TODAY IN GOD:
RELIGION NEWS BITES FOR YOUR SNACKING PLEASURE
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MUST READ!: Emphasis Shifts for New Breed of Evangelicals

The evangelical Christian movement, which has been pivotal in reshaping the country’s political landscape since the 1980s, has shifted in potentially momentous ways in recent years, broadening its agenda and exposing new fissures.

The death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell last week highlighted the fact that many of the movement’s fiery old guard who helped lead conservative Christians into the embrace of the Republican Party are aging and slowly receding from the scene. In their stead, a new generation of leaders who have mostly avoided the openly partisan and confrontational approach of their forebears have become increasingly influential.

Typified by megachurch pastors like the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, the new breed of evangelical leaders — often to the dismay of those who came before them — are more likely to speak out about more liberal causes like AIDS, Darfur, poverty and global warming than controversial social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

But the conservative legacy of the religious right persists, and abortion continues to be a defining issue, even a litmus test, for most evangelicals, including younger ones, according to interviews and survey data.

“The abortion issue is going to continue to be a unifying factor among evangelicals and Catholics,” said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is often held up as an example of the new model of conservative Christian leaders. “That’s not going to go away.”

The persistence of abortion as a core concern for evangelical voters, who continue to represent a broad swath of the Republican base, could complicate efforts by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has been leading the Republican presidential field in nationwide polls, to get primary voters to move past the issue and accept his support for abortion rights. The broader impact that the changing evangelical leadership may have on politics appears to be just beginning. Many evangelicals remain uneasy about the other leading Republican contenders, Mitt Romney, because of his Mormon faith and his past support for abortion rights, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has long had a tenuous relationship with conservative Christians.

The evangelical movement, however, is clearly evolving. Members of the baby boomer generation are taking over the reins, said D. G. Hart, a historian of religion. The boomers, he said, are markedly different in style and temperament from their predecessors and much more animated by social justice and humanitarianism. Most of them are pastors, as opposed to the heads of advocacy groups, making them more reluctant to plunge into politics to avoid alienating diverse congregations.

“I just don’t see in the next generation of so-called evangelical leaders anyone as politically activist-minded” as Mr. Falwell, the Rev. Pat Robertson or James C. Dobson, he said.
FOR THE FULL STORY (MICHAEL LUO AND LAURIE GOODSTEIN IN THE NEW YORK TIMES) CLICK HERE

Lesbian alleges church-run shelter left her out in the cold
The staffer for the homeless shelter didn’t seem to understand Michelle Wang’s explanation why she needed a place to stay. Wang offered again over the telephone how she had broken up with her girlfriend and moved out of the apartment they shared. The staffer appeared to become agitated, raised her voice and continued to profess confusion, Wang said.

Finally, Wang blurted out that she was a lesbian. The staffer immediately put her on hold. After a long wait, Wang got the word she feared: There were no beds available. She would have to fend for herself for another night in the unseasonably cold fall weather. In complaints with city and state officials and in an expected lawsuit, the 27-year-old Wang alleges New Life Interim Housing, a homeless shelter in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, discriminated against her on the basis of sexual orientation.

A short time after Wang had been rebuffed by the shelter, the city’s Department of Human Services learned from New Life that it still had two beds available that day, according to John Knight, an attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, which is representing Wang.

“I am disturbed that I was denied shelter, left to the cold and the danger because of something so trivial,” Wang, now living in a Humboldt Park apartment, said of the Nov. 1 incident.

Rev. Bud Ogle, a Presbyterian pastor who co-founded the Christian ministry that runs the New Life shelter in the North Howard Street area, was apologetic for Wang’s troubles but said he believes an inadvertent clerical error was at fault and not any intentional discrimination.
FOR THE FULL STORY (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) CLICK HERE

Mom Blames Devil, Not Dad For Microwaving Baby
HOUSTON — A woman blames the devil and not her husband for severely burning their infant daughter after the 2-month-old was put in a microwave, a Houston television station reported.

Eva Marie Mauldin said Satan compelled her 19-year-old husband, Joshua Royce Mauldin, to microwave their daughter May 10 because the devil disapproved of Joshua’s efforts to become a preacher.

“Satan saw my husband as a threat. Satan attacked him because he saw (Joshua) as a threat,” Eva Mauldin told CBS affiliate station KHOU-TV in Houston.

A Galveston County grand jury indicted Joshua Mauldin last week on child injury charges after hearing evidence that he placed his daughter in a motel microwave for 10 to 20 seconds.

The infant, Ana Marie, remains hospitalized. She suffered burns on the left side of her face and to her left hand, police said.

Eva Marie Mauldin, the girl’s 20-year-old mother, told the television station that her husband is “not the monster people are making him out to be.”

“That was not my husband; my husband is a wonderful father,” she said. “Satan was working through his weaknesses.”
FOR THE FULL STORY (CBS5.COM) CLICK HERE

Indians Divided on Kissing A Cultural Taboo Goodbye
NEW DELHI — On a scorching afternoon, Javed Khan, 24, and his fiancee were cuddling under a leafy tree at one of the city’s many ancient tombs, a rare nook of privacy in a country with a billion people, arranged marriages and a deeply held taboo against public displays of affection.

They held hands and whispered to each other. They kissed. Then they kissed some more, just feet away from dozens of other canoodling couples in India’s tamer version of the backseat make-out session.

All was well, until Khan’s romantic moment was interrupted by a park guard, who started harassing him and his 21-year-old fiancee over their snuggling.

“Things shouldn’t still be like this in India,” Khan said, recalling the recent incident as he once again cuddled with his shy and thin fiancee, Ashna, this time at a different tomb. “India is supposed to be more modern and free.”

Few issues symbolize India’s contrasts and divisions more than the debate over public displays of affection, which touches on issues related to family values, politics and just how much and how fast India should mirror the West.

A decade after the once-chaste Bollywood film industry got away with its first on-screen kiss on the lips, the proliferation of sexual displays in music videos, film and literature has angered a small but vociferous minority of Hindu conservatives, who say they want to preserve India’s vaunted and ancient heritage from what they see as the vapid values that come with globalization.

The issue of public amorousness was brought into sharp focus last month when Richard Gere, the enduring Hollywood heartthrob, swept Bollywood starlet Shilpa Shetty into a scandalous embrace at a public event and kissed her a few times, garnering headlines across the globe and leading to fiery protests. The cover story earlier this month in India Today, the country’s prominent newsmagazine, was “The Kiss of Death. Can a kiss kill a civilization?” Newspapers called it “the kiss that became a kissa,” Hindi for drama or story.
FOR THE FULL STORY (WASHINGTON POST) CLICK HERE

More bad news for Nepal’s king as statue ‘sweats’
KATHMANDU – Hundreds of devotees are flocking to see a “sweating” statue of a Hindu deity, officials said Monday, describing the phenomenon as a bad omen for the Himalayan nation’s already embattled king.

The centuries-old statue of Bhimeshwor — the Hindu god of trade and commerce — has been perspiring since Saturday evening, drawing hundreds to a temple in Dolakha district, 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of Kathmandu.

Shanta Krishna Shrestha, the temple’s chief priest, said the sweating is seen as a bad omen that usually precedes disasters or crises for the royal family.

“Most famously the idol sweated just before the royal massacre in 2001,” he said, referring to an incident where an apparently drunken crown prince went on a shooting rampage that killed nine royals, including the king and queen.

Local media also said the idol broke into a sweat prior to a massive earthquake in 1934, as well as during massive street protests last year that saw the current king, Gyanendra, forced to relinquish direct rule.

The latest incident comes as the future of Nepal’s 238-year-old Shah dynasty is hanging in the balance, with fiercely republican Maoists — who have joined the government since signing a peace deal last year — now pushing for the country to be declared a republic.

Since the November 2006 peace deal, King Gyanendra has been stripped of most of his powers, including his position of head of state and army chief.
SOURCE: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE VIA YAHOO NEWS