Jon Kennedy (Xnmp editor)

On Religion: "The movie [Dawn of the Dead] was sickening, disturbing, funny and haunting—all at the same time. Paffenroth was hooked, especially by Romero's bleak, biting view of humanity's future. This wasn't just another commercial horror movie, the kind that cable-television channels play around the clock at Halloween. Then a strange thing happened in college, when Paffenroth's work in the classics led him to St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and, especially, the medieval poet Dante Alighieri. To his shock, he found that his doctoral work at Notre Dame University was starting to overlap with his fascination with zombie movies. Suddenly, the word 'Inferno' had new meaning. He decided that Romero's zombies—the living dead who had lost all self-control and reason—were a modernized, bumbling, cannibalistic vision of what Dante called the 'suffering race of souls who lost the good of intellect.'"

Christian Science Monitor: "Halloween, long associated with pagan traditions, is now high season for an old American tradition of evangelizing through tracts. The nation's four major publishers of tracts say they sell more at Halloween than at any other time of year, including Christmas and Easter. And the push is on to grow the seasonal market. This year, thanks to new glow-in-the-dark tracts, the Texas-based American Tract Society expects to set a new Halloween record by shipping out more than 4 million tracts. Buoying tract sales, observers say, is a rising tide of evangelical passion for Halloween rituals. Four years ago in Frisco, Texas, for instance, most churches either shunned the holiday as a perceived festival of mischief or staged their own alternative event. This year, at least 11 congregations are equipping members with tracts for doorbell-answering adults and trick-or-treating kids to hand out. 'It's the only time of the year when people come to your door and ask to interact with you,' says Wayne Braudrich, senior pastor at Frisco Bible Church, which offers tracts to members for Halloween distribution. 'That just seems like a chance that shouldn't be missed.'"

Agape Press: "Resolutions supporting an exit strategy from public schools have been submitted in every Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) state and regional convention in the continental United States. The resolution is based on a recommendation by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler. Mohler wrote in an article that because of the spiritual, moral, and academic decay that increasingly characterizes U.S. public schools, Southern Baptists should develop a plan for taking their children out of government schools. Roger Moran, a member of the SBC Executive Committee, helped draft the resolution based on the seminary president's suggestions. Moran says Christian parents must recognize that they are responsible for planning and overseeing their children's education. 'We will be held accountable, and we have just shrugged our shoulders as though it doesn't matter,' he asserts; 'but it does matter, and it matters supremely.' The SBC official believes an exodus from government schools is indicated because of the moral, social, and intellectual dangers prevalent in public education...."

Macleans.ca: The Rev. Raymond "Gravel gave up [gay] prostitution after being so severely beaten by a client that he ended up in hospital. His tenure as a priest has not been low-key either. An outspoken advocate, Gravel has publicly decried the Roman Catholic Church's position on same-sex marriage. He has also received a disciplinary letter from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XIV. Gravel was also one of 19 priests who created a tempest in February when they signed an open letter criticizing the church's position on same-sex marriage and its opposition to ordaining gays. 'I would say that 50 per cent of the priests in Quebec are gay but if I became a priest, it's because I'm a believer and I believe in the message of Christ,' he said in an interview last year with Fugues, a gay magazine. Gravel has also been vocal about abortion rights and has said he will fight for justice in Parliament."

Josh Treviño in The Remedy: "Heather Mac Donald, in USA Today, declares that conservatism does not need God. ...First among Mac Donald's errors is her implicit contention that reason and revelation are exclusive, opposed, or antagonistic. It's a common mistake among the professionally irreligious, for whom religion exists only as parody -- see the hateful Richard Dawkins, whom Mac Donald mercifully does not at all resemble. One supposes that Mac Donald is utterly unfamiliar with the Papal remarks at Regensburg (and the accompanying Muslim furor), which discussed the very need for the concurrence of reason and faith; to say nothing of the work of Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics; and to say nothing of the martyrdom of Thomas More. That's merely drawing from the Catholic tradition: Protestantism has its own rich tradition of rationalism informing faith, and vice-versa. The faith-and-reason topic is well-trodden ground, and it's a pity that Mac Donald chooses to mischaracterize it with an invocation of inherent opposition between the two."

Albert Mohler in Christian Post: "In Evangelical Feminism, published by Crossway Books, [Wayne] Grudem argues that evangelical feminism now represents one of the greatest dangers to the continued orthodoxy of the evangelical movement. 'I am concerned that evangelical feminism (also known as 'egalitarianism') has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into theological liberalism,' he explains. In this new book, Grudem considers 25 different patterns of argument put forth by evangelical feminists, and demonstrates that every single one of them either contra-dicts or compromises the authority of Scripture.

"...Grudem's use of the term 'theological liberalism' is certain to be controversial. After all, the very genesis of the evangelical movement in North America was grounded in an effort to avoid the errors of theological modernism and liberalism that had already by the midpoint of the last century overtaken the mainline Protestant denominations. Grudem defines theological liberalism as 'a system of thinking that denies the complete truthfulness of the Bible as the Word of God and denies the unique and absolute authority of the Bible in our lives.' In defining evangelicalism over against theological liberalism in this way, Grudem returns to the Scripture Principle that stood as foundational to the evangelical movement."

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, president, and Thomas Burish, provost of the University of Notre Dame, via St. Paul Pioneer Press: "What should a properly educated college graduate of the early 21st century know? A Harvard curriculum committee proposed an answer to that question this month, stating that, among other things, such a graduate should know 'the role of religion in contemporary, historical or future events — personal, cultural, national or international.' ...Harvard is the drum major of American higher education: Where it leads, others follow. And if Harvard says taking a course in religion is necessary to be an educated person, it's a good bet that many other colleges and universities will soon make the same discovery. We hope they will.'"

Christian Post: "The city [Chula Vista, Calif.] has agreed to pay $31,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a pre-teen Christian dance troupe kicked out of the Holiday Festival last December because of their religious message. Chula Vista also agreed to provide to police officers and city officials annual First Amendment training 'with emphasis on the rights of religious persons to express their faith in the public square.' A hearing to approve the settlement is scheduled for Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, though officials say the judge's approval is a formality. Lita Ramirez, instructor for the Jesus Christ Dancers, said yesterday the outcome of the case sends a message that religious expression must be protected. 'We did this not just for us we did this for everybody,' Ramirez said."

Daily Mail, London: "A leaked account of an 'impartiality summit' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade, is certain to lead to a new row about the BBC and its reporting on key issues, especially concerning Muslims and the war on terror. It reveals that executives would let the Bible be thrown into a dustbin on a TV comedy show, but not the Koran, and that they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden if given the opportun-ity. Further, it discloses that the BBC's 'diversity tsar', wants Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils when on air. At the secret meeting in London last month, which was hosted by veteran broadcaster Sue Lawley, BBC executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians."

Via the Washington Times: "Part of the devolution of marriage to minority status is the media's fault. Look at who they feature on magazine covers, tabloid TV and awards shows: the cohabiting without benefit of clergy, same-sex 'couples,' fornicating couples who flaunt their 'lifestyles' and dare anyone to tell them to stop. The sexually transmitted diseases that come from these 'lifestyles' are not the fault of those who engage in the sort of behavior that puts them at risk. Rather, Republicans are to blame for spending too little on 'cures' so the promiscuous can continue practicing their 'lifestyles' without fear of disease. TV commercials for drugs that treat genital herpes now run close to erectile dysfunction ads without irony. This decline into minority status for people like me is also partly the fault of people like me."

Selwyn Duke in Alain's Newsletter: "Brownshirts do lurk among us. And, ominously, as they continue to metastasize, voices of truth become fewer and fainter. But there are Americans who fancy themselves to be liberals who cannot be counted among them, individuals who still think this is the age of their grandfather’s liberalism. And for these people, I’ll present some points to ponder. Doesn’t it give you pause for thought that fascist methods are ever more frequently employed in our time, and that when they are it is virtually always in the service of a leftist agenda? Then, a definition of liberalism from Dictionary.com states: “favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression . . . ” So I ask you, don’t you think that perhaps, just maybe, there’s something wrong with the soul of today’s liberalism when it has become so illiberal?"

In National Review Online: "The theocracy charge relies mainly on blowing Christian conservative positions out of proportion. Do Christian conservatives oppose the public funding of embryo-destructive stem-cell research? Well, then, Calvin’s Geneva can’t be far behind. Never mind that in opposing such funding, they are usually supporting the status quo. It’s a little like saying that because Democrats oppose cuts in Medicaid, they favor a dictatorship of the proletariat. Purveyors of the theo-panic love to exaggerate the influence of the bizarre Christian Reconstructionists who actually want an American theocracy. As New York Times religion writer Peter Steinfels notes in a review of the spate of new books, Christian Reconstructionists play 'a greater role in the writings of the religious right’s critics than they ever have in the wider evangelical world.' He notes that the flagship evangelical journal, Christianity Today, almost never shows up in these books, because, inconveniently, it is 'moderate, reflective and self-questioning.'"

Tom Van Riper: "Mr. and Mrs. Median's $46,326 in annual income is 32% more than their mid-'60s counterparts, even when adjusted for inflation, and 13% more than those at the median in the economic boom year of 1985. And thanks to ballooning real estate values, median house-hold net worth has increased even faster. The typical American household has a net worth of $465,970, up 83% from 1965, 60% from 1985 and 35% from 1995. Throw in the low inflation of the past 20 years, a deregulated airline industry that's made travel much cheaper, plus technological progress that's provided the middle class with not only better cars and televisions, but every gadget from DVD players to iPods, all at lower and lower prices, and it's obvious that Mr. and Mrs. Median are living the life of Riley compared to their parents and grandparents. So why are they so unhappy?"

Jill Vejnoska via Cox News Service: "'It's a good sign, in that it represents more of America,' says Martha Zoller , a frequent commentator on CNN, Fox News and the 'Today' show. 'Television has finally heard from people like me, people who drive their kids to school and like to see themselves portrayed.' People like the good folks of Dillon, Texas, on NBC's 'Friday Night Lights.' Modern reality and traditional values go hand in hand in this drama about a football-mad small city whose high school players move fluidly between watching the latest ESPN highlights on their plasma screen televisions and urging each other on with cries of 'Let's touch God, boys,' before games. 'In Texas, religion isn't a big deal," executive producer Peter Berg says about not shying away from showing characters attending church or praying for an injured player. "It's just something that is.' And not just in Texas. 'Hollywood has recognized that there's a gigantic part of the population that goes to church each week,' says Theodore Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, which has an office based in Atlanta."

Terry Mattingly: "It helps, however, to understand that the Southern Baptist guy at the heart of this movie has had a tough time turning his 'Star Wars' epiphany into a career reality. He is learning how to make movies and 'Facing the Giants' is only his second try. Kendrick never had a real chance to study screenwriting, editing, directing or acting. When the time came to pick a career, he did what many young media-driven believers end up doing. He entered the ministry. It's hard to explain to outsiders how this kind of thing happens. 'I kept trying to find people who felt the same way as I did,' he said in an interview just before a ratings tussle with the Motion Picture Association of America that sparked a media firestorm. 'I could see that movies were shaping our culture and I couldn't understand why so many other people couldn't see that. It was hard to find people who understood what I wanted to do.'"

ninemsn: "Thousands of low-caste Hindus converted to Buddhism and Christianity in protest against new laws in several Indian states that make such changes of religion difficult. The ceremonies took place in the central city of Nagpur to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the conversion to Buddhism of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a low-caste Hindu and the founder of India's democratic constitution. Buddhist monks in orange robes and Christian priests administered religious vows in separate ceremonies to about 10,000 Dalits, the politically correct name for those called 'untouch-ables' in the past."

Becky Gaylord in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Voters should oust congressional Republican leaders because U.S. foreign policy is delaying the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to a evangelical preacher trying to influence closely contested political races. K.A. Paul railed against the war in Iraq on Sunday before a crowd of 1,000 at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, his first stop on what he hopes is a 30-city campaign."

David Aikman in Christianity Today: "In the front line of this assault are not churches or synagogues, but schools and college fellowship groups. In San Francisco in April, a federal district court judge upheld the right of the University of California's Hastings School of Law to deny campus recogni-tion of the Christian Legal Society because of the society's requirement that members abstain from gay sex. In August, the University of Wiscon-sin's Superior campus denied recognition of InterVarsity Christian Fellow-ship for similar reasons. The issue has gone far beyond the freedom of homosexuals to live and act openly; the issue is now the freedom of religious people and organizations to criticize that lifestyle."

W&M News: "'There are people in present-day American society who hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis, and the teaching of evolutionary theory in our public schools is not neutral with respect to their religion,' he said. 'It may be that their religion is not reasonable, though I think it is going to be very difficult to make that case, but the neutrality required of a liberal democracy is not in respect to the reasonable religions within our society but neutrality with respect to the religions in our society.'

"[Nicholas] Wolterstorff [the Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology Emeritus at Yale University] proposed three options for teaching science in public schools. One would be to allow 'public schools to teach as the whole truth of the matter the sciences of nature as we find them in the contemporary world,' which would violate the principle of neutrality. A second way would be to have standard science taught while incorporating religious objections. 'Of course, instructing the public schools to teach science along the generous ecumenical lines would stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy within the scientific community,' he said. The third way, which was favored by Wolterstorff—although he realized 'there is not a ghost of a chance that it will come about'—would be for the government to fund equally all schools that meet appropriate educational standards. 'The public schools enjoy a monopoly on state funding,' he explained. 'Some schools teach creation science, but the fact that such schools forego state funding implies that the state is not neutral with respect to the religion of such parents.'"

In the Birmingham (U.K.) Post: "'Europeans need to know that there is a travelling theo-freak show which actually advocates reinstatement of Old Testament law - killing of homosexuals, etc - and the right to hold office, or even to vote for Christians only. Middle class crowds cheer to this rhetoric. If secularists are not vigilant, Dominionists and Reconstructionists will soon be mainstream in a true American theocracy.'"

Traditional Values Coalition: "The exposure of Foley as a closeted homosexual and his fantasies about young boys, was timed to do maxi-mum damage to the Republican Party just weeks before the November election. WorldNetDaily reports that Mike Rogers was involved in hiding information about Foley until it would do maximum damage. Writing in a blog in March 2005, Rogers bragged: 'Mark Foley will be exposed for the hypocrite he is through a mail and internet campaign that will reach into every home in his district.' Rogers also bragged more recently that he was working with officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Commit-tee and that 'the good news is that the Democratic Congressional Cam-paign Committee is finally getting it.' In another post, Rogers admitted that he had possessed copies of Foley’s emails and that he was providing background information to various media outlets. Said Rogers: 'Was (I) the central figure in reporting on Foley’s latest scandal? Never said I was. Was my work on the case important to helping make sure it came out before the election? Yes.'"

Laurie Goodstein: "At an unusual series of leadership meetings in 44 cities this fall, more than 6,000 pastors are hearing dire forecasts from some of the biggest names in the conservative evangelical movement. Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be 'Bible-believing Christians' as adults — a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation. While some critics say that the statistics are grossly exaggerated (one evangelical magazine for youth ministers dubbed it 'the 4 percent panic attack'), there is widespread consensus among evangelical leaders that they risk losing their teenagers. 'I’m looking at the data,' said Ron Luce, who organized the summit meetings and founded Teen Mania, a 20-year-old youth ministry, 'and we’ve become post-Christian America, like post-Christian Europe. We’ve been working as hard as we know how to work—everyone in youth ministry is working hard — but we’re losing.' The board of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group representing 60 denominations and dozens of ministries, passed a resolution this year deploring 'the epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church.' Among the leaders speaking at the meetings are Ted Haggard, president of the National Association; the Rev. Jerry Falwell; and nationally known preachers like Jack Hayford and Tommy Barnett."

AP's Shawn Pogatchnik via Forbes: "The last time Ian Paisley sought to make an impression on a Roman Catholic Church leader, the Protestant firebrand shouted at the pope: 'I renounce you as the antichrist!' Paisley, like Northern Ireland itself, seems to be mellowing with age. On Monday, the Democratic Unionist Party leader famous for his anti-Catholic inflexibility plans to shake hands and chat for the first time with Archbishop Sean Brady, leader of Ireland's 4 million Catholics. Their encounter Monday in Belfast is being billed as a warm-up for Paisley's potential rapprochement with his archenemy, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein. Negotiations will start Wednesday in Scotland which could include face-to-face talks between the two for the first time. If they can reach the deal that both say is within sight, their parties could be sharing a Cabinet table within weeks and running Northern Ireland in place of Britain."

James K. A. Smith in Christianity Today: "Like a pendulum swinging from one extreme to another, evangelicals have swung from a kind of pietistic stance of withdrawal and suspicion to a strident, triumphalistic program for 'taking America back for God.' The Myth of a Christian Nation, a new book by St. Paul pastor and former professor at Bethel College Greg Boyd, provides a sign that the pendulum might be headed back the other way. But first we need to first appreciate the story thus far. Once upon a time, evangelicals considered the Great Commission their primary mission and calling. What mattered was eternity. What was most urgent was the salvation of souls. While evangelistic work was often attended by charity and acts of mercy, few evangelicals could justify expending energy on 'worldly' tasks such as politics. In the early 1970s, some influential voices began to argue that this understanding of the church's calling was truncated."

In Alain's Newsletter: "This hugely expensive book promotion (such a prominently placed full page in the New York Times often costs more than $100,000) goes out of its way to assault and insult people of faith, drawing a clear dividing line between the 'rational Americans' it hopes to reach and the benighted masses who believe in God, the importance of religious be-lief, or even the existence of hell. You might expect this sort of partisan, opinionated declaration of non-faith from some activist group like 'Move On.org' or 'People for the American Way' or even the American Civil Liberties Union. But the ad came from Alfred A. Knopf, one of the world’s most distinguished publishing imprints and a prominent segment of the mighty Random House empire, which also releases the work of prominent conservatives including (through its Crown Forum division) Ann Coulter, Fred Barnes and me."

CNSNews.com: "The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School. Eighth grade Vice Principal Jeannette Rainey and Principal Charoscar Coleman are among the defendants in the suit. According to the student's mother, Maryanne Mangum, Amber was reading her Bible after finishing her lunch when Rainey gave her a 'verbal warning' to put the Bible away. Amber was told she 'was not allowed to read it, and if it happened again,' Amber would be punished, her mother said. 'She didn't take the Bible back to school.'"

Mark Gauvreau Judge, in Christianity Today: "The true conservative's only guide, posits Sullivan, is his conscience. The conscience is protean and, in Sullivan's case, prone to New Age bromides: 'As humans, we can merely sense the existence of a higher truth, a greater coherence than ourselves; but we cannot see it face to face.' According to Sullivan, 'We see the world from where we are, and our understanding of the universe is intrinsically rooted in time and place. We can do all we can to increase our knowledge and gain deeper and deeper insight. We can read history and philosophy; we can travel; we can ask questions of young and old; we can debate; we can pray; we can grow through the pain and amusement of daily life. But we will never fully or completely transcend where we are. And even if we could, such transcendence would render us unintelligible to those still earthbound.'...Has Sullivan ever heard of the saints, who some Catholics still believe are intercessors whose message is intelligible? The Virgin Mary? Not to mention Jesus Christ, who one or two Christians believe is truth itself and who was seen face to face?"

Terry Mattingly, On Religion: "'There is a mini-revolt going on out there and you'll find it in the Christian groups that you find on most campuses,' said Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. 'The students in these independent religious groups —especially the girls—are the new countercultural revolutionaries at our modern secular universities.' That's the good news. The bad news is that if alternative religious groups didn't exist on most campuses, then these young women would have 'nowhere else to go if they are looking for the kind of moral support that they need to find some way around the "let's get drunk and hook up" scene,' she said. Secular and religious researchers have tried to describe the causes and the effects of this alcohol-fueled sexual mayhem on mainstream campuses."

"'Linda Greenhouse has, as this [NPR] story points out, a long history of using her platform as a journalist to promote her political and ideological agenda,' Focus on the Family's Carrie Gordon Earll, who worked as a television reporter for 10 years, told Baptist Press. 'She really gives a bad name to reporters.' Christians and pro-lifers should take Greenhouse's reporting 'with a grain of salt,' Earll said. 'Greenhouse's misuse of her profession -- and others who do that also -- created the environment in which alternative media, like Baptist Press, Focus on the Family and conservative talk radio, have flourished,' Earll said. '... If Greenhouse wants to be an advocate, great, but let's put her on the editorial page and not the news page.'"

Assyrian International News Agency: "Orthodox Patriarch Bartholo-meos said late Thursday that Turkey's request to become a member of the European Union will make the problems of Christians disappear 'one after another.' Bartholomeos made the remarks to a group of Vatican-based journalists in Istanbul ahead of the crucial visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, set for late November. 'Europe is asking our government to respect principles and rights, which is something that a democratic lay government should do,' he said. Stressing that the pope is awaited in Turkey with joy and love, the Orthodox patriarch said he expects Benedict to raise the issue of religious rights when he visits Istanbul. 'The pope always under-lines the principles of religious freedom and human rights ... which are valid principles for democratic societies. So I think the pope in his sermon here will speak not only in favor of Catholics but in favor of all religious minorities,' he said."