February 27, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Bush Says Faith-Based Initiative a Success
Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service (02/27/2008: pewforum.org)
WASHINGTON - Seven years after President Bush launched his faith-based initiative, a White House report declares success in helping faith and community groups in each state receive government funding to aid the needy. "The Quiet Revolution," released Monday (Feb. 25) by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, reports that the Bush administration has helped train more than 100,000 leaders of faith and community groups on how to access funding and become more effective.

McCain apology angers conservative host
CNN (02/27/2008)
CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A conservative radio talk-show host said that "he's had it up to here" with Sen. John McCain after the GOP presidential candidate repudiated the commentator's remarks about Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at a campaign event. "John McCain threw me under a bus -- under the 'Straight Talk Express,' " Bill Cunningham told CNN on Tuesday, referring to McCain's campaign bus.

Remarks stir flap over faith at Capitol
Jim Sanders/Sacramento Bee (02/27/2008)
God is disgusted with California legislators – at least some of them, according to an evangelical chaplain who ruffled feathers this week in the same Capitol where he leads Bible studies for lawmakers. Ralph Drollinger, who played basketball at UCLA in the 1970s and now heads Capitol Ministries, criticized lawmakers who participate in a separate fellowship group that embraces people of all faiths without insisting that they accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.

CHURCH AND STATE
IRS Investigating Obama's Church
Jacqueline L. Salmon/Washington Post (02/27/2008)
The United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's spiritual home, is in hot water with the Internal Revenue Service over a speech Obama gave to its national convention last June. The IRS has notified the UCC that it has opened an investigation into Obama's address at the UCC's 2007 General Synod in Hartford, Conn., the UCC said yesterday.

At One Key Ohio Church, It's 'Obama Time'
Margaret Bernstein/Religion News Service (02/27/2008: pewforum.org)
Cleveland's black ministers have long been major players on the political scene. They're adept at dancing on the narrow line that prohibits churches from officially endorsing candidates; as long as pastors make it clear that they are only sharing personal opinions, their tax-exempt status is safe. And in the final week leading up to Ohio's crucial Democratic primary on March 4, they are being courted heavily by the Democratic presidential campaigns.

MEDICINE
Faith in the Operating Room
Tara Parker-Pope/New York Times (02/27/2008)
Patients often rely on religious faith to help them cope with illness. But for Milwaukee surgeon Dr. Bruce H. Campbell, operating on a Jehovah’s Witness rattled his own faith in himself. Dr. Campbell tells his story in an article called “Listening to Leviticus'’ that appears in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Vatican ruling is bad news for opponents of parish closings
Michael Paulson/Boston Globe (02/27/2008)
In a decree that is dimming the hopes of Catholics who have challenged the closings of parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston, the Vatican's highest tribunal has refused an appeal brought by parishioners whose church in Lowell was closed by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley four years ago.

FAITH LEADERS
Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda
Susan Schmidt/Washington Post (02/27/2008)
Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.