August 18, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
McCain Gets Plaudits For Church Event
U.S. News &World Report (08/18/2008)
John McCain generally received better reviews than Barack Obama for his appearance at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. At the event, Obama and then McCain sat for an hour with the Rev. Rick Warren, who posed identical questions to the White House hopefuls.

After Obama-McCain forum, Rick Warren sermon focuses on character
My-Thuan Tran/Los Angeles Times (08/18/2008)
The morning after Pastor Rick Warren interviewed both major presidential candidates at his evangelical church in Orange County, he delivered a Sunday sermon urging his congregation to judge Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain on how their characters would affect their decisions as leaders.

COURTS
California doctors can't refuse fertility treatments to lesbians on religious grounds, court rules
Maura Dolan/Los Angeles Times (08/18/2008)
The California Supreme Court decides unanimously that a state antidiscrimination law trumps the religious freedom rights of doctors.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Black Churches Confront HIV-AIDS Crisis
Randall Pinkston/CBS Evening News (08/18/2008)
Despite the fact that pastors across the south have offered small consolation to people infected with the virus, AIDS activists say they need black churches the help stem the growing tide of new HIV and AIDS cases.

China halts shipment of Bibles from Vision Beyond Borders, a U.S. Christian group
Mark Magnier/Los Angeles Times (08/18/2008)
BEIJING -- An American Christian group that was stopped at the airport when it tried to bring in more than 300 Bibles won't leave the customs zone until it gets the books back, its leader said today. The four Americans, led by Pat Klein of the Wyoming-based Vision Beyond Borders, said they were convinced officials wanted them to leave the Kunming airport in southern China without the Bibles, preventing their distribution.

DENOMINATIONS
Progressive National Baptists Urge Action on Foreclosures
Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service (08/18/2008: faithinpubliclife.org)
Members of the Progressive National Baptist Convention called for governmental action to halt housing foreclosures and address climate change during their annual meeting that concluded Aug. 8 in Atlanta.

Change of heart: Archdiocese gets to work as modern Braintree hub nears finish
Matt Carroll/Boston Globe (08/18/2008)
The Archdiocese of Boston has thrown open the doors of its new facility in Braintree, completing a historic shift from the Brighton headquarters of the past 80 years.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
It's skate church, dude
Janna Goerdt/Duluth News Tribune (08/18/2008)
Wiry boys in baggy pants, wearing helmets with spray-painted crosses, flowing down the smooth plywood ramps like water. Skate church.

ARTS AND MEDIA
Biblical broadcasters fear losing money, freedom by giving time to opposing views
dallasnews.com wire reports (08/18/2008)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making Christian broadcasters nervous. Ms. Pelosi recently said she supports resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine, a 1949 Federal Communications Commission policy that required broadcasters who sent out specific messages to set aside time for opposing views.