July 14, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Finding His Faith
Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe/Newsweek (07/14/2008)
So much has been made about Barack Obama's religion. But what does he believe, and how did he arrive at those beliefs?

Barack Obama once arranged for a $200,000 state grant
Bob Secter and Ray Gibson/Chicago Tribune (07/14/2008)
As a state senator from Chicago's South Side, Barack Obama once arranged for a $200,000 state grant to jump-start an urban venture capital fund for a non-profit group run by Rev. Jesse Jackson. The grant was the very sort of faith- based initiative now at the center of an uncomfortable rift between Jackson and Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Mag satire panned; depicts Obamas as Muslim, terrorist
Jill Lawrence/USA Today (07/14/2008)
This week's New Yorker set off a Web-and-cable frenzy Monday over cover art that shows Barack Obama as a Muslim, Michelle Obama as a militant and the American flag aflame under a portrait of Osama bin Laden — all in the Oval Office. Reactions to the cartoon by artist Barry Blitt ranged from sadness to rage to scorn.

ABUSE CRISIS
While some move on, effects are 'never over'
Peter Smith/Courier-Journal (07/14/2008)
New victims continue to approach the church, even though the experience is so traumatic for some that they become ill on the steps to the church offices.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
Pastor cares for exotic dancers
Amy Flowers Umble/Free Lance-Star (07/14/2008)
God finds strippers in mysterious ways. In religious pamphlets warning of sins, which miraculously show up in the bathrooms of strip clubs. In the glares of churchgoers who encounter exotic dancers. In the men who pay for lap dances on Saturday nights and slip into pews the next morning. In the missionary zeal of evangelists who tell the dancers that Jesus loves them, as long as they stop taking their clothes off for money. And in the Rev. Lia Scholl, who walks into Richmond clubs with gifts for the dancers, teaches them how to save their money, talks to them on the phone and ends every conversation by saying, "I love you, you're a star."