Generations of Sunday school teachers have turned Hanukkah into the story of unified Jewish bravery against an anti-Semitic Hellenic empire. Settlers in the West Bank tell it as a story of how the Jewish hard-core defeated the corrupt, assimilated Jewish masses. Rabbis later added the lamp miracle to give God at least a bit part in the proceedings.

But there is no erasing the complex ironies of the events, the way progress, heroism and brutality weave through all sides. The Maccabees heroically preserved the Jewish faith. But there is no honest way to tell their story as a self-congratulatory morality tale. The lesson of Hanukkah is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices.

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To a Catholic boy like Tim Dolan, growing up in the heartland when Protestant neighbors still made casual jokes about the “papists” next door, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen rode into town in the 1950s on the new main street of the United States, the television set, like a true-blue American hero.

“He showed the broad American public that the truths of our faith were consonant with the highest values of the society: patriotism, God, family and the struggle against Communism,” said that boy, now known as Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

Archbishop Dolan led a memorial Mass on Wednesday evening at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Bishop Sheen. An auxiliary bishop of the New York Archdiocese from 1951 to 1965, the man whom the Rev. Billy Graham called “the greatest communicator of the 20th century” is buried in a crypt under the cathedral altar, which was open for public viewing before the Mass.

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Martin Cooper, who developed the first portable cellphone, recalled testifying before a Michigan state commission about the risks of talking on a phone while driving.

Common sense, said Mr. Cooper, a Motorola engineer, dictated that drivers keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.

Commission members asked Mr. Cooper what could be done about risks posed by these early mobile phones.

“There should be a lock on the dial,” he said he had testified, “so that you couldn’t dial while driving.”

It was the early 1960s.

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Guests:

Rt. Rev J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, Suffragan bisop-elect, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, Suffragan bishop-elect, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

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There has been new controversy across the worldwide Anglican Communion since the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected Rev. Mary Glasspool, a lesbian, as assistant bishop. If her election is confirmed by a majority of dioceses within the Episcopal Church, she would become the second openly gay bishop in the denomination, which has been wracked with division over homosexuality. The Episcopal Church is the US branch of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. In July 2009, the Episcopal General Convention overwhelmingly approved a measure affirming that gays and lesbians are eligible to become bishops.

After the vote, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton asked Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno how he would explain the vote to Anglicans around the world who oppose gay bishops, and what message he hoped it would send to gays and lesbians.

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The main objection to a Tobin tax, however, is that it will not work. Taxes that do not work are worse than a waste of time. They have a cost, if only by diverting the energies of public servants into impracticable byways and clever bankers into tax avoidance schemes, with no compensating benefit in financial stability. The tax will not work because it is impossible to administer. Traders in, say, London could evade it by booking the transaction in other financial centres that are not covered by the tax. To be effective, the tax would have to be implemented globally.

That is unlikely but not impossible. Perhaps the catastrophic experience of the credit crisis might create agreement among governments. Perhaps all the main financial centres would sign up to the tax. But that still leaves the offshore financial centres. It is difficult to see what possible incentive they would have to implement a tax when it would plainly be in their financial interest to attract business from international banks.

Bad taxes can have far-reaching consequences. One of the reasons that London is so prominent a financial centre dates back to US regulations adopted in the 1960s that limited the amount of interest that banks could pay on deposits. US banks moved to London to get round them, and the huge eurobond market developed as a result.

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A so-called “Tobin Tax” has been pushed by France and the UK, but is less popular in the US.

The leaders called on the IMF to look at a range of options to ensure that banks do not take excessive risks that could lead to another financial crisis.

The call comes in a draft statement expected to be approved later.

“The European Council emphasises the importance of renewing the economic and social contract between financial institutions and the society they serve, and of ensuring that the public benefits in good times and is protected from risk,” the draft statement said.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “We need a better relationship between the banks and the people they serve.

“There has been a growth in support in recent weeks for this idea and many, many countries are looking at it.”

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“There is a huge middle class marriage penalty hidden in the House and Senate health care bills. The penalty becomes evident by evaluating questions like the following: How much would two single people, each making $30,000 per year, pay for private health insurance if the Pelosi bill was in effect now? The answer is $1,320 per year for both individuals combined (based on the premium limits and subsidies outlined on the charts below). But how much would they pay for the same level of insurance under the Pelosi bill if they were to marry? Their combined cost would then be about $12,000 a year (the estimated cost for private insurance).

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More than a dozen Lutheran congregations in Minnesota have vowed to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after a vote in Minneapolis this summer to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to serve as clergy. The fifteen churches will join a new denomination called Lutheran CORE and leave the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the world.

The leaders of Lutheran CORE say the ELCA has moved too far away from the Bible.

One from the long list of I-have-not-yet-had-a-chance-to-post-yet.

Pastor Rick Warren today asked Ugandan pastors to oppose a proposed law that could bring death to Ugandans engaging in gay sex.

The Saddleback Church pastor had come under fire last week on the Internet and in the media for not taking a stand or issuing a condemnation of the proposed legislation.

In a video posted on YouTube, Warren asked Ugandan pastors to speak out against a proposed law by a Ugandan pastor who endorsed proposed legislation making gay sex punishable by life in prison or even in some cases death.

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[Gene] Robinson said. “`It’s not about your experience and credentials, but about whether a gay or lesbian person is fit to be a bishop.”‘

In a majority of the Anglican Communion, the answer is a resounding no. Several times since Robinson’s election, Anglican leaders, including Williams, have asked Episcopalians to “exercise restraint” by not consecrating any more gay bishops. Williams reiterated that request on Sunday in his strongest language to date.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to me to have been pushed over the tipping point,” said David Steinmetz, a professor Christian history at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C. “That’s very hard to say about him; he’s such a gentle man. On the other hand, they really have thumbed their collective noses at him.”

[Mary] Glasspool, though, said the Episcopal Church held a moratorium on gay bishops from 2006-2009, and that’s long enough.

“We have waited, we have held back,” Glasspool said. “And now we need to get on with the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, and proclaim who we are: an open and inclusive church.”

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The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing com­mittees. That decision will have very important implications.

[Rowan Williams said]: “The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are con­trary to the mind of the Commun­ion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.”

Canon Glasspool, whose late father was an Episcopal priest op­posed to women’s ordination, won on the seventh ballot, with 153 clergy votes and 203 lay votes. She had enough clergy votes to win by the end of the third ballot, but many Spanish-speaking delegatesat the diocesan convention had sup­ported her closest rival, the Revd Irineo Vasquez.

A majority of bishops and stand­ing committees of all the dioceses is required to give consent to a bishop’s election within 120 days. The Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt Revd Jon Bruno, acknowledged at a press conference rumours of “a concerted effort not to give consent”.

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In thee, O LORD, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame; in thy righteousness deliver me! Incline thy ear to me, rescue me speedily! Be thou a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! Yea, thou art my rock and my fortress; for thy name’s sake lead me and guide me.

–Psalm 31:1-3

She said that many Episcopalians had close relationships with Anglicans worldwide. She recently attended the enthronement of an archbishop in Africa as the representative of her present diocese in Maryland. At least one senior member of the Anglican Church in Ghana will attend her proposed consecration in May.

While calling for unity, Canon Glasspool remained unrepentant: “My perception of where the Episcopal Church is is that we are embracing God’s ever-unfolding reign of love and justice. I have heard from hundreds if not thousands of people who feel freed up by this, who are proud of the Episcopal Church, who are anxious to realign themselves with a Church that takes seriously the love of Jesus Christ for all people.”

She declined to comment on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s warning that her election raised “very serious questions”. Anglican leaders meeting in Canterbury this week have called for the Episcopal Church to show “gracious restraint” when it comes to assenting to her election.

“I pray daily for the Archbishop of Canterbury as I do for our presiding bishop,” she said, adding that she was “deeply grateful” for the trust shown in her by the Los Angeles diocese.

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It’s hard to imagine that a nation not led by the Taliban is actually considering passing a law imposing the death penalty, and other harsh penalties, on gays and lesbians. But it’s true (though I’ve seen information in the past couple of days saying that lawmakers behind the legislation are considering abandoning the capital punishment provision). Andrew Sullivan reports that Sen. Tom Coburn, one of the most socially conservative members of Congress, has called for the Ugandans to come to their senses. Rick Warren has done the same thing.

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The new bishop will be elected by clergy of the diocese and by lay delegates representing the diocese’s 64 congregations. Voting will continue until a nominee receives a majority of both clergy and lay votes on the same ballot. Results will be posted in real time at www.edusc.org.

The election comes during a tense time in The Episcopal Church, which affirmed earlier this year that gays and lesbians in monogamous relationships are eligible for “any ordained ministry,” and that same-sex unions can be blessed. In response, the Diocese of South Carolina called a special convention during which four of five resolutions were passed, including one that calls on the bishop and standing committee “to begin withdrawing from all bodies of The Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has received them.” Burwell, citing allegiance to his bishop, said he voted in favor of this resolution, but that it was misunderstood by many observers.

“I voted for it because our bishop (Mark Lawrence) asked me to vote for it,” Burwell said in a telephone interview. “It was a strategy, not theological.”

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I am afraid it’s a “no go”, Bishop Bruno. We have exhausted the provisions of the Canons to which you could have been referring. Those diocesan bishops and standing committees who choose to withhold their consent to the election of the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool cannot be charged with violating any of the Church’s Canons.

And one more thing, while I am at it: each of the passages quoted above forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, not on sexual practice. I am not aware of any single bishop or standing committee who has declared their opposition to the ordination to the ministry of a gay or lesbian person who was celibate. The Rev. Canon Glasspool, however, does not fall into that category. So not only do you read into the Canons prohibitions which are not there, but you cannot even interpret the language that is there.

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The South Bend Tribune first reported the hiring.

The 47-year-old Kelly is 34-6 in three seasons at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to back-to-back Big East titles and two straight Bowl Championship Series berths. The Bearcats set a school record last season for victories with an 11-3 record, then topped that with a 12-0 mark this season.

Notre Dame has been searching for a coach for about a week and a half since firing Charlie Weis.

Kelly has long admired Notre Dame, which seemed to be the perfect fit for an Irish Catholic coach raised in the Boston area. His name first popped up as a possible candidate last season before Notre Dame said Weis would be back for a fifth year.

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Uganda will drop the death penalty and life imprisonment for gays in a refined version of an anti- gay bill expected to be ready for presentation to Parliament in two weeks, James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of ethics and integrity, said.

The draft bill, which is under consideration by a parliamentary committee, will drop the two punishments to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties, Buturo said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kampala.

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Farmers and ranchers use futures contracts as a hedge against price fluctuations, as do elevators that buy and sell grain.

Bethany Shively, spokeswoman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said such a tax would impact a producer’s effort to stay in business by buying and selling futures.

“Any additional taxes or fees on these instruments would be a tax on ag producers, and that is unacceptable,” Shively said. “This type of proposal would put jobs at risk, not help offset their creation.”

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Growing old has never been easy. But in isolated, rural spots like this, it is harder still, especially as the battering ram of recession and budget cuts to programs for the elderly sweep through many local and state governments.

Ms. [Norma] Clark has been able to get help since her fall two winters ago because Wyoming, thanks to its energy boom, continues to finance programs for the elderly. But at least 24 states have cut back on such programs, according to a recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group, and hundreds of millions of dollars in further cuts are on the table next year.

The difficulties are especially pronounced in rural America because, census data shows, the country’s most rapidly aging places are not the ones that people flock to in retirement, but rather the withering, remote places many of them flee. Young people, for decades now, have been an export commodity in towns like Lingle, shipped out for education and jobs, most never to return. The elderly who remain ”” increasingly isolated and stranded ”” face an existence that is distinctively harder by virtue, or curse, of geography than life in cities and suburbs. Public transportation is almost unheard of. Medical care is accessible in some places, absent in others, and cellphone service can be unreliable.

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In September, a 13-year-old girl in Florida named Hope Witsell hanged herself. Raised in a rural Florida suburb, she was the only child of a church-going couple who met in the post office where they’re both employed. “She often went fishing with her father in her big, white-framed sunglasses,” according to the excellent reporting in this story in the St. Petersburg Times.

It is painful but you need to read it all.