Archbishop Dolan lays into the New York Times

Response is to be expected, although it isn’t a scandal that the New York Times refused to run Archbishop of New York Timothy M. Dolan’s allegations of anti-Catholicism on their own pages.

He oversimplifies complex issues, minimizing and emphasizing as conveniently as a Southern Baptist Convention executive explaining failure to create the church machinery to effectively protect Baptist parishioners against clerical sexual abuse.

No matter. Here it is.

Vatican pushes for a more civil Catholic/general online conversation

While Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights threw rhetoric bombs at “radical secularists” in a Washington Post comment, the Vatican aspired to a higher standard of online civility.

Italian Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, offering the example of Pope Benedict XVI’s argument that “Charity needs truth and truth needs charity,” said:

Anyone speaking publicly as a Catholic has to have those ethical values that are part of a serious, honest form of communication.

Although the focus of the Oct. 26-29 Vatican City gathering of cardinals, bishops and Catholic media professionals was the behavior of Catholics toward one another, discussion of the harsh overarching tenor of recent online communication was inevitable. In particular, Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, the head of Canada’s Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, spoke of the “radicalization of rhetoric” on the Web. He observed that as a result of pervasively negative messages from so many online who describe themselves as Catholic, “Christians are known as the people who are against everything.”

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said bishops should be models for the Catholic faithful on how to hold a civil discussion, online or offline. Indeed:

You don’t have dialogue when people anonymously throw out their hatreds, their prejudices, their biases and always — in every case — end up attacking people.

Back at the Washington Post, John Gehring of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good wrote in response to Donohue’s railing:

We live in an age where the shrillest voices often drown out sober debate and thoughtful insights. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh watch their ratings soar with every outrageous remark. Bill Donohue gets invited on TV because he bellows and bloviates with the best of them. While some enjoy the antics, most of us are tired of the noise machine. Faith and reason are not enemies, but together can help illuminate our path through the dark forests of fear, ignorance and injustice. Sometimes we just need to turn down the volume and tune out the shouters to find our way.

No doubt someone will find a way to roll all of this into the alleged civility conspiracy to silence the loudest conservative radio and television voices. When it is clearly a bid for a more civil, productive dialog.

Christian culture’s stigmatization of depression

German artist Albrecht Durer’s engraving “Melancholia” (1514)”

About Hictory Baptist pastor David Treadway’s suicide, Greg Warner writes for Religion News Service:

[A professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Matthew] Stanford, who studies how the Christian community deals with mental illness, said depression in Christian culture carries “a double stigmatization.”

Society still places a stigma on mental illness, but Christians make it worse, he said, by “over-spiritualizing” depression and other disorders — dismissing them as a lack of faith or a sign of weakness.

Polite Southern culture adds its own taboo against “talking about something as personal as your mental health,” noted Scoggin.

Suicide Survivor Resources

• Surviving the First Year
• What Others Can Do
• Suicide Survivor’s Guide
• British Support Group: Shadow of Suicude
• After Suicide
• Healthy Place.com: Suicide and Children
• KidsHealth: About Teen Suicide
• Child Suicide page.

German Protestant Church puts a woman in charge

A federation of 22 regional church bodies, all of which practice the ordination of women and some of which bless same-sex marriages, the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) elected Bishop Margot Kaessmann, 51, its first female head Wednesday during a meeting of the Protestant body’s council in Ulm.

Other women who head denominations include Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church in the United States, National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and General Minister and President Sharon E. Watkins of the Christians (Disciples of Christ) in the United States.

Kaessmann, a divorcee and the Lutheran bishop of Hanover, commented after the vote that “It is a sign that we are saying: For biblical and theological reasons, it is possible for women as well as men to assume any office in the Protestant Church.”

“The election sends a signal to the Church worldwide that God calls us to leadership without consideration of gender, color or descent.” Rev. Ishmael Noko, [Lutheran World Federation] LWF general-secretary told the Ecumenical News International news agency at the synod in Ulm.

Uzbekistan: The banality of oppression

Viciously sly government pretenses at freeom of religion that favor some while oppressing don’t look like the hate crime legislation President Barack Obama signed this week. They tend to be bureaucratic and inane, like the Uzbek approach Tony Cartledge described:

The Uzbek constitution contains provisions guaranteeing religious freedom and separation of church and state, but a separate law restricts religious expression to groups that are registered with the government. In a thinly veiled Catch 22, groups not in favor with the government are not allowed to register, rendering their activities “illegal” despite the official stance of religious freedom. Reportedly, no Baptist groups have been permitted to register since 1999.

Using those dicta, Uzbekistan this week convicted three Baptists of running a kid’s camp, the way Baptists do. More specifically, they were found guilty of tax evasion (their church activity was denied the aforementioned registration) and involving children in religious activities without their parents’ permission (although parents know the camp is operated by Baptists), fined and barred from doing what they do (administrative and financial activity) for three years.

Banal in implementation and unlike this country’s endless struggle over how best to prevent government from sponsoring or appearing to sponsor religious activities, that’s oppression.

Oh, Orly birther, say it ain’t so (she did)

Birther queen Orly Taitz encouraged witness to lie, Central District of California Judge David O. Carter said in his ruling dismissing her case.

David Weigel quoted from the ruling:

The Court has received several sworn affidavits that Taitz asked potential witnesses that she planned to call before this Court to perjure themselves. This Court is deeply concerned that Taitz may have suborned perjury through witnesses she intended to bring before this Court. While the Court seeks to ensure that all interested parties have had the opportunity to be heard, the Court cannot condone the conduct of Plaintiffs’ counsel in her efforts to influence this Court.

Not unexpectedly, birthers did not accept the verdict or related criticism well.

Petulant Taitz followers planned to discipline albeit not excommunicate Bill O’Reilly after he commented on Tuesday that he thinks the “birther” lawsuits are “crazy.” They made plans to protest outside Fox news headquarters in New York on Veterans’ Day.

So it is with those who bring the birther faithful unwelcome messages, as Judge Carter did in dismissing Taitz’s suit. Conspiracies, you see.

As night follows day, then, Taitz discovered that the good judge was being manipulated by a “new clerk, fresh out of Perkins Coie, law firm, that represented Obama, in some 100 cases.”

Eternal fragile, petulant hypervigilance is the price of liberty. Remember: “Watch the skies.”

Investigation of Northern Ireland abuse called for

Victims of clerical child abuse in church and state-run schools in Northern Ireland have called for an investigation of the harm done them like the Ryan report on abuse in the Republic of Ireland.

Dan Keenan of the Irish Times wrote today:

[Solicitor Joe} Rice [who represents “a significant number” of abuse survivors], in his letter to First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, referred to those who suffered all forms of abuse and neglect in Northern Ireland since 1947. “It is apparent that the level of abuse was widespread and endemic, and moreover that all the institutions involved had a duty of care to those children placed in their trust, and responsibility under the different statutory frameworks in the post-war period,” he wrote.

BBC explained:

The Ryan Report detailed widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse in Catholic-run institutions.

It was commissioned in 2000 following a series of scandals involving Catholic priests in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The VaticanCrimes blog writes:

This is something that is beginning to gather momentum. We have been instructed by clients in Northern Ireland who have been victims of abuse, both in state institutions and in care homes similar to those in the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Report) in the Republic of Ireland. We have noticed, over the past few months, in our three offices, people coming in with complaints in relation to physical abuse, neglect and sex abuse in various institutes. These complaints of abuse have not been properly investigated by the authorities in Northern Ireland. All the institutions would have been under the inspectorate of the old Stormont government at the time.

Former Baptist pastor charged with sex crimes & listed as theological seminary dean

Former Alabama Southern Baptist pastor Ralph L. Aaron was as of this writing still listed as a Covington Theological Seminary extension dean offering instruction at First Baptist Church in Opp, Ala.

Aaron was arrested Oct. 21 and is being held on $24.2 million bond for some 150 sex crimes involving child pornography and the abuse of eight- to 12-year-old victims. He reportedly has a degree from Covingtion and wrote a print-on-demand book, reviewed by The Alabama Baptist, based on his thesis.

Aaron was reportedly fired upon arrest by non-denominatinal Grace Christian Fellowship in Andalusia, Ala., where he had been pastor for more than three years. Prior to that he was pastor at Victory Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist Church, also in Andalusia.

District Attorney Greg Gambril said the Covington County Sheriff’s Department has put together a “very strong case” and that the state will be seeking multiple life sentences.

According to the Andalusa Star News

The investigation began last Tuesday after a mother, who had heard rumors of a previous incident involving Aaron, had a “straightforward” conversation with her son. That incident stemmed from a 2005 complaint that occurred while Aaron was serving at Andalusia’s Victory Baptist Church. No charges were filed in the 2005 complaint, which was investigated by the Covington County District Attorney’s office and the Department of Human Resources.

As a result of that conversation, the mother determined her son may have had inappropriate contact with Aaron, and she elected to contact authorities.

“Surprisingly, (the victim) was open and honest, and they discussed it at length before contacting law enforcement,” [lead sheriff's investigator Wesley] Snodgrass said. “It was quickly identified as a substantial case.”

Not substantial enough for the Alabama Baptist online to report it, however. Thus far. The independent Associated Baptist Press has a thorough account.

Covington Theological Seminary is controversial for “accreditation through an agency that is not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and is an outgrowth of a company that was once charged with fraud.”

Covingtion attracted attention the first time Johnny Hunt was elected Southern Baptist Convention president, because it was the source of one of the two honorary Phds. he claimed. Although he has earned no academic Phd., he accepted and still asserts being termed “Dr. Johnny Hunt.” based on one or both of his two diploma mill tokens.