July 7, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Conservatives To Battle For GOP Platform
Michael D. Shear/CBS News (07/07/2008)
Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCainin advance of September's Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party's official declaration of principles.

McCain steps up efforts to woo religious voters
Wayne Slater/Dallas Morning News (07/06/2008)
John McCain has stepped up his appeal to Christian conservatives, meeting recently with religious leaders in Ohio and making a publicized pilgrimage to see Billy Graham. But even as he woos evangelicals, his campaign is pursuing a different strategy – abandoning George W. Bush's model of galvanizing the GOP base and targeting independents to make up for lost social-conservative votes.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Messianic message stirs debate
Alan Boyle/msnbc.msn.com (07/07/2008)
Scriptural scholars are abuzz over a stone tablet that is said to bear previously unknown prophecies about a Jewish messiah who would rise from the dead in three days. But there are far more questions than answers about the tablet, which some have suggested could represent "a new Dead Sea Scroll in stone."

Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel?
David Van Biema and Tim McGirk/Time (07/07/2008)
A 3-ft.-high tablet romantically dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" could challenge the uniqueness of the idea of the Christian Resurrection. The tablet appears to date authentically to the years just before the birth of Jesus and yet — at least according to one Israeli scholar — it announces the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave.

DENOMINATIONS
Anglicans Remain Split Over Women After Vote
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-religion-anglicans.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin (07/07/2008: nytimes.com)
LONDON - The Church of England's governing body confirmed on Monday it will ordain women bishops but also approved measures to accommodate traditionalist opponents.