Fareed Zakaria says yes and David Von Drehle says no. Read both pieces and see what you think.

A pastor’s prayer before the Legislature this week asking God’s forgiveness for abortion and beseeching lawmakers to “have courage to rescue those being led away to death” has revived questions about the appropriateness of the daily prayers.

The prayer given by Mike Demastus of the Fort Des Moines Church of Christ also asked lawmakers to honor the institution of marriage.

His words have prompted some lawmakers and proponents of separating religion and government to call on legislative leaders to better enforce prayer standards that call for speakers to refrain from religious and political ideology in their remarks. One legislator wants to forgo the prayers and conduct a moment of silence instead.

Read it all (and don’t miss the guidelines).

When 7-year-old Amalya Knapp took the beam at the New Jersey state gymnastics finals last month, her excellent performance symbolized a far more complicated balancing act.

Although she would have ranked fifth in her age group, eligible for a medal, her individual scores were discounted. She was unable to compete on a Saturday because of her Orthodox Jewish family’s observance of the Sabbath.

“I was upset,” Amalya said, “but my mother told me there are decisions you have to make.”

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A new book by one of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors, challenging traditional Christian views of heaven, hell and eternal damnation, has created an uproar among evangelical leaders, with the most ancient of questions being argued in a biblical hailstorm of Twitter messages and blog posts.

In a book to be published this month, the pastor, Rob Bell, known for his provocative views and appeal among the young, describes as “misguided and toxic” the dogma that “a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better.”

Such statements are hardly radical among more liberal theologians, who for centuries have wrestled with the seeming contradiction between an all-loving God and the consignment of the billions of non-Christians to eternal suffering. But to traditionalists they border on heresy, and they have come just at a time when conservative evangelicals fear that a younger generation is straying from unbendable biblical truths.

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When Episcopal Bishop Peter Trimble Rowe mushed into Fairbanks in February 1904, he found a certified boom-town. The previous time an Episcopal priest had visited the gold camp, in March 1903, it consisted of E. T. Barnette’s store, a partially-constructed two-story log hotel, two saloons, a half-dozen rough cabins and a few tents.

The earlier priest, under-awed by Fairbanks and its prospects, held church services and promptly returned to Circle City. What a difference a year made. Bona fide big gold strikes were made on several creeks in the fall of 1903, and by 1904 Fairbanks had several thousand residents. Bishop Rowe was warmly welcomed, and with the encouragement and financial support of Fairbanks residents, set in motion efforts that culminated in the building of St. Matthew’s Church and hospital.

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Read it carefully and read it all.

One of the great thinkers who helped calm Quebec’s reasonable accommodation debate is stirring it up again, saying he fears the province may be headed toward a “radical option” to deal with religious minorities.

Gérard Bouchard, the sociologist who travelled the province with philosopher Charles Taylor to study Quebec’s integration of minorities, said the province still lacks coherent rules to govern accommodation.

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O God the King of saints, who didst strengthen thy servants Perpetua and Felicitas and their companions to make a good confession, staunchly resisting, for the cause of Christ, the claims of human affection, and encouraging one another in their time of trial: Grant that we who cherish their blessed memory may share their pure and steadfast faith, and win with them the palm of victory; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God of love, who hast given us a new commandment through thine only begotten Son, that we should love one another even as thou didst love us, the unworthy and the wandering, and gavest him for our life and salvation: We pray thee to give to us thy servants, in all time of our life on earth, a mind forgetful of past ill-will, a pure conscience, and a heart to love our brethren; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.

–Hebrews 11:1-3a

(This article is based on the piece just preceding it posted on the blog below–KSH)

One prominent figure on Pakistan’s religious Right, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema-iIslam-Fazl, yesterday warned the West not to use international disgust at Mr Bhatti’s murder to put pressure on them to moderate their behaviour. He said: “I have already condemned the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti in the Parliament but it seems as if an international lobby is using such incidents to gain a leverage on religious parties.”

Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, told a memorial service for Mr Bhatti at the weekend that the Government “will try our utmost to bring the culprits to justice”.

But Dr Williams makes clear that patience in Christian-dominated donor countries is wearing out. “To the majority in Pakistan who have elected a Government which, whatever its dramatic shortcomings, is pledged to resist extremism, we have surely to say, ”˜Do not imagine that this can be managed or tolerated’.”

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The protection of minorities of any and every kind is one acid test of moral legitimacy for a government; and such protection is built into Pakistan’s modern identity as an Islamic state with civic recognition for non-Muslims. Many are anxious about Pakistan’s future for strategic reasons. But those of us who love Pakistan and its people are anxious for its soul as well as its political stability. It is heartbreaking to see those we count as friends living with the threat of being coerced and menaced into silence and, ultimately, into a betrayal of themselves. This must not be allowed to happen. They need to know of the support of Christians and others outside Pakistan for their historic and distinctive vision.

Shahbaz Bhatti died, for all practical purposes, as a martyr ”” let me be clear ”” not simply for his Christian faith, but for a vision shared between Pakistani Christians and Muslims. When he and I talked at Lambeth Palace last year, he was fully aware of the risks he ran. He did not allow himself to be diverted for a moment from his commitment to justice for all.

That a person of such courage and steadfastness of purpose was nourished in the political culture of Pakistan is itself a witness to the capacity of that culture to keep its vision alive and compelling. And that is one of the few real marks of hope in a situation of deepening tragedy that urgently needs both prayer and action.

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Western journalists have lately been tolerated in China, if grudgingly, but the spread of revolution in the Middle East has prompted the authorities here to adopt a more familiar tack: suddenly, foreign reporters are being tracked and detained in the same manner ”” though hardly as roughly ”” as political dissidents.

On Sunday, about a dozen European and Japanese journalists in Shanghai were herded into an underground bunker-like room and kept for two hours after they sought to monitor the response to calls on an anonymous Internet site for Chinese citizens to conduct a “strolling” protest against the government outside the Peace Cinema, near Peace Square in Shanghai.

In Beijing, several plainclothes officers planted themselves on Saturday night outside the home of a Bloomberg News correspondent who was severely beaten by security officers the previous week as he sought to cover a similar Internet-inspired protest there. In a telephone interview, the correspondent said that seven officers in two separate cars had trailed him to a basketball game on Sunday, recording his trip on video the entire time.

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For President Obama, who told Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi last week that it was time to quit, the bloodshed and terror in Libya have posed a dilemma that sooner or later confronts every modern American president: whether, and how, to intervene with military force in a distant conflict.

This time, the choice has been made even tougher by history, geography and the peculiar circumstances of Libya’s upheaval: a famously ruthless and unpredictable leader willing to do anything to cling to power, in a conflict that seems as much an African civil war as an Internet-fueled youth revolt of the kind that forced out Arab dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.

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Despite skepticism from Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, three influential United States senators from both political parties on Sunday called for the United States to consider carving out a no-flight zone in Libya to prevent Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from massacring the rebels trying to overthrow him.

But the Obama administration continued to resist such appeals.

“Lots of people throw around phrases like no-fly zone ”” they talk about it as though it’s just a video game,” William M. Daley, the new White House chief of staff, said in at appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” television news program.

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Now, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, “e-discovery” software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. In January, for example, Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, Calif., helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.

Some programs go beyond just finding documents with relevant terms at computer speeds. They can extract relevant concepts ”” like documents relevant to social protest in the Middle East ”” even in the absence of specific terms, and deduce patterns of behavior that would have eluded lawyers examining millions of documents.

“From a legal staffing viewpoint, it means that a lot of people who used to be allocated to conduct document review are no longer able to be billed out,” said Bill Herr, who as a lawyer at a major chemical company used to muster auditoriums of lawyers to read documents for weeks on end. “People get bored, people get headaches. Computers don’t.”

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In a more nuanced way, a number of influential scholars, such as Rodney Stark and Regina Schwartz, have also cast monotheism as particularly intolerant towards the “Other” and thus a fertile ground for violence.

But I would like to ask whether there actually is an intrinsic link between monotheism and violence? Is such violence virtually inevitable?

There are a number of points that can be made in response to this question. The first is why is there such a preoccupation with religious and Monotheistic forms of violence, often to the point of dismissing secular violence? Why are violent secular causes often let off the hook?

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The number of people who see Brazil as having a positive influence in the world is rising rapidly, according to a BBC World Service poll of 27 countries.

The country is now regarded positively by 49%, compared to 40% last year – the largest jump by any of the 16 nations respondents are asked to comment on.

South Africa, host of the 2010 World Cup, posted the second biggest rise.

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As state and federal lawmakers search for ways to reduce government spending, some economists are urging them to raise the retirement age to ease budget pressures.

If Americans were to work longer, they would pay more in taxes, and at the same time reduce the cost of government pensions and Social Security benefits, according to these economists.

But others disagree. They say the fast-moving 21st century economy doesn’t need older workers as much as it needs young workers with the latest job skills.

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Anti-Semitism still rears its ugly head. The British designer John Galliano, for instance, has just been sacked as head designer of Christian Dior for an alleged anti-Jewish drunken rant in a Paris bar. His instant dismissal was perhaps commercially necessary. But it was morally justified too. At a meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee in Paris, the city’s Archbishop, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, said anti-Semitism must be “unambiguously exposed as a sin against God and humanity”, as it was “unfortunately, not dead”.

Traditionally across Europe, the most dangerous day of the year for Jews was Good Friday, as some of the prayers and readings used in churches that day could easily become an incitement to anti-Semitism. That changed when the Second Vatican Council decree Nostra Aetate specifically instructed that “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.”

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Sri Lanka’s Anglican Diocese of Colombo, a short while ago elected Ven. Dhiloraj Canakasabey, uncontested, as the fifteenth Bishop of Colombo.

The Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Colombo of the Church of Ceylon (Anglican Church) elected the incumbent Archdeacon of Nuwara Eliya, Ven. Dhiloraj Canakasabey as the shepherd for the Anglican Seat of Colombo.

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Speaking about his audience with the Queen, Mgr Antonio Mennini said: “First of all, I passed on the Holy Father’s warm greetings and told her that His Holiness often remembers his visit to the United Kingdom and has enormous gratitude for the kind welcome he received.

“I told the Queen that the aim of my mission is to strengthen the already existing good relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See and to strengthen the good fraternal relations with the Anglican Church in order to give a common witness to the values of the Gospel.

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The Right Rev. Geralyn Wolf, a convert from Judaism who stepped into the history books 15 years ago by becoming only the second woman in U.S. Episcopal Church history to be ordained a diocesan bishop, is planning to retire as Rhode Island’s Episcopal bishop late in 2012.

Wolf, who turns 64 next month, broke the news to some of her staff Thursday, her first day back after undergoing knee replacement surgery on Jan. 31.

She made a more public disclosure on Saturday at the close of an evangelism convocation attended by priests and lay people at the Providence Marriott.

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Almighty Father, whose blessed Son restored sight to the blind man who sought his mercy: Clear away, we beseech thee, the blindness of our hearts, and enlighten our minds with thy heavenly truth, that we may enter upon the approaching season of Lent with true love and spiritual understanding; through the same our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

–Deuteronomy 6:4-9

A transgender Maltese is challenging Europe’s most staunchly Catholic nation for the right to marry a man. Joanne Cassar, 29, who underwent gender reassignment in Britain eight years ago, has begun her court battle in the conservative Mediterranean island but is prepared to take her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

“I am not a ”˜trans’. I want to be a woman. I prefer that, when I die, on my gravestone is written ”˜Joanne’,” Ms Cassar, a hairdresser, said at her salon in Fgura.

Read it all from the London Times (requires subscription).

Update: You may find a little more about this here.

With his wife, Hayley, and two children, aged one and four, Father Ed [Tomlinson] regrets that the diocese of Rochester could not consider a church-sharing scheme. “I feel the real scandal is that the building is going to be used for one hour a week. There will be no 8 o’clock Communion or 6.30 evening service any more. A church-share would have been so easy and very compassionate.”

One woman who is going is 90 years old. She has been attending each week since the age of two. “It is an emotional wrench for her.” They could not go to the Tunbridge Wells Catholic Church because it is already full to bursting. Even in Pembury, it will be a squeeze.

“I still feel it is a tragedy. I would have wanted to say, ”˜How do we maintain the strongest Christian presence here without worrying too much about the denomination?’ ” But he has never considered staying. “For whatever reason God has given me a little Catholic heart and I cannot do anything else.”

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Father Martin Carter is one of only a handful of Roman Catholic priests in Canada who are married.

Formerly a married part-time Anglican minister, Carter, 65, of Charlottetown was a granted rare permission by the Pope to become a Catholic priest after he converted.

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In a joint statement issued after a “Consultation of Bishops in Dialogue” meeting held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania the church leaders said they had shared testimonies about partnership mission work. Through this a common thread had emerged “our experience of finding ourselves in each other.”

“Across the globe, across the Communion, we actually really need one another,” the bishops’ statement said. “We are stronger in relationship than when we are apart. This, we believe, is a work of engaging in Communion building rather than Communion breaking. In the words of the Toronto Congress of 1963 we are engaged in living in ‘mutual responsibility and interdependence’ (Ephesians 2:13-22)”.

The bishops hailed from Sudan, Botswana, Malawi, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Canada, the United States and England. They met at the end of February as a group of partner pairs and triads and discussed a range of issues including human sexuality, slavery and tackling poverty.

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Update: An ENS article appears here also.

An Anglican priest in British Columbia has earned a PhD for his research into the spirituality of snowboarding.

Rev. Neil Elliot of St. Andrews Anglican Church in Trail began his studies 10 years ago in England, pulling together a love of snowboarding, an interest in spirituality and a desire to understand the relationship between spirituality and religion.

It was the word “soulriding” that first captured his attention more than a dozen years ago, while he was living in England and snowboarding in the Alps in Europe. The term made him wonder if there was a spiritual dimension to carving a path down a mountain.

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