The year 2005-2010.

The year 2005.


• 1/7/2005 God and the tsunami by Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe.
      Religion and spirituality, is asking what role God plays in natural disasters like the Indian Ocean tsunami that has devastated much of Asia.    Some believe God is punishing us, or testing us.    The purpose of the tsunami we do not know.    Other believe God had nothing to do with the tragedy.    Of course some believe God does not exist and these disasters are just forces of nature.
      As many believers believe that God used the disaster as an instrument, but the majority believes he had no connection with it.    Insurers call such catastrophes "acts of God," which is a figure of speech.    Disasters just happen at random?    Many believe that it happens in another name for chaos ... Chaos is evil.    This tends to make those involved trying to make sense out of the injustices and cruelty that God has taught to hate.    Even Abraham challenged God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Moses when the Pharaoh increased the workload of the Israelites.    Neither of them abandoned God.    All we can do is reach out to the victims and work harder to establish justice and compassion on earth.
• 1/8/2005 Hope fades in search for tsunami victims by Lely Djuhari, Associated Press.
      Banda Aceh, Indonesia - Authorities held out little hope for tens of thousands still missing after the Asian tsunami as the official death toll climbed to 150,000.
• 1/16/2005 Americans worship often but know little about religion by Stephen Prothero, Los Angeles Times.
      The sociologist Peter Berger once remarked that if India is the most religious country in the world and Sweden the least, then the United States is a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.    Not anymore.    With a Jesus lover in the Oval Office and a faith-based party in control of both houses of Congress, the United States is undeniably a nation of believers ruled by the same.    Things are different in Europe, and not just in Sweden.    The Dutch are four times less likely than Americans to believe in miracles, hell and biblical inerrancy.    The euro does not trust in God.    But here is the paradox: Although Americans are far more religious than Europeans, they know far less about religion.
      In Europe, religious education is the rule from elementary grades on.    Only one out of three U.S. citizens is able to name the most basic of Christian texts, of the four Gospels, and 12 percent think Noah's wife was Joan of Arc.    This nation believes God speaks in Scripture but that can't be bothered to read what He has to say.    U.S. Catholics, evangelicals and Jews have been lamenting for some time a crisis of religious literacy in their ranks.    But the dangers of religious ignorance are by no means confined to those worried about catechizing their children or cultivating the next generation of clergy.    Most cannot debate with sophistication on biblical arguments about gay marriage, abortion or stem cell research.    We are a nation of religious illiterates, which the fault lies in our elementary and secondary schools.    Even todays teachers are not trained to teach religion or about it.
• 1/23/2005 Rain-soaked Muslims approach end of annual Saudi pilgrimage by Adnan Malik, Associated Press.
      Mecca, Saudi Arabia - Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims welcomed drenching rains as an act of God while they circled the Kaaba shrine in Mecca's Grand Mosque, the final rite in the annual hajj pilgimage.    A record 2.56 million people attended this years hajj, which all able-bodied Muslims must perform at least once if they can afford it.
• 1/27/2005 Death toll in temple stampede at 258 by The Courier-Journal.
      Wai, India - Sobbing relatives of Hindu pilgrims killed at a temple carried bodies for cremation and poured out their anger at police for failing to protect worshippers trampled to death in a stampede during a massive religious procession.    The death toll rose to 258, trampled inside the hilltop Mandra Devi temple during a ceromony that involved breaking coconuts in front of a deity.
• 2/21/2005 Anglican leaders to meet this week to renew their debate on gay bishops by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press.
      Newry, Northern Ireland - Leaders of the global Anglican Communion meet in a Northern Ireland retreat this week to continue a painful debate on gay bishops, a dispute in which no one yet discerns a solution.    Conservative bishops, particularly in Africa, are furious with the Episcopal Church.
• 2/22/2005 Homer-sexuality by AP.
      Fifty-three years ago, when Lucille Ball became pregnant and decided to portray an expectant mother on "I Love Lucy," it was a big social crisis for CBS television.    The network chief called in a panel of clerics - a rabbi, a priest and a Protestant parson to advise the writers how to tastefully build a sitcom around Ms. Ball's delicate condition.    They succeeded admirably.
      The Fox network seems to have taken fewer (if any) precautions before airing, on Sunday evening, a social blockbuster episode of "The Simpson," in which Marge's sister Patty came out as a lesbian.    On the same episode, the family's hometown of Springfield legalized same-sex marriages to increase tourism, with Homer himself presiding.    TV has a sense for reflecting the changing attitudes of its mass audience.
• 1/27/2005 New survey looks exclusively at teenagers' religious beliefs by ?.
      The stereotype of teenagers being rebellious might well hold true in matters of clothing, music and parental authority, but it fails to capture the religious lives of American teenagers.    More than 3,000 teenagers were surveyed and were found to be more conventional and bound to mainstream values and cultures compared to, say, the 60s.    Three quarters of teens were either Protestant or Catholic, 16 percent not religious, seven percent with another religion, 2.5 percent were Mormon.    Eighty percent believed in God.    Thirteen percent view God as having created the world but not being involved in it now and 14 percent saw God as more of an "impersonal, cosmic life force."    The survey showed that they are not flocking to "alternative religions such as Wicca.    Two-thirds say being in a congregation is not necessary to be religious or spiritual, showing a strong anti-institutional approach toward religion.    Teens fear being perceived as too religous and possibly weird.
• 3/3/2005 High court seeks line between law, religion by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - Beneath it own displays of the Ten Commandments, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether Kentucky's McCreary County violated the Constitution by showing the commandments in its courthouse.    Defending the display as designed to credit the Ten Commandments' influence on civil law, not to endorse religion.    The Ten Commandments are religious, and have influenced our legislative law.    The ACLU of Kentucky, which challenged the display, intended to assert the Ten Commandments and Christianity are the primary basis for American law and social morals, to post them as their religious nature.    They claim that violates the Constitution's First Admendment prohibition against government establishing a religion.
• 3/6/2005 Reclaiming Christianity from the right by Bess Hinson, The Courier-Journal.
      Does God love all people, regardless of race, creed, color or sexual oreintation?    Can Christians represent such God-like views and not be radical judgmentalist?    Can Christians be loving, kind, conversational and respectful of people of different faiths?    The Christian right is in at the moment, where the left are often stifled or silenced.    If Jesus lived in todays world, which side would he be on?    Christians should identify with Christ and his teachings, and each will be accountable for their actions of love and commitment.
• 3/15/2005 Judge: Ban on gay marriage illegal by Lisa Leff, Associated Press.
      San Francisco - A judge ruled that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional - a legal milestone that, if upheld on appeal, would open the way for the most populous state to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.    It was in 1948 California Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage.
• 4/2/2005 John Paul II - Man who reshaped papacy dies at 84 by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope John Paul II, whose indomitable will and uncompromising belief in human dignity helped bring down communism in Eastern Europe and reshaped Christianity's relationship to other religions, died yesterday at age 84.    Elected on Oct. 16, 1978, at age 58, he was the youngest pope in 132 years, the first Polish pope, and the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries.
• 4/10/2005 World cardinals to vote for new pope by The Washington Post.
      Vatican City - Shrouded in deep secrecy and rooted in medieval tradition, the choice of the next pope will bear the legacy of John Paul II, who appointed all but three of the 117 voting cardinals who will gather beneath the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to choose his successor.    Most likely the new pope will stress a need for firm moral direction against the temptation of materialism in contemporary life.    He will favor centralized Vatican authority, and firmly oppose abortion, euthanasia, contraception and the ordination of women, all issues of interest to many American Catholics.    Less certain is the new leader's nationality, but will most likely be from a developing world, where most Catholics live and the church has enjoyed some of its biggest expansion in memberships.    A Third World pope would clearly indicate that this church is no longer a European church, as the word catholic means universal, and a global, multicultural institution.
• 4/20/2005 Pope Bendict XVI by Ian Fisher, The New York Times.
      Vatican City - Reaching to the church's conservative wing on just the second day of their conclave, Roman Catholic cardinals chose as the 265^th pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, age 78, a seasoned and hardline German theologian who served as John Paul II's defender of the faith.    He announced his name as Benedict XVI, and told the cheering crowd, "I entrust myself to your powers."    He was a popular choice inside the college of 115 cardinals, a man who shared John Paul's conservative theology.    Pope Benedict's positions includes the assertion that Catholcism is "true" and other religions are "deficient"; that the modern, secular world, especially in Europe, is spiritually weak, and that Catholicism is in competition with Islam.    He also opposes homosexuality, abortion, women priests and stem-cell research.    He speaks 10 languages.
• 4/23/2005 Rome readying for papal installation by AP.
      Rome - Rome is gearing up for the installation of Pope Benedict XVI - an outdoor Mass in St. Peter's Square.    Hundreds of VIPs are expected at the Vatican for his inauguration - including presidents, prime ministers, royals and religious leaders, and 100,000 people.    They will have anti-missle systems in place to defend the skies, along with fighter jets, helicopters and AWACS surveillance plane deployed by NATO with in a five-mile radius, including 10,000 police across Rome.
• 4/24/2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's viewpoint by AP.
      His views on:
      Secularism: That we have moved from a Christian culture to aggressive and intolerant secularism.
      He claims a society from which God is completely absent self-destructs, such as the major totalitarian regimes of last century.
      Other religions: He condemns religious pluralism and relativism, the idea that other religions can hold the way to salvation.    He called Buddhism an autoerotic spirituality that threatened the Catholic Church.    Sex-abuse scandal: He denounced immorality within the church, and that only 1 percent of priests were abusers and that American news coverage was a campaign against the church.
      Women in church: He believes in the prohibition on women priests and criticized feminism as ignoring biological differences.
      Abortion and euthanasia: He is against abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research and cloning, and sees a grim picture of the results of genetic research becoming the destroyers of creation itself.
• 5/14/2005 Court upholds 'In God We Trust' by AP.
      Richmond, Va. - The inscription "In God We Trust" on the facade of a government building in Lexington, N.C., does not violate the U.S. Constitution's guidelines on the separation of church and state, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unamiously upheld a lower judge's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the slogan.
• 5/20/2005 Minister says he, others molested kids by The Courier-Journal.
      Ponchatoula, LA - A Hosanna Church minister Louis Lamonica, a sheriff's deputy and four adult members of his "cult-like" following are suspected of sexually molesting as many as two dozen children at their church.    All have been jailed and as many as a dozen adults may have been involved in victimizing the children, ranging in age from infants to teens.
• 5/23/2005 Archbishop Tutu speaks during Berea graduation by AP.
      Berea, Ky. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke to 241 graduates at Berea College's 133rd commencement, encouraging them to "collaborate with God."    Tutu, a Nobel peace Prize winner, was awarded an honorary degree from Berea.    He told them to be "fellow workers" with God in creating a just world where "all are embraced."    He claims that God had to wait for those who would work with Him to accomplish the miracle of South Africa's transformation.    Tutu was he first black person to become general secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978.    He received the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
• 6/12/2005 Italy fertility laws face Vatican roadblock by Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press.
      Rome - Females that are wanting fertility treaments to have babies are facing a formidable opponent in the Vatican, which is waging a fierce campaign to maintain the limitations.    Turnout to vote has to be more than 50 percent, and Italian bishops have urged a voter boycott, with Pope Benedict XVI's endorsement.    The result will show how much influence the Vatican still wields in a country that is overwhelming Catholic but has increasingly strayed from church doctrine, notably by approving divorce and abortion in referendums.    The vote could represent the pope with the first major challenge in his efforts to overcome religious apathy and even hostility toward the church in an increasingly secular Europe.
• 7/5/2005 Church endorses gay marriage by Doug Gross, Associated Press.
      Atlanta - The United Church of Christ's rule-making body voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage, making it the largest Christian denomination to do so.    The vote is not binding on individual churches but could cause some congreagations to leave the fold.    Roughly 80 percent of the representatives on the church's 884-member General Synod voted to approve the resolution.    It also asks churches to consider supporting legislation granting equal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples and to work against laws banning gay marriage.    It is now possible that the more conservative churches will leave the church over the resolution.    Formed in 1957, and traditionally strong in New England, the United Church of Christ has a tradition of support for gays and lesbians.    It is distinct from the more conservative Churches of Christ.    In the early 1970s, the denomination became the first major Christian church to ordain an openly gay minister.
• 7/17/2005 Justices asked to review jury's Bible use by AP.
      Brighton, Colo. - Prosecutors have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case in which, Robert Harlan, a convicted murderer's death sentence was overturned because jurors consulted a Bible.    The state high court's majority said jurors could be influenced by biblical passages such as "an eye for an eye."
• 8/6/2005 Presbyterians challenging corporations by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) a 2.3 million member denomination will urge five American corporations (Caterpillar, Citigroup, ITT Industries, Motorola and United Technologies) - four suppliers to the Israeli military and one bank allegedly linked to Palestinian terrorist financing - to change policies the church says lead to conflict in the Middle East.    If they don't change, the Louisville-based denomination might sell off stocks in the corporations, leading to disputes between Jews and Presbyterians.    Some other Protestant denominations (Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ) are considering using economic pressure to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
• 8/22/2005 Benedict warns against 'do-it-yourself' religion by Melissa Eddy, Associated Press.
      Cologne, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI ended his four-day trip to his native Germany and warned Europe against growing secularism and "do-it-yourself" religion.    He believes religion has become a consumer product, for people to choose what they like, and some to even make a profit from it.    He also talked about rising anti-Semitism, aimed at Muslims about terrorism, which he called "cruel fanaticism."   
• 9/17/2005 Seminary inspections ordered by Caryle Murphy, The Washington Post.
      Washington - The Vatican has ordered an inspection of Roman Catholic 220 seminaries and theological schools in the United States to look for "evidence of homosexuality" and for faculty members who dissent from church teachings.    This was in wake of the church's child-molestation scandal and will be carried out by a committee of 117 bishops and priests.
• 11/12/2005 Robertson: Penn. town 'voted God out of city' by AP.
      Virginia Beach, Va. - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town that disaster might strike there because they "voted God out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.    This is the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power - as an alternative to the theory of evolution.    "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God.    You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."    He claims that he was just pointing out that our spiritual actions have consequences.    If they have problems he recommended that they call on Charles Darwin to help them.    This summer Robertson called on his show for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.    He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."    He will probably not be up for reelection for his present post in the near future.
• 11/13/2005 Dalai Lama: Buddhism, science have common goal by AP.
      Washington - Science and Buddhism share a quest of open investigation into the nature of reality, and science can be a pathway to discovering well-being and happiness, the Dalai Lama told the Society for Neuroscience.    He has praised neuroscience - the study of the brain and nervous system - as important work he's been interested in for 15 years.    The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 following an aborted uprising against Chinese rule in the territory and now keeps an office in exile in the Himalayan town of Dharmsala, India.
• 11/13/2005 Gay priests fight for acceptance by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press.
      The Rev. Fred Daley, a gay Roman Catholic priest, grew increasingly disturbed by Vatican pronouncements over the years that homosexuals were unfit for the clergy.    This suggested to him that homosexuals were responsible for the sex-abuse crisis.    Daley came out of the closet over the issue, and researchers have estimated that thousands of homosexual clergy across the United States have dedicated their lives to a church that considers them "intrinsically disordered" and prone to "evil tendencies."
• 11/23/2005 Vatican: Practicing gays can't seek priesthood by The Washington Post.
      Rome - The Vatican is ordering seminaries to bar candidates for the priesthood who "practice homosexual tendencies" or support "gay culture."    The decree, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, will cause morale problems and a worsening clergy shortages.
• 12/21/2005 Commandments display is upheld by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      A federal appeals court upheld a display of the Ten Commandments alongside other historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the Mercer County, Ky., courthouse.    The ACLU finally lost a battle with their obsession to "wall of separation" arguments between church and state, and Judge Richard Suhrheinrich's said that the ACLU does not represent a "reasonable person."
  
      In the start of 2005, as the world recoops from Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami and tries to get aid to the victims, churches are still battling over debates on gay bishops, gay marriage, homosexuality, stem-cell research and priests sex abuse.    One Pope died and another one takes over in the end times.    The courts are still battling over whether to keep God in or out of its institutions.
  
  The year 2006.
  
  
• 1/8/2006 Pope voices hope for Christian unity by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI expressed hope for continued dialogue among all Christians that could surmount the "tragic divisions" that arose after the rise of Protestantism in the 16^th century.    The pontiff's remarks were directed to representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, whom he received in an audience.    The Geneva-based group describes itself as a fellowship of 75 million Reformed Christians in 218 churches in 107 countries.
• 1/17/2006 Pope calls on Christians, Jews to unite against hatred by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI, meeting with Rome's chief rabbi, expressed pain and worry over outbreaks of anti-Semitism in the world and called on Jews and Christians to wage a united battle against hate, and to promote justice, love and freedom.    Waves of violence and vandalism targeting Jews have hit Europe in the past few years.
• 1/18/2006 Islam is not a 'peaceful religion' by Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services.
      The U.S. made it through the Revolutionary War against the British.    In modern times, communism and fascism, have tried to derail us.    Now comes what may be the greatest threat: radical Islam, who have established a base more solid and dangerous than anything we've encountered before.    Radical Islam teaches to kill non-Muslims, which incites racial hatred, and contempt against the "evils" of democracy.    They teach their followers the principle of war, duty of assassination and kidnap, reconnaissance, infiltration, ambush and how to manufacture explosive devices, open locks and train assassins.    This is a manual, a blueprint for terrorism.    These radical agents may be sent to a target country at least 10 years before jihad begins, in a miidle-class American neighborhood where they remain dormant and appeared peaceful, until given a signal.    Suicide bombings are "martyrdom," if the only way to hurt your enemy is by taking your own life.
      Political leaders claim that Islam is a peaceful religion, and radicals are trying to hijack it.    The world Muslim population will outgrow the Christian population by 2025, it is noted that Islam is growing nearly 3 percent per year, faster than the total growth in world population.
• 2/25/2006 Priest, scientist to teach creation-evolution course by AP.
      Cresent Hills - A priest and a scientist are teaming up to teach a course called "Creation and Evolution" at Thomas Moore College.    The class promises to approach evolution from "the Catholic tradition," with the goal to show that religion and evolution can mix.
• 3/2/2006 Senate: Display religious texts by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - The state Senate voted 37-1 to return a Ten Commandments monument to the Capitol grounds and to permit religious texts in historic displays on public property statewide.    "Judeo-Christian heritage and documents of historical context can be displayed.
• 3/5/2006 Records show ex-bishop didn't warn of abuse claims by AP.
      Lexington, Ky. - A former Covington bishop, Richard H. Ackerman didn't warn parishoners about an alleged sexually abusive priest Rev. John B. Modica, and gave the priest high marks in a letter to another Roman Catholic official, according to unsealed court records opened after he retired.    The Covington Diocese, has settled the lawsuit for up to $85 million with more than 350 sexual abuse victims.
• 3/9/2006 Church admits extent of sex abuse - 102 Dublin priests are suspected - by Shawn Pogatchnik, AP.
      Dublin, Ireland - The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, rocked by sex scandals, made its biggest admission yet: 102 of its Dublin priest past and present, or 3.6 percent of the total, are suspected of abusing children.    This came a week before the government convenes an investigation into how the church conspired, by negligence and design, to cover up decades of child abuse within the Dublin priesthood.    Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a Vatican diplomat assigned to Dublin in 2003 to address the problem in Ireland's largest Catholic congregation, was appalled at the concept at what had been happening here with at least 350 abuse victims.
• 3/10/2006 88 victims to get as much as $200,000 by AP.
      Boston - Eighty-eight people who say they were molested by Roman Catholic priests will get $5,000 to $200,000 each under an agreement annouced by the Boston Archdiocese.    That is less than half the average amount paid to 554 plaintiffs in an 2003 settlement.
• 3/11/2006 Commandments bill gets final passage - Measure would return marker to Capitol grounds - by Peter Smith and Elisabeth J. Beardsley, The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - The Kentucky House of Representatives voted to return a Ten Commandments monument to the Capitol grounds and post "In God We Trust" in the House Chambers.
• 3/18/2006 Seven Boston priests are defrocked by AP.
      Boston - A former vice chancellor Monsignor Frederick Ryan of the Boston Archdiocese and six other priests accused of molesting children have been defrocked, church officials announced, by Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley.
• 3/20/2006 Afghan may faces execution for becoming a Christian by AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - An Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, 41, is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws, judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada said.    The trial is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam should take here.    What's funny is, he was arrested and charged with rejecting Islam last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian.    He confessed of converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working for an international Christian group.
• 3/22/2006 U.S. urges tolerance for Afghan Christian by Barry Schweid, AP.
      Washington - The Bush administration issued a subdued appeal to Afghanistan to permit a Christian convert on trial for his life to practice his faith in the predominantly Muslim country.
• 3/24/2006 Pope Benedict convenes the College of Cardinals by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI convened the College of Cardinals for the first time since his election last year, asking for advice on pressing issues facing the Catholic Church, including relations with Islam, the split with the ultraconservative group Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and what to do about bishops and cardinals who must retire by age 75 but are still able to work.
• 3/24/2006 Muslim clerics demand death for Christian convert by AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - Senior Muslim clerics demanded that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned President Hamid Karzai seeking a "favorable resolution" of Abdul Rahman's case.
• 3/25/2006 Afghan judge defends trial of convert - Official says man may soon be freed - by Amir Shah, AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - The chief judge trying an Afghan man for converting from Islam to Christianity defended the court's autonomy.    International pressure against the case has been building and the Afghan government may be rethinking the charges against Abdul Rahman.    Australia's Prime Minister John Howard joined the chorus of Western leaders expressing outrage over the prosecution.
      President Karzai is in an awkward position since he took power after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime in a U.S.-led war in 2001 and relies on international forces to maintain his shaky grip on the country.    The Afghan government is searching for ways to drop the case, such as he may be mentally ill to see if he is fit to stand trial.
• 3/26/2006 Muslim turned Christian could be freed today by AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - The case against Abdul Rahman was dismissed in court, paving the way for at least his temporary release.    Of course, now he will have to be protected from Islamic clerics who have called for him to be killed, and the threat of protests across Afghanistan is looming.    He has been moved to Kabul's high-security Policharki prison after inmates in the jail threatened him and they have placed him in solitary confinement.    The court said his case was dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence."    Some of his relatives testified he is mentally unstable.
• 3/28/2006 Afghan Christian convert seeks asylum, U.N. says by Amir Shah, AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - Abdul Rahman appealed for asylum outside Afghanistan, a U.N. official said after hundreds of Muslims marched against the court's decision to dismiss the case, and chanting "Death to Christians."   
• 3/29/2006 Afghan convert from Islam out of prison, into hiding by AP.
      Abdul Rahman was released from the high-security prison after the court dropped charges of apostasy against him for lack of evidence and suspected mental illness.    Muslim clerics condemned the release, saying it was a "betrayal of Islam."    Rahman was at a "safe location" in Kabul according to authorities.
• 3/29/2006 Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit China by AP.
      Hong Kong - The Pope told a delegation from Hong Kong he will visit China in what would be an extraordinary visit to the communist nation.    The Vatican's goal is to restart official relations with China, which forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Holy See in 1951 after the officially atheist Communists took power.    People can worship only in government-controlled churches.    But millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome.    No Pope has ever visited mainland China.
• 3/30/2006 Asylum granted to Afghan convert to Christianity by AP.
      Rome - Abdul Rahman recieved asylum in Italy, despite requests by lawmakers in Afghanistan that he be barred from fleeing the conservative Muslim country.    He arrived in Rome days after he was released from prison and inspired an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI to President Karzai.
• 3/31/2006 Clergy sex abuse toll climbing - Volume of new cases has started to drop - by Rachell Zoll, AP.
      Washington - The nation's Roman Catholic bishops show the unrelenting toll of the clergy sex abuse crisis: 783 new credible claims last year, which date back decades, and costs of nearly $467 million for 2005.    It has cost the dioceses more than $1 billion since 1950.    The total number of accusations against the clergy now stands at more than 12,000.
• 4/7/2006 Pope is considering visit to Israel early next year by AP.
      Rome - The Pope is considering visiting Israel in the first part of 2007, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said after meeting the pontiff at the Vatican.    The pope may not visit while the militant group Hamas leads the Palestinian government.
• 4/7/2006 Ancient text offers new view of Judas' betrayal - Gospel of Judas shows diversity of early Christian beliefs - by AP.
      Washington - Perhaps it wasn't history's greatest betrayal after all, but a simple act of obedience.    Judas turned Jesus over to the high priests not for money but because Jesus asked him to do so, according to a newly translated ancient Coptic document.    The so-called Gospel of Judas tells a far different tale from the four gospels in the New Testament.    "You will be cursed by the other generations - and you will come to rule over them," Jesus tells Judas in the document.
      A manuscript in leather-bound papyrus which surfaced after 1,700 years, with text, one of several ancient documents found in the Egyptian desert in 1970, was preserved and translated by a team of scholars.    The 26-page Judas text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made around A.D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, which was written in Greek the century before.    The group known as Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.    Also found were the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, believed to be written by Gnostics.
      The Gnostics' beliefs were often viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox, and they were denounced as heretics, and of course they determined which texts should be included in the canon and which edited out.
      The Gospel of Judas protrays him in a favored status with Jesus, the Egyptian copy was written on 13 sheets of papyrus, both front and back, and found in a multitude of brittle fragments.    The entire 66-page codex, discovered in the 1970s in a cavern near El Minya, Egypt, also contains a text titled James (also known as First Apocalypse of James), a letter by Peter and a text of what scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes.
• 4/9/2006 Rabbi wants Jews to learn the Gospels - New Testament is often shunned - by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      Jewish education is usually missing the New Testament, as most Jews shun Christian Scripture, which makes them unable to answer Christians who ask why Jews don't accept Jesus as Messiah.    Reform Rabbi Michael J. Cook said this "self-imposed ignorance" is dangerous at a time when many Christians are embracing the Jewish origins of their faith by holding Passover seders before Easter.    He wants Jews to learn how the Gospels molded Christian attitudes toward Judaism.    It will also help improve relations where rabbis are expected to work with fellow clergy from other denominations and deal with controversy.
      Jewish resentment grew over the centuries as Christians used the New Testament to try to convert Jews - either through evangelism or by force during the Crusades and other violent periods.
• 4/11/2006 Ky. school board to look at replacing A.D., B.C. in dates by Nancy C. Rodriguez and Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      A.D. (anno Domino, Latin for "In the year of the Lord") and B.C. (Before Christ), those ancient date markers that measure time by referring to Christ's birth, might be history in Kentucky schools.    Instead, public education would use the more secular C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) to mark historical dates, under a draft of a revised studies plan that the state Board of Education will consider.    Is this sterilizing religion from the history books?    Or is it being done for academia purposes?
• 4/11/2006 Student expelled from University of Cumberlands Baptist school defends code of sexual conduct - by Mark Pitsch, The Courier-Journal.
      Williamsburg, Ky. - When Jason Johnson enrolled at the University of the Cumberlands in 2004, he says he didn't worry about being kicked out for being gay.    The school's code of conduct only barred "lewd and indecent conduct."    As a sophmore he was expelled from the Baptist-affiliated college under a new sexual conduct policy that forbids engaging in or promoting homosexuality.    His MySpace.com page discussed his sexual orientation and boyfriend.    In public interest he wants to try to convince others that religious faith and homosexuality are compatible, and that there are gay Christians, in media interviews.
      Gay right advocates have called on Gov. Ernie Fletcher to veto $11 million in state funding for a pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands.
• 4/17/2006 Creationist will lead seminary science center - Intelligent-design advocate leaving - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has named a creationist, Kurt P. Wise, a professor at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. and director of the Center for Origins Research, to lead its Center for Theology and Science and also created new centers focused on arts and the law.    Bryan College is named for William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer who argued against evolution in the famous 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton Tenn.    Wise will replace William Dembski, a leading advocate for the intelligent design concept, who resigned to teach at a seminary closer to his Texas home.
• 4/18/2006 At least 100 detained after Muslim-Christian clashes by AP.
      Alexandria, Egypt - More than 100 people have been detained for questioning about Muslim-Christian clashes in Egypt's second largest city, where violence subsided but sectarian feelings remained high.    The riots were touched off by knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches.    A mentally ill man was being held in the stabbings, which killed one man and wounded up to 16.    Altogether, two people were killed and at least 40 were wounded in the clashes, which began Friday and continued through Sunday.
• 4/23/2006 Pope reminds Jesuits of vow of obedience by AP.
      Vatican City - The Pope reminded members of the Jesuit religious order of their vow of obedience to the pontiff, and said their main job is to interact with modern culture.    He made the comments following a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in honor of the Jesuits, who are marking anniversaries for their founder of the order, St. Ignatius Loyola.    Benedict told the prelates that Loyola was a fraithful servant of the church.
• 5/1/2006 China's Catholic Church defies Vatican on bishop by AP.
      Beijing - In the city of Kunming in southwestern Yunnan province, China's state-sanctioned Roman Catholic Church the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association ordained a new bishop, Ma Yinglin, rejecting the Vatican's request to delay the appointment and threatening efforts to restore official ties between the sides after five decades.    China's Foreign Ministry defended the official church's right to ordain bishops without Vatican input and called the Holy See's criticism of such appointments "groundless."
• 5/4/2006 Vatican at crossroads on contraception ban by Brian Murphy, AP.
      A study by the Vatican on whether it could permit condoms to battle AIDS has narrow scope: married Roman Catholic couples in which one partner has the virus.    But its theological underpinnings are centuries old, and could provide a basis for ending the church's blanket ban on contraception.
      Health professionals and scholars want the Vatican to change its stance that abstinence is the only way to prevent the spread of AIDS.    They argue that condom use as a defense against infection, under specific circumstances, does not contradict the Catholic ban on artificial birth control.
• 5/8/2006 7-day week originated from modern calendar by C. Claiborne Ray, The New York Times.
      The seven-day week's origins are religious and social.    Its beginnings are lost in time, but its timekeeping has long relied on astronomical expertise.    Religious historians say there is no reason to believe the Jewish week's seven-day cycle has been interrupted within historical memory.    They trace its origins at least to 1,000 B.C.    The seven-day Judeo-Christian-Roman week, adopted by Roman emperor Constantine in A.D. 321, spread by conquest, colonization and commerce.
      Western religious and civil authorities used all the resources of astronomy to keep track of the calendar and to ensure that Saturday was Saturday and Sunday was Sunday, no matter where.    The Julian calendar reform of 1582 did not shift days of the week.
      Astronomical bases have been suggested for a seven-day division.    Among them are the seven "planets" (the sun, the moon and the five planets known to the ancients civilizations) and the four phases of the moon in the lunar cycle of very roughly 28 days (which could also yield an eight-day week).
• 5/15/2006 Film reignites 'Da Vinci' debate - Christians wrestle with novel's claims - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The best-selling phenomenon "The Da Vinci Code" will hit the movie screens Friday with a plot that begins with a murder, moves through the corridors of the Louvre Museum and beyond, and purports to reveal an ancient church scandal whose clues are hidden in great art works.    Dan Brown's novel has sold more than 40 million copies since 2003, and persists even though scholars and churches dismiss many of its claims, which are:
  • Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married founders of a royal dynasty.
  • No one considered Jesus divine until the fourth-century Roman Emperor Constantine forced the idea on people in collusion with the Catholic Church.
      The novel's claims have stirred Christians to action because many readers are accepting them as fact.
• 5/30/2006 Board seeks views on date markers C.E., B.C.E. by Nancy C. Rodriguez, The Courier-Journal.
      Is it an attempt to keep Kentucky education current with changes in educational institutions and college-entrance exams or is it political correctness run amok, to religiously sterilize public schools?    The fight is heating up again in a hearing that will focus on adding the secular term C.E. and B.C.E to mark dates in history.    It has already occurred in colleges and universities and on college-entrance exams, and in historical, religious and scientific journals, as well as in public schools in other states.
• 6/2/2006 Bush to push federal ban on gay marriage by Nedra Pickler, AP.
      Washington - President Bush will promote a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a cause dear to his conservative backers, just before a Senate vote on the issue.    The amendment would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages.    To become law, requires two-thirds support in the Seante and the House, and then ratified by at least 38 state legislatures.
      It probably will not pass and a slim majority of Americans oppose gay marriage, according to polls.    The president believes that mariiage is a sacred institution between men and women and has supported measures to protect the sanctity of marriage.    Many think this is a civil-rights and religious-freedom issue.
• 6/4/2006 Pope urges faithful to spread Catholicism by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI joined a cheering crowd of 350,000 people overflowing from St. Peter's Square for a rally aimed at boosting faith and encouraging efforts to spread Roman Catholic Church's message throughout the world.    Benedict told the crowd they had come together "to proclaim the joy of believing in Jesus Christ and to renew the commitment of being faithful disciples to him in these times of ours."    The Vatican is seeking to energize its followers as the Catholic Church faces competition from the dynamic, evangelical Protestant churches, particularly in Latin America and Africa.
• 6/15/2006 Kentucky schools will B.C.'ing you - Kentucky schools will stay with B.C., A.D. - by Nancy C. Rodriguez, The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort. Ky. - B.C. and A.D. will continue to be the official date markers in Kentucky's public school curriculum.    The state board of Education voted 10-0 to reverse its April decision to add the secular B.C.E. and C.E. to date references.    Of course, they can be used if someone chooses.
• 6/16/2006 Physicist: Pope opposed studying origin of universe by AP.
      Hong Kong - Famed physicist Stephen Hawking said that Pope John Paul II tried to discourage him and other scientists attending a cosmology conference at the Vatican from trying to figure out how the universe began.    Hawking said the pope told the scientists, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began.    But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."
• 6/19/2006 Presbyterians question whether plan will end battle over gays by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Many Presbyterian officials are holding out hope that a compromise plan will ease the long-running battle over homosexuality in the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).    But others on the church's left and right are certain it won't.    The church's General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the plan to keep the official church ban on ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, but allowing local governing bodies some discretion to allow such ordinations.    The plan has been five years in the making.    The church lost 2 percent of its members last year, the largest since 1970.    And the churches distractions from its true course go on.
• 6/21/2006 Presbyterians open door to ordination of active gays - Local church bodies are given flexibility - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Birmingham, Ala. - The Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved policy that supporters billed as a compromise to long-running battles over homsexuality.    Opponents, say the policy weakens church standards and may drive some congregations away.    It keeps a ban on ordaining noncelibate homosexuals in the church constitution, but allows local governing bodies flexibility on how strictly to enforce it.    This is their new way to move past their present division and strife.    It is still possible that some homosexuals could be ordained.
• 6/22/2006 Liberal Christian 'heretics' by Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services.
      The new leader of the Episcopal Church in America, says she does not believe homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.    So from that point of view, what is sinful behavior or the concept of sin soon will be up for negotiation in order to avoid offense to anyone.
      Truly what Paul, the Apostle, warned would happen in the "end times" is coming true in our day.    "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.    They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIV).
      They decline to repent of its action, and are trying to have it both ways, which does not fly with conservative members of the denomination who are thinking of leaving.    This is so outside orthodox Christianity that only biblical illiterates or those who deny the supreme authority of the only book that gives foundation to the faith will accept it.
      So the Episcopal Church is now stating "thus saith the opinion polls," rather than "thus saith the Lord"?
      The Episcopal Church isn't the only denomination having trouble deciding what it believes.    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to "recieve" a policy paper on sex-inclusive language for the Trinity.    Instead of the traditional (and biblical) Father, Son and Holy Spirit, these liberal Presbyterians will consider using "Mother, Redeemer, Friend," among others.
• 6/22/2006 Presbyterians shift investment focus off Israel - Balance sought in Mideast conflict - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Birmingham, Ala. - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) rescinded its controversial policy of considering divestment from companies doing business in Israel, replacing it with a measure that supporters said shows more balance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.    In other words their investments in the Middle East can only being used for peaceful pursuits.
• 6/26/2006 Some Presbyterians hail compromise - Rift over ordination of gays still an issue - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Birmingham, Ala. - Some members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are hailing their compromise on the ordination of homosexuals as a way to bring peace to the church.    The church has been losing members for four decades, and projects a worst-case scenario of losing 150,000 of its 2.3 million members in the next two years.
• 6/28/2006 Two Vatican officials reportedly visit China by AP.
      Two senior Vatican officials traveled to China to sound out possiblities of re-establsihing diplomatic relations, trying to overcome a dispute over the Vatican's traditon that the pope names his bishops.    Pope Benedict has expressed hope that the Vatican can achieve an opening with China, the need for religious freedom has become a major theme of his 14-month papacy.
• 6/29/2006 Episcopal dispute over gay bishops intensifies - Three dioceses reject U.S. leader's authority - by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      New York - Three conservative Episcopal dioceses (Pittsburg, South Carolina, San Joaquin, Calif.) that oppose consecrating gay bishops voted to reject the authority of the denomination's presiding bishop, but stopped short of a full break with the Church.    The three requested the Archbishop of Canterbury to assign them an alternative leader.    The conservatives are a minority within the American church.
• 6/29/2006 Democrats told to reach out to religious - Obama says power of faith ignored - by David Espo, AP.
      Washington - Sen. Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must seek the support of evangelicals and other churchgoers.    "Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation.    Context matters," Obama, a Democrat from Illinois.    He wants to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.
• 7/3/2006 Pope calls for peace in the Middle East by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict appealed for peace in the Middle East and for governments to help safeguard the traditional family structure.    "I ask your prayer for all families, that they will live in accordance with their God-given vocation and benefit from just governmental policies that safeguard their fundamental role in society," Benedict said before a visit to Spain.    The church has criticized movements in Italy and other countries that call for legal rights for unmarried couples.
• 7/18/2006 Woman the living 'Code'? - Author claims to be descended from Jesus, Mary Magdalene - by Carol Memmott, USA Today.
      Is the world ready for a book and an author more controversial than Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code?.    Meet Kathleen McGowan, 43, novelist and self-proclaimed descendant of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.    The book is entitled The Expected One, out July 25, with a sizable first printing of 250,000 copies.
• 8/1/2006 Armageddon, again by Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services.
      End of the world prophecies have been around almost since the beginning.    Ancient prophets, like Daniel in the Hebrew Bible and John the Apostle, who wrote Revelation, laid down visions of the destruction of the world and its replacement with a peaceful, heavenly kingdom.    Many complex mathematical formulas have been solved, but not "666," which is the "mark of the beast" foretold in Revelation.    Many have guessed at its meaning, but the answer has eluded them.    There is a history of false and phony end times prophecy.
      One of my favorites is the Anabaptist preacher in the early 1500s named Hoffman who declared the end of the world would begin in 1533 and that Strasbourg would be transformed into the "New Jerusalem."
      The 1991 Persian Gulf War produced a spike in end times books and sales.    Some of them flatly predicted Armageddon was upon us.    Authors noted that modern Iraq is ancient Babylon and they saw the Iraq war as a possible, fulfillment of end times prophecies.    Like those before them, they were wrong, we're still here.
      Authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have created an industry with their best-selling Left Behind book series about the Rapture and the disappearance of all Christians before the final battle of Armageddon takes place (15 titles and more than 63 million sold).
      Christian circles disagree as to what comes first - Armageddon or the Rapture.
      Speaking of His return, Jesus fo Nazareth warned about deceivers who would come in His Name, claiming to have knowledge about dates, times and the end of the world.    His forecasts of "wars and rumors of wars," nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes (Matthew 24:4-8) sound like the newspaper front page.
      Those events, He said, will be followed by persecution of His followers (already rampant in parts of the world), false prophets, an increase in wickedness and all sorts of other things.    He said this would just be the beginning, or "birth pains."
      Jesus added that, "the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Luke 12:40).
• 9/1/2006 American Muslim leaders warn of threat from within by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      After Sept. 11 distraught U.S. Muslim leaders feared the next casualty would be their religion.    Islam teaches peace, but five years later, they are starting to warn fellow Muslims about a threat within.    The 2005 subway attacks in London committed by Muslims, and the rentless Muslim-engineered sectarian assaults on Iraqi civilians, are among the events that have persuaded some U.S. Muslims to change focus.    A sentiment of denial, that sort of came as a fever to the Muslim community after 9/11, is fading away.    They now realize that there are Muslims who use terrorism, and the community is beginning to stand up to this.    They see Canadian-born Muslims plotting terrorist attacks in Ontario.    In England there was a plan by extremist to use liquid explosives to destroy U.S. bound planes.    Security policies have criminalized Islam itself.    So now Muslim communities are paranoid of each other and turned against one another.
• 9/6/2006 Students urged to purge liberal teachers by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - Iran's presidnet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged students to push for a purge of liberal and secular university teachers, another sign of his determination to strengthen Islamic fundamentalism.    Tehran University is home to dozens of professors and instructors who outspokenly oppose policies that restrict freedom of expression.
• 9/16/2006 Muslims livid over pope's remarks - New outbrak of violence feared - by Benjamin Harvey, AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - Pakistan's legislature condemned Pope Benedict.    Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology.    And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.
      Across the Islamic world, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests.
      Benedict cited an obscure medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman."    The pope did not agree or repudiate the comment.
      Even Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Arabs united in anger over the remarks, and called it an insult to the Muslim faith and Muhammad.
      A Vatican spokesman tried to defuse the anger, saying the pope had not intended to offend Muslim sensibilities and insisted Benedict respects Islam.    They claim it was a decisive and uncompromising rejection of any use of violence in the name of religion.
• 9/16/2006 Iran, others cited in U.S. report on religious rights - 'Severe' violations noted worldwide - by AP.
      Washington - The State Department said a threatening atmosphere in Iran is causing a deterioration in already restricted religious freedom for nearly all minorities.    Baha'is and Sufi Muslims and other religious groups not recognized by the Iranian constitution are not free to practice their faiths, the department said in its annual report to Congress on religious freedom around the world.    Other countries cited were Burma, China, Eritrea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.    Islam is the official religion in Saudi Arabia, and the law there requires all citizens to be Muslims.    Public practice of other religions is prohibited.    Some believe that Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan should be added to the list of the eight most severe violators of religious freedom.    In Sudan the government denied building permits for Christian churches and required all students to study Islam.
• 9/16/2006 Proposal limits who can issue religious edicts by AP.
      Amman, Jordan - Lawmakers have approved a measure that would only allow a state-appointed council to issue religious edicts, a move aimed at denying Islamic hardliners a forum for disseminating extremist ideology.    The proposal on "fatwas," Arabic for religious edicts, follows a pledge by King Abdullah II in the wake of recent terror attacks to tighten legislation to prevent radical viewpoints from taking root.
• 9/17/2006 Pope 'regrets' offending Muslims by Frances D'Emillio, AP.
      Vatican City - The Pope sincerely regrets offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval text, but did not apologize as demanded by Islamic leaders.    The Palestinians ("Lions of Monotheism") attacked four churches (Two Catholic, one Anglican, two Greek Orthodox) in the West Bank and Gaza over the pope's remarks, charring doors and walls with flames and pocked with bullet holes.
  [My comment].    The Muslim world only hears what it wants to hear, as found also in the popes message, that he warned "secularized Western culture against holding any contempt for any religion or believers."    I guess the Western culture should go into rages now and attack Muslims just because the Pope made a speech.
• 9/17/2006 Dalai Lama backs globalization by AP.
      Denver - The Dalai Lama urged thousands of teenagers at a world peace conference to embrace globalization and accept people from all countries as neighbors, not rivals.    "There are no national boundaries.    The whole globe is becoming one body," he said at the PeaceJam convention.    "... Destruction of your neighbor is actually destruction of yourself."    War creates environmental problems, trade gaps and humanitarian suffering that everyone must bear, he said in his speech which brought together 10 Nobel peace prize laureates.    He won the honor in 1989.    PeaceJam participants - teens assembled from 31 countries - opened their first day of lectures and interactive sessions.
• 9/18/2006 Tutu tells youths to change world by AP.
      Denver - The South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Noble Peace Prize recipient, looked at a sea of cheering teenagers from around the globe, saying they not only can change the world, but they must.    "You are the ones who are going to make this a better world," he said on the final day of PeaceJam
• 9/18/2006 Pope 'deeply sorry' remarks drew anger by AP.
      Castel Gandolfo, Italy - The Pope said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which came from a text that did not reflect his personal opinion.    Benedict has cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman."    Protest and violence persisted across the Muslim world, an Italian nun was gunned down in a Somali hospital.
  [My comments]    I would say that the pope was correct, since the Islamic world is acting evil and inhuman.
• 9/19/2006 Muslims show fury over pope's apology - Some leaders pacified, want matter left behind - by Ian Fisher, The New York Times.
      Rome - Muslims insisted that Pope Benedict XVI did not go far enough in his apology over his remarks in a speech that discussed Islam and holy war and quoted from a 14^th-century religious discussion.    In the Iraqi city of Basra, protestors burned an effigy of the pope, and an Iraqi group linked to al-Qaida posted a warning on a Web site threatening war against "worshippers of the cross."    The supreme leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the pope's remarks "the latest link" in the "chain of conspiracy to set off a crusade."
• 9/21/2006 Pope says Islam remarks were misunderstood by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope said he had not meant to malign Islam, but did not issue the direct apology still demanded by some Muslim leaders, because his comments were open to misinterpretation.
• 9/22/2006 Muslim clerics, scholars want pope out by AP.
      Lahore, Pakistan - About 1,000 Muslim clerics and religious scholars meeting in eastern Pakistan demanded the removal of Pope Benedict XVI for his insulting remarks about Islam.    They claim he should be removed from his position immediately for encouraging war and fanning hostility between various faiths.    The "pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to the prophet (Muhammad)," it said.
• 9/23/2006 Pope invites Muslims to join urgent dialogue by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope has invited Muslim envoys to meet with him for what the Holy See says is urgently needed dialogue following the crisis ignited by his remarks on Islam and violence.    Turkey and Iran immediately said their representatives would attend.    Thousands of Muslims worshippers staged marches against the pope in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Sudanese captial.    The Palestinian protesters denounced the pontiff as a "coward" and an "agent of the Americans."
• 9/26/2006 Pope reaches out to Muslim dignitaries - Urges two religions to reject violence - by Marha Falconi and Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Castel Gandolfo, Italy - Pope Bendict XVI told Muslim envoys that their two faiths must overcome historic enmities and together reject violence, saying the future of humanity is at stake.    As to the holy war, the pope urged reciprocity in religious freedom, calling for preserving the rights of Christians throughout the Islamic world.
      The pope did not dwell on the contested remarks from a Byzantine emperor as saying: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."    The 22 foreign diplomats listened to the pope's address, and after many wanted to put what happened behind and build bridges.
• 10/29/2006 Pope says sexual abuse by clergy has left deep wounds by Alessandra Rizzo, AP.
      Vatican City - The pope said that clerical sex abuses were "egregious crimes" that had damaged the standing of the Catholic Church and its clergy, in his first remarks on the subject since becoming pontiff.    He was speaking to a group of bishops from Ireland, where all but one seminary has closed following repeated scandals, and said it was urgent to rebuild confidence and trust.    The pope said the wounds caused by such acts run deep, and we must do whatever is necessary to prevent it from occurring again.    The message was also for churches in other nations that have been plagued by sex abuse, such as the U.S.
• 10/29/2006 Bishops draft document on ministering to gays - Catholic church seeks clear policy - by Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times.
      The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have drafted new guidelines that affirm church teaching against same-sex relationships, marriages and adoptions by gay couples yet encourage parishes to reach out to alienated gay Catholics.
      The document a four-year effort allows for baptizing the adopted children of same-sex couples, as long as the children will be raised as Catholics.    It states that gay people should not make general public announcements about it in the parish.    It says that gays have no moral obligation to attempt therapy that claim to change gay people's sexual orientation.
      The document needs two-thirds majority to pass.    The church's moral teaching says that having a homosexual inclination is not itself a sin, homosexual sex is a sin, as are premarital sex and adultery.    The church teaches that homosexuality is objectively disordered and violates the natural law, which makes most feel uncomfortable.
  [My comment]    Well the pope has teed off the Muslim world, now he is working on the Gay world.    Now he may have to have Gay diplomats to come to the Vatican for a meeting.
• 11/5/2006 United Church of Christ divided - Liberal stands prompt Louisville group, others to leave - by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The United Church of Christ, one of the nation's most liberal Protestant denominations, has had groups pull out of the church.    Many disagree with the endorsement of same-sex marriage to such things as referring to God at times in feminine terms.    A 320 member church Bethel-St Paul in Louisville pulled out of the denomination.    Eleven congregations in Indiana and about 200 nationwide also have pulled out, including all congregations in Puerto Rico.    That's about 3 percent of the denomination, which now has about 5,650 congregations, including 21 in Louisville and Indiana.    The 1.3 million-member United Church of Christ, a merger of the descendants of immigrant German Protestants and New England Puritans, have been engaged in the same battles over homosexuality and theology that has also affected the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches.
• 11/5/2006 First woman is installed to lead Episcopal Church by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      Washington - Katharine Jefferts Schori took office as the first female leader of the Episcopal Church and the first female priest to head an Anglican province, that could quickly be overshadowed by divisions over the Bible and sexuality throughout world Anglicanism.    Schori supports ordaining gays and urged parishioners to make peace with those who oppose the direction of the U.S. Church.    In 2003, the denomination concecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.    Her election was a victory for female clergy members and for Episcopalians who support full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the 2.3 million-member denomination.    The U.S. church is trying to stay in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.    Many of the Anglican family view gay relationships as prohibited by Scripture.
• 11/12/2006 Pope to visit Muslim critic during visit to Turkey by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope's upcoming trip to Turkey will include a meeting with a Muslim cleric, who was one of the first to denounce Benedict XVI for his remarks.
• 11/28/2006 Prime minister changes plans, will meet pope by AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to meet the pope today, a change of plans that appears to signal openess to a visit that has angered many Turks.    Small protests broke out in Ankara and Instanbul, as the pope on his first papal visit to a predominatly Muslim country, was to arrive at the Ankara airport today.
• 11/29/2006 Pope, in Turkey, condemns violence in name of faith - Muslim cleric talks of 'Islamphobia' - by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Ankara, Turkey - Pope Benedict XVI urged leaders of all religions to utterly refuse to support any form of violence in the name of faith, while Turkey's top Muslim cleric complained of growing "Islamophobia" in the world.    The pope attempted to extend brotherhood to Muslims, hoping to end the outcry from many Muslims over his remarks linking Islam to violence.    He expressed support for Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, moving away from opposition he voiced when he was cardinal.    He raised concern such as issues as property rights of Turkey's tiny, 32,000-member Catholic community during talks with Turkish officals.
• 11/30/2006 Pope expresses sympathy for Turkey's Christian minorities by Brian Murphy, AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - The Pope began his pilgramage among Turkey's tiny Christian communities by paying homage to an Italian priest slain during Islamic protests and expressing sympathy for the pressures facing religious minorities in the Muslim world.    He is trying to strengthen the bonds with the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.    The pope is expected to sharpen his calls for greater respect for tolerance and freedom for Christians in Islamic nations.    Although the pontiff could risk new friction with Muslims, by challenging state-imposed limits on Christians minorities and others.
• 12/1/2006 Pope prays in Instanbul mosque - He offers message of reconciliation - by Brian Murphy, AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - The Pope joined an Islamic cleric in prayers under the towering dome of Instanbul's most famous mosque the 17^th-century Blue Mosque in a gesture seeking to transform his image among Muslims from adversary to peacemaker.    His silent parayer was a message of reconciliation nearly three months after he provoked worldwide fury for his remarks.    His hopes are to end the nearly 1,000-year divide between their churches with Mustafa Cagrici, the head cleric of Instanbul, facing the holy city of Mecca in tradition of Islamic worship in a sign of respect to Muslims.
• 12/1/2006 Episcopal leaders make unity move by AP.
      New York - Episcopal leaders offered conservatives more independence from the national church, just ahead of a California diocese's vote on whether it should split from the denomination.    A yes vote by the Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, would put it on the brink of leaving The Episcopal Church in its fued over the Bible and sexuality.    The church's new proposal would create a leadership position called a "primatial vicar."    The vicar would work with conservative dioceses, performing functions that normally fall to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, including concecrating local bishops.
• 12/2/2006 Sex abuse suit cost church $60 million by AP.
      New York - The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said it will pay $60 million to settle 45 sex abuse lawsuits, the largest payout yet by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and among the biggest resulting from the molestation crisis that has plagued the church.    The cases were among more than 500 abuse claims pending against the archdiocese.    The claims settled involve 22 priest and include allegations from two periods when the archdiocese had limited or no insurance against sexual abuse claims, prior to the mid-1950s and after 1987.
• 12/2/2006 Cleric speaks of better ties after Pope Benedict's visit by AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - The pope was greeted in Turkey with a lecture on how the Christian West scorns Islam.    He left with Instanbul's chief Islamic cleric speaking of better days ahead between the faiths.    Few predicted how boldly - and with such apparent success - the pontiff would seek to remake his battered image in the Muslim world during four days of speeches, sermons and symbolic gestures.
• 12/4/2006 Pope hopes Turkey trip leads to Muslim dialogue by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope said his recent trip to Turkey was an unforgettable experience that he hoped would lead to dialogue with Muslims.    However, some Islamic leaders said the pope had not sufficiently made amends for his September remarks on Islam and violence.    His trip was originally envisioned as a pilgramage to reinforce Christian bonds, but turned out to be the Vatican's ability to mend ties with the Islamic world.
• 12/5/2006 Presbyterians, Jews seek to mend fences after investment split by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Several top Presbyterian and Jewish leaders have pledged to work more closely together to avoid a repeat of the recent bitter fight over whether the church would pull some investments from Israel.    The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) wants peace between Israel and the Palestinians built on the foundations of security, justice and the establishment of two viable states.    Although their approaches to peace differ, they now believe they can be strong advocates together with Christians and Muslim colleagues, for a renewed peace process.    Their original aim was to pressure Israel into withdrawing from occupied territories, but the backlash from Jews and many Presbyterians claimed a bias against Israel and ignored Palestinian terrorism.    So now policy calls for the church to use its investment portfolio toward peaceful pursuits in the Middle East, without singling out Israel.
• 12/7/2006 Jewish ban on gay ordination eased by AP.
      New York - Conservative Jewish scholars eased their ban on ordaining gays, upending thousands of years of precedent while stopping short of fully accepting gay clergy.    The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which interprets religious law for the movement, adopted three conflicting policies that gave gays a wider role.    Four committee members who wanted to uphold the ban resigned in protest after the vote.    That leaves seminaries and synagogues to decide on their own which approach to follow.
• 12/11/2006 Two more married priests installed by AP.
      West New York, N.J. - An excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop continued to defy the Vatican when he installed two married men as priests.    Raymond A. Grosswirth of Rochester, N.Y., and Dominic Riccio of the Newark Archdiocese were installed by Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo at Trinity Reformed Church.    In a visible break from tradition, the wives of both men helped their husbands don their vestments before each man was anointed.    Milingi, 76, had installed four married men as Roman Catholic bishops in September.
• 12/11/2006 Diocese pays almost $3 million to abuse victims by AP.
      Burlington, Ky. - Nearly $3 million has been paid to people abused by Catholic priests in the Covington Diocese as part of a settlement reached last year, that is 117 claims with 13 still pending, although as many as 350 people are still eligible to submit a claim.    All the money paid so far has come to $41 million forcing the church to sell 226 acres for $25 million to help pay for the claims.    The church's insurance company will pay the remaining claims that may be valued at $82.2 million.
• 12/12/2006 Priest sex-abuse suits settled by AP.
      Eugene, Ore. - About 150 people who claimed they were molested by priests have agreed to settle their lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland for an undisclosed amount, which forced the church to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and cover the claims without selling off property.
• 12/16/2006 Penance urged in sex abuse cases by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI's personal priest asked the pontiff to declare a day of fasting and penance to express the Roman Catholic Church's solidarity with the victims of clerical sex abuse.    Rev. Raniero Cantalamesssa denounced the "abominations" committed inside the church "by its own ministers and pastors."    "The moment has come, after the emergency, to do the most important thing to all: to cry before God," said Cantalamessa, in a pre-Christmas talk delivered in a Vatican chapel.    The pope was in the audience.
• 12/18/2006 Va. parishes widen Episcopal split by AP.
      Fairfax, Va. - Two of the most prominent and largest Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted to leave The Episcopal Church and their 4,000 members will join fellow Anglican conservatives forming a rival denomination.    Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church plan to place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the church.    Theological conservatives are a minority within the 2.2. million-member U.S. denomination, their protest has had a impact.    There will be legal battles over the millions of dollars in church properties, and as of now 115,000 people have left the denomination from 2003 to 2005.
• 12/25/2006 Overcome prejudices, pope says in message by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI urged people everywhere to welcome Christmas by overcoming prejudices and recognize their common bonds.    "Jesus came for each one of us and made us brothers," he said.
• 12/26/2006 Pope, other world leaders call for peace, tolerance by AP.
      Pope Benedict XVI used his Christmas Day address at the Vatican to call for a peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide, he appealed for greater caring of the poor, the exploited and all who suffer.    He called for peace in the Middle East, noting in particular the long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.    The pope urged people everywhere not to lose sight of their need for God in an age of technological marvels.    He spoke of the violence in Lebanon, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Darfur and the whole of Africa.    He prayed to God... that throughout Africa there will be an end to fratricidal conflicts... and take steps toward reconciliation, democracy and development.
  
      In the year 2006, the New pope tries to bring Christians, Judaism and Islam to unify together.    The Roman Catholic Dioceses from all parts of the world, began paying out millions to settle the sex abuse claims.    An Islamic country is trying to execute a man for rejecting Islam for Christianity.    If a Christian country tried to execute a Muslim for rejecting Christianity what do you think would happen?    The Pope started considering traveling to China and Israel.    China and some U.S. Catholic churches have defied Vatican policies, picking their own bishops to ordaining married priests.    United Church of Christ, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches struggle with homosexuality, ordaining and marrying gays and women, prompting a possible split to conservative denominations.    The pope's remarks angers the Muslim world and forces him to visit Turkey for reconcilation.
      I wonder if Turkey will get to join the European Union, after being so nice to the Pope.    He conveniently visited the only country trying to get in, and none of the others who do not want in.    Turkey is a major trade route to the Middle East for the EU.
  
  The year 2007.
  
  
• 1/2/2007 Pope calls for peace, human rights by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI called on the world's nations to champion peace and human rights and urged people to repudiate war and violence in his New Year's message to tens of thousands of pilgrims at St. Peter's Square.
• 1/5/2007 Church to pay abuse victims $48 million by AP.
      Spokane, Wash. - As part of a deal to emerge from bankruptcy, the Spokane Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay at least $48 million to people molested by priests, which still must be approved by victims and another bankruptcy judge, a federal mediator said.
• 1/10/2007 Baptists announce meeting to raise image by AP.
      Atlanta - With the help of former President Jimmy Carter, Baptists who have distanced themselves from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention announce plans for a major meeting on Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2008 in Atlanta intended to improve the image of Baptists and broaden their agenda.
      Carter left the Southern Baptists in 2000 after coming under conservative control, and former President Bill Clinton, also a Baptist, joined leaders of about 40 Baptist groups in the announcement, to demonstrate harmony and a common commitment to accomplish the goals that Jesus Christ expressed.    The event is expected to draw more than 20,000 Baptists.
• 1/12/2007 Suit against Vatican can proceed - Child sex abuse cover-up is alleged by The Courier-Journal.
      A federal judge in Louisville issued a decision by refusing to dismiss a lawsuit against the Vatican that alleges a cover-up to protect priests who molested American children.    This case is intended to hold the Vatican financially accountable for all of the childhood sexual abuses committed in the U.S., which was filed in 2004 by three men who allege abuse dating as far back as 1928.
• 1/21/2007 Church will work toward ties with China by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict will write a letter to Catholics in China and the church will work toward diplomatic ties with Beijing, the Holy See said.    Top Chinese bishops debated the Chinese problems in discussions at the Vatican.    Beijing's ties with the Vatican were broken in 1951 after the communists took power in China, which may have as many as 10 million Catholics today.    Worship is only allowed in government-controlled churches.
• 1/29/2007 Diocese to settle sex abuse claims by AP.
      Charleston, S.C. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston announced it has agreed to settle child sex abuse claims at $12 million to the four people claiming abuse, with at least 26 priests involved.
• 2/7/2007 Church must release files in abuse case by AP.
      Los Angeles - A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ordered the Roman Catholic Church Archdiocese of Milwaukee to release thousands of pages of insurance records and confidential displinary files related to a notorius case of sexual abuse by a former priest named Seigfried Widera.    The claim is this priest was moved from one location to another without regard to the potential harm to the children of the Church and the request is to find out when the church knew about molestation charges and how it responded.
• 2/9/2007 Lutherans removing gay pastor from clergy by AP.
      Atlanta - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said it is removing from the clergy a gay minister, Rev. Bradley Schmeling, 44, who announced he has a partner which was a Bishop after leading a church since 2000.    Although the committee said the church document that bars practicing homosexuals from the clergy is being considered to be changed as bad policy.    Many Protestant denominations have struggled to resolve differences over the Bible and gay clergy.
• 2/15/2007 Anglican meeting opens amid struggle over gays by AP.
      Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Anglican leaders opened a crucial meeting as the 77 million-member church struggles to reconcile Scripture and homosexuality, with the American wing under growing pressure to reconsider its liberal stance on gays.
      Splits between Anglican liberals and conservatives peaked in 2003 when the Episcopal Church - the U.S. wing of the global Anglican Communion - concecrated its first openly gay bishop.    The tension arose again last year with the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori, who backs ordaining gays and is the U.S. church's first female leader.
• 2/20/2007 U.S. Episcopal Church told to bar admission of gay bishops by AP.
      Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Anglican leaders demanded that the U.S. Episcopal Church bar official prayers for gay couples and prohibit the consecration of more gay bishops to undo the damage that North Americans have caused the Anglican family.    The U.S. wing has been given until Sept. 30 to clarify its position or its relations with other Anglicans will remain damaged.
• 2/20/2007 Presbyterians ask churches not to leave by The Courier-Journal.
      Churches wanting to leave the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) because of disputes over theology and sexuality are getting a warm welcome from a more conservative denomination.    Leaders of the much smaller Evangelical Presbyterian Church, based in Livonia, Mich., are working to create a presbytery, or governing body, within its ranks for the churches that leave the larger group.
      Working with those leaders is a group of conservatives within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the New Wineskins Association of Churches, which is developing a strategy for churches wanting to leave.
      Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders are issuing a letter urging its churches not to leave.    At least eight churches have left since last summer's General Assembly, which open the door to possible ordinations of homosexuals.
• 2/22/2007 Southern Baptists targeted over sex abuse by AP.
      Nashville, Tenn. - The victims' advocates (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest) who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sex abuse by clergy have now turned their attention to the Southern Baptists, America's largest Protestant denomination, accusing it of also failing to root out molesters.    The big push is to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse and to create an independent board to investigate molestation reports.    Unlike the Catholic Church, with its rigid hierachy, Baptist churches are independent, with congregations making their own decisions.
• 2/23/2007 Bishop to report on international summit focusing on gays in Episcoipal Church by The Courier-Journal.
      In his annual report, Episcopal Bishop Ted Bulick plans to talk about a recent international church summit that focused on homosexuality in the Episcopal Church.    It is clear that the Anglican Communion wants one Anglican church in the U.S., not a fractured church.
• 2/27/2007 Jesus-tomb claims spark skepticism by AP.
      New York - Several scholars derided claims made by filmmakers who unveiled two ancient stone boxes that they said may have once contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.    "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by James Cameron and shown on the Discovery Channel, argues that 10 small caskets discovered in 1980 in Jerusalem suburb may have held the bones of Jesus and his family.    The film also promoted that one of the caskets even bears the title "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus had a son.    Also stated was one of the ossuaries had the name "Mariamene" (Mary Magdalene) offering evidence that the tomb is that of Jesus and his family.
      Skeptical archaeologist claim that the name Jesus was misread and was more likely "Hanun," as were all the other names Joseph and Mary which were common among Jews at that time.    At issue is that if Jesus had an ossuary that would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven, eventhough the husk of the body may have been left behind.    The burial site is also nowhere near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where some believe his body spent three days in the burial cave.
• 3/11/2007 Thousands back law giving gay couples legal rights by AP.
      Rome - Thousands of supporters of legislation that would grant legal rights to unmarried couples including gays rallied to urge Italian lawmakers to resist Vatican pressure against the measure.
• 3/14/2007 Pope rejects calls to allow Communion for remarried by AP.
      Vatican City - In a new document, Pope Benedict XVI rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive Communion and told Catholic politicians they are expected to wage the church's fight against abortion and gay marriage.    He also reaffirmed that priests must be celibate and made a nostalgic call for the use of Latin.
• 3/22/2007 Bishops affirm support for gays - Move risks split in Anglican 'family' by AP.
      New York - Episcopal bishops risked losing their place in the global Anglican family by affirming their support for gays and rejecting demands they give up some authority to theological conservatives outside the U.S. church.    They believe that all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the church.    This debate on salvation, truth and sexuality by the Episcopal Church with 2.3 million members of the 77 million provides a significant portion of the Anglican Communion's budget.    All that will be done to them is a reduced role in the communion.
• 3/24/2007 Vatican joins fight to block legal abortions by AP.
      Mexico City - The Vatican sent in its top anti-abortion campaigner Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo to kick off the Roman Catholic Church's campaign against plans by leftists to legalize abortion in Mexico.
• 3/25/2007 Pope warns Europe about its future by AP.
      Vatican City - Europe appears to be losing faith in its own future, Pope Benedict XVI said, warning against "dangerous individualism" on a continent where many people are having fewer children.    "One must unfortunely note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history," the pontiff told bishops in Rome for ceremonies to mark the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, a major step toward the creation of today's European Union.
      Benedict said he was concerned about Europe's "demographic profile" - though he did not describe the trends that have alarmed the continent.
      In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically in a generation or two unless fertility rates quickly increase.
• 4/2/2007 Beatification process for ex-pope continues by AP.
      Vatican City - Catholic Church officials reach a milestone today in the drive to make Pope John Paul II a saint, because of a purported miraculous cure of a nun who prayed to him.    The events come two years to the day after John Paul died for the church's keen interest in beatifying him.    Pope Benedict waived the customary five-year waiting period weeks after John Paul's death to start investigating this issue.
• 4/10/2007 Religious book report muzzled in Bullitt by The Courier-Journal.
      When Alex Thomas' teacher at Mount Washington Middle School assigned him and his classmates to write a report about any book they wanted last month, he chose the Bible's book of Acts.
      The 14-year-old eighth-grader said he was inspired by the retelling of the apostle Paul's efforts to share Jesus Christ's Gospel.
      Alex's teacher videotaped the students reading their book reports, then began broadcasting them during Mount Washington's morning announcements.
      But Principal Denise Allen ended the broadcasts before Alex's could air, saying it would violate the separation of church and state, and that some eighth-graders book choices might not be appropriate for younger students.
      And that, says Tammy Thomas, violates her son's freedom of speech.
  
• 4/12/2007 Pope Benedict says evolution not proven by AP.
      Berlin - Pope Benedict XVI says that Darwin's theory of evolution cannot be proven and that science has narrowed humanity's view of creation.
      In a new book, "Creation and Evolution," published in German, the pope praised progress by science but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.
      He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.
• 4/18/2007 Benedict's papacy draws conservative line by AP.
      Vatican City - As the Pope approaches the third year of his reign he is hardening into the kind of pontiff that liberals feared and conservatives hoped for.
      He has reached out to dissidents, other faiths and countries long hostile to the church.    He has rebuffed calls, including by bishops in his native Germany, to let divorced Catholics who remarry participate fully in the church.    He has warned Catholic politicians who must decide on such issues as abortion, euthanasia and marriage that the church's values are "not negotiable."    He has closed the door on relaxing the celibacy requirement for priests.    He has infuriated the Muslim world, condemned violence in the name of religion and demanded freedom of religion.    He is teaching Catholicism to Catholics, which means no change.
• 4/19/2007 3 killed in atack against Turkish Bible publisher by AP.
      Instanbul, Turkey - Assailants tied up three employees of Zirve publishing house in Malatya that distributes Bibles in Turkey and then slashed their throats, adding to a string of attacks apparently targeting the country's tiny Christian minority.
• 4/21/2007 Pope revises Catholic teaching on 'limbo' by AP.
      Vatican City - The Pope has revised traditional Roman Catholic teaching on so-called "limbo," approving a church report released that said there was reason to hope that babies who die without baptism can go to heaven.    This was sparked by the increase in abortion and the growing number of children who die without being baptized.
• 5/4/2007 Anglican split is widening by AP.
      Woodbridge, Va. - An Anglican leader Archbishop Peter Akinola from Nigeria is strengthening the network of U.S. parishes he formed as a conservative alternative to the liberal leaning Episcopal Church.    He plans to lead a ceremony at a nondenominational chapel in Woodbridge, to install Martyn Minns, a former Episcopal clergyman, as bishop and U.S. leader of Akinola's Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
• 5/6/2007 Bishop's installation heightens Anglican rift by AP.
      Woodbridge, Va. - Despite a last minute plea from the head of the Anglican Communion the Anglican leader from Nigeria installed a bishop to lead the conservative U.S. parish network he created.    The Anglican Communion is on the verge of splitting up because of differences over Scripture, including whether the Bible bars gay relationships.
• 5/8/2007 Pope heads to Brazil to shore up church by AP.
      Sao Paulo, Brazil - The Pope is heading to the world's most populous Roman Catholic country at time when evangelical Christians are packing converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday, thrusting their Bibles in the air.    Benedict will try to halt that Protestant fervor during his first trip to Brazil.    Aiming to energize its more than 120 million Catholics, and canonize the country's first native saint, hold Masses that could attract millions and open a conference of Latin American bishops.
      Due to societal change many Catholics have abandoned the church to become Protestants, where halve of the world's 1 billion Catholics live.    Brazil has free distribution of condoms to combat AIDS, there is a rise in second marriages not recognized by the church and Mexico City has moved to legalize abortion, and a severe shortage of clergy.    Benedict will have a hard time there since he once labeled the Brazilian's work a Marxist heresy.
• 5/10/2007 Pope assails abortion in speech in Brazil by AP.
      Sao Paulo, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI began his first papal trip to Latin America, stressing church opposition to abortion and suggesting that Catholic politicians in Mexico had excommunicated themselves by legalizing abortion in that nation's capital.
• 5/20/2007 Jehovah's Witnesses settle sex abuse cases by AP.
      A victim's rights group has released documents that show the Jehovah's Witnesses recently settled civil suits with 16 people who claimed they were sexually abused by church elders or that church officials failed to act on abuse allegations.    Fourteen of the cases were filed in California and the others in Oregon and Texas.    The settlement has been kept confidential and the Jehovah's Witnesses, whose headquarters are in Brooklyn, N.Y., isssued a statement saying they were pleased to resolve the lawsuit.
• 5/30/2007 Church pays $6.65 million in claims by AP.
      Chicago - The Archdiocese of Chicago paid $6.65 million to settle claims made by 14 people who say they were abused by 12 Catholic priests, who have been removed from public ministry or are deceased.
• 6/8/2007 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) membership dips 2% by AP.
      The Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suffered yet another membership loss last year by 46,544 members, a 2 percent decline.    It now has 2.3 million members, just over half its peak membership in the mid-1960s.    Large congregations in Pennsylvania and Tennessee are also taking steps toward exiting the denomination over theological controversies.
• 6/17/2007 Pope, Orthodox leader to work toward union by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cypriot the Orthodox leader that he holds hope that the Catholic and Orthodox churches can be united, despite ten centuries of painful division.    The two also explored how the sides could work together on social, moral and bioethical issues, including same-sex marriages and embryonic stem cell research.    They also are trying to arrange a meeting between the pope and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, who have had tensions after the demise of Soviet communism, and the Catholics improperly seeking converts in areas that traditionally would be Russian Orthodox.
• 6/18/2007 Church may try to settle abuse cases by AP.
      Los Angeles - After years of legal wrangling, the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese may finally move to settle hundreds of clergy sexual abuse claims against it.    Fifteen trials involving 172 of the more than 500 alleged victims are scheduled to be heard by juries in a six-month courthouse marathon beginning July 9.
• 7/1/2007 Pope seeks reconciliation for Chinese churchgoers by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI made an attempt to unite China's 12 million Catholics, urging the underground faithful and followers of the state-run church to overcome decades of animosity and distrust.    The Pope lamented the lack of religious freedoms in China and called the government-sanctioned church "incompatible" with Catholic doctrine for appointing bishops without Vatican approval.    He hopes to reach an agreement with Beijing authorities on nominations.    China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the atheist Communist Party took power.
• 7/8/2007 Pope Benedict XVI approves revival of the old Latin Mass by AP.
      Rome - The Pope authorized a wider use of the old Latin Mass, dismissing fears that its revival could divide the church or dilute the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that made standard worship in the languages of Catholics around the world.    The Pope emphasized that the current Mass approved in 1970 would remain the standard one -- and he did not expect any widespread return to the old rite, known as the Tridentine Mass, where the priest faces away from the congregation and prays in Latin.    Jewis groups are in opposition to the Mass which had made references to "perfidious Jews" which had been removed.
• 7/11/2007 Pope says Catholicism offers only true path by AP.
      Lorenzago Di Cadore, Italy - The Pope reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, claiming other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only path to salvation.    The statement brought criticism from Protestant leaders, negating a religious unity as from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.    The Pope is pushing the issue that the other churches do not have apostolic succession, or the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles, therefore Christ established only one church, which has the fullness of the means of salvation.
• 7/15/2007 L.A. archdiocese's $600 million abuse settlement dwarfs other deals by AP.
      Los Angeles - The Roman Catholic Arcdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal.    There were more than 500 clergy abuse cases scheduled for jury selection, thus averaging $1.2 to $1.3 million per person.
• 7/24/2007 Gay couples line up to register by AP.
      Olympia, Wash - Dozens of gay and lesbian couples lined up to register as domestic partners as a new state law went into effect.    They gained rights for hospital visitation, to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and to inherit in the absence of a will, but did not get all the rights that traditionally married couples have, and the state's registry is not the same as civil unions offered in other states.    In order to register, couples must share a home, not be married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 18.
• 7/29/2007 Evangelicals support Palestinian state by The New York Times.
      Conservative evangelicals who claim mandate to protect Israel have supported the Jewish state, by sending donations, denouncing its critics and urging it not to evacuate settlements or forfeit territory.    These same 34 leaders have sent a letter to President Bush saying that both Israelis and Palestinians have "legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine," and that they support the creation of a Palestinian state "that includes the vast majority of the West Bank."
• 8/25/2007 Minister rebuked for role in gay unions by AP.
      San Francisco - A Presbyterian minister, Jane Spahr of San Rafael, was found guilty of violating church law for officiating the weddings of two lesbian couples.    She only received a rebuke or warning not to repeat the violation or be removed from ministry.
• 8/25/2007 'Allah': What the word and concept mean by AP.
      In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, priests use the word "Allah" in Catholic Mass, as do Arab countries.    Allah comes from two syllables "Al" and "ilah" which means "The God."    In the Hebrew God is "Elohim."    Allah has no masculine word and feminine word, like god or goddess.    Also, it has no plural, like "gods."    For Muslims, the definition of "Allah" is "the Creator of the earth and the heavens or simply the universe."    The concept of "Allah" is given in more details in Surah (Chapter) 2 (Baqara or Cow); 255 (verse).
      Christians believe Jesus was God's son and Muslims believe otherwise.
      In the Qu'ran (No. 3); it states "He begetteth not, nor was begotten."
      Christians believe that "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16).    So therefore God and Allah are not the same.
• 9/6/2007 Prosecutor: Scientology church should stand trial by AP.
      Brussels, Belgium - A Belgium prosecutor has recommended that the Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, because a 10-year investigation concluded the group should be labeled a criminal organization.
• 9/8/2007 Pope urges Europe to accept Christian heritage by AP.
      Vienna, Austria - Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged Europe's tragic past and warned of its uncertain future as he honored Jews killed in the Holocaust and urged the continent to accept its Christian heritage.    Abortion must never be considered a human right, the Pope said, and urged European political leaders to encourage young married couples to have children and the continent's graying population "not to become old in spirit."    "Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots," the pope declared.    The Roman Catholic influence has seen considerable dissent against the church.
• 9/8/2007 Diocese in $200 million settlement by AP.
      San Diego - The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $200 million to 144 people who were sexually abused by clergy members, the second largest payment since the U.S. abuse scandal erupted five years ago.    The diocese had file for banruptcy protection and the agreement came just hours before the lawsuits were scheduled for trial.
• 9/18/2007 Diocese creates fund to settle suits by AP.
      Pittsburg - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburg said that it has created a $1.25 million fund to settle 32 lawsuits alleging abuse or injury by priests.    They wanted to settle even though Pennsylvannia's statute of limitations barred many victims from filling personal-injury claims.    Victims would get about $40,000 each before legal fees.
• 9/20/2007 Census finds most marriages don't last 25 years by New York Times.
      More than half the Americans who might have celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversaries since 2000 were divorced.    The baby boomers record the highest divorce rates, with the average separation rate at seven years and divorce at eight years.
• 6/20/2007 'Intent' affects display rulings The Courier-Journal.
      A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over the legality of a display of the Ten Commandments in the Rowan County courthouse, just two weeks after he allowed another lawsuit against a similar display in Garrard County.    The displays -- framed copies of the commandments along with eight other historical documents -- are identical, part of an exhibit called the "Foundation of American Law and Government."    It was the motivation behind the displays that differs according to the judge, with this one not violating the constitutional ban on state-sponsored religion.    So the tide is turning on the ACLU's war on the Ten Commandments.
• 9/22/2007 Anglican leader downplays demand to Episcopal Church by AP.
      New Orleans - The archbishop of Canterbury indicated that the Episcopal Church isn't on the brink of losing its place in the world Anglican fellowship, dispite the uproar over Episcopal support for gay clergys.    He said the goal is compromise, because the U.S. church has a more liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas.    He is trying to prevent differences over homosexuality from shattering the Anglican Communion, and to tame down the rhetoric from the church that is dehumanizing to gays and lesbians as a different religion.
• 9/27/2007 Six nuns excommunicated for heresy by AP.
      Little Rock, Ark. - Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary.    The administrator of the Diocese of Little Rock notified the nuns after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary, which the Vatican has declared all members of it as excommunicated.
• 9/26/2007 Episcopalians try to defuse gay issue by AP.
      New Orleans - Episcopal leaders, pressured to roll back their support for gays to keep the world Anglican family from crumbling, affirmed that they will exercise restraint in approving another gay bishop and will not approve prayers to bless same-sex couples.
• 9/30/2007 Partnership plans split from Episcopal Church by New York Times.
      Bishops from 13 Episcopal and other Anglican groups in North America announce the formation of a partnership as the first step to creating a rival to the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communication.    Thus the group, the Common Cause Partnership, marks a widenening of the fissures within the Episcopal Church and in the greater communion over the church's liberal stance on homosexuality.
• 10/2/2007 2 church-state disputes refused by AP.
      Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court opened its term by refusing to get involved in two church-state disputes.    One involves religious organizations paying for workers' birth-control health-insurance benefits; the other, an evangelical groups plea to hold religious services at a public library.
      The birth-control dispute was triggered by a New York state law that forces employers - including religious-based social-service agencies- to subsidize contraceptives as part of prescription-drug coverage they offer employees.    Catholic Charities and other religious groups argued that the law violates their First Amendment right to practice their religion because it forces them to violate religious teachings that regard contraception as sinful.    San Francisco had ruled that public libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms.    Only groups using the facilities for education, cultural and community-related programs.    So they claim that taxpayers would be subsidizing religious exercizes.
• 10/12/2007 Atheists, agnostics to gather at convention after successful year by AP.
      Madison, Wis. - For a weekend those who don't believe in God will find sanctuary here.    Members of the Foundation From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, will gather for a weekend of nonprayer breakfasts and raffles for God-free currency at the group's 30^th annual convention.    They now boast of 11,300 members which some call Madison a city filled with heathens, and a watchdog group that advocates for separation of church and state and promotes free thought, which it calls science and reason as opposed to faith in the unknown.
• 10/16/2007 U.S. partially backs Vatican in abuse suit by The Courier-Journal.
      The U.S. government has taken the Vatican's side - in a Louisville priest-abuse lawsuit seeking class-action damages from the Roman Catholic headquarters.    The Vatican can only be sued as a foreign state, a status that grants it broad protections from lawsuits -- and not as a private religious organization.    This is in regard to the allegation that the Vatican orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse by priests in the U.S.
• 10/30/2007 Pope says druggists can refuse requests by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI said that pharmacists have a right to use conscientious objection to avoid dispensing emergency contraception or euthanasia drugs -- and told them they should also inform patients of the ethical implications of using such drugs.    He is asking them not to supply products that have immoral purposes such as abortion or euthanasia.
• 11/6/2007 Ten Commandments posted at state Capitol by The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - A federal judge ruled that a display of historical documents containing the Ten Commandments may be posted on state property.    It was set up in the Capitol Rotunda with 9 other framed historical documents by the administration of Gov. Ernie Fletcher beneath a statue of pioneer surgeon Ephraim McDowell.
• 11/7/2007 Pope has first meeting ever with a Saudi king by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope lauded the contributions of Christians in Saudi Arabia - a kingdom that embraces a strict version of Islam, restricts worship by other faiths, and bans Bibles and crucifixes - in the first meeting ever between a pope and reigning Saudi king Abdullah, the protector of Islam's holiest sites.    The Vatican counts 890,000 Catholics from the Philippines, among the estimated 1.5 million Christians in Saudi Arabia.    Christians are barred from opening churches in the desert kingdom, which contains Islam's holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.    Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom requires all Saudi citizens to be Muslims, and enforces Sharia, or Islamic law.    It follows a severe form of Islam known as Wahhabism that rejects the possiblity of diplomatic relations with a Christian entity.    This would prohibit a Vatican embassy in Saudi Arabia on the grounds it might raise a cross inside Islam's holiest places.    It is forbidden to practice Christianity publicly or bring symbols from other religions into the country.    So what does the pope think he will achieve here is fleeting.
• 11/11/2007 Moderate Episcopal bishop elected by AP.
      Wheeling, Ill. - A moderate church leader, the Rev. Jeffrey Lee, was elected the 12^th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention, who said he will keep a conversation going with conservatives on the issue of gay clergy, as he stands for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the church.
• 11/19/2007 Catholic order to pay $50 million by AP.
      Anchorage, Alaska - A Roman Catholic religious order, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, has agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Alaska Natives who as altar boys/girls and servers allege sexual abuse by Jesuit priests.    The order never admitted fault, and no priests were ever criminally charged.    The sexual-abuse allegations involved 13 or 14 clerics and spanned nearly 30 years, from 1961 to 1987, with children from 5 to their teen years.
• 11/20/2007 Sex scandal rocks megachurch by AP.
      Decatur, Ga. - The 80-year old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her.    Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test.
• 11/23/2007 Covington diocese making final abuse payments by AP.
      The final payments are going out to victims of sexual abuse in the $85 million settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington to more than 350 victims ranging from $5,000 to $1 million based on the severity of the abuse.
• 12/1/2007 Pope criticizes atheism as great form of cruelty by AP.
      Vatican City - The pope criticized atheism in a major document released saying it had led to some of the greatest forms of cruelty and violation of justice ever known.    He also questioned modern Christianity, saying its focus on individual salvation had ignored Jesus' message that true Christian hope involves salvation for all.
• 12/4/2007 Diocese to pay $37 million for abuse by AP.
      Des Moines, Iowa - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport agreed to pay $37 million to more than 150 victims of sexual abuse under a settlement that requires the bishop to personally apologize to any accusers or relatives who ask.    The deal will address the claims of 156 victims of abuse, some dating back nearly 70 years.
• 12/4/2007 New bishop has declared loyalty to the Vatican by AP.
      Guangzhou, China - China's official Catholic Church will ordain a bishop who has publicaly declared his loyalty to the Vatican.    Chinese authorities have refused to consult with the Holy See when choosing new bishops, saying the pope should not meddle in the country's affairs.
• 12/7/2007 Battle lines over 'Compass' hazy by Courier-Journal.
      The latest silver-screen battle in the culture wars are anything but clear, and some Christians are bracing themselves for what they fear is an attack on their religion in the high-budget fantasy film, "The Golden Compass," which opens today.    Others say its main target is an overbearing church bureaucracy, not religion itself.    The movie depicts a plot involving a young heroine, battling an authoritarian evil known as "Magisterium" (the same name used by the Vatican to describe its teaching authority) and involves characters as a battling polar bear and shape-shifting animals who represent people's souls.
• 12/9/2007 Diocese to leave Episcopal Church by AP.
      San Francisco - A conservative central California diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, voted to split from the liberal-leaning Episcopal Church, becoming the first one to secede in the debate over the Bible and homosexuality.    This will lead to a court battle over multimillion-dollar real estate holdings and other assets.    The diocese serves about 8,500 parishioners in 47 congregations.    Nationally, about 55 conservative Episcopal parishes, out of more than 7,000 have split from the church in the last few years.
• 12/28/2007 Hindu-Christian tensions continue on fourth day by AP.
      New Delhi - Hindu extremists torched nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader, defying a curfew imposed to quell three days of religious violence in eastern India.    Christians retaliated by setting fire to several homes belonging to Hindus.    Local police have been unable to halt the attacks, and the government has sent in a paramilitary force.    About 19 churches have been set ablaze since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.
  
      In the year 2007, the pope calls for peace and human rights, while some file a lawsuit against the Vatican, he stops communion for the remarried, battles against abortion, and denies the evolution theory, and claims Catholism is the only true path to salvation.    The Roman Catholic Dioceses paid out $444 million on sex abuse claims this year.    Archaeologists are still in dispute over whether they have found Jesus' tomb.    The Pope traveled to China, Brazil, Cypriot and Saudi Arabia.    Lutherans, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches continue to struggle with homosexuality, ordaining and marrying gays and women, prompting a possible split to conservative denominations.    Laws changing in some states to allow legal rights to unmarried couples and gays.    Foreign christian churches and Bible publishers have experienced extreme violence from counter religions.    The Ten Commandments finally won a battle against the ACLU.
  
  
  The year 2008.
  
  
• 1/1/2008 State is 4th to legalize civil unions by AP.
      Concord, N.H. - New Hampshire is becoming the fourth state along with Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey to legalize civil unions or gay marriages, and about 20 couples decided to be the first to take advantage of the new law with a late-night ceremony on the Statehouse steps.    The new law provides same-sex couples with the rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage, except the name.
• 1/23/2008 Student who violated Islamic tenets get death by AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - An Afghan court sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that humiliated Islam.    The three-judge panel said it violated the tenets of Islam, and the case now goes to the first of two appeals courts.    Sayad Parwez Kambaksh discussed the paper with his teacher and classmates at Balkh University complained to the government.    Only the President Hamid Karzai can forgive him.
• 1/27/2008 Moderate Baptists try to unite to change image by Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post.
      More than 30 groups representing more than 20 million Baptists will gather in Atlanta for what is the broadest meeting since slavery tore the faith apart more than a century ago.    A brainchild of former president Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton aimed at giving moderate Baptists a stronger national voice.    Fissures already exist since support for gay rights is blocked from an official role, with high hopes of promoting evangelism, dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, fighting poverty, reforming the criminal justice system, and other social issues.    A load of politicians will be involved who are Baptists.    This is the New Baptist Covenant, which is trying to shed the image that Baptists are what Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson is.
• 2/10/2008 Church court to decide gay cases by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      More than a year after the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed a policy that opens the door to the ordination of openly gay ministers, the first test cases have emerged.    So now they are reinstating noncelibate homosexuals and lesbians.
• 2/15/2008 Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy by AP.
      Anchorage, Alaska - The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks plans to file for bankruptcy after negotiations to settle sexual-abuse claims failed, its top officials say.    More than 150 claims were filed agaisnt the church, alleging abuse by clergy or church workers between 1950s and 1980s.    All but 10 of those have been settled, the insurance carrier has not participated meaningfully.
• 2/15/2008 Church leaders seek better inter-religious relations by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      For a gathering of religious leaders, it was about as non-religious a setting as could be imagined - a conference room at an airport hotel.    But done deliberate, to avoid meeting on any religious groups home turf.    About 100 Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Protestants and members of the bahai faith were among those for a daylong series of discussions designed to revive waning efforts at collaboration among clergy across religious lines.
• 2/16/2008 Presbyterian court upholds ordination ban by Peter smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Presbyterians may disagree with their church's ban on ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, but they must follow the rules, according to the denomination's highest court.
• 2/16/2008 Rare religious text on loan - Book of Enoch is on view in Indiana by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Fallen angels marry human women and spawn a breed of giants that wreak havoc on the Earth.    A righteous man takes a tour of the cosmos that reveals the throne of God, a prison for wayward stars and the storehouses of wind, hail and snow.    A messianic "Son of Man" comes to judge the Earth, punish the wicked and reward the righteous.    It's all part of the ancient Book of Enoch, an apocalyptic epic that was quoted in the New Testament and has always been revered as Scripture by Ethiopian Christians.    Now one of the world's oldest manuscripts of Enoch in Ethiopian language has found at least a temporary home in Jeffersonville, Ind, as it was unveild.
• 2/18/2008 Top ayatollah says God wants nuclear program by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported.
• 2/24/2008 Church undergoes a 'family argument' by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Kentucky Episcopalians heard a combination pep talk and Bible study from one of the leaders in efforts to keep the fragile Anglican Communion together despite what seem irreconcilable differences over sexuality and theology.    Divisions in the church are as old as the church itself, and Bible passages offer differing models on whether to split or stay together despite differences.    There never was a golden age when everybody in the church agreed about everything.    The Anglican Communion has been engulfed in controversy since 2003, when the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of the first openily gay bishop.
• 2/26/2008 Faiths shifting rapidly in U.S. by Michael Hill, The Baltimore Sun.
      The United states is on the verge of becoming a country in which Protestants are a minority - probably for the first time, according to a survey whose findings illustrate the shifting landscape of religion in America.    Protestants account for just over 51 percent of the population, according to the survey of about 35,000 adult Americans.    The group with the greatest growth was people with no religion - approximately 16 percent of Americans older than 18.
• 3/12/2008 Gay Episcopal bishop shuns conference by AP.
      The first openly gay Episcopal bishop announced he'll have no official role in a meeting of world Anglican leaders this summer.
• 3/26/2008 Saudi king seeks dialogue among religions by Donna Abu-Nasr and Abdullah Shihri, AP.
      Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi King Abdullah has made a plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews, at a time of stalled peace initiatives and escalating tensions.    It is still unclear whether Israeli religious leaders would be invited, and a religious dialogue could have political impact in the Middle East.
• 4/1/2008 Judge blocks Grayson Co. display of Bible rules by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Thou shalt not post the Ten Commandments on public property with religion in mind.    A federal judge made that clear, issuing a permanent injunction against a display of the commandments in Grayson County, who had it in the court for religious purposes, and tried to claim it was for educational purposes.
• 4/5/2008 State removes girls from religious compound by AP.
      Eldorado, Texas - Child welfare officials following up on an abuse complaint took custody of 18 girls who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.    A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman.    No arrests have been made.    The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound.    In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
• 4/6/2008 200 taken from Texas sect's site by Michelle Roberts, AP.
      Eldorado, Texas - Child welfare officials have now removed nearly 200 women and children from a secretive West Texas religious retreat, and seized computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.
• 4/8/2008 400 children put in Texas' care by Michelle Roberts, AP.
      Eldorado, Texas - More than 400 children, mostly girls, were taken into custody from a polygamist sect in what was the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.
• 4/9/2008 Isolated sect's girls 'married' at puberty by Michelle Roberts, AP.
      Eldorado, Texas - Affidavit says that the compouind was rife with abuse, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.   
• 4/13/2008 Man in raided sect case interviewed by Jennifer Dobner, AP.
      San Angelo, Texas - Of course he denied all of it.
• 4/13/2008 Poll finds dichotomy among U.S. Catholics by Rachel zoll, AP.
      New York - American Catholics are pleased with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, according to a new survey.    The study also found intense interest in faith among some young people.    Yet, few parishioners said they go to confession, and most believed they could be good Roman Catholics without going to Mass.
• 4/13/2008 American church challenge for pope by Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post.
      Washington - To Pope Benedict, experts say, the U.S. Catholic Church is a bit like an adolescent: young and unpredictable.    There are bankrupt dioceses and empty seminaries - yet tens of thousands of laypeople are stepping into the chasm to lead their churches.    One of every 10 American Catholics has left the faith - yet close to half of U.S. Catholics attend Mass at least monthly.
      American Catholics can't agree whether they're in crisis or renewal.    To the Pope America looks religiously vibrant compared with secular Europe, and make up 6 percent of the world church, and has become Hispanicized.
• 4/15/2008 Children of polygamist sect moved to 5,000-seat arena by AP.
      San Angelo, Texas - Judges and lawyers struggled with the legal and logistical morass of deciding the fate of 416 children seized by Texas authorities.    They had been taken to the San Angelo Coliseum, which holds nearly 5,000 people.
• 4/16/2008 Benedict 'ashamed' of priest sex scandal by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Andrews Air Force Base, Md. - Pope Benedict XVI stepped onto U.S. soil for the time as pontiff, a presidental handshake and wild cheering only hours after he admitted that he is "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sex-abuse scandal that has devastated the American church.   
• 4/19/2008 Nations' cooperation 'in crisis,' pontiff says by Victor Simpson, AP.
      New York - Making a plea for human rights, Pope Benedict XVI warned diplomats at the United Nations that international cooperation needed to solve urgent problems is "in crisis" because decisions rest in the hands of a few powerful nations.    The pope also had the first visit by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to a U.S. synagogue.    He was pushing to achieve world peace and the development of the poorest nations, with undertones that violence has been influenced by countries that have a stranglehold on global power.    Now who could that be?    The pope also delivered a speeech to other Christian leaders during which he advocated holding the line on orthodoxy within denominations.    Allowing individual congregations to interpret the Gospel undermines evangelism at a time when the world is losing its bearings.    The U.S. to the pope is critical of our "increasingly secular and materialistic culture," in a country and society which values personal freedom and autonomy, and have forgotten our responsibilities to others, which he called "countercultural," and radical individualism.
• 5/7/2008 Sect's leader faces sex charges by AP.
      Santa Fe, N.M. - State police arrested Wayne Bent, 66, on three counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and contributing to delinquency of a minor and held on a $500,000 bond.    Bent, who goes by the name of Michael Travesser and claims to be the Messiah, is the leader of The Lord Our Righteous Church, and his charges stem from the three girls cited in the affidavit.
• 5/16/2008 California court backs gay marriage by Lisa Leff, AP.
      San Francisco - California's Supreme Court declared that gay couples can marry there, a victory for gay-rights movement, but religious and social conservatives are pressing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the ruling and ban gay marriage.
• 5/23/2008 Bahais say 7 arrested in Iran because of faith by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - Seven Bahai leaders said they have been accused of endangering national security are being persecuted by Iran's government for their religious beliefs.    Iran arrested one leader March 5 and the others May 14.    An Iranian government spokesman said the arrests aimed to defend Iran's national security and claimed that they were an organized group that has acted against the country's interests and has connections with foreigners, especially the Zionists.
• 5/23/2008 Texas was wrong to take children, court says by Michelle Roberts, AP.
      San Angelo, Texas - A Texas appeals court said that the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sect's ranch.    The state never provided evidence that the children were in any immediate danger, or evidence that more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, nor alleged any sexual abuse against the other children.
• 6/18/2008 Appellate court rejects bid to halt gay marriage by AP.
      San Francisco - An appeals court has rejected the Liberty Council, a conservative organization's latest effort to stop gay marriages in California before the November election.
• 6/22/2008 Presbyterian membership decline worsens by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suffered its worst annual membership decline in decades last year.    The denomination lost 57,572 members in 2007 and has 2,209,546 active and confirmed members, a drop of 2.5 percent compared to 2006.    Membership peaked at 4.25 million in the mid-1960s.    Observers said losses have been attributed to liberal theology, controversies over homosexuality and theology, social factors such as a low birth rate, an aging white population, and the declining popularity of organizations of any sort.
• 6/22/2008 Messianic Jews are singled out in Israel by Laurie Copans, AP.
      Tel Aviv, Israel - A family was bombed on March 20 because they are Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah.    Israel's tiny community of Messianic Jews, a mixed group of 10,000 people who include the California-based Jews for Jesus, complains of threats, harassment and police indifference.    In October, a mysterious fire damaged a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews, and last month ultra-Orthodox Jews torched a stack of Christian holy books distributed by missionaries.    Proselytizing is strongly discouraged in Israel, a state that suffered centuries of persecution for not accepting Jesus and has little tolerance for missionary work.    The historical core of Christianity was convert or die, at one time an assault on Jewish existence itself.    Messianic Jews hold that one can embrace Jesus as the Messiah and remain Jewish.    Orthodox Jews believe that the Messiah has yet to come, that he will do so only when he chooses, and that any attempt to pre-empt his coming is a grevious sin.
• 6/25/2008 Americans pious but practical, survey finds - 35,000 asked about beliefs by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Most Americans believe in God, but they rely more on practical experience and common sense than on their religious beliefs for moral guidance.    And they say that while their religion is very important to them, it doesn't have a monopoly on the path to eternal life and should adjust to new circumstances or even adopt modern beliefs.    Most in Kentucky and Indiana agree.    The blend of piety and pragmatism shone through in a report released and based on a survey of more than 35,000 Americans last year.
  88% believe in God or universal spirit.
  56% religion very important in one's life.
  39% attend religious service at least once a week.
  58% pray at least once a day.
  31% receive answer to prayer at least once a month.
  33% believe the Word of God (Bible, Torah or Quran) is literally true word for word.
  27% claim there is only ONE true way to interpret my religion's teaching.
  70% many religions can lead to eternal life.
  ---- We'll we can see that Pluralism has taken over a large percentage of the population.
• 6/26/2008 Panel approves ordaining active gays by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Presbyterian delegates should repeal the church's constitutional ban on ordaining gays and lesbians, according to a committee vote at the General Assembly.    Presbyterians act to alter catechism, following a debate over 16th century German and 21st century sexuality, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took steps to remove the only explicit condemnation of homosexuality from its constitution.    The General Asembly meeting in San Jose, Calif., voted 436-280 to change its official translation of the 1563 Heidelberg Catechism, a German-language teaching document of the Protestant Reformation.    Because the document forms part of the church constitution's Book of Confessions, the measure required ratification by two-thirds of regional presbyteries before it becomes official.
      Of five corrections, the fifth one involved Question 87: "Can those who do not turn to God from their ungrateful, impenitent life be saved?"
      "Answer: Certainly not!    Scripture says, 'Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God.    Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God."
      Why didn't they just remove the rest of the sinners from the list also?
• 7/18/2008 Pope urges followers to care for planet by AP.
      Sydney, Australia - Pope Benedict XVI at a World Youth Day said that mankind's "insatiable consumption" has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity.    The new "Green Pope" is concerned over the threats of rising water levels and devastating drought, referring to global warming.    He also said that the church in the West is in 'crisis' because people feel they have no need for God, and society is shaped in a godless image, driven by consequences rather than principles grounded in truth.    He urged them to cooperate against secularism and apathy.
      He told representives of Islam and other faiths that they must unite to combat religion's role in "sinister and indiscriminate" violence.    Without mentioning terrorism directly, the pontiff said there were those who were using religion "as a cause of division rather than a force of unity" in exchange with Australian Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist leaders in Sydney.
      So can the unified voice of religious people urge nations to resolve conflicts through peaceful means?
      The pope thinks that Muslims should be more understanding of other religions, as should Christian groups must overcome their prejudice to Muslims and Islam.
      Sounds like Pluralism is continuing on its way again.
• 7/22/2008 In the marriage debate, divorce the church from the state by Charles C. Haynes, Gannett NEws Service.
      The Episcopal Church doesn't sanction same-sex marriage, but gives the option of blessing the union, seeking a way to bless all couples while distancing the church from legal arrangements sanctioned by the state.    Thus getting out of the legal marriage business, but on the flip side, many conservative clergy worry that as agents of the state they will be pressured to perform same-sex marriages or coerced into recognizing same-sex relationships in contradiction of church doctrine.    Thus separate secular from sacred by drawing a line between civil arrangements and the sacrament of marriage.    Each state would limit itself to defining marriage as civil benefits for committed couples (as mandated by state law) - and each religious group would be free to define marriage according to the tenets of its faith.    Disestablishment in America ended church monopoly over marriage, but left in place the dual role of clergy as religious leaders and state actors in the marriage arena.    Now ending this church-state entanglement would not end the gay-marriage debate, but would refocus on civic arguments regarding extending government benefits to same-sex couples.
      Is it the business of governemnt to preserve the sanctity of marriage?    Is it the business of government to dictate the meaning of marriage to any religious community?    Nor should any religious group be allowed to impose a religious definition of marriage on the rest of society as seen in the First Amendment.    The term marriage would have to be removed from the same-sex marriage debate to have any political advantages, as called civil unions.    Marriage by the power invested by God - not by the state.
• 8/1/2008 Mass. widens gay marriages by Glen Johnson, AP.
      Boston - Massachusetts first black Gov. Deval Patrick, signed a bill that repealed a 1913 law that had blocked gay couples living outside the state from marrying in Massachusetts, and was initially used to block interracial marriages.    The state expects more than 30,000 out-of-state gay couples, most from New York will wed in the next three years, boosting their economy by $111 million and create 330 jobs.    They may become the Las Vegas of gay marriage.
• 8/4/2008 Anglican leader seeks moratorium on gay bishops by AP.
      New York - Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, struggling to hold together the troubled world Anglican family, urged church leaders gathered in England not to consecrate another gay bishop, saying the fellowship will be in "grave peril" without a moratorium.    Williams said Anglicans need space for study and free discussion without pressure about whether to accept changes in traditional biblical understanding of same-sex relationships.    He also asked churches to refrain from adopting official prayers for blessing same-gender unions.
• 8/13/2008 Archdiocese agrees to pay $12.6 million to settle suits by AP.
      Chicago - The Archdiocese of Chicago said it had agreed to pay more than $12.6 million to settle lawsuits by 16 people who accused 10 different priests of sexual abuse.
• 8/21/2008 Archdiocese may pay $10 million in sex cases by AP.
      Kansas City, Mo. - A Roman Catholic diocese has tentatively agreed to pay $10 million to settle nearly 50 sexual abuse claims against the diocese and 12 of its priests dating to 1951.
• 8/27/2008 Eight die in clashes of Christians, Hindus by AP.
      Bhubaneshwar, India - Christians clashed with Hindu mobs who attacked churches, and eight people died in the violence in an eastern region known for deadly religious fighting.    Police imposed a curfew in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state after the overnight attacks by hardline Hindus to avenge the killing of one of their leaders, whose death they blamed on Christian militants.    Those two were killed by burning alive inside thatched huts.    The violence comes after Hindu hard-liners set ablaze a Christian orphange, killing a 21-year-old woman who was teaching children to use computers and seriously injuring a priest.
• 8/30/2008 Sermon series looks at atheism, Christians' response by Christopher Hall, The Courier-Journal.
      There is a new breed of atheist out there, even called the New Atheists, calling for an end to organized religion in books like "God is Not Great," "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The God Delusion."    A pastor from a Christian Church said they have some valid arguments about religion's negatives, arguments religious people need to answer.    He wants to acknowledge the points at which atheists have something important to say to Christians today - and then offer a Christian response to atheism's challenges.    Most of the time atheists offer up a twisted view of religion, by picking on the extreme end of religion, as in abuse, or misuse or conflicts.    An example is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's storm that Christian leaders said the devastation was God's punishment for homosexuality in America, but not said was thousands of Christians went to the Gulf to help rebuild.    So atheists are really good at just pointing out all of religion's faults, but none of its virtues; all of its sins, but none of its achievements.    This has become important since young people in the age range of 18-29 are turning away from organized church because they think it's unChristian.    Some have trouble with religious fundalmentalists who argue that to be a Christian someone must accept the Bible as literal truth, and the argument that the Earth, by biblical reckoning, is only 6,000 years old.    Many new atheists are scientific fundamentalists, and belief in God is not possible, but being a Christian does not mean you have to adopt first century cosmology, science explains the how, and religion explains the why, without both of them it could be dangerous.    It still comes down to faith.
• 9/13/2008 Pope urges bigger role for religion in Europe by AP.
      Paris - Pope Benedict XVI encouraged a greater role for religion in European society but cautioned against fanaticism as he met with political, Jewish and Muslim leaders in his first papal visit to France.    The pope told the French President Nicolas Sarkozy for more attention to the role of faith in shaping consciences and forging "a basic ethical consensus within society."    France is fiercely proud of its secular division between church and state, and some staunch proponents of that stance were angered by the pope's remarks on the opening day of a four-day pilgrimage.    But others, including Muslim and Jewish figures in Paris, expressed appreciation that he reached out to them.
• 9/16/2008 Court bars adoption by lesbian couples by Andrew Wolfson, The Courier-Journal.
      In a harshly worded opinion, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has barred judges from allowing lesbians to adopt as though they are a stepparent, and marriages between gays are forbidden by both statute and Kentucky's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
• 9/20/2008 150 Muslims fired at plant by AP.
      Omaha, Neb. - About 150 Muslims were fired from a Grand Island, Neb., meat-packing plant that has been embroiled in a prayer dispute, a Somali-American leader said.    Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said 80 workers were thrown out after an altercation, and when they tried to return for their next shift, they were fired, along with 70 others.    Muslim workers have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset.    The issue led to walkouts this week - not only from Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.
• 9/21/2008 Survey finds most adults believe in guardian angels by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY.
      A new survey of the nation's religious beliefs and practices finds 55 percent of all adults who believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.    The survey, based on interviews with nearly 1,700 adults in fall 2007.    Evangelical Protestant, 66 percent; black Protestant, 81 percent; mainline Protestant, 55 percent; Catholic, 57 percent; Jewish, 10 percent; other religions, 49 percent; no religion, 20 percent.    There are so many different images of God in people's minds, that interpreting guardian angels or God's voice must have different concepts also.
• 9/27/2008 Atheists soldier sues over religious freedom by AP.
      Topeka, Kan. - An atheist soldier says in a federal lawsuit that his superiors required him to be present for Christian prayers, and that the military allows fundalmentalist Christians to proselytize.    The lawsuit alleges violations of the soldier's religious freedoms.
      Ha! Ha! Ha! Didn't anyone tell him he was a GI, Government Inspected?
• 9/28/2008 Jewish scholars seek pages of ancient Bible by Matti Friedman, AP.
      Jerusalem - A quest is under way on four continents to find the missing pages of one of the world's most important holy texts, the 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible known as the Crown of Aleppo.    Crusaders held it for ransom, fire almost destroyed it and it was reputedly smuggled across Mideast borders hidden in a washing machine.    But in 1958, when it finally reached Israel, 196 pages were missing -- about 40 percent of the total -- and for some Old Testament scholars they have become a kind of Holy Grail.
      Researchers representing the manuscript's custodian in Jerusalem now say they have leads on some of the missing pages and are nearer their goal of making the manuscript whole again.    The Crown, known in English as the Aleppo Codex, may not be as famous as the Dead Sea Scrolls.    But to many scholars it is even more important, because it is considered the definitive edition of the Bible for Jewry worldwide.
      The key to finding the pages is thought to lie with the insular diaspora of Jews originating in Aleppo, Syria, where the manuscript resided in a synagogue's iron chest for centuries.    A turning point in its history came three days after the U.N. passed the 1947 resolution to grant Israel statehood, provoking a Syrian mob to burn down the synagogue.    Aleppo's Jews rescued the Codex, but in the ensuing years the 10,000-strong community was uprooted and scattered around the world.    Scholars believe that Aleppo Jews still hold many of the missing pages, while others have fallen into the hands of antiquities dealers.    Two fragments have already surfaced: a full page in 1982, and a smaller piece last year that had been carried for decades by a Brooklyn man, Sam Sabbagh, as a good-luck charm.
      The Codex reached Israel 50 years ago and is now at the Israel Museum with the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem, and now hope the Aleppo Jews will come forth with the missing pieces.    The Codex would be 491 parchment pages about 12 inches by 10 inches, and was transcribed sometime around 930 A.D. by Shlomo Ben Boya'a, a scribe in Tiberias on the banks of the Sea of Galilee.
• 10/5/2008 Pittsburgh Episcopal diocese OKs split by Joe Mandak, AP.
      Monroeville, Pa. - Clergy and lay members of the conservative Pittsburgh diocese voted overwhelmingly to break from the liberal Episcopal Church with which it differs on issues ranging from homosexuality to biblical teachings on salvation.    So the Pittsburgh diocese is more firmly aligned with the majority of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, which is more conservative than its 2.2. million-member U.S. church.    The Diocese of San Joaquin based in Fresno, Calif. left the national church in 2006.    The liberal teachings of salvation that doesn't rely on Christ's crucifixion alone.    "If the gates of hell cannot prevail against this church, then a gay bishop and those who consecrated him cannot, either," the Rev. who opposed the split.
• 10/6/2008 Pope decries godless nature of modern life by AP.
      Rome - Pope Benedict XVI warned that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities, while at Mass on a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.    He said "Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture."
      I wonder what nations he is referring to?
• 10/11/2008 Connecticut is third state to allow gay marriage by Dave Collins, AP.
      Hartford, Conn. - A sharply divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that gay couples have the right to get married, saying legislation did not go far enough when they approved same-sex civil unions.    The 4-3 ruling will make Connecticut the third state, behind Massachusetts and California, to allow same-sex marriages.    A political action group that opposes gay marriage, called the ruling outrageous.
• 10/16/2008 No address gets suit against God thrown out by Nate Jenkins, AP.
      Lincoln, Neb. - A judge has thrown out a Nebraska legislator's, Sen. Ernie Chambers, lawsuit against God, saying the Almighty wasn't properly served because of his unlisted home address.    His lawsuit seeked a permanent injunction against God, saying God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."    Chambers said he filed the lawsuit to make the point that everyone should have access to the courts regardless of whether they are rich or poor.
      Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk ruled that under state law a plantiff must have access to the defendant for a lawsuit to move forward.    "Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Polk wrote.
      Chambers said, "The court itself acknowledges the existence of God."    "A consequence of that acknowledgment is a recognition of God's omniscience."    Therefore, Chambers said, "Since God knows everything, God has notice of this lawsuit."    Chambers has 30 days to decide whether to appeal.    Chambers, a Democrat with 38 years in Nebraska Legislature will be out next year due to term limits.    He skips morning prayers during legislature session and often criticizes Christians.
• 10/31/2008 Diocese to pay $4 million in sexual-abuse cases by AP.
      Denver - The Catholic Diocese of Pueblo and the Marianist religious order have agreed to pay $4 million to settle the claims of 23 men who said they were sexually abused when they attended a Catholic high school in Pueblo between 1966 and 1971 by Brother William Mueller who lured them to a band room and assaulted them.    Each man will receive more than $100,000 under terms of the agreement.
• 11/5/2008 Vatican holds meeting with Muslim leaders by AP.
      Vatican City - In a bid to improve strained Catholic-Muslim relations, the Vatican hosted scholars, imams and clerics from both religions at a three-day religious conference.    The Vatican said day one was dedicated to the spiritual and theological fundamentals of the two religions, and day two will focus on human dignity and mutual respect.
• 11/6/2008 Elections 2008 - Calif., Ariz., Fla. OK gay-marriage bans by Lisa Leff, AP.
      Los Angeles - Voters put a stop to same-sex marriage in California, dealing a crushing defeat to gay-right activists.    Also amendments to ban gay marriage were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.
• 11/7/2008 Pope urges better ties in Muslim meeting by Frances D'Emilio, AP.
      Vatican City - Christians and Muslims must overcome their misunderstandings, the pope told Muslim clergy and scholars as he pressed for greater freedom of worship for non-Muslims in the Islamic world on the third day of the conference.    The pope's baptism of a prominent Egyptian-born Muslim last Easter in St. Peter's Basilica upset some in the Muslim world.    In Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims cannot worship in public, Christian symbols cannot be displayed and Muslims who convert face death.    In Iraq, churches have been attacked, clergy kidnapped and many faithful have been forced to flee the country.
• 11/7/2008 Calif. gay-marriage ban draws protests by Paul Elias, AP.
      San Francisco - An estimated 1,000 protesters took to the streets over California's new ban on gay marriage, and demonstrated outside a Mormon temple in Los Angeles, since the Mormon church strongly supported the ban.    Others gathered on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall.    They filed three court challenges against the new ban, that the ballot measure was a dramatic revision of the California Constitution rather than a simple amendment.    A constitutional revision must first pass the Legislature before going to the voters.
      Sore losers!
• 11/9/2008 Third Episcopal diocese splits from natioanl church by AP.
      New York - A third conservative diocese of Quincy, Ill, based in Peoria, has broken away from the liberal Episcopal Church.
• 11/10/2008 Christian fraternities, sororities growing on college campuses by AP.
      Tuscaloosa, Ala. - Founded in 2001, the Lambda Sigma Phi is part of a wave of Christian fraternities and sororities that have gained a foothold on U.S. college campuses, sometimes despite the wishes of school administratiors.    They get pumped up about prayer, Bible study and service projects in a Greek culture who want show other groups at the universities what Jesus is all about.    At least 210 exist on campuses nationwide.    Alpha Delta Chi, a Christian sorority has 14 active chapters nationwide.
• 11/12/2008 Kentucky Baptists map out their call by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Kentucky Baptist leaders called on church members to spread a message of hope to their struggling neighbors but also warn of hell for those who don't repent and follow Jesus.    They passed resolutions urging continued opposition to abortion, and called for aid to people during the economic downturn while reminding members to continue giving to churches in bad times as well as good in their annual meeting for 700 churches.    The message of hope for people struggling with drug addition, gambling, pornography and other problems and to focus on increasing baptism rates which is lagging behind the state's population growth which is a measure of how successful they're proclaiming the gospel.    They stated to be aware of those spreading false teachings of "pluralism" meaning that people can be saved through various spiritual paths, without accepting Jesus as their savior, and those who preach positive thinking over repentence from sin and conversion to Jesus.    The state's 2,400 churches claim a membership of more than 780,000, and should shy away from the abortion culture which has grown to include ongoing assaults on human life such as euthansia, the harvesting of human embryos for the purpose of medical experimentation, and an accelerating move toward human cloning.
• 11/13/2008 Monument dispute argued; decision expected by summer by Mark Sherman, AP.
      Washington - The Supreme Court confronted a case that mixes limits on free speech with issues of church-state separation, by Summum, a small religious group's efforts to place a monument in a public park that already has a Ten Commandments display there since 1971.
• 11/20/2008 Court to hear cases on same-sex marriage by AP.
      San Francisco - California's highest court agreed to hear legal challenges to the state's new ban on same-sex marriage, claiming it abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group, that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.
• 11/22/2008 Germany won't pursue ban on Scientology by AP.
      Potsdam, Germany - Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on the Church of Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said.
• 11/23/2008 Nepalese Buddha figure back in jungle by Binaj Gurubacharya, AP.
      Katmandu, Nepal - A Nepalese teenager, Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha has returned to the jungle to meditate after emerging for less than two weeks.    His followers lined up near the jungle of Ratanpur to be blessed by him.    Buddhism, which has about 325 million followers, teaches that every soul is reincarnated after death in another bodily form.    Some Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of the claims that Bamjan is the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in Nepal roughly 2,500 years ago and became revered as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.
• 11/25/2008 Alleged abuse victims can sue Vatican by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Three Kentucky natives according to a federal appeals court can pursue a lawsuit against the Vatican alleging it covered up sexual abuse by priests - but only if those decisions to cover up sexual abuse were carried out on U.S. soil.
• 12/2/2008 Law's use of God challenged by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Ten Kentucky residents and the national American Atheists Inc. are suing to overturn Kentucky legislation "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth," associated with bans on government-sponsored religion.
• 12/3/2008 Beshear backs law that stresses reliance on God by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Gov. Steve Beshear's administration plans to continue supporting a state law requiring the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge "the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."    This is an attempt to separate America from its history as a nation that perceives itself as a nation under God, an inconvenient truth.
• 12/4/2008 Conservatives break away from Episcopals, Anglicans by AP.
      New York - Theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province with includes four breakaway Episcopalian dioceses and many individual parishes.
• 12/7/2008 Protest near Vatican blasts policy on gays by AP.
      Rome - Gay-rights proponents have denounced the Vatican's policy on homosexuals in a small protest near St. Peter's Square in opposition to a proposed U.N. declaration to decriminalize homosexuality.    The Vatican's envoy to the U.N. said the Holy See opposes the proposal since any resolution against discrimination on gender could pressure countries to recognize same-sex marriages.
• 12/13/2008 Vatican issues bioethics document by Michelle Boorstein and Rob Stein, The Washington Post.
      Washington - The Vatican issued its first statement in a 32-page document called "Dignitas Personae" for dignity of a person, on reproductive science in more than 20 years, condemning human cloning, designer babies, embryonic stem cell research that destroys human embryos and a host of techniques used to help infertile couples.    It reflects the Vatican's desire to focus on ethical questions raised by evolving technologies for Catholic doctors, patients and researchers.
• 12/22/2008 Pope honors Galileo, praises astronomy by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI is marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope, associated with UNESCO's World Year of Astronomy.    The pope said understanding the laws of nature can stimulate understanding and appreciation of the Lord's works.    The Catholic Church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
• 12/24/2008 Vatican is rehabilitating Galileo - Heretic astronomer now a shining star by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is going from heretic to hero, after being its most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, and now they want him to be named the patron of the dialogue between faith and reason.    He made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gathered evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun.    The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith, but Galileo defied its warnings.    Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest.
      The church has for years been striving to shed its reputation for being hostile to science.    In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."    Benedict at some universities was depicted as a religious figure opposed to science and should not speak at a public university, so the reprieve of Galileo is the impetus attempt to change their viewpoint, but is probably a longshot for him.
• 12/26/2008 Pope appeals for solidarity in declining world economy by Frances D'Emilio, AP.
      Vatican City - The pope urged a world confronting a financial crisis, conflict, and increasing poverty not to lose hope at Christmas, but to join in solidarity to prevent global ruin, as the global economy continues to spiral downward.
  
      In the year 2008: several states are still legalizing civil unions, some began allowing gay marriage, but the voting population has spoken and said no; Presbyterians battle over ordination of gay ministers and declining membership, and end up removing the condemnation of homosexuality from its constitution; more dioceses are still paying for sexual abuse scandal at $27 million this year and one went into bankruptcy; religious leaders of Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims and Protestants are trying to bring the world's religions together to find common ground, but at the same time Islamic converts face death sentences, Messianic Jews face persecution in Israel, Christians clashed with Hindus, all which would just lead to Pluralism; Episcopalian churches begin to split up as liberals against conservatives, make an attempt to put the gay marriage issue as a state problem with the church side only blessing marriages; Texas polygamist sect raided for sexual abuse; Pope finds American church a challenge, pushes for a stop to global warming, wants Europe to take bigger role for religion, claims there is a godless nature caused by modern life, issues bioethics document, and tries to get in with the science guys by making Galileo a hero; an American senator puts God on trial and of course He did not show up for his court time.
  
  The year 2009.
  
  
• 1/25/2009 Pope lifts excommunications of four bishops by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish groups.    Twenty years ago each were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent -- a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.    The Vatican says the pope did this in an effort to bring Lefebvre's Society of St. Pius X back into the Vatican's fold.
      Jewish groups denounced the Vaticans decision would have serious implications for Catholic-Jewish relations as well as the pontiff's planned visit to the Holy Land this year.
      On the 31st in a letter to the Vatican, Bishop Richard Williamson, who recently denied in a TV interview that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, called his remarks "imprudent."    This was no apology for the content of his remarks on Swedish TV, only regrets.    No comments from the Vatican.
• 2/2/2009 Pope's promotion of pastor criticized by AP.
      Vienna, Austria - The pope's decision to promote a pastor, Rev, Gerhard Maria Wagner, 54, who suggested Hurricane Katrina was provoked by sin in New Orleans was criticized by Austrian priests and church groups.    He would become the auxiliary bishop in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria province.    In a 2005 report, Wagner had characterized Katrina as divine retribution in a short essay in a parish newsletter, and wrote that people should ask themselves whether the "noticeable" increase of natural disasters such as Katrina was a result of pollution caused by humans or the result of "spiritual pollution."    He also wrote, "This was not the sinking of just any city but that of a people's dream city with the best brothels and prettiest prostitutes."
      My comment: All disasters are probably caused by man, remember Sodom and Gomorrah brought it on themselves.
• 2/5/2009 Holocaust denier must recant by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican, bowing to the growing furor over the pope's decision to accept a return to the church of a prelate who denied the Holocaust, has demanded the bishop to recant.    They claimed also that the pope was not aware of British Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication, putting the blame on leading cardinals in Germany for not fully briefing the pope.
      My comment: You know the old saying, "GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out."
• 2/13/2009 Pontiff condemns denial of Holocaust by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI told American Jewish leaders that he plans to visit Israel in May, coupling the long-awaited announcement with his strongest condemnation of Holocaust denial assuring the Catholic Church was committed to reject all anti-Semitism.    The pope said, "The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity.    This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures."
      On Jan, 21st, Willianson said only about 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed, none of them gassed, and he has apologized for causing distress to the pope, but has not recanted.
• 2/17/2009 God, the globe and greed by Joseph Phelps, The Courier-Journal.
      The healing story of Naaman the Leper by Elisha, the prophet of God, shows Elisha refusing payment for the healing, and then a servant decided to cash in.    He caught up with Naaman and fibbed that Elisha reconsidered and could use a few bags of silver.    The servant hid his ill-gotten loot, but in the end contracted the leprosy that once had been Naaman's.
      This ancient tale reaches through time to today's headlines about the global financial crisis.    After all, the servant only did what any enterprising person might do in order to get ahead.    Seize the moment.    Strike while the iron is hot.
      But when you play with fire, you get burned.    My knowledge of economics and global financial systems wouldn't fill a thimble.    But I do understand greed, opportunism and fear.    And as I watch the players in the global crisis and our attempt to point fingers at an identified culprit.    We are all bathed in greed, since home buyers wanted more house for less money invested.    Lenders wanted the quick payoff of signing up people for loans they knew were beyond the borrowers' abilities.    Banks wanted buckets of loans that could be sold off.    Bundlers of loans had a profitable market for as many as they could create.    People bought these bundled loans on the assumption that they were certain winners.
      Those hired to regulate the process kept their hands off, and let the market keep growing until what we have now the leprosy of greed on us.
      Investigators ask, where were watchdogs?
      Where was the religious community?    Could they not see an economic engine based on sleight of hand rather than the production of goods for trade is not only financial unsound, it is spiritually wrong?    It is morally and spiritually evil to perpetuate a system that benefits one group to the inevitable detriment of another.
  
• 2/20/2009 Lutherans consider gay clergy issues by Eric Gorski, AP.
      The nation's largest Lutheran denomination, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will consider allowing individual congregations to choose whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, an attempt to avoid the sort of infighting that has threatened to tear other churches apart.    They are requesting a consensus in August in Minneapolis at the biannual convention of the 4.7 million-member denomination.
• 2/28/2009 Many turn to faith amid economic fears by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The church Reverends, pastors, etc. are hearing apprehension over the economic recession as people are worried about their own jobs and those of their grown children, loosing their life savings and what else may happen.    The church is urging those to help those who are even worse off than they, and providing practical financial counseling and sermons to give people hope.    Also donations are down, in part because people faced with rising food and medical costs have little left for church.    Church food banks are serving a 50 percent increase from a year ago.
      Two of the states largest religious bodies - the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville -- have frozen salaries for the coming fiscal year, as revenue is about 2 percent behind the budget and even some layoffs occurred.    Some Presbyterians had drops of 27 percent.
• 3/3/2009 Court lets school ban on prayer stand by AP.
      Washington - Coach Marcus Borden use to bow his head and drop to one knee when his football team prayed.    But the Supreme Court ended the practice when it refused to hear the New Jersey high school coach's appeal of a school district ban on employees joining a student-led prayer after some parents complained.
      On the 15th the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed a long-held protection of the religious-liberty rights of individual players and other students, but not for school employee's own religious freedoms.
• 3/8/2009 Presbyterians shift on gays by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Seven years ago a majority of Presbyterians in Southern Indiana backed a ban on ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians.    But last month they reversed its stance and said yes, and they are not alone as opposition is weakening across the nation.
• 3/9/2009 Pope plans May pilgrimage to Holy Land by Ariel David, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI said he would visit the Holy Land May 8-15 in the first papal trip to the area since 2000.    In Israel he would go to sites Jesus visited and would pray for "the precious gift of unity and peace for the Middle East and all of humanity."    He will also do a trip to Africa March 17-23 with stops in Cameroon and Angola, meeting with local bishops, Muslim representatives and women's-rights advocates.    His Mideast tour will touch Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, with stops in Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.
• 3/9/2009 More Americans say they have no religion by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      The Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all, according to a study on American religious life.
      Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990.    Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont heading the pack.    The number of Americans with no religion rose in every state.    Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group at 25 percent, with 57 million people, a gain of 11 million since 1990.    In 2008, Christians comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990.    The cause from dwindling ranks of mainline Protestants, including Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians from 17 percent to 12.9 percent of the population.
      About 12 percent of Americans believe in a higher power but not the personal God at the core of monotheistic faiths, from new religious movements, including Scientology, Wicca and Santeria.
• 3/14/2009 Catholic sex-abuse cost is $2.6 billion by AP.
      New York - The U.S. Roman Cathoilc Church has paid more than $2.6 billion in sex-abuse settlements and related expenses since 1950.    The costs to dioceses and religious orders dropped in 2008 by 29 percent, to about $436 million, where in 2007 they payed out $660 million to about 500 people.    The number of claims rose last year by 16 percent to 803, and six U.S. dioceses have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of abuse lawsuits.
• 3/15/2009 Controversial religious authors at theology festival by Peter Smith, the Courier-Journal.
      Two popular and polarizing religious authors are coming to town -- along with a third who challenges the notion that old Protestant churches are doomed to extinction.
      Brian McLaren - whose books argue that Christianity is less about right doctrine than about right action on the urgent social problems of the day.    He raised the possibility that non-Christians could go to heaven.    He is a pastor and author, has written such books as "A Generous Orthodoxy," a manifesto of the "emerging" church movement that seeks to go beyond traditional labels of liberal and conservative and find ways to reach people who aren't being reached by churches.    More recently, his book "Everything Must Change," seeks to identify the biggest problems of the era, such as global poverty, and apply Jesus' teaching to them.    He says Jesus had a message of "personal, social and global transformation in this life" that is at least as important as any focus on the afterlife.
      Marcus Borg - whose books contend that the real Jesus is different from the one in a literal interpretation of the Gospels.    He has also drawn strong admirers and fierce critics for his revisionist look at the Gospels in such books as "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time."    He wants people to take the Bible seriously but not literally.    He argues that people can understand the Gospels as being true to the early Christians' "experience" of Jesus, even though he contends that many accounts, including much of the Gospel of John, are "not, by and large, historically factual."
      Diana Butler Bass - who says moderate and liberal Protestant congregations can succeed without imitating the model of the evangelical mega-church.    Her most recent book, "Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith," argues that older Protestant churches don't have to decline, if they suceed by taking serious approaches to hospitality, contemplation, diversity, justice and worship.
      All three are finding new ways of angling how the church needs to change and grow to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and not without controversy as some have been snubbed by the Kentucky Baptist Convention for their views.
• 3/18/2009 Pope, visiting Africa, says condoms won't halt AIDS by AP.
      Yaounde, Cameroon - Condoms are not the answer to Africa's fight against HIV, Pope Benedict XVI said in his first visit to Africa and statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.    He claims a responsible, moral atitude toward sex would help fight the disease, that about 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, and has 75 percent of all AIDS deaths worldwide.    Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope was serious about preventing new HIV infections, he would focus on promoting access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.
      My comment: That's if he even knows how to use one.
• 3/21/2009 Pope condemns sexual violence by AP.
      Luanda, Angola - The pope arriving in Luanda condemned sexual violence against women in Africa and chided those countries on the continent that have approve abortion.    The former Portuguese colony is mainly Catholic and the pope lamented what he called strains on the traditional African family, particularly the disturbing crushing yoke of discrimination that women and girls so often endure, not to mention the unspeakable practice of sexual violence and exploitation which causes such humiliation and trauma.
      On the 22nd, tens of thousands of Angola's Catholics lined the streets of the capital for a blessing from the pope, who urged the nation's faithful to reach out and convert people who believe in witchcraft and sorcery.    He said, "Catholics should offer the message of Christ to many who live in fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened."
      My comment: The day was soured by a Catholic Zombie stampede to see the pope, which killed two people injured eight, and another one when he arrived later resulting in 20 people taken away in ambulances.
      On the 23rd the pope celebrated Mass and decries African wars by telling the crowd that reconciliation on the war-ravage continent would come only with a change of heart and a new way of thinking.    He said evils in Africa had reduced the poor to slavery and deprived future generations of the resources needed to create a more solid and just society.
• 3/26/2009 'Antichrist's' spiritual center opposed by AP.
      Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Lawmakers have asked authorities to stop a religious group led by a man calling hismself the "Antichrist" from building a spiritual center in Tegucigalpa.    Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is banned from entering Honduras, but his Growing in Grace Church has 20 offices in the Central American nation.    Miranda preaches that sin and the devil do not exist.
• 4/4/2009 Same-sex marriage legalized in Iowa by Amy Lorentzen, AP.
      Des Moines, Iowa - Iowa's Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in a unaminous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state with Mass. and Conn. -- and first in the nation's heartland -- to allow same-sex couples to wed.    They rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.    The argument was that, "excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."    No rehearing was asked for, just going to wait for a constitutional amendment, which could take years to ratify.
• 4/8/2009 Outreach to Islam by AP.
      In Obama's first tour of Europe it was OK to hug the Queen, and tell the world that the U.S. is not at war with Islam.    Barack Hussein Obama said to Turkey, "America's relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al-Qaida."    "We will listen carefully, will bridge misunderstanding, and we will seek common ground.    We will be respectful, even when we do not agree.    And we will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over centuries to shape the world, including in my own country," the President said.
      "The U.S. has been enriched by Muslim Americans.    Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country.    I know, because I am one of them."    Under Obama the U.S. has broken from arrogant, pre-emptive, unilateral approach of the last eight years that so isolated us from the rest of the world.    He also said, "One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.    We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
      My comment: Oh wow!    The Obamanation!!
  
• 4/8/2009 Vermont legislature leagalizes gay marriage by David Gram, AP.
      Montpelier, Vt. - Vermont became the fourth state with gay marriage when lawmakers voted to override a veto by the governor.    It is the first state to legalize gay marriage with a legislature vote rather than through a court ruling.
• 4/9/2009 Gay-marriage law may force debate by Brian Westley, AP.
      Washington - The next battleground over gay marriage could be the U.S. Capitol, since a preliminary vote by the District of Columbia City council to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere puts the issue on a path to Congress, which has final say over D.C.'s laws.    That may force lawmakers to take up the politically dicey debate after years of letting it play out in the states.    That could signal a re-examining of the Defense of Marriage Act.
• 4/18/2009 Vatican defends pope's views on condoms, AIDS by AP.
      Vatican City - Critics of the Catholic Church's social teachings are trying to intimidate Pope Benedict XVI into silence, the Vatican charged in a response to attacks on the pontiff's remarks about AIDS and condom use.
      France, Germany, the United Nations' AIDS-fighting agency and the British medical journal The Lancet called the remarks irresponsible and dangerous.    The Belgian parliament passed a resolution calling them "unacceptable" and demanded Belgium's government officially protest, which prompted the statement from the Vatican Secretariat.
• 4/26/2009 Presbyterians reject gay clergy, but vote closer by Eric Gorski, AP.
      Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been defeated again, sealed by votes.    The vote was much closer than in previous years encouraging for gay clergy supporters.
• 4/28/2009 First same-sex couples tie the knot in Iowa by Amy Lorentzen, AP.
      Des Moines, Iowa - The first same-sex couples tied the knot in Iowa by a female pastor during a ceremony in front of the Polk County administration offices in Des Moines.    They have already received 57 marriage applications from same-sex couples by 11:30 a.m.
• 5/9/2009 Pope professes his 'deep respect' for Islam by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Amman, Jordan- Pope Benedict XVI began his trip to the Middle East, expressing his "deep respect' for Islam and hopes the Catholic church would be a force for peace there as he trod carefully after past missteps with Muslims and Jews.
      The pope got a red-carpet welcome at the airport from Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania and praised the moderate Arab nation as a leader in efforts to promote peace and dialogue between Christians and Muslims.    On the 11th the pope praised the courage of Middle East Christians who cling to their faith despite war, poverty and adversity, addressing a crowd of 20,000 in a sports stadium and an open-air Mass.
• 5/23/2009 Are churches taking elderly for granted? by Peter smith, The Courier-Journal.
      At first, the idea of churches overlooking their elderly members seems hard to grasp, since surveys show them still a major factor of population in many Protestant congregations.    Yet many churches have paid so much attention to attracting the young to insure their future that they may be overlooking the needs of those in their midst.    More than 25 percent of United Methodists are 65 or older -- compared with 16 percent of people nationally, where 23 percent of Protestants are 65 or older, as are 19 percent of evangelical Protestants such as Baptists.    Catholics and members of black churches are right at the national average.
• 5/27/2009 California gay-marriage ban upheld by Lisa Leff, AP.
      San Francisco - The California Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but also said that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.
• 6/5/2009 Obama reaches out to Muslims by AP.
      Cairo - President Barack Obama said, "Assalamu aleikum," -- peace be upon you in a 55-minute speech at Cairo University in which he invoked his middle name, Hussein, quoted from the Quran and spoke of his country's common purpose with a religion he said America will never engage in war.    He hopes to dissolve the mistrust between Islam and the West by highlighting his personal appeal as he called for an end to intolerance and violence and a move toward a shared future, and quell religious extremism.
• 6/6/2009 Pope, Irish churchmen meet after abuse report by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has met with Ireland's top churchmen following the publication of a damning report detailing decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at church-run reform schools in Ireland.
• 7/12/2009 ACLU sues Jackson County by Peter smith, The Courier-Journal.
      A federal lawsuit alleges that Jackson County officials are violating the Constitution by posting stand-alone displays of the Ten Commandments at both entrances to the county courthouse, outside various offices and even next to a women's restroom.    A resident of the Eastern Kentucky county and the ACLU of Kentucky are suing in the U.S. District Court for the eastern District of Kentucky to declare the displays, nine in all, unconstitutional and have them taken down including a 10th display of the commandments measuring 2-by5 feet behind the judge's bench in the building's courtroom.
      On the July 23rd, Jackson county officials have removed several displays of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse in wake of a federal lawsuit.
      My comment: Everyone should heed what is occurring here.    They kept them until they were imperil of losing their jobs over their faith.    But let me tell you there will come a day in the next decade, mark my words, where all of us will experience tribulation in that we each will have to make a choice between the New World Order system of what we can have and cannot have, and where our allegience lies, in order to even buy, sell or trade.
• 7/18/2009 Episcopals weigh gay issues by Bob Smietana, The Tennessean.
      Meeting in Anaheim, Calif., last week, clergy and lay leaders from the Episcopal Church approved two measures that affect gay church members.
      The first, known as resolution D025, says that any church member -- including those in committed sexual relationships -- can serve in any church office, including bishop.
      The second deals with church blessings for gay marriage.    Bishops in states where gay marriage is allowed can provide "a generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church."
      Critics claim this does not clear up what the future of the church is.
• 7/26/2009 The Church of What's Happenin' Now by Cal Thomas, The Tribune Media services.
      In the early '70s, comedian Flip Wilson created a character for his NBC television program called "Reverend Leroy" of "The Church of What's Happenin' Now."    Reverend Leroy was con artist who, among other things, once took an offering to go to Las Vegas, explaining he had to study sin in order to effectively preach against it.    Reverend Leroy would feel right at home in the modern Episcopal Church, which recently voted at its denominational meeting to end the ban on the ordination of gay bishops and permit marriage blessings for same-sex couples.
      Denominational leaders explained they are attempting to stem the exodus from their church by embracing a new doctrine they call "inclusivity," which they hope will attract young people.
      Apparently church leaders think that if they can reach people before they have fully matured in their faith, they can sidetrack them into beliefs that have nothing to do with the God that Episcopalians once claimed to worship and that they can be shaped into practical secularists who are willing to seek the approval of men, rather than God.
      Inclusivity has nothing to do with the foundational truths set forth in Scripture.    The church, which belongs to no denomination, but to its Founding Father and His son, is about exclusivity for those who deny the faith.    The church is inclusive only for those who are adopted by faith into God's family.    There are more biblical references to this than there is room to cite here, but for the Episcopal leadership, biblical references no longer have the power to persuade, much less compel them to conform, and deny scripture for a word inclusivity that appears nowhere in Scripture.    Even if it did they would choose another word to make them feel more comfortable, since accomodation with the world seems to be more important objective than the favor of God.
      Other denominations have been putting themselves through theological makeovers besides Episcopalians in recent years.
• 8/6/2009 Psychologists reject trying to make gays straight by AP.
      New York - The American Psychological Association declared that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients thay can become straight through therapy or other treatments.    Instead, the APA urged therapist to consider multiple options -- ranging from celibacy to switching churches - to help clients whose sexual oreintation and religious faith conflict.    They claim no solid evidence exists that a change in sexual orientation is likely, and some research suggest efforts to produce change could be harmful.
• 8/23/2009 Lutherans' gay clergy vote tests churches by Eric Gorski, AP.
      In breaking down barriers restricting gays and lesbians from the pulpit, America's largest Lutheran denomination has laid down a new marker in a debate over the direction of mainline Protestant Christianity, a tradition that once dominated American religious life.
      By voting to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, the 4.7 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will either show how a church can stand together amid differences or become another casualty of division over sexual morality and the Bible.
      The ELCA, America's seventh-largest Christian church, reached its conclusion after eight years of study and deliberation, and struck down a policy that required any gay and lesbian clergy to remain celibate, and are aware they are straying from clear Scriptural direction and expect defections.    This decision is jarring since the ELCA was one of the more Reformation-rooted, broadly orthodox denominations, and will try to avoid fissures that have strained the broader Anglican Communion.
• 8/27/2009 Court strikes down reference to God by Stephanie Steitzer, The courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - A Franklin circuit judge declared unconstitutional a reference to God in a 2006 law creating the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.    The passed law required the office to acknowledge "the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."    The law requires the executive director of the office to include a statement asserting the state's reliance on God in training materials and on a plaque at the Emergency Operations Center.
      Of course this violates the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions, which prohibit the government from establishing an offical religion.    It likely would have been permissible had it merely allowed officials to request God's assistance in protecting Kentucky.
• 9/5/2009 Conway appeals ruling against law's use of 'God' by Tom Loftus, The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - Attorney General Jack Conway, who represents the state, appealed a court ruling that declared unconstitutional the references to God in a law creating the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, since he claims the law in question "merely acknowledges religion" and does not try to establish it.
• 9/27/2009 Pope cites wounds inflicted by Communism by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Prague - Pope Benedict XVI sought to reach out to the heavily secular people of the Czech Republic, decrying the "wounds" left by atheistic communism and urging them to rediscover their Christian roots.    As he began a three-day pilgrimage coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in this central European country.    The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in Europe, with nearly half the country professing to be non-believers.    Hardly anyone showed up for his visit at the airport, no crowds, billboards and barely mentioned in the newspapers.    In 1948 the communist regime seized power in what was then Czechoslovakia, and confiscated all church-owned property and persecuted many priests, thus now many have drifted away from the faith from the wounds caused by atheist ideology and has been seduced by modern mentality of hedonistic consumerism.
• 10/3/2009 Report: Many congregations struggling by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      In a recent report on all American religious congregations:
  • Less than half have seen much growth in the previous five years.
  • Just over a third are spiritually vital with a clear mission.
      The biggest losers are what it calls "oldline Protestants" such as Methodist, Lutherans and Episcopalians, who have been shrinking in membership, nearly a quarter of their congregations have half or more of their members older than 64.    This did not include Southern Baptists.
      The mega-churches have learned to appeal to baby boomers with contemporary worship, but no one has figured out yet how to reach today's young adults, a generation gap beyond anyone's grasp.
• 10/12/2009 Thousands march for gay rights by Brett Zongker, AP.
      Washington - Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.
• 10/21/2009 Appeals court hears counties' Commandments posting case by AP.
      An attorney for two Kentucky counties (Pulaski and McCreary) tried to persuade a federal appeals court that its officials have had a change of heart over the past decade -- that even if their original motive was religious when they posted the Ten Commandments in county courthouses, it isn't anymore.    So they now have new found secular motives to educate the public about the role of the commandments and other documents in American history.    Of course the ACLU said the counties are trying to pull a fast one by stating a secular motive after 10 years of religious purpose behind the displays, on the advise of a lawyer advising a client.
      Then they displayed it with the U.S. Constitution, the Mayflower Compact and the Magna Carta, denied to them, but which has been allowed in other Kentucky counties and Indiana if there was no track record of religious motives.
• 11/3/2009 Maine to vote on same-sex marriage by AP.
      Portland, Maine - The state's voters will decide whether to repeal a gay-marriage bill signed into law in May by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.    If it looses it would be a jolting setback for the gay-rights movement and the first time voters overturned a gay-marriage law enacted by a legislature.    Five other states have legalized same-sex marriage - Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, all by legislation or court rulings.    Gay rights was also on the ballot in Washington state for domestic partnership laws.
• 11/11/2009 Vatican ask if aliens are possible by Ariel David, AP.
      Vatican City - E.T., phone Rome.
      Four hundred years after it locked Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts in astrobiology to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.
      The possibility of alien life raises many philosophical and theological implications in a biological universe.
      The Church of Rome's views have shifted radically since the Italian philospher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited.    Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system.
• 11/12/2009 Mormons support gay-rights ordinance by AP.
      It looked like a stunning reversal: the same church that helped defeat gay marriage in California standing with gay-rights activists on an anti-discrimination law in its own backyard.    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it would support proposed city laws that would prohibit discrimination against gays in housing and employment.    The conservative Mormon church emphasized that its latest position in no way contradicts its teachings on homosexuality.
• 11/26/2009 Shroud of Turin debate revived by Ariel David, AP.
      Rome - A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus, although in 1988 carbon-dating puts the shroud being a medieval forgery.    She claims in a new book that she used computer-enhanced images to decipher faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the cloth.    She asserts that the words include the name "(J)esu(s) Nazareth - in Greek, which proves it is not of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have mentioned Jesus without referring to his divinity.    Failing to do so would risk being branded a heretic.    Skeptics point out that the tested threads came from patches used to repair the shroud after a fire.
• 11/27/2009 Report: Irish bishops hid abuse for decades by Shawn Pogatchnik, AP.
      Dublin - Roman Catholic Church leaders in Dublin spent decades sheltering child-abusing priests from the law, as fellow clerics turned a blind eye, an investigation ordered by Ireland's government concluded.    Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who handed over more than 60,000 previously secret church files to the three-year investigation, felt deep shame for how previous archbishops presided over endemic child abuse - then claimed not to understand the gravity of their sins.
      No one reported a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995, for abuse that went back to 1940, with some 46 priests who faced 320 documented complaints.
  
      In the year 2009: several states are allowing gay marriage, and it is being pushed to Congress; Presbyterians, Episcopalian and Lutheran churches gave in to ordination of gay ministers and declining membership, and end up removing the condemnation of homosexuality from its constitution; dioceses costs for sexual abuse scandal totalled $2.6 billion and 8 went into bankruptcy, but a whole new one opened up in Ireland; Now President Barack Obama is trying to bring together the religious leaders of Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims and Protestants to find common ground to aid in a new Pluralism; Pope makes trips to Africa and the Middle East and fowls that up; and God is being taken out of everything that is federal and state.
  
  The year 2010.
  
  
• 1/9/2010 Religious tensions flare in Malaysia by Vijay Joshi, AP.
      Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Religious tensions in Muslim-majority Malaysia turned violent with firebomb attacks on three churches following a court decision that allows Christians to translate God as Allah.    "Allah is only for us," said on a poster at protests outside mosques in Kuala Lumpur on the Muslim holy day.    Many Muslims are angry about a Dec. 31 High Court decision overturning a government ban on Roman Catholics' using "Allah" for God in the Malay-language edition of their main newspaper, the Herald.    The ruling also applies to the ban's broader applications, such as Malay-language Bibles, 10,000 copies of which were recently seized because they translated God as Allah.    Malaysia contends making Allah synonymous with God may confuse Muslims and mislead them into converting to Christianity, a punishable offense despite a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion.    It suggests using "Tuhan," but Christians say Tuhan is more like "Lord," and can't replace "Allah."    Muslim scholars, activists and opposition politicians have supported Christians' right to call God Allah.
  
• 1/24/2010 Pope: Priests should use new media tools by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog.
      The pope, whose own presence on the Web has heavily grown in recent years, urged priests to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the Gospel.
  
• 2/1/2010 Annual interfaith event offers appeals for peace - sevice also honored Gandhi by Jenna Esarey, The Courier-Journal.
      With prayer, chants, dance and readings, people from various religious traditions made appeals for peace at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Albany, Ind.    The third annual Interfaith Service of Compassion, hosted by Interfaith Paths to Peace, drew about 30 people.    Representatives of the Baha'i faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity participated in the service, which also honored the memory of Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian political and spiritual leader who was assainnated 62 years ago Jan. 30.    Interfaith Paths to Peace is a Louisville-based organization that is not affiliated with any specific religion, whose mission is to do all kinds of different events that will bring religions together.
  
• 2/3/2010 'In God We Trust' plate is approved by House 93-1 by The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - The Kentucky House has passed legislation creating a new standard-issue license plate with the nation's motto, "In God We Trust."    House Bill 100 would make the plate available to all drivers at no extra cost.    If the measure becomes law drivers would be allowed to choose either the "In God We Trust" plate or the current standard issue "Unbridled Spirit" plate, after being rejected by the Transportation Cabinet saying it promotes a "specific faith or religious position."    The bill now goes to the Senate.
  
• 2/7/2010 Clergy speak for inclusion by various Clergy from Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist churches.
      The question of gays and lesbians and their place in American society is again front page news.    As local ministers we believe it is critically important, perhaps even a matter of life and death for some, to make public our personal religious convictions which welcome and fully include men and women who are gay or lesbian.
      We recognize that this view differs from the traditional position of many religious communities, even some from within our own congregations.    Change, however, is woven into the journey of faith itself.    The Bible is replete with stories of changing understandings and course corrections.    These growing understandings move God's people from one place to another, both geographically and metaphorically.
  Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul and especially Jesus continue to deepen and alter our relationship with religious laws and teachings by building upon the previous generations' experiences.
      This is to say that our religious understandings, are also not static.    The mysteries of the Eternal continue to be revealed to those who trust that Sacred Love yearns for our wholeness as well as our holiness.
      We acknowledge the small handful of disparate Bible references to various kinds of activities which are often erroneously group under the category of "homosexual."    However, when we read these passages carefully in their context, clarify what is being prohibited or condemned, place these passages within the larger witness of Scripture and discern God's Spirit speaking through science and social discoveries, we find the case for exclusion of gays and lesbians to be no more defensible than the view taken form select scriptures that women today should be silent in church.    To the contrary, we find the gospel's radical inclusion challenging us to open our hearts and our doors to all of God's children.
      This is a far cry from moral relativism.    It is, rather, a humble trust in a Spirit who is among us even today helping us to interpret Scripture, include science, and inspire society to be shaped by love of God and love for neighbors near and far.    The result, for us, is the inclusion of families and individuals who are gay and whose faith is sacred.
      We acknowledge that our view can be seen as a kind of minority report within the larger religious community.    The place of gay and lesbian persons continues to be a complex question.    For decades, debates have ensued using Scripture, science and social norms to discern the place of gay and lesbian persons within the church and society in general.    These religious debates occasionally produce helpful insights, but mostly result in more heat than light, which too often obscures our points in common.
      We wish to acknowledge these points of commonality with those with whom we disagree: that clergy on all sides of this conversation believe there is right and wrong, and that all of us, no matter where we stand on this issue, work to embrace the right and eliminate the wrong.
      We all seek to understand the heart of the Holy and to connect our limited understandings to how we live as individuals and as a people in community.    We all seek to honor Scripture, to be open to sciences' findings, and to live within the social context of our day.    We all desire to love our neighbors and to advocate for what we perceive to be the best for all.    Taken as a whole, the religious community is not mean-spirited or petty, but rather sincere and compassionate.
      Our purpose in stating publicly our personal position about gays and lesbians is to allow the public to know that this issue is not closed within the church, at least not for us.    We speak out to offer a word of hope and love to the gay and lesbian community of Louisville and beyond.    Finally, we speak to clarify to those who hear the church's majority view as a hateful word.    We believe it is not intended to be.    The core of who we are, even in our disagreements is love.
  
• 2/10/2010 Kentucky General Assembly - Public school rules sought for teaching about Bible by The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort. Ky. - The state would create rules for teaching about the Bible in public high schools under a bill filed by three Democratic senators.    Senate Bill 142 calls for the Kentucky Board of Education to establish guidelines for an elective course on the Bible's literary structure and its influence on "literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy."    Nonsectarian courses about the Bible are already legal in Kentucky - and, according to publishers of Bible cirricula, already taking place in some public schools here.    But creating state regulations for them would give them an added push.
      There is nothing that would prohibit teachers from incorporating the Bible in their coursework as long as they're not proselytizing or promoting a specific religious belief.    The bill states that the course must follow all federal and state laws in maintaining religious neutrality and accommodating the diverse religious views of students.    They can teach but not preach.
      On the 19th the bill was approved by the state Senate Education Committee, and will go to the full Senate now.    So until we put God back into our households, things in society will not change or get better, as in teaching life skills and value systems.    Critics think the bill is a Trojan horse for trouble, a bill about God in the classroom.
      On the 26th the senate passed Bill 142 for its historical teaching.
  
• 2/16/2010 Irish bishops are urged to admit blame for abuse by AP.
      Rome - A top Vatican prelate, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told Irish bishops at a Vatican summit with Pope Benedict XVI they must admit their own blame in cover-ups of generations of sex abuse of minors or risk losing the faith of Ireland's Catholics.
      A state report last year found that church leaders in Dublin had spent decades protecting child-abusing priest from the law while many fellow clerics pretended not to see.
      On the 19th Irish bishops one-by-one will give an accounting to Pope Benedict XVI of what they knew about decades of sexual abuse by clergy, but none are expected to resign during the extraordinary summit on the scandal.
  
• 2/21/2010 Official dismisses calls for his resignation by AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican's top bioethics official, Monsignor Renato Fisichella, dismissed calls for his resignation following an uproar over his defense of doctors who aborted the twin fetuses of a 9-year-old child who was raped by her stepfather.    This was from five members of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life who questioned his suitability to lead the institution.
  
• 3/6/2010 Israel's right to exist backed in new Presbyterian report by The Courier-Journal.
      A Presbyterian report strongly affirms Israel's right to exist while sharply criticizing its occupation of Palestinian lands as the main cause of "a rapidly disintegrating hope for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine."    The report, which comes after a period of tensions between Presbyterians and Jews, faults the U.S. for not using its aid to Israel as leverage to end the occupation.
  [Comment: What I read the U.S. did try to use their aid to bribe them, it was the Palestinians that kept walking away from the talks.]
  
• 3/9/2010 Hundreds slaughtered in Nigerian religious attacks by Jon Gambrell, AP.
      Dogo Nahawa, Nigeria - The killers showed no mercy: they didn't spare women and children from their machetes.    A dump truck carried dozens of bodies past burned-out homes toward a mass grave.    Rubber-gloved workers tossed the bodies into the mass grave, and the grieving crowd sang: "Jesus, show me the way."
      At least 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered, according residents, aid groups and journalists.
      The horrific violence comes after sectarian killings in this region in January left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslim.    This bloodshed in three mostly Christian villages appeared to be reprisal attacks.
      Nigeria is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south.    The recent bloodshed has been happening in central Nigeria, in towns which lie along the country's religious fault line.    It is Nigeria's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.
  
• 3/12/2010 Condom machine in school fuels firestorm by Alessandra Rizzo, AP.
      Rome - A Rome high school's decision to install condom vending machines has set off a storm in Italy, with the Catholic Church charging that the move will encourage young people to have sex and Rome's mayor saying it sends the wrong message.
      But the Keplero high school vowed to go ahead with its experiment, billed as the first in the capital.    It is new in Italy but schools in several other European countries have installed the machines in hopes of curbing teen pregnancy and HIV.
      Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the pope's vicar for Rome, said the decision trivializes sex.    He said it "cannot be approved by Rome's ecclesiastical community or by Christian families who are seriously concerned with the education of their children."    The Italian Bishops' Conference said that sex is being reduced to "mere physical exercise."    The Vatican opposes artificial contraception.
  
• 3/12/2010 Use of 'God' upheld for Pledge, money by Terrence Chea, AP.
      San Francisco - A fedeal appeals court upheld use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.
      The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.
      "The Pledge is constitutional," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in a 2-1 ruling that said the Pledge "serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our republic was founded."    The same court ruled in Newdow's favor in 2002 after he sued his daughter's school district for making students recite the Pledge at school.    That lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but the high court ruled that Newdow lacked legal standing because he didn't have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he brought the case.    So he filed an identical challenge on behalf of other parents who objected to the recitation of the Pledge at school and in 2005 the federal judge decided in Newdow's favor, ruling that the Pledge was unconstitutional.
      So for now the appeals court upheld inscription of the national motto "In God We Trust" on coins and currency because the court said the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic, not religious.
  
• 3/13/2010 Right guides Texas textbooks by April Castro, AP.
      Austin, Texas - The Texas State Board of Education agreed to new social studies standards after a far-right faction ultra-conservatives wielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free enterprise system, religion and other topics.    They advocated ideas such as teaching more about the weakness of evolutionary theory and affects textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.    The board rejected an attempt to ensure that children learn why the U.S. was founded on the principle of religious freedom.    But it agreed to strengthen nods to Chrisitanity by adding references to "laws of nature and nature's God" to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.    And historic periods will still be classified as B.C. and A.D., rather than by the non-religious terms C.E. (for Common Era) and B.C.E.
      It also agreed to strike the word "democratic" in references to the form of U.S. government, opting instead to call it a "constitutional republic."    In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
  
• 3/13/2010 Pope under fire in sex abuse case - German priest received transfer by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Germany's sex abuse scandal has now reached Pope Benedict XVI: His former archdiocese acknowledged it transferred a suspected pedophile priest while Benedict was in charge.
      Also, criticism is mounting over a 2001 Vatican directive he penned instructing bishops to keep abuse cases secret.    The revelations have put the spotlight on Benedict's handling of abuse claims both when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 and then as the prefect of the Vatican office that deals with such crimes - a position he held until his 2005 election as pope.
      Benedict got a firsthand look at the scope of the scandal in his native land from the head of the German bishops' conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, who reported that the pontiff had expressed "great dismay and deep shock" over the scandal, but encouraged bishops to continue searching for the truth.
      The Munich archdiocese admitted that it had let a priest suspected of having abused a child return to pastoral work in the 1980s, while Benedict was archbishop.    It said that Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, didn't know about the transfer, which had been decided by a lower-ranking official.    The archdiocese said there were no accusations against the chaplain, identified only as H, during his 1980-1982 stay in Munich, where he underwent therapy for suspected "sexual relations with boys."    But H. then moved to nearby Grafing, where he was suspended in early 1985 after new accusations of sexual abuse.    The following year, he was convicted of sexually abusing minors.    The Munich vicar-general who approved the priest's transfer had taken full responisbility for the decision.
      Victim advocates find it hard to believe that Ratzinger didn't reassign the predator, or know about the reassignment according to SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests.
      The pope continues to be under fire for a 2001 Vatican letter he sent to all bishops advising them that all cases of sexual abuse of minors must be forwarded to his then-office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that the cases were to be subject to pontifical secret.    Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has cited the document as evidence that the Vatican created a "wall of silence" around abuse cases that prevented prosecution.    And lawyers for abuse victims in the U.S. have cited the document in arguing that the church tried to obstruct justice.    The letter doesn't tell bishops to also report the crimes to police, as a general principle of moral theology is that church officials are obliged to follow civil laws where they live.
  
• 3/15/2010 Vatican defends celibacy rule for priests by AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe.    The Vatican has been on the defensive ever since the first of some 170 former students from Catholic schools in Pope Benedict XVI's native Germany came forward with claims of physical and sexual abuse.
      Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the pope's closet advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called last week for an honest examination of issue like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse.
  
• 3/15/2010 Presbyterian report on Mideast stirs controversy by The Courier-Journal.
      The Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) put out a report on the Middle East drawing criticism from major Jewish organizations and support from pro-Palestinian groups around the nation.    In 2004 the church pulled investments from Israel and used them for promoting regional peace.
  
• 3/21/2010 Pope apologizes to Irish for abuses - German bishops also offer regret by Shawn Pogatchnik, AP.
      Dublin - Pope Benedict XVI unprecedented letter to Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Catholic Church failed to calm the anger of many victims, who accused the Vatican of ducking its own responsibility in promoting a worldwide culture of cover-up.    Benedict's message - the product of weeks of consultation with Irish bishops, who read it aloud at Masses across this predominantly Catholic nation - rebuked Ireland's church leaders for "grave errors of judgment" in failing to observe the church's secretive canon laws.
      The pope, who himself stands accused of approving the transfer of an accused priest for treatment rather than informing German police during his 1977-82 term as Munich archbishop, suggested that child-abusing priests could have been expelled quickly had Irish bishops applied the church's own laws correctly.    He pledged a church inspection of unspecified dioceses and orders in Ireland to ensure their child-protection policies were effective.    He also appealed to priests still harboring sins of child molestation to confess.    "Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he wrote.    But Benedict offered no endorsement of three official Irish investigations that found the church leadership to blame for the scale and longevity of abuse heaped on Irish children throughout the 20th century.
  
• 3/22/2010 Some locals focus on spirituality, not religion - Many seeking a connection to the heart by AP.
      About a dozen people huddled at a Popular Level Road coffehouse drawn by the discussion topic, "I'm Not Religious ... I'm Spiritual."    They spoke of their alienation from clergy, creeds, congregations and sermons of condemnation.    They spoke of connection to the divine through laughter and nature, of mystic connections with deceased love ones, of the awe of a newborn baby or the Milky Way on a clear winter night.
      Survey numbers suggest the group is on the vanguard of a social transformation.    Twenty-seven percent of American adults identify themselves as "more spiritual than religious," up from 19 percent in 1998, according to survey that monitors cultural trends.    If they were a religion they would be roughly equal to the largest religious body in the U.S., the Roman Catholic Church or more than all Baptist groups combined.
      Many believe that this is such as empowerment by the Holy Spirit, while others believe in God but has found spiritual meaning in yoga and philosophy, but spirituality means many things to many people it does have common themes: some who have been hurt by clergy; to have higher levels of education and income; and to take part in mystical and group spiritual experiences; and less likely to pray and hold orthodox beliefs and more likely to be agnostic.
      Such trends alarm Christians who emphasize Jesus as the only sourch of truth and salvation, instead of their, "my own personal religion with my own individual creed."    Many have dismissed the hard-line atheists, saying there has to be more to life than what's visible, but they are wary of organized religion.
  
• 3/23/2010 6 in German diocese accused of abuse by Melissa Eddy, AP.
      Regensburg, Germany - Four priests and two nuns in the Regensburg diocese are under investigation involving sexual abuse allegations, the diocese said.    The church has been pursuing the cases with the goals of achieving justice and help for the victims, punishing the offenders and preventing crimes, said Clemens Neck, a diocese spokesman.
  
• 3/26/2010 Sex abuse scandals threatens to tarnish papacy by AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican strongly defended its decision not to defrock an American priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin and denounced what it call a campaign to smear Pope Benedict XVI and his aides.    Church and Vatican documents showed that in the mid-1990s, two Wisconsin bishops urged the Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now the pope - to let them hold a church trial against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.    The bishops admitted the trial was coming years after the alleged abuse but, argued that the deaf community in Milwaukee was demanding justice from the church.    Revelations that the Vatican halted the investigation are eerily similar to a case in Italy, where 67 deaf men and women accused two dozen priests of raping and molesting children for years.    So now the scandal is on both sides of the Atlantic.
  
• 3/29/2010 Presbyterians plan new round of cuts - Economy, loss of members cited by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Facing continued drops in membership and a shrinking budget, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is offering severence packages to about 30 employees at its Louisville headquarters as part of an effort to cut its budget by nearly one-fifth by 2012.    This impending round of cuts is the latest in a series over the past decade as the denomination attempts to cope with losses in membership, congregations and more recently, investment returns.    [Comment: I hope they did not blame it on Israel.]
      Since 2002 to 2009 they had 186 layoffs and 64 for attrition for a total of 250.
  
• 4/1/2010 Italian politicians, media defend pope by AP.
      Rome - Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini rushed to Pope Benedict XVI defense, as Italian newspapers labeled foreign media reports "attack" for questioning what he may have known about the pedophile clergy scandal rocking Europe.    Italian politicians have rallied to defend the pope in face of reports that Benedict allegedly allowed a pedophile preist to do pastoral work while he was Munich's archbishop.    The church plays a vital role in a nation chronically short of children's public services, from summer day care to nursery schools to recreation programs.
  
• 4/2/2010 Cardinals defend pope on church sex abuse scadal by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Vatican City - Cardinals across Europe used their Holy sermons to defend Pope Benedict XVI from accusations that he played a role in covering up sex abuse scandals, and the Vatican sought to deflect any criticism in the Western media.    The church singled out The New York Times, which ran a story on the church's decision in the 1990s not to defrock a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting deaf boys.    On the Vatican's Web site, Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote: "I am not proud of America's newspaper of record, The New York Times, as a paragon of fairness," who said it wrongly used the case of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy to find fault in Benedict's handling of abuse cases.    The Times defended the articles and said no one has cast doubt on the reported facts.
      Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz said he criticized the media for "targeting the whole church, targeting the pope, and to that we must say 'no' in the name of truth and in the name of justice."
  
• 4/3/2010 Abuse claims akin to anti-Semitism? - Pope's preacher says they are by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher likened accusations agaisnt the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.    [Comment: That sounds like what goes around comes around to me.]    Reaction form Jewish groups and victims of clergical sex abuse ranged from skepticism to fury.
      The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter's Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote him to say the accusations remind him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."    The Vatican distanced itself from his remarks, since such parallelism can lead to misunderstandings and not the stance of the church.
      The critics said they are sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up or lined up and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz?    You cannot be serious."
  
• 4/4/2010 Anglican leader: Irish church lost its standing by AP.
      London - The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland lost all credibility because of its mishandling of abuse by priests, the leader of the Anglican church said in remarks.
  
• 4/4/2010 Abuse case languished, records show - Bishop wanted priest removed by Matt Sedensky, AP.
      The future Pope Benedict XVI took over the abuse case of an Arizona priest, then let it languish at the Vatican for years, despite repeated pleas from a bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood, according to church correpondence.
      Documents reviewed by the AP show that in the 1990s, a church tribunal found that the Rev. Michael Teta of Tucson, Ariz., had molested children as far back as the late 1970s.    The panel deemed his behavior - including allegations that he abused boys in a confessional - almost "satanic."    [Comment: Uh-oh, the Devil made him do it.]    The tribunal referred his case to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005.    It took 12 years from the time Ratzinger assumed control of the case in a signed letter until Teta was formally removed from ministry, which only the Vatican can do.    Teta's case and that of another Arizona priest cast further doubt on the church's insistence that the future pope played no role in shielding pedophiles.
      Bishop Manuel Moreno held a church tribunal for Teta, which determined his punishment, but had to hand down the punishment to Rome to decide.    At that time, Ratzinger headed the office and in a signed letter dated June 8, 1992, Ratzinger advised Moreno he was taking control of the case.    Five years later, no action had been taken, and Moreno wrote Ratzinger on April 28, 1997 to plea expediting this case.
  
• 4/7/2010 Vatican asserts pope faces 'hate' campaign by Frances D'Emilio, AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.    Vatican Radio broadcast comments by two senior cardinals explaining the motive for these attacks on the pope, stated "the pope defends life and family, based on marriage between a man and a woman," in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different agenda.    No lobbies were named, but "defense of life" is Vatican shorthand for anti-abortion efforts.
      The mainland European scandals - in Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland - are erupting after decades of abuse cases in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland and other areas.
  
• 4/10/2010 Future pope held off on defrocking abusive priest by Gillian Flaccus, AP.
      Los Angeles - The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.    The correspondence, obtained by the AP, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict - then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office.
  The letter, signed by Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle.
      The Vatican confirmed that it was Ratzinger's signature, then they whitewashed it as he did not cover up the case and said he needed more time to study the case.
      Keisle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay area church rectory.    As his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood.    It was that time that the dioceses recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood, which was the same year Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican office for disciplining abusive priests.    Four years later, Ratzinger finally wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins.    It was two more years before Kiesle was removed on Feb. 13, 1987; during that time Kiesle continued to do volunteer work with children through the church.    Kiesle, who married after leaving the priesthood, was arrested and charged in 2002 with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s, and all but two were struck down because of the statute of limitations.
      He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.    More than a half-dozen victims reached a settlement in 2005 with the Oakland diocese over Kiesle.
• 4/13/2010 Bishops told to report sex abuse by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican made clear for the first time that bishops and other church officials should report clerical sex abuse to police if required by law.    So did the Catholic Church create what amounted to a conspiracy to cover up abuse by keeping allegations that priests raped and molested children secret and not reporting them to civil authorities?
  
• 4/14/2010 Boy Scouts must pay abuse victim $1.4 million, jury rules by William McCall, AP.
      Portland, Ore. - Jurors found the Boy Scouts of America negligent and awarded $1.4 million to a former Portland man who was abused by an assistant Scoutmaster in the early 1980s.    Secret scout "perversion files" were used as evidence during the three-week trial.    The jury also decided the Irving, Texas-based Scouts organization was liable for punitive damages that will be decided in a separate phase.    The Scouts denied allegations of negligence and said the files actually helped them keep child molesters out of their ranks.    Lawyers for Kerry Lewis, 38, the victim who filed the lawsuit, argued that the Boy scouts organization was reckless for allowing former assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes to continue association with the victim's Scout troop after Dykes acknowledged to a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints early in 1983 that he had molested 17 Boy Scouts.
      The church was the charter organization for an estimated third to one-half of the Boy Scout troops in the nation in the 1980s.    The church settled its portion of the case before trial, but the jury ordered it to pay 25 percent of the $1.4 million in noneconomic damages, or $350,000.    The Boy Scouts of America must pay 60 percent, or $840,000, while its Cascade Pacific Council must pay 15 percent, or $210,000.
      Dykes was later convicted three times of various abuse charges involving boys and served time in prison.    Shortly before trial, he admitted in a deposition to abusing Lewis.    The reason the jurors said the BSA was negligent is that the files to protect boys from abusers were kept secret.
  
• 4/15/2010 Vatican's damage control prepares for pope's trip by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican has gone into damage control mode in the priest sex abuse scandal ahead of Pope Benedict XVI first foreign trip since it erupted.    Officials are promising new initiatives, the Pope's personal secretary is speaking out, and bishops around the world are being told to report abuse cases to police.    The Pontiff's visit to Malta, has abuse victims on that majority Roman Catholic Mediterranean island are seeking a papal audience and apology, or whether he would meet with victims, but not under media pressures.
      Initially, the Vatican responded defensively, accusing the media, the Masons, pro-abortion rights and pro-gay marriage supporters for plotting attacks against the pope, as an anti-Catholic hate campaign.
  
• 4/16/2010 Pope breaks silence on clergy sex abuse, urges repentance by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The pope broke his recent silence on the abuse scandal complaining that the church was under attack but saying that "we Christians" must repent for sins and recognize mistakes.    The main U.S. victims immediately dismissed his comments, saying they are meaningless unless Benedict takes concrete steps to safeguard children from pedophile priests.    Benedict made the remarks at a Mass inside the Vatican for members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.    "I must say, we christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word 'repent' which seemed too tough.    But now under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins ... we realize that it's necessary to repent, in other words, recognize what is wrong in our lives," Benedict said.    "Open ourselves to forgiveness ... and let ourselves be transformed.    The pain of repentance, which is a purification and transformation, is a grace because it is renewal and the work of divine mercy," he said.
  [Comment: The pope has gone around to the world telling everyone what their sins were, but now it has been reversed, hard to swallow I guess that someone is attacking him with his own sins.]
      "Factual disclosures are not 'attacks' and 'penance' protects no one," said Mark Serrano, for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the U.S. group.
  
• 4/19/2010 In Malta, pope says church will better protect young - He talks with 8 claiming abuse by Victor L. Simpson, AP.
      Valletta, Malta - With tears in his eyes, Pope Benedict XVI made his most personal gesture yet to respond to the scandal, telling victims the church will do everything possible to protect children and bring abusive priests to justice, the Vatican said without any details.    Benedict met for more than a half-hour with eight Maltese men who say they were abused by four priest when they were boys living at a Catholic orphanage.
  
• 4/21/2010 Church sex-abuse scandal spreading by AP.
      Sao Paulo - The detention of an 83-year-old priest in Brazil for allegedly abusing boys as young as 12 has added to the scandals hitting the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America, even as Chile's bishops asked pardon for past cases.    The allegations against Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa - and two other Brazilian priests - have made headlines in the world's most populous Catholic nation.    The scandal erupted when Brazilian televison network SBT last month broadcast a tape of Barbosa in bed with a 19-year-old.
      On 5/1/2010 in Rio De Janeiro police are recommending that three Roman Catholic priest be formally charged with sexually abusing boys, after their investigation of Barbosa in the same dioceses.
  
• 4/22/2010 Pope promises church will act against sex abuse by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope pledged that the Catholic Church would take action to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal, his first public call for change since the crisis erupted.    The pope did not specify what the church will do.
      Two church officials in Dublin said the pope had accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty, who admitted in December that he hadn't challenged the Dublin archdioceses' past practice of concealing child abuse complaints from police.
  
• 4/24/2010 Belgian bishop resigns, admits abusing a boy by Robert Wielaard, AP.
      Brussels - Belgium's longest-serving bishop resigned, expressing sorrow for having sexually abused a young boy both as a priest and after becoming a bishop in 1984.    The resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges, was the first from Belgium, and the first to admit abuse.    A Norwegian church official revealed Bishop Georg Mueller had resigned a year earlier because he had molested a child when he was a priest.    So obviously the reputation of church leaders was given a higher priority in the past than that of abused children.
  
• 4/29/2010 Brazilian priest charged in abuse of 8 altar boys by AP.
      Rio De Janeiro - A Roman Catholic priest in Brazil faces charges he abused eight boys in cases dating to 1995, prosecutors said, adding to growing allegations agaisnt clergy in Latin America.    Father Jose Afonso, 74, is accused of abusing altar boys between ages of 12 and 16, Sao Paulo state prosecutors said and a judge is deciding if he should be jailed.
  
• 4/29/2010 Vatican official left priest who abused boy in post by Gillian Flaccus, AP.
      The pope's hand-picked replacement to oversee abuse cases at the Vatican did nothing to restrict a California priest after learning in 1995 that he had molested a 13-year-old a decade earlier.    Cardinal William Levada, then archbishop of San Francisco, said in a 2005 deposition obtained by the AP that he did nothing and didn't contact police because he trusted that Rev. Milton Walsh would not offend again and that his predecessor handled the case adequately.
      There were no known allegations of later abuse by Walsh.    A Vatican attorney says Levada acted appropriately under standards of the time.
      When Levada learned of the abuse, Walsh had been pastor for six years at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, a parish of about 1,000 people.    He was there two more years.    He was removed from active ministry in 2002, when U.S. bishops passed a "zero tolerance" policy on sex abuse and police started investigating.
      Levada is the highest ranking American at the Vatican and head of the office that defrocks pedophile priests.    Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger held the post before he became the pope in 2005.
  
• 4/30/2010 Order admits founder's abuse by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The No. 2 official in the conservative Legionaries of Christ order has broken silence on revelations that the groups founder fathered children and abused seminarians, giving an interview on the eve of a Vatican meeting to discuss the order's fate.    The Rev. Luis Garza Medina told Rome's La Republica newspaper that he did not know before 2006 that the Rev. Marcial Maciel had fathered a child.    He also said cases of sexual abuse by priests should be referred to civil law enforcement.    So five Vatican experts are to discuss their investigation into the order with the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.    Bertone ordered the inquiry in 2009 after the Legionaries, also known as the Legion of Christ, acknowledged that founder Maciel who died in 2008, fathered a daughter who is now in her 20s and lives in Spain.    Sexual abuse victims tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against Maciel but were shut down by his supporters at the Vatican.
      The Legion, founded in Mexico, claims a membership of more than 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 22 countries, along with 70,000 members in its lay arm, Regnum Christi.
  
• 5/2/2010 Papal envoy will reform discredited order by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The Pope cracked down on the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ, announcing that a papal envoy would take over and reform the conservative order that has been discredited by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.    Benedict also ordered a special commission to study the order's constitutions and said a Vatican expert would investigate its lay arm, Regnum Christi, in Orange, Conneticutt.    So they are going to purify what good remains, since their model for the faithful has fallen out of grace for concealing his crimes which have been well-documented for more than 12 years, as a lot of foot-dragging was going on.
  
• 5/8/2010 Southern Baptists weigh changes by Peter Smith, the Courier-Journal.
      Southern Baptists should break up some long-standing cooperative ventures and agency boundaries to better meet evangelistic goals, according to a report, which also calls for Baptist individuals and churches to start giving more money toward national and international ministries.    The final report of the Great Commission Resurgance Task Force comes after last year's Southern Baptist Convention commissioned the study.    The effort reflects the alarm caused by declining numbers of baptisms in Southern Baptist churches - which the denomination views as its primary vital sign because it measures its evangelistic success.    Membership is also ebbing despite claims that the denomination would rebound if it purged liberals and reasserted doctrinal orthodoxy.
      For example, the denomination's baptisms in 2008 stood at 342,198, the lowest in more than two decades.    Southern Baptists are the largest denomination in Kentucky, claiming about 770,000 members, and the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with 16.2 million members.    Without outreaches to ethnic groups beyond its aging base of Caucasians, the denomination will decline to half its membership by 2050.    So the report claims they need to throw more money at the problem.
  
• 5/8/2010 Where religions intersect by Elena Lloyd-Sidle, The Courier-Journal.
      In a world increasingly dominated by a secular and materialistic mentality, there is a real need for the world's faith communities to stand solidly together.    "Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism" by Reza Shah-Kazemi Fons Vitae, participates in promoting such a stance.    As the "logos" or revealed Word in the Islamic tradition is the Qur'an, Muslims abide by doctrines therein and have taken care to avoid what is not stated clearly in their own scripture.    As the name of the Buddha was not specifically listed among the prophets sent by God who are mentioned in the Qur'an, and because Muslims have assumed Buddhists to be atheistic, there has hitherto not been much dialogue between these two august traditions.
      This volume represents a historic change of course.    After a number of meetings in Jordan between the 14th Dalai Lama and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a true and profound "Common Ground" between Islam and Buddhism has been formally recognized.    This follows a previous initiative by Ghazi, titled "A Common Word," which has entailed meetings and conferences between a large number of Islamic clerics with the pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and gatherings held at both Yale and Georgetown Universities over the last two years for a new educational effort in both the Christian and Muslim world.
  [Comment: I wonder which one is trying to assimulate the other.    Is this the onset of One World Religion?]
  
• 5/10/2010 Mapquesting God's place.
      Washington - As thousands prayed across the nation in celebration of a National Day of Prayer, the Rev. Franklin Graham held his own vigil in the Pentagon parking lot.    Oh well, it doesn't matter where one prays, right?    All prayers lead to heaven.    Not if you're Graham, who lost his place at the Pentagon altar after he mocked other religions, specifically Muslims and Hindus.    A plea to President Barack Obama to reinstate him apparently fell on pitiless ears.
      Graham's offense was expressing his belief that only Christians have God's ear, that Islam is evil, and that Muslims and Hindus don't pray to the same God he does.    "No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me," Graham said in a USA Today interview, referring to one of the five main Hindu deities.    We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big kumbaya service and all hold hands and it's all going to get better in this world.    It's not going to get better."
      What's the use of a National Prayer Day.    Secular Americans or even non-evangelical Christians protested that the government was endorsing a certain flavor of Christianity, which a court agreed and ruled the day unconstitutional, appeals pending.    A survey of 1,000 Protestants pastors found 47 percent agree that Islam is a very evil and a very wicked religion.
  
• 5/12/2010 Pope: Sins of church to blame in sex scandal by AP.
      Lisbon, Portugal - In his most thorough admission of the church's guilt in the clerical sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI said the greatest persecution of the institution "is born from the sins within the church," and not from campaign by outsiders.    The pontiff said the Catholic church has always been tormented by problems of its own making - a tendency that is being witnessed today "in a truly terrifying way."    "The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice," he said.    "Forgiveness cannot substitute justice."
      Benedict was responding to journalists' questions submitted in advance, aboard the papal plane as he flew to Portugal for a four-day visit.    In a shift from the Vatican's initial claim that the church was the victim of a campaign by the media and abortion rights and pro-gay marriage groups, Benedict said: "The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church."
      Now he is on a witch hust to get the abusers themselves and , in the case of Ireland, the bishops who failed to stop them, and have them face justice, thus cleaning house, accepting resignations of a few bishops who abused or covered it up.    Of course the critics are tired of hearing his strong comments, and want to see the justice he is claiming with real action like should have been done in the first place.
      The pope was going to Portugal to address issues regarding the neglect of Christian values in a country which has had no reported cases of abuse.
  
• 5/14/2010 Catholic Church settles priest sex abuse lawsuits by AP.
      Montpelier, Vt. - Twenty-six former altar boys who sued Vermont's Catholic Church over alleged sexual abuse by priests will share in a nearly $18 million settlement of their cases.    The attorney for the former altar boys and the bishop of the statewide Diocese of Burlington said they were pleased by the settlement, but both acknowledged that the cases had been difficult for the victims.    The lawsuits accused the diocese of negligent hiring, and many of the cases centered on the defrocked Rev. Edward Paquette, who was the target of allegations before he transferred to Vermont in the mid-1970s.
  
• 5/16/2010 Court: Grayson Co. can display commandments by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Even if the Grayson County judge-executive called on people at a public ceremony to declare themselves "for" or "agaisnt the Ten Commandments," that wasn't a religious statement, a federal appeals court panel has ruled.    That means a display of the commandments, along with other historical documents, can remain in place in the county courthouse, the panel said in a 2-1 ruling that prompted the dissenting judge to "vehemently disagree."
      The same panel for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had in January overridden a district court injunction against displaying the commandments, along with other documents, in an exhibit in the Grayson County courthouse titled "Foundations of American Law and Government."
  
• 5/23/2010 Astronomer Copernicus is reburied as a hero by AP.
      Frombork, Poland - Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.    His burial in a tomb in the cathedral where he once served as a church canon and doctor indicates how far the church has come in making peace with the scientist whose revolutionary theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun helped usher in the modern scientific age.    His theory was condemned because it removed Earth and humanity from their central positions in the universe.    Copernicus' model was based on complex mathematical calculations and his naked-eye observations of the heavens.    The telescope had not yet been invented.    A black granite tombstone identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory and a church canon.
  
• 5/27/2010 Plague of frogs on major highway? by AP.
      Thessaloniki, Greece - Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway.    A Thessaloniki traffic official said "millions" of them covered the tarmac near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki.
  
• 5/30/2010 Vatican prosecutor warns abusers of hell by AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican prosecutor of clerical sex abuse warned perpetrators they would suffer damnation in hell that would be worse than the death penalty.
  [Comment: Now that is a threat, an attorney, is the Vatican's new hero to save them.]
  
• 5/31/2010 4 Christians seek to be God's envoys as judges - California races ignite controversy by Julie Watson, AP.
      San Diego - A group of conservative attorneys say they are on a mission from God to unseat four California judges in a rare challenge that is turning a traditionally snooze-button election into what both sides call a battle for the integrity of U.S. courts.
      Vowing to be God's ambassadors on the bench, the four San Diego Superior Court candidates are backed by pastors, gun enthusiasts, and opponents of abortion and same-sex marriages.
      "We believe our country is under assault and needs Christian values," said Craig Candelore, a family law attorney who is one of the candidates.    "Unfortunately, God has called upon us to do this only with the judiciary."    The challenge is unheard of in California, one of 33 states to directly elect judges.    Critics say the campaign is aimed at packing the courts with judges who adhere to the religious right's moral agenda and threatens both the impartiality of the court system and the separation of church and state.
      Some school boards across the country have an increasing number of Christian conservatives winning seats and push for such issues as prayer in classrooms.
  
• 6/1/2010 Analyst: Texas textbooks aren't expected to spread by AP.
      San Antonio - Publishing experts say fears that a new conservative curriculum recently adopted for Texas schools will have a strong influence on what ends up in textbooks in other states are overblown, since it's easier nowadays to create separate editions to fit each need.
  
• 6/9/2010 Anglicans cut Episcopalians from ecumenical bodies by AP.
      London - The Anglican Communion has suspended U.S. Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical bodies because of the election of the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, a lesbian, as a bishop in California.    The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, announced that Episcopalians had been downgraded from members to consultants in formal ecumenical dialogues.    These are annual meetings between Angilicans and clergy in other churches intended to build friendship and undestanding of one another's traditions and issues of mutal concern.    Kearon said he had written to the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, whose General Synod is meeting, to ask whether it has adopted a policy backing same-sex couples.
  
• 6/9/2010 Sex abuse scandal gives Catholic dissidents new fuel - They urge end to male domination by AP.
      Rome - The clerical sex abuse crisis is energizing Roman Catholic dissidents who want to open up the priesthood to women and ditch celibacy requirements.    They marched on Rome even as Pope Benedict XVI called on estimated 9,000 priests to converge on the Vatican to cap a yearlong celebration of the priesthood.    And in a sign of the deepening crisis, the faithful in traditionally Catholic Austria are at the forefront of demands for change.    In Rome, church reformers demanded changes in the male-dominated church structure they say is responsible for covering up preistly sex abuse for decades, pressing their case on the eve of a three-day rally of the world's priest summoned by Benedict.
      Representatives from a half-dozen groups pushing for women's ordination denounced Benedict's rally, saying the Vatican shouldn't be honoring priest amid a clerical sex abuse scandal.    "The worldwide shocking disclosures of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church and its concealment for decades clearly shows the scandalous aberration that can be caused by a supervalued male preisthood with forced celibacy," said Angelica Fromm, a representative of We are Church, a reform group born after an infamous clerical abuse scandal in Austria.    A grassroots movement in Austria has a powerful champion in Vienna's archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn - a papal confidant who has openly called for an honest examination of issues like celibacy.    Should it be up to priest whether they want to live a celibate life?    And married men could be ordained as well as women?
  
• 6/11/2010 Pope defends celibacy as 'great sign of faith' - Rally ends year of the priest by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI strongly defended celibacy for priest as a sign of faith in an increasingly secular world during a rally that drew some 15,000 preists from around the world to Rome.    He referred to the clerical sex abuse scandal as "secondary scandals, that showed our own insufficiences and sins."    The pope acknowledged that celibacy was itself "a great scandal" in a world where people have no need for God.    But he called it "a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world."    The church isn't perfect.    Priests are men, there are those who will become saints and those who will become criminals as well.
  
• 6/12/2010 Pope seeks forgiveness, pledges action on abuse by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI begged for forgiveness from victims of clerical abuse and promised at a Mass celebrated by 15,000 priests from around the world to "to do everything possible" to protect children.    His pledge failed to satisfy victims since it gave no clear-cut plan to root out pedophile priests, expose the bishops who protected them and change the Vatican policies and culture that allowed abuse to continue.
      It was the first time Benedict had spoken of the crisis from St. Peter's Basilica.    He implied the devil was behind the timing of the scandal, in the Year of the Priest, which is to encourage for new vocations, but instead he said, "It was to be expected this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the enemy."    He would have rather preferred to see it disappear so that God would ultimately be driven from the world," Benedict said.
  [Comment: As Flip Wilson would say, "The devil made me do it."]
  
• 6/16/2010 Baptists shift funding for evangelism - Southern states will lose money by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Southern Baptists, anxious about long-term declines in conversion rates, voted day to break up some of their decades-old cooperative ventures and shift more money for evangelism away from their traditional Southern base into other regions.    The dramatic changes are needed in how the denomination funds and deploys its more than 10,000 missionaries in North America and abroad.    "Are we going to be content with that downward trajectory of Christianity in America?    "Even though we have 17,000 more churches, we're baptizing less people than we did in 1950.    There are literally billions of people in the world today who are enslaved in their sin and who will perish without their savior Jesus Christ," Ronnie Floyd, the task force's chairman said.
  
• 6/17/2010 Calif. gay marriage ban argued in court - Lawyer contends it benefits children by Lisa Leff, AP.
      San Francisco - A lawyer for supporters of California's gay marriage ban argued in a landmark federal trial that opposite-sex marriage ensures children have the benefits of being raised by biological parents.    Attorney Charles Cooper delivered his closing argument as the case challenging the constitutionality of voter-approved Proposition 8 resumed.    Cooper said socieities around the world have always seen marriage as a way to keep children from being born out of wedlock.    Cooper's statements drew a series of challenges from Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker, who is presiding over the lawsuit filed by two same-sex couiples who claim the ban is a violation of their civil rights.
      Walker asked if people get married to benefit their communities or themselves?    Weren't similar arguments once used to keep interracial couples from marrying.    And if procreation is so central to marriage, why doesn't the state refuse to sanction marriage to infertile couples or couples who choose to remain childless?    With respect to laws that banned interracial marriage, Cooper said, "those racist sentiments and policies had no foundation in the historical purpose of marriage, and in fact they were at war with it."    U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who represented the plaintiffs, argued that supporters of the ban were trying to deprive same-sex couples of a relationship the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized as a fundamental right.    Oslon said the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized marriage as a fundamental right while refusing to make procreation a precondition of marriage, as evidenced by laws allowing divorces and contraception.
  
• 6/19/2010 iPad coming to church altars by AP.
      An Italian priest has developed an application that will let priests celebrate Mass with an Apple iPad on the altar instead of the regular Roman missal.    The Rev. Paolo Padrini, a consultant with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said the free application will be launched in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin.    Two years ago, Padrini developed the iBreviary, an application that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests onto iPhones.    The iPad application is similar but also contains the complete missal - containing all that is said and sung during Mass throughout the litergical year.
  
• 6/23/2010 Expanding gay rights, benefits by Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post.
      In the past year and a half, President Obama has quietly used his powers to expand federal rights and benefits for gays and lesbians, targeting one government restriction after another in an attempt to change public policy while avoiding a confrontation with Republicans and opponents of gay rights.    The result is that scores of federal rules blocking gay rights have been swept aside or reinterpreted by Obama officials eager to advance the agenda of a constituency that strongly backed the president's 2008 campaign.
      Among the changes: Gay partners of federal workers will now receive long-term health insurance, access to day care and other benefits.    Federal Housing authority loans can no longer consider the sexual orientation of applicants.    The Census Bureau plans to report the number of people who report being in same-sex relationship.    Hospitals must allow gays to visit their ill partners.    And federal child-care subsidies can be used by the the childen of same-sex domestic partners.
      The Labor Department is expected to announce that federal officials have rethought the Family and Medical Leave Act, concluding that under the law, a gay federal employee may take leave to care for a child with a gay partner.
      Taken together they significantly alter the way gays and lesbians are viewed under federal law.    [Comment: I am suprised he did not give gay priest same-sex marriage rights, under the radar from the pope.]    All of this was done outside of the reach of Congress and undermining traditional marriage even as he speaks about respecting it, since he grew up without a father.    So gay rights advocates have greeted the changes as evidence Obama has not abandoned them.    Obama signed a federal hate crimes bill into law that for the first time provides protections against crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation, even as the Senate is one vote away from ending the military's controversial policy on service by gays and lesbians.
  
• 6/26/2010 Vatican fights bid by Louisville lawyer for papal testimony by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The Vatican has filed formal opposition to a Louisville lawyer's bid to take sworn testimony from Pope Benedict XVI (a.k.a. Joseph Ratzinger) and top officials over sexual abuse in the U.S.    Church lawyers said requiring the "unprecedented" testimony from the pope and his top aides would set a dangerous precedent that could inspire foreign courts to subpoena the president of the U.S. and Vice president in future cases, such as issues as CIA rendition.
      Louisville attorney William McMurry is seeking the pope's testimony as part of a long-running lawsuit attempting to hold the Vatican accountable for coverups of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the U.S.
  
• 6/29/2010 Justices let abuse case against Vatican stand by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      A lawsuit against the Vatican that had been dismissed as a publicity stunt moved forward when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See.    The high court's decision not to stop the lawsuit means the case will go to trial in Oregon.    "I have known for 25 years that all roads lead to Rome," said Jeff Anderson, the Minnesota attorney who represents the plantiff, and has represented hundreds of abuse victims and has tried for years to sue the Vatican, said he hoped to persuade a judge that he should be allowed to depose Vatican officials.
      Jeffrey Lena, the American attorney for the Holy See, argued the Vatican is not responsible for individual priests in dioceses, saying the existence of the priest in the case "was unknown to the Holy See until after all the events in question."
      The original lawsuit, John V. Doe v. Holy See, was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man who said the Rev. Andrew Ronan repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s.
      Anderson argues that priests are Vatican employees for the purpose of American law.    If the trial judge agrees, that would constitute an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, under which the Vatican has been immune form the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.    A lower court judge ruled there could be enough of a connection between the Holy See and Ronan for him to be considered a Vatican employee under Oregon law.    That ruling was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
      Lena had asked the federal courts to throw out the lawsuit.
      Ronan was at a parish in Protland, Ore., when he was accused of abusing the plaintiff.    He was removed from the priesthood in 1966, according to the Archdicese of Portland, and died in 1992.
      A lawsuit filed in Louisville, and still in the courts, contends the Vatican is responisble for U.S. bishops who failed to stop priests from molesting children.
  
• 7/3/2010 Different tacks on promoting faith - New office, new strategy tried by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      How do Christians sell their faith to people who've heard it all before and aren't buying it?    This week brought news of two responses: 1) Create a new office, and 2) Stop trying so hard.
      Pope Benedict XVI took the first tack.    He announced the creation of an office designed to evangelize people in societies where christianity had been long-established but is now sidelined in a secular atmosphere.    That would include his native Germany and the place the pope can see from his window, Italy.    The new pontifical council will have "the principal task of promoting a renewed evangelization in countries where the first proclamation of faith has already resounded and where there are churches of ancient foundation present, but which are living through a progressive secularization of society and a kind of 'eclipse of the sense of God'," Benedict said.    People today seek "an authentic and full life," he said.    "They need truth, profound freedom, unconditional love.    Even in the deserts of the secularized world, the human soul thirsts for God."
      The second approach in evangelizing is to not manipulate every conversation into a pitch and viewing people as potential trophies to mark conversions, we all want to connect people with Jesus, but we are going to have to figure out new ways to do it.    Spend time with atheists and learn what turns them off about Christians: which is usually a know-it-all attitude, and viewing non-believers as projects rather than people, in other words get to know people, become their friends and let them see it in your life and let the spiritual chips fall where they may.
  
• 7/4/2010 Bigger Tenn. mosque opposed - Foes plan march, say OK rushed by Scott Broden, The (Murfreesboro) Daily News Journal.
      Murfreesboro, Tenn. - Plans to build a new mosque for an Islamic congregation that has outgrown its old one are bringing objections from many residents of Rutherford County, Tenn., who plan a protest march later this month (July 14).
      "The people have spoken clearly that they don't want this mosque," march organizer Kevin Fisher said.    The Rutherford County Regional Planning Commision approved plans for the Islamic center May 24, which was a community center for prayer, a gym, pool, offices, classrooms, sports field, pavilion, playground and a home for the imam.    Fisher says planning officials failed to properly notify the public about the plans and in the rush to process made numerous mistakes.    So they are petitioning to have another meeting to give people a chance to air their concerns.    Some opponents argue that Islam is a political movement, not a religion, and that the mosque could also be used as a training center for terrorists, who want to rule the world.    Officials with Islamic Center denied such allegations and say they have simply outgrown space at their location.
  
• 7/6/2010 Presbyterian membership down by half - Church copes with fall since '65 by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      The Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is half the church it use to be, at least in terms of numbers.    The church lost nearly 3 percent of members from 2008 to 2009 and now has 2,077,138 on its rolls.    With that figure, the denomination has fallen by more than 50 percent in membership from its peak of 4.25 million in 1965, the heyday of the influence of historic Protestantism.    What's sad is the overwhelming majority of the loss is in the category of other, which means they did not die or transfer to another congregation, but quietly slipped out the back door.
      On the 7th the Presbyterian would be the largest denomination in the nation to allow same-sex marriages if it follows a recommendation made by a church legislative committee.    Also a recommendation that the church begin ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians.    The assembly's committee on Civil Union and Marriage Issues voted 34-18 to change the definition of marriage in the church constitution to describe it as a covenant between "two people" rather than between "a man and a woman."
  
• 7/12/2010 Iran says it won't stone woman to death for now by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - The controversial death sentence by stoning for an Iranian woman convicted of adultery will not be implemented for now, a judicial official said.    The outcry over the sentence has become the latest issue in Iran's relationship with the international community.    Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the top judicial official in the province where the mother of two was convicted, said her crimes were "various and very serious" and not limited to adultery.
  
• 7/16/2010 Vatican issues new rules on sex-abuser priests by Los Angeles Times.
      Rome - The Vatican issued new rules that it said would make punishing sexually abusive priest easier but that critics declared short on real changes.    The regulations allow the Holy See to fast-track the defrocking of a cleric guilty of child molestation and extend the statute of limitations in church law in such cases.    They also define sexual abuse of mentally disabled people and possession of child pornography as canonical crimes for which a priest can be stripped of his clerical status.    But no where do they explicity require that sexual misconduct be reported to police or that bishops who hush up such crimes be disciplined, as critics have demanded.    So are children safe or not?    So is there room for doubt?    And controversially, the new document classifies the attempted ordination of a woman as a canonical crime equal in gravity to molesting minors and heresy.    That has outraged advocates of greater rights for women within the Roman Catholic Church.
  
• 8/5/2010 Gay-marriage ban struck down - California case bound for appeal by AP.
      A federal judge in California ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional right to equal protection, the first step in a legal struggle expected to end at the Supreme Court.    U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker wrote that Proposition 8, which voters approved as an amendment to California's constitution in 2008, "fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.    Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples," wrote Walker.
  
• 8/15/2010 Catholics urged to counter culture - Leaders call for spiritual renewal by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      [Comment: Since the Vatican is now a sinner to the world, they are ready to go out and try to convert others who they believe are sinners.]    A high-ranking American bishop at the Vatican called on Catholic priests and lay people alike to speak out against a "culture of death" and the "march of secularism."    They also called to renew themselves spiritually in a bid to lure back the many young adult Catholics they acknowledge are not participating in the church, due to suffering from confusion and error.    [Comment: Maybe they are confused about priests molesting children and confused about reporting it to authorities, and the error of not doing so.]
  
• 8/17/2010 Mosque issue distracts Democrats - Some fear effect on fall elections by AP.
      Washington - Add another election-year hurdle for Democrats: President Barack Obama's forceful defense of the right of muslims to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.    His comments are giving Republicans a campaign-year cudgel and forcing Democrats to address a divisive issue within weeks of midterm elections that will decide the balance of power in Washington.    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a competitive re-election fight, was the highest-profile Democrat to move away from Obama on the matter.    Reid respects the First Amendment protecting the freedom of religion but he thinks that the mosque should be built some place else.    Democrats call this issue a distraction from keeping majorities in Congress, which favors Republicans.    The political fallout against those who support building a mosque two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.    Republicans are steering clear to avoid being religiously intolerant or be accused of stoking fear.
      On the 19th a majority of New Yorkers and 70 percent of Americans remain opposed to a mosque near the WTC site, which will be a factor for many voters this fall.    To top it off the U.S. taxpayers will pay the imam behind the plans for a mosque near the Sept. 11 attacks $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said.    The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance.    The imam's organization, The Cordoba Initiative, referred questions on the matter to the State Department.    Rauf starts his tour in Bahrain and ends it in the UAE on Sept. 2.
  
• 8/22/2010 Mosque debate tests America's tolerance - Dominant beliefs often hold sway by AP.
      Tolerance and the freedom from bigotry or prejudice, to respect other races even if you hate them, and acceptance is tormenting Americans around the issue of whether a mosque and Islamic cultural center should be built two blocks from the site where the Twin Towers once stood.    A Wiccan minister, Rev. Patrick McCollum, says he believes Americans are becoming more tolerant, since his house has not been firebombed in a while.    McCollum has been involved in a federal court battle over California's policy of employing as state chaplains only Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and adherent to Native American religions.    He attributes both his struggle and the mosque fight to what he calls the "dominant religious lens factor."    He called this growth and we are experiencing for the first time since the founding of our country we have begun to allow pluralism to surface in our country.    So we have started to uphold the ideals that our country was founded on ... and the people who've been in the dominant position begin to feel like they're under attack.
      Is building the mosque rally the equivalent of as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested, putting a Nazi sign "nest to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.?
  [Comment: The Muslim's could have a little compassion for those who have greived their deceased.    I myself believe that Pluralism is against God, which is what antichrist means.]
  
• 8/29/2010 Young Muslims express concern about hostility by Tara Bahrampour, The Washington Post.
      Washington - Although the Muslim students hadn't eaten since dawn, and loaded thier plates at American University to break their Ramadan fast.    For weeks, their faith had been under attack regarding the mosque near ground zero and reports of anti-Muslim sentiment, a mosque construction being opposed hundreds of miles from ground zero; a Florida pastor vowing to burn copies of the Quaran to mark the anniverary of Sept. 11; a poll showing that 43 percent of Americans hold unfavorable views of Muslims; and just last week a Muslim cabbie was stabbed in New York.
      These students see a swelling hostility that they did not know was there and that religious and political leaders worry could fuel alienation and radicalism among some young American Muslims.
  
• 9/9/2010 Plan to burn Quran is still on - Protests against minister increase by AP.
      Gainesville, Fla. - The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said he is still determined to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off.    Pastor Terry Jones said he has received a lot of encouragement with supporters mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his church of about 50 followers.    He proclaimed in July that he would stage "International Burn-a-Quran Day" to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11.    He said he has recieved more than 100 death threats, and politicians and military officials fear this may incite violence by extremists, even the Vatican denounced it.
      In Cairo, Muslims around the world see this action as an offense against God.    Islam teaches that the book is the direct word of God, recieved by the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and it defines the belief and conduct for followers of the religion.
      The Quran is so important in the faith that Islamic teaching spells out how it should be handled, including directing anyone who touches it to be in a state of ritual purity.    Muslims can only burn or bury Qurans that have been damged or corrupted to prevent God's word from being defiled.    The Quran was considered a miracle because Muhammad - who was illiterate - was chosen by God to convey his final message to humanity over a period of 23 years according to Islamic beliefs.    Muhammad's companions memorized the Quran and wrote it down.    The Quran to Muslims is the final word of God after a series of revelations, starting with Adam, going through Abraham, Moses and Jesus and ending with Muhammad.
  [Comment: I read some of the Quran once, and had to put it down in amusement as I discovered that it was a joke.    What I read was that someone took the Holy Bible and reversed everything that it states, and it has no merit of history.    I am sure that 6 centuries after Jesus was on Earth that the God of the Holy Bible had a great need to send the angel Gabriel to tell the story of the Bible so that someone could take it and rewrite it so that all history and characters in it was reversed in their philosphy.    All I can say is I am sad that some religious individuals took Muhammad's message if that ever occurred and did a 180 degree on it.    I feel sorry that the people who have excepted the message in the Quran as a holy message, and we will probably never be able to change their minds to the truth of that.    Even as I see above that they could not have anyone apologize for being unsympathetic of their trespasses on a people who have been attacked.    At least the Holy Bible of a Christian God teaches that simple message.    Instead they are ready to kill anyone that treads on their grounds or faith.]
  
• 9/11/2010 500 in Belgium tell of abuse by Catholic priests by Raf Casert, AP.
      Brussels - Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as yound as 2 a special commission said, suggesting that the abuse may have been more rampant than the report suggests.    Most of the abuse happened during he 1960s and 1970s, and Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard said he would react to the report as the Vatican had no immediate comment.
      Belgium's Catholic Church is still reeling after the April resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted to having sexually abuse a nephew for years when he was a priest and bishop.    The report said 507 witnesses came forward with stories of molestation at the hands of clergy over the past decades.    It says those abused included children who were 2,4,5 and 6 years old.    About 13 vicitims committed suicide and 6 attempted suicide.
      Leonard's predecessor, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, acknowledged that damage control often took precedence in Belgium over concerns for victims in sex-abuse cases involving clergy.
  
• 9/13/2010 2 Christians attacked on way to prayers by AP.
      Bekasi, Indonesia - Assailants stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and pounded a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to morning prayers on a Sunday outside Indonesia's capital.    Neither injury appeared to be life-threatening, and no one claimed esponsibility for the attacks, but suspicion fell on Islamic hard-liners who have warned members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church against worshipping on a field housing their now-shuttered church.
      Indonesia has more muslims than any other country.    Though it has a long history of religious tolerance, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent events.
  [Comment: So much for building a church in Muslim countries.]
  
• 9/17/2010 Pope admits church's failures in abuse crisis by AP.
      Edinburgh, Scotland - Pope Benedict XVI went into the hostile territory of highly secular Britain, admitting the Catholic Church didn't act quickly enough to remove priests who molested children in his strongest words yet on the church's global sex abuse crisis.
      Benedict's historic state visit - the first pope to the U.K. - has been somewhat eclipsed by disgust over the abuse scandal and indifference in the U.K. where Catholics are a minority of 10 percent.
  [Comment: Well, we finally got over the "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" phase and come to grip with the reality of those consequences.]
  
• 9/22/2010 Yoga can be danger to Christians, Mohler says by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Yoga can be dangerous to Christians' faith, the president of Louisville's Southern Baptist Theological Seminary warns.    The popular discipline of meditation and stretching is so interwoven with Eastern mysticism that it is "at odds with the Christian understanding," Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler wrote on his blog.    "Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine," Mohler wrote.    "Believers are called to meditate upon the Word of God - an external Word that comes to us by divine revelation - not to meditate by means of incomprehensible syllables."
      Mohler's posture has drawn criticism form those who practice yoga, which is even taught in many churches and which many people see as unrelated to its ancient roots in India.    Other churches such as some Lutheran and Assemblies of God contain written warnings of physical and meditative practises linked to historic Eastern religions, mostly by conservative evangelicals since the 1960s, and the Roman Catholic church has no official stance have called reiki, an alternative medicine with roots in Japanese Buddhism, lacking in scientific validation and said it contradicted Christian teachings on healing.    Others state that yoga teaches people to look within themselves rather than to Jesus for salvation.
  [Comment: I myself did yoga in my younger years, and now do not believe in opening oneself up to the spiritual world, which is the same as persons who claim they recieved in the speaking in tongues.    I now believe that you can open yourself up to evil spirits as well as Godly spirits, and it is always possible that you may not get rid of them when they come.    I will finish with the exercises of yoga are probably good for us, especially the Sunday going, overwieight backseat church goers, who head straight to the all-you-can eat buffet restaurants after church every Sunday.]
  
• 10/1/2010 Catholic Church seeks sex-abuse payout limit by Martin Oversohl, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
      Berlin - The Catholic Church called for Germany to agree to a ceiling (not disclosed) on compensation payouts by sports clubs, boarding schools and religious organizations to sex abuse victims.    Abuse by pedophile German priests from the 1950s to 1990s came into the open this year, after similar scandals in Ireland and Belgium.    Victims have alleged the church covered up the abuse.    The church, with 26 million members among Germany's population of 80 million, said compensation should be proportionate to each victim's present-day need for psychological counseling.    Victim representatives have said a sliding scale between $7,000 and $106,000 would be appropriate.
  
• 10/3/2010 Druidry accepted as religion in U.K. by Sylvia Hui, AP.
      London - Druids have been worshipping the sun and earth for thousands of years in Europe.    Now they can say they're practicing an officially recognized religion.    The ancient pagan tradition best known for gatherings at Stonehenge every summer solstice has been formally classed as a religion under charity law for the first time in Britain, the national charity regulator said.    That means Druids can receive exemptions from taxes on donations - and have the same status as such mainstream religions as the Church of England.
      The move gives an old practice new validity, said Phil Ryder, chairman of the 350-member Druid Network.    Druids have practiced for thousands of years in Britain and in Celtic socieities elsewhere in Europe.    They worship natural forces such as thunder and the sun and spirits they believe arise from places such as mountains and rivers.    They do not worship a single god or creator but seek to cultivate a sacred relationship with the natural world.
      Although many see them as robed, mysterious people who gather every summer solstice at Stonehenge - which predates the Druids - believers say modern Druidry is chiefly concerned with helping practioners connect with nature and themselves through rituals, dancing and singing at stone circles and other sites believed to be "sacred."
      Ancient Druids were known to be religious leaders, judges and sages among the Celts during pre-Christian times with little evidence about their lives.    There are now various Druid orders and about 10,000 practioners in Britain.
  [Comment: Oh well, another Nature worship organization is officially a religion.]
  
• 10/3/2010 Lawmakers join fight to keep God in Ky. law by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      A legal battle over once-obscure Kentucky laws that proclaim the commonwealth's "reliance upon Almighty God" for its safety and security is drawing in many of Kentucky's top political figures.    Last year, a Franklin Circuit Court judge ruled the laws violate bans on government-established religion in both the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.    The case is pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals after the office of Attorney Jack Conway appealed that ruling, declaring America to be a "Christian nation."
  [Comment: I cannot understand this, at one time was there a worldwide organization of child molesters who were all unemployed and said lets all go get jobs as priests, scout leaders, missionaries, daycare, or is this a disease from pollution, or is it like the pope said the devil caused it.    And to top it off the following church just approved same-sex marriages and ordinations of gays and lesbians.]
  
• 10/9/2010 Presbyterians apologize for abuse during mission work - Report cites 30 victims abroad from 1950-1990 by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders formally apologized to 30 people who they determined were sexually or physically abused in mission programs overseas, most of whom were children of missionaries serving across Africa and Asia between 1950 and 1990.
      The apologies came with the release of a 546-page report that followed a nearly seven-year investigation of abuse in mission programs.    It found cases of sexual abuse perpretrated on 14 victims in Cameroon, five in Congo, three in Ethiopia and seven in Thailand, and one case of physical abuse in Pakistan.    In one case, the panel found that members of a board overseeing a dormitory in the Congo failed ot protect children from a teenage boy they knew was repeatedly sexually abusing other children in the 1980s.
  
• 10/19/2010 Crystal Cathedral swamped by debts - 'Hour of Power site' files for bankruptcy by Amy Taxin, AP.
      Garden Grove, Calif. - Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy after months of trying to overcome mounting debt.    The Southern California megachurch, birthplace of the "Hour of Power" televangelist broadcast, announced its filing as it struggled to emerge from debt estimated earlier this year at $55 million.    Church spokesman said the church owes about $7.5 million to a host of vendors for services such as advertising and providing the use of live animals for Easter and Christmas services.    The church was negotiating a payment plan with vendors but several chose to file lawsuits.    "We've always believed in a big God ... a God who is greater than any problem or challenge we could ever face," Sheila Schuller Coleman, the church's senior pastor said.    The Orange County-based church, founded in the mid-1950s by Robert H. Schuller Sr., earlier this year ordered major layoffs.    It also cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat, and canceled a paegeant which attracts visitors.    The church was founded at a drive-in theater and attracted congreants with its sermons on the power of positive thinking.    Its worship hall features a soaring glass spire that opened in 1970 and remains an architectual landmark and tourist destination.    The telecast at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.
      They claim the financial woes were triggered by a drop in revenue in 2009 because of the recession, where the church saw revenue drop 27 percent from roughly $30 million in 2008 to $22 million in 2009.    Leaders projected an 18 percent revenue decline.    [Comment: Heres some positive thinking.    The Democrats and Obama were spending the stimulus, so I guess the Church thought they could spend money they did not have also.    I am surprised if they don't blame it on George W. Bush.]
  
• 10/20/2010 Military recruiters taking gay applicants - Judge backs earlier order to end 'don't ask' policy by AP.
      San Diego - The military is accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation's history, even as it tries in the courts to slow the movement to abolish its "don't ask, don't tell" policy - a move that was dealt a setback when a U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips denied a request to delay her order.    She denied it because the government had not proved that her order would harm troops or impede efforts to implement new military regulations to deal with openly gay troops.    The Pentagon or military cannot inquire into service members' sexual orientation and punish them for it as long as they keep it to themselves.
      On the 21st in Washington, acting on a request from the Obama administration, a federal appeals court in San Francisco lifted a judge's order that had halted enforcement of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, leaving the much disputed law in legal limbo, but gave time for opponents to consider the issues and file a fuller motion arguing why the order should stay in effect.
  
• 10/29/2010 Commandments ban challenged by Peter Smith, The Courier-Journal.
      Two southeastern Kentucky counties have filed an expected appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the court should allow what it didn't when it had a less conservative makeup in 2005 - courthouse displays that include the Ten Commandments, should be considered historical documents and purport to show that modern U.S. law is rooted in the commandments.
  
• 11/2/2010 Court keeps 'don't ask' in effect by AP.
      San Francisco - A federal appeals court indefinitely extended its freeze on a judge's order halting enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, while it challenges the trial court's ruling that the ban on openly gay service members is unconstitutional.
  
• 11/2/2010 Iraqi Christians mourn deadly siege at church by AP.
      Baghdad - Iraq's dwindling Christian community was grieving and fearful after militants seized a Baghdad church during evening Mass, held the congregation hostage and triggered a raid by Iraqi security forces.    The Sunday bloodbath left at least 58 people killed and 78 wounded - nearly everyone inside.    The attack, claimed by an al-Qaida-linked organization, was he deadliest recorded against Iraq's Christians, whose numbers have plummeted as the community has fled to other countries since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.    Islamic militants have attacked Christians in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, chasing off more than 1 million people.
  
• 11/7/2010 Pope decries Spain's ways as anti-church by AP.
      Santiago De Compostela, Spain - Pope Benedict XVI criticized an "aggressive" anti-church sentiment in Spain that he said was reminiscent of the nation's bloody civil war era as he began a two-day visit.    He made clear his distaste for Spain's liberal bent as he arrived in the pilgrimage city of Santiago di Compostela, where the remains of St. James the Apostle are said to be buried.
      He was greeted warmly by a crowd of thousands chanting "Viva el papa" but there was some opposition too.    About 100 people protested his visit and a handful of gays kissed along his motorcade route - a preview of a gay "kiss-in" protest awaiting him today in Barcelona.
      Benedict told reporters en route to Santiago the anti-clericalism seen in Spain now is like that of the 1930s, when the church suffered a wave of violence and persecution as Spain lurched from unstable democracy to civil war.
      Today, the church finds itself fighting laws supported by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government that have allowed gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier abortions.
      On the 8th in Barcelona, Spain the pope strongly defended traditional families and the rights of the unborn, directly attacking Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier access to abortions as he dedicated Barcelona's iconic basilica, the Segrada Familia.
      It was the second time in two days Benedict had criticized the policies of Spain's socialist government and called for Europe to rediscover Christian teachings and apply them to everyday life.
      As he headed to the basilica, about 200 gays and lesbians staged a 'kiss-in" to protest his visit and church policies that consider homosexual acts "intrinsically disordered."    Later, a few hundred women marched to protest their second-class status in the church and the Vatican's opposition to birth control.    [Comment: I bet Benedict thought he was in Sodom and Gommorah.]
      Benedict has focused much of his pontificate on trying to fight secular trends such as the legal recognition of same-sex unions.    He railed against same-sex marriage and divorce, saying families are built on the "indissoluble life of a man and woman" who should get financial and social benefits from governments.    He criticized abortion policies.
  
• 11/10/2010 Obama reaches out to Muslims - Indonesia stop offers another opportunity by Ben Feller, AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - From the most Muslim nation on Earth, President Barack Obama is reaching out to the Islamic world, declaring that efforts to build trust and peace are showing promise but are clearly "incomplete."    Obama will speak on his own years of upbringing in Indonesia and give an update on America's "new beginning" with Muslims that he promised last year in Cairo.    Of course his Middle East peace plan was not going to smooth and he is also dodging a big cloud of volcanic ash as India's Mount Merapi has erupted with deadly force for days.
  
• 11/12/2010 Mosque hearing puts Islam on trial in Tenn. by AP.
      Murfreesboro, Tenn. - Islam is suddenly on trial in a booming Nashville suburb, where foes of a new mosque have spent six days in court trying to link it to what they claim is a plot to take over the U.S. by imposing restrictive religious rule.    The hearing is supposed to be about whether Rutherford County officials violated Tennessee's open meetings law when approving the mosque's site plan.    Instead, plaintiff's attorney Joe Brandon Jr. has used it as a forum to query whether the world's second-biggest faith is even a religion, and push a theory that U.S. Muslims want to replace the Constitution with extemist Islamic law.    He's repeatedly conflated a moderate version of Shariah with its most extreme manifestations, suggesting all muslims must adhere to those interpretations.    At one point, he asked whether Rutherford County Commissioner Gary Farley supported hanging a whip at home as a warning to his wife, then beating her with it, something Brandon said is part of "Shariah religion."
      Chancellor Robert Corlew has given the plaintiffs leeway to present testimony by nonexperts and documents they can't prove are legitimate, saying he reserves the right to strike things from the record later.
  
• 11/13/2010 More exorcists sought - Catholic bishops provide training at conference by Rachel Zoll, AP.
      New York - Citing a shortage of priests who can perform the rite, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are holding a conference on how to conduct exorcisms in a two-day training in Baltimore.    It outlines the scriptural basis of evil, instruct clergy on evaluating whether a person is truly possessed, and review the prayers and rituals that comprise an exorcism.
      Among the speakers will be cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, and a priest-assistant to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, which is for clergy only, and more than 50 bishops and 60 priests signed up to attend.
      One source claims that Pope John Paul II performed an excorcism on a woman who was brought into the Vatican writhing and screaming, which was a case of possession by the devil.
  [Comment: Note the new movie "The Rite" will be coming out soon.    Did this just happen by accident?]
• 11/21/2010 Pope: condoms can be justified in some cases by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV, a stunning comment for a church criticized for its opposition to condoms and for a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.
      The pope made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," which will be released soon.    Church teaching has opposed condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception, although it has never released explicit policy about condoms and HIV.    The Vatican has been criticized for its opposition.    Benedict said condoms aren't a moral solution.    But he said in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, they could be justified "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."    Benedict called it "a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality."
      The Vatican has been pressured by even some church officials in Africa to condone condom use for married couples to protect the uninfected spouse from getting infected.    Benedict drew the wrath of the United Nations, European governments and AIDS activists when he told reporters en route to Africa in 2009 that the AIDS problem on the continent couldn't be resolved by distributing condoms.    "On the contrary, it increases the problem," he said then.    Journalist Peter Seewald, who interviewed Benedict asked Benedict if it wasn't "madness" for the Vatican to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.    "There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility," Benedict said.
      Elsewhere in the book, he reaffirmed church teaching on contraception and abortion,saying, "How many children are killed who might one day have been geniuses, who could have given humanity something new, who could have given us a new Mozart or some new technical discovery?"
  [Comment: If condoms had been used think how many children who might not have grown up to be child molesters or male prostitutes.    I say if you want to use condoms to be safe then get away from the Catholic faith.]
  
• 11/22/2010 Catholics react to pope's remark - Condom stance praised, panned by AP.
      Columbus, Ohio - Some Catholics in the Ameircas greeted Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms as a sign that the church was stepping into the modern debate in the fight against AIDS, though the church was adamant that nothing has changed in its view banning contraception [Comment: unless you are a male prostitute].
      Others cautioned it could open a doctrinal Pandora's box.    And the exact meaning of what the pope said was still up for interpretation.    Many think it is about time, and it wasn't enough to deal with an epidemic, and does not deal with preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but as usual the church still promotes sexual abstinence and fidelity among married couples.    Many were in shock over the pope's comments.
  [Comment: The Pope had to have some controversy.    How better to improve the sales of your new book.    God knows how much the church needs that money to cover all the cost of payouts to the victims of child molestation by clergy and also take everybodies mind off of that subject.]
  
• 11/23/2010 Pope may seek debate on condoms by AP.
      Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI sought to "kick-start a debate" when he said some condom use may be justified, a senior Vatican official said, raising hopes the church may be starting to back away from a complete ban and allow condoms to play a role in the battle against AIDS.    A year after he said condoms could be making the AIDS crisis worse.
  
• 11/24/2010 Pope: Condoms to prevent AIDS also permitted for women by Victor L. Simpson and Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - In a seismic shift, the Vatican said that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.    The position was an acknowledgment that the church's longtime stand against condoms as birth control devices doesn't justify putting lives at risk.
  [Comment: Did God send and email to the Vatican saying "The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt use condoms ... but read the fine print ...."    That will definetly increase book sales.]
      "This is a game-changer," said the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit writer.    The new stance was staked out as the Vatican explained the pope's comments on condoms and HIV in a book that came out.    The Vatican still holds that condom use is immoral and that church doctrine forbidding birth control remains unchanged.
      The change came on a day when U.N. AIDS officials announced that the number of new HIV cases has fallen significantly - thanks to condom use.    ""This is a great day in the fight against AIDS" said Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition.
      The groundbreaking shift, coming from the deeply conservative pontiff, would appear likely to restrain any public criticism from Catholic conservatives.    According to the pope's book his comments implied he was referring primarily to homosexual sex, when condoms aren't being used as a form of contraception.    The pope was aksed later if he intended his comments to apply only to men.    Benedict replied that it really didn't matter - the important thing was that the person took into consideration the life of another, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.    The problem was in the translation of male prostitute because the Italian translation of the book used the feminine for prostitute, whereas the original German used the masculine.
      The clarification is significant.    UNAIDS estimates that 22.4 million people in Africa are infected with HIV, and that 54 percent - or 12.1 million - are women.    Heterosexual transmission of HIV and multiple heterosexual partners are believed to be the major cause of the high infection rates.
  
• 11/24/2010 Study: Drug may prevent HIV - Gay men were focus of research by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Scientists have an exciting breakthrough in the fight agaisnt AIDS.    A pill already used to treat HIV infection turns out to be a powerful weapon in protecting healthy gay men from getting the virus, a global study found.    Daily doses of Truvada cut the risk of infection by 44 percent when given with condoms, counseling and other prevention services.    Men who took their pill most faithfully had even more protection, up to 73 percent.
  [Comment: Was it the condom or the pill?    Investors hurry up and buy stock in condoms or Truvada.]
  
• 12/1/2010 Theme park for creationism proposed for Ky. by The Courier-Journal.
      Frankfort, Ky. - Operators of the popular Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky are seeking state tax incentives to build a creationism theme park nearby - a project that Gov. Steve Beshear will announce today.    The park is to be called Ark Encounter and would include a massive wooden ark that would offer educational attractions and draw as many as 1.6 million guests a year, and no details on cost and tax incentives.    Advocates for church-state separation question whether the tax incentive would raise First Amendment issues.
  
• 12/12/2010 Vatican, Ireland tension detailed by Frances D'emilio, AP.
      Vatican City - Newly released U.S. diplomacy cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect the Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking church members to answer questions from an Irish commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.    That the Holy See used its diplomatic-immunity status as a tiny city-state to try to thwart the Irish fact-finding probe has long been known.    But the WikiLeaks cables, published by the British newspaper The Guardian, contain behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situations.    [Comment: Yeah, guys, what do you think you are doing, the Vatican does not keep secrets anymore.]    The Vatican press office decline to comment of the cables, but it decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme seriousness."    The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See also condemned the leaks and said the Vatican and the U.S. cooperate in promoting universal values.
      One leaked document, written in February 2010 by Rome-based diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes, cited her conversations with Irish Ambassador Noel Fahey and his deputy, Helena Keleher, about the diplomatic bind Ireland found itself in.
      Ireland wanted to be seen as fully supportive of the independent probe into child-abuse cover-ups in the Dublin Archdiocese, but its Rome officials also didn't want to intervene in the probe's efforts to get information from the Vatican, Noyes' report said.    Noyes reported that Irish diplomats in Rome decided not to press Vatican officials to respond to questions from the panel, which was led by an Irish judge and operated independently of Ireland's government.    It sent letters to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland seeking information on Vatican officials' knowledge of cover-ups but got no replies.
      Noyes, citing a conversation with a Holy See official, wrote that the investigators' letters "offended many in the Vatican" because they were viewed as "an affront to Vatican sovereignty."
      The diplomat wrote that "adding insult to injury, Vatican officials also believed some Irish opposition politicians were making political hay with the situation by publicly calling on the government to demand that the Vatican reply."
      "In the end the Irish government decided not to press the Vatican to reply," the U.S. diplomat wrote, citing Keleher.
      Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs and the Dublin Archdiocese declined to comment.    One of Ireland's most promenent campaigners against the Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse, Andrew Madden, said the leaked document offered more evidence that the Vatican was concerned only about protecting itself, not about admitting the turth.    Madden was an altar boy who was molested by a Dublin priest.
  [Comment: The Vatican Church should have used a condom, it looks like they have bred their sins, and it looks like them.]
  
• 12/21/2010 Pope urges reflection on sex-abuse scandal by AP.
      Rome - In a remarkable demonstration of public soul searching, Pope Benedict XVI used a high-profile Christmas speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops to demand reflection on the flaws in the Church's very message and culture that permitted a global sexual-abuse scandal.    "We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred," Benedict said.    In his address, the pontiff said the past year's revelations of decades of sexual abuse of children by priests had taken on an "unimaginable dimension" and amounted to a "humiliation" that should be accepted as an "exhortation to truth and to call to renewal."    [Comment: Exhortation - to encourage, to urge or advise earnestly, boy that cleared that up, except the renewal part.    So I expect from this point on they will say what they mean, without having to clarify it.]
  
• 12/22/2010 Vatican clarifies stance on condoms by AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican sought to clarify the pope's comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested condom use could be condoned to avoid pregnancy.    The Vatican's moral watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement saying some commentators had misunderstood and misrepresented the pope's remarks in a book-length interview released last month titled "Light of the World."
  
• 12/25/2010 Biden: Gay marriage inevitable by Laurie Kellman, AP.
      Washington - Vice President Joe Biden predicted the evolution in thinking that will permit gays to soon serve openly in the military eventually will bring about a national consensus for same-sex marriage, and deal with the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.    Gay marriage is legal in only a handful of states, mostly in the Northeast, and in Iowa.    President Barack Obama recently said his feelings on the gay mariage issue were in a state of transition, but he still believes in allowing strong civil unions that provide certain protections and legal rights that married couples have.    Obama has repeatedly said he would like to see the law repealed, but the Justice Department had defended its constitutionality, which the agency is required to do.    [Comment: The law is under attack as we speak, and it will not be long before we can say that we are living in the new Sodom and Gomorrah.]
  
• 12/26/2010 Pope urges Catholic courage in China, Iraq by Frances D'emilio, AP.
      Vatican City - Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a homily laced with worry for the world's Christian minorities.    Grim news seemed to highlight his concern for his flock's welfare: 11 people, including a priest, were hurt in a bombing at Christmas Mass in a police chapel in the Philipines, which has the largest Catholic population in Asia.    The attack took place on Jolo island, a stronghold of al-Qaida linked militants.    But joy seemed to prevail in Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born, which bustled with its biggest crowd of Christians pilgrims in years.
      Christians only make up 2 percent of the population in the Holy Land today, compared to 15 percent in 1950.    In Iraq, Christians have faced repeated violence by militants intent on driving them out of the country, as happened on Oct. 31 during a Mass that killed 68 people, and 1,000 Christian families fled to northern Iraq for safety.    Benedict denounced lack of freedom to worship as a threat to world peace.
  
• 12/31/2010 Vatican creates financial watchdog by Nicole Winfield, AP.
      Vatican City - The Vatican created a financial watchdog agency and issued new laws to fight money laundering and terrorist financing in a major effort to shed its image as a tax haven that for years has been mired in secrecy and scandal.
      The decrees, which go into effect April 1, were passed as the Vatican's own bank remains implicated in a money-laundering investigation that resulted in $31 million being seized and its top two officials placed under investigation.
      The bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, is one of several Vatican offices that are covered by the new financial transparency rules, which were adopted primarily to comply with European Union norms.
      The bank was created to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for the pope's religious or charitable works.    It is not open to the public and its list of accountholders is secret.    But bank officials say there are 40,000 to 45,000 among religious congregations, clergy, Vatican officials and lay people with Vatican connections.
      Pope Benedict XVI said he was issuing decrees because he wanted the Vatican to join other countries that have cracked down on legal loopholes that have allowed criminals to exploit the financial sector.
      International financial organizations said it appeared the Holy See had taken a step in the right direction.    The decree creates an independent Vatican compliance agency.    It will share information with international financial organizations, a big shift for the notoriously private Vatican financial system.    Its work is conducted in secret - but the norms stress that secrecy won't get in the way of cooperation with law enforement.
  [Comment: I wish we knew the real reason this was done.]
  
  
      In the year 2010:
  • Tolerance: Christian churches are beginning to be attacked oversees as in Nigeria 200 dead, in Indonesia assailants stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and pounded a minister in the head with a wooden plank, in Iraq a bloodbath left at least 58 people killed and 78 wounded while inside a church Mass, then 11 people and a priest were hurt in a bombing at Christmas Mass in a police chapel in the Philipines, and we hear Muslims complain about tolerance about a mosque being built near ground zero.
  • President Barack Obama's forceful defense of the right of muslims to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.    Obama also reaches out to Muslims and Indonesia stop offers another opportunity.
  • Churches in the United states:
    • Southern Baptists fret over not having enough baptisms and will have to throw more money at it to get conversions.
    • Presbyterians become anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, but church has lost memberships which is down by half of what it was since 1965.
    • Episcopalian - The Anglican Communion has suspended U.S. Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical bodies.
    • Lutheran churches stayed out of trouble this year.
  • Gay marriage is beginning to prevail as seen in Calififornia a gay marriage ban argued in court has a lawyer contending it benefits children as the supporters of the ban were trying to deprive same-sex couples of a relationship the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized as a fundamental right.    A federal judge in California ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional right to equal protection, and the California constitution gives the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples.
  • Condemnation of homosexuality - Military recruiters taking gay applicants as Judge backs earlier order to end 'don't ask' policy, but then the Court keeps 'don't ask' in effect.
  • Now President Barack Obama involved with scores of federal rules blocking gay rights have been swept aside or reinterpreted by Obama officials eager to advance the agenda of a constituency that strongly backed the president's 2008 campaign.    Among the changes: Gay partners of federal workers will now receive long-term health insurance, access to day care and other benefits.    Federal Housing authority loans can no longer consider the sexual orientation of applicants.    The Census Bureau plans to report the number of people who report being in same-sex relationship.    Hospitals must allow gays to visit their ill partners.    And federal child-care subsidies can be used by the childen of same-sex domestic partners.    The Labor Department is expected to announce that federal officials have rethought the Family and Medical Leave Act, concluding that under the law, a gay federal employee may take leave to care for a child with a gay partner.
  • Pluralism is being persued with representatives of the Baha'i faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity begin Intefaith events, even a true and profound "Common Ground" between Islam and Buddhism has been formally recognized and have had dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church.
  • The Catholics and the Pope thought they were going to have the year of the priest but it turned out otherwise:
    • Now allow priest to use multimedia tools and an application that will let priests celebrate Mass with an Apple iPad on the altar instead of the regular Roman missal.
    • As the worldwide sex-abuse scandal continues with Ireland, Brazil, Germany, Malta and Belgium, and the Pope was under fire in sex abuse case where in Germany he was in charge and did not transfer an abusive German priest or defrock him and this tarnishes his papacy, then blames it on everyone else who are attacking the church including the devil in a hate campaign and begins damage control urges repentence, and finally the Pope admitted that sins of church were to blame in sex scandal and then he seeks forgiveness, and pledges action on abuse and admits church's failures in abuse crisis, thus the dioceses costs for sexual abuse scandal totalled $18 million to settle twenty-six former altar boys who sued Vermont's Catholic Church over alleged sexual abuse by priests and in Germany the Catholic Church seeks a sex-abuse payout limit.
    • Even the Boy scouts of America had sexual abuse cases going on and then Presbyterians apologize for abuse during mission work of 30 victims abroad from 1950-1990.
    • The sex abuse scandal gives Catholic dissidents new fuel as they urge an end to male domination but the church defends celibacy rules and the Pope defends celibacy as 'great sign of faith', then has a rally and ends the year of the priest.
    • Condoms in schools fuels firestorm in Italy and Pope says condoms can be justified in some cases as to prevent AIDS also permitted for women a change that came on a day when U.N. AIDS officials announced that the number of new HIV cases has fallen significantly, thanks to condom use in Africa.
    • Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
    • Pope calls Spain's ways as anti-church directly attacking Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier access to abortions.
  • And God can now be compared to Allah which teed off the Muslim world, and we can still have "In God we Trust and "Under God" on our money and license plates, but the battle goes on for "reliance upon Almighty God" and even the Ten Commandments had a victory this year for once.
  
  
  Return each year for updates for 2011.
  
  

This file created on March 15, 2006, and updated on December 31, 2006, August 17, 2007, August 1, 2008, March 15, 2009, January 30, 2009, Januuary 31, 2010, September 11, 2011, and October 12, 2011.