The Christian Century articles from October 2003

The Christian Century archives from October 2003

Start-up faith.(From the editor/publisher)
October 4, 2003... AT ONE of our church's weekly staff meetings the youth minister said he had a problem and needed his colleagues' advice. In the course of teaching the confirmation class, he had asked the young people to write their own statement of faith. The...

Do we still need hell? Like the father of the Prodigal Son, God never assumes that we are beyond redemption.
October 4, 2003... A STREET PREACHER works a corner just blocks from the CHRISTIAN CENTURY office, loudly warning passersby of the wrath to come. It's always tempting to wonder, If that is the Good News, what's the bad news? Nevertheless, there is logic to this...

Companionship in grief.(Century marks)(Gail Sheehy studied the effects of 9/11 in Middletown America: One Town's Passage from Trauma to Hope)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... COMPANIONS IN GRIEF: Bestselling author Gail Sheehy (Passages) spent nearly two years after 9/11 in Middletown, New Jersey, which lost 50 people that day. It is a relatively well-to-do bedroom community where people wear a mask of perfection...

Thinking prayerfully.(Century marks)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... THINKING PRAYERFULLY: The Scottish theologian John Macquarrie has had some wise things to say about prayer, including petitionary and intercessory prayer. Petitionary prayer shouldn't be an egocentric exercise in asking God to meet our needs....

Word study.(Century marks)(The Meaning of Everything)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 4, 2003... WORD STUDY: The English language has never had something comparable to the Academie Francaise, which attempts to preserve the purity of the French language. To the dismay of purists, English has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for...

Qouting scripture.(Century marks)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... QUOTING SCRIPTURE: President Bush's spiritual renewal--after which he stopped drinking--has been well attested, including the fact that his longtime friend Don Evans, now secretary of commerce, got the future president involved in a men's Bible...

A bible for Britney Spears.(Century marks)(new Testament for teenage girls designed to resemble fashion magazine)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... A BIBLE FOR BRITNEY SPEARS? Revolve is a new Testament for teenage girls designed to resemble a fashion magazine. According to Laurie Whaley, Thomas Nelson Publishers did some research and discovered that teens don't read the Bible because "it...

Pig Latin I.(Century marks)(learning Latin with Dr. Suess)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... PIG LATIN I: If you wish you could read Latin or could recall what Latin you learned in high school, Jennifer Tunberg and Terrence Tunberg have made it easier for you. They've translated into Latin some of Dr. Seuss's classic works for...

Pig Latin II.(Century marks)(Sabbatum)(Sound Recording Review)
October 4, 2003... PIG LATIN II: What might Black Sabbath, the heavy metal band that featured Ozzy Osbourne, have sounded like if it had made its appearance during the Middle Ages? Rondellus, an Estonian medieval music group, imagines such a sound in a tribute...

No small change.(the money spent on U.S. operations in Iraq could be spent more wisely)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... NO SMALL CHANGE: The $87 billion requested by resident Bush for ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq could: * Give $300 to every man, woman and child in the U.S. * Finance the annual operations of the House and Senate, the...

AIDS cases per 100,000.(Century marks)(cases reported to World Health Organization for Nambia, Bahamas, United States, Uganda and Spain)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... AIDS cases per 100,000 Nambia 1,453.3 Bahamas 1,150.7 United States 284.6 Uganda 239.7 Spain 152.9 AIDS cases reported to World Health Organization up to November 25, 2001 (The...

The man in the black: Johnny Cash.(1932-2003)
October 4, 2003... JOHNNY CASH IS considered a pioneer of "outlaw music," yet even his secular compositions beat with moral and religious heart. Cash's childwood was stamped by country music and his mother's devotion to the Pentecostal Church of God. When J. R....

Bee.(Poem)
October 4, 2003... Bee An image hurtles against the glass, frantic to get out into a world of three or more dimensions. Like being suddenly transfigured, a collision with sunlight. The surprise, the shock of heat, the colors, bright...

Split visions for Presbyterians, Episcopalians.(News)
October 4, 2003... A PROMINENT EVANGELICAL is proposing steps for a "gracious separation" between liberal and conservative churches in the battle-weary Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Such a schism would be somewhat akin to a scenario envisioned by traditionalist...

Ex-seminary head admits to misconduct.(News)(John M. Mulder has been suspended from the Louisville Seminary)
October 4, 2003... John M. Mulder, the high-achieving president of the Presbyterian-related Louisville Seminary who said last October he was resigning due to health problems, has been suspended from the ministry for his admitted sexual misconduct with women near...

Data bite.(News)(single-parent households)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... Despite the public perception that single-parent households are becoming the norm in America, seven out often children under the age of 18 still live in two-parent homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's only a slight decrease in the...

Boston archdiocese to pay $85 million.(News)
October 4, 2003... The Archdiocese of Boston will seek mostly loan money to pay its $85 million settlement with 552 victims of clergy sexual abuse, the largest settlement in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church, according to media reports in Boston. Church...

Faith-based tax reform rejected in Alabama.(News)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... Despite an appeal to their religious sense of justice, Alabama voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposal that would have reduced taxes for the state's poorest residents and raised them on the wealthy. The $1.2 billion tax package touted by...

UMC: fewer bishops would save millions.(News)(does the United Methodist Church have more bishops than it needs?)
October 4, 2003... Do United Methodists have more bishops than they need? When church officials figured that it takes $1 million over four years to support one bishop and his or her associated expenses, a denominational agency decided to propose not electing five...

Baylor regents affirm Sloan's leadership.(News)(President Robert Sloan given solid vote of confidence)
October 4, 2003... Rather than firing Baylor University President Robert Sloan as five regents and the faculty senate had asked, the 36-member board of regents has given the president a solid vote of confidence. Before the regents went into their closed-door...

Gospel of John goes celluloid.(News)(Visual Bible International's new film production stars Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus)
October 4, 2003... Before Mel Gibson's much-anticipated, much-debated and much-unseen movie The Passion, due next year, comes The Gospel of John, a three-hour film from Toronto-based Visual Bible International Inc. The company, which has produced film...

Producer settles suit over Jesus film.(News)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... A lawsuit against Campus Crusade filed in 2901 by the producer of the ministry's movie Jesus, seen by billions around the world, has been quietly settled out of court. The film, based solely on the Gospel of Luke, was first shown in about 250...

Newsmagazines cut slots for religion.(News)(Jeffrey Sheler's layoff shows trend towards less religion coverage )
October 4, 2003... Jeffrey Sheler, a longtime religion news specialist at U.S. News and World Report, was elected as expected in September as the new president of the professional society for journalists on the religion beat at secular news media. What was not so...

A weak and weary pope visits Slovakia.(News)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... Pope John Paul II completed a four-day visit to Slovakia in mid-September despite obvious spells of weakness and fatigue, feeding speculation that this 102nd trip outside Italy might be his last. The pope's popularity; which may even be...

Appealing for AIDS aid.(News)(Agnes Nyamayarwo is calling for Congress and President Bush to fully fund initiatives)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: APPEALING FOR AIDS AID: Agnes Nyamayarwo, a Roman Catholic woman from Uganda who lost her husband and son to AIDS, joins religious leaders in calling for Congress and President Bush to fully fund initiatives...

Jerusalem tunnel dates to King Hezekiah.(News)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... Using carbon-14 dating techniques, Israeli and British scientists have determined that Siloam's Tunnel, a long, circuitous underground passage constructed below Jerusalem's ancient City of David, was probably built about 700 B.C., when King...

A woman pastor for Poland's Reformed.(News)
October 4, 2003... The Reformed Evangelical Church has become the first in Poland's Protestant minority to appoint a female pastor--150 years after the first Reformed woman was ordained in the U.S. The ordination of Wiera Jelinek, 43, is widely expected to clear...

Bill McCartney.(People)(president of Promise Keepers resigns to care for ailing wife)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... Bill McCartney, whose male-oriented Promise Keepers movement hit a peak in 1997, has resigned as president of the Denver-based evangelical organization, so that he can continue to care for his ailing wife. McCartney, a former football coach for...

The resignation of ailing Cardinal Jaime Sin, 75, a longtime defender of democracy in the Philippines, has been accepted by Pope John Paul II.(People)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... The resignation of ailing Cardinal Jaime Sin, 75, a longtime defender of democracy in the Philippines, has been accepted by Pope John Paul II. Sin, who has undergone dialysis for a kidney ailment for several years and suffered a heart attack in...

James P. Shannon.(People)(Obituary)
October 4, 2003... James P. Shannon, 82, the outspoken former Catholic auxiliary bishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul who left the priesthood over the birth control issue and later married, died of a stroke August 28. Shannon submitted his resignation to the...

Garner Ted Armstrong.(People)(Obituary)
October 4, 2003... Garner Ted Armstrong, 73, a religious broadcaster who split from his fathers Worldwide Church of God, died September 15 from pneumonia. Armstrong was president of the Intercontinental Church of God in Tyler, Texas, which he founded after...

Expulsion threat.(People)(Israeli government threatens to expel Yasir Arafat)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: EXPULSION THREAT: At his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 13, Palestinian President Yasir Arafat holds a paper citing the decision by the Israeli government to expel him. Israel...

Confirming Erik.(Living by the Word)
October 4, 2003... Sunday, October 12 Hebrews 4:12-16 WHEN ERIK CONFESSED his faith on the festival of Pentecost, the entire family of believers watched and strained to hear his confession. His chubby fingers were surprisingly dexterous as he signed the...

Parking lot palms.(Living by the Word)(when you invite the poor they come)
October 4, 2003... Sunday, October 19 Hebrews 5:1-10 WE ARE NOW SEEN by the world as having joined the ranks of those who know 'poverty' in a way we have not experienced it ever before. There have been wars, depressions and tragedies of major proportions,...

Passing it on: reflections on youth ministry.(Panel Discussion)
October 4, 2003... ARE MAINLINE CHURCHES capturing the imaginations of young people and leading them toward long-term commitments to the church? Or do they serve as revolving doors--leading one way into secularism and the other way into "hotter" forms of...

Believing and belonging.(Catholic youth ministry)
October 4, 2003... YOUTH CULTURE in the U.S. is being reinvented very three years, according to Robert J. McCarty. Keeping up with youth culture is like mapping territory that is constantly changing, he says. A Catholic with an evangelical zeal for youth...

Youth on the edge: a profile of American teens.(results of a Gallup Youth Survey)
October 4, 2003... THE CURRENT COHORT of American teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 is lonely, spiritually hungry and intensely aware of the threat of violence. That's the profile that emerges from a recent Gallup Youth Survey. Young people fear for...

America's theologian: piety and intellect.(Jonathan Edwards: A Life)(Book Review)
October 4, 2003... Jonathan Edwards: A Life. By George M. Marsden. Yale University Press 505 pp., $35.00. ONLY ONE PORTRAIT of Jonathan Edwards was painted during his lifetime, a rather conventional "likeness" done by the Boston-based painter Joseph Badger....

Edwards for us.(Jonathan Edwards grappled with the issue of free will in religious belief)
October 4, 2003... THE PURITANS were earnest folk. They had little patience with those who had no depth, no deep conviction, no profound concern with what God was doing in their lives. They wanted everyone to become a believer, of course--to assent to the reality...

Quandary farm.(Poem)
October 4, 2003... Quandary farm The morning came and went. Long shadows were lifted, set angellike on pine-tops, white-crowned clover swaying in the yard. By the door, tinging wind chimes I bought once for a gift never sent....

A stroll in Northampton.(Faith matters)(Jonathan Edwards)
October 4, 2003... ON OCTOBER 5, Jonathan Edwards turns 300. From my vantage point in Northampton, where he preached the Great Awakening and served as pastor for 23 turbulent years, it is tempting to imagine bringing him back in a time machine. But how to...

Peculiar people.(Godly and Righteous, Peevish and Perverse: Clergy and Religious in Literature and Letters)(Book Review)
October 4, 2003... Godly and Righteous, Peevish and Perverse: Clergy and Religious in Literature and Letters. Compiled by Raymond Chapman, Eerdmans, 288 pp., $25.00. ONE OF MY FAVORITE lines in modern "religions" fiction comes from Flannery O'Connor's...

In, But not of: a Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World.(Forgetting Ourselves On Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition)(Book Review)
October 4, 2003... In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World. By Hugh Hewitt. Nelson, 213 pp., $17.99. Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition. By Brian J. Mahan. Jossey-Bass,...

Photograph by Jananne Al-Ani, 1996.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 4, 2003... VEILS HAVE BEEN part of Western and Eastern cultures for millennia, but for Westerners the veil is especially associated with Muslim societies. At all times, the veil has been weighted with symbolic meanings regarding women's public presence....

Girl power.(Whale Rider)(Thirteen)(Movie Review)
October 4, 2003... ONE OF THE most satisfying films of the year, Niki Caro's Whale Rider, is set in a small Maori village on New Zealand's eastern shore. The film begins with the juxtaposition of life and death, as a mother dies giving birth to twins. The male...

Scenes of Serbia.(highlights from the Montreal Film Festival)(Movie Review)
October 4, 2003... WITH THE PREMIER of The Cordon at the Montreal World Film Festival in August, Serbian director Goran Markovic completed his trilogy on the fall of Slobodan Milosevic. Earlier films in the trilogy are Burlesque Tragedy, which won an award at the...

The state of the family: a response to Don Browning.(Living Faithfully with Families in Transition)
October 4, 2003... IN HIS CRITIQUE of "Living Faithfully with Families in Transition" (June 28), a report submitted to the recent assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)--and sent back to committee for revision--Don Browning argues that the report fails to...

Don Browning replies.(Living Faithfully with Families in Transition)
October 4, 2003... SMALL DIFFERENCES in analysis and in the use of theological sources can make for big differences in conclusions, even among friends like Homer Ashby and me, who share many of the same commitments. My criticism of "Living Faithfully" and of...

Tablets of stone.(the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from a U.S. courthouse sparks reader response)(Letter to the Editor)
October 4, 2003... I WONDER IF Americans favor posting the Ten Commandments in government buildings and having school children recite the Pledge of Allegiance because their education in history and "civics" has been limited to secondary school, while the churches...

Auto-bound ...(Letter to the Editor)
October 4, 2003... THANKS TO Albert Borgmann and David Wood for their dialogue on the philosophy of technology ("Prime time," Aug. 23). I wonder why however, when dealing with "the technological shape and character of everyday life," the automobile is mentioned...

Pluralism ...(Letter to the Editor)
October 4, 2003... PATRICIA CHANG was puzzled when Muslims did not see the self-evident benefits of pluralism, and the Muslim guests were evidently puzzled that most Americans do not see it as their duty to convert others to their religion ("Puzzled by...

Unchanging faith?(M.E.M.O.)(Eugene D. Genovese on Mark Noll's America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln)
October 4, 2003... WONDERFULLY PROLIFIC" and "as fine a historian as America now boasts" is how reviewer Eugene D. Genovese characterizes Wheaten College professor Mark Noll (New Republic, September 8 & 15). He refers to Noll's "magnum opus," America's God: From...

Gathered in hope: this memorial service was an event of magnificent hopefulness.(From the editor/publisher)
October 18, 2003... ONE OF THE difficult decisions, and sometimes compromises, ministers regularly make involves conducting funerals and memorial services for people who are not members of the congrega tion. It happens fairly often: a telephone call, sometimes...

Congruence: an authentic life is one in which there is congruence between the truths asserted and the life lived.(Editorial)
October 18, 2003... October 18, 2003 THINKING CRITICALLY, living faithfully." In those four words we've attempted to describe this magazine. In placing this phrase under our name on the cover, we offer a clue to those unfamiliar with the magazine--who come...

Practical philosophy.(Century marks)(what Catholic philosopher Mary F. Rousseau taught her students)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY: Catholic philosopher Mary F. Rousseau lost both her parents in childhood, and was sent to a verbally abusive foster home 1,000 miles away from the rest of her family. Although she received love and acceptance from her...

Serious business.(Century marks)(what Paul Weiss told Thomas R. Flynn about philosophers)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... SERIOUS BUSINESS: Not long after Thomas R. Flynn received his Ph.D. in philosophy, Paul Weiss told him: "Young man, you will never be a philosopher!" Rather pained by this prediction, Flynn asked, "Why not?'" "Because you smile too much!" Weiss...

Caveat lector.(Century marks)(Ursulline nun Nancy M. Malone's new book, Walking a Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... CAVEAT LECTOR: Walking a labyrinth is a metaphor for our journey through life, but Ursulline nun Nancy M. Malone likens a labyrinth to what happens when we read. Reading involves a process introspection that leads us circuitously; through...

Just do the right thing.(Century marks)(what Flannery O'Connor says about faith)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... JUST DO THE RIGHT THING: When Robert Hughes wrote poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins for advice on how he might lean to believe, Hopkins responded simply: "Give alms." Flannery O'Connor took notice of this advice, echoing Hopkins's counsel Mien...

Get smart.(Century marks)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... GET SMART: Geniuses are made, not born, according to researcher Carol S, Dweck. Many geniuses, like Darwin and Tolstoy, were quite unremarkable as children. Conversely, there are many examples of child prodigies who fizzled out. Effort study to...

Look before you leap, women.(Century marks)(the effects of marriage on the health of wives and husbands)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP, WOMEN: Married men are healthier than single men, regardless of the health of their marriages, studies have shown. But the health of married women depends upon the health of their marriages. Women in healthy marriages have...

If this be immorality.(Century marks)(what Moral Majority thought of Senator Paul Simon)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... IF THIS BE IMMORALITY: When Paul Simon was a U.S. senator, Jerry Falwell's now defunct Moral Majority organization gave Simon a zero for his voting record on moral issues. One of Simon's "immoral acts'" was voting for foreign aid to prevent...

For book lovers.(Century marks)(a quotation from Virginia Woolf, "How One Should Read a Book")(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
October 18, 2003... FOR BOOK LOVERS "I have sometimes dreamt... that when the Day of Judgment dawns... the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy" when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no...

Ecumenical relations.(Century marks)(what Augustus Montague Toplady said about John Wesley)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
October 18, 2003... ECUMENICAL RELATIONS: Augustus Montague Toplady, the 18th-century evangelical Anglican cleric who, wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages," threw some of his own stones at John Wesley, a contemporary. Wesley's teachings, Toplady said, "are an equal...

Case for cremation.(Century marks)(an increase in demand for triple-wide caskets)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... CASE FOR CREMATION: A sign that Americans are getting heavier is the growth of the Indiana-based Goliath Casket Company, which manufactures triplewide caskets for burying the obese. In the late 1980s, they sold just one triple-wide each year;...

In case you wanted to know.(Century marks)
October 18, 2003... IN CASE YOU WANTED TO KNOW: October is Adopt-A-Shelter Dog Month, Alternate History Month, Auto Battery Safety Month, Go Nuts Over Texas Peanuts Month, Listen to Your Inner Critic Month, National Liver Awareness Month, National Toilet Tank...

Your kid or mine? Reaching troubled youth.(the movie Thirteen)(Movie Review)
October 18, 2003... THE MOVIE Thirteen does not represent every teen's story, hut it does show every parent's nightmare. It's the story of an angry girl. Tracy (played by Evan Rachel Wood) is angry at her well-meaning mother, Mel (played by Holly Hunter), whose...

Now.(Poetry)(Poem)
October 18, 2003... October 2001 What might be left has vanished. Paradise trees, spindle-leaves once green, berries ruby-red. Now dry magenta tentacles and fruit withered, black. The god of gaps. What might be left has vanished: dew as thick as...

Power outage: when leaders don't lead.
October 18, 2003... WHAT HAPPENS when The power is seen as inherently suspect and even evil) What happens when power in the church is viewed as bad? What are the implications for the church when its leaders eschew power and influence and consider them qualities or...

October song.(Poetry)(Poem)
October 18, 2003... What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. --Rumi She stitches crows across file sky and mends a morning of pale light. She suns and plumps the earth's pillows, sweeps away a dust of dull leaves, polishing, polishing to ready...

I feel sorry for Jesus.(Favorite poems: an ongoing series of poems, with commentary, as selected by other poets.)(Poem)
October 18, 2003... People won't leave Him alone. I know He said, Wherever two or more are gathered in my name... but I'll bet some days He regrets it. Cozily they tell you what He wants and doesn't want as if they just got an e-mail....

Best sellers.
October 18, 2003... Jossey-Bass 1. Hearing with the Heart by Debra Farrington 2. Seasons of a Family's Life by Wendy Wright 3. Zen for Christians by Kim Boykin 4. The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren 5. Embracing the World by Jane...

Muslim chaplain, activist arrested.(News)
October 18, 2003... FIRST THERE WAS the arrest of Army Captain James "Yousef" Yee, 3.5, who grew up Luther an, graduated from West Point, converted to Islam and was serving as a chaplain to Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Later, two other Muslims were...

Data bite.(News)(Census Bureau figures say poor Americans continue to suffer economically)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... Americans hovering around the poverty line as well as middleclass households continue to suffer economically, according to Census Bureau figures released in late September. The official poverty figure rose from 11.7 percent of the population in...

Public religion OK, if it's not Islam.(News)
October 18, 2003... The majority of Americans approve of the display of a Ten Commandments monument in a public building but disapprove of a similar display featuring a verse from the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, a new USA Today/CNN/ Gallup Poll shows. The...

Poorer America owed more help, says NCC.(News)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... The top executive of the National Council of Churches has called on President Bush and Congress to spend as much money to alleviate poverty in the United States as they spend to rebuild Iraq. The NCC statement was occasioned by new federal...

Proctor & Gamble joins fair trade effort.(News)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... Faith-based fair trade advocacy groups are cheering a mid-September announcement from consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble that it is introducing fair-trade-certified coffee through its specialty coffee division Millstone. The negotiated...

Methodists cut social action staff by third.(News)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... The United Methodist social action agency cut more than a third of its staff positions in its Washington, D.C., headquarters and three other offices by, letting go 11 people over several days in mid-September. As such, it became the latest...

Southern Baptists face downturn in donations.(News)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... The Southern Baptist Convention is facing "serious financial challenges" that could lead to a future crisis if giving does not increase, a new report states. The report on giving found that while no entity of the nation's largest Protestant...

ELCA proposes cuts, new church structure.(News)
October 18, 2003... Although a clear go-ahead to restructure the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was given to the denomination's Church Council at the ELCA churchwide assembly in August, the proposal's details announced in mid-September caused some anguish....

Defending the decalogue.(News)
October 18, 2003... Caption: DEFENDING THE DECALOGUE: Cameron Reed of Wichita, Kansas, and Lisa Capabianco stand with a large replica of the Ten Commandments in front of the Georgia capitol in Atlanta. September 29, as part of the "Spirit of Montgomery" protest to...

Luther both praised and panned by critics.(News)
October 18, 2003... Luther, a new $40 million film epic depicting the life of Reformation leader Martin Luther, garnered appreciative nods from some critics while others found fault with it in its first weekend showings in some 300 U.S. theaters late last month....

Nigeria court overturns stoning sentence.(News)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... A Nigerian woman condemned to death by stoning on charges of adultery had her sentence overturned after human rights groups demanded that her life be spared A five-judge Islamic court in the northern town of Katsina ruled 4-1 on September 23 to...

Red hats going to Rigali, 30 others.(News)(Pope John Paul II creates 31 new cardinals in Vatican ceremonies on 21 October )
October 18, 2003... Pope John Paul II, as part of this month's 25th anniversary of his pontificate, will create 31 new cardinals in Vatican ceremonies on October 21, bringing to 135 the number of redhatted prelates eligible to elect his successor. The newest...

J. Bryan Hehir.(People)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2003... * J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities USA, has been recalled to his native Boston to help rebuild the financially troubled social services network for the Archdiocese of Boston. Hehir, who two years ago took the Alexandria,...