A recent FOX News national poll, conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corporation, finds that 26 percent of Americans favor but 62 percent oppose same-sex marriage, and almost as many would ban it through a constitutional amendment. Over half (58 percent) favor passing an amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
In general, young people, Democrats, and those who have a friend or relative who is gay, are most likely to favor allowing same-sex marriage. And while women are somewhat more inclined than men to favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry a partner of the same sex, young people are more than three times as likely as older Americans to favor it. About twice as many Democrats and independents are in favor of same-sex marriage than are Republicans.
Public opinion today is only slightly more accepting of same-sex marriages than it was seven years ago. When the question was asked on a June 1996 FOX News poll, 22 percent of Americans were in favor and 65 percent opposed to allowing gays to marry.
While an Alabama judge faces an ethics investigation for refusing a court order to remove a 5,280-pound Ten Commandments monument from that state's judicial building, a three-foot-tall plaque featuring the biblical commandments hangs quietly in the Morehouse Parish Courthouse, drawing little notice and few complaints.
"We have not heard a word," said Carol Jones, the Morehouse Parish clerk of court, about the brass plaque. "No one has come down to me as clerk of court with any objections."
Police Juror Jim Brent said the plaque was donated a year-and-a-half ago, along with three equal-sized displays featuring the preamble of the Constitution and the national and state pledges of allegiance.
Terrance Cottrell Jr. died because his chest was somehow restricted and could not expand, according to a statement issued by the office of the Milwaukee County coroner.
"Air was not able to get in or out," said Eileen Weller, the office's administrative manager.
Weller declined to release further details, saying police were still investigating the death.
A man has been arrested in connection with the death, which occurred Friday night at a church in a run-down strip mall. Police have not identified him, but David Hemphill Sr., bishop of the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, said the man is his brother, Ray, another minister who led Friday's service.
U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan ruled Aug. 21 that town officials can no longer invoke the name of Jesus or any other specific deity during prayers offered before town council meetings.
The ruling comes after Darla Kaye Wynne, a Wiccan high priestess, sued the town, claiming officials were violating the First Amendment by using the name of Jesus Christ in prayers offered before or after meetings.
Wynne proposed in late 2000 that prayers be limited to only mentioning "God" or that members of different religions be invited to give prayers, according to the ruling.
Prison experts said officials appeared to have made a fundamental error in placing a vulnerable inmate like Mr. Geoghan, 68, in the same protective custody unit as Mr.[Joseph L.] Druce. Mr. Druce, 37, is serving a life sentence without parole for strangling a 51-year-old man in 1988 who he believed was gay.
Ticked-off ticket-holders said the sneak snack attack began around 9 a.m., as they waited to enter and were told that not only were containers barred - but any food.
The container rule had been a security measure since 9/11, officials said. But this year, guards at the gate took it one step further, barring all food - even in plastic wrap.
Foaming-at-the-mouth fans - suspicious that concessionaires' profits were the real motive - stood by garbage cans outside wolfing down their choicest morsels at record speed so they wouldn't have to miss any of the action on the courts.
Others watched in dismay as their treats were tossed into trash cans - refusing to pay a $5 ransom to "check in" any edibles.
"It was disgusting - there were people in their 70s and 80s having sandwiches and drinks taken off them," said Maryann Kelly, 34.
Kelly, who tried to bring in a bag of grapes, a ham sandwich and a yogurt, has been attending the event for 11 years and always brought a brown-bag lunch - considering the alternative meant shelling out $4.50 for bottle of Evian and $7.75 for fries and a hot dog inside.
The part about Jonah and the whale becoming entangled in tuna nets is conveniently passed over in the Old Testament.
Enough already. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), among other Jewish groups, needs to calm down. Mel Gibson's upcoming movie The Passion is not anti-Semitic, not hostile to the Jewish people as a group, and is faithful to an honest reading of Christian scripture. In this age of real and troubling increases in anti-Semitism all over the world, Jews -- and the ADL in particular -- have better things to worry about than this film.
The boy's mother took him to the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith (search) for the prayer service Friday night. Several church members prayed over him for more than an hour until someone noticed he wasn't moving and called 911, said Bishop David Hemphill Sr.
Church members had wrapped the boy in sheets to keep him from scratching himself and others, but the boy was allowed to sit "any way that he feels comfortable," Hemphill said.
"All I know is we're not guilty of anything," he said....
"The boy just had a problem in his mind, and what we were doing was asking God to fix it," Hemphill said. "He chose to fix it by taking him back home to Him."
Activists define polyamory as "responsible non-monogamy," or the potential for loving more than one person at a time. They say "polys" want honest, intimate, enduring love relationships. They just don't want them limited to two people.
Valerie White of Sharon, Mass., president of the [polyamorist] group and Harlan White's sister, said she hoped that someday Unitarians would be as welcoming to "polyamorists" as they have been to gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people.
She also welcomed the Supreme Court's recent decision striking down a sodomy law, seeing it as clearing the way for polyamory practitioners.
...the federal courts should be pleased to have the 10 Commandments displayed in all courtrooms. It would help make the great masses more obedient, thereby enhancing government power and job security for judges. The same line of thinking goes for the SPLC, which though it claims to be in the business of thwarting "hate, intolerance and discrimination," is really about the business of using government courts to thwart property rights and freedom of association....
The Christians, for their part, should want the Commandments removed from the courthouse, and all reference to any religion removed from every aspect of government. First, the government, if it must exist, should be about the accomplishment of purely secular, practical, and limited matters. It should leave the business of religion to the experts....
Our return to the higher moral standards of old might thus be hastened if we all develop less faith, not more, in government as a moral guide. This would make it easier to begin working to get government out of the moral spheres it has already invaded and worsened. As to acknowledging God in public places: Shop owners, corporations, and property owners already can post the 10 Commandments, other Bible passages, and other uplifting things in view of the public. Surely, at least a few of the Christians protesting removal of the monument are in a position to do just this sort of thing.
"The key to this whole issue is parental responsibility," [Michael] Mount[, a Specialty Vehicle Institute spokesman] added. "You may have a 6-year-old who's fine to ride and a 12-year-old who's not -- parents need to make that call."
But the Consumer Federation's Weintraub said a mandatory federal law is necessary to ensure safer rides in all states.
"If we just rest all responsibility on parents, nothing is going to change," Weintraub added. "We think the best way to make sure parents act responsibly is to pass a federal law."
"Just because a child has the physical stature to sit comfortably on an ATV, it doesn't mean he has the maturity and judgment to operate an adult-sized ATV," said Dr. Rebecca Brown, a pediatric trauma nurse from Morgantown, West Virginia.
Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor wants clergy and churches to know about the new state law that requires clergy to report suspected child abuse...
Alabama law now requires clergy, as well as other professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers, to report suspected child abuse.
"In the past, clergy had never been specifically referred to in the statute," Eden said.
The law contains an exception for confidential clergy communications, such as confessions or private counseling with clergy.
Eden will also discuss how churches can implement a child protection program that includes screening and background checks for employees who deal with children.
"We will talk about how do you prevent child sexual abuse in your church," Eden said.
After 64 years of marriage, Mary Evancho Laborde couldn't bear to let her husband go.
She said that just before she leaned over Raymond Laborde's casket at his funeral this week to kiss him goodbye a final time.
But the sorrow was too much; the 89-year Hueytown woman's heart stopped and she died right there.
On Thursday, Raymond, 88, and Mary were buried together in much the same way they lived - side by side, only inches apart.
'It's almost like a fairytale, a sad fairytale,' said the Rev. Jack Hendricks Jr. of First United Methodist Church in Hueytown. 'You don't see many people who live together as long as they did that go out together."
"They both freely admitted that their intention was to 'have sex,' " records quote the woman as saying. They "were confrontational and remorseless."
The teens even "challenged" the woman to call police. So she did.
Court records reveal that both come from troubled backgrounds and struggle with the same issues, such as attention deficit disorder and parental abandonment.
A study published in the July issue of Neuropsychology found a link between verbal memory and musical training in children. This builds on other research showing that early exposure to music improves development and even IQ.
The glassy sponge, nicknamed the “Venus flower basket,” grows the flexible fibers at cold temperatures using natural materials, a process materials scientists hope to duplicate in order to avoid the problems created by current fiber-optic manufacturing methods that require high temperatures and produce relatively brittle cable.
“They make guns out of everything and sticks will easily turn into swords," said [San Diego parent Christine D'Amico]. "I try to be low-key about it, but will definitely curb them away and come up with something besides a gun, saying, ‘Let’s make it your magic wand.”
The Bishop of Tomis, Teodosie, has declared a no-tolerance policy on divorced and remarried priests.
He arrived at the Black Sea village to remove the altar cloth after priest Vladimir Cazan refused to leave his post.
Church rules say that services cannot be held if there is no cloth covering the altar.
Churches are being urged to drop the image of the Crucifixion and instead highlight the social benefits of filling the pews in an effort to boost Sunday attendance.
Traditional approaches such as showing Jesus on the cross and Bible quotations are a turn-off to non-churchgoers, according to one of two suggested advertising campaigns drawn up by agencies.
Instead, advertisers say churches should highlight their community life, the chance to have a good sing, hear a good sermon and have a heart-to-heart chat.
If God is not God and if man says God didn't say what He has said, then what standard is to be used to judge anything? It is more than a slippery slope. It is slippery theology with potential consequences that are eternal. Who gets to decide, God or man? If man, then man becomes God and God is diminished, at least in man's eyes.
There is ample evidence that northern manufactures supported the federal Constitution because they hoped through uniform national tariffs to capture the southern market. Alexander Hamilton's early correspondence as treasury secretary under Washington is full of complaints that Americans continued to buy from abroad and pleas for duties. Thus, while the Constitution set up a free-trade zone within the states, it also created a closed or captive market, in which Americans would be free to buy within but not without.
Paul Lauer, marketing director for Gibson's Icon Productions company, said Gibson has edited the film to show more "sympathetic" Jewish characters who were not calling for Jesus to be crucified. "We believe we have softened the story compared to the way the Gospel has told it," Lauer said in an interview. He pointed to Matthew 27:25, in which the Jewish mob calls for Jesus' blood "to be on us and on our children." "That's in the Gospel," he said. "It's not in our film."
In addition, Lauer said the character of Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus, will be clearly labeled a Jew in the film.We're not told how that's to be done; I suppose a moving arrow with the flashing words "sympathetic Jewish character" will follow him to Golgotha.
The course description says students "will examine a number of cultural artifacts and activities" including "camp, diva-worship, drag, muscle culture, taste, style and political activism." Mr. Halperin's class explores "the role that initiation plays in the formation of gay male identity."
The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points in the latest poll.
My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and active Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution and regarded the Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of mainline Christians are vanishing, replaced by evangelicals. Since 1960, the number of Pentecostalists has increased fourfold, while the number of Episcopalians has dropped almost in half.
The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well. One of the most poisonous divides is the one between intellectual and religious America.
Yet despite the lack of scientific or historical evidence, and despite the doubts of Biblical scholars, America is so pious that not only do 91 percent of Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so do an astonishing 47 percent of U.S. non-Christians.
I'm not denigrating anyone's beliefs.
Organized Jewish groups are demanding that Christians change their religion to suit their sensibility. It’s as simple as that. Gibson is presenting a straightforward account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the Gospels. Jewish organizations can’t dispute that the movie is striving to be an accurate presentation of the Gospel account, but argue that such an account will lead to anti-Semitism.
THE BACTERIA-LIKE organism lives in a hellish undersea environment where water boils out from underwater vents called black smokers. There is no light, the pressure of the water would instantly crush anything living on land and the water is loaded with toxic chemicals.
The Rutgers report -- admittedly based on a small sample -- found ten prevalent reasons. The first three:
1) They can get sex without marriage;
2) They can enjoy "a wife" through cohabitation; and,
3) They want to avoid divorce and its financial risks.
As a critic of anti-male bias in the family courts, the reasons I hear most frequently from non-marrying men are fear of financial devastation in divorce and of losing meaningful contact with children afterward. (Such feedback is anecdotal evidence but, when you hear the same response over a period of years from several hundred different sources, it becomes prudent to listen.)
In a similar vein, the Rutgers report finds: "Many men also fear the financial consequences of divorce. They say that their financial assets are better protected if they cohabit rather than marry. They fear that an ex-wife will 'take you for all you've got' and that 'men have more to lose financially than women' from a divorce."
"The plain truth, of the Gospels and of the controversy that has surrounded Christianity ever since Christ’s death and resurrection, is simple. If a person does not believe the Gospel to be the word of God, the only alternative is to find it offensive. Very offensive. Fundamentally offensive. And for good reason.
It is offensive."
"'I have no intention of removing the monument,' Moore said at a news conference. 'This I cannot and will not do.'"
SO BROAD AND DEEP is this opposition that nearly half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services say they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples-even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies, the survey found.
As courts, companies and congregations across the nation consider what standing to give gay couples, the poll demonstrates strong public disapproval of any religious sanctioning of same-sex relationships. It underscores the sharp distinction most Americans make between relationships blessed by the church and those recognized by the law.
Julio Rincon, 28, an infrequent churchgoer in Albany, N.Y., said he would not mind if a gay couple registered a civil union “down at City Hall.” But, he said, “I do have a problem if it were to take place in a church.”
The poll also found, however, that public acceptance of same-sex civil unions is falling. Fewer than four in 10 — 37 percent-of all Americans say they would support a law allowing gay men and lesbians to form civil unions that would provide some of the rights and legal protections of marriage.
That is a precipitous, 12-point drop in support found in a Gallup Organization survey that posed the question in identical terms in May, before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law against sodomy and Justice Antonin Scalia argued in his dissent that the court was on a slippery slope toward legalizing gay marriage.
“Message” fashion — clothing with descriptive phrases stamped on the chest and behind — is the teenybopper look du jour. But critics say the trend, which sometimes includes provocative phrases and even expletives, can go too far.
"The film unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob as the ones responsible for the decision to crucify Jesus," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "We are deeply concerned that the film, if released in its present form, will fuel the hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate."
The film portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish "mob" as forcing the decision to torture and execute Jesus, thus assuming responsibility for the crucifixion.
16 At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas.
17 So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"
18 For he knew that because of envy they had handed Him over.
19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him."
20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death.
21 But the governor said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas."
22 Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Crucify Him!"
23 And he said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more, saying, "Crucify Him!"
24 When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves."
25 And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!"
26 Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. --Matt. 27:16-26, NASB
36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified."
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." --Acts 2:36-39
The film uses an anti-Jewish account of a 19th century mystical anti-Semitic nun...
"Robinson himself conceded that his fellow bishops' implicit endorsement in Minneapolis of homosexual activity contravened both traditional Christian doctrine and the Bible. 'Just simply to say that it goes against tradition and the teaching of the church and Scripture does not necessarily make it wrong,' he told the Washington Post. That's a big 'just simply to say.'"
Since the late 1960s, the Episcopal Church has served as a laboratory for the proposition that Christianity must liberalize — jettison its more demanding traditional teachings and get in step with the times — to survive. The Episcopalians have done it all: allowed women clergy, dropped sanctions against divorce, made belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ optional. Now their bishops, who met last week in Minneapolis, have confirmed a bishop who will share the bishop's house with a male partner and have tacitly approved leaving decisions on blessing same-sex unions to local priests. During these 30-odd years of early adoption of whatever mores the avant-garde of secular society has embraced, there has been only one snag: The Episcopal Church has declined precipitously in both membership and influence. The treatment has been successful, but the patient, if not quite dead yet, looks to be dying.
The Christian churches of Africa are growing in part because their clergy and laity appear to take Christianity seriously. They believe Jesus rose from the dead. They regard the Scriptures as divinely inspired authority rather than the culture-bound ruminations of dead Mediterraneans.
"I had someone there say to me, 'If you don't believe in the Bible, why did you bring it to us?' "
"There are all kinds of empty churches that tried to attract people to attend for nonreligious reasons," says Rodney Stark, University of Washington sociologist of religion. "People go to a church for religion, and if it's not religion that's being offered, they go to other places."
“Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want.” The easiest way, she discovered, was to offer her body in trade. Stacey, who lives with her parents in an upscale neighborhood, gets good grades in high school and plans to try out for the tennis team, began stripping for men in hotel rooms in exchange for money to buy clothes—then went on to more intimate activities.
But what is Gibson’s version of the story? His traditionalist religion rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which in 1965 rejected the notion that Jews were collectively responsible for killing Jesus. The actor is building a traditionalist church in Malibu, Calif., for about 70 members, and intends to hold Sunday services there in Latin.
It only recounts the last 12 hours of Christ’s life, she said, and therefore lacks the context to explain the Jews’ portrayal. “It seems to me that the film looked on Jews as antagonists, Jesus as this perfect victim,” she said.
“I don’t know that he will be able to find a studio that will distribute this,” said Kim Masters, a film columnist for Esquire Magazine.
Masters said industry people who have seen the film respect its quality, but said it is disturbingly graphic.
“It’s not a family film, from what I understand,” she said. “It’s a really difficult film.”
The search for Noah's flood is as irrelevant as an attempt to find the "real" Middlemarch or Cranford. Like George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell, the authors of Genesis are not writing history, but are engaged in an imaginative investigation of the human predicament.
...if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain....
If we have hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. --1 Cor. 15:14, 19
The temperature-taking folks at the Gallup Poll say 77 percent of Americans rate the "overall state of moral values in the United States today" as "poor" or "only fair," while 22 percent respond with "good" or "excellent."
Moreover, 67 percent think the nation's morality is getting worse, while only 24 percent think it's getting better. Those numbers were similar a year ago.
Livening up the day was The Dixie Chicks with D*cks -- singing drag queens in frilly petticoats and wigs big enough to make Dolly Parton envious.
“If you’re married, stick with your wife,” McGrady said Thursday. “Don’t do anything crazy that’s going to cause problems in your household. Keep a happy family.”
V. Gene Robinson, 56, was raised in the Disciples of Christ denomination, attended Bethany Christian Church in Jessamine County and graduated from Lafayette High School. He began attending the Episcopal Church while a student at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.
recognizing that some members of the clergy were already performing blessings for gay couples in some dioceses around the country. Leaders of Integrity, an alliance of homosexual church members, said the provision would for the first time signal to bishops that they have the broader church's permission to allow same-sex unions in their dioceses if they so choose.
In South America, the Most Rev. Greg Venables, presiding bishop of the province of the Southern Cone, called the American decision "a slap in the face of the Anglican Church around the world."
"What upsets people more than anything is this patronizing attitude," he said. "Their attitude is, 'You'll get there one day.'"
Yet, despite strong words and feelings on both sides of the sexuality issues, a breakup of the American church is unlikely for two reasons: the denomination's tradition of civility and flexibility; and a serious concern about walking away from assets such as church buildings, schools, cemeteries and pension funds.
When the government begins to strip conservative churches of their tax-exempt status for their refusal to ordain women and homosexuals, I believe it will then only be a matter of time before the civil complaints become criminalized. For now, discrimination cases are decided only in the civil courts, but should form hold true there as it has in other areas of federal law, U.S. attorneys will look to turning these things into criminal cases.
Visitors can no longer use the splendid entrance at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major — it’s sealed off because drunks and lovers had made it a hangout. In Florence, Catholic officials complain that church steps are turning into latrines at night. Police in Venice plan to fine tourists for leaving lunch leftovers in the square outside St. Mark’s Basilica.
Robinson said he felt "very peaceful on the inside" and "very humbled" by the results. He appealed to opponents not to leave the church, but said he would not be responsible if they did.
"It will prove once again that our church doesn't have the confidence to proclaim the Gospel," Marshall said. "Do not do this thing."
