Top 10 Religious Right Power Brokers

GOP Candidates Wooing 10 Influential Religious Conservatives

RNS's Daniel Burke and Adelle M. Banks identify the top political power brokers of the religious right in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

Most of the people on this "top 10" list have already been courted by GOP presidential candidates, though none except Sekulow is known to have signed on with a particular campaign.

Pitcher or Pope?

Got a Catholic Question? Boy, 7, Has the Answers

RNS' Philip Turner profiles seven-year-old James Higgins, a Catholic boy who has attended daily Mass since he was three, and who has an encylopedic knowledge of the church and its history, in this week's full-text article, linked above.

Quote:

"I have it in my heart to go," said James, decked out in a blue sweat suit, a Red Sox jacket and cap. He's currently undecided between a career with the Red Sox -- or as the first American pope.

Coming Out of the Broom Closet

'Hail Persephone': Pagans Retool the Rosary

Kimberly Winston looks at "Christo-Pagans" and other neo-pagans who are adapting the Rosary for prayer to Celtic, Norse, Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, in this week's full-text RNS article, linked above.

Quote:

"It has been very common for contemporary pagans to regard Mary in some of her manifestations as a goddess," said Chas Clifton, a professor at Colorado State University and author of "Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and paganism in America." "Language and ritual have been transferred around from goddess to goddess in the pagan point of view, and the idea of having beads on a string is cross-cultural."

A Chaplain's Work is Never Done ...

Our friends over at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life posted Marcia Nelson's story about the ongoing work of military chaplains against the shortage of chaplains in the armed services ...

RNS Clips: Resurrection: Real or Metaphor?

The Dallas Morning News has Dan Burke's story on the resurrection as real historical event or metaphor for something else ...

Jesus on the Big Screen

Those sage theologians over at Entertainment Weekly have put together a list of their 12 favorite silverscreen Jesuses (Jesi?).

Leading the list, perhaps not surprisingly, is Jim Caviezel from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. With one caveat:

FINAL JUDGMENT Since Passion, Caviezel's career has been less than
heavenly. Maybe he needs to make another movie in Aramaic.

Stay Away from the Meat, but Not the Bathtub

Catholic leaders in the Philippines are advising their flock that it's OK to take a bath on Good Friday -- apparently local legend says that could be bad luck. As the International Herald Tribune notes, Monsignor Pedro Quitorio "encouraged people to bathe, especially with summer temperatures soaring to as high as 37 Celsius (98 Fahrenheit)."

New RNS Columnist Lineup

Starting this week RNS is featuring 3 new columnists in addition to returning favorites Tom Ehrich and Rabbi Jim Rudin.

E&P has the story here, and our press release can be found here.

Our new columnists are:

Phyllis Zagano, from Hofstra University.

Dick Staub, from Kindlings Muse in Seattle. Blog: http://www.thekindlings.com/

Cathleen Falsani, the pop culture maven from the Chicago Sun-Times. Blog: http://falsani.blogspot.com/

And the red hat goes to ...

Nobody knows.

Speculation is swirling -- as it is oft to do when concerning an opening in the Catholic hierarchy -- about who will replace Cardinal Edward Egan in New York now that he's reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. There's no sign that Egan is going anywhere anytime soon, but that hasn't stopped church-watchers from speculating who will take his place in the pulpit of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The CW is that Egan will stick on until April 2008 when the archdiocese wraps up celebrations for its 200th birthday. Egan seems anxious to move on -- and more than a few New York Catholics will happy to see him go -- but for now it's business as usual.

Gary Stern over at the Journal News in Westchester County has a good story laying out the scene.