grimace, then the smile again -- that they had not intended to use their own scandal in their pitch.

"Oh," she said, "you mean that one case where a man followed a boy into the bathroom...?"

"No, actually, not just that. Massive numbers of accusations," I said.

"Well, the difference in our church is that we kick those people out as soon as we learn about the situation," she said.

"Actually, I work for a magazine that has done some reporting on this," I said, "and the big issue for me was that people making the accusations were saying they got kicked out because they didn't have 'two or three witnesses' to the abuse."

I can't remember exactly what she replied, but she said she was sure that I wasn't quite right about that. And by now she was eager to take me up on my earlier goodbye. She had already moved a step or two back.

"Well, anyway," I said, "I'm not interested in arguing about abuse cases. That's my day job and I'm watching my son right now, happily not talking about this kind of thing. But really. You might want to think about another lead-in question."

I'm curious: Did anyone else get a JW visit lately with this opening line? Does anyone know if these opening lines come from a central office, or are they the responsibility of the individual missionaries?

Posted by Ted Olsen at May 24, 2007 | Comments (95)

Martin Marty's Sightings column is typically worth reading. After the decades he has spent as a religion scholar, his columns will educate nearly every reader.

Unfortunately half of Sightings columns are written by guests, and these tend toward infuriating rather than instructive. Today's column (not yet online [Update 5/4: It's up now]) by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore is about spanking. She leads with the story of parents at Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, who spanked their child, Josef Smith, to death and are now serving life sentences.

She says Remnant's "religious leader Gwen Shamblin encourages parents to spank their children, describing corporal punishment as a 'time-tested, ancient teaching of the Bible' necessary to shaping adherence to God's authority." Miller-McLemore fails to note that Remnant Fellowship is not a mainstream evangelical church, but tends toward aberrant Christian sect.

Miller-McLemore then criticizes critics of spanking, who call such disciplinary methods child abuse. She notes that sociological research "documents increased affection and paternal involvement as positively related to an emphasis on children's submission to parental authority and use of corporal punishment." And she says Christians should be wary of both the anti-spanking and pro-spanking groups. Miller-McLemore is right when she concludes, "For Christians, discipline means fostering conditions that induce a desire to love God and seek the good of others."

But Miller-McLemore is confused when she writes,

News about Josef Smith's death powerfully reminds us just how hazardous careless use of Christian proclamation can be, especially as it impacts those least able to protect themselves and most dependent on adult benevolence. Fervent promotion of doctrines about sin, obedience, and bending the will to God have had and can have devastating consequences.

Miller-McLemore does admit, "seeing children as sinful does not de facto lead to their harsh punishment." And she says Calvin and Augustine did not condone coporal punishment but found spiritual capacity in children.

Yet, she seems to see these examples as exceptions from the rule that "doctrines about sin, obedience, and bending the will to God" lead to abuse. In fact disregard for such doctrines has had far worse consequences. The idea that all people are sinful, children included, does not lead to abuse. If parents fail to apply the doctrines to themselves or find in them an excuse to abuse their children, it's no condemnation of the doctrine.

Miller-McLemore concludes, "For children in particular, what people believe about Jesus or God -- whether God demands obedience or offers love -- matters." She seems to be unable to consider that God both demands obedience and offers love. Parents too can demand obedience and enforce their demands with discipline while also tenderly loving their children.

Child abuse may be tied to bad or heretical doctrine, but it is not the result of classic Christian doctrines of sin and obedience to God. Ignoring those doctrines (especially when professing not to) is dangerous not just for children but for us all.

Posted by Rob Moll at May 3, 2007 | Comments (12)