January 25, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Religious leaders urge Bush to redeem 'shameful' legacy
Matthew Streib/Religion News Service (01/25/2008: usatoday.com)
WASHINGTON — Catholic and evangelical social justice leaders on Thursday urged President Bush to use his upcoming State of the Union address to turn around what they called his faltering moral legacy. Frequently referring to the state of American public policy as 'shameful,' the representatives of five major religious organizations said Bush has sidestepped pressing religious concerns, despite his recurrent religious rhetoric.

Huckabee Learned Politics in Church
Rachel Zoll/Associated Press (01/24/2008: ap.google.com)
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Mike Huckabee learned how to be a politician in church. As pastor at Immanuel Baptist in Pine Bluff, he visited the home of every member. Years later, he could recall their names. He learned how to raise money, even in struggling congregations. And in a statewide fight over Baptist leadership, he confronted powerful opponents and won. He called it 'some of the most intense hardball politics I have ever seen.'

EDUCATION
Leading scientists oppose creation institute's degree plan
Ralph K.M. Haurwitz/Austin American-Statesman (01/24/2008)
A Bible-oriented group's proposal to offer a degree in science education has drawn opposition from some of the state's leading physicians and scientists, including a Nobel laureate who warned that Texas is at risk of becoming 'the laughingstock of the nation.' Critics of the proposal by the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research have peppered the state's commissioner of higher education with e-mails in recent weeks. Dozens of the institute's supporters, including some scientists and physicians, also have e-mailed Commissioner Raymund Paredes, in some cases apparently prompted by a plea from the institute's chief executive.

Archbishop and coach trade barbs
Associated Press (01/25/2008: cnn.com)
ST. LOUIS, Missouri -- A Roman Catholic archbishop's call this week for Saint Louis University to discipline its popular basketball coach for publicly supporting abortion rights has put the Jesuit school in a bind. If the university takes action against Rick Majerus, no stranger to controversy throughout his career, it risks criticism for clamping down on the free exchange of ideas. If it doesn't, it looks like it's brushing off Archbishop Raymond Burke, who chastised Majerus for airing his views at a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally last weekend.

Vidor ISD bows to the ACLU on pledge of allegiance
Paul S. Martinez/Beaumont Enterprise (01/25/2008)
Vidor ISD now is ahead of the curve when it comes to at least one aspect of civil liberties, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The ACLU of Texas applauded the district Wednesday for changing a pledge of allegiance policy about which it specifically had complained and which still is observed by nearly every other district in the area. It also is the official policy of the Texas Association of School Boards.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Pope faced away from worshippers, but will stick to Vatican II
suntimes.com (01/25/2008)
VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican official says Pope Benedict XVI doesn't want to roll back the modernizing liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The pope last year removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, a rite that was all but swept away by the Second Vatican Council. But Monsignor Guido Marini told Vatican radio that Benedict only wants to maintain continuity with Roman Catholic tradition.

Anti-Gay Church to Protest Ledger Funeral
Russell Goldman/ABC (01/24/2008)
A fundamentalist church whose members demonstrate at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and believe God hates gays will protest the Academy Awards and the funeral of Heath Ledger, because the actor played a gay cowboy in the 2005 film 'Brokeback Mountain.'

Saints' relics on eBay cause a stir
Rebecca Rosen Lum/Contra Costa Times (01/23/2008)
The sale of what the Catholic Church terms first-class relics -- bits of bone, hair and flesh -- outrages Tom Serafin, a Catholic activist and the president of the International Crusade for Holy Relics, a Los Angeles-based organization that maintains a traveling exhibit of venerated articles. It's not the prices that get Serafin hopping mad. It's the fact that pitches appear on the site for the remains of saints and objects of worship, such as Eucharist wafers used in holy communion.

SCIENCE
Scientists poised to create life
Jeremy Manier/Chicago Tribune (01/25/2008)
Like cooks whipping up a recipe from scratch, a team of genetics researchers has artificially assembled all of the genes needed to make a simple bacterium, in hopes of creating a synthetic organism by the end of the year.