Vatican installs New Gate...LORD it's a slow news day...

It may not be pearly, but the Vatican is opening a new gate in its centuries-old walls. The Vatican, the world's smallest sovereign state, said Tuesday it would open a new gate Friday -- to be used only by cars and pedestrians leaving the Catholic enclave. The seat of the papacy is a small place, so the event is big local news -- worthy of a one-and-a-half page statement from the "office of the governor."

So, even if you didn't like or necessarily agree with him, JPII took on Communism and the liberation of Poland and things like that. BXVI.......installs gates.

And there was much rejoicing.

God, Jesus, and Coffee, not necessarily in that order

Really not sure what to make of this one, but I was trying out Blogpulse.com, which lets you search blogs. They have this nifty "trend search" which will place the frequency of posts about any given subject on a graph for you.

Being a theology blog, I tried out "God" and "Jesus" because, hey, you can't get any more basic than that, right? Also I tried something a bit more neutral (at least to most people), "coffee". And thus we find the following:




Frankly, I was surprised at the 6-month popularity of blogging about God. It consistently beat out such things as "coffee" "George Bush" and even "sex". However, Jesus scored fairly low except, of course, for Christmas and Easter.

Now, of course this little study of mine is unscientific in the extreme, and perhaps the only thing people were blogging about were swear phrases involving the use of the word "God", but at the very least it's nice to know people think more about Jesus than they do about coffee at least twice a year...

Basil Pennington Dies

June 3, 2005. With heavy heart and confidence in the Resurrection, I announce that Father Basil Pennington, one of the principal original teachers of centering prayer, died June 3, 2005 at 5.40 PM Eastern time. He was being weaned from his respirator and was recovering fairly well from the many surgeries he experienced after his very serious car accident on March 29. He took, however, a sudden and unexpected turn for the worse yesterday morning. He died with his abbot, Father Damian, and Father Matthew, his close friend, with him. He clearly communicated his wish that as he took a turn for the worse, he be allowed to die with no further surgical intervention, peacefully surrounded with his brother monks praying for him. And he did.

This is from thecentering.org website. It's very sad, especially considering I could barely find any news articles about it at all. But then I suppose since it didn't have anything to do with a suicide bomber, Bush, or homosexuality no one cares. I'm kind of assuming that if you read a blog like this you probably already know this, but Pennington was a Trappist monk (i.e. a member of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and a prolific writer. His best known work was Centering Prayer which helped to popularize this form of prayer again in the west. Some felt that his thought at times strayed too far afield from traditional Christianity, but regardless he helped to bring the concept of Christian contemplation back to the Western masses.

Br. Basil pray for us.

Rowan Williams to Authorise Controversial Civil Unions for Gay Clergy, as long as they don't have sex...

Coming at a very interesting time considering where things stand in the Anglican Communion,

It has been announced that homosexual priests in the Church of England may officially be allowed to take part in civil unions under new proposals drawn up by senior bishops, which was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Now, I have to admit that this sounds very like an attempt to appease both sides. None of us are naive enough to think that two people who join in a civil union and presumably live together are not going to have sex. But this way they can tell the liberal side that they're allowing "gay marriage" (even if they're calling it something different), while at the same time telling the conservative side that they're not allowing gay sex.

Methinks neither side will be satisfied with this, but it's an imaginative try. So is this ever going to be thrown open for laity as well, or just gay priests?

Oh, and apropos of nothing, did I mention that The Windsor Report is available online here?

Pope Benedict vows to heal very very very very old wounds

Not that he's ambitious or anything, but:

POPE Benedict XVI made his first papal trip yesterday, visiting the Italian city of Bari, where he pledged to work to end Roman Catholicism's 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox Church.

1,000 year-old rifts are fairly tall orders on the whole, but nice to see the guy grabbing the bull by the horns, as it were.

Also, can I just point out how cool it is that the new Pope's first papal trip is to visit the relics of Santa Claus?

North Carolina officials won't stop religious slaughter of lambs, but will videotape to show at parties

A plan by Muslims to slaughter 100 lambs on a farm this weekend as part of a religious rite has come under scrutiny from state agricultural officials, who expect to videotape what they consider an unlicensed slaughterhouse.

The state is concerned because the Rowes are not licensed to run a slaughterhouse. They have raised the lambs on their farm 35 miles southeast of Raleigh and will lease it for the weekend to Muslims who want to slaughter a lamb under the rules of halal.

What concerns me about this whole thing is not one or the other side's positions but that no one seems to be able to agree if it's illegal in North Carolina or not. The farmer's lawyer has simply said he doesn't "think" it's violating any laws; and the worst the state has threatened is to show up and video tape the shenanigans. Is this typical judiciary practice is NC?

Anyhow for those looking for actual information and not just ridicule (yes we do occasionally actually provide real information here!):

The three-day holiday [of Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice] honors Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son because of his obedience and devotion to God. It also marks the end of the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca.

Now word yet on if state agriculture officials videotaping to proceedings are a traditional part of the holiday or merely one of the quaint North Carolina adaptations.

Anti-Gay Religious Group Targets SpongeBob

I was going to target this one in the just plain weird category, but then actually we've been here before:

James Dobson of the conservative group Focus on the Family said this week that the makers of the [SpongeBob] video planned to mail it to schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes sexual identity.

When you remember the brief furore created when, I believe it was, Jerry Falwell said Teletubbies encouraged homosexuality because Tinky Winky was obviously openly gay, what with being purple and carrying a purse; I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone hit SpongeBob. And I must admit I've always been just a little suspicious of Patrick what with him being pink! And a starfish!! Um, not that starfish have anything necessarily to do with homosexuality, but I mean, come on, if gay people were going to be fish don't you think they'd be starfish?!

So I'm glad someone has finally taken the time to put the seething cesspool of moral decay which is SpongeBob Squarepants into the trash bin where it belongs. Oh, unless, of course, it all turns out to be a case of mistaken identity, as the article suggests. Then that angry mob of family values people might feel just a touch embarrassed as they stand beside the lynched bodies. Faux pas!!

Humanists, atheists look to higher global profile since no one really likes them much

So this has the makings of a nice theological argument: should a blog about religion and theology include stories about atheism? Bring that tidbit up at seminary! So anyhow all those who believe in nothing have suddenly become aware that nobody actually cares so:

HUMANIST and atheist groups around the world are looking to boost their profile in 2005 to counter religious fundamentalism and efforts by some Western leaders to relaunch faith as a keystone of national life.

Under pressure from the rise of militant Islam, Vatican activism in the European Union and the re-election of a “born-again” Christian to the White House, they feel they must resist to ensure the ideas of secularism survive and spread.

Fair enough if you’'re into that. But what gets me is this quote:

“In the face of the religious onslaught on Humanist values, we have to speak out and get our message over,” says Roy Brown, Swiss-based president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Does this guy not sound like Orville Roberts’ bitter younger brother? Humanist values, family values, orthodontic values….your pick, really….

The good, the bad in religious books....what about the ugly?

Richard Ostling of the Associated Press gives us his top four "best" religious books of 2004. What's even more interesting is his list of "worst" books, which evidently included a homoerotic book about Jesus and something by a Presbyterian (natch)who wants to have a threesome and abolish marriage (presumably not necessarily in that order).