If boomers were always looking to shock, millennials are eager to share.

But they are also unconventionally conventional. They are, for example, the least officially religious of any modern generation, and fully 1 in 4 has no religious affiliation at all. On the other hand, they are just as spiritual, just as likely to believe in miracles and hell and angels as earlier generations were. They pray about as much as their elders did when they were young--all of which suggests that they have not lost faith in God, only in the institutions that claim to speak for him.

The greatest divide of all has to do with hope and heart. In any age, young folk tend to be more cheerful than old folk, but the hope gap has never been greater than it is now. Despite two wars and a nasty recession that has hit young people hardest, the Pew survey found that 41% of millennials are satisfied with how things are going, compared with 26% of older people. Less than a third of those with jobs earn enough to lead the kind of life they want--but 88% are confident that they will one day.

"Youth is easily deceived," Aristotle said, "because it is quick to hope." But I'd rather think that the millennials know something we don't about the inventions that will emerge from their networked brains, the solutions that might arise from a generation so determined to bridge gaps and work as a team. In that event, their vision would be vindicated, not only for themselves but for those of us who will one day follow their lead.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Psychology • Young Adults • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Like more than 100 churches nationwide, Christ Church broke with TEC over its well-documented liberalized faith ("Other Abrahamic faiths have access to God the Father without consciously going through Jesus," presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said). The church's vestry voted unanimously to disaffiliate over "departure from doctrine" and to place the church under the Anglican Province of Uganda. The congregation approved, with 87 percent voting in favor out of over 300 ballots cast.

Division "happened over time," rector Marc Robertson told me, and 30-40 disaffected members set up a congregation downriver calling itself "Christ Church Episcopal." Last May TEC filed legal action against Robertson and the vestry, seeking to acquire the property on Johnson Square in Savannah's historic district. TEC has filed similar actions against churches in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. This case turns on state trust laws and laws of incorporation, and is complex given that Christ Church predates the existence of the state of Georgia. TEC asserts that church property should be subject to denominational "discipline," which Christ Church forfeited when it quit the denomination, it says.

Funny things happen when a church takes a stand for the gospel. Sunday attendance at Christ Church is up and it accepted 28 new families—a record—for membership this past year. "We have a corporate sense of galvanization," said Robertson, "and are doing well spiritually. Our biblical literacy has increased because we are driven back to understanding why we believe what we believe."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) • Anglican Provinces • Church of Uganda • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: Georgia • TEC Departing Parishes • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Theology • Christology

Filed under: * General Interest • Animals

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--

U.S. forces have recovered a huge cache of weapons that was given to Afghan security forces but wound up in the hands of the Taliban, a U.S. military review has found.

The Afghan army and national police have lost 13,000 weapons, 200,000 rounds of ammunition, 80 vehicles and one pair of night vision goggles, members of a U.S. task force told USA TODAY.

All the gear was bought for the Afghans by Americans, part of $330 million in weapons purchases.

Most of the weapons have been seized from the Taliban or other insurgent forces.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • War in Afghanistan

Each Sunday morning, members of White Stone Church spread photos of the girls' grinning, impish faces across a folding table in the lobby, then prayed for the day they might join them.

When the churchgoers closed their eyes and bowed their heads, it no longer mattered that 1,400 miles separated them from the girls or that they lived in a Haitian village whose dirt floors and lack of running water were unthinkable in north Knoxville's quilt of neatly tended subdivisions and fast-food drive-thrus.

They are "Our Girls," the worshippers told one another.

Over six years, the girls of Coq Chante had come to feel like family. Now, after trips by dozens to Haiti, thousands of dollars raised and spent, and countless hours poring over adoption paperwork, the bond with 19 children from another world felt unbreakable.

Until a Tuesday night in January.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Children • * International News & Commentary • Caribbean • Haiti • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches

OVER the past few years, a growing number of America’s parentless children have found homes. In 2008 there were 463,000 children in foster care, a system where the government places orphans and children with parents who are abusive or unable to take care of them in the care of guardians. That is 11% down since 2002, and great news. But experts worry the trend might now go into reverse.

Some welfare advocates fear that the bad economy may cause parents with frayed nerves to abuse and neglect their children, and even cause some to abandon them. Already, several hospitals across the country have reported an increase in the frequency and severity of injuries from child abuse.

The most recent national data on child welfare available dates from September 2008, before the recession was in full throttle; data from 2009 won’t be reported until later this year. But there is some question about whether the data, when reported, will even be accurate. Many states and counties, in an attempt to cope with their fiscal straits, are considering cutting down on child-welfare services, such as benefits for foster parents and the number of social workers they employ.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • City Government • State Government • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The United States, Germany and other major economies could see their top-notch credit rating come under pressure if the recovery in the global economy stalls, Moody’s Investors Service warned Monday in a report.

The ratings of the Aaa governments — which also include Britain, France, Spain and “the less fiscally challenged Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden” — “are currently well positioned despite their stretched finances,” Moody’s said in its quarter Sovereign Monitor report.

But the agency noted that “the recovery that has taken hold across the global economy remains fragile in several of the large advanced economies, most of which have also implemented the most aggressively expansionary fiscal and monetary policies.”

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Credit Markets • The U.S. Government • Budget • The National Deficit • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Europe • Germany

Premier Wen Jiabao aimed sharp words at Washington on Sunday, ceding little ground on China's currency policy and suggesting that U.S. efforts to boost its exports by weakening the dollar amounted to "a kind of trade protectionism."

In his once-yearly news conference, Mr. Wen blamed the recent deterioration in what he called China's most important foreign relationship on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama's meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

"These moves have violated China's territorial integrity," Mr. Wen said. "The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side but with the United States." Mr. Wen said a good China-U.S. relationship "makes both sides winners while a confrontational one makes both sides losers."

Because Mr. Wen comments so rarely in public, his annual press conferences have a magnified importance. This year's comments were a rare opportunity to hear candidly, and in unusual depth, a Chinese leader's perspective on the U.S.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The U.S. Government • The United States Currency (Dollar etc) • Foreign Relations • * International News & Commentary • Asia • China

And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened." And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

--Mark 7:33-35

Filed under: * Theology • Theology: Scripture

O Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who art thyself the bread of life, and hast promised that he who comes to thee shall never hunger: Grant us faith truly to partake of thee through Word and Sacrament, that we may find refreshment of spirit and be strengthened for thy service; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • Spirituality/Prayer

Charleston is a place of firsts.

It was the first permanent settlement in one of the New World's first Colonies. It fostered the earliest cohesive Jewish community in the South. It was home to two of the four South Carolina men who signed the Declaration of Independence. It was the place where the first shots of the Civil War rang out. It was the American city where Reform Judaism first took root, in 1824.

And this July, Charleston's Reform synagogue, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, will welcome the city's first female rabbi: Stephanie Alexander.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Women • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism • * South Carolina

Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months.

States from New York to Hawaii that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn say they have either delayed refunds or are considering doing so because of budget shortfalls.

"It's an indicator of how bad it is," says Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. "You know things are bad when you have to do that."

New York, hit with a $9 billion deficit, may delay $500 million in refunds to keep the state from running out of cash, says Gov. David Paterson.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • State Government

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, had a little political advice last week for President Obama and the Democrats: Don’t pass the president’s health care legislation because you would risk losing in the midterm elections.

Mr. Obama laughed about it afterward. “I generally wouldn’t take advice about what’s good for Democrats” from Mr. McConnell, he told an audience in Pennsylvania. But he conceded that “that’s what members of Congress are hearing right now on the cable shows and in sort of the gossip columns in Washington.” He went on to argue that the issue should be what’s right, not the politics.

But this is Washington and politics are never far from the surface, especially at a decisive moment like this. If the schedule being mapped last week holds – and Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, said on Sunday that it would — the fate of the president’s health care plan should be decided within the week. “I believe we will have” the votes, Mr. Axelrod said on ABC’s “This Week,” though Republicans and even some Democrats have questioned whether the votes are there now.

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There is a chance to introduce a tax that will recognise both the massive expansion of the financial services industry in recent years and the fact that taxation has never kept up with this – but also a tax that will generate really substantial resources to deal with the urgent global needs that can't wait for some miraculous turnaround in the economy. If we are serious about wanting to tackle real poverty at home or abroad, would we prefer to see an increased burden on domestic taxpayers or an innovative approach that looks for help to the enormous revenues of the financial world? There certainly is a profound connection between poverty and the banking crisis – we all know the new pressures on jobs and the poor at home – and the World Bank has estimated that two million more children could die as a result of the downturn.

The plan is to tax certain transactions between financial institutions – not burdening the High Street banks or the private currency transactions of holidaymakers, but targeting the hundreds of billions that flow between the big players in the financial industry. A tax of an average of 0.05% on these transactions – 50p in every £1000 – could generate something like £250 billion per annum.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Stock Market • Taxes • The Banking System/Sector

We need to demand an immediate release of the e-mails, phone records, and meeting notes from the NY Fed and key Lehman principals regarding the NY Fed’s review of Lehman’s solvency. If, as things appear now, Lehman was allowed by the Fed’s inaction to remain in business, when the Fed should have insisted on a wind-down (and the failed Barclay’s said this was not infeasible: even an orderly bankruptcy would have been preferrable, as Harvey Miller, who handled the Lehman BK filing has made clear; a good bank/bad bank structure, with a Fed backstop of the bad bank, would have been an option if the Fed’s justification for inaction was systemic risk), the NY Fed at a minimum helped perpetuate a fraud on investors and counterparties.

This pattern further suggests the Fed, which by its charter is tasked to promote the safety and soundness of the banking system, instead, via its collusion with Lehman management, operated to protect particular actors to the detriment of the public at large.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • The U.S. Government • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Eslewhere in the world, Europe is widely regarded as a continent whose economy is rigid and sclerotic, whose people are work-shy and welfare-dependent, and whose industrial base is antiquated and declining—the broken cogs and levers that condemn the old world to a gloomy future. As with most clichés, there is some truth in it. Yet as our special report in this week’s issue shows, the achievements of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, tell a rather different story.

A decade ago Germany was the sick man of Europe, plagued by slow growth and high unemployment, with big manufacturers moving out in a desperate search for lower costs. Now, despite the recession, unemployment is lower than it was five years ago. Although Germany recently ceded its place as the world’s biggest exporter to China, its exporting prowess remains undimmed. As a share of GDP, its current-account surplus this year will be bigger than China’s.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Germany

DR. PHILIP HAWLEY (Grant Medical Center). We have people who are terminal on aggressive life support measures. Clearly they are not going to survive. We are spending all this time and money taking care of them. They are suffering, and it’s completely inappropriate.

DR. GORDON: What people need to do is talk about this with their family, with their physician, in advance. If they get a life-threatening illness, a lot of times they won’t be able to. Maybe they won’t be coherent, or they’ll be on a life-support machine. They can’t express their wishes, then they put their family in a bind, so they feel guilty, they don’t know for sure, and then what often happens is the sort of default is, well, let’s do everything, as much as possible.

ROLLIN: And sometimes families disagree about what to do. It’s hard for some to let go, which complicates things further.

DR. HAWLEY: If we could get families to deal with this we would not have this problem. We feel we as physicians should be able to step in and say we’ve got to stop the madness.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Life Ethics

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Diabetics are at an unusually high risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, so treating them intensively to sharply reduce blood pressure, cholesterol levels and sugar levels should be highly beneficial. But a decade of studies in thousands of patients show that is not the case.

Two new reports from a major nationwide trial called ACCORD released Sunday show that lowering either blood pressure or cholesterol levels below current guidelines do not provide additional benefit and, in fact, increase the risk of side effects. A third arm of the study, released two years ago, shows that lowering blood sugar levels excessively actually increases the risk of heart disease.

The results are very disappointing, researchers say, because they suggest that clinicians may have reached the limit for what they can do for diabetic patients without the development of totally new therapeutic approaches.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Science & Technology

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned evangelist "bulies" who attempt to convert people of other faiths to Christianity.

Dr Rowan Williams said it was right to be suspicious of proselytism that involves "bullying, insensitive approaches" to other faiths.

In a speech at Guildford cathedral, Dr Williams criticised those who believed they had all the answers amd treated non-Christians as if their traditions of reflection and imagination were of no interest to anyone. "God save us form that kind of approach," he said.

But he added: "God save us also from the nervousness about our own conviction that doesn’t allow us to say we speak about Jesus because we believe he matters, we believe he matters, because we believe that in him human beings find their peace, their destinies converge, and their dignities are fully honoured."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • * Theology • Christology

Ms. [Janet] Marshall gave a brief history of FWMC's work on human sexuality this past triennium. She reminded COGS that they had already stated their preference for a dialogue-focused General Synod that upheld the value of local, national, and international relationships.

Ms. Marshall then walked COGS through FWMC's proposed process for discussing issues of human sexuality at General Synod. In the proposed format, General Synod would begin by "faithful reporting" of FWMC's work in plenary, then break out into smaller discussion groups. Feedback from these groups would be collated and shared in plenary. The smaller groups would meet again for the same process of synthesis and shared plenary feedback. Finally a resolution would be shaped out of this feedback, and General Synod would vote on it.

COGS members discussed the proposed process. Some responded very positively. Others asked for clarification on who would draft the final resolution and whether there would be enough time for this process on the General Synod agenda.

One council member proposed that a motion-affirming the local option for dioceses to approve same-sex blessings-be brought to General Synod. COGS discussed this motion, but ultimately decided not to forward it to General Synod.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada

The Rev. Alistair Begg's theological interpretation of the Gospel of John, (Messages of faith, Saturday) has been sadly all too pervasive in Christianity for centuries. To continue to read this Gospel, or any of the Biblical canon, in such a superficial manner that it leads the reader to believe that "those who claim to know and honor God, but deny the truth of the deity of Christ, are deluded and dangerous" is to perpetuate a serious untruth about the essential nature of Jesus and his message. This untruth has resulted in a host of egregious behaviors by Christians toward others, including virulent anti-Semitism over the last two millennia.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Theology • Christology

As long as the U.S. national debt is entirely denominated in dollars, there is no risk that we will run into the sort of financial crisis that small countries often run into. What gets them into trouble isn't the debt per se, but an inability to acquire sufficient foreign exchange with their own currency to service it. While the U.S. Treasury has never issued bonds denominated in foreign currencies, it is conceivable that it could be forced to do so if the dollar falls sharply and foreign demand for U.S. bonds wanes. That will be the point at which our debt problem becomes more than theoretical and we are really on the road to national bankruptcy.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Credit Markets • The U.S. Government • The National Deficit • Foreign Relations • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Asia • China

When it comes to religion, people of faith are passionate about their beliefs, and at times, that passion can lead to conflicts with others of different religions.

However, sometimes with understanding can come peace.

With that idea in mind, the Solo Flight Singles Group of New Covenant United Methodist Church decided to host an event that would promote peace and understanding between faiths.

The group gathered together representatives from five different faiths — Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Christian — for an interfaith panel discussion at the church Tuesday evening.

“I think it’s important that we try to understand everyone,” said Bev Diaz, coordinator of the event. “We’re all coming to realize the world is getting smaller. We’re coming into contact with more faiths, and to have more peace, we need to understand and tolerate each other.”

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Adult Education • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Churches • Methodist

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See's Press Office, released a statement on Saturday morning in which he made three "observations" regarding sexual abuse by people and in institutions of the Catholic Church. He also addressed dismissed as unfounded attempts to link the Pope to a decision to transfer a priest found to have committed sexual abuse when Benedict XVI was Archbishop of Munich.

The first of the three "observations" made by Fr. Lombardi was to point out that the "line taken" by the German Bishops' Conference has been confirmed as the correct path to confront the problem in its different aspects.

Fr. Lombardi included some elements of the statement made by Archbishop Robert Zollitsch at a Friday press conference following his audience with the Pope. The Vatican spokesman highlighted the approach established by the German bishops to respond to the possible abuses: "recognizing the truth and helping the victims, reinforcing the preventions and collaborating constructively with the authorities - including those of the state judiciaries - for the common good of society."

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Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Europe • Germany • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

The plan, which will be submitted to Congress on Tuesday, is likely to generate debate in Washington and a lobbying battle among the telecommunication giants, which over time may face new competition for customers. Already, the broadcast television industry is resisting a proposal to give back spectrum the government wants to use for future mobile service.

The blueprint reflects the government’s view that broadband Internet is becoming the common medium of the United States, gradually displacing the telephone and broadcast television industries. It also signals a shift at the F.C.C., which under the administration of President George W. Bush gained more attention for policing indecency on the television airwaves than for promoting Internet access.

According to F.C.C. officials briefed on the plan, the commission’s recommendations will include a subsidy for Internet providers to wire rural parts of the country now without access, a controversial auction of some broadcast spectrum to free up space for wireless devices, and the development of a new universal set-top box that connects to the Internet and cable service.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • The U.S. Government

A test of true character, perhaps, is the extent to which one is prepared to blame oneself. As such, the Western world's response to this self-made "credit-crunch" has highlighted the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, their refusal to face reality and, above all, their lack of character.

When sub-prime first hit, Hank Paulson, then US Treasury Secretary, said "this financial crisis was caused to a large extent by a failure to address the rise of the emerging markets and the resulting global imbalances". Last autumn, European Central Bank boss, Jean-Claude Trichet, argued that "imbalances have been the root of present difficulties".

Even Barack "Change We Can Believe In" Obama has stooped to play the blame game. "We cannot follow the same policies," the President said on a recent trip to Asia, "that have led to global imbalances."

The implication is that sub-prime, and the deepest Western recession in generations, wasn't our fault. It was entirely unrelated to widespread financial fraud, political myopia and lax regulation. Central banks kept interest rates too low for too long, Western consumers went on a debt-binge and our governments spent like crazy – but all that was nothing to do with us....

You probably find this analysis deeply suspect – illogical and even crass. That's because it is.....

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Asia • China • Europe

So, 'uniqueness' and 'finality': we believe as Christians that because of Jesus Christ a new phase in human history – not just the history of the Middle East or of Europe – has opened. There is now a community representing on earth the new creation, a restored humanity. There is now on earth a community which proclaims God's will for universal reconciliation and God's presence in and among us leading us towards full humanity. That is something which happens as a result of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Uniqueness, yes, in the sense that this 'turning of a historical epoch', this induction of a new historical moment, can only happen because of the one event and the narratives around it. And finality? Christians have claimed and will still claim that when you have realized God calls you simply as human being, into that relationship of intimacy which is enjoyed by Jesus and which in Jesus reflects the eternal intimacy of the different moments and persons in the being of God, then you understand something about God which cannot be replaced or supplemented. The finality lies in the recognition that now there is something you cannot forget about God and humanity, and that you cannot correct as if it were simply an interesting theory about God and humanity.

We claim that there is a basic dignity and a basic destiny for all human beings, and we claim that in relationship with Jesus the Word made flesh becomes fully real. Expressed in those terms it is I believe possible to answer some of the moral, political and philosophical questions. And as I've indicated, to say any less than that leaves us with what I believe to be equally serious moral, political and philosophical questions. If we realize that not saying what we have said about Jesus involves us in saying there might be different destinies and different levels of dignity for different sorts of human beings, then, in short, to affirm the uniqueness and the finality of Jesus Christ is actually to affirm something about the universal reconcilability of human beings: the possibility of a universal fellowship.

Does this then create problems for dialogue and learning? Does it make us intolerant? Does it commit us to saying, '...and everybody else is going to hell'? First, in true dialogue with people of different faiths or convictions we expect to learn something: we expect to be different as a result of the encounter. We don't as a rule expect to change our minds. We come with conviction and gratitude and confidence, but it's the confidence that I believe allows us to embark on these encounters hoping that we may learn. That is not to change our conviction, but to learn. And I think it works a bit like this. When we sit alongside the Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, we expect to see in their humanity something that challenges and enlarges ours. We expect to receive something from their humanity as a gift to ours. It's a famous and much-quoted statement in the Qur'an that God did not elect to make everybody the same. God has made us to learn in dialogue. And to say that I have learned from a Buddhist or a Muslim about God or humanity is not to compromise where I began. Because the infinite truth that is in the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit is not a matter which can be exhausted by one set of formulae or one set of practices. I may emerge from my dialogue as confident as I have ever been about the Trinitarian nature of God and the finality of Jesus, and yet say that I've learned something I never dreamed of, and that my discipleship is enriched in gratitude and respect.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths • * Theology • Christology • The Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

How does your ministry work?

We have a healing service once a week on Tuesdays and a soaking prayer service on Wednesday where we pray over those who need healing. We also have a prayer team of 37 people who pray for those who need healing.

How did you come to the healing ministry?

My sister had dystonia, which is a very unusual disease. Her body was crippled and stuck in the fetal position, but eight times a day, all her muscles would spasm. She was expected to die, but a man prayed for her and she got better almost immediately. Witnessing that miracle changed my life.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

It is ironic indeed that Nick Zeigler would invoke the specter of Fort Sumter in a book published just before the current Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church sent her attorneys and investigators into the Diocese of South Carolina. One would think that she would be highly grateful to Bishop Lawrence for managing to hold his Diocese together after the fractures caused by the rift with All Saints Waccamaw, and the loss of the use of the Dennis Canon as a tool for intimidating the faithful in South Carolina. The parishioners of the Diocese have no sooner put that matter behind them, however, than the Presiding Bishop lets herself be seen further stirring up old divisions and strongly-felt emotions, with no evident clue as to her utter folly in doing so.

Alas, when it comes to the leadership at 815, one can but lament: what else is new? They must want it this way, and they will reap what they sow.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • Sept07 HoB Meeting • TEC Conflicts • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * South Carolina

Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggests that many Americans are being overtreated. Maybe even President Barack Obama, champion of an overhaul and cost-cutting of the health care system.

Is it doctors practicing defensive medicine? Or are patients so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they insist on extensive tests and treatments?

A combination of both is at work, but new evidence and updated guidelines are recommending a step back and more thorough doctor-patient talks about risks and benefits of screening tests.

Americans, including the commander in chief, need to realize that "more care is not necessarily better care," wrote cardiologist Rita Redberg, editor of Archives of Internal Medicine. She was commenting on Obama's recent physical.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

Last Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant, announced to her family that she had converted to Islam. A few months later, she began posting to Facebook forums whose headings included "STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS!"

On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.

Now, she is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, according to officials familiar with the case. The nature of the authorities' suspicions about Ms. Paulin-Ramirez couldn't be determined on Friday.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • Women • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • England / UK • --Ireland • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

In a tense, 43-minute phone call on Friday morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s plan for new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a “deeply negative signal” about Israeli-American relations, and not just because it spoiled a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Biden, in Israel this week to declare American support for its security, had already condemned the move as undermining the peace process. But Mrs. Clinton went a good deal further in her conversation with Mr. Netanyahu, saying it had harmed “the bilateral relationship,” according to the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley.

Such blunt language toward Israel is very rare from an American administration, and several officials said Mrs. Clinton was relaying the anger of President Obama at the announcement, which was made by Israel’s Interior Ministry and which Mr. Netanyahu said caught him off guard.

The Israeli leader repeated his surprise about the plan to Mrs. Clinton, a senior official said, and apologized again for the timing. But that did not appear to mollify Mrs. Clinton, who said she “could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States’ strong commitment to Israel’s security,” Mr. Crowley said.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Middle East • Israel

As accusations of clerical sexual abuse continue to emerge, most recently in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, a conversation I had recently with a Vatican official offered a timely reminder not to forget what is often overlooked: the well-being of priests in all of this.

He pointed out that while each case must, of course, be treated with the utmost seriousness and justice be done, often innocent priests are the ones who have to bear most of the fallout. The perpetrators also receive precious little help or compassion from the Church.

“There has been such an overreaction that most priests are now warned not to even touch a child,” he said. “And I’ve not seen the slightest compassion shown by anybody to a priest caught up in this stuff.”

Stressing that while the crime is deplorable, he said a very small minority of priests are guilty of the crime. Furthermore, he reminded that the perpetrator is “a priest and a Christian and deserves some kind of help and respect – they’ve almost been treated like dogs and it’s horrible.”

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Psychology • Sexuality • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Ireland • Europe • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

On Feb. 3, Ergun Caner, president of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, in Lynchburg, Va., focused attention on a Southern Baptist controversy when he called Jerry Rankin, the president of the denomination’s International Mission Board, a liar. Dr. Caner has since apologized for his language, but he still maintains that the “Camel Method,” a strategy Dr. Rankin endorses for preaching Christianity to Muslims, is deceitful.

Instead of talking about the Jesus of the New Testament, missionaries using the Camel Method point Muslims to the Koran, where in the third chapter, or sura, an infant named Isa — Arabic for Jesus — is born. Missionaries have found that by starting with the Koran’s Jesus story, they can make inroads with Muslims who reject the Bible out of hand. But according to Dr. Caner, whose attack on Dr. Rankin came in a weekly Southern Baptist podcast, the idea that the Koran can contain the seeds of Christian faith is “an absolute, fundamental deception.”

David Garrison, a missionary who edited a book on the Camel Method by Kevin Greeson, the method’s developer, defends the use of the Koran as a path to Jesus. “You aren’t criticizing Muhammad or any other prophets,” Dr. Garrison said, “just raising Jesus up.”

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Missions • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Malaysia • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Churches • Baptists • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

A widening child sexual abuse inquiry in Europe has landed at the doorstep of Pope Benedict XVI, as a senior church official acknowledged Friday that a German archdiocese made “serious mistakes” in handling an abuse case while the pope served as its archbishop.

The archdiocese said that a priest accused of molesting boys was given therapy in 1980 and later allowed to resume pastoral duties, before committing further abuses and being prosecuted. Pope Benedict, who at the time headed the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, approved the priest’s transfer for therapy. A subordinate took full responsibility for allowing the priest to later resume pastoral work, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he had no comment beyond the statement by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which he said showed the “nonresponsibility” of the pope in the matter.

The expanding abuse inquiry had come ever closer to Benedict as new accusations in Germany surfaced almost daily since the first reports in January. On Friday the pope met with the chief bishop of Germany, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of the German Bishops Conference, to discuss the church investigations and media reports.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Germany • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

As policymakers in Washington, D.C., debate overhauling health care, several evangelical Christian groups have found a way of getting around the high cost of health insurance. Instead of paying premiums, they simply agree to pay each other's medical bills.

The groups are not regulated because unlike insurance there's no guarantee an individual's bills will be paid. That's something members take on faith.

James Lansberry, the vice president of Samaritan Ministries, says the concept is simple. First there's a $170 annual fee to cover Samaritan's administrative costs. His nonprofit group then compiles members' health care bills and tells its 14,000 households where to send their monthly checks.

"The money doesn't get received at our central office — it goes directly from one family to another," Lansberry says. "So each month I send my monthly share of $285 directly to another family."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance

Rabbi Harold Kushner.... tells NPR's Renee Montagne. "There's always a fresh supply of grieving people asking, 'Where was God when I needed him most?' "

That's a question Kushner himself confronted as a young father when his first-born child died, leading him to rethink his view of an omnipotent God.

"It just seemed so terribly unfair and it forced me to reconsider everything I'd been taught in seminary about God's role in the world," Kushner says. "It was shattering."

He says people from a more traditional perspective have asked him whether he thought his son's death was part of God's plan. He says they said that going through the tragedy of a child's loss prompted him to write his first book. But Kushner rejects that idea.

"If that were God's plan, it's a bad bargain," Kushner says. "I don't want to have to deal with a God like that."

Read or listen to it all (audio strongly recommended, just a little over 7 3/4 minutes)--KSH.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism • * Theology • Pastoral Theology • Theodicy

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • * South Carolina