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Friday, March 30, 2007
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
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The Conservative Voice (NC): Grant Swank, a commentator, responds to the New York Times article about an African-American priest in Atlanta, Georgia who began preaching acceptance of gay and lesbian persons five years ago. Swank responds: "The disease spreads further."
NewsReleaseWire: John Henderson, author of "God.com: A Deity for the New Millennium" responds to the recent TIMES article on including a course on the Bible in public schools. Henderson responds:
Southwest Nebraska News (NE): McCook Community College in Nebraska will offer “Physics 2990: Creation Science” next fall. The course will cover such topics as:
· The age of the earth, the earth’s beginning, and where the earth is heading
· The Garden of Eden and life on earth before the flood and the major changes which have taken place since that time
· Dinosaurs in the past as well as in the present
· The flood, ice ages, mountain formation, coal and oil formation, and the Grand Canyon
· History of evolution through the ages and the effect it has had on the world as well as many very influential people
· What is taught in school textbooks, without factual supportive evidence?
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette (PA): "Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore" by Rayner Hesse Jr. and Anthony Chiffolo: Now you, too, can cook the stew for which Esau sold his birthright. Or "kill the fatted calf," as they did when the prodigal son showed up at home again.
Florida Baptist Witness (FL): A Baptist pastor argues that topical preaching is "junk food, at best." Instead, the pastor provides biblical passages to support his belief that: "we need to return to expository preaching, generally defined as the explanation of a biblical passage after thorough contextual analysis, and then applied to the hearers."
The Conservative Voice (NC): Democrat and Republican presidential hopefuls alike need to recognize that the born-again Christian vote can make or break their nomination. Says one commentator:
"It’s going to be quite difficult for Democrat candidates to make any points with biblically knowledgeable Christians regarding abortion, for instance. There is no middle ground with that issue. One is either for saving womb babies or destroying womb babies. One cannot have half a baby. The same with active homosexuality lifestyles. One either defends the biblical morality, that is, that God abhors practicing homosexuality, or one does not. There is no halfway measure. Other issues as stem cell research also weigh in with biblically sensitive voters.
With present tense Republican contenders it really is the same tussle as with the Democrats because the Republican hopefuls are not yet revealing any near move toward biblical ethics. There are Republicans who sound as if they are against abortion and homosexual lifestyles; however, their political histories show them to be otherwise."
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
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BEHAR: Well then in a literature course maybe. In college it should be taught. I don't think that it should be taught in high schools as truth.
WALTERS: But Joy, that's your opinion. To many people, everything- the virgin birth, I mean, it is faith and what is in the Bible, there are many, many people in our soci- who believe, who live their lives because it is in the Bible. You don’t happen to agree.
BEHAR: I understand that. But if I'm a Muslim, I don’t happen to believe in the virgin birth. I'm not a Muslim. But if I were. So I take the position of a Muslim right now. I don't want my kids learning –
HASSELBECK: Even if you’re a Muslim though. Don’t you want the information?
WALTERS: They don't have to. It is optional.
HASSELBECK: If you wanted to argue against the Bible on any, on any plane, wouldn't you want as much information on what you're arguing against? I think this could actually enable people into a very intellectual conversation.
Full transcript from NewsBusters: here
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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"The textbook is supposed to be about the Bible, but some have suggested that it follows Haynes' ideology by casting doubt on faith principles of the Bible, placing Islam in a favorable light, suggesting that the Bible was used to justify communism, and by promoting the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization, which uses literacy as a tool to sponsor homosexuality, abortion, and religious pluralism."
News.com.au (AUSTRALIA): Reminding Catholics of Mathew 25:41, Pope Benedict told a crowd in a suburb of Northern Rome that "Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful."
New York Times (NY): Ministers in the African-American community have begun to embraced the gay community, often at the expense of parishioner membership and financial support. Some black ministers have been moved to reconsider biblical passages about same-sex relations by personal events, like finding out that a friend or relative is gay. “It really bothered my congregation when I said that as people of color who have been ostracized, marginalized, how can we turn around now and oppress other people?” said one pastor. Others have been moved by the need to address the high rates of H.I.V within the African American community.
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Juneau Empire (AK): Alaskans should vote "no" on April 3 for a law that would prevent non-married couples living together from sharing worker benefits. Among the reasons why this proposal should not come into law is that the Bible supports health care for all, even those who may be considered sinners. "For me, the Good Samaritan story is a clear biblical call for equal health benefits for people we may not religiously agree with." (subscription)
Calvin News (MI): Calvin College now offers HPV vaccinations to students. "Calvin endorses a Biblical context for human relationships," says Nancy VerMerris, the director of health services. "We believe that God intended the blessing of sexual intercourse for men and women who leave their parents and become one in marriage. We advocate abstinence prior to marriage for both Biblical and health reasons." However, “Girls could be exposed after marriage from their husband," adds Barb Mustert, administrator of travel health and immunization. "Our message is always abstinence because that is what God wants us to do. Sex is to be saved for marriage. And the hope would be that your marriage partner wouldn’t be exposed to HPV. Our goal is to prevent something from occurring that is preventable. They are working on a vaccine for males, but it is not available yet."
McCook Daily Gazette (NE): "There is no doubt that the Commandment is thou shalt not murder. Depending upon differing interpretations, there are up to nearly 30 sins/crimes for which God instructs that men shall be put to death -- one of those sins/crimes is murder. Obviously God does not instruct man to violate God's commandments, therefore executing murderers can not be a violation of God's rules."
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Dateline Alabama (AL): University of South Alabama administered Stephen Prothero's religious literacy test and found that Alabamians are more biblically literate than the rest of America.
Wilmington Morning Star (NC): Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan shares nine things that people may not know about the life of Jesus such as: "The accounts of Jesus' infancy in Matthew and Luke are different because the writers had different intentions," "Disciples had actual visions of Jesus," and "Jesus' bodily resurrection was an allegory of the justice for all martyrs."
Church Executive Magazine (AZ): The producers of "As it Was" DVD series is launching a competition inviting youth groups to create reality-style TV programs that narrate the lives of biblical characters. The "Bible Is-Reel" competition will reward the makers of the film that introduces "historical figures in a creative way" with a ten day trip to Israel.
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The Washington Post (DC): The new book "The Gospel According to Judas" by best-selling author Jeffrey Archer and Vatican theologian Francis Maloney portrays Judas as the betrayed, rather than the betrayer. Though the account is fictional, the authors maintain that it is a theologically plausible explanation of why Christianity's most maligned personality did what he did. Last week the Vatican Pontificate Council held a lecture on the book in an effort to encourage others to "read the Bible carefully and intelligently." In a news conference Maloney said that he was inspired to write the account in response to the success of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and Richard Dawkin's "God Delusion." "Are we to stand by silently to allow the Gospel message of Jesus of Nazareth to be trivialized by Brown and ridiculed by Dawkins?"
Barbados Advocate (BARBADOS): "It is time we develop a biblical view of sex. [...] Not only did God create man in His own image; but He invented and created sex. More than that, He created sex to be a very pleasurable and enjoyable exercise. It is through the sex act that we have been given the god-like ability to create another human being in our own likeness! Not only does God tolerate sex, He approves it!"
New York Times (NY): British anthropologist Mary Douglas explores the subtle patterns that "divide the world into the clean and the unclean, the permitted and the forbidden, the pure and the polluted, imposing their categories on the continuities of nature, creating order while disclosing it." Stories that do not seem to have order work like a ring: they have an introduction, followed by a climax and then reverse the story. Douglas pays special attention to the book of Numbers in which "the parallels established by the ring form assume important meanings that are crucial for understanding the biblical book’s preoccupation with the priesthood and authority."
The Christian Century: "Since how we read the Bible and even how we argue about it is shaped by its place in our own faith development, it would be good to take some time out from contentious debates about the Bible to reflect on our personal experience with the Bible."
The Free-Lance Star (VA): "[The Bible is] a book teeming with contradictions, borrowed myths, and murder on a vast scale. Just open any book of the Bible, close your eyes, and point. Your finger is sure to fall on any one of these anomalies."
Daily Vidette (IL): "[T]he Bible should be taught in high school English classrooms by high school English teachers along with works like "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Great Gatsby." Why? Because the Bible is perhaps the most fundamental religious text in American society, as well as one of the greatest stories ever written."
International Herald Tribune (FRANCE): The St. John's Bible, a handwritten and illustrated
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