the loss of Catholics in the U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/us/25cnd-religion.html?hp=&...
1 of 2 2/25/08 12:10 PM
February 25, 2008

Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds
By NEELA BANERJEE

WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another
religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans, offers one of the clearest views yet of that trend, scholars said. The United States Census does not track religious affiliation.

The report shows, for example, that every religion is losing and gaining members, but that the Roman Catholic
Church “has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes.” The survey also indicates that the group that had the greatest net gain was the unaffiliated. More than 16 percent of American adults say they are not part of any organized faith, which makes the unaffiliated the country’s fourth largest “religious group.”

Detailing the nature of religious affiliation — who has the numbers, the education, the money — signals who could hold sway over the country’s political and cultural life, said John Green, an author of the report who is a senior fellow on religion and American politics at Pew.

Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University, echoed that view. “Religion is the single most important factor that drives American belief attitudes and behaviors,” said Mr. Lindsay, who had read the Pew report. “It is a powerful indicator of where America will end up on politics, culture, family life. If you want to understand America, you have to understand religion in America.”

In the 1980s, the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center indicated that from 5 percent to 8 percent of the population described itself as unaffiliated with a particular religion.

In the Pew survey 7.3 percent of the adult population said they were unaffiliated with a faith as children. That
segment increases to 16.1 percent of the population in adulthood, the survey found. The unaffiliated are largely under 50 and male. “Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women,” the survey said.

The rise of the unaffiliated does not mean that Americans are becoming less religious, however. Contrary to
assumptions that most of the unaffiliated are atheists or agnostics, most described their religion “as nothing in
particular.” Pew researchers said that later projects would delve more deeply into the beliefs and practices of
unaffiliated and would try to determine if they remain so as they age.

While the unaffiliated have been growing, Protestantism has been declining, the survey found. In the 1970s,
Protestants accounted for about two-thirds of the population. The Pew survey found they now make up about 51 percent. Evangelical Christians account for a slim majority of Protestants, and those who leave one evangelical denomination usually move to another, rather than to mainline churches.

To Prof. Stephen Prothero, large numbers of Americans leaving organized religion and large numbers still
embracing the fervor of evangelical Christianity point to the same desires. “The trend is toward more personal religion, and evangelicals offer that,” said Mr. Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, who explained that evangelical churches tailor many of their activities for youth. “Those losing out are offering impersonal religion and those winning are offering a smaller scale: mega-churches succeed not because they are mega but because they have smaller ministries inside.”

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised
Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.”

Immigration continues to influence American religion greatly, the survey found. The majority of immigrants are Christian, and almost half are Catholic. Muslims rival Mormons for having the largest families. And Hindus are the best-educated and among the richest religious groups, the survey found.
“I think politicians will be looking at this survey to see what groups they ought to target,” Professor Prothero said.

“If the Hindu population is negligible, they won’t have to worry about it. But if it is wealthy, then they may have to pay attention.”

Sobering statistics. Of course, the desire for a "more personal religion" says volumes about American individualism (does this mean proving a more personal encounter with God--well, if lived to its fullest, Catholicism gives this)... a "more personal religion" sometimes means that it caters to individuals desire for a certain emotional experience (afterall, its all about ME)... sometimes it means that they can pick and choose what they believe... they are not "bound" by restrictive dogma, etc.

Ask St. John of the Cross, Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, St. Padre Pio, etc. if Catholicism was a "personal religion" for them. Through the Catholic Church they encountered the living God... and far from being a "me and Jesus" religion, they were also united with all the saints--throughout the world--those in heaven and earth--and throughout all of history. Sounds like a good religion to me. I think I'll stay Catholic, thank you.

This does show the need to evangelize. If 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics, we have to ask, how many of them ever learned their faith, how many of them even know what they left.

Jubilee or Economic Depression?

This is an interetsting biblical perspective on the current economic situation from Steve Wood's Dads.org newsletter
___________________________
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:47:40 -0500

Editor's Note: The article below entitled, "Jubilee or Depression," is a slightly revised article that appeared in the November 1999 issue of this newsletter. Within two years of publishing this article the NASDAQ lost 80% of its value and the S&P500 lost 50%. I don't claim to be a stock picker or financial forecaster, but I think it is time to re-visit the timeless principles described in this article.

Jubilee or Depression?

The best way to prevent depressions is to follow the Jubilee pattern in the Old Testament. The Jewish jubilee occurred every 50 years. Most people are aware that the Jews were to take one day off every week for rest and worship: the Sabbath day. Many are unaware of the ancient Jewish practice of allowing the land to rest one complete year every seven years. The seventh year was regarded as a Sabbath year (Leviticus 25:4). Since ancient Israel was mostly an agricultural economy, the Sabbath year had strong economic overtones as the land, the workers, and the economy were able to rest.

A special blessing for the poor every seventh year was the requirement that Israelites were to be released from all debts (Deuteronomy 15:1-11). In ancient Israel debt was not the economic lifestyle it has become in the modern world. Debt was regarded as a form of economic servitude. As Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender." Debt was avoided by all, except by those whose extreme poverty drove them into it.

The seventh year cancellation of all debts put a brake on any tendency for ancient Israel to become a permanently indebted economy. Things such as thirty-year loans were prohibited. There was no long-term incentive for lenders to promote debt. It was impossible for the nation to slip into a lifestyle of debt.

After 49 years, expressed as "seven weeks of years" in Leviticus 25:8, there was to be a super Sabbath year called the Jubilee. In addition to the economy being allowed a Sabbath year's rest and debts being released, the Jubilee laws in Leviticus had two more economic provisions.

The first provision was that family land that had been sold because of economic necessity was to be returned. The Jubilee prevented conglomerates from permanently gobbling up the land and extinguishing the small family farm. God wanted each family in ancient Israel to be able to provide for its own needs. Having land as a family inheritance was the pathway to economic freedom for generation after generation of Israelite families.

The second Jubilee law provided freedom from servitude (Leviticus 25:39-41). If an Israelite fell into dire economic straits, frequently stemming from the inability to repay debts, he could indenture himself as a hired servant. The Jubilee freed all Israelites from this servitude. God's Jubilee provision meant that none of his people were to be permanently trapped in economic bondage.

While the exact application of the Old Testament Jubilee legislation is not binding in the New Covenant, the principles of economic justice are certainly timeless. Violating these principles brings servitude to the poor, debt lifestyles, and depressions instead of jubilees.

In his Apostolic Letter, As the Third Millennium Draws Near, Pope John Paul II said that "The custom of jubilees, which began in the Old Testament … continues in the church."

God's laws and the principles deriving from them are ordered in reality. Release from debt will eventually occur, either through the pains of a depression, or through the joys of a jubilee. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is inscribed with, "Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land," a quotation from Leviticus 25:10 announcing the Year of Jubilee. But we live in a land that wants freedom, while ignoring the true source of liberty: God's Word.

Modern economies seem bent on violating the Sabbath (Lord's Day), the Sabbath year, and the Jubilee year principles. An endless 24/7 treadmill of activity in the world of business and commerce has displaced God's pattern of work and rest. Family businesses are gobbled up by the latest chain of superstores, while the family farm disappears and the ability of a working man to earn a wage sufficient to support his family is a distant memory. Instead of breaking the cycle of poverty, we have managed to create a welfare system that perpetuates trans-generational poverty in the world's most prosperous nation. Rather than minimizing indebtedness, we have pumped personal, corporate, and government debt into the largest "bubble economy" in human history. When the bubble finally pops - and it will - we will realize that our addiction to debt has brought us a depression instead of a jubilee.

Your Family Finances in an Age of Economic Jihad

There is a way to prevent boom-bust cycles and debt-driven depressions. Yet our national and state governments, our corporate leaders, and the vast majority of American families have chosen the option of plunging headlong into debt instead of economic freedom. Our debt-ridden banking and financial system resembles a pyramid scheme.

Consequences will inevitably follow. I can't say if it will take 10 weeks, 10 months, or 10 years, but there will be consequences. A Sabbath-breaking and increasingly debt-bloated economy is going to end up in a depressing mess. Some think that the Federal Reserve's tinkering with interest rates, or Washington's giving out $150 billion for Americans to buy consumer items like big screen TVs from China will save the economy. Who knows? Maybe these steps will turn things around. Then again such steps may just make matters worse in the long run.

No matter what the President, Congress, or the Federal Reserve does, I encourage you fathers to take steps, even radical ones, to protect the financial welfare of your family. Debt is always an albatross, but during a recession debt can completely ruin a family's finances. Whenever the debt bomb explodes, so many families will be affected that any available assistance will be minimal -unless our country accepts permanent federal intrusion into domestic finances.

In a recent survey by the Barna Organization (http://www.barna.org/), 79% of American Christians said that indebtedness was their major concern.

Unfortunately, just having a concern about indebtedness and really doing something about it are worlds apart. Most people have a good general idea about what they should do about debt, but they don't do it. The root problem isn't information as much as motivation.

The best motivator I've seen in the twenty-eight years I've been studying no-debt/low-debt Christian teaching is Dave Ramsey. I found what I considered the most motivating of his materials and offered it to our donors as a premium and also offered it in our catalog. Both of my attempts to distribute his material met with "okay" success. Yet given our nation's economic condition, they should be flying off the shelves.

Last fall, I also produced a couple of CDs to assist families with their finances. One of the CDs was entitled "Economic Jihad: Vital Information for Protecting Your Family." Describing this CD in a letter to members of our Family Life Team (our donors), we warned that a major economic terrorist assault against the U.S. economy is well underway.

Few people remember that the United States actually created the Taliban by giving the "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan arms and $4 billion to bleed the Soviet Union to death financially during the Soviet occupation.

Well, it worked. So well, in fact, that these same Islamic fanatics are now using the tactics they learned from the American C.I.A. - and with the same devastating effect.

Osama Bin Laden publicly declared, "We are continuing in the same policy [we used against the Soviets], to make America bleed profusely to the point of bankruptcy, Allah willing. And that is not too difficult for Allah." Osama Bin Laden has declared a financial Jihad (Holy War) against the United States. And he brags that he spent a mere $500,000 to pull off the 9-11 attacks, which caused America to spend $500 billion in response.

This is how Osama summarizes the devastating result of his economic Jihad: "Each of Al Qaeda's dollars defeated one million American dollars, thanks to Allah's grace. This is in addition to the fact that America lost a large number of jobs. And as for the deficit, it lost a record number estimated at a trillion dollars."

Osama Bin Laden is evil. But he's not stupid. He is watching our federal deficits, our trade deficits, and the sinking dollar. Osama's strategy is to defeat America by drowning us in debt, while urging his fellow Moslems to avoid debt. In fact, a fatwa (religious edict) has been issued forbidding Moslems to go into debt. And for the first time in 77 years the Moslems have now resumed minting the Dinar - an actual gold coin - so that Moslems can exchange money and build wealth debt-free.

Meanwhile, Dubai (a Muslim country and financial center) investors recently purchased 20% of the NASDAQ. Dubai investors have also purchased a $7.5 billion stake in Citigroup to assist with its sub-prime debt mess.

The Federal Reserve has just lowered the federal fund rate by .75%, the President and Congress are working on a stimulus package, and the usual election year stimulus/spending strategies are underway. What does this mean for you? It means that you may have a window of opportunity to move your family finances away from the epicenter of the debt implosion.

I'm sticking my neck out sending you this warning letter. You'll probably not read too many Catholic periodicals warning about this financial mess until its way too late to do anything. My advice is not to wait until everyone agrees it's time to do something. Take action now.

For some of you this will mean taking major steps like selling your home and moving to a more affordable one. Sound radical? It is. Just remember that it is infinitely less painful to move into a smaller home than to lose your home to the mortgage company.

I urge you to get moving with a lower debt and economically sound footing for your family's finances in these uncertain times. Whatever the economic future holds, you'll never regret living beneath your means, saving, and maintaining a low-debt profile.


Recommended Resources:
Economic Jihad: Vital Information for the Protection of Your Family Economic Jihad ComboFamily Finances 101The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free by Phil Lenahan (These materials by Phil Lenahan have been designed for parish-based small groups. Phil's small group materials are a superb way for parishes to offer practical assistance to families.) .

Sound Economic Advice from Scripture:
Do not become a beggar by feasting with borrowed money. Sirach 18:33

From the Wall Street Journal: 1993"History shows that once nominal growth slows in a heavily indebted economy, there can be no recovery until the excess debt is eliminated. Political efforts to expand debt do nothing to lift the burden of debt service, which is the cause of slow growth and faltering incomes in the first place." (Source: John Mauldin's "Outside the Box" [frontlinethoughts.com])

Family Life Team
Shaunti Feldhahn, a former Federal Reserve financial analyst, warns that previous recessions with only a 5% dip in the overall economy resulted in a 20% drop in charitable giving.

Therefore, I ask those of you who profit spiritually and financially from our resources to remember us in your giving, especially if the recession deepens. In addition to praying for our donor's spiritual welfare, we also pray for your marriage and family, and your job and business.

Radio broadcast schedule
Faith & Family Radio: 2:00 PM [ET] on Thursdays on the EWTN Global Catholic Network. Visit the homepage of www.familylifecenter.net to view listener resources and to listen to the most recent show. Sirius Satellite Radio (channel 160) This Thursday (January 24th) will be an important broadcast. The show will be about a bold constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. This isn't a project decades away. It is something that is being planned now. I invite you to tune in and call with your questions and comments.

Yours in His Majesty’s Service, Steve Wood

Family Life Center International - 2130 Wade Hampton Blvd. Greenville, SC 29615
enews@dads.org

More than half of the births in France are out-of-wedlock

The Daily Eudemon [http://www.ericscheske.com/blog/] directed me to this story:

France surpasses 50% out-of-wedlock births
Paris, Jan. 16, 2008 (CWNews.com) -

In 2006, for the first time in the nation's history, most of the infants born in France were born out of wedlock.

The proportion of births to unmarried women, which had been creeping upward for years, reached 51% last year, statistics show.

In Sweden, the latest figures show that 55% of children are born out of wedlock. In Great Britain the figure is 42%; in Poland, 15%.

From:
http://www.cwnews.com/news/
viewstory.cfm?recnum=56001

By the way, I did some checking and found that the rate is 37% here in the U.S.:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/21/ap/
national/mainD8LHNMSG0.shtml

This is yet another indication that the institution of marriage is underthreat both within the Church and the wider culture.

Even St. Augustine has a MySpace!

I heard about this St. Augustine MySpace profile. I imagine that some Augustinian priest or brother created this? I am not sure whether your average MySpace user would actually read the meaty blog posts of his Confessions, but this is a neat idea. [PS: just finished listening to Confessions via audio book, it is a must read/hear]

http://www.myspace.com/saintaugustineofhippo

New trend in recent films: characters rejecting abortion

Via PewSitter.com, from Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania and a Catholic...

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted on Thu, Jan. 3, 2008
The Elephant in the Room:
5 characters reject abortion in a
cultural shift in movies
By Rick Santorum

I begin this new year with greater hope for our culture. That is saying something, given our pop culture's violence, gratuitous coarseness, hyper-commercialism, and obsession with sex and celebrity. I can sympathize with parents who are increasingly tempted to gather their children and retreat to the catacombs. But don't head down there just yet. This last year saw something that we should take heart in.

No, it wasn't the American public's stout rejection of a slew of anti-American "war on terror" movies such as Redacted and Rendition. The most encouraging news was quieter and more life-affirming.

If art is a reflection of our culture, our culture - and particularly our youth culture - is awaking to the reality of life in the womb. You hear it in Nick Cannon's autobiographical single "Can I live?" You see it in the stunning episode of the television show House where Dr. Gregory House's finger is grasped by a baby in the womb during intrauterine surgery. The recognition of the life in the womb is going mainstream.

But the biggest shift came at the movies. In a nation with one of the world's most wide-open abortion regimes, U.S. audiences flocked to see five motion pictures with life-affirming texts or subtexts: Knocked up, Waitress, Bella, August Rush and Juno.

In these movies, abortion was urged on women facing an unplanned pregnancy, and rejected. Ultrasound images awakened characters and audiences to the humanity of the unborn. Having a baby, even in the most challenging circumstances, became the compelling "choice." Adoption was held up as a positive alternative to abortion. And, unlike the news media's portrayal of pro-lifers, protesters outside abortion clinics were authentically depicted as warm and concerned. This stood in contrast to the indifference of the staff within.

These movies came from four different companies (Waitress and Juno are Fox Searchlight movies) and right out of our pop culture. Given the degraded state of that culture, this sometimes comes at a price when it comes to a movie's language, humor, and the treatment of sexual relations. Bella is a gentle celebration of family and adoption amid an unplanned pregnancy. August Rush is a PG-rated look at the gut-wrenching consequences of an out-of-wedlock affair. But Knocked Up, Waitress and Juno are most certainly hip-deep in today's bawdy mainstream culture.

Any movie titled Knocked Up is not going to win awards for decorum, and this one doesn't disappoint. Its pro-life, pro-marriage message - Alison (Katherine Heigl) decides she wants to have the baby after she becomes pregnant during a one-night stand - comes wrapped in X-rated language, sex jokes and drug abuse.

In Waitress, abused Jenna (Keri Russell) decides to have a baby instead of an abortion while having an adulterous affair with her doctor.

As for Juno, for all its tenderness and antiabortion, pro-adoption themes, it's pretty edgy. But it's exactly these movies' connection to the pop culture that makes them so heartening.
They are meeting audiences where they live, and, through good storytelling, smart - if often raw - dialogue, and compelling character development, are presenting themes we rarely associate with much of our popular culture. And audiences and critics are largely saying "two thumbs up."
The best thing about all of these movies is, they are not "pro-life" message movies. They are, instead, chronicles from the children of our divorce- and abortion-oriented culture. There is lived experience, emotional understanding, hard-earned authenticity at the heart of these scripts. And pain.

One of the most poignant recurring themes may be the message to baby-boom parents from their own children. The characters most often urging abortion on the expectant mother were aging boomers, and they are not attractive moments. In August Rush, Lyla's father tells her that her baby was killed in an auto accident and gives the child to an orphanage - to protect her career. After career-bound Alison becomes pregnant in Knocked Up, it's her mother who urges her to have an abortion - she can always have "a real baby" later on.

Alison doesn't take her mother's advice. She decides to have her baby after seeing the unborn child's heart beat on a monitor. What ultimately triumphs in Knocked Up and these other movies is the simple reality of human life.

On the way to an abortion, Juno Ellen Page stops and talks to a nerdy but caring pro-life schoolmate who is protesting there. As Juno continues into the clinic, the girl calls out, "Your baby has fingernails!"

Your baby has fingernails: It's enough to stop Juno from going ahead with an abortion.
Yes, the ultrasound - and now Hollywood - see that unborn baby whose eyes, spinal cord, nervous system, liver and stomach are developing within the first month, whose heart begins beating at 18 days. That unborn child who can make a tiny fist, hiccup, wake and sleep at three months.

It may be a small thing in our vast pop culture. But what a blessing small things can be.

E-mail Rick Santorum at rsantorum@phillynews.com.

Original article post:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080103_The_Elephant_in_
the_Room___5_characters_reject_abortion_in_a_
cultural_shift_in_movies.html

Time Magazine and Christianity Today Rethink the Bible on Divorce, Separation, and Remarriage

The American Papist blog has an interesting review of an article in the recent issue of Time magazine regarding a growing flexibility among evangelicals when it comes to interpreting the Bible on the subject of divorce. Check it out:

Time Magazine Rethinks Scripture on Divorce, Separation and Remarriage

The fact-pattern: Christianity Today publishes an article entitled "When to Separate What God has Joined: A Closer Reading on the Bible on Divorce" which attempted to revise the biblical teaching on these questions so that it could be reconciled to the modern prevalence of divorce in secular societies well as Evangelical circles.

David Van Biema covers the story for Time magazine, and it has become one of the most popular articles being read on the Internet.My take:A false assumption plagues this piece from the outset (all underlining mine):

Last month, the cover story of the monthly Christianity Today was titled "When to Separate What God has Joined: A Closer Reading on the Bible on Divorce." The heated controversy provoked by the story showed how Biblically flexible some Evangelicals can be — especially when God's word seems at odds not just with modern American behavior, but also with simple human kindness. Catch that? Jesus' teaching on marriage doesn't seem to square even with "simple human kindness." Jesus' historical teaching that husbands cannot put away their wives and thereby marginalize their subsistence was actually contrary not only to "modern American behavior" (the new normative guide to morality?), but also to "simple human kindness." You know, the stuff that's just darn evident to everyone. Cruel Jesus, making husbands keep their wives.

From the beginning the author operated upon the false premise that Jesus' teaching on marriage required all spouses to remain with their husbands no matter what. This false premise appears again in the second paragraph:
Finally, Instone-Brewer tallies four grounds for divorce he finds affirmed in both Old and New Testaments: adultery, emotional and sexual neglect, abandonment (by anyone) and abuse.

What is in fact allowed in these cases is separation (which no one would argue, if the grounds for separation are legitimate). Remarriage is an entirely different question, but don't expect Van Biema to present that consideration.Errors quickly compound as Van Biema's inability to distinguish separation from "divorce" play-out:

... the Instone-Brewer essay appeared to be its editors' attempt to offer Evangelicals an escape from a classic dilemma. The "plain sense" of Jesus's words without quotes seems clear enough, but also inhumane: how could a loving God forbid divorce, even by omission, in cases of wife-beating, or of abandonment by a Christian spouse?

See above. Jesus isn't teaching that women should stay in an abusive marriage. Perhaps the "plain sense" of scripture mentioned here isn't enough. That's no surprise. But it's wrong to conclude that a holistic reading of the biblical accounts contradicts the "plain sense" teaching of Jesus against divorce, when accurately understood.

Next it really gets good (by which I mean, of course, bad):

Each branch of Christianity deals with divorce in its own way: Catholicism bans it entirely, but many divorced and remarried couples nonetheless find that their conscience permits them to take Communion.

Error count rising. "Catholicism bans [divorce] entirely." False. Legal divorce which results in the de facto separation of spouses is allowed, and even suggested to spouses in an abusive relationship. Van Biema happily constructs a straw-man of the Church's teaching. And it's easy to destroy a straw-man. And it's rare to find anything but straw-men in this treatment.

Second error: "Many divorced and remarried couples nonetheless find that their conscience permits them to take Communion." Well, receiving Communion isn't only a matter of "finding oneself permitted." If one has remarried after a divorce, and has not received an annulment from their marriage, the Church presumes that they are committing fornication, which as a mortal sin, bars the communicant from receiving until they have confessed.

Amazingly, the article even quotes someone who brings up the significance of remarriage:

If a split itself is inescapable, notes Christianity Today editor Andy Crouch, "remarriage is where the rubber meets the road," and many remarried couples find themselves denied church membership.

It remains inextricable to me why Van Biema didn't claim something along the lines of "nonetheless, many Evangelicals find that their conscience permits them to remain part of their church." Such flawed ecclesiology evidently applies to Catholics - why don't Evangelicals get the same (false) primacy of conscience option?

Van Biema seems to have encountered at least one person who realized that he wasn't going to understand the problem, but incredibly, Van Biema takes this reticence to discuss the issue as some sort of "gotcha!":

Asked if he does [believe that an abused woman should leave the marriage], Moore demurred: "Let me think about that for a little bit. I could answer in a way that would be very easily misunderstood."

I don't think the interviewee was demurring because he thought his answer was incorrect, I think it is more likely the case that he didn't want his words twisted. Well, they were anyway.

Van Biema wraps it all up for us:

Still, the controversy suggests that even the country's most rule-bound Christians will search for a fresh understanding of scripture when it seems unjust to them. The implications? Flexibility on divorce may mean that evangelicals could also rethink their position on such things as gay marriage, as a generation of Christians far more accepting of homosexuality begins to move into power....It could also give heart to a certain twice-divorced former New York mayor who is running for President and seeking the conservative vote. But that may be pushing things a bit.

The message: when scripture doesn't square with a) your pre-conceived categories of justice, or b) the practice of individuals or c) could get in the way of your presidential-hopefuls candidacy then...Rethink scripture.

Oh! And hey, while we're at it, we can revise what the scriptures teach about homosexuality and "gay marriage". Isn't it amazing what new vistas of human self-fulfillment are available to those who ...Revise scripture.

(A note to Christianity Today: when Time Magazine starts agreeing with you, that's a warning sign.)

Update: And of course, if we want to be cynical about it (not saying we don't), this article is handily presented by Time just as Rudy Giuliani begins to take increasing flack for his multiple remarriages (this claim is supported by the fact that the Christianity Today article is evidently over a month old already) . And who, you might ask, is dishing out the Giuliani criticism? *drum roll* ... that's right: evangelicals and social conservatives! So what better time than the present to paint them as hypocrites? And hey, if we can call into doubt the teaching of Scripture on homosexuality, then all the better. Forget rethinking or revising, let's just forget it."

http://www.americanpapist.com/2007/11/
time-magazine-rethinks-scripture-on.html

____________________________________

Some more background to the question of DIVORE & REMARRIAGE:

Jesus revealed that Moses allowed divorce in Dueteronomy 24:1-4 as a temporary provision because of "hardness of... heart" (Matt 19:7-9). But Jesus restored God's original plan of indissoluble marriage (Matt 19:3-9); therefore, the Catholic Church continues to teach that a valid marriage between a baptized man and woman cannot be dissolved for any reason except death. It can't be ended by a civil divorce (or even by an annulment, which is not "Catholic divorce" but rather the determination a marriage was not valid in the first place.) Some Protestants claim that Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9 allow exceptions to Jesus' teaching on indissolubility: 'whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity [porneia in original Greek], and marries another, commits adultery" [Revised Standard Version]. Here, porneia is used in a technical senes to forbid incestuous marriages among close relatives (as in Acts 15:20 and 1 Cor 5:1). Those illicit unions are not valid marriages in the first place. Note that not a single Greek-speaking Church Father ever saw in Matthew 5 and 19 exceptions to Christ's law of indissolubility. Until Martin Luther declared that marriage was only a civil union in 1520, all Christians unanimously held that marriage is indissoluble and that divorce from a legitimate marriage cannot be followed by remarriage.

-Taken from The Bible Thumper - Vol. 2: Sacrament, Morality, Afterlife [pamphlet on the Scriptural basis for Catholic beliefs; Jim Burnham, Brian Butler, and Matthew Pinto authors; Ascension Press; www.TheBibleThumper.com - www.AscensionPress.com ]

Out of the Blue: same-sex unions in Iowa

Here is some coverage of the recent events:

From the Chicago Trib:
Iowa judge OKs gay marriages
Ruling, limited to 1 county, soon delayed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/
nationworld/chi-gaymarriage_websep01,0,3460116.
story?coll=chi-technologylocal-hed

KCCI Chanel 8 - Des Moines:
http://www.kcci.com/family/14020652/detail.html

Des Moines Register:
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20070830/NEWS/70830044/
1001&lead=1

Discussion on Catholic Answers Forum:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=180474

__________________________________

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the subject of marriage:
[text in bold is my empshasis]

337. What is the plan of God regarding man and woman?
see CCC 1601-1605

God who is love and who created man and woman for love has called them to love. By creating man and woman he called them to an intimate communion of life and of love in marriage: “So that they are no longer two, but one flesh” (Matthew 19:6). God said to them in blessing “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).


338. For what ends has God instituted Matrimony?
see 1659-1660

The marital union of man and woman, which is founded and endowed with its own proper laws by the Creator, is by its very nature ordered to the communion and good of the couple and to the generation and education of children. According to the original divine plan this conjugal union is indissoluble, as Jesus Christ affirmed: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mark 10:9).

344. What is matrimonial consent?
See 1625-16321662-1663

Matrimonial consent is given when a man and a woman manifest the will to give themselves to each other irrevocably in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love. ...

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Chastity and Homosexuality:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,140 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."141 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.


2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.


2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

U.K. Schoolgirl Loses Court Case Over Chastity Ring

Good for her, standing up for chastity and the true and beautiful purpose of sexual love:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
id/19806312/?GT1=10150

This is evangelization, folks.

Other articles and comments to follow...

Robin Williams' Sick Humor Shows Sad Ignorance About Human Sexuality and Celibacy

Robin Williams made an ass of himself on the Tonight Show by going on an anti-Catholic tirade slandering all priests:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19484807/

[By the way, I love when comedians use the horror of sexual abuse as an excuse for some cheap laughs and a chance to spew hatred for the Church and then they try to take the moral high ground and act as if they are courageously speaking out like investigative journalists (as if we have not already read and heard about the scandals practically every day in the secular media). Form the article above:
"Vieira asked him if he cares that he offended people. Williams started to say that he does care, then said, “No. You can’t ignore it. If you do, then why live in this world?” " Why ignore the issue when you can use it for cheap laughs when you have run out of material.

http://www.catholicleague.org/07press_releases/
quarter_2/070619_robin_williams.htm

Discussion on Catholic Answers Forum
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=162860

This was my quick email to NBC:

"I did not watch the episode of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno starring Robin Williams, but I did read newspaper articles that quoted his sick comments. I am appalled. I am a Catholic man who is celibate and is considering entering a religious order. His comments regarding celibacy and the priest abuse scandal were deeply disturbing. I am frightened by a man who revels in sexual abuse as a topic for humor. Yikes! I cannot begin to address the level of his ignorance regarding 1.) the Catholic Church's 2,000 year old tradition of celibacy, 2.) the Church's beautiful teaching on human sexuality, and 3.) the root causes of sexual abuse (the vast majority of which occurrs by married heterosexual men in private homes).

I am saddened that NBC makes no apology for promoting this kind of sick humor and emabarassing ignorance (when the mere mention of a derogatory term for homosexual leads to a star being ousted from a popular TV series on another network). What hypocrisy! NBC now joins the ranks of FOX for its anti-Catholic slams. I will never watch the Tonight Show with Jay Leno again... and I will spread the word about NBC shows to my friends and families. I know that it is the TV business, but please have a shred of decency.
I would appreciate a response. Thank you."

How an iPod can help you learn the Faith

Perhaps many of you out there think--'well, I would like to learn more about my faith but I just don't have the time.' Perhaps you would also like to pray more but find that you lack the time. Of course, we must make time for God. However, do not discount the moments that you have while you are on the run.

For last Christmas I received an Apple iPod. Many of my late-twenties, early-thirties peers have had iPods. I resisted the idea because I was trying to simplify my life Franciscan-style. I finally gave in to the idea of receiving an mp3 player for Christmas. I am glad I did. The iPod is not just the gadget du jour of your teenage kid. It can also be an excellent tool to halp you grow in your faith!

I am directing this article to those catechists and anyone else who has no idea about the iPod technology...

What the heck is a "podcast"???

A podcast is a broadcast of a radio program (and now--TV and video is available) that you can download and listen to through your iPod. First you need an internet connection (preferibly high-speed) to download (for free!) Apple's software iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Radio and TV programs will be saved onto mp3 audio files (now, I see them called mp4 files?) and then you can download those audio files to your own computer via the internet and your iTunes software. In fact, you do not even need an iPod to listen to podcasts. All you need is an internet connection and the iTunes software. Once you download a podcast, you can simply listen to it via iTunes on your computer at work or home. If, however, you want to be able to take those podcast programs with you wherever you go... you will want an iPod (or some other mp3 player). The iPods cost $150 and up... but for just $80 you can get the tiny iPod Shuffle which amazingly is the size of a matchbook, clips on to your clothing and can hold 24o songs or the equivalent amount of podcasts. The larger iPods can hold up to 2,000 songs.

Once you have iTunes, you can go to the iTunes Store and search for podcasts. There is a vast number of podcasts of various radio and TV programming that you can suscribe to for free.
When you click on a program to suscribe then your iTunes program will check for updates every day to the podcasts that you suscribe to. If, for example, you suscribe to a podcast of an EWTN program that you like, then every time that the folks at EWTN make available a new audio file of a recent program then you iTunes will automatically download it. You do not have to remember, the program does it for you (it is kind of like getting the newspaper delivered to your door every morning). Once you have received the podcast file, then you can listen to it from your computer or drag it and download it into you iPod. Once you are done listening to it, you can delete the podcast from your iPod (that way, you save room for more future podcasts). Some new cars come set up with a jack to plug your iPod in so that you can listen to it through car speakers. You could also just buy a casette adapter and plug your iPod into that and listen that way.

What podcasts are out there?

You can dowload podcasts of any kind of program--news programs, sports programs, etc. However, there are many prodcast available to help you learn more about your faith. I will list just some of the ones that I have encountered (all these programs can be found from iTunes store by typing the name in the search window):

1. CATHOLIC ANSWERS LIVE: For those who have access to Catholic radio stations such as EWTN radio or Ave Maria Radio (which is none of us out here in central Iowa) you might be familiar with this excellent program. CA Live airs two hour long episodes a day that will have a guest apologist expert in expalining and defending the Catholic faith. The guests will talk about a given topic (Lent, the Mass, the different rites of the Church, particular dogmas of the Church, controverial topics, etc.) and then take calls from listeners asking questions. This is an excellent way to learn more. Some programs even deal with current films, current hot topics (such as the DaVinci Code book and movie, or the alleged discover of Jesus' tomb, etc.), etc. Search "Catholic Answers Live" or see http://www.catholic.com/radio/podcast.asp
   
2. EWTN programs: You can suscribe to audio podcasts of your favorite TV shows: EWTN Bookmarks, Life on the Rock, The World Over, Sunday Night Live with Fr. Benedict Groeschel. Personally, I like Marcus Grodi's the Journey Home. On this program, converts to the Catholic faith (often times ministers from Protestantism or other non-Catholic faiths) come on and tell the story of their conversions... and also take phone call questions. This can be a good kick-in-the-butt for the cradle Catholic who takes his faith for granted.
   
3. The K-Street Catholic: This is the podcast of the Washington D.C.-based Catholic Information Center ( www.cicdc.org/ ). I recently heard about these podcasts from a radio show, and they are excellent. Recent episodes have dealt with the Jewish ordigins of Baptism, the Mass, and the Paschal Mystery and an episode dealing with the "Jesus Tomb" controversy.
   
4. Cardinal Arinze Podcast: Cardinal Arinze is the prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the Holy See. This one time papal prospect has written beautifully on the litugy of the Catholic Church. In recent podcasts he has covered Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).
   http://arinzewebcast.com/
   
5. Understanding the Scriptures: This is a podcast of an adult education class in a parish in Texas. They are using Scott Hahn's excellent textbook Understanding the Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study. If you would like to get an understanding of the overall story of the Bible, and how the Old Testament relates to the New Testament, this is the podcast for you. ( www.catholicboard.com/ )
   
6. The Inner Life (on Relevant Radio): This program airs on the Catholic radio station Relevant Radio. http://www.relevantradio.com/
   NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=793&srcid=217
   This program hosts different priests as spiritual directors for each day. Callers call in with questions about discernment in issues small (personal decisions) and great (a vocation), questions about prayer and growth in the spiritual life, etc. Recent episodes included a discussion on Franciscan spirituality. On iTunes Store search for "Relevant Radio" and you will find this and other programs.
   
7. Keep the Faith www.keepthefaith.org
   
   This site has mp3 lectures downloadable for a buck: topics include: many Archbishop Fulton Sheen talks, The Existence of God, St. Augustine, the development of the Latin rite liturgy, Saints of the Reformation, the Enlightenment revisted, Sacred Music and Liturgy, the re-definition of marriage, the Antichrist, the demonic today, etc. [some of this would be of particular interest to traditionalist catholics] This is not a podcast that you can suscribe to as far as I know... you go to the site, download the mp3 files you like, and then you can suck them up into your iPod or other mp3 player.
   
8. PODCAST ALLEY
   ( http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast
   _details.php?pod_id=15721 )
   This neat site has podcasts on a range of topics: the art of contemplative prayer; stations of the cross meditations (inspired by the Passion of the Christ and with quotations from various Catholic writers, including Josemaria Escriva, Pope John Paul II, and Dietrich von Hildebrand); "De-coding the DaVinci Code"; music from a parishes 2006 Easter vigil; marriage as a vocation; the artist and the sacraments (Barbara Nicolosi tells Catholic artists in Holywood about the need for the sacraments and spiritual direction); the Real Presence of Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist; teaching your children about the sacrament of confession; etc. A virtual treasure trove of good stuff!
   
9. MARIA LECTRIX
   http://marialectrix.wordpress.com/
   Listing of assorted blogs and audio books.
   
10. What does the Prayer Really Say? ( http://wdtprs.com/blog/podcazt/ )
    I just discovered this little gem of a site. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf covers matters liturgical... reflections on the text of liturgical prayers (as they are translated with "slavish accuaracy"). He has a lot of great podcasts where he reads and discusses the writings of the great ancient Church fathers--Augustine, Gregory the Great, Cyprian, etc. In a recent podcast he reads St. Augustine's commentary on Psalm 61 and discusses how we as Catholic Christians can more fully enter in the mystery of the Holy Mass--prayer that is "full conscious and active participation". Search iTunes Store by typing
    
11. The Light of the East: Pope John Paul II said that the universal Chuch must breathe with both lungs (the East and the West). Do you want to learn more about the treasures of the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church? Check out this broadcast by Fr. Thomas Loya (which airs on Relevant Radio). Fr. Loya is also an expert in Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.( www.byzantinecatholic.com/radio.htm )
    
12. the Maronite Podcast: a Place to Pray:
    This is a daily reading of the Prayers of the Faithful or Divine Office for the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church.
    
13. St. Michael's RCIA podcast: This is a podcast of some local parish's RCIA classes. I have not really listened to this one, so I cannot vouge for it personally. However, the point is, there are things like this out there. Many adult Catholics would be well-suited to go through RCIA... they could learn a lot or get a refresher on things they once learned but have lost a hold of. If you have a friend who is thinking about coming into the Church but is not ready to join an RCIA program, they can listen in on one from the privacy of their home.

Musical Praise on the go

Many Catholics listen to the local Protestant Christian music station. Nothing wrong with that, but you should know that there are also ways to gain access to specifically Catholic praise music (many Catholic artists out there cannot break into the mainstream Christian stations). I do not like all the music that I hear on these programs (mostly because they do not always fit my musical taste... lyrically, they are great), but you can find a lot of good music. Check out these programs and also the website www.catholicjukebox.com :

1. Catholic Praisecast (search for the podcasts through these titles)
2. Catholic Rockers Podcast
3. (I am looking for some sacred liturgical music podcasts... if anyone finds one, let me know, eh?)

What else can I do with my iPod?

You can pray. Do you own a favorite CD of the rosary? You can download it to your iPod and pray the rosary while walking, running, gardening, vacuuing, etc. I have posted an article about running with the rosary before
(see: http://swallowedscroll.blogspot.com/2006/11/
runnin-with-rosary.html).

I like to pray the rosary while I run because it allows me the time of meditation... and also keeps my mind off the fatigue and boredom of some longer runs. My mind tends to wander when I mentally pray by myself, so having a recording sometimes keeps me in track. You also can order podcast recordings of rosaries for free (one time downloads).

Franciscan University of Steubenville has a free recording of a recitation of the scriptural rosary.

This is particularly useful to those who like to pray the rosary with short snippets of Holy Scripture between each prayer. Without a book, this would be difficult (unless you have stores of scripture passages stored in your memory). So, if you are running, driving, or otherwise on the go... and reading from a book is not possible... then listening to this scriptural rosary on your iPod can be ideal. If you cannot locate the podcast of this recording through a search on iTunes Store, then you can get this download from their website (by just right clicking on their link):
http://kolbe.franciscan.edu/rosary/ (Type "Latin Rosary" in iTunes store and you can learn how to pray the rosary in the ancient language of the Church).

Another scriptural rosary can be downloaded from this high-church Anglo-Catholic's website "Pious and Overly Devotional": http://jjostm.blogspot.com/2006/01/
all-mysteries-all-time.html

Try typing in "Divine Mercy Chaplet" in the iTunes store search window and you can also download the Divine Mercy Chaplet (this one did cost me $1) spoken or sung. If you are waiting at the dentist's office, discreetly slip in your ear plugs and pray the chaplet in 10 minutes!

Pray-as-you-go: The Irish Jesuits have a daily podcast with about 10 minutes of meditation available at www.pray-as-you-go.org/ . This podcast includes sacred music, the Gospel reading from the day's Mass, and a brief reflection and guided meditation. Taking 10 minutes a day out for mediation can do wonders.

Pray the Prayer of the Church: the Liturgy of the Hours is not just for clergy and religious... it is also a prayer that the laity are encouraged to take up. The litugry of the Hours is the prayer of the Psalms throughout that various times of the day. Do a iTunes Store search for "Liturgy of the Hours" or "Morning Prayer" and "Evening Prayer." Podcasts for these are supposedly plentiful. Go to the following link for podcasts of the Office of Readings: http://odeo.com/channel/286253/view

The US Bishops' Conference also has a daily podcast of the daily readings for Mass; type "daily readings from the New American Bible" in the search window, or go to the US Bishops' website:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/nabpodcast.shtml

The bottom line: you have more time than you think... and w/ the creative use of technology... you can make use of those spare minutes in the day. Plug in your headphones, your car stereo hook up, or play from a speaker docking station (they sell those too) and you can use an iPod while doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, waiting at the bus station/laundromat/doctor's office, etc. Perhaps some might think me weird for listening to my iPod while grocery shopping. But why should that be weird... for 15-30 minutes while I shop, I am by myself... I am not going to be talking to anyone... so I just plug in and enjoy. I recommend that you do the same.

There is probably a ton of other great things out there that you can download and take with you... as I find more things I will post them. If anyone out there knows of other good podcasts... leave a comment below and let me know about it... I will add it to this post.

whose bones are those? ... the "Lost Tomb of Jesus"

Have you heard about the recent discovery of a grave purporting to contain the bones of Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus' child? Oh no! The claims of Christianity are false? The Resurrection and the Assumption have been proven to be shams? Oh wait... this is just another example of Holywood trying to pass itself off as serious scholarship.

The following is from the March 2nd e-letter of Deal Hudson's (former editor of Crisis magazine) Morley Institute for Church and Culture (links to other coverage follows):

Deal W. Hudson, "The Window"
In This Issue:The Discovery Channel Makes a Titanic Mistake

On March 4 the Discovery Channel will air a documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by James Cameron, Oscar-winning director of the "Titanic." Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, the film's archaeological "expert," claim to have discovered the tomb of Jesus and his family.
They also claim to have found evidence that Jesus had a son with, guess who, Mary Magdalene.

If it sounds just like the Da Vinci Code all over again, you're right. But where author Dan Brown employed psuedo-art history, Cameron and Jacobovici have conscripted an archaeological theory rejected years ago by established experts in the field.

In an interview on the Today Show on February 26, Cameron confessed, "I'm not an archaeologist, I'm a filmmaker," which about says it all. (Oh, by the way, Cameron and Jacobovici have also co-authored a book, "The Jesus Family Tomb.")

Meredith Viera, co-host of the Today Show, acted as if she were interviewing Albert Einstein just after he discovered the theory of relativity: "If this is correct, what are the implications? They're huge," Vieira said.

But here is the rest of the story, or should I say hoax.

Ten ossuaries or "bone boxes" were unearthed in 1980 during a construction project south of Jerusalem. The ossuaries were removed and stored with the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Six of the boxes are marked with names: 1) Yeshua bar Yosef, Hebrew for 'Jesus son of Joseph'; 2) Maria, or Marya; 3) Matthew, or Matya, understood to be another relative, probably on Mary's side; 4) Yose, understood to be a brother of Jesus'; 5) Mariamene e Mara,interpreted by the filmmakers as Mary Magdalene; and finally, 6) "Yehuda bar Yeshua" or Judah, son of Jesus.

The existence of the ossuaries reported in 1996 by the London Times made identical claims to those of Cameron and Jacobovici.

Historians say these were very common names during that time. Cameron and Jacobovici, however, are relying on the estimates of statisticians that boxes marked with these names could belong to any other family. Their expert in the film says the chances are one in 600, which Cameron and Jacobovici conclude make the ossuaries very likely the real thing.

Help me here. Would anybody take that bet? 1 chance in 600!

Samples of the remains were taken to DNA experts who established there was no genetic link between the boxes containing "Jesus" and "Mary Magdalene," which are interpreted as establishing them as husband and wife. According to the Discovery Channel film, "Perhaps they were married, and perhaps it was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty, a secret hidden through the ages, a secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb."

I wonder if Dan Brown is going to sue the Discovery Channel for stealing intellectual property?
This is not the first time Jacobovici or the Discovery Channel have been associated with fraudulent claims about archaeological finds. In 2002 Jacobovici publicly supported the authenticity of the so-called ossuary of James, brother of Jesus, which was found to be a forgery by experts. The Discovery Channel dutifully reported on the James ossuary as if it were an established scientific fact. But it was determined that the words "brother of Jesus" were added to the box at a later date. Jacobovici has never backed away from his claim that the ossuary of James is authentic. It turns out that the James ossuary came from the original ten uncovered in 1980.

In the last few days, archaeological experts have come forward to denounce the film and the book. They did the same in 1996 after a BBC documentary reported a similar story on the ossuaries. Amos Kloner, an expert on Israeli tombs and the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the conclusions reached by Cameron and Jacobovici have no archaeological validity: "They just want to get money for it," Kloner commented (2/26/2007, Associated Press). Kloner told the BBC News website, "I don't accept the news that it was used by Jesus or his family."

Another expert in ancient antiquities, Professor L. Michael White, from the University of Texas, expressed doubt about the claims: "This is trying to sell documentaries," he said, adding a series of strict tests needed to be conducted before a bone box or inscription could be confirmed as ancient. "This is not archeologically sound, this is fanfare" (2/26/2006, Reuters).

Finally, there is the comment of Joe Zias, an archeologist at the Rockefeller University in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. Zias remarks, "Simcha [Jacobovici] has no credibility whatsoever" (Press release, 2/26/2006, Catholic League).

The Discovery Channel is supposed to broadcast programming about scientific discovery and exploration. The field of biblical archaeology boasts numerous experts with established scientific credentials. Why not commission a group of them to produce a film that would reveal the ongoing exploration of ancient sites in the Holy Land, such as that at the base of the Temple Mount itself?

The answer must be that the Discovery Channel is not interested in science that is respectful of its own methods or the beliefs of millions who believe in the sacred story of the Saviour who rose from his tomb.

If you would like to contact the Discovery Channel directly, here is the link to send a comment by e-mail: http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations

OTHER COVERAGE (Google this topic, you'll find a lot):

Discovery Channel's site:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/
tomb/tomb.html

NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/
arts/television/03stan.html?ex=1330578000&en
=8def379f0b45b716&ei
=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The insufficiently critical Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune came away from this "exhausitve, intriguing" film impressed by the compelling case it makes (it is just a 30 minute documentary--how exhaustive could it be!):

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/
entertainment_tv/2007/03/the_lost_tomb_o.html

CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/
02/26/jesus.sburial.ap/index.html

THE CRITIQUE

Jodi Magness of the Biblical Archaeology Society gives a critique from a secular discipline:

www.bib-arch.org/bswbKCtombmagness.html

[note their web site also posted a rebuttal to this article by James Tabor

www.bib-arch.org/bswbKCtombtabor.html

--though, if you read Jimmy Akin's piece on the next link, you wonder how Tabor would answer to how likely all this is]

Jimmy Akin:

http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei
/2007/03/tomb_of_jesus_n.html

Catholic Exchange:

http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/59675

Catholic popular author Amy Welborn has two posts:
http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/
2007/02/okay_the_jesus_.html

http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/
2007/03/tomb_madness.html

Mark Brumley of Ignatius Insight:
www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/
mbrumley_cameron_mar07.asp

Florida Baptist Witness:

http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/7071.article


GetReligion.org (a neat website that deals with the blunders of journalists and the media when trying to cover religion):

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=2246


Holy Spirit Interactive:

http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/
guests/phillawler/losttomb.asp


Extreme Theology breaks down the faulty logic:

http://www.extremetheology.com/
2007/02/archeological_i.html


12 Myths About the "Jesus Tomb" Controversy

http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/The_Lost_Tomb
_of_Jesus/losttombofjesus_response.htm


The National Ledger:

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/
publish/article_272611819.shtml

new book on religious ignorance in America

An interesting book review from Washingtonpost.com...

Blind Faith
Americans believe in religion -- but know little about it.

Reviewed by Susan Jacoby
Sunday, March 4, 2007; BW03

RELIGIOUS LITERACY
What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't
By Stephen Prothero
HarperSanFrancisco. 296 pp. $24.95

The United States is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in all things supernatural -- from God and the Virgin Birth to the humbler workings of angels and demons.

Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

These are just two of the depressing statistics in Stephen Prothero's provocative and timely Religious Literacy. The author of American Jesus (2003) and the chair of the religion department at Boston University, Prothero sees America's religious illiteracy as even more dangerous than general cultural illiteracy "because religion is the most volatile constituent of
culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil."

In this book, the author combines a lively history of the rise and fall of American religious literacy with a set of proposed remedies based on his hope that "the Fall into religious ignorance is reversible." He also includes a useful multicultural glossary of religious definitions and allusions, in which religious illiterates can find the prodigal son, the promised land, the Quakers and the Koran.

The condition Prothero describes in Religious Literacy is unquestionably one manifestation of a more general decline in the public's cultural and civic knowledge. According to polls conducted by the National Constitution Center, only one third of Americans can name even one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Is it any more startling that only one third
can identify the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount?

A 2005 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly two-thirds of Americans endorse the simultaneous teaching of creationism and evolution in public schools. How can citizens know what creationism means, or make an informed decision about whether it belongs in classrooms, if fewer than half can identify Genesis? No doubt the same
proportion of Americans think that Thomas Edison said, "Let there be light."

Approximately 75 percent of adults, according to polls cited by Prothero, mistakenly believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." More than 10 percent think that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. Only half can name even one of the four Gospels, and -- a finding that will surprise many -- evangelical Christians are only slightly more knowledgeable
than their non-evangelical counterparts.

It is less surprising but more dangerous, given America's role in the world, that the public knows even less about Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism than it does about Christianity and Judaism. As Prothero notes, President Bush repeatedly declared that "Islam is peace" in the months after 9/11, while the prophet Muhammad was called a "terrorist" by
the Rev. Jerry Falwell. "Who was right?" Prothero asks. "Unfortunately, Americans had no way to judge."

The book's main concern, though, is ignorance about the role of religion in American history. Prothero dates the beginning of the long decline in our religious literacy to the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s. The fervor of America's periodic cycles of revivalism, rooted in a personal relationship with God rather than in theology handed down by learned
clergy, has always had a strong anti-intellectual as well as spiritual component.

Yet the author also sees the Protestant-influenced 19th-century schools as an important factor in maintaining the Puritan heritage of Americans as "people of the book." This may overestimate the religious influence of schools. It is hard to believe that religious literacy, already instilled by families and churches, needed reinforcement from the once ubiquitous
McGuffey readers, which rendered the Ten Commandments in such rhymes as, "Thou no gods shall have but me/ Before no idol bend the knee."

In 1880, the average American still had only four years of schooling (although the figure was higher in cities than in rural areas). Yet 19th-century autodidacts, including Abraham Lincoln (who had less than a year of formal education) and Robert Green Ingersoll, the orator known as "the Great Agnostic," achieved both religious and secular literacy by reading Shakespeare and the King James Bible without any prompting from teachers.

Prothero views the 20th century's much sharper decline in religious literacy as a product of changes in both religion and society. One ironic factor is an emphasis on a bland tolerance that, while vital to pluralistic American democracy, has also discouraged our awareness of religious distinctions. A politician may intone the phrase "Judeo-Christian" in every speech,
but Jews still do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and Christians do. If no one knows what "Messiah" means, though, it hardly matters.

But one inexplicable omission from Prothero's analysis is the post-1950 shift from a print to a video culture, with its incalculable erosion of all forms of cultural literacy. Many of the religious allusions and metaphors explained by Prothero in his glossary were once as common as the universal reference points now supplied by television.

The weakest part of this otherwise excellent book is Prothero's proposed remedy: high school and college courses dealing with the historical and cultural role of religion. As the author rightly notes, teaching about religion -- as distinct from preaching religion -- is not prohibited by the First Amendment's ban on "an establishment of religion." But given the failure of so many schools to inculcate the most elementary facts about American history, it is hard to imagine that most teachers would be up to the task of explaining, say, the subtleties of biblical arguments for and against slavery.

Furthermore, a curriculum that would meet with the approval of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and nonreligious parents would probably be a worthless set of platitudes.
Prothero movingly calls on Americans to reconstruct the "chain of memory" that once made the acquisition of religious knowledge as natural as breathing. But religion is no longer the air we breathe, and it is doubtful that schools can accomplish what parents and congregations cannot or will not in a society where people read fewer and fewer books of any kind -- including the book they consider the word of God. ·

Susan Jacoby is the author of "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism."

A review of Pan's Labyrinth

Catholic movie and cultural critic Barbara Nicolosi has an interesting review of
Pan's Labyrinth--a movie that is all the rage... does it live up to the hype? Check it out:

http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com
/2007/01/spains-labyrinth.html
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The movie's official site: http://www.panslabyrinth.com/

A site with good reviews of movies from a Catholic Christian perspective:

www.decentfilms.com/

American Psychological Association on the Sexualization of Girls

Catholic media commentator Theresa Tomeo comments on the American Psychological Association “Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls”.
http://www.catholicmediaalert.com/?p=10

Apparently, the psychology profession is beginning to report what Catholic moral theologians have been saying for years. The term "sexualization" as used in the report refers to the phenomenon whereby "a person's value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;
a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;
a person is sexually objectified—that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person." Anyone who is a parent should read this report in its entirety. The Report also includes positive steps that can be taken to avoid sexualization of women. After a brief perusal, I have included a few lengthy excerpts from the Executive Summary of the Report. The Report and the executive summary can be read in their entirety on the APA's website:

http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html

"...Virtually every media form studied provides ample evidence of the sexualization of women, including television,music videos,music lyrics, movies, magazines, sports media, video games, the Internet, and advertising (e.g., Gow, 1996; Grauerholz & King, 1997; Krassas, Blauwkamp,& Wesselink, 2001, 2003; Lin, 1997; Plous & Neptune, 1997; Vincent, 1989;Ward, 1995). Some studies have examined forms of media that are especially popular with children and adolescents, such as video games and teen-focused magazines.

"In study after study, findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner (e.g., dressed in revealing clothing, with bodily postures or facial expressions that imply sexual readiness) and are objectified (e.g., used as a decorative object, or as body parts rather than a whole person). In addition, a narrow (and unrealistic) standard of physical beauty is heavily emphasized.These are the models of femininity presented for young girls to study and emulate. ...

"...Although extensive analyses documenting the sexualization of girls, in particular, have yet to be conducted, individual examples can easily be found.These include advertisements (e.g., the Skechers “naughty and nice” ad that featured Christina Aguilera dressed as a schoolgirl in pigtails, with her shirt unbuttoned, licking a lollipop), dolls (e.g., Bratz dolls dressed in sexualized clothing such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas), clothing (thongs sized for 7– to 10-year-olds, some printed with slogans such as “wink wink”), and television programs (e.g., a televised fashion show in which adult models in lingerie were presented as young girls). Research documenting the pervasiveness and influence of such products and portrayals is sorely needed.

"...If girls purchase (or ask their parents to purchase) products and clothes designed to make them look physically appealing and sexy, and if they style their identities after the sexy celebrities who populate their cultural landscape, they are, in effect, sexualizing themselves. Girls also sexualize themselves when they think of themselves in objectified terms. Psychological researchers have identified self-objectification as a key process whereby girls learn to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others’ desires (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997; McKinley & Hyde, 1996). In self-objectification, girls internalize an observer’s perspective on their physical selves and learn to treat themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated for their appearance. Numerous studies have documented the presence of self-objectification in women more than in men. Several studies have also documented this phenomenon in adolescent and preadolescent girls (McConnell, 2001; Slater & Tiggemann, 2002).

"...Cognitive and Emotional Consequences
Cognitively, self-objectification has been repeatedly shown to detract from the ability to concentrate and focus one’s attention, thus leading to impaired performance on mental activities such as mathematical computations or logical reasoning (Frederickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998; Gapinski, Brownell, & LaFrance, 2003; Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004). One study demonstrated this fragmenting quite vividly (Fredrickson et al., 1998).While alone in a dressing room, college students were asked to try on and evaluate either a swimsuit or a sweater.While they waited for 10 minutes wearing the garment, they completed a math test. The results revealed that young women in swimsuits performed significantly worse on the math problems than did those wearing sweaters. No differences were found for young men. In other words, thinking about the body and comparing it to sexualized cultural ideals disrupted mental capacity. In the emotional domain, sexualization and objectification undermine confidence in and comfort with one’s own body, leading to a host of negative emotional consequences, such as shame, anxiety, and even self-disgust. The association between self-objectification and anxiety about appearance and feelings of shame has been found in adolescent girls (12–13-year-olds) (Slater & Tiggemann, 2002) as well as in adult women.

Mental and Physical Health
Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood (Abramson & Valene, 1991; Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Harrison, 2000; Hofschire & Greenberg, 2001; Mills, Polivy, Herman, & Tiggemann, 2002; Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994;Thomsen,Weber, & Brown, 2002; Ward, 2004). Several studies (on both teenage and adult women) have found associations between exposure to narrow representations of female beauty (e.g., the “thin ideal”) and disordered eating attitudes and symptoms. Research also links exposure to sexualized female ideals with lower self-esteem, negative mood, and depressive symptoms among adolescent girls and women. In addition to mental health consequences of sexualization, research suggests that girls’ and women’s physical health may also be negatively affected, albeit indirectly.

Sexuality
Sexual well-being is an important part of healthy development and overall well-being, yet evidence suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences in terms of girls’ ability to develop healthy sexuality. Self-objectification has been linked directly with diminished sexual health among adolescent girls (e.g., as measured by decreased condom use and diminished sexual assertiveness; Impett, Schooler, & Tolman, 2006). Frequent exposure to narrow ideals of attractiveness is associated with unrealistic and/or negative expectations concerning sexuality. Negative effects (e.g., shame) that emerge during adolescence may lead to sexual problems in adulthood (Brotto, Heiman, & Tolman, in press).

Attitudes and Beliefs
Frequent exposure to media images that sexualize girls and women affects how girls conceptualize femininity and sexuality. Girls and young women who more frequently consume or engage with mainstream media content offer stronger endorsement of sexual stereotypes that depict women as sexual objects (Ward, 2002;Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999; Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006).They also place appearance and physical attractiveness at the center of women’s value.

Impact on Others and on Society
The sexualization of girls can also have a negative impact on other groups (i.e., boys, men, and adult women) and on society more broadly. Exposure to narrow ideals of female sexual attractiveness may make it difficult for some men to find an “acceptable” partner or to fully enjoy intimacy with a female partner (e.g., Schooler & Ward, 2006).
Adult women may suffer by trying to conform to a younger and younger standard of ideal female beauty. More general societal effects may include an increase in sexism; fewer girls pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); increased rates of sexual harassment and sexual violence; and an increased demand for child pornography."