January 18, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Evangelicals not on same page
Louise Roug/Los Angeles Times (01/18/2008)
GREENVILLE, S.C -- The Christian heart of the Republican Party beats fiercely on the broad boulevard where one finds both the gated entrance to Bob Jones University and the headquartersof His Radio network, home to an AM Christian station and a sister music station, 'FM With Love From Jesus.' But the two bastions of Southern evangelism mirrored the split in the ranks of conservative voters before the state's Republican primary Saturday.

Jesus Christ's Superstar
James Poniewozik/Time (01/18/2008)
Mike Huckabee, the bass-playing, weight-loss-book-writing, late-night-quipping, Chuck Norris--befriending pastor, has turned an easy facility with pop culture into free media for his underfunded -underdog campaign. Huckabee's campaign is like The Chronicles of Narnia or VeggieTales cartoons: a Christian crossover product.

Southern Blacks Are Split on Clinton vs. Obama
Shaila Dewan/New York Times (01/18/2008)
Across the South, a fierce competition is afoot for black voters, who are expected to constitute 20 percent to 50 percent of voters in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Jan. 26 and in the four Southern states with primaries on Feb. 5: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee. In many counties, registration has spiked since Mr. Obama won the Iowa caucuses, and election officials say interest is at its highest point in several election cycles.

Pastor Challenges IRS Rules on Pulpit Politicking
Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service (01/18/2008: pewforum.org)
A Wisconsin pastor has challenged the Internal Revenue Service by writing an open letter that criticizes rules against ministers getting too political in their pulpits. In a full-page advertisement published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday (Jan. 16), Pastor Kenneth Taylor of Calvary Assembly of God in Algoma, Wis., dared the IRS to investigate a November 2006 sermon he preached about faith and elections.

STEM CELLS
Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells
Rick Weiss/Washington Post (01/18/2008)
Scientists at a California company reported yesterday that they had created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
1 new word in Book of Mormon stirs church-vs.-science debate
Lisa Nicita/Arizona Republic (01/18/2008)
One word is causing a world of controversy. The Mormon community, as well as outsiders, is abuzz over a slight change to the latest edition of the Book of Mormon. Local Mormon faithful appear to be unswayed by the change, while those who already questioned the validity of the community's religious claims are using the controversy to bolster their stance against the religion.

Ancient mask from Alaska ghost village returned to descendants
Associated Press (01/18/2008: suntimes.com)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska---- Four decades after it was abandoned, King Island holds an almost mystical pull for former inhabitants and their descendants, its crumbling homes still perched on stilts, clinging to the steep, rocky terrain. Until recently, little else remained of the island, an Inupiat Eskimo village, except for traditions, memories and artifacts scattered at museums around the nation. Then came word from a stranger nearly 2,000 miles away who said she possessed an ancient mask a relative brought back from Alaska more than a century ago.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
Big tab still rises at shut churches
Michael Paulson/Boston Globe (01/18/2008)
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston says it is spending $880,000 a year to maintain 14 churches that it has tried to close but are occupied by protesters, tied up in litigation, or restricted because of appeals to the Vatican.

ARTS AND MEDIA
'Falling' marks a radical departure for filmmaker Richard Dutcher
Sean P. Means/Salt Lake Tribune (01/18/2008)
The shocking thing about "Falling," the latest movie by Utah County-based filmmaker Richard Dutcher, isn't the movie's R-rated violence. Or its profanity. Or its harsh handling of issues of faith. What's shocking is that Dutcher, who in 2005 had what he calls'a sudden shift in understanding' that caused him to leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote this challenging movie in 1999 - when he was still a devout Mormon, and before he started filming his landmark LDS missionary drama 'God's Army.'