News Clips: September 2005 Archives

Electronics giant apologizes and pulls ads running in newspapers and magazines.

Sony has apologized for an advertising campaign for its PlayStation game console which featured a young man wearing a crown of thorns with the slogan "Ten years of passion".

I can't get particularly worked up about this but boy was it a dumb thing to do. One wonders whether Japanese executives ignorant of the religion were calling the shots or not.

A little more dubious is the Irish ad portraying Jesus and the apostles gambling. One can argue whether gambling is always sinful but it is associated with vice and sin in our society and it would be wholly inappropriate to portray Jesus and the Twelve gambling.

I'm not sure what IKEA's goal was with the "no religion" comment. That's another no brainer (as in they used no brains).

Another day, another bunch of dumb, ignorant people making fools of themselves.

John Roberts has been confirmed with minimal bloodshed. We shall see how this goes. I am decidedly ambivalent. I'm also interested to see who Bush chooses as his next justice.
 
 
 
 
 

The new $10 U.S. note, following the $20 redesign, has been unveiled. The most notable features are a large "We The People" inscription on the right and the Statue of Liberty torch in red on the left. The strangest change is a blank oval on the back highlighting the watermark of Alexander Hamilton. The bill won't enter circulation until early 2006 sometime.

In the wake of Katrina, the differing capabilities of the Salvation Army and Red Cross have won kudos for the first and derision for the second.* The Salvation Army, victims said, was far better prepared and organized, and compared the Red Cross of FEMA (ouch).

I have to admit it's kinda nice to see a Christian organization succeed where a secular agency failed. I pray that the Gospel may be preached through this.

*Link will only last through 10/5 or so.

Woman Ticketed for Sitting on a Playground Bench with No Kids

Seems that a hospital in England has banned cooing at newborn babies because it "violates their rights" and poses an infection risk.

I can see their point about strangers touching or handling the babies but I'm not sure how cooing in the strict sense poses much of an infection risk.

I am astonished that they don't seem to realize that interacting with a baby like this is essential for its neurological development. If babies didn't want to be looked at, they would certainly not smile when you did it. Where has common sense gone?

I'd be curious to see if this policy actually reduces infections.

A priest celebrating Mass decided to demonstrate the pain that Jesus went through by pricking the kids with a pin. "I was trying to teach them is that suffering is a part of life," said Fr. Arthur Michalka, 78. A lesson he'll probably get a refresher on soon enough.

The Pope has met at length with dissident theologian Hans Kueng, who among other things denies papal infallibility and was stripped of his right to teach Catholic theology, in part due to Cardinal Ratzinger's involvement. Ironically, Kueng actually recommended that Ratzinger be hired into the theology department of his university. Kueng had positive things to say about the meeting, though they did not discuss the controversial topics.

The fact that there are more children aborted than born in Russia is contributing to a population crisis in the former Communist state. The population could be halved by the middle of the century, and factors such as poor medical care, unhealthy diet, fondness for vodka, sterilizations from botched abortions and chemical damage, accidents, military conflicts, and other factors are conspiring to reduce the population by alarming levels.

Russia could prove to be the example of the dangers of out of control population control. Then again it's got lots of competition in the European countries, particularly Italy. I wonder if the proponents of population control understand that the Muslims believe in large families, and there is a risk the west could be vanquished simply by losing the population war.

I wonder if this might not be particularly relevant in Russia, surrounded by a number of Muslim states with unpronounceable names. Not sure whether their population growth is like that of the Arab states.

But I'd argue that it's downright patriotic to have a large family, the snide remarks from strangers notwithstanding. The survival of our culture and religion is at stake.

The Bible Literacy Project has developed a course in the Bible &mdash with input from prominent Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and secular scholars — that aims to teach the bible as literature while respecting its religious significance and avoiding legal and religious disputes. After all, 60 percent of allusions in one English Advanced Placement prep course come from the Bible, so it's important for students to learn it (and today's students are woefully ignorant).

Given the way the courts have been ruling, this course seems like an excellent idea to me to inject some basic knowledge about the Bible into a public-school classroom. Something is better than nothing. Obviously if it were my kid I'd prefer to teach them myself in a more explicitly religious way but for your average student, this sounds like a good deal.

... and it's damning. Though not entirely surprising. Basically it says two cardinals, Krol and Bevilacqua, covered things up.

The dining contractor for Baylor University in Texas, a Baptist school, has removed Starbucks cups with a quote by a gay author (relevant to being gay) from the dining facilities. The university didn't even request it. Kudos to Aramark. I wonder what would happen if you tried that at a Catholic university. One shudders to think.

The pope has formally banned men with same-sex attraction from entering seminary. The ban extends even to those who live lives of faithful celibacy and chastity.

I personally think that the ban is unfortunate because it lumps together the well-adjusted, totally faithful man with a slight degree of SSA and the practicing homosexual with serious issues. I think it is possible for a chaste man with SSA to function well in the priesthood, and I think many do well and serve the priesthood well. To exclude these faithful men from the priesthood on account of what temptation they are subject to does, I think, a disservice to them.

The Vatican has given an account of John Paul II's last days, his hospitalization, condition, and so forth. Hopefully, should any question or doubt arise concerning his death, this account will lay them to rest.

More than half of American teens age 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex, increasing to nearly 70 percent for those who are 18 and 19, according to the largest federal study of the nation's sexual practices.

The data show that, among teens ages 15 to 19, 55 percent of males and 54 percent of females reported engaging in oral sex. Among those 18 to 19, the figure grows to about 70 percent for both sexes.

Overall, more teens had oral sex than vaginal sex: 53 percent of girls age 15 to 19 and 49 percent of boys reported that they had had intercourse.

(quoted from article)

I know this is not exactly faith-related — and I never promised to only make faith-related posts — but I just have to point out this report on what stymied aid in the wake of Katrina:

• Doctors told to mop floors instead of attend to the dying out of concern for liability.
  
• Water trucks told they could not unload without a bureaucratic number the drivers didn't understand.
  
• Firefighters forced to take courses in sexual harassment and community relations while the city burned.
  
• Police volunteers turned back due to squabbles over who's in charge.

Un-freaking-believable. Just un-freaking-believable. Where are these people's priorities? What planet are they from? How can any human being with any compassion act this way? Can we string these people up? Ok, ok, no capital punishment. But it sure makes you cry out for justice.

Thanks for helping me get this off my chest.

Well that's the end of that. Gay marriage is now firmly ensconced in Massachusetts and, consequently, the nation. I'm too dismayed about it to talk about it further. (Never mind dealing with some jubilant friends.)

The House has voted to add sexual orientation to the hate crimes statute. The Senate has yet to vote on it. Will this make the U.S. like Canada where merely reading the bible in public can land you in jail? Will there be freedom of religions to teach that homosexual acts are wrong? Only time will tell. But let me tell you: Call your Senators and have them oppose this!

The baby that was born of a brain-dead woman kept on life support for the baby's sake, Susan Torres, a event I reported on here, died early Monday of heart failure. This was the Torres' second child. A sad, sad day.

Ontario has decided to ban all legal recognition of religious tribunals and arbitration in order to prevent the implementation of Muslim Sharia law. See, apparently the Muslims wanted to take advantage of the laws permitting religious entities to solve disputes such as child custody, inheritance, and divorce, but an outcry arose because people knew this would discriminate against women. So the solution was to take it away from everyone. I'm not exactly sure what effect this will have on marriage tribunals (someone call Peter Vere!) but it can't be good.

China has its knickers in a twist because the Pope extended an invitation to both the official Chinese bishops and the underground Catholic bishops to meet together. My question is, how can they possibly think that the Vatican is going to slight bishops who are unquestionably loyal to her and have gone through persecution for the sake of that loyalty? Shouldn't they be happy that the official Chinese bishops got an invitation? Sheesh! Who can figure the Chinese out?

A British prep school has decided to implement a quota for f-words in class. The word is "tolerate and not condone", but students will be permitted to use the word or a derivative up to five times apiece. Lest you think this will encourage swearing, the "praise postcards" sent to the parents of children who do not swear ought to really keep 'em in line.

CNN reports, "[Bush] declared Sept. 16 a national day of prayer for 'those who did not survive the storm.'"

Interesting to hear a Protestant president declare a national day of prayer for the dead. In all probability he's just not thinking straight but hey, I'll take it … (It's also possible the reporter munged the quote — it's been known to happen.)

MP offers to pay fees for university girls who remain virgins

A right honorable idea. The article notes that it isn't extended to men, but, duh, it's not hard to see why.