Few celebrating Osama’s demise

Last updated on: May 23, 2011 at 9:14 am By tmatt

In the hours after Osama bin Laden’s death, cyber-scribes unleashed a Twitter storm of biblical proportions, posting epistles at rates reported to have hit 4,000 a second. Apparently, 140 characters is a great fit for Bible quotations. The most popular post-Osama Bible tweets, as charted by Stephen Smith at OpenBible.info, quickly divided into two theological camps. Some quickly offered passages such as Proverbs 21:15, which proclaims: “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”... Read more

Define fundamentalist, please

Last updated on: May 16, 2011 at 7:33 am By tmatt

Few hot-button, “fighting words” are tossed around with wilder abandon in journalism today than the historical term “fundamentalist.” The powers that be at the Associated Press know this label is loaded and, thus, for several decades the wire service’s style manual has offered this guidance for reporters, editors and broadcast producers around the world. “fundamentalist: The word gained usage in an early 20th century fundamentalist-modernist controversy within Protestantism. … However, fundamentalist has to a large extent taken on pejorative connotations... Read more

Polish visions behind Vatican rites

Last updated on: May 9, 2011 at 8:39 am By tmatt

To grasp the full symbolism of the Vatican rites in which a million or more Catholics celebrated the beatification of Pope John Paul II, it helps to understand the visions recorded decades earlier in the diary of Sister Mary Faustina Kowalksa. Popes come and popes go. But the lives of this Polish nun and this Polish pope may be helping to reshape a crucial piece of the Catholic year — the celebrations that follow Easter, the high point of the... Read more

Cohabitation, Confession, Communion

Last updated on: April 25, 2011 at 6:40 am By tmatt

For generations, people in pews knew what to call it when folks “shacked up” before marriage — “living in sin.” “Sin” is a harder word to use, today. The Catholic archbishop of Santa Fe, N.M., recently raised eyebrows with a mere letter reminding his flock that cohabitation is a grave sin that Catholics must take to confession or there will be eternal consequences. Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan’s priests read his sobering words from their pulpits on April 3, the fourth... Read more

Dylan does his Dylan thing in China

Last updated on: April 18, 2011 at 7:57 am By tmatt

The drama that unfolded in Beijing began when police evicted the unregistered Shouwang “house church” from its usual meeting place. The police arrived again when this same flock tried to gather in a public place last Sunday. A church member who escaped told the Associated Press that about 200 were arrested. This kind of persecution is old news for those concerned about the 60 million or so Christians in China’s “underground” churches. The crackdowns have become so common that they... Read more

Future nuns, priests face big questions

Last updated on: April 11, 2011 at 9:08 am By tmatt

Once a month, female students pack the cozy chapel at the Holy Spirit Friary that overlooks the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. These gatherings are confidential, with no one discussing who is or who isn’t among the 50 to 60 gathered in the pews. Students come to listen and to pray as they seek discernment about whether to pursue religious vocations — as nuns. “They keep this private for an interesting reason,” said Father Seraphim Beshoner, a history professor. “If... Read more

Dershowitz visits Oslo (sort of)

Last updated on: April 4, 2011 at 7:08 am By tmatt

Ask Orthodox Jews in Norway where one can find a fresh shoulder of kosher beef and they will give the same answer — nowhere. There is more to this obscure fact than a clash between Jewish tradition and the concerns of animal-rights activists in today’s Europe, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz told a Jewish forum in Oslo. This is a symbolic fact about tensions that surround Jews in Norway. “You live in the only country in the world today... Read more

God hates almost everyone, saith Phelps

Last updated on: March 28, 2011 at 7:07 am By tmatt

The true believers from Westboro Baptist Church carried their usual battery of offensive signs on March 10, 2006, as they staged their fateful protest near the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder. One contained a stick-figure cartoon of two men having sex. One proclaimed “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” and another “God Hates You.” During the demonstration these signs faced what the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., and his family call the pro-America “pep rally” that greets them wherever... Read more

Churches late to Facebook party?

Last updated on: March 21, 2011 at 7:00 am By tmatt

A mere three years ago, Diana Davis published a hands-on book for church leaders entitled “Fresh Ideas For Women’s Ministry.” When flipping through its pages, she said, one of the first things she notices is a missing word — Facebook. She needs to rewrite the whole book to cover this reality gap. “That obvious, isn’t it? It’s so obvious that we ought to be using Facebook to tell more women about our Bible studies and prayer groups and retreats and... Read more

Shahbaz Bhatti, modern martyr

Last updated on: March 14, 2011 at 7:10 am By tmatt

In the early days of Christianity, martyrs often gave their final testimonies of faith to Roman leaders before they were crucified, burned or fed to lions. Times being what they are, Shahbaz Bhatti turned to Al Jazeera and YouTube. The only Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet knew it was only a matter of time before his work as minister for minority affairs got him killed. Threats by the Taliban and al-Qaeda kept increasing. “I want to share that I believe in... Read more