Opinion: The Bully Pulpit

May 22, 2009

by Jim Auchmutey
The Wall Street Journal

ATLANTA -- Ever since the Pilgrims crossed an ocean in search of freedom from the religious doctrines of the Old World, their descendants in the Congregational Church have prided themselves on independence. Now that sense of independence is on trial. A regional body of the United Church of Christ has sued to oust a tiny congregation here from its property. The plaintiff: the Southeast Conference of the UCC, whose 1.2 million members make it the nation's largest Congregational fellowship. The defendant: Center Congregational Church, 36 members on a good Sunday.

"As far as I can see, the UCC just wants to bully us," says Rick Langdon, chairman of the trustees at Center Congregational. But there's more here than a David-and-Goliath story. The dispute involves doctrinal issues, legal complexities and conflicting personalities. A church breaking away from its denomination is something like a divorce, with all the attendant messiness of property division. Each case is unique -- yet similar -- and dissident churches everywhere will be watching this one for clues about how far a denomination will be allowed to go legally when things get ugly.

Center Congregational occupies a modest brick building>>>

Year of Bible Push Is Misguided

• MAY 28, 2009

By STEVEN WALDMAN

Some religious Christians desperately want the nation to officially recognize Christianity as having a higher status than other faiths. Yet they realize that they can't look like they're rejecting religious freedom or pluralism.

Everett Collection

One approach has been to avoid the phrase "Christian nation" and instead say the country was founded on "Judeo-Christian values." By including the Jews, it sounds more inclusive, and by saying "values" or "principles" it detaches the idea from a particular reading of Scripture. You may not believe everything in Deuteronomy but surely you believe that Thou Shalt Not Murder?

Another approach is Rep. Paul Broun's congressional resolution to designate 2010 as the "Year of the Bible." (Full text of this resolution and a similar one passed in 1983.) Many of the statements in his resolution are factual or non-controversial. For instance:

"Whereas deep religious beliefs stemming from the Old and New Testament of the Bible have inspired Americans from all walks of life, especially the early settlers, whose faith, spiritual courage, and moral strength enabled them to endure intense hardships in this new land;"

The problem is not praising the Bible, >>>

Remarkable Painting !

Remarkable Painting

I can't believe how much work has gone into this painting. The painting itself is great but as you run your curser over the people it tells you who they are and provides a link (if you click) to get more information on each person. This could keep you occupied for hours. Be sure to scroll over at the bottom.

http://cliptank.com/PeopleofInfluencePainting.htm

Pope2You website puts pontiff on the social networking site Facebook

Ariel David, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

22/05/2009 12:40 PM

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has entered the world of social networking sites and smartphones with a Vatican portal that includes Facebook and iPhone applications.

The Pope2You website was launched Thursday and allows Facebook users to send virtual postcards with photos of Benedict and excerpts from his messages.

An application for iPhone and iPod Touch gives surfers video and audio news on the Pope's travels and speeches, as well as on Catholic events worldwide.

The new portal is the latest update in the Vatican's efforts to broaden the Pope's audience and reach out to young people.

Earlier this year, Benedict got his own YouTube channel, which is now also linked to the portal.

While wary of the potential pitfalls of new media,>>>

Indonesian Clerics Seek to Regulate Facebook

News to Pray For: May 22, 2009

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) Muslim clerics are seeking ways to regulate online behavior in Indonesia, saying the exploding popularity of social networking sites like Facebook could encourage promiscuity.

Around 700 imams gathered Thursday to consider forbidding their followers from going online to flirt or engage in practices that could inflame lust or encourage extramarital affairs.

Facebook says it now has more than 830,000 users >>>

Where Have All the Muses Gone?

• MAY 16, 2009

By LEE SIEGEL

Whatever happened to the Muse? She was once the female figure -- deity, Platonic ideal, mistress, lover, wife -- whom poets and painters called upon for inspiration. Thus Homer in the Odyssey, the West's first great work of literary art: "Sing to me of the man, Muse, of twists and turns driven time and again off course." For hundreds of years, in one form or another, the Muse's blessing and support were often essential to the creation of art.

Muses Through the Years

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Everett Collection

Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt and wife Saskia van Uylenburgh.

Poets stopped invoking the muse centuries ago -- eventually turning instead to caffeine, alcohol and amphetamines -- but painters, musicians, and even choreographers have celebrated their actual female inspirers in their work up until recent times. And now, we learn, having a muse isn't a benefit restricted to artists.

According to a recently opened exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion," the muse lives on as the fashion model who inspires masses of women to dress in ways that capture the spirit of the age. With all due respect to the Met's curators -- and to the alluring fashion photographs that now grace the museum's walls -- such a definition of the muse would have made traditional muses run for the sacred hills.

The original muse could not have been further from an exemplar of style. Her function was not to inspire imitation, but to create new insights and new artistic forms. She was effectively invisible, a gust of divine wind that blew through the human vessel lucky enough to be graced by her attention.

In ancient times, the muse was a divinity, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. At first, there were three muses, then the Greek poet Hesiod expanded their number to nine: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Thalia, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Urania. It was the bureaucratic Romans who assigned a particular function to each muse: Terpsichore was the goddess of dance; Thalia, of comedy; Melpomene of tragedy and so on.

They were benign, helpful beings, who -- according to Hesiod -- approached a deserving poet and conferred on him three gifts: a laurel branch to use as a sceptre, a "wondrous voice" with which to sing his verse and knowledge of the future and the past. Still, they could be cruelly protective of their ethereal turf. When a Thracian poet named Thamyris challenged the nine muses to a singing contest and lost, they blinded him and struck him dumb. Legend has it that the Sirens, no mean crooners themselves, also tried to compete with the muses. They too were defeated and, as a result, lost their wings and fell into the sea.

and much more here>>>

In Israel, Pope Urges 'Just Resolution' of Conflict

• MAY 12, 2009

By JOSHUA MITNICK

TEL AVIV -- Pope Benedict XVI landed in Israel Monday, denouncing the persistence of anti-Semitism world-wide and urging Israelis and Palestinians to reach a compromise on a two-state solution.

The Papal Visit to Israel

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Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

• More interactive graphics, photos

The pope's five-day visit to the Holy Land is the third by a Vatican leader in the 61 years since the founding of the Jewish state.

"Even though the name Jerusalem means city of peace, it is all too evident that for decades, peace has eluded the inhabitants of this Holy Land," the pontiff said at Ben Gurion Airport, after emerging from a Royal Jordanian Airlines passenger jet flying Israeli and Vatican flags.

"I plead with all of those responsible to explore every possible avenue for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognized borders," he said.

The remarks underlined the growing international>>>

Saving Earth, serving God

Worship spaces are going green as congregations play more of a role as environmental stewards.

By CARYN ROUSSEAU, The Associated Press May 2, 2009

enlarge The Associated Press

Rabbi Brant Rosen walks past the Ark of the Covenant that is made from recycled woven metal in the sanctuary at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation synagogue in Evanston, Ill. The wooden wall visible at left is made from reclaimed cypress wood from barns.

EVANSTON, Ill. — When it rained, water filled the basement a foot high, flooding the preschool room at least once a year. The air conditioner wouldn't work in two rooms at the same time. The Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation desperately needed a new synagogue.

As members planned their new building, they decided it should reflect the belief, shared by many faiths, that God calls them to be responsible stewards of the Earth.

They decided to go green from the ground up.

Cypress wood reclaimed from barns in upstate New York was used for the new synagogue's exterior, white cinder blocks from the old building were crushed and recycled, and brown cabinet doors made from sunflower husks were hung in the offices.

As Americans are becoming more environmentally conscious, more religious groups are looking to make their worship spaces sustainable. The efforts range from small country congregations using energy-efficient bulbs to megachurches complying with complex green-building codes.

"It was about making a sacred statement," Rabbi Brant Rosen said of the synagogue in Evanston, a Chicago suburb. "If we were going to talk the talk, we needed to walk the walk. The whole process forced us to look at our values in a deeper way."

The $9 million synagogue opened in February 2008, and in September became the only house of worship in the country to receive the highest green-building rating from the nonprofit U.S. Green Buildings Council, whose standards are considered the benchmark for environmentally friendly buildings.

Since 2005, just 10 congregations have>>>

The Sneeze

THE SNEEZE

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich maroon gowns flowing .. and the traditional caps, they looked almost .. as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would NOT pray during the commencements----not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine.....until the final speech received a standing ovation.

A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened.








All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!!!!

The student on stage.. simply looked at the audience and said,

'GOD BLESS YOU, each and every one of you!' And he walked off stage...

The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval.

Isn't this a wonderful story? Pass it on to all your friends.........and

GOD BLESS YOU!!!!

This is a true story; it happened at the University of Maryland.

Oh, how I wish THIS one would take off and FILL the whole Country!!!

The Light of Christ Abounds in Oakland's New Cathedral

• FEBRUARY 18, 2009, 10:31 P.M. ET

By DAVID LITTLEJOHN

Oakland, Calif.

California is home to the three most imaginative and successful modern Roman Catholic cathedrals in the country. St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco (1971), designed by the Italian engineer/architect Pier Luigi Nervi, and José Rafael Moneo's Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which opened in Los Angeles six years ago, have now been joined by Oakland's ingeniously designed and handsomely crafted Cathedral of Christ the Light.

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill / Timothy Hursley

The Cathedral of Christ the Light is a 135-foot high cone-shaped building that looks "like a giant glass lampshade."

The diocese of Oakland, which now includes more than half a million Catholics, was split off in 1962 from the archdiocese of San Francisco. When the 1893 neo-Gothic brick church the diocese was using as its episcopal seat was damaged by an earthquake in 1989, Bishop John Cummins decided to tear it down and replace it. In 2000, a design competition was held for a new cathedral complex to be built on the shore of Lake Merritt, a 155-acre estuary that serves as the breathing space for what is probably the most ethnically diverse city in the nation.

When the first architect chosen (Santiago Calatrava)>>>

The Poetry of the Heavens

• MAY 9, 2009

By ROBERT COSTA

Cambridge, England

Eighty years ago, on his way from San Francisco to William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon mansion, Winston Churchill stopped at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, Calif., where he was eager to operate the site's 57-foot, 13-ton refracting telescope on Mount Hamilton. Dropping his eye to the scope, the future British prime minister squinted toward the heavens. "An object of sublime beauty was disclosed," he recalled in a letter to his wife Clementine.

David Gothard

"Although I had often heard of the ring of Saturn, I had no conception of the perfectness and splendor of this orb," Churchill wrote. "Indeed, I thought at first that it was the reflection of a powerful electric light which they had forgotten to turn out and could not realize that I was looking at a world 800,000,000 miles away."

On April 28, a few steps from Churchill College at Cambridge University, astronomers and poets gathered at the Institute of Astronomy in similar wonder, whispering their way through the poetry of space.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an Oxford University astrophysicist, was joined by Irish poet Maurice Riordan. Ms. Bell Burnell and Mr. Riordan edited "Dark Matter: Poems of Space," published last year in Britain by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Their anthology features a galaxy of more than 100>>>

Flashback: Detroit pastor now fights to touch souls, shelter homeless

BY MITCH ALBOM • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • May 3, 2009

The man who lost his toes to frostbite lays down on a mattress, and the man who lost his teeth to street fights checks the final name off his clipboard. The room quiets and the lights dim and Henry Covington, the pastor, who turned this church gym into a floor of hope at the bottom of the world, walks a rickety balcony and surveys the homeless men below.

They say the meek will inherit the earth, but there is nothing meek about Henry Covington. He weighs, by his own admission, north of 450 pounds, his arms roll out from the sleeves of his T-shirt, and his broad chest spreads atop his broad belly, suggesting a powerful athlete once operated beneath all that flesh.

But whatever his strength, Covington - whom they call "The Rev"- can't hold up the building, and his Pilgrim Church/I Am My Brother's Keeper Ministries in Detroit is falling down around him. The roof has a giant hole. The front vestibule leaks rain. DTE Energy shut off the heat when the bills piled up - and how wouldn't they pile up when the hot air shoots up through a roof hole? - so now, during services, the congregation sits in a small area cordoned off by plastic sheeting, trying to stay warm.

But they get by. That is Covington's mantra. >>>

Ode to a Lost World

• MAY 2, 2009

By HOWARD KISSEL

Only those who lived before the French Revolution could understand the sweetness of living, declared Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the wily statesman who managed to play a decisive role in virtually every French government from the ancien régime to the early 1830s.

View Slideshow

Richard di Liberto

See more of Fragonard's "Progress of Love" paintings.

Few works testify more powerfully to the elegance, sensuousness and delicate beauty of that lost world than "The Progress of Love," the panels created by Jean-Honoré Fragonard for Mme du Barry, the last mistress of Louis XV.

Fragonard was born in Grasse, in the south of France, in 1732. When he was a child his father, a glove maker, moved the family to Paris, where the boy studied with two of the greatest painters of the early 18th century, Chardin and Boucher. He enjoyed early success. When he was 20 he won the Prix de Rome, which enabled him to study in Italy. At the age of 23 a historical painting of his was acquired by Louis XV, which entitled him to the honorary title, Painter to the King.

In 1769 the king, known during his reign as Louis the Beloved, made du Barry a gift of a chateau in Louveciennes, on the Seine northwest of Paris. The building itself dated from the previous century. In keeping with her reputation as a trendsetter, du Barry commissioned the fashionable architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to create a neighboring pavilion in a more contemporary style for the express purpose of entertaining the king. And Fragonard was commissioned to decorate the room adjoining the dining room in that pavilion. He painted four wall-size oil-on-canvas panels.

Two scenes are of pursuit. In one the young woman being pursued is leaping over a short wall, the billows of her gown suggesting considerable anxiety.

The other two panels depict the tranquility>>>

Christian Nation

Subject: President Barack Obamba

President Barack Obama said in Turkey : "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." I found this very interesting. Do you know the Preamble for your state? .. . Be sure to read the message at the bottom! Alabama 1901, Preamble We the people of the State of Alabama , invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.. Alaska 1956, Preamble We, the people of Alaska , grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land. Arizona 1911, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arizona , grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution... Arkansas 1874, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arkansas , grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government... California 1879, Preamble We, the People of the State of California , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom... Colorado 1876, Preamble We, the people of Colorado , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe... Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy. Delaware 1897, Preamble Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences... Florida 1885, Preamble We, the people of the State of Florida , grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution... Georgia 1777, Preamble We, the people of Georgia , relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution... Hawaii 1959, Preamble We , the people of Hawaii , Grateful for Divine Guidance ... Establish this Constitution. Idaho 1889, Preamble We, the people of the State of Idaho , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings. Illinois 1870, Preamble We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil , political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors. Indiana 1851, Preamble We, the People of the State of Indiana , grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our form of government. Iowa 1857, Preamble We, the People of the St ate of Iowa , grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, establish this Constitution. Kansas 1859, Preamble We, the people of Kansas , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution. Kentucky 1891, Preamble.. We, the people of the Commonwealth are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties.. Louisiana 1921, Preamble We, the people of the State of Louisiana , grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy. Maine 1820, Preamble We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity .. And imploring His aid and direction. Maryland 1776, Preamble We, the people of the state of Maryland , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty... Massachusetts 1780, Preamble We...the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe In the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction Michigan 1908, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Michigan , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, establish this Constitution. Minnesota, 1857, Preamble We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings: Mississippi 1890, Preamble We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work. Missouri 1845, Preamble We, the people of Missouri , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness . Establish this Constitution... Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution .. Nebraska 1875, Preamble We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . Establish this Constitution. Nevada 1864, Preamble We the people of the State of Nevada , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, establish this Constitution... New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. New Jersey 1844, Preamble We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.. New Mexico 1911, Preamble We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty.. New York 1846, Preamble We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings. North Carolina 1868, Preamble We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those... North Dakota 1889, Preamble We , the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain... Ohio 1852, Preamble We the people of the state of Ohio, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to= promote our common. Oklahoma 1907, Preamble Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty, establish this Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I Section 2. All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance.... Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing... South Carolina, 1778, Preamble We, the people of he State of South Carolina grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution. South Dakota 1889, Preamble We, the people of South Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties ... Tennessee 1796, Art.. XI..III. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience.... Texas 1845, Preamble We the People of the Republic of Texas, acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God. Utah 1896, Preamble Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution. Vermont 1777, Preamble Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man .. Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other Washington 1889, Preamble We the People of the State of Wa= shington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution West Virginia 1872, Preamble Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God ... Wisconsin 1848, Preamble We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility.... Wyoming 1890, Preamble We, the people of the State of Wyoming, grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties, establish this Constitution... After reviewing acknowledgments of God from all 50 state constitutions, one is faced with the prospect that maybe, the ACLU and the out-of-control federal courts are wrong! If you found this to be 'Food for thought' send to as many as you think will be enlightened as I hope you were. (Please note that at no time is anyone told that they MUST worship God.) GOD BLESS AMERICA