Reviews: a film about Hindu widows and children's books about the Holocaust

In Friday's RNS report Lisa Rose reviews "Water," a film that shows Hindu widows surviving religious backlash: In "Water," Canadian director Deepa Mehta tells the story of three Hindu widows living in an Indian ashram, circa 1938. The widows, one of whom is 8 years old, are abandoned by their families and forbidden to remarry according to custom. The poetic film, the final chapter in a political trilogy, advocates human rights without growing preachy.

Kathy Englehart reviews books with Holocaust stories for children: Books for children about the Holocaust were once hard to find. Not anymore. In the past few years, several outstanding children's books have been published about that nightmare period. They introduce a difficult subject well -- with respect, dignity and hope.

More abuse for sex abuse victim

Quote of the Day: The Rev. James Moran, Priestly Sex Abuse Victim

(RNS) "My gut feeling is that I have been raped again."

-- The Rev. James Moran, a Catholic whose priestly credentials were pulled six weeks before his retirement after he criticized church leaders for protecting abusers. The former chaplain at the Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia told The Washington Post that he was a victim of sex abuse as a 25-year-old seminarian and the perpetrator was a priest.

Can I Hear You Say "Hallelujah"?

More than 20,000 Celebrate Pentecostalism's 100th Birthday

RNS's Sarah Price Brown reports on the 100th birthday of the Pentecostal movement, in this week's full-text article, linked above.

Quote:

Pentecostals believe that the Holy Spirit resides within them and manifests itself, in some cases, by allowing worshippers to speak in tongues. "Tongues" is a spiritual language that to the uninitiated may sound like gibberish but to believers is a sign that a Christian has been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

James Dobson: guru

Quote of the Day: Evangelical Author Tony Campolo

"You dare not go against Jim Dobson these days. This is the guru, the new pope. He is infallible. Anybody that contradicts him is obviously out of the will of God."

-- Evangelical author and social commentator Tony Campolo, offering sarcastic criticism of conservative Christian radio talk show host James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. Campolo spoke at the Associated Church Press convention in Orlando, Fla.

Christian conversions in India; and religious blogs

In Wednesday's RNS report Achal Narayanan reports from India where a pro-Hindu ruling party may restrict Christian conversions: Religious conversion has emerged as a volatile social and political issue in India, where a pro-Hindu ruling party in several states is pushing legislation to restrict what it characterizes as forced Christian conversions that disrupt national harmony. The moves have prompted an outcry from Christian leaders, who deny forcing any conversions and say such legislation would be an egregious violation of religious freedom protected by the Indian constitution and recognized internationally as a fundamental human right. Christians comprise less than 3 percent of the Indian population, which is predominantly Hindu. "We have not converted anyone by force, fraud or by allurement," said Roman Catholic Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi in a recent interaction with the media.

Religious blogs are providing a new outlet for dissenters and critics, reports G. Jeffrey MacDonald: For as long as preachers have been engaging listeners, critics have been muttering nearby about the need for more enlightened leadership. Even Moses couldn't catch a break from his band of desert-wandering Israelites, who feared he was trying to kill them. Now, thanks to blogs and other Internet postings, critics in every faith tradition are getting a hearing far beyond the synagogue, church or mosque parking lot. That means religious leaders are listening, too -- and responding in ways that show how religious authority is shifting in the 21st century. Bloggers well-versed in Scriptures, church rules and even poignant personal testimonies are challenging official policies and winning followers of their own.

Pornography at the forefront

Quote of the Day: Institute for the Future Director Paul Saffo

"The simple fact is porn is an early adopter of new media. If you're trying to get something established ... you're going to privately and secretly hope and pray that the porn industry likes your medium."

-- Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., commenting in a Los Angeles Times story about how pornography tends to be at the forefront of technology.

Muslim-on-muslim violence; lessons learned from a son's suicide

In Monday's RNS report Omar Sacirbey writes about Muslim-on-Muslim violence, in which extremists are targeting moderate Muslims: Muslim-on-Muslim violence has existed since Islam's Prophet Muhammad died in 632. But now, some observers say, Islamic extremists are expanding their campaign of violence from non-Muslim targets to include moderate Muslims whom they view as obstacles to the establishment of Islamic rule. At the same time, extremists are also expanding the criteria by which one can be considered an apostate, blasphemer or heretic, and thus fair game for punishment or death. The violence has sparked debate across the Muslim world over who has the authority to judge someone an apostate, and pushed extremist groups to come up with new justifications to spill the blood of fellow Muslims.

Mormon senator Gordon Smith has published a book about the life lessons he learned from his son's suicide, reports Don Colburn: Garrett Lee Smith, the son of Sen. Gordon and Sharon Smith, R-Ore., killed himself in his college apartment in Utah on Sept. 8, 2003. It was the day before his 22nd birthday. In "Remembering Garrett: One Family's Battle With a Child's Depression," Gordon Smith, a Mormon church leader, describes how he responded when he heard the news. Smith blamed himself for what he calls "a perdition of my own making." He staggered upstairs to his son's room, fell on the bed, "clutched his old teddy bears to me and spent a night in hell, crying out to him, screaming at myself, pleading with God for understanding, for forgiveness, for mercy, for the strength to go on." Smith sees the book as a road map for families -- no matter what their faith background -- who have lost someone to suicide. It includes a list of places where families dealing with depression or suicide can find help.

Who's in charge at public schools?

Quote of the Day: Lexington, Mass., Schools Superintendent Paul Ash

"We couldn't run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed."

-- Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash of Lexington, Mass., responding to complaints about a Lexington teacher who read a book about same-sex marriage to a class of second-graders. He was quoted by The Boston Globe.

A Fascinating Life

OBITUARY
The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Protestant Social Activist, Dies at 81

The RNS obituary of William Sloane Coffin, by Jason White and Adelle M. Banks (linked above), makes for interestng reading. Coffin was, among other things, a paratrooper in WWII, translator for Patton, CIA agent, activist minister and model for a Doonesbury character.

Quote:

In 2004, Coffin, slowed by a stroke, did not seem bothered by death.

"We should cooperate gracefully with the inevitable," he told a reporter. "If you don't come to grips with death early on, but know you'll die, it will make you insecure.

"And that's the worst thing that humans can do, try to secure themselves against insecurity. With money. Or power. Pretending that life will go on forever. And it makes others pay a gruesome price."

Religious Leaders Join Immigration Protests

In this week's full-text RNS article, Piet Levy looks at the religious response to the immigrants' rights rallies.


Quote:

"Dear friends, we are in an historic moment in our nation's history," [Cardinal Theodore E.] McCarrick told the crowd after comparing the immigration protests to Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963. "We are a nation of immigrants. Let us not now turn inward after all these centuries."

Immigration protests; "Righteous" gentiles; the Ohio Restoration Project

Religious leaders are participating in immigration protests across the country, reports Piet Levy in Tuesday's RNS report: As hundreds of thousands of people flooded the nation's cities Monday (April 10) protesting for immigrants' rights, religious leaders rallied by their side. On the Mall in Washington, with the Capitol behind him, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick prayed in Spanish and English for the tens of thousands of predominantly Hispanic immigrants standing before him waving American flags. He was followed by religious leaders of varied backgrounds -- Lutheran, Jewish, Methodist, Muslim and Baptist -- many speaking a bit of Spanish, all of them defending immigrants' rights to stay in the United States. Rabbi Scott Sperling compared the protests to Passover. Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Muslim chaplain for Howard University, likened undocumented workers to slaves. And Bishop Theodore Schneider from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America urged, "We want a door, not a fence."

In advance of Holocaust Memorial Day on April 24, Marilyn Henry reports on gentiles who rescued Jews being honored as `Righteous': From 1941 to 1944, Josef Balyk sheltered and fed three Jews in a small shed on his farm in Nazi-controlled Romanivka, Ukraine, now part of Poland. Expressing daily reassurance with some humor, "He would sing he was coming with potatoes," said Betty Kagen, now living in Nassau County, N.Y. Then Balyk would deliver the potatoes as promised, always with a smile on his face. Kagen was only 2 when -- fleeing Velyki Birky, a Jewish ghetto -- she first met the Christian man and his extended family who rescued her and her parents. In 1995, the Balyks were officially designated as "Righteous Among the Nations," a title given to gentiles who risked their lives to protect Jews during the Nazi era, when it was a capital offense to help a Jew. On April 24, Holocaust Memorial Day, Kagen will remember the singing farmer who prevented her family from being among the estimated 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews killed in the Holocaust. Since the project was initiated in 1963, 21,310 people from dozens of countries have been recognized as the Righteous.

Ohio religious conservatives are coming under scrutiny for promoting conservative officeholders, reports Mark Naymik: The Ohio Restoration Project has attracted plenty of attention -- and not just for the zeal of its leader, the Rev. Russell Johnson of Lancaster's Fairfield Christian Church. National media outlets have sent reporters to Ohio to cover the influence that evangelical church leaders like Johnson are trying to exert on Ohio politics. Religious leaders -- all liberals, Johnson says -- have also criticized the group for activities they contend cross the line separating church and state. In January, 31 ministers from Ohio filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asking that the agency investigate Johnson's church, the Ohio Restoration Project and two other religious organizations for promoting conservative officeholders. The IRS has not moved on the complaint and the Restoration Project does not appear to be slowing down. Later this month, it says it will distribute 500,000 copies of its voter guide, noting where politicians stand on abortion and other issues.

God or the Girl; Gospel of Judas

In Monday's RNS report, Cecile S. Holmes looks at a new A&E series that depicts the struggle of men who could be priests: Always fraught with difficult choices, the call to the Catholic priesthood becomes a minidrama of men struggling within themselves and within an increasingly secularized world in the Arts and Entertainment Network's series, "God or the Girl," which begins Easter Sunday (April 16). The young men in the A&E five-part series are all-American fellows. They're intelligent and bright with diverse interests and multiple talents. Each -- in different ways -- fits the profile of the sort of men church leaders usually say they want to attract to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Deep down, though, each man is almost at war with himself.

David Gibson offers and analysis of why the "Gospel of Judas" won't change history: Any effort to rewrite the Christian story will incite passions on all sides. National Geographic's claim that its Gospel of Judas "threatens to change religious history" is sure to fire the imagination of those who already think the New Testament is nothing more than a conspiracy perpetrated on credulous generations. On the other hand, many traditionalists will see the rehabilitation of Judas as another secular effort to undermine the culpability of a despicable turncoat and the belief in eternal punishment. In reality, while the Gospel of Judas is undeniably fascinating as a historical document, its ideas are neither as new as its supporters would claim, nor as inimical to the faith as many believers may fear.

Catholic Prayer Breakfast; UCC's new ads; and the Ukrainian Easter egg

President Bush found a friendly audience at today's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, reports Piet Levy in Friday's RNS report: For the second year in a row, Friday's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, a gathering of so-called "faithful" Catholics from around the country, scored the most prominent speaker imaginable -- President Bush. Well, perhaps the second-most prominent. At the last breakfast, the event's vice president, Austin Ruse, joked that the pope would make an appearance the next time around. No such luck this year, but the president was a celebrated understudy, winning over the crowd with comments on Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, immigration reform, and abortion. "Some people believe you cannot distinguish between right and wrong," Bush told the crowd. "The Catholic Church rejects such a pessimistic view of human nature and offers a vision of human freedom and dignity rooted in the same self-evident truths of America's founding."

The United Church of Christ has an edgy new ad campaign, reports Frank Bentayou: In the United Church of Christ's new ad campaign, spring-loaded platforms burst from certain pews in a Gothic sanctuary filled with mostly white, middle-class types. They hurl those who are a tad different from everyone else out of their seats. The message seems to be that some churches prefer you vanish if you appear Middle Eastern, gay, old, poor or dressed too casually. Text and a voiceover at the end counter that the UCC invites everyone to join its worship community. The ad probably will generate visibility. But will raising so complex an issue in so playful and "edgy" a manner actually help people decide their religious affiliation?

What came first -- Easter or the Ukrainian Easter Egg? asks reporter John Petkovic: Forget the chicken. This time of year, the conundrum of the egg is enough to leave humans and fowls scratching their heads. What came first, the Easter or the Ukrainian Easter egg? This city's Ukrainian Museum-Archives has cracked the answer. The evolution of the art form known as pysanky dates back more than 2,000 years. Derived from the Ukrainian word for "to write," it started as a pagan art form that celebrated seasonal rebirth. When Christianity came to Ukraine in the 10th century, the eggs were incorporated into the Easter observance and new images were introduced to illustrate Christian themes.

Easter in Bethlehem; Vatican's Taiwanese ties; TV anchor claims religious discrimination

This coming Easter is filled with anxiety and uncertainty for Palestinian Christians, reports Michele Chabin from Bethlehem in Thursday's RNS report: Riham Salsaa, a 21-year-old English-language student at Bethlehem University, remembers the day, several years ago, that she and other members of her Palestinian-Christian youth group visited Jerusalem during Holy Week. "It was before the second intifada," Salsaa, a Catholic, said of the Palestinian uprising that began in late 2000 and lasted four years. "We walked in a parade tracing the path Jesus took. It's an ancient tradition and I loved taking part in it." Sitting in a flowering campus courtyard on a warm afternoon, Salsaa said she has not visited Jerusalem since, and will not be able to see the sites of Christ's life and death this Easter, either. Salsaa is part of a Christian minority of about 2 percent living in this city, the birthplace of Christ, now under the governance of the Palestinian Authority. As Palestinian Christians prepare for this Easter, a holiday of hope and new birth, their future appears as anxious and uncertain as ever, thanks to the dramatic political events of this year.

Taiwan is criticizing the Vatican's talks with China, writes Stacy Meichtry: Taiwan is urging the Vatican to rethink its proposal to cut diplomatic ties in order to reestablish formal relations with China, arguing that such a move could compromise the Holy See's credibility as a global advocate for human rights. A decision to switch Holy See allegiances from the democratic island nation to the communist mainland could undercut the Vatican's status as a symbol of "democracy, liberty and justice," said Ambassador Chou-seng Tou in a Wednesday (April 5) interview at the Taiwan Embassy to the Holy See, just outside Vatican City territory. The Vatican, which is a sovereign state, is the only country in Europe that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan instead of China. Most of Europe recognizes China's "One China" policy, which considers Taiwan Chinese territory.

And Piet Levy reports that a TV anchor in Detroit is accusing his station of religious discrimination after becoming a born-again Christian evangelist: Frank Turner had it all -- a great salary, a swanky lifestyle, a successful job as a TV anchor. But when he was outed as a cocaine and phone sex addict, Turner lost it all. That's when his "miracle" happened: Turner became a born-again Christian evangelist, cleaned up his act, and returned to his job at WXYZ-TV, a Detroit-based ABC affiliate. But now Turner is at odds with his employer again, this time over a proposed daily radio show on Detroit Christian station WEXL. When his employers refused to let him host the show, Turner filed a March 17 complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging discrimination for the station's denial of what he called "a reasonable accommodation for religious practice." Turner contends his employers are violating his civil rights. "I can no more stop being an evangelist than I can change the color of my skin," Turner said in an interview. "I'm doing what the Lord is calling me to do."

Judas and Evil

New Views of Judas Reflect New Views on Evil

RNS Vatican correspondent Stacy Meichtry looks at changing views on Judas Iscariot and changing views on evil itself in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

"The major problem of the current time is how to deal with the other," or the unfamiliar, said William Klassen, author of "Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus" and a leading advocate for the rehabilitation of Judas. "Judas opens that up for us in a way that no other person in history does."

Online crucifixions; Passover on the Gulf Coast; Catholic Hispanics in the U.S.; and an update on the internet saint

Kevin Eckstrom reports in Wednesday's RNS transmission on online games that feature crucifixions and how they are offending some Christians: For nearly 2,000 years, Christians have marked the days leading up to Easter with dramatic re-enactments of Jesus' suffering, culminating with his crucifixion on Good Friday. This year, in a 21st century twist, online gamers suffer "virtual" crucifixions as a punishment for breaking the rules of a contest that allows competitors to taunt and jeer those left hanging on the cross. A 27-year-old electrical engineer from Burton, Mich. -- whose online persona is a hot-tempered Barbarian named Cynewulf -- was the first player to be crucified in the online game Roma Victor. His crime? Preying on unsuspecting Romans and violating the spirit of the game, which is set in Roman-occupied Britain, circa A.D. 180. The British company that developed the game said it never intended to offend Christians or mock Jesus' crucifixion. But at least one Christian group says the game exploits what is sacred.

On the Gulf Coast hurricane-ravaged Jews are preparing for Passover, writes Ansley Roan: As residents of the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast prepare for Passover, which celebrates God bringing the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt, it's as if they have lived through an epic of biblical proportions. "You're talking about Exodus, where you're going from something terrible, being under the rule of Pharaoh, toward freedom," says Lori Beth Susman, a board member of a conservative synagogue in Biloxi, Miss. "For many of us, the last seven months have been that kind of journey." Congregations along the Gulf Coast find themselves at different places on that journey after August's arrival of Hurricane Katrina, the costliest hurricane in American history. Their Passover plans reveal the many ways Katrina continues to affect their religious lives, from damaging their synagogues to still scattering members of once-close congregations.

Hispanics are illustrating their influence on the American religious scene with their Holy Week Way of the Cross processions, reports Marcia Z. Nelson: A Way of the Cross, or Via Crucis, procession is a Good Friday tradition in this town of 150,000 outside Chicago, where almost one-third of the population is Hispanic. Such dramatic and public religious rituals may be coming to the streets of more communities, as growth and greater dispersion spreads the U.S. Latino population into new areas of the country. As the Hispanic share of the U.S. population increases, so also do Latinos fuel the growth of Catholicism in the nation. Almost 40 percent of America's 67 million Catholics are Hispanic, and in the past four decades Hispanics have accounted for 71 percent of the increase in the number of Catholics. "In the Latino Catholic culture, what you find is a sacramental life," says Ronaldo Cruz, executive director of the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The re-enactment of the suffering and death of Jesus in the Way of the Cross has cultural and spiritual meaning.

We also update Stacy Meichtry and Kristine M. Crane's March 29 story called John Paul II: The Making of an Internet Saint, and add a sidebar with examples of online campaigns for sainthood: The messages arriving in Monsignor Slawomir Oder's inbox are multiplying. A mother writes from Bloomington, Ill., appealing to Pope John Paul II from beyond the grave to heal her daughter from a sudden brain injury. Another click away, a child has been conceived in Mexico thanks to the late pope's alleged intercession. Gone are the days when the centuries-old practice of saint making took place behind closed doors, and beyond public scrutiny. Oder, the leading advocate for John Paul's sainthood, must hustle to meet the demands of the Internet, where potential miracles are being reported in real time and campaigns for and against John Paul's sainthood are already in full swing. Just as John Paul brought the papacy onto the world stage through his media savvy, the campaign for his sainthood is updating the way faithful push for canonization.

New view of Judas; Rwandan genocide survivor finds forgiveness

In Tuesday's RNS report Stacy Meichtry analyzes how new views of Judas reflect new views of evil: Every great story deserves a great villain. For Christians who consider the Easter story one of the greatest ever told, there are few evildoers out there who match the sinister nature of Judas Iscariot. Rarely, however, have opinions been so divided about whether Judas deserves his foul reputation. When Pope Benedict XVI recently seized upon a weekly audience to underline the disciple's legacy as the "traitor of Christ," he wasn't simply restating the obvious. When the National Geographic Society publishes the first edition of a long-awaited fourth century "Gospel of Judas" later this month, it will present the gospel's main truth: that Judas was fulfilling a divine plan by handing Christ over to his executioners. Behind this push to revisit Judas' historical legacy lies a deeper trend. Judas is not just one villain among many. He is the model upon which Western society has based much of its understanding of how good and evil function. So if interpretations of Judas shift, so do society's views of evil.

Bob Smietana looks at the memoir of a young woman who survived the Rwandan genocide and learned to forgive her family's killers: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Immaculee Ilibagazi says those words haunted her during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. As she relates in her new memoir, "Left to Tell," Ilibagazi was a 22-year-old university student visiting her family during the Easter holiday when a plane carrying Rwanda President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994. His death sparked a "pandemic of violence," Ilibagazi says. "It was a disease, an epidemic of hate." Ilibagazi's parents, two of her brothers, and hundreds of her friends and neighbors, all Tutsis, were hacked to death with machetes by armed mobs of Hutus. She found refuge in the house of a Hutu pastor who hid Ilibagazi and seven other women in a tiny, spare bathroom. A wooden wardrobe, slid in front of the bathroom door to hide its existence, was all that stood between her and certain death. Out of that darkness, she eventually embraced the only way to the light, through forgiveness.

Christian Churches Together; Samford's new dean; American Theocracy

In Monday's RNS report Kevin Eckstrom writes that the largest-ever church unity group was launched on Friday: Leaders of 34 U.S. church bodies have officially launched the broadest-ever Christian unity organization in American history, and said fighting poverty will be its first priority. Christian Churches Together in the USA was formally inaugurated on Friday (March 31) after a three-day meeting outside Atlanta. A public kickoff is scheduled at the group's scheduled meeting next February. The looseknit group brings together five Christian "families" who have long been divided by historical and theological differences, including Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelicals and Pentecostals, historically black churches and Orthodox churches. Together, the five "families" represent more than 100 million American Christians. The nation's largest Protestant body, the Southern Baptist Convention, has said it will not participate.

Andrew Westmoreland will become the 18th president of Samford University, reports Charles J. Dean: It's not every day a university president admits he told a whopper to a former governor. Especially when the president is head of a Baptist school. Meet Andrew Westmoreland -- Andy to just about everybody at Ouachita Baptist University, situated in this town of about 10,000 about an hour's drive south of Little Rock. At the end of May, Westmoreland will leave Ouachita -- a school he has called home as a student, employee, teacher, administrator and president since first stepping foot on campus as a freshman 31 years ago -- to become the 18th president at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., affiliated with the Alabama State Baptist Convention. When first asked to consider the job, Westmoreland said he would pray about it. He didn't, even though he was asked later if he did. "Maybe the Lord was a little put out that I had lied about praying," said Westmoreland in explaining how he ended up with the job.

Frank Bentayou reviews "American Theocracy" by Kevin Phillips, in which the author looks at what he sees as the decline of the separation of church and state: In "Wealth and Democracy," maverick political and economic thinker Kevin Phillips urged readers to consider how "plutocracy" -- from the Greek, meaning rule by the rich -- is a fitting characterization of our nation's governance. His point was that money has become the driving force of government in the United States. In his 12th book, Phillips examines another powerful political motivator: religion. He bluntly calls this one "American Theocracy" and fills more than 400 pages with a blistering vision of the decline of what the Constitution holds, well, sacred: separation of church and state. Theocracy means government by divine authority. Phillips argues that radical religious beliefs have penetrated the course of a nation whose founders intended its government to remain separate from whatever theology citizens embraced -- or not.