News reports abounded yesterday about Halloween costumes that were age-inappropriate or too "sexy." So perhaps it wasn't surprising that one New Jersey 8th grader was sent home to change when his costume was deemed too distracting. What caused the Associated Press to pick up the story for national circulation, however, was the fact that Alex Woinski, an honor-roll student from an interfaith family, had chosen to wear a white robe, a red sash, sandals, and a crown of thorns.

“We're a little stupified by this whole thing,” said the boy's mother, Kim Woinski.

Jesus Christ was “one of the greatest men that ever lived," she added. "If he went as Abe Lincoln would they say he couldn't do that?"

...

Woinski said her son complied with the requests of teachers and administrators, without complaint, and called his mother to pick him up. He was home for an hour and a half before returning to school.

When she went to pick her son up from school, administrators were unavailable to speak with her regarding the matter. But in an effort to comply with their requests she took her son home, she said.

“It's not like he’s not a good student. The kid’s on the high honor roll,” she said.

Woinski is Catholic while her husband is Jewish. Their son, who had recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and has been studying Bible scripture, is interested in Jesus as an historical and religious figure, according to his mother.

He wanted to translate that interest into a Halloween costume.

From the hometown report at the Bergen Record, here.

CBS 2 also covered the story here.

Sister Gemma Legel wanted to help her students in Westland, Mich., learn about the saints in a more interactive way earlier this week. So, instead of her usual catechism class at Divine Savior Catholic Church, the students brought the parade of saints to life. They each dressed up as their chosen saint (there were several Joan of Arcs in attendance, for instance) and gave a presentation about that saint.

"We're here to honor saints and God and celebrating All Saints," said Sister Legel. She went on to explain the Feast of All Saints is usually observed on Nov. 1, but is not a holy day of obligation this year because it falls a day before Sunday. Instead Catholics celebrate All Souls Day Nov. 1-2, to remember the dead.

"How do you become a saint?" asked Sister Legel. "Most were ordinary people. They loved God and showed that love by loving their neighbor. We're saints in the making."

One by one the children came to the front of the room to tell about their saint. Kyle Broffitt, 9, of Plymouth, was St. Martin of Tours, the patron of soldiers.

"He gave it up (being a soldier)," Kyle said. "He didn't want to do violent acts."

Later, Kyle said he learned to honor saints and that saints can be pretty cool.

...

Jodi Engler thinks the process will help her children retain their lesson on the saints longer. Katie, 9, was St. Margaret of Scotland, the queen who fed orphans and the poor before she would eat. Jenny, 7, was dressed as the North American Indian, Kateri Tekakwitha, patroness of ecology and the environment.

"I liked how it brought the saints to life, put a face with the name," Engler said.

From here.

Also along this line, in case you missed it, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's All Saints Day message exhorts us to "celebrate the [saints] whose names you know and the ones whose names you haven’t yet learned."

As you gather to celebrate on the feast of All Saints, take with you the name of a saint whose example you have seen in action, and one whose name you don’t know, and give thanks. The appropriate companion prayer to one of thanks for the witness of other saints is that we, too, might be holy examples to those whom we meet.

From here.

Thomas Lynch, writing in the New York Times, observes that the days following Halloween are ones set aside to honor the departed:

All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are time set aside to broker peace between the living and the dead. Whether you are pagan or religious, Celt or Christian, New Age believer or doubter-at-large, these are the days when you traditionally acknowledge that the gone are not forgotten. The seasonal metaphors of reaping and rotting, harvest and darkness, leaf-fall and killing frost supply us with plentiful memento mori. Whatever is or isn’t there when we die, death both frightens and excites us.

Thus, throughout most of the Western world, graves are decorated on these first days of November with candles and fresh flowers. Picnics are held among the old stones and markers, relatives gather round family plots to give the dead their due of prayers and remembrances.

But not so much in the United States, he continues, citing Professor June Hobbs and some of her experiences teaching an honors course called "Death in American Culture." Part of the class involves a trip to a local cemetery, and Hobbs says that many of her students have never been to one before the class trip.

“I find this astonishing,” says Professor Hobbs. “This county had more casualties during the Civil War than any other. The dead were everywhere, the churchyards filled up, Sunday afternoons were spent visiting graves. The dead were very much a part of the community, kept alive in everyday conversations.” Now they’ve been downsized or disappeared.

She speaks to a culture that quietly turned the family “parlor” into a “living room,” the “burial policy” into “life insurance” and the funeral into a “celebration of life,” often notable for the absence of a corpse, and the subtle enforcement of an emotional code that approves the good laugh but not the good cry. Convenience and economy have replaced ethnic and religious customs.

The dead get buried but we seldom see a grave. Or they are burned, but few folks ever see the fire. Photographs of coffins returned from wars are forbidden, and news coverage of soldiers’ burials is discouraged. Where sex was once private and funerals were public, now sex is everywhere and the dead go to their graves often as not without witness or ritual.

Still, there remains something deeply human in the way we process mortality by processing mortals in the journey between life as we know it and life as we imagine it, in whatever space the dead inhabit. Wherever the dead go or don’t, it is the duty of the living to get them to the edge of that oblivion.

Since the first cave-dwelling Neanderthal awakened next to a dead kinsman and knew something would have to be done about it, we humans have looked into the tomb or grave or fire and asked ourselves the signature questions of our species: Is that all there is? Can it happen to me? What comes next? Only the dead know the answers. And the living are well and truly haunted by them.

Read the whole thing here.

Sweet Miss Giving's is a new bakery in Chicago that opened last week to great fanfare. Mayor Daley not only attended the grand opening, he helped cut the ribbon. After all, the city had contributed nearly $100,000 towards its opening--because it's part social service agency. The bakery, a public-private cooperative venture, is the brainchild of the Rev. Stan Sloan, CEO of Chicago House, which provides community-based support to people who have been marginalized because of HIV and AIDS. With the bakery, the organization is able to provide valuable job training to people like Mary, a former street hustler, and Stanley, an ex-convict who had been homeless since his release from prison.

The bakery hires homeless people with HIV and other disabilities, teaches them to chop, cream, fold, mix, pack, clean, deliver. They cater meetings and events for businesses, peddle wholesale to restaurants and coffee shops, sell gift packs to the public on their Web site ( www.sweetmissgivings.com).

The proceeds go to Chicago House. And other businesses recognize that the intern bakers are worth hiring.

Another do-gooding utopia destined to fail?

Reverend Stan grinned. It looked like a dare. "Watch us grow."

The first 13 interns were carefully selected, tested to see if they understood the delicate arithmetic of baking—measuring, fractions—and then trained in hard but simple acts like showing up on time.

"Work is habits," Stephen said. "We have to teach habits."

And work is patience. A couple of times Mary, frustrated, has announced, "I quit!"

"No, you don't," Reverend Stan says.

"Thank you," Mary says.

Baking is hard work. Cold refrigerators, hot ovens, hours on your feet.

"I don't have the best of legs," Stanley says. He wears support hose for the gout. "But I have the motivation of wanting to do something on my own."

He wiped his sudden tears. "I cried so much a couple of years ago, you just wouldn't believe it."

Now, he said, it feels like making art to him, the way the green zucchini mixes with the orange carrot and the batter turns into bread.

News on the opening from here (the source of the above excerpt) as well as here. The bakery website goes live on Monday, so look for that here.

Guardian reporter Andrew Brown, who used to cover religion, explains why he is an atheist:

I have been writing about Christians for more than 20 years now. I am married to one; I was brought up as one, more or less. Half a dozen of the most admirable, brave and honest people I know are Christians, and I don't think for a moment that I am either smarter or better than they are. If I am right, and they are wrong, this is due to no great merit on my part. It is certainly not because I am less prone to illusion than they are, or more firmly attached to the truth. I know I can generate quite enough illusions of my own without supernatural help.

. . .

When I became a religious affairs correspondent, and started to meet Christian intellectuals, I came to realise that some at least believed nothing I found abhorrent or ridiculous. They no more take the Bible as a work of history than I do. There were some with whom I could and can talk seriously in the confidence that we understand the world in almost exactly the same light and see it disfigured by the same shadows. It would be wrong and invidious to name living people, but the late Lord Runcie was one of the most admirable men I have ever known, and if Jesus was good enough for him that's a powerful argument.

Yet still I won't join. In need only reread some parts of CS Lewis to know that if that hectoring certainty is right, I would rather be wrong. Most of the bishops I have known have been a sorry lot. It is hard to believe that they are right about anything much and I would certainly not wish to associate myself with the modern Church of England and all its squalid vanities. I left the 1998 Lambeth Conference determined to do nothing which might have me mistaken for a Christian. No doubt the feeling is mutual. This wouldn't matter if they were representatives of a great tradition. But I find I can't believe in the tradition, either. Looking at what Christians have actually believed about the world, and the ways that they have in practice understood their doctrines, I know that almost every Christian now alive would have been considered a heretic 500 years ago; and that the witch-burners of the 17th century would themselves have been heretics 500 years before.

For similar reasons, I can't accept the intellectual authority of the Roman Catholic church. Calvinism, while it it intellectually satisfying, is emotionally repugnant to me. In the end, I suppose, my objections to God are, as they must be, theological: the workings of divine providence are just a little too inaccessible to human reasoning. The problem of suffering remains insoluble. There is no possible theodicy. But I can't, either, take the Dawkinsian view that the problem of suffering is an illusion generated by the illusion of God. You can't mend the heart in a heartless world by observing that the world is in fact heartless. That's not the point.

I suppose I end up saying that I accept the Christian account of the problem; I just can't accept Christianity's account of the solution, and so I remain, by the grace of God perhaps, an atheist.

Read it all here.

The Campaign for Senate in North Carolina is close, and Senator Dole has decided to win the race by making false allegations about her opponent's alleged atheism. Here is the ad that Dole has been running:

The response by Kay Hagen, an elder at a local Presbyterian Church where she teaches Sunday school was quick, and effective:

At least one analyst, J.P. Green, thinks that Dole just lost the election by resorting to this tactic:

It appears that Sen. Liddy Dole (R-NC) has lost either her marbles or control of her campaign. Dole has unleashed a ridiculously bombastic ad that tries to slime her opponent, Kay Hagan as "Godless." Hagan has put in time as both a Sunday school teacher and church elder in a Greensboro Presbyterian church her family has attended for more than a century.

. . .

It's a huge blunder. No doubt Dole hopes to fire up her evangelical base for the home stretch. But Dole's absurd allegations are easily rebutted, given Hagan's clear record of commitment to her Christian faith. It's hard to see how Dole can get off scott-free from the consequences of such a silly accusation. And not all evangelicals are happy about what Hagan describes as Dole's 'false witness.' The latest NC Senate race poll average at Pollster.com has Hagan ahead by a margin of 46.6 to 43 percent. If the people of North Carolina are as decent as I think, Dole's ad could cost her the election.

I remember Dole once saying that her husband, Bob Dole's lagging campaign for the Presidency needed "adult supervision." It looks like her campaign has the same problem.

Read it all here.

What do you think?

We are taught to believe that Darwinian "survival of the fittest" has rewarded selfish behavior. Recent scientific studies, however, paint a much different picture. Nature has rewarded cooperation--which is why older small children like to share:

In recent years the tide has swung dramatically against such a bleak view of human nature, however. Researchers are increasingly coming to understand that people are also “programmed” to care about others. A recent contribution to this theme comes from neuroscientist Ernst Fehr at the University of Zurich and colleagues. In a study, the researchers explored a particular type of unselfishness known as inequality aversion. Suppose individual A has $10, and individual B has a lesser amount, say $5. We say individual A is inequality averse if he shares some of his cash with individual B, thus reducing the inequality between them. We say individual B is inequality averse if he is willing to sacrifice some part of his money, provided individual A’s endowment is reduced to an even greater degree, so that, once again, the inequality between the two is reduced.

Fehr and colleagues show that, in a sample of 229 children between the ages of three and eight years, younger subjects overwhelmingly conform to selfish (self-regarding) preferences. They don’t like to share and aren’t interest in reducing inequality. In contrast, the vast majority of the older subjects are inequality averse when put in either the advantageous (individual A) or inadvantageous (individual B) position.

Moreover, the researchers find that the older children are “rational” in the sense that they are more willing to share when the cost of doing so is low than when the cost is high. Finally, the children tend to be more inequality averse in dealing with “ingroup” members, or children from their own school or day care. This preference for sharing with ingroup members occurred even the sharing game was purely anonymous, so no child could determine the identity of the other players.

. . .

Although it’s now generally recognized that children are inequality averse, one experimental difficulty has been separating out strategic behavior, such as reputation building, from true preferences for sharing. In other words, I may share with you because in the future, you may reciprocate, or I may punish you at personal cost because the next time, you will be more careful to give me my “fair share.” These are purely strategic behaviors that can be attributed to perfectly selfish individuals.

The Fehr study differs from prior studies of inequality aversion in children by scrupulously preventing such an interpretation. They made all behaviors anonymous so children could never identify their partners, and therefore could not sacrifice in hopes of gaining in the future. This strategy contrasts with previous studies, which either watched children at play or analyzed teacher-pupil interactions. Although these studies found consistent pro-social behavior—the children demonstrated a willingness to share—they could not ascertain whether it was calculated selfishness or true other-regarding behavior.

It is instructive to compare and contrast human behavior regarding others with that of our nearest biological relative, the chimpanzee. My assessment of the literature is that female chimps, at least, reveal a high level of kin altruism (fathers exhibit virtually none).” Chimps of both sexes also demonstrate a fair amount of reciprocal altruism, as in mutual grooming and coalition formation, and show considerable concern for the plight of other chimps. On the other hand, chimpanzees show virtually no real inequality aversion, in the sense that they do not share with non-kin except as a means of not being pestered by beggars, and do not sacrifice to reduce their personal disadvantage. In this sense, inequality aversion seems to be a rather human innovation.

Read it all here.

Even the political junkies among the editors of the Lead are ready for election day to come and go. Nonetheless, this has been a very interesting campaign season. Barack Obama is not merely the first African-American nominee of a major party. His campaign is the first Democratic campaign for President in decades to make an intentional outreach to so-called "values voters"--and with some success.

U.S.A. Today offers a good summary of the focus of the Obama campaign on faith voters:

When she was director of religious outreach for John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign four years ago, Mara Vanderslice could hardly have seemed lower on the campaign totem pole.

"I had one unpaid intern who didn't have a phone," she said. "We didn't have a budget, and they never let me talk to the press."

Her low status reflected a widely perceived unease in the Democratic Party at reaching out to voters on religious grounds.

Political observers say the changes are evident in advertisements on Christian music stations, biblical references in stump speeches, and networking with pastors, as Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and others in his party try to appeal to people who might view the party as hostile to religion.

"It could not have changed more in only four years," Vanderslice said. "The Obama campaign has six staff people (on religious matters). Josh DuBois (Obama's head of religious outreach) is actively speaking to the press. They're doing 'Faith and Family' tours."

For her part, Vanderslice has formed a political action committee called The Matthew 25 Network, choosing the name from a well-known biblical passage in which Jesus prods people to help the "least of these" — the poor. The group has raised about $300,000 and is working on behalf of Obama.

The Matthew 25 network has run three different advertisements on Christian radio. The first, "Sources of Hope" can be heard here. Another advertisement features pro-life conservative Douglas Kmiec defending Obama's position on abortion, and can her heard here.

Are these efforts working? It appears that Obama is getting support from values voters--most notably observant Catholics and members of mainstream denominations:

For a while this summer, Obama polled like a typical Democrat among this group—which is to say, he polled quite poorly compared to John McCain, who until late summer enjoyed an 18-point advantage among voters who attended church weekly or more. But as the race moves to a close, Obama is doing better than either John Kerry or Al Gore among religious voters: in mid-October the Pew Center released a poll suggesting that white mainline Protestants prefer Obama to McCain by 48-43, and that white Catholics prefer Obama 49-41. (With the same voters, Bush beat Kerry by 10 points and 13 points, respectively.) And, as Morris and others won’t let you forget, Obama is working uphill—against the 12 percent of the country that still believes he is a Muslim.

Read it all here.

Perhaps one reason that Obama has done well with values voters is that he has not bought into myths about what these voters are all about:

We use the term "values" to talk about deep things -- what is most important to people, what organizes their lives. "Family values," by contrast, is the term for a collection of transient political positions that began their prominent political life as "wedge issues" in the campaigns of the 1980s: opposition to abortion and gay marriage or support for prayer in school and teaching creationism.

Traditional values in the United States, Baker found, are very different than in other nations. Unlike nations where collective identity is based on common ancestry, in the United States, he wrote, the imagined community is "a shared set of ideas." These are the ideas of the Constitution: personal liberty, equality, democracy and the rule of law. America was invented, not inherited. Our traditional values don't come from the fatherland, the volk or an ancient regime. Nor are our most basic shared values a selection of moral positions held by conservative American Christians.

Seen in this way, it is clear that traditional American values are alive and well. Constitutional ideals have unchallenged legitimacy, as do the worth of family, religion (or spirituality) and national pride. This is a stark contrast to the countries that have radically rejected their traditional values: Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Japan and the former Eastern Bloc nations.

Read it all here.

Giles Fraser says that conservative Anglo-Catholics will find no refuge in GAFCON.

To think that GAFCON is a safe haven for traditionalist Anglo-Catholics is like believing in fairies. Whereas Forward in Faith sees Rome as the “rock from which we are hewn”, and that working towards unity with the See of Peter is essential to its very being, conservative Evangelicals still denounce Romanism as an ecclesiological sin at every turn.

Again, the Thirty-Nine Articles: “the Romish Doctrine” concerning icons and saints, for instance, is “repugnant to the Word of God”. Conservative Evangelicals stick by all this. They believe the Church to be only half reformed, and are itching to finish the job.

Leviticus 19.19 tells us not to wear a garment made of two types of material. Perhaps the problem is that once the garment is washed or distressed in some way, it will tear and begin to fall apart. I have never seen the sense in this passage from scripture until now.

Many traditional Catholics are feeling unloved by the C of E. I wish it were not so. But to believe that Catholic sacramental theology is safe with GAFCON is a self-deception.

And, as if on cue, GAFCONites are beginning to tear each other apart on theological grounds using the 39 Articles against each other.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. John H. Rodgers criticized Ian Ernest, chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) when he addressed the Primate of the Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean and Bishop of Mauritius.

So what did Ernest do to earn Rodgers ire? According to Anglican Mainstream,

Ernest wrote that CAPA bishops should eschew a political solution to the divisions over doctrine and discipline and focus instead on church transformation through Christian witness. CAPA must resist becoming one interest group among many within the Anglican Communion, he said.

Rodgers says Ernest misunderstands the nature of the Church failing to see the difference between the Church Visible and the Church Invisible. But the real problem is that so many CAPA bishops attended Lambeth and appear to value Anglicanism as a Communion.

Read Giles Fraser in The Church Times: A garment that will tear apart.

See also Anglican Mainstream South Africa: AMiA Theologian Challenges CAPA Chairman Over Nature of the Church

Regarding the crazy quilt: Forward in Faith "regrets the recent decision of the Synod of the diocese of Sydney with regard to lay and diaconal presidency at the Eucharist, both of which are clearly contrary to the foundational documents of Anglicanism."

Dick Meyer the author of "Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium" says that much of what believe about the role of "values" in American politics is wrong.

He writes in the Washington Post that,

Values became a popular term in America mostly in describing the kinds of ideas and customs that are specific or relative to different societies or cultures, as distinct from absolute or universal. Conservatives are supposed to prefer absolutes, of course, but they've done a good job co-opting values talk. Political battles aside, much of what we think we know about values in America isn't really of much value.

There are five essential myths about values that are widely held but are wrong.

1. "Moral values" determine who wins elections . The myth of the values voter became 21st-century conventional wisdom because of the exit polls conducted for the 2004 election. ..."moral values" means different things to different people. Some voters undoubtedly meant to express that they voted for the candidate who they thought had better values and character.

2. Americans have broadly rejected "traditional values." Actually, Americans retain our traditional values more than just about any other developed country in the world.

3. Americans are polarized and fighting a culture war over values. "Americans are not divided into two opposed camps based on incompatible views of moral authority," (University of Michigan sociologist Wayne) Baker wrote.... "In fact, Americans tend to share attitudes, values, and beliefs, and to be united when it comes to the most important values."

4. Traditional values are "family values" or "moral values." Nope. We use the term "values" to talk about deep things -- what is most important to people, what organizes their lives. "Family values," by contrast, is the term for a collection of transient political positions that began their prominent political life as "wedge issues" in the campaigns of the 1980s: opposition to abortion and gay marriage or support for prayer in school and teaching creationism.

5. Basic values, properly understood, are compatible and harmonious. "This is what most of the world's religions and great systematic philosophies teach. The harmony of ultimate values is a comforting thing to believe in. But it is a dangerous political philosophy in real, live societies because it fosters wishful thinking and rationalizes the irrational. For example, liberty and equality are basic ideals in American democracy, but they often clash."

Myers concludes:

The bottom line on values is that there is no crisis: Americans have not rejected traditional values. They are not deeply divided over questions of values. Noisy, persistent conflicts aren't a sign of civic rot, but of humans being human. Americans are indeed frustrated and challenged by a lack of community, by rapid social and technological change and by economic pessimism. But our values are not the problem.

Read more here.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on the Katharine Jefferts Schori's visit to Calvary Church, Shadyside in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The head of the country's Episcopal Church visited Pittsburgh on Sunday, a show of support to the 20 local churches that are remaining faithful to the New York-based leadership, even as twice as many others align with a more conservative governing body based in Argentina.

About 700 parishioners and other Episcopalians jammed the pews of Shadyside's Calvary Episcopal Church to welcome Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. A typical 11 a.m. service draws about 250 people, said Calvary Rector John Lewis.

"It's a great joy for us to welcome Bishop Katharine," Lewis said "We knew we had the support of the Episcopal (Church), but to have her here in the flesh is to have an outward and visible sign of that support."

After the liturgy,

Jefferts Schori fielded questions from about 350 people who stayed after the service to discuss their church's future. While some have come to terms with the growing role of gay men and lesbians in the diocese, a few said their fellow parishioners wonder whether the presiding bishop sees Jesus Christ as the sole way to salvation.

Jefferts Schori replied that like most Christians, she believes Jesus died for "the whole world." But his life and resurrection did not sever the promise God made to Jews and to Muslims, she added, and those groups still have access to salvation.

"I see evidence of holiness in people who are not Christians. I have to assume in some way God is present and important in those people who may not consciously know Jesus. And it's really God's problem to figure out how to deal with that," she said, to surprised laughter and applause. "My problem is to be the best Christian I can be and to share what I know of the power of Jesus in my own life."

Read the rest here.

It appears that the Roman Catholic Church continues to officially blame the sex abuse scandals of the last decade on homosexuality and is mandating even more drastic measures to root out and banish gay men from the ranks of the priesthood.

Toby Cohen writes:

Sex tests will be applied to men wishing to become Catholic priests, according to new guidance issued by the Roman Catholic Church yesterday.

After a series of sex-scandals involving priests, Pope Benedict XVI has authorized a new strategy which will aim to root out applicants with devious sexual urges. The guidance states the tests should also aim to vet for those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”.

The tests have been underlined as voluntary, but will be requested by rectors in appropriate cases. The guide stipulated that applicants would be refused entry to the priesthood if it is “evident the candidate has difficulty living in celibacy: That is, if celibacy for him is lived as a burden so heavy that it compromises his affective and relational equilibrium.”

The Vatican affirms that a priest must have a “positive and stable sense of one's masculine identity,” and that the test will aim to identify those who are ‘immature’.

The Catholic News Service Blog the Vatican says that in 2005 the church could not "ordain men with 'deep-seated' homosexual tendencies" but did not define who would define or determine these so-called tendencies. The document released last Thursday outlines this process.

The “Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood” states that psychological evaluation should be used when there is a suspicion of “psychic disturbances” or “grave immaturity” in a candidate — such as uncertain sexual identity or deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

It also said that in judging a candidate’s capacity for living the charism of celibacy with joy and faithfulness, his sexual orientation must be evaluated....

One lingering doubt about the (2005) homosexuality document was whether a homosexually oriented man who was nevertheless committed to celibacy could be ordained a priest. At Thursday’s press conference, Cardinal Grocholewski gave a rather forceful “no,” and here are the essential parts of his answer:

“The candidate does not necessarily have to practice homosexuality (to be excluded.) He can even be without sin. But if he has this deeply seated tendency, he cannot be admitted to priestly ministry precisely because of the nature of the priesthood, in which a spiritual paternity is carried out. Here we are not talking about whether he commits sins, but whether this deeply rooted tendency remains.”

Cardinal Grocholewski was then asked why, if a man with strong heterosexual tendencies but who is celibate can be ordained, the same could not be true of a man with homosexual tendencies? His answer:

“Because it’s not simply a question of observing celibacy as such. In this case, it would be a heterosexual tendency, a normal tendency. In a certain sense, when we ask why Christ reserved the priesthood to men, we speak of this spiritual paternity, and maintain that homosexuality is a type of deviation, a type of irregularity, as explained in two documents of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Therefore it is a type of wound in the exercise of the priesthood, in forming relations with others. And precisely for this reason we say that something isn’t right in the psyche of such a man. We don’t simply talk about the ability to abstain from these kinds of relations.”

Psychological tests have been used in some seminaries for fifty years. A 2005 Vatican document allowed men to become priests if they had suppressed homosexual urges for three years. However, after spending vast sums on law suits in recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has seen the need for less tolerant measures.

The report and the process outlined misses the mark according to the Survivor of Those Abused by Priests. The Associate Press reports:

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said the Vatican needs to go beyond screening seminarians to end what the group calls the church's "virtually unchanged culture of secrecy and unchecked power in the hierarchy" that left dangerous priests in parishes.

"Every barrel will always have some bad apples," the Survivors Network said. "Real change requires effectively reforming the barrel and those who oversee it."

As long as the Roman Catholic Church assumes, against the best evidence, that neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality is an accurate predictor of who might perpetrate sexual abuse against children and adolescents, then their scapegoating will not result in a safer church nor in deal effectively with the consequences of abuse.

Prayers for the Election
(before, during, and after)

A Prayer for the Day of the Election

Almighty God, source of all grace and truth,
to whom we must account for all our decisions
and for all our powers and privileges,
Guide us in the election of our officials and representatives.
Give us grace to see ourselves, as individuals and as a people,
not as we want to see ourselves, but as you see us:
as we are and as you are calling us to be,
That we might see the candidates,
not as they want us to see them, but as you see them:
as they are and as you would call them to be.
Help us to discern your will for our choices,
that we may act and vote, not out of fear, nor out of anger,
nor out of any form of thoughtless bias or prejudice,
but out of your truth and love. Amen

A Prayer Before Voting

God of grace,
as I cast my vote,
remind me that I do so as a citizen of your kingdom.
In the name of the One
who showed us how to lead by serving,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for after the Election

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world:
We commend this nation to your merciful care,
that being guided by your Providence,
we may dwell secure in your peace.
Grant to the President of the United States,
the Governor of this State, and to all in authority,
wisdom and strength to know and to do your will.
Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness,
and make them ever mindful of their calling
to serve this people in your fear;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen.

HT to The Rev. Ken Howard of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Diocese of Washington

US citizens go to the polls today to elect a new president. A historic election because of the candidates. The process has revealed both the progress we have made in overcoming our racist heritage and the continuing undercurrent of that disease in our national soul. Ads for and against candidates and gatherings of supporters have shown our worst and our best.

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Many Episcopal churches around the country celebrated Dia de Los Muertos - the Day of the Dead, on All Souls or sometime during the past 4 days. The Skagit Valley Herald in Washington state reports on one in Mt Vernon, WA.

Moises Ibañez and his wife, Teresa Santos, cupped their hands to protect two tiny white candles as they carried them from the back of the church and down the aisle to the altar.

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Christianity Today interviewed several religious political observers about the meaning of the election and what various outcomes might mean:

To both evangelicals and religion and politics scholars, Election Day is about more than just coloring in state lines. If they had their own CNN magic map, the graphics would show more than just red and blue. The focus would be on state ballot initiatives and where evangelicals land in exit-poll results. It might show whether California was rainbow colored and whether evangelicals were feeling more blue than usual. We asked several political observers what they are watching for tonight.

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Something from Switzerland to sweeten your election eve:

Swiss chocolatier Blaise Poyet believes he has captured the essence of the Protestant reformer Jean Calvin in special chocolate pralines he created to mark the 500th anniversary of the religious figure who made his mark on European history.

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Episcopal Cafe offers prayers and congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama.

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to the President of the United States and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen. (BCP p. 180 #19)

On Faith, a feature of the Washington Post offers an analysis of how President-elect Barack Obama won the election on the faith and values issues:

Now that Barack Obama is president-elect we have to figure out how issues pertaining to religion contributed to his victory. I will get to the exit-poll data tomorrow, but tonight I want to float the following theory: On the Faith and Values front Obama won this election, in part, because he avoided all the errors made by the Kerry campaign in 2004.

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Back in 2006 Barack Obama delivered his 'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address. It perhaps encapsulates his views on role of religion in politics. In our president-elect's own words:

Mr. Keyes's implicit accusation that I was not a true Christian nagged at me, and I was also aware that my answer did not adequately address the role my faith has in guiding my own values and my own beliefs.

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Corrected and revised

With 95% of precincts now reporting it appears CNN's exit poll call on Prop 8 was premature. The LA Times anticipates the gay marriage ban will win.

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From No On 8: Nov 05, 2008

Results Status

Roughly 400,000 votes separate yes from no on Prop 8 – out of 10 million votes tallied.

Based on turnout estimates reported yesterday, we expect that there are more than 3 million and possibly as many as 4 million absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Given that fundamental rights are at stake, we must wait to hear from the Secretary of State tomorrow how many votes are yet to be counted as well as where they are from.

It is clearly a very close election and we monitored the results all evening and this morning.

As of this point, the election is too close to call.

Because Prop 8 involves the sensitive matter of individual rights, we believe it is important to wait until we receive further information about the outcome.

Not unexpectedly, both candidates had something to say last night about the significance of the election of America's first black president.

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McCain, Obama and Bush have had their say on the significance of the election of the first black president. And, then, there is the joy of African-American voters:

"The best part of my two-hour wait was when an elderly Black woman got dropped off at the polls," another voter, posting on Stereohyped.com, reported. "She had a walker, but pulled a polling judge to the side and asked her if they had wheelchairs. She hadn't been out of her bed in ages and was afraid she wouldn't be able to move to actually get inside the building. The polling judge told her that they didn't have any wheelchairs, and was at a loss at what to do. That's when five Black men got out of line to assist this woman, supporting her back, arms and legs, they carried her into the polling center. The crowd was so overwhelmed with the comraderie, that everyone started clapping."

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In addition to gay marriage other social issues were on state ballots, issues like issues such as abortion, euthanasia, gay adoption, and embryonic stem-cell research.

AP:

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The ACLU and other groups will challenge Proposition 8:

The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

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At Religion Dispatches, Bill Berkowitz writes:

Right off the bat, longtime leaders of the Religious Right, monitoring every move Obama’s transition team makes, will distribute angry press releases critical of Obama Administration appointees. Organizations will post heated blog entries and dash off Daily E-Mail Alerts to supporters cataloguing a host of Obama missteps including complaints about the reversal of a number of Bush Administration Executive Orders.

Conservative evangelical leaders will engage in a spirited and steadfast attempt to rebuild and reinvigorate a wounded movement, leading to the US Postal Service and direct mail companies experiencing a surge in business as urgent fundraising appeals pepper the mailboxes and inboxes of Religious Right supporters.

At its worst—as was done during the Clinton Administration—forums will be convened to discuss whether the Obama presidency is legitimate.

An Obama presidency will force the Religious Right to re-think its strategy and tactics; a process that has been happening over the past few years due to the deaths of several prominent conservative Christian evangelical leaders and the aging of others.

The Guardian asked several writers whether the United States is still "one nation under God." Here is how Judith Maltby replied:

At church the next day at my home parish, the sort of Episcopal parish that would give the Archbishop of Nigeria a heart attack, we prayed, as I have heard in every Episcopal church I've been in since the war began, for those serving under arms in Iraq and Afghanistan, including members of the parish. I can't recall when I last heard prayers for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in an English church. In England, perhaps, public prayers like that would be taken to imply support for the war. Nothing could be farther from the truth here and this is another way "one nation under God" manifests itself from perhaps a surprising quarter.

At the heart of all this is American exceptionalism – the belief that there is something special about the United States held by Americans of varied religious beliefs and none – it ought to be a country in which a seven-year-old Muslim American can aspire to be president. What seems to have divided Americans in this election is not disagreement over America's unique calling, but whether that vocation confers privilege or responsibility.

Catholics are in a tight race with white evangelical Protestants for the most closely analyzed segment of the electorate.

Public Religion Research reports the following via Faith in Public Life:

Obama beat McCain soundly among Catholics (55% - 44%), performing better than Kerry in 2004 and Gore in 2000

* Among white Catholics, Obama narrowed the Republican advantage from Bush’s 13-point advantage (56% - 43%), with McCain holding only a 5-points advantage (52% -47%).

* In a few key states, Obama made significant gains.
In FL, Catholics swung from the Republican party to the Democratic party. Obama improved upon Kerry's Catholic performance by 16 percentage points, from trailing by 15 points in 2004 (57% - 42%) to leading by 1 point (50% - 49%) in 2008.
In IN, a 13-point GOP advantage in 2004 (56%-43%) disappeared, with Catholics split evenly between the candidates (50%-50%).
However, in PA, McCain won Catholics 54%-46%, increasing GOP advantage from Bush’s margin of 52%-48%.

The Catholic Bishop of Scranton was especially active on the Republican side in the run-up to the election. However, heavily Catholic Lackawanna Country, the largest jurisdiction in his diocese, went for Barack Obama by roughly 66,500 to 39,200.

Michael Paulson of The Boston Globe writes:

There must be a lot of disappointed Catholic bishops this morning -- dozens of them issued statements over the last few weeks suggesting that abortion should be the primary issue for Catholic voters, and yet it appears that a majority of Catholic voters opted for the abortion-rights supporting candidate in the race, Barack Obama, and helped him win the presidency. Obama's running mate, Joseph Biden, will become the first Catholic vice-president, but he, too, is a supporter of abortion rights.

Both he and the team at the Dallas Morning News blog feature the analysis of Father Tom Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, who wrote:

A closer look at the exit polls should be as discouraging for left-wing Catholics as for right-wing Catholics. Catholic voters did not embrace either the conservative non-negotiables or the church's preferential option for the poor. They were concerned about themselves and their families.

Will the abortion debate rise up again in four years at the next presidential election? A lot depends on President Obama and the Democratic Congress. If they push through the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), then they will have betrayed their pro-life Catholic supporters. This will make it nearly impossible for these people to support them again. On the other hand, if they make a priority the enactment of an abortion reduction bill, then it will be more difficult for the bishops and the Republicans to portray the Democrats as the pro-abortion party.