January 2009 Archives

A lawsuit that challenged a Pennsylvania school district policy about after-school Bible club meetings has been settled.

The Good News Club was prevented from sending fliers home with students promoting after-school religious meetings, according to their law firm, the Alliance Defense Fund. The school had said the fliers violated the separation of church and state.

In dismissing the lawsuit (Child Evangelism Fellowship of Pennsylvania, Inc. v. School District of Haverford Township), the court said the district agreed to treat the club the same as other community groups and to pay the plaintiffs' attorney's fees.

The Catholic news agency Zenit is carrying Pope Benedict XVI's explanation for his recent decision to lift the excommunications of four ultra-traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier who has denied that millions of Jews were murdered during World War II.

A quick summary: Benedict says he's reaching out to the bishops to promote church unity; because they deserve mercy; and because he believes the action will lead them to take steps to come into full communion with the church.

Benedict also reiterated that Nazis committed a "brutal massacre of millions of Jews, innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hate" during World War II.

Also, here's a translation of the Vatican's statement responding to the statements of one of the traditionalist bishops, Richard Williamson, who has said that Nazis did not use gas chambers and that only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps.

We're average.

Pennsylvania earned a middle-of-the-road rating for religiosity when compared on a scale with states that can be considered the most religious to those that are the least religious in 2008.

The ranking comes from a recent Gallup poll that surveyed more than 350,000 U.S. adults. A good 65 percent of all Americans (and 65 percent of Pennsylvanians) reported that religion was important in their daily lives.

Check out the map here to see how the rest of the country feels. Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas ranked as the most religious states in the nation. Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts are the least religious.

In his latest Sightings column, religion scholar Martin Marty weighs in on Rick Warren's prayer at last week's inauguration:

Many citizens are at ease with prayers in pluralistic America when they are generic, civil, God-ly. Invoke Jesus, however, and not a few are scandalized by the reference, while others are scandalized by the scandalized. I propose a thesis; correct me if I have it wrong, lest I keep spreading wrongness. Thesis: Jesus is not the scandal. The use of Jesus in public at "we the people of the United States" occasions is usually the offense.

Comedian Bill Maher's 2008 documentary/comedy "Religulous" is playing in York for the first time at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Capitol Theatre.

In case you missed the reviews, the film satirizes organized religion and religious belief. It was directed by Larry Charles, the same guy who did "Borat." You may wonder how they got some of these folks to talk on camera, considering Maher's views on faith. (He has said religion is a neurological disorder that justifies crazies and stops people from thinking.)

Did you know that there's no proof George Washington added "So help me God" after taking the oath as America's first president?

The first eyewitness account of a president saying "So help me God" was in September 1881, when Chester Arthur, the 21st president, was sworn in after the assassination of President Garfield.

Read more about religion's conspicuous role in U.S. presidential inaugurations.

The rector of a seminary in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will be the new bishop of the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska, the AP is reporting.

Monsignor Edward J. Burns is rector of St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik will ordain Burns as a bishop on March 3 in Pittsburgh, and he will be installed as bishop in Juneau on April 2.

Read on for a quick roundup of the faith-related, pre-inaugural news coverage I've seen recently.

In this 1981 file photo, you can see President Reagan at the center of a wide-angle view from the Capitol balcony following his swearing-in ceremony in Washington.

The Indianapolis Star has returned its prayer to page 2. (See previous post.)

The reason: "Thousands of calls, e-mails, letters to the editor later, we have been reminded of, and are thankful for, another important role: to be a vital part of our readers lives." ...

As the paper's religion writer put it: "You don't get much more important than being a part of the grace said over breakfast."

Activists plan to launch the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty in Harrisburg on Sunday.

Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book "Dead Man Walking" (the inspiration for the movie), will speak. The network's goal is to "inform and activate Catholics about capital punishment in the United States and why its use must be ended," according to a news release.

The kickoff will come at the end of a training conference for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg East.

Religion scholar Martin Marty's latest Sightings column is about a report last week calling seminaries in North America to offer more courses and programs to help prepare clergy and other religious professionals to better deal with issues of sexuality.

The 52-page report is a product of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing and Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Read the full column at the jump.

Tony Campolo, a liberal evangelical author and commentator, plans to speak 7 p.m. Feb. 9, at York College's Collegiate Performing Arts Center during the school's Spiritual Life Week.

Today's word, ecumenical, is courtesy of Wordsmith.org.

ecumenical

adjective:
1. Having a mix of diverse elements.
2. Universal; general.
3. Pertaining to the whole Christian church; concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions.

Usage: "An ecumenical group of Cincinnati area leaders called for an end Wednesday to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Gaza Strip."
-- Rebecca Goodman; Area Groups Call For End to Gaza Conflict; Cincinnati Enquirer; Dec 31, 2008.

Readers of The Indianapolis Star have been calling that newspaper to complain about the decision by the Star to drop the prayer from page A2. Read more.

Those who bring their church bulletin to any branch of the YMCA of York and York County between Jan. 19 and 25 can get half off the fee to join.

I checked, and it doesn't have to be a church bulletin per se -- any bulletin from a house of worship will do. If your congregation doesn't do bulletins, check with the Y to see what else might prove your attendance or membership.

The Y is celebrating YMCA Sunday -- a national event that began in 1952 as a way to spread the YMCA mission to the broader community.

That mission, according to the Y's Web site, "is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. We exist to develop and practice the principles of faith, hope, love, honesty, respect and responsibility." For details, call 843-7884.

The regional Lutheran Bishop B. Penrose Hoover has decided not to travel to the Middle East this week as planned because of the unrest and fighting in Gaza.

Hoover, who heads the Lower Susquehanna Synod, and his wife were supposed to go with 58 other bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and five Canadian bishops Jan. 6-13 to meet with religious, community and political leaders in the region.

"Given the military and political situation in the region, personal safety and security is, of course, a large concern. But it is not my major concern. It seems to me that the stated purpose of the trip can better be accomplished if the journey is postponed," wrote Hoover, who lives in Fairview Township.

Read more of Hoover's pastoral letter about the cancellation at the jump.

A Bucks County, Pa., judge last week upheld the legality of a marriage performed by a Universal Life Church minister -- the latest ruling on whether marriages performed by clergy without a regular congregation are valid under Pennsylvania law, the AP reports:

The test case is one of at least three filed across the state by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to clarify the type of clergy recognized under the Pennsylvania Marriage Act. ...

A York County judge ruled (in 2007) that a minister must have a regular congregation or house of worship -- and that marriages performed by anyone else was invalid. That case also involved a Universal Life minister.

The U.S. airline AirTran apologized Friday to nine Muslim-American passengers from the Washington area who were removed from a flight out of Reagan National Airport on New Year's Day, but a Muslim civil rights group said it intends to press a discrimination complaint against the airline for its treatment of the passengers, the Washington Post reports.

Wajahat Ali, associate editor of AltMuslim, has an essay about the incident. Listen to an interview on NPR with one of Muslims taken off the plane.

Tuesday is the Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day -- concluding the Christmas season that began with Advent. Above, Filipino kids scramble to collect candy given out by men dressed as the Three Kings in Manila today during celebrations there.

In most Western churches, Epiphany remembers the visit of wise men, who brought gifts to the child Jesus. Eastern Christians also commemorate all of Jesus' childhood events, including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist.

Epiphany means "to show," "to make known" or to reveal," and refers to the wise men's "revealing" to the Gentiles the manifestation of Christ.

Here's an update on that part-time Episcopal priest who was removed from his parish duties in Dundaff, Pa., earlier this week after a feature about his alleged extracurricular clubbing appeared in the New York Daily News (read earlier post).