Reuters: "The research, published by the National Catholic Reporter, came as the Vatican was embarking on an inspection of more than 200 U.S. seminaries in-tended to find out if aspiring priests are being properly schooled in celibacy and to uncover any evidence of homosexuality. There have also been reports that Pope Benedict may soon bar gay men from entering the priesthood. The church has also been unswerving in its opposition to the ordination of women. The survey pub-lished by the liberal-leaning Reporter is the fourth in a series dating back to 1987 tracking attitudes of U.S. Catholics to their church and their faith. It...had an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 points. Overall the survey found, 'We're changing and not changing ... the trends toward diminished attachment to the institution but deep links to core beliefs continue,' the publication" said.

Michael Horowitz in Christianity Today: Besides the crusade against international sex trafficking, "...evangel-icals were prime supporters of the Prison Rape Elim-ination Act of 2003—legislation now putting to an end a form of widespread brutality that has destroyed 10 to 15 percent of all American prisoners.... [They] also played the central role in ending the genocidal war in Sudan that had claimed more than 2 million lives... Evangeli-cals are [now] playing a key role in protecting the tragic victims of mass starvation, concentration camps, gas chambers, and persecutions of North Korea's Kim Jong Il—an effort that will require...the very best of your pray-ers and labors. They—you—are now working on legis-lation to protect runaway girls caught at American bus stations, and the hundreds of thousands of girls and women trapped ... into lives of prostitution...."

USAToday: "Q: Many CEOs have given us advice, but advice on getting to heaven seems rather ulti-mate. A: I'm just a pizza maker. Q: What role has your faith played in your financial success? A: I wanted my faith to be the center of my life. I haven't al-ways done that, but I knew it was the right thing to do and what I should do. Hopefully, I've gotten a little better at it. The nuns taught us that honesty is the best poli-cy. Many people think that the rich marry into money or steal it. I thought I could show that you can live by Christ's teachings and be successful. Q: Would you not have been as successful had you been Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or atheist? A: There's no question in my mind it would have turned out differently. I would not have been nearly as successful. I don't be-lieve that in 38 years that I treated anyone unfairly."

Catholic Online: "A Russian Orthodox bishop has ap-pealed for the formation of a Catholic-Orthodox alliance to negotiate with European institutions and members of other faiths on behalf of 'traditional Christianity.' 'Europe has so rapidly de-Christianized that urgent action is needed to save it from losing its centuries-old Christian identity,' said Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, the Russian church's representative to the Eur-opean Union. 'I strongly believe the time has come for Catholics and Orthodox to unite their efforts....We need a strategic alliance, and we need it here and now. In 20, 30 or 40 years, it may simply be too late.' He said the alliance would bring together representatives of Eur-opean Catholic bishops' conferences and Orthodox churches and noted that the group would seek a 'com-mon position on all major social and ethical issues.'"

Catholic News: “Pope Benedict XVI told biblical experts that the ancient tradition of 'lectio divina,' or sacred read-ing of Scripture, should be promoted as a way to enrich the spiritual life of the church. 'The church must always renew and rejuvenate herself' through 'the Word of God, which never gets old or expires,' he said. ...The Holy Father [reportedly] urged a renewal of this ancient tradi-tion, saying he was convinced it would 'bring a new spirit-ual springtime to the church if promoted effectively.' The pope's message came in an address on Friday...to some 500 biblical experts, scholars and pastoral leaders atten-ding an international conference in Rome. The Catholic Biblical Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promo-ting Christian Unity sponsored the congress commem-orating the 40th anniversary of 'Dei Verbum,' the Second Vatican Council's document on Scripture & revelation.”

"'Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, etc., is not a liberal or conservative value,' said Falwell. 'It's an Ameri-can value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on.' It was half a loaf, but gay-rights leaders grabbed it. The Rev. Mel White of Soulforce—a group based near Falwell's evangelical empire in Lynchburg, Va.—immedi-ately set out to verify if his former employer had meant to say what he had said. Before coming out as a gay acti-vist in the early 1990s, White was a seminary professor and superstar ghostwriter who worked with the Rev. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Oliver North, Jim Bakker and, yes, Falwell....'I have known Jerry a long time and I think this was a serious change...' said White. 'Never before has he said that he recognized us as a class—as a pro-tected class—like other Americans.'"  

USAToday: "American Jewish Congress attorney Marc Stern, an adviser on the effort, said despite concern over growing tensions among U.S. religious groups, 'this book is proof that the despair is premature, that it is possible to acknowledge and respect deep religious differences and yet still find common ground.' Another adviser, evangelical literature scholar Leland Ryken of Wheaton College, called the textbook 'a triumph of scholarship and a major publish-ing event.' The $50 book and teacher's guide, covering both Old and New Testaments, are planned for semester-long or full-year courses starting next year. The editors are Cullen Schippe, a retired vice president at textbook publisher Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, and Chuck Stetson, a venture cap-italist who chairs Bible Literacy. The 41 contributors in-clude evangelical, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and secular experts."

Inside Higher Ed: "I can talk more knowledgeably about Christians in higher education since I am one. Christians in higher education, at secular schools, can be placed in two different bins or categories....I’ll call one group the 'privatizers' and the other, the 'evangelicals.' Privatizers in higher education view their faith as discon-nected from their work as professors. They are involved in a local church (often heavily involved); if they are married, they are probably faithful to their spouse; if they have children, they love their kids; and their names do not show up in the newspapers having done something that embarrasses their school. But these... privatizers, are not identified at their schools as Christians; this as-pect of their identity may never be known by students or colleagues. Not that their faith is a deep or dark secret; they probably consider the information irrelevant....”

...Europe is dying. William Murchison in Touch-stone: "...only 41 percent of Europeans claim belief in a personal God. In Britain the percentage of believers has fallen from 77% in 1968 to 44% today. That’s 'believers,'
[not] believer-practitioners who on Sundays put their posteriors where their minds are. The number of Mus-lims at Friday prayers in Britain reportedly exceeds the number of Anglicans at Sunday worship. A recent Wall Street Journal article referred to Tony Blair as 'the Chris-tian leader of a pagan country.' In Ireland—Ireland!— just half the population reportedly goes to Mass now, compared with 84% in the early 1990s. To quote one bored boyo...'It’s the repetition. After you’ve heard it enough, you feel like you already know what they’re going to say, so why do you have to go there?' Yes, why, Brendan, Brigid, Patrick?..." 

AP's Richard Ostling: Religion scholar Huston Smith "acknowledged in an interview with the Associated Press that he's no expert, but said notable scientists who are friends of long standing have taught him about the oft-baffling aspects of nature and our limited know-ledge of the physical universe. Over the past several centuries, empirical observation and laboratory experi-ments have produced huge benefits for health and remo-val of drudgery, Mr. Smith said. The problem is, as a result 'we gave science a blank check, by which I mean we turned all truth over to them. Science is not omni-competent.... His book says 'discounting invisible re-alities' is the 'modern mistake' promoted by an intolerant secularism that says only empirical, scientific know-ledge is valid. [He] believes the religious worldview is gaining momentum. 'Secularism is on the defensive.'"

Dr. Paul J. Dean in Crosswalk: "A few glaring issues emerge from this horrific notion of what some are say-ing should be considered as normal and healthy. First, did we not see this move coming? Beginning with Kin-sey in the academic world and the sexual revolution in the counter culture of the sixties, could we not predict this assertion? If not, certainly the feminist movement and the more recent homosexual agenda have removed the blinders. Combine sexual freedom with postmodern philosophy and the inevitable result is a society with no moral values or judgments whatsoever. With homosex-uality increasingly propagated as normal, combined with the philosophical rationale behind such, there is nothing to prevent intergenerational sex from being viewed in a positive way....[when] child molestation will be viewed as good, healthy, and acceptable."

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM: "Jordan leads the Islamic world in its antipathy for Jews according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. The poll, which surveyed 17,000 people in 17 countries, said 100 percent of Jor-danians viewed Jews unfavorably. The majority of Jor-danians are Palestinians, but the late King Hussein and his son and successor, King Abdullah, have been known for their pro-American stances. Russia led all other countries with favorable views of Christians (92 percent) while Turkey (63 percent) had the most unfavorable view of Christians. The Netherlands led all nations surveyed both in positive views of Jews (85 percent) and negative views of Muslims (51 percent). Significant numbers of respondents in only Jordan (38 percent) and Lebanon (40 percent) blamed U.S. policies for Islamic extrem-ism."

The Scotsman: "CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were the closest of friends, one struggling to make his fantasy world of Middle Earth a literary reality, the other trying to convince friends his first book about Narnia deserved to be published. But new research has revealed that their friendship was riven by...bitter and personal of rows on everything from literature to religion and even their choice of spouse. The fascinating revelations... have been made by film-maker Norman Stone while re-searching a drama-documentary on the life of Lewis. Stone, who made the award-winning movie about Lewis, Shadowlands, talked to mutual friends of the lit-erary pair as well as examining documents.... His por-trayal of their frequent and occasionally destructive bic-kering comes on the eve of...the £129m The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe...."

ABCNews: "Publisher Len Budd says that he is struck by how little the average Briton knows about the Chris-tian culture that has underpinned society for centuries. Barely 10 percent of the 40-odd million Britons who cite their faith as Christian regularly attend church. Of those who do, he says, many will have but a hazy sense of biblical chronology. He devised the project two years ago, and enlisted the help of a retired Anglican priest and headmaster, the Rev. Michael Hinton. The idea was to reproduce the 66 books into 50 400-word chunks, each taking about two minutes to read. The thin tome... should take less than two hours to skip through. 'It's for the man in the street,' says Budd. 'If he's able to answer a pub quiz question about the Bible afterwards, then good. If he goes on to read the whole thing, even better....'"

A Christmas gift from Xnmp—The "gift" is a tip. Add the Google toolbar to your computer's Internet Explorer browser. It zaps popup ads on news websites, which is great, but even better, its search option to "search this site" is awesome. It's virtually an index of any site, including this one. Try it—go to the web address below, click "download," and it automatically installs itself if your computer is WIndows XP. And Merry Christmas!
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