(RNS) Oklahoma’s devastating tornado stirred up a theological debate that was set off from a series of deleted tweets referencing the Book of Job.

Screenshot of speaker John Piper’s Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/JohnPiper)

Popular evangelical author and speaker John Piper regularly tweets Bible verses, but two verses tweeted after the tornado struck some as at best insensitive and at worst bad theology:

“Your sons and daughters were eating and a great wind struck the house, and it fell upon them, and they are dead.” Job 1:19
“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.” Job 1:20

In the Book of Job, God allows Satan to afflict “blameless” Job, killing his 10 children, livestock and servants. While Piper’s tweets didn’t mention the tornado by name, critics said it was too close, and inappropriate.

Piper, who recently retired from the pulpit of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, is a leading theologian of the neo-Calvinist movement that’s sweeping many evangelical churches. In essence, Desiring God staffer Tony Reinke wrote, Piper was highlighting God’s sovereignty and that he is still worthy of worship in the midst of suffering and tragedy.

In response, popular evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans blasted Piper’s “abusive theology of  ‘deserved’ tragedy,” and said Christians have to stop the idea of responding to tragedy by suggesting God is inflicting his judgment.

“The only thing we need to tell them is, ‘I don’t know why this happened but God is good and God loves us,’” she said in an interview.

However, she apologized in a follow-up post. “Piper’s tweet was vague enough that I don’t know that he was necessarily saying this point this time. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to call him out.”

Piper, who has nearly a half a million followers, was unavailable for comment but he tweeted a brief explanation:

My hope and prayer for Oklahoma is that the raw realism of Job's losses will point us all to his God "compassionate and merciful." Jam.5:11

— John Piper (@JohnPiper) May 21, 2013

“John realized last night pretty quickly that what gives him comfort in the wake of tragedy is not what resonates with everyone,” David Mathis, executive director of Piper’s Desiring God ministry, wrote in an email on Tuesday (May 21).

Idaho pastor and blogger Doug Wilson came to Piper’s defense, saying that the theological issues are logically simple but emotionally complex.

“The Christian church has to return to a robust understanding of who God is,” Wilson said in an interview. “If we do, we won’t have to hash through this with every tragedy.”

Author Philip Yancey said that the worst thing Christians could do is to be like Job’s friends, who tried to explain why God allowed tragedy to strike Job’s family.

“God endorses the confusion and even outrage that we feel when mysterious things happen,” Yancey said. “When suffering happens, it forces us to confront life in a different way than we normally do.”

Megachurch pastor Rick Warren tweeted a few days after the tornado, “In deep pain, people don’t need logic, advice, encouragement, or even Scripture. They just need you to show up and shut up.#Love.”

This is not the first time Piper has generated theological debate through Twitter. After blogger Justin Taylor suggested Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” book was universalist, Piper tweeted “Farewell Rob Bell” with a link to the post.

Piper also came under fire after suggesting in a blog post that a small tornado during a conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America was a “gentle but firm warning” as it debated its position on homosexuality.

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And multiple agents quickly set up to collect funds and resources in response. A Facebook friend posted a phone number for receiving donations by text message. The final episode of “Dancing with the Stars” repeatedly promoted the Red Cross.

Members of the Oklahoma National Guard's 63rd Civil Support Team conduct search and rescue operations in response to the May 20, 2013, EF-5 tornado that ripped through the center of Moore, Oklahoma. Photo courtesy The National Guard, via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/en6Din)

And all of that is good in multiple ways. First, it gets us participating in the recovery that is so necessary. Lives have been shattered, and the need is great.

Second, it connects us more closely with others, if only for a moment. Through the sense of shared experience, we remember that we are indeed one nation, one society, one common humanity.

Third, it pulls us out of our own (often petty) problems and confronts us with the nature of genuine suffering.

One of the Hasidic tales recorded by Martin Buber suggests that, if we had the opportunity to choose from all the troubles of the world to experience, we’d end up picking the ones we already have.

But.

I experienced a couple major wildfires when I lived in southern California, and I noticed something during one of them.  Lots of people were evacuated from their homes to centrally located shelters (San Diego baseball stadium, for instance).

In these locations, community developed as people from various walks of life were forced together.  For the first time for some, they met and interacted with people of different religious, racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

And the media showed numerous stories of unlikely friendships and unexpected generosity, all made possible by the unavoidable proximity of people who would never otherwise meet.

The trouble was, as soon as the danger was over, folks returned to their homes and daily lives – and retreated behind their familiar emotional and experiential barriers.  The budding community developed in shared shelter evaporated.

And while the immediate crisis disappeared, lots of suffering continued unacknowledged and unabated.

Some returned home to find possessions or even loved ones lost in the conflagration.  Others left a shelter situation that was at least as comfortable as their customary situation, returning to poverty, discrimination and loneliness.

My heart continues to ache for the people of Moore, Okla. – and those in Boston, and Newtown, Conn., and Joplin and Haiti, and so many other places.  I’ve seen up close what a major tornado can do, and I’ve got a daughter and her family in Oklahoma.

But I also see two problems that go unrecognized in our temporary hyper-focus on “the disaster of the week.”

One is how quickly our minds return to business as usual, how fast the barriers between people are rebuilt, how soon others become invisible again.  We text our donation or make an online contribution, and then forget.

And the other is the list of ongoing, still unresolved problems in all of our communities – poverty, unemployment, lack of health care or affordable housing, and so on.

There are no emergency funds for these disasters, but they ruin lives every day and drain energy and resources that might help our society recover even faster when an emergency comes along.

Related stories

• 12 belief-related resources for helping Oklahoma
• Mid-Missourians respond to Oklahoma tornado
• After Boston, will we make peace or holy patriots?
• A look back at Boston marathon bombing coverage
• We need more than prayer

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is seeking an exemption from the part of the healthcare mandate requiring employers to offer coverage that includes acccess to the morning-after pill. 

The craft store chain's fight, made on behalf of the founding family, has reached the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

But they're not the only business challenging the mandate. A construction firm in Illinois and an auto maker in Indiana are also asking to be relieved from compliance.

The Becket Fund, a legal and educational institute that seeks to protect the expression of all faiths, tracks cases involing the HHS mandate. According to the Becket Fund website, "there are 60 cases and over 190 individuals representing hospitals, universities, businesses, schools, and people all speaking with one voice to affirm the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Constitution."

Should businesse be able to get exceptions on the contraception mandate?

Take our poll. 

A look at 25 plays with gay Mormon characters and themes in the past 20 years. FAVS graphic by Tiffany McCallen

Twenty years ago, a gay Mormon character stepped onstage for the first time. His name was Joe Pitt, and he was in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches.”

Pitt lived in New York with a good reputation and a bad marriage to a woman addicted to Valium. As colleagues dealt with the devastation and uncertainty of AIDS – it was the 1980s – he grappled with openly acknowledging his sexuality. He was Mormon. And gay. And the two didn’t mix.

Before Pitt, there was a gay Mormon character in a novel: Brigham Anderson, in Allan Drury’s “Advise and Consent,” published in 1959. But words like “gay” and “homosexual” weren’t used; it was all innuendo.

Now, the scene has changed: Gay Mormon characters and themes have a growing role in theater and literature.

Utah playwright Eric Samuelsen said “Angels in America” was a turning point: “For a lot of LDS playwrights, part of the reaction to that play was, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’”

But the biggest catalyst came in 2008, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints threw its weight behind Proposition 8, the ballot measure that ended gay marriages in California. Prop 8 is now before the Supreme Court, with a decision expected in coming weeks.

Gerald Argetsinger gives a talk at the University of Missouri about the increasing number of gay Mormon characters and themes in theater. He is also the editor of an anthology of short works that deal with homosexuality and Mormonism, due out this summer. RNS photo by Kellie Kotraba/Columbia FAVS

“I really believe that Prop 8 really inspired a lot of people to say, ‘I’m not taking this anymore, I’m going to write my story,’” said Gerald Argetsinger, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He spoke at a University of Missouri conference about LGBT theater in April. 

Argetsinger, who is gay and Mormon himself, has spent the past few years working with friends to compile works that contain gay Mormon themes and characters. Their anthology, “Latter-Gay Saints: An Anthology of Gay Mormon Fiction,” is due out this July from Lethe Press.

Looking back to 1959, they found more than 200 plays, short stories and novels — half are from the past five years.

In the past 20 years, 25 plays with gay Mormon characters or themes have been professionally produced or performed as major shows on college or university campuses, with more than 15 in the past five years.

Logan Tarantino and Topher Rasmussen perform in Plan-B Theatre’s ‘Adam & Steve and the Empty Sea.” Photo by Rick Pollock/courtesy Plan-B Theatre

The growth of gay Mormon theater comes against a culture shift in how the Mormon church relates to gays and lesbians. The church-run website mormonsandgays.org pairs the church’s official stance – “(homosexual) attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is” – with stories of gay Mormons and their families and friends.

Another independent group, Mormons Building Bridges, is “dedicated to conveying love and acceptance to LGBT individuals.”

Shell-shocked by the backlash set off by the church’s support of Prop 8, the church has largely sat out recent statewide fights over gay marriage, and recently announced its support for the compromise proposal of the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay youth but exclude gay leaders.

Fiction has provided a way to talk about the lingering tensions on both sides.

After “Angels in America,” there was Mark O’Donnell’s “Strangers on Earth,” Paul Rudnick’s “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” and Neil Labute’s “A Gaggle of Saints.”

In 2001, Moises Kaufmann’s “The Laramie Project” told the story of the beating death of gay rights icon Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. One of the men who beat him was Mormon, and the show put a spotlight on the church’s uneasy relationship with homosexuality.

More recent works involve two subsets of characters in the gay-and-Mormon narrative: women and missionaries. Argetsinger has noticed a difference between gays and lesbians in the way they write about the church.

“Lesbians are able to put the church behind them better than Mormon men are,” Argetsinger said. When they leave the church, they don’t look back in writing. They just leave.

Only four of the 25 gay and Mormon plays in the past 20 years have been written by women: Julie Jensen’s “Wait” in 2005, Carol Lynn Pearson’s “Facing East” in 2006, Laekin Rogers’ “Hands of Sodom” in 2008 and Melissa Leilani Larson’s “Little Happy Secrets” in 2009.

Gay missionaries make frequent appearances. In 2009, Steven Fales’ “Missionary Position” told the story of a “squeaky-clean Mormon boy on his mission, trying to hide his homosexuality.” That same year, Devan Mark Hite told the story of another gay Mormon missionary with “Since ‘Psychopathia Sexualis.’”

Matthew Greene’s “Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea,” tells the story of a missionary and his gay best friend. Photo courtesy Plan-B Theatre

In 2011, “The Book of Mormon” musical stormed Broadway – and so did its gay missionary character. The show has been wildly successful, which Argetsinger credits to the show’s satirical approach.

A newer show, Matthew Greene’s “Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea,” tells the story of a missionary and his gay best friend. It premiered this January at Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City – a venue dedicated to highlighting the works of Utah playwrights.

Plan-B’s producing director Jerry Rapier. Photo courtesy Jerry Rapier

Although some of its recent shows have dealt with homosexuality and Mormonism, Plan-B’s producing director Jerry Rapier said that’s not necessarily the focus. He thinks in terms of “a character who happens to be gay and Mormon, instead of a gay Mormon character.”

In February, Plan-B brought the first transgender Mormon character to the stage in Matthew Ivan Bennett’s “ERIC(A).” The show is about a man grappling with a sex change operation after years spent living as a Mormon housewife.

Teresa Sanderson performs in Plan-B Theatre’s ERIC(A). Photo by Rick Pollock/courtesy Plan-B Theatre

An insider perspective makes the shows work, said Rapier, who is gay. “They ring true because they are written by active, faithful Mormons,” he said.

Many of the stories are based in reality – take Samuelsen’s “Duets.” It’s part of three one-act plays slated to open next season, and it’s about a woman who tells her best friend that her husband is gay.

“It’s a fictional play, but I could plug in the names and faces of lots of kids I’ve known,” said Samuelsen, who taught at church-owned Brigham Young University for 20 years and watched several college-age women marry men they knew were gay.

Self-publishing has also propelled the increase in works about homosexuality and Mormonism. That’s what worked for Seattle writer Johnny Townsend, who collaborated with Argetsinger on the upcoming anthology.

He’s written at least 70 short stories and sold at least 1,200 books. Many of his characters are Mormon or Jewish – he’s a former Mormon, now a non-practicing Jew. Some of them are gay.

Self-publishing allows for targeting a niche audience, but Townsend said that audience is “not nearly big enough.”

Ironically, he said, sometimes the people most intimately connected with the stories aren’t interested. People who are gay and Mormon – or were Mormon – “are over it; they don’t want to read about Mormons anymore.”

Here's a quick look at 12 faith-related organizations you can give through. Organizations are listed alphabetically:

Atheists Giving Aid

Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

Catholic Charities USA

Episcopal Relief and Development

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America tornado fund

Foundation Beyond Belief

Islamic Relief USA

The Jewish Federations of North America

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Disaster Relief Fund

Presbyterian Mission Agency: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief

United Methodist Committee on Relief

Geez magazine, a quarterly that explores social justice and spirituality, is holding a contest for sermons you wouldn't hear in church. They're "calling all Christian dissenters, farmer-philosophers, self-appointed prophets, closet preachers, student teachers, agnostic seekers, spoken- word fanatics, Bible-school dropouts, uncertain intellectuals, incendiarypacifists, open-minded evangelists, fed-up feminists, civil-rights resurgents, empty-nester activists and compassionate comedians," a press release stated. 

This same kind of contest was held five years ago. According to the Geez website, "Atheists, anarchists, students and farmers filled the pulpit, and their sermons were defiant, dysfunctional, ambiguous and insightful." 

Here's a quick look at the contest guidelines:

• Deadline: Sept. 1, 2013. 
• Word count: 750 words
• Entry fee: $33 (includes a one-year subscription), $15 for current subscribers
• Awards: $500 first place, $300 second place, $200 third place 

Find more information on Facebook, or at geezmagazine.org/contest. You can also email contest@geezmagazine.org, or call 204-924-1058. 

DUBLIN (RNS) Patricia Wojnar left a 32-year career in interior design to pursue a degree that wasn’t in demand: a master’s in bereavement studies.

Having seen four family members die early, she wanted to understand how to adapt.

A Patrician cross, Ireland’s dominant religious symbols, marks a burial at Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery. Glasnevin is home to one of the few crematoriums in Ireland and has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of cremations in the last decade, according to cemetery historian Shane MacThomais. Cremations are very popular among the growing class of Irish willing to observes life’s milestones, including death, outside a church setting. Only about 30 percent of Catholics opt for cremation, according to MacThomais. Photo by Paresh Dave

As it turned out, the degree perfectly prepared her to enter one of Ireland’s emerging professions.

Wojnar is now a registered civil celebrant, presiding over funerals and weddings for people who refuse to associate with Ireland’s scandal-tarred Roman Catholic Church. She’s not alone; many newly minted civil celebrants are starting their own businesses as part of Ireland’s “post-Catholic” economy.

Although many observers have noted the impact of secularization and child abuse scandals on church membership and finances, only now are the Irish seeing the cultural and socioeconomic reverberations. These include a class of people willing to observe life’s most significant milestones outside the church.

“People only get one opportunity to get a funeral right,” Wojnar said. “I help them prepare a service which honors the bereaved without being constrained by the convention of religion.”

Irish funeral directors estimate that 10 percent of the nearly 30,000 funerals conducted annually are nonreligious. Government data show that about 30 percent of the 21,000 weddings annually are outside any church, up from 5 percent two decades ago.

The growth has come amid a backdrop of church decline. The number of people who call themselves Catholics is at an all-time low. Seminaries have grown barren. And as the government scales back church control of schools, fewer children may be exposed to Catholic rites of passage.

Wojnar takes an occasional interior design assignment to supplement the $500 for each ceremony. But some among the few dozen civil celebrants in Ireland have turned full time.

Brian Whiteside, the director of ceremonies for the Humanist Association of Ireland, led more than 100 weddings, funerals or naming ceremonies in 2012.

“We’re busier than we ever thought we would be,” Whiteside said. “I thought I would do this as a sideline, but it’s taken over my life.”

Humanists – who believe in ethical values and a sense of compassion – have been at the forefront of performing nonreligious ceremonies. Whiteside said he and his 10 fellow Humanist-sanctioned celebrants have seen consistent growth, topping off at 78 funerals and 200 weddings in 2012.

Deirdre Lonergan is among those who chose a nonreligious wedding because she felt disillusioned with the church. But she needed two ceremonies to marry Eoghan Murphy.

The couple had a government-sanctioned ceremony in a small, unadorned government office without rings, vows, music or a priest. Three days later, they had a ceremony at a hotel with friends, a civil celebrant and all the normal regalia.

The dual ceremonies were needed because Ireland requires someone from the government’s Register of Solemnizers to perform an “official” marriage. Of the 5,600 people on the government’s roster, 4,300 are Catholic clergy.

Until last December, only religious leaders or government workers could become registered. Whiteside performed his first official wedding this spring, meaning couples such as Lonergan and Murphy now have a secular option that allows them to avoid the drab government ceremony altogether.

Funeral directors, chaplains, government registers and singers are among those who have signed up to become nonreligious celebrants. Hotels have hosted wedding fairs to showcase themselves as possible secular locales, and a few funeral directors have also recognized that customer preferences are changing.

Massey’s, a Dublin funeral home, spent $200,000 last year to open the first venue designed specifically to host civil funerals. Another Dublin funeral home, Legacy, launched a first-of-its-kind service last May that allows people to book funerals entirely online.

These entrepreneurs see themselves replacing the shrinking pool of priests. By one estimate, the number of Irish parish priests will drop from 2,000 today to a few hundred by 2042. If they want to bury a loved one without a lengthy wait for a priest, Wojnar said many families may soon have to choose a civil celebrant.

Compared to a church service, civil celebrations are more likely to include poems, pop music and personal messages. Wojnar has led ceremonies where families played songs by Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones. She’s even performed a funeral for an animal lover with dogs and cats in the room.

The church is still debating its response to the cultural shifts. Some priests have relaxed church protocols to allow similar personalization, but at least one leader prefers that people who lack a commitment to Catholicism stay away.

“I don’t want a church which people use at particular moments or use as a comfort zone,” said Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Meanwhile, leaders on the religious right in Ireland say the move toward liberalization will come to an end, and religious institutions will once again thrive.

“It will eventually dawn on people that our dominant philosophy of individualism at all costs is doing no good,” said David Quinn, who runs the Iona Institute, a conservative think tank.

Yet even if religion rebounds under pressure to reform, Wojnar said her new profession is here to stay.

“People who respect, even practice a religion, will and do choose the civil option for many reasons,” she said. “I see this as a profession in growth despite what happens on the religious map.”

I'm a Muslim and was traveling to give a speech on "Ending Religious Violence: The Journey to Peace." He warned, “Go home! Hug your kids! This is a Christian nation!”  My nerves were frayed.

A peace sign of plants. Founded in 1968 in Tamil Nadu, India, the purpose of Auroville was to realize human unity. Photo by Onevillage Initiative via Flickr, http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-2212647730

I called the organizers and requested security. They conceded. My worries subsided.

Moments later, I received an email from John Poage, an American Christian and audience member who had attended a prior speech I had given.

Poage wrote, “Before we know what happened...when my mind turns to vengeance rather than healing, your perspective is a powerful example. Thank you very much for giving me some tools to deal with this ...”

My fears vanished.

Poage exemplified what bejewels most Westerners - civility.  He sought healing and to harness the power of understanding. I stayed the course. Days later, however, I heard the rhetoric on TV stations. The target was “they,” the Muslims. I delighted in reaching Poage before he stereotyped me with the others. Now, I felt defeated.

Some rhetoric grows the seeds for hate crimes. Greg Gutfeld, a co-host on the political talk show The Five, said, “...the burden is on us that they like us, when they come here...we must adapt to them....”  These us-and-them broad-brush statements carry a formidable threat to innocent Muslims casting all of us as enemies.  He continued, “...so many people left the desert to come here, and it is us who stick our heads in the sand.”

The first time I laid eyes on a desert was in 2008 on the way from Flagstaff, AZ., to the Grand Canyon.

Andrea Tantaros said, “The administration is blind to the threats ...” Attributing the breach of security to a political party packs divisiveness of national proportions. If the goal is to turn citizens on each other, then well done! But, beware!

I recalled hearing the same repertoire during my budding years in the Middle East, home to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I observed the demagogues radicalize the public. I witnessed the forces that grip the hearts of civilians. I lived among righteous warriors who became Abraham’s nightmare and Satan’s fantasy. They made heritage, national pride, and “pursuit of peace,” the culprits of daily crimes against humanity.

Knowingly or not, divisive and negative rhetoric transforms some family rooms into incubators of a new generation of religiously motivated violent citizens. It equips some anguished, enraged, or terrified citizens with prejudices.

The religious conviction of some will harden. They will uphold only one truth. They will develop sentiments of indifference to the suffering of those who are not part of any transgression. They will make it their holy calling and patriotic duty to attack their perceived enemy. Visions of retaliations will motivate them. A new organic threat to our multi-faith and multi-ethnic nation will be born.

They will be the Holy Patriots.

I implore the few syndicated patriots and demagogues to summon the intellectual maturity to heed the unintended consequences of their hostile wisdom.

I implore the sincere knowledge seekers to challenge the snappy conclusions coined with zingers. No! There is no such thing as self-radicalization! Subject matter experts discussing the wrong topic do not make the topic right for discussion.

I implore the reluctant and clear-minded security experts and sideline politicians to act. Start an awareness campaign. Deploy a compassion dome that will shield the citizens from attacks on interfaith living.

I implore all entangled in the rhetoric to take notice that no two humans are alike. Qualify the falsely asked questions and learn from the infamous question after 9/11/01, why do they hate us? Exactly, who are they? And, who are us?

Now, the false question is “Why is Islam a religion of violence?” A better question is “Why do militant Muslim radicals find America to be the frontier?” The right questions diagnose problems more accurately.

Like almost all parents of radicals, the parents of the Boston bombings suspects are in denial. They are oblivious to how they unknowingly institutionalized their sons to commit a hate crime with global ramifications.

Realize that we have little control over how our children will internalize our words, or one day externalize them. Keep the recent shootings, on Aug. 5, 2012 at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, an anomaly.

Finally, refrain from the inhumane desires of articulating thoughts of vengeance. Our children must not grow institutionalized by a history of suffering, but an outlook of harmony for all living beings of all faiths, ethnicities and dispositions.

(Sam Wazan writes for our partner site Wilmington Faith & Values. He is the author of "The Last Moderate Muslim" and speaker on topics such as ending religious violence and overcoming adversity. He lives with his family in Charlotte, N.C.)

Meditating at sunset. Photo by HaPe Gera, via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/4eCfzf)

Mediation helps people let go of their mind and allow themselves to connect with their inner being on a deeper level. Buddhists take this exercise seriously, because not only does it help them achieve inner peace, but it also trains the mind to focus on the present moment.

I have not found the process of meditation difficult, but it does take a considerable amount of concentration. 

What to wear

The first step is wearing the right attire. Buddhists tend to wear a robe while meditating, but since I do not own that type of clothing, I like wear something else that is loose fitting. It is essential that the body not be restricted by anything tight, or else it will remain tense, thus defeating the purpose of meditating. Usually, I feel comfortable wearing a baggy t-shirt and leggings, or maybe athletic shorts.

A headscarf is also recommended. Personally, I use a plain scarf from my closet, and I wrap it the way proper form.

Another requirement while meditating is to have on no shoes. This will also help the body loosen, because it won’t have to feel any tight restraints on the foot.

Where to be

The second step is making sure that a person is in a quiet, safe, and relaxing environment. I usually like to meditate in a room where there is no one present, so that I can truly have no distractions. Then, depending on my location, I will light a couple candles so that I can start the process of relaxing and distressing my body.

Another way to distress the body, and to have a peaceful meditation experience, is to put on music. I recommend listening to actual meditation music, which can easily be found on YouTube or on a cd at a Target. However, if that does not work, then natural landscape sounds can also be a good alternative.

Now once an individual has put on the right clothing, settled into a comfortable environment and turned on relaxing music it is time to honestly start meditating.

How to sit

So far, I have learned three different positions that someone can be in while meditating. All three methods do require a person to be sitting down cross-legged with a straight back, and their head slightly tilted forward.

The most well-known meditation position is where both hands are resting on the knee, so that the elbow is parallel to the knee. The palm of the hands should be facing upward, and the index finger and thumb should be touching.

Another way to meditate is by keeping the elbows parallel to the knee, but instead you bring the hands together. The dominant hand should be on top of the other one, and the thumbs should slightly be touching.

Lastly, if both of those ways are not comfortable, then a person has the option of extending their arms out on the floor in front of them, and bowing their head further down between their arms.

I love all these methods so much that I usually switch up my positioning throughout my mediation time. It helps me connect with certain parts of my body better.

How to think

That brings me to my next point: to have a successful time meditating, it is imperative that a person completely empty out any thoughts. The only thing that he/she should be thinking about is the current moment.

When I have trouble clearing my mind, I like to listen to the music very intently – almost to the point where I can expect the next beat that is going to come in the song.

Once I have cleared my mind, then I try to focus on my body. I focus on my breathing and how my chest goes up and down when I inhale, and exhale. I also like to listen to my heartbeat, and feel any sensations that my body maybe having at the time.

It is very important that a person gets in tune with their physical being while mediating. It helps relax the body, and make an individual more aware of what is going on with them physically. 

And because you are in such deep thought the work of the body, it helps further develop the mind mentally, and train it on embracing the moment.

How long to stay

Now it is up to each person on how long they meditate for, but I usually like to meditate for a good 20 minutes. Some days, when I know I have less to do, I might meditate for 30 minutes to an hour. It is hard to hold your concentration for that long of a time, but as you keep practicing it does get easier and enjoyable.

I love meditating, and I advise doing it on a regular basis. This practice is good nourishment for the soul, and it helps to de-stress the mind and body.

For the past seven years, we’ve shared a duplex. I’d never intended to live so close to her again after moving out at 18, but when she retired for health reasons, it made a certain amount of sense to have her nearby. Ironically, this is a lot of the reason we’re sending her away now; we’re simply the wrong people to meet her needs at this stage in her life. 

Moving boxes. Photo by Marie Coleman, via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/7NDQM1)

While there’s no disputing that moving her somewhere safer where she’ll get more support is an all-around good, I’m still torn on whether dropping her off on Mother’s Day represents a high or low point in filial piety. Given that the move entailed spending the entire weekend loading, transporting and unloading as many of my mother’s belongings as we could fit in a 26’ truck, I want to believe we did OK.

Wait. Go back. Filial piety? Why do I, as a Pagan Druid, care about something like that?

While Pagan ethics is far too broad and complex a topic to tackle in a single post, most Pagan traditions tend to favor virtue ethics or broad moral directives over rote laws and commandments.  While this may seem at first to be quite loose and ad hoc, it places a responsibility on the individual to work within the spirit of a thing rather than the letter of a law. I tend to think this way of looking at things lends itself well to complex issues, and is less prone to the kinds of loopholes that allow one to use a rule in ways that are out of step with the values of the path.

In Ár nDraíocht Féin, one of the nine core virtues we study during our Dedicant Path work is Piety. While we tend to think of piety as a virtue relating only to spiritual practice (i.e. a pious person does her practice correctly and diligently) the origin of the concept is the Roman virtue of Pietas, which was inclusive of broader duties and responsibilities.

"Pietas" Photo via Wikimedia Commons (http://bit.ly/13FZVn8)

Maintaining correct relationships was central to the practice of ancient Roman religion. This was true from the individual level (where household and family gods and spirits were honored at the family shrine), to the city level (where magistrates maintained proper civic relationships, both mundane and religious), and even to the highest levels during both the Republican and Imperial eras. Thus, Pietas includes not only our sense of doing our religion correctly and dutifully, but also acting in the same way toward our families and communities.

Thus, as a modern Pagan, part of my work is trying to understand what “correctly and dutifully” looks like in my own unique practice, family, and community. 

Plenty of this work – I’d hazard even all of it – can be done without any religious element whatsoever. Every atheist I know would be happy to point out that anyone who needs a higher power to tell them how to be a decent human being is in need of some serious self-reflection time. Reason and observation are all one needs to try and understand a situation and the relationships involved, and possible ways to approach it. Interestingly, the idea that right behavior exists independently of the gods’ opinions is a position supported by the ancients, as well. In Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates makes a compelling argument that right behavior, or piety, is an innate quality rather than a thing arbitrarily defined by the gods. 

So why bother with the spirituality aspect at all? The simplest answer, for me at least, is that my practice informs my view of the world, and how I assign value to things.

By choosing to practice the particular tradition that I do, I essentially agree that whatever virtues or moral directives that are part of the practice are things I think are good and useful, and will help direct my actions in ways more likely to be of benefit to myself and others.  While I don’t need to be a Pagan Druid to cultivate qualities like Integrity, Perseverance and Moderation, my practice gives me a ready framework for doing so, affirmation that this is a thing that should be done, and a community of others with similar views.

The spiritual aspects of my practice also inform my ethics. For example, ancestor reverence is a significant part of ADF tradition. If I revere the Honored Dead in a ritual, what does this teach me about how I should relate to my mother, who will eventually join them? If I really believe that the spirits of my ancestors can affect my life, and I am concerned with building relationships with them through ritual, shouldn’t I also concern myself with how I interact with my mother while she’s alive? This doesn’t mean that I worship my mother, or that I’ve assigned her supernatural powers, but it does mean that I need to do my best to act in good faith toward her, and do what I can to have a healthy relationship with her.

Finally, there’s the concept of reciprocity – or what we call *ghosti – which is central to ADF practice. *Ghosti is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word that encompasses a relationship bound by particular kind of mutuality.  While it’s easiest to understand this in terms of hospitality (a guest has responsibilities to the host, and vice versa) or an exchange of gifts, we also make offerings in ritual to deities, spirits and other forces in an effort to build that relationship. It’s not difficult to see how this concept extends far beyond ritual, and how it complements the concept of Pietas. We do for others both because others do for us in every area of our lives, and so others can do for us as well.

So where does this leave me, my mother and the 26’ truck? 

Well, I know the execution wasn’t perfect. I spent a lot of Saturday acting out and being angry because things weren’t ready when we arrived to load the truck, and because her expectations were unreasonable. On the other hand, I also did a really good job of being honest about my limitations, and we did everything we could do the best of our abilities.  As Mother’s Day gifts go, I could have done worse than a $300 truck rental. I even got a card from her later, thanking us for our hard work. 

The fact that her card included a list of things to bring down in my car might have diminished the effect a little, but she’s my mom. I owe her.

"... true leaders demand more from themselves than from others in terms of time, efforts, and yes, even monetary contributions to the organization one leads."

Rabbi Yossi Feintuch

This is one of the many lessons we can learn from the 12 tribes of Israel in regards to giving gifts.

The Bible. FAVS photo by Min Hee Kim

Depending on one’s definition of “version” or “translation,” there are many, many different Christian Bibles out there. Some claim to be word-for-word versions, while others are paraphrases. 

My father was very proud of his Bible – a version that purported to show all of Jesus’ actual words highlighted in red. For me, trying to read the King James Version was a painful exercise; it was like reading Shakespeare, or sorting through all the 10-dollar words in a legal document. Recently, however, I came across a Bible that was both easy to read and made sense to my Deist leanings. Its name:  “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” also known as the Jefferson Bible. Yes, that Jefferson: Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was a man of many talents. He was one of our “Founding Fathers,” the third President of the United States and the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. He was an accomplished writer, architect, botanist, linguist and theologian. Jefferson was a key member of the American Enlightenment, inspired by the European Enlightenment, which advocated using knowledge gained from reason, empiricism and rational thinking to improve the human condition. He founded the University of Virginia, the first college to have no religious ties. And he was also a Classical Deist. He believed in a God that created the universe, complete with the laws of nature, and left it to man.

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson. By Matthew Harris Jouett, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons (http://bit.ly/116SIHx)

One thing Thomas Jefferson did not believe in was the divinity of Jesus Christ. He called the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”  He held Jesus in high esteem for his wisdom but desired to separate His ethical teachings from the dogma and supernatural events. Thus, he undertook an attempt to organize the gospels in order, minus any miracles.

Armed with a King James version of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and an ordinary razor, Jefferson cut all of the supernatural portions he came across. Really. He didn’t just mark through the passages; he actually cut them out with a razor! He rearranged the verses in chronological order but did not rewrite them. The end result was a continuous narrative of the events recorded in the gospels without any supernaturalism. It still contained the stories of Jesus’ life, parables and moral teachings.

I read it in the New International Version (so glad it wasn’t the King James!) to see the result for myself. Consolidating the gospels and putting the events in chronological order made a great deal of sense, and it was all much easier to understand. It started with the birth of Jesus, but not the virgin birth. All of the stories and parables were there, except for the supernatural references. It ended with the death of Jesus, and the stone being rolled in front of the tomb. The End. No resurrection, no ascension. Simply the life and death of an extraordinary man, told in straightforward fashion.

Thomas Jefferson respected the general principles of Christianity and called himself a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, not of Jesus himself. That may be parsing words, but it does show the difference between being a Christian and being an admirer of Christ. That was the “Christianity” of Thomas Jefferson, the man who made the life of Jesus believable for those who defy dogma.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (RNS) Amanda Holowaty didn't need God to get married. She just needed her husband Mike.

When the Wilmington atheist couple decided to join their lives a year ago, they knew they wanted a secular wedding celebrant, but their families weren't so sure.

Her family is Methodist and his is "generally spiritual." And they worried about even telling Mike's grandmother, who is Eastern Orthodox.

So they found a wedding celebrant ordained through the Humanist Society, Han Hills, who allowed their family members to read a spiritual poem.

"Nobody seemed to notice that we didn't mention God," Holowaty said. "People came up afterward and said it was one of the best weddings they'd seen."

With the rise of the "nones" -- the 20 percent of Americans without a religious affiliation -- more couples are looking for wedding celebrants who don't mind skipping God's blessing of the ceremony altogether.

More national atheist and humanist agencies such as the Humanist Society and the Center for Inquiry are developing ordaining programs to establish nontheist ministers in most states to perform weddings and funerals. CFI began its certification program in 2009.

There are currently 138 celebrants listed as ordained through the Humanist Society, and some perform weddings in multiple states. The Center for Inquiry has 23 celebrants.

Because of the demand she's seeing for marriage and funeral celebrants, Florida humanist writer and blogger Jennifer Hancock is considering writing a book about the secular approach to marriage.

What's missing, she says, is advertising for leaders in the humanist community who can fulfill ceremonies for life cycle events. Only a handful of the ordained celebrants listed on the society's website also advertise their services on a personal page.

Former Army medic Richard Cotter advertises his services in and around New York at humanistcelebrations.com. California Humanist minister William Rausch advertises his memorial, baby naming and wedding services at ebcelebrant.com.

"As soon as you do the advertising, people are like yeah, I want that. When I got married, I was worried. I didn't want any religious references in my wedding because I didn't want to start out the most important relationship of my life with a lie," Hancock said.

"Some of my most popular posts are about grief, marriage relationships and parenting. That's all stuff that a traditional minister would help you with."

Han Hills, a humanist celebrant in Wilmington, NC, performs a wedding at Wrightsville Beach. Photo courtesy of Leap of Humanity

The creative elements of a humanist wedding don't differ much from a religious one. There are sand-mixing ceremonies, candle-lighting ceremonies and walking down an aisle in a white dress. Vows are typically written by the couples themselves, said Hills, whose company is called Leap of Humanity.

Hills already has eight weddings booked this year across North Carolina and is starting to book weddings for 2014. And he's only been formally advertising his services for a few months.

"You need a certain personality to do this. If you're mousy, and you can't think in a crisis, this isn't for you," he said, laughing. "It's the only job where you can look out and if you see old ladies crying, then you're doing a good job. It's an honor to be given this place of reverence."

North Carolina's celebrant numbers have grown to seven, while New York and California have the most, at about 20 each. But there are some states without any Humanist celebrants listed, such as Wyoming, West Virginia or Wisconsin.

Humanist Society program coordinator Sadie Rothman said she gets at least two requests for Humanist celebrant applications each month. But the process to become a celebrant requires five character references and training sessions.

Becoming a wedding celebrant outside of an established faith system can present legal challenges, depending on the state. In North Carolina, marriages performed through the online Universal Life Church before 1981 are considered valid. But the legality of ULC marriages after that date is in question, according to state marriage laws.

Because the Humanist Society is a religious nonprofit associated with the American Humanist Association, they are considered a valid marrying entity in the state. But Indiana Humanist celebrants certified through the Center for Inquiry lost a legal battle in December 2012 over the validity of the marriages they performed.

Mike Werner, past president of the American Humanist Association, said the demand for Humanist celebrants will grow to include traditional ordained ministers interested in officiating nontheist ceremonies.

Amanda and Mike Holawaty didn't want to settle for a justice of the peace. They wanted to celebrate their values in a scenic wedding near the ocean.

"You see weddings in movies and on TV, the bride being given away and walking down the aisle," she said. "It was really the same desire for us, just minus the religious aspect."

(Amanda Greene is the editor of Wilmington Faith & Values.)

The Archdiocese of St. Louis held a conference Tuesday to equip parishes, schools and other Catholic communicators to spread their faith as part of the New Evangelization. FAVS photo by Kellie Kotraba

Soon, a word emerges in my brain from a Catholic communications conference I recently attended: branding.  Of course, I am aware of the advertising world, especially when I suddenly start planning my next trip to DQ after seeing Blizzards on their commercials.  We are constantly bombarded with brands and the messages those companies want to convey.  Branding becomes an identifier, a way for a company to show pride in its product and differentiate itself from others. 

• Read: Full coverage of the Communications and New Evangelization Conference

I hear one presenter’s voice linger in my memory:

“What images and messages flood your mind when you hear the brand name ‘Catholic’?” Like the Angus lined up for the McDonald’s menu, I too have been branded. Gratefully, the branding process for me did not include an iron glowing with heat, but I hope my mark is equally as evident. 

However, there seems to be a lot of false advertising when it comes to my "brand," and all too often the word "Catholic" can conjure up intense negative feelings within Christian believers and non-believers alike.

It’s true: Many of our beliefs are counter-cultural. But then again, most people rejected Jesus, too. In fact, the animosity toward him is ultimately what had him murdered. The apostles were also frequently shunned and persecuted for the message they preached on Christ’s behalf. It was their zealous pursuit of Christ that led to several imprisonments and eventual death. 

A Catholic collage. Photo by Dan44 via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/6BPrGP)

And, with a brand whose lineage dates back to the time of Jesus, the Catholic Church continues to teach those same messages and hold them as Truth.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, believed that marketing is about values. “This is a very complicated world, It’s a very noisy world,” he once stated. “So we have to be very clear about what we want people to know about us.” 

Frequently, I think people receive a skewed or misguided message about Catholicism, the faith of millions across the globe. Some view us as bigots, child molesters or blasphemers. Some see the Church as a form of oppression and hate.

But those labels are not in line with the Church’s values, so I would dare to say those folks have been deceived by false advertising. After all, our mission in life is to be as much like Christ as we possibly can be.

Yet, like everyone else in the world, we mess up and fall short. Mistakes are merely a chink in our chain of human DNA, and Catholics are simply that: human. Yet, I would guess that even people who don’t know Jesus well could probably admit his character was neither oppressive nor hateful. The truth is, he was exactly the opposite: He liberated the marginalized, he protected the vulnerable, he loved those who had been outcast by society. The Church’s foundation of social justice is grounded on his words:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. ...Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)

Over the course of millennia, the Catholic Church has sought to establish itself as an institution that joyfully feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, cares for the sick, visits the prisoner (Matthew 25:35-36) and looks after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27). It does these things not out of self-glorification, but out of obedience to our God.  We eagerly serve "the least of these" to also serve the divinity we call Lord.

For that reason and that reason only, the Catholic Church and its members have contributed greatly to the world:

• The Catholic Church created the first hospitals in order to care for the sick.  Nowadays, this nonprofit health-care system includes 637 hospitals, which is equivalent to 17 percent of all U.S. hospital admissions. And, when the AIDS epidemic swept the nation beneath its cloud of mystery, the only organization to take in HIV positive patients was the Catholic Church.
• The Church established orphanages to care for the poor and take care of orphans.
• The Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization on the face of the planet. The combination of funds raised by Catholic Charities, Food for the Poor, Catholic Relief Services, St. Jude’s and America’s Second Harvest along top $5,570,000,000 – a sum greater than the #1 on the list for America. That doesn’t even begin to consider financial contributions of other Catholic charities or the annual $7.5 billion its 20,000 churches fundraise. Again, these are all charities focused on the mission to serve the underserved.
• Education provided by the Catholic Church is greater than any other scholarly or religious institution, teaching nearly 3 million students each day in its 6,900 elementary schools and 1,200 high schools.
• The Catholic Church also founded the college system. There are now 230 Catholic colleges and universities with a total of 670,000 students.
• Lastly, and perhaps surprising to many, the Catholic Church has contributed greatly to the field of science. In fact, the members of the Church discovered the scientific method, and a Catholic priest intellectualized the Big Bang Theory.

Image via St. Peter's List (stpeterslist.com)

Martin Luther King, Jr. once declared, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” I have been branded Catholic. And, because of that, I stand for sacred scripture and social justice. I proudly act as an identifier for my faith, longing to live its logo every day. 

What "brand" do you represent? How do you live its logo and what makes you proud to wear it?

Usually a frugal literature, the Torah repeats at this time in verbatim the contents of those gifts though absolutely uniform. In other words, instead of saying that first to bring its gift was the tribe of Judah and then it was followed up for the next 11 days by all other tribes, with each bringing the same gift, the Torah informs the details of the presenter (name and tribe) and repeats faithfully the specifics of each of these tribal gifts, repeating it for each of those 12 days when each tribe presented its respective gift. 

What can we learn today from this ancient narrative? When sending out cards thanking folks who gave us a gift we could emulate the way of the Torah and specify in our card the gift that was given and how it will be useful to the receiver, rather than write something that goes like this: “Dear friend, thank you for your gift,” or sending an identical letter to all who presented a gift thanking them for it. Period. Similarly, we religionists do not enter our respective house of worship and whisper: “Dear God, please accept anew the very prayers we offered last time when in attendance. Why, it would be redundant to repeat them as we already have offered them before…”

Notably, though those tribal gifts were identical the tribes of Israel were not identical in their economic situation; for some, it was a challenge to match precisely the details of the earlier gift. Still, when there is a will to be generous, a way to save and afford an expensive gift could be found.

Coins and dollar bills. FAVS photo by Evan Townsend.

Alright, but why didn’t the tribes present their equal gifts on the immediate day after the inaugural ceremony rather than spread the gifting over 12 days? Think of visiting the sick or a resident in a nursing home: What would be better for the person whom you visit? A brief daily or frequent visit, or a prolonged visit with no repeats?

What would be better, writing  a big check for charity to benefit one cause, or writing a few smaller checks to spread out the good that is in your heart for other causes?

Significantly, each tribal leader sponsored his gift from his own personal resources, which tells us that true leaders demand more from themselves than from others in terms of time, efforts, and yes, even monetary contributions to the organization one leads.

Last but not least, though the first tribe to present a gift was Judah, its leader Nachshon was not identified in this Torah narrative by his honorific title “Prince”; those who followed him were. The Torah distances itself from excess; the message imbued herein is that being the first to present such an important gift was a big honor to the presenter. Since this very act imparted great respect to him Nachshon’s title was dispensable lest he might be tempted to feel too proud. The others who followed him did not have the honor of being the number one and thus could be “consoled” by having their title “Prince” mentioned following their name. 

All in all, an ancient gift with timeless lessons, indeed.

The state legislature gave final approval to HB 400 this week, requiring that initial dose of any abortion-inducing drug be made in the physical presence of the doctor providing it. The bill also requires that the physician make "all reasonable efforts" to ensure a follow-up visit. 

The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane) and Sen. Wayne Wallingford (R-Cape Girardeau). 

"The passage of HB 400 is a victory for the lives of unborn babies and the health of women in Missouri," Riddle said in a news release. “It will limit the number of abortions in our state by making it more difficult for abortion clinics to push chemical abortions without having an abortionist on staff at their facility. This legislation will keep accountability and responsibility on doctors to be physically present to offer care both before and after the administering of an abortifacient and not just dole out drugs while sitting behind a computer.”

The bill passed with 115 votes in the House, and won 23 to 7 in the Senate.

The legislature also passed SB 126. Under this bill, sponsored by Sen. David Sater (R-Cassville) Missouri pharmacies cannot be required to carry or maintain an inventory of specific drugs or devices – including abortion-inducing drugs. 

Planned Parenthood released a statement denouncing both measures, arguing they are harmful to women. "The Missouri Legislature advanced proposals designed to endanger women's health while failing to expand Medicaid," the statement said. Paula Gianino and Peter Brownlie, two regional presidents and CEOs of Planned Parenthood, lamented the loss of telemedicine practices for women in rural areas.

Missouri Right to Life applauded the passage of both "pro-life bills" as protecting women and unborn children. "This legislation protects women from those in the abortion industry who seek to profit from RU 486 abortions by providing sub-standard care to women,” Missouri Right to Life President Pam Fichter said in a statement. 

A recent article in America, a Catholic magazine, lamented the decline of religious names – particularly, Mary. Since 1961, "the number of girls given the name Mary at birth has fallen 94 percent," according to an article in The Atlantic. 

Baby feet. Photo by Qi Wei Fong, via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/7rn95a).

In 2012, Jacob and Sophia topped the list as the most popular baby names, with Liam, Mia, Jayden and Ava also making the list of the top 10, according to the Social Security Administration list. In Missouri, Mason and Emma – the second-most-popular names nationally – topped the list. (Those two names also topped the list in Kansas – we might not be united in sports, but we have similar taste in baby names.)

And pop culture plays a part in the name game – for baby girls, the name Arya is quickly rising in popularity, CNN reports. That's the name of a character on HBO's Game of Thrones.

TheBump.com has a name finder that allows expectant parents to search by origin of name. Then, there are categores: big city baby names, such as Paris and Dallas; TV character names, such as Chandler and Lorelei; and bookworm names – yes, Romeo and Juliet are on the list. (Oh, and you can also find "bad girl" baby names: Victoria and Jasmine?)

Although there are a few biblical names in the top 10 – Jacob, Noah and Michael – most of the names listed aren't religious at all: not Jewish, Muslim, Hindu ... you get the idea. 

But what about you?

What religious names are in your family? If you have a religious name, what does it mean to you? What’s the significance about naming someone after a religious figure? Do you think about religion when considering names for your children? What are the popular names in your faith tradition?

 We'd love to hear your viewpoint. – leave a comment below.

(RNS) The Catholic diocese in Missouri led by Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted last year of failing to report a priest who was taking pornographic pictures of children, will pay a $600,000 settlement to the family of one of the priest's victims.

The family filed the civil suit in federal court in 2011 against Finn, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., and the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of producing child pornography.

Ratigan had taken hundreds of lewd and suggestive photos of young children; the lawsuit, which was settled on Tuesday (May 14), was filed by the parents of a girl who was 2 years old when Ratigan started photographing her in 2006.

"We hope this settlement comforts at least some of the many families who have suffered and are suffering because Bishop Robert Finn refused to call police, protect kids and monitor Father Shawn Ratigan," said Barbara Dorris of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Last September, in an arrangement with prosecutors, Finn was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report Ratigan to authorities as required by law. Finn and the diocese had received multiple complaints about Ratigan in the months preceding the priest's arrest in 2011 and church officials had seen some of the pictures of children on his laptop computer in December 2010.

Despite calls for Finn to resign, he has remained as head of the diocese. Diocesan spokesman Jack Smith told The Kansas City Star that the payout would be covered by insurance.

The tab for Finn's own defense amounted to $1.4 million, the diocese said last year, which was covered by insurance plus funds collected from parishes.

The judge in the civil lawsuit dismissed the claim that Finn and the diocese aided and abetted Ratigan in possessing pornography.

The diocese previously paid out $10 million in 2008 to settle cases by plaintiffs who alleged sexual abuse by 12 priests. It still faces dozens of other lawsuits related to abuse allegations against other priests.

Stock image of school supplies. FAVS photo by Kearston Winrow

A student at the school submitted a complaint to the association website, and the association sent a letter to the school on Wednesday. According to the letter, teacher Gwen Pope leads students in morning devotionals and prayers at 7:30 on Friday mornings in her classroom. 

"The big concern here is that we have a teacher using her governmental position to promote her religous beliefs to public school students," said William Burgess, the director of the legal center for the American Humanist Association. He said this goes against separation of church and state, as the public school is part of the state system.

"Yes, it's peopled by employees who are individuals and have of course their own right to their private religious practices, but they cannot bring them into the classroom, and they cannot use their position to promotte their beliefs to their students."

Burgess said this does not mean that students can't pray privately. 

"They have the right to pray when they are taking a test, or talking to their friends, or before they eat their lunch, or anything else they are doing," he said. "They are not allowed to gather together and use the school facilities and be encouraged by school a employes like a teacher to pray. That's the real problem here. It's the schools involvement that makes this unconstitutional."

According to the letter, the school could be sued in federal court. Principals and teachers might also be subject to lawsuits. The center has asked the school to stop the activity immediately. As of Thursday afternoon, Burgess said the American Humanist Association hadn't heard back from the school. 

Principal Darren Rapert said the school has no comment at this time – Superintendent Jim Judd, who acts as the spokesperson, was out of the district for the day.

c. 2013 Religion News Service

(RNS) News that scientists had for the first time recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos prompted dire warnings from religious leaders who say the research crosses a moral red line and could lead to designer babies.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, point man for the U.S. Catholic bishops on bioethical issues, said Wednesday (May 15) that "this means of making embryos for research will be taken up by those who want to produce cloned children as 'copies' of other people."

Human cloning "treats human beings as products," O'Malley said on behalf of the bishops, "manufactured to order to suit other people's wishes. ... A technical advance in human cloning is not progress for humanity but its opposite."

Critics argue there are other ethical techniques for creating stem cells that may help cure illnesses like Parkinson's disease and diabetes and that the alternatives do not require cloning human embryos or destroying them. The most popular alternative is harvesting adult stem cells from the same patient.

"Given that science has passed cloning by for stem cell production, this announcement seems simply a justification for making clones, and makes reproductive cloning and birth of human clones more likely," said David Prentice of the Family Research Council.

The cloning breakthrough was accomplished by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and was announced Wednesday in the journal Cell. It followed 15 years of failed experiments and the infamous case of fraud when a South Korean biologist falsely claimed to have cloned human embryos.

To achieve their breakthrough, researchers had to refine techniques that had been used on monkey embryos: This time they were able to take DNA from a human patient and splice it into a human egg that had its DNA removed. The egg then grew into an early-stage embryo whose stem cells -- a virtual genetic copy of the original patient -- were then harvested.

Many Christian experts, especially Catholic bioethicists who believe life begins at conception, object to the destruction of human embryos for any purpose.

But they also say the new technique could lead to the cloning of replica human beings because it is similar to the process used to produce the cloned sheep named Dolly in 1996. That technique has since been used to clone a dozen other animal species.

The lead researcher on the team, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, said he does not believe the new technique could lead to cloned babies, in part because scientists have not yet been able to do that with cloned monkey embryos. The cloned primate embryos do not develop sufficiently to implant into the uterine wall.

But others say the innovation opens the door to human cloning scenarios that were once confined to the realm of science fiction.

"The reasons why primate-cloned embryos won't implant are probably just technical barriers," William Hurlbut, a consulting professor at Stanford University and former member of George W. Bush's Presidential Council on Bioethics, told Christianity Today. "Science is clever at figuring out what goes wrong and fixing it."

Hurlbut, who has worked with Mitalipov on developing ethically acceptable adult stem cell techniques, said the breakthrough will "mark the beginning of a whole new chapter of moral scientific controversy."

FAVS image by Kellie Kotraba

One of the many things I find so fascinating about the Baha’i Writings is that of what I‘ve read so far, directives that pertain to “do and don’t” are relatively scarce. The vast majority of the Writings I’ve encountered center on how to be.

This is not to say that one’s actions are unimportant. Far from it – though I’d say that actively doing good far outweighs simply abstaining from doing bad. On that topic, in the Hidden Words, Baha’u’llah tells us, “Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.” 

The importance of “how to be” is a recurring theme I’ve found in the Writings. In Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Baha’u’llah begins a lengthy exhortation with this:

“Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge.“

Oh, certainly there are actions that the Writings prohibit, such as theft, speaking ill of others or taking mind-altering substances outside of a physician’s care. There are also activities that the Writings encourage, such as the annual Fast, observing the holy days and doing daily prayer. But even so, I feel that the Writings suggest that a state of being is of much greater import than the deeds someone performs. For example, in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, Baha’u’llah writes:

“Pride not yourselves on much reading of the verses or on a multitude of pious acts by night and day; for were a man to read a single verse with joy and radiance it would be better for him than to read with lassitude all the Holy Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Read ye the sacred verses in such measure that ye be not overcome by languor and despondency. Lay not upon your souls that which will weary them and weigh them down, but rather what will lighten and uplift them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses towards the Dawning-place of His manifest signs; this will draw you nearer to God, did ye but comprehend.”

(RNS) Even before rogue abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted in Philadelphia on Monday (May 13) of delivering and then killing late-term infants, abortion opponents were convinced they had a case that could reshape an abortion debate that has remained static over the years.

Even before rogue abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted in Philadelphia on Monday (May 13) of delivering and then killing late-term infants, abortion opponents were convinced they had a case that could reshape an abortion debate that has remained static over the years. RNS photo courtesy Shutterstock.com

After the verdict, they were even more confident.

"Dr. Gosnell is only the front man; and the real trial has only just begun. The defendant is the abortion license in America," Robert P. George, a Princeton law professor and leading conservative activist, wrote after a jury convicted Gosnell of three counts of first-degree murder for snipping the spines of babies after botched abortions.

Gosnell, who could face the death penalty, was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 41-year-old patient who sought an abortion at the squalid West Philadelphia clinic that prosecutors labeled a "house of horrors."

Yet the fervent prayers for a game-changing impact from the Gosnell conviction may go unanswered for a variety of reasons.

A 'monster' used by both sides

One is that Gosnell is an equal-opportunity icon: Abortion rights supporters also believe they can make a powerful argument out of the Gosnell case for greater and more affordable access to safe abortion services.

"Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell," Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, wrote in an email that was part of a post-verdict media barrage that was almost as intense as the one orchestrated by abortion opponents.

In fact, at least nine of the jurors who convicted Gosnell told the court that they are "pro-choice." As New York Magazine's Dan Amira put it: "Pretty much everyone believed that Gosnell is a monster who did horrible things. Where the two sides part ways is on what the tragedy says about abortion more broadly."

Public opinion stalemate

A second factor working against prospects for a major shift is that most Americans, like the courts, are so settled in their views on abortion that it's hard for anything -- even the gruesome Gosnell story -- to change their minds.

A Gallup Poll taken weeks into the Gosnell trial and a few days before the verdict found public opinion virtually unchanged: 26 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal under any circumstances, 20 percent said it should be illegal in all circumstances, and more than half -- 52 percent -- opted for something in between, as has been the case since 1975.

The Gallup survey also showed that few people were even paying attention to the case; conservative activists accused the media of downplaying the trial due to a liberal bias, but it turns out that conservative media also did not cover the case very much in part because the details were so horrific that the audience would likely tune those stories out.

Overtaken by events

A third reason that the Gosnell case is probably not "the trial of the century," as one abortion foe claimed, is simply bad timing: Benghazi, the IRS investigations of Tea Party groups, and reports that the Justice Department had snooped on journalists' phone records all overshadowed the Gosnell story.

Those other controversies not only gave the public something less gruesome to focus on, but they gave conservatives too many targets all at once.

'Safe, legal and rare' but still legal

Finally, it may well be that the Gosnell case seemed like such a slam-dunk for abortion opponents that they overreached in arguing that Gosnell showed why every abortion is always and everywhere wrong.

"The unsafe conditions of the clinic do not cause our gut-wrenching response," Collin Garbarino wrote a month ago in First Things, predicting that the trial, just starting, would strengthen the anti-abortion movement. "No. Our horror stems from the very act of abortion itself, the most brutal and distasteful act tolerated in America today."

Or as George put it, after the Gosnell trial "it will no longer be possible to pretend that abortion and infanticide are radically different acts or practices."

Yet by a wide margin, most Americans are not willing to make such sweeping judgments on legalized abortion, whatever their views on Gosnell. What many might support, however, are measures to provide greater oversight of abortion clinics and perhaps some limits on relatively rare late-term abortions.

Such proposals are gaining steam around the country -- often at the initiative of conservative lawmakers -- and in the wake of the Gosnell case are even attracting support from more liberal commentators, such as Michael Wear, who led the Obama campaign's outreach to faith groups in 2012, and The Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger.

"Though I do not support a 'personhood' amendment, neither am I okay with the Orwellian dodge that it's not a baby unless and until we say it's a baby," Henneberger wrote.

The risk for abortion opponents is that endorsing such limited policies could be seen as settling for a Clintonesque standard for abortion as "safe, legal and rare" -- but nonetheless still legal.

Still, the more pragmatic activists in the movement seem to recognize that the momentum from the Gosnell moment is likely to fade as quickly as it does for gun control advocates after a deadly shooting massacre. So if they don't seize this moment for what they can get, they may wind up leaving loyalists in both camps energized, but the center as ambivalent as ever.

With the Missouri legislative session ending on Friday and a Republican supermajority that still won't budge, the hope to expand Medicaid in Missouri is pretty much dead for FY 2014.

It's so dead that perhaps the only thing that could bring it back to life is, well, interfaith prayers for a miracle.

Monday night in the chapel area of the Catholic St. Thomas More Newman Center, the Rev. Brian Ford of Little Bonne Femme Baptist Church leads prayers. He’s asking for the congregation to say the name of people they know could benefit from Medicaid expansion in Missouri.

“Sarah,” one attendee said.

“Gretchen.”

“Mother-in-law Kristen.”

“Jim.”

“Mona.”

Six mid-Missouri religious leaders gathered Monday night to pray and support the efforts to expand Medicaid in the state. About 30 people attended. The Rev. Molly Housh Gordon of the Universalist Unitarian Church is another religious leader at the vigil. In response to Ford’s call for names, Housh Gordon mentioned Sarah, a woman who attends her church.

“We are working with so many people who are uninsured,” Housh Gordon said. “It’s their voices that are also being lifted up.”

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Missouri has the option to expand the insurance program's eligibility to those who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That's about $32,500 for a family of four. The expansion could extend coverage to up to 300,000 more Missouri residents by 2020. The Affordable Care Act dictates the federal government to cover the entire cost of the expansion between 2014 to 2020.

Citing high future costs and a distrust in the federal government's ability to keep its end of the bargain, the state’s GOP lawmakers have strongly opposed the expansion. Between 2014 and 2020, the expansion could cost Missouri about $300 million.

A poll by the Missouri Foundation for Health shows most Missourians do support expanding Medicaid. Not to mention several chambers of commerce, numerous patient advocate groups, healthcare associations and social justice alliances who have publicly expressed their support.

Housh Gordon said she and other clergy members from mid-Missouri decided to host the vigil after meeting with Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia). 

“There’s something else going on in those halls of the Capitol because these masses of people are clearly not being heard,” Housh Gordon said. “They’ve been blocked at every step. We’re frustrated. We’re going to keep on calling for what is right.”

After the service, Newman Center's Fr. Thomas Saucier invited attendees to sign cards stating their support for Medicaid expansion. Saucier noted if not for this year, the signatures can be used to show support for Medicaid expansion in FY 2015.

Joan Wilcox of Hallsville signed her name. She proudly did not check the box that would prevent the publication of her support.

“Yes, I want my name on every support of this everywhere,” Wilcox said. “We need this Medicaid expansion desperately.”

It's unclear what would happen to Medicaid in Missouri after next year. According to Ryan Barker, a policy analyst at the Missouri Foundation for Health, both the Missouri House and Senate are planning to set up interim committees to study Medicaid reform.

This story was produced in partnership with KBIA 91.3 FM. Text by KBIA health reporter Harum Helmy; video by ColumbiaFAVS Editor Kellie Kotraba.