The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan’s standing committee has asked the Rt. Rev. Thomas K. Ray, bishop of the diocese from 1982 to 1999, to serve as an assisting bishop. The diocese announced this decision in the October issue of its newspaper, The Church in Hiawathaland.

The diocese has been without a bishop since the Rt. Rev. James A. Kelsey died in a traffic collision in June 2007. He had served as the tenth bishop of the diocese since 1999.

The diocese elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, rector of St. Paul’s Church, Marquette, in 2008. He did not achieve sufficient consents among bishops and standing committees to be consecrated.

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The recession has cooled the American ardor for living on credit. After years of saying “Charge it,” consumers are more often paying with their debit cards instead.

Worry about jobs, fear of fluctuating interest rates on credit cards and wariness about spending too much are contributing to the change.

“People are managing their money in a different way,” said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card industry. “You clearly have a situation where those people who have jobs are exhibiting recession anxiety and they are making more debit transactions.”

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President Obama told Congressional leaders on Tuesday that he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided about the major troop buildup proposed by his commanding general.

Meeting with leaders from both parties at the White House, Mr. Obama seemed to be searching for some sort of middle ground, saying he wanted to “dispense with the straw man argument that this is about either doubling down or leaving Afghanistan,” as White House officials later described his remarks.

But as the war approached its eight-year anniversary on Wednesday, the session underscored the perilous crosscurrents awaiting Mr. Obama. While some Democrats said they would support whatever he decided, others challenged him about sending more troops. And Republicans pressed him to order the escalation without delay, leading to a pointed exchange between the president and Senator John McCain of Arizona, his Republican opponent from last year’s election.

Mr. McCain told the president that “time is not on our side.” He added, “This should not be a leisurely process,” according to several people in the room.

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The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation.

The proposal has some bipartisan appeal among politicians eager both to help their unemployed constituents and to encourage small-business development. Legislators on Capitol Hill and President Obama’s economic team have been quietly researching the policy for several weeks.

“There is a lot of traction for this kind of idea,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip. “If the White House will take the lead on this, I’m fairly positive it would be welcomed in a bipartisan fashion.”

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In blogs, journal essays, and books, there has been quite a lot written recently about what “the gospel” is….

For the moment… I’d like to underscore…[a] distinction that is still worth making [on the subject of the meaning of “the gospel”]. It was understood better in the past than it is today. It is this: one must distinguish between, on the one hand, the gospel as what God has done and what is the message to be announced and, on the other, what is demanded by God or effected by the gospel in assorted human responses. If the gospel is the (good) news about what God has done in Christ Jesus, there is ample place for including under “the gospel” the ways in which the kingdom has dawned and is coming, for tying this kingdom to Jesus’ death and resurrection, for demonstrating that the purpose of what God has done is to reconcile sinners to himself and finally to bring under one head a renovated and transformed new heaven and new earth, for talking about God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and above all for focusing attention on what Paul (and others””though the language I’m using here reflects Paul) sees as the matter “of first importance”: Christ crucified. All of this is what God has done; it is what we proclaim; it is the news, the great news, the good news.

By contrast, the first two greatest commands””to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves””do not constitute the gospel, or any part of it. We may well argue that when the gospel is faithfully declared and rightly received, it will result in human beings more closely aligned to these two commands. But they are not the gospel. Similarly, the gospel is not receiving Christ or believing in him, or being converted, or joining a church; it is not the practice of discipleship. Once again, the gospel faithfully declared and rightly received will result in people receiving Christ, believing in Christ, being converted, and joining a local church; but such steps are not the gospel. The Bible can exhort those who trust the living God to be concerned with issues of social justice (Isa 2; Amos); it can tell new covenant believers to do good to all human beings, especially to those of the household of faith (Gal 6); it exhorts us to remember the poor and to ask, not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Whom am I serving as neighbor?” We may even argue that some such list of moral commitments is a necessary consequence of the gospel. But it is not the gospel. We may preach through the list, reminding people that the Bible is concerned to tell us not only what to believe but how to live. But we may not preach through that list and claim it encapsulates the gospel. The gospel is what God has done, supremely in Christ, and especially focused on his cross and resurrection.

–D. A. Carson [Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School], Themelios 34, 1 (April 2009)

We happen to be beginning an adult education class at the parish where I serve on the parables of Jesus (the previous quote was part of my teaching of the first class). This prompts some questions from me:

Thanks in advance for any answers–KSH.

The parables of other teachers and moralists can to some extent be separated from the teachers themselves. But Jesus and his parables are inseparable. To fail to understand Him is to fail to understand his parables.

–R.V.G. Tasker [at the time Professor of New Testament Exegesis in the University of London], The New Bible Dictionary (Eerdmans, 1962), p. 934

Abilene Christian University freshmen receive more than the usual campus map and lists of required books when they enter the Texas university.

For the past two years, they’ve also received an iPhone or iPod Touch from the university before they begin classes.

At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, a select group of freshmen received Kindles, an online book reader, instead of the textbooks.

And at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, a new $50 million education building has 75 miles of Internet networking cable and 11 miles of phone cable, allowing out-of-town students to link with the classroom.

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A white cross erected on a rock outcropping on federal land in California’s Mojave Desert is at the heart of a Supreme Court case about the government’s display of religious symbols.

Critics say the cross violates the Constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion. The case will be argued Wednesday.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Death Valley post first built the cross at Sunrise Rock in 1934 to honor Americans who died in combat in World War I. The most recent version of the cross was erected 11 years ago by a man named Henry Sandoz.

Neither the VFW nor Sandoz ever owned the land where the cross is located ”” nor did they have permission to build on the land.

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Jeanette Winterson says in part:

When I found that space is curved I found science. Curved space as a metaphor is not new; Jakob Boehme, Teresa of Ávila, St John of the Cross, are only three of the religious mystics who expressed an ecstatic unprovable intuition of curved space ”” God himself curving through it. Contrary to the rigorous doctrinal dualism of opposites ”” good/bad, black/white, straight/curved ”” here was a Creator who was bending it. Later, the sense of God lodged in Man looks much more beautiful as double-helix DNA. The elegant curving movements of micro-man and the macro-universe carry a deep satisfaction.

I love the idea of curved space. I do not like straight lines. Every so often we have a mania for Roman roads, or terraced houses, or the verticals of tall buildings or the grid of a planned city. We like straightening things out. But the curve creeps back in. Even the fashion industry can’t get rid of it.

Read the rest and read them all.

American religion has adopted the rock band U2.

Its lyrics can be heard coming from pulpits. Its music ringing out in sanctuaries. Its videos show up in Sunday school classes.

Rabbi Steve Lebow of Kol Emeth in Marietta, said, “I taught a class on rock and roll and spirituality. When you do a search of which band has the most biblical allusions and spiritual themes, U2 comes up as number one.”

Jake Hill started teaching a class at Atlanta’s Saint James United Methodist Church in September called the theology of U2. It attracts about 15 people on Wednesday nights.

“Most of their songs have a message of unity, we are all in this together to make this work,” Hill said.

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Archbishop Robert Duncan, of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican), said he had not seen the ruling and that members of the diocese would be disappointed if the court had awarded the assets to the Episcopal Diocese. But regardless, members of the seceding diocese are confident about their new life together, he said.

“We have managed the last year without any income from our assets,” he said. “We are doing well.”

Rich Creehan, communications director for the Episcopal Diocese, said after the assets are transferred, the diocese will begin working on how to transfer buildings and land to the seceding parishes that want them.

“Anyone who wants to come back to the Episcopal Church is welcome, and we hope to find a way to proceed with those who don’t [want to return] in a spirit of reconciliation,” he said.

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The next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief warned Tuesday as experts called for action to stamp out cyber attacks.

“The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,” Hamadoun Toure said.

“Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,” added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU’s Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva.

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Twins manager Ron Gardenhire had a panicked question for bench coach Steve Liddle in the 12th inning Tuesday night, as he watched Alexi Casilla stroll to home plate against Tigers closer Fernando Rodney.

“He’s got numbers off this guy, right?” Gardenhire barked.

“Yes,” Liddle assured him, “He’s 3-for-5.”

Never mind Casilla’s .202 season batting average. It had been that kind of night. Decisions made on the fly. Little ones, big ones, with nothing but the entire season on the line.

Simply an amazing game. Read it all.

See what you make of the answer presented here.

Mr. Smith concedes that the young people interviewed in his study don’t appear to be “dramatically less religious than former generations of emerging adults.” It is traditionally a stage in life when, without parental guidance or child-rearing responsibilities, religious ties are loosened. But the period of emerging adulthood””between young people leaving home and their marrying and setting up a home of their own””is growing longer these days, because people marry later and remain financially dependent on their parents well into their 20s. The time without steady religious observance is thus prolonged as never before.

And the costs could be high. Not only does religion concentrate the mind and help young people to think about moral questions, it also leads to positive social outcomes. Religious young people are more likely to give to charity, do volunteer work and become involved with social institutions (even nonreligious ones). They are less likely to smoke, drink and use drugs. They have a higher age of first sexual encounter and are less likely to feel depressed or to be overweight. They are less concerned with material possessions and more likely to go to college.

So why are most emerging adults so morally unmoored and religiously alienated? Mr. Smith suggests that religious institutions haven’t done a very good job at educating kids in even the most basic tenets of their faiths. And religious parents often shirk their duties, too, perhaps believing the “cultural myth” that they have no influence over their children once they hit puberty. Mr. Smith has found, to the contrary, that, when it comes to religious faith and practice, “who and what parents were and are” is more likely to “stick” with emerging adults than the beliefs and habits of their teenage friends.

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Enter the Supreme Court of South Carolina — which decided unanimously (5 – 0) a case in the way I had argued it should be decided. (I do not claim any influence on the decision itself; just that I argued the state courts should follow common sense, and not allow a trust to be created by the Dennis Canon when the owner of the property had not signed a paper consenting to the trust.) Does the Episcoleft regard this decision as a correct decision under the law?

Not on your life. They regard it as an aberration, an anomaly, which is a blot upon the otherwise beautiful façade of the Church as they would have it established. In their vacuum of a blogworld, they cite themselves in endless circles to show how the decision is unworthy of serious consideration.

Since I believe in the concept of proof, let the unadulterated voices of the Episcoleft convict themselves in this affair. As far as I can determine, here is the unaltered history of the reporting of the decision by the Supreme Court of South Carolina in the blog world, with special attention paid to those blogs listed in “Eyes Left”, as well as here…

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Many Americans are rightly decrying Washington’s unprecedented spending spree as this year’s federal deficit soars to nearly four times last year’s record. Among them is a senator prominently touted last year as a potential vice president. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he issued a timely call for those now holding the power of the federal purse to reverse our nation’s reckless spending course:

“Congress’ initial reaction to our fiscal peril has not been encouraging. The $410 billion omnibus spending bill passed in March increased domestic discretionary spending by 8 percent and included more than 8,000 earmarks. This year’s budget contemplates domestic discretionary increases of nearly 9 percent, three times the rate of inflation. If the past is any guide, it will include thousands of new earmarks.”

Those words of warning weren’t written by a conservative Republican. They were written by Indiana’s Evan Bayh, a moderate Democrat who made the short list of President Barack Obama’s potential running mates last year.

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Concerns about the budget deficit may thwart efforts by Senate Democrats to pass legislation this month calling for the biggest expansion of the U.S. health-care system since the creation of Medicare in 1965.

The Senate Finance Committee, which had planned to approve its version as early as today, scrapped a vote to give the Congressional Budget Office time to complete a cost assessment. The delay threatens to dash plans by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to start debate in the full Senate next week after combining the measure with one from the health committee.

“CBO has a lot of work to do,” said West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, one of the finance panel’s 13 Democrats. He said the panel’s vote may be delayed for at least a week. Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said he’s still “hopeful” the CBO will deliver an estimate tomorrow.

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It was that “ah-ha” moment Betty McGee said she was hoping to get from members of First Presbyterian Church of Florence.

“It came when we put recycling into context,” she said of the Sunday morning experiment of separating trash from the pulpit into piles of what is garbage and what can be reused.

McGee said a recycling program has been in place at the church, the Shoals’ oldest organized congregation, since the 1980s, but this year, the decision was made to ratchet up the members’ commitment to the environmental cause.

Until the past few years, organized religion, Christianity in particular, has left environmental protection to activists, concerned scientists and political figures. Likewise, environmentalists have either ignored religion or complained that churches have been lukewarm about environmental causes.

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This is the story of an al-Qaida assassination plot that failed ”” or did it?

The two main characters are a Saudi prince and an al-Qaida suicide bomber. The prince survived their meeting in August. The bomber did not. And yet, the episode has sent a chill through Western security circles.

The assailant had a bomb hidden inside his body in an elaborate effort to kill the Saudi prince. And Western intelligence officials are concerned that the technique will be tried again.

Read or listen to it all.

The problem with the Augustine approach is that we have been inconsistent in its use. It is unfair to be serious about the personal sins of gay and lesbian persons, and silent about the numerous personal sins of all others. We need to be more consistent in our use of language, and m ore consistent in our call to personal holiness.

Dated (from 2003) but helpful–read it all (hat tip: PW).

In olden days when “a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking” there was a morals clause written into an actor’s film contract. The purpose was to restrain an actor from engaging in public behavior that might offend the audience and harm ticket sales.

Today, lewd and crude behavior can boost ticket sales and TV ratings and what passes for a morals clause deals with sexual harassment in the workplace.

Which brings me to David Letterman’s recent disclosure that he has had sex with female subordinates who worked on his show. Much of the coverage has mentioned that this was before his marriage to his live-in girlfriend of more than a decade with whom he fathered a child. Some wish to draw a moral distinction between fornication and adultery. It is something like the line Whoopi Goldberg tried to draw on “The View” between rape and what she called “rape rape” while discussing director Roman Polanski’s 1977 sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. Hey, if Woody Allen (a signer of the petition for going easy on Polanski) can marry his adopted daughter when he was the lover of Mia Farrow, who is to say any line exists between anything?

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I remember being impressed by the sea of people ”” numbering about 350,000 ”” and watching them move across the fields as they found a place to wait for the pope’s arrival and for the Mass he would celebrate. When it was over, I couldn’t help but wonder what a sight it must have been for the pope as his helicopter flew overhead as the people streamed down the highway on foot (a portion of it was closed), leaving for home and to reflect on his message.

The pope’s words that day about respecting the land and the work of farmers and everyone involved in raising our food and getting it to us still have resonance:

“Land is God’s gift ”¦ land is man’s responsibility,” Pope John Paul told the crowd. “To all you farmers and all who are associated with agricultural productions, I want to say the church highly esteems your work. ”¦ You support the lives of millions. ”¦ Conserve the land well so that future generations will inherit an even richer land than was entrusted to you.”

Read the whole thing.

Together we thank the Good and Merciful God for the many gifts bestowed on the Church in Africa which are placed at the service of all, especially the poorest of the poor and the most in need. In particular, we give thanks for its great dynamism witnessed in the following statistics.

In a world population of 6,617,097,000 inhabitants, the number of Catholics is 1,146,656,000, that is, 17.3%. However, the percentage in Africa is higher. In fact, out of 943,743,000 inhabitants, the number of Catholics is 164,925,00, namely 17.5%. This figure is very significant if one considers, for example, that, in 1978, at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the number of African Catholics was about 55,000,000. In 1994, the year in which the First Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops was held, the number was 102,878,000 faithful, that is, 14.6% of the population in Africa.

In that same period, we also have a significant increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. In fact, thanks be to God, a consistent increase is witnessed in all sectors, particularly among Christ’s faithful: bishops, priests, deacons, men and women in the consecrated life and committed lay people, among whom catechists occupy an important place. This is proven in a comparison of statistical data from 1994 with that of 2007.

Read it all–it is not short but there is much interesting material to learn from.

Bishop Fleming continued “Each of us has a duty to care for one another and, in particular, to care for the weak and the vulnerable in our society. The parish community can play an important role both in the promotion of mental health and in the provision of the support which says to its members that approaching a professional in the area of mental health is a sign of strength rather than an indication of weakness. Through the creation of a supportive and compassionate community, each of us can reach out to those who, for whatever reason, find life a great burden.

“The Day for Life 2009 also wishes to support those who have lost a friend or a family member through the taking of their own life. In helping them to understand the forces which may draw someone to do this, we wish to show them something of the love and compassion of Christ.”

“Life matters. It is commonly accepted that those who die by suicide don’t want to die; they simply wish to end their pain. Suicide prevention is, therefore, a duty of everyone in our society. In this area we need to be particularly concerned for other people and sensitive to their difficulties.” You are Precious in my Sight addresses pastoral issues around suicide such as why some people consider suicide and the issue of assisted suicide. Bishop Fleming said “Our Pastoral Letter is for everybody. It contains a special Day for Life prayer and it reminds us that “the message of the Gospel is that, whatever has happened to us, and whatever we have done, we can never be separated from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Pain, even tragedy, are never God’s last word.'”

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Before Benedict XVI offered the synodal fathers points for reflection, the participants gathered in the Synod Hall in Vatican City to sing the hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus” (Come, Holy Spirit).

After the intonation to the Holy Spirit, the Pontiff noted: “We just began our synodal encounter by invoking the Holy Spirit and knowing that we can’t do in this moment all that is needed to be done for the Church and the world: Only with the strength of the Holy Spirit will be able to find what is right so as to apply it later.”

Speaking of the action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope explained that it is only with that force that the Church can continue its work, and with his invocation, he prays that Pentecost be not only an event from the past but that it be recreated here and now.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury introduced the new Bishop of Dover at Chalkpit Farm in Bekesborne, where Bishop Trevor outlined ways that the church and rural communities can successfully work together.

Commenting on Bishop Trevor’s appointment, Archbishop Rowan said: “I am very pleased indeed to welcome Bishop Trevor to the Diocese. He is an experienced pastor, with a powerful vision for the Church in contemporary society, and also a wise and reflective person who will bring great depth to our conversations and plans in Canterbury. I hope he and Margaret will be very happy here, and greatly look forward to our work together.”

Read it all and watch the linked video at the bottom also.

With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring.

President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off and that in any event the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first.

“We’re thinking through all additional potential strategies for accelerating job creation,” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod.

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Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban.

An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package.

But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways.

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